Assess the importance of Paulinus in bringing Christianity to Northern England?

To properly assess the importance of Paulinus in bringing Christianity to Northern England two
questions must be answered. Firstly, the question of whether Paulinus had great significance in
introducing Christianity to Northern England in the first place. This will be answered by examining
whether there already existed a degree of Christian belief in Northern England which Paulinus was
merely renewing. And, if there was no Christian or pseudo-Christian belief there, was Paulinus
himself actually responsible for large numbers of sincere conversions to Christianity?
The second question is how important were Paulinus and his roman Christian tradition in the long-
term development of Northern English Christianity. This has to be answered by looking at the way
Christianity was organised in Northumbria in the years and centuries after Paulinus had fled the
region, i.e. was the form of Christian organisation in early medieval Northern England more closely
related to the Roman or to the Celtic model?

It has been suggested by some historians, like D.J.V. Fisher and Peter Hunter Blair, 1 that the success
of Paulinus in converting thousands of Northumbrians to Christianity may be attributed to the
existence of a tradition of Christian belief in that region of the country. Bede mentions Paulinus’
mass baptisms in both the Glen, near Yeavering, and the Swale, near Catterick. 2 In Lindsey too he
engaged in a great deal of preaching and built a church at Lincoln. From the scale of the reported
conversions is it not plausible that Paulinus was renewing the faith of an already-existing Christian
population?
The evidence for such a conjecture, however, is highly lacking. The two most likely routes by which
Christian teaching would have made its way to the Anglo-Saxon north of England are through the
local British population, converted in roman times, or through Celtic Christian missionaries. The
argument for the existence of a local Christian British population is easily disproven. Christianity was
much weaker in the north of England than in the south during the roman era. It was largely attached
to ‘centres of military occupation’.3 Even the usual urban Christian strongholds, like the town of
Lincoln, cannot have had much of a Christian populace, as evidenced by the fact Paulinus’ church
there was abandoned during Bede’s day. 4
Indeed Brian Hope-Taylor’s analysis of the excavations at Yeavering have virtually closed the
book on the idea of any Christian culture surviving among the British. He argues, firstly, that the
Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia, a sub-kingdom of Northumbria, did contain a large British subject
population.5 Nevertheless there is strong evidence to indicate they were pagan in belief and quickly
reverted to that paganism following the end of King Edwin’s rule in 633. 6 Hope-Taylor goes so far as

1
D.J.V. Fisher, The Anglo-Saxon Age c.400-1042, (London, 1973), p. 74; Peter Hunter Blair, Northumbria in the
Days of Bede, (London, 1976), p. 109.
2
Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. with intro by Leo Sherley-Price, (Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, 1968), pp. 129-30.
3
William Hugh Clifford Frend, ‘The Christianization of Roman Britain’, in M.W. Barley and R.P.C. Hanson (eds),
Christianity in Britain,300-700: Papers presented to the Conference on Christianity in Roman and Sub-Roman
Britain held at the University of Nottingham 17-20 April 1967, (Leicester, 1968), p.40.
4
Robin George Collingwood and John Nowell Linton Myres, Roman Britain and the English Settlements,
(Oxford, 1937), p. 413 & p. 416.
5
Brian Hope-Taylor, Yeavering: An Anglo-British centre of early Northumbria, (London, 1977), p. 281.
6
Ibid, p. 278.

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to say ‘no historical or archaeological vestige of Christianity is to be found in Bernician territory
before the time of Paulinus’.7
The presence of Celtic Christians is also highly unlikely in that there is no reason to believe any
large group other than Anglo-Saxons and the aforementioned pagan British could have come under
Northumbrian governance at least until the mid to late eighth century. 8
If it can be said, then, that Paulinus was not merely revitalising an already-existing Christian
tradition in the north of England is it therefore correct to credit Paulinus with introducing
Christianity in that region? Assuming the veracity of Bede’s account – the Historia ecclesiastica
gentis Anglorum being the only source on the life of Paulinus9 – the obvious answer is yes. Yet the
introduction of a particular belief system to a people does not imply the said people actually
embraced it. The swiftness with which Northumbrians reverted to paganism after the death of King
Edwin would suggest their conversions were not particularly sincere. 10 It is of course impossible to
measure the religious sincerity of people who lived nearly 1,400 years ago but an understanding that
religious belief was much more fluid and far closer connected to the king in an early-medieval pagan
society,11 coupled with the fact of their eventual reversion to paganism, would indicate that the
conversion to Christianity on the part of Northumbrians may have been ‘a matter of expedience’. 12
Does Paulinus not at least deserve credit for his conversion of the Northumbrian royal family and
thereby planting at least the seeds of Christianity in the north? If Bede’s narrative of King Edwin’s
conversion is to be believed it does at least demonstrate that Paulinus was, in Mayr-Harting’s words,
‘a man of considerable presence, not to say psychological power’. 13 It took him perhaps as long as
nine years to persuade the ‘wise and prudent’ king. 14 A more cynical person could argue that the
philosophy of Christianity was useful for a king’s ability to legitimise his rule and thus Paulinus may
have been pushing an open door.
The fact of their being politic reasons for conversion to Christianity may go further to explaining
why Edwin had Paulinus preach at Yeavering, the British heartland of his kingdom. 15 Did it not make
sense for the king of an alien people to legitimate his rule among his subject population through the
use of divine sanction? Pre-Christian belief systems were characterised by ‘territoriality and
collectivity’ while Christianity focused on universal salvation. 16 A system of belief emphasizing
universality over the particularist beliefs of individual tribal societies would have seemed desirable
to a king ruling over two distinct ethnic groups. If it yielded success for Edwin it could have served as
an example for King Oswald. Though it has been assumed Oswald’s Christianity stemmed from his
exile in Iona it is also true that the successors of Edwin, Osric and Eanfrith, renounced their
Christianity when ruling Deira and Bernicia respectively. 17 Perhaps the more capable mind of Oswald
7
Ibid, p. 288
8
David Dumville, ‘The origins of Northumbria: some aspects of the British background’, in Steven Bassett (ed.),
The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, (Leicester, 1989), p. 220.
9
Peter Hunter Blair, ‘The letters of Pope Boniface V and the mission of Paulinus to Northumbria’, in Peter
Clemoes and Kathleen Hughes (eds), England Before The Conquest: Studies in primary sources presented to
Dorothy Whitelock, (Cambridge, 1971), p. 6.
10
Fisher, Anglo-Saxon Age, p. 57.
11
John Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, (Oxford, 2005), p. 52.
12
Hope-Taylor, Yeavering, p. 278.
13
Henry Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, (London, 1991), p. 67.
14
Bede, History of the English Church, p. 117.
15
Hope-Taylor, Yeavering, p. 27.
16
Przemyslaw Urbanczyk, ‘The Politics of Conversion in North Central Europe’, in Martin Carver (ed.), The Cross
Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300, (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2003), p. 17.
17
Bede, History of the English Church, p. 141.

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saw the political advantages of Christianity through Edwin’s example. That being said, it is a great
stretch to credit Paulinus for the later success of King Oswald in Christianising his kingdom.

The question of what organisational form Christianity took in Northern England should now be
examined in order to assess the long-term importance, or lack thereof, of Paulinus on the region.
Paulinus, along with the other missionaries from Rome, attempted to replicate their own Christian
organisational form in Anglo-Saxon England. Such an organisation consisted of urban-based
bishoprics catering to urban communities with the expectation that Christian teaching would
inevitably flow out to the surrounding countryside. This was due to the fact that northern and
central Italy, along with central and southern Gaul, continued to reflect their Roman past in that they
remained ‘city-based societies’.18 From the works of Gregory of Tours it is clear that the church
served civil administrative functions in these areas. The Augustinian mission followed these patterns
of organisation when it set up urban bishoprics. Pope Gregory himself favoured the division of
Anglo-Saxon England into two archiepiscopates based around London and York. 19
If it is thus justifiable to speak of a particular roman form of ecclesiastical organisation as
promulgated by roman missionaries like Paulinus it is equally acceptable to talk about an alternative
Celtic form of organisation. What distinguished the Celtic Church from the roman one in
organisational terms was its reliance on monastic communities rather than bishoprics for spreading
the faith. Missionary activity among the laity spread out from the monasteries with monks often
being responsible for a religious community’s pastoral care. 20 Other differences included those of
jurisdiction, like in Ireland where the existence of small kingdoms (tuath) meant the creation of
strong links between the ruling families and ‘particular churches’. 21 The ‘pattern of jurisdiction’
rested on relationships instead of territoriality. 22
Since King Oswald elected to invite Celtic rather than roman missionaries into Northumbria the
question is whether it was Aidan and his brand of Christianity which flourished long-term in the
north of England. If it appears clearly that the trajectory of northern English Christianity in the early
Middle Ages was towards a more Celtic form of ecclesiastical organisation then it is King Oswald, St
Aidan and the Irish missionaries operating out of Lindisfarne who should be given the substantial
credit for the long-term bringing of Christianity to the north. The evidence seems to suggest that the
Church in Northumbria inherited more Celtic characteristics than roman ones and that the
conversion of the laity probably resulted from that fact. Even where traces of roman influence are to
be seen in seventh, eighth and ninth century Northumbria their provenance are more often post-
Paulinus.
Despite the existence of some form of cultural memory of Paulinus and the other Gregorian
missionaries in Northumbria it seems very little of their work survived the death of Edwin in 633.
Paulinus appears in a Lindisfarne painting on the subject of Northumbrian Christianity, 23 his pope –
Gregory the Great – may have given his name to a number of local northern churches, 24 and, of
18
John Blair, Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, p. 34.
19
Fisher, Anglo-Saxon Age, p. 71,
20
Barbara Yorke, The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c. 600-800, (Harlow, 2006),
p. 172.
21
Richard Sharpe, ‘Churches and communities in early medieval Ireland: towards a pastoral model, in John
Blair and Richard Sharpe (eds), Pastoral Care Before the Parish, p. 97.
22
Ibid, p. 98.
23
Peter Hunter Blair, Northumbria, p. 108.
24
Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts, ‘Three Ages of Conversion at Kirkdale, North Yorkshire’, in Martin Carver (ed.),
The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300, (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2003),

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course, Bede centres him as a central figure in the coming of Christianity (probably in order to link
the idea of English nationhood to Rome). 25 Yet these instances indicate the importance of Paulinus in
the narrative of Christian conversion rather than in its reality. The reality was that the monastery
became central to northern English Christianity, the monasterium/minster its principal type of
Church community, and the monastic abbot a figure of influence coequal, and sometimes probably
greater than, the bishop.
The monastery in the north of England was largely responsible for the initial conversion and the
following pastoral care delivered to religious communities. Travelling monks replaced ‘preaching
stations’ as the instruments of conversion once Oswald had given Lindisfarne to Aidan and the
Ionans.26 It was this ‘milk of simpler teaching’, 27 containing face-to-face interaction with the laity
instead of the previous roman opulence and distance, which imbued the masses with Christian
belief. Later on it was the monks who again maintained that belief through the pastoral duties of
‘preaching, baptizing and visiting the sick’. 28
The consequent centrality of the monastery to the local community led to the creation of a type of
community organisation known as the monasterium, or minster, which was usually associated with
‘the administrative centres of royal estates and ministered to those estates through pastoral units
known to contemporaries as parochiae’.29 Such a form of ecclesiastical organisation was far closer to
the Celtic north than anything coming out of the roman tradition.
With the centrality of this form of ecclesiastical organisation it comes as no surprise that early
Northumbrian Christianity followed the pattern of the Celtic Church in that the abbot very often
trumped the bishop in importance. Although scholars have revised the extent to which they ascribe
this characteristic to the Celtic Church it remains one of the key distinguishable differences between
Roman and Celtic Christianity.30 At Lindisfarne a bishop was subject to the abbot and there is some
evidence of similar occurrences elsewhere, like at Whitby at the time of Aelffled. 31 John Blair says
definitively that seventh and eighth century England ‘shows little evidence for structures of authority
that were episcopal in the strict sense’ and ‘something like the unmodified Irish model of a monastic
Church supplanting an episcopal one’ fits Northumbria. 32
Where roman influence makes its mark again with the 664 Synod of Whitby and after it is through
matters like the dating of Easter. There is no radical departure from a Celtic ecclesiastical model. 33 In
the late seventh century, it must be admitted, Archbishop Theodore reintroduced elements of
Roman organisation by, among other things, establishing ‘bishoprics with specific sees’ near large
population centres.34 In many ways Theodore synthesized Celtic and Roman traditions. To the
consternation of the roman-oriented St Wilfrid Theodore appointed Celtic-trained clergy to high

p. 299.
25
Anton Scharer, ‘The Gregorian Tradition in Early England’, in Richard Gameson, St Augustine and the
Conversion of England, (Sutton, Gloucestershire, 1999),
26
Margaret Deanesley, The Pre-Conquest Church In England, (London, 1963), p. 197.
27
Bede, History of the English Church, pp. 148-9.
28
Alan Thacker, ‘Monks, preaching and pastoral care in early Anglo-Saxon England’ , in John Blair and Richard
Sharpe (eds), Pastoral Care Before the Parish, p. 148.
29
Ibid, p. 139.
30
Richard Sharpe, ‘Churches and communities in early medieval Ireland: towards a pastoral model, in John
Blair and Richard Sharpe (eds), Pastoral Care Before the Parish, pp. 98-9.
31
Thacker, ‘Monks, preaching and pastoral care’, p. 149.
32
John Blair, Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, p. 73.
33
P.H. Sawyer, From Roman Britain to Norman England, (London, 1998), p. 97.
34
Mayr-Harting, Coming of Christianity, p. 131.

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episcopal office in the north.35 Though this may be clear roman influence on northern English
Christianity it is obviously post-Paulinus.

Having assessed the evidence it seems as though Paulinus’ importance in bringing Christianity to
Northern England was not as great as Bede and other traditional interpretations would have it. In
terms of introducing Christian belief in the first place Paulinus is undoubtedly a significant figure.
There is no indication that Christianity survived in the north long after the end of Roman Britain.
Paulinus nevertheless failed to bring about unequivocal conversion to Christianity among the
Northumbrian elite or general population. His mass conversions may sound impressive but there is
little evidence that they survived the death of his patron, King Edwin. If he had any significance in the
later Christianisation of Northumbria it probably lay in the example of Christian legitimation for
kingship which King Oswald may or may not have taken up during his reign.
In the long-standing ecclesiastical trajectory of the medieval north of England Paulinus was of even
less significance. St Aidan probably has a greater claim to having brought Christianity north in terms
of the organisation of Christian communities. The central tenets of northern English Christianity in
the early middle ages are easily traced to the Celtic Church rather than the Roman one. Even in
matters where Rome prevailed it is later churchmen like Archbishop Theodore who must take the
credit.

35
Deanesley, Pre-Conquest Church, p. 102.

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 Bibliography
 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. with intro by Leo Sherley-Price,
(Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1968).
 Fisher, Douglas John Vivian, The Anglo-Saxon Age c.400-1042, (London, 1973).
 Frend, William Hugh Clifford, ‘The Christianization of Roman Britain’, in M.W. Barley and
R.P.C. Hanson (eds), Christianity in Britain,300-700: Papers presented to the Conference on
Christianity in Roman and Sub-Roman Britain held at the University of Nottingham 17-20
April 1967, (Leicester, 1968), pp. 37-49.
