6 minutes in the beginning of the sixteenth Parallel and eighth Clymate and the most Northwardly in 60 degrees 30 minutes in the six and twentieth Parallel or thirteenth Clime So that the longest Day in the South parts will be 16 hours in the Northern 18 and a half Upon the North and South it pointeth to the Ocean on the West it hath Ireland on the East we may measure its extent by the Continent for it lieth in the same Latitude with part of France Flanders Zealand Holland Lower Saxony and Denmark so that there can be no certain Rule given as in lesser Kingdoms of the temperature of the Air the nature of the Soyl the strength growth or proportion of the Inhabitants It is now as it was when the Romans first discovered it that there seems to be many Nations in it differing in the make and proportions of their Bodies The more Northward we go the People seem to be sturdier bigger made and in their Limbs more resembling the Germans hardy and stout and enured to Labour and Cold and to be of the same nature with the Daues and Saxons in the latitude of which Kingdoms they lie The Southwardly parts contain Men of neater strength and more compact Limbs and what they want of the proportion of the others they make out in their quickness and agility being hardy and not unweildy having not less strength but a better management of it In a word they seem to joyn the quick and brisk temper of the French with the staid and more fixed Humour of the Germans and as the People differ in the temperaments of their Bodies so in this vast Kingdom are many Countries Cities Towns Villages Colleges and Free-Schools for the promoting of Learning Hospitals and Alms-houses for the Relief of the Poor and Maimed not inferiourto any in any other part of the World beside Divers Languages Customes and Usages which are not contrary one to the other but by the mixture of the Gentry and the happy union of this Nation under one Monarch do meet together in the making up of the best compacted Kingdom in the World The Languages in Britain are these 1. THE first is the ENGLISH which is most purely and elegantly spoken in the Southern parts and especially at London and it extends thorough all the hither parts of Scotland being the General Language of the most refined sort of that Nation who are called by the more Northern People Sassons as we are by the Welch 2. The second is the BRITISH Language and is spoken by the Inhabitants of North and South Wales although with great difference of Dialect 3. The third is the CORNISH and DEVONSHIRE Tongue differing both from the British and English and not to be understood by either but it agrees most with the British but especially of the Britains of Armorica or Britain in France and those Words they preserve common with both those Nations seem to retain in them the foot-steps of the most Ancient British Language and have in them the very Idiom's of the Phoenician and Greek Nations 4. The fourth is the Language of the Wild SCOTS and differs very little from the Irish in the common Appellative Names it agrees very much with the Welch as doth likewise the Irish which argues that before the Romans and afterwards the Saxons had incorporated themselves in this Island the Language of all the Inhabitants was much the same and that Ireland was rather peopled from Britain than from Spain as some have imagined 5. The fifth is the Language of the ORCADES or ORKNEY Isles with those parts of Britain that shoot out upon them there is spoken the Gothic or Danish Speech which argues them to have been formerly subjected to the Princes of Norway It is a rough and unhew'd Language and is the root of the Dialect spoken more refined by the English more roughly by the Dutch and the Inhabitants of Upper Saxony and Denmark It is the very husk of the Teutonick The whole Island divided into Britannia Major as ENGLAND and Minor as SCOTLAND England being the Greater and of more particular concern to our present discourse is in Length by the computation of some CCC LXXXVI miles Cluverius reckons from Weymouth to Berwick upon Tweed CCC XX or LXXX German miles So that in Compass it is about MCCC miles reckoning the Creeks and windings of Promontories By computation it contains thirty Millions of Acres and is the Three hundred thirty third part of the Habitable World almost Ten times as big as the United Netherlands and is to France as 30 to 82. And thus much for the Extent of this ISLAND upon which account it was called by the Ancients a NEW WORLD and upon a better survey of it The Great Island As for the temperature of the Air as I said before it is different according to the many Clymates it runs thorough But concerning the Southwardly parts of it or Britannia Major I will only Cite some Impartial Judges First Caesar who was well experienced in the nature and climate of Gaul writes That BRITAIN is a more Temperate Country and is not subject to the sharp and nipping colds of the Continent The Reason is given by Minutius Foelix namely That it is refreshed by the warmth of the Sea flowing round about it Experience teacheth us that the extremity of cold in this Country is blown off from the Continent and proceeds not from the North but Northeast-winds and as it hath not those Colds in Winter it is not burnt up with immoderate Heats in Summer Here are none of those violent Thunders and Lightnings which are so frequent on the Continent nor do we ever hear of Serenes wherewith those hotter Climates are infested The heat of the Weather is allayed by gentle Winds and continual Breezes and the Earth cooled and nourished with mild and moderate showers Tacitus speaketh very much of the temperate and happy scituation of it for he saies There is nothing deficient in it but the Olive and the Vine which only grow in hotter Countries But they that shall consider it more truly namely that there are many places at this day called Vineyards in ENGLAND where in all probability has been made Wine will have small cause to complain of the Country in this particular but will rather attribute it to the cheap and easie importation of that Commodity and better improvement of the Ground But it is a great wonder to hear what one Brietius of late hath written concerning the Temperature of the Air in BRITAIN which because it is the production of his own Brain and never heard of before in the World it will not be amiss to mention it Every One and twenty year saith he the Plague rageth in BRITAIN which proceedeth from the extream Heat of every Seventh year which Heat is far greater the Third seventh for then the Waters lying in holes putrifie and corrupt and certainly cause a Pestilence This Cycle of One
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
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
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
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
Authors give no account contented to satisfie us in the Nobility of his extraction But however he came to wear the Dignity he is certainly reported worthy of it being invincible in War and in Peace tempering the awe of Majesty with a natural sweetness and humanity with which Princely qualities he Reigned fourteen years some say but twelve during which time he built the Castle or Town of Bebanburg or Bamburg which he first fenced with Pales aad afterwards encompast with a Stone-wall He had twelve Sons half by Wives half by Concubines His Legitimate were as Huntington reporteth Adda Bealric Thedric Ethelric Osmer and Thedred Illegitimate Oga Ecca Oswald Ailric Soge and Sogother who saith Matthew of Westminster arrived at Flemuburg in fourty ships and assisted their Father in many of his Wars The bounds of this Kingdom began in the South at the River Tine and extended to the North as far as the Frith of Edenborough and Dunbritton ELLA ABOUT this time namely in the year 561. 〈◊〉 Prince the twelfth from Woden but by another Line follow 〈◊〉 example of lda erected another Kingdom in 〈◊〉 the bounds whereof reached from the Humber to the River Tine He reigned thirty years and left a Son called Edwin and a Daughter named Acca but after his death the Kingdom was seized by the race of lda who taking advantage of the Childhood of Edwin kept him from the Crown and annext the whole Territory to their own Dominion ETHELRIC ETHELRIC the only Son of lda surviving after his Brothers and Kinsmen had reigned without other Memory in Bernicia came to the Crown in his old age Nothing of him memorable is recorded and 〈◊〉 writeth that had it not been for the lustre of his Son succeeding him he might utterly have been forgotten however we must not pass over that during his Reign Edwin the lawful King of Deira enjoyed not that Crown but whether Ethelric usurped his right or only managed the state during his Minority is left uncertain but sure it is that he held both the Provinces and so left them to his Son and Successour Edelfrid who resolved to keep what his Father left him though never so unjustly EDELFRID EDELFRID sir named the wild succeeded in his Father's Kingdom of Northumberland a Prince valiant and thirsty of Renown and some describe him a Lover of War for War's sake only None of the Saxons ever wasted the Britains so much as he whose Countries he either peopled with his own Nation or made Tributary to him Edan King of the bordering Scots jealous of his success raiseth a mighty Army and invades his Kingdom whom Edelfrid meeting at a place called Degsastone in a set Battel totally discomfits and with such slaughter that Bede writes none of the Scotish Kings to his days durst ever after in hostile manner pass into Britain But the Victory was not obtained without great loss on the Saxons side also for Theobald the Kings Brother and that wing which he commanded was unfortunately cut off After this he turned his Arms against the Britains moved thereunto as some report by the instigation of Ethelbert King of Kent at the request of St. Augustine because the Britains refused obedience to his Authority but the whole course of this action I have before related in the life of Ethelbert King of Kent But Edelfrid growth so famous abroad began to be disquleted with Jealousies at home he knew the Title Edwin had to half his Dominions and though he had made some amends for his Injustice to that Prince in marrying of his Sister Acca yet for all that he could not be sure of his affection and never rested till he drove him out of his Government who wandring from place to place was at last enrertained in the Court of Redwald then King of the East-Angles Edelfrid informed of his kind reception with that Prince grows incensed thereat and sends his Embassadours to have him delivered into his hands or else declares open War Redwald at his Message at first somewhat startled but at length yielding is disswaded from it by his Wife who laid before him the inviolable Laws of Hospitality and how pitiful and mean a thing it was for the menaces of an Enemy to betray his friend to whom he had sworn protection upbraided with his weakness Redwald to make amends not only refuses to deliver him but resolves to maintain his Cause and to be before-hand with Edelfrid with an Army suddenly raised he comes upon him little dreaming of an Invasion and in a fight near the River Idle easily dissipates those forces he had collected together and in the same Battel slays Edelfrid himself who yet dyed not unrevenged For to shew that it was the Errour of his fortune not valour that he lost the day with his own hands he slew Reiner the Kings Son Thus died Edilfrid after he had reigned victoriously for the space of twenty two years to whom Bede applies the saying of Jacob to Benjamin That like a ravening Wolf he devoured his prey in the morning and divided the spoil in the evening His three Sons were conveyed into Scotland by their Mother Acca not daring to trust the good nature and generosity of Edwin whom their Father had so injuriously offended EDWIN EDWIN the Son of Ella established in his Kingdom by the assistance of Redwald the East-Angle as hath been related extended his Dominions further than any King of Northumberland had done before him for Eanfrid Oswald and Oswy the Sons of the late Edilfrid flying into Scotland left the Province of Bernicia absolute to his disposal But besides this addition to his Paternal right partly by Conquest and partly by Resignation he annexed to his Territory the Counties of Durham Chester and Lancashire subduing all both British and English ar far as the Mevanian Islands Anglesey and Man all which he either new planted or made Tributary to him He had not regined above six years when Redwald the chief Monarch then of the English-men departed this life leaving his Son Earpwald to succeed him in the Kingdom of the East-Angles Him Edwin though intreated himself to accept of the Government seated in the Throne of his Fathers contented with the same acknowledgments from him as he received from the rest of the Saxon Provinces Kent only excepted namely some small confessions of Power and the owning of his supreme governance Having thus well established all things round about him he sends to Eadbold Son of Ethelbert then reigning in Kent to desire his Sister in marriage But by his Embassadours he receives this Answer That the Christian Law did not permit them to give their Daughters unto Pagans Edwin whose business was Love not Religion replies that that ought not to be any hinderance for the free exercise of her own waies in her own Family with all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging thereunto should be left entire to her disposal and if upon due examination he found the Christian Law
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
into Britain 194 The Life of Julius Caesar 200 The British History relating to the second expedition of Julius Caesar 201 The first Inter-Regnum of the Roman's of thirteen years 202 The second Inter-Regnum of seven years and the third Inter-Regnum of four years follow in the course of the History The Sculpture of Drusus Claudius Caesar the second Roman in Britain 205 Drusus Claudius Caesar's Invasion of Britain out of the Roman Histories 207 The British History concerning the expedition of Claudius 211 The Sculpture of the first Christian Church of the Britains 213 Observations upon that Christian Church 214 The Continuation of the Roman History under D. Claudius Caesar by his Lieutenants 215 The Sculpture representing the manner how the Romans used sometimes to take Forts 219 The Life of D. Claud Caesar 221 Nero ibid. The Sculpture of Queen Boadicia 227 The Life of Nero 231 Galba 232 Otho 233 Vitellius 234 Vespatianus 235 The British History 238 The Continuation of the Roman History beginning with Titus Vespatian 239 Domitian 241 Galcacus's Speech to his Souldiers before battel 243 Agricola's Speech to his Army before battel 244 Nerva 250 Trajan ibid. Hadrian 253 The Continuation of the British History from Vespatian's daies to the fourteenth year of Hadrian 255 The Roman History p. 527 Antonius Pins 258 Marcus Aurelianus 259 Commodus Antoninus 260 The British History out of Bede 261 Observations upon the Epistle of Pope Elutherius to King Lucius 263 The succession of Bishops in the See of London 264 What the Flamens and Archflamens were and their being changed into Bishops and Archbishops 264 Concerning the Flamens and Archflamens of the Gentiles and the limits of their Jurisdiction after they were changed into Bishops and Archbishops 265 The Continuation of the Roman History under the Emperour Commodus as it relateth to this Island 269 The Oration of Clodius Albinus Lieutenant of Britain 270 Helvius Pertinax 275 Aurelius Commodus Severus to the Praefects Greeting 275 Didius Julianus 276 Septimius Severus ibid. Severus's Wall 279 The manner of the Romans Deifying their Princes 283 The British account of the Wars of Severus in this Island 287 Bass. Caracalla Anto. and his Brother Septimius Geta 288 The British History 289 Opilius Macrinus 290 Anton. Heliogabulus 291 Alexander Severus 292 Jul. Maximianus 293 Pupienus Maximus and 294 Clodius Albinus 294 M. Anton. Gordianus 294 M. Jul. Philippus 295 Gn. Messius Quintus Trajan Decius 296 Trebonianus Gallus 296 Publius Licinius Valerianus 297 Pub. Licinius Galienus 297 Marcus Aurelius Flavius Claudius 298 The British Writers concerning Claudius 299 L. Domitius Aurel. Valer. Aurelianus 301 M. Claudius Tacitus ibid M. Aurelius Valer. Probus 302 M. Aurelius Carus Carinus his Sons and Caesars Numerianus 303 C. Aurel. Valer. Dioclesianus Jovius and 303 M. Aurel. Valer. Maximianus 303 The Panegyrick Oration ascribed to Mamertinus in praise of the Emperours Dioclesian and Maximian Intituled only to Maximian p. 306 Observations out of the foregoing Panegyrick 311 The British History in the daies of Dioclesian and Maximian 314 Fl. Val. Constantius Chlorus 315 Constantine the Great 317 The British History in the daies of Constantine the Great 320 Constantinus Jun. 321 Constans 322 Flav. Val. Constantius 323 The British History in the daies of Constantius 325 Flav. Claud. Jul. Apostata 326 Flavius Jovianus ibid. Flavius Valentinianus 327 Flav. Gratianus and 331 Flav. Valentinianus 331 The British account of Maximus ' and the state of affairs in his daies 333 Flav. Theodosius 334 Honorius 335 The British History in the daies of Honorius uuto Vortigern who brought in the Saxons 341 The Affairs of Britain from the decay of the Roman State to the entrance of the Saxons 343 The Antiquity and Original of the Romans 353 With the distinction and division of the People 354 Of their Civil Governments 357 Of their Religion and some of their Gods and manner of worship 364 Of their four kinds of Sooth-saying 366 Their Order of Sacrificing 372 Of their Religious places of worship 373 Of their Military discipline 375 Of their manner of Encamping 379 Of their Habits both Men and Women 383 386 A Catalogue of the British Kings in the daies of the Saxons 388 The History of the British Kings in the daies of the Saxons 389 A Treatise of the ancient Monument called Stone-Henge 395 The Continuation of the British Kings in the daies of the Saxons p. 403 The Antiquity and Original of the Saxons in Britain 411 First of the Saxons 412 The next are the Angles 414 The last are the Jutes 417 That the Saxons were the same with the Getes and a branch of the Cimbri proved by the Language Customes c. of both Nations 419 Of Tuisco that he is vainly supposed the Founder of the German Nation and Conductour of our Ancestors Of the Progress of the Getes under divers Princes Ericus Woden and others 424 The Saxon Catalogue of Kings from Noah with the Scripture Catalogue as far as it goeth 427 Of Prince Woden 435 The Sculpture representing the Temple of Thor with whom is placed Woden and Frigga 445 The Sculpture of Rugiivith Porevith Porenuth and Swantovite 455 The Heptarchy of the Saxons in Britain 469 The Catalogue of the Kings of Kent 470 Hengist the first Saxon King of Kent 471 Oeric Octa Ermiric Ethelbert 475 The British Epistles of Gregory the Great for the Conversion of the Saxons 479 Gregory to Bishop Etherius 480 Gregory to Candidus the Priest going to the Patrimony of Gaul ibid. Gregory to Palladius Bishop of Xanton to Pelagius of Tours and to Serenus of Marseilles fellow-Bishops of Gaul 481 Gregory to Virgilius Bishop of Arles and Metropolitan of Gaul 481 Gregory to Desiderius of Vienna and Syagrius of Augustodunum fellow-Bishop of Gaul 482 Gregory to Arigius a Noble man of Gaul ibid. Gregory to Theoderick and Theodebert Kings of the Franks concerning Augustine Servant of God sent to the English Nation 483 Gregory to Brunichild Queen of the Franks of the Conversion of the English and of Augustine ibid. Gregory to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria he treats of the Conversion of the English and makes mention that in the Councel of Calcedon the Roman Bishop was stiled Universal p. 484 Observations upon that Epistle 486 Gregory to Menna of Tolouse to Serenus of Marseilles to Lupus of Cavation to Agilius of Mens to Simplicius of Paris to Malantius of Roan and to Licinius Fellow-Bishops 486 Gregory to Clotharius King of the Franks 487 Gregory to Brunichild Queen of the Franks 487 Gregory to Augustine Bishop of the English wherein he treats of the Conversion of the Nation and that he should not glory in the power of Miracles which oftentimes wicked men have performed 488 Observations upon that Epistle 491 Gregory to Aldiberga Queen of the English 491 Observations upon that Epistle 493 Gregory to Aldibert King of the English wherein he congratulates with him concerning the Conversion of the Nation 493 Gregory to Virgilius Bishop of Arles he commends to
him Bishop Augustine 495 Gregory to Melitus Abbot in France wherein he gives command to be sent to Augustine about the Conversion of that Nation 495 Gregory to Augustine Bishop of the English of the use of the Pall and of the Church of London 496 The Life of S. Augustine first Archbishop of Canterbury 498 Augustine is courteously received at his Arrival into England by Ethelbert King of Kent 500 The Answers of Gregory the Great to the Questions sent by Augustine for the better Government of the new erected Church of English-Saxons 502 A Synod called by Augustine the first Arch-Bishop by the Assistance of Ethelbert King of Kent to Augustine's Ac c. There being present the Roman Clergy seven Bishops many British Doctors First he demands Obedience to the Roman Church and that the Britains be conformable to the Romans in three things first in the Celebration of Easter Secondly in the Administration of Baptism Thirdly in preaching with him to the English-Saxons 509 The Answer of the Abbot of Bangor to Augustine the Monk requiring subjection to the Church of Rome p. 511 Of the famous Monastery of Bangor and the Conference held between Augustine and Dinoth Abbot of that place 513 Eadbald 515 The Epistle of Boniface V. to Justus late Bishop of Rochester now Successour of Melitus in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury 515 Ercombert 516 Egbert ibid. Lothair 517 Edric ib. Wigtred ib. Edbert 519 Ethelbert the Second ibid. Alric ib. Ethelbert the Third ib. Cuthred ib. Baldred ib. The Kingdom of the East-Saxons 521 Sledda ibid. Sebert 522 Sered Seward Sigibert ib. Segibert the First 523 Segibert the Second ib. Swythelme 524 Sighere ib. Offa ib. Selred 525 Suthred ib. The Kingdom of the South-Saxons 527 Ella ib. Cissa 528 Edilwalch 529 The Conversion of the South-Saxons by Wilfrid Archbishop of York ib. The Conversion of the Inhabitants of Wight 530 The Kingdom of Northumberland 533 Ida ibid. Ella 534 Ethelric ib. Edelfrid ib. Edwin 535 Bishop Honorius to Edwin King of the English 537 Osric 538 Eanfrith ib. Oswy 540 The Synod of Streanshalch now Whitby at the request of Hilda Abbess of that place under Oswy the Father and Alchfrid the Son Kings of Northumberland in the year of Christ 664 In which is Controverted the Celebration of Easter and other Ecclesiastical Rites 541 〈◊〉 Osred p. 545 〈◊〉 Ceolnulf Egbert Oswulf 〈◊〉 546 〈◊〉 Ethelred Elfwald Osred Ethelred 547 The Kingdom of the East-Angles 548 Usfa Titulus 549 Redwald Earpenwald Sigebert 550 Egric Anna Ethelherd Edelwald Aldulf Elfwold 551 Beorn Ethelred Egilbert 552 The Kingdom of Mercia 553 Crida Wibba Georl Penda Peada 555 Wulfer Ethelred Kenred 556 Kelred Ethelbald Beornred 557 Offa 558 Egfrid Kenwolf Kenelm 559 The Kingdom of the West-Saxons 560 Cerdic 561 Kenric Ceaulin 563 Cearlic Ceowolf Kingils 564 The Conversion of the West-Saxons 565 Kenwalch 566 Eskwin Ketwin Ceadwalla 567 Ina 568 The Laws of King INA 569 Ethelard Cuthred 580 Sigibert Kinwulf 581 Birthric 582 FINIS Cambden Cambden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Timagenes Polybius Festus Avicnus Onomacritus Cambden 〈◊〉 Isacius Tzetzes Camb. Brit. Ptolemy Geog. The truest Calculation Cluverius Geogr. Caesar. Com. Minutius Foe lix Tacitus Brietius Brietius Answered Tacitus Eusebius Herodotus Justin. Bishop Usher Learned Sir W. Rawleigh Note A German mile is four English Tibullus Scaliger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Learned Selden R. 1. R. 2. R. 3. Tacitus 1. Bocaitus Ezckiel 2. Josephus Herodotus lib. 4. Hesychius Pliny Didimus Crates Scholiastes Aristoph ad Ran. * In Dictione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diod. Sicul. Plutarch Caesar. Suidas Florus Justin. Paus. AElian Athenaeus Suidas Livy Plutarch Festus Caesar. Tully Caesar. lib. 1. Virgil. Quintilian Cambden Festus Plutarch Caesar. Com. Festus Plutarch Lazius Pontanus Strabo Caesar. Manlius Sherringham de Anglorum Origins Antonius Volscus Dominicus Marius Niger Servius Honoratus John Twyne Du Bartas c. Pliny's Nat. Hist. Lambard Hist. Richardi Viti lib. 1. Verslegan Speaking of the Kings of Palestine Utrecht the Utmost bound of Land Hugo Grotius De veritate Relig. Christ. lib. 1. Sanchoniathon a Phoenician Author Strab. lib. 3. * Medacritus viz. Melicartus Hercules Herodotus de Cassiteritibus Diodorus Sic. lib. 5. Plin. Nat. hist. lib. 8. Sancho Cambden Solinus Eustathius Ortelius Strabo Olivarius Solinus Eustathius Cambden Prolomy Cambden Bochartus This Island took not us Name from Brit Brith or Canta BRITAIN truly derived from Bratanac Bochartus Strabo Pliny Isidore Manethon Josephus Strabo Humphry Lloyd Bish Cooper Tacitus Herudotus lib. 4. Vulcanus Bochartus Strabo lib. I. Milton Herodotus in Melpomene Bochartus Blondus Buchanan Milton's Nist of England The Phoenician HANNO's Navigations Gerardus Vossius Isaac Vossius AElianus Strabo Bochartus Onomacritus Strabo Pomp Mela. Ptolomy Orpheus Aristotle Claudian Eustathius Martian Juvenal Pomp. Mela. Diod. Siculus Bochartus Procopius Pytheas Mass. Marinus Ptolomy Cadmus his Alphabet AEthicus Homer Odyss 1. vers 25. Statius lib. 4. ad Marcell lib. 5. in Proterp ad Crispinum Suidas Polybiur lit 3. Strabo lib. 2 Festus Avienus Tacitus Clem. A ex Plin. Nat. hist. Strabo lib. 4. Sanchoniathon Cambden 〈◊〉 Solinus Martial Tacitus Bochartus Ptolomy Franciscus Philelphus Lileus Geraldus Varro Pliny's Nat. Hist. Bochartus Marcellianus ex Timagi Stephanus Josephus Pausanias Enidius Geropius Sheringham Plutarch Solinus Prolomy Clitophon Pliny's Nat. Hist. Ptolomy Jornandus ex Cornello Tacitus * Note Godolanac is a place of Tynn from which Godolcan is derived Anton. Goll lib. 1. cap. 29. Jamblicus Julian the Apostate Tacitus Caesar. Lactant. Lucan Livy Philo Bibl. Sanchoniathon Plato's Phil. Tully Lactantius Pomp. Mela. Bochartus Polybius Cambden Plutarch Orosius Servius 8th AEneid Hesychius 2 Sam. 18. 14 Pausanias Quintilian Pliny Salassians viz. Gauls Eusebius Orosius Eutropius Salvianus Prosper Eumenius Salvianus Allobroges Isidorus and Diodorus Geraldus Camb. Rhenanus Ortelius Cambden Pliny Antoninus Dio Cassius Pliny Tacitus Gul. Malmsb. Antoninus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Itinery 〈◊〉 Girald lib. 2. cap. 1 5. Plutarch Silius Itals Tacitus Bochartus Old Seol on Juvenal Caesar Com. Quoere nominae BRITANNICA * Note Ducts I think should be ducitis as it is spoken of the Derivation of Paterius and Delphidius St. Hierom ad Hedeb Posidonius Strabo Festus Caesar. A 〈◊〉 account of this Chapter * Rahab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latins from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made Puniceus and from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poenus # 〈◊〉 Marther * Syrian ie Syrim then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Syri and by prefixing the Article Hassurim was brought in ‑ Assyrian Grorius in Epist ad Gall. 114 p. 242. Hesychius Herodotus Plin. Nat. hist. Strabo lib. 3. Geogr. Cambden Liv7 St. Hieroms Quest. on Gen. Varro's Antiq. Caesars Comment Caesar. Tacitus Caesar. Tacitus Sheringham de Orig. Angl. Pythias Polybius lib. 3. Thucidides Herodotus Stephanus in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isacius Tzer in Lycoph Mirae
the Light or shining Country for I find in a Roman Satyrist minimâ contentos noite Britannos In which words the Poet intimates its derivation for the Britains have but very little Night and in some parts none at all so that the business now is ended and we have a solid and unquestionable derivation of its Name In like manner would they proceed in deriving the Great and Famous Metropolis LONDON I have seen saies one upon this great and noble River but by what name the Thames will be then called God alone knoweth the Ruines of a CITY which extends six miles in length and in breadth not above one quarter of a mile and this I guess was LONDON of the Ancients or Long-Cown so called by the English by reason of its vast disproportion in length to the breadth of it and so you see London is also dispatched But if in truth I may deliver my Opinion there is no way more fallacious and deceitful in deriving of Kingdoms and Cities than from the Language of the People for I scarce think there is a Town or any place in England but by fertile Heads may be derived from some word or other that is now in use among its present Inhabitants every place yielding something either by Scituation Soyl or else Creek of Rivers Prospect of Hills and Valleys Customes and Manners Battles Buildings with thonsands of other Circumstances too tedious to mention from whence they may be deduced Now I leave it to any Rational man to judge whether it be not more proper and consonant to Reason to derive Places from their undoubted Trade by which they were known to all the World as the Isles of SCILLY were by the name of Cassiterides of the Greeks and Barat-anac or Bratanac of the Phoenicians than to deduce them from the uncertain sound and coincidency of a word with some light and trivial Custome among them The Reason that absolutely confirms me in the Opinion the Scilly Islands gave Name at last to this Great ISLAND that now alone keeps the name of Britannia is because Pliny writes that this Island was called ALBION when as all the Islands adjacent were called BRITAIN so that we see the name of Bratanac first took place in the adjacent Islands before it came on the main Land of Albion but in succession of Time the Name gaining footing in Cornwal and Devonshire it prevailed at last over all the Island and the greater part swallowed up at last the Name of the whole although corrupted and distorted by the several Dialects it ran through And that the exported Commodities of Countries gave Names anciently to People by which they were most commonly known although they might have other Names peculiar to themselves will be manifest if we consider how Africk and Ebora part of Spain took their names from Corn Iava called of Old Iabaduc from Barley Carmania Cremetes Sicilia Inychus Anapus Arvisium Arambys from Wine Ruspina and Ebusus from Figgs Zaita and Uzita from Olives Lusitania not from Lysus the Son of Bacchus but from the abundance of Chesnuts called Luza and the delicacy of them a great Merchandize in those daies and brought from those parts of Spain Italy and Calabria took their Names from the Pitch they yielded Cythnus from its Cheese Calymna and Alabus from its Hony Caristus Achates from certain Stones found there and the British Islands from its Mettal as also Chasus Chryse Odonis Siphnus Cimese Carcoma Orospeda with many others For considering the many diversities of People and Governments in this Island it is not reasonably to be supposed that they had one common Name among themselves by which the whole Island was known unless they had it from Forreigners who Traded with them If we examine the Original Names of all Nations we shall find that the Name by which they are known to the World differs much from those Names they have from themselves and by which too they do distinguish one another yet the Major part of the World which is ab extra to every particular Kingdom prevails in the denomination therefore it happens that those Kingdoms themselves so denominated are obliged to conform to those Appellations given them by the Major part and therefore that saying of Isidore That the BRITAINS were called so from something within them in my reason as it makes no more for Brit Painting than for King BRUTUS is to be neglected For the same Motives that could make an Historian write so much might have enabled him to have writ more for he that can positively affirm that a NAME comes from within a Kingdom and not from without in my Opinion ought to be particular in valuable Reasons otherwise he had better be silent being against the experience of the World That Nations receive their Names not from themselves but others But if Isidore means that BRITAIN had something within it from whence Strangers gave it that Name then none can deny it for it is true that these Islands took their Name from the TYNN they yielded though not all alike and at the same time And here I cannot but wonder that when Mr. Cambden had laid down that CUMERO was the primitive Name of the Inhabitants by which they called themselves he then in answer to his own Questions Whence then came ALBION Whence came BRITAIN saies that those Names came either from themselves or from others when just before he had given Examples That Countries have different Names some Names by which they called themselves others by which they were called of Strangers for as follows I will set down his own words They that were called Israelites saies he by the Greeks were called Hebrews and Jews by the AEgyptians Huesi as witnesseth Manethon so the Greeks named those Syrians who as Josephus writes called themselves Aramaeans they which named themselves Chusians were by the Graecians for their black Faces called AEthiopians those which after their own Speech were called Celtae the Greeks named Galatae so those that nominated themselves after their own Language Teutsch Numideans and Hellens by the Romans were named Germans Mauri and Graecians even so in these daies not to speak of many others they which in their own Idiom Musselmans Magier Czecchi and Bessermans are by all Nations in Europe named Turks Hungarians Bohemians and Tartarians so even we our selves in England by our Native and natural Speech call our selves English men but by the Welch Irish men and the High-land Scots Saffons that is as much as to say Saxons Now what follows from this but that the Inhabitants of this Island being called CUMERO by themselves were by some others named BRITAINS No for this will destroy all then they could not give themselves Brit c. from their Painting which assisted much to the derivation of BRITANNIA therefore saies he mark I pray you they were upon some other cause by themselves or others named BRITAINS But why by themselves when he had proved before
called in the British and Scotch Tongue Phightiaid a Warlike and fierce Nation and to make up their terrible Character they were Scythians by descent and near Kinsmen at least to the Gothes and as some think the Off-spring of the Nation of the Agathyrses a Race of painted Cannibals setting forth from their Native Country or as some write from Sweden or Norway With these most excellent endowments as Pirates and Rovers they arrived on the Coast of Ireland where they met with their Brethren the Scots who then inhabited that Island who easily understood their Language as being themselves of Scythian extraction Having scarce landed their Forces they required Places to inhabit but the Scots who well understood the stomach of their Country-men and had but just now given over themselves to eat one another so diverted and shifted themoff with telling them the pleasures of Britain and the plenty thereof I wonder they should omit their Painting also The Picts hoysting up Sail made for this blessed Island little dreaming of the warm entertainment they were to receive for the Scots had laid the sairest side outwards and concealed the Courage and Numbers of the Britains When they had arrived upon the North of this Island finding there but few Inhabitants they began to waste wide and forrage all those Tracts which Nature it self had sufficiently laid desolate King Marius informed of the insolent Behaviour of these Strangers levies Forces and with speedy Marches hastned into the North and there gave them Battle The success was so great on the Britains side that the Picts were totally discomfited many slain among whom was their Leader Rodorick and the rest all taken Prisoners to whom King Marius gave license to inhabit the Northern part of Scotland called Cattness a cold and Mountainous Country They had not long lived there but they began to think of warm Bed-fellows and to that purpose sent unto the Britains for Wives but their Suit being there entertained with scorn they applied themselves to the Scots who granted them their Daughters upon this condition That if the Male Issue of the King should fail then the next Heir on the Womans side should succeed in the Kingdom which Ordinance ever after was observed among them and this was the cause of the great Union of both these Nations This Victory of King Marius against the Picts was obtained at Stanes-moor in Westmoreland and from his name was the Country called Westmaria But that which seemeth to give some credit to this Relation was this Inscription found in Carlile MARII VICTORIAE of which the Reverend Bishop Usher writes thus Although the British History in many things is found faulty yet the testimony of the Inscription of Marius his Victory is not altogether to be slighted For before Jeofferies Translation an Author much Graver William of Malmsbury writeth of it in this manner In the City Luguballia commonly called Carlile there is seen a Dining Room built of Stone and arched with Vaults which neither the force of Weather nor Fire on purpose set to it could scatter or destroy And on the Fore-front of it was this Inscription MARII VICTORIAE that is To the Victory of Marius Mr. Cambden who draws all Antiquities to the Romans saith That another making mention of this Stone who that other is he tells us not saith It was not inscribed Marii Victoriae but Marti Victori and this he saith may better content some and seemeth to come nearer to Truth But however it may please some vet it is absolutely against the meaning of Malmsbury who immediately adds What this Inscription should mean I know not unless part of the Cimbri should inhabit these Places after they were driven out of Italy by Marius the Consul of whom Ranulphus maketh mention in his Polycronicon This is Malmsbury's guess as being certain it was Marii Victoriae not Marti Victori and having never seen the British History he gave it to that Consul rather than no body little thinking how improbable it was that a Nation driven from its Country should raise Trophies to their Conquerour But if it must be Marii Victoriae Mr. Cambden hath a Roman of that name to fix it upon namely MARIUS who was proclaimed Emperour against Gallienus a Man of wonderful strength insomuch that it was written of him That he had no Veins in his Fingers but all Sinews saith Mr. Cambden but who they are he again nameth not and attributes this Inscription to him and so let it be for what Victory could ever slip from the hands of so nervous a Person King Marius died in the year of Grace 132 and was Interr'd at Carlile he left the Kingdom to his Son Coyll COYLL in his youth had been educated at Rome where he employed his time in learning the Sciences and the discipline of War He loved the Romans and was by them highly esteemed and honoured so that paying his Tribute and receiving their Protection he filled out a long just and peaceable Reign governing Britain 54 years to the fifth year of Commodus the Emperour when we shall hear of his Son LUCIUS the first Christian Prince of the British Line till whose daies the British Histories are silent there being nothing else memorable in the life of this Coyll save that some ascribe to him the building of Colchester in Essex which work others give to a later Coyll which reigned next after Asclepeodotuis THE Roman History HADRIAN having called away Julius Severus as likewise Priscus Licinius both Governours in Britain to subdue the Jews who were then in Rebellion it will not be amiss to fill out the remainder of this Emperours Reign with a short account of his Atchievments against that Nation seeing they were performed by Men whose experience in War was gained in our British Island The Jews a stubborn People and sick of the Roman yoak as who daily expected a glorious Messiah and were impatient of his coming at last of themselves took Arms in the Eighteenth year of Hadrian and began a dangerous Rebellion But Hadrian raising great Forces and electing his choicest Generals to Command them soon put a stop to their Fury who in the heat of the Revolt spared neither Roman nor Christian. And to revenge their Insolence besides an infinite number of them slain and tortured their City Jerusalem was razed to the ground themselves utterly banisht and made unlawful for them to look towards that City or their Native Soyl. Besides where Jerusalem had stood although not upon the same Foundations he built a new City calling it after his own name AELIA upon the Gate whereof that leadeth to Bethlehem that the Jews even in disguise might be kept as much as might be from visiting it he caused a Swine to be engraven a Beast which he had learnt by their Law was accounted the most unclean and of all others most abominable He was favourable to the Christians forbidding by Publick Edict the Persecution against them moved as some
him in Ecclesiastical History the name of a good Catholick and free from the Arrian Heresie Flav. Valentinianus VALENTINIANUS upon the death of Jovian was chosen Emperour He was the Son of that Gratian Sirnamed FUNARIUS who had been chief Commander of all the Land-Forces in Britain In his Reign the Picts Saxons Scots and Attacots infested the Britains to the repressing of whose Incursions was sent FRAOMARIUS King of the Almains the successour of King EROCUS who assisted Constantine the Great The Almains in these daies were of great repute for their hardiness and skill in War and their Princes highly esteemed for their faithful Service and constant adherence to the Romans But it seemeth that Fraomarius as likewise Erocus who took Commissions under the Romans were expell'd their Kingdom by some Rebellion or Insurrection of their People for the Nation of the Almains we read in these daies mightily infested the Romans and invaded their Province of Gall and Rhetia so that they who followed Fraomarius into Britain seem to be a Party of the Almains who attended their Prince in his banishment Men of Spirit and Nobility and therefore most likely to do considerable Service for the honour of their Prince and the quieting of the British Nation The Expedition of Fraomarius with his Almains into this Island appeareth to be in the fifth year of this Emperours Reign An. Dom. 370. By the general Plots and Contrivances of those Barbarous People Britain was sorely distressed and afflicted Nectaridius who at that time was Lieutenant to manage Maritime Affairs lost his life and Bulchobaudes a General by the crafty contrivance of the Enemy was prevented in his designs The Emperour after he had received Information of these sad disasters sent Severus then Lord Steward of his Houshold to rectifie and set in order miscarriages but being in a short time after called back was not able to effect what he so much desired After that Jovinus went to the same parts and in great haste sent Proventusides to request a potent Force but this place in the Text Mr. Cambden apprehends was corrupted as the necessity of the cause required So many dreadful Afflictions and Calamities being daily spread abroad of the Island Theodosius was chosen and hastned with all expedition thither because he was esteemed a Person so fit for that employment Having collected to himself a sufficient number of stout and valiant Men the better to strengthen Legions as Cohorts led the way with much Courage and Resolution About that time the Picts were severed into two Nations that is Dicaledonians and l'icturiones the Attucots a fierce and resolute People with the Scots in divers parts where they roved did great mischief In like manner the Gaulish Cohorts Frankners and Saxons being next Neighbours to them made great spoil and havock both by Land and Sea and what with murthering Captives firing Towns and plundering represented all places deplorable and much to be pitied To put a stop to the current of these Grievances if Fortune would have so consented this zealous and vigorous Captain intended a voyage to the utmost bounds of Earth for when he arrived to the Sea-side of Bullen which is separated from an opposite piece of Land by a narrow street called the Sleeve ebbing and flowing where the Waves are wont to mount up with swelling Tides and of a sudden to humble themselves by a low and submissive level the better to favour the Passenger from whence having by slow and chary sailing passed the Ocean he gained the shoar of Rhutapia called Ribchester or Richborow by Sandwich over against it a place more freed from Rage and disturbance from whence after that the Batavians Heruli Jovii and Victores who followed were come Upon this he departed and reaching that Old Town AUGUSTA now the famous City of LONDON divided his Army into several parts he charged upon these robbing Adversaries so briskly thinking it a time most proper as they were laden with the Spoyls and destruction of his Friends discomfiting those that were haling forward their Captives and such as also drave away Cattle that they were forced to leave their Prey and think of nothing more for the present than how to make safely their escapes Having made restitution of the Goods so taken to the Owners save only some small encouragement reserved for the Souldiers he hastned into the City now pretty well cleared from Calamities And moreover having been advised by the information of revolting Fugitives and confession of Captives that so great a multitude of sundry Nations so resolute and perverse in their Natures were not to be vanquish'd but by sudden Excursions and private Contrivances therefore did not by this first success puff himself up either with an absolute security or adventure greater exploits resting in himself doubtful of the future event After he had proclaimed promises of Impunity he summoned as well the Trayterous Runagates as divers others that went different Journies without controul to offer themselves for his employment As soon as most of these summoned were returned he loaded with Cares curbed his former motion insomuch that he called for Civilis by name intending him a Deputy Governour of Britain a precise keeper of Justice and observer of Right although something touched in his Nature with a haughty disposition He likewise sent for Dulcitius a Captain very knowing in War-like employments Now gaining courage to a willing heart he left Augusta and with faithful and couragious Souldiers brought great comfort to the ruinated estate of the Britains by fore-laying an Ambush in all places against the Barbarians where was thought to be the greatest advantage and encouraged the Common Souldiers much by engaging them in no hot Service but would take to himself the first essay thereof thereby evidencing the part of a stirring and hardy Souldier as the charge and courage of a noble General putting to flight divers Nations who thinking themselves secure through Pride or vain boasting were stirred up to invade the Roman Government For a long space of time the foundation of Peace being thus laid by him Castles and Cities were restored to their former security and freedom which before had suffered under many troubles and dangers In the time of these his Atchievments there had like to have happened a horrible Act which might have been a cause of raising new Troubles had it not been destroyed in its infancy Valentinus of Valeria Pannonia one of a proud Spirit Brother to the Wife of that pestilent Maximinus first Deputy Lieutenant afterward President for some remarkable fault of his was banisht Britain Through impatience till he could act his Villany rose up in Arms against Theodosius contriving all imaginable Plots to raise disturbance occasioned by some private and inward Pride and Malice And although he perceived him alone able to encounter with his Designes yet attempted to solicite as well the Banished persons as Souldiers promising a Reward the more easily to draw them to perform for
setled the Empire on his Sons he died to the grief of all men the Union of the whole Empire in the Person of so worthy a Prince raising no small expectations of a great and glorious Reign In his daies Chrysan was Vicar of Britain of whom more in the following Emperour HONORIUS HONORIUS by the will of his Father Theodosius succeeded in the Western Empire During his Minority Stilico was appointed his Governour a man for a long time famous having been an inward Companion of Theodosius and emp'oyed in the British Wars against the in roads of the Scots Vandals Picts and Saxons and therein he behaved himself with great conduct and success which Claudian implieth where he introduceth Britain thus speaking Me quóque vicinis pereuntem gentibus inquit Munivit Stilico totam quam Scotus Hibernem Movit infesto spumavit remige Thetis Illius effectum curis ne bella timerem Scotica nec Pictum tremerem ne littore toto Prospicerem dubiis venientem Saxona ventis Me to ill Neighbours long a Prey expos'd With safety now hath Stilico inclos'd Whilest the false Scot the Irish shoar alarums And with those Vermin all the Ocean swarms 'T is through his care no longer Wars I fear The Scots and Picts alike now dreadless are No longer on the Coasts I quivering stand Nor fear a Fleet of Saxons on the Strand But his great Atchievments were attended with no less Ambition for not content with the management of the whole Empire in the Minority of Honorius nor satisfied with the honour of having his Daughter an Empress by matching her with his Ward be flew up to so high a pitch that in the end he ruined not only himself but the whole Empire For by sowing the seeds of Sedition amongst the Lieutenants of Provinces and raising factions at Court he made so evil a fermentation through all the Government which of it self was decaying that the publick Enemy taking the advantage grew daily upon it and on all sides assaulted it s now tottering Fabrick That which in this nick of time most unluckily promoted its ruine was a Party of the Goths who having served the Romans faithfully for twenty years and now fallen into the displeasure of this great Favourite being disgraced and casheir'd to revenge their wrongs publickly Revolted choosing Alaricus for their Captain who not long after proved the Scourge of Rome In these daies Chrysanthus the Son of Marian a Bishop who had been made Vicar of Britain by Theodosius deserved so much honour for the prudent management of the Common-wealth that considering his Birth the Son of a Church-man and his great Integrity he was thought the fitter man to oppose the Schisine of the Cathari who stiffly maintained That men of Baptism relapsing into mortal sin could not renew their state of Salvation To withstand these he was chosen and installed at Constantinople much against his will Bishop of the Novatians and is the same Person whom we find in Ecclesiastical Histories so much commended for his great Temperance and Mortification Contemporary with him flourished Fastidius a British Bishop and wrote Books of Divinity yet not withstanding that Britain was so well furnished with eminent Divines Pelagius a Native of this Island brought up in the Monastery of Bangor in Wales about this time found opportunity to introduce new Heresies into the Church He having travelled Italy and AEgypt and insinuated himself into the company first of Paulinus Bishop of Nola and afterwards of St. Augustine finding that preferment came not so fast as he expected and thinking his great Travels and Study not sufficiently or not time enough rewarded set up for new Opinions and returning into Britain with his Disciples Coelestius a Scot and Agricola spread them wide poysoning the minds of the Britains a Nation saith Gildas greedy of any Novelty By this time ALARICUS King of the Goths laid siege unto Rome it self and now that glorious Empire like a Body departing not able to defend its more noble parts began to contract and draw in its succours from all sides and such Forces which lay scattered for the defence of the outward Provinces were summoned to relieve the very heart and Seat of its Empire amongst the rest the British Legion which in the Marches kept station against the Barbarians was called away which Claudian witnesseth in these words Venit extremis Legio praetenta Britannis Quae Scoto dat fraena truci serróque not at as Perlegit exanimes Picto moriente figuras Hither the Legion too from Britain came Which curbs the Scots and does fierce Nations tame Who whil'st the painted Picts expiring lie Beholds the breathless Figures how they die And now the Britains finding themselves deserted by the Romans and the Barbarous Nations continually assaulting them the Scots from the Irish Seas the Saxons from the German and the Picts from the North beholding withal the desolations of the Continent through the weakness of the Roman Empire and the power of its Enemies the Vandals who had wasted Belgia even to those places whence is nearest passage into Britain and learing lest the heating-flame of their Neighbours fire might fly over to them also thought it expedient to choose some General or Soveraign Commander to lead them First they elected Marcus who it may seem then was Deputy of the Island but his carriage not agreeing with their giddy Courses him they as suddenly slew and in his stead set up Gratian a Country-man of their own whom they Crowned and arrayed in the Purple Robe and adored as their Prince but the favour of a heady Rout is as fatal as its fury for upon some slight mislike taken to him after four Months end they deprived him not only of life but Empire also There was among them a Common Souldier whose name was Constantine with him on a sudden so taken they are upon the conceit of a luckiness in his name as without any other visible Merit to create him Emperour CONSTANTINE making use of the opportunity and gathering his Forces together whilest the heat lasted putting to Sea from Britain landed at Bullen in France and what with the terrour of his Name and the numbers of his Followers he easily brought over to his Party all the Roman Forces on this side the Alpes Valentia in France he manfully defended against the puissance of Honorius the Rhine which long time before had been neglected he fortified with Garrisons Upon the Alpes as well Cottiae and Penninae as those towards the Maritime Coasts where ever the passages lay open he placed Garrisons built Forts and Castles and in Spain under the Conduct of his Son whom of a Monk he had made his Caesar he warred with the like fortune and success And now grown high and proud by the constant current of so many Felicities not content that Honorius had freely yielded to him a share in the Empire and kindly accepted his excuse wherein he alleadged the
him likewise in which circumstances our stories agree with the Romans but in the election of Constantine they vary For he whom the Romans call a Common Souldier and had the Empire for his Name only by them is derived of Noble lineage and made the Brother of Aldroenus King of Armorica and the fourth from Conan Meridoc Duke of Cornwal and first King of Armorica Upon the earnest request of Vitelinus Bishop of London he was sent by his Brother Aldroenus into Britain and landed at the same Port that Brute had formerly done namely Totness Having subdued the Enemies of the Britains and Reigned to the commendation of all People the space of ten years he was slain by a Pict his especial Confident He left Issue by his Wife a Woman of Noble extraction and bred up by Vitelinus three Sons Constantius whom the Roman Histories call Constans Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther Sirnamed Pen-Dragon Constantius being a Man of weak parts in his Fathers time had been made a Monk and placed in the Abby of Amphibalus in Winchester and now after his death by the cunning of Vortigern a powerful Britain who desired to draw the management of Affairs to himself was taken out of the Abby and made King and not long after slain by his Guards of Picts and Scots who for that intent were placed about him and suborned by Vortigern upon hopes of Reward but the Deed done Vortigern caused them all immediately to be strangled by which means he not only prevented their discovering him but gained such reputation for Justice and Integrity that he was chosen King The other Sons of Constantine fled into Armorica where they continued until the alteration of Affairs called them back The Count Palatine better to bring the British History to the Roman writes That Constantine left behind him four Sons whereof Julian mentioned in the Roman History was one but the Relations of the British and Roman Records have been all along so different in circumstances and so disagreeing in setting down even matter of Fact it self that the hopes of reconciling them would be fruitless All therefore that is left in this place is to bemoan that at the fall of the Roman Empire in these parts that which was truly Roman decayed also namely Learning Eloquence and History so that for the future we must steer our course by other Guides and in many places shall often want such clear and impartial Authors by whom hitherto we have been directed THE AFFAIRS OF BRITAIN From the decay of the ROMAN State To the Entrance of the SAXONS THE Britains as we heard being acquitted of the Roman Jurisdiction by Honorius in the year of Christ 410 and of the coming of Julius Caesar 462 the Right of Government falling into their own hands began to bestir themselves at first in their new Freedom living after their own Laws and standing on their own Defence But as People more fond of the name of Liberty than apprehensive of the weight of Governing well they grew heady and violent in their new Affairs and eager in what they understood nor None more stout and daring in Counsels but in Action none so fearful and and relenting all pretending to know what ought to be done yet all drawing back in the performance Thus in a short time when the heat of Liberty was once spent and the Enemy daily increased they quickly found their old temper returning upon them a slavishness of Mind and slothfulness of Body then they perceived it was not stomack or a hot and sudden love of Licence could protect them but that diligence wisdom and labour was wanting so that their Spirits drooping continually they shrunk by degrees into their former tameness of mind and grew as weary of their new tried Liberty as they had been of their old Subjection For being no longer able to support themselves against the continual Incursions of the Picts and Scots they again sent Letters to Honorius humbly begging his protection and vowing Obedience to Rome if their Enemies were once removed Honorius out of compassion to their Miseries rather than desire of Rule sent them a Legion who coming over made great slaughter of the Picts soon drove them beyond the Marches and having cleared the Fronteirs caused a Wall or Rampire to be built cross the Island from Sea to Sea where Agricola had formerly built one namely between the Friths of Edinborough to the City Alcluith on Dunbritton but it being cast up with Turf only and that slightly as soon as the Romans were departed to the defence of France the Barbarous Nations soon broke down and over-run it and pouring into the Province like a Torrent made great devastations killing burning and destroying wheresoever they came The Scots on the other hand out of their Carroughs or Leather-Vessels wherein they used to pass the Scitick Vale land in whole swarms and with no less fury out-rage and cruelty carry harry and make havock of all thus bandied between two merciless and insolent Enemies both striving which should out-do the other in Spoil and Rapine The Britains once again send their Embassadours to Rome in mournful manner with their Garments rent and sand on their heads humbly imploring that they would not permit so Ancient a Province and so serviceable to the Romans to become a prey and scorn to Barbarians Valentinian the Third then Emperour pitying their Complaints sends certain Regiments to their assistance who coming upon these greedy Spoilers who were intent only on Plunder made great slaughter of them rescued the Britains and cleared the whole Province Then partly at the publick Charges of the State and partly at the Contributions of private Men they built another Wall not of Turf as the former but of Stone twelve foot high and eight broad traversing the Island in a direct line from East to West where Severus had walled before namely from Newcastle on Tine to Solway-Frith on the Irish Sea between certain Cities placed as Fronteirs to stave-off the Enemy On the South-coast also being an open Shoar and not free from their Inroads they built Towers cast-up Forts and Block-houses at convenient distances and on certain heights Having thus secured the Island on both sides they exhorted the Britains now to stand in their own defence and manfully to maintain their Country against rude and barbarous People not stronger than themselves if their own Fears had not made them so to which end they instructed them in the Art of War and left patterns of their Arms and Weapons behind them and with many encouraging words and lectures of Valour to a Hen-hearted Auditory gave them a final farewel without intention to return again This last friendly Expedition of the Romans was under the Conduct of Gallio of Ravenna Buchanan names him Maximianus and writes That Firgus first King of the Scots after their second coming into Scotland and Dursius King of the Picts were both slain in fight against him and
than the War advance after the Paschal Feast as to a certain Victory German who had notice of their approach undertakes the conduct of that day and riding out with some selected Troops to discover a place fit for Ambush finds a Vally encompassed with many risings through which the Enemy was to pass Here he placeth his Men and orders them that what word they heard him pronounce the same they should repeat with an universal Shout The Enemy goeth on secretly and German thrice aloud cries Hallelujah which answered by the Souldiers with a sudden noise and clamour is doubly ecchoed from the Hills and Vallies The Saxons and Picts startled hereat and supposing it the noise of a huge Host flung down their Arms and fled and for hast many of them were drowned in the River which newly they had passed The Victory thus obtained without hands gave to the Britains plenty of Spoil and proeured to the Person and Preaching of German greater Authority and Reputation than before The place of this Victory is reported to have been in Flintshire by a Town called Guid-eruc and the River is supposed Allen where a Field retains the name of Maes German unto this day Some have called into question that part of the Relation which maketh mention of the People flocking to be Baptized by German seeing that Pelagianism was never Re-baptized and the Heathenish Religion for a long time before is not so much as heard of in Britain But I think this cannot take away from the truth of this story seeing 't is writ by a Man living so near the times for it is not to be meant of the whole Army of Britains but of some part only and those perhaps Friends and Allies to them For in a mixture of Nations which in War either the taking of Prisoners or the Revolt of disaffected persons naturally causeth what wonder is it if there might be Scots Picts or Saxons in Germans Camp especially if we consider what intelligence he had of the approach of the Enemy and the exact time of their coming which could be given him by none but such who fled over to them and that many of the Scots and Picts were desirous to embrace the Christian Faith and wanted only opportunity to do it may be gathered in that Palladius a Deacon about this time was ordained and sent by Celestine the Pope to be Bishop over them No marvel therefore if many of the Picts entring into Britain and beholding the Lives and Conversations of the Christians here might be converted from their savage Customes and Religions and desire to be Baptized by that Man of whose miraculous Life and Doctrine they had heard such wonderous Relations These Astions happened about the year 430 when German departing the Land the Scots and Picts taking advantage of his absence prepared again for a new Invasion The Britains wearied out with continual Wars and not expecting any more Miracles for their deliverance send to Rome for assistance about the 39th year of Theodosius and of our Lord 446. Their Letters were directed to AEtius or Agitius then President of Gallia with this Inscription TO AETIUS THRICE CONSUL THE GROANS OF THE BRITAINS The Barbarians drive us to the Sea and the Sea drives us back to the Barbarians thus between two kinds of death we are either slaughtered or drowned And the more to express their Miseries and to move Compassion thus they surther urge We the poor Remnant of the Britains and your Vassals besides the Enemy are afflicted by Famine and Mortality which at this time extreamly rageth in our Land Withal they beg him to consider how nearly it concerned the Honour of the Roman Empire to protect and succour a Province which for five hundred years almost had constantly adhered to their Interest that if they were now weakned and in a condition rather to take than give assistance they desire him to call to mind that it was Their occasions not their own that had reduced them to those necessities the strength of the British Youth were exhausted in the Roman Service and the Land lest naked to uphold the grandure of the Empire And besides the loss of their Youth their wealth had been wasted and consumed in maintaining so many Legions in forreign Service and their stores of Corn spent in supplying the Roman Provinces abroad To these their urgent Requests they receive no Answer at all for the Empire sorely infested and overspread with Huns and Vandals was not in any condition to give them assistance insomuch that wearied out with continual Complaining in vain and the Famine daily increasing upon them like Men in a desperate condition their comfort lying only between the choice of two Evils some meerly to get sustenance yield themselves to the disposal of the Enemy whilest others more hardy and resolute maintain their lives with what the Woods and Forrests afford them oftentimes as their Necessities urged or Advantage invited them would they make sallies upon the Enemy and that with good success led on as may be guessed by some worthy Commander who advised them not to trust in their own Power but the Divine assistance And perhaps if computation would permit which in these times is very much confused by the Divine assistance nothing more is here meant than the fore-said miraculous Victory obtained by German near the River Allen But however I shall follow the series of Gildas in setting down the History of these Times The Scots or Irish Robbers for so are they indifferently called finding such stout resistance where they least suspected it for the present depart home with intention to return upon the next fair occasion inviting them The Picts also who not long before as hath been mentioned had seated themselves in the utmost part of the Island even unto the Wall now retired to their new Habitations and saving a few Inroads which now and then they made upon the Borderers lived without any great molestation so that the Britains eased from their Enemies began anew to tyll the Ground which after long discontinuance yielded her fruit in such abundance as the like in no Age before had ever been remembred But the Sore of Famine being healed and skinned others more virulent broke out Riot Luxury and Wantonness the usual attendants of Fulness and Plenty and with them all Vices incident to Humane nature For besides Fornication Adultery Uncleanness Rapes Incest the necessary Companions of Intemperance Contentions Strifes Civil discords arose among them and they who had been feeble and weak in repressing a forreign Enemy in vindicating their private Animosities were eager and obstinate But that which Gildas faith most especially conduced to the corrupting of Affairs and the overturning the state of all goodness in the Land and so continued in his daies was the hatred of Truth and the Maintainers of it the love of Lies with the Forgers thereof Evil they called good and good evil To be wicked and lewd was honourable
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
a Sea-faring People and of the Race of the Saxons But they who shall consider that the Saxons and Suevians were of the same Original and Anciently of the Common Name and Stock of the Cimbri by which general appellation they were promiscuously called by the Ancients as also how the German Nations were alwaies shifting Habitations by which means they got new Names often and often scattered the same Name on divers Nations will have no reason to doubt but that our ancient English Ancestors descended from those English Suevians mentioned in Ptolomy who having long wandered in Germany afterwards possessed that Province in Denmark which from their Name of Angili was called Angulus or Angel and from which Country they afterwards passed into Britain Seeing therefore that our English Ancestors did not receive their Name from that narrow Isthmus in Denmark but on the contrary it received its name from them it remaineth to be shewn from whence they might probably have taken it Mr. Cambden who disalloweth of the derivation from Angulus a Corner saith that the Original fo the Angli or English may in all likelyhood be seen in the etymology of Englebett and Englehard and such like Teutonick names but he himself doth not attempt at it Neither have I read of any yet who have adventured to give their Opinions in this matter Amidst so great silence of Writers my Judgment cannot be offensive to any seeing it contracticteth none The Name therefore of the ancient Angili or Angli so called by Tacitus and Ptolomy from which our English proceedeth is not to be fetched from the Latin Angulus a Corner because Tacitus and Ptolomy gave not that name to the People so called but set it down as they received it from the German Nations The Original therefore of the Name seemeth as in reason it should to be derived from the Teutonick Now as it is vanity to think that our present England received its name from lying in a Corner of the World or that Old England in Denmark was so stiled from its Narrowness and upon that account gave name to the Angli who were called Angli long before they ever set foot on that Province so on the other hand it is reasonable to suppose that the Teutonick Ang and in finer pronunciation Eng signifying a Corner was nevertheless the true Root and Original of the name of the Angli or English not because they lived in a Corner of the World or in that Nook of Denmark but because that part of the Suevians called Angli might possess themselves of narrow and streight Passages in the Mountainous parts of Germany which upon that account might be called Angland and in finer speech England and the Inhabitants themselves Anglants or Englants that is in the Teutonick as much as the possessour of narrow or streight Countries and for better found are called Angili by Ptolomy and truer Angli by Tacitus And that which further induceth me to believe that Eng or Ang a narrow or streight place in the Teutonick in this sence is the true Original of the Angli is that Engern in Westphalia as also Angloen in Pomerania are both scituated upon such narrow Passages as I have been credibly informed either of which places may reasonably be supposed the ancient Seats of the Angli and in the Geographical Charts of Ptolomy we find part of the Suevians called Angli seated in a narrow Passage under the Mountain Melibocus The Angli therefore having received their Name from Aug or Eng a Nook or Corner gave the same name but whether out of design or by chance is uncertain to Anglia or Angel in Denmark from whence it proceeded into Britain and grew in time to such credit and reputation that the name of Saxons and Jutes wearing away by degrees this only prevailed especially when King EGBERT about the year 800 by solemn Edict proclaimed that the whole ISLAND should be called Engelonð that is ENGLAND and the Inhabitants Englishmen a Title it seems so much affected that our Ancestours used no other to vaunt themselves with whilest our Enemies only the Scotch Welch and Irish call us Sassous The Reason why the name of English prevailed above those of Saxon and Jute seemeth to be the conceit men had of something extraordinary signified by it Engel in all Teutonick Dialects is as much as an Angel and E in English-man as it is pronounced Engelisce or Engelsche as it is written signifieth word for word an Angel-like-man Upon this account perhaps our Ancestours were fond of this Title which is not extraordinary to be supposed considering that the like hath happened in other Nations The French when they would express some Action done by any of their Nation usually say It was done like a French-man which with him sounds the same as a Gentle-man and this from the Teutonick Franck signifying Free and Noble so that their ancient name of Gauls is worn out although the Francks a German Nation whose Name hath universally prevailed were but a handful in comparison of the native Gauls and were not able to give their Language to that People who nevertheless received Name from them In the like manner we read the name of Quirites given to a Roman Army was so great a Charm as to stop a Mutiny in its height The Towns Maleventum and Epidamnus were for some ill signification changed by the Romans into Epidaurus and Beneventum not to instance in other matters of the like nature why may not therefore the more rugged Saxon and Jute give place in the opinions of the Inhabitants to that of English or Angelick-men This Conceit of our Ancestours was furthered by Gregory the Great upon this occasion It happened during the time of the Heptarchy ELLA then Reigning in Deira a Province belonging to the Crown of Northumberland that certain Youths named Angles in Britain transported to Rome and there exposed to Sale attracted the eyes of all by their exceeding comliness and among the rest Gregory not yet Pope He enquired of them what Nation they were to which they answered Angles the similitude of name with Angels easily drew a natural reflection from the good Old man who presently replyed That not without reason were they so called having Faces more resembling Angels than Men. The Conversion of the Saxons in Britain ensuing upon this happy interview gave Reputation to the name of English or Angles which without question daily grew into great credit and increased with that Christianity it had so luckily occasioned insomuch that whereas before by our own Writers this Island was called still by the name Britain and by Forreigners Saxonia Nova and Saxonia Trasmarina that is New Saxony and Forreign Saxony King Egbert who first brought the Heptarchy into one entire Kingdom by publick Edict as I have already cited ordained that it should be stiled ENGLAND and the Inhabitants ENGLISH if not in memory of its Conversion yet certainly for some opinion the Inhabitants
he hatte ðor bet þux summum ðeodum ê§on ê§a deniscan leoda lufiaþ fÆ¿iê§ost There was a Man in the Isle of Crete named Saturn of such a Cruel nature that he devoured his own Sons as soon as they were born and contrary to the custome of other Fathers made their flesh his diet But he suffered one to live although he had devoured his Brothers namely Jupiter a Man of agreat and high spirit He drove his Father from the aforesaid Island threatning to kill him if he returned He was so incontinent as to marry his own Sister Juno who was afterwards esteemed a great Goddess To these were born Minerva and Venus both of which with many other Relations their wicked Father incestuously polluted These wicked Men were the chiefest Gods to whom the Heathens gave Honour but the Son according to their filthy worship was had in greater veneration than the Father In their erronious Religion he was especially the most honourable and by some Nations he is called Thor and the Danes highly love him FRIGGA was the Wife of Woden the Goddess of Love among the Saxons her name comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Frigon signifying to love Hence afterwards she was worshipt as Venus among the Romans From her Friday taketh name what else concerneth her I have spoken before in Woden THISA or DISA the Wise of Thor and Goddess of Justice from her it is probably thought that our Tuesday took name as much as to say Thisday the Swedes and Danes call it Tiiszdag and Diiszgag the Dutch Diissen-dach and Dinghesdach the Germans Dinstag and Zinsztag and according to these various pronunciations many Originals are produced of the God or Goddess to which this day was consecrated The English Saxon way of calling it Tuesday as Pontanus saith seems to refer to Teutates the Germans name him Thaut Dieth and Duth and think him to be Mercury but then how comes his day to be before Wodens and Thors Verstegan will have him Tuisco but without any authority or reason as I have shewn in treating of Tuisco it is gratis dictum and can never be proved for allowing that Tuisto according to Caesar and Tacitus was worshipped in especial manner by the Germans as the Founder of their Nation yet doth it not follow he was Verstegans Tuisco or that he had a day set apart to him the English Saxon name of Tuesday as it is easily resolvable into Disdag so where it agrees not with the other Idioms it ought not to give rule to them For this were fondness to think that our way of pronunciation were only right when we find all other Saxon Nations differ from us and agree in the main among themselves The Islanders name it Chiiszdag and give this account of it TYR the Son of Woden the Genitive case of whose name is Tyrs or T ys by contraction for his Martial vertues and wisdom attained Divine Honours to him Sacrifices were offered for Victory in battle or single combat from him the Islanders call the third day in the week Chiiszdag and Arngrimus saith he hath found it written Cyrzdag They who derive it from Disa or Thisa the Goddess of Justice write thus Among other Goddesses Disa or Thisa the Wife of Thor was thought as fit to be numbred as Frigga the Wife of Woden From her some will have the third day of the Week called Thiiszdag At Upsall there were anniversary Rites called Tiiszating held in her Honour with great pomp and solemnity from her a Town in Denmark called Thiseivelde took name having adjoyning to it a Spring and Fountain dedicated to her The name Dinstag in High Dutch and Dinghesdach in Low Dutch Pontanus derives from Dingen signifying to determine Controversies and adds that This-day among the Danes comes by contraction from Ting in their Tongue as much as a Bench of Judicature happily because the determination of Causes was referred to this Goddess In like manner some derive Sunday not from the Sun but the old German word Sonen to Judge as it is found in an ancient Creed Thana chuinstie ist sonen nuekhe entitote From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead And Morner Versic the fourth Cs nahet gegender Suonotage das gott will Suonen aile klage The Lords day draweth nigh wherein God will judge all things But to return to Tuesday what was the Original name and derivation of it or whether it be rightly spelt Dinsdag Tysdag or Tyrsdag from Disa Tyr or Ting is uncertain but it seemeth to me that our way of writing it Tuesday is not so ancient as any of the former and appeareth of no longer date than the coming of the Saxons into our parts where the name of Teutates or Theut was much celebrated They had also a Goddess named Eoster whom I also suppose was of no higher Antiquity being the same as Astarte of the Gauls and Britains Hence the Saxons called April Oester monat and the Feast of the Resurrection Eoster though some bring it from the word Ost or East Verstegan because the East-winds blow in that Month Mr. Cambden because the Saxons called the Rising of CHRIST by the name os East Hertha was another Goddess of the Saxons she was worshipped as Mater Deûm among the Romans or the Mother of the Gods because from her all things were supposed to take being Hertha or Herthus was thought to preside in human Affairs saith Tacitus speaking of the Germans and to relieve the People saith the English Translation of Mr. Cambden The words of Tacitus are invehi populis which relates to a Custome the Romans used of bearing about her Image in publick Processions the People following with loud Acclamations together with Fifes Cymbals and little gingling Bells She was represented with Cities and Towrs upon her head because she was the supporter of them and therefore the Poet writing of her Procession saith incedit Turrita per Urbes And perhaps out of the words of Tacitus some such Custome might have been taken up by the Saxons Rheda another Goddess of the Saxons from whom the Month of March was called Rhedmonath because then they especially sacrificed to her This Month was also called Lenctmonat as much as to say Length-Month saith Verstegan because then the Daies began to grow longer than the Nights Nocca was their Sea-God Wormius Monument Dan. lib. 1. cap. 4. I have found in a Manuscript that our Country-men held a certain distinction of Terressrial and Water-Gods for the increase of Corn and Fruit they addressed themselves to one whose name is not expressed but was the same as the Roman CERES They held that one Nocca like Neptune had the Government of the Sea and they give out when any was drowned that he was snatched away by Nocca Nocken tog hannembort In some places of Denmark they call him Nicken and report that not in the Sea only he hath been seen but in Rivers also and deep Brooks in the
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
assist them that Almighty God which knows with what devotion and diligence you further them may take your state into his protection and after this Earthly power is ended bring you to an Heavenly kingdom Gregory the Great To Brunichild Queen of the Frankes Of the Conversion of the English and of Augustine THe Christianity of your Highness hath formerly so clearly appeared unto us that we cannot in the least doubt of its integrity and goodness but ought rather to remain fully satisfied of it because in matters of Faith it carefully sustains and assists us abundantly administring all those comforts that proceed from a Religious sincerity of which thing being confident we salute you with a Fatherly love intimating moreover that we have heard of the earnest desire the English Nation hath God so willing it to become Christian but your Priests who are their Neighbours take no Pastoral care of them Therefore lest their Souls should perish through eternal damnation we have carefully directed thither Augustine servant of God and Bearer of these presents whose zeal and diligence is well known unto us with other Servants of God that by them we might know their wills and consider you also endeavouring as much as in you lies the fittest means for their Conversion We have also commanded them for the better carrying on of the work that they take along with them some of the neighbouring Clergy We therefore hope that your Highness who was alwaies naturally inclined to good works will as well for the sake of this our Request as out of a serious consideration of the Divine Anger in all things respect his honour and welfare and bestow upon him the favour of your Protection and assist his labours with your Patronage and that he may throughly obtain his reward provide that he may pass securely to the aforesaid English Nation that God who hath in this life plentifully stored you with all good things pleasing to himself may make you here and in eternal Rest rejoyce with his Saints Gregory the Great To Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria He treats of the Conversion of the English aud makes mention that in the Councel of Calcedon the Roman Bishop was stiled UNIVERSAL OUR Common Son the Bearer of these presents when he brought the Letters from your Holiness found me sick and left me so which was the occasion that in answer to the large fountain of your Beatitude so small streams have been made you in return It was surely the gift of Heaven when I was so much indisposed in Body to afford me the benefit of your Holiness's writings which by the information they gave me of the Doctrine of the Alexandrian Church of the Conversion of Hereticks and of the Unity of the Faithful rejoyced me so exceedingly that the extremity of my pain was in some measure allayed by the refreshing of my mind And indeed we alwaies rejoyce with new joy at your good but that you should act so perfectly we think it not new at all for that the number of the Holy Church increases that spiritual Corn for the Heavenly Barn is multiplied we never doubted the grace of Almighty God which so largely flows upon your Holiness We therefore give Almighty God thanks because we see that fulfilled in you which is written Where is much Corn there is manifest the strength of the Oxen for if a strong Ox had not drawn the plough of the tongue over the land of the heart of the Hearers so great an Harvest of the Faithful had never sprung up But because from the good you do there ariseth something which enforces you to communicate your joy to others we also this way will repay your courtesie and tell you of things not altogether different from those you have related The English Nation placed in an obscure corner of the World has hitherto been wholly taken up in the adoration of Wood and Stones but by the advice and light I received from your Epistle I have taken care to send thither as I ought a Monk of our Monastery set apart for preaching to that People who having before License from me is made Bishop by the Bishops of Germany with whose prayers and fatherly consolations he is gone to the aforesaid Nation placed at the end of the World And there came unto us lately Letters concerning his welfare and proceedings who either he himself or those that were sent over with him are grown so famous in that Nation for the great wonders they have wrought that they seem to equal the vertues of the Apostles in the Miracles they have performed At the solemnity of the birth of our LORD which was celebrated at this first Indiction above 10000 English are reported to have been Baptized by this our Brother and Fellow Bishop all which I have related to this purpose that you might know vvhat you do by your speaking amongst the Alexandrians and vvhat by your prayers in the uttermost parts of the World your prayers are in that place where you are not whose holy operations and effects are shewn in that place where you are Moreover concerning the Person of Eudoxius the heretick of whose Error I can find nothing in the Latin tongue I rejoyce that I am sufficiently satisfied by your Holiness for you brought against him the judgments of the ablest Men Basil Gregory Epiphanius so that we must needs conclude him killed against whom so many Champions have cast their Darts Concerning those Errors which are grown up in the Church of Constantinople you have learnedly considered all things and as became the Judgment of so great a Cheyer wherefore we render Almighty God thanks because the Tables of the Testament are yet in the Ark of God For what is the Heart of the Priest but the Ark of the Testament in which because spiritual Doctrine abounds without doubt the Tables of the Law lie Your Holiness also endeavoured to shew that you don't now write high Titles to any one which proceed from the root of vanity and yet in different Character you speak to me thus As ye Commanded which word of Command I desire you would for ever take from my hearing since I know who I am and who ye are by your place yee are Brothers to me by your gravity Fathers therefore I did not command any thing but carefully intimated what I thought profitable yet I find that your Holiness would not perfectly retain what I hinted to your Memory For I said that ye ought not to write thus to me or any body else and yet in the very Preface of your Epistle directed to me who forbad it you have taken care to inscribe to me UNIVERSAL BISHOP a Title of too proud a signification which I beg your good Holiness would do no more For from you is taken whatever beyond reason is given to another for I don't desire to be honoured by words but by actions neither do I think it honour where I know my Brethren lose their Honour for
my Honour is the same honour of the whole Church my Honour is the full vigor of my Brethren then therefore I am truly honoured when no body is denied the honour due to him For if your Holiness calls me Universal Bishop it denies it self to be at all what it confesses me to be only that is Universal but God forbid this Away with those words stir up Pride and wound charity and indeed your Holiness well knows that this Title was offered my Predecessor in the holy Counsel of Chalcedonia and afterwards by succeeding Fathers but none of them would ever accept of this Title that whilst carefully in this World they respected the honour of all the Clergy in general they might preserve their own entire with God Almighty Wherefore paying you due custome of Greeting I desire you would be pleased to be mindful of us in your Prayers that from the chains of my sins because of mine own merits I am not able through your intercession God would deliver me Observations upon this Epistle The Annexer of the Title has not done ingeniously in this Epistle for he saies that in the Councel of Chaleedon the Pope was stiled UNIVERSAL not making any mention how that Title was rejected by the Pope and all his Successors as Gregory shews but was also vehemently exploded and cast off by Gregory himself in this Epistle of which he has not taken the least notice in the Title Gregory To Menna of Tolouse To Serenus of Marseilles To Lupus of Cavation To Agilius of Meris To Simplicius of Paris To Melantius of Roan and To Licinius Fellow Bishops of the Frankes ALthough the care of the office ye have undertaken might sufficiently admonish your Brotherhood with your utmost endeavours to assist Religious persons and especially those that labour in the cure of Souls yet it will not be amiss if with this our Epistle we stir up your vigilancy For as the fire by the fanning of the wind is made greater so the affections of a good mind are embettered by commendation Because therefore the grace of our Redeemer cooperating so great a multitude of the English are converted to the Christian faith that our most Reverend and Common Brother and Fellow Bishop Augustine affirms that those that are with him are not sufficient for the execution of this work in divers Places We have provided that some Monks should be sent over to him with our beloved and common Sons Laurentius the Priest and Miletus the Abbot and therefore let your Brotherhood afford them that charity it ought and speedily help them with those succours that are necessary for as much as by your assistance all obstructions and causes of delaies will be removed So that they being relieved by your charity may rejoyce together with you and you by freely bestowing it may be found partakers with them in the work they are intended for Gregory the Great To Clotharius King of the Frankes AMongst the many troubles and cares you daily meet with in governing those Nations under you it is the highest honour and greatest advantage to appear in the Patronage of those that labour in the cause of God and because by many good Presidents you have shewn your self to be such that now we may presume better things of you we are the willinglier invited to desire those things of you which at last will return to your own benefit Some of those who went into England with our most Reverend Brother and Fellow-Bishop Augustine at their return have related with how great humanity and charity your Excellence entertained him in your own Court and with what succours you assisted him setting forward on his Journey But because those actions are most acceptable to God alwaies which recede not from good beginnings We salute You with a Fatherly affection desiring that the Monks the Bearers of these presents whom we have sent over to our foresaid Brother together with our beloved Sons Laurentius the Priest and Melitus the Abbot might be particularly respected by you and whatsoever it was you bestowed on those before for the plentiful increase of your Honour continue likewise to these that through your assistance they may without any delaies perform the Journey they have begun that God the Recompencer of all good works may be to you in prosperity a guardian and in adversity an helper Gregory To Brunichild Queen of the Frankes He returns Her thanks for assisting Augustine and exhorts her courteously to entertain the Monks that were sent unto him WE give thanks unto Almighty God who among the rest of the gifts of his grace bestowed on your Highness has so filled your breast with the love of Christian Religion that if you should know any thing tending to the benefit of Soula or the increase of your Faith you would never cease with a devout mind and pious endeavour to bring it to perfection With how great favour and courtesie your Highness assisted our most Reverend Brother and Fellow Bishop Augustine going for England Fame before hath not been silent and since the Monks that returned from him have more particularly related Your Christianity may be admired at by those that know but little of your favours but we that are experimentally acquainted with them have more reason to rejoyce than wonder because by charitably obliging others ye advantage your selves How great and what manner of Miracles our Redeemer has wrought in the Conversion of the aforesaid Nation is well known to your Highness for which reason ye ought exceedingly to rejoyce because your charity in this thing may claim to it self the greatest part by whose assistance next after God the word of Preaching became there manifest for he that furthers another's good consults his own And that the fruits of your reward may be the larger we desire that to the Monks Bearers of these presents whom with our beloved Sons Laurentius the Priest and Melitus the Abbot we have sent over to our foresaid most Reverend Brother and Fellow Bishop forasmuch as those that are with him are not sufficient for the work you would courteously grant the favour of your Patronage and vouchsafe to assist them in all things that the good beginnings of your Highness may still proceed unto better and that they meet with no delaies or difficulties in their Journey May you in as great a measure stir up God's mercy to be favourable to you and your posterity most Dear unto us as you for his love shall behave your selves with compassion in causes of this nature Gregory To Augustine Bishop of the English Of the Conversion of that Nation and that he should not glory in the power of Miracles which oftentimes wicked Men have performed GLory be to God on high and on earth peace good-will towards Men because a grain of corn falling dead upon the earth hath brought forth much fruit that it might not alone reign in heaven by whose Death we live by whose Infirmity we are
strengthned by whose Passion we are delivered from passion by whose Love we sought Brethren in Britain whom we knew not and by whose courtesie whom not knowing we sought we have found Who is able to relate how great the joy is that is arose in the hearts of the Faithful that through the Grace of Almighty God cooperating and your Brotherhood labouring the darkness of Errors being driven away the English Nation is covered over with the glorious light of holy Faith that now out of a sincere mind and pious devotion it tramples on those Idols to which before it madly croucht to that it prostrates it self before God with a pure heart that it is restrained from relapsing into sin by the rules and instructions of holy Preaching that it submits in mind to the Divine precepts but raised in understanding humbles it self in prayer on the ground lest in affections it should grovel in the earth Whose working is this but His that saies My Father hitherto works and I work Who that he might make it manifest to the World that he converts not by the wisdom of Men but by his own vertue and power The Preachers whom he sent into the World he made choice of without learning using the same method here also for in the English Nation he has wrought mighty things by the hands of weak Persons But there is my Dearest Brother something in this celestial gift which you ought extremely both to fear and rejoyce at †I know that Almighty God has shewn great Miracles by you in the Nation he would should be chosen from whence it is necessary that concerning the same heavenly gift you with fear rejoyce and with joy be afraid You may rejoyce that the Souls of the English through outward Miracles are drawn to an inward grace you ought to be afraid lest among the Miracles that are wrought your frail mind be puffed up too much by presumption and self-confidence so that outwardly raised in honour it inwardly falls through such vainglory Moreover we ought to remember that when the Disciples returning from preaching with joy said to their Heavenly Master Lord in thy name Devils are subject unto us they presently heard Rejoyce not for this but rather rejoyce that your names are written in Heaven They had placed their mind in a temporal and private joy because they rejoyced in Miracles but they are streight recalled from a private to a publick from a temporal to an eternal joy to whom it is said In this rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven For all the Elect don't work Miracles but the Names of them all are registred in Heaven to the Disciples of truth there ought to be no joy unless in that good which they have common with all and in which they have no end of their joy It remains therefore My Dear Brother that among those things which with the help of God you outwardly perform you alwaies inwardly strictly judge your self and particularly examine your self who you are and how great Grace there may be in that Nation for whose Conversion you have received the gift of performing Miracles and if ever you remember that you have offended our Creator either by word or deed alwaies bear it in mind that the remembrance of the guilt may suppress the rising glory of the heart and what power soever of working Miracles you shall receive or have received alwaies think it given not for your sake but for those for whose salvation 't was conferred upon you †There comes into my mind thinking of these things what became of one Servant of God even extraordinarily elected Certainly Moses whilst he brought the People of God out of Egypt wrought wonderful Miracles as your Brotherhood knows in the land of Egypt on Mount Sinai after he had fasted fourty daies and nights he received the Tables of the Law amongst dreadful Thunderings all the People being afraid In the service of Almighty God he alone enjoyed a familiar conference with Him the Red-Sea he divided in his Journey his guide was a Pillar of Cloud When the People were hungry he gave them Manna from heaven he miraculously gave them Flesh when they wanted in the Wilderness till they were cloyed but when in the time of Thirst they came to the Rock he mistrusted and doubted whether he could bring water from it which the Lord commanding he struck and opened a passage for the running water How great Miracles after this did he persorm in the Wilderness for the space of thirty eight years who can reckon them who can trace them as often as he doubted of any thing having recourse to the Tabernacle he secretly inquired of the Lord and was presently informed by the word of the Lord concerning that thing By the interposition of his prayers he appeased the Anger of the Lord towards his people when they were puffed up with pride or rebelled against him He caused the earth to open and swallow them up he foyled the Enemy with victories and shewed signs to his own People but when they came to the land of Promise he was called into the Mountain and heard of his fault that he had committed thirty eight years before because he despaired of bringing out water and he acknowledged that for this thing he could not enter into the land of Promise wherefore we ought to consider what a dreadful thing the judgment of Almighty God is who had done so many signal Wonders by this his Servant and yet kept his fault committed so long ago still in remembrance Therefore most Dearest Brother if we acknowledge him dead after so many Miracles for his fault whom we know to have been in a more especial manner elected by God Almighty with how great fear ought we to tremble who know not whether as yet we are elected What should I speak of the Miracles of Reprobates since your Brotherhood knows very well vvhat Truth it felf hath said in the Gospel Many shall come in that day saying unto me Lord in thy name we have Prophesied and in thy name we have cast out Devils and in thy name we have done wonders But I will say unto them I know ye not depart from me all you workers of Iniquity Therefore the mind is very much to be depressed and kept under amongst Signs and Miracles lest in those things it should seek its own glory and rejoyce in the joy of self exaltation In Miracles we ought to have respect to the gain of Souls and to his glory by whose power those Miracles are wrought but our Lord has given us one sign concerning which we ought extremely to rejoyce and by which we may acknowledge the glory of Election in us By this it shall be known whether you are my Disoiples if you love one another which sign the Prophet desired when he said Grant some token unto me O Lord for good that they that hate me may see and be confounded I speak these things that my Hearer's mind
Convension Destroy the worship of Idols raze their Temples establish the Manners of your Subjects in the great Purity of good living by exhorting terrifying encouraging correcting and by showing the Examples of Good works that you may find him your Rewarder in Heaven whose name and knowledg you shall extend upon Earth for he shall make your Name more glorious to Posterity whose Honour you endeavour to advance and preserve in your Nation So formerly Constantine a most Pious Emperour freeing the Roman Commonwealth from the preverse worship of Idols submitted himself and It to our Almighty LORD Jesus Christ and applied himself and his Subjects with his whole mind unto GOD from whence it came to pass that he transcended his Predecessours as much in Fame as he exceeded them in good works And now therefore let your Majesty make all possible haste to disperse the knowledg of one GOD the Father Son and Holy Ghost to Kings and their Subjects that you may in commendation and merit pass the Ancient Kings of that Nation And by how much you endeavour to wipe away the sins of others by so much you may rest more secure of your own offences before the dreadful examination of Almighty God Our most Reverend Brother Augustine Bishop well taught in the rules of Monastick life filled with the knowledg of the Holy Scripture and endued through God's grace with good works whatsoever he shall advise you willingly hear devoutly perform and carefully lay up in your memory because if you shall hear him in that which he speaks for God Almighty the same Almighty God will the sooner hear him intreating for you But if which God forbid you should neglect his words when do you think Almighty God will hear him for you whom you neglected to hear for God With all your mind therefore joyn your self with him in the fervency of Faith and assist him relying on that power which God has given you that he may make you partakers of his Kingdom whose Faith you have received and endeavoured to preserve in your Kingdom Furthermore we would that your Majesty should understand that as we know in Sacred Writ out of the words of our Almighty Lord that the end of this present World is at hand and that the Kingdom of the Saints shall come of which there shall be no end But the end of the World drawing near many things shall happen which before were not viz. alterations of the Air terrours from Heaven and contrary to the course of Seasons Tempest Wars Famine Pestilences Earth-quakes in divers places all which shall not come to pass in our daies but all of them shall certainly follow our daies If therefore you shall find any of these things happen in your Land let your mind in no sort be disturbed because these signs concerning the end of the World are therefore sent before that we should be careful of our Souls mistrustful of the hour of death that we may be found in good works prepared for the Judg at his coming These things I have spoken to you in short Most Excellent Son that when the Christian Faith shall be increased in your Kingdom my discourse also may be inlarged towards you then 't will be more proper to speak more when the joyes for the perfect conversion of the whole Nation shall be multiplied in your breast We have sent you also some small Presents which will not be small unto you when you shall receive them from us with the benediction of the blessed Apostle Peter Almighty God preserve and perfect in you that Grace he hath begun and extend your life to the course of many years and after long time receive you into the Congregation of his Heavenly Country Let the Grace of Heaven my Royal Son keep your Highness safe Given the tenth of the Kalends of July in the nineteenth year of our Lord Mauritius Tiberlus Augustue Emperour after the Consulship of the same eighteenth year Indiction the fourth i. e. in the year of Christ 161. Gregory To Virgilius Bishop of Arles He commends to him Bishop Augustine HOW great kindness ought to be shewn to Brethren coming of their own accord may be gathered from hence that to shew our charity they are most commonly invited by us and therefore if it should so fall out that our common Brother Bishop Augustine should come unto you let your charity as it ought receive him with all tenderness and affection and cherish him with the benefits of your consolation and teach others how fraternal charity ought to be respected And because it falls out that those that are furthest off commonly are informed first of what ought to be corrected if he shall make mention to your Brotherhood of any enormities committed either by Priests or others sitting with him by diligent search and scrutining examine all things and behave your selves so strict and careful in those things that offend God and provoke him to anger that for the example and amendment of others punishment only may strike the guilty and that false judgment afflict not the innocent Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July Indiction the fourth Bede after this saich Afflict not the Innocent here in the end and so goes on God keep you safe Most Reverend Brother Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus being Emperour in the nineteenth year after the Consulship of the said Lord the eighteenth year Indiction the fourth i. e. in the year of Christ 601. Gregory To Melltus Abbot in France He gives Command to be sent to Augustine about the conversion of that Nation AFter the departure of our Congregation which is with you we were in great suspence because we could hear nothing of the happiness of your Journey but when it shall please Almighty God to bring you to our most Reverend Brother Bishop Augustine tell him I have a long time carefully considered of the condition of the English and am of opinion that the Temples of the Idols in that Nation ought by no means to be destroyed but only the Idols themselves that are in them Let holy water be provided and sprinkled about those Temples let Altars be built and Reliques kept in them For if those Churches are Elegantly built it is necessary they should be taken from the worship of Devils and appropriated to the service of the true God that whilst the people see their Churches are not destroyed they may put away their Errors from their hearts and knowing and worshipping the True God may more familiarly resort to those places they were wont to frequent And because many Oxen were wont to be slain in the sacrifice of Devils some other solemnity ought to be introduced instead of it that on the day of Dedication or Birth-day of the Holy Martyrs whose Reliques are there laid up let them make Arbors to themselves of the Branches of Trees about those Churches that were formerly Temples and let them celebrate the
solemnity with Religious Banquets Neither let them any longer sacrifice Beasts to the Devil but to the praise of God let them kill those Creatures for their own eating and in their fulness give thankes to the Giver of all things that whilst there are left them some inward tokens of Rejoycing they may the easier be brought to the inward Joyes of the Spirit For to wean obdurate minds from all things on a sudden without doubt is impossible He that endeavours to climb on high it is necessary he should rise by degrees and paces not by leaps so the Lord made himself known to the children os Israel in Egypt the customary Sacrifices which they were wont to offer to the Devil he reserved in his own worship that by his command they should offer living creatures in his sacrifice Forasmuch as their hearts being changed they lost somethings of the sacrifice and retained others so that although they were the same creatures they were wont to offer nevertheless offering them to God and not to Idols they were not the same Sacrifices These things I would have your charity to declare to our aforesaid Brother that he for the present being placed there may consider how all things ought to be ordered Given the twelsth day of the Kalends of July Indiction the fourth God preserve you safe my Dearest Son given the fifteenth day of the Kalends of July in the nineteenth year of our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus Emperour after the Consulship of the said Lord the eighteenth Indiction the fourth i. e. in the year of Christ 601. Gregory To Augustine Bishop of the English Of the use of the Pall and of the Church of London ALthough 't is certain that the inexpressable Rewards of an eternal Kingdom are reserved for those that labour in the service of God yet it is necessary that we should allow them the Ensigns of Honour that by such Rewards they may be encouraged the more abundantly to labour in Spiritual works and because the late Church of the English through the mercy of our Lord and your diligence is brought to the grace of Almighty God we grant you the use of the Pall in that Nation but for only celebrating the solemnity of the Mals so that you ordain through all places twelve Bishops that shall be under your Jurisdiction Forasmuch as the Bishop of the City of London shall alwaies hereafter be consecrated by a Synod of his own and receive the honour of the Pall from this holy and Apostolick See in which through God's grace I serve I will also that you send a Bishop to the City of Tork whom you shall think fit to be ordained so that if the same City with the bordering places shall receive the Word of God let him also ordain twelve Bishops that he may also enjoy the honour of a Metropolitan because we intend God willing to bestow on him in like manner the Pall if he is of a meek and courteous behaviour whom nevertheless we will that he submit to the Authority of your Brotherhood After your death so let him preside over the Bishops he shall Ordain that by no means he submits to the power of the Bishop of London But hereafter let this distinction of Honour be between the Bishops of London and York that he be accounted first that was first ordained Let them with common counsel and joynt action order whatever ought to be done for the love of Christ let them unanimously agree in the Right and whatsoever they agree on not by contradicting one another bring to perfection Let your Brotherhood therefore have in subjection under you not only those Bishops whom you have ordained or those that shall be ordained by the Bishop of York but also all the Clergy of Britain our Lord God Jesus Christ being the Author forasmuch as from the life and doctrine of your Holiness they may receive the form of rightly believing and living well and may by executing their office with a sincere Faith and good Manners when the Lord shall please attain to an Heavenly Kingdom The Lord keep you safe Most Reverend Brother Given the tenth day of the Kalends of July our Lord Mauritius Tiberius Augustus being Emperour in the nineteenth year after the Consulship of the said Lord the eighteenth year Indiction the fourth that is in the year of Christ 601. THE LIFE OF S t AUGUSTINE The first Arch-Bishop of CANTERBURY Written in Latin by Sr. Henry Spelman IT would be needless to use many words concerning this Augustine his Life and Actions after he was sent by GREGORY to convert the English plainly appear in the following discourse But what and who he was before little concerns us He was a Roman I think by Birth and a Monk of the Benedictine Order and was afterwards made Provost of St. Gregory's Monastery at Rome as you may understand from the Epistle of St. Gregory himself to Syagrius Bishop of Augustodunum Called forth from thence by Gregory he is sent into Britain with sourty Monks his Companions and others of the Clergy over whom he made him Abbot in the year of our Lord 596 and in the year 597 arriving in Britain he converted to the Faith Ethelbert King of Kent and the greatest part of his People whom on the day of Pentecost he Baptized in the Church of St. Martin at Canterbury which had continued from the time of the Romans till then The same year afterwards he went to Arles where he was by Etherius Arch-Bishop of that City who was so commanded by Gregory ordained the Arch-Bishop of the English the sixteenth of the Kalends of December in the City of Arles Returning to Fngland he was received by both King and People with all imaginable Joy and soleninity besttting his Quality and had the Royal City of Canterbury bestowed upon him by the King for an Episcopal See and the Kings Palace for a Cathedral Church to be erected unto Christ so that the King seemed to imitate what is reported to have been done by the Emperour Constantine the Great Being ordained Bishop he consulted St. Gregory by Messengers and Questions of the form of Government to be imposed on the Church he had lately established amongst the English Saxons The Answers he received we will set down a little below Soon after he was honoured by the same Gregory with the Pall by which the fulness of Power is signisted in the year viz. of Christ 601. Being then Metropolitan of Britain he summons a Councel in the borders of Worcestershire that he might be something nigher the British Clergy and Bishops at that time residing in Wales to which he warned them to appear the place of Session appointed was Augustine's Ac that is Augustine's Oaks where being assembled Augustine demands from them Obedience to the Bishop of Rome and the Reception of the Roman Ceremonies into the British Church The Britains stiffly opposed this and after the business had been a long time controverted on both sides
raise the Siege Sometimes the Inhabitants sallied out whilst others from the Woods and natural Fastnesses fell upon the Enemy in the Reer But Ella dividing his Army ordering one half to attend the motions of the Scouting Britains and with the other part plying the Siege at last won the Town by Assault and as some report put all to the Sword sparing neither Sex nor Age. The City it self he utterly demolished and with so through a Ruine that it never after could be rebuilt And at this day the ground whereon it stood beareth a little Village so small that it scarce sufficeth to point out the foundations of the Ancient City Ella by destroying this great Fortress had opened the whole Southern quarters of the Island whereby all that part of the Country lay at his devotion What he did in the following course of his Reign which is reckoned twenty two years or thereabouts is not particularly recorded but he is numbred the second Monarch of the English-men and is said at last to have reduced all on this side Humber both Saxon and Britain under his entire obedience But under his Successors who were but few and of no great fame the Kingdom was contracted into a lesser compass containing only Sussex and Surry and them not entire For the Kingdom of Kent on one side and the West-Saxons on the other both well settled Governments pressing hard upon it so daily wore it out that losing strength by degrees what remained of it was quickly swallowed up by Ceadwald the West-Saxon and afterwards by King Ine his Successour wholly annext to that Kingdom Insomuch that continuing so short a while not beyond the year 1601 having so few Princes and those in so great obscurity William of Malmsbury among other Writers have taken no notice of it at all CISSA CISSA the youngest Son of Ella the other two failing before him succeeded in the Kingdom of the South-Saxons he left nothing memorable behind him save a long Reign of 76 years as it is generally reported spent only in the foundation of two Cities bearing his Name Chichester and Cissbury of the former Mr. Cambden thus writeth Chichester in the British tongue called Caercei in the English-Saxon Cissan ceaster in Latin Cicestria a City large enough and walled about built by Cissa a Saxon the second King of this Province and of him so named for Cissan ceaster is nothing else but the City of Cissa Concerning the latter hear the same Author Hard by i. e. near Offington there is a Fort compassed about with a Bank rudely cast up wherewith the Inhabitants are perswaded that Caesar entrenched and fortified his Camp But Cissbury the name of the place doth plainly shew and testifie that it was the work of Cissa who being of the Saxons Line the second King of this petty Kingdom after his Father Aella accompanied with his Brother Cimen and no small power of the Saxons at this shore arrived and landed at Cimen shore a place so called of the said Cimen which now hath lost the name but that it was near unto Wittering the Charter of the Donation which King Cedwalla made unto the Church of Selsey most evidently proveth EDILWALCH EDILWALCH followed Cissa nothing more famous than he saving that by his example the South-Saxons though late embraced the Christian Religion The occasion of this Prince's Conversion is thus told in the History of St. Swithune Berinus Bishop of Dorchester preaching at Oxford before Wulfur King of Mercia it happened that Edilwatch then a Pagan was present who by the perswasion of Wulfur and the instruction of that Bishop embraced the Faith and was baptized being received at the Font by Wulfur who to gratifie his new Convert and new Adopted Son gave him the Isle of Wight and a Province of the Meannari adjoyning upon the Continent which Wulfur had newly gotten from Kenwalke the West-Saxon and had there as will appear out of Bede begun to plant Christianity At the same time following the example of their King the Dukes and Nobles of this Province received Baptisin at the hands of St. Berinus but the general Conversion of the South-Saxons was wrought by Wilsrid Archbishop of York driven from his Seat by Egfrid King of Northumberland The whole story of which as also the Conversion of the Isle of Wight take out of Bede as it is particularly related out of which relation our Historians gather by piece-meals whatever is recorded of this Prince The Conversion of the South-SAXONS How Wilfrid Archbishop of York Converted the South-Saxons WILFRID driven from his Bishoprick and wandring in several places at last went to Rome whence returning into Britain though he could not be received into his own Country and Diocess yet he refrained not the duty of preaching the Gospel but going to the Kingdom of the South-Saxons containing eight thousand Families yet sticking to their Pagan Idolatry he preached the Word and administred Baptisin Ethilwalch was King of that Nation not long before baptized in the Province of Mercia Wulfur being present and exhorting him by whom he was received at the Font and in sign of Adoption had of him by donation the Isle of Wight and the Province of the Meannari in the Country of the West Saxons Wherefore the Bishop by the consent of the King who joyfully embraced the motion baptized the chief Dukes and Officers of the Province but Eappa and Padda and Bruchelin and Oidda Priests baptized the Common sort about the same time or a little after Moreover Queen Ebba received Baptism in her own Island of Wight she was the Daughter of Eanfrid the Brother of Eanher who both with their people were Christians but the whole Province of the South-Saxons was for the most part ignorant of the Word of God and Faith But there was amongst them a certain Monk by Nation a Scot by name Dicul who had a little Convent in a place called Bosanham encompassed with Wood and the Sea and with him five or six Friars in an humble and poor life serving God but of the People none cared to imitate their Life or hear their Doctrine But Wilfrid the Bishop preaching to them not only delivered them from the pains of eternal damnation but from the sad calamity of temporal destruction For before his arrival into the Province for three years together no Rain had fallen in those parts so that a bitter Famine falling on the Common sort made lamentable destruction among them It is reported that fourty or fifty together wasted with hunger would creeping to the Sea-side and there clasping their hands together fling themselves off from the Rocks or Cliffs either to perish in the fall or drown in the waters But on the very same day that Nation received Baptism gentle and plentiful showers fell from heaven the Earth flourished and to the green Fields succeeded a glad and fruitful year So that casting off their ancient Superstition and hating their Idolatry
twelve daies this murther dying as some report for grief having not long before foretold the death of that Prince upon this account because he was a man the World was not worthy of being an Humble King Aidan was buried in the Isle of Lindesfarn and Finan succeeded him in that See This fact of King Oswy was odious to all and therefore to explate the guilt a Monastery was erected upon the place where the murther was committed and prayers daily offered for the Souls of both Kings the slayer and the slain But notwithstanding Oswyn was thus removed the Kingdom of Deira or part of it was seized by Ethelwald the Son of King Oswald But Oswy was still infested with the incursions of King Penda and had long endured many sore devastations Once he had almost lost his strongest City Bebanburge now Bamborow Castle which Penda with fire and sword had assaulted And now weary of continual standing on his defence he resolves if possible by any means to buy his Peace and to that end sends large gifts and presents to Penda with humble suit desiring League and Amity But these being with scorn refused he prepares for War and first imploring divine assistance if God would grant him Victory he vows his Daughter a Nun and twelve Lordships for the building of Monasteries which done he raises an Army and meets Penda at a place called Loyden now Leeds in Yorkshire The Army of Penda as is reported exceeded Oswy's thirty times over and was commanded by expert Captains nevertheless they were utterly routed and put to flight and many of them swallowed up in the River Winwed which at that time was unusually swelled with Rains Penda himself was slain in the battel and Ethelhere King of the East-Angles the contriver of the War Ethelwald the Son of Oswald was in the field upon the Mercian side and is said to have been the cause of their desear for withdrawing his Forces at the first Onset and meaning to expect the event he discouraged the Mercians who misdoubted there was treachery in it The death of Penda was received with great joy through all the neighbouring Provinces as the Song witnesseth At the River Winwed Anna was Avenged Oswy after this Victory enters Mercia with an Army which he presently reduced to his obedience but unto Peada the Son of Penda as his near Kinsman he gave the Principality of the South Mercians containing five thousand Families and separate from the 〈◊〉 Mercians by the River Trent 〈◊〉 But him slain by the treachery of his wife 〈◊〉 and Eadbert three Mercian Earls set up Vulfer and fling off the Government of Oswy who was now employed in a Pictish War and had subdued the greatest part of that Nation This Oswy had in him a strange mixture of Vertues and Vices in his beginning bloody and tyrannous towards his latter end just and moderate Highly addicted he was to Roman Superstitions and resolved a Pilgrimage thither had not he been taken off by death for in the twenty eighth year of his Reign and fifty eighth of his Age he departed this life having vowed that Journey as some write to expiate the murther of King Oswyn Under this Oswy was held a Councel about the observation of Easter which because it is much celebrated by all our Writers I shall put it down as it is originally related The Synod of Streanshalch now Whitby at the request of Hilda Abbess of that place under Oswy the Father and Alchfrid the Son Kings of Northumberland in the year of Christ 664. In which is controverted the Celebration of Easter and other Ecclesiastical Rites There being present on the side of the Romans and English King Alchfrid the Son Agilbert Bishop of the West-Saxons Abbot Wilfrid Agatho Presbyter James a Deacon and Romanus On the side of the Scots and Britains King Oswy the Father Colmanne Bishop of Lindisfarne with other Scottish Bishops Cedda Bishop of the East Saxons Hilda Abbess of Streanshalch with a great many others of the Clergy on both sides Bede's Preface to this Synod IN these times was startled a common and great question concerning the observation of Easter Those that came from Kent or Gaul affirming that the Scots keep the Lord's day of Easter contrary to the custom of the Catholick Church Among these was one Romanus by name a stiff defender of the true Easter by Nation a Scot but had learned the true rules Ecclesiastick in Gaul or the Confines of Italy who disputing with one Finan made many sensible of their errour or at least perswaded them to a deeper search into the truth but he could not in the least stir Finan who being of a fiery nature was rather made worse by his instructions and an open enemy to truth But James formerly Deacon under the worshipful Archbishop Paulinus observed the true and Catholick Easter with those whom he had taught the true and correct way Queen Eanfeld also observed it with her houshold according to what she had seen performed in Kent having with her a Priest from Kent named Romanus of the Catholick opinion from whence they report in those daies it sometimes happened that Easter should be kept twice in one year For when the King 's Lent being done was keeping Easter then the Queen with hers Lent with them not being yet ended was celebrating Palm-Sunday But this different observancy of Easter Aidan living was patiently born with by all men who understood thus much That though he could not celebrate Easter contrary to the custom of those that had sent him yet he took care that the works of faith charity and love in which all Saints agree should be diligently performed so that he was deservedly beloved by all men nay even of those that thought otherwise of Easter and was not only respected by the meaner sort but by Bishops themselves Honorius of Canterbury and Foelix of the East-Angles But Finan being dead who succeeded Aidan when Colman came into the Bishoprick for he also was sent from Scotland there arose a more solemn controversie concerning the observing of Easter and other Precepts relating to an Ecclesiastical life so that this question justly moved the hearts of many lest peradventure the name of Christianity being only retained they should run or had run in vain It came at last to the ears of the Court to wit of King Oswy and his Son Alchfrid for Oswy was taught and baptized by the Scots and was well skilled in their Language and esteemed nothing truer than what they had taught him But Alchfrid had for his Instructour in Christianity Wilfrid a right learned man who had made a Journy to Rome on purpose to learn of the Law Ecclesiastick and had lived many years with Dalphin Archbishop of Lions in Gaul from whom he had received the right custom of Church-shaving He therefore thought this Man's Doctrine to be preferred before all the Traditions of the Scots for which reason he had lately given him a Monastery of
the want of that Merit by which he formerly held secure from Self-confidence he grew jealous of his Power and fearing that Kineard Brother of Sigibert the former King a man of great Spirit but who hitherto had behaved himself loyal might at last revenge his Brother's expulsion or usurp after his death he commanded him to Banishment Kineard seeming really to obey yet intending nothing less with a small retinue privately hides himself in the neighbouring Countries watching an opportunity of Revenge which he wanted not long For the King resorting as his custom was with a small Attendance to a Ladies House of Merton in Surry whom he much admired he went by night and beset the place Kinwulf first by perswasion from the windows sought to appease the Assailants but that not doing he sallies out upon them and making at Kineard wounds him sorely but overpowred with numbers he is there fighting amongst them slain The noise of this great Accident soon came to Oseric and Wivert two Earls who not far off waited the King's return who with some other Attendants hastning to the place came up before Keneard could quite disengage himself from them who still fought in their Princes quarrels At their first approach Kineard stood upon his justification excusing the deed by the injustice of his Banishment and promising great Rewards if they would acquiess in his proceedings But they upbraiding his Treason and rejecting his proffers with disdain beset him round who fighting in the midst of them was there cut in pieces with above an hundred of his Followers The Body of King Kinwulf was conveyed to Winchester and there buried He is said to have founded the Cathedral Church of St. Andrews at Wells BIRTHRIC BIRTHRIC lineally descended from Cerdic first sounder of this Kingdom after the death of Kinwuls was advanced to the Crown a Prince soft and easie he was joyned to Ethelburga Daughter of Offa the Mercian a Lady of a haughty and wicked spirit By her perswasion or the King 's own jealousie Egbert a Prince of the Royal-Blood whose Title was thought precedent to Birthric's was constrained to go into Exile which he was the more willing to do for that he saw his life continually endangered by secret practices At first he repaired to the Court of Offa the only Warriour in those daies but not safe with him who had given his Daughter to Birthric he went over into France and served three years in the Wars under the victorious Emperour Charles the Great The banishment of this Prince proved the exercise of his Vertues as if it had been necessary that he who was to unite the English Nation and rise higher than his Ancestours was first to be laid low in affliction and run through many hazards And it is to be observed that in the building up of any Nation so high the grandure is generally performed by men who have undergon the greatest difficulties and been tried in the severest Fortunes so that as truly may be said as to the person of Egbert and the English Nation united by him what was spoke of the Roman Tantae molis erat Anglorum condere gentem But after three years Birthric being poysoned by a draught which Edelburga had prepared for others Egbert is by publick voice recalled from banishment and with universal Joy created King But a further account of his Actions as the first sole Monarch of England I shall leave to be treated on in the second part if God lengthens my daies and this work be kindly received Edelburga fearing to be called to an account for what she had done with as much Treasure as she could get together flies beyond Sea and received by Charles the Great is created Abbess but afterwards detected of Unchastity is driven from her Charge and wandring about the World unpitied dies at last in extreme poverty in Pavia in Italy Elenchus Capitum THE description of the Renowned Island of Britain in general page 1 The Languages in Britain 4 The first Inhabitants of Britain 7 The Map of the Old World shewing the Progress of the Cimbri Phoenicians and Greeks into Britain 16 The Explication of that Map shewing the ancient Names of Kingdoms Islands Havens Cities c. as well those expressed in the foregoing Map as others which in that narrow compass could not be set down gathered out of the Phoenician tongues all which to prove the ancient Name of Britain 17 Places which took their Names from Gods or some sacred Rites eminently practised in them 22 All ancient Cities in Spain taking their Names from Baal 23 Places taking their ancient Names from the Habits Nature Manners and Arts of the Inhabitants 23 Whether the first Planters of this Island came by Sea or Land and whether Britain was ever part of the Continent 25 The depths of the North-Sea from the Foreland 34 When Britain was first known to the Phoenicians and how it took its Name from them 38 That the Islands of Scilly were the Cassiderides of the Ancients 40 The time when the Phoenicians came from Tyre and Zidon their own Native Country to discover Britain 47 Names of Offices and Gods in Britain and Gaul of Phoenician derivation 68 The Antiquity and Original of the Phoenicians 71 The Greeks in Britain p. 74 The Landing place of the Graecians 81 The Antiquity and Original of the Greeks 91 The Customes and Manners of the Britains their Laws and Government 99 A Sculpture of a Druid Priest in Britain 101 A Sculpture of the Wicker-Image representing the manner of burning of Men alive in sacrifice in Britain 105 The Sculpture of an Ancient Britain representing the Habits of the People in those times 117 The Custome of the Britains in their Wars and their manner of fighting 119 The Sculpture of their Chariots in war representing the manner of their fighting against the Romans 122 The British Idolatry their several Gods and superstitious Rites and Ceremonies of worship 125 The Sculpture of Hesus aliàs Mars shewing another manner of the British Sacrifice 128 A Sculpture of the Hieroglyphicks shewthe Worship of the Britains 130 The Sculpture of the Phoenician OGMIUS and the first Phoenician that discovered this Island after it was planted by the Cimbri of Germany 139 The Life of the Phoenician Hercules called by the Britains OGMIUS 141 The Kings of this Island from Samothes to Brute 145 The British Kings from Brute to the Romans 146 The Chronicle of the Celtick Kings ruling this Island 147 The Chronicle of the British Kings with the History of Brute 153 Observations upon Brute's History p. 158 The Chronicle from King Silvius who descended from the Kings of Alba 167 The Genealogy of King Silvius 169 The Names of the Roman Emperours who governed this Island from Julius Caesar to the entrance of the Saxons 183 The Sculpture of Julius Caesar 184 The first Invasion of Julius Caesar 185 The British History relating to the first Invasion by Julius Caesar 193 Julius Caesar's second expedition