d of the first, or beginning of the second, century. Three British
Bishops were present at a Council held at Arles, in Gaul, in 314.
At the invasion of the heathen Anglo-Saxons the British Church
retreated into Wales. In 597 Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome,
sent Augustine to this island, who was instrumental in reviving
Christianity in the south-east of England. When he came he found
seven Bishoprics existing, and two Archbishoprics, viz., London and
York. Augustine was made the first Archbishop of Canterbury; this
was the first appointment by Papal authority in England. The
northern part of England was evangelized in the earlier portion
of the following century, by Irish Missionaries from Iona, under
Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne; and his successor, Finan, who lived
to see Christianity everywhere established north of the Humber, and
died in 662. "The planting, therefore, of the Gospel in the
Anglo-Saxon provinces of Britain was the work of two rival
Missionary bands (597 to 662); in the south, the _Roman_, aided
by their converts, and some teachers out of Gaul; in the north,
the _Irish_, whom the conduct of Augustine and his party had
estranged from their communion. If we may judge from the area of
their field of action, it is plain that the Irish were the larger
body; but a host of conspiring causes gradually resulted in the
spread and ascendancy of Roman modes of thought." (Hardwick.)

In the time of Archbishop Theodore (668--689) the fusion of the
English Christians was completed, and the Pope began to assert
(not without opposition) an usurped authority in the English Church
(_c.f._, Hardwick).

What are called the "dark ages" were indeed dark in the Church, for
then it was that she became erring in faith, doctrine, and practice,
and almost a caricature of what she once was. This state of things
continued until the 16th century, when the Reformation took place.
The movement was popular in England, and nearly all, clergy and
people, were glad to see the superstitions and corruptions which
had crept into the Church swept away by Archbishop Cranmer and
his colleagues. Still, there was a party which would take no
share in this movement, but remained faithful to the Pope,--the
representatives of what was falsely called the "old faith."
Notwithstanding the differences of faith between these two parties,
they both continued nominally members of the Church of England. It
was not until 1569 that the Roman Catholic party