Back to the Angles and Saxons calendar
The head of the Catholic Church is, and always
has been, the Pope. At this time the Pope, who is based in Rome, was called Gregory. It is said that one day he saw some pale-skinned, fair haired boys in a slave
market in Rome, asked where they were from and was told they were Angles. As you may remember the Angles were one of the main tribes that had settled in England.
Apparently Pope Gregory, who obviously spoke in Latin, said, “non angli, sed angeli” which means, in English, “not Angles but angels.”
So, in 597AD St Augustine, well just Augustine then as he hadn't been
sainted, was sent by the Pope in Rome to re-convert England back to Christianity. He landed on the Kent coast and was greeted by the local king, Æthelberht
(not even remotely called John). However Pope Gregory may have been asked to send Augustine by King Æthelberht, and yes the Æ is supposed to be written like that,
the king of Kent whose wife was Christian. Augustine was given land in Canterbury to build a church and Æthelberht became the first Anglo-Saxon king to give up
being a pagan and become Christian.
Augustine next became head of the Christian church in England and
made himself Archbishop of Canterbury. On Christmas day 597 AD, Augustine baptised all of the King’s followers who wanted to be Christian.
Æthelberht was, at the time, one of the most powerful kings in England although by the time he died in 616AD he was losing dominance to Redwald,
king of the East Angles.
St. Augustine of Canterbury, as he became known, was a bit bossy as in 602AD he met with some Welsh bishops and accused them of not behaving in
accordance with Christian teachings, and failing to keep Easter at the right time as dictated by Rome. He also said they should help him convert other Saxons and
have Canterbury as their centre. The Welsh bishops said no. Augustine had a sulk and went back to Canterbury and started to build his stone cathedral.
Despite this other tribes and kings slowly begin to convert to Christianity.
