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Christianity first appeared in Britain in antiquity, during the Roman period. The Roman Catholic Church was the dominant form of Christianity in Britain from the 6th century through to the Reformation period in the Middle Ages.
Precisely when Christianity arrived in Roman Britain is not known. The province experienced a constant influx of people from across the empire, some of whom were possibly Christians. There is nevertheless a difference between transient Christians who may have arrived in Britain and a settled, Romano-British Christian community. [12]
The process of Christianisation and timing of the adoption of Christianity varied by region and was not necessarily a one-way process, with the traditional religion regaining dominance in most kingdoms at least once after their first Christian king. Kings likely often converted for political reasons such as the imposition by a more powerful ...
The new inhabitants practiced Anglo-Saxon paganism, a polytheistic religion in which multiple gods were worshipped, among them Woden, Thor, and Tiw. Woden was the king of the gods, and early English kings traced their ancestry back to him (see Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies). [8] Christianity survived in the Brittonic kingdoms of the west and north.
Before the Roman withdrawal, Britannia had been converted to Christianity and produced the ascetic Pelagius. [4] [5] Britain sent three bishops to the Council of Arles in 314, and a Gaulish bishop went to the island in 396 to help settle disciplinary matters. [6] Material remains testify to a growing presence of Christians, at least until ...
After 380, Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire, and there was some sort of formal church organisation in Britain led by bishops. In the 5th century, the end of Roman rule and invasions by Germanic pagans led to the destruction of any formal church organisation in England.
None of this was so during the first few centuries of the Christian movement, and remembering why—and how those early Christians designated themselves and each other—can offer lessons for today.
Christianity reached Roman Britain by the third century of the Christian era, the first recorded martyrs in Britain being St. Alban of Verulamium and Julius and Aaron of Caerleon, during the reign of Diocletian (284–305).