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Y301: The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800

Religion and the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland: paganism, the Gregorian mission and Irish Christianity

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on Anglo-Saxon gods and pagan practice, Christianity before 597, Gregory’s mission and plans, the re-conversion of Northumbria, differences between Roman and Irish practice and the term Celtic Church.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

Who sent the mission of 597, and who led it?

Key term

Name three gods worshipped by the pagan Anglo-Saxons.

Key term

Was Britain wholly pagan before 597?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name three gods worshipped by the pagan Anglo-Saxons.

    Model answer

    Woden, Thunor and Tiw, whose names survive in the English days of the week.

  2. 2

    Describe how Germanic paganism was practised in Britain.

    Model answer

    Worship centred on shrines, sacred groves, springs and burial mounds, involved animal sacrifice and seasonal feasts, and was closely tied to kingship, since royal families traced their descent from Woden.

  3. 3

    Was Britain wholly pagan before 597?

    Model answer

    No: Christianity had survived from the Roman period in the west, in Wales, Cornwall, Strathclyde and Ireland, and Irish and British clergy were already active in the north.

  4. 4

    Who sent the mission of 597, and who led it?

    Model answer

    Pope Gregory the Great sent it, and it was led by Augustine, prior of Gregory's own monastery in Rome.

  5. 5

    What advice did Gregory give about pagan shrines?

    Model answer

    He told the missionaries not to destroy the temples but to purify them and turn them into churches, and to let the people keep their feasts in a Christian form, so that they might come to the new religion by familiar steps.

  6. 6

    Describe Gregory's plan for the organisation of the English Church.

    Model answer

    He intended two archbishoprics at London and York, each with twelve bishops beneath it, but in practice the southern metropolitan see settled at Canterbury and York did not become a permanent archbishopric until 735, the pallium sent for Paulinus in 634 having arrived after his flight.

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