How Britain became re-Christianized and Civilzed

 

Rome abandoned Britain around 400 AD and the society began to collapse.  The culture was too advanced and complex, too economically interdependent on southern Europe, to continue as it had been and defend itself as Rome had done.  By the time the pagan Saxons, Angles, Danes, Norwegians and Jutes arrived, much had fallen into disarray.  Farming had become subsistence, pottery ceased to be mass produced, brick building disappeared and wouldn’t return until the 14^th century. The invasion by Saxons, et. al. was piecemeal and took place over 200 years. Saxons were illiterate.

            So how did England become literate and Christian again?  A priest at St. Andrews monastery in Rome took the name of Augustine and was commissioned to take a stab at converting Britain. In 601 he was welcomed by Aethelbert, King of Kent, one of the 7 kingdoms (called the Saxon Heptarchy), located in extreme SE England.  Aethelbert had a Christian wife, Bertha, daughter of the king of the Franks. Augustine took up residence in a church that had been vacant for 200 years at Canterbury, was later designated Archbishop. That title comes down to us today. In a short time Aethelbert was baptized and many of his servants. Aethelbert thus became the first Christian English king.

             Augustine failed to gain allegiance of the underground Celtic church but was successful spreading the Gospel. In 625, Edwin, King of Northumbria (far north, next to Scotland), married Aethelbert’s daughter, Ethelburh, who brought along her chaplain, Paulinius. On the day of his first anniversary, Edwin narrowly escaped assassination and Ethelburh gave birth to a daughter.  Sobered by these experiences he promised Paulinius that he would become a Christian if God would give him victory over the West Saxons.  When Edwin won the battle it made him the most powerful king in the Heptarchy. He was baptized in 627 and Northumbria became Christian quickly. The influence of these two kings was compelling for other kings to adopt Christianity. East Anglia lies on the east coast (Suffolk and Norfolk today).  Redwald the king was radically pagan and drove his son, Sigebert, first to Aethelbert’s court and then to exile in France.  In 634 Sigebert returned and took control of the throne.  A devout Christian, he became so involved with the evangelism that in 638 he abdicated (retired) to a monastery and left control to his son. The final kingdom to accept Christianity was Sussex where a deposed king of Northumbria, Wilfrid, worked to bring Saxon nobles to Christ there.

            With the conversion of the Saxons came monasteries, the only place where one could obtain literacy and learning. Culture exploded in England.  In 676, an illiterate herdsman named Caedmon, after an evening of revelry had a vision that commanded him to write poetry for Christ.  In the vision, he recited verses he’d never heard, and to his surprise the following morning he could recite them perfectly. He was introduced to Hilda, abbess of Whitby who verified that he was reciting scripture.  She read him more scripture and he made them into more poetic verses. He spent the rest of his life turning Bible stories into verse, which were memorized and recited all over Dark Age Britain.  Boniface was born in Devonshire  and became a priest with a call to evangelize Europe.  He labored in Frisia (original homeland of the Saxons around present Bremerhaven), Holland and Germany with fearless methods.  He chopped down the sacred oak of Thor and tore down pagan shrines, preached and converted thousands.  He was martyred in Frisia in 754. A monk named Bede at Jarrow wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. It is the primary and sometimes sole source for early English history. Alcuin of York was persuaded by Charlemagne to come teach his French clergy.  He taught Latin, culture, and theology and invented a French style of writing called Caroline Miniscule with small and capital letters that we use today. He taught Charlemagne and most of his court to read and write. He is considered the most significant figure in Western European classical and religious revival that began in the late 700s. The fact that his learning surpassed the Franks shows how fast Old English culture had risen.