Note 848 — Chapter VIII · THE BISHOP.

Not to speak of Ninian, Palladius and Patricius, we may refer to Germanus of Auxerre, who is stated to have been sent as Papal Vicar to England, to arrest the progress of Pelagianism, at the beginning of the fifth century. Schrödl asserts this in the broadest terms: “Auf Bitten der Britischen Bischöfe, und gesendet von Pabst Cölestin, besuchte der Bischof Germanus von Auxerre in der Eigenschaft eines päbstlichen Vicars, zweimal Britannien,” etc. Erste Jahrh. p. 2. Lingard is somewhat less decided: he says, “Pope Celestine, at the representation of the deacon Palladius, commissioned Germanus of Auxerre to proceed in his name to Britain,” etc. Ang. Church, i. 8. Both these authors refer to Prosper, in Chron. anno 429. “Papa Coelestinus Germanum Autisiodorensem episcopum vice sua mittit, et deturbatis haereticis Britannos ad Catholicam fidem dirigit.” Prosper was not only a contemporary of the facts he relates, but at a later period actually became secretary to Celestine: his authority therefore is of much weight. Still it is observable that Beda, in his relation, does not attribute the mission of Germanus to the Pope. He says, that the Britons having applied for aid to the prelates of Gaul, these held a great synod, and elected Germanus and Lupus to proceed to England. Hist. Eccl. i. 17. Beda’s account is taken from the life of Germanus written by Constantius of Lyons, about forty years after the bishop’s death. He says as little of the Vicariate in his account of the second mission. However, even supposing Prosper, whose means of judgment were certainly the best, to be right, it only follows that Celestine dispatched Germanus as his Vicar, but not that the British prelates formally received him in that capacity. It does not seem to me that the passage contains any satisfactory proof that the Roman See enjoyed a right of appointing Vicars in England at the period in question, however it may have desired, or tried practically, to establish one.