Previous to the Roman conquests, the Britons were accustomed to celebrate the rites of Druidism; but as it was the custom of the Romans to carry into the lands they conquered, not only their civil polity but also their religion, the gods of their Pantheon became consequently the gods of our ancestors. Near the existing memorials of Druidical superstition, there arose the majestic fanes of a more polished mythology. At Bath there is said to have been a temple dedicated to Minerva, while on the site now occupied by the splendid cathedral of St. Paul there was a temple to Diana. It appears from a passage in _King’s Vale Royal_, there was a tradition generally accepted in his day, that on the present site of Chester Cathedral, was a temple dedicated to Apollo, during the period that the city was inhabited by the Legionaries. “I have heard it,” he says, “from a scholar, residing in the city, when I was there, anno 1653, that there was a temple dedicated to Apollo in old time, in a place adjoining to the Cathedral Church, by the constant tradition of the learned.” We are not aware that the supposition is capable of being verified by any existing record, but when we take into consideration the policy generally pursued by the Romans in subjugating a country, it seems to be countenanced by strong probability. With this form of Paganism, however, there came zealous men, of true apostolic stamp, whose earnest inculcation of vital principles, accelerated the progress of a better faith. So conspicuous had that progress become early in the third century, that Tertullian, in his work written against the Jews, A.D. 209, states that “even those places in Britain, hitherto inaccessible to the Roman arms, have been subdued by the gospel of Christ.” Early in the fourth century, Christianity had become so extensively diffused throughout the land, that Maximius and Galerius, themselves bigoted Pagans, recommended to the Emperor Diocletian the enforcement of extreme measures, in order to crush the growing religion; and the ever-memorable persecution under his reign was the result, when Christians were indiscriminately slaughtered, and churches wantonly destroyed. Under the empire of his successor, Constantine Chlorus, persecution was extinguished; churches were re-built, the offices of religion generally resumed, and the people enjoyed a long tranquillity.