Augustine said to them, "You act in many particulars contrary to our custom, or rather the custom of the universal church, and yet, if you will comply with me in these three points, viz., to keep Easter at the due time; to administer baptism, by which we are again born of God, according to the custom of the holy Roman Apostolic Church; and jointly with us to preach the word of God to the English nation, we will readily tolerate all the other things you do, though contrary to our customs." They answered they would do none of those things, nor receive him as their archbishop. To whom the man of God, Augustine, is said, in a threatening manner, to have

foretold that, in case they would not join in unity with their brethren, they should be warred upon by their enemies; and, if they would not preach the way of life to the English nation, they should at their hands undergo the vengeance of death. which, through the dispensation of the Divine judgment, fell out exactly as he had predicted.30

All

30 In order to make the expressions in this passage clearer, it may be well to observe that Gildas had charged the British clergy with neglecting to preach "the faith to the Saxons or English who dwelt among them."

Observe that there were only three things asked from the British ecclesi

astics by Augustine that

they should conform to the Roman use in calculating the date of Easter; that they should administer baptism according to the Roman rite, and that they should help to preach to the English. All the other things that they did, Augustine was prepared readily to tolerate, although contrary to Roman customs.

From this it would appear that there were no differences of vital importance between the Church of Rome and the British Church, with the exception of the three things specified, and this would imply that the British clergy believed in the mass, invocation of saints, the supreme authority of the Pope, the efficacy of relics, purgatory, the use of prayers for the dead, and every

other Popish doctrine.

According

to this line of argument, therefore, the modern Church of England, since it conforms to the first and third of Augustine's requests, and very possibly to the second also, if identical with the ancient British Church, would also be practically identical with the Roman Church.

This I say might be the inference drawn by a person unversed in historical study; and I say this advisedly, for just as legal documents. can only be rightly understood by lawyers, medical works by physicians, and philosophical writings by those who have already some knowledge of logic, even so history can only be read aright by the expert historian.

I will now produce the key to this

somewhat obscure passage, a passage that has led writers of different creeds into endless and fatal errors.

In offering it to the reader I cannot insist too strongly upon the truth that it is the only key that will avail for a member of the Church of England.

Well, then! Augustine in this speech had no intention of attempting to induce the Protestant British Bishops to submit to Rome. On the contrary, he made a direct offer to embrace their creed and himself become a Protestant, provided they would appoint him their archbishop and make the three mere nominal concessions named in his request, these concessions being asked for only to make his conversion less humiliating.