V

THE ENGLISH ACCEPT

CHRISTIANITY

POINTS TO BE NOTICED

By whom missionaries were sent to England; how he became interested in the people there.

The leader of the missionaries; where they landed; when; how they were received; the success which they had; how long it was before all England was Christian.

What other missionaries came besides those from Rome; the differences between Celtic and Roman Christianity; which triumphed in England, and when.

How the Church in England was organized.

What English missionary preached on the continent.

The vows taken by the monks; what a monastery was like; who Bede was.

At Rome, one day, a monk named Gregory saw some white boys offered for sale as slaves. Their bodies were fair, their faces beautiful, and their hair soft and fine. Gregory asked the English

whence they came.

"From Britain," was the answer. people are all fair, like these boys.'

Gregory and

slaves.

"There the

Then he asked whether they were Christians, and was told that they were still pagans.

Alas," said he, "what a pity that lads of such fair faces should lack inward grace." He wished next to know the name of their nation.

"They are called Angles," was the reply.

"They should be called angels, not Angles," said Gregory; "for they have angelic faces. What is the name of their king?"

"Ella," was the answer.

"Alleluia," said Gregory, making another pun, "the praise of God the Creator must be sung in those parts."

Gregory

Gregory was so deeply impressed by the sight of these boys that he wished to go as a missionary to the English. But he had no opportunity then to do so. sends mis- A few years later he became Pope, that is, to England. head of the Church. He was very learned and pious, and did so much to benefit the church that he is called Gregory the

sionaries

Augustine

AN EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH

landed in the English kingdom of Kent in lands in the year 597. The King of Kent had married Kent. a Christian princess from Gaul, and was disposed to deal kindly with Augustine. But he received him in the open air, for fear some magic might be used if the meeting were held under a roof. The monks came up in procession, singing, and carrying a silver cross and a picture of Christ.

After listening to the preaching of Augustine, the King said:

"Your words and promises are fair, but they are new to us. I cannot approve of them so far as to forsake the religion which I have so long followed, with the

whole English nation. But we will give you favorable entertainment, and we do not forbid you to preach and to gain as many as you can to your religion."

converted.

The King gave Augustine and his companions a house to live in, in his capital, Canterbury. He also permitted them to repair an old Christian The King church there, and to build a monastery. Soon of Kent the earnest preaching and holy living of the monks impressed the King and his people, and they became Christians. Thus Canterbury became the oldest of the English churches. When the church was organized a little later for all England, the Archbishop of Canterbury became its head, under the Pope.

Other monks worked as missionaries in different parts of England, but it was nearly a hundred years before all England accepted Christianity. Sometimes, when a kingdom seemed completely converted, a new King would come to the throne who would drive out the Christian priests, destroy the churches, and restore the heathen worship. But the missionaries persevered, and in the end the Christian faith conquered. At one time the King of Northumberland called

A CELTIC CROSS

his leading men together to discuss the Northumquestion of accepting Christianity. One of berland the thegns gave his opinion in these words:

converted.

"The life of man in this world, O King, may be likened to what happens when you are sitting at supper

with your thegns, in winter time. A fire is blazing on the hearth, and the hall is warm; but outside the rain and the snow are falling, and the wind is howling. A sparrow comes, and flies through the hall; it enters by one door, and goes out by another. While it is within the hall, it feels not the howling blast; but when the short space of rest is over, it flies out into the storm again, and passes

Celtic mis

the North.

away from our sight. Even so it is with the brief life of man. It appears for a little while; but what precedes it, or what comes after it, we know not at all. Wherefore, if this new teaching can tell us anything of this, let us harken and follow it."

Then the missionary who had come to them, one of Augustine's followers, was allowed to speak. When he was through, the high priest of the pagan religion led the way in destroying the old temples and idols, saying:

Most of the missionary work in the north of England was done by monks of the old Celtic Christian sionaries in church, which had existed in Britain before the English came, and which still flourished in Ireland. The Celtic missionaries in England came chiefly from the little island of Iona, off the western coast of Scotland, where there was a famous monastery.

But these Celtic Christians had been so long shut off

from the rest of Europe that their church was different from the Roman Church in some of its customs. They did not recognize the Pope's authority; they kept Easter at a different time; and their priests shaved their heads in a different fashion.

Roman

triumphs.

So disputes arose between the Roman missionaries and the Celtic missionaries; and to settle the question of which were right, the King of Northumberland called a meeting at Whitby. The Christianity Roman missionaries showed that their time of keeping Easter was that used by all the world, except the Irish and the Britons; and that it was approved by the Pope, who was the successor of St. Peter, the chief of the apostles. Then the King asked the Celtic missionaries: