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the absolute deficiency of records; "if there were any such in Britain," he observes, they were either burnt by our enemies, or carried beyond sea by the banishment of our countrymen, so that now there was nothing of them to be seen." This author felt nearly satisfied, however, that the Christian faith was introduced between the periods when A. Plautius governed this country under Claudius, and the battle fought by the armies of Boadicea and Suetonius Paulinus; still he was at a loss to discover who accomplished this great and important mission. Many vague conjectures have appeared to illustrate the event; but, as they are contradicted and others substituted, it would be folly to repeat them. I shall not attempt to follow with my conceptions; and yet it seems very possible, that as soon as the doctrines of the Messiah began to obtain credence, deputations might have been sent to every dependency of the Roman state secretly, by which means they acquired a maturity that rendered the operations of the government almost abortive in their suppression. A missionary, or a hundred missionaries, might reach our island in safety, provided they kept within their own breasts their apostolic authority till the proper opportunity of declaring it to the British people. That such were sent is corroborated by Eusebius, who particularly mentions their crossing the ocean to England.

How

How the Druids received the Christian preachers we are not informed; but it does not require much penetration to imagine: the priests of heathen divinities, who are said to have been governed by ferocious ideas of slaughter, could not feel much remorse or compassion for innovators on their practices and belief; every artifice and every stratagem, and perhaps every species of cruelty, may have been exercised on the apostolic deputies, in return for the mild arguments and teaching of their Divine Master; however, it is

plain they prevailed in the end.

With reference to the part taken by the Romans resident in England, it has been imagined that St. Paul was encouraged to visit us by Pomponia Græcina, wife to A. Plautius, the viceroy of Claudius; and this is supported by Tacitus, who informs us, that this lady was charged with superstition, and tried, and acquitted, by her husband. William of Malmsbury says, that St. Stephen arrived in the territories of the Franks after the dispersion of the disciples; where, converting numbers of the inhabitants, he resolved to select twelve of his most approved pupils to undertake the mental emancipation of the British. Joseph of Arimathea happened to be one of the number, who, with his eleven co-adjutors, arrived in the year 63. Arviragus, who then reigned, was rather displeased with the preaching of the Christians; but, unable

to

to discover the least impropriety in their conduct, he gave them a small piece of land, where they resided and taught: thus William wished his posterity to suppose the Abbey of Glastonbury was almost of divine foundation; for know, good reader, the site of that abbey was the precise spot where Joseph lived on the King's bounty. Now, the unfortunate part of the business is, that all the Italian historians concur in furnishing decisive reasons for discrediting the whole of this story.

There seems to be little doubt that a King reigned over a portion of England whose name was Lucius, and that he flourished between the years 160 and 200; that he was converted to Christianity seems also to be admitted by the best authors, and that he solicited spiritual assistance from the sovereign Pontiff, then in possession of the keys of St. Peter, appears from these words of Bede: “ In the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and his partner in the empire Lucius Verus, when Eleutherius was bishop of Rome, Lucius, a British king, sent a letter to this prelate, desiring his directions to make him a Christian. The holy bishop immediately complied with this pious request; and thus the Britons being brought over to Christianity, continued without warping or disturbance till the reign of the Emperor Dioclesian." There is one difficulty occurs in comparing the various accounts

of

of this Monarch, whose particular dominions are not yet accurately ascertained; he is said to have built so many churches that little less than despotic sway throughout England could have accomplished their erection; therefore, the admission of his reigning over part of the island only, entirely annihilates our belief that his brother Kings or the Roman Viceroy would permit him to interfere in their jurisdictions so far as to build Westminster Abbey, and other churches in all parts of the country. Selden says, "Howsoever, by injury of time, the memory of this great and illustrious Prince King Lucy hath been embezzled and smuggled; this, upon the credit of the antient writers, appears plainly, that the pitiful fopperies of the Pagans, and the worship of their idol devils, did begin to flag, and within a short time would have given place to the worship of the true God." An interval of eighty years occurs from the time assigned for the decease of Lucius to the Dioclesian persecution; during which, the Christian faith seems to have rather gained than lost ground; but that eventful æra at length arriving, the orders of the Emperor to destroy the churches were fully carried into effect, and numbers of the converted perished by the most detestable acts of cruelty. From that moment England had its martyrs for the true religion, and the blood thus offered at the feet of the Messiah served to cement the survivors together

ther in the bonds of commiseration as well as of faith.

A more favourable period for the Christians was produced by the accession of Constantius Chlorus to the supreme command, who, though he never himself adopted the new religion, his conduct to its professors was mild and tolerant. Constantine the Great firmly believed in the existence of the true God, and consequently did every thing in his power to promote that belief amongst his subjects in every direction. In his reign, bishops were deputed from the British church to the council at Arles; but as only three are mentioned by our historians, it has been supposed that was the whole number then in England; which some authors contradict by asserting, that we had a succession of Bishops here from the first introduction of the true faith. The canons, amounting to twenty-two, framed on this occasion, became the law of the English church. A minute history of religion is no part of the plan of this work; I shall therefore omit the various occurrences in the regulation of discipline, both with respect to the clergy and laity, and the different schisms which took place, even in this very early stage of the new religion, of which the Arian was most obstinate and incurable, nor was the Pelagian much less so.

The custom of going on pilgrimages might be traced to the period when Christianity first flou

rished