48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP. Gregory and his missionary , if sympathy of rhan-I. ners have any influence , were better calculatedthan men of more refined understandings , formaking a progress with the ignorant and barbarousSaxons.

This more to facilitate the reception of Chris-tianity, Gregory enjoined Augustine to removethe idols from the Heathen altars , but not todestroy the altars themselves; because the people,he said, would be allured to frequent the Christianworship, when they found it celebrated in a place,which they were accustomed to revere. And asthe Pagans practised sacrifices, and feasted withthe priests on their offerings, he also exhorted themissionary to persuade them, on Christian festivals,to kill their cattle in the neighbourhood of thechurch, and to indulge themselves in those cheerfulentertainments, to which they had been habituat-ed 7 \ These political compliances shew, that,notwithstanding his ignorance and prejudices, hewas not unacquainted with the aits of governingmankind. Augustine was consecrated archbishopof Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory withauthority over all the British churches, and receivedthe pall, a badge of ecclesiastical honour, fromRome 7I . Gregory also advised him not to be too

iVufionem , qua per four,turn so!et accidcre , vel corpusDomini qiiilibet accipere valeatvel , Ji facerdos Jit ,sacra wysteria celebrare r Gregory answers this learnedquestion by many learned distinctions.

78 Bede, lib. l. cap. 30. Spell. Cone. p. 89. Greg.Epist. lib. 9. epist. gr.

71 Citron. Sax. p. 23. 24. much