the walls of Bardney Abbey, becoming thus one of the tutelary Saints of Lindsey.

Oswald was succeeded by his brother Oswy, who after thirteen years of conflict, slew Penda, the old heathen King of Mercia, and at once became chief ruler in the land. For a few years he ruled Lindsey as Oswy had done, but ere long his ambition over-reached itself, and the Mercians raised up a son of Penda to be their King. This was the Christian Wulphere, and it is evident that he had direct rule over Lindsey, as well as over Central Mercia, for in 669 he gave to S. Chad the land of fifty families at Barrow on Humber, "the place Ad Barve," to found a monastery.

After this Northumbria made several efforts, some of them temporarily successful, to regain possession of Lindsey. In 675 Egfrith, son of Oswy, wrested it from Wulphere, and in 678 Archbishop Theodore, treating Lindsey as part of Northumbria, consecrated Eadhead, a Northumbrian, as its Bishop, erecting it into a separate Diocese. Eadhead was, however, speedily driven out by Ethelred of Mercia, Wulphere's successor, and when Egfrith again attempted to seize the Province, the two Kings fought a bloody battle on the banks of the Trent, probably near Gainsburgh, and further bloodshed was only averted by the intervention of Theodore, who consecrated another Bishop for Lindsey. King Ethelred eventually retired to the Abbey of Bardney, which he evidently regarded as within his dominions, and from this time Northumbria made no further attempt to gain possession of Lindsey, but devoted itself to the cultivation of art and literature, founding the celebrated School of York, and producing Bede, the Father of English History, Caedmon the Poet, and Alcuin, the tutor of Charlemagne.

Ethelbald of Mercia, after some years of struggle, gained for his Kingdom the over-lordship of all England South of the Humber, and after his death in 757 his sucessor Offa still further consolidated Mercia. In his time England was divided into the three almost equal Kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria. Offa formed an alliance with Charlemagne, Emperor of the West, to one of whose sons he gave a daughter in marriage, and in his days Mercia, with its outlying Province of Lindsey, was

stronger and more closely united than at any other period of its history. In 827 Egbert of Wessex made himself master of the whole of England, and thus became for a time over-lord of Lindsey; but for half a century longer Mercia continued to have its own Kings, who had more direct control over its people than the distant over-lord could have. Eventually the pressure of Danish invasions brought the Mercian Kingdom to an end, its last King betaking himself in sadness to Rome, where his body lies in S. Mary's Church, in the English School."

In this short sketch of its history we have clearly shewn that for almost two centuries before King Alfred's marriage the Province of Lindsey had been, except during two short intervals of struggle, regarded as an integral part of the Kingdom of Mercia, though it was still possible for Asser, residing at the other end of England, to speak of it as a separate Province having some sort of connection with Northumbria.

THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.

The story of the Conversion of England has been often told, and we need only repeat so much of it as concerns our immediate district, premising a few general remarks.

That there was some Christianity in Britain during the Roman occupation is certain, but that it made any wide progress among the native population is extremely doubtful. There were probably Christians in Caesar's household" and in the chief centres of Roman life from very early times, but they were often obliged to practice their religion in secret, and could seldom dare to preach to the heathen multitude around them. We hear of no famous missionaries, and the great persecutions left Britain almost untouched, probably because there were few Christians to persecute. Yet on the other hand we must not forget that during the last century of Roman rule the Church was not merely tolerated but became the official Religion of the Empire. The standards borne along the Ermine Street were marked with the symbols of

Christianity, and we cannot doubt that during the latter part of the fourth century some attempt was made to induce the native Britons to accept the religion as well as the civilization of their conquerors.

It will be remembered that three British bishops were present at the Council of Arles in 314, one of them perhaps from Lincoln, and that the British Christians accepted the decrees of Nicea. Both S. Chrysostom and Gildas allude to the existence of Churches in this country, and at Canterbury, Silchester, and elsewhere some traces of these remain. Yet with the exception of a few Christian symbols, such as the monogram X P and, as at Horkstow, the sign of the Cross upon mosaic pavements, few further evidences of the spread of Christianity in Roman times remain, and we cannot but regard it as rather the religion of individuals than of the people at large. By the middle of the fifth century, indeed, the Kelts in Ireland had become Christian, and the whole of Britain would doubtless have followed their example but for the advent of the Northern conquerors, who delayed the conversion of this country for two centuries.

The first missionary to the Angles in Lindsey was Paulinus, who had just converted King Edwin of Northumbria. In 628 the Bishop, apparently accompanied by the King and by his deacon, penetrated to Lincoln, where "he converted Blecca, the governor of the city, with his whole family. He likewise built in that city. a stone Church of beautiful workmanship," and there he consecrated Honorius to be Archbishop of Canterbury.

It is Bede who tells us of this mission of Paulinus, and as we read his words there rises to our view a noble scene, such as no man has looked upon in England for many a century, nor shall ever see again. Forth from the city gate, where the rounded archway still reminds men of the conquerors of mankind, issues a long procession clad in robes of peace. It is the King, seated on his charger, with his banners borne aloft before him, and his nobles by his side. With him rides the Bishop, "tall of stature, a little stooping, his hair black, his visage meagre, his nose slender and aquiline, his aspect both venerable and majestic." They pass down the long declivity into the meadows where the Till meanders

on to join the Witham, they ride along the Western road towards the Trent, and as they descend the hill at Marton shouts of welcome arise from the crowds gathered on the banks of the river. Men are there from all the Trent-side villages, from the city of Tiovulfingacestir two miles away, from the cliff, and from the Mercian shore, and as the deacon erects the sacred Cross, and the Bishop steps down into the water, the King falls upon his knees in thanksgiving to high Heaven. Multitudes come to that great Baptism, and the royal godfather rejoices to see so many stalwart sons enlist in the army of the Eternal King.

A generation later the Mercians "received the Faith and the Sacraments" from the preaching of four Northumbrian priests, and soon had a regular succession of Bishops. In 669 S. Chad, becoming Bishop of the Mercians, received from King Wulphere the land of fifty families to build a monastery "at the place Ad Barve," Barrow on Humber. He and his successor Winfrid may be reckoned among the founders of the Church in Lindsey, as may also S. Hybald, who eventually became Abbot of Bardney. We can scarcely claim S. Etheldreda, the Virgin Queen and Abbess of Ely, unless the tradition be true, which make her the founder of Stow Church; but after the foundation of the Bishopric of Lindsey the conversion of the district was probably rapid.

CHAPTER IV.

THE COMING OF THE DANES.-ALFRED THE GREAT.

THE COMING OF THE DANES.

HEN, on the eve of the Ascension Day, 785, the Venerable Bede sank to his well-earned rest, with the words of the Doxology upon his lips, the whole English nation which he so dearly loved, and whose History he so nobly wrote, was enjoying a profound repose. There had

been many storms of conquest, many tempests of sanguinary war, but as he said himself in his final chapter, "even the Picts were then at peace with the English nation, and rejoiced in being united in peace and truth with the whole Catholic Church." And "such was the peaceable and calm disposition of the times, that many of the Northumbrians, as well of the nobility as of private persons, laying aside their weapons, rather inclined to dedicate both themselves and their children to the tonsure and to monastic vows than to study martial discipline." For two generations England had been wholly Christian, and for yet another generation our island continued free from the ravages of heathen invasion, although there were now and again internal struggles between Wessex and Mercia, between the Saxons and the Welsh. Even the English Chronicler has little to record but the succession of Kings and Bishops, "the appearance of a fiery crucifix in the sky, and of wondrous adders in the land of the South Saxons."

But at length the mutterings of the dreadful storm that was to burst upon England were heard in the distance. "In 787 King Bertric took to wife King Offa's daughter, and in his days first