Pothinus, Bp of Lyons and Vienne, had come probably from Asia Minor. When, at the age of more than 90, he was martyred (A.D. 177), his successor as Bishop was Irenaeus, who received part of his early education in Asia Minor from Polycarp, a disciple of S. John the Evangelist. Other martyrs, at Vienne and Lyons, in that year (A.D. 177), had come from Asia Minor. A map will show that Vienne is about 16 miles south of Lyons. Thus from the first days of the Church in France, a close connection existed between it and the Church in Asia Minor. About A.D. 467[2], Mamertus, Archbishop of Vienne, ordered Litanies to be said in procession on the three days before Ascension Day; being moved thereto by a succession of calamities--earthquake, war, wild beasts invading the city itself--followed shortly by the destruction of the royal palace in Vienne by lightning. The practice spread to neighbouring dioceses, and was confirmed by the Council of Orleans (A.D. 511). The three days before Ascension Day are thence called 'Rogation Days'; and processions for purposes of prayer are called Rogations, or Litanies. The Rogation Litanies were not adopted at Rome {155} until the time of Leo III. (795-816): but in a time of pestilence at Rome, Gregory the Great, A.D. 590, instituted the Sevenfold Litany of S. Mark's Day. Gregory the Great has been called the Apostle of the English, because he intended to come as a missionary to convert the English; and, when prevented from so doing by his election as Bishop of Rome, sent Augustine in his stead A.D. 596. The yearly Synod of the English Church was appointed in 673 to be held at Cloveshoo--a place probably near London but in the kingdom of Mercia. In 747 at a great council held at Cloveshoo, March 12 was appointed as S. Gregory's Day; May 26 as the day of S. Augustine Archbishop of Canterbury[3]; and Gregory's Sevenfold Litany, together with the Rogation Services, was sanctioned for use in England, with a phrase which implies that custom had already introduced them.