Page:Somerset Historical Essays.djvu/17

 Christ and made ready by God for the salvation of men, which afterwards the Maker of the heavens &hellip; shewed that He had consecrated to Himself and to Mary the Holy Mother of God'. This was 103 years after the coming of the disciples of St Philip. St Phagan and St Dernvian remained here nine years. 'They found in ancient writings the whole story, how when the Apostles were dispersed throughout the world St Philip the Apostle came with a multitude of disciples to France and sent twelve of their number to preach in Britain. And these by the guidance of an angelic vision built that chapel which afterwards the Son of God dedicated in honour of His Mother; and to these twelve three kings, though pagans, granted for their sustenance twelve portions of land.'

Accordingly St Phagan and St Deruvian chose twelve of their companions and settled them on the island. They dwelt as anchorites in the very spots where the first twelve had dwelt. 'Yet often they assembled at the Old Church (vetusta ecclesia) for the devout performance of divine worship. And just as three pagan kings had granted the island with its appendages to the first twelve disciples of Christ in days gone by, so Phagan and Deruvian sought from K. Lucius that the same should be confirmed to those their twelve companions and to others who should come after them. And in this way many others in succession, always keeping to the number twelve, dwelt in the island throughout all the years, until the coming of St Patrick the Apostle of the Irish. To this church also, which they had thus discovered, the holy neophytes added another oratory built of stone, which they dedicated to Christ and the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. By their work therefore was restored the Old Church of St Mary at Glastonbury. &hellip; There is also that written evidence of good credit, found at St Edmund's, to this effect: The church of Glastonbury did none other men's hands make, but actual disciples of Christ built it; being sent, to wit, by the Apostle St Philip, as was said above. Nor is this irreconcileable with truth: for if the Apostle Philip preached to the Gauls, as Freculfus says in the fourth chapter of his second book, it may be believed that he cast the seeds of his doctrine across the sea as well.'

We may here pause in our analysis in order to consider the authenticity of these first two sections of the book. Before calling in evidence from outside we may observe that the second section (beginning with the words 'Tradunt bonae credulitatis annales') tells a complete story which might well have stood as the opening chapter of the whole work. Placed where it is, it gives us over again almost all that has been said in the first section. There are indeed