94 PAPERS, ETC. 
even the tomb which the vergers of former days 
used to point out as containing his remains, 
has been satisfactorily shewn to be that of Bishop 
Godfrey de Lacey, who presided over the diocese 
of Winchester during the latter part of the 
twelfth century; nor is it very evident, even if 
he ever existed, how a petty prince, ruling by 
permission of the Romans, could have been so 
great a man as he is represented to have been. 
But even supposing that he really did found a 
church at Winchester at the time he is said 
to have done so, still, Glastonbury has a prior 
claim to the honour of being the site of the first 
Christian Church in Britain ; and that claim appears 
to be as well substantiated as one of such high an- 
tiquity can easily be. 
It is said that about A.n. 63, Joseph of Arimathea 
and Simon Zelotes were sent by St. Philip from Gaul 
into Britain, and having received permission from 
the British prince Arviragus, founded a christian 
church at Avalon or Glastonbury. Now without 
discussing the probability of the truth of this legend, 
which is so corrupted by the accompanying super- 
stition of the miraculous thorn, as to be at least 
very doubtful, still, we know that some one did 
preach christianity in these islands about that time. 
Now it is an ascertained fact, that St. Paul was at 
Rome near about the same time as Caractacus, the 
king of the Silures, and it is stated that the release 
of the apostle and that of the British captive, took 
