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Roman Britain In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar, then general of the Roman armies in Gaul, decided that it would be a good move to try a little summer invasion of Britain. The Celts in Gaul had been receiving aid from their close relations in southern England. British Celts may even have fought with related tribes in Gaul against the Romans. Certainly J. C. complained that defeated Gauls would slip away to Britain to regroup. Tackling the British Celts made sense in the battle to secure Gaul for Rome. Caesar's invasion proved successful but inconclusive. Landing in present day Kent, he did battle with several tribes that summer, and did very well. The following summer he returned for more, easily defeating the first real historical British figure we know of, King Cassivellaunus The British "kings" at this time were really no more than tribal chiefs. There was no such thing as a unified "Britain", and there was no such thing as a unified Celtic army to meet the Roman advance. Julius Caesar left after two summers fighting, exacting a promise of tribute from the defeated tribes, One important social change that occurred at this time was that kingship became hereditary, rather than a post awarded to the best war leader. This change was to have disastrous consequences; several princes fled to Rome to appeal for help in succession disputes. Rome was happy to use this as a convenient excuse for invasion. In 43 A.D. Claudius became Emperor of Rome. Needing a victory to secure his weak position, he decided to revive the dream of expanding the Empire to the British Isles. The pretext was conveniently provided by Caratacus, king of the Catavellauni tribe. Caratacus invaded the territories of the Atrebates, whose king, Verica, fled to Rome and appealed for help. Claudius was happy to respond. Four Roman legions landed in Kent in AD 43. The two sons of Cymbeline attempted to hold them at the Medway but were defeated. The Britons then retreated beyond the Thames, at which point the Romans called a halt in their pursuit. A few weeks later the emperor Claudius reached the southern bank of the Thames, in the region of what is now London, with fresh troops and even a few elephants. He then led the advance on Caractacus' capital at Camulodunum, or Colchester. After the rapid defeat of Caractacus, chieftain of the Belgae in southeast Britain, other Celtic tribes quickly came to terms with the Romans. Some accepted defeat. But others, such as the Iceni in East Anglia, already had friendly relations with the Romans. Rome left such chieftains in power, as allies. The result was that in the short space of four years the whole of southern Britain was safely under Roman control. In AD 47 Roman troops were able to build a raised road, with a ditch on either side, defining the northern edge of this safe territory. Known as the Fosse Way, it stretches from Lincoln to south Devon. The plan at first was to limit the conquest to the lowlands of modern England, so a border was established by 47 A.D. along the route of the Fosse Way, the great Roman road running from Exeter to Lincoln. It was a nice idea, but the Romans had little choice but to deal the troublesome tribes. Caratacus and his warriors were defeated in a battle near Snowdonia in 51 A.D., and Caratacus himself fled north to the territory of the Brigantes. The Brigantian Queen, Cartimandua, hopeful of staying on good terms with the Romans and keeping her own territories, promptly handed him over to the invaders. He was sent to Rome and publicly displayed as a prisoner. In 60 A.D., while Roman troops were busy in the final battle with the Druids on Anglesey Island (Wales), trouble arose in East Anglia. The Iceni tribe, centred in the modern Norfolk, had reached an accommodation with the Romans, keeping their own territory in exchange for not making a fuss. The Iceni king, Prasutagas, decided that it would be prudent to make his will assigning half of his personal property to the Roman emperor. When he died the Roman officials decided to interpret his will as a submission to the Roman state, so they moved to appropriate all of the Iceni lands and disarm the tribe. Prasutagas's widow, Boudicca (or Boadicea as she is sometimes known) protested. The Romans had her flogged and her daughters were raped. This high handed treatment of an ostensible ally had predictable results. Queen Boudicca raised the Iceni and the neighbouring Trinivantes tribe in revolt against Roman rule. Boudicca's treatment of her enemies was fierce and she must have given the Romans a terrific scare. One legion was so terrified that they refused to move against her. She was eventually defeated at an unknown site by a much smaller force of Roman troops. The upshot of the Boudiccan revolt was that Iceni territory was ravaged and much of the province was put under military rule. There is a tendency to think of Boudicca as a great patriotic leader of the British, perhaps the first national heroine. The first Roman capital of the new province of Britannia was at Colchester. It did not take the Romans long, however, to realize the strategic importance of the Thames river as a communication and transport highway. A small existing settlement was built up to become a trade and administrative centre. The Romans called it Londinium. Today it is known as London. Certain Celtic tribes, in return for not being overrun, agreed to ally themselves to Rome. Treaties with tribes in the north and in East Anglia created buffers on the frontiers while the process of quelling resistance continued. Part of this process took the form of eradicating the Druids. By the standards of their time the Romans could be tolerant of the religions of the peoples they conquered. However, the Druids represented not just a religious hierarchy, but real political and administrative authority among the Celts. And the Romans seemed to have been genuinely horrified by what they considered the grisly and uncivilized practices of the Druids. In Gaul, Caesar had recorded the druidic wicker giants packed with men and set alight. The Roman historian Tacitus accused the Welsh Druids of “staining their altars with the blood of prisoners and consulting their gods by using human entrails”. The Romans thought that they were bringing the benefits of civilization to the people they conquered. They saw themselves as on a mission to expand the Empire and bring the Roman way of life to all the poor tribes bereft of its benefits. On the whole the Celtic chieftains of Britain adapted willingly to Roman customs and comforts. They learned to live in villas, they spoke Latin, they benefited from trading links with the empire (British wheat and wool were much in demand), and they became Roman citizens. The tribal centres developed into thriving Roman towns, around the forum (market place) and basilica (town hall). Britannia had much in common with other provinces of the empire. It had its great villas, and it was significant that one of the grandest - a palace at Fishbourne with superb mosaic floors, discovered in 1960 - is believed to have belonged not to a Roman governor but to a Celtic chieftain. Little progress was made in pacifying Wales until the arrival in Britain of Agricola. Agricola rapidly succeeded in conquering the Welsh tribes, even in Anglesey. To consolidate his gains he stationed the 20th legion in an encampment on the river Dee. Castra Devana ('camp on the Dee') became one of the most important Roman strongholds in Britain. Its modern name, deriving from 'Castra', is Chester. In AD 78-9 Agricola brought the north of England under Roman control. In 80 he establishes a line of defensive outposts across Scotland's narrowest point, between the Clyde and the Forth. In the following three years he pressed steadily further north into the wilds of Caledonia (the Roman word for Scotland, from the name of its leading tribe). The Legacy of the Romans The main Latin elements are still visible in place names: castra (-chester, -caster, -ceister) a Roman town, fort colonia (-coln) a settlement porta (-port) a gate portus (-port) a harbour strata (Strat-, -street) a Roman Road The calendar the British use today is more than 2,000 years old. It was started by Julius Caesar, a Roman ruler. It is based on the movement of the earth around the sun, and so is called the 'solar calendar.' The solar calendar has 365 days a year, and 366 days every leap year, or every fourth year. The names of our months are taken from the names of Roman gods and rulers. The month 'July' is named after Julius Caesar himself. The old tribal settlements in Britain were stragling, often temporary, enclosures of wicker and timber that held fluctuating numbers of people and cattle. Gradually they were replaced by planned, geometrically regular towns that were a visible stamp of Roman organization and power. The new Roman towns were not just places to live, work and trade, but symbols of the imperial ideals of unity and stability. Many of these planned towns still exist today. Bathing was an essential social and fitness activity for the members of the Roman establishment and so large bathing structures were quickly built at military and administrative centres such as Exeter and York. Gradually, substantial bathing complexes also arose in civilian towns The monumental spa at Bath or Aqua Sulis even became the centre of pilgrimages because of the reputed healing powers of its waters. The Roman administration needed a network of roads to connect its new towns and army posts and to speed the flow of both trade goods and troops. The most vital priority was the movement of troops and supplies from the channel ports to the military centres at London, Colchester, and the front-line legionary forts. The first frontier was set up along a road extending from Exeter to Lincoln, running through Bath, Gloucester, and Leicester. This was known as the Fosse Way, the first great Roman road in Britain. The Fosse Way has been largely adapted by modern highways. The next military push established a new frontier between Lincoln and York, Wroxeter and Chester, and Gloucester and Caerleon. After these "front-line" roads had been established. The Romans turned their attention to expanding the network of minor roads within their new possessions, to better aid the flow of trade. How did the Romans build their famous roads? The roads were literally highways, raised up on a cambered bank of material dug from roadside ditches. In general there were 3 layers. The first layer of large stones was covered by a second layer of smaller stones, then a top layer of gravel or small stones. Each layer varied in depth from 2-12 inches. Hadrian's Wall is a stone and timber fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of what is now northern England. It was begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian. Opinions differ, but the growing consensus is that the Wall was built as a readily defended fortification which clearly defined the northern frontier (lat. limes) of the Roman Empire in Britain (Britannia). The wall was the most heavily fortified border in the Empire. In addition to its role as a military fortification, it is thought that many of the gates through the wall would have served as customs posts to allow trade and levy taxation. Hadrian's Wall was 80 Roman miles (73.5 statute miles or 117 kilometres) long, its width and height dependent on the construction materials which were available nearby. East of River Irthing the wall was made from squared stone and measured 3 metres (9.7 ft) wide and five to six metres (16–20 ft) high, while west of the river the wall was made from turf and measured 6 metres (20 ft) wide and 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) high. Map showing the location of Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's wall near Housesteads Hadrian's Wall was built following a visit by Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 76–138) in AD 122. Hadrian was experiencing military difficulties in Roman Britain, so he was keen to impose order. The construction of such an impressive wall was, however, probably also a symbol of Roman power, both in occupied Britain and in Rome. Although such defences would not have held back any concerted invasion effort, they did physically mark the edge of Roman territory and went some way to providing a degree of control over who crossed the border and where. The wall was constructed primarily to prevent entrance by small bands of raiders or unwanted immigration from the north, not as a fighting line for a major invasion. The wall would have made cattle-raiding across the frontier extremely difficult. In the years after Hadrian's death in 138, the new emperor, Antoninus Pius essentially abandoned the wall, leaving it occupied in a support role, and began building a new wall called the Antonine Wall, about 160 kilometres (100 mi) north, in what later became known as the Scottish Lowlands through the short strip running West South West to East North East from coast to coast sometimes referred to as the Central Belt or Central Lowlands. This turf wall ran 40 Roman miles (about 37.8 mi (60.8 km)) and had significantly more forts than Hadrian's Wall. A significant portion of the wall still exists, particularly the mid-section. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern England, where it is often known simply as the Roman Wall. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The history of Roman Britain ended in the early 5th century AD. ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN Anglo Saxon Invasion. The years between the collapse of the Roman government in Britain in the early years of the fifth century and the arrival of St Augustine at the end of the sixth were a period of significant change. The early Anglo-Saxons invaded and settled Sub-Roman Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, during the European "migration period". King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early sixth century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. During the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, the physical character of the people and their language and institutions were completely altered. A Germanic people replaced the Celtic British, or at least became a significant part of the population of lowland Britain. Germanic dialects replaced Latin or Celtic and loose knit and feuding hereditary kingships replaced the more centrally governed Roman provinces. The Celtic people used the name "Saxon" generically to describe all of the Germanic people they met. While this likely indicates a heavy proportion of Saxons in the early raids and settlement, many other tribes were involved. Significantly, Britain came to be called England after the Angles rather than Saxons. Descendants of three Germanic tribes: •The Angles, who may have come from Angeln (in modern Germany), and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The name 'England' (Anglo-Saxon 'Engla land' or 'Ængla land' originates from this tribe.) •The Saxons, from Lower Saxony (in modern Germany; German: Niedersachsen) •The Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula (in modern Denmark) The term "Anglo-Saxon" is from writings going back to the time of King Alfred the Great, who seems to have frequently used the title rex Anglorum Saxonum or rex Angul-Saxonum (king of the English Saxons). Outside Anglophone countries, both in Europe and in the rest of the world, the term "Anglo-Saxon" and its direct translations are used to refer to the Anglophone peoples and societies of Britain, the United States, and other countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The Anglo-Saxon tribes were not united before the 7th century, with seven main kingdoms, known collectively as the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. The term heptarchy arose on the basis that the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex which were the main polities of south Britain. Germanic pagan society was structured hierarchically, under a tribal chieftain or cyning ("king") who at the same time acted as military leader, high judge and high priest. The tribe was bound together by a code of customary proper behaviour or sidu regulating the contracts (ǽ) and conflicts between the individual families or sibbs within the tribe. The aristocratic society arrayed below the king included the ranks of ealdorman, thegn, heah-gerefa and gerefa. Anglo-Saxon Life. The richer lords lived on estates, with a main rectangular hall surrounded by outlying buildings for various living, working, and storage purposes. Inside the hall a lord might mark his prestige by expensive wall hangings or even paintings. The hall was the scene of feasts for the lord's followers, and a lord was expected to be a lavish host. Anglo-Saxon Administration. The land was divided into shires, mainly according to the territory of the first tribes. The shire was divided into hundreds. To look after the king's interests (see that all the taxes were collected) and administer justice, were the ealdormen and shire-reeves (sheriffs). Anglo Saxon Religion. The indigenous pre-Christian belief system of the Anglo-Saxons was a form of Germanic paganism and therefore closely related to the Old Norse religion, as well as other Germanic pre-Christian cultures. The Anglo-Saxons worshipped gods of nature and held springs, wells, rocks, and trees in reverence. Religion was not a source of spiritual revelation, it was a means of ensuring success in material things. For example, you might pray to a particular goddess for a successful harvest, or for victory in battle. Numerous elements of the pre-Christian culture of the Anglo-Saxon people survive Examples arethe English language names for days of the week: •Woden, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Odin, Woden, the war god: Wednesday •Þunor, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Thor, the thunder godr: Thursday •*Fríge, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Frigga, the goddess of the home: Friday •Tiw, the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Tyr, the dark god: Tuesday Anglo-Saxon Burial Anglo-Saxon Britain 600-900 AD King Offa. Roughly speaking, the 7th century was the age of Northumbrian ascendance, with Mercia in second place. In the 8th century these roles reversed. The most powerful and well known of the Mercian kings was Offa, who ruled from 758-796. The Danes. The Danes found rich plunder in the undefended monastic settlements on Lindisfarne Island and Jarrow, in Northumbria, but they were not out solely for plunder. The Danish raids were partly a response to population pressures in their homeland, so they wanted new lands to settle. Raids were evolving into permanent Danish settlements; in 867, the Vikings seized York and established their own kingdom in the southern part of Northumbria. The Vikings overcame two other major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, East Anglia and Mercia, and their kings were either tortured to death or fled. In May 878, Alfred's army defeated the Danes at the battle of Edington. In 886, Alfred negotiated a partition treaty with the Danes, in which a frontier was demarcated along the Roman Watling Street and northern and eastern England came under the jurisdiction of the Danes - an area known as 'Danelaw'. Alfred ‘The Great’ (reigned 871-899) Alfred's triumph. Alfred came out of the Athelney marshes and surprised the Danes under Guthrum at Edington, in Wiltshire. After a thorough victory for Alfred, Guthrum was chased back to his base at Chippenham, where he was besieged for two weeks. Eventually Guthrum surrendered, and agreed to retreat from Wessex. In Somerset, some weeks later, giving what is known as the Peace of Wedmore. The Danes retreated to East Anglia, and Alfred got on with consolidating his gains. Alfred began a policy encouraging the formation of fortified towns, or burhs, throughout his lands. In exchange for free plots of land within the towns, settlers provided a defense force. The burhs were also encouraged to become centres of commerce and local government. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation system. Alfred wrested London from Danish control and reached the agreement by which England was divided into two zones; the south and west, where Saxon law would apply, and the north and east, where Danish law ruled. This second territory became known as the Danelaw. Alfred's Legacy. Alfred's concept of kingship extended beyond the administration of the tribal kingdom of Wessex into a broader context. A religiously devout and pragmatic man who learnt Latin in his late thirties, he recognised that the general deterioration in learning and religion caused by the Vikings' destruction of monasteries (the centres of the rudimentary education network) had serious implications for rulership. To improve literacy, Alfred arranged, and took part in, the translation (by scholars from Mercia) from Latin into Anglo-Saxon of a handful of books he thought it 'most needful for men to know, and to bring it to pass ... if we have the peace, that all the youth now in England ... may be devoted to learning'. Alfred is remembered as a literate king, he or his court commissioned Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, these were written in Old English, rather than in Latin (as with other European annals). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (which was copied and supplemented up to 1154) is a patriotic history of the English . Like other West Saxon kings, Alfred established a legal code; he assembled the laws of Offa and other predecessors, and of the kingdoms of Mercia and Kent, adding his own administrative regulations to form a definitive body of Anglo-Saxon law. By stopping the Viking advance and consolidating his territorial gains, Alfred had started the process by which his successors eventually extended their power over the other Anglo-Saxon kings; the ultimate unification of AngloSaxon England was to be led by Wessex. From the depths of despair in 877, Alfred brought Anglo-Saxon England into a golden age of social stability and artistic accomplishment. He was one of the first kings who seems to have looked beyond his own personal glory to a vision of the future well-being of the nation he ruled. He has every right to be remembered as Alfred "The Great". Language. Old English, sometimes called Anglo-Saxon, was the language spoken under Alfred the Great and continued to be the common language of England until after the Norman Conquest of 1066 when, under the influence of the Anglo-Norman language spoken by the Norman ruling class, it changed into Middle English roughly between 1150– 1500. Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th and the early 11th century, set in Denmark and Sweden. Commonly cited as one of the most important works of AngloSaxon literature, Beowulf has been the subject of much scholarly study, theory, speculation, discourse, and, at 3182 lines, has been noted for its length. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were initially created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple manuscript copies were made and distributed to monasteries across England and were independently updated. In one case, the chronicle was still being actively updated in 1154. From Alfred to the Norman Conquest (899-1066) On Alfred's death in 899 AD his son Edward the Elder, succeeded him. Alfred's son Edward and grandsons Æthelstan, Edmund I and Eadred continued the policy of resistance against the Vikings. By the 980s the kings of Wessex had a powerful grip on the coinage of the realm. The system controlling the currency around the country was extremely sophisticated, this enabled the king to raise large sums of money if needed The ability to raise large sums of money was needed after the battle of Maldon, as Æthelred decided rather than fight, he would pay ransom to the Danes in a system known as Danegeld In 1015 Cnut launched a new campaign against England. Edmund, fell out with his father Æthelred and struck out on his own. Some of the English leaders decided to support Cnut rather than Æthelred, so ultimately Æthelred, reconciled with Edmund retreated to London. Before there was an engagement with the Danish army, Æthelred died and was replaced by Edmund as king. The Danish army encircled and besieged London, however Edmund was able to escape and raise an army of loyalists. Edmund’s army routed the Danes, but the success was short-lived, as at the battle of Ashingdon, the Danes were victorious and a lot of the English leaders were killed. However Cnut and Edmund agreed to split the kingdom in two, with Edmund ruling Wessex and Cnut the rest. The following year (1017 AD) Edmund died in mysterious circumstances and the English council (witan) confirmed Cnut king of all England. ANGLO-SAXON CHRISTIANITY Christianity first arrived in the north-east of England during the Roman period. The religion was illegal until 312 AD, when the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian. The early Christian author Tertullian, in the third century, wrote that "Christianity could even be found in Britain." The Roman Emperor Constantine (306-337 AD), granted official tolerance to Christianity with the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. Then in the reign of Emperor Theodosius "the Great" (378-395 AD), Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire. In the north-east of England Christianity appears to have been most common on military sites. A tombstone on Hadrian’s Wall may have belonged to a Christian. Christianity came to the pagan Anglo-Saxons from two directions. The Celtic Church, pushed back into Wales, Cornwall, and particularly Ireland, made inroads in the north from an early base on Lindisfarne Island. The Irish Sea acted as a centre from which a new culture developed among the Celtic peoples, and Christianity acted centrally in this process. What emerged, religiously, was a form of Insular Christianity, with certain distinct traditions and practices. The religion spread to Ireland at this time, though the island had never been part of the Roman Empire, establishing a unique organization around monasteries. Celtic Christianity The highly successful 5th century mission to Ireland of Saint Patrick (the "Apostle to the Irish") very small enclosures where a group of Christians (often of both sexes, and including the married), committed to service in various roles lived together and ministered to the population of a tribal territory or "kingdom". A Christian Ireland set about evangelising the rest of the British Isles so Columba was sent to found the religious community in Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. Then Aidan was sent from Iona to set up his church in Northumbria at Lindisfarne between 635- 651 AD. Thus Northumbria was converted by the the Celtic (Irish) church. Roman Christianity Æthelberht of Kent's wife Bertha, daughter of Charibert, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, had brought a chaplain (Liudhard) with her. Bertha had restored a church from Roman times to the east of Canterbury and dedicated it to Saint Martin of Tours, the patronal saint for the Merovingian royal family. Æthelberht permitted the missionaries to settle and preach in his town of Canterbury. By the end of the year he himself had converted, and Augustine received consecration as a bishop at Arles. At Christmas 10,000 of the king's subjects underwent baptism. Oswald - King and Saint Oswald took the throne. He had grown up in exile in Scotland, an area that was more firmly Christian and had been converted by monks from Ireland. He defeated a Welsh army in a battle at Heaven Fields, where as a sign of his Christianity he put up a large wooden cross before the battle. Perhaps copying the island site of Iona, he created a monastery for this new bishop on the Island of Lindisfarne. It was also close to Oswald’s main palace at Bamburgh. Lindisfarne became the most important monastery in Northumberland, and many important monks and priests were connected to it. In the years after the foundation of the abbey at Lindisfarne, the kings of Northumberland and important nobles gave the church land and several other monasteries were established. Churches were also built at important royal sites. The Golden Age of Northumbria Lindisfarne was particularly known for its production of beautifully illustrated books. The best known of these are the Durham Gospels and the Lindisfarne Gospels. However, the Golden Age of Northumberland came to an end with the beginning of Viking raids from the late eighth century. Some of the most important monasteries vulnerable by attack by these seaborn raiders. The monastery of Lindisfarne was removed entirely to Norham to avoid Viking aggression. It eventually moved again and was re-sited at Chester-le-Street in the late ninth century. The transition of the Anglo-Saxons from paganism to Christianity took place gradually, over the course of the 7th century, influenced on one side by Celtic Christianity and the Irish mission, on the other by Roman Catholicism. The Anglo-Saxon nobility were nearly all converted within a century, but paganism among the rural population, as in other Germanic lands, did not so much die out as gradually blend into folklore. As elsewhere, Christianization in Britain involved the adoption of pagan folk culture into a Christian context, including the conversion of sacrificial sites and pagan feast days. The Celtic church was ascetic, fervent, based on monastic life, and more loosely organized. The Roman church was more conscious of structure, discipline, and moderation. They also celebrated Easter on different days. The church was a very important force in society; the only truly national entity tying together the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The early monasteries of Northumberland were vital centres of learning and the arts until they were scourged by the Viking raids of the 9th century. The best-preserved example of an Anglo-Saxon church can be seen at Escomb, where the church is little altered since it was built in the seventh or eighth century. The Venerable Bede. Anglo-Saxon England's most famous writer, the monk Bede, lived most of his life at the monastery of Jarrow, in Northumbria. Nearby, the monastery of Lindisfarne is famous for its glorious illustrated bible, an 8th century masterpiece of Celtic- inspired art, which is now in the British Library. Church education. Churches were almost the only forum for education. Under the auspices of Alfred the Great church schools were encouraged, and many Latin works were translated into English. Synod of Whitby (664) There was friction between the followers of the Roman rites and the Irish rites, particularly over the date when Easter fell and the way monks cut their hair. Due to the differences in calculating the date of Easter, this Christian feast was observed on different days by the two denominations. So in 664 AD a conference was held at Whitby Abbey (known as the Whitby Synod) The spokesman of the dominant faction was St. Wilfrid, who had been much impressed by the power and lavish life style of the Roman Church in comparison with the austerity and subservience to local rulers of the Celtic Church. Using subsidiary arguments about Easter and the tonsure, Wilfrid established the model of the Church as not ultimately answerable to the local king but to the Archbishop and to the Pope. Wilfrid's argument won the day and Coleman and his party returned to Ireland in their bitter disappointment. And so the Roman rites were adopted by the English church. Importance of the early medieval Church. Since the Church enjoyed an almost complete monopoly on literacy at this period, it undertook many more functions than we would expect today. The Church functioned as a civil service, drafting legal documents, the education and social services. The Exchequer was run by the Church. On occasion Bishops would even provide military and political leadership. Trial by ordeal was carried out by monks. The Church had a priest in every village, which also enabled them to function as a mass medium. The Church was a huge landowner in its own right.