and to monasteries and private persons. These grants, written at first
in Latin, but afterwards in Anglo-Saxon, were preserved in the
monasteries down to the date of their dissolution, and then became the
property of various collectors. They have been transcribed and published
by Mr. Kemble and Mr. Thorpe, and they form some of our most useful
materials for the early history of Christian England.

It was mainly by means of the monasteries that Christianity became a
great civilising and teaching agency in England. Those who judge
monastic institutions only by their later and worst days, when they had,
perhaps, ceased to perform any useful function, are apt to forget the
benefits which they conferred upon the people in the earlier stages of
their existence. The state of England during this first Christian period
was one of chronic and bloody warfare. There was no regular army, but
every freeman was a soldier, and raids of one English tribe upon another
were everyday occurrences; while pillaging frays on the part of the
Welsh, followed by savage reprisals on the part of the English, were
still more frequent. During the heathen period, even the Picts seem
often to have made piractical expeditions far into the south of England.
In 597, for example, we read in the Chronicle that Ceolwulf, king of the
West Saxons, constantly fought "either against the English, or against
the Welsh, or against the Picts." But in 603, the Argyllshire Scots made
a raid against Northumbria, and were so completely crushed by
AEthelfrith, that "since then no king of Scots durst lead a host against
this folk"; while the southern Picts of Galloway became tributaries of
the Northumbrian kings. But war between Saxons and English, or between
Teutons and Welsh, still remained chronic; and Christianity did little
to prevent these perpetual border wars and raids. In 633, Cadwalla and
Penda wasted Northumbria; in 644, Penda drove out King Kenwealh, of the
West Saxons, from his possessions along the Severn; in 671, Wulfhere,
the Mercian, ravaged Wessex and the south as far as Ashdown, and
conquered Wight, which he gave to the South Saxons; and so, from time to
time, we catch glimpses of the unceasing strife between each folk and
its neighbours, besides many hints of intestine struggles between prince
and prince, or of rivalries between one petty shire and others of the
same kingdom, far too numerous and unimportant to be detailed here in
full.

With such a s