ECCLESIASTICAL 

 HISTORY 



early evidence of Christianity in Gloucestershire is very slight, 

 and of British Christianity there is scarcely a trace. 1 ' Four stones 

 marked with the Christian monogram found in the Roman villa 

 at Chedworth, a few tiles marked IHS, and a tombstone which 

 is probably Christian, discovered at Sea Mills in 1873, complete the tale.'* 

 Excavations on the sites of the great Roman cities of Gloucester and Ciren- 

 cester have as yet shed no light on Christian worship among the provincials. 

 The name of Bishop Eldad, who held the see of Gloucester when Hengist 

 invaded Britain, has been handed down by tradition. 8 Thomas, who was 

 translated to London about 542, is said to have witnessed the destruction of 

 Gloucester and to have fled with his clergy into Wales in 586.* 



In 577 the West Saxons conquered the lower Severn Valley.' Three 

 Roman cities, Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath, lay within the district, and 

 were connected by splendid roads. The British kings, Commagil, Condidan, 

 Farinmagil, joined forces and met the invaders under their leader Ceawlin 

 at Deorham. They were utterly defeated, the cities were captured and 

 burnt, the Britons fled and the country was occupied by a tribe of the West 

 Saxons, called the Hwiccas. After another victory over the Britons at 

 Feathanlea* in 584, the kingdom of the Hwiccas probably embraced a third 

 part of Warwickshire, all Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire east of the 

 Severn and Leadon. 7 The Britons held the land beyond the Severn for some 

 time longer, and it was at Aust, 8 a ford of the river, that about 603 the British 

 bishops came reluctantly to hold a conference with St. Augustine, which proved 

 fruitless, and the British church continued in isolation. It is probable that 

 for nearly eighty years the Hwiccas remained heathen. Though they were 

 a West Saxon people, before the middle of the seventh century their land 

 became a dependent province of the kingdom of Mercia,* which was under 

 the rule of the heathen Penda. After his death at the battle of the Winwaed 

 in 655, Christianity spread rapidly in Mercia. 10 There is no evidence to 

 connect the work of the first Mercian bishops of Lichfield with the most 



1 According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Christianity was introduced into Gloucestershire during the rule 

 of King Lucius (Geoffrey of Monm. Hut. Brit. ed. 1844, p. 74). The legend of the burial of the king in 

 156 may perhaps testify to the truth that Christianity spread into the district toon after it was brought into 

 Britain (Ibid. 76 ; Briit. and Glouc. Arch. Stif. Tram, xv, 1 20). 



' Brist. and Ghuc. Arch. Sof. Tram, xv, 121. 



* Ibid. 122 ; Geoffrey of Monm. op. cit. 137. * Ibid. 



* Arch. Journ. xix, 194-$. ' Briit. and Ghuc. Arch. Sr. Tram, xx, 269-72. 



' Ibid, xv, 1*7. Ibid, xx, 290-2 ; Clifton Antiq. Club Proc. iv, 43-7. 



* Ibid, xv, 125. " Hunt, Hiit. of the Engl. Church, i, 104. 



2 I I 



