Church Fathers ~ Christianity In Britain
Church Fathers & Additional Historical Records Affirming the Early Church in Britain
British Isles home to the first churches planted outside of Jerusalem in circa 37 AC by Joseph of Arimathea and several Apostles and disciple pre-dated the church at Antioch which Peter, Andrew and James arrived circa 46 AC – three years after Rome’s second invasion.
~Tertullian 200 AD: “The extremities of Spain, the various parts of Gaul, the regions of Britain which have never been penetrated by Roman arms have received the religion of Christ.”
(Def. Fidel, p. 179).
~ Eusebius circa 260-340 AC ~ 50 But to preach to all the Name of Jesus, to teach about His marvellous deeds in country and town, that some of them should take possession of the Roman Empire, and the Queen of Cities itself, and others the Persian, others the Armenian, that others should go to the Parthian race, and yet others to the Scythian, that some already should have reached the very ends of the world, should have reached the land of the Indians, and some have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain, all this I for my part will not admit (113) to be the work of mere men, far less of poor and ignorant men, certainly not of deceivers and wizards. 51 I ask you how these pupils of a base and shifty master, who had seen His end, discussed with one another how they should invent a story about Him which would hang together? For they all with one voice bore witness that He cleansed lepers, drove out demons, raised the dead (b) to life, caused the blind to see, and worked many other cures on the sick—and to crown all they agreed in saying that He had been seen alive after His death first by them. If these events had not taken place in their time, and if the tale had not yet been told, how could they have witnessed to them unanimously, and guaranteed their evidence by their death, unless at some time or other they had met together, made a conspiracy with the same intent, and come to an agreement with one another with regard to their lies and inventions about what had never taken place? What speech shall we suppose was made at their covenant?
(Demonstratio Evangelica or Proof of the Gospel , book 3, chap. 5) ~ LINK~
~ Gildas the Wise, circa 550 AC “We certainly know that Christ, the true Son, afforded His light, the knowledge of His precepts, to our Island in the last year of Tiberius Caesar (Tiberius died in 37 AC) — (De Excidio Britanniae or On the Ruin of Britain )
~Tertullian 200 AD: “The extremities of Spain, the various parts of Gaul, the regions of Britain which have never been penetrated by Roman arms have received the religion of Christ.”
(Def. Fidel, p. 179).
~ Eusebius circa 260-340 AC ~ 50 But to preach to all the Name of Jesus, to teach about His marvellous deeds in country and town, that some of them should take possession of the Roman Empire, and the Queen of Cities itself, and others the Persian, others the Armenian, that others should go to the Parthian race, and yet others to the Scythian, that some already should have reached the very ends of the world, should have reached the land of the Indians, and some have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain, all this I for my part will not admit (113) to be the work of mere men, far less of poor and ignorant men, certainly not of deceivers and wizards. 51 I ask you how these pupils of a base and shifty master, who had seen His end, discussed with one another how they should invent a story about Him which would hang together? For they all with one voice bore witness that He cleansed lepers, drove out demons, raised the dead (b) to life, caused the blind to see, and worked many other cures on the sick—and to crown all they agreed in saying that He had been seen alive after His death first by them. If these events had not taken place in their time, and if the tale had not yet been told, how could they have witnessed to them unanimously, and guaranteed their evidence by their death, unless at some time or other they had met together, made a conspiracy with the same intent, and come to an agreement with one another with regard to their lies and inventions about what had never taken place? What speech shall we suppose was made at their covenant?
(Demonstratio Evangelica or Proof of the Gospel , book 3, chap. 5) ~ LINK~
~ Gildas the Wise, circa 550 AC “We certainly know that Christ, the true Son, afforded His light, the knowledge of His precepts, to our Island in the last year of Tiberius Caesar (Tiberius died in 37 AC) — (De Excidio Britanniae or On the Ruin of Britain )
& 8. Meanwhile, to the island stiff with frost and cold, and in a far distant corner of the earth, remote from the visible sun, He, the true sun, even Christ, first yields His rays, I mean His precepts. He spread, not only from the temporal firmament, but from the highest arc of heaven beyond all times, his bright gleam to the whole world in the latest days, as we know, of Tiberius Caesar. At |23that time the religion of Christ 14 was propagated without any hindrance, because the emperor, contrary to the will of the senate, threatened with death informers against the soldiers of that same religion.
(Rise of Christianity. De religione)
(Rise of Christianity. De religione)
* * * * * * *Gleanings from THE ENSIGN MESSAGE
AN HISTORIC MISTAKE
By Special Office Brief England ~ LINK~
It is repeatedly said that St. Augustine introduced Christianity to England. He did not. A Bishop of London attended the Council of Arles in 340. St. Augustine came to England in 597. He, himself, wrote to Pope Gregory: “In the Western confines of Britain, there is a certain royal island of large extent, surrounded by water, abounding in all the beauties of nature and necessities of life. In it the first neophytes of catholic* law, God beforehand acquainting them, found a church constructed by no human art, but by the hands of Christ Himself, for the salvation of His people.”
Gildas the Wise wrote in AD. 550 in his De Exidio Brittaniae: “We certainly know that Christ, the true Son, afforded His light, the knowledge of His precepts to our Island in the last year of Tiberius Caesar.” Tiberius Caesar reigned for 22 years, and his last year was AD 37.
Tertullian (AD 145-222) wrote: “The extremeties of Spain, the various parts of Gaul, the regions of Britain which have never been penetrated by Roman arms, have received the religion of Christ.”
Gildas the Wise wrote in AD. 550 in his De Exidio Brittaniae: “We certainly know that Christ, the true Son, afforded His light, the knowledge of His precepts to our Island in the last year of Tiberius Caesar.” Tiberius Caesar reigned for 22 years, and his last year was AD 37.
Tertullian (AD 145-222) wrote: “The extremeties of Spain, the various parts of Gaul, the regions of Britain which have never been penetrated by Roman arms, have received the religion of Christ.”
Origen of Alexandria, the Greek Father, said in 230 AD: “The divine goodness of our Lord and Saviour is equally diffused among the Britons, the Africans, and other nations of the World.” St. Jerome, writing from Bethlehem in 378 AD declared: “From India to Britain, all nations resound with the death and resurrection of Christ.”
Ambrosius, (ca. 339-397) the Christian apologist, declared: “So swiftly runs the word of God that though in several thousand years God was not known except among the Jews, now within the space of a few years, His word is concealed neither from the Indians in the East nor from the Britons in the West.”
Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, (ca 347 - 407 AD) wrote in 402 AD about the British Isles in the following manner: “The British Isles, which are beyond the sea, and which lie in the ocean, have received the virtue of the Word. Churches are there founded and altars erected. Though you should go to the ocean, to the British Isles, there you will hear all men everywhere discoursing matters out of the Scriptures, with a different voice indeed, but not another faith, with a different tongue but the same judgment.”
(Research by Arthur and Rosalind Eedle) *The word catholic means “universal”. Courtesy of KINGDOM DIGEST. 1996
Eusebius, the Church’s first historian (AD 260-340) wrote: “The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the Britannic Isles.”
Eusebius does not tell us which of the Apostles visited Britain, but other witnesses mention names. For example St. Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, (AD 303) said: “Aristobulus, whom Paul saluted when writing to the Romans, was Bishop of Britain. Simon Zelotes preached Christ through all Mauretania and Africa the less. At length he was crucified in Brittania, slain and buried.”
Eusebius does not tell us which of the Apostles visited Britain, but other witnesses mention names. For example St. Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, (AD 303) said: “Aristobulus, whom Paul saluted when writing to the Romans, was Bishop of Britain. Simon Zelotes preached Christ through all Mauretania and Africa the less. At length he was crucified in Brittania, slain and buried.”
Ambrosius, (ca. 339-397) the Christian apologist, declared: “So swiftly runs the word of God that though in several thousand years God was not known except among the Jews, now within the space of a few years, His word is concealed neither from the Indians in the East nor from the Britons in the West.”
Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, (ca 347 - 407 AD) wrote in 402 AD about the British Isles in the following manner: “The British Isles, which are beyond the sea, and which lie in the ocean, have received the virtue of the Word. Churches are there founded and altars erected. Though you should go to the ocean, to the British Isles, there you will hear all men everywhere discoursing matters out of the Scriptures, with a different voice indeed, but not another faith, with a different tongue but the same judgment.”
(Research by Arthur and Rosalind Eedle) *The word catholic means “universal”. Courtesy of KINGDOM DIGEST. 1996
(clarifying edits: IHGM)
* * * * * * *"THE INCREDIBLE HISTORY OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH"
Many more exciting points to consider by Ivor C. Fletcher
CHAPTER FOUR -- THE GLASTONBURY STORY ~ LINK ~