Canterbury, the earliest royal city of German England, became a centre of Latin influence. The Roman tongue became again one of the tongues of Britain, the language of its worship, its correspondence, its literature. But more than the tongue of Rome returned with Augustine. Practically his landing renewed that union with the western world which the landing of Hengist had destroyed. The new England was admitted into the older commonwealth of nations. The civilization, art, letters, which had fled before the sword of the English conquerors returned with the Christian faith. The great fabric of the Roman law indeed never took root in England, but it is impossible not to recognize the result of the influence of the Roman missionaries in the fact that codes of the customary English law began to be put in writing soon after their arrival. A year passed before Ethelbert yielded to the preaching of Augustine. But from the moment of his conversion the new faith advanced rapidly and the Kentish men crowded to baptism in the train of their King. The new religion was carried beyond the bounds of Kent by the supremacy which Ethelbert wielded over the neighboring kingdoms. Sebert, king of the East Saxons, received a bishop sent from Kent, and suffered him to build up again a Christian church in what was now his subject city of London, while the East Anglian king Redwald resolved to serve Christ and the older gods together. FOOTNOTES: [43] Translated by King Alfred the Great. [44] That is, with their near kinsfolk. [45] A brother is here styled "his brotherliness," as a pope "his holiness." [46] The remainder of this is not translated here. [47] "Sir" in English (_Schir_, Scottish) equal to _Dominus_, Latin, was five or six centuries ago prefixed to the name of every ordained priest. [48] See introduction to _Augustine's Missionary Work in England_. THE HEGIRA CAREER OF MAHOMET: THE KORAN: AND MAHOMETAN CREED A.D. 622 IRVING OCKLEY The flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina occurred June 20, 622, and was called the _hegira_, or departure of the prophet. That event marks the commencement of the Mahometan era, which is called there-from the _Hegira_. According to the civil calculation it is fixed at Friday, July 16th, the date of the Mahometans, although astronomers and some historians assign it to the day preceding. While primarily referring to the flight of Mahomet, the term is applied also to the emigration to Medina, prior to the capture of Mecca (630) of those of Mahomet's disciples, who henceforth were known as Mohajerins--Emigrants or Refugees--which became a title of honor.