Origins of the English Church

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.

Mainstream Christianity holds that the original covenant between God and the Jewish people was replaced by a New Covenant in the blood of Christ. And legend holds that the chalice containing that blood is buried in England.

The Christian faith certainly began to flourish in these isles with the Roman conquest of the first century. Despite periodical persecution, until it was officially recognised in the year 313, it proved popular. There is evidence that the Romano - British elite used their villas as centres of worship. Within these villas, Christian symbols, fused with pagan images, have been found suggesting that these Christians were also influenced by earlier religious traditions. By the 5th Century, Christianity was firmly established within the British Isles. But it was not quite the same Church that was developing in continental Europe. The faith had come to Britain very early on, right from the beginning if you believe the Glastonbury legends. But it existed before Augustine of Hippo had thrashed out his ideas on morality and the trinity. The Celtic Church was not unaffected by these ideas which came to dominate as 'Orthodox', but it didn't really take to them to the same extent as the continental Church. The faith remained simpler and was more based around the joy of God's creation and the spiritual world that lies beyond ours. It was a largely monastic tradition, with an abbot rather than a bishop acting as leader. It had a strong ascetic tradition 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.

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.

However, it was not the Celtic Church that first brought Christianity to the English people, but the Church of 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:

"This is how the present life of man on Earth, King, appears to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us. You are sitting feasting with your ealdormen and thegns in winter time. The fire is burning on the hearth in the middle of the hall and all outside is warm, while outside the wintry storms of rain and snow are raging - and a sparrow flies swiftly through the hall. It enters in at one door and quickly flies out through the other. For the few moments it is inside, the storm and wintry tempest cannot touch it, but after the briefest moment of calm, it flits from your sight, out of the wintry storm and into it again. So this life of man appears but for a moment. What follows or, indeed, what went before, we know not at all."

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 Synod of Whitby was held in 664 to try to resolve the differences between the two traditions. It ended with a victory for the Roman Church. However, the continuing influence of the Celtic tradition cannot be underestimated and is something that the modern English Church should seek to draw inspiration from.

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