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The Saxons were no more immune to change than the Romans before them.
撒克遜人與羅馬人一樣對轉變毫無抵抗力
To look at the relics recovered from Sutton Hoo burial site is to be teased by a powerful question:
見到薩頓胡遺址所復原的遺跡 讓人們不禁提出一個諷刺而強力的問題
Did the Saxon lord buried here find his resting place in a pagan Valhalla or in a Christian Paradise?
撒克遜首領安葬的這方土地 究竟是異教英靈殿還是基督教的伊甸園呢
The history of the conversions between the sixth and eighth centuries
公元六到八世紀的歷史轉變
is another crucial turning point in the history of the British Isles.
是不列顛群島上又一次歷史轉折點
But while the legions had long gone,the shadow of Rome fell once again on these islands.
在羅馬軍團的退散已久之后 羅馬的影子再次籠罩在這片土地之上
This time though, it was an invasion of the soul and the warriors were carrying Christian gospels rather than swords.
而這一次 是靈魂的入侵 戰士們帶來的不再是長劍 而是基督教信條
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.
這次入侵開始的地方 是上次羅馬統治者未曾染指之地 羅馬人曾稱之為西伯尼亞 即愛爾蘭
We have to remember that the most famous of the early missionaries to Ireland, St Patrick,was a Romano-British aristocrat,
我們一定還記得最著名的 游離至愛爾蘭的傳教士圣帕特里克 曾是羅馬不列顛尼亞的貴族
the patrician or Patricius as he called himself.
他自稱為顯要 或是貴族
So there was nothing remotely Irish about the teenager who was kidnapped and sold into slavery by Irish raiders,in the early fifth century.
因此他與偏僻的愛爾蘭本毫無瓜葛 直到十五世紀早期 被愛爾蘭入侵者 誘拐并販賣為奴
It was only after he escaped, probably to Brittany, and ordained,then visited by prophetic dreams,that he returned to Ireland as a messenger of the gospel.
在逃往布列塔尼之后被授予神職 緊接著他做了一個先知之夢 他夢到他將作為傳教士返回愛爾蘭
