When did Christianity first come to England and how did it affect people's lives and literature?

Answer 1

Christianity came to England first during the Roman period. There is evidence of it from the 2nd Century, although it may have existed before then. We know that the first Christian martyr, St Alban, was killed in 304 AD, and he was a bishop, which meant that he was head over a number of churches. This indicates that Christianity, though persecuted and disliked by the Emperors, had enough followers in England for it to be organized. Under the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christianity was acknowledged and promoted, so things changed. By 314 three British bishops attended a church council in Arles in France, Eborius bishop of York, Restitutus bishop of London and Adelius bishop of Caerleon (modern Wales). That shows the spread of Christianity was fairly well everywhere over Britain. Before Christianity came, the people of Britain were polytheists. This fitted in well with the Romans, who were also polytheists and tended to try and merge the existing religions of the provinces into their own. On top of this was a belief in the deity of the Emperor, which was meant to unify all beliefs within the empire. The beliefs of Christianity, however, were diametrically opposed to polytheism and the deification of a human ruler. That is why the Romans hated Judaism and Christianity so much because they saw monotheism as undermining the unity of the Empire. The gradual shift from polytheism to Christianity, therefore, would have changed society greatly. Many of the sacred sites of paganism would have been abandoned, and new sites created ie church buildings. But it was more than just replacement. Christianity believed in one holy day per week, on which people rested from work. That was a monumental change to society, as, before that, there were set holy days through the year, but nothing like a day of rest on a regular basis. Society, therefore, became Sunday oriented. That was the day on which families and communities worshipped together. Pagan rites tended to be more individual (ie you went to the temple or sacred site when you had a request for a god) although there were certainly holy days that involved the entire community. Still, at those days, families came and went at the holy place. They were rarely gathered together for common worship. As well as becoming Sunday oriented, the day gradually began to break into hours. As churches developed, their bells told the community what time it was. No longer was the day just divided into long periods- it began to become more precise. We cannot know how much Christianity altered the daily lives of the little people, but it must be recognised that, for the first time, they began to feel ties beyond those of their tribes and nation, as they were taught that they were part of something so much bigger, that aimed to unite the world into a brother/sisterhood of believers. For the first time, people must have begun to have had feelings for people beyond their communities. If a Christian from France came as a trader, he would be welcomed in a way that a pagan trader from their own community might not. As for literature at this time, it is hard to know. Certainly, even though most were illiterate, they would have been instructed in The Bible. Memories were prodigious in those days, so it was more than just remembering a few stories. Many of the men and women of the clergy could recite the entire New Testament in Greek or Latin, and it is possible that many ordinary people could also. Christianity was producing a lot of literature in Europe, and these would have been available to Christians in Britain as well, read by the literate and to the illiterate. None of the music of this time has survived, but there would have been Christian musical traditions developing. When the Empire fell, and pagan tribes such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded, Christianity must have been affected badly. Once again, society, as a whole, became pagan and polytheistic, but, there is little doubt that some Christians held on. Ireland and Wales became a stronghold for Christianity, and it was from there that missionaries came to re-evangelise the British. At the same time, missions were also coming from mainland Europe. By the end of the 6th C, most of Britain was, once again, Christian. The Sutton Hoo burial represents the last throes of paganism. If it does, indeed, belong to Redwald of East Anglia, then it explains the tension in the grave goods. Raedwald had lived his life as a pagan, hence the many pagan items in the grave, but there are also apostle spoons there, too, which would tie in with the fact that Raedwald converted to Christianity on his deathbed. Gradually, the pagan kings accepted Christianity, but the two forms- Irish/Greek and European/Latin eventually came to theological loggerheads at the great Synod of Whitby (chaired by the formidable Abbess Hilda) in 663/4. The English church voted to follow Latin tradition and calendar for the sake of unity. Once again, Christianity took central place in the communities of Britain, and, with its focus on Rome, it became 'the information highway'. British Christian art and literature, reflected in the great manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, rivalled Europe. Art, the concept of researched history, medicine, science, were all protected and nurtured within the Christian church. The recent discovery of a 7th/8th C Mercian treasure hoard near Lichfield UK, shows how skilled English metalworkers were in the service of the church, as a number of intricate gold crosses were found. When speaking of the influence of Christianity on literature, we have more information than for the British period, because works still survive from the period. One of these is part of a work by the Saxon poet Caedmon, a protege of Abbess Hilda. He is one of 12 known poets from the Anglo-Saxon period. By the time of Alfred the Great (849-899), a nationalism had begun, and a desire for more works in English. Alfred was, himself, literate, and translated parts of the Bible from Latin into Anglo-Saxon. This is on top of the amazing literature being produced in Church Latin.

Answer 2

The first signal of Christianity in England was in the late 2nd century. At that period England was govern by the Romans. Christianity was not readily accepted because people at that time were worshiper of other gods. And the introduction of Christianity caused series of persecution across England.