Charles Thomas (1) (1928–2016)

This is one of several history books that has hooked me with an engaging introduction only to go on to be disappointing.

It’s not a dry read or aimed at academics, but somehow it failed to hold my attention for much of the time.

I feel there’s too much focus on the meaning of names. This starts off as interesting, but when the origin of name after name is reeled off, it becomes tedious.

Sections here and there appealed to me, but in short, the main body of this work didn’t grip me like the entertaining introduction.… (more)

A very scholarly study of a subject I know very little about – the early history of the Christian church in the British Isles. The basic history is Christianity was introduced to the Roman province of Britannia at some indeterminate time in the first few centuries AD; then came the withdrawal of Roman troops and the Anglo-Saxon invasions, which re-introduced Germanic paganism; then came missions headed by St. Augustine in England and St. Patrick in Ireland. The questions author Charles Thomas is addressing are (1) how extensive was early, “Roman” Christianity and (2) was Christianity completely extinguished by the pagan invasions or did some Christians remain. Thomas combines documentary and archaeological evidence; the former is rather sparse, with latter legends and hagiographies clouding the subject. Archaeological evidence is also sparse but more compelling, including things like objects engraved with the “Chi-Rho” symbol and a mosaic pavement with the head of Christ. Thomas devotes a whole chapter to cemeteries, refuting the popular myth that Christian burials could be identified because the graves were oriented toward the east, so that when the dead arose on the Last Day, they would be facing Jerusalem (in fact, that’s just what “oriented” means). There are also chapters discussing churches, baptistries, and other evidence. Thomas ranks these by quality of evidence, and provides a series of choropleth maps suggesting that the Anglo-Saxon invasions did reduce the practice of Christianity in eastern England but left it more or less intact in the west.

I stress I’m not even remotely a scholar in this field, although I find it quite interesting. It was a difficult read for me, since Thomas provides copious references for everything, almost always to authors I had never heard of; however the writing style was easy enough – Thomas developed the book from a series of lectures he’d given, and the prose often seems “conversational”, as if he were chatting with you in person. Extensive illustrations, with line drawings in the texts and a plate section; lots of maps, always a plus for me.… (more)

This is the publication of a typescript, originally written in 1951, when the Professor Thomas was still a fairly young man, and recently re-discovered by the author. It is the story of a student and his friends at college in Oxford who, almost by accident (almost!), become drawn in to the strange and ethereal world surrounding the denizens inhabiting a house in one of the side streets of the town. The story flows and builds at a measured pace, eventually becoming a heady liquor of dense imagery, drawing the reader inevitably into its surprising climax.

Although obviously a short story, the book is, as is noted by the author in his introduction, in parts reminiscent of the work of Arthur Machen and is an all-too-brief pleasure to read. One has to wonder how great a writer of fiction the author would have become, had he concentrated on this aspect of his writing, but although his impact on Cornish fictional literature would surely have been great, the sheer volume and quality of Professor Thomas' factual output more than makes up for any loss.… (more)