kingdoms. From the coming of Hengest to the founding of Mercia was more than a hundred and thirty years. There had been fighting through all those years, and at the end of the time hardly half the land was subdued. For a long while after there was almost constant war on the borders, the English ever winning in the end. One thing which made the strife between the two peoples so bitter was that the English, having had very little to do with the Romans, remained barbarians and heathens. Other German tribes, the Franks and the Goths for instance, had left their old homes and had won unto themselves new ones in different parts of the empire. But they, having had many dealings with the Romans, had learnt something of the Roman civilization and of the Christian religion. Thus it came to pass that their conquests were very different from those of the English. They did not drive out or slay the people they had subdued; they did not even keep their own language, but soon began to speak Latin. When the different kingdoms came to be united and to need a common name, they were called England. The Britons were called Welsh. This is a name which the German tribes gave to those who spoke a foreign tongue; the people of Germany in the present day call the Italians Welsh. 3 Now a few words of caution. You may sometimes hear our forefathers called Saxons. They were not Saxons; the Saxons were only one tribe of them. Therefore to call the English Saxons is like calling Jews Levites, or the body legs. So S FRANKS English is always Wo wrong; the term Anglo-Saxon is not always wrong, but its proper use is somewhat difficult for you to understand; hence you had better, when speaking of the whole people, only call them English. Then you are certain to be right. 1 Anderida, was a city built by the Romans near to the place where Pevensey now stands. 2 piece-meal, bit by bit, a piece at a time. 3 common, belonging alike to all. 4 caution, advice, warning. 5 applied, put, given. Britain they were heathens. The Welsh might have taught them the Christian religion, but the two peoples hated each other so bitterly that the conquered did not wish to teach and the conquerors would have been unwilling to learn. So the English remained heathens till men came from abroad to convert them. The first to come was Augustine, who arrived in 597, not long after the founding of Mercia. He had been sent by Pope Gregory. The Pope was the bishop of Rome, and all Christians in the west of Europe looked up to him, just as all Roman Catholics look up to the Pope now. Some time before he was made Pope, Gregory, passing through the market at Rome, saw for sale a number of beautiful children with fair skins and long yellow hair. Their looks drew his attention, and their distress moved his pity. He asked to what nation they belonged, and was told that they were Angles. 3 Then he knew that they were heathens, and was grieved to find that, though so like to angels in their loveliness and their innocence, they had not heard of the God in whom he believed. He resolved that he would go to their land to teach the people the religion of Christ. He asked the Pope for leave, and it was given; but the Romans loved Gregory greatly, and begged him so earnestly to abide with them that at last he consented. 4 But the desire to convert the English was still strong within him, and when, by-and-by, he be came Pope himself, he sent Augustine and forty other monks as 5missionaries to them. At this time the most powerful of the English kingdoms was Kent. Ethelbert, its king, had married a Christian princess from the land of the 7 Franks; hence he already knew something of Jesus, and it was to him, therefore, that Augustine and his fellows came. They landed in the Isle of Thanet, on the spot where a century and a half before Hengest and his warriors had 8 disembarked. How different were the aims of the two bands! Hengest came to plunder and to kill, Augustine to proclaim the gospel of peace and goodwill. With the coming of Hengest heathens began to drive out Christians; with the coming of Augustine Christians began to convert heathens. Augustine sent to tell Ethelbert of his arrival, and, after a few days, the king went to Thanet, taking with him his Christian wife, his heathen priests, and his chief men. Seated in the open air he received the missionaries. They drew nigh with slow and solemn tread, singing as they came. foremost was carrying a large silver 10 crucifix, while another bore a banner with the picture of Jesus thereon. The As Ethelbert could not speak Latin, and Augustine could not speak English, they talked by means of an interpreter. 11 The missionary explained to the king the chief points of the Christian religion, and besought him to give up his heathen worship. |