Righteousness to the whole world, and having come to the very limits of the West."

This has been said to be a "vague statement," but S. Clement was not a man to make vague statements ; as an educated man he knew what he was about, and understood his terms.

Clement, being a man of Greek culture, would give a very definite meaning to the "limits of the West." Plato describes the limits of the world as extending from Gades to the Phasis. So that in his opinion Gades, in this case, would be the "limits of the West." But Plato knew not of the conquest of Britain and its civilization by Rome as Clement did; so we must find the meaning of Clement's term from other authors. Colonies were planted in England, as we have seen above, at an early period of the Conquest. These would be, in all probability, the "limits of the West" to a man writing from Rome. Horace supports this. He speaks of the Britons as "ultimos orbis Britannos." So likewise Catullus, " ultimos Britannos." Herodotus, many centuries before, described the "Celts" of Gaul as the most Western nation; but after the Conquest surely the Britons, a true branch of the Celts, would be known to a Roman as the most Western nation subject to Rome. Furthermore, many expressions of the early Fathers would warrant us to give this meaning to the term used by S. Clement.

S. Jerome' says that S. Paul's preaching extended

as far as the earth itself (did this mean

from Phasis to Gades, or to Britain?

A. D. 400.

and further on, that he "preached the Gospel in the

Western parts."

S. Chrysostom, in his eloquent comparison of

Paul with Nero in the fourth Homily on

A. D. 400.

2 Tim., speaks of the former as having been "known and honoured by the world, and by those of the extreme limits of the world.""

Theodoret, having before mentioned the tradition of some of the Apostles having preached in Britain, goes on to say that Paul, after his jour

ney to Italy, proceeded to Spain and

A. D. 450.

the "Islands that lie in the ocean, and brought salvation to them."3

Venantius Fortunatus, the poet, says that S. Paul having crossed the sea to Great Britain, reached Thule and the ends of the

earth.*

2

Catal. Eccl. Script. 9. Hore, p. 14, note.

A. D. 500?

* S. Chrysostom, Hom. iv. on 2 Tim. iv. 10. "The name of the one the greater part have not heard of (Nero). The other is daily celebrated by Greeks and Barbarians, Scythians, and those who inhabit the extremities of the earth."

3 Com. in Ps. cxvi.; cf. also for the spread of the Faith, Serm. ix. de leg. Rel. Hist. 36; 2 Tim. for Spain.

* Lib. iii. De Vita S. Martini, quoted by Fuller, book i. Cent. I, §i. 8; also by Hore, p. 14, note. "Transit (S. Paul) Et Oceanum, vel qua facit Insula, portum Duasque Britannus habet Terras abque ultima Thule." Vid. Giles, p. 206.

Lastly, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, is quoted by the Magdeburg Centuriators, although the quotation is not in any extant works of Sophronius, as saying that S. Paul visited Britain. These authors mentioned above are supported in their statements by Archbishops Parker and Ussher, Stillingfleet, and others.1 Wordsworth, in his Commentary on S. Paul's Epistles, says that " in A. D. 64 S. Paul goes to Spain after his first imprisonment, and probably to Britain.".

3

Furthermore, Gildas, the Welsh historian, after speaking of the Roman times, and of the Monks of the Islands, and of the conquest of the South after the victory gained by Suetonius Paulinus over Boadicea, and of the terrible cruelty and sufferings that accompanied it, goes on to say, "In the meantime, Christ, the true sun, cast its rays, that is, the knowledge of His Laws, on the Island." These words of our historian, "In the meantime," in the opinion of many, fix the introduction of Christianity at this very time in the life of St. Paul. Now as the defeat of Boadicea took place in the year 61, and the martyrdom of S. Paul did not happen before the year 68, it is by no means improbable that the Gospel was introduced

1 Hore, p. 15. Ussher, Brit. Eccles. Antiq., p. 5.

2 Words., p. xvii, and on Rom. xv. 24. Vid. also Introd. to Ep. Tim. and Titus, p. 429.

• Stillingfleet, Origines Brit. 6. Cf. Mon. Hist. Brit.: "While he (Nero) thus trifled at Rome, a dreadful calamity happened in Britain; for two cities were destroyed, eighty thousand of the Romans or their allies were slain, and the Island became in a state of insurrection."

4 Gildas' Hist. 6. Perranzabuloe, Trelawny, pp. 36, 37. Vid. also Cave's Lives of the Apostles.

by that Apostle, between the year 58, when he was released from his imprisonment at Rome, and the year 61, when Boadicea was defeated by the Romans. When S. Paul was at Rome during his first imprisonment there can be little doubt but that he must have often heard, from those who passed to and fro, of the state of Britain. Aulus Plautius had a Christian wife, and he had been the Roman lieutenant of the country.

Against this authority of ancient writers we must set the learned investigations of many modern writers; but whatever may be their investigations, there is a strong presumption in favour of S. Paul having visited Britain. This is not at all an unreasonable presumption. He would have had ample opportunities of visiting the furthest bounds of the Roman Empire, although we have not any absolute historical proof that he did so. And if he did not, some disciple of Christ must have before S. Paul's death.

IV.

"This the Romans thought a famous victory; wherein the wife and daughter of Caractacus were taken, his brothers also reduced to obedience."

Haddan Remains, etc.

This would be agreeable to the ancient authorities quoted, who must have some weight and contain some truth. Presumptive evidence cannot be lightly laid aside, unless there is something of greater authority to the contrary. Vid. Evan's View of the Primitive Ages, pt. ii. cap. i.

• Tacitus Annal. xii. 31-40.

"Clara ea victoria fuit captaque

uxore et filia Caractaci, fratres quoque in deditionen accepti."

Such are the words of Tacitus as he sums up his description of the victory of the Romans over Carac

Evidence respecting the Family of Bran

the Blessed who

are said to have

ianity to the Britons.

tacus, in the proprætorship of P. Ostorius, under Aulus Plautius the General in A. D. 50, being, as Tacitus says, the

brought Christ- ninth year after the war was begun in Britain, and in the reign of Claudius. Caractacus was then taken captive to Rome, together with his wife, daughter, and mother, in

A. D. 60.

A. D. 50. Ten years later S. Paul arrives at Rome also, a prisoner : he had already expressed that he had been desirous "for many years" to visit it, in the Epistle he had written to the Romans in the spring of A. D. 58, from Corinth (Rom. xv. 23). We do not know how long he was kept at Rome, but we know from this Epistle that when he was at Rome, Christianity was there, and well known also.

A. D. 58.

There is, however, a strong tradition in Wales, preserved in the Welsh Triads, [these are collections of wise sayings and historical landmarks written in a poetical style, with the facts grouped in threes,] which are collated about the seventh or eighth century. In one Triad, which mentions the Three Holy

1 Tacit. Annal. xii. 36. War began circ. 42, ended 50 or 51. If war began in 43 (Eutrop. Hist. vii. 13) he must have been captured in 52.

2 Remains there two whole years," till spring of A. D. 63. In A. D. 64, after his liberation, goes probably to Spain, and perhaps to Britain.