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Pagans, Christians, and ‘the Barbarian Conspiracy’ of A.D. 367 in Roman Britain*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

W.H.C. Frend
W.H.C. Frend
Affiliation:
Gonville and Caius College
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Extract

The contrasting fortunes of Christianity in Britain and on the Continent in the late fourth and fifth centuries are one of the truisms of history. Why did Roman Britain fail to follow the example of other provinces in the West and preserve a powerful and episcopally-led Christian Church, so that despite the destruction wrought by the barbarian invasions the continuity between Roman province and Germanic kingdom could be maintained? Why, alone among the western provinces, did Catholic Christianity have to be replanted in an almost wholly pagan environment whence all records of previous Christianisation appear to have perished?

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Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 23 , November 1992 , pp. 121 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © W.H.C. Frend 1992. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The standard work on Christianity in Roman Britain is C. Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain to A.D. 500 (1981), also Frend, W.H.C., ‘Ecclesia Britannica: prelude or dead end?’, Journ. Ecclesiastical Hist. ( = JEH) xxx (1979), 129–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 See Frend, W.H.C., ‘A note on the influence of Greek immigrants on the spread of Christianity in the West’, Mullus (Festsch. Th. Klauser) = Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, Ergänzungsband i (1964), 125–9, and for the martyrdom of Aaron and Julius at the legionary fortress of Caerleon, Bede, Hist. Eccl. 1.7.Google Scholar

3 See Mann, J.C., ‘The administration of Roman Britain’, Antiquity xxxv (1961), 316–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 See Gaudemet, J., Conciles gaulois du IVe siècle, Sources chrétiennes 241 (1977), 35–67 (Episcopal list, pp. 57–63).Google Scholar

5 ibid., 70–9. The Council condemned the alleged arianising statements of Eufratas, Bishop of Cologne (Colonia Agrippinensis). The existence of this Council has been challenged by some scholars.

6 Quoted by Athanasius, Historia Arianorum 28 (P.G. 25, col. 728).

7 Hilary, De Synodis I, good evidence for the Church in Britain being effective at this time (PL. 10, 479).

8 Sulpicius Severus, Chronicon (ed. Halm, CSEL. i) II. 41.

9 K.S. Painter, The Water Newton Early Christian Silver (1977). For identification as an altar set see Frend, W.H.C., ‘Syrian parallels to the Water Newton treasure?’, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum xxvii–xxviii (1984–1985), 146–50.Google Scholar

10 Painter, op. cit. (note 9), pl. 6. (p. 30).

11 ibid., 14.

12 ibid., 15–16.

13 ibid., pl. 10, 13–27. For similar silver leaves or ‘feathers’ from a pagan shrine at Cavenham (Suffolk) see Layard, N.F., Antiq. Journ. vi (1925), 258–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and figs 4 and 5 and a gold votive leaf from Stonea, Potter, T.W., Britannia xii (1981), fig. 10.1.Google Scholar

14 Painter, op. cit. (note 9), 21, ‘perhaps in the earlier rather than the later part of that (the fourth) century’. The Traprain Law and the Coleraine treasures both included silver coins of Honorius (395–423).

15 The only suggestion of robbers is that the handles of the chalice have been detached, and the damaged chalice could not be used in the liturgy. The second Water Newton hoard, consisting of thirty gold coins and two pieces of folded silver plate could have been buried as early as 350; see Johns, C.M. and Carson, R., ‘The Water Newton hoard’, Durobrivae iii (1975), 10–12. Were both hoards the result of the same set of circumstances, either c. 350 or, as seems possible, the insecurity of the years 367–369?Google Scholar

16 For Mildenhall, see J.W. Brailsford, The Mildenhall Treasure (1947) and Painter, K.S., ‘The Mildenhall Treasure; a reconsideration’, British Museum Quarterly ( = BMQ) xxxvii (1973), 154–80. My description follows Painter's.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Painter, op. cit. (note 16), 170. Painter suggests (171–2) that the treasure may have come into the hands of Lupicinus magister equitum per Gallias in c. 360. His Christianity, however, may have made him suspect to Julian and the treasure in consequence buried by his family when he returned to Gaul from Britain after Julian became Augustus.

18 Discussed by C.M. Johns and T.W. Potter, The Thetford Treasure: Roman Jewellery and Silver (1983) and Watts, D.J., ‘The Thetford treasure: a reappraisal’, Antiq. Journ. lxviii (1988), 55–68. The suggestion, however, on p. 56 that the treasure might have belonged to ‘a small group of disaffected Christians who renounced their faith after the death of Constantius and founded their own exclusive cult of the god Faunus’, needs further research, but the Christian element in the collection cannot be ignored.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 See H. Isbell, ‘Decimus Magnus Ausonius; the poet and his world’, in J.W. Binns (ed.), Latin Literature of the Fourth Century (1974), 22–57.

20 Painter, K.S., ‘Villas and Christianity in Roman Britain’, BMQ xxxv (1971), 156–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Toynbee, J.M.C., ‘A new Roman pavement found in Dorset’, JRS liv (1964), 7–14.Google Scholar

21 D.J. Smith, ‘Three fourth-century schools of mosaic in Roman Britain’, La mosaïque gréco-romaine, CNRS (1965), 101–2.

22 Toynbee, op. cit. (note 20), pl. 11. Also, Painter, K.S., ‘The design of the Roman mosaic at Hinton St. Mary’, Antiq. Journ. lvi (1976), 49–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Thomas, op. cit. (note 1), 104–5, 181–3.

24 G.W. Meates, The Lullingstone Roman Villa (1955), 146, and for the dating ‘post-354’, see Pearce, B.W., Appendix iv, in Meates, G.W. et al. , Arch. Cant. lxv (1952), 68. In his final report Meates places the Christian use of the northern rooms in the villa from 360–420 (The Roman Villa at Lullingstone, Kent (1979), 42) while suggesting the consecration of the Christian house-church dated to 380–385 (p. 38). It would seem also that pagan ritual continued in some form along with Christian worship (p. 39). The plain Chi-Rho monogram suggests, however, that the earlier date first suggested by Meates is more likely to be correct. The six standing figures beneath the colonnade in the frieze on the west wall of the Christian chapel might even be Apostles, set off against a similar representative group on the east wall. ‘Government officials or army officers’ (Lullingstone 11 (1987), 41) seems less likely, though not impossible.Google Scholar

25 See M. Simon, ‘Bellérophon Chrétien’, Meélanges J. Carcopino (1966), 899–904 and Toynbee, J.M.C., ‘The Christian Roman mosaic, Hinton St. Mary, Dorset’, Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiq. Soc. lxxxv (1964), 116–21. For a similar ‘christianisation’ of the Dionysiac cult at this period, see Painter, op. cit. (note 20), 162–3.Google Scholar

26 For the religious policy of Constantius II, see W.H.C. Frend, ‘The Church in the reign of Constantius ii: mission, monasticism, worship’, and T.D. Barnes, ‘Christians and Pagans in the reign of Constantius ii’, in A. Dihle (ed.), L'Église et l'empire au IVe. siècle (1979), 73–112, 301–44.

27 Frere, S.S., ‘The Silchester church, the excavations by Sir Ian Richmond in 1956–61’, Archaeologia cv (1976), 277–302CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 297. This identification has been questioned by King, A.C., ‘The Roman church at Silchester reconsidered’, Oxford Journ. Arch. xi.2 (1983), 225–37, without, however, a credible alternative being suggested.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Research by Michael Jones whose publication is forthcoming.

29 See Watts, D.J., ‘Circular lead tanks and their significance for Romano-British Christianity’, Antiq. Journ. lxviii (1988), 210–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Guy, C.J., ‘Roman circular lead tanks in Britain’, Britannia xii (1981), 271–6, and Thomas, op. cit. (note 1), 122–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Guy, C.J., ‘The lead tank from Ashton’, Durobrivae v (1977), 10–11.Google Scholar

31 West, S.C., ‘The Roman site at Icklingham’, East Anglian Arch. iii (1976), 63–126.Google Scholar

32 Watts, op. cit. (note 29), fig. Id., and Curwen, C.E., ‘Roman lead cistern from Pulborough, Sussex’, Antiq. Journ. xxiii (1943), 155–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 Described by Thomas, op. cit. (note 1), 221–5.

34 Watts, op. cit. (note 29), 215. Coins of Valentinian I were found with the two tanks from Bourton-on-the-Water, ibid.

35 Green, C.J.G., ‘A cemetery of a Romano-British Christian community at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset’, in Pearce, S.M. (ed.), The Early Church in Western Britain and Ireland, BAR 102 (1980), 61–76. Ashton may be another Christian cemetery. Personal observation, however, while working there in November 1984 was of the careful burial of bodies lying extended on their back without grave-goods, but oriented roughly north-south.Google Scholar

36 G. Clarke (ed.), Pre-Roman and Roman Winchester, Part ii, The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills (1979). Discussed by Thomas, op. cit. (note 1), 234–5.

37 Thus, Joyce Reynolds in a review-article, suggesting that among the lower classes Christians and pagans were ‘rubbing along together’ (Britannia xxi (1990), 382).Google Scholar

38 Codex Theodosianus xvi. 10. 6. (ban on sacrifices).

39 Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. v.5.1–3 (summary of privileges removed by Julian), and see Elliott, T.G., ‘The tax exemptions granted to clerics by Constantine and Constantius ii’, Phoenix 32 (1978), 326–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 Ammianus Marcellinus xxx. 9. 5.

41 Hilary, Homilies on the Psalms 67, 20. (ed. Zingerle, C., CSEL XXII, 215).Google Scholar

42 Sulpicius Severus, Vita Sancti Martini 13. ‘Crowds of pagan rustics’ came to believe in Christ.

43 L. de Vesly, Les Fana ou les petits temples gallo-romains de la région normande (1909), 78 and 193.

44 Paulinus of Nola, Ep. xviii. 4 (ed. Hartel, G. de, CSEL xxix. 131).Google Scholar

45 Victricius, De Laude Sanctorum 1.1 (Corpus Christianorum Ser. Lat. lxiv, 69) and compare ibid., 2 (two celebrations at Rouen).Google Scholar

46 See in particular, the numerous examples quoted in the Actes du XIe Congrès internationale d'archéologie chrétienne (1989), vols 2 and 3.

47 Victricius, De Laude Sanctorum 1.2. Evidently to perform some tasks that concerned the Gallic Churches as well as the British. ‘Nam quod ad Britannias profectus sum, quod ibi moratus sum, vestrorum fecit exsecutio praeceptorum’. Perhaps relating to the possible transport of martyrs ‘relics to Britain’ (suggested by the Editor, PL.20, 443) or some theological controversy (Thomas, op. cit. (note 1), 53).

48 See K.S. Painter, ‘Recent discoveries in Britain’, in op. cit. (note 46), 2037 and figs 5 and 6 for possible martyrs found at Wells.

49 Bede, Hist. Eccl. III. 8. See C. Thomas, The Early Christian Archaeology of North Britain (1971), 14–18. There is no direct evidence, however, for the bishopric of Carlisle.

50 ‘No direct, contemporary evidence relating to any late Roman church in Britain is known, either from history or from surviving inscriptions’ (Thomas, op. cit. (note 1), 143). For possibilities at Lincoln, Exeter, and Wells, see Painter, op. cit. (note 48), 2034–44.

51 Frere, op. cit. (note 27), 297, though with reservations owing to the loss of evidence. For the few Christian objects found at Silchester, see G.C. Boon, Silchester, the Roman Town of Calleva (1974), 183–4.

52 Thus Guy, op. cit. (note 29), 275. He also suggests, as I have tentatively, that ‘the circumstances leading to the burial of the Christian silver hoard at Water Newton may have been the same as those causing a tank bearing a Chi-Rho monogram to be thrown down a well at Ashton’, less than ten miles away, though I believe the cause was not simply the resurgence of paganism.

53 See R.E.M. and Wheeler, T.V., Report on the Excavations of the Prehistoric, Roman and Post-Roman Site in Lydney Park, Gloucs. Soc. Antiq. Research Rep. IX (1932)Google Scholar. An examination of the watercolour of the mosaic originally found on the site suggests, against Wheeler's suggestion of an official on the governor's staff (pp. 102–4), that Titus Flavius Senilis was ‘superintendent of the cult’, (pr(aepositus) rel(igionis)), a personage of some local importance. See Wright, R.P., Britannia xvi (1985), 248–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Wheeler, op. cit. (note 53), 61–2. 270 bronze bracelets among offerings can also reasonably be described as ‘the offerings of the poor’ (p. 82).

55 Kirk, J., ‘Bronzes from Woodeaton’, Oxoniensia xiv (1949), 1–45.Google Scholar

56 These examples are quoted by Painter, op. cit. (note 20), 153.

57 Wedlake, W.J., The Excavation of the Shrine of Apollo at Nettleton, Wiltshire, 1956–1971, Soc. Antiq. Research Rep. XI (1982), 79–82.Google Scholar

58 Healing rites at Lydney, see Wheeler, op. cit. (note 53), 102.

59 Harlow, , Britannia x (1980), 378 and xx (1990), 303Google Scholar. Hayling Island, see Rodwell, W., Temple Archaeology. Problems of the Present and Portents for the Future BAR 77 (i) (1980), 211–18Google Scholar, and R. Downey et al., in ibid., 289–96. Uley, timber buildings with Iron Age coins recorded in Britannia x (1979), 323Google Scholar. Frilford, see Bradford, J.S.P. and Goodchild, R.G., ‘Excavations at Frilford, Berks’, Oxoniensia iv (1939), 36.Google Scholar

60 Dating of Maiden Castle temples to 364 or later, see Wheeler, R.E.M., Antiq. Journ. xv. 3 (1935), 271. References to late occupation of other Romano-Celtic temples, see M.J.T. Lewis, Temples in Roman Britain (1966), 140–6Google Scholar, and Rahtz, P.H. and Watts, L., ‘The end of Roman temples in the West of Britain’, in Casey, P.J., The End of Roman Britain, BAR 79 (1979), 183–201.Google Scholar

61 Ammianus XVIII. 2. 3.

62 Exact numbers given by authorities vary. Zosimus, Hist. Nova III. 5 says 800, while Julian himself says he had 600, 400 of which were built in less than ten months (Letter to the Athenians, 279–80).

63 Anon: E.A. Thompson (ed.), A Roman Reformer and Inventor (1952), ii. 2. and 3. The poor ‘held down by force’. Also, Zosimus, Hist. Nova IV. 16. for over-taxation leading to a popular revolt.

64 Ammianus xx. 1. 1, the occasion of Lupicinus’ arrival in Britain.

65 ibid. XXVI. 4.5.

66 ibid. XXVIII. 8. 1 (barbarica conspiratione).

67 The detail of events has been reconstructed by Tomlin, R. and Blockley, R.C., Britannia xi (1980), 223–6Google Scholar. I am inclined to accept a two-year campaign by Theodosius. See Britannia v (1974), 303–9.Google Scholar

68 Ammianus XXVII, 8. 9, ‘diffusam variarum gentium plebem, et ferocientem immaniter’, suggests widespread uprising not confined to invading forces of Picts, Scots, and Saxons. For ‘savage frenzy of brigandage’ in Gaul at this time, see ibid. XXVIII. 2. 10.

69 ibid. XXVII 8.2.

70 Thus, , Frere, S.S., Britannia (1967), 350, and (2nd edn, 1974), 391–3.Google Scholar

71 London had been Lupicinus’ administrative base for operations in 360 (Ammianus XX. 1. 1.) but he did not have to fight his way there or rescue the city from imminent danger.

72 Ammianus XXVII. 8. 8.

73 ibid. XXVII. 8. 7.

74 For evidence of destruction, Frere (1967), op. cit. (note 70), 353; but questioned by Breeze, D. and Dobson, B., ‘Hadrian's Wall, some problems’, Britannia iii (1972), 200–6.Google Scholar

75 Cited from Frere (1967), loc. cit. (note 70).

76 For the Wash area, see Hallam, S.J., Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 19–32 (300 sites).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

77 Wild, J.P., ‘Roman settlement in the Lower Nene valley’, Arch. Journ. cxxxi (1974), 140–70. The apogee of this development was in the fourth century.Google Scholar

78 An Inventory of Archaeological Sites in North-East Northamptonshire, RCHM (1975). Also, D. Windell, The Upper Nene Valley in the Iron Age and Roman Periods, Northants County Council, 18.

79 From north to south, TL 08 SE 076847, 076836, 062832, 068818 and 073817 (the site 063824 may be a confusion for 062832 on the same farm).

80 Excavated by John Hadman and the writer 1985-1989. Reported in Britannia xx (1989), 290 and xxi (1990), 332Google Scholar. Earlier work reported by Hadman, J. and Upex, S.. ‘The Roman villa at North Lodge Farm’, Durobrivae ii, (1974), 27–9.Google Scholar

81 E.T. Artis, The Durobrivae of Antoninus (1828), pl. xiii, and J.P. Wild and G.B. Dannell in 1970 revealed walls 1.2 m thick for rooms at the west end of the north block, built post-250, Britannia ii (1971), 264Google Scholar. It had also been burnt. For the latest reconstruction, see Durobrivae ix (1984), 22–5, esp. fig. 12B.Google Scholar

82 Inventory, (op. cit. note 78), 99 and pl. 22.

83 Ammianus XXVII 8. 1, ‘ad ultimam vexatam (Britannias) inopiam’

84 Guy, op. cit. (note 30), 11.

85 Recorded in Britannia xx (1989), 333–4 and pl. xxvi. ‘The tank had been damaged by fire and the side cut away from the base which was not recovered’. Others ‘badly damaged’, see Guy, op. cit. (note 29), 275.Google Scholar

86 The aisled barn, its demolition and subsequent late fourth-century occupation (coin of Valentinian II, 375–392) has been recorded in Britannia xx (1989), 290. A full report on the site is being prepared by John Hadman and the writer.Google Scholar

87 The lead was exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries in the autumn of 1990. Report by Hadman and Frend in Britannia (forthcoming). For looters throwing away ‘heavy packs’ at the approach of government forces, see Ammianus XXVII. 8. 7.

88 Recorded in Britannia xxii (1991).Google Scholar

89 For the possible attribution of the lanx’ burial to the disturbances from the ‘barbarian conspiracy’, see Painter, op. cit. (note 16), n.64.

90 The Ashton font (?) could have formed part of looters’ booty. Two fragments cut from another lead tank were found below it (Guy, op. cit. (note 30), 11). One of the Icklingham Christian tanks was found containing ‘a mass of waste lead and iron objects’ (Britannia iii (1972), 330)Google Scholar. The Oxborough (Norfolk) similar tank seems to have been damaged before burial (Britannia xvii (1986), 403).Google Scholar

91 Thomas, op. cit. (note 1), 133, and ch. 7 for full discussion of available evidence.

92 Examples from Actes du Xle Congrés, op. cit. (note 46), vols ii and iii. For an estate church at Primulacium in Gaul built c. 400 see letter from Paulinus of Nola to Severus (Ep. XXXI. 1., CSEL 29, 267).

93 For Richborough, see Brown, P.D.C., ‘The church at Richborough’, Britannia ii (1971), 225–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

94 For a summary of the likely strength of Christianity in Britain in the early-fifth century, see Painter, op. cit. (note 20), 159–67. Painter stresses the relative isolation of the landowning aristocracy in Britain from the people as a whole, not least through the failure of Latin, the language of the Church, to spread downwards throughout rural society, unlike in Gaul and Spain.

95 My view expressed in 1968 that, probably thanks to the influence of St Martin, the countryside in Roman Britain was turning to Christianity c. 380 needs modification (‘The Christianisation of Roman Britain’, in M.W. Barley and R.P.C. Hanson (eds), Christianity in Roman and Sub-Roman Britain to A.D. 500 (1968), 43). The cult of Martin seems, however, at least to have been remembered when Augustine landed in Kent in 597, but one has yet to find clear evidence for rural Christianity surviving in sub-Roman Britain in the area occupied by the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. It seems certain in contrast to the situation on the Continent that there was no episcopal or parish life.