A Mirror of Faith :: :: University of Virginia Library

A Mirror of Faith

Lays and Legends of the Church in England. By the Rev. J. M. Neale

Neale, J. M. (1818-1866)

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II. The Mission of S. Augustine.

King Ethelbert sits in his power and his pride;
The High Priest of Woden is close at his side:
His vassals and liegemen in seemly array
Are waiting the stranger's arrival to day.

They rest in the glade, where the aged oak spreads
His hundred green branches to shelter their heads,
Lest the words of the aliens enchantment should fling
By magic device o'er the soul of the king.

The true-hearted pilgrims! Like exiles they went,
From their own sunny shores to the forests of Kent:
They came not for war and for conquest arrayed;
They came not with banner and ensign displayed;

Yet theirs was a conflict more glorious to wage,
Than those that shine brightest in history's page:
Yet theirs was a conquest more glorious to win,
Than those of earth's victors,—o'er darkness and sin.

The silver cross gleams for their banner afar;
Their clarions and trumpets sweet litanies are;
And Augustine is standing at Ethelbert's throne,
His message of love and of peace to make known.

Oh blest be the day that Saint Gregory gave
The mission, ‘not Angles but Angels’ to save;
And the hour that Augustine drew near with his band,
And England's Apostle first spake in her land!

By the advice of his priests, Ethelbert received S. Augustine under an oak, that tree being supposed to possess a virtue against magic.

History has preserved the litany sung at the entrance of the missionaries, when they took possession of Canterbury: “By Thy mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee to turn away Thy wrath from this city, and Thy Holy Temple; for we are sinners. Hallelujah.”