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INTRODUCTION. ji
i^ probable that it was very soon communicated to the Britons. It might be gaining
pa^,and spreading widely, before it received a civil establishment, as we are informed
of i^any martyrs, who witnessed to the truth under the persecution raised by the emperor
I^desian.* From the days of Constantine, the gospel would, no doubt, be much
deiised, and generally embraced ; for, we are assured, that three British bishops assisted
at^e council of Aries, a. d. 314, and subscribed' the acts of that council. We read,
4n, that some of them were present at the council of Ariminium, in 359.
, Now so illustrious an event, as the propagation of Christianity in this coimtry, could
not take place without bringing along with it a mighty change in the state of knowledge.
All those who embraced our holy religion, were turned from gross idolatry and absurd
. snperstitions, to the belief and worship of one God ; obtained a clear acquaintance with
their duty; and had their understandings enlarged with the persuasion and hopes of
^eternal life. Independently of the glorious spirital consequences derived fiom the
revelation of Jesus, the reception of it was a vast accession of wisdom ; as it contributed,
I in other respects, to expand the minds, and soften the manners of our ancestors. What
^the particular state of religious knowledge was, it is difficult to ascertain : but we find
diat doctrinal disputes agitated men in those days, as well as in succeeding times.
The Roman legions being called home, the Scots and Picts took the opportunity to attadc and harrass England ; upon which Vortigem, about the year 440, called the Saxons to his assistance, for which he rewarded them with the Isle of Thauet, and the whole county of Kent ; but they growing powerful and discontented, distressed the inhabitants of all the country eastward of the Severn. Whatever the state of knowledge might be, before the introducdon of the Saxons, it certainly received a great change for the worse, at that period. The repeated invasions of those barbarians, the wars they raised, and the desolations they occasioned, spread a general confusion, dispersed the Britons to the remotest parts of the country, destroyed the monuments of learning, and left no room for the improvement of the mind. They were in the lowest condition of Dce, rudeness, and barbariQr; their religious worship consisted of the grossest ^try ; and they sacrificed prisoners of war to their gods.
. Astle considers that the Saxons arrived in Britain wholly ignorant of letters ; i that they adopted the Roman characters which they found in this island, which had dybeen barbarised from their original Italian form by the British Romans and . Britons. Dr. Whittaker, in his History of Manchester, London, 1T75, also I this argument against Humphrey Wanley and Dr. Hicks, who maintained that glo-Saxon alphabet arose ont of the gothic. Dr. Johnson thinks, that the Saxons r arrival in Britain, were so illiterate as, most probably, to have been vrithout any a^babet Perhaps, however, an unison of the two was really the original ; and the letters wiiidi the Saxons formerly possessed in their own lands, were altered, amended or iminored by the Latin ones which they found in England. Mr. Astle further supposes
ff M^'fft. S3. The mldlen of Oiodetiaii, ia Uie morning of this day.demoUsh the principal church of Nlcodemla, Miconoiit the nered ToUunef to the flmmes. Upon the next day «u pnbUshed the first general edict otptnecuUon •gaiatt Uie Oulstiasi, by which all their rellgioui asaemblies in the empire were to be levelled to their foondaUona, aad Uie church property confiscated and aold to the liighest bidder, or granted to n^iadooa courtiers. This Tile aad aboniaabie decree waa inatantty torn from its eohufm by a Christiao of tanic j ha was burnt, or rather routed by a Blow fln, and snirercd with the patience of a martyr .
VjOOQ IC
