Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/143

 ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY 93 whether in the Roman Church, or the church of the Gauls [" Galliarum ""], or any church whatever, which may be more pleasing to Almighty God, you care- fully make choice of the same and diligently teach the church of the English, which as yet is new in the faith . . . whatever you have been able to collect from many churches. For things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things." The fourth and fifth questions of Augustine refer to prohibited degrees of marriage, and Gregory replies, as to the marriage of first-cousins, among other objections, " we have learned by experience that no offspring can come of such marriage." To Augustine's inquiry as to his rela- tions with" the bishops of Gaul and Britain [" Galliarum Brittaniarumque,"] Gregory replies that Augustine has no authority whatever within the jurisdiction of the metropolitan of Aries ; but he adds : " As for all the bishops of Britain [" Brittaniarum "], we commit them to your care, that the unlearned may be taught, the weak strengthened by persuasion, and the perverse corrected by au- thority." Considering the context Augustine had been asking whether, under the circumstances, he could consecrate bishops without the presence of any other bishops ; and, moreover, he had not as yet come into any kind of contact with the Celtic bishops it seems probable that " the bishops of Britain " here placed under Augustine's jurisdiction were the bishops to be afterward consecrated by himself, with or without the presence and witness of Gallic or other bishops. Gregory's advice to Augustine, conveyed through the Abbot Mellitus, may well be pondered by the managers of modern missions. He says : " The temples of the idols in that nation [the English] ought not to be destroyed ; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed ; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed. For if those temples are well built it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the ser- vice of the true God ; that the nation. . . adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have been accustomed." He even suggests that their sacrifices which were largely festivals, as much social as religious should be discontinued, indeed, as sacrifices, but changed into banquets and associated with the day of the dedication of a church, or the " nativity " of a holy martyr. And all this on the perfectly sound principle, too often forgotten, that " he who strives to reach the highest place raises himself by steps and de- grees, and not by leaps [gradibus vel passibus non autem saltibus elevatus]." At last Augustine was brought into contact with the Celtic bishops. It was clear that their assistance would be very valuable in the endeavor to convert the English, and also that their peculiar usages would convey the impression of far greater diversity of doctrine than actually existed. Augustine was willing to make much concession. There were three conditions of union which seemed to him indispensable : agreement as to the time of keeping Easter ; agreement as to the mode of administering baptism ; and hearty co-operation in mission work among the heathen. We may leave out of consideration alleged miracles ; also the curious, or even the ludicrous, test of a divine mission suggested by " the aged hermit " of the story. The Celtic bishops refused any sort of co-operation, and