eligion, by the
protection of so respected a prince, who held under his dominion or
influence all the countries to the southward of the Humber, spread
itself with great rapidity. Paganism, after a faint resistance,
everywhere gave way. And, indeed, the chief difficulties which
Christianity had to encounter did not arise so much from the struggles
of opposite religious prejudices as from the gross and licentious
manners of a barbarous people. One of the Saxon princes expelled the
Christians from his territory because the priest refused to give him
some of that white bread which he saw distributed to his congregation.

It is probable that the order of Druids either did not at all subsist
amongst the Anglo-Saxons, or that at this time it had declined not a
little from its ancient authority and reputation; else it is not easy to
conceive how they admitted so readily a new system, which at one stroke
cut off from their character its whole importance. We even find some
chiefs of the Pagan priesthood amongst the foremost in submitting to the
new doctrine. On the first preaching of the Gospel in Northumberland,
the heathen pontiff of that territory immediately mounted a horse, which
to those of his order was unlawful, and, breaking into the sacred
inclosure, hewed to pieces the idol he had so long served.[29]

If the order of the Druids did not subsist amongst the Saxons, yet the
chief objects of their religion appear to have been derived from that
fountain. They, indeed, worshipped several idols under various forms of
men and beasts; and those gods to whom they dedicated the days of the
week bore in their attributes, and in the particular days that were
consecrated to them, though not in their names, a near resemblance to
the divinities of ancient Rome. But still the great and capital objects
of their worship were taken from Druidism,--trees, stones, the elements,
and the heavenly bodies.[30] These were their principal devotions, laid
the strongest hold upon their minds, and resisted the progress of the
Christian religion with the greatest obstinacy: for we find these
superstitions forbidden amongst the latest Saxon laws. A worship which
stands in need of the memorial of images or books to support it may
perish when these are destroyed; but when a superstition is established
upon those great objects of Nature which continually solicit the senses,
it is extremely difficult to turn the mind from things that in
themselves are st