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CHAPTER 13
COLUMBANUS AND THE CHURCH IN EUROPE
Columbanus proved to be the great avant-courier of the rebirth of
civilization in Europe. During the five hundred years that followed there was
hardly a generation that did not see the vineyards crowded with Irish laborers,
that did not hear the voice of some authoritative personality of the Gael
ringing in the ears of princes and peoples.1
AS THE tide of Celtic missionary work rolled on, it brought forth a
leader who did more for the reconversion of Europe than anyone who followed him.
Columbanus (some write his name Columban) was the apostle to Europe submerged by
the influence of Clovis and the northern pagans. Patrick took the ancient pagan
civilization of Ireland and forged it into a crusading Christianity; Columba
through his college at Iona lifted Scotland from darkness to a leadership of
light; but Columbanus was to impress the teachings of Christ on France, Germany,
Switzerland, and Italy.
The Holy Spirit bestowed upon Columbanus many spiritual gifts as he
surrendered his heart to the Savior. With his training came an inescapable
burden to carry the gospel which he learned to the Continent in its then chaotic
condition.
The environment into which Columbanus (A.D. 543-615) was born was the
finest there was anywhere in the West. The overflowing of the Teutonic invasions
which had torn down the structure of Roman civilizations in Europe had left
Ireland and Scotland untouched. There the best in Celtic, Roman, and Christian
culture had been preserved, organized, and nurtured by Patrick, Columba, and a
generation of enthusiastic scholars. Columbanus breathed this atmosphere, and by
masterly self-discipline was, like Moses in the court of Pharaoh or Paul in the
seminaries of the Pharisees, "learned in all the wisdom"(Acts 7:22.)
of his day. He was tall, sinewy, and handsome. "His fine figure and his
splendid color," says his biographer Jonas, "aroused against him the
lust of lascivious maidens."2
Columbanus spent several years in study in the halls of learning at
Bangor. Here he devotedly studied the Scriptures. The music of sacred song
charmed his soul, and he perfected his gift of writing poetry. From Bangor he
could look across the waters of the Irish Channel to England which was still in
the grip of the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Northward he could behold the marvelous
transformations wrought in Scotland by Columba. Farther to the east lay France
in wretched moral condition. The apostolic spirit burned within Columbanus as he
heard the stories of the miserable state of Gaul, and he decided to go forth to
evangelize France in the missionary spirit of Celtic Christianity. Missionary Endeavors in France
The arrival of Columbanus in Gaul brought the dawn of a new day for
Europe. In the many centers of civilization which he and his followers created,
he implanted the spirit of Christianity in the hearts of the people.3 The power
of the gospel continued for centuries in spite of papal supremacy.4 In fact, the
Church of Rome, in order to save its prestige, was compelled to assail the
Columban order and Rule, and to favor the Benedictine. The best in European
civilization still owes its rebuilding to Columbanus, his companions, and his
followers; other European evangelicals co-operated.5
For years before the coming of Columbanus there had been savage,
fratricidal warfare among the descendants of Clovis. As for the populace, they
had a form of religion but no conception of true piety; and with no solid
guiding principles, they were like the heathen. Immorality and degradation
abounded. Columbanus and his associates reckoned not on political might, but on
the power of the love of God in their hearts to convince the population. They
relied upon the Holy Spirit in noble lives to cause the masses to hunger and
thirst after righteousness.
The learning of Columbanus had won him high favor with the reigning
descendants of Clovis. King Guntram hailed his arrival with joy. Clarence W.
Bispham says: "Here are Irish missionaries in new surroundings. Before this
they were in strife with the heathen. Now they begin to battle against a corrupt
and debased Christianity."6 Or, as Jonas, the biographer of Columbanus who
learned from his associates the facts of his life, wrote: "The creed alone
remained. But the remedy of repentance and the love of mortifying the lusts of
the flesh were to be found only in a few."7 So King Guntram besought him to
settle in his realm, saying: "If you wish to take the cross of Christ and
follow Him, seek the quiet of a retreat. Only be careful, for the increase of
your own reward and our spiritual good, to remain in our kingdom and not to go
to neighboring peoples." The missionaries accepted the offer of an old,
half-mined fort at Anagrates (the present Anegray), which dated from Roman days,
as the site for their first mission. The First Three Centers in France
The beginnings at Anagrates in the wilderness of the Vosges were
difficult. While the buildings were being erected and before the first fruits of
the ground could appear, the Irish missionaries knew what suffering meant. Food
at times was so scarce that they lived on berries, on the bark of trees, and on
whatever they could find on the ground. On one occasion King Guntram, hearing of
their distress, commanded food to be brought to them. Yet they stood faithfully
at their post of duty. All they asked was an opportunity for manual labor and
the solitude in which to study the Scriptures. These tall, powerful men dressed
in their long, coarse gowns, their books slung over their shoulders in leather
satchels, and carrying staves in their hands, must have made a deep impression
on the native population. Of their exemplary life and saving example, Jonas
again writes: Modesty
and sobriety, gentleness and mildness shone forth in them all. The evils of
sloth and of unruly tempers were expelled. Pride and haughtiness were expiated
by severe punishments. Scorn and envy were driven out by faithful diligence. So
great was the strength of their patience, love, and mildness that no one could
doubt that the God of mercy dwelt among them.8
At times Columbanus would retire apart and live for days by himself. He
had no companion but the Bible which he no doubt had transcribed by his own hand
at Bangor. He trusted God for food and for care against the elements. He was
looked upon as a prince over the wild beasts. From these retreats he came forth
like the prophets of old, strengthened and refreshed for his labors.
Wide-spreading influence quickly came to the new mission. The youth of
the land, many of whom were from noble families, flocked to the young training
center. It was not now necessary to travel abroad to attend the colleges of the
Emerald Isle. Here was a faculty of thirteen Irish teachers in their own land,
bringing the sanctity, the learning, and the manual skill of their famous Celtic
seminaries. A hundred years earlier Clovis had made a political union with the
Papacy in order to gain the support of the eastern emperor; but this had turned
out to be a detriment, not a stimulant. And no wonder, for in the days of
Columbanus the pope of Rome was Gregory I, called Gregory the Great, well known
as an enemy of classical learning.9 Many authorities upbraid this pontiff
because he drove the mathematicians out of Rome, proscribed Greek, and denounced
learning.10
Anagrates soon became too small. The number of candidates for admission
into the new settlement increased greatly. The influence of Columbanus became
widespread. The sincerity and consecration of the Irish camp was so superior to
anything of that nature on the Continent that it was like introducing a new
religion. The inhabitants of storm-swept Europe turned their eyes to the place
whence came inspiring reports, and doors of opportunity were opened to the
evangelists. This determined Columbanus to open another center for the spread of
the gospel.
He met with the hearty co-operation of King Guntram. The ruler of
Burgundy gladly granted them a site at Luxeuil, situated at the foot of the
Vosges mountains, where the forests of the mountains had invaded the plain. Here
were the ruins of old Roman villas, overgrown by the tangled underbrush. The
wilderness abounded in bears, wolves, foxes, and other wild life. But under the
sturdy blows of these missionaries of the Church in the Wilderness all this
changed. The forest was felled and the land was cleared. The plowshares broke up
the fallow ground, and soon fields of waving grain were seen. As accommodations
were provided, the noble youth of the land flocked to Columbanus as postulants
in the new brotherhood. Luxeuil was destined to become the mother of numerous
centers of civilization in Europe.11 As these missionaries worked, they would
reply to questions: "We be Irish, dwelling at the very ends of the earth.
We be men, who receive naught but the doctrine of the apostles and
evangelists."
Again there were rapid growth and crowded conditions at Luxeuil as there
had been at Anagrates. Columbanus founded a third training center at Fontaines,
so named by him because of the warm medicinal springs issuing from the ground.
Located within a radius of about twenty miles, these three settlements formed
the evangelical center of the work of the Church of the Wilderness in France.
Everywhere the people rallied around them. Fresh ideas of truth triumphant
spread as if on the wings of the wind. There developed other leaders who trained
recruits who would repeat their exploits. Also from Ireland came a continual
stream of trained leaders and teachers to augment the first evangelists.12 Thus
the word of God grew mightily. Soon, however, danger of a deadly nature raised
its head to threaten the growth of the church. The Struggle With the Bishops of Rome
In Scotland and England the Irish missionaries were grappling with
stark heathenism. On the Continent they were facing a more difficult situation.
The gulf between the Celtic Church and the Church of Rome was greater than that
between Irish Christianity and paganism. In fact, this gulf was far greater than
that between Protestantism and Romanism in the days of Luther. Paganism did not
have access to the culture and truth which the Papacy claimed. It was not
supported, as was the Papacy, by the military machine of the Roman Empire of the
East, created by Belisarius, the greatest fighting genius of the age. The union
of a Christian church with the state is always more dangerous to liberty than
the union of paganism with the state. The opposition of the bishops of Rome to
the work of Columbanus, therefore, meant a straggle between liberty and
despotism.
The condition of the Papacy in this region has thus been described by a
modem historian: The
church among the Franks and Germans was in a wretched condition. Many of the
church lands were in the hands of laymen. There was little or no discipline, and
no control exercised over the clergy. Each priest did what was right in his own
eyes. There were, at this time, many vagabond priests and monks wandering about
over the country, obtaining a precarious living by imposing upon the people.13
Concerning the church in the era of Justinian, the same historians of the
medieval period declare: "The Christianity of that day was utterly
degraded, and the Christians differed very little from the other peoples about
them. Mohammedanism was in part a revolt against this degradation."14
The priests were jealous of the influence and growth of the Celtic
missions. Back of it all, however, lay their resentment at the rebuke given by
Columbanus to their questionable lives. Therefore, they summoned the Irish
leader in 602 to answer before a synod of Gaulish bishops. He refused to appear,
but for his defense he sent an epistle begging them to refrain from interfering.
The Roman Catholic historian John Healy, writes thus of the affair: Remonstrance
was useless; they adhered tenaciously to their country's usages. Nothing could
convince them that what St. Patrick and the saints of Ireland had handed down to
them could by any possibility be wrong. They only wanted to be let alone. They
did not desire to impose their usages on others. Why should others impose their
usages on them? They had a right to be allowed to live in peace in their
wilderness, for they injured no man, and they prayed for all. Thus it was that
Columbanus reasoned, or rather remonstrated with a synod of French bishops that
objected to his practices. His letters to them and to Pope Gregory the Great on
the subject of this paschal question are still extant, but he cannot be
justified in some of the expressions which he uses. He tells the bishops in
effect in one place that they would be better employed in enforcing canonical
discipline amongst their own clergy, than in discussing the paschal question
with him and his monks. Yet here and there he speaks not only with force and
freedom, but also with true humility and genuine eloquence. He implores the
prelates in the most solemn language to let him and his brethren live in peace
and charity in the heart of their silent woods, beside the bones of their
seventeen brothers who were dead.15
Here is an incident by which one may contrast the spirit of the two
churches. One needs only to compare the letter of Columbanus with the haughty
treatment of Dinooth of Celtic Wales by Augustine. On this point Clarence W.
Bispham writes: Columban's
answer is in splendid contrast to Augustine's unfortunate utterance, through
which he has been prophetically responsible for certain deeds of blood. In
conclusion, we must recognize that the Bangor Rule of Life, though most severe,
produced a meekness of character in the fiery Keltic nature that is amazing, and
is in wonderful contrast to the more moderate Benedictine Rule which produced
the arrogance of St. Augustine.16 Columbanus and Queen Brunhilda
If there ever was another Jezebel, it was Brunhilda, wife of King
Sigebert of Austrasia, brother of Guntram and persecutor of Columbanus. After
murdering her husband in 575, she charmed the son of his brother, Chilperic,
king of Neustria. Through infatuation the lad married her. Later she led her
grandson, Theuderich II, king of Burgundy, into profligate life. Theuderich had
great respect for Columbanus, and for some years protected and defended him even
while the Irish missionary was remonstrating with him and his dissolute
grandmother for their evil ways. For fear that Theuderich would espouse a queen
who would displace her, Brunhilda plotted to keep him in a life of vice.
When the Celtic apostle rebuked her for the iniquitous life of the court,
she turned on him in fury; and from that time began continued persecution of the
evangelical colleges founded by Columbanus. About ten years previous to this,
Augustine, the monk sent to convert England, had brought a letter of
Introduction to Brunhilda from the pope.17 Of Brunhilda's affiliations with the
religious enemies of the Celtic Church, historians write: "Brunhilda seems
to have been, according to the ideas of her time, a religious woman. She built
churches, monasteries, and hospitals, and was a friend of some of the leading
churchmen of her day."18 Since the queen-dowager and the Roman Catholic
bishops were hostile to Columbanus, she urged them to attack the Celtic faith
and to abolish his system of education. Columbanus in Exile
By this time the fame of Columbanus had greatly increased in all the
cities and provinces of France and Germany, so much so that he was highly
venerated and celebrated. Even the soldiers of the king on various occasions
either hesitated to execute the royal order for his banishment, or executed it
so loosely that Columbanus could escape back to Luxeuil. Because he feared
vengeance on his associates, the old scholar decided to depart. He first made
his way with certain companions to the Loire River, which it seems he followed,
intending to set sail from the port of Nantes for Ireland.
The story of his movements reads not like a departure in exile, but like
a march of conquest. He did not sail from Nantes, however, but went to Soissons,
the capital of Clotaire II, king of Neustria. There his position was similar to
prime minister, if not one of royal power. Clotaire consulted him on all
important questions of state and followed his advice, but Columbanus had a yet
greater work to do. He hoped to plant new centers in Germany, Switzerland, and
Italy.
As Columbanus had been honored by Clotaire II, king of Neustria, which
country later expanded and became France, so was he royally treated by
Theodebert, king of that Austrasia, which country later would take in portions
of the territory that is now Germany. While on his way to Theodebert, he stopped
at Meaux, where he was entertained by a prominent citizen, a friend of
Theodebert. His godly life influenced the daughter of his host to dedicate her
life to the Columbanian missions. These beginnings of Celtic Christianity were
multiplied when the learned associates of Columbanus declined to proceed further
east into the wilderness, and began immediately to found new settlements
starting with Metz as the center.
King Theodebert was happy over the arrival of Columbanus at his court. He
besought him to remain in his kingdom permanently and to carry on his work. The
scholar, however, wished to do more for Europe which was in a state of
barbarism.19 As Benedict Fitzpatrick says, "The Irish were the first
missionaries in Germany, and Germany had in the main been made a Christian land
by them when Boniface, who has been called the Apostle of Germany, first arrived
there."20
It might be well at this point to protest against crediting the
Benedictine monks with the work that was done by the Irish missionaries.
Fitzpatrick says, "The general belief that the Benedictines, who were the
only 'rivals' of the Irish monks in the period under review, were learned men is
totally erroneous. No branch of the Benedictines making learned studies their
aim existed till the establishment of the Maurists in the seventeenth
century."21
For several years Columbanus labored in Germany and Switzerland, leaving
a string of missions to carry on the work he had started. However, a pagan
conspiracy against him forced him to again remove to other lands. Leaving the
center of Bregenz, in what is now Austria, in charge of one of his historical
associates, Gallus (generally known as St. Gall),22 Columbanus, although past
seventy years of age, made his way over the towering Alps to the court of
Agilulf, king of the Lombards. In this region the primitive Christian teachings
of Jovinianus of the fourth century, and of Claude of the ninth century, were
still persisting.23 Here Columbanus was joyfully received. Now, we might say,
the Celts and the Waldenses were joining hands in spreading the gospel. The
Lombards and the descendants of the Goths had followed the simpler and more
Biblical Christianity of the Church of the East and never had walked in the ways
of the Papacy.24 The mighty Lombard king was glad to have this powerful
spiritual leader from Ireland in his realm. In the medieval centuries these
valleys were extremely populous.
Refusing to stay at the court, however, Columbanus besought the king for
a place wherein to plant a new center. Agilulf was reminded of the locality of
Bobbio where there was a mined church. The Lombards at this time, because they
were not affiliated with the Papacy, were branded as Arians. As the Papacy,
supported by the armed forces of the Eastern Roman Empire, had assumed a
threatening attitude toward both Celtic Christianity and to those communions it
chose to call Arians, there was naturally the fellowship of misery between
Columbanus and King Agilulf.
John Healy writes that Bobbio "was near the Trebbia, almost at the
very spot where Hannibal first felt the rigors of that fierce winter in the
snows of the Apennines."25 One is astonished at the marvelous work in
clearing the forests, in arranging the buildings, in tilling the lands and
producing the crops, performed anew at Bobbio. Columbanus seems to have had
unusual ability in directing farm operations, in acting as physician for his
associates, and in using the hides of bears to make sandals. He was specially
skilled in domesticating wild animals. While he excelled in directing such
labors as building highways, digging wells, constructing churches and training
schools, he did not neglect learning. One scholar writes, "The Irish
foundations of Germany and north Italy became the chief book-producing center on
the Continent."26 When later scholars began their search for Irish written
manuscripts, St. Gall and Bobbio were found to be valuable storehouses.
Of Bobbio it is written: "Here the nucleus of what was to be the
most celebrated library in Italy was formed by the manuscripts which Columban
had brought from Ireland and the treatises of which he himself was the
author." "The fame of Bobbio reached the shores of Ireland, and the
memory of Columban was dear to the hearts of his countrymen." "A
tenth-century catalogue, published by Muratori, shows that at that period every
branch of knowledge, divine and human, was represented in this library."27
Bobbio became such an evangelical training center that later the Roman Catholic
Church followed the same procedure with Columbanus as she did with Patrick and
Columba; she finally claimed him as one of her own. Death of Columbanus
Columbanus did not live much more than a year after he had finished
his work at Bobbio. Though there was widespread grief at his impending death,
there were no regrets in his own heart. He could look back on his more than
thirty years of arduous labors and recognize that he had made an indelible
impress upon the Franks, Germans, Suevi, Swabians, Swiss, and Lombards. He
willingly laid down the work for which God had appointed him. He finished his
work in 615, being at that time some seventy-two years of age. His body was
buried beneath the altar of the church, and to this day his remains are kept in
the crypt of the church at Bobbio. About twenty-five extant manuscripts are
purported to be his writings. Reasons for the Opposition of the Papal Bishops
There are certain writers who seek to minimize the differences
between the Celtic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Probably this is
wishful thinking on their part, because they like to believe that the divine
messages of the Celtic Church have passed into the rival communion, never to
reappear. This viewpoint is contrary not only to the thorough examination made
by a host of authorities, but also to conclusions reached by a simple
consideration of the differences of life and doctrine of the two systems. George
T. Stokes, speaking of the final willingness of the Celtic leaders to go along
on the question of Easter, says: But
though the Celtic Church by the beginning of the eighth century had thus
consented to the universal practice of the church both east and west alike, this
consent involved no submission upon other matters to the supremacy of Rome. Nay,
rather, we shall see hereafter that down to the twelfth century the Celtic
Church differed from Rome on very important questions, which indeed formed a
pretext for the conquest of this country by the Normans.28
What were these important questions upon which the Celtic Church for
centuries differed from the Roman? It was on such vital questions as the supreme
authority of the Scriptures, the supremacy of the pope, the celibacy of the
clergy, auricular confession, transubstantiation, the Trinity, and the binding
claims of the moral law. Many other differences might be mentioned. Considering
the unrelenting hostility of the Papacy to the Celtic Church, it is clear that
one or the other of the two communions must either die or surrender.
The absence of learning in the papal church and its abundant presence in
the Celtic Church in the days after the fall of imperial Rome, is proved in the
following words of Benedict Fitzpatrick: "In the lands, formerly included
in the Western Roman Empire, where Latin was the medium of Christianity and
education, there hardly existed a school in the full meaning of the term, save
such as had already been established, directly or indirectly, by Irish
hands."29 This Roman Catholic author further says: "Pope Eugenius II
for the first time in history issued in A.D. 826 bulls enjoining throughout Gaul
and the rest of Christendom schools of the kind that had then been in existence
in Ireland for centuries."30
Columbanus and Dinooth of Wales had expressed Christian courtesy to the
Catholic leaders, but they had refused to be brought into subjection.31 They
sought, without any surrender of their own historic past which reached back to
the apostles, to cultivate a fraternal atmosphere as far as possible.
As was noted in the controversy between Roman Catholic Queen Margaret of
Scotland and the successors of the great Columba, one serious difference between
the Celtic Church and the Roman Catholic Church was the observance of Saturday
as the sacred day of rest. Pope Gregory I, who in the days of Columbanus opposed
classical learning, was so incensed because many Christians in the city of Rome
observed Saturday as the Sabbath that in 602 he issued a bull declaring that
when antichrist should come, he would keep Saturday for the Sabbath. This act is
a matter of common record.32 Was the severe opposition of many popes to the
wonderful work of the Irish missions in Europe due in large measure to the fact
that it was the practice of the Celtic Church to observe Saturday as the day of
rest and worship?
Denouncing the Celtic Church on the Continent as heretical in many
aspects, particularly because of the seventh-day Sabbath observance, Rome
charged it with Judaizing. Thus, Epistle 45 of Pope Gregory III to the bishops
of German Bavaria exhorts them to cling to Rome's doctrines and beware of
Britons coming among them with false and heretical priests.33 Those missionaries
who labored without papal authority were denounced by Boniface, the pope's
legate, as seducers of the people, idolaters, and (because they were married)
adulterers. In all of this the Roman Catholic Church took good care that only
vague and indefinite accounts of all the points at issue remain to the present
day.
As to the charge that certain churches were Judaizing, the minutes of the
synod at Liftinae (the modem Estinnes), Belgium, 743, give more particular
information. Dr. Karl J. von Hefele writes: "The third allocution of this
council warns against the observance of the sabbath, referring to the decree of
the Council of Laodicea."34 As early as the council of Laodicea, held about
the close of the fourth century, it was decreed that all who would rest from
their labors on Saturday were Judaizers, and should be excommunicated. Luxeuil, St. Gaul, and Bobbio
Among the multiplied centers which were created by Columbanus and his
associates, it has been observed that Luxeuil was the leading center in France,
St. Gaul the leading center in Germany and Switzerland, while Bobbio held the
position for Italy. There were, however, a multitude of other centers. Of
Luxeuil, Benedict Fitzpatrick writes: "Luxeuil proved to be the greatest
and most influential of the monasteries and schools established by Columbanus.
It became the recognized spiritual capital of all the countries under Frankish
government.... In the seventh century Luxeuil was the most celebrated school in
Christendom outside of Ireland."35 Of St. Gaul and Bobbio, he writes:
"St. Gaul itself became known as 'the intellectual center of the German
world,' as Bobbio, founded by Columbanus, was long 'the light of northern
Italy.'"36
Any attempt to evaluate the work of Columbanus must be feeble indeed. It
is not within the power of man to give adequate praise to that which God hath
wrought in making His truth triumphant. This pioneer built his spiritual
foundations upon the ruins of the Roman Empire. His missionary centers became
the nursery of civilization, the campus and pulpit of evangelism. The noble
character of this man, his multiplied talents, his high executive ability, and
above all his entire surrender to God make him a type of the amazing work done
by the Celtic Church. |