34 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590 TO 1049.
age, yet, upon the whole, with much good sense and pastoral wisdom.1
It is remarkable that this pope, unlike his successors, did not insist on absolute conformity to the Roman church, but advises Augustin, who thought that the different customs of the Gallican church were inconsistent with the unity of faith, " to choose from every church those things that are pious, religious and upright ;" for "things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things."2 In other respects, the advice falls in with the papal system and practice. He directs the missionaries not to destroy the heathen temples, but to convert them into Christian churches, to substitute the wor ship of relics for the worship of idols, and to allow the new converts, on the day of dedication and other festivities, to kill cattle according to their ancient custom, yet no more to the devils, but to the praise of God; for it is impossible, he thought, to eiface everything at once from their obdurate minds; and he who endeavors to ascend to the highest place, must rise by degrees or steps, and not by leaps.3 This method was faith fully followed by his missionaries. It no doubt facilitated the
1 Bede I. 27 sqq. gives extracts from Gregory's answers. It is curious how the pope handles such delicate subjects as the monthly courses and the carnal intercourse between married people. A husband, he says, should not approach his wife after the birth of an infant, till the infant be weaned. Mothers should not give their children to other women to suckle. A man who has approached his wife is not to enter the church unless washed with water and till after sun set. We see here the genius of Romanism which aims to control by its legisla tion all the ramifications of human life, and to shackle the conscience by a subtle and minute casuistry. Barbarians, however, must be treated like children.
2 " Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt. Ex singidis ergo quibusdam ecclesiis, quce pia, quce religiosa, qute recta sunt, elige, et Twee, quasi in fasciculum collectd, apud Anglorum mantes in consuetudinem depone." Gr. Respons. ad interrogat. Aug., Ep. XI. 64, and Bede I. 27.
3 " Is qui locum summum ascendere nititur, gradibus vel passibus, non autem saltibus elevatur." Ep. lib. XI. 76 (and Bede I. 30). This epistle of the year 601 is addressed to Mellitus on his way to England, but is intended for Augustin ad faciliorem Anglorum conversionem. In Sardinia, where Christianity already pre vailed, Gregory advised Bishop Januarius to suppress the remaining heathen ism by imprisonment and corporal punishment.
I 11. ANTAGONISM OF THE SAXON AND BKITISII CLERGY. 35
nominal conversion of England, but swept a vast amount of heathenism into the Christian church, which it took centuries to eradicate.
Gregory sent to Aiigustin, June 22, 601, the metropolitan pall (pallium), several priests (Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and others), many books, sacred vessels and vestments, and relics of apostles and martyrs. He directed him to ordain twelve bishops in the archiepiscopal diocese of Canterbury, and to ap point an archbishop for York, who was also to ordain twelve bishops, if the country adjoining should receive the word of God. Mellitus was consecrated the first bishop of London; Justus, bishop of Rochester, both in 604 by Augustin (without assist ants); Paulinus, the first archbishop of York, 625, after the death of Gregory and Augustin.1 The pope sent also letters and presents to king Ethelbert, "his most excellent son," ex horting him to persevere in the faith, to commend it by good works among his subjects, to suppress the worship of idols, and to follow the instructions of Augustin.
§ 11. Antagonism of the Saxon and British Clergy.
BEDE, II. 2; HADDAN and STUBBS, III. 38-41.
Augustin, with the aid of king Ethelbert, arranged (in 602 or 603) a conference with the British bishops, at a place in Sussex near the banks of the Severn under an oak, called " Augustin's Oak."2 He admonished them to conform to the Roman ceremo nial in the observance of Easter Sunday, and the mode of admi nistering baptism, and to unite with their Saxon brethren in converting the Gentiles. Augustin had neither wisdom nor
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charity enough to sacrifice even the most trifling ceremonies on the altar of peace. He was a pedantic and contracted churchman. He met the Britons, who represented at all events an older and native Christianity, with the haughty spirit of Rome, which is
1 York and London had been the first metropolitan sees among the Britons. London was even then, as Be do- (II. 3) remarks, a mart of many nations resort ing to it by sea and land.
2 On the time and place of the two conferences see the notes in Iladdau and Stubbs, III. 40 and 41.