married a daughter of AEthelberht, was converted and baptized with his
nobles by Paulinus, who became the first bishop of York. As Edwin's
kingdom extended from the Humber to the Forth and included the Trent
valley, while he exercised superiority over all the other English
kingdoms, except Kent, his conversion promised well for the church, but
he was slain and his kingdom overrun by Penda, the heathen king of
Mercia, the central part of England. Penda's victories endangered the
cause of Christianity. The Roman mission was dying out. Kent and East
Anglia, which was evangelized by Felix, a Burgundian bishop sent from
Canterbury, were settled in the faith. Though Bernicia, the northern
part of Northumbria, was little affected by the gospel, and after
Edwin's death heathenism became dominant in his kingdom, Christianity
did not die out in Northumbria. The East Saxons had heard the gospel,
and in 634 the conversion of the West Saxons was begun by Birinus, an
Italian missionary. Central England and the South Saxons, however, were
wholly untouched by Christianity.

The work of the Romans was taken up by Scotic missionaries. Oswald,
under whom the Northumbrian power revived, had lived as an exile among
the Scots, and asked them for a bishop to teach his people. Aidan was
sent to him by the monks of Iona in 635, and fixed his see in
Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, where he founded a monastery. Saintly,
zealous and supported by Oswald's influence, he brought Northumbria
generally to accept the gospel. The conversion of the Middle Angles and
Mercians, and the reconversion of the East Saxons, were also achieved by
Scots or by disciples of the Scotic mission. After Aidan's death in 651
the differences between the Roman and Scotic usages, and specially that
concerning the date of Easter, led to bitter feelings, were inconvenient
in practice, and must have hindered the church in its warfare against
heathenism. Oswio, who reigned over both the Northumbrian kingdoms, was,
like his brother Oswald, a disciple of the Scots, his son and his queen,
the daughter of Edwin, held to the Roman usages, and these usages were
maintained by Wilfrid, who on his return from Rome in 658 was appointed
abbot of Ripon. By Oswio's command a conference between the two parties
was held at the present Whitby in 664. Oswio decided in favour of the
Roman usages. This was the end of the Scotic mission. The Scots left
Lindisfarne, and their disciples generally adopt