Note 46 — PART I FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO BRITAIN, TO THE CONSUMMATION OF THE PAPAL DOMINION

The story is told of Gregory who was afterwards Pope, and is known as Gregory the Great, that "he was one day led into the market-place at Rome to look at a large importation from, abroad. Among other things there were some boys exposed for sale like cattle. He was struck by the appearance of the boys, their fine clear skins, their flaxen or golden hair, and their ingenuous countenances; so that he asked from what country they came; and when he was told from the island of Britain, ... and were Angles, he played upon the word and said, 'Well may they be so called, for they are like Angels.' ... Then demanding from what province they were brought, the answer was 'from Deira'; and in the same humour he observed that rightly might this also be said, for de Dei ira, from the wrath of God were they to be delivered. And when he was told that their King was Ælla, he replied that Hallelujahs ought to be sung in his dominions. This trifling sprung from serious thought. From that day the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons became a favourite object with Gregory." (Southey's Book of the Church, vol. i. pp. 22, 23.)—Ed.