0:00:06 > 0:00:10The English are suffering an identity crisis.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12Just look at the national flag.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16It's there for big sporting events...
0:00:16 > 0:00:20..it flies from the top of church towers.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24But there are others with their own ideas about Englishness
0:00:24 > 0:00:25who also use it.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Keep the fight up for our country.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32This ancient flag and its people face some hard choices.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40At a time when society, religion and politics are increasingly diverse,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43in a nation of many faiths and none,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46what's it mean to be English?
0:00:49 > 0:00:53In this series, I've been looking at English identity,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56at the idea that the English are somehow superior,
0:00:56 > 0:01:01specially chosen by God to play a big part on the world stage...
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Because after all, the English knew that they were God's chosen people
0:01:06 > 0:01:10just like ancient Israel, only better.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14..and at the idea that the faith of the English
0:01:14 > 0:01:17created a specially tolerant people.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21You can't imagine this happening in England can you?
0:01:21 > 0:01:24In my final programme, I'll be examining
0:01:24 > 0:01:28an even more basic and difficult debate.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31One point of view is that Englishness has an ethnic core.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34True Englishmen and women take their roots
0:01:34 > 0:01:37from the people of the Dark Ages - the Anglo-Saxons.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39And until recently it also seemed obvious
0:01:39 > 0:01:42that to be truly English was to be Christian,
0:01:42 > 0:01:47and maybe not just any Christian but Church Of England.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54Some people still find such settled images compelling.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57You might just dismiss them without discussion.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Look around at the sheer variety of ethnic faces
0:01:59 > 0:02:02that make up the English today.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06But I want to ask a deeper question.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Was this EVER true?
0:02:09 > 0:02:13In this series, I've been arguing that God made the English.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16But did he also make them white and Christian?
0:02:37 > 0:02:40What it means to be English
0:02:40 > 0:02:43is something that arouses strong emotion.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Like the outburst of fury
0:02:50 > 0:02:53directed at Manchester Cathedral's Canon Theologian.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00For three months, we received a regular flow
0:03:00 > 0:03:04of e-mails, letters, telephone messages...
0:03:04 > 0:03:06What did they say?
0:03:06 > 0:03:11I have been told that I am a very evil man, a traitor,
0:03:11 > 0:03:16that I should resign, that I should disappear...
0:03:16 > 0:03:17It was all because the canon blessed
0:03:17 > 0:03:22a 12ft model of England's patron saint.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27But this is not your stereotype white crusader, sword in hand.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30This Saint George is black.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36What this figure does is to challenge some basic notions
0:03:36 > 0:03:40about English identity, about the racial and cultural traits
0:03:40 > 0:03:42we call someone's "ethnic roots".
0:03:47 > 0:03:50For some, Saint George is a powerful symbol
0:03:50 > 0:03:52of what it means to be ethnically English.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56He's an icon of patriotic self-confidence.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58But the history of Saint George is complicated
0:03:58 > 0:04:01and it can tell us a great deal
0:04:01 > 0:04:05about what it really means to be English.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33You might not expect me to go to Israel to start my search,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37but according to local tradition, this town of al-Ludd -
0:04:37 > 0:04:42which the Israelis now call Lod - was the home of the English saint.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56The story of George is that he was a soldier in the Roman army,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00but when the Emperor, Diocletian, began persecuting Christians,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02George objected.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06He was imprisoned for his defiance and eventually killed.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20This church is on the spot where he's said to be buried.
0:05:23 > 0:05:29So it's in a Middle-Eastern crypt that you'll find the English saint.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35And straightaway you see what we all remember about Saint George -
0:05:35 > 0:05:37the soldier-saint -
0:05:37 > 0:05:40and that's what appealed to Kings of England from the 13th century.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Soon the royal spin doctors were making him the symbol of the nation.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54They gave George a make-over. Out went the Roman armour
0:05:54 > 0:05:59and instead he donned the chain-mail and tabard of an English crusader.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02But that's not how he's remembered here.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05He's very much a Middle-Eastern saint.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Well, Father, tell me a little about the place of Saint George in Lod.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12Here, Saint George is widely venerated
0:06:12 > 0:06:15among the Christian community.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18The members of our congregation dedicate their children
0:06:18 > 0:06:22by dressing them up in costume
0:06:22 > 0:06:25which is similar to Saint George's clothes.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29They also name their children after Saint George
0:06:29 > 0:06:33and that's why we've got a lot of grown-ups and kids today
0:06:33 > 0:06:35that are called George or Julius.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Julius is also the parallel to Saint George.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39What do you think about the idea
0:06:39 > 0:06:42that the English want Saint George to be English?
0:06:42 > 0:06:45He's considered to be a local saint in many, many communities.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48The same thing happens in Greece as well -
0:06:48 > 0:06:50the Greeks think he is a Greek saint
0:06:50 > 0:06:53or the Russians think that he's a Russian saint
0:06:53 > 0:06:56and also the Palestinians think that he's a Palestinian saint.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58Uh, I know that in England,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03Saint George is considered to be from England, but, no, he isn't.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06I mean, he might be venerated in the Western church,
0:07:06 > 0:07:07but he's not from England.
0:07:14 > 0:07:15So, on any reckoning,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19Saint George is ethnically Mediterranean or Middle-Eastern.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23For the people in this town, he's an Arab.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26But perhaps the most surprising thing of all
0:07:26 > 0:07:29is that he's not just a hero for Christians here.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33He's also admired by Muslims.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Maha is a Muslim.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Her family traditionally joined with their Christian neighbours
0:07:43 > 0:07:46to celebrate Saint George.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48They would light candles
0:07:48 > 0:07:51and even pray to the Christian saint for help.
0:07:52 > 0:07:58Christian and Muslim used to live in al-Ludd as one family.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01My mother and my grandmother
0:08:01 > 0:08:05took olive oil as a gift for church
0:08:05 > 0:08:10and Saint George and ask him to help them.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12So Saint George is a symbol of unity
0:08:12 > 0:08:14between different communities for you?
0:08:14 > 0:08:17Yes, yes he is.
0:08:17 > 0:08:18Now, this may surprise you,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21but some people, English people, think that Saint George is English.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Mm-hmm. This is surprising me.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Actually this is the first time that I heard that,
0:08:28 > 0:08:33but I think it's very natural behaviour
0:08:33 > 0:08:39because human beings, if they love a holy symbol,
0:08:39 > 0:08:41they want it to belong to them.
0:08:41 > 0:08:47But, unfortunately, I have to tell them that he's from al-Ludd.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49THEY LAUGH
0:08:58 > 0:09:02After hearing all the noisy argument about Saint George in England,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05I find it refreshing that here he can be seen
0:09:05 > 0:09:09as a symbol of friendship between Muslims and Christians.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15Saint George isn't the property of any one people.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17He's the patron saint of England,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19but he's the patron saint of Gozo in the Mediterranean,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22the Republic of Georgia up in the Caucasus.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Saint George is a hero to all sorts of people.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33His legend neatly sums up the muddle that is English identity.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Saint George is not who many people think he is.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39And neither are the English.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44So let's take a closer look at English ethnic identity.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53One of the most persistent ideas about the English
0:09:53 > 0:09:55is that they descend from northern Europeans
0:09:55 > 0:10:00who made this island their home back in the so-called Dark Ages.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02The Anglo-Saxons.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Take the strain...
0:10:04 > 0:10:06Pull!
0:10:06 > 0:10:11It's a potent idea. It shapes the thinking of nationalist parties
0:10:11 > 0:10:13and many besides.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16But how true is it?
0:10:23 > 0:10:27The traditional story is that Englishness was brought by invaders
0:10:27 > 0:10:29when the Roman Empire collapsed.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Germanic tribes swept into the country -
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Angles, Saxons, Jutes.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41They pushed out the previous peoples of these islands -
0:10:41 > 0:10:45the original Britons - into what are now Wales and Scotland.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53On that basis, the ancestors of the English would be the Anglo-Saxons.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57And in the 21st century,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01we now have the science to discover if that is true.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04I'm taking a DNA test
0:11:04 > 0:11:08to find out about the genetic make-up of my ancestors.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12And I'm going to look at the results with a man who's used DNA
0:11:12 > 0:11:15to trace the origins of the British.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19Stephen Oppenheimer first explained how his research works.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23There are two particular parts of our genome
0:11:23 > 0:11:26which are very useful for this approach.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30One of those parts is the Y chromosome which only males have
0:11:30 > 0:11:35and is passed down the male line, and the other is mitochondrial DNA
0:11:35 > 0:11:38which we all have, but it's passed down the female line.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41So that's very neat. You've got two parts of our genome
0:11:41 > 0:11:45which gives us the male line of descent
0:11:45 > 0:11:47and the other gives us female line of descent.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Well, I've had a DNA test and what does that tell you about my origins?
0:11:51 > 0:11:56Well, if we take the Y chromosome to start off with,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59which you get from your father, it originates in northern Spain,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03- in the Basque country...- Ah. - ..during the Ice Age,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06which was 18,000 years ago. And you can see...
0:12:06 > 0:12:09This is actually a map showing the distribution
0:12:09 > 0:12:12of the type that you have, and it's extremely common
0:12:12 > 0:12:16along the Atlantic coast, in fact it's the commonest single type.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22- And it arrives in Britain just under 10,000 years ago.- Right.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Well, you've told me about one average strand.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28- What about the other one? - It's just as average.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31- In fact, it's very similar in its pre-history.- OK.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35And, again, the distribution of this is very similar to your Y chromosome.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38- Right.- The origin is in Northern Spain in the Basque country
0:12:38 > 0:12:42and it moves up the Atlantic coast into Britain.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46It arrives, rather similarly to your Y chromosome,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48just under 10,000 years ago.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52- Well, so you're basically telling me I'm pretty average.- Mr Average, yes.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54But that's a very good illustration
0:12:54 > 0:12:58that a lot of people will have that sort of picture.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00Yes, and the picture is quite a surprising one.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03We're starting in Northern Spain and we're up here.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05What's going on here?
0:13:05 > 0:13:08The ice starting melting about 15,000 years ago
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and quite a few people moved up into northern Europe,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13although it was still pretty cold,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17from refuges along the north coast of the Mediterranean.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21And, for western Europe, the main refuge was in the Basque country.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23So this is nothing like the story
0:13:23 > 0:13:27of Anglo-Saxon England and its invasion. It's much older.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32Yes, and the Anglo-Saxon contribution, in my analysis,
0:13:32 > 0:13:34is only 5% for the whole of England.
0:13:34 > 0:13:385% contribution of the Anglo-Saxons to the supposed English?
0:13:38 > 0:13:42That's right. And the English are much closer
0:13:42 > 0:13:46to the Welsh, the Irish, the Cornish and the Scottish
0:13:46 > 0:13:50than they are to any other continental population
0:13:50 > 0:13:54and this idea of the English coming in as a race -
0:13:54 > 0:13:57well, the Anglo-Saxons coming in as a race -
0:13:57 > 0:14:01really just doesn't hold up in the genetic view.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06So according to genetic science,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10the roots of the English are not Anglo-Saxon but Spanish.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13And if that isn't surprising enough,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16the English are also very close genetically
0:14:16 > 0:14:18to the Irish, the Welsh and the Scots.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22Before outrage sweeps the home nations,
0:14:22 > 0:14:27let me say it's clear there's more to identity than genetics alone.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37The English may owe little to the Anglo-Saxons genetically,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40but don't they still owe a great deal culturally?
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Isn't the English way of life and way of thinking
0:14:43 > 0:14:47indebted to the people from Germany?
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Here, archaeology can provide some answers.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04This excavation of an Anglo-Saxon village
0:15:04 > 0:15:08is providing useful insights into the beginnings of Englishness.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12We'll do this one you've just done and then we'll work our way back.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Neil Faulkner is leading the dig.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21Well, this chap is a warrior,
0:15:21 > 0:15:26which we know from the battle injuries that he has suffered.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30If you look at this leg bone you can see that it's broken,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34almost certainly from a kick or the blow of a weapon.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38He seems to have a very serious wound on this shoulder
0:15:38 > 0:15:43as if part of it has been sheared away, and if he's not already dying,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46what would unquestionably have finished him off
0:15:46 > 0:15:50would be this sword slash across the skull.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54Well, he sounds like a classic Anglo-Saxon warrior then?
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Well, he's Anglo-Saxon in the sense
0:15:57 > 0:16:00that he's been integrated into Anglo-Saxon society
0:16:00 > 0:16:03but that's not quite the same as saying
0:16:03 > 0:16:05that his ancestors are from Germany.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08Oh, so he's British? So, how does that work?
0:16:08 > 0:16:10Well, I think he probably is British.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12I mean, what the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us
0:16:12 > 0:16:16is that they were coming over in really quite small numbers of people,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18two or three long boats.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23And you can get about 30, 40, 50 people into a longboat.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Well, that means it's actually quite a small number of warriors
0:16:26 > 0:16:29who are coming in, in the 5th century AD.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32So most of the people that we think of as Anglo-Saxon
0:16:32 > 0:16:35are actually British people who've been integrated
0:16:35 > 0:16:36into Anglo-Saxon society.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43The Anglo-Saxons did not colonize England in huge numbers.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46There never was a mass invasion.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Out on the dig, they're discovering how it was probably more about
0:16:51 > 0:16:54winning the hearts and minds of local people.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58They've uncovered the mead hall where the lord, or thane,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01lived alongside the villagers.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05So, if you imagine that we're standing on the line of the boundary
0:17:05 > 0:17:08stretching in each direction on either side of us,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12in that direction, we imagine, is the Grand Hall.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Immediately outside - and it's immediately outside - is the village.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Right, and what impresses me is just how close...
0:17:19 > 0:17:22I mean, the villagers could shout at their lord across here.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24Yes, that's absolutely right
0:17:24 > 0:17:29and very different from the social structure of the Roman villa estate,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33where the villa is in one place and the village might be a mile away.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Here you've got an integration between the elite
0:17:37 > 0:17:39and the ordinary villagers.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41Well, it is a nice picture. I mean, call me an old romantic,
0:17:41 > 0:17:42but I'm seeing the villagers
0:17:42 > 0:17:46occasionally going to the mead hall and socialising?
0:17:46 > 0:17:48I think that's exactly how it worked, yes.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Every free man would be part of this lord's entourage
0:17:53 > 0:17:58and they would be forging a new society in the mead hall.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02I think I can put a word on this new thing and it's Englishness.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05We're looking at the origins of England, aren't we?
0:18:05 > 0:18:06Yes, I think that's absolutely right.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09There's a Germanic culture, or a culture that has its roots
0:18:09 > 0:18:13in a Germanic past, that's being invested with new meaning
0:18:13 > 0:18:18by the native population, so it's actually Englishness, in a sense,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20which is being forged in these mead halls.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29The beginnings of Englishness are in a blending of cultures.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33The original Britons who lived in these isles
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and the small band of guys with big swords
0:18:36 > 0:18:39who came to join them from abroad.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44And very quickly, English identity became messier
0:18:44 > 0:18:47and even harder to distil.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52Because the Anglo-Saxons were only the first
0:18:52 > 0:18:56of wave upon wave of foreigners who left a profound mark
0:18:56 > 0:18:59on what it means to be English.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08And there's one small place that neatly sums it all up.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33This room was built by Anglo-Saxons in the 8th century.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35Here they buried kings
0:19:35 > 0:19:38from one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms - Mercia.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42It's a sort of Midlands mini-Westminster Abbey,
0:19:42 > 0:19:43and within a few decades,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47pilgrims were pouring into this crypt, hungry for miracles.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Hot on the heels of the Anglo-Saxons
0:19:55 > 0:19:59came a new band of warriors in the 9th century.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02There's evidence for them here, too.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05It was discovered under the vicarage lawn.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10What they found here was a huge mass grave
0:20:10 > 0:20:13of at least 250 Vikings from Scandinavia,
0:20:13 > 0:20:18and in all the heap of bones, only one man was older than 45.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22They had found the war-dead of the Viking army.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26And what the Vikings had done was pile all their dead comrades
0:20:26 > 0:20:30of the grave of one of those Christian Mercian Kings,
0:20:30 > 0:20:31just to make a point.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34The Vikings were here to stay.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42And the Vikings were by no means the last wave of foreigners
0:20:42 > 0:20:45to come and stir up English identity.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48The Normans came next.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Repton School is built on the footprint
0:20:51 > 0:20:56of a 12th century Norman Priory of Augustinian Canons.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Look at this. This is the base of a great arch
0:21:03 > 0:21:06which would come up like this, and this is the entrance
0:21:06 > 0:21:09to the canons' chapter house, their assembly hall.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13I love these great Norman arches.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22In this one Derbyshire town, it's possible to trace
0:21:22 > 0:21:25the diverse ingredients of English ethnicity.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27They may all have been white,
0:21:27 > 0:21:30but each wave of immigrants offered something different.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36From great architecture to local accents,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38common law to place names,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42the English absorbed them all,
0:21:42 > 0:21:47layer upon layer of rich diversity, creating a new cultural identity.
0:21:47 > 0:21:53Just like a fine old English lasagne or Chicken Tikka Masala.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56To say that to be English
0:21:56 > 0:21:59is to be genetically or culturally Anglo-Saxon alone
0:21:59 > 0:22:01is just plain wrong.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12But there is another deeply ingrained tradition
0:22:12 > 0:22:16that to be English also means to be Christian.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19And a particular kind of Christian at that.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24It's beautifully put in that great 18th century novel,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27Fielding's Tom Jones.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Tom's tutor is a wonderfully pompous Anglican clergyman, Parson Thwackum.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34And in the course of an argument about religion,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37Parson Thwackum majestically pronounces,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40"When I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42"And not only the Christian religion,
0:22:42 > 0:22:43"but the Protestant religion,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46"and not only the Protestant religion,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48"but the Church Of England."
0:22:48 > 0:22:52There you have it - to be truly English is to be Church Of England.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54How true is that?
0:22:58 > 0:23:00ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS
0:23:07 > 0:23:10This is a tradition I know very well from the inside.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14I grew up the son of a village parson.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19I used to play the organ, paid for out of the war memorial fund.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22The village chose to remember their dead, lost in two world wars,
0:23:22 > 0:23:27through the institution at the heart of their community.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39For hundreds of years, life was built around the parish church.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42You came here each week for Sunday services.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44You marked the passing seasons.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49The Church provided the christening ritual
0:23:49 > 0:23:51that marked your entry into the world,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53this was where you'd come to get married,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and after it all, this would be your final resting place.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58For most English people, their world was shaped
0:23:58 > 0:24:01by one particular sort of Christianity -
0:24:01 > 0:24:04an all-embracing Anglicanism.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10But the truth is that even as a boy sitting on that organ stool,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13I knew that the Church Of England didn't mean the same for everyone.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17And actually, the seeds of division
0:24:17 > 0:24:20were there right from the Church's earliest beginnings.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33The English church was born in the 16th century
0:24:33 > 0:24:35out of that revolution in Christianity
0:24:35 > 0:24:38we call the Protestant Reformation.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43It was set up to replace the monopoly of the Catholic church
0:24:43 > 0:24:45with a Protestant monopoly,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49but this village reveals that English Protestant Christianity
0:24:49 > 0:24:54refused to fit into a single mould.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56In 1600, Balsham was home
0:24:56 > 0:25:00to a strange and colourful religious group called the Family Of Love.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Allegedly, they indulged in wife-swapping,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06adultery and general excess.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Actually, they were much more shocking than that.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12They were a mystical sect who believed
0:25:12 > 0:25:15that they were not just children of God, but a part of God.
0:25:18 > 0:25:19It's not surprising that the Familists
0:25:19 > 0:25:22were officially condemned as heretics.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26But they were not ones to stand up and get martyred.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Instead, they joined the established church
0:25:31 > 0:25:33and used it for their own secret purposes.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36I've something to show you down here.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Historian Chris Marsh has found highly coded evidence
0:25:39 > 0:25:41of how they did this.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45- It's a bit of performance, isn't it? - Mm-hmm. It certainly is.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Right, it's a bell. So what's so special about it?
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Well, three of the bells in this belfry date from 1609.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58- They all have this date on. - Oh, yeah. 1609, yep.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01But where the other bells have inscriptions like,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04"God save thy church," "God save the king,"
0:26:04 > 0:26:08this one has a Latin inscription which translates as,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13"I sound not for the souls of the dead but for the ears of the living."
0:26:13 > 0:26:16And at one level, all that is saying
0:26:16 > 0:26:19is that good Protestants in the early 17th century
0:26:19 > 0:26:21no longer pray for the souls of the dead
0:26:21 > 0:26:24as pre-reformation Catholics did,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27but there's a particular twist.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31- Two of the words are reversed. - Reversed, how do you mean?
0:26:31 > 0:26:33- Just written backwards.- Oh, right.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38Written backwards, so the word for souls, animabus, becomes subamina,
0:26:38 > 0:26:40which is a meaningless word in Latin,
0:26:40 > 0:26:45and the word for ears, auribus, becomes subirua.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48- Souls and ears backwards. - Souls and ears backwards,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52and maybe what he's saying is that orthodoxy has got it all wrong.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54It's the other way round.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58You're all obsessed with externals, with churches,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and true faith is about what goes on in your soul.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04And members of the Family Of Love were very, kind of, adept
0:27:04 > 0:27:10at registering these little secret signals of their identity.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12They must have smiled to themselves, mustn't they?
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Every time this bell rings for an Anglican service...
0:27:14 > 0:27:16I think so, yeah.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20..it's actually ringing out their message to those who know.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32But what's fascinating about the Familists in Balsham
0:27:32 > 0:27:34is not only their sneaky subversion,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37but that they sometimes dared to express
0:27:37 > 0:27:39their heretical faith openly.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43When one of their leaders died in that same year, 1609,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46his followers took the brazen step
0:27:46 > 0:27:50of appropriating a medieval priest's tomb to bury him.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55They removed the bones of the priest who lay within,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58They put a brick vault, 600 bricks, into the ground,
0:27:58 > 0:28:03installed Thomas Lawrence and then replaced the stones on top,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06which is an extraordinary gesture.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10So I guess what they're saying is that their leader is as important
0:28:10 > 0:28:13as all priests in this graveyard from the remote past.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16I think that's exactly what the implication was,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20and not surprisingly, it provoked a reaction
0:28:20 > 0:28:22from some of the other church officers
0:28:22 > 0:28:26who clearly felt that this time the members of the Family Of Love
0:28:26 > 0:28:28had gone a step too far.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32The squabble ended up in court
0:28:32 > 0:28:36where the churchwarden exposed the Familists as heretics.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Surprisingly, they got away with it.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45The judge he was informed that the two were old,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47that one was blind, one was deaf
0:28:47 > 0:28:50and the case died, he just let it go.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52So the Familists, they're heretics
0:28:52 > 0:28:56and yet they're being defended by the courts of the Church Of England
0:28:56 > 0:28:59against people who would think that THEY were the backbone
0:28:59 > 0:29:01of the Church Of England. Isn't that weird?
0:29:01 > 0:29:06It is weird, but within the church, within society at this time,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10there is a sort of capacity for absorbing diversity
0:29:10 > 0:29:14which most people might find really quite surprising.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20OK, you might say the Family Of Love
0:29:20 > 0:29:23was a tiny rogue sect, well outside the mainstream,
0:29:23 > 0:29:28but in fact, by the mid 17th century there were hundreds
0:29:28 > 0:29:31of small independent Protestant groups in England,
0:29:31 > 0:29:37from Ranters and Diggers to Baptists and Unitarians.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40Far from being a wholly Anglican nation,
0:29:40 > 0:29:44the English were already a pretty mixed bunch.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56And that plurality of religion was stretched even further
0:29:56 > 0:30:01with an invitation to Protestant religious immigrants from overseas.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06My mother's family was called Chappell.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09And they were descended from French Protestants, known as Huguenots,
0:30:09 > 0:30:14who suffered persecution in 17th century Catholic France.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19They fled to Protestant England with the full blessing of the Church here.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21They came with their own distinctive faith.
0:30:21 > 0:30:26But their impact on English Society was much wider than that.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58The Huguenots were literate, highly organized, motivated.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02They brought their industriousness and commercial ability to this country.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07The Bank of England may be the institution at the heart
0:31:07 > 0:31:12of the English economy but we owe the fact it exists at all to Huguenots!
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Well this is the list of subscribers who actually set up
0:31:18 > 0:31:20the Bank of England in 1694.
0:31:20 > 0:31:26And it starts with the King and Queen as you might expect,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30but if you turn over the pages you start meeting Huguenots.
0:31:30 > 0:31:31What have I got here?
0:31:31 > 0:31:34"I Thomas Leheup of London esquire."
0:31:34 > 0:31:41And then I have, Jean de la Parelle, also of London.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46And at the top I have, "I Sir John Houblon of London, Knight
0:31:46 > 0:31:51and Alderman" and he subscribes £10,000 which is actually
0:31:51 > 0:31:55the same sum that the King and Queen gave!
0:31:55 > 0:31:56This is a top man.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00And he actually became the first Governor of the Bank of England.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04And if ever you've had a few bob you'll have met Sir John,
0:32:04 > 0:32:10because here he is on a £50 note.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Nice to see my ancestors doing so well.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22But the reason the Huguenots who came here
0:32:22 > 0:32:26went into banking, also commerce and manufacturing,
0:32:26 > 0:32:30was because there were still limits to English religious plurality.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34The traditional professions were closed to anyone who wasn't Anglican.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39The Church of England was part and parcel of the Establishment.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42But, it was never the whole story.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48The true picture of what it meant to be English was getting complicated.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51Now the authorities would have liked it to be simple,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55nothing else than a loyal follower of the Church of England.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58But there were more ways of being Christian,
0:32:58 > 0:33:02more ways of being English, religious pluralism, in fact.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07Catholics, Quakers, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09All of them managed to hold on to their beliefs.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Yes, sometimes in secret, but they did it.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21Towards the end of the 17th century the Established Church
0:33:21 > 0:33:24had to start facing facts.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28The first reality check was Parliament's Act of Toleration.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32This law allowed Protestant dissenters to hold their own services
0:33:32 > 0:33:35in the public eye without fear of prosecution.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40Roman Catholics too would be granted concessions by the end of the 18th century.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49But the myth that to be English was to be Anglican was finally
0:33:49 > 0:33:52demolished in the 19th century.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55The first census of church attendance in England and Wales
0:33:55 > 0:33:57took place in 1851.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02I've come to look at the results in the Parliamentary Archive.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05The figures shocked a lot of people because
0:34:05 > 0:34:09what they revealed was that in most large towns more people were going to
0:34:09 > 0:34:11non-Church of England services than the Church of England.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Look here at an extreme example from Bradford.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20Now here nearly three times as many people at non-Anglican services
0:34:20 > 0:34:22as at the Church of England.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25And if you took the Welsh figures they'd be even more extreme.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30Now, the overall statistics which irons out the differences between town and country
0:34:30 > 0:34:35or the regional variations, you get 520 out of every 1,000
0:34:35 > 0:34:38church attendances are Anglican, that's 52%.
0:34:38 > 0:34:45Which of course means that nearly as many people are not attending Church of England services.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53With so many not going to the Established Church,
0:34:53 > 0:34:59the idea that it was ever the only way to be English, just doesn't stand up.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07The irony is that ringing out from Anglican church towers
0:35:07 > 0:35:11is a sound which to my mind, rather charmingly captures the plural
0:35:11 > 0:35:14nature of English Christianity.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24In the centuries of medieval Catholicism, English bells
0:35:24 > 0:35:28were simply rung out in a great random noise,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31just as they were in every other part of Catholic Europe.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34BELLS RINGING
0:35:34 > 0:35:37But after the Reformation, Protestants developed
0:35:37 > 0:35:41a uniquely English game for ringing bells.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44It had very formal rules.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48But its hallmark was change, re-invention, difference.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53We start off by ringing what we call rounds,
0:35:53 > 0:35:59which is ringing down the scale from the highest note down to the heaviest note,
0:35:59 > 0:36:01and Jane's going to start us off with that.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Going... Gone.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09BELLS RINGING
0:36:11 > 0:36:15And from there we can then change the sequence or the order of the bells.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19So for example we start by saying three to four,
0:36:19 > 0:36:25bells three and four will swap over and from there we can change the order again, and again.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28As long as you like.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31As much as the neighbours will tolerate it!
0:36:32 > 0:36:34I'll show you what we mean.
0:36:34 > 0:36:35Gone.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39BELLS RINGING
0:36:44 > 0:36:45Two to four.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48BELLS RINGING
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Then we swap bells two and four over.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53That's changed the order.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55Two to three.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57BELLS RINGING
0:36:58 > 0:37:01That swaps bells two and three over.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Four to two.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12You can go on ringing the changes for hours trust me, the maths does work!
0:37:15 > 0:37:16Three to two.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19And for nearly 500 years,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22all of English Christianity has been like this.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28A continuous re-invention of something much older.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35You can see it in the nation's plethora of Chapels
0:37:35 > 0:37:37and Meeting Houses.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42And every new group changed the Church of England, forcing it
0:37:42 > 0:37:47bit-by-bit to become a broader church, embracing difference.
0:37:51 > 0:37:57But one key battle remained before it could truly call itself a broad church.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05This time the struggle for religious plurality reached right
0:38:05 > 0:38:09to the gates of the church, in every sense.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12The outcome would set the tone for the future of English identity.
0:38:12 > 0:38:17CHOIR SINGING
0:38:31 > 0:38:36The fight centred on the all-important question of death.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40150 years ago, in most corners of this country,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44you could only get to heaven with the blessing of the Church of England.
0:38:44 > 0:38:48If you were not an Anglican you might not be able to bury
0:38:48 > 0:38:52your loved ones in the way you wanted.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56That implied that you weren't as English as the Anglicans.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00And this was precisely the situation facing one family
0:39:00 > 0:39:05who'd turned their backs on the Church of England.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Well, here we are, the churchyard gate at Akenham.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10So, Nicholas, tell me a bit about religious life
0:39:10 > 0:39:12in Akenham in the 19th century.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16Akenham, I think, in the 19th century was a somewhat unusual village.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18There were very few Anglicans, if any,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21the two major landowners were both Congregationalists,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24they went to chapel in Ipswich and took their labourers with them
0:39:24 > 0:39:26on a Sunday morning, on carts.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29So there were hardly any services in the church at all.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31And what was the row here?
0:39:31 > 0:39:34This particular row was over the burial of a baby -
0:39:34 > 0:39:36a two year old child -
0:39:36 > 0:39:40who was, in fact, not a Congregationalist but a Baptist.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Oh, a Baptist. So, much worse than being a Congregationalist
0:39:43 > 0:39:45because he wouldn't have been baptised at all.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48Baptists don't baptise until you're of an age of discretion
0:39:48 > 0:39:52to take it on yourself, so, no, at two years old he wasn't baptised.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54So what would that mean in terms of a funeral?
0:39:54 > 0:39:56It meant that he was entitled to burial in the churchyard
0:39:56 > 0:40:00as a parishioner, but no service could be read over the child at all.
0:40:05 > 0:40:10This all made for a cold way to mark the passing of a child.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13The family felt passionately
0:40:13 > 0:40:16that their right to a proper ceremony was being denied.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20So they decided to defy the parish's Anglican clergyman,
0:40:20 > 0:40:22Father George Drury.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27The boy came in his coffin from the direction of the village.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30At the same time, the two main landowners
0:40:30 > 0:40:34together with one of the Congregational ministers from Ipswich
0:40:34 > 0:40:39came across the field behind us to meet them here to conduct a service,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42which they were going to do in the field.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44And this is the thing that upset Drury.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47He said, "No, I want to bury the boy, THEN you can have your service."
0:40:47 > 0:40:50They were quite determined to have the service before.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52What a mess at a child's funeral!
0:40:52 > 0:40:56It was outrageous. I mean, they came to blows, almost.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Whether one of them actually hit the other is a matter of opinion.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Father Drury was so outraged by the open challenge
0:41:07 > 0:41:11that he locked the churchyard gate and walked off.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17The funeral party was left to push their way through the hedge
0:41:17 > 0:41:21and bury the child themselves in the allotted spot -
0:41:21 > 0:41:24on the north, unfavoured side of the church.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34Look at the inscription below - "Suffer little children,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37"forbid them not to come unto me"
0:41:37 > 0:41:40- Now, that's pretty pointed, isn't it?- It's very pointed, I think,
0:41:40 > 0:41:44after what went on here. "For such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
0:41:44 > 0:41:47It's a rotten story, but really, Father Drury
0:41:47 > 0:41:49was within his rights, wasn't he, legally?
0:41:49 > 0:41:54He was. He maybe overstepped the mark by trying to interrupt the service
0:41:54 > 0:41:58that was going on in the lane, which was legal, if unusual.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01But if he had had his way, the child would have been put in the grave,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Drury would have thrown in a handful of soil
0:42:04 > 0:42:06and just walked off. No prayers, no nothing,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09because as far as he was concerned, the child was not a Christian.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12Even so, it's not good publicity for the Church Of England, is it?
0:42:12 > 0:42:16It's not at all, no. It got itself into all the local papers.
0:42:16 > 0:42:18There was a very, very detailed account of it
0:42:18 > 0:42:23within a couple of days taking the place to pieces.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40There was some strong language in the local press,
0:42:40 > 0:42:44particularly on the letters page. Here's Mr John Skeet of Rushmere
0:42:44 > 0:42:47on the subject of the burial legislation.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50"Vile, monstrous law!
0:42:50 > 0:42:54"Foul blot and stain on fair England's statute book!
0:42:54 > 0:42:59"Will Englishmen continue coolly to allow such a vile abomination?"
0:43:00 > 0:43:03Well, Drury himself came in for some hard words
0:43:03 > 0:43:05and he actually sued a local newspaper proprietor
0:43:05 > 0:43:08and he won his case, but only with token damages
0:43:08 > 0:43:11and now the whole thing had become a national scandal.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14This is what the Standard had to say about it -
0:43:14 > 0:43:17"The unhappy differences, religious and political,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19"which together constitute what is commonly known
0:43:19 > 0:43:23"as the Burial Question, have never led to a scandal
0:43:23 > 0:43:25"more painful and revolting."
0:43:26 > 0:43:30Public opinion was on the side of the non-conformists.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33They had challenged the privilege of the established church
0:43:33 > 0:43:36and now there were calls to change the law.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39But the church was not going to back down without a fight.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43There was, actually, a very great head of steam
0:43:43 > 0:43:45among the Anglican clergy about this.
0:43:45 > 0:43:4815,000 of them, that's 75%,
0:43:48 > 0:43:50signed a petition against any change in the burial laws
0:43:50 > 0:43:52because they felt that non-conformists
0:43:52 > 0:43:54were trying to hijack their churchyards.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59But it was no good. In 1880 the Burial Law Reform Act was passed.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04From now on, non-conformists could choose who buried them.
0:44:06 > 0:44:07I think the Akenham affair
0:44:07 > 0:44:11tells us a lot about the established church in England.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14It hated seeing its position challenged.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Every concession was given as grudgingly as you can get.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22But despite itself, the church, time and again, gave in.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25It's almost become part of its DNA, slowly and untidily
0:44:25 > 0:44:30to pave the way for more and more degrees of pluralism.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39What I hope to have shown you is that the measure of Englishness
0:44:39 > 0:44:42is not about how Anglo-Saxon you are.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45English heritage is, in fact, much more diverse,
0:44:45 > 0:44:47embracing gifts from the original British -
0:44:47 > 0:44:53or Spaniards, if you prefer - the Scandinavians, the French.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55And while in nearly all western Europe,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58established churches enforced a religious monopoly,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01the church in England never came close.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04From Catholics to Baptists, Huguenots and Familists -
0:45:04 > 0:45:08all would be accepted as English.
0:45:08 > 0:45:15So, to answer a big question, Englishness is a broad church.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19And yet right up to the middle of the 20th century,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23some still clung to a facade of Englishness
0:45:23 > 0:45:25that was anything but diverse.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32What happened in the second half of the century would change all that.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41FESTIVE DRUMMING
0:45:47 > 0:45:49SINGING AND CHANTING
0:46:00 > 0:46:03Hindu worshippers gather for Ganesh Chaturthi -
0:46:03 > 0:46:05the birthday of Lord Ganesh.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08It's a joyful, ten-day festival,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11and at the end of it, Hindus from across the north of England
0:46:11 > 0:46:14head for one place.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20DRUMMING AND SINGING
0:46:20 > 0:46:24Lord Ganesh must be immersed in flowing water
0:46:24 > 0:46:29and so, for this day, the River Mersey is affectionately renamed
0:46:29 > 0:46:31the Ganges of the North.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39This exuberant Hindu festival
0:46:39 > 0:46:43is one of many new expressions of Englishness.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Since the end of the British Empire thousands of immigrants -
0:46:46 > 0:46:50non-white and non-Christian - have come to Britain.
0:46:50 > 0:46:51They've made this country
0:46:51 > 0:46:53and specially England where most have settled,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56more varied than ever.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00I'm coming here today to thank Lord Ganesh
0:47:00 > 0:47:03for helping me with my GCSE results.
0:47:03 > 0:47:09I've been really successful and I'd just like to thank God again.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15It means a lot to me. It's such a joyous occasion
0:47:15 > 0:47:18for the whole family - for the whole community -
0:47:18 > 0:47:20to get together, and this just tops it off!
0:47:26 > 0:47:28CHEERING
0:47:29 > 0:47:34Even though history shows us that to be English is to be diverse,
0:47:34 > 0:47:37the wealth of new cultures in 21st-century England
0:47:37 > 0:47:40is posing a challenge.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44This plural society is at a crossroads.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46The English have become so diverse
0:47:46 > 0:47:49that they're confused about who they are.
0:47:49 > 0:47:50They're facing an identity crisis.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01I think part of the reason may be the English approach
0:48:01 > 0:48:04to multiculturalism, which has allowed separate communities
0:48:04 > 0:48:07to develop in isolation from one another.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10There's no shared identity.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16If you don't have one system of values for everyone to buy into,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19then you create a void, and into that void
0:48:19 > 0:48:23rush all sorts of passionate opinions like air into a vacuum -
0:48:23 > 0:48:25hot air, in fact.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29So in England we have Islamism, Christian fundamentalism,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31nationalist political parties.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35Extremists are a tiny minority,
0:48:35 > 0:48:39but the effect of their actions is massive.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43I've watched one possible response to that threat emerging in England.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49You might call it "secular liberalism".
0:48:49 > 0:48:52The idea is that you confine religion to the private sphere
0:48:52 > 0:48:55and you don't promote any alternative values
0:48:55 > 0:48:59beyond the general notion of liberty and tolerance.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01In a multi-cultural society,
0:49:01 > 0:49:04you can see why this resolute rejection of public religion
0:49:04 > 0:49:07might seem a good thing.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12But there's an underlying problem
0:49:12 > 0:49:14for a nation which must tolerate all views.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17How does a liberal society resist extremism,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20if it's only ultimate value is toleration?
0:49:20 > 0:49:24Is it actually entitled to resist extremism?
0:49:24 > 0:49:26It's a big dilemma.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31So how might we get round it?
0:49:33 > 0:49:38I believe the answer lies in the opposite direction to secularism.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43If you try to keep religion entirely private,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46you ignore the lessons of the past.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49No secular society, despite its best efforts,
0:49:49 > 0:49:53has ever managed to squash deeply held faith.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55What it needs to do is find ways
0:49:55 > 0:49:59of coming to terms with religious diversity.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02And one institution has already managed that.
0:50:02 > 0:50:04It's the Church Of England.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11How many times have I heard the C of E being sneered at for being woolly or irrelevant?
0:50:11 > 0:50:16Well, history has taught the Church how to compromise
0:50:16 > 0:50:19and live with opposing points of view.
0:50:19 > 0:50:24I see the Church of England as an icon of English plurality and its best symbol
0:50:24 > 0:50:29is its quiver full of cathedrals, like this one here in Leicester.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35This ancient building is on the frontline
0:50:35 > 0:50:39of this very contemporary struggle between extremism and tolerance.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44In 2010, the English Defence League,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48which says it's opposed to Islamic extremism, came to Leicester.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52# Send her victorious... #
0:50:54 > 0:50:58In response, all the city's faith communities came together,
0:50:58 > 0:51:00along with civic leaders.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03They held a multi-faith vigil in the cathedral.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12I find it very satisfying to see a cathedral reclaiming the role
0:51:12 > 0:51:16for which they were intended - to be a mother-Church for their area.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18But there's another thing about cathedrals.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22They are an image of something very precious that the Church of England has to offer.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26A sense of a strong, national framework that has survived
0:51:26 > 0:51:28everything that history could throw at it.
0:51:38 > 0:51:44In towns and villages across England, the Church still has an unparalleled presence.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48Because there is an established church,
0:51:48 > 0:51:53every square foot of English soil remains in an Anglican parish.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56For centuries, this umbrella organisation has been
0:51:56 > 0:51:59learning how to offer very different communities
0:51:59 > 0:52:04up and down the nation a set of shared core values -
0:52:04 > 0:52:10a public moral consciousness that goes beyond denomination or creed.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15Today in our hugely varied and sometimes badly divided communities,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18there's a real need for a local arbiter that can act
0:52:18 > 0:52:22on behalf of people of different faiths and none,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26which communities can unite around irrespective of their faith.
0:52:26 > 0:52:32The Church of England is uniquely placed to meet that need.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34But can it?
0:52:35 > 0:52:38I've come to talk to the head of the Church
0:52:38 > 0:52:39about how it has been trying -
0:52:39 > 0:52:43sometimes only to get its fingers badly burned.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams,
0:52:54 > 0:52:58sparked a huge row with comments which seemed to support
0:52:58 > 0:53:03the introduction of Islamic Sharia law into British law.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08The row was a complete distraction from the far more important issues
0:53:08 > 0:53:10which the Archbishop was tackling.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12In his comments on Sharia law,
0:53:12 > 0:53:15I think Rowan Williams was trying to address the problems
0:53:15 > 0:53:19of contemporary England and getting us to talk about them.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22That is what the Church of England has done for centuries,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25and what it should go on doing.
0:53:30 > 0:53:35I was very interested by the kerfuffle around your comments on Sharia law.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37- And it's not so much... - So was I!
0:53:37 > 0:53:40..it's not so much what you said and what...
0:53:40 > 0:53:41the things people said back,
0:53:41 > 0:53:46but the fact that there could be such a fuss about such comments.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49What's your feeling about that, looking back on it?
0:53:49 > 0:53:52I think there was quite a strong feeling that the archbishop
0:53:52 > 0:53:55of the established church ought to be defending
0:53:55 > 0:53:58the established church against other religions,
0:53:58 > 0:54:03whereas I think I was working on the assumption that part of my job
0:54:03 > 0:54:08as archbishop in the established church was to ask how the society
0:54:08 > 0:54:11as a whole can be hospitable towards the minorities within it,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15that that's the role of brokering, the role of drawing people into a conversation.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20So I think there was quite a mismatch of expectation there.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22And actually, in a rather odd way,
0:54:22 > 0:54:25the idea that the archbishop ought to be speaking in defence
0:54:25 > 0:54:30of the established church against others is not one that many
0:54:30 > 0:54:34within the established church would recognise,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37partly because of the sort of experience they have at the grass roots
0:54:37 > 0:54:43in the communities of Birmingham or Leicester or Bradford, whatever.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46I'm thinking of secularists who would say
0:54:46 > 0:54:50the Church of England has no place, it has no role now.
0:54:50 > 0:54:54So what would happen if you subtracted the Church of England
0:54:54 > 0:54:58from the equation, from society now, what difference would it make?
0:55:00 > 0:55:03I think it would make a difference at two levels at least.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08One of those levels is the purely personal or pastoral level.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11There would be no obvious place to go to, let's say,
0:55:11 > 0:55:16to commemorate the victims of the 7/7 bombings, no obvious place
0:55:16 > 0:55:20to go locally when people have been through a trauma.
0:55:21 > 0:55:26At the broader level, the higher level,
0:55:26 > 0:55:31I think what would be missed is some sense that the religious perspective
0:55:31 > 0:55:37in the broadest sense of all is a proper part of public discussion.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40It's not there to dominate, it's not there to give all the answers,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43but it's there recognising that here is a hugely important
0:55:43 > 0:55:46dimension of human experience, which if you don't
0:55:46 > 0:55:49factor into public discussion will as it were go underground
0:55:49 > 0:55:54and become more bigoted, more introverted, more problematic.
0:55:54 > 0:55:59Bring it into the public discussion and actually everybody wins.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03The Archbishop sees his role as a broker of all religious
0:56:03 > 0:56:07points of view in society, rather than as a defender of one church.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12He doesn't want the religious voice to dominate
0:56:12 > 0:56:15but he does want it to be heard.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20He thinks it's essential to bringing people together in a plural society.
0:56:20 > 0:56:26And he believes that his church is ideally positioned to take the lead.
0:56:30 > 0:56:36It is in fact the kind of work in which the Church of England is constantly engaged.
0:56:36 > 0:56:42Recognising that in our complex societies there are many
0:56:42 > 0:56:47different beliefs, values and moral systems and that's why
0:56:47 > 0:56:51it's such a privilege and a joy that people of different faiths
0:56:51 > 0:56:55and backgrounds can all come together in this cathedral today.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05This is an idea that goes against the prevailing wisdom of secularism.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10And yet the evidence of this series is that it might just work.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17For what I've found is that religion,
0:57:17 > 0:57:21and what it means to be English, are closely intertwined.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26The Church created the sense that the English are somehow
0:57:26 > 0:57:29destined to play a big role on the world stage.
0:57:29 > 0:57:34Behind that sense lurks the belief that God is on the side of England.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40The fact that the English have finally become a tolerant nation
0:57:40 > 0:57:45indifferent to difference has been borne out of their religious past.
0:57:49 > 0:57:54A messy, tangled history to be sure, but religious nevertheless.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59After all that, after all the muddled history, the ups
0:57:59 > 0:58:05and downs, the bads and the goods, the shameful and the creditable,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08we have a result which really might have something to teach the world.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14To be English is to be diverse - to be a broad church.
0:58:14 > 0:58:19And that's because there is a broad church at the heart of the nation.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23We need to stand up to those who claim to own the past
0:58:23 > 0:58:26just so they can misuse it for their own intolerant purposes.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28Let's reclaim that past
0:58:28 > 0:58:33and then we will discover what it is to be English.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd