Apostles and by the ten books of S. Clement 7. But as for us we are able according to the authority of Holy Scriptures to give a true and sufficient testimony of our Tonsure and doe affirm that S. Peter ordained this Rite of Tonsure for severall causes First that thereby he might on his head bear a representation of our Lord who ascending the Crosse for our Redemption was Crownd by the execrable Iews in a cruell manner with sharp peircing thorns Next that the Preists of the Old and New Testament might be distinguished by their habit and Tonsure And lastly that the same Apostle and his followers might carry the ridiculous expression of scorn used by the Romans who when they sold their slaves taken in war they were wont to crown them But in the Old Testament this Signe of Tonsure took its Originall if I be not mistaken from the Nazarites who were persons consecrated to God for it is a mark of a Royall and Sacerdotall descent For a Tiara was anciently sett on the heads of the Preists which being enwrapped in fine linnen was round like the Middle Sphere and this is represented by that part of the head which is shorn Now a Crown or Diademe was a golden circle of some breadth which encompassed the heads of Kings And both these signs are expressed on the heads of Clergy-men concerning whom S. Peter saith You are an elect nation a Royal Preist-hood And moreover by this Rite of shaving and polling is signified our duty to cutt off all our vices and that we should devest our selves of our sins as we doe of our haires 8. But there is among you another practise far more pernicious to soules which is that in the observation of the Solemnity of Easter you neglect to follow the Rule of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers who in the Nicene Councill with great sagacity established the Circle of Nineteen years to last to the end of the world by the numbers of Eight and Eleaven and also ordained the Paschall supputation from the fourteenth day of the Moon to the one and twentieth making these the terms of the Paschall Circle which it is unlawfull for any one to transgresse Whereas the Preists among you according to the Account and Circle of Anatolius or rather according to the Rule of Sulpitius Severinus who described a Course of eighty four years doe some-times observe the Paschall Solemnity on the fourteenth Moon with the Iews whereas the Bishops of the Roman Church doe observe neither of these ways of calculation Neither have they decreed that posterity should follow the Paschall Table of Victorius which contains a course of five hundred thirty two years For there was a sort of Heretiks in the East called Tessera-decatitae because they celebrated the Paschall Solemnity on the fourteenth Moon with the Iews who blaspemed our Lord and trode under foot the pearles of the Gospell And for this they were excluded from the Communion of the Church and ranked among the unhappy conventicles of Schismatiks Of these as I remember S. Augustin makes mention in his Treatise of Ninety Heresies 9. But besides these enormities there is another thing wherein they doe notoriously swerve from the Catholick Faith and Evangelical Tradition which is that the Preists of the Demetae or South-west Wales inhabiting beyond the bay of Severn puffed up with a conceit of their own purity doe exceedingly abhorâ— communion with us insomuch as they will neither ioyn in prayers with us in the Church nor enter into society with us at the Table yea moreover the fragments which we leave after refection they will not touch but cast them to be devoured by doggs and unclean Swine The Cupps also in which we have drunk they will not make use of till they have rubbed and cleansed them with sand or ashes They refuse all civil salutations or to give us the kisse of pious fraternity contrary to the Apostles precept Salute one another with a holy kisse They will not afford us water and a towel for our hands nor a vessell to wash our feet Whereas our Saviour having girt himself with a towell washed his Disciples feet and left us a pattern to imitate saying As I have done to you so doe you to others Moreover if any of us who are Catholicks doe goe amongst them to make an abode they will not vouchsafe to admitt us to their fellowship till we be compelled to spend forty dayes in Pennance And herein they unhappily imitate those Hereticks who will needs be called Cathars or Puritans 10. Such enormous errours and malignities as these are to be mournfully bewayld with sighes and teares since such their behaviour is contrary to the precepts of the Gospell and suiting with the Traditions of Iewish Pharisees concerning whom our Saviour saith Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees who cleanse the outsides of Cupps and dishes On the contrary our Lord disdaind not to be present at feasts with Publicans and sinners thereby shewing himself a good Physician who was carefull to provide wholesom cataplasms and medecines to heale the corrupt wounds of those that conversed with him Therefore he did not like the Pharisees despise the conversation of sinners but on the contrary according to his accustomed clemency he mercifully comforted the poor sinfull woman who bewayld the former pollutions of her life and casting herself at our Lords feet washed them with showres of teares and wiped them with the curled locks of her haire concerning whom he said Her many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much 11. Since therefore the truth of these things cannot be denyed we doe with earnest humble prayers and bended knees beseech and adiure you as you hope to attain to the fellowship of Angels in Gods heavenly kingdom that you will no longer with pride and stubbornes abhorr the doctrines and Decrees of the Blessed Apostle S. Peter nor pertinaciously and arrogantly despise the Tradition of the Roman Church preferring before it the Decrees and ancient Rites of your Predecessours For it was S. Peter who having devoutly confessed the Son of God was honoured by him with these Words Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevayle against it And to thee will I give the keyes of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shal be loosed in heaven If therefore the Keyes of the kingdom of heaven were given to S. Peter who is he who having despised the principall Statuts and ordinances of his Church can presumingly expect to enter with ioy through the gate of the heavenly Paradise And if he by a peculiar Priviledge and happines received the power of binding and the Monarchy of loosing in heaven and earth who is he who having reiected the Rule of the Paschall Solemnity and the Rite of the Roman Tonsure will not rather
was miraculously forbidden and hindred as we shall shew more at large when we come to the season of that Mission For Almighty God designed him for another employment which was the reducing of the Scottish Monks and Clergy to a conformity with the Catholick Church in the Celebration of Easter in Canonicall Tonsure and other Rites How this was effected S. Beda thus relates 10. Not long after saith he those Monks also which inhabited the Island of Hy of the Scottish nation together with all the Monasteries subiect to them were by Gods Providence brought to the Catholick Observance of Easter and Canonicall Tonsure For in the year after our Lords Incarnation seaven hundred and sixteen in which after that Osred King of the Northumbers was slain Coeâ—red governed there there came to them out of Ireland the holy and Venerable Preist Egbert of whom we spoke before and was with great reverence and ioy received by them He being a very winning Teacher and moreover one who devoutly practised what he taught was willingly hearkned to by them all and by his diligent and pious exhortations changed the inveterate Tradition of their Ancestours to whom we may apply that saying of the Apostle That they had a zeale of God but not according to knowledge and taught them to celebrate the Prime Christian Solemnity and to receive the Canonicall Tonsure after the Catholick and Apostolick manner And herein we may admire the mercifull dispensation of Divine Providence that the same Nation which formerly had with great willingnes communicated to our Ancestours the Light of Divine knowledge should afterward by our English Nation be brought to a perfect form of living in things whereof they were formerly ignorant As on the other side the Brittains who refused to communicate to the English the knowledge of the Christian Faith now that the same English were perfectly instructed in the Rule of Christianity yet they remaind in their inveterate Errours and celebrated Christian Solemnities and Rites in a manner different and opposite to the Vniversal Church 11. Now the said Monks of Hy by the teaching of Egbert received the Catholick Rites when Dunchad the tenth from S. Columba was Abbot of that Monastery and about fourscore years after they had sent Aidan to preach the Gospell to the English Nation The man of God Egbert remaind thirteen years in the said Island which he had consecrated as it were anew to our Lord by bringing among them the Spirit of Christian communion and peace 12. At length in the year of our Lords Incarnation seven hundred twenty nine in which the Paschall Solemnity fell on the eighth before the Calendâ— of May when he had solemnly celebrated Masse in Memory of the said Resurrection of our Lord the same day he likewise went to heaven and there in the Society of our Lord and his Apostles finished the ioy of that highest Festivity which he had begun on earth with his Brethren whom he had converted to Vnity Yea now he never ceases to celebrate it without end 13. And truly it was a wonderfull dispensation of the Divine Providence that this Venerable man not only passed out of this world to the Eternal Father upon the Paschal Feast but when that Feast was celebrated aright on such a day as it never had been before in those places This was great ioy to the Monks that they were arrived to the certain Catholick time of that Feast and that they were assured to enioy the Protection of the same Venerable Father by whom they were rectified And it was a ioy to him that he was preserved alive till he might see his Disciples solemnise that day together with him which formerly they had always avoyded Thus being assured of their amendment the most Reverend Father exulted to see that day of our Lord he saw it and was glad Thus happily he dyed and both in the Roman and other Martyrologes his name is recited among the Saint on the four and twentieth of April THE SEAVETEENTH BOOK OF THE CHVRCH-HISTORY OF BRITTANY I. CHAPTER 1.2 c. Pope Vitalians Letter to King Oswi concerning the election of an Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the place of Wigard who dyed at Rome 1. BY reason of the distractions caused by the late raging Pestilence the two principall Sees of Brittany were some years vacant But in the year of Grace six hundred sixty five by the care of two pious Kings Oswi King of the Northumbers and Egbert King of Kent order was taken for supplying them Thus writes Saint Beda King Oswi saith he though he had received his education and instruction from the Scotts yet now came to understand of a truth that the Roman was the Catholick Apostolick Church therefore ioyning in counsell with Egbert King of Kent they with the election and consent of the English Clergy sent to Rome to be ordained Arch-bishop of Canterbury a certain vertuous Preist and fittly qualified for that dignity named Wigard one of the Clergy of the late Arch-bishop Deus-dedit to the intent that he being invested with Archiepiscopall authority might ordain Catholick Bishops over all the Churches in Brittany 2. Moreover in token of their respect to the See Apostolick together with Wigard they sent Letters and presents to Pope Vitalâ—an who then sate in S. Peters Chaire with vessels of gold and silver in no small number saith the same Authour 3. Wigard being arrived at Rome and having acquainted the foresaid Pope with the cause of his iourney presently after both himself and almost all those of his attendance were swepd away by a pestilence which suddenly seised on them 4. Pope Vitaliam by his Letters to King Oswi dated the year following and which are extant in S. Beda gave him an account of these things In which Letters he first congratulates the Kings Orthodoxe faith and zeale for propagating the same Faith among his subjects Exhorting him earnestly in all things to follow the pious Rule and Tradition of S. Peter and S. Paul who were the two great Lights of the Vniversall Church Particularly he instructs him how the Catholick way of observing the Paschall Solemnity came from their teaching and practise 5. Consequently he informs him how he could not so soon find a man in all points adorned with such qualities as they required in a Prelate considering that the great distance of their countrey deterred men from accepting the Episcopall charge there But assoon as a fitt person could be found he would not fayle to direct him thither to pluck up all the tares which the Enemy had sown in their Churches 6. Then he adioyns his gratefull acknowledgment for the Gifts which he had sent in honour to the Blessed Prince of the Apostles assuring him that both himself and his whole Clergy would dayly pray to Almighty God for his health But as for the design'd Arch-bishop Wigard who brought those gifts he with great greife recounts his sudden taking out of
them used all manner of despight to them and endeavoured either to hide or consume them with fire and cast the ashes before the wind 2. Thus in the Acts of S. Sebastian who suffred the same or next year to S. Albanus we read That they tooke the Body of Sebastian by night and cast it into a common sink saying Least perhaps the Christians make him their Martyr And again three years after we find in the Authentick Acts of S. Tharacus this passage The President sayd to him Doe not think thou shalt be dispatch'd at once I will make an end of thee by peece meale and the remainders of they carkeise shall be devoured by beasts Tharacus answered him what thou hast a mind to doe doe quickly doe not delay mee by promises The President said Thou thinkest villain that after thy death silly women shall have thy body and embalme it with unguents and spices c. And afterward The President said Doest thou not think that I will thus destroy thee and thy relicks least foolish women should enwrapp it in clean linnen and honour it with unguents and odours And concerning the Martyr Andronicus The President said Consume him to ashes and disperse them before the wind least some of his impious Consorts or foolish woemen should gather up any of them and preserve them as if they were some precious holy thing 3. Now how acceptable to God this devout reverence of Christians to the Relicks of Martyrs was was often declared by the miraculous ways which God shewed in discovering the said holy Relicks when they were either conceal'd or their members mix'd and confounded with those of impious malefactours putt to death with them Thus we read in the said Acts of S. Tharacus S. Andronicus and another Christian martyr'd with them how when some devout Christians adventured to search them out by night three bright torches like starrs appeard over their bodies and afterward went before them conducting them to the other side of the Mountain where they secretly buried them 4. This practise was so generall among the Primitive Christians that the Manicheans only were observed to be contemners of it as if there were in it some Idolatrous Superstition But their folly and profanenesse is excellently confuted by S. Augustin who distinguishes the Veneration due to Saints and their holy Relicks which he calls Dulian from the Supreme degree of adoration due only to God which he terms Latrian 5. Now that such reverence was express'd to the Body of S. Alban is not to be doubted Which that it may appeare a passage in our ancient Brittish Historian Gildas will sufficiently confirm it Who after he had treated of the Martyrdome of this Holy Martyr as we declared before consequently shews the great change in Brittany nine years after this tempest rais'd by Diocletian His words are as followeth 6. The space of two lustres that is ten years after the foresaid storm being not entirely fullfilld when the violence of those bloody Edicts against Christians abated all the devout Soldiers of Christ with ioyfull eyes beheld and received the lightsomnesse and temper following so tedious a winters night Then they began to restore Churches formerly demolishd they founded new sacred Temples consecrated to the honour of Holy Martyrs these they erect accomplish and adorn celebrating publick Festivities and Sacrifices with pure hearts and mouthes as manifest signs and tropheys after their victory 7. This happy change hapned when the Tyrants Carausius and Allectus were vanquished and expell'd by Constantius who in the year of Grace two hundred ninety two being created Caesar received the government and administration of Brittany By which calculation of Gildas evidently appears that S. Albanus suffred Martyrdom in the beginning of Diocletians raign nine years before Constantius the second time governed Brittany 8 Likewise by this Testimony of Gildas is reproved the assertion of Protestant writers who attribute to S. Gregory the Great the bringing into Brittany the custome of dedicating Churches to the honour of Martyrs in the time of the Saxons Wheras besides this authority of Gildas the said assertion is manifestly confuted by the story of S. Germanus of Auxerre and S. Lupus of Troyes French Bishops who came into Brittany before the entrance of the Saxons to root out thence the Pelagian Heresy For thus we read in the Galliean Martyrologe The Memory of S. Albanus shined gloriously in Brittany to whose honour a famous Church was erected in the place whereby shedding his blood he had triumphed The which Church was by S. Germanus visited with great devotion to the end he might there pay his thanks to God for his victory against the Pelagian Hereticks There opening the holy Martyrs Sepulcher to honour him he repos'd in it severall Relicks of Apostles and Martyrs which he had brought out of France And because he would not depart thence without the protection of the Holy Martyr from the place where the Martyrs blood had been shed he took a lump of earth which at his return he caried to his own See And from this action of S. Germanus the Veneration of S. Albanus the Brittain was spread through allmost all the Churches of France being consign'd in all the Ecclesiastical Tables of most Episcopall Churches there particularly of Bourges Sens Orleans Austun S. Malo Constantia c. The same story concerning S. Germanus is related likewise by S. Beda 9. Hence may be argued the mistake in the supplement to the French Martyrologe where it is sayd that Otho the second Emperour of that name translated to Colen the Body of S. Albanus which S. Germanus had brought out of Brittany into France For certain is is that not his body but only a portion of earth dyed with the Holy Martyrs blood was transferd by Saint Germanus as S. Beda expressly affirms and as the following Annalls of Brittany confirm where we read how Off a King of the Mercians translated the sacred Body and built over his Monument a most magnificent Church 10. It is here to be observed that S. Albanus is venerated at Ments in Germany under the name of S. Albinus The occasion wherof was this Theophania wife to the Emperour Otho the second having obtained at Rome a portion of the Relicks of S. Albanus caried them with her into Germany intending to place them at Colen in the Monastery of S. Pantaleon In her way she passed through Mentz in which Citty was celebrated with great devotion the Memory of another S. Albanus a Martyr also Hereupon Wiltegecus Bishop of Mentz deeply apprehending least the Memory of our Brittish Albanus should obscure the glory of their Speciall Patron Albanus by reason of agreement in name together with the Imperiall Authority which probably would promote his veneration made it his most humble and earnest suit unto the Empresse that our Brittish Saint should afterward in those countreys be call'd Albinus for distinctions sake which humble request by the
Empire On the Second he decreed severe punishments on those who by word or deed should dishonour him On the third he decreed like penalties against those who should persecute or molest any Christians Afterward he conferr'd on the Roman Churches Imperiall Priviledges On the fifth day he granted immunities to all other Churches On the Sixth and seaventh dayes he added many other Gifts to Ecclesiasticall persons And on the Octave as wee read in the Acts of S. Silvester Constantin appear'd in publick perfectly cleansed both from his sins and Leprosy And coming to the Confession of S. Peter he took the Diadem from his head and putting off his Imperiall robes he taking a spade in his hands opened the earth for a foundation of a New Church and in honour of the twelve Apostles he carried out on his shoulder twelve baskets full of Earth and then with great ioy receiving the Bishop into his Chariot be return'd to his Palace 3. After this the Pious Emperour extended his munificence to Gods Church all the Empire over For as Eusebius testifies he sent letters to all the Eastern Bishops encouraging them to build Churches for which he supplied them out of his publick Treasure Many of which Churches both at Rome aud elsewhere were consecrated to the honour of the Apostles and Martyrs as Laurentius Hippolitus c. Whose solemn Feasts he commanded to be observed even by the Pagans with honour ad Veneration 4. To these Churches devout Christians repaired with great zeale and as suppliants here demanded their intercession This was the practise not of the meaner sort only but persons of the highest rank For thus S. Chrysostom instructs his people of Antioch He who wears the Imperiall Purple saith he comes hither he embraces the Sepulchers of Martyrs and laying aside all haughtines and Pride he stands before them in the posture of a suppliant beseeching them to intercede unto God in his behalf XIV CHAP. 1.2 Constantin goes into the East and why 3.4 First Council of Nicéa against Arians 5.6 It s Decree about Easter 7.8 c. Errour of the Brittains about it whence derived 1. THIS so publick and zealous Profession of a New Religion rendred Constantin odious to the Roman Senate who could not with patience support the decay of their ancient Superstition Which was the cause that he grew weary of Rome and made a progresse into the Eastern Provinces where he intended to establish a new seat of the Empire which he afterward executed at Bizantium call'd from his own name Constantinople 2. Another cause there was obliging him to repaire into the East which was to compose the Seditions and tumults caused by the blasphemous Heresy of Arius Who denied the Divinity of the Son of God affirming that time was when he was not though he was the first of all Creatures In which Heresy not a few Bishops ioynd with him which occasion'd great disputes and divisions in the Church to the scandall of Christianity 3. Constantin therfore being much disquietted with these tumults endeavoured first by his own exhortations and letters written to Arius himself and to Alexander Bishop of Alexandriae who first reprehended Arius for his Heresy and upon his obstinacy excommunicated him c. to compose their differences But finding that meanes ineffectuall caused a Councill of the whole Church to be assembled at Nicaea in Bithinia consisting of three hundred and eighteen Bishops who decided that Controversy determining from Scripture and Tradition That the Son was Consubstantiall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Father 4. The Acts and Decrees of which Councill not being our present busines and being at large declared by ancient and modern Ecclesiasticall Writers we will here omitt There also wee may read with what meeknes respectfulnes Charity the pious Emperour behavâ—d himself to the Bishops how he refused to be a Iudge of the criminations and mutuall accusations of one another How he fortified the determination of the Synod by his Imperiall authority commanding all to submitt unto it how he banish'd the Arch-heretick Arius c. 5. Onely one particular Decision must not be omitted because our ancient Brittish Church was particularly concern'd in it and that was the order made for the universall observation of Easter or Feast of the Resurrection in opposition to the Eastern Iewish custom of the Quartodecimani This Feast therfore was indispensably to be observed on the first Sunday or Lords day following the fourteenth day of the first moon after the Vernall Equinoxe accordingly as the late Synod of Arles and severall Popes had before ordained 6. Now because some skill in Astronomy was requisite to find out exactly the time of the Vernall Equinoxe and age of the Moon therfore the Councill thought fit to recommend this care to the Patriark of Alexandria because in Aegypt by reason of the evennesse of the region and purity of the aire this skill most flourished The said Patriark therfore as S. Leo saith was obliged every year to give notice to the Bishop of Rome of the day wheron Easter was to be observed to the end that by his letters information should be given to all other remoter Churches By this means a perfect knowledge of the Feast being communicated to all Provinces the order was that during Masse on the Epiphany or Twelfth day after the Nativity a Deacon with a clear loud voice enunciated to the Congregation the day of Easter following by which was regulated the beginning of Lent and all other Feasts called Moveable 7. Hence it is apparent that all Western Churches and particularly Brittany observed Easter conformably to the Determination of this holy Councill as Paschall Letters could safely and conveniently be sent into Brittany 8. The said custom of requiring notice of the time of Easter from the Church of Alexandria continued as long as that Church remained in Communion with the Roman But a breach being made between them upon occasion of the Eutychian Heresy prevayling in Egypt the following Popes would no longer admitt such Letters but undertook themselves the same care for which purpose they consulted the iudgment of other Bishops as S. Ambrose testifies touching himself that his advice was expected about that matter 9. An uniformity therfore was still observed through the Catholick Church in the Observation of Easter But terrible warrs and tumults hapning in Brittany not long after by which a free commerce with the Roman Church was interrupted especially after the Infidell Saxons had possess'd themselves of the Sea-coasts and driven the poore Brittains into the inward mountainous Provinces no wonder if they wanting information from Rome began to vary in that observation and Rite 10. It is therfore a great mistake of severall of the more learned among Protestant Writers who grounding their suspicion on a sharp Controversy not long after ensuing in Brittany about the Observation of Easter betwen the Northern and Southern Inhabitants doe affirm that the ancient Brittains
Book call'd Ordo Romanus True it is that our learned Selden will scarce allow this custom in Brittany to have been of so great antiquity and therefore interprets that passage in Gildas not literally but metaphorically However certain it is that the succeeding Saxon Kings were annointed with Holy Oyle as all Writers testify of the famous King Alfred But to return to Gildas 6. To shew the universall depravednes of the Brittish Nation and an utter despaire of amendment he further charges the Ecclesiasticks of those times which should have been the correctours of others to have been yet more corrupted then the Laity For thus he writes These enormous sins were not only committed by secular men but Gods own flock and the Pastors therof Those who ought to have been examples of piety to the people were most of them dissolved with wine and all manner of excesse animosities contentions envy against one another tore them into factions and partialities neither did they in their iudgments discern between good and evill So that according to the expression of the Psalmist Contention was powred forth on the Princes of the Clergy who made the people to wander out of the way 7. So desperate were the disorders of the Ecclesiasticks of that age that besides the sharp invectives which Gildas makes against them in his historicall Discourse of the Destruction of Brittany which he especially imputes to their crimes he compil'd another Treatise purposely to reprove them call'd The Correction of the Clergy which begins thus Brittany has Preists but many of them impudent It has Clergy-men but great numbers of them ravenous oppressours deceitfull Pastors call'd indeed Pastors but who are rather wolves watchfull to destroy the soules of their flock having no regard to the Spirituall good of the people but seeking only to fill their own bellies They possesse the houses of the Church but they come to them only for lucres sake If they teach the people yet by the ill example of their vicious lives they render their teaching fruitles They seldome Sacrifise and more rarely approach to the Altars with pure hearts They have not the confidence to reprove the people for their sins being more guilty themselves c. 8. Such a Character Gildas gives of the Clergy in his times which he enlarges by an addition in his Rhetoricall way of allmost all kinds of vices with which he charges them particularly most horrible and open Simony publickly purchasing with money Ecclesiasticall Cures and Bishopricks of the then ruling Tyrants Which having done they were notwithstanding ordain'd by other Bishops by which means Traytours like Iudas were placed in S. Peters chaire and impure persons like Nicholas were Successours of the Holy Martyr Steven c. 9. Thus doth Gildas expose to his own age and to posterity likewise the depraved condition of those times Which Baronius having recited elegantly and iustly adds these words Hence we may perceive and even with our hands feele the iust and equall iudgment of God upon the nation why the inhabitants thereof for their crimes were deliver'd over to the sword and the barbarous nations which punish'd them were for a reward call'd to embracing of the Christian Faith 10. Neither was Brittany alone thus punish'd But almost all the Provinces of Europe were overrun and desolated by innumerable Armies of Barbarous people from the Northern parts By which means though the Church of God was then miserably afflicted so that our Lord may seem to have cast off all care of his flock yet if we reflect on the future effects and consequents of this divine iudgment wee shall find that the Catholick Church did indeed receive thereby a great increase both in numbers of Professours and zeale of Christian Profession For though those barbarous Nations for a while persecuted the Truth yet ere long our Lord subdued their minds thereto and then those strong naturall passions of theirs were employ'd in advancing Gods Church Insomuch as the Apostles time and Primitive age could scarce afford such Heroicall examples of Christian zeale magnanimity and contempt of the earth as these barbarous people once converted manifested to the world So healthfull is the severity of God toward his people III. CHAP. 1.2 c. The Saxons invited by publick consent as Auxiliaries against the Scotts c. 6. c. They land in Kent encouraged by a Saxon-Prophecy 9.10 They sight prosperously against the Picts c. 11. Of Thong-Castle 1. HAving shewd how unworthy the Brittains had rendred themselves of the Divine protection and how fitt scourges the Saxons Angli and Iutes were to punish such impieties wee will consequently declare breifly the occasion order and manner how those barbarous Nations first entred this Island invited by the Brittains themselves as Auxiliaries but shortly became the Tyrants and invaders 2. Many Historians accuse the cowardly slouth of King Vortigern as if he weary of the exercises of war against the Picts and Scotts chose rather with his money to hire stipendiary strangers then to train up his own subiects to resist them and therefore invited the Saxons to fight for the Brittains But S. Beda shews that this was done by the common advice of the Nation saying A Meeting was assembled in which it was consulted from whence they should seek assistance and defence for the avoyding and repelling those so frequent and cruell incursions of the Northern nations into Brittany And it was thought best by all as well as by King Vortigern to demand ayd of the Saxons a nation seated beyond the Sea Which resolution of theirs was doubtles ordered by the Divine Providence to the end that mischeif should come against the impious Brittains as the succeeding event of things did more evidently declare 3. Gildas therfore reflecting on the madnes of this consultation thus exclames O the profound blindnes of the Brittains minds O the desperate stupidity of their senses Those Saxons at whose names they trembled even when they were absent are now by the foolish Princes of Zoan invited to live as it were in their own houses so senceles a counsel they gave to their King Pharao But how senceles soever this counsel was it was approved by the Brittains saith Malmsburiensis and thereupon Embassadours were sent into Germany men of the highest repute and such as might most worthily represent their countrey 4. Witichindus an ancient Saxon Writer doth thus describe the order of this Embassage Fame loudly proclaming the prosperous victories of the Saxons the Brittains sent an humble Embassy to begg their assistance and the Messengers being publickly admitted thus spoke O Noble Saxons our miserable countreymen the frequent incursions of their enemies having heard of the glorious victories gained by you have sent us to you humbly to implore your aid in recompence of which they are ready to offer to you a Province spatious and abounding with all things We have hitherto liv'd happily under the protection of the