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ENGLAND - Religion
The religious practices of the Anglo-Saxons were those of a primitive people anxious to placate the adverse natural forces around them, and activate the beneficent ones. The major gods were Tiw, Woden, and Thumor, whose names are commemorated in the names of three days of the week, Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday. Friday commemorates Frig, the bride of Woden, the god of death and battle. To secure the favour of their gods, the Anglo-Saxons held feasts during which food was offered to them. The gods had their temples and sancturaries; priests were not allowed to bear arms and could only ride on mares. Trees, stones and wells were venerated; elfish spirits haunted the misty marshes and sent forth poisonous darts; caverns and lakes were the homes of dragons and other monsters. There was great reliance on incantations and charms. For example; after a death, grain was burnt to protect the health of the survivors. The primary concern of Anglo-Saxon religion was not men’s relations with one another but with the mysterious forces of nature. Nor was it worried with an after life. man’s highest reward was a surviving reputation for greatness and glory among one’s posterity.
Christianity: the partnership of Church and State
We cannot know how or when Christianity first reached Britain, but it was certainly well before Christianity was accepted by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the early fourth century AD. In the last hundred years of Roman government Christianity became firmly established across Britain, both in Roman-controlled areas and beyond. However, the Anglo-Saxons belonged to an older Germanic religion, and they drove the Celts into the west and north. In the Celtic areas Christianity continued to spread, bringing paganism to an end. Still nowadays, in Wales there are a number of place-names beginning or ending with llan, meaning the site of a small Celtic monastery around which a village or town grew.
In 597 Pope Gregory the Great sent a monk, Augustine, to re-establish Christianity in England. He went to Canterbury, the capital of the king of Kent. He did so because the king’s wife came from Europe and was already christian. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 601. He was very successful. Several ruling families in England accepted Christianity. But Augustine and his group of monks made little progress with the ordinary people. This was partly because Augustine was interested in establishing Christian authority, and that meant bringing rules to the new faith.
It was the Celtic Church which brought Christianity to the ordinary people of Britain. The Celtic bishops went out from their monasteries of Wales, Ireland and Scotland, walking from village to village teaching Christianity. In spite of the differences between Anglo-Saxons and Celts, these bishops seem to have been readily accepted in Anglo-Saxon areas. The bishops from the Roman Church lived at the courts of the kings, which they made centres of Church power across England. The two Christian Churches, Celtic and Roman, could hardly have been more different in character. One was most interested in the hearts of ordinary people, the other was interested in authority and organisation. The competition between the Celtic and Roman Churches reached a crisis because they disagreed over the date of Easter. In 663 at the Synod (meeting) of Whitby the king of Northumbria decided to support the Roman Church. The Celtic Church retreated as Rome extended its authority over all Christians, even in Celtic parts of the island.
Saxon kings helped the Church to grow, but the Church also increased the power of kings. Bishops gave kings their support, which made it harder for royal power to be questioned. Kings had “God’s approval”. The value of Church approval was all the greater because of the uncertainty of the royal succession. An eldest son did not automatically become king, as kings were chosen from among the members of the royal family, and any member who had enough soldiers might try for the throne. In addition, at a time when one king might try to conquer a neighbouring kingdom, he would probably have a son to whom he would wish to pass this enlarged kingdom when he died.
There were other ways in which the Church increased the power of English state. It established monasteries, or minsters, for example Westminster, which were places of learning and education. These monasteries trained the men who could read and write, so that they had the necessary skills for the growth of royal and Church authority.
During the next hundred years, laws were made on a large number of matters. By the eleventh century royal authority probably went wider and deeper in England than in any other European country.
This process gave power into the hands of those who could read and write, and in this way class divisions were increased. The power of landlords, who had been given land by the king, was increased because their names were written down. Peasants, who could neither read nor write, could lose their traditional rights to their land, because their rights were not registered.
The Anglo-Saxon kings also prefered the Roman Church to the Celtic Church for economic reasons. Villages and towns grew around the monasteries and increased local trade. Many bishops and monks in England were from Frankish lands (France and Germany) and elsewhere. They were invited by English rulers who wished to benefit from closer Church and economic contact with Europe. In this way close contact with many parts of Europe was encouraged. In addition they all used Latin, the written language of Rome, and this ecouraged English trade with the continent. Increased literacy itself helped trade.
The opening page of St Luke’s Gospel, made at the Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne, about AD 698. Christianity gave the Anglo-Saxon world new certainty.
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