tional creatures. He held three ordinations in the month of December, and ordained 12 Presbyters or Priests, 8 Deacons, and 15 Bishops in divers places, and was buried near the body of St. Peter, within the Vatican, on the 25th day of May; and the See remained vacant 16 days.

5.-NOTICE OF THE PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS, DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN.1

In the year of our Lord, 286, Diocletian in the East, and Maximian Herculius in the West, ordered the churches to be plundered, and the Christians to be persecuted, and slain. Which persecution was the tenth after that of Nero, and lasted longer, and was more cruel than any of the preceding; for during ten years, it was constantly carried on by the burning of churches, and the murder of innocent martyrs. In the latter part, Britain became exalted by the glory of a devout confession to God; for therein St. Alban

This persecution broke out at Nicomedia, a town of Natolia in Asia Minor, February, A.D. 303, when an imperial edict was published for pulling down churches, and burning the Holy Scriptures; and being no less violent than general, Britain had a share in its severity. It however continued general, until Diocletian and Maximian resigned the empire in 305, upon which Constantius being declared emperor, the persecution ceased in Britain, and other places of the West, where it did not last two years, though it continued ten in the East. But though this persecution was short, it went to the extremity of punishment, and took away the lives of several Christians. Gildas informs us that St. Alban of Verulam, Aaron and Julius of Caerleon, and others of both sexes in several places, suffered martyrdom with the utmost firmness and resolution.-Collier's Eccl. Hist. Fol. Vol. I. pp. 20, 21. But to this persecution, ecclesiastical writers have fixed different dates; some agreeing with that mentioned in this book, viz. the year 286, and others fixing on the year 303, when Diocletian was the eighth, and Maximian the seventh time consuls.-Stillingfleet's Orig. Brit. p. 70.

suffered, of whom the presbyter Fortunatus, in his work on the Praise of Virgins, when making mention of the holy Martyrs of the whole world who came to Christ, says,

"Fertile Britain has produced the excellent Alban."

Julius and Aaron, with a multitude of martyrs, also suffered in the city of the Legions, which is situated on Usk.1

1 Caerleon, a market town in Monmouthshire. This place was the Isca Silurum of the Romans in the time of their emperor Claudius, whose second legion being recalled from Germany, was stationed here under the command of Vespasian. During the stay of the Romans in Britain, it continued to be the seat of government for the division of the country denominated Britannia Secunda, and in that period continued the theatre for the display of splendour and luxury. After the persecution under Diocletian, Caerleon became, under the auspices of Antoninus, the seat of learning and devotion; three Christian churches were erected, two in honour of the martyrs St. Julius and St. Aaron, and a third, to which was added a monastery, that afterwards became the metropolitan see of Wales, of which St. Dubricius was the first archbishop.-Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England. Beauties of England and Wales, Monmouthshire, p. 125–128. Coxe's Tour in Monmouthshire, p. 79-89.

CHAPTER II.1

ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST STATE OF THE CHURCH OF LLANDAFF-GRANTS TO THE CHURCH OF LLANDAFF BY PEBIAU AB ERB, KING OF ERGYNG OR ARCHENFIELD, AND HIS SONS, CYNFYN AND GWYDDAI-BY BRYTWN AND ILINC-ERB, KING OF GWENT AND ERGYNG-MERCHWYN AP GLEWYSAND BY NOE AB ARTHUR-BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF ST. DYFRIG OR DUBRICIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF LLAandaff.

1.-OF THE FIRST STATE OF THE CHURCH OF LLANDAFF.

In the year of our Lord, 156, Lucius, King of the Britons, sent his ambassadors, Elfan and Medwy, to Eleu

1 The arrangement of the original Text of the Book is hereby somewhat changed; the information relating to Urban, Bishop of Llandaff, the last Bishop mentioned therein, being removed to the latter part, and constituting the last three chapters of the English translation. The subject matter of this second chapter commences in the Latin at the 65th page.

2 Authors are by no means agreed about the time of the conversion of King Lucius. Archbishop Usher cites no less than three and twenty different opinions; Bede, the old Saxon Annals, and the author of the Annals of the Church of Rochester, who flourished about the year 1224, fix on the year 167, in the consulship of Severus and Herennianus, and in the eleventh year of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, when Eleutherius was Bishop of Rome; but Usher dates it nine years later. Notwithstanding this difference of chronology, that there was such a Christian King as Lucius about that time is beyond question; for Nennius, who lived in the beginning of the seventh century is positive on this point, and the English ambassadors at the council of Constance pleaded Lucius's conversion against the ambassador of Castile as an argument for precedence. However, it is evident from Gildas, and other writers, that Christianity got footing here in the apostolical age, but what progress it made, in what parts the church was established, and under whom, what successes or discouragements, what revolutions happened in the Ecclesiastical History of this island from the time of the Apostles to King Lucius, is altogether uncertain.-Collier's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I. p. 12.

In the Welsh Triads, Lucius is called Lleurwg ap Coel ap Cyllin, and Lleufer Mawr; and in later Welsh Chronicles, Lles ap Coel.

therius, who was the twelfth Pope of the apostolic see, imploring, according to his admonition, that he might be made a Christian, to which request he acceded; for giving thanks to God because that nation, which from the first inhabiting thereof by Brutus had been heathens, so ardently desired to embrace the faith of Christ, he with the advice of the elders of the Roman city, was pleased to cause the ambassadors to be baptized; and on their embracing the Catholic faith, Elfan was ordained a Bishop, and Medwy a Doctor. Through their eloquence, and the knowledge which they had in the Holy Scriptures, they returned preachers to Lucius in Britain; by whose holy preaching, Lucius, and the nobles of all Britain, received baptism; and according to the command of St. Eleutherius, the Pope, he constituted an ecclesiastical order, ordained Bishops, and taught the way of leading a good life. Which faith of the Christian religion, they preserved free from any stain of erroneous doctrine until the Pelagian heresy arose, to confute which, St. Germanus a Bishop, and Lupus, were by the chief clergy of Gaul sent to Britain. For the Britons had often previously sent messengers to them, requesting aid against such dreadful danger, dissapproving of, but unable to confute, the wicked doctrine of the heretics.

After the aforesaid illustrious persons had extirpated the Pelagian heresy, they consecrated Bishops in many parts of the island of Britain; and over all the Britons of the southern part, they consecrated the eminent doctor St. Dubricius, who was elected by the King and the whole district, to be Archbishop. Having received this dignity from Germanus and Lupus, they granted to him, with the consent of King Meurig, and of the princes, clergy, and people, the Episcopal See, which was founded in the dis

trict of Llandaff in honour of St. Peter the Apostle, with these boundaries-From Henriwgunna to Rhiwffynon, and from Cynlais1 to the sea, the whole district between the Taff1 and the Ely,1 with their fish, and wears for fisheries, and its dignity free from all service, regal and secular, except only daily prayer, and ecclesiastical service for his soul, and for the souls of his parents, kings and princes of Britain, and of all the faithful deceased; and with its privileges, without any governor, or deputy governor, without attendance at public courts either within or without the district, without going in military expeditions, without keeping watch over the country, in, or out of it, and with free commonage to the inhabitants of the whole diocese, in field and in woods, in water and in pastures, with its court complete within itself, free and entire as a regal court, with its refuge, not for any limited time, but to be perpetual; that is, that the fugitive might remain safe under its protection, as long as he should wish; and with the bodies of the kings of the whole diocese of Llandaff, given and committed to it for ever. The diocese to have five hundred wards, the bay of Severn, Ergyng, and Anergyng," from Mochros3 on the banks of the Wye, as far as the island Terthi.*

1 Rivers in the Counties of Brecon and Glamorgan.

2 Ergyng, or Archenfield, comprehended the portion of Herefordshire, S. W. of the river Wye, of which the present ecclesiastical Deanery of Archenfield, or Irchenfield, constitutes a part.

3 Moccas, the name of a parish, the church of which is on the south bank of the Wye, 9 miles W. N. W. distant from Hereford.

+ Probably the Island Barry, in the Bristol Channel, 64 miles S. W. from Cardiff. The original diocese of St. Dubricius thus appears to have been nearly the same as the present diocese of Llandaff, with the addition, however, of Ergyng.