Crumbs from the Table

After decades of attacks on Rome by Germanic tribespeople from the East, in 476, Odoacer, a ruler Ostrogoth finally deposed the last Emperor of Rome, declaring himself “King”. The once all-powerful Roman Empire, at least the western half of it, was no more. Meanwhile, the eastern half of the Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, would survive and thrive until 1453. From this point onwards, west (Rome) and east (Constantinople) would follow divergent paths of development. What had been the western half of the Roman Empire was now ruled by peoples such as the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals and others. By the time they settled in the west, these peoples already professed a form of Christianity, but their Arian Christian faith denied the Trinity and viewed Christ merely as an exalted creature (see chapter V). The incoming “Barbarians” (uncivilised tribespeople, in the eyes of the Romans) occupied churches and, in some cases, persecuted the Nicene Christians (those who believed in the

The Anglo-Saxons had been Christianised in the 500s and 600s by Irish missionaries from the north, and from Roman (and Frankish) missionaries from the south. Thus, these formerly pagan settlers from what is now Germany and the Netherlands came to profess Christ, and embraced the gospel.  This led, in the late 600s and into the 700s, to a missionary movement from what we would call England back to the ancestral homeland of the newly converted Anglo-Saxons. In other words, having themselves turned to worship the true and living God, the Anglo-Saxons had a desire to bring that same gospel to their ancestors still living on the continent of Europe.  Two names stand out among the many Anglo-Saxon missionaries.  The first is Willibrord . He hailed from Northumbria, and arrived in Frisia (Netherlands) in 690. He laboured among the Frisian people for many decades, and saw fruit from his labours, but also died a martyr's death, demonstrating the ongoing hostility to the gospel on the part o