Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

Romans more nominal than real in this island.

The civil wars which ensued, and which prepared the way for the establishment of monarchy in Rome, saved the Britons from that yoke which was ready to be imposed upon them. Augustus, the successor of Cæsar, content with the victory obtained over the liberties of his own country, was little ambitious of acquiring fame by foreign wars; and being apprehensive lest the same unlimited extent of dominion which had subverted the republic might also overwhelm the empire, he recommended it to his successors never to enlarge the territories of the Romans. Tiberius, jealous of the fame which might be acquired by his generals, made this advice of Augustus a pretence for his inactivity. The mad sallies of Caligula, in which he menaced Britain with an invasion, served only to expose himself and the empire to

CARACTACUS, THE ANCIENT BRITISH KING, AT ROME.

ridicule, and the Britons had now during almost a century, enjoyed their liberty. unmolested; when the Romans, in the reign of Claudius, began to think. seriously of reducing them under their dominion. Without seeking any more justifiable reasons of hostility than were employed by the late Europeans in subjecting the Africans and Americans, they sent (A.D. 43) over an army under the command of Plautius, an able general, who gained some victories, and made a considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants. Claudius himself, finding matters sufficiently prepared for his reception, made a journey into Britain, and received the submission of several British states: the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, Trinobantes, who inhabited the south-east parts of the island, and whom their possessions and more cultivated manner of life rendered willing to purchase peace at the expense of their liberty. The other Britons, under the command. of Caractacus, still maintained an obstinate resistance, and the Romans made little progress against them; till Ostorius Scapula was sent (A.D. 50) over to com

mand their armies. This general advanced the Roman conquests over the Britons; pierced into the country of the Silures, a warlike nation who inhabited the banks of the Severn; defeated Caractacus in a great battle; took him prisoner, and sent him to Rome, where his magnanimous behaviour procured him better treatment than those conquerors usually bestowed on captive princes.

Notwithstanding these misfortunes, the Britons were not subdued; and this island was regarded by the ambitious Romans as a field in which military honour might still be acquired. Under the reign of Nero, Suetonius Paulinus was (A.D. 59) invested with the command, and prepared to signalise his name by victories over those Barbarians. Finding that the island of Mona, now Anglesea, was the chief seat of the Druids, he resolved to attack it, and to subject a place which was the centre of their superstition, and which afforded a protection to all their baffled forces. The Britons endeavoured to obstruct his landing on this sacred island, both by the force of their arms and the terrors of their religion. The women and priests were intermingled with the soldiers upon the shore; and running about with flaming torches in their hands, and tossing their dishevelled hair, they struck greater terror into the astonished Romans by their howlings, cries, and execrations, than the real danger from the armed forces was able to inspire. But Suetonius, exhorting his troops to despise the menaces of a superstition which they disdained, impelled them to the attack, drove the Britons off the field, burned the Druids in the same fires which those priests had prepared for their captive enemies, destroyed all the consecrated groves and altars; and having thus triumphed over the religion of the Britons, he thought his future progress would be easy in reducing the people to subjection. But he was disappointed in his expectations. The Britons, taking advantage of his absence,

were all in arms; and headed by Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who had been treated in the most ignominious manner by the Roman tribunes, had already attacked with success several settlements of their insulting conquerors. Suetonius. hastened to the protection of London, which was already a flourishing Roman colony; but he found on his arrival that it would be requisite for the general safety to abandon that place to the merciless fury of the enemy. London was reduced to ashes; such of the inhabitants as remained in it were cruelly massacred; the Romans and all strangers, to the number of 70,000, were everywhere put to the sword without distinction; and the Britons, by rendering the war thus bloody, seemed determined to cut off all hopes of peace or composition with the enemy. But this cruelty was revenged by Suetonius in a great and decisive battle, where 80,000 of the Britons are said to have perished; and Boadicea herself, rather than fall into the hands of the enraged victor, put an end to her own life by poison. Nero soon after recalled Suetonius from a government, where, by suffering and inflicting so many severities, he was judged improper for composing the angry and alarmed minds of the inhabitants. After some interval, Cerealis received the command from Vespasian, and by his bravery propagated the terror of the Roman arms. Julius Frontinus succeeded Cerealis both in authority and reputation; but the general who finally established the dominion of the Romans in the island was Julius Agricola, who governed it in the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and distinguished himself in that scene of action.

This great commander formed a regular plan for subduing Britain and rendering the acquisition useful to the conquerors. He carried his victorious arms northwards, defeated the Britons in every encounter, pierced into the inaccessible forests and mountains of

[graphic]

Caledonia, reduced every state to subjection in the southern parts of the island, and chased before him all the men of fiercer and more intractable spirits, who deemed war and death itself less intolerable than servitude under the victors. He even defeated them in a decisive action which they fought under Galgacus, their leader; and having fixed a chain of garrisons between the Friths of Clyde and Forth, he thereby cut off the barren parts of the island, and secured the Roman province from the

incursions of the barbarous inhabitants.

During these military enterprises he neglected not the arts of peace. He introduced laws among the Britons, | taught them to desire all the conveniences of life, reconciled them to the Roman language and manners, and employed every expedient to render their chains, which he had forged, both easy and agreeable to them. So Britain became a real part of the mighty Roman Empire, and such it continued till the Romans, threatened at the very seat of their power, withdrew all troops from it to defend the imperial city itself, and left this remote province to manage its own affairs as it best might.

[graphic]

J INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO
BRITAIN.

E know little, observes Hume, of the doctrines of our Saxon forefathers: we only learn that they were polytheists; that they worshipped the sun and moon; that they adored the god of thunder, under the name of Thor; that they had images in their temples; that they practised sacrifices; believed firmly in spells and enchantments; and admitted in general a system of doctrines which they held sacred, but which, like other superstitions, carry the air of wild extravagance, if propounded to those who are not familiarised to it from their earliest infancy.

The constant hostilities which the Saxons maintained against the Britons, would naturally indispose them for receiving the Christian faith when preached to them by such inveterate enemies; and perhaps the Britons, as is objected to them by Gildas and Bede, were not over-fond of communicating to their cruel invaders the doctrine of eternal life and salvation. But as a civilised people, however subdued by arms, still maintain a sensible superiority over barbarous and ignorant nations, all the other northern conquerors of Europe had been already induced to embrace the Christian faith which they found established in the empire; and it was impossible but the Saxons, informed of this event, must have regarded with some degree of veneration a doctrine which had acquired the ascendant over all their brethren. However limited in their

[graphic]

views, they could not but have perceived a degree of cultivation in the southern countries beyond what they themselves possessed; and it was natural for them to yield to that superior knowledge as well as zeal by which the inhabitants of the Christian kingdoms were even at that time distinguished.

But these causes might long have failed of producing any considerable effect, had not a favourable incident prepared the means of introducing Christianity into Kent. Ethelbert, in his father's lifetime, had married Bertha, the only daughter of Caribert, king of Paris, one of the descendants of Clovis, the conqueror of Gaul; but before he was admitted to this alliance he was obliged to stipulate that the princess should enjoy the free exercise of her religion; a concession not difficult to be obtained from the idolatrous Saxons. Bertha brought over a French bishop to the court of Canterbury; and being zealous for the propagation of her religion, she had been very assiduous in her devotional exercises, had supported the credit of her faith by an irreproachable conduct, and had employed every art of insinuation and address to reconcile her husband to her religious principles. Her popularity in the court, and her influence over Ethelbert, had so well paved the way for the reception of the Christian doctrine, that Gregory, surnamed the Great, then Roman pontiff, began to entertain hopes of effecting a project which he himself, before he mounted the papal throne, had once embraced, of converting the British Saxons.

It happened that this prelate, at that time in a private station, had observed in the market-place of Rome some Saxon youth exposed to sale, whom the

Roman merchants in their trading

their trading voyages to Britain had bought of their mercenary parents. Struck with the beauty of their fair complexions and blooming countenances, Gregory asked to what country they belonged; and being told they were 'Angles,' he replied that they ought more properly to be denominated angels: it were a pity that the prince of darkness should enjoy so fair a prey, and that so beautiful a frontispiece should cover a mind destitute of internal grace and righteousness. Inquiring further concerning the name of their province, he was informed that it was Deïri, a district of Northumberland. Deïri!' replied he, 'that is good! They are called to the mercy of God from His anger, De ira. But what is the name of the king of that province?' He was told it was Ella or Alla. Allelujah,' cried he: 'we must endeavour that the praises of God be sung in their country.' Moved by these allusions, which appeared to him so happy, he determined to undertake himself a mission into Britain; and having obtained the Pope's approbation, he prepared for that perilous journey; but his popularity at home was so great, that the Romans, unwilling to expose him to such dangers, opposed his design; and he was obliged for the present to lay aside all further thoughts of executing that pious purpose.

When Gregory became Pope he did not forget his determination to be the instrument under Providence of imparting to Britain the blessings of Christianity. He therefore sent Augustine, a Roman monk, who landed in Kent, where Ethelbert received him in a kindly manner. Apprehensive, however, lest spells or enchantments might be employed against him by priests who brought an unknown worship from a distant country, he had the precaution to receive their message in the open air, where he believed the force of their magic would be more easily dissipated.

Here Augustine told him of the good tidings of the gospel. Your words and promises,' replied Ethelbert, 'are fair; but because they are new and uncertain, I cannot entirely yield to them, and relinquish the principles which I and my ancestors have so long maintained. You are welcome, however, to remain here in peace, and, as you have undertaken so long a journey solely, as it appears, for what you believe to be our advantage, I will supply you with all necessaries, and permit you to deliver your doctrine to my subjects.'

Augustine, encouraged by these words, proceeded with zeal and energy to preach the Gospel to the Kentish Saxons. His pure and holy life extorted expressions of admiration from those most confirmed in heathenism; and, as he preached with genuine eloquence and fire, numbers of Kentish men were baptised, and the king himself was persuaded to submit to that rite of Christianity. His example had great influence with his subjects; but he employed no force to bring them over to the new doctrine, for Augustine told Ethelbert that the service of Christ must be entirely voluntary, and that no violence ought ever to be used in propagating so salutary a doctrine.

The intelligence received of these spiritual conquests afforded great joy to the Romans, who now exulted as much in those peaceful trophies their ancestors had ever done in their most sanguinary triumphs and most splendid victories. Gregory wrote a letter to Ethelbert, in which, after informing him that the end of the world was approaching, he exhorted him to display his zeal in the conversion of his subjects, to exert rigour against the worship of idols, and to build up the good work of holiness by every expedient of exhortation, terror, blandishment, or correction: a doctrine more suitable to that age and to the usual papal maxims than the tolerating principles which Augustine

E

« AnteriorContinuar »