Arizona republican., 1916-03-27
LIN DEVELOP WENT
 OF THE CHURCH
Bishop Atwood Delivers Third of Series of Six Talks on the History of Church of England Before the Reformation

Rt. Rev. J. w. Atwood, Episcopal of series of six talks on the history of the Church of England before the Reformation, at the Cathedral House Friday afternoon. The subject of the talk Friday was Development of the Church and Nation Until the Time of Alfred the Great and St. Dunstan." The bishop said in part as follows: The history of the English church it has sometimes been said, begins
 with the episcopate of Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury in the year 66S. Four years before an important
 event had taken place when the synod
 of Whitby had been called to settle the dispute between Iona and Rome,
 between the upholders of the early British and those of the Roman mis- sion, which Augustine had planted in Canterbury. For some time it seemed as if the ancient custom of the early British church would prevail for the greater part of England har been con- verted by and was attached to this
 ancient church.
 "On the white cliffs of Whitby, where it overlooks the waters of the German ocean, the great council met. Here in the famous abbey, presided over by Hilda herself, a princess of NOrthumbria, and attached to the British church were assembled the representatives of Iona and Rome. Bishop Colman who had been trained in the British monasteries, appealed for the observance of the British Easter to the venerable custom and example of St. John. This was shown
 by Wilfred to be historically incorrect |>and in a passionate speech full of fire and eloquence he denounced his opponent on a no less unhistorical foundation he declared the supremacy of Peter. The king turned to- the bishop and eagerly asked if the powas. which had been bestowed on St. Peter had been given to St. Columba. An swered in the negative, he then de- clared that if the keys of heaven had been given to St. Deter he would obey the rulings of the door keeper lest when he came to the doors of the Kingdom there would be no one to unbar the gate for him. The import ance of this step cannot be overesti- mated as the whole assembly joined apparently in the decision of the king with the exception of Colman who re- tired once more to the island mon- astery of Iona by the western sea. The death blow had been given to the British church but on it's ruins | was to grow the still grander and ! stronger church of England. The | radical differences between the two | churches were not in the observance | Of certain customs, but they were | deeper and more vital.
 A grand and noble work had been | done by the British church in the | conversion of the English not second
 to that accomplished by the mission | or st. Augustine. But it's work was
 finished when England had become
 Christian. Its power lay in the great
 and saintly lives it had developed
 amid the quiet and retirement of its
 famous monasteries."
 The bishop then pointed out the de-
 fects of the monasterial system. Re-
 ferring to Cuthbert he says ''The poor
 shepherd boy had found his way in
 the springtime of his innocent and joyous youth to the valley of the
 Tweed. where stood the little huts
 that were the feeble beginning of the
 stately abbey of Melrose whose fam =
 ous history and noble story have been
 told in the dawning years of this
 nineteenth century by Sir Walter
 Scott. whose imperial genius has giv-