litstortrai ^Papers.
AtQ 11

EDITED BY THE REV. SYDNEY F. SMITH, S.J.

No. XXIV.

THE LANDING OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

BY THE REV. SYDNEY F. SMITH, S.J,

LONDON :

CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY,

21 Westminster Bridge Road, S.E.

Depots : 245 Brompton Road, S.W.; 22
Paternoster

Row, E.C.

Price One Penny.



HISTORICAL PAPERS.
EDITED BY THE REV. JOHN MORRIS, S.J.

1. The Spanish Inquisition. By the Rev. S. F. Smith, S.J. id.

2 . The False Decretals. By the Rev. R. F. Clarke, S.J. id.

3. Cranmerand Anne Boleyn. By the Rev. J. Stevenson, S. J. 2d.

4. The Pallium. By the Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J. 2d.

5. The Immuring of Nuns. By the Rev. H. Thurston, S.J. id.

6. The Huguenots. By the Rev. William Loughnan, S.J. id.

7. How ‘‘the Church of England washed her Face.” By
the Rev. Sydney F. Smith, S.J. id.

8. St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572. By the Rev. William

Loughnan, S.J. id.

<J.
The Rood of Boxley, or How a Lie Grows. By the
Rev. T. E. Bridgett, C.SS.R. 3d.

10. The First Experiment in Civil and Religious Liberty.
By James Carmont. id.

11. Was St. Aidan an Anglican? By the Rev. Sydney F.
Smith, S.J. id.

12. The Gordon Riots. By Lionel Johnson, B.A. id.

13. The Great Schism of the West. By the Rev. Sydney F.
Smith, S.J. 2d.

14. Rome’s Witness against Anglican Orders. By the Rev.

Sydney F. Smith, S.J. 2d.

EDITED BY THE REV. SYDNEY F. SMITH, S.J.

15. The Book of Common Prayer and the Mass. By the
Rev. R. C. Laing. id.

16. Religious Instruction in England during the Fourteenth

and Fifteenth Centuries. By Dom Francis Aidan Gasquet,
O.S.B. 2d.

17. England’s Title: Our Lady’s Dowry: Its History and

Meaning. By the Rev. T. E. Bridgett, C.SS.R. id.

18. Dr. Littledale’s Theory of the Disappearance of the

Papacy. By the Rev. Sydney F. Smith, S.J. 2d.

19. Dean Farrar on the Observance of Good Friday. By

the Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J. id.

20. Savonarola and the Reformation. By the Very Rev. J.
Procter, O.P. 3d.

21. Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln. By Mgr. W.

Croke Robinson. 2d.

The above bound in four volumes , cloth , is. each .

22. The English Coronation Oath. By the Rev. T. E.
Bridgett, C.SS.R. 2d.

23. Blessed Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland. (With
Portrait.

)
By the Rev. G. E. Phillips. 3d.

Catholic Truth Society, 21 Westminster Bridge Road, S.E.



Cbe Xanfcmo of St. Hugusttne,

BY THE REV. SYDNEY F. SMITH, S.J.

The thirteen hundredth anniversary of the landing

of St. Augustine falls in the present year (1897), and

preparations for celebrating it with due honour are

in the course of making. It is fitting, therefore, that

the Historical Series should contribute its quota

towards interesting the Catholics of England in so

impressive an occasion.

The work of St. Augustine, it must always be

remembered, was not the introduction of Christianity

into the country now called England, but its intro-

duction among the English people. There was a

previous British race of inhabitants of the land, the

predecessors of the present Welsh, Cornish, and Breton

populations. It was they whom the Romans con-

quered, and to them the Christian religion had been

announced long before. What the first origins of

British Christianity were cannot now be ascertained

with certainty, although there is abundance of

evidence to show that they had been reclaimed from

heathenism several centuries before the coming of

St. Augustine. But about the middle of the fifth

century the Anglian tribes, which had for long

previously been a constant terror, commenced their

more systematic invasions, and from that time on-

wards for more than a hundred years the land was

delivered over to the horrors of a most barbarous

war, which ended apparently only by practically

24

WwBwIulJiA"



2 The Landing of St. Augustine .

clearing the country of its British occupants, vast

numbers of them being cruelly massacred, and the

remainder betaking themselves westwards to the

territories of their present occupation.

Gildas, a writer of the next century, has left us an

account of these terrible times, distinct, not indeed

in any record of definite facts, but in its portrayal

of the general character of what was then happening..

Canon Bright has condensed this almost contem-

porary description in a graphic summary, from which

we may avail ourselves of a small portion.

The blow was struck, at intervals through a century, by

invaders as ferocious as they were energetic, of whom a.
contemporary Gallic Bishop says that the Saxon pirates,

were “the most truculent of all enemies,” and that they

made it a point of religion “to torture their captives

rather than to put them to ransom,” and to sacrifice the

tenth part of them to their gods. The idolatry which had

its centre in the worship of Woden and of Thunor was sure

to render its votaries doubly terrible to a Christian popu-

lation. Hence it is that we have to read of devastations

which Gildas cannot relate without being reminded of the

Psalms of the captivity. In his declamatory verbiage we

see, clearly enough, a grim picture of flashing swords and

crackling flames, of ruined walls, fallen towers, altars

shattered, priests and Bishops and people slain “ in the

midst of the streets,” and corpses clotted with blood and

left without burial; of the “miserable remnant” slaughtered

in the mountains, or selling themselves as slaves to the

invader, or flying beyond the sea, or finding a precarious

shelter in the forests .
1

In this way the land became once more a pagan

land, for its former altars were all either thrown down

or converted into pagan temples, and its new

1 Early English Church History
, pp. 22, 23.



The Landing of St. Augustine. o

occupants were not only pagans, but the bitterest

enemies of the Christian name. That such a people,

almost before the blood of their British foes had dried

upon their swords, should bow the neck in willing

obedience beneath the Christian yoke, and that, before

another half-century was over, their country should

become a home of faith and a nursery of sanctity,

exciting the admiration of the entire Christian world,

was nothing less than a miracle of grace, and we

may well ask how it was wrought.

Three men stand out among the rest as the

chosen instruments which God employed in laying

the foundations of English faith—Gregory, Augustine,
Ethelbert

;
but of these three St. Gregory is the one

whose personality, in the records left behind, is by

far the most distinct. Indeed, of all the Popes there

is perhaps no single one who has portrayed himself

so much to the life as he has done in his multi-

tudinous letters. These letters reveal him to us as

a man of vast energy and enterprise, a born ruler,

whose eye was attentive to every quarter of his

world-wide jurisdiction, and who knew well how to

watch over its varied spiritual interests. But they

reveal him to us also—and this is what was so
distinctive in him—as a man of the largest and
tenderest heart. His was just the kind of heart

which the spectacle of the British boys in the Roman

slave-market, viewed doubtless with unconcern by the

many, could not fail to stir deeply, leaving on it an

abiding impression. The story has been often told,

but this account would be incomplete without it.

Let it be told therefore in the words of its earliest

relator, Venerable Bede.



4 The Landing of St. Augustine .

It is said that, on a certain day, when, in consequence

of the recent arrival of some merchants, a great store of

things were offered for sale in the forum, and large numbers

had gathered there to buy, Gregory himself came amongst

the rest, and perceived amongst the goods for sale some

boys, noticeable by their white skins, fair countenances,

and the beauty of their (flaxen) hair. Gazing on them he

asked, so it is said, from what land or region they had been

brought, and he was told that they were from the island of

Britain, where the inhabitants were all of this type. Again

he asked if these islanders were Christians, or still infected

with the errors of paganism. It was answered that they

were pagans. Then, drawing a long sigh, he exclaimed :

“ Alas ! that the author of darkness should possess men

with such bright faces, and that such grace of front should

bear within minds destitute of internal grace.” Again he

asked for the name of this people, and was told that they

were called Anglians. “It is well,” he rejoined, “for they

have the face of angels, and it behoves such as they to be

the co-heirs of angels in Heaven. What is the name of the

province from which they come?” “ The people of their

province,” was the answer, “ are called Deirians.” “ That

too is well,” he said
—

“Deirians, snatched from the ire of

God (de ira Dei) and called to the mercy of Christ. And

how is the King of that province named?” He was told
that he was named Ella, and, playing upon the word, he

exclaimed, “Alleluia
(
Ella-luia

),
for the praise of God our

Creator must be sung in those parts.”

This event may possibly have happened before

578, when Gregory was sent to Constantinople as

Apocrisiarius
,
or Papal representative at the Imperial

Court, but most probably it happened after his return,

and therefore between 583 and 588, this latter being

the recorded date of the death of Ella of Deira.

Gregory was at the time Abbot of the Monastery

of St. Andrew, on the Coelian Hill, a monastery

which he had formed out of his own family palace,

for he was of senatorial rank. His first impulse,



The Landing of St. Augustine. 5

after seeing the English boys in the market-place,

was to petition the reigning Pope (who, if the incident

was after 583, must have been Pelagius II.), that he

might himself be sent to the distant island. Pelagius

acceded to his pressing desire, and he took his

departure at once, but with the utmost secrecy,

fearing lest that should happen which did, in spite

of his precautions, thwart his purpose for the time.

The Romans were indignant at the loss of one in

whom so many hopes were reposed, and they con-

strained the Pope to have the fugitive brought back.

Shortly afterwards (in 590) Gregory himself

succeeded to the Pontificate, and we may be sure

that even from the first he was mindful of his

cherished purpose. Yet it was not till about 595 that

he found himself able to select a little band of

Benedictine monks, whom he took from his own

Monastery of St. Andrew, and despatched on the

mission which he would have gladly undertaken

himself. A sufficient explanation of this delay might
be sought in the disturbed state of civil and ecclesi-

astical affairs nearer home, but Gregory may also

have been waiting for an opportune moment, which,

until 595, did not offer itself. Ethelfrid, the “Devas-

tator/’ as Nennius calls him, the fierce invader who,

some twelve years later, defeated and massacred the

Britons at Bangor Iscoed, was then reigning in the

northern district, from which the Anglian boys had

been taken. Whilst he lived, the hopes of a successful

apostolate in those parts might well have seemed

poor, but in the Jute kingdom of Cantia, or Kent, a

spontaneous desire to learn something of the religion

of Jesus Christ had been felt, and apparently an



6 The Landing of St. Augustine.

application had been made to the neighbouring

priests either of Gaul or of the Britons, and the

knowledge of it reached the ears of Gregory. Tt is

possible he may have learnt it from St. Gregory of

Tours, who, if we can trust his non-contemporary

biographer, visited his Roman namesake about this

time. This Saint was well acquainted with Queen

Bertha’s mother, and may have been the instructor

of her own youth. But in any case Pope Gregory

did learn the good news, for he tells us so himself

in his letter to the Frankish Queen Brunehild, and

likewise, in almost the same terms, in his letters

to the boy Kings of Burgundy and Austrasia. To

Queen Brunehild he writes: “We make known to

you the news which has reached Us, that the English

race, by the permission of God, desires to become

Christian, but that the priests who are their neigh-

bours show no solicitude for them.” It is not

difficult to infer what had happened. Ethelbert had

married a Frankish Princess, Queen Bertha, who,

herself a Christian, had taken with her as chaplain

a Bishop named Luidhard, and probably also some

Christian attendants. The request for aid doubtless

proceeded from these two, supported by some, few

or more, whom they had succeeded in winning over

to a desire to know more of a religion which so

edified them in its adherents. To the pre-existence

of this desire to hear we may ascribe much of the

ease with which the missionaries gained their entrance

into the country.

The man whom Gregory chose to be the leader of

his missionary band was the Prior of his Monastery

of St. Andrew’s. Augustine’s personality is not, as



The Landing of St. Augustine. 7

has been acknowledged, very distinctly portrayed to

us in the records which have been preserved to us,

and the same must be said of St. Ethelbert. But this

is very different from saying that there was no strong

personality in them. No one indeed has supposed

otherwise of St. Ethelbert, who could hardly have

attained to the overlordship of the island unless he

had possessed a considerable force of character. The

same argument is obviously applicable to St. Augus-

tine, whom, however, in their reluctance to recognize

anything good in an “ Italian emissary,” Anglican

writers are never tired of running down. Thus the

late Mr. Haddan, in a passage the unfairness of which

is a serious blot on his otherwise high reputation as

an historian, permits himself to write thus : 1

If any man ever had greatness thrust upon him, with

which, Malvolio-like, he did not know how to deal, that

man was Augustine of Canterbury. The Pope and his

missionary remind us of nothing more forcibly than of

some Arnold or Moberly trying by mingled rebukes,

advice, and warning, to get a timid and awkward boy to act

his part properly in the semi-independent sphere of prefect

or monitor. “ Scarcely able to tear himself from the side of

the truly great man on whom he leaned—shrinking back
from exaggerated difficulties the moment he found himself

alone—delaying on the threshold of his enterprise an un-
reasonable time, yet strangely ignorant, at the end of this

delay, of the true position of the Celtic Churches
,

2 already

in the land to which he was sent, and still needing inter-

preters to enable him to preach to his future flock—asking
with solemnity the simplest of questions, such as a novice

might have settled without troubling the Pope, a thousand

miles off, about the matter 3—catching too readily at
1 Remains, p. 42.
2

It is rather Mr. Haddan who was ignorant of it.
3 What St. Augustine sought was not so much information, as

authority to act.



8 The Landing of St. Augustine.

immediate and worldly aids to success 1—ignoring altogether
the pioneers whom he found at work before him 2—and
sensitively proud and unconciliatory towards supposed

rivals
3-—Augustine has one claim to our respect, that of a

blameless and self-denying Christian life.”

Mr. Haddan continues in the same unwarrantable

strain, for which Canon Bright does well to condemn

him. He forgets that had St. Augustine been such as

he imagines, he could never have achieved so striking

a success or have acquired the reputation which he

bore among his contemporaries, who handed it down

to future ages.

St. Augustine and his companions started on their

journey somewhere about the opening of 596, and

soon got as far as Provence. Here, however, they

heard a description of the character of those to

whom they were sent which filled them with conster-

nation. “ Smitten with a sluggish fear [says Bede],

they bethought themselves of returning home instead

of approaching a barbarous, cruel, and unbelieving

race, whose language even they did not know.” They

were not slow in determining to beg for a release

from their charge, and sent back Augustine, their

leader, to seek it of the Pope. But Gregory was not

prepared thus at the very outset to forego the execu-

tion of his purpose, and he knew how to communicate

his own burning zeal to his disciple. Augustine

returned to Provence with a revived courage, which

1
It was only common sense to avail himself of Ethelbert’s influence

with his subjects, and Bede tells us that the missionaries had exhorted

the King to be careful not to force them into embracing Christianity.
3 Bishop Luidhard, to whom this criticism refers, may have been

dead for aught we know.
3 That is, the British Bishops, but here also Mr. Haddan is drawing

from his imagination, not from the facts.



The Landing of St. Augustine. 9

he was able in his turn to communicate to his com-

panions. In this he was powerfully aided by the letter

which he bore with him :

It were better (wrote St. Gregory) not to enter upon

good deeds than to turn back from them when begun. Let

not then the fatigue of the journey, nor the tongues of evil-

speaking men affright you
;
but with all earnestness and

fervour continue, under the Divine directions, what you

have begun, knowing that if the labour is great the glory of

the eternal reward will be greater still. . . . May the

Almighty God protect you by His grace, and permit me to

see the fruit of your labours in our everlasting country

;

so that, as I cannot toil with you, I may at least share with

you the joy of the reward, for I do indeed wish that I could

share the toil. God keep you safe, most dear sons.

We have seen how an arm-chair critic can make
light of the dangers which struck a momentary terror

into the hearts of the missionaries. If, however, we

bear in mind what Gildas has told us of the ferocity

of the Saxon tribes, and the way in which they had

raged against the British priests and their altars
;

if

we reflect also how exactly it resembled that of the

various barbarian races which had overrun and devas-

tated the southern regions through which the mis-

sionaries were then passing, we can realize how fearful

must have seemed the prospect before them, and how

calculated to make even stout hearts quail. We ought
also never to forget that what has enabled the Chris-

tian heroes of all time to surmount obstacles terrible

to flesh and blood, is not mere natural courage, but

the strength from on high which is often best “ per-

fected in weakness.” It was in this strength that the

apostles of England picked up their courage once

more and resumed their journey.

24
*



io The Landing of St. Augustine.

It was in the summer of 596 that they made their

second start, for the letter from St. Gregory just

quoted is dated July 23, 596. It was necessary,

however, to winter in Gaul, where they had letters to

deliver to the princes and prelates whose aid would

be of value, and thus their arrival in England was not

till the spring of 597. Bede’s account of the landing

places it in the Isle of Thanet : “ On the east coast of

Kent there is an island called Thanet, of consider-

able size, containing, according to the customary

computation of the English, six hundred families
;

it

is separated from the mainland by the Wantsum, a

river some third of a mile broad, which is fordable

only in two places, for it has two outlets into the

sea. At this spot landed the servant of the Lord,

Augustine.” It is well to have a distinct idea of the

place, where, according to a very probable theory,

the landing took place. The River Stour, rising near

Ashford, and flowing through Canterbury, eventually

passes under Richborough Castle and by the outskirts

of Sandwich, in the neighbourhood of which town it

discharges its waters into Pegwell Bay. In old times

it had also an outlet dividing off a few miles to the

west of Minster, and running northwards into the sea

just to the east of Reculvers. This second outlet,

which together with the first makes Thanet into an

island, is now represented only by a small brook,

but in former days the two outlets broadened into a

wide channel called the Wantsum. Richborough and

Reculvers were the two Roman fortresses guarding

its southern and northern entrances. On the Thanet

side of the channel, a little to the east of Minster, is

a farm on somewhat higher ground than the sur-



The Landing of St. Augustine

.

n

rounding marsh, which is still called Ebbs Fleet

Farm. In the days of St. Augustine it must have

been the end of a low promontory, forming on its

western side a small cove. It is here that, according

to the most accepted theory, Augustine and his party

landed . 1

Having landed, the missionaries at once sent

messengers to King Ethelbert, to announce that

they “ had come from Rome, and had brought good

news, which offered to all who would listen an

assurance of eternal joys in Heaven and a kingdom

without end in fellowship with God, the Living

and the True.” The answer was that for the time

being “ they should remain where they were in the

island, and that all their needs should be supplied

until he could resolve what he should do with them.”

This further resolution was not long delayed. “ After

some days [says Bede] the King came over to the

island, and taking his seat in the open air, bade

Augustine and his companions to come there to meet

him.” He chose the open air, in the superstitious

belief that, if the visitors were intending to practise

upon him by magic arts, their intentions might by

this means be frustrated. Presently they came, as

Bede beautifully puts it, “ trusting not in the power of

evil spirits, but in the power of God, carrying a silver

cross as their standard, and a picture of our Lord and

Saviour painted on a wooden tablet, whilst they sang

1 Thorne, however, a Canterbury chronicler of the fourteenth

century, tells us the landing was at Richborough itself, which he

speaks of as
4

4

in Thanet
;

”
telling us that the spot was yearly visited

by pilgrims on St. Augustine’s feast. To this, as the Canterbury

tradition, some weight must attach, though it is not so easy to see

how Richborough could have been in Thanet.



12 The Landing of St. Augustine.

processional litanies, supplicating God for the salva-

tion both of themselves and of those for whom and to

whom they had come.” Bede does not mention it,

but a later writer, on the faith of an account profes-

sing to come from an old man whose grandfather had

been baptized by the Saint, tells us that he was a

man of tall stature, towering head and shoulders

over the people. The same account also speaks of

the impression made by his mild and reverend

countenance. We can understand, then, how lively
an impression was made upon Ethelbert and his

attendants by the solemn and heart-elevating spec-

tacle. Ethelbert was a prudent man, however, and

wished to yield only to the conviction which is born

of careful consideration. “Your words are fair,” he

said, “and so too are the promises you announce;

but they are new and uncertain, and l cannot there-

fore assent to them to the abandonment of the

beliefs which I and all the English have held for

so long.” He added that he well understood the

kind intentions which had brought them from so

far, and that he would see therefore to their hospi-

table entertainment, and would be glad to let them

receive into their Church all whom they could

convert.

The scene of this interesting meeting, perhaps

the most interesting that has ever taken place on

English soil, cannot be identified with absolute

certainty. If the landing was at Richborough, the

meeting must have been there too. If it was, as we

have supposed, at Ebbs Fleet, there is high probability

to recommend the spot where the late Lord Granville

recently erected a memorial cross, This is in a field



The Landing of Si. Augustine. 13

not half a mile north-east of Ebbs Fleet Farm, and

just in front of the Cliff End Farm. By one walking

from Minster to Ramsgate by the lower road, it will

be found on his right hand, just after he has passed

under the railway-arch, and it is quite close to the

line, so as to be easily visible from the train. In

the days of St. Augustine it must have been just at

the water’s edge, and therefore quite where we should

expect such an interview to have taken place. The

field seems formerly to have been named Cotmanfeld

(“ Field of the Man of God ”), a name which in part

survives in that of the neighbouring farm, which is

called Cottington.

Quickly after the meeting at Ebbs Fleet the

missionaries responded to the royal invitation, and

took their departure for Canterbury. They must

have gone along the old Roman road, which started

from near Richborough, and have thus approached

the royal city from the hill on which still stands

St. Martin’s Church. There were as yet none of

the later glories of the city for their eyes to admire,

but they saw it before them as the city which the

Divine will had confided to their zeal, and, lifting up

the emblem of salvation once more, they entered it

with a chanted prayer, to the efficacy of which its later

glories may surely in large measure be attributed :

“We beseech Thee, O Lord, in Thy mercy to take
away Thy wrath and Thine indignation from this

city and from Thy holy house, for we have sinned.

Alleluia.”

The .little Church of St. Martin just mentioned is

a still more interesting topographical link between

us and our first Apostle than the place of his confer-



14 The Landing of Si. Augustine

.

ence on the sea-shore. How far the present structure

can be referred to the Roman period, and so be

identified with the building which St. Augustine

found standing, is a point which has been much

disputed. But there can be no doubt, especially

after the quite recent discovery of a Roman arch and

window in the west wall, that some portions go back

as far. With what feelings then must we ever regard

the venerable little church when we read in the pages

of Bede a passage like the following :

Near the city (of Canterbury), on its eastern side, was a

church dedicated to St. Martin, which had been built long

before, whilst the Romans still occupied Britain, and in

which the Queen, who, as we have said, was a Christian,

was accustomed to pray. It was in this church that they

too (Augustine and his companions) began in the first

instance to meet together, to sing, to pray, to say Masses,

to preach, and to baptize
;

until, after the conversion of the

King, a fuller liberty was allowed them to preach every-

where, and build or restore churches.

The happy event alluded to in this last clause

followed soon upon the arrival of the missionaries,

for Bede himself assigns it to the same year,1 and the

Canterbury tradition says he was baptized on Whit

Sunday (June ist).

The scope of this paper is confined to the landing

of St. Augustine
;
nor is it necessary to repeat the

well-known story of the rapid spread of the true faith

throughout the Kentish kingdom. The foundations

though speedily were solidly laid, and so when, in the

next reign, the temporary apostacy of the Sovereign

caused the falling off of many of his subjects, the

recovery was very rapid, and also proved lasting. To

]
ii. 5-



The Landing of St. Augustine. 15

sum up, then, the extent and significance of St. Augus-

tine’s work during the short period of his eight years’

episcopate. His personal successes were confined to

Kent, where he founded two sees, those of Canterbury

and Rochester
;
but he made efforts to extend the faith

to other parts of the country, and these efforts, if not at

the time successful, ought at all events to be regarded

as seeds of which the fruit was gathered in later

years. He had made efforts which, had they not been

met with an unreasoning and disedifying perversity,

would have secured him the co-operation of the

British clergy, and the directions given him by Pope

Gregory as to the character of the destined Hier-

archy show what plans he must have been forming

for the conversion of the other English tribes, particu-

larly those of the north. He was thus the man who

gave the first impulse towards the Christianizing, not

of Kent only, but of the entire island, an impulse

which we may be sure exercised its influence over the

subsequent sending of Paulinus to York, and thereby

over the summoning of Aidan and his companions to

take up the work from which Paulinus had been

driven off. To the self-same impulse we must like-

wise allow a causality in stirring up Felix and

Birinus to undertake the evangelization of East

Anglia and Wessex. It is on this ground that St.

Augustine is entitled to be regarded as the Apostle

of England, as Canon Bright has clearly shown.

If the title (of Apostle) belongs to the man who first

brings home to any part of a given people the knowledge of

Christ and the ordinances of His religion, then it is enough

to remark that Augustine came into Kent when all the

“Saxon ” kingdoms were still heathen. He came to confront



1

6

The Landing of St. Augustine.

risks which Aidan, for instance, had never to reckon with

on appearing in Northumbria at the express invitation of

St. Oswald. . . . His long precedency in the mission-field is

a simple matter of chronology : it means that he threw open

the pathway, that he set the example, and that a generation

had passed away before “ Scotic ” zeal had followed in his

steps .
1

' This obviously sound reasoning is nevertheless

displeasing to many of Canon Bright’s co-religionists.

If Augustine was the Apostle of England, with what

face, they anxiously ask themselves, can we claim the

inheritance of his succession without acknowledging

ourselves to be an Italian Mission ? Accordingly,

there has been a division of opinion among Anglican

divines, some taking the rational view of Canon

Bright, others repeating the watchword of Bishop

Lightfoot : “ Augustine was the Apostle of Kent, but

Aidan was the Apostle of England;' It will be inter-

esting to see how this division of opinion will be

affected by the pilgrimages of the coming season, for

on the memorial cross those who visit it will find

inscribed :

Augustine at length brought to Ebbs Fleet in the Isle

of Thanet, after so many labours on land and at sea, at

a conference with King Ethelbert on this spot, delivered

his first discourse to our people, and auspiciously founded

the Christian faith
,
which with wonderful rapidity was

diffused throughout the whole of England.

It is the traditional judgment which these words

express, and indeed they almost seem to have been

suggested by the words of the Council of Clovesho, in

747 :

Waymarks in Church History
, p. 309.



The Landing of St. Augustine. 17

That the birthday of the Blessed Pope Gregory, as also

the day of death falling on May 26, of St. Augustine, Arch-

bishop and Confessor, who, sent by the aforesaid Pope, our

Father St. Gregory, brought to the English race the know-

ledge of faith, the Sacrament of Baptism, and the know-

ledge of the heavenly country, be honoured and venerated

by all as is becoming.

What is there in either of these two utterances to

consist with the contention which would set up Aidan

as a rival to Augustine, and confer upon him a title

which he would have been the first to disown and

which is offered him only under the stress of con-

troversial necessities ?

“ But with what commission did Augustine come?”

It is the Bishop of Stepney 1 who puts the question,

and, in view of the pretensions of the Anglican Arch-

bishops of Canterbury, a few words on the subject will

be of service.

The Bishop of Stepney enlarges the question, and

in so doing indicates the nature of his own answer.

Did he come in the interests of Rome to enlarge the

area of the claims of the Papacy ? Did he come to demand

allegiance, homage to St. Peter, to an infallibly-inspired

successor of St. Peter, to the Vicar of Christ on earth, to

whom all appeals must come, from whose unerring decision
no appeal lay on earth or in heaven ? From first to last,

in all Gregory’s letters, no word of the kind. . . . His

business was to create an English Church, not to build up

an outwork of Rome.

The phrases which the Bishop thus piles up one

upon another are of his own choice, and are none

of ours. Let us venture to substitute some others

which less misleadingly enunciate the doctrine of the

1
Op. cit., p. 37.



1

8

The Landing of St. Augustine.

Catholic Church. “ Did he come (let us ask) to

found a Church which should be independent of the

See of Peter or one which should look up to it as

the necessary centre of unity and the necessary source

of all lawful ecclesiastical authority ?” If the question

is thus put, let us see if it be true that, “ from first to

last; in all Gregory’s letters (there is) no word of the

kind.”

Of one of these letters the Bishop of Stepney

himself allows that “ it was clearly intended to be the

Charter of the English Church.” 1 It is the letter,

written in 601, which accompanied the gift of the

pallium, and is marked by a tone of authority

throughout.

Since the new Church of the English has been brought

to the grace of Almighty God, through the favour of the

same Lord and your labours, we grant you the use of the

pallium, to be used in it [the English Church] exclusively

at the solemn celebration of the Mass
;

in order that you

may ordain for as many places twelve Bishops, who shall be

subject to your rule, but so that the Bishop of the city of

London may in future be consecrated by his own Synod

and receive the pallium of office
(
honoris

)

from this Holy

and Apostolic See, to which, by God’s ordinance, I minister.

And we wish you to send a Bishop to the city of York,

having ordained one who may seem to you suitable for the

purpose
;
but so that if the same city, with the neighbouring

districts, shall receive the Word of God, he also may ordain

twelve Bishops and enjoy the dignity of metropolitan
;

for,

if spared, we propose, with the Divine permission, to give

him also the pallium, wishing nevertheless that he be

subject to the orders of your Paternity. But, after your

death, let him govern the Bishops whom he has ordained,

and not be subject in any way to the Bishop of London.

. . . But let your fraternity have, subject to itself, by the

1
Ibid. p. 84.



The Landing of St. Augustine. 19

ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ, not only the Bishops

which it has ordained, nor only those ordained by the

Bishop of York, but also the priests of Britain .
1

And in the previous letter,2 in which he answers

certain questions put to him by Augustine, he makes,

in reference to the last point, a distinction between

the Bishops of Gaul, and the British Bishops in the

west of England. “ Over the Bishops of the Gauls

we give you no authority, because the Bishops of

Arles have received the pallium from my predecessors

in ancient times, and it is not right that we should

deprive them of their authority
;

” but “ as for all

the Bishops of the Britons, we confide them to your

fraternity that the unlearned may be taught, the weak

strengthened by persuasion, and the perverse corrected

by authority.”

Could anything be clearer than that the man who

wrote thus, regarded every Bishop in Britain, and in

Gaul also, as his own subjects? His letter reminds

us of the Universalis Ecclesice
,
by which Pius IX.

reconstituted the English Hierarchy in 1850. He

marks out dioceses as he thinks best, determines the

order of subordination which shall prevail among the

prelates to be set over them, and imparts to each

the authority which such an order will require. He

directs that the other Archbishops shall be under

Augustine during the latter’s lifetime, but inde-

pendent of his successors and of one another after

his death. He subjects to his authority other Bishops

not sent by himself but found already existing in the

country, and declines to place in the same subjection

the Bishops of Gaul, not on the ground that to do

1 Bede, i. xxix. 2 Ibid, xxvii.



20 The Landing oj St. Augustine.

so would exceed his power, but only on the ground

that it would be unjust to withdraw authority from

one to whom it had been communicated by his

predecessors, and who had not misused it. He sends

one pallium and promises others, and expressly states

that in sending it he is imparting authority to con-

secrate suffragans. Nor does he hesitate to describe

the injunctions he is giving as, “ the ordinances of

our Lord Jesus Christ,” clearly in the consciousness

that he is using authority which our Lord had

bestowed and had sanctioned with the assurance that

whosoever hears the successors of His chief Apostle

hears Him.

Only trifling, in short, can seek to extract out

of language such as this, any meaning short of a

distinct assertion of Papal claims in the full sense

in which Catholics now understand them, and it is

trifling to argue, as some have done, that Gregory

intended the English Church to be independent of

the authority of his own See, from the mere fact

that he gave directions for the consecration of future

English prelates by prelates in their own land. It

may be suitable that an Archbishop should receive

his consecration from his highest ecclesiastical superior,

but obviously there are practical inconveniences in

such a course when the archiepiscopal sees are far

removed from the city of Rome. Nor is consecration

by the Pope himself in any sense necessary, for it is

not consecration which assigns to a prelate either his

degree of authority over those placed under him, or

his degree of subjection under those placed over him.

Jurisdiction is imparted by an expression of will on

the part of the superior, and is independent of con-



The Landing of St. Augustine. 21

secration, though the two are intended to combine

in the same person ; and that this was Gregory's own

doctrine is sufficiently clear, from his placing the

British Bishops, by such an expression of will, under

the authority of St. Augustine, although he had not con-

secrated or sent into the country a single one of them.

If the letters of Gregory to Augustine are sufficient

of themselves to prove that he conceived of his

authority over the English Church precisely as Leo

XIII. does now, it may be thought unnecessary to

appeal to his other letters. Why, however, is it that

our Anglican writers, like the Bishop of Stepney, in

the little book already several times mentioned,

appear to know nothing of the many similar and

confirmatory passages in Gregory’s other letters, but

know only of the one passage in which he reproved

John the Faster, even then in a tone of authority,

for calling himself a Universal Bishop ? The meaning

which Gregory attached to this designation and for

which he condemned it, is one which is perfectly

ascertainable and has no bearing on the question of

Papal authority. The Bishop of Stepney is himself,

by the title which he uses, an illustration of the

incongruity which Gregory thought so improper.

P"or a man to call himself Bishop of Stepney is to

imply that there can be no other lawful Bishop of

Stepney, and is therefore by implication to claim that

Stepney lies outside the sphere of episcopal jurisdic-

tion of the Bishop of London. It is something very

different from taking such a title as Archbishop of

Canterbury, with the understanding that it involves

authority of a higher order over other sees such as

London. So Gregory’s objection was that John, by



22 The Landing of St. Augustine.

calling himself Universal Bishop, was implying that

the entire world was his diocese, and that there was

no part of the world left for another Bishop to

govern. In no sense did he blame him for pretend-

ing to exercise superior authority over other Bishops.

Had Gregory meant otherwise, he would have

been contradicting in the most egregious way both

the tenour of his own active and authoritative inter-

position in the ecclesiastical difficulties of every part

of the world, and the many distinct expressions in

which he asserts the world-wide character of the

government confided to him. As regards the former,

let any one in doubt read carefully through his

many interesting letters, and ask if the various

administrative measures which they either take or

imply, do not amount to that very exercise of Papal

authority in which the Popes engage now. As

regards the latter, what other construction can we

put on such a passage as this, in which he says of

the Bishop of Bizacium : “ As for his saying that he

is subject to the Apostolic See, whenever any fault

is found in Bishops, I do not know what Bishop is

not subject to it ;” 1 or this, in which he repeats the

same with special reference to the see of Constanti-

nople : “ As for what they say of the Church of

Constantinople, who is there that doubts but that it

is subject to the Apostolic See, as indeed the most

pious Emperor and our brother, the Bishop of that

see, assiduously profess ;”
2

or this, in which he gives

practical effect to the claim by entertaining the appeal

of an Oriental priest, John by name, who had been

condemned by the judges appointed to try him at

1 Ep. ix. n. 59.
2

Ibid. n. 12.



The Landing of St. Augustine. 23

Constantinople in a case of heresy, and reversing the

decision of that see : “ Wherefore, reprobating the

decision of the aforesaid judges, we, by our definitive

sentence, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten-

ing us, have declared him (John) to be Catholic and

acquitted of all charges of heresy
j

” 1 or this, in which,

referring back to the last-mentioned incident, he

writes to the Bishop of Ravenna, who claimed an

exemption barring appeals from his judgment to that

of Rome : “ Do you not know that the cause which

arose between John the Presbyter and John of

Constantinople, our brother and fellow-Bishop, was

brought, in accordance with the Canons, to the

Apostolic See and was decided by our sentence. If

then a cause coming even from the city where the

Sovereign resides is brought under our cognizance,

how much more must the matter which has arisen

among you be decided here by a discovery of the

truth ;” 2 or this, in which he declares that a Synod

held at Constantinople, “ without the knowledge and

consent of the Apostolic See, is null and void in

whatsoever it may enact,” and therefore bids his

representative at the Court, should any one attempt

to hold such a Synod, “ relying on the Apostolic

authority, to turn the robber and ravening wolf out.” s

Similar citations might be multiplied almost inde-

finitely from the Letters of St. Gregory, and surely

they should suffice to disillusion any candid reader

who has been led to think that the beliefs on which

the first English hierarchy were established, are in

any way different from those on which our present

Catholic Hierarchy rests,

1
Ibid. iv. 15.

2
Ibid. vi. 24.

3
Ibid. ix. 68.



24 The Landing of St, Augustine .

The faith, then, which St. Augustine brought was

the same faith which is ours now. He is our Apostle,

therefore, and we must feel deeply grateful that his

work should have proved so splendid and enduring.

Of the splendour of our pre-Reformation Church, of

the purity of its faith, and of its strong attachment

to the See of Peter, there can be no real controversy,

and as we measure the thirteen centuries which have

rolled by since Augustine landed on our shores, we

are struck by the comparative length of the Catholic

period when set side by side with the Protestant

period which succeeded it. Nine hundred and fifty

years of unbroken unity, held together by the links

forged by Gregory and Augustine between England

and the Apostolic See, against three hundred and

fifty years of wide-spread and progressive division

growing out of the schism initiated by Henry and

Elizabeth—for it was reserved for this country, in
the day when it departed from the unity into which

Gregory had led it, to present to the world the saddest

of all illustrations of the sad truth in which, never-

theless, Gregory could find a crumb of consolation :

“ It is a signal grace of Almighty God, that there

is no unity amongst those who are separated from

the doctrine of Holy Church, no kingdom divided

against itself being able to stand.
5,1 And Gregory

is right. It is indeed a consolation that division

should dog the footsteps of schism, nor is there

anything so much as these present hopeless divisions

which attracts English minds towards that principle

of Catholic unity which Augustine brought with him

from Gregory thirteen hundred years ago.

1
Ibid, viii. 2.



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