When Christianity arrived on the scene, Rome had already extended its power around the Mediterranean world, and had begun its transformation into a monarchical empire. The city of Rome began to decline in the third century as the empire faced economic challenges. The persecution by Decius issued from a sense that the gods who had made Rome great had to be placated if that greatness were to be maintained. Philosophical schools were a major factor in Roman Christianity, despite the lack of traditional basis. Philosophy is mentioned once in the New Testament as 'hollow speculations', and pagans initially dismissed Christian claims to be lovers of wisdom by calling their religion a superstition. Crucial steps in the shaping of inner-Christian scholarly discourse, together with the development of the categories of 'heresy' and 'orthodoxy', were taken by Justin's school. Justin, together with his pupil, Tatian, and Tatian's pupil, Rhodon, engaged in critique of pagan and Jewish teachers and philosophers.

This chapter examines the evidence that prompted the original theory, and reconsiders that for Christianity in sub-Roman and early medieval Britain, giving special attention to northern and western Britain. Continuity of Roman Christianity and its spread west and north is indicated by Patrick's writings. Our knowledge of Britain in the sixth century depends to a considerable extent upon the writings of a single author, Gildas. It is highly likely that monasticism reached Britain from Gaul at the end of the fourth. While in the east Christianity was spreading up from the Britons between the Walls to the Picts north of the Forth, in the west the Irish colony of DálRiada was gaining a major Christian focus with the foundation of the monastery of Iona. The surviving evidence of literary works, manuscripts and stone carving reveals Iona as one of the major literary.

The kingdom of Hungary was formed and consolidated as a part of Latin Christendom during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Hungary was at the intersection of three cultures: the Roman Christian, Byzantine and nomad. And its development was influenced by each. The dynasty that ruled Hungary was the house of Arpád, whose first Christian king was Stephen I. While monastic communities conforming to the Greek rite flourished in Hungary until the thirteenth century, the missionaries and priests who gathered at Stephen's court were westerners and Roman Christianity became the majority religion. Pagan revolts broke out in 1046 and 1061, and pagan practices persisted. By the twelfth century, landed property was becoming the basis of Hungarian society, with groups of different legal status living on royal, ecclesiastical and noble estates. Hungary's social and economic structure underwent radical changes. A strong Christian kingdom emerged with a social organization, where the beginnings of money economy, chivalry and early Gothic appeared.