Being inspired by Gregory the Great

“But in spite of his constant procrastination the idea of mission never left him, and when he became pope in 590 he devoted part of the revenue of the papacy to buying up Anglian slave-boys in order that they might be educated in the Christian faith and eventually sent back to their own land as ambassadors of Christ.” 

Found on page 12 of JRH Moorman's 3rd edition of A History of the Church in England