Part 8

Bede's "Ecclesiastical History."

41. Coming of Saint Augustine, 597.

When Gregory (S40) became Pope he fulfilled his resolution, and sent Augustine with a band of forty monks to Britain. In 597 they landed on the very spot where the first Saxon war band had set foot on English soil nearly one hundred and fifty years before. Like Caesar and his legions, Augustine and his monks brought with them the power of Rome. But this time that power did not come armed with the sword to force men to submit or die, but inspired with a persuasive voice to cheer them with new hope.

41. Augustine converts the King of Kent and his People (597).

The English at that time were wholly pagan, and had, in all probability, destroyed every vesetige of the faith for which the British martyrs gave their lives (S25). But the King of Kent had married a French princess who was a devout Christian. Through the Queen's influence, the King was induced to receive Augustine. He was afraid, however, of some magical practice, so he insisted that their meeting should take place in the open air and on the island of Thanet. (See map facing p. 32.)

The historian Bede tells us that the monks, holding a tall silver cross and a picture of Christ in their hands, advanced and saluted the King. Augustine delivered his message, was well received, and invited to Canterbury, the capital of Kent. There the King became a convert to his preaching, and before the year had passed ten thousand of his subjects had received baptism; for to gain the King was to gain his tribe as well.

43. Augustine builds the First Monastery.

At Canterbury Augustine became the first archbishop over the first cathedral. There, too, he established the first monastery in which to train missionaries to carry on the work which he had begun (S45). Part of the original monastery of St. Augustine is now used as a Church of England missionary college, and it continues to bear the name of the man who brought Christianity to that part of Britain. The example of the ruler of Kent was not without its effect on others.

44. Conversion of the North.

The north of England, however, owed its conversion chiefly to the Irish monks of an earlier age. They had planted monasteries in Ireland and Scotland from which colonies went forth, one of which settled in Durham. Cuthbert, a Saxon monk of that monastery in the seventh century, traveled as a missionary throughout Northumbria, and was afterward recognized as the saint of the North. Through his influence that kingdom was induced to accept Christianity. Other missionaries went to other districts to carry the "good tidings of great joy."

In one case an aged chief arose in an assembly of warriors and said: "O king, as a bird flies through this hall in the winter night, coming out of the darkness and vanishing into it again, even such is our life. If these strangers can tell us aught of what is beyond, let us give heed to them."

But, as Bede informs us in his history of the English CHurch (S99), some of the converts were too cautious to commit themselves entirely to the new religion. One king, who had set up a large altar devoted to the worship of Christ, set up a smaller one at the other end of the hall to the old heathen deities, in order that he might make sure of the favor of both.

45. Christianity organized; Labors of the Monks.

Gradually, however, the pagan faith was dropped. Christianity was largely organized by bands of monks and nuns, who had renounced the world in order to lead lives of self-sacrifice and service. They bound themselves by the three vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, and the monastic law forbade them to marry. Monasteries existed or were now established in a number of places in England.

For instance, at Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland (see Scott's "Marmion," Canto II, 9-10), at Wearmouth and Jarrow in Durham, at Whitby on the coast of Yorkshire, and at Peterborough in Northamptonshire. (See map facing p. 38.)

The monasteries were educational as well as industrial centers. The monks spent part of each day in manual toil, for they held that "to labor is to pray." They cleared the land, drained he bogs, plowed, sowed, and reaped. Another part of the day they spent in religious exercises, and a third in writing, translating, and teaching.

Each monastery had a school attached to it, and each had, besides, its library of manuscript books and its room for the entertainment of travelers and pilgrims. In these libraries important charters granted by the King and important laws relating to the kingdom were preserved.

46. Literary Work of the Monks.

It was at the monastery of Jarrow that Bede wrote in rude Latin the Church history of England. It was at that in Whitby that the poet Caedmon composed his poem on the Creation, in which, a thousand years before Milton, he dealt with Milton's theme in Milton's spirit.

Jarrow, Whitby, etc.; see note 1, above.

It was at the great monasteries of Peterborough and Canterbury that the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" was probably begun (S99). It was the first history of England written in English, and the one from which we derive very important knowledge of the period extending from the beginning of the Christian era down to a time nearly a hundred years after the Norman conquest of the island. Furthermore we find that the history of the country was written by the monks in the form of independent narratives, some of which are of very great value as sources of information.

See six extracts from the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," in E. K. Kendall's "Source-Book of English History," chaps. ii and iii; also William of Malmesbury's "Conquered and Conquerors" (1066) and Matthew Paris's "England in 1257," in the same book, pp. 41 and 78. See also Bogn's "Six Old English Chronicles."

47. Influence of Christianity on Society.

But the power of Christianity for good was not confied to the monasteries; the priests took their part in it. Unlike the monks, they were not bound by monastic rules, though they were forbidden to marry. They lived in the world and worked for the world, and had an immense social influence. The Church, as a rule, in all forms of its activity took the side of the weak, the suffering, and the oppressed. Slavery was then the normal condition of a large class, but when the Church held slaves it protected them from ill usage. It secured Sunday for them as a day of rest, and it often labored effectually for their emancipation.

48. Political Influence of Christianity, 664.

More than this, Christianity had a powerful political influence. A great synod or council was held at Whitby, on the coast of Yorkshire, 664, to decide when Easter should be observed. Delegates to that meeting were sent from different parts of the country. After a protracted discussion all the churches finally agreed to accept the Roman custom. This important decision encouraged a spirit of true religious unity. The bishops, monks, and priests who gathered at Whitby represented Saxon tribes which were often bitterly hostile to each other (S37), but their action on the Easter question united them in a certain way. It made them feel that they had a common interest, that they were members of the same Church, and that, in that Church, they were laboring for the same object. The fact that they bowed to one supreme spiritual authority had a political significance. It suggested that the time might be coming when all the conflicting tribes or petty kingdoms in Britain would acknowledge the authority of one King, and form one English nation.

49. Egbert becomes King of Wessex, and Overlord of the Whole Country, 829.

Somewhat more than a hundred and sixty years later a great step was taken toward the accomplishment of the political union of the different sections of Britain. By the death of the King of Wessex (S37), Egbert, a descendant of Cerdic, the first chief and King of that country, succeeded to the crown. He had spent some time in France at the court of Charlemagne and had seen that great ruler make himself master of most of western Europe. Egbert was not content to remain simply King of Wessex. He resolved to make himself master of the whole country. He began a series of wars by which he, at length, compelled all the other Saxon Kings to acknowledge him as their Overlord. That title marks the beginning, in 829, of a new period in the history of the island.