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.