Albion Revisited

A series of articles on Ancient British Christianity

14^th July 2007

No.11. Augustine’s letter to Pope Gregory, A.D. 600

“In the western confines of Britain there is a certain royal island of large extent, surrounded by water, abounding in all the beauties of nature and necessaries of life. In it the first neophytes of catholic law, God before acquainting them, found a Church constructed by no human art, but divinely constructed (or by the hands of Christ Himself) for the salvation of His people. The Almighty has made it manifest by many miracles and mysterious visitations that He continues to watch over it as sacred to Himself, and to Mary the mother of God.”

Epistolae ad Gregorium Papam.

This letter is quoted by several authors writing on the subject of Glastonbury’s early history. Most of them give the quotation as shown above with no source reference, and then proceed to use it as definitive evidence of the existence of a wattle church built in the days of the Apostles. It would be very nice to be able to accept this letter at face value, and assume that Augustine wrote it himself, based on first hand evidence he’d obtained during the first couple of years he was in Britain. However, this cannot be proved. In this chapter we shall adduce what evidence exists concerning the source of the letter, and thereby decide just how much can be relied upon historically.

First of all, it must be said that although the quotation formed a part of a letter sent by Augustine, it was definitely not based on his own observations. In fact, if history can be relied upon, it is highly doubtful that Augustine ever ventured down into Somerset. His only excursions on record refer to the two conferences he held, one on the banks of the River Severn, near the site of the old Aust Ferry, and the other in South Wales, probably at Caerleon.

What is definitely known is that two historians, writing some 400 - 500 years later, referred to the text of this letter, and by the way in which they reported it, suggested its existence in ancient documents prior to the time of Augustine, so that the Roman Monk must have been shown the text, and decided to quote it in his letter to Gregory. These two historians were a Saxon Priest known only by the letter “B”, writing on the life of St. Dunstan, and William of Malmsebury.

Dunstan died in 988, and “B”, his first biographer dedicated his work to Elfric, who ruled the church of Canterbury from 996 to 1000. In two places he asserts that he had been an eye-witness of the events he relates. As a mark of humility he merely refers to himself as Priest B. In section 3 of his writing, the Priest refers to the birth and early life of Dunstan, who was born at Baltonsborough, just 4 miles south-east of Glastonbury, and grew up at Glastonbury under the influence of Irish missionaries. The passage that interests us is as follows:

And thus, the boy [Dunstan] grew up and was cherished by God and His beloved men, moreover he was in the boundary of a royal island of the same above-mentioned men, called Glastonia, filled with broad hollow places, surrounded by sluggish rivers, whose waters are filled with fish and suitable to serve many human needs, and best of all, consecrated to sacred offices. In it the earliest Angles, neophytes of the Catholic Rule, God guiding them, found an ancient church, not built by art of man, but divinely prepared for the salvation of mankind, which church the Heavenly Builder Himself declared – by many miracles and sacred mysteries– He had consecrated to Himself and to Mary, the holy Mother of God.”

About 100 years later William of Malmsebury wrote his treatise entitled “De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie” (The Early History of Glastonbury). In chapter 1 he gives tolerably the same quotation, showing that he had read the text of the Saxon Priest. It reads as follows:

“That these things are so, we learn from both the Charter of the Blessed Patrick, and from the writings of the Elders, of whom one, the historian of the Britons, just as we saw in the case of St. Edmund, and in the case of St. Augustine the Apostle of the English, began his account thus:

There is on the confines of Western Britain a certain royal island, called in the ancient speech Glastonia, spacious and undulating, girt round with waters rich in fish, and sluggish rivers, fit to serve many human needs, and, best of all, consecrated to sacred offices. In it the earliest Angles, neophytes of the Catholic Rule, God guiding them, found an ancient church, not built by art of man, so they say, but prepared by God Himself for the salvation of mankind, which church the Heavenly Builder Himself declared – by many miracles and sacred mysteries– He had consecrated to Himself and to Mary, the holy Mother of God.”

There is a very interesting difference between these two writings. It may be seen by the expression underlined in William’s version. The Latin is ut ferunt, and is clearly William’s own comment on the information he’d just quoted. It shows the early development of scepticism. In the Saxon Priest’s document it does not occur, but he places it in the margin, showing that he is quoting from much earlier documents, one of which contains the phrase.

The evidence from these two primary sources may be summarised as follows. Prior to the time of Augustine, a certain document was well known, containing the above quotation. It was later found in the writings of St. Patrick, of the Elders, (whoever they were), and of St. Augustine, (presumably in his letter to Gregory.) The authenticity of the information was seldom doubted in those early centuries. In 1375 John Dee of Glastonbury, writing in his Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie, (Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey), chapter 1, had this to say:

“No other human hands made the church at Glastonbury, but Christ’s disciples founded and built it by angelic doctrine, an unattractive structure, certainly, but adorned by God with manifold virtue; the High Priest of the heavens Himself, the Maker and Redeemer of mankind, our Lord Jesus Christ, in His true presence dedicated it to Himself and His most holy mother. On account of its antiquity the English called this church the ‘ealdchirche’ – that is, the ‘Old Church’ – and it is quite evident that the men of that region hold no oath more sacred or binding than one on the Old Church – and they shun nothing through fear of punishment for their crime more than perjury. Glastonbury, originally built of wattles, is first and eldest of all churches in England. From it the strength of divine sanctity gave forth its scent from the very outset and breathed upon the whole land; and though it was made of unsightly material, it was nevertheless esteemed greatly in worshipful reverence. Just as the place is founded upon a great and ancient reverence, so it towers mightily in the privilege of its sanctity.”

So genuine and valuable was this information held by scholars and historians, that for centuries it was never doubted. Take for example the writings of Sir Henry Spelman, (1564 – 1641) the

English antiquary, author of his most important work, Concilia, Decreta, Leges, Constitutiones in re ecclesiarum orbis Britannici (2 volumes, 1636 – 1641, and completed in 1664 by his son.) This was an attempt to document ecclesiastical history on a basis of genuine documents. The following quotations reflect this attitude.

“It is certain that Britain received the Faith in the first age from the first sowers of the Word. Of all the churches whose origin I have investigated in Britain, the church of Glastonbury is the most ancient…” Concilia. Page 1 of the Folio Edition.

“We have abundant evidence that this Britain of ours received the Faith, and that from the disciples of Christ Himself, soon after the Crucifixion of Christ.” Concilia.

“For anyone to longer doubt the historic authenticity of Glastonbury, and the mission of Joseph, is ridiculous.” Concilia.

In the Concilia is an engraving of a brass plate which was formerly affixed to a column erected to mark the exact site of the Glastonbury church, the Wattle Church. The wording was as follows –

“The first ground of God, the first ground of the Saints of Britain, the rise and foundation of all religion in Britain, the burial place of the Saints.” The plate was dug up at Glastonbury and came into Spelman’s possession. See Concilia Volume 1, page 9.

Sadly, in our modern world, an age of debunking has arisen, the power of which is destroying the rich heritage of ancient British history. Our wish is to place on record the earliest sources, and give them the place they deserve in the records of history. But more than that, we want to rebuild the confidence in these early texts, and as a result see what God built in this land just a few years after the resurrection, and how that affects our national position in His sight in these latter days.