a brief history

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Timeline_of_Orthodoxy_in_the_British_Isles

The early Christian writers Tertullian and Origen mention the existence of a British church in the third century AD and in the fourth century British bishops attended a number of councils, such as the Council of Arles in 314 and the Council of Rimini in 359.

The first member of the British church whom we know by name is St Alban, who, tradition tells us, was martyred for his faith on the spot where St Albans Abbey now stands.

The British church was a missionary church with figures such as St Illtud, St Ninian and St Patrick evangelising in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but the invasions by the pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes in the fifth century seem to have destroyed the organisation of the church in much of what is now England. In 597 a mission sent by St Gregory the Dialogist and led by St Augustine of Canterbury landed in Kent to begin the work of converting these pagan peoples.

What eventually became known as the "Church of England"[note 1] was the result of a combination of three traditions, that of Augustine and his successors, the remnants of the old Romano-British traditions and the Celtic tradition coming down from Scotland and associated with people like St Aidan and St Cuthbert.

These three traditions came together as a result of increasing mutual contact and a number of local synods, of which the Synod of Whitby in 664 has traditionally been seen as the most important. The result was an English Church, led by the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York, that was fully assimilated into the mainstream Church. This meant that it was influenced by the wider development of the Christian tradition in matters such as theology, liturgy, church architecture, and the development of monasticism.

Regarding the British Isles, what is known about the state of the Church there at the time of the Great Schism is that subsequent to the Norman Invasion in 1066, church life was radically altered. Native clergy were replaced, liturgical reform enacted, and a strong emphasis on papal church control was propagated. As such, it is probably safe to say that, prior to 1066, the church of the British Isles was Orthodox, and the Normans brought the effects of the Great Schism to British soil. As such, it is probably proper to regard King Harold II as an Orthodox Christian.

It also meant that after King Harold II, the English church continued under the authority of the "Pope" and not with Orthodoxy and this article does not consider the historical development of the "Church of England" after this date.

Orthodoxy was reintroduced by the Church of Greece and by Russia ... [to be developed] ...

The greatest contributor towards documenting the ecclesiastical and political history of England is attested to St. Bede, who completed in 731 five volumes of his best known work The Ecclesiastical History of England


55 BC Julius Caesar's first expedition to Britain, gaining a foothold on the coast of Kent.
54 BC Julius Caesar's second invasion of Britain, resulting in many of the native celtic tribes paying tribute and giving hostages in return for peace.[note 2]
5 Rome acknowledges Cymbeline, King of the Catuvellauni, as king of Britain.

Roman Britian: Introduction of Christianity (43-410)

Apostolic Era: According to the compilers of the Synaxarion, three members of the Apostolic Church had been responsible for preaching the Gospel in Britain:

St. Joseph of Arimathea.
Apostle Aristobulus, Apostle of Britain.
St. Alban, Protomartyr of Britain.
St. Declan, Bishop & Abbot of Ardmore in Ireland.
St. Patrick, Bishop of Armagh and Enlightener of Ireland.

Apostle Peter who, after visiting Milan, had "passed over to the island of Britain, now called England, (where) he spent many years and turned many erring Gentiles to faith in Christ";
Apostle Aristobulus (brother of St. Barnabas), who is called the Apostle of Britain and who was its first bishop; and
Apostle Simon the Canaanite and Zealot. In these Islands, the Celtic Church had shone forth - especially during the glorious period known as the "Age of Saints" when its missionaries preached throughout much of Europe, becoming 'Equals to the Apostles'.
Apocryphal legend claims that Joseph of Arimathea accompanied the Apostle Philip, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene & others on a preaching mission to Gaul. citation needed.
Eusebius of Caesarea, (AD 260-340) Bishop of Caesarea and father of ecclesiastical history wrote: "The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the Britannic Isles."
Ireland had been a place of refuge for monks fleeing from iconoclastic persecution; so, later, it was referred to as "the New Thebais" on account of the number of its monasteries.

43 Roman Emperor Claudius conquers England at Richborough (Kent), making it part of the vast Roman Empire; London is founded.
51 Caratacus, British resistance leader is captured and taken to Rome.
61 Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, let uprising against the Roman occupiers but was defeated and killed by the Roman governor, Suetonius Paulinus.
63 Joseph of Arimathea, travels to Britain and lands in Glastonbury[note 3] on the first Christian mission to Britain; Aristobulus, consecrated as first bishop to Britain.
ca.75-77 The Roman conquest of Britain is complete, as Wales is finally subdued; Julius Agricola is imperial governor (to 84).
122 Construction of Hadrian's Wall.
133 Julius Severus is sent to Palestine to crush the revolt.
140 Romans conquer Scotland.
ca. 155-222 Tertullian wrote that Britain had received and accepted the Gospel in his life time.[note 4]
167 Most commonly held date that Phagan and Deruvian sent by Eleutherius to convert the Britons to Christianitycitation needed
ca. 170-236 Hippolytus of Rome[note 5] identifies Apostle Aristobulus listed in Romans 16:10 with Joseph of Arimathea and states that they ended up becoming Shepherds of Britain.
180 Protomartyr of Wales, St. Dyfan of Merthyr martyred at Merthyr Dyfan, Wales
208 Tertullian writes that Christ has followers on the far side of the Roman wall in Britain where Roman legions have not yet penetrated.
ca.251 St. Alban Protomartyr of England.[note 6]
304 Death of Amphibalus at Verulamium (St Albans), Hertfordshire; Julius and Aaron[note 7] martyred at Caerleon, Britain, under the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian; Socrates and Stephanus martyred in Monmouthsire.[note 8]
305 Constantine the Great was able to spend a year in northern Britain at his father Constantius' side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn.
306 Constantine the Great is proclaimed as Augustus of the West at Eboracum (York), capital of the province of Britannia Secunda and home to a large military base.
307 The Church in Britain enjoys peace from the persecutions
313 "Edict of Toleration" (Milan), Christianity is made legal throughout the empire.
314 Council of Arles, for the first time, three British bishops attend a council, including the Abp. of Londinium, Restitutus.
325 First Ecumenical Council of Nicea convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine.
337 Constantine received "Christian" baptism on his deathbed; joint rule of Constantine's three sons: Constantine II (to 340); Constans (to 350); Constantius (to 361)
350 Ninian establishes the church Candida Casa at Whithorn in Galloway, Scotland, beginning the missionary effort to the Picts.
380 Pelagius[note 9] enters Britain from Rome and introduces the heresy of Pelagianism.[note 10]
383 Rome appoints Magnus Maximus as emperor in Britain while conquering Gaul, Spain and Italy.
390 Patrick born at Kilpatrick, Scotland.
395 Death of Theodosius, the last emperor to rule an undivided empire, leaving Arcadius, emperor in the East and his other son, Honorius, emperor in the West; the office of Roman Emperor changes from a position of absolute power to one of being merely a head of state.
5th c. St. Declán of Ardmore founded the monastery of Ardmore (Ard Mór) in what is now Co. Waterford, believed to be the oldest Christian settlement in Ireland, Christianizing the area and converting the Déisi before the coming of St. Patrick.
403 Abduction of Patrick to Ireland to serve as a slave; Victricius, Bishop of Rouen, visits Britain for the purpose of bringing peace to the island's clergy, who were in dispute over the Pelagian heresy.
406 Invasion of Gaul by Germanic tribes, severing contact between Rome and Britain.[note 11]
410 Escape of Patrick back to Britain; Emperor Honorious recalls the last legions from Britain; Britain gains "independence" from Rome;[note 12] the Goths, under Alaric, sack Rome

Early British Kingdoms: Era of Celtic Missionaries (410-597)

410 Probable end of Roman occupation of Britain; Pelagian is driven out of Britain by the Goths of Alaric and moves to Palestine.
412 Patrick of Ireland has a vision of God informing him that he will leave for Ireland.
415 Pelagianism is attacked at the Council of Diospolis
418 Pelagianism is condemned at the Council of Carthage
419 King Brychan of Brecknock born, ca. 419, in South Wales.
429 Celestine I dispatches prominent Gallo-Roman Bishops Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes to Britain as missionary bishops and to combat the Pelagian heresy.
430 Patrick ordained by St. Germannus, Bishop of Auxerre.
431 Augustine and Pelagius;
432 Patrick sent from Aesir in Gaul to mission to Ireland.
440 Materiana born in Gwent of Wales.
445 Founding of monastery at Armagh in northern Ireland.
447 Germannus returns to Britain with Severus and heals a lame youth, condemns Pelagian heretics.
450 First monasteries established in Wales; Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britian.
455 Germanic Saxons and Angles conquer Britain, founding several independent kingdoms.
459 Death of Auxilius of Ireland.[note 13]
461 Death of the Holy Hierarch St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland[note 14]
Post-Roman Britain, ca.500 AD.
ca.480 Death of St. Merthyr of Tydfil, in Wales.
484 Brendan the Navigator born at Tralee in Kerry, Ireland.
490 Brigid of Kildaire founds monastery of Kildare in Ireland.
493 Gildas the Wise born in the lower valley of the Clyde in central Scotland.[note 15]
ca.500 Death of St. Gwynllyw of Wales (St. Gundleus), a Welsh King & Penitent, founder of St Woolos Cathedral and father of Saint Cadoc the Wise.
520 Clonard Abbey is founded in Ireland by St. Finnian, where some of the most significant names in the history of Irish Christianity (who would go on to be known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland) studied at.
521 Birth of Columba of Iona.
525 Death of St. Brigid of Kildaire; Gildas the Wise studies under St. Illtyd and travels to Ireland with David of Wales and Cadoc, here he is ordained to the priesthood.
530 Brendan the Navigator lands in Newfoundland, Canada, establishing a short-lived community of Irish monks.
540 Kentigern appointed bishop to Strathclyde Britons (modern Glasgow).
545 Synod of Brefi at Llandewi Brefi in Wales condemns Pelagianism; Saint David of Wales moved the Primatial See of Britain from Caerleon to Menevia (St. Davids's).
546 Columba founds monastery of Derry in Ireland.
547 Saint David of Wales does obeisance to the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
550 Repose of St. Jarlath of Tuam, first Bishop of Tuam; Aed of Ferns born at Inisbrefny, Ireland.
553 Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow and Strathclyde exiled by pagans fleeing to Menevia, Wales.

St. Columba of Iona, Enlightener of Scotland.

556 Columba founds monastery of Durrow in Ireland.
557 Brendan the Navigator founds monastery at Clonfert, Ireland.
560 Gildas the Wise returns to Ireland at the invitation of King Ainmeric.
563 The Hiberno-Scottish mission begins, as Columba arrives on Iona and establishes monastery there, founding mission to the Picts.
564 Death of Petroc.
569 David of Wales holds Synod of Victoria to re-assert the anti-Pelagian decrees of Brefi.
570 Repose of Gildas the Wise, his relics allowed to drift; relics of Gildas the Wise recovered and translated to the church in Rhuys.
573 Kentigern returns to Scotland after exile; Kentigern evangelises Galloway and Cumberland.
576 Death of Constantine of Cornwall.
577 Death of St. Brendan the Navigator.
580 Aedan of Ferns returns to Ireland after studying under St. David in Wales.
581 Kentigern returns to Glasgow.
587 Death of David of Wales.
597 Death of Columba of Iona, Enlightener of Scotland.
6th c. The Twelve Apostles of Ireland (also known as Twelve Apostles of Erin), twelve early Irish monastic saints of the sixth century who studied under St Finnian at his famous monastic school Clonard Abbey at Cluain-Eraird (Eraird's Meadow), now Clonard in County Meath.

Anglo-Saxon England: The English Orthodox Church (597-1066)

According to historians, during this period St. Non, the mother of St. David of Wales, and the daughter of the nobleman Cynyr of Caer Goch of Pembrokeshire, reposed and St. Materiana of Cornwall, April 9, reposed early 6th-century at Minster of Cornwall.
St. Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury, Apostle of the English.

597 Gregory the Great sends Augustine[note 16] and forty monks to Britain to convert the Kingdom of Kent; Augustine first preaches in the Isle of Thanet to King Ethelbert, receiving license to enter the Kingdom of Kent; King Ethelbert is converted and on Christmas day 10,000 of the king's subjects were baptized; Augustine was consecrated Abp. at Arles, and establishes the See of Canterbury.
598 Brandon mac Echac (d. 603) convence a synod at which the Diocese of Ferns is made an episcopal see and Aedan of Ferns is made the first Bishop; Glastonbury Abbey founded; the Church in the British Isles numbers 120 bishops, hundreds of monasteries and parishes organized under a Primate with his See at Menevia.
7th c. Celtic missions are launched in Northumbria (Aidan, Cuthbert).
ca.600 Emergence of Insular art, also known as the Hiberno-Saxon style, produced in the post-Roman history of the British Isles, originating from the Irish monasticism of Celtic Christianity, or metalwork for the secular elite; the most important centres were in Ireland, Scotland and the kingdom of Northumbria in Northern England.
601 Death of David of Wales, Bishop of Menevia; Gregory sends the St Augustine Gospels to Augustine of Canterbury[note 17]
602 Augustine repares the church of our Saviour and builds the monastery of St. Peter the Apostle, "Peter" is the first abbot of the same.
603 Death of Kentigern of Glasgow; Ethelfrid, king of the Northumbrians, having vanquished the nations of the Scots, expels them from the territories of the English.
604 First Bishop of London, Mellitus consecrated by Augustine in the province of East Saxons; Repose of Saint Augustine of Canterbury "Apostle to the English;" Saint Laurence of Canterbury consecrated as the second Archbishop of Canterbury; Bp. Mellitus founded the first St. Paul's Cathedral, traditionally said to be on the site of an old Roman Temple of Diana (although Christopher Wren in the 17th c. found no evidence of this).

Aidan of Lindisfarne, Enlightener of Northumbria.

612 Death of Dubricius of Caerleon, Archbishop and Confessor of Caerleon and Wales, one of the greatest of Welsh saints.
614 Death of Kentigern of Glasgow, Apostle of northwest England and southwest Scotland.
616 Death of Æthelberht (Ethelbert), King of Kent, the first Christian king of the Anglo-Saxons.
618 Death of abbot Donnan & his monk companions in Eigg.
619 Death of Laurence of Canterbury; Mellitus consecrated as third Archbishop of Canterbury.
624 Death of Mellitus, first Bishop of London.
628 Benedict Biscop born in Northumbria.
630 Audrey of Ely born in West Suffolk.
632 Death of Aed of Ferns,[note 18] Bishop of Ferns in Ireland.
635 Cuthbert born in Britain.
640 Death of Constantine of Strathclyde; death of Beuno the Wonderworker, Abbot of Clynnog.[note 19]
647 Repose of Felix of Burgundy, Apostle of East Anglia.
650 The Book of Durrow illuminated manuscript Gospel Book is begun at Durrow Abbey, Ireland in the Insular style; (Fursey of Lagny); citation needed
651 Cuthbert of Lindisfarne witnesses the soul of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne reposing as a light in the night sky and leaves for Melrose Abbey to become a monk; Repose of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, enlightener of Northumbria of Northern England.
653 Benedict Biscop and Wilfred the Elder set off to visit Rome.
657 Whitby Abbey (Benedictine) is founded by the Anglo-Saxon King of Northumbria, Oswy (Oswiu).
661 Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and Eata join a monastery at Ripon.

St. Cuthbert the Wonderworker, Bishop of Lindisfarne.
Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit from the Gospel of Matthew.

664 Synod of Whitby; Cuthbert stricken by the great pestilence; death of St. Boisil, abbot of Melrose Abbey, Scotland;[note 20] death of St. Cedd, Apostle of Essex.
668 Gerald of Mayo follows Colman and settles in Innisboffin.
669 Theodore of Tarsus arrives in Kent at the age of seven.
670 Colman founds an English monastery, separate from the Irish, the "Mayo of the Saxons,"[note 21] with Gerald of Mayo as the first abbot.
672 Death of Chad of Lichfield and Mercia.
673 Historian Bede born.
675 Death of Ethelburgh, first abbess of the Convent of Barking
676 Cuthbert becomes a solitary on Farne Island; Malmesbury Abbey (Benedictine) is founded at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex.
679 Death of Audrey of Ely.
680 Death of Botolph of Iken; Repose of St. Hilda of Whitby; Sussex is the last part of England to be converted to Christianity.
681 Death of Caedmon,[note 22]
682 Foundation of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey in England.
685 Cuthbert of Lindisfarne consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne, by St. Theodore
686 Death of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.
689 Death of Benedict Biscop, abbot, in Wearmouth, Co Durham.
690 Death of Theodore of Tarsus, eighth Archbishop of Canterbury.
694 Death of Sebbe, founder of the monastery of Westiminster.
693 Death of Erconwald, Bishop of London.
696 Incorrupt body of Audrey of Ely found.
697 Gerald of Mayo resigns as abbot of the "Mayo of the Saxons" in favour of St. Adamnan; Relics of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne revealed to be incorrupt.
703 Gerald of Mayo resumes the abbacy of the "Mayo of the Saxons".
705 The Saxon Diocese of Sherborne was founded by King Ine of Wessex, who set Aldhelm as first Bishop of the see of Western Wessex, with his seat at Sherborne.
709 Death of Wilfrid, Bishop of Hexham.
712 Glastonbury Abbey is founded as a stone church in Glastonbury, Somerset, England, under the patronage of Saxon King Ine of Wessex, although the abbey itself was founded by Britons dating to at least the early 7th century.
714 Death of Guthlac of Crowland, the hermit.
ca. 715 Lindisfarne Gospels produced in Northumbria (Northern England).
716 Death of Donald of Ogilvy, Confessor of Scotland, whose nine daughters all entered a monastery in Abernethy, founded by Ss. Darlugdach and Brigid, where they became known as the Nine Maidens, or the Nine Holy Virgins.
717 In Scotland, the Iona monks were expelled by the Pictish king Nechtan son of Derile.
St Bede, or the Venerable Bede, Monk of Jarrow, biblical scholar (+735).
725 During his pilgrimage to Rome, King Ina of the West Saxons first gives the tribute or alms knows as "Peter's-Pence" (otherwise called in the Saxon Romefeoh).[note 23]
731 Death of Gerald, Bishop of Mayo and english monk; Bede writes "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People"'
735 Death of Venerable Bede; See of York achieves archepiscopal status.
747 Witenagamot of England again forbids appeals to the Roman Pope; Council of Clovesho I adopts Roman calendar, observance of the feasts of Gregory the Great and Augustine of Canterbury, and adopts the Rogation Days.
ca.750-800 Book of Mulling composed, an Irish pocket Gospel Book.
768 Wales adopts Orthodox Paschalion and other decrees of the Synod of Whitby at teaching of Elfoddw of Gwynedd.
781 King Charlemagne of the Franks summons Alcuin of York to head palace school at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) to inspire revival of education in Europe.
785 Synod of Cealchythe erects the Archbishopric of Lichfield.
787 Two councils held in England, one in the north at Pincanhale, and the other in the south at Chelsea, reaffirming the faith of the first Six Ecumenical Councils (the decrees of the Seventh having not yet been received), and establishing a third archbishopric at Lichfield.
Book of Kells, Folio 183v, Text from Mark.

Viking Age (793-1066)

793 Sack of Lindisfarne Priory, beginning Viking attacks on England.
794 Vikings sack the Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey; Offa, King of the Mercians, offers the tribute or alms known as "Peter's Pence" (Romefeoh).
795 In the earliest recorded Viking raid on Ireland, they attack Iona, Inisbofin and Inismurray.
ca.800 Book of Kells is completed by the Celts.
802 The Vikings sack Iona.
803 Council of Clovesho II abolishes archbishopric of Lichfield, restoring the pattern of the two metropolitan archbishoprics (Canterbury and York) which had prevailed before 787, and requires the use of the Western Rite amongst the English speaking peoples.
806 Vikings kill all the inhabitants on the religious island of Iona, Scotland, UK.
807 The Christianized Vikings (Danes) land on the Cornish coast, and form an alliance with the Cornish to fight against the 'heathen' West Saxons.
815 Egbert of Wessex ravages the territories of the west Welsh (Cornwall).
824 Death of Óengus of Tallaght (Óengus the Culdee), held to be the author of the Félire Óengusso ("The Martyrology of Óengus") and possibly the Martyrology of Tallaght.
825 Egbert of Wessex defeats Beornwulf of Mercia at Ellandun; Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex submit to Wessex and East Anglia acknowledges Egbert as overlord.
828 Egbert of Wessex becomes the first King of England.
ca.830 Historia Brittonum written (known for its list of 12 battles of King Arthur).
836 Egbert of Wessex is defeated by the Danes.
838 Death of Bp. Winnoc (Gwynog, Guinoch) of Scotland, a counsellor to King Kenneth, whose prayers helped the king to vanquish the Picts in seven battles on a single day; at Hingston Down, Egbert of Wessex beats the Danish and the West Welsh.
843 Kenneth I (Cináed mac Ailpín), King of the Scots, also becomes King of the Picts, thus becoming the first monarch of the new nation of Scotland; the Alpin dynasty of Scottish kings begins to reign.

Edmund the King-Martyr of East Anglia (+869).

851 Vikings plunder London and Canterbury.
852 St. Swithun becomes Bp. of Winchester, England.
855 King Æthelwulf of Wessex grants churches in the kingdom of Wessex the right to receive tithes.
866 Vikings raid and capture York in England.
869 Martyrdom of King Edmund of East Anglia.
870 Death of Ss. Beocca and Hethor, the two martyrs of Chertsey; the Great Summer Army invades England led by Bagsecg and conquers East Anglia; the buildings destroyed by the Danish invaders include the abbey of Ely and the monastery of Peterborough.
875 The Danes capture Lindisfarne and arrive in Cambridge.
878 King Alfred the Great of Wessex defeats Vikings; the Treaty of Wedmore divides England between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes (the Danelaw).
886 St Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, captures London from the Danes.
888 Shaftesbury Abbey is founded in Dorset, England.
890 Bede's Ecclesiastical History was translated into Old English at the insistence of Alfred the Great.
899 Death of King Alfred the Great.
903 Relics of King Alfred the Great[note 24] translated to New Minster Abbey.
904 King Constantine II of Scotland (900-943) is victorious at the Battle of Scone, after which the Vikings were forced to withdraw from Scotland; according to the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, the defeat of the Norsemen is attributed to the intercession of Saint Columba following fasting and prayer.
906 Synod at Scone, reported by the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, where King Constantine II of Scotland and Bp. Cellach I of Cennrígmonaid met "upon the hill of credulity near the royal city of Scone, [and] pledged themselves that the laws and disciplines of the faith, and the rights in churches and gospels, should be kept in conformity with the [customs of the] Gaels".
911 Normans convert to Christianity: in the Treaty of Saint Clair-sur-Epte with King Charles the Simple, Viking leader Rollo pledged feudal allegiance to the king, changed his name to the Frankish version, and converted to Christianity, probably with the baptismal name Robert.
934 Death of Birnstan of Winchester.
935 Relics of St. Branwallader (or Brelade translated by King Athelstan to Milton Abbey.[note 25]
943 King Constantine II of Scotland retires and becomes a monk.
945 Dunstan becomes Abbot of Glastonbury.
955 Death of King Edred of England.
960 Dunstan becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, reforming monasteries and enforcing rule of Benedict; Church of St. Dunstan, Mayfield is founded in East Sussex by St. Dunstan.
Edward the Martyr, King of England (+978).
971 Translation of St. Swithun's relics into an indoor shrine (previously buried outside); the ceremony is said to have been marred by 40 days of torrential rain.
972 The monastery at the site of Peterborough Cathedral is rebuilt; St. Edburga of Winchester (+960) is canonized.
977 St. Æthelwold of Winchester, Bishop of Winchester, rebuilds the western end of the Old Minster, Winchester, with twin towers and no apses.
978 Death of King Edward the Martyr.
King Harold II Godwinson, last Orthodox king of England.
ca.980-1000 Ramsey Psalter illuminated manuscript is produced at Winchester, intended for use at the Benedictine monastery of Ramsey.
982 Greenland is discovered by Erik the Red.
988 Death of St. Dunstan of Canterbury, Bishop of London.
ca.988-1023 The Bosworth Psalter is compiled at Canterbury, including a calendar of the Orthodox Church from among the Saints of Western, especially English origin who reposed before the West fell away from Orthodoxy.
1002 Death of St. Wulsin, renewer of the Monastery of St. Peter; St. Brice's Day massacre .
1005 Irish King Brian Boru visited Armagh, confirming to the apostolic see of Saint Patrick, ecclesiastical supremacy over the whole of Ireland (as recorded in the Book of Armagh).
1006 St. Alphege goes to Pope John XVIII at Rome for his pallium and becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
1010 Death of Ælfric of Eynsham, abbot of Eynsham and a prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries.
1012 Death of St. Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury martyred to the east of London at Greenwich.
1014 Abp. Wulfstan preaches his Latin homily, "Wulf's Address to the English".
1018 Buckfast Abbey is founded at Buckfastleigh, Devon, England.
1020 Canute the Great codifies the laws of England.
ca.1020 Harley Psalter illuminated manuscript is produced, probably at Christ Church, Canterbury.
1022 Aethelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, is received at Rome; Gloucester Abbey (Benedictine) is founded in the city of Gloucester, England, dedicated to St. Peter.
1030 Relics of St. Boisil (Boswell), Prior of Melrose (+661), are translated to Durham Cathedral by the priest Ælfred.
1043 Edward the Confessor crowned King of England at Winchester Cathedral.
1045 Edward the Confessor begins construction of Westminster Abbey.
1050 Exeter Cathedral is founded, dedicated to Saint Peter, dating from 1050, when the seat of the Bp. of Devon and Cornwall was transferred from Crediton because of a fear of sea-raids; Leofric is enthroned as Bp. of Exeter on St. Peter's Day, with King Edward the Confessor in attendance;
1065 Westminster Abbey is consecrated on December 28, 1065, only a week before Edward the Confessor's death and subsequent funeral and burial; it was the site of the last coronation prior to the Norman conquest of England, that of Harold II Godwinson.

Roman Catholic Period (1066-1534)
Anglo-Norman Britain: Latin Continental Ecclesiology Formalized (1066-1154)
Norman conquests in red. Norman conquest of England (1066); Kingdom of Sicily (founded ca.1042-1154); Principality of Antioch (1098).

1066 Normans invade England flying banner of Pope of Rome, defeating King Harold of England at Battle of Hastings; death of Harold of England, the last Orthodox King of England.
1066-1171 Beginning reformation of English church and society to align with Latin continental ecclesiology and politics.
1072 On October 15, the last English Orthodox bishop, Ethelric of Durham, after anathematizing the Pope, died in prison at Westminster.
1075 Council of London, a council of the Roman Catholic church in England held by the new Norman archbishop of Canterbury Lanfranc, deciding that all dioceses were to be re-centred on cities.
1080 York Minster cathedral is again rebuilt from 1080 AD.
1083 Shrewsbury Abbey (the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul) is founded by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery, in the county town of Shropshire, England.
ca.1085 Great Malvern Priory (Benedictine) is founded in Malvern, Worcestershire, England, as Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, had encouraged a hermit named Aldwyn to found a monastery in what was then the wilderness of Malvern Chase.
1092 The first cathedral at Old Sarum is completed by Bp. Osmund.
1093 Durham Cathedral is founded.
1095 Death of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, the only English Bishop who maintained his office under William the Conqueror, after the Norman conquest (i.e. Bp. of Worcester 1062-1095).
1096 Colchester Abbey (Benedictine) is founded by Eudo, son of Hubert de Ria, seneschal of King William II, on a site believed to be the location of a miracle.
1098 Anselm of Canterbury completes Cur Deus homo, marking a radical divergence of Western theology of the atonement from that of the East.
1102 Council of London, a Roman Catholic church council of the church in England convened by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, to debate and pass decrees to reform the clergy; it is best known for confirming homosexuality as a sin in the English and wider church, and for outlawing the export of Christian slaves to non-Christian lands.
1104 Relics of Cuthbert of Lindisfarne translated[note 26] from Lindisfarne to Durham Cathedral.
ca.1120-1145 St. Albans Psalter is produced at St Albans Abbey, one of the most important examples of English Romanesque book production, of almost unprecedented lavishness of decoration.
1128 Holyrood Abbey (Augustinian) is founded in Scotland.
1131 Tintern Abbey is founded in Wales, being only the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and the first in Wales.
1132 Rievaulx Abbey (Cistercian) is founded in North Yorkshire, England, by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey as a mission centre for the colonisation of the north of England and Scotland, becoming one of the great Cistercian abbeys of England; Fountains Abbey (Cistercian) is founded two miles southwest of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England, being one of the largest and best preserved Cistercian houses in England, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
1136 Melrose Abbey (Cistercian) is founded on the request of King David I of Scotland.
ca.1136 Geoffrey of Monmouth writes his chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain").
1150 Kinloss Abbey (Cistercian) is founded by King David I of Scotland, going on to become one of the largest and wealthiest religious houses in Scotland.

Plantaganet Era (1154-1485)

This period witnessed the continual struggle between the English Kings and the Church in Rome for the legal high ground.

1159 John of Salisbury authors Policraticus, a treatise on government drawing from the Bible, the Codex Justinianus, and arguing for Divine Right of Kings.
1169-71 Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland; city of Dublin captured by the Roman Catholic Normans.
1170 Abp. of Canterbury Thomas Becket is assassinated in December in Canterbury Cathedral, after having excommunicated the Abp. of York and the Bps. of London and Salisbury, who had held the coronation of Henry the Young King in York in June, in breach of Canterbury's privilege of coronation.
Cross of St. George, officially established as the national flag of England in the 16th c.
1173 Death of Richard of Saint Victor, a Scotsman and prior of the famous Augustinian abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris (1162-1173), who was one of the most important mystical theologians of 12th century Paris, then the intellectual center of Western Europe.
1185 The present-day Lincoln Cathedral is begun, after an earthquake destroyed its predecessor; the Knights Templar in England consecrated Temple Church as their headquarters in London, a round church, patterned after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
1194 King Richard I (Cœur de Lion, the Lionheart) of England introduced the Cross of St. George, a red cross on a white ground, as the National Flag of England.[note 27]
1202-04 Nobleman Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester achieved prominence in the Fourth Crusade.
ca.1207 Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton divides the Bible into the defined modern chapters in use today.
1208-1215 Pope Innocent III placed the kingdom of England under an interdict for seven years after King John refused to accept the pope's appointee as Archbishop of Canterbury.
1215 Magna Carta is issued, arguably the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law and democracy today in the English speaking world.
Salisbury Cathedral, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture.
1217 Culross Abbey is founded as a Cistercian abbey in Culross, Scotland, the birth place of St Kentigern of Glasgow.
ca.1220 English Bp. Richard Le Poore is said to have been responsible for the final form of the "Use of Sarum", which had the sterling reputation of being the best liturgy anywhere in the West.
1221 The Dominican Friars (known as Black Friars) arrive in England, appearing in Oxford.[note 28]
1239 Wells Cathedral is dedicated.
ca.1245 Monymusk Priory is founded as a house of Augustinian canons, based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
1258 Salisbury Cathedral consecrated at New Sarum.
1265 Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester calls the first English parliament.
1295 King Edward I summons the Model Parliament, including members of the clergy and the aristocracy, as well as representatives from the various counties and boroughs.
1296 The Stone of Scone was captured by Edward I as spoils of war and taken to Westminster Abbey, where it was fitted into a wooden chair, known as King Edward's Chair, on which most subsequent English sovereigns have been crowned.
1320 Declaration of Arbroath, a declaration of Scottish independence, was submitted to Pope John XXII.
1337-1453 Hundred Years' War between England and France.
1347 Death of William of Ockham, English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher and a supporter of the doctrine of Apostolic poverty, which was held by fundamentalist Franciscan and mendicant orders, bringing them into conflict with the pope; also the author of Occam's Razor.
1348 King Edward III (1327–1377), known for promoting the codes of knighthood, founded the Order of the Garter in 1348 and promoted St. George as the patron saint of the English monarchy.[note 29]
1349 Death of Richard Rolle, English religious writer and mystic, Bible translator, and hermit.
ca.1380-1534 Lollard Movement in England; Lollards were effectively absorbed into Protestantism during the English Reformation, in which Lollardy played a role.
1382-95 First English Bible translated by John Wyclif.
The Flag of Scotland, also known as the Saint Andrew's Cross or more commonly The Saltire, officially adopted 16th c.
1385 The Parliament of Scotland decreed that Scottish soldiers wear a white Saint Andrew's Cross (Saltire) on their person, both in front and behind, for the purpose of identification.[note 30]
1393 Julian of Norwich, thought of as one of the greatest English mystics, writes The Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, chronicling her prolonged states of ecstasy when she saw visions of the sufferings of Christ and of the Trinity.
ca.1410 Monk Nicholas Love, prior of the Carthusian house of Mount Grace in Yorkshire, translated the Meditationes Vitae Christi (wrongly attributed to the Italian scholastic philospher Bonaventure) into English as The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ.
1415 The festival of St. George was raised to the position of a "double major feast" and ordered to be observed throughout the Province of the Archbishop of Canterbury with as much solemnity as Christmas Day.
1438 Margery Kempe,a "religious enthusiast"[note 31] and laywoman, completes her autobiography The Book of Margery Kempe, chronicling her spiritual experiences, visions, and extensive pilgrimages to various holy sites in Europe.
1453 The Hundred Years War ends, England loses all its territory in France except for Calais.
1455-1485 Wars of the Roses, a series of dynastic civil wars between supporters of the rival houses of Lancaster and York, for the throne of England.
ca.1456 Rosslyn Chapel is founded in Scotland by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, as a Roman Catholic collegiate church (Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew), however having a number of Templar and Masonic connections.
1476 William Caxton introduces the printing press into England, setting up a press at Westminster; the first book known to have been issued there was an edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Tudor Era (1485-1603)

1494 English Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton writes his magnum opus, the Scala Perfectionis, or Scale of Perfection.
ca.1500-1505 The Eton Choirbook is compiled, showing the development of early Renaissance polyphony in England, and being one of the very few collections of Latin liturgical music to survive the Reformation.
1516 Leading Renaissance humanist Thomas More writes Utopia.
1521 Pope Leo X rewards King Henry VIII for his written attack on Luther by granting him the title "Defender of the Faith".