It's the mid seventh century and news of the new official religion of Northumbria has reached our old Barlickers. What we have to puzzle out now is what they did, how did it affect their lives. Once again, a word of caution. Just as the Roman writers had an agenda, to portray conquered people as brutes and extol the virtues of Roman Civilisation, the monkish scholars were biased towards presenting the Roman Church in the best light and reinforcing the message of the Gospels. Their message was that when the light of Christianity fell on people they were transformed, it was a miracle, an unstoppable force and all other beliefs and practices withered away in the light of truth. They use this word 'truth' constantly, implying of course that everything that had gone before was a lie. It also gives the impression that the people to be converted were gullible, unsophisticated beings who were like sponges waiting to soak up the new belief.
I'm sorry, but I don't buy this. The fact that they had survived, built communities, travelled and traded tells a different story. These were intelligent people who were capable of grasping complicated concepts and working with them. True, they didn't have the benefits we have from centuries of research, experimentation and knowledge but the massive scale of some of their historic projects showed that they had effective structures in society and management skills that would perhaps defeat us today. I don't believe for one moment that on hearing the news, they threw out all their old beliefs and deities and started afresh completely convinced and converted.
It's quite obvious that Gregory the Great realised this. The evidence is in his quite specific instructions to his evangelising bishops. They were not to destroy the Pagan temples but only the 'idols'. Once this was done they were to re-consecrate the buildings by ritual and the sprinkling of Holy Water. Further, he said that full conversion was only to be gained by small steps and told the bishops not to ban Pagan festival, ritual and sacrifice but to allow it to proceed as Christian acts. I'm sure you all know of the Pagan origins of festivals like Xmas and Easter. Let me tell you a story of how this was brought home to me. In 2000 I found myself in a German town on the banks of the Rhine and saw people heaping green boughs up against the wall of the church. This was so obviously a hangover from Pagan ritual but when I enquired I was told it was a celebration of Himmelfahrt, literally 'going to heaven' and was a celebration of the Christian belief that after completing her work on earth, the Virgin Mary was transported to heaven, the Assumption. Oxen were killed in honour of Saint Benyo at Clynnog Fawr in Wales as late as 1589 and Saint Maelrubna in Wester Ross until 1678. The conversion was not as complete as we are led to believe!
Rushbearing. A Pagan relic?