ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Bede in narrating this incident cites Constantius," and does not mention 

 any locality, but Matthew Paris, quoting Bede, adds a gloss to the effect that 

 the disputation, or synod, as he calls it, was at Verulamium/" Assuming, as 

 it is here contended, that the martyrdom of St. Alban was at Verulamium, 

 the tomb and blood-stained earth were there and consequently the disputation 

 must also have taken place there, besides which there has been a local tradi- 

 tion to this effect from mediaeval days, a hermitage and chapel being succes- 

 sively built on the supposed site of the disputation and a piece of the Roman 

 wall still bears the name of St. German's Block. 



The introduction of monasticism into Britain has been attributed with 

 some probability to St. German and Lupus on the occasion " of this visit. 

 So far as is known there were no monks or monasteries here till after the 

 first quarter of the 5th century. Before that date the Church consisted only 

 of missionary communities, each being ruled by a bishop, under whom were 

 priests and deacons. The only churches were the bishops' churches and the 

 only priests were those who served in them.^' It may be, therefore, that 

 the church built at Verulamium on the site of the martyrdom was one of 

 these churches. But Celtic enthusiasm took keenly to monachism, and 

 monasteries sprang up in the 5th century throughout the land, soon becoming 

 the centres of ecclesiastical organization and learning. 



The greater part of the 5th and all the 6th century are entirely blank 

 as regards the history of the Church in the district now known as Hertford- 

 shire. Whether the story of the fall of Verulamium '° about 512 contains 

 even a grain of truth is very doubtful, but with the abandonment of that town 

 Christianity probably disappeared from the west of the county, which 

 became depopulated and reverted to the condition of forest land. Watling 

 Street probably continued as a line of communication, and so the little 

 church on the site of the martyrdom of St. Alban, which was near it, may 

 have been visited by travellers and its tradition preserved. The eastern parts 

 of the county had succumbed to the pagan Saxon earlier. Indeed, so com- 

 pletely were the Celtic inhabitants wiped out of this district that probably 

 not a town nor a village exists in the county that bears a Celtic name. 



The eastern side of what was later the county became a part of the 

 kingdom of the East Saxons, whose king, Saebert, was converted to Chris- 

 tianity early in the 7th century." In 604 St. Augustine consecrated Mellitus 

 as their first bishop with his see at London." Some twelve years later, 

 however, after the death of Saebert, his sons caused the people to relapse 

 into paganism and Mellitus retired into Gaul. 



The East Saxons continued to be heathens till 654, when their king, 

 Sigebert, became a Christian, and his people were reconverted by the saintly 

 Cedd, brother of St. Chad. Cedd was then only a priest, but was shortly 

 afterwards consecrated bishop of the East Saxons.*' The monasteries at 

 Tilbury and at the Roman town of Othona or Ythanceaster, the site of which 

 is now under the sea, were his missionary stations, from which he sent out 

 his priests and deacons to preach to and baptize the people. He also built 



'5 Bede, Hist. Eccl. bk. i, cap. 17. '« Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), i, 186. 



^' Williams, op. cit. 260 ; Dom Louis Gougaud, Les Chritienth Celtiques, 65, 346. 

 38 Williams, op. cit. 456. ^^ GeofFrey of Monmouth, Hist. Brit. bk. viii, cap. 23, 24. 



*" Bede, Hist. Eccl. bk. ii, cap. 3. « Ibid. cap. 5. *" Ibid. bk. iii.cap. 21 



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