Editing Justus (section)

==Arrival in Britain==
[[File:AugsutineGospelsFolio129vStLuke.jpg|thumb|left|alt=An illuminated manuscript illustration of a central seated figure holding an open book. He is flanked by two colonnades, which are filled with small scenes. Over the central figure is an arch which surmounts a winged bull.|The [[evangelist portrait]] of Luke, from the St&nbsp;Augustine Gospels ({{circa|6th century}}), which may have accompanied Justus to Britain]]
Justus was a member of the [[Gregorian mission]] sent to England by Pope Gregory&nbsp;I. Almost everything known about Justus and his career is derived from the early 8th-century ''[[Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum]]'' of [[Bede]].<ref name=DNB>Hunt "Justus" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> As Bede does not describe Justus's origins, nothing is known about him before he arrived in England. He probably arrived in England with the second group of missionaries, sent at the request of [[Augustine of Canterbury]] in 601.<ref name=DNB/><ref name=ASE109>Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 109</ref> Some modern writers describe Justus as one of the original missionaries who arrived with Augustine in 597,<ref name=Hindley65>Hindley ''Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons'' p. 65</ref> but Bede believed that Justus came in the second group.<ref name=World84>Blair ''World of Bede'' pp. 84–87</ref><ref name=Wallace43>Wallace-Hadrill ''Bede's Ecclesiastical History'' p. 43</ref> The second group included [[Mellitus]], who later became [[Bishop of London]] and Archbishop of Canterbury.<ref name=MellitusODNB>Brooks "Mellitus" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref>

If Justus was a member of the second group of missionaries, then he arrived with a gift of books and "all things which were needed for worship and the ministry of the Church".<ref name=Bede85>Bede ''History of the English Church and People'' p. 85–86</ref><ref name=Coming62>Mayr-Harting ''Coming of Christianity'' p. 62</ref> A 15th-century Canterbury chronicler, [[Thomas of Elmham]], claimed that there were some books brought to England by that second group still at Canterbury in his day, although he did not identify them. An investigation of extant Canterbury manuscripts shows that one possible survivor is the [[St&nbsp;Augustine Gospels]], now in [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]] Manuscript (MS) 286.<ref name=DNB/>{{efn|Another possible survivor is a copy of the ''[[Rule of St&nbsp;Benedict]]'', now [[Bodleian Library]] MS. Hatton 48.<ref name=Colgrave27>Colgrave "Introduction" ''Earliest Life of Gregory the Great'' pp. 27–28</ref> Another Gospel, in an Italian hand, and closely related to the Augustine Gospels, is MS Oxford Bodelian Auctarium D.2.14, which shows evidence of being held in Anglo-Saxon hands during the right time frame. Lastly, a fragment of a work by Gregory the Great, now held by the [[British Library]] as part of MS [[Cotton Titus]] C, may have arrived with the missionaries.<ref name=Library24>Lapidge ''Anglo-Saxon Library'' pp. 24–25</ref>}}