nd of Britain, it
would be useless to argue that St. Patrick was a native of Gaul. The
Saint represents himself as a native of Britain; and even Probus, who
is credited with believing that St. Patrick was a native of Armoric
Gaul, distinctly states that the Saint was born in Britain (natus in
Britanniis). It is, however, not difficult to prove that there was a
province in Gaul called Britain (Britannia) even before the birth of
St. Patrick.

Strabo, in his "Description of Europe," narrates in the Fourth Book
that about 220 years before Christ, Publius Cornelius Scipio, the
father of Scipio Africanus, consulted the Roman deputies at Marseilles
about the cities of Gaul named Britannia, Narbonne, and Corbillo.
Sanson identifies Britannia with the present town of Abbeville on the
Somme. Dionysius, the author of "Perigesis," who wrote in the early
part of the first century, mentions the Britanni as settled on the
south of the Rhine, near the coast of Flanders.

Pliny, in his "Natural History," when recounting the various tribes on
the coast of Gaul, mentions the Morini and Oramfaci as inhabiting the
district of Boulogne, and places the Britanni between the last-named
tribe and Amiens. (Pliny, lib. i., cap. xxxi.; Carte's "General History
of England," vol i., p. 5).

"The Britanni on the Continent extended themselves farther along the
coast than when first known to the Romans, and the branch of that tribe
mentioned by Dionysius as settled on the coast of Flanders, and the
Britons of Picardy mentioned by Pliny, were of the same nation and
contiguous to each other. Dionysius further adds that they spread
themselves farther south, even to the mouth of the Loire, and to the
extremity of Armorica, which several writers say was called Britain
long before it came into general use (Carte, p. 6).

"Sulpicius Severus, in his "Sacred Histories," gives an account of the
Bishops summoned by the Emperor Constantius in the year 359 to the
Council of Ariminium n Italy. Four hundred Bishops from Italy, Africa,
Spain, and Gaul answered the summons, and the Emperor gave an order
that all the Bishops were to be boarded and lodged, whilst the Council
lasted, at the expense of the treasury. Whereupon Sulpicius, writing
with pride of the action taken by the Bishops of the three provinces,
Gallia, Aquitania, and Britannia, makes use of the following words:
"Sed id nostris, id est. Aquitanis, Gallis, et Britannis, idecens
visum; repudiatis fisca