Adrian Hastings advocates the origin of nations in the Middle Ages and argues that
religion was central to the creation of nations and nationalism. In his view,
England is considered the oldest example of a mature nation, and the development of nations is closely linked to the
Christian Church and the spread of written popular languages to existing
ethnic groups. Hastings argues for a strong renewal of English nationalism with the
translation of the complete bible into English by the Wycliffe circle in the 1380s, positing that the frequency and consistency in usage of the word nation from the early
fourteenth century onward strongly suggest
English nationalism and the English nation have been continuous since that time. However,
John Breuilly criticizes the assumption that continued usage of a term such as "
English" means continuity in its meaning.
Patrick J. Geary agrees, arguing names were adapted to different circumstances by different powers and could convince people of continuity, even if radical discontinuity was the lived reality.
Susan Reynolds argues that many European medieval kingdoms were nations in the modern sense, except that political participation in nationalism was available only to a limited prosperous and literate class, while Hastings claims
England's Anglo-Saxon kings mobilized mass nationalism in their struggle to repel
Norse invasions. He argues that
Alfred the Great, in particular, drew on
biblical language in his law code and that during his reign selected books of the Bible were translated into
Old English to inspire
Englishmen to fight to turn back the Norse invaders. Echoing Reynolds,
Paul Lawrence criticises Hastings's reading of
Bede's
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, observing that such documents do not demonstrate how ordinary people identified themselves. He points out that, while they serve as texts in which an
elite defines itself, "their significance in relation to what the majority thought and felt was likely to have been minor". However, other authors trace the origins of nationalism and the
national consciousness of England and some European nations soon after the Middle Ages, in the 16th century. For many non-modernists, nations have emerged from the
Judeo-Christian tradition.
John Alexander Armstrong was one of the first modern scholars to argue that nations have pre-modern roots and that their formation was helped by
religious institutions locally. However, Armstrong acknowledges "persistent group identity did not ordinarily constitute the overriding legitimisation of polity formation", unlike contemporary nationalism, which presupposes the "right of individuals to [...] establish territorial political structures corresponding to their consciousness of group identity". In the same vein, other
anti-modernist studies by Hastings,
Anthony D. Smith, and
Steven Grosby attributed nationalism on the
Judeo-Christian traditions. Hastings emphasises the role of language, and sees the opposition of Christianity to Islam as a critical factor in the formation of nationalism. He also considers the conviction of being a chosen people as an important factor in
ethnogenesis in Western Europe, which was further strengthened by the tension between
Catholicism and
Protestantism.
Azar Gat claims the creation of nations was made possible not only by
secularization and the rise of print
capitalism in modern era, but could also be produced earlier by the spoken word and via religious rituals. Gat does not agree with the
modernist view that pre-modern multi-ethnic empires were ruled by an elite indifferent to the ethnic composition of its subjects. In fact, almost all of the empires were based on a dominant ethnic core, while most ethnic
communities were too small and weak to have their own independent state. In response to Gat,
Chris Wickham accepted manifestations of national identity are to be found in the Middle Ages, but argued that Gat "exaggerated the significance of ethnicity in that period" and that such national identity as existed was confined to those very elites. According to the historian
Caspar Hirschi, the concept nations and nationalism has changed over time, and the 18th century is only the beginning of the modernist model of this concept. In his view, nationalism was born in Catholic Medieval Europe as a consequence of
Roman imperialism. Echoing Wickham, Hirschi accepts nationalism is not necessarily a mass
phenomenon but can be the discourse of nationalist elite minorities.
Sverre Bagge investigates the origins of Norwegian nationalism from the gradual "unification of the kingdom" in the 9th century, which led to the formation of the
Norwegian,
Danish and
Swedish kingdoms. He argues a kind of
Norwegian state existed by the 13th century, with public justice, taxation, a common military organization and royalty, and by the 12th and 13th century, a significant part of the population was loyal to the
king and identified their interests with his. (the sacred car) was a powerful symbol of the identity and honor of North Italian city-states during the civic nationalism period of mid 12th to 14th century. (Karatasli, p. 13). Here, reproduction of the Carroccio during the parade of the Palio di Legnano, 2015.
Sahan Karatasli examines various forms of collective identity in Northern
Italy from the 11th to 16th century and believes that, in the mid-12th century,
city-states exhibited
civic nationalism. In that period, the communes of the cities incorporated their countryside (
contado) and acquired a territorial existence. This process created internal social divisions and
rivalries, which was the reason for the invention of new forms of bonds between social groups and between state and subjects. Older practices like the
ecclesiastical boundaries (
diocese) were utilised, which unified the city and the countryside. New symbols, myths and "invented traditions" were also created, such as the new cults of patron-saints, like
Saint Ansano of
Siena,
St. Alexander patron of
Bergamo,
St. Petronio, patron of the
Bologna etc. Civic rituals and festivals associated with these saints emphasised the unity of the commune or the city-state were established. == Eastern Orthodox Church, Byzantium, Slavs and Greeks ==