FACTS OF FAITH By Christian Edwardson
Chapter 13
Celtic Sabbath-Keepers
(134) We know from several
sources that Christianity entered the British Isles in apostolic times.
(Colossians 1:23.)
Col 1:23 If ye
continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister
Rev.
Richard Hart, B.A., Vicar of Catton, says: "That the light of Christianity
dawned upon these islands in the course of the first century, is a matter of
historical certainty." - "Ecclesiastical
Records," p. vii. Cambridge: 1846. Tertullian, about 200 A.D.,
included the Britons among the many nations which believed in Christ, and he
speaks of places among "the Britons - inaccessible to the Romans, but
subjugated to Christ." - "Answer to
the Jews," chap. vii. Dr. Ephraim Pagit, in his
"Christianography," printed in London, 1640, gives an interesting
account of the early Christians in these islands.
Before the church in the British Isles was forced under the
papal yoke, it was noted for its institutions of learning. The Rev. Mr. Hart
says:
"That learning and piety flourished in these islands
during the period of their independence is capable of the most satisfactory
proof, and Ireland in particular was so universally celebrated, that students
flocked thither from all parts of the world." - "Ecclesiastical Records," p. viii.
He says, some came to "Ireland for the sake of studying
the Scriptures." - Id., p. xi
THE
COMING OF PATRICK
Patrick, a son of a Christian family in southern Scotland,
was carried off to Ireland by pirates about 376 A.D. Here, in slavery, he gave
his heart to God and, after six years of servitude, escaped, returning to his
home in Scotland. But he could not forget the spiritual need of these poor
heathen, and after ten years he returned to Ireland as a missionary of the
Celtic church. "He had now reached his thirtieth year [390 A.D.]." - "The Ancient British and Irish Churches," William
Cathcart, D. D., p. 70.
(135) Dr. E. Pagit says
that "Saint Patricke had in his day founded there 365 churches." - "Christianography," Part 2, p. 10.
Dr. August Neander says of Patrick:
"The place of his birth was Bonnaven, which lay between
the Scottish towns of Dumbarton and Glasgow, and was then reckoned to the
province of Britain. This village, in memory of Patricius, received the name of
Kil-Patrick or Kirk-Patrick. His father, a deacon in the village church, gave
him a careful education." - "General
History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol. II, p. 122.
Boston. 1855.
Patrick himself writes in his "Confession":
"I, Patrick,...had Calpornius for my father, a deacon, a
son of the late Potitus, the presbyter....I was captured. I was almost sixteen
years of age...and taken to Ireland in captivity with many thousand men."
- "The Ancient British and Irish
Churches," William Cathcart, D.D., p. 127.
PATRICK
NOT A CATHOLIC
To those who have heard of Patrick only as a Catholic saint,
it may be a surprise to learn that he was not a Roman Catholic at all, but that
he was a member of the original Celtic church. There is no more historic
evidence for Patrick's being a Roman Catholic saint, than for Peter's being the
first pope. Catholics claim that Pope Celestine commissioned Patrick as a Roman
Catholic missionary to Ireland; but William Cathcart, D.D., says:
"There is strong evidence that Patrick had no Roman
commission in Ireland."
"As Patrick's churches in Ireland, like their brethren
in Britain, repudiated the supremacy of the popes, all knowledge of the
conversion of Ireland through his ministry must be suppressed [by Rome, at all
cost.]: - Id., p. 85.
(136) The popes who
lived contemporary with Patrick never mentioned him. "There is not a
written word from one of them rejoicing over Patrick's additions to their
church, showing clearly that he was not a Roman missionary....So completely
buried was Patrick and his work by popes and other Roman Catholics, that in
their epistles and larger publications, his name does not once occur in one of
them until A.D. 634." - Id., p. 83.
"Prosper does not notice Patrick....He says nothing of
the greatest success ever given to a missionary of Christ, apparently because
he was not a Romanist." - Id., p. 84.
"Bede never speaks of St. Patrick in his celebrated
'Ecclesiastical History.'" - Id., p. 85.
But, writing of the year 431, Bede says of a Catholic
missionary: "Palladius was sent by Celestinus, the Roman pontiff, to the
Scots [Irish] that believed in Christ." - "Ecclesiastical
History," p. 22. London. 1894.
But this papal emissary was not received any more favorably
by the church in Ireland, than was Augustine later received by the Celtic
church of Scotland, for "he left because he did not receive respect in
Ireland." - "The Ancient British and
Irish Churches," William Cathcart, D.D., p. 72.
No Roman Catholic church would have dared to ignore a bishop
sent them by the pope. This proves that the churches in the British Isles did
not recognize the pope.
Dr. Todd says:
"The 'Confession' of St. Patrick contains not a word of
a mission from Pope Celestine. One object of the writer was to defend himself
from the charge of presumption in having undertaken such a work as the
conversion of the Irish, rude and unlearned as he was. Had he received a
regular commission from the see of Rome, that fact alone would be an
unanswerable reply. But he makes no mention of Pope Celestine, and rests his
defense altogether on the divine call which
he believed himself to have received for his work." - Id., pp. 81, 82.
(137) "Muirchu
wrote more than two hundred years after Patrick's death. His declaration is
positive that he did not go to Rome." - Id.,
p. 88.
There are three reasons why Patrick could not have been a
Roman Catholic missionary: 1. Early Catholic historians and popes avoided
mentioning Patrick or his work; until later legendary histories represented him
as a Catholic Saint. (These legendary histories of St. Patrick, written during
the Dark Ages, are so full of childish superstition and fabricated miracles,
that they have to be rejected as actual history.) 2. When papal missionaries
arrived in Britain, 596 A.D., the leaders of the original Celtic church refused
to accept their doctrines, or to acknowledge the papal authority, and would not
dine with them. (Compare 1 Cor. 5:11; 2 John 8-11.) They "acted towards
the Roman party exactly 'as if they had been pagans.'" - "Ecclesiastical Records," by Richard
Hart, pp. viii, xiv. 3. The doctrines of the Celtic church of Patrick's day
differed so widely from those of the Roman church, that the latter could not
have accepted it as "Catholic." Patrick, and the churches he
established in Ireland, as well as the mother church in Scotland and England,
followed the apostolic practice of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, and of
working on Sunday, as we soon shall see. But this was considered deadly heresy
by the Papacy.
COLUMBA
Another leader in the Celtic church deserves to be mentioned:
Columba, who was born in Ireland, A.D. 521. Animated by the zeal and missionary
spirit he found in the schools established by Patrick, Columba continued the
work of his predecessor, and selecting twelve fellow workers, he established a
missionary center on the island of Iona. This early Celtic church sent its
missionaries not only among the heathen Picts of their own country, but also
into the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. This
Sabbath-keeping church (as did their Waldensian brethren) kept the torch of
truth burning during the long, dark night of papal supremacy, till finally they
were conquered by Rome in the twelfth century. Professor Andrew Lang says of
them:
(138) "They worked
on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a Sabbatical manner." - "A History of Scotland from the Roman
Occupation," Vol. I, p. 96. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1900.
Dr. A. Butler says of Columba:
"Having continued his labors in Scotland thirty-four
years, he clearly and openly foretold his death, and on Saturday, the ninth of
June, said to his disciple Diermit: 'This day is called the Sabbath, that is,
the rest day, and such will it truly be to me; for it will put an end to my
labors.'" - "Butler's Lives of the
Saints," Vol. I, A.D. 597, art. "St. Columba," p. 762.
New York. P. F. Collier.
In a footnote to Blair's translation of the Catholic
historian, Bellesheim, we read:
"We seem to see here an allusion to the custom, observed
in the early monastic Church of Ireland, of keeping the day of rest on
Saturday, or the Sabbath." - "History
of the Catholic Church in Scotland," Vol. I, p. 86.
Professor James C. Moffatt, D.D., Professor of Church History
at Princeton, says:
"It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches
of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish
Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor. They obeyed the fourth commandment
literally upon the seventh day of the week." - "The Church in Scotland," p. 140. Philadelphia: 1882.
But the church of Rome could never allow the light of pure
apostolic Christianity to shine anywhere, for that would reveal her own
religion to be apostasy. Pope Gregory I, in 596, sent the imperious monk
Augustine, with forty other monks, to Britain. Dr. A. Ebrard says of this
"mission":
"Gregory well knew that there existed in the British
Isles, yea, in a part of the Roman dominion, a Christian church, and that his
Roman messengers would come in contact with them. By sending these messengers,
he was not only intent upon the conversion of the heathen, but from the very
beginning he was also bent upon bringing this Irish-Scotch church, which had
hitherto been free from Rome, in subjection to the papal chair." - "Bonifacius," p. 16. Guetersloh,
1882. (Quoted in Andrews' "History of the
Sabbath," fourth edition, revised and enlarged, p. 532).
(139) Through political
influence, and with magnificent display, the Saxon king, Ethelbert of Kent,
consented to receive the pope's missionaries, and "Augustine baptized ten
thousand pagans in one day" by driving them in mass into the water. Then,
relying on the support of the pope and the sword of the Saxons, Augustine
summoned the leaders of the ancient Celtic church, and demanded of them:
"'Acknowledge the authority of the Bishop of Rome.' These are the first
words of the Papacy to the ancient Christians of Britain." They meekly
replied: "'The only submission we can render him is that which we owe to
every Christian.'" - "History of the
Reformation," D'Aubigne, Book XVII, chap. 2. "'But as for
further obedience, we know of none that he, whom you term the Pope, or Bishop
of Bishops, can claim or demand.'" - "Early
British History," G. H. Whalley, Esq., M. P., p. 17 (London: 1860): and "Variation of Popery," Rev.
Samuel Edger, D.D., pp. 180-183. New York: 1849. Then in 601, when the British
bishops finally refused to have any more to do with the haughty messenger of
the pope, Augustine proudly threatened them with secular punishment. He said:
"'If you will not have peace from your brethren, you
shall have war from your enemies; if you will not preach life to the Saxons,
you shall receive death at their hands.' Edelfred, King of Northumbria, at the
instigation of Augustin, forthwith poured 50,000 men into the Vale Royal of
Chester, the territory of Prince of Powys, under whose auspices the conference
had been held. Twelve hundred British priests of the University of Bangor
having come out to view the battle, Edelfred directed his forces against them
as they stood clothed in their white vestments and totally unarmed, watching
the progress of the battle - they were massacred to a man. Advancing to the
university itself, he put to death every priest and student therein, and
destroyed by fire the halls, colleges, and churches of the university itself;
thereby fulfilling, according to the words of the great Saxon authority called
the Pious Bede, the prediction, as he terms it, of the blessed Augustine. The
ashes of this noble monastery were smoking; its libraries, the collection of
ages, having been wholly consumed." - "Early
British History," G. H. Whalley, Esq., M. P., p. 18. London: 1860.
See also "Six Old English
Chronicles," pp. 275, 276; edited by J. A. Giles, D. C. L. London:
1906.
(140) D'Aubigne says of
Augustine: "A national tradition among the Welsh for many ages pointed to
him as the instigator of this cowardly butchery. Thus did Rome loose the savage
Pagan against the primitive church of Britain." - "History of the Reformation," D'Aubigne, book 17,
chap. 2.
This was a master stroke of Rome, and a great blow to the
native Christians. With their university, their colleges, their teaching
priests, and their ancient manuscripts gone, the Britons were greatly
handicapped in their struggle against the ceaseless aggression of Rome. Still
they continued the struggle for more than five hundred years longer, till
finally, in the year 1069, Malcolm, the King of Scotland, married the Saxon
princess, Margaret, who being an ardent Catholic, began at once to Romanize the
primitive church, holding long conferences with its leaders. She was assisted
by her husband, and by prominent Catholic officials. Prof. Andrew Lang says:
"The Scottish Church, then, when Malcolm wedded the
sainted English Margaret, was Celtic, and presented peculiarities odious to the
English lady, strongly attached to the establishment as she knew it at
home....The Celtic priests must have disliked the interference of an
Englishwoman.
"First there was a difference in keeping Lent. The Kelts
did not begin it on Ash Wednesday....They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday
in a sabbatical manner." - "History
of Scotland," Vol. I, p. 96.
William F. Skene says:
"Her next point was that they did not duly reverence the
Lord's day, but in this latter instance they seem to have followed a custom of
which we find traces in the early Monastic Church of Ireland, by which they
held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their
labours." - "Celtic Scotland," Vol.
II, p. 349. Edinburgh: David Douglas, printer, 1877.
(141) "They held
that Saturday was properly the Sabbath on which they abstained from work."
- Id., p. 350.
"They were wont also to neglect the due observance of
the Lord's day, prosecuting their worldly labours on that as on other days,
which she likewise showed, by both argument and authority, was unlawful."
- Id., p. 348.
SCOTLAND
UNDER QUEEN MARGARET
Professor Andrew Lang relates the same fact thus:
"The Scottish Church, then, when Malcolm wedded the
saintly English Margaret, was Celtic, and presented peculiarities odious to an
English lady, strongly attached to the Establishment as she knew it at home....
"They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a
sabbatical manner....These things Margaret abolished." - "A History of Scotland from the Roman
Occupation," Vol. I, p. 96. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1900.
The Catholic historian, Bellesheim, says of Margaret:
"The queen further protested against the prevailing
abuse of Sunday desecration. 'Let us,' she said, 'venerate the Lord's day,
inasmuch as upon it our Saviour rose from the dead: let us do no servile work
on that day.' The Scots in this matter had no doubt kept up the traditional
practice of the ancient monastic Church of Ireland which observed Saturday,
rather than Sunday, as a day of rest." - "History
of the Catholic Church in Scotland," Vol. I, pp. 249, 250.
Finally the queen, the king, and three Roman Catholic
dignitaries held a three-day council with the leaders of the Celtic church.
Turgot, the queen's confessor, says:
"It was another custom of theirs to neglect the
reverence due to the Lord's day, by devoting themselves to every kind of
worldly business upon it, just as they did upon other days. That this was
contrary to the law, she proved to them as well by reason as by authority. 'Let
us venerate the Lord's day,' said she, 'because of the resurrection of our
Lord, which happened upon that day, and let us no longer do servile works upon
it; bearing in mind that upon this day we were redeemed from the slavery of the
devil. The blessed Pope Gregory affirms the same, saying: "We must cease
from earthly labour upon the Lord's day."'...From that time forward...no
one dared on these days either to carry any burdens himself or to compel
another to do so." - "Life of Queen
Margaret," Turgot, Section 20; cited in "Source Book," p. 506, ed. 1922.
(142) Thus Rome
triumphed at last in Scotland. In Ireland also the Sabbath-keeping church
established by Patrick was not long left in peace:
"Giraldus Cambrensis informs us that in the year 1155
[Henry II, King of England, was entrusted by Pope Adrian IV with the mission
of] invading Ireland [with devastating war] to
extend the boundaries of the church, [so that even the Irish would
become] faithful to the Church of Rome." The pope wrote Henry:
"'You, our beloved son in Christ, have signified to us
your desire of invading Ireland,...and that you are also willing to pay to St.
Peter the annual sum of one penny for every house. We therefore grant a willing
assent to your petition, and that the
boundaries of the Church may be extended,...permit you to enter the
island.'" - "Ecclesiastical Records
of England, Ireland, and Scotland," Rev. Richard Hart, B.A., pp.
xv, xvi.
Thus we see, that in Scotland an English queen
"introduced changes which, in Ireland, came in the wake of conquest and
the sword. For example, the ecclesiastical novelties which St. Margaret's
influence gently thrust upon Scotland, were accepted in Ireland by the Synod of
Cashel (1172) under Henry II. Yet there remained, in the Irish Church, a Celtic
and an Anglo-Norman party, 'which hated one another with as perfect a hatred as
if they rejoiced in the designation of Protestant and Papist.'" - "History of Scotland," Andrew Lang,
Vol. I, p. 97.
(143) But whether this
triumph of Catholicism over the native Celtic faith was accomplished by the
devastating wars of Henry II, or by Queen Margaret's appeal to Pope Gregory,
and her threat of the civil law, in either case it lacked an appeal to plain
Bible facts, accompanied by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. And, while
the leaders of the Celtic church might
reluctantly yield to the civil authorities, the people,
who had kept the Bible Sabbath for centuries, requested divine authority for
Sunday-keeping. For some time the papal missionaries, who preached this strange
gospel to the Britons, fabricated all kinds of stories about miraculous
punishments that had befallen those who worked on Sunday: Bread baked on
Sunday, when it was cut, sent forth a flow of blood; a man plowing on Sunday,
when cleaning his plow with an iron, had it grow fast to his hand, so that he
had to carry it around to his shame for two years.
FORGED
LETTER FROM CHRIST
When the Abbot Eustace, 1200 A.D., was continually confronted
with requests for a divine command for Sunday-keeping, he finally retired to
Europe, and returned the next year with a spurious letter from Jesus Christ,
claimed to have fallen down from heaven upon St. Simon's altar at Golgotha.
This letter declared:
"I am the Lord....It is my will, that no one, from the
ninth hour on Saturday [3 P.M.] until sunrise Monday, shall do any work....And
if you do not pay obedience to this command,...I swear to your...I will rain
upon you stones, and wood, and hot water, in the night....Now, know ye, that
you are saved by the prayers of my most holy Mother, Mary." - "Roger de Hoveden's Annals," Vol.
II, pp. 526, 527, Bohn's edition. London. 1853.
In that superstitious age such childish fabrications might,
to some extent, satisfy some people, but four hundred years later the trouble
flared up again.
(144) "Upon the
publication of the 'Book of Sports' in 1618, a violent controversy arose among
English divines on two points: first, whether the Sabbath of the fourth
commandment was in force among Christians; and, secondly, whether, and on what
ground, the first day of the week was entitled to be distinguished and observed
as 'the Sabbath.' In 1628 Theophilus Brabourne, a clergyman, published the
first work in favor of the seventh day, or Saturday, as the true Christian
Sabbath. He and several others suffered great persecution." - Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, art.
"Sabbatarians," p. 602. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1883.
Several ministers arose in England about this time who
defended the Bible Sabbath, and who were bitterly persecuted by the state
church. John Trask was put in prison; his wife, a schoolteacher of a devout
Christian character, remained in prison for fifteen years. On November 26,
1661, John James, a godly Sabbath-keeping preacher, was hanged for advocating
the Sabbath truth, "and his head was set upon a pole opposite the meeting
house in which he had preached the gospel." - "History of the Baptists," Dr. J. M. Cramp, p. 351.
London: Elliot Stock, 1868. Dr. Thomas Bampfield, (See Robert Cox's "Literature of the Sabbath Question," Vol.
II, pp. 86-91.) who had been speaker in one of Cromwell's parliaments, wrote
two books defending the seventh-day Sabbath (1692, 1693), but he also was
imprisoned. In 1664, Edward Stennet, an English minister, wrote a book
entitled: "The Seventh Day Is the Sabbath of the Lord." But like the
rest, he had to spend a long time in prison. In 1668 he wrote the following
letter to his Sabbath-keeping brethren America:
"Abington, Berkshire, England,
"February 2nd, 1668.
"Edward Stennet, a poor unworthy servant of Jesus
Christ, to the remnant in Rhode Island, who keep the commandments of God, and
the testimonies of Jesus, sendeth greeting:
"Dearly Beloved:
(145) "I rejoice
in the Lord on your behalfs that He hath been graciously pleased to make known
to you His holy Sabbath in such a day as this, when truth falleth in the
streets, and equity cannot enter. And with us we can scarcely find a man that
is really willing to know whether the Sabbath be a truth or not, and those who
have the greatest parts, have the least anxiety to meddle with it.
"We have passed through great opposition for the truth's
sake, repeatedly from our brethren, which makes the affliction heavier; I dare
not say how heavy, lest it should seem incredible; but the Lord has been with
us, affording us strength according to our day. And when lovers and friends
seem to be moved far from us, with such quick and eminent answers to our
prayers, has encouraged and established us in the truth for which we suffer.
But the opposers of truth seem much withered, and at present the opposition
seems declining away; the truth is strong, and this spiritual fiery law will
burn all those thorns which men set up before it. For was there ever any
ceremonial law given us? But this law was given from the mouth of God, in the
ears of so many thousands - written on tables of stone with His own finger -
promised to be written on the tables of their hearts - and confirmed by a
miracle for the space of forty years in the wilderness, the manna not keeping
good any other day but the Sabbath....
"It
is our duty as Christians, to carry it with all meekness and tenderness to our
brethren, who, through the darkness of their understanding in this point,
differ from us. We have abundant reason to bless our dear Father, who hath
opened our eyes to behold the wonders in His law, while many of His dear
servants are in the dark; but the Lord has in this truth as in others, first
revealed it unto babes, that no flesh shall glory in His presence. Our work is
to be at the feet of the Lord in all humility, crying unto Him, that we may be
furnished with all grace to fit us for His work; that we may be instruments in
His hands, to convince our brethren (if the Lord will) who at present differ
from us....
(146) "Truly, dear
brethren, it is a time of slumbering and sleeping with us, though God's rod is
upon our backs. Oh! pray for us to the Lord, to quicken us, and set us upon
watch-towers. Here are, in England, about nine or ten churches that keep the
Sabbath, besides many scattered disciples, who have been eminently preserved in
this tottering day, when many once eminent churches have been shattered in
pieces. The Lord alone be exalted, for the Lord has done this, not for our
sakes, but for His own name's sake. My dear brethren, I write these lines at a
venture, not knowing how they will come to your hand. I shall commit them and
you to the blessing of our dear Lord, who hath loved us, and washed away our
sins in His own blood. If these lines come to you safely, and I shall hear from
you, hereafter I will write to you more largely....The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all. Amen. "Edward Stennet." - "An Original History of the Religious
Denominations," I. Daniel Rupp, p. 71. Philadelphia: 1844.
No comments:
Post a Comment