Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/31

 the Prior of a Monastery which Gregory had founded in Rome. Augustine, you must remember, was not the same person as the great S. Augustine, one of the early Fathers. These men left Rome to carry on their mission, but when they reached Aix they received so stirring an account of the barbarity of our forefathers, that they returned to Rome to beg Gregory to allow them to abandon his projects. But Gregory would not hear of it. He sent them off again in July 596, and, after spending the winter in Gaul, they reached our shores early in the year 597.

They landed in the Isle of Thanet, in Kent. The king of Kent at that time was Ethelbert, whose wife, Bertha, was a Christian, the daughter of Charibert, of Paris. When she came to England she brought over with her a Christian Bishop, named Luidhard. This fact was favourable to the success of S. Augustine; who might reasonably have expected to gain a hearing from the king. The king went to Thanet to meet the missionaries, and to enquire what their strange appearance meant, and to hear what they had to say for themselves. After they explained the object of their landing, listening to their wishes, the king said: "Fair words and promises are these, but inasmuch as they are new and doubtful I cannot give up all that I and the English people have so long observed." But the king allowed the missionaries to preach and to teach. He also provided for their sustenance, and appointed them a lodging close by the walls of Canterbury. This, I think, you must acknowledge was a very good beginning. These men, with the royal favour, conducted services in a little Church outside Canterbury,