and twelve in height, in a straight line from east to west, as is still visible to beholders. This being speedily finished, they gave that dispirited people good advice, and supply them with patterns to furnish them with arms. Besides, they built towers on the seacoast to the southward, at proper distances, where their ships were, because there also the irruptions of the barbarians were apprehended; and so took leave of their friends, never to return again.

§ 31. After their departure, the Scots and Picts, understanding that the Romans had declared they would come no more, speedily returned, and growing more confident than they had been before, occupied all the northern and farthest part of the island, as far as to the wall. Hereupon a timorous guard was placed upon the fortification, where they pined away day and night in stupefied fear. On the other side, the enemy attacked them unceasingly with hooked weapons, by which the cowardly defendants were dragged from the wall, and dashed against the ground. At last, the Britons, forsaking their cities and wall, took to flight and were dispersed. The enemy pursued, and the slaughter was greater than on any former occasion; for the wretched natives were torn in pieces by their enemies, as lambs are torn by wild beasts. Thus, being expelled their dwellings and possessions, they saved themselves from starvation by robbing and plundering one another; augmenting foreign calamities by their own domestic broils, till the whole country was left destitute of food, except such as could be procured in the chase.

CHAP. XIII. [A.D. 423.]—IN THE REIGN OF THEODOSIUS THE YOUNGER, PALLADIUS WAS SENT TO THE SCOTS THAT BELIEVED IN CHRIST; THE BRITONS BEGGING ASSISTANCE OF AETIUS, THE CONSUL, COULD NOT OBTAIN IT.

§ 32. In the year of our Lord 423, Theodosius, the younger, next after Honorius, being the forty-fifth from Augustus, governed the Roman empire twenty-six years. In the eighth year of his reign, Palladius' was sent by Celestinus, the Roman pontiff, to the Scots that believed in Christ, to be their first bishop. In the twentythird year of his reign, Aëtius, a renowned person, being also a patrician, discharged his third consulship with Symmachus for his colleague. To him the wretched remains of the Britons sent a letter, which began thus :-"To Aëtius, thrice Consul, the groans of the Britons." And in the sequel of the letter they thus expressed their calamities:-"The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea drives us back to the barbarians: between them we are exposed to

3

1 A vast fund of information respecting Palladius and his mission has been collected by Ussher in his Brit. Eccl. Antiq. in the passages referred to under the year 431, in the Index Chronolog. His mission was a short one, having begun and terminated, by his death, in that year.

2 Baronius, (A.D. 446, § 1,) followed by Camden, here accuses Beda of faulty chronology in thus associating the 23d regnal year of Thedosius with the consulate of Aëtius and Symmachus; but Ussher has successfully vindicated the accuracy of our historian in this respect. See Brit. Eccl. Antiq. p. 199. Pagi ad an. 446, § 2.

3 Polydore Virgil gives the whole of this letter, without stating whence he obtained it. It is most probably spurious.

Yet

two sorts of death; we are either murdered or drowned." neither could all this procure any assistance from him, as he was at that time engaged in most dangerous wars with Bledla and Attila, kings of the Huns. And though, the year before this, Bledla had been murdered by the treachery of his brother Attila, yet Attila himself remained so intolerable an enemy to the Republic, that he ravaged almost all Europe, invading and destroying cities and castles. At the same time there was a famine at Constantinople, and shortly after, a plague followed, and a great part of the walls of that city, with fifty-seven towers, fell to the ground. Many cities also went to ruin, and the famine and pestilential state of the air destroyed. many thousands of men and cattle.

CHAP. XIV. [A.D. 446.] THE BRITONS, COMPELLED BY A REMARKABLE FAMINE, DROVE THE BARBARIANS OUT OF THEIR TERRITORIES; SOON AFTER THERE ENSUED PLENTY OF CORN, LUXURY, PLAGUE, AND THE SUBVERSION OE THE NATION.

§ 33. In the meantime, the aforesaid famine distressing the Britons more and more, and leaving to posterity lasting memorials of its mischievous effects, obliged many of them to submit themselves to the depredators; though others still held out, confiding in the Divine assistance, when none was to be had from men. These continually made incursions from the mountains, caves, and woods, and, at length, began to inflict severe losses on their enemies, who had been for so many years plundering the country. The bold Irish robbers thereupon returned home, in order to come again soon after. The Picts, both then and afterwards, remained quiet in the farthest part of the island, save that sometimes they would do some mischief, and carry off booty from the Britons.

§ 34. When, however, the ravages of the enemy at length ceased, the island began to abound with such plenty of grain as had never been known in any age before; with plenty, luxury increased, and this was immediately attended with all sorts of crimes; in particular, cruelty, hatred of truth, and love of falsehood; insomuch, that if any one among them happened to be milder than the rest, and at all inclined to the truth, all the rest abhorred and persecuted him, as if he had been the overthrower of Britain. Nor were the laity alone guilty of these things, but even our Lord's own flock, and his pastors also, addicting themselves to drunkenness, animosity, litigiousness, contention, envy, and other such like crimes, cast off the light yoke of Christ. In the meantime, on a sudden, a severe plague fell upon that corrupt generation, which soon destroyed such numbers of them, that the living were scarcely sufficient to bury the dead: yet those that survived could not be withdrawn from the spiritual death which their sins had incurred, either by the death of their friends, or the fear of their own. Whereupon, not long after, a more severe vengeance, for their horrid wickedness, fell upon the sinful nation. They consulted what should be done, and where they should seek assistance to prevent or repel the cruel and frequent incursions of the northern nations; and they all agreed

with their King Vurtigern to call over to their aid, from the parts beyond the sea, the Saxon nation;' which, as the event still more evidently showed, appears to have been done by the appointment of our Lord himself, that evil might fall upon them for their wicked deeds.

CHAP. XV. [A.D. 449.]-THE ANGLES, BEING INVITED INTO BRITAIN, AT FIRST

OBLIGED THE ENEMY TO RETIRE; BUT NOT LONG AFTER, JOINING IN LEAGUE WITH THEM, THEY TURNED THEIR WEAPONS UPON THEIR CONFEDERATES.

§ 35. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 449, Martian being made emperor with Valentinian, and the forty-sixth from Augustus, ruled the empire seven years. Then the nation of the Angles, or Saxons, being invited by the aforesaid king, arrived in Britain, with three long ships, and had a place assigned them to reside in, by the same king, in the eastern part of the island, that they might thus appear to be fighting for the country, whilst their real intentions were to enslave it. Accordingly, they engaged with the enemy, who had come from the north to give battle, and obtained the victory; which, being known at home in their own country, as also the fertility of the country, and the cowardice of the Britons, a more considerable fleet was quickly sent over, bringing a still greater number of men, which, being added to the former, made up an invincible army. The new comers received from the Britons a place to inhabit among themselves, upon condition that they should wage war against their enemies, for the peace and security of the country, whilst the Britons agreed to furnish them with pay.

3

§ 36. Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany, that is, of the Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons, who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight. From the Saxons, that is, the country which is now called Old Saxony, came the East-Saxons, the SouthSaxons, and the West-Saxons. From the Angles, that is, the country which is called "Angulus," and which is said, from that time, to remain desert to this day, between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons, are descended the East-Angles, the MidlandAngles, Mercians, all the race of the Northumbrians, that is, of those tribes that dwell on the north side of the river Humber, and the other nations of the English. The two first commanders are said to have been Hengist and Horsa; of whom Horsa, being afterwards slain in battle by the Britons, was buried in the eastern parts of Kent, where a monument, bearing his name, is still in existence. They were the sons of Victgils, son of Vitta, whose father was Vecta,

1 There seems reason to believe that the Saxons did not arrive in one body at one time, but that their incursions extended over a considerable period. Hence we may possibly obtain a solution to the want of consistency in the calculation of dates counting onwards from that event. The instructive note of Lappenberg, i. 62, 63, may be consulted with advantage.

2 See Lappenberg, i. 96. 3 Id. pp. 88, 89. 4 Id. p. 90. 5 Id. p. 78. 6 The local tradition of the county ascribes this to Horstead, in Kent. Camd. Brit. col. 230; Hasted's Kent, c. 177.

son of Woden; from whose stock the royal race of many provinces deduce their original.

§ 37. In a short time, swarms of the aforesaid nations came over into the island, and they began to increase so much, that they became terrible to the natives themselves who had invited them. Then, having on a sudden entered into a temporary league with the Picts, whom they had by this time repelled to a distance by the force of their arms, they began to turn their weapons against their confederates. At first, they obliged them to furnish a greater quantity of provisions; and, seeking an occasion to quarrel, protested, that unless more plentiful supplies were brought them, they would break the confederacy, and ravage all the island. Nor were they at all backward in putting their threats in execution. In short, the fire kindled by the hands of these pagans proved God's just revenge for the crimes of the people; not unlike that which, being once lighted by the Chaldeans, consumed the walls and the whole 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 overturned; the priests were everywhere slain before the altars; prelates and 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 killed even 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 cliffs, with scarcely enough food to support life, and expecting every moment to be their last.

CHAP. XVI. [A.D. 466.]—THE BRITONS OBTAINED THEIR FIRST VICTORY OVER THE ANGLES, UNDER THE COMMAND OF AMBROSIUS, A ROMAN.

§ 38. WHEN the victorious army, having destroyed and dispersed the natives, had returned home to their own settlements, the Britons began by degrees to take heart, and gather strength, sallying out of the lurking places in which 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, probably, of the Roman nation, had survived the storm in which his parents, who were of the royal race, had 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,

1 The largest body of these fugitives found shelter in Armorica, concerning the colonization of which by the Britons, see Ussher, p. 224; Pagi, A.D. 460, § 9, 10. 2 See Lappenb. i. 101.

and sometimes their enemies prevailed, till the year of the siege of "Mons Badonicus," when they made no small slaughter of those invaders, about forty-four years after their arrival in England. But of this hereafter.2

CHAP. XVII.3 [A.D. 429.]-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,

§ 39. SOME few years before their arrival, the Pelagian heresy, brought over by Agricola, the son of Severianus, a 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, and that was that they should 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 for the aid of the faith, 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 respecting the doctrine of God's grace. With prompt devotion they 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, and in safety. Then, on a sudden, they were obstructed in their way 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 and the light 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 strength, and as it happened, their spiritual commander and bishop, being spent with weariness, had fallen asleep. Then the tempest, as if the person that opposed it had given way, gathered strength, and the ship, overpowered by the waves, was ready to sink. Then the blessed Lupus and all the rest in their distress awakened their elder, that he might oppose himself to the raging elements. He, showing himself the more resolute in proportion to the greatness of the danger, called upon Christ, and having, in the name of the Holy Trinity, sprinkled a little water, he quelled the raging waves, admonished his companion, encouraged all, and all with one mouth fell to prayer. The Deity heard their cry, the enemies were put to

1 Concerning the locality, see Camden, Brit. col. 89. Beda here copying Gildas, § 26, has misunderstood that writer, and placed the battle in the forty-fourth year after the arrival of the Saxons, i.e. in 492. The true date is that, probably, which is mentioned in the Annales Cambriæ, A.D. 516. See Petrie, p. 830. The question is fully examined by Pagi, A.D. 494, § 12. 2 See § 50.

3 The chapters from xvii. to xxi. inclusive, are borrowed, with some few alterations, from a life of Germanus, written within forty years of his death, by Constantius Lugdunensis. See Act. Sanctor. Jul. tom. vii. p. 213.

* The date, A.D. 429, is supported by the authority of Ussher, Pagi, Lappenberg, and others.

Probably, according to Labbe, at Troyes, in 429. Concil. iii. 1508.

Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, was born about 378, and died in 448. Lupus,

bishop of Troyes, was born about 383, and died 29 July, 479.