Legends have accumulated freely about the early history of Christianity in Britain. According to one tradition St. Paul himself visited the island. According to another tradition Joseph of Arimathea was the first to bring the glad tidings, as the beautiful ruins of the chapel dedicated to his memory at Glastonbury testify. A third legend tells how Bran, the father of Caratacus, accompanied his captive son to Rome, became a convert to Christianity, then returned to his native land as a missionary, to become known ever after as Bran the Blessed. All, however, that we can say with certainty is that Christianity had made good progress in Britain many years before its adoption as the official religion of the Roman Empire early in the fourth century. We have some detailed information, which is probably authentic, about the lives of the first British martyrs Alban, Aaron, and Julius; {41} and we know that there were British bishops present at the Council of Arles in the year 314. The earliest Christian building that has been discovered is the one at Silchester. Of the progress of the new religion in Wales one must speak with greater caution. Wales had been the last home of the Druids, and the people clung long to their old mythology. Centuries even after the adoption of Christianity the old deities--Llud, Merlin, Ceridwen, Coil, Olwen--shared in popular estimation the fame of the newer saints of the Christian calendar. It is also well known that the Roman soldiers were the men who clung longest to the ancient paganism; and it was by the soldier, rather than by the civil servant or the trader, that the Empire was represented in Wales. We should probably be fairly near the mark if we said that there were no Christian churches in Wales prior to the fifth century.