Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION FOUR.
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION.
I. DRUIDISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

The first glimpse that history affords of the ancient
Britons is of their religion under the Druid Priests. If,
as tradition indicates, the immediate descendants of Noah
emigrated to this country, it may be presumed that they
brought with them the religion of the primitive Patriarchs,
the main features of which were sacrifice and worship. Those
features, debased and distorted, had helped to make Druidism
a strong controlling power in Britain. When Julius Caesar
landed in Kent he determined to overthrow the Druidical
altars, which he deemed to be the main obstacle to his
subjugation of the country. The Romans succeeded in
uprooting Druidism, and although they do not appear to
have considered it part of their mission to introduce any
other religion in its place, they cleared the ground for the
introduction of Christianity.

The Church in the Roman Oval at Dover Castle is
believed to be on the site, if not partly the actual fabric,
of the Christian Church built during the Roman occupation
— probably about the year i8o. Soon after the building of
that Church, which is attributed to King Lucius, there
commenced three centuries of heathen darkness, during
which time that Church became a ruin. In the Sixth
Century there came a revival of Christianity. Ethelbert,
King of Kent, married Bertha, the Christian daughter of
Charibert, King of the Prankish tribe ; and that opened
the way for the Mission of St. Augustine in the year 597.
About that time the Church in the Castle was restored ; but
after the death of King Ethelbert, in 616, nis son, Eadbald,
relapsed into idolatry. On that point the Chronicle of the
Dover Monastery says: — " Of King Eadbald, son of Ethel-
bert, who, after his baptism, returned to paganism, and



172 ANNALS OF DOVER.

sent away the Bishops and priests, many things may be found
in the life of St. Mildred; and his re-conversion to the faith
by Laurentius, the Archbishop, who enjoined him, for the
remission of his sins, to rebuild the churches which he had
destroyed, and cherish the clergy whom he had persecuted.
That he settled Canons in the Castle may be conjectured
from hence ; it was an ancient tradition that there were
Canons in the Castle a hundred years, or more, and much
time elapsed from the reign of this King to that of Withred,
who removed the Canons to the Church of St. Martin in
Dover; and as this King Eadbald, who had a long reign,
was, after his repentance, constantly employed in repairing
and building churches, it is highly probable that he endowed
his Chapel, in the Castle, amongst the rest." In another
part of the same Chronicle it is stated that it was by the
advice of Archbishop Lawrence that he instituted the Canons
in the Church at the Castle.



THE HISTORY OF RELIGION. 1 73