King Lucius

Lucius (Welsh: Lles map Coel, Lleirwg, Lleufer or Lleufer Mawr), according to Anglican tradition, was a legendary 2nd-century king of the Britons who is said to have requested baptism and Christian doctrine from Pope Eleutherius in Rome.

Historical Sources

Papal Catalogues

The earliest reference to Lucius appears in the Catalogus Felicianus, a collection of papal biographies compiled c. AD 530. In the life of Pope Eleutherius (r. 174-189), the text records:

"He received a letter from Lucius, king of Britain, asking him to appoint a way by which Lucius might become a Christian."

The Catalogus Felicianus is an update of earlier lists. The first known version, (and probably based on a still earlier catalogue) the Liber Generationis (235 AD) is completely lost. Copies of the second version, the Liberian Catalogue, contained within the Chronograph (354 AD) are in circulation, but the key period covering Lucius and Pope Eleutherus (174-189 AD), which occurs between Pope Soter (166–174) and Pope Victor (189–199) is incomplete and mentions neither person.

Historia Regum Britanniae

Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), written around 1136, recorded a greatly expanded version of the Lucius tradition. According to Geoffrey, Lucius was the son of King Coillus and ruled Britain peacefully. During his reign, Lucius sent a formal request to Pope Eleutherius for instruction in the Christian faith. Reports of miracles performed by the disciples of Christ in various countries prompted his interest in adopting Christianity. Pope Eleutherius responded by dispatching two learned teachers, Faganus and Duvanus, who preached the doctrine of the Incarnation, baptized Lucius, and received him into the Christian faith.

After the king's baptism, people from across Britain gathered to follow his example, receiving baptism and entering the Christian community. Faganus and Duvanus rededicated existing temples, originally built for the worship of many gods, to the service of the one God and His saints, and organized Christian congregations within them.

The religious structure of Britain at the time, according to Geoffrey, consisted of twenty-eight flamens and three archflamens, who held jurisdiction over various officials and religious practitioners. These figures were converted. Flamens became bishops, and archflamens became archbishops. The three archiepiscopal sees were located at London, York, and Caerleon. Twenty-eight bishops, each with a defined diocese, were placed under these metropolitan sees. York held authority over Deira and Scotland, divided from Lloegyr by the Humber; London held authority over Lloegyr and Cornwall; and Caerleon oversaw Wales.

When their reformation was complete, Faganus and Duvanus returned to Rome to obtain papal confirmation of their actions. After receiving approval, they returned to Britain with many others, whose efforts strengthened the Christian faith throughout Britain. According to Geoffrey, their names and deeds were recorded in a work attributed to Gildas concerning the victory of Ambrose Aurelian, though no such work survives to us today. Geoffrey says that Lucius died in AD 156, in the city of Gloucester.

King Lucius Tablet

The London historian John Stow, writing at the end of the 16th century, reported "there remaineth in this church a table whereon is written, I know not by what authority, but of a late hand, that King Lucius founded the same church to be an archbishop's see metropolitan, and chief church of his kingdom, and that it so endured for four hundred years". The "table" (tablet) seen by Stow was destroyed when the medieval church was burnt in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but before this time a number of writers had recorded what it said. The text of the original tablet as printed by John Weever in 1631 began:

"Be hit known to al men, that the yeerys of our Lord God an clxxix [AD 179]. Lucius the fyrst christen kyng of this lond, then callyd Brytayne, fowndyd the fyrst chyrch in London, that is to sey, the Chyrch of Sent Peter apon Cornhyl, and he fowndyd ther an Archbishoppys See, and made that Chirch the Metropolitant, and cheef Chirch of this kingdom..."

A replacement, in the form of an inscribed brass plate, was set up after the Great Fire and still hangs in the church vestry.

Church of St Peter upon Cornhill

There is a long-standing tradition in London that St Peter upon Cornhill church was founded by King Lucius. The church altar is sited directly above the potential location of a pagan shrine room, of the great Roman London basilica. Two other facts give credence to a Roman past. The first is that London sent a bishop, Restitutus, to the Council of Arles in 314 AD. Restitutus must have had a church base. Secondly, in 1417, during a discussion about the order of precedence in a Whit Monday procession, the Mayor of London confirmed that St Peter's was the first church founded in London. Given that St Paul's Cathedral was founded in 604, this clearly implies that St Peter's was considered in 1417 to be founded pre-600.

Reception of the Story

During the English Reformation, the story of Lucius was invoked to demonstrate that British Christianity predated Augustine of Canterbury's mission in 597 and was originally established through direct Roman authority rather than through later papal jurisdiction. This supported arguments for the Church of England's claim to be a continuation of an ancient, independent British church that had merely been reformed, not newly created.

Modern scholarship has approached the Lucius tradition with historical caution. Harnack suggests that in the document which the compiler of the Catalogus Felicianus drew his information, the name found was not Britanio (Britain), but Britio, a fortress of Edessa. The king in question is, therefore, Lucius Ælius Septimus Megas Abgar VIII, of Edessa, a Christian king as is well known. The original statement of the Catalogus Felicianus, in this hypothesis, had nothing to do with Britain; the compiler of the Catalogus Felicianus changed Britio to Brittanio, and in this way made a British king of the Syrian Lucius.

Harnack's proposal has been more recently challenged by British archaeologist David J. Knight. In his book King Lucius of Britain, Knight argues that Abgar of Edessa was never called Lucius of Britio in contemporary sources, and that to call Lucius king of a 'fortress' (Britio) is non-sensical. Furthermore, Agbar was only granted his additional Latin names (Lucius Ælius Septimius) sometime after AD 193, several years after Lucius' conversion. Knight therefore argues for accepting the traditional identification of Lucius as a British ruler.

Lucius of Britain is sometimes identified with Lucius of Chur who was active in Switzerland in the late 2nd century. Lucius, a noble of the Pritanni (a Gaulish tribe located in modern Prättigau), became a missionary to Gaul and became the first bishop of Chur, where he preached the gospel with great success, until he was martyred in AD 176.