mselves to look cordially
on those {144} whose religious zeal was not always tempered with
justice or courtesy towards their predecessors in the field of their
missionary labours, still both foreigners and natives worked for the
same cause, each in their own way, and a new evangelization of the
freshly-heathenized population ensued[1]. [Sidenote: Amalgamation of
English and Roman successions.] By degrees the two lines of Bishops
became blended in one succession, which has continued unbroken until
the present day.

[Sidenote: English missionary zeal.]

The Church of England, thus strengthened and quickened, soon began to
give abundant proofs of its vitality by sending out missionaries to
convert the heathen in other lands. A large part of Germany and the
Netherlands owes its Christianity to English Bishops and Clergy, such
as Winfrith or Boniface, Willebrord, and a host of other less
well-known or altogether forgotten names. The eighth century was
especially distinguished by these missionary labours abroad, whilst, at
home, were to be found such good and learned men as the Venerable Bede
(A.D. 672 or '3-A.D. 735), an early translator of the Holy Scriptures,
and his friend Egbert (A.D. about 678-A.D. 776), Archbishop of York,
and founder of a famous school in that city, where the illustrious
Alcuin (about A.D. 723-A.D. 804) was a scholar.

[Sidenote: Invasion, and conversion of the Danes.]

In A.D. 787, the Church of England began to suffer severely from the
ravages of the heathen Danes or Northmen; but, by the wisdom and valour
of the good King Alfred (A.D. 871-A.D. 901), {145} they were for a
while subdued, and numbers of them settled as peaceable colonists in
England, where they gradually embraced Christianity.

[Sidenote: King Alfred.]

Alfred was very zealous in his endeavours to repair the spiritual and
intellectual losses which the Church of England had undergone during
the contest with the Danes, whose ravages had almost entirely swept
away all native scholarship. The king was especially eager to secure a
literature in the vernacular for his subjects, and himself translated
into "simple English" parts of the Holy Bible, and other religious
books. In these labours he was assisted by a small body of learned
men, including the two Aelfrics, Archbishops of Canterbury and York,
and Wulfstan, supposed to have been Bishop of Worcester. The
conversion of the Danes who had first settled in England to
Christia