“In the year of our Lord's incarnation 156, Marcus Antoninus Verus, the fourteenth from Augustus, was made emperor, together with his brother, Aurelius Commodus.”

“In their time, whilst Eleutherus [Eleutherius], a holy man, presided over the Roman church, Lucius, king of the Britons, sent a letter to him, entreating, that by his command he might be made a Christian. He soon obtained the object of his pious request, and the Britons preserved the faith, which they had received, uncorrupted and entire, in peace and tranquillity until the time of the Emperor Diocletian.”*

“In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 167, Eleutherius, being made bishop at Rome, governed the Church most gloriously fifteen years. Lucius, king of Britain, writing to him, requested to be made a Christian, and succeeded in obtaining his request.”*

“It is related in annals of good credit, that Lucius, king of the Britons, sent to Pope Eleutherius, thirteenth in succession from St Peter, to entreat that he would dispel the darkness of Britain by the light of Christian instruction. This surely was the commendable deed of a magnanimous prince, eagerly to seek that faith, the mention of which had barely reached him, at a time when it was an object of persecution by almost every king and people to whom it was offered. In consequence, preachers, sent by Eleutherius, came into Britain, the effects of whose labours will remain forever, although the rust of antiquity may have obliterated their names. By these was built the ancient church of St Mary of Glastonbury, as faithful tradition has handed down through decaying time.”

“In the year of our Lord 156, Lucius, King of the Britons, sent his ambassadors, Elfan and Medwy, to Eleutherius, who was the twelfth Pope of the apostolic see, imploring, according to his admonition, that he might be made a Christian, to which request he acceded; for giving thanks to God because that nation, which from the first inhabiting thereof by Brutus had been heathens, so ardently desired to embrace the faith of Christ, he with the advice of the elders of the Roman city, was pleased to cause the ambassadors to be baptized; and on their embracing the Catholic faith, Elfan was ordained a Bishop, and Medwy a Doctor. Through their eloquence, and the knowledge which they had in the Holy Scriptures, they returned preachers to Lucius in Britain; by whose holy preaching, Lucius, and the nobles of all Britain, received baptism; and according to the command of St Eleutherius, the Pope, he constituted an ecclesiastical order, ordained bishops, and taught the way of leading a good life.”

“Unto Coillus was born one single son whose name was Lucius, who, upon the death of his father, had succeeded to the crown of the kingdom, and did so closely imitate his father in all good works that he was held by all to be another Coillus. Nevertheless, being minded that his ending should surpass his beginning, he despatched his letters unto Pope Eleutherius beseeching that from him he might receive Christianity. For the miracles that were wrought by the young recruits of Christ's army in divers lands had lifted all clouds from his mind, and panting with love of the true faith, his pious petition was allowed to take effect, forasmuch as the blessed Pontiff, finding that his devotion was such, sent unto him two most religious doctors, Faganus and Duvianus, who, preaching unto him the Incarnation of the Word of God, did wash him in holy baptism and converted him unto Christ. Straightway the peoples of all the nations around came running together to follow the King's example, and cleansed in the same holy laver, were made partakers of the kingdom of Heaven. The blessed doctors, therefore, when they had purged away the paganism of well-nigh the whole island, dedicated the temples that had been founded in honour of very many gods unto the One God and unto His saints, and filled them with divers companies of ordained religious. There were then in Britain eight-and-twenty flamens as well as three archflamens, unto whose power the other judges of public morals and officials of the temple were subject. These also, by precept of the Pope, did they snatch away from idolatry; and where there were flamens there did they set bishops, and archbishops where there were archflamens. The seats of the archflamens were at the three noblest cities, in London, to wit, and in York and in the City of Legions [Caerleon], whereof the ancient walls and buildings still remaining on the Usk, in Glamorgan, do bear witness to the former dignity thereof. From these three was superstition purged away, and the eight-and-twenty bishops, with their several dioceses, were subordinated unto them...

At last, when everything had been thus ordained new, the prelates returned to Rome and besought the most blessed Pope to confirm the ordinances they had made. And when the confirmation had been duly granted they returned into Britain with a passing great company of others, by the teaching of whom the nation of the British was in a brief time established in the Christian faith...

Meanwhile King Lucius the Glorious, when he saw how the worship of the true faith had been magnified in his kingdom, did rejoice with exceeding great joy, and converting the revenues and lands which formerly did belong unto the temples of idols unto a better use, did by grant allow them to be still held by the churches of the faithful. And for that it seemed him he ought to show them yet greater honour, he did increase them with broader fields and fair dwelling-houses, and confirmed their liberties by privileges of all kinds. Amidst these and other acts designed to the same purpose he departed this life, and was right worshipfully buried in the church of the first See in the year from the Incarnation of Our Lord one hundred and fifty-six. No issue left he to succeed him, whence at his death dissension arose amongst the Britons and the power of the Romans was sore enfeebled withal.”