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
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
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
buried alive under the weight of this Mountain striving to disengage himself of it breaths flames and smoà k out of his Mouth and Nostrils Without question took its Name from the continual Fire and Smoak which in all Ages and to this day breaketh from it Attuna in the Phoen. Tongue signifies 2 Furnace or Chimney AEtuna signifies a smoaky Fog in the same Dialect ITHAGA an Island of the Cyclades the known Country of Ulysses Received its name from its hard and Rocky soyl It is like a Nest in a Rock saith Tully but I need not bring Testimonies of its barren nature being sufficiently known yet to see how great the love of ones Native Country is how often doth Ulysses mourn and pine after it Ithac in the Phoen. Hard and Rocky TINGIS now Tangier called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Tinge the supposed Wife of Anteus slain by Hercules It was a great Mart of the Phoenicians who had a Colony in it according to Pomp. Mela. and lying so opportunely on the Streights from whence they sent other Colonies into Cales and Spain it was called for excellency THE MART. Cigger a Mart from Cagger to Trade in the Phoen. and Caggar a Trader The Greeks out of Cigger made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 changing the last Letter which is frequent but now called Tangier it hath regained its ancient Termination Hitherto I have laid down the Etymology of such Kingdoms and Places as are generally and universally known they that remain for that they require some competent knowledge in Geography to discover where they are how they bear to other places and such like Circumstances which would be too tedious here to be discoursed of and because they carried other relations to the State of the Phoenicians then being than now they do to the World and had Customes Conveniencies Trades and Manufactures then notoriously known but now quite left off and changed it would be too far beyond my present purpose to prove minutely every Circumstance of every particular Place It will suffice that all that are behind carry the same Reason and Analogy for their Names as the fore-going and received them from the same Phoenicians so that setting down the Name only with the Reason of it and the Phoenician word signifying that Reason I shall leave the disquisition of the Truth of every particular Reason to be searched out of Bocartus and Others who have treated on this Subject Places which took their Names from Gods or some Sacred Rites eminently practised in them The Name The Phoen word The Interpretation IDalium From Id-ala The place of the Goddess i. e. Venus Delus Daal or Deel The Island of God i. e. Apollo Inopus st Ain-ob The Fountain of Pitho Naxus Nasca A Sacrifice of a multitude performed there to Bacchus Amustra called also Am-astarta The People of Astarta the Phoenician Goodess Mutistrata Mat-astarta The City of Astarta Onobola Onbola 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consecrated to Venus who had there her Temple Canthele From Canath-el The possession of Saturn Carteia Karthija The City dedicated to Hercules called Melarthus Calduba Caltobal The Refuge of Baal or Jupiter Salduba Saltobal The Dominion or Shield of Baal Sonoba Saanobal The Prop of Baal Onoba Onobal The Strength of Baal All Ancient Cities in Spain taking their Names from Baal signifying Lord in the Phoen. where the L in the end is left out as in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such like Punick words Ossonaba an Ancient Town in Portugal From Usanobaal The Strength of Baal Places taking their Ancient Names from the Habits Nature Manners and Arts of the Inhabitants Corcyra From Carcara Quiet Possession namely of the Phaeaces Cretes Crethin Archers for which those Islanders were famous Coa Cau. Fine Thread being the Manufacture of that Island Amorgus Am-oregin The Country of Weavors from the abundance of that Profession there Sidon Czidon From Fishing Imachara Amacherim From Agriculture the word signifies the Mother of Plowmen Galeotis Gelaiot From Prophecies in which that City so abounded that Prophets in the Sicilian Tongue were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latium Lat. From Inchantments not from Latendo Rhodes was called Telchinis Calchis An Inchantor with which sort of People called therefore Telchines this Island abounded Laestrigones Lais-tircan A Ravenous Lion from their Fierceness and therefore the same People are called Leontini and were of the Generation of Cyclopes Places taking their Names from different Animals they afforded or bred Philae From Phul. An Elephant upon the same reason that a City nigh to it is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from some Fair there held of that Beast Lixus called also Lizus Lis. A Lyon from the abundance of them there Bomo Bohmo Cattle whence it is called by the Greeks Eubaea upon the same account Caria Car. A Lamb or Sheep with which this place so abounded that the Ionians called Sheep Cara and Car from it or else from the Phoenicians Car. But not to detain the Reader too long in a matter so manifest the rest I will briefly sum up together as they are in Bocartus from whence the diligent Enquirer into the Original of Places may fetch them and have full satisfaction to the particulars of their derivation To proceed therefore with a Catalogue derived from Animals From Serpents c. these Places take Name PElinas Tenus Salamin and Neae From Cocks Tanagra From Crows Lugdunum From Fish Tagus Icarus Hyccara Curium Cuarius From Mice Gyarus From Foxes Selambina and Suel From Horses Caccabe From Woods and Groves the Pyrenaei Solymi Anaphe Ascra Tabraca had their denominations From Pasture Parnassus and Parnes From Deserts Oasis From Drought and Barrenness Boeturia Cosyra Myconus Sicinus Psyra Jabesa Sorbiodunum now Salisbury Fertility Bizacium Adrumetum Chalcia Fruit Peparethum Barly Jabaduc Corn Ebora From Vines Grapes and Wine Carmania Chremeses Inicus Anapus Arvisium Arambys Figs Ruspina and Ebusus From Olives Zaita and Uzita From the Turpentine-tree AEla and Patmos Saffron Corycus Cheese Cythnus Hony Calymna and Alabus From particular Stones Charystus Achates Caridemni Promont From Mettals besides Britain Thasus Odonis Siphnus Temese Carcoma Orospeda Cassanitae Debae Dairi From Minerals Ciniolus and Minius From Clay and Mortar Adramittium Thebae Tenedos Camarus Camarina From abundance of Waters Tacape and Arelate took name Apamia from being encompast with them Rhene Castalia Castula from the noise of Water Gargaphie Zerbis Physcus from their swiftness Arar slowness From Marshes Boetis Bagradus Decranum Perca Percusa From bitter Water Hymera from sweet Holmius from cold Asines from hot and warm Emmaus and Helbessus From Fountains these places are derived Cyrene Enna Enguium From Fryths Asta Menestheiportus Nebrissa Onoba Lusturia From Foards Abara Abrotonum From Shoars Basti or Bastitani From Havens Hippo Olisippo Hyccara Cacypara Rabbotis Cyclopes Cicynethus From their Roads or Ports Leptis and Lapethus From Rampiers Bucra Herminius Hermata From Shipwracks Caphareus Saso Again from Fire
Hill from Dunum a Hill and Sorb Dry now as Dunum so Sorb or Sorba signifies exactly in the Phoenician Dialect the very same thing to wit Dryness The Promontory of Ptolomy called Abravanus Mr. Cambden truly derives from two words Aber and Ruan the first of which signifies in the Welch Tongue a Haven and Ruan is a River that disburthens it self into the Sea by this Promontory But we must understand that Haber does not only signifie an Haven but any place where two Rivers meet together as Silvester Giraldus intimates a Welch Writer who lived about five hundred years ago His words are these Aber in the British Tongue is the place where one River falls into another and in his Description of Wales in his Fifth Chapter Aber is in Welch every place where Water meets with Water To make this more plainly appear I find Towns in Wales that seem to have their Names meerly upon this account as Aber Avon a small Market Town in Glamorganshire standing upon the River Avons Mouth and Aber Conwey a Town in Caernarvonshire on the very Mouth of Conwey and to prove Silvester Giraldus his words true Abergevenny in short Abergenny a Town on the meeting of the 〈◊〉 and Gerenny in Monmouthshire and Mr. Cambden interprets it the Confluents of Gevenny so that we see whether a River be joyned with the Sea or with another River that place is called Aber Now Aber or Haber is properly a Phoenician word to signifie such a Conjunction of Waters and no doubt from them had the Britains their Aber. Cetrae was a short sort of Shields Plutarch and Silius attribute the invention of them to the Spaniards Tacitus to the Britains and how this may be the Phoenician Cetera a Shield read Bochartus The Mauri called them Citurae as the Old Scholiast on Juvenal witnesseth in these words Et Getulus Oryx Oryx saies he is a Beast something less than a Buff which the Mauri call an Unx whose Skin makes Cituras i. e. the lesser sort of Shields among the Mauri What can be plainer than that Ceitrae short Shields used by the Britains had their name from Cetera of the Phoenicians signifying the same thing as likewise the Citura of the Mauri Another great Argument that the Phoenicians were very conversant in this Island is the manner the Britains had in numbring the Daies and Nights a way peculiar only to the Eastern Nations and them viz. To make the Day to sollow the Night and not the Night the Day as the Romans and Germans did and this is witnessed of them by Caesar. Names of Offices and Gods in Britain and Gaul of Phoenician Derivation THere were two BRENNUS's Famous Men in Gaul the Eldest sackt Rome the other robb'd the Temple of Delphos Suidas calls Brennus Bren. The Welch to this day call a King Brenniu the Armorican Britains call a Judge Baruer and Barn to Judge and Parnus from the Root Parnus to Feed with the Phoenicians was a Prince Judge or Governour in the same signification Agamemnon Homers Prince is by him called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince or Shepheard of the People Mar or Maur as 't is now pronounced in the British Tongue signifies GREAT From this word without doubt many British and Gaulish Names of PRINCES were compounded as Condomarus Cwismarus Combolomarus Induciomarus Viridemarus Teutomarus Now Mar of the Phoenician is a Lord or Prince Rir is a great word likewise in the termination of Great Mens names as Sinorix Dumnorix Orgetorix Ambiotrix Vercingetorix Eporedorix and without doubt this Rix was written Rich by the Gauls and Britains as the Armorican British now write it Rich signifies Powerful and Strong from whence in an Ancient British Book intituled the Criades Caradauc u rich fras is as much as to say Caratacus with the strong Arm Now Rik in the Eastern Language is Strong and Powerful Paterae were the Priest of Apollo who were worshipped by the Britains and Gauls under the name of Belenus and this name of theirs is derived from Patar in the Phoenician Tongue signifying to Interpret because they were the Interpreters of his Oracles And Joseph was called Potar because he interpreted the King of Egypts Dreams and as this Belus was brought by the Phoenicians into Britain and is a peculiar God of theirs as shall be shewn in the Treatise of the British Gods so without dispute this word PATERAE is to be referred to a Phoenician Original Ausonius writing of Attius Patera or Paterius has these Verses Beleni sacratum ducis è Templo genus Et inde vobis nomina Tibi Paterae sic ministros nuncupant Apollinares mystici Fratri Patrique nomen à Phoebo datum Natoque de Delphis tuo Your sacred Race from Belius Temple spring From thence you all your Names receive You from your Mystick Priests your Name do bring Paterae height Phoebus himself does give Name to your Sire and Brother and your Son From Delphick Oracle his Name begun St. Hierome writing in his one hundred and fiftieth Epistle ad Hedebiam saies thus Thy Ancestors Paterius and Delphidius oue taught Rhetorick at Rome before I was born the other whilst I was but a youth with his Prose and Verse illustrated all France So that we see as Paterius was derived from Paterae the Priests of APOLLO so they received his name from being Interpreters of his Oracles Of the Religious Persons Cenae we have spoken before and have made it appear they were of the Phoenician derivation The Bardi are sufficiently known to be Poets and Songsters both in Britain and Gaul and 't is also manifest they never Rehearsed any thing to the People but in a tone alwaies having some Instrument or other to which they sang the Famous Deeds of their Ancestors Posidonius witnesseth that they were Poets who with Musick recited the Encomiums of Great Persons and Strabo calls them Poets and Singers and Festus saies that a Singer in the Gaulish Tongue was called a Bard and by the Britains at this day they are so called because he sang the Praises of Great Men. Certainly there can be no easier Derivation than to bring them from Parat signifying to sing in a Recitative manner for P and B likewise T and D are Letters of the same nature and element and in common Speech are every day confounded not only in our present Language but in all as ever I cou'd hear of Now as the Bardi are derived from Parat so I have shewn before that the Nablium or Instrument on which they played was a Phoenician Instrument and was called exactly so by the Phoenicians viz. Nabal so that we ought not to doubt but that as well the names of the Persons as their Musick were of Phoenician derivation If Turnebus may be Credited Bardaea and Bardala is a Lark with the Gauls His words are these Bardi apud Gallos sunt Cantores Bardaea Bardala Alauda
is of opinion that Marcellinus might read in Timagiues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vates and he gives two Instances of the like nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theophrastus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hesychius But I cannot imagine how Eubages should proceed from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for I believe by their Name and Employment a particular Order of Priests is signified for they are represented as Persons who gave themselves to the study of the mysteries and secrets of Nature the course of the Heavens the motions of Coelestial Bodies to Astronomy Necromancy and Magick to the last of which the Britains were strangly addicted And this I take to be the true Original of the Eubages mentioned by Marcellinus whose Name being Recorded by no other Author besides many have thought him to be mistaken in the right denomination of them and that there were no such Priests of that Name either in Gaul or Britain And because I have taken occasion to speak of their Duad or Anubis Latrans it will not be amiss to represent to the eye some of those deformed Spectres wherewith Egypt abounded which like Locusts were brought over into our Western Seas and did spread themselves over most parts of the World by the means of the Phaenicians who placed them at the Poops and Sterns of their Ships as Tutelar Gods The Hyraglyphicks The next God of the Britains was APOLLO worshipped under the name of BELENUS and that Belenus and Apollo may be gathered out of the words of Julius Capitolinus who writes That when the God Belinus or Belenus by his Priests had declared that Maximinus should be overcome Maximinus his Souldiers afterwards gave out That Apollo fought against them He is called Belis by Herodian and that Apollo and Belenus or Belis is one and the same God is manifest in that the Herb called by the Latins Apollinaris by the Gauls was called Belinuntia and the Spaniards at this day call it Veleno Now the Phaenicians called Apollo Belus so that this Belis or Belenus of the Gauls and Britains from hence received his Original and we find the Name differs only in Termination by which both those distant Nations called the Sun in the Laconian Dialect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the Sun and in the Gretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hesychius witnesseth and both from the Phaenicians Sometimes the Phaenicians gave him a Sir-name as Philo Biblius out of Sanchoniathon evidenceth who called him Belsamen viz. the Lord of the Heavens We find some Altars erected to him in Britain with other denominations added to his Name Belis or Bel which superadditions I will interpret out of the Phaenician Tongue And although the Monuments and Inscriptions on them be Roman yet it makes not against my purpose seeing that Nation erected Altars to the Gods of those Provinces they conquered The first Inscription was dug out of the Ruines of an old Town near Kirby Thore in Westmoreland DEO BELATUCAD RO LIB VOTU M FECIT IOLUS Thus interpreted Deo BELATUCADRO liberum Votum fecit Iolus To the God BELATUCADRUS Iolus has made a free Vow The second was an Altar found among many others in Vaults under ground where formerly had stood some ancient Town near to Jerby in Cumberland It was thus made and Inscribed BELATU CADRO JUL. CI VILIS OPT. V. S. L. M. Thus interpreted BELATUCADRO Julius Civilis Optio Votum solvit libens Merito Unto BELATUCADRUS Julius Civilis Optio hath paid his Vow right willingly Another after this manner DEO SANCTO BELA TUCADRO AVRELIUS DIATOVA ARA E X VOTO POSUIT LL. MM. Thus Interpreted Deo sancto BELATUCADRO Aurelius Diatova Aram ex voto posuit lubens lubens merito merito To the holy God BELATUCADRUS Aurelius Diatova set up this Altar most willingly and most duly And since Mr. Cambden there was a peice of his Statue found near Brougham in Westmoreland with this Inscription SANCTO DEO BELA TUCADRO By the form of which it was judged to be the Effigies of Belinus or Apollo These Magnificent Inscriptions to BELATUCADRUS Deo Deo sancto as likewise the distance of places these Altars were found in proves that he was not a particular Tutelar God but rather that he was worshipped over the whole Island and was that Belinus or Belis to which the Britains and Gauls were much devoted who was the very same with Belus of the Phoenicians but what the addition of atucadrus may signifie I will lay down some conjectures We must know that Bel or Belus was the God of the Assyrians and from that Country brought into Phoenicia and there Idolized Now the Phoenicians who called Assyria Atur and the Sun Cares why may not Belatucadrus be as much as Bel-atur-Cares signifying APOLLO the Lord of the Assyrians for I have shewn before that Bel was Apollo or the Sun in those Nations As for D in the last syllable it is not much to be regarded because the mollifying of words is often set before R Probably Bel-atu-cadrus might be Bel-attir-cares or Apollo the Ancient Bel for in reality there were two BELS the Assyrian and Tyrian To the latter of which the Phoenicians attributed all the famous Actions of the other and upon that vanity might call him the Ancient or perhaps he might be called Belatucadrus from Bel-hoddu-cadar viz. BEL of the black Indians for Cadar signifies in that Dialect to be made black by the heat of the Sun and Hoddu is an Indian or perhaps it might come from Bel-Atur-Cadar for the Assyrians were of a Swarthy Complexion to which Colour also Cadar is referred and is the same with Hazle in the French namely Sun-burnt or Tann'd from which Cadar the Arabians called Kadareni a Nation of the Saracens had its name But I cannot imagine how this Belatucadrus of the Britains could be a particular God as some would have him unless we derive the last part of his Name from Gadir signifying an Uttermost bound so that he was placed as Terminus by the Romans upon the Limits of grounds and his Office to decide and determine all Controversies arising upon those accounts as the peculiar Overseer of Land-marks but I think some of the forementioned Conjectures are more reasonably to be heeded Seeing I have entered so far into the Derivation of BELATUCADRUS and the last part of it Cadrus I will take notice of two other Inscriptions that possibly may have some relation to this God They were drawn out of the River at Risingham in Northumberland The first had in it DEO MOGONTI CAD the second DEO MOUNO CAD and may be seen at large in Mr. Cambden who reports that the Inhabitants have a Tradition That a God MAGON made good this place against a Soldain or Heathenish Prince for a long time The Inscriptions are Roman but the God is British for I have shewn that
shape of a Sea-monster with a Mans-head especially to such miserable folks as are just upon the brink of drowing And they report that some being taken out of the water dead were found with their Noses red just as if some body had violently suckt blood from them and hence it is a common saying Nicken haffuer sugit hannom Nicken hath suckt him Mara was their night-Hagg which used to torment them in their sleep hence they said Maren rider ham the Mare rid him and to this day some superstitiously take the Disease called Ephialtes or the oppression of the Chest for a Witch or Goblin and call it the Night-Mare Hence came the word Mar to signifie a Disease in general Taufana whether a God or Goddess is uncertain This Idol is mentioned by Tacitus whose Temple upon the confines of the Marsians was destroyed by the Romans Caesar saith he to the end that the waste and spoil of the Country might spread wider divided his greedy Legions into four Bodies for the compass of fifty mile together with Fire and Sword he made havock of all not sparing either Sex or Age. All things sacred and prophane were levelled with the Earth and amongst them the most famous Temple of Tanfane Lipsius upon this place i thinketh the Etymology of the word may be fetched from Taenfunk signifying the beginning of all things But this as being too far fetched is generally rejected Loccenius writeth thus Tanfana seemeth to be derived from Tan or Than signifying in the German Tongue a Firr-tree and fahn or fan in the old Gothoteutonick a Lord. In the Hymn of the Blessed VIRGIN written in old Language by Bonaventure Vulcanius and published at Leiden it is found thus Miki Leid sai waia menia fan i. e. My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and in the Song of Simeon Fra Leitai scalck teinana fraugmond fan Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Lord. Martianus Capella lib. 11. de nuptiis Philologiae Mercurii saith They are called Panes Fauni and Fanes c. who inhabit Woods Forrests Groves Lakes Fountains and Rivers upon which place Grotius ex Glossis Isiodori thus observeth Fones are Gods of Woods the Goths would write them Fanes or Faanes Therefore Tanfana mentioned by Tacitus seemeth to have been nothing else but the Patron or Lord of some Grove The Romans would call him Sylvanus or Mars because he presided over Woods and was thought to drive away Wolves and secure Fences And Lucius and Johan Frensheinius will have it Diana And this Reason is further added because the Temple of Tanfana stood in a Grove between Amisia and Luppia in Westphalia as its scituation is described by Cluverius Now that the Grove was of Firr may very probably be gathered from the importance of the word which kind of Trees without doubt were anciently more abounding in Germany than now adaies when the ground was not so well cultivated Nor was it an unusual thing in other Nations to fetch the names of their Gods from particular Trees and especially Groves So Jupiter of the Romans was called Fagitalis from a Grove of Beech-trees consecrated to him as Pliny writeth Thus Loccenius But this derivation seemeth not satisfactory upon the account that the Ancients worshipped their Fawns and Satyrs and such like Gods that presided in Woods and Groves not in that high manner as we may gather Tanfana was worshipped To such petty Deities they erected only Altars of Turf and such like materials and offered Fruits and Spices upon them And when we read of Jupiter Fagitalis or Viminalis or the like we must not understand by them was meant the chief Thunderer but take them for some Vejoves or little Jupiters who for such small Offices they were imployed in were contented with a wooden Statue and once a year a Garland Had Tanfana been such a God or Goddess only certainly Tacitus would not as he doth so particularly make mention of him for whereas he passeth over all other Sacred places he especially recordeth this Temple of Tanfana giving it the title of CELEBERRIMUM TEMPLUM the most famous Temple so that we may rather take him for some great Divinity and so indeed his name importeth for as Fan signifieth Lord so doth Tan or Thane Great Mr. Sheringham giveth another account of it I had rather saith he interpret Tanfan the God of Lots from the Saxon word Tan signifying a Lot And this interpretation seemeth more congruous because the Antient Saxon's who possessed Westphalia and the Countries adjoyning used especially to decide their affairs by Lots and he refers us to Somner's Saxon Dictionary upon the word and the Saxon History of Bede concerning their election of Captains by Lot And that this was a very Ancient custome of the Germans in general Tacitus who writ of this very Tanfan taketh notice They used also casting and drawing Lots very much their way of proceeding was plain they cut down a Branch from some Tree that bare fruit and then cleft the same into little slips and after they had distinguished them with different notches they scattered them helter-skelter upon a white Cloth If it were a Publick Consultation the Priest of the City if a Private the Master of the Family first praying to the Gods and with eyes lift up to heaven took each of them up three times and then interpreted them according to the mark set before upon them By this description it is scarce to be doubted but Tanfan was their God of Lots to whom they addressed themselves to interpret future Events and perhaps it was to him they payed their Vows a Custome mentioned by* Sidonius when they drew out every tenth Captives by Lot and hung them up upon a Tree or if this strangling of Captives was performed to the honour of Woden according to his own institution yet the particular determining of the party most acceptable might be the peculiar office and imployment of Tanfan Tan properly signifies a twig or slip and by a Metonimy a Lot made of a Twig or as Tacitus hath it the Branch of a Fruit-bearing tree In the Laws of Friesland Tit. 14. there is one yet extant concerning the manner of Casting Lots which it seems continued in use after Christianity it self some few circumstances only varied but the name of Tan whereby they called their Lots still exactly preserved The Law runs thus The Lots ought to be after this manner Two slips cut off from a Branch which slips are called Taenes one signed with the sign of the Cross the other unmarked being wrapt up in a clean Cloth are to be laid upon the Altar or on some Relicks and the Priest if any be present or for want of one some young Child may take one of those Lots from the Altar in the mean time prayers are to be made to God If those seven who have sworn concerning Manslaughter committed have sworn true that he should shew it by some evident token If
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
But they armed with the power of God and not the Devil bearing a Silver cross before them for their Banner and the Image of our Lord and Saviour painted on a Table and singing Litanies prayed unto the Lord for the eternal salvation of themselves and of those for whose sakes and to whom they were come But when with the Kings leave sitting down they had preached the Word of life to him and to all his Nobles that were with him the King made Answer saying The words and promises which Ye have made are indeed fair but unto which as being new and uncertain I cannot suddenly yield my assent laying aside the Religion I have so long maintained with all the English Nation But because ye are strangers and come a great way and as it seems to me would impart to us the knowledge of things you believe the truest and best we will not in the least give you any molestation but rather courteously receive you and take care that all things necessary shall be provided for your maintenance neither do we prohibit but that ye may gain all ye can to the Faith of your Religion And accordingly he alotted them their residence in the City of Canterbury which was the Metropolis of all his Kingdom neither did he abridge them of the freedom of meeting of preaching or neglect their temporal provision It is reported that when they came nigh to the City after their manner with the holy Cross and the Image of the great King our Lord Jesus Christ with an agreeable-voice they sang this Litany We pray thee O Lord in thy mercy that thy sury may be turned away and thy Anger from this City and thy holy House because we have sinned Allelujah But when they came to the Dwellings provided for them they began to imitate the Apostolical life of the Primitive Church by applying themselves to continual prayers watchings and fastings to the preaching the Word of God to all that would hear them by despising all things of this World as superfluous and receiving only those things that were necessary for those they taught for their sustenance living exactly according to the Rules they taught others having a mind ready to suffer any Adversity even to die for the truth that they preached The success of which was some believed and were baptized admiting the simplicity of their innocent lives and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine There was near this City towards the East a Church anciently built in honour of St. Martyn whilst the Romans inhabited Britain in which the Queen whom above we declared to have been a Christian was wont to pray In this therefore first they begun to assemble sing pray perform Mass preach and baptize until the King being converted to the Faith they obtained a greater liberty of Preaching every where and of building and repairing Churches But when he among the rest being delighted with the pure life of these Saints and their sweet Promises the truth of which they confirmed by shewing many Miracles believing was baptized many flocked in from all parts to hear the word and leaving the Rites of Heathenism joyned themselves to the unity of the holy Church of Christ at whose Faith and Conversion the King is reported so far to have congratulated as nevertheless not compels any to receive Christianity only those that believed he embraced with a nearer affection as fellow-Citizens with him of the heavenly Kingdom For he had learnt from the Teachers and Authors of his salvation that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary not constrained neither did he deser long but gave his Teachers places befitting their Degrees in his Metropolis of Canterbury and conferred upon them Possessions necessary in several kinds in the year of Christ 601. THE ANSWERS OF GREGORY TO THE QUESTIONS SENT BY AUGUSTINE The first Arch-Bishop of CANTERBURY For the better government of the new erected Church of English-Saxons Out of Bede's Hist. Ecclesiast lib. 1. cap. 27. IN the mean while Augustine the Man of God came to Arles and by Etherius Archbishop of the same City according to the Commands he received from the holy Father Gregory was ordained Archbishop of the English Returning therefore into Britain he sent immediately to Rome Lawrence the Priest and Peter the Monk to certifie Pope Gregory that the Christian Faith was received by the English and that he himself was made Bishop desiring also his opinion in certain Questions he thought necessary to be resolved in to all which he speedily received Answers proper to the Questions proposed which we thought fit here to insert into our History The first Question of Augustine Bishop of the Church of Canterbury Of Bishops how they should converse with their Clergy of those things that are presented to the Altar by the offerings of the Faithful how many portions there ought to be and how a Bishop ought to behave himself in the Church The Answer of Gregory Pope of the City of Rome How Bishops ought to act in the Church the Holy Scripture witnesses which you understand very well no doubt and especially the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy in which he endeavors to teach him how he ought to behave himself in the House of God And it was ever the custome of the Apostolick See to deliver Instructions to Bishops that were ordained that out of every thing that came to the Altar there ought to be made four divisions viz. One for the Bishop and his family for hospitality and entertainments the second for the Clergy the third for the Poor and the fourth for repairing Churches But because your Brotherhood is well skilled in the Orders of a Monastery you know nothing ought to be possest by the Clergy apart in your English Church which lately by God's grace is brought to the Faith it ought to imitate the Conversion which was used by our Fathers in the beginning of the Church among whom none said any thing was his of those things he possessed but all things were in common among them The second Question of Augustine I desire to be informed whether Pr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 able 〈◊〉 marry and if they shall marry whether they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Question Bede hath not but joyne the following Answer to the first Question Sr. Hen. Spelman hath added in out of the Bath Edition An. 1518. The Answer of Gregory If there be any of the Clergy out of holy Orders that cannot contain they ought to provide themselves Wives and to receive their stipends from without because concerning those portions which we have spoken of before we know 't is written that 't was divided to every one as every one had need And indeed there ought some consideration and care to be had of their Stipends that they may be kept under Ecclesiastical Rules that they shew good Manners in their lives that they may be diligent in singing Psalms and that they keep by God's assistance their hearts tongues and bodies
surely whether it be concerning entrance into the Church or the receiving the mystery of the body and blood of our Lord ought to be left to his own judgment because he cannot be prohibited receiving by us who being in the midst of fire knows not how to burn but when no desire of procreation but pleasure predominates there results from such a conjunction what husbands ought to bewail For this the holy Preacher allows them yet by that very grant their mind is disturbed by fear for the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians saies He that cannot contain himself let him take to him a wife and presently he took care to add but I speak this by permission and not of Commandement for that is not permitted which is lawful because it is just therefore because he said by permission he made it manifest to be a fault but we ought to weigh with a careful mind that the Lord when he was about to speak to the people on Mount Sinai commanded the same people first to abstain from Women and if where the Lord spoke by a Creature subject to men the cleaness of the flesh with so much care was requisite that they which heard the words of the Lord were not to meddle with Women by how much more ought Women which receive the body of our Almighty Lord to observe the cleaness of their flesh lest they be overwhelmed by the very greatness of that inestimable Mystery Hence also't was spoke to David by the priest concerning his young men That if they were clean from Women they might receive the shew-bread which they could never have done unless David before had acknowledged that they were clean from Women Then a man after the lying with his Wife if he shall be washed with water may be capable of receiving the mystery of the Holy Communion when according to the determined Sentence he may lawfully enter the Church The eleventh Interrogation of Augustine If after Illusion which commonly happens in Dreams one may receive the body of our Lord or if he be a Priest celebrate the Holy Mysteries Gregory's Answer Such a one the Testament of the old as we have said in the Chapter above declares to be polluted and does not allow him unless washed with water to enter into the Congregation till the Evening which not withstanding a spiritual people understanding it otherwise will take in the same sense we have spoke of above because he is deceived as it were in a dream He that is tempted through uncleanness by real appearances is defiled in his thoughts but he is to be cleansed by water that he may wash away with tears the impurity of his Cogitations and unless the fire of Temptation first be allayed he ought to acknowledg himself guilty as it were till evening But there is a distinction in this kind of Illusion very necessary which ought carefully to be weighed from what cause it happens to him that sleeps For sometimes it proceeds from surfeiting sometimes from the superfluity or infirmity of nature and sometimes from thought so that when it shall happen from the superfluity and infirmity of Nature such an illusion is no way to be feared because the mind being unsensible of it is rather to be lamented that it suffered it than that it did it When also the appetite is carried away beyond reason in taking in its nourishment and on that account the receptacles of humours are overcharged the mind thereby has contracted some guilt but not so far that it should be forbid the receiving the holy mystery or of celebrating the solemnity of the Mass. For if perchance an Holy day or an Administration of the mystery require his presence for that there is never another Priest in the place necessity it self enforces it For if there are others present that can lawfully administer that mystery the Illusion which happened through overcharging ought not to hinder him from receiving the holy Mystery But he ought in my mind humbly to abstain from the Immolation of the holy Mystery although it disturbed not his mind when he was sleeping with any filthy Imagination For there are those to whom Illusions oftentimes happen whose minds though engaged in the sleep of the body are not defiled by filthy Imaginations From hence there is one thing manifest that the mind it self is guilty neither is it free in it's own Judgment for although it remembers it saw nothing in the body sleeping yet it may remember when the body was awake that it fell into Gluttony If therefore Illusions in sleep arise from our filthy thoughts when we are awake the mind is apparently guilty for it sees from what root that pollution proceeded because what it knowingly thought on it ignorantly brought forth But we ought to consider whether such thoughts arise from suggestion delectation or what is worse from consent of sin for all sin is perfected three kind of ways 1. By suggestion 2. Delectation 3. Consent Suggestion proceeds from the Devil Delectation from the flesh and Consent from the spirit For the first fault the Serpent suggested Eve as flesh was delighted and Adam as spirit consented And certainly great distinction is necessary that the mind which is its own Judge might distinguish between suggestion and delectation and between delectation and consent For when an evil Spirit puts sin into the mind if no pleasure from the sin follow that sin is not at all committed but when the flesh begins to be delighted then the sin begins to commence and if afterwards upon mature deliberation it consents then the sin is known to be perfected In suggestion therefore is the beginning of the sin in delectation the nourishment and in consent the perfection of it And it often falls out that what an evil spirit suggests to the mind the flesh turns into delectation and yet the mind consents not to that delectation and since the flesh cannot be pleased without the mind the mind strugling against the pleasures of the flesh is as it were against its own Will obliged by the pleasures of the flesh so that from reason it resists it neither does it at all consent and yet it is so fettered by this delectation that it earnestly bewails its bonds from whence that great Souldier of the Heavenly army cried out saying Rom. 7. 23. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members But if he was a Captive he did not fight and if he did fight why was he a Captive He warred therefore against the law of his mind which the law in his members resisted but if he fought he was no captive Behold therefore a man as I may say both captive and free free by the righteousness he loved and captive from the delectation he bore about him unwillingly Thus far are the Answers of Holy Pope Gregory to the Questions of the most Reverend Bishop
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