[y]. Gregory also advised
him not to be too much elated with his gift of working miracles [z];
and as Augustine, proud of the success of his mission, seemed to think
himself entitled to extend his authority over the bishops of Gaul, the
pope informed him, that they lay entirely without the bounds of his
jurisdiction [a].
[FN [x] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 30. Spell. Conc. p.89. Greg. Epist. lib.
9. Epist. 71. [y] Chron. Sax. p. 23, 24. [z] H. Hunting. lib. 3.
Spell. Conc. p. 83. Bede, lib. 1. Greg. Epist. lib. 9. Epist. 60.
[a] Bede, lib. 1. cap. 27.]

The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, and much more his embracing
Christianity, begat a connexion of his subjects with the French,
Italians, and other nations on the continent, and tended to reclaim
them from that gross ignorance and barbarity in which all the Saxon
tribes had been hitherto involved [b]. Ethelbert also enacted [c],
with the consent of the states of his kingdom, a body of laws, the
first written laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; and
his reign was in every respect glorious to himself, and beneficial to
his people. He governed the kingdom of Kent fifty years, and dying in
616, left the succession to his son, Eadbald. This prince, seduced by
a passion for his mother-in-law, deserted for some time the Christian
faith, which permitted not these incestuous marriages: his whole
people immediately returned with him to idolatry. Laurentius, the
successor of Augustine, found the Christian worship wholly abandoned,
and was prepared to return to France, in order to escape the
mortification of preaching the gospel without fruit to the infidels.
Melitus and Justus, who had been consecrated Bishops of London and
Rochester, had already departed the kingdom [d], when, Laurentius,
before he should entirely abandon his dignity, made one effort to
reclaim the king. He appeared before that prince, and, throwing off
his vestments, showed his body all torn with bruises and stripes,
which he had received. Eadbald, wondering that any man should have
dared to treat in that manner a person of his rank, was told by
Laurentius, that he had received this chastisement from St. Peter, the
prince of the Apostles, who had appeared to him in a vision, and,
severely reproving him for his intention to desert his charge, had
inflicted on him these visible marks of his displeasure [e]. Whether
Eadbald was struck with the miracle, or influenced by some other
motive, h