The Christians were already active in Britain in the early centuries AD, and as we saw in the previous chapter, after early persecutions Christianity eventually became an acceptable state religion during the Roman period. However, after the departure of the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, especially in the east and south, and they w'cre pagans. 'I'he followers of Christ made little headway in promoting their religion, and the country again became largely pagan. St Augustine arrived from Rome in 597 to rekindle the flame of Christianity, and during the seventh century stone churches began to be built, fragments of which survive in a few present-day churches, as at Brixworth (see ‘Places to Visit’). Over the succeeding four centuries many fine churches were built, and some of them have survived w ithout very many changes, so that the Saxon features can still be fully appreciated. When considered on their own terms, unspoilt Saxon churches are as impressive as any of the great architecture of later centuries.
.4 fine example of Saxon architecture, the late tenth-century toner of Earl's Barton church (Sorthamptonshire).
In Wales during this same period, and similarly in the south-western peninsula of England, religion took a very different course. 'I'here was no Saxon influence, and Christianity came in from the west, brought by monks from Ireland and Brittany. They settled in the valleys, built tiny oratories and chapels, and preached the gospel to the natives close by, the gradual spread of their individual cults being traced today by the surviving church dedications. Very few' buildings have survived from those early days, but in Wales alone there are at least 400 stone monuments from the fifth to the twelfth centuries which carry Christian inscriptions (see Chapter 7). Christianity also spread from the west into Scotland, carried by saints like St Columba, who went from Ireland to Iona in 563, where he founded a monastery. He carried the faith inland, and into the land of the Piets, and died in 597, the year that St .Augustine entered England to begin the conversion of the pagan Saxons.
With the arrival of the Normans in England in the late eleventh century, great changes affected all aspects of life, including religion. The Saxon style of church architecture gave way to the Norman, rich and ornate where the Saxon had been plain and spare - the visible change was from austerity to flamboyance. Decorative carving abounded in Norman churches, and many examples survive. Often found among them are themes which hark back to pre-Christian religions, fertility symbols especially, and the frequency with which such themes occur suggests that paganism was still widely practised and that pagan concepts were incorporated into the church ritual by the early clergy. This is certainly a possibility, d'he Christian conversion of Britain was achieved neither rapidly nor smoothly, and in many rural areas the people must have continued their age-old practices long after the area was nominally Christian. Edicts were often issued by religious officials in the early centuries to try and stamp out lingering paganism. So the appearance in Christian churches of carvings suggestive of pagan beliefs need not seem anachronistic. 'Ehe practice of incorporating such carvings into the church fabric also continued into later centuries, but by that time the direct link with paganism would have gone, and the symbols would have had their pagan energies exorcised by long Christian usage. They were probably seen in later centuries as a form of good luck charm, the weird and sometimes frightening faces being thought to keep evil spirits at bay.
Exorcism may have been the motive of the missionaries who built Christian churches on sites previously sacred to the pagans. 'I'here are undoubtedly many examples of churches being built at such sites. W’e have already seen Rudston church built close to a standing stone (see Chapter 4), and here we see Midmar church standing cheek by jowl with a Bronze. Age recumbent stone circle. I n ‘ Places to Visit’ we describe the standing stone by the porch of Llanwrthwl church; there is a smaller standing stone by the porch of Maentwrog church (Gwynedd) and at Vsbyty Cynfyn church (Dyfed) several standing stones, possibly the remains of a stone circle, are incorporated into the churchyard wall, suggesting that the church was built within an existing circle. Other churches stand inside hillforts, as at Cholesbury (Buckinghamshire), or inside henges, as at Knowl-ton (Dorset), while others were built on top of burial mounds, as in Jersev where two medieval chapels were constructed on the. Neolithic burial mound of La Hougue Bie. Circular churchvards are often found (for example at Old Radnor,
Midmar church
(Aberdeen/Grampian Region).
Powvs), and are suggestive of prehistoric sacred sites, but raised churchyards are not necessarily evidence of prehistoric burial mounds - continuous use of a graveyard for burials over the centuries will tend to raise the level of the ground (although it cannot raise the level of the church foundations).
Nevertheless, there is plenty of evidence that Christian churches were often established on previously pagan sacred sites. The reason behind this is not so clear. Perhaps the early Christians appreciated the necessity of a continuity of religious practice and understood that they could gain influence over the population by adapting the sites already sacred rather than by bluntly opposing the established practices. 'Phey may also have been skilled in the knowledge of terrestrial energies and focal points and knew that to disrupt the established pattern of energv flow would help neither themselves nor the people they had come to convert. For their part the indigenous population were content that the sacred sites were still in use, and found that their ancient gods could with little difficulty be assimilated into the new religion, appearing sometimes in a new guise as saints or as the mother of Christ.
Many legends have survived which tell of churches being mvsteriously moved to another site overnight during construction, suggesting that there was conflict between opposing groups over the sitings. This conflict was possibly between
MotUgomery Church (Poivys) possibly on a ley, see Chapter 19.
Christians who wished to incorporate the practices of the old religion into the new, and those who wished irrevocably to sever all connections with it. Or it may have been concerned with arguments about the best place to site the church in order to make full use of the natural earth energies, d'hose who have studied earth currents by means of dowsing suggest that a flow of water above or below ground provides a good channel for the flow of earth currents, and by dowsing in old churches they can plot the course of underground water lines which flow in and out of the building at significant points and often form an underground spiral or vorte. x at a point of especial potency. The experiences of ourselves and others indicate that energy flows and pulses may still move through some older church structures, but this evidence is of course completely subjective. Whatever esoteric principles were used by the early Church fathers in siting their foundations, they do not appear to have been recorded, and today’s researchers have barely started to delve into the mvsteries contained within these sacred sites.
World History
