restored, a church of wonderful workmanship and suitable to his martyi. dom, was erected." 1

The Abbey of S. Alban's, erected on the scene of the martyrdom, was founded by Offa in 793.

When we look at Bede's narrative, we can hardly doubt that he had some early document which he employed and adorned with rhetorical flourish. There are in it some obscure passages, apparently not due to him, but which he transcribed without himself understanding them, and therefore copied literally.

The miraculous element is easily eliminated. In the incident of the drying up of the stream, all that is needed is to remove the word "immediately" in the direct narrative, which follows Bede's rhetorical amplification. The stooping of S. Alban to slake his thirst at a little spring sufficed as basis for the fable of his having miraculously called it forth; and the absurdity of the executioner's eyes falling out when Alban's head touched the ground is due to a statement in the original that the man who dealt the blow was blind to the light of faith which had illumined the eyes of him who had been commissioned to execute Alban.

Much has been made of the blunder of Gildas relative to the Thames as the river that divided before Alban when he passed to his death. The river" actually was the little stream, the Ver, which runs between the present Abbey Church and the site of old Verulam. The Ver is nowhere unfordable, and at midsummer is the merest dribble. Possibly enough, the summer when Alban suffered was unusually rainless, and the stream may have been quite dry. Gildas had never been in that part of Britain, overrun by, and in the possession of, the Saxons, and it is not surprising that he should have blundered about the name and character of the river. Bede knew more about the topography of England than did Gildas; he therefore does not give the name Thames to the river, and excinds the extravagancy about the water standing up as a wall whilst the martyr passed over, if such a statement occurred in the original Acts from which he drew his account. Gildas, also, had these Acts under his eye, and the addition of the standing up of a wall of water is almost certainly due to him.

The Acts certainly existed when Gildas wrote at the close of the

1 Slightly condensed from Bede, H. E., i, 7. The Bishop of Bristol (Browne) says: When you go to S. Albans, you see the local truth of the traditional details. Standing on the narrow bridge across the little stream, you will realize the blocking of the bridge by the crowd of spectators nearly 1,600 years ago; and you can see Alban in his eagerness to win his martyr's crown, pushing his way through the shallow water, rather than be delayed by the crowd on the bridge." The Church in these Islands before Augustine, S.P.C.K., 1897, p. 57.

sixth century. But whether in their original form, as drawn up soon after the martyrdom, if so drawn up, we cannot say, for we cannot be quite certain how many of the statements of Gildas are due to his rhetorical style. The Acts used by Bede were certainly late, for they were already loaded with fable.

We come now to the notice in the Life of S. Germanus of Auxerre, describing the visit made in 429 by Germanus and Lupus to Britain. This is to the effect: "The priests sought the blessed martyr Albanus in order to render thanks by his mediation to God; when Germanus, having with him relics of all the apostles and of different martyrs, offered prayer and commanded the grave to be opened in order to place there the precious gifts."

"1

Now if this passage had stood in the original Life of Germanus by Constantius, it would have been an important testimony. But it did not stand there, it is an interpolation of the first half of the ninth century; it is not found in any of the copies of the unadulterated Life, by Constantius.2

Gildas is the authority for Alban having suffered in the persecution of Diocletian, and Bede follows him in this.

It has been objected that Eusebius and Lactantius assert that Constantius, the father of Constantine, and to whose share in the Empire Britain fell, took no part in the persecution.3

But, says Professor Hugh Williams, "In his anxiety to exonerate the father of Constantine the Great, Eusebius may be regarded as having gone too far when he said that he destroyed none of the church buildings. Lactantius expressly states that the churches, as mere walls which could be restored, were pulled down by him, but that he kept intact and safe the true temple of God, that is, the human body. It must be remembered that Constantius was only Caesar in the ' parts beyond the Alps,' and that he did not visit Britain until A.D. 306, the year of his death at York. The Caesar's power was limited, which would render the name of Maximian, as a rabid persecutor, especially after the fourth Edict of 304, the more potent name with many governors and magistrates. Constantius was bound to conform to the policy of the Augusti in carrying out edicts which bore his own name

1 Vita Germani Autis., iii, 25.

2 Levison (W.), Bischof Germanus v. Auxerre, in Neue Archiv d. Gesellschaft f. ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde, B. xxix, 1903; Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes, t. xliii, 1882, p. 556; Narbey, Etude critique sur la vie de S. Germain d'Auxerre, Paris, 1884; Baring-Gould, Life of Germanus," by Constantius, in Y Cymmrodor, Lond., 1904.

3 Eus., H. E., viii, 13; Vita Const., i, 13; Lact., De Morte Pers., xv. Note in his ed. of Gildas, p. 26.

as well as theirs. When, therefore, it is known that many martyrdoms did take place in Spain, though that country belonged to Constantius, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Britain had witness of the same sufferings, especially before 306, when he himself arrived in the island." There is a circumstantiality about Bede's account which shows that he had material on which to build up his florid narrative.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives 286 as the date of the year in which S. Alban suffered, but Bede is more likely to be right in placing it in the persecution of Diocletian. He is followed by Henry of Huntingdon, Matthew of Westminster, the latter adding flourishes of his own. In addition, we have the Acta Sanctorum Albani et Amphibali, by William, a monk of S. Alban's, dedicated to Simon, who was Abbot of that Monastery from 1167 to 1188, but apparently written before Simon was promoted to the Abbacy. William states that his book was merely a translation from an English Life of the Saint.1

He says that the author concealed his name through fear of the enemy, but wrote what he had seen or heard from others. However, on examination, this Passio S. Albani proves to be entirely founded on that of Bede, amplified by a long account of the conversion of S. Alban through the instrumentality of Amphibalus, a priest whom he had protected from the persecutors, and had concealed in his house.

Then follows a detailed account of Alban's conduct before the judge, and of his imprisonment and death, as well as of the escape of Amphibalus.

This is followed by two chapters on the conversion and martyrdom of many of the inhabitants of Verulam, who had fled with Amphibalus to Wales, where he preached the Gospel to the Welsh and Picts. Finally we have the capture and martyrdom of Amphibalus, followed by the signal chastisement of his persecutors.2 This took place at Verulam, to which place Amphibalus had been reconducted from Wales.

The author concludes, "Ne vero posteri super meo nomine reddantur omnino soliciti, sciant quia si voluerint verum mihi ponere nomen, me miserum, me peccatorem ultimum nominabunt. Romam autem proficiscor ut illic gentilitatis errore deposito, et lavacro regenerationis adepto, veniam merear assequi delictorum. Libellum quoque istum offeram examini Romanorum, ut si qua in eo secus quam debuit forte prolatum fuerit, hoc per eos dignetur in melius commutare."

1 Cum liber Anglico sermone conscriptus passionem martyris Albani continens, ad vestram notitiam pervenisset, ut cum verbis latinis exprimerem præcepitis."

2

Distorquentur labia, varia deformitas vultus apprehendidit, obrigescunt digiti, nervi officiis non funguntur; ardent linguæ," etc.