The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-05
FOURTEEN CENTURIES.
Christianity Has Maintained a Hold for
That Time Upon the English.
Speaking Race.
From the Phiiadelphia Times.


Fourteen centuries of continuous de-
velopment in the history of our race
are rounded out this month of June.
On the eve of Whitsun Day. A. d. 597,
Ethelbert, King of Kent, was baptized
at Canterbury, and England then first
became. what it has continued ever
since, a Christian State.
The beginnings of history in Britain
are, of course, much farther back than
that. The land energies from obscurity,
with the Roman occupation, during
which the early British church was
planted and grew. A mass of tradi-
tion and legend clusters around that
primitive church, that does not entirely
obscure its history; but we know that
when the Roman legions were with
drawn and the land was left a prey
to the invading hordes of Jutes and
Saxons and Angles, Christianity was
practically driven out before them.
1t found refuge in Wales and in ireland
and In the far north, and in a few iso-
lated spots less remote; it was never
entirely extinguished, but the country
that came to be called England was
heather land, to which the conquer
ors had brought the Teutonic mythol-
ogy, that is still recorded In our names
f'r the days Of the week
Out of the turmoil of that period the
first Well organized power that as
s"rts i:self is the kingdom of Kent,
that was in time to become the foun-
datiCn of the Anglo-SSaxon manarchy,
and EtheH ert, who gave to the old
English their first code of written laws
made long step toward the estab.
lishment of stable relations with the
Christian world when he married the
daughter of the king of Paris. Bertha
brought a Frankish bishop with her
and the old Roman church at Canter-
bury was restored; but hubbard seems
not to have done much missionary
work, except that he undoubtedly pre-
pared the minds of the king and those
about him for their later adoption of
! Christianity.
AUGUSTINE.
1t was just at this time, as perman-
ent political institutions were gradu-
ally shaping themselves, that Pope
Gregory sent Augustine on his famous
mission to the Angles. The time was
ripe, the man well chosen and the mis-
| sion was a success. So readily and
rapidly was the conversion of Kent
achieved that Augustine went over to
| the continent and received conservation
| from the Gallican bishops, returning
with authority to organize the "Eccle-
sia Anglorum," the Church of the Eng
| lish.
He was advised by Gregory to estab-
| lsh bishoprics at York and London,
which had been chief centres of the
Roman occupation, but he found the
actual metropolis then at Canterbury,
where he fixed the primatical see, and
in the unbroked succession Of Arch
bishops of Canterbury there extends to
this time, through foreign conquest and
internal dissension, one main line of
continuity in English history for four
teen hundred years.
1t happened also at the same time
with the mission of Augustine that the
order Celtic church that had been driv-
en- out by the English had taken on
the missionary spirit and from Ire
land and Iona was reestablishing itself
upon the north and west of England
and the British bishops, with their
earlier traditions, were not unnatural
ly jealous of Augustine's authority. II
was many years before their differ
ences were finally adjusted, and the
infusion of British and Celtic influence
is a not unimportant factor in the
foundations of the English church
which counts st. Aidan of Lindisfarne
as well as ST. Augustine Of Canter-
bury among its fathers But the essen
tial truth is that all of these various
elements were eventually absorbed OF
united, even the Church of Wales COM
ing at last into union with Canter-
bury, so that with the development OF
the monarchy and the unification OF
the English nation, promoted by the
unity of faith. the boundaries OF
church and state became identical.
Thus the long-ago event which is
commemorated this month is one OF