he had extended his dominions as far as the great river Humber, by which the Southern Saxons are divided from the Northern. On the east of Kent is the large Isle of Thanet containing according to the English way of reckoning, 600 families, divided from the other land by the river Wantsum,* which is about three furlongs over, and fordable only in two places, for both ends of it run into the sea. In this island landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported, nearly forty men. They had, by order of the blessed Pope Gregory, taken interpreters of the nation of the Franks,† and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome, and brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured to all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven, and a kingdom that would never end, with the living and true God. The king having heard this, ordered them to stay in that island where they had landed, and that they should be furnished with all necessaries, till he should consider what to do with them. For he had before heard of the Christian religion, having a Christian wife of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha ; whom he had received from her parents, upon condition that she should be permitted to practise her religion with the Bishop Luidhard, § who was sent with her to preserve her faith. Some days after, the king came into the island, and sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to be brought into his presence. For he had taken precaution that they should not come to him in any house, lest, according to an ancient superstition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose upon him, and so get the better of him. But they

⚫ Thanet is now divided from the rest of Kent by a narrow rill, crossed by an arch of the smallest span. In Bede's time the two arms of the Stour were a channel nearly a mile in width, which received several streams besides the Greater and Lesser Stour. This channel was called the Wantsum.

The Franks and English Saxons were equally German nations; the former came 130 years earlier from beyond the Rhine; the latter from the countries about the mouths of the Rhine and the Elbe, and about Holstein, on the continent of Denmark, still called Jutland. Hence the French and English both had the same language, as Bishop Godwin obBerves from the circumstance. This confirmed by other clear proofs by the learned William Howel, in his Institution of General History. Daughter of Charibert, king of Paris.

Bishop of Senlis.

came furnished with Divine, not with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of our Lord and Saviour painted on a board; and singing the litany, they offered up their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of those to whom they were come. When he had sat down, pursuant to the king's commands, and preached to him and his attendants there present, the word of life, the king answered thus :-"Your words and promises are very fair, but as they are new to us, and of uncertain import, I cannot approve of them so far as to forsake that which I have so long followed with the whole English nation. But because you are come from far into my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous to impart to us those things which you believe to be true, and most beneficial, we will not molest you, but give you favourable entertainment, and take care to supply you with your necessary sustenance; nor do we forbid you to preach and gain as many as you can to your religion." Accordingly he permitted them to reside in the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and, pursuant to his promise, besides allowing them sustenance, did not refuse them liberty to preach. It is reported that, as they drew near to the city, after their manner, with the holy cross, and the image of our sovereign Lord and King, Jesus Christ, they, in concert, sung this litany: "We beseech thee, O Lord, in all thy mercy, that thy anger and wrath be turned away from this city, and from thy holy house, because we have sinned. Hallelujah."†

It would appear, from the humanity and kindness with which St. Augustine was received immediately on his arrival, that Bishop Luidhard was his precursor, and opened a way for his success; and that the piety and prayers of Queen Bertha herself are not likely to have been without their effect in causing Ethelbert to lend an attentive ear to the preaching of St. Augustine.

+ With St. Augustine, it is recorded, that St. Gregory sent the following books-a Bible in two vols. ; a Psalter, and a book of the Gospels; a book of Martyrology; Apocryphal Lives of the Apostles; and expositions of certain Epistles and Gospels. The Canterbury Book, in the library of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, closes the brief catalogue in these expressive words: "These are the foundation, or beginning, of the library of the whole English church, A.D. 601." See Wanley's Catalogue of Saxon manu scripts in vol. ii. of Dr. Hickes's Thesaurus, p. 172.

A.D. 597.]

CHAP. XXVI.

St. Augustine in Kent followed the doctrine and manner of living of the primitive church, and settled his episcopal see in the royal city. (A.D. 597]

As soon as they entered the dwelling-place assigned them, they began to imitate the course of life practised in the primitive church; applying themselves to frequent prayer, watching and fasting; preaching the word of life to as many as they could; despising all worldly things, as not belonging to them; receiving only their necessary food from those they taught; living themselves in all respects conformably to what they prescribed to others, and being always disposed to suffer any adversity, and even to die for that truth which they preached. In short, several believed and were baptized, admiring the simplicity of their innocent life, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine. There was on the east side of the city, a church dedicated to the honour of St. Martin,* built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein the queen, who, as has been said before, was a Christian, used to pray. In this they first began to meet, to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize, till the king, being converted to the faith, allowed them to preach openly, and build or repair churches in all places.

When he, among the rest, induced by the unspotted life of these holy men, and their delightful promises, which, by many miracles, they proved to be most certain, believed and was baptized, greater numbers began daily to flock together to hear the word, and, forsaking their heathen rites, to associate themselves, by believing, to the unity of the church of Christ. Their conversion the king so far encouraged, as that he compelled none to embrace Christianity, but only showed more affection to the believers, as to his fellow citizens in the heavenly kingdom. For he had learned from his instructors and leaders to salvation, that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not by compulsion. Nor was

The present church of St. Martin near Canterbury is not the old one spoken of by Bede, as it is generally thought to be, but is a structure of the thirteenth century, though it is probable that the materials of the origical church were worked up in the masonry on its re-construction, the wal1being still composed in part of Roman bricks.

it long before he gave his teachers a settled residence in his metropolis of Canterbury, with such possessions of different kinds as were necessary for their subsistence.

CHAP. XXVII.

St. Augustine, being made bishop, sends to acquaint Pope Gregory with what had been done, and receives his answer to the doubts he had proposed to him. [A.D. 597.]

*

In the meantime, Augustine, the man of God, repaired to Arles, and, pursuant to the orders received from the holy Father Gregory, was ordained archbishop of the English nation, by Etherius,† archbishop of that city. Then returning into Britain, he sent Laurentius the priest, and Peter the monk, to Rome, to acquaint Pope Gregory, that the nation of the English had received the faith of Christ, and that he was himself made their bishop. At the same time, he desired his solution of some doubts that occurred to him. He soon received proper answers to his questions, which we have also thought fit to insert in this our history :

The First Question of Augustine, Bishop of the Church of Canterbury.-Concerning bishops, how they are to behave themselves towards their clergy? or into how many portions the things given by the faithful to the altar are to be divided? and how the bishop is to act in the church?

Gregory, Pope of the City of Rome, answers.-Holy Writ, which no doubt you are well versed in, testifies, and particularly St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy, wherein he endeavours to instruct him how he should behave himself in the house of God; but it is the custom of the apostolic see to prescribe

* Augustine was not consecrated as archbishop either of London or Can. terbury; but by the general title of the " Bishop of the English,” (Anglorum Episcopus,) that he might be at liberty to fix his seat in whatever part of the country he pleased.-Parker, Antiq. Britan. p. 18. The primacy of Canterbury is owing to the fact of Kent being the first and chief of the Saxon kingdoms, extending to the Humber.

For Etherius read Vergilius, see note at p. 36. Arles is situated in the extreme south of France, not far from the Mediterranean. Early in the fifth century, the emperor Honorius erected this city into a metropolis over seven of the sixteen provinces into which Gaul was at that time divided; the bishop of Rome, apprehensive that the archbishop of Arles might elevate himself into a patriarch of the whole kingdom, appointed him his apostolic vicar in Gaul.

rules to bishops newly ordained, that all emoluments which accrue, are to be divided into four portions ;-one for the bishop and his family, because of hospitality and entertainments; another for the clergy; a third for the poor; and the fourth for the repair of churches. But in regard that you, my brother, being brought up under monastic rules, are not to live apart from your clergy in the English church, which, by God's assistance, has been lately brought to the faith; you are to follow that course of life which our forefathers did in the time of the primitive church, when none of them said anything that he possessed was his own, but all things were in common among them.

But if there are any clerks not received into holy orders, who cannot live continent, they are to take wives, and receive their stipends abroad; because we know it is written, that out of the same portions above-mentioned a distribution was made to each of them according to every one's wants. Care is also to be taken of their stipends, and provision to be made, and they are to be kept under ecclesiastical rules, that they may live orderly, and attend to singing of psalms, and, by the help of God, preserve their hearts, and tongues, and bodies from all that is unlawful. But as for those that live in common, why need we say anything of making portions, or keeping hospitality and exhibiting mercy? inasmuch as all that can be spared is to be spent in pious and religious works, according to the commands of Him who is the Lord and Master of all, "Give alms of such things as you have, and behold all things are clean unto you."

Augustine's Second Question.—Whereas the faith is one and the same, why are there different customs in different churches? and why is one custom of masses observed in the holy Roman church, and another in the Gallican church?

Pope Gregory answers.— -You know, my brother, the custom of the Roman church in which you remember you were bred up. But it pleases me, that if you have found anything, either in the Roman, or the Gallican,* or any other

It is presumed that Luidhard, bishop of Senlis, who accompanied Bertha from Paris on her marriage with Ethelbert, would use the Gallican rites in the church of St. Martin, at Canterbury, and that this must have attracted the attention of St. Augustine on his landing in our island. It is not improbable too that St. Germanus effected a great change in the eccle