History of the Church of England are known to have been present at the Council of Arles (314). Others attended the Council of Serdica in 347 and that of Ariminum in 360. A number of references to the church in Roman Britain are also found in the writings of 4th century Christian fathers. Britain was the home of Pelagius, who opposed Augustine of Hippo's doctrine of original sin. The first recorded Christian martyr in Britain, St Alban, is thought to have lived in the early 4th century, and his prominence in English hagiography is reflected in the number of parish churches of which he is patron.
Henry Abbot (martyr) The first three were beatified on 22 November 1987 by Pope John Paul II. Abbot was declared a martyr and pronounced Venerable by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. He was beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI as part of a group of 137 citizens of England and Wales who met that same fate. Henry Abbot (martyr) Henry Abbot (died 4 July 1597) was an English layman, himself a convert from the Church of England, who was executed at York for the alleged attempt to convert someone to the Catholic Church, which had been declared an act of treason under