Note 857 — Chapter VIII · THE BISHOP.

This event has naturally been discussed with very different views. The Roman Catholics construe it to imply a recognized right in the Roman See: the Protestants look upon it as rather a piece of skilful manœuvring on the part of the Pope. Lappenberg (i. 172) says: “The death of Wigheard was taken advantage of by the Pope to set over the Anglosaxon bishops a primate devoted to his views.” “This opportunity was not lost upon Italian subtlety. Vitalian, then Pope, determined upon trying whether the Anglosaxons would receive an archbishop nominated by himself.” Soames, Anglos. Church, p. 78. Against this, of course, Lingard has expatiated in his Hist. and Antiq. i. 75. He attributes the selection of Theodore to a request of the two kings, and adds in a note: “That such was their request is certain. Beda calls Theodore, who was selected by Vitalian, ‘the archbishop asked for by the king’—episcopum quem petierant a Romano pontifice (Bed. iv. c. 1)—and ‘the bishop whom the country had anxiously sought’—doctorem veritatis, quem patria sedula quaesierat. Id. Op. Min. p. 142. Vitalian, in his answer to the two kings, reminds them that their letter requested him to choose a bishop for them in the case of Wigheard’s death—‘secundum vestrorum scriptorum tenorem.’ Bed. iii. 29. Certainly these passages must have escaped the eye of Mr. Soames, who boldly, and without an atom of authority for his statement, ascribes the choice of a bishop by Vitalian to Italian subtlety.” Mr. Churton in his Early English Church, p. 67, inclines also to this view, which is again combated by Soames in his Latin Church, etc. p. 80 seq.; but this author with a happy skill which he sometimes manifests of not seeing disagreeable data, says nothing of the “quem petierant a Romano pontifice.” Yet in these words lies the matter of the whole dispute. It certainly does not appear from Vitalian’s letter, that any such contingency as Wigheard’s death was provided for by the kings; this is in itself extremely improbable, and the assertion is an evidence of Lingard’s rashness where the interests of his party are concerned. But is it not on the other hand very probable that more letters passed between the kings and the pope than are now recorded? that Vitalian announced Wigheard’s death, and that the kings, conscious of the difficulty of coming to any second settlement in such a state of society as their own (especially as they were but two of four very equally poised authorities), fairly asked him to solve the problem for them? I greatly doubt the strict adherence to canonical forms of election in the seventh century; and indeed throughout the history of the English church it appears that the kings dealt very much at their own pleasure in the appointment of bishops. It could hardly be otherwise with a clergy dispersed through so many heterogeneous fractions as then made up England: and if it is now much to be desired that the appointment by the central authority should spare the church the scandal which might ensue from the canonical election of bishops—strictly construed—(for acted upon strictly it never has been under any orderly and strong government, since Christianity began), it was much more necessary then, when the clergy belonged to hostile populations. That central authority was royalty, recognized wherever found.