Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable, and perfect. Romans 12-2. This is resistance and reformation on the fight-blavic feast of work. Julius Caesar, dictator of the Old Roman Republic, was assassinated on the Iads of March in 44 BC. His death, triggered a long and bitter civil war across the entire Mediterranean world, but at the end of the struggle, Caesar's great nephew Octavian Augustus rested control and established the Imperium which would endure in one form or another for nearly a millennium and a half. His adopted son, Tiberius would succeed him and reign from 14 to 37 AD. He would be followed by his great nephew, Caligula, who ruled for four years. Then in 41 AD, another nephew, Claudius, came to the Imperial throne. He would rule for a decade and a half, and it was during his reign that Roman troops would return to Britain for the first time since Caesar, this time to conquer, garrison, and colonize. Aside from a brief legendary but ill-fated rebellion in 60 AD, led by a Celtic queen, Bodaeica, the clans and tribes of the British lands accommodated themselves to Roman rule. Large and prosperous towns were established, including London or Londonian and York. The Romans brought peace and security to the land. They built roads and aqueducts, they unified the language, established standards of justice, opened up trade with the rest of the Empire, and secured the borders against marauding brigands and migrating barbarians. The new settlers brought with them Roman society and culture. They also brought Roman religion, and as had been the case when the cultists of Greece was melded into realms, the nativist superstitions and rituals were quickly absorbed into the imperial paganism. Britain drew its, adapted themselves into Roman shamanism. The feast festivals and sacrifices were infolded together, in other words, the pattern of pagan eclecticism, so common across the world of antiquity, was merely replicated in the British Isles. But of course, it was not long before Christians were numbered among the Roman troops and pioneers who came into the new colonial settlements, just adjacent to Tower Hill in London, where Roman troops were garrisoned, starting early in the second century, sits the Church of All Hallows. In the crypt of the Church remains of a second century Roman roadways, as well as mosaics and pilasters, are on display to this day remnants of an early church building on that site have been dated as early as the third or fourth century. Now we know very little for certain about these early days of Christian influence and impact, but a few stories have survived the centuries. Albin of Varellium is widely venerated as the first Christian martyr in Britain. During the last few decades of the third century, he offered refuge to those fleeing the officially sanctioned persecution of the Church. He suckered the sick, cared for the poor, and saved the abandoned children from certain death. He had been converted during a trading expedition to the imperial province of Gaul, now France, and brought the message of the Gospel to his home village on the Tim's River just downstream from the Roman citadel city of Londonium. Venerable bead, the historian some four centuries later, recorded Albin's brutal martyrdom on Holmhurst Hill on February the 10th, 288, after he tried to intercede on behalf of a pitiful family of refugees, an enraged centurion, senselessly hacked at him with his sword and staff until he perished. In the days following his death, however, his sacrificial concern for the needy became a model for the early Christian Church in England, and he became a patron of British Christianity ever after. In addition, his martyrdom not only failed to staunch the growth of the fledgling church, it actually accelerated it. Believers suffered both fierce persecution and enforced obscurity. They were beaten, ridiculed, defraught, and defamed. They suffered poverty, isolation, betrayal, and disgrace. The heroes of the faith were those who sacrificed their lives, fortunes, and reputations for the sake of the Gospel. Indeed, persecution and martyrdom were among the church's highest callings and greatest honors. This was as true on the fringes of the empire in places like Britain as it was in the heart of the empire. The early Christian apologists, Quintus, Septimus, Florence, Tertullian, famously asserted, the first reaction to truth is hatred. Nevertheless, hope is patience with the lamp lit. Therefore, the more you mo us down, the more numerous we become. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Believers were often forced to stand contra-mundum against the world, but paradoxically, by so standing, the Gospel spread all the more. This is the secret power that in liveans and emboldens both resistance and reformation. I'm George Grant on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network. For more information and for resources, go to GeorgeGrant.net.