The Conversion to Christianity

When was St Patrick active?

During the 5th century

What does Charles-Edwards highlight?

People in the west such as Connacht still held anti-Christian beliefs in the 9th century

Why was the need for the Irish to move away from Paganism not as large?

They didn’t feel the need to separate themselves from the Picts

There is no reason to think that so earnest a character was guilty of barefaced lies

Etchingham

Patricks writings are notoriously deficient in some of the most basic matters of information

Etchingham

What was the aim of St Patricks letter?

Convert british warlords to Christianity

Give a quote from St Patricks letter

to the fellow citizens of the demons

Who else can be given credit for the conversion of Ireland?

Palladius

Why are accounts of Palladius more reliable?

Respected chronicler

Found on easter cloths

What did Pope Celestine say upon his death?

he has also made the barbarian island Christian

From where in Ireland did Christianity spread?

south

Why shouldn’t palladius be given sole credit for the conversion of Ireland

There must have already been a Christian community to justify sending a bishop

Who laid the foundations for Palladius?

Pre-patrician saints

Why did St Patrick “win the battle”

He spoke Gaelic so was seen as one of the irish

Name 2 missionaries responsible for converting England

St Augustine

St Columba of Iona

Who is the first missionary Bede mentions?

Germanus

Why doesn’t Bede mention St Columba

His father figure in the monastery had very close links with Rome

Also seen in how Bede writes in Latin not Old English

Why was Bede writing to the Kings?

They hadn’t lived through the barbarianism of post-Rome so were starting to lean towards pagan ideas again

Why were missionaries reliant on Kings?

They didn’t speak old English

Give 2 pieces of evidence to suggest Christianity had continued after Rome

Cult of St Alban

St Sixtus

more comfortable with compromise than fundamentalism

O’Brien

Bede suggests that Christianisation became a…

more aggressive process after the death of Augustine

Why does Bede see the conversion as a top down approach?

His high class

How does Bede describe Augustine and Ethelbert’s first interaction?

he had taken precaution that they should not come to him in any house

What evidence is there of there being a high number of Frankish women in Kent?

burials with glass globes

Who left Britain after King Savert died?

Mellitus and Justus

Give a quote about Mellitus and Justus

it was better for them all to return to their own country

Give evidence of ideas from Gaul coming across the channel

Prittlewell man

give 1 problem with studying the history of conversion

Change in an insular process

What does linguistic evidence about early Irish latin suggest?

Words were pronounced in a British accent

Who were St Patricks targets and why?

Minorities because of the type of Christianity he preached

Give 2 advantages of identifying as Christian in 6th century Britain

Separate from Saxons

Continuation of Roman values

Why was religion not used to prove legitimacy in Ireland

Had more written evidence eg annals

Christianisation can be seen in the increase in…

stone buildings

What had been established by 750?

Dioceses

What was the first Irish document to discuss Christian burials?

Collectio Canonum

What did 5th-7th century Irish burials revolve around?

ferta

Why were Pagan-Christian cemeteries allowed?

Irish importance of being buried with family

Give a site of a ferta

Knowth, Co Meath

Continued burial with ancestors suggests…

continuity despite change in religion

when did burials at ferta cease?

9th century

In Ireland, what replaced being buried with family?

being buried near saints

What story started to be preached in the 7th century?

St Patrick and the roadside graves

Name a primary source for the impact of the conversion in Ireland

psuedo-historical prologue

What happens in the psuedo-historical prologue?

Elite kill Patricks charioteer to see if they will forgive him and God responds with an earthquake