Churchill said: It is Britain who sleeps in the night, but England who wakes up at dawn.
Dawn was only Anglo-Saxon, the native British-Celtic had fled to the dead, and the rest were slaves.
The Anglo-Saxons completed their transformation from tribe to kingdom in Britain. At first, their kings often produced tribal chiefs from the so-called descendants of the gods—they were also military chiefs, and blood in-laws and military affiliation were the only bonds between the king and his supporters. This is actually the most efficient political model produced in the context of a relatively weak economic base. When the living conditions are harsh and the entire ethnic group needs to struggle for survival, the greatest degree of unity is the guarantee for the survival of the ethnic group. Blood relatives are the most reliable link to establish this kind of solidarity, which extends to in-laws. Similarly, military force, as the greatest guarantee for the safety and security of the ethnic group, in order to maximize the combat effectiveness, the relationship of dominance formed in the course of battle has become an effective supplement to the blood relationship.
When the Anglo-Saxons occupied Britain, the relatively rich land and the climate suitable for farming made the tribe more and more powerful, the population also increased, and the tribal affairs that needed to be handled were relatively cumbersome. The primitive military democracy slowly began to fail to adapt to this demand. Therefore, the leaders divided the land into small pieces, distributed them to military generals at all levels, and entrusted them with the handling of government affairs in their respective jurisdictions. In fact, this is the prototype of the medieval European quarry system.
Seven kingdoms founded by the Anglo-Saxons
As more and more land was given to and for longer and longer the subordinates managed the land, the land actually became the private property of the local administrators, and the landlord and aristocratic class was born, and the old military generals evolved into lords. The relationship between the king and the lords took on a subtle change, that is, the property relationship of the land. In this evolution, property relations have become more and more weighted, while the original blood in-laws and purely military subordination relations have weakened. As a result, the king established a new interdependence with these new landlord aristocratic classes, and the primitive military democratic tribal kingdoms evolved into feudal kingdoms.
The evolution from primitive tribal kingdoms to feudal kingdoms was long and fraught with rivalries. By 650 AD, there were seven kingdoms left after a long period of dogfight: Northumbria in the north, Mercia in the center, East Anglia, Kent and Essex in the east, and Wessex and Sussex in the south.
At the same time as the political system changed, the Anglo-Saxon brain, which looked more muscular than the brain plasma, was filled with a new thing, a new ideology.
The establishment of the Anglo-Saxon feudal kingdom also opened up a new situation for the spread of Christianity. Christianity entered Britain at about the same time as the Roman powers, and in the early stages it did not achieve enough pride in the competition with many traditional polytheistic religions due to the lack of long-term immersion, and when it became the state religion of the Roman Empire in the later period, the Empire was preparing to withdraw from Britain. Thus we can argue that christianity existed only in Britain during the Roman period. The real opening of Christianity in Britain was actually helped by the Anglo-Saxons, albeit unintentionally.
At the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, there was no idea of "atonement" at all, they were busy committing crimes. This put Christianity in an awkward position, where the barbarians with knives could not be reasoned. In such a precarious situation, the Christian church had to retreat with some of the Celts to the western part of the British Isles.
Statue of St. Patrick
As the Anglo-Saxons gradually settled down in the feudal kingdom, the opportunity for Christianity quietly emerged. After the kingdom has settled, people who have experienced tribulations and sufferings are interested in hearing about the goodness of God's heaven, as well as the causes and effects of hell and atonement.
The spread of Christianity in England, we have to talk about one man, Saint Patrick. Born in Britain around 385 AD, Patrick's family background, former slave experience, and the education of the Holy See shaped Palrick's extremely devout faith. In 432 AD, Patrick was sent to Ireland to preach Christianity— by this time Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire. Combined with a series of miracles or legendary miracles, Patrick soon opened up in Ireland, preaching widely, reorganizing the Church of Ireland, and converting many of the Celtic kingdom's dignitaries to Christianity. By the beginning of the 6th century, most Irish had converted to Christianity. By the mid-6th century, the priest Columbus had spread Christianity to western Scotland, and by the first half of the 7th century, the Anglo kingdom of Northumberia in northern England and Messia in the middle had converted to Christianity.
St. Patrick's Abbey
It should be noted that the Christianity that is popular in Ireland, Scotland and Northern England is called Celtic Christianity, and it is somewhat different from the traditional Roman Christianity of continental Europe. After the so-called Zhu Zhichi was established as the state religion, Roman Christianity was more contaminated with imperial characteristics, such as attaching importance to the hierarchical hierarchy of the church and having a strict organization, while Celtic Christianity was much weaker in this regard.
At this time, Roman Christianity, after experiencing the double heavens of ice and fire of the "Diocletian persecution" and the "Edict of Milan", had become very good at using secular power to propagate doctrine and establish an interdependent relationship with it. This is evident in the south of England. In 597 AD, Pope Gregory sent Augustine to England as a missionary. Augustine adopted a top-down method of proselytizing, that is, first persuading the kings of various countries, and then spreading from the king to the nobility and then further to the commoners, so that soon the kingdoms of Kent, Anglo-Georgia, and Northumbria in the south of England were converted. In 598 AD, the Kingdom of Kent established Canterbury Cathedral, and Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Canterbury Cathedral is known as the cradle of the Christian faith in England, and later archbishops of Canterbury played an important role in British political life.
St. Augustine, preaching to the Saxon king
Have you noticed that the Kingdom of Northumbria in the north of England practiced both Celtic Christianity and Roman Christianity? Yes, the two denominations met here, and there was a heated debate between them and escalated into violent conflict and continued to expand. "If you do not accept the hand of peace from your friends, you must resist the merciless sword of the enemy" – Saint Augustine.
Because its order, hierarchy, and organizational concepts met the needs of the kingdom's rule, roman Christianity gradually gained the upper hand in England with the blessing of fire and sword, but the doctrinal disagreement was still an inseparable reality. The muscular brains of the Anglo-Saxons were apparently unable to resolve this complex matter, and in order to resolve the dissent, in 664 AD, King Osway of Northumbria and Saint Augustine invited dignitaries from both factions to hold the famous "Whitby Ruling" in Whitby, and the two factions agreed on sensitive issues such as the date of Easter, thus avoiding a situation in which sectarian conflicts led to a secular power struggle. The Whitby Ruling brought about a doctrinal unity of Christianity in England. On this basis, by the end of the 7th century, Christianity in England had also completed the organizational unity of the church.
Canterbury Cathedral
To some extent, the unification of Christianity also contributed to the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. In the 7th and 8th centuries AD, there were three kingdoms that had the opportunity to end the Warring States period in England: Northumbria, Messia, and Wessex. If history continues in this way, the unification of England and the rise of England seem to be just around the corner. Yet – helplessly, history has never been, and life is full of however – yet a powerful force from the sea put an end to the process and injected a new stream of blood into England. Of course, this process is quite unpleasant.