assertion is disproved by Selden. At this time the Pelagian controversy engrossed the attention of the clergy.

Honorius died in 653, and his pious successor Trithona, or Deus-dedit, was the first native of Britain who filled the see. The court of Rome, always anxious to increase its power and extend its authority, found a favourable opportunity, on the death of Wighard for the personal election of an archbishop by the pope. Vitalian accordingly nominated Adrian, an abbot of Thiridanum, and Andrew, a monk, neither of whom would accept the dignity. Theodore, a Grecian, was therefore appointed at the intercession of the same Adrian, but the pope, apprehensive that he might introduce the customs of the Greek church, sent the abbot with him as a spy or monitor.

In virtue of the legantine power with which he was invested, he extended his authority over the whole body of the clergy, and was the first prelate who fully exercised his archiepiscopal powers to bring all the British churches to uniformity of discipline and worship 15. He instituted schools, and established new sees in diocesses which were too extensive for the government of one bishop, and is the first who divided the country into parishes, and made a regular provision for the parochial clergy. To encourage the erection of churches, he obtained a grant from the different kings of the heptarchy, to vest the right of patronage in their founders. Battely conjectures that archdeacons were first introduced into the church by Theodore, and adduces several reasons in support of his opinion. In the celebrated dispute with Wilfrid, the archbishop maintained "that all controversies should be settled in the provinces where they arose, and that the authority of the metropolitans should be final and unappealable.” Innet tells us, "he changed the whole face of the Saxon church, and did more towards enlarging the authority of the Archbishops of Canterbury and the Bishops of Rome than all his predecessors had done since the

15 "Cui omnis Anglorum Ecclesia manus dare consentiret." Bede, b. iv. c. 2.

16 The nomination and settling of parishes must have taken place posterior to 673, for in a council held by Theodore in that year, the word parochia signified the district or diocess of a bishop. Innet's "Origines Anglicanæ,” i. 78.

STATE OF THE CHURCH FROM 760 TO 831.

13

coming of Austin." In his time there were four councils held, in the second of which Mercia was divided into five bishoprics". Brithwend his successor was equally tenacious of his rights and privileges, and firmly opposed papal usurpation.

Cuthbert, the eleventh archbishop, procured licence from the Pope and King Eadbert to appropriate the church for the sepulture of the archbishops and royal family, and also to attach cemeteries to those places of worship built within the walls of cities 18. Dying in 760, he was buried privately, to evade any opposition that might be made by the monks of St. Augustine's, who claimed the privilege and honour of having the custody of the archbishops' bodies.

Bregwin, who succeeded Cuthbert, was interred with similar secrecy; but on this occasion the monks were determined to assert their right; and, in pursuance of their resolution, Lambrith the abbot came with an armed force to Christ Church, with the intention of carrying off the bodies, but not succeeding in this attempt, he appealed to Rome. To terminate the dispute, Lambrith was elected archbishop, which produced a reconciliation between the contending monasteries. In this prelate's time, Offa, King of Mercia created an archbishopric at Lichfield, by which the province of Canterbury was considerably reduced; but Athelard, successor to Lambrith, procured the restoration of those lands which had been taken out of the diocess. In 803 a council was called at Cloveshoo, where the decree of the Pope for restoring the see to all its antient rights and dignities was confirmed, and everlasting damnation was denounced against all who should hereafter attempt to tear the coat of Christ, i. e. to divide the province of Canterbury 19. Wilfred was also a considerable benefactor to the cathedral, recovering and securing to it many possessions, and bestowing on it many valuable donations 20. The institution of deans is supposed to have taken place near this epoch, Ceolnoth being the first whose name is to be found on record.

About this time the plague or some other pestilential disease raged in 17 "Origines Anglicanæ," i. 73. 18 Battely, ut sup. 133.

19 Spelman's Concil. i. 324. ap. Henry's History of Brit. iii. 240. 20 Battely, ut sup. 67.

the city, and only five of the ecclesiastics survived its ravages. When Ceolnoth was elected in 830, there was such a scarcity of monks that he was under the necessity of employing secular canons to officiate in the cathedral. The calamities of the clergy were increased by the repeated invasions, wars, and cruelties of the Danes, which kept the country in a state of alarm, and the bishops in daily peril. Plegmund was consecrated in 891. He presided in several councils, and encouraged the building of churches, but no alteration in the see appears to have taken place during his government; nor in that of Athelm and Wulfhelm, his immediate successors. Archbishop Odo, who was consecrated in 941, endeavoured to render the church independent of all control. For this purpose he promulgated, in 943, his famous pastoral letter, since called the "Constitutions of Odo," in which he arrogantly and presumptuously says, "I strictly command and charge that no man presume to lay any tax on the possessions of the clergy, who are the sons of God. I command the king, the princes, and all in authority to obey, with great humility, the archbishop and bishops, for they have the keys of the kingdom of heaven"." Besides these constitutions, several ecclesiastical canons were enacted about this time, tending to increase the influence and independence of the clergy, and the devotion and subjection of the people. From these canons it appears that paganism was not yet completely eradicated; for it was decreed that those who continued to use pagan rites and ceremonies should be excommunicated.

The celebrated Dunstan exerted his utmost influence for the aggrandisement of the Benedictine order. No sooner had he attained the archiepiscopal chair, but he employed all his influence to enforce the celibacy of the clergy, and he was almost equally zealous in degrading the seculars; but his ambition, tyranny, and arrogance at last drew the royal displeasure on himself and the monks of his order, who were expelled from several monasteries, and replaced by seculars. The government was however too weak to resist the influence which the monks had acquired,

21 Spelman Concilia, I. i. p. 416.

BURNING AND REPAIRING OF THE CHURCH.

15

and they were again reinstated. The murder of this haughty priest in his own cathedral is one of the most memorable events connected with the fabric and the place. In 1011 the Danes, whose descents in England were accompanied with circumstances of the most shocking cruelty, landed at Sandwich, and laid siege to Canterbury, which they set fire to, and carried by assault. The monks, with their venerable archbishop, Elphege, retired to the cathedral; but motives of humanity prompted him to come forth, and endeavour, by his intercession, to stop the indiscriminate carnage which the ferocious invaders were perpetrating in the city. His entreaties had no effect on the implacable barbarians, who gagged, bound, and forced him back to the church, that he might there witness the murder of his spiritual assistants, while the lead, melting from the roof, which had now caught fire, increased the horror of the scene and the torments of the devoted ecclesiastics. The bishop, after a tedious confinement, was at last barbarously murdered. Livingus, his successor, found the cathedral nearly destroyed, and the ecclesiastics either murdered or dispersed, which so affected him that he retired until the accession of King Canute, when he returned, and commenced the repair of the church. This work was completed by Agelnoth, who was assisted by the munificence of Canute, who granted to the monks the entire revenues of the port of Sandwich, and, as a proof of his devotion, took the gold crown from his head, and placed it on the high altar. Stigand, who was archbishop at the Norman invasion, by his firmness preserved many of the ancient privileges of the people of Kent. Lanfranc made many regulations for the government of the Benedictines, and procured the restoration of twentyfive manors belonging to this see. He also rebuilt a great part of the cathedral, and promoted the erection of other sacred edifices. Previous to this

22

Gough's Camden's Brit. i. 211, where a full account of this transaction is given from the chronicle of Ditmar of Merspurg, a contemporary writer.

23 Somner says that the port of Sandwich was only restored to the monks of this cathedral, it having been originally granted to them by Ethelred; but no allusion to a previous grant is to be found in Canute's charter, in the Customal of Sandwich, published in Boys's "Collections for a History" of that Borough.

epoch, the head of this convent had been styled Dean, but it was now changed to that of Prior. The revenues of the church, which had been previously divided between the archbishop and convent in common, were now ordered to be divided into equal parts between the prelate and the monks. After his death, which happened in 1089, William Rufus kept the archbishopric in his own possession for some years, and applied its revenues to his own purposes. In a severe sickness he nominated Anselm to the see, but recovering from his indisposition he demanded one thousand pounds from Anselm as a consideration for the see, and exacted a certain sum annually from him. These impositions compelled the prelate at last to quit the kingdom, when the king seized the whole temporalities, and appropriated the revenues to his own use. Henry the First recalled Anselm, who, intent on increasing the power and influence of his see, prevailed on the king to give up the right of investiture to the archbishops of Canterbury. He exerted himself much to render his church magnificent, and the service pompous; for in those days an imposing and splendid ceremonial was most effectual for attracting the people to religion, and producing liberality to the clergy.

Ralph was elected in 1114, a prelate who was extremely jealous of the prerogatives of his church, and would never allow the king to put on his own crown, as that ceremony was a peculiar right of the archbishops on all occasions. His successor William Corboil was invested by the Pope with the title of "apostolic legate throughout England."

Thomas Becket's name has been rendered famous by his bold attempts to support papal authority, and strenuous exertions to render the church superior to all civil judicature. To check the ambition of the clergy, and protect the prerogatives of the crown, the "Constitutions of Clarendon" were drawn up and signed by the lay and spiritual lords, although the latter had previously refused their assent unless the words "saving the rights and privileges of God and the church" were added. The murder

24

"This was the first shock to the authority of the English church, and opened the way to all the ensuing usurpations.”——Innet's “ Origin. Angl.” i. 491.

25 Collier's "Ecclesiastical History of England," vol. i. p. 315. fol. 1708.