Page:Elizabeth Elstob - An English-Saxon homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory.djvu/30

 ''and disposing of them in Monasteries, to be train'd up in the Christian Faith for the future Service of their Country. A Zeal fit to be consider'd and imitated by those who are concerned in the Plantations, who have doubtless a Power of turning many Souls to God, and of rescuing them from that why chose he rather when he arrived, to sit down with King Ethelbert, and not go on to them. But an effeminate Man, and a Monk, being overcome by the Kindness of King Ethelbert in Kent, a fruitful Country, and courteous People, was detain'd from going farther into those Northern Regions of the Deeri, liable to hard Frosts and Savage. But to see the Faithfulness and Consistency of that Historian, this effeminate Monk is the same of whom Bede speaking with his Followers, says, that they imitated the Lives of the Apostles, in Prayers, and Fastings, and Watchings'', &c. and is the very same, of whom this Writer tells us in his own History a little after, that he used to go unshod, and that by travelling barefoot, the Soles of his Feet were become callous. But Gregory had long design'd the Conversion of the English, tho' he met with several Impediments which would not let him do it, either so soon or in the manner he intended; and it seems to have too much lightness in it, to cavil at him for not directing his Missioner, immediately to Ella’s Kingdom, where they were not sure of a kind Reception. As he was a wife and a good Man, so he was for doing things by such probable means, and at such Seasons, as were most likely to favour his Success. The time that he gave his Order to Candidus for purchasing the young Men, was the sixth Year of his Pontificate. These, when of riper Years and of sufficient Qualification, it is not amiss to believe, were intended to be his Missioners, and design'd for the Northern Dominions of Ella. But considering his own Indispositions, and the Apprehensions he had from thence that he should not live long, he was willing to lose no time in so good a Work: but rathgr close with the first and most convenient Opportunity; and hearing that the English in Kent, by the Care of Queen Berhta, and Bifhop Luidhard, her Confessor, were dispofed to receive the Christian Faith. He, in the latter end of the same Year, directed Augustine thither, who the next Year arrived in Kent. The Holy Father not doubting, as we may imagine, that if the Gospel was received there, it would soon reach and over-spread the North, as we find in a few Years it did.