356 Outlines of Etiropean History Gregory, while still a simple monk, had been struck with the beauty of some Angles whom he saw one day in the slave market at Rome. When he learned who they were he was grieved that such handsome beings should still belong to the kingdom of the Prince of Darkness, and he wished to go as a missionary to their people, but permission was refused him. So when he became Fig. 141. St. Martin's, Canterbury A church built during the period when the Romans were occupying England had been used by Bertha, the Christian wife of the king of Kent. Augustine found this on his arrival in Canterbury and is said to have baptized the king there. It has been rebuilt and added to in later times, but there are many Roman bricks in the walls, and the lower parts of the church as we now see it may go back to the Roman period Pope he sent forty monks to England under the leadership of a prior, named Augustine (who must not be confused with the church father of that name). The heathen king of Kent, in whose territory Augustine and his monks landed with fear and trembling (597), had a Christian wife, the daughter of a Frankish king. Through her influence the monks were kindly received and were given an ancient church at Canterbury, dating from the Roman occupation before the German invasions. • Here they
