have received the narrative from eye-witnesses. In such cases, it would be rash to assert absolutely the falsity of such evidence. The supernatural world is all around us, our eyes may be holden, and we may sometimes be feeling after God when He is not far from us. It is not wonderful if, in the record of lives that were lived in the vivid realisation of the supernatural, we find at times well-attested incidents that are hard to fit in with our experience of the natural world.

CHAPTER III.

HERESIES-THE MISSION OF ST. GERMAN.

THE profession of Christianity by Constantine, and his final victory in 324, freed the Church throughout the empire from the fear of persecution. But, just as it was relieved from one danger, another presented itself in the heresy of Arius, a priest of Alexandria, which rapidly spread, and even at one time threatened to extinguish the Catholic faith. The Council of Nice, at which British representatives were perhaps present, condemned this heresy. The Liturgy of our Church shows traces of this great struggle in the Nicene Creed, and in the grand hymn, commonly called the Athanasian Creed, which states clearly, yet succinctly, those necessary definitions which best secure us from vain and dangerous speculations. Thanks to these bulwarks, the Church of England has never in the darkest hour of her existence denied her Lord and doubted the efficacy of His Passion; but has clung to the principles which, as we know from the indubitable testimony of such bulwarks of the church as St. Athanasius and St. Hilary, found no stauncher adherents in the early days of peril than the bishops and clergy of Britain.1

1 The names of British bishops are not contained in any list of those present at Nicæa, but the lists are undoubtedly incom

The Arian heresy was succeeded by another, which grievously distressed the British Church and brought to the front one of the most notable of our early saints. About the time when Rome was taken by the Goths (409), and when Britain-distracted by the irruption of the Picts and Scots and weakened by the withdrawal of the imperial legions. -for a short space suffered, rather than enjoyed, independence, a British monk, named Morgan, put forth plete. Constantine pressed all the bishops of the Church to be present and paid the expenses of such as came, and his connexion with Britain would have had influence upon the bishops of the British Church. Eusebius, however, does not mention Britain, though he speaks of Spain as the western extremity; and the decrees of the Council are said to have been sent to the West by Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, through the Roman presbyters, Victor and Vincentius.

St. Athanasius says (Epist. ad Jovian. Imp.):—“This faith all the fathers who assembled in Nicaea confessed; and all the Churches in every place concur with it; those of Spain, Britain, and Gaul, and the Churches of the West, except a few that hold with Arius. For we have ascertained by trial the judgment of all the foregoing Churches, and we have letters." The same father says, regarding his acquittal by the Council of Sardica (347), "more than 300 bishops concurred with those who gave the decision in our favour, from the provinces of Egypt . . . . Gaul, and Britain." The presence of British bishops at this council is doubtful, as Athanasius' words may merely imply that they afterwards intimated their agreement.

St. Hilary writes in 358, from exile in Phrygia, "to his most beloved and most blessed brothers and fellow bishops of Germany and of the provinces of Britain," and congratulates them that they have remained "undefiled in the Lord and unhurt by all contagion of detestable heresy.”—See Haddan and Stubbs, i. p. 9, etc.

his doctrines. He had left his native land for Rome, and had changed his name for the Greek equivalent, Pelagius, the latter meaning "born of, or belonging to, the sea," a translation of the Welsh "Morgan." His teaching, which is controverted in the IX. Article of our Church, was that "original sin standeth only in the following of Adam." "God made me," he said, "but if I am made righteous, it is my own work." He was chiefly supported by Cœlestius, a monk from Ireland, and a bishop named Julianus, and was opposed in trenchant writings by St. Augustine, who, while he attacked his doctrines, expressed his personal regard for Pelagius himself. The heresy was introduced into Britain by Agricola, son of Severianus, a Pelagian bishop, and speedily spread to so great an extent that the orthodox clergy, unable to cope with it themselves, were forced to summon aid from the sister-church of Gaul.1

In response to their request, two leading divines were sent over (429),—German, bishop of Auxerre, a Breton by birth, who therefore would be able to speak the British tongue; and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, brother of that Vincent of Lerins whose "Commonitorium," or "Reminder on behalf of the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith against the profane novelties of all Heretics," is still regarded as a work of standard authority. The

A work written about this time by a Briton named Fastidius, who is called by one authority a British bishop, and who was inclined towards Semi-Pelagianism, is still extant.— Haddan and Stubbs, i. p. 16.

appointment of the two bishops seems to have been made by the Gallican Church, and subsequently to have received the sanction of Pope Celestine.

No more imposing figure than that of St. German. appears in all the history of the Ancient British Church. Saint, soldier, orator, and theologian, he was in all respects a born leader of men. As reformer and administrator, he played a great part in Britain, and the impression of his character and ability which he left behind him is testified by the fact that nearly all the institutions of his age, and even of the age immediately succeeding, are ascribed to his foundation.1 His appearance, indeed, marks an era; from his time, if not from his influence, may be traced the first germs in this country of what afterwards was to develop into the parochial system. Before this time the clergy lived at centres in communities with their bishop, and went from them on missions through the country. In the interval between German's first and second mission, a council of the Gallican Church, held at Vaison (442), enacted that "country parishes should have presbyters to preach in them as well as the city churches," and the theory that the new system

This may appear a strong statement; but various legends and authorities have attributed to him the foundation of Oxford and Cambridge, of the monasteries of Llancarfan and Llantwit Major, the consecration of St. Dyfrig as first Bishop of Llandaff, the introduction of the Gallican liturgy into Britain, as well as other less impossible reforms.

2 See Rees's " Welsh Saints," p. 131; and Pryce's "Ancient British Church,” p. 124.