The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-09-05
CANTERBURY.

! y (. b
Primarily, of course. the visit Of the
Archbishop of Canterbury to the United
States is OF interest to the members Of
! the communion of which he is the head
But the history of his see so closely
Identified with the history of the Eng
liish race religious, social and political,
that the English-speaking people. 1t
should not be forgotten that for CEN
turtles. Canterbury represented the &c
clesiastical unity Of the race, and that
even modern religious bodies can trace
| their lineage back to the undivided
Anglican Church. For various reasons
this see had certain primacy almost
from the first among English dioceses;
but it was not until 1884 that Pope In
nocent VI. confirmed the Archbishop In
the title of Primate of All England and
Metropolitan. The supremacy of Can
terbury over York had been settled by
Lanfranc Immediately after the Nor
man invasion. 1t was Canterbury,
therefore, that played the larger part In
the troubles which, through quarrels
between Popes and Kings. disturbed
the nation; and from Lanfranc, Anselm
Stephen Langton and Thomas a Beckett
to Sudbury, Morton, Warham, Granmer,
Pole and Laud, men whose political Inn
portance was certainly no less than
their religions, have sat in the chair of
st. Augustine. The fact that Wolsey
was Archbishop of York is the exception
to the rule.
The diocese Of Canterbury was found
ed as long ago as 597, and the first bish-
op was st. Augustine, the missionary
from Gregory the Great to the heather
English. 1t is historically inaccurate,
lhowever, to regard the English Church
as entirely a daughter of Rome. There
had been a British Church from the
first century of the Christian era; and
although its history is obscure, it Is
known that British Bishop sat at the
Council Of Aries, in 314 and OF Nicaea,
in 325. But the Saxon invaders had
tdriven the British inhabitants into the
Iwest and north; and although Ireland,
Wales and Northumbria remained
Christian, and produced such mission
aries as st. Patrick and st. COLUMBIA,
4 the labors of the Roman missionaries
IN the south were doubtless needed to
complete the regeneration of the island.
After some friction the two bodies be-
came one, and the principles establish
ed in the seventh century at Whitby
and HEREFORD were not seriously dis
turbed until the Reformation. But the
dispute between the temporal and the
spiritual power which was carried on In
lmediaeval Europe under not dissimilar
conditions to those in France to-day,
necessarily made Canterbury a centre
lof conflict. 1t would be impossible in a
few words to tell the whole story intel
ligibly. But there are incidents in it
which have left a deep mark upon the
English character
Anselm was one Of the first Arch
bishops Of Canterbury to uphold the
power of the Pope against the power of
the King. His quarrel with william
Rufus wa spartly on moral, partly on
ecclesiastical grounds; but he opposed
Henry /, in the matter of investitures,
and refused to consecrate Bishop-elect
without the authority of Rome. Thus
The supported the claims of the Pope,
then moved, to exercise supreme control
of the Church of England. From this
time the degree of obedience which the
clergy should render to the King was
in constant antagonism to the degree of
obedience which they should render to
the Pope. 1t was this which in the
lend determined the course of the Eng
Ilish Reformation, and led the English
Church, Catholic as it was in doctrine
and discipline to sever itself
from the body of Catholic Christendom.
Despite the efforts of the Puritan party
Lit never, as whole, felt much inclina-