Not Angles, But Angels: Gregory the Great and the Evangelization of the Anglo-Saxons

Is Christianity for cucks?

Does it require defeat in this world?

Is Christianity inherently opposed to our racial and national identity?

If we go all the way back to the beginning, we don’t find this perverse worldview in the Venerable Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of England. Quite the opposite.

Gutenberg:

“Nor must we pass by in silence the story of the blessed Gregory, handed down to us by the tradition of our ancestors, which explains his earnest care for the salvation of our nation. It is said that one day, when some merchants had lately arrived at Rome, many things were exposed for sale in the market place, and much people resorted thither to buy: Gregory himself went with the rest, and saw among other wares some boys put up for sale, of fair complexion, with pleasing countenances, and very beautiful hair. When he beheld them, he asked, it is said, from what region or country they were brought? and was told, from the island of Britain, and that the inhabitants were like that in appearance. He again inquired whether those islanders were Christians, or still involved in the errors of paganism, and was informed that they were pagans. Then fetching a deep sigh from the bottom of his heart, “Alas! what pity,” said he, “that the author of darkness should own men of such fair countenances; and that with such grace of outward form, their minds should be void of inward grace.” He therefore again asked, what was the name of that nation? and was answered, that they were called Angles. “Right,” said he, “for they have an angelic face, and it is meet that such should be co-heirs with the Angels in heaven. What is the name of the province from which they are brought?” It was replied, that the natives of that province were called Deiri. “Truly are they De ira,” said he, “saved from wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of that province [pg 083]called?” They told him his name was Aelli;and he, playing upon the name, said, “Allelujah, the praise of God the Creator must be sung in those parts.”

Then he went to the bishop of the Roman Apostolic see1 (for he was not himself then made pope), and entreated him to send some ministers of the Word into Britain to the nation of the English, that it might be converted to Christ by them; declaring himself ready to carry out that work with the help of God, if the Apostolic Pope should think fit to have it done. But not being then able to perform this task, because, though the Pope was willing to grant his request, yet the citizens of Rome could not be brought to consent that he should depart so far from the city, as soon as he was himself made Pope, he carried out the long-desired work, sending, indeed, other preachers, but himself by his exhortations and prayers helping the preaching to bear fruit. This account, which we have received from a past generation, we have thought fit to insert in our Ecclesiastical History. …”

As the legend goes, Pope Gregory the Great once came across some Angle children for sale in the Forum in Rome. He was struck by their beautiful hair and pale complexion and asked about their national origins. He was told they were Angles from Northumbria in Britain. To which Gregory punned, they are not Angles, but angels and sent a mission to Britain to convert the English to Christianity. He compared their faces to angels in Heaven.

Does this story sound anti-White and anti-nationalist? If it doesn’t sound anti-White or anti-nationalist you can continue reading on and you will learn from Bede that the English were justified in conquering and settling in Britain because of the sins of Britons. Fastforward through the centuries all the way down to Winston Churchill’s Britain and you will find a Christian England that had a positive sense of national identity. You won’t find the roots of anything resembling the culture of self-hatred that we have today in John Locke, David Hume or John Stuart Mill. A thousand years after its conversion, England in Oliver Cromwell’s time is conquering Ireland and Jamaica, settling North America and is patriotic and religious as ever.

It is not until the aftermath of World War II that England is decoupled from the English people because blood and soil becomes linked to Nazism. There is a similar transition in the United States, France, West Germany, Australia and all Western nations in the postwar era. World War II had been an ideological war between liberalism, fascism and communism. The result of World War II was that liberalism and communism emerged triumphant in the conflict. In order to compete with communism and prevent the reemergence of fascism, the postwar liberal elite in the West decided that it would bury nationalism, authoritarianism and racialism.

The churches have baptized the mainstream liberal consensus and gone along with it. In much the same way, we can see how in the late 20th century the churches gradually absorbed multiculturalism, political correctness, feminism, mass immigration and most recently gay marriage. All of these things originated in the mainstream secular liberal culture before the poison was introduced and absorbed into the churches by status conscious elites.

Returning to Gregory the Great, Augustine of Canterbury and the Venerable Bede, the faith that our English ancestors were converted to in the 7th century is not the emasculated one professed today by Pope Francis. It’s not the one that consolidated the English nation, survived the Viking invasions, powered the Crusades or facilitated the global spread of the British Empire.

Note: We’ve come full circle with child sex slavery in Britain under liberalism.

About Hunter Wallace 12379 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

7 Comments

  1. The proof so far seems to be in the pudding that yes, ultimately whatever you think of it, Christianity as the unquestionably dominant religion of the West, has manifestly failed us.

    I only see two directions our fate can take with regard to our spiritual need.

    1) A reformation of Christianity in a form which is unassimilable by the corrupted establishments in both the High and Low church.

    2) A revival of a strain of the old ways, through some revelation which itself is a fundamental paradigm shift.

    I can’t honestly say i have a preference. This has all become so tiresome.

    The only thing I know for certain is that atheists have no future in either scenario, and that at least gives me some hope.

  2. The problem with Christianity (and probably all religions) is that once Christians are convinced their religion requires of them certain beliefs or behaviors, they can no longer be reached by any other rational or emotional appeals. If they’re convinced that Christianity requires them to integrate with negroes and accept endless immigration, good luck trying to tell them otherwise.

    • Oh thats whites in general. The more educated they are, the more they think they know everything, and so can’t learn anything new.

      Re Christianity: I think you either have the religious gene or you don’t. If you don’t have the gene, pretending to believe and going to Church every Sunday will be very boring for you. I have the same views regarding baseball and grid iron worship.

  3. In regards to European history, up to the mid-twentieth century – I think it is important, and intellectually honest – to make a distinction between Christendom, and biblical Christianity … for better or worse.

  4. “As the legend goes, Pope Gregory the Great once came across some Angle children for sale in the Forum in Rome. …”

    ===

    This is highly likely not a Christian legend, but a Nordicist one.

    I mean, what were Germanic Angle children doing in Rome – for sale as some kind of slaves, no less – centuries after Rome fell and was conquered, by Germanic tribes??

  5. The Anglo Saxons were often bodyguards for the pope in that period. Think of Sydney Smith, Nelson, John Hawkwood and other soldiers of fortune. After the Norman invasion they became the Imperial Guard in Constantinople. Good contractor mercenaries.

  6. Adult Angle male contractors (and I’m sure they were fantastic soldiers, being Germans) seem much more likely than selling Angle ichildren in a slave market.

    Hence the original point of the legend being apocryphal, and highly unlikely.

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