The history of the See of Canterbury may be said to have begun with the coming of Augustine, for there can be no doubt that it is owing to its being the settling-place of the first messengers of the gospel in Saxon England that Canterbury has been the metropolis of the English Church. Pope Gregory, with his usual thoroughness, sent to Augustine, soon after his arrival here, an elaborate scheme for the division of our island into sees, which were to be gradually developed as Christianity spread. According to his arrangement, there were to be two archbishops, one at London and one at York. But we cannot regret that this scheme was not carried out, as an archiepiscopal see is much more picturesquely framed by the hills which encircle Canterbury than it could have been by the dingy vastness of the political and social capital. #Augustine# reached England in 597, and found that his path had been made easy by the fact that Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, was a Christian. He soon effected the conversion of the king himself, and his labours were so rapidly successful that at Christmas, 597, no less than ten thousand Saxons were baptized at the mouth of the Medway. The archiepiscopal pall, and a papal Bull, creating Augustine first English archbishop, were duly sent from Rome, and the royal palace in Canterbury, with an old church--Roman or British--close by, were handed over to him by Ethelbert. The first archbishop died in 605, and was buried, according to the old Roman custom, by the side of the high road which had brought him to Canterbury. A few years later, however, his remains were transferred to the Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, which had then just been completed. Augustine was succeeded by one of the monks who had originally come with him from Rome. The new archbishop's name was #Lawrence#; he had been already consecrated by Augustine in his lifetime. This unusual measure was thought to be necessary, as the Church had hardly yet established itself in a strong position. Indeed, so weak was its hold over its rapidly acquired converts, that when Ethelbert's son, who succeeded his father in 616, backslid into the path of heathendom, the great majority of the people followed the royal example, and Lawrence, together with the Bishops of London and Rochester, prepared to leave England altogether, as a country hopelessly abandoned to paganism. However, the archbishop determined to make one more attempt to maintain his position, and succeeded in terrifying the king, by a pretended miracle, into becoming a Christian. He then recalled the two bishops who had already crossed to France, and on his death, in 619, was succeeded by the Bishop of London, #Mellitus#. Mellitus only held the Primacy till 624, when his place was filled by #Justin#, who also had a brief archiepiscopal life, being succeeded in 627 by #Honorius#. This archbishop held the see for twenty-six years, till 653, and it was not until 655 that his successor was appointed.