A Survey of Anglican History traces the story of Christianity in the British Isles from its Roman origins through the medieval period and beyond. Each episode explores a key figure, event, or turning point that shaped the English church, drawing on historical scholarship and primary sources. Based on content from Wikipedia and adapted for audio narration.
Christianity was present in Roman Britain from at least the third century until the end of the Roman imperial administration in the early fifth century, and continued in western Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Roman_Britain
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
Roundel mosaic of Christ from Hinton St Mary, now in the British Museum. One of the earliest depictions of Christ.
Artist: Unknown
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Celtic Christianity is a form of Christianity that was common — or held to be common — across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. The term Celtic Church is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified and identifiable entity entirely separate from that of mainstream Western Christendom. For this reason Brown notes a preference for the term Insular Christianity. As P...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Christianity
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
A Celtic cross photographed at dawn in Knock, Ireland
Artist: Sebd
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Gregorian mission or Augustinian mission was a Christian mission sent by Pope Gregory the Great to England in 596 to convert the Anglo-Saxons. The mission was headed by Augustine of Canterbury. By the time of the death of the last missionary in 653 the mission had established Christianity among the southern Anglo-Saxons. Along with the Irish and Frankish missions it converted Anglo-Saxons i...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_mission
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
Pope Gregory I dictating Gregorian chants, from the Antiphonary of Hartker of Sankt Gallen
Artist: Unknown
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Date: circa 1000
Augustine of Canterbury — early 6th century to most likely 26 May 604 — was a Christian monk who became the first archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Canterbury
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
The opening three letters of Book 2 of Bede are decorated, to a height of 8 lines of the text, and the opening h contains a bust portrait of a haloed figure carrying a cross and a book. This is probably intended to be St. Gregory the Great, although a much later hand has identified the figure as St. Augustine of Canterbury.
Artist: Anonymous, Scriptorium of Wearmouth-Jarrow Abbey
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Date: circa 746
The Synod of Whitby was a Christian administrative gathering held in Northumbria in 664, wherein King Ozweeoo ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome rather than the customs practised by Irish monks at Iona and its satellite institutions. The synod was summoned at Hilda's double monastery of Streneshalk later called Whitby ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synod_of_Whitby
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
The Saint Petersburg Bede is an early surviving manuscript of Bede's 8th century history, the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. It is so named because it was taken to the Russian National Library of Saint Petersburg in Russia at the time of the French Revolution.
Artist: Bede
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
This episode covers two towering figures of the early English church. Theodore of Tarsus (602-690) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690. Born in the Greek-speaking east, he fled the Persian and Muslim conquests before eventually being appointed archbishop by Pope Vitalian. Theodore reformed the English church, established a renowned school at Canterbury, and organized the first synods. The Venerable Bede (672-735) was an English monk, author, and scholar at the monastery of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. His most famous work, the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, earned him the title "The Father of English History." Bede also helped popularize the Anno Domini dating system and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1899.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_of_Tarsus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
Venerable Bede in an illustrated manuscript, writing his Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Artist: Unknown
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Latin: Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about 731is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the growth of Christianity. It was composed in Latin and is believed to have been completed in 731 when Bede was approximately 59 years old. It is considered one of the most...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
The Saint Petersburg Bede is an early surviving manuscript of Bede's 8th century history, the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. It is so named because it was taken to the Russian National Library of Saint Petersburg in Russia at the time of the French Revolution.
Artist: Bede
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Alfred the Great was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Ethelwulf and Ethelwulf's first wife Osburh who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers — Ethelbald, Ethelbert and Ethelred — reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule considerable administrative and military reform...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
Portrait of Alfred the Great by Samuel Woodforde
Artist: Samuel Woodforde (attributed)
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Date: 1790
Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages, the 8th to the 11th centuries , when Scandinavians travelled to the British Isles to raid, conquer, settle, and trade. They are generally referred to as Vikings, but some scholars debate whether the term Viking represented all Scandinavian settlers or just those who used violence. At the start of the early medieval peri...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_activity_in_the_British_Isles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge by Peter Nicolai Arbo (1870)
Artist: Peter Nicolai Arbo
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The English Benedictine Reform or Monastic Reform of the English church in the late tenth century was a religious and intellectual movement in the later Anglo-Saxon period. In the mid-tenth century almost all monasteries were staffed by secular clergy who were often married. The reformers sought to replace them with celibate contemplative monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict. The movement...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Benedictine_Reform
Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Material adapted for clarity and narration.
'The Cædmon Manuscript': parts of Genesis, Exodus and Daniel in Old English verse, illustrated with Anglo-Saxon drawings, c. A.D. 1000.; 59
Artist: Unknown
License: Public domain
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Generated: Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:16:15 +0000
