In 597 AD, Pope Gregory I sent a mission from Rome to Britain under St. Augustine who was the head of the Roman monastery to command forty monks to Kent and the rest of Britain in hopes of spreading Christianity. He encountered “heathens” in an “open air interview” because “the heathen English believed that evil spells lost much of their potency when woven out of doors" Cannon 23). Even though St. Augustine would have success, he “ …turned back, having begun his journey, before he arrived and asked to be excused from the mission. He was directed to resume his journey though” (Cannon 21). St Augustine, when he arrived in 597 in Kent had some early success with Christianizing England. This positive reaction came from the people of Kent and Essex who were greeted by King Aethelbert of Kent. King Aethelbert “Was sympathetic to Augustine's mission and agreed to be baptized a Christian. Very soon, many of the English followed him” The king was baptized less than three months after the arrival of St. Augustine. (Website). The West Saxons unlike the people of Kent did not want any part in Christianity. St. Augustine while changing the religion from paganism to Christianity did not destroy pagan temples but rather changed the temples to churches and changed the idols to altars. In these altars, St. Augustine set up “altars to both Christ and Woden in the same temple." Cannon 22) In Ireland, the church kept and preserved pagan literature as well and tried to keep some pagan influence.
Rather than believing in many gods in paganism, the religion of Christianity believes in one god. As Christianity’s popularity increased, the belief in community decreased. “Christians made morality to consist more especially in a man’s duty to God”. (Carpenter). This is one of the main differences between the two religions. Rather than helping out “one’s fellow man,” Christians believed most in “saving of one’s own soul" Carpenter). Christians feel their duty is to God and their mission in life is to save their soul. Christians also had a difference in opinion on the world than pagans. “Christians…taught that the whole natural world had been given dominion of humans, and cut down the old sacred groves” (Hutton 252). Rather than thinking all things happened by the spirits as pagans did, Christians believed that God had given all rights to humans.
(above): This is a statue of St. Gregory who had a large hand in changing the religion in Britain from Paganism to Christianity.