Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/27

 the British people into the mountainous parts of our island, and they almost completely exterminated the Christian religion. Churches and Monasteries, which had been built with loving care, were burned and ruthlessly levelled to the ground. Many Christian priests and people were slaughtered.

To find Christianity now you must follow the surviving Britons. We must follow them into Wales and Cornwall, and other mountainous districts of Britain. We know very little of the doings of the British Christians after this Saxon invasion for many years. They kept up, as well as they were able, their old Church life. They held Synods and Church Councils. They founded new Sees in the districts where they were forced to reside. Four of these are in existence now, viz., Llandaff, S. David's, Bangor, and S. Asaph.

The Britons seemed to be strong in Cornwall and Devonshire. Devon and Cornwall were not conquered by the Saxons. "Here the Christians were numerous," says Mr. Hore, "and they preserved their ancient customs and ritual into the seventh century." In this part of Britain there lived many saintly men. One of them was called Ives, after whom S. Ives, a town, was probably named.

The Britons were so completely conquered by the Saxons that they did not try to evangelize them. They did no missionary work among their enemy. Bede, the historian, said of them: "They never preached the Faith to the Saxons in England who dwelt amongst them." But we must remember that the British were terribly afraid of their formidable conquerors.

Although British Church was thus conquered and