Drama of The Lost Disciples - SIMON ZELOTES MARTYRED

SIMON ZELOTES MARTYRED IN BRITAIN

DURING THE BOADICEAN WAR







FOLLOWING the defeat of Caractacus at Clune, A.D.52, and his

exile at Rome, Arviragus speedily reorganized the Silurian

forces, striking back at the Romans with a fury that exceeded any

former combat. Ostorius Scapula was still in command of the Roman

armies in Britain, but his forces had become greatly demoralized

by the succession of defeats and the terrible savagery of the

British onslaughts. In the year A.D.53 Scapula suffered a

staggering defeat at Caervelin, near Caerleon. Discouraged and

broken in health from the years of harrowing warfare, he

petitioned Nero to be relieved of his command and return to Rome.

This was the year Nero had succeeded Claudius as Emperor of the

Romans. Nero accepted Scapula's resignation and he was

immediately replaced by Aulus Didius, 1 also known as Didius

Gallus. Didius founded the city of Cardiff, which is still known

by the Welsh as Caer Dydd - 'The Castle of Didius'.

It is interesting to learn that one of the first acts of

Didius on arriving in Britain was to depose Cartismandua, Queen

of the Brigantes, whom he thoroughly distrusted. Her treacherous

betrayal of her cousin, Caractacus, had caused her to be held in

disdainful contempt by both the Romans and the British. As it

was, her own clan had expelled her for adultery. 2

Didius was impotent in dealing with Arviragus on the field

of battle. He suffered repulse and defeat in rapid succession.

After a brief command he was replaced by Veranius, A.D.57. The

latter had no better success, in fact worse. Arviragus drove the

Roman forces behind the Plautian wall of fortresses and bottled

up Veranius at Verulam. Matters in the field had become so bad

for Roman arms that, in desperation, Nero ordered huge

reinforcements to be rushed to Britain, under the superlative

relieving command of Suetonius Paulinus, 3 then regarded as the

ablest tactician in the Roman army. He took with him the Second

Augusta Legions, and the famous Ninth, Fourteenth and Twentieth

Legions who

......



1 Tacitus, Annals, 12:40.

2 Tacitus, History, 3:45.

3 Tacitus, Annals, 14:38-39.

......





carried the victorius legend 'Vicesima, Valens, Victrix'. They

were unequal to the occasion. Disaster continued as the British

drove the enemy before them, asking no quarter and giving none.

Tacitus bitterly expresses the feeling at Rome which required

their most capable generals and finest legions to combat the

'barbarous' British. He writes:



"In Britain, after the captivity of Caradoc, the Romans were

repeatedly defeated and put to rout by the single state of the

Silures alone." 1



The clemency shown the royal British captives at Rome by the

Emperor Claudius did not mollify the Silurians in the least. Men,

women and priests without discrimination took the field to avenge

and arrest the continued tyrannical persecution of Roman

savagery. Ruefully Tacitus observes: "The race of the Silures are

not to be changed by clemency or severity." 2



Mercilessly they fought pitched battles, stormed forts and

Roman encampments, putting Roman settlements to the torch. The

record reads: "The plains and streets ran with Roman blood."

The more the Romans were defeated the more excessive were their

vicious depredations. The culminating climax came under orders

from Suetonius Paulinus, to carry out a scorched-earth programme,

to destroy everything in their path and particularly to

exterminate the seats of Christian learning and all therein. This

eventuated in the horrible Menai massacre. 3 Entering the

community under pretext of peace, with concealed arms, the Roman

soldiery suddenly set upon the inhabitants. Thousands of

unsuspecting priests and priestesses and a multitude of people

were treacherously butchered in cold blood, men, women and

children. The aged and the infants were alike hewn down without

mercy.

According to Tacitus, this horrible campaign raged at its

worst from A.D.59 to 62.



In the year A.D.60 the avaricious Roman Prefect, Catus

Decianus, had broken the Claudian Treaty with the Iceni, on a

false pretext fomented by Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, who at

that time held great influence with Nero. Seneca, while renowned

as a philosopher of sorts, was better known as the wealthiest man

in Rome, who had obtained his vast fortune by trickery and

promoting usurious loans. He had advanced the huge sum of ten

million dollars to Prasutagus on the security of the public

buildings of the Iceni. Prasutagus, the king, was also an

extremely wealthy

......



1 Tacitus, Annals, 12:38-39.

2 ibid, 2:24.

3 ibid, 14:29-31.

......





man. Tacitus says his wealth was rated at Rome as being

fantastic. However, the financial transaction was a private

matter between Seneca, Prasutagus and his family. Having no

political involvement it was outside the authority of Decianus.

Nevertheless, Seneca conspired with Decianus to act on the recent

death of Prasutagus, completely disregarding the valid claims of

the estate. The Roman Prefect needed no second invitation to

satiate his greed from the pillage and plunder that would follow.

This act of treachery was made more simple for Decianus by reason

of an existing Peace Treaty made between Rome, the Iceni and the

Coraniaid. This political agreement permitted the Romans to enjoy

freedom of travel and residence in the domain of these two

British clans. This privilege provided opportunity for Decianus

to take the populace by surprise. He struck suddenly with

violence, inciting his soldiers to unwarranted brutalities which

appalled and drew severe censure from the Senate and Roman

writers.

They sacked the British Palaces and public buildings of all

treasure, stripping the Iceni nobles of their estates and

personal wealth formerly guaranteed to them by the Claudian Pact.

To add to the infamy of the act, licentiousness ran rampant. 1

The two daughters of Queen Boadicea, widow of Prasutagus, were

publicly raped and Boadicea was whipped.



(The BBC have produced a very fine true historical movie - called

- "The Warrior Queen" - and is about the life of Queen Boadicea.

This movie is not for children. It is from ITV Studios Home

Entertainment. On the back in part it says: "...Nero no longer

tolerate the Iceni way of life and endeavor to crush the upstart

Queen Boadicea and her tribe. However, they have understimated

the Celtic spirit and seeking revenge, Boadicea leads her people

against the mighty Romans with devastating effects." - Keith

Hunt)



The Menai massacre, already referred to, followed closely on

the heels of this bestiality. These combined monstrosities

infuriated the British beyond restraint. 2 Their anger swept the

length and breadth of the Island with the frenzy of a vendetta.

The Roman writers graphically reported that the Roman generals

and soldiery alike were stunned with the avalanche of British

reaction. In fright the Romans confined their forces within their

own encampments.

Despite the fact that the Iceni and the Coraniaid were

branded as traitors for deserting Caractacus during the Claudian

campaign, these atrocities brought the British clans together in

a solid phalanx. The British Queen Boadicea, inflamed by the

personal indignities perpetrated upon her daughters and her

people, rose in militant defiance to avenge the insults. Her

warriors swarmed around her eager for the fray. She was to lead

them into battle with a devastating offensive that has caused her

name to flame throughout British history as the finest embodiment

of Britannia.

To this day Britannia is displayed on the face of British

coins in the form of a woman.

Boadicea, the British name meaning Victoria, was a cousin of

Tacitus,

......



1 Tacitus, Annals, 14:31.

2 Tacitus, Annals, 14:31-35.

......





Claudius Pudens, thus closely related to both Caractacus and

Arviragus.

To Arviragus Boadicea sent Venusius, the Pendragon of the

Iceni, in an urgent appeal, offering to place the combined forces

of the Iceni and Coraniaid under his command. Whether he accepted

or not is unstated, probably because the historic record is

overshadowed by the brilliant stature of the valorous Queen. We

do know that her own Pendragon, Venusius, led the two warrior

tribes, but only as second-in-command. Boadicea was

Commanderin-Chief and led her warriors personally into battle.

Boadicea was a born warrior chieftainess, undoubtedly the

greatest warrior Queen in all history. She had acquired her name,

Victoria, by her valour in former military campaigns. Boadicea

had always despised the Romans, now she hated them with a

chilling bitterness that hungered for vengeance. Historians tell

us that in appearance she was a most dramatic, striking figure.

The Roman writer, Dion Cassius, states:



"Boadicea ascended the general's tribunal; her stature exceeded

the ordinary height of women; her appearance itself carried

terror; her aspect was calm and collected, but her voice became

deep and pitiless. Her hair falling in long golden tresses as low

as her hips, was collected round her forehead by a golden

coronet; she wore a tartan dress fitting closely to the bosom,

but below the waist expanding in loose folds as a gown; over it

was a chlamys, or military cloak. In her hand she bore a spear."



Such is the portrait of the majestic Boadicea, as she stood

surrounded by the 120,000 warriors who had responded to her

blazing call for vengeance. To them she delivered an address as

challenging and to be as immortal as the one given by her famous

relative, Caractacus, before the Roman Senate. Dion Cassius

records this address as follows:



"I appeal to thee a woman. I rule not, like Nitocris, over beasts

of burden, as are the effeminate nations of the East, nor like

Semiramis, over tradesmen and traffickers, nor like the manwoman

Nero, over slaves and eunuchs--such is the precious knowledge

these foreigners introduce among us - but I rule over Britons,

little versed in craft and diplomacy, but born and trained in the

game of war, men who, in the cause of liberty stake down their

lives, the lives of their wives and children, their lands and

......



1 Xiphilinus Excerpta, p.176

......





property. Queen of such a race, I implore thine aid for freedom,

for victory over enemies infamous for the wantonness of the

wrongs they inflict, for their perversion of justice, for their

contempt of religion, for their insatiable greed; a people that

revel in unmanly pleasures, whose affections are more to be

dreaded and abhorred than their enmity. Never let a foreigner

bear rule over me or these my countrymen; never let slavery reign

in this island. Be thou forever O goddess of manhood and victory,

sovereign and Queen in Britain."



Having exhorted her followers, the famous Boadicean war

began in A.D.60. Always in the fore, fiercely inspiring her

warriors, Boadicea, with her two daughters riding beside her, led

her armies from one devastating victory to another, the scythes

on the wheels of her war chariot slashing deep into the enemy

lines. Colchester was the first to fall. The Temple, fortified by

Roman veterans, held out two days; then disaster overtook them.

The Ninth Legion, under Petilius Cerealis, was slaughtered at

Coggeshall. Cerealis and a few horesemen were the only ones to

escape. The Roman headquarters at Verulam was burnt to the ground

and its defenders cut to pieces. It seems as though nothing could

stop the furious onslaughts of the British Queen. The Roman

populace fled in terror on news of her armed approach. Tacitus

states that one Roman Legion that dared to stand ground was cut

down to the last man. 1 Her forces had by then swelled to the

enormous number of 230,000, clearly indicating that more than the

two clans were supporting her punitive cause. It can be fairly

assumed that the Silurians, under Arviragus, were participating

in this concerted action, since the field of battle had extended

into their territory. We do know that the powerful Trinobantes,

the warlike clan with whom Julius Caesar signed the Peace Pact of

September 26th, 54 B.C., had cast in their lot with Boadicea.

Tacitus declared that the Silurian state alone had inflicted one

defeat after another upon the Romans. Now with at least four of

the most powerful warrior clans in Britain massed together under

the one standard of baneful vengeance to the number of more than

a quarter of a million, there is no need for wonder why the

Romans were swept ruthlessly before them. Never before had the

British been so deeply wounded and angered by the violation of

their native privileges, their religious institutions and

personal dignity. The desecration charged them with superhuman

determination to

......



1 Tacitus, Annals, 14:32.

......





avenge. Tacitus reports that over 80,000 Roman soldiers perished

in these sanguinary battles, and Catus Decianus, terrified by the

violence of the conflict and the horrible carnage he witnessed,

took flight, escaping into Gaul.



The greatest single carnage followed the attack on London.

At that time it was a populous city, the trade centre in Britain

for international commerce. It was filled with Roman merchants

and was protected by a powerful Roman garrison.

The assault and destruction of the city is one of the most

appalling war records one can read. It was little short of a

massacre and shows how intense was the merciless British fury,

steeped in a hatred so unnatural to the general British

character. Some may consider the quarterless slaughter performed

by the British in the Boadicean campaign as unwarranted and

diametrically opposed to Christian principles. One should

remember, however, that since the Claudian Edict for Christian

extermination, beginning A.D.42, up to and including the

Boadicean war of A.D.60, the people and the land of Britain had

suffered a persecution at the hands of the Romans for eighteen

years which no other nation had experienced. Their towns,

religious institutions, libraries and seats of cultural learning

had been burnt to the ground with a barbaric insolence

unequalled. The defenceless had been massacred. Licentiousness,

pillage and plunder of wealth, crops and cattle had been

conducted unabated in the vicious Roman pledge to crush the

Christian faith and spirit in Britain. People can stand only so

much, then anger gets the better of them, often leading to what

we may term an excess of violence. The British were only paying

the Romans back in their own barbaric coin and unquestionably

they saved Christianity for posterity with the sacrifice of their

lives and property.



Some historians claim that Suetonius Paulinus, Commander-in-

Chief of the Roman forces, terrified at the determined onslaught

on London, fled the scene with a few of his troops. This is

hardly conceivable. The chroniclers report that the battle for

supremacy waged savagely for several days, indicating that the

British encountered organized military resistance. Paulinus

probably made good his escape when he saw the battle was lost,

leaving the destruction of the city, its inhabitants and such

Legionaires that remained to the sword of the pitiless British.

Tacitus states that 40,000 of the Roman defenders of London and

its inhabitants were put to the sword and the city to the torch.

Next, Boadicea levelled the important city of Verulam, now

St. Albans, driving the enemy before her. Such of the inhabitants

of Regnum and Rutupium as could fled before her armies arrived.

It is said that the destruction of lives on both sides was so

great that the burning towns and cities were quenched in blood.

The British Amazon swept westward in an effort to intercept

Paulinus. Dion reports many battles fought with the heavy balance

of disaster borne upon the Romans. The climax to the victorious

Boadicean war ended in a most unpredicable manner at Flintshire,

A.D.62, where the modern town of Newmarket stands. The contesting

armies had met in a savage conflict that was fought from dawn to

darkness, with the battle swaying in favour of one side then the

other. As dusk set in a section of the British army, led by

Boadicea, was separated from the main body. Believing herself

trapped and fearing capture (even though the record states the

British forces had reorganized, preparatory to a final major

assault), rather than fall into the hands of the despoilers and

the rapine she knew would follow, the valorous Queen Boadicea, in

a last gesture of defiance, committed suicide on the field of

battle.



As the tragic news swept through the ranks of both sides, it

is recorded that Briton and Roman alike were stunned with the

calamity of this extraordinary climax. Fighting immediately

ceased with each side withdrawing into their own encampment with

unbidden consent. The death of this great British queen settled

like a pall over all. The woman who had terrified the Romans in

life awed them in death. A great sadness descended upon her

people. And the Romans, quick to seize an opportunity, took

advantage of the situation to come to peace terms with the Iceni.

Under the terms of this new Peace Pact the Romans restored all

the confiscated wealth of the royalty, the nobles and the people.

The stolen estates were returned to the surviving members of the

royal household and to the nobility with all their original

privileges. The treacherous transaction of Seneca was cancelled

and an heavy indemnity was paid to the Iceni.



How truly the Roman historian wrote: "Every peace with the

British was a signature of defeat."



The royal Boadicea, majestic in appearance, rich in

eloquence, dauntless in war, endowed with the military genius

which for two years had outmatched the ablest strategists of

Rome, drove their Legions before her arms like sheep to the

slaughter. The British heroine who preferred death rather than

sacrifice her freedom, a warrior queen with no equal in the

colourful pages of history, the avenger of womanly indignities, a

champion of the Christian faith, was now no more than a glorious

memory.



The Romans wrote that her funeral obsequies were the most

magnificent ever bestowed on a monarch. So lavish in pomp and

assemblage they gazed in wonder on its splendour, awed and

silenced in both shame and fear. Her unhappy death, though

spectacular, was an incomparable sacrifice for the preservation

of the ancient British freedoms for which she stood.



Boadicea's monumental record is immortalized and enshrined

in the magnificent statue erected on Westminster Bridge to her

memory. It is one of the finest statues to be seen anywhere in

the world. Everyone who views it is impressed with its

illustrious majesty. It is created exactly as the ancient Roman

writer, Dion Cassius, described her. She stands erect, spear in

one hand, and with the other hand holding in check the two

rearing chargers, coronet on her brow, with her long hair flowing

to the breeze. Her two daughters are kneeling beside her on the

floor of her war chariot. Her noble features proudly portray the

cast of her fearless character. On the wheels of her chariot are

shown the terrible scythes, which were a deadly, slashing war

weapon peculiar to the British armaments, dreaded by the Romans.

The sculptor who executed the statuary was truly inspired

with the commission. It depicts Christian Britannia on the shores

of England, defying the evil powers of the world.



The scene of battle and its tragedy over the centuries are

commemorated by place names known to this day as 'Cop Paulinus',

'Hill of Arrows', 'Hill of Carnage', 'Hollow of No Quarter',

'Hollow of Woe', 'Hollow of Execution', 'Field of the Tribunal',

'Knoll of the Melee'. On the scene still exists a monolith called

'The Stone of Lamentation', described as the spot where the great

Queen took her life. On the road to Caerwys was 'The Stone of the

Grave of Boadicea', since moved to Downing.



The conflict against the Romans did not cease with her

death. The Roman peace made with the Iceni had no effect on other

British clans. It is written that her tragic death did not abate

the punitive spirit and campaigning determination of the Britons

in the north and the west. Under the invincible leadership of

Arviragus, Venusius, and the gallant new Pendragon, Galgacus, 1

hostilities vigorously continued against the Romans.



To all this calamity Joseph and his missionary co-workers

were sorrowful spectators. But through it all they glimpsed

triumph, strong in their faith that the Cause of Christ was safe

for all time in the embattled Island realm. Greater sacrifice and

heroism was

......



1 Tacitus, Agricola, 30-32.

......





yet to be suffered for Christian welfare but the Flag of Christ

was never to dip to any pagan power.

In Pynson's metrical Life of St. Joseph, the following lines

occur referring to the death of Mary, the Mother of Jesus

"So after Hyr Assumpcyn, the boke telleth playne; With Saynt

Phylyp he went into France. Phylyp bad them go to Great Brytayn

fortunate."

These lines inform us that after the death of Mary Joseph

returned to Gaul with Philip, his dearest friend. The last line

rather implies that Philip was fortunate in prevailing on Joseph

to return to Britain. This would suggest that Joseph, bowed in

sorrow, was loath to part from the man who was so close to him

that he could understand his grief. Knowing that work was the

best antidote for sorrow, Philip urged his friend to return to

his mission in Britain where he was so greatly needed. Not only

was Philip fortunate in persuading Joseph; Britain was fortunate

to receive him back.



ENTER SIMON ZELOTES



It will be noticed that the word 'them' is employed in the

last line. Who were 'them'? The word is plural. The answer is

provided in the Magna Tabula Glastoniae, cited by Bishop Ussher.

Every time Joseph went to Gaul he returned with more missionary

helpers. On this occasion we are told that among them was his son

Josephes, whom Philip had baptized. How long Josephes stayed in

Britain with his father is not stated, but from various records

it is quite evident that the son of Joseph journeyed as an

emissary between Gaul and Britain. Facts show that Josephes

returned to Gaul after arriving in Britain with his father at

Philip's request. Joseph remained in Britain as the head of the

missionary band at Avalon. In the year A.D.60 special mention is

made of Joseph going to Gaul and returning to Britain with

another band of recruits, among whom is particularly mentioned

Simon Zelotes, one of the original twelve disciples of Christ.

This is the second time it is specially mentioned that Philip

consecrated Joseph and his band of coworkers prior to embarking

for Britain. Probably the inclusion of Simon Zelotes indicated an

important missionary effort, hence the consecration. This was the

second journey to Britain for Simon Zelotes and his last.



According to Cardinal Baronius and Hippolytus, Simon's first

arrival in Britain was in the year A.D.44, during the Claudian

war. Evidently his stay was short, as he returned to the

continent.

Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Byzantine

historian, A.D.758-829, writes:



"Simon born in Cana of Galilee who for his fervent affection for

his Master and great zeal that he showed by all means to the

Gospel, was surnamed Zelotes, having received the Holy Ghost from

above, travelled through Egypt, and Africa, then through

Mauretania and all Lybia, preaching the Gospel. And the same

doctrine he taught to the Occidental Sea, and the Isles called

Britanniae." 1



In the Bible Simon is often referred to as Simon the

Canaanite, because he came from Cana. The Hebrew word for

'zealous' has a similar sound to that of the name of his home

town, being 'canna'. The Greek translation of the word is

'Zelotes', the name by which he is best known. His enthusiastic

preaching of the Word earned him his zealous surname.

Simon arrived in Britain during the first year of the

Boadicean war, A.D.60, when the whole Island was convulsed in a

deep, burning anger against the Romans, which was never equalled

before or after in the long years of conflict between the two

nations. Tacitus - states that from A.D.59 to 62 the brutalities

of war were at their worst. Atrocities occurred on both sides but

the Romans carried their vicious perpetrations to such an extent

that even Rome was shocked. Bearing this in mind we can readily

understand that any Christian evangelizing outside the British

shield would be fraught with imminent danger. At all times the

disciples of Christ were oblivious to danger, but when the

pressure became too severe invariably they fled the land until

matters quietened down. In the year A.D.44 a Claudian Edict

expelled the Christian leaders from Rome. Many of them sought

sanctuary in Britain. Among those who fled to Britain from Rome

was Peter. 2 This was the year Simon first went to Britain. He

did not come from Rome but from Gaul, where he had been assisting

Philip. Moreover, Simon was directly associated with the

Arimathean Mission of Avalon on both his missionary efforts in

Britain. As we shall later see it made quite a difference to the

British in their acceptance of him whether the missionary came

from Rome or Jerusalem.

Simon was unusually bold and fearless, as his surname

implies. In spite of the volcanic turmoil seething through

Britain during the Boadicean war, Simon openly defied the

barbaric Edict of Paulinus, and the most brutal Catis Decianus,

to destroy anything and anyone Christian. He decided to conduct

his evangelizing campaign in the eastern part of the Island. This

section of Britain was the most

......



1 See also Dorotheus, Synod de Apostol.

2 Cornelius a Lapide, Argumentus Epistoloe St. Pauli di Romanos,

ch.16.

......





sparsely inhabited by the native Britons and consequently more

heavily populated by the Romans. It was far beyond the strong

protective shield of the Silurian arms in the south and the

powerful northern Yorkshire Celts. In this dangerous territory

Simon was definitely on his own. Undeterred, with infinite

courage, he began preaching the Christian Gospel right in the

heart of the Roman domain. His fiery sermons brought him speedily

to the attention of Catus Decianus, but not before he had sown

the seed of Christ in the hearts of Britons and many Romans who,

despite the unremitting hatred of Decianus for all that was

Christian, held the secret of the truth locked in their hearts.

The evangelizing mission of Simon was short-lived. He was finally

arrested under the orders of Catus Decianus. As usual his trial

was a mockery. He was condemned to death and was crucified by the

Romans at Caistor, Lincolnshire, and there buried, circa May I

oth, A.D.61.



The day of the martyrdom of Simon Zelotes, the devoted

disciple of Christ, is officially celebrated by the eastern and

western church on May 10th and so recorded in the Greek Menology.

Cardinal Baronius, in his Annales Ecclesiastici, gives the same

date in describing the martyrdom and burial of Simon Zelotes in

Britain.



Of Simon Zelotes, Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, A.D.300, writes

in his work "Synopsis de. Apostol":



"Simon Zelotes traversed all Mauretania, and the region of the

Africans, preaching Christ. He was at last crucified, slain and

buried in Britain."



There are some who think because Simon Zelotes perished in

Britain he must have been slain by the British. This could not be

at all possible. Only the Romans practised crucifixion. In the

first place this form of death was reserved as a gesture of

contempt in executing their meanest criminals. During the

Christian era it was more viciously employed on the Christians in

defiant mockery of all the Cross stood for to all Christians. To

the British, and indeed to all Christians, crucifixion was a

profanity of the Cross. The historic record leaves no doubt as to

who crucified Simon Zelotes.

Some also entertain the belief that Simon Zelotes was the

first British Christian martyr. Of the elect, he was the second

British martyr. Aristobulus, brother of Barnabas and

father-in-law of Peter, was the first to be martyred in Britain.

Aristobulus preceded Simon to his reward at what is now St.

Albans by a couple of years. The record states he was martyred

"in the second year of Nero". This would be circa A.D.59.



Unknown to many, the remains of Simon Zelotes, with many

more of the saintly elect, are buried in England, creating the

saying uttered the world over, "Britain, the most hallowed ground

on earth."



The year before the Boadicean war and the two years of its

existence, admitted by Rome to be marked with unparalleled

horror, are the darkest, most bloodstained years in British

history through Roman infamy. Yet they are epic years in British

Christian annals, resplendent with noble sacrifice and heroic

deeds, outmatching the terror and stark tragedy those years

contained. To this notable period the martyrdom of Simon Zelotes

added lustre in his last devotional act in serving his Master,

with whom he first walked on the shores of Galilee.

Nearby where this noble martyr perished was the ancestral

home of Abraham Lincoln, the great American Christian President.

His ancestors migrated from England in the first waves of English

colonists to settle in Virginia. The church in which Lincoln

worshipped was made an American sanctuary by patriotic,

Christian-minded American soldiers of World War II. They made

various beautiful contributions to this ancient little church at

Boston, Lincolnshire, to the memory of the family, particularly

to their illustrious American descendant.



Eighteen hundred years after the martyrdom of Simon Zelotes,

in the land of the Lincolns, in America, Abraham Lincoln became a

martyr for his humane Christian principles, the same principles

which Simon Zelotes taught, for which he was crucified and gave

his all in the glorious service of his beloved Jesus.

..........



NOTE:



ONCE MORE WE SEE TRUE HISTORY AS THE RECORDS PRESERVE

IT IN THE WRITINGS OF ROMAN HISTORIANS AND OTHERS.



MORE AND MORE TODAY THE FACTS OF TRUE HISTORY ARE BEING

ADMITTED AND EVEN MOVIES ARE BEING MADE TO PROTRAY THE

HISTORY THAT HAS BEEN HIDDEN FROM VIEW FOR FAR TOO LONG

A TIME.



OF COURSE THE BRITISH HAVE KNOWN THE TRUE HISTORY OF

THE ROMANS AND QUEEN BOADICEA, AS THERE IS THAT

WONDERFUL STATUTE IN HER HONOR IN LONDON TO THIS VERY

DAY.



Keith Hunt



To be continued with "The Glorious Cavalcade"