THE HEPTARCHY,

49

touch elated with his gift of working miracles ”; g h ^ Pand as Augustine, proud of the success of his I,mission, seemed to think himself entitled to ex-tend his authority over the bishops of Gaul, thePope informed him, that they lay entirely withoutthe bounds of his jurisdiction ”.

The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, andtouch more his embracing Christianity , begat aconnexion of lass subjects with the French, Italians,and other nations on the continent, and tendedto reclaim them from that gross ignorance andbarbarity, in which all the Saxon tribes had beenhitherto involved 7t . Ethelbert also enacted ”,with the consent of the states of his kingdom , abody of laws, the first written laws promulgatedby any of the northern conquerors; and his reignwas in every respect glorious to himself, andbeneficial to his people. He governed the kingdomof Kent fifty years; and dying in 616, left thesu ocelli on to his son, Eadbald. This prince seducedby a passion for his mother-in-law , deserted forsome time the Christian faith, which permittednot these incestuous marriages: His whole people'immediately returned with him to idolatry. Lau-reutius , the successor of Augustine, sound theChristian worship wholly abandoned, and was

” H. Hunting, lib. Z. Spell. Cone- pag. 83 . Bede*lijb 1. Greg. spill. lib. 9 epiit. 60.

” Bede, lib. 1. cap. 27.

74 Wil!.- Malm. p. 10.

” Wilkins Leges Sax, p- I Z-

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