“But why forsook they the olden gods?” cried the Danish girl. “I like not the Saxon God. In what is He better than Odin? Whom can ye give us in place of our beautiful Baldur the glorious? ‘Worship the Saxon God,’ is the command that hath gone forth from my father, and the people obey because he hath said; but still do they cling to Odin, and Thor, and Baldur. Once as we worship, so did ye. Why did ye change?”
“Hast thou not heard how the good Pope Gregory sent the priests to Britain?” asked Egwina.
“No; tell me,” and Hilda, leaned back comfortably against Siegbert. “If I am to worship in this new religion I wish to know of it; but little do I care for aught of it save Cuthbert.”
“Wottest thou not that often men of our island have been sold as serfs into other countries?” asked Egwina.
“Yes; as it hath been with ye in that respect, so hath it been with us.”
“Well, at one time in the city of Rome there were some men from our island to be sold as serfs. While they stood in the market place, Pope Gregory of blessed memory was passing by. He was a simple priest then, but afterward became pope. Being attracted by the exceeding fairness of the men, he stopped.
“‘From what country come ye?’ he asked. They replied that they were ‘Angles.’ ‘Angles! Ye should be angels! Are ye Christians,’ said the holy man, ‘or heathens?’ ‘Certainly not Christians,’ said they, ‘for no one hath opened our ears.’ Then the holy man, lifting up his eyes, replied, ‘What man, when there are stones at hand, layeth a foundation with reeds?’ They answered, ‘No man of prudence.’ ‘Ye have well said,’ said he, and straightway did he take them to his own house and instruct them in the divine oracles, and arrange with them that he should go into their country to carry the holy religion.
“When the people heard of it they made a great outcry, for he was a holy man, much noted for good works and well-beloved. So the pope would not let him go, and it became his hope that some day the gospel should be taken into our land. When he became pope, he at once sent St. Augustine, a holy man, with a multitude of priests, and thus did they change our forefathers into Christians.”
“What said they?” inquired the Danish girl. “How could they turn them from the old gods? Methinks that I should like to know what was said.”