ruler of Kent was not without its effect on others.

44. Conversion of the North.

The north of England, however, owed its conversion chiefly to the
Irish monks of an earlier age. They had planted monasteries in
Ireland and Scotland from which colonies went forth, one of which
settled in Durham. Cuthbert, a Saxon monk of that monastery in the
seventh century, traveled as a missionary throughout Northumbria, and
was afterward recognized as the saint of the North. Through his
influence that kingdom was induced to accept Christianity. Other
missionaries went to other districts to carry the "good tidings of
great joy."

In one case an aged chief arose in an assembly of warriors and said:
"O king, as a bird flies through this hall in the winter night, coming
out of the darkness and vanishing into it again, even such is our
life. If these strangers can tell us aught of what is beyond, let us
give heed to them."

But, as Bede informs us in his history of the English CHurch (S99),
some of the converts were too cautious to commit themselves entirely
to the new religion. One king, who had set up a large altar devoted
to the worship of Christ, set up a smaller one at the other end of the
hall to the old heathen deities, in order that he might make sure of
the favor of both.

45. Christianity organized; Labors of the Monks.

Gradually, however, the pagan faith was dropped. Christianity was
largely organized by bands of monks and nuns, who had renounced the
world in order to lead lives of self-sacrifice and service. They
bound themselves by the three vows of obedience, poverty, and
chastity, and the monastic law forbade them to marry. Monasteries
existed or were now established in a number of places in England.[1]

[1] For instance, at Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, off the coast of
Northumberland (see Scott's "Marmion," Canto II, 9-10), at Wearmouth
and Jarrow in Durham, at Whitby on the coast of Yorkshire, and at
Peterborough in Northamptonshire. (See map facing p. 38.)

The monasteries were educational as well as industrial centers. The
monks spent part of each day in manual toil, for they held that "to
labor is to pray." They cleared the land, drained he bogs, plowed,
sowed, and reaped. Another part of the day they spent in religious
exercises, and a third in writing, translating, and teaching.

Each monastery had a school attached to it, and each had, besides, its
library of manuscript books and its room f