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by those of other British christians , a great revival is said to have taken place , and Britain soon became noted for the multitude and zeal of its converts . It is also said to have escaped , ( probably by the moderation and mildness of its governors ) all those cruel persecutions that had raged ,
from time to time , in the other provinces of the Roman Empire ; that only excepted which took place under Dioclesian , about the beginning of the fourth century ; and even that is said not to have raged here so long , or so violently as in other parts of the empire . Calamitous , however , must that time have been , and manv were those who then
received the crown of martyrdom m Britain ; among whom were Aaron and Julius of Caerlton-upon-Usk , the capital , of Siluria , Here it may b ^ proper to observe , that some have entertained an opinion that certain missionaries from the East , supposed to have been disciples of Polycarp , who .-suffered
in the year 170 , visited Britain toward the latter part of the second century * , * This opinion is of modern date , and seems altogether problematical . It hinges chiefly , and it may be said entirely , upon the conformity of the British with the oriental Christians about the time of keeping Easter , and such like circumstances , in which they differed from all their western hrethern . But this seems
very far from being sufficient to establish the said opinion , as it might , for aught we know , be owing to some other cause . And even " were it admitted to have been really owing to the teaching of eastern " missionaries , yet still there appears no just or substantial reason for fixing the time of their arrival here in the second , any more than in the third , or even the fourfit century . History is quite silent on the subject ; but of this -point the discussion can be no way
interesting . After the termination of Dioclesian ' s persecution , Christianity continued to exist in this country more or less prosperously , till the era of the Saxon invasion , when it appears to have been entirely extirpated in most parts of
England , and to have remained only in Cumberland and Scotland , Devon and Cornwall , and the principality of Wales , where the old inhabitants still maintained their ground , and long preserved their liberties and their religion . The times , however , must have been then awfully distressing , and the nation being kept in a continual 'state of war , alarm , and agitation , it may well be supposed that Christianity would soon de-* . Soc Macpherson ' s Dissert . No . xx . p . 331 5 and Henry ' s Hist . Gt , Brit ,
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The first Introduction of the Gospel into Britain . 295
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1807, page 295, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2381/page/7/
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