forced to flee. It is unknown
when or how York was finally captured, but in the seventh century it was
certainly in the hands of the English; though there still remained an
independent British kingdom of Elmete, only a few miles to the west of
the city. Close to York has been discovered a large burying-place of
heathen Angles, in which the ashes were deposited in urns; the date of
this is probably the beginning of the sixth century, and at that time
the invaders must have been settled in the country, and perhaps in the
city itself. The conquest marks a change in the position of York. Under
the Roman occupation it had been an important city for military
purposes, and for that reason it was the seat of an important bishopric.
After the second conversion of England it becomes important more and
more for ecclesiastical reasons, and when it plays a part in the history
of England it is because of the action of its bishops; from this time,
therefore, it becomes necessary to say less about the city itself and
more about the see.

After the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the North of England the country
between the Tweed and the Humber was divided into two kingdoms, Bernicia
to the north of the Tees, and Deira to the south. In the reign of
Ethelfrith these two kingdoms were united, under the name of
Northumbria. Edwin, his successor, was the most powerful king in
England, and every state except Kent acknowledged his supremacy.

In the troubles after the Roman evacuation, it is probable that York
lost some of its importance, which it regained under Edwin, and became
again the capital of England. It is at this period that the authentic
ecclesiastical history of the see, and indeed of England, really begins.
In 601 Gregory the Great, in a letter to Augustine, gave him authority
to appoint twelve bishops in England, and among them a bishop of York,
who, if his mission was prosperous, was to ordain further bishops in the
North of England, remaining himself the chief of them, and being
invested with the pall, the mark of a metropolitan bishop. Provision was
made that the first bishop of York should be subordinate to Augustine,
but that subsequently the question of seniority was to be decided by
priority of consecration. Thus early did the question of precedence
between York and Canterbury arise.

We may take it that the early Christian church had entirely died out in
Northumbria, and that prior to the mission sent by Gregory there had
be