Editing Roman Britain (section)

=== Christianity ===
{{Main|Christianity in Roman Britain}}

[[File:Lullingstone paintings2.jpg|thumb|Fourth-century [[Chi Rho|Chi-Rho]] fresco from [[Lullingstone Roman Villa]], [[Kent]], which contains the only known Christian paintings from the Roman era in Britain.<ref>{{Cite web |title=From Paganism to Christianity |url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/lullingstone-roman-villa/history-and-research/history/4-from-paganism-to-christianity |access-date=15 June 2012 |publisher=[[Lullingstone Roman Villa]], [[English Heritage]]}}</ref>]]
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century [[Sator Square|"word square"]] has been discovered in [[Mamucium]], the Roman settlement of [[Manchester]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horsley |first=G. H. R. |title=New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: a Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri Published in 1979 |date=1987 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |isbn=978-0-8583-7599-4 |page=138}}</ref> It consists of an anagram of [[Lord's Prayer|PATER NOSTER]] carved on a piece of [[amphora]]. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of [[early Christianity]] in Britain.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shotter |first=David |title=Romans and Britons in North-West England |date=2004 |publisher=Centre for North-West Regional Studies |isbn=1-8622-0152-8 |location=Lancaster |pages=129–130 |author-link=David Shotter |orig-date=1993}}</ref> The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by [[Tertullian]], {{Circa|lk=no}} 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ".<ref>{{Citation |author=[[Tertullian]] |title=[[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume III/Apologetic/An Answer to the Jews|De Adversus Judaeos]] |trans-title=An Answer to the Jews |at=[http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-19.htm#P2141_725966 7.4]}}</ref> Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]] and [[Silchester]] and [[baptismal font]]s have been found at [[Icklingham]] and the [[Saxon Shore|Saxon Shore Fort]] at [[Richborough]]. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of [[Colchester]] during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The [[Water Newton Treasure]] is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the [[Roman villa]]s at [[Lullingstone]] and [[Hinton St Mary]] contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at [[Poundbury]] with its east–west oriented burials and lack of [[grave goods]] has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.

The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the [[Synod of Arles (314)|Council of Arles]] in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were [[bishop]]s from thirty-five [[Holy See|sees]] from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, [[Restitutus]] of London, and Adelphius, possibly a [[bishop of Lincoln]]. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Charles |title=Christianity in Roman Britain to 500&nbsp;AD |date=1981 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-4151-6634-8}}</ref> The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]] and the ''{{Lang|la|martyrium}}'' of [[Saint Alban]] on the outskirts of Roman [[Verulamium]] are exceptional.<ref name=Loseby326/> Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints [[Julius and Aaron]] of [[Isca Augusta]]. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. [[Theodosius I]] made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]] by the church authorities&nbsp;— [[Pelagianism]]&nbsp;— was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: [[Pelagius]] lived {{Circa|lk=no}} 354 to {{Circa|lk=no}} 420/440.

A letter found on a lead tablet in [[Bath, Somerset]], datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in [[Wroxeter]] by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tomlin |first=R. S. O. |date=1994 |title=Vinisius to Nigra: Evidence from Oxford of Christianity in Roman Britain |url=http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1994/100pdf/100093.pdf |journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik |volume=100 |pages=93–108 |access-date=13 December 2006}}</ref>