by George Jowett (1961)
THE EMPEROR OF CHRISTENDOM
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
THE great peace which had settled over the Island, beginning
with the Treaty of Agricola, A.D.86, continued for a period of
two hundred years. During these two centuries there is no mention
of any British-Roman conflict. Historians are silent, leaping the
two-hundred-year gap as though nothing had occurred in the tight
little island of Britain; then they take up the record in the
year A.D.287, to recite the usurpage of the Roman Emperor's crown
when Carausius, a Menapian by birth, who was then the Admiral of
the Roman fleet, landed in North Britain, marching to York, where
he had himself proclaimed Emperor.
Since the fall of London, under the arms of Queen Boadicea,
the city of York had become a popular resort of the Romans. From
this ancient British city, first known as Caer Evroc, several
Romar Emperors had functioned, probably deeming it a safer haven
to rule from than the city of Rome, rife with jealousy, intrigue
and assassination. Several Roman Emperors are buried within the
walls of this age-old citadel of the Brigantes.
It was at Caer Evroc - York, where Caractacus was betrayed
and delivered to the enemy by his relative, Aricia, Queen of the
Brigantes, and where she was denounced and dethroned by her own
people. For centuries before Christ it had been the centre of
enamelling craftsmen and the La Tene art.
Briefly, profane history tells us that Carausius reigned as
Emperor from York for seven years and was then assassinated by
Allectus, his minister, A.D.294. The assassin reigned for two
years and then fell in battle against the forces of Constantius
Chlorus, who succeeded Allectus as Emperor. He also ruled his
Empire from York for ten years. With him began one of the most
momentous chapters in Christian history, beginning in a maelstrom
of persecution and slaughter exceeding the brutal Menaii
bloodbath of the Christians by Suetonius Paulinus and the
Boadicean atrocities under the malignant direction of Catus
Decianus, A.D.60 to A.D.62.
Actually the stupendous events that began to be enacted with
the reign of the Emperor Constantius Chlorus had their start in
the lovely city of Colchester, thirty-one years before
Constantius assumed the Roman purple.
The old Celtic name for Colchester is Camulodunum, the city
where Cunobelinus and his son Arviragus minted their excellent
coinage.
It was also the royal seat of King Coel.
King Coel reigned at Colchester, once the royal seat of
Cunobelinus, his ancestor, endowing the churches with munificent
gifts. The remains of King Coel's castle can still be seen at
Lexdon, a suburb of Colchester.
In the year A.D.265 a daughter was born to King Coel in his
castle at Colchester who was to become world renowned as Empress
Helen of the Cross. Helen was the Graeco-Roman interpretation of
the British name Elaine. As the Empress-Auguste Helena she is
best known and so recorded in the brightest annals of Roman
history. This beautiful, accomplished woman was a noble
counterpart of her famous predecessors, the Princess St. Eurgain
and the beloved Claudia (Gladys) Pudens. Raised in a Christian
household and educated in its religious principles, her natural
talents were developed to a high degree by the best scholars and
administrators in the land. Steeped in the traditions of the
faith, she espoused all that is Christian with intelligence and
with courage. Helen possessed one attribute greater than either
of her famous royal female predecessors, her capacity for
political administration. While her regal husband and son stood
out eminently in the art of diplomacy, all facts and records
prove that her capacity in this direction played a prominent part
in their imperial destiny. The Christianizing of the Roman Empire
would undoubtedly have been delayed centuries but for her energy
and devotional support.
(The Christianizing of the Roman Empire was NOT going to be the
pure Christianity of the first century and second centuries of
British Christianity - Keith Hunt)
As usual, profane history merely describes Helen in her role
as Empress. No mention is given of her ancestry and brilliant
heritage, To all Roman historical records the Empress Helena is
made to appear as a Roman native, wife of a Roman, and the mother
of an illustrious Roman son, none of which is true. They were
British to the core.
Melancthon writes: "Helen was unquestionably a British
Princess" (Epistola, p.189).
Even to many academic intellectuals the statement that the
Empress Helen and her eminent son were Britons could appear
startling. Yet none would deny that the first record of
Constantius Chlorus 1 and Helen began in Britain. Before
Constantius defeated
......
1 'Chlorus' means 'pale' and could be a reference to descent from
a blond family, his Dardanian ancestry being Trojan.
......
Allectus at York he was the recognized Emperor of Britain, Spain
and Gaul. At that time the boundaries of Gaul extended far into
the European continent, embracing Belgium, Holland and part of
Germany. Treves (Trier) was long the capital of Belgic Gaul. With
this record historians begin the Constantinian story, becoming
more profuse following the proclamation of Constantius at York as
Emperor of Rome. He was the first monarch to be legally
recognized as Emperor over the fourfold domain by the populace of
the four countries. Only he, and his extraordinary son,
Constantine the Great, were ever to acquire imperial sway over
this vast Empire, an amazing fact which historians have strangely
overlooked.
Six years before Constantius became world Emperor, at the
request of his wife Helen he renewed and enlarged the
Archbishopric of York, A.D.290. After that York became an
outstanding royal and religious city in Britain. In the
pre-Christian era, as Caer Evroc, it was one of the Druidic
centres, continuing so under the Josephian Mission until King
Lucius nominated London, York and Caerlon on Usk as the three
great Archbishoprics of Britain.
Later, Caerlon on Usk was displaced for the city of
Canterbury, which replaced London as the chief ecclesiastical
seat. These three Archbishoprics have remained throughout
centuries until now the great Anglican religious centres, in the
following order:
Canterbury, London and York.
Canterbury, with its Archbishop, is still recognized
throughout the world as the head of the Protestant Anglican
Communion. Its, Bishops, wherever they may be, are the only
ecclesiastics that have inherited and hold true, unbroken
succession from the original Apostles, Paul, Peter, and Joseph
the Apostle of the British.
(That may be so to a point - the sad main point is that the
Christianity they hold today is from the Roman Catholic church,
they just do not accept the office of the Pope - Keith Hunt)
The Empress Helen is given credit for founding the first
cathedral at Treves, after the elevation of her husband to be
Emperor of Rome. It became her favourite continental residence
and, because of her manifold gifts to the city, she was held in
the highest esteem and made the patroness of Treves. The former
British princess became titled 'Helen of the Cross', due to the
claim that she found the cross of Christ buried near Jerusalem,
A.D.326. One of the greatest art treasures still in existence is
the one entitled 'Helena', created by the renowned artist Cima da
Congliane, 1 A.D.1459, showing the beautiful royal daughter of
King Coel of Colchester with the cross of Christ.
(Utter garbage on the finding of the cross of Christ - the Romans
crucified thousands in the first century in Judea - the cross she
found could have been any cross - Keith Hunt)
Due to her association with Treves, and that of her Emperor
......
1 Giovanni Batista da Conegliano.
......
husband Constantius and their noble son Constantine, this city
had closer contact with the early British monarchs than any other
on the continent. The present cathedral is built on the site of
the palace her husband, Constantius Chlorus, built. Indeed, the
basilica of the palace forms the actual walls of the cathedral.
Her son, Constantine the Great, erected at Treves an imperial
palace on the same pattern as that of his grandfather's castle at
Colchester, the ruins of which can still be seen.
It is said that anyone who has seen the ruins of King Coel's
castle in the suburbs of Colchester, and later viewed the ruins
at Treves, is so intrigued with the similarity they bear that the
picture of one is easily mistaken for that of the other.
Of further interest is the claim that the original castle now
known as Edinburgh Castle was erected by Constantius for the
Queen Empress Helen, and that a great portion of the present
walls were part of the walls of the original castle.
With the exception of the church dedicated to Mary, the Mother of
Jesus, at Avalon, Glastonbury, the practice of making church
dedications to women did not begin until about the twelfth
century. However, we know that Cor Eurgain was erected and
consecrated to the daughter of Caractacus during the lifetime of
the Princess Eurgain and Joseph of Arimathea. It was chiefly a
university of learning and choral training, with a chapel in its
enclosure. To Helen is given the distinctive honour of being the
first woman to have a church erected to her glory, several
hundred years before the practice began in the twelfth century,
and being proclaimed a Saint.
The church of St. Helen was built at Colchester, her
birthplace.
From ancient times to the present this city has, for its
coat of arms, borne the symbol of Helen of the Cross. It is in
the form of a cross with three crowns for its arms. Thus, in
silent form, is the noble record perpetuated in the city in which
she was born and also her son Constantine, the champion of
Christendom.
(Champion of Christendom is stretching things indeed, though he
did put an end to the persecution of Christians - Keith Hunt)
With devout pride the descendants of British Christians in
the British Commonwealth, America and elsewhere may point to the
fact that the only sainted female dedications made between the
one to Mary at Avalon, and those appearing a thousand years
later, were to the royal ancestors of their own race, relatives
to each other in the royal blood strain: first, the dedication of
the church formed from the British Palace at Rome to Pudentiana,
the daughter of Claudia and Rufus Pudens, following his
martyrdom; second, Cor Eurgain in Wales, dedicated to the
Princess Eurgain, aunt of Pudentiana; and, thirdly, to St. Helen
at Colchester, daughter of King Coel, Queen Empress of Rome.
Strangely enough, some have stated that Helen was never Empress
of Rome but a concubine of the Emperor, Constantius Chlorus.
There are ever twisted minds seeking to debase the most noble.
However, written records, and they are legion, 1 confound them
beyond remotest question. Certainly no person who was not a
reigning king or queen would have coins struck with their name,
declaring them as such. In the Vatican Museum and the British
Museum can be seen coins struck with her name, proving that she
was Empress by the title of Augusta. The coins read, "Flavia
Helena Augusta." 2
Sulpicius Severus says: "Helen reigned as Empress with her
son."
Helen lived seventy-one years. She died A.D.336. The later
years of her life were spent in working diligently for the faith
at Constantinople, the city which her son founded, and for him
named. Helen was assiduous in collecting and preserving relics of
the early Apostles found in and around Jerusalem. Posterity can
be eternally grateful to this gracious woman who contributed so
abundantly of her fortune in searching for and restoring ancient
manuscripts and documents, as well as personal effects of the
Apostles.
Her husband, the Emperor Constantius Chlorus, had died
thirty years before her in A.D.306 at the city of York, where he
is buried. Prior to the ascent of Constantius to the throne of
the Roman Empire, tragic storm-clouds had gathered on the
continent, particularly at Rome, where revolution and
assassination had been disposing of one Emperor after the other.
There was a confusing medley of predatory Romans who raised
armies, laying claim to the throne of the Caesars. The infamous
Diocletian held the reins at Rome, and on his orders began what
is often described as the worst persecution of the Christians in
the year A.D.290. In his Edict, he ordered churches to be pulled
down, the sacred scriptures to be gathered together and burnt,
along with other Christian literature on which they could lay
their hands. Libraries, schools of learning and private homes
were equally destroyed. Again the lions roared in the Colosseum.
The prisons were filled and streets ran with the blood of
martyrs. No Christian was spared, regardless of age or sex. Even
the babes in arms of Christian parents were cruelly destroyed.
The Diocletian persecution is described as the tenth Christian
persecution, beginning with the Claudian Edict, A.D.42. The
......
1 Archbishop Ussher lists twenty authorities; cf. Morgan, "St.
Paul in Britain," pp. 164-165.
2 Lewis, "Joseph of Arimathea," 6th edition, p.91 (note).
......
Emperor Diocletian struck with sudden appalling savagery at the
Christians. He blamed them for the series of disasters over the
years that had decimated the Roman arms to such an extent that
they were no longer able to defend their own frontiers
successfully, let alone conquer as formerly. Rome was on the
decline; her glory was fast waning. Diocletian sought to avert
national disaster by ordering the extermination of the
Christians, their churches and other possessions. This bestial
cruelty lasted for eighteen years. The persecution flamed across
Europe for several years before it struck the shores of Britain.
Again the Romans were frustrated by the incredible zeal of the
martyrs who died with prayer on their lips, or ringing
exhortations. They saw the common people destroyed, showing the
same disdain for death as had their Christian forbears. This
infuriated Diocletian to more fiendish practices, in which he
later was aided by Maximian, who became co-ruler with him over
the continental Roman Empire. Brutal as was Diocletian, it is
written by the Romans themselves that Maximian was worse. His
ferocity and atrocities are claimed to be beyond description. He
caused his finest Legions, exclusively composed of Gauls, to be
butchered to the last man because they were Christian. He was
blind with maniacal hate.
The Diocletian persecution reached Britain, A.D.300, where
again the Romans sought to destroy Christianity at its source.
The Emperor poured a huge army into Britain, while Maximian
carried on his destructive course on the continent. Constantius
Chlorus had already been proclaimed Emperor of Rome at York. The
British kingdoms were better united. As one they responded to the
battle call of Constantius. Previously the British had fought
years in deciding each Roman conflict, with victory swaying from
one side to the other. Yet, within one year, Constantius
terminated the Diocletian persecution in Britain, inflicting
staggering defeats on the Roman arms, driving them back to the
continent, A.D.302.
However, before victory crowned the British armies, the
Romans had inflicted great destruction, levelling churches,
universities and libraries, and sacking towns. The slaughter was
terrific, totalling a list of British martyrs that far exceeded
the total inflicted by all the former persecutions combined. It
is stated that the loss of British lives was beyond computation,
not so much on the field of battle as in the slaughter of the
harmless, defenceless people and priesthood.
Gildas, the early British historian, informs us that the
British church lost the following eminent prelates by martyrdom:
Amphibalus, Bishop of Llandaff; Alban of Verulam; Aaron and
Julius, citizens and presbyters of Chester; Socrates, Bishop of
York; Stephen, Bishop of London; Argulius, his successor;
Nicholas, Bishop of Penrhyn (Glasgow); Melior, Bishop of
Carlisle; and about ten thousand communicants in different grades
of society.
The thousands of others who perished in Britain will never
be known, any more than is known of the countless multitude of
Christians who were slaughtered on the continent for the sake of
the faith.
Following the expulsion of the Romans, we are told that the
Emperor Constantius and his Queen Empress diligently began to
restore the destroyed churches. It was a titanic task, speaking
highly for the Christian devotion of this royal family who poured
their personal fortune into the restoration. During this process
of rehabilitation the Emperor Constantius Chlorus died at York,
A.D.306, and there he was laid to rest. Immediately, his son
Constantine assumed the purple and at York declared himself
Emperor of the Roman Empire. For the next six years Constantine
remained in Britain, building many new churches and institutions
of learning after he had completed restoration of those
destroyed. During this time Diocletian, and particularly
Maximian, continued their destruction of Christian lives on the
continent.
Peace restored in Britain, Constantine, the famed son of
famous royal Christian parents, began to prepare to cross the
seas to the continent where his dramatic destiny was to unfold.
He massed a powerful army in Britain, composed wholly of British
warriors. With them he sailed, landing in what today is Germany.
The two armies clashed together on the banks of the Tiber where
the British, under the generalship of the Emperor Constantine,
won an overwhelming victory. Maximian was completely routed and
persecution ended. Constantine, with his British warriors,
marched victoriously on to Rome, where he met with an uproarious
welcome. Amid great rejoicing he ascended the Imperial throne,
officially acclaimed by the Senate and the populace of Rome as
Emperor.
By hereditary right he was Emperor over Britain, Gaul and
Spain, succeeding his father's claim to power in Rome by virtue
of conquest at York, which he confirmed by victory over Maximian
on the banks of the Tiber.
This was the greatest territorial dominion over which one
Roman Emperor reigned, alone and at peace. It was also the last
time.
His first act as Emperor of Rome was to declare Rome
Christian, ending for ever Christian persecution within the
Empire, circa A.D.312. Henceforth Rome began her history as a
Christian nation. In nationalizing the faith, Constantine had
done for Rome what King Lucius had done for Britain one hundred
and fifty years earlier.
In the great Christianizing work that followed, the gracious
Helen, his mother, stood by his side and, as Severus said,
reigned with her son as Empress.
As we sum up the picture one may well exclaim, "What a
paradox. The first Christian church founded at Rome by the
British royal family! The same family under Arviragus are the
first to be given the sign of the Cross for their emblem. In
order, their descendants under Lucius nationalized the faith in
Britain and planted the sign of the Cross for the first time on
coinage; the grand-daughter of Lucius, Princess Helen of
Colchester, preserving the faith in her homeland, her husband
smashing the Diocletian persecution and, finally, her illustrious
son, backed with a British army, conquering the city of Rome;
Constantine, a Briton, nationalizing the faith in Rome. What
irony of fate! The Romans who first set out to destroy Britain
and Christianity are finally converted to the faith, nationalized
in Christ by the same British, with a Briton reigning on the
Imperial throne and British warriors defending the faith where,
for three hundred years, persecution of the Christians had
prevailed.
History has no counterpart to this strange drama. The Divine
pattern was now almost complete, and Constantine was to seal it.
Forgotten is this long train of disciples but the majesty of
their great deeds lives with us in the Christian democracies
sprung from them.
How many today realize that Constantine the Great was a
Briton? Few, if any, except for the seekers of truth who have
read the scrolls. Many think the fact is too fantastic to be true
and discount it without searching. To them the eminent Cardinal
Baronius speaks "The man must be mad who, in the face of
universal antiquity, refuses to believe that Constantine and his
mother were Britons, born in Britain."
Over twenty European authorities affirm this fact. The
descent of Constantine is listed in "The Panegyrics of the
Emperors," and the genealogy of his illustrious lineage given by
his descendant, Constantine Palaeologus, wherein is provided in
detail all the records and proof and circumstances of his
wonderful career.
Polydore Vergil, in his "History of England," exclaims:
"Constantine, born in Britain, of a British mother, proclaimed
Emperor in Britain, beyond doubt made his natal soil a
participator in his glory."
Sozomen, in "Ecclesiastical History," writes:
"The Great Constantine received his Christian education in
Britain."
And Pope Urban says in his "Brief Brittannia":
"Christ shewed to Constantine the Briton, the victory of the
Cross for his sceptre."
The Emperor Maximus Magnus who, with his victorious British
army, overran the continent A.D.387, then withdrew into Gaul,
where they peopled Brittany, sprang from the Great Constantine.
Quoting from Hewin's "Royal Saints of Britain," we read:
"The Emperor Maximus Magnus or Maxen Wledi was a Roman-Spaniard
related to the Emperor Theodosius, and of the family of
Constantine the Great, and of British royal descent on his
mother's side."
All records prove that Constantine was heir and legal
representative of the royal Christian dynasty of Britain, a true
representative of the royal church which he permanently
established by Imperial Edict in the pagan city of Rome. He made
land gifts to the church at Rome, whose only previous gifts were
those bequeathed to the church by the Caradoc-Pudens royal
family: the Palace of the British and its estate, reminiscent in
the church known as St. Pudentiana, the first church at Rome
above ground.
The objects of Constantine the Great's life are clearly
exemplified by him in one of his Edicts, wherein he says:
"We call God to witness, the Saviour of all men, that in assuming
the government we are influenced solely by these two
considerations: the uniting of the empire in one faith, and the
restoration of peace to a world rent to pieces by the insanity of
religious persecution."
He bent all his efforts to this end. Two years after he was
hailed Emperor at Rome he created and commanded the first
Christian church council since the one recorded by St. James in
the Acts of the Apostles. This important church council took
place at Arles, A.D.314. The second great council was held at
Nicaea, A.D.325.
Constantine personally presided at this council, of which it
is recorded, out of three hundred and eighteen Bishops present,
only ten were Latin-speaking. The third great council was held at
Constantinople, A.D.337. It is known as the Council of Byzantium
or Constantinople. Although the Bishop of Rome was present, it is
interesting to note it was the Bishop of Constantinople who
presided. At every council, the representative of each country
took his seat in the order in which each land had received
Christianity. At all times, at every convention that ever
followed, the British Bishop retained the first seat. Nearly a
thousand years later, when Italy and Spain challenged the
priority of Britain, it was the Pope who vetoed the complaint by
stating that Britain held priority of place by reason of her
being the first nation to accept the faith of Christ.
For twenty years Constantine laboured to extend the system
of constitutional Christianity, long established in his native
land.
Like his mother, the Queen Empress Helen, he had inherited
the British sympathy for the Eastern church rather than the
Roman.
For them British faith stemmed from Jerusalem, not Rome. For
this reason he, with his mother, set up his government at
Constantinople and there transferred the Imperial Throne of the
Caesars. It is stated that during his long reign he only made two
short visits to the Italian capital. Constantinople, York and
Colchester were his favourite places of residence. As Vergil
wrote, "he made his native soil a participator in his glory."
There is documentary evidence in existence which reports that he
restored lands and the ancient forest rights of the Diocese of
London, together with the Gorsedd lands of his grandfather King
Coel, son of Lucius, in the royal city of Camulodunum -
Colchester, the city being in the Diocese of London. In this
manner he followed the practice of his regal predecessors,
Arviragus to Lucius. In the British Triad III he is recorded as
being the first Emperor to extend royal patronage to all who
assembled in the Faith. This fact is again mentioned in
connection with the three Archbishoprics of the Isle of Britain.
There are some remarkable similarities between the practice and
observance of Christianity which, as we have seen, was a flower
planted and flourishing on Druidic soil, and the Israelitish
'church' or 'congregation in the wilderness'.
The Levites, in the old patriarchal system, were charged
with the service of the Tabernacle and the Temple. They, being in
charge of the Sanctuary, had no inheritance in the land as had
all the other Tribes of Israel. They were not paid for their
services. It was provided for them out of the tithe. The tribe of
Levi is known as the Priestly Tribe, but all Levites were not
priests. Apart from performing the ecclesiastical functions of
the Temple, they performed the functions of civil servants. As
one modern writer puts it "The Levites include not only those who
waited about the altar; but the educational or teaching staff of
the nation, as well as judicial officers represented by judges
and magistrates. The administration of justice, or at least the
whole legislative side of it, the provision for the poor, the
system of national education, as well as the custody and
transmission of the Scriptures, besides the conduct of
sacrificial worship and the songs and services of the Temple were
in the hands of the Tribe of Levi."
In addition, the Levites furnished the majority of the
judges, clerks, registrars, censors, keepers of the records, the
geometricians, genealogists and superintendents of weights and
measures. The tithe represented the divine economic system,
through the law of righteousness, including the principle of
distributive justice.
The Druidic economic law was exactly the same and naturally
continued in the merging of the Druidic with the Christian
principles of the faith. For thousands of years this practice was
so embedded in the minds of the people it was normally carried on
throughout the Golden Era of the church in Britain. The
magnificent gifts of the British kings to the church were simply
an enlargement of the tithe on their part to the glory of God for
the advancement of the Christian faith.
The Queen Empress Helen and her son, Constantine the Great,
were probably the greatest contributors of wealth to the
Christian cause.
The Harvest Feast, better known today as Thanksgiving, was
the time when the people brought to the church in early Druid and
Christian times their gifts of the field. The decoration of
churches with the products of the field is but a modern gesture
of the age-old harvest tithing custom.
(Yes the so-called "Thanksgiving Day" of the world came from
pagan times. God had had His thanksgiving time from the time of
Moses - the Feast of Tabernacles. But men, even under the name
"Christian" are always setting up their own traditions inplace of
the commandments and practices that the Eternal God had given
under Moses to all Israel and to the world - Keith Hunt)
Following the Golden Era, circa A.D.600, the tithe began to
lose some of its original substance, chiefly caused by the Danish
invasions and desecration of the holy places by the Norsemen.
Again we see a British king stand forth to preserve an ancient
godly law. In A.D.854 King Ethelwulf, a Christian Saxon king, by
order of a Royal Charter in Parliament, caused the state and the
church to recognize the tithe as a national institution. Quoting
from this Royal Charter, which is in the British Museum, we read:
"The tenth part of the land of the Kingdom to God's praise and
His own eternal welfare."
This deed was written at Winchester and the Charter placed
on the Cathedral altar in the presence of St. Swithun and the
assemblage of the Witan (Saxon Parliament), and consecrated to
the service of Christ. Thus was the patriarchal law of Israel,
and of the Druids, re-established.
The years of the reign of Constantine the Great and the
Empress Helen are the brightest pages in Roman history.
(It is true that under Constantine persecution of Christians came
to an end - an end done by the secular Roman Government, but
later the Roman church itself would persecute and kill down
through the following middle or "dark ages" tens of thousands of
true Christians that disagreed with the theology of Rome - Keith
Hunt)
Constantine freed the Christians for ever from further
persecution.
(Just not so - obviously the writer does not seem to count the
persecutions of true saints by the church of Rome itself, as took
place in the middle ages - Keith Hunt)
The horrible pit of the Mamertine was closed. The
blook-soaked arena of the Colosseum was dry and the great walls
began to crumble into decay from misuse. It was an era of peace
quietly maintained by Constantine's British Legions.
(It is true indeed that Constantine did stop the secular civil
Rome Empire from persecuting Christians - Keith Hunt)
The apostolic claim to the heirship of Peter is
inconceivable. Peter was never addressed as Bishop of Rome, let
alone Pope, by St. Paul, or any of the Apostles or early Bishops
of the church. Yet he impressive text which appears in gorgeous
blue letters around the golden dome of St. Peter's deliberately
seeks to proclaim the heirship to visitors to Rome, who see the
text "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Linus and Clement, the first and second Bishops of Rome,
knew Peter intimately, along with the apostolic throng. Quite
obviously they were also unaware of the claim of Peter's supposed
election. St. Paul; addressing the church at Rome in his
Epistles, makes no reference to Peter as Bishop, or as having any
direct association with the Gentile church. The crowning fact is
that if St. Peter had been known as the "Supreme Head of the
Church and Vicar of Christ on Earth," the Council of Jerusalem,
A.D.46, which met to settle a heated dispute between Peter and
Paul, ending in the latter's favour, never would have accepted
St. James, brother of Jesus, and Apostolic Bishop of Jerusalem,
as its presiding chairman. And certainly Peter could not have
been on trial if he were Pope.
Gore, in his "Roman Catholic Claims," dispenses the claim,
along with the present charge that no one belongs to the true
church unless under the authority of the Bishop of Rome. The
argument is worthless. The Papacy as we know it, and as William
the Conqueror, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I knew it, is not in and
of the Primitive Church of Christ. It is devoid of all scriptural
recognition. It evolved out of a combination of circumstance and
pressure politics, based on a series of documents proven by all
historians to be "the Forged Decretals."
Constantine, steeped in the heritage of the primitive faith
in Britain, would be the last man to suggest, let alone endorse
such a sacriligious act. Gregory the Great, who sent Augustine to
Britain, rejected the title of Pope, claiming to be no more than
"first among equals," which is the position today existing among
all Bishops stemming from apostolic succession in the Anglican
Communion.
The sons of Constantine preserved the Christian principles
of their great parent. They were the founders of the Byzantine
Empire but their august lives do not affect our story except in
the case of one descendant. Oddly enough, he is best known as
"the Prince of the Sanctuary." Professor Rhys says that Ambrosius
Aurelianus 1 was the grandson of Constantine the Great. He was
the son of Jovin, who married a daughter of the Emperor and
became King of the British Cotswolds. He was brother to Uther
Pendragon, uncle of the romantically famed King Arthur. It is
strange how these ancient religious responsibilities appear in
Britain and always within the office of the British royal family.
The subject becomes more intriguing when we learn that the
standard of this grandson of Constantine bore the sign of the
lion. This takes us a long way back into Old Testament history.
When the dying Jacob nationalized the twelve tribes under the
name of Israel, the two chief offices representing the power of
the government and authority of the Temple were bestowed on two
members of the twelve tribes of Israel. To Judah was given the
Sanctuary - the Temple; and to Ephraim the Dominion - govern-
mental power. Judah thus became the "Keeper of the Sanctuary"
and his son the "Prince of the Sanctuary." His ensign was a lion,
still known as of old as the Lion of Judah. The sign of the ten
tribes under Ephraim was the bull. They were known historically
as the "Bull Tribe." Their standard bore the insignia of a white
bull. Finally, thousands of years later we find these same
insignia all appearing in Britain and demonstrative of the same
ancient royal religious authority. First the bull sign of
Ephraim, employed by the Druids; then the cross under Arviragus;
now we have the lion as the emblem of the Prince of the
Sanctuary, and today all these signs are combined on the royal
standard of the British monarchs. In all sincerity we may ask the
profound question, Is it all a
......
1 See also Prof. Hewins, "Royal Saints of Britain," pp. 52-56.
......
coincidence, or is it the working of divine destiny as proclaimed
by the prophets?
Only time will tell the fulness of the hidden scroll.
Little is left to us today reminiscent of the life and great
Christian achievements of Constantine the Great and his devout
mother, the Empress Helen. For nearly fourteen hundred years the
Sword of Constantine was a treasured relic among the British
Coronation regalia. As the king was crowned and the ring of the
Church was placed on his finger, the Sword of Constantine was
handed to him as a symbol of his heritage as the defender of the
Christian faith. During the Cromwellian desecration of the
churches the fanatical Puritans seized, among many other
treasures, the coronation crowns, jewels and other regalia. Many
precious jewelled ornaments were never returned. Some that were
returned had been robbed of priceless stones.
For many years a world-wide search was made to recover the
Sword of Constantine, with rich rewards offered, all to no avail.
The sword which Constantine drew from its scabbard to defeat
Maximian on the Tiber and crush the Diocletian persecution once
and for all is gone, but the character of its ideals lives and
burns as strongly as ever in the hearts of true Christians. No
longer is the sword needed in spite of its historical importance.
We possess a more potent power, a power that has never failed us
as long as we held fast and true, the unconquerable spirit of
Christ, the same that inspired Constantine the Great, the same
imperishable spirit that spake through the lips of Jesus to all
who believed in Him "Lo I am with you always."
What more could we need?
While few may remember or know of the incidents herein
related of Constantine the Great and his family as associated
with Britain, a memorial still exists.
In the churchyard of the ancient parish church of St.
Cuthbert, now in the city of York, stands near the main entrance
a large stone cross on which is inscribed the following words:
"From this Parish Constantine the Great was declared Emperor, 306
A.D.
Incontrovertible testimony to the astounding historic truth
as stated by Cardinal Baronius, and to the glory of the great
Christian achievement that stemmed from York, led by the great
British Christian Constantine, and his British army that
conquered Rome and proclaimed it Christian.
..........
Note:
Constantine - the Roman Emperor was indeed from Britain; few know
or have been taught this fact of history. What has been written
above is true history of Britain and the Roman Empire and how
Constantine did gain the Roman crown.
What the author has been blind to see is also the facts that
Constantine's Christianity was not at all the pure Christianity
of the first century Christians in Britain.
Constantine brought in the law of Sunday secular observance,
Sunday being already observed by the Roman church. Easter had in
the second century already replaced Passover for the observance
of the death of Christ, in Rome. It would not be long after the time
of Constantine that "Christ-mass" would be brought into the church
of Rome. Then the secular Roman calendar would be adopted by
Rome, as well as January 1st as the "new year." As time went on
other "days" and "festivals" would be added by Rome.
The author of this book cannot see, or did not want to see, that
the Church of England - the Anglican Church - did not come from
the true saints of Christ, but from the Roman Catholic faith,
only they did not accept the Pope as head of the church. The
author of this book was not willing, or was blinded, in seeing
how the true faith once delivered to the saints in Britain became
CORRUPTED over time, was buried and killed out in Britain during
a period of centuries, from the time the Roman church entered
Britain around 500 AD and until the last Welsh strongholds of 7th
day Sabbath keeping, were crushed and blotted out around the 11th
century AD.
The author of this book did not see, or shut his eyes to seeing,
the Roman Catholic debate with the British church in the 7th
century AD, over the Passover/Easter controversy, as recorded in
Bede's British church history recordings. Again, over time the
Roman church gained the victory, and Easter observance was fully
established in Britain, as it was in the Holy Roman Empire of
Europe.
The MAJOR problem with nearly all "British Israel" teachers is
their blindness or deliberate rejection of true "church history"
facts concerning the false teachings and traditions of the Roman
Catholic church, and how the Church of England is nothing more
than the Roman Catholic faith, with a different "head of the
church" in a different country and city.
Constantine was just another spoke in the wheel of Roman Catholic
theology, which all Protestant churches have also become ....
well as they always were in reality, for the Protestant churches
which started from Martin Luther, only objected to SOME Roman
Catholic practices and teachings, while they retained MANY of
their mother's ways and traditions.
While Constantine stopped the persecution of Christians, he
adopted the theology of Rome, which eventually gave rise to the
Holy Roman Empire, of which we have had SIX resurrections, with
ONE MORE yet to come at the end time. All of this truth can be
found in my study called "The Beasts of Daniel and Revelation" on
this website.
Keith Hunt
To be continued with "The End of the Golden Trail"
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