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  THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THESE
  ISLANDS BEFORE THE COMING
  OF AUGUSTINE.

  _Three Lectures delivered at St. Paul's in
  January 1894_


  BY THE
  REV. G. F. BROWNE, B.D., D.C.L.,

  CANON OF ST. PAUL'S,
  AND FORMERLY DISNEY PROFESSOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE
  UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.


  PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.


  LONDON:
  SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
  NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
  NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.
  1894.




CONTENTS.


LECTURE I.

                                                            PAGE

Importance of the anniversaries connected with the years
1894-1897.--Christianity in Kent immediately before
Augustine.--Dates of Bishop Luidhard and Queen Bertha.--
Romano-British Churches in Canterbury.--Who were the
Britons.--Traditional origin of British Christianity.--
St. Paul.--Joseph of Arimathea.--Glastonbury.--Roman
references to Britain                                          5


LECTURE II.

Early mentions of Christianity in Britain.--King
Lucius.--Origin and spread of Christianity in Gaul.--
British Bishops at Councils.--Pelagianism.--British
Bishops of London.--Fastidius                                 54


LECTURE III.

Early Christianity in other parts of these islands.--
Ninian in the south-west of Scotland.--Palladius and
Patrick in Ireland.--Columba in Scotland.--Kentigern
in Cumbria.--Wales--Cornwall.--The fate of the several
Churches.--Special rites &c. of the British Church.--
General conclusion                                          107




_The Christian Church in these Islands before the coming of Augustine._




LECTURE I.

     Importance of the anniversaries connected with the years
     1894-1897.--Christianity in Kent immediately before Augustine.--Dates
     of Bishop Luidhard and Queen Bertha.--Romano-British Churches in
     Canterbury.--Who were the Britons.--Traditional origin of British
     Christianity.--St. Paul.--Joseph of Arimathea.--Glastonbury.--Roman
     references to Britain.


We are approaching an anniversary of the highest interest to all English
people: to English Churchmen first, for it is the thirteen-hundredth
anniversary of the planting of the Church of England; but also to all who
are proud of English civilisation, for the planting of a Christian Church
is the surest means of civilisation, and English civilisation owes
everything to the English Church. In 1897 those who are still here will
celebrate the thirteen-hundredth anniversary of the conversion of
Ethelbert, king of the Kentish people, by Augustine and the band of
missionaries sent by our great benefactor Gregory, the sixty-fourth bishop
of Rome. I am sorry that the limitation of my present subject prevents me
from enlarging upon the merits of that great man, and upon our debt to
him. Englishmen must always remember that it was Gregory who gave to the
Italian Mission whatever force it had; it was Gregory who gave it courage,
when the dangers of a journey through France were sufficient to keep it
for months shivering with fear under the shadow of the Alps; it was
Gregory who gave it such measure of wisdom and common sense as it had,
qualities which its leader sadly lacked. Coming nearer to the present
year, there will be in 1896 the final departure of Augustine from Rome to
commemorate, on July 23, and his arrival here in the late autumn. In 1895
there will be to commemorate the first departure from Rome of Augustine
and his Mission, by way of Lerins and Marseilles to Aix, and the return of
Augustine to Rome, when his companions, in fear of the dangers of the way,
refused to go further. An ill-omened beginning, prophetic and prolific of
like results. The history of the Italian Mission is a history of failure
to face danger. Mellitus fled from London, and got himself safe to Gaul;
Justus fled from Rochester, and got himself safe to Gaul; Laurentius was
packed up to fly from Canterbury and follow them[1]; Paulinus fled from
York. In 1894 we have, as I believe, to commemorate the final abandonment
of earlier and independent plans for the conversion of the English in
Kent, from which abandonment the Mission of Augustine came to be.

It is a very interesting fact that just when we are preparing to
commemorate the thirteen-hundredth anniversary of the introduction of
Christianity into England, and are drawing special attention to the fact
that Christianity had existed in this island, among the Britons, for at
least four hundred years before its introduction to the English, our
neighbours in France are similarly engaged. They are preparing to
celebrate in 1896 the fourteen-hundredth anniversary of "the introduction
of Christianity into France," as the newspapers put it. This means that
in 496, Clovis, king of the Franks, became a Christian; as, in 597,
Ethelbert, king of the Kentish-men, became a Christian[2]. As we have to