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CHAP. XXI. THE PELAGIAN HERESY AGAIN REVIVING,
GERMANUS, RETURNING INTO BRITAIN WITH SEVERUS,
FIRST HEALED A LAME YOUTH, THEN HAVING CONDEMNED
OR CONVERTED THE HERETICS, THEY RESTORED SPIRITUAL
HEALTH TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

Nor long after, advice was brought from the same Germanus island, that certain persons were again attempting to set and Severus forth and spread abroad the Pelagian heresy. The holy A.D. 447. Germanus was entreated by all the priests, that he would again defend the cause of God, which he had before asserted. He speedily complied with their request; and taking with him Severus, a man of singular sanctity, who was disciple to the most holy father, Lupus, bishop of Troyes, and afterwards, as bishop of Treves, preached the word of God in the adjacent parts of Germany, put to sea, and was calmly wafted over into Britain.

In the meantime, the wicked spirits flying about the whole island, foretold by constraint that Germanus was coming, insomuch, that one Elafius, the chief of that religion, hastened to meet the holy men, without having received any certain news, carrying with him his son, who laboured under a weakness of his limbs in the very flower of his youth; for the nerves being withered, his leg was so contracted that the limb was useless, and he could not walk. All the country followed this Elafius. The priests arrived, and were met by the ignorant multitude, whom they blessed, and preached the word of God to them. They found the people constant in the faith as they had left them; and learning that but few had gone astray they found out the authors, and condemned them. Then Elafius cast himself at the feet of the priests, presenting his son, whose distress was visible, and needed no words to express it. All were grieved, but especially the priests, who put up their prayers for him before the throne of mercy; and Germanus, causing the youth to sit down,

debilitate curvatum, et per tota infirmitatis spatia medicabilis dextera percurrit, salubremque tactum sanitas festina subsequitur. Ariditas succum, nervi officia, receperunt; et in conspectu omnium filio incolumitas, patri filius, restituitur. Implentur populi stupore miraculi, et in pectoribus omnium fides catholica inculcata firmatur. Prædicatio deinde ad plebem de prævaricationis emendatione convertitur, omniumque sententia pravitatis auctores, qui erant expulsi insula, sacerdotibus adducuntur ad mediterranea deferendi, ut et regio absolutione et illi emendatione fruerentur. Factumque est ut in illis locis multo ex eo tempore fides intemerata perduraret. Itaque, compositis omnibus, beati sacerdotes ea, qua venerant, prosperitate redierunt.

Porro Germanus post hæc ad Ravennam pro pace Armoricanæ gentis supplicaturus advenit, ibique a Valentiniano et Placidia matre ipsius summa reverentia susceptus migravit ad Christum; cujus corpus honorifico agmine, comitantibus virtutum operibus, suam defertur ad urbem. Nec multo post Valentinianus ab Ætii Patricii, quem occiderat, satellitibus interimitur, anno imperii Marciani sexto, cum quo simul Hesperium concidit regnum.

CAP. XXII.-UT BRITONES, QUIESCENTIBUS AD TEMPUS EXTERIS, CIVILIBUS SESE BELLIS CONTRIVERINT, SIMUL ET MAJORIBUS FLAGITIIS SUBMERSERINT.

INTEREA in Britannia cessatum quidem est parumper ab externis, sed non a civilibus bellis. Manebant exterminia civitatum ab hoste dirutarum ac desertarum; pugnabant contra se invicem, qui hostem evaserant, cives. Attamen, recente adhuc memoria calamitatis et cladis gently passed his healing hand over the leg which was contracted; the limb recovered its strength and soundness by the power of his touch, the withered nerves were restored, and the youth was, in the presence of all the people, delivered whole to his father. The multitude was amazed at the miracle, and the Catholic faith was firmly planted in the minds of all; after which, they were, in a sermon, warned and exhorted to make amends for their errors. By the judgment of all, the spreaders of the heresy, who had been expelled the island, were brought before the priests, to be conveyed up into the continent, that the country might be rid of them, and they corrected of their errors. Thus the faith in those parts continued long after pure and untainted. All things being settled, the blessed prelates returned home as prosperously as they came.

But Germanus, after this, went to Ravenna to inter- The bishops cede for the tranquillity of the Armoricans, where, being again depart. very honourably received by Valentinian and his mother, Placidia, he departed to Christ; his body was conveyed to his own city with a splendid retinue, and numberless deeds of charity accompanied him to the grave. Not End of the long after, Valentinian was murdered by the followers Empire. of Ætius, the Patrician, whom he had put to death, in the sixth year of the reign of Marcianus, and with him ended the empire of the West.

CHAP. XXII. THE BRITONS, BEING FOR A TIME DELI-
VERED FROM FOREIGN INVASIONS, WASTED THEMSELVES BY
CIVIL WARS, AND THEN GAVE THEMSELVES UP TO MORE

HEINOUS CRIMES.

In the meantime, in Britain, there was some respite from foreign, but not from civil war. There still remained the ruins of cities destroyed by the enemy, and abandoned; and the natives, who had escaped the enemy, now fought against each other. However, the kings,

Western

inflictæ, servabant utcunque reges, sacerdotes, privati, et optimates suum quique ordinem; at, illis decedentibus, cum successisset ætas tempestatis illius nescia, et præsentis solum serenitatis statum experta, ita cuncta veritatis ac justitiæ moderamina concussa ac subversa sunt, ut earum, non dicam vestigium, sed ne memoria quidem, præter in paucis et valde paucis, ulla appareret. Quin, inter alia inenarrabilium scelerum facta, quæ historicus eorum Gildas flebili sermone describit, et hoc addebant, ut nunquam genti Saxonum sive Anglorum, secum Britanniam incolenti, verbum fidei prædicando committerent. Sed non tamen divina pietas plebem suam, quam præscivit, deseruit, quin multo digniores genti memoratæ præcones veritatis, per quos crederet, destinavit.

CAP. XXIII.-UT SANCTUS PAPA GREGORIUS, AUGUSTINUM CUM MONACHIS AD PRÆDICANDUM GENTI ANGLORUM MITTENS, EPISTOLA QUOQUE ILLOS EXHORTATORIA, NE A LABORANDO CESSARENT, CONFORTAVERIT.

SIQUIDEM anno ab incarnatione Domini quingentesimo octogesimo secundo, Mauricius, ab Augusto quinquagesimus quartus, imperium suscipiens, viginti et uno annis tenuit; cujus anno regni decimo Gregorius, vir doctrina et actione præcipuus, pontificatum Romanæ et Apostolicæ sedis sortitus, rexit annos tredecim, menses sex, et dies decem. Qui divino admonitus instinctu, anno decimo quarto ejusdem principis, adventus vero Anglorum in Britanniam anno circiter centesimo quinquagesimo, misit servum Dei Augustinum, et alios plures cum eo monachos timentes Dominum, prædicare verbum Dei genti Anglorum. Qui cum, jussis pontificalibus obtemperantes, memoratum opus aggredi cæpissent, jamque aliquantulum itineris confecissent, perculsi timore inerti priests, private men, and the nobility, still remembering the late calamities and slaughters, in some measure kept within bounds; but when these died, and another generation succeeded, which knew nothing of those times, and was only acquainted with the present peaceable state of things, all the bonds of sincerity and justice were so entirely broken, that there was not only no trace of them remaining, but few persons seemed to be aware that such virtues had ever existed. Among other most wicked actions, not to be expressed, which their own historian, Gildas, mournfully takes notice of, they added this-that they never preached the faith to the Saxons, or English, who dwelt amongst them; however, the goodness of God did not forsake his people, whom he foreknew, but sent to the aforesaid nation much more worthy preachers, to bring it to the faith.

CHAP. XXIII.-HOW POPE GREGORY SENT AUGUSTINE,
WITH OTHER MONKS, TO PREACH TO THE ENGLISH, AND
ENCOURAGED THEM BY A LETTER OF EXHORTATION, NOT
TO CEASE FROM THEIR LABOUR.

comes to A.D. 596.

In the year of our Lord 582, Maurice, the fifty-fourth St. Augustine from Augustus, ascended the throne, and reigned twenty- England. one years. In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, a man renowned for learning and behaviour, was promoted to the apostolical see of Rome, and presided over it thirteen years, six months, and ten days. He, being moved by Divine inspiration, in the fourteenth year of the same emperor, and about the one hundred and fiftieth after the coming of the English into Britain, sent the servant of God, Augustine, and with him several other monks, who feared the Lord, to preach the word of God to the English nation. They having, in obedience to the pope's commands, undertaken that work, were, on their journey, seized with a sudden fear, and began to think of returning home, rather than pro

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