ABSTRACT
The preaching of the true Catholic faith and the elimination of all deviations from it was a key element in Pope Gregory's world-view, and it constituted one of the major continuing policies of his pontificate. He has deliberately left it until last because it is important to see it in the context of the missionary activities undertaken elsewhere, within the Empire. Gregory was interested in the English, for in September 595 he asked the Gallic rector Candidus to buy English slave boys of seventeen or eighteen and send them to Rome to serve in the monasteries, and to ensure that, since they were pagans, they were accompanied by a Christian priest, who could baptize them if they died on the way. It has been argued that he intended them to accompany Augustine of Hippo's mission; but none of them went, because it is known that no one on the mission could speak English.
