ye proceede & accomplishe the thing which the Lord hath ordayned you to take in hand: knowing that your great trauaile shalbe recōpensed with reward of greater glory hereafter to come. Therfore as we send here Austen to you againe, whom also we haue ordayned to be your gouernour: so do you hūbly obey him in all things, knowing that it shall be profitable so, for your soules, whatsoeuer at hys admonition ye shal do. Almightie God with his grace defend you, and graunt me to see in the eternal contrey the fruite of your labour: that although I can not labour as I would with you, yet I may be founde partaker of your retribution, for that my will is good to labour in the same fellowship with you together. The Lord God kepe you safe, most deare & welbeloued children. Dated the. x. before the Calendes of August, in the reigne of our soueraigne Lord Mauritius MarginaliaThe Bishop of Rome calleth the Emperour hys Lord.most vertuous Emperour, the. xiiij. of hys Empiere.

MarginaliaAusten & hys company commeth to England.Thus they emboldened & comforted through þ^e good wordes of Gregorye, sped forthe their iourney till they came at length to the Isle of Thenet: lying vppon the east side of Kent. Nere to the which landing place, was then the Manorye or palace of the king, not farre from Sandwyche (eastward from Caunterburye) which the inhabitaunce of þ^e Ile, then called Richbourgh: wherof some part of the ruinous walles is yet to be sene. MarginaliaEthelbert king of Kent.The king thē reigning in Kent, was Ethelbert, as aboue appeareth, the fyft king of that prouince: who at that time had maryed to wife a French woman being christened, named Berda: whom he had receaued of her parentes vpon thys condition, that he shoulde permitte her with her Bishop committed vnto her, called Lebardus, to enioye the fredome of her fayth & religion: MarginaliaWhat goodnes commeth to haue a good & a godly wyfe.by the meanes wherof, he was the more flexible, & soner induced to embrace the preaching and doctrine of Christ. Thus Austen being ariued, sent forth certayne messingers and interpreters to the king, signifying that such one was come from Rome, bringing with him glad tidinges to hym and al his people, of life and saluatiō eternally to reigne in heauen, with the onely true and liuing God, for euer: if he would so willinglye harken to the same, as he was gladly come to preach and teach it vnto hym.

The king, who had heard of thys religion before by meanes of his wife, within a fewe daies after commeth to the place where Austen was to speake with hym: but that should be without the house, after the maner of his lawe. Austen agaynst his comming, as stories affyrme, erected vp a banner of the crucifixe (such was then the grossenes of that tyme) and preached to hym the worde of God. The king aunswering againe sayth in effecte, as followeth: MarginaliaThe kyngs answer to AustenThe wordes be very fayre that you preach and promise. MarginaliaThe kyng stayth vpon old custome.Neuertheles, because it is to be vncowth and new, I can not soone start away from my country lawe wherwith I haue bene so long inured, and assent to you. Albeit yet notwithstāding for that ye are come, as ye say, so farre for my sake: ye shall not be molested by me, but shal be right wel entreated, hauing al things to you ministred necessarye for your supportation. Besides this, neyther do we debarre you, but to haue free leaue to preach to our people and subiectes, to conuert whom ye may to the fayth of your religion.

When they had receaued this comfort of the King, they went with procession to the citie of Dorobernia, or Caunterbury, singing Alleluya with the Letanie, which then by Gregorye had bene vsed at Rome in the time of the great plage, reigning then at Rome, mencioned in olde historyes: The wordes of the Letanie were these: MarginaliaThe Letany of Austen.Deprecamur te domine in omni misericordia tua, vt auferatur furor tuus et ira tua a ciuitate ista, et de domo sancta tua: quoniā peccauimus. Alleluya. That is. We besech thee O Lord in al thy mercies, that thy furie and anger may cease from this citie, and from thy holy house, for we haue sinned. Alleluya. Thus they entring in the citie of Dorobernia, the head citie of al that dominion at that time, where the king had geuē them a mansion for theirabode: there they continued preaching & baptising such as they had conuerted in the east side of the citie, in the olde Church of S. Martine (where þ^e Queene was wont to resorte) vnto the time that the king was conuerted himself to Christ. At length when the king had wel considered the honest conuersation of their life, MarginaliaMiracles wrought by god for the conuersion of the land.and moued with the miracles wrought through Gods hand by thē, he heard them more gladly: & lastlye by their wholsome exhortations, and example of godly life, he was by them conuerted and christened in the yeare aboue specified. D.lxxxvj. and the. xxxvj. yeare of his reigne. After the king was thus cōuerted, innumerable other daily came in, and were adioyned to the church of Christ: whom the king did specially embrace, but compelling none: for so he had learned that the fayth & seruice of Christ ought to be voluntarie, & not coacte. Then he gaue to Austen a place for his Bishops see at Christes Church in Dorobernia, and builded the Abbey of S. Peter and Paule, in the eastside of the sayd citie, where after Austen, and all the kinges of Kent were buryed, and that place is nowe called S. Austeine.

In thys while Austen sayled into Fraunce to the bishop Arelatensis, called Ethereus: MarginaliaAusten made Archbishop.by hym to be consecrated Archbishop, by the cōmaundement of Gregorye, and so was. Also the sayd Austen sent to Rome, Laurentius one of his company, to declare to Gregorye howe they had sped, and what they had done in England: sending withall, to haue the counsail and aduise of Gregorye, cōcerning. ix. or. x. questions, wherof some are partlye touched before.

The tenour of his questions or interrogations, with the aunsweres of Gregorye to the same: here followe in englishe briefely translated.

MarginaliaEx decretis Gregorij primus lib. concil. tom. 2.
interrogation.MY first question (reuerend father) is concerning Bishops, howe they ought to behaue them selues toward their Clarkes. Or of such oblations as the faithful offer vpon the altar: what portions or diuidentes ought to be made therof.The ansvver.MarginaliaThe answer.How a bishop ought to behaue himselfe in the Congregration, the holy scripture testifieth: which I doubt not but you know rightwel, especially in þ^e epistles of S. Paule to Timothe: wherein he laboreth to informe the said Timothe, howe to behaue hys conuersation in the house of the lord. The maner is of the sea Apostolike, to warne and charge al such as be ordayned bishops: of all their stipende or that which is geuen, to make. iiij. partitions. One to the bishop for hospitalitie, and receauyng commers in. An other to the Clergye. The third to the poore. The fourth to the repayring of Churches. MarginaliaDistributiō of Church goods.But because your brotherhood instructed with rules of Monasticall discipline, cannot lyue seperated from your Clarkes about you: therfore in þ^e English church (which now throughe the prouidence of God is brought to the fayth of Christ) you must obserue this institution, concerning your conuersation: which was in the first fathers in the beginning of the primitiue churche, among whom there was not one which counted anye thyng to be hys own proper, of al that he did possesse: but all was common among them.