CHRISTIANITY IN ROMAN BRITAIN. 



101 



Christ, appears to have been introduced as a Christian symbol 

 by Coiistantine about a.d. 312. The earhest dated example is 

 323. This monogram has been found at Silchester or Calleva 

 Attrebatum, and at various " villas elsewhere, as well as on 

 pieces of Sliver in the famous hoard, a portion of a robber's loot, 

 recently found at Traprain Law. It probably reached this 

 Country by way of Gaul. The most interesting example is cer- 

 tainly that found in exploring the villa at Appleshaw in Hamp- 

 shire. Buried at one spot on this site was found the whole of 

 the pewter plates and dishes of the family, skilfully made and 

 decorated with niello. On one small plate or saucer was scratched 

 the Chi Eho monogram. It is difficult to suppose this vessel was 

 of secular use, and I prefer the suggestion by a patriarch of the 

 Greeii Church made to me when lecturing at the British Museum : 

 that it was the forerunner of the medieval paten, the plate on 

 which the bread was placed at the celebration of the Lord's 

 Supper. It calls up to us a vision of simple piety of the 4th 

 century, when the well-to-do owner of this villa — perhaps joined 

 by others of like feeling from the many villas around — met 

 together on the first day of the week to do what Pliny describes 

 the early Christians doing, viz., " To sing, by turns, a hymn to 

 Christ as God, and to bind themselves by a sacred oath to commit 

 no iniquity." The word he uses, " sacramentum, " has coma 

 down to us in the sacrament. It meant in Rome the oath of alle- 

 giance which the soldier took to his captain. The Christians 

 acknowledged Christ as the Captain of his salvation and swore 

 obedience to Him. 



The question of buildings set apart for Christian worship 

 naturally arises next. It is certain that until the time of Con- 

 stantine when the Empire became nominally Christian, there were 

 no churches, and it was not until the edict of Milan in a.d. 312 

 that basihcas were allowed to be built. The statement that in 

 314, three bishops, whose names are given, were sent from York. 

 London and Lincoln to the Council at Aries, I am unable to 

 regard as authentic. Bede refers to churches built at Canterbury. 

 St. Martin's in that City has, however, been examined by experts, 

 who have given it as their opinion that though much Eoman 

 material is used in the building, none of it is in situ, and they 

 prefer to regard it as dating from the 7th or 8tli century. But 

 in the year 1892, during the course of the excavations at 

 Silchester, the foundations of a building were laid bare, which 

 bore such a striking resemblance to the 4th century churches 

 discovered in Africa, Italy and Syria, that all doubt w^as put at 

 rest, and on the most convincing evidence a Christian Church 

 of the Roman period in Britain was exposed to our gaze. A model 

 is placed in the Reading Museum, and as I was in touch with 

 the excavations all along I am able to show you photographs 



