of Christianity being now the principal path to preferment, persons of rank sought its dignities and emoluments; and a hierarchy was framed, corresponding with the civil government, and consisting of many orders of ministers unknown to the former ages of the church. Thus the divine institutions of the New Testament were perverted. How far these new forms were established in Britain, it is found impossible to ascertain. A similarity, if not an exact uniformity, would naturally be attempted; especially as those who had attained the greatest authority in the churches declined from an adherence to the Scriptures, and from spirituality of mind, becoming ambitious of distinction by great names. The unsettled state of the country, and the comparative poverty of the British churches, would necessarily prevent the establishment among them of the same ecclesiastical ranks and orders: yet we find at the synod or council of Arles, in Gaul, A. D. 314, three bishops, from the three provinces in BritainEborius of York, Restitus of London, and Adelfius of Lincoln; besides Sacerdos, a presbyter, and Arminius, a deacon *.

This synod consisted of thirty-three bishops, and a smaller number of presbyters and deacons; but its twenty-two canons contain no resolution relating to the instruction of the people in the doctrine of Christ, or the peculiarities of evangelical truth; but solely to clerical dignities and rights, and the ob servance of certain ceremonies +.

Concerning the advancing state of Christianity generally, especially in relation to wealth and ceremonies, Dr. Henry remarks,-"While the churches of Christ were obnoxious to the civil power, and every moment in danger of persecution, they performed the rites of their religious worship with much privacy and little pomp. This was most agreeable to the pure and spiritual nature of the Christian worship, and most conducive to real piety. But after they came to enjoy security, wealth, and royal favour, they began to embellish their worship with many new-invented ceremonies, and even adopted some of the Pagan rites and practices with little alteration.

*Spelman, p. 42.

+ Ibid. Collier, vol. i, p. 27.

Great numbers of magnificent churches were built, and adorned with the pictures of saints and martyrs, in imitation of the Heathen temples: the Christian clergy officiated in a variety of habits, not much unlike those of the Pagan priests; fasts, festivals, and holidays, were multiplied; and, in one word, an ostentatious and mechanical worship, hardly to be distinguished in its outward appearance from that of their Heathen neighbours, was introduced in the place of pure and rational devotion. The Christian clergy were betrayed into this criminal and fatal imitation of their Pagan predecessors, partly by their vanity and love of pomp, and partly by their hopes of thereby facilitating the conversion of the heathens. There was, indeed, an almost infinite variety in the forms of religious worship in the Christian church at this time, and almost every particular church had something peculiar in its way of worship. The British churches differed considerably from those of Gaul, and still more from those of Italy, in their public service, and had not as yet departed so far from the genuine simplicity of the Gospel. The British Christians, however, of this age did not want their share of superstition, of which it will be sufficient to give one example. About this time it began to be imagined that there was much sanctity in some particular places, and much merit in visiting them. The places which were esteemed most sacred, and were most visited, were those about Jerusalem, which had been the scenes of our Saviour's actions and sufferings. To these holy places prodigious numbers of pilgrims crowded from all parts of the Christian world, and particularly from Britain. "Though the Britons,' says Jerome, are separated from our world by the intervening ocean, yet such of them as have made any great progress in religion, leaving the distant regions of the West, visit those sacred places at Jerusalem, which are known to them only by fame, and the relations of Holy Scripture.' Nay, some of these deluded and superstitious vagabonds, who had more strength or more zeal than others, went as far as Syria to see the famous self-tormentor, Simeon Stylites, who lived fifty-six years on the top of a high pillar. Many people came to see him,' says Theodoret, his historian, ‘from

the most remote corners of the West, particularly from Spain, Gaul, and Britain

Corruption in every form, both of doctrine and worship, increased among the Christians from the period of their ecclesiastical union with the state under Constantine. Ceremonies superseded the Scriptures in the public services of the sanctuary; and men of speculative or worldly minds were promoted as ministers of Christ. Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, at this time began to deny the divinity of the Son of God; asserting, that he was only a creature in his preexistent glory. His opinions spread, with a worse than pestilential influence, through a great part of Christendom; and, as Bedet affirms, the British churches were infected with the Arian heresy. Some suppose that bishops from Britain were present at the council of Nice, in Asia Minor, A. D. 325, in which that system of doctrine was considered and condemned. However this may be, Pelagianism prevailed in Britain. Pelagius, the Latin form of his native name Morgan, was born November 13, 354, on the same day as his great antagonist, St. Augustine; having been educated at the celebrated monastery at Bangor, near Chester, to the government of which he was promoted in 404. His fame reached St. Jerome and St. Augustine, by whom he was greatly esteemed, as a teacher of great worth and usefulness in the church, until they discovered his departure from the Gospel. The most important peculiarities of his doctrinal theology were, 1. That man might be saved without the special grace of God, by his own merits and free will. 2. That infants are born without any taint of original sin, and are as Adam was before his disobedience. 3. That they are baptized, not to be free from sin, but thereby to be adopted into the kingdom of God. 4. That Adam died, not by reason of his sin, but by the constitution of nature; and that he would have died, although he had not sinned. These notions, truly soothing to the native pride of fallen man, were disseminated in Britain by Agricola, whose

• Henry's History of Great Britain, book i.

+ Bede, book i, chap. viii.

father, Severianus, was a bishop; while Pelagius himself, and his coadjutors, Celestus a Scotsman, and Julianus a Campanian, were employed in the same work at Rome, about A. D. 430. Agricola was zealous in Britain; and, according to Fuller," the infection spread by his preaching, advantaged no doubt by the ignorance and laziness of the British bishops in those days *.

Grieved at the prevalence of these novel and injurious opinions, the orthodox bishops sent to their brethren in France, to render them assistance in rooting out the pernicious infection. The French bishops, touched with sympathy for their brethren, assembled in council, and appointed Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, to proceed on a mission to Britain. These zealous pastors are said to have preached through the country, not only in the churches, but in the highways and fields; and so filled the whole island with the fame of their virtues, learning, and eloquence, Most extravagant accounts are given of the miracles which they wrought. At St. Alban's, they held a conference with the Pelagian leaders. "First of all, Germanus and Lupus gave their adversaries leave to speak, which vainly occupied both the time and the ears of the people with naked words: but after the reverend bishops poured out their flowing words, confirmed with scriptures out of the Gospels and Apostles, they joined with their words the word of God; and after they had said their own mind, they read other men's minds upon the same. Thus the vanity of heretics is convicted +."

Germanus had "brought with him a very large and valuable cargo of relics of all the apostles, and of many martyrs, which he deposited in the tomb of St. Alban;" and the dust of that saint he is said to have carried to Rome ‡. After the departure of these famous teachers, the sentiments of Pelagius revived; which, being reported in France, aged Germanus undertook a second voyage into Britain, accompanied by Severus, bishop of Troyes: but despairing to convince the

* Church History, book i, p. 28.

+ Ibid. p. 29. Fuller, p. 31. Henry's History of Great Britain.

Pelagians by the power of argument, he caused them to be banished, under the edict of Valentinian III.

Before he left Britain, Germanus is said to have founded several public schools, which afterwards produced many bishops famous for their learning and piety. But the country being ravaged by the Caledonians, called Scots and Picts, and the Saxons, the natives implored the assistance of Germanus and his colleagues in a new contest. He listened to their entreaty, and instructed them in the doctrines of Christianity. Many of them, embracing his doctrine, desired baptism; and a great part of the army is said to have received that ordinance at Easter, in a church which the soldiers made of the boughs of trees twisted together. The festival being over, they marched against the enemy, with Germanus at their head; and he, having been a military commander in early life, posted his men advantageously in a valley through which the enemies were to pass, surprised and defeated them; after which they returned to the continent, to prosecute their labours among their own people.

Monkish superstition has largely embellished the traditions of these early proceedings of the Christians in our country; but charity would lead us to hope, that the Spirit of God was shed forth upon the ministrations of the Gospel, though less faithfully preached than in the days of the apostles; and that many were added to the true church of Christ. We are unable to discover the names of many of the British pastors of this period, probably on account of the ravages of the Saxons, who persecuted the Christians, and destroyed their records.

St. Keby is mentioned as a great champion against Arianism. He was the son of Solomon duke of Gloucester, and pupil of St. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers in France, with whom he lived fifty years. He returned to St. David's, in Wales; afterwards he travelled in Ireland, and at last fixed his abode in the isle of Anglesey: from his sanctity, Holyhead was so named. David, uncle to King Arthur, is said to have privately studied the Scriptures for ten years, before he would presume to preach the Gospel to the people; and it is mentioned to his praise, that he always carried the Gospel about