Editing Justus (section)

==Bishop of Rochester==
Augustine consecrated Justus as a bishop in 604 over a province including the [[Kingdom of Kent|Kentish]] town of [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]].<ref name=Brooks11>Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' p. 221</ref> The historian [[Nicholas Brooks (historian)|Nicholas Brooks]] argues that the choice of Rochester was probably not because it had been a Roman-era bishopric, but rather because of its importance in the politics of the time. Although the town was small, with just one street, it was at the junction of [[Watling Street]] and the estuary of the [[Medway]] and was thus a fortified town.<ref name=Brooks24>Brooks "From British to English Christianity" ''Conversion and Colonization'' pp. 24–27</ref> Because Justus was probably not a monk (Bede did not call him that),<ref name=Andrew291>Smith "Early Community of St. Andrew at Rochester" ''English Historical Review'' p. 291</ref> his cathedral clergy was very likely non-monastic too.<ref name=Smith292>Smith "Early Community of St. Andrew at Rochester" ''English Historical Review'' p. 292</ref>

[[File:Textus Roffensis f. 119r.jpg|thumb|The beginning of the charter in ''Textus Roffensis'']]

A charter purporting to be from King Æthelberht, dated 28 April 604, survives in the ''[[Textus Roffensis]]'', as well as a copy based on the Textus in the 14th-century ''Liber Temporalium''. Written mostly in Latin but using an [[Old English]] boundary clause, the charter records a land grant near Rochester to Justus's church.<ref>Campbell ''Charters of Rochester'' p. c</ref> Among the witnesses is [[Laurence of Canterbury|Laurence]], Augustine's future successor, but not Augustine himself. The text turns to two different addressees. First, Æthelberht is made to admonish his son [[Eadbald of Kent|Eadbald]], who had been established as a sub-ruler in the region of Rochester. The grant itself is addressed directly to Saint Andrew, the patron saint of the church,<ref>Morris ''Arthurian Sources'' vol. ii p. 90</ref> a usage parallelled by other charters in the same archive.<ref name=Levinson223>Levison ''England and the Continent'' pp. 223–225</ref>

Wilhelm Levison, writing in 1946, was sceptical about the authenticity of this charter.<ref name=Levinson223/> He felt that the two separate addresses were incongruous, suggesting that the first address, occurring before the preamble, may have been inserted by someone familiar with Bede to echo Eadbald's future conversion (see below).<ref name=Levinson223/> A more recent and more positive appraisal by John Morris argues that the charter and its witness list are authentic because they incorporate titles and phraseology that had fallen out of use by 800.<ref>Morris ''Arthurian Sources'' vol. ii pp. 97–98</ref>

Æthelberht built Justus a cathedral church in Rochester; the foundations of a [[nave]] and [[chancel]] partly underneath the present-day [[Rochester Cathedral]] may date from that time.<ref name=World84/> What remains of the foundations of an early rectangular building near the southern part of the current cathedral might also be contemporary with Justus or may be part of a Roman building.<ref name=Brooks24/>

Together with Mellitus, the bishop of London, Justus signed a letter written by Archbishop Laurence of Canterbury to the Irish bishops urging the native [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic church]] to adopt the Roman method of calculating the date of [[Easter]] (the ''[[computus]]''). This letter also mentioned the fact that Irish missionaries, such as [[Dagan (bishop)|Dagan]], had refused to share meals with the missionaries.<ref name=ASE112>Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 112</ref> Although the letter has not survived, Bede quoted from parts of it.<ref name=Convert138>Higham ''Convert Kings'' pp. 138–139</ref>

In 614, Justus attended the [[Council of Paris (614)|Council of Paris]], held by the [[Franks|Frankish]] king, [[Chlothar&nbsp;II]].<ref name=Wood>Wood "Mission of Augustine of Canterbury" ''Speculum'' p. 7</ref> It is unclear why Justus and [[Peter of Canterbury|Peter]], the abbot of [[St Augustine's, Canterbury|Sts&nbsp;Peter and Paul]] in Canterbury,{{efn|This was later renamed St&nbsp;Augustine's Abbey.<ref name=DNB/>}} were present. It may have been just chance, but the historian James Campbell has suggested that Chlothar summoned clergy from Britain to attend in an attempt to assert overlordship over Kent.<ref name=Campbell56>Campbell "First Century of Christianity" ''Essays in Anglo-Saxon History'' p. 56</ref> N. J. Higham offers another explanation for their attendance, arguing that Æthelberht sent the pair to the council because of shifts in Frankish policy towards the Kentish kingdom, which threatened Kentish independence, and that the two clergymen were sent to negotiate a compromise with Chlothar.<ref name=Convert116>Higham ''Convert Kings'' p. 116</ref>

A pagan backlash against Christianity followed Æthelberht's death in 616, forcing Justus and Mellitus to flee to Gaul.<ref name=MellitusODNB/> The pair probably took refuge with Chlothar, hoping that the Frankish king would intervene and restore them to their sees,<ref name=Convert138/> and by 617 Justus had been reinstalled in his bishopric by the new king.<ref name=DNB/> Mellitus also returned to England, but the prevailing pagan mood did not allow him to return to London; after Laurence's death, Mellitus became Archbishop of Canterbury.<ref name=MellitusBASE>Lapidge "Mellitus" ''Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England''</ref> According to Bede, Justus received letters of encouragement from [[Pope Boniface&nbsp;V]] (r. 619–625), as did Mellitus, although Bede does not record the actual letters—the historian [[J.&nbsp;M. Wallace-Hadrill]] assumes both letters were general statements encouraging the missionaries.<ref name=Wallace64>Wallace-Hadrill ''Bede's Ecclesiastical History'' pp. 64–65</ref>