[Illustration: ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY, ENGLAND This church is on the site of a chapel built in the sixth century. Its walls show some of the bricks of the original chapel] THE ENGLISH BECOME CHRISTIANS, 597 A.D. Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire, and it became the religion of all the tribes who founded kingdoms of their own upon the ruins of the Empire. The Angles and Saxons, when they invaded Britain, were still worshipers of the gods Wodan and Thor. They had never learned from the Goths of Ulfilas anything about Christianity. One day in the slave market at Rome three fair-haired boys were offered for sale. Gregory, a noble Roman, who had become a monk and was the abbot of his monastery, happened to be passing and asked who they were. He was told they were Angles. "Angels," he cried, "yes, they have faces like angels, and should become companions of the angels in heaven." When this good abbot became pope, he sent missionaries to Angle-land and they established themselves at Canterbury. [Illustration: GREGORY AND THE LITTLE ENGLISH SLAVES] MISSIONARIES TO THE GERMANS AND THE SLAVS. The conversion of the English helped in the spread of Christianity on the Continent, for Boniface, an English monk, was the greatest missionary to the Germans. He won thousands from the worship of their ancient gods and founded many churches. The Slavs, who lived east of the Germans, were taught by missionaries from Constantinople instead of from Rome. THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The missionaries and teachers of the Church had been educated like the older Romans. They read Roman books, and tried to preserve the knowledge which both Greeks and Romans had gathered. Influenced by them, the emigrants and conquerors from the north also tried to be like the Romans. Educated men, and especially the priests of the Church, used Latin as their language. In this way some parts of the old Roman and Greek civilization were preserved, although the Roman government had fallen and many beautiful cities were mere heaps of ruins. THE VIKINGS. The emigration of whole peoples from one part of Europe to another did not stop when the Roman Empire was overrun. New peoples appeared and sought to plunder or crowd out the tribes which had already settled within its boundaries and were learning the ways of civilization. One of these peoples came from the regions now known as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They were called Danes by the English, and Northmen or Normans by other Europeans. They had another name, Vikings, which was their word for sea-rovers.