day of the Sabbath which ye do who will not celebrate it upon the first day of the Sabbath Peter solemnized the Lord's day of Easter from the sisteenth Moon till the twenty first which ye do not who observe the Lords day of Easter from the fourteenth to the twentieth Moon so that on the thirteenth Moon at Evening ye often begin Easter Neither did our Lord the Author and giver of the Gospel eat the old passover on that day but on the fourteenth Moon at Evening or deliver the Sacraments of the New Testament to be celebrated in Commemoration of his Passion also the twenty first Moon which the Law especially commends to our Observation ye utterly reject in the celebration of your Easter so that as I said before ye neither agree with John nor Peter Law or Gospel in the solemnizing the great Festival To these things Colman answered Did Anatholius a holy man and much commended in the sore-mentioned Church History think contrary to either Law or Gospel who writ that Easter was to be kept from the fourteenth to the twentieth Is it to be imagined that our most reverend Father Columba and his Successors men beloved of God either thought or acted any thing contrary to Holy Writ When there were many amongst them of whose heavenly Holiness the wonders and powerful Miracles they wrought have given sufficient Testimony who as I ever thought them to be Holy men so I will never desist from following their times manners and discipline Then Wilfrid 'T is evident said he that Anatholius was a man very holy learned and praise-worthy but what does that concern ye when ve do not observe his Decrees for he in his Easter following the Rule of Truth set forth a Circle of nineteen years which ye are either ignorant of or else utterly contemn if ve acknowledg it to be kept by the whole Church of Christ. He in the Lord's Easter so reckoned the fourteenth Moon that he acknowledged that on the same day after the manner of the Egyptians to be the fifteenth Moon at evening so he observed the twentieth day for the Lord's Easter but so that he believed that the day being done to be the one and twentieth of which rule of distinction he proves thee ignorant because sometimes ye plainly keep your Easter before the full Moon that is on the thirteenth Month. As concerning your Father Columba and his Followers whose sanctity ye say ye will imitate and whose rules and precepts confirmed by heavenly signs ye are resolved to follow I might Answer when many at Judgment shall say to the Lord that they have prophesied in his Name and cast out Devils and wrought many wonders the Lord will answer that he never knew them But far be it from me that I should speak this of your Fathers since 't is more reasonable of uncertain things to entertain good thoughts than bad for which reason therefore I do not deny them to be the Servants of God and beloved by God who out of an innocent simplicity and a pious intention love God Neither do I think such an observation of Easter to be much prejudicial to them as long as no body comes among them that can shew decrees of a better institution which they may follow who nevertheless I believe had some Catholick Calculator better instructed them would have followed those things which they knew and had learned to be the Commands of God You therefore and your Associates if you despise to follow the decrees of the Apostolick See when you have heard them nay of the Universal Church and those confirmed by Holy writ without doubt ye sin What though your Fathers were holy are the paucity of these in a corner of the farthest Island to be preferred before the Universal Church of Christ over the World What if this your Columba and ours too if he be Christ's was holy and powerful in Miracles ought he to be preferred before the blessed Prince of the Apostles to whom the Lord said thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and to thee will I give the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven After Wilfrid had thus spoken the King said Colman is it true that these words were spoken by the Lord to Peter Who answered True O King Then said he Have you any thing that you can bring to prove so great power was given to Columba but he said No we have not The King again said Do both you agree without any controversie on this that these words were principally spoken to Peter and the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven were given him by the Lord They both answered Yes Then the King thus concluded And I say unto you because he is the Door-keeper I will not contradict him but as far as I know and am able I desire to obey his commands in all things lest perchance I coming to the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven there be no body to open he being turned aside whom you have proved to hold the Keys After the King had said thus both those that sate down and those that stood great and small assented so that the less perfect Institution being abandoned every one made haste to apply themselves to those things they thought better The Dispute being ended and the Assembly dismist Agilbert returned home Colman seeing his Doctrine slighted and his Party despised taking along with him those that were resolved to be of his sect i. e. they that would not admit of the Catholick Easter and shaving of the Crown for there was no little question about that returned into Scotland to treat with his Party what he should do in the business Chad leaving the tract of the Scotish Doctrine returned to his See as acknowledging the observation of the Catholick Easter This Disputation fell out in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 664 the twenty second year of King Oswy and the 30th year of the Bishoprick of the Scots which they had born in the Province of the English The wife of Oswy was Eanfled Daughter of Edwin King of Northumberland after the death of her husband she spent her daies in the Monastery of Streanshalch where she deceased and was interred in the Church of St. Peter in the same Monastery The Issue of King Oswy by Eanfled was this Elwin was slain in a battel against Ethelred King of the Mercians Elfled the eldest Daughter at a year old according to the Vow of her Father was committed to Hilda Abbess of Streanshalch to be bred up in Religion where she was afterwards Abbess and was buried in the Church of St. Peters in that Monastery Offrid the younger Daughter was married to Ethelred King of Mercia His natural Issue Alkfrid who succeeded Ethelwald in Deira came at last to the whole Crown of Northumberland Alkfled married to Peada Son of King Penda she is taxed by most Writers for the death of her Husband EGFRID
He that shall put out an Oxes eye shall pay five pence a Cows one shilling Of yearly Barley every Season shall be given 6 pound c. Here wanteth something Of a yoke of Oxen borrowed If a Boor shall hire a yoke of Oxen and hath Corn enough he shall pay the whole hire with Corn but if he want sufficient Corn he shall pay half in Corn and half in other goods Of Church Dues Every one shall pay his Church-dues at that place where he resided in the midst of winter Of him of whom Pledg is required If at any time a Pledg is required of a person accused and he hath not to lay down in pledg before his cause is heard and another will lay down pledg for him upon condition that the other may be in his custody till he receiveth his goods laid down for him and the second time the accused be forced to give Pledg and the party that first engaged will not again be security and so his cause fall it shall not be restored to the Surety what he laid down in the first cause Of the departure of a Boor keeper of the Peace A Boor that is keeper of the Peace if he leaves his house and goes to another place to dwell in he shall have power to carry with him his Overseer his Smith and a Nurse Of them who possess Lands He that possesseth 20 hides of land and is going to another place shall leave behind him 12 hides ready sown he that holdeth 10 shall sow six hides he that hath 3 hides and is a departing shall leave half an one sown If any one hath hired Roods of land of the Lord and hath plowed them and the Lord not content with the rent and service requireth more work and duty than was bargained for the Tenant shall not be bound to hold on those conditions unless the Lord give him an House neither shall he be prohibited plowing Of a Boor keeper of the Peace banished If a Boor keeper of the Peace shall be banished for any misdemeanour his house shall not be a refuge for him Of Wool A sheep shall not be sheared until Midsummer or the Fleece shall be redeemed with two pence Of the estimation of Men. Out of the estimation of the head of a Man that whilst he lived is valued at 200 s. there shall be substracted 30 s. to recompence his death to the Lord out of the estimation of the head of a Man valued at 600 s. 80 shall be substracted out of the estimation of the head valued at 1200 shillings an hundred and twenty shillings shall be substracted Of Maintenance to be allowed Out of 10 hides of land for maintenance shall be given 10 fats of Hony 300 loaves 12 gallons of Welch-Ale 30 gallons of small Ale 2 grown Oxen or 10 Weathers 10 Geese 20 Hens 10 Cheeses 1 gallon of Butter 5 Salmons 20 pound of Fodder and an hundred Eeles Of estimation by the head If any one be required to pay to the valuation of his head and being about to swear confesseth what in words before he denied nothing shall be demanded of him for penalty before he pay the whole value of his head Of a Robber that hath been Amerced the price of his head and is taken A Robber having been punished the price of his head and taken if he escape the same day the intire penalty shall not be again required if he was taken about night but if theft was committed before the foregoing night they shall pay who took him before as they can agree with the King or his Justices Of a Welch Servant killing a free English man If a Welch Servant shall kill an English man his Master shall deliver him into the hands of the Lord or the dead man's Relations or redeem him with 60 s. But if he will not part with mony let him free his Servant and let the friends of the slain sue for the value of his life If the freed Servant hath friends that will uphold his cause if not let him look to himself It is not required of a Free-man to pay with Servants unless he will redeem with a price the penalty of Capital enmity nor for a Servant to pay with Free-men Of things stolen and found with another Goods stolen and found with another if if he that vents them being called to an account will not take upon him the goods or the sale of them and yet confesseth that he sold some other goods to the party then it is the part of the Buyer to confirm by oath that he sold those very goods and no other Of the death of a God-father or God-son If any one kill a God-son or his God-father let him pay the same to the Relations as he doth to the Lord to satisfie for his death and his payment for the proportion of the value of the slain is to be more or less according as if payment were to be made to a Lord for his Servant But if the dead party the King received at the Font let satisfaction be made to him as well as to the Relations But if his life was taken away by a Relation substraction must be made of the mony to be paid to the God-father as it useth to be done when mony is paid to the Master for the death of his Servant If a Bishop's Son be killed let the penalty be half BUt this King INA is more especially celebrated by the Monkish Writers of those times for a great favourer of a Monastick life and a supporter of its Interest as well by his own profession of the same as by large Revenues and great Priviledges granted to its maintenance and honour But the chief of all his works was his stately Church at Glastenbury a place so renowned for its ancient Sanctity as being the first Seat of Christianity in this Island that our Ancestors called it The first Land of God The first Land of Saints in Britain The beginning and foundation of all Religion in Britain The Tomb of Saints The Mother of Saints The Church founded and built by the Lord's Disciples In the first planting of Faith in this Island there had been built as hath been shewn in the foregoing History by Joseph of Arimathea Philip or some of their Disciples a little Cell or Chappel for the exercise of Religion by those Primitive Apostles This being by this time decayed was afterwards repaired or rather a new one built in the same ground by Devi Bishop of St. Davids which also exposed to ruine was again kept up at the cost and charges of twelve Men coming from the North. But now NIA having well settled his Kingdom demolished that ruinous building and in the room of it erected a most stately and magnificent Church dedicating it to CHRIST and his two Apostles Peter and Paul guilding it throughout with gold and silver after a most sumptuous manner Upon the highest coping thereof he caused to be written in large Characters
the long wished for Island he Lands his Trojans and marches up into the Country to take possession Joyful was he to see the pleasant prospect of so large a Dominion and blest the Gods that they gave him so glorious a Reward for all his labours But all things were not so well as he imagined for from the Clyffs and craggy Rocks he began to perceive mighty Giants arising This sight he communicated to Corinaeus who at first was much surprized at the Object but at last they both pluckt up their wonted Spirits and with a few Trojans valiantly assailed these Monsters In a few Conflicts they found not their Weapons to want success so that they soon convinced these Goliahs that no strength or vastness of Limbs was able to resist a Trojan Puissance Corinaeus after several general Engagements had a longing desire to enter into a nearer trial of skill with some one of them Gogmagog undertakes him and a day of wrestling was appointed and attended with great expectation The Giant at his first grapling by a close-Hug breaks a Rib of Corinaeus but sorely paid for it by the fall Corinaeus gave him from the Clyff of Dover to his utter destruction which from hence is said afterwards to be called Cwymp y Cawr or the fall of the Giant This was a good Omen of the Trojans further success and Corinaeus for this piece of service was rewarded with the Principality of Cornwal Brute by degrees destroyed the whole Race of these Giants and quietly possessing the Island the first work he undertook was the building of a City which he called Troy-novant now London In this City he kept his Royal Court ordaining and enacting that from henceforth the whole Island should be called after his Name BRITAIN and so the Inhabitants Britains Being at the point of Death in the fifteenth year of his Reign and the four and twentieth of his Arrival he divided his Kingdom to his three Sons To Locrinus he bequeathed that part now called ENGLAND To Camber WALES To Albanact SCOTLAND and so called it after his name Albania Brute in that sickness is supposed to have died and was buried in his new City TROY Novant but the particular place where was never yet discovered by any and I much question whether it ever will SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON THIS History of Brute IT is not material whether this story of BRUTE be to be referred to Jeoffery of Monmouth Henry of Huntington or Segibertus Gemblasensis a French-man who lived an hundred years before Jeoffery and treats of Brute and his Trojans Arrival into Gaul and his passage into Britain For if Segibertus or any other Person had the name of Brute before Jeoffery and some particular Actions of such a Prince yet the composing of his Genealogy the methodizing the Circumstances of his Life the Timing of his Entrance the Succession of his Line depends all upon the Credit of Jeoffery and the truth of his Translation and so was esteemed in the daies in which he lived and put forth his History For how long a Trojan Original might be in these parts or how long Britannia might be derived from Brutus is not the thing in question but this was the custome of Ancient times to derive Nations from some particular Persons even amongst the Greeks and Romans and was an old Vanity of the World to refer their beginning to some Divine HERO To make this pretended Brute to be a Trojan and to fasten him upon a Genealogy contrary to the truth of those Histories from which that Genealogy is fetcht and upon whose Credit it depends is the thing for which Brutes History is chiefly condemned Segibertus Gemblasensis might have the same design in deriving his Britain in France from Brutus as the Britains might derive their Britannia I do not deny but Jeoffery of Monmouth might have several hints of Brutus nay a British History of him but it will not justifie the Fiction neither can the multitude of Authors in or about that time take away from the Credit of Ancienter Historiographers as Caesar Tacitus Gildas Ninius and as many as wrote twelve hundred years since who make no mention of any such Person more than that do profess by all their Enquiry they could learn nothing of the Britains concerning their Original so that whatever Original is pretended nevertheless the story of the Trojan Brute and all the Legend of his life seems to be brought into the World not long before those times as appears by Mr. Cambden and Speed nay Mr. Sheringham of late in his Vindication of this story in one place ingeniously confesses That these Tales might be invented and so intruded upon the Vulgar But where ever the story of Brute is to be told the Character of it and the Compiler ought never to be omitted It is the saying of William of Newborough who lived in the Age of Geoffery ap Arthur of Monmouth and writes thus of him In these our daies saith he a certain Writer is risen who deviseth foolish Fictions of the Britains he hath to Name Geoffery and a little after With how little shame and with what great confidence doth he frame his Lies About the same time was Francio invented for the Francks Scota Pharaolis Daughter for the Scots Hiberus for the Irish Danus for the Danes Brabo for the Brabanders Gothus for the Goths Saxo for the Saxons and is Brutus for the Britains any thing truer who can think it Scriverius in his Preface to the Antiquitics of Ancient Batavia falls severely upon Jeoffery of Monmouth and gives his History the name of Groote grove lange dicke taste lijck ende unbeschaemte logen that is A most impudent Lie a great one a heavy one a long thick one which like the AEgyptian Darkness was so palpable it might be felt Never had a Lie so many dimensions given it before nor so much substance ascribed to it Well fare Brute and his Trojans above all stories this carries the Honour of the day That which gave some Authority to this Fiction was the use King Edward the first made of it in vindicating his Title to Scotland against the pretence of Pope Boniface and the Church of Rome who laid claim to that Kingdom by Ancient Right as part of St. Peters Patrimony and that Churches Demesne This Action of the King stampt some Character upon this late Invention and the Judgment of so wise a Prince in favour of Brute in a matter of so high a Concern brought this new Embrio into some credit in the World It will not be amiss therefore to examine the whole Circumstances of this debate between the King Pope and Barons of this Realm King Edward having made a considerable progress towards the Conquest of Scotland and being there in Person receives a Prohibition from the Pope who was backt on by the French King to proceed any further in that business until he had proved his Title at Rome to which place the
was propagated in this Island but whether by Joseph of Arimathea who as the first Protestant Bishop saith had a Seat allotted him in the very ends of Arviragus his Dominions or by Simon Zelotes or St. Paul himself or some others is uncertain But it is plain out of Tertullian that the British Nation to which the Romans had no access had owned Subjection unto Christ which was in this Age. But the most received Opinion of the Inhabitants and which seemeth to carry the greatest Antiquity is That JOSEPH of Arimathea the same who embalmed our Saviours Body was sent into Britain by St. Philip where he preached the Gospel and founded a Church in a place called Ines withren in the British Tongue now Glastenbury which place was granted to him by this Arviragus King of Britain the dimensions of which Church according to the Custome of those Primitive times not very Magnificent is taken out of* Sr. Henry Spelman as he collected it from a Plate which was fixed on a Pillar in the New Church and preserved after the demolishing of that Monastery the words of the Plate are these ANno post Passionem Domini xxxj duodecim Sanai ex quibus JOSEPH ab Arimathea Primus erat buc venerunt qui Ecclesiam bujus Regni primam in hoc loco construxerunt qui Christi in honorem suae Matris locum pro eorum Sepultura praesentialiter dedicavit Sancto David Meneventium Archicpiscopo hoc testante Cui Dominus Ecclesiam illam dedicare disponenti in sompnis apparuit eum a proposito revocavit necnon in signum quod ipse Dominus Ecclesiam ipsam prius cum Cimiterio dedicârat manum Episcopi digito perforavit sic perforata multis videntibus in 〈◊〉 apparuit Posten ver ò idem Episcopus Domino revelante ac Sanctorum numero in eadem crescente quendam cancellum in Orientali parte huic Ecclesiae adjecit in honore Beatae Virginis consecravit cujus Altare inestimabili Saphiro in perpetuam hujus rei memoriam insignavit Et nè locus aut quantitas prorsus Ecclesiae per tales augmentationes oblivioni traderetur erigitur haec Columpna in linea per duos Orientales angulos ejusdem Ecclesiae versùs meridiem protracta praedictum Cancellum ab ea abscindente Et erat ejus longitudo ab illa linca versùs Occidentem lx pedum latitudo verò ejus xxvj pedum diffantia centri istius Columpnae à puncto medio inter praedictos angulos xlviij pedum Thus rendered into English THere arrived here XII Holy Men of whom JOSEPH of Arimathea was Head in the year from the Passion of Our Lord XXXI who built in this place the first Church of this Kingdom who viz. Joseph of Arimathea appointing a Place for their Burial dedicated it in honour of the Mother of Christ David Archbishop of Menew attesting the same to whom the Lord intent on the Dedication of that Christian Church appearing in a Dream recalled deterred and advised to desist from that purpose and in token that the Lord had before dedicated that Church and Church-yard he bored the Bishops hand through with his finger which appeared so bored through on the Morrow to many Eyewitnesses Afterwards the same Bishop the number of the Saints of that Church increasing the Lord revealing it to him added to that Church on the Easternpart a Chancel which he consecrated in Honour of the Blessed Virgin the Altar of which for a Memorial of the same to future Ages be adorned with a Saphire of unknown value and least the place and plat-form of that Church through such Augmentations might be forgotten there is erected a Column or Pillar in a Line drawn through the Eastern Corners of that Church towards the South dividing the aforesaid Chancel from the same and the length of it was from that Line towards the West threescore feet its breadth twenty six feet the distance of the Centre of that Column from the middle Point between the afore said Corners forty eight feet The first Church of the Christians In Britaine a b c d The compass of the Church-yard the extent whereof is not certainly known but so large as to contain according to Melkinus who lived in the year of our Lord 550 a thousand Graves amongst whom lies Joseph of Arimathea c. about the South Angle of the Oratory about K and f where also St. Patrick Abbot of this place was also Entomb'd under a Stone Pyramid which was afterwards according to the devotion of the time overlaid with Silver e f The length of the Church sixty foot f g The breadth of the Church twenty six foot b The Walls of the Church according to Malmsbury made of Twigs winded and twisted together after the Ancient Custome that Kings Palaces were used to be built So the King of Wales by name Heolus Dha in the year of our Lord 940 built a House of white Twigs to retire into when he came a hunting into South-Wales therefore it was called Cyguyn that is the White House For to the end it might be distinguished from Vulgar buildings he caused the Twigs according to his Princely quality to be barkt Nay Castles themselves in those daies were framed of the same Materials and weaved together for thus writes Giraldus Cambrensis of Pembroke Castle Arnulphus de Montgomery saith he in the dales of King HENRT the First built that small Castle of Twigs and slight Turf Such Reed Houses as these we all along see in Ireland and in many places in England I The Roof which according to the usual Custome of the Britains was of Straw or after the nature of the soyl in that place of Hay or Rushes So Bede A great fire being kindled in the midst of the House it happened that some sparks flying high set the Roof of the house on a flame which easily took fire because it consisted of Wicker and Straw After the same manner was the Old Roman Capitol it self built according to Ovid Quae fuerat nostri fi quaras Regia nati Adspice de Cannâ Straminibusque domum Ka the Door the top whereof reacheth to the Eeves of the house which in those daies were very low Kb the East Window over the Altar KKK the South Windows Having delivered thus much concerning the Antiquity of this Christian Church I will conclude the same with some necessary Observations thereupon Observations upon the before-mentioned Inscription in memory of the first Christian Church in Britain THe Character upon this Plate is not so Ancient as not above 300 years old if so much and though there might be in other places which is difficult to prove Churches built so early yet that they were encompassed according to the Modern Custome with Church yards will hardly be granted There were many Churches in the Cities of Britain soon after the first Times of Christianity but never any Church-yards till the time of Cutbert the
there were but three only that of Jupiter Flamen Dialis of Mars Flamen Martialis of Romulus Flamen Quirinalis but afterwards every God had his Flamen Neither had any of these ever any Sacerdotal Power and Jurisdiction over any particular Province or that officiated alone in one Parish only for there being in the time of Numa thirty Parishes in the City of Rome and afterwards thirty six over every Parish or such division was set two Flamens neither were they subject to any superiour Flamen who was dignified and distinguisht by the Title of Arch-flamen I acknowledge that some were called the greater Flamens others the lesser but this was not from their Power but the Antiquity of their Order for the first three were instituted by Numa and the Nobility the rest by the Commonalty Concerning the Flamens and Arch-flamens of the Gentiles and the Limits of their Jurisdiction after they were changed into Bishops and Arch-bishops GAlfridus Arturius saith That the Blessed Teachers after they had almost rooted out Paganisme from the British Nation purging the Temples which were founded in honour of many of their Gods consecrated them to one God and delivered them to Religious men to be lookt after There were then constituted twenty eight Flamens and three Arch flamens as we have said before who according to the Custome of the Gentiles burnt Incense to their Gods and offered up Sacrifices unto them delivering therefore these by vertue of the Apostolick Doctrine from their Idolatry they consecrated Bishops in the place of Flamens and Arch-bishops instead of Arch-flamens The principal Seats of the Arch-flamens were in our most eminent Cities viz. London York and Caer-leon upon the River Uske in Glamorganshire Superstition therefore being driven out of the aforesaid places three Arch-bishops were forthwith made in other places they ordained Bishops and over several Parishes assigned to every one his Power and Office To the Province of the Metropolitan of York fell Deira and Albania which are divided from Leogria by the River Humber To the Arch-bishop of London submitted Loegria and Cornubia which Provinces Severn separates from Wales which was subject to the Arch-bishops See at Caerleon Affairs being thus ordered the aforesaid Holy Teachers returned to Rome and desired that all things they had done might be confirmed by the Pope they were therefore honoured by the Roman Church with the Pall and all other Ceremonies usual in their kind they returned again into Britain being accompanied by divers Religious persons by whose Doctrine and Preaching the British Nation was very much confirmed establisht and strengthned in the Faith of Christ. Their Acts are to be found in the Books of Gildas the Historiographer so that now we shall proceed to that of Vodinus or Theonus as Mr. Cambden calls him This Vodinus or Theonus for his constancy in the Christian Faith was Martyred by the Saxons at their first arrival in Britain After Fugacius and Damianus had setled every thing in order and establisht the Religion of Christ the holy Rites and Ceremonies thereof the Government and Discipline of the Church they returned to Rome and having obtained their Constitutions to be confirmed and ratified by Eleutherius still sitting in that Chair they came again into Britain by whose incessant Preaching and Sanctity of life the Britains suckt in that Religion the seeds whereof remained even unto the daies of Dioclesian who after Nero and Trajan raised the greatest Persecution the Church ever underwent And this is the first establishment of Christian Religion by publick Authority which for the Honour of our Nation is very early an hundred eighty and one years after the death of CHRIST and the reason why it got footing so soon in Britain above other Nations among many Causes this especially is given by Historians namely The Learning Piety and Devotion of the Druids who were so eminent in this Island as that they Decided and Judged not only in Spiritual but Civil Affairs and were resorted unto like Oracles for their profound Judgment and skill in Questions of the highest concern And many of their Tenents of which the Immortality of the Soul was chief were great inlets to that Religion which besides the great Vertue and Holiness it carried with it it taught Rewards of Vertue and Punishments of Vice upon surer grounds than the Heathens had ever built for their Imaginary vertue namely evident Miracles and certain Demonstrations that there was an Almighty Power that strictly examined the Actions of every Man I know that many Objections are made to destroy the Authority of this History which well examined will not prove to have so great force as at first sight they appear to carry First it is said That it is very improbable there should at this time be any King of Britain considering that this Island for many years since remained a Roman Province To which is Answered That it was the Custome of the Romans in their Provinces to continue Princes in their Governments and to make them Instruments of their Bondage giving them the shew of Power though they were in effect but Vassals and what hindereth but Lucius might hold his Kingdom in fee of them Besides in the daies of this Emperour as is gathered from Authentick Histories the Britains refused to obey Commodus and it is certain that they held and possest freely all those parts of the Island that lay beyond the Wall which was built between Tinmouth and Solway-Frith and that those Northern Britains had Princes of their own but especially Let us consider how that Antoninus Pius not many years before having ended War permitted Kingdoms to be ruled by their own Kings and Provinces by their own Comites Others there are who curiously searching into the time of this supposed Lucius find great difference in Authors Bede who is the Ancientest Reporter of this History yet lived five hundred years after placeth him under M. Aurelius Antoninus and Verus Emperours But this since is not found to agree with truth for the Date of the Letter sent back by Eleutherius through the hands of Fugacius and Damianus which by many is not thought to be forged but authentick is thus LUCIUS AURELIUS COMMODUS Second time Consul with Vespronius which was the year that M. Aurelius died in and in this agreeth both forreign and domestick Writers as for others who refer it to an hundred seventy nine years after Christs Passion it is manifest that it is the fault of Transcribers who should have writ an hundred seventy nine years after his Birth The British Histories make it five years after but in this it is not much to be regarded This LUCIUS Sirnamed by Ninnius Leuer-Maur by a Table remaining in the Church of St. Peters in Cornhill is supposed to be the Founder of that Church and the Church it self thought to have been the Cathedral of the Metropolitan See of London There are who ascribe the Foundation of St. Peters at Westminster to him but
in all probability the Places may be confounded and some write that he built a Church at Dover and endowed it with the Toll of that Haven Not content in having performed so many excellent Works he is said at length to have resigned his Kingdom and Travelled into Germany out of desire to propagate the Christian Faith to have converted Bavaria and afterwards going into Rhetia there to have lived in a Cell under a Rock which was afterwards called the Rock of Lucius then to have proceeded into that Country wherein the City Curia stood where living in a Cave and preaching to the Infidels he was at last betrayed and brought before the Governour who put him to death in a Tower called Marula His Body was brought into Britain and buried in Glocester so that it will not be improper to relate what Matthew of Westminster saith in confirmation of this matter Anno Gratiae CCI Inclytus Britannorum Rex LUCIUS in bonis actibus assumptus Claudiocestriae ab hâc vitâ migravit ad CHRISTUM in Ecclesiâ primae sedis Honoriftcè sepultus est He Reigned twelve years and dying without Issue left the Kingdom divided among many of the Royal Blood who all setting up their Titles miserably involved the whole Nation in Civil Wars and Combustions Upon this the Picts took advantage of the Publick Distractions and brake into the Southern parts flinging down the Wall that was built as a Rampier to defend the Frontiers and for a long time finding no resistance wasted the Country far and wide so that if it be true what is reported of King Lucius That out of zeal for Religion He went into Bavaria to preach the Gospel leaving his Kingdom to be managed by the chiefest of his Nobility without declaring a Successour how much better had it been if he had employed his time and labours in his own Dominions which surely in so short a time could not be so entirely instructed in the Faith of Christ but that there was room left for the employing of so great a Talent given him for the use and comfort properly belonging first to his own Country Neither could a Prophet want Honour in his own Country who had Royal Authority to back his Priestly Function However therefore the story of King Lucius or Lever-Maur as to the main of it may betrue namely That there was such a Person that Ruled in this Island and embraced the Christian Religion yet that he should have so great Authority as absolutely to establish it casting down the Flames and Arch-flamens the Religion of the Romans whose Province it was and to set up in their room Bishops and Arch-bishops seemeth not only improbable but impossible also If he was a King beyond Hadrians Wall what had he to do with London and Carlile and if on this side he was but a Tributary and Vassal to the Romans and so could not so easily abolish their Worship as indeed it manifestly appears out of Inscriptions of the Romans in this Island who after his time continued their Altars to the Heathen Deities But that he should forsake his Kingdom and out of an over-fond opinion of Chastity neglect the duty of a Prince in not providing a Successour to his Crown that he should leave his Kingdom at sixes and sevens that he should think himself more useful in a Cell than a Throne for the propagating Religion in another Country and not in his own and imagine that absconding in Holes and Deserts would shew a greater light to the World than being placed upon a Hill manifestly shews from what Forge those Inventions proceeded and that they were the idle Talks of our crafty Ancestors whose business it was to gain Honour to their own Constitutions by perswading the World that no Obligations Civil or Moral although of the highest nature and concern but must be cancell'd in order to his attaining perfection which they placed in that lofty Poverty of a Monastick life And thus much is sufficient to be said of King Lucius The Troubles that arose after his decease continued as Fabian thinketh fifteen years the English Chronicle saith fifty Harding four which difference proceedeth from the various Calculations of the time of his Reign and upon the same Subject Matthew of Westminster thus delivers himself Quo defuncto speaking a little before of the death of King LUCIUS he proceeds to say dissidium inter Britones surrexit quià absque Haerede decessit Romana Potestas infirma est Manfit itáque Britannia in dissidio usque ad adventum SEVERI qui eam posteà Romanae restituit Dignitati Some make his Decease in the daies of the Emperour Hadrian whom the English Chronicles follow others continue his Reign but to the daies of Aurelius and Verus Emperours The first cannot be true by reason it agreeth not with the time of Eleutherius who according to the most diligent Chronographers began to govern the See of Rome in the year 169 which is thirty years after the death of Hadrian and sate in the Chair fifteen years namely to the year of our Lord one hundred eighty four The latter is equally false considering that the Letter from Eleutherius to King Lucius the Date whereof Mr. Cambden followeth in contradiction to Bede was sent when Lucius Aurelius Commodus was second time Consul with Vespronius which was in the year one hundred seventy nine or one hundred and eighty Anno currente and ten years after the death of Verus the Emperour Basing stokius makes LUCIUS to begin his Reign in the year of our Lord one hundred eighty three in the second year of Commodus the Conversion of this Prince according to that Account must be in the first year of his Reign and the last of Eleutherius his Popedom circumstances very improbable for supposing that this Godly Prince should begin his Reign with the establishment of Christian Religion yet what becomes of Fugacius and Damianus returns to Eleutherius after they had been a year in Britain and the Ratifications of their proceedings the year after obtained at Rome if in the last year of Eleutherius the Kingdom was first Converted as manifestly appears if this Calculation were true The British Histories generally make Septimius Severus the Roman Emperour to succeed Lucius in the Kingdom of Britain and after him many other Emperours so that for the future we shall see the same Persons though with different circumstances in the Records of both Nations made Actours in the soveraign Authority Many have found fault with the British History upon this account but whether it was that the Royal Blood of the Native Britains was utterly extinct or that the Compiler of these Stories was weary of inventing Names sure I am that the following Emperours had no more right to the Island than the preceding And there is no where found that Severus either by Marriage Adoption or Donation received the Kingdom so that for many years we may bid farewel to the British
a place called Wodens-Beorth or Wodens-Dic that is to say Woden's Mount the conclusion of which was that the Saxons lost the day with the ruine of their whole Army and Ceaulin for this or other miscarriages was driven out of his Kingdom and the year after died in Exile after he had Reigned thirty two years CEARLIK CEARLIK the Son of Guthwolf Brother of the late King followed his Uncle Ceaulin advanced as may be guessed from his Father's vertues and the dislike the people had to the Line of Ceaulin who by his Son Cuthwin left two Grandchildren Kenbald and Cuth whose Right it was to inherit but the latter of these Reigned afterwards in his Posterity being the Grandfather of the famous Ine the eleventh King of this Province whose Brother Ingils was Progenitor in the fourth degree to Egbert that reduced the whole Heptarchy into an entire Monarchy This Cearlik as he had obtained the Kingdom by fraud and usurpation so he held it but a short while Reigning five years and odd months and them without any action worthy of remembrance CEOWOLF CEOWOLF the Son of Cuth the third and youngest Son of Kenric after the death of his Cousin-German Cearlic obtained the Kingdom During the whole time of his Reign which lasted twelve years he had continual wars sometimes with the Britains then with Redwald King of the East-Angles and afterwards with the South-Saxons with interchangeable success but saith Huntington with the greatest loss to them of the South In these Wars he died leaving his Kingdom to Kingils KINGILS KINGILS the Son of Ceola younger Brother to the late Ceowolf second Son of Cuth who was the third Son of Kearic succeeded his Uncle in the Kingdom He assumed for his Associate Cuichelm his Brother or as Florent of Worcester and Matthew of Westminster write his Son In their third year with joynt Forces they engaged the Britains at Beandune now Bindon in Dorcetshire and at the first encounter put them to flight with the slaughter of above two thousand Cuichelm proud with this success and envying the glory of Edwin who now Reigned in great honour King of the Northumberlands and had lately molested the West-Saxons drew a greater War upon himself and Associate by sending an Assassin to murther that Prince The name of this Villain was Eumcrus who under pretence of a Message from his Master was admitted to the presence of Edwin then at his Court on Easter-monday on the River Derwent in Yorkshire being advanced up to the King as if he would deliver his Embassie he suddenly drew forth a poysoned weapon which he had privately hid under his Coat and made a blow at him but by the interposition of Lilla one of the Kings Attendants who stepping between received the Ponyard through his own body the thrust was put off yet not so fully but that part of the weapon reached the King's Person By this time the whole company came in and incompassed the Murtherer who now grown desperate died not tamely but revenged his fate with the death of Forder a Courtier who next pressed upon him Edwin thus delivered though lying under cure resolves upon Revenge and promiseth Paulinus who had been long working him to the Christian Faith that if God would bestow Victory on him over his Enemies he would embrace the Faith and receive Baptism With these assurances given he raises an Army and invades the West-Saxons and with that success that overcoming them in several battels he gets into his hands many of those who had conspired his death some of which he executes others pardons and at last returns with great Honour into his own Country This expedition happened about the year 625. Four years after Kingils and Cuichelm had a battel with Penda the Mercian at Cirencester the result of which was a League of peace and amity betwixt them About this time the Kingdom of the West-Saxons received the Faith by the example of Kingils who was converted thereto by the preaching of Berinus and encouragement of Oswald who was then Suiter to his Daughter and received him at the Font the circumstances of which as likewise the progress of Religion under his success take altogether out of Bede who hath exactly related it The Conversion of the West-SAXONS THE Nation of the West-Saxons anciently called Gevisses in the Reign of Kingils received the Faith of Christ by the preaching of Berinus Bishop who by the advice of Pope Honorius came into Britain having promised by his assistance to go into the innermost Countries of the English where never yet Doctour had been and there sow the seed of holy Faith Whereupon by the command of the same Pope he received Episcopal Orders at the hands of Asterius Bishop of Genua But being arrived at Britain and first setting foot on the Country of the Guisses finding them all Pagans in the highest degree he thought it more profitable to preach the Word there than by going further to hunt out those whom he first intended Wherefore preaching in the aforesaid Province when the King himself first catechized and instructed together with his People were washing in the fountain of Baptism it happened that the most holy and victorious King of the Northumberlands Oswald was then present and received him at the Font. By a blessed conjunction taking him for his Son in the second Birth whose Son himself was to be by the marriage of his Daughter Both the Kings thereupon gave to the same Bishop the City of Dorchester for an Episcopal Seat where having built up and dedicated Churches and by labouring converted many people He departed this life and was buried in the same City This King dying Cenwalch his Son and Successour refused to receive the Faith and Sacraments of the Heavenly kingdom and not long after lost his Earthly one For putting away his wife the sister of Penda King of Mercia he took another wherefore being invaded by him he was driven out of his Kingdom and forced to flie to Anna King of the East-Angles with whom living in exile three years he acknowledged the Faith and embraced the truth For the King with whom he lived in exile was a good man and happy in a good and holy off-spring When Genwalch was restored to his Kingdom there came into his Province out of Ireland a certain Bishop by name Agilbert by Nation a Gaul but yet who had been in Ireland for the reading of the Scriptures not a little while He joyned himself with the King on his own accord taking upon him the Ministry of preaching whose learning and industry when the King perceived he made motion that he would accept there an Episcopal Seat and remain Bishop of his Nation who at his requests for many years ruled that Province with Sacerdotal Jurisdiction At last the King who understood the Saxon tongue only growing weary of a forraign Dialect underhand brought another Bishop of his own language into the Province by name Wini who
had been ordained in France also dividing the Province into two Diocesses To him he gave Winchester for his Episcopal Seat at which Agilbert being highly offended that the King had done this without his advice he returned into France and receiving the Bishoprick of Paris he died there an old man and full of daies But not many years after his departure from Britain Wini was driven out of his Bishoprick by the same King who repairing to Wulfur King of the Mercians bought of him with a good sum the Seat of London and remained Bishop of it during his life So the Province of the West-Saxons for no small time was without a Bishop at which time the forementioned King of that Province being often afflicted with great losses in his Kingdom received of the enemy began to call to mind him whom by fraud he had formerly made forsake the Kingdom and resolved to call him back considering that the Province destitute of a Governour was bereft likewise of Divine protection He sent therefore Embassadours into France to Agilbert promising satisfaction and submissively desiring he would return to the Bishoprick of his Nation But he excusing himself by solemn protestation that he could not possibly come because he was bound to his own City and Diocess yet nevertheless not altogether to be wanting in his assistance to so ardent desires he sent thither a Priest by name Eleutherius his own Nephew whom if he please might be ordained Bishop for him giving him this Testimonial that he himself thought him worthy of the Bishoprick who being honourably entertained by the King and People they sent unto Theodoruc then Archbishop of Canterbury desiring that he might be consecrated their Bishop who being consecrated in that City for many years held alone the Bishoprick of the West-Saxons as it had been ordered by Synodical Decree KENWALCH KENWALCH the Son of Kingils followed his Father in the Kingdom of whom what relates to his Ecclesiastical Affairs hath been before related Having divorced his second wife whom he had unlawfully wedded and retaken Sexburg the Sister of Penda whom he had unjustly put away He enjoyed the Crown in peace for some years even until Anno 652 falling into wars but with whom is not related Ethelwald calls them Civil He fought a battel at Bradanford by the River Alene Mr. Cambden makes the place to be Bradford in Wiltshire upon the River Avon and saith that it was with Cuthred his near Kinsman he was engaged in Civil Wars but I wish he had told us from whence he gathered it for we find no such thing in History Certain it is that not long before Kenwalch had given large possessions to Cuthred but whether it could oblige him to sit down quiet with the loss of a Kingdom is uncertain for no doubt his Title was precedent to Kenwalch's if Cuchelm his Father was eldest Son of Kingils and Stow writeth but upon what grounds I know not that he did really succeed his Father and possibly there may be some Record extant concerning these Troubles not commonly appearing But things being settled at home and Kenwalch desirous to enlarge his Dominions invades the Britains and had a fight with them at a place called Witgornsborough mentioned by Malmsbury but without any other circumstances afterwards at Pennum or Pen in Somersetshire the success of which is not left so doubtful for the Victory was great on the Saxon side who followed the pursuit to a place called Pedridan now Pederton afterwards the Royal Seat of King Ina and the Britains for a long time after would scarce look the Saxons in the face But Kenwalch falling at variance with his old enemy Vulfur had not the like success for fighting with him at Possentesburg though Ethelwerd relates he took Vulfur prisoner yet the Saxon Annals record clear contrary and the sequel shews that Vulfur won the day for not long after he wasted the Country of the West-Saxons as far as Eskesdun and took the Isle of Wight till then in their possession with other Provinces of the Meannuari and gave them to Edilwalch his Godson King of the South-Saxons These are all the memorable Actions of Kenwalch for his good deeds he is reported to have founded the Cathedral of Winchester and the Abby of Malmsbury and as appeareth in a Grant of King Ina afterwards made to the Church he bestowed several priviledges on these places Ferlingmere Beokerey Godein Martinesey Edredesey He reigned 31 years and left no Issue to inherit Sexburg his wife for a while after his death assumed the Government but she was driven out saith Matthew of Westminster by the Nobles who could not endure the government of a Woman Some say she died the same year others that she built a Nunnery in the Isle of Shepy wherein her self was a otress and afterwards became an Abbess of Ely ESKWIN ESKWIN derived in the fifth degree from Kerdic the first founder of this Kingdom of a younger house succeeded Kenwalch He Reigned but two years in which time he fought a battel with Wulfur wherein many of the Saxons on both sides were slain the place was Bidanheaford soon after which he died KETWIN KETWIN younger Son of Kingils whose Right preceded Eskwins and who as Bede and Malmsbury write was Partner with him in the Crown after the death of Eskwin proved the scourge of the Britains pursuing them even to the Sea-shore but no other circumstances are related of him or this action He is allowed nine years Reign In a grant of King Ina to Glastenbury it is reported that this Prince highly favoured that Monastery by freeing it from the secular Services and often calling it the Mother of Saints CEADWALLA CEADWALLA of the blood Royal derived in the third degree from Guth the third Son of Kenric succeeded Ketwin He had been banisht his Country by the prevalency of some faction but returning obtained the Crown He made war upon the South-Saxons whom he overcame and annexed to his own Dominions took the Isle of Wight and twice wasted Kent the circumstances of all which Actions have been formerly related under the Kingdom of Kent and the South-Saxons Afterwards he went to Rome for as yet he was a Pagan to receive Baptism which was given him by the hands of Pope Sergius on Easter eaven in the year of our Redemption saith Bede 689 and was called Peter but on the twentieth day of April following he died and was buried at St. Peter's Church at Rome under a fair Monument with this Epitaph Here CEADWALL otherwise named PETER King of the West-Saxons lieth buried who departed this life the twentieth of April in the second Indiction At the age of thirty years or thereabouts in the fourth year of the Reign of JUSTINIAN the most Noble and Mighty Emperour and the second of Sergius who then sate in Peter's Chair being a true Pattern of the Apostles The British Writers from the similitude of name will needs have
evidence of the Antiquity of that Sect whom I do make appear were Ancient Priests and Governours in Ecclesiastical and Civil matters in this Nation And by Reason Abraham lived under those Oaks of Mamre so piously the Druids in Example thereof although degenerating from the true substance and intent of so good an Example chose Groves of Oaks under which they performed all the invented Rites and Ceremonies belonging to their Religion To speak further we must confidently according to the Rule and Method of the British History believe Sarron to have Reigned as a British King from Anno Mundi MMVII to MMLXVIII when being Ambitious to extend his Empire he ended his life and kingdom and now we hear of Druis his Son DRUIS the Son of Sarron or as Basing stochius writes his Grand-son by his Son Namnes who died before him succeeded in the Kingdom He is made the Author of the Druids a famous Sect of Philosophers he began his Reign Anno Mundi MMLXVIII and held the Government but fourteen years Then BARDUS the Son of Druis next entered upon the Kingdom This is the King of Poets Musicians and Heralds called from him Bardi they were very much given to composing of Genealogies and rehearsing them in publick Assemblies but notwithstanding their great skill in this matter we see they have the misfortune to be put after the Druids in Succession whereas in the fore-going Antiquities it is probably made out they were an Ancienter Order than they in Britain This Bardus began his Reign Anno Mundi MMLXXXII and possest the Scepter seventy five years Now who would not have thought BRITAIN or SAMOTHEA an happy Island having so many Philosophers for their Kings but see the mischief of it Let Samothes Magus Sarron and Druis teach never so Divinely and Bardus Sing or Pipe never so sweetly yet the People will be Adders still there is no reclaiming of the Multitude No wonder therefore that giving themselves to a loose and luxurious life and not keeping up to the strict Rules that had been prescribed to them they were the sooner conquered and subdued by the Giant Albion so that Samothea was wrested from the Celts the Line of Japhet and brought in subjection to the Progeny of Ham. Now it is that stories complain of the miserable Thraldom of this Island by the Sons of Neptune and the delivery of it in part by the death of Albion slain by Hercules though long after it was molested by Giants until the Arrival of Brutus all which Circumstances I will pass over not because they are more Fabulous than the rest but because they seem if they were well timed and cleared of all the Ignorant Rubbish that by age and malice of Writers has over-burthened them to carry some foot-steps of the Phoenicians in this Island who were Men of exceeding proportion and of the Linage of Ham and early Traders into these Parts Likewise the story of Dioclesian or as Mr. Hollinshead corrects it Danaus his Daughter I will omit as too tedious a Fable and so proceed to the succession of the Celtick Kingdom of which Britain is feigned a part This I do not for Truths sake but Convenience It follows therefore out of Basinstoak LONGHO the Son of Bardus succeeded him in the Kindom of the Celtae He made War upon Scandia and gave name to the Longo Bards who afterwards proceeded from that Country I pass over how ridiculously and against all Geography Scandia by Basinstochius is placed about the Coasts of Britain and made an Island These are small faults He begun his Reign Anno Mundi MMCLVII and reigned twenty eight years BARDUS the Second succeeded him He carried Musick into Germany which had been first taught in Celtica by his Grand-father He Reigned seven and thirty years and left a young Son called Celtes who being not ripe enough to Administer the Kingdom LUCUS was elected King who Reigned but Eleven years and then CELTES assumed the Crown From this Prince the Celtae took their Denomination His Mother was called Galathea in honour of whose Memory he gave that name to his Daughter and afterwards married her to Hercules by whom she had a Son named Galathes from whom the Galli are derived He reigned but thirteen years and then HERCULES and GALATHEA succeeded This Hercules built Alexia and passing the Alpes he gave his younger Son Tuscus the Kingdom of Italy and his elder Son Galathes the Celtick Dominion The first Prince reigned nineteen years Galathes held the Kingdom of the Celts forty nine years and then left it to his Son NARBON the Son of Galathes during his Fathers life had the Island of Samothea intrusted to his Government but after the death of his Father he passed into Gallia and there built a City after his own Name he reigned eighteen years LUGDUS his Son succeeded him he built Lugdunum and reigned fifty one years BELIGIUS followed who gave name to the Belgae formerly called Beligici he died without Issue after he had reigned twenty years and the Kingdom of the Celts devolved on JASIUS This Prince was of the Line of Hercules and the year before was created King of Italy so that the two Kingdoms of Celtica and Italy were conjoyned in one Man Anno Mundi MMCCCLXXXIV This raised Envy in his Brother Dardanus who began a Civil-War but not being able to prevail by force of Arms he had recourse unto Policy so that feigning Reconciliation with his Brother he takes all his Goods and Shipping them enters into his Brothers Palace and there Murthers him as he was Bathing this being effected he flies into Samothrace afterwards into Phrygia Jasius had a Son named CORYBANTUS he succeeded his Father in the Kingdom of Italy but not of the Caeltes Jasius reigned fifty years ALLOBROX of the line of Hercules obtained the Kingdom of the Celti he Reigned sixty eight years and ROMUS his Son succeeded him he Governed twenty nine years PARIS the Son of Romus Ruled thirty nine years LEMANES the Son of Paris Reigned sixty seven years OLBIUS the Son of Lemanes Reigned five years From this Olbius Basinstochius derives Albion the Name of this Island GALATHES the Second succeeded him and Reigned eight and forty years NAMNES followed and Governed forty four years and being about to end his daies he bequeathed the Kingdom to his Son Remus REMUS the Son of Namnes Reigned forty years He left only a Daughter which he had married before to Phranicus a Prince of the Blood of Hector PHRANICUS held the Scepter in right of his Wife but leaving Samothea to be Governed by the Druids he betook himself to the Continent called by his Name France so that the Britains readily received King BRUTUS at his Arrival into this Island as is pretended by those who desired to claim an honourable Title from that Race of the Trojans This is the account of the Celtick Kings before BRUTE according to Berosus and Basinstochius Who can but wonder at the exact and
of his Father But it seems the People ill resenting the flight of Lavinia Ascanius was obliged to re-call her and giving to her and her Son the City Lavinium he built Albae Longa where he Reigned At his death he bequeathed his Kingdom to his Son Iulus between whom and Silvius Controversies arose concerning the Right of Government at last it was found that the People inclined rather to Silvius as being descended of Lavinia the Daughter of Latinus and inheriting the blood of the Trojans and Latins the whole Kingdom devolved on him By this Iulus was constrained to take up with the Priest-hood There is great uncertainty in Roman Authors concerning the Line of AEnaeas and Livy doubts whether Iulus was the Son of AEneas by Creusa or Lavinia but this seemeth to be the clearest Genealogy To this Genealogy gathered out of Roman Authors John of Weathamstead Abbot of St. Albaens a right Judicious Man had respect in his Censures long ago upon Brutes History where he saith That Ascanius begat no such Son as had for his proper name SILVIUS but left Issue an only Son Iulus from whom the Family of the IULII afterwards proceeded and that Silvius Posthumus whom perhaps Jeoffery of Monmouth meaneth was the Son of AEneas by his Wife Lavinia who begat AEnaeas Silvius and in the Eight and thirtieth year of his Reign ended his life by a Natural death How therefore could he be slain by his Son Brute or if any such thing had happened how came so memorable an Accident to be omitted This argues the story to be Poetical as he saith rather than Historical and that Jeoffery or whoever compiled it was altogether ignorant of the Genealogy of AEnaeas which will appear more evidently by the sequel Let us see therefore to which Line our supposed Brute can with most reason be referred In this he seems to confound Silvius with Iulus making them the same Persons who indeed were but Competitors in the same Kingdom so that Silvius in the Line of Lavinia is brought into the Line of Creusa Others to mend the matter make Brute descend of AEnaeas and Lavinia but then they bring Ascanius of the Line of Creusa in to the Line of Lavinia and so make him the same with Silvius Posthumus by that to have begotten Iulus the Father of Brute whereas Silvius Posthumus begat Silvius AEnaeas and was the Father of those many Silvii who succeeded in the Kingdom of Alba. Hitherto we see Brute the Grandfather of AEnaeas by a mixt Genealogy but Gyonan Villani cited by Mr. Hollinshead brings his Line absolutely from AEnaeas and Lavinia and seems to make him the Grand-child of AEnaeas by his Son Silvius Posthumus who marrying the Neece of his Mother Lavinia had Issue BRUTE so called because she died in Travail of him I suppose he means Brotus but how ridiculously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is made to signifie any such thing I leave it to the Judicious to determine But how comes it to pass that he should flie his Country fearing as is said his Grandfather Silvius Posthumus when as there is no mention made in Gyonan Villani of another Silvius in this Line the Son of Silvius Posthumus and the Father of Brute However it comes to pass Brute must be the Off-spring of AEneas and we must not be too busie in asking questions for if one demand how the name of Brute which was afterwards given to the first Consul for his feigned Stupidity to be a name of the Princes Son in the same Kingdom it will be answered he was called Brotus not Brutus because his Mother died in Child-bed of him If it be asked why he sted for the accidental killing his Father the Count Palatine saies it is a mistake for it was only a Rumour spread of him and the truth was rather by other discontents that he was moved to flight If enquiry be made how it comes to pass that the Latin Writers who reckon up the Progeny of AEneas and the Silvii make not the least mention of him and Gildas the Ancient Britain hath Altum silentium in this point The Reply is easie That it is not the business of every Author to mention every particular for the Romans contented themselves with what related to their own Nation and Gildas made no mention of it being a thing beyond dispute For the present we will attend this BRUTE the supposed Son of Silvius with the same care and diligence we have done the Celtick Kings Being of the Age of fifteen he left his Country and arriving at Greece he found a number of the scattered Trojans who lived under the Dommion of Pandrasus Finding them a discontented Party he managed his Interest wisely with them often inculcating the Nobility of their Ancestors and the slavery of their present condition he offered himself to be their Head and Leader and so encouraged them to stand upon honourable Terms They willingly embraced this motion and many of them being in Authority under Pandrasus revolted and so brought over great Parties with them BRUTE being thus strengthened great numbers continually flockt to him with encouragements to execute his designs securing himself in Woods and making sure to him many considerable Forts and strong Holds but first writes a smart Letter to Pandrasus wherein he demands the liberty of his Trojans The King amazed at his sudden Imperiousness but considering with calmer thoughts the Paucity of the Rebels resolved by force of Arms to chastise their Arrogance by reducing them to Obedience In all haste he levies a considerable Power and marching against him with greater heat than conduct and supposing his Enemies to be hid in the Woods near a Town called Sparatinum he is set upon by Brute who had three thousand of his well appointed Trojans in Ambuscado for that Expedition so that Pandrasus his Army marching loosely and without order or discipline as if they had not expected an Enemy so near them were quickly routed and put to flight Brute pursues his Victory to the River Akalon in which many of the Graecians miserably perished Neither could the Courage of Antigonus Brother to Pandrasus prevail although he often from small Parties rallyed and made Head against the Enemy for by the general Consternation of his Men he was defeated and taken Prisoner After this success Brute entred Sparatinum and placing a Garrison in it of six hundred Men he returns with the rest of his Body into the Woods bringing them the joyful News of his eminent Victories Pandrasus being overcome with shame and sorrow for the loss of his Brother and this unexpected Defeat resolves at last with a greater Power and more care and circumspection to renew the War To this end he gathers up his dispersed Souldiers and with fresh supplies from all parts of his Kingdom laies Siege to Sparatinum wherein he thought Brute in Person resided This Opinion made him carry on the Siege with more violence storming it at several
places at once but finding greater resistance than he expected altered his resolution hoping to reduce them by want of Provisions so that beleaguring the Town on all sides with great impatience expected a surrender The Garrison by a private Messenger signifying their mind to Brute by way of Requests for speedy Assistance not being able to answer them with Forces had recourse to Policy swearing Anacletus whom he had taken Prisoner to be faithful to him By the means of this Guide he marched by Night and in the dark sets upon Pandrasus in his Trenches which Enterprize took such good effect that the King himself was made his Captive The excellent luck of this our HERO was attended with an honourable Peace the Conditions of which are very observable in that they were advantagious for Brute only as I find no Consideration for the Kings satisfaction The Articles were these That Brute should marry Innogen the Kings Daughter and in consideration of her Dower should have a Fleet given him with liberty to transport all such as would be willing to follow his Fortunes without the least let or molestation from the Graecians It is no wonder that we find not Antigonus included in these Articles because it may be supposed he desired not Liberty for who would not desire to follow so Happy a man as Brute the Darling of Fortune who could make those Terms with a Prince and yet as Mr. Hollinshead saith never toucht the Prerogative of his Kingdom BRUTE with his Wife Innogen embarks and after two daies and one nights sail arrived at an Island called Leogetia or Lergetia for Authors differ Where this Island should be let Geography it self speak I am ignorant but here it was that Brute first learnt to bend his Knee and prostrating himself before the Oracle of Diana he desired her to assign him some place for a fixt Habitation in these words Diva Potens nemorum terrestria jura resolve Dic certam sedem quâ te Venerabor in avum Goddess of Woods Terrestrial Rights foretel Assign some place where I may happy dwell The GODDESS Answer BRUTE sub occasum solis trans Gallica Regna Insula in Oceano est habitata Gigantibus olim Ilanc pete namque tibi sedes erit illa Perennis Hic de Prole tuâ Reges nascentur ipsis Totius terrae subditus Orbis erit BRUTE in the West beyond the Gallick Land An Isle of Old by Giants held doth lie Go seek this out for to thy Trojan Band This is the place design'd by Destiny Here from thy Loyns shall Kings proceed and they Over all Nations shall their Scepter sway This was delivered to him in a Dream and I doubt for no other will it be taken but hoysing up his Sails passes the Streights of Gibraltar and Coasting on the Right hand see the luck of it he met with another Company of Trojans led thither by Antenor lying upon the Tyrrhen Sea Mr. Hollinshead corrects this mistake in the British History and will needs have it the Pyraenean Sea But what had Antenor to do in the Ocean in the West of Spain We read in History that he brought his Colony to the Tyrrhen but never to the Pyraenean Sea so that here we find the late fortunate Brutus with some Magick or other brought back again through the Streights and cast into the very mouths of his Enemies even upon the Coast of Italy to answer for the death of his Father or else some other misdemeanour Notwithstanding this Geography we must suppose him on the Coast of Spain where he meets with Corinaeus the present Captain of these dispersed Trojans who understanding Brute to be of the same Nation with himself a Man of great Spirit and the Master of so powerful a Nation makes Propositions of uniting to him which Brute g'adly received so that joyning Forces they proceed together in seeking out new Adventures and after thirty daies sail Brute with his new Confederates entred the River Ligeris in Aquitain Goffarius was King of this Country Sirnamed Pictus descended of the Agathyrses a Painted Nation and some hold that this Country from hence was called Poictou and that part of Britain was named Pight-land upon the same account of Painting Goffarius being informed of the Landing of these Strangers sent some of his Officers to learn their Numbers and to observe their Motions who meeting with two hundred of the Trojans that went a Hunting with their Leader Corinaeus there happened a dispute between them insomuch that Imbert the Captain of the Gauls shot an Arrow at Corinaeus which proved the engagement of a terrible Battle and Corinaeus to require him with one slash clave his Head asunder upon which Accident followed a Victory to the Trojans Goffarius by this time had mustered up his Forces and resolved to revenge this Insolence committed on his Subjects Fortune seconded not his Attempt for Brute with the assistance of Corinaeus defeated all his Army and forced his security by flight It seems these two Overthrows did but whet the Revenge of Goffarius and so with new Forces sets again upon the Trojans over-powring them in Numbers for it is said he had Thirty for One and at last constrained them to take refuge in their Camp where he olosely besieged them with his whole Army Brute and Corinaeus by private Messages resolved to set upon him on both sides at one instant whereupon Corinaeus with three hundred Men lying in Covert all night charged the next Morning the Gauls then Brute seconds him with a brisk Sally and here again Goffarius is defeated yet not without great slaughter on both sides Brute in this Battle lost his Nephew Turinus a valiant Youth in honour of whom he built Turonium now called Towres and in Revenge harasses the Country of Goffarius and with Fire and Sword prosecutes his Victory Goffarius being thus expelled his Kingdom sollicited his Neighbour Princes to undertake his quarrel and now all Gaul was united against the Common Enemy which Brute understanding calls a Council of War where it was finally concluded That upon the account of their great Losses received in the former Encounter they should not prosecute Goffarius any further considering more especially it was beside their main design this not being the Country allotted them by the Oracle so that collecting all their Forces they embarked making as must haste as they could to the Promised Island where after a few daies sayl they arrived at the Haven now called Totness The time of Brutes Landing is supposed about the Year of the World 2887 and after the Universal Flood 1231. The Count Palatine places it in the Year 2855 and Mr. Hollinshead 2850 and after the destruction of Troy 66 but of the great difference in Calculations I have treated already and once for all it may be said That a true and just Chronology cannot be expected till the coming of Julius Caesar. Brute having at last through many dangers and difficulties attained
He reigned ten years and was buried at Winchester COILUS began his reign Anno Mundi 3813 and reigned ten years then was buried at Notingham PORREX the second began Anno Mundi 3823. This was a good Prince he reigned five years CHERIMUS Sirnamed the Drunkard succeeded Anno Mundi 3828 and swayed the Scepter one year Then succeeded FULGENTIUS the eldest Son of Cherimus Anno Mundi 3829 and reigned also but one year after him ELDRED the second Son of Cherimus reigned another year more Anno Mundi 3830. ANDROGEUS the third Son of Cherimus enjoyed the Government another year being 3831. URIANUS the Son of Androgeus began his reign Anno Mundi 3831 and he lived three years and in that time gave himself to all Riot and Intemperance ELIUD Anno Mundi 3835 He was a great Astrologer and ruled five years DEDANTIUS or Dedacus A. M. 3840 and he Ruled five years DETONUS A. M. 3845 he reigned two years as Mr. How affirmeth the Count Palatine speaketh nothing of this King but placeth Clotenus after Dedacus so likewise doth Fabius and after Clotenus he setteth Gurguenites the same as I suppose with Gurguenius put in the same Order by Count Palatine so that supposing this Detonus to be the same person with Clotenus the next Prince is GURGUINEUS A. M. 3847 reigned three years Merianus by the consent of all Writers reigned two years Bleduns or Bladunus two years Gapenus three years Ovinus two years Sisilius the third two years Then BLEDGABREDUS succeeded Anno Mundi 3861 He so far exceeded all men saith the Count Palatine in the Art of Singing that he seemed to be the God of Musick and besides his skill in Vocal saith Galfridus he was expert in all Instrumental harmony He reigned ten years ARCHIMALUS succeeded he was the Brother of Bledgabredus and Ruled two years ELDOLUS began his Government Anno Mundi 3873 and Reigned four years In his daies many Prodigies in the Heavens as flakes of Fire breaking through the Element loud Noises appeared RODIANUS or Redian succeeded and reigned two years REDARGIUS Count Palat. calls Roderecius he reigned three years SAMULIUS was King two years Penisillus three Fabian saith Samulius Penisillus was the same Person and reigned five years PYRRHUS Pyrrus or Phyrrus according to Fabian was King two years and CAPORIUS two years after him DINELLUS the Son of Caporius Fabian calls Glyguell Dinell who began his Reign Anno Mundi 3891. Com. Pal. commends him for many Princely Vertues he reigned four years and then died HELI his Successor reigned not a year so that we see the beginning of King LUDS Reign who succeeded Heli falls in the year of the World 3895 twenty years before Julius Caesars Arrival into this Island who is supposed to have made it Tributary in the ninth year of Cassibelan the Successor of Lud so that taking in the Eleven years of King Lud and the Ninth of Cassibelan and we shall find the time to fall exactly I know there is great difference in Authors not only concerning the Names of these Princes but the Numbers of them and the times of their Reigns and thereby great confusion is made in the British History but more especially from Elidure to Lud But this Calculation I have faithfully gathered by comparing the Authors of most Credit and so have set down their Names as they are most generally Received And seeing there is so little time allowed from Elidure to Lud for such a number of Princes being two or three and thirty and but 186 years allotted for their Reigns we cannot give Hely forty years according to Jeoffery of Monmouth but are forced to comply with others who abridge him seven Months Likewise Coel the First by the Count Palatine hath twenty years assigned him whereas others allow him but ten But to give my Opinion concerning this matter I think that the making of so many Kings from Elidure to Lud to succeed one another cannot agree either with Truth or Reason for as also the latter Princes of this Catalogue for above twenty years together have not excepting three or four of them above one two or three years at most assigned them for their Reigns so the Compilers of this History have been too profuse in the time they gave for the first Kings Reigns and this will appear if we consider Elidure died an Old man in the year of the World according to the best of their Computations 3716. Yet we hear of a Son of his named Gurguntius beginning his reign Anno Mundi 3783 that is sixty seven years after his Fathers death and continuing his Reign twenty years so that he lived in all after his Fathers decease eighty seven years now allowing his Father to have begat him but twenty years before his death which is but reasonable considering his years and we shall find Gurguntius to be 107 years Old a prodigious Age so Rimo lived seventy one years after the death of his Father Peridurus so strangly prodigal were the Composers of this Genealogy to the former Princes and so exceeding niggardly to the latter It is more rational therefore to believe these Kings not to have all of them succeeded one another but many of them to have been Rulers contemporary of particular Provinces of the Island as the Government thereof was found to be even twenty years after at the Invasion of it by Julius Caesar. King HELY built him a Palace and resided most especially in that part of the Kingdom called after his name Ely but Bede derives the Isle of Ely from Eels Polidore l'irgil from the Greek Helos signifying a Fennish or Morish Ground Humphry Llhoid whom Mr. Cambden followeth from Nelig in the British Tongue signifying an Osyer or Sallow which grows in abundance in those Parts and of which the Inhabitants make great profit by weaving Baskets and such like Wares This King was buried in the same Island LUD the eldest Son of Hely began his Reign Anno Mundi 3895 He was endowed with all the excellent qualities belonging to a Prince and is set down as an excellent Pattern of a wise and prudent Governour Amongst the most remarkable Monuments of his Reign was his Repairing or building the Walls of Troy-novant and on the West-side thereof erecting a most sumptuous and beautiful Gate called at this day Lud-gate Verstegan will by no means suffer that this Gate took its denomination from King Lud because of the last termination of it Gate shews the Name to be of Saxon and not British Original but Verstegan might have considered that the Saxons although they expressed the Names of many British Places by words of their own Language signifying the same thing yet what could they substitute in the room of a proper Name which remains alwaies the same in all Languages Besides he forgot clearly that there are many Places in England that remain mixed compounds of both the British and Saxon Tongues As for Example Durham Dunholne Dorchester and a thousand
thing he gave himself to was to understand the minds and inclinations of the People and like a prudent Person experienced in such Affairs he had learnt That Force and Arms were unable to keep a Nation in obedience unless Injustice and Oppression were removed Whereupon to make sure of Peace he resolved to take away the Causes of War and because the Branches would continually grow unless the Root was cut up and nothing was so powerful as Example he began the Reformation in his own Family reducing it to a convenient Number and good Orders and bridling the Licentious behaviour of his Domesticks a work of as much difficulty and no less honour than the subduing of a Province He suffered the management of no Publick Affairs to pass through the hands of his Attendants or Servitours nor gave any Commands for favour or affection No Souldier was advanced by bribing his Officer nor could any by under-hand means beg an Employment He was accounted fittest for Trust who behaved himself as the best Souldier and although he was not able to execute all things himself yet was nothing done without his privity and consent Small faults he would either wink at or pardon great ones he corrected with severity yet oftner pleased with the repentance of the Criminal than his punishment advancing such as he thought would be careful not to offend by which means he was provoked by the fewer Offences He truly stated the proportion of Corn and Tribute to be paid by which proceeding he cut off the Exactions of his Officers and their unnecessary Fees and other Grievances that were more burthensome than the Tribute it self For the poor People were forced to attend at the publick Granaries which in mockery were fast locked against them and when opened the Publicans obliged them to take greater quantities of Corn than their need required and at a racking price which they were often constrained to sell again at a low rate to make mony for other Necessaries or the payment of their Tribute They proclaimed the Mercates at their distances from the People and lying through bad Roads which Inconvenience could not be bought off without a round sum which if not presently paid the Carts and Waggons of the Inhabitants were prest to remove the Grain which before lay convenient to be delivered out to the great oppression of the Britains and the lucre of the Roman Officers By redressing of these Grievances in his first year he brought Peace into some credit and reputation which before by the negligence or connivance of men in Command had as ill a name as War About this time died VESPATIAN whose Actions in Britain were as great as those in his Empire he was made Legate of a Legion by Claudius and in this Island fought thirty times with the Enemy conquered two potent Nations and above twenty strong Towns He was a moderate Prince if not given too inordinately to the love of Riches and in a Triumph which was given him by the Senate he professed himself rather wearied with the Pomp and long Solemnity than touched with the Honour of it Being about to give up the Ghost he said in a jesting manner to the Standers by I think I am making a God by which saying he secretly reproved them who would be esteemed Gods after they had given the surest Testimonies of their being Men. THE British History IN the same year died Arviragus of whom in the Roman Histories not one word in these Times unless we may take Mr. Hollinsheads word that he was the same with Prasutagus mentioned by Tacitus I know generally the British Histories make him die ten years before but I rather follow Count Palatine as coming nighest to truth who continueth his Reign to this time so that be governed in all thirty five years even to the daies of Titus for had he lived only in the daies of Claudius and Nero how came Javenal to make mention of him in the time of Domitian in these words Omen habes magni clarique triumphi Regem aliquem capies aut de temone Britanno Excidet Arviragus This sure a glorious Triumph do's fore-tell Some King you 'l take or from his British Throne Arviragus will headlong tumble down He died and was buried in Claudiocestria now Glocester a City he had built in the honour of Claudius and left the Kingdom to his Son Marius MARIUS otherwise Meurig or Maw MARIUS succeeded his Father Arviragus as there is difference in his Name so is there also variance concerning the Person The Count Palatine will have him the same with Cogidunus others with Arviragus and some make him a Roman The Controversie is not worth the deciding only this may be said That if the British Kings were to be displaced upon the account of Time as Polidore Virgil hath done some of them there was never greater necessity than now seeing we are got into an uncertain Chronology and so Marius the supposed Cogidunus should be placed before Arviragus who undoubtedly by Roman Authority lived in the daies of Domitian as before hath been shewn In the Reign of this Marius the Picts infested this Island which story for the credit of the British History I shall defer to the end of his Reign and so proceed to the Romans THE CONTINUATION OF THE Roman History TITUS VESPATIAN WHen TITUS entered upon the Empire it was the second year of Agricola's Government in Britain who having in his first Entrance reformed Abuses and taken away the encroachments of his Officers and Collectors when Summer was once come he drew together his Army and breathed them a little with short and quick Marches praising such as kept up to their Ensigns and punishing the straglers and himself alwaies chose the places to encamp in and before-hand searcht the Woods and sounded the Waters they were to pass by which means he suffered not the Enemy to take any rest but continually allarumed them with fresh Excursions Having thus pretty well amazed them he began with kind and gentle Behaviour to shew them the allurements of Peace by which 〈◊〉 many Cities that before stood upon Terms of equality now laid down their Anger gave Hostages and received Garrisons which were all placed with such care and fore-sight and in such places of advantage that never any of them were attempted whereas before no new fortified place in all Britain escaped unattacked The following Winter was spent in wholesome and profitable Devices for to the end that the Britains who lived rude and scattered and so apter for War might be brought to the sence of Pleasures and to live in ease and quiet and in the Institutes and Customes of a Civil life he privately encouraged and in publick promoted the building of Houses Temples and places of general Resort commending the readiness of some and quickning the slowness of others making that which was Necessity to become Emulation And now the Noble-mens Sons he caused to be instructed in the liberal
stories of Adam Cain Noah and his Sons Joseph and others c. so that at last they were forced for distinctions sake to divide them into Degrees and Orders namely Dii Consentes seu Majorum Gentium Selecti Patricii Insigniores Dii Medii Dii Infimi At last not only every Nation but every City nay private Families had their peculiar Tutelar Gods and every Wood and Fountain had certain Nymphs assigned unto it The truth of which may plainly be seen from the Oath and Covenants between Hannibal General of the Carthaginians and Xenophanes Embassadour of Philip King of Macedon This the League ratified by Oath with Hannibal the General and with him Mago Myrcal and Barmocal as also the Senatours of Carthage that are present and all the Carthaginians that are in his Army have made with Xenophanes Son of Cleomachus the Athenian whom King Philip Son of Demetrius hath sent unto us for himself and the Macedonians and his Associates before Jupiter Juno and Apollo before the God of the Carthaginians Hercules and Tolaus before Mars Triton Neptune before the Gods accompanying Arms the Sun the Moon and the Earth before Rivers Meadows and Waters before all the Gods that have power over Carthage before all the Gods that Rule over Macedon and the rest of Greece before all the Gods that are Presidents of War and present at making this League Out of this vast multitude the Athenians had twelve Gods for whom they had a more particular honour and veneration For this reason was erected in Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in their Common discourse they were wont to swear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these Herodotus saith they received from the AEgyptians Duodecim Deorum nomina primos AEgyptios in usu habuisse atque Graecos ab illis caepisse mutuatos eosque priùs Aras Imagines Templa Diis sibi erexisse The AEgyptians first invented the Names of the twelve Gods which the Greeks borrowed or received from them for they first erected to themselves Altars Images and Temples for their Gods For the Graecians worshipped their Gods a long time without any distinct Names or Titles only under the common name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the same Author assures us As the Graecians had twelve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or principal Gods so the Romans had twelve Dii Consentes who were supposed to be of Jupiter's Privy-Councel and as the Greek Gods had their Pictures drawn out in a Gallery in Ceramicus so these had erected in the Market place twelve guilt Images their Names are comprehended in this distick of Ennius Juno Vesta Minerva Ceres Diana Venus Mars Mercurius Jovis Neptunus Vulcanus Apollo But for the conveniency of a speedier dispatch of this matter we will treat only of two of these as also of Pan and Janus who more particularly belonged to the Romans and may serve to type out the nature and manner of the rest and first of JANUS WHo this JANUS was Authors extreainly disagree among themselves some affirming him to be the Sun others the World the Year Noah Japhet and others Javan That the Ancients by Janus designed the last of these is probable first from the nearness of their Names secondly from the Fable of Janus it self JANUS is made to be the first King of Italy and JAVAN supposed to be the first person that brought Colonies into Italy The Image of JANUS had two Faces looking East and West as Greece and Italy lay and was stamped on Coyns with a Ship on the reverse all which may be referred to Javan Father of the Greeks and Latins who sayling over the Ionian Sea that lies between AEtolia and the Western parts of Greece and Italy planted Colonies in both Others make him the same with Noah drawing their Argument from the similitude of his Name with the Hebrew 〈◊〉 Jain Wine whereof Noah was the first Inventer but although 't is uncertain who really he was yet without question he was honoured by the Age he lived in as a great Benefactour to Mankind and afterwards for the usefulness of his Inventions was lookt upon by fond Posterity as a God He is said first of all to have taught the Italians That Bread and Wine was fitter for Religious Asses than eating and drinking He also introduced Altars among them and taught several Rites and Ceremonies used in Sacrifices Upon this account at all their Oblations their first Applications and Invocations were made to JANUS by way of Introduction and Preface the Wine and Bread being offered up to him as the First-fruits due to him He found out Shipping the Invention of Coyning Keys and Locks for the security of Houses He was called more particularly Father though that appellation grew afterwards common to most of the Gods his Effigies in the Capitol of Rome was very much admired for the artificial placing of the Fingers His Right-hand represented three hundred daies and his Lest sixty five which makes up the daies of the year signifying thereby that he was God of Time He had at Rome three Temples sacred unto him but I shall only speak of that which was built by Romulus upon the Peace made between him and Tatius in which was the Image of Janus looking two waies an Emblem of the Romans and Sabines who upon this Peace became one People This is that Temple so much talkt of in Authors that was alwaies shut in the time of Peace and open in times of War from whence Janus is called Patulcius and Clusius This Temple from the time of Numa to Augustus was never shut but thrice first by Numa secondly after the first Punick War by T. Manlius Torquatus and lastly by Augustus after the Battle of Actium JUPITER JUPITER was the Son of Saturn and Rhea or Ops but how he came afterwards to be Deified we must learn from Diodorus Siculus Some are of Opinion saies he that after Saturn took his place among the Gods that Jupiter justly and lawfully and not by force succeeded in the Kingdom although others say Saturn being foretold by an Oracle at the Birth of his Son that he should be expelled the Kingdom by Jupiter was moved by Interest of State for his own security to destroy all his Sons hoping by that means to prevent and nip Rebellion in the bud But Ops resenting this his Inhumanity and seeing no hopes of appeasing her incensed Husband privately sent him to be brought up by the Curetes that lived about Mount Ida these recommended the bringing up of the Infant to the care of certain Nymphs that inhabited a Den thereabouts who fed him with Goats-milk and Hony After he came to mans estate he built a City on Ida the relicks of whose Ruines remain to this day This God exceeded all men in Valour and all other Vertues whatever for possessing himself of the Kingdom after Saturn he contributed very much to the ease and comfort of Mans life He first taught that Justice was to be observed and Force and
Aurelian whose right he had usurped After this Massacre few or none being left in Britain whose wisdom in Councel or policy in War was able to do much for their Country Hengist had the leasure to establish his new Dominions And although we read of some few bickerings between him and the Britains afterwards yet by the consequences we shall find that these last were alwaies the loosers and the Saxons the only gainers And now about the year 477 Ella another Saxon Prince with his three Sons Cymen Pletig and Cissa entered the Island at a place in Sussex called Cymenshore and made great slaughter of the Britains but of his actions as being the founder of the Kingdom of the South Saxons there will be occasion to speak in that History It is sufficient here to be hinted that so fair a gap being laid open by Hengist not long after as if Britain was the field of Fortune many other Princes out of Saxony and those parts came flocking into the Island and soon after one another settled Seven distinct Kingdoms leaving to the Poor Britains no more than what nature seemed to provide for them namely inaccessible Mountains and Rocks scarcely passable where defending themselves and enjoying the use of their Religion they sometimes to little purpose as in the main appears made sallies upon the Saxons who not withstanding all resistance still more and more increased Some of them fled over to their Brethren in Armorica others into Holland where yet remains the Ruines of Brittenburg not far from Leyden to be seen at Low-water either built as the Dutch Writers affirm or seized by the Britains in their flight from Hengist Hengist reigned thirty four years and then as Marianus Scotus reports died honourably but Peter de Ikam Polydore and others say he was slain in Battel or taken by Edol Earl of Gloucester and beheaded at Conesborow He was a Prince of the chief Blood of the Saxons by birth of Angria in Westphalia and supposed Lord of that Territory called at this day Hengster-holt He is thus derived from the deified Woden Hengist the Son of Wetgisse the Son of Wecta the Son of Woden When Hengist came first into Britain he is said to have built Thong-Castle near Sydingborn in Kent so called because he had begged as much ground of the King to build it on as he could compass about with an Ox-hide Here he feasted Vortigern and here the fair Rowena in broken language drunk to him that fatal Wassal that for ever after like a strong yet lingring poyson stuck close to his side Thus Hengist obtained the Kingdom by Craft as much as Courage and established it in blood by Treachery yet there are who excuse that Massacre of the British Nobility and lay it upon chance not design alledging that in Saxony not long before there had been a meeting of Thuringers and Saxons where if the Saxons suspecting fraud had not come privily armed the Thuringers had dispatched them all fearing the like Treachery from the Britains they prepared for the worst in this Treaty and in the midst of their Cups as drink is quarrelsom they were provoked beyond the measure Wine is able to bear Thus Verstegan OERIC OERIC Sirnamed Oisc the Son of Hengiss succeeded in the Kingdom At the Battel of Creganford or Craford he gave signal proof of his Valour in assisting his Father in gaining that most remarkable Victory not long before he had been taken prisoner by the Britains and was held in custody at York but by secret workings he made his escape and came up to his Father before the fight began Being seated in the Throne like a wise Prince he set himself to the establishing his Kingdom by good Laws contracting his Dominions within the Province of Kent as most tenable and neglecting those Out-skirts of Essex Sussex and Middlesex left him by Hengist as not well bounded nor throughly subdued Sussex and Surry which touched him on the West he gave up to the Conquest of Ella the Saxon and Essex and Middlesex on the North he left free for Enchinwine another Saxon Adventurer to exercise his Valourin Thus whilst on all sides of his Kingdom the Britains were kept off by other hands he had leasure to follow the Arts and Methods of Peace like Numa to settle the Kingdom left him by his warlike-Predecessor And this is the reason that we hear little of his Son and Grand-son saving their Names and Issues till the time of Ethelbert For the Britains taken up with higher Wars had not opportunity or means to reach Kent and till Ethelbert's daies the other Saxons were so well imployed by the Britains that they had no leasure to fall out among themselves In memory of this Prince the founder of their Laws and Priviledges the Kentish Men afterwards called themselves Oiscings He reigned 24 years but hath not the honour by our Historians to be accounted the second Monarch of the English Men they giving that place to Ella founder of the South Saxons a more active and bustling Prince OCTA OCTA the Son of Eske or Oisc began his Reign about the year 513 What his Father peacably left he quietly enjoyed for twenty two years in which he had the pleasure to see many other Principalities of the Saxons begun in the Island He left the Kingdom to Ermiric ERMIRIC ERMIRIC the Son of Octa Reigned twenty nine years more honourable in his Posterity than any actions of his own He gave his Daughter Rikel in marriage to Sledda Son of Erchinwine first founder of the Kingdom of the East-Saxons by which alliance he endeared to himself the neighbouring Provinces of Essex and Middlesex his Kingdom he left to his Son Ethelbert ETHELBERT ETHELBERT the Son of Ermiric succeeded in the Kingdom of Kent He equalled in length of Reign both his Predecessors and as Bede rockoneth exceeded them three years At his first coming to the Crown he was very young and unexperienced by which means hastily aiming above his reach he fell almost beneath the contempt of his Neighbours The causes of his Ambition seem to be these We read that Hengist by leave of Vortigern had placed Octa and Ebissa in the North to keep off the Scots and Picts from molesting the Southern borders they and their Successors settling there a kind of Principality had held it for one hundred and eighty years yet as in subjection to Kent the elder Family and owning its Protection though far distant But Ida coming to govern in those parts about the year five hundred forty seven in the daies of Ermiric cast off all manner of obedience to that Crown and assumed an Absolute Royalty to himself which Indignity Ermeric as may probably be guessed resenting by making strong Alliances intended to revenge but being snatched away by untimely death the quarrel was left intire to young Ethelbert his Son who partly instigated by this affront whereby the honour of his Kingdom seemed to be
it as high a piece of Courtship to conform to the present way of worship their old Idolatry and now again revived Superstition In vain did Lawrence Successor to Augustine in the See of Canterbury endeavour by diligent preaching to stop the tide of this Apostasie for preferment at Court and the Countenance of the Prince drew more Proselites to Heathenisin than the good lives and examples of constant Professours could keep true and sincere in the maintenance of the Gospel But he was not long unpunished for whether workt by the strength of Education which suffereth not without violence principles well grounded to be rooted up or whether indeed as is related possessed with an evil Spirit he fell into soul fits of phrenzy and distraction the convulsions of the mind and often torments of an evil Conscience And now whilst in human appearance there seemed no hopes of amendment it so fell out that by extraordinary means he became penitent The story goes that Lawrence finding his labours ineffectual was resolved to retire into France and follow Justus and Melitus the one expelled London the other Rochester for the Apostasie was now spread wide into the Country of the East-Saxons also being at his devotions the night before his intended departure in the Church of St. Peter that Saint appeared to him and to make the Vision more sensible gave him many stripes for offering to desert his Charge the marks of which the next morning being shewn to the King with the cause why and the person from whom they were received so wrought upon his fancy already prepared that immediately forsaking his Incestuous life he embraced again the Christian Religion and became as zealous a Professour as he had been a violent Persecutor Though it should seem by the following Epistle of Pope Boniface that Justus not Laurentius was his Converter The Epistle of Boniface V. To Justus late Bishop of Rochester now Successor of Melitus in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury To our most Beloved Brother Justus Boniface sendeth Greeting WIth what devotion and watchfulness your Brotherhood hath laboured for the Gospel of Christ not only the tenour of your Letter directed to us hath manifested but the granted accomplishment of your undertaking For neither hath Almighty God forsaken the Obligation of his Name or the fruit of your Labour in what he faithfully promised to the preachers of the Gospel Behold I am with you even to the end of the World Which his clemency hath particularly shewn in your ministery opening the hearts of the Gentiles to receive the singular mystery of your preaching for with a great reward and the assistance of his goodness he hath illustrated the delightful course of your proceedings whilst of the Talents committed unto you by a faithful improvement rendring him a plentiful increase he hath prepared for you to lay up by multiplying the kind And this also is conferred on you by that retribution who constantly persisting in the ministry laid upon you with a commendable patience wait for the redemption of that Nation and that they might be profitable to yours their salvation is begun The Lord saying Whosoever shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Ye are saved therefore by a patient hope and the strength of forbearance that the hearts of unbelievers being purged from the natural disease of Superstition might obain the mercy of their Saviour For having received an express from King Eadbald our Son we find with how great knowledge in holy teaching your Brotherhood hath brought his mind to a true conversion and the belief of our undoubted faith Upon which occasion having a certain assurance of the continuance of the divine Clemency we believe that by the ministry of their preaching will follow not only the full conversion of those under his command but of the neighbouring Nations also Since as it is written The recompence of your works accomplished shall be given by the Lord the Rewarder of all good things And it may truly be effected that the sound of them hath gone throughout the whole earth and their words to the ends of the earth by an universal confession of Nations professing the Christian Faith Polydore Virgil relates that hereupon he was Baptized but it seemeth strange that Ethelbert so Religious a Prince had neglected that pious office to his Son and as for re-baptizing in case of Heresie or Apostasie it had been long before condemned in the Church After his conversion he re-called Melitus and Justus from banishment and built a Chappel within the Monastery of Peter and Paul at Canterbury He reigned twenty four years and by Emma daughter of Theodebert a French Prince had two Sons Ermenred and Ercombert Ermenred died before his Father and left a Daughter Dompnena and two infant Sons behind him Ethelred and Ethelbert but the Kingdom required a man to govern it Ercombert the younger Son succeeded his Father ERCOMBERT ERCOMBERT notwithstanding his elder Brother's Sons were living took possession of the Kingdom What he wanted in Right he made out in good Government being reported a most Religious and Christian King The Saxon Idols yet standing he utterly demolisht and commanded the Fast of Lent to be universally observed but he is noted by some for not restoring at his death the Kingdom to his Nephew whose undoubted Right it was But leaving two Sons behind Egbert and Lothair whom he had by Sexburg the daughter of Anna King of the East-Saxons it fell to them successively He reigned twenty four years EGBERT EGBERT the eldest Son of Ercombert after his Father's death obtained the Crown but conscious that the right of Inheritance lay in his Uncle's Sons Ethelred and Ethelbert to secure himself he dispatcht them both casting their bodies into a River that their murther might not be known but they were afterwards by the stream cast up upon the shore and discovered by the next Inhabitants who in great veneration for before they were esteemed Saints and now Martyrs interred their bodies and built over them a little Chappel or Oratory Their bones were afterwards removed and laid in the Abby of Ramsey in Hantshire Their Sister Dompnena married to Merwald a Mercian Prince founded the Abby of Minster in Kent wherein saith Stow she became the first Abbess Mr. Cambden placeth that Abby in Sheppy and saith it was founded by Sexburga Wife of Ercombert To make amends for this Murther he gave to the Mother of these Princes part of Tanet wherein to build and Abby His ill-gotten Power was but short reigning only nine years he left behind him two Sons Edric and Wigtred but his Brother Lothair seized the Kingdom In his days the Province of Kent was divided into Parishes by Theodorus not Honorius Arch-bishop of that See as Mr. Speed falsly accounteth who placeth also this Action in the days of Ercombert LOTHAIR LOTHAIR taking the advantage of the Minority of his Nephews stept into the Throne but he enjoyed it not in Peace