195 



claims, as both Cselestius lived, and the Council of Sardis occurred, 

 in the fourth century. 



The fourth objection is drawn from a passage in the Confession of 

 Saint Patrick, wherein, says Sir William, "he speaks of his fellow- 

 citizens and Roman citizens, ' civibus Romanorum,* evidently speak- 

 ing of Britain as a Roman province, and because the last Roman 

 legion left Britain about the year 404, consequently these trans- 

 actions could not refer to the more advanced period of the fifth cen- 

 tury."* But in truth, no such conclusion can be deduced, as that 

 Saint Patrick meant by the " civibus Sanctorum Romanorum," that 

 Britain was then in the actual occupation of the Romans ; and the 

 last Roman legion did not leave Britain until A. D. 420,'f' and even 

 if it had left it long before, it appears from Bede,::|: that the Britons, 

 borne down as the}^ had been by the incursipns of the Picts and Scots, 

 took a politic pride in calling their country a Roman province, and 

 even fondl}'^ looked to I'etaining that name, after every legion had 

 abandoned it ; for in their last embassies to Rome in 446, they im- 

 plored that the name of a Roman province, which had so long been 

 held illustrious amongst them, might not by the wickedness of foreign 

 nations be overwhelmed and become of no account ;§ while the many, 

 who had acquired possessions in Britain, and continued to remain 

 there, II not as Roman soldiers, but as " cives Romanorum," gave more 

 colour than was required to the appellation. 



The fifth objection is drawn from the same source. Because the 



* Researches, p. 278. 



t SeeBede, Eccl. Hist. lib. 1. c. 12. and Gildas, Hist. cs. 13 and 14. 

 t Eccl. Hist. lib. I.e. 12. 



§ " Ne nomen Romanae provincial quod apud eos tarn diu claruerat, exterarum gentium 

 improbitate obrutum, vilesceret." — Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. 1. c. 12. 

 II See Zosimus. lib. 6. 



c c 2 



