Christianity in Roman Britain

It would be difficult to find a subject illustrating the benefits and drawbacks of religious controversy to historical inquiry more completely than the Early British Church. The zeal and vigour with which the struggle on either side was fought out at the Reformation had the effect of focussing a fierce light upon all available evidence referring to primitive times; and of spurring the diligence of controversialists. Every by-way of history was explored for some fresh matter with which to point the arguments of that critical warfare. To this we owe such monuments of industry as Archbishop Ussher's ‘Primordia,’ the works of Stillingfleet, Father Parsons, and others. Since they wrote, the interest in the subject has continued most lively; and while new materials have not been forthcoming in any great number, the old ones have been sifted and resifted with a care and perseverance which prove that something beyond the facts has been at issue, and that a fight of principles was going on behind the screen. This has not been a mere empty parade to the historian. For him it has done the most useful of all work, and that which has been most neglected till late years, namely, passing through the crucible of criticism the raw ore of evidence, and by repeated refinement extracting the pure metal which is alone likely to live. So long as the battle was fought on the old lines, little more than this was done, and the evidence, even when sifted out, has been used on either side with that distorted leaning, that want of balance, which marks the conclusion of the partisan rather than of the impartial judge

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• Christianity in Roman Britain

  David Petts, Martin Millett et al.•Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain•2015

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• Excavation of two burials at Galson, Isle of Lewis, 1993 and 1996

  Tim Neighbour, Carol Knott et al.•Proceedings of the Society of…•2002

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• Excavation of a cairn cemetery at Lundin Links, Fife, in 1965-6

  Colvin Greig, Moira Greig et al.•Proceedings of the Society of…•2002

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