Excerpt from A Short History of the Church of England<br><br>Christian faith was brought to its people. But by whose enthusiasm this bringing of the Faith came about it is impossible to say. There is an old legend that Joseph of Arimathea came with twelve companions and settled at Glastonbury, and in the ground there planted his staff, which budded and grew into the famous Holy Thorn. That beautiful story, however, is only first heard of many hundred years after S. Joseph was dead. The cause which most likely led to the heathen Britons being taught the faith was an outbreak of bitter persecution which fell upon the Christians in South - Eastern Gaul in the year 177. Just as we read in the New Testament that by reason of the persecution of Stephen, Philip and others were scattered abroad, so, too, in all probability as a result of the persecu tion at Lyons and Vienne, fugitives fled along the great Roman roads to cross the Channel and hide in Britain, as in an earlier day fugitives from the rule of Julius Caesar had also done.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.