Brittains for matters of Religion but leaving it voluntary and free unto them as other Tributaries to use the Religion of their Countries or as they were best and most disposed privately at the least even in Rome it self without controlment So by the great mercy and providence of God the subjection and temporal captivity or restraint of divers of these our worthy Countrymen proved to be the most happy spiritual freedom in Christ both of those our Hostages there and this whole Kingdome afterward converted to the true Faith from thence by this original so renowned and glorious for ever to this Nation to have in Rome it self the first Harborours and Receivers of that most blessed and highest Apostle St. Peter that the House where St. Peter was first received was called the House of Pudens the Senator may be because he long after was owner of it as it was also called the House of St. Novatus the House of St. Timothy the House of St. Pudentiana the blessed children of St. Pudens and St. Claudia our Countrywoman who all successively possessed it termed by their Name for the time as usually houses and places be by the owners Names untill the time of Pope Pius the first it was by the Donation of St. Pudentiana as the Roman Antiquities themselves and their continual kept tradition do declare absolutely converted to a Church and ever since after her death called the Church of St. Pudentiana which before was called the house of them as they possessed it in order or the house of them all sometimes as the old Roman Martyrology calleth it the house of all the four children of St. Fudens and St. Claudia for speaking of them all by name St. Novatus Timotheus Pudentiana and Praxedet it addeth The House of these being changed into a Church is called the Title of Pastor And it is evident by all probability that the Father of the Lady Claudia owner of this House where all his children long after lived was yet living possessor thereof both now and when St. Peter was first entertained there For Martial the Poet which lived in this time and wrote in the dayes of Domitian and Nerva long after maketh an honourable Memory of the Father of the Lady Claudia then living calling him Socer of Pudens Martial l. Epigr. saepe Joan Bale li. de script Cent. 1. in Claudio Ruff. To. Pit li. de vir illust in eadem Godwin Com. Britt alii The Brittish parents of St. Claudia were Christians Chrys in Epist 2 ad Tim. Theodoret in Epist 2 ad Tim. the Father of his wife St. Claudia our Countrywoman by parents for the word Socer hath no other meaning then a Father in law father to the wife whose Father in law he is or Father to the husband of that wife to whom he is sirnamed Socer Evident it is also that Pudens had no other wife but Claudia and she long overlived her husband Pudens And that this his Father in law was as noble for his Faith and Religion in Christ as by descent and birth we may easily inform our selves if from no other ground yet from the most holy and vertuous education of his Daughter in that profession who by the examples and documents of her pious parents the best Tutors of children their greatest charge was by their instruction come to that perfection in the law of Christ that being yet but young in all opinions when St. Paul writ his second Epistle to Timothy a little before his death she deserved the stile of one of four principal Christians in the judgement of that great Apostle as two great Doctors S. Chrysostome and Theodoret that part of his Epistle Eubulus saluteth thee Pudens and Linus and Claudia all the brethren He remembreth them by Name whom he knew to be more fervent in Faith And again Theodoret upon that place saith Paul put in the Names of them which were the best and most loving of vertue by which we may sufficienty see the great piety not onely of St. Claudia but her holy parents also the then honours of this Kingdome that had caused her then under their charge to be taught and instructed in so excellent a manner in true Religion And if I may have the like licence to write for the Religion of this Father in law which a late Author taketh to prove Pudens the son in law a Christian I may do it with much more reason for thus he writeth That the same Pudens was a Christian Godwin Com. Brit. p. 17. we have a great presumption in the Epigram of Martial where for his vertuous carriage he calleth him S. Maritus but a greater in another of the same Martial wherein he yieldeth him thanks for perswading him to amend his Writings that for obscenity and lasciviousness are indeed not to be endured by Christian oars And this it is Martial l. 7. Epigram 11. Cogis me calamo manuque nostra Emendare meos Pudens libellos Pudens thou wilt that I the errors mend Which in my wanton Verses I have pen'd That by this kind of Argument the Father of Claudia our noble Countrywoman was in all degrees as good or rather a better Christian then his son in law Pudens was is most evident Martial l. 7. Epig. 57. ad Ruffin for these Verses which Pudens did well like and allow yet by the testimony of Martial himself might not be imparted to the Father in law of Pudens but would seem light unto him occupied in more serious things For he writeth unto Pudens St. Eubulus named with honour by St. Paul probably was the Father of St. Claudia a Brittain Commendare meas instanti Rufe Camoenas Parce precor socero seria forsan amat Rufus my lines from thy wives Father keep His thoughts are rap't with things more grave more deep Where we see that the gravity of the Father in law of Pudens was greater then his 3. therefore much more may we presume from hence that he was a better Christian then the other by that argument Martyr Rom. 20. Jan. in St. Novato And yet we have a better Author both for his Christianity and Name also for the other three named by St. Paul to send salutations to Timothy from Rome at that time for certain except Eubulus the first were continuing in one House Pudens and Claudia were then married as is evident in the ancient Roman Martyrology and others and seeing by the Romans tradition and other testimonies the house wherein they dwelt was the chief lodging of the Apostles St. Peter and Paul and their successors until the time of Pope Pius the first it was converted to be a Church we must needs account St. Linus the Bishop the third which is here named to be also of the same family for the most part then how to single forth St. Eubulus which here is first either for Piety or Nobility or that he was the chief Pater-familias or Master of
chiefest City at this day in Essex wherein Lucius Helena and Constantine the first Christian King Empress and Emperour in the world were born which made Nechan to sing as he did From Colchester there sprung a star The rayes whereof gave glorious light Throughout the world in climates far Great Constantine Romes Emperour bright This City is walled about raised upon a high trench of earth though now much decaied having six gates of entrance and three posterns in the West wall besides nine watch Towers for defence and containeth in compasse 1980 paces wherein stand 8 fair Churches and two other without the walls for Gods divine Service St. Tenants the Black-fryars decayed in the suburbs St. Mary Magdelens the Nunnery St. John's and the Crochiet Fryers suppressed within towards the East is mounted an old Castle and elder ruines upon a trench containing two Acres of Ground where as yet may be seen the provident care they had against all ensuing assault This City was graced with the honour of a Viscount by K. James who Created Thomas Darcy Lord Darcy of Chich 1621. Viscount Colchester in Essex to him during his life the remainder to Sir Thomis Savage of Roch Savage in the County of Chester Knight and Baronet who had Married one of his Daughters and Coheirs Thomas Lord Darcy Argent 3 cinque foils Gules John Savage Viscount Rochester Colchester Argent 6 Lyons ramp 321 sable Now was the time come namely about one hundred and fourscore years after the Birth of our Saviour when Christian Religion which many years together had been for the most part shadowed with dark clouds of Heathenish superstition began to discover it self more openly in this Iland by the means of Lucius sirnamed Lever-Maur who by permission of the Roman Lieutenant did govern as King a great part of the Province For it appeareth by the testimony of some ancient Writers that Brittain received the Christian Faith even in the Infancy of the Church immediately after the death of our Saviour whose Apostles and Disciples according to his Commandment published and dispersed the same in divers Regions partly by themselves in their own persons partly by their Ministers among whom were sent into Brittany Simon Chananaeus that after his peregrination in Mauritania as it is reported was slain and buried in this Iland Aristobulus a Roman Brittish History fol. 108. l. 3. c. 3. of whom St. Paul in his Epistles maketh mention and Joseph of Arimathea a noble Man of Jury specially remembred of Posterity for his charitable Act in burying the Body of our Saviour This Man was appointed by St. Philip the Apostle then preaching the Christian Faith in Gallia to instruct the ancient Brittains among whom he began first as some write to institute an Eremitical life in a place then called Duellonia and afterwards Glastenbury where himself and his Companions imitating the austerity and zeal of solitude which they had observed in Mary Magdalen with whom they travelled out of Jury unto Marsilia in France sequestred themselves from all worldly Affairs that they might freely attend to the exercise of piety which they professed yea some Writers of former Ages have writ that the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul in their own persons at several times came into Brittain and that afterwards one Sueton a noble Mans Son of that Country being converted by such Christians as first planted the Faith there and called after his Baptisme Beatus was sent by them to Rome unto St. Peter to be better instructed and confirmed in Christianity and that in his return homewards through Switzerland he found in the Inhabitants there such a desire and readinesse to receive the Christian Faith as he resolved to continue in that place where he erected an Oratory to exercise a Monastical life and departed the world about the year of Grace 110. but who were the very first Teachers and at that time the Christian Faith was first of all received there it is not certainly known saith this Author Howbeit it is likely that in the Expedition of Claudius the Emperor which was about the third year of his Reign and twelve years after the Ascension of our Saviour some Christians of Rome and Scholars of the Apostles themselves became first known unto the Brittains who in processe of time were drawn by the Exhortations and Examples of their Teachers to embrace the Truth The unblamable life of those religious Men moving sometimes even their Princes though yet unbelieving to protect and regard them as is shewn in Arviragus and others as Lucius then began to doe besides that the Roman Lieutenants also as well in Brittain as in other places did sometimes tolerate the exercise of Christian Religion as not altogether disliking it howsoever for worldly respects they forbare to shew themselves openly in favour of it But Lucius declared his inclination thereunto after another manner For inwardly disliking the prophane superstition then used among the Romans by the great constancy vertue and patience of the Christians at Rome and other places suffering Persecution and Martyrdome for the Faith of Christ the number of Christians whom many men esteemed for the Miracles they wrought as contrary to common expectation daily encreased That Pertinax and Tretellius two worthy Senators of Rome had been lately converted from Paganisme to Christianity that Marcus Aurelius the Roman Emperor then reigning began to conceive a better opinion of them then himself and his Predecessors had done and so much the rather by reason that not long before he had obtained a famous victory against his enemies the prosperous Event whereof he attributed to the prayers of the Christians at Rome Upon these considerations Lucius determined to be instructed in the Religion which they professed and first of all commanded Elevanus and Meduinus two learned Men of the Brittish Nation to go to Rome where Elutherius was then Bishop to require some meet persons to be sent into Brittain to instruct him and his people for which purpose Fugatius and Damianus were specially appointed by Elutherius with all speed to repair thither where they afterwards not without some danger by tempest upon the Seas arrived and applyed themselves both by doctrine and examples to perform the charge committed unto them the successe therein proving answerable to their endeavours for the prince and his Family was by them baptized some of the Inhabitants that had formerly received the Faith were confirmed therein and others that remained as yet in their infidelity were converted to Christianity But Lucius the Prince having received instructions from the Sea of Rome for direction of himself and his people in the profession and exercise of Christian Religion not desirous also to order his temporal estate according the Roman policy and to that end sollicited Elutherius the Bishop to send unto him the Lawes of the Empire out of which he might elect and compose some certain Ordinances for the Administration of civil justice whereupon Elutherius sent Letters to the
Souldiers and pleasure of God S. Severinus de vita S. Martini Cap. 23. for defence and necessity of the Empire God himself sufficiently giving testimony thereto by the incredible event and victory following and that he slew none of his adversaries but in the feild upon which satisfaction St. Martin came to the feast and was far more honored of this Emperor there than any Prince the Emperors uncle brothers and such others there present sitting next unto the Emperor himself and his own Priest and Chaplain sat among those Princes Mr. Broug fo 573. And such was the honour and reverence our Emperor did yeeld publickly to that holy Bishop that in that solemn feast he refused to drink untill S. Martin had drunk out of the same bole before he condemned Priscillianus the heretick his Sectaries to death and banishment Justantius Tiberianus into our Brittish Island named Silley his judgement against those Hereticks was for things by them committed against his temporal estate Hâ—rris Hist Tom. 4. c. 34. Magdeb. cent 4. c. 16. Sylvius bonus C. Max. Caes Laudes Io. Leland Io. â—its in Silvio Bonâ— Harris sup Zosim l. 4. Baro. Spondan 382 in Anâ—al Annal. Scot. apud Hect. Boet. l. 7. Scot. Hist initio Yet do I not so contend saith Mr. Broughton to free Maximus that I would wash him clean from all spots and aspersions wherewith he is stained by some Writers I rather excuse him in profession of Religion then conversation of life yet both Symmachus Consul of Rome and our Brittish Writer Sylvius stiled the good Sylvius living in his time wrote Books in his praise and the very Scotish Antiquaries the greatest enemies he had for conquering and expelling them out of Brittain are forced to confesse that his carriage was such that it drew even his enemies to love honour and follow him and give him that honour here in Brittain which never any Emperor King or Ruler in it since the first inhabiting thereof enjoyed before him Which is that Ruling here 17 years he possessed and ruled over all Albion or Brittain And in this his general command here was a friend favourer to good Christians that Hiergustus being then King of the Picts both he and all his subjects Christians he freely for a small Tribute to testifie the whole Island belonged to the Roman Empire in his time suffered though a stranger quietly to reign as King among the Picts And plainly confessed that in Brittain divers years he behaved himself and in all mens judgement governed vertuously couragiously and as a good Emperor ought to do And that both the Christian Brittains and Picts the only then inhabitants here did marvelously well love him his Brittish Wife Queen and Empress daughter of Octavius is commended in the Histories to have been a very vertuous Lady The Brittish History sayth that Maximus being overthrown by Theodosius fled into Aquileia when by the treason of his own Souldiers whilst he was paying them their wages he was delivered to Theodostus disrobed of his Imperial ornaments and speedily put to an ignominious Death Theodosius Maximus being dead Theodosius the elder as he was Emperor so was he King and Ruler in Brittany this man is most renowned in Histories for the honoring the Church hate of heresies his praises be exceeding many among ancient Writers therefore I will onely and briefly use the testimonies of modern Historians in his behalf in their own words Stow Howe 's hist Tit. Rom. in Thedosio Magdeburg Cent. 4. c. 7. Col. 568. Mag. Cent. c. 10. Theod. Hist l. 6. c. 8. Theodosius the elder a most Christian Emperor Theodosius did open pennance in Millaine and fasted and prayed eight Months together according as St. Ambrose had enjoyned him because in the first part of his Empire he had commanded 5000 Citizens of Thessalonica to be slain and for the executing the innocent with the wicked in form of civil justice therefore the Arch-bishop would not permit him to rule in the Church nor to receive the Sacrament until he had performed his pennace The Magdeburgians of Germany say this Sacrament was Sacratissimum Domini Corpus preciosus Domini Sanguis Howes saith that St. Vrsula with 11000 Virgins which were sent into little Brittain to be married were martyred in this Theodosius his reign but others say it was in the time of Maximus Surius in St. Vrsula one give this relation Maximus entred into France possessed it all but especially one Province which was then called Formorica which is now called Little-Brittain because the Brittains did conquer and rase it and with great rage and fury put to Sword all the Natives thereof left it uninhabited as a wildernesse Maximus thought it necessary to people that Province again because it lay fit for him therein to conserve and transport his Brittish Souldiers Surius Ri. badeneira octob 21. and for that purpose he divided the fertile feilds lands of the Lesser-Brittain amongst his Souldiers which came to him out of Brit. to the end they might Till and Husband it and reap the fruit thereof But because his Souldiers might marry and have succession and settle themselves in that Province where there was no women for that they were also put to the Sword he determined to send unto the Island of Brittain Scotland and Ireland for a great number of Virgins which being brought into the new and lesse Brittain might marry with those Souldiers who were for the most part naturals of their own Country The chief Commander of all that Army was called Conanus a man of great birth and of greatest estimation of all the Brittains The Hist of St. Vrsula whom Maximus hath made his Leiuetenant General and Warden of all the Ports of that Coast Conanus desired to marry with the daughter of Dionecius King of Cornwal called Vrs a most Noble and vertuous Lady in whom did shine all the gifts of chastity beauty grace which might be desired in a woman throughout the Province of there were called forth 11000 Virgins as well for the intent above mentioned as also that they might accompany Vrsula who was to be their leader and Lady some of these Virgins went of their own accord others by constraint But seeing that the command of Maximus then Emperour was so peremptory that no excuse could be admitted they embarked themselves in those ships which were prepared for their passage unto the new Province of Brittain It pleased our Lord that these ships lancing out of the Haven met with a quite contrary wind which instead of carrying that blessed company towards Brittaine it furiously carried them quite contrary and passing by Zeland and Holland drove them into the mouth of the River of Rhene a River of great capacity and depth and carried them so high as the water did ebb and flow At that time when this happened Gratian the Emperour understanding what Maximus had done in Brittain and France and
with all those Meteors which are engendered in the middle Region of the Air From whence the name Thursday first derived consecrating to him the fifth day of the week which was afterwards called Thursday The name of Woden they attributed to Mercury or as some write to Mars whom they reverenced as a Protector in war and a giver of strength and courage against their Enemies To him they usually sacrificed with mans blood and dedicated the fourth day of the week naming it Wodensday as yet retaining the first denomination with very little difference Wednesday from whence Under the name of Freâ— they sacrificed to Venus as the giver of peace and pleasure whom they adored sometimes under the figure of Priapus committing to her the Patronage of the sixth day called Frea-day Of these three Thor was placed upon a three footed stool in the midst Friday from whence and Woden and Frea on each side To the Goddess Eoster they alwayes offered Sacrifice in the moneth of April which thereupon was called Eoster-moneth In their consultations of any weighty matter they observed south-saying and casting of lots Their custom of casting of lots was first to cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree into many pieces which being distinguished with several marks they did cast upon a white garment at a venture then if the matter concerned the Common-Wealth in general the Priest The manner of casting lots among the Saxons if a private person only the Master of the house having prayed the Gods and looked towards heaven did take up every one of the said pieces three times and interpreted the future success according to the form and similitude of the marks if the lots fell out contrary to their minds they consulted no more that day if otherwayes yet they would make further tryal by observing the flying and singing of birds They had another practise also to search out the event of great and weighty battails with their Enemies For they would get some one of that Nation with which the war should be made and then take another choice man of their own arming them both after their Country guise Horses much honoured by the Saxons and so make trial of their valour conjecturing by the success of that fight on whose side the victory should afterwards fall but of all other passages the neying of horses was of greatest credit both with the Preists and People who fondly supposed that those beasts understood and were privy to their secrets Why a horse for the Saxons Armes And hereupon as some suppose the Dukes of Saxony in times past gave a horse for their Ensign The names also of Hengist and Horsa the first men of note of the Saxon Nation that arrived in Brittain do signifie in their own language a horse Brit. Hist part 2. fol. 195. Mr. Bro. fol. 199. Jo. Gosc Hist Eccle. Mat. Parker Antiq. Brit. p. 8. Antiq. Glast Capgrave in vita St. Patricii Gul. Malm. l. de Antiq. Caenob Glast which denominations whether they were given in respect of their strength and courage qualities by nature proper to that beast or whether they received them upon any other occasion or accident I cannot certainly affirm sayes my Authour In this age we had here in Brittain many Monasteries and Religious houses both of Men and Women Our old Religious house in Glastenbury continued in this age as in the former having twelve religious Eremites belonging unto it dwelling in the places and Cells of the first twelve in the time of St. Joseph of Aramathea This is testified by the old Manuscripts of that place and Will of Malms in his book of the antiquity thereof witnesseth that those holy men in the number of twelve thus successively lived and served God untill St. Patricks coming The names of the twelve then living were Brunbam Dyregaan The great sanctity of the Brittish Nobility Viwall Wentreth Bantonnewing Adeloobre Loyor Wellyas Breden Swellwis Hinloirmus and Alius all of them descended of noble families rather preferred this poor penitential eremitical life then worldly honour The antiquities of Glestenbury further witness that about this time there was new founded or renewed an other little Religious house in honour of St. Michael the Archangel and particularly to honour and pray to him And that Arnulphus and Ogmar two religious holy men were the first that supplyed that office and duty there Math. West an 543. That there were divers Monasteries in Brittain as well in London Winchester Kent and other places appeareth evidently by divers Authors For say they Hengist the Pagan Saxon at his coming into Kent Stow. Howes Brit. Sax. in Const Vortiger found many religious houses both of Men and Women and many of them were glorious Martyrs by the Saxon persecutors Hengist slew the good Archbishop Vodine and many other Priests and Religious Men. All the Churches in Kent were polluted with blood the Nunns with other Religious persons were by force put from their houses and goods These religious houses must needs be builded and so furnished with goods and consecrated persons before the Saxons entred and so in or before this age these men being then Pagans were no founders but destroyers of such monuments Bed 1. c. 6. not only in Kent but all places where they prevailed by all histories Among these these sumptuous and stately Church Math. West an 313. 586. and Monastery of St. Alban builded within ten years after his Martyrdome was one for the Monastery there was not as Math. West proveth founded first by King Offa Kaer Carodoc Salisbury Manuscript Gallic Antiq. c. 24. Galf. Mon. Hist Brit. l. 8. c. 9 but being destroyed by the Saxons was re-edified by him There was also a noble monastery at Amsbury in Wiltshire near Salisbury in which as an old French Manuscript and others say there were at this time three hundred This was founded long before the Saxons came by one Ambrius near Kaer Carodoc Salisbury Our old English Chronicle treating of the desolation which the Pagan Saxons wrought in this Kingdom in destroying religious Houses and Churches and how Aurelius Ambrosius restored and builded them again thus delivereth that in general and particularly of this Monastery King Aurelambros went throughout the Land Mr. Breugron fol. 610. and put away the name of Hengist Land that Hengist after his name had called it before Then he let call it again great Brittain and let make again Churches and Houses of Religion Castles and Cities and Boroughs Old English Chronicle part 5. fol. 43. and Townes that the Saxons had destroyed The Brittains led him to the Mount of Ambrian where sometime was an house of Religion which then was destroyed through the Paynims whereof a Knight that was called Ambross that sometime was founder of that house and therefore the hill was called the holy Mount of Ambrian and after it was called Ambesbury The King Aurclambros let amend and
themselves together they so moved David the Lord of Denbigh to be at unity with prince Lhewelin and to take pitty upon their affliction and misery that he being agreed with his brother became their Captain year 1281 This reconciliation consisted chiefly in this that David should never after serve the King of England as he had done before but become his utter enemy who laid siege to the castle of Hawarden and took Roger Clifford a noble Knight slaying all that resisted The Welsh impatient of servitude and after spoyling all the country he with his brother the prince laid siege to the Castle of Ruthlan the King hearing of this hasted thither with a great army to raise the siege whereupon the prince retreated with his army Seek to recover their liberty Aberystwyth castle built by the King taken Godwin in Canterbury fol. 77. Also the same time Rees the son of Maelgon and Gruffith ap Meredith ap Owen which other noble men of Southwales tooâ— the castle of Aberystwyth and divers other castles in the Country spoyling and plundering all the Kings people that inhabited thereabouts Therefore the King sent the Archbishop of Canterbury to confer with the prince and his brethren but he returned without doing any good so that he denounced an excommunication this Archbishops name was Jehn Beckham who as B. Godwin saith took great pains in labouring a peace between K. Edw. l. and prince Lhewelin of Wales unto whom he went in person and travailed long with him but all in vain Articles sent from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to be intimated to Lhewelin Prince of Wales and to the People of the same Country 1 Because we came to those parts for the spiritual and temporal health of them whom we have ever loved well as divers of them have known 2. That we came contrary to the will of the Lord our King whom our said coming as is said doth much offend 3 That we desire beseech them for the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that they would come to an unity with the English people and to the peace of our Lord the King which we intend to procure them as well as we can 4. We will them to understand that we cannot long tarry in those quarters 5. We would that they considered that after our parting out of the Country they shall not perhaps find any that will so tender the preferring of their cause as we would do if it pleased God with our mortal life we might procure them an honest stable and firm peace 6. That if they do contemn our petition and labour we do intend forthwith to signifie their stubbournesse to the high Bishop and the Court of Rome for the enormity that many wayes happeneth by occasion of this discord this day 7. Let them know that unlesse they do quickly agree to a peace that war shall be aggravated against them which they shall not be able to sustain for the Kings power encreaseth daily 8. Let them understand that the realm of England is under the special protection of the See Apostolick and the See of Rome loveth it better then any other kingdom 9. That the said See of Rome will not in any wise see the state of the Realm of England quaile being under a special protection 10. That we much lament to hear that the Welshmen be more cruel then Saracens for the Saracens when they take christians they keep them to be redeemed for money but they say that the Welshmen by and by do kill all they take and are only delighted with blood and some time cause to be killed them whose ransom they have received 11. That whereas they were ever wont to be esteemed and to reverence God and Ecclesiastical persons they seem much to revolt from that devotion moving sedition and war and committing slaughter and burning in the holy time which is a great injury to God wherein no man can excuse them 12. We desire That as true Christians they would repent for they cannot long continue their begun discord if they had sworn it 13. We will That they signifie unto us how they will or can amend the trouble of the Kings peace and the hurt of the Common-wealth 14. That they signifie unto us How peace and concord may be established for in vain were it to form peace to be daily violated 15. If they say That their Laws or Covenants be not observed that they do signifie unto us what those be 16. That granting it That they were injured as they say which we in no wayes do know they which were Judges in the cause might so have signified to the Kings Majesty 17. That unless they will now come to peace they shall be resisted by decree and censure of the Church The Answer of Prince Lhewelyn to the above-written Articles To the most Reverend Father in Christ the Lord John by Gods grace Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England his humble and devote son Lhewelyn Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdon sendeth Greeting With all Reverend Submission and Honour we yield our most humble and hearty thanks unto your Fatherhood for the great and grievous pains which at this present for the love of us and our Nation you have sustained and so much the more we are beholden unto you for that besides the Kings pleasure you would venture to come to us In that you request us to come to the Kings peace we would have your Holiness to know That we are most ready and willing to the same so that our Lord the King will duely and truely observe and keep towards us and ours Moreover although we would be glad of your continuance in Wales yet we hope there shall not be any delay in us but that peace which of all things we most desire and wish for may be forthwith established and rather by your travel and procurement than by any other mens so that it shall not be needful to complain unto the Pope of our wilfulness neither do we despise your Fatherhoods requests and painful travel but with all hearty reverence according to our duty do accept the the same neither yet shall it be needful for the Lord the King to use any force against us seeing we are ready to obey him in all things our Rights and Laws as aforesaid reserved And although the Kingdom of England be under the special protection of the See of Rome and with special love regarded by the same yet when the Lord the Pope with the Court of Rome shall understand of the great dammages which are done unto us by the Englishmen to wit The Articles of the peace concluded and sworn unto violated and broken the robbing and burning of Churches the murthering of Ecclesiastical persons as well religious as secular the slaughter of women great with child the children sucking at their mothers breasts the destroying of Hospitals and Houses of Religion killing the men and women professed in the Holy Places and even before
rest of the Voyage he made by Land to a Bolein in Picardie Gessoriacum in Gallia where he embarked His forces being safely transported into the Isle were led towards the River Thamesis where Plantius and Vespasian with their power attended his coming so the two Armes being joyned together crossed the River again the Brittains that were assembled to encounter them began to Fight which was sharply maintained on both sides till in the end a great number of the Ilanders being slain the rest fled into the woods through which the Romans pursued them even to the Town of b Malden in Essex Camolodanum which had been the Royal seat of Canobeliâ—â— and was then one of the most defensible places in the Dominions of the Trynobâ—bâ— this town they supprized and afterwards fortifyed planting therein a Colony of old Souldiers to strengthen those parts and to keep the Inhabitants therein obedience Then were the Brittains disarmed howbeâ—â— Claudius remitted the confiscation of their goods for which favour the Ilanders erected a Temple and an Altar unto him honouring him as a God Now the states of the Country round about being so weakned by the losse of their Neighbours and their own civil dissensions as they were unable to resist the Roman power any longer began to offer their submission promising to obey and live peaceably under the Roman Government and so by little and little the hither part of the Isle was reduced into the form of a Province In honour of this Victyro Claudius was divers times saluted by the name of Imperator contrary to the Roman custome which permitted it but once for one expedition The Senate of Rome also upon advertisement of his successe decreed that he should be called Brittanicus and that his son should have the same Title as a surname proper and hereditary to the Claudian Family Massilina his Wife the monster of her sex for impudency and lasciviousnesse had the first place in council assigned her as Sivia the Wife of Augustas sometime had and was also licensed to ride in a Chariot at his return to Rome which was the sixth month after his departure thence having continued but sixteen dayes onely in this Isle he entred the City in triumph performed with more then usual ceremonies of state whereat certaine Presidents of Provinces and banished men were permitted to be present On the top of his pallace was placed a crown set with stems and fore-parts of ships which the Romans called Corona Navalis as a sign of the conquest of the Ocean divers Captains that had served under him in Brittany were honoured with Triumphal ornaments yearly playes were appointed for him and two Arches of Triumph adorned with Trophies were erected the one at Rome the other at Gessoriacum where he embarked for Brittany to remain to succeeding Ages as perpetual records of his victory and a work of such merit to have subdued so small a part of this Island About this time as it may be probably conjectured Christian Religion being yet green and of small growth began to cast forth some small sparkes of her brightnesse in the Isle of Brittain whether Christians of Rome and other countries then flying persecution resorted for safety and quietnesse as to a place remote and by reason of the Wars and Troubles there not much subjected to inquisition whereas also divers Brittains remaining at Rome where Christianity then increased either for Hostages The History of Great Brittain part 1. fol. 35. or detained as Prisoners or haply for some private respects of profit and pleasure had opportunity and liberty to converse with the Roman Christians and to be by them instructed and confirmed in the Faith of Christ The gate being now set open by this Author to discourse of our Famous and Saintly Brittains who even with the very first submitted themselves to the most heavenly and sweet yoak of their divine Master and Lord eternal Redeemer of Mankind God and Man Christ Jesus I shall endeavour to make it evident by the Testimony of Learned and apporved Antiquities to the great glory of the Brittish Nation that divers of them were the adopted sons and children of their eternal Father and the never-erring Catholick Church their Mother within few years after the Death and Passion of our most blessed Redeemer To begin therefore this intended Relation I will begin with St. Mansuetus the Disciple of St. Peter the Apostle and by him ordained the first Bishop of Tullum or Teul in Lorain who was born in that part of Brittain which now and for many years hath been called Scotland but whether he was a Brittain or a Scot will more fully appear hereafter and that he was by birth that part of the I le now called Scotland being at that time a part of Brittain and long after which among others Martial the Poet maketh manifest for that time who writing to Quintus Ovidius who was to to travel into those parts saith Quinte Caledonios Ovidi visure Britannos a Caius Calig Quintus Ovidius Roman called so To view the Caledonian Brittains now doth go St. Mansuetus a Brittain by St. Peter Consecrated Bishop of Tullum In the time of this Emperor we read that St. Peter the Apostle consecrated our holy Countryman St. Mansuctus whom he had Christened before in the time of Tiberius a Bishop and sent him to Tullum in Loraine The inhabitants of Tullum in Loraine had for their Apostle and first Bishop of their Faith in Christ St. Mansuetus a Scot by Nation the Disciple of St. Peter the Apostle and companion of St. Clement This is testified also by many others as Gulielmus Eisengrenius Antonius Democharez Petrus de Natalibus with others saying Mansuetus by Nation a Scot so they term our Northern Brittains according to the last Name thereof born of a Noble Family the Disciple of Simon Bar-Jonas the chief of the Apostles fellow of Saint Clement the Bishop of Metz was consecrated by Saint Peter the first Bishop in the city of Tullum Hitherto these Authors onely the difference I find between them is this Mr. Bro. f. 31.3 that Arnoldus Mirmanunus saith St. Clement whose companion Mansuetus was was Bishop of Metz by St. Peters appointment in the 40 year of Christ when Caius Caligula was Emperor and Eisengrenius tells us that St. Mansuetus was Bishop of Tullum in the year 49. eight or nine years after which may easily be reconciled together by saying St. Mansuetus was sent by St. Peter in the year of Christ 40. and took not upon the charge of Tullum untill the year 49. in the mean time being otherwise or elsewhere imployed in preaching the Gospel of Christ Neither will it avail or prove any thing to the contrary for any man to object that S. Peter was not yet come to Rome nor after until the beginning of the Empire of Claudius for although he came not thither to make any residence there til about that time yet this nothing hindred
seem to say Petrus Cluniacensis and I may add Tertullian tells us that the people of Brittain in the North where the Scots now be were the first Christians Petrus Cluniacensis calleth the Scots the more ancient Christians and hereto we may add the testimony of Tertullian who saith the places of the Brittains which were unaccessible to the Romans were subject to Christ and addeth of the Brittains the name of Christ reigned among them which our English late Authors in their Theatre confirm in this manner It is certain that the Brittains were with the first Converts and Tertullian who lived within 200 years of Christs Nativity sheweth no lesse who the more to provoke the Jewes against whom we wrote calleth to witnesse the fruitful encrease of the Gospel of salvation through many countries and nations and among them nameth the Brittains to have received the word of life The power whereof saith he hath pierced into those places whither the Romans could not come Whence Petrus Cluniacensis supposeth the Scottish men the more ancient Christians The like have other late Writers and those their cited Authors which cannot be otherwise verified but by applying this preaching of the faith of Christ unto those Northern Brittains either by this their holy Countryman St. Mansuetus the first Bishop we â—â—n find of this Kingdome or some other associate of his sent hither at or about that time 〈◊〉 the same holy Apostle St. Peter for in all other respects whether we speak of the Brittish Christians here in the time of Claudius or Nero of which these modern Antiquaries will tell us more hereafter or the coming of St. Joseph of Arimathea in his Religious companions into this Kingdome in the days of Nero or the general conversion of the Kingdome of Brittain unto the trenches of Severus in the time of King Lucius by Elutherius all these were long before the conversion of the Scots in the time of K. Donaldus either by Pope Victor or Zepherinus as Harrison rather supposeth the first time which is assigned by any being in the 203 year of Christ and if it was under Pope Zepherine it was after that time for he was not chosen Pope until the year 209. before which time or the beginning it self of the papacy of St. Victor which was in the year 198. this our Brittain on this side the division had generally and publickly received the faith of Christ And the very words of Tertullian living and dying before the conversion of Scotland within the first two hundred years writing in his book against the Jews that the places of Brittain which the Romans could never conquer or come to did acknowledge Christ and his name did reign in them do manifestly convince it to be so For Tertullian living and writing in Affrica could not possibly take notice of things done here in an Island so far off presently after they were first effected and by no means could either he or any other Writer speak of things done so long after truly to report them done so long before he had been the greatest prophet that ever was St. Claudia of whom mention is formerly made was the daughter of Brittish parents which then lived as Hostages at Rome to the Emperor for this land and Kingdome of Brittain and by that means it was their happiness and honour to give the first entertainment to that blessed Apostle St. Peter at his first coming thither as that Roman tradition of that their house after by marriage with the holy Brittish Lady Claudia Mr. Bro. f. 53.3 their daughter and heir with Pudens the Senator Floren. Wigor Hist an 38. and 60. Stow and Howes and so long after this coming of St. Peter to Rome named the house of Pudens the Senator assures us which I prove by another undoubted tradition of the Romans That St. Peter was 15 years in Rome before St. Paul came thither so writeth Florentius Wigorn with the common consent of Antiquity and Writers both ancient and modern And the Roman Martyrology tells us of this Pudens the Senator Mr. Bro. f. 56. that he was baptized by the Apostles And there calleth him plainly Pudens the Senator Father of St. Pudentiana the Virgin so that being baptized by the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul for no others were then in Rome this could not be by true account untill at the soonest fiveteen years after St. Peter was first received in that house And if the Martyrology could carry that interpretation to understand by the Apostles in the plural number one Apostle one proper constructoin yet by this Friendly and more then lawful interpretation he must needs be baptized by St. Peter and so also a most unprobable thing that divers Christians then being in Rome St. Peter would first commit himself to a Pagan or Catechumen and he and the Christians of Rome make such an house their chiefest Church and place of Assembly for Divine things Martial 11. Epig. 54. de Clau. Ruff. This Lady Claudia though born of Brittish parents yet was not born in this Isle Martiall saith Claudia caeruleis cum sit prognata Brittannis but not in Brittain only she is called of the same Poet peregrina a stranger as the children of strangers usually are termed both with us and other people And the time of her birth and age so convince And whereas we find no memory at all of any natural parents of St. Pudens dwelling at Rome we have sufficient testimony not only of the permanent dwelling both of the Father and Mother of St. Claudia there but that by divers probable Arguments they dwelled in that very House where Pudens continued with them after his marriage with their Daughter and were holy and renowned Christians although their native Country of Brittain hath hitherto been almost wholly deprived of their honour and so must needs be by the Roman Tradition the first entertainers of St. Peter in Rome for as a late Author writeth Pudens and Claudia were two young persons but faithful Christians Godwin com of Brittain p 17. c. 3. 2 Tim. 4.21 at that time unmarried when Paul writ the second Epistle unto Timothy which was in the last year of Nero as all men suppose that I have read except Baronius and that they were married in the later end of Vespasian or about the beginning of Domitian Therefore Pudens being so young in the end of Nero his Empire although we grant him then newly married yet this was by all Computations at the least 24 years after the coming of St. Peter to Rome and so it could not possibly be Pudens but the parents of Claudia our Brittains that entertained first St. Peter in their House at Rome who for certain being Brittains of Noble Order and Degree and living in Rome as Hostages by all judgement they enjoyed more freedome and liberty in matters of Religion then the Romans did at that time The Emperors of Rome then nor long after intermedling with the
the house Mr. Broug fol. 59. 6. or all and make him a stranger there I cannot find it by St. Paul onely repeating them of one family or any other warrant For it was plain here by the Apostle that he was a chief and principal Christian in Rome and first named among those worthies and before St. Linus a Bishop then and Pudens a Senator and absolutely there set down as their chiefest receiver friend and patron which cannot agree 〈◊〉 any other better then to the Father of St. Claudia St. Eubulus probably a Brittain this Father in Law to her Husband St. â—â—dens and first entertainer of St. Peter the Apostle in Rome by the Romans tradition for neither Dorotheus the continuator of Florentius Wigor nor any other that write of the Disciples there place him among Clergy-men and St. Paul which giveth him that honour in that place clearly proveth he was none of his Disciples then in Rome for he writeth in the same place only Luke is with me No Martyrology speaketh of him neither any Historian or Interpreter of Scripture to my reading setteth down of what Nation he was but leave him for a stranger as likewise many do St. Claudia Therefore except better Authority can be brought against me seeing he is by the Apostle so signified and placed the first in that family and salutation Eubulus greeteth you 2 Tim. 4. and Pudens and Linus and Claudia there is no cause yet I find to deny him to be the owner and Master of that house that first entertained St. Peter in Rome and he himself the first happy man that gave that glorious Apostle entertainment there that he was our most renowned Countryman of Brittain and Father of Lady Claudia for there is no other by any probable conjecture was likely to perform this duty in that house Pudens as before was either then unborn or an Infant of his own parents Father or Mother there is no mention in antiquities that either they were Christians or that they dwelt at all in Rome much lesse in that house being inhabitants of Sabinum and by Country Sabinites far distant from Rome And so there is none left unto us to be a Christian and left to entertain that heavenly Messenger and Guest S. Peter in that time and place but the renowned parents of St. Claudia then dwelling in Rome and there confined to a certain house and place of permanency by command of the Roman power to whom with many other Noble Brittains they were hostages and pledges for the fidelity and obedience of this Kingdome to the Roman Emperours at that time Mr. Broug fol. 59. 6. To strengthen this opinion we may add that St. Paul sendeth to St. Timothy his Disciple the salutations of Eubulus before all others of which sending the greetings of so few by name it will be no easie search to find out a better or more probable reason then this that St. Timothy so neer and beloved a scholar of St. Paul lodged usually in this house he also was there with his Master entertained by Eubulus the owner thereof and by that Title of his Hospitality obtained the first place in that salutation otherwise no man will doubt but S. Linus Bishop by calling so honourable in the Church of Christ ought and should have been named before him And that this familiar acquaintance between St. Timothy and these our holy Christian Brittains received original from their ancient entertainment of St. Timothy in their house in Rome many years before this their salutation in the Epistle of St. Paul it is evident for St. Paul being now lately come to Rome when he wrote this Epistle neither he nor St. Timothy were after St. Pauls first dismission from prison there so long before it is manifest that these though the Lady young in years were ancient Christians at that time and we have an uncontroleable warrant from St. Paul himself in his Epistle to the Hebrews that St. Timothy was at Rome when he was first prisoner there in the beginning of Nero his Empire For thus he writeth Know you that our brother Timothy is set at liberty Thus St. Paul writeth from Rome in the time of his first imprisonment there and so maketh these our country Christians to be acquaintance of St. Timothy then to be more ancient in the school of Christ then either St. Timothy or St. Paul at his first coming to Rome when there was none to instruct either them or others in Christian Religion at Rome but St. Peter and his Disciples I add to this the charge and warning which Martial the poet gave before to Pudens Rufus my lines from thy Wives Father keep an evident testimony that they then lived in one house together and so the poems sent to Pudens might easily come to his Father in law his hands and reading except Pudens hae been so forewarned to keep and conceal them from him whereof there had been no danger nor need of that admonition if they had lived in distinct places and not in one House And thus much of the Father of the Lady Claudia Concerning her holy Mother also so good a Nurse and Tutrix to so happy a child we are not altogether left desolate without hope but we may probably find her forth for the honour of this Kingdome her Country And except the Roman Historians can find unto us a Christian Father to St. Pudens and dwelling with his wife in the same House as I have found unto them a Father unto St. Claudia and Father in law to Pudens an holy Christian dwelling in that house before Pudens his time by Nation of this Kingdome which by that is said before they cannot doe seeing that Noble Matron which is acknowledged by the Roman Writers even Baronius to have dwelt in that House and Grandmother to St. Claudia her children Priscilla foundresse of a Church-yard in Rome of her Name Mother of St. Claudia very probable Baronius in Annot. in Martyrolog Rom. July the 8. St. Pastor Sen. Hermes in Act. St. Pudens Baron Tom. 1. Annal. Anno 159. an 166. must needs be her Mother her Fathers wife and Mother in law to Pudens I am bold to assign that glorious and renowned St. Priscilla Foundresse of that wonderful and religious Church-yard to be the same Brittish Christian Lady Baronius though staggering sometimes in his opinion herein saith plainly There was a most Noble Matron in Rome called Priscilla Grandmother of the Virgins Pudentia and Praxedes of whom there is mention in the Acts of Pudentia written by St. Pastour The like he writeth in other places whereas she is there by him called the Mother of Pudens he must needs be understood to speak in their phrase which ordinarily all Mothers in law use by the absolute name of Mothers as the common custom is Sometimes in other places Baronius saith St. Priscilla was wife to Pudens and Mother to St. Novatus Pudentiana and Praxedes so likewise doth Zepherinus
Anton. Philos 13 years 19 Ælius Pertinax 6 months 20 Didius Julianus 7 months 21 Septimius Severus Britt 18 years Pessenius Niger Usurpers Clodius Albinus Usurpers 22 Anton. Bassianus Caracalla Britt the eldest son of Severus six years Geta Caesar Britt the younger son of Sept. Severus 23 Opilius Macrinus 1 year 2 months 24 Varius Heliogabulus the base son of Caracalla 4 years 25 Alexander Severus a kinsman of Heliogab 13 years 26 Julius Maximinus 3 years Balbinus Caesars Elect. Pupienus Caesars Elect. 27 Gordianus the father with his two sons and his Nephew 6 years C. Valens Hostilianus Caesar 28 Philippus the Arabian 5 years 29 Decius Trajanus 2 years 30 Vibius Pallus Hostilian with his son Volusianus 2 years 31 Æmilius of Mauritania 3 months 32 Licinius Velerianus 15 years 33 Gallienus the son of Valerianus 9 years Valerianus Brother of Gallienus Caesar Cassius Labienus Posthumus Caesar 34 Flavius Claudius 2 years 35 Aurelius Quintillus the brother of Claudius 17 dayes 36 Valerius Aurelianus 5 years and 6 months 37 Tacitus 6 months 38 Annius Florianus brother to Tacitus 60 years 39 Valerius Probus 6 years 4 months 40 Carus Narbonensis 2 years Numerianus Caesars Carinus Caesars Dioclesianus 20 years Maximianus Herculeius Caesar Constantius Chlorus 4 years Galerius Maximus 11 years Severus Caesars Maximianus Caesar Maxentius son of Maximian 6 years Licinius 14 years Constantinus Magnus 30 years Magnentius Usurper Constantinus the 3 sons of Constantine the Great Constans the 3 sons of Constantine the Great 47 Constantius the 3 sons of Constantine the Great 48 Julianus Apostata 1 year 6 months 49 Jovinianus 8 months 50 Valentinianus 12 years Valens his Brother Caesar 51 Gratianus 6 years Valentinians Caesar Theodosius Caesar 52 Theodosius 3 years 53 Arcadius 13 years 54 Honorius 28 years Lieutenants in Brittain from Nerva Cocceius his Entrance into the Government of the Empire until the Reign of Honorius the Emperor Lieutenants under Nerva and Trajanus There is no mention of any Lieutenants in Brittain during the time of their Government Lieutenants under Adrian Britt Julius Severus Priscus Licinius Lieutenants under Antoninus Pius Lollius Vrbicus Britt Lieutenants under Antonin Philos Calphulnius Agricola Lieutenants under Commodus Vlpius Marcellus Helvius Pertinax Clodius Albinus Junius Severus Lieutenants under Pertinax Clodius Albinus Lieutenants under Did. Julianus Clodius Albinus Lieutenants under Sept. Severus Britt Heraclianus Virius Lupus For the time of Basianus Caracalla the Successor of Severus unto Constantine the Great there is no mention in approved Histories of any Lieutenants in Brittain Deputies under Constantine the Great Pacatianus Deputies under Constantius the youngest son of Constantine the Great Martinus Alipius Deputies under Honorius Chrysanthus Victorinus Princes and secular Men of special Note among the Brittains In the time of Calphurnius Agricola's Government under Mar. Aurel. Antonin Philos Lucius sirnamed Lever-Maur the first Christian Prince in Brittany In the Reign of Aurelianus Bonosus an Usurper of the Empire in Brittain In the Reign of Constantius the youngest son of Constantine the Great Magnentius Toporus Usurper of the Empire of Brittany Archbishops of London from the time of King Lucius untill the coming of the Saxons 1 Thean 2 Clavus 3 Cador. 4 Obinus 5 Conanus 6 Paladius 7 Stephanus 8 Jetut 9 Dedwinus 10 Thedredus 11 Hillarius 12 Guidilinus 13 Vodinus who lived when the Saxons first entred the Land HItherto hath been declared the successe of times and affairs in Brittain under the first twelve Emperours of Rome the same being recorded by such Writers as had best means to understand the truth thereof and were principal Registers of things done by the Romans in those times as for the occurrents ensuing the death of Domitian until the Reign of Honorius in whose time the Roman Government ceased they are imperfectly reported or a great part of them meerly omitted so that I am forced of many things only to make a bare and brief relation as unwilling by adding or diminishing to aâ—ter in substance what Antiquity hath left us or fill up blancks with conjectures or projects of mine invention saith the Author of the a Lib. 3. f 104. Brittish History and therefore howsoever this book following which comprehendeth the Acts of many more years then the former may seem to carry with it a kind of disproportion from the other two and likewise in respect of the style and composition to be somewhat different from them yet the cause thereof ought to be imputed to the very matters themselves being for the most part Fragments and naked memorials the loose ends of time without observation of circumstance or congruity in substance which will hardly admit any method befitting a continued History and I owe so much love and reverence to truth as I would rather expose her in the meanest and worst habit that time hath left her then by disguising her to abuse the world and make her seem a Counterfeit After the death of Titus Domitian his younger Brother taking the Empire upon him as you have heard before differed so much from his Brother and Vespasian his father before him that he fell into such great pride and impiety that he caused and commanded himself to be called and worshipped as a god and was the second after Nero who setting forth his cruel Edicts to that end persecuted the Christians and the Church of Christ which cruelty of his although it did not extend to our Christian Brittains in Rome still by the Roman Laws enjoying there their priviledges and immunities from compulsion to square themselves in matter of Religion to the Emperial Laws and Edicts at which time many of those banished and persecuted Christians as in the persecution of Nero before as good Antiquaries tells us fled into this our Brittain whether that persecution did not nor could extend it self for refuge and succour Domitian being now dead Nerva revoked all his cruel edicts against Christians and recalled such as were banished Nerva primo edicto suo cunctos exules Mr. B f. 170. quos Domitianus relegavit revocari precepit Nerva was a Prince much honoured for his Vertues but in what estate the Affairs of Brittain then stood the Histories of those times make no mention either for that the Emperour being a man stricken in years and disposed to ease and quietnesse employed himself rather in reforming abuses at home then in maintaining War abroad or else for that the short continuance of his Government did not suffer him to enter into any great actions in places so remote for having held the Empire little above a year The first election of a stranger to be Emperour he left the same by death to Vlpius Trajanus a Spaniard whom he had adopted for his valour and wisedome being then even the first president for electing strangers In his time some of the Brittains desirous to free themselves from the Roman tyranny entred into Rebellion but wanting means to effect what they had begun they soon gave
over the enterprize howbeit Aelius Adrianus who succeeded Trajan in the Empire having intelligence that the Northern Brittaines made incursions into the Province sent over Julius Severus to impeach their attempts but before he could come to make an end of the War he was revoked and sent into Syria to suppresse the Jewish Rebellion and Adrian the Emperour himself came with an Army into Brittany where he encountred the Northern Riders recoverd such Forts as they had taken and forced them to tetire to the Mountains and Woods whither the Roman Horsmen without danger could not pursue them then fortifying the borders of the Province by raising a wall of Turues about eighty miles in length between the mouths of the Rivers a The River Eden in Cumberland Stuna and b The River Tyne in Northumberland Tina to defend the Inhabitants thereof from the sudden assaults of their ill Neighbours he returned triumphantly to Rome This exploit won much reputation to the Roman Army and no small honour to the Emperour himself who was then called the Restorer of Brittain and had the inscription figured in the stamp of his coyne Now the Brittains dwelling within the Province seemed for the most part patiently to bear the yoak which custome had made lesse painful and they obeyed the more willingly as standing in need of the Romans help against their own Countrymen whose cruelty was now as much feared as in former times the Invasion of strangers Whereupon they conformed themselves to the Roman Laws both in Martial and Civil Affairs which were then principally directed by Licinius Priscus who had been not long before employed by Adrian the Emperour in the expedition of Jury and was at that time a Lieutenant Propretor of Brittain This Emperour Adrian began his Empire about the year of Christ 123. Mr. Brough f. 196. 2. in his first years he was a persecutor of Christians among whom St. Euaristus the Pope was by his Authority put to death and he caused to take away the memory of Christ the statutes of Divels to be erected in the place of our Lords passion and by Severus Sulpitius and others is termed the fourth persecutor In loco dominicae passionis daemonum simulachra constituit yet soon he corrected his error therein forbidding Christians to be punished for their Religion Quod sub Hadriano persecutio numeratur Quam tamen postea exerceri prohibuit injustum esse pronuncians ut quisquam reus sine crimine constitueretur And wrote so expresly commanding Minutius Fondanus his Proconsul in Asia moved thereto perhaps by Apology and Oration of * Serenus St. Quadratus unto him for Christians the letters of Serius Granianus his legate in behalf of Christians declareing their innocency and S. Aristides presented the like Apology unto him and he was so much moved by these men that one of our own Historians Writeth that he was thereby instructed and informed in the Christian Religion Imperator Hadrianus per Quadratum Apostolorum discipulum Aristidem Atheniensem virum fide sapientia plenum ac per Serenum Legatum libris de Christiana religione compositis instructius est eruditus And Ælius Lampridius confirmeth as much more when he saith that this Emperour Adrian did intend to receive Christ for God and caused Temples in all Cities to be erected without Pagan Idols which remained so in Lamprideus time and were called Adrians Churches which he intended to the honor of Christ but was kept back from performing it by fear or flattery of the idolaters told by their Oracles that if he proceeded so all would become Christians and their Temples would become desolate and forlorn Christo templum facere voluit Alexander eumque inter deos recipere quod Hadrianus cogitasse fertur qui templa in omnibus civitatibus sine simulacris jusserat fieri quae hodie idcirco quia non habent Numina dicuntur Hadriain quae ille ad hoc parasse dicebatur sed prohibitus est ab iis qui consulentes sacra repererunt omnes Christianos si id optato evenisset templa reliqua deserenda And these were motives in those dayes to very many to embrace Christian Religion both at Rome where the mind and judgement of the Emperour himself a good Prince was so known to be convinced by the constancy and innocency of the Christians and their unanswerable Apologies for the only truth of their Religion and evident errour and falsehood of the Pagans superstitious rites now made manifest in all places I find in the Chronicles of Burton under the year of Grace 141. and time of Adrian the Emperour that nine Scholars of Granthe or Granta now Cambridge were baptized in Brittain and became Preachers of the Gospel there but whether Taurnius Bishop over the Congregation of York who as Vincentius saith was executed about this time was one or not as yet I do not certainly find Mr. B. f. 205. out of Will. Harrison p. 23 Antoninus Pius succeeded Adrian the Emperour when Lollius Vrbicus being Lieutenant the Northern people made a road into the Province but were beaten back by the Roman Forces that lay upon the borders And then was there another wall of Turve built by the commandment of the Lieutenant to strengthen those parts with a double Rampire in the mean time a new war was kindled among the a The Ancient Inhabitants of the Countries of York Lancaster Durham Westmer an and Cumberland Brigants that annoyed some of the Roman Confederates but by the discretion of the General it was quenched before it came to a flame for Lollius Vrbicus upon the first rumour of revoult marched thither with part of the Army leaving the rest behind to guard the borders and Seius Saturninus Admiral of the Brittish Fleet being well appointed by Sea lay upon the Northside of the Isle to defend the Coasts and upon occasions to further the Land service by this means the Brigants were easily reduced to obedience even by the presence onely of the Lieutenant who for his good service done in Brittany during the short time of his imployment there obtained the surname of Britannicus Mr. B. Here give me leave to speak of St. Timothy a Brittain of this Nation by his holy Mother St. Claudia Sabinella who as divers Write preached in this Kingdome sent hither by the Roman Sea Apostolick must needs be sent here about this time for Authors testifie he was at Rome and Martyred in the time of Antoninus Romae Sanctorum Martyrum Marci Timothei qui sub Antonino Imperatore Martirio coronati sunt which Antoninus began his Empire in or about the year of Christ 138. Mr. B. f. 201. Antonius sirnamed Pius by Baronnis reckoning was Emperor twenty two years seven months and twenty six dayes annis vigenti duobus mensibus septem diebus viginti sex which differeth not much from Orosuis and Marianus who say triginti non plenis tribus annis And
Prince commending therein his former zealous disposition in embraceing the truth then exhorting him to read with humility and reverence the holy Scripture the divine Law which he had lately received in his Dominions and out of that by Gods grace and advice of faithful Counsellors to collect meet observations for the framing of Laws necessary for the preservation of his estate which observations so collected and Lawes so framed he did affirm to be much better then the Imperial constitutions of the Romans or any other whatsoever that to make Lawes and execute Justice was the proper office of a Prince who was upon earth the Vicar of God himself and received from him that Title and Authority to the end he should use the same to the good of the Catholick Church and of the people living under his obedience hereupon Lucius began first of all to provide for establishment of that Religion whereof he was become at the self same time both a professour and practiser Then was the worshipping of Idols forbidden the seats of the Arch-flamens at London York and Caerlegion or Caerleon upon Vsk were changed into Sees of three Arch-bishops in the same places and those of the Flamens into so many Bishopricks whereby the Temples vowed by Idolatrous Priests to prophane gods were consecrated to the service of the only true God the temporal estate he also adorned with good profitable Laws conformable to the rule of Christian Religion whereupon ensued the blessings of plenty and peace in his dayes It is reported that he was Foundet of a Church at Cornhill in London which he dedicated to St. Peter placeing therein one Thean an Archbishop to have the superintendence over other Bishops within his principality and the Metropolitan seat continued there in the succession of thirteen Archbishops about the space of 400 years until the coming of St. Aug. who translated it to Canterbury And now Christianity being thus Generally received amongst the Brittains kept on her course untainted and without opposition till the time of Dioclesian the Emperour who kindled the fire of that raging persecution the last and longest in the Primitive Church which consumed the lives of many Christian Martyrs as well in Brittain as other places but returning to the Reign of Lucius and considering the state of Brittain under his Government we may justly admire the Felicity of those times ascribing to the Brittains for their greatest glory that among all other Nations they had the happinesse to see and enjoy the first Christian Prince Thus far compendiously and succinctly the Brittish History but let us peruse a while to the great renown of the Brittish Nation the writings of that late but rare light of Antiquity the day star of his Countrey Mr. Broughton and consider what he expresseth concerning the passages and conversion of King Lucius thus he begins They who write of King Lucius his Nobles and Countries conversion do write also how he wrote for and entreated it by supplyant letters to Pope Elutherius not to Evaristus as some have imagined Gildas saith that King Lucius was baptized with all his Nobles of Brittain 164 years after the coming of Christ and Nennius saith it was three year after so that whither we will take the account of Gildas or Nennius for King Lucius his time of conversion though others make a greater difference by 20 years and more we see that King was converted 44 years after the death of Evaristus whom some will have the Instrument of his conversion and 54 from his first entrance into the Papacy seven Popes St. Alexander Sextus Telesphorus Higinus Pius Anicetus and Soter being between him and St. Elutherius in whose time by all account St Lucius was converted of which two such renowned Writers could not be ignorant much lesse may we judge without great injury and dishonour unto them and bold rashnesse in our selves that they would or could erre in so high a degree the one of them Nennius the meanest stiled by our Catalogists of such men both ancient and modern The most excellent Doctor of the Brittains Principal or Arch-abbot of the renowned Monastery of Bangor famous both for Wisdom and Religion The other St. Gildas by common consent of all Writers is stiled Gildas the Wise or sirnamed the Wise The first and principal means of the Conversion of K. Lucius is ascribed to certain learned Scholars of Cambridge Theater of Brit. l. 6. c. 9. Sect. 9. Hollins disc Brit. The Theatre of Great Brittain tells us That there were Christians at these times though some exceptions may be taken against the Monk of Burton the Reporter thereof who saith in the year 141 and Reign of Hadrian nine Masters of Grantcester were baptized themselves and preached to others the Gospel in Brittain The ancient Charter which the Antiquities of Cambridge ascribed to K. Arthur do give this honour or a great part thereof to the learned Scholars of Cambridge K. Lucius perswaded to be a Christian by the Christians of Cambridge which being converted to the Faith of Christ and divers of them now become Clergymen and Preachers moved K. Lucius by their preaching to be a Christian which is more confirmed by the ancient Bull of Pope Honorius the first of that Name to confirm the Priviledges of the University of Cambridge 1000 years since and other Testimonies there are that say that both K. Lucius did confer and confirm by his publick Charter great Priviledges and Immunities to that School and Pope Elutherius likewise Chart. Reg. Arturi 7. Apr. an 531. Bulla Honorii Acad. Cantab. concess 20. die Seb. an Dom. 624. Caius Antiq. Cant. l 1. p. 75. 76. which he did not so for any thing we find in Histories to any other School or University in the World nor any of his Successors many years after The chiefest motive of these exemtions and prerogatives to that place we cannot interpret in any better sense then that King Lucius had received much spiritual Benefit from thence which he requited with temporal honour and dignity and the holy Pope Elutherius bestowed such singular grace and favour to that School for the holy labours and fruitful effects it had wrought in the Church of Christ by their Conversion and Preaching moving King Lucius and so many men of sundry degrees in Brittain to forsake superstitious Idolatry and embrace the Christian Faith and Religion We find some Apostolick Men in this very time to have preached the faith in Brittain to King Lucius himself as well as to his Subjects and these to have been of this Nation Pet. Marsaeus Catal. Epis Tungren Archiepis Treve Among those two are chiefly commended unto us in this businesse Saint Timothy and Saint Marcellinus or Marcellus And to begin with St. Timothy We find that he so far prevailed with King Lucius that by his Learning our King was induced to the Religion of Christ and to make this Opinion clear Henricus Pantaâ—eon writeth Math. West an 159.
Mar. Scel an 163. Bar. Tom. 2. Annal. an eod That King Lucius of Brittain was the Disciple of St. Timothy for which he citeth the Magdeburgians Stumphius and the Annals of Curre in Germany And Naeuclerus with others writeth clearly That one St. Timothy came into Brittain and Lucius King of Brittain and his Kingdome did receive the Faith of Christ from him Mr. Broughton affirmeth That this our glorious Countryman St. Timothy was Son unto the Lady Claudia and Brother to St. Novatus St. Pudentiana and Praxedes Great honour it was for the first Christian King of this Nation the first Christian King in the World to be instructed in the Faith by so Noble a renowned Apostle of his own Nation What were the Impediments in temporal respects which hindred King Lucius from publick profession of Christian Religion wherein he was thus instructed until or near the Papacy of St. Elutherius shall be shewed hereafter This St. Timothy was assisted by St. Marcellus a Britain also and preached here and the Annals of the Archbishops of Trevers say of this Man That Lucius King of Brittain now England was baptized by his preaching The Historie of Tungers speaketh more plainly That this St Marcellus did by his preaching convert Lucius Prince of Brittain with all his Nation to Christ And the same Catalogue of Trevers saith That King Lucius was made a Christian and Baptized by this our Renowned Countryman St. Marcellus When the estate of Ecclesiasticall affairs had taken in Brittain so happy proceeding and effect that both our King and many principall men were thus converted to the Faith of Christ from their former errors and superstitions and so great hope and forwardnesse there was to have that faith publickly professed which they privately embraced and acknowledged for the only Truth many worldly temptations and oppositions did presently arise to hinder these new and untrained Souldiers of Christ to make so bold and open profession of their holy Religion as many holy Martyrs at that time and they themselves not long after did and the glory of that required Divers humane fears and impediments now chancing and hindring of K. Lucius from open profession of Christian Religion in Brittain for as we may probably with many Antiquities affirme that the favourable edicts of divers Emperours and among them Antoninus sirnamed Pius yet Reigning had somewhat encouraged them in temporal respects actually to be baptized in that Religion which their internal understanding and judgement was by many invincible motives and arguments convinced before to be only true so now by like contrary worldly events and letts they were for some time more slow and dull to professe it openly They did perfectly understand that not withstanding the pretended and expected favour from the present Emperour either by his command or permission two holy Popes to omit many other places St. Telesphorus and St. Higinus procurers of their conversion cruelly were put to Death for that Religion even in Rome it self under the Emperours sight within the space of four years or little more by all accounts and because present and home dangers do most terrifie they did see and taste that the present Emperour Antoninus was at this time incensed against the Brittains and had already sent Lollius Vrbicus with forces hither and he had Fought some battles against the Brittains as both our own and the Roman Historians testifie And to maintain and foster these conceived and ingendred humane fears and impressions to live and continue longer then Antoninus was like to live now being old and long time Emperour when he came first to the Empire by the Adoption of Adrian he was commanded or directed by him that Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Act. St. Praxed per St. Pastor Vsuard Ado. Peter Catal. l. 5. c. 58. Baron Tom. 2. An. 164. whom from his Infancy he had trayned up in the Gentiles Superstitions should succeed him in the Empire when he was but eight years of Age he was put by Adrian into the Colledge of the Salii most superstitious Priest of Mars and was made Priest and chief Ruler of the Southsayers So that there could be little hope but this man so superstitiously brought up and such a maker and unmaker of their sacrifices and an enchanter would still continue the same and professe himself an enemy to all Impugners of such proceedings such as all Christians were which he performed when he came to be Emperor raising a general persecution against Christians which to omit but as it concerned this Kingdome and the Christians thereof the holy house of our glorious Countreywoman St. Praxedes in Rome which until then both in the time of St. Novatus her brother her holy parents St. Pudens and St. Claudia Baron Tom. 2. an 166. Sabinella or Priscilla and likely before as under her parents also Christian Brittains had been a safe refuge and as a sanctuary for persecuted Christians was now cruelly ransacked and tweny two holy Martyrs together with the sacred Priest St. Simitrius most barbarously without tryal question judgement presently put to death of which blessed company we may not but think divers of this Country to have been and St. Timothy himself returning from hence to Rome Julius Capil Marc. Aurel. was there Martyred if we may believe Matthew of Westminster his computation Ibid. Virgil. in Hist Angl. l 2. p. 42. These and such were the worldly temptations which allured King Lucius and many Noble Brittains to be more timerous and lingering to professe the Christian faith with such constancy openly as inwardly they firmly believed and honoured until the Emperour himself convicted by the written Apologies and Miracles wrought by Christians was enforced to yield the honour to Christ and abstain from persecution and many of his noble Pagans embraced the Christian Religion Tertul. Apol. c. 6. Euseb Eccle. Hist l. 5. c. 5. Math. West an 174. and this I take to be the chiefest occasion of mistaking in some Historian or their Scribes setting down so many and several times when King Lucius received the Faith of Christ or professed it many saying it was in the year of Christ 156. others in the year 164. others 165. as William of Malmesbury with others Henry of Hartford in the year 169. and others in other and later times All which be true if we speak of the Religion of Christ which he held and believed from the very first of these assigned times but for his and his Nobles publick profession thereof and the Kingdome generally receiving it with building of Churches placing of Christian Bishops and Priests in them abandoning the superstitious rites of pagan Gentils we must expect a later date in the time of Pope Elutherius And this holy Pope had long before he was Pope the often occasion of K. Lucius others here writing sending to Rome about this publick work might occasion some error in the Titles of Letters to Elutherius when he was not yet Pope but
in high estimation with the Popes there as a principal learned and holy Priest of the Church of Rome as appeareth in the first Epistle of St. Pius to Justus Bishop of Vienna wherein he only sendeth him Salutations from St. Soter after Pope and Elutherius as the chiefest Priests then in Rome and so he recommendeth them which Epistle was written Pius Epist 1. ad Justum Vien Epist Tom. 1. Biblioth Sanct. and this honour given to St. Elutherius by that holy Pope almost twenty years before Elutherius was Pope And yet he must needs be a renowned Man long before that time and so no marvel if divers Letters were written to him from Brittain and from him hither before his Papacy especially if we reflect and consider how probable a thing it is that he was most resident with our Christian Brittains there and the Popes of that time committed unto him to have a peculiar care of this Country with his great credit and familiarity with Pope Pius conversing so much with our Brittains there Euseb Hist Chronic. Math. West an 157. Ethelwerd Chronic. and with such principal Men as were sent into these parts such as St. Justus of Vienna then was will induce to think And our own Annals doe sufficiently witnesse that the Fame and Renown of St. Elutherius was great here in Brittain before he was chosen pope And that this his glory was so great in Brittain before he was Pope those our both ancient and later Historians prove which say that King Lucius wrote unto him the first year of his Consecration to take order for the general conversion of this Kingdome Mr. B f. 221. Man Scot. aetat 6. in Eluth So doth the most authentical and approved relation of this History testifie that it was in the very beginning of his Papacy that King Lucius sent those Letters and solemn Embassage unto him about this business which plainly proveth that same and honor of St. Elutherius so well known in Brittain did not now begin here with his papacy but was of far more ancient continuance and antiquity For the very beginning of any ruler or Governour cannot give him so singular a commendation so soon especially where his Regiment is so great and ample that in so short a time he can hardly take notice of the state of those things which belong unto his charge much lesse take so good order for them all that his Fame and Honour should be for that doing reported in all the World And King Lucius sending unto him in the first year of his papacy and the very beginning thereof could not possibly have notice of his so renowned carriage therein consult with all his Nobles Flamens and Arch-flamens so dispersed in this so large a Kingdome and have their general consent for a general conversion and send notice of this by solemn Embassadours so long a journey to be there in the beginning of his papacy but that this great honour and fame of St. Elutherius was here renowned long before and this publick and general assent to forsake idolatry and embrace Christian Religion had been formerly concluded and agreed upon in Brittain and very probably as our Cambridge Antiquities have told us not only St. Timothy was sent or returned to Rome about this businesse but Eluanus and Meduvinus also as they write being but Catechumens to be instructed and consecrated there towards the performing so great a work in this Kingdom Neither can we with equality of judgement think that among so many Brittains now converted or so disposed here these two onely went from hence thither to such end and purpose But although these be the onely men remembred in Histories to have been there employed as more worthy or else designed and sent by King Lucius yet there went many others about this time from Brittain thither the better to enable themselves for a general Conversion of this their Country and there continued to enable themselves with Learning and Religion to be made fit Instruments and Workmen in those holy Labours and were therein assisted both by the popes of those times much conversant with our Country Brittains and in their Houses at Rome and others the most Renowned in the Clergy at that time among whom St. Elutherius after Pope and happy Converter of this Nation was a chief Man 〈…〉 Lud in their opinion which held the Title Cardinall was given to that holy Priest Onupheius Panuin l. de Episc Titul Diac. Cardinal Damasus alii in Cleto Evaristo Higenio which was the chief and most eminent commanding Priest in every Church or Titulus in Rome according to the Institution and Ordinance of the Holy Popes Saint Cletus Saint Evaristus and Saint Higinus in whose time we now are I cannot but probably think that Saint Elutherius so high in Dignity and Renown both with Saint Higinus and Pius and his brother Saint Pastor to whose disposing and distribution the first Titles or Churches in Rome founded by our Christian Brittains and still called by their names Saint Pudentiana and Saint Praxedes and to this day giving the names of Honour to the Roman Cardinals so stiled were left was an eminent Cardinall and chief Priest presently after this time S. Pastor Epist ad Timoth. Epist ad Pasto To. 1. Bib. Sanct. Tom. 1. Annal. Bar. Pius Epist ad Justum Fox Acts Mon. l. 1. p. 5 in one of those our Brittish Churches in Rome which among other bonds tyed him so firmly in love to this Nation and this Nation to him that he is so often honoured in Titles of Letters and otherwise by our Antiquaries above all other Popes Some add another testimony which if it be true it greatly maketh for the especial honour wherewith our Historians adorned him thinking that Saint Elutherius came personally into Brittaine and preached here and this is that opinion which Mr. Fox thus remembreth Timotheus in his story thinketh that Elutherius came himself which wanteth not probable Arguments if they speak of his preaching here beforn he was Pope sent hither by St. Timothy our Countreyman or some others sent by any of the Popes before him Mr. Howe 's saith that King Lucius sent two Embassadours Elevanus and Meduvinus Brittains most probably though great controversies be amongst Antiquaries concerning the truth thereof two learned men in the Scriptures with his loving Letters to Elutherius Bishop of Rome desiring him to send some devout and Learned men by whose instruction both he and his people might be taught the Faith and Religion of Christ Howe 's f. 38. in Lucio whereof Elutherius being very glad baptized these two Messengers making Eluanus a Bishop and Meduvinus a Teacher and sent also with them into Brittain two Famous Clerks Faganus and Damianus by whose diligence Lucius and his people of Brittain were baptized and instructed in the Faith of Christ There is saith the same Author and remaineth till this day in Somersetshire in the Deanery of Dunster
a Parish Church bearing the name of Saint Dervian as a Church either by him Founded or to him Dedicated so likewise is there another in Glamorganshire called Saint Fagans where every year is a very great Fair continuing many dayes where also my honoured Patron the Right Noble William Lewes of the Van Esq Son to Sir Edward Lewes and the Right Honourable Lady Beauchamp Daughter of the Earl of Dorset hath a stately Habitation and if I mistake not is Lord of the Mannor Betwixt this Elutherius and King Lucius many Letters passed and the said Bishop granted many priviledges to Universities and places of learning in Brittain as to Cambridge Stanford Cricklade or Greeklade and in Glamorganshire I suppose this place was either Caerwent or Caerleon for all which is now called Monmouthshire was then called Glamorgan where they say learning flourished as well as at Cambridge before the coming of Julius Caesar Mr. Bro. f. 270. and the Schoole of Glamorgan being so near Caerleon upon Vsk in that Countrey where one of the three great Idolatrous Temples of Brittain and seat of the Archflamen of those Western provinces was and thereby a Nursery of Paganisme which those holy men laboured by all means to root out and for that cause where Archflamens were Archbishops were placed and where Flamens Bishops The Brittish Histories Ponticus Virunnius and others say of these Prelates that they delivered the Brittains from Idolatry and converted them to Christ Radulphus de Diceto in his manuscript History proveth as much that they converted all the Cities of Brittain as well as their Flamens and Archflamens by whom they were directed in their Idolatrous worship as others And the principal states and members of this Kingdome King Lucius his Nobles Universities Philosophers Flamens and chiefe Priests and Teachers of the Pagan Subjects and their chief places of commorancy and command being thus converted the conquest over the Vulgar sort was easie and soon effected The Author of the Brittish History testifyeth Mr. Br. f. 271. that so soon as the people of Brittain knew that their King was a Christian they gathered themselves together to be Catechised and received Baptisme and that those holy Legates did blot out Paganisme almost through all the Island and Ponticus Virunnius saith that they baptized all the people of Brittany all this may easily be confirmed by divers Authors but I will conclude with Harding Eluthery the first at supplication Of Lucius sent him two holy Men That called were Fagan and Dungen That Baptized him and all his Realm throughout With hearts glad and labour devout There were then twenty eight Flamens and three Arch-flamens to whose power other Judges were subject and these by the command of the Pope his Legates delivered from Idolatry and where there were Flamens they placed Bishops where Arch-flamens Arch-bishops The Seats of the Arch-flamens were in the three most noble Cities London York and the City of Legions which the old Walls and Buildings do witnesse to have been upon the River of Vsk in Glamorgan King Lucius sent to Elutherius not only for his assistance in spiritual matters but also in his temporal Mr. Br. f. 301. 6. Bridges defence l. 16. p. 1355. Galf. Mon. l. 2. c. 17. Bro. Virunnius Stow Hollinshed as the governing his people and making wholsome Lawes The Lawes which were established here were the old Brittains Lawes ascribed for their greatest part to Mulmutius Dunwallo corrected and made conformable to holy Christian Religion We have all kind of Antiquities Brittish Saxon French Italians Ancient and Modern for Witnesses These Lawes were translated out of Brittish into Latine long before this time by the ancient Gildas that lived about the time of the Birth of CHRIST as many both ancient and late Writers agree and continued here till late time and in divers respects at this present King Lucius being thus informed and secured in conscience by Saint Elutherius his Letters and by his Declaration that the whole Kingdome of Brittain with the Ilands belonged to his temporal charge and government and that so much as he could he was to win his Subjects to the Faith and Law of Christ and his holy Church and provide for the peace and quiet of the same and the Members thereof he did first in receiving and admitting these new corrected Lawes by the advice of the Clergy and Nobles of his Kingdome see them so qualified that they were for the defence and propagation of Christian Religion and further Founded many godly costly and memorable Monuments as Churches Universities or Schools Monasteries and other such comforts helps and furtherances of that holy end So that as he was the first King that publickly with his Kingdome professed Christ so he won the honour to be the first Nursing Father among Kings of his holy Church as the Prophet had foretold Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers He was also first among Kings called properly the Vicegerent of God being the first King which so religiously performed his will And that Title which the Pope gave to King Henry the 8. when he was better then he proved after Defender of the Faith was among Kings the first due and right of King Lucius for his so heroical and Religious fortitude and magnanimity in defending the Faith and Church of Christ Being now come to celebrate the day of the death of our glorious King Lucius for the joy that he enjoyed thereby Mr. Br. f. 346. 1. and bewail it for the unspeakable losse this Nation received thereby we are to fall into some difficulties both of the time and place thereof William of Malmesbury in his Manuscript-History of Glasten and other old Antiquities do prove that St. Damianus and Faganus after they had converted this Kingdome continued nine years at Glastenbury at the least King Lucius still living and reigning here Polidor Lilly Hollinshed Stow and others cleave to this Opinion A great Controversie ariseth where this King died many Forreign Authors say That he forsook his Crown and Kingdome and became a Clergyman went into Germany to convert that Nation was Bishop of Curre and there was Martyred the day of his death is agreed upon by all to have been on the third day of December but if those Authors who transport this our blessed King into Germany look but upon what hath been said before they shall find that it was not Lucius who was actually King of Brittain and converted by the means of St. Elutherius but another Lucius who was indeed Son of a King of Brittain and might have been King himself had he not been banished for the reason before related and this was that St. Lucius who with his sister St. Emerita were both Crowned with the glorious Crown of Martyrdome in Germany That our first Christian K. Lucius could not be Bishop of Curre is evident for having been so long King here he was so disabled for Age that he was nor capable of such a journey Further they which
then all the rest adorned with Christian Religion and perfectly instructed with his holy word and doctrine He reigned as some write 21 years though others affirme but twelve Again some testify that he reigned 77. others say 54. and Harrison 43. King Lucius dyed without issue by reason whereof ensued much trouble as is said before Concerning the first inclination of K. Lucius to christian Religion in the time of Pope Higinius Mr. Broughton thus discourseth Although I do not find it expresly affirmed by any Antiquary but Harding that St. Higinius in that time Bishop of Rome did so particularly give assistance and direction in this business of our Brittains conversion yet many and very renowned Writers give such testimony therein that we must needs grant that to be most true which Harding affirmeth and that after-coming Scribes and Copiers of their Histories have done the Authors wrong by their negligence or ignorance in writing one man for another Elutherius for Higinius for among others St. Bede as he is extant saith that King Lucius of Brittain did write to the Pope of Rome in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 156. that by his order and command he might be a Christian The M. S. Antiquities of the Church of Landaff more ancient in probable judgment then St. Bede and written by a Brittain which should not be ignorant in that the greatest businesse of his Country giveth the same testimony of the same year 156. The ancient author of the Brittish History also a Brittain maketh K. Lucius a christian in and before this year 156 in direct termes So Testifyeth the old History called Brutus ancient Records belonging to Guild-hall in London the Antiquities of St. Edwards lawes Goceline in the life of St. Aug. so writeth Naucl. and divers ancient manuscript writers which I have seen saith the learned Mr. Br. This was the state of the Church in Brittain when new troubles began to the disturbance of the Province For the Northern Brittains making a breach in the wall Mr. Br. fol. 210. which Adrian the Emperour had built and finding the borders but weakly guarded entered the province and surprised the Roman General and killed many of his Souldiers then ranging the Countries they wasted and spoyled everywhere without resistance till Vlpius Marcellus being sent over by Commodus the Emperor stayed the fury and with great difficulty forced them to retire within the wall by which means the Province being quieted he applied himself to reforme abuses in his Campe reviving the ancient discipline of war which had been for a time discontinued among the Roman Souldiers whom long service and many victories had made bold to say and to do oftentimes more then became them For Marcellus indeed was a man somthing austere in reproving and punishing otherwise very temperate diligent in time of war not idle in peace his diet was the same which the common Souldier used in quantity more sparing for he would eat no bread but such as was brought from Rome which he did to the end he might avoid excesse and take no more then sufficed nature the staleness of his bread having taken away all tast that might either please the sense or provoke the appetite The day time for the most part he spent in viewing his campe and training young Souldiers and giving direction to Officers In the night he wrote letters and made dispatches into divers parts of the Province as occasion required He slept very little by reason of his thin diet and much business wherewith he was continually occupied for he thought that man who slept a whole night together was no meet man to be either a Counsellour to a Prince or a Commander of an army Every evening he used to write instructions upon twelve Tables made of Linden tree which tables he delivered to one of his servants appointing him to carry them at sundry hours of the night to certain of his Souldies who thereby supposing that their General was still waking and not gone to bed were the more careful in keeping the watch and preventing suddain attempts in the night season he was severe in execution of Justice not to be led by favour nor to be corrupted with bribe he levied monies only as necessary for the war not to enrich himself or his friends as other Governours in former times had done for he never preferred his own private before the publick nor a wealthy estate before an honorable reputation The fame of those vertues as they made him much respected both of his own Souldiers and the Brittains so they procured Envy which alwaies followeth vertue inseparably as a shadow doth the body For Commodus the Emperor understanding how Marcellus had carried himself in Brittain was much displeased therewith and thought it best to cut him off but some accidents happening in the mean time to make him change that purpose he only sent letters of discharge and so dismissed him of the Office After departure of Marcellus the army having been kept in by hard hand and finding now the reine let loose upon a suddain began to be mutinous and refused to acknowledge Commodus for their Emperor these disorders Perennius one of his favorites took upon him to redresse by displacing such persons as he suspected and committing their Offices to Men of meaner quality wherewith the Legions were much discontented disdaining that instead of Senators Men of consular degree they should now be governed by upstarts and base companions In the heat of those broyles about fifteen soldiers forsook the Army and went to Rome where they exhibited to the Emperor a bill of complaint against Perennius whom they charged as the chief Author of the dissention in the Army by bringing in new customes by exceeding his commission and doing things derogatory to the Majesty of the Roman Empire These and other things as well false as true were objected against him by the multitude who for the most part dislike such as exercise authority over them and keep no measure in their affections either in love or hatred But that which touched to the quick was an accusation of treason put up against him for conspiracy against the life of the Emperor and in seeking to advance his Son to the Empire this point was quickly apprehended by Commodus who thought that the suspicion of the fact or the report only to have intended it was a sufficient cause of condemnation howsoever the party accused was either indeed guilty or innocent Hereupon Perennius was declared Traitor and delivered to the Soldiers who stripped him of his apparel whipped him with rods and in the end cruelly murdered him Then Helvius Pertinax a Man of mean fortune by Birth as having risen from the State of a common Soldier to the dignity of a Commander was sent into Brittain to appease the tumults there He was one of them that Perennius had before discharged from bearing office and sent into Liguria where he was born At his first entrance
may seem by such acclamations against his own Inclination to have given way to persecution And the rather because the Gnostick Hereticks given then over to all filthiness that as Irenaeus Nicephorus and others write they did publickly profess and so practise that all which would come to perfection of their Sect which they onely allowed must commit all wickedness These Heretiques being accounted Christians with the Pagans might sooner provoke the Emperour by such mens informations against the most holy Professors of Christian Religion which were so free from being such as they were falsly reputed with those their enemies to be Athenagoras Orat. pro Christian that as Athenagoras in his Oration for them in the name of the Christians desired no mercy or favour but to be utterly rooted out if those impious slanders could be proved true against them Nicephorus saith Christianity flourished in his time and Tertullian then living affirmeth That Severus also himself father to Antoninus was kind to Christians for he sought for Proculus a Christian who had some time before cured him with Oyl and kept him in his Pallace with him so long as he lived Tertul. li. ad Scap. c. 4. he was exceedingly well known to Antoninus that was nursed by a Christian woman and Severus knowing both renowned women as also most honourable men to be of this profession was so far from doing them any hurt that he commended them and openly resisted even to their faces the raging people Therefore if Severus the Emperour was of his own disposition so great a Lover of Christians in general if he honoured Proculus in his Pallace so long as he lived gave allowance that his son and heir Antoninus Bassianus King of Brittain and Emperour after his father should both be nursed by a Christian woman and be so familiar with such known professed Christians as Proculus was and was the Overseer of Evodus the Tutor or Bringer up of Bassianus his son as may be gathered both by Tertullian Dio and others and both Severus himself so great an honourer both of renowned Christian men and women and his Lady and Empress Martia of Brittain so far affected and disposed to Christian Religion that if she did not profess it in act yet in affection and desire did so honour it that she would not permit her son and heir to be nursed by any but a Christian woman and the Overseer of so great a charge to be a Christian so famous and renowned for Faith as Proculus was known of all men to be These considered I dare not boldly say that Severus did in any time or place of his own inclination wittingly or willingly without great incitation condescend to such persecutions as are remembred in Histories to have been in his Empire And after his coming into Brittain we do not find the least suspition in our Antiquities that he did of himself or suffer any other to persecute any for Christian Religion but rather both of himself and at the instance of his Brittish Empress at the least a Christian in affection and both powerable with him and their son Bassianus his heir and successor and for that love and trust he found in the Brittish Christians of all that part of Brittain South to the Wall and Trench which Adrian and he made joining with him against his enemies to possess him of the Crown of Brittain he was a grateful friend to them and their holy profession And all our Histories are clear that Religion was here in quiet without molestation and affliction until the Empire of Dioclesian that great persecutor yet we cannot deny but all places in Brittain being now full of war-like miseries and the Christians here both in Albania Loegria and Cambria mixed and joined both with Roman and Scythian Infidels many of them fell both to wickedness and Paganism also which occasioned holy Gildas to write that Christianity was received but coldly of the Inhabitants of Brittain and with some continued perfect but not so with others before Dioclesian his persecution And not onely in the time of Dioclesian his persecution following in this age we find even whole Cities and Towns as Verulamium and others wholly destitute of Christians but long before or about this time we are assured that there were very many Brittains not of mean estate but such as were publickly employed about the affairs of the Kingdom sent from hence to Rome about it that either were fallen from Christianity or never forsook their Pagan Religion for we read both in antient Manuscripts and other Authours in the life of St. Mello after Archbishop of Rhoan in Normandy sent thither by St. Stephen Pope not onely that he and his Brittish Companions which were then sent to Rome to pay the tribute of Brittains there were Pagans and Sacrificed in the temple of Mars but it was then the custom of the Brittains coming thither about that Office so to do which to be a custom could not be younger than these dayes time short enough between this and that time to make a custom And it seemeth this custom had been from the first submission of the Brittains to the Romans for both late Writers and others affirm that in Octavius Augustus time Ambassadors came from Brittain to Rome swearing sealty in the temple of Mars offering gifts in the Capitol to the gods of the Romans and we have testimony in our Histories that after the death of King Lucius and this very time which we have now in hand it was the use custom of our Brittains here when any of their Nobility 〈…〉 were to obtain the dignity of Knighthood to send them to Rome to receive that honour there and after such Pagan rights and ceremonies that Christians could not in Conscience so accept thereof And yet such multitudes even in this time flocked thither from hence so to be created Severus of himself was not addicted to a wicked life but much renowned not onely for warlike affairs but also for learning and knowledge in philosophy and so great an enemy to incontinency that he punished adultery by law with death with such severity that Dio writeth that when he was Consul he found by record that 3000 had been put to death for that offence He was after his death made a God among the Pagans and Herodianus saith he died rather of grief for his childrens wickednesse then of sicknesse which grief for the sins of his sons as also of his own in permitting the Christians in many places be to most grievously persecuted I would not deny but that he dyed in any such grief is untrue being most certain that he after so many conquests in other Countries when he came to fight against this Country Christians was enforced dishonourably to make a wall and trench above 130 miles in length to keep his enemies back from invading him and slain in battail by Fulgenius or as others call him Fulgentius brother to his first lawful true wife the
he after addeth thereunto Hermanius Sehedelius addeth also how he went into Rhetia with Emerita his Sister and near unto the City Augusta converted the Curienses unto the Faith of Christ and there likewise being put to death in Castro Martis lyeth buried in the same Town where his feast is held upon the third day of December The Curienses converted to the faith by a Brittain That Schedelius erreth not herein also the ancient monuments of the said Abbey whereof he was the original beginner do yield sufficient testimony beside an Hymne made in the commendation intituled Gaude Lucionum c. The said Schedelius setteth down likewise that his sister Emerita was martyred in Trine castle neer unto the place where the said Lucius dwelled and the same Authour saith further that he converted all Bavaria and Rhetia between the Alps and this narration is confirmed by Gaspar Bruchius thus Bavaria and Rhetia converted to Christianity by a Brittain St. Lucius which preached to the Germans was born of the regal race among the Brittains and propogating the faith of Christ came out of Brittainy into Germany and preached first at Salisbury then at Austburg from whence he was cast out by the Infidels there and then went with his sister St. Emerita to the City of Chur where preaching again both he and his sister Emerita were martyred by the Pagans St. Lucius at Chur in the castle of Mars and St. Emerita at Trine Castle Lucius and Emerita being thus by means of the Roman Emperours Dioclesian and Maximian both banished and martyred to make all sure in their proceedings they detained Constantine the other child as Hostage at their command and placed here in Brittain none to bear office but such as were Pagans ready to execute the cruel and savage resolutions of that bloody persecuting Tyrant against the holy christians here These things thus compleated the state of Brittain by such means was now brought into the same condition for persecution with other nations or rather worse the number of christians being here then far greater both in respect it was a christian Kingdom and so had both more christian inhabitants then other nations and by the immunities and priviledges it should have enjoyed many christians of other regions fled and resorted hither in hope of quiet and security from persecution This violent storme of persecution raging through the whole Roman Empire acted many tragical Scaenes in this Isle Harding in his Chronicle saith Hard. c. 57. f. 41 The Emperour Dioclesian Into Brittaon sent Maximian This Maximian to sirname Hercelius A Tyrant false that Christenty annoyd Through all Brittain a work malicious The Christen folk felly and sore destroyed And thus the people with him foul accloyed Religious men the Priests and Clerks all Women with child and bedrid folk all Children sucking upon their their Mothers pappis The mothers also without any pitty And children all in their mothers lappis The Creples eke and all the Christentee He killed and slew with full great cruelty The Churches brent all books and ornaments Bells Relicks that to the Church appends Dioclesian came to the Empire in the year of Christ 282 and did within two years after begin his most cruel persecution the first that felt the heavy but yet most blessed stroak here in Brittain was St. Allan Dicetus Dean of St. Pauls London doth set down this persecution in Brittain in the year of Christ 287. The old manuscript Annals of Winchester say that S. Allan in the eight year of Dioclesian Maximian was put to death and the same antiquities tell us that the Monks of Winchester were martyred by the Officers of Dioclesian in the second year of his reign and their Church then destroyed Godwin a late Bishop as he citeth from some Antiquities of that Church saith this happened in the year of Christ 289. and addeth that at this time Dioclesian endeavouring to root out Christian Religion in Brittain not only killed the professours of the same Mr Br. f. 415. Hollen Hist of Engl. l. 4. but also pulled down all churches anywhere consecrated to the exercise thereof The instruments of Dioclesian herein were Quintus Bassianus Hircius Alectus Gallus as the most principal with others of inferior degrees and Mamertinus the Panegyrist hath avouched to Maximian the persecutor before that he was here in Brittain in his own person which is confirmed by our own Antiquaries Adding further that he persecuted in the Occidental parts by commission from Dioclesian John Lydgat l. 8. so testifieth John Lydgate the Monck of Bury with others Ant. Brit. Antiq. in tit S. Alb. Cadgrave in eodem St. Alban our first Martyr was rather descended of Noble Roman then Brittish blood but probably both of Roman and Brittish blood his abode and dwelling was at Caermunip or Verulam where all professed Roman Paganisme and there he entertained either for old acquaintance for they were both Knighted at the same time in Rome or hospitality sake as being a man eminent and by some stiled High Steward of the Brittains St. Amphibalus but when he began to speak of Jesus Christ the son of God and incarnate for mans redemption he was so farr off from being a christian that he had scarce heard of Christ before but said this testimony of Christ was strange unto him and St. Amphibalus more particularly declaring the mysteries of Christs Nativity Passion Resurrection and Ascension Alban was yet so far from believing that he told St. Amphibalus he was mad to preach such things that understanding did not apprehend nor reason allow and if the Citizens of that place did know what he spake concerning Christ they would most cruelly put him to death and feared much that he would fall into trouble before he could go forth of his house But what the preaching of St. Amphibalus prevailed not in his earnest prayer and watching obtained of God for Alban For as the old Brittish writer of his life living in that time relateth this History St. Amphibalus watching in prayers all the night following a strange and admirable vision appeared to Alban wherewith he being exceedingly terrified and perplexed presently rose and went to St. Amphibalus thus declaring his vision and desiring the exposition thereof in this order and these words O my friend if these things which thou preachest of Christ are true I beseech thee be not afraid to tell unto me the true meaning of my dream or vision I did attend and behold a Man came from Heaven whom a great and innumerable multitude of Men apprehended and laid divers kinds of Torments upon him his hands were bound with cords his body worne with whips and grievously torne his body hanged upon a cross and his hands stretched cross upon it The Man which was thus tortured was naked and had no shoes upon his feet His hands and feet were pierced with nails his side thrust through with a spear and as it seemed to me
his being so friendly alwayes to Christians as Baronius often confesseth must needs much more procure ease and freedom to our Christians where there was no man of power to contradict or resist it Constantius being both King and Emperor here and the Kingdom of Brittain a Christian Kingdom Bede l. Hist c. 8. Galf. Mon. Hist Reg. Brit. l. 5. c. 5. Manusc Gali. Antiq. c. 28. 29. Virun l. 5. Hist 1. Harding Chron. c. 57 58 59 60. Hen. Hunt Hist l. 1. Socrates Eccl. Hist 1. c. 1. Eusebius l. 1. vit Const c. 9. Theodoret Hist Eccle. l. 1. c. 24. Therefore howsoever his reasons make doubt of some other places whose Estate and condition was not like unto ours of Brittain they do not move any question of the quiet thereof in case of Religion but establish and confirme it And therefore our best allowed and ancient Authors St. Bede Galfrid Hen. Hunting and old French Manuscript Virunnius Harding and others settle Constantius here in Brittain after all our persecution ended and nothing but all favour here to Christians in his time and not only a tolleration granted but publick profession of Christianity generally allowed and by Regal and Imperial warrant of Constantius used and exercised as shall appear And if we had rather hearken to forraign Writers in or neer that time we have sufficient warrant not only that he recalled himself from the worship of the Pagan Gods as divers are witnesses but as Eusebius and others testifie of him he gave free power and licence to all under him to exercise Christian Religion without any molestation And this as he writes when the greatest persecution was in other places and had care to instruct his son Constantine the great whom he left his heir in the same Faith as we may easily conclude from the words of Constantine himself Registered by Theodoret that even from the ends of the Ocean meaning Brittain he was assisted by God and Sozomen saith it is evidently known unto all men Sozom. Eccles Hist l. 1. c. 5. Chron. Mon. Abington apud Ncieph Harsp Hist Eccle. saecul p. 203. c. 9. that great Constantine was first instructed in the Christian faith among the Brittains And the Chronicle of Abington neer Oxford testifieth he was brought up in that old Abbey which we must needs ascribe to his Parents Constantius and Helen and we find not any other but Constantius except we will apply it to King Coel and then it was received and approved by him who here in Brittain caused the persecutors to be put to death and the persecution thereupon ceased as Gildas writeth For this must needs be applyed to persecution in Brittain and not to the Tyrants Dioclesian and Maximian Gild. l. de con Brit. c. 8. the persecution here ended long before their death and neither of them nor any other Emperor but Constantius having power and command here at this time and hereupon our late authors themselves thus testify of him Stow Howe 's Hist tit Rom. in Constant Constantin Constantius abolished the Superstition of the Gentiles in his Dominions so that afterward Brittain felt no persecutions Constantius renounced the Idolatry of the Gentiles I have shewed formerly that Dioclesians persecution continued in this Kingdome not ten Years for Gildas in one place saith The nine years persecution of Dioclesian the Tyrant and in the next Chapter not wholly ten years long as also that it wholly ended in the time of King Coel. Those persecutors then having no power or authority here and so together with their other over-ruling and commanding Decrees the bloody Edicts of persecuting Christians here were utterly extinct and made void and never renewed but altogether omitted by Constantius this great friend of Christians such of this Nation were fully and undoubtedly restored to their antient Liberties Priviledges and immunities in matter of Religion it Constantius and Helen our Emperour and Empresse King and Queen had then given no further and expresse approbation unto them which we may not reasonably call in question when we remember their absolute and independing Regal right and possession without contradiction they had in this Kingdom the natural love and affection they bore unto it and that to them with their religious care and desire they had to defend and advance Christian Religion even in times and places when and where they were not so enabled nor drawn thereto with so many and strong bands of duty and affection we have heard that the other Churches under his Empire were endowed by his benefits and munificence whereby they lived in great joy and encreased The choycest Christians were his dearest friends and made his Councellours Mr. Bro. fol. 463. 1. And divers even of this Nation have delivered that this our new King and Emperour particularly place St. Taurinus Archbishop in York wherein although they be mistaken if they understand Taurinus Bishop of Eureux neither the time or place allowing yet we cannot safely say but he might or did place some other of that name there and if both these should fail yet so many more authorities concur that Constantius gave consent and assistance to the publick restitution of Religion here in his time For this we have the warrant of the most and approved Antiquaries St. Gildas and St. Bede after them Matthew of Westminster and others St. Gildas writeth That before the persecution had been here ten years the wicked decrees against Christians were annulled and frustrate and all the Servants of Christ after a long winter night with joyful eyes receive the clear light of the heavenly air Bede Hist Ec. l 1. c. 8. they renew their Churches which were thrown down to the ground they found Matth West an 313. S. Albans Church built Manusc Antiq Eccl. Winton Marian Sco. an 306. Martin Polo 307. Antiq. Gal. an 306. St. Julians Lantarnam Church built in Constantius time about 309. after Christ Matth. West an 305. 307. Baron Spond an 306 Gordon an 306 Jacob Grinaeus an in c. 15. l. 1 Euseb de vita Constantini an 308. Hen. Hunt l. 1. Hist Diocl. Constantin Regit o Chro. l. 1. in Const an 253. build and perfect others in honour of their holy Martyrs and as it were set forth every where their victorious Ensignes celebrate festival dayes offer sacrifice with a pure heart and mouth all of them rejoyce as children cherished in the lap of their mother the Church St. Bede saith that so soon as the persecution ceased the Christians which had hid themselves in Woods and Desarts and secret Dens presently came forth and shewed themselves in publick doing those publick works of Christian Religion which St. Gildas before remembred And writeth plainly that this was done in the time of Constantius and that he dyed here whilst these things were thus in acting The Monck of Westminster hath the same words with St. Bede of this publick profession of Christian Religion here presently upon the ending
27 ut supra Baron an 321 Acta Sylvest Niceph. l. 7. c 34 Egbertus Ab. Flor. Sem. 3 de Increm manifest cath fidei And Constantine himself did not only send his Imperial Edicts into all Countries both East and West for embracing Christian Religion but made his publick perswading Orations to that purpose as namely in the Church openly to the Senate and People of Rome whereupon as Nicephorus a Grecian writeth in the only City of Rome there was converted and baptised above twelve thousand men besides women and young people in the same year Egbertus from old antiquities seems to deliver that all the Senators were then converted to Christ for he plainly saith that Constantine gave the honour of the Senate of Rome to the Christian Clergy thereof and he with all the Senators departed thence to Bisantium Therefore a wonder it is how some Greek Writers should or could plead Ignorance of so concerning and memorable a thing so publickly acted with so many circumstances which could not be concealed in the great commanding City of the World by the sole Emperor thereof Jodoc Cocc in the saur Cath. Tom. 1. lib. 7. art 9. and S. Sylvester the highest Ruler in the Church of Christ and testified by almost all Ecclesiastical Historians too many to be remembred being accounted to be above 40 Classical Christian Authors and Writers of this matter omitting many of great name antiquity and authority The Pagans themselves even of the same age as Amianus Marcellinus Zosimus Amia Marcel l. 27. c. 2. and others give plain testimony unto it the first expresly speaketh of Constantines Font in Rome The other setteth down the whole History at large after his Ethick manner Zosimus also testifieth that this History was common among the Pagan Writers in his time Mr. Br. f. 4â—7 5. Zosom l. 2. de Constan Zosom Hist Eccle. l. 1. c. 5. R. Abraham Levit. in Chr. Judaic R. Abra. Ezra in c. 11. Dan. Glycas Pal. 4. Annal. Meno Graecor Calend. Janu. Nich. Pap. Epist ad Michael Imper. And the Jewes also even then most malicious against Christians as R. Abraham Levita and R. Abraham Aben Ezra do confess and prove the same So do the best Greek Historians Theophanes Metaphrastes Zonarus Cedrenus Glycas Nicephorus and others Some of these as Michael Glycas calling them Arian Hereticks who say he was baptized at Nicomedia by the Arian Bishop thereof and saith it is out of doubt that he was baptized at Rome his Baptistery there continuing to confirm and prove it invincibly true so have the rest and Theophanes plainly saith this was one of the Arian Hereticks fictions and lies against Constantine to stain his glory untruly with And their authentical and publickly received Menologion of the Greek Church doth not only say that Sylvester baptized Constantine at Rome clensing him from his Leprosie both of Soul and Body but also it receiveth and enrolleth this glorious Emperor in the Catalogue of holy Saints and so he is generally honored among them and in the Latine Church his name was ever Enrolled in the Ecclesiasticall Tables called Dyptica and publickly recited at Masse which was not allowed to any but Orthodox and holy Christians Therefore he must needs be free from all such suspicion wherewith those suspected Grecians have charged him the chiefest of them making Constantine a professed Christian receiving Sacraments many years before the pretended Baptism at his death Therefore I may worthily say of this renowned Emperor with our learned and ancient Historian That he was the flower of Brittain a Brittain by Countrey before whom Henr. Hunt hist l. 1. in Cistit Harding Chro. c. 63. f. 50. and after whom never any the like went out of Brittain And another in his old Poem of the same our glorious King and Emperor first testifying that he was Christened at Rome by Pope Sylvester and there cured of his Leprosie addeth He dyed after that at Nichomeide In Catalogue among the Saints numbred Of May the twentieth and one day indeed Vnder Shrine buried and subumbred Whose day and feast the Greeks have each yeer Solemnly as for a Saint full clere Our old English Chronicle also testifieth of this Emperor Old English Hist part 4. f. 38. S. Adelm lib. de Laud. Virg. c. 12. Nicep l. Hist 7. c. 35. l. 8. c. 5. This Constantine was a glorious man and victorious in battaile In governing of the Commyn people he was very wise and in necessity of byleve he was without comparison devote his pietie and his holines be soe written in the books of holy Doctors that without doubt he is to be numbred among Saints And the Greeks say that in the end of his life he was a Monk S. Adelm saith Great Constantine was corporally and spiritually cured in Baptism at Rome by St. Sylvester and as Nicephorus a Grecian writeth this in the consent of the whole Church This our triumphant Emperor and glory of Brittain having thus victoriously conquered his spiritual as well as corporal Enemies and by Baptism thus happily made so glorious and profitable a Member of the Church of Christ the joyfull newes and tidings thereof was soon diffused and known to the holy Christians though far distant from Rome as that thing they most desired to be effected and as much rejoyced to hear it was so religiously performed And among the rest his blessed Mother St. Helen then living here in Brittain her native Countrey after the death of her Husband Constantius who had in the best manner she could instructed her Son Constantine in the true Christian Religion and desired nothing more than to understand he publickly and with so great zeal now openly professed that which she had so often and earnestly exhorted him unto was not a little joyed with the certain notice hereof And with all haste she could prepared herself for so long a journey by her corporal presence to be both more effectuall partaker and encreaser of such Christian comforts and to give arguments of her joyes by messengers in the mean time writing unto him from Brittain as our Antiquaries do affirm and among other things to expresse her great zeal in Christian Religion and to exhort her Son to the like understanding of the great malice of the Jewes against Christians especially at that time the Emperour being so solemnly and so miraculously baptized Floren. Wigo Chron. an 306 328. Marian. Scot. lib. 2. aetat 6. anno 321. perswaded him to persecute those Jewes which denyed Christ Marianus Scotus writeth also that St. Helen did write out of Brittain when she heard he was baptized by St. Sylvester But his Publisher as he is charged with many other things by Harkesfield to have done either hath mistaken him in that which followeth or published some Copy not so to be approved for he bringeth in St. Helen in the next words to request her Son to deny Christ and follow the Jewes which cannot be the
redress the house of Ambesbury and put therein Monks but now there be Nuns There was a Monastery of great renown at Abington in Berkshire before the coming of the Saxons into Brittain the old Chronicle of that house is witness testifying that then there were five hundred Monks and more belonging to that Monastery living in woods and desarts getting their living by their labour King Cissa a Saxon a cruel persecuter of the Monks at Abington and all Christian Brittains and upon the holy dayes and Sundayes coming together in their Abbey all excepting threescore which continually abode in the Abbey serving God there And that before King Cissa was a Christian he put those Monks either to death or forced them from their Monastery and cruelly persecuted all Christians In the mean time the Brittains coming together from the places of their retreat and combining their dispersed forces the better to defend themselves against the power of the Enemies were freshly assailed by the Scottishmen and Picts Brit. Hist part 2. fol. 196. a great number of the Saxons also being newly entred into association with them whereupon Germanus the Bishop who came over into Brittain a little before the Saxons arrival Picts Scots and Saxons enter into association against the Brittains and had remained there with Lupus to the end they might instruct and confirm the Brittains in the true faith against the Pelagians confident of the goodness of this cause and to give encouragement to his new converts offered himself to be the leader of the Brittish Army which consisted for the most part of such Christians as himself had lately baptized the place wherein they pitched was a fair valley enclosed on both sides with high Mountains over which their Enemies were to march the Bishop himself and certain Priests that attended him standing in the midst of the Army exhorted the Brittains to fight couragiously as the Soldiers of Christ under the banner of the Crosse which badge they had received in their baptisme and commanded them all upon the enemies approach to answer him aloud with one consent in such manner as himself began Thereupon the Saxons and Scottishmen ascending the further side of the hill supposed to have charged the Brittains on a suddain which when Germanus and his Priests who were about him perceived they cryed out three several times Alleluja all the Brittains seconding the cry and the Eccho rebounding from the hills redoubled the sound A miraculous victory obtained by the Brittains against the Picts Scots and Saxons the word being Alleluja by reason whereof the Pagans imagining the number of the Christians much greater then it was indeed cast away their weapons and fled the Britains killing many of them in pursuit and such as escaped the sword being drowned in the River which impeached them in their flying After this memorable victory Germanus perswading the Brittains to unity and constancy in profession of Christian Religion as a means to make their attempts against their enemies prosperous departed out of Brittain whether as some writers report he soon after returned and by the assistance of Severus the Bishop of Trevers suppressed the Palagian heresie Which after his departure sprung up again and increased among the Brittains In remembrance of whose zeal Brit. Hist part 2. fol. 197. and travail in that behalf sustained the Christians of Brittain afterwards dedicated unto him as a protecting Saint certain Churches and Houses of Religion in divers paces of the Land Aurelianus or Aurelius Ambrosius The Saxons presently after perceiving that the Brittains were scattered in several troops disarmed and unfurnished of all things necessary for support of the War prepared themselves to follow them and to empeach them from joyning their forces togeather any more to which end they divided themselves into several companies with a full resolution either utterly to destroy and expell them out of the Isle which they had almost brought to passe when Aurelianus Ambrosius coming out of France into Brittain brought hither some of the Brittains that had seated themselves there who pittying their distressed Country men in the Island determined either to relieve them or to perish in the enterprize This Ambrosius was a Roman by birth honourably descended and as hath been conjectured Brit. Hist sup of the race of that Constantine who for the hope of his name only which was reputed ominous had been elected Emperour by the Roman Army in Brittain And being now the chief leader of the Brittains he oft times encountered the Saxons and by the assistance of Arthur a valiant Captain gave them many overthrowes Howe 's Brit. Saxons fol. 52. Aurelius Ambrose saith Howes was ordained King of Brittain in whose time the Brittains by little and little began to take courage to them and coming out of their caves in which they lurked before and with one consent calling for heavenly help thet they might not for ever be utterly destroyed They having for their Captain and leader the foresaid Aurelius assemble themselves together and provoked the Victors to fight and through Gods assistance atchieved the victory and from that day forward were the men of the countrey The enemy had the victory till that year in which Bath was besieged where they gave their Enemies a great overthrow which was about the fourty fourth yeer of their comming into the Land Of this Aurelius William of Malms writeth thus Surely even then saith he the Brittains had gone to wrack if Ambrosius who only and alone of all the Romans remained in Brittain and was Monarch of the Realm after Vortiger had not kept under the proud Barbarians Stone-hedge built by Aureius Ambrosius with the notable travel of the warriour Arthur Geffry of Mon. tells us that this Ambrosius caused Churches to be repaired which had been spoyled by the Saxons He caused also the great stones to be set on the plain of Salisbury which is called Stone-hedge in remembrance of the Brittains that were slain and buryed there in the raign of Vortiger This ancient monument is yet to be seen and is a number of stones rough and of a grey colour twenty five foot in length and about ten foot in breadth they are conjoyned by two and two together Howes Vt sulpâ—a and every couple sustained a third stone lying overthwart gatewise which is fastened by the means of tenons that enter into mortases of those stones not closed by any cement It appeareth that there hath been three rancks going round as circles one within another whereof the utmost and largest containeth in compasse 300 foot but the other rancks are decayed and therefore hard to reckon how many stones there be Gâ—ffr Mon. Garal Cam. Gerva Doro. The Chronicles of the Brittains do testifie that whereas the Saxons about the year of our Lord 450. had slain 48. of the Brittains Nobility by treason and under colour of treaty Aurelius Ambrosius now King of the Brittains desirous to continue
the Altars We hope that your Fatherhood and the said Court of Rome will rather with pity lament our case than with rigor of punishment augment our sorrow Neither shall the Kingdom of England be in any wise disquieted or troubled by our means as is affirmed so that we may have the peace duely kept and observed towards us and our people Who they be that are delighted with blood-shed and war is manifestly apparent by their deeds and behaviour for we would live quietly upon our own if we might be suffered but the Englishmen coming to our Countrey did put all to the sword neither sparing sex age or sickness or any thing regarding Churches or sacred Places the like whereof the Welshmen never committed That one having paid his ransom was afterwards slain we are right sorry to hear of it neither do we maintain the offender who escaping our hands keepeth himself as an Out-law in the Woods and unknown places That some began the war in a time not meet or convenient that understood not we of till now and yet they who did the same do affirm that in case they had not done as they did at that time they had been slain or taken prisoners being not in safety in their own houses and forced continually for safeguard of their lives to keep themselves in Armour and therefore to deliver themselves from that fear they took that enterprise in hand Concerning those things which we commit against God with the assistance of his grace A true Christian resolution in Lhewelyn we will as it becometh Christians repent and turn unto him neither shall the war on our part be continued so that we be saved harmless and may live as we ought but before we be disinherited or slain we must defend our selves as well as we may Of all injuries and wrongs done by us we are most willing and ready upon the due examination and trial of the trespasses and wrong committed on both sides to make satisfaction to the utmost of our power so that the like on the Kings side be performed in like manner towards us and our people and to conclude and establish a peace we are most ready But what peace can be established when as the Kings Charter so solemnly confirmed is not kept and performed Our people are daily oppressed with new exactions We send unto you also a note in writing of the wrongs injuries which are done unto us contrary to that Form of the peace before made we have put our selves in Armour being driven thereunto by necessity for we and our people were so oppressed trodden under foot spoiled and brought to slavery by the Kings Officers contrary to the Form of peace concluded against justice none otherwise then if we were Saracens or Jewes whereof we have oftentimes complained unto the King and never could get any Redress but alwayes those Officers were afterwards more fierce and cruel against us and when those Officers through their ravine and extortion were enriched other more hungry than they were sent afresh to flea those whom the other had shorn before so that the people wished rather to dye than to live in such oppression And now it shall not be needful to leavy any Army to war upon us or move the Prelates of the Church against us so that the peace may be observed duely and truly as before is expressed Neither ought your holy fatherhood to give credit to all that our adversaries do alleadge against us for even as in their deeds they have and do oppress us so in their words they will not stick to slaunder us laying to our charge what liketh them best Therefore forasmuch as they are alwayes present with you and we absent from you they oppressing we oppressed we are to desire you even for his sake from whom nothing is hid not to credit mens words but to examine their deeds Thus we bid your Holiness farewell Dated at Garth Celyn in the Feast of Saint Martin Certain Griefs sent from Lhewelyn to the Archbishop translated word by word out of the Records of the said Archbishop Where that it is contained in the Form of Peace concluded as followeth 1. If the said Lhewelyn will claim any right in any lands occupied by any other then by the Lord the King without the said 4 Cantress the said Lord the King shall do him full justice according to the Laws and Customs of those quarters or parts where the said lands do lye Which Article was not observed in the lands of Frustly and betwixt the waters of Dyni and Dulas for that when the said Lhewelyn claimed the said lands before the Lord the King at Ruthlan and the King granted him the cause to be examined according to the Laws and Customs of Wales and the Advocates of the parties were brought in and the Judges which vulgarly they called Ynnayd before the King to judge of the said lands according to the Lawes of Wales and the Defendant appeared and answered so that the same day the cause ought to have been fully determined according to the appointment of our Lord the King who at his being at Glocester had assigned the parties the said day and though the same cause was in divers places often heard and examined before the Justice and the lands were in North Wales and never judged but by the Laws of Wales neither was it lawful for the King but according to the Laws of Wales to prorogue the cause All that notwithstanding he prorogued the day of his own motion contrary to the said Laws and at the last the said Lhewelyn was called to divers places whither he ought not to have been called neither could he obtain justice nor any judgement unless it were according to the Laws of England contrary to the said Article of peace and the same was done at Montgomery when the parties were present in judgement and a day appointed to hear the Sentence they prorogued the said day contrary to the aforesaid Laws and at the last the King himself at London denied him justice unless he would be judged according to the English Laws in the said matter 2. All Injuries Trespasses and Faults on either part done be clearly remitted unto this present day This Article was not kept for that as soon as the Lord Reginald Grey was made Justice he moved divers and innumerable accusations against the men of Tegengl and Ros for trespasses done in the time of King Henry when they bare rule in those parts whereby the said men dare not for fear keep their own houses 3. Whereas it was agreed That Rees Vachan ap Rees ap Maelgon shall enjoy his possessions with all the land which he now holdeth c. After the peace concluded he was spoiled of his lands in Geneurglyn which he then held with the men and cattel of the same 4. Also our Lord the King granteth That all Tenants holding lands in the 4 Cantrefs or in other places which the King holdeth in