Post by John on Mar 17, 2009 15:40:32 GMT -5
HOW CHRISTIANITY CAME TO BRITAIN PART ONE
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Jesus Christ was born at a time when the largest empire up to then, the Roman Empire controlled Palestine, Mesopotamia [ present day Syria, Iran and Iraq,] the North African coast, and South Western Europe, and the islands beyond - Britannia and over much of that area one language was used by all - Greek - from the previous Greek Empire, and one religion the Celtic Religion that included elements of Judaism as well as Idol worship.
The Celtic Nation began as a tribe in Central Europe on the upper reaches of the Danube, but they spread westwards across Europe to the Atlantic.
They colonised Gaul, Hispania, and Britannia, and by the time of Jesus earthly ministry Britannia, remained just outside the Roman Empire, and was divided into 17 tribal regions.
After the resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit
The churches grew in number and membership, around various important Roman cities
Alexandria in Egypt,
Antioch in Syria,
Rome in Italy,
Niceae in Asia Minor,
Constantinople in Greece,
Marseilles in Gaul [ now France ]
Cordoba in Spain,
London and York in Britannia.
And the Churches divided into 3 main Groups
The Eastern Catholics
==================
now called Orthodox who after the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD were governed from the Archpatriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, all of which became part of the Byzantine Empire.
The Western Catholics
==================
now called Roman Catholics governed from the Vatican
and The Celtic Apostolic Church
=========================
which over the course of five and a half centuries developed from Western Britain up the West Coast through Wales and Cumbria into Scotland and then to Ireland from Gaul and from Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland to Lindisfarne in Northumbria and down the East coast led by Saint Cedd into Essex and also into France and Germany
The largest tribe occupying the broad valley of the Thames well into modern Surrey and Middlesex, and the Home counties and the South Midlands, as far East as Cambridge.
These tribes were led by a priesthood called the Druids and as the Romans took control of Britannia the Celts either accepted them or moved west into Western England, Wales and Ireland where some of their peoples already lived.
March 17th is generally known as St Patrick’s Day in Ireland and amongst Irish people everywhere and marks the date of his death. However by some it is also known in Western England as St Joseph’s day.
Joseph lived about 300 years earlier than Patrick.
The two of them mark the duration of Roman power in Britannia
Joseph arrived soon after the Roman Legions arrived in AD 43 and Patrick was here as the Legions left to defend Rome from hostile Northern attacks.
St Joseph’s Day commemorates Joseph of Arimathaea.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin the Jewish Council of Elders, who was absent when that body was convened late at night and against their own rules to try Jesus, the night before his crucifixion.
Joseph went to Pilate after the crucifixion and told him Jesus was dead, and asked could he take custody of the body, and Pilate allowed him to do that and place it in his own prepared tomb. He would only have been allowed to do that had he been a relative
The Jewish Talmud tells us that Joseph was the younger brother of the father of the Virgin Mary, in other words a great uncle of Jesus.
He was a rich merchant seafarer who traded with ports in Gaul and Cornwall. In those days Cornish mines were sources of lead, tin. and some gold..
There has long been a tradition in Cornwall that Joseph was in the trade and had probably been to Britain quite frequently.
Cardinal Baronius a 16th century Roman Catholic historian who had access to the Vatican Library and who spent 30 years writing his book “ “History of the Church” Annales Ecclesastice” states that
In the year AD 35, after the Resurrection and the persecution that followed the Day of Pentecost, Joseph of Arimathaea, with Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead, and whom the Jews sought to kill, his sisters Mary and Martha, their maid Marcella and a disciple named Maximin were put into a boat without sail or oars and cast adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, and they drifted to Marseilles in Gaul.
Lazarus has long been recognised as the first Bishop of Marseilles.
Cardinal Baronius went on to report that eventually this group of people journeyed overland and took a ship to Britain up what we call the Bristol Channel.
The poet Mistral states that in the party from Gaul there were also Trophimus, Cleon, Eutropius, Restitutus who we know from the Bible as the man born blind, Martial, Saturninus, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalan
The whole party sailed inland to the Isle of Avalon which lapped the base of Glastonbury Tor that rises 500 feet from sea level, and which is now 14 miles from the sea .
An ancient metal plaque that used to be in the old Monastic Abbey Church at Glastonbury stated that 31 years after the Resurrection 12 holy men let by Joseph of Arimathaea came to this spot and built the first church in this kingdom which Christ at this time dedicated to the honour of his mother, and as a place for their burial.
So that would have been about AD 64 six years before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. And 21 year after the Roman settled here.
The visitors were met by King Arviragus who granted them tax free 12 hides of land, A hide is thought to have been 160 acres, so the whole lot would have been about 1,920 acres
There is a Royal Charter supporting this donation and it is recorded in the Doomsday Book in 1087 as “The Domus Dei, in the great monastery of Glastonbury , called the Secret of the Lord , This Glastonbury Church possesses in it’s own ville, or right, 12 hides of land which have never paid tax.”
Caradoc, King of the Silures, of South Wales better known as Caratacus, led the British resistance for 7 years to the 4 Legions, 25,000 men, sent by Emperor Claudius in AD 43
to invade Britain
He was defeated in North Wales in AD 51 and he and his wife Gladys and his father Bran were taken to Rome as prisoners
Most such prisoners were put to death, but his fame was so great as a general that he was allowed to make his own defence before the Emperor and the Senate and his great oration was added to the Archives of Rome,.
He was acquitted and he and his family lived in Rome
Their daughter, also called Gladys, was 7 years old when they went to Rome, and the emperor then Claudius adopted her and gave her the name Claudia and she eventually married a Roman Senator Rufus Pudens who it is believed was the Rufus, Paul writes of in his letter to the Romans “Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine”, which suggests they may have shared the same mother and were half brothers
In his letter to Timothy written from Rome, Paul says “Eubulius, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brethren greet you”
These were the son in law, and son and daughter of Caractacus who had himself become a Christian as had his family He who eventually returned to Britain .
In his letter to the Romans from Corinth Paul refers to the “household of Aristobulus” he being absent . Other sources tell us he was in Britain. and ancient Greek records tell us that he was a Bishop of the church in Britain, a brother of St Barnabus and he had been one of the 70 disciples, the second group Jesus had sent out to preach amongst the people before his death and resurrection and had been chosen by St Paul to be a missionary bishop to Britannia
The records show that St Aristobulus was often scourged by the warlike Britons, and dragged through their streets, but many of them became Christians as a result of his labours.
He built churches, and ordained deacons and pastors before he was finally martyred
Bran the father of Caratacus, was baptised in Rome returned to South Wales and promoted the Church there.
Britain is regarded as the first nation on Earth to have become a Christian nation, although Armenia and Ethiopia would make a similar claim but with King Linius the great grandson of Caractacus becoming a Christian he set the pattern of the Christian Kings of Britain
###############################
Some of The Apostles came to Britain
###############################
There is evidence that the Apostles Peter, Paul, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot all preached the gospel in southern Britain.
Early Spanish records say that James the son of Alphaeus after the death Stephen, came to these western parts, Spain, Britannia and Ireland.
The historian Cave in his History of the Apostles “Antiquates Apostolicea states that “ Simon directed his journey towards Egypt, then to Cyrene, and Africa. Throughout Mauritania and all Libya, preaching the gospel, nor could the coldness of the climate benumb his zeal, or hinder him of taking himself, and the Christian doctrine over to the western islands, yes, even to Britain itself. He went at last into Britain and was crucified and buried there.
The Greek historian Metaphrastes states that “Peter was in the western Mediterranean and particularly he was a long time in Britain where he converted many nations to the faith”.
Then there was PAUL A script exists called the Sonnini Manuscript found in the library of Constantinople that indicates that after residing two years in his rented house in Rome, Paul, acquitted by the Emperor, with friends from Rome went to the port of Ostium and sailed for Spain and he preached in Spain where great crowds flocked to him and many believed and were converted.
They later sailed to Britain to a southern port called Raphinus ( this was somewhere near Hastings where the Roman Legions came and went) Great multitudes came out of the towns to hear Paul preach.
He lived in the home of a Hebrew of his own nation and preached on Mount Lud, where people thronged at the city gate and in the area called Broadway, Certain Druids came to him and showed him by their rites and ceremonies that they were descendants of the Jews that had escaped slavery in Egypt.
After 3 months Paul left by Raphinus to the port of Atium in Gaul preaching at Roman garrisons and to crowds of people, of the tribe of the Belga who came to him for advice, he passed into Helvetia ( modern Switzerland) then passed into Macedonia and into Asia Minor probably heading for Antioch,
Theodoret bishop of Cypres about AD 435 writes that Paul preached the Gospel to the Britons and others in the West including the Cymry
and in his commentary on the letter to Timothy Theodoret referred to “Paul after being acquitted, travelled into Spain and extended his excursions into other countries and to the islands surrounded by the sea.”
Clement the First, of Rome AD 30 - AD 100 implies that Paul went to was Britannia . “to the utmost bounds of the West of the empire.” Which was Britannia .
Many other of the Church leaders of the first 3 centuries Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius confirm Paul’s visit to Britain as do records of Roman, Gallic, Eastern and Spanish churches.
Later Paul returned to Rome where he was beheaded on the orders of Emperor Nero.
When King Linius the great grandson of Caractacus became a Christian he set the pattern of the Christian Kings of Britain
So there has been a Christian Kingdom on British soil for over 1900 years.
Apostolic Celtic until the end of the 6th Century.
Roman Catholic from then until Henry the Eighth
Protestant from Edward the Sixth until now.
########################################
Jesus Christ was born at a time when the largest empire up to then, the Roman Empire controlled Palestine, Mesopotamia [ present day Syria, Iran and Iraq,] the North African coast, and South Western Europe, and the islands beyond - Britannia and over much of that area one language was used by all - Greek - from the previous Greek Empire, and one religion the Celtic Religion that included elements of Judaism as well as Idol worship.
The Celtic Nation began as a tribe in Central Europe on the upper reaches of the Danube, but they spread westwards across Europe to the Atlantic.
They colonised Gaul, Hispania, and Britannia, and by the time of Jesus earthly ministry Britannia, remained just outside the Roman Empire, and was divided into 17 tribal regions.
After the resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit
The churches grew in number and membership, around various important Roman cities
Alexandria in Egypt,
Antioch in Syria,
Rome in Italy,
Niceae in Asia Minor,
Constantinople in Greece,
Marseilles in Gaul [ now France ]
Cordoba in Spain,
London and York in Britannia.
And the Churches divided into 3 main Groups
The Eastern Catholics
==================
now called Orthodox who after the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD were governed from the Archpatriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, all of which became part of the Byzantine Empire.
The Western Catholics
==================
now called Roman Catholics governed from the Vatican
and The Celtic Apostolic Church
=========================
which over the course of five and a half centuries developed from Western Britain up the West Coast through Wales and Cumbria into Scotland and then to Ireland from Gaul and from Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland to Lindisfarne in Northumbria and down the East coast led by Saint Cedd into Essex and also into France and Germany
The largest tribe occupying the broad valley of the Thames well into modern Surrey and Middlesex, and the Home counties and the South Midlands, as far East as Cambridge.
These tribes were led by a priesthood called the Druids and as the Romans took control of Britannia the Celts either accepted them or moved west into Western England, Wales and Ireland where some of their peoples already lived.
March 17th is generally known as St Patrick’s Day in Ireland and amongst Irish people everywhere and marks the date of his death. However by some it is also known in Western England as St Joseph’s day.
Joseph lived about 300 years earlier than Patrick.
The two of them mark the duration of Roman power in Britannia
Joseph arrived soon after the Roman Legions arrived in AD 43 and Patrick was here as the Legions left to defend Rome from hostile Northern attacks.
St Joseph’s Day commemorates Joseph of Arimathaea.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin the Jewish Council of Elders, who was absent when that body was convened late at night and against their own rules to try Jesus, the night before his crucifixion.
Joseph went to Pilate after the crucifixion and told him Jesus was dead, and asked could he take custody of the body, and Pilate allowed him to do that and place it in his own prepared tomb. He would only have been allowed to do that had he been a relative
The Jewish Talmud tells us that Joseph was the younger brother of the father of the Virgin Mary, in other words a great uncle of Jesus.
He was a rich merchant seafarer who traded with ports in Gaul and Cornwall. In those days Cornish mines were sources of lead, tin. and some gold..
There has long been a tradition in Cornwall that Joseph was in the trade and had probably been to Britain quite frequently.
Cardinal Baronius a 16th century Roman Catholic historian who had access to the Vatican Library and who spent 30 years writing his book “ “History of the Church” Annales Ecclesastice” states that
In the year AD 35, after the Resurrection and the persecution that followed the Day of Pentecost, Joseph of Arimathaea, with Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead, and whom the Jews sought to kill, his sisters Mary and Martha, their maid Marcella and a disciple named Maximin were put into a boat without sail or oars and cast adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, and they drifted to Marseilles in Gaul.
Lazarus has long been recognised as the first Bishop of Marseilles.
Cardinal Baronius went on to report that eventually this group of people journeyed overland and took a ship to Britain up what we call the Bristol Channel.
The poet Mistral states that in the party from Gaul there were also Trophimus, Cleon, Eutropius, Restitutus who we know from the Bible as the man born blind, Martial, Saturninus, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalan
The whole party sailed inland to the Isle of Avalon which lapped the base of Glastonbury Tor that rises 500 feet from sea level, and which is now 14 miles from the sea .
An ancient metal plaque that used to be in the old Monastic Abbey Church at Glastonbury stated that 31 years after the Resurrection 12 holy men let by Joseph of Arimathaea came to this spot and built the first church in this kingdom which Christ at this time dedicated to the honour of his mother, and as a place for their burial.
So that would have been about AD 64 six years before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. And 21 year after the Roman settled here.
The visitors were met by King Arviragus who granted them tax free 12 hides of land, A hide is thought to have been 160 acres, so the whole lot would have been about 1,920 acres
There is a Royal Charter supporting this donation and it is recorded in the Doomsday Book in 1087 as “The Domus Dei, in the great monastery of Glastonbury , called the Secret of the Lord , This Glastonbury Church possesses in it’s own ville, or right, 12 hides of land which have never paid tax.”
Caradoc, King of the Silures, of South Wales better known as Caratacus, led the British resistance for 7 years to the 4 Legions, 25,000 men, sent by Emperor Claudius in AD 43
to invade Britain
He was defeated in North Wales in AD 51 and he and his wife Gladys and his father Bran were taken to Rome as prisoners
Most such prisoners were put to death, but his fame was so great as a general that he was allowed to make his own defence before the Emperor and the Senate and his great oration was added to the Archives of Rome,.
He was acquitted and he and his family lived in Rome
Their daughter, also called Gladys, was 7 years old when they went to Rome, and the emperor then Claudius adopted her and gave her the name Claudia and she eventually married a Roman Senator Rufus Pudens who it is believed was the Rufus, Paul writes of in his letter to the Romans “Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine”, which suggests they may have shared the same mother and were half brothers
In his letter to Timothy written from Rome, Paul says “Eubulius, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brethren greet you”
These were the son in law, and son and daughter of Caractacus who had himself become a Christian as had his family He who eventually returned to Britain .
In his letter to the Romans from Corinth Paul refers to the “household of Aristobulus” he being absent . Other sources tell us he was in Britain. and ancient Greek records tell us that he was a Bishop of the church in Britain, a brother of St Barnabus and he had been one of the 70 disciples, the second group Jesus had sent out to preach amongst the people before his death and resurrection and had been chosen by St Paul to be a missionary bishop to Britannia
The records show that St Aristobulus was often scourged by the warlike Britons, and dragged through their streets, but many of them became Christians as a result of his labours.
He built churches, and ordained deacons and pastors before he was finally martyred
Bran the father of Caratacus, was baptised in Rome returned to South Wales and promoted the Church there.
Britain is regarded as the first nation on Earth to have become a Christian nation, although Armenia and Ethiopia would make a similar claim but with King Linius the great grandson of Caractacus becoming a Christian he set the pattern of the Christian Kings of Britain
###############################
Some of The Apostles came to Britain
###############################
There is evidence that the Apostles Peter, Paul, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot all preached the gospel in southern Britain.
Early Spanish records say that James the son of Alphaeus after the death Stephen, came to these western parts, Spain, Britannia and Ireland.
The historian Cave in his History of the Apostles “Antiquates Apostolicea states that “ Simon directed his journey towards Egypt, then to Cyrene, and Africa. Throughout Mauritania and all Libya, preaching the gospel, nor could the coldness of the climate benumb his zeal, or hinder him of taking himself, and the Christian doctrine over to the western islands, yes, even to Britain itself. He went at last into Britain and was crucified and buried there.
The Greek historian Metaphrastes states that “Peter was in the western Mediterranean and particularly he was a long time in Britain where he converted many nations to the faith”.
Then there was PAUL A script exists called the Sonnini Manuscript found in the library of Constantinople that indicates that after residing two years in his rented house in Rome, Paul, acquitted by the Emperor, with friends from Rome went to the port of Ostium and sailed for Spain and he preached in Spain where great crowds flocked to him and many believed and were converted.
They later sailed to Britain to a southern port called Raphinus ( this was somewhere near Hastings where the Roman Legions came and went) Great multitudes came out of the towns to hear Paul preach.
He lived in the home of a Hebrew of his own nation and preached on Mount Lud, where people thronged at the city gate and in the area called Broadway, Certain Druids came to him and showed him by their rites and ceremonies that they were descendants of the Jews that had escaped slavery in Egypt.
After 3 months Paul left by Raphinus to the port of Atium in Gaul preaching at Roman garrisons and to crowds of people, of the tribe of the Belga who came to him for advice, he passed into Helvetia ( modern Switzerland) then passed into Macedonia and into Asia Minor probably heading for Antioch,
Theodoret bishop of Cypres about AD 435 writes that Paul preached the Gospel to the Britons and others in the West including the Cymry
and in his commentary on the letter to Timothy Theodoret referred to “Paul after being acquitted, travelled into Spain and extended his excursions into other countries and to the islands surrounded by the sea.”
Clement the First, of Rome AD 30 - AD 100 implies that Paul went to was Britannia . “to the utmost bounds of the West of the empire.” Which was Britannia .
Many other of the Church leaders of the first 3 centuries Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius confirm Paul’s visit to Britain as do records of Roman, Gallic, Eastern and Spanish churches.
Later Paul returned to Rome where he was beheaded on the orders of Emperor Nero.
When King Linius the great grandson of Caractacus became a Christian he set the pattern of the Christian Kings of Britain
So there has been a Christian Kingdom on British soil for over 1900 years.
Apostolic Celtic until the end of the 6th Century.
Roman Catholic from then until Henry the Eighth
Protestant from Edward the Sixth until now.