When it comes to Christ, the Saints, and other realized masters of history, they all follow a similar theme: The way to God is love, and to subdue the passions of anger, lust, greed, attachment, jealousy, pride, and sloth. Self mastery and a life of happiness can only occur when one successfully has control over his mind and senses and has disciplined the heart to dwell in God. It should be said that apart from the evolution of the church, be it for better or worse, that Christ himself and the principles of Christ remain the same and do not change.
Often times due to the poor example of those whom call themselves Christians in history has the message of Christ and his nature been distorted. Christ does not force conversions or genocide as has happened. In fact the true Christ has been a topic of debate in the past centuries. Before the reformations of emperor Constantine in the 4th Century the Catholic church ( Orthodox ) was one of several versions of Christianity. Even prior to the council of Nicea in 325 CE, the Arian doctrine had prevailed. For three hundred years after Christ, Jewish followers, Gnostics, Arian, in addition to the Apostolic Pauline succession had free reign to discuss, debate, and spread their versions of the Christ. It was only until 325, that Roman government institutionalized the Pauline version and unified church and state giving the now Orthodox the legal power to denounce a belief or movement as heretical with legal reprecussions.
The Arian beliefs and the Gnostic texts were considered heretical and were forced to go in to hiding if their temples and texts were not burned down and confiscated. Although these seeming power grabs ran contrary to Christs original desire spread the knowledge of the Kingdom through love and mercy, still the name of Christ touched thousands receivers of the message. To those individuals whom are humble Christ comes and the word is seen for those who have faith in their hearts in Gods unending love. Despite whatever the Roman empire desired to control and use for their control ( the church ), the plans ultimately did not stop the truth of the spirit.
The truth of the spirit carried in the hearts of a various number of Fathers throughout the early centuries, from the desert, through Gaul, and eventually the British Isles. An eastern Christian influence came and found something in harmony with the Celts of the Isles, considered a barbaric and hostile place. However, the ancient world as a whole was hostile and barbaric just as much as it was beautiful and spiritually warm. The peace of the spirit of God and Christ touched the lives of various saints and individuals across Europe and it was their desire to share this with others whom were suffering with attachments.
The earliest accounts of Celtic christianity were not about killing Druids or violent takeovers like in the hagiography of Saint Patraic which was written centuries later after he lived. The historical Patraic was in reality welcomed back after his first visit to Ireland. It appears that only after the Roman Catholic church drifted away farther in spirit and deed from the earlier versions of the church that such writings came about. Rome wanted power and control over the Isles and didn’t want to compete against the Orthodox Celts who’s legal system differed. It is evident that throughout the literature of Ireland that many of the Druids beliefs, philosophy, law, and culture became intertwined with an increasingly Christianized society. People from Druidic lineages became priests, bards, and seers within Celtic Christianity. And rather than seen in the earlier days as a cult of competition, was embraced as a movement of affirmation for those who heard and received it.
Indeed the truth path of man even prior to Christianity for the Celts and other Indo-European societies is the life of self control, lovingkindness, mercy, truth, justice, and peace. Those who bore the torches of truth were in their days before Christ persecuted for righteousness sake amongst the Celts. The old ways and the true way to the realm of the Gods for Druids was not in what would become empty religious practices by corrupted certain circles of Druids, but in the surrendering of the ego and its passions and vices through prayer, meditation and charity. It is because of those true and noble teachers of the past that such things as hospitality, kindness, and respect for nature were an important part of Celtic society even before missionaries came.
If the Druids knew the way why did the Gauls become Christian? A variety of factors led to the full blown “conversion“ of Europe which was both by consent and non consent. Firstly it must be said that the Roman victory in the war against Gaul in 50s B.C. saw the destruction of a thousand year legacy of Celtic religion and law. The Celts under various emperors following their defeat by Julius Caesar were forbidden to practice their religion as they had before, and it is believed according to historical writings that 1 million Gauls were taken in to captivity as slaves, and another 1 million put to the sword, undoubtedly amongst those were the Druids. The Druids as an institution were barred from teaching and practicing the religion in the metropolitan areas and the country as a whole because of their political influence on the military and Kings. Much like Jews in Judea were the Gauls to Gallia in the struggle against Rome. Now, the Druids being barred from teaching and practicing were left with no real choice but to go in hiding or leave to the north and other parts of the world. With the introduction of Latin as the Lingua Franca, Gaulish as a legal and religious language died as well.
With the Roman occupation of Gaul and Britton for several centuries, the Druids would never again be able to provoke the thoughts and imaginations of the Celts to revolution even if resentment remained in the hearts of the people themselves. When the Roman government eventually embraced Christianity as it grew, all parts of its crumbling empire also became Christian territory broken in to eventually the dioceses of Catholicism we know today. Although the traditional pagan Roman empire began to fall a new Christianized one was born after a many number of years of emperors mandating Christian religion crippling also the Flamens influence. All pagan practices that were eventually ended by force of the Roman emperors also proliferated outwards to neighboring regions under their control, such as their immediate territory of Gaul.
It must be said that while the Romans expanded and lost control from the days of Julius onwards that Christian missionaries had already touched places like Gaul and saw persecutions of certain Saints in Gaul as a result of not offering rites to the emperor of the time. The Roman empire seeing its control being lost in favor of revolutionary movements like Christs movement undoubtedly sought to control the movement by subverting the movement and professing the faith while in reality seeking to maintain its power from before. Seeing the extent of brutality of Rome towards Gaul and whomever became their subjects, It is no wonder that the Celtic Galatians of the new testament and the Celts of the British Isles empathized more so with Christ in his struggle against the Roman oppression and occupation and has in various forms remained the same until this day.
The earliest Christians with their simple faith of radical love and charity was an appropriate response to pompous material driven Roman government that monitored, taxed, murdered, and suppressed anyone who didnt line up perfectly with their secular minded lifestyle and prescribed culture. It was only through a change in strategy that Rome could gain a foothold in the peoples movement and curate doctrines and enforce Roman laws in the name of Christ. And it is perhaps through this curated and Roman approved Christianity that arrived distorted yet still holding a light of what once was in the British Isles in the hearts of earliest Saints who knew the heart of Christ, not in letter but in spirit.