Augustine, thus strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory, returned to the work of the word of God, with the servants of Christ, and arrived in Britain. The powerful Ethelbert was at that time king of Kent. He had extended his dominions as far as the great River Humber, by which the Southern Saxons are divided from the Northern.[81] On the east of Kent is the large isle of Thanet containing according to Augustine and his companions arrive in Kent the English reckoning 600 families, divided from the other land by the River Wantsum, which is about three furlongs over and fordable only in two places, for both ends of it run into the sea.[82] In this island landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported, nearly forty men. By order of the blessed Pope Gregory, they had taken interpreters of the nation of the Franks,[83] and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome and brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured to all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven and a kingdom that would never end, with the living and true God. The king, having heard this, ordered that they stay in that island where they had landed, and that they be furnished with all necessaries, until he should consider what to do with them. For he had before heard of the Christian religion, having a Christian wife of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha;[84] whom he had received from her parents upon condition that she should be permitted to practice her religion with the Bishop Luidhard, who was sent with her to preserve her faith.[85]
Some days after, the king came to the island, and sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to be brought into his presence. For he had taken precaution that they should not come to him in any house, lest, according to an ancient superstition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose upon him, and so get the better of him. But they came furnished with divine, not with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of our Lord and Savior painted on a board; and singing the litany, they offered up their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of Augustine preaches to King Ethelbert those to whom they were come. When Augustine had sat down, according to the king's commands, and preached to him and his attendants there present the word of life, the king answered thus: "Your words and promises are very fair, but as they are new to us, and of uncertain import, I cannot approve of them so far as to forsake that which I have so long followed with the whole English nation. But because you are come from afar into my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous to impart to us those things which you believe to be true and most beneficial, we will not molest you, but give you favorable entertainment and take care to supply you with necessary sustenance; nor do we forbid you to preach and win as many as you can to your religion." Accordingly he permitted them to reside in the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and, according to his promise, besides allowing them sustenance, did not refuse them liberty to preach. It is reported that, as they drew near to the city, after their manner, with the holy cross and the image of our sovereign Lord and King, Jesus Christ, they sang this litany together: "We beseech thee, O Lord, in all Thy mercy, that Thy anger and wrath be turned away from this city, and from Thy holy house, because we have sinned. Hallelujah."
As soon as they entered the dwelling-place assigned them, they began to imitate the course of life practised in the primitive Church; applying themselves to frequent prayer, watching, and fasting; preaching the word of life to as many as they could; despising all worldly things as not belonging to them; receiving only their necessary food from those they taught; living The life of the missionaries at Canterbury themselves in all respects in conformity with what they prescribed for others, and being always disposed to suffer any adversity, and even to die for that truth which they preached. In short, several believed and were baptized, admiring the simplicity of their innocent life, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine. There was, on the east side of the city, a church dedicated to the honor of St. Martin, built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein the queen, who, as has been said before, was a Christian, used to pray.[86] In this they first began to meet, to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize, until the king, being converted to the faith, allowed them to preach openly, and build or repair churches in all places.
When he, among the rest, induced by the unspotted life of these holy men, and their pleasing promises, which by many Ethelbert converted miracles they proved to be most certain, believed and was baptized, greater numbers began daily to flock together to hear the word, and forsaking their heathen rites, to associate themselves, by believing, to the unity of the church of Christ. Their conversion the king encouraged in so far that he compelled none to embrace Christianity, but only showed more affection to the believers, as to his fellow-citizens in the heavenly kingdom. For he had learned from his instructors and guides to salvation that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not by compulsion. Nor was it long before he gave his teachers a settled residence in his metropolis of Canterbury, with such possessions of different kinds as were necessary for their subsistence.[87]
CHAPTER VI.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
10. Pope Leo's Sermon on the Petrine Supremacy
In tracing the history of the great ecclesiastical institution known as the papacy, the first figure that stands out with considerable clearness is that of Leo I., or Leo the Great, who was elected bishop of Rome in the year 440. Leo is perhaps the first man who, all things considered, can be called "pope" in the modern sense of the term, although certain of his predecessors in the bishop's seat at the imperial capital had long claimed and exercised a peculiar measure of authority over their fellow bishops throughout the Empire. Almost from the earliest days of Christianity the word papa (pope) seems to have been in common use as an affectionate mode of addressing any bishop, but after the fourth century it came to be applied in a peculiar manner to the bishop of Rome, and in time this was the only usage, so far as western Europe was concerned, which survived. The causes of the special development of the Roman bishopric into the powerful papal office were numerous. Rome's importance as a city, and particularly as the political head of the Mediterranean world, made it natural that her bishop should have something of a special dignity and influence. Throughout western Europe the Roman church was regarded as a model and its bishop was frequently called upon for counsel and advice. Then, when the seat of the imperial government was removed to the East by Constantine, the Roman bishop naturally took up much of the leadership in the West which had been exercised by the emperor, and this added not a little in the way of prestige. On the whole the Roman bishops were moderate, liberal, and sensible in their attitude toward church questions, thereby commending themselves to the practical peoples of the West in a way that other bishops did not always do. The growth of temporal possessions, especially in the way of land, also made the Roman bishops more independent and able to hold their own. And the activity of such men as Leo the Great in warding off the attacks of the German barbarians, and in providing popular leadership in the absence of such leadership on the part of the imperial authorities, was a not unimportant item.
After all, however, these are matters which have always been regarded by the popes themselves as circumstances of a more or less transitory and accidental character. It is not upon any or all of them that the papacy from first to last has sought to base its high claims to authority. The fundamental explanation, from the papal standpoint, for the peculiar development of the papal power in the person of the bishops of Rome is contained in the so-called theory of the "Petrine Supremacy," which will be found set forth in Pope Leo's sermon reproduced in part below. The essential points in this theory are: (1) that to the apostle Peter, Christ committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the supremacy over all other apostles on earth; (2) that Peter, in the course of time, became the first bishop of Rome; and (3) that the superior authority given to Peter was transmitted to all his successors in the Roman bishopric. It was fundamentally on these grounds that the pope, to quote an able Catholic historian, was believed to be "the visible representative of ecclesiastical unity, the supreme teacher and custodian of the faith, the supreme legislator, the guardian and interpreter of the canons, the legitimate superior of all bishops, the final judge of councils—an office which he possessed in his own right, and which he actually exercised by presiding over all ecumenical synods, through his legates, and by confirming the acts of the councils as the Supreme Head of the Universal Catholic Church."[88] Modern Protestants discard certain of the tenets which go to make up the Petrine theory, but it is essential that the student of history bear in mind that the people of the Middle Ages never doubted its complete and literal authenticity, nor questioned that the authority of the papal office rested at bottom upon something far more fundamental than a mere fortunate combination of historical circumstances. Whatever one's personal opinions on the issues involved, the point to be insisted upon is that in studying mediæval church life and organization the universal acceptance of these beliefs and conclusions be never lost to view.