ever, known how these few men found their way to the South
Saxon shores, and their presence there had no influence upon the minds
of those invaders who had possessed themselves of the adjacent lands.
A quarrel in the Northumbrian kingdom was the cause which sent a
missionary to Sussex in 680 A.D.

Ecgfrith and his witan had banished #Wilfrith#, Archbishop of York,
from his see. The unfortunate exile wandered some time in search of
welcome. Eventually he found his way to Sussex, where Aethelwealh and
his Christian wife offered him a new field for his energies. Twenty
years earlier he had been in the same kingdom. On that occasion,
having been consecrated by the Bishop of Paris, he was returning from
Gaul when the vessel in which he travelled was driven upon the coast
and stranded. While in this helpless condition they were discovered
and attacked by the South Saxons, who were three times beaten off, but
whilst they were continuing their preparations for another assault,
the vessel rose with the tide and escaped. Under other circumstances
he was now among these people again. The famine which prevailed at the
time of his arrival gave him the necessary opportunity to gain their
affections by first satisfying their material needs. He showed the
starving folk how to catch fish with nets which he and his companions
had made, and then was able to teach them other things. He preached
with success for some time, and baptized many who heard him. Bede has
left a record characteristic of his day, in which he relates that
immediately they had accepted the faith which he taught, "the rain, so
long withheld, revisited the thirsty land."

Aethelwealh, grateful for Wilfrith's aid, granted him lands at Selsea.
The bishop at once gave freedom to those families and their slaves who
occupied the district, and baptized them, giving them release, as Bede
has told, from spiritual and temporal bond's at the same time. Selsea
thus became another see from which Christian principle and practice
might be taught in the midst of the surrounding tribes. In this spot,
near the residence of the king, a church was built, in which the
bishop's cathedra was placed. The structure was dedicated to S. Peter,
and was the first cathedral church in Sussex. It is not now known what
the architectural character of this building was. Perhaps there was
some attempt in its design to take advantage of such suggestions as
the Romans left behind them at Regnum, for we fi