*Annales*Cambriae*. the original
Welsh history.
Thus a
few excerpts:
In the Annales Cambriae names of varying familiarity
appear: Columba goes to Britain (AD562), Gildas, wisest of Britons, goes
to Ireland (AD565), Gildas dies (AD570), Columba dies (AD595). The same
year Augustine and Mellitus convert the English (otherwise known as the
Anglo-Saxons and not to be confused with the British). AD735 "Bede the
priest sleeps". Of course the most famous, Arthur, killed in battle in
537.
The 6th and 7th centuries are times of battles, death and
slaughter, including Campus Gaius AD656.
(Who is Campus Gaius, I hear
you say?)
The year 650: the rising of a star.
AD665: first Easter
amongst the Saxons.
AD676: a star of marvellous brightness was seen
shining throughout the whole world.
AD682: a great plague in Britain,
taking Cadwaladr, son of Cadwallon.
AD683: plague in Ireland.
AD684: a great earthquake in the Isle of Man.
AD689: rain turned
to blood in Britain and in Ireland. Milk and butter turned to blood.
AD714: night as bright as day. Pepin dies.
AD721: a hot summer
AD850: Cynin is killed by the gentiles. (Vikings)
AD853: Mona laid
waste by black gentiles. ??
AD866: city of York laid waste in battle
with black gentiles. ?moors?
AD889: Suibne, wisest of the Irish, died.
Who wrote the Annales Cambriae? I'm not so glad you asked that
question.
WHO WERE THE BLACK GENTILES? DID THE MOORS COME THIS FAR
NORTH? DID THE BRIGHT STAR HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE PLAGUES?
Anyway, I'll start adding some other references here:
Ian
Wilson & Barrie Schwortz: The Turin Shroud.
Worth buying is
Osborne Illustrated World History Dates.
Shirley Toulson: The Celtic
Year.
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[email protected]
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Oops! If sending email put
celticchurch in the subject line.
Just a researcher into how it all began.
Or perhaps
just another heretic. I do have a problem with believing that the
people who crucified Jesus, Peter and Paul (and tore down Jerusalem)
somehow inherited leadership of Christendom and thenceforth could
impose Roman beliefs on the pre-existing Celtic Church.
Further
reading on some of this:....
Google affords easy access to the subject, key words include: Bede, Annales Cambriae, Nennius, Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Arthur, Patrick, Columba.
Other reading: Shirley
Toulson's The Celtic Year which lists the Celtic saints and which
backgrounds much of the developments in the later first millenium. The various encyclopaedias: Brittanica, Encarta.
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From Judea to Britain came
the Ancient Celtic Church.
***Christianity most likely came to Britain in the 2nd
century (Encarta 95), although many Christians surmise that it was
earlier, in the late 1st century, brought by Joseph of Arimathea
and/or his descendants, during the Diaspora after Rome had sacked
Jerusalem and was slaughtering the Jews. Certainly there are records
that Christianity existed in Roman Britain, and within a pagan
empire it must have been brought by some immigrants, either with the
Romans or separately. Certainly for Diocletian's persecutions of the
religion, Constantine's father had been a reluctant agent in
Britain.
***Julius Caesar had attacked Britain about 50
years before Christ's birth. Then roughly 20 years after the death
of Jesus, Rome had finally subjugated this northernmost outpost into
its empire. So we might assume the faith was still spreading slowly
northwards by the time of the invasion, in spite of Rome's
crucifixion of Peter and then Paul.
[Concurrent to these early
spreadings of Christianity were a 1st letter from Clement of Rome to
Corinth (ca AD100) and the building of Hadrian's wall (AD122)].
***Tertullian and Origen, ancient church scholars, noted
that there were Christians in Britain in the early 3rd century.
Fourth century writers stated that Roman Britain was Christian. Constantine was in Britain (York) when he was declared emperor by his troops around AD 306.
Eventually the religion had spread to parts of Ireland and Scotland
(Roman Caledonia) which was inhabited by the warlike Picts and later
"Scots" from Ireland. Contrary to accepted history, it appears from
archeological evidence that the Romans had outposts in Ireland
though apparently no degree of control, so matters of religious
thought would presumably have flowed amongst the previously druidic
Celts on both sides of the Irish Sea.
***In the 2nd century
church the role of bishop emerged. In such very early Christian
strongholds as Antioch and Alexandria, the early church began
creating bishops throughout the then empire which itself was
starting to come under stress. As the power of the Roman Emperor
deteriorated, more powers were taken on by the Bishop of Rome.
***In AD313, emperor Constantine was embracing Christianity,
interestingly only a few years after he had returned to Rome having
been declared emperor by his troops, after the death of his
father, a previous emperor, in York (Britain). And before the end of
the century it was the religion of the empire. There followed a
period of civil war while Constantine consolidated his position.
(However, the first country to adopt Christ for its official
religion was Armenia.)
***During the 4th and 5th centuries,
there were doctrinal controversies, such as those on the intrinsic
nature of Christ which resulted in many councils, such as that at
Arles AD314, where there were British delegates, as also Sardica
AD347 and Ariminium (?) in AD360.
***At around the same
time, a young Patrick (AD390-457, presumably an almost contemporary of Arthur) had been taken into slavery by the
Irish, escaping after a few years, to return later as bishop
missionary to Ireland. His father and grandfather had been
functionaries of the Celtic Church in Britain. It was also at this
time in 410 that the Roman legions (many of whom were probably
Germanic) were withdrawing from Britain, but were unable to prevent
the sack of Rome. It is probably the legion's withdrawal that
allowed the heathen Anglo-Saxons to advance into an ensuing power
vacuum, wherein they were able to force back the Christian British
into Wales, Cornwall and Strathclyde. Germanic mercenaries under the Romans had
already been settling along the east coast of Britain in the late
4th century.
***The 5th century saw the AD451 Council of
Chalcedon and AD457 the birth of St David. Also in the 5th century,
the authoritarian Leo I, bishop of Rome was claiming primacy in the
total Christian church, appropriating power at every opportunity.
The many titles that this first pope accumulated had their basis in his
position as bishop of Rome.
***The end of the 5th century
also saw the rise of the person we know as Arthur, (apparently confused
historically with Ambrosius Aurelianus), but was more likely Rheothamus mentioned for exploits in France. Author Geoffrey Ashe has more.
Augustine
***Not long after,
according to the Annales Cambriae 447-954AD, plagues had infested
Britain. Over these bad years Britain had been a patchwork of small
kingdoms, some Christian (Britons and some in Scotland), some
heathen (generally Anglo-Saxons).
Moreover there was also
the early 6th C. kingdom of Dalriada, of Scots from northern
Ireland.
Eventually the church in Britain was to extinguish
Celtic Christianity's forms in favour of the dominance of the Roman
tradition.
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The Anglo-Saxons and the
Vikings.
The arrival in
Britain of people from the area roughly of north-western Germany and
southern Denmark began in the 5th century AD, reputedly at the
invitation of one of the British kings (Vortigern) in order to help
him against the Picts, but probably Germanics had been there earlier
as a result of barbarians being part of the Roman legions. Also
common were Frankish and Saxon pirates whom the Romans tried to keep
in check.
The invaders were active pagans and the adherents of
Celtic Christianity were pushed back to Wales and Cornwall. Thus the
much later arrival of Augustine at Pope Gregory's request to convert
the Angles and Saxons in Britain.
Like the early Celts, the typical
Anglo-Saxon was tall and fair. The germanic tribes had been
supplanting Roman rule right across Europe: Spain, France, North
Africa and even Italy itself. In the late 5th century, the last
emperor brought the western Roman Empire to an end. What remained
was a germanic empire in the west and the eastern empire of
Byzantium. Soon much of this was to be overrun by the forces of
Islam in the south and the Vikings in the north and northeast.
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***France*and*the*Continent.***
.
Previous to Caesar's overthrow of Gaul,
what we now know as France was inhabited by Celtic tribes. Probably
these peoples were related to the Germanic tribes. Above all, there
was a Celtic culture which often transcended racial divides.
Racially the ancient Celt is seen as tall and fair, often with
plaited hair and with clothing not unlike the Germans.
However, in places like Ireland and Wales, shorter, dark-haired
people called themselves Celts. Such appearance also describes the
Picts of Scotland.
Then came Julius Caesar, first conquering
Celtic Gaul and then making a small excursion to Britain. The Roman
conquest of Britain was to wait about another 100 years.
Eventually, the Roman Empire was to spread from northern Britain
to Palestine. Many of its subject peoples were Christianising and in
the 4th century, Constantine himself adopted it for the empire.
.
With the demise of the Roman Empire in the west, new
barbarian kingdoms arose, mainly due to the westward spread of the
germanic tribes. The paramount of these was the Frankish kingdom,
ruled by Clovis (481-511AD), a Christian, and founder of the
Merovingian dynasty. Later, because of hereditary division of the kingdom
under the Frankish tradition, the kings became weaker and power
devolved to officials known as Mayors of the Palace, from Pepin I,
his son Charles Martel, Pepin II, until Pepin III deposed the king
and founded the Carolingian dynasty, with sons Carloman (soon to
die) and Charles (Charlemagne).
While Christianity had been
spreading northwards and westwards, a new player in the religious
stakes had been pressing in from the east and south. Islam had, by
the early 8th. century, conquered Spain and was moving northwards,
where in 732 AD, Charles Martel had stopped them at the Battle of
Poitiers. From the Anniales Cambriaes, it does seem as if the Moors reached Britain (black gentiles). This was apparently repeated around the 14th Century.
In AD800 the pope crowned Charlemagne, king of the
Franks (a Germanic tribe), as Emperor of the Romans, which was thus
really became German empire.
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