30 FOURTH PEEIOD. A. D. 590 TO 1049.
§10. The Mission of Gregory and Augustin. Conversion of Kent. A. D. 595-604.
With the conquest of the Anglo-Saxons, who were heathen barbarians, Christianity was nearly extirpated in Britain. Priests were cruelly massacred, churches and monasteries were destroyed, together with the vestiges of a weak Roman civilization. The hatred and weakness of the Britons prevented them from oifering the gospel to the conquerors, who in turn would have rejected it from contempt of the conquered. l
But fortunately Christianity was re-introduced from a remote country, and by persons who had nothing to do with the quar rels of the two races. To Rome, aided by the influence of France, belongs the credit of reclaiming England to Christianity and civilization. In England the first, and, we may say, the only purely national church in the West was founded, but in close union with the papacy. "The English church," says Freeman, " reverencing Rome, but not slavishly bowing down to her, grew up with a distinctly national character, and gra dually infused its influence into all the feelings and habits of the English people. By the end of the seventh century, the inde pendent, insular, Teutonic church had become one of the bright est lights of the Christian firmament. In short, the introduction
Latin graduate. See GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, Clironicon sive Historia Sritonum (1130 and 1147, translated into English by Aaron Thomson, London, 1718); Sir T. MALORY, History of Prince Arthur (1480-1485, new ed. by Southey,1817); WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, Parcivaland Titurd (about 1205, transl. by K. Simrock, Stuttg., 1842); LACHMANN, Wolfram von Eschcnbach (Berlin, 1833, 2nd ed., 1854) ; GOSCHEL, Die Sage von Parclval und vom Oral nnch Wolfram von Eschenbach (Berlin, 1858) ; PAULIN PARIS, Les Romans de la Table Ronde (Paris, 1860) ; TENNYSON, The Idylls of the King (.1859), and The Holy Grail (1869); SKENE, Four Ancient Books of' Wales (1868); STUART- GLENNIE, Arthurian Localities (1869) ; BIRCH-HIRSCHFELD, Die Sage vom Grai, (Leipz., 1877) ; and an article of GOSCHEL, Oral, in the first ed. of Herzog's Encykl. V. 312 (omitted in the second ed.).
1 Bede (I. 22) counts it among the most wicked acts or neglects, rather, of the Britons mentioned even by their own historian Gildas, that they never preached the faith to the Saxons who dwelt among them.
§ 10. THE MISSION OF GREGOKY AND AUGUSTIX. 31
of Christianity completely changed the position of the English nation, both within its own island and towards the rest of the world."1
The origin of the Anglo-Saxon mission reads like a beautiful romance. Pope Gregory I., when abbot of a Benedictine con vent, saw in the slave-market of Rome three Anglo-Saxon boys offered for sale. He was impressed with their fine appearance, fair complexion, sweet faces and light flaxen hair; and learning, to his grief, that they were idolaters, he asked the name of their nation, their country, and their king. When he heard that they were Angles, he said : " Right, for they have angelic faces, and are worthy to be fellow-heirs with angels in heaven." They were from the province Deira. " Truly," he replied, " are they DCira-ns, that is; plucked from the ire of God, and called to the mercy of Christ." He asked the name of their king, which was JEllaor Ella (who reigned from 559 to 588). "Hallelujah," he exclaimed, "the praise of God the Creator must be sung in those parts." He proceeded at once from the slave market to the pope, and entreated him to send missionaries to England, offering himself for this noble work. He actually started for the spiritual conquest of the distant island. But the Romans would not part with him, called him back, and shortly afterwards elected him pope (590). What he could not do in person, he carried out through others.2
In the year 596, Gregory, remembering his interview with the sweet-faced and fair-haired Anglo-Saxon slave-boys, and hearing of a favorable opportunity for a mission, sent the Benedictine abbot ATTGUSTIX (Austin), thirty other monks, and a priest, Laurentius, with instructions, letters of recommendation to the Frank
1 History of the Norman conquest of England, Vol. I., p. 22 (Oxford cd. of 1873).
2 Bcda (B. IT., ch. 1 at the close) received this account "from the ancients" (ab antiquix, or traditione majnrum], but gives it as an episode, not as a part of the English mission (which is related I. 53). The elaborate play on words excites critical suspicion of the truth of the story, which, though well told, is probably invented or embellished, like so many legends about Gregory. "Se non vero, e ben trovato."