spot now called Pevensey, the
landing-place of a later conqueror, the Norman William, in 1066. It
guarded on the east the strip of land between the South Downs and the
sea; and when it fell before them, the Saxons became masters of the
region to the north known then as Andredeslea, or Andredeswold, the
forest or weald of Anderida. To the west was Regnum, Cissa's Ceaster,
or Chichester, another of those fortresses which the provident and
energetic Romans had established along the South Coast.

One of Aelle's followers, named Boso, or Bosa, settled at the head of
a branch of Chichester harbour, and, as in the case of his superior,
Cymen, the place was named after him, as Bosenham, or Bosham. This was
in the fifth century. Augustine began his work in Kent late in the
sixth century, and Birinus, who was sent independently direct from
Rome, had undertaken the conversion of the West Saxons fifteen years
before the middle of the succeeding century. But neither by these
missionaries nor their brethren was the territory of the South Saxons
affected.

The West Saxons, by conquest, extended their rule westward and
northward, and missionary enterprise followed the course of military
success and subsequent civil protection. The original British
occupiers of the land withdrew to Wales, or else became subject to the
conquerors. Similar had been the course of events which followed the
taking of Kent by the Jutes. So when Augustine arrived he was welcomed
by Aethelberht, whose wife Bertha, a Frankish princess, was already a
Christian.

Augustine having founded the see of Canterbury, was soon enabled, by
the help of political and social influence, to effect the
establishment of other sees. Rochester, London, and York were soon
centres of activity; but these neighbour principalities had not,
ecclesiastically, affected the territories that were close to their
respective domains; for the kingdom of the South Saxons remained,
nearly two centuries after Aelle's conquest, in the same heathen
condition as prevailed in his day.

Bede relates that at Bosham, Dicul had founded a monastery where,
"surrounded by woods and water, lived five or six brethren, serving
the Lord in humility and poverty." But "no one cared to emulate their
life, or listen to their teaching." Dicul came from Ireland, and it is
supposed that he had been educated in the monastic centre of
missionary life which in the sixth century had been founded there. It
is not, how