Synod of Whitby
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The Synod of Whitby was a seventh century synod in Northumbria which brought the practices of Iona and its Irish satellites into conformity with those of Western Europe and southern Ireland.[1] King Oswiu of Northumbria summoned the synod, held in 664 at Saint Hilda's double monastery of Streonshalh (Streanoeshalch), later called Whitby Abbey. The Venerable Bede described the proceedings in detail in his History of the Church. His account is similar to and likely partially based on material found Eddius Stephanus's Life of Wilfrid.
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[edit] The Problem
Christianity in Great Britain during this period existed in two forms of Catholicism divided along liturgical lines: Celtic Christianity among the Picts, Irish, and Britons centered around Iona, and the liturgical practices used in the remainder of the West, including southern Ireland and Francia, but especially Rome. Iona had been founded by Columba and extended its practices through missionary activity (see Hiberno Scottish missions). Roman liturgical practices were brought to the Anglo-Saxons (the English, see History of Anglo-Saxon England) through Pope Gregory I's mission of Saint Augustine to Canterbury, and through Frankish influence.
The main controversy was the proper calculation of Easter (see: quartodecimanism), though the synod also dealt with the proper style of monastic tonsure. The resulting disunity fostered various difficulties, for example Queen Eandfled followed the Roman practice of Kent, while King Oswiu followed the Irish custom, resulting in the celebration of two Easters, with one faction fasting for Lent while the other feasted for Easter.[2] The debate became critical when an Irishman named Ronan, who had been trained in Gaul and Italy, attempted to change the practice of the Ionan community against the wishes of Bishop Finan.[3]
[edit] The Decision of the Council
Bishop Colman argued the Ionan calculation of Easter on the following grounds: it was the practice of Columba, who had followed the tradition of John the apostle and evangelist. Bishop Wilfrid argued the Roman position: it was the decree of the ecumenical council of Nicaea, of the Holy See, of the Church Fathers, and the practice of the greater Catholic world.[4]
Stephanus states that King Oswiu posed the question: "Tell me which is greater in the Kingdom of Heaven, Columba or the Apostle Peter?"[5] to which "the whole synod answered with one voice" that Peter had been given the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and pronounced the Rock upon which the Church was built, which the gates of Hell could not prevail against.[6] Oswiu then declared his opinion in favor of the holder of the keys, i.e. the Roman (and Petrine) practices.
[edit] The Consequences
The Synod of Whitby "brought the Northumbrian church into the mainstream of Roman culture."[7] Supporters of the Celtic traditions withdrew to Scotland, and would experience a decline of practice as the Ionan satellites, and eventually the monastery itself, converted to Roman practice. As for Northumbria, full integration and unification was finally achieved at the councils of Hertford in 673 and Hatfield in 680 under the diplomatic guidance of St Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek monk who had been consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian and had come to England in 669. In these synods much was done to promote unity, to define the limits of jurisdiction, and to restrain the wanderings and mutual interference of the clergy.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Bede [731] (1990). Ecclesiastical History of the English People, revised edition, Penguin Books.
- Stephanus, Eddius [c. 710] (1927). Life of Bishop Wilfrid, Bertram Colgrave (ed. & tr.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Anonymous monk of Whitby [c.704-714] (1968). Bertram Colgrave: The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great. Lawrence: The University of Kansas Press.
