Summary: 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. ....
