Lucius (Welsh: Lles map Coel, Lleirwg, Lleufer or Lleufer Mawr) was a supposed 2nd-century king of the Britons traditionally credited with introducing Christianity into Britain. Lucius is first mentioned in a 6th-century version of the Liber Pontificalis, which says that he sent a letter to Pope Eleutherius asking to be made a Christian. The story became widespread after it was repeated in the 8th century by Bede, who added the detail that after Eleutherius granted Lucius' request, the Britons followed their king in conversion and maintained the Christian faith until the Diocletianic Persecution of 303. Later writers expanded the story, giving accounts of missionary activity under Lucius and attributing to him the foundation of certain churches. First mention: Papal Catalogues The first mention of Lucius is in a list of popes, with additional biographical notes, written in 532 AD and called the Catalogus Felicianus. In regards to King Lucius it says; (Pope Eleutherius) ..received a letter from Lucius, King of Britain, asking him to appoint a way by which Lucius might become a christian. The Catalogus Felicianus is an update of earlier lists. The first known version, (and probably based on a still earlier catalogue) the Liber Generationis (235 AD) is completely lost and so we don't know what it says about Lucius. Copies of the second version, the Liberian Catalogue, contained within the Chronograph (354 AD) are in circulation, but the key period covering Lucius and Pope Eleutherus (174-189 AD), which occurs between Pope Soter (166-174) and Pope Victor (189-199) is frustratingly incomplete and mentions neither person. So we don't know if Lucius was in the earlier versions, or whether he was a later invention. "Soter 9 years...... ....... ....... 3 months, 2 days. He was in the times of Antoninus and Commodus, from the consulate of Verus and Herenianus [171] to that of Paternus and Bradua [185]. Victor 9 years, 2 months 10 days. He was in the time...... Academic debates Because there is no other contemporary evidence for a British King Lucius, either in the writings of antiquity or in subsequently discovered artefacts (e.g. coins or inscriptions), academics question if he really existed. In 1868 Arthur West Haddan and William Stubbs suggested that it might have been pious fiction invented to support the efforts of missionaries in Britain in the time of Saint Patrick and Palladius. Since the early twentieth century most scholars have believed that his