Historiae Cantebrigiensis Academiae ab urbe condita, liber primus [-secundus]

in the kingdom of the Mercians, died at Rome and was buried in the temple of the blessed Mary, which was called the School of the English at that time. But that letters were cultivated in Britain during those times of Caesar, although Cicero, in an Epistle to Trebatius and also sometimes to Atticus, seems to contradict the place, must be explained. For if I do not provide proof of this matter, it might perhaps be a cause for wonder that the Britons, divided as they were from the whole world, a race once rough and uncultivated during those times, and one that was shaggy, and shaved over the rest of the body except for the mustache (as the Italians speak), with their bodies infected with glastum woad so that they might appear more horrific in battle, clothed in skins, living on meat and milk, completely unknown to our world (except to their neighbors) until the times of Caesar, were so cultivated in those letters that Caesar would remove Britons to Rome, which was then flourishing in every kind of literature, for the sake of letters. However, not only do our writers state that there were letters in Britain, but foreigners also report it. For our writers say that letters were cultivated in Britain even during the times of the Druids and the flamines priests, and they report that they were professors of the disciplines long before Caesar's times. Caesar himself confirms this, who writes in the 6th book of his Commentaries on the Gallic War that it is thought the discipline was discovered in Britain and transferred from there to Gaul, and in his own time, the Gauls, who wanted to know it more diligently, for the most part went there, that is, into Britain, for the sake of learning. He also proposes their immunities and the method of their studies. For when he had previously shown in what honor the Druids were held among all, and how great a multitude of adolescents had flocked to them for the sake of the discipline, he adds: "The Druids are accustomed to be absent from war, nor do they pay taxes with the others; they have exemption from military service and immunity from all things." Excited by such great rewards, many of their own accord...

On the antiquity of good letters in Britain.