ntoned the threefold Easter Alleluia,
the familiar strain was echoed from lip to lip throughout the host.
Stricken with panic at the sudden outburst of light and song, the
enemy, without a blow, broke and fled.[431]

F. 5.--This story, as told by Constantius, and confirmed by both
Nennius and Bede, incidentally furnishes us with something of a key
to the main difficulty in accepting the widely-spread Romano-British
Christianity to which the foregoing citations testify. What, it is
asked, has become of all the Romano-British churches? Why are no
traces of them found amongst the abundant Roman remains all over the
land? That they were the special objects of destruction at the Saxon
invasion we learn from Gildas. But this does not account for their
very foundations having disappeared; yet at Silchester[432] alone have
modern excavations unearthed any even approximately certain example of
them. Where are all the rest?

F. 6.--The question is partly answered when we read that the soldiers
of Germanus had erected in their camp a church of wattle, and that
such was the usual material of which, even as late as 446, British
churches were built (as at Glastonbury). Seldom indeed would such
leave any trace behind them; and thus the country churches of Roman
Britain would be sought in vain by excavators. In the towns, however,
stone or brick would assuredly be used, and to account for the paucity
of ecclesiastical ruins three answers may be suggested.

F. 7.--First, the number of continuously unoccupied Romano-British
cities is very small indeed. Except at Silchester, Anderida, and
Uriconium, almost every one has become an English town. But when this
took place early in the English settlement of the land, the ruins of
the Romano-British churches would still be clearly traceable at the
conversion of the English, and would be rebuilt (as St. Martin's at
Canterbury was in all probability rebuilt)[433] for the use of English
Christianity, the old material[434] being worked up into the new
edifices. It is probable that many of our churches thus stand on the
very spot where the Romano-British churches stood of old. But this
very fact would obliterate the remains of these churches.

F. 8.--Secondly, it is very possible that many of the heathen temples
may, after the edict of Theodosius (A.D. 392), have been turned into
churches (like the Pantheon at Rome), so that _their_ remains may mark
ecclesiastical sites. There are reasons for be