SAINT PAUL IN BRITAIN #10
by R.W.Morgan (published 1860)
But his religious sympathies, as well as those of his
mother, were wholly Eastern, not Roman. They were those of the
British Church. They revolved round Jerusalem, and the Holy Land,
and not Rome. Constantine made but two brief visits, during his
long reign, to the Italian capital. Helen spent all her declining
years in restoring the churches and sacred sites of Palestine.
The objects of Constantine's life are well explained by him
in one of his edicts: "We call God to witness, the Saviour of all
men, that in assuming the government, we are influenced solely by
these two considerations--the uniting of the empire in one faith,
and the restoration of peace to a world rent to pieces by the
insanity of religious persecution." Regarded in his threefold
character of general, statesman, and legislator, the British
founder of secular Christendom may justly be considered the
greatest of the Roman emperors. The British Church was
represented during his reign by native bishops at the Councils of
Arles, A.D.308, and Nice, A.D.325. 5
In A.D 300 the Diocletian persecution raged in Britain, but
was stopped in one year by Constantius Chlorus, continuing to
ravage the rest of the empire for eighteen years. We have
elsewhere, given a list of the British martyrs who perished in
it. We cannot doubt that we stand, during these centuries, in
the midst of a Church as broad and thoroughly national as the
present Protestant establishment; indeed, in one chief respect
more so, for the present national Church of England is not that
of the people of Scotland, Wales, or Ireland, whereas the ancient
British Church embraced all these populations in its fold. Their
very names indicate the broader national character
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5 The archbishopric of York was founded, at the request of Helen,
by Constantius the Emperor, AD.290. Its second archbishop,
Socrates, was martyred in the Diocletian persecution.
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of the ancient and primitive Church, one being the British
Church, or Church of Britain, the other the Church of England.
Continuing to trace the British Church back, we find Origen,
A.D.230 alluding thus to its existence: "The divine goodness of
our Lord and Saviour is equally diffused among the Britons, the
Africans, and other nations of the world." 6
In A.D. 230, however, Britain had been re-incorporated in
the Roman empire. What was the case in A.D.192-198, in the reign
of Commodus, when it proclaimed its independence, and the British
legions elected Albinus Caesar? Was the Church confined to the
Roman province then insurgent, or were the stubborn British
tribes - the Cymri, the Caledonii, the Picts, whom no efforts of
peace or war could succeed in bringing to acknowledge the right
of a foreigner to plant hostile foot in Britain - within its
pale? Tertullian, who flourished during the war of Commodus in
Britain, which Dion Cassius terms "the most dangerous in which
the empire during his time had been engaged," says expressly that
the regions in Britain which the Roman arms had failed to
penetrate professed Christianity for their religion. "The
extremities of Spain, the various parts of Gaul, the regions of
Britain which have never been penetrated by the Roman arms, have
received the religion of Christ." 7 We have seen that the
British Church had, long before Tertullian's age, founded the
Churches of Gaul, Lorraine, and Switzerland, and that its
missionaries had made their way into Parinonia. Coming nearer
Rome itself, we find that in Tertullian's own age a missionary of
the British Church founded, A.D.170, the Church of Tarentum. This
was St.Cadval, after whom the cath-
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6 Origen, In Psalm cxlix.
7 Tertullian, Def. Fidei, p. 179.
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edral at Tarento is still named. 8 Not only, therefore, did the
British Church, A.D.170, embrace Roman and Inde-pendent Britain,
but it had struck its roots in France, Switzerland, Germany, and
the extremities of Italy.
We now come to A.D. 120-150, within the era of the disciples
of the apostles. It is certain from St.Paul's own letters to the
Romans and to Timothy, that he was on the most intimate and
affectionate terms with the mother of Rufus Pudens, with Pudens
himself, with Claudia his wife, and Linus. The children of
Claudia and Pudens were instructed in the faith by St.Paul
himself. The eldest was baptized Timotheus, after Timothy, Bishop
of Ephesus, the Apostle's "beloved son in Christ." The four,
Timotheus, Novatus, Praxedes, Pudentiana, with their father,
Pudens, sealed at different times their faith with their blood in
Rome, and were, with Linus, the first Britons who were added to
the glorious army of martyrs. And, Pudens excepted, they were not
only martyrs, but royal martyrs, not only royal martyrs, but
martyrs of the most patriotic and heroic blood in Britain. Let us
confirm these statements by the evidences of primitive antiquity.
The reader will recollect the "natal day" of a martyr is the day
of his martyrdom.
Pudens suffered A.D.96, Linus A.D.90; Pudentiana suffered on
the anniversary of her father's martyrdom, in the third
persecution, A.D.107; Novatus in the fifth persecution, A.D.139,
when his brother Timotheus was absent in Britain, baptizing his
nephew, King Lucius. 9 Shortly after his return from Britain,
and in extreme old
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8 MS. Vellum of the Church of Tarentum: Catalogue of Saints in
the Vatican, published A.D.1641; Moronus, De Eccles a Tarentina.
9 All authors concur in this fact, though all do not see how
naturally it followed that the relationship between the roval
house of Britain and its branch settled in Rome.
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age, about his ninetieth year, Timotheus suffered with his
fellow-soldier Marcus in the same city of Rome, "drunk with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Praxedes, the surviving sister,
received her crown within the same year. Claudia alone died a
natural death, in Samnium, before any of her children, A.D.97,
surviving Pudens one year. They were all interred by the side of
St.Paul in the Via Ostiensis.
May 17. Natal day of the blessed Pudens, father of Praxedes and
Pudentiana. He was clothed with baptism by the apostles, and
watched and kept his robe pure and without wrinkle to the crown
of a blameless life. 10
November 26. Natal day of St.Linus, Bishop of Rome. 11
May 17. Natal day of St.Pudentiana, the virgin, of the most
illustrious descent, daughter of Pudens, and disciple of the holy
apostle St.Paul. 12
June 20. Natal day of St.Novatus, son of the blessed Pudens,
brother of St.Timotheus the elder, and the virgins of Christ
Pudentiana and Praxedes. All these were instructed in the faith
by the apostles.
August 22. Natal day of St.Timotheus, son of St.Pudens, in the
Via Ostiensis. 13
September 21. Natal day of St.Praxedes, virgin of Christ, in
Rome. 14
Have we, again, any direct contemporary evidence that Linus, the
first bishop of Rome, was the son of Caractacus, and brother of
Claudia Britannica? Putting aside, for a moment, British
genealogies and tradition, does any con-
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10 Martyr. Romana, ad diem Maii 17. To the same effect the
Martyrologies of Ado, Usuard and Esquilinus.
11 Martyr, Rom., ad diem; Martyrologies of Ado; Greek Menologies;
Usuard, &c.;
12 Martyr. Rom., ad diem; Ado, &c.;
13 Martyr. Rom., Ado, Asuard, Greek Menol.
14 Martyr. Rom., Ado, &c.;
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temporary of St.Paul and Linus, in Rome itself, assert the fact?
Undoubtedly. Clemens Romanus, who is mentioned by St.Paul, states
in his epistle, the genuineness of which has never been
questioned, that Linus was the brother of Claudia - "Sanctissimus
Linus, frater Claudiae." 15 Clemens succeeded Cletus within
twelve years of the death of Linus, as third bishop of Rome. He
had also been associated with the British missionary Mansuetus,
in evangelizing Illyria. His sources of information are,
therefore, unquestionable. St.Paul lived, according to all
evidence, whenever he was at Rome, whether in custody at large
(libera custodia) or free, in the bosom of the Claudian family.
There is no dispute that Claudia herself was purely British, and
whether Linus was her son or brother, the British character of
the family, and the close, the domestic ties of affection between
such family and St.Paul, are equally manifest. The relationship
is, in many important regards, more intimate between St.Paul and
the British mind - that mind being the leading, because the
royal, influence in Britain - in the domestic circle and family
worship of the Claudian palace at Rome, than
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15 In the Oxford edition of Junius. published A.D.1633, "The son
of Claudia." Apostolici Patres, lib. vii. c.47; Apostolici
Constitutiones. c.16. The Apostolic Constitutions may or may not
be what their present title infers; but no scholar who peruses
the opinions pro et contra, collected by Iltigius, (De Patribus
Apostolicis), Buddaeus, (Isagoge in Theologiam), and Baratier,
(De Successione Primorum Episcoporum), will assign them a later
date than A.D.150. The mention of Linus in them runs thus:
"Concerning those bishops who have been ordained in our lifetime,
we make known to you that they are these: Of Antioch, Euodius
ordained by me, Peter; of the Church of Rome, Linus, the (son) of
Claudia, was first ordained by Paul, and after Linus' death,
Clemens the second, ordained by me, Peter." Lib. i. c.46. In the
original, (Morgan gives the Greek - Keith Hunt) Analogy requires
'uios' to be supplied, but the relationship might have been so
well known as to render (Morgan gives the Greek word - Keith
Hunt) superfluous.
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when he addressed the British people themselves in Britain. But
Clemens Romanus not only proves to us that the family which the
Apostle thus honoured with his constant residence and instruction
was British, that the first bishop appointed by him over the
Church at Rome was of this British family, but that St.Paul
himself preached in Britain, for no other interpretation can be
assigned to his words, (Morgan gives the Greek - Keith Hunt)
"the extremity of the West." "Paul, after he had been to the
extremity of the West, underwent his martyrdom before the rulers
of mankind; and thus delivered from this world, went to his holy
place." 16
It may be suggested that Linus, the first bishop of Rome,
was, however, some other than the brother of Claudia mentioned by
St.Paul.Not so; for if the above of authorities permitted a doubt
to remain, the evidence of Irenaeus as to their identity is
conclusive: "The apostles," writes Orenaeus, A.d.180, "have
founded and built up the Church at Rome, committed the ministry
of its supervision to Linus. This is the Linus mentioned by Paul
in his epistle to Timothy." 17
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16 Clement. Rom., Epistola ad Corinthios, c.5. The passage in
'extenso' runs thus: "To leave the examples of antiquity, and to
come to the most recent, let us take the noble examples of our
own times. Let us place before our eyes the good apostles. Peter,
through unjust odium, underwent not one or two, but many
sufferings; and having undergone his martyrdom, he went to the
place of glory to which he was entitled. Paul, also, having seven
times worn chains, and been hunted and stoned, received the prize
of such endurance. For he was the herald of the Gospel in the
West as well as in the East, and enjoyed the illustrious
reputation of the faith in teaching the whole world to be
righteous. And after he had been to the extremity of the West, he
suffered martyrdom before the sovereigns of mankind; and thus
delivered from this world, he went to his holy place, the most
brilliant example of stedfastness that we possess."
17 Irenaei Opera, lib. iii. c.i. Irenaeus was born in Asia,
became a disciple of Polycarp. Bishop of Smyrna, afterwards a
presbyter of Lyons, whence he was sent as a delegate to the
Asiatic Churches. He succeeded Photinus in the bishopric, and
suffered under Severus.
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We are not aware we should be stating anything improbable if
we regarded St.Paul's domiciliation at the house of Pudens, or
his being ministered to immediately before his martyrdom by
Pudens, Claudia, and Linus, as additional presumptive evidence of
his sojourn in Britain. At any rate, we observe that all the
sympathies with which he was surrounded, after his arrival at
Rome, in the Claudian family, all the influences of that family
in their native country, would lead him to Britain in pre-
ference to any other land of the West. This was the great isle of
the Gentiles, the centre and source of their religion, and,
through his royal converts, a "mighty door and effectual" for
its conversion was opened to him.
Caractacus meanwhile continued to reside at Aber Gweryd, now
St.Donat's Major (Llan Ddunwyd), in Glamorganshire, where he had
built a palace, "more Romano." Everything invited Paul to
Britain, to follow the bishop he had already commissioned for the
work of the Gospel therein, and to be the guest of the royal
parent of Claudia. Considering the combination of circumstances
which now favoured the execution of his long-cherished design of
visiting the West of Europe, we should regard it much more
extraordinary if the Apostle had not come to Britain than we do
his coming here. When to this circumstantial evidence we add the
written testimonies we have adduced of Eusebius, Theodoret,
Clemens, and others, that he positively did preach in Britain, we
see fair reason for concurring in Bishop Burgess's conclusion,
though the bishop had but a part of the evidence we have
collected before him, "That we possess as substantial evidence,
as any historical fact can require, of St.Paul's journey to
Britain." 18
There are six years of St.Paul's life to be accounted for,
between his liberation from his first imprisonment and his
martyrdom at Aqua, Salviae in the Ostian Road, ner Rome. Part
certainly, the greater part perhaps, of this period, was spent in
Britain - in Siluria or Cambria, beyond the bounds of the Roman
empire; and hence the silence of the Greek and Latin writers
upon it.
Has any portion of his doctrine or teaching in Britain come
down to us? Any such would be sure to be transmitted in a British
form, and most probably in that triadic form in which the Druids,
the religious teachers of Britain, delivered their teaching. Now
we find in the ancient British language certain triads which
have never been known otherwise than as "the triads of Paul the
Apostle." They are not found "totidem verbis' either whole or
fragmentally, in his epistles, but the morality inculcated is,
of course, quite in unison with the rest of his Gospel preaching.
Triads of Paul the Apostle
"There are three sorts of men: The man of God, who renders good
for evil; the man of men, who renders good for good and evil for
evil; and the man of the devil, who renders evil for good.
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18 The ancient MS.in Merton College, Oxord, which purports to
contain a series of letters between St.Paul and Seneca, has more
than one allusion to St.Paul's residence in Siluria. Had the
large collection of British archives and MSS. deposited
at Verulam as late as A.D.80, descended to our times,
invaluable light would have been thrown on this as on many other
subjects of native interest. Amongst these works were the Poems
and Hymns of Claudia. Vide Matthew of Westminster, William of
Malmesbury, "Life of Eadmer."
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"Three kinds of men are the delights of God: the meek; the
lovers of peace; the lovers of mercy.
"There are three marks of the children of God: Gentle
deportment; a pure conscience; patient suffering of injuries.
"There are three chief duties demanded by God: justice to every
man; love; humility.
"In three places will be found the most of God: Where He is
mostly sought; where He is mostly loved; where there is least of
self.
"There are three things following faith in God: A conscience at
peace; union with heaven; what is necessary for life.
"Three ways a Christian punishes an enemy: By forgiving him; by
not divulging his wickedness; by doing him all the good in his
power.
"The three chief considerations of a Christian: Lest he should
displease God; lest he should be a stumblingblock to man; lest
his love to all that is good should wax cold.
"The three luxuries of a Christian feast: What God has prepared;
what can be obtained with justice to all; what love to all may
venture to use.
"Three persons have the claims and privileges of brothers and
sisters: the widow, the orphan; the stranger." 19
The evangelical simplicity of these precepts, contrasting so
forcibly with monkish and mediaeval inventions and superstitions,
favours the traditional acceptance of their Pauline origin. Their
preservation is due to the Cor of Ilid.
The foundation of the great abbey of Bangor Iscoed is
assigned by tradition to St.Paul. Its discipline and doctrine
were certainly known as "the Rule of Paul" ("Pauli
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19 Ancient British Triads; Triads of Paul the Apostle.
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Regula," and over each of the four gates was engraved his
precept, "If a man will not work, neither let him eat." Its
abbots regarded themselves as his successors; they were always
men of the highest grade in society, and generally of the blood
royal. Bede and other authors state the number of monks in it at
2,100. The scholars amounted to many thousands. Pelagius was its
twentieth abbot. St.Hilary and St.Benedict term it "Mater
omnium monasteriorum," the mother of all monasteries. The first
Egyptian monastery was founded by Pachomius, A.D.360. 20
In what language did St.Paul preach in Britain. This
question, if pursue, would open an interesting but difficult
investigation. Every apostle, by the Pentecostal inspiration,
possessed the command of every known tongue then in the world.
This supernatural faculty was part of the "power from on high"
with which they were endowed, and the lingual credential of their
divine mission. Of the fact that Paul preached in the British
tongue we have no evidence; neither have we any that he ever
preached in Latin; yet with both languages he must, as an
apostle, have been familiar. We infer he often preached in both.
The Druids in their sacred writings used the Bardic alphabet, of
forty-two characters; but in their civil transactions, as Caesar
informs us, the Greek alphabet. St.Paul wrote all his Epistles
in Greek, and Greek continued some time after the apostolic age
the language of the Church at Rome. The royal family of Britain
were, as we have seen, ardently attached to both Greek and Latin
literature. Cymbeline and Llyr, the old generation, had received
their education, which must necessarily have been the highest
Rome could impart, from Augustus Caesar
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20 "Pelagius heresiarchus ex Britannia oriundus famati
illius collegii Bangorensis praepositus erat in quo Christianorum
philosophorum 2,100 militabant suarum manuum laboribus juxta
Pauli doctrinam victitantes." - Vita Pelagii, p.3.
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himself. Caractacus must, unless we have recourse to the rather
violent supposition that Claudius, who heard, and Tacitus, who
has recorded, his oration, were proficients in British, have
delivered himself in Latin. 21
Paul, it is certain, used the tongue of the people in
preaching to the people. The canon he laid down for the
Corinthian Church was that which he practised himself. "If I know
not the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a
barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be to me a barbarian.... I
would rather in the church speak five words with my understanding
than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." 22
He must, therefore, according to this rule; have preached to
the Britons in their vernacular tongue.
By the conversion of the British dynasty in its various
members, a very important class of prophecies were fulfilled. The
expressions, also, "the ends of the earth," "the uttermost parts
of the earth," "the isles afar off," used by Isaiah, are
precisely those which the Roman authors also used to designate
Britain.
From "the captivity of Caractacus and the life of St.Paul in
the family of his daughter Claudia at Rome, to the turning of the
Roman empire into Christendom, the history of the royal dynasty
of Britain in connection with
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21 Claudia herself was the authoress of a volume of epigrams, a
volume of elegies, and a volume of sacred poems or hymns. Copies
of these were preserved in the library at Verulam as late as the
thirteen century.
22 I Cor. xiv. 11,19 : It was the uniform practice of
Christians, from the earliest times, to read the Scriptures in
the vulgar tongue, and it was not till the period of Charlemagne
that Latin became the language of the Church services. Vide
Usher's "Historia Dogmatica." No two causes contributed so much
to the declension of Christianity and the progress of
Mahometanism, as the suppression by the Church of Rome of the
vernacular Scriptures, and her adoption of image-worship.
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the Church of Christ is indeed one long, continuous, and exact
verification of Scriptural prophecy. 23
Against the British Church itself no charge of heretical
doctrine has at any, time been advanced, though the heresiarch,
the very prince of heretics - Pelagius, was nursed in her bosom.
Bede's reluctant testimony is, on this point, decisive. Whilst
the Christian Churches in 'Asia,' 'Africa,' and on the Continent
of Europe were overrun with false doctrines, the British Church
grew up and covered with its shade the whole nation, untroubled
for the space of four centuries by any root of bitterness. It is
reasonable to infer that the foundations of such a Church were
very deeply and faithfully laid by the hands of wise
master-builders. According to the foundation rose the
superstructure, resting on these four pillars - St.Paul,
Simon Zelotes, Joseph, Aristobulus. Its great evangelist
in the second century, St.Timotheus, the baptizer of his nephew
King Lucius and of his nobility at Winchester, had also received
the faith from the mouth of Paul him-
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23 A few of these prophecies we subjoin:
"It is a light thing that thou shouldest be My servant to raise
up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the outcasts of Israel: I
will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest
be My salvation unto the ends of the earth. Kings shall see and
arise; princes also shall worship. Behold they shall come from
the north and from the west. Kings shall be thy nursing-fathers
and queens thy nursing-mothers. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. The Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising. Thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be
nursed at thy side. The sons of strangers shall build up thy
walls, and kings shall minister unto thee. Thou shalt suck the
milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings. I will
set My sign among them, and send them that escape of them unto
the nations, unto the isles afar off, and they shall declare My
glory unto the Gentiles. They shall inherit the land for ever,
the branch of My planting." - Isaiah xlix, lx, lxvi.
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self. This unanimity of faith in the founders impressed itself on
the Church they founded, which continued in the things it had
learned and been assured of, knowing from whom it had learned
them."
Having thus first surveyed the religions of the ancient
world at the birth of Christianity, and next traced the
introduction of the latter, and its progress in Britain, a
bird's-eye view will shew us the following Churches, making up
the Catholic Church sixty-six years after the Incarnation:- In
Palestine-Jerusalem, Samaria, Caesarea, Lydda; in Assyria-
Babylon; in Syria-Antioch, Damascus; in Asia-Minor-Antioch of
Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Ephesus, Smyrna, Sardis, Thyatira,
Pergamos, Philadelphia, Caesarea in Cappadocia; Laodicea,
Colosse, Galatia; in Greece-Athens, Corinth, Thessalonica,
Beraea, Philippi, Crete; in Egypt-Alexandria; in Italy-Rome; in
Gaul-Lyons; in Britain-Cor Avalon (Glastonbury), Cor Salog (Old
Sarum), Cor Ilid (Llan Ilid) in Siluria.
The force of the testimony for St.Paul's residence in
Britain may, be more clearly estimated by comparing it with that
for St.Peter's at Rome. The earliest testimony in favour of
the latter is that of Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, A.D.180. 1
prior to which we find no indication in the Scriptures or
ecclesiastical authors that St.Peter ever visited or ever
intended to visit Rome, which, as a Gentile Church over which St.
Paul in the most pointed manner claimed
jurisdiction, 2 was certainly not within the province of the
apostle of the circumcision. Britain on the contrary, was within
Paul's province, placed already, as
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1 Irenaei Opera, lib. iii. c. I: "Matthew published" his Gospel
among the Hebrews in his own language while Peter and Paul were
engaged in evangelizing and founding the Christian Church at
Rome."
2 "My apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations,
among whom are ye also ... that I might have some fruit among you
also, as among other Gentiles." - Rom. i. 5, I3
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Ephesus and Crete had been, by Paul himself under one of
his bishops, Aristobulus. If we are to concede that St.Peter
founded the Roman Church in person, much more are we compelled by
infinitely stronger evidence to acknowledge that St.Paul in
personf-ounded the British Church. 3
Of St.Paul's life after quitting Britain no particulars have
descended to us. After visiting Asia we find him in the last
scene of his life returned to the bosom of the British royal
family at Rome. In his farewell charges to Timothy he sends him
the greetings of Pudens, Linus, and Claudia. These, with that of
Eubulus, the cousin of Claudia, are the only names of the
brethren mentioned by him; these ministered to him on the eve of
his martyrdom, these attended him when he was on the block of the
state lictor at Aquae Salviae, a little out of Rome, and these
con-
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3 If we desired to strengthen from Roman Catholic evidence the
apostolical foundations of the British Church, or to insist that
it can with equal justice, at least, as the Roman Church, claim
St.Peter amongst its founders, it would not be difficult to
adduce the affirmative evidence of Roman Catholic authorities
upon the point. Cornelius a Lapide, in answering the question
"How came St.Paul not to salute St.Peter in his Epistle to the
Romans," states, "Peter, banished with the rest of the Jews from
Rome by the edict of Claudius, was absent in Britain." (Cornelius
d Lapide, in Argumentum Epistolae St.Pauli ad Romanos, c. xvi.)
Eusebius Pamphilus, if we can credit the quotation of him by
a very untrustworthy author, Simeon Metaphrastes, states St.
Peter to have been in Britain as well as Rome. - (Metaphrastes ad
29 Junii.) The vision to which St.Peter refers. 2 Pet. 1.14,
"Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as
our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me," is said to have appeared
to him in Britain on the spot where once stood the British Church
of Lambedr (St.Peter), and now stands the Abbey of St. eter's,
Westminster. Lambeth may be a corruption of Lambedr. But this
question lies between Roman Catholic authors and their own
Church, which will scarcely put the seal of its infallibility on
a position that places the British Church on its own special
appropriated Rock.
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signed his remains with their own hands to the Pudentinian family
tomb on the Ostian Road. Like his Divine Master, "he made his
grave with the rich in his death." Linus, Claudia and Pudens and
their four children, when God in His appointed time called them
to receiv the same crown of the Cross, were buried by his side
the other royal converts, Bran, Caractacus, Cyllinus, an Eurgain
died peaceably in Britain, and were interred in the cor of Llid
in Siluria.
All-kings, heroes, apostles, martyrs, saints- w ere united
in the kingdom of light, in the joy of their Lord. 4
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4 Bede was a very earnest adherent of the novel papal Church,
introduced A.D.596, by Augustine into Britain, but the honesty
and simplicity of his character has rendered his history in many
respects a very inconvenient and obnoxious record to the said
Church. What became of the remains of St.Peter and St.Paul? At
Rome they still pretend to exhibit them, but Bede - and it must
be remembered he is a canonized saint in the Roman calendar -
expressly states that the remains of the bodies of the
apostles Peter and Paul, the martyrs St. Lawrence, St. John,
St.Gregory, and St.Pancras, were, at the solicitation of King
Oswy to Pope Vitalian, removed from Rome to England, and
deposited at Canterbury A.D.656, Pope Vitalian's letter to Oswy
being extant. (Bedoe hist., lib. iii. c. 29.) Their remains,
then, if any, repose in British soil.
CONCLUSION:
FROM the preceding investigation ensue the following
conclusions:--
1. Before Christianity originated in Judaea, there had existed
from the remotest period in Britain a religion known
as the Druidic, of which the two leading doctrines were identical
with those of Christianity, viz., the immortality of the soul
and vicarious atonement.
(On the "IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL" Morgan is correct IF we are
talking about the Church of Rome and popular Christianity. The
TRUE Church of God NEVER held the teaching of the immortality of
the soul. It was one of the teachings that the Druids had wrong,
as did most other nations of the world - Keith Hunt)
2. That this identity pointed out Britain as of all Gentile
countries the one best prepared for the reception of
Christianity.
(No, there were other important truths the Druids had which were
conducive for the population of Britain to readily accept Christ
and His teachings. Second, Britain was not Gentile but was
inhabited by people descended from Judah and other tribes of
Israel such as Simion and Levi. About 1100 B.C. the first to
settle (others just came and went) in Britain was Brutus and his
people, who were from the Trojan line (the city of Troy) who were
from the House of Judah. All of this is found in other studies on
this Website - Keith Hunt)
3. That the only religions persecuted by the Roman government
were the Druidic and the Christian.
4. That this common persecution by the great military empire with
which Britain was engaged in incessant hostilities from A.D.43
to A.D.118, materially aided in predisposing the British mind in
favour of Christianity.
5. That Britain, being the only free state of Europe, was the
only country which afforded a secure asylum to the Christians
persecuted by the Roman government.
6. That a current of Christianity flowed into Britain from the
East contemporaneously with the first dispersion of the Church at
Jerusalem, A.D. 5-38.
7 That the first planters of the Gospel in Britain never were in
Rome at all, but came hither from the mother Church at Jerusalem.
8. That these first planters were Joseph of Arimathaea and his
associates, who settled under the protection of the British king
Arviragus in the Isle of Avalon, Glastonbury - one of the Druidic
cors of Somerset.
9. That among the earliest converts of Joseph and his fraternity
were Gladys (Pomponia Graecina) the sister, Gladys or Claudia,
and Eurgain, the daughters, and Linus the son of Caractacus,
prince of Siluria, and military dictator of the national forces
against the Romans.
10. That the second planter of the word was Simon Zelotes the
apostle, who was martyred and buried in the Roman province,
probably near Caistor, in Lincolnshire.
11. That the third planter was Aristobulus, one of the seventy,
brother of St.Barnabas and father-in-law of St.Peter;
commissioned first bishop of Britain by St.Paul, and consecrated
by St.Barnabas, the two apostles to the Gentiles. That
Aristobulus was engaged in his mission in Britain when St.Paul
wrote his Epistle to the Romans, some years before his first
visit, or the visit of any other apostle, to Rome.
I2. That Pudens, the husband of Claudia, Claudia herself, the
sister Eurgain, her brother Linus, and aunt Pomponia, being
converted prior to St.Paul's visit to Rome, the rest of the
British royal family, Bran, Caractacus, Cyllinus and Cynon, were
converted and baptized by St.Paul himself during his detention
in that city preceding his first trial. That the palace of Pudens
and Claudia was the home of St.Paul and the other apostles; that
their four children, Timotheus, Novatus, Pudentiana and Praxedes,
were instructed in the faith by St.Paul; and that Linus, the
brother of Claudia and second son of Caractacus, was appointed by
the same apostle first bishop of the Church of Rome, such Church
meeting at that time, and till in the reign of Constantine, in
the aforesaid palace, called indifferently "Domus Pudentis,
Palatium Britannicum, Domus Apostolorum, Titulus, Pastor, St.
Pudentiana."
13. That after the return of Caractacus to Siluria, St.Paul
himself, following the footsteps of his bishop and forerunner,
Aristobulus, visited Britain, and confirmed the British Churches
in the faith.
14. That the last days of St.Paul, preceding his martyrdom at
Rome, were attended by Pudens, Claudia, Linus, Eubulus, whose
salutations he sends in his dying charge to Timothy, and that his
remains were interred by them in their family sepulchre.
15. That the foundations of the British Church were Apostolical,
being coeval, within a few years, with those of the Pentecostal
Church in Jerusalem - preceding, those of the primitive Church of
Rome, so far as they were laid by either an apostle or apostolic
bishop, by seven years preceding the arrival of St.Peter at Rome,
as fixed by the great majority of Roman Catholic historians
(thirteenth year of Nero), by thirty years - preceding the first
arrival of the papal Church of Rome in Britain, under Augustine,
by 456 years.
16. That the British Church has from its origin been a royal one;
the royal family of ancient Britain - of whom our present
sovereign is, through the Tudors, the lineal blood representative
- being 1. the first British converts to Christianity; 2. the
founders of the first Christian institutions in Britain; 3. the
chief instruments, in the second century, in the establishment of
Christianity as the state religion; and in the fourth century, in
the persons of Helen and Constantine the Great, the chief
instrument in the abolition of Paganism, and the substitution, in
its place, of Christianity over the whole Roman Empire.
17. That the spiritual or ecclesiastical head of the British
Church was always a Briton, resident in Britain, amenable to
British laws, and British laws only, and having no superior in
the Church but Christ.
18. That whatever may be the religious advantages or
disadvantages of the union of the ecclesiastical and civil
governments in the person of the Sovereign, such union has been,
from the first colonization of our Island, first in Druidic and
then in Christian times, the native British, as opposed to the
foreign papal - and, in later times, dissenting - principle of
their separation.
........................
END of the book "SAINT PAUL IN BRITAIN" by R.W.Morgan (published
in 1860)
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