THE ECCLESIASTICAL SEALS OF CORNWALL. 29 



the east, were going to and from our shores. Vespasian's coins 

 have been dug up in the vicinity of a Eoman entrenchment in 

 mid-Cornwall.* Some of the men therefore who came over here 

 in those early days may have been eye-witnesses of the first 

 dread events in the church's history. Who can tell what tidings 

 of these things they may have spread in our land ! 



"We have no means of ascertaining how many or how few of 

 those who took part in the occupation of Britain were acquaint- 

 ed with these events. We do know, however, that at least one 

 Roman centurion in the east had been so far impressed by 

 what he had witnessed as to declare to those around him that 

 Christ evidently possessed the favour of Heaven. What subse- 

 quently became of that man and his companions we know not 

 for certain. 



Early Christians there may have been in the Roman ranks, 

 forced into the army by persecution, or joining it to escape 

 danger, perhaps for a while concealing their creed. 



Our Western peninsula was rightly regarded as one of the 

 ends of the earth, yet, as we have seen, it was quite accessible 

 from the continent of Europe, and even from the most distant 

 Asiatic shores of the Mediterranean. 



In any case, Christianity was not likely to remain long 

 unknown in the west. Revealed at first to mankind in the Holy 

 Land, it was, under divine providence, soon spread abroad in 

 the world, the human instrumentality employed being two-fold : 

 its professors zealously laboring to make it known, and its op- 

 ponents unwittingly disseminating it by persecuting its adherents 

 and dispersing them in many directions. 



It must then have been in very early times that Christianity 

 was first heard of in Cornwallf — consequently the history of the 

 Church here affords endless scope for interesting enquiry. Its 

 actual beginning is enshrined amid the mysterious dimness of a 

 remote age concerning which full earthly records never existed. 

 Still, it is only with regard to details, that any obscurity prevails. 



* At Tregear Camp, and across the ford at Nanstallou, coins of Vespasian 

 and Trajan, and some pottery have been found. A silver coin of Vespasian has 

 also been dug up at Trekillick in Lanivet, not far off. 



f E.oman pottery marked with portions of a cross and the sacred monogram 

 have been found at Padstow, — according to Haslam and Borlase. See Arcluvo- 

 logical Journal (1847) Vol. IV, p. 307, and Royal Institution of Cornwall 

 Journal (1878) Vol. VI, p. 32. 



