Facts of Faith

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 Piets 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: FAFA 137.3

“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. FAFA 138.1

Dr. A. Butler says of Columba: FAFA 138.2

“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: FAFA 138.3

“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. FAFA 138.4

Professor James C. Moffatt, D. D., Professor of Church History at Princeton, says: FAFA 138.5

“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. FAFA 138.6

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. 582). FAFA 138.7

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’Aubigné, 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: FAFA 139.1

“‘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 Augustine, 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. FAFA 139.2

D’Aubigné 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’Aubigné, book 17, chap. 2. FAFA 140.1

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: FAFA 140.2

“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 English woman. FAFA 140.3

“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. FAFA 140.4

William F. Skene says: FAFA 140.5

“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. 849. Edinburgh: David Douglas, printer, 1877.

“They held that Saturday was properly the Sabbath on which they abstained from work.” — Id., p. 350. FAFA 141.1

“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. FAFA 141.2