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 Augustin (Austin), thirty other monks, and a priest, Laurentius, with instructions, letters of
recommendation to the Frank kings and several bishops of Gaul, and a few books, to England.^25
The missionaries, accompanied by some interpreters from France, landed on the isle of Thanet in
Kent, near the mouth of the Thames.^26 King Ethelbert, by his marriage to Bertha, a Christian princess
from Paris, who had brought a bishop with her, was already prepared for a change of religion. He
went to meet the strangers and received them in the open air; being afraid of some magic if he were
to see them under roof. They bore a silver cross for their banner, and the image of Christ painted
on a board; and after singing the litany and offering prayers for themselves and the people whom
they had come to convert, they preached the gospel through their Frank interpreters. The king was
pleased with the ritualistic and oratorical display of the new religion from distant, mighty Rome,
and said: "Your words and promises are very fair; but as they are new to us and of uncertain import,
I cannot forsake the religion I have so long followed with the whole English nation. Yet as you are
come from far, and are desirous to benefit us, I will supply you with the necessary sustenance, and
not forbid you to preach and to convert as many as you can to your religion."^27 Accordingly, he
allowed them to reside in the City of Canterbury (Dorovern, Durovernum), which was the metropolis
of his kingdom, and was soon to become the metropolis of the Church of England. They preached
and led a severe monastic life. Several believed and were baptized, "admiring," as Bede says, "the
simplicity of their innocent life, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine." He also mentions
miracles. Gregory warned Augustin not to be puffed up by miracles, but to rejoice with fear, and
to tremble in rejoicing, remembering what the Lord said to his disciples when they boasted that
even the devils were subject to them. For not all the elect work miracles, and yet the names of all
are written in heaven.^28
King Ethelbert was converted and baptized (probably June 2, 597), and drew gradually his
whole nation after him, though he was taught by the missionaries not to use compulsion, since the
service of Christ ought to be voluntary.
Augustin, by order of pope Gregory, was ordained archbishop of the English nation by
Vergilius,^29 archbishop of Arles, Nov. 16, 597, and became the first primate of England, with a
long line of successors even to this day. On his return, at Christmas, he baptized more than ten
thousand English. His talents and character did not rise above mediocrity, and he bears no comparison
whatever with his great namesake, the theologian and bishop of Hippo; but he was, upon the whole,
well fitted for his missionary work, and his permanent success lends to his name the halo of a
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."(^25) Among these books were a Bible in 2 vols., a Psalter, a book of the Gospels, a Martyrology, Apocryphal Lives of the
Apostles, and some Commentaries. "These are the foundation or beginning of the library of the whole English church."
(^26) The first journey of Augustin, in 595, was a failure. He started finally for England July 23d, 596, wintered in Gaul,
and landed in England the following year with about forty persons, including Gallic priests and interpreters. Haddan and Stubbs,
III. 4.
(^27) Bede I. 25.
(^28) "Non enim omnes electi miracula faciunt, sed tamen eorum omnium nomina in caelo sunt ascripta."Greg., Ad
Augustinum Anglorum Episcopum, Epp. Lib. XI. 28, and Bede I. 31.
(^29) Not AEtherius, as Bede has it, I. 27, and in other places. AEtherius was the contemporary archbishop of Lyons.