A Research On The Christianization Of The Anglo-Saxons

From barbarism to civilization, Christianization of the various Germanic people was the milestone in history. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms accept Christianity began with Kent experienced nearly a hundred years till the Conversion of Sussex and Isle of Wight. Baptized converts from the king to the general public, the proselytism of an ancient nation was a long historical process, also was generated by a combination of political factors and cultural factors. There is few domestic researches on this topic, discusses on this change from the perspective of national history writing is more rare. This thesis aims to explain the deficiencies of previous historians by studying the Conversion of Anglo-Saxon England. In this thesis, Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons explored from the Kings, the Church, as well as a comparison with the Franks.From the perspective of Kings, this thesis focused on Kings’motives and the royal families’ roles in the Conversion, to investigate the influence of kingship on the proselytizing. Starting from analyze and clarify the relationship among the Roman,Kent and Frankish kingdom, this thesis do detailed analysis about the political factors of Gregory missionary. The political alliance between Kent and Austrasia or Neustria is important factors to promote the former Conversion, but too much emphasis on the influence of the Frankish kingdom about Kent Conversion to Christian is inappropriate. As the investigated objects, the time of Frankish princess Bertha’s marriage is the key to problems with doubtful in this political marriage. The kingship is not only decisive factor in the Conversion, but also affects the development of Christianity. Conventional wisdom holds that the Synod of Whitby in664was convened to Irish and Roman tradition followed by the different dates of Easter. But this may just be an opportunity for the synod, the root causes of the synod largely due to domestic political struggles of the royal family. In the investigated of church, this thesis introduces the missionary send by the Church of Rome and the Church of Ireland respectively, compares their missionary methods and concepts. Compared with the Diocese of Rome, Irish monastic institutions were more suitable for rural community in the early northern Anglo-Saxon England. Roman tradition was more inclined to emphasize the authority of the bishop, and pay more attention to the management of affairs of the secular, was more affordable for the dense areas in southern town relatively. However, it must be pointed out that, in the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England, the religious influence of Rome and Ireland is mixed together; therefore, it could not be viewed in isolation from the role played by these two churches. Through the study of the life of Wilfrid of York, explore the fusion and change of church culture, which reflect the history of the growth of the Anglo-Saxon Church. From polytheism to Christianity, changes in spiritual beliefs of the Anglo-Saxons in Conversion are a major topic about this thesis. Mainly from the view of archeology and anthropology, explores the Anglo-Saxons changing funeral customs and the concept of life after death. Transition, on the concept of this custom, is an extremely important part of the transformation of religious belief, by adjusting the religious concepts, church played a significant role in the promotion.By comparing on the religious transformations, this thesis analyzes some differences between Anglo-Saxon and Frankish kingships in the Christianization, as well as the missionary policy for transforming the polytheistic culture by the Church. Through a comparative analysis, explores the interaction of both Christian cultural culture, and the similarities in the process of Christianization of Germany. Compared with the Merovingian dynasty, the process of Christianization in Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was repeatedly hindered or even backsliding, it is associated with that the Anglo-Saxon kingship is relatively weak. Preliminary study on the penitential concepts and the worship of saints in Anglo-Saxon England, show there are a lot of commonalities between the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks in their transformations of the spiritual beliefs, even if they differ in the specific policies.