Letters of Pope Gregory the Great, the whole of which have since been collected and published, and throw additional light upon the conversion of the Saxons; but these letters have been interpolated by their monkish editors. Some of them, as will be seen hereafter, are at variance with the narrative of Bede, and doubts are thus thrown upon every portion of the collection, ex. cept that which is cited by our historian. A third source from which it might be expected that the conduct and character of Austin would derive material elucidation, is his life by Goscelinus, and various other narratives respecting him in the general histories of his time. But these works are little better than amplifications of Bede, their marvellous additions to his narrative are entitled to no credit; and they are utterly worthless to all historical purposes, unless they may be supposed to teach that the men who invented so many miracles in works of their own, may have thought it right to insert a few into the writings of Bede. Different motives are assigned for Pope Gregory's conduct in sending Austin and his companions to Britain. On the one hand, it is said, that his compassion was excited by the sight of some British youths exposed for sale in the slave market at Rome. And that he resolved, after uttering sundry pious, but tasteless witticisms, to proceed without delay to the conversion of their countrymen. This design was frustrated by the prohibition of his superiors, who refused to risque so valuable a life; and the scheme met with no encouragement, until by his election to the bishopric of Rome, he was left at liberty to fol. low the dictates of his inclination. Accordingly he pitched upon Austin as a proper conductor of the mission, and furnished him with the necessary means of undertaking it. On the other hand, it is main tained that the missionaries were invited into Britain by the Saxons themselves. Ethelbert, at that time king of Kent, was married to a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of the king of the Franks, and he had consented to allow her the free exercise of her religion, and the regular attendance of a bishop who had accompanied her from France. It is supposed, therefore, and not unreasonably, that the influence of Bertha contributed both to the coming and to the success of Austin. Gregory alludes in one of his epistles to an invitation which had been received from the Saxons; and Fox (" Acts and Monuments," page 128,) mentions the circumstance as an instance of "what goodness cometh to have a good and godly wife." The vehemence of controversialists for and against the Pope's supremacy has attached great and unmerited importance to these facts. It is in vain to deny that the conversion of the Saxons originated with Gregory the Great, and eqnally idle to contend, that an event so honourable to the individual can have bestowed any permanent dominion upon his successors in the See of Rome. Austin landed in the isle of Thanet, and immediately communicated his arrival and object to king Ethelbert, by whom the communication was favourably received. After a few days an audience was granted to the monk and his companions, the king taking the precaution to receive them in the opea air, that he might be out of the reach of enchantments. The missionaries approached him bearing a silver cross as a standard, and a picture of our Saviour, and chanting prayers for their own and the king's eternal welfare. He listened patiently to their discourse and promised to enquire further into the subject, but he refused to lay aside the received customs of his forefathers, and contented himself with permitting them to remain in his territory, and celebrate their pecu- writers have given a more magnifiliar worship in Canterbury. cent account. Austin is representThither they immediately repaired as baptizing no less than ten ed, and passed their time, accord- thousand of his converts during the ing to Bede, in imitation of the Christmas which followed his arrival; primitive and apostolic manners, and the entire dominions of Ethelnamely, in frequent prayers, watch- bert, the most powerful Saxon ings, and fastings; preaching to all monarch of his day, were speedily who would listen to them, and re- induced to embrace the religion of nouncing the good things of this the Cross. These narratives, howworld. The innocence of their ever, are accompanied with several lives, and the encouraging nature suspicious circumstances, of which of their doctrine, procured them Bede's silence is not the least; and several converts. They celebrated it is not obvious that their truth their worship in an ancient church would redound to the credit of St. dedicated to St. Martin, the ruins Austin, as the soundness of so of which had survived the invasion rapid and general a conversion may of the Saxons. It had been pre- be reasonably called in question*. viously used by the attendants of queen Bertha, and the missionaries commenced a course of regular church services, chanting, praying, preaching, and celebrating mass and baptism. The conversion of king Ethelbert soon followed, and procured them a greater liberty of building or restoring churches, and of preaching wheresoever they pleased. Bede ascribes his conversion to the pious lives of the missionaries, and to their consolatory promises, the truth of which was confirmed by a great number of miracles; but it is remarkable that not one of these miracles is described, or even specified, and that he gives us no account of the doctrines they taught or the arguments they employed. He contents himself with saying that the conversion of the natives was facilitated by the example of their king, who encouraged his subjects to be baptized, but had learnt from Austin that Christ's was a voluntary service, and that force ought not to be employed in the promotion of religion *. Other Several writers, of whom Hume is most conspicuous, have attempted to throw discredit upon this fact, and to contrast it with the declarations of St. Austin's master; but Gregory was not of an intolerant temper, he forbade the persecution of the But at all events it is certain that Gregory was highly delighted with his missionary's success: he wrote Jews, and recommended that they should be bribed as a better method of converting them. The passage in Gregory's Letter to king Ethelbert, upon which Hume rests his accusation, is this: "Et ideo gloriose fili, eam quam accepisti divinitus gratiam, solicità mente custodi. Christianam fidem in populis tibi subditis extendere festina, zelum rectitudi nis tuæ in eorum conversione multiplica, idololorum cultus insequere, fanorum ædificia everte, subditorum mores et magnâ vita munditiâ, exhortando, terrendo, blandiendo, corrigendo, et boni operis exempla monstrando ædifica; ut illum retributorem invenias in cœlo, cujus nomen atque cognitionem dilataveris in terrâ." Hume gives the following account of this passage: " He exhorted him to display his zeal in the conversion of his subjects, to exert rigour against the worship of idols, and to build up the good work of holiness by every expedient of exhortation, terror, blandishment, or correction." • The baptism of Austin's ten thousand converts is said to have taken place in the river Swale; and Fox remarks, that fonts were not yet invented; but the good old Puritan forgot that Bede had told another story, that the authors who speak of the Swale baptism are not agreed as to whether that river was in Kent or Northumberland, and that Gregory's letter to the patriarch of Constantinople, in which the circumstance is related, is inconsistent with the documents produced by Bede.See Collier, vol. i. p. 68. him repeated letters of congratula tion and advice, declared him archbishop of the whole country; sent him a pall from St. Peter's as a token of his dignity, and recommended him in the strongest terms to the protection of Ethelbert. Bede has preserved the Pope's answers to a set of questions which had been sent to him by St. Austin. Many of them are levitical rather than theological, and they forbid us to entertain a very favourable opinion of the learning or wisdom of the English apostle. Nevertheless they make us acquainted with several peculiar circumstances in the primitive Saxon church. Austin is told that the church property ought to be divided into four parts: one for the bishop, one for the clergy, one for the poor, and one for repairing churches. But as he and his companions were monks, they are reminded of the primitive cus. tom, of having all things in common. The Saxons were not restricted to the use of the Roman missal, but Austin is left at liberty to select what he thought best, from the Roman, the Gallican, or any other service*: he is permitted, from the necessity of the case, to consecrate bishops, without the assistance of any other of the episcopal order; is admonished to claim no authority over the bishops of Gaul, but is permitted to extend his jurisdiction over all the British bishops, that the unlearned may be taught, the weak be strengthened, and the perverse corrected. In a subsequent communication Gregory gives his instructions for the establishment of two archbishops and twenty-four bishops. The This fact shows that liturgies were then in use, and the attention which was soon after paid to chanting "is enough," says Comber, "to prove they then prayed by certain prescribed forms, it being im possible to set arbitrary or extempore prayers to notes; which, though some have affirmed liable to be canted, yet none thought them capable to be chanted." archiepiscopal sees he fixes at London and York, and gives twelve suffragans to each. The first archbishop of York was to be subject to St. Austin, but after his death that subjection was entirely to cease, and the archbishops to take precedence according to the date of their respective consecrations. About the same time Austin was cautioned against boasting of his virtues, his miracles, and his success, and reminded that our Lord's disciples were told not to rejoicebecause the devils were subject to them, but because their names were written in heaven. Gregory therefore takes it for granted that miracles were wrought by St. Austin; yet it is strange that the only direct evidence of this fact should be contained in an epistle which reflects so much upon his humility. But perhaps the most remarkable of Gregory's letters is that which he addressed to Melitus, whom he sent to the assistance of Austin. He directs him to inform the latter, that the temples of idols in England, are by no means to be destroyed; but the idols themselves to be broken in pieces, holy water to be sprinkled through the temples, altars to be constructed, and relics which had been sent from Rome for that purpose, placed therein: that the people may assemble at their accustomed places of worship, and more easily concur in the new religion. He adds, that as oxen were formerly sacrified to devils, that custom must be changed; but that on the day of the dedication of the church, or the birth-day of the martyr whose relics it contained, tents may be pitched round the churches, and solemn religious worship may be celebrated: that thanks may be given to God for the animals that he has provided, and that while something is preserved for bodily delight, the people may yield more readily to spiritual joy. King Ethelbert is also told that the end. of the world is at hand. Austin founded a monastery at Canterbury, and Ethelbert, by his persuasion, built a new church, and dedicated it to the Apostles Peter and Paul. He ordained two bishops, Melitus, already mentioned, and Justus, placing the latter at Rochester, in the territory of king Ethelbert, and the former at London, which was then the capital of the kingdom of Essex. The king of Essex was nephew to Ethelbert, and followed his example by embracing Christianity, and laid the foundation of the cathedral of St. Paul's. About the same time, with the assistance of Ethelbert, St. Austin held a conference with some bishops of the British Church. They met in Worcestershire, on the confines of Wales, and he endeavoured to persuade them to conform to his customs, and to make an united effort for the conversion of the heathen. A long disputation ensued, but neither the exhortations, the increpations, nor even the miracles of the Apostle, were sufficient to procure their consent to his proposition. They asked time to reflect upon what they had heard and seen. A second synod was convened, at which seven British bishops and many other learned men appeared: the principal person waś Dinooth, abbot of Bangor, a monastery near Chester, said to contain two thousand monks. The bishops had previously consulted a wise and holy hermit on the propriety of granting Austin's request. He suggested the following stratagem, that Austin and his companions should be allowed to arrive first at the place of meeting, and that the British bishops coming in afterwards should judge of his character by the manner in which they were received. Austin had taken his seat before the bishops appeared, and did not rise to salute them. Their inference was, that he was proud and haughty, that the object of his coming was temporal power, and that they ought not to yield to his that demands. Those demands were, they should celebrate Easter according to the Roman cycle, administer baptism according to the rites of the Roman church, and preach the word of God to the English. Their other customs, though differing in many respects from the whole Church, he was willing to bear. They refused to assent to these terms, declared they would not receive him for their archbishop, and added, that they were subject to an archbishop of their own. Austin concluded the conference by exclaiming, that if they were unwilling to be at peace with their brethren, they might expect war from their enemies: á prediction said to have been fulfilled a short time after his death, by the slaughter of the monks of Bangor during a battle between the British and Saxons. And Austin died about the year 605, having appointed Laurentius his successor. His character is thus summed up by Fuller. "He found here a plain religion (simplicity is the badge of antiquity) practised by the Britons, living some of them in the contempt, and many more in the ignorance, of worldly vanities, in a barren country. surely piety is most healthful in those places where it can least sur. feit of earthly pleasures. He brought in a religion spun with a coarser thread though garded with a finer trimming, made luscious to the senses with pleasing ceremonies; so that many, who could not judge of the goodnesse, were courted with the gaudinesse thereof. Indeed, the Papists brag, that he was the apostle of the English; but not one in the style of St. Paul, neither from man nor by man, but by Jesus Christ; being only a derivative apostle, sent by the second hand; in which sense, also, he was not our sole apostle, though he first put in his sickle, others reaped down more of the English harvest, propagating the Gospel farther, as shall appear hereafter. But because the begin nings of things are of greatest consequence, we commend his paines, condemn his pride, allow his life, approve his learning, admire his miracles, admit the foundation of his doctrine, Jesus Christ, but refuse the hay and stubble he built thereupon. We are indebted to God his goodnesse in moving Gregory, Gregorie's carefulnesse in sending Augustine, Augustine's forwardnesse in preaching here; but above all, let us blesse God's exceeding great favour, that that doctrine which Augustine planted here but impure, and his successors made worse with watering, is since, by the happy Reformation, cleared and refined to the purity of the Scriptures." MISCELLANIES. GENERAL THEOLOGICALSEMINARY IN NORTH AMERICA. IN our Number for March 1821, we gave an account of the institution of a Theological Seminary at New York, which promised to be of most essential service to the interests of Christianity in the United States of America. We are happy to have it in our power now to state that the plan has been materially enlarged. In a Special General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church which was held at Philadelphia, in the month of October 1821, it was resolved to unite the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, heretofore established by the Convention with the Seminary at New York; and the following constitution was unanimously agreed upon. Constitution of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. I. The Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States of America, shall be permanently established in the state of New York. The trustees of the said seminary shall have from time to time, to estapower, blish one or more branch schools in the state of New York, or elsewhere, to be under the superintendance and control of the said trustees. II. The management of the said seminary shall be vested in a board of trustees, who shall have power to constitute professorships, and to appoint the professors, and to prescribe the course of study in the respective schools, aud to make rules and regulations and statutes for the government thereof; and generally to take such measures as they may deem necessary to its prosperity; provided, that such rules and regulations, and course of study, and measures be not repugnant to the constitution and canons of the church, and to the course of study for candidates for orders which is or may be established by the house of bishops. The bishops in their individual and collective capacity, shall be visitors of the seminary, and see that the course of instruction and discipline be conducted agreeably to the foregoing provision. The trustees shall make report to every general convention of their proceedings, and of the state of the seminary. III. The board of trustees shall be permanently constituted as follows:-The bishops of the church shall be ex-officio members of the board. Every diocese shall be entitled to one trustee, and one ad. tional trustee for every eight clergymen in the same; and to one additional trustee for every two thousand dollars of monies in any way given or contributed in the same to |