In October 2019, I made a similar point, but this time I
was summarising a helpful presentation by Felix Aremo of London City Mission, with
regard to the anti-Christian claims of various Afro-centric cults:
“Before colonialism, before slavery, before Islam, Africans
were Christians. They were disciples and deacons, missionaries and martyrs,
preachers and pastors, from the earliest days of Christianity. An African
helped Jesus carry the cross. Africans were present when the Spirit came down
at Pentecost. God intervened directly by his Holy Spirit through Philip to make
sure Africans heard about Jesus, leading to the first recorded post
Resurrection non-Jewish convert to Christianity- a black African from Cush.”
African men and women have been incredibly impactful on
Christian theology and history, and it is vital that their stories not be lost
to white supremacists and their friends or black cultists and their kin. Never-mind
the impact of African Christians from a distance on British Christianity – the early
spread of the gospel and resourcing of churches with well trained and equipped pastors
is due in no small part, humanly speaking, to “a man of African race” (Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English
People, IV.1).
His name was Hadrian. Little is known about his early life.
Scholars speculate - based on references he made and vocabulary he used - that
he was born in modern-day Libya, around 637, and was a refugee from the Arab
invasions of the early to mid 600s. At some point, he dedicated himself to
serving Christ from a small monastery near Naples, Italy, where he became an
abbot.
Meanwhile, far away in the British Isles, the Church in what is now England found
itself recently emerged from a season of mere endurance, and potentially entering
one of expansion, but very badly in need of education. The Germanic warlords
who had invaded and carved up the land between themselves were thoroughly
pagan and steadfastly refused to adopt the Christian faith of the people they
conquered - not that there seems to have been much effort to evangelise them. One of these pagan warlords, King Æthelberht of Kent, had taken a Christian
princess as his wife – Bertha. Bertha continued to worship Christ under the
pastoral care of Liudhard, and together they worked to renovate an ancient
church building that had fallen into disrepair and was no longer used.
Communications from Bertha and Liudhard coincided with a growing missional conviction
on the part of Gregory, overseer of the church in Rome, that England should be
re-evangelised with the good news of Jesus Christ. Thus a mission from the
church in Rome arrived in Kent in 597 in swiftly got to work. It was not long
before Æthelberht professed faith in Christ and was baptised and Canterbury
became a launch pad for mission across the island. By the second half of the
600s, churches were established and welcome in most of England’s kingdoms. But
they needed leadership, and the presumptive nominee for the role of archbishop
of the English churches died unexpectedly.
The church in Rome was now led by Vitalian, who began a
diligent search for suitable candidates. One man came more highly commended
than any others: Hadrian. He was biblically literate, theologically trained, and
had an excellent grasp of Greek and Latin. Vitalian summoned and commanded
Hadrian to go and take up the vacant post. Hadrian felt inadequate as a young
man (he was 30 or so years old) for such an important task and declined the
post, with an offer to assist in finding an older and better educated person.
His proposal was a man named Andrew, who while qualified enough was not capable
for the task, hindered by sickness. Vitalian again urged Hadrian to accept the
post, but Hadrian requested a bit more time to locate a substitute.
Vitalian clearly trusted and deeply respected Hadrian, and
gave him the needed time. Hadrian’s second proposal was a man named Theodore,
born in Tarsus (modern day Syria). Theodore was a student of secular and
spiritual literature, skilled in Greek and Latin; was a man of good character,
and had what Hadrian lacked: he was sixty-six years old. But Theodore’s appointment
came with a condition: Hadrian was to guide him to Britain, work alongside him
as a teacher, and hold him theologically accountable. They left on 27 May 668.
Hadrian and Theodore carried with them letters of
recommendation and before crossing the channel to England, spent some time
developing good relationships with the churches in France, where they stayed
the winter. When King Egbert heard that Theodore and Hadrian were across the
channel, he made arrangements to conduct them to their new home in Kent.
Unfortunately for Hadrian however, he had somehow managed to arouse the
suspicion of Ebroin, an insecure Frankish mayor who had assumed more authority
than was rightly his. The details are not clear but it seems that Ebroin thought
the young African had a hidden agenda assigned by the Byzantine Emperor, in collusion with England's tribal kings, that was somehow prejudiced against him and the Frankish people. Of course, this was completely paranoid, and Hadrian was eventually released to re-join Theodore.
Shortly after their arrival in Canterbury, Hadrian and Theodore
travelled all across the island on a teaching tour to the English tribes, unifying
the churches of the island long before the island itself knew such unity. From
his base in Kent, Hadrian devoted himself to supporting the educational work of
Theodore - and continued long after Theodore died after over 21 years of
ministry in England. Hadrian would enjoy 39 years of ministry in England,
before he himself died, leaving a legacy of formally trained church leaders, better equipped churches, as well as a generally more literate and better educated populace. One of his later contemporaries, Bede
(a man himself of such historical importance he is normally called “the
Venerable”) would write of Hadrian with great affection and describe his
ministry with enthusiastic warmth:
Because both of them [Hadrian and Theodore] were extremely learned in sacred
and secular literature, they attracted a crowd of students into whose minds
they daily poured the streams of wholesome learning. They gave their hearers
instruction not only in the books of holy Scripture, but also in the art of
metre, astronomy, and ecclesiastical computation. As evidence of this, some of
their students still survive who know Latin and Greek just as well as their
native tongue. Never had there been such happy times since the English first
came to Britain, for having such brave Christian kings, they were a terror to
all the barbarian nations, and desires of all men were set on the joys of the
heavenly kingdom of which they had only lately heard; while all who wished for
instruction in sacred studies had teachers ready to hand.
For further reading:
Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, (eds. Judith McClure
and Roger Collins, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)
British Library Medieval
Manuscripts Blog, “An African Abbott in Anglo-Saxon England” (2016, last
accessed 07/10/2020): https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/10/an-african-abbot-in-anglo-saxon-england.html
Tom Holland, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind,
Chapter VII – Exodus, “The Full English”, pp. 197-202 (London: Little, Brown, 2019)
Michael Wood, “The African who
transformed Anglo-Saxon England” (2020, last accessed 07/10/2020):
Michael Wood, “Michael Wood on
Anglo-Saxon Christianity”, (2017, last accessed 07/10/2020): https://www.historyextra.com/period/anglo-saxon/michael-wood-anglo-saxon-christianity-refugees-hadrian-theodore-syria-libya/
No comments:
Post a Comment