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and new labours upon the Church. Barbarous hordes of Goths, Heruli, Vandals, Huns, Franks, and Saxons, poured in upon the luxurious and degenerate people, and subdued the greatest portion of the West. churches of Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, and The Africa groaned beneath the yoke of heathen or Arian conquerors. Yet several heathen nations were now converted. S. Symeon Stylites laboured successfully among the natives of Libanus and a portion of Arabia. The gospel, already introduced into Ireland, was successfully propagated throughout that island by S. Patrick, who was sent thither, A.D. 432, by S. Cœlestinus, bishop of Rome. During the next four or five centuries, the lights of religion and learning shed lustre upon Ireland, entitling it to the appellation of the "Island of Saints." Among its more distinguished saints were SS. Kevin, Bridget, Columbanus, Columba, and Malachy. In the year 496, the Franks, with Clovis their king, the founder of the French monarchy, were converted by S. Remigius, archbishop of Rheims.

419. The Church in the East.-We must now glance at the condition of the East. This was grievously distracted by heresies, to which the subtle minds of Greece and the East were naturally prone. The Arabian prophet Mahomet, who rose early in the seventh century, teaching the unity and spirituality of the Deity, and denying the human side of Christian truth, easily overpowered the heretical sects of the East; and propagated his pretended revelation, by force of arms, throughout Arabia, Egypt, and along the northern coast of Africa. But although the Church in the East has

degenerated, it has never wholly perished: and after the lapse of twelve hundred years, there are still numerous churches in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt; although they are but few, when compared with the eight hundred churches ruled by bishops in the fifth century.

420. Irish Missionaries.-The flame of apostolical zeal spread from Ireland among the barbarous tribes of western Europe. In the early part of the seventh century, the Suevi, Boii, and Franks of Germany were converted by S. Columbanus. S. Gallus became the apostle of Switzerland; S. Kilianus, of the eastern Franks; S. Willibrod and his companions, of Batavia, Friesland, and Westphalia. All these were natives of Ireland, except S. Willibrod, who was an Anglo-Saxon.

421. The Five Patriarchal Sees.—By the middle of the fifth century, the five patriarchal sees of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, were fully established.* The patriarchate of Rome extended over the "suburbicarian" provinces (so called from their vicinity to Rome), which included the greater portion of Italy, together with Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. The patriarchate of Constantinople extended over the whole of Asia Minor (excepting the province of Cilicia); as well as over Thrace, in Europe. The patriarchate of Antioch included the provinces of Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and others intervening. The patriarchate of Jerusalem consisted of the three provinces of Palestine. The patriarchate of Alexandria ex

* See Palmer's "Compendious Ecclesiastical History,” pp. 102-104.

tended over the provinces of Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis.

422. Other Sees.-Besides these patriarchates, there were numerous and extensive portions of the Christian Church, governed only by their own metropolitans and provincial synods, and not subject to any foreign jurisdiction; although some of them subsequently suffered from the usurpations of the Roman patriarch. Among these we may mention the episcopal sees of northern Italy, Spain, France, and Britain.

423. The Church in England.-The Christian Church was planted in Britain in the time of the Apostles. As Druidism yielded to Roman Paganism, so this yielded to the gospel: and bishops were established in the principal cities; as London, York, Chester, and Caer-leon on Usk. Towards the end of the fourth century, the British churches became distressed; politically by the invasion of the Picts and Scots, theologically by the introduction of the Arian and Pelagian heresies. The bishops of France relieved them in their distress, sending over S. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, as champion for the faith. The South Britons having invited over the Saxons, this heathen people, as they extended their petty kingdoms, supplanted Christianity and destroyed the churches. At length there only remained, as pastors of the Church of Britain, the saints whose memory is honoured in Wales, and S. Columba, the apostle of Iona and the Highlands of Scotland. The Church had now existed in Britain for about 500 years: but the Saxons, who overran the island, were pagans. About this time S. Gregory the Great,

bishop of Rome, commiserating the condition of the Anglo-Saxons, sent over some pious monks to this island for their conversion: an act of Christian charity for which our acknowledgments are due, but which conferred upon the pope no rights of jurisdiction over the English Church. And, indeed, the conversion of the Saxons was chiefly owing to several bishops and missionaries who came over from Ireland in the following century. For six hundred years, the Church of England* had been independent of the Roman see: but by a series of encroachments she fell under the papal yoke, until the sixteenth century; when she cast off this usurped jurisdiction, but without severing herself from catholic communion. The tyrannous and schismatical proceedings of Rome, much as they are to be deplored, have not impaired the catholicity of the Church of England.

424. The Church to the Fourteenth Century.During the eighth century, the invasion of Spain and of southern Europe by the Saracens greatly depressed the Church in those regions. In the north of Europe, however, the gospel continued to spread. S. Boniface, an Englishman and a monk of the order of S. Benedict, became the apostle of Germany. SS. Lullus, Willibrod, Rupert, Firminus, Virgilius, and others, propagated the gospel along the banks of the Rhine, in the Black Forest, in Bavaria, and Thuringia. The seeds of faith had been sown in Holland, towards the end of the seventh century, by SS. Eligius and Wilfred; and the work of conver

* The British and Anglo-Saxon Churches may be considered to have finally blended into the Church of England, during the primacy of S. Theodore of Tarsus, about A.D. 668.

sion was completed by S. Willibrod and his companions. The Belgians first received the faith by the preaching of S. Eleutherius, A.D. 532, and of Vedast, A.D. 536. In the latter part of the eighth century, the emperor Charlemagne, having conquered the greater part of Germany and Hungary, established churches throughout his dominions. In the early part of the ninth century, S. Anschar, a monk of Corbie in Westphalia, laid the foundations of the Church in Cimbria, Denmark and Sweden; and is honoured as the apostle of those northern regions. About the middle of the ninth century, SS. Methodius and Cyril, two Greek monks, the apostles of Poland and Prussia, converted the Mosians, Moravians, and Bohemians. During the tenth century, the Sclaves, wandering tribes inhabiting the barren table-lands of Sclavonia and Sarmatia, shut in by the Elbe and the Oural Mountains,- -were instructed and baptized by missionaries from the Eastern Church. The Bulgarians were converted by bishops from Constantinople. The vast nations of Russia, first moved by missionaries sent by Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, followed the example of Wlodimir, their sovereign, who was baptized, A.D. 987, and embraced the Christian faith. The conversion of Sweden was completed by Sigfrid; and of Norway by Guthebald, a missionary from the Church of England. In 1124, S. Otto, bishop of Bamberg, preached the gospel in the duchy of Pomerania. The Sclavonians on the borders of the Baltic were converted by Vicelinus, bishop of Oldenberg. The gospel was propagated in Prussia, A.D. 1210, by some Cistercian monks, and the pagan inhabitants

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