Christianity in Britain up until 596

596/7 is the date when Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, sent a mission to evangelise the pagan English (Angle, Saxon and Jute settlers in Britain). However, Christianity had been in Britain since the second century. This blog post is an attempt to present a chronicle of Christianity in Britain. 

In 43 AD, under the Emperor Claudius, a large part of what is now England and Wales was annexed by the Roman Empire, and designated the province of Britannia. Roman towns included Londinium (London), Verulamium (St Alban's), Dubris (Dover), Isca Dumononiorum (Exeter), Lindum (Lincoln) and Eboracum (York). 

The indigenous population of Roman Britain were Britons, speakers of the Brythonic language (Celtic branch of the Indo-European languages).

There is archaeological evidence that Christianity was introduced to Roman Britain by the late 100s (second century). It is suspected that Christianity first arrived as a result of informal trade and other contacts between Gaul and Britain, rather than as a result of organised missionary activity. The medieval historian, Bede, claims that a British king, Lucius, wrote to the bishop of Rome approx. 160 AD, asking to become a believer. While this may be legendary, Christianity did make its appearance in Britain around this time, or slightly later. Church fathers Tertullian (d. 220) and Origen (c. 253) both make reference to Christianity having reached Britain. A Christian acrostic has been found at Colchester dated to the mid-200s or early 300s.  

An early British martyr was Alban who is believed to have been beheaded for the faith at Verulamium (now St Alban's, in his honour) in the 3rd of 4th century. Aaron and Julius may have been martyred earlier, in the mid-200s (third century) at Chester. The Roman-British church was represented at the 314 Council of Arles by Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius of either Lincoln or Colchester. The wall fresco (picture) was in a house and dates to approx. 360. 

An early British heritage heretic was Pelagius (d. 418), whose false teachings denying the need for saving grace were disproven by church father Augustine. 

In 407 the last Roman soldiers left Britain, and a new phase in the life of the island began, dominated by the incoming Angles, Saxons and Jutes - Germanic by ethnicity and pagan by religion. 

In 429, bishop Germanus of Auxerre in Gaul visited the British churches to stamp out the Pelagian heresy. He made a second visit in 447, accompanied by Lupus of Troyes (Trier). 

From the 300s, the South East of Britain came to be dominated by non-Christian settlers from the continent, Angles, Saxons and Jutes. By about the year 500 there was little or no trace of the former bishoprics of London, York etc. and the Christian Britons had been pushed westwards into Cornwall, Wales and Rheged (Cumbria), where Christianity flourished under leaders such as David, Gildas and others ("Age of the Saints"). 

In about 580, the pagan King Ethelbert of Kent married a Christian Frankish princess Bertha. Bertha came to Britain with her own chaplain, Liudhard, and set up her own private chapel, St. Martin’s Church (Martin of Tours had been the Enlightener of the Franks). 

This paved the way for the success of Augustine's mission in 596/7. Around the same time English kingdoms in the north of the country were being evangelised by Celtic Christians with origins in Ireland.