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new town built within the old walls, full of the life which belonged to what is expressly called by Bede "the capital of all the dominions" and the seat of the court of Ethelbert, King of Kent, and Bretwalda. The fact that the King looked beyond the families of the kings of the East or South Saxons or the East Angles, and sought a bride from the great house of Clovis, throws some light upon the situation. It indicates that he was a powerful and prosperous king, who might fairly aspire to so distinguished a matrimonial alliance; that he had relations with France and with the Frank kings; that the relatives of Bertha were willing to compromise the religious question shows that they recognised that the alliance was not beneath their dignity; and, notwithstanding this difficulty, the daughter of Charibert, the grandson of Clovis, was content to marry Ethelbert of Kent.

Canterbury, then, would be a thriving Teutonic town within its old Roman walls. There would be some of the buildings of the Roman period still standing, for Roman brick and mortar are almost indestructible. There would be remains, at least, of temple and courthouse and theatre. But what concerned Augustine, and concerns us, is that among the old Roman buildings of the city there was a church, disused and in disrepair, for it had been empty for a century, but with its walls at least still standing in all the solidity of Roman construction. The temporary dwellingplace which Ethelbert assigned them is said to have been in Stable Gate1 or Staple Gate, in the extreme north part of the city, now the North Gate, by which they entered into it.

1 Thorn.

Bede says that as soon as they entered it "they began to imitate the course of life practised in the primitive Church; applying themselves to frequent prayer, watching, and fasting; despising all worldly things as not belonging to them; preaching the Word of Life to as many as they could, receiving only their necessary food from those they taught; living themselves in all respects conformably to what they prescribed to others; and being always disposed to suffer any adversity, and even to die, for that truth which they preached."

The passage is a litle rhetorical, and the last clause of it inevitably provokes the remark that there was not much danger now of adversity or death, and that when there was, at the beginning of their journey, they were anxious to turn back. But we may take it as an assurance that they at once resumed the monastic course of life interrupted by their long journeying, with its numerous day and night services of prayer, and its ascetic observances, and began with zeal their work of evangelisation. There is perhaps nothing more striking, in its way, to a people who have no experience beyond the average life of worldly occupations and aims, than such a sight as that which this Italian community presented to the honest, simple, worldly-minded Teutons around them. It is very possible, we repeat, that if some of our modern missions were commenced in a similar way— mutatis mutandis-they might have greater success. In this case at least it was successful. Some, admiring the simplicity of their innocent life and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine, believed and were baptized."

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At first, "till the King, being converted to the faith, allowed them to preach openly and build or repair churches in all places," they used the Church of St. Martin, just without the walls, for their more public services for mass and preaching and baptizing; and we suppose that at this time the work of the missionaries was limited to the maintenance of their own religious life in their own habitation, and to public ministrations in the privileged Queen's chapel.

Some relics of this venerable church still remain; for though the present Church of St. Martin at Canterbury is a building of much more recent date, many Roman bricks, easily recognised by their dimensions and texture, are used in the building, and are in all probability part of the material of the original Roman-British church on the same site.

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CHAPTER IX

THE SUCCESS OF THE WORK

WE come now to a series of interesting events, which it is important, but difficult, to arrange in chronological order. The events are the conversion and baptism of Ethelbert, the consecration of Augustine, a grand baptism of ten thousand converts one Christmastide, and a letter from Gregory to Queen Bertha. Bede says, in the 26th chapter of the First Book of the Ecclesiastical History, which is our main authority for the whole story, that after the King was baptized, greater numbers began daily to flock together to hear the Word, and were united to the Church. Then, at the beginning of the next chapter, he says: "In the meantime Augustine was consecrated, and sent Laurentius the Priest and Peter the Monk to Rome to acquaint Gregory that the nation of the English had received the faith, and that he was himself made their bishop."

Bede says nothing of the baptism of the ten thousand, and does not give the letter to Bertha; we get these incidents from the Letters of St. Gregory. Now, these letters are for the most part undated; they have been arranged by learned editors, who have bestowed much learning and ingenuity upon the task, in a chronological order which is probably approxi

mately right in the great majority of cases, but which is open to challenge in the case of any undated letter. In one of these undated letters, which the editors assign to June, 598 A.D., addressed to Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria, Gregory tells him the glad tidings that a monk of his, whom he had sent with some companions to the nation of the English, and had caused to be made a bishop, had had so great a success that he had on the previous Christmas baptized ten thousand souls.

Gregory's letter to Queen Bertha is placed by the editors among a batch of letters which were sent by Gregory to England in the year 601. Some of these letters are dated, others are not; one which is dated is addressed to Ethelbert, and shows that Ethelbert was at that time a Christian. This, which is not dated, is addressed to Queen Bertha, and implies that Ethelbert was not a Christian, for it blames his wife for it, and exhorts her to use her influence for his conversion.

The difficulty arises in this way, that Bede does not give us dates for the baptism of Ethelbert and the consecration of Augustine; and though he mentions them in this order, yet the "meanwhile" with which he introduces the last-mentioned event leaves it doubtful whereabout in the preceding narrative it is to be introduced, whether before or after the firstmentioned event. The later biographers of Augustine -Gocelin, 1098 A.D.; Thorn, 1397 A.D.; and Elmham, 1412 A.D.-were monks of St. Augustine's monastery, and give the tradition of the monastery; and they say that Ethelbert was baptized on Whitsunday 597 A.D., and Gregory was consecrated on November

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