Page "Celtic Christianity" Paragraph 14

Bede relates an anecdote that the British bishops consulted a wise hermit as to how to respond to Augustine when he arrived for the second council.

The hermit replied that they should make the decision based on Augustine's own conduct.

If he should rise to greet them at the council, they would know him as a humble servant of Christ and should submit to him, but if he arrogantly kept his seat, they should reject him.

As it happened, Augustine did not rise at the council, causing outrage.

Augustine offered to allow the Britons to maintain most of their customs if they made three concessions: they should adopt the Roman method of calculating Easter's date, reform their baptismal rite, and join the missionary efforts among the Saxons.

The Britons rejected all of these, and, adds Bede, refused to recognize Augustine's authority over them.

Bede reports that Augustine is said to have then delivered a prophecy that the British church's failure to proselytize the Saxons would bring them war and death at their hands.

He gives the Battle of Chester, at which many British clergy were said to have been killed by the pagan King Æthelfrith of Northumbria, as the fulfillment of this prophecy.