Setting aside the vague and unsatisfactory statements of the mythical period (such as the one about the presence of three British at the Council of Arles in A.D. 314), we find that the real history of the Christianising of this country begins with the opening years of the fifth century, and that it followed directly from the foundation of the school of learning and centre of missionary enterprise by St. Martin at Tours, in France. In A.D. 397 St. Martin died, and not long after, in A.D. 412, his disciple, St. Ninian, built a stone church dedicated to his master at Whithorn, Wigtownshire. In A.D. 429 Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, visited Britain in order to suppress the Pelagian heresy. About the same time the conversion of Ireland is believed to have been commenced by either St. Patrick or by St. Palladius (_circa_ A.D. 432). The sixth century witnessed the foundation of the great school of ecclesiastical learning at Llantwit Major, Glamorganshire, where St. David, St. Samson, and Gildas the historian were educated; but an event of even greater importance was the landing of St. Columba at Iona in A.D. 563, and the subsequent conversion of the northern Picts. The sixth century ends with the conversion of Kent by St. Augustine in A.D. 597. It was eighty-four years more before the South Saxons accepted Christianity and the conversion of England became complete. In the meantime the differences between the Saxon and Celtic Churches had been settled in favour of the former at the Synod of Whitby in A.D. 664. Reviewing the historical facts just mentioned, it appears that for about 200 years (from A.D. 450 to 650) there was a separate Celtic Church in Britain, which may appropriately be called the pre-Augustinian Church. The question now naturally suggests itself, to what extent did the introduction of Christianity influence the native art of Britain during the 200 years which followed the departure of the Romans from its shores? The answer supplied by archæology is that before about A.D. 650 there was no distinctively Christian art existing in this country. The monuments belonging to the pre-Augustinian Church consist of rude pillar-stones with incised crosses of early form, or with Latin inscriptions in debased Roman capitals, sometimes with Celtic inscription in Ogams in addition. The monuments of this class do not, as a rule, show any trace of ornament or sculpture beyond the crosses and inscriptions. The only recorded exceptions are— An Ogam-inscribed stone from Pentre Poeth,[352] Brecknockshire, now in the British Museum, having on one face a bishop with his crozier, St. Michael and the Dragon, and very rude zigzag ornament. An Ogam-inscribed stone from Glenfahan,[353] Co. Kerry, now in the Dublin Museum, with rude spiral ornament, a figure of a man, a looped pattern, and several crosses.