shape of a Sea-monster with a Mans-head especially to such miserable folks as are just upon the brink of drowing And they report that some being taken out of the water dead were found with their Noses red just as if some body had violently suckt blood from them and hence it is a common saying Nicken haffuer sugit hannom Nicken hath suckt him Mara was their night-Hagg which used to torment them in their sleep hence they said Maren rider ham the Mare rid him and to this day some superstitiously take the Disease called Ephialtes or the oppression of the Chest for a Witch or Goblin and call it the Night-Mare Hence came the word Mar to signifie a Disease in general Taufana whether a God or Goddess is uncertain This Idol is mentioned by Tacitus whose Temple upon the confines of the Marsians was destroyed by the Romans Caesar saith he to the end that the waste and spoil of the Country might spread wider divided his greedy Legions into four Bodies for the compass of fifty mile together with Fire and Sword he made havock of all not sparing either Sex or Age. All things sacred and prophane were levelled with the Earth and amongst them the most famous Temple of Tanfane Lipsius upon this place i thinketh the Etymology of the word may be fetched from Taenfunk signifying the beginning of all things But this as being too far fetched is generally rejected Loccenius writeth thus Tanfana seemeth to be derived from Tan or Than signifying in the German Tongue a Firr-tree and fahn or fan in the old Gothoteutonick a Lord. In the Hymn of the Blessed VIRGIN written in old Language by Bonaventure Vulcanius and published at Leiden it is found thus Miki Leid sai waia menia fan i. e. My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and in the Song of Simeon Fra Leitai scalck teinana fraugmond fan Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Lord. Martianus Capella lib. 11. de nuptiis Philologiae Mercurii saith They are called Panes Fauni and Fanes c. who inhabit Woods Forrests Groves Lakes Fountains and Rivers upon which place Grotius ex Glossis Isiodori thus observeth Fones are Gods of Woods the Goths would write them Fanes or Faanes Therefore Tanfana mentioned by Tacitus seemeth to have been nothing else but the Patron or Lord of some Grove The Romans would call him Sylvanus or Mars because he presided over Woods and was thought to drive away Wolves and secure Fences And Lucius and Johan Frensheinius will have it Diana And this Reason is further added because the Temple of Tanfana stood in a Grove between Amisia and Luppia in Westphalia as its scituation is described by Cluverius Now that the Grove was of Firr may very probably be gathered from the importance of the word which kind of Trees without doubt were anciently more abounding in Germany than now adaies when the ground was not so well cultivated Nor was it an unusual thing in other Nations to fetch the names of their Gods from particular Trees and especially Groves So Jupiter of the Romans was called Fagitalis from a Grove of Beech-trees consecrated to him as Pliny writeth Thus Loccenius But this derivation seemeth not satisfactory upon the account that the Ancients worshipped their Fawns and Satyrs and such like Gods that presided in Woods and Groves not in that high manner as we may gather Tanfana was worshipped To such petty Deities they erected only Altars of Turf and such like materials and offered Fruits and Spices upon them And when we read of Jupiter Fagitalis or Viminalis or the like we must not understand by them was meant the chief Thunderer but take them for some Vejoves or little Jupiters who for such small Offices they were imployed in were contented with a wooden Statue and once a year a Garland Had Tanfana been such a God or Goddess only certainly Tacitus would not as he doth so particularly make mention of him for whereas he passeth over all other Sacred places he especially recordeth this Temple of Tanfana giving it the title of CELEBERRIMUM TEMPLUM the most famous Temple so that we may rather take him for some great Divinity and so indeed his name importeth for as Fan signifieth Lord so doth Tan or Thane Great Mr. Sheringham giveth another account of it I had rather saith he interpret Tanfan the God of Lots from the Saxon word Tan signifying a Lot And this interpretation seemeth more congruous because the Antient Saxon's who possessed Westphalia and the Countries adjoyning used especially to decide their affairs by Lots and he refers us to Somner's Saxon Dictionary upon the word and the Saxon History of Bede concerning their election of Captains by Lot And that this was a very Ancient custome of the Germans in general Tacitus who writ of this very Tanfan taketh notice They used also casting and drawing Lots very much their way of proceeding was plain they cut down a Branch from some Tree that bare fruit and then cleft the same into little slips and after they had distinguished them with different notches they scattered them helter-skelter upon a white Cloth If it were a Publick Consultation the Priest of the City if a Private the Master of the Family first praying to the Gods and with eyes lift up to heaven took each of them up three times and then interpreted them according to the mark set before upon them By this description it is scarce to be doubted but Tanfan was their God of Lots to whom they addressed themselves to interpret future Events and perhaps it was to him they payed their Vows a Custome mentioned by* Sidonius when they drew out every tenth Captives by Lot and hung them up upon a Tree or if this strangling of Captives was performed to the honour of Woden according to his own institution yet the particular determining of the party most acceptable might be the peculiar office and imployment of Tanfan Tan properly signifies a twig or slip and by a Metonimy a Lot made of a Twig or as Tacitus hath it the Branch of a Fruit-bearing tree In the Laws of Friesland Tit. 14. there is one yet extant concerning the manner of Casting Lots which it seems continued in use after Christianity it self some few circumstances only varied but the name of Tan whereby they called their Lots still exactly preserved The Law runs thus The Lots ought to be after this manner Two slips cut off from a Branch which slips are called Taenes one signed with the sign of the Cross the other unmarked being wrapt up in a clean Cloth are to be laid upon the Altar or on some Relicks and the Priest if any be present or for want of one some young Child may take one of those Lots from the Altar in the mean time prayers are to be made to God If those seven who have sworn concerning Manslaughter committed have sworn true that he should shew it by some evident token If
BRITANNIA ANTIQUA ILLUSTRATA OR THE ANTIQUITIES OF ANCIENT BRITAIN Derived from the Phoenicians Wherein the Original Trade of this ISLAND is discovered the Names of Places Offices Dignities as likewise the Idolatry Language and Customs of the Primitive Inhabitants are clearly demonstrated from that Nation many old Monuments illustrated and the Commerce with that People as well as the Greeks plainly set forth and collected out of approved Greek and Latin Authors TOGETHER With a CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY of this Kingdom from the first Traditional Beginning until the year of our Lord 800 when the Name of BRITAIN was changed into ENGLAND Faithfully collected out of the best Authors and disposed in a better Method than hitherto hath been done with the Antiquities of the Saxons as well as Phoenicians Greeks and Romans The First Volume By AYLETT SAMMES of Christ's Colledge in Cambridge Since of the Inner-Temple Si quid Novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum Horatius LONDON Printed by Tho. Roycroft for the Author MDCLXXVI This Book entituled BRITANNIA Antiqua Illustrata c. Is Licensed to be Printed by the Appointment of the Right Honourable Sr. JOSEPH WILLIAMSON Principal Secretary of State to His Sacred MAJESTY March 8 th 1674 5. Roger L'Estrange TO The Right Honourable Heneage Lord Finch BARON OF DAVENTRY AND LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND MY LORD IT was the constant Custome in all Ages that Subjects of this High Nature namely History and Antiquity wherein are preserved and rescued from Time the Acts and Reliques of Great Persons should be Dedicated to the Great and not submitted to any ordinary Protection This Consideration of it self might have carried me in the Publication of these my Labours to make this Humble Address to Your Lordship whose Eminent Vertues though they may be more Illustrious in that High Sphere wherein You are worthily placed yet were they ever highly conspicuous and You have been long since in the eye of the World what You are now in the Court of Honour Let this Work therefore in all Humility be Dedicated to Your Lordship and if my Endeavours have been any thing answerable to the Dignity of the Matter I have undertaken if the Antiquities of this Nation be thereby more illustrated the History cleared and the Methods of former Writers rectified and amended that is if the Work in general be found useful and sound and with its Novelty in some points carries truth along with it I shall esteem it my chiefest glory that I have laid it at Your Lordships feet entreating favour for those things only which Your Lordship out of Your Great Judgment and Goodness shall think some waies commendable But if from my great Labour and Industry I promise to my self more than possibly will be allowed me however the Work it self may serve to stand as a Testimony and Monument of that Publick Spirit eminent in Your Lordship whereby at its first appearance in the World You readily encouraged so promising an Undertaking which if well managed as I hope in some measure it hath been would undoubtedly be to the honour and benefit of Your Country May God Almighty long preserve Your Lordship in that high Station in which You act to the Honour of His MAJESTY the Good of this Nation and the desires of all Honest men So prayeth My Lord Your Lordships most humble and devoted Servant Aylett Sammes THE PREFACE TO THE READER HAving for some years past wholly employed my self in the diligent searching into the Histories of our Nation I found by experience that the words of Livy in his Preface to his Roman Decades were most true where he writeth That the Beginnings of Nations and the times next succeeding those Beginnings as yielding least pleasure both to Writer and Reader were generally neglected and Men naturally hastned to those Ages which being not so far removed yielded a pleasanter prospect and seemed more closely to concern their knowledge For how few are there who have taken the pains faithfully to collect and in a distinct Method to order rightly the scattered Records of Ancient BRITAIN which are only here and there to be pickt out of divers Authors and not to be found much less well disposed with an ordinary diligence or superficial enquiry Most of our Modern Chronicles content themselves with beginning from the Conquest few go beyond it as if with the general sort of Readers they were impatient until they came to the Battels of Cressy and Agencourt the differences of the Houses of York and Lancaster the Insurrections in Kent or something of that nature which being of a later Date hath yet left an uncertain sound in our ears and is expected to be sett off with no small flourishes or vulgar elocution And indeed the design of such Writers is not to be discommended who following the general stream of Mankind consult their own advantages For in subjects of this nature as the Antiquity and Original of Kingdoms the question of the Poet may perhaps be easily asked and as soon resolved in the same verse Quis legit haec nemo hercule nemo Vel duo vel nemo Few there are who will trouble their heads to enquire by what means their first Ancestors possest themselves of those pleasant Lands in the fruitfulness whereof they at present rejoyce but content themselves to derive their knowledg as high as their own Families only and discourse the Chronicles to the Beginning of their Pedigrees as if there Nature and the World was at a stop and all knowledg beyond that was mere Chaos and Confusion But notwithstanding whatever might be objected of this like nature against this present undertaking I have not been discouraged in going through with it For if the Grecians who had the best Historians in the World were nevertheless called Children by their own Neighbours because they knew not or neglected their own Original will it not be a shame for us also to be ignorant in the Antiquites of our own Nation a Nation great in its Infancy and like Hercules one of its first Discoverers deserving an History even in its Cradle But because there have been some who have already handled this Subject and that not without great Commendation I shall not insist farther upon the usefulness of the design in general but only inform the Reader in short what he is to expect in this present work which hath not been already fully discussed by others lest perhaps it may be thought that I have only trod in the steps of other men and like those idle Imitators whom Horace calls a servile sort of Cattel have only jog'd on in the long beaten road of former Antiquities I confess I might with greater security and much more ease in the delivering of the Antiquities of the British Nation have followed Mr. Cambden out of whom merely to collect hath been counted praise-worthy and whom to imitate is esteemed not only safe but honourable As his Learning was great so
Countries that are not thorowly Planted at Ireland and some parts of Scotland it has been a great question whether they do not more good than harm seeing that any Nation when it is fully Peopled can destroy them at their pleasure as England hath done by the Order of King Edgar and Others when the Tribute of the Welch Princes was so many Wolves Heads yearly till at last there was none remaining If there were nothing else but the Recreation they afforded in Hunting and do yet afford where the Inhabitants are not so many but they can suffer sometimes loss of Cattle I say if there were nothing else we may easily suppose that the First Planters of Countries after they had setled themselves would cause them to be Imported for their Pleasure The World in its Infancy was much given to Hunting as Nimrod is said to be a great Hunter before the Lord so was Esau and Zenophon makes his young Cyrus take great delight in slaying of Wild Beasts so that though these Wolves have been the destruction of two British Princes Madan and Memprcius yet they have been the delight of many more There is no one Conveniency in the World but some Inconveniencies or others may attend it Now the Reason why Foxes and Wolves are not convenient for such Islands as Wight c. and so are never Imported into them is because those Islands being small cannot admit of them either for sport or safety by reason they must be mixt with Inhabitants for so small an extent of Ground hath none or very little waste ground where the Recreation can be carried on without mutual invading of Propriety whereas in so large Countries as England where there has been more waste ground than now there is they have afforded most excellent sport with little or no peril or inconvenience But if this Argument should hold against England it would in like manner against many other Places in the known World there being divers Islands that are far distant from the Continent than this is and which were never supposed to be joyned with it and have abounded with the very same or as noctious Animals as these And so in many places in the East Indies as Java Sumatra and other large Islands and of all the West Indies in general for supposing that the vast Continent northward of New England should joyn with some parts of the Continent of the Old World yet were it impossible that way to bring those Creatures by reason of the vast Ice and Snows covering the Earth would yield no nourishment for them in their passage by reason there are no Beasts to prey upon in those Climates unless the Deer and the Bears which as Sea-men witness abound in those parts under the Cold the first for their swiftness the other for their fierceness and strong natures And if the Cold in those Countries do not stop or destroy them want of necessary food would do it Neither is it supposed for Beasts of Prey to have any natural desire farther than the present Object or that they would leave the Flocks and Herds in pleasant and fertile Countries over which they had dominion to seek out new Acquests in cold and solitary places On the South parts of America there is no passage for them unless we suppose the Streights of Magellan once to have been conjoyned a thing not easily to be granted to these Isthmus Makers and what is as Ridiculous as some Atlantick-Islands lying not far off Africa should extend either to the Caribee-Islands or St. Domingo Granting a Passage at the Magellan Streights yet the Heat of those Parts would stop their passage as much as the Cold on the Northern side there being Beasts in the temperate parts of America that can as little endure the heat of some as the extream cold in other places St. Augustine treating of this Subject after he had laid down that they were transported for the delight of Man meaning the Islands of the Old World for as yet many Centuries after the New World was not found had recourse to the Ministery of Angels and much more had it been necessary had he lived in our daies since by the improvement of Navigation the New World hath been discovered and several Islands in the Atlantick-Ocean To instance in Barmudas some hundreds of Leagues from any Continent which nevertheless when they were discovered abounded in some sorts of greater Animals I remember in reading the Prodigies of Old Rome in observing of which some Authors were very diligent it is reported that once in viâ Fornicatâ it rained a Calf if true was it not a work of the Prince of the Air to terrifie and amaze the People by so sudden a surprize I question not but the Transporting of Wolves and Foxes will be rather thought a work of the Devil than Angels especially by those that receive damage by them And in the stories of New Rome which are very busie in employing of Angels I find but one Monument of their Actions in this nature and that is Our Ladies Chappel of Loretto so that we will leave this solution of the Doubt and pass to the third Way the same St. Augustine proposes and that is this in his own words following But if they sprung out of the Earth according to their first Original when as God said Let the Earth bring forth a Living soul then it appears much more evident That all kind of Living Creatures were in the Ark not so much for the increase and propagation of them as to figure out sundry Nations for the Sacrament of the Church in case the Earth brought forth many Creatures in those Islands whereunto they could not pass Here we see St. Augustine grants that the Earth might bring forth Animals after the Flood by that spirit of Generation that God had first infused into it This I leave to Divines to judge as it is a mystical Relation between the kinds of Beasts in the Ark and those that were to spring out of the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a flight peculiar to St. Augustine whose volatile Soul often dived into those Depths common Capacities are not able to fathom In my serious thoughts this Solution seems more rational than the other for who can ever imagine that all Beasts of the Earth in their different kinds every kind should have one beginning of its Race to which it referred its Original and that they had some principal who might be reckoned to be Dux gregis ipse caper It is sufficient that the Ark bore the types and forms of all Species and that the Earth in producing living Creatures was to be subject to those Patterns God had preserv'd for it and not to be extravagant or deficient in the number of the Species and their forms but to keep exactly to all those lines that God had drawn in those Creatures in the Ark he having shaped them to that proportion of Limbs and strength and distinguisht them in their
of his is extant in Josephus where the Inhabitants of Dora are called Dorienses The Inscription of the Epistle is this P. Petronius The Embassadour of Tiberius Claudius CAESAR Augustus Germanicus To the Chief of the Dorienses Greeting These Dorienses as Marcellinus writes who followed the Elder Hercules could not be Gracians because in his daies I mean the Elder Hercules there was no such People so called among the Greeks for Dorus the Father of the Greek Dorienses lived after the Phoenician Hercules Enidius and other German Writers upon those words of Marcellinus The Dorienses following the Ancient Hercules inhabited the Sea Coasts of Gallia by Gallia they think is meant Germany because all Germany was called so Anciently and by the Sea Coast Beligium and in particular an Island of the Zealanders called Wallacheia And this Inscription is brought by him to confirm his opinion Now as this Inscription is in Latin as V. S. L. M. viz. Votum solvit Lubens merito shews consequently of later date than Hercules his daies and in memory only of him so the word MARCUSANUS has puzzled the heads of many to find out its meaning Geropius derives it from Marchius signifying among that People the Bounds or Limits Because saith he the Romans before the dominion of the Franks had a Limiting Castle in Zealand from whence it was called Marchius on the Uttermost shoar which was consecrated to Hercules the Preserver of Bounds and Limits who upon that account was called Hercules Marcusanus But because this relies on the Credit of Geropius without any Authority and because it seems unprobable upon the account that Marchius is a General word with them signifying any Fort or Gastle upon the Borders of any Territory it is thought Hercules could not be denominated from it it being never found it was his office to serve instead of the God Terminus besides Learned Mr. Sheringham observes that Hercules and I may add other Gods too derived his Sir-names from proper Appellative names of Places and was never called the City Hercules or Town Hercules or Castle Hercules from City Town or Castle Therefore Mr. Sheringham derives it from Man and Cpyran the first in the Cimbric Tongue signifying a Disease loss and evil and Cpyran to beat off or quash which word quash as I take it preserves something of Cpyran And this Derivation he grounds upon a Greek name given to Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the driver away of Diseases and he quotes Plutarch who makes Hercules a Physitian so that Map signifying a Disease as we see in Night Mare and the Dutch have it Die nacht Maet a disease proceeding from oppression of Wind in the Stomach likewise to spoil and hurt as we say to marr a thing and Cpyran signifying to quash in which word I think Cpyran is preserved therefore he thinks it is a genuine Derivation of Marcusanus but with the leave of so Worthy a Person from whom I would not willingly dissent but for Truths sake I cannot take this to be the meaning of Marcusanus by reason it is fetched from an Epethite rather than a name of Hercules which way is very uncertain As for Example why may not Marcusanus as well be derived from Mapc signifying a Horse and Cpyran to tame both of the same Language because we sometimes read Hercules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domitor Fquorum a tamer of Horses or from Mapp signifying Death and Cpyran from his conquering of Death in his return from Hell all which in my thoughts bear the same probability Besides this Epithite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was proper only to the Greek Hercules whom Marcellinus brings not to this Coast but saies it was the Phoenician Hercules followed by the Dorienses who came hither So that the Derivation must without doubt be sought in the Phoenician Language in which I find Mat to signifie a Lord or Prince and upon which account Cusanus comes in I know not unless Marcusanus be from Mat Cus Lord of the Cussites of whose race were the Dorienses whom Hercules Commanded but rather as I think from the known Sirname of Hercules the Phoenician ought we to derive it to wit Melcarthus or Marcarthus Mel and Mat signifying the same thing in their Language viz. a Prince so allowing the abbreviation Marchus for Marcarthus which is frequent in syllables of the same sound I think we have an easie and true account of Marcusanus But if any think it more natural to bring it from the Cimbric Language I shall not contend only I could wish that instead of Map a Disease they would take Mop the Sea it being more Honourable for so great a Traveller as the Phoenician Hercules to be a Skilful Pylot than a Physician But to return to England as the Silures derived their Name from the Phoenicians so likewise did the Danmonii the Inhabitants of Cornwal and Devonshire in which two Counties the Phoenicians were very conversant by reason of their abounding in Tynn Upon this account some have derived them from Moina in the British Tongue signifying Mines but the Question is whence the Dan or Dun proceeds for Solinus calls them Dunmonii Ptolomy Domnonii and in other Copies as Cambden saith trulier Danmonii although I think the transposition is very easie and usual and hides not at all the Original Dan or Dun. In the Ancient British Language as also in the Phoenician Dun or Cun for in composition we sind both waies signifies a Hill and Dan of the British Down of the Phoenicians and English signifie Low Now whether we derive them from Dan from their Low habitations in Valleys or which is righter from Dun or Cun or Monia signifying Hills of Tynn I sind both waies that they are of a Phoenician Derivation Besides this word Dun being a frequenter word in derivation and extending to the Language of the Gauls who called an Hill Dun I think more proper to derive Dunmonii from it for from Dun a Hill many Cities of high Scituation both in Gaul and Britain take their Name as Augustodunum Axellodunum Juliodunum Laudunum Melodunum Noviodunum Sedunum Vellannodunum Clitophon expresly Lugaunum Corvi Collem because it was placed on a Hill likewise Andomatunum with a T in Ptolomy the Metropolis of the Lingones The first Country of the Danmonii Westward is Cornwal shooting into the Sea and running into a Point of Belirium the Name of which Country if we examine the Original of it and what at this day it is called by the Inhabitants and the similitude it bears with other places exactly agreeing in Name and Nature with it we shall find it could be called so by none but the Phoenicians To prove this let us consider it is agreed unto by all hands that it received its Name from being like a Horn running sinaller and sinaller with little Promontories as if they were horned on either side And this is brought from Korn Plur. Kern signifying Horns
Hill from Dunum a Hill and Sorb Dry now as Dunum so Sorb or Sorba signifies exactly in the Phoenician Dialect the very same thing to wit Dryness The Promontory of Ptolomy called Abravanus Mr. Cambden truly derives from two words Aber and Ruan the first of which signifies in the Welch Tongue a Haven and Ruan is a River that disburthens it self into the Sea by this Promontory But we must understand that Haber does not only signifie an Haven but any place where two Rivers meet together as Silvester Giraldus intimates a Welch Writer who lived about five hundred years ago His words are these Aber in the British Tongue is the place where one River falls into another and in his Description of Wales in his Fifth Chapter Aber is in Welch every place where Water meets with Water To make this more plainly appear I find Towns in Wales that seem to have their Names meerly upon this account as Aber Avon a small Market Town in Glamorganshire standing upon the River Avons Mouth and Aber Conwey a Town in Caernarvonshire on the very Mouth of Conwey and to prove Silvester Giraldus his words true Abergevenny in short Abergenny a Town on the meeting of the 〈◊〉 and Gerenny in Monmouthshire and Mr. Cambden interprets it the Confluents of Gevenny so that we see whether a River be joyned with the Sea or with another River that place is called Aber Now Aber or Haber is properly a Phoenician word to signifie such a Conjunction of Waters and no doubt from them had the Britains their Aber. Cetrae was a short sort of Shields Plutarch and Silius attribute the invention of them to the Spaniards Tacitus to the Britains and how this may be the Phoenician Cetera a Shield read Bochartus The Mauri called them Citurae as the Old Scholiast on Juvenal witnesseth in these words Et Getulus Oryx Oryx saies he is a Beast something less than a Buff which the Mauri call an Unx whose Skin makes Cituras i. e. the lesser sort of Shields among the Mauri What can be plainer than that Ceitrae short Shields used by the Britains had their name from Cetera of the Phoenicians signifying the same thing as likewise the Citura of the Mauri Another great Argument that the Phoenicians were very conversant in this Island is the manner the Britains had in numbring the Daies and Nights a way peculiar only to the Eastern Nations and them viz. To make the Day to sollow the Night and not the Night the Day as the Romans and Germans did and this is witnessed of them by Caesar. Names of Offices and Gods in Britain and Gaul of Phoenician Derivation THere were two BRENNUS's Famous Men in Gaul the Eldest sackt Rome the other robb'd the Temple of Delphos Suidas calls Brennus Bren. The Welch to this day call a King Brenniu the Armorican Britains call a Judge Baruer and Barn to Judge and Parnus from the Root Parnus to Feed with the Phoenicians was a Prince Judge or Governour in the same signification Agamemnon Homers Prince is by him called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince or Shepheard of the People Mar or Maur as 't is now pronounced in the British Tongue signifies GREAT From this word without doubt many British and Gaulish Names of PRINCES were compounded as Condomarus Cwismarus Combolomarus Induciomarus Viridemarus Teutomarus Now Mar of the Phoenician is a Lord or Prince Rir is a great word likewise in the termination of Great Mens names as Sinorix Dumnorix Orgetorix Ambiotrix Vercingetorix Eporedorix and without doubt this Rix was written Rich by the Gauls and Britains as the Armorican British now write it Rich signifies Powerful and Strong from whence in an Ancient British Book intituled the Criades Caradauc u rich fras is as much as to say Caratacus with the strong Arm Now Rik in the Eastern Language is Strong and Powerful Paterae were the Priest of Apollo who were worshipped by the Britains and Gauls under the name of Belenus and this name of theirs is derived from Patar in the Phoenician Tongue signifying to Interpret because they were the Interpreters of his Oracles And Joseph was called Potar because he interpreted the King of Egypts Dreams and as this Belus was brought by the Phoenicians into Britain and is a peculiar God of theirs as shall be shewn in the Treatise of the British Gods so without dispute this word PATERAE is to be referred to a Phoenician Original Ausonius writing of Attius Patera or Paterius has these Verses Beleni sacratum ducis è Templo genus Et inde vobis nomina Tibi Paterae sic ministros nuncupant Apollinares mystici Fratri Patrique nomen à Phoebo datum Natoque de Delphis tuo Your sacred Race from Belius Temple spring From thence you all your Names receive You from your Mystick Priests your Name do bring Paterae height Phoebus himself does give Name to your Sire and Brother and your Son From Delphick Oracle his Name begun St. Hierome writing in his one hundred and fiftieth Epistle ad Hedebiam saies thus Thy Ancestors Paterius and Delphidius oue taught Rhetorick at Rome before I was born the other whilst I was but a youth with his Prose and Verse illustrated all France So that we see as Paterius was derived from Paterae the Priests of APOLLO so they received his name from being Interpreters of his Oracles Of the Religious Persons Cenae we have spoken before and have made it appear they were of the Phoenician derivation The Bardi are sufficiently known to be Poets and Songsters both in Britain and Gaul and 't is also manifest they never Rehearsed any thing to the People but in a tone alwaies having some Instrument or other to which they sang the Famous Deeds of their Ancestors Posidonius witnesseth that they were Poets who with Musick recited the Encomiums of Great Persons and Strabo calls them Poets and Singers and Festus saies that a Singer in the Gaulish Tongue was called a Bard and by the Britains at this day they are so called because he sang the Praises of Great Men. Certainly there can be no easier Derivation than to bring them from Parat signifying to sing in a Recitative manner for P and B likewise T and D are Letters of the same nature and element and in common Speech are every day confounded not only in our present Language but in all as ever I cou'd hear of Now as the Bardi are derived from Parat so I have shewn before that the Nablium or Instrument on which they played was a Phoenician Instrument and was called exactly so by the Phoenicians viz. Nabal so that we ought not to doubt but that as well the names of the Persons as their Musick were of Phoenician derivation If Turnebus may be Credited Bardaea and Bardala is a Lark with the Gauls His words are these Bardi apud Gallos sunt Cantores Bardaea Bardala Alauda
God Belinus and knowing that Belinus signified Yellow might mistake and call Casso Belinus Suellan for Belin intimating thereby a Colour Thirdly and lastly As I have shewn before the Britains did not use so many Colours but were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the variety of Shapes not Colours and such as have sought for this Invention in the Britains have made the same Princes of divers Colours Thus Gildas calls Cuneglasus a tawny and dark hu'd Butcher Mr. Cambden makes him blew but to pass over many great Contradictions I conclude that it happened by chance that this colour coincidated with the name of the God Belinus but concludes no more that he received his name from Yellow than the God to whom the Inscription DUJ was found in Yorkshire received his from Dû Black in the same Tongue so that Cunobelinus had his Name from the worship of Belinus as Mr. Cambden in one place grants and Belinus is derived from Bel of the Phoenicians To omit an AEstuarium or Frith in Britain called Belisama by Ptolomy possibly from some Temple of that God I shall prove it from the Moon worshipt in Gaul under the name of Belisama as is gathered from an ancient Inscription MINERVAE BELISAMAE Found on an old Stone in Aquitain by which some have concluded that Belisama was the Gaulish name of Minerva But seeing that Belisama is the same as Belsamen this being the Lord and that the Lady of Heaven it is more probable that by this is meant the Moon or Urania called by the Canaanites the Queen of Heaven and once a great Idol of the Israelites DIANA who is the same with the Moon was much worshipt in those parts as Poliaenus testifies Camma saies he was a Votress of Diana whom the Gauls most especially honoured but that Diana should be confounded with Minerva is no wonder if it be considered how frequent it was for the Ancients to bestow the Attribute of one Deity upon another as they favoured them in honour and affection That Diana was worshipt in Britain is very certain an Image of hers Anno 1602 was dug out of the ground in Monmouthshire being girt about and short truss'd bearing a Quiver but her Head Hands and Feet were broken off It was found upon a pavement of square Tile in Checker-work and by an Inscription not far off it was found to be her own Image Mr. Cambden gives many Reasons That where the Reliques of St. Pauls Church standeth there was formerly a Temple of hers But because this may proceed from the Romans rather than Britains I will only mention her name Ardurena and Ardoena being the same in the Gaulish as Nemorensis in the Latin Tongue namely Diana of the Woods or Mountains for we may suppose Den to have signified in the Ancient British Tongue a Wood or Mountain as Den Forrest in England and not Arden as Mr. Cambden would have it for Ar signifies Upon in the British Tongue so that Arden is upon a Wood For although there be a great Wood in France called Arden yet it is not unlikely but it might first have been called Den and that the Provinces lying on it Arden and afterwards the Wood it self for it runs out to such a vast extent and takes up such a quantity of ground and lies upon so many Countries that Travellers may be said to be alwaies upon it but never truly in it or well out of it But to return to DIANA the Britains no doubt were great admirers of her for their Habitations were most in the Woods Hunting was their chiefest Recreation having most excellent Dogs for that purpose as Strabo witnesseth and Mr. Cambden takes notice that Dogs called Agasaei by the Greeks and so much praised and esteemed by them were of the British Race and to this day are called by us Gasehounds ONVANA a Goddess of the Gauls is supposed to be MINERVA whom Caesar accounts one of them and very probable it may be so for Minerva by the Phoenicians was called Onca and Onga as in Stephanus Now changing the G into a V as Walls for Gauls or wave in English wage in High and Low Dutch and French and we have this very Phoenician name of Minerva This Minerva was much worshipt in Britain and where the Cathedral Church of Bath now stands there was a Temple erected to her Honour but whether ever worshipt by the name of Onvana I know not but if that name be allowed to be Phoenician then there is no doubt of it I dare not be too bold as from her name Onca to derive the famous Hill Badonicus as much as to say Bath-Onca the Temple of Onca although this Mountain be not far from the City and alwaies written Badonicus not Badon or Badonis which in my judgment is an Argument it might be once Badoncus and corruptedly made an Adjective but however it be she was the Patroness of the Baths and upon this account was the City Bath called by the Ancient Britains Caer Palladur or the City of Pallace or Minerva's Water Another Goddess the Britains had called ANDRASTE by Dio and in another place of the same Author Andrate although corruptly for Andraste or Adraste for so by some it is read This was the Goddess of Victory that British Amazon Boodicia called upon after her great Victories over the Romans having destroyed 80000 of them Her words were these I yeild Thee thanks O Adraste and being a Woman I call upon thee O Woman Mr. Cambden made great enquiry after her Name in the British Tongue but could find nothing which related to her being a Goddess of Victory but Anaraith signifying a great Overthrow but I think this will hardly derive her Name Let us consider therefore what Goddess she was that so we may the easier arrive to the understanding of it She was supposed by many to be VENUS but then the question will arise which way she could be the Goddess of Victory Pausanias writes That the Cytheraei taught by the Phoenicians worshipt Venus Armed and esteemed her the Goddess of War and the Cyprians taught by the same Phoenicians made her with a Spear the Lacedaemonians set up her Statue in Armour Ausonius Armatam vidit Venerem Lacedaemone Pallas The Romans had a Temple of Venus Victrix or the Conquerour the same as Victorii of the Britains and at the Dedication of this Temple twenty Elephants fought in the Circus Now let us take the Phoenician name of Venus and we shall find it not to differ much from Adraste of the Britains viz. Astrate by which name Cicero also calls Her This Goddess had a Temple at Camalodunum or Maldon in Essex and before the destruction of that Colony by Boadicia Tacitus writes thus That the Statue of Victory at Camalodunum of it self fell down and was turned backwards as if it yielded to the Enemies It seems the Goddess favoured the Britains although
he resolves to prevent in time and therefore with what Forces he had he set furiously on those Cohorts who were already assembled and at the first charge made great slaughter of them and so presently with some losses retired There was a Legion coming to joyn with them under the Conduct of Caesius Nasica for Didius was old and did all by Deputies Venutius advised of this resolves to be before hand with him meets them in their Journey sets upon them and with the like success retreated Cartismandua now reduced to the greatest extremities thought of nothing but securing her Person by escape to that end she sent to the Romans for a Guard which being granted to her through many Skirmishes and great difficulties got up to her and with much adoe rescued her but the Kingdom was left to Venutius and the War to the Romans to manage Cartismandua as appeareth by Tacitus sheltered her self for a long time under the protection of the Romans bereaft of her Kingdom and in vain expecting assistance from them who either could not or were unwilling to engage too deeply in her Quarrel for it may be more than conjectured out of the same Author that the Romans did yield to Venutius the quiet possession of the Kingdom and would never have molested him could he have but have forgotten that sensible Injury of theirs in interposing their Authority in his domestick Affairs the maintaining the Rebellion of an Adulteress and the open protecting of her Such little favour found she with those persons whom she thought she had so infinitely engaged so that we may leave her like a Strumpet following of the Camp hated by the Britains and without question derided and despised by the generous Romans And no doubt she proved the burthen and clog of their Affairs for in their difficulties during the Civil Wars of Rome under the three succeeding Emperours she was the hated cause that drew the Arms of Venutius upon them VERANIUS a Propetor succeeded Didius a rigid and strict Commander nd perhaps the loose discipline of the Romans under his Aged Predecessor required in him more than ordinary Severity He found at his arrival things in no good posture great slaughter had been made of the Romans which he endeavoured to revenge on the Silures but having made a few inroads into their Country he was prevented by death from proceeding any further leaving this behind him either out of flattery to his Master Nero or insight into the Country that in two years had he lived he would have conquered it all PAULINUS SUETONIUS next obtained the Province who was esteemed a Souldier inferiour to none of his time for two years together he reigned prosperously subduing many Nations and fortifying what he had got with new Garrisons Encouraged with this success and having no small thoughts within him for he was emulous of the glory of Corbalo a Souldier of great reputation in that Age he began to think of new Islands to Conquer Mona or Anglesey at that time was very populous from the concourse of people that fled thither for security and a place of no small annoyance to the Romans for it administred great assistance to the Britains upon all their occasions in their Revolts To Invade this he first built flat-bottomed Boats to carry over his Foot the Horse followed either upon the flats and shallows or else where it was deeper swam it Upon the Shoar slood ready to receive them a strange medly of an Army supposed of Men Women and Priests the Men were well Armed and stood thick the Women and Priests ran up and down after the manner of Furies the former with their Hair ruffled about their ears and in black Garments and the Druids carried Torches before them and with their hands lifted up to heavan poured forth direful Execrations The Romans astonisht at the novelty of the sight stood still as Stocks not being able to stir a foot though receiving many wounds At last a wakened and encouraged by their General and animating one another not to fear a rout of Mad-women and Lunaticks they bore on the Standards trampled down all before them and ran Men and Torches on a heap together Then he placed Garrisons on the Conquered cutting down the Groves consecrated to their bloody Superstition for they held it lawful to sacrifice Captives and to consult their Gods by prying into the Entrails of men But whilst he was busie in this Island his absenoe gave occasion to a general Revolt of the Britains many sore grievances were complained of among which these were reckoned as the chief Prasutagus King of the lceni having for many years hoorded up great store of Wealth to secure it to his two Daughters at his death made Caesar Co-heir with them not doubting but by that signal Testimony of his good will to the Emperour he should preserve his Family from Oppression and his Daughters from dishonour It fell out quite contrary for under pretence of taking possession of the Emperours share his Kingdom was laid waste and robbed by the Centurions and his House ransackt throughout by the ravenous Collectors who behaved themselves with all the licentiousness of Conquerors his Wife Boadicia they whipt her two Daughters ravished c. as if the whole Kingdom by Testament had been left to them The Chiefest of the lceni were dispossest of their ancient Inheritances and the Royal Family turned out and used as Slaves As these unsufferable Insolencies were the cause of the Revolt of the Iceni so the Trinobantes wanted not matter of complaint especially against the Veterans whom they hated with a mortal hatred For they being made a new Colony at Camalodunum now Malden in Essex they violently thrust out the Inhabitants from their Houses seized their Lands and Estates insulting over them as Captives and Slaves anddomineering like Lords in their lawful Possessions The other Souldiers likewise complied with the Veterans and encouraged them in their Licentious proceedings being of the fame Gang and out of hopes hereafter to enjoy the same Liberty The Temple dedicated to Claudius was cause also of great heart-burnings they lookt upon it as the monument and badge of their eternal Servitude and the Priests therein officiating under the pretence of Religious offerings and dues grievously extorted from the People and Catus Decianus the Procurator or Receiver of Tribute renewed the consiscation of their Goods and though they pleaded the remitment thereof by Claudius and a Temple for that purpose erected to his Clemency yet with great Injustice he over-ruled them And which was a more general Oppression Seneca whom one would think a Saint in his Writings having drawn in the Britains to take of him vast sums of mony to the value of 1000000 l. sterling upon promise of easie Loan and to take their own time for the payment on a sudden called it all in at once and that with great violence and extortion The Britains therefore meeting together discoursed their
him in Ecclesiastical History the name of a good Catholick and free from the Arrian Heresie Flav. Valentinianus VALENTINIANUS upon the death of Jovian was chosen Emperour He was the Son of that Gratian Sirnamed FUNARIUS who had been chief Commander of all the Land-Forces in Britain In his Reign the Picts Saxons Scots and Attacots infested the Britains to the repressing of whose Incursions was sent FRAOMARIUS King of the Almains the successour of King EROCUS who assisted Constantine the Great The Almains in these daies were of great repute for their hardiness and skill in War and their Princes highly esteemed for their faithful Service and constant adherence to the Romans But it seemeth that Fraomarius as likewise Erocus who took Commissions under the Romans were expell'd their Kingdom by some Rebellion or Insurrection of their People for the Nation of the Almains we read in these daies mightily infested the Romans and invaded their Province of Gall and Rhetia so that they who followed Fraomarius into Britain seem to be a Party of the Almains who attended their Prince in his banishment Men of Spirit and Nobility and therefore most likely to do considerable Service for the honour of their Prince and the quieting of the British Nation The Expedition of Fraomarius with his Almains into this Island appeareth to be in the fifth year of this Emperours Reign An. Dom. 370. By the general Plots and Contrivances of those Barbarous People Britain was sorely distressed and afflicted Nectaridius who at that time was Lieutenant to manage Maritime Affairs lost his life and Bulchobaudes a General by the crafty contrivance of the Enemy was prevented in his designs The Emperour after he had received Information of these sad disasters sent Severus then Lord Steward of his Houshold to rectifie and set in order miscarriages but being in a short time after called back was not able to effect what he so much desired After that Jovinus went to the same parts and in great haste sent Proventusides to request a potent Force but this place in the Text Mr. Cambden apprehends was corrupted as the necessity of the cause required So many dreadful Afflictions and Calamities being daily spread abroad of the Island Theodosius was chosen and hastned with all expedition thither because he was esteemed a Person so fit for that employment Having collected to himself a sufficient number of stout and valiant Men the better to strengthen Legions as Cohorts led the way with much Courage and Resolution About that time the Picts were severed into two Nations that is Dicaledonians and l'icturiones the Attucots a fierce and resolute People with the Scots in divers parts where they roved did great mischief In like manner the Gaulish Cohorts Frankners and Saxons being next Neighbours to them made great spoil and havock both by Land and Sea and what with murthering Captives firing Towns and plundering represented all places deplorable and much to be pitied To put a stop to the current of these Grievances if Fortune would have so consented this zealous and vigorous Captain intended a voyage to the utmost bounds of Earth for when he arrived to the Sea-side of Bullen which is separated from an opposite piece of Land by a narrow street called the Sleeve ebbing and flowing where the Waves are wont to mount up with swelling Tides and of a sudden to humble themselves by a low and submissive level the better to favour the Passenger from whence having by slow and chary sailing passed the Ocean he gained the shoar of Rhutapia called Ribchester or Richborow by Sandwich over against it a place more freed from Rage and disturbance from whence after that the Batavians Heruli Jovii and Victores who followed were come Upon this he departed and reaching that Old Town AUGUSTA now the famous City of LONDON divided his Army into several parts he charged upon these robbing Adversaries so briskly thinking it a time most proper as they were laden with the Spoyls and destruction of his Friends discomfiting those that were haling forward their Captives and such as also drave away Cattle that they were forced to leave their Prey and think of nothing more for the present than how to make safely their escapes Having made restitution of the Goods so taken to the Owners save only some small encouragement reserved for the Souldiers he hastned into the City now pretty well cleared from Calamities And moreover having been advised by the information of revolting Fugitives and confession of Captives that so great a multitude of sundry Nations so resolute and perverse in their Natures were not to be vanquish'd but by sudden Excursions and private Contrivances therefore did not by this first success puff himself up either with an absolute security or adventure greater exploits resting in himself doubtful of the future event After he had proclaimed promises of Impunity he summoned as well the Trayterous Runagates as divers others that went different Journies without controul to offer themselves for his employment As soon as most of these summoned were returned he loaded with Cares curbed his former motion insomuch that he called for Civilis by name intending him a Deputy Governour of Britain a precise keeper of Justice and observer of Right although something touched in his Nature with a haughty disposition He likewise sent for Dulcitius a Captain very knowing in War-like employments Now gaining courage to a willing heart he left Augusta and with faithful and couragious Souldiers brought great comfort to the ruinated estate of the Britains by fore-laying an Ambush in all places against the Barbarians where was thought to be the greatest advantage and encouraged the Common Souldiers much by engaging them in no hot Service but would take to himself the first essay thereof thereby evidencing the part of a stirring and hardy Souldier as the charge and courage of a noble General putting to flight divers Nations who thinking themselves secure through Pride or vain boasting were stirred up to invade the Roman Government For a long space of time the foundation of Peace being thus laid by him Castles and Cities were restored to their former security and freedom which before had suffered under many troubles and dangers In the time of these his Atchievments there had like to have happened a horrible Act which might have been a cause of raising new Troubles had it not been destroyed in its infancy Valentinus of Valeria Pannonia one of a proud Spirit Brother to the Wife of that pestilent Maximinus first Deputy Lieutenant afterward President for some remarkable fault of his was banisht Britain Through impatience till he could act his Villany rose up in Arms against Theodosius contriving all imaginable Plots to raise disturbance occasioned by some private and inward Pride and Malice And although he perceived him alone able to encounter with his Designes yet attempted to solicite as well the Banished persons as Souldiers promising a Reward the more easily to draw them to perform for
he might make away Trajan at last compast it by this wile He caused Rumors to spread abroad and Letters given to Gratian how that his Wife was coming in person to visit him which Gratian believing and hastning to meet her opening the Litter wherein he thought she was was barbarously murthered by Androgathius taking in his bosom his deaths wound where he hoped to have received his Empress St. Ambrose was the second time sent to demand his Body but not accepted because he refused to communicate with those Bishops which had sided with Maximus All things thus succeeding to the desire of Maximus having setled the State of France and casheir'd those Officers who had sided with Gratian he created Victor his Son Caesar committing his Infancy to Nannius and Quintinus Masters in Military skill whom he appointed to be his Tutors And now he sends his Embassadours to Theodosius who governed in the East to require or rather to demand to be admitted sharer in Power which was for the present consented unto by Theodosius and he saluted Emperour by him and his Image exhibited to the Alexandrines and set up in the publick Market-place Having thus by Violence and Extortion graspt all into his possession and filled his own Cosfers with the spoil of the Common-wealth he made the defence of Catholick Religion a cloak to cover his oppression and Tyranny Priscillian and other Hereticks convicted in the Councel of Bourdeaux and appealing as their manner is to his usurped Tribunal he condemned to death although disswaded by Martin that good Bishop of Towrs alleadging It was sufficient they were Excommunicated by the Church to which in matters of Faith they were only ameanable These were the first that being Executed by the Civil Power for matters of Religion left a foul and dangerous president to posterity After this he entred with his whole Army into Italy which struck such terrour into Valentinian that flying to Theodosius he earnestly besought him to undertake his Quarrel and to redress the Violence of Maximus Theodosius after much entreaty for he upbraided Valentinian because an Arrian consented to his Suit and with all his Forces marehed against the Tyrant who then lay secure at Aquileia and in two Battles overthrew him whom afterwards betrayed by his own Souldiers he delivered to the Executioner His Son Victor was vanquished and slain in Gallia and Andragathius who had assassinated Gratian threw himself headlong into the Sea The British Souldiers who had assisted Maximus invaded as saith Bede that part of France called Armorica from whence the Britains first arrived into this Island but in this Bede is infinitely mistaken or else we are altogether ignorant of his meaning This was the end of Maximus and his Empire who is reasonably supposed to be that Clemens Maximus who had under his Command the second Legion Augusta which was removed from Germany by Claudius the Emperour and lying long in Garrisonat Isca Silurum or Caerleon in Wales was afterwards translated to Rhutupia or Richborow for he is called by Arsonus the Rhutupine Robber and that his name was Clemens that Inscription of the Bononians set up to his Honour doth sufficiently witness DD. N. N. MAG C. MAXIMO ET FL. VICTORI PIIS FE LICIBUS SEMPER AUGUSTIS B. R. NATIS But whether or no that part of the Inscription MAG doth sufficiently authorize Basingstoak to say this is meant of Magnentius who slew Constans the Emperour and was afterwards slain by Constantius I will not determine but leave to others to judge THE British Account OF MAXIMUS And the state of AFFAIRS IN HIS DAIES MAXIMUS whom we must now call Maximian took to Wife as hath been said before the Daughter of Octavian a British Lord but sore against the will of Conan Meridoc Duke of Cornwal who hoped by matching himself with that Lady to obtain the Crown wherefore after the Marriage concluded spur'd on with the loss of a Kingdom and the disgrace to see a Rival preferred before him he passes into Scotland raises Forces and entring the Country on this side the Humber wasted far and wide On the other hand Maximian arms and encountring him in several Battles the success was so equal and the loss on both sides so great that they were both content upon the mediation of Friends to come to an agreement A Peace concluded Maximian passed into France and invaded the Country Armorica and in a Battle overcame and slew Imball the King of it and then granted it to Conan Meridoc to be held of him and the Kings of Britain for ever changing the Ancient name Armorica into that of Little Britain Conan possessed of the Country expels the Ancient Inhabitants plants Britains in their stead who it seems grown exceeding squeemish and disdaining to take the Women of Gaul to their Wives Conan thought it necessary to supply them out of Britain A Messenger therefore was dispatched to Dionethus another Duke of Cornwal for Meridoc must be supposed to have Resigned and Governour of Britain under Maximian to enjoyn him forthwith to send over into Little Britain eleven thousand Virgins a hard task that is eight thousand for the Commons and three thousand for the Nobility yet others who thought not the raising so many a sufficient employment make the number fifty one thousand that is eleven thousand of the better sort and forty thousand of the Vulgar The Count Palatine saies eleven thousand of the one and sixty thousand of the other But however it is Dionethus sent his Daughter Ursula a Lady of excellent Beauty whom Conan had desired in marriage These Virgins taking Shipping together a number never heard of besore or shall ever after in one Fleet were not far from shoar when the ill manner'd Winds blowing rudely upon them drowned many and the rest dispersed they who escaped the Tempest fell into the hands of Guanius King of the Hunns and Melga King of the Picts upon the Coast of Germany set there by Gratian to watch the motions of Maximian These Princes either surpriz'd with the exceeding Beauty of these Damosels or disdaining to see so much Ugliness together for different Passions often produce the same effect slew them all Ursula self not escaping and as if they intended to destroy the Country whence they proceeded they invaded the Island on the North and proceeded on with great slaughter of the Inhabitants Maximian advertis'd thereof sent Gratianus with three Legions to withstand them who entering the Island drave them back and constrained them to refuge in Ireland This Gratianus is supposed by Mr. Hollinshead to be the same who afterwards usurped in the daies of Honorius Flav. Theodosius THEODOSIUS after the death of Maximus was in full possession of the whole Empire for Valentinian was treacherously strangled in Vienna by Eugenius first a Grammarian then a Souldier and Arbogastes a base Commander but he lived not long after for having brought the Murtherers of Valentinian to condign punishment and
but to be vertuous poor and disgraceful blind themselves they became haters of the Light and the measures of their Actions was what was most pleasing to themselves No other differences of good or evil were admitted all weighed alike saving that the worst was most an end the weightier All things were done directly contrary to the Publick welfare and safety not by the Laity only but the Clergy also and they who should have been Examples of Vertue often proved the Ring-leaders to Vice Many of them lovers of Wine and Drunkenness wallowing in that sin grew benumm'd and senseless others swoln with Pride and Wilfulness became contentious envious indisereet in their Judgments uncapable to distinguish what was good what evil what lawful or unlawful Thus qualified both Priests and People they resolve saith Gildas to choose several Kings of their own for that they had not all one Monarch appears not by the custome of the past Ages only but the succeeding also the particular time of their election as by the confused computations of those troublesome daies may be most probably guessed was in the year 446 or 447 which was the year of AEtius his Consulship as appeareth out of the Kalendar of the Consuls when having sued to Rome for Assistance they were absolutely rejected and so forced to stand upon their own safeguard And who would not think but that a People thus left to themselves and bereaft of so potent Allies as the Romans would have behaved themselves cautiously and warily in so great a concern But hear what Gildas saith of their heady and rash proceedings in this weighty Affair Kings saith he were Anointed not according to Divine approbation but the Voices and Suffrages of such as were more Cruel than others and again as suddenly deposed and murthered by their Advancers without examining the truth to make room for others more Insolent and Cruel If any of their Princes seemed more mild and inclinable to good Counsel upon him as the Subverter of Britain without respect to his Person the open hatred and malice of all was levelled Thus Affairs proceeded in the State and in the Church no less Commotions ensued for Pelagianisme again getting head through the means of a sew the British Clergy not able to withstand it intreat the second time German to their assistance He with Severus a Disciple of Lupus his former Associate coming into the Island stand not now to dispute as formerly for the generality were not infected with the Heresie but discovering the Heads and teachers of the new Doctrine adjudge them to Exile who being by the Secular Power delivered to him were by him conveyed beyond Sea where he disposed of them in such places as they could neither infect others and were themselves under cure by better Instruction Germanus the same year died in Italy After his departure the Britains receive News that their old Enemies the Scots and Picts were returning with greater preparations than ever that they threatned the destruction of the whole Land and intended no less than to plant themselves from one end thereof to the other But before their Arrival as if the Instruments of Divine Vengeance were at strife which should first destroy a wicked Nation the residue that the Sword and Famine left alive were now swept away with a sore Pestilence insomuch that the living scarce sufficed to bury the dead But for the present as one Evil drives off another the destroying Plague preserved the Land from the more Barbarous spoylers which for fear of the Contagion durst not engage too far in the Inland Countries But as soon as the Infection ceased the Enemy began to advance and were entred as far as Stamford on the River Welland VORTIGERN then King of the Britains newly elected to the Crown hearing of their approach was then meditating how best he might secure himself and had resolved to flie into those parts of the Island now called Wales of the Original of this Vortigern and his advancement to the Crown I have spoken before in the British History under the Emperour Honorius he is described by the truest Historians an insolent and haughty Tyrant neither wise in Counsel nor experienced in War yet doted on by the People for his Vices so well suiting with their own heedless of the Common danger and esteeming the Publick Treasure as a Fund only to satisfie his Lusts and Extravagance Nevertheless awakened with the Clamours of the People he summons a General Councel to provide some better means than hitherto had been found to put an end to these Incursions from the North where it was concluded that the Saxons should be called into Britain and Embassadours sent with great Presents to invite them Witichindus a Saxon Writer reporteth that the Embassadours at their Audience spake as followeth Most Worthy Saxons The distressed Britains tired out with the continual Incursions of their Enemies hearing the fame of their Valour have sent us to implore your Assistance the Land they possess large and spacious and abounding with all things they wholly leave to your devotion and disposal Hitherto we have lived with freedom under the Protection of the Romans next to them we know none worthier than your selves and therefore to your Valour we flie for refuge Leave us not below our present Enemies and we shall be ready to perform whatsoever by you shall be imposed Thus writes an Author of their own yet Ethelwerd saies that they promised no Subjection but League and Amity only The Saxons thus invited to what they willingly would have sued for made no delay but returned this short and speedy Answer Be assured that the Saxons will be true Friends to the Britains and not only stick close by them in their Adversity but be at all times ready to procure their wealth and prosperity The Embassadours return joyful with these Tidings but how the Saxons performed their Promise you may read in Gildas and shall be declared in their following History At what time these things happened in Britain according to the diversity of Computations in this most confused Age can be but uncertainly guessed at For by the several accounts of Authors there are at least twenty years difference whilest some measure the time from the AEra others from another amidst so great variety I have thought fittest to follow the most received Opinion which makes the Entrance of the Saxons to be about the year of our Lord 448 or 449 and the Actions of German in this Island in the year 431 to 447 in which time both his Expeditions are included Neither let any wonder that being the Saxons came not before the year 448 and German is reported to have defeated that Nation before the year 447 how this can possibly be reconciled since I have said before that it was no new thing for the Saxons to make Incursions into this Island long before they were invited hither by publick Authority Yet that the Reader may not be
ignorant of the diversity of Actions which as I said proceeded from diversities of AEra's I will set them down distinctly according to the most Authentick Historians Bede and his Followers reckon the years thus In the thirty first year of Theodosius the Younger and of Christ 430 the Britains craved assistance but in vain of AEtius the third time Consul Thus Bede But here may be enquired which is the principal AEra by which this account is made If it be the year of Christ 430 then the difference will be whether Theodosius began his Reign in the year 399 or 407 which are eight years difference The AEra therefore must be brought from Theodosius his Reign for Bede supposeth him to have begun his Reign in the year 399 and in some Copies of Ninnius there is a note of Computation adjoyned which Mr. Cambden saith taketh away all scruples and clears all doubts which maketh the beginning of his Reign to have been Anno 407. Again if you make the chief AEra of this Computation to be AEtius third time Consul the difference is greater and we must now seek out the time from the Kalendars of the Councels and we shall find that the third Consulship of AEtius fell out to be in the thirty ninth year of the said Theodosius which should be according to Bede in the year 439 and yet in that account is made after the Birth of Christ 446 and supposeth Theodosius to begin his Reign according to the Computation in Ninnius in the year 407 whereas according to Bede it should be in the year 399. Thus much as to Bedes first Account next he saith Under Valentinian the Third German once or twice came into Britain and led an Army of Britains against the Picts and Scots Here the Computations must be made of Valentinian the Emperour and German The time of Valentinian after Theodosius is uncertain yet of necessity must be after the year 446 according to Bede and yet German by approved Authors as Mr. Cambden relates died in the year of Grace 435. Ninnius writeth that German returned into his own Country after the death of Vortigern Now considering that Vortigern called in the Saxons and Bede saith That in the first year of Martianus and the year of our Lord 449 the Nation of the English Saxons arrived in Britain how is it possible that German dying in the year 435 could return into his Country after the death of Vortigern who called in the Saxons in the year 449 and lived many years after In the year of Christ 433 Prosper Tyro who then lived writeth That Britain after sundry overthrows was brought in subjection to the Saxons Thus we see one Computation draweth us back whilest another setteth us forward whilest some reckon from Christ some from Theodosius some from AEtius some from Valentinian and Martianus and others from German But it will not be here amiss among the rest of the Computations to set down that which is adjoyned in some Copies in Ninnius From the Consulship of the two Gemini Fusius and Rubellius unto Stilico the Consul are reckoned 373 years From Stilico unto Valentinian the Son of Placidia and to the Reign of Vortigern 28 years From the Reign of Vortigern to the discord of Gintoline and Ambrose are 12 years which Battle is Guoloppum that is Cathquoloph Vortigern held the Kingdom when Theodosius and Valentinian were Consuls and in the fourth year of his Reign the Saxons came into Britain and were entertained by Vortigern when Felix and Taurus were Consuls From the year wherein the Saxons came into Britain and were received by Vortigern unto Decius Valerianus are 69 years By this Account the coming of the Saxons into Britain was in the twenty first year of Theodosius the Younger in the year of our Lord 428 and this saith Mr. Cambden cometh nearest to the Computation of Bede But I have rather followed the received Opinion calculated from the Consulship of AEtius who in Gildas is called AEgitius and in another Copy AEquitius than by so far setting back the time upon too much nicety to differ from all other Historians Having shewn the manner occasion and time how the Saxons first entred this Nation it will now be necessary to relate by what craft and policy HENGIST their General at last attained to be King and Governour of Kent which place at first was intentionally assigned him in Trust and for his more honourable Reception or at least better encouragement in using his utmost endeavour to carry on the War against Vortigern's Enemies But during the time his Souldiers had so Couragiously acted in his absence as to deserve Reputation he secretly managed his Interest at home providing them greater supplies as occasion should offer and gathering a greater Body together upon notice given him speedily embarked with his Brother Horsus and observe the luck of it that no sooner they appeared in BRITAIN but were received with great joy by King Vortigern who at that time was much infested with the Inroads of the Picts and Scots After his Reception the King gave him little or no rest for the present in his new Territories till he had received further proofs of his Valour and Conduct in quelling the rage and fury of his inveterate Enemies The Battles with these Picts the Saxons maintained to their great honour and reputation yet some Historians will not believe that ever King Vortigern was a Man of so weak a Judgment so earnestly to urge so crafty and powerful a Nation as the Saxons then were to his assistance but that at first they came by chance into the Island according to an ancient Custome among the English Saxons a People in Germany as it was also at first among other Nations that when in multitudes a People so increased that their own Country was not able to contain them by an especial Edict of their Prince a set number was chosen out to cast Lots how many for that year were to depart the Land and seek out new employments in the Wars of other Nations For so hath it been conjectured of these that they came out of their own Country into Britain to offer themselves to serve in their Wars for meer want of employment and sufficient maintenance at home which was the first occasion given for their Arrival into this Land Hengist by this time having gained a considerable Interest among the Britains and more especially perceiving that the King wholly depended upon his Valour and Conduct takes his advantage in considering the best and surest means how he might speedily advance his greater Promotion not only during his own life but his Heirs and Successours after him in order to which Polidore Virgil saith That he fenced a Country round about with which he was only entrusted afterwards planted Garrisons in such places as seemed best to him for his advantage The King not yet perceiving the shower of Misfortune with black Clouds threatning him takes
his own Example behaving himself briskly and proving fortunate against them in several Battles whereupon the Saxons to rid themselves of so dangerous an Enemy called to their assistance Gurmundus a Norwegian Captain but as some say sent for from Ireland who surrounding the Britains dismayed at so great an Army secured themselves in the Town of Chichester but the Besiegers though they were not excellent at taking Towns by Assault thought upon an Invention that did their business as well for fastning fire to the feet of several Sparrows they had taken for that purpose being let loose they flew into the Town and lighting upon the Thatched-houses and other combustible matter set all on fire Upon this the Britains rather burnt out than carried on by Courage made a short sally but being over-powred by numbers were at last discomfited leaving many of their Nobility dead upon the place In the mean time whilest the Britains maintained this Fight Careticus stole out of the Battle securing himself among the Mountains in Wales where he found more security though less plenty Now were the Saxons Lords of all Britain this being the last British King that had any thing to do in the Eastern parts of this Kingdom being confined thence forward in the West by the Rivers Severne and Dee Gurmundus after he had destroyed a great part of the Country he delivered it up into the possession of the Saxons who willingly and thankfully received it at his hands CADWAN THe BRITAINS ever since the Battle of Badon hill had been at variance amongst themselves and now since the Fight of Careticus they could not agree who should be their Governour twenty four years together they were led by sundry Rulers against the Enemy but finding by experience into what precipices and disadvantages their stubborness and rash Counsels had brought them with joynt consent chose CADWAN Ruler of North-Wales King over them This Prince though his Dominions were lesser than those his Ancestours formerly possest yet he gave early proofs to the World that the greatness of his Mind was nothing diminished For presently after his Election he raised a large Army resolving to enforce satisfaction from the Saxons for shedding the Innocent blood of 1200 Monks of Bangor EDELFERD King of Northumberland who had caused this Massacre understanding his design thought not to be behind hand with him wherefore associating himself with most of the Saxon Princes brought a good Army into the Field to meet his Opposer Both Armies were now in sight and every one expected when the Storm that was over their Heads would break but on a sudden it blew over and fair Weather immediately appeared to both Parties For partly by mediation of Friends and partly from a serious consideration of what sad consequence Victory it self must needs be to either Party a Peace was concluded and these two irreconcilable Enemies became for a long time after loving Friends He Reigned over the Britains with great Honour twenty two years CADWALLO THis PRINCE was nothing inferiour if not superiour to many of his Predecessours in Conduct and Valour alwaies behaving himself victoriously too severely and rigorously according to the Saxon Writers how true I know not against his old Enemy the Saxons PENDA King of Mercia whether by Agreement or Conquest is doubtful promised to espouse his Quarrels against the Saxons who joyning their Forces together fell so vigorously upon the Northumbrians that they not only discomsited their whole Army but left King EDWIN dead upon the place Vengeance though late overtook these Northumbrians for Inhumanly butchering the Monks of Bangor pursuing afterwards the Saxons with that vehemence that nothing could satisfie his fury but the extirpation of both their Race and Name Besides he not only slew many of their Princes and most commonly routed their Armies but dispossessed them of their Kingdoms at his pleasure two years after Penda's death making a Grant of the Kingdom of Mercia to his Son Ulfridus He Reigned forty eight years his Body being embalmed was enclosed in a Brazen Image and set upon a Brazen Horse of excellent beauty This the Britains set up aloft upon the West Gate of London called Ludgate in token of his Conquests and for a terrour to the Saxons Bede very much detracts from the Honour of this Prince but being a Saxon with what credit or upon what grounds he hath done it my time will not permit me to examine According to the British Historians Cadwallader succeeded Cadwalls but if we consider the Eminent Saxons he is said to have slain his going to Rome to be Baptized by Pope Seigius his dying shortly afterwards and his being buried in the Church of St. Peters at Rome he will appear to have been one and the same with Cadwallader the Saxon for which cause we omit a particular discourse of him in this place and this observation Mr. Speed and some others have not made concerning the same as they have set him down positively a succeeding King in the British Government FOR the better reading the English Saxon words as likewise the more Ancient Runick or Gothick Alphabet which in the following Treatise do often necessarily occur and may serve to explain what Monuments Mr. Cambden hath set down in the Character confessing he knew not the meaning of them I have thought fit to prefix their distinct Alphabets in this place The English Saxon Alphabet A. B. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 C. D. E. F. G. h. I. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. T. V. r. X. Y. Z. a. b. c. d. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. i. k. l. m. n. o. p. q. n. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. p. x. y. z. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An imperfect Sentence the English Saxons marked with a single point a full period with three placed thus v The Old Gothick Alphabet A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. T. V. X. Y. Z. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gothick Alphabet of Vuphilas A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. T. Th. V. W. Ch. X. Z. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Goths marked an imperfect Sentence with a single point a full Period with two and a W among them is sometimes pronounced as a V. It is to be observed that the Gothick or Runick Character was the Character of our Saxon Ancestors and generally of all the Northern Nations as Swedeland Denmark c. and is found in many Monuments in Britain now England cited by Mr. Cambden although without any Interpretation annexed to them THE ANTIQUITY AND ORIGINAL OF THE SAXONS BEING to write of the SAXONS a Nation who next to the Romans possessed this ISLAND and so well establisht their Laws and Language therein as to this day they remain in force to their Posterity being not as yet wholly rooted out though often subject to alterations and
strengthned by whose Passion we are delivered from passion by whose Love we sought Brethren in Britain whom we knew not and by whose courtesie whom not knowing we sought we have found Who is able to relate how great the joy is that is arose in the hearts of the Faithful that through the Grace of Almighty God cooperating and your Brotherhood labouring the darkness of Errors being driven away the English Nation is covered over with the glorious light of holy Faith that now out of a sincere mind and pious devotion it tramples on those Idols to which before it madly croucht to that it prostrates it self before God with a pure heart that it is restrained from relapsing into sin by the rules and instructions of holy Preaching that it submits in mind to the Divine precepts but raised in understanding humbles it self in prayer on the ground lest in affections it should grovel in the earth Whose working is this but His that saies My Father hitherto works and I work Who that he might make it manifest to the World that he converts not by the wisdom of Men but by his own vertue and power The Preachers whom he sent into the World he made choice of without learning using the same method here also for in the English Nation he has wrought mighty things by the hands of weak Persons But there is my Dearest Brother something in this celestial gift which you ought extremely both to fear and rejoyce at †I know that Almighty God has shewn great Miracles by you in the Nation he would should be chosen from whence it is necessary that concerning the same heavenly gift you with fear rejoyce and with joy be afraid You may rejoyce that the Souls of the English through outward Miracles are drawn to an inward grace you ought to be afraid lest among the Miracles that are wrought your frail mind be puffed up too much by presumption and self-confidence so that outwardly raised in honour it inwardly falls through such vainglory Moreover we ought to remember that when the Disciples returning from preaching with joy said to their Heavenly Master Lord in thy name Devils are subject unto us they presently heard Rejoyce not for this but rather rejoyce that your names are written in Heaven They had placed their mind in a temporal and private joy because they rejoyced in Miracles but they are streight recalled from a private to a publick from a temporal to an eternal joy to whom it is said In this rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven For all the Elect don't work Miracles but the Names of them all are registred in Heaven to the Disciples of truth there ought to be no joy unless in that good which they have common with all and in which they have no end of their joy It remains therefore My Dear Brother that among those things which with the help of God you outwardly perform you alwaies inwardly strictly judge your self and particularly examine your self who you are and how great Grace there may be in that Nation for whose Conversion you have received the gift of performing Miracles and if ever you remember that you have offended our Creator either by word or deed alwaies bear it in mind that the remembrance of the guilt may suppress the rising glory of the heart and what power soever of working Miracles you shall receive or have received alwaies think it given not for your sake but for those for whose salvation 't was conferred upon you †There comes into my mind thinking of these things what became of one Servant of God even extraordinarily elected Certainly Moses whilst he brought the People of God out of Egypt wrought wonderful Miracles as your Brotherhood knows in the land of Egypt on Mount Sinai after he had fasted fourty daies and nights he received the Tables of the Law amongst dreadful Thunderings all the People being afraid In the service of Almighty God he alone enjoyed a familiar conference with Him the Red-Sea he divided in his Journey his guide was a Pillar of Cloud When the People were hungry he gave them Manna from heaven he miraculously gave them Flesh when they wanted in the Wilderness till they were cloyed but when in the time of Thirst they came to the Rock he mistrusted and doubted whether he could bring water from it which the Lord commanding he struck and opened a passage for the running water How great Miracles after this did he persorm in the Wilderness for the space of thirty eight years who can reckon them who can trace them as often as he doubted of any thing having recourse to the Tabernacle he secretly inquired of the Lord and was presently informed by the word of the Lord concerning that thing By the interposition of his prayers he appeased the Anger of the Lord towards his people when they were puffed up with pride or rebelled against him He caused the earth to open and swallow them up he foyled the Enemy with victories and shewed signs to his own People but when they came to the land of Promise he was called into the Mountain and heard of his fault that he had committed thirty eight years before because he despaired of bringing out water and he acknowledged that for this thing he could not enter into the land of Promise wherefore we ought to consider what a dreadful thing the judgment of Almighty God is who had done so many signal Wonders by this his Servant and yet kept his fault committed so long ago still in remembrance Therefore most Dearest Brother if we acknowledge him dead after so many Miracles for his fault whom we know to have been in a more especial manner elected by God Almighty with how great fear ought we to tremble who know not whether as yet we are elected What should I speak of the Miracles of Reprobates since your Brotherhood knows very well vvhat Truth it felf hath said in the Gospel Many shall come in that day saying unto me Lord in thy name we have Prophesied and in thy name we have cast out Devils and in thy name we have done wonders But I will say unto them I know ye not depart from me all you workers of Iniquity Therefore the mind is very much to be depressed and kept under amongst Signs and Miracles lest in those things it should seek its own glory and rejoyce in the joy of self exaltation In Miracles we ought to have respect to the gain of Souls and to his glory by whose power those Miracles are wrought but our Lord has given us one sign concerning which we ought extremely to rejoyce and by which we may acknowledge the glory of Election in us By this it shall be known whether you are my Disoiples if you love one another which sign the Prophet desired when he said Grant some token unto me O Lord for good that they that hate me may see and be confounded I speak these things that my Hearer's mind
Convension Destroy the worship of Idols raze their Temples establish the Manners of your Subjects in the great Purity of good living by exhorting terrifying encouraging correcting and by showing the Examples of Good works that you may find him your Rewarder in Heaven whose name and knowledg you shall extend upon Earth for he shall make your Name more glorious to Posterity whose Honour you endeavour to advance and preserve in your Nation So formerly Constantine a most Pious Emperour freeing the Roman Commonwealth from the preverse worship of Idols submitted himself and It to our Almighty LORD Jesus Christ and applied himself and his Subjects with his whole mind unto GOD from whence it came to pass that he transcended his Predecessours as much in Fame as he exceeded them in good works And now therefore let your Majesty make all possible haste to disperse the knowledg of one GOD the Father Son and Holy Ghost to Kings and their Subjects that you may in commendation and merit pass the Ancient Kings of that Nation And by how much you endeavour to wipe away the sins of others by so much you may rest more secure of your own offences before the dreadful examination of Almighty God Our most Reverend Brother Augustine Bishop well taught in the rules of Monastick life filled with the knowledg of the Holy Scripture and endued through God's grace with good works whatsoever he shall advise you willingly hear devoutly perform and carefully lay up in your memory because if you shall hear him in that which he speaks for God Almighty the same Almighty God will the sooner hear him intreating for you But if which God forbid you should neglect his words when do you think Almighty God will hear him for you whom you neglected to hear for God With all your mind therefore joyn your self with him in the fervency of Faith and assist him relying on that power which God has given you that he may make you partakers of his Kingdom whose Faith you have received and endeavoured to preserve in your Kingdom Furthermore we would that your Majesty should understand that as we know in Sacred Writ out of the words of our Almighty Lord that the end of this present World is at hand and that the Kingdom of the Saints shall come of which there shall be no end But the end of the World drawing near many things shall happen which before were not viz. alterations of the Air terrours from Heaven and contrary to the course of Seasons Tempest Wars Famine Pestilences Earth-quakes in divers places all which shall not come to pass in our daies but all of them shall certainly follow our daies If therefore you shall find any of these things happen in your Land let your mind in no sort be disturbed because these signs concerning the end of the World are therefore sent before that we should be careful of our Souls mistrustful of the hour of death that we may be found in good works prepared for the Judg at his coming These things I have spoken to you in short Most Excellent Son that when the Christian Faith shall be increased in your Kingdom my discourse also may be inlarged towards you then 't will be more proper to speak more when the joyes for the perfect conversion of the whole Nation shall be multiplied in your breast We have sent you also some small Presents which will not be small unto you when you shall receive them from us with the benediction of the blessed Apostle Peter Almighty God preserve and perfect in you that Grace he hath begun and extend your life to the course of many years and after long time receive you into the Congregation of his Heavenly Country Let the Grace of Heaven my Royal Son keep your Highness safe Given the tenth of the Kalends of July in the nineteenth year of our Lord Mauritius Tiberlus Augustue Emperour after the Consulship of the same eighteenth year Indiction the fourth i. e. in the year of Christ 161. Gregory To Virgilius Bishop of Arles He commends to him Bishop Augustine HOW great kindness ought to be shewn to Brethren coming of their own accord may be gathered from hence that to shew our charity they are most commonly invited by us and therefore if it should so fall out that our common Brother Bishop Augustine should come unto you let your charity as it ought receive him with all tenderness and affection and cherish him with the benefits of your consolation and teach others how fraternal charity ought to be respected And because it falls out that those that are furthest off commonly are informed first of what ought to be corrected if he shall make mention to your Brotherhood of any enormities committed either by Priests or others sitting with him by diligent search and scrutining examine all things and behave your selves so strict and careful in those things that offend God and provoke him to anger that for the example and amendment of others punishment only may strike the guilty and that false judgment afflict not the innocent Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July Indiction the fourth Bede after this saich Afflict not the Innocent here in the end and so goes on God keep you safe Most Reverend Brother Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus being Emperour in the nineteenth year after the Consulship of the said Lord the eighteenth year Indiction the fourth i. e. in the year of Christ 601. Gregory To Melltus Abbot in France He gives Command to be sent to Augustine about the conversion of that Nation AFter the departure of our Congregation which is with you we were in great suspence because we could hear nothing of the happiness of your Journey but when it shall please Almighty God to bring you to our most Reverend Brother Bishop Augustine tell him I have a long time carefully considered of the condition of the English and am of opinion that the Temples of the Idols in that Nation ought by no means to be destroyed but only the Idols themselves that are in them Let holy water be provided and sprinkled about those Temples let Altars be built and Reliques kept in them For if those Churches are Elegantly built it is necessary they should be taken from the worship of Devils and appropriated to the service of the true God that whilst the people see their Churches are not destroyed they may put away their Errors from their hearts and knowing and worshipping the True God may more familiarly resort to those places they were wont to frequent And because many Oxen were wont to be slain in the sacrifice of Devils some other solemnity ought to be introduced instead of it that on the day of Dedication or Birth-day of the Holy Martyrs whose Reliques are there laid up let them make Arbors to themselves of the Branches of Trees about those Churches that were formerly Temples and let them celebrate the
solemnity with Religious Banquets Neither let them any longer sacrifice Beasts to the Devil but to the praise of God let them kill those Creatures for their own eating and in their fulness give thankes to the Giver of all things that whilst there are left them some inward tokens of Rejoycing they may the easier be brought to the inward Joyes of the Spirit For to wean obdurate minds from all things on a sudden without doubt is impossible He that endeavours to climb on high it is necessary he should rise by degrees and paces not by leaps so the Lord made himself known to the children os Israel in Egypt the customary Sacrifices which they were wont to offer to the Devil he reserved in his own worship that by his command they should offer living creatures in his sacrifice Forasmuch as their hearts being changed they lost somethings of the sacrifice and retained others so that although they were the same creatures they were wont to offer nevertheless offering them to God and not to Idols they were not the same Sacrifices These things I would have your charity to declare to our aforesaid Brother that he for the present being placed there may consider how all things ought to be ordered Given the twelsth day of the Kalends of July Indiction the fourth God preserve you safe my Dearest Son given the fifteenth day of the Kalends of July in the nineteenth year of our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus Emperour after the Consulship of the said Lord the eighteenth Indiction the fourth i. e. in the year of Christ 601. Gregory To Augustine Bishop of the English Of the use of the Pall and of the Church of London ALthough 't is certain that the inexpressable Rewards of an eternal Kingdom are reserved for those that labour in the service of God yet it is necessary that we should allow them the Ensigns of Honour that by such Rewards they may be encouraged the more abundantly to labour in Spiritual works and because the late Church of the English through the mercy of our Lord and your diligence is brought to the grace of Almighty God we grant you the use of the Pall in that Nation but for only celebrating the solemnity of the Mals so that you ordain through all places twelve Bishops that shall be under your Jurisdiction Forasmuch as the Bishop of the City of London shall alwaies hereafter be consecrated by a Synod of his own and receive the honour of the Pall from this holy and Apostolick See in which through God's grace I serve I will also that you send a Bishop to the City of Tork whom you shall think fit to be ordained so that if the same City with the bordering places shall receive the Word of God let him also ordain twelve Bishops that he may also enjoy the honour of a Metropolitan because we intend God willing to bestow on him in like manner the Pall if he is of a meek and courteous behaviour whom nevertheless we will that he submit to the Authority of your Brotherhood After your death so let him preside over the Bishops he shall Ordain that by no means he submits to the power of the Bishop of London But hereafter let this distinction of Honour be between the Bishops of London and York that he be accounted first that was first ordained Let them with common counsel and joynt action order whatever ought to be done for the love of Christ let them unanimously agree in the Right and whatsoever they agree on not by contradicting one another bring to perfection Let your Brotherhood therefore have in subjection under you not only those Bishops whom you have ordained or those that shall be ordained by the Bishop of York but also all the Clergy of Britain our Lord God Jesus Christ being the Author forasmuch as from the life and doctrine of your Holiness they may receive the form of rightly believing and living well and may by executing their office with a sincere Faith and good Manners when the Lord shall please attain to an Heavenly Kingdom The Lord keep you safe Most Reverend Brother Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus being Emperour in the nineteenth year after the Consulship of the said Lord the eighteenth year Indiction the fourth that is in the year of Christ 601. THE LIFE OF S t AUGUSTINE The first Arch-Bishop of CANTERBURY Written in Latin by Sr. Henry Spelman IT would be needless to use many words concerning this Augustine his Life and Actions after he was sent by GREGORY to convert the English plainly appear in the following discourse But what and who he was before little concerns us He was a Roman I think by Birth and a Monk of the Benedictine Order and was afterwards made Provost of St. Gregory's Monastery at Rome as you may understand from the Epistle of St. Gregory himself to Syagrius Bishop of Augustodunum Called forth from thence by Gregory he is sent into Britain with sourty Monks his Companions and others of the Clergy over whom he made him Abbot in the year of our Lord 596 and in the year 597 arriving in Britain he converted to the Faith Ethelbert King of Kent and the greatest part of his People whom on the day of Pentecost he Baptized in the Church of St. Martin at Canterbury which had continued from the time of the Romans till then The same year afterwards he went to Arles where he was by Etherius Arch-Bishop of that City who was so commanded by Gregory ordained the Arch-Bishop of the English the sixteenth of the Kalends of December in the City of Arles Returning to Fngland he was received by both King and People with all imaginable Joy and soleninity besttting his Quality and had the Royal City of Canterbury bestowed upon him by the King for an Episcopal See and the Kings Palace for a Cathedral Church to be erected unto Christ so that the King seemed to imitate what is reported to have been done by the Emperour Constantine the Great Being ordained Bishop he consulted St. Gregory by Messengers and Questions of the form of Government to be imposed on the Church he had lately established amongst the English Saxons The Answers he received we will set down a little below Soon after he was honoured by the same Gregory with the Pall by which the fulness of Power is signisted in the year viz. of Christ 601. Being then Metropolitan of Britain he summons a Councel in the borders of Worcestershire that he might be something nigher the British Clergy and Bishops at that time residing in Wales to which he warned them to appear the place of Session appointed was Augustine's Ac that is Augustine's Oaks where being assembled Augustine demands from them Obedience to the Bishop of Rome and the Reception of the Roman Ceremonies into the British Church The Britains stiffly opposed this and after the business had been a long time controverted on both sides
pure from all unlawful things What necessity is there of making a long discourse of dividing Portions of shewing Hospitality and of doing Mercy to those that live a Common life when all that is overplus is to be bestowed upon Pious and Religious uses the Lord our Master teaching us all what remains bestow in Alms and hold all things are clean unto you Luke the 11th The third Question of Augustine Since there is but one Faith why are there divers customes of Churches One custome of Mass in the holy Roman Church and another in those of Gaul The Answer of Gregory Your Brotherhood knows the Custome of the Roman Church in which you may remember you were bred but it is my pleasure that if you can find either in the Roman Church or those of Gaul or in any other Church any thing more pleasing to God carefully choose it and what things soever you can gather from many Churches of honest Institution introduce them into the English Church which as yet is young in the Faith for things are not to be beloved for the places but places for the good things in them Out of every Church therefore choose what is Pious Religious and Right and gather them together as it were in a bundle and by practice infuse them into the minds of the English The fourth Question of Augustine I beseech you what punishment ought to be inflicted on him that commits Sacriledge The Answer of Gregory This your Brotherhood may understand from the person of the Thief how he ought to be corrected for there are some that have found ways to commit thest and there are others that offend in this nature out of necessity From whence it follows that some are to be punished with fines others with stripes some more severely others more gentily and when you proceed against any with more rigour than ordinary you must do it out of charity not fury because 't is done to him that is punished with this intent that he might not be committed to Holl fire For we ought to instruct the Faithful so as good Fathers are wont their carnal Children whom for their faults they whip and yet they desire that those whom they thus afflict should be their heirs and carefully keep for them whatsoever they possess whom angrily they thus seem to torment Alwales therefore keep in your mind this charity which suggests a mean in chastizing so that the mind can do nothing without the rule of Reason Perhaps you way ask How these things that are taken by stealth from the Church may be restored but God forbid that the Church should receive with increase for the loss of Earthly things or go about to make advantage of vain trifles The fifth Question of Augustine Whether two own Brothers may marry two own Sisters which are removed from them by many degrees The Answer of Gregory This is certainly lawful for we find nothing in inholy Writ that seems to contradict this point in the least The sixth Question of Augustine To what degree the Faithful may marry with their kindred and whether it be lawful for Stepmothers and their kindred in Law to be joyned in wedlock Gregory's Answer A certain Secular law in the Roman Common wealth permits that whether Brother and Sister or the son and daughter of two own Brothers or two own Sisters may marry but we haue learnt by experience that from such kind of Marriages no issue can be produced and holy Writ forbids the uncovering of the Nakedness of our near kindred from whence it follows that the third and fourth generation of the Faithful may lawfully marry To be joyned in marriage with ones Mother-in-law is a great sin for 't is written in the Law Thou shalt not uncover thy Father's nakedness neither indeed may a Son discover the nakedness of his Father but because 't is written they shall be two in one flesh he that shall presume to uncover the nakedness of his Stepmother which was one flesh with his Father hath certainly uncovered his Father's nakedness 'T is forbidden also to marry a near Relation-in-law because by the former it was made as the flesh of the Brother for which thing John the Baptist was beheaded and ended his life in holy Martyrdom on whom it was not imposed to deny Christ and yet he was slain for confessing Christ but because our Lord Jesus Christ had said I am the Truth and because John was killed for the truth he poured out his blood for Christ. The seventh Interrogation of Augustine I desire to know whether a Divorce may be issued out against those that are married unlawfully and whether they may be denied the benefit of the Communion The Answer of Gregory Because there are many in England which still remain in Infidelity that are reported to be joyned in wicked and unlawful Matrimony when they shall come to the Faith they are to be admonished that they abstain and made to understand that it is a grievous sin Let them stand in fear of the terrible Judgment of God lest for a little carnal pleasure they incur eternal torments nevertheless they are not for this thing to be deprived of the Communion of the body and blood of our Lord lest we should seem to punish those things in them in which they had bound themselves through ignorance before the Laver of Baptism For in these times the holy Church corrects some things with rigour some things out of mildness it tolerates and other things it wisely dissembles and so bears with some faults and winks at them as at last what it disliketh by forbearances and seeming connivance it overcometh and all that are brought to the Faith are to be admonished that they commit no such thing and if any shall they are to be deprived of the Communion of the body and blood of our Lord because as in those things which they did through ignorance the fault in some measure is to be born withal so it ought resolutely to be prosecuted in those that are most afraid knowingly to offend The eight Interrogation of Augustine If for the great distance of places Bishops cannot easily meet whether a Bishop may be ordained without the presence of other Bishops The Answer of Gregory Certain it is in the Church of the English in which as yet there is no other Bishop but your self you can ordain a Bishop no other way than without Bishops for when can Bishops come from Gaul that may assist as witnesses at the ordination of a Bishop But we would that your Brotherhood should so ordain Bishops that they be not too far disjoyned from one another that there may be no hindrance but that at the ordination of a Bishop others may be present other Pastors also whose presence is very requisit ought to have easie means of access When therefore Bishops shall be so ordained in places near one another the ordination of a Bishop ought never to be without three or four Bishops assisting
seen an Eclipse of the Sun on the third of May which was followed by a grievous Dearth and Pestilence beginning in the south parts but spreading to the north and over all Ireland with great Mortality Sighere and his People unsteady in faith attributed this Plague to the displeasure of their old Gods and returned again to their Superstition building up their Altar and erecting their Images which had been cast down Which when Wulfur the Mercian came to understand he sent Jaruman a godly Bishop who by faithful endeavours in that kind soon recovered them of this second Apostasie But Sebba with those under his command held stedfast in the Faith and after the death of Sighere reigned many years until weary of the troubles of this World he resigned his Crown and took upon him the habit of a Monk in the Monastery of St. Pauls in London which habit he received at the hands of Waldhere or Walthere Bishop of London to whom he brought a great sum of mony to be distributed in Charitable uses reserving nothing for himself that he might faith my Author be as well poor in substance as in mind and all to gain the Treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven where he died and was buried and his Tomb to our daies stood in the North-wall of the Chancel of that Church being thither translated in the year 1148. He had two Sons the eldest of which named Sigherd was a Monk with his Father as Bede saies and of the youngest named Seofrid there is nothing recorded though some make him to reign seven years after his Father Sighere married Oswith the Daughter of Edilfrith King of Northumberland who in the daies of her Husband is said to be the Abbess of Barking and was afterwards reputed a Saint By her he had a Son named Offa who succeeded Sebba in the Kingdom OFFA OFFA the Son of Sighere a comely person in his youth and as much admired for the endowments of mind as of body reigned the space of eight years much desired of the People When out of a Religious fondness he forsakes his Wife Kineswith the Daughter of Penda and with Kendred King of Mercia and Edwin Bishop of Worcester goes to Rome where he is shorn a Monk his Queen after his departure vowed her self a Vailed Nun in the Abby of Kineburg where his Sister was Abbess SELRED SELRED the Son of Sigibert the Good came at length to the Crown which he held thirty eight years and then died a violent death but how or from whom received is not reported leaving no Issue behind him SUTHRED SUTHRED the last King of the East-Saxons was driven out of his Kingdom by Egbert the West-Saxon Monarch at which time this Province with others was annexed to the Crown of all the Principality of the Saxons this had been most unstable in the Faith having twice fallen into open Apostasie And this perhaps might be the true Reason that of all the rest it was the most Inglorious being Tributary throughout to one Prince or other and never able to stand upon its own feet by the just judgment of God who visited their sins upon them that they who could stoop to stocks and stones should also be servants to their Neighbours For if we consider the outward advantages it enjoyed in the beginning of its foundation we should sooner judge it would be able to give Laws to its Neighbours than receive from them It was excellently bounded on the East and South by the Ocean and River Thames which at once enriched and secured it It had under its command the City of London which Bede in these daies writes was a Princely Mart for all Comers both by Sea and Land On the other side it had no bordering settlements of Saxons in its first infancy to share in its Conquests or strengthen its ground an inconvenience which many other Provinces were forced to struggle with The lands were seated very pleasant and fruitful and the Countries adjoyning lay open to their farther progress yet notwithstanding all these admirable advantages it was continually in a pining condition scarce able to bear up the name of a Province much less the dignity of a Kingdom And in its final surrender to Egbert hardly afforded a good morsel to that Conquerour For London obeying the Mercians went not along with it but holding out with the Countries near adjacent it cost some more time in the gaining of it THE KINGDOM OF THE South-SAXONS Contained Counties Surry Sussex KINGS Ella Cissa Edilwalch ELLA THE Kingdom of the South-Saxons was precedent to the former in time and the glory of its Actions but not continuance of its Dominion for as it was begun with the first so it was the soonest of all determined the foundations whereof were laid by ELLA the eleventh from Woden not long after the arrival of Hengist for whether sent for by him or coming on his own accord as a New Adventurer with his three Sons Kymen Pletting and Cissa in three ships he lands at a place since that called Kymenshore now Shoreham a well known Harbour in Sussex At his first landing he set upon the Britains and with great slaughter drove them into the Wood Andreds-league which Mr. Cambden calls Andreds-wald so named from Caer-Andred adjoyning which in the Book Notitia Provinciarum is termed Anderida with a Haven hard by of the same name But the Britains thus driven back suffered not Ella to enjoy his ground in quiet for continually sallying out upon him from the neighbouring Woods and Forrests and their chief Garrison at Caer-Andred called by the Saxons afterwards Andreds-cester now Newenden in Kent they often-times repelled him with great dammage and as is thought with the death of his two eldest Sons Kymen and Pletting Ella to supply these losses sends over to old Saxony at this day Holstein in Denmark for more Recruits which come he gives them battel at Mercredeshowrn or Mercreds-Burnamsted wherein he obtained an absolute Victory but Huntington makes doubtful which side carried the day And it appears that after this engagement new Forces were sent for into Germany but whether a second time or that the last supplies are to be placed after this battel is left uncertain But an Argument of Victory on the Saxons side is that now it is generally reported that Ella took upon him Kingly Dignity namely three years after the death of Hengist in the year of our Lord 492 for the difference of computations herein is not great unless we follow them who confound the time of his Entrance with that wherein he assumed Power ELLA grown great with Conquests and Recruits taking his Son Cissa with him besieges Andredchester the chief Rendezvous of the Enemy who nettled with the thoughts to see their principal Garrison invaded and weighing the fatal consequences if it should fall into his hands there being scarce any other place considerable left them in the South gather from all parts and strive if possible to
day of the Sabbath which ye do who will not celebrate it upon the first day of the Sabbath Peter solemnized the Lord's day of Easter from the sisteenth Moon till the twenty first which ye do not who observe the Lords day of Easter from the fourteenth to the twentieth Moon so that on the thirteenth Moon at Evening ye often begin Easter Neither did our Lord the Author and giver of the Gospel eat the old passover on that day but on the fourteenth Moon at Evening or deliver the Sacraments of the New Testament to be celebrated in Commemoration of his Passion also the twenty first Moon which the Law especially commends to our Observation ye utterly reject in the celebration of your Easter so that as I said before ye neither agree with John nor Peter Law or Gospel in the solemnizing the great Festival To these things Colman answered Did Anatholius a holy man and much commended in the sore-mentioned Church History think contrary to either Law or Gospel who writ that Easter was to be kept from the fourteenth to the twentieth Is it to be imagined that our most reverend Father Columba and his Successors men beloved of God either thought or acted any thing contrary to Holy Writ When there were many amongst them of whose heavenly Holiness the wonders and powerful Miracles they wrought have given sufficient Testimony who as I ever thought them to be Holy men so I will never desist from following their times manners and discipline Then Wilfrid 'T is evident said he that Anatholius was a man very holy learned and praise-worthy but what does that concern ye when ve do not observe his Decrees for he in his Easter following the Rule of Truth set forth a Circle of nineteen years which ye are either ignorant of or else utterly contemn if ve acknowledg it to be kept by the whole Church of Christ. He in the Lord's Easter so reckoned the fourteenth Moon that he acknowledged that on the same day after the manner of the Egyptians to be the fifteenth Moon at evening so he observed the twentieth day for the Lord's Easter but so that he believed that the day being done to be the one and twentieth of which rule of distinction he proves thee ignorant because sometimes ye plainly keep your Easter before the full Moon that is on the thirteenth Month. As concerning your Father Columba and his Followers whose sanctity ye say ye will imitate and whose rules and precepts confirmed by heavenly signs ye are resolved to follow I might Answer when many at Judgment shall say to the Lord that they have prophesied in his Name and cast out Devils and wrought many wonders the Lord will answer that he never knew them But far be it from me that I should speak this of your Fathers since 't is more reasonable of uncertain things to entertain good thoughts than bad for which reason therefore I do not deny them to be the Servants of God and beloved by God who out of an innocent simplicity and a pious intention love God Neither do I think such an observation of Easter to be much prejudicial to them as long as no body comes among them that can shew decrees of a better institution which they may follow who nevertheless I believe had some Catholick Calculator better instructed them would have followed those things which they knew and had learned to be the Commands of God You therefore and your Associates if you despise to follow the decrees of the Apostolick See when you have heard them nay of the Universal Church and those confirmed by Holy writ without doubt ye sin What though your Fathers were holy are the paucity of these in a corner of the farthest Island to be preferred before the Universal Church of Christ over the World What if this your Columba and ours too if he be Christ's was holy and powerful in Miracles ought he to be preferred before the blessed Prince of the Apostles to whom the Lord said thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and to thee will I give the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven After Wilfrid had thus spoken the King said Colman is it true that these words were spoken by the Lord to Peter Who answered True O King Then said he Have you any thing that you can bring to prove so great power was given to Columba but he said No we have not The King again said Do both you agree without any controversie on this that these words were principally spoken to Peter and the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven were given him by the Lord They both answered Yes Then the King thus concluded And I say unto you because he is the Door-keeper I will not contradict him but as far as I know and am able I desire to obey his commands in all things lest perchance I coming to the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven there be no body to open he being turned aside whom you have proved to hold the Keys After the King had said thus both those that sate down and those that stood great and small assented so that the less perfect Institution being abandoned every one made haste to apply themselves to those things they thought better The Dispute being ended and the Assembly dismist Agilbert returned home Colman seeing his Doctrine slighted and his Party despised taking along with him those that were resolved to be of his sect i. e. they that would not admit of the Catholick Easter and shaving of the Crown for there was no little question about that returned into Scotland to treat with his Party what he should do in the business Chad leaving the tract of the Scotish Doctrine returned to his See as acknowledging the observation of the Catholick Easter This Disputation fell out in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 664 the twenty second year of King Oswy and the 30th year of the Bishoprick of the Scots which they had born in the Province of the English The wife of Oswy was Eanfled Daughter of Edwin King of Northumberland after the death of her husband she spent her daies in the Monastery of Streanshalch where she deceased and was interred in the Church of St. Peter in the same Monastery The Issue of King Oswy by Eanfled was this Elwin was slain in a battel against Ethelred King of the Mercians Elfled the eldest Daughter at a year old according to the Vow of her Father was committed to Hilda Abbess of Streanshalch to be bred up in Religion where she was afterwards Abbess and was buried in the Church of St. Peters in that Monastery Offrid the younger Daughter was married to Ethelred King of Mercia His natural Issue Alkfrid who succeeded Ethelwald in Deira came at last to the whole Crown of Northumberland Alkfled married to Peada Son of King Penda she is taxed by most Writers for the death of her Husband EGFRID