FREUMH À TALAMH TIORAM

"Gach smuain a-chum ùmhlachd Chrìosd" (2 Corintianaich 10:5)

EXCERPTED FROM DR. F.N. LEE’S "ROOTS AND FRUITS OF COMMON LAW"

A.D. 75 to 87f: King Arviragus's son Prince Meric rules from Westmorland

Important is the extended 1979 monograph Romans in North-West England -- published in Kendal by the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. There, T.W. Potter shows that little of what is now called Cumbria was occupied by the Romans. Indeed, Celtic sites -- still extant -- vastly outnumber the Roman sites there known to have existed.

Potter explains:#165# "Only two forts can be proved Agricolan.... One is Lancaster.... The other is Carlisle." Very significantly, he adds that there is an "absence of proven Agricolan sites in the Lake District."

So it was that Caradoc’s nephew or cousin’s son, the then-apparently-christianized King Ard-an-Rhaig or Arviragus's son, the Briton Prince Meric -- who continued to defend his Celtic country -- did so specifically from Westmorland's remote Lake District. Already in A.D. 73, at least de facto, Arviragus had been succeeded in part by his son Meric alias Meurig or Marius -- a man of admirable prudence and wisdom.

In A.D. 75, Roderick invaded the northwest of South Britain at the Solway with a great fleet. Meric, however, victoriously defeated Roderick there. Thus the mediaeval historians Geoffrey Arthur#166# and Matthew of Paris.#167#

The mediaeval historian Geoffrey of Monmouth chronicles that Mer-ic "set up and erected" a triumphal monument -- "a stone in token of his triumph in that province which was afterward called Westmorland [alias 'West-Mer-land'] after his name [Mer-ic]. Thereon is graven a writing that beareth witness unto his memory, even unto this day" (circa A.D. 1150).

Especially the Elizabethan antiquarian and historian Raphael Holinshed provides more details. According to his Description of Britain,#168# around A.D. 70-80f "Marius [alias Meric or Meurig] the son of Arviragus was king of all Britain" (that is, 'High-King'). "Marius assembled a force...in Westmorland."

Holinshed further relates: "After the decease of Arviragus, his son Marius [Meric or Meurig] succeeded him.... He began his reign in the year of our Lord 73." Here Holinshed substantially agrees with the Welsh chronicler Humfrey Lloyd, who writes: "About the 72nd year of the incarnation...Meurig or Maw...reigned in Britain....

"In the Old English Chronicle, he is fondly called West-mer [after whom West-mer-land alias Westmorland was named]. He was a very wise man, governing the Britons in great prosperity, honour and wealth.... King Meric...with all speed...assembled his people and made towards his enemies. Giving them battle, he obtained the victory....

"The Scottish Chronicles avouch [that]...the victory which Meric obtained...happened in the year 87 after the incarnation. In remembrance of this victory, Meric caused a stone to be erected in the same place where the battle was fought. On this stone, these words were engraved: 'Marij victoria!'" Translation: 'To Meric the victory!'

"The English Chronicle says that this stone was set up on Stanesmoore -- and that the whole county thereabout, taking its name from this Meric, was West-mer-ia (now called West-mor-land). King Meric having thus subdued his enemies, and having escaped the danger of their dreadful invasion, gave his mind to the good government of his people and the advancement of the common wealth of the realm. He continued the rest of his life in great tranquillity.... He was buried at Caer-leill [Carlisle], leaving a son behind him called Coill." Thus the Christian dynasty Arviragus-Meric-Coill (King Cole).

Also Holinshed's History of Scotland records#169# that "Mar-ius [alias Mer-ic]...became King of Britain.... He resided chiefly...in the parts surrounding Kendal. He named those parts (where he passed altogether the greater portion of his time in hunting) West-mer-land -- after his own name.... Afterwards, when the Romans were expelled, a portion of the same -- adjoining Caledonia -- was called Cumberland."

Clearly then, according to the Old English Chronicle, the Scottish Chronicles, Geoffrey Arthur, Matthew Paris, Humfrey Lloyd and Raphael Holinshed -- the Christian King Arviragus's son the Briton King Meric ruled from near Kendal in Westmorland from about A.D. 72 onward. He wisely ruled the Britons in peace and prosperity, giving them "good government" and promoting "the advancement of the Commonwealth" -- no doubt under its Common Law. Significantly, King Meric's son King Coill in turn begat King Llew (Lucius), who proclaimed Christianity the national religion of Britain in 156 A.D.

So the Celtic Britons held their own in the uplands of what is now Cumbria -- in spite of the Roman conquest of South Britain as a whole. As the BBC's popular historian Michael Wood writes#170# -- in his 1986 reprint Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England -- there are still extant at Shap in Westmorland stone-walled enclosures for houses, yards and corrals -- probably inhabited by Celtic-speaking natives up to the fourth century. The Romans invaded lowland Britain in A.D. 43. The land they overran was already an old country, which had been cultivated for a long time.

In the areas occupied by the Romans, the latter retained the old tribal organization of the land as the basis of their administration. The basic Brythonic and Pre-Roman structure of regional and local organisation was retained.... The mass of the native Britons who spoke a Celtic language related to today's Welsh...covered Southern Britain. By A.D. 300, the population may have reached as much as four million. Thus Wood....
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NOTES

165) T.W. Potter: Romans in North-West England, Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Kendal, 1979, pp. 355-57. Further, Roman penetration of Cumbria --and even then just slightly so -- took place only in later years.

166) Op. cit., IV:17-18.

167) Op. cit., I, pp. 107 & 113.

168) Op. cit., I:197f; and see too Holinshed's History of England I:503, citing Hector Boece & Matthew of Westminster.

169) Holinshed's op. cit., V:72f.

170) M. Wood's Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England, Facts on File, New York, 1986 (rep.), pp. 39-41.

Immediately above we have been dealing with the introduction of Christianity specifically into Wales -- and around A.D. 59. However, the Gospel had of course already been introduced into other British regions -- such as Somerset -- even a quarter of a century earlier. Indeed, it is precisely from Avalon in Somerset, that the son of the Christian King Arviragus -- Prince Meric -- left to go and reside in Brythonic Westmorland no later than A.D. 72f.

Now on thus returning to Britain in A.D. 58 (from their A.D. 52f banishment in Rome), that part of the British royal family which had been exiled in Italy would seem to have settled down not far from the Christian Church at Avalon-Glastonbury in Somersetshire. There, Joseph of Arimathea is reputed to have built the first church-building in Britain. Thus arose the 'Church of the Culdees' or the Cuilteach alias the Culdich -- the "Strangers' Church" especially of later fame. Compare the Gaelic Gille De or Ceile De alias "the Servants of God."

That Church had been planted in Britain previously, from A.D. 35 onward -- by 'Strangers' straight from Jerusalem. Cf. Acts 8:1-4 & 11:19 & First Peter 1:1 & 2:11 with James 1:1. Now, after A.D. 58f, it was further strengthened by long-standing British Christians returning home -- after themselves being 'strangers' and hostages in Pagan Rome since A.D. 52.

Together with Aristobulus, Caradoc's eldest daughter Eurgain (and probably too her youngest brother Cynon and their mother Eurgen) returned to Britain from Rome -- in A.D. 58f. However, Eurgain had become a convinced Christian long before leaving Britain for Rome together with her hostage father in A.D. 52 -- and probably already in A.D. 35f....

The widescale winning of Druidists for Christianity, and the conversion of their colleges into centres for evangelism and missionary training institutes, is an important factor. This occurred not only in Somerset and in many areas of Wales. There is some evidence it occurred also in Cumbrian Westmorland, where the Christian King Arvirag's son Prince Meric went and settled.

For it was there that the Christian Prince Meric's son the Christian King Coill soon ruled -- before the latter's son the Christian King Llew proclaimed Christianity the official religion of at least that region within Britannia. Again, it was from that region of Cumbrian Westmorland that the Briton Prince Ninian headed north -- just across the Solway and into Scotland to evangelize its ancient inhabitants, the Niduari Picts.

Once again, more likely than not, it is also precisely from Cumbria that even the Briton Patrick proceeded into Ireland -- there to evangelize the Iro-Scots.

Thus, Britain thus heard the Gospel even before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Indeed, that Gospel took solid root especially in Cumbria -- long before the 118-26 A.D. erection by the Pagan Roman Emperor of Hadrian's Wall, just to the north of it, and across the land.

North of that Wall, the Britons were never subjugated. Nor were they routed in the remote regions of Cumbrian Westmorland just to the south of the Wall, as well as in the wild reaches of Western Wales -- even within Roman-occupied Britannia. Indeed, only after the completion of Hadrian's Wall was the province of Britannia south of the wall even fully incorporated into the Roman dominions. Moreover, that was then done by treaty -- rather than by conquest.#240#

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NOTES

240) See Morgan's op. cit., p. 68.

As the great Swiss church historian J.H. Merle D'Aubigne' has stated in his History of the Reformation:#22# "In the second century of the Christian era, vessels were frequently sailing to the...shores of Britain from the ports of Asia Minor, Greece, Alexandria.... Among the merchants...would occasionally be found a few pious men from the banks of the Meander" in 'Gaul-Asia' alias Galatia (1:1f). They would then start "conversing peacefully...about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth" -- in Britain.

"It would appear that some British prisoners-of-war, having learnt to know of Christ during their captivity," passed on "also to their fellow-countrymen their knowledge of this Saviour.... It is certain that the tidings of the Son of man -- crucified and raised again" around A.D. 33 -- soon thereafter and before the Roman invasion of Britain in A.D. 43 "spread through these Islands more rapidly than" it did through "the dominions of the emperors....

"Before the end of the second century, many churches worshipped Christ also beyond the walls of [H]adrian" -- in Cumbria and Caledonia. Christ was now worshipped "in those mountains, forests and the Western Isles which for centuries past the druids had filled with their mysteries and their sacrifices -- and on which even the Roman eagles had never stooped.

"Those churches were formed after the Eastern type. The Britons would have refused to receive the [Italian] type of that Rome whose yoke they detested." For "the first thing which the British Christians [had ever] received from the capital of the Roman Empire, was persecution....

"Many Christians from the southern part of the Island took refuge in Scotland where they raised their humble roofs and, under the name of Culdees, prayed for the salvation of their protectors." When the surrounding people "saw the holiness of these men of God, they abandoned in great numbers their sacred oaks, their mysterious caverns, and their blood-stained altars -- and obeyed the gentle voice of the Gospel."
We ourselves agree with nearly all of the above statements of Merle d'Aubigne'. Yet his "blood-stained altars" of Scotland's Druidism had been derived probably from those of the Hebrews. At any rate, they had always pointed forward to their fulfilment in the blood-stained altar of Calvary. No wonder, then, that especially in Ancient Strathclyde -- from Cumbrian Westmorland to Southwest Scotland -- the Gospel now took root.

Prince Meric of Westmorland's son King Coill of Cumbria

Especially in the remote mountains of Cumbrian Westmorland -- in the extreme north of the northwest of South Britain adjoining the modern Scotland -- the Pagan Romans were uninfluential. The region was named 'West-Mer-Land' -- after the 'Free British' Christian King Arviragus's son Meric alias Marius, who went to reside there. In that place, he then erected a monument.

That was where the Christian Meric's son King Coill was born -- in 114 A.D.#23# The Christian Coill later became the father of Llew. He whom the Romans called 'Lucius King of the Britons' would proclaim Britain to be a Christian nation (in the middle of the second century).

The Elizabethan chronicler Holinshed explains:#24# "Coill the son of Meric was, after his father's decease, made King of Britain in the 125th year of our Lord.... He was much honoured by the Romans, and he...lived in peace and good quiet. He was also a prince of much bounty, and very liberal [or generous]. Thereby he obtained great love from both his nobles and commons....

"When this Coill had reigned the space of fifty-four years, he departed this life at York -- leaving after him a son named Lucius [or Llew(ellyn)], who succeeded in the kingdom.... Coill the son of this Marius had Lucius as his issue -- who is counted the first Christian king of this nation" across the north of Britannia. For even while Coill continued ruling as King of Westmorland, his son Llew started to reign as 'High-King' over the north of Britannia.

In his book St. Paul and his British Friends, J.W. Parker surveys the legal and religious character of Britain from the time of Christ's incarnation till early in the second century A.D. He remarks#25# that at the time Christ's contemporary Paul was born (cf. Acts 7:58), Britain was the only free and self-governing land on Earth. The first Britons were christianized, in Britain, probably even before being invaded by the Pagan Romans in A.D. 43. This was apparently before Paul was converted to Christianity, when an adult....

Near Skiddaw and Cross Fell, and not far from the modern revivalist region of Christian Keswick, one finds Crossthwaite and the various churches of Cumbria. Observes J.W. Kaye in his book The History of Crossthwaite Parish Church,#38# below the southern slopes of the mighty Skiddaw lies the Valley of the Two Lakes.

Druidists believed in immortality. Skiddaw had looked down on the many such druidic assemblies. There, druidical ceremonies were enacted year by year. The circle of stones shares the secret with the surrounding hills.

Christianity was brought into the Valley of the Two Lakes. With the Roman occupation of Britannia in the early days of the Christian era, the great wall of the Emperor Hadrian might be seen from Skiddaw's top.

Later came Kentigern, born of royal parents in 518 A.D. He established the church at Crossthwaite. There is considerable evidence a series of willow-and-clay sanctuaries stood there for many years.

Also at Brideskirk in Cumbria, there is an extremely ancient stone baptismal font. It bears a pictorial inscription of a child being baptized. There a dove, doubtless portraying the Holy Spirit, is sketched as hovering over the infant. See Camden's Britannia.#39# See too Nicholson's History of Westmorland and Cumberland, and Wall's History of Infant Baptism.#40# Brideskirk is just over thirty miles, as the crow flies, from Kendal -- where the present author himself was born and baptized.

That whole area of Greater Cumbria was only very superficially controlled by the Romans from A.D. 43 till 397. Less than fifty miles northeast of Kendal, is Shap -- full of many very ancient stone circles (one from B.C. 3400). Shap was never disturbed by the Romans....

Some twenty-five miles northwest of Kendal, is the great Christian conference centre of Keswick. Less than two miles east of Keswick, is the druidical stone circle at Castlerigg.

About thirty miles to the east of Keswick, is Westmorland's Appleby. It was never at any time even in the possession of the Romans....

Indeed, apart from the well-known Roman forts at Lancaster and at Carlisle, the rest of first- and second-century Greater Cumbria seems to have been singularly devoid of Romans (who never even occupied places like Appleby and Shap nor the Lake District in Westmorland). For Cumbria in general and Meric's Westmorland in particular were then inhabited by increasing numbers of Brythonic Christians -- and also by many Celtic Druidists, who were themselves then fast embracing Palestinian Christianity.#41#

Christian Royalty from Arviragus and Caradoc through Meric and Coill to Llew

The mediaeval Geoffrey Arthur of Monmouth translated an important Ancient-Celtic manuscript into Latin, and titled it History of the Kings of Britain. This preserves the record of some of what had happened among the Britons after the death of the Christian Briton King Arviragus. Says Geoffrey:#47#

"His son Marius [alias Prince Meric] succeeded him in the kingdom: a man of marvellous prudence and wisdom! In his reign, after a time, came a certain...Roderick with a great fleet and landed in the northern part of Britain. Assembling his people, Marius accordingly came to meet him and, after sundry battles, obtained the victory. He then set up a stone in token of his triumph in that province, which was afterward called West-mor-land [or West-mer-land] after his name [Mer-ic]. Thereon is graven a writing that beareth witness unto his memory even unto this day.

"When he [Marius] had ended the course of his life, his son Coill guided the helm of state. Unto Coill was born one single son whose name was Lucius [Llew]. He, upon the death of his father, succeeded to the crown of the kingdom. He so closely imitated his father in all good works, that he was held by all to be another Coill.... He despatched his letters..., beseeching that...[the nation as such] might receive Christianity.... The nation of the British was in a brief space established in the Christian Faith."

The above remarks in the Early-Celtic manuscript translated by Geoffrey then elicited a further comment from its mediaeval translator himself. For Geoffrey himself then added: "Names and acts are to be found recorded in the book that Gildas wrote" -- in A.D. 520f.

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NOTES

22) J.H. Merle D'Aubigne': History of the Reformation, Carter, New York, 1853 ed., V, pp. 19f.

23) See Matthew of Paris: op. cit., I, pp. 120f.

38) M. McCane: Keswick, n.d., pp. 3f.

39) Camden's Britannia, ed. Gibson, III p. 183.

40) Nicholson's History of Westmorland and Cumberland, II p. 101; W. Wall's History of Infant Baptism, University Press, Oxford, ed. 1836, I p. 86.

41) See: A.H. Heaton & W.T. Palmer: The English Lakes, Macmillan, New York, 1908, pp. 2 & 148f & 231. "Of the history of the English Lakes, little need be said.... Druidical and perhaps more ancient remains are plentiful.... Opposite St. Herbert's Isle...is Keswick blessed above all Lakeland towns....

"Skiddaw, rather than Derwentwater, is the most prominent object as we leave Keswick northward.... Crosthwaite church has been subject of many pens. The history of the present building goes back beyond [viz. to long before] the great Reformation. Somewhere near this point, St. Kentigern of Strathclyde raised the cross.... The present building is doubtless the last of several which have successively weathered the storms of fourteen hundred years. Probably the first were built of willow wands and clay."

See too D. Wallace: English Lakeland, Batsford, London, 1948, pp. 21 & 99, and the maps at the front and the back of the book. Near Naddle just east of Keswick, "the Druids' Circle [is] a very fine specimen on the last ridge of the high ground before it falls away to the banks of the Greta. Of the several such circles in our district, this one has the grandest site.... The circles were not burial-places but meeting-places."

Also see J.H. Hacking & B.L. Thompson: Some Westmorland Villages, Wilson, Kendal, 1957, pp. 1 & 87 & 90 & 163 & 184. "Appleby is the County Town of Westmorland.... At no time was it ever in the possession of the Roman legions....
"Kirkby Thore...is a parish in the Eden valley, five miles northwest of Appleby.... Kirkby Thore has been identified with the important Roman settlement of Braboniacum.... The name is presumed to be derived from the Gaelic 'Braonach'.... The Druids' Oak was an ancient tree on the hilltop opposite Kirkby Thore station, the traditional site of the ceremonies of the ancient druids facing Cross Fell.... In this field there used to be a huge stone....

"Shap [is] a large parish astride the main A6 road from Kendal to Penrith. There are many prehistoric stone circles, as well as the remains of British Settlements to be found in and around Shap, notably at Gunnerkeld and Oddendale. 'Carl Lofts' at the south end of the village, like several of these circles, was damaged when the main road [was] cut through them. Apparently this district was not disturbed by the Romans during their occupation in the first three centuries, but they passed northwards to Hadrian's Wall along...the mountain-top road to the west of Shap....

"Staveley [is] a village on the river Kent, between Kendal and Windermere.... Long ago, in the distant past, before the Romans invaded Britain, this valley must have been a wooded land.... We find in the vicinity [that] there were two British villages, both on the higher hillsides -- the one near Millriggs Farm in the Parish of Kentmere, and the other above High House in the Parish of Hugill. In both these ancient British villages, the clusters of circles show where the huts once stood.... These were surrounded by a wall, which in those olden days protected the domestic animals and kept the villagers safe from wolves....

"Underbarrow [is] the first parish on the old road from Kendal to Ulverston.... The exciting discovery of a flint arrowhead in Barrowfield Wood enables us to start...with a reference to prehistoric times.... This 'barbed and tanged' type is characteristic of the Bronze Age period c. 1800-500 B.C. It is made of flint, a rock-type which does not occur in our area.... There is no doubt that it was made by specialist craftsmen maybe as far away as southern England, and would reach Westmorland by the usual trade channels.... It would...be a precious and fairly high-priced object of trade...."

See further in our own present dissertation, in chapter 7 at nn. 11f & 84f; in chapter 11 at n 170f; and also in this present chapter [13] at nn 16-18.....

47) Op. cit., IV:17-9.

Làrach-lìn Rev Prof Dr FRANCIS NIGEL LEE

Dhachaigh Air ais