beauty who were set up for sale, he inquired about their country, and finding they were English pagans, he is said to have cried out, in the Latin language, Non Angli sed Angeli forent, si essent Christiani-"they would not be English, but Angels, had they been Christians." From that time he was struck with an ardent desire to convert that unenlightened nation, and actually embarked in a ship for Britain, when his pious intentions were frustrated by his being detained at Rome by the populace, who loved him. He did not however lay aside his holy resolution; for, having succeeded to the papal chair, he ordered a monk, named Augustine, and others of the same fraternity, to undertake the mission into Britain. It was not without some reluctance that these reverend men undertook so dangerous a task; but some favourable circumstances in Britain seemed providentially to prepare the way for their arrival. Ethelbert, king of Kent, in his father's life-time, had married Bertha, the only daughter of Caribert, king of Paris, one of the descendents of Clovis, king of Gaul. But before he was admitted to this alliance, he was obliged to stipulate that this princess should enjoy the free exercise of her religion, which was that of Christianity. She was therefore attended to Canterbury, the place of her residence, by Luidhard, a Gaulish prelate, who officiated in a church dedicated to St. Martin, which had been built by the Romans, near the walls of Canterbury. The exemplary conduct and powerful preaching of this primitive bishop, added to the queen's learning and zeal, made very strong impressions upon the king, as well as the rest of his subjects, in favour of Christianity. The ge neral reception of this holy religion all over the continent might also contribute to dispose the minds of these idolaters for its admission, and make the attempt less dangerous than Augustine and his associates at first supposed. This pious monk, upon his first landing in the Isle of Thanet, sent one of his interpreters to the Kentish king, declaring he was come from Rome with offers of eternal salvation. In the mean time he and his followers lay in the open air, that they might not, according to the belief of the times, by entering a Saxon house, subject themselves to the power of heathen necromancy. The king immediately ordered them to be furnished with all necessaries, and even visited them, though without declaring himself as yet in their favour. Augustine, however, encouraged by this favourable reception, and now seeing a prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel, and even endeavoured to call in the aid of miracles to enforce his exhortations. So much assiduity, together with the earnestness of his address, the austerity of his life, and the example of his followers, at last powerfully operated. The king openly espoused the Christian religion, while his example wrought so successfully on his subjects, that numbers of them came voluntarily to be baptised, their missioner loudly declaring against any coercive means towards their conversion. The heathen temples being purified, were changed to places of Christian worship, and such churches as had been suffered to decay were repaired. The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity, the pope enjoined his missioner to remove the pagan idols, but not to throw down the altars, altars, observing, that the people would be allured to frequent those places which they had formerly been accustomed to revere. He also permitted him to indulge the people in those feasts and cheerful entertainments which they had been formerly accustomed to celebrate near the places of their idolatrous worship. The people thus exchanged their ancient opinions with readiness, since they found themselves indulged in those innocent relaxations which are only immoral when carried to an excess. Augustine was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, endowed with authority over all the British churches, and his associates, having spread themselves over all the country, completed that conversion which was so happily begun. The kingdom of the heptarchy which next embraced the Christian faith was that of Northumberland, at that time the most powerful of the rest: Edwin, a wise, brave, and active prince, then king of the country, was married to Ethelburga, the daughter of Ethelbert, who had been so lately converted. This princess, emulating the glory of her mother, who had been the instrument of converting her husband and his subjects to Christianity, carried Paulinus, a learned bishop, with her into Northumberland, having previously stipulated for the free exercise of her religion. Edwin, whom his queen unceasingly solicited to embrace Christianity, for a long time hesitated on the proposal, willing to examine its doctrines before he declared in their favour. Accordingly he held several conferences with Paulinus, disputed with his counsellors, meditated alone, and, after a serious discussion, declared himself a Christian. D 4 The high high priest also of the pagan superstition soon after declaring himself a convert to the arguments of Paulinus, the whole body of the people unanimously followed their example. The authority of Edwin, who was thus converted, soon after prevailed upon Earpwold, the king of the East Angles, to embrace Christianity. This monarch, however, after the death of Edwin, relapsed into his former idolatry, at the persuasion of his wife. But upon his decease, Sigebert, his half-brother, who had been educated in France, restored Christianity, and introduced learning among the Angles. Mercia, the most powerful kingdom of all the Saxon heptarchy, owed its conversion, like the former, to a woman. The wife of Peada, who was the daughter of Oswy, king of Northumberland, having been bred in the Christian faith, employed her influence with success in converting her husband and his subjects. But it seems the new religion was attended with small influence on the manners of that fierce people, as we find Otto, one of their new converted kings, in a few reigns after, treacherously destroying Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, at an entertainment to which he had been invited. However, to make atonement for this transgression, we find him paying great court to the clergy, giving the tenth of his goods to the church, and making a pilgrimage to Rome, where his riches procured him the papal absolution. It was upon this occasion, the better to ingratiate himself with the pope, that he engaged to pay him a yearly donation for the support of an English college at Rome; and, in order to raise the sum, he imposed a tax of a penny penny on each houfe possessed of thirty-pence a year. This imposition being afterwards generally levied throughout the kingdom, went by the name of Peter-pence, and in succeeding times gave rise to many ecclesiastical abuses. In the kingdom of Essex, Sebert, who was nephew to Ethelbert, king of Kent, of whose conversion we have already made mention, was also prevailed upon by his uncle to embrace the Christian religion. His sons, however, relapsed into idolatry, and banished Melitus, the Christian bishop, from their territories, because he refused to let them eat the white bread which was distributed at the communion. But Christianity was restored two or three reigns after, by Sigebert the Good; and such was the influence of its doctrines upon Offa, the third in succession from him, that he went upon a pilgrimage to Rome, and shut himself up during the rest of his life in a cloister. We know but little of the propagation of Christianity in the kingdom of Sussex; but this being the smallest of all the Saxon heptarchy, it is probable that it was governed in its opinions by some of its more powerful neighbours. It is said, that, during the reign of Cissa, one of its kings, which continued seventy-six years, the kingdom fell into a total dependence upon that of Wessex, and to this it is probable that it owed its conversion. The kingdom of Wessex, which in the end swallowed up all the rest, deserves our more particular attention. This principality, which, as has been already related, was founded by Cerdic, was, of all the Saxon establishments in Britain, the |