ove him. He gave the
signal to march. Those of the citizens who accompanied him his soldiers
protected. All who remained behind, unable or unwilling to leave their
homes, all were overwhelmed in one great slaughter. The Romans calculated
that at Colchester, Verulam, and London, from seventy to eighty thousand
of Romans and their allies were slain by the enraged Britons[24]. We may
imagine how St. Paul would listen to that tale of woe, then quite fresh,
the most tragic event of the time; and how he would long for an
opportunity of softening the disposition of the Britons by the gentle
doctrines of Christ.

To no such source as that, however, are we to look for the beginnings of
the faith among us. There is no sign of any one great effort, by any one
great man, to introduce Christianity into our land. It came, we cannot
doubt, in the natural way, simply and quietly, through the nearest
continental neighbours of the Britons and their nearest kinsfolk, the
people of Gaul. That will form the main subject of my next lecture.

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.

We are to consider this evening the Christian Church in Britain, from the
earliest times at which we have any definite notice of it, to the time of
its expulsion from what had become England. It may be well to take notice
first of one or two statements of early writers about the existence of
Christianity here, at dates precisely known.

Tertullian, writing in or about the year 208, at a time when a revolt
against Severus in the north of this island gave special point to his
remark, thus describes the wide spread of the Gospel. "In all parts of
Spain, among the various nations of Gaul, in districts of Britain
inaccessible to the Romans but subdued to Christ, in all these the kingdom
and name of Christ are venerated." Origen, in 239, speaking of
polytheism, asks, "When, before the coming of Christ, did the land of
Britain hold the belief in the one God?" And again:--"The power of the
Saviour is felt even among those who are divided from our world, in
Britain." At the same time Origen gives us a timely warning against taking
his remarks to mean anything like the complete Christianisation of the
island; he tells us that among the Britons, and six other nations whom he
names, "very many