have not yet heard the word of the Gospel."

The Greek historian Sozomen speaks of Constantine living in Gaul and
Britain, and there, as, he says, was universally admitted, becoming a
Christian. Both Eusebius, writing about 320, and Sozomen, about 443, tell
of an experiment made in the palace by Constantine's father Constantius,
when he governed Gaul and Britain, which shews the spread of the gospel
and the high places it had by that time reached. It has this special
interest for Britain, that York was one of the two cities at one of which
it must have taken place, Treves being the other; for those were the two
capitals and seats of government of the whole province of the Gauls, the
one for the continental the other for the insular department of the
province. A persecution of the Christians was ordered by his three
colleagues in the empire, about the year 303. Constantius, though not
himself a Christian, did not allow much severity in his own government; a
contemporary writer, Lactantius, declares that from east to west three
savage beasts raged; everywhere but in the Gauls, that is, Gaul and
Britain. The experiment was this. He told the officers of his court, who
are spoken of as if all were Christians, though he himself was not, that
those of them who would sacrifice to demons should remain with him and
enjoy their honours: those who would not, should be banished from his
presence. He gave them time to think the matter over. They came to him
again, each with his mind made up; and some said they would sacrifice, and
some said they would not. When all had declared their intention, he told
those who would sacrifice, that if they were ready to be false to their
God, he did not see how he could trust them to be true to him. To the
others he said that such worthy servants of their God would be faithful to
their king too. The story reminds us of the sturdy old pagan king of
Mercia, Penda, who said he was quite willing that the Lindisfarne
missionaries should convert his people to Christianity, if they could;
but he gave full warning that he would not have people calling themselves
Christians and not living up to their high profession.

This story of Constantius, the father of Constantine, which I prefer to
place at York, the favourite residence of Constantius, introduces us of
course to the one well-known result of the persecution, so far as Britain
was concerned, the death of Alban at Verulam, about 305. When you go to
St.