THE FALL OF ORTHODOX ENGLAND The Spiritual Roots of the Norman Conquest, 1043-1087 Vladimir Moss © Vladimir Moss, 2007 FOREWORD ................................................................................................................4 INTRODUCTION: ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT ...................................6 The Beginning of the End .......................................................................................6 The Rise of the Heretical Papacy .........................................................................8 The Growth of Feudalism....................................................................................11 The English Monarchy..........................................................................................16 Rome and the Holy Roman Empire....................................................................20 The Papal Reform Movement .............................................................................24 The Rise of the Normans......................................................................................28 The Challenge Facing the English.......................................................................30 1. SAINT EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (1043-1066)...........................................31 Early Years.............................................................................................................31 Years in Exile .........................................................................................................34 Edward the King....................................................................................................36 Edward the Miracle-Worker ...............................................................................37 The Rebellion of Earl Godwin ............................................................................40 The Affair of Archbishop Stigand.......................................................................43 The Papal Embassy ..............................................................................................45 The Question of the Succession ..........................................................................47 The Rebellion of Earl Tostig................................................................................50 The Prophetic Moses ............................................................................................52 2. MARTYR-KING HAROLD AND THE NORMAN CONQUEST (1066-1070) ......................................................................................................................................58 The Wages of Sin...................................................................................................58 The Embassy to Rome ..........................................................................................60 Harold the King.....................................................................................................63 The Battle of Stamford Bridge ............................................................................64 The Battle of Hastings .........................................................................................66 The Burial of King Harold ...................................................................................69 William the King...................................................................................................71 The Harrowing of the North................................................................................73 The Last Stand of the English .............................................................................76 3. DOOMSDAY (1070-1087) ....................................................................................78 The Papist Reformation of the English Church ...............................................78 The Gregorian Revolution ...................................................................................85 The King and the Church......................................................................................90 The English Diaspora ...........................................................................................92 The Death of the Tyrant.....................................................................................100 CONCLUSION. THE HOPE OF RESURRECTION...........................................102 The Anglican Reformation ................................................................................103 The Non-Jurors ....................................................................................................106 “He that Restraineth” ........................................................................................111 The Return of the Branch ...................................................................................112 APPENDIX 1. ST. DAVID OF WALES, THE CELTIC CHURCHES AND EASTERN ORTHODOXY......................................................................................116 Introduction.........................................................................................................116 2 The Critics............................................................................................................116 Monasticism ........................................................................................................118 Eldership...............................................................................................................125 Kingship................................................................................................................129 Attitudes to Heresy and Schism .......................................................................132 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................136 APPENDIX 2. WHEN DID THE WEST FALL AWAY FROM HOLY ORTHODOXY? .......................................................................................................138 3 FOREWORD On October 14, 1066, at Hastings in southern England, the last Orthodox king of England, Harold II, died in battle against Duke William of Normandy. William had been blessed to invade England by the Roman Pope Alexander in order to bring the English Church into full communion with the “reformed Papacy”; for since 1052 the English archbishop had been banned and denounced as schismatic by Rome. The result of the Norman Conquest was that the English Church and people were integrated into the heretical “Church” of Western, Papist Christendom, which had just, in 1054, fallen away from communion with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, represented by the Eastern Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Thus ended the nearly five-hundred-year history of the Anglo-Saxon Orthodox Church, which was followed by the demise of the still older Celtic Orthodox Churches in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This small book is an account of how this came to pass. It is neither the aim of the present writer, nor would it be within his competence, to give a detailed political, military or social history of the period. With regard to most of the major issues disputed by historians, he has simply adopted, without detailed argument, what seems to him to be the most plausible version of events. Thus with regard to King Edward’s alleged bequest of his kingdom to William of Normandy, he has adopted the position taken by Ian Walker1; while with regard to the Pope’s involvement in the invasion, he has followed David Douglas2, Frank Barlow3, David Howarth4 and Frank McLynn5. The main aim of the present work is twofold: first, to provide a spiritual (as opposed to a political or social) history of the decline and fall of Orthodox England, and secondly, to collect material relevant to the hoped-for future glorification of the great spiritual heroes of the period – notably King Edward the Confessor and Martyr-King Harold – in the Orthodox Church. The writer feels that such an undertaking is especially timely now that the relics of Martyr-King Harold have been discovered and identified through the invaluable research carried out by John Pollock. 6 It is this spiritual and hagiographical nature of the present work that explains why the writer has made much more extensive use of the hagiographical materials available than 1 Harold, the Last Anglo-Saxon King, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1997. 2 William the Conqueror, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1964. 3 The English Church, 1000-1066, London: Longmans, 1979. 4 1066: The Year of the Conquest, Milton Keynes: Robin Clark, 1977. 5 1066: The Year of the Three Battles, London: Jonathan Cape, 1998. 6 Haroldus Rex, Bosham: Penny Royal Publications, 1996. 4 most modern researchers into the period, with their bias against anything that smacks of the miraculous.7 Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us! Amen. East House, Beech Hill, Mayford, Woking, England. January 5/18, 2007. St. Edward the Confessor, King of England. 7 A notable exception to this trend is the work of the English Orthodox priest Fr. Andrew Philips, to whom the present writer is much indebted. See his Orthodox Christianity and the English Tradition (Frithgarth: English Orthodox Trust, 1995) and Orthodox Christianity and the Old English Church (English Orthodox Trust, 1996). 5 INTRODUCTION: ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT The Beginning of the End The ancient Celtic Churches of the British Isles had never had much to do with Rome – not out of antipathy, but because of distance and, especially,