Myths of the Early British Church

Spelman’s antiquarian study of the ancient institutions of Britain led him to discuss two early myths of the early British Church:

1. the supposed arrival of Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury; 

2. the alleged conversion of the Britons by King Lucius around AD 150.

Spelman firmly believed that the island had been Christianized “almost immediately after Christ’s Passion,” and his volume offered “material” evidence of that fact, such as this facsimile of a monument to the arrival of Joseph and his eleven companions.