History of Christianity in England: Monasteries

Ancient Monastic Life by George Cattermole

In 664 AD, at the Synod of Whitby, England had stepped away from Celtic Christianity and embraced Roman Christianity as the official religion.  No longer did Christians look to the islands and to the west for leadership, but turned their eyes instead towards Rome.  Over the next years there was an explosion of building as churches, monasteries and other religious centres sprang up as centres of learning, transforming both the geography and society of England.  The time of the monasteries had come.

The idea of monasteries was hundreds of years old, and probably originated from the deserts in Egypt, and, of course, the Celtic Christians had already built isolated communities, mainly on islands.  However, with Augustine came the Benedictine Rule, on which many communities of men and women throughout the British Isles were to be based.  The rule was based on Ora et Labora, that is prayer and work, and a key rule was that no possessions would be held as personal property, but that the community would share all things.  These centres were self-supporting and offered opportunities for prayer, religious study and worhsip and all kinds of learning.  For many years they were the only means of education and the monastery libraries were the repository for many great works.  Read more about Christian monasticism.

 
The Venerable Bede translating the Gospel of John by J.D. Penrose

This was the time of the Venerable Bede, who wrote the first history of England, and wrote of the peoples as a Christian race, even though the country was not yet united under a common king or government. 

By the eighth century England was renowned as a centre of Christian learning and missionaries departed these shores to convert people in Austria and Germany.  For the first time the English, through their Christianity, became part of an international community, headed up by the Holy Roman Empire.

Then, at the pinnacle of English influence and learning throughout Europe, something terrible happened which nearly destroyed Christian England: the pagan Vikings arrived.

Comments

[e-Mom]

I think I would have loved to be a monk in cloistered away in a monastery somewhere...

The pillaging of Vikings... awful. Not long ago we watched film portrayal of a group of Vikings who attacked a monastery, killed all the devout, and ran off with their relics. Man's inhumanity to man...

*shaking head*