in all probability the Places may be confounded and some write that he built a Church at Dover and endowed it with the Toll of that Haven Not content in having performed so many excellent Works he is said at length to have resigned his Kingdom and Travelled into Germany out of desire to propagate the Christian Faith to have converted Bavaria and afterwards going into Rhetia there to have lived in a Cell under a Rock which was afterwards called the Rock of Lucius then to have proceeded into that Country wherein the City Curia stood where living in a Cave and preaching to the Infidels he was at last betrayed and brought before the Governour who put him to death in a Tower called Marula His Body was brought into Britain and buried in Glocester so that it will not be improper to relate what Matthew of Westminster saith in confirmation of this matter Anno Gratiae CCI Inclytus Britannorum Rex LUCIUS in bonis actibus assumptus Claudiocestriae ab hâc vitâ migravit ad CHRISTUM in Ecclesiâ primae sedis Honoriftcè sepultus est He Reigned twelve years and dying without Issue left the Kingdom divided among many of the Royal Blood who all setting up their Titles miserably involved the whole Nation in Civil Wars and Combustions Upon this the Picts took advantage of the Publick Distractions and brake into the Southern parts flinging down the Wall that was built as a Rampier to defend the Frontiers and for a long time finding no resistance wasted the Country far and wide so that if it be true what is reported of King Lucius That out of zeal for Religion He went into Bavaria to preach the Gospel leaving his Kingdom to be managed by the chiefest of his Nobility without declaring a Successour how much better had it been if he had employed his time and labours in his own Dominions which surely in so short a time could not be so entirely instructed in the Faith of Christ but that there was room left for the employing of so great a Talent given him for the use and comfort properly belonging first to his own Country Neither could a Prophet want Honour in his own Country who had Royal Authority to back his Priestly Function However therefore the story of King Lucius or Lever-Maur as to the main of it may betrue namely That there was such a Person that Ruled in this Island and embraced the Christian Religion yet that he should have so great Authority as absolutely to establish it casting down the Flames and Arch-flamens the Religion of the Romans whose Province it was and to set up in their room Bishops and Arch-bishops seemeth not only improbable but impossible also If he was a King beyond Hadrians Wall what had he to do with London and Carlile and if on this side he was but a Tributary and Vassal to the Romans and so could not so easily abolish their Worship as indeed it manifestly appears out of Inscriptions of the Romans in this Island who after his time continued their Altars to the Heathen Deities But that he should forsake his Kingdom and out of an over-fond opinion of Chastity neglect the duty of a Prince in not providing a Successour to his Crown that he should leave his Kingdom at sixes and sevens that he should think himself more useful in a Cell than a Throne for the propagating Religion in another Country and not in his own and imagine that absconding in Holes and Deserts would shew a greater light to the World than being placed upon a Hill manifestly shews from what Forge those Inventions proceeded and that they were the idle Talks of our crafty Ancestors whose business it was to gain Honour to their own Constitutions by perswading the World that no Obligations Civil or Moral although of the highest nature and concern but must be cancell'd in order to his attaining perfection which they placed in that lofty Poverty of a Monastick life And thus much is sufficient to be said of King Lucius The Troubles that arose after his decease continued as Fabian thinketh fifteen years the English Chronicle saith fifty Harding four which difference proceedeth from the various Calculations of the time of his Reign and upon the same Subject Matthew of Westminster thus delivers himself Quo defuncto speaking a little before of the death of King LUCIUS he proceeds to say dissidium inter Britones surrexit quià absque Haerede decessit Romana Potestas infirma est Manfit itáque Britannia in dissidio usque ad adventum SEVERI qui eam posteà Romanae restituit Dignitati Some make his Decease in the daies of the Emperour Hadrian whom the English Chronicles follow others continue his Reign but to the daies of Aurelius and Verus Emperours The first cannot be true by reason it agreeth not with the time of Eleutherius who according to the most diligent Chronographers began to govern the See of Rome in the year 169 which is thirty years after the death of Hadrian and sate in the Chair fifteen years namely to the year of our Lord one hundred eighty four The latter is equally false considering that the Letter from Eleutherius to King Lucius the Date whereof Mr. Cambden followeth in contradiction to Bede was sent when Lucius Aurelius Commodus was second time Consul with Vespronius which was in the year one hundred seventy nine or one hundred and eighty Anno currente and ten years after the death of Verus the Emperour Basing stokius makes LUCIUS to begin his Reign in the year of our Lord one hundred eighty three in the second year of Commodus the Conversion of this Prince according to that Account must be in the first year of his Reign and the last of Eleutherius his Popedom circumstances very improbable for supposing that this Godly Prince should begin his Reign with the establishment of Christian Religion yet what becomes of Fugacius and Damianus returns to Eleutherius after they had been a year in Britain and the Ratifications of their proceedings the year after obtained at Rome if in the last year of Eleutherius the Kingdom was first Converted as manifestly appears if this Calculation were true The British Histories generally make Septimius Severus the Roman Emperour to succeed Lucius in the Kingdom of Britain and after him many other Emperours so that for the future we shall see the same Persons though with different circumstances in the Records of both Nations made Actours in the soveraign Authority Many have found fault with the British History upon this account but whether it was that the Royal Blood of the Native Britains was utterly extinct or that the Compiler of these Stories was weary of inventing Names sure I am that the following Emperours had no more right to the Island than the preceding And there is no where found that Severus either by Marriage Adoption or Donation received the Kingdom so that for many years we may bid farewel to the British
another Synod or Session was agreed on where a greater number of the British Clergy were present amongst them seven Bishops The old Controversie is again renewed but when Augustine found that he was likely to gain no further he desired they would but conform to him and the Romans in three things only 1. In the observation of Easter 2. In the administration of Baptism 3. In assisting him with their preaching to the English Saxons But they suspecting the pride of Augustine would not bondescend to him in these things neither Lamentable was the event of this Assembly which shall be related when we come in order to the place for the British Church differed in many things from the Roman as appears out of Gildar and Bede and this following discourse Concerning the Manners of Augustine I shall determine nothing he is blamed by our Age and extolled by Antiquity They report him to have been learned pious and an Imitator of Primitive holiness the Apostle of the English often in watchings fastings prayers and alms zealous in propagating the Church of his Age and of Religion and earnest in rooting out Paganism The first Introducer of Roman Monks and other Rites and Ceremonles in repairing and building Churches diligent enough and for working Miracles extraordinary famous From hence by reason of humane frailty his mind perhaps grew more lofty and proud which thing St. Gregory himself seemed to take notice of who admonished him by an Epistle that he should not be puffed up with the greatness of his Miracles He is ill spoken of for the Massacre of the Priest of Bangor and not without a cause if as is reported he excited King Edilfrid to that horrid slaughter Concerning him thus Câ—â—grave in his Life St Augustine was by stature very tall so that he appeared from the shoulders above the rest of the people his face was lovely but majestical withal there 's no body can relate the Wonders and Cures he did among the People He alwaies walked on foot and most commonly he visited his Provinces bare-footed and the skin on his knees was grown hard and insensible through continual kneeling Concerning the time when he died the opinions of Authors are many so that which to fix on is uncertain Stow makes it the 29 of May in the year of Grace 603 Bede in the year 604 Augustine himself in his Leaden Bull if it be truly his cites a Character of King Ethelbert dated the year of our Lord 605 from which 't is manifest that he was then living Thomas Sprot relates that he held a Councel at Canterbury in the year 605 Matthew 〈◊〉 Westminster following Segthert saies that he died in the year of Grace 608 Howden in the year 610 Trevet and Polydore in the year 611 Malmsbury in the year 612 and Savil in Fastis in the year 613. How long therefore he governed the Church of Canterbury so great is the disagreement of Writers that I date not determine any thing concerning it But it appears manisest enough that he began in the year of our Lord 596 in which he was sent by St. Gregory or in the year 597 in which he was received by King Ethelbert and ordained Bishop of Canterbury by Etheriâ—â—s Arch-Bishop of Arles 'T is agreed on that he was buried in a Monastery of his own name which he had built with the assistance of King Ethelbert and in the Porch of that Church dedicated to St. Peter and Paul but not as yet consecrated in a stone Coffin covered over with Iron and Lead with this Inscription Inclytus Anglorum Praeful pius Decus Altum Hîc Augustinus requiescie corpore sanctus The Church afterward being consecrated by Lawrence his Successor his Coffin was brought into the Church and placed on the North side where afterwards was an Altar of his name and this Inscription affixed Hîc Requiescit AVGVSTINVS Dorobernensis Archiepiscopus qui olim huc à Beato Gregorio Romae Urbis Pontifice directus à Deo operatione miraculorum suffultus Ethelbertum Regem gentem illius ab Idolorum cultu ad fidem perduxit completis à pace diebus officii sui Defunctus est 7. Kal. Junii eodem Rege Regnante He was Canonized for a Saint and now holds a place in the Roman Martyrology on the seventh day of the Kalends of June i. e. the 26 day of May. He is said to have written one Book to Gregory of his prosperous success and one Book of the Statutes of his Churches and Eleven Questions which Gregory Answered lib. 12. Tom. 2. which Bede also relates lib. 1. cap. 37. Hist. Angl. Augustine arrives in England is courteously received of Ethelbert King of Kent he imitates the life and doctrine of the Primitive Church he baptizes the King and is honoured with an Episcopal Seè. Bede lib. 1. cap. 25. AUgustine being strengthned by the encouragement of Blessed Father Gregory returns with the rest of the Servants of Christ that were with him to the work of the Word and comes into Britain Edilberth at that time was the most powerful King of Kent who had extended the bounds of his Empire to the Banks of the great River Humber by which the Southern and Northern people of England are separated There is towards the Eastern part of Kent the Isle of Tanet of indifferent bigness the compass of it according to the usual computation of the English is six hundred Families which the River Vantsum parts from the Continent in breadth about three surlongs and in two places omy fordable for it runs its head both waies into the Sea Here landed Augustine the Servant of the Lord with his Companions as is reported about fourty in number they had taken along with them Interpreters of the French Nation as Pope Gregory had commanded them Being arrived he sends to Edilberth giving him to understand that he came from Rome and had brought good tidings with the proffets of Eternal happiness to them that would receive them and an Everlasting kingdom after this life with the true and living God The King hearing this commanded that they should tarry in the Island they had landed in and that all necessaries should be afforded them till he had determined what to do with them for he had heard of the Christian Religion before having married a Christian Wise of the Royal Family of the French by name Bertha whom he had received from her Parents on this condition that she should have free exercise of Religion and liberty to have a Bishop by name Luidhard whom they had given her as an assistant and strengthner of her faith The King after some daies past came to the Island and sitting down in the open Air commanded that Augustine and his Companions should be brought into his presence thither for he feared to admit them into any House being perswaded by his old Superstition that if they brought with them any Charms or Incantations they could not so easily work upon him
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
Importance whose Inhabitants were dealt with according to their greater or lesser Obstinacy in yielding some being received into Mercy and others quite driven out of their Dwellings For these successes Claudius was oftentimes by his Army saluted with the Name of IMPERATOR a Title never given to any in the same War but once but now often reiterated with the universal Acclamations of all but whether out of flattery to his Person or that some extraordinary circumstances in the Wars with the Britains above other Nations deserved it is uncertain Afterwards he disarmed the Britains and thought that sufficient for his security without proceeding to the confiscation of the Goods of the Nobility and Gentry for which Clemency of his they erected Temples and Altars to him and with Sacrifice worshipt him as a God Having thus gained sufficient Honour he prepares for his Return to Rome sending before him Pompeius and Silanus who had married his Daughters to carry the Tidings of his Victories leaving behind him also Plautius to finish what he had so well begun and to subdue the remainder of the Island All this was accomplisht within sixteen daies for no longer was he in Britain and with so little noise and trouble that it gave occasion to Suetonius not long after to write That he subdued the Country without any Battle fought or the least Blood shed At his Return to Rome whence he had been absent in all but six Months he received a most Magnificent Triumph and as if his Atcheivments had exceeded all Example the Senate decreed yearly Games to his Honour and set up stately Arches not only in Rome but at Bulloigne also the place from whence he set out In this Expedition they gave moreover to him and his Son the Sir-name of BRITANNICUS a Title no less glorious to them than that of Germanicus Africanus or Asiaticus to others and conferred on them with far greater circumstances of Acknowledgment from the State And this may be said to the Honour of our Nation that even in the height of the Roman Empire it was esteemed so considerable a part of the World that it was held not Inferiour to any of the forementioned Provinces and cost as many Legions in preserving it as all Asia and was never forsaken by the Romans but in their last extremity At the Triumph of Claudius to make it more splendid the Governours of Provinces were summoned to appear and as in a publick Jubile all Banished persons for what Crimes soever were for that time admitted into Rome Upon the Loover of the Palace a Naval Coronet was fixed as if at that time BRITAIN had been the Mistress of the Sea and that the Ensign of its new Subjection Provinces presented their Crowns of Gold Gallia Comata or France one of nine pound Spain one of seven pound weight He ascended the Capitol by the stairs on his knees supported on each sides by his Sons in law Pompeius and Silanus He entred in Triumph the Adriatick Sea in a stately Vessel more like a Palace than a Ship To his Wife Messalina by the Senate was allowed the Highest place to sit in and in his Triumph she followed his Charriot in her Caroch or Hanging-Coach after them followed Valerius Asiaticus Julius Silanus Sidius Geta and others on whom in respect of this Conquest he had heaped Triumphal Ornaments the rest followed on foot and in their Robes After this he exhibited Triumphal Sports and Games having assumed for that end the Consular Office and Authority and besides the Solemnities in the Theatres he instituted Horse Races for Prizes between every Course which were ten in all Bears were killed Champions fought and the choicest Youths out of Asia danced the Warlike-dance in Armour In the Field of Mars he exhibited a War-like shew wherein he represented the storming and sacking of a Town and the Surrender of the British Princes himself presiding in the Robes of a General To Licinius Crassus Frug. he gave the Honour to follow him in his Triumph mounted upon a Trapped Courser with a rich Caparison and arraied in a Robe of Date-tree work Upon Posidius the Eunuch he bestowed a Spear-staff without a Head Upon C. Gavius Chains Bracelets Horse-trappings and a Coronet of Gold and all in memory of his British Conquest THE British History CONCERNING THE EXPEDITION OF CLAUDIUS And these Times CLAUDIUS at his coming to Land at Portchester besieged that Town to the Releif whereof came Guiderius and the Battle went on the Britains side until Hamo a Roman disguising himself like a Britain got the opportunity of killing the King and retiring Arviragus least the Britains should be discouraged concealed his Brothers death and dressing himself in his Armour as King continued the Battle and so obtained a great Victory Claudius fled to his Ships and Hamo to the next Woods whither Arviragus pursued him and hunting him out to the Sea-coast there slew him at a Haven before he could take Shipping called afterwards by the name of Hamon's-Haven and Hampton and at this day Southampton Thus died Guiderius in the year of our Lord Forty five and Arviragus his Brother for want of Issue succeeded him ARVIRAGUS the youngest Son of Cunobelin and Brother of Guiderius received the Kingdom in the year of our Lord forty five No mention is made of this King in the Roman Histories of these Times which maketh the Reign of this Prince too much suspected considering that in these daies many memorable things were done and Recorded by the Romans concerning this Island and more Inferiour Persons taken notice of and so it seemeth more strange that a Soveraign Prince of so active a Spirit as Arviragus is made and so Victorious against the Romans should be totally neglected by their Historians so that I am afraid as well his Encounters with Hamo as his Marriage with Genuissa a supposed Daughter of Claudius as likewise his Treaty with the Emperour his Homage to him the naming of Caerleon or Glovernia Claudiocestria in honour of his Nuptials with Claudius his Daughter as likewise his Exploits against Vespatian at Richborough will be all accounted of the same stamp and for that reason I will omit them And I will only make mention that about the sixth year of his Reign Joseph of Arimathea sent by Philip the Apostle preached as is generally supposed the Gospel of Christ in this Island having a place assigned him about Glastenbury by this King whom afterwards he converted to the Christian Faith if Harding writes true Joseph converted this King Arviragus By his preaching to know the Law Divine And Baptized him as written hath Nennius The Chronicler in Britain Tongue full fine But his Authority may be supposed to be as bad as his Verses for we find but two Nennius's one Brother of Cassibelan and long before this time the other called Bancharensis and writ not in the British Tongue but in the Latin However it is agreed that about these times the Christian Faith
exhibited to the People one especially was a Wood wherein were painted two hundred Deer covered with Palms and Britains mixed among them which sheweth that the Britains were still matter of novelty and delight to the Romans The Gordians Father and Son thus happily removed Maximine who had been all this while in Germany hastned to Rome breathing nothing but Revenge to the Senate and People but endeavouring first to reduce the City of Aquilea who shut its Gates upon him in his passage he was slain at the Siege thereof by his own Souldiers It is reported by Capitolinus that the City was yielding to admit him had not one Menophilus a Senatour perswaded them that BELINUS a God peculiar to the Britains and Gauls and who had a Temple at Aquilea declared by his Oracle that Maximine should be overcome This the Priests gave out and therefore after his death the Souldiers bragg'd about That APOLLO fought against them and that they were not overcome by the Senate and Maximus who succeeded Maximinus but by the power of the Gods From the circumstances of this story is collected that the British God BELENUS was the same with APOLLO or the SUN and was the Bel or Baal of the Phanicians from whence the latter part of Eligabal the Emperours name is derived With Maximine died his Son and Caesar Maximine in the year of our Lord 238 after they had sate in the Empire three years The British Histories allow him King of this Island after whom follows an Interregnum but I shall proceed with the Roman Emperours Pupienus Maximus And Clodius Balbinus EMPEROURS PUPIENUS MAXIMUS and CLODIUS BALBINUS chosen by the Senate Emperours against Maximine were not so linked together in Affection as they were nearly joyned in Authority Balbinus was of greater Birth and Nobility but Pupienus exceeded him in Wisdom and Conduct insomuch that both of them over-valuing themselves the one upon the gifts of Fortune the other the endowments of his Mind were both slain by the Praetorian Souldiers having joyntly Reigned little more than a year during whose short continuance in Power we find not the least remembrance of them in our Island M. Anton. Gordianus AT the Age of fourteen Gordianus was elected Emperour by the Praetorian Bands he was the Son of a Daughter of Old Gordianus being so young he Ruled by the Advice of Misitheus a prudent Counsellour whose Daughter he took in Marriage And now some glimmering light appeareth concerning the Government of this Island out of an Altar-stone found in Cumberland at a place then called Castra Exploratorum with an Inscription for the health of this Emperour his Wife and the whole Family set up by AEmilius Crispinus who was Captain of Horse under Nonnius Philippus Lieutenant General of Britain as appeareth by the Stone it self IOM. PRO SALUTE IMPERATORIS M. ANTONI GOR DIANI P. F. INVICTI AUG ET SABI NIAE TURIAE TRANQUILE CONJUGIRIUS TOTAQUE DOMU DIVIN EORUM ALA AUG GORDIA OB VIRTUTEM APPELLATA POSUIT CUI PRAEEST AEMILIUS CRISPINUS PRAEF EQ Q. NATUS IN PRO AFRICA DE TUIDRO SUB CUR NONNII PH LIPPI LEG AUG PROPRETO ATTICO ET PRAETEXTATO COSS. After Gordianus had governed the State for the space of six years he was deposed by Julius Philippus who to make way for himself first poysoned Misitheus and then insinuating himself into favour was the destruction of his Master for Gordianus by the Power of Philip being cast out of the Throne was soon afterwards by the jealousie of the Usurper slain in the year of Grace 245 and of his Age 22. Gordian is accounted in the British History King of this Island upon the account of his being Father to Claudius whose Title we shall examine hereafter M. Julius Philippus PHILIP by treachery and disloyalty to his Soveraign having ascended the Throne proved a better Prince than Subject By embracing the Christian Religion he strived to wipe away the stains of his former life much to be approved of if Sincerity were joyned with his Profession but nothing worth if to daub over a guilty Conscience he applied himself to Pardon and Pennance only Eusebius to prove his Sincerity writes That he submitted to be placed in the room of Common Penitents because in many things he had been faulty This was a piece of humility not to be slighted if with that self denial he had resigned his ill-gotten Power or employed that Authority in the open owning and propagating the truth But such was the earnest desire even in those Primitive times of gaining mighty Prelates to the Church that the comfortable part of the Gospel Forgiveness of Sins was used as a Bait only to draw them in being drest up in fashion and formality light and trivial Ceremonies which had a shew of submission whilest the weightier parts of the Law without which the other availeth nothing were either neglected or dissembled Against this Philip first Marinus set himself up Emperour but he failing Decius was advanced by the Souldiers whom whilest Philip sought to reduce was himself slain by his own Army and his Head cut off by the Teeth The memory of him is preserved in Britain upon a Pyramid or long Stone dug out of the ground not far from Old Carlile with this Inscription IMP. CAES. M. JUL. PHILIPPO PIO FELI CI AUG ETM. JUL. PHI LIPPO NOBILIS SIMO CAES. TR. P. COS Eusebius saith he Reigned seven years but Eutropius and Victor whom I follow give him but five Upon the news of his death the Praetorian Souldiers kill'd his Son PHILIP whom he had created his Caesar so that we see his disloyalty to his natural Soveraign Gordianus was returned double fold upon him and the Christian Religion which might save him in the World to come did not exempt him from the Punishments of this life attending Treason and Usurpation Gn. Messius Quinctus Trajan Decius DECIUS elected Emperour by the Persinn Legions proclaimed in Verona by the Roman Souldiers and confirmed at Rome by the voice of the Senate was a wise and valiant Prince but Reigned but two years being in his Wars against the Goths betrayed by his own Captain Trebonianus Gallus where having the misfortune to see his two Sons Decius and Hostilianus whom he had made his Associates in the Empire slain before his face he threw himself into a Whirl-pool which soon swallowed up both him and his Sorrows He was a great enemy of the Christians and raised the seventh Persecution Trebonianus Gallus TREBONIANUS GALLUS having betrayed Decius was upon his death admitted Emperour He created his Son Volusianus a Child his Caesar but he enjoyed not long the Imperial Crown for giving himself up to Pleasures at Rome he neglected the preservation of the Empire insomuch that the Goths breaking in on the Frontiers made great havock till AEmilian his General put a stop to them and giving them Battle overthrew them with a wonderful slaughter for which great Action
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
Augustine A SYNOD called by Augustine first Archbishop of Canterbury by the assistance of Ethelbert King of Kent to Augustine's Ac a place in Worcestershire There being present besides Augustine and his Roman Clergy seven Bishops and many British Doctours to wit in two Sessions in which Augustine first demands obedience to the Church of Rome afterwards that the Britains be conformable to the Romans in three things 1. In celebrating of Easter 2. In the administration of Baptism 3. In the preaching with him to the English-Saxons AUgustine by the power of King Ethelbert called to a Conference the Bishops or Doctors of the greatest and next adjoyning Province of the Britains to a place at this very day in the English tongue called Augustineizac i. e. Augustine's Oak in the confines of the Wiccians and South-Saxons where he began to perswade them with a Brotherly admonition that regarding the peace of the Catholick Church they would unite their endeavours to his in the common Preaching to the Nations for they did not keep the Lord's day of Easter at its due season but from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of the Moon which computation is contained in the circle of eighty four years Moreover they observed many things contrary to the unity of the Church who when after a long disputation could not be brought either by the prayers exhortations or threats of Augustine and his Companions to yield their assent but rather valued their own Traditions above all the Churches In the World under Christ. Holy Father Augustine put an end to this long and difficult Controversie saying We beseeth God which makes us to dwell in the house of his Father with one accord that he would be pleased to inspire us with his heavenly gifts that we may know what Traditions are to be followed which waies we ought to take to enter into his kingdom Let some sick person be brought and by whose prayers he shall be cured let his faith and labours be looked 〈◊〉 most pleasing to God and as fit to be embraced by all men which when his Adversaries though unwillingly assented to there was one brought of the English Nation that was deprived of the light of his eyes who after he had been set before the British Priests and could receive no help or cure from their ministery at length Augustine compelled thereunto by a just necessity bended his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ beseeching him that he would restore to the Blind the sight he had lost and that by the bodily enlightning of one man he would cause the light of his spiritual Grace to arise in the hearts of all the Faithful Neither was it long before the Blind was enlightned and Augustine cried up by all the true preachers of heavenly light Then the Britains confessed that they themselves indeed thought that to be the'true way of Righteousness which Augustine preached but that they could not lay aside their Ancient customes without the consent and free leave of their whole Nation Whence they desired that there might be another Synod called to which more might come which when it was agreed on there came as is reported seven British Bishops and many Learned men from their famous Monastery which in the English tongue is called Bancornaburg over which at that time Abbot Dinoth is said to have presided who a little before their going to the aforesaid Councel went first to a certain Man both holy and wise who led an Anchorite's life among them They asked him whether they should lay aside their Traditions at the preaching of Augustine who made answer If he is a man of God follow him they said how shall we know this he replied The Lord saies take my yoke upon you for I am meek and humble in heart if therefore Angustine be meek and humble in heart it is credible that he himself beareth the yoke of Christ and offereth the same to be born of you But if he be cruel and proud it appeareth that he is not of God neither ought ye to take care what he saith They said again but how shall we make a discovery of that he said Contrive it so that he and his come first into the place of the Synod and if he shall rise up to you as you come near know ye that he is the Servant of Christ and obediently hear him but if he shall despise you nor rise up to you when ye are more in number let him be slighted by you also They did as he had said and it sell out that Augustine as they drew near sate still in his Chair which when they saw they grew presently angry accusing him of pride and endeavoured in all things he said to contradict him He said unto them Ye do many things contrary to our custome and that of the Catholick Church nevertheless if ye will obey me in these three things That ye celebrate Easter in its proper time That ye perform the ministery of Baptism by which we are born again to God according to the custome of the holy Roman and Apostolick Church That ye preach the Word of God together with us to the English Nation as for the other things which ye do although contrary to our customes we will quietly tolerate them all But they made answer that they would do none of those things neither would they acknowledge him for an Archbishop discoursing therefore among themselves they said If he would not just now rise up unto us how much more when we are subject to him will be then condemn us as nothing To whom Augustine the Man of God is reported thus threatningly to have Prophesied If ye will not accept of peace with your Brethren ye are like to accept of war from your Enemies and because ye would not preach the way of life to the Nation of the English ye shall suffer by their hands the punishment of death which in every thing the divine Judgment concurring was performed as he had foretold for a little after Edilfrid the strongest King of the English having gathered together a great Army about the City of Chester which by the English is called Legacester but truer by the Britains Carlegion he made a great slaughter of that Nation but when he was going to give the Onset he espied Priests of theirs who were come thither to intreat God for the success of the Army standing apart on a place of advantage he asked who they were and for what business they had met there Most of them were of the Monastery of Bangor in which there is reported to have been such a number of Monks that when the whole Monastery was divided into seven parts with their Rulers that were set over them no part contained less than three hundred Men all which got their living by the labour of their hands Many of these therefore after a Fast of three daies came with some others merely on the account of Prayer to the aforesaid Army having one
EGFRID eldest Son of King Oswy by his wife Eanfled succeeded his Father in the Kingdom A Prince as he is reported of an unquiet disposition His first wars were with Ethelred King of Mercia who had married his Sister with whom encountring by the River Trent he lost great part of his Army and his Brother Elswin a youth generally beloved who amongst the thickset was there unfortunately cut off Greater bloodshed had like to have ensued had not Theodorus Archbishop of York interposed and took up the quarrel so that a sum of mony being paid to Egfrid for the loss of his Brother the business was happily concluded His next wars were with the Irish a Nation saith Bede harmless and great friends to the English These he unprovoked furiously invades making no distinction between things holy or profane but with fire and sword laid waste the Country and buried it in the Ruines of its Cities Temples and Monasteries The Irish on the other side used no other weapons but Prayers and as my Author has it bitter Imprecations which may be supposed at last to have reached Heaven it self for the next year against the counsel and earnest perswasion of his sagest Friends and especially Cudbert the Bishop going to wars against the Picts he was trained into narrow straits by the Enemy and there cut off with most part of his Army This was so great a blow to the English that not only the Scots and Picts who before durst not look beyond their own Country but the Britains also began to bear up for Liberty and yearly to gain upon their old enemies This King took to wife Ethildrith Daughter of Anna King of the East-Angles she had been wife to Eunbert Prince of the Gervii a Nation lying in the Fens but notwithstanding marriage had kept her Virginity Nor did her second Nuptials with a King make her in the least alter her resolution and though invited to his Bed sometimes by passionate entreaties otherwhiles by perswasions of her friends who were made privy to it yet she continued obstinate contrary to the Apostle's Rule the dictates of Nature it self which at one time abhors communion and separation and against the Laws of common prudence and civility And all this to pursue an extravagant chastity and a purity of living against all other obligations whatsoever however she be cannonized St. Andrey of Ely where it seems leaving her Husband she ended her daies ALKFRYD ALKFRYD the natural Son of King Oswy during the Reign of his half Brother had retired into Ireland where he was well instructed in the Liberal Sciences and as Bede saith exceedingly well read in the Scriptures Advanced to the Crown he wore it with much prudence and moderation but the bounds of his Kingdom were much straitned by the inroads of the Picts and encroachments of the Britains But what he wanted in extent of Dominion he made up in the prudent management of what he had He married Kenburg Daughter of Penda the Mercian by whom he had an only Son that succeeded him he ruled twenty years OSRED OSRED the Son of Alkfrid was eight years of age when he came to the Crown but he was no sooner grown up to any ripeness but he gave himself to all viciousness of life committing Incest with veiled Nuns for which his wife Cuthburga weary of her own dishonour sued a divorce and built a Monastery at Winburn in Dorsetshire where she ended her daies But Osred lived not long after her departure for he was slain by his own Relations Kenred and Osric in the eleventh year of his Reign KENRED KENRED descended from Ida by a Bastard-line and succeeded Osred in the Kingdom of Northumberland his Reign is short being only of two years continuance during which time he left nothing memorable behind him OSRIC OSRIC Reigned ten years without memory of Acts Parentage Wife or Issue CEOLNULF CEOLNULF the Brother of Kenred Ruled the space of eight years when changing his Crown for a Cowl he turned Monk in Lindisfarn or Holy Island yet he proved none of the severest for he brought his Brethren from Milk and Water to drink good Wine and Ale bringing along with him good store of provisions and great Treasures by Simeon and all as the same Author writes to follow poor Christ. To him Bede dedicates his History but writes no more of him but that the beginning and process of his Reign met with many troubles and that the conclusion of them was doubtfully expected And this is the time of Peace so much commended by the foresaid Author when Princes Queens and Nobility forsaking their charges and other duties incumbent run themselves into Monasteries striving who should be foremost as if no salvation was to be obtained but in Cells and Cloysters His Brother was Archbishop of York and there founded a stately Library EGBERT EGBERT Nephew to King Ceolnulf succeeded in the Kingdom Whilst he was in wars against the Picts Ethelbald the Mercian taking advantage of his absence invaded part of Northumberland but upon what account or how revenged is not related In these Pictish Wars Egbert subdued Kyle and brought the Countries adjacent to it under his obedience Afterwards in the year 756 he joyns battel with Unust King of the Picts besieged and took by surrender the City Alcluith now Dunbritton in Lennox from the Britains of Cumberland and ten daies after lost his whole Army about Niwanbirig when resolving to lay down his Government though intreated to the contrary by his Subjects and Neighbouring Princes who profered to make good to him his losses by surrendring great Territories to him after the example of his Uncle turned Monk when he had Reigned twenty years About these times happened two extraordinary Eclipses one of the Sun in September Anno 733 the other of the Moon Anno 756. OSWULF OSWULF Son of Egbert succeeded his Father but in the same year was slain of his Servants at a place called Mikelwoughten ETHELWALD ETHELWALD sirnamed Mollo after the death of Oswulf was advanced to the Crown In his third year he fought a great battel at Eldune by Melros slew Oswyn a great Lord who rebelled against him and gained an absolute Victory but three years after he was slain by Alcred who succeeded him ALCRED ALCRED descended in the fifth degree from Ida King of Bernicia after the murther of his Soveraign seized the Kingdom of Northumberland In the fourth year of this King's Reign Cataracton now Catarik in Yorkshire a famous City in the time of the Romans was burnt to the ground by one Arnred a Tyrant who the same year came to the like end I should think that this Arnred might be Alcred did not others report that he Reigned five years Afterwards when driven out by his Subjects with a few Attendants he fled first to Bebba a strong Castle in those parts thence to Kinot King of the Picts He left Issue Osred who afterwards came to be
Christians For this King at first as is said was a great Persecutor of that way and if Fame belye him not after his conversion none of the sincerest Christians For the Bishoprick of London he sould to Wini who had been driven out of Winchester by Kenwalch the Saxon King But however this Simony be blameable in Wulfer yet he afterwards made amends in sending Jerumannus a painful Bishop to recover the East-Saxons who had fell from the Christian Religion into open Idolatry ETHELRED ETHELRED the Brother of Wulfer obtained next the Kingdom for Kenred the Son of Wulfer was put by upon what Account is not recorded His first Actions were the recovery of Lindsey and other Territories adjoyning which his Brother had lost to Egfrid King of Northumberland Afterwards he turned his Arms upon Kent wasted that Country sparing neither Church or Monastery and sacked the City of Rochester notwithstanding what resistance Lothair could make against him Putta their Bishop was forced to fly into Mercia where he sustained his old age by teaching School But Ethelred after thirty years Reign weary of the cares of Government retired to a Monastery at Bradney which himself had built and to make amends for his Injustice he restored the Crown to Kenred his Nephew though he had a Son of his own of Age able to succeed him His Wife Ostrid was slain by her own Subjects as Bedes Epitome Records Florence names them South-Imbrians but tells not the occasion of such horrid Treason KENRED KENRED having received the Crown from his Uncle Ethelred held it but four years when desirous to return to his private Life he commended the care of Government to Kelred the Son of Ethelred and in company of Offa the Son of Siger the East-Angle King and Edwin Bishop of Worcester went to Rome in the time of POPE Constantine the first where he and his Royal Companion were both shorn Monks and ended their days KELRED KELRED the Son of Ethelred by the Resignation of Kenred came to the Crown of Mercia in the year 715 he had an encounter with Ina King of the West-Saxons at a place called Wodnesburg in Wiltshire the success whereof is left doubtful Mr. Speed in his succession of English Monarchs treating of this Kelred gives him high commendations as a Prince beloved of his Subjects for his Vertues and much lamented by them at his death Thus he dresseth him up whom he will needs have to be the fourteenth Monarch but as his custom is without the least shew of Authority nay absolutely against it For we read in an Epistle of Boniface Archbishop of Mentz written to his Successor Ethelbald and yet extant that he was a defiler of Nuns and a breaker of the Priviledges of the Church And he admonisheth that Prince by his example to beware of such ossences lest they bring him into the same destruction For Kelred one day sitting at a Feast with his Nobles in the midst of his jollity was taken with an evil Spirit which worke him into high fits of distraction so that mad and raging he talked wildly by himseif and refusing the comforts of the Ministry and Saeraments finally died in despair of his salvation ETHELBALD ETHELBALD of the Royal blood succeeded Kelred not unlike him in his exorbitant life as the same Epistle of the Archbishop of Mentz doth witness but reclaimed in the end by that and other good advices he proved an excellent Prince Aften the death of King Ina the West-Saxon he so managed his affairs that all on this side Humber was intire at his Command He besieged and took the Town of Somerton about the year 740. And whilst Eadbert King of Northumberland was taken up in his Putish wars he entered his Country in his absence as the supplement of Bede's Epitome Records testifie Afterwards he waged War with Cuthred the West-Saxon newly come to his Crown whom he often engaged with inter changeable success But at last coming to a Peace they joyn both their Forces and invade the Welch whom in a great battel they overthrow But in the year 752 Cuthred the West-Saxon falling again at variance with him they sought another battel at Borford now Burford in Shropshire and a year after at a place called Secundune now Seckinton eight miles from Tamworth in Warmickshire He was slain as Huntington reporteth by the same Prince others say he was murthered in the night by his own Guards through the Treason of Beornred out of ambition to succeed him In this King's Reign at a Synod held at Gloveshow by Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury it was ordained among other things that the Lord's day should be carefully observed that the reading of the Holy Scriptures should be generally used in Monasteries that the Creed and Lord's Prayer should be taught in the English tongue and that publick Supplications should be made for Kings and all in Authority BEORNRED BEORNRED having trayterously slain King Ethelbald stept into the Throne himself about the year 754 but he enjoyed not long his ill-gained Honour for Offa the next of the Royal Family having for some time lain concealed until he could unite his Interest at length came upon him and in a set battel slew him after he had held the Kingdom by Usurpation for the space of two years or thereabouts as may be most probably calculated OFFA OFFA at the death of Beornred was received by the universal consent of his People and advanced to the Crown of his Ancestours He proved the Greatest that ever swayed this Scepter but though he often gave fair strokes for the whole Monarchy of the Island yet he was never able to compass that design His first enterprize was against the Hestings a neighbouring People whom he quickly subdued and added to his own Dominions Next he invades Kent and slaies their King Alric at a place called Ottenford then recalled by the West-Saxon King he engages with him at Besington where he wins the day and the Town for which they contended And now to add Treachery to his Conquests he invites Egilbert King of the East-Angles to his Court with fair promises of his Daughter in marriage whom no sooner come but he beheads ' and then seizeth his Kingdom But the baseness of this action blunted his Sword and we never after find him the same man as before so that the remaining part of his life will be spent in recounting his satisfactions Pilgrimage and such other deeds To expiate this murther he gave the Tenths of all he had to the Church and great possessions to the Church of Hereford where Egilbert was buried He caused the Reliques of St. Alban to be enshrined in a Cask of Gold set with precious Jewels and to the Martyr himself gives Lands and Tenements the Ancient demesns of his Crown He took a Journy to Rome to the Colledge of English there he gave a yearly Pension and a Tribute to the Pope through all his Dominions for which he
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
Colony whereby they may enjoy it more secure But suppose the Athenians themselves were not acquainted with these Parts yet the Phoceans being of their Colony very probable were inclined to the same form of Government and did retain in general many of their Customes though they differed in some circumstances wherefore it is hoped that this present account may not altogether prove ineffectual especially to those whose education or business has not given them full opportunity of being acquainted with the Customes of the Athenians After all these several Defeats the Athenians grew so proud and conceited with the strange notions of their own Merits that now every private Citizen lookt upon himself able enough to be a States-man and nothing but Democracy would please their palate as if Themistocles had managed the War against the Persian not so much by his own cunning as by the direction of the Athenian Commonalty Now they began to oppress and insolently Lord it over their Allies now it is that we hear no mans Vertue or Innocency was sheilded strong enough against the malicious darts of an envious Tongue The People condemned rather by reports or events than by a just enquiry and search into the matter This made Alcibiades when he was commanded to return from Sicily and answer for his life at home refuse to go as a thing very dangerous and uncertain for being asked Wilt thou not trust thy Country which begat thee to be thy Judge No not her said he that brought me forth least she not receiving the Truth mistake the black for the white Stone The Greeks formerly Condemned by Black Stones and Absolved by White But these two things viz. Pride towards their Confederates and an over hasty Condemnation of their best Captains in the end proved their Ruine the one weakning their Army the other alienating the affections of their Friends the Lacedaemonians who had long lain still but ever jealous of the aspiring Greatness of the Athenians and consequently watchful in taking all advantages of them at last entred into the War which was called the Peloponnesian It was fought a long while between them with various success but at last the Athenians through the sudden and frequent revolt of their Allies the banishment of the old and neglect and inadvertency of the new Captains were totally beaten at the Battle of AEgos Potamos by the fortunate Conduct of Lysander and were at last forced to submit to these Conditions That the long Walls leading from the Town to the Port should be thrown down That all the Cities subject to that State should be set at liberty That the Athenians should be Lords only of their own Territories and the Fields adjoyning to their Town That they should keep no more than twelve Ships That they should hold as Friends or Enemies the same whom the Lacedaemonians did and follow the Lacedaemonians as Leaders in the Wars After this Athens was Governed by thirty Tyrants who under the notion of compiling a body of Law and Governing the People accordingly soon abused their Authority to the grievance of that City which at first they had governed with great Moderation and to the good liking of the People but afterwards they Condemned any Citizens if by them suspected as they had formerly done the lewdest and worst without due tryal or legal proceeding from which Tyranny they were delivered by Thrasibulus and his Party after which they continued free till the death of Alexander Who were the first Attick Legislators is very much doubted amongst the best Authors I ever conversed with some make Solon the Chief founder of their Laws others have given that honour to Theseus from a passage in Plutarch where he saies That after Theseus had gathered together the dispersed People of Attica and setled a Democracy he received to himself only the chief Command in War and the custody and preservation of the Laws which in my mind rather intimates That they had Laws amongst them in force before this their Incorporation of which he desired the keeping For if he was their first Legislator and his Laws easie reasonable and just whom can it be supposed the People could better entrust with their Laws than their King who is most able to see them put in execution and would be sure to keep them most free from corruption and alteration every Change unless upon mature deliberation implying impotency and weakness at first in the Author Triptolemus who taught them first to Till and sow Lands was the first that delivered Laws unto them Porphyrie lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is saies he affirmed that the most ancient of the Attick Legislators was Triptolemus And Hermippus in his second Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They say that Triptolemus gave Laws to the Athenians And Xenocrates the Philosopher writes That there remains in the Eleusine Temple three of his Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Parents are to Honoured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Gods are to be worshipped with the Fruits of the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that flesh was not to be eaten before Solon Draco gave Laws to the Athenians but he was too much above Humanity to be a good Law-giver not considering in the least the frailty of humane Nature for he punisht with death almost every peccadillo or little slip prosecuting him that had stole a Pin or any inconsiderable trifle with as great rigour as he would have done a Murtherer and Aristotle saies They ought to be remembred for nothing but their Severity But the Athenian Laws were never exact and compleat till Solons time who abrogating what old Laws he thought inconvenient and useless and adding what new ones he thought necessary most of which he brought out of Egypt made so excellent a composure that Athens for many years was happily governed by them and afterwards they became the ground of the Roman Government These Laws of Athens were engraven in Wood and kept in the Acropolis translated afterwards to the Prytaneum by Ephialtes besides there were Decrees established by the Senate to which the consent of the People was not required these were in force but for a year only but those Decrees to the ratisying and confirming of which the peoples Votes were necessary remained firm for a longer time Before any Decree came out the Senate sate in Consultation to weigh and consider of the advantages and disadvantages it might bring upon the State then the Prytanies wrote upon certain Tables on such a day and about such a time will be an Assembly to Consult of these and these Affairs The People being gathered together and purified the Decree is read which if approved by the People was confirmed if otherwise of no force But least through variety of Circumstances and in length of time Inconveniences might arise which at the making of them could not be fore-seen they appointed a day of examination and inspection into their Laws which was on the Eleventh of July
Instruments of their deeper Slavery so that what Kings of Britain for the future we shall find under the Emperours they were either Tributaries to the Romans if they lived in the Southern parts such as Lucius and Coelius or else they resided beyond Glota and Bodotria those Northern Regions the absolute Conquest whereof Agricola had not time to accomplish In the daies of this Domitian lived at Rome Claudia Rufina the Daughter of a Britain and Wife of Pudence a Senatour famous in the Verses of Martial for her Beauty Wit and Learning Claudia coeruleis cum sit Rufina Britannis Edita cur Latiae Pectora Plebis habet Quale decus formae Romanam credere matres Italides possunt Atthides esse suam Though Claudia does descend of British Race Yet her Behaviour 's full of Roman Grace Her Beauty does the Italian Dames surpass And for her wit she may for Attick pass But more famous was she for her profession in Christianity in the writings of St. Paul being the very same Woman as John Bale and Matthew Parker first Protestant Arch-bishop of Canterbury have written of whom he maketh mention in his later Epistle to Timothy neither is the computation of Time repugnant although others are of a different Opinion And now we come to the death of Domitian there being nothing more upon Record memorable in his Reign that relates to our British Affairs He was slain in a Conspiracy wherein his Wife was partaker the chief in the Action was Stephen a Procurator and Steward to Domicilla the Empress who feigning himself Lame of one Arm and carrying it in a Scarf secretly withal bore a Dagger therein and approaching to the Emperour under pretence of delivering him a Scrowl of the Names of divers Conspirators struck him with a Poniard into the Belly Domitian although sorely wounded yet was not wanting to himself upon so sudden an occasion for strugling with this Assassinate he had certainly wrested the Dagger from him had not the rest of the Confederates broke in and with seven Wounds put an end to his life It was upon the eighteenth day of September the name of which Month he had changed into that of Germanicus a Title vainly assumed to himself in the fifteenth year of his Reign and of his life 45 in the year of Grace 98. The chief Vertues of this Prince for his Vices were innumerable were that he favoured Learning and was the Patron of greatest Bounty and easiest Access of any in his time He was desirous of a lasting Name but took the wrong way in attaining it for being pleased with the Flatteries of some Writers who would make him an excellent Prince he neglected to be so and alwaies sought after the shadow of Vertue rather than the substance of it But these Parasites who were kept warm by his Bounty whilest living basely deserted him at his death and followed his Memory with all the Scorns and Reproaches of the succeeding Age. None thought of his Apotheosis or Deification after his Departure insomuch that it may be counted a Prophetick Spirit in him as well as Pride That in his life time he commanded himself to be called God and Lord. NERVA COGGEIUS NERVA succeeded Domitian he was chosen by the Senate with the assistance of Petronius Secundus Captain of the Praetorian Bands and Parthenius High-Chamberlain one of the Murtherers of Domitian His Birth was Noble and of Italy in the City Narnia of the Province of Umbria He was a prudent and Aged Prince but the shortness of his Reign which was only one year four months and odd daies hath given little matter for Writers to speak of British Affairs Mr. Hollinshead maketh Cneius Trebellius Lieutenant of Britain in his daies and the daies of Trajan and that under his Government during both Emperours there were troublesome times in this Island which last Circumstance may be certainly gathered out of good History in the time of Trajan his Successour and may perhaps be true under Nerva seeing that in his life time he accepted Trajan and made him Partner with him in the Empire and so his Reign alone was but of small continuance so that the little Remembrances of this Island in these Times shall be reserved to the next Emperour TRAJAN ULPIUS TRAJANUS was a Spaniard born of a Noble Family in the Province of Biscay he extended the Roman Empire beyond the bounds of all his Predecessors He subdued Dacia Armenia Parthia Mesopotamia and passing Tigris he carried his Arms to the remotest Indies making them feel the Roman Force who before had never heard of their Name And as he gained in the East so lost he nothing in the Western Provinces for although the Britains Revolted yet were they soon again reduced to Obedience by him as is evident out of Spartianus The time of their Revolting may be supposed to have begun after the removal of Agricola by Domitian as is gathered out of Tacitus and through the Idleness of that Prince and the short Reign of Nerva it might be neglected till the dates of this Emperour And no wonder if the Britains watched all opportunity of freeing themselves from the Roman yoke and the insufferable Grievances which accrued and besides the constant Tribute and Imposts through the Insolence of Garrisons the Exactions of Officers they were constrained to receive Publicans that is to say greedy Cormorants and Horse-leeches who sucked their very Blood confiscated their Goods and exacted Toll not only for the Living but in the name of the Dead The Ancient Laws of their Country began to grow out of use and instead thereof the Civil Law of Rome and the arbitrary Sentence of Judges was introduced Magistrates were sent from that City with absolute Power and Commission even in Capital matters and besides Praetors Propraetors and Presidents every City and State had their Municipal Lord over them At the solemn Sessions and Assizes the Praetor sitting alost upon an high Tribunal proudly executed his Jurisdiction shewing Terrible amidst his Guards and Lictors where Rods and Axes upon slight occasions were often presented to the backs and necks of the Common People Through the often changing of Governours there ensued great Confusion one destroying what another had established and the Successour often of course abolishing the Acts and Constitutions of his Predecessour Neither was this sufficient they kept on foot continually Discords and Dissensions favouring some above the rest that they might make them Instruments of their own Slavery As many of these Abuses had been sormerly rectified under the last Lieutenant Agricola so again were they redressed by this Worthy Emperour whose care in other matters is left upon Record namely his carrying of Roads and broad-Causies through the whole Island begun by Agricola a work of prodigious greatness and infinite Charge what with the drayning of Fens and Marishes through which they were continued and what with casting up of Banks through the low Vallies besides they were paved with Stone and
of Eleutherius And the first is the Date it bears which in the Text is dated 169 in the Margin 156 yet neither agree with the time of Eleutherius his Popedom if we will follow the most approved Authors For although Bede saies he was made Bishop of Rome in the year of our Lord 167 yet Eusebius in his Chronicle places the beginning of his Popedom in the sixteenth year of the Emperour Antoninus that is in the year of our Lord 179 But in his History and indeed truer to the following year of Antonium which is of our Lord 180. Baronius is of the same Opinion also and confirms it by the Letters of the Martyrs at Lyons which were presented to Eleutherius himself 2. Besides if this Epistle be true it makes King Lucius to take a very preposterous course in sending so far as Rome to Eleutherius for the Roman Laws when he might sooner and with less trouble have procured them at home from the Roman Governour for from the time of the Emperour Claudius who subdued most part of Britain the Roman Laws were in force here nay very well known to the further parts of Yorkshire And Tacitus saies he had erected here Roman Courts and Tribunals which was about an hundred years before Lucius came to the Government But we shall pursue this discourse no further it being plain and obvious to any that are but meanly acquainted with those Histories 3. This Epistle makes no mention of any Power or Authority the Romans had in these parts but makes Lucius an absolute Monarch as in nothing subject to the Roman Governour You are Gods Vicegerent in your own Kingdom not Claudius Caesars or any other Emperour Contrary to the Customes of those times Among the Jews King Herod was under Pilate and King Agrippa under Faelix and Festus and so it was likewise usual in other Provinces but without doubt Lucius was a British King as he is rightly so stiled in the Life of Eleutherius but it was but of some part of it not of the whole Island or that part which separated from Scotland by a Wall which was under the Romans yet it is not to be doubted but that in some part of it he had a Power under the Romans neither is it any hard matter to describe the Places of his Government for he being the Son and Successour of King Coile and Coile the Son of Marius and Marius of Arviragus which some report to be Togenus others the same with Tacitus his Prasutagus King of the Iceni The Iceni inhabited that part of Britain which the East Angles did under the Saxons it comprehended Norfolk Suffolk and at some time Cambridge Their Royal City was Venta of the Iceni now called Castor in Norfolk near to the City of Norwich but this place is too far distant from Glastonia a little Village of the Belgae in the Kingdom of the West Saxons which Arviragus as they say gave to Joseph of Arimathea and his Companions that came with him But this seems to intimate that Arviragus was rather King of the Belga and Dobuni that is of the West Saxons than of the Iceni and that which promotes this Opinion is his being most usually in those parts and his entertainment in Claudiocestria if we will credit Gaufridus but that which takes away the doubt unless we will suspect the Author himself is the testimony of Hector Boethius Scotus who shews that Arviragus was by Birth an Icene and was substituted by Claudius Caesar King of Britain furthermore the Iceni first received the Christian Faith in Britain 4. This word Manutenere which we translate Maintain was not in use in Eleutherius his time but smells rather of the Norman Latin from which it crept into our Country Laws 5. Those places which are quoted out of the Holy Scripture are taken out of the Translation of St. Hierom who lived two hundred years after Eleutherius 6. This Epistle never came out in the World till almost a thousand years after the death of Eleutherius but out of what Monks Cell it came is uncertain but that which ought to be most observed is that it is no where to be found in Gaufridus Monumuthentis contemporary with Hovedenus who was always diligent in the Collection of the British Antiquities This Answer of the Pope by Letter to Lucius was sent by Fugatius and Damianus Men of sound doctrine and holy life by whose hands the King with all his Nobles received Baptisme and shortly after by their industry and the earnest desire and endeavours of King Lucius the Doctrine was so far propagated that the Temples and Altars of the Heathen Gods were in most places flung down and demolished the Christian worship set up in their places and the Church established under Form and Government In the Seats of twenty eight Flamens and three Arch Flamens which presided over the whole Nation being all of them either converted or expulied were constituted twenty eight Bishops and three Arch-bishops whose Chairs for the greater convenience of Government were continued in the same places the Archi-Flamens resided in The first and Metropolitan Seat was at London and the Cathedral St. Peters in the memory of that Saint from whose Successour Eleutherius they had received the Faith The second was at York The third at Carlile but of the particular extent of these places I shall treat more fully anon The Succession of Bishops in the See of London THe first to the Times of the Saxons is thus Theanus who was in the daies of Lucius consecrated the Church of St. Peters Cornhill and by the assistance of Ciranus the Kings Cup-bearer performed all the Rites thereunto belonging Some report he built the Church The second Eluanus he added a Liberary to it The third was Cadar the fourth Obinus the fifth Conanus the sixth Palladius the seventh Stephanus the eighth Iltutus or Iltutius the ninth Deduinus the tenth Theodredus the eleventh Hilarius the twelfth Vitelinus the thirteenth Vodinus Mr. Cambden calls him Theonus But before we proceed any further it will be necessary to say who and what these Flamens were and of their being changed into Bishops and Arch-bishops What these Flamens and Arch-flamens were and their being changed into Bishops and Arch-bishops I Wish we had seen the Book of Gildas for it can hardly be found in ancient Authority that there was ever any distribution of Flamens and Arch flamens into their particular Provinces or that the words Arch-flamens and Arch-bishops were in use in the time of Lucius or that Metropolitical Jurisdiction and the Ceremony of the Pall had any being in those daies For Flamens among the Romans were no other than their Priests so called from a Thred or String as Varro saith with which they bound their Head as Flamines some Pileamines from a Cap they wore and from Sacrificing commonly called Priests and every one of these lookt after the proper Offices and Duties of their particular Gods at first
Britain taking notice only in this place of the words of our Gildas as followeth No sooner was the heat of the Persecution quenched but the Christians appeared with comfort and courage in Publick rebuilt the Churches so despicably laid low they founded the Temples of the holy Martyrs they built and compleated the Banners of the Victory in all places kept Festival-daies and with undefiled words and hearts performed the Rights and Ceremonies belonging to the true Church and this they could not do till they had been enabled by a freedom to leave their Woods Deserts and secret Caves which had before so long bound them up to such Slavery and Bondage for self-preservation This kindness of the Emperour to the Christians gained him a great Name nay many Names to advance his Dignity as high as might be IMPERATOR FORTISSIMUS A C BEATISSIMUS PIISSIMUS FELIX URBIS LIBERATOR QUIETIS FUNDATOR REIPUBLICAE INSTAURATOR PUBLICAE LIBERTATIS AUCTOR RESTITUTOR URBIS ROMAE AT QUE ORBIS MAGNUS MAXIMUS INVICTUS INVICTISSIMUS PERPETUUS SEMPER AUGUSTUS RERUM HUMANARUM OPTIMUS PRINCEPS VIRTUTE FORTISSIMUS ET PIETATE CLEMENTISSIMUS QUI VENERANDA CHRISTIANORUM FIDE ROMANUM MUNIVIT IMPERIUM DIVUS DIVAE MEMORIAE DIVINAE MEMORIAE c. Most Valiant and Blessed Emperour most Pious Happy Redeemer of Rome City Founder of Peace Restorer of Rome City and the whole World Great most Great Invincible most Invincible Perpetual Ever AUGUSTUS The best Prince of the World For Vertue most Valiant and for Piety most Merciful who also fortified the Roman Empire with the Reverend Faith of the Christians Sacred of Sacred memory of Divine memory c. He translated the Seat of the Empire from Rome to Bizantium now Constantinople and having Reigned thirty one years to the great commendation of all but especially the Christians he fell sick and counselled by his Physicians to go to the hot-Baths of Nicomedia a City of Bithinia he died on his Journy leaving his Empire divided among his three Sons To his eldest CONSTANTINUS he gave Britain France Spain and part of Germany To his second Son CONSTANS Italy Africa Slavonia Dalmatia and Greece To CONSTANTIUS the youngest Thracia Syria Mesopotamia and AEgypt Of which Emperours I shall write in their orders not as they held together the Roman Empire but as they successively Ruled this Island and first of Constantine THE British History In the Daies of CONSTANTINE THE GREAT SEEING that CONSTANTINE changed the form of Government in this Island it is no wonder that the British Histories will not suffer so memorable an Action to pass over in silence without fastning some remarkable story upon it We must understand therefore what was said before that Constantine having made a Praefect of the Praetorium of Gall under whom the Vicar of Britain was substituted the Britains who had hitherto lived in equal esteem with the Gauls taking it ill to be under the Jurisdiction of a forreign Commander rose up in Arms and began to defend their priviledges Octavius Duke of the Gewisses whom Jeffery of Monmouth calleth a British Lord the first as saith Basing stoak who held the employment of Praefect of the Praetorium taking occasion of the Revolt of the Britains enters the Island and having punisht the Revolters and secured his own Power at length taking the advantage of the Emperours absence and occupation in Forreign Wars seized the Kingdom of Britain to himself Constantine hearing of his Usurpation sends Trahernus his Unkle by his Mothers side whom he had made Senatour of Rome to reduce him to Obedience Traherne with three Legions arrived at Britain and at his landing took a City named Caerperis at which place Octavius meeting him with a great Army not far from Winchester in a set Battle overthrew and put him to flight Traherne escaping into Albania or Scotland by Sea saith Basing stoak was pursued by Octavius but not with like success for meeting him in a place called Vestenavalia the Manuscript hath it Westmarlandia he was by him overcome and constrained to flie into Norway leaving his quarrel to be revenged by the Count of Westmorland Whilest he is soliciting the Norwegians for help Traherne is slain in an Ambush laid for him in a Valley as he came from the City London of whose death Octavius having notice returns into Britain and again assumes the Kingdom This happened saith Fabian about the year 329 in the 22 or 23d of Constantine and about two years after the said Octavius had usurped Being again established he Ruled the Island as the British Chronicle affirmeth with great Justice and Moderation even to the daies of Gratian and Valentinian which saith Fabian was fifty four years But in this he erreth in not considering that Gratian was admitted by his Father Valentinian to the Empire in the fourth year of his Reign which was An. Dom. 368. and according to Fabian whose account differeth three years in the year 371 so that from the first usurping of Octavius in the year 327 to 368 in the daies of Valentinian and Gratian are but forty one years and adding three more for Fabians account are but forty four at most Octavius now grown Old began to think of a Successour he had one only Daughter whom he had thoughts to give in marriage unto Conan Meridoc the Duke of Cornwals Nephew but the Nobles not consenting he was advised to send to Rome for a Noble Man named Maximian Cousin to the Emperour Constantine by his Mother Helena's side to invite him to take his Daughter and with her the Kingdom Maurice the Son of Conan though the Historian might have chosen a fitter Person was sent on this Embassage and performed it in such effectual manner that Maximian readily embraced the motion arrived in Britain and notwithstanding the opposition made by Conan Meridoc to the contrary obtained the Daughter and with great solemnity performed the Nuptials This Maximian in the Roman History is called Maximus of whom we shall hear more hereafter Basing stoak writeth that Octavius was reduced by Constantine in Person and that after his Victory by the intreaty of his Mother Helona he encompassed London with a Wall of three miles in circuit having six Gates and where the River Thames begins and ends the City at those two Corners he built a Tower and Castle Hence he saith this City was called AUGUSTA and the Provost of the Augustian Treasury mentioned in the Roman History and first instituted by this Emperour in Britain had his name not from the Emperours who were called Augusti but being Treasurers of Augusta or London Constantinus Junior WHEN Constantine was dead Britain together with France Spain and part of Germany fell to the portion of his eldest Son the present CONSTANTINE but he not content with his share in the Empire though most considerable invaded the Right and Possession of his Brother Constans and was by him slain after he had Reigned the term of three years He is
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
were brought Answer was made that they came out of the Isle of Britain the People whereof were as well-favoured to see unto Then he asked again whether those Islanders were Christians or enshared still with the Errors of Paganisin To which it was answered they were Painims but he fetching a long deep sigh from his very heart root Alas for pity quoth he that the foul Fiend and Father of Darkness should be Lord of so bright and lightsom faces and that they who carried such grace in their Countenances should be void of the inward Grace in their hearts and souls Once again he desired to understand by what name their Nation was known They made answer that they were called Angli And well may they be so named quoth he for Angel-like faces they have and meet it is that such should be fellow-heirs with Angels in Heaven But what is the name of that Province from whence these were brought Answer was made that the Inhabitants of the said Province were called DEIRI Deiri quoth he they are indeed De irâ eruti that is delivered from anger and wrath and called to the mercy of Christ. How call you the King of that Province saith he Answer was made that his name was Aelle Then he alluding to the name said that Allelu-jah should be sung in those Parts to the praise of GOD the Creator Coming therefore to the Bishop of the Roman and Apostolical See for himself as yet was not made Bishop he intreated that some Ministers of the Word should be sent into the English Nation by whose means it might be Converted to Christ and even himself was ready to undertake the performance of this work with the help of God in case it would please the Apostolical Pope that it should be so BENEDICT who then sate in the Chair of Rome readily heard and joyfully embraced so charitable a motion and Gregory encouraged by the leave of that Pope undertakes the Journey himself but he was not gone far but the Roman Citizens who for his holiness of Life and sincerity of Doctrine looked on him as their chiefest stay and comfort by earnest supplications and passionate requests obtained his Revocation who thus put by his so much desired enterprize nevertheless continued his ardent endeavors for this great work of Conversion which he had means to perfect afterwards when for his great Merit he was advanced to a higher capacity of acting For after the death of BONIFACE being chosen his Successor he pitcht upon Augustine for his chief Instrument in this work a Man of whose endowments for such a Ministry he was sufficiently satisfied as having together with an Austere sanctity of life the spirit and courage of an Apostle and whom by preferment he had nearly engaged to himself having made him Provost of his own Monastery at Rome Augustine thus qualified sets on for his Journey but the Monks who were to attend him and over whom he was created Abbot whether by the disswasions of others who represented the danger of their Journey or discouraged by their own Fears draw off from the enterprize and send back Augustine in the name of all to desire Gregory to release them from a Mission which was likely to be not only dangerous but ineffectual as to a Nation fierce and barbarous and a Language they understood not And this is the occasion of the following Epistle wherein Gregory encourages them to proceed in the work of Conversion which I have set down and many others because they shew the unwearied diligence and vigilant care of that great Pastor to remove all Obstacles that might hinder and to improve all Advantages to help on so necessary and charitable an undertaking THE British EPISTLES OF GREGORY the GREAT GREGORY Bishop servant of the Servants of GOD To the Servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. He exhorts those that go from Britain to be terrified with no difficulties whatsoever but bring to perfection what they had happily begun BEcause it is better not to begin good things than after they are begun negligently to give them over it concerns you my Dearest Children with God's assistance to endeavour an accomplishing that Good work which lately you have undertaken neither let the tediousness of your Journey or the tongues of Evil men any waies affright you but with all vehemency and zeal put an end to those things God being your guide which you have already begun knowing that the greatness of your Labours shall be attended with eternal glory In all things humbly obey Augustine your Governour at his return whom we have made Abbot over you knowing how abundantly it will profit your own Souls If any thing shall be compleated by you according to his advice Almighty GOD protect you with his Grace and grant that I may see the fruits of our labour in an Eternal Country And although I cannot labour with you yet I hope I shall be rewarded together with you because I am willing to labour * God have you safe in his keeping my Beloved Children Given the tenth of the Kalends of August our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus being Emperour in the fourteenth year after the Consulship of the said Lord the thirteenth year Indiction the fourteenth i. e. in the year of our Lord 596. Observations upon this Epistle Those things in the preceding Epistle which follow this mark * I find not in the old Gregorian Register but are annexed here by us according to the Copy of that Epistle in Bedes Eccl. Hist. lib. 1. cap. 23. The Author of the Register hath every where omitted the Inscription of these Dates to the great damage and injury of the Curious Searchers of Antiquity In Bede there follows another Epistle of Gregory the Great not found in the Register The Reverend Pope sent Letters saies he by the same Persons meaning Augustine and his Companions to Etherius Archbishop of Arles that he would courtcously entertain Augustine going for Britain of which this is the stile GREGORY servant of the Servants of GOD To our most Reverend and Holy Brother and fellow Bishop Etherius That he would courteously receive Augustine and his Companions ALthough Priests having Charity pleasing to God need not the commendation of any other Religious person yet because time hath fitly presented it self we have taken care to send our Letters to your Brotherhood signifying that we have sent thither Augustine the servant of God and Bearer of these Presents with other servants of God for the benefit of Souls whom 't is very necessary your Holiness should readily assist with a Sacerdotal care and speedily afford him what comforts you can and that you may the willinglier favour him we have enjoyned him particularly to declare the cause of his Journey hoping that that being known you would for God's sake seriously endeavour the business requiring it their benefit and welfare Gregory the Great To Candidus the Priest going to the Patrimony of Gaul To whose care he commends the Patrimony
of St. Peter in Gaul and that out of it he should buy English Boys and clothes for the Poor GOing forward with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ to the government of the Patrimony which is in Gaul we would that your charity out of the mony it shall receive provide clothes for the Poor and English Boys that are about seventeen or eighteen years old who being put into Monasteries may do God good service in regard the mony of Gaul which in our Land cannot justly be expended may be laid out to advantage in its proper place But if you shall receive any thing out of the Revenues which are said to be taken away we will also that out of those clothes be provided for the Poor or as we said before Boys who may be instrumental in the service of Almighty God But because they are all Pagans that are found thereabouts I will that a Priest be sent over with them lest any sickness happen to them on the way that they may be Baptized when he finds them ready to die So let your Charity act and make hast to fulfil these things Gregory the Great To Palladius Bishop of Xanton To Pelagius of Tours and To Serenus of Marseilles Fellow Bishops of Gaul To whom he commends Augustine whom he had sent into England ALthough Priests having charity pleasing to God need not the commendations of any other Religious person yet because time has fitly presented it self we have taken care to send our Letters to your Fraternity signifying that we have sent thither Augustine the Servant of God and Bearer of these presents with other Servants of God for the benefit of Souls whom 't is very necessary your Holiness should readily assist with a Sacerdotal care and speedily afford him what comforts you can and that you may the willinglier favour him we have enjoyned him particularly to declare the cause of his Journey hoping that that being known you would for God's sake seriously endeavour the business requiring it their benefit and welfare Gregory the Great To Virgilius Bishop of Arles and Metropolitan of Gaul He commends Augustine to him whom he had sent into England to propagate the Gospel ALthough we are confidently assured that your Brotherhood is alwaies intent upon good works and ready at any time of its own accord to interest it self in causes pleasing to God yet we thought it not altogether unprofitable to speak to you out of a Brotherly charity that the comforts which ye ought out of your own good natures freely to have afforded stirred up by these our Epistles might be increased in a greater measure We therefore declare to your Holiness that we have dispatched hither Augustine the servant of God and Bearer of these presents whose zeal and diligence is well known to us with other Servants of God for the welfare of Souls as he when he comes into your presence can testifie in which business it is necessary that you assist him with both Counsel and Supplies and cherish him as it behoves you with your Paternal and Sacerdotal consolations For when he shall have obtained those comforts from your Holiness if it is any thing available as we doubt not to promote the cause of God you also shall receive your reward who so piously afforded the benefit of your assistance for the promoting of good works Gregory the Great To Desiderius of Vienna and Syagrius of Augustodunum Fellow Bishop of Gaul He commends Augustine to them WE shall entertain a good opinion of the sincere charity of your Brotherhood if out of love to St. Peter Prince of the Apostles you bestow it in relieving our Servants since the nature of the cause requires it in which of your own accord ye ought rather to wish to be fellow-labourers and partakers We therefore declare to your Holiness that we have sent hither God so ordering it Augustine the servant of God Bearer of these presents whose zeal and diligence is well known to us with other Servants of God for the cure of Souls when you shall understand exactly from his own Relation what is enjoyned him your Brotherhood may in every thing the business shall require with more readiness assist him that you may be counted as is meet the furtherers of good works therefore in this thing let your Brotherhood study to manifest the demonstrations of its affection that the good opinion we have already entertained of you by hearsay may receive a further confirmation in us of you by your works Gregory the Great To Arigius a Noble man of Gaul To whom he commends Augustine HOw much goodness and how much meekness with charity pleasing unto Christ is shining in you we are certainly informed from Augustine Servant of God Bearer of these presents and we give Almighty God thanks that hath given you these gifts of his grace by which you may appear praise-worthy amongst men and in his sight which is truly profitable glorious We beseech therefore Almighty God that these gifts which he has so freely granted you he would multiply and take you and all yours into his protection and that he may so order the manner of your glory in this life that it may be beneficial to you here and what is more to be wished in the life to come Greeting therefore your Honour we desire with a Fatherly tenderness that the Bearer of these presents and the Servants of God that are with him may find in those things that are necessary your assistance since they will be the better able through God's help and the benefit of your favour to perform those things that are commanded them Gregory the Great To Theoderick and Theodebert Kings of the Frankes concerning Augustine Servant of God sent to the English Nation AFter that Almighty God had adorned your Kingdom with a pure and upright Faith and by the integrity of the Christian Religion had made it eminent above other Nations we conceived great grounds of presuming that you would especially have desired that your Subjects should be converted to that Faith in which you are Kings and Lords over them And indeed there came to our hands the earnest Petition of the English Nation God commiserating their condition to be converted to the Christian Faith but your Priests their Neighbours wholly neglect it and are much wanting by their Exhortations in seconding their desires For this cause therefore we have carefully sent thither Augustine servant of God Bearer of these presents whose zeal and diligence is well known unto us with other Servants of God whom we have enjoyned to take some of the neighbouring Clergy along with them to know their minds and with their Admonitions as much as in them lies further their willingness in which thing that they may prove effectually able with a Fatherly charity saluting your Highnesses we desire that these whom we have sent may merit your favour and because 't is a business of Souls may your Power protect 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
might be laid prostrate in humility but let this your humility have its confidence too for I a Sinner have most certain hope that your sins are forgiven through the grace of our Omnipotent Creator and God our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ. And to this end you were Elected that others sins might be forgiven through you Neither shall you hereafter find sorrow for any guilt because you endeavour to make joy in Heaven by the conversion of so many the same our Creator and Redeemer when he speaks of the repentance of Man saies I say thus unto you There shall be greater joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repents than over ninety nine Just persons that need no repentanca Now if over one Penitent there is made great joy in Heaven what great rejoyceing do we think there was at the conversion of such a number of People from their Errours who coming to the faith by repentance has condemned the evil it had done Amidst therefore the joy of Heaven and the Angels let us repeat those words of the Angels which we said before let us say therefore Glory be to God on high and on earth peace good will towards men Observations upon this Epistle Bede recites this Epistle but not all only as much of it as is included within these two fore-going Marks as thus ††but the Date which is here wanting he shews for when he writ a Letter to Melitus going into Britain dated as you see above the fifteenth day of the Kalends of July our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus being Emperour in the nineteenth year after the Consulship of our said Lord the eighteenth year in the fourth Indiction He adds in the following Chapter about which time he sent a Letter to Augustine concerning Miracles which he knew were wrought by him in which lest through the number of them he should incur the danger of self-opinion and pride he exhorts him in these words I know Most Dear Brother that Almighty God c. as above That date of the fifteenth of the Kalends of July agrees with the year of our Lord 601 about which time he wrote more Epistles Gregory To Aldiberga Queen of the English HE that desires after this Earthly dominion to acquire the glory of an Heavenly kingdom to gain his ends ought diligently to labour in the service of his Creator that by degrees of working he may attain to what he desires which we rejoyce you have done our Beloved Son Laurence the Priest and Peter the Monk at their return related in what manner your Majesty behaved it self towards our most Reverend Brother and Follow Bishop Augustine and what assistances and comfort you bestowed on them likewise And indeed we bless Almighty God who out of his mercy propitiously vouchsafed to reserve the Conversion of the English Nation for your glory and advancage For as by Helen of Blessed memory the Mother of the most pious Emperour Constantine he inflamed the hearts of the Romans towards the Christian Faith So in regard of the frequent Zeal of your Majesty we hope his mercy will effectually work upon the English Nation And indeed you ought also long since by your good prudence which is purely Christian to have inclined the mind of our most glorious Son your Husband that for the good of his Kingdom and of his own Soul he should follow that Faith which you profess forasmuch as by him and through him in the Conversion of the whole Nation a reward worthy of you would spring up in the joyes of heaven Since as we have said your Highness hath been confirmed in the right Faith and taught the Scriptures this thing ought not to have been difficult or tedious to you And because by God's appointment a fit time is now offered strive the Divine grace assisting you to repair with gain what has hitherto been neglected therefore by daily exhortations strengthen the mind of your most Glorious Husband in the love of the Christian Faith Let your care and example increase in him a love towards God and let it so stir up his mind especially for a through Conversion of the whole Nation under yee that from the servency of his devotion yee may offer up to Almighty God an acceptable sacrifice that those things which are reported of you may increase and in all respects be found true concerning you Your excellent vertues are not only known to the Romans who more particularly pray for your life but also in divers places even as far as Constantinople to the most excellent Emperour that as we have joy in the consolation of your Christianity so also in the Heavens the Angels may rejoyce at your further perfection So therefore with all diligence and devotion apply your selves to the assistance of our above-named Reverend Brother and Fellow Bishop and of the rest of the Servants of God whom we sent thither for the conversion of of your Nation that with our Most glorious Son and your Husband you may reign with happiness here and after a long time of years attain to the endless joyes of the life to come We beseech Almighty God that he would inflame the heart of your Majesty with the fire of his Grace to a performance of these things we have spoken of and of his good pleasure grant you the fruit of an eternal Reward Observations upon this Epistle It may be doubted what Queen of England this Adilberga was for the Wife of King Edilbert was called Bertha as Bede affirms lib. 1. cap. 25. but I think them both the same but as it commonly happens strange words are ill rendred by Forreigners as hero Bdrga for Bertha for Ald and Aldi are sometimes corruptly added in proper names for Edil and Athel signlfying in the Saxon Language Noble or Honourable which may be seen in the Title of the following Epistle where Gregory calls the King Aldibert whom Bede every where calls Edilberth others for the most part Ethelbert Ald also because it properly signifies Old may by Translation denote Honourable and may seem to be added to the name of Berga or Bertha as an honourable Attribute so that Aldi-berga signifies the same with Noble and Honourable Berga or Bertha Gregory To Aldibert King of the English He congratulates with him concerning the Conversion of that Nation FOR this reason Almighty God commonly advances the best Men to the government of Nations that by them the gifts of his Grace might be dispersed among all those whom they are set over which thing we know has been done in the English Nation over which Your Majesty was therefore made chief that by the good qualities that are given you You might the better convey those Heavenly comforts to the Nation under your subjection And therefore Most Renowned Son carefully preserve that Grace which you have received by the especial providence of God make haste to propagate the Christian Faith among your Subjects increase the servency of your own Faith in furthering their
it as high a piece of Courtship to conform to the present way of worship their old Idolatry and now again revived Superstition In vain did Lawrence Successor to Augustine in the See of Canterbury endeavour by diligent preaching to stop the tide of this Apostasie for preferment at Court and the Countenance of the Prince drew more Proselites to Heathenisin than the good lives and examples of constant Professours could keep true and sincere in the maintenance of the Gospel But he was not long unpunished for whether workt by the strength of Education which suffereth not without violence principles well grounded to be rooted up or whether indeed as is related possessed with an evil Spirit he fell into soul fits of phrenzy and distraction the convulsions of the mind and often torments of an evil Conscience And now whilst in human appearance there seemed no hopes of amendment it so fell out that by extraordinary means he became penitent The story goes that Lawrence finding his labours ineffectual was resolved to retire into France and follow Justus and Melitus the one expelled London the other Rochester for the Apostasie was now spread wide into the Country of the East-Saxons also being at his devotions the night before his intended departure in the Church of St. Peter that Saint appeared to him and to make the Vision more sensible gave him many stripes for offering to desert his Charge the marks of which the next morning being shewn to the King with the cause why and the person from whom they were received so wrought upon his fancy already prepared that immediately forsaking his Incestuous life he embraced again the Christian Religion and became as zealous a Professour as he had been a violent Persecutor Though it should seem by the following Epistle of Pope Boniface that Justus not Laurentius was his Converter The Epistle of Boniface V. To Justus late Bishop of Rochester now Successor of Melitus in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury To our most Beloved Brother Justus Boniface sendeth Greeting WIth what devotion and watchfulness your Brotherhood hath laboured for the Gospel of Christ not only the tenour of your Letter directed to us hath manifested but the granted accomplishment of your undertaking For neither hath Almighty God forsaken the Obligation of his Name or the fruit of your Labour in what he faithfully promised to the preachers of the Gospel Behold I am with you even to the end of the World Which his clemency hath particularly shewn in your ministery opening the hearts of the Gentiles to receive the singular mystery of your preaching for with a great reward and the assistance of his goodness he hath illustrated the delightful course of your proceedings whilst of the Talents committed unto you by a faithful improvement rendring him a plentiful increase he hath prepared for you to lay up by multiplying the kind And this also is conferred on you by that retribution who constantly persisting in the ministry laid upon you with a commendable patience wait for the redemption of that Nation and that they might be profitable to yours their salvation is begun The Lord saying Whosoever shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Ye are saved therefore by a patient hope and the strength of forbearance that the hearts of unbelievers being purged from the natural disease of Superstition might obain the mercy of their Saviour For having received an express from King Eadbald our Son we find with how great knowledge in holy teaching your Brotherhood hath brought his mind to a true conversion and the belief of our undoubted faith Upon which occasion having a certain assurance of the continuance of the divine Clemency we believe that by the ministry of their preaching will follow not only the full conversion of those under his command but of the neighbouring Nations also Since as it is written The recompence of your works accomplished shall be given by the Lord the Rewarder of all good things And it may truly be effected that the sound of them hath gone throughout the whole earth and their words to the ends of the earth by an universal confession of Nations professing the Christian Faith Polydore Virgil relates that hereupon he was Baptized but it seemeth strange that Ethelbert so Religious a Prince had neglected that pious office to his Son and as for re-baptizing in case of Heresie or Apostasie it had been long before condemned in the Church After his conversion he re-called Melitus and Justus from banishment and built a Chappel within the Monastery of Peter and Paul at Canterbury He reigned twenty four years and by Emma daughter of Theodebert a French Prince had two Sons Ermenred and Ercombert Ermenred died before his Father and left a Daughter Dompnena and two infant Sons behind him Ethelred and Ethelbert but the Kingdom required a man to govern it Ercombert the younger Son succeeded his Father ERCOMBERT ERCOMBERT notwithstanding his elder Brother's Sons were living took possession of the Kingdom What he wanted in Right he made out in good Government being reported a most Religious and Christian King The Saxon Idols yet standing he utterly demolisht and commanded the Fast of Lent to be universally observed but he is noted by some for not restoring at his death the Kingdom to his Nephew whose undoubted Right it was But leaving two Sons behind Egbert and Lothair whom he had by Sexburg the daughter of Anna King of the East-Saxons it fell to them successively He reigned twenty four years EGBERT EGBERT the eldest Son of Ercombert after his Father's death obtained the Crown but conscious that the right of Inheritance lay in his Uncle's Sons Ethelred and Ethelbert to secure himself he dispatcht them both casting their bodies into a River that their murther might not be known but they were afterwards by the stream cast up upon the shore and discovered by the next Inhabitants who in great veneration for before they were esteemed Saints and now Martyrs interred their bodies and built over them a little Chappel or Oratory Their bones were afterwards removed and laid in the Abby of Ramsey in Hantshire Their Sister Dompnena married to Merwald a Mercian Prince founded the Abby of Minster in Kent wherein saith Stow she became the first Abbess Mr. Cambden placeth that Abby in Sheppy and saith it was founded by Sexburga Wife of Ercombert To make amends for this Murther he gave to the Mother of these Princes part of Tanet wherein to build and Abby His ill-gotten Power was but short reigning only nine years he left behind him two Sons Edric and Wigtred but his Brother Lothair seized the Kingdom In his days the Province of Kent was divided into Parishes by Theodorus not Honorius Arch-bishop of that See as Mr. Speed falsly accounteth who placeth also this Action in the days of Ercombert LOTHAIR LOTHAIR taking the advantage of the Minority of his Nephews stept into the Throne but he enjoyed it not in Peace
fourty Families in the place which is called Humpum which place he had given a little before for a Monastery to those of the Scottish perswasion But because they afterward of their own accord chose rather to relinquish the place than alter their Customs he gave it to him whose Doctrine and Life was worthy of it About this time came Agilbert Bishop of the West-Saxons a great friend of King Alchfrid's and of Abbot Wilfrid to a Province of the Northnmbers and continued sometime among them who made Wilfrid at the request of Alchfrid Presbyter in his said Monastery but he had with himself a Presbyter named Agatho The question therefore of Easter Shaving or other Ecclestastical Rites being there moved it was ordered that in the Monastery which is called Strensalth which is interpreted Sinus fari over which at that time Hilda the Abbess a Woman devoted to God was Governess a Synod should be called and this question determined Both Kings came thither viz. Father and Son Bishops Colman with his Clergy of Scotland Agilbert with the Presbyters Agatho and Wilfrid James and Romanus were on this side Abbess Hilda with hers on the Scotish Party on which side also was the worshipful Bishop Chad not long before ordained Bishop of the Scots who also was a diligent Interpeter on both sides in that Councel First King Oswy by a short Speech opened the Assembly saying that they which served one God ought to observe but one Rule of Living neither to differ in the celebration of the heavenly Sacraments who all expected but one Kingdom in the Heavens they ought more especially to enquire which was the truest Tradition and all with one consent to follow that He commanded his Bishop Colman to speak first what had been the Custom and from whence that had its Original which he followed Then Colman The Easter said he which I am wont to keep I received from my Ancestors who sent me Bishop hither which all our Fathers men beloved of God are well known to have celebrated the same way which that it may not be contemned and rejected by any 't is the very same which the blessed Evangelist John a Disciple particularly beloved by our Lord is said to have celebrated in all Churches which he governed After he had said this and more to the same purpose the King commanded Agilbert to relate and set forth from whence the Custom he observed had its beginning and by what Authority he followed it Agilbert made Answer I desire that my Disciple Wilfrid the Presbyter may speak in my stead because we both have the same Sentiments with the other followers of Ecclesiastical Tradition that are here present for he can explain it more clearly and better in the English Tongue than I by an Interpreter Then Wilfrid the King commanding him to speak began thus The Easter which we follow said he we have seen celebrated by every body at Rome where the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul lived taught suffered and were buried This we have seen observed in Gaul most of which we have travelled through either teaching or praying This we know is performed in Africa Asia Egypt Greece and in all the World wheresoever the Church of Christ is spread through divers Nations and Languages at one and the same and not distinct order of time except these only and their Accomplices in their obstinacy I mean the Picts and Britains lying in the utmost Islands of the Ocean nor all those neither who by foolish endeavours strive against all the World As he spake this Coleman answered I wonder why you should style our endeavours vain and foolish in which we follow the Example of so great an Apostle who was found worthy to lye in the bosom of our Saviour and since it is well known that the whole World is satisfied in his Wisdom Then Wilfrid God forbid that we should accuse St. John of folly when he observed the precepts of Moses his Law according to the Letter the Church as yet Judaizing in many things Neither were the Apostles on a sudden able to abolish all Observances of the Law which was instituted by God as it was necessary that all which come to the Faith should reject Images which was an invention of Divels viz. lest they might offend those Jews which were dispersed among the Gentiles On this account it is that Paul circumcised Timothy that he offered Sacrifices in the Temple that with Aquila and Priscilla he shore the head of Chorinthus profitable to no other end but avoiding the offending the Jews You see Brother how many thousands there were among the Jews which believed all which were followers of the Law neither to this very day the Gospel beginning to shine all over the World is it necessary or lawful for the faithful to be circumcised or to offer up fleshly sacrifices to God Therefore John according to the manner of the Law began the celebration of the Paschal Feast about Evening on the fourteenth day of the first Month not valuing whether it fell out on the Sabbath or any other Festival But Peter when he preached at Rome mindsul that the Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the Sabbath and gave to the World hopes of a Resurrection understood it so to be celebrated that according to the Custom and Precept of the Law he should always expect the fourteenth Moon of the first Month even as St. John rising at Evening and that being risen if the Lord's day which then was called the first of the Sabbath should happen in the Morning he began to celebrate the Lord's Easter that very Evening as we all do at this day But if the Lord's day happen not on the next Morning after the fourteenth Moon but the sixteenth seventeenth or any other Moon take the twenty first He waited for it and the preceding Sabbath in the Evening he began the Holy Solemnities of Easter so it came to pass that the Lord's day of Easter was not kept unless from the fifteenth day to the twenty first Neither does this Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition diminish from the Law but rather fulfils it in which 't is observable that Easter was commanded from the fourteenth of the first Month at Evening to the twenty first Moon of the same Month at Evening which observation all St. John's Successors in Asia after his death and the whole Church throughout the World were inclined to follow And that this is the true Easter and that this ought only to be celebrated by the faithful is confirmed by the Nicene Councel not lately established as Ecclesiastical History informs us whence it plainly appears O Colman that ye do not follow the Example of John as ye think neither in the Observation of your Easter do you agree with the Tradition of St. Peter which wittingly you contradict nor with the Law nor with the Gospel for John keeping Easter time according to the Decrees of the Mosaick Law observed not the first