Ecclesiastical History of the English People - Coursework Example

Ecclesiastical History of the English People Introduction St. Augustine mission to Christianise the English people started in 595. The mission aimed at converting to Christianity, the Anglo Saxons. The Roman Church then headed by Pope Gregory wanted to spread Christianity to the region. It is in this year when Pope Gregory the great appointed Augustine to lead a mission to Britain to convert the English people. The conversion first targeted King Ethelberht and his Kingdom of Kent. Ethelberht and the entire kingdom of Kent were Anglo Saxon pagans. This mission was referred to as the Gregorian mission. This mission led by Augustine marked the turning point for the Anglo Saxons pagans; the mission spread to the regions spontaneously and later merged with the Celtic mission.1 The activities that preceded the arrival of St Augustine to Kent changed the history of the regions. With the Kent kingdom being powerful at the time, the conversion of the King ushered in immense success for the kingdom of Kent. St. Augustine Mission Background In 410, the province of Britannia was left by the Roman legions; this left the people of the Britannia to defend themselves from the attacks led by the Saxons. The Britannia was already converted to Christianity before they left. After the Legions withdrawal, non Christians settled on the island’s southern parts. The inhabitants of the western part of Britain which was beyond the Anglo Saxon’s rule remained Christian dominated. These were Celtic Christians who developed slowly in complete isolation from Rome. The calculation of Easter and the style of the haircut of the Celtic clerics were different from that of the church in Rome. 1Bede, translated by Leo Sherley-Price, A History of the English Church and People, Penguin Classics, New York, 1988. Evidence of Christianity survival in Eastern Britain during the time exists. However, evidence on the issue of the conversion of native Christians to Anglo Saxons is unavailable. The Saxons invaded the province and destroyed the remnants of the Roman civilisation, economic and religious structures. It was during the era of King Ethelberht who married Bertha, a Christian princess; this was under the condition that she will be allowed to remain Christian that the St. Augustine mission. Before the year 588 Pope Gregory the first decided to send the Gregorian Mission to convert Anglo Saxons to Christianity. Augustine arrived on the Isle of Thanet and entered the Ethelberht’s main town of Canterbury. With the influence of his Christian wife the king was converted to Christianity. The conversion of the King prompted him to give the missionaries freedom to preach the word freely; in addition he gave them land which resulted to founding of a monastery. Augustine was ordained as bishop and many of the Kings subjects were converted, it was during the same year of 597 in the Christmas Day that mass baptism was held, thousand of the people in Kent were baptised. The baptism of the king and his 2000 servants marked the turning point of the medieval history because the church gained grounds to penetrate the region. The mission of Augustine Augustine was at that time, accompanied or escorted by Laurence of Canterbury and a group of 40 companions who comprised of monks. On landing in Kent the mission had great initial success. The success was marked by the conversion of Ethelberht. During the early medieval period, religious conversion was more successful with the conversion of the ruler. The subjects could then easily emulate the ruler. This hierarchical approach was liked by many people. Bede Portrays Augustine as aggressive and conformist. Augustine triggered the conversion of the Anglo Saxons, he is portrayed as conformist due to believe he held which he had about the Roman Church, these believes were affirmed by Wilfred in the Whitby Synod. The region of Kent played key role in the conversion of Britain in the period dating 550-700 due to number of reasons. Kent was by the then the reigning regime in the south eastern part or territory of Britain. According to Bede (102) Ethelberht was having a lot of power south of the river Humber. There was also well established trade between the Franks and Ethelberht kingdom. The geographical proximity of Kent to Franks also allowed support fro the Christian in the area. The only obstacle experienced in the conversion of Kent was the language barrier.2 The Synod of Whitby As the Christianity spread in Kent and the surrounding regions, confusions occurred between the Celtic Christians and the Roman Christians. This was after the King of Northumbria, King Oswiu an ardent follower of the Celtic Church, observed the Easter according to the Celtic 84 year cycles. The king had married the daughter of the king of Kent who followed the Roman cycle of 19 years. The two calendars precipitated the confusion as Easter was kept twice a year. The confusion was greatly witnessed in the King Oswiu palace to an extent that when the king was celebrating Easter, the queen and her attendants were in fasting in Lent and keeping the Palm Sunday. This interfered with the smooth running of the activities in the palace. This led to the church calling for a meeting between the Celtic and the Roman Church to solve the issue. 2Bede, translated by Leo Sherley-Price, A History of the English Church and People, Penguin Classics, New York, 1988. The deliberations in the Synod resulted in the Northumbrian Kingdom adopting the Roman way of haircutting for clerics and the Roman calculations for Easter. It is during the Synod that the Celtic Church acknowledged the superiority of the wider church. They agreed that Christianity was to be treated as containing the fullest truth and the expression was to be found in the widest universal church. The consequences of the Synod were that the Church in England was not to restrict itself on the English culture, but it had to abide and follow the new dictates of the wider church. This was a win for the roman Church. Roman mission in Kent In 664, Wilfred was the Roman party spokesman at the Synod of Whitby, which was convened to solve the problem of calculating Easter which had had engulfed the Northumbria Kingdom. Wilfred was an English bishop and later recognised as a saint. He was born Northumbrian Noble and entered religious life when he was a teenager. The Synod was chaired by Oswald an ardent follower of the Celtic Church. Wilfred is portrayed in this mission as key factor which led to the Celtic mission adopting the Roman Church calendar. Bede also portrays him as defensive religious leader who through his speech the Celtic Christians acknowledged the Roman Church. The Celtic Mission was not that aggressive and it focussed on individual conversion, it thus did not have much support in the region. The Roman mission converted the Anglo Saxons through first converting the leader then going down the hierarchy. The Celtic mission was holistic with focus on individual conversion.3 3Blair John, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Because of his speech of advocating the Roman method, Wilfred became famous. According to Bede (94), Wilfred argued that whoever who did not follow the Roman calculation for Easter committed sin. The success of Wilfred led to the Alhfrith appointing him as Bishop of Northumbria. He was consecrated in Gaul because he considered that there were no bishops in England who were validly consecrated. Internal squabbles within the Kingdom of Northumbria saw Oswiu appointing Caedda in the place of Wilfred. This led to Wilfred retiring to Ripon for some years. Theodore of Tarsus became archbishop of Canterbury in 668 and restored Wilfred as the Bishop of Northumbria. The next five years Wilfred discharged his duties in Episcopal, built churches, founded monasteries and improved the liturgy. The diocese he operated was large and Theodore wanted to reform the English church, this resulted to disagreement with him. Ecgfrith expelled Wilfred from York, Wilfred travelled all the way to Rome to make an appeal to the papacy issue. Ecgfrith did not honour the appeal and Wilfred was exiled. He went to Selsey where he founded the Episcopal and converted to Christianity the pagan inhabitants living in the kingdom of Sussex. Northumbria Mission From Rome, St. Augustine missionary came up with a mission in Kent, England. In 616, Edwin seized the throne in Northumbria and replaced his sister’s husband, Aethelfrith the Ravanger. This led to Oswald, son of Aethelfrith fleeing into Scotland and settled in the island of Iona which was off the coast of southern Scotland. It is in this island that Oswald faced/mixed with the Christian faith due to his interactions with the Christians in the Island; he was subsequently converted and baptized. In 1932, after Edwin was killed, Oswald came back from exile so as to claim leadership of the throne. In battle near Hexham, he met Cadwallon. Oswald had a small army with less than a dozen who were Christians. They joined him in the prayer and promised to be baptized if they worn the battle. Oswald defeated Cadwallon and killed him. Oswald thereafter became one of the most powerful leaders of the seven kingdoms, and he was recognized as the paramount king of Heptarchy. The major concern for Oswald was to convert his people to Christianity, he thus sent a messengers to Iona, requesting for a preacher who was a Christian. The first preacher did not succeed and was replaced by a preacher by the name Aidan who gained a lot of success. Afterwards, Aidan was joined by other preachers and the Church in Northumbria flourished. Oswald advanced to Wessex, which was the most powerful kingdom. By that time Wessex was largely pagan, Kinerburga the bride to Oswald accepted to be converted to Christianity together with her father. This opened the door for the spread of Gospel in southwestern England. Ethelburgha was married by Edwin. She was a princess of Kent, and she came with the Missionary Paulinus, who later became the very first archbishop of York. Due to the political reasons and the marriage, Edwin and his attendants were converted to Christianity and were baptized in 627. This was political and marriage influenced conversion unlike that of Oswald which came up due to the people he interacted with in the island. The advent of Christianity in Northumbria was a major success as through the church many missionaries could reach the surrounding kingdoms. Jarrow’s Monastery In 670-685, Northumbria was ruled by King Ecgfrith. His armies combed Ireland, Cumbria and into current southern Scotland. He was the husband to Ethelthryth the founder of Abbey of Ely and friend of Saint Wilfred, who advocated the practices of the Roman Church at the Synod of Whitby in 664. Due to the influences from the wife the King gave out Jarrow Land to Benedict Biscop. Benedict accepted the gift and send Ceolfrith accompanied by ten monks and twelve novices to land at Jarrow from St. Peters Monastery at Wearmouth, twelve miles away, it is these monks and novices that found the then new monastery of St. Paul’s. The Wearmouth Jarrow monastery was both a city and university, it provided internal cultural heritage that extended beyond political boundaries. The monastery provided education and hospitality for travellers. Impacts of the Church The coming of the church to the England resulted in many changes. The church adopted the approach of converting the rulers which then made it easy for them to reach the subjects who most of the time followed their rulers in the new religion and abandoned the pagan ways. This hierarchical nature was favoured by many people. There were religious inter-marriages between the kingdoms. The Church capitalised on the marriages to win more converts. The church a short term success in the conversion o0f Anglo Saxons, however the long term gains were not realised due to uprisings against kingdoms. Stability was realised in the during the time even though this did not yield long term results as revolts normally resulted to the church losing converts to the pagans. Conclusion 597 was the key turning point in the conversion of English people. The mission led by Augustine resulted to conversion of many Anglo Saxons to Roman church. This was aided by the King accepting the baptism and giving the missionaries permission to preach in the kingdom. The geographical location of the Kent Kingdom also played major role in the conversion. The St. Augustine mission came to Kent with 40 missionaries, their success led to more missionaries being sent to follow them. The Celtic missionaries working on the eastern side later were confused with the roman church calendar and some activities. The confusion led to the Whitby Synod in which the deliberations led to the Celtic Church agreeing with Roman Church on ways to acknowledge the wider church during the Whitby Synod. The Northumbria and the Kent kingdoms had great impact to the conversion of the English people.4 4Bede, translated by Leo Sherley-Price, A History of the English Church and People, Penguin Classics, New York, 1988. Bibliography Bede, translated by Leo Sherley-Price. A History of the English Church and People. Penguin Classics, New York, 1988. Blair, J. The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Read More