In order to establish the reliability of Bede's Account of the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, and its' historical accuracy, it is necessary to take in to account various aspects of the author and his life, the time in which it was written, the prevailing political and social situation and the modern extant archaeological evidence to support the work. To do this we will look at Bede himself, the intended audience for the work, Bede's sources for the period (in particular Gildas), the Mission of St Augustine (and Bede's assertion that this was the start of Roman Catholicism in the country) and the political forces of Christianity that may have affected his writings.

Bede came to prominence during the 7th Century. He was a monk based at Lindisfarne, a community that had been formed from a mainly Irish Christian Influence in 634AD by King Oswald (the King of Bernicia in Northumberland) when he sent an invitation to St Cuthbert who was based at Iona. St Cuthbert sent a mission headed by St Aiden to answer the request.

Bede dedicated his account of the Conversion to King Keowolf of Northumbria. His writings show he was quite anti-British, claiming they failed to convert the Anglo-Saxon and they fled in front of the Anglo-Saxon invasion as far as Wales taking Romano/British Christianity with them. Gildas, the 5th century historian, is used as a major source for the work although there is an implication that it is a moral tale about the decline and fall of the Britons as much as an historical record.

Bede is the first to use the term Gens Anglorum (National History) and had worked out a "history" of the country linking events back to the birth of Christ creating the phrase Anno Domini to measure the intervening years. His objective appears to be creating a seamless historical record to include the period from the invasion of the Romans through their occupation and the subsequent "dark ages" until his time. He attempts to show a smooth transition of Conversion of the country to Christianity after the arrival of St Augustine.

It is probable that the departure of the Roman administration caused the country to split into many small kingdoms and local tribal groups and Gildas alludes to this in his writings. He also mentions that there were many surviving Dioceses during this time although there is no remaining indication of how many or of their geographic size. Gildas mentions both Ambrosius and Vortigern as characters from the period and as modern interpretation of Vortigern means "Great Leader" both of these could mean a person who united the tribes of the Britons. This process, however, lead to the Battle of Baden Hill (approx 490AD) where the re-united Britons fought back the advancing Anglo-Saxons.

There are several remains that would point to the existence of Christian practice prior to Gildas, for example the Chi-Rho, or Christian monogram, at the remains of Lullingstone Roman villa in Kent. These would lead to the supposition that the Roman Administration, after Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in 313AD, had caused conversion to Christianity of the populace. From Gildas' writings it is not possible to estimate how widespread Christianity was in his time; findings of Pagan burials and burial goods point to an existing non-Christian population and this was probably still the lot of the peasant class. However the practice of Christian burial, without any of these burial offerings, leaves a poor archaeological record of the period in this respect.

In 597 Pope Gregory (590-604) sent St Augustine with a mission to convert the country to Roman Christianity and Bede makes much mention of this stating that prior to this event Christianity had died out in the country. Pope Gregory only thought of the country as being of two main centres; London and York; and was expecting St Augustine to set a centre of Christianity in each place.

By this time the country had resolved itself into several larger kingdoms although the main areas of Christianity were still York and Canterbury. Pope Gregory sent the mission, via Gaul, to London. The Merovingians of the Gaullish region were Christian but they still used un-Roman Catholic practices; multiple marriages and simony for example and Gregory hoped that St Augustine would help persuade them to cease these practices .

Although there is no direct evidence it would appear that Gregory was a "converting" Pope, he was of high Roman stock but made a point of making contact with non-Roman Catholic groups; Lombards, Visigoths etc. He was aware of the Merovingian practices and wanted to bring them into line with main stream Roman Catholicism.

At the time of the mission King Aethelbert of Kent was married to Bertha, a Merovingian princess and a Gaullish Catholic. Pope Gregory knew of the marriage and the political implications of Christianising the country with this connection in place. However, although Bede mentions that Aethelbert met St Augustine on his arrival with suitable translators, pointedly he does not mention about Bertha or her Merovingian birth and connections.

Though it is not known for certain, it appears Pope Gregory was unaware of the breakdown into smaller kingdoms after the departure of the Romans. However by the time of the mission Aethebert had been accorded the title "Bretwalda". This probably meant "King of Kings" with the implication that Kent (Canterbury and its' King) was likely to be the leading Kingdom of the country at the time; certainly St Augustine never got any further than Canterbury. Aethelbert did convert to Christianity along with six thousand of his vassals but there is no indication if there was understanding of the conversion by these people. Indeed Aethelberts own son never converted. It is possible that Bede wrote increasing the influence of St Augustine to further his own cause.

As mentioned the country had reformed into several large kingdoms, the main seemingly King Aethelbert, in Kent, and King Oswald of Bernicia in Northumberland. These also reflected the existing Christianity at that time with Northumberland influenced via Lindisfarne, Iona (St Cuthbert) and the existing Irish Catholicism and Kent being influenced by the Roman Catholic ideology. In the main these differences were of degree; for example the Irish size of the tonsure worn; the Irish ideas on the Trinity and the austere living conditions of the Irish communities shown by the harsh environmental locations of Iona and Lindisfarne. These differences were eventually resolved at the Synod of Whitby in 664AD when the dated Irish Ideology was brought in to line with the Roman Catholic thinking.

However, both of these Kingdoms were closely connected by inter-marriage with King Aethelberts daughter married into the Bernician royal family implying that Kent was a good place to start Pope Gregory's mission. It would appear that Gregory was politically aware; as evidenced by his repeated communications with the Visigoths, Lombards, Merovingians and others; and it is fair to assume that he was prepared to use the politics in the country to further his aims.

By the time of Bede's writing this process was largely completed at the levels of society of his intended audience. The political connections of the Kingdoms were well established and, as has been stated, the work was intended to be a moral tale of the history of the country as well as a factual one. It is difficult, however, to reconcile this with aspects of the work itself. Bede tends to concentrate on the lives of Saints as examples of the Faith with the implication that these simple lives (or moral examples) were useful to teach the Christian ideals to the Laity. He writes about the ignorance of the clergy with reference to lack of clerical Latin; that the clergy was ill thought of by the laity; and even on the existence of "False Monks". He makes plain his views on married monks and that this was contrary to the purer ideals of Christianity. There is also mention of his own requirement to preach in the vernacular as a part of his daily duties; all of these would lead to suggest that although there was Christianity it was not as wide spread as he would like to infer.

In conclusion, although it is plain that Bede wrote "in good faith", the actual conversion of the country happened in a haphazard manner and was largely governed by political influence at the level of the "Petty Kings" of the country. It is fair to say that Christianity was broadly accepted at this higher level but there is scant evidence to support the smooth acceptance and understanding of the Conversion for the country as a whole.

Bibliography

A History of the Medieval Church (590-1500)	Margaret Deanesly
Lullingstone Roman Villa	English Heritage
Landscape and Settlement in Briton AD 400-1066	Eds. D. Hooks and S. Burnell
Pastoral Care before the Parish	Eds. J Bair and R. Sharpe
Bede's Ecclesiastical History	J.N. Stephens
The Mission of St Augustine of Canterbury to the English	Ian Woods
The Anglo Saxon Chronicles	Anne Savage

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© David Debono October 2001
david.debono@montacute.net