The great Anglian Kingdom of the Mercians, that is the Marchmen, the people on the march or frontier, seems to have been the youngest of all, and to have grown up gradually by joining together several smaller states, including all the land which the West Saxons had held north of the Thames. Such little tribes or states were the Lindesfaras and the Gainas in Lincolnshire, the Magesætas in Herefordshire, the Hwiccas in Gloucester, Worcester, and part of Warwick, and several others. ... When Mercia was fully joined under one King, it made one of the greatest states in England, and some of the Mercian Kings were very powerful princes. It was chiefly an Anglian Kingdom; and the Kings were of an Anglian stock, but among the Hwiccas and in some of the other shires in southern and western Mercia, most of the people must really have been Saxons." _E. A. Freeman, Old English History for Children, chapter 5._ ENGLAND: A. D. 560. Ethelbert becomes king of Kent. ENGLAND: A. D. 593. Ethelfrith becomes king of Northumbria. ENGLAND: A. D. 597-685. The conversion of the English. "It happened that certain Saxon children were to be sold for slaves at the marketplace at Rome; when Divine Providence, the great clock-keeper of time, ordering not only hours, but even instants (Luke ii. 38), to his own honour, so disposed it, that Gregory, afterwards first bishop of Rome of that name, was present to behold them. It grieved the good man to see the disproportion betwixt the faces and fortunes, the complexions and conditions, of these children, condemned to a servile estate, though carrying liberal looks, so legible was ingenuity in their faces. It added more to his sorrow, when he conceived that those youths were twice vassals, bought by their masters, and 'sold under sin' (Romans vii. 14), servants in their bodies, and slaves in their souls to Satan; which occasioned the good man to enter into further inquiry with the merchants (which set them to sale) what they were and whence they came, according to this ensuing dialogue: Gregory.--'Whence come these captives?' Merchants.--'From the isle of Britain.' Gregory.--'Are those islanders Christians?' Merchants.--'O no, they are Pagans.' Gregory.--'It is sad that the author of darkness should possess men with so bright faces. But what is the name of their particular nation?' Merchants.--'They are called Angli.' Gregory.--'And well may, for their "angel like faces"; it becometh such to be coheirs with the angels in heaven. In what province of England did they live?' Merchants.--'In Deira.' Gregory.--'They are to be freed de Dei irâ, "from the anger of God." How call ye the king of that country?' Merchants.--'Ella.' Gregory.--'Surely hallelujah ought to be sung in his kingdom to the praise of that God who created all things.' {783}