Joseph Arimathea and the Priesthood in England

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

This post explores the start of the priesthood in England. It considers the historical, archaeological and anthropological data that suggests an early presence of Jewish priests in Roman Britain who were followers of Jesus Christ. These ruler-priests were members of the Sanhedrin and had authority to ordain priests for the Church. One of them was Joseph Arimathea, a mining expert whose excavated family sepulcher was where Jesus’ body was laid.

Hebrew ruler-priests were widely dispersed before the time of Abraham. As early as 4000 years ago they were in the Nile Valley, Arabia, Canaan, Sumer, northern Mesopotamia, and Anatolia in what is today southern Turkey. Horite Hebrew miners were excavating mines in Timna before ancient Egypt became an empire. Timna, the site of some of the world's oldest copper mines, is near Beersheba in modern day Israel. The Horite Hebrew were devotees of HR (Horus) and his mother Hathor. A temple dedicated to Hathor was discovered at the southwestern edge of Mt. Timna by Professor Beno Rothenberg of Hebrew University.

Dispersal of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1B

Genetic studies indicate that a significant minority of Jewish males carry Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b, the same Haplogroup to which approximately 70% of native British men belong. The point of origin of this haplogroup is the Fertile Crescent.

The early Hebrew priests served as prophets, scribes, smiths, stone masons, miners, and physicians. They performed circumcisions, a practice that persisted among the royal Anglo-Celtic families. They offered sacrifices at temples and prayers at sacred shrines where people came for healing. They performed ceremonies at circles of standing stones, and they ordained their high priests in a succession extending back well before the time of Abraham.

Depending on who is telling the story, accounts differ as to when the priesthood came to the British Isles. This article focuses on the earliest known activity of priests in England who were followers of Jesus Christ.

Tin deposits in Spain, France and southwestern England

 

Hebrew followers of Jesus were in England as mining experts, metal workers, and merchants during Jesus’ earthly life. They traveled the ancient tin route between the metal-rich shores of Britain, France, Portugal, the Mediterranean and North Africa. Tin was essential for bronze production. Paul's desire to go to Spain suggests that he knew Jewish believers there who would be helpful in efforts to spread the Gospel. Spain was part of the tin trade route between the Mediterranean world and Britain.

A 2025 study has revealed that tin mined 3,300 years ago in south-west Britain was a key resource for the Bronze Age civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean. The study suggests that communities in Cornwall and Devon were part of a vast international trade system that supported ancient palaces and royal city-states of the Eastern Mediterranean.

These tin ingots were found off the coast of Israel. The tin came from Cornwall. Tin ingots from Cornwall dating to 2000 B.C. have been found in Israel and ingots from Cornwall dating to 1300 BC have been found at archaeological sites in Turkey and Greece. The tin trade brought together people from the Levant, the Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, and parts of Europe.

Joseph of Arimathea was a mining expert involved with the tin mined from the rich, alluvial deposits of Cornwall and Devon in the south of England. Mining in Cornwall and Devon began as early as 2150 B.C.

The Ding Dong mine is one of the oldest mines in Cornwall. An old miner told A. K. Hamilton Jenkin in the early 1940's: "Why, they do say there's only one mine in Cornwall older than Dolcoath, and that's Ding Dong, which was worked before the time of Jesus Christ." (Hamilton Jenkin, A. K. Cornwall and its People. London: J. M. Dent; p. 347) According to local legend, the Ding Dong mine was one of the places visited by Joseph Arimathea.

Note that I use the correct title for Joseph Arimathea, rather than “Joseph of Arimathea”. Arimathea is not a place. It indicates Joseph’s Hebrew lineage. The Ar prefix appears in the names of rulers and high-ranking priests. Examples include the Sumerian king Arwium of Kish, Artama, Archelaos, Artaxerxes, Ar-Shem, Artix, Areli, Araxes, Arviragus, a Jebusite named Araunah who sold a threshing floor to King David, and Arishen, a Horite Hebrew who ruled a territory in the central Zagros between 2400-2301 B.C. Ariaramnes was the great uncle of Cyrus the Great. The Ar prefix in Britain’s history is highlighted by King Arthur and Joseph Arimathea. Ar is likely a shortened Horus name, as Horus was regarded as the patron of ruler-priests and kings in the ancient world.

Ar-Mathea indicates that Joseph was a ruler-priest of the Hebrew clan of Mathea or Matthew. He was a relative of Jesus and the Virgin Mary and of the Evangelist Matthew.

The churches of the East acknowledge that Joseph Arimathea "traveled around the world, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ" and they belief that "he died peacefully in England."

Legends about Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and a follower of Jesus, became elaborate in the Middle Ages. That was a time when the Roman Catholic Church funded parishes through the exhibition of relics and pilgrimages. Beyond the embroidered accounts, however, there is a kernel of verifiable historical truth. Joseph of Arimathea was in Cornwall, and probably in Devon also.

Anglicans maintain that the priesthood of the Church was well established in the British Isles before the Augustinian Mission arrived from Rome in 595 A.D

According to the Roman Catholic narrative, the only priesthood that has validity was planted in Britain by Augustine in AD 595. That narrative ignores the reality of Hebrew followers of Jesus who had authority to ordain priests in Britain in Jesus’ lifetime. The priesthood of the Church was well established in the British Isles before the Augustinian Mission arrived from Rome in 595 A.D.

The Roman Catholic Church claims to have brought the only legitimate priesthood to Britain. However, the priest disciples of Jesus Christ who came to Roman Britain were not Roman Catholics. They were Jewish believers whose rules for ordination align with the Anglican Church's rules for ordination, as will be demonstrated in this series.

Today resources are available that can help to construct a more accurate picture of how the Messianic Faith that we call "Christianity" came to thrive in Roman Britain before Augustine's arrival from Rome.

Related reading: The Ar Rulers; The Priesthood in England - Part 1; Hebrew Names and Titles; Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Hebrew Were a Caste; DNA Studies of Jews are Shallow; Solar Symbolism of the Ancient Near East

Was King Arthur a Descendant of Dispersed Hebrew Rulers?

Alice C. Linsley

In the ancient world, the Nile River was called Ar, meaning "venerable". The Ar prefix is found in the names of many rulers and ruler-priests. Joseph Ar-Mathea is an example. He belonged to the venerable (Ar) clan of Mathea (Matthew). 

The name Ar-thur is composed of two elements that described his status and his character. He was Ar, meaning a high-status person such as a clan chief, a regional ruler. or a king. The term thur refers to purity. THR in Hebrew means to be pure. It corresponds to the Ancient Egyptian TR, meaning pure.

It is thought that Arthur's name is related to the Brittonic root arto, meaning bear. However, Ar-thur might be of a descendant of the venerable Hebrew who dispersed into Roman Britain before the time of Christ. 

The Ar-element appears among the Hebrew ruler-priests. Joseph Arimathea is an example. Many rulers of history have names with the Ar prefix. Consider the following: Arpachshad, Archelaos, King Arwium of Kish, Ar-Shem, Ar-Paši, Artix, Araxes, Araunah of Jerusalem, Artaxerxes, Artabanus, Arêtes, King Aretas (Nabatean), King Arthur, and King Arviragus, Arba, the father of Anak, one of the "mighty men of old" (Gen. 6). A Horite Hebrew named Arishen ruled in the central Zagros between 2400-2301 B.C. (before the time of Abraham). Aramaic scrolls have been found written by the satrap Arsames to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-Hor. (A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117.) 

The Ar affix is probably a shortened Horus name as is suggested by the Nabataean King Harithath IV who bears the Horus name. King Harithath is called King Aretas in 2 Corinthians 11:32.

There also are many place names (toponyms) with the Ar prefix. Arish, Aram, Arabia, Arsamea, Ararat, Armagh, Aragon, and Armenia are examples. Genesis 10 speaks of the Ar who controlled the kingdoms of Tyre and Arvad. This appears to be a 3-clan confederation, consisting of Ar, Arvd, and Arkt. The last two clans are called “Arvadites” and “Arkites” in Genesis 10:15-18. Deuteronomy 2:9 states that the settlement of Ar was given to the Moabites, Lot's descendants.

Another example is the place name Arrapha, a center of Hurrian/Horite culture. Ancient Arrapha was a part of Sargon of Akkad's Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 B.C.). Akkad was a principal city of Nimrod's territory. Nimrod was a Kushite city builder (Gen. 10), and a great grandson of Noah.

Textual Evidence

Arthur appears to be an historical person. An ancient funerary verse written around 650 AD mentions Arthur as a "mighty defender". In a lament called The Death-Song of Cynddylan, a princess named Heledd mourns the death of her brother the king, saying how he and his family were descendants of a mighty hero called Artir – the spelling Arthur found in Old Welsh, the language spoken at the time. The text says that Heledd’s brothers were, “the heirs of great Arthur, the mighty defender." 

This work, which survives in a manuscript catalogued as MS 4973B in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, was written 500 years before the first of the medieval Arthurian Romances were compiled.

Builders of Fortresses and Monuments

Rulers such as these built their strongholds at high elevations near water sources. This was true along the Nile, in the Baltic region, in Southern China, and in Cornwall. The Cornish fortress of Tintagel or Trevena is an example. In Cornish, it is called Tre war Venydh, meaning "village on a mountain."

Remains of Tintagel Fortress

Legend has it that King Arthur was born at Tintagel Castle. The ruins of Tintagel Castle stand on an island dominating the 300 feet (90 meters) high cliffs. Tin (or din) means fortress and tagel refers to a constriction or narrows, as in the neck of an island. Arthur was born into a Christian noble family of Cornwall which exercised influence on Christian missions and the defense of the Faith against Pagans from about 480-530. Christian priests were already well established in Cornwall, Devon, and Ireland by 44 AD.

The Ravenna Cosmography, compiled around 700 A.D. from Roman material 300 years older, lists a route running westward into Cornwall. On this route is a place then called Duro-cornovio. The Latin Duro-cornovio corresponds to the British Celtic duno-Cornouio-n, which means "fortress of the Cornish people." 

There may be a connection between Duro-cornovio and the Akkadian dûr which refers to a fortress, as in Dûr-Sharrukin, meaning “Sargon's fortress." The Akkadian word dû means hill.

However, the original name for Cornwall was Kernow, which appears to be related to words designating royal sites at high elevations. "Kar" refers to cliffs, mountain tops, rock shelters, and locations of burnt offerings and bonfires. 

Many rock shelters have been identified in the Carpathian Mountain range. The range is called Karpaty in Czech, Polish, and Slovak, and Карпати in Ukrainian, Carpați in Romanian, Karpaten in German, Kárpátok in Hungarian, Karpati in Serbian, and Карпати in Bulgarian. In Albanian, karpë means "rock."

In Dravidian car means "sheltered together" and kari refers to a river. In Manding, kara means "to assemble." Apparently, these were places where fires were maintained because kar is associated with charcoal, soot and the color black. The Turkish kara means "black." In Magyar, korom refers to soot, as does the Korean word kurim. Among the Nilotic Luo, kar specifies a place with boundaries.

Early History

From 400,000 BC to 200,000 BC, archaeological finds of flint axes and blades indicate that people were living in Devon and moving through Cornwall which was a good hunting ground, as it was too far south to be under the ice sheet. By 40,000 BC settlements dotted Southwest Britain.

Carn Euny, Sancreed, near Penzance

Carn Euny is an Iron Age settlement consisting of courtyard houses and the remains of round houses. The village dates from the the 1st century BC, though there is evidence that the site had been settled since the Bronze Age. Carn Euny is best known for the well-preserved fogou, a large underground passageway, which is more than 65 feet (20 metres) long. This fogou runs just below the surface of the ground and is roofed with massive stone slabs typical of the tunnels built by the R1b stone masons.

Mining in Cornwall and Devon began in approximately 2150 BC. From that time Hebrew mining experts were present in Cornwall. In the 1st century AD, one of those experts was Joseph of Ar-Mathea, which means Yosef of the Venerable (Ar) clan of Matthew.

About 70% of native British men have Y-DNA R1b ancestry which is the same as King Tut.

Genetic studies have confirmed that the early Hebrew dispersed widely across the ancient world. Their earliest known places of worship were along the Nile, and they are described as having a reddish skin tone. Interestingly, an early population living in Cornwall were the Dam-oni, which means “red people.” 

The word Dam-oni is derived from two words found in the Bible: dam, a reference to blood and the color red (dammu in Ancient Akkadian), and On, a reference to the great shrine city of Heliopolis (biblical On, Gen. 41:45). The Hebrew ruler Joseph married the daughter of a high-ranking priest of On. Some of the early Hebrew are described as red or ruddy: Adam, Seth, Esau, and King David. 

The Dam-oni may have come from Carnac (Karnac) in Brittany because the stone monoliths in Damnonia are like those in Carnac, though smaller. On the Nile, the ancient shrine at Karnak was built with huge stones by skillful craftsmen under the authority of rulers and priests, possibly ancestors of some early inhabitants of Cornwall.

The region where Joseph Arimathea visited in Cornwall is said to have Hebrew place names like Marazion, meaning "sight of Zion" and Menheniot, which is derived from the Hebrew words min oniyot, meaning "from ships." Menheniot was a center of lead mining.

Related reading: The Ar Rulers, Stone Work of the Ancient World; R1b Genetic Ancestry in Britain; The Mighty Men of Old; Origins of the Irish Scottish, Welsh and English R1b-M222 Population, The Priesthood in England (Part 2); King Tut and the Dispersion of R1b Peoples

The Priesthood in England - Part 2

Alice C. Linsley


In Part 1 we considered the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox accounts of how Christianity came to England. The information provided in Part 1 was taken from official websites of each of these branches of the catholic Faith. 

The one point on which all three accounts agree is that Augustine was the official representative of Rome and was based in Canterbury. As Britain was part of the Roman Empire, it is not surprising that the Roman Catholic narrative should predominate. That narrative has dominated the conversation for so long that the deficiencies of the account are rarely questioned.

These standing stones at Gezer date to around 400 years before the time of Abraham.

Photo: Dennis Cole

None of the narratives explore the evidence of a ruler-priest caste in the British Isles before the Roman Period. These priests served as prophets, scribes, smiths, stone masons, and physicians. They performed circumcisions, a practice that persisted among the royal families of Anglo-Celtic heritage. They offered sacrifices and prayers at sacred shrines, performed ceremonies at circles of standing stones, and they were ordained by ruler-priests in a succession extending back well before the time of Abraham. 

The point of origin of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste is the Nile Valley long before the time of Abraham. That caste has a moiety system, meaning that it was organized into two ritual groups, the Horite Hebrew and the Sethite Hebrew. Both groups built and maintained shrine cities along the Nile. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is at Nekhen (4000 BC). 

The Nile River was called the Ar and persons with Nilotic ancestry often have names with the Ar prefix. The Ar prefix means "venerable" and applies to rulers, many of whom built their palaces, temples, and treasuries at fortified rock shelters. Indeed, the AR is found in the Irish word Ard Mhacha (Armagh) which was a ceremonial high place. The Ar reference is found in the names of many historical persons, including the Edomite ruler Arêtes, Ar-Shem, Arsames, Artix, Araxes, Artaxerxes, Araunah (Jebusite ruler), Joseph of Arimathea, King Arwium (of Kish), King Arthur, King Arviragus, and King Arishen, a Horite Hebrew ruler whose territory was in the central Zagros. 

The "Ar" is likely a shortened Horus name as is suggested by the Nabataean King Harithath IV who bears the Horus name. In 2 Corinthians 11:32, King Harithath is called King Aretas. Many early Hebrew had Horus names as Horus was the patron of kings and priests in the ancient world.

It is evident that the Ar peoples were highly skilled in the construction of stone tombs and monuments. These were shrine centers attended by priests and were circular with large perimeter stones such as those found at Stonehenge in England, Gezer in Israel, Metsamor in Armenia, and Göbekli Tepe in Turkey (shown below).

The prefix Ar is also found in place names such as Armenia, Arles, Arba, Aram, Arvan, and Arvad. The Arvadites and Arkites are mentioned in Genesis 10:15-18. They are the peoples of Sidon and Het/Heth. They dispersed to the northeast. Some of their Mesopotamian kin are called "Arameans" in the Bible.

Continuity Between the Priesthood of old and the Priesthood of the Church

Some of the Hebrew in Britain would have been living in expectation of the Messiah and would have heard about Jesus' death and resurrection from Jewish kin and Jews with whom they did business. Men like Joseph of Arimathea would have had opportunities to plant a Christian presence among their fellow Jews. As a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph was qualified to perform ordinations.

In researching how Jewish priests were ordained in the time of Jesus Christ, I found that the rule set down by the Sanhedrin required three ruler-priests to give consent, but only one was required to be physically present for the laying on of hands. The other two could give consent in writing.

This suggests that the priesthood among the natives of Britain has a longer history than has been generally recognized. According to Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae there were already Christians living in Britain in 46 AD. The presence of Christians in Roman Britain predates the episcopacy of Evodius of Antioch (53–69 A.D.) and the episcopacy of James of Jerusalem (d. 69 A.D.), and the episcopacy of Linus of Rome (64-79 A.D.).

Members of the Sanhedrin served under the presidency of the high priest much as priests today serve under the presidency of their bishop. The high priest bore the title nasi (ruler, king, prince) and retained this title even after the presidency was transferred to other hands. Similarly, in Anglican orders a bishop remains a bishop even after he has stepped down from serving in that office. Note the continuity of the tradition concerning the ordination of priests!

The doctrine of Apostolic Succession received from Rome remains problematic since none of the Apostles were priests, as far as we know. Apostolic succession addresses who has authority over the flock, but it does not shed light on the continuity of the priesthood between the Old order and New order. In fact, the best scholars of the Roman Catholic Church have been unable to demonstrate unbroken succession from Jesus to the priesthood of the Church. There is no documentation tracing the chain of consecration from before the Second Century. 

The implications of the priesthood being introduced into England by Messianic Jewish priests are why many will not even consider this angle. My concern is the problem of discontinuity when I do not see that in the Scriptures, or in the immutable way God works. I also suspect that there is more continuity between the priesthood of old and the priesthood of the Church in areas of the world claimed by Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism since Messianic priests had dispersed into those areas even before the time of the Incarnation. However, those areas are not the focus of this exploration.

When we come to ancient Britain, we find a priest among Jesus' followers who was qualified to ordain according to the Sanhedrin rule: Joseph of Arimathea. After we remove the embellishments of the Middle Ages we are left with this picture: Joseph was in southern Britain where he consulted as a mining expert. He is said to have visited the Ding Dong mine in Cornwall. (Lodes from that mine were worked well before the time of Abraham.) Mining experts also excavated cave tombs such as the one Joseph provided for our Lord’s repose. It is likely that Joseph saw the need for priests among the Messiah’s followers in Britain and that he ordained a few with the consent of two other members of the Sanhedrin. The two most likely are Nicodemus and James the Just, the first bishop of Jerusalem. If this is so, the priesthood in England clearly predates the papacy of Linus which began in A.D. 64.

The empowering of the Apostles to proclaim the Gospel, to plant churches, and to act as authorities in defense of the Faith cannot be understood as ordination to the priesthood. This is the most logical explanation for why there is no documentation of the chain of succession during the earliest days of the Church. There is documentation tracing the chain of consecration from the early Second Century, but before that none. The Vatican acknowledges this fact. The 1973 International Theological Commission on Catholic Teaching on Apostolic Succession states:

“The absence of documents makes it difficult to say precisely how these transitions came about. By the end of the first century the situation was that the apostles or their closest helpers or eventually their successors directed the local colleges of episkopoi and presbyteroi. By the beginning of the second century the figure of a single bishop who is the head of the communities appears very clearly in the letters of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who further claims that this institution is established "unto the ends of the earth".

During the second century and after the Letter of Clement this institution is explicitly acknowledged to carry with it the apostolic succession. Ordination with imposition of hands, already witnessed to in the pastoral Epistles, appears in the process of clarification to be an important step in preserving the apostolic Tradition and guaranteeing succession in the ministry. The documents of the third century (Tradition of Hippolytus) show that this conviction was arrived at peacefully and was considered to be a necessary institution.” (INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION, Catholic Teaching on Apostolic Succession, 1973)

Rome is in error when it claims to have brought Christianity to Roman Britain and that there was no Christian priesthood in Britain prior to Augustine. Father Louis R. Tarsitano expressed the truth when he wrote: ... it is a simple error of fact to claim that the Anglican Church “began” in the Reformation, or even with the late 6th century mission of St. Augustine to evangelize the newly arrived Anglo-Saxon pagans. The bishops of a five-centuries-old Christian Church met Augustine on the beach. (Of Forms and the Anglican Way)

Related reading: The Ar Rulers, Was King Arthur a Descendant of Nilotic Rulers?; My Response to Cory Byrum on Visible Unity of the Church; The Priesthood in England - Part 1; Who Laid the Foundations of Science?; The Priesthood in England - Part 3; The Priesthood in England - Conclusion

The Priesthood in England - Part 1

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

This four-part series on the priesthood in England explores the historical and anthropological data that suggests an early presence of Jewish priests in Roman Britain who were followers of Jesus Christ. These ruler-priests, members of the Sanhedrin, had authority to ordain priests for the Church. One of them was Joseph Arimathea, a mining expert who also excavated rock tombs.

To avoid drawing conclusions out of context, it is important to read the entire series. Links to Parts Two-Four are found at the bottom of each post.

Different Narratives Support Conflicting Claims

Depending on who is telling the story, accounts differ as to when the priesthood came to the British Isles. Anglicans tend to give this account:

Christianity was already established in the British Isles by A.D. 47 according to Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. Hebrew Christians likely entered as metal workers and traders traveling along the tin route between Spain and Ireland.

The preamble of a 1421 letter by Abbot Nicholas Frome to Henry V asserted that Joseph of Arimathea and his companions were sent to England in 63 A.D. by St. Philip, who was on a mission in Gaul (France). It was copied from materials found in William of Malmesbury’s interpolated De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie. However, the date of 63 A.D. for the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea seems too late. 

Joseph of Arimathea was a mining expert involved with the tin mined from the rich, alluvial deposits of Cornwall and Devon in the south of England. Mining in Cornwall and Devon began as early as 2150 B.C. 

The Ding Dong mine is one of the oldest mines in Cornwall. An old miner told A. K. Hamilton Jenkin in the early 1940's: "Why, they do say there's only one mine in Cornwall older than Dolcoath, and that's Ding Dong, which was worked before the time of Jesus Christ." (Hamilton Jenkin, A. K. Cornwall and its People. London: J. M. Dent; p. 347) According to local legend, the Ding Dong mine was one of the places visited by Joseph of Arimathea (the Ar Rulers).

These tin ingots were found off the coast of Israel. The tin came from Cornwall.

Tin ingots from Cornwall dating to 2000 B.C. have been found in Israel and ingots from Cornwall dating to 1300 BC have been found at archaeological sites in Turkey and Greece. The tin trade brought together people from the Levant, the Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, and parts of Europe.

The earliest historical evidence of Christianity among the natives of Britain is found in the writings of the Africans Tertullian and Origen in the first years of the third century. Their awareness of Christians in Roman Britain suggests that they knew of traffic between England and North Africa. Evidence for that commercial traffic is presented in Parts 2 and 3.

Three Romano-British bishops, including Restitutus, are known to have been present at the Council of Arles in 314. Others attended the Council of Sardica in 347 and that of Ariminum in 360, and a number of references to the church in Roman Britain are found in the writings of 4th century Church Fathers.

In 595 A.D., Pope Gregory of Rome sent missionaries to the Kingdom of Kent under the direction of the Benedictine prior, Augustine. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.


The Roman Catholic Church tells this story

According to tradition, the authority of Rome is anchored to the Apostle Peter who is claimed to be the first Pope. This is based on the Roman Catholic interpretation of Matthew 16:17-19: Jesus said, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The Bible tells us very little about Peter in Rome. However, it does tell us a great deal about Paul's time in Rome. Rome ignores the fact that Ananias of Damascus was likely a Hebrew priest through whom the charism of the Holy Spirit was delivered to Paul. "Ananias laid hand on Paul to pray for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Once he laid hands on Paul, he was immediately filled with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 9:17)

According to the Roman account, Pope Gregory the Great chose a Benedictine monk named Augustine in 595 A.D. to lead a mission to Britain to convert King Æthelberht and his Kentish people from Anglo-Saxon paganism to Christianity. 

Kent was chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert I, the King of Paris. It was expected that Bertha would exert some influence over her husband. This initiative of Pope Gregory is known as the Gregorian mission. Before reaching Kent Augustine and the missionaries who accompanied him considered turning back, but Gregory urged them on, and in 597 Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to Æthelberht's Canterbury.

Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597 and converted many of the king's subjects, including thousands during a mass baptism on Christmas Day in 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.

King Æthelberht converted to Christianity and allowed the missionaries to preach freely, giving them land to found a monastery outside the city walls. Pope Gregory sent more missionaries in 601. Roman bishops were established at London and Rochester in 604, and a school was founded to train Anglo-Saxon priests and missionaries.

Anglican orders were not declared null and void by Rome until 1896. When Reginald Pole was sent by Julius III as the Papal legate to England, one of his jobs was to review Anglican orders. According to Vatican records, the orders of the English clergy were deemed valid by Pole and Rome. The reconciliation was almost finished before Pole’s arrival, and no Presbyters were put out of office on account of defect of Order. One or two were reordained under him. Pole propagated the principles of Eugenius IV which were rejected by Leo XIII who declared Anglican orders invalid in the 1550's for political reasons. 

The Continuing Anglican priests have their orders from Bishop Chambers whose Apostolic Succession is via the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC). Rome recognizes the PNCC's sacraments and cannot logically deny the validity of the orders of Continuing Anglican clergy. (See more on Anglican Orders here.)


The Orthodox have another account

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 was martyred for his faith on the spot where St. Alban's Abbey now stands. The Orthodox tend to credit the spread of Christianity in Roman Britian to the influence of monks.

The British church was a missionary church with figures such as St. Illtud, St. Ninian and St. Patrick evangelizing in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but the organization of the church suffered from the invasions by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in the fifth century. The monasteries were often raided by the invaders. 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" 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 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.

Summary

Anglicans maintain that the priesthood of the Church was well established in the British Isles before the Augustinian Mission arrived in 595 A.D. Legends about Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and a follower of Jesus, became elaborate in the Middle Ages. That was a time when the Roman Catholic Church funded parishes through the exhibition of relics and pilgrimages. Beyond the embroidered accounts, however, there is a kernel of historical truth. Joseph of Arimathea was in Cornwall, and probably in Devon also. That evidence is considered in Parts 2 and 3.

According to the Roman Catholic narrative, the only priesthood that has validity was planted in Britain by Augustine in AD 595. This narrative ignores the reality of Hebrew followers of Jesus living in Britain or visiting there who had authority to ordain priests. Paul's desire to go to Spain suggests that he knew Jewish believers there who would be helpful in efforts to spread the Gospel. Spain was part of the tin trade route that continued north into Britain.

The Eastern Orthodox acknowledge the consecration streams of Augustine and his successors and the older Romano-British and the Celtic priest monks like St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert. Note that the Eastern Orthodox maintain (here) that Joseph of Arimathea "traveled around the world, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ" and that "he died peacefully in England."

On this point all three accounts agree: Augustine was the official representative of Rome and was based in Canterbury. By this historic event, the British were claimed as a Roman franchise. The Roman narrative is largely accepted, and the finer details of the other accounts are often neglected. This skewed understanding of the arrival of priests in England results in the Roman Catholic claim to universal authority. However, the priest disciples of Jesus Christ who came to Roman Britain were not Roman Catholics. They were Jewish believers whose rules for ordination align with the Church's rules for ordination, as is demonstrated in this series.

Today resources are available that can help to construct a more accurate picture of how the Messianic Faith that we call "Christianity" came to thrive in Roman Britain before Augustine's arrival from Rome. In this series we will trace historical events and the anthropological evidence that sheds light on how the priesthood came to be planted in England.

To continue this series, read The Priesthood in England, Part 2, The Priesthood in England, Part 3, The Priesthood in England - Conclusion


Related reading: Joseph of Arimathea; Rabbis and Priests; Response to Cory Byrum's Article on the Unity of the Church