hristian Church, as it grew up in the last
centuries of the Roman empire, chose for itself a symbol,--in
which Constantine went forth to conquer. It was the four limbs
of the cross: simply the symbol of Matter.

But somehow, the Christian Church in the Celtic Isles did not
adopt this symbol, or rather this form of it. It took what is
called the Celtic Cross: the Cross, which is matter, with the
Circle, which is Spirit, imposed over the upper part of it. Now
if you brought a man from India, or China, or anywhere, who knew
nothing about European history or Christianity, but understood
the ancient science of symbolism; and showed him these two
crosses, the Celtic and the Latin; he would tell you at once
that the one, the Latin, stood for a movement wholly unspiritual;
and that the other, the Celtic, stood for a movement with some
spiritual light in it. How much, I am not prepared to say.

One of the chief formative forces in Christian theology was Saint
Augustine of Hippo, born in 354, died in 430. He taught that man
was Originally sinful, naturally depraved; and that no effort of
his own will could make him otherwise: all depended on the Grace
of God, something from without, absolutely beyond control of
volition. Then rose up a Welshman by the name of Morgan,--or he
may have been an Irishman; some say so; only Morgan is a Welsh,
not an Irish name; and evidence is lacking that there were Irish
Christians at that time; he was a Celt, 'whatever';--and went to
Rome, teaching and preaching. His doctrine was that man is not
originally sinful and naturally depraved; he had the temerity to
declare that pagans, especially those who had never heard of
Christianity, were not by God's ineffable mercy damned to
everlasting hell; that unbaptized infants were not destined to
frizzle eternally; that what a man ought to do, that he had the
power, within his own being, to do; and that his salvation lay
in his own hands. They translated his Welsh name (which means
'Sea-born') into the Greek--Pelagius; and dubbed his damnable
heresy 'Pelagianism'; and it was a heresy that flourished a good
deal in the Celtic Isles;--his writings came down in Ireland.
The incident is not much in itself; but something. Not that the
Celtic Church of David and Patrick was Pelagian; it was not. In
the matter of doctrine it is impossible to distinguish it from
the Church on the continent. But Pelagianism may suggest that
there were in Britain rel