THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN BEFORE AD. 1000 In Two Volumes, each 5s. net. With Chronological Table and Index. Dr. H ..tinirs says:..-" It has all the satisfactoriness we associate with Dr. Plummer's work-the scholarship, the conscientiousneu.. the grace.• For popular readina it will supersede all the rest, and it is so clear and so reliable that it could be set for examination.11 "Dr. Plummer writes with charm as well as with careful accuracy. We &et here 0 ~~! l!~~t iW~i~~~e,c~~:!l:! ~f a:o i::; and more interesting introduction to the study of Church history than the volume before us... -Record. "'Dr. Plummcr's style is admirably dear, there is enough here to make us look. for .. ward to Dr. P~ummer's second volume, wbich will deal with a later, less familiar, but not less momentous. portion of the fint millennium,"-Church Famdy Newspa,p,,. LONDON : ROBERT SCOTT t,ibrare of bistoric 'ttbeolog\? EDITED BY THE REV. WM. C. PIERCY, M.A. DBS A.JrD C!U.1'1141• OP --•DI COMEGJ:. THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN BEFORE A.D. I ooo LIBRARY OF HISTORIC THEOLOGY EDITED BY THE REV. Wll. c. PIERCY, M.A. Dean and Chaplain of WMtelands CoUege. Each Volume, Demy Bvo, Cloth, Red Burnished Top, 5s. net. 'il'HE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN. Vols. I. and II. [Ready. By the Rev. MFRED Ptu111MER, D.D. (formerly Master of University College, Durham), CHARACTER AND RELIGION. By the Rev. the HoN. EDWARD LY'.ln:r.ro1<, M.A. (Head Master of Eton College). [Ready. THE CREEDS: THEIR HISTORY, NATURE AND USE.~. [Ready. By the Rev. HAROLD SMITH, M.A. (Lecturer at the London College of Divinity), '£HE RULE OF FAITH AND HOPE. [Ready. By the Rev. R. L. OTTLEY, D.D. (Canon ofiChrist Church, and Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology·in the University of Oxford). MISSIONARY METHODS, ST. PAUL'S OR OURS? [Ready, By the Rev. ROLAND AnLEN, M.A. WHE CHRISTOLOGY OF ST. PAUL (Hulsean Prize Essay). [Ready, By the Rev. S. NoWE1>1> RosTRON, M.A., Late Principal of St. John's Hall, Durham; Vicar of St. Lawrence, Kirkdale). The following works are In Preparation :- THE HISTORY AND METHODS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, By the Rev. Prebendary B. REYNOLDS (Archbishops' Inspector of Training Colleges), [May, 1912, MARRIAGE. By the Rev, T. A. LACEY, M.A. (Chaplain of the London Diocesan Penitentiary, High-. gate). [September, 1912 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. By Professor EoOuARD NAVILI.E, D.C.L., LL.D. [O<tober, 1912, THE PRESENT RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. By the Rev. Professor T. G. BONNEY, D.Sc. (President of the British Association, 1910). [Odober, 1912, 'ii'HE BUILDING UP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By,the Rev, CanoniR. B. GIRDLESl'ONE, M.A. (formerly Principal oljWyclifte Hail, Oxford). [October, 1912, THE CHURCH AND THE INDIVIDUAL. [Oaober, 1912. By the Rev. w. J, SPARROW SIMPSON, D.D. (Editor of the English Church Reviao), POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. [No..,,.1,er, 1913, By the Rev. C. L. DRAWBRJDGB, M.A. (Honorary Secretary of the Christian Evidence Society), MYSTICISM IN CHRISTIANITY. u ...... ...,,, 1913, By the Rev. W. K. FLEMING, M.A., B.D. THE NATURE OF FAITH AND THE CONDITIONS OF ITS PROSPERITY. By the Rev, P. N. WAGGETT, M.A. (of the Society of St. John the Evangelist), THE CHURCH OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE. [October, 1913. By the Rev, C.R. DAVEY BIGGS, D.D .. (Rector of S. Philip and S. James, Oxford), Other Volumes in this Library will be announced from time to time, full particulars may be obtained,from the Publisher. LONDON: ROBERT SCOTL THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN BEFORE A.D. I 000 BY THE REV, ALFRED PLUMMER, M.A., D.D LATE MASTER OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, DUJI.HAM FORMERLY FELLOW AND SENIOR. TUTOR 01!' TRINITY COLLEGE, OX!"O]IJ) VOL. II LONDON: ROBERT SCOTT 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. MCMXII CONTENTS VOL. II. :PA.GE CHAPTER I THE ENGLISH MISSIONARIES l CHAPTER II THE PENITENTIAL SYSTEM AND PENITENTIALS 77 CHAPTER III THE REVIVAL UNDER ALFRED • . 101 CHAPTER IV THE REVIVAL UNDER DUNSTAN • 126 CHAPTER V THE DANES 171 CHAPTER VI SUlOlARY A.ND CONCLUSION 214 CHBONOLOGICAL TABLE 245 INDEX , 2SO vii VOLUME II CHAPTER I THE ENGLISH MISSIONARIES T was pointed out in the first volume (pp. 58, 67, I 192) that the conversion of the English led directly to the conversion of other nations. England itself became a missionary centre, sending out its own evangelists, by whose instrumentality, from the seventh to the eleventh centuries, Germany, Den­ mark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland were converted to Christianity. This excellent work began as soon as the infant Church of England had set its own house in order. 1 Indeed, Theodore of Tarsus had not 1 " Hardly had all England received the faith when it began its marvellous work in Germany. The foresight of Gregory was justified by the event ; the consequences of S. Augustine's mission went far beyond the spiritual conquest of the English. They spread all over the Teutonic race. The loss of the East which had failed in its mission and allowed the State to interfere with its faith, was more than compensated by the gain of the nation, to whom the future of Europe and the world was entrusted" (J. B. Dalgairns, Preface to Hope's S. Boniface and the OonverBion of Germany. p. x. ). VOL. II. 1 ]3 2 THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN completed his great achievement of organizing the new-born Church (I., p. 199), when its missions to another and closely kindred nation had begun. And it was this kinship between the Christian English and their heathen brethren on the Continent which greatly facilitated the task of converting the latter. There are still many people who believe that the " gift of Tongues " which was manifested at Pentecost was bestowed upon the Apostles in order to aid them in their work of making disciples of all the nations. There is no trace of their ever making use of a power of speaking foreign languages in their subsequent labours : neither in Acts nor in any of the Epistles is there any mention of the employment of so remark­ able and so useful a possession. Whatever may be the relation between the Tongues manifested on the day of Pentecost and the Tongues manifested in the Church of Corinth (I Cor. xiv.), it is evident that both gifts were transitory, and that Tongues in the Corin­ thian Church were not a power of speaking the lan­ guages of foreign nations.1 And in the missionary work of the Apostles no such miraculous power was required. Greek was almost a universal language in the Roman Empire. With Greek and Aramaic, and perhaps a little Latin, Apostles could make them­ selves understood in most places, either directly or through an interpreter. The English Apostles who 1 Robertson and Plummer, 1 Corinthians, pp. 301-321; Wa.lker, The Gift of Tongues, p. 63. THE . ENGLISH MISSIONARIES 8 worked for the conversion of Northern Europe were in an equally happy condition as regards language. They were Teutons returning to Teutons (I., pp. 88-40) after an interval of less than three hundred years. No doubt the language which their ancestors had brought from Germany had developed in Britain in a manner somewhat different from the way in which it had continued to develop in Germany ; but we may reasonably believe that in the seventh cen­ tury Englishmen and Germans would quickly be able to understand one another.1 The great success of the English missionaries on the Continent amounts almost to proof of this hypothesis. And then also, when the frontiers of the Roman Empire were reached, Latin would sometimes come in as a help to mutual understanding. All these English missionaries knew Latin : they worshipped in that language every day WILFRID The Englishman who made a beginning with this work was Wilfrid.2 It has been pointed out (I., p. 126) 1 Freeman, Old English History, p. 137. "Some of the oldest specimens of the languages of continental Germany · are the translations made for the use of the German converts '' (R. W. Church, The Beginning of the Middle Ages, p. 128). 2 It mUBt always be remembered that Keltic missionaries from Ireland and Scotland were at work on the Continent long before Englishmen, from St. Fridolin (c. 500) onwards. Later, when English and other missionaries were occupying the ground in connexion with Rome, the Irish still continued to come, but as teachers or students rather than missionaries. 4 THE CHURCHES IN BRITAIN that when Archbishop Theodore, without consulting Wilfrid, insisted on dividing Wilfrid' s diocese into four, Wilfrid appealed to Rome, and went to Rome to plead his cause in person. There is no evidence that Wilfrid objected to the necessary division, but he naturally objected to its being done over his head ; and, as Theodore had already secured the approval of King Egfrid, there was no authority in England to which he could appeal. It was to Rome that Englan~ owed its Christianity, and it was Rome that h~d sent Theodore to take charge of the English Christians. What more reasonable, therefore, than that Wilfrid should apply to Rome for redress ? Wilfrid might have submitted under protest ; but, if he felt that he ought to appeal, there was no one to whom he could apply for help except the Bishop of Rome. And of course, no one could plead his cause so efficaciously as himself. With bishops at Lindsey, Hexham and York, according to Theodore's new scheme, the diocese of Northumbria would not be neglected.