Origin of the Christian Church in BritainPage 1
Christian Churches of God
No. 266
Origin of the Christian Church in Britain
(Edition 1.0 20060801-20060801)
People often ask when the Church came to Britain and what it believed. The truth is quite astounding and the mysteries surrounding some of it are also important aspects of its history.
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(Copyright 2006 Wade Cox)
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Origin of the Christian Church in Britain
Origin of the Christian Church in BritainPage 1
History
Many people ask us where the Sabbatarian Church in England started, and how it got to England. The answer is that it started in chains and it was brought to Britain by the sons of captive kings.
There is an apocryphal legend that concerns Joseph of Arimathea and that legend is recorded as follows at:
“Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy disciple of Jesus, who, according to the book of Matthew 27:57-60, asked Pontius Pilate for permission to take Jesus' dead body in order to prepare it for burial. He also provided the tomb where the crucified Lord was laid until his Resurrection. Joseph is mentioned in a few times in parallel passages in Mark, Luke and John, but nothing further is heard about his later activities.
Apocryphal legend, however, supplies us with the rest of his story by claiming that Joseph accompanied the Apostle Philip, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene & others on a preaching mission to Gaul. Lazarus & Mary stayed in Marseilles, while the others travelled north. At the English Channel, St.Philip sent Joseph, with twelve disciples, to establish Christianity in the most far-flung corner of the Roman Empire: the Island of Britain. The year AD 63 is commonly given for this "event", with AD 37 sometimes being put forth as an alternative. It was said that Joseph achieved his wealth in the metals trade, and in the course of conducting his business, he probably became acquainted with Britain, at least the south-western parts of it. Cornwall was a chief mining district and well-known in the Roman empire for its tin. Somerset was renowned for its high quality lead. Some have even said that Joseph was the uncle of the Virgin Mary and therefore of Jesus, and that he may have brought the young boy along on one of his business trips to the island. Hence the words of Blake's famous hymn, Jerusalem:
And did those feet, in ancient time,
Walk upon England's mountains green?
It was only natural, then, that Joseph should have been chosen for the first mission to Britain, and appropriate that he should come first to Glastonbury, that gravitational center for legendary activity in the West Country. Local legend has it that Joseph sailed around Land's End and headed for his old lead mining haunts. Here his boat ran ashore in the Glastonbury Marshes and, together with his followers, he climbed a nearby hill to survey the surrounding land. Having brought with him a staff grown from Christ's Holy Crown of Thorns, he thrust it into the ground and announced that he and his twelve companions were "Weary All". The thorn staff immediately took miraculous root, and it can be seen there still on Wearyall Hill. Joseph met with the local ruler, Arviragus, and soon secured himself twelve hides of land at Glastonbury on which to build the first monastery in Britain. From here he became the country's evangelist.
Much more was added to Joseph's legend during the Middle Ages. He was gradually inflated into a major saint and cult hero, as well as the supposed ancestor of many British Monarchs he is said to have brought with him to Britain a cup, said to have been used at the Last Supper and also used to catch the blood dripping from Christ as he hung on the Cross. A variation of this story is that Joseph brought with him two cruets, one containing the blood and the other, the sweat of Christ. Either of these items are known as The Holy Grail, and were the object(s) of the quests of the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table. One legend goes on to suggest that Joseph hid the "Grail" in Chalice Well at Glastonbury for safe-keeping.
There is a wide variance of scholarly opinion on this subject, however, and a good deal of doubt exists as to whether Joseph ever came to Britain at all, for any purpose.”
It is not critical that Joseph ever came to Britain but he may have done that. The ancestry that goes back to Joseph comes in fact from his meeting with Arviragus, however, that may not have been in England but in Rome.
King Lucius a king of Britain was alleged to have Christianised Britain ca. 156 CE.
St. Cadval, a British missionary, going out from Glastonbury, founded the church of Tatentum, Italy, ca. 170 CE.
However, the missionary movement was to require Lucius to ask assistance of the bishop of Rome. The bishop was reportedly Eleutheris (ca. 174-189). Bishop Eleutherius is recorded as sending the missionaries Faganus and Duvanus to Britain (cf. Venerable Bede and Liber Pontificalis).
According to the Liber Pontificalis, St. Eleutherius was a Greek from Nicopolis in Epirus. His father's name was Habundius. He ordered that no food which was fit for a human being should be despised by Christians. This decree, if authentic, probably was aimed at the Gnostics and the Montanists, a fanatical puritanical sect, or the Manicheans, who despised meat.
Irenaeus, the famous father of the Church, was sent by his bishop Pothinus (b. 87, d. 177) and the clergy of Lyons to confer with Pope Eleutherius about Montanism. Pothinus was the first bishop of Lyon and was consecrated perhaps as early as 150 CE.
We do know that Eleutherius was a deacon serving Anicetus in Rome who became bishop ca 154-164 CE when Justin Martyr was also serving there. He served under the next bishop Soter and succeeded him as bishop ca 174.
The Catholic Encyclopedia has this to say in dealing with this problem for the Roman Church.
Pope Eleutherius, [says this writer], received from Lucius, a British king, a letter in which the latter declared that by his behest he wishes to become a Christian (Hic accepit epistula a Lucio Brittanio rege, ut Christianus efficerentur per ejus mandatum). Whence the author of the first part of the "Liber Pontificalis" drew this information, it is now impossible to say. Historically speaking, the fact is quite improbable, and is rejected by all recent critics.
As at the end of the second century the Roman administration was so securely established in Britain, there could no longer have been in the island any real native kings. That some tribal chief, known as king, should have applied to the Roman bishop for instruction in the Christian Faith seems improbable enough at that period. The unsupported assertion of the "Liber Pontificalis", a compilation of papal biographies that in its earliest form cannot antedate the first quarter of the sixth century, is not a sufficient basis for the acceptance of this statement. By some it is considered a story intended to demonstrate the Roman origin of the British Church, and consequently the latter's natural subjection to Rome. To make this clearer they locate the origin of the legend in the course of the seventh century, during the dissensions between the primitive British Church and the Anglo-Saxon Church recently established from Rome. But for this hypothesis all proof is lacking. It falls before the simple fact that the first part of the "Liber Pontificalis" was compiled long before these dissensions, most probably (Duchesne) by a Roman cleric in the reign of Pope Boniface II (530-532), or (Waitz and Mommsen) early in the seventh century. Moreover, during the entire conflict that centered around the peculiar customs of the Early British Church no reference is ever made to this alleged King Lucius. Saint Bede is the first English writer (673-735) to mention the story repeatedly (Hist. Eccl., I, V; V, 24, De temporum ratione, ad an. 161), and he took it, not from native sources, but from the "Liber Pontificalis". Harnack suggests a more plausible theory (Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904, I, 906-916). In the document, he holds, from which the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" drew his information the name found was not Britanio, but Britio. Now this is the name (Birtha- Britium) of the fortress of Edessa. The king in question is, therefore, Lucius Ælius Septimus Megas Abgar IX, of Edessa, a Christian king, as is well known. The original statement of the "Liber Pontificalis", in this hypothesis, had nothing to do with Britain. The reference was to Abgar IX of Edessa. But the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" changed Britio to Brittanio, and in this way made a British king of the Syrian Lucius.
The ninth-century "Historia Brittonum" sees in Lucius a translation of the Celtic name Llever Maur (Great Light), says that the envoys of Lucius were Fagan and Wervan, and tells us that with this king all the other island kings (reguli Britanniæ) were baptized (Hist. Brittonum, xviii). Thirteenth-century chronicles add other details. The "Liber Landavensis", for example (ed. Rees, 26, 65), makes known the names of Elfan and Medwy, the envoys sent by Lucius to the pope, and transfers the king's dominions to Wales. An echo of this legend penetrated even to Switzerland. In a homily preached at Chur and preserved in an eighth- or ninth-century manuscript, St. Timothy is represented as an apostle of Gaul, whence he came to Britain and baptized there a king named Lucius, who became a missionary, went to Gaul, and finally settled at Chur, where he preached the gospel with great success. In this way Lucius, the early missionary of the Swiss district of Chur, became identified with the alleged British king of the "Liber Pontificalis". The latter work is authority for the statement that Eleutherius died 24 May, and was buried on the Vatican Hill (in Vaticano) near the body of St. Peter.
The real issue is that the Liber Pontificalis is trying to regulate the Christian system in Britain with Roman antecedents, knowing that it was established centuries beforehand. It is probable that the missionary activities from Glastonbury from the second half of the Second century were requiring Roman support, as it involved many activities that were taking place in Italy and not far from Rome itself.
The Romans had commenced the practice of worshipping on Sundays as well as the Sabbath in 111 CE. The missionaries may well have taken this practice with them but it is not recorded in Britain, which remained Sabbath–keeping and determined the Passover as had been dictated by the apostle John, as we know from the histories (see the paper The Quartodeciman Disputes (No. 277)). The Church in Gaul was persecuted at this time and many Christians fled to Britain for protection under the Christians there.
Paul speaks of some people in Rome that are of importance and we can identify these people.
Paul makes mention of Linus, who was a member of the Church at Rome, among others. Irenaeus, who states that Peter and Paul founded the Church in Rome (Adversus Haereses, 3, 3, 3), tells us that the same Linus was first appointed as bishop of Rome and was succeeded by Anacletus and then Clement. Irenaeus makes no mention of Peter being bishop of Rome but rather with Paul as the founder of the Church there. We also know that Peter was the bishop of Antioch and appointed and ordained his successors. Peter seemingly had more to do with that church than with Rome. There is no authoritative mention of Peter going to Britain, but some claim he did. His death in Rome may also be conjectural based on the fact of it being ordered during the reign of Nero.
Augustine of Hippo, writing later, makes a different notation from Irenaeus.
Augustine (354-430), in Letters, No. 53, written in 400 AD:
For, to Peter succeeded Linus, to Linus, Clement, to Clement Anacletus, to Anacletus Evaristus, ... to Siricius Anastasius.
Here we see the assertion that Peter was bishop of Rome, as by this time it was a political exercise to establish Athanasian Trinitarianism and Roman supremacy.
The NT text says in 2 Timothy 4:21:
Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers send greetings.
Who were these people? Where did they come from? To answer these questions we have to go to Britain. This epistle to Timothy was written in 66 CE before Paul’s death. The people are thus known to be alive and in Rome at that time. The epistle makes no mention of Peter being in Rome at that time. Paul was also alone there for a long time. Thus Peter was not resident bishop of Rome and had to arrive there, if indeed he went there as tradition holds, some time in 66 CE after the epistle was written, and before the martyrdom of Paul. There was contact between the British royals and the British homeland and the Church was involved in this process as they were members of the Church.
“Sabbath-keeping was extant in England from the initial conversions. Britain was certainly introduced to Christianity very early and Tertullian of Carthage (a rhetorical writer) in Against the Jews [referring to Tertullian, Answer to the Jews ch. VII, ANF, Vol. III, pp. 157-158]
boasts that 'parts of Britain inaccessible to the Romans were indeed conquered by Christ'. That was written about two hundred years after the birth of Christ (Edwards, Christian England, Vol. I, p. 20).
The area of Glastonbury was kept under control of the British until Ine, King of the West Saxons (688-722), occupied it. He found a wooden church there already revered as ancient. He gave extensive lands to its clergy and it survived until it was burnt down in 1184. The earliest Christian martyr recorded under the Romans in Britain, is Alban. He seems to have been a Roman soldier, who sheltered a Christian priest escaping from Gaul and was baptised by him (Edwards, p. 21). Gildas and Bede tell us also of the martyrs Aaron and Julius at Caerleon. Aaron's name suggests that he was a Jew (Edwards, ibid.).
There were five British Christians, including three bishops at the Council of Arles in 314. Eborius, bishop of York, Restitutus, bishop of London, Adelfius, bishop of Lincoln (but this is not certain since the scribe wrote Colonia Londoninensium rather than Colonia Lindensium), a priest and a deacon (Edwards, ibid.)” (cf. General Distribution of the Sabbath-keeping Churches (No. 122)).
The emperor Constantine had been declared Augustus, or emperor at York on 25 July 306, on the death of Constantius, his father. He was exposed to British or Celtic Christianity from his stay in England and in France. He attempted to unify the Empire under it and was baptised a Unitarian by Eusebius of Nicomedia on his deathbed. He was exposed to Mithraism whilst in the army as were the vast majority of soldiers.
The First Christians
The Sabbatarian system was established in England from the First century CE by the sons of Caradog or Caratacus (d. 54 CE), king of the Cantii (from ca 40) and king of the Catavellauni (from 43-51). He was the brother of Aviragus who was taken to Rome with him. (The family tree is at Appendix 2). He and his family were taken to Rome in chains by Claudius after being finally defeated in Wales at the head of an Army of 15,000. He was betrayed by Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes (from 43-69 CE) who had made a pact with the Romans. There were a few British Chieftains taken to Rome with him. Claudius also set up puppet rulers of the line of the British kings that he thought could be trusted. Caratacus’ family were baptised in Rome in the Church of the apostle Paul and his disciples prior to 54 CE. That was prior to the death of Caratacus (or Caradog) and Claudius, and certainly before the martyrdom of Paul under Nero (ruled 54-68), which is placed around 66 CE. Caradog’s son, Linus, became the first bishop of Rome and his other son, Cyllin and family reportedly returned to England and established the Faith there. His daughter married Coel I who had also been taken to Rome in chains with Caratacus and Arviragus. Arviragus’ son Marius (Celtic Romanisation of Meurig from Y-Veurig, hence Arviragus) married the daughter of Claudius’ appointee Prasutagus and Boudica. Their son Coel married his second cousin, the daughter of Cyllin, and they became the parents of Lucius. Marius is also reported to have married the daughter of Bran the Blessed whose mother, the wife of Bran, was the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea. They also returned to England (cf. Mike Ashley, The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens, Carroll and Graf 1999, pp. 67, 75, 78, 79). Their son (or his son) Lucius became king and in advancing age asked Eleutherius, the bishop of Rome (ca 174) for assistance with some missionaries, as we saw above. (See Appendix 2 for details.)