Category:Religious History

This is a list of Articles in some way relating to the history of religion in and near Chester. There is a huge amount of information regarding that on the internet as for much of history the only people who wrote anything much down were various religious groups. Just don't take it all on face value - as sometimes they have a point to prove, a relic to fake etc.

Prehistory


We can only make informed guesses about what prehistoric people believed, using evidence from the monuments and artefacts that have survived. There was apparently no single or continuously developed belief system in prehistoric Britain. For long periods, however, there were religious practices concerning the dead, their afterlife, and their influence on the living. When people began to farm the land in about 4000 BC and to settle in permanent territories, they started to place their dead in huge communal tombs. Only a small number of people were buried in this way, despite the many thousands of man hours that would have been required to build the barrows. Why these particular men, women and children were selected is unknown. Stone circles or henges appear to have developed later. There are several in the upper reaches of the River Dee. Single standing stones may include Chester's Gloverstone.

Pre-eminent amongst these burials is that connected with the Mold Cope. It's story is a remarkable mix of chance and legend. Traditionally the Roman St German of Auxerre - came to britain in 429 and (according to tradition) defeated the Saxons and Picts at a place known as "Maes Garmon" (which is traditionally located near Mold) in the "Battle of the Hallelujahs". The local legends included sightings of a ghostly warrior (or in some versions boy), clad in gold, a glittering apparition in the moonlight, who had apparently been reported frequently enough for travellers to avoid a local "hill" of Bryn yr Ellyllon (literally "Hill of elves" - although in some translations "ellyllon" means wraith or spirit) after dark. Workmen from a local workhouse dug into the "hill" in 1833 whilst digging for stone. They uncovered a stone lined burial chamber, within which were fragments of the crushed gold cape.

From about 800 BC, in the early Iron Age, there was an even greater change. Evidence for burials is rare, but people increasingly cast valuable items – weapons, metalwork, even gold – into rivers, pools and springs, apparently as sacrifices to water gods. The area of land between Beeston Castle and Peckforton Hill to the south is marked by a number of springs and watercourses, which have now been drained and managed. However, prior to the 20th century, the spring water from this area was believed to have had curative properties and was compared favourably to mineral waters from the Malverns. The spring feeding the "Horsley Bath Well" has posssibly been known since the late bronze age as the hilt and lower blade of a deliberately broken sword of that period (8th Cent BC) was found in the inner chamber of the nearby Georgian Spa building during refurbishment work in 2007 and may well have been placed there as an offering to the "spirit" of the spring.

One cannot help but note the regularity with which the story of the hunting of an animal being associated with the establishment of a church which is in turn associated with a holy spring or well turns up along the Dee. At Llangar - 'Llan Garw Gwyn' it is a (male) white deer. Upstream at Llandderfel a stag appears to have been hunted by Derfel, and downstream we have St Johns at Chester (where the well may have been "Jacobs Well"). For the ancient Celts, the white hart was a harbinger of doom, a living symbol that some taboo has been transgressed or a moral law broken - to come across a white hart was to realise that some terrible evil or judgment was imminent. The white hart's reputation improved in Arthurian legends, where its appearance was a sign to Arthur and his knights that it was time to embark on a quest - it was considered the one animal that could never be caught so it came to symbolise humanity's never-ending pursuit of knowledge and the unattainable. It was not long before Christianity managed to appropriate the white hart for its own purposes: the white stag came to symbolise Christ and his presence on earth. It has been suggested that horned animals were associated with the totems of the Cornovii and may be cognate with the Gaulish Cernunnos or the unnamed horned god of the Brigantes.

Roman
Although they famously suppressed the Druids during their invasion of Britain, the Romans were largely tolerant of other religions, provided that the conquered populace incorporated the Imperial Cult into their worship. The Romans sought to equate their own gods with those of the local population. Adherence to this ‘official’ religion demonstrated loyalty to the emperor, and was a prerequisite for social advance. But almost everybody had a private religious life. Belief in local Celtic gods persisted, and mystery cults originating in distant corners of the empire gained followers too. The persistence of pre-Roman Iron Age beliefs is seen in the significance afforded to horned gods, wet places, heads, and ritual wells and shafts. It is also evident in the occurrence of gods in groups of three, like the matres (mothers), and the three hooded deities (the genii cucullati) carved in stone at Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall. Alongside their own gods, the Romans introduced a range of others from outside the classical pantheon. These included Mithras, an eastern god of light and rebirth, favoured by soldiers and some urban communities. His temples have been found at forts on Hadrian’s Wall, including Carrawburgh and Housesteads. It is not certain when Christianity was introduced to Britain, but it became increasingly popular among the elite in the 4th century after the conversion of the emperor Constantine in AD 312.

Roman Chester's best known religious relic is the Minerva Shrine. The Minera Shrine in Edgar's Field is the only surviving rock-cut Roman shrine which is still in situ at its original location in the whole of western Europe. It dates from around AD 79, during the time of Vespasian, when the same area was being used to quarry stone for the construction of the Roman fortress (and, years later, possibly also Chester Castle) just over the River Dee. It may have been the shrine of quarry workers, or it may have been used by travelers about to cross the River Dee (by a ford) - Minerva was Goddess of both craftsmen and travelers.

Many altars have also been found including a noted one to "Jupiter Tanarus" found in Foregate Street.

By Roman law, the dead were buried outside the fortress in cemeteries along the incoming roads to the north and east. Some were cremated and buried in urns, others buried in stone-lined tombs. Elaborate monuments lined the roads. Sometime in the later Roman period, these monuments were broken up and used to repair the fortress walls. During the 19th century, these tombstones were recovered from the north wall and now form the best collection of Roman tombstones in the UK. They can now be seen in the Grosvenor Museum.

Dark Ages
The conquest of much of England by the Anglo-Saxons and Viking's saw an eclipse of christianity, although it survived quite well in Wales.

Medieval
Chester's relics of the Medieval period include two cathedrals and the Chester Mystery Plays.

Civil War
The Civil War had many causes but religion was one reason for the strife that set neighbours and close relatives against each other.

Sources and Links

 * Churches and religious bodies: Medieval parish churches in Chester, at British History Online;