pond to be devoured by swine or
birds of prey." And from that time until the translation of the relics in
1220, this was the most sacred spot in the cathedral, and it was known,
down to Reformation times, as "Becket's tomb." Hither came the earliest
pilgrims in the first rush of enthusiasm for the newly-canonized martyr.
And here Henry II. performed that penance, which is one of the most
striking examples of the Church's power presented by history. We are told
that he placed his head and shoulder in the tomb, and there received five
strokes from each bishop and abbot who was present, and three from each of
the eighty monks. After this castigation he spent the night in the crypt,
fasting and barefooted. His penitence and piety were rewarded by the
victory gained at Richmond, on that very day, by his forces over William
the Lion of Scotland, who was taken prisoner, and afterwards, recognizing
the power of the saint, founded the abbey of Aberbrothwick to Saint Thomas
of Canterbury.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HISTORY OF THE SEE.

The history of the See of Canterbury may be said to have begun with the
coming of Augustine, for there can be no doubt that it is owing to its
being the settling-place of the first messengers of the gospel in Saxon
England that Canterbury has been the metropolis of the English Church.
Pope Gregory, with his usual thoroughness, sent to Augustine, soon after
his arrival here, an elaborate scheme for the division of our island
into sees, which were to be gradually developed as Christianity spread.
According to his arrangement, there were to be two archbishops, one at
London and one at York. But we cannot regret that this scheme was not
carried out, as an archiepiscopal see is much more picturesquely framed by
the hills which encircle Canterbury than it could have been by the dingy
vastness of the political and social capital.

#Augustine# reached England in 597, and found that his path had been made
easy by the fact that Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, was a
Christian. He soon effected the conversion of the king himself, and his
labours were so rapidly successful that at Christmas, 597, no less than
ten thousand Saxons were baptized at the mouth of the Medway. The
archiepiscopal pall, and a papal Bull, creating Augustine first English
archbishop, were duly sent from Rome, and the royal palace in Canterbury,
with an old church--Roman or British--close by, were handed over to him by
Ethelber