Hullwebs History of Hull
Anglo Saxon Religion
The
Heathens worshipped their gods and goddesses for thousands of years before
the coming of Christianity. Their gods and goddesses were part of, and
ruled practically every aspect of their lives, such as birth, life, death,
harvest, earth, sky, love, fertility, nature, weather and much more. In
the most primitive of times these deities were probably worshipped as
natural phenomena, but over the centuries each phenomena developed it's
own image and character that, is probably best illustrated in later Norse
mythology.
Learn more . . . . .
Christianity
The
decline of Anglo Saxon heathonism began around 597 c.e. (common era) with
the arrival of the Roman missionary St Augustine on the Isle of Thanet
in Kent. The missionaries were sent out on the orders of Pope Gregory,
legend says that Pope Gregory, before becoming Pope, noticed some fair-haired
boys in a slave market in Rome, and enquired where they were from. He
was told that they were Angles and also Heathen, to which (Pope) Gregory
replied, "Non Angli, sed angeli", "Not Angles but angels",
and on becoming Pope he despatched the missionaries to convert the Anglo-Saxons.
The first king in England to greet St Augustine was Ethelbert of Kent.
Learn more . . . . .
Monastic Life
The monastic life of the seventh and eighth centuries was lead in double houses which consisted of both a monastery and a nunnery. Men and women were equal in conversion and learning; in Aldhelm's words:
. . . readers, man and woman, open the sacred volumes.
They
wrote letters to each other and composed, copied and translated manuscripts
in scriptoria and libraries. For instance, Bishop Boniface exchanged letters
with an abbess called Leoba while he was on a mission in Germany. Their
letters would often concern practical problems, such as the supply of
books and clothing, the building of churches, etc. The advice of women
like Leoba was sought and appreciated, and the fees for hurting a nun
were higher than those for ordinary women. Poverty and chastity were expected
from both monks and nuns.
By the ninth century, the enthusiasm of the earlier ages was gone; the church was in decline, partly because of frequent Viking raids. In the tenth century, monastic reform did away with the double houses and monks started to live like noblemen, often getting involved in power-politics. This was the age of equality in ignorance, not anymore in learning.
Discover more about Ango Saxon religious life.
All content Copyright © 2004 - Hullwebs (UK) - Terms of Use