A. D. Henry VIII. receives from Pope Leo X. the Title of High Commission Court established about 1534 1535) 1539 1539 1545) 1547 1547 1555 1558 The Thirty-nine Articles passed Convocation Declaration of Liberty of Conscience Trial of Archbishop of Canterbury and Six Bishops (Episcopacy abolished in Scotland Society for promoting Christian knowledge established Society for Propagation of the Gospel Dr. Sacheverel impeached Church Missionary Society British and Foreign Bible Society Church Building Society Roman Catholic Relief Bill. Ecclesiastical Titles 1687 1688 .. 1689 BRITISH ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. The introduction of Christianity into Britain is involved in some obscurity. It has been assigned to St. Paul, who after his first imprisonment at Rome, is reported by the early Church historians to have fulfilled his intention of preaching the Gospel in Spain, (vide Rom. xv. 28,) and to have gone to the utmost bounds of the West, and the islands that lie in the ocean. It has therefore been supposed that he was either himself in Britain, or that he sent some of his companions to make known on these shores the name of CHRIST. Other writers attribute the honour to St. Peter, others to Joseph of Arimathea. It seems however, to be certain that a Christian Church was planted here in the time of the Apostles, and as it would appear, at the date of St. Paul's travels to the West, A. D. 63. (St. George, the patron Saint of England, was born in Cappadocia of Christian parents, and on the martyrdom of his father in the Aurelian persecutions, he accompanied his mother to Palestine. Entering the Roman Army, George rose to the command of a Legion, but Diocletian's persecution commencing he threw up his command, and his mother having died, he aided with his large fortune those who were suffering for their religion. He soon became the victim of the Magistracy, and after several times enduring the Torture, was drawn through the city of Lydda and beheaded April 3, 290. The Christians buried his mutilated remains, the Sepulchre containing which continued in good preservation until 745, when his head was solemnly translated to the great Church built at Rome in his honour, by Pope Zachary. It being the practice of painters then to typify the Christian warrior's duty by various devices, that adopted for St. George of an armed Knight on Horseback, vanquishing a Dragon (emblematic of the Evil Spirit) has been the source of many vulgar legends.) The Martyrdom of St. Alban is related to have taken place in the following manner. Before the Diocletian persecution arose he was a heathen; but a Christian priest, who had fled for shelter from his pursuers to Alban's house, became the instrument of his conversion. Struck with the devout behaviour of his guest, who passed great part of the night as well as his days in watching and prayer, Alban began to enquire of his religion; and the end was, that he was persuaded to turn from idolatry and become a hearty Christian. The Roman governor of Verulam, hearing that the priest was hidden at Alban's house, sent a party of soldiers to take him, Alban presented himself at the door in the cassock usually worn by his guest, and before the mistake was discovered, was brought before the Magistrates for the person whose dress he wore. There boldly declaring himself a Christian, after enduring to be beaten with rods, he was sentenced to be beheaded. The place of his death was a rising ground beyond the little river Ver, to which the passage was by a bridge, then thronged with a great crowd of people, flocking to behold the spectacle. Alban, eager to reach the place before the close of day, instead of waiting to cross the bridge, made his way through the stream; and this act of devoted zeal is said to have had such an effect on the soldier who was appointed to be his executioner, that he threw down the sword and asked to die with him. The request was granted, and the two comrades received the palm of martyrdom together. In after years, the wonder of a simple age was shewn in tales of miracles which were said to have attended St. Alban's martyrdom. What was better and a due honour to the first martyr of Britain, a church of beautiful structure was built upon the place. This was standing in the time of the Venerable Bede, about 400 years after St. Alban's death. Offa, King of Mercia, in the eighth century founded an abbey there; and the abbey church, partly built by the Saxons with Roman bricks, taken as it seems, from a still older sacred building, is one of the most noble standing monuments of the ancient Christianity of Britain. It is also stated that about this time, 1000 Christians suffered martyrdom at Lichfield-(hence its name from Lych, a corpse.) The Early Church Councils. In the time of the Emperor Constantine, who was a native of this island, the son of St. Helena, a British lady, British Bishops were summoned to attend at the Church Councils. There were Bishops from Britain, whose names are recorded, at the Council of Arles in France, A. D. 314. They seem also to have been at Nice or Nicea, in Asia, at the great council held there A. D. 325, where the Nicene Creed was received, as the historians tell us, "with the unanimous consent of the Churches of Italy, Africa, Egypt, Spain, France and Britain, and in the Asiatic dioceses.' The British Bishops were summoned by Constantius, son of Constantine, to another council A. D. 347, at Sardica, near the site of the modern city of Sophia in Bulgaria. And again they were sent for to a council at Ariminum, now Rimini, in Italy, A. D. 360, where no less than 600 Western Bishops were present, of whom 3 were British. Although the British Bishops were orthodox, and with that Synod determined to give their voices against the Arian heresy, yet through their ignorance of the Greek language, they were circumvented by the Arian Bishops, who induced them to acknowledge CHRIST, but unwittingly to deny Him to be of the same substance with the Father. The Pelagian Heresy was originated by Pelagius, or Morgan, and Celestius, an Irishman, A. D. 404. Pelagius (which is only the classic name for Morgan) was a native of Wales; he was a man of great learning. He did not himself teach in Britain, having left it in early life, and travelled much in Italy and the East, passing his time in acquiring knowledge, and conversing with the most eminent teachers of Christian doctrines. The doctrines he taught were such as to overthrow man's need of God's grace, and to make human nature sufficient for itself. "GOD made me," he said: “but if I am made righteous, it is my own work. The Pelagian doctrines were introduced into Britain by Agricola, an Eastern bishop, and for some time gained disciples in the country, till the Bishops Germain and Lupus at a council at Verulam, A. D. 429, so completely defeated the false teachers that they are said to have acknowledged their error. St. Germain who again visited Britain a few years later, advised the Britons to found monasteries, for the preservation of religion and useful learning in troubled times. The M memory of St. Germain, and of the benefits he did to the British or Welsh Church is preserved in the name of Llanarmon, St. Germains in Denbighshire, and the town named after him in Cornwall, which was afterwards for a short time under the Saxons made a Bishop's see. He died on a visit to Italy A. D. 448. About this time also the Britons sent a mission to preach the Gospel to the Picts, then inhabiting the southern part of Scotland. The leader of this mission was St. Ninian, whose name is still preserved in the traditions of that country. He is said to have converted many of these wild people from their idolatry, and to have founded a church, which was long the seat of other bishops after him, at Whitherne, on the coast of Galloway. Another eminent Christian teacher of this time was St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. He seems to have been a native of North Britain, and a pupil of St. Germain; but the history of his life is so darkened by strange legends of later ages, that it is very difficult to learn the truth about him. There is no reason to doubt that he established Christianity in that country. He appears to have taken with him several other teachers, by whose help he was enabled to found churches, and to set up monasteries with schools, as St. Germain had done in Wales. The Isle of Man is said also to have received its first Bishop from St. Patrick about A. D. 447. From this time Christianity began to disappear from the most important and fruitful provinces of Britain. As the Saxons founded, one after another, their petty kingdoms, they destroyed the churches and the priests fled before them. Some found refuge in the colony of Brittany; others escaped to the borders of Wales. There it would seem, they were still in safety, for in A. D. 519, St. David founded the see of St. David's, St. Asaph that of St. Asaph about A. D. 580, and St. Patern that of Llan Badarn Vawr, or 66 great St. Patern's" A. D. 540. The landing of St. Augustine forms one of the most important epochs in the history of the English Church. The immediate cause of the introduction of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons was a casual incident which occurred at Rome. It happened that Gregory, who under the title of The Great, afterwards occupied the Papal Chair, had observed in the market-place of Rome, three Saxon youths |