Whitby Synod
The Synod of Whitby of 664 was a church assembly in the Anglo-Saxon Northumbria , the existing differences in the ecclesiastical tradition practiced on the British Isles between Roman and Irish Scottish rites should be resolved.
The Synod of Whitby was an important step for the Anglo-Saxons away from the Irish-Scottish and towards the Roman church order. Primarily it was about liturgical and ritual questions such as the shape of the tonsure and the date of Easter. Behind this, however, was the dispute over different ideas about the church. Obviously, the disputed questions of faith were understood as existential, as can be learned from the chronicler Bede .
In addition to Beda's church history , Eddius in particular serves as a source for the course of the meeting.
Starting position
The Irish Scottish Church, which had developed in Ireland (through the mission of Saint Patrick ) and in the Romano-British empires of the British Isles ( Cornwall , Wales , Scotland ), was never affected by the Roman Empire and did not experience the turmoil of the Great Migration . It was thus an important factor in the transmission of Christian knowledge in the early Middle Ages, as the books of antiquity survived unscathed in the Celtic monasteries and were continued by a high-quality book culture. The Irish Scottish Church remained independent during this time and, like the Eastern Church, did not go along with many changes in the Western Church, which was shaped by Rome.
At the time, the Irish Scottish mission was very successful - both on the islands and on the mainland. Correspondingly, the Irish Scottish ideas of the church were spread by the missionaries. In Ireland there were no dioceses as in the areas previously belonging to the Roman Empire . Rather, there were church districts of the monasteries, and the abbot presided over the bishop - that is, the other way around as in the Roman church. In addition, the law of the brithem ("judge") and not Roman law applied. In addition, wandering monasticism was widespread and the majority of people rejected the obligation to be celibate, so that conhospitae (monks and nuns live together) were not infrequently practiced in the monasteries .
The Anglo-Saxons who conquered the territory of what would later become England were initially pagans. The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons came from two directions: from 597 onwards, Augustine of Canterbury, sent by Pope Gregory the Great from Kent in the south and east of England, began building a church system with the Catholic rite for the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms there Century could be converted little by little. Around the same time, the Iona Monastery of the Iro Scots, who followed the Iro-Scottish rite, achieved significant missionary successes in the north of England (foundation of Lindisfarne Monastery around 635), which reached down to Mercia . On the mainland, as a result of the Columban mission, an Irish-Scottish wave of around 300 monasteries was founded.
In Northumbria, the most powerful empire in the heptarchy , the two traditions met. If King Oswald , who installed the first bishop of York in 625 , was still close to Catholic doctrine, the Irish-Scottish Church prevailed after him. The Catholic liturgy then advanced again under Oswiu .
The disputed questions could lead to considerable problems in practice. Beda Venerabilis reports that the King and Queen celebrated Easter on different days within the Northumbrian royal family. To resolve these differences, King Oswiu convened a synod in Whitby for September 664 .
Synod decisions
Afterwards, King Oswiu, like the bishops Chad of York and Colman of Lindisfarne , was a representative of the Iro-Scots, while the Roman Catholic position was represented by Oswius' son Ealhfrith , Wilfrid and Bishop Agilbert . The Iro-Scots invoked Saint John and the authority of Saint Columba , while Wilfrid referred to Saint Peter and the Council of Nicaea for the Roman Catholics . It is said that the dispute was resolved when King Oswiu declared that he did not dare to stand against Saint Peter any longer .
Important political interests were represented in this dispute. With this synodal decision, King Oswiu secured Franconian support. He wanted to expand his power with the help of Roman trained clerics like Wilfrith and above all Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury .
Effects
This secured Northumbria for the Catholic rite; whoever was still a fan of the Iro-Scots there afterwards withdrew to Scotland. The Irish Scottish convent of Lindisfarne monastery left after the Synod of Whitby. Although the transition of the regional churches that remained Irish-Scottish took place only gradually, the development had become irreversible through the establishment of Northumbria.
On the mainland, the relevant questions regarding the two rites, in particular the monastic order, were debated at the Council of Autun and a decision was also made in favor of Rome. In Autun, the Regula Benedicti was made mandatory for the first time, an attempt to counter the widespread Irish-Scottish rule of Columban .
In summary, it can be said that with this synodal outcome the bond between England and the mainland and the Roman Church was strengthened. This was a first step to weaken the independence and spread of the Irish Scottish liturgy and church order. The end of this process was not until a few centuries later the Synod of Cashel (1172), with which the independence of the Irish-Scottish Church perished.
Fiction
The 1994 crime thriller Absolution By Murder (German: Only death brings forgiveness ) by the author Peter Tremayne deals with the Whitby Synod.
Individual evidence
- ^ Arnold Angenendt: The early Middle Ages. The occidental Christianity from 400 to 900. Stuttgart 2001. S. 226f.
- ↑ Jennifer Wenner: The early Christian mission in the British Isles and their influence on the continent . In: Erbe und Einsatz , Vol. 94 (2018), pp. 248–259, here p. 256.
- ↑ Nicole Zeddies: Häresiegesetzgebung in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. In: Christoph Auffarth: Religious Pluralism in the Middle Ages? Berlin 2007. p. 70.