All history bears evidence to this; from the inspirations by the nymph [Ordered by the House of Commons to be Egeria vouchsafed to the Roman Numa, IT Printed, 25th of June, 1816.] and the miracle of the Sacred Shields, to the more refined establishments of the may be very true that the inter-immortal city, and the numerous Colcourse of man with his Maker, should leges of Priests, endowed and patrobe perfectly free, and is an affair nized by the Senate of Rome, in later wholly between the individual, and the ages; and by the Emperors, when the Supreme, to whom it is addressed: Senate was all but annihilated. The against this, as an Abstract Proposi- sway of the Sovereign became, at length, tion, we would be the last to utter a combined with the influence of the Sacersingle sentence. But, if we trace the dotal Dignity; and the Emperor united course of History, we shall find, that in his person the Tribunitial power, Legislators and Statesmen, have ever derived from the people, together with the authority of the Pontifex Maximus, esteemed it a part of their office to superintend, or at least, to watch very derived from the ancient religion, pacarefully, the Public exercise of Reli-tronized through succeeding ages by gious rites, and the Public avowal of Re- the State. ligious principles. And this solicitude has equally influenced Governments under the form of Theocracy, in which the Divinity was understood to be the Ruler, the Presiding Power, the dernier resort, in civil affairs, as well as in sacred; and those of the most savage VOL. IX. No. 56. Nor was this combination unknown to the Jewish establishment, though originally founded on very different principles. The Maccabees were at once priests and princes; and if the Herods did not assume the priesthood, yet they placed and displaced the High T Priests, in a manner, at their pleasure. | unprecedented with respect to ChrisEven the Sacred vestments were with- tianity. Constantine professed himheld from the custody of those who self a Christian: Constantine interwere to wear them on the solemn fered in Christian affairs: he advisfeasts; and the restoration of these to ed Christian bishops; he also comtheir proper guardians, was celebrated manded Christian bishops; he took as a favour obtained from the alien, cognizance of Christian complaints, the stranger Governors of the once brought before him; and he appointed independent and still haughty Hebrew his civil officers judges in cases of Ecclesiastical delinquency. Constantine professed himself a Christian: but he was not yet baptized. He even presided, as Emperor, in the famous Council of Nice, (A. D. 325,) while yet of no higher rank in the church, than a humble Catechumen. What authority, what precedents, had Constantine for this interference? Was it merely an as nation. vereign, and was it agreeable to what the Bishops knew had already occurred? While things were thus circumstanced, a new Religion sprang up in Judea, which was destined to cause an entire revolution in the public mind. Simple at first, and professing to be in nothing allied to worldly honours and grandeur, it gradually made its way in opposition to whatever the establishsumption of ments of the world could present as power as Emperor? Or, since we read of no protest against it, or most formidable. The Jewish authori- of any complaint vented on the occaties persecuted it: the Heathen, who, sion, was it the obvious duty of the asat first regarded it with indifference, assembled council to submit to their Somerely an extravagant branch from the despicable stem of Jewish superstition, contemned it in its early stages; but afterwards, grieving at the inroads it made on their long consecrated observances, they employed whatever diabolical fury could invent, in the shape of tortures and sufferings, to repel it. Their efforts were vain; and the population of the known world became acquainted, in a greater, or a less degree, with the Religion of Christ; and more or less it was professed in every part. At length, it triumphed. The Jews, who resisted it were destroyed, and the sacred structure in which they trusted, was demolished; the Gentiles were out-numbered, if not converted: the temples were forsaken; the victims were not presented; and the dignity once attributed to the worshippers of Jupiter Capitolinus, and the Fortune of the Cesars, was transferred to the descendants of those who formerly met early in the morning to perform their rites, if possible without observation, and without disturbance. The era of prosperity, presented an era of difficulties: for, the civil government was placed in circumstances absolutely new; or if not absolutely new with respect toi tself, yet absolutely To ascertain this we must carry our researches somewhat higher: and we hint at this the more willingly, because Mr. Brown, in his "Historical Enquiry into the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Crown," has merely touched, and that very obscurely, on the antient State of Christianity in Britain; and has begun his authorities with the more obvious, and better known instance of Constantine. Britain was the first country in which Christianity was established but, when we say " established," we do not mean to affirm that it was universally received. Undoubtedly, there was a considerable mass of the population (probably the majority) that long adhered to their former profession; and we well know that the Druids, the Bards, and the Ovates, for ages continued to possess a preponderance in the hearts, if not in the judgments of thousands, and tens of thousands of their their maxims is not extinct among us, countrymen in fact, the influence of at this day. * See LIT, PAN. N. S. vol. II. P. 730. We had occasion, some years ago, to submit an Historical Sketch of the original Introduction of Christianity into Britain, by means of the captive Britons, carried with Caractacus to Rome. We even suggested the possibility, that the LIN-us of the Apostle Paul is the Cy-LIN-us of the British Triads; we might have gone further, and, with little risk of error, might have added, that this LIN-us, the first Bishop of Rome, was a Briton: for, if our conjecture do not fail us, there were two first Bishops of Rome; one attached to the Christian converts from the Jewish nation; the other attached to the associated converts from among the Gentiles. And this clears up the confusion found among the ancients, in respect to the first bishop of the Imperial city. Irenæus, Eusebius, Jerom, and the ancient Catalogues of the Popes place LIN-us, after Peter, then Anacletus, and then Clement: while Optatus, Rufinus, Augustine, and other Latin Writers, place Clement immediately after Linus, and Anacletus after Clement. The Apostolic Constitutions say, that Linus was appointed by St. Paul, and Clement by St. Peter: so that our notion of two first Bishops, is not wholly without authority: for, that work, though not Apostolic, is certainly ancient; and the writer should not be deceived in what regards the see of Be that as it might: there is nothing Rome. Epiphanius conjectures, that Clement declined Episcopal office, unnatural, in his maintaining relations during the life of Linus; who was bi-with a see which had been superintendshop from A. D. 65 to a D. 77, twelve years. part,) the difficulties which some have found in the familiarity between the countries entirely disappear. For instance, Coel, the son of Meurig, received his education in Rome, and had "been familiarized to the Roman customs and manners," say the British writers. This agrees with what Tacitus relates of the policy of Agricola; and was indeed, one of the principal advantages derived from sending chiefs, or the sons of chiefs, as hostages, to the seat of Empire. Coel was succeeded by his sou Lles (or Lucius,) whose disposition resembled that of his father. He continued in amity with the Roman Government; he even paid his stipulated tribute, although, say the British Histories, he was sufficiently powerful to have withheld it. To this King the introduction of Christianity has been attributed; that is wrong; but had the settlement of Christianity been attributed to him, it would have been right. Nor is there any thing very marvellous in the story (reported by Nennius,) of his sending to Rome,where it will be remembered, his father was educated,-for Christian teachers; either in addition to those of his own people, or desiring to compare their accounts of Ecclesiastical matters, before he determined on a definitive arrangement in behalf of Christianity. If Linus was a Briton,-if he was of the royal family of Britain,-if Bran, his grandfather, was the first, who with Aristobulus, the disciple of St. Paul, brought Christianity into Britain, there can be no occasion of wonder, that a frequent intercourse was maintained between Britain and Rome; and when we read, that several of the British Princes, after the invasion of the island by Julius Cæsar, and especially after the expedition of Claudius, were educated at Rome, (either in whole, or in *See LIT. PAN. O. S. vol. II. p. 837. Comp. N. S. Vol. VIII. p. 1056-57, ed by one of his ancestors, in Apostolic times, (about 50 or 60 years before,) and, if he further designed to replace the Druidical priesthood by Christian instructors, generally, and if he really did begin to assign Druidical lands, or temples to the support of Christian worship, and the Christian interest, as such, where is the cause of astonishment? He might begin,-he might partially execute, that which he did not live to accomplish; and after ages would, and very probably did, without reserve, attribute to him, that which he intended, that which he sanctioned in the first instance, by his authority, and possibly, exerted his influence to render permanent, and to increase, as well after his death, as during his life. He died at Gloucester, A. D. 136. He was King of the Silures, and great grandson of Caractacus. The conversion of Lucius by divines sent from Rome, is a monkish imposition, or rather misapplication of an historical fact;— but truth may be the basis of the tale, though the additions be mere perversions, whether intentional, or from ignorance. The power of Lucius, in all probability, did not extend beyond the country of the Silures, over which he was King; yet his example could not remain unknown, or unnoticed, or without its influence, among his contemporaries and his successors. It is true, that he has been called "Sovereign of all Britain ;" and the title might continue in the family of Caractacus, and therefore might belong to him; but, it would very difficult to prove that he enjoyed the power of sovereignty; the utmost we can fairly allow him, is deference, or influence. be Christianity, however, continued to spread in Britain, under and after his fostering care, and from the number of churches destroyed in the Dioclesian persecution, it must have prevailed. And now we come to the time of Constantius and his son Constantine. The universal tradition of the Britons, with the unvarying assertions of the British Historians, is, that Constantine married Helen, surnamed the Prosperous, a British lady, daughter of Coel Coedhebawg, Earl of Gloucester: that he lived, and died, at York, where Con stantine was born. We are not ignorant, that this has been disputed. We cannot investigate it here; but, even without this fact, the remark is obvious, that Constantine had not only beheld the interference of heathen Emperors, as head of the State, in behalf of the heathen rites and religious establishments; but, he had also contemplated in Britain, at least one example of a Christian Prince, interfering as head of his country, in behalf of Christian rites and establishments. Now Lucius had so interfered, We do not forget the story of Abgarus, King of Edessa; but, it forms but a feeble rival to this descent of reli gious profession in the Royal family of Britain, and this royal provision for the perpetuity of the Christian faith. Undoubtedly, protection by the King implied submission by the Christian ministers, whom he protected; for, to suppose that he introduced, or admitted, or that they so much as thought of assuming an independent power, is to suppose what could not possibly exist at the time. We are greatly mistaken if the power of the King of the Silures extended to the introduction of an independant priesthood: the British Constitution then abhorred, as the British Constitution now abhors, such an imperium in imperio. The nation then met by its representatives; and since these representatives, or, at least, very many of them were Druids, or Druidically inclined, the power of the King was necessarily limited; and his designs would have been counteracted, had they been so grossly unconstitutional. It should be remembered, also, that, as a tributary King, the Romans had paramount authority in his dominions; and the Roman authority was sufficiently opposed to Christianity, at this period, These considerations and long after. are independent of the question whether Diocesan Bishops were known at this time; and whether the instructors sent from Rome to Lucius, would, or could, assume the character of Diocesan Bishops. It is not, indeed, beyond question, whether, in the comparatively much later age of Constantine, all the Bishops at Nice, who obeyed his summons, were Diocesans. But, it is certain, that in a previous assembly held at Arles, in France, by the Emperor's order, the British Church was represented by three British Bishops, a Presbyter, and a Deacon.* And the consent of our Ecclesiastical Historians, is pretty general in the probability that Britain had Bishops in the Council at Nice. perly belonged to the Sovereign. Rome also, was the seat of learning, the centre of learning to all the provinces of the Empire which had become familiar with the latin tongue; and these being harassed and disturbed by invaders, and becoming almost wholly military, the ecclesiastical power of the Roman Pontiffs gradually assumed the supremacy, not only over Italy, but over all professing the name of Christ; and at length boldly claimed as its right, derived from the Prince of the Apostles, that paramount authority which the Princes of the Earth had suffered to glide away from their grasp. Great indeed, was the difference between the importance attached or attachable to the actions of Lucius and of Constantine; the first was Sovereign of a part only of an island at the extremity of the Roman Empire, and was himself an acknowledged tributary to the Roman Power; the other was head of the most extensive dominions, as well in the east, as in the west, and his dictates would reach throughout many provinces, and even many nations. Constantine had summoned Bishops from all parts; and the whole assem-ferred not submission, but protection. bly, met by his orders, exceeded the number of two thousand persons. The Emperor did not pretend to assume authority in matters of faith; but, he maintained his claim to oversee the external affairs of the church, and to preserve the public peace; then in no small danger, from the controversies and contentions of Churchmen. To this, subjugation however, the Greek emperors were less reduced than Sovereigns in the west of Europe : and the successors of Constantine, though many of them were feeble minded, yet preserved a dignity independent of the Popes, to whom they acknowledged no canonical obedience; and on whom they occasionally con The removal of the seat of Empire to Constantinople, left Rome, the Imperial city, very much to itself; and succeeding events diminished the power of the successors of Constantine so greatly, that the bishop of Rome, as a public person, could hardly avoid exercising, mediately, or immediately, an increasing portion of that authority which was necessary for governing the city and its vicinity, and which pro The Bishops which signed are the folfollowing: EBORIUS Episcopus, de civitate Eboracensi RESTITUTUS Episcopus, de Civitate Londi- EXINDE Sacerdos Presbyter. The representative of these successors in the Eastern Empire, is uow the Emperor of Austria, who, being ci-devant, the Emperor of Germany, was acknowledged chief among Christian Potentates, and in his titles, at least, preserved a shadow of the dignity of the Holy Roman Empire. It is, therefore, not merely a fair questionbut it is an important question to ask,——— What is the nature, and the state of that authority and influence, which this representative of Constantine allows to the Roman Pontiff, in his dominions? And this question is now of peculiar importance; the Catholics of our country are urging claims, which have been repeatedly canvassed, which may again be canvassed, but which must not be admitted without great deliberation. They are taking advantage of a new Parliament, to try once more their strength in the Legislative Assemblies. They demand privileges which are not to be measured by those which their Church enjoys in any other nation, whether that nation be Catholic or Protestant. This proposition is of a nature to be established by evidence ; |