Historically, Christianity arrived in Britain with the Roman Empire in the first or second centuries, and existed--arguably--independently of the papacy in Rome, as was the case with many other Christian communities of that time. With no immediate means of travel and communication, it was difficult for the Roman Church to oversee all. The Christian Church, though, rooted itself in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and in Northern England, and it remained intact even after the demise of the Romans. History records that British bishops even attended the Council of Arles in 314. Subsequent invasions, however, by outside forces, most notably the Germanic races, brought pagan rituals (this time, Nordic) back to the British Isles.

          Though historically England’s arch-rival, it may have been a French princess, in the form of Queen Bertha, the wife of King Ethelbert of Kent, who re-established close ties to Christianity. Queen Bertha, daughter of Charibert, a Merovingian king of Paris, had brought a chaplain with her to Britain upon her marriage to the pagan Ethelbert. In time, she restored a Christian church from Britain’s Roman era, dedicating it to Martin of Tours, the patron saint of Merovingian kings. Ethelbert continued to allow his queen to worship God as she saw fit, and probably under her influence, both asked and permitted missionaries from Rome.

          In 596, Pope Gregory I sent Saint Augustine to evangelise the British Isles. With the help of Christians already residing in Kent--perhaps, headed by Queen Bertha and permitted by the king--Augustine established his church in Canterbury, the capital of Kent, and, consequently, became the first in the series of archbishops of Canterbury. By the end of 597, King Ethelbert had converted to Christianity. At Christmas, 10,000 of Ethelbert’s subjects were baptised.

          Soon afterward, Augustine sent word to Pope Gregory that the mission had been a success. The pope responded with a request that Augustine ordain twelve suffragan bishops, and to send a bishop to the city of York. Augustine, though, did not carry out this papal plan, nor did he establish the see at London as Rome had intended, as the Londoners remained devotedly under paganism. Augustine did consecrate Mellitus as bishop of London and Justus as bishop of Rochester.

          From Rome, there were issued more realistic mandates concerning pagan temples and their usages: Pope Gregory desired that temples become consecrated to Christian service and asked Augustine to transform pagan practices, so far as possible, into dedication ceremonies or feasts of martyrs, since "he who would climb to a lofty height must go up by steps, not leaps."

          Augustine re-consecrated and rebuilt an old church at Canterbury as his cathedral and founded a monastery in connection with it. He also restored a church and founded the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, but died before completing the monastery. St. Augustine lies buried in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.

          In 612, Queen Bertha of Kent, who had been so influential in bringing Christianity to Britain, died. Her husband followed her in death four years later. The kingdom of Kent and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which Kent had under their influence reverted into heathenism for several decades.

In the Decades to Follow

          As St. Augustine had been moving Roman Christianity across Britain, the Celtic Church simultaneously evangelised Scotland. As one might expect, there was a divide between adherents of Roman and Celtic Christianity. The Celtic Church of North Britain, however, operated, at least minutely, under the authority of Rome at the Synod of Whitby in 644, designed to reconcile religious differences. The outcome was that Cuthbert, the leader of Celtic Christianity, accepted the Petrine, or pope’s, supremacy over bishops that Augustine and Rome claimed, and over the next few centuries, the Roman system introduced by Augustine gradually absorbed the pre-existing Celtic Christian churches.

          As in most other parts of the world, Roman Catholicism became the dominant, if not the only form of Christianity. However, tension was not unusual between Rome and the monarchs of the day. Britain was no exception. Both King Henry II and his son, King John, wrangled with the pope over civil judicial authority over clerics, taxes and the wealth of the Church, as well as appointments of bishops. Often, kings used the church to gain what they wanted, as King Henry II had done to marry Eleanor d’Aquitaine, who had been granted a divorce from the king of France. It was a manoeuvre destined for failure.

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