Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/287

 s. v. MAR. 23, 1912.] NOTES AXD QUERIES.

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from whom he derived his information. Beda had the advantage of consulting records, &c.. much nearer the fountain-head than more recent writers ever saw or even know of.

Bishop Godwin, who refers to Speed's account, asserts that the epistle was sent " by Eleutherus, Bishop of Rome, to Lucius" (i.e., Lleirug), and gives a copy of it, which he states was discovered first in an old chronicle entitled ' Brutus,' among laws or statutes. Godwin quotes from many authorities on the subject such as Fox, Bishop Jewel, Holingshead, ' The History of Rochester " and he says that Beda's authorities were probably old martyr - ologies, of which some were very ancient. Godwin also states that it was Lucius who appointed the first Bishop of York. With respect to Lucius's conversion the ' Book of Teilo,' or the history of Llandaff, is quoted, while reference is made to a MS* in Godwin's custody.

MR. W. A. B. COOLIDGE says he cannot find any reference to Lucius in ' The Saxon Chronicle.' At the risk of being told that the passage is interpolated. I would ask him to look into ' A Literal Translation of " The Saxon Chronicle," ' published by J. & A. Arch, Cornhill, 1819.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

MR JONAS asks for information about Lucius. The story goes that Britain was christianized by missionaries sent by Pope Eleutherus, A.D. 177-93, at the request of Lucius, King of Britain. The facts of the legend are as follows :

I. From Bede downwards the story is related by between twenty and thirty early historians, who give dates for the con- version of Lucius ranging from A.D. 90 to 19J (Ussher, ' Brit. Eccl. Ant.,' v. cc. iii., and Fuller, ' Ch. Hist, of Brit. 1 cent. ii. bk. i.).

The letter of Eleutherius (see Collier, in answer to the request of Lucius for mis- sionaries, is now everywhere admitted to be & manifest forgery.
 * Eccl. Hist. Gt. Brit..' bk. i., cent. ii. 14),

II. Gildas, A.D. 560, who was Bede's usual authority for British church history, knows nothing of Lucius.

III. Bede is the earliest English writer to mention the legend. His story is C H.E.,' i. 4 and v. 24) :

" In the 156th year from the Lord's Incarna- tion Marcus Antoninus Verus. the fourteenth from Augustus, received the kingdom, together with his brother, Aurelius Commodus. In their times Eleutherius, a holy man, presided over the

see of the Roman Church, and to him Lucius, King of Britain (Rex Britanniarum), sent a letter beseeching that he might be made a Christian by his command, and in a short time he obtained his pious request. And the faith that they had received the Britons maintained in peace and quietness, inviolate and undeflled, till the time of the Emperor Diocletian."

There are one or two points in this state* ment which render it irreconcilable with facts.

1. The date is impossible Marcus Aurelius Antoninus reigned from 161 to 180, and Lucius Commodus from 161 to 169. Eleu- therus was Pope from 177 to 193.

2. Under the Roman government of Britain, Lucius could hardly be more than a tribal chieftain; he might be styled "Re t x Britannicus," but certainly not " Rex Britanniarum. ' '

Bede's authority for the legend is the later form of the ' Catalogus Pontificum Romanorum,' which was written in 530, and which adds to the ' Vita Eleutheri ' in the earlier catalogue : " He received a letter from Lucius, King of Britain, asking that he might be made a Christian by his order."

But these words are not in the original cata- logue, which was written in 353, and merely gives the names. It is now generally accepted that the legend originated in Rome during the fifth or sixth century, about 300 years after the date assigned to it. Haddan and Stubbs, ' Councils,' ii 26, plainly prove how the legend arose and grew.

R. USSHER.

Westbury, Brackley.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED (11 S. v. 28, 99). 2. Coi.. JOHN HENRY BELLI. In All Saints' Church, Southampton, is a tablet to Paulina, wife of Sir Codrington E. Carrington, Knt., first Chief Justice of Ceylon, and dau. of John Belli, Esq., of a noble Italian family, and of Eliz. Stuart Cockerell, his wife. She was m. August, 1801, and d. 9 August, 1823, a. 38. Above, on a brass shield (very dirty, and with the paint nearly worn off), are the arms Sable, on a bend or three lozenges (Carrington of Barbados), impaling Or, on a chevron azure a mullet between two roses ; in base a rose, and in chief three (? men's) heads (Belli). V. L. OLIVER.

Weymouth.

CROWNED BY A POPE (11 S. v. 71, 139). The answer is no doubt due to a misprint in my query, ante, p. 71, for the lady asked for is' entered as Duchesse de Beri, instead of Duchesse de Bari. H. A. ST. J. M.