Author: H. D. M. Spence

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-13

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781331335610

Excerpt from A History of the English Church Early Christianity in Britain before the Coming of the North Folk. - The memories of the first two or three hundred years of the life of the Church in Britain are but dim. It could not be otherwise, for there passed over the island in the filth and sixth centuries a crushing calamity such as no other Christian land has ever been subjected to. The long-drawn-out invasion of the North Folk lasted, thanks to the gallant resistance of the British people, nearly two centuries. The slow but ruthless conquest swept away - save in a remote district of the island - every trace of the old life. A few notices, however, of early writers tell us that prior to the great invasion from a very early period a Christian Church flourished in Britain. Thus Tertullian (circa A.D. 196-201) says "that places in Britain, not yet visited by the Romans, were subjected to Christ." Records of the very early Church Councils of Arles (A.D. 314), of Sardica (A.D. 347), of Ariminium (A.D. 359), mention the presence at these well-known assemblies of British bishops. Allusions also, which presuppose the antiquity of the Island Church are made by St Athanasius (circa A.D. 350), St Hilary of Poitiers (A.D. 350), St.Jerome (area A.D. 390), and St Chrysostom (circa A.D. 398), Hilary especially congratulating his British brethren on the freedom of their Church from the contagion of the heresy of Arius. The Coming of the North Folk. - The awful catastrophe which swept away the once flourishing British Church came about in this wise. The Roman Legions, sorely needed for the defence of Italy against the Northern Barbarians, were withdrawn from Britain circa A.D. 409. Some forty years later the Northmen in good earnest began their conquest of the island. For 150 to 200 years their slow but cruel devastations continued. In the end, the old life of Britain, its cities, its people, its faith had disappeared. Only a poor remnant of the Celtic inhabitants of the island, carrying with them their faith, found a refuge in the hills of Wales and Cumberland. The conquest of the North Folk was virtually complete in the last years of the sixth century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.