Vatican Confirmatin that Jospeh of Arimathaea Went to England...
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VATICAN CONFIRMATION that JOSEPH of ARIMATHAEA (the VIRGIN's uncle) went to ENGLAND and continued the Conversion of the BRITISH.
Joseph de Marmore (Marmorica in Egypt) from Arimathaea, was (according to a manuscript at Jesus College Oxford) brother to Bianca and Ann (V. Mary's mother); uncle to Virgin Mary and great-uncle to Jesus, whose body he claimed from Pontius Pilate, as, by law, only a relative could.
The Catholic priest Polydore Vergil who was born in Italy in 1470; studied at Bologna and Padua; was so renowned for his literary talents that catholic Henry 7th (NOT the Protestant 8th) asked him to write an English History. As an Italian and a Catholic proxy Bishop; Prebendary and Archdeacon who became Chamberlain to Pope Alexander VII, he had no axe to grind on behalf of Britain or the British Church. It would no doubt have suited him much better if he could have written of Rome as being the first Christian church but he could not and did not. He wrote:-
"Britain, partly through Joseph of Arimathaea, partly through Fugatus and Damianus, was of all kingdoms FIRST TO RECEIVE THE GOSPEL." (Even before Palestine).
The antiquity of the British church had been challenged by the ambassadors of Spain and France before the Roman Catholic Council of Pisa (A.D. 1417). The British (catholic) delegates Robert Hallam, Bishop of Salisbury, Henry Chichele, a former Archbishop of Canterbury and Thomas Chillendon, won the day, the council affirmed that the British church (not the Church of England and not catholic because it was pre-catholic) was the first Christian church (community).
The ambassadors appealed to the Roman Catholic Council of Constance, also in A.D. 1417, and that council confirmed the findings of the Council of Pisa.
A third decision by the Roman Catholic Council at Sienna 1424 again confirmed the antiquity of the British church and, finally at the Council at Basle in 1434 it was laid down that the churches of Spain and France had to accept the precedence of the British Church, which it was affirmed, was founded by Joseph of Arimathaea (Mary's uncle) "immediately after the passion of Christ."
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Trustee of the Gospel
