The Ecclesiastical History of the English People - 2 - Christianity Struggles to Grow
Book Two
Quote
Human speech can never explain the power of the most high God, consisting as it does in its own invisible, unsearchable, and eternal greatness.
Notes
🔥 Pope Gregory, who played a key role in bringing Christianity to the English nation, dies in 605 AD.
🔥 He was influential beyond just what he did for the English. And he accomplished a lot in spite of living with pain and health struggles throughout his life.
🔥 He cared more about people's souls than about adorning churches with gold or silver.
🔥 Back in the British kingdom, Augustine holds a meeting with other church leaders to try and get everyone on the same page with their doctrine, practices, etc. But people don't want to abandon their own, more local, customs.
🔥 The other churches refuse to follow Augustine and he says they'll be punished for it. Sure enough, the English king goes to battle against the surrounding peoples. Some monks are praying for their soldiers nearby during the battle, and the king sees them and goes to kill them all first.
🔥 Augustine appoints two new bishops and then he soon dies. He is succeeded by Laurence.
🔥 King Aethelbert, who was king when Britain became Christian, dies after ruling for 56 years.
🔥 The king's son, Eadbald, refuses to become Christian and he also takes his own mother as his wife. Other surrounding kings are emboldened to drive out the Christian church, so the bishops flee to Gaul so they can wait things out.
🔥 Peter (from the Bible) appears to Laurence and castigates him for running away. And he apparently whips him physically somehow. He (Peter) explains that he suffered a lot for Christ, including eventually getting crucified himself. Suffering is part of the job of being a disciple. So Laurence goes back to see the king. The king sees the physical marks on Laurence from the whipping Peter gave and he's amazed, so he converts.
🔥 Later, another king named Edwin becomes Christian and is uniting more kingdoms under his rule. The story of his conversion to Christianity involves a number of different things. First, the women he wants to marry is a Christian and her family won't accept her marriage to a heathen. There's also an assassination attempt on him and one of his guards saves his life. Still, he takes a long time to contemplate and study. The new pope Boniface writes to him and encourages him to convert. The pope also writes to the king's wife, encouraging her to encourage the king to convert, too. He says, "The unbelieving husband shall be saved by the believing wife."
🔥 And there's another story from earlier on where Edwin is on the run for his life and is visited by a strange man who says he will be rescued and made king. Then the strange man disappears, like a spirit. Edwin is shaken, and all that the man promised him came true.
🔥 With all of this in the background, Edwin confers with his men and asks what they think about converting to Christianity. They all agree to convert and some go out to destroy the old idols and shrines to their former gods. Many more convert and a bigger church begins construction.
🔥 But then Edwin dies in battle, slain by a heathen. This heathen king proceeds to slaughter and torture many of Edwin's people.
Thoughts
I wonder who this story is even about. It's seems like it's about the church setting itself up in England, which is not yet a nation or a people. There's too much instability with kings coming and going and other people coming in and taking over. But we'll see where it goes from here.