Kent Past
The History of Kent
Copyright Kent Past 2010
Saint Augustine’s Mission
After the withdrawal of the Roman legions from the province of Britannia in 410,
the natives of the province were left to defend themselves against the attacks of
the Saxons. Before the withdrawal, Britannia had been converted to Christianity and
had even produced its own heretic in Pelagius. Britain sent three bishops to the
Council of Arles in 314AD, and a Gaulish bishop went to the island in 396 to help
settle disciplinary matters. Material remains testifying to a growing presence of
Christians, at least until around 360. After the legions left, pagan tribes settled
the southern parts of the island, but western Britain, beyond the Anglo-
It was against this background that
Pope Gregory I decided to send a mission, often called the Gregorian mission, to
convert the Anglo-
Aside from Aethelberht's
granting of freedom of worship to his wife, the choice of Kent was probably dictated
by a number of other factors. Kent was proving to be the dominant power in south-
In 595, Gregory chose Augustine, who was the prior of the abbey of St Andrew's
in Rome, to head the mission to Kent. The pope selected monks to accompany Augustine
and sought support from the Frankish royalty and clergy in a series of letters, of
which some copies survive in Rome. He wrote to King Theuderic II of Burgundy and
to King Theudebert II of Austrasia, as well as their grandmother Brunhild, seeking
aid for the mission. Gregory thanked King Chlothar II of Neustria for aiding Augustine.
Besides hospitality, the Frankish bishops and kings provided interpreters and Frankish
priests to accompany the mission. By soliciting help from the Frankish kings and
bishops, Gregory helped to assure a friendly reception for Augustine in Kent, as
Aethelberht was unlikely to mistreat a mission who visibly had the support of his
wife's relatives and people. Moreover, the Franks appreciated the chance to participate
in a mission that would extend their influence in Kent. Chlothar, in particular,
needed a friendly realm across the Channel to help guard his kingdom's flanks against
his fellow Frankish kings.
Sources make no mention of why Pope Gregory chose a monk
to head the mission. Pope Gregory once wrote to Aethelberht complimenting Augustine's
knowledge of the Bible, so Augustine was evidently well-
Augustine
was accompanied by Laurence of Canterbury, his eventual successor to the archbishopric,
and a group of about 40 companions, some of whom were monks. Soon after leaving Rome,
the missionaries halted, daunted by the nature of the task before them. They sent
Augustine back to Rome to request papal permission to return. Gregory refused and
sent Augustine back with letters encouraging the missionaries to persevere. In 597AD,
Augustine and his companions landed in Kent. They achieved some initial success soon
after their arrival: Aethelberht permitted the missionaries to settle and preach
in his capital of Canterbury where they used the church of St Martin's for services.
Neither Bede nor Gregory mentions the date of Aethelberht's conversion, but it probably
took place in 597. In the early medieval period, large scale conversions required
the ruler's conversion first, and Augustine is recorded as making large numbers of
converts within a year of his arrival in Kent. Also, by 601, Gregory was writing
to both Aethelberht and Bertha, calling the king his son and referring to his baptism.
A late medieval tradition, recorded by the 15th-
Augustine established his episcopal see
at Canterbury. It is not clear when and where Augustine was consecrated as a bishop.
Bede, writing about a century later, states that Augustine was consecrated by the
Frankish Archbishop �therius of Arles after the conversion of Aethelberht. Contemporary
letters from Pope Gregory, however, refer to Augustine as a bishop before he arrived
in England. A letter of Gregory's from September 597AD calls Augustine a bishop,
and one ten months later says that Augustine had been consecrated on Gregory's command
by bishops of the German lands. The historian R. A. Markus discusses the various
theories of when and where Augustine was consecrated, and suggests that he was consecrated
before arriving in England, but argues that the evidence does not permit deciding
exactly where this took place.
Soon after his arrival, Augustine founded the monastery
of Saints Peter and Paul, which later became St Augustine's Abbey, on land donated
by the king. This foundation has often been claimed as the first Benedictine abbey
outside Italy, and that by founding it Augustine introduced the Rule of St. Benedict
into England, but there is no evidence that the abbey followed the Benedictine Rule
at the time of its foundation. In a letter Gregory wrote to the patriarch of Alexandria
in 598, he claimed that more than 10,000 Christians had been baptised; the number
may be exaggerated but there is no reason to doubt that a mass conversion took place.
However, there were probably some Christians already in Kent before Augustine arrived,
remnants of the Christians who lived in Britain in the later Roman Empire. Little
literary traces remain of them, however. One other effect of the king's conversion
by Augustine's mission was that the Frankish influence on the southern kingdoms of
Britain was decreased.
After these conversions, Augustine sent Laurence back to Rome
with a report of his success along with questions about the mission. Bede records
the letter and Gregory's replies in chapter 27 of his Ecclesiastical History, this
section of the History is usually known as the Libellus responsionum. Augustine asked
for Gregory's advice on a number of issues, including how to organise the church,
the punishment for church robbers, guidance on who was allowed to marry whom, and
the consecration of bishops. Other topics were relations between the churches of
Britain and Gaul, childbirth and baptism, and when it was lawful for people to receive
communion and for a priest to celebrate mass.
Further missionaries were sent from
Rome in 601. They brought a pallium for Augustine and a present of sacred vessels,
vestments, relics, and books. The pallium was the symbol of metropolitan status,
and signified that Augustine was now an archbishop. Along with the pallium, a letter
from Gregory directed the new archbishop to ordain 12 suffragan bishops as soon as
possible and to send a bishop to York. Gregory's plan was that there would be two
metropolitans, one at York and one at London, with 12 suffragan bishops under each
archbishop. As part of this plan, Augustine was expected to transfer his archiepiscopal
see to London from Canterbury. The move from Canterbury to London never happened;
no contemporary sources give the reason, but it was probably because London was not
part of Aethelberht's domains. Instead, London was part of the kingdom of Essex,
ruled by Aethelberht's nephew Saebert of Essex, who converted to Christianity in
604. The historian S. Brechter has suggested that the metropolitan see was indeed
moved to London, and that it was only with the abandonment of London as a see after
the death of Aethelberht that Canterbury became the archiepiscopal see. This theory
contradicts Bede's version of events, however.
In 604, Augustine founded two more
bishoprics in Britain. Two men who had come to Britain with him in 601 were consecrated,
Mellitus as Bishop of London and Justus as Bishop of Rochester. Bede relates that
Augustine, with the help of the king, recovered a church built by Roman Christians
in Canterbury. It is not clear if Bede meant that Augustine rebuilt the church or
that Augustine merely re-
Augustine failed to extend his authority
to the Christians in Wales and Dumnonia to the west. Gregory had decreed that these
Christians should submit to Augustine and that their bishops should obey him, apparently
believing that more of the Roman governmental and ecclesiastical organisation survived
in the Britain than was actually the case. According to the narrative of Bede, the
Britons in these regions viewed Augustine with uncertainty, and their suspicion was
compounded by a diplomatic misjudgement on Augustine's part. In 603, Augustine and
Aethelberht summoned the British bishops to a meeting. These guests retired early
to confer with their people, who, according to Bede, advised them to judge Augustine
based upon the respect he displayed at their next meeting. When Augustine failed
to rise from his seat on the entrance of the British bishops, they refused to recognise
him as archbishop. There were, however, deep differences between Augustine and the
British church that perhaps played a more significant role in preventing an agreement.
At issue were the tonsure, the observance of Easter, and practical and deep-
Temples were to be consecrated
for Christian use, and feasts, if possible, moved to days celebrating Christian martyrs.
One religious site was revealed to be a shrine of a local St Sixtus, whose worshippers
were unaware of details of the martyr's life or death. They may have been native
Christians, but Augustine did not treat them as such. When Gregory was informed,
he told Augustine to stop the cult and use the shrine for the Roman St Sixtus.
Gregory
legislated on the behaviour of the laity and the clergy. He placed the new mission
directly under papal authority and made it clear that English bishops would have
no authority over Frankish counterparts or vice versa. Other directives dealt with
the training of native clergy and the missionaries' conduct.
The King's School, Canterbury
claims Augustine as its founder, which would make it the world's oldest existing
school, but the first documentary records of the school date from the 16th century.
Augustine did establish a school, and soon after his death, Canterbury was able to
send teachers out to support the East Anglian mission. Augustine received liturgical
books from the pope, but their exact contents are unknown. There may have been some
of the new mass books that were being written at this time. The exact liturgy that
Augustine introduced to England remains unknown, but it would have been a form of
the Latin language liturgy in use at Rome.
Before his death, Augustine consecrated
Laurence as his successor to the archbishopric, probably to ensure an orderly transfer
of office. Although at the time of Augustine's death, 26 May 604, the mission barely
extended beyond Kent, his undertaking introduced a more active missionary style into
the British Isles. Despite the earlier presence of Christians in Ireland and Wales,
no efforts had been made to try to convert the Saxon invaders. Augustine was sent
to convert the descendants of those invaders, and eventually became the decisive
influence in Christianity in the British Isles. Much of his success came about because
of Augustine's close relationship with Aethelberht, which gave the archbishop time
to establish himself. Augustine's example also influenced the great missionary efforts
of the Anglo-
Augustine's body was originally buried in the portico of
what is now St Augustine's, Canterbury, but it was later exhumed and placed in a
tomb within the abbey church, which became a place of pilgrimage and veneration.
After the Norman Conquest, the cult of St Augustine was actively promoted. After
the Conquest, his shrine in St Augustine's Abbey held a central position in one of
the axial chapels, flanked by the shrines of his successors Laurence and Mellitus.
King Henry I of England granted St. Augustine's Abbey a six day fair around the date
on which Augustine's relics were translated to his new shrine, from 8 September through
13 September.
A life of Augustine was written by Goscelin around 1090, but this life
portrays Augustine in a different light than Bede's account. Goscelin's account has
little new historical content, mainly being filled with miracles and imagined speeches.
Building on this account, later medieval writers continued to add new miracles and
stories to Augustine's life, often quite fanciful. These authors included William
of Malmesbury, who claimed that Augustine founded Cerne Abbey, the author (generally
believed to be John Brompton) of a late medieval chronicle containing invented letters
from Augustine, and a number of medieval writers who included Augustine in their
romances. Another problem with investigating Augustine's saintly cult is the confusion
resulting because most medieval liturgical documents mentioning Augustine do not
distinguish between Augustine of Canterbury and Augustine of Hippo, a fourth century
saint. Medieval Scandinavian liturgies feature Augustine of Canterbury quite often,
however. During the English Reformation, Augustine's shrine was destroyed and his
relics were lost.
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