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The Anglo
Saxon Church |
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And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen? Nobody
is sure precisely when Christianity first came to Britain. And yet, as William Blake's words suggest,
there is a legend that Our Lord himself walked upon our land. It holds that his uncle, St Joseph of
Arimathea, brought the young Jesus to Britain to escape persecution. It goes
on to tell of how, after Our Lord had been crucified and raised to heaven, St
Joseph came back to these isles with the chalice that Jesus had used in the
last supper. This chalice is the famous Holy Grail of legend, into which St
Joseph had reputably caught drops of Christ's blood at the crucifixion. He
buried the Grail at Glastonbury in Somerset where he founded the first Church
in Britain, St Mary's. It is also said that this location is the burial place
of the legendary King Arthur. |
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There is no firm
evidence for any of this and yet the legends persist, firmly rooted in our
folk traditions. Indeed, St Joseph was reputably a tin merchant and probably
would have travelled to Britain so there may be something to it! There is,
however, firm evidence that Christianity flourished in these Islands in these
very early years. Gildas, writing in the early 6th century,
maintained that Christianity came to Britain in the last year of Tiberius
Caesar, which would have been AD37. The Orthodox Church holds that
Christianity was brought to Britain in about AD45 by people from the region
of Ephesus (modern Turkey). This view is given some support by the fact that
the Church in the British Isles maintained that its original Liturgy was that
of Saint John, who is known to have lived in Ephesus in his later
years. Five Papal Council’s (Pisa in 1409, Constance in 1417, Sens
in 1418, Siena in 1424 and Basle in 1434) stated the antiquity of
the British Church and held it to be the oldest in the whole of the gentile
world. Saint Aristibule,
one of the Seventy Apostles mentioned in the Gospel of Saint Luke 10:1, who
died in about AD90, was Bishop of Britain. He is regarded by the Orthodox
Church as the “Apostle of Britain”. Recent
archaeology suggests that the oldest church building so far positively
identified in Britain, dates from approximately 140. We also know of
domestic Christian remains of earlier date in the south of
Britain. There is even evidence that the Romano - British elite used
their villas as centres of worship. Within these villas, Christian symbols,
fused with pagan images perhaps reflecting the variety of religions tolerated
in the Empire at that time. The Roman historian Tertullian, in a tract
written around 208, not only mentions the Church in Britain, but refers to it
as having extended beyond the area of Roman rule. Saint
Dyfan is regarded as the first Christian Martyr of
the British Isles, being martyred around 190. Saint Alban was among several
other martyrs, including Bishop Stephen of London, martyred around
300-304. Ancient
Britain can even lay claim to Emperor Constantine the Great, who recognised
Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. He had followed
his father Constantine 1 to York with his wife Helena, who some historians
believe was a Briton. It was in York, in 306 that his father died and he was
proclaimed Emperor. In
314, the Bishop of York, Bishop Restitutus of
London and Bishop Adelfius of Caerleon
and a large retinue attended the Council of Arles. Saint Athanasius states
that the British Church recorded her agreement to the decisions of the First
Ecumenical Council held at Nicaea in 325. In 359, British Bishops attended
the Council of Rimini. Very
soon after the introduction of monasticism into the Eastern Empire from
Egypt, it appeared in the British Church. In fact, monasticism was to become
the predominant form of Christian organisation and came to be strongly
associated with Celtic Christianity. It had a strong ascetic ethos as well as
holding scholarship and the arts in high regard. It was a tradition of
hermits and holy men. It is often said that the Celtic tradition was more in
tune with the natural world, possibly reflecting the influence of the old
druid religion. The
Church in the British Isles at this time looked more to the Patriarchate of
Jerusalem than to Rome. Some of the most powerful leaders of the British
Church at this time, including Saint David, seemed to deliberately ally
themselves to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. This may be because they felt that
the centre of the Church should be the place where Jesus had actually
ministered. This relative isolation from Rome led to a number of
differences in Church Governance, dating and general culture that was not
resolved until the Synod of Whitby in 664. By
the fifth century, the Roman Empire was being pressured from incursions by
Germanic tribes from the north. Gradually, the Empire began to pull its
troops out of peripheral places such as Britain to shore up its continental
heartland. At the same time, prosperous Romano Britain came under increasing
pressure from various tribes of what we would now call Ireland, Wales and
Scotland. Roman withdrawal meant they could not defend the Britons against
these attacks, despite many pleas to do so. Paradoxically, the Britons turned
to a group of Germanic people to defend them. Many of these warriors had
experience of fighting with (and against) Roman soldiers and some of them
probably already lived in Britain. They were the Germanic tribes of Angels,
Saxons, Jutes and Frisians who, today, we call the Anglo-Saxons. They were
offered land in return for protection and did an excellent job.
Unfortunately, for the Britons they liked the land so much they decided to
stay! As
the Germanic peoples moved into lowland Britain, the main body of Britons
retreated into the northern and western highlands, repeating previous
patterns of migration and conquest. The Church retreated with them. From
here, the Celtic Church actually began to flourish, but was isolated from the
Church on the continent. The
Anglo-Saxons were not Christians when they first came to the British Isles.
For many decades, the Britons made little if any attempt to convert them.
Nobody is quite sure why. Perhaps they were in too much disarray following
the English conquest. Perhaps they were frightened of the fierce Germanic
warriors, or maybe they rather liked the idea of thinking that their enemies
would not enjoy the benefits of their idea of heaven. The Anglo-Saxons, for
their part, allowed the Britons to continue to practice their Christian
faith. Christianity
came to the English from both the Celtic British Church and from Rome. Bede
tells the story of how Pope Gregory 1 was walking through a market place in
Rome when he saw a group of boys with "fair complexions, handsome faces
and lovely hair" being put up for sale as slaves. On asking where they
came from, he was told 'from the Island of Britain whose people were of that
appearance'. He asked if they were Christian and was told that they were
still heathen. Sighing deeply, he is
reputed to have said: "Alas, that the author of darkness should have men
so bright of face in his grip, and that minds devoid of inward grace should
bear so graceful an outward form." When asked which tribe these lads
came from, he was told the Angli.
"Good", he said, "they have the faces of angels and such men
should be fellow heirs of the angels in heaven". It
was from this encounter, that in 596 Gregory ordered Augustine, an Italian
Churchman, to go to the land of the Angels (Engel) and convert them to the
Christian faith. Landing on the Isle of Thanet, he was kindly received by
King Aethelbert whose wife Bertha was a Christian.
At first, Aethelbert was extremely suspicious of
the Christian missionaries believing that they intended to bewitch him.
However, he allowed them to set up a small monastery where they began to
preach the Christian faith. In time, Aethelbert
himself was baptised, thus paving the way for mass conversions of his
subjects. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canturbury
and died in 604. Another
famous Italian missionary who brought the Christian faith to the English was Paulinus (563-644). He left Italy in AD 601 to assist
Augustine in his conversion of southern England. In AD 625, King Edwin of
Northumbria, who was still a heathen, married the Christian Aethelburga, daughter of King Aethelbert
of Kent who had received St. Augustine. Paulinus
went with her to her new husband's kingdom, having been consecrated - on 21st
July 625 - by Archbishop Justus as Bishop of the Northumbrians. Paulinus held a conference with the highest Northumbrian thegns, where he explained to them the advantages of the
Christian religion:
Bede tells us that having been convinced of the
new faith, the high Priest, Coifi, personally rode
out to the great heathen temple at Goodmanham and
threw a spear into it - representing the end of the old religion. The present
parish church there may possibly occupy the site. Edwin was baptised shortly afterwards at York on Easter Day 627. Paulinus spread the gospel all over northern England
until 633 when King Edwin fell in battle to the heathen King Penda of Mercia.
As a result, he returned to Kent with Edwin's widow. He later became Bishop
of Rochester until his death in 644 and is buried in the Cathedral there. Christianity did not die out following the
departure of Paulinus. Within only a couple of
years of Edwin's death, Oswald the new King of Northumbria,
invited Aidan, one of the young monks from the monastery on Iona, to
establish a monastery on the island of Lindesfarne.
Aidan established churches all over northern England and even travelled as
far south as East Anglia. However, there was a subtle change. Whilst Paulinus had been a 'Roman' Christian, Aidan and the
monastery of Lindesfarne were of the Celtic
tradition. In reality, there must have been much interaction between the two,
but a subtle difference was established between the Christianity of northern
and southern England that to some extent is still evident today. These early
days of the establishment of the faith in England saw not just changes
between the Celtic and Roman traditions, but also resurgences of the old
heathen religion. To some extent, all three must have co-habited, especially
in the lives of ordinary people. The differences between Celtic and Roman Christianity
are sometimes dismissed as little more than an argument about how you should
wear your hair and when you should celebrate Easter. But the differences were
more profound than this. The arguments over the 'correct' tonsure - or hair
cut for Monks - were really more about Church authority and culture. Should
the priests be 'above' the people or an intrinsic part of the people. Roman Christianity was more hierarchical and the
priests developed into a ruling elite, many becoming
increasingly remote from the ordinary people. Celtic Christianity, on the
other hand, was more ascetic. Priests lived in smaller monastic units and
often travelled around the countryside spreading the Word. They lived simple
lives, were closer to nature and recognised that the
divine presence of God existed in all things and through all things. They
sought to live with the world around them as part of it rather than seeking
to tame and subdue it.
The fusion of the Celtic and Roman traditions
into a single Anglo Saxon Church led to a golden era of Christianity in
England, particularly in Northumberland. It was the era of Bede and St
Cuthbert, of scholarship and monastic life, of the Lindisfarne Gospels. It
was an era when England was seen as the Rome of Northern Europe and English took
the leading role in spreading the Gospel to their Saxon cousins on the
continent. St Boniface (680 – 754), for instance, became known as the Apostle
of Germany. But this era drew to an untimely close with the sacking of
Lindisfarne in 793, heralding the Viking incursions that almost resulted in
the loss of Christian England to the heathen Danes. But even this dark period
produced some of our greatest heroes and heroic resistance to invasion. Blessed St Edmund, the true patron of Anglo
Saxon England, died a martyr’s death in 869 refusing to submit to the Danish
invaders. By the time of King Alfred the Great, England was almost entirely
under Danish rule. Although Alfred was one of the greatest, if not
the greatest, English King, he was never King of England. This is because the
country was still made up of a number of individual Kingdoms and had still
not been unified into a single state in his day. He did refer to himself as
King of the Anglo Saxons, though, demonstrating that the English had a clear
understanding of their common identity even if there was not a single state. Alfred became King of Wessex
in 871 and in this year the English suffered two defeats at the hands of the
Danes. Alfred managed to hold on to his reduced Kingdom and a period of peace
ensued for the following five years as the Danes sought to consolidate their
hold on the rest of England. However in 876, under their new leader, Guthrum, the Danes managed to slip past the English army
and attack Dorset. The following year, they advanced steadily westwards under
the pretext of peace talks into Devon. The fledgling English navy blockaded
the Danes at this point and after a relief fleet was scattered by storms, the
Danes were forced to retreat back into Mercia. However, they launched a
surprise attack on the royal party at Chippenham
over Christmas in 878, killing many people.
Alfred managed to escape into the woods and swamp land, eventually
establishing a fort at Athelney. Alfred’s escape
through the woods has given rise to one of the best known of English legends.
This tells of Alfred being given shelter by an old peasant woman, who being
unaware of his identity, left him to watch over some cakes she was cooking on
the fire. Alfred was so busy working out a strategy to defeat the Danes that
he forgot all about the cakes and they burned to a cinder. On her return, the
old woman told Alfred off in no uncertain terms, but apologised profusely when she realised who he was. Alfred, however, insisted that it was he
who should apologise. Cakes or no cakes, Alfred organised an effective resistance to the Danes from his
fort at Athelney and slowly drove them back, not
just out of Wessex but out of Mercia too. Warfare between the English and Danes continued
off and on for another 10 years or so, but under Alfred, the English were to
prove a much stronger adversary and won most of the battles. By 896 or 897,
the Danes gave up the struggle in southern England and either retired into
Northumberland or returned to the continent.
Alfred was therefore a great military leader who
reversed the precarious position regarding the Danes and is credited with
establishing the Royal Navy as well as a type of rapid response force on land
and sea that was able to repel the deadly Danish lightening attacks. However,
Alfred was not just a great military leader. He was also a man of great
learning and culture. The story of the burnt cakes is intended to show this.
The Danes destroyed monasteries and ruined learning and education in the
country. Alfred tried to revive all of these. He was clearly a man of great
learning himself and urged the clergy to improve their own education and to
restore something of the golden age of English Christianity. He personally translated works of
philosophy and religion into English and commissioned others to do the same,
including several books of the bible. He drew on the 10 Commandments for his
laws, which form the basis of the common law is still (though only just in
England itself) in use today. He made an effort to re-establish monastic
life, which had become almost extinct, and in this he was partially
successful. As part of a peace treaty with the Danes, he insisted on the
baptism of the Danish King Guthrum. Much of Alfred’s work in trying to restore the
religious life came to fruition in St Dunstan (909 – 988). As Abbot of
Glastonbury, Dunstan reformed his monastery under the rule of St Benedict and
it became a renowned centre of learning. In 959, Dunstan was made Archbishop of
Canterbury, and together with King Edgar, was responsible for a thorough
reformation of the Church and State. In effect, a second golden age of
English church history had taken place and the light of Bede’s world shone
through once again. All of this was yet again to be shortlived. The last Anglo Saxon King of England was King
Harold II, killed defending his homeland at the battle of Hastings on the 14
October 1066. May he rest in peace and
rise in glory, Amen. But in truth, the Anglo Saxon Church, just like
the Anglo Saxon people, did not end at Hastings. Both are still with us
today. The Church of England was partly justified as the re-establishment of
the Anglo Saxon Church and it is in this sense that the term ‘Anglican’ is
used by ASA. |