Being told that they were Angles, he said: "_Non Angli
sed angeli_ ['Not Angles, but angels'], and well may, for their
angel-like faces it becometh such to be coheirs with the angels in
heaven. In what province of England do they live?" "Deira" was the
reply. "From _Dei ira_ ['God's wrath'] are they to be freed?"
answered Gregory. "How call ye the king of that country?" "AElla."
"Then Alleluia surely ought to be sung in his kingdom to the praise
of that God who created all things," said the gracious and clever
monk.
"The conversion of the English to Christianity," says Freeman, "at
once altered their whole position in the world. Hitherto our
history had been almost wholly insular; our heathen forefathers had
had but little to do, either in war or peace, with any nations
beyond their own four seas. We hear little of any connection being
kept up between the Angles and Saxons who settled in Britain, and
their kinsfolk who abode in their original country. By its
conversion England was first brought, not only within the pale of
the Christian Church, but within the pale of the general political
society of Europe.
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