CHRISTIANITY IN ROMAN BRITAIN. 



97 



message to Phillipi : " The saints that are in Rome salute thee, 

 chiefly they of Caesar's household." The slides I purpose show- 

 ing you presently are a set I have had prepared to illustrate 

 Roman life in Britain, and I make no apology for introducing 

 them, as they will help you to understand something of the civil- 

 ization and refinement which obtained in our Country when the 

 Empire was nominally Christian and persecution had ceased. 



The traditions and legends which we find in the writings of 

 the Monkish chroniclers are comparatively well known. William 

 of Malmesbury gives an account of the founding of the first 

 Christian Church in Britain at Glastonbury. This was written 

 ten centuries after the supposed founding. He derived the story 

 from a charter of St. Patrick, which has been pronounced a 

 forgery, and from writings of a British historian which he found 

 in the libraries of St. Edmund and St. Augustine. Archbishop 

 Usher who perused these writings pronounced them to be the 

 work of a Saxon monk. The account reads that after our Lord's 

 Ascension the word of God spread rapidly. Persecution was 

 stirred up by Jewish priests, and the disciples dispersed, preach- 

 ing the Gospel to the Gentiles. Amongst them Philip the Evan- 

 gelist, arriving in the territory of the Franks, converted many of 

 them. Here he chose out twelve of his disciples and set over them 

 Joseph of Arimathea, and sent them to Britain in the year 63. 

 They were given a certain Island where they were admonished 

 by the Angel Gabriel to build a church in honour of the Blessed 

 Virgm, which was finished in 64. The story is further embellished 

 by the medieval detail that Joseph of Arimathea bore with him the 

 Holy Grail and deposited it in the church. That the story owes 

 its origin to the time when the religious house at Glastonbury 

 was rising in importance and the monks were anxious to spread 

 its fame, there can be very little doubt. On a recent visit to 

 Glastonbury, however, I was not a little surprised to find that the 

 distinguished architect in charge of the ruins was a believer in 

 Joseph of Arimathea. 



To a later date belongs the martyrdom of St. Alban, the first 

 British martyr. I have always thought that there must be a 

 foundation of truth in this story, for such a famous Abbey and 

 so far renowned a shrine could hardly have grown up round an 

 invention. Moreover, the time was the beginning of the 4th 

 century, and the Diocletean persecution, under which he is said 

 to have suffered, w^as the expiring effort of Roman paganism. 

 The story is given by Bede, who obtained it from Gildas. Fleeing 

 from Wales to avoid the attacks which the Roman Government 

 was directing against his religion, came a Christian preacher 

 named " Amphibalus, " the name is suspicious, and suggested by 

 the cloak he wore. Albanus, a native solider, came under his 

 teaching, gave him shelter, and himself embraced Christianity. 



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