Pomponia, Gr.ecina, the wife of Plautius, a Roman general who commanded in England in the year 45, is thought, from a sentence in the Annals of Tacitus (xiii, 32), to have been a Christian, and the first in Britain. Tacitus says: "Also Pomponia Grrecina, an illustrious woman, married to Plautius (who on his re- turn from Britain entered the city with the pomp of an ovation), but accused of a foreign superstition, was left to the decision of her husband." She was tried, ac- cording to custom, for her abandonment of the national worship, by her own husband, Plautius, in the presence of her kindred, and was acquitted. She lived to a great age, apparently in sorrow, and wearing "no habit but that of mourning." This was attributed to grief for the fate of Julia, the daughter of Drusus, who was put to death by Messalina fourteen years before the accusa- tion was brought against Pomponia. But this alone would not account for the charge of forsaking the Ro- man religion ; and the supposition that she was a Chris- tian, and that her mode of life grew out of her religious faith, is certainly quite probable. The wife of Plautius and Claudia Ruffina are supposed to be of the saints that were in Caesar's household, mentioned by Paul (Phil, iv, 22). Claudia is celebrated by Martial for her admirable beauty and learning in the following epi- gram :
" From painted Britons how was Claudia born! The fair barbarian ! how do arts adorn ! When Roman charms a Grecian soul commend, Athens and Home may for the dame contend." Speed, a very ancient British author, says that " Claudia sent Paul's writings, which she calls spiritual manna, unto her friends in Britain, to feed their souls with the breail of life; and also the writings of Martial, to in- struct their minds with those lessons best fitting to pro- duce moral virtues" — which Speed thinks was the occa- sion of this line in Martial's works:
" And Britons now, they say, our verses learn to sing." Gildas, the most ancient and authentic British historian, who wrote about A.D. 564, in his book called De Vict.
POMPONIUS LSETUS
390
PONCE
Aurelii Ambrosii, affirms that the Britons received the Gospel under Tiberius, the emperor under w hom < hrist Buffered; and that many evangelists were senl from the apostles into this nation, who were the firsl planters of the Gospel; and who, he elsewhere says, continued with i Iii-iii until the cruel persecution of Diocletian, the emperor, about A.D. 290. See Ivimey, Hist, oftbx Eng- lish Baptist ; Fisher. Hn/iimiiK/s »/' Christ iwtity i X. V. L877,8vo), p. 521. (J. H.W.)
Pomponius Laetus, Julius, a distinguished Ital- ian humanist, was born in 1 135 at Amendolara, in Upper Calabria. He seems to have been a bastard of the illus- trious house of Sanseverini, in the kingdom of Naples. Si i far from being proud of this relationship, he Bhunned every reference toil ; and when, in later time-, bis parents invited the admired writer t<p acknov Ledge them, he an- swered)" Pomponius Lsetus cognatis el propinquis Buis salutem. Quod petitis fieri non potest Vale." He was still very young when be arrived at Rome, where he studied literature under Pietro di Monopoli, a clever grammarian of the time. At the death of Lorenzo Valla, his last master (1 157), he was deemed tit to suc- ceed him. lie founded an academy, where several lit- erary men, devoted like himself to the study of an- tiquity, assembled. Most of them were young men. Their enthusiasm for the classics made them renounce their Christian names, and adopt in their stead names borrowed from the classical languages. Perhaps these comparisons between the institutions of the pasl and of their own time may have resulted in depreciat- ing criticisms of the latter. Malignity knew bow in transform these, in the eyes of pope Paul II. into contempt for religion, complol against the Church, and finally conspiracy againsl its chief. Those of the academicians who could be got hold of were put to the rack— one of them died during the proceedings. Pom- ponius, who was at the time a resident of Venice, was arrested there, brought to Rome, and tortured like the others; but no avowal of his imagined crime could be pressed out ofhim. After interrogating him twice. Paul II declared that in future every one should be held for a heretic who. even in jest, pri tinred the word '■ acad- emy" (c p. on this point He Rossi, Roma Sotteranea,
vol. i i. In 1171 SixtUS IV, Taul's successor, allowed Pomponius to resume bis professorship in the Roman college, where he met with the same favor he had for- merly enjoyed, the students crowding to hi- lectures. Among those disciples (thej were called Pomponiani)
some were nun of merit, as AleSSaildrO lamese, pope under the name of Paul III. Andrea Full io oi Prceueste, and Conrad Peutinger. No one ever Was louder of manuscripts, medals, and inscriptions than Pomponius Lsetus; he was constantly seen pacing the streets of Rome in search of some monument of those pagan times in which he wished he had lived. There was no dark corner.no trace of antiquity, but he had can fully ex- amined it. and could give an account of it. In his little house on the Janiculan, with some chosen friends, he solemnized the anniversary of the foundation of Home and the birth of Romulus. Pomponius was of a mild