Royal Soap: British Royalty, Founders of the Roman Church

British Royalty: Founders of the Roman Church (i.e. the ecclesia at Rome not necc. the "Roman Catholic Church")

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Royal Soap. You couldn't make it up. If you took the story of the establishment of the Christian church at Rome to MGM, they'd throw it out as incredible. In the midst of a bloody war, the two ruling families intermarry. One minute, it's the whole Roman Empire against Christianity, the next minute, the Emperor adopts his fiercest enemy's daughter. Only God could pull strings that big. It's a real life Soap Opera, better than Dynasty or Dallas. There'll be a short quiz later, so be thinking about what God was accomplishing with all of the amazing events that follow. Even though our Royal Soap Opera is acted out by real people, there was still a Director. This subject is so much fun! You'll see.

The information on this page was taken mainly from R.W. Morgan's "Did the Apostle Paul Visit Britain?", and George F. Jowett's, "Drama of the Lost Disciples." I'll be freely switching from one book to the other, interweaving paragraphs as we look at a roughly one hundred year period of time. Starting with the Roman war against England in 53 BC, headed by Julius Caesar, to 62 AD and the death of Paul outside Rome.

In all the solid essentials of humanity, British ancestry will compare to great advantage with the best eras of Greece or Rome. In war the Briton, after the Julian invasions, walked the streets of Rome the only freeman in Europe, pointed at as the exception to the world

'Invictus Romano Marte Britannus'
For ninety-seven years no Roman again ventured to set foot on the island, and when the eagle of Romulus once more expanded its pinions to the stormy winds of ocean it was when no other enemy, unconquered, confronted its gaze from the Euphrates to Gibraltar, and the forces of the whole empire were ready to follow its leading against the solitary free nationality of the West

Augustus sent ambassadors to Britain demanding the restoration of the three Reguli of the Coritani, or Coraniaid, Dumno, Belaunus, and Jernian, to their estates, confiscated for treason. Tenuantius, the son of Caswallon, a mild, pacific monarch, had sent his two sons, Cynvelin and Llyr (Lear), to be educated at Rome, where they were brought up with his nephews in his palace by Augustus himself, who made a rule, as Suetonius informs us, of teaching the younger branches of his family in person. Cynvelin subsequently served in the German campaigns under Germanicus. He had now succeeded his father, and received the Roman ambassadors with courtesy, but peremptorily rejected the interference of a foreign potentate in the affairs of the island. Augustus moved half the disposable forces of the empire to the Gallic harbors on the Channel, but he never entertained serious intentions of an invasion.

A conference with the imperial friend and tutor of his youth was solicited. The result was the triumph of British diplomacy, a much rarer success than that of British arms. Not only did the emperor abandon his demands, but the heavy duties previously levied on British goods were reduced to a very light tariff (Strabo lib. iv.C. 5). Friendly relations were restored, British nobles again took up their residence at Rome, and were to be seen dedicating their offerings at the shrines of the Capitol.

The infancy, childhood. and youth of the future emperor, Claudius, were spent under the strictest state of surveillance. He was regarded as but one remove from an idiot. "He is as imbecile as my son Claudius" was an ordinary phrase in his mother Livia's mouth when she wished to imply an extraordinary degree of stupidity. His appearance did not belie his character. Tall and full in person, and possessed, when seated, of the external show of dignity, in motion his knees shook, his head perpetually trembled, his tongue stuttered, his laughter was outrageously violent, and his anger marked by profuse foaming at the mouth. Cruel and bloodthirsty by nature, as indeed every Roman was, he insisted on being present whenever any criminal was put to the torture. He never failed to give the sign of "no quarter" against disabled gladiators, and delighted with a horrible voracity to gloat over the dying expression of their faces. He sat from morning to night, neglecting the ordinary hours of refreshment, at the bestiaria or combats of wild beasts, and yet personally was the rankest and most contemptible of cowards.

Whatever the deficiencies of the Emperor himself might he, at no time were the great offices of state filled by men of higher administrative capacity, or better able to wield the vast military resources of the empire. Aulus Plautius a general who emulated the Scipios in the rigor of his discipline and the rapidity of his marches, was appointed to the command of the army of invasion.-

Early in the war, a battle was fought in which King Guiderius fell. He was succeeded on the throne by his brother Arviragus, but the national emergency requiring the establishment of the pendragonate, or a military dictatorship, Caradoc was unanimously elected to that high office, Arviragus giving his vote first in his favour and consenting to act under him.

It tells well for the abilities of Caradoc that in this first battle as pendragon he was able to hold his ground for two days of incessant fighting against three such generals as Plautius, Vespasian, and Geta. Undismayed, he collected his forces again, and Plautius, on attempting to follow him, was so roughly handled that messages were sent to Rome for instructions and reinforcements. Claudius himself immediately quitted Rome, and passing through Gaul landed at Richborough, with the second and fourteenth legions, their auxiliaries, and a cohors of elephants brought over for the express purpose of neutralizing the British chariot charges.

Tacitus, the Roman historian, writing of the Claudian campaign that lasted for nine years, except for one brief six months' pause, dismally wrote that, although Rome hurled at the British the greatest army in her history, it failed prevail against the military genius of Caractacus and the reckless fierceness of the British warrior. May drawn battle were fought and the fames Legions of Rom frequently suffered defeat with terrible slaughter. On occasions when the British suffered severe reverses Tacitus said, "She fierce ardor of the British increased."

After two years of ceaseless warfare Claudius, recognizing the futility of the struggle and the terrible drainage on his finest Legions, took advantage of a reverse against Caractacus, at Brando Camp, AD 45, to seek peace through an armistice. A six-month truce was declared in which Caractacus and Arviragus were invited to Rome do discuss the possibilities for peace. The facts that followed prove that Claudius went to great lengths to come to satisfactory terms with the obstinate British leaders.

Hoping to clinch the peace the Emperor Claudius offered to Arviragus, in marriage, his daughter, Venus Julia. And, amazing as it appears, they were married in Rome during the truce period, AD 45.

Here we have the strange instance of a Christian British king becoming the son-in-law of the pagan Roman Emperor Claudius, who had sworn to exterminate Christianity and Britain.

Surely one is justified in asking would the Emperor of a nation, then the most powerful in the world, high in culture and intellectual pursuits, have sacrificed his natural daughter in marriage to by the wife of a "crude barbarian," just for the sake of peace? Impossible.

(Source/more)

Related:
British Christians In Rome Before Paul Ever Arrived