The Britons

Briton comes into history half a century before the Christian era

• Julius Caesar, conqueror of Gaul, conquered Britain

British history divided into two periods for missionary history: Kelts (Ireland) and Anglo-Saxon

Keltic origin: Irish, Scots, and Gauls

• Oldest inhabitants of Britain

• Half naked and painted barbarians, quarrelsome, revengeful

• Had once adopted gods of Greeks and Romans; worshipped local deities such as the genii of the woods, rivers and mountains; special homage to the oak, the king of the forest

• Had priests called druids (frome the keltic term draiod meaning sage, priest and is equivalent to the magi in the ancient East) who dwelt in huts or caverns. They professed to know secrets of nature, medicine, astrology and practised divination

  • Special class of druids called bards: poetsand musicians who accompanied the chieftain to the battlefield

The first intro of Christianity to Briton is uncertain. There are at least 10 commonly ascribed sources (cannot be traced beyond the 6th century)

• Britain was early on connected with Rome and Gaul and may well have been the source of exposure

  • Tetullian says in 208 AD that “places in Britain not yet visited by Romans were subject to Christ”

• In 410 ad Rome withdrew troops and Britain partially relapsed into barbarism

• Britain became practically independent from Rome and the Pope, who had started to be seen as the head and ruler of all of the European church