And, IIRC from my ongoing reading of J.B. Bury’s The Cambridge Medieval History, the priest who first evangelized Britain was sent there personally by the then-current Pope (Gregory?), and I think at the behest of Constantine himself. Popes weren’t in the habit of sending known heretics on evangelizing missions.
That sounds better.
2nd century: first Christians in Britain
3rd & 4th century: Britons adopt Christianity
5th century: Roman withdrawal, followed by Saxon invasion. Plague.
6th century: Justinian plague*, 544–547**
7th century: conversion of the Saxons in England, Synod of Whitby (date of Easter)
8th century: Bede writes
- Which does seem to be the same as the Black Death: see here)
**544 in Ireland as blefed or buidechair or buide Chonnaill or crón Chonnaill—they had trouble keeping the terminology straight.
547 in Wales, as Y Fad Felen. This might not be the Justinian plague, but the timing is right.
After the 17c plagues in GB there is documentary evidence of how some named individuals, previously poor and tied to the land and to landlords, were able to prosper and start their own enterprises.
This was a social revolution that led directly to land reform and the transfer of power from the church and the nobility to the previously peasant classes.
Soap was invented in ancient Babylon, and certainly was aroundduring the Black Death.
Another good book on this subject is Plagues and Peoples, by William McNeill.