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...

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 Bri...

In 311 Emperor Galerius brought an end to a seven-year period of intense persecution of Christians (known as "the Great Tribulation"), issuing his Edict of Toleration . This was followed, in 313, by Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan, declaring freedom of religion and, among other things, granting the return of church property. Over the next few decades Christianity went from being a minority faith representing maybe 10% of the population, to the religion of 90%. Some speak of the church being changed from "corpus Christi" (the body of Christ) to "corpus Christianorum" (a body of Christians), i.e. from an organic community of believers to a state-sponsored institution. In 380 Emperor Theodosius declared mainstream Christianity the religion of the Empire, banning pagan religions and heretical Christian communities.  The challenge facing the church during the short fourth century (311-381) was to "win the peace". Having withstood the fires of...