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Catechism of the history of the early Church in England and Wales
Catechism of the history of the early Church in England and Wales Author:Robert Sewell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. H. A.d. 596—A.d. 669. Augustine, Who West Pbeiched Chbistiantty To The Anglo-saxons, To Theodore, The First Abcu- Bishop Acknowledged By All The Angl... more »o-saxon Kingdoms. Chap. fl.— Sect. I.— Sixth Century concluded. Q. How was the country divided, which was under the government of the Anglo-Saxons ? A. Into seven kingdoms, generally called the Heptarchy. One of these seems commonly to have attained a superiority over the rest, which gave its king, for the time, the title of Bretwalda, or Wielder of the Britons. Q. Tell me the names of these kingdoms, with that of the tribes who inhabited them ? ( Vide Map.) A. 1. Kent. Inhabited by the Jutes. 2. Essex. I 3. Sussex. Inhabited by the Saxons. 4. Wessex. J 5. East Anglia. 6. Mercia. I" Consisting by the Angles. 7. Northumbria 4 of Bernicia | and Deira. Each of these kingdoms was governed by its own laws, but there was a general assembly or parliament for the whole, called the Witenagemot. Q. When and by whom was the first attempt made for the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons ? These two provinces of Northumbria were sometimes united under one king and sometimes they formed two separate kingdoms. This division has induced some historians to adopt the name of Octarchy, instead of that of Heptarchy, but as the latter is more generally used it has been thought best to employ it here. A. Towards the close of the sixth century, Pope Gregory," the Great, sent over to England Austin or Augustine, (prior of a monastery at Rome,) with forty of his monks, to endeavour to convert the Anglo- Saxons. Q. Who was Pope Gregory ? A. He was the Bishop of the Church in Rome. Q. What is said to have first excited in his mind an interest for the Anglo-Saxons? A. He was passing one day thr...« less