Gregory, taken interpreters of the nation of the Franks, and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome, and brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven, and a kingdom that would never end, with the true and living God. The king, having heard all this, ordered them to stay in that island where they had landed, and that they should be furnished with all necessaries, till he should consider what to do with them. For he had heard of the Christian religion, having a wife of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha; whom he had received from her parents upon condition that she

should be permitted to practise her religion with the Bishop Luidhard, who was sent with her to preserve her faith. 16

16 What a pity it was that Ethelbert had not been made "by the grace of God," "Defender of the Faith, &c.," and that he had not taken our modern coronation oath to “maintain the Protestant Reformed Religion, established by law." If he had, all the trouble that followed. might have been saved. It is pleasant to imagine the scene which might have presented itself, if, when Augustine and some forty monks, in their popish dresses, approached Ethelbert, that King had been able to stand, prayer-book in hand, with an archbishop in lawn sleeves on either side

of him, reading to the Papal emissaries from our noble xxxvii.th article the words, "The King's Majesty hath the chief power in this realm of England, and other his Dominions, unto whom the chief government of all estates of this realm, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not, nor ought to be, subject to any foreign jurisdiction," adding from a later part of the article, "The Bishop of Rome. hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England."

The words last quoted ought to convince every Anglican student that the Church of Lucius, rather than the Church of Augustine, was his first parent; for if it be an article of our faith that "the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this realm of Eng

land," we are bound to repudiate Augustine, who came to this country under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. All the leading authorities of the Church of England are agreed that we are descended from either the early British Church, or from that of Augustine, and as I have proved that we are not descended from the latter, it necessarily follows that we must be descended from the former.

It has been suggested to me that the Church of England should claim to be descended from both, as do the modern Romanists;" but as a matter of fact, the modern Romanists do nothing of the kind, since they do not claim to be descended from either the Church of St. Augustine or the Church of Lucius, but only through them from the Church which, as they

falsely pretend, was founded by Christ in St. Peter-the rock on which (according to Papists) He said He would build His Church. Into the feebleness of this argument it is needless that we should enter here, and we only notice it in passing to show that no Church can safely trace its descent from both Lucius and Augustine. One or other of them may serve for what Romanists call "a rock," but, as a pair, they will be found to be little better than "two stools."

Oh that Ethelbert had been made of the same stuff as good King Hal! The latter would have made short work of Augustine and all his crew. Our Church has been singularly associated with our kings. Hence it may be well called a Royal Church; and if a Royal Church, then a Royal Priesthood, a