In 597 Augustine and forty companions landed in the Isle of Thanet. Ethelbert, a noble-hearted, liberal-minded and intelligent heathen, was then King of Kent; but his wife, Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris, was a Christian. Augustine announced his arrival to the king, and the object of his mission. The king repaired to Thanet and granted an interview to Augustine and his companions. He was much impressed with their external ceremonies, and permitted them to reside in Canterbury, the metropolis of his kingdom. He presented his palace in Canterbury to Augustine as a residence for himself and his successors. On the 2nd of June in the same year the king publicly declared himself a Christian and was baptized. On the 17th November, 597, Augustine went to France and was consecrated archbishop by the Archbishop of Arles, and returned to England in 598. There were at that time in the island some British Churches, bishops and clergy, but no divisions of parishes, no parish churches, no connection with the Roman Church, and indubitably no tithes whatever were paid. We are therefore on solid ground in asserting that during the first six hundred years of the Christian era there is no genuine record of tithes in any shape or form having been paid or given to the clergy of this island. The Roman Mission subsequently produced mighty changes in the Church of England through this initial connection. In the several letters which the popes addressed to the kings and archbishops of England in subsequent centuries, constant references are made to Augustine’s mission; and the popes refer to this event as the source of their supreme authority over the Church of England. King Ethelbert’s laws which were passed between 596 and 605, recognise Christianity and the Christian priesthood. Bede informs us that they were enacted by the advice of his Witan.[10] Article 1. “The property of God and the Church [when stolen, a fine of] twelve-fold; a bishop’s property, eleven-fold; a priest’s property, nine-fold; a deacon’s property, six-fold, etc.”[11] The title runs thus, “These are the dooms which King Ethelbert established in the days of Augustine.” The Laws of Ethelbert and other Kentish kings are taken by Mr. Thorpe from the _Textus Roffensis_, in possession of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, and is the only ancient manuscript in which they are found. The manuscript is of the twelfth century. “We shall hardly,” says Mr. Kemble, “be saying too much if we affirm that the introduction of Christianity was at least ratified by a solemn act of the Witan.”[12]