430-449 St Patrick Converts the Irish, Vandals & Huns

In this twenty year period St Patrick (pictured) returned to Ireland in 432 to convert the Irish to Christianity and, by legend, rid Ireland of snakes.

Patrick was the son of a town councilor living on the west coast of Britain who had been kidnapped by raiders at aged 16 and suffered 6 years of slavery in Ireland before escaping. He later became the inspiration for a group of Celtic monks who lived on the island of Iona, off the shore of western Scotland. Considering that it would be another 167 years before Augustine set off to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England, Patrick was way ahead of his time.

Theodius II was emperor of the east and Valentinian III was emperor of the the west.

In the year 430, the Roman general Boniface -- with the help of King Gaiseric of the Vandals -- had control of Africa. Realizing that Rome needed the grain from Africa to survive, Galla (Valentinian III's mother) made peace with Boniface but King Gaiseric disagreed, besieging Boniface in Hippo until an army arrived from Italy in 431.

The army was defeated but Boniface managed to escape to Italy. King Gaiseric continued to secure territory in Numidia and Aetius negotiated peace with him -- allowing him to retain Numidia and Mauritania in return for Africa -- but Gaiseric double-crossed Aetius by taking Carthage in 439 and Sicily in 440.

Both Theodius II in the east and Valentinian III in the west now submitted to Gaiseric's terms -- reversing the previous territorial arrangement and adding the betrothal of Valentinian III's daughter to Gaiseric's son.

Despite his treachery, Galla favored Boniface over Aetius and as a result the armies of the two men battled. Boniface won but later died, his son taking over, but Aetius prevailed with the help of King Rugila of the Huns and was restored to power in 434.

The Huns also helped Aetius with another Bergundian revolt, but when Attila murdered his brother Rugila and became King of the Huns, the situation changed dramatically.

In the East, Theodius II and his four sisters had no military crises thanks to the able government of the prefect Anthemius and were able to devote their lives to theology.

The Roman church had been appalled by the domination of the Alexandrian church, particularly its deposition of bishops who adhered to the western notion of the coexistence of two natures of Christ (divine and human) - but Theodius II ignored all complaints.

1010-1029 Irish King Brian Boru Repels Vikings

This twenty year period started with the continuing reign of King Ethelred the 'Unready' of England and Queen Emma. Ethelred was dispossessed of his kingdom by the Danish King Swegn Forkbeard between 1013-1014, then regained it only to die in 1016.

Edmund Ironside became king briefly in 1016 and then Canute the Great --- Swegn Forkbeard's son -- became King of England.

The Dane Vikings were also invading Ireland under Ivar.

Mahon, King of the Dalcassians, desired peace with the invaders but his younger brother, Brian Boru urged armed violent resistance and convinced the Irish that they had to fight Ivar and his Vikings.

After defeating the Vikings there was peace for eight years then Ivar returned and assassinated King Mahon -- at which Brian Boro succeeded his older brother Mahon, and the fight was on.

King Brian Boru controlled most of southern Ireland and King Malachy -- who controlled the north -- ceded the high kingship of Ireland to him.

To complicate matters, Brian's deserted wife, Maelmora, gained revenge by promising the Vikings riches and land if they would defeat Brian.

With her assistance the Vikings returned but Brian had summoned a massive force consisting of all Irish from all over the kingdom and -- holding a sword upright in one hand, and a crucifix in the other -- he instilled his men with so much ferocity that they wiped out the Danes in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf.

Only twenty or so Vikings escaped the Battle of Clontarf alive, and Brian himself died in the battle. 

did islam prolong paganism in england?

Rome's grand plans for England in 597 - mass conversion to Christianity under rule of the Roman Pope - did not eventuate due to something entirely unexpected. The unexpected event was, of course, the birth in 622 of the new Moslem religion in the Middle East.

By 638, the Moslem Arabs had conquered Jerusalem and their impending conquest of Spain (achieved by 715) had so threatened Rome that many Roman priests fled to Ireland - an incredibly poor and backward country that had been thoroughly Christianized by St. Patrick 200 years before - and as a result of this Ireland, not England, became the cradle of western civilization and the safe haven for Roman Christianity.

Having been under Roman rule from 54BC to 407AD, England in 638 was a far more civilized country than Ireland. Also, as a result of invasions between 410-442 by fierce north European tribes - the Jutes, Angles and Saxons - England in 638 also had a far more polyglot ethnic mix than Ireland's Celts. England, of course, had its ancient Britons and Celts, but it now included Jutes, Angles and Saxons - most of whom, in 638, were fiercely Pagan - and after 787 it also included the Danes (who arrived on raids from north Europe and eventually settled in England).

Although Christianity eventually filtered through to England - and the knights of England made history in the Crusades against the Moslem Arabs - Christianity was not only never as strong in England as it was in Ireland but it was also never as Roman influenced as it was in Ireland. This is also true of the north European countries from whence a large part of both English ethnicity and the Protestant movement - which took hold in the 1500s, leading to the establishment of the Anglican Church in 1563 - is derived.

England did not reject Christianity, but it most certainly came to reject Roman rule of the new religion, especially the Pope's refusal to allow the English language to supplant Latin in services and literature.

The particular ethnicity of England - and its civilized state by 638 - may have mitigated against Roman Catholicism ever taking 100% control of England as it did in Ireland, but the threat to Rome of the Moslem Arabs that turned its attention away from England towards Ireland most definitely prolonged paganism in England and changed the course of English history.

did ireland save christianity?

The physical location of Ireland, as well as the easy conversion to Christianity of its Celtic Pagan population, most definitely provided Christianity with a safe haven, but it was the expansionist evangelical efforts of Pope Gregory (590-604) that prevented Christianity from dying out in Europe and remaining, if at all, as an essentially middle-eastern religion.

Historians claim that Ireland - an ethnic Celtic island at the westernmost part of Europe - is the cradle of western civilization, and Christianity is the religion upon which it was founded in 675 AD.

In that St. Patrick had Christianized Ireland from 432AD, and Rome was - and still is - the central power of Christianity in the western world, it does seem strange that Ireland, rather than Rome, is considered to be the cradle of western civilization and the savior of Christianity.

It is unclear whether it was the isolated western geographical region of Ireland, its distinctive race of white Celtic people or its devotion to Christianity that made it the historical birthplace of western civilization.

Actually, Ireland's geographic position had to be the definitive factor.

With the fall of the Roman Empire in 378AD, the European city states and the new religion of Christianity were in the throes of turmoil. Ireland was seen as being the last bastion - the last hope - for the continuation of any sort of European civilization, with or without Christianity, in the face of advancing hordes from eastern Europe, the far north and the Middle East. And, as it turned out, it was!

Here is what was happening in Europe at the time:

• 378 - the Visigoths defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople
• 395 - the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western parts
• 407 - the Romans evacuated Britain
• 410 - Rome sacked by the Visigoths
• 410-442 The Jutes, Angles and Saxons invaded Britain

At this point, in 432AD, when all appeared to be lost in Europe, St Patrick returns to Ireland - where he had previously been enslaved - on an evangelical mission to introduce Christianity to the Pagan Celtic race and hopefully convert the population to his faith. In the following years, things got worse in Europe.

• 450 - The Huns invade all Roman cities in the old Empire
• 455 - Rome, itself, was sacked by the Vandals

It took Rome nearly 150 years to recover from the invasion, and while Christianity was stagnating in Rome it was thriving in the eastern lands. The magnificent church of St Sophia - which later became a mosque - was built in Constantinople in 532-537 and stands as evidence that Christianity was seen more as an eastern religion than a European one.

Fearing loss of power, in 597 Pope Gregory sent St Augustine to England. It was expected that with the widespread conversion to Christianity in England that Rome would regain control of that part of the world - if not politically then at least in the hearts and minds of the population - but the new religion of Islam intervened.