That which is termed our second conversion, is the preaching of Damianus and Fugatius, sent hither by Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, in the days of king Lucius, in the year 190, as our author saith ; Beda, 156; Nauclerus, Baronius, 178; Henricus de Erfordia, 169, in the days of Aurelius or Commodus. I have many reasons to question this whole story ;^ and sundry parts of it, as those about the epistles
controversy with Romanists, who are fond of urging the claims of the Roman see to su- premacy, on the ground that Britain is indebted to it for its first acquaintance with Cliristianity. Resides the fact, that not till after the lapse of centuries did popes arise to usui-p an impious lordsliip ovev the church of Christ, all the history which can be summoned in adjudication of the dispute sho\YS that the Christian religion, in its pui'e and primitive form, reached our island by a different channel. — Ed.
' Several learned authors, such as Usher, Stillingfleet, Hooker, and others, concur in thinking that some R-ritish prince of the name of Lucius must have rendered eminent service in diffusing the Christian faith in some part of Britain. In the attempt to de- termine one point only, — the year of Iris admission into the Christian church, — Usher has occasion to quote upwards of fifty Latin authorities; and though it appears that one of the two coins on which he partly relied as evidence that such a royal personage once
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of Lucius aud Eloutherius, are palpably fictitious. But let us grant that about those days Fugatius and Daniianus came hither from Rome, and furthered the preaching of the gospel, which had taken footing Iiere so long before, and was no doubt preserved amongst many, — we know God in his providence used many various ways for the propagating of his gospel; sometimes he did it by merchants, sometimes by soldiers, sometimes by captives, as a i^oor maid gave occasion to the conversion of a whole province^ — what will hence ensue to the advantage of the pretensions of the Romanists ? The religion they planted here was doubtless that (and no other) which was then professed at Rome, and in most other places in the world, witli some small differences in outward observances, wherein each church took liberty to follow traditions or prudential reasonings of its own. When our author, or any for him, can make it appear that any thing material in that which we call Popery was in those days taught, believed, preached, or known among the churches of Christ, they will do somewhat to the purpose ; but the present flourish about the catholic faith planted here, which no man ever denied, is to none at all. It was the old catholic faith Ave at first received, and therefore not the present Romish.
After those days, wherein this propagation of Christianity by the ministry of Fugatius and Damianus in this province is supposed to have fallen out, a sad decay in faith and holiness of life befell pro- fessors, not only in this nation, but, for the most part, all the world over; which especially took place after God had graciously, in the
held sway in soutliern Britain is now pronounced false and counterfeit, this amount of historic testimony cannot be summarily discarded. There is extreme dithculty in dis- criminating the actual truth of history from the copious growth of fiction wldch loads the monkish narratives, from which all information respecting Lucius must be draAvn. That there was such a native prince in Britain, while Antoninus and Coramodus were emperors, amounts almost to a certainty; and his dominions seem to have comprised the modern counties of Surrey, Sussex, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire. Baronius states that from an early period of his life he had sliown an inclination to espouse and befriend the Chiistian cause, having already obtained a partial knowledge of it from its adherents in Britain. Some account reaching him of the heroic constancy evinced by the martyrs at Yienne and Lyons amid their sufferings, and of conversions which had occurred among the nobility of Rome to the Chiistiau faith, he could no longer refrain from a more careful inquiry into its principles and claims. He sent a deputation, consisting of two British Chiistians, to Eleutherius, at that time bishop of Rome, aud deserving of respect for his personal integrity, although he had once given his sanction, — which indeed he afterwards I'evoked, — to the impious heresy of Montanus, who assumed to be the Para- clete promised by our Savioui-, alleging that the term denoted not the Holy Ghost, but an inspired teacher authorized to prescribe a fuller rule of life than Chi-ist himself had given. The result may be given in the words of Baronius, who cannot be suspected of any leanings to a version of the stoiy unfavom-able to the pretensions of the Romish chiu'ch, and by whose account it appears, that whatever information Damianus and Fugatius (Duvianus and Faganus according to other authors) conveyed to the British prince, Christianity was already well known in the island before their arrival at liis court: — "This pontiff sent into Britain Fugatius and Donatianus, othenvise named Damianus, that they might initiate in the sacred mysteries the king, and others who were imbued with the Christian religion, — a duty which they diligently fulfilled, — for long before (as Gildas the ^\'ise testifies), the gospel of Chr-ist had been carried thither." ^Annal. Eccles. ii. a.d. 183. — Ed.