Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/38

 our laws; and their language was English too, although it has so much altered that you would hardly know it for the same.

2. The Saxons were not Christians when they first came here; but their religion was different from that of both the Druids and heathen Romans; for they worshipped great images of stone or wood, that they made themselves, and called gods; and from the names of their gods and goddesses, our names of the days of the week are derived.

3. At length, the bishop of Rome, who was called the Pope, sent some good men to persuade the Saxons to leave off praying to wooden idols, and to worship the true God.

4. These missionaries first went to Ethelbert, king of Kent, who was then Bretwalda, and reasoned with him, so that he saw how wrong he had been, and not only became a Christian himself, but let the missionaries go and preach among the people, who were baptized in great numbers, and taught to believe in God and Jesus Christ.

5. The missionaries were all priests or monks; and some of them lived together in great houses called monasteries, which they built upon lands given them by the kings and nobles, on which they also raised corn, and fed sheep and cattle.