and. Early in the 5th century Britain was infected by the
heresy of Pelagius, himself a Briton by birth, but in 429 Germanus,
bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, recalled the church to
orthodoxy and, according to tradition, led their converts to victory,
the "Hallelujah victory," over the Picts and Scots. When the Britons
were hard pressed by Saxon invaders large bodies of them found shelter
in western Armorica, in a lesser Britain, which gave its name to
Brittany. A British Church was founded there, and bishops, scholars and
recluses of either Britain seem constantly to have visited the other.
The Saxon invasion cut off Britain from communication with Rome; and the
British Church having no share in the progressive life of the Roman
Church, differences gradually arose between them. The organization of
the British Church was monastic, its bishops being members, usually
abbots, of monasteries, and not strictly diocesan, for the monasteries
to which the clergy were attached had a tribal character. The monastic
communities were large, Bangor numbered 2000 monks. From Gildas, a
British monk, who wrote about 550, we gather that the bishops were rich
and powerful and claimed apostolical succession; that though governed by
synods the church lacked discipline; that simony was rife, and that
bishops and clergy were neglectful. He evidently draws too dark a
picture, for religious activity was not extinct. Gildas himself and
others preached in Ireland, and from them the Scots, the dominant people
of Ireland, received a ritual. The organization of the Scotic Church in
Ireland was similar to that of the British Church. Its monastic
settlements or schools were many and large, and were the abodes of
learning. Bishops dwelt in them and were reverenced for their office,
but each was subject to the direction of the abbot and convent. In 565
(?) St Columba, the founder and head of several Scotic monasteries, left
Ireland and founded a monastery in Hii or Iona, which afforded gospel
teaching to the Scots of Dalriada and the northern Picts, and later did
a great work in evangelizing many of the Teutonic conquerors of Britain.
By 602 the British Church, in common with the Irish Scots, followed
practices which differed from the Roman use as it then was; it kept
Easter at a different date; its clergy wore a different tonsure, and
there was some defect in its baptismal rite. The conquerors of
Britain--Saxons, Angles and Jutes--were hea