1570 Edition | Book 2 | Page 168 
ieoperdie and daunger did driue them therunto: what prayse and commendation they deserue, in so doing let the Monkishe histories iudge what they liste: me semeth so much prayse as they deserue in prouiding their own safetie, so much they deserue againe to be discōmended in forsaking the common wealth. If they did it (as most like it is) for holines sake, thinking in that kinde of life to serue & please God better: or to merite more toward their saluation then in the estate of a king, therin they were farre deceaued: not knowing that the saluation which commeth of God is to be measured and estemed, not by mans merites, or by any persecution of life, or by difference of any vocation more of one then an other: but onely by the free grace of the Gospell, which frelye iustifieth al them, that faythfully beleue in Christ Iesu. But here will be sayd againe peraduenture, in the solitarie life of Monkerye, be fewer occasions of euills, then in kinges courtes, wherefore that life serueth more to holines, and more is to be preferred then the other. To this I answere, to auoyde the occasions of euill is good, where strength lacketh to resiste. MarginaliaWhere vocation byndeth to tary, there not to fly, but to resist the occasions of euil, is a good mans part.But otherwyse, where duetie and charge bindeth to tarye, there to auoyde the occasions of euill: where rather they are to be resisted: rather declareth a weakenes of the man, then deserueth any prayse: As it is truely sayd of Tullie: Out of Asia, saith he, to liue a good life, is no godamercy: but in Asia where so great occasions of euill abound, there to liue a good man, that is prayse worthye. With the like reason I may inferre, if a man be called to be a king, there not to chaunge the vocation, for voyding of occasions, but rather to resist occasions, and to kepe hys vocation, declareth a good and a perfect mā. But of these bymatters hetherto sufficient.
[Back to Top]These thinges now thus premised, concerning the order and reigne of kinges, as is aboue prefixed: consequently it remaineth to enter þe tractatiō of such things, as in the time and reigne of the foresayd kinges happened in the church: MarginaliaFoure persecutions in Britānie before the comming of Austen into England.first putting the reder againe in mind of þe former persecutions wtin the Realm, partly before touched in the time of the Britain kings, which specially were. iij. or. iiij. before þe cōming of Austen into Englād.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe persecution of Dioclesian about the yere of our Lord. 210.1. The first was vnder Dioclesian, and that not onely in England, but generally throughout al þe Romain Monarchie, as is aboue specified. In this persecutiō, Albanus Iulius, Aarō, wt a greate nūber moe of other good Christiā Brytayns, were Martyred for Christes name.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe persecution of Gnauius & Melga.2. The second persecution or destruction of Christian faith, was by the inuading of Gnauius & Melga: wherof, the first was captaine of the Hunnes, the other of the Pictes. These two tyrants, after the cruell slaughter of Vrsula & other. 11000. noble Virgines, made their rode into Britayne, hearing the same to bee destitute of the strength of men. At what tyme they made a miserable murder of Christes sainctes, spoiling and wasting churches, without all mercy eyther of women or childrē, sparyng none.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe persecution of Hengist in Britayne.3. The third persecution came by Hengist, and the Saxones: who likewise destroyed & wasted the christen cōgregatiōs wtin the land, lyke raging Wolues fleyng vpon þe shepe, & spilling the blood of Christiās, tyl Aurelius Ambrosius came, & restored agayn the churches destroyed.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe fourth destructiō of Christen faith in britaine by Gurmūdus an 596. This Gurmundus, as some stories record, leauing his kingdome at home to his brother said he would possesse no kyngdom, but which he shoulde win wyth his sword.4. The fourth destruction of Christen faith and religiō, was by Gurmundus a Pagane kyng of the Africanes: who ioyning in league with þe Saxones, wrought much greuance to the christians of the land. In so muche that Theonus bishop of London, and Thadioceus bishop of Yorke, with þe rest of the people so many as were left: hauyng no place, wherin to remayne with safetye, did flee some to Cornwall, & some to the monntaynes of Wales about the yeare of our Lorde D. l. & this persecution remained to þe time of Ethelbert kyng of Kēt. an. D. lxxxix
[Back to Top]In the raigne of this Ethelbert, which was then the fifte kyng of Kent, the fayth of Christ was first receuyedof the Saxones or Englishmen: by the meanes of Gregory bishop of Rome, in maner and order as here foloweth, out of old histories collected and recorded.
First then to ioyne the order of our history together: MarginaliaKyng Lucius died CCCC. xxviii before the commyng of Austen.The christen faith first receiued of kyng Lucius, endured in Britayne tyll this tyme, nere vppon the season of CCCC. yeres and odde: when by Eurmundus Africanus (as is sayd) fyghting with the Saxones agaynste the Britaynes, it was nere extinct in all the land, during the space about. xliiii. yeares. So that the firste springing of christes gospel in this lād, was an. 180. The cōming of þe Saxons was. an. 449. or an. 469. MarginaliaThe computation of tymes concerning the continuāce and decay of christes gospel betwene the Britaynes and Saxones.The cōmyng of Austen was. an. 596. Frō the first entring in of þe Saxones to their complet conquest, and the driuyng out of þe Britaynes (which was about the latter tyme of Cadwalader) were. 240. yeares. In somme from Christ to Lucius were. 180. yeares. The continuaunce of the Gospell from Lucius to the entring of the Saxones was. 302. yeares. The decaye of the same to the entring of Austen was. 143. yeares, whiche beyng added together make from Lucius to Austen. 445. from Christ to Austen they make. 598. yeares. In this yere then. 598. Austen being sent from Gregory came into Englande: the occasion wherupon Gregory sent him hither was this.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaAn. 598.
Beda Polychronicon. lib 5. cap. 8
6. Malesburiensis de regib. Henr. Huntington. lib. 3
Fabianus, part. 5. ca. 119 liber bibliothecæ tornalensis.In the dayes of Pelagius bishop of Rome,
CloseThe despatch of Augustine by Pope Gregory the Great to England was inevitably a locus classicus for Foxe's martyrology. He had already included the 'copie of the epistle of Gregory, sent to Augustinus into England' into the 1563 edition of his martyrology (1563, pp. 16-7), taking the text from Henry of Huntingdon, book 3, ch. 6. In the 1570 edition, he provided a much fuller and contextualised account, one that would remain unchanged for the succeeding editions in his lifetime. The most obvious source for Foxe on all these matters would, of course, have been Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Yet that is the one source which Foxe (save for one gloss mention) neglects to emphasise throughout this passage. He not only avoids telling us about it; he seems to have gone out of his way not to use it. Most of the letters between Pope Gregory and Augustine were extracted from Henry of Huntingdon's Chronicle, rather than Bede. The lengthy text of the 'questions of Austen Archbishop of Canterbury sent to Gregory' ('Gregory's decrees') looks, at first glance, to have been taken from Bede's Eccleiastical History (book 1, ch. 27). But it might, in reality, have come from a manuscript copy in Parker's collection - that of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 320 pt 3 being a suitable candidate. It is therefore possible that Foxe has used this as the source for his extraction of Augustine's Interrogations rather than the published copy of Bede.. Fabyan's Chronicle, albeit a much later source, is also heavily drawn on by Foxe. We deduce that Foxe's remarkable reticence in respect of using and citing the Venerable Bede as a source must have something to do with Thomas Stapleton's publication of a 'Catholic' edition of Bede's Ecclesiastical History in 1565 (The History of the Church of Englande (Antwerp). Foxe was, of course, accommodating himself to an interpretative tradition on this passage which had been set by Bale - see Allen J. Frantzen, 'Bede and Bawdy Bale: Gregory the Great, Angels, and the "Angli"', in Allen J. Frantzen and John D. Niles (eds), Anglo-Saxonism and the Construction of Social identity (Florida, 1997), pp. 17-39. In reality, however, Foxe was more discreet that Bale on the potentially lascivious dimensions of Gregory's encounter with English children at the market in Rome. The story had appeared in so many chronicle sources - and Foxe's gloss indicates that he had probably collated them. For Augustine's landing in Kent and his meeting with King Ethelbert, Foxe probably drew on Henry of Huntingdon (T. Arnold, ed. Henry of Huntingdon. Henrici Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum, the History of the English, by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, from B. C. 55 to A. D. 1154 [London: Rolls Series, 1879] book 3, ch. 4, pp. 000-000) or Fabian's Chronicle (R. Fabyan, The Chronicle of Fabian [London, 1559], book 5, ch. 119, pp. 000-000). Interestingly, this is one of the rare places where Foxe betrays an interest in archaeological evidence, referring to the (Roman) ruins at Richborough on the Isle of Thanet 'whereof some part of the ruinous walles is yet to be sene'. All the other letters from Gregory Foxe could have taken from Henry of Huntingdon (book 3, chs 7-9). Foxe did not want openly to cast doubt upon the Augustinian establishment of the episcopal hierarchy in England and Wales, and he liberally referenced Augustine's consecration of the archbishops in London, York and Wales. But he carefully distanced himself from Augustine's miraculous healing of a bling man.. Foxe clearly used Fabian's Chronicle (book 5, ch. 119), but also checked the account in the Polychronicon (book 5, ch, 10), Henry of Huntingdon (book 3, ch.14) and perhaps Bede's Ecclesiastical History (book 2, ch. 2). For the final section on the synod of Bangor, Foxe probably found his basic narrative in Bale's Catalogus (pp. 63-4; 66) and may well have returned to Fabian's Chronicle for confirmation (book 5, ch. 119) as well as (perhaps) Bede's Ecclesiastical History (book 2, ch. 2). Bale's Catalogus seems also to have influenced Foxe's account of the death of Pope Gregory and the issue of the dating of Augustine's death, but he also added evidence from Henry of Huntingdon's Chronicle (book 3, ch. 17), the Polychronicon (book 5, chs 9-10) and (for David, Archbishop of Wales), William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum (J. S. Brewer, and C. T. Martin, 'William of Malmesbury: Gesta Regum.' In Reigistrum Malmesburiense. The Registor of Malmesbury Abbey, ed. by J.S. Brewer and C.T. Martin (London: Rolls Series, 1869-1880), book 1, ch. 25).
[Back to Top]Matthew Phillpott and Mark Greengrass
University of Sheffield
MarginaliaEx Henr. Huntingtonensi, lib. 3
The epistle of Gregory to them which wēt to preach in England.Gregorius seruus seruorum Dei, seruis domini nostri. Quia melius fuerat bona non incipere, quam ab iis quæ cœpta sunt cogitatione retrorsum redire, &c in englishe. Gregorye the serruant of Gods seruants, to the seruaunts of one Lord. Forasmuch as it is better not to take good things in hand, thē after they be begonne, to thinke to reuolte backe from the same againe: therfore now you may not, nor can not (deare childrē) but with all feruent study & labour, must nedes go forward in that good busines, which through the helpe of God you haue wel begonne. Neither let the labour of your iourney, nor the slaunderous tonges of men apalle you, but that with all instance and feruencye