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BOOK their obedience to his directions, that the little community might have an effective governor. He wrote also to the bishop of Arles, recommending this band of religious adventurers to his friendship and assistance. He addressed letters to other prelates in France to the same purport. He requested the patronage of the Frankish kings to their undertaking; and also endeavoured to interest Brunechilda, one of their queens, to befriend it. The missionaries were forty in number. "

BUT to which kingdom of the octarchy should they first apply? a natural circumstance led them to Kent.

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ETHELBERT, who had begun his reign with the inauspicious attack on Wessex, had been afterwards so harassed by others of the Saxon kings, that it was with difficulty he preserved his own dominions from subjection. Adversity and danger had made him wiser. His future measures were more prosperous, and he became the Brætwalda of the Saxon octarchy, and predominated over it as far north as the Humber.

THE circumstance auspicious to Augustin's mission was Ethelbert's marriage with Bertha, a Frankish princess. She had been educated to be a Christian, and she had stipulated for the right of pursuing her own religion after her marriage.7 To Kent and to this queen Augustin proceeded

4 Bede, lib. i. c. 23. p. 59.

These letters of Gregory are printed amid his very multifarious correspondence, which are classed in twelve books, and occupy the fourth volume of his works. Dr. Smith has selected those which concern this mission, in the appendix to his Bede, No. 6.; and Mrs. Elstob has translated them in her appendix, p. 7, &c.

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7 Bede, lib.i. c. 25. Hunting. 321.

with his companions, with interpreters whom the CHAP. king of the Francs had provided.

AUGUSTIN sent one of these to Ethelbert, to announce that he came from Rome, and had brought with him a messenger, who promised to those that obeyed him everlasting joys in heaven, and a kingdom that should never end. The king, whom the conduct of his queen had dispossessed of all virulence against Christianity ordered them to remain in Thanet, where they had landed, supplied with every necessary, till he had determined what he should do with them.

INTERESTED by their arrival, the queen was not likely to be inactive. But the freedom of all the Anglo-Saxon tribes, and the power of their witenagemots, as well as the opposing influence of the Saxon priests, occasioned Ethelbert to pause. After a few days' deliberation, he went into the island and appointed a conference. He sat in the open air, fearful lest, if he received them in a house, he should be exposed to the power of their magic if they used any. They came with a simple but impressive ceremony. They advanced in an orderly procession, preceded by a silver cross, as their standard, and carrying also a painted portrait of our Saviour, and chanting their litany as they approached. The king commanded them to sit down, and to him and his earls, who accompanied them, they disclosed their mission." Ethelbert answered with a steady and not unfriendly judg

s Bede, lib. i. c. 25. p. 61. The homily briefly states the substance of the address of Augustin :- "Hu re mildheopta hælend mid hir azenpe thpopanze thisne scyldigan middaneaɲde alÿrde geleafFullum mannum heofena picer inpæn geoponode," p. 34. The substance of the sermon is given at length by Joscelin, Angl. Sac. vol. ii. p. 59.; and a translation of it in Elstob. p. 33.

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BOOK ment. "Your words and promises are fair, but they are new and uncertain. I cannot therefore abandon the rites, which in common with all the nations of the Angles, I have hitherto observed. But as you have come so far to communicate to us what you believe to be true, and the most excellent, we will not molest you. We will receive you hospitably, and supply you with what you need. Nor do we forbid any one to join your society whom you can persuade to prefer it." He gave them a mansion in Canterbury, his metropolis, for their residence, and allowed them to preach as they pleased."

THEY entered the city singing the litanies, which they had found to be interesting to the populace. They distinguished themselves by prayers, vigils, and fastings, which excited the admiration of those who visited them; and their discourses pleased many. On the east side of the city, a church had been built, during the residence of the Romans, dedicated to St. Martin, which the queen had used as her oratory. Here they sang, prayed, performed their mass, and preached till they made several converts, whom they baptised. The impression spread, till at length the king was affected,

9 The text is from Bede, p. 61. But Alfred's Saxon of this speech perhaps exhibits most exactly the actual words of Ethelbert: Fæzene word this rýnd and gehat the zebpohton 7 ur ræczach. Ac Forthon hi nipe sýndon and uncuthe, ne mazon pe nu zýt tha zethafizean tha pe foplætan tha piran the pe langere tide mid ealle Angel theobe heoldan. Ac Fonthon the ze feoppan hidep æltheodize coman and thær the me zethuht and zerapen is tha thing tha the roth and betst gelyfbon, tha ze eac rpylce pyllabon tha zemænsuman, ne pýllach pe fondhon eop herize beon: Ac pe pillach eop Fremrumlice on zærtlichnerre onfon and eop andĺyrne ryllan and eoppe theappe Fonzifan. Ne pe eop bepepath tha ze ealle tha the ze mazon thuph eoppe lape to copper gelearan æfertnýrre getheobe and zecyppe," p. 487.

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and became himself a Christian. 10 In no part of CHAP. the world has Christianity been introduced in a manner more suitable to its benevolent character.

THE peculiar form of this religion, which Gregory and Augustin thus introduced, was of course that system which Rome then professed. It was the best system which had been recognised at Rome; and it could not be better than that age or the preceding times were capable of receiving or framing. It was a compound of doctrines, ritual, discipline, and polity, derived partly from the Scriptures, partly from tradition, partly from the decisions and orders of former councils and popes, and partly from popular customs and superstitions, which had been permitted to intermix themselves. But such as it was, it was the most impressive form that either its teachers or the then intellect of the world could furnish. Nor is it clear that its new converts would have relished or understood any purer system. The papal clergy were then the most enlightened portion of the western world; and the system which they preferred must have been superior to any that the barbaric judgment could have provided.

THE pope continued his attentions to his infant church. He sent Augustin the pall, the little addition to his dress which marked the dignity of an archbishop, with a letter of instructions on the formation of the English hierarchy: also several MSS. of books", ecclesiastical vessels, vestments, 10 Bede, c. 26.

11 Bede, c. 29. p. 70. Wanley has given a catalogue of the books sent by Gregory. These were, 1st, A Bible, adorned with some leaves of a purple and rose colour, in two volumes, which was extant in the time of James the First: 2d, The Psalter of St. Augustin, with the Creed, Pater Noster, and several Latin hymns: 3d, Two

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BOOK and ornaments 2, and some religious persons to assist him, who were afterwards active in the conversion of the rest of the island. Augustin restored from its ruins another British church at Canterbury, which had been built in the Roman times, and began the erection of a monastery. The king sanctioned and assisted him in all that he did; and afterwards became distinguished as the author of the first written Saxon laws, which have descended to us, or which are known to have been established; - an important national benefit, for which he may have been indebted to his Christian teachers, as there is no evidence that the Saxons wrote any compositions before. Gregory sent into the island many manuscripts," and thus began its intellectual as well as religious education. 1

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SEVEN years after Augustin's successful exertions in Kent, he appointed two of the persons that arrived last from Rome, Mellitus and Justus, to the episcopal dignity, and directed them to the kingdom of Essex. Sabert, the son of Ethelbert's sister, was then reigning. The new religion was

copies of the Gospels, with the ten Canons of Eusebius prefixed; one of which Elstob believed to be in the Bodleian library, and the other at Cambridge, p. 42: 4th, Another Psalter with hymns: 5th, A volume containing legends on the sufferings of the apostles, with a picture of our Saviour in silver, in a posture of blessing: 6th, Another volume on the martyrs, which had on the outside a glory, silver gilt, set round with crystals and beryls: 7th, An exposition of the Epistles and Gospels, which had on the cover a large beryl surrounded with crystals. Augustin also brought Gregory's Pastoral Care, which Alfred translated. See Elstob, p. 39–43., and Wanley, 172., whose description is taken from Thomas de Elmham, a monk of Augustin's abbey, in the time of Henry the Fifth. See also Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 431.

12 A list of the vestments, vessels, relics, &c., sent by Gregory is added to Elstob, from Wanley's communication, App. 34—40. 14 Bede, lib. i. c. 29.

13 Bede, lib. i. c. 33.

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