battle; and Brocmail, the Prince of Powis, had been appointed with his followers to protect them.

Ethelred, King of Northumbria, the leader of the English army, inquired who these men were, and, being told of the purpose of their coming, said: "If they cry to their God against us, then, though they do not bear arms, they fight against us with their prayers," and he commanded the first assault to be made against them. Brocmail, seeing his detached post thus attacked by the whole force of the enemy, withdrew his men, and left the hapless monks to be massacred. About twelve hundred of them were slain, and only about fifty escaped by flight; and their monastery fell into the hands of the enemy. The superstition of the time recalled the words of Augustine, and gave to them the character of a prophecy.

We cannot acquit Gregory of having made a great mistake in the light-hearted way in which, in the first instance, he took upon himself to command the British bishops to be instructed and ruled by Augustine. We have had occasion to note other evidences that Gregory knew little or nothing of the actual condition of the British Church of the time.

Augustine, with his local knowledge, better understood the situation, and approached the British Church with a certain amount of diplomatic skill, but his haughty reception of the British bishops and their companions was a lamentable blunder; and it is to be feared that it was characteristic of his temper, and of his view of the relations which were to exist between himself and them. We have very few personal traits of Augustine all through the history, and this is one of the most important of them; and

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CHAPTER XIX

THE ENDEAVOUR TO EXTEND THE CHURCH TO THE OTHER ENGLISH KINGDOMS

UPON the failure of the Synod of the Oak, the King and Archbishop turned their attention to the extension of the Church to the other nations of the English by their own resources. Throughout the English conversion, political influence and family relations played a very unusually important part in the extension of the work. It was Queen Bertha's Christianity which induced Ethelbert to give a friendly reception to Augustine's mission, and a favourable ear to his teaching. Now it is Ethelbert's political influence as Bretwalda which makes a way for the extension of the good work to the neighbouring kingdoms. In the year 604, says Bede, Augustine, Archbishop of Britain, ordained two bishops, viz. Mellitus and Justus, to Episcopal Sees at London and at Rochester.

The Saxons who conquered and settled in the part of the country between the Thames and the Stour, and who penetrated for some miles westward of London, probably came under several independent leaders, but for some generations they had been united into one Kingdom of the East Saxons, with a tribal division. into East Saxons (Essex) and Middle Saxons (Middlesex), and London was the capital of the kingdom.

it cannot but influence our general estimate of his character.

We observe that Augustine did not demand the submission of the British Church to the authority of the Roman See as of divine right, or pass any sort of sentence of excommunication upon the bishops for their refusal to accept his proposal. The pretensions of Rome had not yet grown to such a height.

CHAPTER XIX

THE ENDEAVOUR TO EXTEND THE CHURCH TO THE OTHER ENGLISH KINGDOMS

UPON the failure of the Synod of the Oak, the King and Archbishop turned their attention to the extension of the Church to the other nations of the English by their own resources. Throughout the English conversion, political influence and family relations played a very unusually important part in the extension of the work. It was Queen Bertha's Christianity which induced Ethelbert to give a friendly reception to Augustine's mission, and a favourable ear to his teaching. Now it is Ethelbert's political influence as Bretwalda which makes a way for the extension of the good work to the neighbouring kingdoms. In the year 604, says Bede, Augustine, Archbishop of Britain, ordained two bishops, viz. Mellitus and Justus, to Episcopal Sees at London and at Rochester.

The Saxons who conquered and settled in the part of the country between the Thames and the Stour, and who penetrated for some miles westward of London, probably came under several independent leaders, but for some generations they had been united into one Kingdom of the East Saxons, with a tribal division. into East Saxons (Essex) and Middle Saxons (Middlesex), and London was the capital of the kingdom.