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the seat of the earliest Christianity kaown in Britain. That may 
or not be true, the statement is evidently made by virtue of the 
legend of Glastonbury, which is entirely traditional ; but so far we 
have good evidence from earliest writers, such as Gildas, of 6th 
Century, and the Venerable Bede, 7th and 8th Century, and from 
Roman History in the life of Constantine the Great, who, 
succeeding Diocletian, the greatest of persecutors, gave Christianity 
that freedom, which it enjoyed ever after; also from many 
antiquarian discoveries of the last century that Christianity 
existed among the Britons some time before the Romans 
left the country, and as early as 2nd or 3rd Century. But 
the invasions of the Northmen, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes, 
savage Pagans we must call them, although they were our 
ancestors, overthrew Christianity for a period wherever they could 
penetrate, and the Britons were driven, after many heroic struggles, 
into remote corners of the kingdom, such as Cornwall, Wales 
and Ireland, and even over the sea to a corner of France, now 
called Brittany, and of which Mr. Baring Gould has given us 
such interesting information in his recent books. 
We have no record in Somerset of this period. The earliest 
relic of Christianity I can show dates from about gth or roth 
Century, although the year 634 is given as about the time the 
Kingdom of the West Saxons (of which Somerset was a great 
part) was converted from Paganism by a Monk from Gaul. 
This is as far as I can go into the history of the Cross and 
its earlier use as a Christian Symbol and aid to the Missionary. 
Any further remarks I have to make must be given with each 
slide as it is shown. 
Chronologically arranged, they are :-— 
Saxon Period, late. 
Early Norman. Part of rith and 12th Century. 
Decorated Architectural Period. 13th and 14th Century. 
Perpendicular Arch. Period. 15th Century to end of Henry VII. 
thence no more but chaos and destruction. 
