BRITISH CHURCH
CHRISTIAN
CHURCH ORIGINS IN BRITAIN
by Laurence Gardner
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Christian Church Origins in Britain by Laurence Gardner
Introduction
It is generally
promoted by the Christian churches that the formalized religion
based on the model of Jesus emerged from the teachings of Peter
and Paul in Rome, but there is nothing in the Vatican Archive,
nor in any historical record, to substantiate this premise.
The New
Testament Acts of the Apostles relate that, following
two years of confinement in Caesarea on a charge of incitement,
St Paul was taken under guard to Rome in the year AD 60.1 He
was placed under house arrest prior to his appearance before
the Senate tribunal, and then imprisoned in AD 62. Following
that event, there is no further record of his life, and it is
reckoned that he met his end in the mass slaughter of Christians
by Emperor Nero in AD 64.
Paul’s
erstwhile colleague, the apostle St Peter, is not referenced
in the Bible or in any other document subsequent to his imprisonment
in Jerusalem, from where he escaped to Antioch, Syria, in AD
44. But without any supporting evidence, Church tradition has
claimed from the 4th century that Peter also went to Rome, where
he became the first leader of Christians in the city and was
martyred along with Paul. In contrast, however, the Church’s
own Apostolic Constitutions actually cite another man
as the first Christian leader.
Writing
in AD 180, Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon in Gaul stated that the first
ministry of the Christians in Rome was committed to the supervision
of a certain Linus. Paul had actually mentioned Linus in his
second epistle from Rome to his colleague Timothy,3 and it had
been recorded as early as AD 68 by the Roman writer Martial
that Linus was a prince who had been captured and brought from
Britain.4 Furthermore, he had led the Christians of Rome since
AD 58, two years before St Paul arrived in the city. Linus had
been a Christian before his seizure and, as confirmed in the
Vatican Archive, ‘The first beginnings of Christian piety
existed in Britain’.5 It is on record that Christianity
had entered Britain as early as AD 35, just two years after
the crucifixion of Jesus and long before the faith made any
impact in Rome.
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Christian Church Origins in Britain by Laurence Gardner
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