The year 597A.D. marks a convenient point of division in the record of the history of the British Isles from the first century A.D. to approximately the year 1000, the latter leading into the final five hundred years of indulgence, extravagance, authoritarianism and the ruthless politics of the pre-Reformation church. 597 was indeed, a significant year for Britain, seeing both the death of the beloved Columba, whose successors would shortly begin carrying the Gospel to the northern regions of England, and the arrival of St Augustine in the south. One could say, a two pronged attack on the devil’s territory.

The Angels of Britain⤒🔗

“They are Angels, not Angles.”

So said Pope Gregory, upon hearing the identity of the fair-haired young people whom he saw being offered for sale as slaves in the ancient market of Rome.

Gregory had risen to the top position in the Roman church by reason of his suitability and capability. His deep desire as pope was to be a bishop who was truly ‘a Servant of the servants of God.’ Having his interest aroused by these blond captives from the land of the Angles (England), nothing would stop his determination that the gospel should be heard amongst their people too.

Opportunity in Kent←⤒🔗

Gregory heard that the powerful King Ethelbert of Kent already knew something of Christianity. His wife was a Christian from the Royal Frankish household. This was Gregory’s opportunity. Unable to go himself, he decided to send to England Augustine, who was the Prior of the monastery that was formerly Gregory’s own home, the Monastery of St Andrew. Augustine was instructed in 596 A.D. to sail to the island of Britain, accompanied by forty monks. The monks felt lost already while travelling overland through Gaul, because they were unfamiliar with the language. Then the party heard of the fierce reputation of the Saxons in the land of their intended destination. That was more than enough for them. Fear took over. They absolutely refused to go further, but insisted on returning home.

Gregory, however, was not about to give up so easily. He promptly promoted Augustine to Abbot, thus giving him the authority to demand the monks’ obedience. Gregory then sent them back again, giving them an interpreter this time. Just after Easter 597 (as it happened, only about five or six weeks before Columba of Iona died) the company at last arrived across the channel, landing at Richborough, and immediately sent word to King Ethelbert of their arrival with Good News.

Ethelbert was the great-grandson of that Hengist, the pirate sea rover who had settled his extended family in England after Vortigern had given him lands in Kent. This heathen king hesitated to trust the promised ‘good news’, fearing the magic of a strange religion. But he consented to meet the missionaries. Although he at this time did not commit himself to their teaching, he allowed them to ‘set up shop,’ assigning to them a house in Canterbury. Soon afterwards, Ethelbert forsook the gods of his fathers for the God of his wife and of the missionaries, not in any conditional way, but in sincerity and reality. This happened in the way Gregory had instructed, not by compulsion but by free consent. Ethelbert accepted wholeheartedly the news of the Saviour.

The structure of society in England in those days was not individualistic, but was based on tribal communities. Any approach to the people was made, if possible, through the headman, the chief or the king. So Ethelbert’s genuine conversion opened up the way to his people. In the manner of tribal societies (even as sometimes today) large numbers in a mass movement turned to the Christian faith. Thousands being baptised as disciples, as the Lord commanded in Matt.28:19, on Christmas Day 597.

Where he could, Augustine made full use of the customs of heathendom (religious or cultural), if they could legitimately be adapted for Christian usage or for teaching. (We find a modern example of using a cultural custom for Christian teaching in Irian Jaya (now Papua) in missionary Don Richardson’s book ‘Peace Child’.) In Augustine’s case, if a heathen temple were well built, the missionaries would adapt it to Christian usage. Idols were destroyed, cleansing ceremonies held, and it was then furnished and dedicated as a church. Feasting was no longer associated with sacrifice to devils, but with thanksgiving to God. This accommodation of custom to Christian usage helped create a measure of legitimate and acceptable indigenous expression in worship.

The Character of St Augustine←⤒🔗

Augustine himself had personal weaknesses. Unimaginative, he had not foreseen nor prepared himself for the dangers encountered in his venture – the need of language knowledge, or the questions of Christian living and practices that arose. He exasperated Gregory, who obviously found some of the questions in Augustine’s letters quite naïve, and who rebuked him for his lack of preparation for pastoralia.

As the work and the Word spread from the southeast, it was inevitable that sooner or later there would be contact with the Celtic British church, by now at least three or four hundred years old. The latter was apprehensive and suspicious of this new movement and its Roman connections. Augustine did not help to allay those suspicions. This led to grave difficulties in his relationship with the original Celtic church. He was unimaginative and overbearing, a failing which affected his own relationship with the north, and also brushed off on the new southern churches. Strong leadership requires a forceful personality, but this strength can easily become the weakness of autocracy.

The Pope in 601 wrote to Augustine about the danger of becoming puffed up with pride at the wonders that God had done through His servant. Augustine is by no means the only one in Christian history to need but not heed this warning. One modern writer, Charles Swindoll, calls autocracy ‘sheep bashing’. He writes, “Those seeking power want to control, to rule over others. They want to take charge and get their way. They manipulate and manoeuvre to be in a position of authority so they can hold others in check or force them to get into line.” (The Quest for Character, p. 23)

Augustine showed such a tendency. One of his letters to Pope Gregory asked how he should deal with the bishops of Gaul and Britain. The pope wisely pointed out that Augustine had no jurisdiction over Gaul, and if he wished to correct them in any way it should be by good example. But Gregory (unwisely, it seems) gave him authority over the British bishops (an indication of the developing attitude of authoritarianism and audacity in the church at Rome, even in a personally-humble man like Gregory). This caused a rift between the two sections of the church in Britain – the Celtic and the English. It happened like this:

A conference was arranged at ‘St Augustine’s Oak’, (thought to have been Aust on the Severn). The British Bishops were wary of this newcomer, and did not intend to become ‘bashed sheep.’ In fact, they themselves were under-shepherds, and were leading their flocks very well, thank you! Following the advice of a ‘hermit-sheep’ from their own flocks, they decided to test Augustine on the question of his humility as a man of God. They allowed Augustine to arrive and take his seat at the meeting place first. If the newcomer arose to greet them when they, the British bishops, arrived, they would listen to him submissively, but if he remained seated that would indicate that he despised them, so they would despise him in turn. What a lot turned on that simple test! Augustine did not rise.

So the two sections of the Church in Britain became deeply divided, the ancient British and the new English. It was not until over a hundred years later at the Synod of Whitby in 664, that the British Church succumbed to the pressure of Rome, adopting Roman customs.

The Spread of the Gospel←⤒🔗

Augustine probably achieved less than the Pope hoped for. Nevertheless, it must be recognised in fairness that in spite of this, like Columba’s, his was a quite remarkable achievement. He began the Kent mission, was the first Archbishop of Canterbury, bishoprics (forming diocese which were responsible for regions, as presbyteries are for us) were established again in London (from where they had disappeared with the Anglo-Saxon invasion) and at Rochester. He converted a king and began the conversion of a kingdom. His establishment of a Christian Province from absolute heathendom meant the linking of England with the centre of Christendom, no mean feat, which we in our anxiety to uphold our Protestant faith must not overlook.

It is easy to forget that the development of Roman Catholicism did not occur overnight. Many of its rules, practices and dogmas were proclaimed between 1000 and 1500 A.D. Some of the most important came after that, and the latest so far was proclaimed in 1950. Many of the claims of achievement and of saintly personages that the Roman church takes for itself belong to the early faith, which we may rightly claim for our own. We must not forget the meaning of the word, ‘reformation’.

A Comparison←⤒🔗

There is a late legend (rejected by thinking historians) which turns St Augustine into a man of violence. One historian, John Foster, in ‘They Converted Our Ancestors’, wrote of Columba: “Anyone reading Admanan must say, ‘How his people loved him.’” (Not a sign of a violent disposition). Columba was indeed, a gentle, beloved leader. “Unfortunately,” Foster continues, “little of this has come down to us concerning Augustine.”

Violent, no; respected, yes; but he did not inspire the love of his followers. Yet Augustine won a place, even if often exaggerated, worthy of remembrance in the history of the British Isles, and subsequently as a link with the history of Christendom in the European mainland countries, as we shall see. The text books which place him as being the first to introduce Christianity to the British Isles are wrong. The Scottish/Irish Celtic Church had already begun that spread of the faith in the northern kingdoms. This by no means detracts from the greatness of St Augustine’s work and achievements. The textbook assessment of his importance in the history of Great Britain is right.

He deserves his place of honour in the gratitude of Church history.