a Chaldæis succensus Hierosolymorum moenia, immo ædificia cuncta, consumsit. Sic enim et hic agente impio victore, immo disponente justo Judice, proximas quasque civitates agrosque depopulans, ab orientali mari usque ad occidentale, nullo prohibente, suum continuavit incendium, totamque prope insulæ pereuntis superficiem obtexit. Ruebant ædificia publica simul et privata, passim sacerdotes inter altaria trucidabantur, præsules cum populis, sine ullo respectu honoris, ferro pariter et flammis absumebantur; nec erat qui crudeliter interemtos sepulturæ traderet. Itaque nonnulli de miserandis reliquiis in montibus comprehensi acervatim jugulabantur; alii fame confecti procedentes manus hostibus dabant, pro accipiendis alimentorum subsidiis æternum subituri servitium, si tamen non continuo trucidarentur; alii transmarinas regiones dolentes petebant; alii perstantes in patria trepidi pauperem vitam in montibus, silvis, vel rupibus arduis, suspecta semper mente, agebant.

CAP. XVI.—

-UT BRITONES PRIMAM DE GENTE ANGLORUM VICTORIAM, DUCE AMBROSIO ROMANO HOMINE, SUMSERINT.

Ar ubi hostilis exercitus, exterminatis dispersisque insulæ indigenis, domum reversus est, cœperunt et illi paulatim vires animosque resumere, emergentes de latibulis, quibus abditi fuerant, et unanimo consensu auxilium cœleste precantes, ne usque ad internecionem usquequaque delerentur. Utebantur eo tempore duce Ambrosio Aureliano, viro modesto, qui solus forte Romanæ gentis præfatæ tempestati superfuerat, occisis in eadem

the crimes of the people; not unlike that which, being once lighted by the Chaldeans, consumed the walls and city of Jerusalem. For the barbarous conquerors acting here in the same manner, or rather the just Judge ordaining that they should so act, they plundered all the neighbouring cities and country, spread the conflagration from the eastern to the western sea, without any opposition, and covered almost every part of the devoted island. Public as well as private structures were over- \ turned; the priests were everywhere slain before the altars; the prelates and the people, without any respect of persons, were destroyed with fire and sword; nor was there any to bury those who had been thus cruelly slaughtered. Some of the miserable remainder, being taken in the mountains, were butchered in heaps. Others, spent with hunger, came forth and submitted themselves to the enemy for food, being destined to undergo perpetual servitude, if they were not even killed upon the spot. Some with sorrowful hearts fled beyond the seas. Others, continuing in their own country, led a miserable life among the woods, rocks, and mountains, with scarcely enough food to support life, and expecting every moment to be their last.

CHAP. XVI.-THE BRITONS OBTAINED THEIR FIRST VICTORY

OVER THE ANGLES, UNDER THE COMMAND OF AMBROSIUS, A
ROMAN.

defeats the

A.D. 466.

WHEN the victorious army, having destroyed and dis- Ambrosius persed the natives, had returned home to their own Saxons. settlements, the Britons began by degrees to take heart, and gather strength, sallying out of the lurking places where they had concealed themselves, and unanimously imploring the Divine assistance, that they might not utterly be destroyed. They had at that time for their leader, Ambrosius Aurelius, a modest man, who alone, by chance, of the Roman nation had survived the storm,

parentibus regium nomen et insigne ferentibus. Hoc ergo duce, vires capessunt Britones, et victores provocantes ad prælium victoriam ipsi, Deo favente, suscipiunt; et ex eo tempore nunc cives nunc hostes vincebant, usque ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis, quando non minimas eisdem hostibus strages dabant, quadragesimo circiter et quarto anno adventus eorum in Britanniam. Sed hæc postmodum.

CAP. XVII.—UT GERMANUS EPISCOPUS CUM LUPO BRI

TANNIAM

NAVIGANS ET PRIMO MARIS ET POSTMODUM PELAGIANORUM TEMPESTATEM DIVINA VIRTUTE SEDAVERIT.

ANTE paucos sane adventus eorum annos hæresis Pelagiana, per Agricolam illata, Severiani episcopi Pelagiani filium, fidem Britannorum fœda peste commaculaverat. Verum Britanni, (cum neque suscipere dogma perversum, gratiam Christi blasphemando, ullatenus vellent, neque versutiam nefariæ persuasionis refutare verbis certando sufficerent,) inveniunt salubre consilium, ut a Gallicanis antistitibus auxilium belli spiritualis inquirant. Quam ob causam, collecta magna synodo, quærebatur in commune, qui illuc ad succurrendum fidei mitti deberent; atque omnium judicio electi sunt apostolici sacerdotes Germanus Autissiodorensis et Lupus Trecasenæ civitatis episcopi, qui ad confirmandam fidem gratiæ cœlestis Britannias venirent. Qui, cum promta devotione preces et jussa sanctæ ecclesiæ suscepissent, intrant oceanum, et usque ad medium itineris, quo a Gallico sinu Britannias usque tenditur, secundis flatibus navis tuta volabat. Tum subito occurrit pergentibus inimica vis dæmonum, qui tantos talesque viros ad recuperandam tendere populorum salutem inviderent; concitant procellas, cœlum diemque nubium nocte subducunt, ventorum furores vela non sustinent, cedebant ministeria victa nautarum, fere

in which his parents, who were of the royal race, had A.D. 466. perished. Under him the Britons revived, and, offering battle to the victors, by the help of God, came off victorious. From that day, sometimes the natives, and sometimes their enemies, prevailed, till the year of the siege of Baddesdown-hill, when they made no small slaughter of those invaders, about forty-four years after their arrival in England. But of this hereafter.

CHAP. XVII.-HOW GERMANUS THE BISHOP, SAILING INTO
BRITAIN WITH LUPUS, FIRST QUELLED THE TEMPEST OF THE
SEA, AND AFTERWARDS THAT OF THE PELAGIANS, BY DIVINE
POWER.

heresy.

SOME few years before their arrival, the Pelagian The Pelagian heresy, brought over by Agricola, the son of Severianus, A.D. 429. a Pelagian bishop, had sadly corrupted the faith of the Britons. But whereas they absolutely refused to embrace that perverse doctrine, so blasphemous against the grace of Christ, and were not able of themselves to confute its subtilty by force of argument, they thought of an excellent plan, which was to crave aid of the Gallican prelates in that spiritual war. Hereupon having gathered a great synod, they consulted together what persons should be sent thither, and by unanimous consent, choice was made of the apostolical priests, Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus of Troyes, to go into Britain to confirm it in the faith. They readily complied with the request and commands of the holy Church, and putting to sea, sailed half way over from Gaul to Britain with a fair wind. There on a sudden they were obstructed by the malevolence of demons, who were jealous that such men should be sent to bring ↓ back the Britons to the faith. They raised storms, and darkened the sky with clouds. The sails could not bear the fury of the winds, the sailors' skill was forced to give way, the ship was sustained by prayer, not by

batur navigium oratione non viribus; et casu dux ipse vel pontifex, fractus corpore, lassitudine ac sopore resolutus est. Tum vero, quasi repugnatore cessante, tempestas excitata convaluit, et jam navigium superfusis fluctibus mergebatur. Tum beatus Lupus omnesque turbati excitant seniorem elementis furentibus opponendum, qui periculi immanitate constantior Christum invocat, et assumto in nomine Sanctæ Trinitatis levi aquæ aspergine, fluctus sævientes opprimit, collegam commonet, hortatur universos, oratio uno ore et clamore profunditur; adest Divinitas, fugantur inimici, tranquillitas serena subsequitur, venti e contrario ad itineris ministeria revertuntur, decursisque brevi spatiis pelagi, optati litoris quiete potiuntur. Ibi conveniens ex diversis partibus multitudo excepit sacerdotes, quos venturos etiam vaticinatio adversa prædixerat; nunciabant enim sinistri spiritus quod timebant, qui imperio sacerdotum dum ab obsessis corporibus detruduntur, et tempestatis ordinem et pericula, quæ intulerant, fatebantur, victosque se eorum meritis et imperio non negabant.

Interea Britanniarum insulam apostolici sacerdotes raptim opinione, prædicatione, virtutibus, impleverunt ; divinusque per eos sermo quotidie, non solum in ecclesiis, verum etiam per trivia, et per rura, prædicabatur; ita ut passim et fideles catholici firmarentur, et depravati viam correctionis agnoscerent. Erat illis, Apostolorum instar, et gloria et auctoritas per conscientiam, doctrina per literas, virtutes ex meritis; itaque regionis universitas in eorum sententiam promta transierat. Latebant abditi sinistræ persuasionis auctores, et more maligni spiritus, gemebant perire sibi populos evadentes; ad