both Naval and Land supplies to his Enemies and entertaining such as run from him took up a resolution to make the Puissance of Rome known to these Islanders which being discovered by Merchants some particular States sent Ambassadors to him promising to put in Pledges and yeild obedience to the Roman Empire Caesar commending their Prudence and exherting them to continue in the same mind sends them back with Comius in their company whom he had made King of Artois giving him instructions to work them to a suller submission and prepare them to give him a quiet admission with his forces into their Countrey Hereupon the British Princes joyn to oppose him of whom Geffrey nameth these Caswallan Androgeus and Tenerantius with Crederus King of Albania Guitellus of Venedotia and Britael of Demetia Lhud as he writes though falsely was dead some years before and therefore is not here mentioned and King Belinus as I said before is only brought in to be his Son's General Caesar having gained what knowledge he could of the British coast from C. Volusenus whom he had sent out to descry it embarques two Legions in eighty Ships of burthen and some Gallies and endeavours to land in Kent Here Dolobellus General to King Belinus as appears by Nennius who calls him his Proconful stood ready to receive him and performed his part so bravely that the noble Roman confessed the terror of such resolute opposition made his Veteran Soldiers forget their wonted valour But in the end they gained the Shore and put the Britans to flight with extraordinary slaughter In Caesar â—â— Caesar is brought in by Julian attributing to himself the honour if it be at all an honour to that person which he suâ—â—ained of being the first that left his Ship and 〈◊〉 Land but this were to make him not understand what became him and he acknowledges it was the Eagle-bearer of the tenth Legion Lib. 4. de bello Galliâ—â—o Caesar marching forwards encamps upon a great Plain supposed to be Barham-Down where he beheld the dispersion and loss of a considerable part of his Flect by the violence of an unexpected storm Comius found not such entertainment as he expected being imprisoned as a Spy by the Britans who were wise enough to perceive that the Romans aimed at more than they should be willing to grant yet finding by the late conflict that there was an apparent inequality in the match between the Roman and Britain Arms and discipline they judged it convenient to make their best termes and submit to which end they dispatcht Ambassadors to him and with them sent back Comius thinking by the one to moderate his anger and by the other in consequence to procure a peace which they obtained the â—aslier by reason of the late Wrack and the approach of Winter yet were enjoyned to deliver Hostages But understanding his want of Horsemen and the losses he had sustamed by the Tempest they took courage again and slew to Arms. About a thousand Horsemen were coming after him in eighteen Ships which being got within view of the Camp were driven by a sudden storm some back to the Gallick coast others upon the Western part of the Island from whence they had much adoe to recover the Continent again and those Ships that were with him fared as ill for the Gallies which were drawn up to the Shore were filled with the Tide and the Ships of burden that lay at Anchor were so shaken with the Tempest that they were almost rendred unserviceable The seventh Legion being sent out to fetch in Corn was set upon by the Britans and in danger of being cut off if Caesar had not seasonably come to the rescue who contenting himself with putting his Enemies to a stand considering it was not now a fit time to offer Battel while his men were scarce recovered of so late a fear only keeps his ground for a while and soon after returns to his Camp The Britans giving themselves out for Victors sent straight to all the neigbouring States for more forces and getting together a great multitude drew towards the Romans but Caesar encouraging his Soldiers received these Guests with a battel before his Camp put them to rout with slaughter and burnt and laid wast all round about Daunted with this ill success they again crave peace which he granted them but withal severely reproved them for their breach of faith and imposed a double number of Hostages to be sent after him into Gaul whither the season of the year required him to hasten so that all his Ships but twelve being by this time made able to abide the Sea by incessant labour of the Soldiers he hoisted sail about midnight and arrived safely with all but eleven Ships of burden upon the Continent these not keeping their course landed at a Port of the Morini who would have put them to the sword in hopes of prey if Caesar hearing of their peril had not sent his Horsemen to fetch them off The Senate advertised of these passages by his Letters decreed a solemn Procession and Supplication of twenty dayes and himself ordering Labienus to chastise the rebellious Morini went to Rome as he used to do every Winter to look after his concernments there About this time died King Belinus having reigned forty years yet did not his death hinder the Britans from celebrating a solemn Festival in Trinovant for joy of Caesar's departure But here fell out an unlucky accident which proved of very ill consequence As the Youth were exercising themselves at Martial sports it chanced that two young Noblemen fell out the one named Hireldas is by Geffrey of Monmouth said to be Nophew to Caswallan the other named Evelinus to Mandubratius Henry of Huntington saith they were their Sons In this quarrel Hireldas was slain by Evelinus whem Caswallan would therefore have had to be put to death but Mandubratius prevailed with his Father Immanuentius to protect him Caswallan thought it too difficult a matter to contest at that time with his Brother in his own Royal City he departs therefore but quickly returns with strong Forces which he had in readiness kills Immanuentius seizes the greatest part of his Kingdom and compells Mandubratius to flee for safety of his life into Gaul Nennius who adhered so saithfully to him in his war against the Romans may seem likely to have sided with him now there being a grudg between him and Immanuentius for going about to change the name of Trinovant to Caer Lud as the * Lib. 1. cap. 10. Monmouth Writer tells us These proceedings of Caswallan allarm'd the Neighbour-States who thereupon took up Arms against him And thus were the Britans embroiled in Civil wars not fearing belike Caesar's return whose hasty departure they looked upon as little better than flight and thought he was as desirous to leave them as they were to have him and therefore all the States but two neglected the sending of their Hostages after him Here now
near Oatlands still Nennius ascribes this to Dolobellus chief Commander now under Caswallan as he had been under his Father before But all was spoiled by Traiterous Fugitives and discovered to Caesar who sending over a party of Horse first ordered his Foot to follow which they resolutely performed wading up to the neck with such speed and violence and fell on so boldly that they soon put the amazed Britans to slight whom Polyaenus falsly reports to have been frightned at the sight of an Elephant with a Turret upon his back Caswallan now despairing of success by open force resolves to try if he can weary out his Enemy and therefore retaining with him only four thousand Charioteers he attends the motions of the Romans By the advantage he had in the knowledge of the Countrey he saved himself from being forced to fight and as often as their Horsemen went forth and strayed out in the fields for Forrage or Booty he sent out his Chariots upon them from the Woods who slaughtering some and terrifying others made them afraid to range abroad and Caesar himself was induced to give strict command that none should part from the Legions who in all their march had nothing left them in their way but empty Fields and Houses which they spoil'd and burnt the Cattel being before driven away by the Britans In the mean time the Trinobantes submit to Caesar requesting him to send their Prince Mandubratius to them and to protect him against Caswallan's violence Of them Caesar required and received forty Hostages and Corn for his Army and therewith sent Mandubratius to them The Cenimagni Segontiaci Ancalites Bibroci and Cassij follow their example and yield to Caesar who learns by the last that Caswallan's chief Town supposed to be Vernlam was not far off Thither he speeds and assaults it in two several places the Britans soon quitting it of whom many were taken in their flight and put to the sword In Kent Cyngetorix Carrilius Taximagulus and Segonax by Caswallan's orders assail the Roman Camp but were repulsed by those that were left to guard it who in a Sally did good execution upon them and took Cyngetorix Prisoner Caswallan after so many losses finding himself basely deserted by the other States by means of Comius of Artois sought and obtained at Caesar's hands a Peace upon these termes That he should pay a certain Tribute yearly and no wayes molest Mandubratius or the Trinobantes and that Hostages should be given for the performance which was accordingly done And thus the Victor having spent almost all the Summer here with a great number of Captives returns into Gaul being forced to transport his Army at two several passages by reason of the loss of Ships which the forementioned Storm had caused After this Caswallan whom Caesar calls Cassivellaunus reigned seven years and dyed in peace having reigned in all nineteen years eleven with his Father as likewise did Lhud and eight after his death Mandubratius is by Beda called Androgorius by Orosius and Monumethensis Andregeus and is in the Book of Triads reckoned the first of the Three most infamous persons that Britain ever bred as who was not content to have recovered his own but also procured by his insinuating solicitations the submission of those other Cities which ruined all the brave endeavours of his Heroick Uncle for his Countreys liberty who as Caesar tells us was Maximè permotus defectione Civitatum Most of all troubled with the Revolt of the States The Monmouth Writer makes this Androgeus in stead of Comius the procurer of his Uncles peace and the valiant Scaeva to be his Son and one of the thirty Hostages abating ten of the true number whereas the Traitor Bericus of whom anon had been a sitter Son for such a Father and Scaeva by better Authors appears to be a Roman and to have been in Caesar's Service before the delivery of those Hostages Then he tells us that Androgeus forsook his Principality and went with Caesar to Rome which is evinced to be false by the injunction laid upon Caswallan not to meddle with him His Brother Tenevantius was of a more publick spirit and would not seek to revenge the wrongs done to his Family by the enslaving of his Countrey but joyned with his Uncle against the common Enemy whereby he so won upon him that dying issueless he left him his Kingdom which was enlarged by the accession of the Province of the Trinobantes upon the death of Mandubratius who also had no Children This King withheld the Tribute whereupon Augustus about twenty years after Julius Caesar's last Invasion resolved upon an Expedition hither rather than put up such a contempt from a Countrey of little note in those dayes but being come into Ganl he there heard news of the Revolt of the Pannonians which diverted him for that time Seven years after he was coming again but finding Gaul in an unsettled condition he accepted the offers of the British Ambassadors who promised Obedience and Satisfaction for the Tribute detained But upon fail of payment he the next year prepared for a third Expedition which to prevent the Britans again send Ambassadors to him who coming to Rome offered Gifts in the Capitol and sacrificed to the Roman Gods swore him Fealty in the Temple of Mars agreeing to pay Tolls and Customs for all Wares which they transported into other parts and paid him their Tribute By this obsequious address Augustus was pacified not being over-ambitious to catch at all opportunities of enlarging his Empire which he thought was already great enough as likewise did his Successor Tiberius To Tenevantius after twenty three years Reign succeded his Son Cunoheline Augustus was now in peace with all the world a fit time for our Saviour the Prince of Peace to be born in at whose very Birth the Devil's Oracles began to cease For about this time that mighty Emperour consulting the Oracle about his Successor received this Answer as Suidas saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Hebrew Child whom the Blest Gods adore Hath bid me leave these Shrines and pack to Hell So that of Oracle I can no more In Silence leave our Altar and sarewell Hereupon at his coming home he in the Capitol erected an Altar and therâ—â—n in Captial 〈◊〉 caused this Inseription to be engraven HAEC EST AKAPKIMO-GENITI DEI This is the Altar of the First-begetten Son of God In Tiberius his time the Britans kept very fair correspondence with the Romans as may be gathered out of Tacitus from their friendly sending back to Germanious â— then warring in Germany such of his Soldiers as had been cast upon their Coasts Caligula intended to invade them but that by his shittle head sudden repentance and foolish attempts against Germany it came to nothing Yet he came on as far as Batavia where Adminius the Son of Cunobeline being for some offence banished by his Father was with those few that
escaped from the City and the Battel sled to the City of Veij and afterwards under the conduct of Camillus who before was banished to Ardea but now made Dictator relieved those Senators which still held out the Capitol who compelled by famine had newly bought their lives and were paying the Gold Brennus had received the greatest part when Camillus came upon him and worsting him in a tumultuary skirmish forced him to quit Rome and following the Enemy fought a pitcht battel with him eight miles off in the Gabine Way where after a sharp dispute the Romans prevailed and the valiant Brennus with all his Gauls and Britans lost their lives upon the spot not one escaping as Livy writes Dec. 1. lib. 5. to carry the news Here was most of the Gold regained the rest being a long time after recovered by Livius Drusus Propraetor of Gallia Cisalpina Suâ—t in Tib. which at the first appearance of the Dictator had been sent away for Tuscany where the Gauls had then divers Colonics with some Troops to guard it who hearing the loss of their Companions entred into the Service of the Tyrant Dionysius Belinus had better fortune and subdued Pannonia where he settled the Gauls and most of his Britans married his Daughter Cambra a warlike Lady to Antenor King of the Sicambrians and returning home with Honour died in peace Next to him reigned his Son Gorguntius who slew the Danish King and conquered his countrey because he refused to pay the promised Tribute Then Guiteline Son to Gorguntius and Husband to the Learned Queen Martia Sisillius Son to Guiteline Chiomarus Son to Sisillius Danius Brother to Chiomarus and Morindus Son to Danius by his Concubine Tangustella by whom the King of the Morini invading this Land was overthrown and slain This victory he used cruelly putting all to the Sword that were taken Morindus is said to have aided the King of Orkney against Basanus King of the Sicambrians but lastly adventuring to fight singly with a Sea-monster he was devoured by it the Monster dying presently after of the wounds he had given it After his death the Kingdom was divided between his five Sons Gorbonian Archigallo Elidurus Eugenius and Peridurus Of these Gorbonian a just Prince dyed peaceably and was succeeded by his Son Regin Archigallo for Tyranny was expelled by his Nobles who gave his Kingdom to his Brother Elidurus through whose intercession he was restored and reigned afterwards very nobly parting his Principality at his death between his two Sons Morgan and Eneon But Elidurus found not the same kindness from his other two Brothers who took him prisoner and shared his Province between them till Eugenius dying first and then Peridurus he again recovered his Kingdom and left it to his Son Gerontius Edwal the Son of Eugenius or Owen and Runo the Son of Peridurus succeeded their Fathers like wise in their Provinces Thus was Britain cantoned into sundry parcels besides that the Descendents of those Princes who acknowledged the Soveraignty of Dunvallo and his Successors hitherto now renounced all manner of Subordination Which caused Tacitus to write of the Britans thus In vita Agric Heretofore they were governed by Kings now they are drawn by petty Princes into Partialities and Factions After Gerontius reigned his Son Cadellus for the British History takes no notice of the Posterity of the other Princes Then followed Coelus the Son of Cadellus Porrex the Son of Coelus Cherinus the Son of Porrex whose three Sons shared their Father's Inheritance between them Their names were Fulgentius Eldadus and Androgeus To this last succeeded his Son Vrianus after whom reigned these Kings in a direct line from Father to Son Flind Clidacus Clotenus Gorguntius Merianus Bladud Capys Owen and Sisillius who made another partition between his two Sons Blegâ—red and Archivallo Eldon the Son of Archivallo ruled after his Father and then followed in a lineal Succession Redion Rodericus Sawyl sirnamed Penissel Pyrrhus Caporius Gilquellus sirnamed Minocanus and Belinus he by his valour much enlarged his Hereditary Dominions for which he was entitled The Great For this is that B. M. Beli Maur so famous among the Cambrian Genealogists He had three Sons whom in his old age for he lived till the first coming of Caesar he assumed as Partners in his Kingdom assigning each of them a Province with Regal Authority and Title Immanuentius had the Trinobantes and was Sirnamed Lhud that is to fay Russet or Tawny it being usual with the Britans both ancient and modern to impose Names and Sirnames from colours Caswallan had the Cattieuchlani and is by Dion Cassius called Suellan corruptly for Cassuellan And indeed it is very likely that the same causes which lost us so many Books of that excellent Author might make some corruptions in them that were left unless we shall think Suellan or Swallan was his true name Cas being a Praeaddition taken from the Cassii the chief Sept of the Cattieuchlani as Cattimarus Teutobochus and Decebalus had the beginnings of their Names from the Catti Teutâ—nes and Daci though afterwards the name of Swallan grew out of use and Caswallan was used in its stead in honour of this Prince Nennius I conceive had Kent and might be the Father of Cyngetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonax These three Princes acknowledged a subordination to their Father Belinus whom Geffrey of Monmouth will have to be dead some years before the Romans arrived here vainly esteeming it a disparagement to Lhud to reign under his Father and aiming to give Caswallan the entire honour of managing all the war from the first beginning and therefore makes that Belinus which then lived to be Caswallan's General and Counsellor not his Father contrary to Nonnius who expresly termes him King of the Britans And Henry of Huntington will needs have him to be his Brother and Cambden takes him for Caswallan himself contrary to the Cambrian Genealogists who all consent that he was his Father Thus far have we waded through the Maeandrian Intrigues of Antiquity from Samothes obtruding nothing upon the Reader 's belief of this that we have taken either from Annius of Viterbo or Geffrey of Monmouth though both those Authors have been followed and owned by some Learned men Neither is there any thing herein more incongruous or incredible than what the Greek and Roman Writers have delivered concerning the Originals of their Nations which things are yet allowed a place in many Authentick Historians and Chronologers What follows comes from the hands of more approved Authors In the year of the World's Creation Three Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety five according to the common Computation Pompey and Crassus being Consuls the second time Calus Julius Caesar having now by Conquests over-run Gaul out of an innate desire of Glory allured also as Suetonius saith with hope of Pearls which as he was informed were ingendred and gathered in the Creeks of the British Sea and being incensed against the Britans for sending
Royal Prophet Thou lovest Righteousness and hatest wickedness Ps 45.7 therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows And again according to the same Royal Prophet Ps 72.1 Give the King thy Judgments O God c. for he said not the Judgments nor the Righteousness of Caesar For the King's Sons are the Christian Nations and people of the Realm who live and abide in the Kingdom under your Protection and Peace according to the Gospel Mat. 23.37 even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings The Nations and people of Britain are your people whom however divided you ought to gather into one to reclaim to Concord and Peace and the Faith and Law of Christ and to the Holy Church to cherish maintain or to lead by hand protect govern and always defend them from injurious and malitious Folks and from their Enemies Eccl. 10.16 Wo to the Kingdom whose King is a Child and whose Princes eat in the morning I do not term a King a Child for Infant-age but for Folly Iniquity and Madness according to the Royal Prophet Ps 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes By Eating we understand Gluttony by Gluttony Luxury by Luxury all filthy perverse and wicked things according to King Solomon Into a malicious Soul Wisdom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin Rex dicitur à Regendo non à Regno A King hath his name from his Ruling not from his Kingdom As long as you govern well you shall be a King which if you do not the Name of King will not be evidenced in you and you will lose that Name which God forbid Almighty God grant you so to govern the Kingdom of Britain that you may reign for ever with him whose Vicegerent you are in the said Realm This Letter was written in the year one Hundred seventy nine when the Emperour Commodus was Consul with Vespronius and is to be seen in Lambard's Archaeonomia Printed at London in the years 1560 and 1644 among Edward the Confessor's Laws and in a Copy of our old Laws written in Edward the fourths time now kept in Sr. John Cotton's famous Library and likewise in an Ancient Manuscript Chronicle called Brutus and Breton William Harrison hath inserted it into his description of Britain Lib. 1. c. 9. having translated it into English out of sundry ancient Copies Theon Bishop of London is said to have built St. Peter's Church in Cornhil London with the help of Ciranus the King 's Cup-bearer which Lucius liberally endowed and made it to be the Episcopal Sea for the Diocess of London But Fagan and Dwywan not confining their endeavours only to Lucius his Kingdom converted the greatest part of Britain with the assistance of Elvan and Medwin of whom the former had been made a Bishop at Rome the other a Doctor as Johannes Tinmuthensis and Capgrave in the life of Dubricius and an old Tract concerning the first state of the Church of Landaffe assirm meaning Presbyter or Priest as I suppose by Doctor for the title of Doctor doth not appear to have been so ancient in the Church in the sence wherein it hath been since used Divers other Bishopricks are reported to have been erected about this time as York Carleon upon Vske Winchester Gloucester Congresbury Landaffe and other places Philippus Berterius and Archbishop Vsher of Armagh take York to have been the Metropolis of Britain at that time as being a Roman Colony and honoured with the Emperour's Palace and the Praetorium of Britain in regard whereof Spartianus terms it by way of Excellency In vita Severi The City And in the Council of Arles Eborius of York subscribed before Restitutus of London He that in the year one Thousand four hundred and sixty wrote the History of the Archbishops of York makes Fagan the first Archbishop of that Sea but Harrison in his description of Britain saith Lib. 1. cap. 7. that one Theodosius was Bishop there in the time of Lucius who might be so indeed in the latter end of Lucius his Reign after Fagan's death The Church of Winchester being finished in the fifth year of Lucius his Conversion viz. in the year one Hundred and eighty was then Dedicated by Fagan and Dwywan at which time also one Devotus was made Abbot of the Monastery which the King had founded for certain Monks professing the Egyptian Rule of St. Mark And about the same time was also founded the renowned Abbey of Bangor And now the Northern men are up in arms again and passing Lollius his Fence were come as far as Adrian's Wall which they broke down putting most of the Soldiers that defended it with their commander to the sword and entring the Province wasted and spoiled it at their pleasure against whom Vlpius Marcelius was sent who valiantly beat them back to their own homes and governed the country with such same and reputation that the Emperour Commodus whose Vices were as notorious as his Lieutenant's Virtues fearing the growth of his Credit with the Romans in an envious mood sent him Letters of Discharge After his departure the Army which he had kept in excellent Discipline fell to mutinying and civil Dissensions the Officers abusing and defrauding the common Soldiers whereupon fifteen Hundred of them went to Rome and complained against the Emperour's grand Favourite Perennis as the cause of those and many other distempers in the State for which he was put to death Yet did not this compliance so appease the British Army but that they would have set up another Emperour and Helvins Pertinax who here succeeded in the Lieutenancy endeavouring to suppress their insolency by severe means provoked them to an Insurrection in which divers were slain and himself left for dead whereupon he was glad for his own safety to get himself revoked In his place came Clodius Albinus who so worthily demeaned himself that Commodus either for fear or favour honoured him with the Title of Caesar which yet he accepted not but upon a false report of the Emperour's death having in a set speech discovered himself to be better affected to the old Government of the Senate and Consuls than to Monarchical Empire he was commanded to resign to Junius Severus But Pertinax suceeding Commodus was not long after murdered by the Praetorian Guards who sold the Empire to Didius Julianus who enjoyed his Purchase but a very little time being soon after slain by Septimius Severus This Emperour to keep Albinus who during the late Broils had made bold to keep his place from attempting any thing against him during his Wars with Pescennius Niger created him his Caesar which he now accepted as having a greater esteem for him than for Commodus But Niger being defeated and slain Severus falls to practising the death of his new Caesar and therein failing proclaims him Traitour and publick Enemy and comes in person
Land was Brutain call'd from Brute's own name One Woman caus'd the Trojan Warr whose name Was Helen Dardan Prince of noble fame Was Ancestor to Brute first British King From whom the Stemmes of British Princes spring No small question is raised about his Father Sylvius whom Monumethensis will have to be the Son of Ascanius supposing probably that after the difference between Julus and his Uncle the Son of Lavinia was reconciled whereby Sylvius Postbumus was adjudged to succeed his deceased Brother and the Pontificate being the next degree of Honour to the Kingly Dignity was assigned to Julus He in respect to the King and to ingratiate himself with the Albans among whom the name of Sylvius was in great request as Virgil in his Sixth Book of his Aeneads denotes Sylvius Albanum nomen the fair Daughter of Tyrrhus the chief Herd-master to King Latinus being also named Sylvia might assume that name for his praenomen and for a straiter linking of their Friendship married the Neece as Geffrey saith of Queen Lavinia Some conceive Sylvius the Father of Brutus to be the same with Posthumus and Son to Aeneas really but to Ascanius adoptively which opinion cannot be admitted because he after about Nine and twenty years Reign dyed a natural death which our British Historians deny of the other making him to be slain by his mistaking Son so that their relation would better agree with Sylvius Aeneas the Son of Posthumus of whose immature death there is some shew of a conjecture out of * Aen. 6. Virgil who makes a doubt whether he ever attained to be King Sylvius Aeneas paritèr pietate vel armis Egregius sin unquam regnandam acceperit Albam Aeneas Sylvius renown'd for Arms and Piety If e're of Alba he attain the Royal Monarchy And * Met. 15. Ovid favours this leaving him out of his Catalogue of Alban Kings and making Latinus the immediate Successour to Posthumus Successit Sylvius illi Quo satus antiquo tenuit repetita Latinus Nomina cum Sceptro Sylvius succeeds whose Son upholds with fame The old Latinus 's Scepter and his name And if Sylvius Posthumus were also named Ascanius as well as his Elder Brother which Livy seems to hint in the beginning of his * Pec. 1. History then may Brutus be this way too the Grandson of Ascanius and being banished for his Parricide leave his Brother Latinus to succeed his Grandfather in the Kingdome Though I am not ignorant that others understand Virgil speaking in that place of Sylvius Aeneas not to mean that he dyed before his Father but that it was very long before regained his right which his usurping Guardian had withheld from him And in leed as Livy saith who can positively determine about things so ancient As concerning the Original of this People Learned Cambden proves them to be descended from the Gauls by solid Arguments drawn from their agreement in Religion Customes and Language their vicinity their very name For they did most generally as still they do call themselves Kumero Cymro and Kumeri and a British Woman Kumeraes and their Tongue it self Kumeraeg And hence we have the names of Cambri and Cambria Cumbri and Cumbria which proves them a stock of the famous Cimbrians who were the same with the Gauls being one Nation called by two names So * Dâ— Pâ—â—coâ—sul Cicero speaking of Marius saith that he repressed the Armies of the Gaules etring in great numbers into Italy when yet Historiographers witness that they were Cimbrians and Lucan calls the Fellow that was hired to kill Marius a Cimbrian whom Livy and others affirm to have been a Gaule And out of Plutarch's Errours Reinerius Reineccius averreth That the Gauls and Cimbrians used the same Language And hereunto Appian in his Illyricks gives his suffrage The Celts or Gauls saith he whom they call Cimbrians And as all other Nations fetch their first Original from Asia so do these from the Asiatick Cimmerians the posterity of Gomer the Son of Japhet from whom also as Josephus and Zonaras report the ancient Gaules were called Gemari Gomeraei and Gomeritae from whence the name of Kumeri is easily deduced Mr. Humfrey Lhuyd in his short Description of Britain conceives these Kumeri or Kymri to be those very Cimbrians who so terribly endangered the state-of Rome and finding in the Book of Triads that one Irpus of Scandia by subtlety under pretence of Kindred and Honour to be atchieved induced a great number of Britans to assist him in his Enterprise who never returned home again he concludes it probable that the British Kymri passed over into the Danish Chersonesse whereby it came to be termed Cimbrica and after some Exploits there joyning with the neighbouring Teutons and afterward with the Ambrens a people of Gaule made sharp Warre upon the Romans vanquished Papyrius Scaurus Manlius Silanus and Caepio and were at length with much difficulty overcome by Marius and Catulus After which the remainders of the Cimbrians and Teutons seem to have retired to the Chersonesse These Ambrons who aided the Cimbrians in this Warre were a people so mischievously addicted to Spoyl and Rapine that in Tract of time the word Ambro came to be commonly used to signifie a Devourer as Isidore long ago hath told us whence John Caius his mistake in thinking that Gildas joyns these Ambrons with the Picts and Scots when he speaks of their second vastation of his Countrey saying that they came aesi Ambrones Lupi like Ambrones Wolves is very obvious it being clear that by Ambrones Lupi he meant devouring Wolves in which sense Geffrey of Monmouth termeth the Saxons also Ambrones Mr. Lhuyd to strengthen his opinion produces Plutarch's testimony in his life of Marius that it was not known whence the Cimbrians came onely that it was from a far Countrey and that like clouds they issued into France and Italy with the Teutons tacitely inferring a likelyhood that they might come from this Island And to this he adds divers other Arguments drawn from the agreement of that people with the Britans in Language and names of their Kings and their Customes as their neglecting of Gold and Silver their Reverence towards Women and Priests their sacrificing men to Mercury their Shields Armour and Swords and the very shape of their Bodies Nor was this the first time that the Britans made Warr upon the Romans if we may believe the relation of the British History and the constant Tradition of that people concerning Brennus Sir John Price in his Defence of the British History is offended with Polydore Virgill for saying that the Insular Britans had both their Name and Original from the Britans of Armorica and will not allow that any Britans were before the time of Constantine the Great Yet Pomponius Laetus saith That they were descended from the Armorican Cities And Pliny among the Maritime people over against Britain near the County of Bullen reckoneth the Britans from whom a Haven of the
Son to Olbius Namnes Son to Galates and Rhemus Son to Namnes During the Reigns of these Samothean Kings hapned nothing remarkable only that in the time of King Lucus Osiris the great King of Egypt was slain by his Brother Typhon with the help of Laestrigon Antaeus Gerion Albion and Bergion the Grandsons of the murdered Heroe by his Son Neptune after which Albion and Bergion with a multitude of Africans coming into Spain where Gerion reigned from thence invaded and conquered Britain and Ireland where they ruled for some years But in the time of Celtes Hereules pursuing the revenge of his Father's death kills Typhon and Antaeus settles his Brother Orus and his mother Isis in the Kingdom of Egypt destroyes Gerion in Spain and marches into Gaule with intention to pass into Italy Celtes joyfully entertains him in requital whereof he built the City of Alexia Albion and Bergion suspecting he would at length call them to an account resolved to be before hand with him and came against him with a puissant Army who having married Galatea and increased his Army with Gaulish Supplies encountred them in a place named The Stony Strond or Stony Field now called by the French Le Craux where after a long and terrible fight the two Brothers were deseated and slain From thence Hercules departed into Italy where he slew Laestrygon The Samotheans in Britain emboldned by the success of this Battel took up Arms against the residue of the Africans that were lest behind commencing a long war which continued till the coming of Brutus In this interval the fifty Daughters of Dioclesian King of Syria having all murdered their Husbands in one night were for their punishment embarqued in a Ship well victualled but without Pilot Mast or Sail and so committed to the mercy of the Seas At last they were cast upon the Western Coast of this Island then inhabited by the African Progeny to whom women were very welcome in regard the Samotheans disdained to give their Daughters to them The Eldest of these named Albina was married to the Prince of these Barbarians and renewed to this Isle the name of Albion which had been before imposed by Neptune's forementioned Son of that name but now was worn out This Fable I conceive to be founded upon the Grecian Story of Danaus his Daughters King Remus having no other children but one Daughter gave her in marriage to Franicus Francus or Francion Son to Hector King of the Germans whose Father Brennus was lineally descended from the ancient Tuisco He succeeded his Father and Father-in-Law and kept his residence in a City of Pannonia which himself had built and called Sicambria after the name of his Son Sicamber who reigned after him and married a Lady named Galatea having first slain his Rival Acis a Sicilian Prince The Greeks for his valour called him Polyphemus which signifies famous and the Poets fable him to be a Cyclopian Giant and Son of Neptune whom they generally make the Father of Gigantick Issues This Polyphemus Sicamder is by the Germans named Woltheim Sichinger At his death he divided his Kingdom between his three Sons to Celtes he left Germany who extended the name of Celts to all the people of that Land Gaule and so much of Britain as was held by the Samotheans fell to Galates and Pannonia to Illyrius who by Conquest added to it the Countrey which of him took the name of Illyris Francus had parcelled Gaule into twelve Provinces and appointed over each of them a Vice-roy with orders to be aiding to his Samothean Subjects as occasion should require but Ambition prompted them to other Designs whereunto they were animated by their Princes over-large Bounty who it seems had made their Prefectures Hereditary so that after the death of Galates whose Reign was spent in Wars abroad they assumed to themselves the Royal Title and Power In the Reign of Wolfheim Sichinger the famous City of Troy was taken by the Greeks whereupon Aeneas and Antenor were forced to seek new seats of whom the latter found means to settle himself about Padua the other in Latium whose Son and Successour Ascanius built Alba Longa. But far worse fortune had many of their Countreymen who with their Families were carried away Captive into Greece by Pyrrhus and by him kept in slavery From him descended one Pandrasus as Geffrey calls him though the Greeks had another name for him who shewed himself very cruel to the issue of these Trojans In his time a certain Nobleman dying left two Sons the one by a Greek wife the other named Assaracus by a Trojan who falling out about the sharing of their Father's Territory caused the King to interest himself in the quarrel who hating the Trojan Nation and consequently Assaracus for his relation to them took his Brothers part against him and would by force have disseised him of his Inheritance if he had not been opportunely succour'd by Brutus of whom we come now to speak Ascanius King of Alba dying there arose a controversie about the succession between his Son Julus and his Half-Brother Sylivins Posthumus the Son of Aeneas by Lavinia the first being favoured by the Trojans the other by the Latines who being more numerous advanced Posthumus to the Crown assigning the Pontificate to Julus who upon the reconciliation assumed his Uncles name for his Praenomen and was called Sylvius Julus It was made a piea against him that he was not of years sufficient to manage the weighty affairs of a Kingdom by which it appears that he married very young having had two Sons before his Fathers death from the Elder of whom the Julian Family descended The Younger named Brutus proved fatal to both his Parents for his Mother died in Child-bed and at fifteen years of age he by mischance killed his Father at a hunting for which he was banished by Posthumus and went into Greece where upon sundry occasions he gave such proofs of his valour as encouraged the poor oppressed Trojans to repair to him and request him to undertake the freeing of them from the Grecian Bondage Brutus becomes their Prince and entring league with Assaracus wins two victories of Pandrasus In the first Antigonus the King's Brother and his friend Anacletus were taken Prisoners in the other the King himself Hereupon by the means of a Trojan named Mempricius ensued a peace whereby Assaracus was secured in his Right and Brutus obtained in marriage the King 's eldest Daughter Innogen with a Fleet of three hundred twenty four Ships well provided with all necessaries to transport the Trojans and their Families to another Country The first place he arrived at was an Island where Diana had a Temple whose Oracle he with his Soothsayer Gerion consults about the success of his Voyage and receives a propitious Answer From hence departing he sailed along the coast of Africk conquering by the way the Pirates of those Seas and for a fresh supply of provision was forced to land in Mauritania
the Lieutenant's endeavours to have any peace with the Romans Against him therefore Ostorius bends all his Force having given some Cities to a British King named Cogidunus to engage him against those that should raise any disturbances while he was dealing with the Silures Caradock considering how Siluria was hemm'd in between the Severn and the Sea marched into the countrey of the Ordovices who were confederated with him where all the odds were to his own party all the difficulties to his Enemies Ostorius follows and near Clun-castle in Shropshire forced him to a Battel wherein though he and his Britans fought stoutly yet the fortune of Rome prevailed Here his Wife and Daughter were taken Prisoners and some Brothers of his yielded themselves himself escaping to Cartisinandua Queen of the Brigantes was by her command unworthily bound with Irons and delivered to his Enemies in the ninth year of the war and the seventh year of his Reign Which being made known at Rome all desired to see this Warriour who had so long held out against their power Thither he was sent and at his coming the people were assembled as to a solemn spectacle and the Emperour's Guard stood in Arms. First passed his Servants bearing his Trophies won in former Wars next his Brothers Wife and Daughter last of all himself who coming to the Emperour's Tribunal without any manner of dejectedness thus spake to him If my moderation in prosperity had been as great as my Nobility and Fortune was I had come rather a Friend into this City than a Captive neither would you have disdained to receive me with Covenants of Peace being a Prince descended of Noble Ancestors and commanding many Nations My present estate as it is to me dishonourable so to you it is glorious I had Horses Men Armour Wealth no wonder if I was unwilling to lose them If you will reign over all all must obey If I had sooner yielded and been delivered into your hands neither had my Fortune nor your Glory been so renowned and in your severest determining of me both will be quickly buried in oblivion But if you spare me I shall be an Example of your Clemency for ever Caesar moved with the bravery of his Carriage pardoned him with his Wife and Brethren and most probably his Daughter too though forgotten by Tacitus who being unbound did their reverence to the Emperour and the Empress Agrippina Then the Senators being called together discoursed of the Shew and affirmed it to be no less Honourable than when Scipio shewed Syphax or Aemylius Perseus or whosoever else exhibited conquered Kings to the people wherefore the ornaments of a Triumph were decreed to Ostorius This Caradock Sirnamed Frichfras viz. with the strong Arm is in the Book of Triads named First of the Three most valiant Britans the Roman Writers call him Caratacus Caractacus Cataractacus and Catacratus what became of him afterwards I find not but I suppose that he did not long survive his entrance into Rome for else it is likely he would have returned to his Kingdom and in point of Gratitude have restrained his Silures from continuing Hostility against the Romans Caradock had one Brother yet at liberty which was the brave Arviragus who succeeding in the Kingdom soon made the Enemy know that the Britans wanted not a General He took old Caswallan's course to avoid set Battels and to watch for Advantages The Prefect of the Camp with his Legionary Cohorts who were ordered to build Fortresses in the Countrey of the Silures he surprised and killed with eight Centurions and many of the stoutest Soldiers and had cut them all off if speedy Succours had not come from the neighbouring Villages and Castles Shortly after he fell upon the Forragers and routed them and the Troops of Horse that were sent to help them nor could Ostorius stay their flight by sending out some Cohorts lightly appointed till the weighty Legions coming on put a stop to the violence of the Pursuers and made them retreat After this passed divers Skirmishes the Silures omitting no opportunity commanded or without command to assail the Enemy from their Woods and Bogs being strongly incensed at a Report that Claudius was resolved to extinguish their very Name They in thâ—s heat intercepted two Auxiliary Cohorts who were forraging too securely to feed the Avarice of their greedy Prefects and by sending abroad liberal shares of the Spoils and Captives which they took drew other Nations to joyn with them These and some other adverse Accidents so troubled Ostorius that worn out with cares and travels he dyed whom Avitus Didius Gallus succeeded in the Lieutenantship He was dispatched hither in great hast that the Province might not be destitute of a Governour yet could not make such speed but that before his coming the Legion of Manlius Valens had been defeated by the Silures who made large excursions into the Roman Pale till the Lieutenant marching out kept them somewhat more within their own Bounds The Brigantes would willingly have engaged in their Countreys cause against Ostorius at his first coming if their King Venutius could have been induced to own the Quarrrel but he reigning in right of his Wife Cartismandua suffered himself to be wholly guided by her who judging the friendship of the Romans very conducible to her designs restrained the peoples forwardness and made up the breach with Osterius to his full satisfaction But growing weary of her Husband and falling in love with Velocatus who was his Servant and Armour-bearer she abused her marriage-bed and laboured to make the Adulterer King Venutius nettled with these injuries and the intercepting of his Brother and some of his nearest Kindred took Arms against the faithless Queen and brought her to such Exigencies that Didius was fain to send some Cohorts to her Aid by whose help she won a Battel of her Husband and in another conflict Caesius Nasica with his Legion had somewhat the better But Venutius quickly recruited his Forces the people flocking to him apace out of indignation against the Adulteress whose Treachery to him and Caradock had made her generally odious And so stoutly he maintained the War against the Romans that though they rescued Cartismandua from his just vengeance yet he kept possession of the Kingdom in despight of them so that Didius being aged had enough to do to keep up a Defensive War which he was fain to manage by Deputies only building here and there a Fortress further into the Countrey that he might seem to enlarge his Province Nero was now Emperour who but for very shame would have withdrawn his Forces out of Britain To Didius succeeded Verannius who dyed in the first year of his Government having only made a few Inrodes upon the Silures and left a great Boast behind him That if he had lived but two years more he would have conquered all thereby at his death manifesting his vanity though while he lived he had carried a great name of precise
tenth day of May for his Martyrdome Thomas Dempster a Scotch Historian Hist Eccles Scot. lib. 2. num 159. saith that St. Barnabas came into the North part of Britain now called Scotland and there Baptized Beatus the Apostle of the Helvetians Aristobulus Brother to St. Barnabas mentioned by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans is by the same Dorothaeus recorded to have been Bishop of Britain which is confirmed by the Suffrage of the Greek Menologies who assign the fifteenth day of March for his Martyrdom which here he suffered in the second year of Nero according to the Fragment of Helecas Caesar Augustanus Venantius Fortunatus and Sophronius Patriarch of Jerusalem Comment de Petro Paulo ad diem Jun. 39. say that St Paul was in Britain and Simeon Metaphrastes affirms as much of St. Peter adding that he tarried here a long time and converted many Nations settled their Churches and ordained Bishops Priests and Deacons Isidore and Freeulphus say that St. Philip the Apostle came into Gaul and preached there from whence he sent over hither in the year Sixty three twelve Disciples of whom Joseph of Arimathea was of greatest note to whom Arviragus gave a certain place named Inis witrin called also Avalon and Glastonbury where they are said to have led an Eremitical life and to have built a Church in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to have had other Lands bestowed upon them by Marius and Coelus This is accounted the ancientest Church of Britain and was afterwards much reverenced and enriched by many Kings and Princes as appears by William of Malmesburie's History of the Antiquities of Glastonbury and by King Henry the Second's Charter granted to the new Church there in the year one Thousand one Hundred and eighty five which was termed Magnum Privilegium and is to be seen among the Archiva in the Tower of London and by many other Writers Pudens and Claudia mentioned by St. Paul in the end of his second Epistle to Timothy are credibly thought to be the same with Aulus Pudens and Claudia Rufina whom the Poet Martial celebrates which Claudia was a British Lady and by some Writers thought to be King Caradock's Daughter mentioned by Tacitus and Linus the first Bishop of Rome mentioned also in the same Epistle is by Clemens in his seventh book of the Apostles Constitutions said to be their Son Chap. 47. and Petrus Equilinus gives them two other Sons Timotheus and Novatus and to Pudens by another wife named Sabinella he gives two Daughters Potentiana or Pudentiana and Praxedis This Timotheus converted Lucius a Brittish Prince and suffered Martyrdom when the first Antoninus was Emperour and Pius Bishop of Rome Lucius being Baptized by Timotheus about the end of Evaristus his Papacy leaving his Principality and taking with him his Sister Emerita preached to the Rhaetians and Bavarians became Bishop of Chur where he was Martyred under Aurelius Antoninus as his Sister was at a neighbouring place called Trimontium In Hartmannus Schedelius his Chronicle we find among those that flourished under Trajan Taurinus Episcopus Eboracensis and Eutropius Episcopus Cantu which some of the Hagiocleptae or Steal-Saints taking hold of have endeavoured to perswade the world that the one was Bishop of York and the other of Canterbury whereas it is evident from other Authors that Eboracensis is through mistake put for Ebroicensis and Cantu for Santu the one being Bishop of Eureux in Normandy the other of Sainctes in Xaintoigne But Britain was not so barren of Saints that it should need to steal any from other Countreys and it is justly famous for receiving and preserving the Christian Faith from the very times of the Apostles Eusebius Pamphilus in his third Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affirms that some of the Apostles went beyond the Ocean to the Isles that are called British Theodoret likewise in his Ninth Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reckons the Britans expressâ—â— among those Nations to whom the Apostles themselves had preached Before these Tertullian tells us That those places among the Britans which yielded the Romans no access were now subdued unto Christ Lib. adversus Judaeos c. 7. And Origen in his Fourth Homily upon Ezekiel and in his Sixth Homily upon the first Chapter of St. Luke confirms the Antiquity of Christianity in Britain Gildas after reciting Boadicia's insurrection whom he calls the Deceitful Lioness and the quelling of it by the Romans informs us That between the latter end of the Reign of the Emperour Tiberius and the victory of Suetonius Paulinus which was obtained about the year of Christ Sixty one the Christian Religion began to take footing in Britain in the mean time saith he Christ the true Sun spreading forth not from the Temporal Firmament but from the Castle and Court of Heaven which exceedeth all Times throughout the whole world his most glorious Light in the latter end as we know of Tiberius Caesar's Reign whereas in regard that the Emperour against the will of the Senate threatned death to the Disturbers thereof Religion was largely propagated without any hinderance did first cast on this Island starving with frozen Cold and in a far remote Climate from the visible Sun his gladsome Beams to wit his most holy Laws which although they were received of the inhabitants but with Luke-warm minds remained notwithstanding fully and entirely in the minds of some and in others less untill the nine years Persecution of the Tyrant Dioclesian What he saith of Caesar's threatning death to the Disturbers or Accusers of the Christians we also find in the fifth Chapter of Tertullian's Apologeticus and in the Chronicle of Eusebius at the last year or last but one of the Reign of Tiberius Thus early did Christianity enter into this Land where it was never since totally extinct though sometimes shrewdly eclipsed Some stirs there were in Britain in Trajan's time who being engaged in war with the Dacians and other remote Nations the Northern people with the help of the Picts and their King Roderick hoped to recover their ancient Bounds and revenge the overthrows they had received from Agricola Hereupon they invade the Province but with ill success for the Caledonians are beaten by the Romans and driven to their old Shelters and the Picts are at Stanmore in Westmorland vanquished by Marius who was now leagued with the Romans and Roderick slain in memory of which victory the British King erected Rerecross as some conceive Berenchus is said to have succeeded Roderick who finding himself unable to cope with Marius retired into Cathnesse and there seated himself and his followers The Scottish Writers pretend that both their own Nation and the Picts were settled in Britain long before and that these people were Moravians of Germany but how falsely is known to any one that is never so little versed in History seeing those Moravians were never heard of before the dayes of the Emperour Lewis the Debonaire Neither did Moravia in
Franks and Batavians was hereat so surprised that flying up and down like a mad-man he lighted upon Marcus Aurelius Asclepiodotus Grand Seneschal of the Praetorium and not staying for the coming up of all his Forces only with the Accessaries of his Treason and his mercenary Germans and those not marshalled in good order desperately began the Battel in which his Army was routed and himself slain having first cast off his Purple Robe his body being hardly found among the dead Carcasses The slaughter fell heavy upon the Barbarians of whom such as escaped hasted to London designing to sack it and so take their flight but part of the Roman Army which in the Mist had been sever'd at Sea from the rest coming thither at the same time put them to the Sword with their Commander Livius Gallus at a place near a Rivulet which from him was called Gallbrook now Wallbrook Thus was Britain restored to the Romans after it had been withheld for ten years space by the two Usurpers And because so many Tyrants had from the time of the Emperour Galienus born sway in Britain therefore Porphyrius the Philosopher who lived in those dayes termed it A fertile Province of Tyrants And here by the way it will not be amiss to observe that this Porophyrius is the first and ancientest Writer that makes mention of the Scots which he doth in his very next words as his contemporary the Oratour Eumenius is the first that mentions the Pictis As for Geffrey's narration of Bassianus Carausius Allectus Asclepiodotus and Coelus I do not hold it worth the reciting as being contrary to the truth of all History and Chronology This Asclepiodotus had been Consul with Afranius Hannibalianus in the year two hundred ninety two of whom Vopiscus speaks with Honour in his Lives of Aurelianus and Probus Constantius leaving him to govern Britain departed hence to war against the Almans whom he overcame with the slaughter of sixty thousand of their men In the year three Hundred and three while Asclepiodotus ruled here the tenth Persecution began in the month of March wherein this Land which had escaped all the former bore a great share Here on the two and twentieth day of June suffered Alban the Protomartyr of this Island and the Soldier Heraclius who being appointed for his Executioner preferred death before the employment This Alban was by Birth a Britan by Descent a Roman of a Noble Family and of great Authority whose dwelling at Verulam and dying near it did much ennoble that City The place where he dyed was called Derswold and Holmhurst where now stands a noted Mercate Town which bears his Name His Death is said to have been accompanied with divers Miracles and particularly Gildas tells us That by his Prayers he made a way through the River for himself and a thousand others to pass over dry-footed This River now named Colne passing by Colnebroke a Mercate Town runneth into Thames of which Gildas therefore accounted it an Arm and called it by the name of Tamisis The men which followed Alban through the River soon after laid down their lives for the same cause among those that suffered with Amphibalus On the first of July suffered Aaron and Julius Citizens of Caerleon upon Vske and on the sixteenth of September the forementioned Amphibalus a famous Doctor of the Monastery of Caermarden but born at Caerleon by whom Alban was converted after whose death he fled to the borders of Wales whither he was followed by a great many Christian Verulamians to the number of nine hundred ninety nine But a party of Soldiers were sent to bring them and their Instructor back who quickly seizing their prey in their return put the Verulamians to death by the way at Lichfield and bringing Amphibalus with nine others of his Companions to a place called Redburn about three Miles from St. Albans there cruelly slew them at which time about a Thousand more of the same City of Verulam declaring themselves to be Christians were likewise Martyred with them On the next day being the seventeenth of September here suffered Socrates and Steven of whom the latter is conceived to be that Steven whose name we meet with in the Catalogue of the Archbishops of London which if we take for granted we may then suppose that Socrates might be Archbishop of York seeing we find his Name placed before Stevens in the Roman Martyrology and others But if Steven was Archbishop of London there can be then but little time allotted to his Successor Augulius whom some call Augurius Augulus and Agulinus For we find that he also suffered Martyrdom here on the seventh day of February following About the same time Nicolas a British Bishop suffered and was buried at Peblis in Lauden near the Monastery of Meilros where in the Reign of King Alexander the Third was sound an Urn of Stone with Ashes and Bones of a man's body which seemed to have been torn piece-meal Some three or four paces off was found a stately Cross in a certain Coffer of Stone on which Coffer was engraven this Inscription Locus sancii Nicholai Episcopi The place of St. Nicholas a Bishop In this place King Alexander built a Church and gave it to the Monks of the Holy Trinity Dempster would have this Nicholas to be a Scot but alledgeth no Authority for his opinion and it is as well known for evidence of the contrary that Lauden in the time of this Persecution was in the possession of the Britans as that Dempster is a notorious Hagiocleptes Melior or Melorus and many others were then invested with the Crown of Martyrdom in this Island But in the year three Hundred and four the Emperours Diocletian and Maximian freely resigned to Galerius and Constantius which latter presently put an end to the Persecution in Britain Gaul and Spain though in the other parts of the Empire under Galerius and his Caesars it lasted eight years longer In the East that renowned Soldier St. George was martyred about the beginning of this Persecution He was born in Cappadocia of Christian Parents and after the death of his Father was carried by his Mother into Palestine whereof she was a Native and Heiress to a great Estate there which upon her decease fell to him For his valour and good Service in the Persian War he was first made a Military Tribune and afterwards a Count Imperial and was in high esteem with Dioclesian and Galerius till they set up their Edict at Nicomedia against the Christians For then our George coming thither could not contain himself but moved with Zeal and pious Courage tore it down and putting off his Military Habiliments and making Doal of all his Substance to the Poor on the third Session of the Senate when the Imperial Decree was to be confirmed he boldly avouched himself to be a Christian And when neither by allurements nor threatnings he could be drawn to renounce his Religion after sundry cruel Torments which he
endured with undaunted resolution Sentence was pronounced against him That he should be drawn through the City and beheaded which was accordingly performed upon the three and twentieth of April in the year three Hundred and three in which year as I said before out of Eusebius the Persecution began and therefore I cannot assent to them who place his death in the year two Hundred and ninety Of this George I understand Eusebius to speak Hist Eccl. lib. 8. cap. 5. where he saith Presently one of those who were not obscure but most glorious as they are reputed according to the excellencies of this world as soon as the Edict against the Churches was published at Nicomedia moved with zeal and fervent faith took down and rent the Writing as profane and impious which was set up in an open and publick place when two Emperours meaning the Emperour and his Caesar were in the City and even he who of all the rest was most honoured and chief of the Four But he who first behaved himself thus worthily suffered likewise those punishments which in all likelihood attended one that had dared to do such an Action and manifested an undejected and undaunted Spirit to the very last Thus far Eusebius His Body was afterwards by his Servant conveyed back to Palestine and interred at a City called Lydda and Diospolii now St. Georges near Ramah He is reported by his constancy at his suffering and by private Reasonings and Conferences to have converted many and among the rest Vincentius who was Martyred in Spain That George suffered where the Emperour kept his Court is agreed by all which sufficiently proves that neither Lydda nor Ramah was the place as some deceived by his Burial at the former have written but Nicomediae where all the Histories of those times aver that Diocletian usually resided The Arians to procure the reputation of Saintship to their George the Alexandrian Bishop confounded him and our Martyr into one composing a mixt Legend of their Acts and Sufferings stuffed with such sottish forgeries of Saint Athanasius whom they make a Magician and Alexandra the wife of Dacianus and such like that Pope Gelasius though fit to reject it with others of the same nature as Apocryphal but that he might not be misinterpreted to deny the being of those Saints whose Legends he condemned he thus concludes his Canon Yet notwithstanding this we with the Church devoutly reverence all those Martyrs and their glorious sufferings ' which are better known to God than men Yet did not this Censure though past with the advice of above seventy Prelates hinder succeeding Writers from inserting those Fopperies into their Relations of this Saint whereby some as Calvin Chemnitius c. have been induced to think that there was never such a man Others De Idol Rom. lib. 1. cap. 5. of whom Dr. Reynolds is the most considerable have really believed him to be the same with George of Alexandria though he confesseth that in his opinion Gelasius did believe him to be a Holy Martyr which he could not surely think of the Arian George whose death was but an hundred and thirty years or thereabouts before his Papacy too scant a time to have his impieties and villanies forgotten Amm. Marcel lib. 22. Neither was the Arian George a Cappadocian as this Martyr was which Dr. Reynolds goes about to prove but a Cilician born at a Town of that Province called Epiphania in a Fullers House but dwelling in Cappadocia when the Emperour Constantius the Younger appointed him to be Bishop of Alexandria many years after the other George's Martyrdom By Dacianus the Legendaries mean Galerius Caesar a Native of Dacia who had that Denomination from his Countrey as the Emperour Adrianus had his Name from Adria a Town of Italy whence his Family came and Diocletian from Dioclea in Dalmatia where he was born They call him King of the Persians in regard of his great victories over that people from whom he won five Provinces and was in a fair way as we find in Aurelius Victor to have subdued the whole Kingdom if Diocletian had not recalled him The Fable of George killing a Dragon to save a Virgin 's life seems to be taken from the Poetical Fiction of Persens and Andromeda though it may not unfitly be judged Emblematical if by the Virgin we understand his Soul and by the Dragon the Devil the one preserved the other conquered by his Christian Magnanimity and constant perseverance His name is commemorated in the Martyrologies of Greece and Rome and many ancient Authors his Relicks reverenced and Churches erected and dedicated to his memory in several Lands I have spoken the more of this Martyr that it may appear to the world that the Kings and the Nation of England who for some Ages have had a peculiar respect for this Saint whom they chose for Patron of the most Noble Order of the Garter have not bestowed all this Honour either upon a Heretick or a meer Chimoera Bouchet in his Annals of Aquitain writes That Helena the Daughter of King Cloel so he calls Coel brought Constantius two other Sons besides Constantine and that the youngest named Lucius having slain the Elder was by his Father banished out of Britain and condemned to a Monastical life Embarking therefore with divers Priests and Religious men he crossed over to Poictou where at a place from him called Lucionum now Lusson he founded an Abbey and a Church in honour of the Virgin Mary This he relates out of an old Hymn of that Church But seeing no Ancient approved Author mentions any other Son of Helena's besides Constantine I rather think this Lucius to be the same with him who preached to the Rhaetians and Bavarians since all the Writers of his Acts agree that he preached in Gaul before he entred into Germany Gaul had been much depopulated by the frequent irruptions of the Barbarous people whereupon Constantius as he had translated many of the Franks to manure the Grounds about Langres Rad. Niger Lib. Triedum Rheimes Troyes and Amiens thought fit to draw a Colony of Britans into Armorica which was transported thither under the command of Conan the Son of King Coel whom his Sister the Divorced Princess Helena accompanied In the year three Hundred and five the Picts raised some Commotions here which brought the Emperour over who gave them an Overthrow but was constrained by sickness to return to York where he dyed in the year three Hundred and six and was buried at Caer Seiont near Caernarvon which place was in honour of him called also Caer Custeint Nenn. whose Body being found there in the year one Thousand two hundred and eighty Mat. Westm was by King Edward's command Honourably interred in the Church of Caernarâ—â—â—â— To him succeeded the Noble Constantine worthily Sirnamed The Great who happily came Post from Rome to Boloigne just as his Father was setting Sail his last time hither as we find
in Eumenius and an old Historian published with Ammianus Marcellinus by Henricus Valesius His Father when he was made Caesar to assure Galerius of his fraternal love had put this his Son to him to be trained up in Martial Discipline out of his Stepmother Theodora's sight But he discerning him to be of a great a spiring soul exposed him to continual perils wherein he so behaved himself that he always came off with Honour This made his envious Guardian cause him to be the more narrowly observed resolving either by policy or force ever to detain him in his power Constantine perceiving himself to be in some sort a prisoner determined to take the first opportunity for his Escape so that when Maximinus and Severus were made Caesars by Galerius which was according to Eusebius his Chronicle in the year preceding the death of Constantius he knowing himself as worthy of that Dignity as they procured a feigned permission to return to his Father And coming to Rome took Post there and maimed all the Post-horses by the way till he got out of Italy to prevent the pursuit of Severus Caesar whom he understood to have private Instructions from Galerius to apprehend him Coming safe to Constantius he was by him before his Embarquing declared Caesar the same year as Aurelius Victor saith He staid behind to govern Gaul in his Fathers absence but hearing that he lay sick at York he hasted thither to see him who upon his death-bed appointed him to succeed him not without the envy of his Brothers who csteemed him as the Son of a British Princess not so nobly born as themselves whose Mother was a Roman Emperour's Daughter-in-law Which stuck so deep in the stomach of his ungracious Nephew Julian that he was not ashamed to style the Empress Helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaughty and mean woman and Zosimus terms her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A shameful Mother and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An unworthy woman who was not the lawful wife of Constantius the falseness of which appears in that he was forced to put her away in order to his marriage with Theodora And both Jews and Gentiles by way of reproach called her Stabularia or Hostess because she so devoutly sought out that Inn and Stable at Bethlehem where Christ was born and there founded a Church which gave occasion to that fabulous report of her keeping an Hostelry at Drepanum in Bithynia But her Heroick Son was so far from being ashamed of his Mother that he declared her Augusta and at Triers she had a stately Palace for her residence while he kept his Imperial Court there which retaining her Name long time after caused the Abbot Berengosius and others to imagine her a Native of that City Constantine pursuing the Relicks of the Pictish War soon brought the Enemy to terms of Submission and then crossed the Sea to Gaul where the next year he married Fausta the Daughter of the late Emperour Maximian by whom he was then declared Augustus which Title he had forborn till that time Octavius Lord of the Evissaei people inhabiting part of the Counties of Monmouth and Hereford which from them took the name of Ewias leaguing himself with the Northern men rose up in Rebellion here against whom the Emperour sent back his Uncle Traherne who happened at that time to be with him upon some business between whom near Winchester was sought a Battel in which the British King was put to the worst and compelled to flee into the Countrey of the Brigantes where the greatest part of the Roman Army lay to oppose the Picts and their Allies The Rebel following him thither presuming much upon the strength and power of his Confederates where another Battel was fought in which Traherne and the Romans prevailed who pursued Octavius so eagerly that they forced him to quit the Land and sail to Scandia leaving orders with his Friends to contrive some means for dispatching the King which was quickly effected for Traherne thinking himself secure rode out of London with a small Retinue and was intercepted by the Lord of Verulam who with an hundred men lay in Ambush for him and slew him in the year three hundred and eleven when he had reigned two and twenty years Hereof Octavius was immediately advertised who hastning his return and getting his Complices together became very strong but Constantine coming against him in person the same year subdued him and upon his submission suffered him to hold some part of Cambria with the Title of King under him Eusebius speaks of this Exploit saying That Constantine after he had furnished his Army with mild and modest Instructions of piety Euseb de vita Constantin lib. 1. cap. 4. invaded Britain that he might likewise reform those who dwell environed round about with the waves of the Ocean bounding the Sun's setting as it were with his Coasts And in another place Cap. 19. He passed over to the Britans enclosed on every side within the Banks of the Ocean whom when he had overcome he began to compass in his mind other parts of the world that he might come in time to succour those that wanted his help After this he overcame and killed Maxentius and Licinius and established Christian Religion throughout the Roman Empire He caused the Council of Arles to be assembled in the year three hundred and fourteen about the Donatists to which Eborius Bishop of York Restitutus Bishop of London Adelphius Bishop of Colchester Sacerdos a Presbyter and Arminius a Deacon repaired out of Britain and subscribed He also called the Famous Nicene Council against the Arians in the year three hundred twenty five whereat some of the British Clergy were present and held with the Orthodox men In his time the Government of Propraetors or Lieutenants ceased in Britain in stead whereof succeeded Vice-gerents or Vicars General of whom Pacatianus was the first In the year three hundred thirty seven dyed the Emperour Constantine the Great and Singular Ornament of this his Native Countrey in respect whereof the Panegyrist crieth out Panegyric 3. O Fortunate Britain and more happy now than all other Lands that hadst the first sight of Constantinus Caesar But Livineius will not allow this Honour to Britain and tells us That this passage only imports that he was here made Caesar whereas we have already shewed out of Aurelius Victor that he was made Caesar the same year with Maximinus and Severus when he came to his Father in Gaul just as he was embarquing for Britain Lib. 7. c. 19. which is acknowledged by Nicephorus Ad that those two were made Caesars the year before the death of Constantius is expresly affirmed by Eusebius in his Chronicle Lib. 4. c. 53. who likewise in his life of this Emperour deduceth his Reign from that year saying that he reigned two and thirty years wanting some odd months and dayes For if he had computed his Reign from his Fathers death which was on the
Hundred and sixty 360. Amm. Mare lib. 20. the Savage Nations of the Scots and Picts broke the Peace and by sundry Inrodes wasted the Frontiers in dreadful manner Julianus Caesar therefore sent over Lupicinus to repress their boldness who with a power of light-armed Herulians Batavians and Maesians set sail from Boloigne in the midst of Winter and landed at Rutupiae now Richborough and marched to London to take order there for the management of the War In the mean time Julianus Caesar is by his Army saluted Augustus whereupon he makes preparations against Constantius and mistrusting the turbulent humour of Lupicinus Whom he knew to be an arrogant and haughty man he sends a Notary to Boloigne to look that none should pass from those Coasts to Britain so that returning before he had any information of what had happened in his absence he was able to make no Disturbance In his room came Alypius whom Julian after the death of Constantius recalled and employed in that vain attempt of re-edifying the Temple of Jerusalem In the year three hundred sixty four 364. Amm. Marcel lib. 26. Valentinianus and Valeus were made Emperours in the beginning of whose Reign the Picts Saxons Scots and Attiscots assailed the Britans and vexed them with continual turmoils for some years Nectaridius Count of the Maritime Tract or the Saxon Shore was slain and Bulchobaudes Duke of Britain circumvented by the enemies Ambuscadoes Amm. Marcel lib. 27. Upon these News Valentinian sent hither Severus Lord High Steward of his Houshold and presently revoking him sent over Jovinus a famous Commander who perceiving his own Forces too weak to perform any great matters dispatcht Proventusides back for a greater supply But the Emperour who could not well spare him ordered his return and sent Theodosins to succeed him in his Charge here who being a man of great Experience in Martial Affairs having with him the Batavians Herulians Jovij and Victores fell upon the spoiling Bands and Companies of Robbers routed and stripped them of their Prey and Prisoners and after a full restitution of all save only some small parcels bestowed upon his wearied Soldiers he triumphantly entred the Ancient Town of London which Posterity called Augusta where he got what intelligence he could from Captives and Fugitives of the condition of the Enemies who being of disserent Nations and the war scattered secret Wiles and sudden Excursions would be most available against them Many Deserters and Runnagates he brought back to the Roman Service by Proclamation of Impunity Then he requests that Civilis a man of noted Integrity might be sent him to govern the Land as Deputy and with him Duleitius a renowned Captain And now he marches out from London against the Barbarous people Amm. Mar. cel lib. 28. 368. and gaining all places of advantage to forelay them discomsited and put to slight divers Nations whom a long unchastised Insolence had emboldned to invade the Roman Empire and laid the foundation of a lasting Tranquillity restoring every where the decayed Cities and Castles In the mean time Valentinus a Pannonian banished hither for a crime of a high nature sollicited the Exiles and Soldiers with large promises of Rewards to allure and draw them to an Insurrection but was seasonably prevented by the wary General who delivered him and some sew of his inward Complices to Dulcitius to be put to death yet politickly forebore any further inquisition into the Conspiracy as knowing that too many were engaged in it And having now recovered the Province between the two Walls he fortified the Frontiers with standing Watches and strong Fore-fences and so brought it to the former ancient Estate that upon his motion it had a lawful Governour to rule it and was in honour of the Emperours named Valentia The Areans a kind of people formerly instituted on purpose to run to and fro by long journeys to find out the designs of the neigbour Nations being convicted of holding traiterous correspondence with them were displaced by him from their Stations So having quieted and settled all things here he was sent for by Valentinian of whom he was Honourably received and made General of the Horse In this war his Son named also Theodosius and Magaus Clemens Maximus gave good proofs of their valours which came afterwards to be Emperours About this time lived Chebius or Keby the Son of Salomon a Cornish Prince brought up by Hilarius Bishop of Poâ—ctiers by whom made a Bishop returning into Britâ—â—â—â— he passed some time at Menevia from whence he sailed into Ireland and building a Church in a certain Island stayed there four years and lastly coming back to Mona now Anglesey there spent the remainder of his dayes with his disciples at a place called from him Caer Guby for Caer Keby as Hilary-point a Promontory of the same Isle had its name from his Master whom the Britans highly honoured Valentinian having mastred part of the Almans Amm. Marcel 29. 373. made Fraomarius King of the Bucinobantes an Alman Tribe dwelling near Memz whom soon after in regard his Territory had been shrewdly harassed in the German Wars he translated into this Island with Authority of a Tribune over his own Countrey-forces which for number and valour were very considerable In the year three hundred seventy five dyed the British King Octavius whom the Cambro-Britans call Eucta and Euciha after a long Reign of sixty four years leaving behind only one Daughter named Helena who as Geoffrey saith was by the means of Caradoc Prince of Cornwall and his Son Maurice married to Maximus probably when he came hither under the Noble General Theodosius Geoffrey makes him to be near of kin to Constantine the Great whose Grandfather King Coel as he tells us had three Brothers Tâ—â—â—â—rne Leoline and Marius of whom Leoline married a Roman Lady and by her was Father to Maximus who was brought up in Spain where by what means soever it came to pass he fell into such despicable Poverty that Latinus Paratus the Panegyrist terms him Patris incertum a man whose Father was unknown Ft mensularum servilium Statarium lixam A standing Drudge to Servants Tables and Ausmius calls him Armigerum lixam An Army-Drudge yet afterwards by his valour he rose to great preferment and wanted not the sprit to challenge Kindred with the Emperour Theodesius which in all likelihood he could not have had the impudence to have done if his Parentage had been so very base as some would imply The Panegyrist calls him an Exile from the world not because he was banished hither but for the same reason that he calls all the Britans so because they were secluded by the Sea from the greater World It seems he commanded here in chief after Civilis and Dulcitius and Fraomarius and overcame Conan Mertadoc forcing him and his partakers to sly to the Scots who had newly seized upon part of Albania They by entertaining the vanquished Britans drew upon themselves a dangerous
War in which part of the Picts with their King sided with Maximus and part of them under the conduct of one Melga aided Conan and the Scots But Maximus being for his former victory proclaimed Emperour by his Army in the year three hundred eighty two gave his Enemies the same year a notable Overthrow upon which Conan and his Britans submitted Tiro Prosper in his Chronicle makes mention of this last victory briesly thus Maximus in Britanniâ à militibus Imperator emstitutus incursantes Picios Scotos strenuè superavit Maximus being made Emperour in Britain by the Soldiers valiantly overcame the invading Picts and Scots And in respect of his former Battel Gregorius Turenensis saith of him Lib. 1. cap. 38. al. 43. Câ—â—m per Tyrannidem oppressis Britannis sumpsisset victoriam à militibus Imperatorem creatum fuisse When having oppressed the Britans by Tyranny had gotten the victory he was made Emperour by the Soldiers In the year three hundred eighty three he crossed the Sea taking with him the flower of the British Youth to increase his Army and entred the mouth of the River Rhine and conquered Brittia a Batavian Island where he placed a Colony from Britain over whom he appointed Conan Meriadoc to rule as Prince Gratian had some years before set forth a Law That every one should be permitted freely to follow what Religion he pleased and all Sects indisserently to assemble in Churches except Manchces Photinians and Eunomians which made way for the Arian Heresie into Britain And as hereby he gave distast to the Orthodox Christians so by his extraordinary favour to the Alans and other Barbarous Mercenaries he incurred the hatred of the Roman Soldiery who deserting him betook themselves to the Service of Maximus Gratian at first contemned this Adversary but finding his Error too late after some unsuccesful skirmishes sled to Lions whither Maximus follows and by the Stratagem of his General Andragathius circumvented and slew him Hereupon he creates his Son Victor Caesar puts to death Ballio and Merobaudes two great Commanders under the late Emperour settles his Imperial Seat at Triers sends an Army into Spain which soon brought that Countrey under his obedience and makes a feigned Peace with Theodosius and the younger Valentinian of whom the former acknowledging him for his Associate in the Empire ordered Cynegius Prefect of the Praetorium then going into Egypt to exhibit his Image publickly to the Alexandrians the other to remove all cause of suspicions and jealousies dismissed the Hunns and Alans whom he had hired to his Assistance In the mean time Conan concluded a Marriage with Vrsula Daughter to Deonotus Prince of Cornwall who had there succeeded his Brother Caradoc but this unfortunate Lady with many others who were sent over to be matched with Conan's Britans being driven up the Rhine by Tempest were seized and inhumanely slaughtered by the Soldiers of Gramus the Scot and Melga the Pict and the Hunnes whom Valentinian dismissed but were buried at Celein and in tract of time came to be reputed Martyrs and Saints Their deaths are supposed to have happened about the year three hundred eighty three I know Trithemius and Geoffrey of Monmouth say that Maximus presently after his landing settled Conan in Armorica but considering that the German Shore had been strangely out of Vrsula's way from Cornwall if her Voyage had been designed for that Countrey It seems to me more probable that Conan governed first in Brittia Bataviâ—a especially seeing all Writers affirm that Maximus arrived at the mouth of the Rhine and that Procopius speaks of a Kingdom of Britans in that Island 〈…〉 I shall here set down his own words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Isle of Brittia lyeth in this Ocean not above two hundred Stadia from the Shore over agunst the Mouths of the Rhine and in the midst between Britain and Thule For Britain lyeth to the West over against the furthest part of Spain distant from the Continent no less than four thousand Stadia but Brittia lyeth behind those Coasts of Gaul which are upon the Ocean North from Spain and Britain And Thule as far forth as is yet known is situate in the remote parts of the Ocean Northwards But I have already spoken of Britain and Thule before This Island Brittia three most populous Nations de inhabit which have every one their several King to rule them and these Nations be called Angili Frisones and after the name of the very Island Brittones Note they seem to be so vast a multitude of people that every year a great number of them with their wives and children flit from thence to the Franks and they give them entertainment and plant them in that part of their Countrey which seemeth most desert above the rest And hereupon men say they challenge to themselves the very Island And truly not long since when the King of the Franks sent certain of his people in Embassage to Constantinople to the Emperour Justinian he sent withall some of the Angili pretending ambitiously that this Island was under his Dominion Had Mr. Camden seen this passage of Procopius entire Camd. in Anglo-Sax he had not then mistaken this Brittia for our Britain but he had only the latter part of it transmitted to him by Franciseus Pithaeus and was likewise in all probability misled by John Tzetzes and his Brother Isaac of whom the former in his Notes upon Hesiod the other in his upon Lycophron calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Britain for Brittia and both of them relate Poetical Fictions of dead mens Souls carried thither This Island lay near Caligula's Watch-Tower called Brittenburg and Huis de Britten but hath been long ago with many others thereabouts swallowed up by the Sea unless we should rather think it to be Valachria which Levinus Lemnius conjectureth to have taken its name from our Welchmen About this time Priscillian a Spaniard of Noble Birth revived the Heresie of the Gnosticks wherein he was countenanced by some Bishops especially by Instantius and Salvianus who laboured to make himself Bishop of Abila upon which a Council was assembled at Burdeaux from which the Heresiarch appealed to Maximus by whom he was put to death being also convicted of Sorcery and Obscenity though Martin Bishop of Tours had interceded for the sparing of his life desiring that he might be left to the Desinitive Sentence of the Bishops it being an unexampled hainous Encroachment for a Secular Judge to determine Causes of the Church Divers others suffered with him and Instantius whom the Council had declared unworthy of his Bishoprick was banished with Tiberianus to the Isle of Silly In the year three hundred eighty seven Maximus quarrels with Valentinian for molesting the Orthodox Bishops and committing Gaul to the care of his Son Flavius Victor whom he had lately declared Augustus enters Italy with such terror that the young Emperour and his Mother Justina were constrained to flee to Theodosius for
succour After whose flight his Enemy was received with all honour by the Cities of Italy and Africk readily submitted to him so that he was now sole Monarch of the Western Empire But Theodosius first checking Valentinian for favouring Auxentius and the Arians and laying down before him the justice of God's Judgments upon him at last prepares to restore him and levies a mighty Army which he encreases with numerous Aids of Goths Hunnes and Alans Maximus nothing daunted hereat resolves to be on the assailing hand and advancing into Pannonia superior takes in Petovio now Petow in Stiria seated upon the River Dravus and leaving in it a strong Garrison marches to Syscia now Sysseg upon the River Savus in Windischland and takes that too meaning to make it the Seat of the War And hearing that Theodosius intended to send Valentinian and his Mother by Sea into Italy being now consident of his strength in field he commands Andragathius whom he had ordered to guard the Alps to embarque his Forces and intercept them which yet he failed of performing they being landed and joyfully received by their friends before his coming Yet he continued out at Sea by reason of a report that Thodesius designed to follow them with his whole Army In the mean time some of the Barbarous people who served under the Eastern Emperour were by his Fnemies bribed into a Conspiracy against him which being discovered they withdrew themselves and fled towards Maccedon to the Boggs and Lakes but were found out by the Pursuers and almost all of them put to the sword Having thus prevented that danger I atinus Pacatus in Paneg he marches up to Syseia in Pannonia where Maximus abode his coming between whom was fought a cruel Battel in which Maximus was overthrown with great slaughter and forced to fly to Petovio where his Brother Marcellinus meets him with brave Recruits Theodosius follows and sights another Battel with him there where after a sharp contest he again defeats him but night drawing on gave him opportunity to escape The Conquerour pursues and by the way receives into his service some Squadrons of his Enemies Forces which submitted to him At his entrance into Italy he is triumphantly received by the Inhabitants and Soldiers of Haemona a City situated at the Foot of the Alps and passing forward sate down before Aquileia whither Maximus was fled who appearing too much dejected at the late change of his fortune made his followers despair of all possibility of standing out Whereupon to make their own peace they seized him as he was dealing money to the Soldiers and stripping him of his Imperial Robes delivered the City and him to Theodosius in which extremity he recollected his Spirits and behaved himself undauntedly before his Adversaries But when the victorious Emperour discovered some inclinations to piâ—y and commiseration of his condition his Officers drew this unhappy Prince out of his sight and three miles off from the City beheaded him Andragathius who was scouring the Ionian Sea with his Fleet hearing of his Master's death and knowing that he must now expect the utmost severity upon the Emperour Gratian's account threw himself headlong into the Sea and there perished This Victory was thence forward as Prâ—cipius saith celebrated by the Romans with an Anniversary Festival St. Ambrose taxeth this Maximus of favouring the Jews too much and saith of him Idcirco Syscia Petovione atque ubique terrarum victus est Therefore was he overcome at Syscia and Petovio and every where else In the mean time Nannienus and Quintinus Greg. Turon whom he left in Gaul to assist his Son Victor vanquished the Franks at a place called Carbonaria after which Armorica was given to Conan who had done good Service in the fight whereupon he with a considerable number of his Britans quitting Brittia settles himself among the other Britans who had been formerly planted there by Constantius and Constantine The aforesaid victory so encouraged Quintinus that he would fain have perswaded his companion to carry the War into their countrey who warily refused and returned to Mentz But Quintinus resolute in his way passes on by Nuys and falls into the Ambushes which Genebald Marcomer and Sunnon had laid for him by whom he is soundly beaten and Heraclius Tribune of the Jovij and the greatest part of the Army cut off the rest escaping by the benefit of the night and shelter of the Woods But Arbogastes is now dispatched into Gaul by Valentinian who vanquishes and takes Victor and puts him to death and places Carietto and Syrus in the rooms of Nannienus and Quintinus This end had the Empire of Maximus in the year three hundred eighty eight when he had reigned six years whom Sulpitius Severus Orosius and Bede affirme to have been a worthy man and fit to be Emperour if he had attained it lawfully and so this Island returned to the obedience of Rome Soon after this we find our Britans going in Pilgrimage to Palestine and Syria to visit Jerusalem and Simeon Stylites but others of them we meet with not so well employed For now Pelagius contries his Heresie which some few years after he vents with his two Disciples Celestius an Irish Scot and Julianus an Italian of Campania This Pelagius was a Britan and as * Polychron lib. 4. c. 31. Ranulphus Cestrensis and †Tinm in vita Sancti Albani Joannes Tinmuthensis say was Abbot of Bangor and some will have him to be called Morgan in his own countrey language for Morgan in British signifies the same with Pelagius His Heresie shrewdly disturbed the Church for many years of which I shall say nothing here because so many have written largely of it Chrysanthus the Son of a Bishop named Martian governed Britain as Vicar at this time with great reputation having formerly been a Consular Deputy of Italy under Theodosius and was afterwards for his integrity against his will made Bishop of the Nâ—vatian Churches about Constantinople and was so charitable that of all Ecclesiastical Revenues and Profits he reserved nothing to himself but two loaves of Bread on the Lord's day In the year three hundred ninety three the Emperour Theodosius being then Consul with Abundantius the Sâ—ots from the North-west Florent Vi gorn and the Picts from the North wasted this Isle of Britain and three years after Joannes Major lib. 2. caâ—â— 1. the Scots again joyning with the Picts invaded the Roman Province to repress whom Stilico Guardian to the Emperour Honorius sent over a Legion under the command of Victorinus of Tolosa who drove them home and new fortified the Wall placing a Legion there against all occasions The Scotish Writers say that he went near to have reduced the Picts into absolute subjection It should seem the Saxons also did then infest this Land and were repulsed by him Claud. lib. 2. de laud. Stilic from these words of Claudian in which Britain is brought in speaking to Stilico
saith in his brief Commentaries there were extant in his time very ancient British Rhymes if he mistake him not for another Gerontius that was Prince of Danmonia many years after this man's time Upon the surrendry of Arles Constantius goes against Jovinus whom he overcomes and drives out of the countrey In his room up starts his Brother Sebastian whom Constantius soon defeated and slew together with his Complices Salustius and Rusticus Next he conducts his Forces into Spain against Maximus whom with like success he vanquishes and takes Prisoner but after a short time dismisses him as one who had not aspired to that usurpation through his own ambition but was only made a Stale to the Politick ends of his Advancers Those Britans that came over with Constantine when the War was ended never went home but joyned themselves with their Brethren in Armorica Procop. de bello Vand. lib. 1. Bed lib. 1. cap. 11. yet did not the Romans at all look after the recovery of Britain as Procopius and Bede with others tell us having still work enough nearer home And for some time indeed the Britans defended themselves pretty well but in the year four hundred and eighteen their old Enemies assailed them so fiercely doing so much mischief both by Sea and Land and threatning more that the residue of those Romans who had planted themselves here thought it their wisest and safest course to remove into Gaul Annal. Saxon Athelward lib. 1. hiding for hast under ground great part of their Treasure which was never after found Gildas stiles this Invasion which lasted some years A Trampling under foot a most cruell Infestation and Depression and calls it the First accounting all their former Hostilities as nothing in comparison of this and those that ensued the Picts he terms here a Transmarine Nation because parted from the rest of Britain in a manner by two Armes of the Sea now named the Friths of Edenborough and Dunbritton The Britans thus overpower'd and oppressed send Ambassadors to the Emperour Honorius and humbly beseech him with pittious prayers and promises of perpetual Subjection and Loyal Obedience for the future to succour them in this their distress whereupon in the year four hundred twenty two a Legion strongly provided for the War was by Aetius General of the Forces in Gaul dispatched hither who encountring with the Enemies and killing a huge number of them drove them out of the Province and by so bloody a victory delivered their Friends and Subjects from imminent peril Then they ordered them to build across the Island between the aforesaid Friths of Edenborough and Dunbritton from Abercorne to Kirk Patrick as Lollius and Cerausius had done before a Wall which being made with Garrisons of Soldiers might be a terror to their Foes and a safeguard to themselves But the Romans being recalled to be employed against other Enemies could not stay to see the work done so that it being made without fit Directors by the common people and unreasonable Rout not so much of Stone as of Turs proved to little purpose This year the two forementioned Usurpers Maximus and Jovinus going about to raise new Stirs with the assistance of the Barbarous Nations were taken in Spain by Castinus and Boniface who sent them into Italy where they served to adorn the Trinmph of the Emperour Honorius About this time flourished two famous British Bishops Fastidius and Ninianus of whom the former wrote to one Fatalis a worthy Book concerning Christian Life as some Copies of Gennadius have it or as others concerning Christian Faith and another of continuing in the state of Widowhood the other converted the Southern Picts inhabiting between Forth and Grantzbain and was the first Bishop of Candida Casa now Whitleerne in Galloway where he built a Church of Stone which as Joannes Tinmuthensis saith was the first Church of Stone in Britain and in Ireland he founded a large Monastery at a place called Cluayn Coner both he and his Brother Plebeias were Canonized for Saints In the year four hundred twenty five the Picts and Scots knowing that the Romans were returned home again invaded the Britans breaking down the Rampire and all other Fences committing all sorts of cruelty and sending out their Piratick Vessels robbed and ransackt their Coasts in a miserable manner The Britans therefore again send suppliant Ambassadors to entreat the Romans in meer commiseration of their case and for their own Honour once more to relieve them Whereupon Aetius by the Emperour Valentinian's command in the year four hundred twenty six sends over another Legion under the conduct of Gallio of Ravenna wo forthwith marched against those spoiling Enemies and giving them a notable Overthrow chased them home with a terrible slaughter After this Exploit the Romans declare to the Britans That the present condition of the Empire would not permit them to take any more such troublesome Journeys and therefore they must resolve to defend themselves and not be afraid of Nations no wayes more valiant than they if by sloth and idleness they did not weaken themselves So giving Manful Exhortations to a Fearful People and teaching them to make and handle Arms they together with the Inhabitants at the common charge of all and with the private additional helps of many built a Wall of Stone from Sea to Sea in the same place where as Bede and others say Bed lib. 5. cap. 12. Severus built his Wall and on those Shores which used to be most infested with Pirats they erected Watch-Towers in divers places at convenient distances and beyond the Wall they fortified up and down Stations for Soldiers as was done in Severus his time And so the Romans never to return again bid adieu to the Britans and the year following Gallio who had done this Service Mavortius and Sinnox were sent into Africk against Boniface in which War the two former lost their lives the same year by the treachery of their companion Sinnox who himself received the just reward of a Traitor from the hands of Boniface being by him put to death In the year four hundred twenty nine Presp Florentius and Dionysius being then Consuls Agricola the Pelagian the Son of Severianus a Pelagian Bishop comes into Britain and here diffuses the contagion of his pestilent opinion against whom the British Clergy more Pious than Learned in those calamitous times knowing his Doctrine to be Heretical and yet not able to confute him crave aid of the Gallick Bishops whom Pope Celestine at the Suit of Palladius a Deacon of Rome excites to help their British Brethren in this exigence Whereupon a Council is assembled wherein German Bishop of Auxerre and Lupus Bishop of Troyes men famous for their Learning and Sanctity are assigned to the work These crossing the Sea in the dead of Winter had a very stormy passage which was attributed to Evil Spirits and at their arrival found a great deal of hurt had been done here in a short
space However by continual preaching not only in Churches but also in Streets and fields and by Miracles accompanying their Doctrine they confirmed many that wavered regained others and convening a Council at Verulam in the year four hundred and thirty did there in publick Disputation put to silence their chief Adversaries From thence the Bishops went for Wales where as Nennius saith one Banlius King of Powis infected as it seems with Pelagianism and therefore refusing to entertain German and hear his Preaching was destroyed with his Palace by Lightning and Cadel a Swineherd who had lodged and treated the Bishop to his best ability was therefore advanced to the Heaven-burnt Tyrant's Throne In the year four hundred thirty one being the eighth year of Theodosius reckoning from the death of his Uncle Honorius the Picts and Scots understanding the resolution of the Romans to come back no more assail the Britans again and with greater considence than ever before drive the dismaied Soldiers from their Stations and seize into their hands all the Countrey which lay on that side of the Wall There was placed along this Wall upon an high Fort a Garrison consisting of such as lacked both Military skill and courage who warding and watching there day and night became lazy with doing nothing The Enemies coming on with their hooked weapons easily pulled down these unwarlike Wretches and dashed them to the ground and making a great Breach in the Wall at a place thence called Thirlwall which is as much as a Wall pierced through they went forward taking several wayes and committing horrible spoils and bloody slaughters every where as they went The Picts in their way meet with the Saxons who were come upon the same design of spoil and slaughter with them they joyn and all together march into Northwales The Britans had there an Army to oppose them and hearing of their Enemies approach applyed themselves to the two Bishops bemoaning their past and present miseries to them who bid them be of courage and promised them their assistance The decay of the State had wrought a strange decay of Religion the greatest part of this Army was yet unbaptized they therefore first list them under Christ's Banner by the initiating Sacrament of Baptism and then German who in his younger dayes had been a Soldier undertakes to be their General It was then the time of Lent and in the Camp there was a place set a part and drest up with Boughs for Easter-day The Enemies judging the Britans more taken up with acts of Religion than the exercise of Arms hasten against them after the Paschal Feast as to an assured victory German draws up his Army in a valley compassed about with Hills by which the Enemy was to pass and having laid an Ambush in a convenient place gives order that what word they heard him pronounce aloud the same they should repeat with an universal Shout The Saxons and Picts pass on securely and German thrice aloud cryes Halleluiah which answered by the Soldiers with a sudden burst of clamour is from the hills and valley redoubled and presently they that were in Ambush shew themselves The Enemies were hereat strangely astonished and searing that some unexpected Succours were come to the Britans were seized with such a general consternation that breaking their Ranks and throwing down their Arms they ran away in a miserable consusion leaving their Pillage to the Pursuers many of them in their hasty flight being drowned in the River This victory was gained in Flintshire hard by a Town called by the Welch Guiderue by the English Mold and hence the place of Fight was named Maes Garmon Usser de primord that is to say German's field near which runs the River Alen wherein so many of the Britans were baptized and of the Enemies drowned The same year the two Bishops returned home having overcome both Spiritual and worldly Adversaries and acted many memorable things here which we may read in Constantius Beda Nennius and others And this very year the forementioned Palladius was by Pope Celestine sent into Ireland to be Bishop of the Scots there who had received the Christian Faith and to spread Christianity in those parts who took with him twelve of his Disciples to four of whom namely Augustine Benedict Silvester and Solonius he committed the care and charge of three Churches which he built in the Province of Lemster whither he was come after he had been with the Scots in Vlster But Nathius the Son of Garcon King of Lemster opposing and disturbing him and those wild people not willing to entertain his Doctrine he departed thence into Albania and spent some time in preaching to the Picts among whom he died at Fordon in Mernis where the common people call him St. Pad Antonius Possevinus saith he was a Britan and we find the same of him in an old Marginal Note to St. Patrick's Charter in William of Malmesbury's M. S. History of the Antiquity of Glastonbury in the Library of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge speaking of Celestine's sending him to Ireland Eodem anno vel praecedente misit idem Papa ad praedicandum ibidem virum nomine Palladium Britannicum genere sed idem citò repatriavit sine effectu The same year or the year before the same Pope sent a man named Palladius a Britan by Nation to preach there but he soon returned without effect Upon the death of Paliadius Pope Celestine sent over Patrick in the year four hundred thirty two to convert the Irish and soon after himself dyed Prosp contra Collat. cap. 41. of whose Endeavours for Britain and Ireland Prâ—sper gives this Testimony Nec segniore curâ ab hoc eodem morbo Britannias liberavit quando quosdam inimicos gratiae solum suae originis occupantes etiam ab illo secreto exclusâ—t Oceani â—rdinato Scotis Episcopo dum Romanam Insulam studet strvare Catholicam fecit etiam Barbaram Christianam The Emperess Placidia Idacius Marcellinus comes Mother to the Emperour Valentinian being reconciled to Boniface resolved to make him Magister Militum Chief Commander of the Forces of the Empire in the place of Aetius which yet she thought could not casily be done while Aetius continued in the head of the Galâ—ick Army she therefore had contrived to have him elected Consul for this year with Valerius and thereby drawing him to Rome to look after his Charge there sends for Boniface out of Africk and at his coming bestows upon him the Command she had designed for him Aetius not brooking to see himself so supplanted and his utter Enemy put over his head stood out in opposition with such of his friends and followers as he could get together and came to a conflict with him wherein these two famous Generals met and fought hand to hand and Aetius with his Javelin gave Boniface his mortal wound whereof he dyed about three months after charging his wife Pelagia whom he left very rich to accept
twenty fifth of July in the year three hundred and six he could have reckoned but thirty years nine months and twenty eight dayes to the twenty second day of May in the year three hundred thirty seven at which time Constantine died Besides the Panegyrist speaks of his ennobling this Land by his Birth where he saith to him of his Father Liberavit ille Britannias servitute tu etiam nobiles illic oriendo fecisti He freed Britain from Servitude Thou madest it also Noble by being Born there For I know not how to render Oriendo better than by Being Born and the Grammarians will tell us that Orior and Oriundus which comes from it import Birth and Descent Yet others from the mistaken words of Julius Firmicus Julius Fir mic mathes lib. cap. 4. conceive him to be born at Naisus in Illyricum not considering that Firmicus speaks of Constantius the Son of Constantine who was also styled Maximus and born in Illyricum as appears by Julian his Cousin and Successor And Lipsius misled by a corrupted Copy of Firmicus in stead of Naisus reads Tarsus and placeth it in Bithynia Orat. 1. iâ— laudem Coâ—â—stantii near Drepanum where Nicephorus reports this Emperour to be born in the time of Diocletian whereas the Age of Constantine according to all approved Writers proves him to be born in the Reign of Aurelianus Britain was his Birth-place in Gaul he was made Caesar in Britain he was invested with the Purple Robe and the Imperial Dignity though he modestly abstained from the Title of Augustus till at his Marriage in Gaul it was conferred upon him by his Father-in-Law He re-edified Byzantium in Thrace for the conveniency of its situation and Drepanum in Bithynia in honour of the Martyr Latcianus there buried calling the former from his own name Constantinopolis and the latter from his Mothers Helenopolis And as William of Malmesbury saith he planted a Colony of Britans which had served him in his Wars in Armarica which I conceive to be that Army mentioned in the Book of Triads that went forth under the conduct of Caswallan the younger and Gueno and Guavar and sate down in Aquitain whereof the Britans accounted Armorica to be a part both this and Conan's forementioned Army are said to have consisted of one and twenty thousand men apiece By his Concubine Minervina he had a Son named Crispus whom he put to death and by his wise Fansta he had three Sons Constantinus Constantius and Constans among whom he divided his Empire In this division Britain with Gaul and Spain fell to Constantinus who as Eldest Brother expected a larger share and finding himself disappointed invaded the Territories of his Brother Constans by whose Captains he was trained into an Ambush and slain near Aquileia when he had reigned three years His Provinces were presently seized by Constans who having overcome the Franks in a great Battel Liban in Basilico crossed over into Britain as Libanius writes with his Brother Constantius in the Winter-time and quieted some stirs here 343. Julius Firmic de Error profan Releg c. 29. Whereupon Julius Firmicus not the Pagan Astrologer but the Christian speaks thus to them Ye have in Winter-time subdued under your Oars the swelling and raging Billows of the British Ocean the waves now of the Sea unto this time hardly known to us have trembled and the Britains were afraid to see the unexpected face of the Emperour What would ye more the very Elements as vanquished have given place to your Virtues This Voyage was in the year four Hundred forty three and four years after Constans caused a Council to convene at Sardica at which some British Bishops were present and gave their suffrages for Paulus and Athanasius against the Arians At this time Gratianus Father to the Emperours Valentinian and Valens was General of all the Military Forces in Britain who was Sirnamed Funarius because in his youth going about with a Rope to sell five Soldiers that set upon him were not able to wrest it from him In the year three hundred and fifty Constans was slain by the Traiterous Conspiracy of Magnentius Sirnamed Taporus the Son of a Britain but born in Gaul among the Laeti who usurped the Western Empire and after three years inauspicious Reign being vanquished by Constantius he slew himself to avoid the Conqueror's Justice After this victory strict Enquiry is made for his Abettors and among the rest that suffered Gratianus Funarius who had now quitted all publick employment and betook himself to a private life was sined in the confiscation and loss of his Goods because he was reported to have lodged the Tyrant and given him entertainment For the like purpose Paulus a Notary Sirnamed Catena from his craft in linking matters together Amm. Marcel lib. 14. was sent into Britain to discover and apprehend the Favourers of Magnentius who violently seized upon the Fortunes and Estates of many spoiling and undoing a great number imprisoning such as were free-born and grieving their bodies with Bonds and bruising some of them with Manacles and all by patching together many false Accriminations against them Which gave such distaste to Martinus the Vice-gerent here an honest upright man that having in vain entreated him not to ruine such innocent persons he threatned to depart the Land hoping this malicious Inquisitor might for fear thereof be induced to surcease his cruel proceedings But Paulus supposing that hereby his Trade was empaired converted his spight against the Vice-gerent himself whom he drew in to have his part in the common perils and went very near to bring him also prisoner bound with Tribunes and several others to the Emperours Privy Counsel Whereat Martinus was so incensed that he assailed him with his Dagger but failing to wound him mortally stabbed himself and Paulus fearing to stay any longer in an enraged Province now destitute of a Governour hasted away carrying over with him a great company in chains of whom some were dragg'd and tortured some proscribed and outlawed some banished and others suffered punishment by the sword And now Constantius being sole Monarch resolves to promote the interest of Arianism and to that end in the year three hundred fifty nine summons a Council to meet at Ariminum upon the Emperour's charges which was resused by the Gaulish and British Bishops only three of the British for meer poverty accepted it judging it not so blameable to live upon the Prince's Cost as to burden any private Purse though the other Bishops had offered to contribute to them Here though the Arians got some advantage by the Emperour's power and the violence of his Prefect Taurus and the subtle Policies of the two Heretical Bishops Valens and Vrsacius yet did the Western Provinces and particularly Britain continue free from that Herefie long after as Athanasius and the other Bishops of Egypt and Lybia testisie in their Letter to the Emperour Jovianus concerning the Nicene Creed In the year three
sends an Ambassador to Honorius requesting to be held excused for suffering the Purple to be forcibly put upon him by the Soldiers who knowing nothing as yet of the death of his Kinsmen in hopes of saving their lives sent him of free gift the Imperial Robe To confirm this Agreement and to excuse the deaths of Didymius and Verenianus Constantine dispatches another Ambassador named Jovius who told the Emperour that they were slain by the Soldiers without the privity of Constantine and against his will But finding Honorius highly incensed at it he advised him that considering the present posture of Assairs he should remit his anger against Constantine for what was past remedy promising that if he would give him leave to repair to his Master and inform him of the state of Italy he would return to his assistance with the Forces of Gaul Spain and Britain and upon this assurance he was safely disinist For Strlico's design to make away the young Theod sius and thereby to get the Eastern Empire for his Son Eucherius being discovered he was put to death by the command of Honorius whereupon Alarick the Goth who feared none but him entred Italy again which Expedition proved so much the more prosperous to him than the former that he took and spoiled Rome and many other Cities so that the Emperour stood in great need of help against him In Gaul Constantine holding his condition now secure becomes supine and negligent giving himself over to Gluttony and Belly-chear His Son Constans he sends back into Spain who taking with him one Justus to be General of his Army there gave thereby such offence to Gerontius that he set up one of his friends named Maximus for Emperour at Tarracon and excited the Vandals and other Barbarous people in Gaul to break their league with Constantine who was too weak for them in this conjuncture the greatest part of his Forces being in Spain and siding with his Enemies This advantage was espyed and taken by the Nations beyond the Rhine who hereupon cruelly afflicted several parts of Gaul with their incursions and the Maritime Cities of Britain with their Piracies Which when Constantine could not redress the Britans addressed themselves to Honorius and craved aid of him But he having his hands full of the Gothick War advises them to take courage and defend themselves and by his Letter acquits them of their subjection to the Roman Empire They therefore thus discharged took Arms and defended themselves as well as they could whose example was quickly followed by the Britans of Armorica At the same time the Franks crossing the Rhine took the Imperial City of Triers and the Vandals Sueves and Alans passed over the Pirenaean Hills and joyning with the Forces which Constans had left there in Garrison entred Spain Constantine now declares his Son Constans Augustus and Associate in the Empire and displacing Apollinaris from his Praetorian Prefecture bestows it upon another Ellobichus or Allobichus a man of great power and trust with Honorius upon some distaste privily invites Constantine into Italy who passing the Alps marched to Verona and was ready to cross the Po when news was brought him of the sudden death of Ellobichus upon which he returned back to Arles where he kept his residence having caused that City to be called after his own name Constantina and ordained that the Assemblies for Assizes of seven Provinces should be there held Honorius being hereof advertised as he returned from a journey immediately alighted to give God thanks for so great a deliverance from an unsuspected Domestick Conspiratour And now he had leisure to think of revenge against Constantine since his greatest Enemy Alarick King of the Goths was also lately dead at Consentia In the mean time Gerontius leaving Maximus in Spain marches for Gaul whereupon Constantine orders his Son Constans to stay at Vienna while he sends Edobichus to the Franks and Almans for aid But Gerontius takes Vienna by Assault and kills Constans and from thence conducts his Forces against Constantine himself and layes Siege to Arles Thither comes Constantius General for the Emperour Honorius and sits down before the City too At whose coming Gerontius finding that many of his Soldiers deserted him and fearing a general Revolt in case of longer stay there broke up his Leaguer and hasted for Spain with those that would follow him in such sort as little differed from plain flight The remainder of his Army went over to Constantius who hearing that Edobichus was advancing against him sent his Lieutenant General Vlphilas and part of his Army before with orders to conceal themselves in some convenient place while their Enemy passed by himself follows marching directly against Edobichus between whom was fought a cruel Battel but in the end Edobichus being charged by Constantius before and by Vlphilas behind was with great slaughter defeated and in this distress flees to an ancient friend of his named Ecdicius whom he had many ways obliged formerly Ecdicius receives him with a feigned kindness and in the night cuts off his head which he presents to Constantius in hopes of being well rewarded for it But when he would have stayed in the Camp the worthy General commanded him to depart as detesting the sight of him who had been perfidious to a deserving friend This success so discouraged Constantine that to save his life he turn'd Priest when he had reigned four years and so Arles after a Siege of four months was surrendred Constantine being taken with his Son Julian whom he had named Nobilissimus was sent into Italy and near the River Mincius beheaded by the order of Honorius in the year four hundred and eleven In the mean time Jovinus who commanded in Gaul under Constantine drawing together all the Forces of that Countrey with strong supplies of Franks Burgundians and Alans in stead of endeavouring the relief of his Master sets up for himself and puts on the Imperial Robes at Auverne which added to the dejection of the Besieged in Arles and hastened their yielding In Spain Gerontius after his shameful return grew into such contempt with the Soldiers that they beset his house in the night where with the help of his friend Alanus and a few Servants he defended himself stoutly and slew above three hundred of them and when his Darts and other weapons were spent he might at last have escaped at a private door as his Servants did but not enduring to leave his wife Nonnichia whom he entirely loved to the violence of enraged Mutineers he first cut off the head of his dear friend Alanus then of his own Wife Nonnichia at the earnest entreaty of them both who loved him so affectionately that they would not survive him Last of all he turns his sword against himself but missing the mortal place finishes his work with his Poniard more fortunate in his friend than Edobichus though less deserving it for his Disloyalty Of the death of this Gerontius Mr. Humfrey Lhoyd