Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Short History of the Church in Great Britain
It is in the fourth century that we first hear, on what is pro bably sound evidence, of the name of a British Christian. Near where the town of S. Albans now stands there was a Roman camp, and there a soldier saved the life of a Christian priest, and from him learnt the faith of Christ. He was ordered to deny Christ, and do sacrifice to the Roman gods. He refused, and was martyred. His name was Alban, and some say (probably it is a mistake) that he had a companion named Amphi balus. On the place where he suffered, then called Verulamium, rose in later years a town and a great abbey which took its name from him. The persecution in which Alban was martyred soon passed away, and the number of Christians rapidly increased. In 314 three British bishops, with a priest and deacon, attended a church council at Arles, in southern Gaul. These bishops came from York, London, and Lincoln, all important cities in the fourth century. A few years later British bishops attended other councils (sardice, 343; Ariminum, Christian inscriptions survive in Dorset, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, at Cirencester and at Bath and there were certainly Christian churches at Silchester and at Canterbury while the Romans still ruled the land.
Early in the fifth century the Romans abandoned Britain. They left behind them an organised civilisation and a Christian Church which had spread to Cornwall and Wales, and was soon to extend its in?uence across the Tyne. The Church was in union with the Church over sea. It received and taught the Catholic faith.
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