The History of England, Volume I: From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688
David Hume · en
Gregory answers this learned question by many learned distinctions.]
The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity Gregory enjoined
Augustine to remove the idols from the heathen altars, but not to
destroy the altars themselves; because the people, he said, would be
allured to frequent the Christian worship, when they found it
celebrated in a place which they were accustomed to revere. 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 neighbourhood of the
church, and to indulge themselves in those cheerful entertainments, to
which they had been habituated [x]. 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 honour, from Rome [y]. Gregory also advised
him not to be too much elated with his gift of working miracles [z];
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 [a].
[FN [x] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 30. Spell. Conc. p.89. Greg. Epist. lib.
9. Epist. 71. [y] Chron. Sax. p. 23, 24. [z] H. Hunting. lib. 3.
Spell. Conc. p. 83. Bede, lib. 1. Greg. Epist. lib. 9. Epist. 60.
[a] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 27.]