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Ethelbert bade them seat themselves upon theground. He himself could not understand Latin,and Augustine could not speak Anglo-Saxon. Sothe priests whom Augustine had brought fromFrance did their best to interpret, while Augus-tine explained the meaning of the picture whichwas borne aloft, and told the king how theMerciful One there represented had left Histhrone in heaven, died for the sins of a guilty-world, and opened the kingdom of heaven to allbelievers." 1 Ethelbert listened attentively, andthen, in a manner at once politic and courteous,replied that the promises of the strangers werefair, but the tidings they announced were newand full of meaning he did not understand.He could not give his assent to them and leavethe customs of his people, but he promised thestrangers kindness and hospitality, together withliberty, to celebrate their services, and undertookthat none of his subjects, who might be so dis-posed, should be prohibited from espousing theirreligion. Thus successful beyond their expecta-tions, Augustine and his companions again formeda procession, and crossing the ferry to Rich-borough, advanced to the rude city of Canterbury,then embosomed in thickets," chanting as theywent along one of the solemn Litanies which theyhad learnt from Gregory, and took up theirabode in the Stable-gate, 0 near the presentChurch of St. Alphege, till the king should finallymake up his mind.
6. The Baptism of Ethelbert . Thus admittedinto the city, the missionaries devoted themselvesto prayer and fasting, and commended the Wordthey preached by their own self-devotion andpure and chaste living. This made a still morefavourable impression, and they were before longallowed to worship with the queen in the Churchof St. Martin, and were thus encouraged to carryon their labours more openly and with renewedzeal. At last Ethelbert avowed himself readyto accept Christianity, and was baptized on theFeast of Whitsunday, June 2, A.D. 597, in allprobability at St. Martin’s Church .p
The conversion of their chief was, as is illus-trated again and again in the history of MediaevalMissions, the signal for the baptism of the tribe.At the next assembly, therefore, of the witanf ithe matter was formally referred to the autho-rities of the kingdom, and they decided to followthe example of Ethelbert. Accordingly on the25th of the December following, upwards of tenthousand r received baptism in the waters of theSwale, at the mouth of the Medway, and thussealed their acceptance of the new faith.
Thus successful in the immediate object of themission, Augustine repaired to France, and wasconsecrated the first Archbishop of Canterburyby Virgilius, the Metropolitan of Arles. On hisreturn he took up his abode in the wooden palaceof Ethelbert, who retired to Reculver, and this,with an old British or Roman church hard by,became the nucleus of Augustine’s cathedral.Another proof of the king’s kindness was soon
m See Gocelin, ii. 17.
n See Stanley’s Memorials of Canterbury, p. 19.
0 “ In ea parte urbis quae Stable-gate dicta est, ut W,Thom tradit.”—Smith’s note on Bede, H. E. \. 25
v Stanley’s Memorials of Canterbury, p. 37.
q Kemble’s Saxons in England, ii. 205.
r See the letter of Gregory to the patriarch of Alex-andria, Epp. viit. 30.
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displayed. To the west uf Canterbury, and mid-way between it and the church of St. Martin,was a building, once a British church, but nowused as a Saxon temple. This Ethelbert, insteadof destroying, 8 made over to the archbishop, whodedicated it to St. Pancras, in memory, probably,of the young Roman martyr, on the tombs ofwhose family the monastery on the CaelianMount at Rome had been built. Round thisbuilding now rose another monastery, at thehead of which Augustine placed one of his com-panions, Peter, as its first Abbot.
Before, however, these arrangements werecompleted, he sent Peter and Laurence to informGregory of the success of the mission. Theywere to recount to him how the country of thefair-haired slaves he had once pitied in the Romanforum had received the faith, how Augustinehimself had been advanced to archiepiscopaldignity, and they were to beg for answers tocertain questions respecting the conduct of themission, which caused him no little anxiety. *
The messengers went their way, and executedtheir commission. Gregory was overjoyed at thereceipt of the intelligence," and after an intervalsent over a reinforcement of fresh labourers forthe mission, amongst whom were Mellitus,Paulinus, and Justus. They brought eccle-siastical vestments, sacred vessels, some relics ofapostles and martyrs, a present of books, 1 andthe pall of a metropolitan for Augustine himself,who was thus made independent of the bishopsof France. In a lengthened epistle Gregorysketched out the course which the archbishopwas to take in developing his work. London wasto be his metropolitan see, and he was to con-secrate twelve bishops as suffragans. Moreover,whenever Christianity had extended to York, hewas to place there also a metropolitan with alike number of bishops under him. 7 As to thedifferences between the Roman and Gallicanliturgies (such as Bertha probably followed inher Church of St. Martin), Augustine was directedto select from either whatever appeared to himpious, religious, and right, to collect it into avolume, and establish it as the liturgy of theAnglo-Saxon Church, ever remembering, as aguiding principle, that “ things are not to be lovedon account of places, but places on account ofgood things.” 2 As to the line of conduct he wasto assume towards the Gallic bishops, he wastold that it was no part of his duty to interferewith them, or to rebuke and judge; but “ as aman passing through his neighbour’s corn-field,though he might not put in the sickle, yet mightpluck and eat a few ears,” so, if occasion required, Augustine might venture to use towards
8 On Gregory’s advice respecting the destruction of theheathen temples, see the article on Missions.
t Bede, H. E. 27.
u See his letter to the patriarch of Alexandria, Epp.viii. 30.
x In the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and in the libraryof Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, are two ancient MS.Gospels, -which are deejmed to have at least a fair claim tobe considered the veritable books which Gregory now centto Augustine.
7 Bede, H. E. i. 29.
* " Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus Iocaamanda sunt. Ex singulis ergo quibuBque eccle.-dis, quaepia, quae religiosa, quae recta sunt elige, et haec quasi infusciculum collecta, apud Anglorum mentes in consuetu-dinem depone.”—Bede, II. E, i. 27.
Q 2