foolish woemen should gather up any of them, and preserve them, as if they were some precious holy thing.
3. Now how acceptable to God this de∣vout reverence of Christians to the Relicks of Martyrs was, was often declared by the mi∣raculous ways which God shewed in disco∣vering the said holy Relicks, when they were either conceal'd, or their members mix'd and confounded with those of impious ma∣lefactours putt to death with them. Thus we read in the said Acts of S. Tharacus, S. Andro∣nicus and another Christian martyr'd with them, how when some devout Christians adven∣tured to search them out by night, three bright torches, like starrs, appeard over their bodies, and afterward went before them conducting them to the other side of the Mountain, where they secret∣ly buried them.
4. This practise was so generall among the Primitive Christians, that the Manicheans only were observed to be contemners of it, as if there were in it some Idolatrous Superstition But their folly and profanenesse is excellent∣ly confuted by S. Augustin, who distingui∣shes the Veneration due to Saints and their holy Relicks, which he calls Dulian, from the Supreme degree of adoration due only to God, which he terms Latrian.
5. Now that such reverence was express'd to the Body of S. Alban, is not to be doub∣ted. Which that it may appeare, a passage in our ancient Brittish Historian Gildas will suf∣ficiently confirm it. Who after he had treated of the Martyrdome of this Holy Martyr, as we declared before, consequently shews the great change in Brittany nine years after this tempest rais'd by Diocletian: His words are as followeth:
6. The space of two lustres (that is, ten years) after the foresaid storm being not entirely full∣filld, when the violence of those bloody Edicts against Christians abated, all the devout Soldiers of Christ with ioyfull eyes beheld and received the lightsomnesse and temper following so tedious a winters night: Then they began to restore Chur∣ches formerly demolishd, they founded new sacred Temples consecrated to the honour of Holy Mar∣tyrs, these they erect, accomplish and adorn, cele∣brating publick Festivities, and Sacrifices with pure hearts and mouthes, as manifest signs and tropheys after their victory.
7. This happy change hapned when the Tyrants Carausius and Allectus were vanqui∣shed and expell'd by Constantius, who in the year of Grace two hundred ninety two being created Caesar, received the govern∣ment and administration of Brittany. By which calculation of Gildas evidently ap∣pears, that S. Albanus suffred Martyrdom in the beginning of Diocletians raign, nine years before Constantius the second time go∣verned Brittany.
8▪ Likewise by this Testimony of Gildas is reproved the assertion of Protestant writers, who attribute to S. Gregory the Great the bring∣ing into Brittany the custome of dedicating Churches to the honour of Martyrs, in the time of the Saxons. Wheras besides this autho∣rity of Gildas, the said assertion is manifestly confuted by the story of S. Germanus of Au∣xerre, and S. Lupus of Troyes, French Bishops, who came into Brittany before the entrance of the Saxons, to root out thence the Pelagian Heresy▪ For thus we read in the Galliean Mar∣tyrologe, The Memory of S. Albanus shined glo∣riously in Brittany, to whose honour a famous Church was erected in the place whereby shed∣ding his blood he had triumphed. The which Church was by S. Germanus visited with great devotion, to the end he might there pay his thanks to God for his victory against the Pelagian Here∣ticks. There opening the holy Martyrs Sepulcher, to honour him he repos'd in it severall Relicks of Apostles, and Martyrs which he had brought out of France. And because he would not depart thence without the protection of the Holy Martyr, from the place where the Martyrs blood had been shed, he took a lump of earth, which at his return he caried to his own See. And from this action of S. Germanus the Veneration of S. Albanus the Brittain was spread through allmost all the Chur∣ches of France, being consign'd in all the Eccle∣siastical Tables of most Episcopall Churches there: particularly of Bourges, Sens, Orleans, Austun, S. Malo, Constantia, &c. The same story con∣cerning S. Germanus is related likewise by S. Beda.
9. Hence may be argued the mistake in the supplement to the French Martyrologe, where it is sayd that Otho, the second Emperour of that name, translated to Colen the Body of S. Albanus which S. Germanus had brought out of Brittany into France. For certain is is that, not his body, but only a portion of earth dyed with the Holy Martyrs blood, was transferd by Saint Germanus, as S. Beda expressly affirms, and as the following Annalls of Brittany confirm, where we read how Off a King of the Mercians translated the sacred Body, and built over his Monument a most magnificent Church.
10. It is here to be observed that S. Albanus is venerated at Ments in Germany under the name of S. Albinus. The occasion wherof was this: Theophania wife to the Emperour Otho the second having obtained at Rome a portion of the Relicks of S. Albanus, caried them with her into Germany, intending to place them at Colen in the Monastery of S. Pantaleon. In her way she pas∣sed through Mentz, in which Citty was celebrated with great devotion the Memory of another S. Al∣banus, a Martyr also. Hereupon Wiltegecus Bishop of Mentz, deeply apprehending least the Memory of our Brittish Albanus should obscure the glory of their Speciall Patron Albanus, by reason of agreement in name, together with the Imperiall Authority, which probably would promote his ve∣neration, made it his most humble and earnest suit unto the Empresse that our Brittish Saint should afterward in those countreys be call'd Albinus, for distinctions sake: which humble request by