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SHOLTO & REUBEN PERCY,
Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery,
MONT BENGER.

THREE VOLUMES.

OLUME

II

LONDON;

PRINTED FOR T.BOYS, LUDGATE HILL.

The Percy Histories.

LONDON.

Lo! numerous domes, a Burlington confess:
For Kings and Senates fit, the palace see!
The temple breathing a religious awe.

Thomson.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT.

Ir is certain that not long after the first introduction of Christianity into this island, London was erected into a bishop's see; but at what particular period or by whom does not appear. In the list of ecclesiastics, who formed the second general council held at Arles, in France, in 326, we have the presence of a Bishop of London recorded in these terms: "Ex Provincia Britannia Civitate Londinensi Restitutus Episcopus." Joceline of Furnes, in his book of British Bishops, says, that this Restitutus was the twelfth bishop of London; but no dependence can be placed on the accuracy of his list. The catalogue of our kings from Brute the son of Eneas, the son of Venus, down to King Lud, is quite as authentic. When the persecution under Dioclesian drove Christianity to VOL. II.]

B

take shelter in the mountainous parts of Cornwall and Wales, another long night of Pagan darkness overshadowed the banks of the Thames.

It was not till the time of Pope Gregory the Great, that Augustine, who has been called the Apostle of the English, restored the light of the gospel. Among his first converts was Ethelbert, King of Kent, who, about 610, erected London of new into a bishop's see, and founded St. Paul's cathedral.

Of the bishops who filled this see till the arrival of the Normans, the only one whose name still lives in the memory of men, was that noted saint and magician Dunstan. No less than three churches in and around London have been dedicated to him: one" in the west," another "in the east," and a third at Stepney.

William, the first bishop under the Norman line, was held by the citizens of London, in grateful remembrance for many centuries, for his good offices in prevailing with William the First, to grant them the ample recognition which he did of their ancient rights and franchises. His remains were interred in St. Paul's cathedral, and a monument erected to his memory by the corporation, on which they inscribed in warm terms the obligations which he had conferred on the city

Reddita libertas duce

Te; donatq. multis,
Te duce, Res fuerat

Publica Muneribus.

For a long time the corporation made it one of their principal duties on Lord Mayor's Day, to do homage at the shrine of this restorer of their liberties, and

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