Jacob when he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh with his hands in the shape of a CROSS may have been implying that real blessings are the result of Christ's sacrifice and the freedom of Bible study found in Anglo-Saxon countries. Gildas, the earliest British historian, says that between A.D. 38 and 61 the Sun of Righteousness arose on these islands. Cardinal Baronius A.D. 35, says JOSEPH of ARIMATHEA, with twelve companions, came into Britain, and having preached the gospel there, died. In the Coming of the Saints by Taylor, 1906, the wanderings of JOSEPH of ARIMATHEA are traced from Palestine to Marseilles through Gaul, where he leaves disciples at each stopping place, and finally settles at Glastonbury, this last place being the only one which records his death. The "Chronicles of Eri" say JOSEPH of ARIMATHEA founded in Britain a race of kings. He was of the tribe of Judah and a companion of PAUL. It is interesting to notice that the English Church has purchased Glastonbury for 30,000 pounds and presented it to the nation 1908-9. The Councils of Pisa (1417), Constance (1419), Sena (1423), Basle (1431) all affirmed that Britain owed its Christianity to JOSEPH of ARIMATHEA.

The reference in 2 Timothy 4:21, "EUBULUS greeteth thee and PUDENS and LINUS and CLAUDIA" is entirely to the BRITISH (see also Rom. 16:13). CLAUDIA Rufina, the BRITISH wife of the high Roman official Aulus Rufus PUDENS is mentioned as a friend of Paul. Martial, Epigram 11:53, praises her in the first century: "Foreign CLAUDIA native of the BRITONS." Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, wrote in 180 A.D. that "The apostles having founded and built up the church at Rome, committed the ministry of its supervision to LINUS. This is the LINUS mentioned by Paul in his Epistle to Timothy" (Irenaei Opera, lib. iii. c. I). EUBULUS or ARISTOBULUS was the first Bishop of BRITAIN sent here by St. Paul. (Greek Menology, Usser. Brit. Eccl. Ant., Clark's Ante Nicene Fathers, p.133.) PUDENS, a Roman officer stationed in Britain A.D. 61 (Chichester Inscription), married CLAUDIA, a British Princess (Martial 11:53) and daughter of CARADOC. LINUS, brother of CLAUDIA, was the first Bishop of Rome (Clemens Romanus); "Sanctissimus Linus frater Claudiae." See also Apostolic Constitutions, cir. A.D. 150. LINUS was the Christian son of CARADOC, or CARACTACUS. As he was a prince royal, the first bishop (LINUS) was a royal British bishop. This fact cuts out the myth of St. Peter. LINUS descended from Bran, the king of Britain, who descended from a royal line long antedating Julius Caesar.Sabellius Enno, lib. c. 5 says: "Christianity was privately professed elsewhere, but the first nation that proclaimed it as their religion, and called itself Christian after the name of Christ, was BRITAIN." Polydore Vergil, in the reign of Henry VII, and after him Cardinal Pole (A.D. 1555), both rigid Roman Catholics, affirmed in Parliament, the latter in his address to Philip and Mary, that "BRITAIN was the first of all countries to receive the Christian faith." Genebrard remarks: "The glory of BRITAIN consisted not only in this, that she was the first country which in a national capacity publicly professed herself Christian, but she made this confession when the Roman Empire itself was pagan, and a cruel persecutor of Christianity.

In 1723, a stone was dug up at Chichester, in the county of Sussex, containing a Latin inscription, partly defaced, which reads as follows, the brackets indicating the restored portions of the broken stone:

[N]eptuno et Minervae Templum [Pr]o Salute Domus Divinae Auctoritate Tib. Claud. [Co]giduni Regis Legati Augusti in Brit. [Colle]gium Fabrorum et qui in eo [a sacris sunt] de suo dedicaverunt donante aream [Pud]ente Pudentini Filio. (See Horsley's Britannia Romana.)

This inscription shows that Tiberius Claudius Cogidunus once lived as "king and legate of the Roman Emperor in Britain," and whose daughter appears to have been married to a person named Pudens. It may be proved by a reference to Tacitus (Vita Agricolae 14), that about the year A.D. 50 a British king named Cogidunus was appointed legate of the Emperor Claudius. According to the inscription, he must have adopted the nomen and praenpmen of his patron Tiberius Claudius; and his daughter, according to Roman usage and custom, would necessarily have taken the name of Claudia. Moreover, it would have been in accordance with the usual custom that Cogidunus' daughter should have been sent to Rome as a pledge of her father's fidelity; and placed under the protection of Pomponia, the wife of Aulus Plautius, at that time general of the Roman armies in Britain. Further, we learn from Tacitus (Annal. 13:32) that Pomponia was accusedf of having "adopted a new and foreign superstition," on the return of her husband to Rome, A.D. 57. There can be little doubt but that this "new and foreign superstition" referred to the Christian religion -- as Paul said in Philip. 1:13 and 4:22 -- which had converted "Caesar's household." It is not improbable to suppose that Pomponia should have been instrumental in bringing her protegee Claudia, the daughter of Cogidunus, to adopt the same faith, and who therefore, from their high position, formed a portion of, or were connected with, "the saints of Caesar's household," who sent their salutations to the Church at Philippi by Paul, when writing that Epistle during his "two years' imprisonment at Rome 56-58 AD. Finally, as we find in the stone inscription the name of Pudens, the son of Pudentius, associated with Cogidunus, the father of Claudia, in a way which corresponds with the hypothesis that he was son-in-law to this tributary British king, it is not impossible but that these two persons, Pudens and Claudia, are the very same which Paul mentions as sending greetings to Timothy when writing to him from his own hired house at Rome.

Constantine the Great (A.D.265-336) was born and educated in BRITAIN (Baronius, ad ann. 306; Sozomen, Eccl. Hist., lib. i.c.v.). "The man must be mad, who, in the face of universal antiquity, refuses to believe that Constantine and his mother were BRITONS, born in BRITON" (Baronius, 306 A.D.) Archbishop Usher delivers a catalogue of twenty continental authorities affirming the truth of this statement, not one to the contrary. The Panegyrics of the Emperors, the geneology of his own family, as recited by one of his descendants, Constantine Paleologue, native records and traditions, all the circumstances of his career, demonstrate Constantine as a BRITON. Sozomen says, "It is well known the great Constantine received his Christian education in BRITAIN" (Eccl. Hist. lib. 1, c. v.). "Helen was unquestionably a BRITISH princess" writes Melancthon in Epistola, p. 189. "Christ showed to Constantine the BRITON the victory of the cross for his sceptre" declared Pope Urban in his Brief Britannica. "Constantine, born in BRITAIN, of a BRITISH mother, proclaimed emperor in BRITAIN beyond doubt, made his natal soil a participator in his glory" (Polydore Vergil in Historia Britt, p.381).