Kingdom built by the disciples
of Christ." But no earlier reference is known; for the passages
cited from Gildas and Melkinus are quite untrustworthy. So striking a
phenomenon as the winter thorn would be certain to become an object
of heathen devotion;[396] and, as usual, the early preachers would
Christianize the local cult, as they Christianized the Druidical
figment of a Holy Cup (perhaps also local in its origin), into the
sublime mysticism of the Sangreal legend, connected likewise with
Joseph of Arimathaea.[397]

E. 9.--That the original church of Glaston was really of wattle
is more than probable, for the remains of British buildings thus
constructed have been found abundantly in the neighbouring peat. The
Arimathaean theory of its consecration became so generally accepted
that at the Council of Constance (1419) precedence was actually
accorded to our Bishops as representing the senior Church of
Christendom. But the oldest variant of the legend says nothing about
Arimathaea, but speaks only of an undetermined "Joseph" as the leader
[_decurio_][398] of twelve missionary comrades who with him settled
down at Glastonbury. And this may well be true. Such bands (as we
see in the Life of Columba) were the regular system in Celtic mission
work, and survived in that of the Preaching Friars:

"For thirteen is a Covent, as I guess."[399]

E. 10.--And though such high authorities as Mr. Haddan have come to
the conclusion that Christianity in Britain was confined to a small
minority even amongst the Roman inhabitants of the island, and almost
vanished with them, yet the catena of references to British converts
can scarcely be thus set aside. They begin in Apostolic times and
in special connection with St. Paul. Martial tells us of a British
princess named Claudia Rufina[400] (very probably the daughter of that
Claudius Cogidubnus whom we meet in Tacitus as at once a British
King and an Imperial Legate),[2] whose beauty and wit made no little
sensation in Rome; whither she had doubtless been sent at once for
education and as a hostage for her father's fidelity. And one of
the most beautiful of his Epigrams speaks of the marriage of this
foreigner to a Roman of high family named Pudens, belonging to the
Gens Aemilia (of which the Pauline family formed a part):

"Claudia, Rufe, meo nubet peregrina Pudenti,
Macte esto taedis, O Hymenaee, suis.
Diligat illa senem quondam; sed et ipsa marito,
Tunc quo