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XXIII. How the holy Pope Gregory sent Augustine, with other monks, to preach to the English
CHAP. XXII. How the Britons, being for a time at rest from foreign invasions,
wore themselves out by civil
wars, and at the same time gave themselves up to more heinous crimes.
IN the meantime, in Britain, there was some respite from foreign, but not from
civil war. The cities destroyed by the enemy and abandoned remained in ruins;
and the natives, who had escaped the enemy, now fought against each other.
Nevertheless, the kings, priests, private men, and the nobility, still
remembering the late calamities and slaughters, in some measure kept within
bounds; but when these died, and another generation succeeded, which knew
nothing of those times, and was only acquainted with the existing peaceable
state of things, all the bonds of truth and justice were so entirely broken,
that there was not only no trace of them ‘remaining, but only very few persons
seemed to retain any memory of them at all. To other crimes beyond description,
which their own historian, Gildas, mournfully relates, they added this—that they
never preached the faith to the Saxons, or English, who dwelt amongst them.
Nevertheless, the goodness of God did not forsake his people, whom he foreknew,
but sent to the aforesaid nation much more worthy heralds of the truth, to bring
it to the faith.
CHAP. XXIII. How the holy Pope Gregory sent Augustine, with other monks, to
preach to the English nation, and encouraged them by a letter of exhortation,
not to desist from their labour. [596 A. D.]
IN the year of our Lord 582, Maurice, the fifty-fourth from Augustus, ascended
the throne, and reigned twenty one years. In the tenth year of his reign,
Gregory, a man eminent in learning and the conduct of affairs, was promoted to
the Apostolic see of Rome, and presided over it thirteen years, six months and
ten days. He, being moved by Divine inspiration, in the fourteenth year of the
same emperor, and about the one hundred and fiftieth after the coming of the
English into Britain, sent the servant of God, Augustine, and with him divers
other monks, who feared the Lord, to preach the Word of God to the English
nation. They having, in obedience to the pope’s commands, undertaken that work,
when they had gone but a little way on their journey, were seized with craven
terror, and began to think of returning home, rather than proceed to a
barbarous, fierce, and unbelieving nation, to whose very language they were
strangers; and by common consent they decided that this was the safer course. At
once Augustine, who had been appointed to be consecrated bishop, if they should
be received by the English, was sent back, that he might, by humble entreaty,
obtain of the blessed Gregory, that they should not be compelled to undertake so
dangerous, toilsome, and uncertain a journey. The pope, in reply, sent them a
letter of exhortation, persuading them to set forth to the work of the Divine
Word, and rely on the help of God. The purport of which letter was as follows:
"Gregory, the servant of the servants of God, to the servants of our Lord.
Forasmuch as it had been better not to begin a good work, than to think of
desisting from one which has been begun, it behoves you, my beloved sons, to
fulfil with all diligence the good work, which, by the help of the Lord, you
have undertaken. Let not, therefore, the toil of the journey, nor the tongues of
evil-speaking men, discourage you; but with all earnestness and zeal perform, by
God’s guidance, that which you have set about; being assured, that great labour
is followed by the greater glory of an eternal reward. When Augustine, your
Superior, returns, whom we also constitute your abbot, humbly obey him in all
things; knowing, that whatsoever you shall do by his direction, will, in all
respects, be profitable to your souls. Almighty God protect you with His grace,
and grant that I may, in the heavenly country, see the fruits of your labour,
inasmuch as, though I cannot labour with you, I shall partake in the joy of the
reward, because I am willing to labour. God keep you in safety, my most beloved
sons. Given the 23rd of July, in the fourteenth year of the reign of our most
religious lord, Mauritius Tiberius Augustus, the thirteenth year after the
consulship of our lord aforesaid, and the fourteenth indiction."
