Blót on the Landscape: Re-reading Pope Gregory’s Letter on the Heathen Temple

Authors

  • Jeremy Harte

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i10.23

Keywords:

Neo-Paganism, Pope Gregory,

Abstract

Pope Gregory’s letter written to Abbot Mellitus in the year 601 is often cited as evidence for the widespread Christianisation of pagan British monuments. Jeremy Harte examines this celebrated text and reviews its impact on modern notions of site continuity

References

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Chuvin, Pierre, 1990, A Chronicle of the Last Pagans—tr. John Raffan, Harvard University Press.

Dudden, F. Hornes, 1905, Gregory the Great: His Place in History and Thought, Longmans Green & Co.

Fletcher, Richard, 1997, The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371-1386 AD, Harper Collins.

Fox, Robin Lane, 1986, Pagans and Christians, Penguin.

Greenhalgh, Michael, 1989, The Survival of Roman Antiquities in the Middle Ages, Duckworth.

Grinsell, Leslie, 1986, ‘The Christianisation of prehistoric and other pagan sites’, Landscape History 8, 27-37.

Hulse, Tristan Gray, 1998, Correspondence, Source 5, 41-3.

Hutton, Ronald, 1991, The Pagan Religions of the British Isles, Blackwell.

Mâle, Emile, 1950, La Fin du Paganisme en Gaule, Paris. Markus, R.A., 1970, ‘Gregory the Great and the origins of a papal mission strategy’, Studies in Church History 6, 29-38.

Markus, R.A., 1997, Gregory the Great and His World, Cambridge University Press.

Morris, Richard, 1989, Churches in the Landscape, Dent.

Straw, Carole, 1988, Gregory the Great: Perfection in Imperfection, University of California Press.

Wallace-Hadrill, J.M., 1988, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary, Clarendon.

Published

2000-08-01

How to Cite

Harte, J. (2000). Blót on the Landscape: Re-reading Pope Gregory’s Letter on the Heathen Temple. Pomegranate, 13(Summer), 23-30. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i10.23