The church-history of Brittany from the beginning of Christianity to the Norman conquest under Roman governours, Brittish kings, the English-Saxon heptarchy, the English-Saxon (and Danish) monarchy ... : from all which is evidently demonstrated that the present Roman Catholick religion hath from the beginning, without interruption or change been professed in this our island, &c. / by R.F., S. Cressy of the Holy Order of S. Benedict.

IV. CHAP.* 1.1

1. Brittains sayd to have been divided into Ecclesiasticall Provinces by Pope Ana∣cletus in the raign of Trajanus.

2. Such a Division much later.

1. IN the raign of the Emperour Traian, S. Anacletus the Successour of S. Cle∣ment in the Chaire of S. Peter is sayd to have divided Brittany into five Provinces and Me∣tropoles, ordaining Bishops and Primats in each: and hereto we find our Protestant Arch-Bishop Parker to have given his as∣assent.* 1.2 The ground whereof is a certain Decretall Epistle long since publish'd under the name of the sayd Pope, in which a divi∣sion of Provinces is indeed mentioned, yet without any application to Brittany. But the authority of that Epistle being much suspected, yea renounced by severall, not only Protestant but Catholike Authours, lit∣tle

credit is to be given to that relation grounded by some upon it touching the sayd Division:* 1.3 though Giraldus our Welsh Historian undertake to set down the parti∣cular names of the Provinces: calling one Britannia prima, which is the Western part of the Island: the second he names Britannia secunda, containing the Province of Kent: the third Flavia, which is the middle part of Brittany, which after the entrance of the Saxons was called Mercia: The fourth Maxi∣mia, containing Yorkshire: and the last Va∣lentia, under which were comprehended all the Northern Provinces beyond the Brigantes.

2. But certain it is that these Titles were not assign'd,* 1.4 nor this Division made till se∣verall ages afterward, under the raign of the Emperours Valentinian and Valens. As for the present age of Traian, Brittany was then divided only into two Provinces call'd the First and the Second, or as Ptolomy names them, the Greater and the lesse, and Dio, the Vpper and Lower Brittany: The former of these contain'd the Southern parts as far as the River Thamisis, first possess'd by the Ro∣mans: and the other, the Western Provinces of Cornwall, Wales, &c.

Notes

• * 1.1

  IV. CHAP.
• * 1.2

  Antiquit. Britan. s. 24.
• * 1.3

  Girald. Cambr. de Menev. Eccl. jure lib. 2.
• * 1.4

  Vid. Am¦mian. Mar∣cel. lib. 28. cap. 18.