antiquitie of christian religion, Britaine gouerned by Lieutenants and
treasurers of the Romane emperors, the exploits of Ostorius Scapula
and the men of Oxfordshire, he vanquisheth the Welshmen, appeaseth the
Yorkshiremen, and brideleth the rage of the Silures_.

THE FIFT CHAPTER.


In the daies of the said Aruiragus, about the yeare of Christ 53,
Ioseph of Arimathia, who buried the bodie of our sauiour, being sent
by Philip the Apostle (as Iohn Bale following the authoritie of Gildas
and other British writers reciteth) after that the Christians were
dispersed out of Gallia, came into Britaine with diuers other godlie
[Sidenote: _Polydorus_.]
christian men, & preaching the gospell there amongst the Britains,
& instructing them in the faith and lawes of Christ, conuerted manie
to the true beliefe, and baptised them in the wholsome water of
regeneration, & there continued all the residue of his life, obteining
of the king a plot of ground where to inhabit, not past a foure miles
from Wells, and there with his fellowes began to laie the first
foundation of the true and perfect religion, in which place (or néere
thereinto) was afterward erected the abbeie of Glastenburie.

Nicephorus writeth in his second booke and fourth chapter, that one
Simon Zelotes came likewise into Britaine. And Theodoretus in his 9.
booke "De curandis Græcorum affectibus," sheweth that Paule being
released of his second imprisonment, and suffered to depart from Rome,
preached the gospell to the Britains and to other nations in the west.
The same thing in manner dooth Sophronius the patriarch of Ierusalem
witnesse, Tertullian also maie be a witnesse of the ancientnes of