[85] Conjugi, nostræ spirituali filiæ, crucem...... (Beda, lib. iii. cap. xxix.) To your consort, our spiritual daughter, a cross..... The essential thing, however, was to send an archbishop from Rome to Britain; but Wighard was dead, and no one seemed willing to undertake so long a journey.[86] [86] Minime voluimus nunc reperire pro longinquitate itineris. (Ibid.) On account of the length of the journey, we have not been able to find... [Sidenote: ARCHBISHOP THEODORE] There was not much zeal in the city, of the pontiffs: and the pope was compelled to look out for a stranger. There happened at that time to be in Rome a man of great reputation for learning, who had come from the east, and adopted the rites and doctrines of the Latins in exchange for the knowledge he had brought them. He was pointed out to Vitalian as well qualified to be the metropolitan of England. Theodore, for such was his name, belonging by birth to the churches of Asia Minor, would be listened to by the Britons in preference to any other, when he solicited them to abandon their oriental customs. The Roman pontiff, however, fearful perhaps that he might yet entertain some leaven of his former Greek doctrines, gave him as companion, or rather as overseer, a zealous African monk named Adrian.[87] [87] Ut diligenter attenderet, ne quid ille contrarium veritati, fidei. Græcorum more, in ecclesiam cui præesset introduceret. (Beda, lib. iv. cap. i.) That he should constantly attend him, lest after the manner of the Greeks, he should introduce any thing contrary to the true faith into the church over which he presided. Theodore began the great crusade against British Christianity, and endeavouring to show the sincerity of his conversion by his zeal, he traversed all England in company with Adrian,[88] every where imposing on the people that ecclesiastical supremacy to which Rome is indebted for her political supremacy. The superiority of character which distinguished Saint Peter, Theodore transformed into a superiority of office. For the jurisdiction of Christ and his word, he substituted that of the bishop of Rome and of his decrees. He insisted on the necessity of ordination by bishops who, in an unbroken chain, could trace back their authority to the apostles themselves. The British still maintained the validity of their consecration; but the number was small of those who understood that pretended successors of the apostles, who sometimes carry Satan in their hearts, are not true ministers of Christ; that the one thing needful for the church is, that the apostles themselves (and not their successors only) should dwell in its bosom by their word, by their teaching, and by the Divine Comforter who shall be with it for ever and ever. [88] Peragrata insula tota, rectum vivendi ordinem disseminabat. (Ibid. cap. ii.) He visited the whole island, and taught the right rule of life. [Sidenote: DISCORD IN THE CHURCH.]