The king bade them deliver their message, and they {185} sat—for it was no formal sermon, but rather, as we should say, a meditation on the things of God—and "preached the word of life to him and all his gesiths who were present." Bede tells us the answer of the grave thoughtful Aethelbert—"They are certainly beautiful words and promises that you bring; but because they are new and unproved, I cannot give my assent to them and give up those things which I with all the English race have so long observed. But since you are strangers and have come a long way, so that—as I think I can see clearly—you might impart to us that which you believe to be true and most good, I do not wish you any harm, but rather will treat you kindly and see that you have all you need, and we will not hinder you from bringing over to the faith of your own religion all of our people that you can win." And so he gave them lodging in his own city, the metropolis, as Bede, as it were by prophecy, calls it, of Canterbury. [Sidenote: The litanies.] Towards Canterbury they went, still with litany and procession, and thus, Bede tells us, it is said they sang—still carrying the holy cross and the picture of the great King, our Lord Jesus Christ.—
"We beseech Thee, O Lord, according to all Thy mercy, that Thy wrath and Thine anger may be turned away from this city, and from Thy holy house; for we have sinned. Alleluia."
A tradition that lasted down to Bede's own day thus handed down their words. There is great interest in this picture of Christian worship in the heathen land, our own, that was to be won for Christ. It illustrates the worship of the land the missionaries came from, as well as serves as a pattern for the worship which the {186} English, under Augustine's guidance, should follow. What was this litany? Litanies at Rome were regulated by S. Gregory himself, and he was very likely only revising and setting in order a form of service already well known. But this very litany S. Augustine and his companions had most likely heard during their passage through Gaul. There the Rogation litanies had been over a hundred years in use; and these words form part of a Rogation litany used long after in Vienne, through which doubtless Augustine travelled. Thus the missionaries were using a part of the Gallican service-books, and not of the Roman; and the legation procession, which lasted so long in England, which still lingers in some places in the form of "beating the bounds," and which in late years has been here and there revived among us, comes to us with Augustine from Gaul, and not from Rome, where it was not yet in use. "Alleluia!" too, a strange ending to a penitential litany in modern ears, was the close of Gallican litanies at Rogationtide, as later in Christian England itself, and its use outside the Easter season was especially authorised by Gregory the Great. And if Augustine's own first public prayers were Gallican, so most probably was the use of the chapel of the Kentish Queen Bercta, who was daughter of the West Frankish king, and who had with her a Frankish bishop, Liudhard. But his own use would be the Roman, just as his own manner of chanting, long preserved at Canterbury, was after the manner of the Romans. And thus, with the strong sense of unity natural to a man trained in the school of the great Gregory, Augustine was startled at the contrast of customs when it came to him in practical guise. Why, {187} the faith being one, are there the different customs of different churches, and one manner of masses in the holy Roman church, another in that of the Gauls? So he asked the great teacher who had sent him. A wise answer came from the wise pope, disclaiming all peculiar authority or special sanctity for the use of Rome. "Things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of things." "Select, then," he advises, "from many churches, whatever you have found in Gaul, or in Rome, or in any other church, that is good; make a rite for the new church of the English, such as you think pious and best."
[Sidenote: English uses.]
All this, when Augustine's position is remembered, will be seen to show how far Rome then was from arrogating to herself any strange supremacy such as later days have brought. The first primate of the English was allowed freedom to make an English rite. But, on the other hand, we have no evidence that he did so. He preferred, we have every reason to believe, the Roman rite, with only here and there a few changes or additions. The Council of Clovesho, presided over by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 747, followed in his steps, taking in regard to rites "the model which we have in writing from the Roman Church." But none the less later English service-books show very considerable Gallican influence. Celtic missionaries, and the connection four centuries later with Gaul and Burgundy, left traces in the way in which the service was performed; and England, up to the Reformation, like all other countries indeed, had some distinct customs of its own. Throughout the long history of conversion which spreads over the whole island, it is noteworthy {188} that preaching and the singing of litanies, as at the first coming of Augustine, are conspicuous in the methods of the saints who won England to Christ.
[Sidenote: The Eucharist in the sixth century.]
What then was the service of the Holy Communion, as S. Augustine celebrated it, and our English forefathers first came to know it? If, as we suppose, it was the Roman, it would proceed thus. First an antiphon, which came to be called an introit, or psalm of entrance, with a verse having special reference to the lesson of the day or season, was sung, as the priest, wearing a long white surplice or alb and a chasuble (the robe worn alike by lay and by clerical officials), entered with two deacons, wearing probably similar garments. In the Gallican rite, as in the eastern, there followed the singing of the "Trisagion": and in both Gallican and Roman the "Kyrie Eleeson," as in our own office to-day, though we now add to it a special prayer for grace to keep the Commandments. Then in the Roman rite was sung the "Gloria in Excelsis," while in the Gallican the "Benedictus" took its place. This was introductory. Now came the collect, the prayer when all the people were gathered together. Then the Lesson from the Old Testament, the Epistle, and the Gospel. Between the Old Testament Lesson and the Epistle was sung the "Gradual," a psalm sung from the steps of the ambo or pulpit, but gradually the use of Rome was followed all over Europe, and the Old Testament reading was omitted altogether. After the Epistle was sung "Alleluia" or the psalm called the Tract. Then the Gospel was sung, introduced with special solemnity. The deacon mounted the pulpit, seven candles being carried before him, and the choir {189} chanting "Glory be to Thee, O Lord." After the deacon had read the Gospel, a sermon was generally preached, but the Creed was at this time not said. A short common prayer followed (in the Gallican rite a litany), and then the mass of the catechumens was over, and those who were unbaptized or unworthy to remain at that time for the consecration departed from the church, a custom which has survived in England under changed conditions.
Then, when the faithful only remained, the offertory was sung, and the bread and wine and water were offered (the ceremonial was different and much longer in the Gallican rite, and included the kiss of peace). S. Augustine, if he followed the Roman use, would offer the bread and wine himself, with the laity assisting: the Gallican use was to prepare the elements beforehand, and now bring them into church in procession. The priest then washed his hands and said privately a collect, while in the Gallican rite he read from the diptychs, or tablets of the church, the names of those departed who were to be especially commemorated.
Then followed the prayer called the Preface, and the singing of "Holy, Holy, Holy." After this, in the Gallican rite, came a special prayer, and then, as still in the Mozarabic, followed the recital of our Lord's institution of the Sacrament, as in the English Prayer-book now; but the Roman rite had also prayers for the Church, for the living and dead, and both united in the prayer (called paraklesis) that the elements might receive consecration from God, which was the consecration itself until much later. Then the dead and living were again prayed for, and the fruits of the earth were dedicated by prayer.
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