February 6 - Shall the twain meet?

February 6 – Shall the twain meet?

Believe it or not, it is difficult for two different forms of Christianity to exist under the same roof. In the last week, we saw that Columba came down from Scotland and brought with him the monastic system. Then, Gregory sent Alexander to England taking the Roman hierarchal system. Things were bound to clash eventually.

The Celtic Christians and the Roman Christians believed the same things, but practiced in vastly different ways. They had differing dates for Easter, monks shaved their heads differently (really? Yup), Celtic monasteries were independent of any outside rule and there were some abuses that crept up from this. Sometimes they were developed simply to avoid serving a secular landlord and consequently there was no spiritual activity occurring.

Things went back and forth for awhile until in 664 AD, the new king of Northumbria named Oswy and his wife got into it. He was Celtic and she was Roman. While he was celebrating Easter, she was fasting for Lent.

Fortunately for them, a woman named Hilda had founded a community in Whitby. She ruled a monastery for both men and women and trained many monks, some of whom later became overseers. She was a powerful woman. The king called an assembly at Whitby and there were arguments from learned men of both sides.

They argued about Easter. Columba was quoted and all seemed well, until the Romans quoted from St. Peter. Finally the king announced that since Peter was the keeper of heaven’s keys, it might be a good idea to follow his lead. The Roman date for Easter was set. The beauty of this assembly was that Roman organization began to be implemented into the Celtic way of life and created a strong church in England.

Not long after this, a plague hit England, the Archbishop of Canterbury died and the church had no leadership. Theodore of Tarsus showed up to take over and appointed bishops and priests from both Celtic and Roman churches bringing the English church into a strong period. While much of the art was destroyed by Vikings later, you can still see Roman and Celtic style stone crosses throughout the countryside.