make us believe a Conjunction here more than in any other part of the World And here I must desire it to be granted that the Earth continues for many miles together in most parts of the World the very same under Water as it is on the next Neighbouring dry Land and that in no place or very rarely and by accident there is a mutation of the Soyl just upon the Sea-shoar I mean that upon the Sea the uttermost bounds of the Earth shall be fat and sertile stony or minerally and immediately where the Sea begins it shall be of a different nature The want of this Consideration seems to have been the Reason why men in several parts of the World have thought by the likeness of soyls there hath been a Conjunction of Earth when the truth is it was nothing more but the very fame Vein of ground which ran under Water from one Country to another V and F are the Air part whereof is above part under the upper Crust of the Earth E D is the Water M and G the Mineral Earth upon which the upper Crust E is supposed to fall I the Fire Now supposing the upper Crust of Earth E be dried by the heat of the Sun it follows in time that it would shrink and so wanting the continuation of its parts which is necessary to support the Arch some of it would fall upon the Mineral Earth C whereby the Water D and Air F would arise and be uppermost and other parts of E remain above yet so hollow within as to keep Water in its Concavity which drayned through the Earth would produce Springs and being rarified into Vapours would cause Earthquakes Now that which makes to our business is this Suppose all the distance between 1 2 3 4. to be of a Sandy and Rocky nature if the breach be in the middle point betwixt 1 and 4 the shoar 1 and shoar 4 will be of the same Nature in respect the Earth is the same all along between them which now is supposed to be under Water between those two Points E E E the upper Crust of the Earth 1 2 3 9. V 6 the several Breaches the Breach at 9 and V makes the Mountain whose top is at 4 the Concavity at F. From 2 to 8 as likewise from 7 to X the Water is above the Earth and maketh two Seas the shoars whereof are at 8 and X from 8 to 9 and so to X is dry Land And because in the Nature of the thing it is more reasonable to imagine the Breaches to be made where the Soyls differ therefore it happens that different and opposite Shoars are most commonly of a different Nature yet it follows not that Shoars of the same Nature and Soyl ought to be imagined of later date in their Separation than those which are of a different Nature neither is it material whether the Shoars be steep and Cliffy or whether plain and eaven or whether they answer one another or no. For we find in sounding of the depths of the Seas Hills and Valleys as well as on the dry Land neither does it follow more that the Cliffs of Dover and Bullen were a continued Ridge of Hills than that Highgate and Penman in Flint-shire are All that I think worthy to be observed is this that where a Shoar is high and steep there as to the main matter the further you go from Shoar for some distance the fewer fathom of Water you find And on the contrary where a Shoar is plain by degrees you go deeper and deeper and in this also you must allow for height of ground which often casually happens in the bottom of the Sea as well as on the dry Land The Reason of it is this because that Arch of Earth which we called Mineral Earth and was formed under Water being a less Circle of vast proportion as included by two Outward ones could not have Superficies enough for the upper Earth to lie upon it for where the fall is greater and steeper of necessity not far off must there be some Ascent proportionable as we find Dover and the opposite Clyffs exactly in the mid-way an Ascent of ground called the Riff or Trowen Shoal not sandy but of a Rocky substance scarce four Fathom deep at low Water the farther you go from it East or West being deeper and deeper still as afore allowing for casual and accidental Hillocks in the bottom From all which I think that the similitude of Soyls and equality of Promontories are no Argument to make us believe that after the general ordering the Earth Dover and Bullen were more joyned than any other parts whatever but were Primitively disjoyned as other Nations were And this Argument will hold good whether according to Des Cartes we suppose the Earth above the Water as a Postulatum only and no further or whether with Moses we certainly believe that the Waters were above the Earth for according to both the Earth must shrink and by ascent and descent gather it self together to make room for the Waters which in its hollow or concave places were to be gathered together As for Verstegans Argument That there is nothing broken but what was whole I think he might have joyned the two Promontories as easily with any other Principle as two entire parts joyned make a whole or that the Parts are less than the whole Of the same force is his Observation That steep places near the Sea are called Cliffs when as in the In-lands they are rather called Hills or Mountains and this he would have to intimate as much as if they had been cleaved from some other Promontory According to his Principle Nothing is broken in Nature that hath not been whole a Principle undeniable yet makes no more for the Cliffs of Dover than any other in the World which are not answered by other Cliffs as perhaps Dovers are These are his Reasons that shew the probability of such a Breach Let us now examine his Arguments by which he thinks he has put it out of all doubt Such as he calls evident Reasons and remarkable Demonstrations which he saith ought to be admitted as sufficient as Authors nay beyond some who deliver it by Hear-say but to give my Judgment in this case I should think the least Tradition in Antiquity that there was such athing to be of more force than all his Demonstrations to perswade and convince a man of so great a change in the World Although to him it might seem never so easie and common yet we read that some who had rashly undertook to cut the Isthmus of ground on which Corinth stood they were daily and hourly terrified and affrighted with Noises and hideous Out-cries and their works notwithstanding all their diligence went backwards Nature will not easily permit such Changes whether it proceeds from guilt of mind being a presumption that naturally would startle humane nature to set surer bounds to Kingdoms than first ordained or whether it
defaced could read no one Sentence through yet could I well perceive in several places the word Prytania If this Book be admitted of any considerable Antiquity as that Humphry Lloyd speaks true that there is no first Radical Letter B in the Welch Tongue but that they were called Prydayns by themselves I believe without doubt the Greeks from this way of the Islanders derived them from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prytania signifying Mettals in their own Language for they knowing that the first Original Name Bretanica came from the Phoenicians in which name the Commodity of the Country Tynn was expressed and finding it corrupted by the Natives into Pretan Prytan or something like it easily making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wittingly embraced this occasion to derive the Country from a word from their own Language signifying Mettals so that if there be any truth in the Derivation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must of necessity proceed from this Fountain The like may be said of Bretta the Spanish word Earth from whence some have derived it For if there be any kind of Truth delivered by Tradition of such a thing among the Spaniards then it must come from those Spaniards which in former times were called Iberi that is Diggers in Mines and as the word importeth it was derived from the Phoenicians That these Iberi might be employed by the Phoenicians in the Tynn Mines in BRITAIN is not unlike for Tacitus saies That the Complexion of the South part of Britain differs much from the Northern and both from those parts that lie upon France and therefore he is of Opinion that the North parts were Peopled by the Germans the Eastern Coast by the opposite Neighbours the Gauls and the South parts by the Iberi This he gathers by the different Complexion of the People the North Britains being Fair having large Limbs long Yellow hair as the Germans have the South Britains being Swarthy and Curled hair like the Spaniards the Coast lying upon France agreeing in Language Customes and in every thing with the Gauls It is difficult to perswade me that Primitively any part of Britain could be Peopled out of Spain by entire Colonies but rather that it is more natural that this Island being peopled by Colonies descending down the Rhine and filling France Belgium and all that Tract of Ground the Spaniards came to the South part as Miners only being very active and expert in that Trade having plenty of Mines in their own Country as the Roman Histories witness continued unexhausted even to Hannibals daies According to this account it must certainly be vainly supposed of the derivation of Britain from Bretta signifying Earth in Spanish especially when considered this Island once in conjunction with the Continent but from the Spanish Mariners who took Bretta from the Phoenician Brat the first syllable in Bratanac signifying Earth For it will frequently happen that the Truth of things is delivered down though the Reason by which men would evidence them are often vain and frivolous according to the divers apprehensions and conceptions of Men. The time when the Phoenicians came from Tyre and Zidon their own Native Country to discover BRITAIN THE next thing I shall shew is about what time the Phoenicians from Tyre came into the Western Seas and when in all reason it may be supposed they discovered and named this Island for from the Certainty and Antiquity of their Navigations will depend the evidence of our Derivation And I shall also make it appear that the Tyrians before the Trojan War under their Captain and Country man Hercules having Trafficked to all the parts of the Inland Sea at last passed the Streights of Gibraltar having first built several Cities on the Streights and possessed Tartessus Erythea and Gades Islands with great part of the Continent of Spain and Africk lying on the Sea Coasts as many Monuments of their Language and Customes do evidence And that the Western Sea was discovered before the Trojan War we learn from the Ancient Poets Orpheus and Homer with whom nothing is more frequent than those sayings That the EARTH was an Island and encompassed round with the SEA And first Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sea around the Earth her Water throws And in that Circle does it all inclose Upon this very account was it called AMPHITRITE by Homer its going round the Earth as Herodotus speaks in his fourth Book Homer makes the Sun to arise and set in the Ocean and in the first Mapp of the World as I may call it the Shield of Achilles which Vulcan makes him we find that the Earth was in the midst of the Waters for the SEA was placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpon the extream borders of the Shield From whence could Orpheus and Homer have this if not by Tradition from the Phoentcians for Colaeus Samius was the first of the Greeks that discovered the Western Ocean and he lived four hundred years after Homer besides he never went farther than Tartessus but contented himself with the discovery of the Streights mouth only and to have seen that Ocean so that we must suppose Homer had it by Tradition from the Phoenicians as Bochartus proves him to have had many Names of Places particularly the ELYSIAN FIELDS in Hispania BETICA Let us hearken also what Strabo saith to this business speaking of the Phoenicians They saies he went beyond HERCULES Pillars and there built Cities even to the middle of Lybia on the Sea Coast a little while after the TROJAN War and Mr. Milton saies that he thinks that ALBION has some relation to these Actions in Lybia quasi Alebion so called by the Phoenicians which in my opinion is the most probable Derivation I ever read of ALBION However we see that the Navigations of the Phoenicians into these Seas were Ancient Herodotus makes mention with wonder of some Phoenicians sent by Nero how they failed round Africa and returned through the Streights of Gibraltar having in their Voyage the Sun on their Right hand part of which story Herodotus will not believe It must needs be true for after they had passed the Tropick of Cancer beyond which Africk runs out many degrees Now this story so innocently told by Herodotus as a Wonder argues the Ignorance of the Greeks and the great Experience the Phoenicians had in those Seas all along the Coast of Africk This I conjecture is the cause why men beyond Reason have drawn their Voyages even to the East Indies under King Solomon and to the West under Hanno and Himilco a Fate we often see that attends Great Actions when over-fond men out of a desire to magnisie things Famous beyond their true proportions inconsiderately stretch them beyond the bounds of Truth and Modesty Having said thus much of the Derivation of BRITANNIA that it came from the Phoenicians Bratanac let us see whether the Graecians might not take the name
proceeds from the hardness or impossibility of such an Attempt sure it is the Work was discontinued to this day notwithstanding all the Conveniencies may be alleadged for it for such a Cutt would needs make the Trade to the Archipelago much shorter and safer when all the Cyclades those little Islands or great Rocks might thereby be avoided yet if we compare that Isthmus to this Neck of Land which is supposed to joyn Britain and Gaul what a petty business it was either for the Sea sooner to break it down or for Man to remove it The first Demonstration he gives us is That the Neatherlands not only those parts of Holland and Zealand which at any time by Cutting the Banks may be turned into Sea but great part of Flanders and Brabant which lie so high that they can never be made Sea any more have in former times been Sea and he quoats Hubert Thomas sometimes Secretary unto Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine who in his description of the Country of Liege saith that the Sea hath come up even to the Walls of Tongres and that there remains to this day great Iron Rings to which the Ships that there sometime Arrived were fastened Now Tongres lies almost an hundred English miles from the Sea having many pleasant and fertile Countries between that and the Sea That these Provinces have formerly been Sea the Eaveness of them are Arguments besides the nature of the Soyl which in Flanders and Brabant is Sandy besides in digging in many places two Fathom deep are found innumerable shells of Sea-fish and in many places great Bones of Fishes which argues those places formerly to have been the Sea-shoar because Shell-fish is naturally bred and nourished in the Flats and Shoar and not in the Deep So that Holland and Zealand must be supposed to have been deep Sea because in none of those Provinces are any Shells found under ground moreover in Brabant there hath been dug up Anchors and when that famous Cut was digged from Brussels unto the River of Rupel at Willebrook begun Anno Christi 1550 and ended Anno 1561 through Corn-lands Wood-lands and Meadows for fifteen English miles an Undertaking that shews the Richness of that City In those daies there was found among other things the Bones or Anatomy of a Sea Elephant the Head of which being reserved Verstegan himself saw Now the cause why those places were Sea and afterwards became Land Verstegan thinks can be no other than this That the Isthmus of Ground between France and England kept up the Northern Seas so that wanting passage they over-flowed those Countries and when they had workt themselves through this Neck of Land they left these Countries dry so that never since they could be over-flown by the Sea I mean those higher places of Flanders and Brabant And that this could not be the Reason I hope to demonstrate by several Arguments He himself does acknowledge that in some Vineyards of Campagne of France a high and Hilly Country many shells of Fishes has been dug up which he attributes to Noah's Flood and why by the same Reason may not those in Flanders and Brabant have the same Originals seeing they lie so deep under ground as two fathoms which argues a great Land-flood that could cover them with so much Earth Neither does the multitude of them in Flanders or the paucity of those dug in the Vineyards any thing alter the case for without doubt the Waters in the Flood could not so easily carry them to the tops of Mountains but that the greater number would stick in the Low Countries as is plain in those Firr Trees which were found in the Neatherlands and in some low Grounds of Lancashire and other parts in England with their Roots to the south and their Heads to the north which Firr-trees never grew on those Grounds naturally as it is a Tree of the Mountains and thrives not but on craggy and barren Hills as the abundance of them in Upper-Germany do witness But supposing those Parts to have been Sea those Iron Rings which they say are yet at Tongres do shew that they have been Sea a great while since this Isthmus was broken down For in the daies of Julius Caesar seventeen Hundred years ago there was no such thing nor any memory of it but the passage from Itium and Gessoriacum into Britain was by Sea Now that Iron Rings exposed to the Weather and Rust should continue for Seventeen hundred years nay this supposed Isthmus in all Reason must have been some Hundreds of years before Caesars time otherwise he would have Recorded so memorable an Action I leave to any Rational man to judge whether it be possible so to be the like may be said of those Anchors found under ground and not unlike of the Sea-fish bones and shells though it is more probable that they being generated in the Sea and preserved in a Ground that retained the natural Saltness of the Waters that flung it up might be preserved longer than Iron which by Moisture quickly rusts and moulders away into its first Natural constitution Earth Besides if this passage of Water through the Isthmus sunk the Sea northward then that Sea which was south of this Isthmus must rise but upon the very Coasts of Sussex and Dorcet-shire which lie south of it the Inhabitants do shew several Marks to which they say the Tide once did rise which upon the Level is very much higher than now it flows and this doth not happen among them only but the whole World over England is full of those Marks and so are other Countries and I think it ariseth from a general decay of Moisture in the Universe and that the Earth continually grows dryer and dryer And although the Sea may be said to gain in some places that is where the Earth fell lower than the Waters and had nothing to preserve it from being Sea but some continued Ridge which by accident kept the Sea out and which as soon gone the Sea broke in yet as to the whole the Land hath gained on the Sea as all parts of the World do evidence Delos was not alwaies visible great part of Egypt was Sea in Homers daies and Venice to this day keeps Marks of the falling of their Waters of which latter Ages have been very sensible nay they have a Tradition among them That the Sea in future times will forsake their City and that then the Government thereof and the City it self must be destroyed But to return to England I my self have examined many Coasts both on the East and West parts of it so that in most places I find there are plain grounds sometimes half a mile sometimes a mile broad which lie between the Sea and some Hills which Hills by their steepness and being broken off seem once to have been washed by the Sea The soyl of those Meadows now lying higher than the Sea do argue much that they were once part of it
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 White or Albion the Gyant From its high Rocks on the Western Coasts where the Phoenicians first Landed called to this day Pens or from the Whiteness of its Shoars Alpin in the Phoenician Tongue is a high Mountain Alben in the same Dialect is White HIBERNIA called also Jerna Had its Name from its Scituation being the last Country Westward further than which the Phoenicians never took Voyages It may be supposed to be called Ibetnae by the Phoenicians from whence came Hibernia likewise Nerne from whence is derived Jerna Iber-nae the last Habitation Aher-nae from which the same Jerna and it is remarkable that till the discovery of these Islands by the Phoenicians there were many places on the west of Africa and Spain that were so named as being then the uttermost Habitation THuLE saith Suidas from Thoulis a King of AEgypt So called from its Dusky and Dark scituation lying in the North. Chule in the Phoenician Tongue is Darkness CALEDONIA a Province of Scotland So called from its Rocky and Mountainous nature so that Mr. Cambden derives it from Kaled Hard in the British Tongue Galebtun in the Phoenician Tongue is as much as a hard Hill Thus have I run cursorily over the Countries of most considerable note passing from Asia and so West-ward to these our Islands It remains now that I return back to shew the same consent and agreement in more private and particular Places which though not so famous as the fore-mentioned yet are sufficiently known by all at this day and were no less frequented by the Phoenicians than the former The Greeks The Phoenicians The Interpretation BALEARES two Islands in the Mediterranean on the Coast of Spain derived by the Greeks from Baleus a Companion of Hercules These Islands were ever Famous as is notoriously known for excellent Slingers upon which account they had their Name from the Phoenicians Bal-jaro a Master at Slinging or an excellent Slinger in the Phoenician CORSICA otherwise Cyrnus so named from Cyrnus a Son of Hercules It received both its Names from the Phoenicians the former from its Woodiness the latter upon the account of its many Promontories shooting on all sides into the Sea upon which Reason AEthicus Orosius Isidorus all three give it the same Epithite of Multis Promontoriis Angulosa c. and for its abounding with Wood whoever reads of the Island cannot but know it Carno or Curno from whence Kúpros a Horn or Promontory in the Phoen. Chorsi from whence Corsica or Corsis signifies a Woody place SARDINIA otherwise Sardo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sardus the Son of Hercules This Island received its name from the resemblance it had to the Foot of a Man therefore it was called by the Greeks Ichnusa and Sandaliotis Sarad and Sarda in the Phoenician Tongue signifies the Footstep of a Man MELITE now Malta from the Nymph Melite of whom Hercules begot Hyllus Some bring it from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hony with which it never abounded but it took rather its Name from the Commodiousness of its Scituation and Ports lying exactly in the middle between Tyre and the Streights whither the Phoenicians Trafficked insomuch that upon all Occasions either to Victual or to secure themselves from Tempest or Enemy saith Diodorus in several Places this was a REFUGE to the Phoenicians having within it a Colony of their own Melita in the Phoenician Tongue signifies a Place of Refuge or Sanctuary c. and who knoweth not that many places in the East Countries have their Names upon the same account and we call the Mid-way to the East-Indies The Cape of good Hope at this day GADES called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stephanus Eustathius and Suidas derive it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Neck of the Earth The Streights shut up the Mediterranean as a Fence or Pinfold a little passage only being left and therefore are they called Septum by the Latin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Gr. Gadir in the Phoen. Tongue signifieth the same as Septum and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ABYLA a Mountain on the Streights it is sometimes written Alyba the Letters transposed Festus witnesseth that this Mountain took its name from the Phoenicians and signifieth in their Tongue as much as a high Hill Abilam vocant Gens Punicorum Mons quod altus Barbaro Ab-illaa in the Phoen. Tongue is a high Mountain so is Al-aba from whence comes the transposition Aliba for Abyla GALPE another Mountain on the Streights answering to Abyla on the side of Spain This Mountain on the West is open like an Urn or Pitcher and so is described by the Scholiast upon Juvenal and by Mela and therefore had it its Name Galpha in the Phoen. is an Urn or Pitcher and in Festus Calparis is a kind of Vessel RHODUS an Island in the Mediterranean derived by the Greeks from Roses which in their Tongue are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It took its Name from the multitude of Serpents it produced upon which very account it was called Ophiusa by the Greeks or an Island of Serpents Rod in the Phoen. Tongue is a Serpent or Dragon CERASTIS which is Cyprus So called from its many Promontories as Stephanus witnesseth Keren in the Phoen. a Horn or Promontory from whence comes Kernaa Kosno and Kurno SICILIA a Scindendo because it was cut off from the Continent It had its Name from the abundance and excellency of its Grapes with which it supplied Africa in former times as witnesseth Diodorus who saith that the Agrigentines once arrived to infinite Wealth by that Trade Segulaia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as a Country of Grapes in the Phoenician Tongue SICANI a People of Sicily They inhabited the South and West part of the Island that Buts upon Africa and these only were properly call'd Sicani and their Country Sicania and that from their Neighbour-hood with the Phoenicians lying next to them Secanim signifies Neighbours so are many People called in the Land of Canaan for their Neighbour-hood to the Jews SYRACUSAE the Metropolis of Sicily It is agreed it took Name from a stinking and unwholsome Marsb upon which it stood called Syraco which by its noisom Vapours oft brought Plagues upon the City Syraco in the Phoen. Tongue signifieth an Evil Savour CHARYBDIS a place much noted for Shipwracks The Waters there run round and make a Gulph insomuch as Seneca writes Hiatu magno profundoque sorbet navigia Chor-obdam in the Phoen. signifies Foramen perditionis a Hole of Destruction as the Eastern Nations express themselves in such cases SCYLLA another Rock that answers Charybdis on the other side of the Sicilian Streight No doubt took its Name upon the same reason as Charybdis Scol in the Phoen. from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies Destruction AETNA a burning Mountain in Sicily the Greeks give no derivation of it but tell us a fable of the Giant Enceladus who by Jupiter
do conclude that those Promontories and Cliffs were alwaies so and that they were never joyned by any neck or bridge of Land whatsoever Richardus Vitus in his History Lib. 1. saith That the Morini who lived on the French side of these Streights were called so in the Ancient Celtick Language for Mor signifies the SEA Now the great Antiquity of the Celtick Tongue shall be shewn hereafter in a more proper place however thus much appears That from any Name there can be nothing gathered of this Isthmus for these Morini lived on the Sea-coast and not upon the end of the Isthmus Thus much as to the Name of these Streights that they have nothing in them or contiguous to them that can preserve the Memory of any such conjunction of Shoars or violent Separation made by the Sea or dug by the labour of Man a thing easily to be expected considering that less mutations in the World have left some Tradition behind them Certainly such a Breach as this between two such considerable Countries must make more noise in the World when ever it happened than either Sicily or the Isle of Wight which to this day do retain some Memory of being cut off from their Neighbours Let us now consider whether in the Reason of the thing the nature of the Streights themselves the position and similitude of the opposite Soyls themselves and such Arguments are sufficient Inducements to engage any Rational man to believe that Britain was once joyned to Gallia And it is not to be doubted but there has been several mutations and changes in the World before and since Noahs Flood Countries in some parts being swallowed up by Earth-quakes which in these Colder parts of the World are never so violent as to be able to subvert twenty miles of dry Land together and to cast it into the Sea by that force In the Northern Countries we have only experience of some general Tremblings of the Earth and where they extend to any length of Ground bring only fear not distraction on the minds of the Inhabitants For when any Earthquake is united and contracted the most that we experience is the removal of some Church or the walking of some little Hill as it hath been seen often in England when as in Hotter Countries whole Cities have been overturned nay swallowed up and for many miles together Houses shattered and demolished This is very easie to be imagined if we consider the nature of Earth-quakes and from what Cause they proceed being very obvious to any that know and consider the AEolopylae how by heat the Wind and Vapours rarified are forced out in great violence for the force is augmented by the strength of the Heat in its several Sallys So likewise must it be with the Earth which in the Bowels of it having many Concavities that contain Vapours the greater the external Heats are that rarifie those Vapours the stronger force will they have if they can find no vent and passage for as the heat is greater so must the passages likewise be more suffocated stopt and choaked up in dry Countries when as in cold Climates the moisture of the Earth keeps open its pores and admits passages for the Vapours agreeable to its proper nature and natural Constitution From hence it may be concluded that such a Neck of Ground that is presumed to have been between Britain and Gaul of that length and breadth could not by any Earthquake be thrown into the Sea What is alleadged out of Ovid will make nothing material to our purpose He brings Pythagoras whose Soul for many years by Transinigration had passed from one to another and therefore must be wondrous well fraught with the Ocular experience of things we only hear of to speak these words Vidi Ego quod quondam fuerat solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras I saw what once was solid Earth made Sea And dry Land there where Waters us'd to be This I suppose must have been in those daies of Yore in which he saies of himself Panthoides Euphorbus eram May not a very material Objection be offered and say That he did not really distinguish the times of his Transmigrating to Fish and Flesh and so mistook Earth and Water as he was longer or shorter in the Element But to come to the purpose Verstegan to make way for this Opinion quotes Genesis cap. 14. Omnes hi convenerunt in Vallem sylvestrem quae nunc est Mare Salis All these met together in the Wood Valley which is now the Salt Sea So that saies he many places are now Sea which have been formerly dry Land This may be easily granted where there are Reasons to induce one to believe it As the shallowness of the Sea the position of the Ground as we find to be in the Red Sea part of which to this day and a considerable part too at Low Water lieth like a great Vally and Plain of Sand so that it is made a publick Road for Passengers the Waters lying on both sides of them and this I have heard from one who passed through it himself when he Travelled in those parts And this part might be that Wood Vally Moses speaks of which lying so low might easily by degrees be turned into Sea but that all the Red Sea should once be a Wood Vally the depth of it in many places and the steepness of the Shoars do manifestly contradict it Not to say any thing that this very Text may be understood otherwise viz. Quae nunc est Mare salis may in the Hebrew bear Quae nunc est ad Mare salis It is not to be denied there has been several Changes in the World as Sea turned into Land and Land into Sea although I am perswaded this latter to have happened more rarely as will be shewn hereafter As briefly as I can I shall Answer now Verstegan's Reasons and take them in order as they lie The first Reason he gives for the liklyhood of it Is the nearness of the Land between England and France not exceeding Twenty four miles and how one Shoar is exactly answered with a Shoar of like nature as for Example Dover Clyffs are of Flints and Chalk the opposite shoar between Bullen and Calais is of the same substance I suppose he means Vitsan Dover Clyffs are broken and so are they Again Calais lies upon a Flat and an Eaven shoar so does Sandwich which exactly answers it from England therefore it seems very probable saies he that they were once joyned To Answer this I will not question how and by what Rule he makes his Opposites nor enquire so strictly how the Clyffs correspond one with another for it will happen as the line is laid and places at a distance may be thought to be one against another as fancy leads the string I say that neither the nearness of position of the two Promontories nor the similitude of Soyl are sufficient Arguments to
Neither could I find any other Reason excepting the general decay of the Sea in all Parts why those Coasts once lying under Water ever became dry Lands That this has happened in other parts of the World is plain viz. That the Water hath left many places it once possessed Hybanda an Island once of Ionia in Pliny's daies was Two hundred stadia from the Sea likewise Ortygia is now become a Peninsula by a neck of Ground the Sea hath either left or flung up I am very certain there are many more Examples in the World of Peninsula's made than destroyed Here I am not to be understood as though I speak of the Lunary Tide but of the general and constant Flux of Waters Let A be this Isthmus that disjoyns C France and B Britain D D D the North Sea about the thirteenth Parallel and uttermost parts of Scotland now this North Sea equally slows upon the Isthmus A and the same opposite Parallel E so that when the Flood is at A or between Dover and Bullen it will likewise be the same time at E about South Wales and so going round about the Point F it comes to the other side of the Isthmus A and there raises the Waters at G so that the passage of the North Sea lying so open by E and F there can be no difference of the height of Waters at A and G which cannot be in the Red Sea there being no passage for the Red Sea into the Mediterranean nor is it possible that the Waters of the Mediterranean can be raised on the other side of that Isthmus by the Red Sea there being no way for the Waters of the Red Sea to come into the Mediterranean but round about Africk and so thorow the Streights of Gibraltar The like may be said of that Isthmus of ground in the West Indies between Pannama and Nombre de Dios for now there is no passage from the Pacifick Sea Core Mar del Zur into the Atlantick Ocean so that one Sea may be higher than another but it cannot be so with this English Isthmus as hath been already shewn But granting that the North Sea about Britain D D D be higher than the Southern Sea coming in at F yet will not the Shoar H which we suppose to be Holland and the Neatherlands be any thing the more under Water by reason of the Isthmus A stopping the passage of the Water because as was said before of the free course of the Northern Sea by E F and G to the same Isthmus on the South-side So that if we could make an Isthmus from England to France yet would it not endanger the Low Countries as we see in the Isthmus in Peloponnesus the Sea is equally high on both sides because of the short passage the Waters have round that Peninsula so although the nature of one side of the Sea and its scituation should be higher yet it comes to a Level because in so short a turn it would raise the Waters on the other side But how comes it to pass that the Sea on the North side of the Isthmus is higher than the South when as the Inland Sea lying on the north and west of the Red Sea is lower But this amongst Verstegans other Opinions and Demonstrations saies is plain as from the Current of Water which runs from the North Sea so that Old Shippers of the Neatherlands say The Voyage from Holland to Spain is shorter by a day and a halfs sayling than from Spain to Holland This may proceed from several Reasons as the insensible quickness of some Winds from some Corners over others and the conveniency of Sea-Marks which are not the same in going and returning although in the same Voyage The Arguments to prove that the Sea was higher on the North side than the South side of this supposed Isthmus are taken from the sundry flats on the North side whereby the bottom of the Sea is supposed to be higher than the bottom of that Sea on the South side and consequently the SEA also To consute this let us first consider If there had been such an Isthmus of Land the Sea working forceably upon it from the North side would have carried the Earth of that Isthmus southward so that for some space of Sea the bottom would be shallower Southerly than Northerly but we find it to the contrary for on the North side the Ryff which is supposed a Relick of that Isthmus we find twenty five Fathom on the South twenty seven besides farther you go Northerly the deeper the Sea is excepting some Shelves as off of Harlem eight or nine miles within the Sea begins De breed Verthien reaching along the Coast of Holland to the Plain of Ameland where it endeth To manifest this I will set down the sounding of the North-Sea from the Foreland Depths of the North Sea from the Fore-land IN the Channel from England Fore-land and the Sands of Flanders you have twenty four Fathom without the Shoald between Zealand and the Texell is twenty six Fathom as far as the Shoald which the Fishers call Dog sand or Doggar bank In the Channel on England side over against Yarmouth is thirty five Fathom And against Flambrough and Scarborough point is thirty eight Fathom where the White-shelf called Dog-sand beginneth from nine to sixteen Fathom and so reaches Northward so that the Depth encreases Northwards excepting these Shoalds All these things laid together any Judicious mans Opinion may be convinced that the Isthmus here supposed is a meer Fiction and that it could not be the cause of drowning the Neatherlands they having been Sea long after this Isthmus could ever be in the World as I have shewn Were there an Isthmus now risen out of the Earth it could not in the least endanger the Neatherlands I shall add this that in those Countries that are Peninsula's we see the Isthmus lies on the end and not on the sides of the Country and where the Sea hath made a separation yet there has remained some Neck of Ground that hath shot it self into the Sea sharper and sharper till it ended in a Point an evident sign that the Sea has wrought away the Earth before it But to make a Neck of Ground on the flat part of England and France of twenty miles in length and six in breadth to be joyned to a Couple of plain and flat Clyffs seems rather to build a Bridge than to evidence an Isthmus As for that Argument How Wolves and Foxes came into England I think it altogether unnecessary to build them a Passage for the same Reasons that induced Noah to preserve their kind would also perswade men to Transport them for their nature was not unknown to Noah neither are those Creatures without their use in Countries that are not thoroughly Inhabited God having so ordered the natures of Animals that one should destroy another least the Beast of the field should too much increase upon Man So that in
understood the same as Boguedim in the Eastern Countries viz. Rebels and Prosper calls Rebellion Bagauda in these words All the slaves of Gaul conspired in one Bagaud and Eumenius the Rhetor calls it a Bagaudian Rebellion These Bagaudae were not Rural People only as Mr. Cambden makes to derive his British word Beichiad signifying Swine-heards and Country Gnoffs but many of the better sort who being intollerably oppressed by the Romans were forced to take Arms as Salvianus witnesseth so that this word also is of the Phoenician Original Allobroges saith an excellent Scholiast on Juvenal were so called because Broga in French signifies a Region or Country and alla another But alla signifies not another in the French but in the Greek and Broga is to be suspected Now the British Bro a Region or Country comes from Baro the Phoenician and perhaps there might be such a word as Broga derived from it The Allobroges living on the Mountainous part of Savoy I think they may be better derived from Al High and Bro or Broga a Country than from Allan in the British Tongue signifying external or without Brachae a Common Garment to the French and Britains descending below and covering the knees from whence it took its name viz. Berec the Knee from whence also came Braciar signifying a skin or any covering of the Knees so that 't is easie from Brachym the Plural of Berec to derive Brachae Lainae an old Gaulish word in Strabo where he writes the Gauls weaved themselves Casiocks of Thickned Wool which they call Lainas It is to be considered if it ought not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which the British word Glawn signifying Wool has more correspondence But by Laina I judge is meant Linna with the Weaving of which Plautus writes Gaul was universally employed Isidorus and Diodorus affirm it to have been a soft sort of Cloth and may be derived from the Syrian Lina signifying Softness Bardus saies Mr. Cambden in the Gaulish Tongue signifies a Songster one that sang and plaid together Now as it may be derived from Parat exactly signifying their Canting in a certain Modulation so the Nablium much like the Harp on which they played was a Phoenician Instrument of Twelve strings That these Bardi might disperse themselves and their name in Gaul and Britain is no wonder for from Bardus Cucullus comes Bardo-Cucullus Cucullus being British and Cucul is the very same with the Phoenician Cucla and Bardus in the Gaulish and British Language is the same Garment with the Phoenician Borda but more of this in the Habits of the Britains Pempedula Sinkfoyl is partly AEolick and partly Phoenician for in the Ancient British and Gaulish Tongue sometime before Caesars daies the Greeks brought hither by the Phoenicians from whom they learnt the Voyage to these Parts introduced a great many of their words both into Britain and Gaul as will be shewn when I come to treat of the British Language 'T is no wonder to see Words of different Languages meet together in Composition this was frequent with the Romans witness Biclinium a Room with two Beds and two Tables Epitogium a Garment worn upon a Gown Anti Cato a Book written against Cato Epirredium a kind of Waggon the same may be instanced in other Languages but I have not time so that this Pempedula Cinckfoyl though it be immediately derived from Pymp in the British Tongue five and deilin a leaf or from Pemp five in the Armorican British Tongue and delis or delion a leaf or dula of the French yet Pymp or Pemp comes from the AEolick variation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and deilin delis or delion and dula from the Phoenician Dalioth The like may be said of Petoritum a Chariot so called as saith Festus of its four Wheels Now as the British and Gauls had these Chariots of the Greeks as shall be shewn at large so their names also proceeded from them for the British Pedwar and the Gaulish Petor signifying Four manifestly sprang from the AEolicks with whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifyed Four for the Massilenses who taught the Gauls in after times their Numbers were a Colony of the AEolians that came out of Phocea a City of the AEolians The like may be said of Dercoma called so by the Gauls a composition of Wine and Water now as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a frequent word among the Greeks in any thing compounded so no doubt Dwr of the Britains comes from the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aqua But since it hath been found that the reading it Dercoma is a mistake for it should be read De Corma in two words so that the Liquor it self is Corma and is of the same nature and composition as the Phoenician Drink called Chorma as is made more evidently to appear in the Chapter of the Customes of the Britains So that it clearly appears that those words in which the Ancient Britains and Gauls did agree in did not proceed in their being one and the same People but were introduced by Forreigners who traded to both Countries By the Ancient Gauls here I mean those that lived some time before Julius Caesar for as I cannot so I will not deny but that Britain was Peopled from the Continent of Gaul yet I cannot but think but that the Antiquities of Britain ought to be searched for higher a great deal than those times in which Mr. Cambden looked for them The other Words Mr. Cambden produces to prove the Gauls and Britains to be the same Nation are either of manifest Greek Derivation and brought in by them into both Nations as Ratis Gaulish Redin British From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Elder Tree Taria Thireos from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gliseo and Glys from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tripetia and Tripet a three footed Stool from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Plow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coch Scarlet from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else they were of so late use among the Gauls and Britains that they seem to be of a Roman Derivation such as Cent a hundred from Centum unless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be admitted so Vetonica Marga with the British Betony Marl Glastum Glasswoad Cedos Caesar Let Caesar go from Ceao from whence possibly Geduch of the Britains might come or lastly have very little relation one to another as Gessa and Cethilon Bulga and Butsiel Taxea and Tew Moreover it is to be observed that in the British Language many Saxon words are crept in yea French too which have been modelled by them to their own Idiom so that it is carefully to be heeded that those words which have been received from the French in latter daies be not unravelled and devested of that Dialect the Welch have put upon them and then produced to derive the People themselves The Termination of Towns taken notice of by Mr. Cambden to prove the Gauls and
Britains the same Nation are Dunum Briva Ritum Durum Magus and these we shall find to be either Phoenician or Graecian and first for Dunum All Towns ending in Dunum or Tunum for it is all one are of high Scituation such as Augustodunum Axellodunum Guleodunum Laudunum Melodunum Noviodunum Sedunum Vellaunodunum Lugdunum Andomatunum and this proceeds from the Gaulish and British Dun a Hill and this proceeds from the Phoenician Cun signifying the same thing as has been shewed before In Briva ends Antoninus his Duro co Brivae and in this Island were one or two Duro Brivae in Gaul Briva Isara now Pontois Briva Oderae and Samaro-brivae all as Mr. Cambden saies Passages over Rivers whose names they carried so that Briva among the old Britains and Gauls signified as he supposed a Bridge or Passage over a River which conjecture if true may be referred to the Phoenician Ehra signifying a Passage but seeing that this signification is the same with Ritum following I should rather think that these were Bounds of particular Territories as we find Duro co Frivae was and that Birja of the Phoenicians signifying bounds and limits is the Original as Marchius is the same in the Teutonick Places either beginning or ending in Dor Dur or Dour have their Original from Dour or Dwr signifying in the Welch Tongue Water As for Example Durocases Durocottorum Dordonia Doromellum Divodurum Breviodurum Batavodurum Octodurum which Dour or Dwr signifying is very probably conjectured to come from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Water so that if this word was common to the Gauls with the British it is to be attributed to the Graecians in both Nations and proves not that they were the same People In Ritum and such Places as these stand upon Fords and Passages over Rivers as Augustoritum Vagoritum Darioritum of Gaul Camberitum of Britain and these are derived from the British Rid for T and D as in Dunum and Tunum are the same signifying a Ford as Geraldus Cambrensis testifies which Rid is the same with Rid of the Phoenicians signifying the same thing In Magum ends several Towns both in Britain and Gaul as Rhotomagum Caesaromagum Neomagum Noviomagum Drusomagum Argentomagum and some have made Magum to signifie a Ford but unadvisedly for at Rhotomagum the Seyn is not fordable nor the River Padus at Bodincomagum which the word Bodincum testifies being in the Gaulish Ligurian Tongue as much as to say wanting a bottom But trulier Rhenanus Ortelius and Mr. Cambden interpret it a Habitation and Town following Pliny who calls Bodincomagum a Town on Bodincum Now what is plainer than that Magon among the Phoenicians signifies a Habitation and that in the East Country it was a name of several Towns as Magon a City of Judaea and Magon to which the Israelites served Baal Magon a City of Moab Garw or Garaw in the Welch signifies Swift from whence Mr. Cambden thinks the River Garumna was derived because of its Swiftness Claudius saies Pernicior unda Garumnae now why may not Garaw be brought from Garaf to hurry away as 't is used in that Language of Torrents The River Arar for its slowness is called Lentus Arar the slow Arar so likewise Mr. Cambden in Brigantibus makes mention of a River Ar that g ideth so slowly that one cannot discern with ones eyes which way the stream goeth Now Arar in the British Tongue signifies slow or still so doth Ahar in the Phoenician The Hills Gebennae run out far into Gaul in a continued Ridge and Keven among the Phoenicians soundeth as much as a Ridge of a Hill and Mr. Cambden saies in Yorkshire he himself saw a long chain of Hills which the Inhabitants call Kevin Now it is not unlike that from this Keven the Gebennae in French Les Cevennes are derived But let us consider that Gebina in the Phoenician is the Ridge or Back of a Hill and that the Britains and Gauls might have Keven from Gebina of the Phoenicians About the side of that part of France called Narbonensis where is reported Hercules and Albion fought there are so many Stones scattered all about that one would think it reigned Stones by Writers called Stony Strond and Stony Field the French call it La Crau and Stones in the British Tongue are called Craig and in the Phoenician Crac. Arelate a most famous City in Gaul seated on a Moist soyl from whence it is thought it took its name viz. from Ar Upon in British and Laith Moisture and why may not Laith come from Laiith signifying the same with the Phoenician Uxellodunum is derived from Uchel of the Britains signifying Steep or Lofty and Dunum a Hill now Uchel of the Britains is Uhel of the Phoenicians of Dunum we have spoken before The Town Tolon upon the Promontory Citharistes by Antonius called Telo Martius and may better be read Telon Now saies Mr. Cambden ask our Welch Britains what is an Harp and they will tell you by and by Celen and if you could raise an Ancient Phoenician and ask him what are songs play'd on the Harp and he would answer you Cillsh Dole by the Britains is called a Plain or Valley lying to the Sea or a River and in Ninnius an Ancient British Writer saith Caesar fought a Battle upon Dole from thence the City Dole in Armorica hath its name and all from Daula a Plain in the Phoenician The Northern part of Britain was divided into that Region the Caledonii inhabited which is as much as to say the Mountainous and Maiatae as much as to say the Plain Country Now as Caledonii is derived from the word Kaled Hard in the British Language and Dun a Hill so it is in the Armorican British Kalet and exactly Kalad Hard in the Phoenician Of Dun or Don I have spoken before so likewise Maiatae from Meath in the British a Plain and that from Maijth the same in the Syrian Dialect Camulodunum Malden a Town in Essex written by Ptolomy Camudolanum Antoninus and Dio Cassius Camulodunum Pliny and Tacitus more exactly Camalodunum Dio Cassius calls it the Court of Cunobelin Camol signifies a Prince and Governour in the Phoenician Tongue and Dun a Hill so that this may be called the Kings Hill as Mons Capitolinus at rome Jupiters Hill and in favour of this Interpretation we may find the Court of Arthur called Camalot Sorbiodunum as formerly there were in Britain two Salisburies the Ancienter of them stood on a dry Hill and had no Water migh it of this Salisbury Gulielmus Malmsburiensis writes in these words There is such a scarcity of Water that it is a great Commodity there to Traffick withal and Mr. Cambden brings in a Poet writing of it in these words Est ibi defectus Lymphae sed Copia cretae This Ancient Salisbury in Antoninus his Itinery is called after its Ancient Name Sorbiodunum which Mr. Cambden out of the British Tongue interprets the Dry
Hill from Dunum a Hill and Sorb Dry now as Dunum so Sorb or Sorba signifies exactly in the Phoenician Dialect the very same thing to wit Dryness The Promontory of Ptolomy called Abravanus Mr. Cambden truly derives from two words Aber and Ruan the first of which signifies in the Welch Tongue a Haven and Ruan is a River that disburthens it self into the Sea by this Promontory But we must understand that Haber does not only signifie an Haven but any place where two Rivers meet together as Silvester Giraldus intimates a Welch Writer who lived about five hundred years ago His words are these Aber in the British Tongue is the place where one River falls into another and in his Description of Wales in his Fifth Chapter Aber is in Welch every place where Water meets with Water To make this more plainly appear I find Towns in Wales that seem to have their Names meerly upon this account as Aber Avon a small Market Town in Glamorganshire standing upon the River Avons Mouth and Aber Conwey a Town in Caernarvonshire on the very Mouth of Conwey and to prove Silvester Giraldus his words true Abergevenny in short Abergenny a Town on the meeting of the 〈◊〉 and Gerenny in Monmouthshire and Mr. Cambden interprets it the Confluents of Gevenny so that we see whether a River be joyned with the Sea or with another River that place is called Aber Now Aber or Haber is properly a Phoenician word to signifie such a Conjunction of Waters and no doubt from them had the Britains their Aber. Cetrae was a short sort of Shields Plutarch and Silius attribute the invention of them to the Spaniards Tacitus to the Britains and how this may be the Phoenician Cetera a Shield read Bochartus The Mauri called them Citurae as the Old Scholiast on Juvenal witnesseth in these words Et Getulus Oryx Oryx saies he is a Beast something less than a Buff which the Mauri call an Unx whose Skin makes Cituras i. e. the lesser sort of Shields among the Mauri What can be plainer than that Ceitrae short Shields used by the Britains had their name from Cetera of the Phoenicians signifying the same thing as likewise the Citura of the Mauri Another great Argument that the Phoenicians were very conversant in this Island is the manner the Britains had in numbring the Daies and Nights a way peculiar only to the Eastern Nations and them viz. To make the Day to sollow the Night and not the Night the Day as the Romans and Germans did and this is witnessed of them by Caesar. Names of Offices and Gods in Britain and Gaul of Phoenician Derivation THere were two BRENNUS's Famous Men in Gaul the Eldest sackt Rome the other robb'd the Temple of Delphos Suidas calls Brennus Bren. The Welch to this day call a King Brenniu the Armorican Britains call a Judge Baruer and Barn to Judge and Parnus from the Root Parnus to Feed with the Phoenicians was a Prince Judge or Governour in the same signification Agamemnon Homers Prince is by him called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince or Shepheard of the People Mar or Maur as 't is now pronounced in the British Tongue signifies GREAT From this word without doubt many British and Gaulish Names of PRINCES were compounded as Condomarus Cwismarus Combolomarus Induciomarus Viridemarus Teutomarus Now Mar of the Phoenician is a Lord or Prince Rir is a great word likewise in the termination of Great Mens names as Sinorix Dumnorix Orgetorix Ambiotrix Vercingetorix Eporedorix and without doubt this Rix was written Rich by the Gauls and Britains as the Armorican British now write it Rich signifies Powerful and Strong from whence in an Ancient British Book intituled the Criades Caradauc u rich fras is as much as to say Caratacus with the strong Arm Now Rik in the Eastern Language is Strong and Powerful Paterae were the Priest of Apollo who were worshipped by the Britains and Gauls under the name of Belenus and this name of theirs is derived from Patar in the Phoenician Tongue signifying to Interpret because they were the Interpreters of his Oracles And Joseph was called Potar because he interpreted the King of Egypts Dreams and as this Belus was brought by the Phoenicians into Britain and is a peculiar God of theirs as shall be shewn in the Treatise of the British Gods so without dispute this word PATERAE is to be referred to a Phoenician Original Ausonius writing of Attius Patera or Paterius has these Verses Beleni sacratum ducis è Templo genus Et inde vobis nomina Tibi Paterae sic ministros nuncupant Apollinares mystici Fratri Patrique nomen à Phoebo datum Natoque de Delphis tuo Your sacred Race from Belius Temple spring From thence you all your Names receive You from your Mystick Priests your Name do bring Paterae height Phoebus himself does give Name to your Sire and Brother and your Son From Delphick Oracle his Name begun St. Hierome writing in his one hundred and fiftieth Epistle ad Hedebiam saies thus Thy Ancestors Paterius and Delphidius oue taught Rhetorick at Rome before I was born the other whilst I was but a youth with his Prose and Verse illustrated all France So that we see as Paterius was derived from Paterae the Priests of APOLLO so they received his name from being Interpreters of his Oracles Of the Religious Persons Cenae we have spoken before and have made it appear they were of the Phoenician derivation The Bardi are sufficiently known to be Poets and Songsters both in Britain and Gaul and 't is also manifest they never Rehearsed any thing to the People but in a tone alwaies having some Instrument or other to which they sang the Famous Deeds of their Ancestors Posidonius witnesseth that they were Poets who with Musick recited the Encomiums of Great Persons and Strabo calls them Poets and Singers and Festus saies that a Singer in the Gaulish Tongue was called a Bard and by the Britains at this day they are so called because he sang the Praises of Great Men. Certainly there can be no easier Derivation than to bring them from Parat signifying to sing in a Recitative manner for P and B likewise T and D are Letters of the same nature and element and in common Speech are every day confounded not only in our present Language but in all as ever I cou'd hear of Now as the Bardi are derived from Parat so I have shewn before that the Nablium or Instrument on which they played was a Phoenician Instrument and was called exactly so by the Phoenicians viz. Nabal so that we ought not to doubt but that as well the names of the Persons as their Musick were of Phoenician derivation If Turnebus may be Credited Bardaea and Bardala is a Lark with the Gauls His words are these Bardi apud Gallos sunt Cantores Bardaea Bardala Alauda
that there were found two Teeth of a certain Giant of such a huge bigness that two hundred such Teeth as men now adaies have might be cut out of them These Teeth he sales he saw himself but not without great Admiration And a Gentleman named R. Cavendish in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth reports also that he saw some Relicks of this nature near the very same place That which Geropius and Mr. Cambden answer to this out of Suetonius seems frivolous That the Bones of Sea Fish have been taken for Giants Bones Men certainly may easily distinguish between them neither is it ever to be rationally supposed men ever entombed Fishes as those in Germany were found to be But that which comes nearer to our purpose concerning the Phoenicians in Britain and their Gigantick bodies is the Tradition which has been preserved in Cornwal a place they most resided in for the sake of their Tynn Traffick which Tradition of the being of Giants in those Parts was preserved to the daies of Havillan the Poet who lived four hundred years since In some of whose Verses the Phoenicians seem to be exactly described neither can this relate as Mr. Cambden implies to the Great bodies of Cornish men who are not so disproportional to their Neighbours as to create so serious a description The Verses are these of Cornwal Titanibus illa Sed Paucis famulosa domus quibus uda serarum Terga dabant vates Cruor haustus Pocula trunci Antra Lares dumeta Thoros Coenacula rupes Praeda cibos raptus Venerem spectacula caedes Imperium Vires animos suror impetus arma Mortem pugna sepulchra rubus monstrisque gemebat Monticolis tellus sed eorum plurima tractus Pars erat occidui terror majorque premebat Te furor extremum Zephyrt Cornubia limen Here Giants lodg'd a brood of Titan's Race Raw Hides their Cloathing Blood their drinking was Their Cups were hollow Trees their Houses Dens Bushes their Beds their Chambers craggy Pens Hunger with Prey their Lust with Rapes they cas'd The sport of slaughtering Men their Eye-sight pleas'd Force gave them Rule their rage did Arms supply Being kill'd in Groves instead of Graves they lye These Monsters every quarter did molest But most of all the Cornwal in the West This description of them agrees exactly with the Character the British Histories all along gives of those Giants that lived before Brutes entrance into this Island which Histories though by some are esteemed Fabulous yet let any one consider whether it be not much more probable to imagine that there were many Truths delivered down and so taken up and corrupted by those Writers than to think they had no grounds to begin their Histories or that they were so unreasonably given to Deceiving as to have no other motives in the publishing their Writings but to put Tricks and Cheats upon the World especially in the matter of Giants a thing which they could not but fore-see would in all Ages be hardly credited Now if there be any truth in the British Histories those men of vast Proportions called by them GIANTS could be none but the Phoenicians as the Time of the being of such Giants viz. about the year MMDLX this Island corresponding with the Age of the Phoenicians Navigation hither doth plainly shew I do verily believe from their hard usage of the Islanders whom they found at their first entrance and whom all along they oppressed this custome of making of Wicker Statues and firing them upon special occasions was introduced for we see even to these daies the burning of Persons in Effigle is preserved in many civiliz'd Nations but the making them in Wicker rather than any other Materials may very easily be attributed to the manner of the Boats the Britains used on their Coasts thereby in their own little Models representing the Phoenicians Navigation their Wicker Vessels becoming an Emblem of the Phoenician Ships that enslaved them That the Skiffs they sayled in were made of this sort of work Caesar testifies when he writes Ships they had of which the Keels and Foot-stocks were of slight Timber but the Bodies were winded and worked with Osyers and covered with Leather These sorts of Vessels Lucan also describes after the same manner Primùm Cana Salix madefacto vimine parvam Texitur in puppim caesoque induta juvenco Victoris patiens tumidum super emicat amnem Sic Venetus stagnante Pado fusóque Britannus Navigat Oceano At first with twisted Osyers Boats were made And when the Wicker was with skins o're-laid These Vessels on the Seas the Britain guides On swelling Rivers the Venetian rides This shall suffice to have been spoken of this Custome of the Britains in making these Wicker Statues which I have treated of more largely because in reading the British History where frequent mention is made of Giants we may know to what Nation we may refer and their Original Although after the manner of those Historians the greatness of their Stature and the cruelty of their Natures may be too much magnified yet seeing the Trading of the Phoenicians is made out from undoubted Authority as from Greek and Latin Historians whose testimony in matter of Fact is necessary in other respects we ought not to question but they were the Phoenicians men of Great bodies who gave first the occasion of this Tradition and who by their Traffick hither might bring that Thraldom on the People the remembrance of which they preserved after the Phoenicians themselves had forsaken them But to return to the Customes of the Britains They used a Drink made of Barly as Solinus witnesseth a Custome used by us at this very day a thing unknown in former Ages in any Country of Europe Britain only excepted For in other Nations they used Wine and Water either by themselves or intermixt even in colder Countries than Britain which of it self is not deficient to produce Grapes and to ripen them so that excellent Wine may and is daily produced did not the richness of the Soyl invite the Natives to more useful improvements We find Ovid in his Tristibus complaining of his banishment among the Getes giving this instance of the Coldness of the Country That they did not draw their Wine out of their Vessels as in hotter Countries but that they were constrained to take the Hoops off and so opening the Vessel brake the frozen Wine with Chizels having thawed it by the fire drank it We do not find any Country that had the use of making drink of Barly but if the Country of it self would not bear Wine they had it brought them from hotter Countries or else pleased themselves with Water only Now we must seek elsewhere for this Custome of the Britains and we shall find that this also they might have from the Phoenicians To the proof of which let us consider that the Phoenicians by their Colonies planted themselves on all the Sea Coasts of
God Belinus and knowing that Belinus signified Yellow might mistake and call Casso Belinus Suellan for Belin intimating thereby a Colour Thirdly and lastly As I have shewn before the Britains did not use so many Colours but were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the variety of Shapes not Colours and such as have sought for this Invention in the Britains have made the same Princes of divers Colours Thus Gildas calls Cuneglasus a tawny and dark hu'd Butcher Mr. Cambden makes him blew but to pass over many great Contradictions I conclude that it happened by chance that this colour coincidated with the name of the God Belinus but concludes no more that he received his name from Yellow than the God to whom the Inscription DUJ was found in Yorkshire received his from Dû Black in the same Tongue so that Cunobelinus had his Name from the worship of Belinus as Mr. Cambden in one place grants and Belinus is derived from Bel of the Phoenicians To omit an AEstuarium or Frith in Britain called Belisama by Ptolomy possibly from some Temple of that God I shall prove it from the Moon worshipt in Gaul under the name of Belisama as is gathered from an ancient Inscription MINERVAE BELISAMAE Found on an old Stone in Aquitain by which some have concluded that Belisama was the Gaulish name of Minerva But seeing that Belisama is the same as Belsamen this being the Lord and that the Lady of Heaven it is more probable that by this is meant the Moon or Urania called by the Canaanites the Queen of Heaven and once a great Idol of the Israelites DIANA who is the same with the Moon was much worshipt in those parts as Poliaenus testifies Camma saies he was a Votress of Diana whom the Gauls most especially honoured but that Diana should be confounded with Minerva is no wonder if it be considered how frequent it was for the Ancients to bestow the Attribute of one Deity upon another as they favoured them in honour and affection That Diana was worshipt in Britain is very certain an Image of hers Anno 1602 was dug out of the ground in Monmouthshire being girt about and short truss'd bearing a Quiver but her Head Hands and Feet were broken off It was found upon a pavement of square Tile in Checker-work and by an Inscription not far off it was found to be her own Image Mr. Cambden gives many Reasons That where the Reliques of St. Pauls Church standeth there was formerly a Temple of hers But because this may proceed from the Romans rather than Britains I will only mention her name Ardurena and Ardoena being the same in the Gaulish as Nemorensis in the Latin Tongue namely Diana of the Woods or Mountains for we may suppose Den to have signified in the Ancient British Tongue a Wood or Mountain as Den Forrest in England and not Arden as Mr. Cambden would have it for Ar signifies Upon in the British Tongue so that Arden is upon a Wood For although there be a great Wood in France called Arden yet it is not unlikely but it might first have been called Den and that the Provinces lying on it Arden and afterwards the Wood it self for it runs out to such a vast extent and takes up such a quantity of ground and lies upon so many Countries that Travellers may be said to be alwaies upon it but never truly in it or well out of it But to return to DIANA the Britains no doubt were great admirers of her for their Habitations were most in the Woods Hunting was their chiefest Recreation having most excellent Dogs for that purpose as Strabo witnesseth and Mr. Cambden takes notice that Dogs called Agasaei by the Greeks and so much praised and esteemed by them were of the British Race and to this day are called by us Gasehounds ONVANA a Goddess of the Gauls is supposed to be MINERVA whom Caesar accounts one of them and very probable it may be so for Minerva by the Phoenicians was called Onca and Onga as in Stephanus Now changing the G into a V as Walls for Gauls or wave in English wage in High and Low Dutch and French and we have this very Phoenician name of Minerva This Minerva was much worshipt in Britain and where the Cathedral Church of Bath now stands there was a Temple erected to her Honour but whether ever worshipt by the name of Onvana I know not but if that name be allowed to be Phoenician then there is no doubt of it I dare not be too bold as from her name Onca to derive the famous Hill Badonicus as much as to say Bath-Onca the Temple of Onca although this Mountain be not far from the City and alwaies written Badonicus not Badon or Badonis which in my judgment is an Argument it might be once Badoncus and corruptedly made an Adjective but however it be she was the Patroness of the Baths and upon this account was the City Bath called by the Ancient Britains Caer Palladur or the City of Pallace or Minerva's Water Another Goddess the Britains had called ANDRASTE by Dio and in another place of the same Author Andrate although corruptly for Andraste or Adraste for so by some it is read This was the Goddess of Victory that British Amazon Boodicia called upon after her great Victories over the Romans having destroyed 80000 of them Her words were these I yeild Thee thanks O Adraste and being a Woman I call upon thee O Woman Mr. Cambden made great enquiry after her Name in the British Tongue but could find nothing which related to her being a Goddess of Victory but Anaraith signifying a great Overthrow but I think this will hardly derive her Name Let us consider therefore what Goddess she was that so we may the easier arrive to the understanding of it She was supposed by many to be VENUS but then the question will arise which way she could be the Goddess of Victory Pausanias writes That the Cytheraei taught by the Phoenicians worshipt Venus Armed and esteemed her the Goddess of War and the Cyprians taught by the same Phoenicians made her with a Spear the Lacedaemonians set up her Statue in Armour Ausonius Armatam vidit Venerem Lacedaemone Pallas The Romans had a Temple of Venus Victrix or the Conquerour the same as Victorii of the Britains and at the Dedication of this Temple twenty Elephants fought in the Circus Now let us take the Phoenician name of Venus and we shall find it not to differ much from Adraste of the Britains viz. Astrate by which name Cicero also calls Her This Goddess had a Temple at Camalodunum or Maldon in Essex and before the destruction of that Colony by Boadicia Tacitus writes thus That the Statue of Victory at Camalodunum of it self fell down and was turned backwards as if it yielded to the Enemies It seems the Goddess favoured the Britains although
they were Aided by their Father who had Invaded and by this time Conquered all Gallia so that we see a vast part of Europe in the possession of Ebrancke and his Sons The Line of BRUTE never in so fair a way as now towards the Conquest of the whole Earth promised by the Oracle and performed as the Britains say in the Person of Constantine the Great This Prince built Caerbrancke now York and erected a Temple to Diana in which he placed an Archi flamen Mr. Cambden derives Eboracum or Eburacum from Eb-Ure standing upon the River Ure as the Eburovices in France the Eburones in the Netherlands and Eblana in Ireland from the Rivers Fure Oure and Lefny in those Countries This King also built in Albania now called Scotland the Castle of Maydens by King Eden afterwards called Edenborough This Mayden Castle hath since deserved the name of Prostitute being most Treacherously betrayed in the late Scottish War to Cromwell by Dundaste to the then great dis-service of his present MAJESTY and the dishonour of that Nation Ebrancke dying was buried in the Temple of Diana which he had built and the Ceremonies were performed with great pomp and solemnity He Reigned forty years BRUTE GREENSHEILD his eldest Son succeeded him Anno Mundi 3009 he perfected the Conquest of Gallia and revenged some Indignities put upon his Father by Brinchild Prince of Hannonia or Hanault conquering him upon the banks of the Sheld he received his Sirname from a Green-shield he used to wear in Battle He hath the report of a most excellent Prince just and merciful a most exact observer of his Word He reigned twelve years and was Interr'd in his Fathers City Caerbranck LEIL the Son of Brute Greensheild began his Government Anno Mundi 3021 he built the City Carlisle called also by the Romans and Britains Lugurallum or Luguballium or Luguballa from Lugus or Lucus a Tower and Vallum a Trench the Ruines of which is seen nigh the City and he repaired Carleon now called Chester which was supposed to be built by the Giants before Brutes time the vast Stones and Arched Vaults therein gave occasion to this Report He was a good Prince till the latter end of his daies when falling in to several Vices and Enormities created great Dissensions in the Nations which ended not in his life He was buried at Caerlile after he had swayed the Scepter five and twenty years LUD or Lud Hurdibras is also called Rud and Rudibras Sirnamed Cicuber he began his Government Anno Mundi 3046. The first thing he undertook was the ending of the Troubles began in his Fathers daies finding happy success in so great an Undertaking he studied nothing more than to beautifie Britain He built a City which he named Caer Gaut or Kaerkin now Canterbury and there placed a Flamin likewise Caerquent now Winchester and Caer Septon or Caer Palladur supposed to be Shaftsbury and having Reigned thirty nine years he died BALDUD the Son of Hurdibras Anno Mundi 3085 succeeded in the Kingdom He studied many years at Athens and from thence brought four eminent Philosophers to instruct the Britains in all Liberal Sciences assigning them Stamford for the place of their Teaching He built Caerbran now Bath and is said by the Art of Magick to have found out those Hot waters These Springs he dedicated to Minerva erecting there a sumptuous Temple in her Honour This Town Mr. Cambden takes to be Palladur This Famous City is seated in Somersetshire on the River Avon and is called by Ptolomy from the Hot Baths in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Hot Waters by Antoninus Aquae Solis that is the Waters of the Sun by the Britains Yr ennaint Twymin and Caer Badon by the Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from the great resort thither of maimed People Akmanchester the City of sickly Folk It is seated in a Low Valley and the same not great encompast about with Hills almost of an equal height from which certain Springs and little Rivulets of Water descend to the great commodity of the City Within the City it self there boils up three Springs of Hot-waters which were caused by the wonderful Art of this Blayden named Cloyth i. e. Bleyden the Magician but as the Monks will have it it must be by St. David who coming to Bath cured the Infection of the Waters thereabouts and by his Prayers and Benedictions gave them a perpetual Heat and made them very healthful and soveraign for many Diseases to the wonderful comfort and assistance of all England to this present time These are the two Opinions Heathen and Monkish that are given concerning the production of these Springs The Water that bubbles or boils up is of a blewish or Sea-colour and sends up a thin Steam and Vapour of a strong scent caused by the veins of Brimstone and some Bituminous matter it passeth through These Baths are not wholsome at all hours but do require a time of purgation from that filth which by the exceeding heat and fermentation of them is cast up so that until by their Sluces they cleanse themselves they are shut up and none permitted to enter them The first and greatest is called the Kings Bath in the very heart and bosom of the City and nigh to the Cathedral Church It is enclosed within a Wall and is accommodated with two and thirty Seats of Arched-work for Men and Women to sit upon who when they enter are covered with Linnen Garments and are conducted by Guides who attend for that purpose Where the Cathedral Church now stands in Ancient times as the Report goes was that Temple consecrated to Minerva the Patroness of Hot Springs and this is collected out of Solinus who writes of these Baths in Britain The other two are in a Street on the West side of the City not two hundred foot one from the other One of which is called the Cross-Bath from a Cross that formerly stood in the midst of it It is of a mild and temperate warmth and hath twelve Seats of stones upon the brinks of it and encompast with a Wall The other is much hotter and is called the Hot-Bath Nigh these is a Spittle or Lazarus-House built by Reginald Bishop of Bath for the relief of poor diseased People I will conclude these Baths with the Verses of Necham Barthoniae Thermas vix proefero Vergilianas Thus translated The British-BATHS to Virgins don't give place To Aged Limbs They a warm Youth bestow And he who crazy maim'd and feeble was His Limbs benumm'd from hence does active go Nature on Crutches doth not here repair But springs and dances if once bathed here Some think that dark and subterraneous fire With Vestal heat under these Waters glow And that int h ' Head from whence these Springs retire Natures great brazen Caldrons doth bestow Such Limbicks foolish Chymists do create These Springs from Sulphur only take their Heat
or South-Wales he gave him a great Overthrow After this Victory having encouraged his Souldiers in token of his Thankfulness he sacrifices to his Gods In this Battle Belinus was his General and Nenius his Brother performed great Acts for in a single combat with Caesar it so fell out that he got his Sword and by a furious blow made at him stuck it fast in his Shield And although he received his deaths wound with the stroak and the disarming of Caesar proved fatal to him yet afterwards with his own hands he slew Labienus one of the Roman Tribunes Caesar discomfited with the bad success of his Affairs bends all his thoughts in order to a speedy retreat from the Island and having patched up his Fleet sufficient to transport the remainder of his Army which by his losses was reduced to a small number leaving all his Baggage behind in the Night secretly embarks and with a still Wind as it were he steals from the Island CAESAR HIS Second Expedition INTO BRITAIN CAESAR having Arrived safe to the Continent long and in vain expected the Hostages of the Britains as his yearly custome was prepares for his Journey to Italy to spend the Winter at Rome but before he goes he leaves Orders with his Legate who had the charge of the Legions in their Quarters that during his Absence they should use all diligence in providing what possible Shipping they could and set all hands on work to repair his Old Vessels and build New ones To that purpose he gives them several Models after what fashion he would have them made First They were to be lower built than ordinary for the advantage of easier fraughtage and better haling ashoar and because he observed that by the often changes of Tides the British Seas did not run so high as the Mediterranean In the next place They were to be broader thereby to be of greater Burthen and to be more able to transport a considerable number of Horse which Caesar was resolved in his next years Expedition should not be wanting Lastly He leaves Commands to make them fit for Rowing for which purpose their Low-building was very advantagious And as for Materials to strengthen and fortisie them he provided them out of Spain These Orders were diligently executed by his Legates during his absence so that at his return he finds six hundred in readiness new built according to the prescribed Model and twenty eight Ships of Burthen and what with Adventures and other Hulks above two hundred Cotta one of the Legates and Overseers of this work wrote them as Athenaeus saith in all a thousand Caesar having commended his Souldiers for their diligence and his Officers for their care and trust Commands them by a day to be ready at the Port Iccius now Bulloigne where they all met accordingly except forty which by contrary Winds and ill Weather were beaten back into the Port of the Meldi from whence they had set out Caesar in the rest about Sun-set embarks with five Legions of Foot amounting according to the computation of some to 620000 Romans and their Allies and two thousand Horse leaving behind him three Legions of Foot and two thousand Horse to make good the Port against his Return Having weighed Anchor he stands for Britain with a slack South west Wind but at Mid-night is becalmed so that not able to hold on his course he is driven at random by the Current and at Day-break descries the Island to bear left of him turning therefore about with the Tide which now changed with all his Fleet he began to make for that place which the year before he had found so convenient for Landing The Souldiers with all alacrity tugged at the Oars and although the Gallies were heavy laden and drew much water yet by their indefatigable labour they kept course with Ships under sail At Noon Caesar arrives with all his Navy on the Coast and finds no Enemy to oppose his Landing for the Britains terrified with the sight of so vast a Fleet which seemed to cover the Seas had forsaken the defence of their Shoars and withdrawn into the Higher Countries Caesar forthwith landing his Men chooseth a convenient place to Encamp and having learnt of some Fugitives the place to which the Britains had retired leaving his Ships at Anchor upon a plain and open shoar with ten Cohorts and three hundred Horse under the Command of Q. Atrius to guard them about the third Watch of the same night with his main Body he advances into the Country to find out the Enemy After twelve miles March he descries them drawn up on the banks of a River commonly thought the Stowr in Kent The Britains with their Horse and Chariots had possest themselves of the Upper-ground and began now to oppose the March of the Romans with smart charges but being driven from their ground by the Enemies Cavalry they retired into the Woods to a Fortification made strong both by Art and Nature and cast up as is thought after the British manner during some Civil War among themselves The Passages on all sides were blocked up with huge Trees which were felled and laid over thwart one another The Britains in dispersed Parties fought within their Trenches and suffered not the Romans to enter their Works but the Souldiers of the seventh Legion having raised a Mount and marching on close and knit together under the coverts of their Sheilds which lay like a Roof upon them without much loss of blood took the place and so drave the Britains from their Holds Caesar forbad any pursuit to be made as wanting the knowledge of the places and judging it more convenient great part of the day being spent to employ the remainder in sortifying another Camp and refreshing his Souldiers The next Morning he sent out early three Bodies of Horse and Foot in Parties to seek out the Enemy and pursue them They had not gone so far but the last of them were in sight when in post-haste News is brought from Q. Atrius that the Fleet that night by a sudden Tempest arising had suffered a grievous Wrack that many of them lay split upon the shoar that through the violence of the Weather the Anchors and Cables being broken the industry of the Sea-men could not hinder but that many of them fell foul on one another and were dasht in pieces At the news of this Disaster Caesar commands the Forces that were upon their March to hault and give over the design for the present in following the Enemy In all haste he returns to the Ships and there with his own eyes is witness of the sad Ruines of his Navy About sorty Ships were utterly lost others although put upon great difficulty yet seemed not past hopes of recovery To that end therefore he drew out of his Legions such Shipwrights as he had with him and sends over into the Continent for others withal writing to Labienus with those Legions he had to fall a
one fastned upon another with Lint and Bulls-glew and was covered with an Oxes-Hide or other stiff Leather the upper and lower part of it was bound about with a plate of Iron or Brass which they called Umbo Romulus brought them up first among the Romans taking the use of them from the Sabines The Auxiliaries were such Forces as were sent to the Romans by the Praefects of the Neighbour and Confederate Countries at the command of Consul or General Their Horsemen were divided into Troops called Turmae containing thirty Horsemen every Turmae was again divided into three less Companies called Decuriae containing ten Horsemen whence their Captain was called Decurio But those to whom the several wings of Horsemen were committed were stiled Equitum praefecti The Roman Horsemen saith Polybius at the first carried but a weak limber Pole or Staff and a little round Buckler but afterwards they used the furniture of the Graecians which Josephus affirms to be a strong Launce or Staff and three or four Darts in a Quiver with a Buckler and a long Sword by the Right side Upon any sudden Expedition out of the whole Army were taken the choicest Young-men both for strength and agility to them were given little round Bucklers and seven Darts apiece These Souldiers practiced to ride behind the Horsemen and speedily to alight from their backs at a Watch-word given and so to charge the Enemy on foot This custome was first used at the Siege of Capua and first brought into practice by one Q. Navius a Centurion and he was honourably rewarded for it by Q. Hulvius the Consul and from hence saith Livy grew the institution of the Velites The Romans had four forms of the front of a Battle the first was called Acies recta when neither the Wings nor the Battle advanced one before another but were all carried in a right line and made a strait Front The second form was called Obliqua when one of the Wings was advanced nearer the Enemy than the rest to begin the Battle and this was commonly called as Vegetius noteth the Right wing as having great advantage against the Left of the Enemy The third form was called Sinuata when both the Wings were advanced forward and the Battle stood backwards off from the Enemy after the fashion of a half Moon The last form was Gibbosa or Gibbera acies when the Battle is advanced and the two Wings lagg behind Caesar's custome in Marching was to send his Cavalry and light armed Footmen before the body of his Army both to discover and impeach the Enemy For these Troops were nimble in motion and fit for such services but if the danger were greater in the Reer than Front they marched in the tail of the Army giving security where was most cause of fear But if they were found unfit to make good that Service in that place as it often fell out in Africa against the Numidians he then removed them as he found it most convenient and brought his Legionary Souldiers which were the strength of the War to march at the back of the Army to make good that which the Horsemen were not able to perform The manner of their Encamping THE Centurion that went before to choose a convenient place and having found a fit scituation for their Camp first assigned a station for the Generals pavilion which was commonly in the most eminent place of the Camp from whence he might easily overview all the other parts or any Alarum or sign of Battle from thence might be discovered from all parts This Pavilion was known by the name of Praetorium the General of the Army being formerly called Praetor In this place they stuck up a white Flag from which they measured every way an hundred foot The Area or content thereof was almost an Acre the form of the Praetorium was round and high in this Praetorium was the Tribunal or Chair of State and the place of Divination which they called Augurale with other appendices of Majesty and Authority The Generals Tent being thus placed they considered which side of the Pavilion lay most convenient for Water and Forrage and on that side they lodged the Legions they being divided one from another by a Street or Lane fifty foot in breadth according to the degree of Honour that every Legion had in the Army So were they lodged in the Camp either in the midst which was accounted most honourable or towards the sides a place of meaner reputation Between the Tents of the first Maniples in every Legion and the Praetorium there went a Way of one hundred foot in breadth throughout the whole Camp which was called Principia In this place the Tribunes sate to hear matters of Justice the Souldiers exercised themselves and the Leaders and chief Commanders frequented it as a place of Publick meeting on either side the Emperours Pavilion in a direct line to make eaven and streight the upper side of the Principia The Tribunes had their Tents every Tribune confronting the head of his Legion Above them towards the head of the Camp were the Legates and Treasures the upper part of the Camp was strengthned with some select Cohorts and Troops of Horse according to the number of Legions that were in the Army Polybius describing the Camping used in his time when they most commonly had but two Legions in the Army with as many Associates placeth the Ablecti and Extraordinarii which were select Bands and Companies in the upper part of the Camp and the Associates on the outside of the Legions The Ditch and Rampier that encompassed the whole Camp about was two hundred foot distant from any Tent whereof Polybius giveth these Reasons First That the Souldiers marching into the Camp in Battle array might dissolve themselves into Maniples Centuries and Decuries without tumult and confusion and again if occasion were offered to sally out upon the Enemy they might very conveniently in that place put themselves into Companies and Troops and if they were assaulted by night that the Darts and Fire-works which the Enemy might cast should do them no harm This Ditch and Rampier was made by the Legions every Maniple having his part measured out and every Centurion overseeing his Century The approbation of the whole work belonged to the Tribunes and their manner of Intrenching was thus The Souldiers being girt with their Swords and Daggers digged the Ditch about their Camp which was alwaies eight foot in breadth at the least and as much in depth casting the Earth thereof inwards But if the Enemy were not far off the Ditch was eleven fifteen or eighteen in latitude and altitude according to the discretion of the General the Ditch being as broad at bottom as at top The Rampier from the brim of the Ditch was three foot high and sometimes four made after the manner of a Wall with green Turfs cut all to one measure half a foot in thickness a foot in breadth and a foot and a
half in length but if the place wherein they were encamped would afford no such Turf then they strengthned the loose earth with Boughs and Faggots The Rampier they properly called Agger the outside whereof that hung over the Ditch they used to stick with thick and sharp Stakes fastned deep in the Mound for their better security The Camp had four Gates the first was called Porta praetoria which was alwaies behind the Emperours Tent and this Gate did usually look towards the East or to the Enemy or that way the Army was to march The Gate opposite to this was called Porta decumana a decimis Cohortibus for the tenth or last Cohort in every Legion was lodged to confront this Gate By this Gate the Souldiers went out to fetch their Wood Water and Forrage and this way their Offenders were carried to Execution The two other Gates were called Portae principales for as much as they stood opposite to both ends of that so much respected place which they called Principia on'y distinguisht by these Titles of Laeva principalis dextra the lest and right hand principal Gate All these Gates were shut with Doors and in standing Camps fortified with Turrets upon which were planted Engines of defence Their Tents were made of Skins and Hides held up with props and fastned with Ropes eleven Souldiers being contained in a Tent which society was called Contubernium the chiefest of whose company was named Caput Contubernii The Romans never suffered their Souldiers to lodge one night without the Camp where they were enclosed with Ditch and Rampier and for the greater security of every Member every one both Free and Servile were sworn by the Tribunes not only not to take away any thing by stealth but also if they found any thing to bring it to the Tribunes The Romans divided the whole night into four Watches every Watch containing three hours The first began at six of the Clock at night and ended at six in the Morning and these Watches were distinguished by several notes and sounds of Cornets or Trumpets that by distinction and diversity it might easily be known what Watch was sounded The Charge and Office of sounding Watches belonged to the chief Centurion of a Legion whom they called primus Pilus or primus Centurio at whose Pavilion the Trumpeters attended to be directed by his Hour-glass We must take notice that the chief Ensigns of the Romans of every Legion was an Eagle which alwaies attended upon the principal or chief Centurion of the said Legion The Ensign of a Maniple was either an Hand Dragon Wolf or Sphinx as it appeareth beside the testimony of History by the Column of Trajan at Rome where in the Ensigns are sigured with such portraitures so that these resembling the proportions of living Creatures bad their fore-parts alwaies carried that way which the Legions were to march or where they were to fight When the General had determined to sight he hung upon the top of his Tent a scarlet Coat or Flag that thereby the Souldiers might be warned to prepare for Batde The second warning was the proclaiming Battle by sound of Trumpet and this was a noise of many Trumpets at once which they termed by the name of Classicum a Calando which signisieth Calling The third was the encouraging of Souldiers with an Oration and confirming their Valour by the strong motives of Reason The Roman way of Victualling was far more advantagious than ours which was performed by Sutlers for 't is impossible that they should follow an Army upon Service in the Enemies Country twenty or thirty daies together with sufficient provision for such a multitude of Men whereby a General is often forced to hazard the whole upon unequal terms or to sound an unwilling Retreat But the Roman Camp was either furnisht with Corn from the Provinces and next Confederate Nations or when they were in an Enemies Country in the time of Harvest by the Souldiers themselves who reaped and gathered Corn and delivered it threshed and cleansed to the Treasurer that it might be kept till the day of payment upon which was delivered out so much Corn to every Souldier for a certain time which the nature of our Victuals will not admit by which measure they very well knew the next day of payment Every Foot-man received after the rate of a bushel a Week which was thought sufficient for him and his Man for if they had paid them in Mony it might have been wasted in unnecessary expences This Corn they ground with Hand Mills which they alwaies carried with them for that purpose making it into hasty Cakes for themselves and their Servants To sell or exchange this Corn for Bread was accounted a great Crime insomuch that Salust reckons it up amongst other dishonours of the Discipline corrupted In their assaulting or taking Towns they used several defensive Engines after they had encompast the Town with a broad and deep Ditch they raised a Rampier or Mount called Agger made of Earth and other substance which by little and little was raised forward until it approacht near the place against which it was built that upon it they might erect Fortresses and Turrets and so fight with advantage of height The sides of this Mount were of Timber to keep in the loose matter the fore-parts which were towards the place of Service were open without any Timber-work for on that part they still raised it and brought it nearer the Walls The Romans often raised these Mounts in the mouth of an Haven to over-top the Town They used also moveable Turrets with wheels driving them to the Walls of a Town these were of two sorts great and little the lesser sort are described by Vitruvius to be sixty Cubits high and the square side seventeen Cubits the breadth at the top was a fifth part of the breadth at the Base and so they stood sure without danger of falling There were commonly ten stories in these little Turrets and Windows in every story in every one of these stories were Souldiers Engines Ladders Casting-Bridges by which they got upon the Walls and so entred the Town The forepart of these Turrets were covered with Iron and Welt-coverings to save themselves from fire They had another Engine termed Vinea which was a little House or Hovel made of light Wood that it might be removed with greater ease the roof was supported by divers Pillats of a foot square whereof the foremost was eight foot high and the hindmost six and between every one of these Pillars was sive soot in distance It was alwaies made with a double Roof the first or lower Roof was of thick Planks the upper of Hurdles to break the force of any weight cast upon it without destroying the building The sides were of Hurdles to defend the Souldiers the upper Roof commonly covered with raw Hides to keep it from burning Many of these Hovels were joyned together in rank and order when they went to
a Saxon they call Dle Sassen and that this kind of Weapon was generally used by the Getes from whom the Saxons are derived shall be proved Statius testifying the same in these Verses Quo Macetae sua gesta citent quo turbine contum Sauromates falcemque Getae Pontanus to prove more evidently that the Saxons had their Name from this sort of Sword recordeth That Saxony in its ancient Arms bears two SEAXES or HANGERS Cross-wise which saith he is an undoubted proof of their denomination And ERKENWYN King of the East Saxons gave for his Arms three hand SEAXES Argent in a field Gules and that this was not unusual for Nations to be named after their particular Weapons Verstegan proveth at large upon this Subject and the same I have shewn in another place wherein are treated the Causes and Reasons of the names of most Countries in the Ancient World Mr. Cambden in his description of Cornwal tells us That in Wales there was sound in the Earth in digging for Tynn Spear-heads Axes and Swords of Brass meaning I suppose these SEAXES wrapped up in Linnen the like was found in other places beyond Sea this may testifie of what Mettal their Weapons were made but not of their fashion but of that I have sufficiently spoke already And he further saith That it is evident the Greeks and Cimbrians and consequently the Ancient Britains by the Monuments and Testimonies of ancient Writers used Brass Weapons although less prejudicial in the wounding the Body than that of other Mettals in respect of its healing quality which he attributes to their harmless nature in the choice of it more than any other whose Opinion I absolutely contradict apprehending it rather from the plenty of the Mettal or else for the estimable value they had for it above any other and not from a healing quality for they being a People ambitious of Conquest they desired doubtless all opportunity of usurpation and mischief to bring about their ends and desires Thus much for the name of the SAXONS The next People are the ANGLES THEY are of the same Original with the former and the reason of their Name is diversly given Saxo Grammaticus fetcheth it from Angulus the Brother of Dan and Son of Humblus whom others call Humilus Others from Queen Angela but these Fables need no refutation Geropius Becanus deriveth it from Angelen or Anglen a Fish-hook and saith that the Saxons arrogated this Name to themselves because living on the Sea-coasts nothing passed on the Waters but was drawn and hookt in by them But this Erymology as it savoureth of fancy more than truth so doth it carry in it self its own confutation for the Angli or Angili were so called long before they came to the Sea-coasts even when they were an Inland-people as shall be shewn more fully in the sequel The next Opinion which seemeth to carry more right and hath hitherto been most generally received is that they took name from ANGULUS that is an Angle or Corner their ancient Country about Sleswick being a narrow Isthmus lying upon the Baltick Sea Of this mind is Mr. Sheringham though afterwards he contradicts himself and Verstegan writes thus The word Eng in the ancient Teutonick signifieth Narrow or Streight and sometimes a Nook and if any ask a Dutch-man how he calleth a narrow Country he would answer Engeland or England such a Country saith he is Old England in Denmark from whence our English Ancestors proceeded being a Neck of Land and such also is our present ENGLAND running out in length and growing narrower at both ends To prove this Opinion Bede is quoted who writeth That the ANGLES came out of that Country which is called Angulus and is reported from that time to lie waste between the Provinces of the Saxons and Juites and Mr. Cambden sheweth That between Juitland and Holsatia the Ancient Country of the Saxons there is a little Province in the Kingdom of Dania termed at this day Angle beneath the City Flemsburg upon the River Sly upon which Sleswick is scituated which Lindebergius in his Epistles calleth Little Anglia and Ethelwardus an ancient Saxon Writer hath this description of it Old Anglia lieth between the Saxons and Giots they have a Capital Town which in the Saxon Tongue is called Sleswick by the Danes Haithby From this Country saith Mr. Cambden they passed into the Inland-parts of Germany even as far as Italy and left their Name to several places as Engleheim the native Country of Charles the Great Ingolstad Engleburg Englerute in Germany and Angleria in Italy Thus we see the the progress of the ANGLES set down from Angulus or Anglia in Denmark into Germany Southward by Mr. Cambden and others the contrary whereof is true as shall manifestly be shewn For as it is not to be denied but that our English Ancestors came from this Province into Britain yet that they received their Name originally from it call it Angulus or Angle or Old England which you please and so carried it into Germany cannot in reason be supposed upon the following account First because the name of Angli or Angili was known in the World long before they had possession of this Country when they were an Inland-People living far within the Continent which being true makes it evident that the ANGLI gave name to this Province and not the Province to them To put this out of dispute it is to be observed that Tacitus and after him Ptolomy who first wrote of the Angli or Angili make them an Inland-People and part of the Suevians Ptolomy divideth the Suevians into three Nations the Longobardi Semnones and Angili Now the Suevians were a Nation who never continued above a year in one place but as Caesar Strabo and other Authors witness continually ranged up and down still seeking out new Habitations roving therefore through Germany that part of them called English Suevians gave names to the forementioned Places Ingolstad Engleburg c. and at length after the daies of Ptolomy passed into the Cimbrick Chersoness a Province whereof they accordingly gave the denomination of Angulus or Angel For in the daies of Ptolomy in that part of Denmark wherein Bede and Ethelward place the Angli we read of no such People there and Ptolomy himself in those very Provinces reckoned the Inhabitants by these Names the Chali Cobandi Sabalingii and Sigulones and setteth down the Angli far enough from hence among the Suevians in the Mediterranean parts of Germany Add to this that most Authors bring their Original from Westphalia where Engern standeth and others have thought it probable they might primitively proceed from Pomerania where the Town Angloen flourisheth These considerations moved Cisner to think that the Angli Suevi mentioned in Ptolomy and the Angli Saxones so called by Bede and Ethelwerd were not the same People because the former were certainly an Inland-Nation and a branch of the Suevians the latter
cure Chad kann eg 9. eff mig Nauder umm ffendur ad biarga fare mynn aff mynu bind eg kyrre bage a og suesie allan See That 9 I know if I have occasion to save a Ship I still the Winds on the water and calm the Sea Chad kann eg hid thunda eg eff fie tunrider I Ieika Iopte A eg suo bynk ad their biller fara sinna heim hama sinna heim hugo That 10 I know if I see Witches flying in the Air I provide they shall miss their aim and lose their designs Chad kann eg hid ellesta eff eg skall till orusfu Ieida Ianghine under rauder eg giel enn their med Ryke fara heiler hill dat till he let hilde fra Koma their heiler huadan That 11 I know if I send my old Acquaintance to War I enchant their Armour they go safe to War return safe and go every where safe Chad kann eg hid 12. eff eg sie a tre uppe CClafa birgilna suo eg rist eg I Runumm fae at la geingur Gume og meeler bidmig That 12 I know if I see on the top of Wood a Ghost walking so I cut it out and receive it in the Run that that Man shall come and speak with me Thad kann eg hit 13. eff thegnum ungumm berpa skol eg batne a munathet falla thot et hann I folk kome hungrat sath fur fyrer hionum That 13 I know if I sprinkle a young Boy with water he shall not die in War although he goes to Battle that man shall not fall by the Sword Thad kann eg hid fiortanda effeg skal fyrda lide tella tyffa fyrer Asa og Alffa eg kann allra skil far kann ofnetur suo That 14 if I am to tell the kinds of Families I know all the distinctions of the Asi and Fani few of the Vulgar know so much Thad kann eg hid 15. et gol Thyodreyer Duergur fyrer Deliyngs Dyrumm Aff gol hann Alurum eun Alfumm frama hyggio hropto ty That 15 I know what Thiodreyrer sung before the Doors of Delling he sung strength to the Asi promotion to the Fani and wisdom to Woden Thad kann eg hid 16. eff eg bil hins Suinna mans hofa ged allt og gaman huge eg huerss huytarmre konu og sny eg hennar ollumm seffa That 16 I know if I would enjoy the love and society of a fair Virgin I change the mind and alter the affection Thad kann eg hid 17. ad mig mun seynt fyrrask eg man binga man Iioda theirra muntu Lodfaffner banut bera tho sie thier god eff thu getur nyt eff thu nemur thorf eff thu thiggur That 17 I know how he loves to dwell upon his comfortable knowledge that the Maid will not easily for sake me These Verses Lodfaffher are perhaps known to you much good may they do you they are useful if you learn them and necessary if you can get them Thad kann eg hid 18. et eg mefa kennig Men me mauns konu alit ex betra eirn et umm kann thad fyiger Iioda lokumm nema theirre eirure ex mig arme ber eda Myn syster sie That 18 I know I shall teach no Virgin still on the same key or Women every thing is best that but one knows this is the close of the Verses but she that holds me in her Arms or at least she must be my Sister These Runns may be called the delight and pleasure of our Ancestours with which they were so much taken that Wormius observes they gave themselves names from them Hence comes Guthrun or Gothick Runn Sigtrun victorious Runn Runulpher helping Runn Rungeir warlike Run So Womens names Solruna Sigruna Dfruna Auruua Frederuna and such like of different signification according to the different opinions they had of the Runn WODEN as I have intimated before was the Inventer of Poetry and the Father of the Scaldri or Scaldi what they were and how esteemed you may read in Loccenius Although they meaning the Northern Nations were not so well polished as now adaies in humane literature yet at their leisure and oftentimes in the Camp it self they spent no little time in writing the Actions of their Ancestours and singing of them in Verse by which they gained great reputation to their Mother Tongue This was the business of the Scaldi or as others call them Scaldri as the Poets of that Age in Verses now sung about are expressly called from the word Skal as the Bards of the Gauls and Britains To this Custome Sedulius a Christian Poet had respect in the exordium of his Verses Tragicoque boatu Ridiculoque Getae seu qualibet arte canendi Either in Tragick or in Comick verse Or any other songs the Getes reherse Hence among the ancient Scandians Skalving signifies a Poetick rapture and Scalda a Book of the Art of Poetry for it was the custome of those Poets not only with their Pens but their Voices also to celebrate the Actions of their Progenitours to the end to stir up in their Youth and their Posterity an honest emulation of their Vertues The Scaldi were commonly of the chief Blood of their Country oftentimes of the Kings Councel and his attendance in War that with their own eyes they might be witnesses of great Actions and not taking them upon trust might be better able with truth to deliver them to Posterity Those things which in the Verses of the Ancients we find wrapt up in Fables shew only the genius of the Authors who accounted it a piece of Art to hide plain Truths under the shadow of words by which colours as a pleasant bait they thought to recommend their works to the Reader Besides the famous Actions of Kings and Great Persons composed in Verse these Scaldi drew out Genealogies of their Fore-fathers as it appears in the Chronicle of Olaus where there is mention made of one of them Dc taldi han longfeda til Semingh He wrote their Progeny to Seming and again Itui Kuediero Uptald xxx langfedga Rognwals In this Verse are reckoned up thirty descents of Rognwall upon this account these Poets were in great favour with Princes and were liberally provided for in their Courts This Art of Poetry Woden brought from Asia as besides other Arguments the very name of it sufficiently sheweth The ancient Scaldi called it Asamal that is the Language of the Asians Stephanius in his Preface to Saxo Grammaticus gives this account of it The Old Danish Tongue which was used in Rithms the Ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asamal that is Asian or the Tongue of the Asians because Woden brought it from Asia into Denmark Norway Swedeland and other Northern Countries From its sweetness of its running it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odins Miod that is Odins Mead and from its copiousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odins AEge that is Odins Sea And as Woden was the Father of Arts among the Saxons so likewise was he their God of War When they went
Language spoken in Britain in the daies of Bede differed very little from what was spoke on the Continent from the mouth of the Rhine round to Pomerania and through all those Inland Countries of Saxony Alsatia Westphalia and indeed all those Territories were possest by the same Nation of the Saxons though called by different Names And the very Coasts lying upon the British Sea even to Frisia Batavia and the River Scaldis even to the shore of Flanders was Anciently called by the name of Lower Saxony as may be gathered out of an old Chronicle writ about three hundred years ago in old Teutonick Verses Syt des sekex en gewis Be of this assured and certain Dat die Graeffchap van Holland is That the Earldom of Holland is Gen stucvan Urieslant ghenomen A piece of Friesland taken off Dude Boeken hoorde ic gewagen Old Books I have heard mention Dat all hetland Ueneden Nitemagen That all the Land beneath Newmagen Wylen ueder Sassen hight Was formerly called Lower Saxony And then he goeth on Alsoo al 's die stroom versscheit Uander Maze end vander Rhyn Die Schelt was dat west end Syn. That is That the Scheld taking in its waters from the Rhine and Mosel was the western bounds of it The same Dutch Author addeth further Die neder Sassen heitu nu Uriesen That is The Neather Saxons are now called Frisians By which it is plain that the Frisians mentioned by Procopius as Inhabitants of Britain were not a different Nation from the Saxons And this may suffice to be spoken of the divers Countries from whence our Ancestors proceeded and of their Customes Laws and Religion before their entrance into Britain In the next place shall further faithfully be related by what means and under whose conduct they gained that Empire here in Britain the foundations whereof yet remain unshaken THE HEPTARCHY OF THE SAXONS IN BRITAIN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE KINGDOM OF KENT Contained KENT KINGS Hengist Oeric alias Oisc Octa. Ermiric Ethelbert Eadbald Ercombert Egbert Lothair Edric Wigtred Edbert Ethelbert the Second Alric Ethelbert the Third Cuthred Baldred HENGIST TO resume the History where it broke off HENGIST having given his Daughter to VORTIGERN King of Britain and in Reward for her received the whole Country of Kent by donation began now to lay the foundation of a Saxon Monarchy in that part of the Island By gaining so fair and large Possessions as Kent so opportune for Navigation lying nearest to the Continent and open in its Ports he had means to receive and room to encourage any new Adventurers he should have occasion to invite over Besides these great advantages of Territory by near alliance to the Crown he gained these main points namely a trust and confidence in the King and consequently a certain dependance of the British Nobility upon him He had now a kind of Authority at Court and carried a stroke in their choicest Councels if at any time jealousies of him arose they were either stifled by a temporizing remembrance of his good Services or over-awed by his alliance and interest with the King Such who had the wit to disern or the honesty to give warning of his growing Ambition were looked upon as disaffected to the Government and Persons dissatisfied with the present management of Affairs And what added fewel to these Jealousies was that Vortigern himself was but an Usurper and Ambrose the Lawful Prince kept out by violence so that continually looking on that side from whence he expected most danger he was blind to the designs and contrivances of Hengist and lay open to all his encroachments Add to this that Vortigern whether by Nature so framed or by Custome changed after his advancement to the license of a Scepter was a slothful and amorous Prince uneasie to business and restless saving only in his delightful pleasures Hengist on the other hand watchful and contriving and one who well knew how to make the best use of those fair opportunities which were given him so that the one continually losing the other insensibly gaining the one never failing in his demands the other not daring to deny any thing the Saxons got such firm rooting at last that the hands that planted them were not able to pluck them up when they most desired it And now Hengist being well warm in his Principality of Kent obtains leave of the King to call over Octa and Ebissa his own and Brother's Son alledging that if Lands were given them in the North they might be as a Bulwark and Fence against the incursions of the Scots and Picts They therefore sayling as far as the Orcades as some write with five thousand Men and all along curbing the insolencies of those Nations at last seated themselves on that part of the Island which is now called Northumberland Affairs stated in this posture and the Island lying open at both ends to receive fresh supplies of Saxons Hengist thought it now or never high time to strike for the whole Empire he wanted not pretences for a quarrel alledging first that his Souldiers pay was run much in arrear which being advanced to them he then saies plainly that their wages was not proportionable to their service and requires an augmentation otherwise threatens open War Whilst the British Councels pause what Answer to return to these sudden demands He who desired not so much to be satisfied in that point as to gain occasion of quarrelling immediately takes hold of their deliberating for a positive denial and entring into League with the Scots and Picts issuing out of Kent before any opposition could be made he laies waste the whole Country as far as the Western Sea Now begun the Britains to feel the dismal effects of forreign Succours they had not now their old Enemies alone to deal with but a Nation far more experienced in War and what was more Pagan and Barbarous whole Towns and Colonies were overturned not as in fair War where the Conqueror is contented with confession of Victory but as it were to the utter extirpating of the Inhabitants desolation was heapt upon desolation Temples and Palaces Priest and People lay buried in the wide Ruines of their Country And yet these heavy Judgments to the shame be it spoken of a stupid and sinful Nation were not more deplorable saith Gildas than justly deserved As for Vortigern himself he was so far from being wakened by these Calamities that to the scandal of his Christian Profession he committed Incest with his own Daughter a sin scarcely named among the Gentiles for which being censured in a Councel by the advice of the Peers he retired to a strong Castle which he had built in Radnorshire leaving the management of Affairs to his Son Vortimer whom for his active courage and vertuous behaviour the Britains generally chose for their Leader This Prince in all likelyhood we may gather had already given good proofs of his Conduct in repulsing the Saxons during the Government
strengthned by whose Passion we are delivered from passion by whose Love we sought Brethren in Britain whom we knew not and by whose courtesie whom not knowing we sought we have found Who is able to relate how great the joy is that is arose in the hearts of the Faithful that through the Grace of Almighty God cooperating and your Brotherhood labouring the darkness of Errors being driven away the English Nation is covered over with the glorious light of holy Faith that now out of a sincere mind and pious devotion it tramples on those Idols to which before it madly croucht to that it prostrates it self before God with a pure heart that it is restrained from relapsing into sin by the rules and instructions of holy Preaching that it submits in mind to the Divine precepts but raised in understanding humbles it self in prayer on the ground lest in affections it should grovel in the earth Whose working is this but His that saies My Father hitherto works and I work Who that he might make it manifest to the World that he converts not by the wisdom of Men but by his own vertue and power The Preachers whom he sent into the World he made choice of without learning using the same method here also for in the English Nation he has wrought mighty things by the hands of weak Persons But there is my Dearest Brother something in this celestial gift which you ought extremely both to fear and rejoyce at †I know that Almighty God has shewn great Miracles by you in the Nation he would should be chosen from whence it is necessary that concerning the same heavenly gift you with fear rejoyce and with joy be afraid You may rejoyce that the Souls of the English through outward Miracles are drawn to an inward grace you ought to be afraid lest among the Miracles that are wrought your frail mind be puffed up too much by presumption and self-confidence so that outwardly raised in honour it inwardly falls through such vainglory Moreover we ought to remember that when the Disciples returning from preaching with joy said to their Heavenly Master Lord in thy name Devils are subject unto us they presently heard Rejoyce not for this but rather rejoyce that your names are written in Heaven They had placed their mind in a temporal and private joy because they rejoyced in Miracles but they are streight recalled from a private to a publick from a temporal to an eternal joy to whom it is said In this rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven For all the Elect don't work Miracles but the Names of them all are registred in Heaven to the Disciples of truth there ought to be no joy unless in that good which they have common with all and in which they have no end of their joy It remains therefore My Dear Brother that among those things which with the help of God you outwardly perform you alwaies inwardly strictly judge your self and particularly examine your self who you are and how great Grace there may be in that Nation for whose Conversion you have received the gift of performing Miracles and if ever you remember that you have offended our Creator either by word or deed alwaies bear it in mind that the remembrance of the guilt may suppress the rising glory of the heart and what power soever of working Miracles you shall receive or have received alwaies think it given not for your sake but for those for whose salvation 't was conferred upon you †There comes into my mind thinking of these things what became of one Servant of God even extraordinarily elected Certainly Moses whilst he brought the People of God out of Egypt wrought wonderful Miracles as your Brotherhood knows in the land of Egypt on Mount Sinai after he had fasted fourty daies and nights he received the Tables of the Law amongst dreadful Thunderings all the People being afraid In the service of Almighty God he alone enjoyed a familiar conference with Him the Red-Sea he divided in his Journey his guide was a Pillar of Cloud When the People were hungry he gave them Manna from heaven he miraculously gave them Flesh when they wanted in the Wilderness till they were cloyed but when in the time of Thirst they came to the Rock he mistrusted and doubted whether he could bring water from it which the Lord commanding he struck and opened a passage for the running water How great Miracles after this did he persorm in the Wilderness for the space of thirty eight years who can reckon them who can trace them as often as he doubted of any thing having recourse to the Tabernacle he secretly inquired of the Lord and was presently informed by the word of the Lord concerning that thing By the interposition of his prayers he appeased the Anger of the Lord towards his people when they were puffed up with pride or rebelled against him He caused the earth to open and swallow them up he foyled the Enemy with victories and shewed signs to his own People but when they came to the land of Promise he was called into the Mountain and heard of his fault that he had committed thirty eight years before because he despaired of bringing out water and he acknowledged that for this thing he could not enter into the land of Promise wherefore we ought to consider what a dreadful thing the judgment of Almighty God is who had done so many signal Wonders by this his Servant and yet kept his fault committed so long ago still in remembrance Therefore most Dearest Brother if we acknowledge him dead after so many Miracles for his fault whom we know to have been in a more especial manner elected by God Almighty with how great fear ought we to tremble who know not whether as yet we are elected What should I speak of the Miracles of Reprobates since your Brotherhood knows very well vvhat Truth it felf hath said in the Gospel Many shall come in that day saying unto me Lord in thy name we have Prophesied and in thy name we have cast out Devils and in thy name we have done wonders But I will say unto them I know ye not depart from me all you workers of Iniquity Therefore the mind is very much to be depressed and kept under amongst Signs and Miracles lest in those things it should seek its own glory and rejoyce in the joy of self exaltation In Miracles we ought to have respect to the gain of Souls and to his glory by whose power those Miracles are wrought but our Lord has given us one sign concerning which we ought extremely to rejoyce and by which we may acknowledge the glory of Election in us By this it shall be known whether you are my Disoiples if you love one another which sign the Prophet desired when he said Grant some token unto me O Lord for good that they that hate me may see and be confounded I speak these things that my Hearer's mind