The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part A.: From the Britons of Early Times to King John — David Hume — John Shaqi
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part A.: From the Britons of Early Times to King John
David Hume · en
And as the pagans practised sacrifices, and feasted with the priests on
their offerings, he also exhorted the missionary to persuade them, on
Christian festivals, to kill their cattle in the neighborhood of the
church, and to indulge themselves in those cheerful entertainments to
which they had been habituated.[*] These political compliances
show that, notwithstanding his ignorance and prejudices, he was
not unacquainted with the arts of governing mankind. Augustine was
consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory with
authority over all the British churches, and received the pall, a badge
of ecclesiastical honor, from Rome.[**] Gregory also advised him not
to be too much elated with his gift of working miracles;[***] and as
Augustine, proud of the success of his mission, seemed to think himself
entitled to extend his authority over the bishops of Gaul, the
pope informed him that they lay entirely without the bounds of his
jurisdiction.[****]
The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, and, much more his embracing
Christianity, begat a connection of his subjects with the French,
Italians, and other nations on the continent, and tended to reclaim them
from that gross ignorance and barbarity, in which all the Saxon tribes
had been hitherto involved.[*****] Ethelbert also enacted,[******] with
the consent of the states of his kingdom, a body of laws, the first
written laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; and his
reign was in every respect glorious to himself and beneficial to his
people. He governed the kingdom of Kent fifty years; and dying in 616,
left the succession to his son, Eadbald. This prince, seduced by a
passion for his mother-in-law, deserted, for some time, the Christian
faith, which permitted not these incestuous marriages: his whole people
immediately returned with him to idolatry. Laurentius, the successor of
Augustine found the Christian worship wholly abandoned, and was prepared
to return to France, in order to escape the mortification of preaching
the gospel without fruit to the infidels.
[* Bede lib. i. cap. 30. Spell. Concil. p. 89.
Greg. Epist. lib. ix. epist. 71.]
[** Chron. Sax. p. 23,24.]
[*** H. Hunting, lib. iii. Spell. Concil. p. 83.
Bede, lib. i. Greg Epist. lib. ix. epist. 60.]
[**** Bede, lib. i. cap. 27.]
[***** W. Malms, p. 10.]
[****** Wilkins, Leges Sax. p. 13.]