That Arthur was a patriot, a defender of the soil against foreign invaders, is sufficiently obvious. That he was also a Christian must be believed. Christianity reached Cornwall before St. Augustine preached in Kent: Britain probably received some sprinkling of Christianity during the Roman occupation, though we cannot suppose that much of this religion penetrated from London to Cornwall. The western extremity of the island was much associated with Ireland, and we have reason to believe that as early as the fifth century the creed of St. Patrick was brought to Cornwall, which thus became one of the earliest places in Britain to receive the Christian religion. It is worth observing that the ancient Cornish crosses, of which there are so many, generally present the Greek cross rather than the Latin, and would appear to belong to the Eastern rather than the Western Church. The oldest of these crosses are supposed to date back to the sixth century. It is more than probable that a Cornish chieftain at this period would have been a Christian, and possible that Arthur himself may have knelt before some of the crosses which still exist.
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Footnotes:
[1] I have to thank the Rev. S. Baring-Gould for supplying me with these particulars, which are to be found in the Report of the Launceston Meeting of the Cambrian Archæological Society, Archæologia Cambrensis, No. 51, fifth series, July 1896. This relic is preserved in the royal collection at Osborne, and is described and figured in the Archæological Journal, vol. xxiv. p. 189. The vessel is represented as in excellent preservation and of artistic design. It is of hammered gold, and is supposed to be of Scandinavian workmanship.
[2] See The Four Ancient Books of Wales, by W. F. Skene, 1868; also an essay on Arthurian localities, by J. S. Stuart Glennie, Merlin, part iii., published by the Early English Text Society, 1869.
[3] History of Britain, by John Milton.
[4] I need not refer to La Morte d’Arthur, a work of which Roger Ascham disapproves as encouraging manslaughter and incontinence: ‘yet I know,’ says Roger, ‘when God’s Bible was banished the Court, and La Morte d’Arthur received into the prince’s Chamber.’
[5] Skene’s Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. ii. p. 457.