23.  Revolt of Boadicea (61).

Still the power of the Latin legions was only partly established, for while the Roman general was absent with his troops at Anglesey, a formidable revolt had broken out in the east.  A British chief, in order to secure half of his property to his family at his death, left it to be equally divided between his daughters and the Emperor.  The governor of the district, under the pretext that Boadicea, the widow of the dead chief, had concealed part of the property, seized the whole of it.

Boadicea protested.  To punish her presumption, the Romans stripped and scourged her, and inflicted still more brutal and infamous treatment on her daughters.  Maddened by these outrages, Boadicea appealed to her countrymen for vengeance.  The enraged Britons fell upon London, and other places held by the Romans, burned them to the ground, and slaughtered many thousand inhabitants.  But in the end Roman forced gained the victory, and Boadicea took her own life rather than fall into the hands of her conqueror.

The “warrior queen” died, let us trust, as the poet has represented, animated by the prophecy of the Druid priest that,—­

“Rome shall perish—­write that word
In the blood that she has spilt;—­
Perish, hopeless and abhorred,
Deep in ruin, as in guilt.” [1]

[1] Cowper’s “Boadicea.”

24.  Christianity introduced into Britain.

Perhaps it was not long after this that Christianity made its way to Britain; if so, it crept in so silently that nothing certain can be learned of its advent.  The first church, it is said, was built at Glastonbury, in the southeast of the island. (See map facing p. 38.) It was a long, shedlike structure of wickerwork.  “Here,” says an old writer,[1] “the converts watched, fasted, preached, and prayed, having high meditations under a low roof and large hearts within narrow walls.”

[1] Thomas Fuller’s “Church History of Britain.”

At first no notice was taken of the new religion.  It was the faith of the poor and the obscure, and the Roman generals treated it with contempt; but as it continued to spread, it caused alarm.

The Roman Emperor was not only the head of the state, but the head of religion as well.  He represented the power of God on earth:  to him every knee must bow (S21).  But the Christians refused this homage.  They put Christ first; for that reason they were dagerous to the state, and were looked—­[SECTION MISSING]—­rebels, or as men likely to become so.

25.  Persecution of British Christians; [SECTION MISSING]
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last of the third century the Roman Emperor   /                \
root out this pernicious belief.   The first  |                  |
He refused to sacrifice to the Roman         |                  |
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But the ancient historian[2] says, with      |      SECTION     |
executioner who struck “the wicked stroke    |      MISSING     |