Henricus

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From "Henricus"

Here are a series of emails from Henricus on the subject of Apostolic Sucession in the early Celtic and Roman period of the British Isles. Published with his approval. If you would like to add comments please contact us at RHT+@cinemaparallel.com or contact Henricus directly.

Dear Friends in Christ:

The pages outlining the Apostolic Succession of bishops are very fascinating. If I may add a little tidbit of history, as regards the Anglican Apostolic Succession.

First of all, any declaration by the Bishop of Rome that Anglican clergy are invalid, is itself invalid for lack of jurisdiction, likewise, the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I in 1570 by Pope St. Pius V is also invalid for lack of jurisdiction. The Church in Britain grew up independently of, and is indeed more ancient than, the Roman Church. This was attested to by several Councils and also Pope Pius XI (in 1931). The Council of Constantinople (AD 381) declared the boundaries of the Roman Pontiff's authority as being contiguous with the Roman Empire.

Since the Romans quit Britain in AD 400, the authority of the Bishop of Rome there (if there were any at all to begin with) ceased. Since it was later on the law in Anglo-Saxon England that the King was head of the Church in his kingdom, it should be seen that the Pope was considered to have had no jurisdiction in that land.

The putting of the English Church under the Bishop of Rome by William the Conqueror was clearly a usurpation. A conqueror's sword is hardly a canonical means for joining two Christian bodies together. If I read Foxe's Book of Martyrs right, the old Anglo-Saxon law was the basis upon which Henry VIII took the English Church out from under the Pope. The ancient British Church (which grew into the Celtic Church and to a great extent grew into the Anglo-Saxon Church) was the Church of my biological, as well as spiritual, ancestors; being an Anglican is the following of my ancestral Faith.

As to Apostolic Successions, I ran across an interesting line: our Saviour consecrated St. Peter, who in turn consecrated St. Linus. Now St. Linus was the son of Caractacus and had become a Christian whilst still in Britain before being taken to Rome with his father. The sister of St. Linus, St. Claudia, married one Rufus Pudens, a Senator. Their son, St. Timotheus (not St. Timothy of the Bible) was consecrated at a young age by St. Linus and sent to Britain, to assist the aging St. Joseph of Arimathea.

It appears that St. Timotheus (who baptized King Lucius as a young boy), consecrated one St. Lleurog who was a great missionary all over Wales and who founded a parish at Llanleurog. At this point I lose track of names, but a parish founded by St. Lleurog was still flourishing in the 4th Century, werein grew up St. Mellon who evangelized Normandy and erected the See of Rouen..

Norman bishops would be successors to St. Mellon; it is from these that the succession of Anglican Bishops is derived. As to St. Linus and St. Claudia, whilst they were yet in Britain, it was St. Joseph of Arimathea and St. Mary the Blessed Virgin who brought the Gospel to them and to all the people there. A number of learned scholars attest to St. Peter's having visited Britain shortly after Claudius expelled the Jews and Christians from Rome. He may or may not have consecrated anyone; I have found no record one way or the other.

As to St. David having visited Jerusalem, he may well have, since there was much trade and commercial intercourse between Britain and the Middle East in his time. But Glastonbury Abbey was likened to Jerusalem, and it may be that St. David only went there. His succession, no doubt would have stemmed from St. Lleurog.

Anyway, a few tidbits and gleanings which I have been able to find, and pass along for the enjoyment of others.

Benedictio Domini sit vobiscum, ora pro me,

Henricus peccator

hmoffitt@teleplex.net

Dear Henricus peccator

Greetings and Blessings in the name of the Holy Trinity,

Many thanks for your recent email epistle. As both an Anglican and a Cornishman I found your information concerning St. Linus, St. Timotheus St. Lleurog very very interesting.

Do you know where I might find a valid line from St. Lleurog down to St David to add to the AIC site?

I have been meaning to put more work in on the Celtic Lines but I have not had the time. Do you mind if I link your information to that page with your name attached?

Your arguement concerning jurisdiction of Rome over Britian after AD400 is also excellent.

Are you part of the "Continuing Anglican" church or are you in the CofE and/or ECUSA?

By His grace

RHT+

Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 00:25:32 -0400

From: "Henry K. Moffitt, Jr." <hmoffitt@teleplex.net>

X-Accept-Language: en

MIME-Version: 1.0

To: office@cinemaparallel.com

Subject: Re: St. Lleurog

Dear Robert: The line of St. Lleurog is partly conjectural; I discovered him in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints under the heading of St. Mellon. He grew up in the parish of Llanlleurog (Old Welsh for St. Lleurog's), which parish is now called St. Mellon's. I suppose the renaming of it was due to his great evangelical work in Normandy and erecting the See of Rouen. Since St. Lleurog has no Feast Day,

I would presume that he was 2nd Century; he is a shadowy figure. How many parishes he founded I don't know. But Llanlleurog would indicate that he founded it, and that St. Mellon grew up in that parish would indicate that it was still extant and that there had been a succession of Bishops between St. Lleurog and whoever ordained St. Mellon's pastor. I can't give names, but St. Mellon's growing up in Llanlleurog does indicate the presence of an Apostolic Succession betwixt the 2nd Century and the 4th, when St. Mellon lived. It is like a river that goes underground, then emerges downstream.

Much of the original data in ancient British Church history was destroyed in an effort to 'Romanize' Britain in the Middle Ages (it didn't work), and what survives is often put in the form of allegory which is hard to unravel. As to St. Timotheus consecrating St. Lleurog, I can only conjecture, but since the two are contemporaries, it would seem possible, given the fact that we know of no one else.

The renaming of places by ancient British Christians appears to have been relatively common. For example, St. Eurgain, a daughter of Caractacus, founded a Christian college called Llaneurgain. It had an illustrious rector in the 5th - 6th Century named St. Iltut (or Illtyd), so its name was changed to Llantwit Major. St. Iltut was the teacher of St. Samson, who in turn was the teacher of one St. Ethbin, an Anglo-Saxon who lived from about AD 500 to about AD 580. He was therefore a school mate of St. Gildas the Wise.

There is some research going on into the ancient British Church; interestingly enough, Archbishop Ussher (17th Century) did an enormous amount of research into the matter, and published it, but the books are in Latin and have been out of print over 300 years. But in some of the books I have read on the subject, he is used as a reference in a number of places. Abp. Ussher was an Irishman and an Anglican, but won wide respect for his scholarship not only amongst Anglicans, but also Puritans and Roman Catholics as well.

There are many old Traditions regarding the Church in Britain, one of them being that St. Mary the Blessed Virgin's maternal grandmother was a Cornish princess. If you read the prayer of St. Anne (St. Mary's mother) in an old MS. about the birth of St. Mary, called a 'protevangelion', you'll find it to be a series of Triads, like Old Welsh poetry. St. Anne was barren, and put her plight to the Lord, not at the Temple, but out-of-doors under a tree, in the Celtic fashion. Another Tradition was that Jesus visited Britain; in my researches, He would appear to have gone there twice, once as a Boy of about twelve (to Jesus Well in Cornwall), and once to Glastonbury for a year or two prior to His ministry in the Holy Land. He is said to have built the 'Old Church' there. Anyway, St. Mary the Blessed Virgin herself came to Glastonbury, along with St. Joseph of Arimathea, to minister the Gospel to the Britons there. Yet another Tradition has it that St. Peter visited Glastonbury; this is attested to by Vatican documents and the great Roman Catholic historian Cornelius a Lapide, S. J. of the 17th Century.

All in all, given that when the British Church of old came to the light of 'mainstream' history, it already had definite Traditions and its own forms of worship, and was willing to explain to the Romans that they were of great antiquity and Apostolic purity, and that the Romans were innovators of strange things. This would indicate that they went back a long way, and though we may be lacking in names of people in many cases, we can still demonstrate that there was an Apostolic Succession back to when the Apostles themselves visited Britain.

As to putting this information on your Website, feel free to do so. I do not have a personal Website to which one may link. As to my Church membership, I am still ECUSA, but I point out to my fellow parishoners and clergy the antiquity of our Anglican heritage. I even gave a class in it, and put some of it in a history series in our parish newsletter.

By the way, such an heritage facilitated Henry VIII's break with the Roman Church. Henry VII disseminated these things by the use of the printing press. My own personal beliefs are Biblical and Fundamental, in accord with a couple Reformation-era Anglican Catechisms (Novell's and Becon's) which I have been typing into my computer.

The ancient British Church was a Biblical Church; some have suggested that the influence of the Britons, and other Celtic Christians shone a beam of light down the centuries and influenced the course of the Protestant Reformation. In every country that turned Protestant, some British or Irish missionary was first to minister the Gospel there, Ireland itself being an exception.

Anyway, I've gone on a long space here! and I must get some sleep in order to sing in the Choir and say the Prayers. Benedictio Domini sit tecum, ora pro me,

Henricus peccator

(I sign myself after the example of St. Samson of Dol)