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By 603 St Augustine was well established at Canterbury as Archbishop, and he undertook a missionary journey to the Celtic area on the borders of Wales and England. He wanted to preach the importance of the Christian tradition he had brought with him from Rome rather than the Celtic tradition. He met with the Celtic Christians at a place known as Augustine’s Oak, and despite much discussion nothing could be agreed. The Celts would not even recognise Augustine as their Archbishop. Augustine was angry and prophesied that if they refused to accept the Roman way, then they would face war. Not long after, the Christian King Ethelfrid, raised an army at Chester and ‘made a great slaughter of the faithless Britons’, many of whom were monks and priests from the monastery at Bangor in north Wales who had come to pray for the soldiers. ‘Thus, long after his death, was fulfilled Augustine’s prophesy that the faithless Britons, who had rejected the offer of eternal salvation, would incur the punishment of temporal destruction.’
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