him when he arrived. The King gave him land where there were
ruins of an old city. Augustine used stones from the ruins to
build a church which was later called Canterbury. He also built
the first St. Paul's church in what was later called London. He
conducted Easter ceremonies in the spring and Christmas
ceremonies in winter. The word "Christmas" is short for "Christ's
mass". Aethelbert and his men who fought with him and ate in his
household [gesiths] became Christian.

Augustine knew how to write, but King AEthelbert did not. The
King announced his laws at meetings of his people and his eorls
would decide the punishments. He and Augustine decided to write
down some of these laws, which now included the King's new law
concerning the church.

These laws concern personal injury, murder, theft, burglary,
marriage, adultery, and inheritance. The blood feud's private
revenge for killing had been replaced by payment of compensation
to the dead man's kindred. One paid a man's "wergeld" [worth] to
his kindred for causing his wrongful death. The wer of an
aetheling was 1500s., of an eorl, 300s., of a ceorl, 100s., of a
laet [agricultural serf in Kent], 40-80s., and of a slave
nothing. At this time a shilling could buy a cow in Kent or a
sheep elsewhere. If a ceorl killed an eorl, he paid three times
as much as an eorl would have paid as murderer. The penalty for
slander was tearing out of the tongue. If an aetheling were
guilty of this offense, his tongue was worth five times that of a
coerl, so he had to pay proportionately more too ransom it.