the minds of the Britains who yet continued in their Rebellion Polycletus with a mighty Host past through Italy and Gallia a heavy burthen to both Nations and at his arrival at Britain was received with different apprehensions for the Roman Army was awed with his presence but to the Britains he was matter of laughter and scorn for they had not so far lost the sence of Liberty that they were ignorant of the power of a Freed Man and wondered that so great a Captain and Army that had ended such a considerable a War should be at the beck and disposal of a Slave For the present all things were represented to the Emperour in favour of Suetonius who went on still in prosecuting his Affairs but having lost upon the shoar some Gallies with the Slaves that rowed them as if the War continued still he was commanded to deliver up the Army to Petronius Turpilianus who was newly out of his Consulship This Lieutenant was more exorable than Suetonius being a stranger to the faults of the Britains and easier of pardon as never provoked by the Britains or particularly incensed by a Revolt He gave himself wholly to the quieting the Province not attempting any new Conquests imposing the specious name of PEACE from which proceeded Sloth and Idleness TREBELLIUS MAXIMUS succeeded him not inferiour in the laziness of his Temper a Man utterly unexperienced in Martial Affairs and who was fit only to be employed by such a Masters as Nero. Nevertheless he continued the Government to the daies of Vitellius and held the Province in Obedience by a kind of Complaisant behaviour By his remiss Carriage he suffered his Army to grow idle and loose by which means he enslaved Britain more by the Roman Vices than all his Predecessors had done by their Arms but I shall leave some of his character to the daies of Otho and proceed to that of Nero. THE LIFE OF NERO. IN the daies of this Governour died NERO a Prince whose Vertues and Vices might equally be esteemed great had not the former seemed to proceed from Constraint the latter from the Inclination of his Nature for five years he continued an excellent Prince but the remainder of his daies was spent in all Riot and Debaucheries and they who give a particular Catalogue of his Vices seem rather to reckon up the depravities of Human Nature than the Actions of one Man There is little in his Life that relates to Britain but what doth is full of Cruelty and Extortion He slew Aulus Plantus the first Lieutenant under his Father Claudius by whose Valour Britain was subdued to the Romans and ordered his Execution to be performed so suddenly that he had not time to take leave of his Children or to give them his last Blessing and Farewel There was but one hour between his Sentence and his Death when immediately hurried out of the Esquiline Gate into a place set apart for such bloody offices he was slain by the hand of Tacius the Tribune and died so full of Constancy that he upbraided not the Executioner with the ignominy of his Guilt or the Emperour with the remembrance of his Services The Cause of his Death was never known but the after-Actions of this Emperour made it appear that nothing but the exceeding Merit of Plautius was the cause of his destruction and his Victories in Britain His death at Rome Thus died the first Lieutenant of Britain With the same Cruelty Nero proceeded against Marcus Ostorius the Son of Publicus the second Lieutenant The Father had the happiness to end his Victories and his daies at once but his Son who under his Father had performed great things in Britain and had obtained a civical Coronet in the Fight against the Iceni going to Rome was suspected by Nero who by his Tyranny was now grown fearful and exceeding suspicious of all Vertuous men having of late discovered a dangerous Conspiracy He therefore suborns one Antistius Socianus to accuse Ostorius That he consulted with Parmanes an Astrologer and enquired after the life of the Emperour and that he was ill affected to the present Government For these feigned Crimes though absent at his Country-house he is convicted and condemned and a Centurion sent to dispatch him The Centurion found him walking in his Grounds where having shut up all passages of escape he delivered unto him his Message Ostorius moved with Indignation that his Services should receive so ill a reward and disdaining to die by the hands of so mean an Executioner fell upon his own Sword These Cruelties of Nero although inferiour to his many Parricides I have more particularly taken notice of in that they relate to Persons eminently concerned in the enslaving of this Island whose fate though undeservedly given by him who was obliged for such Services yet may seem to be justly called for by the blood and sufferings of Innocent Britains The great destruction of the Romans and their Colonies in Britain under the Conduct of Boadicia is ascribed by Suetonius as the certain consequence of the ill Government of this Prince and his Vices But Nero made better use of it he had been often foretold That the time would come when he should be deserted and forsaken and forced to take up with the Government of the East or the Kingdom of Jerusalem Yet with these hopes That he should be afterwards restored to the Empire when Britain was well near lost together with Armenia he saw himself in a very fair way towards the fulfilling of the Prophesie But these Provinces being again recovered he thought the danger was past and so comforted himself up with the thoughts That the desertion spoken of Wars the foresaid Revolts and that his restoring to the Empire was the regaining of those Countries Confirmed in this opinion was he by one who bade him have a care of the Seventy third year which he falsly interpreted to the daies of his own life and not to Galba who deposed him Pufft up theresore with assurances of Long life and Dominion that little Religion he had he utterly cast off and the Syrian Goddess to whom he had been especially devoted many of whose Altars are found in Britain and who was a peculiar Deity of this Island and Gallia as hath been formerly shewn he so much slighted that in contempt of her he made her a Pissing-Block and took to a little Baby whom he gave out discovered all Conspiracies against him But at last he was deposed by Galba and after he had reigned about thirteen years and a half he slew himself in the prime of his Age and with him ended the Line of the Caesars This NERO sent the twentieth Legion which although called back and again sent by Vitellius after the Civil Wars between him and Otho yet was it recalled again by Vespatian against Vitellius and after the settlement of the Empire under Vespatian in all probability sent into this Island again for Josephus writes that in
but let all die To th' unborn Child that in the Womb doth lie But Antoninus had his thoughts more taken up with contriving his Fathers death than the destruction of his Enemies having once or twice attempted to kill him with his own hands and to gain the affection of the Souldiers he indulged them in all sorts of liberty and loosness so that Severus perceiving the unreclaimable nature of his Son more overcome with Grief than any other malady died at York His last words were these A troubled Common-wealth I found as my entrance every where but now I leave it in peace and quietness even among the Britains An Old man and infirm in my Feet I leave to mine Antonines an Empire if they prove good strong and stable but if bad weak and unsteady When Severus and his Son Bassianus were at York that famous Law was made Touching the Interest and right that Masters have to the Goods and Possessions of their Servants Signed by Severus and Antoninus His Body was conveyed to Rome in great pomp and attendance of the Governours of Provinces through which it passed although others report it was burnt here in Britain and the Ashes only carried in a Golden Urne and laid up in the Sepulchre of the Antonines He Reigned seventeen years eight months and odd daies and was made a God by the Romans By reason to some The way of Deifying their Emperours may be unknown I have thought it convenient to give a summary account of it here but first by way of Instruction The Romans were in general a sort of rude and ignorant People made up of the conflux of the worst of the Neighbour People of that State who either out of Guilt having committed some notorious Crimes in their own Cities that deserved death by their Laws or Discontent for want of preferment or promotion among their own People fled out of Revenge to that Asylum or place of Resuge which Romulus had set up for the same purpose to draw People to his new-built City so that they had no Gods in common but every one had his peculiar Deity if such People had any as he received and learnt in his own Country insomuch that the Worship of the City was various and uncertain which with those Gods AEnaeas brought from Troy made up a promiscuous sort of Idolatry but of these Romans we shall speak more fully in the Chapter relating to their Antiquities Thus it continued all Romulus his Reign the People being rather given to War than any Civil exercise of Religion all of them enquiring into the success of their Battles by various and different Auguries which every man had properly to himself Numa succeeding Romulus and being a superstitious Prince much addicted to the Ceremonies of Religion perceived it necessary for the supporting of his Kingdom to introduce some sort of Uniformity in Religion Now this he could not do without pretending to some extraordinary Divine Revelations every man judging that Religion and God to be the best in which he was born and to which he was naturally most devoted to accomplish his private ends and desire Numa feigns himself to have an intimate Communication and interest with the Goddess EGERIA and by the wonderful sanctity of his life fully perswades and possesses the People with the truth of his divine Intercourse with her insomuch that he establisht a set Form of Worship which he had learnt from the Etruscans a People infinitely given to Rites and Ceremonies which took their name from Care a City of Etruria After these proceedings he accomplishes the certain number and order of the Gods built Temples offered and instituted particular sacrifices to them taught them the Lines of Heaven and Earth how to exercise their Augury and having establisht all things in a firm and steady method dies who by the prosperity and felicity of his Reign fixes the People in an absolute belief of the Truth of those things he had before through his great pains and industry taught them Upon the division of these Romans they had a respect to the distinct and different dignities of Gods by Title and Place the better to advance the perpetual remembrance of their own promotions and so claimed a right to particular Gods that others might not own From this they successfully preserved the memory thereof by Images like the Parents and Sons as the most Honourable memorial of their descent from such Mighty and Noble Progenitors For those that were the first Authors of Images to themselves without being promoted to it by Merit were esteemed Upstarts and all such as had no Images were accounted Ignobly born Thus we see how by this strait of difficulty they despaired and some quite pin'd away for want of Honour amongst whom it often happens whose pride and ambition will not admit of content to be born from the loyns of Men but of Gods None therefore could obtain the priviledge of being Dignified after this manner but such as were promoted by the Senate to ride publickly in the Curule Chair which was the primary Dignity appertaining to such lofty Promotions By this 't is evident that the Right of Nobility went by favour of the Senate as well as Merit from whence we may gather how early and from what Root the honour of Antiquity took its first Rice and Original which must be occasioned out of the sence of Gratitude for some worthy Exploit done to the credit of the State or particular respect to such Persons and the benefit of Successours whose zeal to Religion and the eminency of whose Spirit had so fortunately raised them above the ordinary level of Mankind For this very cause Janus Saturn and others who by their several Projects Inventions and Labours had contributed to the improving and augmenting the Comforts of this Life in their perpetual Remembrance after they departed hence were translated under the sublime notion and title of GODS having no other way in those daies of gratifying the Deserts of the deceased or supporting of the honour of their otherwise fading Memories than by Heaven and Immortality But many in successive Ages although they had not so good a Title took upon them the same pretences for as their Merits were less so their Pride and Ambition was greater Flattery making doubtless amends in a considerable manner for the former This made Alexander the Great who was rather destructive and injurious than beneficial to Mankind taking the measure of his Worth from the vain applause of his Followers and the esteem of his own Actions from their greatness not goodness write to the Cities of Greece that they would admit him into the Society of their Gods What entertainment his Follies found may be seen from the scoff of Anaxarchus Eudamonicus who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deride Alexander for Deifying himself and from the Reply of the Lacedaemonians replied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Alexander will be a God let him be a God
his Reasons measured the truth of all Religions by Worldly success for he was angry that his Gods had not advanced him to the King's favour above others was the first that gave his consent offering himself to the King as the fittest Instrument to destroy those Idols whose worship he himself had so much promoted After this Paulinus had free liberty openly to preach the Gospel and the King with his Sons born to him of his first wife Quenburga with a great part of his Nobility and People renounced their Idolatry and were baptized The King with his Family in St. Peter's Church at York which he had hastily erected of Timber and the People for their number near the Rivers of Glevie in the Province of Bernicia and Swale in the Province of Deira After the Conversion of Northumberland Paulinus dispersed the seeds of Faith amongst them of Lindsey a Province in Lincolnshire First he converted Blecca Governour of the City of Lincoln and his Family where he built a Church curiously wrought of stone which was very much decayed in Bede's time Neither was Edwin any less careful to set forward the Conversion of the English by assisting Paulinus and by his perswading Eorpwald the Son of Redwald to embrace the Faith who soon after was slain by one Richert his own Countryman Pope Honorius after he had heard of the Conversion of the Northumbers sent to Paulinus a Confirmation of his being Archbishop of York withal exhortatory Letters to Edwin to perswade him to continue firmly in the Faith he professed the stile and substance of which Epistle as much as relates to him was this Bishop Honorius servant of the Servants of God To Edwin King of the English Greeting THe integrity of your Christianity is so warmed through the zeal of Faith towards the worship of the Omnipotent Creatour that it casts a lustre every where and is talkt of over all the World so that we with you may abundantly enjoy the reward of your labour for then you may account your selves Kings when having been informed of your King and Creatour by a true and Orthodox preaching you believe in God by worshipping him sincerely and paying to him as much as the weakness of your condition will permit the unseigned devotion of your minds For what else are we to offer up to our God but that per severing in good actions and confessing him to be the Authour of Mankind we make haste to worship him and to pay our vows unto him And therefore Most excellent Son we exhort you as is meet with a Fatherly love that since the Divine pity has vouch safed to call you to his Grace you would endeavour with a careful mind and by continual praying to preserve it that he who in this present World has brought you free from all Errour to the knowledge of his Name would prepare for you the Mansions of the heavenly Country After King Edwin had Reigned seventeen years Cadwallo King of the Britains rose up against him who being assisted by Penda the Merolan who envied Edwin's Greatness after a terrible battel at Heithfield slew this great King and his Son Osfrid This Edwin was renowned for his justice and moderation and the great care he took to help and ease his poor Subjects For in his time any one might travel safely all over his Dominions even from Sea to Sea and for the benefit of the wayfaring Man he commanded Iron-dishes should be fastned to every Fountain for conveniency of Travellers to drink Neither was he unmindful of his own Grandure having a Royal Banner alwaies carried before him He was buried in St. Peter's Church at Streanshal afterwards called Whitby His Queen Ethelburga with her Children and Paulinus fled into Kent to her Brother Eadbald who kindly received his Sister and her Children and made Paulinus Bishop of Rochester in which See he ended his daies and to which at his death he bequeathed the Pall which he had received for York Ethelburga afterwards spent her daies in a Monastery of Nuns built by her self near the Sea-side at a place called Lymming The Issue of King Edwin by Quinburga his first wife Daughter of Creda King of Mercia but Bede faith of Ceorl is this Osfrid the eldest Son of King Edwin was slain with his Father he and his Son Iffy had been both baptized by Paulinus Iffy after the death of his Father for fear of Oswald was conveyed into France where he died in his Childhood Edfrid second Son of Edwin for fear of Oswald fled to Penda King of Mercia and was barbarously murthered by him He left Issue Hererik of whom and his wife Bertswith descended Hilda the famous Abbess of Streanshalch and Hereswith wife of Ethelhere King of the East Angles And the Issue of the said Edwin by Ethelburg his second wife Daughter of Ethelbert King of Kent is Ethelme who died young and not long after he had received Baptism and was buried in St. Peter's Church in York Uskfrea was conveyed into Kent and afterwards into France with Iffy his half Brother with whom also he died and was buried Eanfled the elder Daughter was married to Oswy King of Northumberland Ethelred the younger died an Infant after he had received baptism and was buried with her brother Ethelm OSRIC EANFRITH AFter the death of Edwin the Kingdom of Northumberland became divided as in former times each rightful Heir seizing his part OSRIC the Son of Alfrid Edwin's Uncle by profession a Christian and baptized by Paulinus Reigned in Deira and EANFRITH the Son of Edilfrid the Wild in Bernicia He had been conveyed into Scotland with his two Brothers Oswald and Oswin and there with others of the Nobility had been baptized and instructed in the Christian Faith But now these two Kings having each of them a Crown turned Apostates from the Church and fell again to their old Religion and Idolatry But divine Vengeance soon followed at their heels for in less than the compass of a year they were both destroyed one by the force the other by the fraud and treachery of Cadwallo the manner whereof is thus related in Bede as likewise the succeeding Calamities in Northumberland caused by the tyranny and oppression of the Conquerour Cadwallader the British King the Summer following slew them both and though by force and violence sufficiently wicked yet the vengeance was by them deserved OSRIC was surprized with his whole Army and in a City of his own besieged and there finally with all his Forces destroyed After which the Conquerour entring Northumberland brought all under his power using his victory not with the moderation of a King but the pride and insolence of a merciless Tyrant laying wide desolation wherever he came EANFRITH the other King coming to him to beg his peace was barbarously put to death This year saith he is counted to this day hateful and unfortunate both for the Apostasie of these English Kings as the fury and tyranny of the British wherefore
Grievances after this manner That Patience availed them nothing but that by their sufferance they got the opinion of easie fools and their burthens accordingly were daily increased Formerly they had but one King or Peer to Lord it over them now there were two thrust upon them The Lieutenant to suck their blood and the Procurator or Collector to drain their Estates That the variance of these Rulers or their agreement was equally pernicious to them the one tormenting them with his Armies the other with Wrongs and Extortions all things were liable without exception either to their Avarice or Lust and he was esteemed the bravest Souldier who could rob and plunder most Nay they were come to that tame submission as to suffer their Houses to be broken open and ransackt by the most cowardly and pitiful Rascals and their Children to be taken from them and listed by their Adversaries as if they were fitted to die any death but what should be for their own Country What a small number would remain in the Roman Army should they have left out the Britains from their Masters the Germans had shaken off the yoak although defended by a River only not the Ocean and why might not they do the like considering their Cause was far the Nobler the delivery of their Country their Wives and Parents and on the other side nothing could be pretended but Lust and Ambition Had they but imitated the Valour of their Ancestors they might have chased these Intruders from the Island as their Fore-fathers had done Caesar and could they but have endured the brunt of one or two Battles no doubt but the Courage of the miserable and despairing would be found greater than the Confidence of the proud That the Gods themselves now shewed their pitty to the Britains and held the Roman captain and his Armies safe employed in another Island and gave them one opportunity more which was the greatest favour to consult and deliberate of their Condition together which occasion if they did not make use of it would be found more dangerous to have discoursed the calamities of their Affairs than to strive to relieve them With these and the like Speeches they encouraged each other and first the Iceni took Arms to reveng the wrongs done to their Queen and the dishonour of his Daughters next the Trinobantes declared and after them all who had any sence of Liberty and were not born to be Slaves And it seemed no hard matter to the Britains to raze and destroy the whole Colony of Malden being fortified neither with Trench nor Rampier and by the careless security of the Roman Officers made for pleasure rather than defence This general and dangerous Insurrection was headed by the insensed Boadicia and the fatal consequences of it were ushered in with no less wonderful signs and portents Among the rest the Statue of Victory at Malden fell down of its own accord with its back turned as if it would pass to the Enemy and Women in a holy rage and extasie Prophetically sung That destruction was a coming and dismal noises were heard in the Councel-House and howlings and screechings in the Theater strange Spectres walked in the neighbouring Frith the Oceans lookt of a Bloody-hew and at low Tide the shapes of dead Bodies lay imprinted on the Sands all which Prodigies raised hopeful expectations in the Britains but in the Veterane Souldiers terrour and despair For by this time Boadicia leading after her infinite multitudes had destroyed some scattered Garrisons of the Romans and was now prepared to attack them at their chief Quarters at Malden The Colony understanding of her approach sent to Catus Decianus to send them speedy supply for Suetonius had but lately heard of their Revolt and could not come up time enough for their relief but he spared them but two hundred men and those ill Armed for the Hatred the Province bore him for his Exactions made him look to his own security Neither were there wanting in the Roman Garrison them who secretly and under-hand favoured the Revolters These advised the Souldiers that they were too few to maintain any Out-works and that fortifying and entrenching the Town would but divide and scatter the Forces that in all probability the Enemy durst not attack them or if they did that the present Bulwarks were sufficient and in case they failed the Temple was a place of great strength and teneable by a few Thus by intermixing with all their Councels they betrayed them into security and so lull'd them asleep that as if it had been high Peace they thought not of any thing necessary for a Siege no not so much as to send away those that bore not Arms who would but be so many Mouths to devour their Provisions In this disorder they were beleagured round with the British Army the Out-works held not out the first Storm but left the City naked and open to be sackt and burnt by the inraged Enemy The Souldiers crowded themselves into the Temple and there stood hudled together under the defence of the Walls but in two daies were taken the sumptuous building made a heap of Rubbish and all destroyed The Britains managing this Victory in the most cruel-manner put the Romans to all the exquisite torments that Anger Revenge or Malice could invent In the current of their success and while the heat lasted they met with Petilius Crealis the Lieutenant of the ninth Legion marching to the succour of the Garrison who set upon him routed his Legion kill'd all the Foot and forced him with the residue of his Horse to take sanctuary in his Trenches And now Catus Decianus finding himself the cause of all this and sensible of the Hatred of the Provinces and the guilt of his Extortion like a tall man betook himself to his Heels and so fled over into Gallia But Suetonius with a wonderful constancy and resolution marches clearly through the Enemies quarters to London a Town though not in name yet in effect a Colony full of Roman Inhabitants and Traders and of great renown for its plenty of all necessary Provisions Having fitted himself here for a while he considered whether he should make this the seat of his War but finding the numbers of his Souldiers not much increased and taking example by the Rashness of Petilius which was sufficiently punished he resolved to March out and by the loss of one Town hoped to save the rest Neither could he be diverted from his Resolution either by the cries or tears of the Inhabitants but taking all with him who were willing to make part of his Army he left the rest whose Age Sex or love to the place would not suffer to follow who were all afterwards miserably slain by the Enemy and their City sackt and destroyed The same slaughter attended the Inhabitants of Verulam for the Britains slighting the Forts and Garrisons of Souldiers flew only at prey and booty and attackt those places which were weakest defended thus
seven foot deep they found an huge broad Stone with a Leaden-Cross fastened to it and on that side that lay downward in rude Letters was written this Inscription HIC JACET SEPULTUS INCLYTUS REX ARTURIUS IN INSULA AVALONIA And digging nine foot deeper his Body was found in the Trunk of a Tree the Bones of a great bigness and in his Skull were perceived ten wounds the last very great and plainly seen By him also lay GUINEVER his Queen seeming perfect and whole till it was toucht then appearing to be nothing but Dust but the Restorer of Stonehenge with more probability hath found her Tomb at Ambresbury Among other Sepulchres saies he found at the said Monastery it is worthy Memory that about the beginning of this Century one of them hewn out of a firm Stone and placed in the middle of a Wall was opened having upon its coverture rude Letters of massie Gold to this purpose R. G. A. C. 600. Thus Interpreted Regina Guinevera Arturi Conjux The Bones within which Scpulchre were all firm fair yellow coloured Hair about the Skull a supposed piece of the Liver near upon the bigness of a Wall-nut very dry and hard and together therewith were found several Royal habiliments as Jewels Veils Scarfs c. retaining even till then their proper Colours All which were afterwards very choicely kept in the Collection of the Right Honourable EDWARD then Earl of Hertford and of the aforesaid Gold divers Rings were made and worn by his Lordships principal Officers Concerning which Tomb is supposed by the same Author to be the Sepulchre of Queen GUINEVER Wife of King ARTHUR especially the letters R. G. c. viz. Regina Guinevera c. and the date Anno Christi 600 if rightly Copied agreeing with the time of her death Besides Leyland affirms that several Writers make mention she took upon her a Nuns Veil at Ambresbury died and was there buried unto which he gives so much credit that whatever Giraldus Cambrensis delivers to the contrary he will by no means allow either her Body to be afterwards translated from Ambresbury or at any time buried by her Husband King ARTHUR at Glastonbury Unto Leyland's Reasons for her Interrment at Ambresbury Mr. Cambden it seems inclines also because wholly silent of her Sepulchre discovered any where else though at large sets down the Circumstances of her Husbands Body it being found at Glastonbury for had Mr. Cambden found any thing inducing him to believe her Body had been together with his there found he would never certainly have concealed it from Posterity Constantine the IV. THis CONSTANTINE according to some Writers after the death of Prince Arthur Reigned as a Tyrant over Cornwal and Devonshire at the same time with Aurelius Conanus Vortipor and Malgo but according to others by the appointment of Arthur a little before his death he succeeded him alone in the Kingdom the Britains unanimously ratifiing the choice as expecting mighty things from the Person their admired Champion had pitched upon for their Governour But as many private Persons who were before good Subjects have proved but bad Kings after they came to the Crown So it fared with this Constantine who being more conceited of his Power than knowing in the waies of Governing grew on a sudden so intollerably proud that he slighted his Enemies contemned his Friends and measured Justice by the length and strength of his own Sword Possibly he had found the inconvenience of it sooner had not the Pictish War broke out which diverted the minds of his incensed Britains another way For the Picts hearing that after the death of Arthur Constantine was made King appeared with an Army in favour of the Sons of Mordred Arthur's Nephews to settle them in their Right But these he happily routed chasing his two Rivals with their Governours taking Sanctuary the one in Winchester the other in London to the very Altar but the sacred Reverence of the place stopt not his fury for he slew them there with their two Governours without any consideration of the tenderness of their years or holiness of the place Gildas sharply inveighs against this Prince for his Adultery forsaking his lawful Wife and for his Perjury c. lastly for murthering these two Children Yet these being the Sons of the false Mordred who had created his predecessour Arthur so much trouble all his life time by his frequent Rebellions and at last gave him his deaths wound seems a little to take away from the Cruelty of the Action After he had Reigned about four years he was slain by his Kinsman Aurelius Conanus and Interr'd at Stone-henge by his Ancestour Uter Pendragon After the death of Constantine there appeared three Pretenders to the Crown at once AURELIUS CONANUS Lord of North-Wales VORTIPOR Lord of South-Wales and MALGO CONANUS as Gildas stiles him Dragon of the Isles Every one of these usurping the Title of KING of BRITAIN though too weak to defend themselves and it from the swelling Greatness of the Victorious Saxons Most Historians make them to have reigned successively but they seem to me to have been petty Kings at one and the same time for by the reprehensions of Gildas 't is plain that those Princes lived all at one and the same time unto whom he spake personally which could not be had such successions of years past as is laid down by those Historians Besides 't is said that Aurelius Conanus was a Prince of a Noble heart free and liberal but given much to the maintenance of strife and discord among his People which in my mind will best be understood of his difference with his two Competitours Vortipor and Malgo and their Subjects which indeed were his also as taking upon him the stile of KING of BRITAIN especially if we consider he had watchful Neighbours about him who were willing to take the greatest advantage over him they could Gildas in his Invectives terms Vortipor the unworthy Son of a good King as Manasses was to Ezechias Now this good King cannot be Aurelius Conanus who is reprehended for his Vicious life by him as much as any and consequently Vortipor was none of his Son so that how he came to succeed him in the Kingdom as their Historians pretend can scarce be made out What great Actions these three Kings did during their Reign or what good qualities they were indued with is not hitherto known there 's but a very slender account of them in the Rolls of Fame which may make us suspect they were guilty of very few and those scarce worth the committing to posterity In Gildas and other Histories we may find a large Catalogue of their bad ones CARETICUS BY this time the SAXONS had fixt themselves secure enough in Britain none of the British KINGS being able utterly to dispossess them through the continual Supplies they received out of Germany of their new Acquisitions yet this Prince something revived the decaying Spirit of the Britains by
For in Spiritual things that they may be wisely and maturely managed we may draw an example from carnal things When Marriages are to be celebrated in the World married people are invited that they which are gone in the path of Matrimony before may be partakers in the joys of the subsequent wedding Why therefore in this Spiritual Ordination by which man through the holy Mystery is joyned unto God ought not such to meet who may either rejoyce at the advancement of the Bishop that is to be Ordained or pour out their prayers equally to Almighty God for his protection The ninth Interrogation of Augustine How ought we to behave our selves towards the Bishops of Gaul and Britain Gregory's Answer We allow you no Authority over the Bishops of Gaul because in the ancient times of my Predecessors the Bishop of Arles received the Pall of which Authority we ought in no wise to deprive him If therefore it should so fall out that your Brotherhood should make a journey into the Provinces of Gaul you ought to treat with the same Bishop of Arles how if there be any misdemeanors among the Bishops they may be corrected who if he be cold in inflicting Discipline he is to be stirred up with the zeal of your Brotherhood to whom also we have wrote Letters that when your Holiness should come into Gaul he would assist you with all his heart and quell those things that are contrary to the Commandment of our Creatour in the life and manners of Bishops But you cannot judge any of the Bishops of Gaul by your own Authority but by perswasions and fair speednes and by proposing good works to their imitation you may reduce the minds of the wicked to the study of Holiness for it 's written in the Law When thou commest into the standing Corn of thy neighbour thou shalt not put a sickle unto it but thou maist pluck the Ears with thy hand and eat Deut. 23. 25. For you cannot put the sickle of Authority into that Corn which seems committed to the charge of another but by the effects of good works you may take from the Corn of the Lord the chaff of its Vices and you may by admonishing and perswading as it were by eating convert to the body of the Church But whatsoever is to be done by Authority you must consult about it the aforesaid Bishop of Arles left that be omitted which the Ancient wisdom of our Fathers invented But all the Bishops of Britain we commit to your Brotherhood that the ignorant may be taught the weak by perswasions strengthned and the perverse corrected by Authority The tenth Interrogation of Augustine If a Woman with child may be Baptized or after she hath brought forth after how long time may she enter into the Church or lest what she has brought forth be prevented by death after how many daies may it lawfully receive the Sacrament of holy Baptism or after how long time may her Husband be joyned with her in Carnal copulation or whether if she be troubled with her terms it be lawful for her to come to Church or to receive the Sacrament of the holy Communion or whether a man that has lain with his wife may enter into the Church before he is washed with water or whether he may come to the ministery of the holy Communion In all which things the rude Nation of the English ought to be satisfied Gregory's Answer I doubt not but your Brotherhood by this time is satisfied in what I have just now given Answer but I suppose you urge whatever you can say or think that you may be confirmed by my Answer Why should not a Woman with child be baptized since the fruitfulness of the flesh is no offence to Almighty God For when our First Parents had sinned in Paradise they forfeited the Immortality they had received by the just judgment of God because therefore Almighty God would not utterly extinguish in them all Mankind for their fault he deprived man of Immortality for their offence and yet out of the goodness of his grace he left him the fruitfulness of his Issue What therefore is reserved for Human Nature by the gift of Almighty God by what reason can it be prohibited the favour of holy Baptism For in that mystery in which all our sins are utterly swallowed up 't is very foolish to think that the gift of Grace should any waies seem to contradict it When a Woman shall have brought forth after how many daies may she enter the Church is manifest from a Precept of the Old Testament which runs thus If a Woman have conceived seed and born a child she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty daies she shall touch no hallowed thing nor come into the Sanctuary until the daies of her purifying be fulfilled but if she bear a Maid-child she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three score and six daies which ought to be understood and taken mystically For if in the same hour she brought forth she should enter into the Church to give Thanks she cannot be charged with any offence for the pleasure of the flesh not the pain is in fault For in the joyning of the flesh is pleasure but in the delivery of Children pain whence that was said to the first Mother of us all that had transgressed the Commandment of God I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children if therefore we forbid a Woman that has brought forth to enter into the Church we esteem her punishment her fault It is by no means forbidden to baptize a Woman newly delivered or the Infant newly born if there be danger of death no not in the very instant of the delivery or the first birth of the Child because as the grace of the holy Mystery is to be provided for the living with great discretion so it ought to be offered without any delay to those that are at the point of death lest that whilst we take too much time for the offering the mystery of Redemption through a little delay we are not able to find him that should be redeemed The husband ought not to go in to his wife until such time as the child which is brought forth is weaned And it is a bad custome that has prevailed in the manners of married people that women neglect to nurse their own children and deliver them to other women to be nursed which thing seems to have been invented merely on the score of incontinence because whilst they will not contain themselves they despise to suckle those they bring forth These therefore that out of a wicked custom deliver their children to others to be nursed ought not to lie with their husbands before the time of their purgation be over Moreover when Women that have not brought forth suffer their Monthly Terms they ought to be prohibited the use of their husbands so that the holy
Deo Inspirante pro animae suae remedio dedit Episcopo Melito terram quae appellatur Tillingham ad Monasterium sive solatium scilicet Sancti Pauli Et ego Rex AETHELBERT ita firmiter concedo tibi Praesuli Melito potestatem ejus habendi possidendi ut in perpetuum in Monasterii utilitate permaneat c. Afterwards these two Princes founded the Church of St. Peters on the west of London at a place called Thorney where there stood a Ruinous structure built as the report goes by King Lucius upon the foundations of a Temple of Diana Here Sebert after thirteen years Reign was interred as likewise his Wife Anthelgoda more to be commended if he had laid the foundation of Christian Religion in the hearts of his Children as he had done in sticks and stones but dying his three Sons SERED SEWARD and SIGIBERT jumpt all at once into the Throne three heady and ungracious Princes for their Father was no sooner laid in the earth but they cast off publickly the Christian Religion and did open spight to its Professors Take the Relation from Bede Sebert departing this life to a better left his Kingdom to his three Sons who immediately returned to the open profession of Idolatry which during their Father's life they had partly dissembled and by publick allowance encouraged their Subjects in the worship of Idols when they saw the Bishop celebrating of Mass in the Church and delivering the Host to the people they haughtily demanded as report goes and with as much folly as impiety Why reach you not out the glittering Bread to us as well as you used to do to our Father Suaba for so in derision they called him and still continue to give unto the people To whom the Bishop made this Answer If you will be washed in the same fountain of life as your Father was you may also be partaker of the same Holy Bread But they persisting in their demands and the Bishop resolutely refusing they in great passion and fury banisht him their Kingdom who there-upon returned into Kent which at that time under Eadbald was in the same plight and afterwards passed into France with Justus then Bishop of Rochester But divine Vengeance suffered not long their impiety to go unpunished For going out to War against the West Saxons they were all cut off by the sword But nevertheless though the Authors of this Apostacy were taken away yet the people could not for some time be brought to embrace the Christian Religion Seward left Issue Sigibert SIGIBERT the First SIGIBERT Sirnamed the Little the Son of Seward the second Son of Sebert succeeded his Father in the Kingdom he hath left nothing behind him of his Reign so that he might be stiled the Little as well for his Actions as his Person He left a Son named Sighere and a Brother called Sebba but neither of them immediately succeeded him SIGIBERT the Second SIGIBERT the second of that name the Son of Segebald the Brother of Sebert reigned next in the Kingdom of the East-Saxons At his first coming to the Crown he was a Pagan with all his People but was at length converted by the ardent perswasions of OSWY King of Northumberland with whom he had contracted a near intimacy resorting often to the Court of that Prince to visit him Oswy who wisely knew how to improve the kindness of his Friend for the advantage of his Soul at last by friendly endearments at his own Palace upon the Wall brought him to Baptism which he received at the hands of Finnan a Bishop Being to return into his own Country he desired that some Preacher might be sent with him to instruct his People in the Religion which he himself had received Oswy to satisfie his just Requests chooseth one Gedda a laborious Pastor then residing in the Country of the Mercians to go along with him who coming into the Country of the East-Saxons by the help of others joyned with him in the Ministry so wrought upon the People committed to his charge that the Gospel of Christ daily increased more and more throughout the whole Province Gedda as a reward of his labours and to gain more Authority to his preaching was afterwards by Finnan at Lindesfern created Bishop of the East-Saxons which office he executed with great commendation for the space of many years ordaining Priests and Deacons for his assistance and Baptizing in all parts but especially at Ithancester and Tilbury Whilst these things were doing Sigibert who still continued stedfast in Religion was almost barbarously slain by the conspiracy of two of his Kinsmen who were attending of his person Being demanded after the Murther what it was that moved them to an act so foul and treasonable it is reported they returned this savage Answer That they had killed him for his easiness of Temper in forgiving Injuries and pardoning his enemies whenever they askt it Some have attributed his death to the judgment of God upon him for his disregarding the Censures of the Church and they give us this Relation One of these Earls that flew him had unlawfully married a Wife and being admonisht thereof refused notwithstanding to put her away for which sin being excommunicated but still continuing obstinate it was strictly forbidden under pain of the same Censure for any one to come under his Roof much less to eat or drink with him Notwithstanding this Sentence the King invited to a Banquet goes to his House but in his return meeting the Bishop he was struck with remorse and lighting from his Horse fell at his feet begging pardon for his offence It is said that the Bishop also alighting came up to the King and touching his head with his rod spake these words in the Authority of a Bishop Because thou wouldst not refrain from entring the House of the accursed in the same House shalt thou die And so indeed it came to pass This Gedda going afterwards to visit his Native Country of Northumberland upon the motion of King Ediswald there Reigning founded the Monastery of Lustinghem which he consecrated with Fasting and Prayer Sigibert is said to have Reigned fourteen years he left behind him a Son named Selred but the Crown fell not to him immediately after his Father's death but he followed many others who wore it before him SWITHELM SWITHELM the Brother of Segibert succeeded him in the Province of the East-Saxons we hear nothing of him but the course of his Christianity being baptized by Gedda in the Province of the East-Angles at a place of the Kings called Rendelsham Ediswald the Brother of King Anna and King of the East-Angles receiving him at the Font SIGHERE SIGHERE and SEBBA after the death of Swithelm took joyntly on them the government of the State the former was the Son of Sigibert the Little the latter his Brother They divided the Province into two Governments each of which they ruled distinctly In the beginning of their Reign there was
Law punishes with death if any man lye with a menstruous Woman which Woman nevertheless whilst she suffers her monthly Terms ought not to be forbidden entrance into the Church because the superfluity of Nature ought not to be accounted a fault in her and for what she unwillingly suffers it is not just to debar her coming into the Church For we know that the Woman which was troubled with a flux of Blood coming humbly behind our Lord touched the hem of his Garment and presently her infirmity departed from her If therefore she having a Flux of blood upon her might praise-worthy touch the garment of our Lord why should it not be lawful for her that suffers her menstruous Terms to enter into the Church of God But you may say that infirmity compelled her so also those whom we speak of are compelled by their Terms Consider therefore my dear Brother because whatever we suffer in this frail flesh out of the infirmity of nature was by the judgment of God appointed after the fall For to be an hungry to thirst to be hot to be cold to be a weary is from the infirmity of nature and what is it otherwise to provide food against hunger drink against thirst air against heat rayment against cold rest against weariness than to find out some Medicine against our Diseases Women therefore and their menstruous issues are Diseases if therefore she did well that in her grief touched the garment of our Lord which was granted to one infirm person why should it not be granted to all Women which are rendered infirm by the corruption of Nature Therefore the receiving of the Mystery of the holy Communion at these times ought not to be prohibited but if out of a reverent fear she shall not presume to receive she is to be commended But if she shall receive not to be censured for 't is the sign of a good mind even there after a manner to acknowledg a fault where there is none because we many times do things in themselves without a fault which proceeded from a fault We are an hungry without fault by eating proceeds from a fault It proceeds from the first Man that we are an hungry for the Menstruous terms are faults in women because they come naturally but nevertheless because nature it self is so corrupted that it may seem to be polluted without the bent of the evil From offence came corruption by which human Nature may know what through the judgment of God 't is come to and the man which of his own accord committed the fault bore the guilt of it unwillingly And therefore women when they consider their condition if they shall not presume during their Menstruous terms to come to the Sacrament of the Lord's body and blood they are to be praised for this their honest consideration But if out of a custome of a Religious life by receiving they are transported with the love of the same mystery they are not as we said before to be restrained from it For as in the Old Testament the outward works were to be observed so in the New Testament not that so much as is done outwardly as that which is inwardly thought on is carefully to be lookt after that it may be kept under by strict examination For when the Law forbids many things to be eaten as unclean in the Gospel the Lord saies Not that that enters into the mouth defiles a man but those things that come out of the mouth defile him Matt. 15. 17. And a little after he adds by the way of exposition from the heart proceed all evil thoughts where 't is largely shewn that that appears polluted to Almighty God indeed which proceeds from the root of corrupt Cogitation Whence Paul also the Apostle saies To the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure And a little after shewing the cause of this defiling he adds but even their mind and conscience is defiled If therefore his meat is not unclean to him whose mind is not unclean why should that which a Woman endued with a pure heart suffers from nature be accounted in her uncleanness And a man sleeping with his own wife unless he is washed with water ought not to enter into the Church neither presently after his washing may he enter for the Law commanded the ancient People that a man that had lain with a woman ought to be washed with water and not to enter into the Church before Sun-set which nevertheless may be understood in a spiritual sense because unless the fire of Concupiscence be before allayed in the mind he ought not to look upon himself as worthy the Congregation of his Brethren who seems loaded with the wickedness of a depraved will Although many Nations think diversly of this thing and seem to retain different customes yet this was alwaies the use of the Romans from the eldest times that after a man had lain with his wife he was to endeavour his cleansing by the Laver and to abstain somewhat reverently from entring into the Church Neither by saying these things do we make Marriage a fault but because the very lawful copulation it self cannot be done without the pleasure of the flesh we ought to abstain from coming into an Holy place because the pleasure it self can no wales be free from fault for he was not born in adultery or fornication but in lawful wedlock that said Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in fiu did my mother conceive me For he that knew himself to be conceived in iniquity bewailed himself that he was born of sin for the tree bears the same vicious humour in its branches which it drew from the root In which words he does not call the copulation of married people Iniquity but the pleasure that results from that admixtion For there are many things that are lawful and right by which in their acts we are defiled as oftentimes we angrily prosecute enormities and disturb the peace of our minds within us when indeed what we did was right but no wales approvable for that our mind was thereby disturbed for 't was against the wickedness of Male-factor she was angry that said Mine tye is troubled for very Anger because nothing but a calm mind is able to continue in the brightness of Contemplation he was sorry that his eye was troubled through anger for whilst he persecuted wicked actions below he was confounded and forced from the contemplation of the highest things Therefore Anger is commendable against Vice yet troublesome because he that is disturbed by it thinks himself in some sort guilty Therefore the lawful copulation of the flesh ought to be for Issues sake not for pleasure and joyning of the flesh ought to be for the procreation of Children not for the satisfaction of our vices If therefore any man makes use of his wife not hurried there unto by the transport of pleasure but only for procreation sake he