THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 The Mission of St Augustine 
 TO England.
 
 HonDon : C. J. CLAY and SONS, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, 
 
 AVE MARIA LANE. 
 
 ffilassoto: 263, ARGYLE STREET. 
 
 ILeipjig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. 
 lllSugotk: THE MACMILLAN CO.
 
 The Mission of St Augustine 
 TO England according to the 
 Original Documents, being a 
 Handbook for the Thirteenth 
 Centenary, 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ARTHUR JAMES MASON D.D. 
 
 CANON OF CANTERBURY 
 
 AND LADY MARGARET PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY 
 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 1897 
 
 [AI/ Rights reserved. ^
 
 First Edition, May 1897. 
 Second Edition, July 1897.
 
 
 mf^sv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS book is compiled by desire of his Grace the 
 late Archbishop of Canterbury. With that love of 
 history and that devotion to detail which marked his 
 character, he sketched out what kind of book he wished 
 to be prepared ' before that Commemoration.' It ' must 
 issue from the University Press.' It was to consist of 
 ' a complete collection of authentic documents bearing 
 on Augustine's coming,' translations with the Latin 
 close beside, and footnotes. These documents were to 
 be accompanied by ' investigations on the spot, geo- 
 graphic and hydrographic, Ebbsfleet, Richborough, etc.,' 
 and by ' essays short and few, shewing the real bearing 
 of the events on later controversy.' He thought that 
 this would form 'a most precious little book.' 'It would 
 place,' he wrote, ' the real argument between Rome and 
 us on a clear footing at a time when it would be read by 
 all English-speaking races. It would attract an atten- 
 tion which would not let Roman fallaciae et praestigiac 
 M. b
 
 \-i Preface. 
 
 sleep. I believe it would have an immense effect.' As 
 might be expected, however, of Archbishop Benson, he 
 did not wish the book in any sense to be an ex parte 
 statement of special views of the history. He was 
 anxious that everything should be told ; that if, as in 
 the Answers of Gregory to Augustine for instance, 
 anything were left out, it should be most clearly in- 
 dicated what was the nature of the omission, that no 
 reader might have the least reason for suspecting that 
 the omission had any controversial purpose. ' The 
 Truth,' he wrote to me, ' must be the first aim, — to let 
 people see it as it is.' How far the book, as it now 
 stands, would have satisfied the Archbishop, I do not 
 know ; but the desire at least has been to obey the 
 spirit as well as the letter of his injunctions, and to 
 let facts speak for themselves, in all simplicity. 
 
 All that is known concerning the Gregorian mission 
 which founded the Church of England is contained in 
 the documents given in this book. The authorities are 
 practically two in number. 
 
 First there are Gregory's own letters, and a few 
 phrases in other works of his. The genuineness of 
 those which concern our present purpose is undoubted, 
 with one exception. Unhappily that acute scholar Paul 
 Ewald was taken away before he could give to the 
 world his edition of Gregory's Epistles ; but he left 
 elaborate and useful materials for the criticism of them 
 in his article in the Neues Archiv der GesellscJiaft f. 
 dltere deutscJic GescliicJitskuiide Vol. III., and in his new
 
 Preface. vii 
 
 edition of Jaffe's Regesta Pontificiim^ — besides work in 
 manuscript, which enabled Ludwig Hartmann in 1891 
 to edit the first seven Books in his own and Ewald's 
 name, in the Monitmenta Genimniac Historica. The 
 text of the Epistles used in this book is that of Ewald 
 and Hartmann, as far as they have gone; the rest are 
 taken from the text of Haddan and Stubbs in the third 
 volume of their Coimcils and Ecclesiastical Documents, 
 and (where the letters occur in Bede) from Bede's His- 
 toria Ecclcsiastica Gentis Anglorum. Ewald considered 
 that the superscriptions, endings, and datings of most of 
 the letters as given by Bede, when compared with the 
 form of Gregory's letters in the three great collections 
 of extracts from the Register which are known to us, 
 proved that Bede's copies of the letters could not have 
 been taken, as Bede appears to say that they were, 
 from those preserved in the registry at the Lateran, but 
 that they were derived from the originals preserved 
 in England. Dr Bassenge, in his Sendung Ajignstins 
 (Leipzig, 1890), has suggested a modification of this 
 view. The documents brought from Rome by Nothelm, 
 of which Bede speaks, were, he thinks, the original drafts 
 of the letters, not copies from the letters as entered in 
 the Register ; and Bede used these drafts along with the 
 originals existing in England in his time, or with copies 
 of them. It makes very little practical difference which 
 of these views is adopted. The substance of the letters 
 is the same ; and it is agreed that Bede is our earliest 
 and best authority for the text of them. 
 
 b2
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 The only question of any importance is that relating 
 to the genuineness of Gregory's Replies to Augustine's 
 questions. The facts are as follows. Those Replies 
 appear never to have been entered in the registry of the 
 Lateran, where copies of most of the Papal letters were 
 preserved. Writing in 736, or soon after, to Nothelm, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, St Boniface begs to have a 
 copy sent him 'of that letter in which are contained, they 
 say, the questions of the pontiff Augustine, the first 
 preacher to the English, and the replies of St Gregory 
 the Pope' ; 'and be at the pains,' he adds, 'to examine 
 diligently and with scrupulous caution, whether the 
 composition is proved to be our father St Gregory's or 
 not ; because, as the registraries affirm, it was not to 
 be found in the registry of the Roman Church, along 
 with the other copies of that Pope's letters, when search 
 was made for itV It is not in any of the three great 
 collections of excerpts from the letters preserved in the 
 registry; and it only appears in the later MSS. of 
 Gregory's Epistles, into which it passed, no doubt, — 
 sometimes with embellishments, — from Bede-. For these 
 reasons Ewald considers its genuineness questionable, 
 though he does not reject it. But it may be urged in 
 reply that the document is not exactly a letter. Bede 
 
 1 The letter of Boniface is given in Haddan and Stubbs iii. p. 336. 
 The date of it cannot be earlier than 736, when Nothelm received the pall 
 which is mentioned in it, nor later than 741, which is the latest possible 
 date for Nolhelm's death. 
 
 2 See Jaffe-Ewald Regest. Pont. i. 206, 207.
 
 Preface. ix 
 
 calls it a libellus — a little book^ It may well have been 
 kept with other works of its author, apart from the 
 registry of letters. It is certain also that not all the Papal 
 letters were entered in the registry^ ; for instance, the 
 indubitable letter (on p. 21) to the missionaries on their 
 way through Gaul was not contained in it. Ewald sees 
 no difficulty in supposing that the original had been sent 
 to England without any copy being kept. And indeed, 
 if the preface to the little work is authentic^ the circum- 
 stances in which the work was composed might give a 
 reason for its not being copied out and entered. Though 
 subsequently delayed, the bearers were in haste, and 
 hardly gave the afflicted Pope time amidst his tortures 
 to dictate his answers to the questions. We are unable 
 now to decide whether Nothelm found the document 
 at Rome, though not in the registry, and brought it with 
 the rest to England, or whether the original was pre- 
 served at Canterbury and a copy supplied to Bede from 
 thence. But the internal evidence, as well as Bede's 
 unhesitating acceptance of the document, makes it hard 
 to imagine that these Replies, so characteristic of the 
 mind and of the style of Gregory, could have been 
 forged by some one of the date of Theodore''. 
 
 Our second great authority for the history of the 
 Augustinian Mission is, of course, the Venerable Bede. 
 
 ' See below, p. 9. 
 
 ^ Ewald Neites Archiv iii. p. 438. 
 
 •' It has less authority than the rest, as not being given in Bede. 
 
 ■* Which is Duchesne's contention: see below, p. 67.
 
 X Preface. 
 
 He is not only one of the most attractive of saints, but 
 also one of the most trustworthy of historians. His 
 work was finished in 731. With a carefulness which 
 endears him to the modern student, Bede almost always 
 gives his authorities for the statements which he makes. 
 This is what he says to king Ceolwulf in his Praefatio : 
 
 ' In order to remove all occasion of doubting in what 
 I have written, from you or any other hearers or readers 
 of this history, I will briefly state from what authorities 
 my facts are acquired. 
 
 ' Before all others, the author and aider of this 
 humble work was the most reverend Abbot Albinus^ 
 a man of great and encyclopaedic learning, who, having 
 been taught in the Church of Canterbury by those 
 venerable and erudite men, Archbishop Theodore of 
 blessed memory and Abbot Hadrian, had diligently 
 taken note of everything done either in the pro- 
 vince of Kent itself, or in the neighbouring districts, 
 
 Ut autem in his, quae scripsi, uel tibi, uel ceteris audi- 
 toribus siue lectoribus huius historiae occasionem dubitandi 
 subtraham, quibus haec maxime auctoribus didicerim, breuiter 
 intimare curabo. 
 
 Auctor ante omnes atque adiutor opusculi huius Albinus 
 abba reuerentissimus, uir per omnia doctissimus, extitit ; qui in 
 ecclesia Cantuariorum a beatae memoriae Theodore archi- 
 episcopo et Hadnano abbate, uiris uenerabilibus atque eruditis- 
 simis, institutus, diligenter omnia, quae in ipsa Cantuariorum 
 prouincia, uel etiam in contiguis eidem regionibus a discipulis 
 
 1 Abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury.
 
 Preface. xi 
 
 by the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, alike 
 by means of written documents and by the tradi- 
 tion of older men. Those parts of his store which he 
 thought worth recording he transmitted to me by means 
 of that religious presbyter of the Church of London, 
 Nothelm\ either committed to writing, or to be narrated 
 by Nothelm viva voce. Nothelm went to Rome later 
 on, and there, by permission of the pontiff Gregory who 
 now presides over the holy Roman Church, he examined 
 the registry of that Church, and discovered a good many 
 epistles of the blessed Pope Gregory and of other 
 pontiffs likewise ; and on his return, by the advice of 
 the most reverend father Albinus, he offered them to me 
 for insertion in my history. Thus, from the beginning 
 of this volume to the date at which the English nation 
 received the faith of Christ, I have learned what there 
 
 beati papae Gregorii gesta fuere, uel monimentis litterarum, 
 uel seniorum traditione cognouerat; et ea mihi de his, quae 
 memoria digna uidebantur, per religiosum Lundoniensis 
 ecclesiae presbyterum Nothelmum, siue litteris mandata, siue 
 ipsius Nothelmi uiua uoce referenda, transmisit. Qui uidelicet 
 Nothelmus postea Romam ueniens, nonnullas ibi beati Gregorii 
 papae simul et aliorum pontificum epistulas, perscrutato 
 eiusdem sanctae ecclesiae Romanae scrinio, permissu eius, qui 
 nunc ipsi ecclesiae praeest Gregorii pontificis, inuenit, reuersus- 
 que nobis nostrae historiae inserendas cum consilio praefati 
 Albini reuerentissimi patris adtulit. A principio itaque uolu- 
 minis huius usque ad tempus, quo gens Anglorum fidem Christi 
 
 ^ The same who was afieivvards Archbishop of Canterbury.
 
 xii Preface. 
 
 was to be said in the main from earlier writings brought 
 together from different quarters. Thence to the present 
 time, what was done in the Church of Canterbury by the 
 disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory and their succes- 
 sors, and under what kings, I have ascertained by the 
 industry of Abbot Albinus, through the mediation of 
 Xothelm, as I said. To them also I am in a great 
 measure indebted for my knowledge of the bishops by 
 whom, and of the kings in whose days, the grace of the 
 Gospel was accepted by the provinces of Essex and 
 
 Wessex, of East Anglia and of Northumbria The 
 
 ecclesiastical proceedings in the province of East Anglia 
 I learned partly from earlier writings and traditions, 
 and partly by the communication of the most reverend 
 Abbot Esi.^..With regard to Northumbria, the events 
 
 percepit, ex priorum maxime scriptis hinc inde collectis ea, 
 quae promeremus, didicimus. Exinde autem usque ad tempora 
 praesentia, quae in ecclesia Cantuariorum per discipulos beati 
 papae Gregorii, siue successores eorum, uel sub quibus regibus 
 gesta sint, memorati abbatis Albini industria, Nothelmo, ut 
 (liximus, perferente, cognouimus. Qui etiam prouinciae Orien- 
 talium simul et Occidentalium Saxonum, nee non et Orientalium 
 Anglorum atque Nordanhymbrorum, a quibus praesulibus, uel 
 quorum tempore regum gratiam euangelii perceperint, nonnuUa 
 mihi ex parte prodiderunt. ...Porro in prouincia Orientalium 
 Anglorum, quae fuerint gesta ecclesiastica, partim ex scriptis 
 uel traditione priorum, partim reuerentissimi abbatis Esi re- 
 latione conperimus....Quae autem in Nordanhymbrorum 
 
 ^ Nothing appears to be known about Esi.
 
 Preface. xiii 
 
 which have taken place in the Church in dififerent 
 localities from the date of the acceptance of the 
 Christian faith till now, I have ascertained not from 
 any single authority, but by the trustworthy statements 
 of numberless witnesses who were in a position to 
 know and remember them, besides what came within 
 the sphere of my own personal knowledge.' 
 
 It is, as Mr Plummer says in his Notes upon the 
 passage, of deep interest to see that Bede had the help 
 of written documents (besides the Roman letters) with 
 regard to the Augustinian mission, and with regard to 
 East Anglian history. He had also one important written 
 document (which he does not mention) with regard to the 
 life of him whom he calls 'our Apostle.' The earliest 
 extant biography of St Gregory is one by a monk of 
 Streaneshalch, or Whitby, at the end of the seventh cen- 
 tury, which was discovered at St Gall by Paul Ewald, and 
 partly published by him in 1886, in Historische Aiifsdtze 
 dein A ndenken an G. Waitz gewidmef-. Extracts from it 
 are given by Plummer in his Bede vol. Ii. p. 389 foil. Bede 
 
 prouincia, ex quo tempore fidem Christi perceperunt, usque 
 ad praesens per diuersas regiones in ecclesia sint acta, non 
 uno quolibet auctore, sed fideli innumerorum testium, qui 
 haec scire uel meminisse poterant, adsertione cognoui, exceptis 
 his. quae per me ipsum nosse poteram. 
 
 ^ I have not been able to see the Historische Aufscitze, and owe the 
 reference to Dr Bassenge, and to Mr Phimmer.
 
 xiv Preface. 
 
 carefully distinguishes between that which he learns on 
 good authority, and that which he knows only by report, 
 such as the story of the English boys at Rome. In- 
 stances will be found in the following pages of his 
 reference to particular persons who had given him 
 information on particular points, especially in reference 
 to matters in the north. 
 
 It is scarcely worth while to refer to later authorities. 
 Gocelin, whose Life (or Lives) of St Augustine fills man)- 
 pages of the Acta Sanctorum (under date May 26), has 
 no historical information to impart. He relates many 
 miracles of St Augustine, especially posthumous ones, 
 and spins out pious reflexions for his brethren the monks 
 of St Augustine's ; but the grains of fact amidst all his 
 verbiage are few. He died 1098. A much later member 
 of the same celebrated Abbey, William Thorn, whose 
 Chronicle of his house comes down to the year 1397', 
 gathers together some items of real interest from the 
 local traditions of the Kentish city, and makes an 
 intelligent use of them ; to which Thomas Elmham, who 
 wrote in the same house a generation later, has nothing 
 to add, though modern writers often refer to him in- 
 stead of the more deserving Thorn. Thorn's work, at 
 least down to the year 1232, is in all probability little 
 more than a reediting of the Chronicle composed about 
 that date by an earlier monk of St Augustine's, called 
 
 1 It is printed in Twysdcn and Selden Ilist. Angl. Scriptores Decent.
 
 Preface. xv 
 
 Thomas Sprott. The Chronicle of Sprott, as an inde- 
 pendent work, has disappeared'. 
 
 Among modern works upon the subject it will only 
 be necessary to name Dr Stanley's Memorials of Canter- 
 bury, and Dr Bright's Chapters of Early English Church 
 History (a new edition is in the press), — works of singular 
 beauty and charm in their various ways ; and I may add 
 a grateful mention of the series of little volumes of 
 lectures, published by the S.P.C.K., in which the Bishop 
 of Stepney does so much, year after year, to interest 
 the English public in the beginnings of the Church of 
 England. Bassenge's Sendinig Angustins ziir Bekelirting 
 der Angelsachsen has been mentioned already. Potthast's 
 Wegweiser vol. ii. p. 1 1 86 (ed. 1 896) refers to other works. 
 I must here express the gratitude which I, in company 
 with all other students of the period, must feel to the 
 Cou7icils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great 
 Britain and Ireland by which the late Mr Haddan and 
 the Bishop of Oxford have lightened the labours of us 
 all; and also to Mr Plummer for his admirable edition of 
 Bede's Historical Works, with the wealth of well digested 
 learning set forth in its notes. In using it, my only 
 ungratified wish has been that sometimes Mr Plummer 
 would have translated, or at least have commented 
 upon, a bit of Papal Latin, which, from his silence, he 
 evidently understands when others do not. 
 
 ' The Chronica published in 1719 by Thomas Hearne as Sprott's has 
 no real claim to be his. See Hardvvick's Elmkam (Rolls Series) pp. xv, xvi.
 
 xvi Preface. 
 
 I have finally to express my best thanks to the ac- 
 complished scholars who have contributed Dissertations 
 to this book : I am sure that Archbishop Benson would 
 have thanked them heartily. One other Dissertation 
 was to have enriched the book, on the Relations be- 
 tween England and Rome until the Norman Conquest. 
 Professor Collins, who had kindly undertaken to do it, 
 has at the last moment been hindered by a sudden 
 illness. Last, but not least, I beg with profound respect 
 to thank the Lord Bishop of Oxford for finding time 
 to look over a large part of the proofs of this book, 
 and Mr Plummer not only for doing the same, but also 
 for allowing me to use his text of Bede, from which I 
 have only departed occasionally in a matter of spelling 
 or of punctuation. 
 
 A. J. M. 
 
 Jesus College, Cambridge. 
 St Gregory s Day, 1S97.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Chronological Table xviii 
 
 Documents relating to the Mission of St Augustine 
 
 AND his Companions i 
 
 Dissertation I i6i 
 
 The Political Outlook of Europe in 597. By C. W. Oman, Esq., 
 Fellow of All Souls' College, O.xford. 
 
 Dissertation II . . . . . . .184 
 
 The Mission of Augustine and his Companions in relation to 
 other Agencies in the Conversion of England. By the 
 Editor. 
 
 Dissertation III ... .... 209 
 
 The Landing-place of St Augustine, with a Map. By 
 T. McK. Hughes, Esq., Woodwardian Professor of Geology 
 in the University uf Cambridge. 
 
 Dissertation IV 235 
 
 On some Liturgical Points relating to the Mission of St 
 Augustine. By the Rev. H. A. Wilson, Fellow of 
 Magdalen College, Oxford. 
 
 Maps 
 
 Western Europe in 597 ..... to folloiu p. 160 
 
 England in 597 ...... >> ,, 
 
 West Coast of Kent in the Sixth Centui'y . . „ /. 234
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 559 or 560 Accession of Ethelbert. 
 
 585-588 Meeting of Gregory with the English boys at Rome. 
 
 590 Gregory becomes Bishop of Rome. 
 
 596 Augustine and his companions start for Britain (prob. early in June). 
 
 597 Arrival of Augustine in Thanet. 
 Baptism of Ethelbert (June 2). 
 Death of Columba (June g). 
 Consecration of Augustine (Nov. 16). 
 
 601 Despatch of Mellitus and others to join Augustine. 
 
 602 Consecration of St Saviour's Cathedral (June 9). 
 
 604 Occupation of the Monastery of St Peter and St Paul (Jan. 9). 
 
 Death of Gregory (March 12). 
 
 Death of Augustine (May 26). 
 616 Deaths of Ethelbert (Feb. 24) and Sabert. 
 
 Flight of Mellitus and Justus. 
 619 Death of Lawrence (Feb. 2). 
 
 624 Death of Mellitus (April 24). 
 
 625 Consecration of Paulinus for Northumbria (July 21). 
 627 Baptism of Edwin (Easter). 
 
 Death of Justus (Nov. 10), and consecration of Honorius at Lincoln 
 by Paulinus. 
 630 Felix in East Anglia under Sigbert. 
 
 633 Edwin killed (Oct. 12). Paulinus retires to Kent. 
 
 634 Oswald becomes King of Northumbria.
 
 Chronological Table. 
 
 636 Aidan begins his mission in Northumbria. 
 
 Cynegils King of Wessex baptized by Birinus. 
 642 Oswald killed (Aug. 5) ; succeeded by Oswy. 
 
 Oswy married to Eanfled. 
 644 Death of Paulinus (Oct. 10) ; consecration of Ithamar, the first 
 
 English bishop. 
 647 Hilda becomes a nun. 
 651 Death of Aidan (Aug. 31). 
 
 653 Baptism of the Mercian Peada ; mission of Cedd to the Middle 
 Angles, and afterwards to Essex. 
 
 Death of Honorius (Sept. 30). 
 655 Consecration of Deusdedit to Canterbury by Ithamar (March 26). 
 658 Revolt of Mercia against Oswy; Wulfheri becomes King. 
 664 Death of Deusdedit (July 14). 
 
 Conference of Whitby ; acceptance of the Roman Easter by Oswy, 
 and withdrawal of the Scottish bishop Colman. 
 
 Consecration of Wilfrid at Compiegne. 
 
 668 Consecration of Theodore by Pope Vitalian (March 26). 
 
 669 Arrival of Theodore at Canterbury (May 27). 
 
 671 Death of Oswy (Feb. 15). 
 
 672 or 673 Birth of Bede. 
 681 Wilfrid in Sussex.
 
 DEPRECAMVR TE. DOMINE. IN OMNI MISERICORDIA TVA, 
 VT AVFERATVR FVROR TVVS ET IRA TVA A CIVITATE 
 ISTA ET DE DOMO SANCTA TVA, QVONIAM PECCAVIMVS. 
 ALLELVIA.
 
 DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE MISSION 
 OF ST AUGUSTINE AND HIS COM- 
 PANIONS. 
 
 I. Bedes Account of Gregory. 
 (Hist. Eccl. II. I.) 
 
 As it was Gregory who by his untiring efforts turned 
 our English nation ' from the power of Satan ' to the faith 
 of Christ, it is but proper that in my History of the 
 Church I should give a somewhat extended account of 
 him. He is the man whom we may rightly call our 
 Apostle, and are indeed in duty bound to do so. 
 Occupying the first bishopric in the world, and set to 
 govern Churches which had long been converted to 
 belief in the truth, he made our nation, which up to 
 that time had been enslaved to idols, a Church of Christ; 
 
 De quo nos conuenit, quia nostram, id est Anglorum, 
 gentem de potestate Satanae ad (idem Christi sua industria 
 conuertit, latiorem in nostra historia ecclesiastica facere ser- 
 monem, quern recte nostrum appellare possumus et debemus 
 apostolum. Quia, cum primum in toto orbe gereret ponti- 
 ficatum, et conuersis iam dudum ad fidem ueritatis esset 
 praelatus ecclesiis, nostram gentem catenas idolis mancipatam 
 Christi fecit ecclesiam, ita ut apostolicum ilium de eo liceat 
 
 M. 1
 
 Bede's Account of Gregory. 
 
 so that we may use of him the apostolic phrase ; that if 
 he is not an Apostle to others, yet doubtless he is to us ; 
 for the seal of his apostleship are we in the Lord. 
 
 By race he was a Roman. His father's name was 
 Gordian. He came of an ancestral stock which was not 
 only noble, but religious ; for Felix, formerly Bishop of 
 the same Apostolic See, and a man of great renown in 
 Christ and the Church, was his great-great-great-grand- 
 father\ Gregory himself cultivated the nobility of reli- 
 o-ion with no less strenuous devotion than his parents and 
 kinsfolk. The secular nobility which he had in the eyes 
 of men, he applied entirely, by gift of God's grace, to 
 winning the glory of rank on high. Suddenly he threw off 
 his secular garb and entered a monastery ; in which he 
 began to live with such grace the life of perfection, that 
 
 nobis proferre sermonem : quia etsi aliis non est apostolus, 
 sed tamen nobis est ; nam signaculum apostolatus eius nos 
 sumus in Domino. 
 
 Erat autem natione Romanus, a patre Gordiano, genus a 
 proauis non solum nobile, sed et religiosum ducens. Denique 
 Felix eiusdem apostolicae sedis quondam episcopus, uir magnae 
 gloriae in Christo et ecclesia, eius fuit atauus. Sed ipse nobili- 
 tatem religionis non minora quam parentes et cognati uirtute 
 deuotionis exercuit. Nobilitatem uero illam, quam ad saeculum 
 uidebatur habere, totam ad nanciscendam supernae gloriam 
 dignitatis diuina gratia largiente conuertit. Nam mutato 
 repente habitu saeculari monasterium petiit, in quo tanta 
 
 1 If this was Felix III. (or II.) who was Bishop of Rome 483—492, the 
 word ataiius can hardly be taken in its exact sense. But the fact that Bede 
 has just before used the \noxA proavis for 'ancestors' is in favour of sup- 
 posing atauiis to be strictly used ; in which case the Felix would probably 
 be Felix II., appointed in 355 on the fall of Liberius.
 
 Bcdes Account of Gregory. 
 
 (as he himself would afterwards testify with tears) all 
 fleeting things came to be beneath his notice, and he 
 rose above the world of change ; his thoughts were 
 habitually fixed upon heavenly things alone ; imprisoned 
 though he was in the body, he escaped in meditation 
 beyond the barriers of the flesh ; and he came to look 
 upon death, which to nearly all men is a punishment, 
 with actual affection, as an entrance into life and the 
 reward of his labours. This was the account which he 
 was accustomed to give of himself, — not boasting of his 
 advance in virtues, but rather bewailing the deterioration 
 which he thought himself to have incurred by his pastoral 
 charge. On a private occasion, in conversation with his 
 deacon, Peter, he counted up the former virtues of his 
 soul, and then added sorrowfully ; ' But now, because of 
 this pastoral charge, it has to submit to the affairs of men 
 in the world ; and, after gaining such fair beauty in its 
 repose, it is soiled with the dust of earthly activity. And 
 
 perfectionis gratia coepit conuersari, ut, sicut ipse postea 
 flendo solebat adtestari, animo illius lal)entia cuncta sub- 
 teressent, ut rebus omnibus, quae uoluuntur, emineret, ut 
 nulla nisi caelestia cogitare soleret, ut etiam retentus corpora 
 ipsa iam carnis claustra contemplatione transiret, ut mortem 
 quoque, quae pane cunctis poena est, uidelicet ut ingressum 
 uitae, at laboris siii praemium amaret. Haac autam ipsa de 
 sa, non profectum iactando uirtutum, sad deflando potius 
 defectum, quam sibi par curam pastoralem incurrisse uidabatur, 
 referra consuerat. Denique tempore quodam secrato, cum 
 diacono suo Patro conloquans, enumaratis animi sui uirtutibus 
 priscis, mox dolendo subiunxit : ' At nunc ex occasione curae 
 pastoralis saecularium hominum nagotia patitur, et post tam 
 pulchram quietis suae spaciam terreni actus puluare fedatur.
 
 Bede's Account of Gregory. 
 
 when, out of compliance with the demands of many, it 
 has squandered itself upon outward things, then, even in 
 turning eagerly to the inward things, it comes back to 
 them a distinctly feebler soul. So I weigh what I bear, 
 and I weigh what I have parted with ; and while I look 
 at what I have lost, this load that I carry becomes 
 heavier.' 
 
 So spoke the holy man in the intensity of his great 
 humility ; but we may without presumption believe that 
 he lost nothing of his monastic perfection by reason of 
 his pastoral charge, but that, on the contrary, he made 
 greater advance by his labour for the conversion of 
 many, than he had formerly gained in the retirement of 
 his personal life. It is especially to be noted that when 
 he filled the pontifical office, he deliberately made a 
 monastery of his house ; and that when first dragged out 
 of his monastery, and ordained to the service of the 
 altar, and sent by the Apostolic See as its apocrisiarms^ 
 
 Cumque se pro condescensione multorum ad exteriora spar- 
 serit, etiam cum interiora appetit, ad haec procul dubio minor 
 redit. Perpendo itaque, quid tolero, perpendo, quid amisi; 
 dumque intueor illud, quod perdidi, fit hoc grauius, quod portc' 
 Haec quidem sanctus uir ex magnae humilitatis intentione 
 dicebat ; sed nos credere decet nihil eum monachicae per- 
 fectionis perdidisse occasione curae pastoralis, immo potiorem 
 tunc sumsisse profectum de labore conuersionis multorum, 
 quam de propriae quondam quiete conuersationis habuerat ; 
 maxime quia et pontificali functus officio domum suam monas- 
 terium facere curauit ; et dum prime de monastcrio abstractus, 
 
 ^ Apocrisiariiis, from diroKpiffn 'an answer,' means the official corre- 
 spondent or representative of the See of Rome at the imperial court of 
 Constantinople.
 
 Bedcs Account of Gregory. 5 
 
 to Constantinople, he never dropped, though sojourning 
 in an earthly palace, his pursuit of the heavenly life. 
 Some of the brethren of his monastery, out of pure 
 affection, followed him to the Imperial City ; and he 
 made them a means of securing his own observance of 
 his rule. By their example, as he himself writes, he 
 endeavoured to keep always moored with cable and 
 anchor to the quiet shore of prayer, however tossed he 
 might be with the incessant surge of worldly affairs, and 
 to strengthen his mind, which was sapped by secular 
 activities, by reading hard with them every day and 
 talking over what they read. By association, therefore, 
 with them, he was not only protected against earthly 
 encroachments, but was increasingly fired with devotion 
 to the exercises of the heavenly life. 
 
 They urged him to expound by mystical inter- 
 pretation the very obscure and difficult book of the 
 
 ad ministerium altaris ordinatus, atque Constantinopolim 
 apocrisiarius ab apostolica sede directus est, non tamen in 
 terrene conuersatus palatio propositum uitae caelestis inter- 
 misit. Nam quosdam fratrum ex monasterio sue, qui eum 
 gratia germanae caritatis ad regiam urbem secuti sunt, in 
 tutamentum coepit obseruantiae regularis habere ; uidelicet 
 ut eorum semper exemplo, sicut ipse scribit, ad orationis 
 placidum litus, quasi anchorae fune restringeretur, cum inces- 
 sabili causarum saecularium inpulsu fluctuaret, concussamque 
 saeculi actibus mentem inter eos cotidie per studiosae lectionis 
 roboraret alloquium. Horum ergo consortio non solum a 
 terrenis est munitus incursibus, uerum etiam ad caelestis 
 exercitia uitae magis magisque succensus. 
 
 Nam hortati sunt eum, ut librum beati lob magnis inuolutum 
 obscuritatibus mystica interpretatione discuteret ; neque negare
 
 Bedes Account of Gregory. 
 
 blessed Job ; and he felt unable to refuse a work which 
 brotherly love enjoined as likely to help many people. 
 Accordingly in five-and-thirty books he went through 
 the whole of that book with a wonderful system of 
 exegesis, and showed how it is to be understood literally, 
 how referred to the m}'stcries of Christ and the Church, 
 and how applied to the individual believer. This work 
 he began as apocrisiarius in the Imperial City, and 
 finished at Rome after he was made Bishop. 
 
 While he was still in the Imperial City, he crushed 
 in its very beginning, by the supernatural assistance of 
 the Catholic truth, a new heresy which there took birth, 
 concerning our resurrection state. Eutychius, Bishop of 
 that city, formulated the doctrine that our body in that 
 resurrection glory will be impalpable, and more subtle 
 than wind and air. When Gregory heard of it, he 
 proved, alike by true reasoning and by the example of 
 the Risen Lord, that this doctrine was altogether 
 
 potiiit opus, quod sibi fraternus amor multis utile futurum 
 inponebat. Sed eundem librum, quomodo iuxta litteram 
 intellegendus, qualiter ad Christi et ecclesiae sacramenta 
 referendus, quo sensu unicuique fidelium sit aptandus, per 
 XXX et V libros expositionis miranda ratione perdocuit. 
 Quod uidelicet opus in regia quidem urbe apocrisiarius 
 inchoauit, Romae autem iam pontifex factus expleuit. 
 
 Qui cum adhuc esset regia in urbe positus, nascentem ibi 
 nouam heresim de statu nostrae resurrectionis, cum ipso, quo 
 exorta est, initio, iuuante so gratia catholicae ueritatis, attriuit. 
 Siquidem Eutycius eiusdem urbis episcopus dogmatizabat 
 corpus nostrum in ilia resurrectionis gloria inpalpabile, uentis 
 aereque subtilius esse futurum ; quod ille audiens, et ratione 
 ueritatis, et exemplo dominicae resurrectionis, probauit hoc
 
 Bedes Account of Gregory. 
 
 opposed to the orthodox faith. For the CathoHc faith 
 asserts that our bodies, when sublimated by that glory 
 of immortality, will be rendered subtle, no doubt, by 
 spiritual energy, but will be palpable in their real nature ; 
 as was the case with our Lord's body, of which, in its 
 resurrection state. He said to His disciples, ' Handle Me 
 and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye 
 see Me have.' In the maintenance of this belief the 
 venerable father Gregory laboured so strenuously against 
 the newborn heresy, and demolished it with such 
 thoroughness — aided by the religious Emperor, Tiberius 
 Constantius, — that no one has ever been found since to 
 revive it. 
 
 He composed also another excellent book called 
 the ' Pastoral,' in which he set forth with luminous 
 clearness what kind of men should be chosen to 
 govern the Church, how such governors should live, 
 the different ways in which they should instruct the 
 
 dogma orthodoxae fidei omnimodis esse contrarium. Catholica 
 etenim fides habet, quod corpus nostrum ilia inmortalitatis 
 gloria sublimatum subtile quidem sit per effectum spiritalis 
 potentiae, sed palpabile per ueritatem naturae ; iuxta exemplum 
 dominici corporis, de quo a mortuis suscitato dicit ipse 
 discipulis : ' Palpate et uidete, quia spiritus carnem et ossa 
 non habet, sicut me uidetis habere.' In cuius adsertione fidei 
 uenerabilis pater Gregorius in tantum contra nascentem heresim 
 nouam laborare contendit, tanta banc instantia, iuuante etiam 
 piissimo imperatore Tiberio Constantino, conminuit, ut nuUus 
 exinde sit inuentus, qui eius resuscitator existeret. 
 
 Alium quoque librum conposuit egregium, qui uocatur 
 Pastoralis, in quo manifesta luce patefecit, quales ad ecclesiae 
 regimen adsumi, qualiter ipsi rectores uiuere, qua discretione
 
 Bcdes Account of Gregory. 
 
 various classes of their hearers, and the consideration 
 with which they ought daily to think of their own frailty. 
 Besides this, he composed forty Homilies on the Gospel, 
 which he distributed in two equal volumes. He wrote 
 four books of Dialogues, in which, at the request of his 
 deacon Peter, he collected for the practical example of 
 posterity the virtues of the most distinguished Italian 
 saints whom he had either known or heard of; so that, 
 as in his expository works he taught what virtues are to 
 be striven after, he might shew in his account of the 
 miracles of the saints, how glorious those virtues are. 
 He proved in two-and-twenty Homilies how much light 
 is contained in the opening and closing portions of the 
 prophet Ezekiel, which were felt to be obscure. I do 
 not mention here the short book which he wrote in reply 
 to the questions of St Augustine, the first Bishop of the 
 English nation ; this I have shewn above, where I have 
 
 singulas quasque audientium instruere personas, et quanta 
 consideratione propriam cotidie debeant fragilitatem pensare. 
 Sed et omelias euangelii numero XL conposuit, quas in duobus 
 codicibus aequa sorte distinxit. Libros etiam Dialogorum I III 
 fecit, in quibus, rogatu Petri diaconi sui, uirtutes sanctorum, 
 quos in Italia clariores nosse uel audire poterat, ad exemplum 
 uiuendi posteris collegit ; ut, sicut in libiis expositionum 
 suarum, quibus sit uirtutibus insudandum, edocuit, ita etiam 
 descriptis sanctorum miraculis, quae uirtutum earumdem sit 
 claritas, ostenderet. Primam quoque et ultimam Ezechielis 
 prophetae partem, quae uidebantur obscuriores, per omelias 
 XX et duas, quantum lucis intus habeant, demonstrauit. 
 Excepto libello responsionum, quem ad intcrrogationes sancti 
 Augustini i)rimi Anglorum gcntis episcopi scripsit, ut et supra 
 docuimus, totum ipsum libellum his inserentes historiis ; libello
 
 Bcdes Account of Gregory. 
 
 embodied the book whole in this History^ ; nor his very- 
 useful Libellus Synodicus, which he composed in con- 
 junction with the Italian bishops on matters of 
 importance to the Church ; nor his Letters to some of 
 his friends. It is the more wonderful that he should 
 have been able to compose so many voluminous works, 
 because during almost the whole of his early life (to use 
 his own expressions) he was constantly tortured with 
 internal pain, depressed by chronic indigestion, and 
 panting under slow but uninterrupted fevers. Yet 
 amidst all this, by resolute reflexion on the fact attested 
 in Scripture, that ' every son who is received, is scourged,' 
 the more sternly he was borne down by present afflictions, 
 the more surely he drew encouragement for his eternal 
 prospects. 
 
 I need say no more concerning his deathless genius, 
 which not even all this bodily suffering could repress. 
 Other bishops applied themselves to building churches 
 
 quoque synodico, quern cum episcopis Italiae de necessariis 
 ecclesiae causis utillimum conposuit, et familiaribus ad quosdam 
 litteris. Quod eo magis mirum est tot eum ac tanta condere 
 uolumina potuisse, quod omni pene iuuentutis suae tempore, 
 ut uerbis ipsius loquar, crebris uiscerum doloribus cruciabatur, 
 horis momentisque omnibus fracta stomachi uirtute lassescebat. 
 lentis quidem, sed tamen continuis febribus anhelabat. Uerum 
 inter haec, dum sollicitus pensaret, quia scriptura teste: 'Oninis 
 filius, qui recipitur, flagellatur'; quo malis praesentibus durius 
 deprimebatur, eo de aeterna certius praesumtione respirabat. 
 
 Haec quidem de inmortali eius siiU dicta ingenio, quod 
 nee tanto corporis potuit dolore restingui. Nam alii quidam 
 
 ^ See below, p, 67.
 
 lo Bedes Accotmt of Gregory. 
 
 and adorning them with gold and silver, but Gregory's 
 whole time was devoted to the winning of souls. 
 
 Whatever money he had possessed, with thoughtful 
 determination he ' dispersed abroad and gave to the poor,' 
 that 'his righteousness might remain for ever, and his 
 horn be exalted with honour ' ; so that he might truth- 
 fully have said with the blessed Job ; ' When the ear 
 heard me, then it blessed me... For from my youth 
 compassion grew up with me, and came forth with me 
 from my mother's womb.' 
 
 It was a part of his work of charity and righteous- 
 ness, that, by means of the preachers whom he sent 
 hither, he delivered our nation from the teeth of the 
 ancient enemy, and made it to partake of everlasting 
 liberty. His sympathetic joy in the faith and salvation 
 of England, and the generous praise with which he 
 commends it, are expressed in his Exposition of the 
 blessed Job\ ' Behold, the language of Britain, which 
 
 pontifices construendis ornandisque auro uel argento ecclesiis 
 operam dabant, hie autem totus erga animarum lucra uacabat. 
 
 Quicquid pecuniae habuerat, sedulus hoc dispergere ac 
 dare pauperibus curabat, ut iustitia eius maneret in saeculum 
 saeculi, et cornu eius exaltaretur in gloria ; ita ut illud beati 
 lob ueraciter dicere posset: 'Auris audiens beatificauit me... 
 Quia ab infantia mea creuit mecum miseratio, et de utero 
 matris meae egressa est mecum.' 
 
 Ad cuius pietatis et iustitiae opus pertinet etiam hoc, quod 
 nostram gentem per praedicatores, quos hue direxit, de dentibus 
 antiqui hostis eripiens aeternae libertatis fecit esse participem ; 
 cuius fidei et saluti congaudens, quamque digna laude com- 
 mendans, ipse dicit in Expositione beati lob : ' Ecce lingua 
 
 ^ Mora Ha in lob xxvii. ii.
 
 Bale's A ccouiit of Gregory. 1 1 
 
 knew only how to mouth out an uncouth noise, has for 
 some time past begun to resound the Hebrew Alleluia 
 in praise of God. Behold, the ocean, once so turbulent, 
 lies quiet and serviceable beneath the feet of the saints ; 
 its wild movements, which earthly princes could not 
 subjugate with the sword, are spell-bound with awe of 
 God by simple words from the lips of priests, and the 
 unbeliever who would not have dreaded troops of 
 fighting men is now a believer who fears the tongues 
 of the lowly. He has received the words of heaven ; 
 miracles have shone round him ; the knowledge of God 
 puts strength into him, and the fear of God at the same 
 time restrains him, so that he dreads to do wrong, and 
 longs with the whole force of his desire to come to the 
 grace of eternity.' In these words the blessed Gregory 
 incidentally informs us that St Augustine and his 
 companions used not only the words of preaching 
 
 Brittaniae, quae nil aliud nouerat quam barbarum frendere, 
 iam dudum in diuinis laudibus Hebreum coepit alleluia 
 resonare. Ecce quondam tumidus, iam substratus sanctorum 
 pedibus seruit oceanus, eiusque barbaros motus, quos terreni 
 principes edomare ferro nequiuerant, hos pro diuina formidine 
 sacerdotum era simplicibus uerbis ligant, et qui cateruas 
 pugnantium infidelis nequaquam metueret, iam nunc fidelis 
 humilium linguas timet. Quia enim perceptis caelestibus uer- 
 bis, clarescentibus quoque miraculis, uirtus ei diuinae cognitionis 
 infunditur, eiusdem diuinitatis terrore refrenatur, ut praue agere 
 metuat, ac totis desideriis ad aeternitatis gratiam uenire con- 
 cupiscat.' Quibus uerbis beatus Gregorius hoc quoque declarat, 
 quia sanctus Augustinus et socii eius non sola praedicatione 
 uerborum, sed etiam caelestium ostensione signorum gentem 
 Anglorum ad agnitionem ueritatis perducebant.
 
 12 Bedels Account of Gregory. 
 
 to bring the English nation to the acknowledgement of 
 the truth, but also displayed heavenly signs. 
 
 Amongst other things which he did, the blessed 
 Pope Gregory caused masses to be celebrated in the 
 churches of the Apostles St Peter and St Paul over 
 their bodies. In the celebration of the mass itself, he 
 added three sentences full of the highest perfection : 
 ' And dispose our days in Thy peace, and cause us to 
 be delivered from everlasting damnation, and to be 
 numbered in the flock of Thine elect.' 
 
 He governed the Church in the days of the 
 Emperors Maurice and Phocas. In the second year 
 of Phocas he passed away from this life, and entered 
 into the true life which is in heaven. His body was 
 buried in the Church of the blessed Apostle Peter, in 
 front of the sacristy, on the I2th of March, one day to 
 rise again in glory with the other pastors of the Holy 
 Church ; and the following epitaph was inscribed on the 
 tomb : — 
 
 Fecit inter alia beatus papa Gregorius, ut in ecclesiis 
 sanctorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli super corpora eorum 
 missae celebrarentur. Sed et in ipsa missarum celebratione 
 tria uerba maximae perfectionis plena superadiecit : ' Diesque 
 nostros in tua pace disponas, atque ab aeterna damnatione nos 
 eripi, et in electorum tuorum iubeas grege numerari.' 
 
 Rcxit autem ecclesiam temporibus imperatorum Mauricii et 
 Focatis. Secundo autem eiusdem Focatis anno transiens ex 
 hac uita, migrauit ad ueram, quae in caelis est, uitam. Sepultus 
 uero est corpore in ecclesia beati Petri apostoli, ante secre- 
 tarium, die quarto Iduum Martiaruni, quandoque in ipso cum 
 ceteris sanctae ecclesiae pastoribus resurrecturus in gloria, 
 scriptumque in tumba ipsius epitaphium huiu^modi :
 
 Bedes Account of Gregory. 13 
 
 Receive a body taken from thine oivn, 
 
 And when God quickens, give it back, O earth ; 
 The spirit, safe from death, is heavenward Jlotvn, 
 
 For dissolution was its second birth. 
 
 These shibs the bones of a Chief Pontiff hold: 
 
 He yet lives in the far-spread good he did; 
 His bounties coiujuer'd hunger and the cold, 
 
 And souls frotn helPs attack his teaching hid. 
 His practice equalVd what his preaching taught ; 
 
 Himself exemplified his doctrine true. 
 The English by his love to Christ were brought. 
 
 And faith acquired recruits in races neiv. 
 
 O Shepherd, this tvas all thy toil and care, — 
 To add the utmost to thy Master's sheep. 
 
 Thy Masters office and His triumph share! 
 Thy recompense for ever thou shall keep. 
 
 Suscipe, terra, tuo corpus de corpore sumtum, 
 
 Reddere quod ualeas uiuificante Deo. 
 Spiritus astra petit, leti nil iura nocebunt, 
 
 Cui uitae alterius mors magis ipsa uia est. 
 
 Pontificis summi hoc clauduntur membra sepulchro. 
 Qui itinu?neris semper uiuit ubique bofiis. 
 
 Esuriem dapibus superauit, frigora ueste, 
 Atqiie animas monitis texit ab hoste sacris. 
 
 Implebatque actu, quicquid sermone docebat, 
 
 Esset ut exemplwn, mystica uerba loquens. 
 Ad Christutn Afiglos conuertit pietate magistra, 
 
 Adquirens fidei agmina gente noua. 
 Hie labor, hoc studium, haec tibi cura, hoc pastor agebas, 
 
 Ut Domino offerres plurima lucra gregis. 
 Hisque Dei consul f actus laetare triumphis ; 
 
 Nam mercedem operum iam sine fine tenes.
 
 14 Bede's Accotint of Gregory. 
 
 I must not fail to mention a traditional belief 
 concerning the blessed Gregory, with regard to the 
 incident which first prompted him to take such pains 
 for the salvation of the English. It is said that one 
 day, when some merchants were newly arrived, and 
 many articles for sale were collected in the forum, and 
 many purchasers assembled, Gregory came amongst the 
 rest, and saw, amongst other objects, some boys exposed 
 for sale, with fair white bodies and attractive counte- 
 nances, and with remarkable heads of hair. When he 
 saw them, he enquired (so we are told), from what 
 district or country they were brought. He was informed 
 that it was from the island of Britain, and that that 
 was what the inhabitants were like. Again he enquired 
 whether the people of the island were Christians, or 
 were still wrapped in the errors of heathenism. He was 
 told that they were heathens. He heaved a long sigh 
 or two from his inmost heart, and said, 'Alas, the pity! 
 
 Nee silentio praetereunda opinio, quae de beato Gregorio 
 traditione maiorum ad nos usque perlata est ; qua uidelicet ex 
 causa admonitus tarn sedulam erga salutem nostrae gentis 
 curam gesserit. Dicunt, quia die quadam cum, aduenientibus 
 nuper mercatoribus, multa uenalia in forum fuissent conlata, 
 multi ad emendum confluxissent, et ipsum Gregorium inter 
 alios aduenisse, ac uidisse inter alia pueros uenales positos 
 candidi corporis, ac uenusti uultus, capillorum quoque forma 
 egregia. Quos cum aspiceret, interrogauit, ut aiunt, de qua 
 regione uel terra essent adlati. Dictumque est, quia de 
 Brittania insula, cuius incolae talis essent aspectus. Rursus 
 interrogauit, utrum idem insulani Christiani, an paganis adhuc 
 erroribus essent inplicati. Dictum est, quod essent pagani. 
 At ille, intimo ex corde longa trahens suspiria : ' Heu, pro
 
 Bede's Account of Gregory. 15 
 
 that human beings with such bright countenances should 
 be possessed by the author of darkness, and that such 
 a graceful exterior should enclose a mind destitute of 
 grace within ! ' So he enquired once more what that 
 nation was called. The answer was, ' The Angles.' 
 ' Good,' said he ; ' they have the faces of Angels ; and 
 such should be made joint heirs with the Angels in 
 heaven. What is the name of the particular province 
 these boys were brought from .''' The answer was, that 
 the people of that province were called ' Deiri.' ' Good,' 
 said he ; ' Deiri ; that means de ira eniti, snatched from 
 wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ. What is the 
 King of the province called .-* ' The answer was, ' Aelli.' 
 Playing upon the name, he said, ' Alleluia, the praise of 
 God our Maker must be sung in those parts*.' 
 
 dolor!' inquit, 'quod tarn lucidi uultus homines tenebrarum 
 auctor possidet, tantaque gratia frontispicii mentem ab interna 
 gratia uacuam gestat!' Rursus ergo interrogauit, quod esset 
 uocabulum gentis illius. Responsum est, quod Angli uoca- 
 rentur. At ille : ' Bene,' inquit ; ' nam et angelicam habent 
 faciem, et tales angelorum in caelis decet esse coheredes. 
 Quod habet nomen ipsa prouincia, de qua isti sunt adlati ? ' 
 Responsum est, quod Deiri uocarentur idem prouinciales. At 
 ille : ' Bene,' inquit, ' Deiri ; de ira eruti, et ad misericordiam 
 Christi uocati. Rex prouinciae illius quomodo appellatur?' 
 Responsum est, quod Aelli diceretur. At ille adludens ad 
 nomen ait : ' Alleluia, laudem Dei Creatons illis in partibus 
 oporlet cantari.' 
 
 ^ 'The date... is fixed between 585 and 588 by the fact that after his 
 long stay at Constantinople he returned to Rome in 5S5 or 586. ..On the 
 other hand, Aella, whom the slaves owned as their king, died in 588'; 
 Green Making of England ^. 216. According to the tradition recorded by 
 Thorn (col. 1757) the boys were three in number. The Whitby Life of 
 Gregory (which does not say that they were exposed for sale) mculions that
 
 1 6 Bedes Account of Gregory. 
 
 So he went to the Bishop of the Apostolic See of 
 Rome (he was not yet Bishop himself), and asked him 
 to send some ministers of the word to the English 
 nation in Britain, to convert them to Christ, and said 
 that he was himself prepared to accomplish the task 
 with the Lord's help, if the Apostolic Pope should be 
 pleased to have it so. As he was unable to accomplish 
 this plan — for, though the Bishop was willing to grant his 
 request, the citizens of Rome could not bring themselves 
 to permit him to withdraw to such a distance from the 
 city, — as soon as he came to discharge the office of 
 Bishop himself, he accomplished the long wished-for 
 work ; sending others indeed to preach, but helping the 
 preaching to bear fruit, by his exhortations and by his 
 prayers. This belief, received from ancient sources, I 
 have deemed it suitable to incorporate in this Church 
 History. 
 
 Accedensque ad pontificem Romanae at apostolicae sedis, 
 nondum enim erat ipse pontifex factus, rogauit, ut genti 
 Anglorum in Brittaniam aliquos uerbi ministros, per quos ad 
 Christum conuerteretur, mitieret ; se ipsum paratum esse in 
 hoc opus Domino cooperante perficiendum, si tamen apostolico 
 papae, hoc ut fieret, placeret. Quod dum perficere non posset, 
 quia, etsi pontifex concedere illi, quod petierat, uoluit, non 
 tamen ciues Romani, ut tarn longe ab urbe secederet, potuere 
 permittere ; mox ut ipse pontificatus officio functus est, perfecit 
 opus diu desideratum ; alios quidem praedicatores mittens, sed 
 ipse praedicationem ut fructificaret, suis exhortationibus ac 
 precibus adiuuans. Haec iuxta opinionem, quam ab antiquis 
 accepimus, historiae nostrae ecclesiasticae inserere opportunum 
 duximus. 
 
 'as some say, they were beautiful boys; — according to others, active, good- 
 looking young men. '
 
 First Plan of Conversion. 17 
 
 II. Gregorys first plan for the Conversion of 
 Englishmen^. 
 
 (Epist lib. VI. ind. xiv. mim. 7.) 
 
 Gregory to the presbyter Candid us, on his way to 
 the estate in Gaul. 
 
 As you are proceeding, with the assistance of our 
 Lord God, Jesus Christ, to the management of the 
 estate in Gaul, we should be glad if, with- the moneys 
 which you will receive, you would be so good as to 
 purchase garments that are worn by the poor, and also 
 
 Gregorius Candido presbytero eunii ad patriinoniiim 
 Galliae. 
 
 Pergens auxiliante Domino Deo nostro lesu Christo ad 
 patrimonium quod est in Galliis gubernandum, uolumus ut 
 dilectio tua ex solidis quos acceperit uestimenta pauperum uel 
 
 ^ I place this letter here in accordance with the arrangement of Ewald 
 and Hartmann, who date it 595, and of Haddan and Stubbs [Councils 
 and Eccl. Documents in. pp. 4, 5). I think, however, that this date 
 is questionable. The commendatory letters which follow, give the 
 impression that Candidus was sent for the first time to govern the 
 patrimony in 596, when Augustine was despatched to Britain. If that is 
 so, this plan of purchasing English boys was to go on side by side with 
 Augustine's work. 
 
 ^ Ex would in classical Latin imply that only a portion of the money 
 was to be spent on these objects ; but the reason assigned, namely that the 
 Gaulish money would not pass in Italy, seems to show that ex solidis here 
 simply means '■-with the money.' Similarly in the next line ab annis xvii 
 might mean ' from 1 7 years old upwards ' ; but it more probably means, in 
 Gregory's Latin, '(t/" seventeen or eighteen.' 
 
 M. 2
 
 1 8 First Plan of Conversion. 
 
 English boys, of the age of, seventeen or eighteen years, 
 that they may be given to God in the monasteries, to 
 their profit ; so that the GauHsh money, which in our 
 country would not pass, may be spent to good purpose 
 in the place to which it belongs. If you are able to 
 recover any of the revenues which are said to have been 
 diverted^ we should be glad if you would with them also 
 purchase garments worn by the poor, and, as we said 
 before, boys who may profit in the service of Almighty 
 God. But as those who are to be had in that country 
 are heathens, I desire that a presbyter should be sent 
 over with them, for fear of sickness occurring on the 
 journey, in order that if he sees any likely to die, he 
 may duly baptize them. Have the goodness therefore 
 to be sure to fulfil these wishes promptly and care- 
 fully. 
 
 pueros Anglos, qui sint ab annis decern et septem uel decern at 
 octo, ut in monasteriis dati Deo proficiant, comparet, quatenus 
 solidi Galliarum, qui in terra nostra expendi non possunt, apud 
 locum proprium utiliter expendantur. Si quid uero de pecuniis 
 redituum quae dicuntur ablatae recipere potueris, ex his 
 quoque uestimenta pauperum comparare te uolumus uel, sicut 
 praefati sumus, pueros qui in omnipotentis Dei seruitio pro- 
 ficiant. Sed quia pagani sunt qui illic inueniri possunt, uolo 
 ut cum eis presbyter transmittatur, ne quid aegritudinis 
 contingat in uia, ut quos morituros conspexerit debeat bapti- 
 zare. Ita igitur tua dilectio faciat, ut haec diligenter implere 
 festinet. 
 
 ^ Ducange {s. v.) treats the word ablatae as the name of a particular 
 kind of rent or tax. But it is plain, on comparison with the letters to 
 Vergilius and to Protasius (see below pp. 26, 27), that Gregory is referring 
 to moneys which had been withheld by those whose business it was to 
 collect and to pay them over.
 
 The British and the English. 19 
 
 III. Attitude of the British Christians to the 
 English before the coining of Augustine. 
 
 (Bede i. xxii.) 
 
 Among other indescribable iniquities, which their 
 historian Gildus recounts in his lamentable discourse, 
 they were guilty also of this, that they never preached 
 or delivered the word of faith to the Saxon or English 
 nation which dwelt side by side with them in Britain. 
 But the lovingkindness of God did not so abandon ' His 
 people whom He foreknew,' but that He designed for 
 that nation far worthier heralds of the truth, by whom it 
 might believe. 
 
 IV. The Mission of Augnstine and Jus companions. 
 
 (Bede i. xxiii.) 
 
 In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 582, Maurice, 
 the 54th Emperor from Augustus, began to reign, and 
 reigned 21 years. In the tenth ^ year of his reign, 
 
 Qui inter alia inenarrabilium scelerum facta, quae historicus 
 eorum Gildus flebili sermone describit, et hoc addebant, ut 
 nuraquam genti Saxonum siue Anglorum, secum Brittaniam 
 incolenti, uerbum fidei praedicando committerent. Sed non 
 tamen diuina pietas plebem suam, quam praesciuit, deseruit, 
 quin multo digniores genti memoratae praecones ueritatis, per 
 quos crederet, destinauit. 
 
 Siquidem anno ab incarnatione Domini DLXXXII 
 ]\Iauricius ab Augusto LIIII imperium suscipiens XX et I 
 
 ^ It should probably be the ninth, i.e. 590.
 
 20 TJie Mission of Augustine. 
 
 Gregory, a man of great eminence doctrinal and prac- 
 tical, received the bishopric of the Apostolic See of 
 Rome, and governed for thirteen years, six months, and 
 ten days. Impelled by a motion from God, in the 
 fourteenth year of the Emperor Maurice, and about 
 150 years after the coming of the English into Britain, 
 Gregory sent Augustine, a servant of God\ and with him 
 a number of other monks who feared the Lord, to preach 
 the word of God to the English nation. 
 
 They went to work in obedience to the pontiff's 
 command ; but they had but accomplished a small 
 portion of the journey'^, when, smitten with helpless fear, 
 they thought of returning home, instead of going on to 
 an uncivilised, a fierce, and an unbelieving nation, of 
 whose very language they were ignorant ; and taking 
 counsel together they resolved that this was the safer 
 
 annis tenuit. Cuius anno regni X Gregorius, uir doctrina 
 et actione praecipuus, pontificatum Romanae et apostolicae 
 sedis sortitus rexit annos XIII, menses VI, et dies X. Qui 
 diuino admonitus instinctu anno XIIIl eiusdem principis, 
 aduentus uero Anglorum in Brittaniam anno circiter CL, misit 
 seruum Dei Augustinum et alios plures cum eo monachos 
 timentes Dominum praedicare uerbum Dei genti Anglorum. 
 Qui cum iussis pontificalibus obtemperantes memoratum 
 opus adgredi coepissent, iamque aliquantulum itineris con- 
 fecissent, perculsi timore inerti, redire domum potius, quam 
 barbaram, feram, incredulamque gen tern, cuius ne linguam 
 quidem nossent, adire cogitabant, et hoc esse tutius communi 
 
 ^ That is, a monk. 
 
 - They had apparently got as far as the neighbourhood of Aix in 
 Provence ; see the letters to Stephen of Lerins and Proiasius of Aix given 
 below.
 
 The Mission of A iigustinc. 2 1 
 
 plan. Without delay, they sent home Augustine, — 
 whom Gregory had intended, in case they were wel- 
 comed by the English, to be ordained as their Bishop — 
 to obtain by humble entreaty from the blessed Gregory, 
 that they might not be obliged to engage upon a 
 journey so perilous, so laborious, and so uncertain. But 
 Gregory sent them a letter of exhortation, persuading 
 them to proceed to the work of the Word, and to rely 
 upon the help of God. The following is a copy of the 
 letter. 
 
 Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to the 
 
 servants of onr Lord- 
 It would have been better not to begin good things, 
 than, when they are begun, to turn back from them 
 again in thought ; and therefore, dearest sons, you 
 should earnestly endeavour to accomplish the good 
 work which with the Lord's help you have begun. Do 
 
 consilio decernebant. Nee mora, Augustinum, quern eis epi- 
 scopum ordinandum, si ab Anglis susciperentur, disposuerat, 
 domum remittunt, qui a beato Gregorio humili supplicatu 
 obtineret, ne tam periculosam, tam laboriosam, tarn incertam 
 peregrinationem adire deberent. Quibus ille exhortatorias 
 mittens litteras, in opus eos uerbi, diuino confisos auxilio, 
 proficisci suadet. Quarum uidelicet litterarum ista est forma : 
 
 Gregoriiis senilis seruorum Dei semis Domini nostri. 
 
 Quia melius fuerat bona non incipere, guam ab his, quae 
 eoepta sunt, eogitatione retrorsum redire, summo studio, dilectis- 
 simi filii, oportet, iit opus bonum, quod auxiliante Domino
 
 22 The Mission of Augustine. 
 
 not allow yourselves to be deterred by the toilsomeness 
 of the journey, nor by the tongues of evil-speaking men; 
 but with all determination and enthusiasm finish under 
 the blessing of God what you have taken up, knowing 
 that great toil is followed by the greater glory of the 
 eternal recompense. On the return of Augustine your 
 Superior*, whom we have also appointed your Abbot, 
 obey him humbly in everything ; knowing that, come 
 what may, it will be to your souls' advantage to perform 
 whatever is performed at his bidding. Almighty God 
 protect you with His grace, and grant me to see the 
 fruit of your labour in the eternal home, that although 
 I cannot join in your work, I may be found along with 
 you in the joy of the reward, because I would join in the 
 work if I could. God keep you safe, dearest sons. 
 
 coepistis, impleatis. Nee labor uos ergo iiineris, 7iec malcdicorutii 
 hominum linguae deterreant ; sed 07nni instantia, omtiique feruore, 
 qtiae inchoastis, Deo anctore peragite, scienies quod laboreni 
 magtiujH maior aeternae retributionis gloria sequitur. Remcanti 
 atitem Augustino praeposito iiestro, quein et abba/em nobis con- 
 stituimus, in omnibus huniiliter oboediie, scienies hoc uestris 
 animabus per onmia profuturum, quicquid a nobis fuerit in 
 eius adrnonitione conpletufti. Omnipotens Deus sua uos gratia 
 protegat, et uestri laboris fructum in aeterna me patria uidere 
 concedat ; quatinus etsi uobiscum labor are nequeo, simul in 
 gaudio retributionis iniieniar, quia laborare scilicet uolo. Deus 
 uos incolumes custodial, dilectissimi filii. 
 
 ^ The word may, perhaps, have here the more definite sense of Prior.
 
 Commendatory Letters. 23 
 
 V. Gregory s Letters Connnendatory of Aiigustine. 
 
 (i) To various Bishops of GanP. 
 
 (Epist. lib. VI. ind. xiv. num. 52 foil.) 
 
 Although among priests possessed of the charity 
 which pleases God, religious men require no man's recom- 
 mendation, yet as a favourable opportunity for writing 
 has occurred, we have made sure of sending a few lines 
 to you, brother, to tell you that we have despatched to 
 those parts the bringers of these presents, Augustine, a 
 servant of God, of whose earnestness we are confident, 
 along with other servants of God, for the good of souls, 
 with the Lord's help ; and your Holiness must be 
 forward to help him, with a priest's'' earnestness, and 
 to offer him the encouragements^ that he may need. 
 
 Gregorius Pelagic de Tiernis, etc. 
 
 Licet apud sacerdotes habentes Deo placitam caritatem 
 religiosi uiri nullius commendatione indigeant ; quia tamen 
 aptum scribendi se tempus ingessit, fraternitati uestrae nostra 
 niittere scripta curauimus : insinuantes Jatores praesentium 
 Augustinum seruum Dei, de cuius certi sumus studio, cum 
 aliis seruis Dei, illic nos pro utilitate animarum auxiliante 
 Domino direxisse ; quem necesse est ut sacerdotali studio 
 sanctitas uestra adiuuare et sua ei solacia praebere festinet; 
 
 1 I give these letters in the order of the Benedictine editors, followed 
 by Haddan and Stubbs. Bede gives a copy addressed to Etherius, Bishop 
 of Lyons, whom he mistakenly supposes to have been Bishop of Aries. 
 
 ^ Sacerdos, as usual in patristic Latin, means 'a bishop,' not a pres- 
 byter. 
 
 * Solacitim is used in a very wide sense. It sometimes includes even 
 that of a regular salary.
 
 24 Comvieiidatoi'y Letters. 
 
 In order that you may, possibly, be the more ready to 
 lend your support, we have charged Augustine himself 
 to explain the circumstances to you in detail ; knowing 
 that when you are aware of them, you will apply 
 yourself unreservedly for God's sake to the task of 
 encouragement, which indeed is wanted. 
 
 At the same time we commend to your kindness in 
 everything our common son, the presbyter Candidus, 
 whom we have sent to administer the poor estate which 
 belongs to our Church. 
 
 (2) To Vcrgilius, Bishop of Arks, and Metropolitan. 
 
 Although we are confident, brother, that you are 
 bent upon good works, and exert yourself spontaneously 
 in causes pleasing to God, nevertheless we think that 
 there is an advantage in addressing you with brotherly 
 charity, in order that our letter may provoke you to 
 
 cui etiam, ut promptiores ad suffragandum possitis existere, 
 causam uobis iniunximus subtiliter indicare ; scientes quod 
 ea cognita, tota iios propter Deum deuotione ad solaciandum, 
 quia res exigit, commodetis. Candidum praeterea presbyte- 
 rum communem filium quem ad gubernationem patrimonioli 
 ecclesiae nostrae transmisimus caritati uesirae in omnibus 
 commendamus. 
 
 Gregorius Vergilio Episcopo Arelatensi metropolitae. 
 
 Quamuis fraternitatem uestram bonis esse intentam operi- 
 bus et sponte se in causis exhibere Deo placitis confidamus ; 
 uerum tamen utile esse fraterna uos alloqui caritate credimus 
 ut solacia quae ultro uos decet impcndere nostiis quoque
 
 Commendatory Letters. 2$ 
 
 increase those encouragements which you would appro- 
 priately offer without being asked. And therefore we 
 inform your Holiness that we have by the Lord's 
 Providence sent to those parts, for the sake of souls, 
 Augustine, a servant of God, the bearer of these 
 presents, whose zeal and earnestness is well known to 
 us, along with other servants of God, as he will be able 
 to inform you face to face. In this matter you must 
 help him with prayer and with other aids ; and where he 
 has need, you must give him the support of your en- 
 couragements, and comfort him as is fitting with fatherly, 
 priestly consolation; so that if, as we hope, he is enabled 
 to gain anything for our God, his having enjoyed the 
 consolations of your Holiness may entitle you, who 
 unselfishly supply him with your bountiful support in 
 good works, to a share in his reward. 
 
 As being of one mind with us, brother, pray consider 
 our recommendation of the presbyter Candidus, our 
 
 prouocati epistolis augeatis. Atque ideo indicamus sanctitati 
 uestrae Augustinum seruum Dei praesentium portitorem, cuius 
 zelum at stadium bene nobis est cognitum, cum aliis seruis Dei 
 pro animarum nos illic compendio transmisisse, sicut uobis 
 ipse coram positus poterit indicare. In qua re oratione uos 
 eum et auxiliis adiuuare necesse est, atque ubi opus exegerit 
 solaciorum uestrorum ei praebere suffragia et paterna ac sacer- 
 dotali ilium consolatione sicut conuenit refouere : quatenus 
 dum sanctitatis uestrae fuerit solamina consecutus, si quid 
 Deo nostro lucri facere sicut optamus ualuerit, et uos possitis 
 pariter mercedem acquirere, qui ad bona opera suffragii uestri 
 denote copiam ministratis. 
 
 Candidum autem presbyterum communem filium et patri- 
 moniolum ecclesiae nostrae fraternitas uestra, quippe ut
 
 26 Commendatory Letters. 
 
 common son, and of tlic poor estate belonging to our 
 Church, that by your Hohness's help the poor may derive 
 some profit and maintenance from it. Your predecessor 
 held that estate for manj' years, and kept by him the 
 payments which he collected ; we beg you therefore, 
 brother, to remember to whom the property belongs, 
 and to what purposes it is employed, and, out of regard 
 for your soul, to restore it to our son Candidus aforesaid, 
 to be forwarded to us. It is a very detestable thing that 
 what has been preserved by the kings of the nations 
 should be said to have been diverted by the bishops. 
 
 (3) To Protasiiis, Bishop of Aix {in Provence). 
 
 Your great love for the blessed Peter, the Chief of 
 the Apostles, is manifested not only by your official 
 prerogative, but also by the devotion which you show in 
 reference to the interests of his Church. So we have 
 
 unanimis nobis, habere studeat commendatum, ut aliquid inde 
 pauperum alimoniis sanctitate uestra ualeat adiuuante proficere. 
 Quia igitur patrimoniolum ipsum per annos plurimos pre- 
 decessor uester tenuit et collectas apud se pensiones seruauit ; 
 fraternitas uestra cuius sint res uel quibus erogantur consideret, 
 atque eas animae suae respectii suprascripto tilio nostro Candido 
 presbytcro nobis restituat dirigendas. Nam ualde est execra- 
 bile ut quod a regibus gentium seruatum est ab episcopis 
 dicatur ablatum. 
 
 Gregorius Protasio Episcopo de Aqiiis Galliae. 
 
 Quantus in uobis beati Petri Apostolorum principis amor 
 excellat non solum officii uestri praerogatiua, sed etiam deuotio 
 quam circa utilitates ecclesiae ipsius geritis patefecit. Quam
 
 CoiiiDicndatory Letters. 2/ 
 
 learned by what Augustine, the servant of God, the 
 bringer of these presents, tells us; and we greatly rejoice 
 and give thanks for the affection and zeal for the truth 
 which is in you, because, though absent in body, you 
 show yourself in mind and soul to be with us, inasmuch 
 as you exercise towards us a brother's charity, as is fit- 
 ting. That facts may bear out what good report has told 
 of you, bid Vcrgilius, our brother and fellow-bishop, to 
 be sure to remit to us the payments which his predecessor 
 for many years got in from our poor estate and kept by 
 him ; because they are the property of the poor. If, as 
 we do not think he will, he should at all demur to doing 
 so, you know in detail the facts of the case ; you were, 
 indeed, charged at the time in that very Church with 
 the representation of the owner. Explain to him 
 accordingly how matters stand, and admonish him not 
 to keep by him what belongs to St Peter and his poor. 
 
 quia Augustine seruo Dei latere praesentium referente cog- 
 neuimus, de affectu et ueritatis studio qui in uebis est ualde 
 gaudemus et gratias agimus, quia etsi cerpere absentes mente 
 tamen et anime nebiscum ues esse monstratis : quippe erga 
 quos caritatem fraternani, ut conuenit, exhibetis. Ut igitur 
 bona quae de uobis praedicauit opinie rerum possit ueritas 
 confirmare, Uergilio fratri et ceepiscepe nestro dicite ut pen- 
 siones quas predecessor eius per annes plurimes de patri- 
 moniolo nostre percepit et apud se retinuit, ad nes, quia 
 pauperum res sunt, studeat destinare. Qui si forte aliquo se 
 mode, quod non credimus, excusare uoluent, ues qui ueritatem 
 ipsam subtilius nestis, reuera qui in ecclesia ipsa tunc tempore 
 illo curam uicedomini gerebatis, qualiter se habeat causa dis- 
 serite, et ne res sancti Petri et pauperum eius apud se retinerc
 
 28 Commendatory Letters. 
 
 And if perhaps our people should require it, do not 
 withhold your testimony in the matter, so that for your 
 devotion in deed as well as in will the blessed Apostle 
 Peter, for love of whom you thus act, may give you 
 in return his intercession both here and in the life to 
 come. 
 
 We earnestly commend to your Holiness our com- 
 mon son, the presbyter Candidus, to whom we have 
 entrusted the estate. 
 
 (4) To StepJieJi, A bbot of Lerins. 
 
 \\'e were rejoiced by the account which Augustine, 
 the servant of God, the bearer of these presents, gave 
 us, when he related that you, kind Sir, are, as you should 
 be, on the watch, affirming also that the presbyters and 
 deacons and the whole congregation are living together 
 in unanimity and concord. And because the goodness 
 of the Superior is a wholesome rule to those under them, 
 
 debeat inminete. Sed et si fortasse hominibus nostris necesse 
 fuerit, uestrum in causa testimonium non negate, ut tam pro 
 ueritate quam pro uoluntatis uestrae deuotione beatus Petrus 
 Apostolus, cuius amore haec facitis, sua uobis et hie et in futura 
 uita intercessione respondeat. Candidum presbyterum com- 
 munem filium, cui patrimoniolum ipsum commisimus, sanctitati 
 uestrae magnopere commendamus. 
 
 Gregorius Stephana Abbati Lirinensi. 
 
 Laetos nos relatio Augustini serui Dei praesentium porti- 
 toris effecit, quod dilectionem tuam ut oportet uigilantem esse 
 narrauit, dcnique ut presbyteros et diacones cunctamque 
 congregationem unanimes uiuere ac Concordes affirmet. Et 
 quoniam praepositorum bonitas subiectorum salubris est regula,
 
 Cornniendatory Letters. 29 
 
 we pray Almighty God always to set you on fire in good 
 works by the grace of His lovingkindncss, and to keep 
 those committed to you from every temptation of the 
 fraud of the devil, and to grant that they may live in 
 charity with you, and in a conversation pleasing to 
 Himself. Because, however, the enemy of mankind 
 never rests from laying wait for good actions, but strives 
 assiduously and cunningly to deceive in every direction 
 souls which serve God, therefore, dearest son, we exhort 
 you to exert your care with watchfulness, and so to keep 
 those committed to you by prayer and prudent heed, 
 that the prowling wolf may find no opportunity to tear; 
 and thus, upon your rendering safe to our God those 
 whom you have received in charge, He may both pay 
 you by His grace the rewards of your toil, and may 
 give you many times over your desires for the life 
 eternal. 
 
 The spoons and plates which you despatched have 
 come safely to hand, and we thank your charity ; 
 
 omnipotentem Dominum deprecamur, ut in bonis te semper 
 operibus gratia suae pietatis accendat, et commissos tibi ab 
 omni diabolicae fraudis temptatione custodiat, et tecum in 
 caritate et placita sibi uiuere conuersatione concedat. Quia 
 ergo humani generis inimicus insidiari bonis actibus non 
 quiescit, sed assidua calliditate hoc nititur ut Deo seruientes 
 animas in qualibet parte decipiat ; ideoque, dilectissime fili, 
 hortamur ut sollicitudinem tuam uigilanter exerceas, et ita 
 commissos tibi oratione et cura prouidenti custodias, ut lupus 
 circumiens nullam dilaniandi occasionem inueniat : quatenus 
 dum Deo nostro incolumes quorum suscepisti curam reddideris 
 et praemia labori tuo gratia sua respondeat et tibi aeternae uitae 
 desiderata multiplicet. Cocleares uero et circulos quos direxisti
 
 30 Commendatory Letters. 
 
 because you have shown how you love the poor, by 
 sending for their use the articles which they require. 
 
 (5) To Arigius, Patrician of Gaul. 
 
 What goodness, and kindliness, together with the 
 charity which is pleasing to Christ, is conspicuous in 
 you, we have learned by the bringer of these presents, 
 Augustine, the servant of God ; and we thank Almighty 
 God, who has bestowed these gifts of His lovingkindncss 
 upon you, to make you very praiseworthy among men, 
 and in His own sight — the thing which is of true 
 advantage — glorious. Therefore we pray that He who 
 has bestowed these gifts may multiply them upon 
 you, and may keep you and all yours in His pro- 
 tection, and may so govern the action of your Lordship 
 in this world, that it may profit you both here, and 
 (what is more to be desired) in the life to come. So we 
 
 suscepimus at caritati tuae gratias agimus : quia qualiter pau- 
 peres diligas ostendisti qui ad usus eorum quae sunt necessaria 
 direxisti. 
 
 Gregorius Arigio Patricio de Gallia. 
 
 Quanta in nobis bonitas, quantaque mansuetudo cum 
 Christo placita caritate resplendeat, latore praesentium Augus- 
 tine seruo Dei referente comperimus, atque omnipotenti Deo 
 gratias agimus qui haec in uobis pietatis suae dona concessit 
 per quae inter homines ualde laudabiles et ante conspectum 
 ipsius, quod est ueraciter utile, gloriosi possitis existere. 
 Oramus ergo ut haec in uobis qui concessit dona multiplicet 
 €t sua uos cum omnibus uestris protectione custodiat, et 
 ita in hoc saeculo actionem gloriae uestrae disponat ut et hie 
 uobis et in futura, quod niagis optandum est, uita proficiat.
 
 Coninundatoiy Letters. 31 
 
 greet your Lordship with a father's tenderness, and beg 
 that the bringer of these presents, and the servants of 
 God who accompany him, may obtain encouragement 
 from you where they may stand in need of it, so that 
 finding your favour he may be able the better to fulfil, 
 with the Lord's help, the duties laid upon him. 
 
 (6) To the brothers Theoderic and Theodebert, Kings 
 of the Franks. 
 
 Ever since Almighty God adorned your kingdom 
 with orthodoxy in the faith, and made it remarkable 
 among other nations for its integrity in the Christian 
 religion, we have formed great expectations of you, 
 because you desire your subjects to be completely 
 converted to that faith, in which you, their Kings and 
 Lords, yourselves are. And so it has reached us that 
 the English nation, by the mercy of God, desires 
 
 Salutantes itaque gloriam uestram paterna dulcedine petimus 
 ut lator praesentium, et serui Dei qui cum eo sunt, uestra 
 in quibus necesse fuerit solacia consequantur, quatenus dum 
 uestrum fauorem inuenerit, iniuncta sibi melius adiuuante 
 Domino ualeat adimplere. 
 
 Gregorius Thcoderico et Theodehcrto fratribus, Regibus 
 Francoruin^ a paribus. 
 
 Postquam Deus omnipotens regnum uestrum fidei rectitu- 
 dine decorauit, et integritate Christianae religionis inter gentes 
 alias fecit esse conspicuum, magnam de uobis materiam 
 praesumendi concepimus, quod subiectos uestros ad earn 
 conuerti fidem per omnia cupiatis, in qua eorum nempe estis 
 reges et domini. Atque ideo peruenit ad nos, Anglorum
 
 32 Couiviendatory Letters. 
 
 earnestly to be converted to the Christian faith, but 
 that the priests in the neighbourhood take no notice, 
 and hang back from kindling the desires of the English 
 by exhortations of their own^ To meet this need, 
 therefore, we have arranged for the despatch of 
 Augustine, the servant of God, the bearer of these 
 presents, into those parts, whose zeal and earnestness 
 are well known to us, along with other servants of God. 
 We have also instructed them to take with them some 
 presbyters from the neighbourhood, with whose help 
 they may be able to find out what the English mean, 
 and to assist them by their advice, as far as God may 
 permit, in making up their minds. In order that they 
 may present an effective and suitable appearance in this 
 
 gentem ad fidem Christianam, Deo miserante, desideranter 
 uelle conuerti, sed sacerdotes e uicino neglegere, et desideria 
 eorum cessare sua adhortatione succendere. Ob hoc igitur 
 Augustinum seruum Dei praesentium portitorem, cuius zelum 
 et studium bene nobis est cognitum, cum aliis seruis Dei illuc 
 praeuidimus dirigendum. Quibus etiam iniunximus, ut aliquos 
 secum e uicino debeant presbyteros ducere, cum quibus eorum 
 possint mentes agnoscere, et uoluntates admonitione sua, 
 (juantum Deus donauerit, adiuuare. In qua re ut efficaces 
 ualeant atque idonei apparere, excellentiam uestram salutantes 
 
 ^ This and the following leUer are the only indications we have of any 
 movement on the part of the English to call forth Gregory's efforts. It is 
 by no means impossible that there was such a movement, though we have 
 no information with regard to the particular quarter from which it pro- 
 ceeded, or to the form which it took. Evidently Bede knew nothing of it. 
 'The priests (i.e. bishops) in the neighbourhood ' whom Gregory blames, 
 are not the British (or, as Ilartmann thinks, the Irish) bishops, but those of 
 Gaul. His commendatory letters to them, here given, contain many hints 
 that the work was not one with which he thought them likely to sympathize.
 
 Commendatory Letters. 33 
 
 matter, we beseech your Highnesses (whom we greet 
 with a father's love) that our missionaries may obtain 
 your gracious favour. And because it is for the sake of 
 souls, we beg that your power may defend and aid them, 
 in order that Almighty God, who sees that in His 
 cause you bestow your encouragements with an un- 
 stinting mind and with all your might, may direct 
 your interests with His mercy, and after your earthly 
 sovereignty may bring you to the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 (7) To Brunichilda, Queen of the Franks \ 
 
 The Christianity of your Highness has for a long 
 time been so truly made known to us, that we do not at 
 all doubt of your goodness, but are perfectly sure that 
 in the cause of faith you will go along with us heart and 
 soul, and will abundantly supply the encouragements of 
 
 paterna caritate quaesumus, ut hi quos direximus fauoris 
 uestri inuenire gratiam mereantur. Et quia animarum causa 
 est, uestra eos potestas tueatur et adiuuet, ut Deus omnipotens, 
 qui uos in causa sua deuota mente et toto studio solaciari 
 cognoscit, causas uestras sua propitiatione disponat, et post 
 terrenam potestatem ad caelestia uos regna perducat. 
 
 Gregorius Briiiikhildae Reginae Francoriim. 
 
 Excellentiae uestrae Christianitas ita nobis ueraciter olim 
 innotuit, ut de bonitate eius nullatenus dubitemus, sed magis 
 certum modis omnibus teneamus, quia in causa fidei deuote 
 et studiose concurrat, et religiosae sinceritatis suae solacia 
 
 ' This wicked woman, of whom Gregory always makes the best, was 
 aunt by marriage to Bertha, Queen of Kent.
 
 34 Commendatory Letters. 
 
 your religious sincerity. With good confidence, therefore, 
 we greet you with a father's love, and inform you that it 
 has reached us, that the English nation, by God's favour, 
 desires to become Christian, but that the priests who 
 are in the neighbourhood have no pastoral solicitude 
 for them. Lest their souls should perish in eternal 
 damnation, we have taken pains to despatch thither 
 the bearer of these presents, Augustine, a servant of 
 God, whose zeal and earnestness is well known to us, 
 along with other servants of God, in order that by their 
 agency we might ascertain more fully the minds of the 
 English, and might to the best of our power, with your 
 cooperation, take thought for their conversion. We 
 have also instructed them to take with them presbyters 
 from the neighbourhood with a view to this work. 
 Your Highness is well accustomed to be inclined to 
 good works ; and both for our asking, and in considera- 
 tion of the fear of God, we trust that you will graciously 
 
 copiosissime subministret. Ex qua re bene confidentes paterna 
 caritate salutantes indicamus ad nos peruenisse, Anglorum 
 gentem, Deo annuente, uelle fieri Christianam, sed sacerdotes, 
 qui in uicino sunt, pastoralem erga eos sollicitudinem non 
 habere. Quorum ne animae in aeterna damnatione ualeant 
 deperire, curae nobis fuit praesentium portitorem Augustinum 
 seruum Dei, cuius zelum et studium bene nobis est cognitum, 
 cum aliis seruis Dei illic dirigere, ut per eos ipsorum potuis- 
 semus uoluntates addiscere, et de eorum conuersione, nobis 
 quoque annitentibus, in quantum est possibile, cogitare. Qui- 
 bus etiam iniunximus, ut ad agenda haec e uicino secum 
 debeant presbyteros ducere. Excellentia ergo uestra, quae 
 prona in bonis esse consueuit operibus, tarn pro nostra 
 petitione, quam etiam diuini timoris consideratione, eum
 
 Augustine readies England. 35 
 
 consider Augustine as in every way commended to you, 
 and that you will strenuously give him the favour of your 
 protection, and bestow upon his work the aid of your 
 patronage ; and in order that he may obtain his 
 recompense to the fullest extent, we beg that you will 
 see that under your protection he reaches the English 
 nation in safety ; so that our God, who in this world has 
 adorned you with good qualities pleasing to Him, may 
 make you also to give thanks in eternal rest with His 
 saints. 
 
 VI. The Arrival of Augustine in England. 
 
 (Bede i. xxv.) 
 
 Fortified therefore by the encouragement of the 
 blessed father Gregory, Augustine, with the servants of 
 Christ who accompanied him, returned to the work of 
 the Word ; and he reached Britain. There was at that 
 time a very powerful king in Kent, named Ethelbert, 
 who had extended the bounds of his empire as far as to 
 
 dignetur habere in omnibus commendatum, atque ei tuitionis 
 suae gratiam uehementer impendat, et labori eius patrocinii sui 
 ferat auxilium : et ut plenissime possit habere mercedem, ad 
 suprascriptam Anglorum gentem sua tuitione securum ire 
 prouideat : quatenus Deus noster, qui in hoc uos saeculo bonis 
 sibi placitis decorauit, idem et in aeterna requie cum suis uos 
 Sanctis faciat gratulari. 
 
 Roboratus ergo conlirmatione beati patris Gregorii, Augus- 
 tinus cum famulis Christi, qui erant cum eo, rediit in opus 
 uerbi, peruenitque Brittaniam. Erat eo tempore rex Aedilberct 
 in Cantia potentibsimus, qui ad confmium usque Humbrae 
 
 3—2
 
 36 Augustine's arrival in 
 
 the great river Humber, which divides the Southern 
 Engh'sh from the Northern \ Upon the eastern coast of 
 Kent, there is an island, called Thanet, of considerable 
 size, — that is to say, according to the usual English 
 reckoning, of six hundred families, — separated from the 
 mainland by the river Wantsome, which is about three 
 furlongs broad and only to be crossed in two places : it 
 pushes both heads into the sea^ Upon this island 
 Augustine, the servant of the Lord, came ashore", and 
 his companions, said to have numbered about forty men. 
 They had taken, as they were bidden by the blessed 
 Pope Gregory, interpreters of Frank nationality^; and 
 
 fluminis maximi, quo meridiani et septentrionales Anglorum 
 populi dirimuntur, fines imperii tetenderat. Est autem ad 
 orientalem Cantiae plagam Tanatos insula non modica, id est 
 magnitudinis iuxta consuetudinem aestimationis Anglorum, 
 familiarum DC™'", quam a continenti terra secernit fluuius 
 Uantsumu, qui est latitudinis circiter trium stadiorum, et 
 duobus tantum in locis est transmeabilis ; utrumque enim 
 caput protendit in mare. In hac ergo adplicuit seruus Domini 
 Augustinus, et socii eius, uiri, ut ferunt, ferme XL. Acceperunt 
 autem, praecipiente beato papa Gregorio, de gente Francorum 
 
 ^ Not that Ethelbert was actually king over all that territory, but was 
 recognised as Bretwalda, or overlord, by the other potentates. 
 
 * This difficult expression seems intended to explain how a river could 
 separate an island from the mainland. 
 
 ^ Either at Ebbsfleet or at Kichborough ; see Dissertation ni. 
 
 •* See the letters of Gregory to Theoderic and Theodebert, and to 
 Brunichilda, given above. Probably it is not intended to imply that the 
 language of the Jutes of Kent and that of the Franks of Gaul were nearly 
 identical, but that presumably some clergymen could be found on the 
 Gaulish side of the channel who had learned the language of their island 
 neighbours.
 
 the Isle of Thanet. 37 
 
 Augustine sent to Ethelbert informing him that he was 
 come from Rome, and that he brought the best of mes- 
 sages, which promised with absolute certainty to those 
 who obeyed it eternal joys in heaven, and that they 
 should reign without end with the living and true God. 
 When Ethelbert heard it, he ordered them to remain in 
 the island to which they had gone, and necessaries to be 
 supplied to them until he saw what to do with them. 
 For it was not the first time that he had heard of the 
 Christian religion ; because in fact he had a Christian 
 wife, of the royal family of the Franks, by name Bertha*; 
 who had been given to him by her parents on the under- 
 standing that she should be allowed to maintain without 
 interference the system of her faith and religion, as well 
 as a bishop named Liudhard", whom they had given her 
 as a helper of her faith. 
 
 interpretes ; et mittens ad Aedilberctum mandauit se uenisse 
 de Roma, ac nuntium ferre optimum, qui sibi obtemperantibus 
 aeterna in caelis gaudia, et regnum sine fine cum Deo uiuo 
 et uero futurum sine ulla dubietate promitteret. Qui, haec 
 audiens, manere illos in ea, quam adierant, insula, et eis 
 necessaria ministrari, donee uideret, quid eis faceret, iussit. 
 Nam et antea fama ad eum Christianae religionis peruenerat, 
 utpote qui et uxorem habebat Christianam de gente Francorum 
 regia, uocabulo Bercta; quam ea condicione a parentibus 
 acceperat, ut ritum fidei ac religionis suae cum episcopo, quem 
 ei adiutorem fidei dederant, nomine Liudhardo, inuiolatum 
 seruare licentiam haberet. 
 
 ^ She was the daughter of Charibert, King of Paris (see Gregory of 
 Tours iv. 26). 
 
 2 He was Bishop of Senlis, according to Thorn, col. 1767.
 
 38 First Interview 
 
 Accordingly, after some days, the King came to the 
 island ; and taking his seat in the open air he ordered 
 Augustine with his companions to come and confer with 
 him there \ He had been careful not to let them 
 approach him in any house, in obedience to an old saw, 
 for fear that if they had any witchcraft, they might, on 
 their entrance, get the better of him and cheat him. 
 But they, endowed with Divine power, not with that of 
 devils, came carrying as a standard a silver cross, and a 
 picture of our Lord and Saviour painted on a panel ; 
 and as they came they sang litanies entreating the Lord 
 for their own eternal salvation and that of those for 
 whom and to whom they were come. And when at 
 the King's bidding they sat and preached the word of 
 life to him and to all his courtiers present-, the King 
 
 Post dies ergo uenit ad insulam rex, et residens sub diuo, 
 iussit Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem aduenire collo- 
 quium. Cauerat enim, ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, 
 uetere usus augurio, ne superuentu sue, siquid malificae artis 
 habuissent, eum superando deciperent. At illi non daemonica, 
 sed diuina uirtute praediti, ueniebant crucem pro uexillo 
 ferentes argenteam, et imaginem Domini Saluatoris in tabula 
 depictam, laetaniasque canentes pro sua simul et eorum, 
 propter quos et ad quos uenerant, salute aeterna, Domino 
 supplicabant. Cumque ad iussionem regis residentes uer- 
 bum ei uitae una cum omnibus, qui aderant, eius comitibus 
 
 1 If the first conference between Ethelbert and Augustine took place at 
 Richborough, as is said, it can only be because Richborough was regarded 
 as being in Thanet. 
 
 2 According to Aelfric Horn. ii. iif), Augustine declared 'how the 
 merciful Saviour with His own sufferings redeemed this guilty world, and 
 opened an entrance into the kingdom of heaven to faithful men.'
 
 with King Ethelbert. 39 
 
 replied, saying: "They are certainly beautiful words 
 and promises that you bring ; but because they are new 
 and unproved, I cannot give my adhesion to them and 
 abandon what I have so long held in common with the 
 whole English race. But as you are strangers and 
 have come a long way to this country, and, unless my 
 observation deceives me, your desire was to impart to 
 us also what you yourselves believed to be true and 
 good, we do not wish to be unkind to you ; on the 
 contrary, we make a point of welcoming you with 
 friendly hospitality, and of supplying you with what you 
 need for your maintenance ; and we put no hindrance 
 in the way of your attaching all the adherents you can 
 to your religious faith by means of your preaching." 
 Accordingly he gave them a lodging in the city of 
 Canterbury*, which was the capital of his whole empire ; 
 
 praedicarent, respondit ille dicens : ' Pulchra sunt quidem uerba 
 et promissa, quae adfertis ; sed quia noua sunt et incerta, non his 
 possum adsensum tribuere, relictis eis, quae tanto tempore cum 
 omni Anglorum gente seruaui. Uerum quia de longe hue 
 peregrini uenistis, et, ut ego mihi uideor perspexisse, ea, quae 
 uos uera et optima credebatis, nobis quoque communicare 
 desiderastis, nolumus molesti esse nobis ; quin potius benigno 
 uos hospitio recipere, et, quae uictui sunt uestro necessaria, 
 ministrare curamus; nee prohibemus, quin omnes, quos potestis, 
 fidei uestrae religionis praedicando societis.' Dedit ergo eis 
 mansionem in ciuitate Doruuernensi, quae imperii sui totius 
 erat metropolis, eisque, ut promiserat, cum administratione 
 
 1 Thorn (col. 1759) says it was 'in the parish of St Alphege, on the 
 other side of Palace Street, towards the north.' He adds that a place 
 called Stablegate, formerly a royal place of pagan worship, was pointed out 
 as their lodging. It is now known as the "borough" of Slaplegate.
 
 40 Early Days 
 
 and, as he had promised, he suppHed their bodily wants, 
 and did not withhold from them leave to preach. The 
 story goes, that, as they approached the city, according 
 to their custom, with the holy Cross and the picture of 
 the great King, our Lord Jesus Christ, they intoned in 
 unison this litany : " We beseech Thee, O Lord, in all 
 Thy mercy, that Thy fury and Thine anger may be 
 taken away from this city, and from Thy holy house ; 
 because we have sinned. Alleluia^" 
 
 VII. The Conversion of Ethelbcrt. 
 
 (Bade i. xxvi.) 
 
 As soon as they had entered upon the lodging 
 assigned to them, they began to imitate the apostolic 
 life of the early Church ; serving God with continual 
 prayers, watchings, and fastings ; preaching the word of 
 
 uictus temporalis licentiam quoque praedicandi non abstulit. 
 Fertur autem, quia adpropinquantes ciuitati, more sue cum 
 cruce sancta at imagine magni regis Domini nostri lesu Christi 
 banc laetaniam consona uoce modularentur : ' Deprecamur te, 
 Domine, in omni misericordia tua, ut auferatur furor tuus at ira 
 tua a ciuitate ista, et de dome sancta tua, quoniam peccauimus. 
 Alleluia.' 
 
 At ubi datam sibi mansionem intrauerant, coaperunt 
 apostolicam primitiuae acclesiae uitam imitari ; orationibus 
 uidelicet assiduis, uigiliis ac ieiuniis seruiendo, uerbum uitae, 
 
 ^ See Dissertation iv. p. 235.
 
 in Canterbury. 41 
 
 life to those whom they could reach ; putting away all the 
 things of this world as no concern of theirs ; receiving 
 from those whom they were teaching nothing but what 
 was thought necessary for their life ; themselves in all 
 points living in accordance with what they taught, and 
 having a mind ready to suffer any adversities, and even 
 to die, for the truth which they preached. To make a 
 long story short, a good number believed and were 
 baptized, wondering at their simple and innocent lives, 
 and at the charm of their heavenly doctrine. There 
 was near the city, on the eastern side, a church erected 
 in old days, while the Romans were still in Britain, in 
 honour of St Martin, where the Queen, who was (as we 
 have said) a Christian, was accustomed to pray. In this 
 church the missionaries also at the outset assembled, to 
 sing, to pray, to celebrate their masses, to preach, and to 
 baptize ; until, upon the King's conversion to the faith, 
 
 quibus poterant, praedicando, cuncta huius mundi uelut aliena 
 spernendo, ea tantum, quae uictui necessaria uidebantur, ab 
 eis, quos docebant, accipiendo, secundum ea, quae docebant, 
 ipsi per omnia uiuendo, et paratum ad patiendum aduersa 
 quaeque, uel etiam morienduin pro ea, quam praedicabant, 
 ueritate animum habendo. Quid mora.? Crediderunt non- 
 nuUi et baptizabantur, mirantes simplicitatem innocentis uitae, 
 ac dulcedinem doctrinae eorum caelestis. Erat autem prope 
 ipsam ciuitatem ad orientem ecclesia in honorem sancti 
 Martini antiquitus facta, dum adhuc Romani Brittaniam in- 
 colerent, in qua regina, quam Christianam fuisse praediximus, 
 orare consuerat. In hac ergo et ipsi prime conuenire, psallere, 
 orare, missas facere, praedicare, et baptizare coeperunt; donee, 
 rege ad fidem conuerso, maiorem praedicandi per omnia, et 
 ecclesias fabricandi uel restaurandi licentiam acciperent.
 
 42 Co7iversion of EtJielbert. 
 
 they received a wider permission to preach at large, and 
 to build and restore churches. 
 
 Among the rest the King himself was charmed by 
 the pure life of the holy men, and by their attractive 
 promises, the truth of which they had confirmed by 
 showing many miracles. He believed and was baptized\ 
 Thereupon, larger numbers began to congregate day by 
 day to hear the word, and forsook the heathen system 
 to attach themselves as believers to the unity of Christ's 
 holy Church. Thankful as the King was at their faith 
 and conversion, it is said that he would compel no man 
 to embrace Christianity ; only he met believers with a 
 specially close affection, as being fellow-citizens with 
 him in the kingdom of heaven ; for he had learned 
 from the teachers to whom he owed his own salvation, 
 that the service of Christ must be free, and not of 
 constraint. He was not long before he presented those 
 teachers with a place of settlement suitable to their 
 
 At ubi ipse etiam inter alios delectatus uita mundissima 
 sanctorum, et promissis eorum suauissimis, quae uera esse 
 miraculorum quoque multorum ostensione firmauerant, credens 
 baptizatus est, coepere plures cotidie ad audiendum uerbum 
 confluere, ac, relicto gentilitatis ritu, unitati se sanctae Christi 
 ecclesiae credendo sociare. Quorum fidei et conuersioni ita 
 congratulatus esse rex perhibetur, ut nullum tamen cogeret ad 
 Christianismum; sed tantummodo credentes artiori dilectione, 
 quasi conciues sibi regni caelestis, amplecteretur. Didicerat 
 enim a doctoribus auctoribusque suae salutis seruitium Christi 
 uoluntarium, non coacticium esse debere. Nee distulit, quin 
 etiam ipsis doctoribus suis locum sedis eorum gradui congruum 
 
 1 The traditional date is given by Thorn as Whitsunday, which was 
 in 597, June 2.
 
 Consecration of A tigiistine. 43 
 
 condition in his capital of Canterbury, and conferred 
 upon them possessions of various kinds which they 
 required. 
 
 VIII. Augustine s Consecration. 
 
 (Bede i. xxvii.) 
 
 Meanwhile the man of the Lord, Augustine, went 
 to Aries ; and in accordance with instructions received 
 from the holy father Gregory, was consecrated by 
 Aetherius', Archbishop of that city, to be Archbishop 
 of the English nation ; and upon his return to Britain 
 he immediately despatched the presbyter Lawrence and 
 the monk Peter to Rome, to inform the blessed pontiff 
 Gregory that the English nation had adopted the 
 Christian faith, and that he had been made bishop. At 
 the same time he craved his judgment upon certain 
 topics which appeared to be important. 
 
 in Doruuerni metropoli sua donaret, simul at necessarias in 
 diuersis speciebus possessiones conferret. 
 
 Interea uir Domini Augustinus uenit Arelas, et ab archi- 
 episcopo eiusdem ciuitatis Aetherio, iuxta quod iussa sancti 
 patris Gregorii acceperant, archiepiscopus genti Anglorum 
 ordinatus est; reuersusque Brittaniam misit continue Romam 
 Laurentium presbyterum et Petrum monachum, qui beato 
 pontifici Gregorio gentem Anglorum fidem Christi suscepisse, 
 ac se episcopum factum esse referrent; simul et de eis, quae 
 necessariae uidebantur, quaestionibus eius consulta flagitans. 
 
 1 This is a mistake. The name should be Vergilius ; cf. p. •24. It 
 seems a curious thing that Augustine should not have sent messengers from 
 
 Aries, instead of waiting till his return to England.
 
 44 Gregory's Letters about the 
 
 IX. Letters of Gregory relating to the first successes 
 of the EnglisJi Mission. 
 
 ( I ) To Eulogins, Bishop of A lexandria. 
 
 (Epist. lib. VIII. ind. i. num. 30.) 
 
 As you not only do good yourself, but rejoice to 
 hear of it in others, I repay your favour in kind, and tell 
 you a tale not unlike your own. The English race, 
 situated in the far corner of the world, has hitherto 
 remained in unbelief, worshipping stocks and stones ; 
 but aided by your prayers I made up my mind (it was 
 God who prompted me) to send a monk of my own 
 monastery to them to preach'. With my leave, he was 
 made a bishop by the bishops of Germany'^, and, with 
 
 Gregorius Eulogio Episcopo Alexandrine. 
 
 Sed quoniam uere in bonis quae agitis accrescit quod et 
 aliis congaudetis, uestrae uobis gratiae uicem reddo et non 
 dissimilia nuntio, quia dum gens Anglorum in mundi angulo 
 posita in cultu lignorum ac lapidum perfida nunc usque 
 remaneret, e.x uestrae mihi orationis adiutorio placuit ut ad 
 earn monasterii mei monachum in praedicationem transmittere 
 Deo auctore debuissem. Qui data a me licentia a Germaniarum 
 
 ^ Augustine had been praeposittis, or prior, of the monastery of 
 St Andrew on the Caelian Hill, founded by St Gregory (Paul. Diac. Vit. 
 Gr^i- § 4)- See the letter to Syagrius on p. 46. 
 
 ^ A very loose description of the province of Aries, which was in the 
 kingdom of Burgundy. But the Benedictine editors refer to Apoll. Sidon. 
 V. 7, who describes the province of Lyons, on account of the German origin 
 of the Burgundians, as LjigJunensis Germania.
 
 First Successes of the Mission. 45 
 
 their encouragement, reached that nation at the end of 
 the world. And now letters have just arrived telling us 
 of his safety and of his work. They show that he and 
 those who were sent out with him shine amongst that 
 nation with such miracles that they seem to imitate the 
 mighty works of the Apostles in the signs which they 
 display. And at Christmas last more than ten thousand 
 English people, we are informed, were baptized by our 
 brother and fellow-bishop. I tell you this that you may 
 know not only what your words are doing at Alexandria, 
 but also what your prayers are doing at the world's end. 
 For your prayers are where you are not ; your holy 
 works are evident where you are. 
 
 episcopis episcopus factus cum eorum quoque solaciis ad 
 praedictam gentem in fine mundi perductus est, et iam nunc 
 de eius salute et opere ad nos scripta peruenerunt, quia tantis 
 miraculis uel ipse uel hi qui cum eo transmissi sunt, in gente 
 eadem coruscant, ut Apostolorum uirtutes in signis quae 
 exhibent imitari uideantur. In solemnitate autem Dominicae 
 Natiuitatis quae hac prima indictione transacta est plus quam 
 decem millia Angli ab eodem nunciati sunt fratre et coepiscopo 
 nostro baptizari. Quod idcirco narraui ut cognoscatis quid in 
 Alexandrine populo loquendo et quid in mundi finibus agitis 
 orando. Uestrae enim orationes sunt in eo loco ubi non estis, 
 quorum operationes sanctae monstrantur in eo loco in quo 
 estis.
 
 46 Gregory s Letters about the 
 
 (2) To Syagruis, Bishop of A 21 tun. 
 
 (Epist. lib. IX. ind. ii. num. loS.) 
 
 Because in the missionary work which, after long 
 thought, I have endeavoured to expend upon the English 
 nation by the agency of Augustine, at that time prior of 
 my monastery, now my brother and fellow-bishop, we 
 have found you, as was meet, so painstaking and earnest, 
 and such a help in everything as to make me greatly 
 indebted to you in this matter, brother ; — prompted by 
 this consideration, not to seem ungrateful towards you, 
 I could not on any account bear to delay your brotherly 
 request. Therefore in accordance with your desire and 
 petition, we have determined with God's assistance that 
 you should be distinguished by the use of the palP, 
 which you may wear within your own church, at the 
 sacred solemnity of the celebration of the mass and not 
 
 Gregorius Syagrio Episcopo Augustodensi. 
 
 Quia igitur in praedicationis opera quam diu cogitans 
 Anglorum genti per Augustinum tunc monasterii mei prae- 
 positum, nunc fratrem et coepiscopum nostrum, impendere 
 studui, ita soUicitum atque deuotum adiutoremque in omnibus 
 te, ut oportuit, fuisse cognouimus ut magnum me sibi frater- 
 nitas tua hac de re faceret debitorem. Tantae rei consideratione 
 commonitus, ne infructuosus erga te uidere existere, fraternitatis 
 tuae petitionem nulla pertuli ratione postponere. Proinde 
 secundum postulationis tuae desiderium pallii te usu quod 
 intra ecclesiam tuam habere debeas ad sacra tantum missarum 
 
 ^ As this passage shows, the pall was an honorary compliment, and not 
 
 a mark of jurisdiction.
 
 First Successes of the Mission. 47 
 
 otherwise '...And lest the grant of that vestment should 
 seem to be an empty grant, we have resolved at the same 
 time to concede that (always reserving the place and 
 honour of the metropolitan) the Church of the city of 
 Autun, over which it has pleased Almighty God to set 
 you, should be next after that of Lyons, and should by 
 our authoritative permission maintain that rank and 
 position, while the rest of the bishops are by our 
 decree to take their proper places whether for sitting 
 in council, or signing, or whatsoever it may be, according 
 to seniority of consecration. 
 
 (3) To BninicJiilda. 
 
 (Epist. lib. IX. ind. ii. num. 11.) 
 We have heard what Syagrius has done in the case 
 of our brother Augustine, and we bless our Redeemer, 
 
 soUemnia celebranda Deo auctore praeuidimus honorandum.... 
 Cuius ne indumenti munificentiam nudam uideamur quodam- 
 modo contulisse, hoc etiam pariter prospeximus concedendum 
 ut nietropolitae suo per omnia loco et honore seruato, ecclesia 
 ciuitatis Augustodunae cui omnipotens Deus praeesse te uoluit, 
 post Lugdunensem ecclesiam esse debeat et hunc sibi locum 
 et ordinem ex nostrae auctoritatis indulgentia uindicare; 
 ceteros uero episcopos secundum ordinationis suae tempus 
 siue ad considendum in concilio, siue ad subscribendum uel in 
 qualibet alia re sua attendere loca decernimus. 
 
 Gregorius Brunichildae. 
 Et quid in fratre nostro Augustino fecerit (Syagrius) 
 audientes, Redemptorem nostrum benedicimus, quia cum 
 
 1 The words omitted refer to an abuse in his neighbourhood which 
 
 Syagrius was to aid in reforming.
 
 48 Gregory s Letter of 
 
 because we perceive that he fulfils the name of a priest 
 by his works.. ..How your Highness has yourself behaved 
 towards our brother and fellow-bishop Augustine, and 
 what charity you have by God's inspiration bestowed 
 upon him, we have learned by the accounts of several of 
 the faithful ; for which we thank you, and pray the 
 mercy of Divine power both to keep you under its 
 protection here, and, after many years, to make you 
 reign in eternal life as you do here among men. 
 
 (4) To Angus tiiic, Bishop of the English. 
 
 (Epist. lib. XI. ind. iv. num. 28 and in part Bade i. xxxi.) 
 
 Glory to God in the highest, and in earth peace to 
 men of goodwill ; because the grain of corn has died, 
 falling into the earth, and has borne much fruit, that it 
 might not reign alone in heaven. By its death we live, 
 by its weakness we are strengthened, by its suffering we 
 
 sacerdotis nomen etiam operibus implere sentimus....Qualiter 
 autem se excellentia uestra erga fratrem at coapiscopum 
 nostrum Augustinum exhibuerit quantamque illi sibi Deo 
 aspirante caritatem impenderit, diuersorum fidelium relatione 
 cognouimus, pro quo gratias referentas diuinge potantiaa 
 misericordiam deprecamur ut at hie uos sua protectione 
 custodiat, at sicut inter homines ita quoque at post multorum 
 annorum tempera in aaterna faciat uita regnare. 
 
 Gregorius Augustino Episcopo Anglorum. 
 
 Gloria in excelsis Deo, at in terra pax hominibus bonae 
 uoluntatis : quia granum frumenti mortuum cadens in tarram 
 multiim fructum attulit, ne solum ragnaret in caalo, cuius niorte 
 uiuimus, cuius infirmitate roboramur, cuius passiona a passione
 
 Wa}'?mig to Augustine. 49 
 
 are delivered from suffering, by its love we seek brethren 
 in Britain whom we knew not, by its gift we find those 
 whom we sought without knowing. Who here could 
 express the gladness which has arisen in the hearts of 
 all the faithful, that the English nation, by the operation 
 of the grace of Almighty God and by your labours, 
 brother, has had the darkness of error driven away, and 
 has had the light of the holy faith shed upon it ; that 
 now with right devotion it tramples on the idols under 
 which it formerly crouched in foolish fear ; that it 
 submits to Almighty God with a pure heart; that it 
 is restrained by the rules of the holy preaching from 
 falling into works of evil ; that it lies low in soul before 
 the precepts of God, and is exalted in understanding ; 
 that it humbles itself even to the earth in prayer, that in 
 mind it may not grovel upon the earth ? Whose work is 
 this but His who says, 'My Father worketh hitherto, 
 and I work ' ; — who in order to shew that He converts 
 
 eripirnur, cuius amore in Britannia fratres quaerimus quos 
 ignorabamus, cuius munere quos nescientes quacrebamus 
 inuenimus. Quis autem narrare hie sufficiat, quanta laetitia 
 in omnium corde fidelium faerit exorta, quod gens Anglorum, 
 .operante omnipotentis Dei gratia, et tua fraternitate laborante, 
 expulsis errorum tenebris, sanctae fidei luce perfusa est; 
 quod deuotione integerrima iam calcat idola quibus prius 
 uesano timore subiacebat, quod omnipotenti Deo puro corde 
 substernitur, quod a praui operis lapsibus sanctae praedicationis 
 regulis ligatur, quod praeceptis diuinis animo subiacet et 
 intellectu subleuatur, quod usque ad terram se in oratione 
 humiliat, ne mente iaceat in terra? Cuius hoc opus est, nisi 
 eius qui ait, 'Pater meus usque nunc operatur, et ego operor'? 
 Qui ut mundum ostenderet non sapientia hominum sed sua se
 
 50 Grt-£'L>rys Letter of 
 
 the world not by the wisdom of men, but by His own 
 power, chose illiterate men for His preachers whom He 
 sent into the world ; and who now does the same, 
 because He has vouchsafed to work mighty things 
 among the English people by means of men who are 
 weak ? 
 
 But that heavenly gift, my dearest brother, contains 
 an element which, amidst the great joy, ought to cause 
 an ex'ceeding dread ; for I know that Almighty God has 
 shown great miracles through you, beloved, in the 
 nation which He has been pleased to choose. That 
 heavenly gift must therefore make you rejoice with 
 fear, and fear with rejoicing. Vou must rejoice, because 
 the souls of the English are drawn by the outward 
 miracles to inward grace ; but you must fear lest amidst 
 the sions which are done the weak soul should exalt 
 itself presumptuously.and inwardly through vain glory fall 
 by the ver>- thing which externally raises it in honour. 
 For we must remember that when the disciples returned 
 
 uirtute conuertere, praedicatores sues, quos in mundum misit, 
 sine litteris elegit, hoc etiam mode faciens, quia in Anglorum 
 gente fortia dignatus est per infirmos operari. 
 
 Sed est in isto done caelesti, frater carissime, quod cum 
 masno gaudio uehementissime debeat formidari : scio enim 
 quia omnipolens Deus per dilectionem tuam in gente quam 
 eligi uoluit magna miracula ostendit. Unde necesse est, ut 
 de eodera done caelesti et timendo gaudeas et gaudendo 
 pertimescas. Gaudeas uidelicet, quia Anglorum animae per 
 exteriora miracula ad interiorem gratiam pertrahuntur : per- 
 timescas uero, ne inter signa quae fiunt infirmus animus in 
 sui praesump:ione se eleuet, ut unde foras in honore attollitur 
 inde per inanem gloriam intus cadat. Meminisse etenim
 
 War fling to Angus title. 5^ 
 
 with joy from their preaching, and said to the heavenly 
 Master, 'Lord, the devils are subject to us in Thy nanme,' 
 they were immediately told, ' Rejoice not at this, but 
 rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.' 
 Those who rejoiced in the miracles had set their minds 
 upon a private and temporal gladness ; but they were 
 recalled from the private gladness to a social one, from 
 a temporal to the eternal, when it was said to them, ' In 
 this rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.' 
 For not all the elect work miracles ; nevertheless the 
 names of them all are kept registered in heaven. For 
 the disciples of the truth should have no joy but in that 
 good which they possess in common with all, and in 
 which there is no end to their gladness. 
 
 It remains therefore, dearest brother, that, amidst 
 the outward things which by the operation of God you 
 perform, you should always judge yourself narrowly 
 
 debemus, quod discipuli cum gaudio a praedicatione redeuntes, 
 dum caelesti Magistro dicerent : ' Domine in nomine tuo 
 daemonia nobis subiecta sunt : ' protinus audierunt : ' nolite 
 gaudere super hoc, sad potius gaudete, quia nomina uestra 
 scripta sunt in caelo.' In priuata enim et temporali laetitia 
 mentem posuerant, qui de miraculis gaudebant. Sed de priuata 
 ad communem, de temporali ad aeternam laetitiam reuocantur, 
 quibus dicitur: 'in hoc gaudete, quia nomina uestra scripta 
 sunt in caelo.' Non enim omnes electi miracula faciunt, sed 
 tamen eorum omnium nomina in caelo tenentur adscripta. 
 Ueritatis enim discipulis esse gaudium non debet, nisi de eo 
 bono quod commune cum omnibus habent, et in quo finem 
 laetitiae non habent. 
 
 Restat itaque, frater carissime, ut inter ea, quae operantc 
 Deo exterius facis, semper te interius subtiliter iudices, ac
 
 52 Gregory s Letter of 
 
 within, and narrowly discern both what you are yourself, 
 and what grace there is in that nation, for whose 
 conversion you have received the gifts of working of 
 signs ; and you should always recall to mind any 
 offences which you remember to have committed 
 against our Maker by word or deed, that the memory 
 of your guilt may crush the risings of boastfulness in 
 your heart ; and whatever power of working signs you 
 may receive or have already received, you must reckon 
 that these things are bestowed, not on you, but on those 
 for whose weal they are conferred upon you. 
 
 While thinking on these things, it recurs to the 
 mind, what happened to one servant of God whose 
 election was most marked. Moses, as you, my brother, 
 know, wrought w^onderful signs in Egypt, when he was 
 bringing God's people out of Egypt. On Mount Sinai 
 after fasting forty days and nights he received the tables 
 of the law, amidst flashing thunders; while all the people 
 
 • subtiliter intellegas et temetipsum qui sis, et quanta sit in 
 eadem gente gratia, pro cuius conuersione etiam faciendorum 
 signorum dona percepisti. Et si quando te Creatori nostro seu 
 per linguam siue per opera reminisceris dehquisse, semper 
 haec ad memoriam reuoces, ut surgentem cordis gloriam 
 memoria reatus preniat. Et quidquid de faciendis signis 
 acceperis uel accepisti, haec non tibi sed illis deputes donata, 
 pro quorum tibi salute collata sunt. 
 
 Occurrit autem menti ista cogitanti, quid de uno Dei 
 famulo actum sit, etiam egregie electo. Certe Moyses, dum 
 Dei populum ex Aegypto educeret, mira, sicut tua fraternitas 
 nouit, signa in Aegypto operatus est. In Sina monte quad- 
 raginta diebus et noctibus ieiunans legis tabulas accepit, inter 
 coruscos tonitruos, pertimescente omni populo omnipotentis
 
 Warning' to Angustine. 53 
 
 were terrified, he alone in the service of Ahnighty God 
 held communion with Ilim in familiar conversation ; he 
 opened the Red Sea ; he had the pillar of cloud for his 
 guide on the way ; he laid down manna from heaven for 
 the people when they hungered ; when they desired 
 flesh, he miraculously supplied them in the wilderness 
 to their utmost repletion. But when in a time of 
 drought they came to the rock, he distrusted, and 
 doubted whether he could bring water out of it, though, 
 when the Lord commanded him, he smote it and opened 
 a flow of waters. Again, how many miracles he wrought 
 after this for 38 years in the wilderness, who could count 
 up or examine.? Whenever a doubtful question had 
 troubled his soul, he had recourse to the tabernacle and 
 sought the Lord in secret, and God spake to him, and 
 he was straightway instructed in the matter. When the 
 Lord was wroth with the people, he appeased Him by 
 his mediatory prayer ; when men rose up in pride and 
 
 Dei seruitio solus familiari etiam coUocutione coniunctus est, 
 rubrum mare aperuit, in itinera diicem habuit nubis columnam, 
 esurient! populo manna de caelo deposuit, carnes desiderantibus 
 usque ad satietatem nimiam in eremo per miraculum ministrauit. 
 Sed cum iam sitis tempore ad petram uentum fuisset, diffisus 
 est, seque de eadem aquam educere posse dubitauit, quam 
 iubente Domino percussit atque aquas effluentes aperuit. 
 Quanta autem post haec per triginta et octo annos in deserto 
 miracula fecerit, quis enumcrare, quis inuestigare ualeat? 
 Quotiens res dubia animum pulsasset, recurrens ad taber- 
 naculum secrete Dominum requirebat, atque de ea protinus 
 Deo loquente docebatur. Iratum populo Dominum placabat 
 suae precis interuentione, surgentes in superbia atque in
 
 54 Gregory's Letter of 
 
 made seditious discord, he swallowed them up in the 
 yawning mouth of the earth ; he overthrew the enemy 
 in victories; he showed signs to his own people. But 
 when they came to the land of promise, he was called 
 up into the mountain, and heard of the fault which, as 
 I have said, he had committed 38 years before, because 
 he doubted about the bringing forth of the water ; and 
 he recognised that it was because of this that he could 
 not enter the land of promise. It must make us think 
 how the judgment of Almighty God is to be feared, who 
 did so many signs by His servant, and yet kept his 
 fault such a long time in remembrance. Therefore, 
 dearest brother, if we see that Moses after his miracles 
 died for his fault, though we know him to have been 
 especially chosen of Almighty God, with what fear 
 ought we to tremble who do not yet know whether we 
 are chosen or not .'' 
 
 Why need I speak of miracles done by rejected men, 
 
 discordia dissidentes dehiscentis terrae hiatibus absorbebat, 
 uictoriis premebat hostes, signa monstrabat ciuibus. Sed 
 cum iam ad repromissionis terram uentum fuisset, uocatus 
 in montem est, at quam culpam ante annos triginta, ut dixi, 
 et octo fecerat, audiuit : quia de educenda aqua dubitauit. Et 
 propter hoc quia terram repromissionis intrare non posset 
 agnouit. Qua in re considerandum nobis est, quam timendum 
 sit omnipotentis Dei iudicium, qui per ilium famulum suum tot 
 signa faciebat, cuius culpam tarn longo tempore adhuc seruabat 
 in cogitatione. Igitur, frater carissime, si et ilium agnoscimus 
 post signa pro culpa mortuum, quem omnipotenti Deo nouimus 
 praecipue electum, quanto nos debemus metu contremiscere, 
 qui necdum adhuc nouimus si electi sumus ? 
 
 De reproborum uero miraculis cjuid dicere debeo, cum tua
 
 Warning to Augustine. 55 
 
 when you, brother, know well what the Truth says in 
 the Gospel, ' Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, 
 we have prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name 
 have cast out devils, and in Thy name have done many 
 wonderful works : but I will say to them, I know not 
 who ye are ; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity'? 
 The soul therefore must be much kept down amidst 
 signs and miracles, lest peradventure it should seek in 
 these its own glory, and should exult in the private joy 
 of its own exaltation. By such signs we must seek the 
 gain of souls, and His glory by whose power those signs 
 are performed. There is one sign given us by the Lord, 
 in which we may heartily rejoice, and by which we may 
 perceive in ourselves the glory of election : it is where 
 He says, * In this shall it be known that ye are My 
 disciples, if ye have love one toward another.' This 
 was the sign which the prophet desired, when he said, 
 
 bene fraternitas nouerit quid in euangelio ueritas dicit : * multi 
 uenient in ilia die dicentes mihi : Domine, in nomine tuo 
 prophetauimus, et in nomine tuo daemonia eiecimus, et in tuo 
 nomine uirtutes multas fecimus. Sed dicam illis, quia nescio 
 qui eslis ; recedite a me omnes operarii iniquitatis ! ' Ualde 
 ergo premendus est animus inter signa et miracula, ne fortassis 
 in his propriam gloriam quaerat, et priuato suae exultationis 
 gaudio exultet. Per signa enim animarum lucra quaerenda 
 sunt, et illius gloria, cuius uirtute ipsa eadem signa geruntur. 
 Unum uero Dominus nobis signum dedit, de quo et uehementer 
 gaudere et electionis gloriam in nobis possimus agnoscere, 
 dicens : ' in hoc scietur quia mei discipuli estis, si dilectionem 
 habueritis ad inuicem.' Quod signum propheta requirebat, 
 cum diceret : ' fac mecum, Domine, signum in bonum, ul
 
 56 Warning to Augustine. 
 
 ' Shew some sign upon me, O Lord, for good, that they 
 who hate me may see it and be ashamed.' 
 
 I say these things because I desire to prostrate the 
 soul of my hearer in humihty. But that very humihty 
 may have a confidence of its own. For I, the sinner, 
 have a most sure hope, that by the grace of our 
 Almighty Creator and Redeemer, our God and Lord 
 Jesus Christ, your sins are already forgiven, and that 
 you have been elected expressly that through you the 
 sins of others may be forgiven, and that you will not 
 have to grieve over any guilt in the future, who are 
 endeavouring by the conversion of many to make joy 
 in heaven. For that Maker and Redeemer of ours, 
 when speaking of a man's repentance, says, ' Verily I 
 say unto you, there shall be more joy in heaven over 
 one sinner that repenteth than over ninety-and-nine just 
 persons who need no repentance.' And if there is great 
 joy in heaven over a single penitent, what joy do we 
 
 uideant qui oderunt me, et confundantur.' Haec autem dice, 
 quia auditoris mei animum in humilitate sternere cupio. Sed 
 ipsa tua humilitas habeat fiduciam suam. Nam peccator ego 
 spam certissimam teneo, quia per omnipotentis creatoris ac 
 redemptoris nostri Uei et Domini lesu Christi gratiam iam 
 peccata tua dimissa sunt, et idcirco electus es, ut per te 
 dimittantur aliena, nee habebis luctum de quolibet reatu in 
 posterum, qui de multoriim conuersione gaudium conaris facere 
 in caelo. Idem uero conditnr et redemptor noster, cum de 
 paenitentia hominis loqueretur, ait: ' ita dice uobis, maius 
 gaudium erit in caelo super uno peccatore paenitentiam 
 agente, quam super nonaginta nouem iustis, quibus non opus 
 est paenitentia.' Et si de uno paenitente grande fit gaudium 
 in caelo, quale gaudium factum credimus de tanto populo a
 
 Letter to Bertha. 57 
 
 suppose is made over the convci-sion of so great a 
 people from its error, which has come to the faith and 
 has condemned in penitence the evil things which it 
 did? In this joy, then, of heaven and the angels, let 
 us repeat those words of the angels which we used 
 before. Let us say, let us all say, ' Glory to God in 
 the highest, and in earth peace to men of goodwill.' 
 
 (5) To Bcrtlich Queen of the English. 
 (Epist. lib. XI. ind. iv. num. 29.) 
 
 Pie who wishes after enjoying power on earth to 
 obtain the glory of the heavenly kingdom, must labour 
 the more earnestly to make gains for his Creator, so 
 that he may be able to climb to the things he desires by 
 the staircase of his own action. This we rejoice to hear 
 that you have done. Our beloved son the presbyter 
 Lawrence and the monk Peter have informed us on 
 their return, what you, illustrious Lady, have been to 
 our most reverend brother and fellow-bishop Augustine, 
 
 sue errore conuerso, qui ad fidem ucniens mala (luae egit 
 paenitendo damnauit? In hoc itaque caeli et angelorum 
 gaudio repetamus ipsas, quas praediximus, uoces angelorum. 
 Dicamus igitur, dicamus omnes : ' gloria in excelsis Deo, et in 
 terra pax hominibus bonae uolantalis.' 
 
 Gregorius Berthae Reginae Atiglorum. 
 
 Qui post terrenam potestatem regni caelestis gloriam cupit 
 acquirere, ad faciendum lucrum creatori suo debet enixius 
 laborare, ut ad ea, quae desiderat, operationis suae gradibus 
 possit ascendere, sicut uos fecisse gaudemus. Remeantes 
 igitur dilectissimus filius noster Laurentius presbyter et Petrus 
 monachus, qualis erga reuerendissimum fratrem et coepiscopum
 
 58 Gregorys Letter 
 
 and what encouragements and what charity you have 
 bestowed upon them. And we bless Almighty God, 
 who has graciously vouchsafed to reserve the conversion 
 of the English nation for your reward. For as He 
 kindled the hearts of the Romans towards the Christian 
 faith by means of the ever memorable Helen, mother of 
 the most religious emperor Constantine, so we trust 
 that His mercy is working through your earnestness, 
 illustrious Lady, upon the English race. And indeed 
 it was your duty this long time past, by the excellence 
 of your prudence, like a true Christian, to have predis- 
 posed the mind of our illustrious son, your consort, 
 to follow the faith which you cherish, for the salvation 
 of his kingdom and of his soul ; so that for him, and 
 through him for the conversion of the whole nation, 
 there might arise for you a worthy recompense in the 
 joys of heaven. For since you, illustrious Lady, are, as 
 I said, furnished with right faith, and are also instructed 
 
 nostrum Augustinum gloria uestra extiterit, (juantaque illis 
 solacia uel qualem caritatem impenderit, retulerunt. Et oin- 
 nipotentem Deum benediximus, qui conuersionem gentis 
 Anglorum mercedi uestrae dignatus est propitius reseruare. 
 Nam sicut per recordandae memoriae Helenam matrem 
 piissimi Constantini imperatoris ad Christianam fidem corda 
 Romanorum accendit, ita et per gloriae uestrae studium in 
 Anglorum gentem eius misericordiam confidimus operari. Et 
 quidem iamdudum gloriosi filii nostri coniugis uestri animos 
 prudentiae uestrae bono, sicut reuera Christianae, debuistis 
 inflectere, ut pro regni et animae suae salute fidem, quam 
 colitis, sequeretur : quatenus et de eo, et per eum de totius 
 gentis conuersione, digna uobis in caelestibus gaudiis retributio 
 nasceretur. Nam postquam, sicut diximus, et recta fide gloria
 
 to Queen Bertha. 59 
 
 in letters, this ought not to have been a slow or a difficult 
 task for you. 
 
 And now that, by God's good pleasure, a fitting 
 moment is come, be sure that you repair past neglect 
 with interest by the help of Divine grace. Confirm 
 therefore the mind of your illustrious consort in his 
 attachment to the Christian faith by constant exhorta- 
 tion ; let your care pour into him an increased love of 
 God, and inflame his soul for the complete conversion 
 of the race of his subjects, so that you may offer a great 
 sacrifice to Almighty God as the result of his devout 
 earnestness, and that the things reported of you may in- 
 crease and may be approved true in every way. For your 
 excellences have not only been brought to the knowledge 
 of the Romans, who have the more vigorously prayed for 
 your life, but to many countries, and even to Constanti- 
 nople, to the most serene Prince. Therefore, as we have 
 
 uestra munita at litteris docta est, hoc uobis nee tardum nee 
 debuit esse difficile. 
 
 Et quoniam, Deo uolente, aptum nunc tempus est, agite, 
 ut diuina gratia cooperante cum augmento possitis, quod 
 neglectum est, reparare. Itacjue mentem gloriosi coniugis 
 uestri in dilectione Christianae fidei adhoitatione assidua 
 roborate, uestra ilia sollicitudo augmentum in Deum amoris 
 infundat, atque ita animos eius etiam pro subiectae sibi gentis 
 plenissima conuersione succendat, ut et magnum omnipotenti 
 Domino de deuotionis suae studio sacrificium offeratis, et ea 
 quae de uobis narrata sunt crescant, et uera esse modis 
 omnibus approbentur : quia bona uestra non solum iam apud 
 Romanes, qui pro uita uestra fortius orauerunt, sed etiam per 
 diuersa loca et usque Constantinopolim ad serenissimum 
 principem peruenerunt. Unde sicut nobis de Chrisiianitatis
 
 6o Gregory to Bertha 
 
 received gladness from your Christian encouragement, 
 so let the angels have jo)- in heaven from your perfect 
 work. Set yourself so earnestly and whole-heartedly 
 to help our most reverend brother and fellow-bishop 
 aforesaid, and the servants of God whom we sent to 
 those parts for the conversion of your nation, that you 
 may reign here happily with our illustrious son, your 
 consort, and after man}' years may receive also the joys 
 of the life to come, which know no end. We pray 
 Almighty God to inflame your heart, illustrious Lady, 
 b\- the fire of His grace to do what we have said, and 
 grant you the fruit of an eternal reward for work 
 well-pleasing unto Him. 
 
 (6) To Etlielbcrt, King of the English. 
 (Epist. lib. XI. ind. iv. num. 66 and Bade i. xxxii.) 
 The reason why Almighty God brings good men to 
 
 uestrae solaciis laetitia facta est, ita quociue de perfecta 
 operatione uestra angelis fiat gaudium in caelis. Sic uos in 
 adiutorio supradicti reuerendissimi fratris et coepiscopi nostri, 
 et seruorum Dei, (luos illuc misimus in conucrsione gentis 
 uestrae, deuote ac totis uiribus exhibete, ut et hie feliciter cum 
 glorioso filio nostro coniuge uestro regnetis, et post longa 
 annorum tempora futurae quoque uitae gaudia, quae finem 
 habere ncsciunt, capiatis. Oramus autem omnipotentem Deum, 
 ut gloriae uestrae cor ad operanda quae diximus gratiae suae 
 ignc siicccndat, et aeternae mercedis fructum uobis de placita 
 sibi operatione concedat. 
 
 Gregorius Ethelberto Regi Anglorum. 
 Propter hoc omnipotens Deus bones quosque ad populorum
 
 and to Ethclbcrt. 6 1 
 
 be rulers of the peoples is that by means of them He 
 may bestow the gifts of His lovingkindncss upon all 
 their subjects. We have learned that this has taken 
 place in the English race; over which your Highness 
 has been set for this very purpose, that through the 
 blessings granted to yourself the race which you rule 
 may receive divine benefits. And therefore, illustrious 
 son, give earnest heed to keep the grace which has been 
 given you by God ; be eager to spread the Christian 
 faith among the peoples whom you rule ; redouble your 
 upright zeal in their conversion ; drive out the worship 
 of the idols ; overthrow the temple buildings ; build up 
 the morals of your subjects by great purity of life, 
 exhorting, threatening, persuading, correcting, showing 
 examples of good action, that in heaven you may find a 
 Rewarder in Him whose name and knowledge you have 
 extended upon earth. He whose honour you seek and 
 
 regimina perducit, ut per eos omnibus, quibus praelati fuerint, 
 dona suae pietatis impendat. Quod in Anglorum gente factum 
 cognouimus : cui uestra gloria idcirco est praeposita, ut per 
 bona, quae uobis concessa sunt, etiam subiectae uobis genti 
 superna beneficia praestarentur. Et ideo, gloriose fili, earn 
 quam accepisti diuinitus gratiam, sollicita mente custodi, 
 Christianam fidem in populis tibi subditis extendere festina, 
 zelum rectitudinis tuae in eorum conuersione multiplica, 
 idolorum cultus insequere, fanorum aedificia euerte, subdi- 
 torum mores ex magna uitae munditia, exhortando, terrendo, 
 blandiendo, corrigendo, et boni operis exempla monstrando 
 aedifica : ut ilium retributorem inuenias in caelo, cuius nomen 
 atque cognitionem dilataueris in terra. Ipse enim uestrae
 
 62 Gregory s Letter 
 
 maintain among the nations will make your glorious 
 name yet more glorious among posterity. Thus 
 Constantinc, the most religious Emperor, when he 
 recalled the Roman State from the perverse worship 
 of idols, submitted it as well as himself to our Almighty 
 Lord God Jesus Christ, and turned to Him with his 
 whole heart along with the peoples whom he ruled. So 
 it came about that his praises surpassed the fame of the 
 princes of old, and he excelled his predecessors as much 
 in renown as in good action. And you, illustrious Sir, 
 must now be eager to pour the knowledge of the one 
 God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, into the 
 kings and peoples subject to you, and must surpass the 
 ancient kings of your nation in fame as in desert, and, 
 purging away the sins of others who are under you, have 
 the less anxiety about your own sins before the dreadful 
 bar of Almighty God. 
 
 quoque gloriae nomen etiam posteris gloriosius reddet, cuius 
 uos honorem quaeritis et seruatis in gentibus. 
 
 Sic etenim Constantinus quondam piissimus imperator, 
 Romanam rempublicam a peruersis idolorum cultibus reuo- 
 cans, omnipotenti Deo Domino nostro lesu Christo secum 
 subciidit, seque cum subiectis populis tota ad eum mente 
 conuertit. Unde factum est ut antiquorum principum nomen 
 suis uir ille laudibus iiinceret, et tanto in opinione praecessores 
 SUDS qiianto et in bono opere superaret. Et nunc itaque 
 uestra gloria cognitionem unius Dei, Patris et Filii et Spiritus 
 Sancti, regibus ac populis sibimet subiectis festinet infundere, 
 ct antiques gentis suae rages laudibus ac mentis transeat, et 
 qu.Tnto in subiectis suis etiam aliena peccata deterserit, tanto 
 ctiam de peccalis propriis ante omnipotentis Dei terribile 
 cxaincn seruiior fiat.
 
 to King Ethelbert. 63 
 
 Our most reverend brother the Bishop Augustine 
 has been well trained under monastic discipline, is filled 
 with knowledge of Holy Scripture, and endowed with 
 good works by God's inspiration. Listen to all the 
 advice he gives you, act upon it devoutly, keep it 
 diligently in remembrance ; for if you listen to him, in 
 that which he speaks on behalf of Almighty God, 
 Almighty God will the more speedily listen to him 
 when he prays on behalf of you. For if (as God 
 forbid), you put off attending to his words, how will 
 Almighty God be able to listen to him on your behalf, 
 when you neglect to listen to him on behalf of God .^ 
 Cleave therefore to him with all your soul, in fervent 
 faith ; and aid his endeavour by the power with which 
 Heaven supplies you, that God, whose faith you are 
 causing to be received and kept in your kingdom, may 
 make you partaker of His own. 
 
 Moreover we would have you to know, illustrious 
 
 Reuerentissimus frater noster Augustinus episcopus, in 
 monasterii regula edoctus, sacrae Scripturae scientia repletus, 
 bonis auctore Deo operibus praeditus, quaeque uos ammonet, 
 audita, denote peragite, studiose in memoria reseruate : quia si 
 uos eum in eo, quod pro omnipotente Domino loquitur, auditis, 
 isdem omnipotens Deus hunc pro uobis exorantem celerius 
 exaudit. Si enim, quod absit, uerba eius postponitis, quando 
 eum omnipotens Deus poterit audire pro uobis, quern uos 
 neglegitis audire pro Deo? Tota igitur mente cum eo uos 
 in feruore fidei stringite, atque adnisum illius uirtute quam 
 uobis Diuinitas tribuit adiuuate, ut regni sui uos ipse faciat 
 esse participes, cuius uos fidem in regno vestro recipi faciatis 
 et custodiri. 
 
 Praeterea scire uestram gloriam uolumus quia, sicut in
 
 64 Gregory to EtJiclbert. 
 
 Sir, that, as we learn in Holy Scripture from the words 
 of the Lord Almighty, the end of the present world is 
 at hand, and the reign of the saints is about to begin, 
 which will never end. As that end of the world draws 
 near, many things hang over us which have never 
 happened before; changes in the air, terrors from 
 heaven, seasons out of their due order, wars, famines, 
 pestilences, earthquakes in divers places. Not all of 
 these will take place in our days, but after our days 
 they will all follow. If therefore any of these things 
 are found to occur in your country, be not at all 
 troubled in your mind. The reason why these pre- 
 monitory signs of the end of the world are sent, is that 
 we may take heed to our souls, may not be taken 
 unawares by the hour of death, and may be found 
 prepared by good life for the Judge who is coming. 
 I have said these few words, illustrious Son, that, 
 
 Scriptura sacra ex uerbis Domini omnipotentis agnoscimus, 
 praesentis mundi iam terminus iuxta est, et sanctorum reg- 
 num uenturum est, quod nullo umquam poterit fine terminari. 
 Adpropinquante autem eodem mundi termino, multa imminent 
 quae antea non fuerunt : uidelicet immutationes aeris, terro- 
 resque de caelo, et contra ordinationem temporum tempestates, 
 bella, fames, pestilentiae, terrae motus per loca ; quae tamen 
 non omnia nostris diebus uentura sunt, sed post nostros dies 
 omnia subscquentur. Uos itaque, si qua ex his euenire 
 in terra uestra cognoscitis, nullo modo uestrum animum 
 perturbetis ; quia idcirco haec signa de fine saeculi praemit- 
 tuntur, ut de animabus nostris debeamus esse solliciti, de mortis 
 hora suspecti, et uenturo iudici in bonis actibus inueniamur 
 esse praeparau. Haec nunc, gloriose fili, paucis locutus sum,
 
 Gregory to Ethelbert. 65 
 
 when the Cliri-stiaii faith has been extended in your 
 kingdom, our speech to you may likewise be extended 
 to greater fulness^ and that we may have additional 
 pleasure in speaking, when the joy of our heart is 
 multiplied by the perfect conversion of your nation. 
 
 I have sent you some little presents, which to you 
 will not be little, as you receive them from the blessing 
 of the Apostle Peter. Almighty God perfect His grace 
 which He has begun in you, and prolong your life here 
 through a course of many years, and at a distant date 
 receive you into the assembly of the heavenly home. 
 May the grace above preserve your Excellence safe and 
 sound, my lord and Son. 
 
 ut, cum Christiana fides in regno uestro excreuerit, nostra 
 quoque apud uos locutio latior excrescat, et tanto plus loqui 
 libeat, quanto se in mente nostra gaudia de gentis uestrae 
 perfecta conuersione multiplicant. 
 
 Parua autem exenia transmisi, quae uobis parua non erunt, 
 cum a uobis ex bead Petri Apostoli fuerint benedictione 
 suscepta. Omnipotens itaque Deus in uobis gratiam suam, 
 quam coepit, perficiat, atque uitam uestram et hie per 
 multorum annorum curricula extendat, et post longa tempora 
 in caelestis uos patriae congregatione recipiat. Incolumem 
 excellentiam uestram gratia superna custodiat, domine fili. 
 
 1 If Ethelbert had not yet been baptized, Gregory must necessarily have 
 made some clearer reference to that fact at this point. He must have said 
 that he could not yet speak freely to one who had not committed himself to 
 Christianity. As it is, Gregory assumes throughout that Ethelbert himself 
 is wholly Christian, and that it only remains to make his subjects Christian 
 also.
 
 (^ Gregory to Vergilius. 
 
 (7) To Vergilius, Bishop of Arks. 
 (Epist. lib. XI. ind. iv. num. 68 and Bede i. xxviii.) 
 
 We may know what affection to bestow upon brethren 
 who come unasked, by observing that invitations are a 
 common form of charity. Accordingly, if our common 
 brother the Bishop Augustine should happen to come 
 to you, let your kindness receive him affectionately and 
 tenderly, as is meet, so that Augustine himself may be 
 comforted by your good consolation, and that others 
 may learn from you how to cultivate brotherly charity. 
 
 And since it is often the case, that men at a 
 distance first learn from others what is to be corrected, 
 if Augustine should come to you, brother, with delin- 
 quencies of priests or others, sit together with him and 
 examine the whole case in detail, and show yourselves 
 strict and careful about things which offend God and 
 provoke Him to wrath, that for the correction of others 
 
 Gregorius Vergilio Episcopo Arelatcnsi. 
 
 Quantus sit affectus uenientibus sponte fratribus impen- 
 dendus, ex eo, quod plcrumque sclent caritatis causa inuitari, 
 cognoscitur. Et idee si communem fratrem Augustinum 
 episcopum ad uos uenire contigerit, ita ilium dilectio uestra, 
 sicut decet, affectuose dulciterque suscipiat, ut et ipsum con- 
 solationis suae bono refoueat, et alios, qualiter fraterna caritas 
 colenda sit, doceat. Et quoniam saepius euenit, ut hi, qui 
 longe sunt positi, prius ab aliis, quae sunt emendanda, cog- 
 noscant, si quas fortasse fraternitati uestrae sacerdotum uel 
 aliorum culpas intulcrit, una cum eo residentes subtili cuncta 
 inuestigatione perquirite, et ita uos in ea quae Deum offendunt, 
 et ad iracundiam prouocant, districtos ac sollicitos exhibetc, ut
 
 A)iszvcrs to Augustine. 6y 
 
 retribution may strike the guilty, and false report may 
 not distress the innocent. God keep you safe, most 
 reverend brother. 
 
 X. Gregory s ansxvcrs to Augustine s questions^. 
 
 (Epist. lib. XI. ind. iv. num. 64 and in part Bede i. x.xvii ) 
 
 By my dear son the presbyter Lawrence and the 
 monk Peter, I received your manuscript, brother, in 
 which you have been at the pains to ask me about 
 many points. But because those sons of mine found 
 
 ad aliorum emendationem at uindicta culpabilem feriat, et 
 innocentem falsa opinio non afifiigat. Deus te incoluniem 
 custodiat, reuerentissime frater. 
 
 Gregorii Responsiones ad Interrogationes Augustini. 
 
 Per dilectissimum filium Laurentium presbyterum et Petrum 
 monachum fraternitatis tuae scripta suscepi ; in quibus me de 
 multis capitibus requireie curasti. Sed cjuia praedicti filii mei 
 
 ^ Duchesne Origines du Culte Chritien p. 94 pronounces that ' this letter 
 is certainly spurious, though very ancient.' The reason which he gives, 
 besides the fact that St Boniface could not find it at Rome some time 
 before 736, — not in 745 as Duchesne says, — is the purely sul)jective reason 
 that no Roman, certainly no Pope, could have written the phrase that 
 things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of 
 things. Duchesne says that he should not be surprised if the Questions 
 and Answers were composed by Archbishop Theodore, who thought this 
 a suitable way of recommending his ideas of discipline and ritual. The 
 question of the genuineness of the document will be found discussed in my 
 Preface. Suffice it to say here that this is an instance in which Gregory's 
 genius transcends not only the notions of his own time, but even those of 
 the brilliant critic whom I have named. Theodore was a great man, but 
 he was hardly such a Shakespeare as a dramatic work like this would show 
 its author to be. 
 
 5—2
 
 (38 Answers to Aitgiistine. 
 
 me tortured with the gout, and as they pressed me to 
 let them go as quickly as I could, they were dismissed 
 indeed, but leaving me still in my tortures. I was not 
 able to answer each point as fully as I might'. 
 
 I. First Question of the blessed Augustine, Bishop 
 of the Church of Canterbury. Concerning bishops, how 
 they should live with their clergy; and of the things 
 which come to the altar by the offerings of the faithful, 
 into how many portions they should be divided ; and 
 how the bishop should behave in the church. 
 Gregory, Pope of the city of Rome, replied : 
 Holy Scripture, which you, of course, know well, 
 bears witness, and especially the Epistles of the Blessed 
 
 podagrae me inuenerunt doloribus afllictum, et cum urgerent 
 se citius dimitti, ita relaxati sunt ut in eadem me dolorum 
 afflictione relinquerent ; singulis quibusque capitulis ut debui 
 latius lespondere non ualui. 
 
 Prima Interrogatio bcati Augustini Episcopi Caiituariorian 
 ecdesiae. 
 
 De episcopis, qualiter cum suis clericis conuersentur ; uel 
 de his quae fidelium oblationibus accedunt altario, quantae 
 debeant fieri portiones ; et qualiter episcopus agere in ecclesia 
 debeat. 
 
 Respondit Gregoriiis Papa tirbis Roinae. 
 
 Sacra Scriptura testatur, quam te bene nosse dubiuni non 
 est, et specialiter beati Pauli ad Timotheum epistolae, in quibus 
 
 ' If Bede is right in his statement (l. xxvii.) that Lawrence and Peter 
 were sent to Rome 'immediately' after his return from his consecration at 
 Aries, tiiey must have been detained at Rome for nearly three years after 
 these replies were composed by Gregory.
 
 A?iszvcrs to Augustine. 6c) 
 
 Paul to Timothy, in which he studied to instruct him 
 how he should behave in the house of God. 
 
 The custom of the Apostolic See is, when bishops 
 are ordained, to give them directions to make four 
 portions of everything that comes in ; one for the 
 bishop and his family, with a view to hospitality and 
 entertaining; one for the clergy; the third for the poor; 
 the fourth for the repair of the churches. But as you, 
 brother, have been educated under a monastic rule, and 
 ought not to be separated from your clergy, you ought 
 to establish in the Church of the English, which is still 
 but newly brought to the faith by the motion of God, 
 that manner of life which our fathers used in the beginning 
 of the infant church ; — among whom, there was none of 
 them who said that aught of the things which they 
 possessed was his own, but they had all things common. 
 
 If there are any clergy outside the sacred orders^ 
 
 eum erudire studuit qualiter in dome Dei conuersari debuisset. 
 Mos autem sedis apostolicae est ordinatis episcopis praecepta 
 tradere, ut in omni stipendio quod accedit quattuor debeant 
 fieri portiones ; una uidelicet episcopo et familiae propter 
 hospitalitatem atque susceptionem ; alia clero ; tertia pau- 
 peribus ; quarta ecclesiis reparandis, Sed quia tua fraternitas 
 monasterii regulis erudita seorsum fieri non debet a clericis 
 suis, in ecclesia Anglorum, quae auctore Deo nuper adhuc ad 
 fidem adducta est, banc debet conuersationem instituere, quae 
 initio nascentis ecclesiae fuit patribus nostris ; in qiiibus nulliis 
 eorum ex his quae possidebant aliijuid suum esse dicebat, sed 
 erant eis omnia communia. 
 
 Si qui uero sunt clerici extra sacros ordines constituti, qui 
 
 1 That is, below the rank of subdeacon.
 
 AjisiL'ffs to Aligns tine. 
 
 who are unable to contain, they should take wives, and 
 receive their stipends apart ; for we know that it is 
 written of those same fathers of whom we have spoken, 
 that they divided severally to all, according as every 
 man had need. Attention and forethought must be 
 used with regard to their stipends also ; and they must 
 be bound to obey church rule ; — to live good moral 
 lives, to keep watch for singing psalms; and by the 
 help of God to keep heart and tongue and body from 
 all unlawful things. But with regard to those who live 
 a common life, why need I speak of dividing portions, 
 or showing hospitality, and fulfilling mercy, since all 
 that remains over is to be expended on causes of piety 
 and religion, as the Lord, the Master of all, teaches : 
 'Give in alms that which remains o\er, and behold all 
 things are clean unto you ' ? 
 
 II. Augustine's Question. The faith being one, 
 
 se continere non possunt, sortiri uxores debent, et stipendia 
 sua exterius accipere. Quia et de hisdem patribus, de quibus 
 praefati sumus, nouimus scriptum, quod diuidebatur singulis 
 prout cuique opus erat. De eorum quoque stipendio cogi- 
 tandum atque prouidendum est, et sub ecclesiastica regula sunt 
 tenendi, ut bonis moribus uiuant, et canendis psalmis inuigilent, 
 et ab omnibus inlicitis et cor et linguam et corpus Deo auctore 
 conseruent. Communi autem uita uiuentibus iam de faciendis 
 portionibus, uel exhibenda hospitalitate, et adimplenda niiseri- 
 cordia, nobis quid erit loquendum, cum omne quod superest 
 in causis piis ac religiosis erogandum est, Domino omnium 
 luagistro docente : ' Quod superest, date eleemosynam, et ecce 
 omnia munda sunt uobis'? 
 
 Secutida Interrogatio Augiistini. 
 Cum una sit fides, sunt ecclesiarum diuersae consuetudines.
 
 Ansivers to Augustine. yi 
 
 are there different customs in different Churches, and is 
 one custom observed in the masses of the holy Roman 
 Church, and another in the Church of Gaul ? 
 
 Pope Gregory replied : My brother, you know the 
 custom of the Church of Rome, in which you remember 
 your rearing. But I should like you carefully to select 
 whatever you have found either in the Church of 
 Rome, or in that of Gaul, or in any other, which may 
 better please Almighty God, and to introduce, by an 
 excellent arrangement, into the Church of the English, 
 which is still new to the faith, what you have been able 
 to gather together from many Churches. For things 
 are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places 
 for the sake of good things. From all the several 
 Churches, therefore, select the things which are pious, 
 and religious, and right, and gather them as it were into 
 a bundle, and store them in the minds of the English to 
 form a custom. 
 
 et altera consuetude missarum in sancta Romana ecclesia, 
 atque altera in Galliarum tenelur? 
 
 Respoiidit Gregoriiis Papa. 
 
 Nouit fraternitas tua Romanae ecclesiae consuetudinem, in 
 qua se meminit nutritam. Sed mihi placet, siue in Romana, 
 siue in Galliarum, seu in qualibet ecclesia aliquid inuenisti 
 quod plus omnipotenti Deo possit placere, sollicite eligas, et in 
 Anglorum ecclesia, quae adhuc ad fidem noua est, institutione 
 praecipua, quae de multis ecclesiis coUigere potuisti, infundas. 
 Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt. 
 Ex singulis ergo quibusque ecclesiis, quae pia, quae religiosa, 
 quae recta sunt, elige, et haec quasi in fasciculum coUecia apud 
 Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone.
 
 Anszucrs to Aus:usti7ie. 
 
 III. Augustine's Question. I pray you, what ought 
 to be done to a man who has stolen from a church .'' 
 
 Gregory replied : ]\Iy brother, you can consider 
 according to the particular thief what correction he may 
 endure. There are some who commit theft though 
 they have a living ; and there are others who sin in 
 this way for want. Some, accordingly, must be corrected 
 by fines, and some with stripes ; some more severely, 
 and some more leniently. And even when somewhat 
 severe action is used, it must be done out of charity, not 
 out of anger. For this benefit is conferred on the man 
 who is corrected, that he is not delivered to hell-fire. 
 We ought so to administer discipline to the faithful, as 
 good fathers do to their children after the flesh. They 
 lay stripes upon them for their faults, yet they desire to 
 have for their heirs those very children whom they put 
 
 Tertia Interrogatio Augustini. 
 
 Obsecro quid pati debeat, si quis aliquid de ecclesia furtu 
 abstulerit ? 
 
 Respondit Gregorius. 
 
 Hoc tua fraternitas ex persona furis pensare potest, qualiter 
 ualeat corrigi. Sunt enim quidam ([ui habentes subsidia fiirtum 
 perpetrant; et sunt alii qui hac in re ex inopia delinquunt : 
 unde necesse est ut quidam damnis, quidam uero uerberibus, 
 et quidam districtius, quidam autem leuius corrigantur. Et cum 
 paulo districtius agitur, ex caritate agendum est, et non ex 
 furore : fjuia ipsi hoc praestatur qui corrigitur, ne gehennae 
 ignibus tradatur. Sic enim nos fidelibus tenere disciplinam 
 debemus, sicut boni patres carnalibus filiis sclent, quos et 
 pro culpis uerberibus feriunt, et tamen ipsos quos doloribus
 
 Answers to Augustine. y^ 
 
 to pain, and keep their possessions for those whom they 
 appear to chastise with wrath. This charity, therefore, 
 must be kept in mind, and it dictates the measure of the 
 correction, so that the mind does nothing at all beyond 
 the rule of reason. You will add also how they must 
 restore what they have taken from churches. But God 
 forbid that the Church should take back with interest 
 any part of her worldly goods which she seems to have 
 lost, and so to make gain of worthless things. 
 
 IV. Augustine's Question. Whether two whole 
 brothers may hold in marriage two sisters, not closely 
 related to them by descent ? 
 
 Gregory replied : Assuredly it is lawful. Nowhere 
 in Holy Scripture is anything found which would seem 
 to be in conflict with this article. 
 
 adfligunt habere heredes quaerunt, et quae possident ipsis 
 seruant quos irati insequi uidentur. Haec ergo caritas in 
 mente tenenda est, et ipsa modum correptionis dictat, ita ut 
 mens extra rationis regulam omnino nihil faciat. Addes etiam, 
 quomodo ea quae furtu de ecclesiis abstulerint reddere debeant. 
 Sad absit ut ecclesia cum augmento recipiat quod de terrenis 
 rebus uidetur amittere, et lucra de uanis quaerere. 
 
 Qiiarta Interrogatio Augiistini. 
 
 Si debeant duo germani fratres singulas sorores accipere, 
 quae sunt ab illis longa progenie generatae ? 
 
 Respondit Grcgoruis. 
 
 Hoc fieri modis omnibus licet : nequaquam enim in sacris 
 eloquiis inuenitur quod huic capitulo contradicere uideatur.
 
 74 Ajiszucj's to Augustine. 
 
 V. Augustine's question. At what generation may 
 the faithful be joined in marriage with their relatives ? 
 and may men marr)- their stepmothers and sisters-in- 
 law ? 
 
 Gregory replied: A certain secular law in the Roman 
 State permits that the son and daughter of whether it 
 be brother and sister, or of two brothers or of two sisters, 
 may marry. But we have learned by experience that 
 such marriages are incapable of issue. And the sacred 
 Law forbids to uncover the nakedness of one near of 
 kin. It is necessary therefore that the third or fourth 
 generation should be reached before there can be a 
 lawful union ; the second generation, of which we have 
 spoken, must certainly refrain. Union with a stepmother 
 is a grave crime. It is written in the Law, ' Thou shalt 
 
 Quint a I/itcriflgatio Augustbii. 
 
 Usque ad quotam generationem fideles debeant cum pro- 
 pinquis sibi coniugio copulari ? et nouercis et cognaiis si liceat 
 copulaii coniugio ? 
 
 Respoudit Gregorius. 
 
 Quaedam terrena lex in Roniana republica permittit, ut siue 
 frater et soror, seu duorum fratrum germanorum uel duarum 
 sororum filius et filia misceantur. Sed experimento didicinms, 
 ex tali coniugio sobolem non posse succrescere : et sacra lex 
 jjrohibet cognationis lurpitudinem reuelare. Unde necesse est 
 ut iam tenia ucl quarta gcntratio fidelium licenter sibi iungi 
 debcat : nam secunda, quam praediximus, a se omni modo 
 debet abstinere. Cum nouerca autem miscere graue est facinus, 
 quia ct in lege scriptum est: Turpitudhiem patris tui 7ion
 
 Anszvcrs to Augustine. 75 
 
 not uncover the nakedness of thy father.' A son cannot 
 uncover his father's nakedness; but, as it is written, 'They 
 two shall be one flesh,' he who dares to uncover the 
 nakedness of his stepmother, who was one flesh with his 
 father, has thereby uncovered his father's nakedness. It 
 is also forbidden to marry a sister-in-law, because she 
 has been made by marriage one flesh with the brother. 
 For this cause John the Baptist was beheaded and came 
 to the martyr's end, who was not bidden to deny Christ, 
 and yet was killed for the confession of Christ ; but, 
 because our Lord Jesus Christ had said to them, ' I am 
 the Truth ' ; because John was killed for the Truth, 
 therefore he shed his blood for Christ. 
 
 But because there are many in the English nation 
 who, while they were still in unbelief, are said to have 
 been joined in this abominable marriage', they must be 
 admonished when they come to the faith to abstain, and 
 
 reuelabis. Neque enim patris turpitudinem filius reuelare 
 potest. Sed quia scriptum est : Ermit duo in car/ie wia ; qui 
 turpitudinem nouercae, quae una caro cum patre fuit, reuelare 
 praesumpserit, profecto patris turpitudinem reuelauit. Cum 
 cognata quoque miscere prohibitum est, quia per coniunctioiiem 
 priorem caro fratris fuerat facta. Pro qua re etiam lohannes 
 Baptista capite truncatus est, et sancto martyrio consummatus, 
 cui non est dictum ut Christum negaret, et pro Christi con- 
 fessione occisus est ; sed quia isdem Dominus noster lesus 
 Christus dixerat : Ego sum uetiias; quia pro ueritate lohannes 
 occisus est, uidelicet et pro Christo sanguinem fudit. Quia 
 uero sunt multi in Anglorum gente, qui, dum adhuc in in- 
 fidelitate essent, huic nefando coniugio dicuntur admixti, ad 
 fidem uenientes admonendi sunt ut se abstineant, et graue hoc 
 
 ■^ Edbald, the son of Ethelbert, is a case in point. See below, p. 11 [.
 
 76 Answers to Augustine. 
 
 to know that this is a grave sin. Let them dread the 
 fearful judgment of God, lest for the sake of a carnal 
 affection they bring upon themselves the anguish of 
 eternal torment. They should not, however, for this 
 cause be deprived of the Communion of the Lord's 
 Body and Blood, lest it should seem as if vengeance 
 was being taken for those things in which they were 
 involved through ignorance before their baptismal 
 washing. In this time, the holy Church corrects some 
 things in zeal, puts up with some things in gentleness, 
 feigns not to see some things in considerateness ; and 
 she tolerates and feigns not to see in such a manner 
 that often, by tolerating and feigning not to see, she 
 keeps down the evil which she is opposing. But all 
 those who come to the faith should be admonished not 
 to dare to do anything of the kind. If any have done 
 so, they should be deprived of the Communion of the 
 Lord's Bt)dy and Blood; because, as the fault is to some 
 extent to be put up with in the case of those who have 
 
 esse peccatum cognoscant. Tremendum Dei iudicium timeant, 
 ne pro carnali dilectione tormenta aeterni cruciatus incurrant. 
 Non tamen pro hac re sacri corporis ac sanguinis Domini 
 communione priuandi sunt, ne in eis ilia ulcisci uideantur, in 
 quibus se per ignorantiam ante lauacrum baptismatis adslrinx- 
 erunt. In hoc enim tempore sancta ecclesia quaedam per 
 feruorem corrigit, quaedam per mansuetudinem tolerat, quae- 
 dam per considerationem dissimulat, atque ita portat et 
 dissimulat, ut saepe malum ([uod aduersrUur ])ortando et 
 dissimulando compescat. Omnes autem qui ad fidem ueniunt 
 admonendi sunt, ne tale aliquid audeant perpetrare. Si qui 
 autem perpetrauerint, corporis et sanguinis Domini commu- 
 nione priuandi sunt : quia sicut in his, qui per ignorantiam
 
 ,A?is2vc'/-s to Augustific. yj 
 
 done it through ignorance, so it should be strongly 
 chastised in the case of those who are not afraid to sin 
 wittingly. 
 
 VI. Augustine's Question. If distances are great 
 to travel, so that the bishops canncjt easily come to- 
 gether, may a bishop be ordained without the presence 
 of other bishops ^ 
 
 Gregory replied : As a matter of fact, in the Church 
 of the English, in which as yet you are the only bishop 
 to be found, you cannot help ordaining a bishop without 
 other bishops. When do bishops come from Gaul, to 
 assist as witnesses in the ordination of a bishop.' But 
 we wish you, brother, to ordain bishops on such a 
 method that these bishops may not be separated by 
 long distances from each other, that there may be no 
 
 fecerunt, culpa aliquatenus toleranda est, ita in his fordter 
 insequenda, qui non metuunt sciendo peccare. 
 
 Sexta Interr-ogatio August if il. 
 
 Si longinquitas itineris magna interiacet, ut episcopi non 
 facile ualeant conuenire, an debeat sine aliorum episcoporuin 
 praesentia episcopus ordinari ? 
 
 Respondit Gregorius. 
 
 Et quidem in Anglorum ecclesia, in qua adhuc solus tu 
 episcopus inueniris, ordinare episcopum non aliter nisi sine 
 episcopis potes. Nam quando de Gallis episcopi ueniunt, 
 qui in ordinatione episcopi testes adsistant? Sed fraterni- 
 tatem tuam ita uolumus episcopos ordinare, ut ipsi sibi 
 episcopi longo interuallo minime disiungantur; quatenus nulla
 
 jS Ansi^crs to August hie. 
 
 need [to consecrate by yourself], but that at a bishop's 
 ordination other pastors also, whose presence is very 
 valuable, may be able to come together with ease. 
 When therefore, with God's help, bishops have been 
 thus ordained in places near each other all over the 
 country, the ordination of a bishop ought not to take 
 place without three or four bishops assembling for it. An 
 illustration from carnal things may be taken to show how 
 spiritual things should be wisely and seasonably ordered. 
 When weddings are celebrated in the world, all the 
 married people are called together, that those who have 
 gone the way of marriage before may join with the joy of 
 the couple who are following them. Why then should 
 not this spiritual ordination, in which through the sacred 
 ministry man is united to God, be made the occasion 
 for gathering those together who will both rejoice in the 
 promotion of the bishop ordained, and pour out prayers 
 to Almight)' God in common for his safe keeping? 
 
 sit necessitas, ut in ordinatione episcopi pastores quoque alii, 
 quorum praesentia ualde est utilis, facile debeant conuenire. 
 Cum igitur auctore Deo ita fuerint episcopi in propinquis sibi 
 locis ordinati per omnia, episcoporum ordinatio sine adgre- 
 gatis tribus uel quattuor episcopis fieri non debet. Nam in 
 ipsis rebus spiritalibus ut sapienter et mature disponantur, 
 exemplum trahere a rebus etiam carnalibus possumus. Certe 
 enim dum coniugia in mundo celebrantur, coniugati quique 
 conuocantur, ut qui in uia iam coniugii praecesserunt, in 
 subsequentis quoque copulae gaudio misceantur. Cur non 
 ergo et in hac spiritali ordinatione, qua per sacrum ministerium 
 homo Deo coniungitur, tales conueniant, qui uel in prouectu 
 ordinati episcopi gaudeant, uel pro eius custodia omnipotenti 
 Deo preces pariter fundant?
 
 Auswcrs to Augustine. 79 
 
 VII. Augustine's Question. How ought we to act 
 with the bishops of Gaul and of Britain'? 
 
 Gregory replied : We bestow upon you no authority 
 among the bishops of Gaul ; because from the ancient 
 times of my predecessors the Bishop of Aries has 
 received the pall, and we ought not at all to deprive 
 him of the authority he has enjoyed. If you happen, 
 therefore, brother, to cross into the province of Gaul, 
 
 Septima Interrogatio Attgustini. 
 
 Qualiter debemus cum Galliarum Britanniarumque epis- 
 copis agere? 
 
 Resp07idit Gregorius. 
 
 In Galliarum episcopis nullam tibi auctoritatem tribuimus : 
 quia ab antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus pallium 
 Arelatensis episcopus accepit, quern nos priuare auctoritate 
 percepta minima debemus. Si igitur contingat ut fraternitas 
 
 ^ It is quite possible that Gregory did not understand the point of 
 Augustine's question. It seems very unlikely that Augustine should have 
 imagined himself to have any territorial jurisdiction over the older dioceses 
 of Gaul ; and perhaps this question, like the second, may have sprung out 
 of difficulties with Liudhard, the Frankish bishop whom he found already at 
 Canterbury, and with the Frankish presbyters who had accompanied the 
 mission. There may also have been other occasional visitors from among 
 the continental bishops (like Felix and Agilbert a little later) whose visits 
 and ministrations are unrecorded. By the 'bishops of Britain,' Augustine 
 probably meant those Celtic bishops over whom he soon sought to establish 
 a jurisdiction. But it looks as if Gregory knew nothing of these Celtic 
 bishops, so that the last sentence of this reply had no direct reference 
 to them, but meant the bishops whom Augustine himself would appoint. 
 At the same time it shows Gregory's curiously defective information with 
 regard to Gaul and Britain that he should have given Augustine leave, even 
 in conjunction with the Bishop of Aries, to concern himself with correcting 
 the faults of bishops under the jurisdiction of the latter.
 
 So A/zstiwrs to Augustine. 
 
 you should act with the Bishop of Aries, for the 
 correction of any faults that may be found in the 
 bishops. If he should prove lukewarm with regard to 
 energy in discipline, your zeal, my brother, must set 
 him on fire. We have written a letter to him also, to 
 help you with all his heart when your Holiness is 
 present in Gaul, and to restrain whatever is contrary 
 to the commandment of our Maker in the ways of the 
 bishops. You by yourself, however, cannot judge the 
 bishops of Gaul, outside your own jurisdiction ; but 
 persuade, entreat, display good works for their imitation, 
 and so reform the minds of those who are bad to the 
 pursuit of holiness ; for it is written in the Law, ' When 
 a man passeth through another man's corn, he may not 
 put a sickle thereto, but may rub the ears wnth his hand 
 and eat.' You may not put the sickle of judgment to 
 the crop which is evidently intrusted to another; but, 
 by )-our devotion to good work, rid the Lord's wheat of 
 
 tua ad Galliarum prouinciam transeat, cum eodem Arelatense 
 episcopo debet agere, qualiter, si qua sunt in episcopis uitia, 
 corrigantur. Qui si forte in disciplinae uigore tepidus existat, 
 tuae fraternitatis zelo accendendus est. Cui etiam epistolas 
 fecimus, ut cum tuae sanctitatis praesentia in Galliis et ipse 
 tota menie subueniat, et quae sunt creatoris nostri iussioni 
 contraria, ab episcoporum moribus compescat. Ipse autem 
 extra auctoritatem proj^riam episcopos Galliarum iudicare non 
 poteris ; sed siiadendo, blandiendo, bona quoque opera eorum 
 imitationi monstrando, prauorum mentes ad sanctitatis stadia 
 reforma : quia scriptuni est in lege : Per alienam messem irans- 
 iens falcem tnittere non debet, sed manu spicas conterere et 
 manducare. Falcem enim iudicii mittere non potes in ea 
 segete, quae alteri uidetur esse commissa; sed per affectum
 
 Anszucrs to Augustine. 8i 
 
 its vicious chaff, and by warning and persuasion, as it 
 were by eating, convert it into the body of the Church. 
 Whatever is to be done by authority, must be done in 
 conjunction with the aforesaid Bishop of Aries, that what 
 our fathers of old devised and established may not be 
 left out of account. But all the bishops of Britain 
 we intrust to you, brother, that the unlearned may be 
 taught, the weak be strengthened by persuasion, the 
 perverse be corrected by authority. 
 
 VIII. Augustine's Question. Whether a woman 
 may be baptized when with child^ .■' 
 
 Gregory replied : I do not doubt that this question 
 has been put to you, brother ; and I think that I have 
 
 boni operis frumenta Dominica uitiorum suorum paleis ex- 
 spolia, et in ecclesiae corpore monendo et persuadendo quasi 
 mandendo conuerte. Quicquid uero ex auctoritate agendum 
 est, cum praedicto Arelatense episcopo agatur, ne praetermitti 
 possit hoc, quod antiqua patrum institutio inuenit. Britta- 
 niarum uero omnes episcopos tuae fraternitati committimus, 
 ut indocti doceantur, infirmi persuasione roborentur, peruersi 
 auctoritate corrigantur. 
 
 Odava Interrogatio Augustini. 
 Si praegnans mulier debeat baptizari?... 
 
 Respondit Grcgo?-;us. 
 Hoc non ambigo fraternitatem tuam esse requisitam, cui 
 iam et responsum reddidisse me arbitror. Sed hoc quod ipse 
 
 ^ To this question are attached others somewhat similar in kind, with 
 regard to various things which might be considered to carry with them 
 defilement from a Levitical point of view. 
 
 M. 6
 
 S2 Ansti'ers to Augustine. 
 
 answered it already. But I suppose you wished that 
 what you were able to say and think for yourself should 
 be supported by an answer of mine put in your hands. 
 Why should not a woman with child be baptized, when 
 it is no sin in the eyes of Almighty God to be fruitful ? 
 When our first parents had done wrong in Paradise, by 
 the righteous judgment of God they lost the immortality 
 which had been given them. So, because Almighty God 
 would not entirely exterminate mankind for its fault. He 
 took away from man on the one hand his immortality 
 for his sin, and on the other hand according to His 
 own lovingkindness He reserved for him fruitfulness in 
 procreation of children. What has been preserved, 
 therefore, for mankind by gift of Almighty God, how 
 could we forbid to approach the grace of Holy Baptism .-' 
 It would be very foolish to suppose that a thing which 
 is itself a gift of grace can be out of keeping with that 
 sacrament in which all guilt is completely done away... 
 
 dicere et sentire potuisti, credo quia mea apud te uolueris 
 responsione firmari. Mulier etenim praegnans cur non debeat 
 baptizari, cum non sit ante omnipotentis Dei oculos culpa 
 aliqua fecunditas carnis? Nam cum primi parentes nostri in 
 paradise deliquissent, imniortalitatem quam acceperant recto 
 Dei iud'cio perdiderunt. Quia itaque isdem omnipotens Deus 
 humanum genus pro culpa sua funditus exstinguere noluit, et 
 inimortalitatem homini pro peccato suo abstulit, et tamen pro 
 benignitate suae pietatis fecunditatem ei sobolis reseruauit. 
 Quod ergo naturae humanae ex omnipotentis Dei dono scrua- 
 tum est, qua ratione poterit a sacri baptismatis gratia prohiLeri? 
 In illo quippe mysterio, in quo omnis culpa funditus exstingui- 
 tur, ualde stultum est, si donum gratiae contradicere posse 
 uideatur....
 
 TJic Mission reinforced. 8.3 
 
 XI. Despatch of Reinforcements from Rojnc. Gregorys 
 scheme for Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions in England. 
 
 (Bede i. xxix.) 
 
 Moreover, as the Bishop Augustine had informed 
 Pope Gregory that he had a great harvest, but few 
 labourers, Gregory sent along with the messengers 
 before-mentioned an increased supply of fellow workers 
 and ministers of the word. Of these the first and fore- 
 most were Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and Rufinianus. 
 By them he sent also all manner of things which 
 were wanted for public worship and the service of 
 the church, — sacred vessels, altar draperies, church 
 ornaments, vestments for bishops and clergy ; relics 
 also of some of the holy Apostles and Martyrs ; and . 
 besides these a quantity of books. He sent also a 
 letter, in which he mentions that he has forwarded to 
 Augustine a pall, and intimates at the same time a 
 
 Praeterea idem papa Gregorius Augustine episcopo, quia 
 suggesserat ei multam quidem sibi esse messem, sed operarios 
 paucos, misit cum praefatis legatariis suis plures cooperatores 
 ac uerbi ministros; in quibus primi et praecipui erant Mellitus, 
 Justus, Paulinus, Rufinianus ; et per eos generaliter uniuersa, 
 quae ad cultum erant ac ministerium ecclesiae necessaria, uasa 
 uidelicet sacra, et uestimenta altarium, ornamenta quoque 
 ecclesiarum, et sacerdotalia uel clericilia indumenta, sanctorum 
 etiam apostolorum ac martyrum reliquias, nee non et codices 
 plurimos. Misit etiam litteras, in quibus significat se ei 
 pallium direxisse, simul et insinuat, qualiter episcopos in 
 
 6—2
 
 $4 Scheme for Ecclesiastical 
 
 scheme by which Augustine should make bishops in 
 Britain. The following is the text of tlie letter. 
 
 ' To my most reverend and holy brother and fellow 
 bishop Augustine, Gregory, servant of God's servants. 
 
 ' We know that those who labour for Almighty God 
 have the unspeakable rewards of the eternal kingdom 
 reserved for them ; but yet we also must requite them 
 with honours, that the acknowledgment may make 
 them toil the harder in their spiritual work. And 
 inasmuch as the newly founded church of the English 
 has been brought to the grace of Almighty God by the 
 bounty of the Lord and by your exertions, we grant 
 you the use of the pall in that church at the celebration 
 of the solemnities of the mass, and at no other time ; 
 with permission to ordain twelve bishops in different 
 places, to be subject to your jurisdiction, in order 
 that the Bishop of the city of London in the future may 
 
 Brittania constituere debuisset; quarum litterarum iste est 
 textus : 
 
 Reuereiitissimo et sajictissimo fratri Augustino coepiscopo 
 Gregorius seruus seruorjim Dei. 
 
 Cum cerium sit pro omnipotente Deo laborantibus ineffabilia 
 afferni regtii praemia reseruari, nobis tamen eis necesse est 
 honorum betieficia tribuere, lit in spiritalis operis studio ex 
 remuneratione ualeant multiplicius insudare. Et quia noiia 
 Anglorum ecclesia ad omnipotcntis Dei gratiam eodem Dojuino 
 largiente (t tc laborajite perduda est, nsutn tibi pallii in ea ad 
 sola viissarum sollemnia agenda concedimus, ita ut per loca 
 singula XII cpiscopos ordines, qui tuae subiaceant dicio?ii, 
 qtiatinus Lundoniensis ciiiitatis episcopus setnper in posterutn
 
 Jurisdictions in England. 85 
 
 always be consecrated by a synod of his own, and may 
 receive the honour of the pall from the holy Apostolic 
 See which by God's appointment I serve. We desire 
 you to send a bishop, whomsoever you determine to 
 ordain, to the city of York, with this provision, that if that 
 city and the neighbouring regions receive the word of 
 God, the Bishop of York likewise may ordain twelve 
 bishops and enjoy the metropolitan dignity. To him 
 also, if life is spared us, we propose with the Lord's 
 favour to grant the pall, but we wish him to be subject 
 to your direction, brother. After your death, he is to 
 preside over the bishops whom he has ordained without 
 being in any way subject to the jurisdiction of the 
 Bishop of London. In the future the Bishops of 
 London and York are to divide the honour between 
 them thus : the senior by ordination shall be considered 
 to come first; and they must arrange harmoniously by 
 common counsel and combined action whatever is to be 
 
 a synodo propria debeat consecrari, atque honoris pallium ab hac 
 sancia et apostolica, ciii Deo auctore deseruio, sede percipiat. Ad 
 Eburacavi uero ciuitaietn te iiobimiis episcopum mittere, quern ipse 
 iudicaueris ordi?iare ; ita dimtaxat, ut, si eadem ciuitas cum 
 finitimis locis uerbum Dei rccepcrit, ipse quoque XII episcopos 
 ordifiet, et metropolitani honore perfruatur ; quia ci quoque, si 
 uita comes fuerit, pallium tribuere Domino faiiefite disponimus, 
 quem tamen tuae fraternitatis iiolumus dispositioni subiacere ; 
 post obitum uero tuuin ita episcopis, qtws ordinauerit, praesit, ut 
 lundoniensis episcopi tiullo modo dicioni subiaceaf. Sit uero 
 inter Lundoniae et Elmracae ciuitatis episcopos in postcrum 
 honoris ista distinction ut ipse prior habeatur, qui prius fuerit 
 ordinatus ; communi autem consilio et coucordi actione quaeque
 
 86 Scheme for Ecclesiastieal Jurisdictions. 
 
 done out of zeal for Christ. They must make good 
 plans, and then execute them without variance. But 
 )-ou, brother, by appointment of our Lord God Jesus 
 Christ, are to have authority not over those bishops alone 
 whom you ordain, nor only over those ordained by the 
 Bishop of York, but even over all the priests^ of Britain, 
 that from your Holiness's lips and life they may take 
 their pattern of right belief and good living, and 
 performing their duty in faith and morals may attain, 
 when the Lord pleases, to the kingdom of heaven. God 
 keep you safe, most reverend brother.' 
 
 sunt pro Christi zelo agenda dispona?it wianimiter ; rede sen- 
 tiaiity et ea, quae senserint, 7ioti sibimet discrepando perficiant. 
 Tua uero fraternitas non solum eos episcopos, quos ordi?iauerit, 
 neque has tafitumvwdo, qui per Eburacae episcopu7)i fuerint 
 ordinaii, sed etiam omnes Brittafiiae sacerdotes habeat Deo 
 Do/iiifto nostro lesu Christo aiutore subiectos ; quatinus ex 
 li7igua et jiita tuae sanctitatis et recte crede^idi et bene uiuendi 
 formajH percipiant, atque officium suumfide ac moribus exsequentes, 
 ad eaelestia, cuin Dominus iioliierit, regna pertingant. Deus te 
 incolumetn custodiat, reuerentissime frater. 
 
 ^ It is usually thought that the British bishops are here intended. 
 At any rate Augustine interpreted the words as including them. But 
 it is doubtful whether Gregory was aware of their existence. He pro- 
 bably wished to make his statement as large as possible, without exactly 
 analysing its contents.
 
 Commendatory Letters. 87 
 
 XII. Gregory s Letters commendatory of the 
 Second Mission. 
 
 (Epist. lib. XI. ind. iv. num. 58.) 
 
 To the Bishops of Toulon, Marseilles, and elsewhere. 
 
 Although attention to the office you have received 
 would admonish you, brother, to help religious men to 
 the best of your power, and especially those who are 
 labouring for the sake of souls, it will do no harm if our 
 written words jog your carefulness ; for as the blaze gets 
 higher when the breath blows, so the earnestness of 
 a good soul increases at receipt of a commendation. 
 So because with the co-operation of the grace of our 
 Redeemer, there is so great a multitude of the English 
 nation turning to the grace of the Christian faith, that 
 our most reverend brother and fellow bishop, and yours 
 also, Augustine, affirms that the men with him are 
 wholly insufficient to prosecute the work in the different 
 places, we have arranged to send him a number of 
 
 Licet fraternitatem uestram suscepti officii cura commoneat, 
 ut religiosis uiris, et praecipue in causa animarum laborantibus, 
 omni debeat adnisu concurrere, non tamen ab re est si 
 soUicitudinem uestram epistolarum nostrarum sermo pulsauerit; 
 quia sicut ignis aura flante fit grandioi, ita bonae mentis studia 
 commendatione proficiunt. Quia igitur Redcmptoris nostri 
 gratia co-operante tanta de Anglorum gente ad Christianae 
 fidei gratiam multitude conuertitur ut reuerendissimus com- 
 munis frater et coepiscopus noster Augustinus eos qui secum 
 sunt ad hoc opus exequendum per diuersa loca asserat non 
 posse sufficere, aliquantos ad eum monachos cum dilectissimis
 
 S8 Counsel to Mellitiis against 
 
 monks, along with our beloved sons, yours and ours, 
 the presbyter Lawrence and the abbot Mellitus. Ac- 
 cordingly you, brother, will show them proper charity, 
 and will be quick to help them where there is occasion 
 for it, so that by your assistance they may not be 
 delayed in your parts, and thus they will have the 
 pleasure of being relieved by your succour, and you by 
 showing them kindnesses will be found partners in the 
 cause for which they have been dispatched\ 
 
 XIII. Gregoiys counsel to Mcllitiis with regard to 
 tlie Heathen Temples iji England. 
 
 (Bade i. xxx.) 
 
 When the messengers before-mentioned were on their 
 way out, the blessed father Gregory sent after them a letter 
 deserving to be recorded, in which he plainly showed how 
 
 et communibus filiis Laurentio presbytero et Mellito abbate 
 praeuidimus transmittendos. Et idee fraternitas uestra eis 
 caritatem quam deceat exhibeat, atque ita illis ubicumque 
 necesse fuerit auxiliari festinet ; quatenus, dum uobis opitu- 
 lantibus nuUas illic remorandi causas habuerint, et ipsi uestra 
 se releuatos consolatione congaudeant et uos solaciorura 
 exhibitione in causa pro qua directi sunt possitis participes 
 inueniri. 
 
 Abeuntibus autem praefatis legatariis, misit post eos beatus 
 pater Gregorius litteras memoratu dignas, in quibus aperte, 
 
 * There are similar letters on behalf of this expedition to many other 
 personages in Gaul, but they contain nothing of additional interest.
 
 destroying the Heathen Temples. 89 
 
 diligent and watchful he was for the salvation of our 
 nation. He writes thus : — 
 
 *To my beloved son the Abbot Mellitus, Gregory, 
 the servant of God's servants. 
 
 'After the departure of our company which is with 
 you, we became very anxious, not having heard at all 
 how your journey prospered. When Almighty God 
 brings you through to our brother the Bishop Augustine, 
 tell him what I have long been turning over in my 
 thoughts in reference to the English ; namely, not to let 
 the idol temples be destroyed in that nation, but to have 
 the idols in them destroyed. Holy water should be 
 made and sprinkled in the temples ; altars built, and 
 relics placed there. For if the temples are well built, 
 they ought to be converted from the worship of demons 
 to the service of the true God; so that the people, seeing 
 
 quam studiose erga saluationem nostrae gentis inuigilauerit, 
 ostendit, ita scribens : 
 
 Dilectisswio filio Mellito abbati Gregorius seruus seruorum 
 Dei. 
 
 Post discessum congregationis nostrae, qiiae tecum est, ualde 
 sumus suspensi redditi, quia tiihil de prosperitate 7iestri itineris 
 audisse nos contigit. Cum ergo Deus omnipotens uos ad re- 
 uerentissimum uirum fratrem nostrum Augustinum episcopum 
 perduxerit, dicite ei, quid diu mecum de causa Anglorum cogitans 
 tractaui ; uidelicet, qtda fana idoloruvi destrui in eadem gente 
 minime debeanf ; sed ipsa, quae in eis sunt, idola destruantur : 
 aqua benedicta fiat, in eisdem fianis aspergatur, altaria con- 
 struantur, reliquiae ponantur. Quia, si fana eadem bene 
 constructa sunt, necesse est, ut a cultu daemonum in obscquio 
 ueri Dei debeant commutari ; 2it dum gens ipsa eadem Jana sua
 
 go Adaptation of Heathen 
 
 that their temples are not destroyed, may put away error 
 from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God 
 may come with more of the sense of being at home to 
 the familiar places. And as they are accustomed to 
 slaughter many oxen in sacrifice to their demons, some 
 change of solemnity should be devised for them in this 
 respect also ; — say, that on the dedication festival, or on 
 those of the holy martyrs, whose relics are placed there, 
 they should make themselves booths of boughs round 
 the temples which have been turned into churches, and 
 observe the solemnity with religious feasts, and while 
 they no longer slaughter their beasts to the devil, they 
 may kill them to the praise of God for their own food, 
 and thank the Giver of all for satisfying them. So by 
 retaining for them some outward rejoicings, they may 
 the more easily be won to rejoicings of a spiritual kind. 
 It is evidently impossible, in the case of hard hearts, to 
 cut off everything at once. A man who is endeavouring 
 
 non iddet desirui, de corde errorem deponat, et Dcum neruin 
 cognoscens ac adorans, ad loca, quae cottsueiiit, familiarius 
 concurrai. Et quia boues solent in sacrificio daemonutn fuultos 
 occidere, debet eis etiam hac de re aliqua solletnnitas imviutari ; 
 ut die dedicationis, uel natalicii sanctorum martyrutn, quorum 
 illic reliquiae ponuntur, iabernacula sibi circa easdem ecclesias, 
 quae ex fanis commutatae sjint, de ramis arborum faciant, et 
 religiosis conuiuiis sollemnitatem celebrent ; nee diabolo iam 
 animalia immolent, et ad laudem Dei in esu suo animalia 
 occidant, et donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias referant; 
 ut dum eis aliqua exterius gaiidia reseruantur, ad interiora 
 gaudia consenlire facilius ualeant. Nam duris mentibus simul 
 omnia abscidere itnpossibile esse ?ion dubiicm est, quia et is, qui
 
 Customs to Christian purposes. 91 
 
 to scale a summit, rises by steps, not by bounds. Thus 
 although the Lord made Himself known to the people 
 of Israel in Egypt, yet He retained for them in His 
 own worship the employment of sacrifices, such as 
 they had been accustomed to offer to the devil, and 
 commanded them to offer animals in sacrifice to Him. 
 The intention was that their hearts might be changed, 
 and while one element of sacrifice was discarded, 
 another might be maintained. The animals were the 
 same that they had offered before ; but as they now 
 offered them up to the true God, and not to idols, they 
 were no longer the same sacrifices. You must kindly 
 say this to my brother Augustine, that situated as he is 
 there at present, he may consider what arrangements to 
 make about it all. God keep you safe, dearest son.' 
 
 summum locum ascendere nititur, gradibus uel passilnis, non 
 autem saltibiis elettaiitr. Sic Israelitico populo in Aegypto 
 Domiims se quideni innotuit ; sed tainen eis sacrificioriwi usus, 
 quae diabolo solebat exhibere, in ctilto propria reseniauif, ut eis 
 in siio sacrificio animalia iinmolare praeciperet ; quatinus cor 
 miitantes, aliiid de sacrificio aviitterent, aliud retinerent ; ut etsi 
 ipsa esse?it animalia, quae offerre consueuerant, uero tamen Deo 
 haec et non idolis immolanies, iam sacrificia ipsa non essent. 
 Haec igitur dilectionetn tuam praedicto fratri necesse est dicere, 
 tit ipse in praesenti illic positus perpcndat, qualiter omnia debeat 
 dispensare. Deus te incolumem custodial, dilectissimefili.
 
 92 Foundations at Catiterbury, 
 
 XIV^. TJie Founding of Canterbury Cathedral 
 and of St Augustine's Abbey. 
 
 (Bede i. xxxiii.) 
 
 When, as I have before related, an episcopal see had 
 been given to Augustine in the King's own city, he 
 regained possession, with the King's support, of a 
 church there, which he was informed had been built 
 in the city long before by the Roman believers. This he 
 consecrated in the name of Saint Saviour, Jesus Christ, 
 our God and Lord, and fixed there a home for himself 
 and all his successors. He made also a monastery not 
 far from the city, on the eastern side, where, at his 
 instigation, Ethelbert erected from the foundation a 
 church of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and 
 endowed it with various benefactions, to be a burying 
 place for Augustine himself and all the Bishops of 
 Canterbury, and also for the Kings of Kent. This 
 
 At Augustinus, ubi in regia ciuitate sedem episcopalem, ut 
 praediximus, accepit, recuperauit in ea, regie fultus adminiculo, 
 ecclesiam, quam inibi antique Romanorum fidelium opere 
 factam fuisse didicerat, et earn in nomine sancti Saluatoris Dei 
 et Domini nostri lesu Christi sacrauit, atque ibidem sibi 
 habitationem statuit et cunctis successoribus suis. Fecit autem 
 et monasterium non longe ab ipsa ciuitate ad orientem, in 
 quo, eius hortatu, Aedilberct ecclesiam beatorum apostolorum 
 Petri et Pauli a fundamentis construxit, ac diuersis donis 
 ditauit, in qua et ipsius Augustini, et omnium episcoporum 
 Doruuernensium, simul et return Cantiae, poni corpora possent.
 
 Foundations at Cante^'bury. 93 
 
 church, however, was not consecrated by Augustine, 
 but by his successor Lawrence. The first Abbot of 
 this monastery was the presbyter Peter ; who, being 
 sent on a mission into Gaul, was drowned in a bay of 
 the sea called Amblcteuse, and was buried by the 
 inhabitants of the place in a mean grave. But Almighty 
 God, to show what a worthy man he was, caused a 
 heavenly light to appear every night upon his grave; 
 until the neighbours, who saw it, observed that the man 
 who was buried there must have been a holy man, and 
 enquired whence and who he was. They then removed 
 the body, and laid it with the honour befitting such a 
 man in a church in the town of Boulogne. 
 
 XV. Dedication of St Pancras, 
 (Thorn col. 1760.) 
 Not far from the city, on the eastern side, about 
 midway between St Martin's church and the city walls, 
 
 Quam tamen ecclesiam non ipse Augustinus, sed successor 
 eius Laurentius consecrauit. 
 
 Primus autem eiusdem monasterii abbas Petrus presbiter 
 fuit, qui legatus Galliam missus demersus est in sinu maris, qui 
 uocatur Amfleat, et ab incolis loci ignobili traditus sepulturae; 
 sed omnipotens Deus ut, qualis meriti uir fuerit, demonstraret, 
 omni nocte supra sepulchrum eius lux caelestis apparuit, donee 
 animaduertentes uicini, qui uidebant, sanctum fuisse uirum, 
 qui ibi esset sepullus, et inuestigantes, unde uel quis esset, 
 abstulerunt corpus, et in Bononia ciuitate iuxta honorem tanto 
 uiro congruum in ecclesia i)osuerunt. 
 
 Erat autem non longe ab ipsa ciuitate ad orientem, quasi 
 medio itinere inter ecclesiam sancti Martini et muros ciuitatis.
 
 94 Foundations at Canterbury. 
 
 was situated a temple, or idol house, where King 
 Ethelbert used to pray according to the rites of his 
 nation and in company with his nobles to ' sacrifice to 
 devils and not to God.' This temple Augustine purified 
 from the pollutions and defilements of the Gentiles, 
 and breaking the image which was in it, converted the 
 synagogue into a church, and dedicated it in the name 
 of St Pancras the martyr ; and this was the first church 
 dedicated by Augustine. There still exists an altar 
 in the south aisle of that church, upon which Augustine 
 used to celebrate where once the King's image had 
 stood*. 
 
 phanum siue ydolum situm, ubi rex Ethelbertus secundum 
 ritum gentis suae solebat orare, et cum nobilibus suis 
 daemoniis et non Deo sacrilicare. Quod phanum Augustinus 
 ab inquinamentis et sordibus gentilium purgauit, et simulacro 
 quod in ea erat confracto synagogam mutauit in ecclesiam, et 
 eam in nomine sancti Pancrasii martyris dedicauit ; et haec est 
 prima ecclesia ab Augustino dedicata. Extat adhuc altare in 
 porticu eiusdem ecclesiae australi, in quo idem Augustinus 
 solebat celebrare ubi prius steterat simulacrum regis. 
 
 * Thorn goes on to say that the east wall of this aisle in his day {1397) 
 bore traces of the efforts made by the devil, the first time he saw Augustine 
 celebrate mass there, to wreck the building out of which he had been 
 ejected. Unfortunately he succeeded better later on. It was in the 
 fundus, or glebe, of this church that the monastery ' called by all the 
 inhabitants of the earth the monastery of the Apostles Peter and Paul and 
 of St Augustine ' (Thorn ibid.) was soon after erected.
 
 Angustme and the British ChiircJi. 95 
 
 XVI. Augustine and the British Church. 
 
 (Bede 11. ii.) 
 
 In the meantime, Augustine, with the assistance of 
 King Ethelbert, invited to a conference with himself the 
 bishops and teachers of the nearest British province, at 
 a place still called in English Augustine's Oak, on the 
 borders of the Huiccii^ and Wessex. He began to 
 persuade them with brotherly admonition to enter the 
 Catholic peace with him, and to co-operate with him in 
 preaching the Gospel to the heathen for the Lord's sake. 
 For the Britons did not keep Easter Sunday at the 
 proper time, but from the moon's fourteenth day to 
 the twentieth ; and this mode of computing goes by a 
 cycle of eighty-four years. They had also many other 
 practices which were at variance with church unity. A 
 long discussion was held ; and when no entreaties, or 
 
 Interea Augustinus adiutorio usus Aedilbercti regis conuo- 
 cauit ad siium colloquium episcopos siue doctores proximae 
 Brettonum prouinciae in loco, qui usque hodie lingua Anglorum 
 Augustinaes Ac, id est robur Augustini, in confinio Huiccioruni 
 et Occidentalium Saxonum appcllatur; coepitque eis fraterna 
 admonitione suadere, ut pace catholica secum habita conimunem 
 euangelizandi gentibus pro Domino laborem susciperent. Non 
 enim paschae diem dominicum suo tempore, sod a XIIII usque 
 ad XX lunam obseruabant; quae computatio LXXXIIII 
 annorum circulo continetur. Sed et alia plurima unitati 
 ecclesiasticae contraria faciebant. Qui cum longa disputatione 
 
 ■* The Huiccii occupied roughly speaking our present Worcestershire.
 
 96 Aiignstine and the British Church. 
 
 exhortations, or reproofs, on the part of Augustine and 
 his companions could make them wiUing to consent, 
 but they preferred their own traditions to all the 
 churches which throughout the world agree in Christ, 
 the holy father Augustine brought the long and fatiguing 
 debate to a conclusion by saying; 'Let us beseech God, 
 who makcth men to be of one mind in the house of 
 His Father, to signify graciously to us by heavenly 
 tokens, which tradition to follow, and by what paths 
 to press on that we may enter that Father's kingdom. 
 Let some sick man be fetched, and let us believe that 
 the one whose prayers are the means of healing him, is 
 he whose faith and work are truly consecrated to God 
 and ought to be followed by us all.' His opponents, 
 though reluctantly, agreed to the proposal. A man of 
 English birth was brought, who had lost the sight of his 
 eyes. He was presented to the British bishops, but 
 their ministry brought him no healing or cure. At 
 
 habita, neque precibus, neque hortamentis, neque increpatio- 
 nibus Augustini ac sociorum eius adsensum praebere uoluissent, 
 sed suas potius traditiones uniuersis, quae per orbem sibi 
 in Christo concordant, ecclesiis praeferrent, sanctus pater 
 Augustiniis hunc laboriosi ac longi certaminis iinem fecit, ut 
 diceret : ' Obsecremus Deum, qui habitare facit unanimes in 
 domu Patris sui, ut ipse nobis insinuare caelestibus signis 
 dignetur, quae sequenda traditio, quibus sit uiis ad ingressum 
 regni illius properanduni. Adducatur alicjuis aeger, et per 
 cuius preces fuerit curatus, huius fides et operatic Deo deuota 
 atque omnibus sequenda credatur.' Quod cum aduersarii, 
 inuiti licet, concedcrent, adlatus est quidam de genere An- 
 glorum, oculorum luce priuatus ; qui cum oblatus Brettonum 
 sacerdotibus nil curationis uel sanationis horum ministerio
 
 Atigustiue and the British Church. 97 
 
 length there was no help for it, but Augustine was 
 compelled to bow his knees to the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and to pray that He would restore to the 
 blind man his lost sight, and by the bodily enlightenment 
 of one man would kindle the grace of spiritual light in 
 the hearts of many believers. The blind man was 
 immediately enlightened, and Augustine was hailed 
 by all as the true herald of the Light Most High. 
 Thereupon the Britons acknowledged that the way 
 preached by Augustine was, they saw, the true way of 
 righteousness, but that they could not resign their 
 ancestral customs without the consent and sanction of 
 their brethren. So they asked that a synod might 
 again be held, with a larger number of attendants. 
 
 This was arranged. There came, it is said, seven 
 British bishops and many men of great learning, 
 particularly from a famous monastery of theirs, called 
 
 1 
 
 perciperet, tandem Augustinus, iusta necessitate conpulsus, 
 flectit genua sua ad Patrem Domini nostri lesu Christi, 
 deprecans, ut uisum caeco, quem amiserat, restitueret, at per 
 inluminationem unius hominis corporalem, in plurimorum 
 corde fidelium spiritalis gratiam lucis accenderet. Nee mora, 
 inluminatur caecus, ac uerus summae lucis praeco ab omnibus 
 praedicatur Augustinus. Turn Brettones confitentur quidem 
 intellexisse se ueram esse uiam iustitiae, quam praedicaret 
 Augustinus ; sed non se posse absque suorum consensu ac 
 licentia priscis abdicare moribus. Unde postulabant, ut 
 secundo synodus pluribus aduenientibus fieiet. 
 
 Quod cum esset statutum, uenerunt, ut perhibent, VII 
 Brettonum episcopi et plures uiri doctissimi, maxime de 
 nobilissimo eorum monasterio, quod uocatur lingua .Angloruin
 
 98 Ajtgustinc and the British Omrch. 
 
 in English Bangorbury ; of which the Abbot Dinoot is 
 said to have been the head at that time. Before coming 
 to the council, they resorted to a wise and holy man 
 who lived a hermit's life among them, and enquired of 
 him whether they ought to forsake their traditions for 
 the preaching of Augustine. He answered, ' If he is a 
 man of God, follow him.' 'And how,' said they, 'shall 
 wc be able to prove \\.V He replied, 'The Lord said, 
 Take My yoke npon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek 
 and lowly of heart. If this Augustine therefore is meek 
 and lowly of heart, we may well suppose that he bears 
 Christ's yoke himself, and is offering it to you to bear; 
 but if he is harsh and haughty, it is plain that he is not 
 of God, and we need not mind what he says.' They 
 said once more, 'And how shall we tell even that .''' 
 • Make sure,' he answered, ' that Augustine and his 
 companions come first to the place of synod, and if, 
 
 Bancornaburg, cui tempore illo Dinoot abbas praefuisse 
 narratur, qui ad praefatum ituri concilium uenerunt prime 
 ad quendam uirum sanctum ac prudentem, qui apud cos 
 anaclioreticam ducere uitam solebat, consulentes, an ad 
 praedicationem Augustini suas deserere traditiones deberent. 
 Qui respondebat : 'Si homo Dei est, sequimini ilium.' 
 Dixerunt: ' Et unde hoc possumus probare?' At ille : 
 'Dominus,' inquit, 'ait: Tollite iugum ineum super uos, 
 d discite a me, quia viitis sum et humilis corde. Si ergo 
 Augustinus ille mitis est et humilis corde, credibile est, quia 
 iugum Christi et ipse portet, et uobis portandum offerat ; sin 
 autem inmitis ac superbus est, constat, quia non est de Deo, 
 neque nobis eius sermo curandus.' Qui rursus aiebant : 
 ' Et unde uel hoc dinoscere ualemus ?' ' Procurate,' inquit, ' ut 
 ipse prior cum suis ad locum synodi adueniat, et, si uobis
 
 Atigustinc and the British Church. 99 
 
 on your approach, he rises to meet you, you will know 
 that he is a servant of Christ, and will hear him with 
 deference ; but if he makes light of you, and will not 
 stand up in your presence, when you arc the larger 
 party, then you may make light of him.' 
 
 They did as he said. It came to pass that on their 
 arrival Augustine was seated in his chair. As soon as 
 they saw this, they became angry; and setting him 
 down as guilty of haughtiness, they laboured to gainsay 
 everything he said. What he said to them was to this 
 effect. 'There are many points in which you act 
 contrary to our custom, and indeed to that of the 
 universal Church; yet if you will follow my advice in 
 three things, — to keep Easter at the proper season ; to 
 complete the ministry of baptism, in which we are born 
 again to God, after the manner of the holy Roman 
 Apostolic Church 1; and to join us in preaching the word 
 
 adpropinquantibus adsurrexerit, scientes, quia famulus Christi 
 est, obtemperanter ilium audite ; sin autem uos spreuerit, nee 
 coram nobis adsurgere uoluerit, cum sitis numero plures, et 
 ipse spernatur a nobis.' 
 
 Fecerunt, ut dixerat. Factumque est, ut nenientibus illis 
 sederet Augustinus in sella. Quod illi uidentes mox in iram 
 connersi sunt, eumque notantes superbiae, cunctis, quae 
 dicebat, contradicere laborabant. Dicebat antem eis quia 
 ' in mnltis qnidem nostrae consnetudini, inmio uniuersalis 
 ecclesiae contraria geritis; et tanien si in tribus his mihi 
 obtemperare uultis, ut pascha suo tempore celebretis ; ut 
 ministerium baptizandi, quo Deo renascimur, iuxta morem 
 sanctae Romanae et apostolicae ecclesiae conpleatis : ut gcnti 
 
 ^ See Dissertation iv. p. 248.
 
 lOO Aus-Jistine and the British Church. 
 
 of the Lord to the English nation, — we will make no 
 trouble of putting up with all the other things which 
 you do, however contrary to our ways.' But they replied 
 that they would do none of these things, and that they 
 would not have him for their archbishop, saying in 
 consultation with one another, ' If he will not rise up 
 to meet us now, how much more will he despise us as of 
 no account, if once we come under his authority.' 
 
 The man of the Lord, Augustine, is said thereupon 
 to have uttered the threatening prophecy, that if they 
 would not receive peace with their brethren, they would 
 get war from their enemies, and that if they would not 
 preach the way of life to the English people, they would 
 in revenge find death at their hands. This prophecy 
 was in every point fulfilled by the action of Divine 
 judgment. 
 
 Anglorum una nobiscum uerbum Domini praedicetis ; cetera, 
 quae agitis, quamuis moribus nostris contraria, aequanimiter 
 cuncta tolerabimus.' At illi nil horum se facturos, neque 
 ilium pro archiepiscopo habituros esse respondebant ; con- 
 ferentes ad inuicem, quia 'si mode nobis adsurgere noluit, 
 quanto magis, si ei subdi coeperimus, iam nos pro nihilo 
 contemnei.' 
 
 Quibus uir Domini Augustinus fertur minitans praedixisse, 
 quia, si pacem cum fratribus accipere nollent, bellum ab 
 hostibus forent accepturi ; et, si nationi Anglorum noluissent 
 uiam uitae praedicare, per horum manus ultionem essent mortis 
 passuri. Quod ita per omnia, ut praedixerat, diuino agcnte 
 iudicio patratum est.
 
 Consecration of tivo Bishops. lOI 
 
 XVII. Death of Augustine after consecrating his 
 successor and tzvo other Bishops. 
 
 (Bede ii. iii., iv.) 
 
 In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 604, Augustine 
 the Archbishop of Britain ordained two bishops, namely 
 IMellitus and Justus, — MelHtus to preach to the province 
 of the East Saxons, who are divided from Kent by the 
 river Thames, and are contiguous to the Eastern Sea. 
 Their capital is the city of London, which is situated on 
 the bank of that river, and is the emporium of many 
 races coming by land and by sea. Of that race Sabert 
 was king at the time, a nephew of Ethelbert's through 
 his sister Ricula. Though king, he was subject to the 
 overlordship of Ethelbert, who, as I said before, had 
 imperial power over all the English races as far as the 
 river Humber. As soon as that province also received 
 the word of truth by the preaching of Mellitus, King 
 Ethelbert erected in the city of London the church of 
 
 Anno dominicae incarnationis UCIIH'"", Augustinus Brit- 
 taniarum archiepiscopus ordinauit duos episcopos, Mellitum 
 uidelicet et lustum ; Mellitum quidem ad praedicandum pro- 
 uinciae Orientalium Saxonum, qui Tamense fluuio dirimuntur 
 a Cantia, et ipsi orientali mari contigui, quorum metropolis 
 Lundonia ciuitas est, super ripam praefati fluminis posita, et 
 ipsa multorum emporium populorum terra marique uenientium; 
 in qua uidelicet gente tunc temporis Saberct nepos Aedilhercti 
 ex sorore Ricula regnabat, quamuis sub potestate positus 
 eiusdem Aedilbercti, qui omnibus, ut supra dictum est, usque 
 ad terminum Humbrae fluminis Anglorum gentibus imperabat. 
 Ubi uero et haec prouincia uerbum ueritatis praedicante 
 Mellito accepit, fecit rex Aedilberct in ciuitate Lundonia
 
 I02 DeatJi of Augustine. 
 
 St Paul the Apostle, for him and his successors to have 
 as the place of their episcopal see. Justus was ordained 
 bishop by Augustine in Kent itself at the city of Doru- 
 brevis, which is called by the English, after Roff, a 
 former chieftain there, Rochester. It is about 24 miles 
 to the west of Canterbury ; and there King Ethelbert 
 erected the church of the blessed Apostle Andrew, and 
 he gave to the bishops of both these churches many 
 gifts, as he did to the Bishop of Canterbury, and added, 
 moreover, lands and properties for the benefit of the 
 bishops' companions. 
 
 Now our father Augustine, the beloved of God, died ; 
 and his body was buried out of doors, beside the church 
 of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of which I have 
 spoken; because it was not yet completed or consecrated. 
 Directly after the consecration, however, it was brought 
 inside, and suitably interred in the north aisle, where 
 
 ecclesiam sancti Pauli apostoli, in qua locum sedis episcopalis 
 et ipse et successores eius haberent. lustum uero in ipsa 
 Cantia Augustinus episcopum ordinauit in ciuitate Dorubreui, 
 quam gens Anglorum a primario quondam illius, qui dicebatur 
 Hrof, Hrofaescaestrae cognominat. Distat autem a Doruuerni 
 milibus passuum ferme XXIIII ad occidentem, in qua rex 
 Aedilberct ecclesiam beati Andreae apostoli fecit, qui etiam 
 episcopis utriusque huius ecclesiae dona multa, sicut et 
 Doruuernensis, obtulit ; sed et territoria ac possessiones in 
 usum eorum, qui erant cum episcopis, adiecit. 
 
 Defunctus est autem Deo dilectus pater Augustinus, et 
 positum corpus eius foras iuxta ecclesiam beatorum apostolorum 
 Petri et Pauli, cuius supra meminimus, quia necdum fuerat 
 perfecta nee dedicata. Mox uero ut dedicata est, intro 
 inlatum, et in porticu illius aquilonali decenter sepultum est ;
 
 Epitaph on his Tomb. 103 
 
 the bodies of all the subsequent archbishops have been 
 entombed, except two — Theodore and Brightwald, — 
 whose bodies were laid in the church itself, because the 
 aisle could hold no more. The aisle contains, almost 
 in the middle of it, an altar dedicated in honour of the 
 blessed Pope Gregory, at which every Saturday their 
 memorial masses are solemnly celebrated by a presbyter 
 of the place. Inscribed upon the tomb of Augustine is 
 the following epitaph : — 
 
 ' Here rests the Lord Augustine, first Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, who, being sent hither by the blessed 
 Gregory Bishop of the city of Rome, and supported by 
 God with the working of miracles, brought King Ethel- 
 bert and his people from the worship of idols to the 
 faith of Christ, and, having fulfilled in peace the days of 
 his ministry, died May 26, in the reign of the same King^' 
 
 in qua etiam sequentium archiepiscoporum omnium sunt 
 corpora tumulata praeter duorum tantummodo, id est Theodori 
 et Berctualdi, quorum corpora in ipsa ecclesia posita sunt, eo 
 quod praedicta porticus plura capere nequiuit. Habet haec in 
 medio paene sui altare in honore beati papae Gregorii dedicatum, 
 in quo per omne sabbatum a presbytero loci illius agendae 
 eorum soUemniter celebrantur. Scriptum uero est in tumba 
 eiusdem Augustini epitaphium huiusmodi : ' Hie requiescit 
 domnus Augustinus Doruuernensis archiepiscopus primus, qui 
 olim hue a beato Gregorio Romanae urbis pontifice directus, 
 et a Deo operatione miraculorum suflfultus, Aedilberctum regem 
 ac gentem illius ab idolorum cultu ad Christi fidem perduxit, 
 et conpletis in pace diebus officii sui, dcfunctus est VII 
 Kalendas lunias, eodem rege regnante.' 
 
 1 The year of Augustine's death is uncertain. Thorn (col. 1765)' who 
 represents the Canterbury tradition, gives 605, and argues against another
 
 104 Cojisccration of Laiurence. 
 
 Augustine was succeeded in his bishopric by Law- 
 rence, whom in his Hfetime he had ordained for the 
 purpose, in order that a church in so rudimentary a state 
 might not at his death be imperilled even for an hour 
 for want of a pastor. In this he followed the example 
 of the first pastor of the church, the most blessed Chief 
 of the Apostles Peter; who, when the Church of Christ 
 was founded at Rome, is said to have consecrated 
 Clement to be his coadjutor in preaching the gospel and 
 afterwards his successor ^ 
 
 Successit Augustine in episcopatum Laurentius, quem ipse 
 idcirco adhuc uiuens ordinauerat, ne, se defuncto, status 
 ecclesiae tarn rudis uel ad horam pastore destitutus uacillare 
 inciperet. In quo et exemplum sequebatur primi pastoris 
 ecclesiae, hoc est beatissimi apostolorum principis Petri, qui, 
 fundata Romae ecclesia Christi, Clementem sibi adiutorem 
 euangelizandi, simul et successorem consecrasse perhibetur. 
 
 alleged date. But he supplies two facts which are against his own date, 
 (i) He says, along with Florence of Worcester, that it took place on a 
 Tuesday; which would suit with 604, but not with 605. (2) He quotes a 
 textiis sancti Adriani which affirms that Gregory and Augustine died in the 
 same year; and it seems certain, in spite of Bede ii. i, that Gregory died 
 in 604. Haddan and Stubbs, indeed, though they accept the date 604 for 
 St Augustine's death, say that 'the alleged synchronism... in a writer of 
 Thorn's date is worlhle.ss ' {Cotuia'ls and Eccl. Doc. iii. 4) ; but they do not 
 observe that Thorn is quoting from an earlier authority. The Adrianus in 
 question was Theodore's companion on his journey to England in 668 ; and 
 even if the textus be not genuine (which we have no means of judging) it 
 must be much older than Thorn's time. 
 
 ^ It is needless to say that this statement with regard to St Clement 
 rests upon no historical foundation.
 
 ArcJiiepiscopatc of Lazvrencc. 105 
 
 XVIII. Lawrences attempts at union zvitJi the Celtic 
 Chnrches. Mellitns attends a Council at Rome. 
 
 (Bede 11. iv.) 
 
 When Lawrence had attained the position of Arch- 
 bishop, he sought very vigorously to add to those 
 foundations of the church, which he saw so nobly laid, 
 and to carry it on and up to the due height, both by the 
 constant word of holy exhortation, and by the unbroken 
 example of pious activity. For not contented with the 
 care of the new church gathered from the English, he 
 expended his pastoral care also upon the ancient 
 inhabitants of Britain, and upon the Scottish tribes 
 who inhabit the isle of Ireland, adjacent to Britain. 
 Learning that the life and profession of the Scots, in 
 their country, like that of the Britons in Britain, was in 
 many things unchurchlike, — particularly because they 
 celebrated Easter at the wrong time, thinking, as I 
 showed before, that the Lord's Resurrection Day was to 
 
 Laurentius archiepiscopi gradu potitus strennuissime fun- 
 damenta ecclesiae, quae nobiliter iacta uidit, augmentare, 
 atque ad profectum debiti culminis, et crebra uoce sanctae 
 exhortationis et continuis piae operationis exemplis, prouehere 
 curauit. Denique non solum nouae, quae de Anglis erat 
 collecta, ecclesiae curam gerebat, sed et ueterum Brittaniae 
 incolarum, nee non et Scottorum, qui Hiberniam insulam 
 Brittaniae proximam incolunt, populis pastoralem inpendere 
 sollicitudinem curabat. Siquidem ubi Scottorum in praefata 
 ipsorum patria, quomodo et Brettonum in ipsa Brittania, uitam 
 ac professionem minus ecclesiasticam in multis esse cognouit, 
 maxime quod paschae sollemnitatem non sue tempore cele- 
 brarent, sed, ut supra docuimus, a XIIIT' luna usque ad XX""
 
 io6 Efforts after Reunion 
 
 be kept between the fourteenth and twentieth days of 
 the moon, — he wrote them a hortatory letter, in con- 
 junction with his fellow bishops, entreating and imploring 
 them to keep the unity of peace and of Catholic observ- 
 ance along with the Church of Christ dispersed through- 
 out the world. The letter begins thus : — 
 
 ' To our dear brethren the Lords Bishops and Abbots 
 throughout the land of the Scots, Lawrence, Mellitus, 
 and Justus, Bishops, servants of God's servants. 
 
 ' Having been sent by the Apostolic See to preach 
 to the heathen tribes in these western regions, according 
 to the usage of that See all over the world, we have 
 been permitted to make an entrance into this island of 
 liritain. Before we knew the facts, we, supposing that 
 they walked according to the custom of the universal 
 church, held in great reverence for their sanctity both 
 the Britons and the Scots ; but when we came to know 
 
 dominicae resurrectionis diem obseruandum esse putarent; 
 scripsit cum coepiscopis suis exhortatoriam ad eos epistulam, 
 obsecrans eos et contestans unitatem pacis et catholicae 
 obseruationis cum ea, cjuae toto orbe diffusa est, ecclesia 
 Christi tenere ; cuius uidelicet epistulae principium hoc est : 
 
 Dominis carissimis fratribus episcopis uel abbatibus per 
 uuiucrsam Scottiam Lauretiiius, Alellitus, et Justus episcopi, 
 serui seruorum Dei. 
 
 Dum nos sedes apostolica more suo, sicut in ufiiuerso orbe 
 terrarum, in his oeeiduis partibus ad pracdicandum gentibus 
 paganis dirigeret, atque in hanc i?isulavi, quae Brittania nim- 
 eupatur, contigit introisse ; antequafn cognosceremus, eredentes, 
 quod iuxia tnoretn uniuersalis eeclesiae ingrederetitur, in magna 
 raterentia sanctitatis tam Brettones qaani Scottos uenerati sumus;
 
 xvitJi the Celtic Chiirehes. 107 
 
 the Britons, we thought that the Scots must be better 
 than they. Through Bishop Dagan, however, who came 
 to this island, and through the abbot Columban who 
 came to Gaul, wc have learned that the Scots are not at 
 all different in their ways from the Britons. For when 
 Bishop Dagan came to us, he not only refused to eat 
 with us, but refused to eat at all in the same lodging 
 where we ate.' 
 
 To the British bishops also Lawrence with his fellow 
 bishops sent a letter suitable to their degree, in which he 
 endeavours to confirm them in the Catholic unity ; but 
 how much good these proceedings did, present circum- 
 stances show. 
 
 At this time Mellitus, Bishop of London, went to 
 Rome, to treat with the Apostolic Pope Boniface on 
 points of importance to the English Church. And when 
 that most reverend Pope called together a synod of the 
 
 sed cognoscentes Bretiones, Scottos meliores piitanimus. Scottos 
 uero per Daganiim episcopuni in hanc, qnam superins 7nemo- 
 rauivius, ins7ilam, et Columbamim abbaiem in Gallis icenientcm 
 nihil discnpare a Breitonibns in eorum conucrsatione didicimus. 
 Nam Daganus episcopus ad nos ueniens, non solum cibiim 
 nobiscum, sed nee in eodem hospitio, quo uescelmmur, sumere 
 rioluit. 
 
 Misit idem Laurentius cum coepiscopis suis etiam Brettonum 
 sacerdotibus litteras sue gradui condignas, quibus eos in unitate 
 catholica confirmare satagit. Sed quantum haec agendo pro- 
 fecerit, adhuc praesentia tempora declarant. 
 
 His temporibus uenit Mellitus Lundoniae episcopus Ro- 
 mam, de necessariis ecclesiae Anglorum cum apostolico papa 
 Bonifatio tractaturus. Et cum idem papa reuerentissuuus
 
 io8 Mellitiis at Rojue. 
 
 Italian bishops, to make regulations with regard to the 
 life and peace of monks, Mellitus also sat with them (it 
 was the eighth year of the reign of the Emperor Phocas, 
 thirteenth Indiction, February 27)^ in order to add the 
 weight of his subscription to whatever was canonically 
 decreed, and to bring the decrees, on his return to 
 Britain, to be delivered to the English Churches for 
 their observance, together with letters addressed by the 
 aforesaid Pontiff to Lawrence the Archbishop, beloved 
 of God, and the clergy in general, and likewise to King 
 Ethelbert and the English people. This was the Boniface 
 who was fourth Bishop of the city of Rome from the 
 blessed Gregory. 
 
 cogeret synodum episcoporum Italiae, de uita monachorum 
 at quiete ordinaturus, et ipse Mellitus inter eos adsedit anno 
 VIII imperii Focatis principis, indictione XI 11% tertio die 
 Kalendarum Martiarum ; ut quaeque erant regulariter decreta, 
 sua quoque auctoritate subscribens confirmaret, ac Brittaniam 
 rediens secum Anglorum ecclesiis mandanda atque obseruanda 
 dcferret, una cum epistulis, quas idem pontifex Deo dilecto 
 archiepiscopo Laurentio et clero uniuerso, similiter et Aedil- 
 bercto regi atque genti Anglorum direxit. Hie est Bonifatius, 
 quartus a beato Gregorio Romanae urbis episcopo. 
 
 1 A.D, 610,
 
 Death of EtJiclbcrt. 109 
 
 XIX. The Pagan Reaction after the Death of 
 EtJielbert. 
 
 (Bede 11. v., vi.) 
 
 In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 616, which was 
 the twenty-first year after the mission of Augustine and 
 his companions to preach to the EngHsh people, Ethel- 
 bert, King of Kent, after his glorious temporal reign 
 of six and fifty years, entered the eternal joys of the 
 kingdom of heaven. He was the third among the kings 
 of the English people who ruled as overlord over all the 
 southern provinces, which are divided from the northern 
 by the river Humber and the boundaries adjoining it ; 
 but he was the first of all to rise to the heavenly 
 kingdoms... King Ethelbert died on Feb. 24, twenty-one 
 years after the receiving of the faith \ and was buried in 
 
 Anno ab incarnatione dominica DCXVI, qui est annus 
 XXI, ex quo Augustinus cum sociis ad praedicandum genti 
 Anglorum missus est, Aedilberct rex Cantuariorum post regnum 
 temporale, quod L et VI annis gloriosissime tcnuerat, aeterna 
 caelestis regni gaudia subiit ; qui tertius quidem in regibus 
 gentis Anglorum cunctis australibus eorum prouinciis, quae 
 Humbrae fluuio et contiguis ei terminis sequestrantur a 
 borealibus, imperauit; sed primus omnium caeli regna 
 conscendit. 
 
 Defunctus uero est rex Aedilberct die XXIIII niensis 
 Februarii post XX et unum annos acceptae fidei, atque in 
 
 1 This computation can only, if at all, be made correct by counting 
 from the first starting of the missionaries from Rome. Bede's language does 
 not necessarily mean, as is often stated, ' twenty-one years after Ethelbert 
 received the faith.'
 
 1 1 o J^i^ig Ethelberts ' Dooms! 
 
 the aisle of St Martin inside the church of the blessed 
 Apostles Peter and Paul, where also Queen Bertha is 
 buried. 
 
 Amongst other benefits which his thoughtfulness 
 conferred upon his people, he drew up for them, in 
 concert with his Witenagemot, a code of judicial de- 
 cisions, aiter the manner of the Romans, which are still 
 extant in the English language, and remain in force 
 among the people. The first thing laid down in this 
 code is the penalty to be paid by any who steals 
 anything belonging to the church, to the bishop, and 
 to the other orders. He evidently desired to give pro- 
 tection to those whom he had welcomed, with their 
 doctrine ^ 
 
 Ethelbert was the son of Irminric; whose father was 
 Octa ; and his was Eric, surnamed Ash, from whom the 
 Kings of Kent bear the surname of the Ashings. His 
 
 porticu sancti Martini intro ecclesiam beatorum apostolorum 
 Petri et Pauli sepultus, ubi et Berctae regina condita est. 
 
 Qui inter cetera bona, quae genti suae consulendo confere- 
 bat, eiiam decreta illi iudiciorum, iuxta exempla Romanorum, 
 cum consilio sapientium constituit ; quae conscripta Anglorum 
 seniione hactenus habentur, et obseruantur ab ea. In cjuibus 
 primitus posuit, qualiter id emendare deberet, qui aliquid 
 rerum uel ecclesiae, uel episcopi, uel reliquorum ordinum 
 furto auferret; uolens scilicet tuitionem eis, quos et quorum 
 doctrinam susceperat, praestaie. 
 
 Erat autem idem Aedilberct filius Irminrici, cuius pater 
 Octa, cuius pater Oeric cognomento Oisc, a quo reges 
 Cantuariorum solent Oiscingas cognominare. Cuius pater 
 
 * Ethelbert's 'Dooms' will be fouml in lladdan and Stubbs Councils 
 and Ecd. Documents iii. 42 foil.
 
 HeaiheJi Reaction in Kent. ill 
 
 father was Hengist, who with his son Ash was the first 
 to enter Britain by invitation of Vortigcrn, as wc have 
 related above. 
 
 But after the death of Ethclbert, when his son 
 Edbald had assumed the hehii of government, it proved 
 a great disaster to the still tender growth of the Church 
 there. Edbald not only refused to accept the faith of 
 Christ; he also polluted himself with 'such fornication, 
 as is not so much as named (the Apostle bears witness) 
 among the Gentiles, to have his father's wife.' By this 
 double wickedness he gave an opportunity of returning 
 to their vomit to those who, under his father's rule, for 
 fear or favour of the king, had espoused the laws of 
 faith and purity. The scourges of the severity on high 
 were employed for the chastisement and correction of 
 this faithless king ; for he was the victim of an often 
 recurring insanity, and of the attacks of an unclean 
 spirit. 
 
 Hengist, qui cum filio sue Oisc inuitatus a Uurtigerno 
 Brittaniam primus intrauit, ut supra retulimus. 
 
 At uero post mortem Aedilbercti, cum filius eius Eadbald 
 regni gubernacula suscepisset, magno tenellis ibi adhuc ecclesiae 
 crementis detrimento fuit. Siquidem non solum fidem Christi 
 recipere noluerat, sed at fornicatione pollutus est tali, qualem 
 nee inter gentes auditam apostolus testatur, ita ut uxorcm 
 patris haberet. Quo utroque scelere occasionem dedit ad 
 priorem uomitum reuertendi his, qui sub impcrio sui parentis, 
 uel fauore uel timore regio, fidei et castimoniae iura sus- 
 ceperant. Nee supernae flagella districtionis perfido regi 
 castigando et corrigendo defuere ; nam crebra mentis uesania 
 et spiritus inmundi inuasione premebatur.
 
 1 1 2 HeatJicn Reaction in London. 
 
 This distressing storm was increased also by the 
 death of Sabert, the King of Essex. He, in departing 
 for the realms everlasting, left his three sons, who 
 had remained heathen, heirs of his temporal kingdom. 
 Thereupon they began openly to devote themselves again 
 to the idolatry which during Sabert's lifetime they 
 appeared to have somewhat abated, and gave their 
 subjects free permission to worship idols. And when 
 they saw the bishop, at the celebration of the solemni- 
 ties of the mass in church, giving the Eucharist to the 
 people \ they said to him, according to the common 
 story, all puffed up as they were with savage folly, 
 ' Why do you not give us also the pretty bread which 
 you used to give our father Saba' — so they were ac- 
 customed to call him — 'and which you still go on giving 
 the people in the church' ? He answered them, ' If you 
 will be washed in that saving font in which your father 
 
 Auxit autem procellam huiusce perturbationis etiam mors 
 Sabercti regis Orientalium Saxonum, qui ubi regna perennia 
 petens tres sues filios, qui pagani perdurauerant, regni tem- 
 poralis heredes reliquit, coeperunt illi mox idolatriae, quam, 
 uiuente eo, aliquantulum intermisisse uidebantur, palam seruire, 
 subiectisque populis idola colendi liberam dare licentiam. 
 Cumque uiderent pontificem, celebratis in ecclesia missarum 
 sollemniis, eucharistiam populo dare, dicebant, ut uulgo fertur, 
 ad eum barbara inflati stultitia : ' Quare non et nobis porrigis 
 panem nitidum, quem et patri nostro Saba,' sic namque eum 
 appellare consuerant, ' dabas, et populo adhuc dare in ecclesia 
 non desistis ? ' Quibus ille respondebat : ' Si uultis ablui fonte 
 
 ' It is interesting to observe tliat the ancient discipline was relaxed 
 which did not permit the unbaptized to be present at the Holy Eucharist.
 
 Heathen Reaction hi London. 113 
 
 was washed, you may be partakers also of the holy 
 bread of which he partook ; but if you despise the lavcr 
 of life, you cannot possibly receive the bread of life.' 
 They said, ' We will not go into that font ; we know 
 that we do not need it ; but wc will be fed with that 
 bread all the same.' And when they had been often 
 and earnestly assured by him that the thing could not 
 be done, and that no one could share in the holy offering 
 without the holy purification, at last in a transport of 
 rage they said, ' If you will not gratify us in such a 
 simple request of ours, you shall not stay any longer in 
 our province.' So they drove him out, and ordered him 
 to leave their kingdom, he and his. 
 
 So, on his expulsion from thence, he came to Kent 
 to treat with his brother bishops, Lawrence and Justus, 
 on the course to be pursued. The upshot of their 
 consultations was that they had better all return to their 
 
 illo salutari, quo pater uester ablutus est, potestis etiam panis 
 sancti, cui ille participabat, esse participes; sin autem lauacrum 
 uitae contemnitis, nuUatenus ualetis piinem uitae percipere.' 
 At illi : ' Nolumus,' inquiunt, ' fontem ilium intrare, quia nee 
 opus illo nos habere nouimus, sed tamen pane illo refici 
 uolumus.' Cumque diligenter ac saepe ab illo essent admoniti 
 nequaquam ita fieri posse, ut absque purgatione sacrosancta 
 quis oblationi sacrosanctae communiraret, ad ultimum furore 
 commoti aiebant : ' Si non uis adseniire nobis in tarn facili 
 causa, quam petimus, non poteris iam in nostra prouincia 
 demorari.' Et expulerunt eum, ac de suo regno cum suis 
 abire iusserunt. 
 
 Qui expulsus inde uenit Cantiam, tractaturus cum Laurentio 
 et lusto coepiscopis, quid in his esset agendum. Decretumque 
 est communi consilio, quia salius esset, ut oranes patriam 
 
 M. 8
 
 1 14 Heathen Reaction. 
 
 native country, and there serve the Lord with an un- 
 hindered mind, than stay to no profit among savages 
 who had turned against the faith. So MelHtus and 
 Justus departed first, and withdrew to the regions of 
 Gaul, intending there to wait upon events. But the 
 kings who had driven away from them the herald of the 
 truth, did not long practise the worship of devils with 
 impunity. They went out to battle against the tribe of 
 the Gewissians\ and all fell, together with their troops; 
 and although the leaders had perished, the people whom 
 they had set on to sin, could not be corrected and 
 recalled to the simplicity of faith and charity which is 
 in Christ. 
 
 But when Lawrence was on the point of following 
 Mellitus and Justus and leaving Britain, that night he 
 ordered his bed to be made in the church of the blessed 
 Apostles Peter and Paul, of which I have often spoken. 
 
 redeuntes, libera ibi mente Domino deseruirent, quam inter 
 rebelles fidei barbaros sine friictu residerent. Discessere itaque 
 prime Mellitus et lustus, atque ad partes Galliae secessere, ibi 
 rerum finem exspectare disponentes. Sed non multo tempore 
 reges, qui praeconem a se ueritatis expulerant, daemonicis 
 cultibus inpune seruiebant. Nam egressi contra gentem 
 Geuissorum in proelium, omnes pariter cum sua militia 
 corruerunt ; nee, licet auctoribus perditis, excitatum ad scelera 
 uulgus potuit recorrigi, atque ad simplicitatem fidei et caritatis, 
 quae est in Christo, reuocari. 
 
 Cum uero et Laurentius Mellitum lustumcjue secuturus ac 
 Brittaniam esset relicturus, iussit ipsa sibi nocte in ecclesia 
 beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, de qua frequenter iam 
 
 ^ In and about the north of Hampshire.
 
 Heathen Reaction. II5 
 
 After pouring forth many prayers and tears to the Lord 
 for the Church which was in such a plight, he laid 
 himself down upon the bed to rest, and fell asleep. But 
 the blessed Chief of the Apostles appeared to him, and 
 plying him for a long time with severe scourging in the 
 stillness of the night, demanded with apostolic sternness 
 why he forsook the flock which he had entrusted to him, 
 and to what shepherd he was leaving these sheep in the 
 midst of wolves and fleeing. ' Hast thou,' he said, 
 ' forgotten my example, how, for the sake of Christ's 
 little ones, whom He had committed to me as a token 
 of His love, I endured bonds and blows, imprisonments 
 and afflictions, and at last death itself, even the death of 
 the cross, at the hands of unbelievers and enemies of 
 Christ, to be crowned with Christ in the end .-" Roused 
 by St Peter's scourge and by his exhortations, Lawrence 
 the servant of Christ went to the king as soon as it was 
 
 diximus, stratum parari ; in quo cum post multas preces ac 
 lacrimas ad Dominum pro statu ecclesiae fusas ad quiescendum 
 membra posuisset, atque obdormisset, apparuit ei beatissimus 
 apostolorum princeps, et multo ilium tempore secretae noctis 
 flagellis artioribus afficiens sciscitabatur apostolica districtione, 
 quare gregem, quern sibi ipse crediderat, relinqueret, uel cui 
 pastorum oues Christi in medio luporuui positas fugiens ipse 
 dimitteret. ' An mei,' inquit, ' oblitus es exempli, qui pro 
 paruulis Christi, quos mihi in indicium suae dilectionis 
 commendauerat, uincula, uerbera, carceres, adflictiones, ipsam 
 postremo mortem, mortem autem crucis, ab infidelibus et 
 inimicis Christi ipse cum Christo coronandus pertuli ? ' His 
 beati Petri flagellis simul et exhortationibus animatus famulus 
 Christi Laurentius mox mane facto uouit ad regem, et, retecto 
 
 8—2
 
 1 1 6 Christianity restored in Kent. 
 
 morning, and drawing aside his garment showed what 
 blows he had been torn with. The king, much surprised, 
 enquired who had ventured to inflict those stripes upon 
 such a man; and when he learned that for his salvation's 
 sake the bishop had suffered those pains and stripes at 
 the hands of Christ's xA^postle, he was greatly alarmed ; 
 and cursing all the idolatrous worship, and renouncing 
 his unlawful marriage, he accepted the faith of Christ, 
 and, being baptized, he set himself to promote and 
 favour the interests of the Church in everything, to the 
 best of his power. 
 
 He sent also to Gaul and recalled Mellitus and 
 Justus, and bade them return and instruct his own 
 churches freely. So they came back, a year after their 
 departure. Justus returned to the city of Rochester, 
 which he had before governed ; but Mellitus found that 
 the people of London would not have him back as their 
 bishop, liking better to be under their idolatrous pontiffs. 
 
 uestimento, quantis esset uerberibus laceratus, ostendit. Qui 
 multum miratus et inquirens, quis tanto uiro tales ausus esset 
 plagas infligere, ut audiuit, quia suae causa salutis episcopus 
 ab apostolo Christi tanta esset tormenta plagasque perpessus, 
 extimuit multum ; atque anathematizato omni idolatriae cultu, 
 abdicato conubio non legitime, suscepit fidem Christi, et 
 baptizatus ecclesiae rebus, quantum ualuit, in omnibus con- 
 sulere ac fauere curauit. 
 
 Misit etiam Galliam, et reuocauit Mellitum ac lustum, 
 eosque ad suas ecclesias libere instituendas redire praecepit ; 
 qui post annum, ex quo abierunt, reuersi sunt ; et lustus 
 quidem ad ciuitatem Hrofi, cui praefuerat, rediit ; Mellitum 
 uero Lundonienses episcopum recipere noluerunt, idolatris 
 magis pontificibus seruire gaudentes, Non enim tanta erat ei,
 
 A rchiepiscopatc of Mcllitns. 1 1 7 
 
 For Edbald had not the same kingly power as his 
 father, to be able to restore a bishop to his church in 
 spite of the refusal and resistance of the heathen. For 
 himself, however, from the time of his turning to the 
 Lord, he studied to subject himself and his people to the 
 commandments of God ; and he went so far as to build 
 in the convent of the blessed Chief of the Apostles a 
 church of the holy Mother of God, which was consecrated 
 by Archbishop Mellitus. 
 
 XX. The Archiepiscopate of Mellitus. 
 
 (Bade 11. vii.) 
 
 For while Edbald was king, the blessed Archbishop 
 Lawrence went on high to the heavenly kingdom, and 
 was buried in the church and monastery of the holy 
 Apostle Peter beside his predecessor Augustine on the 
 2nd of February; and after him Mellitus, who was 
 bishop at London, succeeded to the see of Canterbury, 
 
 quanta patri ipsius regni potestas, ut etiam nolentibus ac 
 contradicentibus paganis antistitem suae posset ecclesiae red- 
 dere. Uerumtamen ipse cum sua gente, ex quo ad Dominum 
 conuersus est, diuinis se studuit mancipare praeceptis. Denique 
 et in monasterio beatissimi apostolorum principis ecclesiam 
 sanctae Dei genetricis fecit, quaiu consecrauit archiepiscopus 
 Mellitus. 
 
 Hoc enim regnante rage beatus archiepiscopus Laurentius 
 regnum caelaste conscendit, atcjue in ecclesia et monasterio 
 sancti apostoli Petri iuxta prodecessorem suum Augustmum 
 sepultus est die quarto Nonarum Februariarum ; post quern 
 Mellitus, qui erat Lundoniae episcopus, sedem Doruuernensis
 
 tin At (fthfLnv^ah a/ Mtltitm, 
 
 h^\\% the thir'tl ffOHl All^U«»Ulie( Ju»hJ«» rtl*»rt Wtt«» 
 
 sHIl «llv<». rthfl ^ovemlh^ tlie (.hiireh ♦•i i" -iHoir. 
 
 VVIn'le \\\^*\t? tWM WPf^ «li«**(tlHg th** l{'«1iL:li''l» ( hllM h 
 
 will) ^if'flt «fl»e nutl pfllfio. Hif^y letefveil a leUer of 
 Uf'fMah .^^^, wlih *»uec^^«le(l l>eu*»»lHl(^ ««» ndt^t ht the 
 
 Mr Hit no InlifMl^Ht UMtlet Ht^ botlllv UltUMllty ht HtP gOUt | 
 hut tilt* ot^p" <'t |W<3 "shul we»e !*«iuM»l. rttul ht^ ♦titnihted 
 ^rtgf'fly fll»ov(i nil (^nrthly Hidi^'^, rthd nlwrtyo (lew t«i l«»v<? 
 ofi<l cfipl* flnd rtH^uUt' ht^av^hly Htln^s, Me* wno nrtdHrtlly 
 ('t M«'lil(^ lilHli. liUl hulil^r by Ui^ lhrtllie»»s ot liln -«»bul. 
 
 If. jrlv«* «i)m t^tflhlplfi ht lil*» VhtU^. fl<> rt "j-'KlMl^h ht 
 llw M -il. Ili^ tlly (it IrtMlt^HilMV Wfl*» hne^ iipod fl tlhtp 
 hy eulprthle eflf^l^»«>He9S set tjH fii^, ahd wn«» In ♦Intigpi 
 of li^-hig «U^«5|iMv»^(t by ♦lit' op»t^f^<l (»t Hi^» flnMi^'5 Nti 
 MiiMwIut* <»t vvn<M» \Vfi<5 fibJM |t> wllb'sfniitl thein A IrtlB^ 
 
 ^MtkHJM^ J^HIn* fib Auj(H«»»bi(j KUtte^Jilb tllijUl** «U»Pfii ndlitir 
 M»|'^f!»>H M»»'f*>Mi^tii t*»|B»^l'n< ♦»Hl^«»i;U1t Qui, (tMn lHJlgun 
 
 >'■' ■ ^•••' tufrt «^ IrtblMp g(ibHii«f^h(, »ti*»«Ppeiufit 
 
 r- "•'< tit.', .(iii (M"-l l'(^t(«»tl^'»li( »i» « |>^<»irtP j>ffiK>r((i(. rtiuw> ihtiMii 
 
 .' ;-M . IM xVini |!;iat rtUleMi Mp|lilu« MM,. .,.: 
 
 ^| ".., ...... .HMiiif^i lNf»i(ft fjtMH|n^ hrth.jill«ih«», nli|t" •» * 
 
 ( rtflfoli't ot'ini'M f»nii)ill'i. I'l-lt^tith, ^\ t|llr1t^(^>Mth pt^t IH'InH"' 
 
 llrrtf trtthli Mti|iM»t> h>'l>ili>», *t^\\ ♦i»hniMt» htt^nti" hoMliof 
 
 I '">!'•• '• MMM.., n..iii(j4 ^{((4, untie (^^letn ihtelleui |'t"»«jiut4 
 IcMl" MtiMn^ qUhtlrthl (luUtt«» tltjK»iieMi^h<ilS 
 
 |.»>i ( ni|.:M.. ,,,, .-,, , 1^.,,, t Mi(>>|i|rt » ^^»|l»^»^»^^^^f,(ibt(<^ H»»»|<il flrttntnio 
 ( ♦•M«iin»» I tjniltti* » iMM »M(II»' rt«|MnnMn lnie»iu pO«»«e( rtlitjMi"5
 
 p. Ill III till- cil) U.I-. .ilii Mil) r.i\.»i;fi|. 1 h<- i.u;m|.; ll.imi-s 
 cxUiulcd tou.mis till- l)isli(>i)',s ifsiili'iu I" ; when the 
 l)isli<i|>. tnistini; in the lu-lp ol Cioil when tlu* lu-lp dI" 
 III. Ill l.iiliil, li.iil liimsc'lf ciinieil Id iu<.'i't tin- uiKI Ixiists 
 of lire which lK-\v in cveiy ilircrtitui. Al ihc spot whuh 
 was most riciicly .i-'S.iili'd l)y tlif llanu's was a i hapel of 
 thf I'oui ( lowiiiil Saints. 1 o this, aiionlinp.ly. !><' w.is 
 hronj^ht by ohctlicnt haiiils ; ami lluir hy pra)ti the* 
 sick bishop lK\i;an to tliivc bat k tlu- ilanp.n, whuh thi- 
 hamls of llu- whole and strong luid been nnable to drive 
 back, lor all thcii toil. I'n. cully, the wind, which had 
 been blowii^*. Iroin the sonth and had si atteied t onlki^Ma 
 tion over the city, veered and blew sonthwards, and lirsl 
 witlidii'w its Inrioiis viokiKi- lioin 11111111111; the places 
 npoii which it bore; then sinkni}.; ilown alto^Mther, while 
 the llaines likewise were lulled and i|nenclud, it bei anie 
 i|iiite calm. And as tin' man ol (ind binned nnj>,htil\' 
 with llic liK' <i| di\ iiic |(i\< , .uid as he li.id been piai li .cd 
 
 (>i)sistcre, ian)(|iic eiuilatis essct pars iiasiata iion iiiiiiinia, 
 at<|ue ad epist opium liireiis se llaiiniia dilalaiel, 1 itiitulciiH 
 cpiseoptis in dniimnii, iihi liiiin.ninin dccrat, aiixiliinn, iti^nit 
 se ohuiain saciiieiitilitis cl Inn illii<c|tn iicilaiililiii>i i|^niiiiii 
 glohis ellerri. I'aat aiilem in Im 1, uln ll.niniiaiiiiii niipt'tiiH 
 ina>;iinc iix iiiiihelial, iiiailyiniiii liciioiiiin III! ( 'oionaloiiiiii. 
 ll)i er^o perlaliis nlisec|iienliiin iiiaiiihiis episcopti.s cocpil 
 oiando p<'iii iiluiii iiirnnitis ahi^ric, ijiiud liriiia luiliiiui iiiainis 
 iinilliiiii lahoiaiido IK ijiiiin i.it. No iiioia, iieilliis, i|iii a ineridie 
 ll.ms iiihi iiK eiidia spaiseial, cuiilia ineiidiein letlexiis, piiinn 
 uiiu siii linoris a IcNione locuiinii, ijiiae tonlia <'iaii(, ah^liaxil, 
 ae mox (iinditiis (piiesc cndo, llaininis paiiler Mipilis atijiie 
 exslilielis, roiipesniil. I'U quia llir I )ei ikhc diiiiiiac laiilalit 
 forliter ardcbat, i|nia Ituipctilatcs puieslaliim .niiaiiim a mm
 
 120 Archiepiscopate of Justus. 
 
 in repelling by frequent prayers and exhortations the 
 storms of the ' powers of the air' from hurting him and 
 his, it was fair tiiat he should prevail against the winds 
 and flames of this world, and obtain immunity from 
 them for himself and his people. 
 
 After he had ruled the Church for five years, he also 
 passed to heaven, during the reign of Edbald, and was 
 buried with his fathers in the often mentioned monastery 
 and church of the blessed Chief of the Apostles, in the 
 year of the Lord's Incarnation 624, on the 24th of 
 April. 
 
 XXI. The Accession of Justus. 
 
 (Bade 11. viii.) 
 
 Mellitus was immediately succeeded in his ponti- 
 ficate by Justus, who was Bishop of the Church of 
 Rochester. To take his place as bishop in that Church, 
 he consecrated Romanus, having received authority to 
 
 suorumque lesione crebris orationibus uel exhortationibus 
 repellere consuerat, merito uentis flammisque mundialibus 
 praeualere, et, ne sibi suisque nocerent, obtinere poterat, 
 
 Et hie ergo, postciuam annis quinque rexit ecclesiam, 
 Aeodbaldo regnante migrauit ad caelos, sepultusque est 
 cum patribus suis in saepe dicto monasterio et ecclesia 
 beatissimi apostolorum principis, anno ab incarnatione Domini 
 DCXXIIII, die VIII Kalendarum Maiarum. 
 
 Cui statim successit in pontificatum Justus, qui erat 
 Hrofensi.s ecclesiae episcopus. I Hi autem ccclesiae Romanum 
 pro se consecrauit episcopum, data sibi ordinandi episcopos
 
 Letter of Boniface to fust us. 121 
 
 ordain bishops from the pontiff Boniface, of whom I 
 have ah'cady spoken as the successor of Deusdcdit. 
 The authorisation is in this form : — 
 
 'To my beloved brother Justus, Boniface^ 
 ' How devotedly and vigilantly you, brother, have 
 laboured for the Gospel of Christ, is shown not only by 
 the character of your letter to me, but by the completion 
 which has been vouchsafed to your work. Almighty 
 God has not abandoned His holy Name, nor left your 
 labour fruitless. He has faithfully promised to the 
 preachers of the Gospel, " Lo, I am with you all the daj-s 
 even unto the consummation of the world." His mercy 
 has signally proved this in the ministry assigned to you, 
 by opening the hearts of the nations to receive the 
 incomparable mystery which you preach. By the help 
 
 auctoritate a pontifice Bonifatio, quern successorem fuisse 
 Deusdedit supra meminimus; cuius auctoritatis ista est forma: 
 
 Dilectissimo fratri Iiisto Bonfaiiiis. 
 
 Qiiatn denote quamque etiam uigilanter pro Christi euatigelio 
 elaborauerit iiestra frateniitas, tion solum cpistiilae a nobis 
 directae tenor, immo indulta desuper operi uestro perfectio 
 indicauit. Nee cniiii omnipotens Dens ant sui fiojninis sa- 
 crameiiium, ant uestri frnctnm laboris desernit, dnm ipse 
 praedicatoribns enangelii fideliter repromisit: '■ Ecce ego nobiscum 
 snm omnibns dielnis usqne ad consnininationem inn/tdi.' Quod 
 specialiter iniuncto nobis ministerio eins clemeritia demonstranit, 
 aperiens corda gentinm ad snscipiendnm praedicationis nestrae sin- 
 gnlare mysteriuni. Magno cnim praemio fastigiornm nestrorum 
 
 ^ Much of this letter is translated by a kind of guesswork. The text 
 appears to be corrupt ; and the language of the original, though pious, is 
 super-papal in the convolutions of its style.
 
 122 Letter of Boniface to Justus. 
 
 of His goodness, He has adorned your Eminence's 
 beautiful career with a great reward. You have done 
 )-our duty faithfully in trading with the talents com- 
 mitted to you ; and He has bestowed abundant fruit. 
 preparing that which you will secure to Him as the 
 generations increase. This is a special recompense for 
 having persevered continually in the ministry entrusted 
 to you, and for waiting with praiseworthy patience for 
 the redemption of that nation ; and you have won for 
 their advantage the gift of their salvation ; as the Lord 
 says, " He that shall endure unto the end the same shall 
 be saved." You therefore have been saved, by patient 
 hope and manful endurance, in order that the hearts 
 of the unbelievers, being purified from the congenital 
 disease of superstition, may find the mercy of their 
 Saviour. For by the letter of our Son King Adulwald^ 
 which we have received, we learn with what scriptural 
 
 delectabilem cursum bonitatis suae suffragiis iniusti-auii, dum 
 creditorum nobis talentoruni fdeiissiftiae iiegotiationis officiis 
 ubcrefu fructjim i^ipendeiis ei, guod signare possetis niultiplicatis 
 generationibus, praeparauit. Hucque etiam ilia tiobis repefisatione 
 conlatum est^ qua iniuncto ininisterio iugiter persistentes laudabili 
 patientia redevitionein gentis illius exspectastis, ei uestris, Jit pro- 
 ficerent, meritis eorum est sahiatio propijiata, dicetite Domino : 
 ' Qui perseucrauerit usque in fnefn, hie saluus erit.^ Saluati 
 ergo est is spe patientiae et tolerantiae uirtute, ut iiifidelium corda 
 naturali ac superstiiioso jnorbo purgata, sui consequerentur 
 misericordiam Saluatoris. Susceptis namque apicibus filii ?iostri 
 Adulualdi regis, repperinius, quanta sacri eloquii eruditione eius 
 
 ' The king was, of course, Edbald ; and unless Bede, or his authorities, 
 have made some mistake about the person to whom the letter is addressed, 
 Boniface must have become confused bv our outlandish names.
 
 Letter of Boniface to fust us. 1 23 
 
 learning you, brother, have brought his soul to a true 
 conversion and a sincere faith. Gathering sure con- 
 fidence therefore from the longsuffcring clemency of 
 heaven, we believe that you must press forward with 
 your ministry of preaching, not only for the complete 
 salvation of the tribes subject to him, but for that of 
 the neighbouring tribes also ; so that, as it is written, 
 the recompense of your finished work may be given you 
 by God, the Rewarder of all good things, and that the 
 universal confession of the nations, on receiving the 
 holy Christian faith, may testify that "their sound has 
 indeed gone forth into all lands, and their words unto 
 the ends of the world." 
 
 * Moreover, by the bearer of these presents we have 
 sent you a pall, brother, as our earnest goodwill towards 
 you prompted, and we authorise you to use it at the 
 celebration of the holy mysteries and at no other time, 
 granting you also permission to ordain bishops, when 
 
 aniinum ad jierae coniiersionis et indiibitatae fidei credulitatem 
 fmteriiitas uesira perdiixerit. Qua ex re de longanimitate 
 ckmentiae caelestis certain adsumetifes fiduciam, nan solum 
 suppositarum ei gentium plcnissimam saliitem, immo qnoqiie 
 nicinarum, nestrae praedicationis ministcrio credimus subse- 
 quendam ; quatijiiis, sicut scriptum est, consnmmati operis nobis 
 nierces a retributore otnnium bonoriim Domitio tribuaiur, et uere 
 '■per otnnem terram exisse soman eomvi, et in fines orbis terrae 
 nerba ipsorttm' uniuersalis gentium confessio, susccpto C/iristianae 
 Sacramento fidei, protestetur. 
 
 Pallium practerea per latorem praescniium fraternitati tuac, 
 benignitatis studiis inuitati, direximus, quod uidelicet tantum 
 in sacrosanctis celebrandis mysteriis utendi licentiafn impera- 
 uimus; concedentes etiam tibi ordinationes episcoporum, exigente
 
 124 Letter of Boniface to fnstus. 
 
 need requires, the mercy of the Lord preventing you ; 
 so that Christ's Gospel, having many preachers, may be 
 spread abroad among all the nations which are as yet 
 unconverted. What the kindness of the Apostolic See 
 has conferred on you, you, brother, will study to keep 
 with uncorrupt sincerity of mind, remembering what is 
 symbolized by the distinguished ornament which you 
 arc permitted to carry on your shoulders. Study to 
 show yourself such, by prayer to the clemency of the 
 Lord, that you may present the results of the favour 
 bestowed on you, not with guilt, but with benefit to 
 souls, before the tribunal of the great Judge who is to 
 come. 
 
 ' God keep you safe, beloved brother.' 
 
 opportuttitate, Domini praejienie7iie fiiisericordia, celehrai-e ; ita 
 lit Christi euangeliuin plurimorum adtiuntiatione in omnibus 
 gentilms, quae necdum conuersae sunt, dilatetiir. Studeat ergo 
 tiia fraiernitas hoc, quod sedis apostolicae humanitate percepit, 
 itttemerata mentis sinceritate seruare, intendens cuius rei siniili- 
 tudine tarn praecipuum indtunentum humeris tuis baiulandum 
 susccperis. Talemque te Domini inplorata dementia exJiibendum 
 stude, ui indulti muneris praeinia non cutn reatitudine, sed 
 cum commodis nnimarum ante tribunal summi et uetitnri ludicis 
 ripraesentes. 
 
 Deus te incolumem custodiat, dilcctissime frater.
 
 Conversion of Northunibria. 125 
 
 XXII. Conversion of Northnnibria by Pan linns. 
 (Bede 11. ix., xiii., xiv.) 
 
 At this time also the Northumbrian people, — that is 
 the English tribe dwelling to the north of the river 
 H umber, — received the word of faith, along with their 
 king, Edwin, by the preaching of Paulinus, whom I 
 have mentioned before. This king, in happy accord 
 with his reception of the faith and of the kingdom of 
 heaven, had acquired also an increase of earthly 
 dominion ; so that he had beneath his sway, what no 
 Englishman before him had, all the regions of Britain, 
 whether inhabited by the English or by the Britons. 
 
 The occasion of the reception of the faith by this 
 nation was that their king aforesaid was joined by 
 affinity to the kings of Kent, having taken to wife 
 Ethelberga the daughter of King Ethelbert, otherwise 
 known as Tata. When he first sent suitors to request 
 
 Quo tempore etiam gens Nordanhymbrorum, hoc est ea 
 natio Anglorum, quae ad Aquilonalem Humbre fluminis 
 plagam habitabat, cum rege sue Aeduino uerbum fidei 
 praedicante Paulino, cuius supra meminimus, suscepit. Cui 
 uidelicet regi, in auspicium suscipierxdae fidei et regni caelestis, 
 potestas etiam terreni creuerat imperii; ita ut, quod nemo 
 Anglorum ante eum, omnes Brittaniae fines, qua uel ipsorum 
 uel Brettonum prouinciae habitabant, sub dicione acciperet. 
 
 Huic autem genti occasio fuit percipiendae fidei, quod 
 praefatus rex eius cognatione iunctus est regibus Cantuariorum, 
 accepta in coniugem Aedilbergae filia Aedilbercti regis, quae 
 alio nomine Tatae uocabatur. Huius consortium cum primo
 
 126 Marriage of Ethelberga to Edzviii. 
 
 this alliance from the lady's brother Edbald, then reigning 
 over Kent, he was told that a Christian maiden was not 
 allowed to be given in marriage to a heathen, lest the 
 faith and sacraments of the heavenly King should be 
 profaned by commerce with a king who was wholly 
 unacquainted with the worship of the true God. When 
 his envoys related these words to Edwin, he promised 
 that he would do nothing in any way hostile to the 
 Christian faith which the maiden practised, but that he 
 would allow her to observe the faith and worship of her 
 religion in the Christian fashion ; together with all who 
 came with her, men and women, bishops and clergy. 
 Nor did he refuse to submit to that religion himself, if 
 on being examined by prudent men it should be found 
 holier and more worthy of God. 
 
 So the maiden was promised, and was sent to 
 Edwin ; and, according to the agreement, the man 
 beloved of God, Paulinus, was ordained bishop, to go 
 
 ipse missis procis a fratre eius Aeodbaldo, qui tunc regno 
 Cantuariorum praeerat, peteret ; responsum est non esse 
 licitum Christianam uirginem pagano in coniugem dari, ne 
 fides et sacramenta caelestis regis consoriio profanarentur 
 regis, qui ueri Dei cultus esset prorsus ignarus. Quae cum 
 Aeduino uerba nuntii referrent, promisit se nil omnimodis 
 contrarium Christianae fidei, quam uirgo colebat, esse facturum ; 
 quin potius permissurum, ut fidem cultumque suae religionis 
 cum omnibus, qui secum uenissent, uiris siue feminis, sacerdoti- 
 bus seu ministris, more Christiano seruaret. Neque abnegauit 
 se etiam eandem subiturum esse religionem; si tamen examinata 
 a prudentibus sanctior ac Deo dignior posset inueniri. 
 
 Itaque promittitur uirgo, atque Aeduino mittitur, et iuxta 
 quod dispositum fuerat, ordinatur episcopus uir Deo dilectus
 
 Paiilinus sent to Nortliuvibria. 
 
 127 
 
 with her, and confirm her and her companions by daily 
 exhortation and by the celebration of the heavenly 
 sacraments, lest they should be defiled by intercourse 
 with the heathen. 
 
 Paulinus was ordained bishop by Archbishop Justus, 
 on the 2 1st of July, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 
 625, and so came with the maiden to King Edwin like 
 a wedding attendant, all the time, however, much more 
 intent upon calling the nation to which he was going to 
 the acknowledgment of the truth, and upon presenting 
 them, in the Apostle's phrase, like a chaste virgin to 
 one true Husband, even Christ. On arriving in the 
 province, he laboured much to keep in hand those who 
 had come with him, by the Lord's help, that they might 
 not be untrue to their faith, and, if it were possible, 
 to convert some from among the heathen to the 
 grace of faith by his preaching. But as the Apostle 
 
 Paulinus, qui cum ilia ueniret, eamque et comites cius, ne 
 paganorum possent societate pollui, cotidiana et exhortatione, 
 et sacramentorum caelestium celebratione confirmaret. 
 
 Ordinatus est autem Paulinus episcopus a lusto archi- 
 episcopo, sub die XII Kalendarum Augustarum, anno ab 
 incarnatione Domini DCXXV; et sic cum praefota uirg^ine 
 ad regem Aeduinum quasi comes uopulae carnalis aduenit. 
 Sed ipse potius toto animo intendens, ut gentem, quam adibat, 
 ad agnitionem ueritatis aduocans, iuxta uocem apostoli, uni 
 uero sponso uirginem castam exhiberet Christo. Cum<iue in 
 prouinciam uenisset, laborauit multum, ut et eos, qui secum 
 uenerant, ne a fide deficerent, Domino adiuuante contineret, et 
 aliquos, si forte posset, de paganis ad fidei gratiam praedicando 
 conuerteret. Sed sicut apostolus ait, quamuis multo tempore
 
 128 Edzvin favourably impressed 
 
 says, in spite of his labouring long time in the word, 
 'the God of this world blinded the minds of them that 
 believed not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of 
 Christ should shine upon them.' 
 
 But in the following year [Edwin on Easter Day 
 was barely saved from an assassin, sent by Cuichelm, 
 King of Wessex ; and]^ that same sacred Easter night 
 the queen had borne to the king a daughter, Eanfled ; 
 and when the king, in the presence of Bishop Paulinus, 
 gave thanks to his gods for his daughter's birth, the 
 Bishop on the other hand began to give thanks to the 
 Lord Christ, and to give the king to understand that 
 by his own prayers he had obtained from Christ a safe 
 and comparatively painless delivery for the queen. 
 The king was pleased at what he said, and promised 
 in return that he would renounce idols and serve Christ, 
 if Christ would grant him life and victory in fighting 
 against the king by whom the assassin who wounded 
 
 illo laborante in uerbo: 'Deus saeculi huius excaecauit mantes 
 infideliuni, ne eis fulgeret inluminatio euangelii gloriae Christi.' 
 Anno autem sequente...eadcm nocte sacrosancta dominici 
 paschae pepererat regina filiam regi, cui nomen Aeanfled. 
 Cumque idem rex, praesente Paulino episcopo, gratias ageret 
 diis suis pro nata sibi filia, e contra episcopus gratias coepit 
 agere Domino Christo, regique adstruere, quod ipse precibus 
 suis apud ilium obtinuerit, ut regina sospes et absque dolore 
 graui sobolem procrearet. Cuius uerbis delectatus rex pro- 
 misit se, abrenuntiatis idolis, Christo seruiturum, si uitam 
 sibi et uictoriam donaret pugnanti aduersus regem, a quo 
 homicida ille, qui eum uulnerauerat, missus est ; et in pignus 
 
 * I have here given a resume of the story, because Bede tells it at a 
 length which is unnecessary for the present purpose.
 
 by the teaching of Paiilinus. 129 
 
 him had been sent ; and as a pledge of the fulfilment 
 of his promise, he committed his daughter to Jiishop 
 Paulinus to be dedicated to Christ. She was christened 
 on the holy day of Pentecost — the first Northumbrian 
 to be christened — with eleven others of the household. 
 
 At that season, the king being healed of his wound, 
 gathered together an arm\' and went against the West 
 Saxon nation ; and when the war was begun, he either 
 slew or received the surrender of all those of whom he had 
 learned that they were concerned in the plot upon his 
 life. Thus returning home a conqueror, he would not 
 immediately and heedlessly receive the sacraments of 
 the Christian faith, — although he never again served the 
 idols, after the time that he had promised to serve 
 Christ ; — but he was careful first to learn diligently the 
 reason of the faith, by waiting, and from the lips of the 
 venerable Paulinus, and to take counsel with those 
 whom he knew to be the wisest of his chieftains, what 
 
 promissionis inplendae, eandem filiam suam Christo conse- 
 crandam Paulino episcopo adsignauit; quae baptizata est 
 die sancto pentecostes prima de gente Nordanhymbrorum, 
 cum XI aliis de familia eius. 
 
 Quo tempore curatus a uulnere sibi pridem inflicto, rex col- 
 lecto exercitu uenit aduersus gentem Occic-lentalium Saxonum, 
 ac bello inito uniuersos, quos in necem suam conspirasse 
 didicerat, aut occidit, aut in deditionem recepit. Sicque uictor 
 in patriam reuersus, non statim et inconsulte sacramenta fidei 
 Christianae percipere uoluit ; quamuis nee idolis ultra seriiiuit, 
 ex quo se Christo seruiturum esse promiserat. Uerum primo 
 diligentius ex tempore, et ab ipso uenerabili uiro Paulino 
 rationem fidei ediscere, et cum suis primatibus, quos sa- 
 pientiores nouerat, curauit conferre, quid de his agendum 
 
 M. 9
 
 130 TJie W itenagemot debates 
 
 steps they thought should be taken. He himself, how- 
 ever, like a man of great natural sagacity, often sat 
 alone for a long time together in silence, holding many 
 a conversation with himself in the depth of his heart, 
 considering what he ought to do, and what religion he 
 should observe...'. 
 
 Still he said that he would confer upon the point 
 with the princes his friends, and with his counsellors, in 
 order that if their sentiments agreed with his they 
 might all be dedicated to Christ together in the font of 
 life. With the approval of Paulinus, he did as he had 
 said. Holding a Witenagemot, he asked them all, one 
 by one, what they thought of this teaching, never before 
 known to them, and of the new divine worship which 
 was preached to them. 
 
 His head priest, Coifi, immediately answered, ' See to 
 it yourself, O king, what manner of thing this is which 
 
 arbitrarentur. Sed et ipse, cum asset uir natura sagacissimus, 
 saepe diu solus residens ore quidem tacito, sed in intimis 
 cordis multa secum conloquens, quid sibi esset faciendum, 
 quae religio seruanda tractabat 
 
 Uerum adhuc cum amicis principibus et consiliariis suis 
 sese de hoc conlaturum esse dicebat, ut, si et illi eadem 
 cum illo sentire uellent, omnes pariter in fonte uitae Christo 
 consecrarentur. Et adnuente Paulino, fecit, ut dixerat. Habito 
 enim cum sapientibus consilio, sciscitabatur singillatim ab 
 omnibus, qualis sibi doctrina haec eatenus inaudita, et nouus 
 diuinitatis, qui praedicabatur, cultus uideretur. 
 
 Cui primus pontificum ipsius Coifi continue respondit : 
 •Tu uide, rex, quale sit hoc, quod nobis modo praedicatur; 
 
 ^ Here comes in Bcde the slory which will be found in a short form 
 below, p. 193.
 
 zvliether to receive Christianity or not. i^i 
 
 is now preached to us ; I acknowledge to you frankly, 
 what I have learned beyond a doubt, that there is no 
 power and no profit whatever in the religion which we have 
 hitherto held. None of your people has given himself 
 with greater pains to the service of our gods than I ; yet 
 there are many who receive larger benefits and greater 
 dignities from you, and have better luck in all their 
 plans of doing and getting. Now if the gods had any 
 power, they would rather help me, their more devoted 
 worshipper. The result is this : — if on examination you 
 find that the new things now preached to us are bettei 
 and stronger, let us hasten to adopt them without any 
 delay.' 
 
 This advice and these prudent words were approved 
 by another of the king's thegns, who spoke next, and 
 added ; ' Man's present life upon earth, O king, seems 
 to me, when compared with that time beyond of which 
 
 ego autem tibi uerissime, quod certum didici, profiteor, quia 
 nihil omnino uirtutis habet, nihil utilitatis religio ilia, quam 
 hucusque tenuimus. Nullus enini tuorum studiosius (luam ego 
 culturae deorum nostrorum se siibdidit ; et nihilominus multi 
 sunt, qui ampliora a te beneficia quam ego, et maiores 
 accipiunt dignitates, magisque prosperantur in omnibus, quae 
 agenda uel adquirenda disponunt. Si autem dii aliquid uale- 
 rent, me potius iuuare uellent, qui illis inpensius seruire curaui. 
 Unde restat, ut si ea, quae nunc nobis noua praedicantur, 
 meliora esse et fortiora, habita examinatione perspexeris, 
 absque ullo cunctamine suscipere ilia festinemus.' 
 
 Cuius suasioni uerbiscjue ])ru(lentibus alius optiniatum regis 
 tribuens assensum, continuo suhdidit : 'Talis,' inquiens, 'mini 
 uidetur, rex, uita hominum praesens in terris, ad conparationem 
 eius, quod nobis incertum est, temporis, quale cum te residente 
 
 9-2
 
 Noble speech of a Thegn. 
 
 we know nothing, to be like as if, when you are sitting 
 at supper with your aldermen and thegns in the winter 
 time, and a fire is lighted in the middle and the hall is 
 warmed, but all outside storms of wintry rain and snow 
 are raging, some sparrow were to come and fly very 
 quickly through the house, in at one door, and out at 
 another. During the time that he is inside, he is un- 
 touched by the winter storm, but when that little 
 moment of calm has run out, he passes again from the 
 winter into the winter, and you lose sight of him. So 
 this life of men appears for a little while ; but what 
 follows it, and what went before it, we do not know at 
 all. So if this new teaching has brought us anything 
 sure, we should do well, I think, to follow it.' The rest 
 of the aldermen and of the king's counsellors by God's 
 instigation followed in a similar strain. 
 
 Coifi added that he would like to hear Paulinus 
 
 ad caenam cum ducibus ac ministris tuis tempore brumali, 
 accenso quidem foco in medio, et calido effecto caenaculo, 
 furentibus autem foris per omnia turbinibus hiemalium plu- 
 uiarum ue! niuium, adueniens unus passerum domum citissime 
 peruolauerit ; qui cum per unum ostium iugrediens, mox per 
 aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore, quo intus est, hiemis 
 tempestate non tangitur, sed tamen paruissimo spatio serenitatis 
 ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, 
 tuis oculis elabitur. Ita haec uita hominum ad modicum 
 apparet ; quid autem sequatur, quidue praecesserit, prorsus 
 ignoramus. Unde si haec noua doctrina certius aliquid attulit, 
 merito esse sequenda uidetur.' His similia et ceteri maiores 
 natu ac regis consiliarii diuinitus admoniti jjrosequebantur. 
 Adiecit autem Coifi, quia uellet ipsum Paulinum diligcntius
 
 Christianity definitely accepted. 133 
 
 speak more explicitly of the God whom he preached. 
 When at the king's commandment he did so, Coifi 
 hearing his words cried aloud, ' I saw long ago that 
 what we worshipped was nothing at all ; because the 
 more carefully I sought for the truth in that worship, 
 the less I found it. But now I openly acknowledge that 
 in this preaching shines the truth which is able to give 
 us the gifts of life, and health, and everlasting happiness. 
 Therefore I propose, O king, that we should at once 
 give over to ban and fire the temples and altars which 
 we have consecrated to no profit.' 
 
 To make a long story short, the king gave his 
 adhesion openly to the preaching of the blessed 
 Paulinus, and renouncing idolatry acknowledged that 
 he adopted the faith of Christ. And when he asked the 
 aforesaid high priest of his sacrifices, who should be the 
 first to desecrate the idol altars and temples, with the 
 enclosures in which they stood, he answered, 'I. In my 
 
 audire de Deo, quern praedicabat, uerbum facientem. Quod 
 cum iubente rege faceret, exclamauit auditis eius sermonibus 
 dicens : ' lam dim intellexeram nihil esse, quod colebamus \ 
 quia uidelicet, quanto studiosius in eo cultu ueritatem quae- 
 rebam, tanto minus inueniebam. Nunc autem aperte proliteor, 
 quia in hac praedicatione ueritas claret ilia, quae nobis uitae, 
 salutis, et beatitudinis aeternae dona ualet tribuere. Unde 
 suggero, rex, ut templa et altaria, quae sine fructu utilitatis 
 sacrauimus, ocius anathemati et igni contradamus.' Quid 
 plura? praebuit palam adsensum euangelizanti beato Paulino 
 rex, et, abrenuntiata idolatria, fidem se Christi susciperc 
 confessus est. Cumque a praefato pontifice sacrorum suorum 
 quaereret, quis aras et fana idolorum cum septis, ciuibus erant 
 circumdata, primus profanare deberet ; ille respondit : 'Ego.
 
 134 Decisive breach zvith idolatry. 
 
 folly I worshipped them, and who rather than I should 
 set an example to all by destroying them in the wisdom 
 given me by the true God ? ' Immediately casting away 
 vain superstition, he begged the king to give him 
 armour and a stallion horse, to ride to the destruction of 
 the idols : for the high priest had not been allowed to 
 carry arms, or to ride anything but a mare. So he was 
 girded with a sword and took lance in hand, and 
 mounting the king's stallion proceeded to the idols. 
 When the multitude saw it, they thought him mad. As 
 soon as he drew near the temple, he flung at it the lance 
 which he held, and desecrated it forthwith ; and much 
 delighted with the acknowledgment of the worship of 
 the true God, he bade his companions destroy and set 
 en fire the temple and all its enclosures. The place — 
 the former place of idols — is shown not far from York, 
 towards the east, the other side of the river Derwent, 
 
 Quis enim ea, quae per stultitiam colui, nunc ad exemplum 
 omnium aptius quam ipse per sapientiam mihi a Deo uero 
 donatam destruam?' Statimque, abiecta superstitione uani- 
 tatis, rogauit sibi regem arma dare et equum emissarium, 
 quern ascendens ad idola destruenda ueniret. Non enim 
 licuerat pontificem sacrorum uel arma ferre, uel praeter in 
 equa equitare. Accinctus ergo gladio accepit lanceam in 
 manu, et ascendens emissarium regis, pergebat ad idola. 
 Quod aspiciens uulgus, aestimabat eum insanire. Nee distulit 
 ille, mox ut adpropiabat ad fanum, profanare illud, iniecta in 
 eo lancea, quam tenebat ; multumque gauisus de agnitione 
 ueri Dei cultus, iussit sociis destruere ac succendere fanum 
 cum omnibus septis suis. Ostenditur autem locus ille quondam 
 idolorum non longe ab Eburaco ad orientem, ultra amnem
 
 Baptism of Edzoiii. 135 
 
 and is now called Goodmanham, where the high priest, 
 by inspiration of the true God, defiled and destroyed 
 ' the altars which he had himself consecrated '.' 
 
 So King Edwin received the faith and the laver of 
 holy regeneration, together with all the nobles of his 
 nation and a very great number of the people, in the 
 eleventh year of his reign, which is the year of the 
 Lord's Incarnation 627, about the i8oth year from the 
 arrival of the English in Britain. He was christened at 
 York, on the holy day of Easter, April 12, in the church 
 of the Apostle Peter, which he built there hastily of wood, 
 while he was a catechumen under instruction for his 
 baptism. In this city he gave his teacher and prelate 
 Paulinus his episcopal see. As soon as he was baptized, 
 however, he made plans, under Paulinus' direction, for 
 constructing of stone a larger and statelier basilica upon 
 
 Doruuentionem, et uocatur hodie Godmunddingaham, ubi 
 pontifex ipse, inspirante Deo uero, poUuit ac destruxit eas, 
 quas ipse sacrauerat, aras. 
 
 Igitur accepit rex Aeduini cum cunctis gentis suae nobilibus 
 ac plebe perplurima fidem et lauacrum sanctae regenerationis 
 anno regni sui XI, qui est annus dominicae incarnationis 
 DCXXVII, ab aduentu uero Anglorum in Brittaniam annus 
 circiter CLXXX"""'. Baptizatus est autem Eburaci die sancto 
 paschae pridie Iduum Aprilium in ecclesia Petri apostoli, quam 
 ibidem ipse de ligno, cum cathecizaretur, atque ad percipiendum 
 baptisma inbueretur, citato opere construxil. In qua etiam 
 ciuitate ipsi doctori atque antistiti suo Paulino sedem epi- 
 scopatus donauit. Mox autLin ut baptisma consecutus est, 
 curauit, docente eodem Paulino, maiorem ipso in loco et 
 augustiorem de lapide fabricare basilicam, in c uius medio 
 
 1 The words are adapted from Virgil.
 
 1 36 Ministry of Paulinus 
 
 the same spot, in the middle of which he wished his 
 earlier chapel to be enclosed. So the foundations were 
 laid round about the former chapel, and he began to 
 build the basilica on all four sides. But before the walls 
 had reached their full height, the king was wickedly- 
 slain, and left the work to be finished by his successor 
 Oswald. But Paulinus preached the word of God in 
 that province, with the consent and goodwill of Edwin, 
 after the date of the baptism for six years without a 
 break, that is to say, until the end of the king's reign ; 
 and as many as were foreordained to eternal life believed 
 and were baptized... ^ 
 
 The fervour of faith and the desire for the saving 
 laver is said to have been so great at that time in the 
 Northumbrian people, that on one occasion when 
 Paulinus came with the king and queen to the king's 
 abode, called At Yeverin, he was detained there with 
 them for six and thirty days, engaged in the work of 
 
 ipsum, quod prius fecerat, oratorium includeretur. Praeparatis 
 ergo fundamentis in gyro prioris oratorii per quadrum coepit 
 aedificare basilicam. Sed priusquam altitude parietis asset 
 consummata, rex ipse impia nece occisus, opus idem successori 
 sue Osualdo perficiendum reliquit. Paulinus autem ex eo 
 tempore sex annis continuis, id est ad finem usque imperii 
 regis illius, uerbum Dei, adnuente ac fauente ipso, in ea 
 prouincia praedicabat; credebantque et baptizabantur quot- 
 quot erant praeordinati ad uitam aeternam. 
 
 Tantus autem fertur tunc fuisse feruor fidei ac desiderium 
 lauacri salutaris genti Nordanhymbrorum, ut quodam tempore 
 Paulinus ueniens cum rege et regina in uillam regiam, quae 
 uocatur Adgefrin, XXXVI diebus ibidem cum eis cathecizandi 
 
 ^ The names of some of Edwin's family who were christened are omitted.
 
 in Bernicia and Dcira. 1 37 
 
 catechizing and baptizing ; and on these days he did 
 nothing else all day from morning till evening, but to 
 instruct the people, who flocked to him from all the 
 villages and places round, in Christ's word of salvation, 
 and after the instruction to wash them with the lavcr of 
 remission in the river Glen hard by...^ 
 
 This was what happened in the province of Bernicia^ ; 
 in that of Deira, where he often stayed with the king, 
 he used to baptize in the river Swale, which flows by 
 the village of Catterick. For the Church in those parts 
 was only beginning to come into existence, and they 
 had not been able to build chapels or baptisteries. 
 However, at Donfield^ where the king's abode then 
 was, he made a basilica, which was afterwards burnt, 
 as well as the whole place, by the heathens who slew 
 
 et baptizandi officio deditus moraretur ; quibus diebus cunctis 
 a mane usque ad uesperam nil aliud ageret, quam conlluentLMii 
 eo de cunctis uiculis ac locis plebem Christi uerbo salutis 
 instruere, atque instructam in fluuio Gleni, qui proximus erat, 
 lauacro remissionis abluere. 
 
 Haec quidem in prouincia Berniciorum; sed et in prouincia 
 Deirorum, ubi saepius manere cum rege solebat, baptizabat \\\ 
 fluuio Sualua, qui uicum Cataractam praeterfluit. Nondum 
 enim oratoria uel baptisteria in ipso exordio nascentis ibi 
 ecclesiae poterant aedificari. Attamen in Campodono, ubi 
 tunc etiam uilla regia erat, fecit basilicam, quam postmoduni 
 pagani, a quibus Aeduini rex occisus est, cum tota eadem uilla 
 
 1 An antiquarian note about the king's villa is omitted. 
 - Bernicia was the northern, Deira the southern portion, of the North- 
 umbrian kingdom. 
 
 3 The place cannot be identified.
 
 138 PaidiuHs in Lindsey. 
 
 King Edwin ; and instead of it, later kings made 
 themselves an abode in a district called Leeds. The 
 altar, however, escaped the fire, because it was of stone ; 
 and is still preserved in the monastery of the very 
 reverend abbot and presbyter Thrydwulf, in Elniet 
 Wood. 
 
 XXIII, Activity of Pauliiuis in Lindsey. 
 His personal Appearance. 
 
 (Bade 11. xvi.) 
 
 PauHnus also preached the word to the province of 
 Lindsey, which is the first on the southern bank of the 
 river Humber, and reaches to the sea. The reeve of 
 the city of Lincoln, whose name was Blaecca, was the 
 first whom he converted to the Lord, with all his house. 
 And in that city he made a stone church of excellent 
 workmanship ; the roof of which has now been brought 
 down, either by long neglect or by the hands of enemies, 
 
 succenderunt ; pro qua reges posteriores fecere sibi uillam 
 in regione, quae uocatur Loidis. Euasit autem ignem altare, 
 quia lapideum erat ; et seruatur adhuc in monasterio reueren- 
 tissimi abbatis et presbyteri Thryduulfi, quod est in silua 
 Elmete. 
 
 Praedicabat autem Paulinus uerbum etiam prouinciae 
 Lindissi, quae est prima ad meridianam Humbre fluminis 
 ripam, pertingens usque ad mare, praefectumque Lindocolinae 
 ciuitatis, cui nomen erat Blaecca, primum cum domu sua 
 conuertit ad Dominum. In qua uidelicet ciuitate et ecclesiam 
 operis egregii de lapide fecit ; cuius tecto uel longa incuria, 
 uel hostili manu deiecto, parietes hactenus stare uidentur, et
 
 Paul in us in Liudscy. 139 
 
 but the walls are still seen standing, and every year 
 
 some miracles of healing arc displayed on the spot for 
 the benefit of those who seek in faith*. It was in this 
 church that Paulinus, when Justus passed away to 
 Christ, consecrated Honorius bishop in his room, as I 
 shall relate presently in the proper place. 
 
 In regard to the conversion of this province I was 
 told by a presbyter and abbot of the monastery of 
 Partney, a man of great accuracy of statement, named 
 Deda, that he had been informed by an elderly man, 
 that he had been baptized in the middle of the day by 
 Bishop Paulinus, in the presence of King Edwin, and 
 with him a multitude of people, in the river Trent, near 
 a city which is called in English Tiowulfingcasterl This 
 old man used also to describe the appearance of Paulinus, 
 that he was a man of tall stature, somewhat bent, with 
 
 omnibus annis aliqua sanitatum miracula in eodcm loco sclent 
 ad utilitatem eorum, qui fideliter quaerunt, ostendi. In qua 
 ecclesia Paulinus, transeunte ad Christum lusto, Honorium 
 pro eo consecrauit episcopum, ut in sequentibus sue loco 
 dicemus. 
 
 De huius fide prouinciae narrauit mihi presbyter et abbas 
 quidam uir ueracissimus de monasterio Peartaneu, uocabulo 
 Deda, retulisse sibi quendam scniorem, baptizatum se fuisse 
 die media a Paulino episcopo, praesente rage Aeduino, et 
 multam populi turbam in fluuio Treenta, iuxta ciuitatem, ([uae 
 lingua Anglorum Tiouulfingacaeslir uocatur; qui eliam cffiyicm 
 eiusdem Paulini referre esset solitus, quod csset uir longac 
 
 1 The church now goes by the name of St Paul's, which is short for 
 
 St Paulinus'. 
 
 ^ The place cannot now be identified with certainty.
 
 I40 Letter of Honor uis to Ediuin. 
 
 black hair, and spare face, and a very thin hooked nose, 
 looking at the same time venerable and formidable. He 
 had with him as his assistant James the deacon, a truly 
 indefatigable man, and renowned in Christ and in the 
 Church, who survived to our own times. 
 
 XXIV. Letter of Pope Honor his to Edwin 
 
 (Bede ii. xvii.) 
 
 At this time the bishopric of the Apostolic See was 
 held by Honorius^, the successor of Boniface, who, on 
 learning that the Northumbrians and their king had 
 been converted by the preaching of Paulinus to the faith 
 and profession of Christ, sent Paulinus a pall. He also 
 sent a letter of exhortation to King Edwin, urging him 
 with fatherly kindness that he and they should always 
 
 staturae, paululum incuruus, nigro capillo, facie macilenta, 
 naso adunco pertenui, uenerabilis simul at terribilis aspectu. 
 Habuit autem secum in ministerio et lacobum diaconum, 
 uirum utique industrium ac nobilem in Christo et in ecclesia, 
 qui ad nostra usque tempora permansit. 
 
 Quo tempore praesulatum sedis apostolicae Honorius 
 Bonifatii successor habebat, qui, ubi gentem Nordanhym- 
 brorum cum suo rege ad fidem confessionemque Christi, 
 Paulino euangelizante, conuersam esse didicit, misit eidem 
 Paulino pallium; misit et regi Aeduino litteras exhortatorias, 
 paterna ilium caritate accendens, ut in fide ueritatis, quam 
 
 ' This was the unfortunate Honorius who was anathematized after his 
 death by the Roman Church for maintaining the Monothelete heresy.
 
 Letter of Honoriiis to Ediuiii. 141 
 
 persevere and go forwards in the belief of the truth 
 which they had received. The letter runs thus : — 
 
 ' To the most excellent and eminent Lord, my son 
 Edwin, King of the English, Honorius, Bishop, servant 
 of God's servants, greeting. 
 
 ' The soundness of your Christianity is so set on fire 
 with faith as regards the worship of your Creator, that it 
 shines far and wide, and being told of throughout the 
 world bears manifold fruit of your work. You recognise 
 that you kings hold your kingship on this condition, 
 that having learned about your King and Creator by 
 orthodox preaching you believe and worship God, and, 
 as far as human faith can, you pay Him the sincere 
 devotion of your soul. For what else can we offer to 
 our God, except to be forward in serving Him and 
 paying Him our vows, persevering in good deeds, and 
 acknowledging Him as the author of mankind 1 And 
 
 acceperant, persistere semper ac proficere curarent. Quarum 
 uidelicet litterarum iste est ordo : 
 
 Domino excellentissiino atqiie praecellentissimo filio Aedutno 
 regi Anglorum Honorius episcopus seruus seruorum Dei salutem. 
 
 Ita Christianitatis uesirae integritas eirca siii conditoris 
 cultum fidei est ardore siiccensa, ut longe lateque resplendeat, et 
 in onini muiido admuitiata uestri operis multiplieiter referat 
 fructum. Sic enim uos reges esse cognoscitis, dum regem et 
 Creatorem uestruni orthodoxa praedieatione edocti Deum uene- 
 rando creditis, eique, quod hutnana unlet conditio, mentis uesirae 
 sincerain deuotionem exsoluitis. Quod enitn Deo nostra aliud 
 oprre ualebi/nus, nisi 2ct in bonis actibus persistentes, ipsumque 
 auctorem humani generis confitentes, eum colere, eique uota fiostra
 
 142 Letter of Honoriics to Edwin. 
 
 therefore, most eminent Son, we exhort you with due 
 fatherly kindness to be in every way forward to keep, 
 by dihgent heed and by constant prayer, what the 
 Divine mercy has vouchsafed to you by calHng you 
 to His grace; so that He who in this present world 
 has vouchsafed to free you from all error, and to bring 
 you to the knowledge of His name, may also prepare 
 for you a mansion in the heavenly home. Occupy 
 yourself therefore with frequent reading of your Evan- 
 gelist my lord Gregory of apostolic memory, and keep 
 before your eyes that love of the Christian doctrine 
 which he so freely showed on behalf of your souls, in 
 order that his prayers may increase your kingdom and 
 your people, and may present you faultless to Almighty 
 God. 
 
 ' We make a point of granting at once, with a thankful 
 soul, the ordinances which you hoped to obtain from us 
 on behalf of your bishops, in acknowledgment of the 
 sincerity of your faith, which has been properly intimated 
 
 reddere fesiineiniis ? Et ideo, excellentissime fill, paterna jios 
 caritate, qua coiiuenit^ exhortamur, lit hoc, quod uos diiiina 
 misericordia ad suajii gratiam iiocare dignata est, sollicita 
 intentioiie et adsidnis oratiotiibus seruare ojnmmodo festinetis ; 
 ut, qui uos in praesenti saeculo ex otinii errore absolutos ad 
 agnitiofiein siii nominis est dignatus perducere, et caelestis patriae 
 nobis pratparet matisiotietn. Pracdicatoris igitur uestri dotnini 
 7nei apostolicae memoriae Gregorii frequenter lectione occupati, 
 prae oculis affectum doctrinae ipsius, quern pro uestris animabus 
 libenter exercuit, habetote ; quatinus eius oratio et regiium 
 ucstrum populumque augcat, et uos omnipotenti Deo inreprc- 
 hensibiles rcpraesentet. Ea uero, quae a nobis pro uestris sacer- 
 dotibus ordinanda sperastis, haec pro fidei ucstrae sinceritate,
 
 Letter of Hojioriiis to Ediuin. 143 
 
 to us by the bearers of these presents in a variety of 
 reports ; and we have forwarded the palls of the two 
 metropolitans, that is, for Honorius and Paulinus, in 
 order that when one of them is summoned out of this 
 world to his Maker, the other may elevate a bishop in 
 his stead by this our authority. We have been drawn 
 to grant this both by love towards you, and by reason 
 of the many wide countries which lie between us and 
 you^ that in everything we might show compliance with 
 your devotion, and in accordance with your wishes. 
 ' May grace above keep your Excellence safe.' 
 
 quae nobis nmltimoda relatione per p7'aeseniiutn portitores lau- 
 dabiliter insinuata est, gratuito aninio adti-ibuere ulla sine 
 dilatione praeuidemus ; et duo pallia utrorumque metropolita- 
 norum, id est Honorio et Paulino, direximus, tit, dum quis eorum 
 de hoc saeculo ad auctorem suum fuerit arcessitus, in loco ipsius 
 alter episcopuni ex hac nostra auctoritate debeat subrogare. Quod 
 quidem tani pro uestrae caritatis affectu, quavi pro tantarum 
 prouinciaruni spatiis, quae inter 7ios et uos esse noscuntur, sumus 
 inuitati co?icedere, ut in omnibus deuotioni uestrae nostrum 
 concursufn, et iuxta uestra desideria praeberemus. 
 
 Incolumem excellentia7n uestram gratia superna custodial. 
 
 1 It is implied that without this permission (which, however, had already 
 been given by Gregory) the metropolitans would have been obliged to go to 
 Rome for consecration. See next section.
 
 144 Consecration of Archbishop Hojiorins. 
 
 XXV. Succession of Honor ins to the See of Canterbury. 
 
 (Bede ii. xviii.) 
 
 Amidst these events, Archbishop Justus was raised 
 to the heavenly realms, on the loth of November, and 
 Honorius was elected to the bishopric in his stead. 
 Honorius went for his ordination to Paulinus^ and 
 meeting him at Lincoln was consecrated by him the 
 fifth prelate of the Church of Canterbury from Augustine. 
 To him also Pope Honorius already mentioned sent a 
 pall and a letter, in which he lays down the same thing 
 which he had laid down in his epistle to King Edwin ; 
 namely, that when the Archbishop of Canterbury or of 
 York should pass out of this life, the survivor, who shared 
 the same rank, should be empowered to ordain another 
 
 Haec inter lustus archiepiscopus ad caelestia regna suble- 
 uatus quarto Iduum Nouembrium die, et Honorius pro illo est 
 in praesulatum electus; qui ordinandus uenit ad Paulinum, 
 et occurrente sibi illo in Lindocolino, quintus ab Augustino 
 Doruuernensis ecclesiae consecratus est antistes. Cui etiam 
 praefatus papa Honorius misit pallium et litteras, in quibus 
 decernit hoc ipsum, quod in epistula ad Aeduinum regem 
 missa decreuerat ; scilicet ut cum Doruuernensis uel Ebura- 
 censis antistes de hac uita transierit, is, qui superest, censors 
 eiusdem gradus habeat potestatem alterum ordinandi in loco 
 
 1 This had been the arrangement of St Gregory. But, as a matter of 
 fact, Paulinus was the only bishop left in England except the Celtic 
 bishops, Romanus of Rochester having been drowned ; see the following 
 chapter. Bishop Browne observes {Conversion of the Hcptai-chy p. 75) 
 that it was not till six years after this that Paulinus received the pall from 
 Rome. It only reached him after his abdication of York.
 
 Edwin killed in battle. 145 
 
 bishop in the place of the deceased ; that it might not 
 always be necessary to incur the fatigue of going s(j 
 tedious a distance over land and sea to the city of 
 Rome for the ordination of an archbishop. 
 
 XXVI. Overthrow of the Northujiibrian CliurcJi. 
 
 (Bede 11. xx.) 
 
 But when Edwin had reigned gloriously over English 
 and Britons alike for seventeen years, — during six of 
 which, as we have said, he was a soldier of the Kingdom 
 of Christ, — Caedwalla, King of the Britons, rebelled 
 against him, assisted by the energetic Penda, a member 
 of the royal family of Mercia, who from this date for 
 twenty-two years reigned over that kingdom with varying 
 fortunes. An important battle took place on a field 
 called Hatfield^; and Edwin was killed, Oct. 12, in the 
 
 eius, qui transierat, sacerdotem ; ne sit necesse ad Romanam 
 usque ciuitatem per tarn prolixa terrarum et maris spatia pro 
 ordinando archiepiscopo semper fatigari. 
 
 At uero Aeduini cum X et VII annis genti Anglorum 
 simul et Brettonum gloriossime pracesset, e quibus sex ctiain 
 ipse, ut diximus, Christi regno militauit, rebellauit aduersus 
 eum Caedualla rex Brettonum, auxilium praebentc illi Penda 
 uiro strenuissimo de regie genere Merciorum, qui et ipse ex co 
 tempore gentis eiusdem regno annis XX et IP"* uaria sorte 
 praefuit; et conserto graui proelio in campo, qui uocatur 
 Haethfelth, occisus est Aeduini die IIII Iduum Octobrium, 
 
 1 Hatfield Chase near Doncaster.
 
 146 Havoc wrought by tJie conquerors. 
 
 year of the Lord's Incarnation 633, when he was 48 years 
 old ; and his whole army was either killed or scattered. 
 
 At this time very great havoc was done upon the 
 Church and people of Northumbria, especially because 
 one of the leaders by whom it was wrought was a 
 heathen, the other a savage more cruel than a heathen. 
 For Penda, like all the people of Mercia, was devoted 
 to idols, and ignorant even of the Christian name ; but 
 Caedwalla, though a Christian by name and profession, 
 was yet such a savage in heart and life, that he spared 
 neither womanhood nor innocent childhood, but with 
 the ruthlessness of a wild beast gave all over to a death 
 of torture, sweeping furiously over all their provinces for 
 a long time together, and deliberately announcing that 
 he meant to wipe out the whole English race from the 
 coasts of Britain. Nor did he pay any respect to the 
 Christian religion which had sprung up among them. 
 
 anno dominicae incarnationis DCXXXIII, cum asset annorum 
 XL et VIII; eiusque totus uel interemtus uel dispersus est 
 exercitus. 
 
 Quo tempore maxima est facta strages in ecclesia uel gente 
 Nordanhymbrorum, maxime quod unus ex ducibus, a quibus 
 acta est, paganus, alter, quia barbarus erat pagano saeuior. 
 Siquidem Penda cum omni Merciorum gente idolis deditus, et 
 Chi istiani erat nominis ignai us ; at uero Caedualla, (juamuis 
 nomen et professionem haberet Chiistiani, adeo tamen erat 
 animo ac moribus barbarus, ut ne sexui quidem muliebri, uel 
 innocuae paruulorum parceret aetati, quin uniuersos atrocitate 
 ferina morti per tormenta contraderet, multo tempore totas 
 eorum prouincias debacchando peruagatus, ac totum genus 
 Anglorum Brittaniae finibus erasurum se esse deliberans. Sed 
 nee religioni Christianae, quae apud eos exorta erat, aliquid
 
 Flight of Pauliiius and Ethdbcrga. 1 47 
 
 Indeed to this day it is the manner of the Britons to 
 ignore the faith and rehgion of the EngHsh, and to 
 hold no more communion with them in anything than 
 with the heathen. King Edwin's head was brought to 
 York, and was afterwards brought into the church of the 
 blessed Apostle Peter, which had been begun by him- 
 self and was completed by his successor Oswald, as 
 we have said before, and laid in the aisle of Pope 
 St Gregory, from whose disciples he had received the 
 word of life. 
 
 Things in Northumbria being thrown into confusion 
 at the moment of this disaster, when there seemed to be 
 no protection anywhere except in flight, Paulinus took 
 with him Queen Ethelberga, whom he had originally 
 brought to that country, and returned by sea to Kent, 
 where he was very honourably received by Archbishop 
 Honorius and King Edbald\...He also took with him 
 
 inpendebat honoris. Quippe cum usque hodie moris sit 
 Brettonum, fidem religionemque Anglorum pro nihil habere, 
 neque in aliquo eis magis communicare quam paganis. 
 Adlatum est autem caput Aeduini regis Eburacum, et inlatum 
 postea in ecclesiam beati apostoli Petri, quam ipse cocpit, scd 
 successor eius Osuald perfecit, ut supra docuimus, positum est 
 in porticu sancti papae Gregorii, a cuius ipse discipulis ucrbuin 
 uitae susceperat. 
 
 Turbatis itaque rebus Nordanhymbrorum huius articulo 
 cladis, cum nil alicubi praesidii nisi in fuga esse uideretur, 
 Paulinus adsumta secum regina Aedilbcrge, quam pridem 
 adduxerat, rediit Cantiam nauigio, atque ab Honorio archi- 
 episcopo et rege Eadbaldo multum honorifice susceptus est. 
 
 1 Here follow the names of other members of the family who Hcd 
 likewise. 
 
 10 2
 
 148 PauiuiHS Bishop of Rochester. 
 
 many precious vessels belonging to King Edwin, — 
 among others a great golden cross, and a golden cup 
 hallowed for the service of the altar, which are still 
 preserved and shown in the Church of Kent. 
 
 At this time the Church of Rochester had no pastor, 
 because Romanus, its bishop, having been sent on a 
 mission to Pope Honorius by Archbishop Justus, had 
 been drowned in the waves of the Italian sea. By this 
 means, Paulinus undertook the charge of that Church, 
 on the invitation of Honorius the Archbishop and of King 
 Edbald, and held it until he also, when his time came, 
 went up to the heavenly kingdom with the fruit of 
 his glorious toil. At his death he left also in that 
 Church the pall which he had received from the Pope of 
 Rome. 
 
 But he had left in his own Church at York the deacon 
 James, a churchman indeed and a saint ; who for a long 
 
 Attulit quoque secum uasa pretiosa Aeduini regis perplura, 
 in quibus et crucem magnam auream, et calicem aureum 
 consecratum ad ministerium altaris, quae hactenus in ecclesia 
 Cantiae conseruata monstrantur. 
 
 Quo in tempore Hrofensis ecclesia pastorem minime 
 habebat, eo quod Romanus praesul illius ad Honorium papam 
 a lusto archiepiscopo legatarius missus absortus fuerat flucti- 
 bus Italici maris; ac per hoc curam illius praefatus Pauli- 
 nus inuitatione Honorii antistitis et Eadbaldi regis suscepit 
 ac tenuit, usque dum et ipse suo tempore ad caelestia 
 regna cum gloriosi fructu laboris ascendit. In qua ecclesia 
 moriens pallium quoque, quod a Romano papa acceperat, 
 reliquit. 
 
 Reliquerat autem in ecclesia sua Eburaci lacobum dia- 
 conum, uirum utique ecclesiasticum et sanctum, qui multo
 
 Heroism of James the Deacon. 149 
 
 time after remained in the Church, and pluck'ed much 
 prey from the old enemy by teaching and baptizing. 
 The village near Catterick in which he chiefly lived is 
 still to this day called by his name\ Being highly 
 skilled in the art of singing in church, when peace was 
 afterwards restored in the province, and the number of 
 believers grew, he came to be the master of many in 
 church singing after the manner of Rome and Canter- 
 bury; and 'being old and full of days,' as the Scriptures 
 say, he followed the way of his fathers. 
 
 exhinc tempore in ecclesia manens, magnas antique hosti 
 praedas docendo et baptizando eripuit; cuius nomine ulcus, 
 in quo maxima solebat habitare, iuxta Cataractam, usque 
 hodie cognominatur. Qui, quoniam cantandi in ecclesia erat 
 peritissimus, recuperata postmodum pace in prouincia, et 
 crescente numero fidelium, etiam magister ecclesiasticae can- 
 tionis iuxta morem Romanorum sine Cantuariorum multis 
 coepit existere; et ipse senex ac plenus dierum, iuxta 
 scripturas, patrum uiam secutus est. 
 
 ^ According to Bishop Browne, the place is Akeburgh, or Aikbar, 
 of which the first syllable represents lacobus (Conversion of the Heptarchy, 
 p. 2 1 8 f.). The ' Cross of Saint James' is still to be seen at Hawks well, 
 not far oS {ibid. p. 215 f.).
 
 1 50 Erco fiber i King of Kent. 
 
 XXVII. Death of King Edbald and reign of 
 Erconbert. 
 
 (Bede in. viii.) 
 
 In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 640, Edbald, 
 King of Kent, passed away from this Hfe, and left the 
 helm of the kingdom to his son Erconbert, which he 
 held for twenty-four years and some months with great 
 glory. Erconbert was the first of the kings of the 
 English who commanded by his princely authority the 
 idols to be forsaken and destroyed throughout all his 
 kingdom, and at the same time that the forty days of 
 Lent should be kept. And that these orders might not 
 lightly be despised by any one, he laid down condign 
 and sufficient penalties for offenders. 
 
 Anno dominicae incarnationis DCXL, Eadbald rex Can- 
 tuariorum transiens ex hac uita, Earconbercto filio regni 
 gubernacula reliquit ; quae ille suscepta XXIIII annis et 
 aliquot mensibus nobilissime tenuit. Hie primus regum 
 Anglorum in toto regno suo idola relinqui ac destrui, simul 
 et ieiunium XL dierum obseruari principali auctoritate prae- 
 cepit. Quae ne facile a quopiam posset contemni, in 
 transgressores dignas et conpeientes punitiones proposuit.
 
 TJie first English Bishop. 1 5 1 
 
 XXVIII. Death of Pmiliniis, and ConsecratioJi of 
 the first English Bishop. 
 
 (Bede in. xiv.) 
 
 In the second year of OsvvyS that is the year 644 
 from the Incarnation of the Lord, the most reverend 
 father Paulinas, formerly Bishop of York, but at that 
 time Bishop of the city of Rochester, passed away to 
 the Lord on the loth of October. He had held the 
 office of a bishop for nineteen years, two months, and 
 twenty-one days, and was buried in the sacristy of the 
 blessed Apostle Andrew, which had been built from its 
 foundation in that city of Rochester by King Ethclbert. 
 In the place of Paulinus, Archbishop Honorius ordained 
 Ithamar, a Kentishman by birth, but not inferior to his 
 predecessors in life and learning. 
 
 Cuius anno secundo, hoc est ab incarnatione dominica 
 anno DCXLIIII, reuerentissimus pater Paulinus, quondam 
 quidem Eburacensis, sed tunc Hrofensis episcopus ciuitatis, 
 transiuit ad Dominum sexto Iduum Octobrium die ; qui X et 
 Villi annos, menses duos, dies XXI episcopatum tenuit ; 
 sepultusque est in secretario beati apostoli Andreae, quod rex 
 Aedilberct a fundamentis in eadem Hrofi ciuitate construxit. 
 In cuius locum Honorius archiepiscopus ordinauit Ithamar, 
 oriundum quidem de gente Cantuariorum, sed uita et eruditione 
 antecessoribus suis acquandum. 
 
 1 Brother and successor to Oswald, King of Northumbria. Like 
 Oswald, he was attached to the Celtic usages.
 
 152 Introduction of Christianity 
 
 XXIX. T/ie Conversion of East Anglia, and the 
 history of the ClinrcJi there. 
 
 (Bede ii. xv.) 
 
 (i) Such devotion to the true religion did Edwin^ 
 show that he also persuaded the King of the East 
 English, Erpwald the son of Redwald, to leave idola- 
 trous superstitions and adopt the faith and sacraments 
 of Christ, he and his province. And indeed his father 
 Redwald before him had the Christian sacraments 
 applied to him in Kent, but to no purpose ; for when he 
 returned home, his wife and certain perverse teachers 
 seduced him ; and when he had fallen away from the 
 sincerity of faith, his latter ways were worse than the 
 former, so that, like the Samaritans of old, he served, 
 as far as appearance goes, both Christ and his former 
 gods, and had in the same temple an altar for the sacrifice 
 of Christ and another little one^ for the devil-victims. 
 
 Tantum autem deuotionis Aeduini erga cultum ueritatis 
 habuit, ut etiam regi Orientalium Anglorum, Earpualdo filio 
 Redualdi, persuaderet, relictis idolorum superstitionibus, fidem 
 at sacramenta Christi cum sua prouincia suscipere. Et quidem 
 pater eius Reduald iamdudum in Cantia sacramentis Christianae 
 fidei inbutus est, sed frustra : nam rediens domum ab uxore 
 sua et quibusdam peruersis doctoribus seductus est, atque a 
 sinceritate fidei deprauatus habuit posteriora peiora prioribus ; 
 ita ut in morem antiquorum Samaritanorum et Christo seruire 
 uideretur et diis, quibus antea seruiebat ; atque in eodem fano 
 et altare haberet ad sacrificium Christi, et arulam ad uictimas 
 
 ' The King of Northumbria. 
 
 - Unfortunately in English we cannot translate the difference between 
 the two entirely different words for ' altar.'
 
 into East Anglia. 153 
 
 Aldwulf, the king of the same province in our own days, 
 used to testify that this temple lasted till his time, and 
 that he had himself seen it in his boyhood. 
 
 But Erpwald, not long after receiving the faith, was 
 killed by a heathen named Richbert, and for three 
 years the province laboured under error, until Erpwald's 
 brother Sigbert came to the throne, — a man in every- 
 thing most Christian and most learned, who during 
 his brother's life had received the application of the 
 sacraments while an exile in Gaul, and from the outset 
 of his reign took steps to impart them to his whole 
 province. In this design he was gloriously seconded 
 by the Bishop Felix, who, on coming to Archbishop 
 Honorius from the regions of Burgundy, where he had 
 been born and ordained^ and informing him of his desire, 
 was sent by Honorius to preach the word of life to the 
 
 daemoniorum. Quod uidelicet fanum rex eiusdem prouinciae 
 Alduulf, qui nostra aetata fuit, usque ad suum tempus 
 perdurasse, et se in pueritia uidisse testabatur. 
 
 Uerum Eorpuald non multo, postquam fidem accepit, 
 tempore occisus est a uiro gentili nomine Ricbercto ; et exinde 
 tribus annis prouincia in errore uersata est, donee accepit 
 regnum frater eiusdem Eorpualdi Sigberct, uir per omnia 
 Christianissimus ac doctissimus, qui, umente adhuc fratre, 
 cum exularet in Gallia, fidei sacramentis inbutus est, quorum 
 participem, mox ubi regnare coepit, totam suam prouinciam 
 facere curauit. Cuius studiis gloriosissime fault Felix episcopus, 
 qui de Burgundiorum partibus, ubi ortus et ordinatus est, cum 
 uenisset ad Honorium archiepiscopum, eique indicasset desi- 
 derium suum, misit eum ad praedicandum uerbum uitae 
 
 ^ i.e. consecrated.
 
 134 Activity of Felix and 
 
 English tribe aforesaid. Nor were his vows fruitless ; 
 the pious husbandman of the spiritual field gained mani- 
 fold fruit, in the form of believing multitudes amongst 
 that tribe. The whole province, according to the sig- 
 nificance of his name, was delivered by him from its 
 long iniquity and infelicity, and brought to faith and 
 the works of righteousness, and to the gifts of everlasting 
 felicity. He received an episcopal see in the city of 
 Dunwich ; and after ruling as bishop over the province 
 for seventeen years, he ended his life there in peace. 
 
 (Bade iii. xviii.) 
 
 (2) In these days the East English kingdom, after 
 Erpwald the successor of Redwald, was governed by 
 Erpwald's brother Sigbert, a good and devout man ; 
 who formerly received the baptismal washing in Gaul, 
 while in exile there, fleeing from the hatred of Redwald ; 
 
 praefatae nationi Anglorum. Nee uota ipsius in cassum 
 cecidere ; quin potius fructum in ea multiplicem credentium 
 populorum pius agri spiritalis cultor inuenit. Siquidem totam 
 illam prouinciam, iuxta sui nominis sacramentum, a longa 
 iniquitate atque infelicitate liberatam, ad fidem et opera 
 iustitiae, ac perpetuae felicitatis dona perduxit, accepitque 
 sedem episcopatus in ciuitate Domnoc ; et cum X ac VII 
 annos eidem prouinciae pontificali regimine praeesset, ibidem 
 in pace uitam finiuit. 
 
 His temporibus regno Orientalium Anglorum, post Erpual- 
 dum Redualdi successorem, Sigberct frater eius praefuit, homo 
 bonus ac religiosus ; qui dudum in Gallia, dum inimicitias 
 Redualdi fugiens exularet, lauacrum baptismi percepit, et
 
 Sigbcrt in East Anglia. 155 
 
 and by and by, on his return home, when he gained 
 possession of the throne, desiring to imitate the good 
 system which he had seen in Gaul, he founded a school 
 for the instruction of children in letters. He was aided 
 in this work by the Bishop, Felix, whom he had 
 received from Kent, who supplied them with masters 
 and teachers after the Kentish fashion. 
 
 XXX. Death of Archbishop Hoiwrius. 
 
 (Bede iii. xx.) 
 
 Upon the death of Felix Bishop of the East English, 
 seventeen years after his accession to the bishopric, 
 Honorius ordained in his stead his deacon Thomas, of 
 the province of the Gyrwas^; and when Thomas after a 
 five years episcopate was withdrawn from this life, he 
 filled his place with a Kentishman, Bertgils, surnamed 
 Boniface. 
 
 patriam reuersus, ubi regno potitus est, mox ea, quae in 
 Galliis bene disposita uidit, imitari cupiens, instituit scolam, 
 in qua pueri litteris erudirentur; iuuante se episcopo Felice, 
 quern de Cantia acceperat, eiscjue pedngogos ac magistros 
 iuxta morem Cantuariorum praebente. 
 
 Interea, defuncto Felice Orientalium Anglorum episcopo 
 post X et VII annos accepti episcopatus, Honorius loco eius 
 ordinauit Thomam diaconum eius de prouincia Gyruiorum ; 
 et hoc post quinque annos sui episcopatus de hac uita 
 subtracto, Berctgilsum, cognomine Bonifatium, de prouincia 
 
 1 That is, the inhabitants of the fen district.
 
 156 Death of Archbishop HonojHtis 
 
 And Honorius himself, after fulfilling his course, 
 departed this light in the year of our Lord's Incarnation 
 653, on the last day of September^ The bishopric 
 having been vacant for a year and a half, Deusdedit, 
 of the nation of Wessex, was chosen sixth Archbishop 
 of the throne of Canterbury, and Ithamar, Bishop of 
 the Church of Rochester, came to Canterbury to ordain 
 him. He was ordained March 26, and ruled the Church 
 nine years, four months, and two days; and on the 
 death of Ithamar, he consecrated in his room Damian*, 
 who sprang from the race of Sussex. 
 
 Cantuariorum, loco eius substituit. Et ipse quoque Honorius, 
 postquam metas sui cursus inpleuit, ex hac luce migrauit 
 anno ab incarnatione Domini UCLIII, pridie Kalendarum 
 Octobrium ; et cessante episcopatu per annum et sex menses, 
 electiis est archiepiscopus cathedrae Doruuernensis sextus 
 Deusdedit de gente Occidentalium Saxonum ; quem ordi- 
 naturus uenit illuc Ithamar, antistes ecclesiae Hrofensis. 
 Ordinatus est auteni die VII"" Kalendarum Aprilium, et rexit 
 ecclesiam annos Villi, menses IIII et duos dies; et ipse, 
 defuncto Ithamar, consecrauit pro eo Damianum, qui de 
 genere Australium Saxonum erat oriundus. 
 
 ^ He had held the see for 22 or 23 years ; and as he had been ' one of 
 the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory' (Bede v. 19), he must have 
 been well on in years at the time of his death. The only member of the 
 Roman mission who is known to have survived him was the patriarchal 
 James the deacon. Honorius was 'a man of lofty erudition in things of 
 the Church ' (Bede, /.f.). It is pleasing to add that he was able to 
 appreciate the saintly character of Aidan, although (so far as we know) 
 there was no communion between them. Aidan, we are told, ' was 
 deservedly loved by all, even by those who differed from him with regard 
 to Easter ; nor was he revered only by people of no position, but by the 
 bishops themselves, Honorius of Kent and Felix of East Anglia' (Bede 
 iii. 25). 
 
 ^ The date of Damian's death is uncertain ; but wlien Theodore came
 
 and of Archbishop Dettsdedit. 157 
 
 XXXI. Death of Archbishop Dcusdcdit and extiiiclion 
 of the Augustinian succession. 
 
 (Bede iv. i.) 
 
 (i) In the year of the echpse already mentioned, and 
 of the plague which followed close upon it', in which also 
 Bishop Colman was defeated by the resolute unanimity 
 of the Catholics- and returned to his own people, Deus- 
 dedit, the sixth Bishop of the Church of Canterbury, 
 died on the 14th of July ; and Erconbert, King of Kent, 
 dying the same month and the same day, left to his son 
 Egbert the throne which he had held for nine years. 
 Then, the bishopric having been vacant for a considerable 
 time, Egbert and Oswy, King of Northumbria, conjointly, 
 as I briefly mentioned in the preceding book, sent to 
 Rome the presbyter Wighard, a man of great learning 
 
 Anno memorato praefatae eclypsis et mox sequentis 
 pestilentiae, quo et Colman episcopus unanima catholicorum 
 intentione superatus ad sues reuersus est, Deusdedit VI"" 
 ecclesiae Doruuernensis episcopus obiit pridie Iduum luliaruni; 
 sad et Erconberct rex Cantuariorum eodem mense ac die 
 defunctus, Ecgbercto filio sedem regni reliquit, quam ille 
 susceptam per Villi annos tenuit. Tunc cessante non pauco 
 tempore episcopatu, missus est Romam ab ipso simul et a 
 rage Nordanhymbrorum Osuio, ut in praccedente libro paucis 
 diximus, Uighard presbyter, uir in acclesiasticis disciplinis 
 
 to Kent in 669, 'the bishopric [of Rochester] had long been vacant through 
 the death of Damian ' (Bede iv. ^). He probably survived Archbishop 
 Deusdedit, or Deusdedit would probably have consecrated a successor to 
 him. 
 
 1 A.D. 664. " In the conference at Whitby.
 
 158 WigJiard scut to Rome, where 
 
 in Church lore, of English origin, with the request that 
 he might be ordained Archbishop of the English Church^ 
 They sent at the same time presents to the Apostolic 
 Pope, and gold and silver vessels not a itw. When 
 Wighard reached Rome, over which Apostolic See 
 Vitalian at that time presided, he acquainted the Apo- 
 stolic Pope with the reason of his journey ; but not long 
 after, both he and almost all the companions who had 
 come with him, were overtaken by the plague and 
 exterminated. 
 
 (Bede in. xxix.) 
 
 (2) In these days, the most noble English kings, 
 Oswy of the province of Northumbria, and Egbert of 
 Kent, took counsel together what was to be done for 
 
 doctissimus, de genera Anglorum, petentibus hunc ecclesiae 
 Anglorum archiepiscopum ordinari; missis pariter apostolico 
 papae donariis, et aureis atque argenteis uasis non paucis. 
 Qui ubi Romam peruenit, cuius sedi apostolicae tempore illo 
 Uitalianus praeerat, postquam itineris sui causam praefato 
 papae apostolico patefecit, non multo post et ipse, et omnes 
 pene qui cum eo aduenerant socii, pestilentia superueniente 
 deleti sunt. 
 
 His temporibus reges Anglorum nobilissimi, Osuiu pro- 
 uinciae Nordanhymbrorum, et Ecgberct Cantuariorum, habito 
 inter se consilio, quid de statu ecclesiae Anglorum asset 
 
 ^ Even if Damian of Rochester died shortly after Deusdedit, as pro- 
 bably he did, Boniface of Dunwich was still alive, and might have followed 
 tlie precedent set by Ithamar. But the two kings doubtless wished for a 
 higher prestige for their new primate than could be conferred by such a 
 consecration.
 
 he dies before his Consecration. 159 
 
 the Church of England ; — for Oswy, though educated 
 by the Scottish, had recognised that the Roman Church 
 was the Catholic and Apostolic Church ; — and with the 
 choice and consent of the Holy Church of the English 
 people they took a good man, well qualified for the 
 episcopate, a presbyter of the name of Wighard, one 
 of the clergy of Bishop Deusdedit, and sent him to 
 Rome to be ordained bishop, in order that being ad- 
 mitted to the archbishopric he might be able to 
 ordain Catholic prelates throughout Britain for the 
 English Churches. But when Wighard came to Rome, 
 before he could be consecrated to the episcopate, he 
 was carried off by death.... 
 
 Who, in effect, was found and dedicated as bishop 
 instead of Wighard, will be better told in the following 
 booki. 
 
 agendum, intellexerat enim ueraciter Osuiu, quamuis educatus 
 a Scottis, quia Romana esset catholica et apostolica ecclesia, 
 adsumserunt cum electione et consensu sanctae ecclesiae gentis 
 Anglorum, uirum bonum et aptum episcopatu, presbyterum 
 nomine Uighardum, de clero Deusdedit episcopi, et hunc 
 antistitem ordinandum Romam miserunt ; quatinus accepto 
 ipse gradu archiepiscopatus, catholicos per omnem Ikittaniam 
 ecclesiis Anglorum ordinare posset antistites. 
 
 Uerum Uighard Romam perueniens, priusquam consecrari 
 in episcopatum posset, morte praereptus est. 
 
 Quis sane pro Uighardo reppertus ac dedicatus sit antistes, 
 libro sequente opportunius dicetur. 
 
 1 It was, of course, the great Theodore, under whom the Church of 
 England entered upon a new period of her history.
 
 VT DIES NATALITIVS BEATI PAPAE GREGORII ET DIES 
 QVOQVE DEPOSITIONIS, QVI EST VII KALENDAS IVNII, 
 SANCTI AVGVSTINI ARCHIEPISCOPI ATQVE CONFESSORIS, 
 QVI GENTI ANGLORVM MiSSVS A PRAEFATO PAPA ET 
 PATRE NOSTRO GREGORIO SCIENTIAM FIDEI BAPTISMI 
 SACRAMENTVM ET CAELESTIS PATRIAE NOTITIAM PRIMVS 
 ADTVLIT, AB OMNIBVS SICVT DECET HONORIFICE VENE- 
 RANTVR ITA VT VTERQVE DIES AB ECCLESIASTICIS ET 
 MONASTERIALIBVS FERIATVS HABEATVR NOMENQVE EIVS- 
 DEM BEATI PATRIS ET DOCTORIS NOSTRI AVGVSTINI IN 
 LAETANIAE DECANTATIONE POST SANCTI GREGORII VO- 
 CATIONEM SEMPER DICATVR. 
 
 Council of Ciovesho A.D. 747.
 
 WESTERN EUROPE 
 
 IN 597. 
 
 The districts sfuxded are thoie 
 
 still dependent on the Hast-Ronu\u 
 F.itipire. 
 
 To follow /. i6o
 
 DISSERTATION I. 
 
 The Political Outlook of Europe in 597. By 
 C. W. Oman, Esq., Fdloiv of All Souls College, 
 Oxford. 
 
 When we look at history from the ecclesiastical point of 
 view, we are able to recognise that the conversion of England 
 really formed a logical part of a great process of events which 
 was in progress all over Europe. Gregory the Great is the 
 connecting Unk. We find the hand of the pontiff who sent 
 forth Augustine working in every realm of Christendom. He 
 is the strengthener and comforter of the pious Agilulf and 
 Reccared, in the days of their recent conversion to orthodoxy. 
 He is the familiar correspondent of Brunhildis in her vain 
 struggle to keep together the crumbling royal power among 
 the Franks. Nor is his name less closely connected with that 
 of the Emperor Maurice,— though here he appears as the 
 opposer and not the friend of a well-meaning sovereign. The 
 half-unconscious attempts of the Roman see to free itself from 
 the political supremacy of Constantinople are growing very 
 visible. The rivalry, destined to last for so many centuries, 
 between the patriarch of the West and the patriarch of the 
 East, emerges very clearly in the strife of Gregory with John 
 the Faster. The conversion of England takes its place in the
 
 i62 The Political Outlook 
 
 general history of Europe, when we consider it as one of the 
 many developments of the energy of the great pontiff who, 
 first among his line, made the influence of spiritual Rome 
 extend almost as far as the influence of temporal Rome had 
 reached in the splendid days of the Upper Empire. 
 
 But the year of the disembarcation of St Austin in Thanet, 
 which forms such a prominent landmark in the history of our 
 own island, has no special significance in the political annals 
 of the Franks and Visigoths, the Lombards or the Emperors 
 of the East. The times from 590 to 600 are in nearly all the 
 other realms of Europe a period of pause and comparative 
 quiet after the much more turbulent decade 580-590, and 
 before the outbreak of the new storms which begin in the 
 early years of the seventh century. 
 
 In the year 597 the outlook in most of the kingdoms of 
 the Continent was not very cheerful. Alike in East and West 
 the seventh century was the most miserable in the annals of 
 the early Middle Ages. 
 
 Among the Franks there reigned in the year 597 three 
 young boys, none of them much more than twelve years of 
 age. They were the heirs of the hate of the two ruthless 
 queens Fredegundis and Brunhildis, who had stirred up the 
 long civil wars of 567-596. Clothar II., the son of Frede- 
 gundis and of her equally wicked husband Chilperich I., whom 
 Gregory of Tours calls 'the Nero and Herod of his time,' 
 reigned over Neustria, holding Paris, Tournay, Rouen, and all 
 the lands west of the Meuse : he had but just reached the 
 age of twelve. Till a few months before Augustine's coming 
 to England he had been protected by his wicked mother's 
 ready wit and unscrupulous cruelty : but Fredegundis had 
 gone down to her grave early in 597, and the regency had 
 passed to the great officers of the crown. Many years were 
 yet to pass before Clothar had the chance of showing that he 
 was the true son of his parents. Neustria had yet to bide her 
 time for nearly twenty years before she could repay the
 
 of Europe in 597. 163 
 
 repeated invasions of the Austrasians. The tragic scene at 
 Orbe in which the son of Fredegundis dealt so savagely with 
 his kinsfolk of the elder line was not to come till 614. 
 
 Beyond the Meuse and the Saone meanwhile the two 
 larger Frankish realms were under the nominal rule of two 
 boys even younger than Clothar of Neustria. These were the 
 two grandsons of Brunhildis, the brothers Theudebert of 
 Austrasia and Theuderich of Burgundy : the elder was probably 
 ten, the younger nine, when Augustine crossed Gaul on his 
 way to England. They were still guarded by their grand- 
 mother. In her hands lay the last chance of the preservation 
 of the royal authority in the land. Deprived first of her 
 husband and then of her son, Brunhildis was striving hard to 
 keep up the strength of the central government against unruly 
 provincial magnates and ambitious ministers. She had a hard 
 task : a stranger in the land, and not even supported by strong 
 kinsmen beyond the frontier (for her father Athanagild the 
 Visigoth and all his house had long passed away), she had 
 nothing but her own energy and resolution to rely upon. She 
 was hated as a Goth, as the stirrer up of many bloody and 
 unsuccessful wars, as the slayer of many unruly nobles who 
 had risen against the crown in the days of her son's and 
 her grandsons' minority. In 597 she was still vigorous and 
 alert, travelling restlessly around the borders of the realm, 
 spying out rebels to crush, building roads and castles, keeping 
 a wary eye upon every count and bishop. 
 
 Brunhildis in 597 was just on the eve of crushing one 
 more of the constantly recurrent conspiracies of the Austrasian 
 nobles. She had yet two more years to rule, ere the rebels, 
 successful at last, chased her alone at midwinter over the 
 Burgundian border, there to nurse her wrath for thirteen years, 
 and finally in her old age to urge on her grandsons to one last 
 ruinous civil war. The fatal year 612 was still far away, and 
 no one could have foreseen that of the two young brother 
 kings to whom Gregory wrote on behalf of Augustine, one was 
 
 1 1 — 2
 
 164 The Political Outlook 
 
 to doom the other to death, and then fall himself within a 
 few months, stricken down by a sudden disease, in which all 
 men saw the hand of the Providence that avenges fratricide. Still 
 less could it have been guessed that the strong-handed politic 
 (jueen would survive to extreme old age, only to fall at last 
 into the power of the son of her rival Fredegundis, and to 
 meet a horrible death at his hands. 
 
 Under the wicked house of Chlodovech nothing could 
 prosper. Till it was gone there was no hope of peace or 
 union for the Prankish realm. Early in the sixth century men 
 had sometimes dreamed of a revived Western empire united 
 under the sceptre of a Prankish monarch. The dream had 
 now long passed away, and it was clear that from the 
 Merovings nothing was to be expected but fratricide and 
 tyranny. Gaul was rapidly losing the traces of its old Roman 
 civilization, which had survived so strongly under the first 
 kings of the dynasty. Gregory of Tours and Venantius 
 Fortunatus found no successors of their own pattern in the 
 seventh century : literature appeared to be on the verge of 
 dying out altogether in Gaul : after 600 it is only represented 
 by a few jejune chronicles and lives of saints. To see that 
 the same was the case in art, we have only to compare the 
 neat and well-finished gold solidi of Theudebert I. with the 
 barbarous and almost illegible coins of Dagobert I. and 
 his successors. The old Roman buildings were falling into 
 decay, the roads were vanishing — no one but Brunhildis seems 
 to have cared for them — : communications between province 
 and province were growing slower and more difficult. So far 
 from uniting the West, the Merovings seemed bent on dividing 
 it : in 600 it seemed that the empire of Chlodovech and 
 Chlothar I. would be permanently divided into the three 
 realms of Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy. Even the outer 
 boundaries of the Prankish realm were beginning to shrink : 
 the Saxons and Frisians were encroaching : the Bavarians and 
 Alamanni, who had seemed so thoroughly subdued in the first
 
 of Europe hi 597. 165 
 
 half of the sixth century, were drifting back towards in- 
 dependence ere the seventh was far spent. 
 
 The church in Gaul presents as melancholy a picture as 
 the state. The old bishops of Gallo-Roman blood had often 
 been very unsatisfactory shepherds of their people, but matters 
 had grown much worse since Franks had begun to enter Holy 
 Orders in large numbers and to reach high ecclesiastical 
 preferment. The letters of Pope Gregory show that the Gallic 
 church was honeycombed with simony. By the influence of 
 the crown, or the great ministers of the crown, persons over- 
 young, or of notoriously evil life, or mere laymen hurriedly 
 ordained, were being thrust into bishoprics and abbacies. 
 Even the better among the great churchmen of the day were 
 statesmen or warriors rather than saints. On the morals of 
 the governors and the governed alike Christianity seems to 
 have had little appreciable effect. No race of heathen kings 
 can show a worse record than the CathoHc and Orthodox but 
 wholly treacherous, lecherous and fratricidal house of the 
 Merovings. With such rulers in church and state we are not 
 surprised to find that nothing was being done from Gaul to 
 christianize the neighbouring races of Teutonic blood. The 
 Saxons and Frisians were destined to spend nearly two 
 centuries more in heathenism. But they were the enemies of 
 the Franks, and missionary effort directed towards them would 
 have been difficult. It is stranger that nothing had been done 
 for the English, who seem to have been on friendly terms with 
 the Merovings. English ambassadors, Kentish men, no doubt, 
 had accompanied the envoys of the Prankish kings to the 
 court of Justinian. A Frankish princess had been given in 
 marriage to the king of Kent. A regular trade was beginning 
 to spring up across tlie Dover Straits. But no king or bishop 
 had done anything to bring Christianity nearer to the English. 
 We have no indication that even Bertha's chaplain-bishop 
 Liudhard, when he actually came to reside in Kent, had 
 preached the Gospel outside his mistress's household. What
 
 1 66 TJie Political Outlook 
 
 little missionary work we can detect in the West was the work 
 of the Irish saints, who well before the close of the sixth 
 century had begun to cross to the Continent and explore its 
 inmost recesses. 
 
 The outlook of Spain in 597 was far brighter than that of 
 the Gaulish lands, though her later fate was to be far worse. 
 Down to the reign of king Leovigild (568-586) the Iberian 
 peninsula had been vexed by two evils. The first was that the 
 rulers and the ruled were divided by a bitter theological hatred : 
 the conquering Visigoths were Arians, the Spanish provincials 
 orthodox Catholics. The second arose from the fact that since 
 the extinction of the old royal house of the Amals in 531 the 
 sceptre had passed rapidly through the hands of a succession 
 of military adventurers. Civil war had grown endemic, and 
 was complicated by the fact that the independent Suevi of 
 Galicia and Lusitania were always descending from their hills 
 to seek profit in the troublous times, while the troops of 
 Justinian had seized on the Andalusian harbour-towns and 
 were vigorously striving to push inland and conquer the valley 
 of the Guadalquivir. 
 
 It appeared however in the end of the century that both 
 the curses of Spain were to be removed. A great warrior- 
 statesman had arisen, in the person of king Leovigild, who 
 had beaten down all opposition in the peninsula and passed 
 the crown quietly on to his equally capable son Reccared. He 
 had utterly crushed the Suevi and annexed their kingdom 
 (583) : he had driven the East-Romans back to the coast, 
 where they now held but a precarious hold on a broken line of 
 harbour-fortresses : he had beaten off with loss the last serious 
 attempt of the Franks to establish themselves south of the 
 Pyrenees (585-6). Yet Leovigild had been an Arian, and his 
 treatment of his unruly son Hermenegild, who suffered death 
 as much for his conversion to the orthodox creed as for his 
 very unjustifialjle rebellion, was the great blot on an otherwise 
 glorious reign.
 
 of Europe in 597. 167 
 
 Leovigild's son Reccared, however, had shown shortly after 
 his accession that he was about to cast off the heresy of his 
 ancestors. In 587 he conformed to the Cathohc faith, and 
 persuaded the majority of his nobles and bishops to follow his 
 example. When his former coreligionists rose in rebellion they 
 were sternly repressed by the sword (589). The conversion of 
 Reccared promised the highest good fortune to Spain ; it took 
 away the great barrier between the Visigoth and the Roman, 
 which had hitherto rendered any true loyalty to the crown 
 impossible : the two nations soon began to coalesce and melt 
 into a single people. It is of no small interest to note that 
 Reccared first of all the kings of Spain was able to trust his 
 armies to Roman generals, and to count on the enthusiastic 
 support of the Roman bishops. His throne was strong, and 
 the perpetuity of his royal line seemed secured by the existence 
 of an heir to the throne, his son Leova, who in 597 was a pious 
 and promising lad of sixteen. Reccared was now in robust 
 middle age, swaying the Iberian peninsula with a firm hand 
 and exacting such obedience as none of his predecessors had 
 ever been able to command. Of all the kingdoms of Western 
 Europe that of the Visigoths gave the best promise of a glorious 
 future in the last years of the sixth century. 
 
 P'our years later this bright prospect was to be suddenly 
 clouded over. Reccared died in 601, long ere he had run the 
 appointed course of man's age : two years later his virtuous son 
 was murdered by a conspirator, Count Witterich, the last of the 
 Arians. The house of Leovigild was suddenly extinguished, 
 and with it the hope of prosjierity for Spain. Thirteen short- 
 lived kings, most of them military usurpers of the lowest class, 
 were to dispute the Visigothic crown in the wretched seventh 
 century. Spain sank back into the anarchy from which the 
 sword of Leovigild had rescued it for a time, and the peace 
 and good government which his dynasty had secured lor the 
 land for nearly forty years (568-603) was never to be restored 
 by any of his successors. The only change in Visigothic
 
 1 68 TJie Political Outlook 
 
 politics which can be noted after 603 is that for the future the 
 bishops play a part as important as that of the secular counts 
 and dukes in the wretched faction-fights which tore the land 
 asunder. This made the church less reputable than it had 
 been in the days when it was contemned and oppressed by 
 Arian masters : it cannot be said to have profited the state, 
 for bodies of churchmen were more than once prominent as 
 the suborners of rebellion and civil war. By the end of the 
 seventh century the Visigoths were drifting into a condition as 
 miserable and as wanting in all promise of amendment as was 
 that of their neighbours the Franks. Anyone who studies the 
 annals of their wretched kings can easily understand why their 
 realm fell with such shameful ease before the sword of the con- 
 quering Moslems of the East. 
 
 In Italy the position of politics in 597 was far more compli- 
 cated than that in Spain. Thirty years before, the Lombards, a 
 wild tribe of Teutonic horsemen, half heathen and half Arian in 
 creed, had poured down from the Julian Alps into the desolate 
 realm which Justinian had just won back from the Ostrogoths. 
 The two young kings, Alboin and Authari, had for a time 
 swept all before them, and it had appeared probable that a 
 new German race would promptly replace the extinct nation of 
 the Goths, and extend their borders from the Alps to the 
 Straits of Messina. But the Lombards had, like the old 
 English, a fatal tendency towards disruption. Their numerous 
 war-dukes paid but a perfunctory obedience to the king who 
 dwelt at Pavia, and each band spread itself at large on some 
 district of the peninsula which seemed worth seizing. There 
 was no common action among them : some drifted south, some 
 west, at their good pleasure, and the kings were seldom able to 
 force them to combine for a connnon enterprise. Leaving the 
 marsh, the mountains, and the desolate Roman Campagna un- 
 subdued, the Lombard dukes had contented themselves with the 
 possession of the fertile plains of the Po and the Arno and the 
 more attractive of the valleys of the Apennines. The conquest
 
 of Europe in 597. 169 
 
 had been carried out with as Httle system, union, or foresight as 
 the Enghsh descent on Britain. For ten years (573-583) there 
 was no king in the land, and each duke ruled his own district 
 as an independent sovereign. It was only after they had 
 brought upon themselves a dangerous war with the Franks by 
 their reckless invasion of Provence, that the Lombards found 
 it necessary to choose themselves another king. Their new ruler 
 Authari averted this danger, but he did not succeed in esta- 
 blishing a strong monarchy : he was little more than the first 
 among the thirty dukes of the peninsula. When he died in the 
 flower of his age and left no issue the Lombards elected in his 
 stead his cousin Agilulf, duke of Turin. A curious legend 
 related by Paul the deacon, the national historian of the race, 
 tells us that the ' Wise men ' had formed such a high opinion 
 of the wisdom and virtue of Theodelinda, the widow of 
 Authari, that they consulted her on the choice of a new king. 
 She recommended to them duke Agilulf, and gave him not 
 only the crown but her own hand (590). 
 
 Theodelinda had been reared as a Catholic, being the 
 daughter of Garibald, duke of Bavaria, a vassal of the Frankish 
 crown. She persuaded her second husband to swerve from the 
 policy of his predecessors and put an end to the official patron- 
 age of Arianism. Authari had clung strongly to his heresy, 
 and forbidden any of his Lombard subjects to receive baptism 
 according to the orthodox rite. Agilulf proclaimed toleration, 
 and so far passed over to the Catholic side that he allowed his 
 son Adaloald to be baptized by an adherent of the creed of 
 Nicaea. The rise of Agilulf to power was followed by the con- 
 clusion of the first peace between the Lombards and the Eastern 
 Emperor. Ever since Alboin first came down from the Julian 
 Alps there had been unending war between the invaders and 
 the representatives of the imperial power in Italy. For twenty- 
 seven years, as Pope Gregory complains in one of his letters, 
 Rome had lived in terror under the shadow of the Lombard 
 sword.
 
 1/0 TJie Political Outlook 
 
 This treaty, mainly due to the remonstrances of Gregory 
 with the pious queen, and to her influence over her husband, was 
 from the political point of view a huge mistake on Agilulfs part. 
 The Lombards were still slowly advancing and capturing one 
 by one the remaining imperial fortresses. They should never 
 have halted till they had carried their kingdom up to its 
 natural boundaries. The treaty of 599 perpetuated the 
 anomaly by which isolated patches of Roman territory in 
 the marsh, the mountains, or the shore, were interspersed 
 among the duchies of the conquerors. But the king, though 
 a skilled warrior, was evidently a great lover of peace. When 
 a few years later the foolish exarch Gallicinus broke the treaty 
 by kidnapping Agilulfs daughter and carrying her oft" to his 
 fastness of Ravenna, Agilulf consented to renew the agreement 
 after tearing away from the empire two more great towns — 
 Padua and Mantua. He should have pushed on, and made an 
 end of the exarchate when the opportunity was in his hands, 
 for in 603-5 ^^^ wretched Phocas was emperor at Constanti- 
 nople, and, oppressed with his Persian war, could send no 
 succours to his lieutenant in Italy. But Agilulf allowed 
 himself to be easily propitiated, and the imperial fortresses 
 remained to serve as thorns in the side of the Lombard 
 monarchy, and to prevent that unification of Italy which was 
 now to be deferred for more than twelve hundred years. That 
 Rome, Venice, Ravenna* and Naples were never incorporated 
 with the Lombard realm was mainly due to the personal regard 
 which Agilulf and Theodelinda bore to the Roman pontiff. 
 Remote as the cause may appear, it was undoubtedly the 
 source of half the political and religious complications of the 
 Middle Ages. The 'Papal Peace' (as it has been happily 
 called) of 599 was the origin of the temporal sovereignty of the 
 
 ' One liardly need count the few years 727-9 and 752-4 when Ravenna 
 was in the hands of Liutprand and Aistulf: practically it was never in- 
 corporated with their realm.
 
 of Eitrope in 597. 171 
 
 Bishops of Rome in the ' Ducatus Romanus,' — though that 
 sovereignty was but just commencing and did not take definite 
 shape till the eighth century. It is almost imi)ossible to con- 
 ceive what the history of the later ages would have been had 
 Agilulf pressed the siege of the city in 593 : Rome would have 
 become a provincial town of the Lombard realm, or at the best 
 its capital, supposing that the king had been moved to transfer 
 his seat thither from Pavia on account of the ancient glories of 
 the ' mistress of the world.' Instead of persisting, however, 
 Agilulf retired after an interview with the pontiff, and devoted 
 himself instead to warring against places more immediately 
 dependent on the exarch at Ravenna. The Lombard monarch 
 sealed thereby the ultimate ruin of his own people : but whether 
 his action contained the seeds of more good or evil it is 
 difficult to decide. One conclusion only is certain : the 
 personal influence of Gregory was the thing which made the 
 difference at this all-impoitant turning-point of the history of 
 the Papacy, Italy, and Christian Europe. 
 
 The English student viewing the crisis finds himself touched 
 by two main emotions when he considers its relation to our own 
 history. The first is admiration for Gregory, who only three 
 years after the siege of Rome, and three years before the con- 
 clusion of the peace of 599, could turn his mind from the still- 
 lingering war in Italy to take active measures for the conversion 
 of the distant English. In 596 the Lombards were still 
 ravaging Tuscany and Umbria, though they had turned back 
 from Rome itself. Augustine must have passed through towns 
 and fields still black with their burnings when he set his face 
 towards Gaul and the Straits of Dover. It is not inappositely 
 that Gregory's conduct has been compared to that of the 
 Roman Senate of eight hundred years before, who sent out 
 legions to Spain and Africa though Hannibal was encamped at 
 their very gates. With half-heathen, half-Arian hordes vexing 
 his soul by their inroads on Campania and Lucania, Gregor>- 
 could yet look far afield, and remember the aspiration of his
 
 1/2 The Political Outlook 
 
 own earlier years for the conversion of the subjects of Aella, 
 and the people of Deira who must be taken ' de ira dei.' 
 
 Our second reflection is that the turning back of Agilulf 
 was probably a main cause of the mission of Augustine. If 
 Rome had fallen in 593 and Gregory three years later had 
 been the subject of a Lombard master, would he have had the 
 leisure or the heart to bethink himself of the distant heathen 
 beyond the seas ? Knowing the greatness of the man we may 
 think that it might still have been possible ; though a Lombard 
 garrison within the walls and a Lombard duke seated in the 
 palace of the Palatine, would have given him many new 
 domestic troubles. One thing is certain : it may have been 
 for England's gain, but it was certainly for Italy's loss that 
 Gregory's soft words turned back Agilulf's wrath, and settled 
 the fact that neither then nor for twelve hundred years to come 
 should Rome be the capital of a united Italian kingdom. 
 
 But whatever may have been the ultimate results of the 
 events of 593, there can be no doubt that Gregory's influence 
 on Agilulf and his wife was for the immediate advantage of the 
 Lombard race. The king's reign (590 — 615) was a time of 
 growing prosperity and civilization for the whole nation. By 
 the end of it they were beginning to root themselves firmly 
 into their new home, and from mere destroyers and ravagers 
 were becoming a settled community, building where hitherto 
 they had been wont to burn. The first monuments of the 
 Lombards date back to Agilulf: the sacristy of the basilica 
 which he and his wife built in honour of St John the Baptist 
 at Monza, hard by Milan, still contains many curious relics of 
 the pious pair. The crown which he dedicated, and which 
 Paul the Deacon noted two hundred years after, is gone. But 
 there still survives his large pectoral cross and a quantity of 
 Theodelinda's gifts, the most notable of which is the extra- 
 ordinary life-sized hen and chickens in silver, the quaintest and 
 most primitive creatures that early art could produce. There 
 is no similar treasure of the seventh century extant anywhere,
 
 of Europe in 597. 173 
 
 save the Gothic crown-jewels of the treasure of Guerazzar now 
 preserved in the Chiny Museum at Paris. 
 
 While a new kingdom was making in Italy, and while the 
 first symptoms of Papal independence were beginning to appear, 
 the empire whose capital lay at Constantinople was at the 
 end and not at the beginning of a period. The East Roman 
 state was in a condition of lassitude and over-exhaustion caused 
 by the reckless energy and extravagance of Justinian. The 
 great emperor had left his realm almost drained dry of resources, 
 and his three successors paid dearly for the glories of the first 
 half of the sixth century. In 597 the estimable Maurice was 
 drawing near the end of his reign. A hard-working, conscien- 
 tious monarch, who had been a successful soldier in earlier life, 
 he had done his best to keep his realm together and to allow 
 its exhausted provinces leisure to recover. In 591 he had 
 brought to a successful close the long Persian war which had 
 been for nineteen years draining the resources of the East. A 
 fortunate change of sovereigns in Persia had enabled him to 
 make a creditable peace, by which he won back not only the 
 lost Roman fortresses of the frontier, but a new province, the 
 district of Persarmenia. 
 
 Financial exhaustion was the main disease of the state, and 
 Maurice was now endeavouring to economize in all directions. 
 But before he was quit of one great war another was growing up. 
 From the year 585 onward the Slavonic tribes were beginning 
 to make their way across the Danube and to establish hostile 
 settlements within the bounds of the empire. At the same 
 time the Tartar horde of the Avars were pushing destructive 
 raids from their home in Hungary across the Balkans as far as 
 Thrace and Macedon. Slav and Avar alike had drifted into 
 the Danube lands, when the last German tribes moved west- 
 ward or were destroyed. Where the Teutonic Lombards, 
 Gepidae, Goths, and Heruli had once dwelt along the imperial 
 frontier, these new and alien races had come in to occupy the 
 void. The Avars, like their predecessors the Huns and their
 
 174 TJie Political Outlook 
 
 successors the Magyars, came but as plunderers ; they pushed 
 their raids far afield, but they always returned to their tents 
 and their cattle, spread over the plains of the central Danube 
 and the Theiss. 
 
 The Slavs were a different and a more dangerous kind of 
 enemy : they came to settle and not merely to ravage. The 
 northern provinces of the Balkan peninsula were in such a 
 state of desolation and weakness that they invited such 
 colonists. Constant wars with the Goth and Avar had killed 
 off the population of the open country, and the ancient Moesia 
 showed little more than a line of fortress towns strung along 
 the Danube. Even great towns like Sirmium, Singidunum, 
 Naissus and Sophia were now little more than garrisons : the 
 old Latin-speaking provincials had been well-nigh exterminated. 
 The Slavs, mere bands of fishers and hunters in the lowest 
 grade of civilization, were constantly slipping in between the 
 fortresses and planting themselves down in marsh, mountain 
 and woodland pastures from which it was very hard to dislodge 
 them. Individually the Slavonic tribes were not very for- 
 midable enemies to the empire: but their numbers made them 
 difticult to deal with. Band after band was cut off by the 
 Roman troops, yet more and more continued to drift south 
 and obtain a lodgement in the Balkans. It was impossible to 
 make any peace with them, for they acknowledged no central 
 authority: some were vassals of the Chagan of the Avars, but 
 many more were independent. Each group fought for its own 
 hand, and the extermination of one did not turn back the rest. 
 By 597 they were firmly established in many of the Moesian 
 regions, though the fight was still going on, and though the 
 imperial troops preserved their ascendency in the open field, 
 and sometimes even crossed the Danube to pursue the Slavs 
 into their native plains. 
 
 The Slavonic war was an open sore slowly eating away 
 at the flank of the empire : it was far more deadly than the 
 occasional spasms of Avar invasion, though the numberless
 
 of Europe in 597. 175 
 
 hordes of horse-bowmen of the Tartar tribe seemed at the 
 moment more formidable than the lurking bands of Slavs 
 ensconced in their mountains and morasses. Both were a bitter 
 trial to Maurice, who had recognised that peace and economy 
 were the great needs of the exhausted empire, and found that 
 he could never obtain the one or enforce the other. He was 
 so conscious that the crushing taxation instituted by Justinian 
 was the real source of the troubles of his realm, that even in 
 the midst of wars he tried to save money at the most inappro- 
 priate times and by the most unhappy means. The reputation 
 for parsimony which he earned is in one way the greatest 
 testimony to his wisdom and clearsightedness. But it won 
 him great unpopularity, and was ultimately destined to prove 
 his ruin. The two events which caused his fall were both the 
 resuhs of misplaced economy. In 599 the Avars had carried 
 off 12,000 prisoners, and demanded for them an exorbitant 
 ransom : Maurice hung back and haggled, till the Chagan in a 
 fit of rage ordered the whole body of unfortunate captives to 
 be put to death. This disaster was never forgiven, and for the 
 last three years of his reign Maurice was always styled a miser 
 and a murderer. His death was brought about by a military 
 sedition, which burst out when he insisted on cantoning the 
 army of the Danube in the bleak plains of Wallachia, instead 
 of bringing them home to comfortable quarters in the cities of 
 Moesia. Economy and the desire to save supplies was again 
 the source of this unpopular action : this time it brought about 
 his death, for the mutineers marched on Constantinople and 
 there slew their sovereign. No one raised a hand to defend 
 him, though when he was gone and the brutal Phocas sat upon 
 his throne, men soon began to remember his many virtues, and 
 to reflect that his wish to spare the treasury had been the result 
 of a regard for the tax payer and not of personal avarice. 
 
 In 597 Maurice had not yet reached the full depth of 
 his unpopularity, and as a successful military revolt culmi- 
 nating in the deposition of an emperor had been unknown at
 
 1/6 The Political Outlook 
 
 Constantinople for many years, it would have been hard to 
 guess that there was to be ere long a recrudescence of the evil 
 customs of the third century. The dispassionate observer 
 however would have been forced to note a growing weakness 
 in the emperor and the empire. An advanced stage had been 
 reached in a period of rapid decay, from which there was to be 
 no revival till the distant days of the Isaurian Leo. The worst 
 feature of the time was not so much the depopulation of the 
 Balkan provinces by the Slav and Avar, as the exhaustion of the 
 Asiatic provinces, though they had been ravaged by no foreign 
 foe, owing to the reckless maladministration which Justinian 
 had authorised and which his successors had continued. No 
 invasion of the Persian or any other hostile power had seriously 
 touched Asia Minor, Southern Syria, or Egypt ; yet in each of 
 these regions the subjects of the empire were declining in 
 numbers and in wealth : the towns were shrinking or even 
 falling into utter decay : commerce was languishing : public 
 spirit was dead. In Syria and Egypt the bitter theological 
 wrangles of the Nestorians and other heretical sects with the 
 orthodox were the only sign of life that remained. Things 
 were already drifting towards that fatal apathy which some 
 thirty years later allowed those fertile lands to fall into the 
 hand of the Saracens, mainly because the larger part of their 
 population had ceased to feel any loyalty or attachment to the 
 imperial government. The frontier towards the East had still 
 been firmly held in Maurice's reign, and, as long as the Meso- 
 potamian fortresses survived, the internal weakness of the 
 Asiatic provinces was not suspected. It was only when 
 Maurice was dead and Phocas had supplanted him, that the 
 extent of the decay of the inland regions became evident. 
 But when in 606 Daras and the other frontier garrisons fell 
 before the assault of the Persian Chosroes, the weakness of the 
 empire became suddenly apparent. With hardly a check the 
 barbarians swept on to the gates of Alexandria and Con- 
 stantinople, and for more than a decade the Oriental and
 
 of Etirope in 597. 177 
 
 Egyptian ' dioceses ' became Persian satrapies. It was a 
 prelude to the more permanent conquest which was to be 
 carried out by the Moslems in 634—40. Indeed, but for the 
 heroism of one man, the gallant and unfortunate emperor 
 Heraclius, the Persians and not the Romans would probably 
 have been holding Syria and Asia Minor when the moment 
 came for the fanatical Arabs to sally forth from their deserts. 
 
 The mischief was wrought in the East long before Maurice 
 or Heraclius laid hands on the helm of the state. It was 
 Justinian and his system which had exhausted the vital 
 strength of the empire, and at any moment after 550 the same 
 disasters which befell in 606 — 620 and 634—640 might have 
 occurred. Chance delayed them for two generations, and so 
 it came to pass that in 597 the empire, though very hollow 
 within, still kept its ancient shape and size. The fall in the 
 public revenue, the decay of commerce, the diminishing 
 numbers of the army, were symptoms that acute observers had 
 noted long before: the historian Agathias, an intelligent 
 contemporary, lays strong stress upon them. But the collapse 
 was long delayed, and when Gregory sent Augustine forth, the 
 Caesar at Constantinople was still swaying a realm hardly 
 smaller than that which Justinian had left behind him. Only 
 in Italy had there been any serious loss, and even there the 
 Lombards had stopped short, without accomplishing their full 
 task, so that ambitious exarchs occasionally dreamed of taking 
 the offensive and winning back the conquests of Belisarius and 
 Narses. A few years later the stately structure was to crumble 
 into ruins — but the end was not yet. 
 
 Of all the provinces of the Roman empire which passed 
 from under the hands of the Caesars in the fifth century none 
 made such a gallant fight against the invading Teuton as the 
 distant land of Britain. Spain yielded almost without a 
 stricken blow to the Visigoth: Italy passed from the last 
 Augustus to the first German king by a mere military mutiny, 
 in which the distressed civil population took no part : m Gaul 
 
 12
 
 1/8 TJie Political Outlook 
 
 there was a genuine resistance to the invader in some districts, 
 but it died down in a few years, and by 486 the last Roman 
 governor had been slain by king Chlodovech the Frank, and 
 all the land was divided between the Frank, the Visigoth and 
 the Burgundian. But in Britain the half Romanised pro- 
 vincials, though first of all the subjects of the empire to lose 
 the protection of the imperial name and the aid of the legions, 
 maintained a desperate fight against the pirates of the North 
 Sea for nearly two hundred years. The descents of the 
 Saxons and the English on the eastern shore of the island had 
 begun in the fourth century : it was not till the seventh had 
 begun that the struggle was finally settled. Only in 613 did 
 the English hew their way to the Irish Sea and break asunder 
 the line of British towns and tribes which stretched down the 
 long island. Nor was it till 635 that the last British prince 
 who claimed to be king and overlord of the whole land fell 
 before the sword of the Northumbrian hero Oswald. Then only 
 did the Britons acknowledge that the primacy had gone from 
 them and had passed into the hands of the conquering Teuton. 
 The obstinate valour of the defenders of Britain, and the 
 comparative weakness of the scattered English tribes as 
 compared to the armies of Alaric or Theodoric or Alboin, 
 made the conquest of the island wholly different in kind from 
 that of the other provinces of the West. On the Continent 
 it was the rule that some great Teutonic chief, with a host 
 numbered by tens of thousands, swept across the land, while 
 the provincials bowed before him and bought their lives by 
 their submission. There the conquest was rapid : it was at- 
 tended by great misery and bloodshed, but it was not a war of 
 extermination. Moreover most of the invaders were already 
 Christians — though generally they had embraced the Arian 
 heresy — before they entered the empire. The Franks were a 
 momentary exception — but their king Chlodovech was bap- 
 tized less than ten years after he became the lord of Paris and 
 Rouen and Rheims (496).
 
 of Europe hi 597. 179 
 
 The English, Jutes, and Saxons who invaded Britain were 
 unlike the founders of the new continental states in that they 
 came from the very back of Germany, and had not, like the 
 Frank or the Goth, dwelt for centuries along the Roman 
 frontier, or learnt from the Roman the rudiments of a new 
 civilization and of a new religion. They came to Britain as 
 wild heathen, and they met there not a pliant people eager to 
 save themselves by a prompt submission, but restless, buoyant, 
 turbulent Celts, singularly unchanged by four centuries spent 
 beneath the Roman dominion. In the early years of the 
 struggle for Britain the battle was to the death : the Cymry 
 gave back slowly and reluctantly, and the invaders were 
 only able to carve out for themselves small and isolated 
 kingdoms at various points on the eastern and southern 
 seaboard. No great Teutonic realm was established, as in 
 Gaul, Spain, Italy, or Africa, but only a long string of coast- 
 states, reaching from the Firth of Forth to Southampton Water. 
 
 In the sixth century the conquest advanced with many 
 checks and halts : each of the English kingdoms fought its 
 own local enemy ; they gave each other no appreciable aid. 
 But the Britons were almost equally disjointed in their resist- 
 ance. It was very seldom that the chief king of the island 
 could unite his nominal vassals to beat back the invader. The 
 memory of these obscure wars has almost perished. We know a 
 little of the warfare of the kings of the house of Ida and Ossa 
 with the Britons of Bryneich and Strathclyde, and of the kings 
 of Wessex with the dwellers by the Thames and Severn : but 
 of the details of the conquest of the Northern Midlands or of 
 Yorkshire not a word survives. This only is clear, that in the 
 third quarter of the sixth century the fortune of war had taken 
 a decided turn in favour of the Teutons. The great land- 
 marks of the period are two victories of the West Saxons, 
 Cuthwulf's conquest of Bedford (571), and Ceawlin's successful 
 invasion of the Severn valley in 577, which ended in the battle 
 of Deorham and gave the victors Gloucester and Bath. 
 
 12 — 2
 
 l8o The Political Outlook 
 
 These victories changed the character of the English 
 conquest of Britain, by cutting off the smaller states of the 
 south-east, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and East Anglia, from any 
 further chance of expansion at the expense of the Cymry. For 
 the future only Wessex and Northumbria, together with the as 
 yet disunited tribes along the Trent, had any elbow-room for 
 further development. We stand at the beginning of a new 
 epoch, in which the English instead of confining their warlike 
 efforts to rending new territory from the Britons, turn upon 
 each other and strive for supremacy among themselves. There 
 was no longer any danger that they might be thrust back into 
 the North Sea by some desperate rally of the old inhabitants of 
 the land : the conquest had gone too far to allow of such a 
 contingency being any longer possible. 
 
 The civil wars of the English began in 568 with a sharp 
 struggle between Ceawlin of Wessex and the young king 
 Ethelbert of Kent for the right to hold Surrey. The Kentish- 
 men were beaten at the battle of Wimbledon, and thus finally 
 cut off from any chance of extending their borders to the west. 
 The men of Wessex went on to further conquests, and within 
 ten years had forced their way, as we have seen, north and 
 west as far as Bedford and Gloucester. 
 
 Debarred from further expansion at the expense of the 
 Britons, Ethelbert turned his energies in a new direction. 
 First among the English kings he set himself to building up a 
 little empire over the neighbouring states of his own kinsfolk. 
 The details of his wars are preserved by no chronicler, but we 
 know from Bede that within some twenty years after his defeat 
 at Wimbledon he had subjected to himself all the English 
 kingdoms from the Channel to the Humber — the East and 
 South Saxons, the East Angles, and also the Lindiswaras and 
 Mercians of the valley of the Trent. The kings of Wessex, 
 intent on further conquests from the Britons, left him un- 
 molested : and after 583 their power to harm him ceased, for 
 their realm fell into disorder and civil war and failed to
 
 of Eiirope in 597. 181 
 
 preserve the predominance which seemed to have been won 
 for it by the victories of Bedford and Dcorham. North of the 
 H umber another powerful state was just in the process of 
 making: in 588 king Ethelric had united the small kingdoms 
 of Deira and Bernicia into the single realm of Northumbria. 
 But he was far away, and both he and his successor Ethelfrith 
 were much cumbered by wars with the Britons. From that 
 quarter there was no rivalry, and Ethelbert was now the most 
 important king of the island, and the first of the English who 
 could fairly claim to hold the primacy in Britain. 
 
 He was far advanced in middle age, and had been for 
 several years well established in his position of supremacy, 
 when the mission of St Augustine began. Hence we may say 
 that the year 597 marks an epoch in the political no less than 
 in the religious history of England. The struggle for existence 
 against the Britons was over, the tendency towards union 
 among the English kingdoms was clearly beginning to develop, 
 when the new factor of Christianity came into the history of 
 the land. 
 
 Since the Saxons and English won their footing on the 
 eastern coast of Britain, the history of the island had been 
 singularly independent of its continental neighbours. Within 
 a century and a half from the departure of the legions Britain 
 seemed to be swallowed up in the darkness of the North. Its 
 existence was barely remembered at Rome and Constantinople. 
 The great Byzantine historian Procopius, writing somewhere 
 about the year 560, tells wild legends about it. No human 
 being, he was informed, could live in the land of perpetual 
 mist and darkness beyond the old Roman wall, and the fisher- 
 men of the Frankish coast described 'Brittia' as a land of ghosts, 
 whither the spirits of the departed were ferried at night by 
 unseen pilots. The writers of Gaul were not, of course, 
 haunted by such wild imaginings as this. They knew that 
 there were small Teutonic kingdoms beyond the Channel, but 
 they seem to have taken little heed of them. Gregory of
 
 1 82 The Political Outlook 
 
 Tours in his lengthy history of the sixth century only mentions 
 the English once or twice. He vaguely knew that Bertha the 
 daughter of the Frankish king of Paris had married an 
 Englishman, but even the name of Ethelbert seems to have 
 been unknown to him : the bridegroom of Charibert's daughter 
 is only described as 'the son of a certain prince in the parts of 
 Kent.' Of political touch between the Franks and the English 
 we have only one casual indication, a passing mention that 
 certain ambassadors from beyond the Channel (as has been 
 said above) accompanied a Frankish embassy to Constantinople 
 towards the end of Justinian's reign. Whether they came as 
 allies of the Merovings, or whether Kent had perchance for 
 a time owned in some way the overlordship of its nearest conti- 
 nental neighbour, there is nothing to show. The latter hypo- 
 thesis is the more unlikely of the two, as we cannot imagine 
 that biich a state of things would have been left wholly 
 unmentioned by the Frankish chroniclers. No close or 
 frequent relations between them seem ever to have sprung up 
 before the introduction of Christianity into England. 
 
 Behind heathen England lay the Christian tribes of Britain 
 and Ireland. But, as is well known, we have no traces 
 whatever of any attempt of the Britons to evangelize their 
 Teutonic enemies. We do not find them, nor should we 
 expect to do so, in the lugubrious pages of Gildas. To that 
 Celtic Jeremiah the idea that anything could or should be done 
 for the Saxon would have been unthinkable. The Irish, even 
 before Columba's day, had sent missions to Northern Britain, 
 but it was to the Pict and Scot, not to the Angle. We have 
 a few notices of occasions on which the British and Irish 
 Churches came into contact with the Church of Gaul, but none 
 in which they made any attempt to reach the English. In the 
 scanty Celtic ecclesiastical documents of the sixth century 
 which have come down to us, the only mention of the Teutonic 
 inhabitants of the island occurs in the curious passage of the 
 Synod of Lucus Victorite (a.d. 569), which imposes heavy
 
 of Europe in 597. 183 
 
 penance on any Christian who shall act as a guide to the 
 'barbarians,' or otherwise abet them'. We have traces in the 
 Chronicles of such relations between Cymry and Englishmen, 
 but they led to no close or permanent contact. On the rare 
 occasions where heathen Englishmen and Christian Britons are 
 found in company, they had been forced together for a moment 
 by the opportunity of assailing some common enemy. The 
 instant that their object was achieved they sprang apart into 
 their former enmity. There could be no real peace, much less 
 any real alliance, between them till the barrier of Paganism was 
 removed. 
 
 1 Iladdan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecd. Documents, i. p. riS.
 
 DISSERTATION II. 
 
 The Mission of Augustine and his Companions 
 in relation to other agencies in the 
 Conversion of England. By the Editor. 
 
 It is well that those who keep the year 1897 as the thirteenth 
 centenary of the founding of the English Church should recog- 
 nise clearly what other movements of evangelization blended 
 with the work set on foot by St Gregory, and to what extent 
 our ecclesiastical existence is due to other agencies besides the 
 mission of St Augustine. 
 
 Ever)' person of ordinary information is aware that Chris- 
 tianity had taken possession of the island long before 597, 
 though by what means it was introduced remains uncertain. 
 British Christianity, however, had been swept westwards by the 
 Saxon and Angle and Jute invaders, into Cumberland and 
 Wales and Cornwall, and the neighbouring regions ; and, as 
 Bede in many places records, the British Christians were too 
 full of anger and contempt towards their heathen conquerors 
 to send the message of the Gospel among them. It is indeed 
 probable that a very considerable Celtic, and therefore Christian, 
 element remained as slaves or serfs in the provinces overrun by 
 the Teutonic tribes ; it is even said that a British bishop 
 maintained his position at London till the middle of the sixth
 
 TJic Conversion of Eiigland. 185 
 
 century'; nevertheless the Christianity which first held Britain — 
 the Christianity of St David and St Dubric, who were alive when 
 Augustine came — had no appreciable influence in the found- 
 ing of the English Church. Even when pressed to join in the 
 work by Augustine, and by Lawrence after him, the British 
 Christians positively refused. Two British bishops, it is true, 
 joined with Wini of Wessex in the consecration of St Chad'; 
 which shows that about the middle of the seventh century the 
 relations between the two races and the two Churches were at 
 least locally improving. But Chad's consecration was disallowed 
 by Theodore^ ; and a long time had yet to elapse before even 
 the Cornish Church became organically united with the Enghsh, 
 and much longer still before'the same thing took place in Wales. 
 While, therefore, the Church in the Celtic parts of Southern 
 Britain is much older than Augustine's time, it did not con- 
 tribute, so far as history is aware, to the foundation of that 
 which is, properly speaking, the English Church. 
 
 Another Celtic movement was destined to have far more 
 effect upon England. It was that which sprang from Ireland, 
 — or Scotia, as it was then called, — through the wonderful 
 devotion of the monks of Hy, or lona. It has been pointed 
 out that St Columba's death took place exactly one week after 
 that Whitsunday on which tradition fixes the baptism of King 
 Ethelbert\ Possibly some disciples of that great missionary, 
 or perhaps Columban and his brethren on their way to Bur- 
 gundy, may have preached already in parts of England, and 
 kindled at least a desire among the English for a better 
 acquaintance with the Gospel. We have, at any rate, the 
 testimony of St Gregory, in two of his letters, that 'the English 
 nation,' before the coming of Augustine, was already earnestly 
 desirous of conversion to the Christian faith \ How much tiie 
 
 1 See Bishop Browne The Church in these Islands before Augustine 
 p. 92. 
 
 2 Bede iii. 28. * l^ede iv. 2. 
 
 * Reeves' Adamnan p. 310. * See above, pp. 3r, 34.
 
 1 86 The Mission of Augustine 
 
 expression means, we do not know. Gregory does not say how 
 the information reached him, nor from what part of our island 
 it emanated. His ignorance of our geographical and historical 
 conditions was profound. It seems, however, that Gregory's 
 sanguine hopes that his mission would be well received in Britain 
 had at first much animated the missionaries themselves. When 
 they got as far as Gaul, 'the tongues of evil speaking men,' as 
 Gregory says, alarmed them, and made them feel that their 
 prospects were not at all what Gregory had been led to believe \ 
 The Gaulish bishops, whom Gregory's geography considered to 
 be all 'in the vicinity' of Britain, from Aries onwards, had 
 greatly failed, in Gregory's opinion, to do their duty by theii 
 heathen neighbours". He treated the Gaulish accounts of 
 England as mere slanders; though what he heard from 
 Augustine, on his return from the half way halt, made him take 
 pains to provide the missionaries then, as he had not done 
 before, with any number of letters of commendation to poten- 
 tates and prelates who might by any possibility be on their way 
 to Britain ^ 
 
 It might have been supposed that the English desire for 
 Christianity, to which Gregory refers, had arisen amongst the 
 people of Kent, where Christianity already had a foothold. 
 Bade tells us that Ethelbert had 'heard of Christianity' before 
 Augustine's arrival. He had long — probably for nearly forty 
 
 ^ See above, p. 22. This seems the simplest way of accounting for 
 the sudden faintheartedness, as well as for Gregory's remark on the ma- 
 ledicoruni homi>imn linguae. 
 
 ^ E uicino, in tticino, pp. 32, 34. The same geographical concep- 
 tion seems to underlie Gregory's directions with regard to Augustine's 
 sitting in judgment with the Bishop of Aries, pp. 66, 80. 
 
 ^ It was no doubt ignorance about the routes which made Gregory 
 send such a curious assortment of letters. The travellers could not pass 
 both through Saintes and Tours and through Autun and Metz. The 
 fact that they did travel by way of Autun, if nothing else, makes it very 
 improbable that they visited Angers, as Gocelin amidst much other non- 
 sense makes them to do.
 
 and the Convo'sion of England. 1 87 
 
 years' — been married to a Christian wife, who had brought in 
 her retinue a French bishop, who constantly maintained the 
 Christian worship in St Martin's Church. Bede does not say, 
 though he implies, that Bertha and her bishop Liudhard had 
 prepossessed the king in favour of the faith. It is much to 
 Bertha's credit that she had not prejudiced him against it. She 
 came of a wicked family; and if she had taken after her aunts 
 (by marriage) Brunichild and Fredegund, the circumspect 
 Ethelbert would probably have been less ready than he was 
 to listen to Augustine. Nevertheless, Bede's own expression 
 indicates that litde, if any, attempt had been made to con- 
 vert the king himself to Christianity. Gregory, so strangely 
 complaisant in his language to royal personages, even when 
 they were not very good, thought fit to give Queen Bertha a 
 downright rebuke. It had been 'her duty this long time past,' 
 he tells her, to have predisposed her husband to adopt her 
 religion. It ought to have been quite easy for her to do it 
 speedily. She must now make up for past neglect, and do so 
 with interest^ Clearly no application for Christian instruction 
 had come to Rome from Ethelbert; for on the one hand, if he 
 had wished for instruction, he had no need to go to such a 
 distance to obtain it; and on the other hand, when it came, he 
 showed a wise caution about receiving it. 
 
 It has been questioned whether there is any historical truth 
 in the famous account of Gregory's interview with the English 
 boys at Rome. Bede, it will be observed, carefully mentions 
 that it was an opinio, that is, a report. He does not give it on 
 his own authority. The still earlier Life of Gregory by the 
 
 1 The date of the marriage is unknown ; but the language of Gregory 
 of Tours ix. 26 {qtiam in Cantia regis ctiinsdam filius niairiinomo copulamt) 
 appears to show that it took place before Ethelbert's accession to the 
 throne, which was in or about 560 (see Pkimmer's Bede ii. p. 85). Ilauck, 
 I know not on what grounds, says that they were married ' shortly before 
 590' {Realencyclopddie vol. i. p. 520). 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 58, =9.
 
 1 88 TJie Mission of Augustine 
 
 anonymous monk of Whitby calls it a narratio fidelium, — a 
 popular tradition among the faithful. It seems not to have 
 formed part of the Canterbury history, learned by Bede from 
 Albinus. It was very probably current amongst the people of 
 Deira, whom it chiefly concerned. Perhaps it was first related 
 to them by Paulinus, or by the faithful deacon James. Bede's 
 version of it, however, differs sufficiently from that of the monk 
 of Whitby to make it appear that he had an acquaintance with 
 the story apart from him; and it is possible that when Thorn, 
 at Canterbury, makes the boys to be three in number, he may 
 have had something besides his Bede to go upon. There 
 seems to be no sufficient reason for doubting the substantial 
 truth of the incident, or for making it a picturesque version of 
 Gregory's directions to Candidus for the purchase of English 
 youths'. The argument has been advanced that if the story 
 had been true, the mission would have been directed to 
 Northern and not to Southern England. But this argument 
 presupposes a much closer acquaintance on Gregory's part with 
 the state of this island than the facts would warrant. Augustine 
 was not sent to any special tribe or region of England. He 
 bore no letters to Ethelbert or Bertha, any more than to the 
 house of the Deiran Aelli. To Gregory, 'the English nation^' 
 was all one ; and Augustine came first to Kent, partly because 
 it was nearest, and partly, no doubt, because he learned at 
 Paris, if he did not know before, that he would find in Kent 
 a Christian queen. There is nothing in the history of his 
 mission inconsistent with the beautiful story of the way in 
 which Gregory's interest in the English race was first aroused. 
 Tidings of a readiness on the part of the English to receive the 
 Christian religion may well have led Gregory to think that the 
 moment had come for realising a long cherished design. 
 
 ' As is done by Bassenge Die Sendung Augustins (Leipzig, 1890) p. 17, 
 and by Hauck loc. cit. 
 
 ■ Anglofiim gens, p. 31, z.nA passim.
 
 and the CoJivc?'sion of Englatui. 189 
 
 It must have been about the beginning of June 596, or a 
 little earlier, that the monks of Gregory's convent left Rome 
 upon their great adventure. Gregory's letter sent to them in 
 South Gaul by the hand of Augustine after his return to Rome 
 bears date July 23 of that year. It was not till the year after 
 — the month and day are unknown — that the missionaries 
 arrived in Thanet. So Bade expressly says in his Recapitu- 
 lation, though he does not mention the fact in his History 
 itself. The journey through Gaul was long and tedious, and 
 they probably waited somewhere on purpose to get the worst 
 of the winter over before crossing. 
 
 Ethelbert's reception of them was most generous. They 
 were a large party to maintain, — about forty in all, including the 
 French priests who came to interpret — but he maintained them 
 at his own cost, and gave them complete liberty of action from 
 the first, even before he had made up his mind to accept their 
 teaching. Nor was it long before their good words, power- 
 fully set forth by their holy lives, brought the king to his 
 baptism. 
 
 Bassenge has lately attempted to prove that Ethelbert's 
 baptism did not take place until the year 601 or even 602 '. 
 He thinks that the two letters from Gregory to Bertha and her 
 husband, which were sent with the second mission in 601, 
 indicate that Ethelbert was not at that time formally admitted 
 to the Church ; and the fact that Gregory, writing to Eulogius 
 of Alexandria in July 598 about the success of the mission, 
 does not specially mention the baptism of the king, seems to 
 Bassenge a proof that he was not yet baptized. There was no 
 need, however, to mention Ethelbert in the very brief sketch 
 which Gregory gives to his brother patriarch ; in which, indeed, 
 he does not even mention the name of the 'monk of his own 
 monastery' whom he had sent to Britain; and from which, if we 
 had had nothing else to guide us, we should have supposed 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 31 foil.
 
 1 90 TJie Mission of Augustine 
 
 that Augustine had been consecrated bishop on his way to this 
 country. Highly as Gregory valued rank, he thought more of 
 the ten thousand souls who had been baptized at Christmas 
 than of their king who had set them the example. Nor is 
 there anything in the letters to Ethelbert and Bertha to show 
 that Ethelbert was unbaptized when they were written. On 
 the contrary, if Bertha is exhorted to ' confirm ' her husband's 
 attachment to the faith, it is most natural to suppose that he 
 had already professed publicly his adhesion to it. There would 
 have been a much more direct appeal to her to procure her 
 husband's conversion, if he had been still unconverted : the 
 object to which Bertha is to direct all her efforts, through 
 Ethelbert and otherwise, is the entire conversion of her hus- 
 band's subjects. The same is the case with the letter to the 
 king. He has himself received ' grace ' from God. His duty 
 is now earnestly to keep it, and to press forward with the 
 uprooting of heathenism and the spread of the Christian faith. 
 There is no exhortation to him to become a Christian himself. 
 The whole letter is unintelligible, if Bassenge's theory is 
 correct. Bassenge is, no doubt, right when he says that Bede 
 intends us to understand that Augustine's consecration took 
 place before the conclusion of the events narrated in the 
 chapter before that which records his consecration ' ; but it is 
 not necessary to believe that it took place before Ethelbert's 
 baptism. All the requirements of Bede's language would be 
 met, if we were to place the consecration before the great influx 
 of converts who followed the king, — which would agree with 
 Gregory's letter to Eulogius — or before the endowment of the 
 newly consecrated Archbishop with ' a place of settlement ' in 
 the city of Canterbury and with the other possessions to which 
 Bede refers. Gregory's letter to Eulogius shows that Augus- 
 tine's consecration took place in time for him to return to 
 Kent by Christmas, 597 — Thorn says it was on Nov. 16 — ; 
 
 ' Bede, i. a6, 27 : Interea uir Domini, etc.
 
 and the Conversion of England. 191 
 
 and as, according to Bede's statement, his consecration was 
 to be contingent upon his reception by the Enghsh ', it is 
 altogether Hkely that Ethelbert's baptism was to Augustine 
 the sign of the fulfihnent of the condition, and that that 
 baptism had taken place, as the Canterbury tradition affirmed, 
 at the feast of Pentecost, which in the year 597 was June 2, 
 
 Of St Augustine's activities after his consecration little is 
 known. Except on the occasion of his conference, or con- 
 ferences, with the British bishops in the west, we do not hear on 
 any good authority of his going beyond the borders of Kent, 
 or indeed outside of Canterbury, though he may well have done 
 so without our knowing of it. The account which Thorn 
 gives of his peregrinations, modestly made on foot, may have 
 some historical truth in it; but it looks like a reminiscence of 
 Bede's descriptions of Aidan and Chad. Gocelin's story of 
 great baptizings in the Swale seems to be taken from what Bede 
 says about Paulinus". But Augustine's work in Kent was solid. 
 That kingdom was soon almost wholly Christian ; and Augus- 
 tine had been able before his death, apparently in 604, not 
 only to consecrate his successor Lawrence — a somewhat 
 irregular proceeding, — but also to plant bishops, Justus 
 and Mellitus, in the towns of Rochester and London, with 
 churches and endowments of their own, and good prospects 
 before them. It was a fine result of seven years' work ; and if 
 Gregory, who died a couple of months before the probable 
 date of Augustine's death, had received recent intelligence 
 from England, he might well be satisfied with what under 
 God he had accomplished''. Rochester, indeed, was within 
 Ethelbert's own immediate kingdom ; and London was not 
 only near at hand, but its king was in special relations with 
 Ethelbert. The work was not widespread; but nevertheless the 
 Church of England was well founded before Augustine died. 
 
 1 See above, p. 21. ^ Cp. the letter to Eulogius, p. 45. 
 
 3 For the date of Grepjory's accession and of his death, see the Ke^esta 
 Pontif. Rom. (Jaffc-Evvald 1885) vol. i. pp. 143, 219.
 
 192 TJie Mission of Aiigiistine 
 
 The youthful Church, however, had great difficulties to go 
 through. For about eleven years, under Lawrence and his two 
 brother bishops, matters seem to have gone on quietly, if but 
 little progress was made. But in 6i6, first Ethelbert died, and 
 then his nephew Sabert, King of the East Saxons. Their 
 successors were heathens. Mellitus from London, and Justus 
 from Rochester, fled to their metropolitan, leaving, perhaps, 
 presbyters behind them, but themselves unable to endure the 
 storm to which they were exposed. It -was agreed that the 
 work in those cities should be abandoned for a time, and the 
 two bishops took refuge in Gaul. Even Lawrence, according 
 to Bede, was preparing to do the same, when matters (whether 
 for the reason which Bede assigns or not) took a more favour- 
 able turn. Edbald, the King of Kent, became a Christian ; 
 and Canterbury was not evacuated. Rochester received its 
 bishop again ; but nearly forty years were yet to elapse before 
 London consented to do the like. 
 
 On the death of Lawrence, the expelled and infirm Bishop 
 of London, Mellitus, succeeded him at Canterbury ; and after 
 he had held the see for five uneventful years, he was in turn 
 succeeded by Justus from Rochester, — Romanus being con- 
 secrated to the see which Justus vacated. It was during the 
 primac) of Justus that the English Church made its first great 
 advance since the days of its original founder. Edbald of 
 Kent, the son of Ethelbert and Bertha, had become a sound 
 and consistent Christian; and when the mighty Edwin of North- 
 umbria, the son of Gregory's Aelli, sought his sister in marriage, 
 Edbald's consent was only given on an understanding similar to 
 that on which his mother had been sent to England, — namely 
 that Ethelberga should have the free exercise of her religion, 
 and should be accompanied by any necessary ministers of the 
 same. Upon this, Paulinus was consecrated bishop by Justus, 
 to accompany Ethelberga, as Liudhard had accompanied 
 Bertha. This was in 625, — twenty-one years or so after Augus- 
 tine's death.
 
 and the Conversion of England. 193 
 
 The story of Paulinus' mission in the north is told by Bede 
 with greater fulness of knowledge than that which marks his 
 account of the work in Kent; and it is a touching and im- 
 pressive story. Paulinus had been one of the second batch 
 of Italian missionaries, sent by Gregory in 601, on the return 
 of Lawrence and Peter. So marked and vigorous a personality 
 must have been doing good work somewhere during those three 
 or four and twenty years ; but the record of it is lost. One fact 
 alone has been thought to throw light upon this part of his 
 career. Edwin, in youth, had been an exile at the court of 
 Redwald, King of the East Angles. There, one night, while 
 sadly reflecting upon the dangers of his situation — for a large 
 bribe had been offered to Redwald for his murder — he saw a 
 stranger, who laid his hand upon his head, and undertook to 
 deliver him from his distress, if Edwin, on his part, would 
 promise to follow this stranger's advice, when he should again 
 lay his hand upon his head. When Edwin had become a 
 powerful king, and the husband of a Christian queen, and was 
 anxiously debating with himself whether to become a Christian 
 himself or not, Paulinus, it is said, approached him with the 
 mysterious sign, and laying his hand upon Edwin's head, 
 demanded the fulfilment of his promise'. It has been not 
 unnaturally surmised that Paulinus was himself the stranger 
 who had spoken to him at the court of Redwald; and if so, 
 we have an indication, not in itself improbable, of a missionary 
 enterprise on the part of that earnest saint, of which no other 
 knowledge is preserved. It must be owned, however, that Bede 
 had no suspicion of any meeting between Edwin and Paulinus 
 before Paulinus accompanied Ethelberga to Northumbria. He 
 supposed that Paulinus had received a supernatural intimation 
 of the sign which had been given to Edwin. 
 
 Paulinus' work in the great kingdom which stretched from 
 
 ^ Bede ii. 12. The story is told at such length that I thought it 
 advisable not to translate it in its place among the texts. 
 
 M. 13
 
 194 '^^^'^ Mission of Augustine 
 
 Edinburgh into Lincolnshire was brilliant and effective. Not 
 setding himself down, as the Kentish prelates did, at his 
 cathedral see of York, he travelled about the country, often 
 in company with the king, in every direction. Vast numbers 
 were baptized. The look of his venerable figure and counten- 
 ance smote itself into the recollections of those who saw him, 
 never to be forgotten. Every relic connected with him was 
 treasured with a peculiar veneration. If there be any truth in 
 a well-known statement of the British Nennius, Paulinus 
 even succeeded in winning to him members of the hostile race 
 and Church of the Britons, to help him in his baptizings'. 
 Stately basilicas of stone arose in the chief centres of his 
 ministry. Northumbria was all on fire with Christian enthu- 
 siasm. The long, almost stagnant, quiescence of the Gregorian 
 mission burst into six years of noble energy, at once tender 
 and strong. 
 
 Then came the great disaster. Edwin was killed. The 
 Christian Briton and the heathen King of Mercia made 
 common cause, and devastated the Northumbrian kingdom. 
 It is difficult to blame the great missionary for what he did. 
 He had originally gone to the north as chaplain to Queen 
 Ethelberga. He now conveyed her back, by sea, to her 
 Kentish home; where she took the veil, and he accepted the 
 vacant see of Rochester. Others of his clergy, at any rate 
 the heroic James, stayed at their posts amid burning towns 
 and wild butcheries. But they were probably less exposed to 
 danger than the friend and minister of Edwin. If the work of 
 Paulinus came to an end, it was not through Paulinus' fault ; 
 it was through the extirpation of the Northumbrians, whom 
 he had evangelized, by the sword of Penda. But in fact the 
 work of Paulinus was not in vain. Other men entered into his 
 
 1 Nennius § 63: 'If any one wishes to know who baptized them, 
 Rum the son of Urbgen baptized them.' See Phimmer's note on Bede 
 ii. 14, and Browne Conversion of the Heptarchy p. 220 foil.
 
 and the Conversion of England. 195 
 
 labours. After about two years, Aidan, the most attractive of the 
 early saints of England, and his brethren from lona and from 
 Melrose, re-established Christianity, in its Irish form, holding no 
 direct communion with Canterbury, nor with Rome the mother of 
 Canterbury, although the Canterbury prelates learned to revere 
 their dissident colleagues. Once more the north caught the 
 Christian fire, from the opposite quarter to that from which 
 Paulinas came. But if it had not been for the remembrance of 
 Paulinus, the fire would not have caught so quickly or spread so 
 wide. The paganism which Paulinus found there had not 
 recovered strength to resist Aidan. Even in the region of 
 which Aidan was most directly the Apostle, Aidan built largely 
 upon another man's foundation. The Gregorian mission must 
 be credited with giving an abiding impetus to the christianization 
 of Northumbria. 
 
 There was another part of the island in the conversion of 
 which some share must be assigned to Canterbury, but not so 
 large a share as may be claimed for it in the north. Redwald, 
 the King of the East English, at whose court Edwin took refuge 
 in his early days, had visited Kent at some time in Edbald's 
 reign, and there received the Christian sacraments, though he 
 thought it possible to retain his heathen worship side by side 
 with his new Christianity. His son Erpwald, about the year 627, 
 was persuaded by King Edwin to embrace the Christianity 
 which Edwin had himself recently embraced. Erpwald was 
 murdered too soon after his conversion to do much for the 
 evangelization of his subjects. Then came three years of 
 error, until the accession of Erpwald's brother Sigbert, who 
 became the nursing father of the Church in his kingdom. 
 Sigbert had received the laith in Gaul ; and the bishop who 
 aided him in his great work came likewise from that country. 
 His name was Felix. He was a native of Burgundy, and had 
 been advanced to the e])iscopate in his own land. But he had 
 become interested in that missionary enterprise towards which 
 the Gaulish bishops in general were so unsympathetic. He
 
 196 The Missio7i of Augtistine 
 
 went to Canterbury and offered himself to Honorius, who had 
 succeeded Justus in that see. Honorius sent him to East 
 Anglia, and there for seventeen years he laboured with most 
 satisfactory success. Nor was the interest of Sigbert and of 
 Felix confined to the actual evangelization of the East English. 
 Sigbert had seen, when in exile in Gaul, the good schools which 
 existed there ; and he determined that the children of his own 
 subjects should have the like opportunities of education in 
 literature. Felix likewise had been struck with the methods 
 adopted in the schools of Canterbury, and procured for 
 Sigbert's institution masters who apjjlied those methods. To 
 these elements of Kentish and Gallican Christianity was 
 added in East Anglia the Irish element, direct from Ireland. 
 St Fursey, the seer, presented himself to Sigbert, and was 
 honourably welcomed. He established himself, with other 
 monks, in Burgh Castle, near Yarmouth ; then moved into a 
 hermit's cell ; then, after some time, troubles which fell upon 
 the province joined with the Irish love of travel, and Fursey 
 passed away into Gaul'. The foundation of the Church in 
 East Anglia is thus not wholly due to the Canterbury establish- 
 ment; but it is so to a great extent. Felix appears to have 
 considered himself distinctly suffragan to Honorius ; and when 
 Felix died, in 647, Honorius appointed and consecrated in his 
 place the Englishman Thomas, who had been deacon under 
 Felix, and after the five years' episcopate of Thomas, another 
 Englishman, named Bertgils, and surnamed Boniface. 
 
 Besides Northumbria and East Anglia, it would be difficult 
 to prove that the Gregorian mission in Kent directly contributed 
 to the evangelization of any other part of England. The first 
 kingdom, besides those already named, to receive the Gospel 
 was the kingdom of Wessex. Its Apostle was Birinus. We do 
 not know to what country he belonged by birth ; but about the 
 year 633 or 634 he came to the Pope, Honorius I., and 'with 
 
 ^ Bcde iii. 19.
 
 and the Conversion of England. 197 
 
 his advice',' Bede says, started for Britain. It is not easy to 
 see why Honorius did not send him straight to his namesake 
 at Canterbury. It was certainly an infringement of the privileges 
 bestowed by Gregory to sanction any independent mission to 
 the island : but Pope Honorius at least exacted from Birinus 
 a promise, made ' in his presence,' that he would go to 'a 
 part far inland, where no teacher had been before him.' The 
 Pope refrained from consecrating Birinus himself; — not even 
 Augustine had been consecrated by the Pope in person ; — but 
 he directed Asterius, Bishop of Milan, who was living at Genoa, 
 to consecrate him bishop, and Birinus, apparently quite alone, 
 went on his way northwards. The first English tribe to which 
 he came, the Gewisses of Wessex, proved to be such virgin 
 soil for Christian endeavour, that Birinus thought his promise 
 sufficiently fulfilled, and penetrated no further. He succeeded 
 in converting Cynegils the king ; and when he was christened, 
 St Oswald, King of Northumbria, the pupil of the Irish teachers 
 at lona, acted as his godfather, and joined with him in assigning 
 to Birinus a see at Dorchester near Oxford. 
 
 The Wessex mission which began in such deliberate 
 independence of Canterbury continued for a good while to 
 be independent. The son of Cynegils, Cenwal, as was so 
 frequently the case, began his reign by refusing Christianity, 
 and then learned in exile to embrace it, from Anna, the 
 brother and successor of Sigbert in East Anglia. Birinus 
 died soon after Cenwal's return; but Cenwal, instead of 
 applying to East Anglia for a new bishop, or to Canterbury 
 from whence the East Anglians received theirs, took up with 
 a bishop who chanced to come to him from a very different 
 direction. This was Agilbert, a French bishop, who had been 
 studying for some time in Ireland, and who proposed to King 
 Cenwal to minister in his kingdom. Destitute as Agilbert was 
 of any canonical mission to that part of the world, Bede docs 
 
 ^ Bede iii. 7 : cum consilio fnpac Ilouorii.
 
 198 The Mission of Augustine 
 
 not hesitate to say that he governed the Church there for many 
 years ' by episcopal right {sacerdotali iure).' This ' right ' was 
 at length invaded by the king, who, tired of Agilbert's foreign 
 tongue, ' brought in privily ' (Bede says) another bishop, who 
 spoke English, named Wini, who, like Agilbert, had been 
 consecrated in Gaul. Cenwal divided the diocese between 
 the two ; which so incensed Agilbert, that after a short stay 
 in Northumbria he withdrew to Gaul, and was shortly after 
 made Bishop of Paris. The English Wini did not long remain 
 in possession of his part of the diocese. He was ejected by 
 the arbitrary Cenwal ; and Wulfheri, King of Mercia, being by 
 that time a Christian, and master of the city of London, Wini 
 repaired to him, and paid him a sum of money for the vacant 
 see of London, which he held until his death. For a good 
 many years after this, there was no bishop at all in Wessex, 
 until Cenwal began to get into trouble, and bethought him of 
 better ways. He wrote to Agilbert and asked him to come 
 back. Agilbert refused, but said that he had a nephew in 
 priest's orders, called Leutherius or Lothair, who would do 
 very well, whom he sent to Cenwal. Cenwal received him 
 with honour; and Theodore being by that time Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, Cenwal requested him to consecrate Leutherius, 
 which he did, and Wessex passed for the first time under the 
 authority of Canterbury. 
 
 The great central kingdom of iMercia received its Chris- 
 tianity from the Scottish or Irish Church of Northumbria'. A 
 marriage in this case, as in so many others, was the occasion 
 of its introduction. Penda, the fierce old heathen king who 
 had devastated Northumbria and killed Edwin, had a well- 
 disposed son named Peada, whom his father promoted to be 
 King, under him, of the Middle Angles. Peada went to 
 Northumbria to ask in marriage the daughter of Oswy, and 
 niece of Oswald, and was told that he might have her on 
 
 ' See, for Mercia, Bede iii. 21, 24; iv. 3.
 
 and the Conversion of England. 199 
 
 condition of becoming a Christian. Peada listened to Christian 
 teaching, and then declared that, wife or no wife, he would be 
 baptized. He was accordingly baptized by Finan, the successor 
 of St Aidan, with all his servants and companions, and returned 
 to his kingdom provided with four presbyters, of whom Cedd 
 was the most celebrated, to teach and christen his people. 
 The aged Penda made no objection, and the work throve 
 both among the Middle Angles and in Mercia proper. After 
 Penda's death, in battle against the Northumbrians, Mercia 
 passed under the sovereignty of Oswy ; who caused Finan to 
 consecrate the Irishman Diuma, one of Peada's four pres- 
 byters, to be Bishop of the Middle Angles and of the Mercians 
 together. Diuma was succeeded by his countryman Ceollach, 
 and Ceollach by Trumhere, an Englishman by birth, but of 
 Irish education and consecration. Trumhere again was suc- 
 ceeded by Jaruman, whose early history is unknown, but who 
 was evidently from the same quarter as his predecessors. Not 
 till after the death of Jaruman did Mercia come into direct 
 relations with Canterbury. Then King Wulfheri applied to 
 Theodore for a bishop, and Theodore arranged with Oswy 
 that Chad should be translated from Northumbria to rule the 
 Church of Mercia. 
 
 London had expelled its bishop, Mellitus, in 6x6 or the 
 following year. Since then, Essex had had no Christian 
 establishment, although, if the story is true that St Erkenwald 
 as a child had heard Mellitus preaching in London', the effects 
 of the Gregorian mission had not been completely obliterated 
 even there. But in or about the year 653, Sigbert— not the 
 saintly East Anglian already mentioned, but an East Saxon 
 king of the house of Sabert — was bai)tized, perhaps along 
 with Peada of Mercia, certainly at the same place,— Ad Murum, 
 on the great Roman Wall, by the same hands,— those of 
 
 1 Dugdale History of St PauPs p. 789. I owe the reference to Dr 
 Bright's Chapters of Early E7!g!ish History.
 
 20O TJie Mission of Aiigiistine 
 
 Finan, and under the same influence, — that of the North- 
 umbrian Oswy'. Sigbert, hke Peada, wished to have Christian 
 teachers sent to him, and naturally turned to the Church of 
 his baptism for aid, although he might perhaps have obtained 
 what he required from his East Anglian neighbours. Oswy 
 saw nothing better to be done than to move Cedd from Mercia, 
 where he can hardly have begun his work, to Essex, where he 
 soon covered the ground by vigorous itinerating such as his 
 northern teachers used, and succeeded in planting presbyters 
 in many stations. Returning on one occasion to Lindisfarne, 
 to confer with Finan, to whom he seems to have looked as a 
 kind of metropolitan, he was consecrated Bishop of the East 
 Saxons; but soon after the conference at Whitby in 664, on 
 another of his northern visits, he was tempted by the offer of 
 a suitable place for a monastery, at Lastingham, and resigned 
 his bishopric, leaving behind him the memory of indefatigable 
 work and of an awful holiness. It is interesting to observe 
 that, while still Bishop of the East Saxons, Cedd christened 
 the successor of his King Sigbert, Swidhelm, at the court of 
 the King of the East Angles, who stood godfather. There is 
 no sign that Boniface (or Bertgils), the bishop of that territory, 
 protested against the intrusion of his Scottish neighbours. 
 After Ccdd's abdication, there was again a partial apostasy of 
 the East Saxons, wlio had been left without a bishop ; but 
 they were soon brought back by the Scottish bishop Jaruman 
 from Mercia, whom King Wulfheri sent to them for tlie 
 purpose. The chronology of the kingdom of Essex is by 
 no means clear, and the relation of London to that kingdom 
 varied, but, whether before or after the mission of Jaruman, 
 the simoniacal Wini, as has been said already, was set up as 
 Bishop of London, and remained there until his death, not 
 fully recognised by Theodore, but not ejected. At last, by 
 the consecration of St Erkenwald at the hands of Theodore, 
 
 ^ For Essex see Bede iii. 22, 30.
 
 and the Conversion of England. 201 
 
 the regular succession of Bishops of London (and Essex) began, 
 in subjection to the see of Canterbury. 
 
 Sussex was the last of the English kingdoms to become 
 Christian, and its conversion did not take place till twelve 
 years after the arrival of Theodore in England'. It is true 
 that Ethelwald, the king, had been baptized — 'a little while 
 before,' says Bede, but it must have been at least eight years — 
 in Mercia. He had married a Christian wife ; and he was 
 urged to take the step by the powerful Wulfheri, who stood 
 godfather to him and gave him as a christening present the 
 Isle of Wight and a good piece of what is now Hampshire. 
 But the king seems to have taken no pains for the conversion 
 of his subjects, such as other kings took ; and the people were 
 but little impressed by the preaching and holy life of a small 
 Irish community which had settled among them at Bosham. 
 One man, indeed, from Sussex is known to us as having 
 become a Christian to good purpose : it was Daniian, who 
 was made Bishop of Rochester in 653-. But the South 
 Saxons, as a whole, were, as Bede says, ' ignorant of the 
 name of God, and of the faith,' until an apostle came among 
 them in 681, in the person of the exiled Wilfrid. Wilfrid, 
 however, was scarcely a representative of the Christianity 
 introduced by Augustine, although he had studied for a brief 
 space at Canterbury under Honorius. Originally trained by 
 the Scottish evangelists of his northern home, he had vehe- 
 mently espoused the opposite side to theirs in the Paschal 
 controversy, had paid a long visit to Rome, and a longer one 
 to Lyons, and as a presbyter on his return, was the champion 
 of the victorious Roman cause at the conference of Whitliy. 
 When he was nominated immediately after by Alchfrid the son 
 of Oswy to be bishop over his subjects, the see of Canterbury 
 was vacant. There were four bishops in England; but of these, 
 two were of Scottish consecration, which Wilfrid had come to 
 
 ^ See Bede iv. 13, foil. * Bede iii. 20.
 
 202 The Mission of Augtistine 
 
 think invalid ; one was the simoniacal Wini ; and the fourth, 
 Boniface of Dunwich, though unobjectionable, did not satisfy 
 the young Wilfrid. Accordingly Alchfrid sent him over to 
 Gaul, to his friend Agilbert of Paris, by whom he had been 
 ordained priest before Agilbert left England ; and Agilbert, 
 with eleven other prelates, consecrated Wilfrid bishop at 
 Compibgne'. It was but a small share, therefore, that the 
 Gregorian mission could claim in the conversion of Sussex. 
 
 Judged from one point of view, the Gregorian mission had 
 come actually to an end several years before that event. The 
 Augustinian line of bishops died out. Gregory's sanguine vision 
 of two metropolitans with twelve suffragans apiece was very far 
 from being ever realised. Eleven bishops in all ow^ed their 
 consecration directly or indirectly to Augustine. The first six 
 of these were Italians, who either came with Augustine, or 
 joined him in 60 1, — Lawrence, Mellitus, Justus, Romanus, 
 Paulinus, and Honorius. The other five were Englishmen, — 
 Deusdedit, Ithamar, Damian, Thomas and Boniface, occupying 
 the sees of Canterbury, Rochester, and Dunwich. Boniface of 
 Dunwich was the last. He died in the year that Theodore 
 reached England. In him that succession became extinct. 
 No sacred orders now existing are traced up to Augustine. If 
 the episcopal succession is the framework of the structure of 
 the Church, the structure of the present Church of England 
 begins with Theodore of Tarsus". 
 
 Only a small part of England, it will have been seen, 
 directly owes its Christianity to the missionaries sent by 
 Gregory. Canterbury was the one and only centre in which 
 the work begun by them had an uninterrupted and continuous 
 history. Even at Rochester, within the kingdom of Kent 
 itself, there was a short break. London, so far as any visible 
 
 * For Wilfrid's early history see Bede iii. 25, 28; v. 19. 
 - Sec the Table of Succession in Browne Co7tversion of the Heptarchy 
 p. 91.
 
 and the ConversioJi of England. 203 
 
 result was concerned, wholly repudiated their operations. 
 Their magnificent successes in Northumbria were to a great 
 extent swept away. East Anglia alone, outside of Kent, re- 
 tained ecclesiastical connexion with them from the time of its 
 first acceptance of the Gospel ; but, so far as we can see, they 
 would hardly have evangelized East Anglia but for their timely 
 reinforcement by the arrival of a Burgundian bishop. The 
 first christian ization of the great kingdom of Wessex was 
 accomplished without the least reference to the chair of 
 Augustine, — indeed almost in defiance of it. The main work 
 of christianizing Northern and Central England, and even of 
 Essex and (in a more remote degree) of Sussex, was done by 
 the spiritual descendants of St Columba who looked upon 
 Canterbury and Rome as committed to a false form of Chris- 
 tianity. Aidan acted upon Oswald and Oswy; Oswald and 
 Oswy acted upon England at large. They restored Christianity 
 in their own Northumbria. They helped in the foundation of 
 the Church in Wessex. They founded the Church of Mercia. 
 They refounded the Church of Essex. The founder of the 
 Church of Sussex, though he abjured their ways, was reared in 
 their chief sanctuary of Lindisfarne. Unquestionably Aidan 
 and his disciples had a much larger share in the original con- 
 version of England than Augustine and his disciples. 
 
 Nevertheless the history of the Church of England begins 
 with Augustine and centres round his see of Canterbury. 
 Probably much more was effected by the Church of Canterbury 
 during the first seventy years than is evident upon the face of 
 the records. Its influence must have been felt even where its 
 claims were not recognised. People passed through Canterbury 
 on their way to and from the Continent. Princes of the other 
 English kingdoms, like Redwald, visited the Kentish court, 
 and carried away with them more or less of its Christianity. 
 As Ethelberga had taken Christianity into the heathen realm 
 of Northumbria, so her daughter Eanfled took the Kentish 
 form of it back to Northumbria when she went to be married
 
 204 '^^^^ Mission of Augustine 
 
 to Aidan's disciple Oswy, attended by her Kentish presbyter, 
 Romanus'. Bede enables us to see how there not only re- 
 mained in the Northumbrian Church, through all its Scottish 
 period, relics of the mission of Paulinus, like James the Deacon, 
 but how Christians from Kent kept coming into the north, and 
 Christians from the north went to learn in those schools of 
 Canterbury which were the model schools of England. These 
 influences gradually prevailed; and when, after the conference 
 of Whitby, King Oswy gave his adhesion to the 'Catholic' 
 Easter, the cause was won. Instead of the disorganised 
 collection of tribal Churches, neither owning any central 
 authority, nor federated on any system of coequality, unity and 
 order gathered round the see of Canterbury. When Deusdedit, 
 the first English archbishop, died, in the year of the Whitby 
 conference, a vacancy of three years ensued. At the end of 
 that time Egbert of Kent and Oswy of Northumbria consulted 
 together, and 'with the choice and consent of the Holy Church 
 of the English Nation' determined to send Wighard to Rome 
 to be consecrated archbishop by the Pope^ It is a signal 
 proof of the way in which the throne of Augustine was already 
 felt to be the common interest, the uniting centre, of the 
 separated English kingdoms, and of the liitherto separated 
 English Churches. Wighard died before he could be conse- 
 crated; but Pope Vitalian sent in his place the great second 
 founder of the English Church, the Greek Theodore. It might 
 have been thought that the moment was come for reviving 
 Gregory's designs in connexion with London and York. But, 
 if the idea was ever entertained, the history of the last seventy 
 years was too strong to be resisted. Theodore became Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, not of London. The claims of York 
 were only revived at a much later date, for good or for evil. 
 'Theodore was the first of the archbishops,' says Bede, 
 'whom the whole English Church agreed to obey.' English 
 
 ' 15ecie iii. 25. - See above, pp. 157 — 159.
 
 and the Conversion of England. 205 
 
 Church history began a new chapter under Theodore ; but the 
 form of that history was already dictated by the successes of 
 the mission of St Augustine. 
 
 The gratitude of the early English Church to the memory 
 of St Gregory, as to that of St Augustine, was unstinted. 
 The Council of Clovesho in 747 decreed that the festivals of 
 the two saints, whom it named together, should be honourably 
 kept as festivals of universal obligation. 'St Augustine, Arch- 
 bishop and Confessor,' so the decree describes him, 'who, 
 being sent by the said Pope, our Father Gregory, first brought 
 to the English nation the understanding of the faith, the 
 sacrament of baptism, and the knowledge of the heavenly 
 country.' It added that 'the name of the same blessed Father, 
 our teacher Augustine, should always be said, in the singing of 
 the litany, immediately after the invocation of St Gregory ^' 
 Our ancestors may perhaps have thought too little of the other 
 agencies in the conversion of England ; but they were right in 
 thus singling out for especial honour the names of the two 
 great Romans. 
 
 It was not unnatural that they should have extended their 
 pious thankfulness from Gregory himself to the Church and 
 See which he had adorned. ' The English,' says one ancient 
 Chronicler, ' always belong more than others do to the Apo- 
 stolic See.' Another Chronicler calls them ' the tributaries of 
 St Peter,' and 'resents on that ground their pa)nicnt of 
 tribute to the Danes ^' 
 
 Far be it from the Church of England to minimise its debt 
 to St Gregory, or to ignore the historic connexion with his 
 monastery on the Caelian Hill, out of which it drew its origin. 
 
 ^ Constitution 17 (Haddan and Stubbs ill. p. 368). For other instances 
 of English acknowledgments to Gregory see I'hunmer's Bait vol. ii. p. 67. 
 
 ^ See Plummcr /. c.
 
 2o6 The Mission of Augustine 
 
 But at the same time it may witliout ingratitude be said that, 
 after the first founding was accomplished, the Church of 
 England received no more benefit from Rome than other 
 Churches did. It was a magnificent thing on the part of Gregory 
 to send so large a body of his best men to England, and to rein- 
 force their numbers afterwards. If modern England had dealt 
 on as liberal a scale wdth Japan, or even with her own India, 
 greater results would already have been attained in those 
 countries. Yet it seems doubtful whether Gregory or the 
 Roman Church did more for the missionaries than to start them 
 on their journey, and to speed them with their prayers. Some 
 funds for their journey may have been given them; but Gregory 
 e.xpected the bishops and potentates of Gaul to provide them 
 with necessaries and to send them on with suitable solacia. 
 Once in England, they received nothing more from Rome 
 except a few church ornaments, and relics, and books, which 
 came with the second batch of missionaries. Gregory's interest 
 in their progress was doubtless, to the end of his days, intense 
 and unintermittent ; but there was no further intercourse that 
 we know of after the departure of Mellitus with Lawrence in 
 6oi. Boniface IV. and Boniface V. wrote encouraging letters 
 to the prelates of the young English Church, and to its kings ; 
 so did the heretical Pope Honorius, who also 'advised' Birinus 
 to come to England as a missionary. Pope Vitalian did our 
 Church a service only second to St Gregory's when he sent us 
 Theodore and Hadrian, though he was not asked to do so. 
 But these first seventy years reveal but little communication 
 between the mother Church and the daughter. It has even 
 been said that Gregory's successors showed but a languid 
 interest in the island Church. 
 
 And with all their gratitude to Rome, and with all their 
 respect for what they regarded as the authority of St Peter, our 
 forefathers had no notion of being a mere dependency of the 
 Apostolic See, receiving without question all its dictates. The 
 very continuance of the primacy of Canterbury was a proof
 
 and the Cottversion of Englatid. 207 
 
 that they— including Gregory's own missionaries — felt able 
 to judge some important matters on the spot better than 
 the Pope at a distance could do. Gregory's orders upon that 
 point, as we have seen, fell dead ; and the documents which 
 profess to give an early Papal sanction to the arrangement 
 which facts enforced are spurious documents of a later time. 
 Anxious as the early English Church was to receive advice and 
 support from Rome, it soon developed something of that 
 spirit of insular liberty which has characterized its later 
 history, and which in the days of Cyprian and the greater 
 Augustine characterized the Church of Africa. When Wilfrid 
 appealed to Rome against the decision of Theodore and the 
 Church of England, England stood amazed with indignation ; 
 and Theodore, who had received his mission direct from Rome, 
 waited for years before he complied with the judgment which 
 a Roman Council formed upon the case. 
 
 Indeed the very claims put forward by the great Pope to 
 whom the English Church owes most were entirely unlike 
 those which Rome makes to-day. Imperious as Gregory was 
 by natural temper, and high as were his views of the authority 
 of Peter, his letters to Augustine show that he wished Augustine 
 to act much upon his own judgment, and that he did not wish 
 to encourage in him a habit of timid subservience. Nor did he 
 encourage it in others. His denuntiations of John the Faster, 
 Bishop of Constantinople, and of his successor Cyriac, for 
 assuming the title of ' Universal Bishop,' have sometimes been 
 thought to show only the resentment of one who felt the 
 claims of his own see to be encroached upon. But his 
 repudiations of a like language when addressed to himself by 
 Eulogius, the Bishop of Alexandria, are too emphatic and too 
 genuine in tone to be thus understood. ' You write to me, 
 "As you commanded." I beg you to put that word out of my 
 hearing; for I know who I am, and who you are. In station 
 you are my brethren, in character my fathers. I never 
 "commanded"; I only pointed out what I thought was
 
 2o8 TJie Mission of Augustine. 
 
 profitable.' ' If your Holiness calls me Universal Pope, you 
 make out that you are not what you call fne. Away with such 
 a notion. Let us discard language which strains unity, and 
 which wounds charity.' These words — and they are not the 
 only ones to the point — help us to see that it was Gregory's 
 real mind when he wrote to others such sentences as the 
 following. ' If one is Universal Bishop, it remains that you 
 are no bishops at all.' ' I confidently affirm that whoever 
 calls himself Universal Bishop, or wishes to be so called, is 
 in his self-exaltation a forerunner of Antichrist, because he 
 proudly sets himself before the rest.' ' If one bishop is 
 called the Universal Bishop, the Universal Church falls to 
 the ground.' 
 
 The English Church holds now, as it always has done, 
 though sometimes it has held it less clearly than at others, 
 that Gregory was right in these statements. It takes its 
 ' Apostle ' at his word, and allows to no man, not even to the 
 occupant of the see to which it owes its origin, a jurisdiction 
 which would practically supersede that of its own bishops. 
 The doctrine and practice of that great see differ in many 
 most important directions from what they were in the time 
 of St Gregory ; and the Bishops of the Church of England, as 
 responsible and independent guardians of the Catholic tradition, 
 rightly refuse to put their judgment at the disposal of any 
 Universal Bishop. Yet amidst all the inveterate departures 
 of modern Romanism from ancient ways, and in spite of long 
 oppressions and extortions in the Middle Ages and of unre- 
 lenting attack and contemptuous insults in later years, the 
 English Church cannot cease to desire or to pray for a time 
 when Rome may again make it possible to renew relations of 
 frank friendship and mutual affection, such as existed in the 
 earliest days of our ecclesiastical history.
 
 DISSERTATION III. 
 
 The Landing place of St Augustine. By T. 
 McKenny Hughes, M.A., F.R.S., Woodwardian 
 Professor of Geology in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 St Augustine landed, so Bede tells us, on the isle of Thanet : 
 but where in that isle he landed, is a question which opens out 
 a very wide and diversified field of enquiry. There are certain 
 traditions on the subject, the character of which it is necessary, 
 so far as possible, to sift. Some inferences may possibly be 
 drawn from the historical indications of the route taken by 
 Augustine through Gaul. We have to consider the vessels 
 likely to have been available for crossing the Channel, and 
 what landing places there were suitable for the various kinds 
 of craft. This involves a discussion of the features of the 
 south-eastern coast of England, and of the changes which 
 have taken place along the seaboard since the end of the sixth 
 century. The evidence to be weighed is therefore historical 
 and archceological, as well as geographical and geological; and 
 we have to make sure that the theory we adopt is not proved 
 to be impossible from any one of these points of view. 
 
 Augustine's route from Italy lay along the Riviera, by 
 way of Lerins and Aix'. After this there is some uncertainty 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 26, 1%. 
 M. 14
 
 210 5/ Augtistine's 
 
 owing to the widely scattered abodes of the bishops and 
 potentates to whom he carried letters of recommendation. 
 We may fairly allow however that provision was made for 
 alternative routes and that Augustine was not expected to 
 deliver all his letters in person. The one place to the north 
 of Aries which we are fairly certain he visited was Autun\ 
 which shows that he took the most natural way along the 
 valley of the Rhone. From Autun he may, perhaps, have 
 turned to the north-east, to visit Brunichilda at Met/, where it 
 is known that she was residing in 599^; but Brunichilda was 
 not a very stationary person, and it is not after all certain 
 that Augustine came face to face with her, although she 
 certainly helped him*. Then Augustine must have bent his 
 course westward again, until he reached the coast, most likely 
 at Boulogne. 
 
 Somewhere among the Franks, perhaps by the aid of 
 Brunichilda, Augustine secured the assistance of interpreters. 
 Besides their own Frankish tongue, these interpreters under- 
 stood Augustine's Latin, and they understood also the language 
 of the Jutes of Kent. It is exceedingly improbable that the 
 Frankish tongue, or any dialect closely allied to it, was spoken 
 by the inhabitants of Kent, although of course a Kentish man 
 here or there might have acquired it. The two peoples were not 
 nearly related to each other, and archaeology does not reveal to 
 us any extensive occupation of Kent, or of any part of the 
 British Isles, by the people who used the urns and ornaments 
 which are referred to the Franks in the north of France, and 
 which form such a large part of the treasures of the Boulogne 
 museum. 
 
 Yet all direct historical testimony, and all incidental refer- 
 ences to the relations between the peoples on opposite sides of 
 
 ' See pp. 46, 47. 
 
 ■^ lladdan and Stubbs Councils and Eccl. Documents iii. 11, note C. 
 
 •* See above, p. 48.
 
 Landing place. 2 1 r 
 
 the Channel, show that there was constant intercourse and 
 perfectly easy means of communication between them. Ethel- 
 bert had married a princess of the Royal Family of Paris. 
 ' Men of the English ' had been sent by one of the Frankish 
 kings of Gaul with his own envoys to Constantinople'. Bishops 
 like Agilbert and Felix and Wilfrid passed to and fro with 
 freedom. 
 
 The well accredited and imposing deputation headed by 
 Augustine, whose companions and attendants, by the time he 
 reached his destination, amounted to at least forty persons, 
 must have been an object of much interest, even if it met with 
 no great sympathy, as it travelled on slowly, always asking for 
 information about the far off country in the extreme north-west 
 corner of the worlds They passed from one bishop, or from 
 one religious house, to another; and protected by the powerful 
 Frankish rulers, they at length arrived at the coast, where they 
 could embark from one of the well-known Gallo-Roman 
 ports, or, waiting on wind and tide, could find suitable ships 
 in some creek or estuary, from which trading vessels com- 
 monly started to coast along the shores of France or to cross 
 over to Britain. Whether it was from an ancient port, or 
 whether it was from a sheltered creek, we may be sure that 
 such a body of dignified Romans took the best means of 
 crossing that were to be obtained. The sense of dignity 
 and the love of what was impressive and imposing shows 
 itself more strongly, perhaps, than any other feature in 
 Augustine's character. 
 
 We may now ask what kinds of ship were available in 
 those days for crossing the Channel and consider the bearing 
 of this upon the probable landing place of Augustine. There 
 
 1 Procopius de Bell. Goth. iv. 20. Green Making of England p. 
 Freeman Norman Conquest vol. I. pp. 30, 31. 
 - See Gregory's expression on p. 44. 
 
 14 — 2
 
 212 St Aiigustines 
 
 were the fast pirate boats, propelled by oars as well as sails, 
 which could penetrate inland along the creeks, pillage a district 
 or town, or overhaul a merchant vessel and escape. What sort 
 of vessels these were we may infer from the letter written by a 
 friend to a newly appointed covies litoris Saxonici describing 
 the prowess of these sea rovers whose ravages he was appointed 
 to repel'. They were warships which could carry a large 
 number of warriors and their arms, could run in through the 
 surf, be readily beached and as easily put out to sea again if 
 the victory did not rest with the invaders. The ancient ship 
 dug out of the peat moss in Slesvig shows us what they were 
 like^ This would be the kind of vessel in which Hengist 
 and Horsa came over. They could if necessary have run their 
 ships ashore in Pegwell Bay, unless they were welcomed as 
 friends into the Wantsome. Augustine would not have found, 
 nor is he likely to have sought, vessels of this description 
 for his crossing. 
 
 But there were also the merchant ships on which the 
 pirates preyed. These were larger and smaller trading vessels 
 such as those of which Caesar was able to collect so many 
 that, with others which he ordered to be built on purpose, they 
 formed a fleet large enough to transport his army across the 
 Channel. Many of them were of light draught, for we read 
 that they were able to approach so near the shore that his 
 troops jumped into the water and waded to land. When 
 necessary they could be pulled up out of reach of the sea. 
 Perhaps for this reason he had selected smaller boats. 
 
 There were however also larger and heavier vessels. We 
 read of such in the middle ages carrying cargoes between France 
 and Britain. 
 
 In the twelfth century, for instance, a number of trading 
 
 * Sidonius Apollinaris Ch. viii. Ep. vi. 
 - Lubbock Prehistoric Times pp. 8, 9.
 
 Landing place. 213 
 
 vessels started together from the creeks and estuaries that 
 penetrate far inland in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. One 
 of these was carrying dressed stones for the building of 
 St Augustine's monastery. They had hardly got out to sea, 
 when a violent storm came upon them, and all, to 
 the number of fourteen, were capsized, except that which 
 carried the stones for the sacred edifice. The sailors, thinking 
 that the vessel would be more likely to ride out the storm if 
 she were lightened, wished to throw these heavy masses of 
 stone overboard ; but the captain, a more shrewd and ex- 
 perienced seaman than his crew, said, ' No ; in that heavy 
 ballast hes our hope of safety.' So this vessel alone escaped, 
 and eventually got safely across the Channel and landed the 
 cargo. Compilers and commentators have dressed this 
 obviously true story in the devout language of their time and 
 preserved it among the Acta Sanctorum'. 
 
 That is the kind of vessel Augustine would have found 
 available in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. For that vessel 
 was carrying stones from a quarry at Marchia in Flanders, a 
 place situated up a creek near Boulogne, very like the creeks 
 up which vessels sailed between Thanet and the mainland. 
 It is true that the modern commentator explains the geography 
 of the story for his readers by pointing to the position of Mark 
 between Calais and Gravelines, but there is no building stone 
 near that town. There is however up a creek near Boulogne, 
 which was within the Flanders of the middle ages, a place 
 called Marquise where Jurassic rocks are still quarried, like 
 those of which parts of Canterbury are built, and I am 
 informed by my friend M. Rigaux of Boulogne that remains 
 have been found in the spoil heaps at the quarries which 
 
 1 Acta Sanctorum Maii t. VI. Maii xxvi p. 398, § 17, 18, 19, 20, 
 p. 399, § 23. Henschen Ed" Carnandet 1866. It is not improbable that 
 the two stories refer to the same incident. The differences are due to 
 glosses put in to explain the geography.
 
 214 -St Aicgiistines 
 
 prove conclusively that they have been worked from Roman 
 times. 
 
 The old story comes out therefore with the impress of truth 
 upon its main features and we may appeal to it for the descrip- 
 tion of the ships of the early middle ages, and for the mode of 
 handling them. They were sailing vessels which had oars in 
 case the wind should fail, and which could be rowed or towed 
 or punted up any creek where there was sufficient depth of 
 water. We may feel pretty sure that when Augustine arrived 
 with his followers on the coasts of the Channel and was 
 enquiring for the best mode of crossing with all his followers 
 to the Isle of Thanet, he would be recommended one of these 
 seagoing vessels which could be navigated up the Wantsome 
 just as he saw it had been taken up the creeks near Boulogne. 
 
 Augustine's voyage was no exploration of an unknown 
 sea or casting ashore of voyagers bound for some other land. 
 It was part of a deliberately planned journey for which all 
 preparation had been made, safe conduct secured and inter- 
 preters engaged. He had not to build a ship for himself. 
 Vessels had been crossing and recrossing for centuries, and 
 there were plenty of experienced and hardy sailors to man 
 them. The cliffs of Britain could be seen from the coasts of 
 France, and the set of the tides was well known to men whose 
 livelihood and lives depended upon their observation of 
 the shifting currents of the Channel. Except the wind 
 changed, they could reckon on making any port or landing 
 place upon the opposite shore. 
 
 Whatever doubt there may have been in Rome as to what 
 part of Britain Augustine should visit, there can have been no 
 uncertainty when he had got as far as Boulogne, and he must 
 have arranged with the captain of a good large seagoing vessel 
 to take him and his followers to some landing place both 
 suitable for the class of vessel he was likely to have secured, 
 and convenient in regard to his intended subsequent proceed- 
 ings.
 
 Landing place. 21 5 
 
 Now we know what his subsequent proceedings were, and 
 it certainly would be most convenient for him to land in a 
 sheltered creek within easy reach of the mainland and in a 
 place where he and his followers could find accommodation 
 and the necessary food for such a large number. There is 
 no reason whatever for supposing that they would stipulate 
 to be put ashore on the exposed beach of Pegwell Bay. 
 Nor would the captain of such a vessel, with forty pas- 
 sengers besides the crew and baggage, urge them from any 
 nautical considerations to choose that landing. Even if 
 Augustine, in ignorance of the dangers of a tidal sea, were to 
 suggest that point, we should rather expect the captain to refuse 
 to land there. 
 
 For we must remember the very different conditions 
 of navigation in the tideless Mediterranean and the change- 
 ful Channel. Warships could go up the Tiber to Rome, 
 but merchant vessels of any considerable tonnage could 
 proceed no further than Ostia\ How different in the 
 Channel ! Large vessels could sail into bays or up creeks 
 with the flowing tide and be left stranded on the ebb. It is 
 the common method of carrying on the coasting trade to-day, 
 and vessels are now navigated up the Wantsome with the 
 incoming tide, and then, being made fast, rest on the mud 
 banks till the tide returns and floats them off again. But it 
 would be full of risk to run a large vessel on the exposed 
 shore, at any rate a vessel so large that it could not be drawn 
 up out of the reach of storm waves. Before the tide turned 
 the weather might change and the vessel be dashed to pieces. 
 Csesar found to his cost that ships could not be left on the beach 
 within reach of the tide or allowed to ride at anchor in the 
 Channel. Hengist and Horsa with their warships might run 
 ashore and their crew could pull the vessel out of tlie breakers 
 if necessary. They might not know the safe creek by Rich- 
 
 ^ Torr Ancient Ships 1894.
 
 2l6 Si Augustine s 
 
 borough, or, if they did, might not wish to trust themselves 
 so far inland. But the captain of Augustine's ship would have 
 been chosen because he knew the shore they were making for, 
 and he would never have risked the safety of his vessel and the 
 lives of his crew by running on an open shore. He must have 
 made for the Wantsome. 
 
 In order to judge between the four rival spots which have 
 claimed the honour of having first felt the feet of Augustine 
 when he landed in Thanet, we must understand what was the 
 aspect of that coast in the first six centuries of our era ; for 
 under existing geographical conditions some of those spots 
 could not be approached by any vessel. The changes inferred 
 are not merely hypothetical suggestions offered in order to 
 explain historical difficulties, but they form part of the 
 geological history of the south-east of England. In support 
 of this account two other closely adjoining districts in Kent 
 may be referred to, of which the conformation and history 
 may be compared to that of Thanet. 
 
 On the south side of Kent, Romney Marsh was anciently 
 cut up by creeks and waterways. Camden' tells us that the 
 sea once ran between Romney Marsh and the solid ground of 
 Kent. Along these inlets there were settlements such as the 
 Roman town of Lympne. These channels have long since 
 been choked and partly filled, in consequence of the 
 geographical changes which have taken place along that part 
 of the south-eastern coast. 
 
 So also on the north side of Kent, the silting up of similar 
 channels may be studied in the Isle of Sheppey, where, however, 
 the Swale, as the dividing water is called, has not yet been 
 choked as much as has the Wantsome. In other respects also 
 the history of this district bears a strong resemblance to that 
 of Thanet and its marshes. 
 
 There is one principle of geology which must here be 
 
 1 Britannia 1607. Gibson's ed. 1753 col. 255.
 
 Landing place. 217 
 
 explained. A river cannot cut down its bed below sea level ; 
 and therefore, if we find a valley with its tributaries which we 
 can refer to subaerial and fluviatile agents extending below 
 sea level, we infer that the area has subsided since the valleys 
 were scooped out by their several streams. When the area 
 has been depressed and flooded by the sea it becomes wliat 
 is called a "drowned valley," which in time is filled with 
 alluvial deposits. That is the history of the broad marshes 
 which separate Sheppey and Thanet from the mainland. One 
 of the later prehistoric movements was a depression to such an 
 extent as to let the waters of the sea flow freely through the 
 submerged valleys and make islands of both Sheppey and 
 Thanet. From that time to this, silting up has being going on, 
 not uniformly, but now more now less rapidly according to 
 local accidents. 
 
 If we compare the two areas more closely we shall fmd 
 in Sheppey many useful illustrations of what was the former 
 condition of Thanet. At the east end of Sheppey there is 
 a shore accumulation creeping from the north across the 
 channel. In this case it consists largely of the shells of 
 cockles which Hved in the mud on the north of the island 
 and which, being thrown up by storms, died on the shore, 
 while their empty shells were washed round Warden Point 
 and finally being embayed came to rest at Shell Ness, where 
 they have formed a deposit some ten feet in thickness. We 
 can see the process going on still. So on the east coast of the 
 Isle of Thanet there is a beach which has travelled south from 
 Cliffs End near Ramsgate towards Stonar. 
 
 In Sheppey we see a promontory of alluvial material 
 running north from the Whitstable Flats and overlapping the 
 beach at Shell Ness. This corresponds to the beach and 
 blown sand which is extending north from Deal and overlaps 
 the Stonar beach. 
 
 At Sheppey too there is behind the beach at Shell Ness a 
 small promontory of solid ground on which stands Mussel
 
 2i8 St Aiig7isti7ies 
 
 Farm, named from the adjoining bank of shells. This was 
 once washed by the sea but is now separated from it by the 
 marsh which formed behind the advancing bank of Shellness. 
 So in Thanet the farm of Ebbsfleet, named from the once 
 contiguous creek, stands on a little spur behind the Pegwell 
 Bay beach, which has cut it off from the sea and which let 
 the sediment accumulate till not only was the marsh-land 
 formed but even the fleet from which the farm took its name 
 was silted up. 
 
 But a far more important analogy for our purpose may be 
 pointed out. At the south-west corner of Sheppey, opposite 
 Milton near Sittingbourne, the island of Elmley rises out of 
 the marsh. The Swale runs between it and the mainland, 
 and Elmley Island practically forms continuous land with 
 Sheppey. There is however a small channel on the north 
 of Elmley which connects the Swale with Windmill Creek. 
 If any accident were to block the Swale between Elmley 
 and the mainland, the water would certainly develope this 
 small channel into Windmill Creek, and Elmley would be 
 joined to the mainland instead of being part of Sheppey. 
 That is mutatis nnitatidis what has happened in regard to 
 Thanet and the island on which Richborough stands. There 
 was once a channel, if not the principal channel, running 
 as shown on the accompanying map round the west and south 
 sides of Richborough, but this has now been silted up and 
 Richborough island is now only cut off by dykes from the 
 mainland. 
 
 Much of the geological history of Thanet has been antici- 
 pated in the comparison which has been drawn between it and 
 that of Sheppey. But the reasons for its particular features may 
 be somewhat enlarged upon. Thanet is now separated from 
 the mainland by a wide and only partly reclaimed marsh. This 
 represents a valley which was formed when the land all stood 
 at a higher level, so that, as has been explained above, river 
 denudation was able to excavate a channel. As reference is
 
 Landing place. 2 1 9 
 
 made here to considerable earth movements, it may be well to 
 point out that this area falls within an earthquake region of 
 quite recent activity. When the land was depressed, this valley 
 was invaded by the sea, and then silted up by tidal and alluvial 
 deposits. We must picture the Wantsome therefore (see map) 
 as at one time a deep channel with broad mud-flats on either 
 side, over which the tide ebbed and flowed. The tidal current 
 must at first have been very strong; for as the flood waters 
 crowded up the English Channel they found relief through the 
 Wantsome into the estuary of the Thames, and at the ebb they 
 rushed out again, probably with still greater force, for the 
 tidal wave coming later from the north would force back the 
 waters to the south, and catching against the projecting 
 northern coast of Kent would raise a head of water which 
 would rush through the Wantsome to join the ebbing tide 
 in the Straits of Dover. 
 
 This was the state of things when Bede described Thanet, 
 explaining that the river Wantsome which was some three 
 furlongs broad communicated with the sea by two mouths and 
 thus cut it off from the mainland. He mentioned parentheti- 
 cally that it could be crossed in two places only. The 
 meaning of this is clear to those who are acquainted with the 
 character of the estuary. It is not fordable anywhere, and 
 you would nowadays be told by those conversant with the 
 district that you could cross only at certain places, and those 
 artificially adapted for the purpose. If you follow the river 
 from its mouth to Stonar Cut for instance, you will find steep 
 banks of clay, and if you slipped down one side into the water, 
 you would find it exceedingly difficult to scramble up the bank 
 on the other, even if you could succeed in getting out of the 
 water at all'. At Stonar Cut you may see what has to be done 
 to make a crossing. On the steeper side there are planks with 
 ladder-like cross-bars, down which you walk to the boat, while 
 
 1 Cf. Marbot's description of the French attempt to cross the Klslcr in 
 the retreat from Leipzig. Mtimoira Vol. iii. p. 336.
 
 220 St Augustine s 
 
 on the other a great quantity of stone has been shot into the 
 mud so as to form sohd ground to land on. The stones would 
 soon sink in or be covered by deep ooze if the crossing were 
 neglected, and this had actually happened in 1485 to the 
 ancient ferry at Sarre. For we learn from the Rolls of Parlia- 
 ment that this crossing was so "swaved, growen, and hyged 
 with wose, mudde, and sand that nowe no Fery or other 
 passage may be there'." 
 
 Any obstruction at either end of such a channel must 
 check the scour, and sandbanks would form, shifting as the 
 Stour and other streams brought a greater or smaller volume 
 of water down and carried more or less mud, and also accord- 
 ing as the winds from the Atlantic or those blowing over the 
 North Sea prevailed. The channel would soon become silted 
 up if any accident arrested the flow of the tide ; for tidal 
 water cannot accumulate indefinitely behind an obstacle, as 
 would the waters of a river, until it overflowed or burst through 
 the barrier. If the tide could not get over or break through 
 in its hours of flow, it would retreat on its ebb the same way 
 as it came. Thus there is no improbability in the tradition 
 that the choking up of certain tidal waterways was caused by 
 the sinking of a large vessel. 
 
 But more important obstructions were caused by natural 
 changes along the seaward margin of this marsh where the 
 Wantsome ran out towards the east. In the first place there 
 was the shingle beach due to the strong back-water in Pegwell 
 Bay. This travelled south from Great Cliff's End to the east 
 of the promontory on which Ebbsfleet stands, and, in the 
 days when the tidal waters in the Wantsome could escape 
 freely eastward by Sandwich, it perhaps extended three miles 
 or more in that direction, broken through from time to 
 time by storm and flood. The Stonar bank is the southern 
 end of this beach. The shingle was probably not deposited 
 
 ' Burrows Cinque Ports p. 245.
 
 L anding place. 2 2 1 
 
 quite uniformly along its whole length but was irregular, some- 
 what like the banks now seen runnmg in an interrupted series 
 between the Goodwin Sands and the coast'. The material of 
 which the beach is composed has evidently travelled from 
 north to south, being carried by the Pegwell Bay back-water 
 from the cliffs near Ramsgate. This counter current explains 
 the great destruction of those cliffs in recent times. 
 
 Then there is another wave-borne beach which is still 
 travelling north from the cliffs near Deal, the sand of which, 
 as it dries, feeds the dunes east of Sandwich, and creeping 
 onward and repairing the breaches made in storms, keeps 
 pushing the mouth of the Stour ever further north, so that it 
 now far overlaps the Pegwell Bay spit of shingle, and the river 
 Stour has been so far doubled back upon itself that after a 
 course of some seven miles it is again within half a mile of its 
 upper reaches. Towards the north end of the long loop thus 
 formed by the river Stour the promontory of Ebbsfleet 
 projects. It lies on the inner or western side of the Pegwell 
 Bay beach and is the result of similar coast wasting in much 
 earlier times. 
 
 In the region thus described, there are, as has been said, 
 four spots for each of which the claim has been advanced that 
 it was the landing place of St Augustine. These four are the 
 Boarded Groin E, Stonar N, Ebbsfleet K, and Richborough. 
 Lord Granville's Cross L does not profess to mark the landing 
 place. We must however consider another possible site, namely 
 that west of Ebbsfleet farm, M, where the farm buildings run 
 down to the marsh. There seems to be some confusion about 
 the use of the name Ebbsfleet. In old times of course the 
 name referred to the fleet only, but now it is applied to the 
 farm or even to the promontory on which the farm stands. 
 
 ^ See Admiralty Chart Sheet vii. Dungeness to the Thames. Report 
 Brit. Assoc. 1885, On the Rate of Erosion of the Sea-Coasts of England 
 and Wales, p. 415 ; D, East Kent by G. Dowker, F.G.S.
 
 222 St Augustine's 
 
 This promontory ran out into the mud-flats in such a manner 
 that the west side was accessible from the Wantsome but the 
 east side was not. Lord Granville's Cross L, the Boarded 
 Groin E, Ebbsfleet east K (i.e. the spot marked on the 
 Ordnance Map), and the site M (now suggested as more 
 probable than any of these), are all within three-quarters of a 
 mile of one another, and the name Ebbsfleet seems to be used 
 by some for any spot within that area. 
 
 The Boarded Groin, E. This is an artificial bank lying on 
 the outer, or eastern, side of the Ebbsfleet promontory, not 
 far from the modern coastguard station. We must remember 
 that the sea walls are all of much more recent date 
 than the time of Augustine and were constructed after the 
 silting up of the "flats" in order to cut off the pastures so 
 reclaimed from incursions of tidal or flood water. Before their 
 construction any portions of the coast not protected by high 
 natural beaches or sand dunes were liable to be frequently 
 flooded by tide and wind waves. From the account given by 
 Boys, quoting Farmer's MSS., we can see exactly what the 
 "fleets" were and their relation to the marsh land. They 
 were creeks or inlets communicating with the open estuary, 
 so that, if any part of the mud-flats were reclaimed, the 
 floods must be cut off by banks from the fleet which 
 would otherwise admit the tidal waters. Some persons 
 in order to save the expense of keeping up such sea walls, 
 dammed the fleet itself, and this gave rise to litigation on the 
 ground that they were interfering with the rights of navigation. 
 The bank known as the Boarded Groin is only one of these 
 sea walls thrown up parallel to the shore line of this part 
 of the bay ; and the necessity for building it shows that the 
 natural beach did not then form a sufficient protection to the 
 marshy pasture land behind it. There cannot then have been 
 any high bank like that on which the road now runs, for we 
 see that the shingle has been heaped up on the east or seaward 
 side of "the Boarded Groin."
 
 Lauding place. 223 
 
 If therefore we must attach any value to the tradition that 
 some important landing took place on the spot where "the 
 Boarded Groin" now stands, it must have been that of some 
 body of men who did not mind running on to an exposed shore 
 where vessels would have to be driven through the surf in 
 stormy weather. There were many incursions by Saxon, Angle, 
 Jute and Dane, and tradition may have carried on the record 
 of the landing of any of these invaders, who would have 
 avoided "the usual landing place" and run their vesssels ashore 
 where they thought they would be least expected. It was one 
 thing for the little sharp-prowed war-keels to come ashore on 
 that exposed and open beach, and another for such a freight- 
 vessel as most probably carried the missionaries to do the 
 same. Unless there were some very special reason to the 
 contrary — and we know of none — Augustine's vessel would be 
 certain to make for the sheltered port, to round the entrance 
 into the Wantsome, and to choose one of the usual places of 
 disembarkation. 
 
 Stonar, N. Upon entering the south-eastern mouth of the 
 Wantsome, the first place at which a landing would be possible 
 on the Thanet side of the Channel was the place called Stonar N, 
 which has already been several times mentioned. It was on 
 the right-hand side of the entrance, and was connected with the 
 main body of the Isle of Thanet by that long shingle beach 
 which has been described as contributing so much to the 
 silting-up of the harbour inside of it. Here in Roman times 
 there was a small settlement, perhaps a small fortification to 
 guard the approach to Richborough. It is thought by some 
 that here was the most suitable place for the missionaries to 
 go ashore upon the Isle of Thanet. And, indeed, if there were 
 not places that had a stronger claim, the claims of Stonar 
 might not be at once rejected. If from the beginning the 
 foreigners were bent upon landing on the right-hand side 
 of the Channel, they might perhaps as well land at Stonar 
 as farther on, though the spot was not very sheltered. Stanley
 
 224 St Augustine s 
 
 mentions it as one of the four possible sites and refers to tlie 
 Sandwich MSS' in support of the view that the missionaries 
 landed here ; but he points out that according to Hasted this spot 
 must have been a mere island, if not covered by the sea. This 
 however is an exaggerated view of what was the condition of 
 the area in the time of Augustine. It is true that there were no 
 sea walls, and the northward travelling sand dunes had not got 
 as far as they have since. It was therefore much more exposed 
 both to wind and tide. Indeed the spray must have reached 
 it so frequently that we can hardly suppose that any trees 
 could then have thriven upon it. Still it was habitable. It is 
 recorded on the six inch Ordnance Map that Roman remains 
 have been found near the existing houses, and in early 
 medieval times it seems to have been a place of some im- 
 portance. But, in the absence of any particular reason from 
 the necessities of the voyage or from historical evidence, there 
 is very little to urge in favour of this being the place where 
 Augustine and his followers first touched EngHsh soil. 
 
 Ebbsfleet east, K. " Ebbsfleet," in a wide sense, is at the 
 present time the favourite claimant. Near it stands Lord 
 Granville's Cross L, maintaining for Ebbsfleet, as is done for 
 no other place by any similar means, that it was somewhere 
 near there that Gregory's mission first touched English soil. 
 But the place where Lord Granville's Cross is erected is near 
 Cliff's End, and on ground which has not been on the sea 
 margin within historic times. Indeed the inscription on the 
 Cross only claims that it represents the spot where Augustine 
 first met Ethelbert, not the spot where he landed. If the 
 landing was near Ebbsfleet, it was certainly not where the Cross 
 stands. We must look for the spot elsewhere. 
 
 In front of the cottages at the base of the slope east of 
 Ebbsfleet Farm, there is an enclosure extending over what was 
 formerly part of the tide-covered mud-flats. It lies about a 
 
 Boys Sandwich jj. 836.
 
 Landing place. 225 
 
 third of a mile west of "the Boarded Groin." On this a small 
 cross on the six inch Ordnance Map indicates the spot where 
 it was supposed when that map was constructed that the Saxons 
 and afterwards Augustine landed. There does not appear to 
 be any reason for supposing that any creek ran in here either 
 from the Wantsome or from Pegwell Bay. There is not a 
 sufficient body of inland waters to keep a creek open. There 
 is another bank E' apparently on the same line as the Boarded 
 Groin E, and a small covering earthwork connected with it at 
 the south end, and at one time the outfall for the waters of 
 the uplands and marsh may have been between these banks 
 and the Boarded Groin, but there are now traces of an almost 
 continuous beach in front of it. This beach, however, was not 
 then sufficient to protect the marshes, for, as we have seen, it 
 was found necessary to throw up the Boarded Groin to keep 
 out the sea. When the Boarded Groin did not exist, and the 
 beach was insufficient to keep out the sea, the spot (K) as 
 indicated on the Ordnance Map cannot have been a safe or 
 usual landing place. Thus we may dismiss any spot on the 
 east of the Ebbsfleet promontory as being almost impossible 
 for Augustine and improbable for even Hengist and Horsa, 
 for it does not appear that they landed as enemies. 
 
 Ebbsfleet west, M. On the inland or west side of the Ebbs- 
 fleet promontory, however, there is a much greater probability 
 of a creek being kept permanently open. Upland waters draining 
 the basin near Way, east of Minster, and running at the foot of 
 Clappers Hill, and further added to by feeders from Thorne 
 Cottages, Sevenscore, and the Yellows, would together form a 
 considerable body of spring water, which, helped by the periodic 
 flushing which the channel would receive from the pent up 
 flood and tidal waters, would fully explain the former existenre 
 of a fleet here. A farmstead often represents a very early 
 enclosure, and though we cannot find anything ancient about 
 the premises now, we see that it runs down to the edge of the 
 marsh on the west and not to that on the east ; thus, as far as 
 
 M. 15
 
 226 Sf Atizustin^s 
 
 it goes, confirming the evidence that the fleet was on the west 
 side of the promontory. If this be so, it ran into the Wantsome, 
 which may in those days have been much nearer than the 
 channel of the Stour is now, — and that is not half a mile from 
 the farm. So there does not appear to be any geographical 
 reason why the missionaries may not have landed here, if other 
 evidence is in favour of their having advanced so far. 
 
 If the missionaries landed at all upon the right-hand side 
 of the main channel of the Wantsome, Ebbsfleet west of the 
 promontory would doubtless be a good place. At "Heopwines 
 Fleet," — as the fleet was then called, — the Saxons are 
 said in the Saxon Chronicle to have come ashore'. The 
 tongue of land upon which Ebbsfleet farm now lies stood 
 out into the mud or water of the Wantsome, running up to 
 the natural beach which protected it from the east ; while 
 alongside of it, on the Minster side, ran the fleet or creek 
 itself, deep enough and wide enough in all probability for 
 the Prankish vessel, — or the returning English vessel, which- 
 ever she was, — to lie-to in, or rest on the bottom at low tide, 
 while she discharged such a cargo as Kent had probably 
 never seen before. 
 
 The charm of Stanley's advocacy has given Ebbsfleet for 
 the present the possession of the coveted distinction. Haddan 
 and Stubbs, Bright, Green, Plummer, and most other modern 
 authorities, adopt Stanley's conclusions with more or less 
 decision. Yet the pleadings on behalf of Ebbsfleet are not 
 entirely convincing. Stanley's main argument is, after all, an as- 
 sertion which melts away under examination. P^bbsfleet, he says, 
 was in early days "the usual" landing place in Thanet. His 
 
 ^ See under the year 449. There seems to be no reason to doubt that 
 Heopwine's and Ebb's fleet are the same. The derivation of the latter 
 from the ebb and flow of the tide is absurd, for every fleet in the district 
 was subject to the same; and besides, the name must in that case have 
 been F,bl)-fleet, not Ebbsfleet. The form clearly denotes a possessive of 
 some kind.
 
 Landing place. 227 
 
 instances are the Saxons, St Mildred, and the Danes. He 
 gives no reference in connexion with the mention of " the 
 Danes." The whole story of the landing of the Saxons is 
 wrapped in uncertainty. St Mildred more probably landed 
 at her own Minster. The chapel which Stanley says was 
 built over the stone on which Augustine stepped, was not at 
 Ebbsfleet. Ebbsfleet was "afterwards," to use Stank-y's words', 
 "the port of the Abbey of St Augustine," and "Kbb's" has 
 accordingly been supposed by some to be a corruption of 
 "Abbot's." It would have been, therefore, to the interest 
 of the monks of St Augustine's Abbey to have maintained 
 that their great Eponym had disembarked in their own port. 
 But they knew nothing of his disembarking there. Thorn, 
 doubtless copying from the earlier Sprott, and followed by the 
 later Elmham, affirms without any question that Augustine 
 landed at Richborough. 
 
 Richborough. Now undoubtedly if the travellers had been 
 free to disembark at any point they liked in the neighbourhood 
 of the Wantsome, Richborough — or to be quite exact the port 
 of Richborough — would have been the natural point for them 
 to seek. Bede begins, or all but begins, his description of 
 Britain by appropriating the words of Orosius (they are not 
 easy to translate) : — * It has to the south of it Belgic Gaul, the 
 shore of which, taking the nearest passage, lies open to a 
 city named the Port of Richborough (now corrupted by the 
 English into Reptacaestir), the sea between this and Boulogne, 
 the nearest shore of the Moryni, being fifty miles across*.' 
 Notwithstanding the perverseness of a style which is that of 
 Tacitus gone mad, the meaning of Orosius was plain. Rich- 
 borough was then to Boulogne what Folkestone is now. It 
 
 i Memorials of Canterbury p. ■28. 
 
 2 Bede Hist. Eccl. i. i : Habet a merldie Galliam Belgicam, cuius 
 proximum litus trans7neantibiis aperit ciuitas, quae dicitiir Kutubi partus, 
 a gente Anglorum nunc corrupte Reptacaestir uocata, interposito mari a 
 Gessoriaco Morynoriim gentis litore proximo, traiectu milium .juinquagittta. 
 
 15 — 2
 
 228 St AiisiistiJie's 
 
 was " the usual " landing place. If you wished to cross 
 from Boulogne, the obvious thing was to steer for Rich- 
 borough. This, it can hardly be doubted, is what the Roman 
 missionaries did. 
 
 But here comes the difficulty that, as was said at the 
 beginning of this Dissertation, St Augustine landed in Thanet. 
 Bede's words are plain ; and Bede's authority in the matter is 
 unexceptionable. It would seem to us at first sight as if the 
 statement absolutely excluded all possibility of a landing at 
 Richborough. But here again the Chronicles of St Augustine's 
 come in to aid, or to perplex us further. Thorn knew his 
 Bede ; and what is more, he must have known his Wantsome. 
 The Treasurer of St Augustine's (he held that office in the 
 great Abbey) must many times have visited the harbour over 
 whose dues his house had so many disputes with the neigh- 
 bouring Priory of the Cathedral. It was only ten miles off; 
 and Thorn, and Elmham, and presumably Sprott before them, 
 were conscious of no contradiction in their terms, when they 
 said very simply, as if it was what everybody knew, that the 
 missionaries landed at Richborough in Thanet. These are 
 Thorn's words: 'They came ashore in the isle of Thanet, at the 
 place called Richborough, where our father Augustine, as he 
 stepped out of the ship, happened to stand upon a certain 
 stone, and the stone took the impression of his foot as if it had 
 been clay. In consequence of this event, the stone was taken 
 and honourably placed inside the saint's chapel there ; and 
 every year on the day of his burial crowds of people gather 
 there for devotion, and in hopes of recovering health, saying, 
 "We will worship in the place where his feet stood'.'" It was 
 
 ^ Thorn, col. 1759: Applicuerunt tiero in insula de Tancth in loco qui 
 dicitur Retesboitrgh, tibi pat re Augustino de naui descauiaite super 
 tjuaudam petram a casu stctit, et pedem eius cidem quasi luto impressit. 
 Cuius rci gratia idem lapis assuinitur ct intra capellam de eodem satuto 
 ibidem fundatam honorifice collocatur, sed et singulis annis die suae 
 depositionis ob deuotionem ct spein recuperandae sanitatis Jit concursus
 
 Landing place. 229 
 
 not, to Thorn, a choice between a landing in Thanet and a 
 landing at Richborough ; a landing at Richl)oroiigh was a 
 landing in Thanet. The chapel of St Augustine at Rich- 
 borough, of which Thorn speaks, was not quite forgotten 
 nearly a hundred and fifty years later. Stanley refers to it, but 
 only to make it a memorial of Augustine's landing there 
 afterwards, when (as he supposes) he crossed from Thanet to 
 the mainland. ' An old hermit,' he writes, ' lived amongst the 
 ruins [of Richborough Castle] in the time of Henry VIII., and 
 pointed out to Leland what seems to have been a memorial of 
 this [viz. according to his view, of the king's meeting Augustine 
 there on that later occasion] in a chapel of St Augustine, of 
 which some slight remains are still to be traced in the 
 northern bank of the fortress. ...The curious cross in the 
 centre was then called by the common people "St Augustine's 
 Cross" (Camden, p. 342).' The chapel was no doubt the 
 same that Thorn mentions, and it commemorated, not that 
 unimportant reception of which Stanley speaks, but the great 
 first landing, and the great first meeting with Ethelbert, in 
 the open air, on the island of Thanet'. 
 
 But how came it to be possible for anyone to describe 
 Richborough as being in the Isle of Thanet? We cannot now 
 say for certain where the main channel of the Stour or of the 
 Wantsome ran thirteen hundred years ago. But one thing is 
 tolerably clear. To a much later date than that of which we 
 are speaking Richborough was itself an island, at any rate at 
 
 fopuloniin dicentium, ' adorabinius in loco ubi stetcnint pedes eius.'' It is 
 not very likely that the impressionable stone would have been brought 
 from Ebbsfleet to Richborough. It might have been taken from Ebbsfleet 
 to Canterbury, or from Ebbsfleet to Minster, but Richborough was not an 
 obvious place to take it to. But there would be nothing strange in taking 
 the stone from the landing-stage at Richborough into a chapel ibiJent. 
 
 ^ These facts about the chapel preclude us from adopting the view that 
 when the Augustinians speak of Richborough they mean the whole harbour 
 of Richborough, including both sides of the Wantsome.
 
 2^0 5/ Augustine s 
 
 every high tide. Hasted' says of it, "This tract of land is 
 supposed to have been an island, in the ancient state of the 
 country, and it is at this time cut off from Guston by a narrow 
 strip of marsh, across which even now, in wet times, the water 
 flows, insomuch that people passing along from Ash to 
 Richborough, are obliged to pass through it." Boys'^ speaks 
 of it as "seated on a small island, in the very mouth of a 
 shallow bay." Even nowadays as you walk across the marsh- 
 land from Shellness you see the walls of Richborough crowning 
 a hill which rises in front of you out of the centre of the plain, 
 apparently the nearest and certainly the most imposing elevation 
 on your horizon. In those days it must have been far more 
 conspicuous ; and if any doubt existed in the minds of travellers 
 as to the most likely spot to find a landing, that was the obvious 
 place to make for. 
 
 If we examine this hill we find that it is surrounded on 
 every side by marshes and continuous ditches. Even now it is 
 frequently in flood time cut off from the mainland by a broad 
 belt of water more than 500 feet across at the narrowest part, 
 and in the old times, before the sea walls were built and when 
 the tidal and upland waters were less under control, there 
 must have been a great scour at every high tide, along "the 
 Rubery," as the narrow marsh between Richborough and the 
 mainland is now called. In confirmation of this view we find, 
 on the west of the Rubery, Fleet Farm, obviously named from 
 the channel which formerly ran through here connecting the 
 tidal flats south and west of Richborough Hill with those on 
 the north and communicating with the Wantsome at either 
 end. Richborough was not then part of the mainland. It 
 is true that it lay nearer to the mainland than to the Isle 
 of Thanet ; but this fact does not counterbalance the evidence 
 derived from the actual usage of the monks of St Augustine's. 
 
 * Hist. Kent (1778 — 1799) ^""'- 3> P- 386, note 6. 
 
 * Saiuiwich vol. ii. p. 870.
 
 L anding place. 231 
 
 Richborough stood in a somewhat similar relation as regards 
 the Isle of Thanet, to that in which Elmlcy or Harty Island 
 stands to the Isle of Sheppey. Eimley and Harty Island are 
 separated by tidal water from Sheppey, and yet they are 
 always accounted to belong to it. It would seem from the 
 straightforward expressions of Thorn that in his time Rich- 
 borough island was in like manner accounted to belong to 
 Thanet. 
 
 If, in spite of the Canterbury tradition, we are to maintain 
 that the Roman missionaries were carried past Richborough to 
 Ebbsfleet, there must have been a reason for it. Here again 
 the conditions of the estuary must be taken account of It was 
 not at all probable that ships could be navigated through the 
 mseandering course of the Wantsome in one flood tide even as 
 far as Ebbsfleet, especially as it must have risen somewhat betore 
 they would attempt to cross the bar, and the captain of Augus- 
 tine's vessel would make for a good roadstead to lie in till he 
 could resume his journey. The first suitable place was the 
 Port of Richborough. They would hardly have gone past 
 Richborough without making an attempt to land there. If 
 they went on, it must have been because someone at Rich- 
 borough informed them that they must go further off. It is to 
 be remembered that they brought with them no letters to 
 Ethelbert or even to Bertha. They were not expected. The 
 king neither knew that they were coming, nor where they 
 were coming from, nor why they came, till they had landed 
 and Augustine's messengers went up to Canterbury. That 
 at least is the impression which Bede's narrative gives. But 
 wherever they landed in Thanet, it seems probable that they 
 were landed there for the same sort of reason for which the 
 king first received them in the open air. The strip of water 
 between them and the mainland might serve as a kind of 
 spiritual disinfectant. They were literally to be isolated, for fear, 
 probably, of their working spells. The narrative points some- 
 what to the supposition that they were not quartered in a town
 
 232 Sf Augustine's 
 
 or village, but left to sleep on board their ship, or in tents, or 
 in the open, though supplies were to be brought to them. 
 
 These purposes would be as well served at Richborough 
 as they would at Ebbsfleet. The guardian water flowed round 
 it as it did round Thanet proper. And there is no reason 
 to think that Richborough island was then largely inhabited. 
 We know of no e.xample of the Old English folk, whether Jutes 
 or Saxons or of whatever nationality they may have been, 
 having settled at once in a Roman or Romano-British town. 
 They seem to have destroyed all the towns or to have driven 
 out all the old inhabitants and allowed the houses to fall into 
 decay. They frequently settled near, and by degrees their 
 settlement extended over the ruins of the ancient town, so 
 that many of our modern towns are on Roman sites ; but 
 there is no such example of that mixture of remains as 
 would show continuity of occupation. There is no ground 
 for supposing that it was otherwise at Richborough. If the 
 invaders of the fifth and sixth centuries of our era settled in the 
 isle of Richborough, their settlement would have been outside 
 the Roman military station. The missionaries may have been 
 accommodated in the deserted fort of which we see remains 
 still existing, rather than in the English town which sprang up 
 near it. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, as pointed out by Mr Sharpe in his 
 paper read before the Archaeological Institute at Canterbury in 
 1896, that there are no traces of a Roman road from Canter- 
 bury to Richborough Castle. The road ran to Sandwich. 
 Sandwich was not a Roman town ; at least there do not 
 appear to be any Roman remains there. Though vessels 
 coming up the Wantsome must pass the spot, and there may 
 have been an anchorage there earlier than Saxon times, still it 
 seems most probable that the town of Sandwich sprang up 
 after the decay of Richborough'. Mr Sharpe infers from this 
 
 ^ Burrows Cinque Ports 1888, p. 30.
 
 Lan ding place. 233 
 
 that the anchorage for Richborough was off Sandwich, and 
 
 that the line of traffic from the country ran to the ])ort and not 
 to the miUtary station of Richborough. This point liowever 
 requires further investigation as it seems improbable that the 
 Romans would not have provided a more easy and direct 
 access to such an important station as Richborough. We 
 should expect to find traces of a road running from tlic western 
 gate across the Rubery. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, a crossing by ferry-boat and a hard 
 landing place on either side may have been provided. In the 
 map of Thanet in Dugdale's Monasticon, rei)roduccd on PI. 
 IX. of Elton's Origins of English History, there is a representa- 
 tion of a man carrying a monk on his back to the boat, while 
 in the similar sketch in Hasted's map it is clearly indicated 
 that there is a deeper channel further out. Supposing 
 Augustine and his followers had wished to put themselves 
 at once upon the Canterbury road they might have landed 
 at Sandwich ; as they did not, or were not allowed to do so, 
 they would go on to Richborough. If, therefore, the object 
 in going to Thanet was to avoid too close a contact with king 
 Ethelbert's land and his people, that object would seem to be 
 as well secured at Richborough as at Ebbsfleet, if not better. 
 Richborough in the Isle of Thanet was a convenient, and at 
 the same time a sequestered spot. And it was a singularly 
 impressive one for the Roman Augustine to arrive at, as he 
 came like a new Agricola or Plautius to take possession of 
 Britain once more in the name of Rome. Historical truth 
 may not swerve to the right or to the left to indulge a sen- 
 timental imagination ; but it is a gratifying thing to discern that 
 the only positive evidence which we possess is in favour of the 
 belief that Augustine's first night in England was spent beneath 
 the rock-like walls of the Roman fortress of Richborough. 
 
 [Since this Dissertation was printed, the claims of Stonar have been 
 urged in an interesting paper by Mr George Dowker in the Anhaobgia 
 Cantiana vol. xxii. p. 123. Ilis paper does not, however, lead us to alter 
 the opinions above expressed.]
 
 234 ^^ Augustine's Landing place. 
 
 Description of Map. 
 
 The accompanying map has been drawn on the scale of one 
 inch to a mile from the six inch Ordnance Map, the Admiralty 
 Chart and the Geological Survey Map. The island of Rich- 
 borough has been resurveyed. 
 
 A The Wantsome, a deep channel which ran from sea to sea between 
 Thanet and the mainland. 
 
 B E.xtensive mud-flats, some of which were overflowed by every tide and 
 some only occasionally by very high tides. 
 
 C Inlets or creeks, which when used for navigation were known z.% fleets. 
 These ran from the borders of the higher ground into the Wantsome, 
 being kept open by the running water from the uplands which re- 
 moved the soft mud left by the checked tidal currents. 
 
 D Small islets still seen, projecting through the marsh. 
 
 E The Boarded Groin. E' the banks in continuation of it. 
 
 F The interrupted beach between Cliff's End and Stonar. 
 
 G The banks between the Goodwin Sands and Pegwell Bay. 
 
 II The Beach and Sand-dunes travelling north from the Deal shore. 
 
 The direction of the prevalent transport of the material is indicated by 
 arrows. 
 
 K The supposed landing place marked on the Ordnance Map east of the 
 Ebbsfleet promontory. 
 
 L The position of Lord Granville's Cross indicating the place of meeting 
 of St Augustine and the King. 
 
 M The farmstead on the inland or west side of the Ebbsfleet promontory. 
 This runs down to the edge of the supposed fleet from which it takes 
 its name. 
 
 N The place where Roman and other remains were found at Stonar. 
 
 O The reputed sites of battles. 
 
 Map to face this pa^e.
 
 n 
 
 G 
 
 O 
 
 Map of Thanet 
 
 3k ADJoinir^s Maim Land 
 In the 6* Centurv 
 
 133 "'
 
 DISSERTATION IV. 
 
 Notes on some Liturgical Questions relating 
 TO THE Mission of St Augustine. By the 
 Rev. H. A. Wilson, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 The first recorded act of public worship by St Augustine 
 and his band of missionaries on Enghsh ground took place 
 on the day when they presented themselves for the first time 
 before Ethelbert. They came into his presence marching to 
 the sound of Church music under the pictured banner of the 
 Great King, with a silver cross borne before their procession, 
 " chanting litanies and beseeching the Lord for the everlasting 
 welfare of themselves and of those to whom they had come." 
 And when, after they had "preached the word of life" to the 
 king and to his company, they took their way to the place 
 assigned for their abode, their entry into Canterbury was 
 marked by like ceremonial. A tradition preserved to us by 
 Bede records the words which they sang in their approach to 
 the city: — "We beseech Thee, O Lord, according to all Thy 
 mercy, that Thy wrath and Thine anger may be turned away 
 from this city, and from Thy holy house : for we have sinned. 
 Alleluia'." 
 
 ' See Bede Hist. Eccl. i. 25.
 
 236 Some Liturgical Quest ious. 
 
 The source of this anthem is no doubt to be found in the 
 prayer of Daniel': the words are in close agreement with the 
 Latin version of that prayer cited by the greater St Augustine*: 
 and the use made of the words is in all probability more 
 ancient than the coming of the mission. As Dr Bright 
 remarks', the chant was one which the missionaries had most 
 likely heard during their stay in Gaul. Litanies, of course, 
 were not unknown to them in Rome. In one form or other, 
 indeed, the litany is a very early and a very widely-spread 
 type of Christian prayer. The use of processional litanies 
 at Rome is sometimes said to have begun in the time of 
 St Gregory the Great. It is much more likely that when 
 St Gregory regulated the ceremonies of the "Great Litany" 
 of the 25th of April he was only adapting to a particular 
 purpose, and investing with special solemnity, a form of 
 service already in frequent use. 
 
 But the use of such litanies in the three days preceding 
 Ascension Day was not of Roman origin. It was not until the 
 time of Leo III. (795 — 816) that the " Rogation" litanies were 
 established at Rome*. In Gaul, at the time of St Augustine's 
 mission, they were already generally observed. They are said 
 to have had their beginning at Vienne, about the year 470 : 
 their general adoption was ordered by the Council of Orleans 
 in 511 : and in 567 a council held at Lyons had provided that 
 similar litanies should be used also in the week preceding 
 the first Sunday of November^ It is therefore likely that 
 St Augustine and his companions had witnessed, or had taken 
 part in, these processions more than once during the time 
 
 ^ Dan. ix. 16. 
 
 ^ The resemblance to this version, though not exact, is closer than that 
 to the later Vulgate text. See St Augustine Epist. cxi {ad Vktorianum). 
 ^ ]'>right Early English Church History p. 48 (ed. 1878). 
 
 * Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne) vol. ii. p. 12. The earliest Sacra- 
 mentaries of the Gregorian class do not recognise the Rogation Days. 
 
 * Bruns Canones vol. ii. pp. 165, 224.
 
 Some Liturgical Questions. 237 
 
 which had passed since they first set out from Rome. 
 The anthem which Bede has i)reservcd for us certainly 
 appears in one of the Rogation Htanies in use long after- 
 wards at Vienne, and probably in other Churches of France'. 
 It may be that the Gallican custom of Rogation processions, 
 which we find established in England as an ancient usage at 
 a time when it was still unrecognised at Rome'^ was first 
 brought into England by the Roman Mission. 
 
 Such an adoption of a new usage, on an occasion of a very 
 special and peculiar character, for which the ordinary usages 
 of the Roman Church could hardly be expected to supply any 
 guidance, cannot be held to show any tendency on the part of 
 St Augustine to forsake the customs with which he had long 
 been famiHar in favour of those with which he had but recently 
 become acquainted. The common worship of the missionary 
 settlement at Canterbury, carried on in the Church of St Martm, 
 no doubt had for its model the worship of the Roman mon- 
 
 1 See Martene de Antiquis Eccksiae Ritihus vol. iii. p. 189 (ed. 
 1764). It is a coincidence perhaps worth noting that the antlicin in 
 question was sung at Vienne just before the procession halted at the church 
 of St Martin. It is to be observed that several of the anthems from these 
 Vienne litanies are brought together in the " Mymn of St Mugint" in the 
 Irish Liber Hvmiiorum. The Alleluia does not appear in the Irish hymn : 
 and Mr Plunimer {Baed<ie Opera Hist. vol. ii. p. 43) c^^'^ attention to its 
 absence from the Anglo-Saxon version of the passage in Bede. This is 
 perhaps due to a sense of the incongruity of the joyous Alleluia with a 
 penitential anthem. The use of Alleluia was not in early times confined to 
 festival days : but it may be remarked that it forms the regular conclusion 
 of the anthems in the Rogation litanies extracted by Martene from French 
 service-books, and in the Rogation litanies of Sarum and York. Its 
 presence in the anthem sung by St Augustine's company, and in the 
 Rogation litanies, may be sufficiently accounted for by the fact that all of 
 these were used in the time between Easter and Pentecost. 
 
 2 The Council of Clovesho (747) orders the observance of the Rogation 
 processions secundum morem priorum nosirorum. Had.lan and Stubbs 
 Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents iii. 368.
 
 238 Sojuc Liturgical Questions. 
 
 astery of St Andrew. In the observance of hours of prayer, in 
 the order of the mass, in the ceremonial with which he 
 administered the sacrament of Baptism to his first converts, 
 St Augustine would naturally follow the Roman usage of his 
 own time : and down to the date of his consecration nothing 
 is recorded which suggests the adoption of any other 
 model '. 
 
 We cannot, however, accurately determine the precise stage 
 in the development of the Roman liturgy which had been 
 reached at the time when the mission set out from Rome. 
 That St Gregory introduced certain modifications in the liturgy, 
 we know: but we do not know precisely when they took effect'. 
 The statement that St Gregory revised the Sacramentary drawn 
 up by St Gelasius has been very widely accepted : and it has 
 been held that what is commonly called the " Gelasian " Sacra- 
 mentary represents, in the main, and with certain exceptions, 
 the Roman use before St Gregory's reforms, while the result 
 of those reforms is to be found (when certain later additions 
 are ehminated) in the earliest type of the Sacramentaries known 
 as "Gregorian." But even if we assume the accuracy of this 
 
 ^ That the Roman style of Church music was maintained at Canterbury 
 appears from Bede Hist. Eccl. ii. 20, where it is recorded of James the 
 Deacon that he instructed many persons in chanting uixta viorem Rotna- 
 norum sine Cantuariorwn. 
 
 ^ St Gregory's letter to John of Syracuse, in which some liturgical 
 changes are mentioned, belongs to the latter part of 598. The addition of 
 the words Diesqtie fiostros etc. to the Canon of the Mass, attributed to 
 St Gregory by Bede (Hist. Eccl. ii. i) and by the Liber Pontificalis 
 (vol. i. p. 312, ed. Duchesne, on which see Duchesne's note on p. 313) is 
 not mentioned in this letter. This however, since the letter discusses only 
 changes to which objection had been made, is not inconsistent with the 
 supposition that the words had been introduced before the date of the 
 letter. On the other hand the revision of the Sacramentary as a whole, 
 attributed to St Gregory by John the Deacon {Dc I'ita Grcgorii ii. 17), 
 W'Ould be a process requiring considerable time. It is quite likely that it 
 was not yet completed at the time when St Augustine left Rome.
 
 Some Liturgical Questions. 239 
 
 view, we cannot say when the " Gregorian " Sacramentary first 
 appeared, or which of the two models was known to St Augus- 
 tine, at the time when he left Rome, as the standard of the 
 Roman liturgy. Whether St Augustine brought St Gregory's 
 recension of the Sacramentary with him to England, or received 
 it later, we can hardly doubt that the form in which the Roman 
 liturgy became known and settled in England during the 
 seventh century was that due to St Gregory's labours. And 
 the fact that the Roman rite was introduced amongst the 
 English people at a date which corresponds with the work of 
 St Gregory, and in such a manner as to make it very unlikely 
 that the contents or the text of the mass-book underwent 
 much change, would suffice to render the discovery of an early 
 English Sacramentary a matter of great importance to the study 
 of Liturgy. A seventh century English mass-book, if it could 
 be found, might solve for us some questions which are still 
 doubtful. It would help us to ascertain more accurately than 
 is now possible the original contents and text of the Gregorian 
 Sacramentary. It would supply us with a test by which we 
 might learn how the book which forms the kernel, so to say, of 
 the "Gregorian" Sacramentaries produced on the Continent in 
 the early part of the ninth century was related to St Gregory's 
 recension : — whether, that is to say, it differed from that 
 recension merely in respect of a few later additions, or repre- 
 sented the form which that recension had assumed, by the end 
 of the eighth century, through a process of change as well as 
 of enlargement. It would probably enable us to judge more 
 certainly as to the true position of the books known as 
 "Gelasian," whether of the earlier type represented by the one 
 manuscript commonly called " the Gelasian Sacramentary," or 
 of the later type, represented by a group of manuscripts which, 
 while they clearly have strong affinities with the earlier, yet 
 seem to be also closely related to the books known as 
 "Gregorian." The earliest English Sacramentaries now known 
 to students are all of the "Gregorian " class; but they arc of
 
 240 Some Liturgical Questions. 
 
 too late a date to afford us any certain evidence as to the 
 exact usage followed by St Augustine'. 
 
 According to Bede's narrative, St Augustine sent to Rome, 
 very shortly after his consecration, a number of questions on 
 doubtful points for St Gregory's decision, and received replies, 
 which, with the questions, are preserved to us in a document, 
 or combination of documents, incorporated in Bede's work'. 
 The most important pair of this series of questions and answers 
 for our present purpose is the second, which has been supposed 
 to indicate a change of liturgical usage, and on which some 
 theories, once widely spread, have been made in part to rest^ 
 
 The difficulty in which St Augustine desires counsel or 
 direction is occasioned by diversity in ecclesiastical usage, and 
 in particular by the fact that " in the holy Roman Church one 
 custom of masses is maintained, and in the Churches of the 
 Gallic countries another." The Pope's reply advises a wise 
 selection. " Things are not to be loved for the sake of places, 
 but places for the sake of good things." He is to choose out 
 and collect for the " Church of the English," whose customs 
 
 * Mr Martin Rule has recently edited a mass-book which belonged to 
 St Augustine's Abbey at Canterbury. He conceives that the text of this 
 book has been specially influenced by a manuscript of early date, which he 
 supposes to have represented the last recension of the Sacramentary made 
 by St Gregory, and to have been preserved at Canterbury. The Missal 
 of St Augustine's Abbey is a manuscript of about the year iioo. Both 
 in arrangement and in text it agrees on the whole with other manuscripts 
 of its own date : and Mr Rule's arguments do not suffice to produce convic- 
 tion of the truth of his theory. 
 
 2 Bede Hist. Ecd. i. 27. 
 
 ' Doubts have been raised as to the authenticity of this series of 
 questions and answers as a whole, and in particular as to the authenticity 
 of the fifth and the second responses of St Gregory. The questions 
 relating to these points may be more conveniently discussed cl.-ewhere (see 
 Preface, p. viii.). But here, it may be well to consider the question whether, 
 assuming the authenticity of the questions and answers, and assuming that 
 they belong to the time to which Bede refers them, the theories which 
 have been built upon the second question and answer can be sustained.
 
 Some Liturgical Questions. 241 
 
 are still unmade, all that seems best in the Roman usage or 
 the usage of other Churches, in Gaul or elsewhere. Both the 
 problem and the advice given for its solution have been marlc 
 the basis for inferences not warranted by the terms in which 
 they arc stated. 
 
 It is supposed, on the one hand, that St Augustine had 
 found in use among the Britons a rite agreeing witli that which 
 he had observed in Gaul^: and on the other hand it has been 
 taken for granted that the method which he actually followed, 
 in accordance with St Gregory's response, was that of com- 
 bining the Roman with the British, or Gallican, rite, to form a 
 new rite for the " Church of the English"." It seems, however, 
 on the whole, most likely that St Augustine had not as yet 
 come into contact with the British Christians at all at the time 
 when he sent his questions to Rome. Had he done so the 
 questions would probably have included more special enquiries 
 on subjects such as that of the British Paschal cycle, of the 
 ritual of Baptism, and other matters which were afterwards 
 debated. Of these the document before us has no trace ; yet, 
 as soon as the British bishops actually appear as taking part in 
 the events of Bede's narrative, these questions come into 
 prominence. 
 
 The question whether the usage of Gaul or that of Rome 
 was to be the standard for the English was one which woukl 
 naturally arise as soon as St Augustine returned to Kent from 
 his consecration at Aries. The rite followed by Liudhard and 
 any priests who were with him — the rite, so to say, of the 
 Queen's chapel — was most probably Gallican : and if this was 
 
 ^ So {e.g.) Watterich Dcr Konsekrationsinomeul im heiligen Abeudmahl 
 p. 213. 
 
 2 So (e.g.) Blunt Annotated Book of Common Prayer (ed. 1884) p. 346. 
 The writer says that St Augustine "introduced some changes into the 
 Liturgy which he found in use " among the British : and declares that, as a 
 result of these changes, "the Liturgy of tlie Church of England after 
 St Augustine's time became a modified form of the more ancient Gallican." 
 
 M 16
 
 242 Some Liturgical Questions. 
 
 the case, it may easily be seen that from the first, and within 
 the limits of Ethelbert's kingdom, some difficulties would arise 
 from the diverse "customs of masses." These would not be 
 lessened if, as seems likely, the Franks who had come with the 
 missionaries to England as interpreters were accustomed to 
 the Gallican rite. St Augustine would have to face the 
 question whether it was desirable to allow a diversity which 
 might lead to division and disunion within the royal house- 
 hold, and among the growing body of English Christians : 
 and the doubt may have arisen in his own mind, even if 
 it were not pressed upon him by others, whether he ought 
 to maintain the Roman custom, or to adopt that of the 
 Church from which he had received consecration. It is clear 
 that such questions would probably present themselves for 
 solution, quite apart from any information which may have 
 reached him as to the usages of the Britons'. 
 
 With regard to the liturgy in use among the Britons at 
 the time of St Augustine's mission there is a good deal of 
 room for conjecture, and not much ground for any decided 
 conclusion. But whatever their rite may have been, we do 
 not gather from Bede's statement that St Augustine sought to 
 amend or to alter it. No mention of any proposal for a change 
 in their mode of celebrating the Eucharist finds a place among 
 the terms proposed by him to the British bishops I Nor is it 
 said that their customs in this matter were among the subjects 
 discussed at the first conference, before his formulation of 
 terms, though they may be included by Bede in the wide 
 
 ^ The .tiost marked difference between the Roman and Gallican rite is 
 this. The Roman Canon, with the exception of a few minor clauses, which 
 vary on certain days, is fixed and unchanging. In the Gallican rite, on the 
 other hand, only a few sections of the corresponding portion of the mass 
 are fixed : the prayers which are grouped about these fixed portions, and 
 with them make up the whole of the consecration-prayer, varied from day 
 to day. 
 
 - Bede Hist. Eccl. ii. 2.
 
 Some Liturgical Questions. 243 
 
 phrase in which he speaks of "practices contrary to Church 
 unity" maintained by the Britons. 
 
 It is doubtful, therefore, what the precise occasion of 
 St Augustine's question may have been, although it may be 
 clear that the cause of his difficulty was the presence of 
 GalHcan "customs of the mass" either among the Britons 
 or among those to whom he had been specially sent. But 
 it is doubtful also what course he took in consequence of 
 St Gregory's response. There is absolutely no evidence that 
 he made any attempt, such as is sometimes attributed to him, 
 to form a special rite for the " Church of the English." The 
 answer left it open to him, if he thought the Roman usage best 
 (and it is most likely, a priori, that this would be his opinion) 
 to maintain it either side by side with the Gallican rite, or as 
 the sole rite of the Church he had been sent to found. The 
 presence, in later English service-books, of anything which is 
 due to the Gallican tradition, as opposed to the Roman, 
 may be easily accounted for by the course of events after 
 St Augustine's days. Where Celtic missionaries came, and 
 where Celtic influence made itself felt, we might expect to 
 find some traces of Gallican usages : the Stowe Missal shows 
 us that such traces were to be found even in Celtic service- 
 books which had adopted the Roman Canon. The Council of 
 Clovesho, in 747, accepted as a standard "the model which we 
 have in writing from the Roman Church'." But even if the 
 effect of the canon there enacted for the Province of Canterbury 
 
 ^ See the 13th Canon of the Council, in Haddan and Stubbs Councils 
 and Ecclesiastical Documents vol. iii. p. 367. Johnson, in his note on the 
 Canon, refers the phrase to the work of John the Precentor, whose written 
 treatise on the manner of observing the feasts of the Church had been 
 largely copied and widely spread at the time when Bede wrote (Johnson 
 Canons vol. i. p. 249, ed. 1850: Bede Hist. Ecd. iv. 18). But the 
 wording of the Canon suggests a document sent directly from Komc, and it 
 may be allowable to conjecture that co])ies of the Roman books had Iwcn 
 transmitted by Pope Zacharias together with tiic letters which were read at 
 Clovesho. 
 
 16 — 2
 
 244 Some Liturgical Questions. 
 
 had been to extinguish the GalHcan usages in favour of the 
 Roman — and it would have been harder to produce this result 
 than to pass a canon for the purpose of producing it — the door 
 was not effectually closed against the introduction of Gallican 
 usages for the future. The Sacramentaries produced at a later 
 time in France, as the result of the Carolingian reform, con- 
 tained elements due to the service-books in use before that 
 reform, and not directly taken from the Sacramentary of Adrian'. 
 We find in them, in some cases, Gallican survivals. And the 
 intercourse between England and the Continent during the 
 ninth and tenth centuries had the eftect of bringing Sacra- 
 mentaries of this type into use in England even before the 
 time of the Norman Conquest ^ The exact part which these 
 books had in the formation of the English mediaeval uses is not 
 yet determined: but it was, in all likelihood, an important 
 part: and the Norman influence, in its turn, probably had 
 some part in any Gallican elements which the later uses may 
 retain. It is by these considerations, and not by any theory of 
 the adoption or revision of a Gallican rite by St Augustine, 
 that such Gallican survivals are to be accounted for. The idea 
 that the later English uses can trace, through St Augustine, a 
 descent from the Gallican rite, and that which seeks to connect 
 them, through the Gallican rite, with the liturgical traditions of 
 Ephesus, and with the Apostolic tradition of St John, rest upon 
 no sound basis of historical fact, but upon reasoning which owes 
 its premises for the most part to imagination. 
 
 ^ I use this term to denote the Roman Sacramentary sent by Pope 
 Adrian I. to Charles the Great, which supplied the principal part of the 
 contents of the books of the Carolingian recension. 
 
 ^ The "Leofric Missal" and the " Missal of Robert of Jumieges " are 
 instances of this. The former (as regards the main body of its contents) 
 was actually written abroad : the latter, written in England, is clearly 
 based upon a Sacramentary of the type produced by the Carolingian 
 recension. No English Missal or Sacramentary is at present known to us 
 of such a date and character as to be clearly independent of that recension.
 
 Some Liturgical Questions. 245 
 
 Another of St Augustine's questions, the sixth of the series, 
 may perhaps have been suggested to his mind by the circum- 
 stances of his own recent consecration. The general rule of 
 the Church provided that consecration should not be performed 
 by one bishop acting alone, but by more than one. At Rome, 
 however, there was a recognised exception to this rule. The 
 Pope, if he consecrated a bishop, did so without the co-opera- 
 tion of assistant bishops : and St Augustine, who had probably 
 been present at consecrations so performed, would notice the 
 contrast presented by the practice at Aries. The Synod of 
 Aries (a.d. 314), in its 20th canon, had laid down the rule 
 that seven bishops should be joined in each consecration, if so 
 many could be brought together. And although the same 
 canon allowed a consecration by three bishops (the number 
 afterwards required by the 4th Canon of Nicsea) it is not 
 unlikely that the usage indicated by the Council of Aries was 
 maintained'. The existence of the rule, and the probable 
 difficulty of observing it in the immediate future in England, 
 would thus be brought forcibly to his remembrance. He may 
 have heard that the British bishops did not observe the rule, 
 which seems to have been frequently neglected in the Celtic 
 Church : and he perhaps doubted whether he should himself 
 ignore it, or should rather, if occasion arose, endeavour to 
 obtain the co-operation of British bishops (a course which he 
 might still suppose possible), or of bishops from Gaul. The 
 Pope, perhaps, took a less serious view of the difficulty from 
 
 ^ The rule of the Statiita Ecdesiae Antigua (sometimes called the 
 Canons of the Fourth Council of Carthage), which appears in the Gel.isian 
 Sacramentary, represents the Gallican practice. It does not specify any 
 precise number : but its observance would require three bishops, and the 
 presence and co-operation of a larger number is clearly contemplated. 
 Ferrandus, in the Breviatio Canonum (written about 547), as Duchesne 
 points out, while stating the general rule in terms of the Roman Canon of 
 386, inserts words expressing the fact that the practice of the Topes was an 
 exxeption. See Duchesne Oiigines du Culte Chretien p. 348.
 
 246 Some Liturgical Questions. 
 
 the fact that the traditional usage of his own see was an 
 
 exception to the general rule. Being accustomed to act alone, 
 he would naturally attach small importance to the action of 
 "assistants." He regards them, in this case, as "witnesses," 
 whose presence might be desirable if it could conveniently be 
 had, but might well be dispensed with in a case of necessity ^ 
 St Augustine, for the present, might, and indeed must, be the 
 sole consecrator. 
 
 It would appear, as has been said, from Bede's narrative, 
 that these questions and answers were exchanged soon after 
 St Augustine's consecration. On the other hand, it has been 
 held, and the reference to a letter addressed to the metropolitan 
 of Aries in St Gregory's seventh answer seems to support the 
 opinion, that the answers, though possibly written at once, 
 were not sent so soon as Bede's language implies, but 
 were transmitted to St Augustine by the hands of Mellitus, 
 together with the letter dated in June 601, which announces 
 to St Augustine the gift of the "■palliiwi"'. In this case, 
 the responses to the question whether he should act alone 
 in consecrating bishops for the "Church of the English," 
 and to the question as to the relations between himself 
 and the bishops of Gaul and of Britain, would reach 
 St Augustine at the same time with a letter instructing him as 
 to the number of bishops to be provided, and with the outward 
 symbol of rank or authority. 
 
 ^ The assent of the bishops of the province to the consecration, which 
 the Nicene canon secured, was for the present out of the question in 
 England : apart from the British bishops, who are here ignored, there were 
 no bishops of the province to assent : and extraneous bishops, if their 
 action was not regarded as effecting anything in respect of consecration, 
 would be " witnesses," and nothing more. The device adopted in the case 
 of Pope Pelagius I. in 555 {Liber Pontifualis vol. i. p. 303, ed. Duchesne) 
 of substituting the assistance of priests for that of bishops, is not suggested 
 either in the question or in the response. 
 
 - The letters to Vergilius and St Augustine follow the series of questions 
 and answers in Bede {Hist. Eccl. i. 28, 29).
 
 So7ne Liturgical Questions. 247 
 
 The ornament thus conferred upon St Augustine was a 
 vestment the original form of which is uncertain. Its name 
 suggests that it was at first a kind of cloak, and that the form 
 which it had assumed by the seventh century was due to a 
 process of reduction in size. It had now become a sort 
 of scarf, worn loosely round the neck, and resting on the 
 shoulders, with one of its ends falling to the front and the 
 other to the back of the wearer'. The use of a similar vest- 
 ment by the Eastern bishops generally^, and the direction of 
 the Council of Macon in 581 that no bishop should celebrate 
 mass si7ie pallio^, seem to show that the wearing of the 
 pallium was not strictly confined to prelates who had received 
 it from the Emperor or the Pope. But this is quite compatible 
 with the facts that the ornament was specially conferred upon 
 individual prelates by both authorities, and that when thus 
 conferred it was a mark of special honour or of special powers'*. 
 The precise relations of the Pope to the Emperor in regard to 
 the sending of the pallium need not be discussed here^ 
 
 ^ Illustrations showing the form of the vestment may be conveniently 
 found in Marriott's Vestiarium Christiannm. The 25th plate of the 
 volume exhibits the form as we may believe it to have been in the time of 
 St Gregory. 
 
 - The correspondence of the Greek "omophorion" with the early form 
 of the pallium may be seen in Marriott's Vestiarium Chrisiianum, plate 
 41, as compared with the picture of St Gregory already referred to. 
 
 3 See Bruns Canojies part 2, p. 243. The reading " episcopus " 
 seems on the whole more likely to be the true one than that of " archiepi- 
 scopus " which Bruns adopts. But even the reading of Bruns' text would 
 imply a more extended use of the vestment than we find at a later time in 
 the West. 
 
 ■* The palliutn sent by the Pope has long been made of the wool of the 
 lambs of the Convent of St Agnes at Rome, and hallowed by contact with 
 the tomb of St Peter. 
 
 5 A summary of the principal facts on this and other subjects relating 
 to the history of the " pallium " will be found in Duchesne's Origines dii 
 Culte Chretien p. 370, or in Plummer's notes to the recent edition of 
 Bede's Historical Works (vol. ii. p. 50).
 
 248 So})ic Liturgical Questions. 
 
 The importance attached to its reception by metropoHtans was 
 a thing of gradual growth, and the rule that such reception 
 must precede any exercise of metropolitan authority had not in 
 St Gregory's time been established. St Gregory himself seems 
 to have regarded it as a symbol of vicarial authority': he refers 
 to its possession by the metropolitan of Aries as evidence that 
 no other bishop could be placed in a position of superiority to 
 that see*^: and in conferring it upon St Augustine he defines 
 the number of the bishops whom the recipient was to be 
 entitled to provide as his own subordinates^ The use of the 
 vestment was limited, by the letter conferring it, to the time of 
 the celebration of mass. 
 
 One more question seems to claim especial notice : and 
 once again it appears that the question is one which cannot 
 be confidently answered. It relates, however, not to St Au- 
 gustine's own practice, but to the nature of a British usage 
 which he desired to bring to an end. In the terms of union 
 proposed by St Augustine to the British bishops, after their 
 conference, one liturgical point, and one only (if we regard 
 the fixing of the date of Easter as a matter of the law, rather 
 than of the worship of the Church), was insisted upon. He 
 demanded that for the future they should "fulfil the ministra- 
 tion of Baptism, whereby we are born again to God, after the 
 manner of the holy Roman and apostolic Church "^ What 
 was the practice which the British bishops were called upon to 
 
 ^ See the letter in which the pallium is granted to Vergiliiis of Aries 
 (S. Greg. Opera vol. ii. col. 781, 783, in the Benedictine edition). 
 
 ^ See St Gregory's seventh response to St Augustine ; Bede I/isi. 
 Eccl. i. 27. 
 
 ' This, rather than the idea that St Augustine could not consecrate any 
 bishop till he had received the palliujn, seems to be the explanation of 
 St Gregory's language in the letter contained in Bede Ilisl. Eccl. i. 29. 
 The phrase "ita ut...duodecim episcopos ordines" seems to express a 
 limitation, and not merely a purpose, in the authority conferred. 
 
 * Bede Hist. Bed. ii. 2.
 
 Some Liturgical Questions. 
 
 249 
 
 abandon ? Different theories have been suggested, for each of 
 which there is some ground. It has been supposed that the 
 British followed the usage of single immersion, and that 
 St Augustine insisted on the triple immersion which we 
 find enjoined in the earliest Roman books. It has been 
 supposed that chrism was not employed in the British rite 
 of Baptism. It has been supposed that Confirmation, which 
 may be regarded as a completion of the Baptismal rite, was 
 sometimes, or altogether, omitted. 
 
 As to the first of these theories, it may be said that it is by 
 no means unlikely that the British employed single immersion. 
 This usage was followed in Spain: the early Gallican books 
 leave the question of single or triple immersion open : and in 
 the Breton diocese of St Malo single immersion was still 
 retained as late as the 17th century'. The Stowe Missal 
 testifies to the use of trine immersion or affusion in I^eland^ 
 but the composition of this book is, as we have seen, marked 
 by traces of the influence of Roman books. Against this 
 theory, on the other hand, we must set the fact that the 
 Spanish custom was allowed by St Gregory^, and the proba- 
 bility that, unless a similar usage among the British was 
 connected with heretical belief, its abolition would not have 
 been required by St Augustine. 
 
 In favour of the second view it may be said that at a later 
 time it was stated that the use of chrism in Baptism was 
 omitted by the Irish*; while in support of the third view it may 
 similarly be alleged that St Bernard of Clairvau.x asserts that 
 the Irish, at the time of St Malachi's reforms, had been wont 
 
 ^ Marleiie de Antiquis Ecclesiae RiULms vol. i. p. 50 (td. 1763). 
 Mart^ne speaks as though the usage continued in his own time, but the 
 authority he cites is the Diocesan Statuta of 1620- 
 
 ^ Warren Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church p. 2 16. 
 
 * S. Greg. Opera vol. ii. col. 532 (of the Benedictine edition). 
 
 * The statement is made by Lanfranc in a letter to the Irish king 
 Tirlagh.
 
 250 Some Liturgical Questions. 
 
 to neglect the rite of Confirmation^ The use of chrism at 
 Baptism, however, is clearly directed in the Galilean books, 
 and in the Stowe Missal: and the objections made by 
 St Bernard to the Irish practice, while they probably rest upon 
 individual cases of omission, rather than upon general usage, 
 belong to a date much later than that of St Augustine. On 
 the possibility that what was found to object to was the 
 separation of Confirmation from the Baptismal rite, it may be 
 worth notice that the GalUcan books do not contain any 
 direction that the baptized person should forthwith be con- 
 firmed. But the direction is not always found, even in Roman 
 books ; and its fulfilment would depend on the presence of 
 the bishop ^ 
 
 ^ St Bernard Vita Malachiae c. 3. 
 
 ^ The unction with chrism was in its origin a part of the baptismal rite 
 connected with the laying on of hands and performed, like that act, by the 
 bishop. When baptism came to be commonly administered by priests a 
 usage grew up in many places by which the priest administered unction 
 with chrism. Innocent I. {Ep. i. ad Decentium) allows this, provided that 
 the chrism had been consecrated by the bishop, and that the priest 
 should not anoint the forehead. That act was reserved for the bishop at 
 the time of the laying on of hands. But the latter condition was not 
 always observed : and two letters addressed by St Gregory to Januarius of 
 Calaris (Epist. iv, 9 and 16) give instructions on the matter. The first 
 lays down the rule that the priest should anoint the breast, and seems 
 to imply that it would be improper for the bishop, if the forehead had 
 been anointed with chrism, to repeat that act. The second letter, making 
 a concession to remove what was felt to be a grievance, permits priests, 
 where there is a lack of bishops, to anoint with chrism even on the 
 forehead. It is silent on the point of a repetition of such unction by the 
 bishop. The British practice might, accordingly, have involved on the 
 one hand the omission of unction by the bishop, if the priest had already 
 anointed, or, on the other, the repetition of unction administered on tlie 
 forehead. In the one case St Augustine would probably regard the whole 
 rite as incomplete : in the other he may have regarded it as completed in 
 an improper way. But in view of St Gregory's treatment of the question 
 in Sardinia it does not seem likely that any irregularity of this kind which 
 did not involve the total omission of unction with the chrism would have 
 been regarded by St Augustine as a matter of vital importance.
 
 Sojne Liturgical Questions. 251 
 
 Another suggestion has been made, which supposes that the 
 point objected to by St Augustine was not one of omission but 
 of addition to the ceremonial of the Roman rite, and is to be 
 found in the usage of washing the feet of the newly baptized, 
 after the unction with chrism. This custom, which seems to 
 have been usual in the Gallican rite, is recognised in the Stowe 
 MissaP. It was not in use at Rome-. In Spain it ai)i)ears to 
 have been prohibited by the Council of Elvira in 305, in an 
 enactment which has found a place in the Decretum of Gratian, 
 by reason of another prohibition contained in the same canon^ 
 Of its use in Britain, however, we have no evidence. Nor is it 
 likely that a custom commonly received in Gaul would have 
 been regarded by St Augustine as a thing intolerable. Perhaps 
 the true solution may be suggested by the fact that the Baptism 
 of the Britons seems to have been, at a later time, regarded as of 
 doubtful validity^ and by the statement contained in a letter of 
 Pope Zacharias to St Boniface, which asserts that a decree was 
 made in an English synod (apparently referred by the writer to the 
 time of St Augustine) declaring the nullity of Baptism "without 
 the invocation of the Trinity'." If St Augustine had reason to 
 think that the true form of Baptism was, even occasionally, 
 neglected or corrupted, his desire for a reform in the British 
 practice can be easily understood and justified. The most 
 obvious and ready way of effecting the necessary reform would 
 
 ^ Warren Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Chitrch p. 2 1 7. Mr Warren 
 seems disposed to accept the suggestion (made by Dr Rock) that this 
 additional ceremony was the point to which objection was made. 
 
 - This is expressly stated in the treatise De Sacraiiuntis, formerly 
 attributed to St Ambrose (lib. iii. c. i). 
 
 ^ See Hefele History of the Councils (Eng. Trans.) vol. i. p. 158. 
 
 '' Theodore's Penitential orders the baptism of any one of the Scots or 
 Britons who doubts whether he was duly baptized. See Haddan and 
 Stubbs Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents \\\. 197. 
 
 ' The letter is to be found in Jaffe Monti nun ta Moguntina p. 1X5. 
 The parts of it which refer to the alleged English canon arc in Iladdan and 
 Stubbs Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents '\\\. 51.
 
 252 Some Liturgical Questions. 
 
 naturally appear to him to be found in the adoption by the 
 Britons of the Baptismal rite of the Roman Church. But 
 here again the evidence is insufficient to support a decided 
 conclusion in favour of the suggestion. 
 
 Such a result is perhaps by this time too familiar to anyone 
 who may have read these notes with the hope of obtaining 
 definite information on the usages of the English Church in the 
 days of St Augustine and his followers. It is of a kind to 
 which students whose enquiries are concerned with the litur- 
 gical history of this period are well accustomed. The subject 
 is one in which much still remains to be done, perhaps much 
 to be discovered, but in which, for the present, we must often 
 be content to acknowledge that certainty is beyond our reach. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY J. H C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 A^CD 
 
 tO-UV, 
 
 m^ ' 
 
 PSD 2343 9/77
 
 3 1158 00866 4855 
 
 AA UOUliiJAtiii^