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.
Kerby (Ipswich martyr) Kerby (Ipswich martyr) Kerby (d. Ipswich, 1546), whose Christian name is not known, was a man condemned by the Justices and executed by burning at the stake in Ipswich, Suffolk, for his Protestant beliefs, along with Roger Clarke. He is numbered among the Ipswich Martyrs. He died for denying the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation of the Host. This was the first recorded execution by burning in Ipswich for such a cause, but was followed by several others over the ensuing twelve years, so that by the death of Queen Mary in 1558 there are said to have been seventy-seven