some domestic troubles of his own, to be a patient spectator of their encroachments. His first wife had been carried off by Melnas, king of Somersetshire, who detained her a whole year at Glastonbury, until Arthur discovering the place of her re treat, advanced with an army against the ravisher, and obliged him to give her back, by the mediation of Gildas Albanius. In his second wife, perhaps, he might have been more fortunate, as we have no mention made of her, but it was otherwise with his third consort, who was debauched by his own nephew Mordred. This produced a rebellion, in which the king and his traitorous kinsman meeting in battle, they slew each other.

in the mean time, while the Saxons were thus gaining ground in the west, their countrymen were not less active in other parts of the island. A. D. Adventurers, still continuing to pour over from Germany, one body of them, under 575. the command of Uffa, seized upon the counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and gave their commander the title of King of the East Angles, which was the fourth Saxon kingdom founded in Britain.

A. D.

585.

Another body of these adventurers formed a kingdom under the title of East Saxony,, or Essex, comprehending Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire. This kingdom, which was dismembered from that of Kent, formed the fifth Saxon principality founded in Britain,

The kingdom of Mercia, was the sixth which was established by these fierce invaders, comprehending all the middle counties, from the banks of the Severn to the frontiers of the two last named kingdoms,

The seventh and last kingdom which they obtained was that of Northumberland, one of the most powerful and extensive of them all. This

was formed from the union of the two smaller Saxon kingdoms, the one called Bernicia, containing the present county of Northumberland and the bishopric of Durham; the subjects of the other, called the Deiri, extending themselves over Lancashire and Yorkshire. These kingdoms were united in the person of Ethelfred, king of Northumberland, by the expulsion of Edwin, his brotherin-law, from the kingdom of the Deiri, and the seizure of his dominions.

In this manner the natives being overpowered, or entirely expelled, seven kingdoms were established in Britain, which have been since well known by the name of the Saxon Heptarchy The unfortunate Britons having been exhausted by continual wars, and even worn out by their own victories, were reluctantly compelled to forsake the more fertile parts of the country, and to take refuge in the mountainous parts of Wales and Cornwall. All the vestiges of Roman luxury were now almost totally destroyed by the conquerors, who rather aimed at enjoyin the comforts of life than its magnificence. The few natives who were not either massacred or expelled their habitations, were reduced to the most abject slavery, and employed in cultivating those grounds for their new masters, which they once claimed as their own.

From this time British and Roman customs entirely ceased in the island; the language, which had been either Latin or Celtic, was discontinued, and the Saxon or English only was spoken. The land, before divided into colonies or governments, was cantoned into Shires, with Saxon ap-. pellations to distinguish them. The habits of the people in peace, and arms in war, their titles of honour, their laws, and methods of trial by jury, were continued as originally practised by the Germans, only with such alterations as encreasing ci

vilization produced. Conquerors, although they disseminate their own laws and manners, often borrow from the people they subdue. In the present instance they imitated the Britons in their government, by despotic and hereditary monarchies, while their exemplary chastity, and their abhorrence of slavery were quite forgotten..

The Saxons being thus established in all the desirable parts of the island, and having no longer the Britons to contend with, began to quarrel among themselves. A country divided into a number of petty independent principalities, must ever be subject to contention, as jealousy and ambition have more frequent incentives to operate. The wars therefore and revolutions of these little rival states were extremely numerous, and the accounts of them have swelled the historian's page. But these accounts are so confusedly written, the materials so dry, uninteresting, and filled with such improbable adventures, that a repetition of them can gratify neither the reader's judgment nor curiosity. In: stead therefore of entering into a detail of tumul-^ tuous battles, petty treacheries, and obscure successions, it will be more comformable to the present plan, to give some account of the introduction of christianity among the Saxons, which happened during this dreary period.

The Christian religion never suffered more persecution than it underwent in Britain from the bar. barity of the Saxon pagans, who burned all the churches, stained the altars with the blood of the clergy, and massacred all those whom they found professing Christianity. This deplorable state of religion in Britain was first taken into consideration by St. Gregory, who was then pope, and he undertook to send missionaries thither. It is said,, that before his elevation to the papal chair, he chanced one day to pass through the slave-market at

Rome, and perceiving some children of great beauty who were set up for sale, he enquired about their country, and finding they were English pages, he is said to have cried out, in the Latin Language, "Non Angli sed Angeli forent, si essent Christiani: They would not be English, but Angels, had they been Christians From that time he was struck with an ardent desire to convert that unenlightened nation, and actually embarked in a ship for Britain, when his pious intentions were frustrated by his being detained at Rome by the populace who loved him. He did not however lay aside his pious resolution; for having succeeded to the papal chair, he ordered a monk, named Augustine, and others of the same fraternity, to undertake the mission into Britain. It was not without some reluctance that these reverend men undertook so dangerous à task; but some favourable circumstances in Bri

tain seemed providentially to prepare the way for their arrival. Ethelbert, King of Kent, in his father's life-time had married Bertha, the only daughter of Coribert, king of Paris, one of the descendants of Clovis, king of Gaul. But before he was admitted to this alliance, he was obliged to stipulate that this princess should enjoy the free exercise of her religion, which was that of Christianity. She was therefore attended to Canterbury, the place of her residence, by Luidhard, a Gaulish prelate who officiated in a church dedicated to St. Martin, which had been built by the Romans near the walls of Canterbury, the exemplary conduct. and powerful preaching of this primitive bishop, added to the queen's learning and zeal, made very strong impressions upon the king, as well as the rest of his subjects in favour of Christianity. The general reception of this holy religion all over the continent might also contribute to dispose the minds of these idolaters for its admission, and make the

attempt less dangerous than Augustine and his associates at first supposed.

This pious monk, upon his first landing in the Isle of Thanet, sent one of his interpreters to the Kentish king, declaring he was come from Rome with offers of eternal salvation. In the mean time he and his followers lay in the open air, that they might not, according to the belief of the times, by entering a Saxon house, subject themselves to the power of heathen necromancy. The king immediately ordered them to be furnished with all necessaries, and even visited them, though without. declaring himself as yet in their favour. Augustine, however, encouraged by this favourable reception, and now seeing a prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel, and even endeavoured to call in the aid of miracles to enforce his exhortations. So much assiduity, together with the earnestness of his address, the austerity of his life, and the example of his followers, at last power fully operated. The king openly espoused the Christian religion, while his example wrought so successfully on his subjects, that numbers of them came voluntarily to be baptized, the missioner loudly declaring against any coercive means towards their conversion. The heathen temples being purified, were changed to places of Christian worship, and such churches as had been suffered to decay were repaired. The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity, the pope enjoined his missioner to remove the pagan idols, but not to throw down the altars, observing that the people would be allured to frequent those places, which they had formerly been accustomed to revere. also permitted him to indulge the people in those feasts and chearful entertainments which they had been formerly accustomed to celebrate near the places of their idolatrous worship. The people

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