hair, and inquired of the slave-dealer who they were.  “They are English, or Angles.”  “No, not Angles,” said the pious and poetic deacon; “they are angels, with faces so angelic.  From what country did they come?” “From Deira.” “De Ira! ay, plucked from God’s wrath.  What is the name of their king?” “Ella.”  “Ay, let alleluia be sung in their land.”  It need scarcely be added that when this pious and witty deacon became pope he remembered these Saxon slaves, and sent Augustin (or Austin,—­not to be confounded with Augustine of Hippo, who lived nearly two centuries earlier), with forty monks as missionaries to convert the pagan Saxons.  They established themselves in Kent A.D. 597, which became the seat of the first English bishopric, through the favor of the king, Aethelbert, whose wife Clotilda, a French princess, had been previously converted.  Soon after, Essex followed the example of Kent; and then Northumbria.  Wessex was the last of the Saxon kingdoms to be converted, their inhabitants being especially fierce and warlike.

It is singular that no traces of Christianity seem to have been left in Britain on the completion of the Saxon conquest, although it had been planted there as early as the time of Constantine.  Helena was a Christian, and Pelagius and Celestine were British monks.  But the Saxon conquest eradicated all that was left of Roman influence and institutions.

When Christianity had once acquired a foothold among the Saxons its progress was rapid.  In no country were monastic institutions more firmly planted.  Monasteries and churches were erected in the principal settlements and liberally endowed by the Saxon kings.  In Kent were the great sees of Canterbury and Rochester; in Essex was London; in East Anglia was Norwich; in Wessex was Winchester; in Mercia were Lichfield, Leicester, Worcester, and Hereford; in Northumbria were York, Durham, and Ripon.  Each cathedral had its schools and convents.  Christianity became the law of the land, and entered largely into all the Saxon codes.  There was a constant immigration of missionaries into Britain, and the great sees were filled with distinguished ecclesiastics, frequently from the continent, since a strong union was cemented between Rome and the English churches.  Prince and prelate made frequent pilgrimages to the old capital of the world, and were received with distinguished honors.  The monasteries were filled with princes and nobles and ladies of rank.  As early as the eighth century monasteries were enormously multiplied and enriched, for the piety of the Saxons assumed a monastic type.  What civilization existed can be traced chiefly to the Church.