hath annexed unto it; and how grievous a sin they shall perpetrate, who may either shew themselves ready to take it, or who have already taken it by their evil misfortune.

"Therefore you should encourage all, that they should continue to endure those penal laws which they have hitherto endured with such laudable constancy; rather than, to relieve themselves therefrom, they should fly to a measure so unlawful and so sinful, with such a destruction of their own souls and of their religion itself; which will sensibly gradually], yet without sense [imperceptibly],* be so diminished, as to be almost perishing in the hearts of those Catholics; if, following the example of their pastors, they shall give such ready ear to flesh and blood, and attend rather to the false suggestions of the enemies of our holy Catholic religion, than the true and saving doctrine of their father and supreme pastor-which far be from them!-Meantime, while for the consolation of our mind, we await your most quick and must full answer, such as your zeal shall shew itself in this so important matter, we remain, with singuJar esteem, your most illustrious and most reverend lordship's very devoted

servant.

"THOMAS-MARIA, Archbishop of Rhodes,
"The Apostolic Nuncio.

"Brussells, 14th Oct. 1768. "To the Archbishop of Dublin."

SIR,

CHRISTIANITY, WHEN PLANTED IN BRITAIN.

To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate,

Before I proceed to discharge my promise of endeavouring to fix the precise time of planting the gospel in Britain, made in a foregoing article, p. 29; I am bound, in courtesy, to attend to the cursory strictures of your learned correspondent, Palæophilus, upon that article, p. 71.-Paleophilus expresses "not a little surprise, that the greater part of that paper was taken up in contending that Peter was at Rome, and in Britain." But his surprise on the former head, was founded on misconception of the drift of my in estigation; which was, to disprove Jerom's legend of Peter's episcopate of four or five and twenty years, (the main Romish and fabulous foundation of the Popedom, in which we both agree), by shewing, in detail, that Peter was no more than a passenger at Rome, and had no permanent residence in that city. His surprise on

• "Sensim sine sensu;" we should rather translate gradually and imperdeptibly."

on the latter head, and at Inspector's supposed deference to the authority of Metaphrastes, originated in oversight; for had he looked to the last clause of that same page 29, he would have seen Inspector's conclusion, that St. Peter never was in Britain, and his tacit rejection of the authori ty of Metaphrastes, upon chronological grounds.

But though Peter, probably, had not time to visit any of the British isles, in the short interval between his first and second visit to Rome, yet I endeavoured to shew, from the concurrent testimonies of Irenæus, Eusebius, and Metapbrastes, with the Marcesian inscription, that the gospel was preached in Spain and Portugal, by some of the apostles; and most probably by Peter; because it fell within the time of his travels, during Nero's reign, and because he was the most likely to fulfil his beloved brother Paul's intentions of visiting Spain, Rom. 15, 24, when prevented himself, by his subsequent confinements at Cæsarea and Rome, after he wrote that epistle to the Romans, about A. D. 58.

But Palæophilus contends that St. Paul visited (not only Spain, but) Britain, after his release from confinement at Rome, upon "the substantial evidence of Clemens Romanus, St. Paul's fellow-labourer," and also of Jerom, and Theodoret. Let us weigh this evidence.

The entire passage of Clemens, (of which he cites only a single sentence)* may be thus closely translated. See the original, Coteler. Patres Apost. Vol. I. P. 148.

"Paul-after he had borne chains seven times, been scourged, stoned, and had been a preacher of the gospel, both in the east and in the west, obtained the glorious reward of his faith; for, after he had taught the whole world, righteousness, and had gone to the termination of the west, and had suffered martyrdom by the rulers, [at Rome] he was thus released from the world, and went to the holy place, becoming the greatest pattern of patience."

Here, Clemens seems to speak rather rhetorically of Paul's preaching, δικαιοσυνην δίδαξας όλον τον κόσμον " having taught the whole world, righteousness." For surely he did not preach in a great part of the known world, neither in the extensive and populous regions of Upper Asia, nor in Africa, nor in the northern parts of Europe: his travels were circumscribed, and, considerably too, within the limits of the Roman empire. And if so, surely we are not bound to understand, with Palaeophilus, in

Iniquity of quotation, in giving partial or imperfect extracts of scarce and not easily accessible documents, with loose translations, and, without exact references, is one of the most fertile sources of mistakes and controversies. By this, authors and readers may easily prove quidlibet ex quolibet.

the strict geographical sense, the subsequent clause ET TO Tegua This CUTENS, EXOWY," having gone to the termination of the west," or "of the setting of the sun," which is the primary signification of Tns durcws. But even this setting, was properly confined between Homer's TOTAL "turnings of the sun,"* (Odyss. xv. 403,) the tropics, or limits of the sun's greatest northern declination in summer, and southern declination in winter. Whence," the termination" in question, may ras ther relate to Cape Finisterre in Spain, than to Britain: for Finis terræ, "the land, end," or western termination of the continent of Europe, is nearer to the tropics, than Britain. Juvenal, the Roman satirist, who wrote not long after Clemens, reckoned Cadiz in Spain, the termination of the west; as the river Ganges, of the east.

Omnibus in terris, quæ sunt a Gadibus usque

Auroram et Gangem, pauci dignoscere possunt, c.

SAT. x. 1.

Ireland, too, the most westerly of the British isles, seems to have stronger claim than Britain, to be the termination meant by Clemens. From such a vague and indecisive passage, therefore, no substantial evidence can be collected of St. Paul's visit to Britain in particular, Paleophilus erects a logical argument upon a figurative expression.

Theodoret, indeed, describes the Spaniards, the Britons, and the intermediate Gauls, as inhabiting τας της έσπέρας εσχατιας « the extremities of the west," but this is evidently a phrase of wider range than Clemens TO TERMA TYS JUGENs, in the singular number; from whose vague and indecisive testimony, therefore no substantial evidence of St. Paul's visit to Britain, at least, can be dyn. The claim of Ireland, also, as still more westerly, is surely stronger.

Theodoret, we are told, "reckoned the Britons among the disciples of the tent-maker." But this is perfectly reconcileable with their conversion by some of St. Paul's associates or fellow-labourers, Aquila and Priscilla, &c. For, as observed in Hales's New Analysis, Vol. II. p. 1256,"as they preached his doctrine, their success might be attributed to him ultimately." Thus, the difference, in fact, between Palæopbilus and Inspector, is but trivial; and nothing could have called forth this elaborate discussion of the subject, but the undue weight that has been attached to the erroneous dates of Jerom, which, if admitted, would overturn the

• See, in Wood's ingenious essay on the Original Genius of Homer, pv 10-15, note, a curious specimen of " the labyrinth of learning," (as he tetris it) fabricated by the commentators upon this plain astronomical phrase.

received chronology of St. Paul's travels, and unsettle the dates of all his earlier epistles.* Such deference on the part of Palaeophilus, to such an inferior authority as Jerom's, seems rather surprising, whose character is thus drawn, by the candid and dispassionate Sir Isaac Newton. (Letters to Le Clerc, Vol. V. p. 503. Horsley's edit.) They who have been conversant in Jerom's writings, observe a strange liberty which he takes in asserting things. Many notable instances he has left of this, in composing those very fabulous lives of St. Paul and Hilarion, &c. Whence Erasmus said of him (annot. in John 5, 7,) that in affirming things, he was frequently violent, and impudent, and often contrary to himself."

1

The opinion, that St. Paul, though he intended, did not visit Spain, (nor, consequently, Britain) is not novel. It has been supported by early and respectable authorities.

Gelasius, bishop of Rome, A. D. 492, must surely have known, and yet rejected Jerom's alleged opinion, when he thus apologised for the apostle. (See the original, Baronii Annales, A. D. 61.) "It is not to be believed, either that St. Paul deceived us, (far be such a supposition) or that he contradicted himself, because when he promised to go to Spain, he was prevented from fulfilling his promise, by occupations of greater moment, according to the divine appointment. So far as depended upon his own will, he declared what he intended to perform; but afterwards, omitted it, when he was prevented by the divine appointment. For no man, however full he may be of the spirit of God, can possibly explore all the secrets of the divine counsel.-His severe sufferings from the Jews at Jerusalem, and under Nero at Rome, prevented him from executing his intention."

Ludovicus Capellus also, that learned and acute critic, gives the following reasons for rejecting the tradition of St. Paul's western travels, in the Appendix to his Historia Apostol. p. 29–36. A scarce and valuable tract.

How comes it to pass, that throughout the whole course of primitive ecclesiastical history, there are no certain traces or monuments of churches founded by St. Paul in different parts of Italy, Gaul, Germany, or Spain ?-We may further observe, that no sufficient reason can be assigned, why Luke, the constant and inseparable companion of Paul,

If with the Magdelurgh History, following Jerom, we antedate the epistle to the Romans four or five years, A. D. 53, or 54; it will throw back proportionably, the dates of all the preceding epistles; and throw back the earliest, the epistle to the Galatians, to A. D. 45, or 46, before the first council at Jerusalem, A. D. 49. But the Commentators in general agree that this epistle was written after the council,

in his former and in his latter bonds [at Rome], is totally silent about the last Western expedition of the Apostle." [And so is Paul himself.] "The tradition of the Fathers, therefore, that Paul when released from his former bonds preached the gospel in the West, seems utterly uncertain, supported by no sufficiently firm foundation: (and, indeed, there are many such ancient traditions received without examination, which are proved by the learned to be either uncertain or false.) For it may more truly be collected from Scripture, (as demonstrated in his second epistle to Timothy) that he revisited the East, but did not go to the West."

These cogent reasons are crowned by the chronological argument of the shortness of the interval between the release of the Apostle and his return to Rome; which, not exceeding one year, according to the most correct computations, did not afford time for the Western travels after the Eastern were ended. See Hales's New Analysis, &c. Vol. II. p. 1113, 1252.-The enormous interval of ten years, (namely, A. D. 58-A D. 68, from his release to his martyrdom,) deduced from Jerom's erroneous dates, by the Magdeburgh History, refutes itself by the bare statement: for is it to be imagined that this most active and communicative Apostle, after spending so long a time in the West, gave no account and left no traces there all that time? No, surely.

II. I now proceed to fix the precise times and authors of the introduc tion and establishment of Christianity in Britain, from the positive evidence of early and authentic British records, the letters of Gildas, about A. D. 546, and the British Triads collected in the Myvyrian Archeology, Vol. II. p. 63, for which I am chiefly indebted to Bishop Burgess's extracts, in his elaborate antiquarian publications, on the first seven epochs of the British church, and two explanatory letters to the clergy of the diocese of St. David's, (1813.)

A most obscure, figurative, and involved Latin pasage of Gildas is partially cited in the first letter, p. 13, note, and partially explained in the appendix, p. 58, 59, of which we may thus collect the whole meaning, more clearly.

"The Gospel first began to be preached by CHRIST's Apostles to the whole world (universo orbi), after his crucifixion, about the end of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (tempore, ut scimus, summo Tiberii Cæsarii): at which time THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, though opposed by the senate, was propagated at Rome, without any hindrance of it on the part of the prince, [who threatened] with death the informers against its soldiers,"*

Tertullian, in his Apol. 1. v. p. 6, tells us, that "Tiberius having received information of the truth of Christ's divinity from Palestine, in Syria, proposed to the Senate