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    This thread is becoming increasingly bizarre! Is it really serious?

    I'm unclear as to what Alexander is trying to claim - is it that the two Pharos lighthouses at the Heights in Dover were kept ablaze by pagan Saxons in the seventh century in order to provide a guidance point for early Christians to enter Britain? If so, sadly I think we are into the world of fantasy.

    * Despite divine guidance why were these Christian missions unable to navigate across 22 miles of water to Britain without the lighthouses? Were they really that clueless or just bad sailors?
    * Why would Germanic Saxon pagans in Kent provide beacons to guide Christian missions in the first place?
    * What evidence is there that the Pharos was still lit in the early Saxon period, half a millennia after construction?
    * What is the evidence for a chapel built by King Lucius? There is practically no evidence that King Lucius even existed as mentioned earlier.
    * How do we know St Mary in Castro was even dedicated as such in the eleventh century?

    We simply do not know where and how Christianity originally entered Britain as there is virtually no evidence for it prior to the third century. Yes, it could have been Dover. It could also have been via London, Richborough, Reculver, Lympne or any other port. It probably slowly developed via like-minded traders and settlers coming in, encountering each other in the larger cities and slowly forming communities.

    As Sid states the Pharos lighthouses were there to guide shipping and trade across the channel and were built when the influence of Christianity was negligible throughout the Empire. They may also have had a dual function of signalling stations too. Don't forget that there was a third Pharos in Boulogne which was the HQ of the Classis Britannica and the size of a legionnary fortress. Compared to that, the CLBR fort at Dover was just a small outpost.

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