Affairs in the Island the AEduans in Burgundy entertained to build their Temples and Publick Edifices Peace thus establisht in Britain and the State quieted Dioclesian who had hitherto employed his Valour with success against his Enemies now used his Rage in a bloody Persecution against his Innocent and Obedient Subjects the Christians This is the tenth Persecution and of all the fore-going the most Bloody and of longest continuance the fatal Bill of their Martyrdom was seventeen thousand a Month besides infinite numbers that suffered by Confiscation Banishment Prisons c. The Christian Churches were every where demolisht their Bibles sought out and burnt and death for any to conceal them and all means practiced not only to extinguish the Professours but to root out the very Name of their Religion The most remarkable that had their shares in Britain were first ALBAN of Verulam beheaded at Holmhurst since called Derswould where now the Town of St. Albans bearing his name is built of whom Fortunatus Priscus in his Book of the praise of Virginity writes Albanum Egregium faecunda Britannia profert Next his Instructour Amphibolus then Julius and Aaron of Caerleon upon Uske in Monmouthshire Bede saith of Leicestershire and in Litchfield so many that the place became another Golgotha and so the name importeth as John Ross of Warwick reporteth namely the Field of Dead Bodies For this cause the City even unto this day saith Mr. Speed doth bear for their Seal of Arms an Eschochean or Field charged with many Martyrs Dioclesian and Maximian reigned twenty years and resigned the Empire to their two Caesars Constantius and Galerius Dioclesian retired into Dalmatia and lived a private life in the City Solonia where afterwards he poysoned himself saies Aurelius Victor Eusebius reporteth he died mad Maximian again attempting to resume the Empire was slain for contriving the murther of Constantius Eusebius avoucheth he hanged himself in the City Marseittes thus ended these two Tyrants THE British History In the Daies of DIOCLESIAN AND MAXIMIAN AFter BONOSUS succeeded CARAUSIUS in the Kingdom of Britain in the year 289 the fourth of these Emperours He made the Picts his Confederates and entertaining all who flockt to him under the hopes of Pillage and Plunder He constrained the Britains to make him their King who not knowing now who was their Friend or Foe partly for fear and partly for want of a lawful Inheritour elected him to the Crown Having thus gained the Power first he rewards the Picts with the vast Territories in Albania and not content with Invading the property of his Subjects and dispossessing the Ancient Britains like a proud Tyrant he infringed all their Rights and Priviledges The Romans hearing thereof sent Alectus with three Legions to kill him and to restore Britain to the Empire Carausius accordingly was slain after he had reigned seven years but instead of giving the Kingdom to the Romans Alectus himself usurped it and assumed the Crown in the year 269. He punished with great slaughter those Britains who forsaking the Common-wealth had adhered to the society of Carausius and been partakers in his Robberies which they sorely resenting chose Asclepiodotus to revenge exhorting him to set upon him in London whilest he was celebrating a Feast to his Country Gods at whose Arrival Alectus forsaking his Sacrifice and marching out with the choice of his Souldiers entered Battle with him but was slain after he had reigned three years Livius Gallus a Captain of Alectus still held London to the reducing whereof Asclepiodotus now King summoned the Demeta or the Inhabitants of that part of the Island now called South-Wales the Venedoti and those of Deira and Albania With these Forces he beleagures the City and with his War-like Engines batters down great part of the Wall Gallus perceiving himself able to hold out no longer comes to Parly and surrenders the Town upon Condition to march out Armed which being agreed to Asclepiodotus enters but the Venedoti contrary to Articles fell upon Gallus and slew him at a Brooks-side within the City called after his Name Walbrooke or Gal-brooke Thus Asclepiodotus got the full possession of the Kingdom but being not able or skilful to defend his Subjects from the cruelty of the Roman Emperours who in his daies raised the Persecution in Britain he was slain by Coilus Duke of Colchester after he had reigned about one year COIL the third of that name after the death of Asclepiodotus assumed the Crown and now Constantius having heard of the Troubles in Britain under the several Usurpers lands upon the Coast Coil informed thereof sends Embassadours to crave Peace and promises Subjection and Homage upon condition that he should enjoy the Kingdom of Britain paying the accustomed Tributes and Tolls to the Romans To this Constantius agrees and receives Hostages and not long after marries Helena his Daughter than whom a fairer Virgin never lived and who besides that she was an excellent Musitian and generally instructed in all Liberal Arts and Sciences Coil after one years Reign died and left the Kingdom to Constantius who Governed in the Right of his Wife Helena so that again the British Succession returned to that of the Romans Fl. Val. Constantius Chlorus AFTER the Resignation of Dioclesian and Maximian the Empire which hitherto was held entire though often under many Heads was now divided into two several Estates independent of each other and ameanable only to their particular Princes which as Eusebius noteth proved the fatal end of the Imperial Glory The Western Provinces the Government whereof alone relateth to our present History fell to CONSTANTIUS the Son of a Daughter to Crispus Brother to Claudius the second of that name Emperour of Rome A Prince wise and valiant and so free from Ambition that he chose rather to Govern well than much resigning to Galerius the Provinces of Italy and Africk as lying too remote from the Seat of his Residence which he held in Britain He favoured and encouraged the Christians and abhorred the Superstitious worship of divers Gods acknowledging but One only the Maker and Ruler of all things and to try the Faith of his Courtiers he proclaimed a publick Sacrifice at the solemnity whereof whosoever should be absent and refuse to offer were immediately as he pretended to be discarded and those only that conformed should be retained Such were alwaies sure to be of the Religion of their Prince who had held the Faith only as a Court-fashion presently crept and cringed to the Gods as they thought of their Soveraign But the Complement took not that they were all turned out of their Services with this Rebuke That he who is difloyal to his God can never be true and faithful to his Prince Many other worthy Actions are reported of this Constantius in favour to the Christians but the full establishing their Religion and the publick Authorizing thereof was reserved to Constantine his Son and Successour
6 minutes in the beginning of the sixteenth Parallel and eighth Clymate and the most Northwardly in 60 degrees 30 minutes in the six and twentieth Parallel or thirteenth Clime So that the longest Day in the South parts will be 16 hours in the Northern 18 and a half Upon the North and South it pointeth to the Ocean on the West it hath Ireland on the East we may measure its extent by the Continent for it lieth in the same Latitude with part of France Flanders Zealand Holland Lower Saxony and Denmark so that there can be no certain Rule given as in lesser Kingdoms of the temperature of the Air the nature of the Soyl the strength growth or proportion of the Inhabitants It is now as it was when the Romans first discovered it that there seems to be many Nations in it differing in the make and proportions of their Bodies The more Northward we go the People seem to be sturdier bigger made and in their Limbs more resembling the Germans hardy and stout and enured to Labour and Cold and to be of the same nature with the Daues and Saxons in the latitude of which Kingdoms they lie The Southwardly parts contain Men of neater strength and more compact Limbs and what they want of the proportion of the others they make out in their quickness and agility being hardy and not unweildy having not less strength but a better management of it In a word they seem to joyn the quick and brisk temper of the French with the staid and more fixed Humour of the Germans and as the People differ in the temperaments of their Bodies so in this vast Kingdom are many Countries Cities Towns Villages Colleges and Free-Schools for the promoting of Learning Hospitals and Alms-houses for the Relief of the Poor and Maimed not inferiourto any in any other part of the World beside Divers Languages Customes and Usages which are not contrary one to the other but by the mixture of the Gentry and the happy union of this Nation under one Monarch do meet together in the making up of the best compacted Kingdom in the World The Languages in Britain are these 1. THE first is the ENGLISH which is most purely and elegantly spoken in the Southern parts and especially at London and it extends thorough all the hither parts of Scotland being the General Language of the most refined sort of that Nation who are called by the more Northern People Sassons as we are by the Welch 2. The second is the BRITISH Language and is spoken by the Inhabitants of North and South Wales although with great difference of Dialect 3. The third is the CORNISH and DEVONSHIRE Tongue differing both from the British and English and not to be understood by either but it agrees most with the British but especially of the Britains of Armorica or Britain in France and those Words they preserve common with both those Nations seem to retain in them the foot-steps of the most Ancient British Language and have in them the very Idiom's of the Phoenician and Greek Nations 4. The fourth is the Language of the Wild SCOTS and differs very little from the Irish in the common Appellative Names it agrees very much with the Welch as doth likewise the Irish which argues that before the Romans and afterwards the Saxons had incorporated themselves in this Island the Language of all the Inhabitants was much the same and that Ireland was rather peopled from Britain than from Spain as some have imagined 5. The fifth is the Language of the ORCADES or ORKNEY Isles with those parts of Britain that shoot out upon them there is spoken the Gothic or Danish Speech which argues them to have been formerly subjected to the Princes of Norway It is a rough and unhew'd Language and is the root of the Dialect spoken more refined by the English more roughly by the Dutch and the Inhabitants of Upper Saxony and Denmark It is the very husk of the Teutonick The whole Island divided into Britannia Major as ENGLAND and Minor as SCOTLAND England being the Greater and of more particular concern to our present discourse is in Length by the computation of some CCC LXXXVI miles Cluverius reckons from Weymouth to Berwick upon Tweed CCC XX or LXXX German miles So that in Compass it is about MCCC miles reckoning the Creeks and windings of Promontories By computation it contains thirty Millions of Acres and is the Three hundred thirty third part of the Habitable World almost Ten times as big as the United Netherlands and is to France as 30 to 82. And thus much for the Extent of this ISLAND upon which account it was called by the Ancients a NEW WORLD and upon a better survey of it The Great Island As for the temperature of the Air as I said before it is different according to the many Clymates it runs thorough But concerning the Southwardly parts of it or Britannia Major I will only Cite some Impartial Judges First Caesar who was well experienced in the nature and climate of Gaul writes That BRITAIN is a more Temperate Country and is not subject to the sharp and nipping colds of the Continent The Reason is given by Minutius Foelix namely That it is refreshed by the warmth of the Sea flowing round about it Experience teacheth us that the extremity of cold in this Country is blown off from the Continent and proceeds not from the North but Northeast-winds and as it hath not those Colds in Winter it is not burnt up with immoderate Heats in Summer Here are none of those violent Thunders and Lightnings which are so frequent on the Continent nor do we ever hear of Serenes wherewith those hotter Climates are infested The heat of the Weather is allayed by gentle Winds and continual Breezes and the Earth cooled and nourished with mild and moderate showers Tacitus speaketh very much of the temperate and happy scituation of it for he saies There is nothing deficient in it but the Olive and the Vine which only grow in hotter Countries But they that shall consider it more truly namely that there are many places at this day called Vineyards in ENGLAND where in all probability has been made Wine will have small cause to complain of the Country in this particular but will rather attribute it to the cheap and easie importation of that Commodity and better improvement of the Ground But it is a great wonder to hear what one Brietius of late hath written concerning the Temperature of the Air in BRITAIN which because it is the production of his own Brain and never heard of before in the World it will not be amiss to mention it Every One and twenty year saith he the Plague rageth in BRITAIN which proceedeth from the extream Heat of every Seventh year which Heat is far greater the Third seventh for then the Waters lying in holes putrifie and corrupt and certainly cause a Pestilence This Cycle of One
Greeks received them from Barbarians more Ancient than themselves Cratylus taught Thucidides to confirm the other Report who tells us a pleasant story How that the fruitfullest parts of Greece often changed its Inhabitants the pleasure and profit of their Seats constantly exposing them to the fury and malice of more potent Enemies and the Traders fore-seeing that they were as liable to expulsion as others had been formerly tilled so much of their Grounds only as served for present necessity neglecting the rest not being willing to go away muttering like those in Virgil Impius haec tà m culta novalia miles habebit Barbarus has segetes en queis consevimus arva Shall the rude Souldier this rich Corn possess See with what care for Rogues our Land we dress They were resolved that the fruits of their Labour should never draw upon them their own Ruine so that all Greece saies he was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firmly or fully Inhabited by reason of these continual flittings and removings But Attica through the barrenness of its Soyl being worth no mans Ambiticn or undertaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was alwaies inhabited by the same men till at last it was so crammed and crowded with its own multitude that the Land it self would scarce contain much less maintain its Inhabitants that they were forct to send Colonies for the ease and relief of the rest into a part of Asia Minor calling it after their own Country Ionia thus far reaches the Graecian sigment But he that can believe that Attica was so well stored with People before Asia the Less had any may as reasonably conclude they were Aborigines i. e. sprung out of the Earth also Strabo out of Hecataeus asfirms That the lones came out of Asia into Greece which Opinion is probable enough for why might not Javan impart his Name to that Province or part of Asia Minor which is called Ionia as well as he did afterwards to that part of Greece which is generally known by the name of Attica Most Greek Authors bring the Name of Ionia from this Ion which we in favour to their Memory shall not be much against supposing we may have leave to conjecture that Ion himself took name from Javan it being a Custome observable in the Histories of all times to retain the ancient Name of a Fore-father in some the principal of his Issue Others have supposed they were derived from the AEgyptians grounding that Supposition upon the nearness and similitude of signification between Sais and Athene in Greece and that they were formerly Colonies from Sais a City of AEgypt scituated near one of the Mouths of Nile is concluded on from the Identity of many Customes common as well to the Saitae as the Athenians For as the Athenians distinguished their People by three divisions viz. into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Nobility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pcasants and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mechanicks in like manner also did the AEgyptians the Athenian ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were totally addicted to the search of Learning and Wisdome and therefore being had in great estimation by the People we may compare them to the AEgyptian Priests nay some of the chief Families in Athens had the Priesthood by Succession as Eumolphidae Ceryces Cynidae the Geomori who had Lands assigned them for the maintenance of the War are not unlike them in AEgypt who hold Possessions on these terms viz. to provide Souldiers when need should require to fight The Demiurgi resemble those Plebeians who skilful in some Art did set-out their Labour to daily hire and Herodotus is of opinion that they had their Religion from the AEgyptians although it is stiffly denyed by Plutarch the Reader who according to his inclination may make choice of which Opinion he pleases but the first is the most probable and best received But that which detracts much from the Antiquity of the Athenians is that CECROPS the first King and Founder of Athens who according to St. Augustine was contemporary with Moses was the first that reduced the Greeks living before like Savages or Brutes without Law or Religion into a form of a Body Politick He first advised them to offer up Sacrifices to Jupiter and divided the People into four Tribes taught them to dwell together civilly in Villages the People of Attica before being ignorant of the benefit of Societies and Corporations Afterwards Theseus collected the People of Attica into a Body and incorporated them into the City of Athens which he had beautified and enlarged but at first Greece was inhabited by Villages and not by Towns Athens was governed by this Cecrops and his Successors by no other Title than that of KING for the space of Four hundred years and upwards till the time of Codrus who in the Wars against the Dorienses being advertised by the Oracle that his Enemies should come off Conquerers if they did not kill the Athenian King for the honour of his Country and safety of his People put himself into the habit of a Common Beggar and entered the Enemies Camp where he behaved himself so strangly that they were forct at last to kill him But when the Dorienses understood what they had done they were so discouraged that they dismist their Army in haste and so departed homewards The Athenians resenting this noble and generous Action of their King so highly they thought no Man in the Commonwealth nay not his own Son worthy to succeed him as King resolving that as he had proved himself to be the best of Kings so they in honour to his Memory would make him the last intimating that all Royal Qualifications departed with him therefore laying aside Monarchy they constituted Princes for term of life differing from Kings only in this That the one claimed by the right of Succession the other by Election and favour of the People The first of these Archontes or Princes was Medon Son of the late King Codrus and these ruled Athens three hundred and sixteen years After this they chose a Governour in whom resided the chief Authority for ten years only expecting Justice and Moderation from his hands who at the end of Ten years was to become a Private man and consequently upon any Injury or Affront committed was liable to the power and severity of his Successors Seven of these Decennial Governours only ruled Athens which compleats Threescore and ten years then the Government became Annual the City being Governed by Majors or Burg-Masters and this form of Government was not only disturbed and shaken but quite dasht in pieces by Pisistratus in or about the time of Solon for he having calculated his Laws purely for the Meridian of Democracy and made it his business afterwards to put the Supream Authority into the hands of the People to which the People of Athens ever had a natural inclination he not only in his own time saw his Laws violated as
of Eleutherius And the first is the Date it bears which in the Text is dated 169 in the Margin 156 yet neither agree with the time of Eleutherius his Popedom if we will follow the most approved Authors For although Bede saies he was made Bishop of Rome in the year of our Lord 167 yet Eusebius in his Chronicle places the beginning of his Popedom in the sixteenth year of the Emperour Antoninus that is in the year of our Lord 179 But in his History and indeed truer to the following year of Antonium which is of our Lord 180. Baronius is of the same Opinion also and confirms it by the Letters of the Martyrs at Lyons which were presented to Eleutherius himself 2. Besides if this Epistle be true it makes King Lucius to take a very preposterous course in sending so far as Rome to Eleutherius for the Roman Laws when he might sooner and with less trouble have procured them at home from the Roman Governour for from the time of the Emperour Claudius who subdued most part of Britain the Roman Laws were in force here nay very well known to the further parts of Yorkshire And Tacitus saies he had erected here Roman Courts and Tribunals which was about an hundred years before Lucius came to the Government But we shall pursue this discourse no further it being plain and obvious to any that are but meanly acquainted with those Histories 3. This Epistle makes no mention of any Power or Authority the Romans had in these parts but makes Lucius an absolute Monarch as in nothing subject to the Roman Governour You are Gods Vicegerent in your own Kingdom not Claudius Caesars or any other Emperour Contrary to the Customes of those times Among the Jews King Herod was under Pilate and King Agrippa under Faelix and Festus and so it was likewise usual in other Provinces but without doubt Lucius was a British King as he is rightly so stiled in the Life of Eleutherius but it was but of some part of it not of the whole Island or that part which separated from Scotland by a Wall which was under the Romans yet it is not to be doubted but that in some part of it he had a Power under the Romans neither is it any hard matter to describe the Places of his Government for he being the Son and Successour of King Coile and Coile the Son of Marius and Marius of Arviragus which some report to be Togenus others the same with Tacitus his Prasutagus King of the Iceni The Iceni inhabited that part of Britain which the East Angles did under the Saxons it comprehended Norfolk Suffolk and at some time Cambridge Their Royal City was Venta of the Iceni now called Castor in Norfolk near to the City of Norwich but this place is too far distant from Glastonia a little Village of the Belgae in the Kingdom of the West Saxons which Arviragus as they say gave to Joseph of Arimathea and his Companions that came with him But this seems to intimate that Arviragus was rather King of the Belga and Dobuni that is of the West Saxons than of the Iceni and that which promotes this Opinion is his being most usually in those parts and his entertainment in Claudiocestria if we will credit Gaufridus but that which takes away the doubt unless we will suspect the Author himself is the testimony of Hector Boethius Scotus who shews that Arviragus was by Birth an Icene and was substituted by Claudius Caesar King of Britain furthermore the Iceni first received the Christian Faith in Britain 4. This word Manutenere which we translate Maintain was not in use in Eleutherius his time but smells rather of the Norman Latin from which it crept into our Country Laws 5. Those places which are quoted out of the Holy Scripture are taken out of the Translation of St. Hierom who lived two hundred years after Eleutherius 6. This Epistle never came out in the World till almost a thousand years after the death of Eleutherius but out of what Monks Cell it came is uncertain but that which ought to be most observed is that it is no where to be found in Gaufridus Monumuthentis contemporary with Hovedenus who was always diligent in the Collection of the British Antiquities This Answer of the Pope by Letter to Lucius was sent by Fugatius and Damianus Men of sound doctrine and holy life by whose hands the King with all his Nobles received Baptisme and shortly after by their industry and the earnest desire and endeavours of King Lucius the Doctrine was so far propagated that the Temples and Altars of the Heathen Gods were in most places flung down and demolished the Christian worship set up in their places and the Church established under Form and Government In the Seats of twenty eight Flamens and three Arch Flamens which presided over the whole Nation being all of them either converted or expulied were constituted twenty eight Bishops and three Arch-bishops whose Chairs for the greater convenience of Government were continued in the same places the Archi-Flamens resided in The first and Metropolitan Seat was at London and the Cathedral St. Peters in the memory of that Saint from whose Successour Eleutherius they had received the Faith The second was at York The third at Carlile but of the particular extent of these places I shall treat more fully anon The Succession of Bishops in the See of London THe first to the Times of the Saxons is thus Theanus who was in the daies of Lucius consecrated the Church of St. Peters Cornhill and by the assistance of Ciranus the Kings Cup-bearer performed all the Rites thereunto belonging Some report he built the Church The second Eluanus he added a Liberary to it The third was Cadar the fourth Obinus the fifth Conanus the sixth Palladius the seventh Stephanus the eighth Iltutus or Iltutius the ninth Deduinus the tenth Theodredus the eleventh Hilarius the twelfth Vitelinus the thirteenth Vodinus Mr. Cambden calls him Theonus But before we proceed any further it will be necessary to say who and what these Flamens were and of their being changed into Bishops and Arch-bishops What these Flamens and Arch-flamens were and their being changed into Bishops and Arch-bishops I Wish we had seen the Book of Gildas for it can hardly be found in ancient Authority that there was ever any distribution of Flamens and Arch flamens into their particular Provinces or that the words Arch-flamens and Arch-bishops were in use in the time of Lucius or that Metropolitical Jurisdiction and the Ceremony of the Pall had any being in those daies For Flamens among the Romans were no other than their Priests so called from a Thred or String as Varro saith with which they bound their Head as Flamines some Pileamines from a Cap they wore and from Sacrificing commonly called Priests and every one of these lookt after the proper Offices and Duties of their particular Gods at first
assistance of the Romans first having tried what they could do by freeing themselves from Forreign Yoak grown as weary of their Liberty as they had been formerly of Bondage sent unto Honorius humbly craving his Protection to which Message they received no other answer but in Words by which he exhorted them to stand upon their own Guard and so quitted them of the Roman Jurisdiction Thus ended this famous Empire of the Romans first in Britain and not long after in Italy it self having born chief sway in this Island though never wholly conquered nor at one time intirely possest for the space of four hundred sixty two years if we account from the first arrival of Julius Caesar to the taking of Rome by Alarick in which year Honorius wrote those Letters of Discharge Britain thus deserted by the Romans was left unable to defend it self having all the flower and choice of her Youth drawn out to serve in the Roman Garrisons abroad whilest others had forsaken their Country to follow the Ambition of such Tyrants whom they had headily advanced to the Purple Robe and having Possessions given them in Gaul never returned so that before I proceed to set down the Calamities of the Britains when left to themselves and their own Counsels it will not be amiss to shew how from time to time the Romans drew out their Youth and what numbers attended the Tyrants which were so frequently advanced in the latter daies of the Empire when there was no end of their Levies out of Britain To begin with the Romans first Trebellius Maximus transported into Germany a great number of British Souldiers to make good the Faction of Vitellius against Otho Honorius Flaccus in the same cause sent out eight thousand chosen Souldiers Albinus in the bloody Battle at Lyons against Severus the Emperour lost fifty thousand Men most of which were of the British Cavalry This loss laid the Province naked and left it open to the Insolence and Violence of Forreign Invaders and Constantine the Great as Malmsbury reporteth carried out such numbers with him that to their Assistance especially he owed his Victories and the Empire of the whole World Afterwards he planted them on the West-coast of France called Armorica next drawing out those Souldiers who lay for the defence of the Marshes and Fronteirs he seated them in other parts of the Continent carried some into the East and instead of those Living-strengths he built Castles and Forts which seized by the Enemy proved continual annoyances to the Britains Maximus the Tyrant who slew Gratian the Emperour levied vast numbers of Britains and transported them into Gaul and Ninnius writeth that he would not send them home again but gave unto them many Countries even from the Pool or Meer which lieth above Mount Jovis unto the City that is called Cantguic and unto Curcocchidient And he that annexed brief Notes unto Ninnius reporteth how truly I cannot tel the Armorican Britains which are beyond Sea attending Maximus in his Expedition when they could not return wasted the Western-coasts of Gaul and when they had married their Wives and Daughters cut out all their Tongues for fear lest the succeeding Progeny should learn their Mother Language whereupon we call them in our Tongue Lhet vydion that is Half-silent or Tongue-ty'd because they speak confusedly Constantius who was elected only for his Name transported most of the flower and strength of the Britains into Gallia and Spain where in his Quarrel many of them perished and the rest never returned having Seats allotted them in the West of Gaul or else followed the Emperour in his Wars Hence it is that Prosper Aquitanus wrote thus At this instant of time in respect of the decay of the Roman Forces the power and strength also of the Britains was brought low and unable to make resistance For which cause and occasion our Historiographer of Malmsbury speaks thus When the Tyrants had rid the Country of all save half Barbarians none were there either in Towns or Cities but who gave themselves upto Epicurism Britain now forgetting the use and practice of good Arts and wanting assistance of vigorous Youth for a long time lay open to the Mercy of Ravening mouths that confin'd upon her which was evidenced by the Incursions of the Picts and Scots many lost their lives Cities were subverted Villages fired insomuch as all lay naked and low to express the Rage and Fury of merciless Invaders The Islanders in this streight after they had buryed their Wealth much of which hath been since found chose rather to flie unto the Mountain-Country than to stand the hazard of a set Battle purposing after that to go to Rome to request assistance But to little purpose for Valentinian the Third as he was not able to recover either Spain France or Asrick Provinces rent by violence from him so could he not be able to answer their expectation And Gildas for this very cause much pities the dejected case of the Britains For saith he Britain was despoyled of all their Armed-men her Military Forces Governours although cruel they were and of a mighty number of her stout hard-hearted Youths For besides those whom the Tyrant and Usurper Maximus and the last Constantine carried with them it appeareth by ancient inscriptions and the Book called Notitia Provinciarum that these Companies here-under written were employed by the Romans in War dispersed in Parties over their Provinces which exhausted very much the principal fighting men in Britain it self Ala Britannica Milliaria Ala quarta Britonum in AEgypto Cohors prima AElia Britonum Cohors tertia Britonum Cohors septima Britonum Cohors 26 Britonum in Armenia Britanniciani sub Magistro peditum Invicti juniores Britanniciani inter Auxilia Palatina Exculcatores Jun. Britan. Britones cum Magistro Equitum Galliarum Invicti Juniores Britones intra Hispanias Britones Seniores in Illyrico So that it will be no wonder when we shall read the following Calamities and downfall of the Britains that being reduced to so small a number and worn out with the continual Incursions of their Enemies the Picts and Scots deserted by their Ancient Protectours the Romans they were constrained to call in another Nation to their assistance who quickly imposed a Yoak upon them so much the more heavy and grievous than the former inasmuch as the Roman Civility exceeded the Rudeness of the Primitive Saxons But before we proceed to these Relations let us see the British History in the daies of this Honorius THE British History In the Daies of HONORIUS UNTO VORTIGERN Who brought in the SAXONS THE Britains upon dislike to Honorius for that he had slain Stilico who by the report of our Histories did great Service for them chose Marcus for their King but him not found agreeable to their humour they slew and set up Gratianus Municeps in his stead a Britain born but a great Tyrant so that not enduring him above four months they kill'd
Continent easily overcame and mastered the distressed Natives a People at that time reduced to a small number laden with Distresses yea worn out with continual Calamities it will not be amiss first to set down their Original and progress through most parts of the World ere they arrived into this Island their Religion some Customes annexing other memorable things relating to their Arts and Polity that having at once before our eyes the Vertues and Vices of our Ancestours we may know the better what to follow what to avoid and may the better be enabled how to discern the methods and means whereby to preserve that Empire intire and inviolable the Foundations whereof have been by them laid so firm solid and lasting But before we proceed to the Antiquity and History of the Saxons it will be necessary to treat briefly of the Original and Antiquity of the Romans a People so renowned for their ancient Conquests and so well esteemed for their good Government in this Nation THE ANTIQUITY AND ORIGINAL OF THE ROMANS THEIR Religion government in State Affairs discipline in War with several of their Rules and Methods relating to their Polity Unto which is added Some Observations upon what relates more particularly to the Greek Idolatry omitted in a former Treatise PLUTARCH reckons up many supposed Founders of ROME Herodotus Marsylus and some others will have them descended from the Graecians and Coecilius a Roman Historiographer in Strabo proves that Rome was built by the Graecians because the Romans after the manner of the Greeks by ancient Institution and Custome did sacrifice to Hercules and that the Romans also worshipt the Mother of Evander Yet the most vulgar received Opinion is that Rome was the work of ROMULUS from the Foundation and that the Romans were a Body aggregate and compounded of Sabines and Latins and others are of Opinion which I have shewn in another place that they were a conflux of the worst of the Neighbouring People of that State For Romulus after the deposing and murthering his Uncle Amulius and re-instating his Grandfather Numitor in the Albane Throne having got together Shepheards and some Malefactours that had fled for of Justice from their natural Princes soon left Aiba to the quiet enjoyment of his Grandfather he himself not being willing to live under any other Laws than his own or else the nobleness of his Ambition dehorting him from injuring one whom lately he had so generously restored resolves to contrive the model and platform of his future Government yea lay himself the foundation of his own Greatness For being made KING by the general consent of his ragged Associates and that consent confirmed ratified and establisht by lucky signs and tokens from the Gods after several contrivances and designs pitches upon Mount Palatine where he himself and his Brother had been exposed by their Uncle Amulius as a fortunate place for their erecting a New City hoping that as the Gods from a poor miserable and abandoned Infant had made him a glorious King so by the same power they might in time of this little Village make a considerable Kingdom Moreover he looked upon this Mountain as the fittest place for defence if any Enemy should dare to oppose him and a place very inconvenient for the approaches and assaults of all Besiegers nevertheless secured it with a Ditch and Wall But lest the three adjoyning Mountains viz. Capitoline Coelian and Quirinal might rather serve as they lay then for Forts and Bulwarks from whence the Enemy might storm and molest his New City he fortified them with a Ditch and a Wall also and placing therein Garrisons they served instead of Castles for the security of the City But after he had subdued T. Tatius King of the Sabines he gave to him and his People the Tarpeian or Capitoline Mountain to inhabit bringing it also within the Walls and compass of the City L. Tarquinius Priscus mended and repaired the Walls with Stone which before were cast up with Mud and ordinary Rubbish but Servius Tullius was the first that encompast Rome with a Stone-wall adding to the City three other Hills also both Kings and People being as ambitious in augmenting their City as they were in propagating and increasing the largeness of their Dominion and Empire Lastly It was so enlarged and admirably beautified with the Spoyls and Ornaments of the Chiefest places of EUROPE that Rome which was first scarce a Mile in compass was afterwards esteemed as one of the Wonders of the Earth And without question 't was a pleasing spectacle which could make St. Augustine otherwise a Person of great gravity and self-denial to his other two pious wishes annexed this Of seeing ROME in its full Glory Of the distinction and division of the People WHEN Romulus had secured his City he began to think on convenient waies of Policy whereby he might the better attain to a certain method of Government that might be best suitable to the genius of his rude and disorderly Subjects who therefore ranged them into three National Tribes or Wards 1. The first Ward was of the SABINES called Tatienses 2. The second of the ALBANS viz. Ramnenses 3. The third was of the LUCERES named so from the Grove where the Asylum or Sanctuary stood whither the People of all conditions daily repaired for defence and protection and every Ward was divided into ten Parishes Then he distinguisht them according to their Degrees and Offices calling the Oldest best and ablest of his Citizens if they had Children Patricii and the Meane sort Plebeii enacting Laws containing the duty negotiation and obligation of both The Patricii were to superintend Religion bear City Offices administer Justice to the Common people The Commons were to look to their Cattle tyll the Ground exercise all Handicrafts Out of all those Seniours he chose an hundred whom he called Senators from their Age who for distinctions sake wore a half-Moon upon their Shooes after this manner ☽ the letter standing for one hundred With these he consulted in things more particularly concerning the Common-wealth but lest puft up with Pride these Patricii should contemn and trample upon the Commonalty and the Meaner sort envy the happiness of the Great ones which in time might prove the seeds of Sedition to prevent such Inconveniences he so effected the matter that each should be mutually obliged and absolutely depend one upon another making it lawful for any of the Commons to choose according to an old Custome of the Thessali and Athenians whom he pleased out of the Patricii for his Patron The Patron was bound by Office to appear and answer for his Client in all Law-suits to manage his business to the best advantage whether absent or present In a word to endeavour as much as he could his ease and quiet The Client was to pay all due respects to his Patron assist him with his Purse in raising Portions for his Daughters to redeem him and his Sons if taken
raise the Siege Sometimes the Inhabitants sallied out whilst others from the Woods and natural Fastnesses fell upon the Enemy in the Reer But Ella dividing his Army ordering one half to attend the motions of the Scouting Britains and with the other part plying the Siege at last won the Town by Assault and as some report put all to the Sword sparing neither Sex nor Age. The City it self he utterly demolished and with so through a Ruine that it never after could be rebuilt And at this day the ground whereon it stood beareth a little Village so small that it scarce sufficeth to point out the foundations of the Ancient City Ella by destroying this great Fortress had opened the whole Southern quarters of the Island whereby all that part of the Country lay at his devotion What he did in the following course of his Reign which is reckoned twenty two years or thereabouts is not particularly recorded but he is numbred the second Monarch of the English-men and is said at last to have reduced all on this side Humber both Saxon and Britain under his entire obedience But under his Successors who were but few and of no great fame the Kingdom was contracted into a lesser compass containing only Sussex and Surry and them not entire For the Kingdom of Kent on one side and the West-Saxons on the other both well settled Governments pressing hard upon it so daily wore it out that losing strength by degrees what remained of it was quickly swallowed up by Ceadwald the West-Saxon and afterwards by King Ine his Successour wholly annext to that Kingdom Insomuch that continuing so short a while not beyond the year 1601 having so few Princes and those in so great obscurity William of Malmsbury among other Writers have taken no notice of it at all CISSA CISSA the youngest Son of Ella the other two failing before him succeeded in the Kingdom of the South-Saxons he left nothing memorable behind him save a long Reign of 76 years as it is generally reported spent only in the foundation of two Cities bearing his Name Chichester and Cissbury of the former Mr. Cambden thus writeth Chichester in the British tongue called Caercei in the English-Saxon Cissan ceaster in Latin Cicestria a City large enough and walled about built by Cissa a Saxon the second King of this Province and of him so named for Cissan ceaster is nothing else but the City of Cissa Concerning the latter hear the same Author Hard by i. e. near Offington there is a Fort compassed about with a Bank rudely cast up wherewith the Inhabitants are perswaded that Caesar entrenched and fortified his Camp But Cissbury the name of the place doth plainly shew and testifie that it was the work of Cissa who being of the Saxons Line the second King of this petty Kingdom after his Father Aella accompanied with his Brother Cimen and no small power of the Saxons at this shore arrived and landed at Cimen shore a place so called of the said Cimen which now hath lost the name but that it was near unto Wittering the Charter of the Donation which King Cedwalla made unto the Church of Selsey most evidently proveth EDILWALCH EDILWALCH followed Cissa nothing more famous than he saving that by his example the South-Saxons though late embraced the Christian Religion The occasion of this Prince's Conversion is thus told in the History of St. Swithune Berinus Bishop of Dorchester preaching at Oxford before Wulfur King of Mercia it happened that Edilwatch then a Pagan was present who by the perswasion of Wulfur and the instruction of that Bishop embraced the Faith and was baptized being received at the Font by Wulfur who to gratifie his new Convert and new Adopted Son gave him the Isle of Wight and a Province of the Meannari adjoyning upon the Continent which Wulfur had newly gotten from Kenwalke the West-Saxon and had there as will appear out of Bede begun to plant Christianity At the same time following the example of their King the Dukes and Nobles of this Province received Baptisin at the hands of St. Berinus but the general Conversion of the South-Saxons was wrought by Wilsrid Archbishop of York driven from his Seat by Egfrid King of Northumberland The whole story of which as also the Conversion of the Isle of Wight take out of Bede as it is particularly related out of which relation our Historians gather by piece-meals whatever is recorded of this Prince The Conversion of the South-SAXONS How Wilfrid Archbishop of York Converted the South-Saxons WILFRID driven from his Bishoprick and wandring in several places at last went to Rome whence returning into Britain though he could not be received into his own Country and Diocess yet he refrained not the duty of preaching the Gospel but going to the Kingdom of the South-Saxons containing eight thousand Families yet sticking to their Pagan Idolatry he preached the Word and administred Baptisin Ethilwalch was King of that Nation not long before baptized in the Province of Mercia Wulfur being present and exhorting him by whom he was received at the Font and in sign of Adoption had of him by donation the Isle of Wight and the Province of the Meannari in the Country of the West Saxons Wherefore the Bishop by the consent of the King who joyfully embraced the motion baptized the chief Dukes and Officers of the Province but Eappa and Padda and Bruchelin and Oidda Priests baptized the Common sort about the same time or a little after Moreover Queen Ebba received Baptism in her own Island of Wight she was the Daughter of Eanfrid the Brother of Eanher who both with their people were Christians but the whole Province of the South-Saxons was for the most part ignorant of the Word of God and Faith But there was amongst them a certain Monk by Nation a Scot by name Dicul who had a little Convent in a place called Bosanham encompassed with Wood and the Sea and with him five or six Friars in an humble and poor life serving God but of the People none cared to imitate their Life or hear their Doctrine But Wilfrid the Bishop preaching to them not only delivered them from the pains of eternal damnation but from the sad calamity of temporal destruction For before his arrival into the Province for three years together no Rain had fallen in those parts so that a bitter Famine falling on the Common sort made lamentable destruction among them It is reported that fourty or fifty together wasted with hunger would creeping to the Sea-side and there clasping their hands together fling themselves off from the Rocks or Cliffs either to perish in the fall or drown in the waters But on the very same day that Nation received Baptism gentle and plentiful showers fell from heaven the Earth flourished and to the green Fields succeeded a glad and fruitful year So that casting off their ancient Superstition and hating their Idolatry