shew of Authority that Palladius was sent to those which were already Christians and therefore Christianity must be planted among the Scots before the Mission of Palladius and for this he quotes Beda Ado Viennensis Hermannus Contractus Marianus Scotus and others and he blames Platina and Ciacconius who make him the Instrument of their Conversion wherein he confesseth they follow Fabius Ethelwerd and Ingulphus but he takes no notice that Prosper himself in his Chronicon affirms the same thing and the others have it from him So that Prosper makes the Scots to be converted by Palladius and to have been Christians before his time which are inconsistent But Nennius seems to have hit upon the true account of this matter viz. That Palladius was sent by Celestine to convert the Scots but finding no great success therein he was driven on the Coasts of Britain and there died And after his death St. Patrick was sent on the same Errand And if the Writers of his Life may be believed Palladius did very little towards the Conversion of the Scots And therefore what Prosper saith of Celestine's making a barbarous Nation Christian must be understood of his Design and good Intention and not of the Event which came not to pass till some time after and chiefly by the means of St. Patrick who went after the death of Palladius Unless we understand the Words of Prosper of those who were made Christians at the time of his Writing the Design whereof being laid by Palladius is therefore attributed to him when he wrote against Cassian sometime after the death of Celestine But when he wrote his Chronicon in the time of Leo The Scots being then converted he saith That Palladius was appointed to be Bishop over the believing Scots Not that they did then believe before Palladius his coming but that they did now believe when he wrote his Chronicon For all the Testimonies of such as Preached there before Palladius are of very little Credit But nothing of all this relates to the Scots in Britain but to the original Scots in Ireland who were uncapable of a National Conversion in Britain so long before they came to settle in it as will appear afterwards So that if there were any Conversion of Scots before the Mission of Palladius it cannot at all respect this Place of Tertullian who speaks onely of the Britains and not of the Scots And Dio knew of none but Britains that lived Northward in that Expedition of Severus although he saith he went to the utmost extent of the Island and at last concluded a Peace with the Britains upon their quitting no small part of their Countrey although they soon revolted So that here was a great number of Britains to be converted in those Places where the Romans never had been before Severus his last Expedition Which the Scotish Historians apply to the Conversion of their Nation who were not yet come into Britain But allowing that there were Churches planted among the Northern Britains this doth not overthrow the continuance and propagation of the Christian Church among the Provincial Britains For now for a long time the Christian Religion had a great Liberty of propagating it self For from the time of Hadrian to Severus the Christians were generally free from Persecution excepting what the Rage of the People brought upon them in some Places without any Edict of the Emperours as in the time of the Antonini both at Rome in Gaul and some parts of the East But these Persecutions were neither general nor continued so long as when the Emperours published Edicts on purpose and therefore the Persecutions under Trajan and the Antonini ought in reason to be distinguished from those under Nero and Domitian Decius and Dioclesian when the Emperours made it their business to root out Christianity But in the former Case the Emperours restrain'd the People by their Edicts but the People in some Places by false Suggestions frustrated the design of those Edicts which Places excepted the Christians enjoy'd a long time of Liberty In which they neglected no opportunities to promote their Religion And within this time the Christian Writers say There was no Nation almost then known where Christianity was not planted So Justin Martyr tells Trypho so Eusebius and Ruffinus speak and Lactantius saith That Christianity spread it self into the East and West so that there was scarce any Corner of the Earth so remote whither it had not pierced no Nation so barbarous that was not reduced by it As to Britain Gildas affirms the continuance of a Church here from the first Plantation of the Gospel though not maintain'd with equal Zeal to the Persecution of Dioclesian and even that was so far from destroying it that it gained strength and reputation by the Courage of Confessours and Martyrs and the heat of it was no sooner over but as Bede and Gildas both say the Christian Church flourished again in great Peace and Vnity till the Arian Heresie gave it disturbance 2. It is objected That Sulpicius Severus speaking of the Persecution of Christians in Gaul in the time of M. Aurelius Antoninus saith That Martyrdoms were then first seen in Gaul the Christian Religion being more lately received beyond the Alpes Which seems to overthrow the Antiquity of the Britannick as well as the Gallick Churches But in my opinion after so many Discourses written in a neighbour Nation about this Passage we are to distinguish that which Sulpicius Severus absolutely affirms viz. That there were no Martyrdoms in Gaul before that time From that which he supposes to have been the reason of it viz. That the Christian Religion was more lately received on this side the Alpes The other he was certain of there being no authentick Relation of any Martyrdoms there before but that which he assigns as the reason of it hath no such certainty in it For the Christian Churches might have been planted there before and have escaped that Persecution which befell the Churches of Lyons and Vienna in the time of M. Aurelius He might as well have argued that Christianity was not here received till a little before the Persecution of Dioclesian because we reade of no Martyrdoms before those of St. Alban Julius and Aaron at that time But if there were no Edict for Persecution of Christians for above an hundred years together viz. from the Persecution of Domitian Anno Dom. 92. to the Edict of Severus Anno Dom. 204. then it was very possible that there might be Christian Churches in Gaul and yet no Martyrdoms till the Persecution under M. Aurelius by a popular Tumult which as Eusebius tells us was the seventeenth year of his Reign Baronius thinks that M. Aurelius sent private Edicts against the Christians But Tertullian saith none of their good Emperours ever persecuted the Christians and instanceth in Trajan Hadrian Pius Verus and M. Aurelius Eusebius saith That Trajan abated the fierceness of
suppress them and the latter sent Lupicinus his General who arrived at London about the time the Council of Ariminum was dissolved and therefore in a time of such Confusion in the British Province it is not strange that these Churches should not be in so plentifull a condition as those which were the Seat of Trade and Government And Ammianus Marcellinus observes that the Provincial Bishops lived in a much meaner condition than those of the greater Cities especially of Rome And although a Heathen he very much commends them for their Temperance Humility and Modesty But Arianism was not the onely Heresie the British Churches were charged with For Gildas from hence makes every following Heresie to find a passage hither among which the chief was Pelagianism And Bede doth insinuate That Pelagius being a Britain and spreading his Doctrine far and near did corrupt these Churches with it which some late Writers having taken up have affirmed that both Pelagius and Coelestius after their Repulse at Rome came over into Britain and dispersed their Doctrine here Leland sadly laments the Condition of the Church of God that had no sooner recover'd it self from Arianism but a new Heresie sprung up to disturb the Peace and infect the minds of Christians But as Egypt brought forth the Authour of the former Heresie so did Britain the Authour of this which took his name from hence And is supposed to have been Morgan in British which by his conversation at Rome he turned into Pelagius And St. Augustine saith He was commonly called Pelagius Brito to distinguish him as he supposed from another Pelagius of Tarentum Leland observes that some made him a Britain as being born in that Bretagn which was called Aremorica on the Continent But I do not find that it had then lost its name of Aremorica The first time we find the name of Britannia given to that Countrey is in the Subscription of Mansuetus to the Council of Tours where he is named Episcopus Britannorum after which time it was frequently called Britannia Cismarina Minor Celtica c. Dempster not a Jesuit but a Lawyer takes it very ill of Browerus the Jesuit that he makes Pelagius a Scot But not as Dempster understands him For he explains himself That he meant one that came out of Ireland and therefore was Scoticae Originis For which he quotes Saint Jerome But Archbishop Vsher hath observed That he speaks there not of Pelagius but of Coelestius whom he makes the Cerberus to the Pluto according to his usual way of complementing his Adversaries But both he thinks came out of the British Islands The late Publisher of Marius Mercator endeavours to shew That our learned Primate was herein mistaken And that Saint Jerome doth not speak of Coelestius but of Pelagius himself And that by Pluto he means Ruffinus dead in Sicily three years before St. Jerome 's writing these Words But notwithstanding he did still bark through Pelagius his Mouth whom he compares to a great Scotch Mastiff from which Countrey he is derived in the Neighbourhood of Britain If these Words relate onely to Ruffinus and Pelagius it is certain that St. Jerome would have it believed That Pelagius came out of Ireland That which makes it most probable that he means them is That in the Preface to his Commentaries on Ezekiel he mentions the death of Ruffinus and then saith he hoped now he should be quiet to go on with his Commentaries on the Scriptures But not long after he complains That there were others which in his Room open'd their Mouths against him In the beginning of his Commentaries on Jeremiah which he undertook after he had finished those on Ezekiel he mentions one who carped at his Commentaries on the Ephesians and calls Grunnius i. e. Ruffinus his Forerunner And saith he was Scotorum pultibus praegravatus made fat with Scotch Flummery All this agrees very well with Pelagius whom Grosius describes as a very corpulent Man But there is one thing which makes the former Opinion not improbable which is That St. Jerome himself takes so much notice that Pelagius at that time wrote little or nothing about these matters but Coelestius was the Man who appeared especially in the two main Points about Original Sin and the Possibility of Perfection In his Epistle to Ctesiphon he saith That the Author of the Sect still held his Peace and his Disciples wrote for him Magistrorum silentia profert rabies Discipulorum Methinks Rabies agrees well enough with Cerberus and here it is meant of the Disciple Coelestius and not of Pelagius Which Expression answers very well to the other Mutus Magister latrat per Albinum Canem And he speaks as if he designed to draw him from his closeness and retirement Which doth far better agree to the mute Person than to the barking Cerberus There is then no Improbability that Coelestius and Pelagius may be both meant But if any other Countrey hath a mind to challenge Coelestius to themselves I think they may be allow'd to put in their Claim notwithstanding these Expressions But it is very unworthy in the same Author to prove Pelagius to have been an Irish Scot and at the same time to charge his Vices on the British Nation He cannot deny That Pelagius had a great natural sharpness of Wit since St. Augustine and his other Adversaries allow it But then he saith it was fierce and contentious after the fashion of his Countrey and which he could not shake off by his long Conversation at Rome He grants that his Exhortations to Piety were vehement and earnest but written in an uncouth and imperious Style more Gentis according to the humour of his Nation But why must the British Nation be reproached for the particular faults of Pelagius It is a very ill way of confuting Pelagius to attribute Mens Vices and Vertues to their Countries And is contrary both to the discretion of a Philosopher and to the Grace of a Christian Pelagius might have had the same temper if he had been so happy as to have been born in a Neighbour Countrey And I do not see how his Way of writing doth affect the British Churches Where the Christians might be very wise and humble notwithstanding this severe and unjust Character of the British Nation Which as all National Reproaches is not so great a Reproach to any as to him that gives it But the greatest Adversaries to Pelagius did not give him so ill a Character Saint Augustine saith he had the esteem of a very Pious man and of being a Christian of no mean rank Was this Pro more Gentis too And of his Learning and Eloquence St. Augustine gives sufficient Testimony in his Epistle to Juliana the Mother of Demetrias to whom Pelagius wrote an Epistle highly magnified for the Wit and Elegance of it But Garnerius will not allow that Pelagius was able to write it
himself without the assistance of his Disciples Coelestius and Annianus But why should this be so hard a thing for a Man whom he confesses to have had a great deal of Natural Wit and St. Augustine saith He lived long yea very long in Rome and kept the best Company there Could a Britain never attain to so much Purity of the Roman Language as to write an Epistle to the Envy of those meliore solo prognatorum as he speaks who were born in more happy soils What mean such unbecoming reflexions on the Countrey of Pelagius when himself confesses he had so much Mother Wit And one would think of the two that is the better soil which produceth more Wit than Words Our Monkish Historians make Pelagius not onely a Monk at Bangor but the Abbat there So the Authour of the Polychronicon and John of Tinmouth Leland takes it from them To whom Bale adds That he was made Bishop in the East But without any Authority Leland saith That he went over into Aremorica to visit his Countreymen who were newly settled there being carried over by Maximus Gildas seems to imply That Maximus was originally a Britain when he calls him Germen plantationis suae But Bede takes no notice at all of his Countrey The Saxon Annals Fabius Ethelwerd Huntingdon and others say he was born in Britain But Zosimus affirms That he was a Spaniard and took it ill that he was no more prefer'd when his Countreyman Theodosius was made Emperour However this were it is certain that he was declared Emperour in Britain and that he went out of Britain with the Forces here And that Gratian's Legions revolted to him upon which he fled and was killed And that Maximus being unsatisfied with Gratian's share of the Empire went into Italy against Valentinian and was after four years destroyed at Aquileia But in all the Proceedings of Maximus I see no ground for the settling the Colonies of Britains in Aremorica For he landed at the Mouth of the Rhine saith Zosimus and was well received by the Roman Legions there abouts What occasion then was there for his coming against the Aremorici Or if he had driven them out had he nothing to doe with his Souldiers but to people Countries with them But we find the Aremorici in quiet possession of their Countrey after this time So that we see no reason at all for Pelagius to go to his Countreymen in Aremorica From thence Leland carries him to all the Places of Learning in Gaul As there were many at that time And while he was thus passing up and down he met with Julianus of Campania whose Wit and Learning recommended him to Pelagius But this cannot hold For Pelagius lived a long time in Rome before his Heresie was discovered After the Discovery of it many years passed before Julian appeared in it And in the last Work of St. Augustine just before his death He calls Julian a young man Although he had been a Bishop in Campania at a Place called Aeculanum thence his Title was Episcopus Eclanensis The Town stood faith Holstenius near Mirabella But since its Destruction the See was removed to Frigento and the Bishop called Episcopus Frequentinus If Pelagius passing through Gaul made so long a Stay in Rome as St. Augustine saith before he was suspected of Heresie there is no probability at all in the Monkish Tradition of his being Abbat of Bangor And there is not much more of Bangor's being so famous a Monastery at that time or of Pelagius his being a Monk therein For the British Monasteries were no elder than St. Patrick's time as I may have occasion to shew afterwards And even at Rome it self the Monastick state had not been long known there being brought out of the East by Athanasius and Eusebius of Vercelles And in Pelagius his time those were called Monks at Rome who had no Office in the Church but yet retired from the common Emploiments of the World for Sacred Studies and Devotion and where any Number of these lived together that was called a Monastery Such was the Monasterium Pinneti mention'd by Ruffinus not far from Rome Probably a House of Melania whither they were wont to retire in times of greater Devotion Garnerius confesses that Pelagius was no otherwise a Monk than as those were then called so who led stricter Lives than others within their own Houses of which Number he reckons Pammachius Paulinus Melania Demetrias and others at that time to whom Pelagius was well known and much esteemed by them before his Heresie was discover'd The chief Emploiment of these Persons next to their Devotions was the Study of the Scriptures as appears by St. Jerome's Epistles And some grave Person made it his business to instruct his Disciples therein So St. Jerome did at Bethlehem So Ruffinus did Pammachius Melania and her Family And so Pelagius did at Rome where he had Scholars whom he brought up as appears both by Coelestius and Julianus whom he instructed very young and by Timasius and Jacobus From this Emploiment it was that he wrote his short Commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles and his Epistles to Melania and Demetrias But after he was accused of Heresie his time was spent in Vindication of himself in Africa Asia and Rome and after many Bandyings to and fro from want of understanding the meaning of Pelagius he was besides the Councils in Africa at last condemned in a Council at Antioch under Theodotus as Marius Mercator shews And from thence forward he spent the Remainder of his Life in Obscurity dying somewhere in the East From whence it appears that there is no probability that Pelagius and Coelestius should come back to Britain to spread their Heresie here For he complain'd of his Age when he set forth his Commentaries at Rome about Anno Domini 404. And he was certainly in the East at the Council of Diospolis Anno Domini 415. from whence he sent Coelestius to Rome but abode there himself with Albina Pinianus and Melania And wrote Letters to clear himself first to Innocentius and then to Zosimus who was so well satisfied therewith that he wrote a sharp Letter to the African Bishops who had condemned him in his Vindication severely taxing his Accusers Although there were Heresie in that Confession which Coelestius tendred to Zosimus and which he esteemed Orthodox And St. Augustine is fain to make use of all his Wit to bring the Pope off from approving of Heresie Henr. de Noris confesseth that he was circumvented by the Pelagians But it was in a matter of Fact saith Jansenius What when he denied Original Sin in that very Paper he delivered in to Zosimus Cappellus thinks it better to deny Zosimus his Letter but therein he is condemned by Petavius and others who have lately written about this matter and say that Cappellus his Opinion is singular and false being contradicted by the Testimonies of Marius Mercator
first settling of the Scots in Britain to be that under Reuda But he mentions their Annals for Fergus the Son of Ferchard before Reuda and Rether and Ryddesdale as it is in Fordon But he makes the Kingdoms of the Picts Scots and Britains to be distinct in Caesar's time And that they all joined against him And so relates Fordon's Story to the time of Fergus II. But between the two Fergusses he makes but 15 Kings and 700 Years Hector Boethius before he begins the Tradition of Gathelus very ingenuously confesses that their Nation follow'd the Custome of other Nations therein making themselves the Offspring of the Greeks and Egyptians And so he tells all the Story from Gathelus as Fordon has done onely here and there making Additions and Embellishments of his own As when he derives the Brigantes from Brigantia in Spain When he sets down the Deliberation about the Form of Government upon Fergus his coming to Scotland And the Speeches of Fergus and the King of the Picts The Death of Coilus King of the Britains The entring the fundamental Contract of the Scots with the Posterity of Fergus in Marble Tables in the way of Hieroglyphicks The Agrarian Law and Partition made by Seven and the Division of the Tribes The bringing the Silures Ordovices Camelodunum as well as the Brigantes within the Compass of Scotland These are the proper Inventions of Hector unless he had them from his Spaniard Veremundus which no one could tell but himself Thence Leland and Lluyd charge him with innumerable Falshoods Dempster confesses that Buchanan frequently chastises him But he would have it rather on the Account of Religion than Learning But it is plain that he owns his Mistakes and Vanity onely he charges Lluyd with as great on behalf of the Britains In the Second Book Hector inlarges more For Fordon passeth on from Fergus to Rether or Bede's Reuda having nothing to say But Hector acquaints us with the Contest about the Regency upon Fergus his Death and the Law then made concerning it the attempt of Resignation of Feritharis to Ferlegus the Son of Fergus and his Imprisonment upon it The Death of Feritharis after fifteen years Reign The Flight of Ferlegus into Britain with the Choice of Main his younger Brother to be King His good Government and Annual Progress for Justice through all Places of his Dominions His appointing Circles of great Stones for Temples and one in the middle for the Altar And the Monthly Worship of the New Moon And several Egyptian Sacrifices which one would have thought had been more proper for Gathelus himself with the Succession of his Son Dornadil his making the Laws of Hunting which were still observed there And of his Brother Nothatus his Son Reuther being an Infant Who came in by the Law of Regency saith Hector By the Power of the People saith Buchanan but in truth by neither For all this Succession seems to have been the product of Hector's fruitfull Invention which Buchanan follows without Authority as he doth in all the rest of the Succession of that Race of Kings from Reuther to Fergus II. To make way for Bede's Account of Reuda's coming into those Parts of Britain This Reuther is forced back into Ireland from whence he is said to return with new Supplies after twelve years From whom the Scots were then called Dalreudini But this return of Reuther Hector places in the year before Christ 204. And after him Reutha his Kinsman In whose time Hector relates an Embassy from Ptolemy Philadelphus to him And the Account of Scotland which he began in a large Volume for his satisfaction which was after finished by Ptolemy the Cosmographer This Buchanan had the Wit to leave out and even Dempster himself though he mentions him for a Writer of their History and so he doth the Voyage of the two Spanish Philosophers in the time of Josina and their Preaching against the Egyptian Worship in Scotland but Lesly hath it And if Buchanan had believed it he would have set it down as well as Josina's bringing Physick and Chirurgery into so much request That there was not a Noble Man that could not practise the latter And yet Hector declares immediately after the Story of the Philosophers that hitherto he had followed Veremundus John Campbell and Cornelius Hibernitus the most approved Authours of their History It would have been some satisfaction to the World if any other Person had seen these Authours besides Fordon never mentions them And yet he used great diligence to search their Antiquities And if Dempster may be believed had the Sight of their most ancient MSS. Buchanan passes them over Dempster names them on the authority of Hector What became of these great Authours afteâ— Hector's time Did he destroy them as some say Polydore Virgil did some of ours after he had used them But this were Madness to quote their Authority and destroy the Authours For these were his Vouchers which ought most carefully to have been preserved And in truth Hector himself gives no very consistent Account of his Authours For in his Epistle to James 5. he mentions Veremundus Archdeacon of St. Andrew's who deduced the Scotish History from the Original to Malcolm III. And Turgott Bishop of St. Andrew's and John Campbell which were brought from the Island Iona To whom he adds an Anonymous Authour and the imperfect History of William Elphinston Bishop of Aberdeen But saith he if any ask such a material Question How came these Authours to be seen no where else He answers That Edw. I. destroy'd all their Monuments of Antiquity So that had not those been preserved in the Island Iona with the Chest of Books which Fergus II. brought from the sacking of Rome in the time of Alaric They had been able to give no account of their Antiquities From whence it is evident that Hector never saw or heard of any ancient Authours of their History but such as were conveyed to him from the Island Iona. But in his Seventh Book where he gives a more particular account of those Books which were brought to him from thence he onely mentions some broken Fragments of Latin Authours But whose they were where Written whence they came he knew not And as to their own Histories he names indeed Veremundus and Elphinston and no more The latter he said before was imperfect and lately done So that the whole Credit of Hector's Antiquities rests entirely upon Veremundus For here he never takes notice of Campbell or Cornelius Hibernicus But he saith Edw. I. had destroy'd all their Antiquities but such as were preserved in the Island Iona or Hy. And is this now a good Foundation to build a History upon For is it not very strange that no one Copy of Veremundus should be heard of since that time When there were several of Fordon not onely there but in our Libraries some with the Inlargements and some without But if our King