in Britain. Church Councils were held on the Continent. In the year 314, one was held at Arles to condemn the schism of the Donatists, with whose principles we are not at present concerned. We read in documents relating the doings of this Council that Bishops, a priest and a deacon were present there from Britain. The names are given of several of them. Eborius of Gaul, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, who was probably Bishop of Caerleon-on-Usk. This shows that the Gospel had reached Britain, and had a good footing here as early as 314 A.D. That Bishops were here at that time shows that there must have been clergy under them.
We read again, that in the year 359 the Bishops of Britain supported Athanasius against the teaching of the enemy Arius, and that then three of them were given their travelling expenses by the Emperor Constantine to visit the Continent. We may conclude, then, from all these statements, that before the end of the fourth century Christianity was settled in Britain. It had an organization through which it spread the Christian Faith. We know from the testimony of some of the early Fathers, that Britain took an interest in the theological disputes and struggles of early Christianity. S. Athanasius, in the year 363, reckoned the Britons among those who were loyal to the faith of the the Doctrine of the Incarnation. S. Jerome, who complained of the results of the Arian teaching and of its ascendency, said: [1]"That Britain worships the same Church, observes the same rule of faith as other nations." At the beginning of the fifth century our forefathers brought odium on themselves by encouraging the doctrine of Pelagius, who had
- ↑ Quoted by Hore, p.9. History of the Church of England (Edit. 1895).
