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mises, and long before she has drawn her conclusion, passion has accomplished his purpose. He speaks in the flushing cheek, the glistening eye, the heaving breast, the throbbing heart. He is seen in the frowning brow, and felt in the uplifted arm. Nay, the whole frame is convulsed by his violent promptings. Did reason ever thus evince her presence or her power ? Hers is the calm and tranquil brow, the slow and cautious step. Time is a chief element in all her actions; but passion has the lightning's speed. Poor chance has reason of keeping pace with passion; small hope is there, that the still small voice of conscience will be heard amidst the raging storm. The blow is struck; the blood is on the ground; passion has lost himself in action: then reason slowly argues it was useless, and conscience whispers it was wrong. Henceforth, the hand that was too late to save is turned against the slave of passion, and the voice which he would not hear whispers terrible things. Reason and conscience, but now so weak, have gained a giant's power to torture. The mind is on the rack, the day brings no relief, and night has no repose :-To live is misery; to die, despair.

The ground is measured, the instrument of death is ready, the hand is raised, the shot is fired. Big drops of blood are falling to the ground, and life is ebbing fast. A groan and look of anguish, and all is over. Revenge has slaked his thirst in blood. Now mark yon form of woe. The face is pale as death, the hands are clasped convulsively, and the trembling limbs can scarce support the load which weighs them down. The storm of passion is followed by a calm. Now reason speaks, and the voice of conscience is heard: "Thou hast broken the laws of man, and usurped the prerogative of the Almighty. Though thy provocation was most grievous, and thy lot most hard to bear, He who has claimed vengeance as his own condemns thee. Thy victim was thy friend, and under the guise of friendship has done thee deadly wrong: thy sister loved him, trusted, and was lost. To injury was added scorn and bitter mockery. But the shame which thou shouldest have hidden, thy deed has made public to the world; and the burden which thou hast found so hard to bear has been laid on the friends of thy victim. Thou hast made a mother childless, and wrung a father's heart with anguish. His sins were known too well, and many a prayer has risen to the Throne of Grace that time might be given him for repentance. Thy hand has sent him to his dread account, and the thought which dwells on him recoils with horror. Hadst thou fallen in his place, the sin of murder would have been added to his other crimes. Count well thy gains, and weigh them in the balance with thy crime. No stain is washed away; no balm is purchased for the bruised heart; thou hast made sorrow the sole companion of those who never injured thee; and hast brought no relief to her whom thou wouldest have died to save. For death has extinguished hate, and woman's love is mistress of her memory. The world will not accuse thee, but thou shalt condemn thyself. Joy shall be a stranger to thy breast, and grief shall follow thee to the grave."

We now speak of passion in his worst excesses of reason, too slow to save, and of conscience too gentle to be heard. Murder, suicide, madness- -these are his fearful deeds-remorse, despair, his awful punishBut it is with reason, as the advocate of passion, that we have now to do, and the question still remains unanswered. Can a power so mighty, when acting alone, be so weak when joined with others ?

ment.

We reserve this question for our next.

6

BRIEF HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE CHURCH

OF ENGLAND.

IN our number for November we brought our Historical Notices of the Church down to the suppression of the Pelagian heresy; and which has ever since been providentially preserved from that moral pestilence. Education seems to have flourished under the fostering care of Dubritius, who was bishop first of Landaff, and afterwards archbishop of Caerleon, and, according to Bede, presided over two seminaries for the education of those who were destined for the Church. Iltutus, another bishop, presided over a seminary in the county of Glamorgan, and the place is still called, from him, Lantuet. In these seminaries, Daniel, bishop of Bangor, St. Theleau, bishop of Landaff, and St. David, bishop of Menevia, which was afterwards called St. David's, out of respect to that excellent prelate, and many other eminent men even from different parts of the continent, were educated.

During the fifth century several British synods were held, in which civil as well as ecclesiastical laws were enacted. In point of fact, these ecclesiastical synods, from the convocation of the bishops and nobles under the presidency of the sovereign, were the origin and foundation of our parliaments. St. David, archbishop of St. David's, held a purely ecclesiastical synod for finally extirpating the remains of the Pelagian heresy, and taking measures to prevent its revival. At this period the church was perfectly independent, and free from the regal supremacy, which sprang out of the papal usurpation. St. Oudocius, bishop of Landaff, in three synods of the clergy of his own diocese, excommunicated three of his own sovereigns successively, for several atrocious acts of perfidy and cruelty; and, before he admitted them to the peace and communion of the church, subjected them to the performance of severe penances. There was no such thing as any regal or other supremacy over the British church at the period of Augustine's arrival; who, although he did not introduce the papal domination, yet paved the way for its introduction by his succesThe free election of the bishops by the clergy of every diocese is an inherent right, and which was, up to the sixth or seventh centuries, exercised universally, but, by degrees, this right was afterwards usurped by the crown and the Pope. In the beginning, before this usurpation, the conge d'elire was in the form of a request that the clergy would elect such an one; and the king begged that the clergy would lend a favourable and benign ear to his petition." Ut huic petitioni meæ favorem præbeant benignum." By insensible degrees petition was understood to mean command, and it is now established by prescription as a right jure coronæ.

sors.

It is said that Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, was attracted by seeing some beautiful fair youths from Britain in the slave-mart at Rome, and made inquiry respecting their country and religion. On finding they were pagans he conceived the idea of carrying the glad tidings of the Gospel to their benighted countrymen; and offered his services as a missionary to Pelagius II., then bishop of Rome. The offer was accepted, and with some associates he set out on his journey; but the people of Rome, unwilling to lose him, constrained Pelagius to recall his missio

naries, after they had been three days advanced on their journey. Soon after Pelagius died, and Gregory himself was elected and placed in the episcopal chair, but did not forget the object of his former zealous solicitude. He selected Augustine, the prior of the monastery of St. Martin, some say St. Andrew, with forty other monks, and sent them to England as Christian missionaries, to bring the Saxons to the knowledge and profession of the Christian religion.

These missionaries were seized with terror at the prospect before them; and before they had proceeded far, sent back their leader to represent to Gregory the distance of the country, the ferocity of the people, and their own ignorance of the language, and to desire to be recalled. Gregory denied their request, and sent them a letter of encouragement, and besides furnished them with recommendatory letters to the king of the Franks, and several of the Gallican bishops. These kindly assisted them on their journey, and furnished them with necessaries, and, above all, with interpreters. Thus provided and encouraged, Augustine with his little troop passed over to the isle of Thanet, in the year 596; whence he despatched one of his interpreters to acquaint King Ethelbert with the object of his mission.

This monarch was well prepared to receive the truths of Christianity from the example and exhortation of his queen and her Christian court, and also from the silent progress which Christianity had already made. Ethelbert assigned Augustine a residence in Canterbury, his capital, listened respectfully to his instructions, and gave him permission to preach the Gospel to his subjects. The missionaries entered Canterbury in solemn procession, singing-"We beseech thee, O Lord! of thy mercy let thy wrath and anger be turned away from this city, and from thy holy place, for we have sinned: Hallelujah." The labours of the missionaries were soon crowned with success, and Augustine baptized Ethelbert, whose example was followed by multitudes, and it is said that on Christmas-day, 596, the missionaries baptized ten thousand. Soon after he despatched Lawrence and Peter, two of his companions, to Rome, to acquaint Gregory with the success and prospects of their

mission.

Hitherto it would appear that Augustine was a presbyter; but, thinking it time to organize the church which he had gathered, under a regular episcopate, he returned to Gaul, and was consecrated a bishop by Eucherius, then archbishop of Arles. The dignity of archbishop was at same time given to the zealous missionary, who returned to Kent in that character. The bishop of Rome received the news of Augustine's success with great joy, and sent back, with his messengers, Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and several others, to assist in carrying on the good work.

Gregory expressly renounced all supremacy in the universal church, nor did he, though the opportunity presented itself, assume any authority over the infant Anglo-Saxon branch of it. His desire to convert the Saxons in Britain proceeded from that charitable wish to extend the Redeemer's kingdom which ought to actuate every bishop, and not from that lust of power and dominion which led his successors into such a long and scarlet catalogue of blood and crime. And even his conferring on Augustine the rank and jurisdiction of an archbishop may be considered more as an act of recognition, by the patriarch of the west, than as the assumption of a right and privilege of universal dominion in the Church. From the infirmity of human nature, Augustine was disposed to

assume both power and precedence, and to usurp a metropolitical authority over the ancient church both in the southern and northern division of the island. But the British church, which had flourished from the days of the apostles, was perfectly free and independent of the jurisdiction of the Roman patriarch. The British bishops owned no foreign jurisdiction, nor indeed ever heard of any other superior than their own metropolitan, the archbishop of St. David's. Whatever schemes of ambition Augustine may have formed, Gregory himself, who sent him, entirely eschewed dominion; for his jurisdiction "did not extend beyond the limits of the vicarage of Rome, or the suburbicarian provinces; and no instances can be produced of metropolitans or bishops ordained by the bishop of Rome, out of these provinces, till the time of Valentinian III."

"1

Rhemigius, Zeno, and Evagrius, bishops of the province of Cyprus, preferred a complaint in the council of Ephesus, against John, patriarch or Pope of Antioch, for assuming jurisdiction over the church in Cyprus, which the fathers in that council declared to be " a transaction which innovates against the ecclesiastical rules and canons of the holy fathers, and which touches the liberty of all." A rule or canon was therefore made in that council, which sat in the year 431, against the extension or usurpation of patriarchal jurisdiction:

"Wherefore since common disorders require a more effectual remedy, as being productive of greater injury, and especially since there is no ancient custom alleged for the bishop of Antioch ordaining in Cyprus, as these pious men, who have had access to the holy synod, have shown both by books and word of mouth, the prelates of the churches in Cyprus shall have the right, uninjured, and inviolate, according to the canons of the sacred fathers, and the ancient customs, themselves to confer orders upon the pious bishops: and the same shall be observed in all other dioceses and provinces whatsoever: So that none of the bishops, beloved of God, take another province, which has not been formerly and from the beginning subject to him. But if any one has taken another, and by force has placed it under his control, he shall restore it; that the canons of the fathers be not transgressed, nor the pride of worldly power be introduced under the cloak of the priesthood, nor we by degrees come to lose that liberty wherewith the Lord Jesus Christ, the deliverer of all men, has endowed us by his own blood." 2

The council of Ephesus enacted this canon about one hundred and sixty years before the period when Gregory sent Augustine on his mission into England, who could not be ignorant of its decisions, for his predecessor, Celestinus, on account of his great age, was represented in it by his legates, Arcadius and Projectus. Although that canon was made requisite by the ambition of John, patriarch of Antioch, yet as it was declared to touch the liberty of all, so it was made imperative upon all dioceses and provinces, or patriarchates whatsoever. The British church was entirely free from any dependence on the Roman bishop, or from any foreign jurisdiction. Gregory assuming the right, therefore, of committing all the bishops of Britain to the patriarchate of Augustine was a manifest usurpation and breach of the seventh canon of the council of Ephesus, which is recognised as a general council by the modern church

1 Bower's History of the Popes, vol. i. 109.

2 Perceval's Roman Schism.

of Rome. This breach of the canon however does not amount to an assumption of supremacy, which he expressly disclaimed, and which, in point of fact, his successors never exercised till after the Norman Conquest. From the circumstance of the Roman bishop having his episcopal throne in the imperial city, he was recognised as a primate over all western Europe; and great deference and respect was shown to his opinion and advice; nevertheless, he had no jurisdiction out of his own province, as above described. Always," says Giraldus Cambrensis, "until the full conquest of Wales, by Henry I. the bishops of Wales were consecrated by the Archbishop of St. David's, and he likewise was consecrated by the other bishops as his suffragans, without professing any manner of subjection to any other church."

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The Gallican liturgy was used by the ancient primitive church of Britain, and, in keeping Easter, it observed the Asiatic rule, which was very different from the Roman ritual, introduced by Augustine. About the year 525, the Alexandrian cycle of nineteen years for the computation of Easter, was established throughout the Christian world. But the British church, which comprehended the church in Ireland and Scotland, still maintained the old Jewish cycle of eighty-four years, and kept Easter on the fourteenth day of the month, on whatever day of the week it might happen. This difference in their ritual observances was an insurmountable barrier in the way of an union between Augustine and the native bishops. He made the attempt, however, to draw them under his jurisdiction, as the metropolitan of all England. With this view, he held two councils, to which he summoned, rather than invited, the British bishops to meet him, whom he deeply offended by his haughtiness of manner, and assumption of superiority. He proposed that if they would acknowledge him for their metropolitan; conform to the Roman time of keeping Easter and administering baptism; and unite with him in preaching the word of God to the English nation, he would tolerate their other customs. The British prelates were too warmly attached to their ancient usages to abrogate them at the command of a stranger, seeking, by these proposals, to gain a supremacy over them, and one whom they must have considered an intruder. They replied, we shall agree to none of your propositions; much less can we admit him as our archbishop who will not even rise to salute us.'

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In the heat of resentment and disappointed ambition, Augustine threatened the British prelates with divine vengeance; and it is generally supposed that he had but too much influence in kindling the flames of war between the English and the native British. Failing in the extension of his jurisdiction, he applied himself to the enlargement and regulation of the Anglo-Saxon church. He consecrated Mellitus as bishop of the East Angles, and placed him in London: unless Luidhard, Queen Bertha's chaplain, had united with him, he must have acted in this important matter alone. We hear of no assistance from the Gallican bishops, and the state of utter defiance in which the British church then stood would preclude all assistance from that quarter. With the assistance of Mellitus he consecrated Justus for the see of Rochester, and Laurentius as his own successor, in the see of Canterbury, in the year 604. It is said that he died the following year, although some think he lived ten years, after having provided for the succession; but leaving the

VOL. II.

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