User:Deacon of Pndapetzim/Early Medieval Northern Britain

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[edit] Christianization

When the subject of Christianization is given any thought, perhaps the first question to be asked is, what is the difference between a "Christian" and a "Pagan"? In the perceptions of many modern people, the difference is clear and stark. However Christianization by the very name, is a process and not an event; and the difference between a Christian and a "Pagan" may often be one of degree rather than kind. For instance, despite being Christian for over 1500 years, Great Britain maintains hundreds of pre-Christian customs, often embedded in nominally Christian rituals (e.g. religious festivals, rings at weddings, etc). So one cannot take it for granted that just because a king converts to Christianity, that the people of his kingdom at large become theologians familiar with most aspects of Christian teaching. Indeed, when we consider the favour shown to Latin in the early medieval world of Northern Britain, and the British Isles at large, it is highly questionable that the beliefs of society outside a tiny number of monks, clergy and aristocrats, altered in any significant way.

[edit] Christianity and the Romans

For the last century of its existence, the Roman government of Britain was officially Christian. The Romans left Britain with a population strongly Christian already, and so it is in the Roman context that the origins of Christianity in Scotland are to be sought. Indeed, the emperor who made the Roman Empire Christian in 312, Constantine the Great, was crowned emperor just over 150s miles from Scotland, at York, in 306; and even by this point, Christianization had already established a strong position within the Empire.^[1] As Leslie Alcock suggests, the most sensible place to trace the roots of christianity in Scotland is amongst the soldiers and ordinary Roman citizens in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall, where Christianity probably had a long history, competing with other eastern cults such as Mithraism.^[2] Chi-Rho inscriptions and Christian grave-slabs have been found on the wall from the 4th century, and in the early 300s too, the Mithraic shrines (known as Mithraea) which existed along Hadrian's Wall were attacked and destroyed, presumably by Christians.^[3] In fact, the archaeology of the Roman period indicates that the northern parts of the Roman province of Britannia were among the most Christianized in the island.^[4]

[edit] Non-textual evidence & the earliest Christianity

This map indicates the geographical distribution of earliest non-textual evidence for christianity in Scotland. The pattern seems to indicate a strong presence of the early British Christianity, if not the British sub-Roman "Church", in the south-east of Pictland and in Lothian and the Borders, although Galloway origin is still possible.

One of the key indicators are long-cist cemeteries. These are associated with Scotland in the period between the end of the Roman era and the 12th century. They indicate Christianity because in general they lie on an East-West orientation,^[5] so that the bodies can rise facing Jerusalem for the time of the Last Judgment. Many of them are associated lie in the vicinity of a church and an early christian inscription.^[6] These burials are concentrated strongly in eastern Scotland south of the Tay, in Angus, the Mearns, Lothian and the Borders. However, an important warning is that these cemeteries can also pre-date the Christian period, with some dating to the 2nd century.^[7]

A second indicator of early Christianity in Scotland is the place-name element eccles-. It is generally accepted among scholars that this word is a British word derived for the Latin word ecclesia and represents evidence of the British church of the Roman and immediate post-Roman period. Since G.W.S. Barrow first investigated the Scottish examples of eccles- place-names in 1983,^[8] it has been established that, when compounded with a saint's name, many of the eccles- place-names can be later, the latest one so far containing the name of a saint who died in 679.^[9] However, the eccles- names uncompounded in this way are certainly early, and exist all over Britain.^[10]

A third standard non-textual indicator of Christianization is inscribed stones. The earliest of these is the so-called Latinus stone of Whithorn, dating to c. 450.^[11] It is so called because it was a funerary monument dedicated to a man named Latinus and his daughter, but set up by a man named "Barrovadus".^[12] Roughly 50 years later, a similar inscription was set up at Kirkmadrine in the Rhins of Galloway, this time dedicated to two priests called "Viventius" and "Mavorius".^[13] Another five or so of these inscribed stones dating 450 X 550 exist, the furthest north at Catstane in East Lothian, and the rest in the vicinity of Upper Tweeddale.^[14]

[edit] Literary sources & conversion

Individual conversion

mass conversion

[edit] Christianity

sic

[edit] Monasticism

sic

[edit] Bishops

sic

[edit] Rulers and the Church

For northern Britain, almost every judgment about kingship comes from the writings of clerics.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography