ngs were little better in the south.
Bishops fought and fell in battle, the clergy lived as laymen, the
monasteries were held by married canons, heathen superstitions and
immorality prevailed among the laity. Besides bringing the Danish
settlers in East Anglia to profess Christianity in 878, Alfred set
himself to improve the religious and intellectual condition of his own
people (see ALFRED). The gradual reconquest of middle and northern
England by his successors was accompanied by the conversion of the
Danish population. A revival of religion was effected by churchmen
inspired by the reformed monasticism of France and Flanders, by Odo,
archbishop of Canterbury, Oswald, archbishop of York, and Dunstan (see
DUNSTAN), who introduced from abroad the strict life of the new
Benedictinism. King Edgar promoted the monastic reform, and by his
authority Bishop AEthelwold of Winchester turned canons out of the
monasteries and put monks in their place. Dunstan sought to reform the
church by ecclesiastical and secular legislation, forbidding immorality
among laymen, insisting on the duties of the clergy, and compelling the
payment of tithes and other church dues. After Edgar's death an
anti-monastic movement, chiefly in Mercia, nearly ended in civil war. In
this strife, which was connected with politics, the victory on the whole
lay with the monks' party, and in many cathedral churches the chapters
remained monastic. The renewed energy of the church was manifested by
councils, canonical legislation and books of sermons. In the homilies of
Abbot AElfric, written for Archbishop Sigeric, stress is laid on the
purely spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but his words do
not indicate, as some have believed, that the English Church was not in
accord with Rome. The ecclesiastical revival was short-lived. Renewed
Danish invasions, in the course of which Archbishop Alphege was martyred
in 1012, and a decline in national character, injuriously affected the
church and, though in the reign of Canute it was outwardly prosperous,
spirituality and learning decreased. Bishoprics and abbacies were
rewards of service to the king, the bishops were worldly-minded,
plurality was frequent, and simony not unknown. Edward the Confessor
promoted foreign ecclesiastics; the connexion with Rome was
strengthened, and in 1062 the first legates since the days of Offa were
sent to England by Alexander II. A political conflict led to the
banishment of Rob