For, having joined to himself Severus, a man of all holiness, who was a disciple of the most blessed father Lupus, bishop of Troyes, and at that time ordained bishop at Trier, was preaching the word to the peoples of First Germany, he embarked on the sea, and with the elements consenting, in a calm voyage made for Britain. Meanwhile evil spirits, flitting throughout the whole island, were announcing by their unwilling prophecies that Germanus was coming; to such a degree that a certain Elafius, the chief man of that region, hastened to meet the saints without any report of a manifest messenger, bringing with him his son, whom in the very flower of his youth a grievous infirmity had condemned.
For with his sinews withered and his knee drawn up, the use of his foot was denied him through the dryness of his leg. This Elafius the whole province followed; the priests came, the unknowing multitude ran to meet them, and at once a blessing and the teaching of the divine word were poured forth. They recognized the people remaining in that faith in which he had left them; they understood the fault to be of a few, they sought out the authors, and, when found, condemned them. When suddenly Elafius cast himself at the feet of the priests, offering his son, whose need the very infirmity, even without prayers, pleaded; a common grief arose in all, especially in the priests, who brought the mercy they had conceived before the divine clemency;
and at once the blessed Germanus made the young man sit down, handled the knee bent by infirmity, and the healing right hand ran over the whole extent of the affliction, and a swift restoration to health followed the wholesome touch. The dryness received its moisture, the sinews their functions, and in the sight of all soundness was restored to the son, and the son to the father. The people were filled with astonishment at the miracle, and in the breasts of all the catholic faith, deeply impressed, was strengthened. Then the preaching was turned to the people concerning the amendment of their transgression, and by the verdict of all the authors of the depravity, who had been expelled from the island, were brought before the priests to be conveyed to the inland regions, that both the country might enjoy absolution and they amendment.
And it came to pass that in those places, from that time on, the faith long endured undefiled. And so, all things being set in order, the blessed priests returned with the same prosperity with which they had come. Furthermore, Germanus, after these things, came to Ravenna to make supplication for the peace of the people of Armorica, and there, received with the utmost reverence by Valentinian and Placidia his mother, he passed over to Christ. His body, with the works of his virtues accompanying it, was borne in an honorable procession to his own city. And not long after, Valentinian was slain by the henchmen of the patrician Aetius, whom he had killed, in the sixth year of the emperor Marcian; and with him the Western kingdom fell at the same time. [22] Meanwhile in Britain there was indeed a brief respite from foreign wars, but not from civil ones.
There remained the ruins of the cities overthrown and deserted by the enemy; the citizens who had escaped the foe fought against one another. Nevertheless, while the memory of the calamity and slaughter inflicted was still fresh, the kings, priests, private men, and nobles in some fashion kept each his own rank. But when these passed away, and an age succeeded ignorant of that tempest and acquainted only with the present condition of tranquillity, all the governances of truth and justice were so shaken and overthrown that, I will not say a trace of them, but not even a memory of them appeared, except in a few and very few.
Among other deeds of unspeakable crimes, which their own historian Gildas describes in a mournful discourse, they added this also: that they never committed the word of faith by preaching to the people of the Saxons or Angles dwelling with them in Britain. But the divine mercy did not, for all that, forsake His people, whom He foreknew, but ordained for the aforesaid nation far worthier heralds of the truth, through whom it might believe. [23] For in the year 582 from the incarnation of the Lord, Maurice, receiving the empire as the fifty-fourth from Augustus, held it for twenty-one years. In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, a man pre-eminent in learning and in action, having obtained the pontificate of the Roman and apostolic see, ruled it thirteen years, six months, and ten days.
He, admonished by divine prompting, in the fourteenth year of the same prince, and about the hundred and fiftieth year after the coming of the Angles into Britain, sent the servant of God Augustine and several other monks with him, who feared the Lord, to preach the word of God to the people of the Angles. When these, obeying the pontifical commands, had begun to undertake the aforesaid task, and had now completed some little of the journey, they were stricken with a faint-hearted fear, and began rather to think of returning home than of going to a barbarous, fierce, and unbelieving nation, whose very language they did not know; and they decided by common counsel that this was the safer course.
Without delay they sent back home Augustine, whom he had appointed to be ordained their bishop if they were received by the Angles, that by humble entreaty he might obtain from the blessed Gregory that they should not be obliged to undertake so perilous, so laborious, so uncertain a pilgrimage. To them he, sending letters of exhortation, urged them to set out upon the work of the word, trusting in the divine help. The form of these letters is, indeed, this: 'Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to the servants of our Lord. Since it had been better not to begin good things than, from those which have been begun, to turn back in thought, it behooves you, most beloved sons, with the utmost zeal to complete the good work which, with the Lord helping, you have begun.
Therefore let neither the toil of the journey nor the tongues of slanderous men deter you; but with all perseverance and all fervor accomplish, with God as author, what you have begun; knowing that a greater glory of eternal recompense follows great labor. To Augustine your provost, returning, whom we have also appointed your abbot, humbly obey in all things; knowing that whatever is fulfilled by you at his admonition will in all respects profit your souls. May Almighty God protect you by His grace, and grant me to see the fruit of your labor in the eternal fatherland; so that, although I cannot labor together with you, I may yet be found together in the joy of the recompense, because I am indeed willing to labor.
May God keep you safe, most beloved sons. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of August, in the fourteenth year of the reign of our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, in the thirteenth year after the consulship of the same our lord, in the fourteenth indiction.' [24] At that time also the same venerable pontiff sent to Etherius, archbishop of Arles, letters that he should kindly receive Augustine on his way to Britain, of which this is the text: 'To the most reverend and most holy brother Etherius, fellow-bishop, Gregory, servant of the servants of God. Although among priests possessing a charity pleasing to God religious men need the commendation of none; yet, because a fitting time for writing has presented itself, we have taken care to send our writings to your fraternity;
making known that we have directed thither, for the benefit of souls, with the help of the Lord, the bearer of these presents, Augustine the servant of God, of whose zeal we are assured, together with other servants of God; whom it is necessary that your holiness with priestly zeal hasten to assist, and to afford him his comforts. To him also, that you may be the readier to give support, we have enjoined to indicate the cause to you in detail; knowing that, when it is known, you will, for God's sake, with all devotion lend yourself to the giving of comfort, since the matter demands it. Moreover, Candidus the presbyter, our common son, whom we have sent over for the governance of the little patrimony of our church, we commend in all things to your charity. May God keep you safe, most reverend brother.
Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of August, in the fourteenth year of the reign of our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, in the thirteenth year after the consulship of the same our lord, in the fourteenth indiction.' [25] 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 to Britain. There was at that time in Kent the most powerful king Aethelberht, who had extended the bounds of his dominion as far as the boundary of the great river Humber, by which the southern and northern peoples of the Angles are divided.
Now toward the eastern quarter of Kent there is a not inconsiderable island, Thanet, that is, according to the usual reckoning of the Angles, of the magnitude of six hundred families, which the river Wantsum separates from the mainland—a river about three stadia in breadth, and passable in two places only; for it extends each of its ends into the sea. On this, then, the servant of the Lord Augustine landed, and his companions, men, as they say, about forty in number. They had also received, at the bidding of the blessed Pope Gregory, interpreters from the nation of the Franks;
and, sending to Aethelberht, he gave word that he had come from Rome, and was bringing the best of tidings, which promised, without any doubt, to those who obeyed it eternal joys in the heavens, and a kingdom without end with the living and true God. When he heard this, he commanded them to remain on the island which they had reached, and that necessaries be supplied to them, until he should see what to do with them. For even before this the report of the Christian religion had reached him, inasmuch as he had a Christian wife of the royal nation of the Franks, by name Bertha; whom he had received from her parents on this condition, that she should have leave to keep inviolate the rite of her faith and religion, with the bishop whom they had given her as a helper of her faith, Liudhard by name.
After some days, then, the king came to the island, and, sitting in the open air, commanded Augustine with his companions to come there to a conference with him. For he had taken precaution that they should not enter into any house to him, using an ancient superstition, lest by their coming, if they had had any of the magic art, they should overcome and deceive him. But they, endowed not with demonic but with divine power, came bearing for a standard a silver cross, and the image of the Lord and Savior painted on a panel, and, chanting litanies, made supplication to the Lord for their own eternal salvation and that of those for whose sake and to whom they had come. And when, at the king's command, sitting down, they preached to him the word of life together with all his companions who were present, he answered, saying:
'The words and promises which you bring are indeed fair; but because they are new and uncertain, I cannot give my assent to them, abandoning those things which I have kept for so long a time with the whole nation of the Angles. But because you have come hither as pilgrims from afar, and, as I think I have perceived, have desired to share with us also those things which you believed to be true and best, we do not wish to be troublesome to you; nay rather, we take care to receive you with kindly hospitality, and to supply what is necessary for your sustenance; nor do we forbid that you should associate to your faith and religion, by preaching, all whom you can.'
He gave them, therefore, a dwelling in the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of his whole empire, and, as he had promised, with the provision of temporal sustenance did not withhold from them the leave also of preaching. Now it is reported that, as they approached the city, after their manner, with the holy cross and the image of the great king, our Lord Jesus Christ, they chanted with harmonious voice this litany: 'We beseech Thee, O Lord, in all Thy mercy, that Thy fury and Thine anger may be taken away from this city, and from Thy holy house, because we have sinned. Alleluia.' [26] And when they had entered the dwelling given to them, they began to imitate the apostolic life of the primitive church;
that is, by serving in assiduous prayers, vigils, and fasts, by preaching the word of life to those whom they could, by despising all things of this world as alien, by receiving from those whom they taught only those things which seemed necessary for sustenance, by themselves living in all respects according to what they taught, and by having a mind prepared to suffer any adversities whatever, and even to die for the truth which they preached. Why delay? Several believed and were baptized, marveling at the simplicity of their innocent life, and at the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine.
Now there was near the city itself, to the east, a church made of old in honor of Saint Martin, while the Romans still inhabited Britain, in which the queen, whom we have said before to have been a Christian, had been wont to pray. In this, then, they too at first began to assemble, to chant psalms, to pray, to celebrate Mass, to preach, and to baptize; until, when the king had been converted to the faith, they received greater leave to preach everywhere, and to build or restore churches.
But when he himself also, delighted among others by the most pure life of the saints, and by their most sweet promises—which they had confirmed to be true by the showing of many miracles as well—believing, was baptized, more people began daily to flock together to hear the word, and, the rite of heathenism being abandoned, to associate themselves, by believing, to the unity of the holy church of Christ. At their faith and conversion the king is said to have so rejoiced that he yet compelled no one to Christianity; but only embraced the believers with a closer affection, as fellow-citizens with him of the heavenly kingdom. For he had learned from the teachers and authors of his salvation that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not compulsory.
Nor did he delay even to bestow on his own teachers a place suited to the rank of their order in his metropolis of Canterbury, and at the same time to confer on them the necessary possessions in diverse kinds. [27] Meanwhile the man of the Lord, Augustine, came to Arles, and by the archbishop of that same city, Etherius, according to what they had received as the commands of the holy father Gregory, was ordained archbishop for the nation of the Angles; and returning to Britain, he immediately sent to Rome Laurence the presbyter and Peter the monk, to report to the blessed pontiff Gregory that the nation of the Angles had received the faith of Christ, and that he himself had been made bishop; at the same time earnestly requesting his counsel concerning those questions which seemed necessary.
Without delay he received answers suitable to his inquiry, which we have also thought it convenient to insert into this our history. I. Question of the blessed Augustine, bishop of the church of the people of Kent: Concerning bishops, how they should conduct themselves with their clergy, or concerning those things which come to the altar from the offerings of the faithful; how great portions ought to be made, and how the bishop ought to act in the church? Gregory, pope of the city of Rome, replied: Holy Scripture testifies—which there is no doubt that you know well—and especially the epistles of blessed Paul to Timothy, in which he was at pains to instruct him how he ought to conduct himself in the house of God.
Now it is the custom of the apostolic see to deliver precepts to ordained bishops, that of every stipend which comes in, four portions ought to be made: one, namely, for the bishop and his household for the sake of hospitality and reception; another for the clergy; the third for the poor; the fourth for the repair of churches. But because your fraternity, instructed in the rules of a monastery, ought not to live apart from your clergy in the church of the Angles, which by God's authoring has but lately been brought to the faith, you ought to institute that manner of life which was to our fathers at the beginning of the nascent church; among whom none of them said that anything of those things which they possessed was his own, but all things were common to them.
But if there are any clerics outside the sacred orders who cannot contain themselves, they ought to take wives and receive their stipends externally; because also concerning those same fathers, of whom we have spoken before, we know it written that distribution was made to each, according as each had need. Concerning their stipend also it must be thought of and provided, and they are to be held under ecclesiastical rule, that they may live by good morals, and watch in the singing of psalms, and, by God's authoring, keep both heart and tongue and body from all unlawful things. But as for those living the common life, what shall there be for us to say concerning the making of portions, or the showing of hospitality, and the fulfilling of mercy?
Since all that is left over is to be disbursed in pious and religious causes, the Lord, the master of all, teaching: 'That which is over and above, give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you.' II. Question of Augustine: Since there is one faith, why are there diverse customs of the churches, and one custom of masses held in the holy Roman church, and another in the churches of Gaul? Gregory the pope replied: Your fraternity knows the custom of the Roman church, in which you remember yourself to have been nurtured.
But it pleases me that, whether in the Roman, or in the Gallican, or in any church whatsoever you have found anything which may be able the more to please Almighty God, you carefully choose it out, and in the church of the Angles, which as yet is new to the faith, by a special institution instill what you have been able to gather from many churches. For things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things. From each several church, therefore, choose those things which are pious, which are religious, which are right; and these, as it were gathered into a little bundle, lay up as a custom among the minds of the Angles. III. Question of Augustine: I beg, what ought he to suffer, if anyone should steal anything from the church by theft? Gregory replied:
This your fraternity can weigh from the person of the thief, in what way he may be corrected. For there are some who, having means, commit theft, and there are others who in this matter offend out of want; whence it is necessary that some be corrected by fines, some by stripes, and some more strictly, some more leniently. And when one acts a little more strictly, it must be done out of charity and not out of fury; because this is afforded to the very one who is corrected, lest he be delivered to the fires of hell. For thus ought we to keep discipline toward the faithful, as good fathers are wont toward their carnal sons, whom they both strike with stripes for their faults, and yet seek to have as heirs those very ones whom they afflict with pains;
and what they possess, they keep for those very ones whom they seem to pursue in anger. This charity, therefore, is to be held in mind, and it itself dictates the measure of correction, so that the mind do nothing at all outside the rule of reason. You will add also in what manner they ought to restore those things which they have taken from the churches by theft. But far be it that the church should receive with increase what it seems to lose of earthly things, and seek gains from vain things. IV. Question of Augustine: Whether two German brothers may take individual sisters, who are descended from them by a long line of descent? Gregory replied: This is by all means lawful to be done; for nothing is at all found in the sacred utterances which may seem to contradict this article. V. Question of Augustine:
Up to what degree of generation ought the faithful to be joined in marriage with those near to them? and is it lawful to be joined in marriage with stepmothers and kinswomen? Gregory replied: A certain earthly law in the Roman republic permits that either a brother and a sister, or the son and daughter of two German brothers, or of two sisters, may be united. But we have learned by experiment that offspring cannot grow up from such a union. And the sacred law forbids to uncover the shame of kindred. Whence it is necessary that already the third or fourth generation of the faithful ought lawfully to be joined to one another; for the second, which we mentioned before, ought by all means to abstain from itself. But to be united with a stepmother is a grievous crime, because it is also written in the law:
'Thou shalt not uncover the shame of thy father.' For neither can the son uncover the father's shame. But because it is written: 'They shall be two in one flesh,' he who has presumed to uncover the shame of a stepmother, who was one flesh with the father, has assuredly uncovered the father's shame. To be united also with a kinswoman is forbidden, because by a former conjunction she had been made the flesh of a brother. For this matter also John the Baptist was beheaded, and consummated by holy martyrdom; to whom it was not said that he should deny Christ, and he was killed for the confession of Christ; but because the same our Lord Jesus Christ had said: 'I am the truth'; because John was killed for the truth, he assuredly shed his blood also for Christ.
But because there are many in the nation of the Angles who, while they were yet in unbelief, are said to have been joined in this nefarious wedlock, when they come to the faith they are to be admonished that they abstain, and recognize that this is a grievous sin. Let them fear the dread judgment of God, lest for carnal love they incur the torments of eternal punishment. Yet they are not, for this matter, to be deprived of the communion of the sacred body and blood of the Lord, lest those things seem to be avenged in them which, through ignorance before the laver of baptism, they bound upon themselves.
For in this time the holy church corrects some things through fervor, tolerates some through gentleness, overlooks some through consideration, and so bears and overlooks, that often it restrains by bearing and overlooking the evil which it opposes. But all who come to the faith are to be admonished that they dare not perpetrate any such thing. And if any do perpetrate it, they are to be deprived of the communion of the body and blood of the Lord; because, just as in those who did it through ignorance the fault is to some extent to be tolerated, so in those who do not fear knowingly to sin it is to be strenuously pursued. VI. Question of Augustine:
If a great length of journey lies between, so that bishops cannot easily come together, ought a bishop to be ordained without the presence of other bishops? Gregory replied: And indeed in the church of the Angles, in which as yet you alone are found a bishop, you cannot ordain a bishop otherwise than without bishops. For when do bishops come from Gaul, to stand as witnesses at the ordination of a bishop? But we wish your fraternity so to ordain bishops, that the bishops themselves be by no means separated from one another by a long interval, so that there may be no necessity that, at the ordination of a bishop, other pastors also, whose presence is very useful, must come together with difficulty.
Since therefore, by God's authorship, bishops have been thus ordained in places near to one another, the ordination of a bishop ought by no means to be carried out without three or four bishops gathered together. For even in spiritual matters themselves, that they may be ordered wisely and maturely, we can draw an example from things carnal also. For surely, when marriages are celebrated in the world, married persons are called together, so that those who have already gone before in the way of wedlock may also share in the joy of the union that follows. Why then, in this spiritual ordination too, by which through sacred ministry a man is joined to God, should not such persons come together as may either rejoice at the advancement of the bishop ordained, or pour out prayers together to almighty God for his keeping? VII.
Augustine's question: How ought we to deal with the bishops of Gaul and of Britain? Gregory answered: Over the bishops of Gaul we grant you no authority; for from the ancient times of my predecessors the bishop of Arles received the pallium, and we ought by no means to deprive him of the authority he has received. If therefore it should happen that your fraternity passes over into the province of Gaul, you ought to act together with the same bishop of Arles as to how, if there be any faults among the bishops, they may be corrected. And if perchance he be lukewarm in the vigour of discipline, he is to be kindled by the zeal of your fraternity.
To him also we have written letters, that when your holiness is present in Gaul, he too may assist with his whole mind, and may restrain from the conduct of the bishops whatever is contrary to the commandment of our Creator. But you yourself shall not be able to judge the bishops of Gaul outside your own authority; rather, by persuading, by gentle entreaty, and by setting before them your good works also for imitation, reform the minds of the wicked toward the pursuits of holiness; for it is written in the Law: He who passes through another's harvest ought not to put in the sickle, but to rub the ears with his hand and eat. For you cannot put the sickle of judgement into that crop which seems to have been entrusted to another;
but by the affection of good work strip the Lord's grain of the chaff of its vices, and by admonishing and by persuading convert it, as it were by chewing, into the body of the Church. But whatever is to be done by authority, let it be done with the aforesaid bishop of Arles, lest that which the ancient institution of the fathers established be passed over. But all the bishops of Britain we commit to your fraternity, that the unlearned may be taught, the weak strengthened by persuasion, the perverse corrected by authority. VIII. Augustine's question: Whether a pregnant woman ought to be baptized? Or after she has given birth, after how long a time may she enter the church?
or also, lest it be forestalled by death, after how many days may that which she has borne be permitted to receive the sacraments of holy baptism? Or after how long a time may her husband be joined to her in the union of the flesh? Or, if she is held by the monthly custom, may she be permitted to enter the church, or to receive the sacraments of holy communion? Or whether a man who has united with his wife, before he has washed with water, may enter the church? Or even approach the mystery of holy communion? All which things it is fitting be made known to the untaught race of the English. Gregory answered: I do not doubt that your fraternity has been asked these things, to which I think I have already given a reply.