in which Constantine made Christian York in 306 he was proclaimed Aug army, and at York was though not by a Briton, the colos that was setup in one lic buildings ofthe Iegionary f yeats later came his conversion, when he adopted the sacred Chi This was the religion of the Empi ras also responsible for the frst extant work to be written by native of Britain, the Latin Commentary on St Paul's Epistles of the Irish monk and heretic, Pelagius. He wrote at the end of the fourth century, when the ¢ Britons were id seaweed, and reminiscent of the Bat th century the Roman gattisons withdrew, and Silver spoon with the Chrinsn (Chi:Rho symbol. the beginni interlude of classical ar of te buried Mildenhall Treasure of silver dishes, Bowls and spoons. The work is probably Roman, not Bish 3 The Anglo-Saxons 450-1066 By the beginning ofthe sixth century England must have looked very much as je did fve hundred year before. The towns were down, temples and theatres in ruin, che ates lle, ealmas broken, andthe bb frescoes, pottery, and glass lay under the roots of the returning forest. T! Bitten Angle and Saxony the English, had. deswoyed Romano Bri civilization, and litle or nothing remained. but the indestructible roads, the ‘Latin language, and British Christian Tewas one of these Brith Christians, St Patrick, who converted the ¢ eclipse of the Roman in $63 St Columba tof Scotland, and exploits of the heroic asin English He is a sien 365 “These histories were writen in Latin, a language unknown to che atl Engl invaders, but they aso had thet heroes, and in thee chiefain’ alls ‘minstrels celebrate the feat of warriors in the lands they had recently left, above Noung Beowalf ightly teat jan west against ‘Ambrosios-Auelants by but two centuries , victor of twelve great26 @=EEEEEREHREHE EERE EO CC | ass: Tes: omer he becomes king, and reigns for fffy years. But the country is ravaged by a » with a nave Fanked by ewo aisles and ending dragon, whose fiery breath consumes the wooden houses of hi alast § f great battle the old hero kills the dragon, but is himself mot tf ‘Hata’ heatomere blew ean, t beothine afr bale ax beens nous i people, but it has the primitive virtues of vigour and simplicity, 2 ; ‘way on an epic scale, Itis indeed the firs great poem in the Eng Jn any modem language, and witht Eaglak ature may be said & ‘The manuscript of Beowulf was weiten in about the year 1000, form, when recounted by bards some four centuries e language would be even more incomprehensible to modern ears. Unqualified by the music of Latin Es sh, guttural, costive wi Deginning of the alliteration. ‘The conson: the long vowel at the consona language has always been rich in consonants of is grate has been writen for s s painting is its sculpture and architecture almost as much tury, after a severance of neat! land was once a architecture, as distinct from building in wood, Canterbury he found the remains of two Romano-British church of these he rebuilt as the fist cathedral of Canterbury. Like the ol‘Augustine, and when they mec in Northumbria they inevit conflice, This was given visual expression in their arc the modified Roman basilcan form of Ken nave with a the Roman, adopt ianity after the Synod of appeat to have had nave arcades and aisles in che basilican manner. Yet the monastic churches of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, founded by Benedict Biscop in 674 and 682, had high, narrow, unaisled naves leadin square-ended chancel Hallway beeween thes Northamptonshire, the only Early Saxon church of any si Nearly a hundred fee long, nave and choir were arcade, and at the east end an arch opened into a polygonal ap: have been destoyed, and the openings of the arcades walled in, bu arches on each side remain, made of Roman tiles springing ffom stone piers. Ifthe work is that of English masons, was a rematkable achievement for s0 carly a date. (9 have survived, separated by an aisles “The lace seventhoeatuey church at Brixword, Nonhamptonshite: the fines example of Early Sexon azchieetre, iby in 664, | Bishop Wilfrid of York buile churches at Hexham, Ripon, and York, which | nto a small § them and northern groups is Brixworth in | century great History of the English Church and “As it was written in Latin, it cannot be ss a-work of E fe mow valuable and dei fom legend, ye caiven Y and everywhere the goodness and comp: book he also appended the fist antl cen ®t was born on the lands ofthis monastery, and at the age ied me tothe reverend Abbot Benedict... Since then offices i English Church music. ‘and sung ing muse be yhmical clapping of performed to the accompanied by music it too must have been thythmical. Whether this early secular vocal and instrumental music had any form of harmony we do not know, though pictures of groups of people cruments of the same Kind but diferent size, and therefore pitch, at it had. ly Church music, however, had neither harmony nor metrical beat, but was a measuceless chanting by a number of voices in unison. This plainsong was introduced into England by St Augustine, but according to Bede it was iundred years before it spread to Northumbria, shortly before his own (673, and it was Abbot John who taught him ‘the chant for che Lcurgical it was sung at St Peter's, Rome’ suggest 29