Thus

countrymen were called Angles, "It is well," said Gregory," angels they are in countenance, and ought to be co-heirs of angels in heaven." he continued to sport with the names of the province they came from, and the king in whose territory they were born. A kind-hearted mood, which concealed under an innocent jest, a more serious feeling; for, from that day, he determined to go on a mission to England. This was some years before his election to the see of Rome, but his character was so much esteemed by his countrymen, that they would not suffer him to quit them. But he did not forget his pious intention. As soon as he had it in his power he sent Augustine, a very holy man, at the head of forty missionaries, to make his way into Britain. They heard such strange accounts of the wild and savage nature of the inhabitants, that when they had come as far as France, they wished to go back again; but Gregory wrote them some kind, encouraging letters, telling them, no doubt, that all who follow in the steps of their Lord must also bear the cross, as He did; and at length they went forward boldly, and landed in the Isle of Thanet, in August, A.D. 596. Ethelbert had received notice of their coming, and offered them no opposition: and how must the heart

of his Christian wife have rejoiced that the "glad tidings" of the Gospel were to be sent at length to the benighted land! Ethelbert soon appointed a meeting with them in the open air; seats were provided for them, and at the command of the king, they preached to him and his nobles the Word of Life. The king was pleased with what they said, but wished to take time for consideration, before embracing their religion. He promised them protection and kind treatment, and gave them leave to preach, and to convert all they could. He assigned them a dwelling in the city of Canterbury; and it is said that, when they drew near for the first time to the city, going in procession, they chanted this prayer: "We pray Thee, O Lord, of Thy great mercy, let Thine anger, and Thy fury be turned away from this city, and from Thy holy house, though we have sinned against Thee. Praised be

Thy Name, O Lord!"

The zealous preaching, and holy lives of Augustine and his friends, were greatly blessed to the conversion of the people. Ethelbert himself was very soon baptized, and we are told that his conduct proved his conversion to be sincere. He heartily rejoiced when he saw numbers flocking to the church for baptism, but took care that no man should be compelled to

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embrace Christianity against his will; "only showing more hearty love to those who believed," says Bede, as if they were become his fellow citizens, not only in an earthly, but in a heavenly kingdom." He provided at once a certain endowment for the church, and gave a piece of ground for a cathedral and bishop's residence in Canterbury.

I must not longer dwell on this most interesting part of the history of our Saxon forefathers, as I have already somewhat transgressed on the limits of a chapter.

The religion of our blessed Lord from this time took root in England, and has ever since, though sometimes under great persecution, been the national faith; a blessing for which we ought frequently in our prayers to thank the good God to whom we owe it, since it was He who put it into the heart of Gregory to send Augustine to England, and who also inclined that of Ethelbert to receive favourably these preachers of the holy Gospel, to the gentle influence of which we owe all that distinguishes our beloved country from others less highly favoured.

After the death of Ethelbert,* the title of Bretwalda, or Lord of Britain, was conferred on Red

* Churton's Early English Church.