400 | Ninian, Roman-trained bishop of Galloway and friend (maybe) of Martin of Tours, is successfully evangelizing the Picts ("the painted people"). Mungo of Glasgow is evangelizing in Scotland. |
431 | Deacon Palladius sent by the bishop of Rome as a "bishop to the Scotti [Irish] who believe in Christ." |
432 | Patrick, a Briton from a clerical family and himself an escaped Irish slave, returns to Ireland as bishop. Patrick organizes, evangelizes, helps the poor, confronts the druid sorcerers, and earns both respect and political power. |
500 | First Celtic monastery founded in Tintagel. |
530 | (Italy) Benedict founds Monte Cassino, where he and his friends can live together and say the Daily Office regularly. Benedict's rule will be the model for most future monasticism. |
530 | David, water-drinking bishop in Wales, popularizes Christianity there. |
550 | Plague year. Gildas, quoting the Old Testament, sees this as God's anger against a decadent, corrupt society, and turns monasticism into a mass movement. (Unlike Patrick, Gildas wields no political clout.) |
562 | Columba, an Irishman, popularizes Christianity in Scotland. (He blesses Loch Ness to rid it of its monster.) The congregations founded by Mungo and Columba will ultimate become the Scottish Presbyterian churches. |
590 | Columbanus of Ireland, who has introduced Benedict's way of life to Ireland, undertakes his highly successful mission to the Continent. |
410 | Pelagius, British Christian thinker, emphasizes freedom and man's natural capacity to cooperate with God's grace. He chooses to settle in St. Augustine's neighborhood. His liberal heresy becomes very popular in Britain. |
429 | Bishops Germanus and Lupus sent from Gaul to Britain to preach against Pelagianism. According to legend, Germanus baptizes most of the British army one Easter; their cries of "Alleluia" rout the enemy. |
444 | Leo the Great, bishop of Rome, changes the method of determining the date of Easter so that Good Friday will not fall on a Roman sports day. Britain conforms immediately. |
457 | Victorius of Aquitaine introduces yet another method of dating Easter which is accepted in Rome and Gaul but for some reason not in Britain. This effectively cuts the British church off from the Continent. |
500 | Britons win a victory at Badon Hill under one Artorus. "Arthur" later becomes the model of a Christian king. |
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