that at length prevailed, and the concessions that were made, were made on account of the arguments brought forward by them, and not in deference to any exterior authority.
We shall first see how the Romish and Irish ecclesiastics were brought into contact, and we will then consider the differences which made themselves at once apparent.
The Saxons first landed in England in the year 449, after which date they continued to arrive in successive immigrations, until they had occupied a great part of the country. It was not until a century and a half later that any serious effort was made for their conversion. In the meantime they had driven the Britons before them, had destroyed the churches, and had set up the worship of Woden and Thor where the name of Christ had formerly been invoked. When Pope Gregory the Great was as yet but a deacon in Rome, he had a great desire to dedicate himself to the work of evangelizing this nation. But the obstacles raised by admiring friends, who desired to retain him in their midst, prevented him from carrying his purpose into effect, and it was only after his elevation to the papal chair that he found another who possessed the same enthusiasm, and was ready to undertake what must have seemed at the time to be a hazardous enterprise.
The mission of Augustine of Canterbury, to whom this work was committed by Pope Gregory, is an event with which all readers of English history are familiar, and its story need not be repeated here. The older historians have for the most part assumed that English Christianity was all the result of this mission from Rome. It is now recognised that such a view is quite erroneous. The work of Augustine was confined to the southern part of the country,
