CHAP. II.]

GLASTONBURY.

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Among these, Philip arriving at the territory of the Franks, converted a great number, and being desirous to extend his Master's kingdom, picked out twelve of his disciples, and sent them to preach the Gospel in Britain; Joseph of Arimathea, as it is said, being one, and being appointed over the rest. These missionaries coming to Britain, in the year 63, published the Gospel of Christ with great industry and courage. But the barbarous king and his subjects, alarmed at so unusual an undertaking, and not liking a doctrine so different to their own, refused to become converts; but pleased with their unexceptionable behaviour, gave them a little plot of ground, called the isle of Avalon, surrounded with fens and bushes. Afterwards two other pagan kings, affected by their remarkable sanctity, each gave a portion of ground. They settled twelve hides on them by an instrument in writing, from whence it is supposed that the twelve hides, a part of the estate of the abbey of Glastonbury, had their denomination. "These holy men being thus settled built a church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The building was constructed of oziers twisted together, having little ornament; they are said to have served God with extraordinary devotion, and spending their time in fasting and prayer, were supported in the difficulties of their situation."

Fuller remarks, "In all this story of Joseph being at Glastonbury, there is no one passage reported therein, beareth better proportion to time and place, than the church he is said to erect, whose dimensions, materials, and making, are thus presented to us. It had in length 60 feet, 36 in breadth, made of rods wattled or interwoven, where at one view we may behold the simplicity of British buildings in that age, and some hundred years after. In this small oratory, Joseph and his companions watched, prayed, fasted, preached, having high meditations under a low roof, and large hearts between narrow walls. If credit may be given to these authors, this church without competition was senior to all Christian churches in the world. Let not then stately modern churches disdain to stoop with their highest steeples, reverently doing homage to this poor structure, as their first platform and precedent. And let their chequered pavements no more disdain this oratory's plain floor, than her thatched covering doth envy their leaden roofs. And although now it is meet that church building, as well as private houses, partaking of the peace and prosperity of our age, should be both in their cost and cunning increased, (far be that pride and profaneness from any, to account nothing either too fair for man, or too foul for God) yet it will not be

CHAP. II.]

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amiss to desire that our judgments may be so much the clearer in matters of truth, and our lives so much the purer in conversation, by how much our churches are more light, and our buildings more beautiful than they were."

Such is the substance of the Glastonbury tradition, from which, taken in connection with other authorities, we may infer that there was at that place, a very early and strenuous effort for the propagation of the Gospel, and that at an early period missionaries came there, among whom one was named Joseph, though there is not sufficient evidence that it was Joseph of Arimathea. The place is said in a charter granted by Henry the Second in 1185, to have been anciently styled "the mother of the saints," or the "burying place of the saints." The first land of God." "The first land of saints in England." "The beginning and fountain of all religion in England." But there is little evidence to establish the minute details; Bishop Stillingfleet, in a close examination, shews great inconsistency in the dates, and names of persons who are mentioned, leading to the conclusion that in a later period, the monks of Glastonbury, depending on the current tradition of its early foundation, added many of the details in order to increase their influence.

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