e bishops of Gaul and Britain ["Galliarum
Brittaniarumque,"] Gregory replies that Augustine has no authority
whatever within the jurisdiction of the metropolitan of Arles; but he
adds: "As for all the bishops of Britain ["Brittaniarum"], we commit
them to your care, that the unlearned may be taught, the weak
strengthened by persuasion, and the perverse corrected by authority."
Considering the context--Augustine had been asking whether, under the
circumstances, he could consecrate bishops without the presence of any
other bishops; and, moreover, he had not as yet come into any kind of
contact with the Celtic bishops--it seems probable that "the bishops of
Britain" here placed under Augustine's jurisdiction were the bishops to
be afterward consecrated by himself, with or without the presence and
witness of Gallic or other bishops. Gregory's advice to Augustine,
conveyed through the Abbot Mellitus, may well be pondered by the
managers of modern missions. He says: "The temples of the idols in that
nation [the English] ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that
are in them be destroyed; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the
said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed. For if those
temples are well built it is requisite that they be converted from the
worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the nation ...
adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to
which they have been accustomed." He even suggests that their
sacrifices--which were largely festivals, as much social as
religious--should be discontinued, indeed, as sacrifices, but changed
into banquets and associated with the day of the dedication of a church,
or the "nativity" of a holy martyr. And all this on the perfectly sound
principle, too often forgotten, that "he who strives to reach the
highest place raises himself by steps and degrees, and not by leaps
[gradibus vel passibus non autem saltibus elevatus]."

At last Augustine was brought into contact with the Celtic bishops. It
was clear that their assistance would be very valuable in the endeavor
to convert the English, and also that their peculiar usages would convey
the impression of far greater diversity of doctrine than actually
existed. Augustine was willing to make much concession. There were three
conditions of union which seemed to him indispensable: agreement as to
the time of keeping Easter; agreement as to the mode of administering
baptism; and