St Augustine of Canterbury
AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY
When Rowan Williams was enthroned as the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, he was the 104th in succession to Augustine.
Now, we all know who Rowan Williams is, even though we cannot always understand him. But who was Augustine? What did he do? and why should we remember him in the Church of England's Calendar?
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Before we begin to answer those questions, we need first to go back to 586 AD, when, according to Bede, the English church historian, Gregory walked through the slave markets of Rome. There his attention was drawn towards some young fair headed boys up for sale. Upon enquiring upon their origin, he was told that they were 'Angles’, not 'Angels’. In other words they were 'English'.
In response to this, Gregory decided to set off on a missionary journey to England. However, his election as Pope in 590 AD put a stop to his personal plans.
Nevertheless, still determined to send missionaries to England, he ordered a monk from his own Benedictine community of St Andrews in Rome to go in his place. His name was Augustine.
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And so, in June 596 AD, Augustine, together with about forty other monks, set forth for England.
However, no sooner had he left, than he began to have 'cold feet'. As Bede records, 'paralysed by terror...[they] began to contemplate returning home rather than going to a barbarous, fierce and unbelieving nation whose language they did not understand'. Having retraced his steps, Pope Gregory ordered him to return and assured him of his personal interest and support.
They landed on the Isle of Thanet, about twelve miles from Canterbury. There they were met by King Ethelbert, King of Kent, upon the windy marshes, since he was afraid to meet them indoors for fear of magic. The monks processed towards him carrying a silver cross and a picture of the crucifix and chanting a litany.
However Augustine's initial fears proved unfounded. The people were not hostile towards the Christian faith because they were already familiar with it. After all, there is evidence of a Christian presence in the south east corner of England going back to the earlier Roman conquest of Julius Caesar. We also know that at least three English bishops were present at the Council of Arles in 314 AD. Furthermore, King Ethelbert was also favourably disposed towards Christianity through his marriage to Queen Bertha, the daughter of the King of Paris, who was herself a Christian. Part of the marriage contract included allowing her to continue to practice her faith.
So, when King Ethelbert greeted Augustine, we are told that he was able to say, 'We do not wish you harm; we will receive you hospitably and provide what is necessary for your support; nor do we forbid you to win all you can to your faith and religion by your preaching.' He even went as far as to provide somewhere for Augustine to live, and two churches for him to use, one of which was to become the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury.
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The initial mission of Augustine proved a great success. On the 1st June 597 AD, King Ethelbert was baptised, and in a letter from Pope Gregory to the Eastern Emperor, reference is made to a mass baptism of 10,000 people on Christmas Day in that same year.
Such success called for consolidation of the existing work, and more human resources for future missionary work. Augustine went across the English Channel to Arles in order to be consecrated 'Bishop of the English', whilst, Laurence the priest, and Peter the monk, went off to Rome for advice and to invite more monks to help them.
Among the new monks recruited, two would eventually become Archbishops of Canterbury, namely, Mellitus, followed by Justin, and another would become Bishop of York. They also returned with equipment including sacred vessels, vestments, relics, service books, and more importantly, a letter confirming Augustine's leadership of the Church in England.
Pope Gregory continued to give advice. In fact, of the 800 letters of his which have survived, no fewer than thirty concern his mission to England. For instance, he knew that the two main Roman cities in England during the earlier Roman occupancy had been the commercial centre of London and the military centre of York. He therefore planned that bishops should be appointed to each city, assisted by twelve others under each of them. However, this was not to be achieved in Augustine's lifetime.
Similarly, Pope Gregory's proposed method of church government also had to wait until after Augustine's death before being implemented. He failed to appreciate the resistance of the British and Celtic bishops to a proposed hierarchical and geographical episcopate (with which we are familiar) since they were used to an Abbot/Bishop based upon his own religious community. They also had a different method of calculating the date of Easter which was not resolved until the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD. As a result, Augustine's influence was confined primarily to the SE corner of England.
Augustine died on the 28th May 604 AD and was buried in the monastery ground of the half-finished church of St Peter and St Paul, later known as St Augustine.
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Augustine was not a strong leader with initiative. He relied heavily for his authority and direction upon the Pope in Rome. However, it would be wrong, says David Edwards, the contemporary church historian, to suggest that Gregory had long term plans to establish papal supremacy in England.
This is well illustrated by a famous letter of Gregory to Augustine on the subject of variation of practices. 'My brother', he writes, ’you are familiar with the usage of the Roman Church in which you were brought up. But if you have found customs, whether in the Church of Rome, or of Gaul, or any other that may be more acceptable to God, I wish you to make a careful selection of them, and teach the Church of the English whatever you have been able to learn with profit from the various churches. For things should not be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things.'
In other words, Augustine was not to persuade the Church in England to mirror the practices of the Church of Rome. On the contrary, he was to encourage them to recognise the validity of their own expressions of the same faith as practised in Rome. 'For things should not be valued for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things'.
Augustine’s most important contribution to English church life was undoubtedly the introduction of the catholic faith. This we acknowledge every time when we say the the Nicene Creed, with the words, "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.'
Yes, we are part of the catholic church of Christendom, and as such maintain the threefold ministry of Bishop, Priest and Deacon; we recognise the three historic creeds of Nicene, the Apostle and Athanasius; we administer the seven sacraments of Baptism, the Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Unction, Holy Orders and Confession; and we also place the Bible at the centre of our worship and doctrine.
The Church of England, or the Anglican Church – the Church of the English - is part of the catholic church which goes back to the days of Augustine. We are not Roman 'catholics' but English 'catholics'. ln other words, the Anglican church did not start at the Reformation or with the divorce of Henry Eighth. At the Reformation, it merely reformed itself, including the removal of Papal influence and many medieval customs which had developed over the years, such as the selling of indulgences.
The Anglican scholar, Bishop Anthony Hanson, reminds us that, the 'Anglican apologists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries constantly maintained that the Church of England was not a breakaway church, like the Evangelical Church of Germany or the Reformed Church of France. It was the same continuous Catholic Church that at the Reformation 'washed its face'.
Another scholar, this time John Macquarrie, has written, 'Anglicanism has never considered itself a sect or denomination originating in the sixteenth century; it continues without a break the Ecclesia Anglicana (the Church of the English) founded by St Augustine.'
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When Rowan William was enthroned in 2002, he took his oath of allegiance by placing his hands upon a copy of The Gospels, This was the same copy of The Gospels which Pope Gregory sent over to Augustine. Thus the continuity between the 'catholic' church of yesterday and the'catholic' church of today was both visibly and symbolically expressed.
Augustine remains for ever the link between the English form of catholicism and the Roman or Italian form of catholicism, and is therefore rightly remembered in our church’s calendar on the 28th May each year, on the anniversary of Augustine’s death.