Royal Prophet Thou lovest Righteousness and hatest wickedness Ps 45.7 therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows And again according to the same Royal Prophet Ps 72.1 Give the King thy Judgments O God c. for he said not the Judgments nor the Righteousness of Caesar For the King's Sons are the Christian Nations and people of the Realm who live and abide in the Kingdom under your Protection and Peace according to the Gospel Mat. 23.37 even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings The Nations and people of Britain are your people whom however divided you ought to gather into one to reclaim to Concord and Peace and the Faith and Law of Christ and to the Holy Church to cherish maintain or to lead by hand protect govern and always defend them from injurious and malitious Folks and from their Enemies Eccl. 10.16 Wo to the Kingdom whose King is a Child and whose Princes eat in the morning I do not term a King a Child for Infant-age but for Folly Iniquity and Madness according to the Royal Prophet Ps 55.23 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes By Eating we understand Gluttony by Gluttony Luxury by Luxury all filthy perverse and wicked things according to King Solomon Into a malicious Soul Wisdom shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin Rex dicitur à Regendo non à Regno A King hath his name from his Ruling not from his Kingdom As long as you govern well you shall be a King which if you do not the Name of King will not be evidenced in you and you will lose that Name which God forbid Almighty God grant you so to govern the Kingdom of Britain that you may reign for ever with him whose Vicegerent you are in the said Realm This Letter was written in the year one Hundred seventy nine when the Emperour Commodus was Consul with Vespronius and is to be seen in Lambard's Archaeonomia Printed at London in the years 1560 and 1644 among Edward the Confessor's Laws and in a Copy of our old Laws written in Edward the fourths time now kept in Sr. John Cotton's famous Library and likewise in an Ancient Manuscript Chronicle called Brutus and Breton William Harrison hath inserted it into his description of Britain Lib. 1. c. 9. having translated it into English out of sundry ancient Copies Theon Bishop of London is said to have built St. Peter's Church in Cornhil London with the help of Ciranus the King 's Cup-bearer which Lucius liberally endowed and made it to be the Episcopal Sea for the Diocess of London But Fagan and Dwywan not confining their endeavours only to Lucius his Kingdom converted the greatest part of Britain with the assistance of Elvan and Medwin of whom the former had been made a Bishop at Rome the other a Doctor as Johannes Tinmuthensis and Capgrave in the life of Dubricius and an old Tract concerning the first state of the Church of Landaffe assirm meaning Presbyter or Priest as I suppose by Doctor for the title of Doctor doth not appear to have been so ancient in the Church in the sence wherein it hath been since used Divers other Bishopricks are reported to have been erected about this time as York Carleon upon Vske Winchester Gloucester Congresbury Landaffe and other places Philippus Berterius and Archbishop Vsher of Armagh take York to have been the Metropolis of Britain at that time as being a Roman Colony and honoured with the Emperour's Palace and the Praetorium of Britain in regard whereof Spartianus terms it by way of Excellency In vita Severi The City And in the Council of Arles Eborius of York subscribed before Restitutus of London He that in the year one Thousand four hundred and sixty wrote the History of the Archbishops of York makes Fagan the first Archbishop of that Sea but Harrison in his description of Britain saith Lib. 1. cap. 7. that one Theodosius was Bishop there in the time of Lucius who might be so indeed in the latter end of Lucius his Reign after Fagan's death The Church of Winchester being finished in the fifth year of Lucius his Conversion viz. in the year one Hundred and eighty was then Dedicated by Fagan and Dwywan at which time also one Devotus was made Abbot of the Monastery which the King had founded for certain Monks professing the Egyptian Rule of St. Mark And about the same time was also founded the renowned Abbey of Bangor And now the Northern men are up in arms again and passing Lollius his Fence were come as far as Adrian's Wall which they broke down putting most of the Soldiers that defended it with their commander to the sword and entring the Province wasted and spoiled it at their pleasure against whom Vlpius Marcelius was sent who valiantly beat them back to their own homes and governed the country with such same and reputation that the Emperour Commodus whose Vices were as notorious as his Lieutenant's Virtues fearing the growth of his Credit with the Romans in an envious mood sent him Letters of Discharge After his departure the Army which he had kept in excellent Discipline fell to mutinying and civil Dissensions the Officers abusing and defrauding the common Soldiers whereupon fifteen Hundred of them went to Rome and complained against the Emperour's grand Favourite Perennis as the cause of those and many other distempers in the State for which he was put to death Yet did not this compliance so appease the British Army but that they would have set up another Emperour and Helvins Pertinax who here succeeded in the Lieutenancy endeavouring to suppress their insolency by severe means provoked them to an Insurrection in which divers were slain and himself left for dead whereupon he was glad for his own safety to get himself revoked In his place came Clodius Albinus who so worthily demeaned himself that Commodus either for fear or favour honoured him with the Title of Caesar which yet he accepted not but upon a false report of the Emperour's death having in a set speech discovered himself to be better affected to the old Government of the Senate and Consuls than to Monarchical Empire he was commanded to resign to Junius Severus But Pertinax suceeding Commodus was not long after murdered by the Praetorian Guards who sold the Empire to Didius Julianus who enjoyed his Purchase but a very little time being soon after slain by Septimius Severus This Emperour to keep Albinus who during the late Broils had made bold to keep his place from attempting any thing against him during his Wars with Pescennius Niger created him his Caesar which he now accepted as having a greater esteem for him than for Commodus But Niger being defeated and slain Severus falls to practising the death of his new Caesar and therein failing proclaims him Traitour and publick Enemy and comes in person
saith in his brief Commentaries there were extant in his time very ancient British Rhymes if he mistake him not for another Gerontius that was Prince of Danmonia many years after this man's time Upon the surrendry of Arles Constantius goes against Jovinus whom he overcomes and drives out of the countrey In his room up starts his Brother Sebastian whom Constantius soon defeated and slew together with his Complices Salustius and Rusticus Next he conducts his Forces into Spain against Maximus whom with like success he vanquishes and takes Prisoner but after a short time dismisses him as one who had not aspired to that usurpation through his own ambition but was only made a Stale to the Politick ends of his Advancers Those Britans that came over with Constantine when the War was ended never went home but joyned themselves with their Brethren in Armorica Procop. de bello Vand. lib. 1. Bed lib. 1. cap. 11. yet did not the Romans at all look after the recovery of Britain as Procopius and Bede with others tell us having still work enough nearer home And for some time indeed the Britans defended themselves pretty well but in the year four hundred and eighteen their old Enemies assailed them so fiercely doing so much mischief both by Sea and Land and threatning more that the residue of those Romans who had planted themselves here thought it their wisest and safest course to remove into Gaul Annal. Saxon Athelward lib. 1. hiding for hast under ground great part of their Treasure which was never after found Gildas stiles this Invasion which lasted some years A Trampling under foot a most cruell Infestation and Depression and calls it the First accounting all their former Hostilities as nothing in comparison of this and those that ensued the Picts he terms here a Transmarine Nation because parted from the rest of Britain in a manner by two Armes of the Sea now named the Friths of Edenborough and Dunbritton The Britans thus overpower'd and oppressed send Ambassadors to the Emperour Honorius and humbly beseech him with pittious prayers and promises of perpetual Subjection and Loyal Obedience for the future to succour them in this their distress whereupon in the year four hundred twenty two a Legion strongly provided for the War was by Aetius General of the Forces in Gaul dispatched hither who encountring with the Enemies and killing a huge number of them drove them out of the Province and by so bloody a victory delivered their Friends and Subjects from imminent peril Then they ordered them to build across the Island between the aforesaid Friths of Edenborough and Dunbritton from Abercorne to Kirk Patrick as Lollius and Cerausius had done before a Wall which being made with Garrisons of Soldiers might be a terror to their Foes and a safeguard to themselves But the Romans being recalled to be employed against other Enemies could not stay to see the work done so that it being made without fit Directors by the common people and unreasonable Rout not so much of Stone as of Turs proved to little purpose This year the two forementioned Usurpers Maximus and Jovinus going about to raise new Stirs with the assistance of the Barbarous Nations were taken in Spain by Castinus and Boniface who sent them into Italy where they served to adorn the Trinmph of the Emperour Honorius About this time flourished two famous British Bishops Fastidius and Ninianus of whom the former wrote to one Fatalis a worthy Book concerning Christian Life as some Copies of Gennadius have it or as others concerning Christian Faith and another of continuing in the state of Widowhood the other converted the Southern Picts inhabiting between Forth and Grantzbain and was the first Bishop of Candida Casa now Whitleerne in Galloway where he built a Church of Stone which as Joannes Tinmuthensis saith was the first Church of Stone in Britain and in Ireland he founded a large Monastery at a place called Cluayn Coner both he and his Brother Plebeias were Canonized for Saints In the year four hundred twenty five the Picts and Scots knowing that the Romans were returned home again invaded the Britans breaking down the Rampire and all other Fences committing all sorts of cruelty and sending out their Piratick Vessels robbed and ransackt their Coasts in a miserable manner The Britans therefore again send suppliant Ambassadors to entreat the Romans in meer commiseration of their case and for their own Honour once more to relieve them Whereupon Aetius by the Emperour Valentinian's command in the year four hundred twenty six sends over another Legion under the conduct of Gallio of Ravenna wo forthwith marched against those spoiling Enemies and giving them a notable Overthrow chased them home with a terrible slaughter After this Exploit the Romans declare to the Britans That the present condition of the Empire would not permit them to take any more such troublesome Journeys and therefore they must resolve to defend themselves and not be afraid of Nations no wayes more valiant than they if by sloth and idleness they did not weaken themselves So giving Manful Exhortations to a Fearful People and teaching them to make and handle Arms they together with the Inhabitants at the common charge of all and with the private additional helps of many built a Wall of Stone from Sea to Sea in the same place where as Bede and others say Bed lib. 5. cap. 12. Severus built his Wall and on those Shores which used to be most infested with Pirats they erected Watch-Towers in divers places at convenient distances and beyond the Wall they fortified up and down Stations for Soldiers as was done in Severus his time And so the Romans never to return again bid adieu to the Britans and the year following Gallio who had done this Service Mavortius and Sinnox were sent into Africk against Boniface in which War the two former lost their lives the same year by the treachery of their companion Sinnox who himself received the just reward of a Traitor from the hands of Boniface being by him put to death In the year four hundred twenty nine Presp Florentius and Dionysius being then Consuls Agricola the Pelagian the Son of Severianus a Pelagian Bishop comes into Britain and here diffuses the contagion of his pestilent opinion against whom the British Clergy more Pious than Learned in those calamitous times knowing his Doctrine to be Heretical and yet not able to confute him crave aid of the Gallick Bishops whom Pope Celestine at the Suit of Palladius a Deacon of Rome excites to help their British Brethren in this exigence Whereupon a Council is assembled wherein German Bishop of Auxerre and Lupus Bishop of Troyes men famous for their Learning and Sanctity are assigned to the work These crossing the Sea in the dead of Winter had a very stormy passage which was attributed to Evil Spirits and at their arrival found a great deal of hurt had been done here in a short
space However by continual preaching not only in Churches but also in Streets and fields and by Miracles accompanying their Doctrine they confirmed many that wavered regained others and convening a Council at Verulam in the year four hundred and thirty did there in publick Disputation put to silence their chief Adversaries From thence the Bishops went for Wales where as Nennius saith one Banlius King of Powis infected as it seems with Pelagianism and therefore refusing to entertain German and hear his Preaching was destroyed with his Palace by Lightning and Cadel a Swineherd who had lodged and treated the Bishop to his best ability was therefore advanced to the Heaven-burnt Tyrant's Throne In the year four hundred thirty one being the eighth year of Theodosius reckoning from the death of his Uncle Honorius the Picts and Scots understanding the resolution of the Romans to come back no more assail the Britans again and with greater considence than ever before drive the dismaied Soldiers from their Stations and seize into their hands all the Countrey which lay on that side of the Wall There was placed along this Wall upon an high Fort a Garrison consisting of such as lacked both Military skill and courage who warding and watching there day and night became lazy with doing nothing The Enemies coming on with their hooked weapons easily pulled down these unwarlike Wretches and dashed them to the ground and making a great Breach in the Wall at a place thence called Thirlwall which is as much as a Wall pierced through they went forward taking several wayes and committing horrible spoils and bloody slaughters every where as they went The Picts in their way meet with the Saxons who were come upon the same design of spoil and slaughter with them they joyn and all together march into Northwales The Britans had there an Army to oppose them and hearing of their Enemies approach applyed themselves to the two Bishops bemoaning their past and present miseries to them who bid them be of courage and promised them their assistance The decay of the State had wrought a strange decay of Religion the greatest part of this Army was yet unbaptized they therefore first list them under Christ's Banner by the initiating Sacrament of Baptism and then German who in his younger dayes had been a Soldier undertakes to be their General It was then the time of Lent and in the Camp there was a place set a part and drest up with Boughs for Easter-day The Enemies judging the Britans more taken up with acts of Religion than the exercise of Arms hasten against them after the Paschal Feast as to an assured victory German draws up his Army in a valley compassed about with Hills by which the Enemy was to pass and having laid an Ambush in a convenient place gives order that what word they heard him pronounce aloud the same they should repeat with an universal Shout The Saxons and Picts pass on securely and German thrice aloud cryes Halleluiah which answered by the Soldiers with a sudden burst of clamour is from the hills and valley redoubled and presently they that were in Ambush shew themselves The Enemies were hereat strangely astonished and searing that some unexpected Succours were come to the Britans were seized with such a general consternation that breaking their Ranks and throwing down their Arms they ran away in a miserable consusion leaving their Pillage to the Pursuers many of them in their hasty flight being drowned in the River This victory was gained in Flintshire hard by a Town called by the Welch Guiderue by the English Mold and hence the place of Fight was named Maes Garmon Usser de primord that is to say German's field near which runs the River Alen wherein so many of the Britans were baptized and of the Enemies drowned The same year the two Bishops returned home having overcome both Spiritual and worldly Adversaries and acted many memorable things here which we may read in Constantius Beda Nennius and others And this very year the forementioned Palladius was by Pope Celestine sent into Ireland to be Bishop of the Scots there who had received the Christian Faith and to spread Christianity in those parts who took with him twelve of his Disciples to four of whom namely Augustine Benedict Silvester and Solonius he committed the care and charge of three Churches which he built in the Province of Lemster whither he was come after he had been with the Scots in Vlster But Nathius the Son of Garcon King of Lemster opposing and disturbing him and those wild people not willing to entertain his Doctrine he departed thence into Albania and spent some time in preaching to the Picts among whom he died at Fordon in Mernis where the common people call him St. Pad Antonius Possevinus saith he was a Britan and we find the same of him in an old Marginal Note to St. Patrick's Charter in William of Malmesbury's M. S. History of the Antiquity of Glastonbury in the Library of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge speaking of Celestine's sending him to Ireland Eodem anno vel praecedente misit idem Papa ad praedicandum ibidem virum nomine Palladium Britannicum genere sed idem citò repatriavit sine effectu The same year or the year before the same Pope sent a man named Palladius a Britan by Nation to preach there but he soon returned without effect Upon the death of Paliadius Pope Celestine sent over Patrick in the year four hundred thirty two to convert the Irish and soon after himself dyed Prosp contra Collat. cap. 41. of whose Endeavours for Britain and Ireland Prâ—sper gives this Testimony Nec segniore curâ ab hoc eodem morbo Britannias liberavit quando quosdam inimicos gratiae solum suae originis occupantes etiam ab illo secreto exclusâ—t Oceani â—rdinato Scotis Episcopo dum Romanam Insulam studet strvare Catholicam fecit etiam Barbaram Christianam The Emperess Placidia Idacius Marcellinus comes Mother to the Emperour Valentinian being reconciled to Boniface resolved to make him Magister Militum Chief Commander of the Forces of the Empire in the place of Aetius which yet she thought could not casily be done while Aetius continued in the head of the Galâ—ick Army she therefore had contrived to have him elected Consul for this year with Valerius and thereby drawing him to Rome to look after his Charge there sends for Boniface out of Africk and at his coming bestows upon him the Command she had designed for him Aetius not brooking to see himself so supplanted and his utter Enemy put over his head stood out in opposition with such of his friends and followers as he could get together and came to a conflict with him wherein these two famous Generals met and fought hand to hand and Aetius with his Javelin gave Boniface his mortal wound whereof he dyed about three months after charging his wife Pelagia whom he left very rich to accept