indeed fair words and promises
which you bring with you," said Ethelbert; "but, because they are new
and uncertain, I cannot at once take up with them, and leave the faith
which I and all my people have so long observed. But as you have come
from far, and as I think you wish to give us a share in things which you
believe to be true and most profitable, we will not show you unkindness,
but rather will receive you hospitably, and not hinder you from
converting as many as you can to your religion."

He then granted them a lodging in his capital, and ordered that they
should be supplied with all that they might need. As they drew near to
Canterbury, they again displayed the silver cross, and the banner on
which the Saviour was painted; and they entered the city in procession,
chanting a litany which Gregory had made for the people of Rome, during
the great plague which carried off pope Pelagius.

A little way outside the city they found a small church, which had been
built in the days of the old British Christianity, and in which Luidhard
had since held his service for Queen Bertha and the Christians of her
court. It was called by the name of St. Martin; for even before the
Saxon invasion his name had become so famous that many churches were
called after it; and we may well believe that Queen Bertha, on arriving
from France, was glad to find that the church in which she was to
worship had long ago been named in honour of the great saint of her own
land. There Augustine and his brethren now held their service; and the
sight of their holy, gentle, and self-denying lives soon drew many to
receive their instructions. Ethelbert himself was baptized on
Whitsunday, 597, and, although he would not force his people to profess
the Gospel, he declared himself desirous of their conversion.

Gregory had desired Augustine, if he met with success in the beginning
of his mission, to return from Britain into France and be consecrated as
a bishop. He now obeyed this direction, and was consecrated at Arles;
and without any delay he again crossed the sea, and renewed his labours
among the Saxons. Such was his progress in the work of conversion, that
at Christmas of the year in which he first landed in Britain ten
thousand persons were baptized in one day. Four years later, Gregory
made him an archbishop; and he sent him a fresh body of clergy to help
him, with a large supply of books, vestments, and other things for the
service of the Church