Pope Gregory I sent Mellitus to England in June 601,[REF] in response to an appeal from Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
The historian Ian Wood has suggested that Mellitus' journey through Gaul probably took in the bishoprics of Vienne, Arles, Lyons, Toulon, Marseilles, Metz, Paris, and Rouen, as evidenced by the letters that Gregory addressed to those bishops soliciting their support for Mellitus' party.