Monasticism came into Western Europe
from Egypt. In Italy, as also in Gaul, it was chiefly Antonian in character, though
both the rules of St. Basil and St. Pachomius were translated into Latin and doubtless
made their influence felt. Each monastery had practically its own rule, and we
have examples of this irresponsible form of monastic life in the community St.
Benedict was called from his cave to govern, and in the Gyrovagi and Sarabitae
whom he mentions in terms of condemnation in the first chapter of his Rule. A
proof that the pervading spirit of Italian monachism was Egyptian lies in the
fact that when St. Benedict determined to forsake the world and become a monk,
he adopted, almost as a matter of course, the life of a solitary in a cave. His
familiarity with the rules and other documents bearing upon the life of the Egyptian
monks is shown by his legislating for the daily reading of the "Conferences" of
Cassian, and by his recommendation of the "Institutes" and "Lives" of the Fathers
and the Rule of St. Basil. In adapting a system essentially Eastern, to Western
conditions, St. Benedict gave it coherence, stability, and organization, and the
verdict of history is unanimous in applauding the results of such adaptation.
Of the seventy-three chapters comprising the Rule, nine treat of the duties of
the abbot, thirteen regulate the worship of God, twenty-nine are concerned with
discipline and the penal code, ten refer to the internal administration of the
monastery, and the remaining twelve consist of miscellaneous regulations.
The
Benedictine order gave its rule to the scores of monastic houses of Irish origin
in France, Germany, and Italy. By the time of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), little
remained of the former self-direction in continental lands. The upgrowth of Celtic
Christianity took place in the same era as that of the rise of the Roman see as
the organizing center of the Christian West. South of the Tweed, the Anglo-Saxon
conquest left Wales and Cornwall in ecclesiastical independence.
The Welsh
church, alienated by Augustine's initiative in 602, long remained unresponsive
to the advances of his successors.King Cadfan of Gwynedd gave asylum to the refugee
boy-prince who was to become King Edwin of Northumbria, son of Urien of Rheged.
It has been believed that bishops were not subjected to abbots. Six Welsh bishoprics
corresponding to the larger principalities consituted stable administrative units,
with meetings other clerical officals gave general direction to the Church. The
wide kingdom of Merica, reaching from Northumbria to Wessex, flanked the entire
eastern border of Wales to include the region of Powys, which then embraced much
of North Wales and a modern part of Shropshire. Diocesan boundaries corresponding
to principalities are not attested before Norman times.
The adoption of
the Roman Easter in Wales came about according to the Annales Cambriae,
the date of the change was 768, the agent being Elfodd, a bishop of Gwynedd. The
adoption and the tonsure of Wales was now a century in the past since the age
of Aidan and Oswald, was there any Celt position similar in the cousels of an
English ruler. Leaders had come to Alfred from Merica into the kingdom the brothers
Cedd and Chad had brought from Lindisfarne. The authority of Canterbury was soon
to be recognized throughout the Cornish peninsula.
In 909, Archbishop Plegmund
divided the diocese of Sherborne, creating the bishopric of Crediton for Devon
and a small area for Cornwall, making it a separate one for most of Cornwall and
another for Somerset. The Bishop of the Church of Cornwall, is the designation
of a number of persons whose names appear in records of manumissions at St. Petrock's
during the tenth and eleventh centuries. The Cornwall see was apparently at St.
Germans on the south coast; its bishop Conan, signed documents in the 930s as
an attendant on King Athelstan. But it 1040, Cornwall was again placed under the
see of Crediton. Ten years later, Leofric removed to Exeter. The Leofric Missal
which he presented to Exeter cathedral, is believed to have originated at Glastonbury
in Somerset about 970; it testifies to the cult of St. David.
The approach
of Wales to Saxon England was continued. A grandson of Rhodri Mawr, Hywel Dda's
(Howel the Good) prosperous reign brought him to Rome with three Welsh bishops
in 926, to inquire about the laws of Roman Britain. Howel's kingdom reached its
full extent in 943. Texts circulated in Gwynedd, Dimetia (Dyfed), Gwent contain
laws to see that Wales presented the features of the good society, and the established
church. And more about the duties of clerical officials about the court, which
are uninforming about the life of priests and monks and their functions among
the people. Howel did homage to the Saxon kings Edgar the Elder and Athelstan
in the English church system as it was preparing Wales for the inception of a
regular territorial episcopate. In a charter ascribed to King
Edgar, he is said to have set the limits of the diocese of Llandaff. The twelfth
century Book of Llandff records consecrations of bishops of Llandaff and St. Davids
by archbishops of Canterbury before 1000AD. It was under Norman influence that
the bishopric of St. Asaph was created at the former Llanelwy in North Wales,
although it became a twelfth century legent in foundation of St. Kentigern. There
in 1007, Henry I appointed Urban who became bishop of Llandaff and was consecrated
by Anselm.
Next, Henry I appointed Bernard, the first Norman bishop of St.
Davids. Bernard professed obedience to Archbishop Ralph of Canterbury. In 1127,
a suit brought against Bernard by Urban of Llandaff was adjudicated at Westminster.
It was carried to two popes at Rome. Bernard's obligation to Canterbury with the
outcome soon was applied to Innocent II in 1135 as a metropolitan bishop. Bernard's
successor David Fitzgerald (uncle of Giraldus Cambrenis or Gerald de Barri 1146-1220),
made Canterbury an act of submission to Archbishop Theobald. Then the wayward
historian, Geoffrey of Monmouth was consecrated bishop of st. Asaph by Theobald
at Lambeth. His election by the chapter of St. Davids (1176) to the bishopric
of that see was disallowed by Archbishop Hubert Walter and King Richard I. Through
the patience of the popes the case was prolonged to the days of King John and
Pope Innocent III. When King Richard decided to go on crusade, he induced Archbishop
Baldwin to preach the crusade through Wales. On this mission Fitzgerald was his
companion also King John, where he was busy in Wales and Ireland for many years.
Fitzgerald was elected to a new vacancy in the see of St. Davids occuring 1198.
A new election was ordered by Innocent, and a new bishop took office in 1203.
Rome in the end voted for Canterbury and the English king.
The revival
of monasticism in England in the tenth century, whose spirit had been so severely
damaged during the Viking invasions of the ninth century, was led by the great
Benedictine monk, Archbishop and advisor to the royal house of Wessex, St. Dunstan.
Through the efforts of Dunstan and others, by the yeare 1066, there were some
three dozen Benedictine houses in England, a number which would grow to 136 by
the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-sixteenth century. Each
Benedictine abbey was an autonomous body, only loosely tied to other Benedictine
communities by mutual adherence to the "rule". Larger houses were ruled by an
abbot, and smaller communities, known as priories, were responsible to the "mother"
abbey, and were governed by a prior.
During Norman and Angevin times, a
great many abbeys of foreign connection were founded in Wales, many of them under
the control of ecclesiastics in England. Between 1121 and 1226, no less than thirteen
Cisterican abbeys were planted in
locations throughout the Welsh shires; Pembrokeshire where St. Davids stood. Other
monastic orders, Franciscan and Dominican friars, had also entered. In the later
thirteenth century a couragous contnder for Welsh autonomy, Llewelyn ap Gruffyd
made an impressive effort to bring the nation against Edward I of England (1272-1307.)
His policy of close control over the bishops led in his later years to strife
between him and the bishops of St. Asaph and Bangor who both bore the name Anian,
and many churches plundered. With Llewelyn's death and Edward's triumph, there
was nothing to prevent the full incorporation of the Welsh Church into that of
England. Subjection to Canterbury would be only modified by Rome.
Over the
years, the Benedictines became known for their church architecture. Seven of the
great Cathedrals were once Benedictine abbey churches: Canterbury, Rochester,
Winchester, Durham, Norwich, and Ely.