01 — Roman Britain and Its Christians
The world in which Alban was martyred: a Roman province whose Christianity is glimpsed in a handful of literary notices (Tertullian c. 200, Origen c. 240), a delegation of three British bishops at the Council of Arles in 314, and an archaeology of hoards and house-churches (Water Newton, Lullingstone, Hinton St Mary). The second file treats Verulamium itself — one of the great towns of Roman Britain — and the three imperial persecutions (Severan, Decian/Valerianic, Diocletianic) any one of which could frame Alban’s death, including the crucial datum that Constantius Chlorus ruled the West mildly during the Great Persecution.
Tradition: Western (pre-Schism, Roman Britain)
This section supplies the historical stage. The first file assembles the evidence for Christianity in Roman Britain — thin, scattered, but real — from the rhetorical notices of Tertullian and Origen through the institutional proof of the 314 Arles subscriptions to the fourth-century archaeology. The second file describes Verulamium, the municipium on Watling Street outside whose walls Alban’s shrine arose, and then sets out the persecution chronology of the third and early fourth centuries, because the question “which persecution killed Alban?” is the dating problem of Section 03 in embryo.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| christianity-in-roman-britain.md | The arrival and growth of British Christianity: Tertullian and Origen’s notices; the King Lucius legend flagged as apocryphal; the three British bishops at Arles 314; Water Newton, Lullingstone, and the fourth-century material evidence. |
| verulamium-and-the-persecutions.md | Verulamium from Tacitus to the fifth century; the persecution contexts — Severan (c. 202–211), Decian (250–251), Valerianic (257–260), Diocletianic (303–305) — and the Constantius Chlorus problem that shadows the traditional date. |
See Also
- The Evidence — the dating problem for which the persecution chronology is the frame
- The Confession and the Execution — the martyrdom set in this Verulamium landscape
- METHODOLOGY.md — the repository citation and verification standard
References
- Tertullian, Adversus Iudaeos 7.4; Origen, Homiliae in Ezechielem 4.1.
- Munier, C. (ed.). Concilia Galliae a. 314 – a. 506. CCSL 148. Turnhout: Brepols, 1963. (The Arles 314 subscription list.)
- Thomas, Charles. Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500. London: Batsford, 1981.
- Niblett, Rosalind. Verulamium: The Roman City of St Albans. Stroud: Tempus, 2001.
- Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 15.7, ed. and trans. J. L. Creed (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984).