Each kingdom was split up into dioceses each
with one bishop. Thereafter, bishops were selected by the king and
his witan, usually after consulting the clergy and even the people
of the diocese. The bishops came to be the most permanent element
of society. They had their sees in villages or rural monasteries.
The bishops came to have the same wergeld as an eorldorman:
1200s., which was the price of about 500 oxen. A priest had the
wergeld as a landholding farmer [thegn], or 300s. The bishops
spoke Latin, but the priests of the local parishes spoke English.
Theodore was the first archbishop whom all the English church
obeyed. He taught sacred and secular literature, the books of holy
writ, ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, and sacred
music. Theodore discouraged slavery by denying Christian burial to
the kidnapper and forbidding the sale of children over the age of
seven. A slave became entitled to two loaves a day and to his
holydays. A slave was allowed to buy his or his children's
freedom. In 673, Theodore started annual national ecclesiastical
assemblies, for instance for the witnessing of important actions.
The bishops, some abbots, the king, and the eorldormen were
usually present. From them the people learned the benefit of
common national action. There were two archbishops: one of
Canterbury in the south and one of York in the north. They
governed the bishops and could meet with them to issue canons that
would be equally valid all over the land. A bishop's house
contained some clerks, priests, monks, and nun and was a retreat
for the weary missionary and a school for the young. The bishop
had a deacon who acted as a secretary and companion in travel, and
sometimes as an interpreter. Ink was made from the outer husks of
walnuts steeped in vinegar.

The learned ecclesiastical life flourished in monastic
communities, in which both monks and nuns lived. Hilda, a noble's
daughter, became the first nun in Northumbria and abbess of one of
its monasteries. There she taught justice, piety, chastity, peace,
and charity. Several monks taught there later became bishops.
Kings and princes often asked her advice. Many abbesses came to
run monastic communities; they were from royal families. Women,
especially from royal families, fled to monasteries to obtain
shelter from unwanted marriage or to avoid their husbands. Kings
and eorldormen retired to them.

Danish Vikings made several invasions in the 800s for whi