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A. D. 300.]

TRACES OF ROMAN CUSTOMS.

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and of our weeks. January presents itself under the influence of the "Twofaced Janus;" March is the month of Mars; July keeps to the memory of the mighty Julius; and August claims an annual reverence for the crafty Augustus. It was in vain that the Saxons would have superseded these popular titles by their "wolf-monat," for January; and their "lenet-monat" (lengthening month) for March. In vain they would have made Cæsar and Octavius yield to their "hay-month" and their "barn-month." And yet they have put their perpetual stamp upon our week days. The Saxon Woden set his mark upon Wednesday, and banished the "dies Mercurii ;" Thor, the Saxon thunderer, was too mighty for the Roman Jupiter, who yielded up his "dies Jovis ;" and that endearing wife of Woden, the Saxon Frea, dispossessed the Roman goddess of love of her "dies Veneris." But the Saxons have not obliterated more trifling things. Many traditionary customs and superstitions which have come down to us from the Roman period still bear testimony to the Roman influence. Our parochial perambulations are the ancient Terminalia; our May-day is the festival of Flora. Our marriage ceremonies are all Romanthe ring, the veil, the wedding gifts, the groomsmen and bridesmaids, the bride-cake. Our funeral images and customs are Roman-the cypress and the yew, the flowers strewn upon graves, the black for mourning. The lucky days of a century ago were the "dies albi" of the Romans, and the unlucky, "dies atri." If we ask why we say "God bless you to the sneezer, we only ask a question which Pliny asked, and perform a ceremony which even the stern Tiberius thought it necessary to perform. If we laugh at the credulous fancy of the simple maiden, who, when her ears tingle, says that a distant one is talking of her, we should recollect that the Romans.believed in some influence of a mesmeric nature which produced the same effect. We have faith in odd numbers, as Virgil records the faith "Numero Deus impare gaudet." "A screech-owl at midnight," says Addison, "has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers." The terror was traditionary. "The bird of night" was ever an evil bird; and no Roman superstition entered more completely into the popular belief, and was more referred to by the historians and the poets. Indications such as these of the influences of the obscure past may be as trustworthy records as half obliterated inscriptions. They enable us to piece out a passage or two in the history of a people.

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Introduction of Christianity-Persecution of Diocletian-St. Alban-Constantine-Church in Britain-Extortions and cruelties of the notary Paulus-Irruption of the Scots and Picts -Maximus-British colony of Armorica-Assertion of independence by Britons and Armoricans.

AN ancient chronicler of Dover Castle says,-" In the year of Grace, 180, reigned in Britain, Lucius. He became a Christian under Pope Eleutherius, and served God, and advanced Holy Church as much as he could. Amongst other benefits, he made a church in the said Castle, where the people of the town might receive the sacraments."* The remains of some ancient church, constructed of Roman materials, if not of Roman work, are still to be seen within the area of Dover Castle. The ruins, and the traditions which belong to them, are no sufficient evidence that here is the church of Lucius; nor is the record of the Dover chronicler, and other annalists of much more value as to the period of the introduction of Christianity into Britain, nor of the instruments of the Divine will by whom it was introduced. Tertullian, at the beginning of the third century, says that Britain had received the faith of Christ. The extent of its reception is very doubtful at that early date.

But if the statements of the ancient British writers, as to the adoption of

· Quoted in Dugdale--Account of the Nunnery of Saint Martin.

A.D. 304.]

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY-ST. ALBAN.

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Christianity by Lucius, or Lever Maur (the great light), are deficient in that precision which constitutes historical authenticity, there is ample evidence that a Christian church of some importance was established in Britain at the beginning of the fourth century. At the first Council of Arles, in 314, three British bishops are recorded to have been present, and to have asserted opinions in some degree differing from those of the Romish Church. Constantine was then Emperor. He, the son of Constantius, by an English mother, Helena,-born in Britain-raised to the imperial power by the affection of the army in Britain, in 306,-would necessarily afford every encouragement to the propagation of the faith which he had himself adopted. But, a few years before, the spread of Christianity had been fearfully interrupted by the persecutions under Diocletian and Maximian. To this period of fiery trial belongs the history of the British proto-martyr, Alban. Milton treats this passage of our annals with characteristic brevity:-" Diocletian, having hitherto successfully used his valour against the enemies of his empire, uses now his rage in a bloody persecution against his obedient and harmless Christian subjects: from the feeling whereof, neither was this island, though most remote, far enough removed. Among them here who suffered gloriously, Aron, and Julius of Caerleon-upon-Usk, but chiefly Alban of Verulam, were most renowned: the story of whose martyrdom, soiled and worse martyred with the fabling zeal of some idle fancies, more fond of miracles than apprehensive of truth, deserves not longer digression." The legend of Saint Alban, as told by Bede, has much of what in these days we may call "fabling zeal"; but, nevertheless, in his beautiful and simple narrative, we may recognise much that is "apprehensive of truth." The celebrity of Alban was recognised by an Italian poet of the sixth century, before Bede wrote in the eighth. Deduct from Bede's narrative the miraculous drying-up of the waters of the river to allow the martyr's passage, and the sudden gushing out of a spring to afford him drink, and we have a consistent relation, which presents what we may well believe to be an accurate historical picture of the individual persecution of a British Christian before a Roman tribunal, bent upon enforcing the heathen worship. Alban was a Pagan, says Bede, at the time when the persecution began; and receiving into his house a certain priest, who was flying from the oppressors, was converted by his piety, and became a Christian in all sincerity of heart. When the hiding-place of the fugitive was discovered, Alban disguised himself in the clerical gown which his guest had worn, and was led bound before the Roman magistrate. The sacrifice to friendship was perfected by the stripes and death of the "selfoffered victim," who boldly declared himself: "My name is Alban, and I worship the only true and living God, who created all things." He was delivered to the lictor; but the man was so moved by the fortitude of the Christian, and by the miraculous circumstances attending his progress, that he refused to perform his bloody office. Another executioner was found, and the two perished together. Bede has described the locality of this scene with an exactness which was evidently derived from personal observation of the hill of St. Alban's, whose gentle slopes, clothed with flowers, delighted the imagination of the venerable monk of Jarrow.

The civil government of Britain was remodelled by Constantine. The province was placed under the jurisdiction of the prefect of the Gauls; and

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THE CHURCH IN BRITAIN.

(A.D. 337 his deputy, who bore the title of Vicar of Britain, resided at York. Under him were presidents of each of the four great divisions of the island. The military administration of the country was separated from the civil, and was confided to three officers, whose titles of Count and Duke have descended to modern ages. Constantine died in the year 337: but the internal tranquillity of the island was little disturbed for half a century after the persecution of the Christians had ceased. We have no record during this period of the

Roman Lictor.-Soo p. 1.

comparative prevalence of the old British superstitions; of the rites of Pagan Rome; and of the Christian worship. But, even at this early period, the Church in Britain partook of the doctrinal contentions that in all periods have interfered with the general reception of the great fundamental principles of the religion of Christ. Whilst the Romanised Britons were giving a cold and qualified adherence to the divinations and sacrifices of temples raised to Diana and Apollo, and some converts to a nobler creed indignantly cast away their household deities;* and whilst the ancient votaries of Druidism were gradually adapting themselves to a faith, to which, in the doctrine of a future life and of a supreme judge, their own had some faint relation, the dif ferences of the Romish and Eastern Churches about the celebration of Easter, and the violent opposition of the Arian and the more orthodox creed,

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penetrated into these regions so far removed from the disputes of the great Councils. At a later period, the contests about points of doctrine became more strenuous; and we may in part attribute to these dissensions the remarkable circumstance that, during two centuries, the Christian creed was entirely swept away by Saxon heathendom; and that not only the names of Arius and Athanasius, which were familiar in the fourth century, were forgotten, but that the great fact recorded by Chrysostom at the end of that century, that the Britannic isles had felt the power of the Word, and that

The small figures found in the bed of the Thames, at London, which are represented in the following page, are supposed to have been thrown there by some of the more zealous converts to Christianity, who thus rejected their Penates.

A.b. 350.) THE CHURCH IN BRITAIN-THE NOTARY PAULUS.

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"churches and altars had been erected,"-had passed away, like "an insubstartial pageant faded." But amidst these polemical conflicts, which were probably more agitating the ecclesiastics than disturbing the people, the healing and humanising doctrines of Christianity were operating to produce the tranquillity and prosperity

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which seemed to have belonged

to Britain in the days of Constantine and his immediate successors. The Church had, to some extent, become a power; and in producing a comparative equality amongst the populations of the island-Roman, British and Teutonic,-it had mitigated many of the oppressions of a military despotism, and partially cemented the heterogeneous elements of society into the materials for forming a nation. There is a dramatic incident, however, belonging to the time of Constantius, the son of Constantine, which shows how the government of a province may be administered, so as to become an instrument of official cruelty and rapacity. The story is told very circumstantially by Ammianus Marcellinus, who flourished within a quarter of a century of the period. In the year 350, Magnentius, whose father was a Briton, aimed at the supreme power of the Western empire; and his conspiracy was favoured by some portion of the army in Britain. Paulus, a Spaniard, was sent by Constantius to search out the offenders against his power. The revolt had been put down, and Magnentius slain; but Paulus came with his delegated authority to revel in all the abominations which avarice can inflict when it clothes itself in the robes of justice. What the judge Jefferies was to England in the seventeenth century, the notary Paulus was

Bronze Images, found in the Thames.

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Constantine the Great.

in the fourth century. Wherever there was wealth to be plundered, there was the accuser. At the tribunal of Paulus innocence was no protection, if the victim was worth the trouble of being hunted out of life. The pro-prefect, or vicar of Britain, Martinus, opposed the unjust judge. But he was destined to be involved in the general proscription of the rich and powerful. Driven to despair, he drew his sword upon the notary; but, missing his blow, he plunged the weapon into his own heart. There was no barrier then to the ravages of the tyrant; and Constantius applauded the executions and the tortures, the confiscations and the banishments, which were inflicted by his atrocious instrument. Julian, the succeeding emperor, commanded Paulus to be burnt alive.

There were troubles now coming upon the fertile provinces which were

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