Beginnings英国起源(29)

The history of the conversions between the sixth and eighth centuries is another those crucial turning points in the history of the British Isles. But while the legions had long gone, the shadow of Rome fell once again on these islands. This time, though, it was an invasion of the soul, and the warriors were carrying Christian gospels rather than swords. The process began in a country that had never been touched by Roman rule in the first place, the land the Romans called Hibernia - Ireland. We have to remember that the most famous of the early missionaries to Ireland, St Patrick, was in fact a Romano-British aristocrat, the patrician - or Patricius as he called himself. So there was nothing remotely Irish about the teenager who was kidnapped and sold into slavery by Irish raiders, sometime in the early fifth century.

公元六到八世纪的历史转变，是不列颠群岛上又一次历史转折点。在罗马军团的退散已久之后，罗马的影子再次笼罩在这片土地之上，而这一次，是灵魂的入侵。战士们带来的不再是长剑，而是基督教信条。这次入侵开始的地方，是上次罗马统治者未曾染指之地。罗马人曾称之为西伯尼亚（西伯尼亚:爱尔兰的拉丁语名称），即爱尔兰。我们一定还记得最著名的游离至爱尔兰的传教士圣帕特里克，曾是罗马不列颠尼亚的贵族，他自称为显要，或是贵族，因此他与偏僻的爱尔兰本毫无瓜葛。直到十五世纪早期，被爱尔兰入侵者诱拐并贩卖为奴。