all women. HOW SOON A MAN
MIGHT ENTER THE CHURCH, OR RECEIVE THE SACRAMENT, AFTER HAVING HAD
COMMERCE WITH HIS WIFE? It was replied, that unless he had approached
her without desire, merely for the sake of propagating his species, he
was not without sin: but in all cases it was requisite for him, before
he entered the church, or communicated, to purge himself by prayer and
ablution; and he ought not, even after using these precautions, to
participate immediately of the sacred duties [u]. There are some
other questions and replies still more indecent and more ridiculous
[w]. And on the whole, it appears that Gregory and his missionary, if
sympathy of manners have any influence, were better calculated than
men of more refined understanding for making a progress with the
ignorant and barbarous Saxons.
[FN [t] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 32. Brompton, p. 732. Spell. Conc. p. 86.
[u] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 27. Spell. Conc. p. 97, 98, 99, &c. [w]
Augustine asks, Si mulier menstrua consuetudine tenetur, an ecclesiam
intrare ei licet, aut sacrae communionis sacramenta percipere?
Gregory answers, Sanctae communionis mysterium in eisdem diebus
percipere non debit prohiberi. Si autem ex veneratione magna
precipere non praesumitur, laudanda est. Augustine asks, Si post
illusionem, quae per somnum solet accidere, vel corpus Domine quilibet
accipere valeat; vel, si sacerdos sit, sacra mysteria celebrare.
Gregory answers this learned question by many learned distinctions.]

The more to facilitate the reception of Christianity Gregory enjoined
Augustine to remove the idols from the heathen altars, but not to
destroy the altars themselves; because the people, he said, would be
allured to frequent the Christian worship, when they found it
celebrated in a place which they were accustomed to revere. And as
the Pagans practised sacrifices, and feasted with the priests on their
offerings, he also exhorted the missionary to persuade them, on
Christian festivals, to kill their cattle in the neighbourhood of the
church, and to indulge themselves in those cheerful entertainments, to
which they had been habituated [x]. These political compliances show,
that notwithstanding his ignorance and prejudices, he was not
unacquainted with the arts of governing mankind. Augustine was
consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory with
authority over all the British churches, and received the pall, a
badge of ecclesiastical honour, from Rome