Historical setting: 602 C.E. The Vosges Mountains
Several candles burned to the socket this night as Father Columbanus listens to Bishop Felix tell of his visit with the Pope.
The father asks, “So do you suppose the Holy Father will understand my plight with these bishops of Gaul?”
The bishop answers, “I told the Pope what I know of that injustice. He used the word ‘simony’ accusing the bishops, then questioned me about the Celtic rule. He wanted to know how Christianity has taken hold in Ireland, which seems to be completely Christian now, yet, he said, was “once overrun with heathens.” I told him you were born into Christianity there and you follow the creed. He asked me if I knew of the Island of East Angles where Hadrian had once taken the Roman army. I think he has his sights on all the old borders of Rome, but not as a conqueror, maybe as a builder of an empire of Christians.”
“Ireland was never under Roman rule.” The father adds.
Felix goes on, “But the Pope and I agreed that Patrick was of the Roman Creed. And that bolstered Pope Gregory’s explanation of the importance of missionaries going out to all these distant places and bringing Christ to the pagans. He was proud of the success of his mission to Kent under the leadership of Bishop Augustine of Canterbury. [Footnote] ”
My mind wanders to proselytizing – Missionaries going out to change people to a particular religious creed. In Acts it was Paul spreading Christianity far and wide. It was said in Mark that Jesus gathered his disciples starting at the shores of the sea. First, he called Peter then James and John to become “fishers of people” not fish. [Mark 1:16]
That was in Galilee, but I was in Bethany. I don’t know if Jesus was calling them to mend the nets so no one would fall through, or if he was sending them with nets spread wide to gather-in great numbers of fish/people.
In my Jewish life growing up in Bethany this notion of converting the masses to follow a single exclusionary creed seemed Roman to me, as was also the demand to worship only Caesar. I expected God to speak for God and the human obligation is simply to listen. Jesus came as the human heart for knowing God, reminding us to savor, in our minds and souls, the old law – love God above all else and neighbor as self. And in the end, it does seem the whole world would need to know that.
Footnote: If you are looking for a fascinating all-nighter with Merovingian history, this Wikipedia article has the pope and the Gaulish kings, Brunhilda and even a wife to a Saxon pagan King of Kent, Bertha. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Canterbury, retrieved, 2-25-23.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 