a bishop in his place." (Bede, "Eccl. Hist.," Smith edit., book ii.,
cap. 17, p. 98.)

[Illustration: St. Mary's Abbey.]

This early prosperity of the northern Church did not last long. In 633
Edwin was defeated and killed at a battle near Hatfield, and a period of
anarchy and persecution followed. Thereupon Paulinus, with Ethelburga,
the queen, fled to Kent, leaving behind him only one evangelist, by name
James the Deacon. It is probable that the greater part of Northumbria
thereupon fell back into paganism, and by the flight of Paulinus the
Catholic Church, or that part of it immediately under the influence and
control of the bishops of Rome, lost its hold on the north, which it was
not to regain without a struggle. The anarchy came to an end with the
accession of Oswald, a Christian, who had been converted, not by
Paulinus, but by the Celtic Church of Iona. It was this circumstance
which led to the establishment of the influence of that Church in
Northumbria. Oswald did not look to Rome or Canterbury for evangelists
when he set to work to establish Christianity in his kingdom, but to
Iona, whence, in 635 A.D., was dispatched a bishop, Aidan, who settled
at Lindisfarne (Holy Island). From this time there were two influences
at work among the Christians in Northumbria--that of the older and more
national British Church which had survived the flood of heathen
invasion; and that of the later Catholic Church, which originated with
the mission of Augustine.

The conflict between these two influences reached its height in the time
of Alfred. Oswald completed the church began by Edwin: it remained under
the rule of Aidan, as no evangelists were sent from the south to take
the place of Paulinus, though it is said that James the Deacon continued
his missionary work in the North Riding. In 642 Oswald was killed in
battle, and Deira and Bernicia were again split up into two kingdoms.
With this division came also religious difficulties between the Church
of Iona and the Catholic Church of the south. These difficulties
culminated in the Synod of Whitby, 664, at which the Catholic party, led
by the great Wilfrid, perhaps the greatest of all bishops of York,
defeated their opponents. After the council, Colman, then Bishop of
Lindisfarne, resigned, and his successor, Tuda by name, was killed with
many of his monks, by a pestilence at Lindisfarne. The ground therefore
seemed to be cleared for Wilfrid. At this time Oswy was king of