Moralia in Job 22

Argument. — 1. Saint Gregory sends Saint Augustine into England. — 2. The beginning of the Christian faith in Britain. — 3. The idolatrous English occupy this island. — 4. When Augustine and his companion monks set out. — 5. Thinking of returning, they are strengthened by Saint Gregory. — 6. In what place they halted. — 7. Their journey through Gaul is described. — 8. Of the kingdom, king, and queen of Kent, at which they landed. — 9. Augustine approaches the king. 10. His speech to the king. — 11. The reply of Ethelbert. 12. He enters Canterbury with his companions. With what array. (Years 595 and 596.) 1. Gregory had long thirsted for the salvation of the English, as is clear from what was said before, and was thinking of Britain.

So that the heralds of the word of God, soon to set out thither, might have some helpers, the most wise pontiff ordered that young men, of seventeen or eighteen years, be procured by Candidus, rector of the Gallic patrimony, from the English nation (Book 6, letter 7), and be taught and instructed in the monasteries concerning the faith and Christian rites, by whose ministry he might afterward make use for the conversion of that whole people. Although these boys did not yet seem ripe for so great a labor and work (for at the beginning of the sixth year of his pontificate he wrote to Saint

Gregory wrote to Candidus the presbyter about purchasing them, and at the end of the same year he sent Augustine into Gaul, whence he might afterward send him across into England), nevertheless he judged that this expedition ought not to be put off any longer; either because he feared to be forestalled by death, which from his continual illnesses he suspected to be near, or rather because, as he himself hints in writing to the Gallic bishops, he had heard that the English nation wished to become Christian; Bertha, the Christian wife of Ethelbert, king of the men of Kent, doubtless enticing her husband and his subjects to embrace the faith of Christ (Ibid., letters 52, 53, etc., 58, 59). 2.

That island, the largest of all that lie adjacent to Europe, then called Britain, and afterward for the most part named England from its English inhabitants, long before it was occupied by that nation had received the Christian faith, and indeed from the very disciples of Christ the Savior (if Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, be heard). Who those were we do not dare to assert; commonly, however, it is believed that Joseph of Arimathea announced Christ to the Britons. That the holy apostles Peter and Paul crossed into Britain for the sake of preaching the Gospel is the opinion of some, as one may read in Spelman; to prove which they adduce the testimony of Theodoret.

The venerable Bede, who wove together the history of the British and English nation (Book 1 of the History, ch. 4), treats of the conversion of King Lucius, while Eleutherius sat at Rome, from whom Lucius sought and obtained heralds of the divine word, around the year of Christ 177 or 180. Indeed Tertullian, a contemporary of Eleutherius, in the book Against the Jews, which he composed around the year 208, teaches in ch. 7 that places of the Britons inaccessible to the Romans had been laid open to Christ and made subject to Him; and with him agrees Origen, scarcely his inferior in age and authority, in Homily 6 on Luke. The persecution of Diocletian empurpled and consecrated Britain with the blood of many martyrs, among whom Saint Alban is eminent, most renowned from the monastery marked with his name, most celebrated throughout the whole island.

Peace being restored to the Church, very many bishops from Britain were present at various councils held at the beginning and in the course of the fourth century: at Arles in the year 314, at Sardica in the year 351, and a little after at Rimini: whence the Arian heresy, having set out and corrupted almost the whole world, infected also this island, though set as it were outside the world: while its inhabitants ever rejoice to hear something new, and hold nothing certain firmly, says Bede of the peoples known to him and his own countrymen (Ibid., ch. 8). Afterward, while Arcadius and Honorius reigned, Pelagius the Briton scattered far and wide the poisons of his perfidy against the aid of heavenly grace;

which poison, brought in and propagated among the Britons through Agricola, the son of Severianus the Arian bishop, was repressed and extinguished by the help of the Gallic prelates. For these, at the entreaty of the Britons, who felt themselves unequal to overcoming the craftiness of the heretics, sent to their aid two bishops preeminent in doctrine and holiness, Lupus of Troyes and Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, by whose miracles and preaching especially those who had persevered in the faith were confirmed, and the heterodox were vanquished.

Afterward the error of the Scots and their peculiar rite in celebrating Easter almost divided the British Church from the rest; which rite the most learned Petavius thinks arose from a passage of Anatolius corrupted by the false interpretation of Rufinus. Indeed Saint Columban wonderfully praises Anatolius, who was bishop of Laodicea in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, in his letter to Saint Gregory, in which he contends for this rite of his fellow Scots (cf. the remarks on the heresy 51 concerning the Epiphany). 3. The English and Saxons, and other barbarians not yet freed from the servitude of idols, almost obliterated the Christian religion on the island; whom the Britons, against the Picts and Scots, their relentless enemies, had summoned from farthest Germany under evil omens.

By these the greater part of the island was occupied, and divided into seven ethnarchies according to the diversity of the peoples; the Picts meanwhile, sprung from Scythia, and the Scots, of Hibernian origin, retaining the Northern part, but the Britons the more Southern. In so great a disturbance of affairs, neither did the oppressed Britons think of sowing the Gospel seed among their most hostile enemies; nor, even if they had been solicitous about preaching the Christian law, would the English have embraced it, lest the conquerors should seem to have made surrender to their vices. Saint Gregory censures the sluggishness of the Gallic bishops in procuring their conversion, writing to Theuderic and Theudebert, kings of the Franks:

'It has come to us that the English nation, by the mercy of God, longingly wishes to be converted to the Christian faith, but that the priests from nearby neglect it, and by their exhortation fail to kindle into action their desires' (Book 6, letter 58). 4. Moreover, a work of such magnitude and of greater usefulness was owed to Gregory, which Bede testifies he undertook in the sixth year of his pontificate: 'In the fourteenth year of Maurice Augustus,' he says, 'and of Christ according to the same 596, he sent the servant of God Augustine and several other monks with him, fearing the Lord, to preach the word of God to the English nation' (Book 1 of the History, ch. 23). Augustine's chief helpers were Laurentius the presbyter and Peter.

Concerning the time this expedition was begun, a stronger argument is drawn from the letters written on this matter, which all belong to the 14th indiction and are contained in Book 6 of the Register. From these same letters it is clear that Augustine was a monk, and indeed of the monastery of Saint Andrew, of which he was prior. That his companions were taken and chosen from the same monastery, these words prove: 'To Augustine your prior returning, whom we have also appointed abbot for you, obey humbly in all things' (Book 6, letter 51). 5. But when they had set out and had accomplished some part of the journey, struck by a cowardly fear, they resolved to return home rather than to approach a barbarous, fierce, and unbelieving nation, whose language they did not even know;

which, however, they by no means dared to carry out without consulting the holy pontiff. To him therefore they sent Augustine himself to entreat Gregory that he might grant to him and his companions the opportunity of returning, lest they should expose themselves and their nation, indeed the supreme pontiff himself, to the mockery of the Franks and the English, on account of a pilgrimage rashly attempted and, with no fruit, uncertain and full of hazard and toil. But Gregory, to confirm the wavering, ordered Augustine to return to his companions, to whom he wrote in these words: 'Since it were better not to begin good things than, after those which have been begun, to draw back in thought, with the utmost zeal, most beloved sons, you ought to fulfill the good work which, with the Lord's help, you have begun.

Let neither the toil of the journey, therefore, nor the tongues of slanderous men deter you: but with all instancy and all fervor accomplish, with God as author, the things you have begun,' etc., which may be read both in Bede and in the Register of Letters (Book 6, letter 51). From the time at which this letter was written (it is read as given on the tenth day before the Kalends of August) one may conjecture when Augustine and his companions set out. That letter 52 was written on the same day and year we understand especially from Bede's reporting it. And I should easily persuade myself that the other letters, by which the pope commended the preachers sent by him both to the kings and nobles of Gaul and to the bishops, are of the same date.

For since he had learned that they were wavering, and terrified at a danger only seen from afar, and less prepared for a long pilgrimage among unknown peoples, he set his mind to procuring for them supports by which a great part of the labor might be lightened. That letter 52, together with the two immediately following, and moreover letter 57 and the two following of the sixth book, was written with this design, is sufficiently understood from the argument prefixed to each. In what place these heralds of the sacred word halted we do not read. In Bede (Book 1, ch. 23) and in the Life of Saint Augustine it is only stated that, after they had accomplished some part of the journey, or having traversed the journey of some days, they checked their course, and made a delay until Augustine, sent by them, should return to Saint

Gregory. It is conjectured, however, and not without reason, that they settled in Provence, not far from the island of Lérins. This indeed the words of letter 53 of the sixth book, to Stephen abbot of Lérins, signify: 'The report of Augustine, servant of God, the bearer of these presents, has made us glad, because he has related that your charity is vigilant, as is fitting.' For how could Augustine, returning to Rome from the journey he had undertaken, have reported these things about the abbot of Lérins, if he had revisited his homeland long before he entered Provence? The same Augustine had also approached Protasius, bishop of Aix, and Arigius the patrician, about whom he related many things to Gregory as an eyewitness on his return to the City (Book

Book 6, letters 55 and 57). And so, when it is read in Bede that Augustine and his companions had advanced only some part of the journey, this is to be understood not simply, but comparatively to the much longer part that remained to be accomplished. In the same way must be explained the writer of the Life of Saint Augustine, when he asserts that those monks, after a journey of some days, thought of returning. Now let us see them cheerfully taking up the road again. 7. From the commendatory letters which Augustine had received to deliver, we have his itinerary through Gaul described. First indeed they put in at Marseilles, where they greeted Bishop Serenus; a letter having been given to him in Gregory's name (Book 6, letter 52).

Afterward they came to Arles, and visited Virgilius the archbishop, vicar of the holy see, to whom the pope had especially commended them (Ibid., letter 53). Then Vienne was to be approached, whose bishop was Desiderius, one of those to whom Gregory wrote (Ibid., letter 54). Then Lyon was to be sought, although no letters written at that time on this matter are extant to Etherius, bishop of this city. Thence they made their way to Chalon, where King Theuderic with Brunhilda his grandmother was accustomed to reside. To both the pope had commended by his letters Augustine and his helpers (Ibid., letters 58 and 59). Then they proceeded to Autun to implore the aid of Bishop Syagrius and to present the pope's letters (Ibid., letter 54).

Having traversed many places, they came either to Metz of the Mediomatrici, or to Reims of the Remi, the seat of Theudebert, king of Austrasia, whom Saint Gregory by his letters greatly begged to hold his monks, the heralds of the divine word, as commended to him. From the court of this king they came to Tours, both to venerate the tomb and sacred relics of Saint Martin, and to render Saint Gregory's letters to Bishop Pelagius (Ibid., letter 52). Whether, deflecting from their route, they approached Saintes to greet Bishop Palladius, to whom the pope had written, it is difficult to determine.

Perhaps, since he had very great influence with the Frankish kings, they had found him at court, and rendered to him the letters of the most holy pontiff, who had already bound this same man to him by a favor. That Augustine passed through the Andegavi (region of Angers) is attested by Gotselinus in his Life; and he relates a miracle not far from Pons Saii or, as others say, Pons Caesaris. 8. All these things omitted, Bede writes: 'Strengthened therefore by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory, Augustine, with the servants of Christ who were with him, returned to the work of the word, and came into Britain' (Book 1, ch. 25); and he landed on the island called Thanet, a portion of the kingdom of Kent toward the Eastern region.

In Kent, a region of Britain facing Gaul, extending as far as the river Humber, there then reigned Ethelbert, whose wife was Bertha, daughter of Charibert king of the Franks and granddaughter of Chlothar the First: given in marriage to the English king on this condition, that she should retain the Christian faith and freely profess it; wherefore she brought with her Luidhard, bishop of Senlis, and had him in the court as minister of sacred things. We believe that by her especially the king was enticed to forswear the worship of idols, from the counsel of Saint Gregory (Book 11, letter 2), who asserts that the conversion of the English nation was reserved to her reward, and kindled the same woman to the accomplishing of so great a work by a most vehement exhortation:

as though the daughters of the royal Frankish line had been accustomed to bring the true faith to their husbands as a dowry. For thus Chlodesuinda, daughter of King Chlothar, made Alboin, king of the Lombards, a Christian; and Ingundis, daughter of Sigebert and sister of King Childebert, given in marriage to the Arian Hermenegild, bent him to the Catholic faith and set him aflame for martyrdom. 9. Augustine, from the island of Thanet, sent some of his companions to Ethelbert, to tell him that they had set out from Rome and were bringing him the best of tidings, which promised without any doubt to those who obeyed it everlasting joys in heaven and a kingdom without end with the living and true God (Bede, book I, chapter 25).

The king received them very kindly, and ordered that they should remain for a while in the place where they had landed, until he should decide what ought to be done, and meanwhile all necessaries were supplied to them. After some days the king came to the island, and sitting in the open air, summoned Augustine and his companions to a conference. He had taken care, however, not to enter into any house to meet them, making use of an ancient superstition, says Bede, lest by their coming, if they had any of the magic art, they might overcome and deceive him. But they came endowed not with demonic but with divine power, bearing as a standard a silver cross, and the image of the Lord our Saviour painted on a panel, and chanting litanies. 10.

Augustine, having obtained leave to speak, disclosed to the king that he and his companions had come with this purpose: to teach him by what means he might reign more gloriously after death, and attain the crown of immortality. That Jesus Christ had, by His own death, merited this for those who believe in Him, and had unlocked the kingdom of heaven. For indeed God had burned with such love toward men that, to procure their salvation, He had delivered up His only-begotten Son to a most shameful death, namely the torment of the cross. Thus the eminent preacher judged that the scandal of the cross was by no means to be concealed, so that he might the more commend the divine power of Christ in freeing man from the bondage of death and sin. For what is so worthy of God as the salvation of man?

He added that the same Christ had risen again after death, had ascended into the kingdom of heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father; and that He would come at the final consummation of the world to pronounce judgment upon all mortals. And in order to establish belief, he related countless and stupendous miracles, which are sure proofs of the divinity of Christ; but above all the wondrous accord of almost all nations in embracing the Christian religion and casting away idols, even though the depraved affections and vices of men resisted—vices which paganism so favoured that it decreed and repaid even divine honours in their behalf, whereas, on the contrary, the law of the Gospel teaches that eternal death is the wage of corruption of morals.

Augustine added that the world, thus made Christian, was most wisely governed by Gregory, the Roman pontiff, who, thirsting for the salvation of the king and of all the English, would gladly have hastened to preach these things to them himself, had not that best of shepherds feared to abandon the care of so many sheep entrusted to him; but that he himself was discharging this embassy on his behalf. 11. To this the king, wavering and hesitant between the darkness of his ingrained error and the shining light of the dawning truth, answered like a sick man who favours his physicians but does not yet endure the cure: that the words and promises seemed beautiful to him; but because they are new and uncertain, he said, I cannot give my assent, forsaking those things which I have so long kept together with the whole English nation.

Yet because you have come here from afar in order to share with us what seems to you true and best, we count it most welcome; and we grant that whoever wishes to give his name to Christ may be received by you and instructed according to your custom (Bede, book I, chapter 25). Besides this, he assigned them a place in the city of Canterbury, the metropolis of the whole kingdom, where they might conveniently dwell; and he ordered that whatever things were necessary for life should be abundantly supplied. 12. They entered the royal city, bearing before them, according to their custom, the cross and the image of Christ the Saviour, and chanting this litany with harmonious voice:

We beseech You, O Lord, in all Your mercy, that Your fury and Your wrath may be taken away from this city and from Your holy house, for we have sinned. Alleluia (Bede, book I, chapter 25). In the dwelling granted to them, Augustine and his fellow-soldiers began to imitate the apostolic life of the nascent Church, despising as foreign all the things of this world, and receiving only those which were necessary for sustenance from those whom they taught, so that they might commend the holiness of the Christian law by example rather than by words. Drawn by these harmless allurements to the nets of truth, not a few embraced faith in Christ; and to these it was granted to hold their assemblies in the ancient church of Saint Martin near the city, then alone remaining.

But after the king himself believed and was initiated by baptism, being no longer able to resist the unconquered testimony of the miracles by which God confirmed the doctrine and holiness of His servants, the neophytes began with wondrous eagerness to restore the ruined ancient temples and to build new ones. So great indeed was the increase then made to the nascent Church—the English striving eagerly to follow the king's example (though he compelled no one to religion)—that the former church could by no means contain them.