Although Christians may have been present in England from the Apostolic Age, and British bishops are recorded as being present at the Council of Arles in the early fourth century, Augustine of Canterbury was sent from Rome on a mission to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent in the year 597. With the help of Christians already residing there, he established his church in Canterbury, the capital of Kent, and became the first in the series of archbishops of Canterbury. Over the next few centuries, the pre-existing celtic christian churches were gradually absorbed into the Roman system begun by Augustine.