Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Number 3 THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Lib. I, c. 25; Lib. II, c. 13. Translated by J. A. Giles. Bede has been called the " Father of English History." His Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, written in the first part of the eighth century, is the chief source of information for the early history of the English people. I THE MISSION OF AUGUSTINE Augustine, thus strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory,1 returned to the work of the word of God, with the servants of Christ, and arrived in Britain. The powerful Ethelbert was at this 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. On the east of Kent is the large Isle of Thanet containing according to the English way of 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. In this island landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported, nearly, forty men. They had, by order of the blessed Pope Gregory, taken interpreters of the nation of the Franks, 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 them to stay in that island where they had landed,and that they should be furnished with all necessaries, till 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 ...