Those in Northern Ireland, who in political terms would promote
a Irish Republican, Roman Catholic point of view, tend to glory
much in the Celtic culture. They have claimed that culture as
their own and have reflected the modern Roman Catholic Irish culture
upon it. But history is not as simple as that. For example the
ancient Celtic Church was very far from the modern Roman Catholic
Church. Indeed there is evidence that the ancient Celtic church
hated Roman Catholicism more vehemently than most modern Protestants
do today.
The evidence is that Christianity came to the British Isles at
a very early period. Britain was a far flung outpost of the Roman
Empire but the evidence is now clear that, before the Romans left
Britain, Christianity had come to England. In 1997 the coming
of Augustine to Britain was celebrated as if he had brought Christianity
to Britain but Christianity was there long before that. Some of
the earliest evidence of Christianity in Britain was discovered
in 1949 in Lullingston Park in Kent. Two hundred years ago some
workmen had been working and they discovered some prettily coloured
mosaic tiles but it was not until 1949 that the archaeologists
started working at it. Before they finished they were to discover
the first archaeological evidence of the Christian gospel taking
root in the far flung corner of the Roman Empire. The archaeologists
found that the Villa had been occupied by a number of people.
It had started off as a simple flint and mortar house and a number
of people lived there but between AD 330 and 360 a new generation
converted the villa into a luxury holiday home and went to great
expense in laying magnificent mosaic floors. Even more importantly
they erected a small Christian chapel. Its walls were decorated
with an early Christian monogram and it had figures of six figures
with their hands raised in prayer. Before they found this they
thought the influence of Christianity had been very small in Britain
but the find confirmed that Christianity had come to the British
Isles at a very early period.
About 100 years later in 429 there was a delegation that was sent
from the Pope to Ireland under a man named Palladius who was a
Gaul and a disciple of Germanus of Auxere. He was also probably
Archdeacon of Germanus. But this Roman Catholic mission did not
succeed. Palladius sailed from Gaul, landed in Wicklow, preached
in the neighbourhood and was expelled by the natives. He was then
driven northwards by a storm and shortly afterwards died in Britain.
This was the first attempt to found a church in Ireland and it
was a Roman Catholic attempt but it did not succeed.
The Church that was founded by Patrick was not in connection with
Rome. In his writings , his "Confession" and His "Epistle"
to a Welsh Prince called Coroticus, there is no mention of any
authority given to him by the Pope nor is the Pope mentioned at
all. This would be a strange omission if it was the authority
of the Pope that he depended on. Patrick, whose father was a deacon
and whose grandfather was a priest was captured as a youth and
brought to Ireland. He tended sheep on Slemish Mountain but managed
to escape his slave master. Later however, he had a strange vision
calling on Him to preach the gospel. The mission of Patrick was
successful. He founded many Churches across the island each of
which had a bishop( or elder) placed over it. The Church he founded
was very different from Roman Catholicism today. In Patrick's
own writings, which are the only reliable source to judge his
life, there is no trace of mariolatry and no mention of the Pope.
The Bible was little read by Roman Catholics at that time but
Patrick knew it well. As to celibacy his own Father and grandfather
were ministers but they were married. He never mentions confession
or purgatory and there is no glorification of the mass. There
is no doubt that the church founded by Patrick was very different
from Roman Catholicism today.
Later the Irish Celtic Church had a time of great missionary activity.
Men like Columba and Columabanus and Gall and others went into
Europe with the gospel message. But as the time went by the influence
Popery grew in Europe and spread into Britain. But as Roman Catholicism
spread there is evidence that there was a resistance of Rome by
the native churches of Britain and Ireland. One of the great evidences
is in the dispute over the date of Easter which was a big debating
point in the Church around 500-600 AD. The Church of Rome had,
in 457 introduced a new way of calculating the date of Easter
which embraced a cycle of five hundred and thirty two years. The
Irish Church had received with St. Patrick and it's first teachers
the old Jewish and Roman cycle of 84 years. But when Augustine
came to Britain in about 600 AD it is obvious that the Irish Church
had never, until then, heard of the new cycle that had been introduced
by Rome in 457. You would have thought that if there was a connection
between the Irish Church and the Church of Rome they would have
heard of the new way of calculating Easter within a hundred years.
But Augustine tried to impose the new way of calculating Easter
on the ancient British Church. In the year 603 Augustine assembled
the Bishops of the Celtic Church near the river Severn at a place
later called Augustine's Oak and demanded conformity with the
customs of Rome but they resisted. Augustine died and was succeeded
by Laurentius as Archbishop of Canterbury. There is a letter from
Archbishop Laurentius which is extant. Professor George Stokes,
the one time Professor of ecclesiastical history in the University
of Dublin quoted from the letter,
"becoming acquainted with the errors of the Britons, we thought
the Scots (Irish) had been better; but we have been informed by
Bishop Dagan coming into this aforesaid island, and by the Abbat
Columbanus in France, that the Scots in no way differ from the
Britons in behaviour; for Bishop Dagan coming to us not only refused
to eat with us, but even to take his repast in that same house
where we were entertained."
So the bishops of the Irish Church were so opposed to Rome that
they would not even eat in the same house as the Romanists.
But as time went on the proximity of Southern Ireland to the Continent
and Britain led to a contact which began to undermine the old
Irish customs and Romanism began to come in. Ireland had from
earliest times been divided in two and had been divided broadly
by the curious chain of sandhills which rise at the Green Hills
near Tallaght and terminates at Galway Bay. At first the Irish
customs were undermined in the South by continental intercourse
with the Continent. It was not without battles. Fintan Abbat of
Taghmon in Wexford who was an Ulster man defeated Laserian who
wanted to bring in Roman custom in a synod which had been called
to discuss the matter. But with all the opposition roman custom
gradually came in.
But those who glory in the Celts and impose modern Roman Catholic
Irish custom on them are very far from the truth. Many of the
Celts were are opposed to Rome as Protestants today.