LECTURE VII.-THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. The introduction of Christianity. Gregory the Great. State of Christianity in the sixth century. Civilizing influence of the Christian teachers. Monasteries. Bede. 1. We have now heard of the founding of two kingdoms, Kent and Wessex, by the Jutes and the Saxons. Afterwards there came in more Saxons, who founded other kingdoms: the East Saxons, Middle Saxons, and South Saxons, who gave the names with which we are so familiar to Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex. (Kent is the old British name.) And then came also the Angles, who founded the kingdoms of Northumberland (which was the name given to all the land north of the river Humber), East Anglia, which was divided between the North-folk and the Southfolk, and Mercia, which is in the middle of England. 2. By looking on the map we see that the Angles, who had been the most important of the three tribes before they came to Britain at all, now got possession of the largest share of the new country, and, by degrees, the whole of the land inhabited by the Teuton invaders came to be called Angle-land or England. The Welsh, however, generally called the Teutons, Saxons, because it was the Saxons in Wessex who made the greatest impression on them; and the Welsh and the Highlanders call us Saxons to this hour. In many histories of England we find all our forefathers called Saxons; but it seems better, when we are speaking of them all under one name, to call them by the same which they bear still, the English. As there were but very few of the Jutes in comparison with the other two tribes, and their name soon died out, we may also very properly call them Anglo-Saxons; only, if we do that, we must not forget that they are our own ancestors. 3. The seven principal kingdoms which the invaders founded were Kent, Wessex, Northumberland, Mercia, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia. These are generally called the " Heptarchy," which is a Greek word, meaning "the rule The Heptof seven." But there never could be said to be a real archy. Heptarchy, consisting of seven settled kingdoms. They were always, when not fighting the Welsh, fighting each other, and sometimes there would be more, sometimes fewer, kings. Northumberland was often divided into two parts, Bernicia and Deira, each of which had its own king. Still, on the whole, there may be said to have been those seven kingdoms; and the rest of the country, Wales, Cornwall, and Strathclyde, which was the name given to Cumberland, Westmoreland, and part of Scotland, still belonged to the Britons. Northumberland reached as far north as the river Forth, and the Lowland Scotch are, in reality, Angles or English, like ourselves. 4. During all this time the country must have been in a fearful state, with these heathen warriors marauding and fighting, and taking possession of the land; though when they settled down they seem to have lived quietly in their village communities, as at home. The Britons would not or could not teach them Christianity; most likely they were too proud to learn of their conquered slaves. Fuller says, "This set the conversion of Germany so backward, because, out of defiance to the Romans, they hugged their own barbarism, made lovely with liberty; blotting out all civility from themselves, as jealous that it would usher in subjection." 5. So, though the Welsh and Irish continued to improve in learning and religion, this had no effect on the English. At last, however, they too learnt Christianity, and they learnt it from the Romans. The history of the conversion of the English is told us most beautifully by an Englishman who lived not very long after it took place, Bede, or the Venerable Bede, as he is called. It is from him that we learn the well-known story, how Pope Gregory the Great went into the market-place at Rome, where among other merchandise he saw 66 some boys set to sale, their bodies white, their countenances beautiful, their hair very fine;" how when he heard of what nation they were, he said, With those fair faces, they should be not Angles, but Angels; and how he never rested till missionaries were sent to England to withdraw those people from the wrath of God, and teach them to sing His praise. This Gregory was a very great and good man; such faults as he had belong perhaps more to the age he lived in than to himself, and both he and others most likely looked on them as his greatest virtues. 6. It was in the year 597 that the Roman missionaries, with Augustine their chief, came to England; landing, as the first 597. The Christian Mission English settlers had done, in the Isle of Thanet. Ethelbert, the King of Kent, "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." He was not illdisposed to Christianity, for he himself had married a Christian princess from France, and, considering the high respect all his race bore to their wives, Queen Bertha's opinions would doubtless have great weight with him. aries. 7. Still he was afraid to let the missionaries come into his house, "lest, according to an ancient superstition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose upon him, and get the better of him." So, like the true Teuton he was, he chose to receive them sitting in the open air. Augustine and his com panions came before him, "furnished with Divine, not with magic, virtue, bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of our Lord and Saviour painted on a board; and, singing the Litany, they offered up their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of those to whom they were come." Conversion of Kent. 8. After the conference the king permitted them to live in Canterbury, and to preach to any who chose to listen to them. Here they lived and laboured to such good purpose that "several believed and were baptized, admiring the simplicity of their innocent life, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine." Before long the king himself was converted, and after that many more of the people followed his example. "Their conversion the king so far encouraged, as that he compelled none to embrace Christianity, but only showed more affection to the believers, as to his fellow-citizens in the heavenly kingdom. For he had learned from his instructors and leaders to salvation that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not by compulsion." 9. Let us now pause to consider the state of Christianity at the time when these Roman missionaries brought it to England. Any one who reads the Gospels must surely be struck with the simplicity of Christ's teaching; how little dogmatism there is in it, how little formality, how little mystery; how much practice, how much kindliness and gentleness, how inuch faith and trust in God as a Father. In the five or six hundred years which had passed since the death of Christ, what had happened? 10. The Christian religion had, in some respects, State of changed very much from what Christ had taught, Christianity. and was on its way to change more. 1st. God seemed removed immeasurably farther off. Even Christ seemed more awful and less sympathizing. Men sought out some intermediate beings, nearer to themselves, and less terrible. They thought a great deal of angels; still more of saints; above all, of the Virgin Mary. She became the ideal of tenderness and purity. It can hardly be said that she took the place of the old heathen goddesses, for she was far higher, purer, and more gentle than they; but as some of them had appeared to be wise, smiling, and beneficent, and had been dearly loved and honoured, all that love, and much more, was now lavished on the Mother of Christ. 2nd. Besides good supernatural beings, they believed very vividly also in evil ones, and in the power and number of the devils. They thought they were ever on the watch to tempt and to beguile. Everything they did not understand, any mysterious sight or sound, they thought was the work of some evil spirit ; and they believed in possession by devils. Gregory himself, who was very clever and learned, as well as good, tells of a woman who eat a lettuce without making the sign of the cross, and who, with it, swallowed a devil and became possessed. 3rd. They had a most wonderful awe and reverence for "relics;" that is, for things which were believed to have belonged to Christ or the saints. We can quite understand the beginning of this; we ourselves have a feeling of tenderness and affection for any, even valueless, object which reminds us of one who has been dear to us. We treasure locks of hair, and other such things, and would not like them rudely handled; but the feeling had already become superstitious. Gregory said that if profane persons attempted to move or touch the relics of saints, such as were kept in all the churches, they would fall down dead. The 4th. The whole service had become more ritualistic. priests and bishops were looked on as most sacred, and far removed from common mortals. The sacrament was far more of a mystery than it had been of old. Images and pictures were used as helps to devotion, though they were not worshipped. We saw that Augustine and his companions had a cross and a picture of Christ. 5th. The greatest change of all, perhaps, was the growth of what is called asceticism; that is, a hatred of the body, of all common, human life, of natural affection, of marriage. The height of virtue, in the opinion of many, was to withdraw from the world, from all useful occupations, from all love and happiness, and to give themselves up to prayer, fasting, and watching. This is very different from what we think the Bible teaches. "If any man love God, let him love his brother also." But in all times there has been a craving in some minds for being, as they feel, "alone with God." Many Protestants have something of the same sentiment, and Cowper expressed it very beautifully when he wrote "Far from the world, O Lord, I flee, From strife and tumult far; From scenes where Satan wages still The calm retreat, the silent shade, And seem by Thy sweet bounty made In none of these things should we wish to condemn unreservedly; for even when we differ we can sometimes sympathize. Indeed, if we wish to understand we must sympathize to some extent; we must try to see what other men have felt, and how they came to feel it, though we may have other feelings and thoughts of duty ourselves. This is more necessary in matters of religion than in any others, for the religion which people really believe is the most important fact about them. 11. Though we may think that Christianity had in some things changed for the worse, let us remember with thankfulness how pure, how merciful, how beautiful it was still; and never cease to love the name of Gregory and Augustine, who taught it to our fathers. After about twenty years Christianity reached Northumberland. The principal missionary who went there was a certain Bishop Paulinus, who was described by one of those whom he baptized as "a man tall of stature, a little stooping, his hair black, his visage meagre, his nose slender and aquiline, his aspect both venerable and majestic." 12. The good Gregory was now dead, but his successor, Pope Boniface, took a great interest in the affairs of England, and sent long letters of good advice to the King of Northumberland and his wife. With his letters he sent presents: to the king a shirt, a robe, and a golden ornament; to the queen a silver lookingglass and a gilt ivory comb; and to both the blessing of St. Peter. 13. The King of Northumberland was at this time a very |