The British History Podcast

So last week we ended with Augustine converting the people of Kent to Christianity and AEthelberht coming out as Christian... was he converted by Augustine or had he already been converted? We just don't know. Support the Show

96 – The Conversion of King AEthelberht

In the last several episodes we’ve been speaking about religion. We’ve spoken about the paganism that existed on the island, the christians that lived on the island, the reasons why individuals and rulers might want to convert, and of course we’ve spoken about what the church in Rome was up to and what their plans were. So we know that the Church wanted to extend its control over Britain, and that now it felt it had a good opportunity to do so since they had an opening with the most powerful king in southern Britain who also happened to have ties with the Frankish courts through marriage. The time to strike was now! We also have learned how that, while much of eastern Britain was pagan (and we have tantalizingly few details of exactly how that paganism was practiced), Christianity was not unknown… and despite the popular mythology, Anglo Saxon Britain was awash in Christianity long before the Pope decided to send an envoy to the island. Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Britons who lived within Anglo Saxon Britain… there were Christians all over the place. Despite the mission that the Pope sent to Britain, this region was not as deeply pagan as the… well lets call them what they are… myths that we’ve been told of the wild and wooly island of dark ages britain. And we hit the pause button as Augustine was travelling through less than perfectly safe territory, with letters from the Pope in hand, on his way to Kent with a whole posse of missionaries (some of whom had the heebie jeebies about this strange island that had a history of giving Rome a headache). So why don’t we pick the story up right there. ....

In the last several episodes we’ve been speaking about religion. We’ve spoken about the paganism that existed on the island, the christians that lived on the island, the reasons why individuals and rulers might want to convert, and of course we’ve spoken about what the church in Rome was up to and what their plans were. Support the Show

It's time for another quiz!

BHP Pub Quiz #3

Ok, so why convert? I mean, we’re looking at a warrior culture with gods that reflected it. And anyone who spent time looking at the character of Christ would soon realize that he was a civilian... not a warrior. And pretty much everyone of any status (with the possible exception of the priest class) was a warrior of one sort or another. So what good was this god? And he probably appeared rather strange, since his story involves him being killed... he never fights a war... his message is forgiveness and peace... and his followers eat his flesh and drink his blood. All in all, it probably seemed quite strange. And on top of everything else, you couldn’t worship him in addition to your war gods... We will see, later in our story, that some Pagan kings tried to just fit Christ into the pantheon... but that wasn’t allowed, and the church was quite clear that you could /only/ worship the christian god. No others. In a world that’s filled with gods, such an action is spurning a lot of other gods. That seems dangerous. So how do you sell that?

The reality is that much of what we know of the conversion of England in the sixth century comes from Bede. But the trouble is that Bede doesn’t seem overly well informed about sixth century England. In fact, it looks like until he got access to Pope Gregory’s letters, he didn’t even know when St. Augustine was sent to England to convert the population (sorry about the spoilers there). So it seems to me that so he probably doesn’t know the whole truth of the state of Christianity in England. We’re told that by the time that the Roman Catholic Church returned to Britain, and St. Augustine landed in Kent, we're told that he had to go far to the West to find Christians to speak with. But I don’t think that’s entirely accurate and there were probably Christians to be found if he looked in the right places. At Iona, we know of at least two Christian Englishmen (Pilu and Generus) who were practicing at St. Columba’s monastery in what would become Scotland before the time of St. Augustine. And then you have the example of the Roman villa in Lullingstone had a house church, which demonstrated that for a while there were some wealthy Christians there. Then you have Bede’s claims that the Christian cult of St. Alban was maintained without break from Roman times. And major scholars such as Levison and Campbell accept his assertion. And actually, there was another Christian cult.... the cult of Sixtus... that I find absolutely fascinating. The followers of Sixtus claimed he was a saint (in reality, it looks like he was a Bishop) but they couldn't recall any specific facts of him. They didn't know how he died, they didn't know what miracles he had performed, and they were even a bit shaky on Christian practice.

Now its hard to get a clear view of what Welsh Christianity would have looked like, but there probably would have been many aspects that would have been familiar to Christians on the continent. Towards the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, Christianity became the official religion of the empire and communities were pressured not only to convert but to construct churches. And this was the same in mainland europe. And as things started to fall apart, civic urban life and the public spaces that were tied to it also started to decline. And we do see evidence of that occurring in the archaeological record. In the face of that, it's probable that many of these churches became important community centers. And some scholars claim that you can see evidence of the rise of the social aspect of Christianity in in that churches were built next to the forums at Lincoln, Silchester, and Exeter for example. And this social pressure for conversion and zeal would have only increased with the declaration that public displays of paganism were illegal. And it's probable that pagan temples were desecrated during this period, or at the very least Christianized. And we see examples of that all through Roman Britain. Britain at the end of the empire was on a pro christian and anti pagan path, much like the rest of the West, which probably explains the similarities between British and Continental Christians.

95 – Two Old Men and a Slave Boy

So it’s 595 CE, and Bede tells us that Pope Gregory the First decided to visit a nearby slave market. Why? I’m not sure. Maybe it was a slow day at the Vatican, and this was before the internet so what else are you going to do for fun? Whatever the reason, apparently the Pope decided to go peruse the wares, so to speak. And we’re told that he came upon a group of pale skinned, fair haired slave boys. And apparently they caught his eye. When Gregory inquired about them, he was told they were Angles. It’s reported that he responded to this saying Non Angli, sed angeli (in English, that means “not Angles, but Angels”). I like to imagine that he turned to a nearby acolyte, shouted “Up top!” and high fived him. Anyway, we’re told that he then asked more specifically where the boys were from, and he was told that they were pagans from Diera. To which Gregory added that they should be rescued from “de ira” (which, in Latin, means “from wrath”). And then hopefully he turned around and said “Sabinian, don’t leave me hanging bro... come on, that was pretty good.” But Bede neglects to tell us if high fives actually occurred... but the high fives (or more likely groans) were well deserved because we’re also told that after learning that the king of Diera was named King Aelle, Gregory instead decided to refer to him King Alleluia. And then I’m guessing he said “Thank you, you’ve been a great audience. I’ll be here all week.” Before dispatching Augustine to convert the pagans...

Ok, so lets leave Britain for this episode and head to Rome. I hear it’s nice this time of year. Actually, I hear it’s really hot this time of year. But it seems like everywhere is right now... so Rome it is! Support the Show

As we go forward in this series, what I hope you're beginning to get a sense of from both the WelshCast and all the other shows focusing on the so called Dark Ages, is how fragmented life in Britain was at this point in history. We simply are not dealing with homogenous populations over the whole of britain, or even the whole of Wales. In today’s culture, we have a surprising amount of commonality thanks to the influences of media, travel and national political bodies. But even today, you’ll find distinct cultural differences in different parts of Wales, and definitely in different parts of the UK. Well, part of what I’ve been trying to show you as we’ve been going through this stuff is that the cultural differences would have been even greater back then. There were different cultural groups, ethnic groups, kingdoms... you name it. Britain wasn’t Britain. It was just an island with a big patchwork of different communities. And that becomes quite an issue for us when we try to look at religion, since our records are generally rather sparse. And that scarcity only serves to heighten the difficulties we have with the diversity of cultures we’re seeing in Britain. For example, even if we had detailed texts on religious practices in Dyfed, it still wouldn't necessarily tell us much of anything regarding the remainder of britain. Not even if we’re looking at members of the same religion. As we go forward we’ll find that Christians in one area won’t necessarily practice the same as Christians in another. And when we add paganism into the mix, it really gets complicated.

94 – Dark Age Beliefs

As we go forward in this series, what I hope you're beginning to get a sense of from both the WelshCast and all the other shows focusing on the so called Dark Ages, is how fragmented life in Britain was at this point in history. We simply are not dealing with homogenous populations over the whole of britain, or even the whole of Wales. In today’s culture, we have a surprising amount of commonality thanks to the influences of media, travel and national political bodies. But even today, you’ll find distinct cultural differences in different parts of Wales, and definitely in different parts of the UK. Well, part of what I’ve been trying to show you as we’ve been going through this stuff is that the cultural differences would have been even greater back then. There were different cultural groups, ethnic groups, kingdoms... you name it. Britain wasn’t Britain. It was just an island with a big patchwork of different communities. And that becomes quite an issue for us when we try to look at religion, since our records are generally rather sparse. And that scarcity only serves to heighten the difficulties we have with the diversity of cultures we’re seeing in Britain. For example, even if we had detailed texts on religious practices in Dyfed, it still wouldn't necessarily tell us much of anything regarding the remainder of britain. Not even if we’re looking at members of the same religion. As we go forward we’ll find that Christians in one area won’t necessarily practice the same as Christians in another. And when we add paganism into the mix, it really gets complicated. Support the Show