4. Similar in interest, though varied in detail, are the stories of Augustine's mission to England, A.D. 596; that of Boniface to Germany, A.D. 715; and that of Anksgar to Scandinavia, A.D. 826 ; together with that of many of their associates and successors. Nor were the missions among the Sclavonic races during the 9th and 10th centuries without many incidents of great in- terest. See I\lacli'ar's Missions in the 3Iiddles Ages; Milman's Latin C/irisliiini/)/ ; Merivale's Conversion of the Northern Nations; Guizot's History of Civilization ; etc.
5. A period has now been reached when it is neces- sary to take note of another important element in the history and character of missions, viz., papal influence. Gregory the Great, A.D. 568-604, was the first of the bishops" of Rome who exerted any decided official in- fluence on the propagation of Christianity by means of missions. " His project of sending missionaries to Eng-
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land, formed before his attaining the pontifical dignity, was among the first to be carried into execution. In the year 596 he despatched Augustine, with forty assist- ant monks, to effect the conversion of the Anglo-Sax- ons. Conversion, in the dialect of Kome, signified noth- ing more than proselytism ; and it was sanguinely hoped j that by influencing the chiefs to renounce idolatry their j subjects would soon be converted in a mass. . . . Tlie success of Augustine and his brethren was even beyond ; their expectation. Landing on the Isle of Thanet, they j applied to Ethelbcrt, the king of Kent, for permission to preach in his kingdom. Kthelbert had married a ; Christian princess, and ^vas therefore not unfavorably disposed towards his uninvited guests. Yet so ignorant was he of the nature of their errand that he insisted that their first interview with him shoidd take filace iu the open air, lest he should fall a victim to their magi- cal arts. Augustine's eloquence, however, soon inspired the king with confidence, and Kthelbert then granted to the missionaries an old, ruinous church at Canterbury, dedicated to St. Martin, and which had existed from the time of tlie Komans, as their first station for preach- ing the Gospel. Ere long the king yielded to the argu- ments of Augustine or the persuasions of his wife, and his baptism was followed by tliat of many of his sub- jects, no fewer than ten thousand being thus nominally received into the Church on a single occasion. . . . Gregory was overjoyed at the success of his mission, and needed no solicitations to send a re-enforcement of preachers, all of whom were monks. lie next divided the whole island into two archbishoprics, appointing I Augustine to be archbishop of London, and constituting : York the metropolitan city of the north when Christi- ! anity sliould have penetrated so far. As London had | not yet, liowevcr, embraced the new religion, and was not within the domains of Ethclbert, Augustine made Canterbury his abode and see. In the true spirit of Roman arrogance, Augustine assumed to himself the right of governing all the churches in Britain, whether planted by the recent laborers or existing from earlier times. But the ancient British churches were indig- nant at such an encroachment on their independence and liberties. ' We are all prepared,' said Deynoch, ab- bot of Bangor, on one occasion, ' to hearken to tlie Church of God, to the pope of Kome, and to every ])ious Chris- tian, so as to manifest to all, according to their several stations, perfect charity, and to uphold and aid them both by word and deed. What other duty we can owe to him whom you call 7>o/}p, or father of fathers, we do not know ; but this we are ready to exercise towards him and every other Christian.' This independence by no means pleased Augustine; and he was heard to say to his Anglo-Saxon followers, 'Well, then, since they will not own the Anglo-Saxons as brethren, or al- low lis to make known to them the way of hie, they must regard them as enemies, and look for revenge.' The horrible spirit which dictated such a speech is too apparent to need comment, and shows how little of real Christianity the Boman missionaries mingled with their zeal for the papal see. In the contests which the new Church tlius waged with the old, the infiuence of Au- gustine and his followers with the Saxon kings gener- ally enabled them to triumph ; and although the British churches long persevered in maintaining their freedom, they gradually became alisorbed in the Anglican hie- rarchy; and, long before the Norman invasion, those who ventured to dissent from the lioman forms of wor- ship were only to be found in the extreme jjarts of the island.
"During the pontificate of Gregory, the Spanish Church also became subject to the primacy of Kome. Before this period the (ioths, who had established their power in Spain, were of the Arian ])arty; but on their king, Kcckared, professing his belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, the bishops in a body requested the pope to undertake the supervision of their affairs— a request with which Gregory was only too hapiiy to comply.
He attempted, moreover, to obtain the subjection of the French clergy, but in this he could only partly succeed. Nevertheless, he formed alliances with the French princes, nobles, and bishops; and, considering their Church as subject to his inspection, did not hesitate to interfere on many occasions both with advice and with admonition.