slowly. It was not till 597 that they landed at Ebbesfleet, in the Isle of Thanet.

They had chosen their place prudently. Ethelbert, King of Kent, had married, as has been before stated, a Christian princess. It had been agreed that the Queen should be allowed to follow her own religion; she had a chaplain, Luidhard, Bishop of Senlis; and the old Roman-British Church of St. Martin, in Canterbury, had been assigned for the Christian worship. Ethelbert received Augustine's messengers courteously, and promised to give him the interview for which he asked. Only he stipulated that the meeting must take place in the open air. He feared the power of the spells which the strangers might be able to use were he to talk to them under a roof.

The King and the missionaries met under an oak held sacred by the people of the country. Augustine did his best to make the scene impressive. He came up from the shore in solemn procession. A crossbearer carried in front a large cross of silver. Next came another attendant bearing a picture of Christ, richly worked on a panel with gold and colours. Behind came the rest of the company, chanting a litany in which they besought the mercy of God on the people of Kent and themselves. The King knew no Latin; the missionaries could not speak English. But some priests who had come with Augustine from Gaul interpreted his words when he explained what the Christ whose picture they saw had come to do. Ethelbert answered that the promises of the strangers

The place where Hengist and Horsa are said to have landed.

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sounded well. He could not undertake to leave the faith and customs of his fathers, but his people might do as they thought best. He invited the missionaries to come back with him to his capital town of Canterbury. There they were permitted to worship in the Church of St. Martin.

Their success was rapid. They had landed, it would seem, in the early spring of 697, and on June 2nd (which was the festival of Whitsunday) the King was baptized. His zeal and liberality were remarkable. He gave up to Augustine his own palace, and helped him in other ways most effectually.

Augustine naturally looked for the help of the British churches. This hope was disappointed, probably from faults on both sides. The Roman missionary considered that the native bishops owed him obedience as having been put under his care by Pope Gregory. His chief demands were that they should follow the Roman time of keeping Easter, and that they should help in preaching to the English. The first meeting had no result. At a second seven British bishops and the Abbot of Bangor came to confer with Augustine. On their way they had asked the advice of a hermit. the customs of our fathers? comer be a man of God." whether he be such or no?" my yoke upon you and learn and lowly.' If this Augustine be meek and lowly, be sure that he beareth the yoke of Christ." "But how shall we know this?" "If he rise to meet you when you approach, hear and follow him; but if he

"Shall we change

"Yes, if the new"How shall we know "The Lord said, 'Take of me, for I am meek

despise you and rise not, reject him." Augustine, looking upon himself as superior in rank, remained seated and the British bishops refused to yield to his demands. "If he will not rise up to greet us," they said, "how much more will he despise us, if we yield to him." Augustine was greatly enraged. "If ye will not have peace with your brethren, ye shall have war with your enemies. If ye will not preach the way of life to the English, ye shall suffer death at their hands." These were words which soon had a terrible fulfilment, and were afterwards believed to have been spoken with a sinister meaning.

Among the English themselves Augustine had more success. Another bishopric was founded at Rochester, and the whole of Kent soon became Christian. The small kingdom of Essex, then ruled by Sebert, a nephew of King Ethelbert, accepted the new faith; and London, its capital, became the seat of a bishop. Mellitus, one of a company sent out by Gregory in 601, to reinforce Augustine, was the first to occupy the see.

The nex. conquest was Northumbria. Here, Edwin, son of Ella, and rightful heir, had been dispossessed by his neighbour Ethelfrith. The boy-he was but three years old—had been brought up by a British king. His protector was defeated in a battle fought near Chester by Ethelfrith.1 Edwin fled, first to

It was after this battle that the prophecy of Augustine found a terrible fulfilment. The monks of Bangor stood on a neighbouring hill, watching the struggle, and offering up prayers for the success of their countrymen. The battle over, the King of Northumbria inquired who they were. When he was told, he said, "If they cry to their God against us, and load us with imprecations, then, though unarmed, they fight against us," and commanded that they should be put to death.

THE VISION OF EDWIN.

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Mercia, and then to Redwald, King of East Anglia. To two requests of Ethelbert that the fugitive should be given up, Redwald returned a refusal. A third, strengthened by a great bribe and by a threat of war, he made up his mind to grant. A friend warned Edwin of his danger, but he refused to fly. "I will not break my compact," he said, "with a king who has not harmed me. If I am to die, let him rather than a less noble hand deliver me to death? And whither can I flee, I, who have wandered through all the provinces of Britain ?"

The friend departed, and the prince sat down on a stone in front of the palace. A stranger came up and asked him, "Why do you wake when others sleep? Think not, however, that I do not know the care of your waking. Say, then, what reward will you give to him who shall deliver you from these cares, and persuade Redwald not to give you into the hand of your enemies?" "He shall have all the gratitude of my heart." "And what if he shall promise that you shall destroy your adversaries and be more powerful, not only than your forefathers, but than any English king?" "I will give myself to him." "And if he tell you of doctrines of life and salvation better than aught your fathers have heard, will you listen to him?" "I will." Then the stranger laid his hand on Edwin's head, and said, "When this sign shall be repeated, remember this sign and this hour, and fulfil what you now promise." With these words the stranger, it is said, vanished. Shortly afterwards, Edwin's friend returned with the news that Redwald, persuaded by his queen, had refused the offers of

Ethelfrid. Nor was this all; he marched against the usurper, and defeated him in a bloody battle on the eastern bank of the Idle. Edwin thus regained his paternal dominions. He declined, however, to receive baptism, notwithstanding the persuasions of his Christian wife, Ethelburga, daughter of Ethelbert of Kent, and her adviser, Paulinus. But when he had narrowly escaped assassination at the hand of an emissary of the King of Wessex, and was further touched by the danger of his wife, who was delivered of a daughter a few hours after the attempt, he could resist no longer. He was in this mood when Paulinus, so runs the story, approached him, laid his hand upon his head, and asked him whether he recognized the sign. The King at once promised to receive the faith, and assembled his council to discuss the matter with them. Coifi, the high priest, when asked for his opinion, declared that in his opinion the old gods were nothing worth. "No one," he said, "has been more zealous for them than I, yet many have received greater rewards and attained more success." Another noble answered the king's question in a famous apologue. "This life, O King, in comparison with the time that is hidden from us, seems to be such as this. When you are sitting in your hall at your meal in the winter time, with your nobles about you and a fire in the midst, a sparrow flies quickly through, entering at one door and passing out by the other. So it goes from storm to storm. Such is the life of man. this doctrine tells us anything more certain, let us

If

I The Idle rises five miles from Retford, and flows into the Trent a few miles below Gainsborough.