On The Ruin of Britain | Page 7

world, remote from the visible sun, received the beams of
light, that is, the holy precepts of Christ, the true Sun, showing to the
whole world his splendour, not only from the temporal firmament, but
from the height of heaven, which surpasses every thing temporal, at the
latter part, as we know, of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, by whom his
religion was propagated without impediment, and death threatened to
those who interfered with its professors.
9. These rays of light were received with lukewarm minds by the
inhabitants, but they nevertheless took root among some of them in a
greater or less degree, until the nine years' persecution of the tyrant
Diocletian, when the churches throughout the whole world were
overthrown, all the copies of the Holy Scriptures which could be found
burned in the streets, and the chosen pastors of God's flock butchered,
together with their innocent sheep, in order that not a vestige, if

possible, might remain in some provinces of Christ's religion. What
disgraceful flights then took place-what slaughter and death inflicted by
way of punishment in divers shapes,--what dreadful apostacies from
religion; and on the contrary, what glorious crowns of martyrdom then
were won, --what raving fury was displayed by the persecutors, and
patience on the part of the suffering saints, ecclesiastical history
informs us; for the whole church were crowding in a body, to leave
behind them the dark things of this world, and to make the best of their
way to the happy mansions of heaven, as if to their proper home.
10. God, therefore, who wishes all men to be saved, and who calls
sinners no less than those who think themselves righteous, magnified
his mercy towards us, and, as we know, during the above-named
persecution, that Britain might not totally be enveloped in the dark
shades of night, he, of his own free gift, kindled up among us bright
luminaries of holy martyrs, whose places of burial and of martyrdom,
had they not for our manifold crimes been interfered with and
destroyed by the barbarians, would have still kindled in the minds of
the beholders no small fire of divine charity. Such were St. Alban of
Verulam, Aaron and Julius, citizens of Carlisle, * and the rest, of both
sexes, who in different places stood their ground in the Christian
contest.
* Or Caerleon.
11. The first of these martyrs, St. Alban, for charity's sake saved
another confessor who was pursued by his persecutors, and was on the
point of being seized, by hiding him in his house, and then by changing
clothes with him, imitating in this example of Christ, who laid down his
life for his sheep, and exposing himself in the other's clothes to be
pursued in his stead. So pleasing to God was this conduct, that between
his confession and martyrdom, he was honoured with the performance
of wonderful miracles in presence of the impious blasphemers who
were carrying the Roman standards, and like the Israelites of old, who
trod dry-foot an unfrequented path whilst the ark of the covenant stood
some time on the sands in the midst of Jordan; so also the martyr, with
a thousand others, opened a path across the noble river Thames, whose
waters stood abrupt like precipices on either side; and seeing this, the
first of his executors was stricken with awe, and from a wolf became a
lamb; so that he thirsted for martyrdom, and boldly underwent that for

which he thirsted. The other holy martyrs were tormented with divers
sufferings, and their limbs were racked in such unheard of ways, that
they, without delay, erected the trophies of their glorious martyrdom
even in the gates of the city of Jerusalem. For those who survived, hid
themselves in woods and deserts, and secret caves, waiting until God,
who is the righteous judge of all, should reward their persecutors with
judgment, and themselves with protection of their lives.
12. In less than ten years, therefore, of the above-named persecution,
and when these bloody decrees began to fail in consequence of the
death of their authors, all Christ's young disciples, after so long and
wintry a night, begin to behold the genial light of heaven. They rebuild
the churches, which had been levelled to the ground; they found, erect,
and finish churches to the holy martyrs, and everywhere show their
ensigns as token of their victory; festivals are celebrated and
sacraments received with clean hearts and lips, and all the church's sons
rejoice as it were in the fostering bosom of a mother. For this holy
union remained between Christ their head and the members of his
church, until the Arian treason, fatal as a serpent, and vomiting its
poison from beyond the sea, caused deadly dissension between brothers
inhabiting the same house, and