Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England
Furthermore, there is evidence for the Romano-Celtic religion remaining strong in the late 4th century despite Christianity increasingly being adopted during this time in western Roman provinces such as Gaul, where Martin of Tours led violent destructions of pagan holy sites.
[40][42] Such an act was forbidden by Church law but was likely widespread in Anglo-Saxon society at the time and has been proposed to have helped individuals involved by renewing links made by the former marriage, whilst also keeping property within the kinship group.
[55] Consistent with this, it has been put forward that Francia was critical in supporting the missionaries during this time and that Frankish influences in the court were a central reason why Eadbald agreed to convert, with marriage to Ymme being closely tied to his baptism.
[65] When Eadbald was baptised around 8 years later in 624, he was seemingly unable to exert sufficient control over the East Saxon kingdom to restore the position of the Church that was set up under his father's reign, showing the limitations in his authority and the extent to which Sexred and Sæward had broken away from Kentish influence.
Bede records that due to their success, Cedd was made bishop of the Kingdom of Essex and went on to recruit more priests and deacons to assist him in Christianising the region, along with having churches built, especially at Ythanceaster and Tilaburg.
[73][74] Seeking protection from the gods from the disease, Bede writes that both nobles and those of lower social status began restoring heathen temples that had been abandoned and resumed the use of cult images in religious practice.
[79] Upon the death of Wulfhere in 675, his successor Æthelred may have been unable to maintain control over the East Saxons as all records of his involvement in Essex derive from later in his reign and the Law of Hlothhere and Eadric written between 673 and 685 suggests strong Kentish influence on London.
Aidan was sent to replace him who established a monastery on Lindisfarne to act as a hub for the mission which later became the effective ecclesiastical centre of England for 30 years due to the political power of Northumbria and the quality of its monks.
[126] Penda's adherence to the traditional religion led to him being regarded as a distinct other to the Northumbrians, with Bede describing his acts as evil and recording that Bishop Aiden performed a miracle to stop the king burning down the royal seat at Bamburgh.
It has been noted though that the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are both shaped by the desires of the writer to trace an unbroken line back from the Kingdom of Wessex to the legendary founder Cerdic and Gewis and likely present an ahistorical simplification.
[161] They are the first recorded for the Kingdom of Wessex and enforce adherence to Christian practices, including making compulsory the paying of church scot and the baptising of one's children within 30 days, with fines to be imposed on those who don't comply.
[174] While physical evidence of Old Nordic religion being practised in England is not extensive, possibly resulting from the quick cultural assimilation of the settlers, it is attested by a small number of discovered burials with characteristic features such as furnishing with grave goods, cremations and the building of barrows.
[174][175][176] In the south and middle of the Danelaw in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, notable examples include those at Repton, attributed to the camp of the Great Heathen Army over the winter of 873 to 874, and the likely late-9th-century Heath Wood barrow cemetery, which contains around 59 mounds and has been noted to closely resemble practices in northern Jutland and Sweden.
[175][177] Thor's Hammer pendants have also been found, such as that from Grave 511 at St Wystan's Church in Repton, which also had a boar tusk placed between the thighs and the humerus of a jackdaw which was possibly in a bag at the time of burial.
Despite this, the disruption to the succession of bishops and the changing of diocesan organisation in the Danelaw suggest that the wars and occupations during the 9th and early 10th centuries have a strong negative impact on the Church, potentially limiting its ability to convert the settlers.
The Historia de Sancto Cuthberto records the inauguration around 883 of Guðrøðr, a Danish king in Northumbria, in which he swore oaths on Cuthbert's relics and partook in ring giving, a practice central in Germanic heathen kingship.
[174] The nominal adoption of Christianity in Danish Mercia seems to have taken place by 942, whereupon they are contrasted with the heathen Northmen, and by the second half of the 10th century, conversions of Scandinavians in England are widely attested in a range of sources.
[16][199] Such a continuation of Old Nordic religion in the 11th-12th centuries may be attested by the Saltfleetby spindle-whorl which bears a younger fuþark inscription interpreted as a charm calling for help from the gods Óðinn and Heimdallr.
This lack of access of local elites to the king's resources is suggested by Bede to be the reason that in the 8th century, young nobles were forced to leave Northumbria in order to acquire land.
Reluctance to adopt Christianity may also have been as it held a much stricter monopology on religious practice, with only priests being able to perform certain rituals, in contrast to Anglo-Saxon traditional religion which seemed not to have such a strict division in roles.
Bede writes that the wife of Rædwald convinced him to continue worshipping traditional gods whilst Pope Boniface V sent a letter to Æþelburh of Kent urging her to persuade her husband Edwin of Northumbria to convert.
They also record deficiencies in training restricting the influence of Christianity with Bede describing Bishop John of York as noting that one priest was performing baptisms wrongly due to a lack of knowledge.
In its section entitled "Of the Worship of Idols", the late 7th- or early 8th-century Penitential of Theodore assigns penance to those qui immolant demonibus ("who sacrifice to demons"), lasting between 1 and 10 years depending on the deemed severity of the offence.
[219][220] Many laws specify punishments for those caught following heathen customs such as the Norðhymbra preosta lagu, dating to after 1027, which describes how those guilty of carrying out acts such as blót and "idol worship" are to pay a fine to the Church and to the king.
[223] Wulfstan's the Peace of Edward and Guthrum similarly prescribes wergild or a fine proportional to the severity of the crime for those who honour heathenship, whilst the II Cnut law code states that apostates should be exiled or executed.
[225] These writings frequently list forbidden practices, possibly allowing inference of what may have been taking place, such as the veneration of the sun and moon, and the "nonsense" practised at elder trees, in friðsplottum ("sanctuaries") and at stones.
[254] Christian figures are not exclusively relied on, however, with the Canterbury charm from a manuscript dated to around 1073 invoking the god Þórr for healing an illness caused by a þyrs, similar to the Sigtuna and Kvinneby amulets from Sweden.
Similar motifs proposed to derive from tales of Óðinn include one of the Child Ballads in which the devil engages in a wisdom contest with a young girl, threatening to make her his lover if she cannot answer them.
In some cases, names of beings in ballads and folklore more widely derive from those from Anglo-Saxon and Nordic paganism such as Hind Etin (from Old English: eoten or Old Norse: jǫtunn), who abducts a woman and is not Christian, in line with some depictions of jǫtnar in North-Germanic sources.
The ability for English bishops and priests to perform missionary work in Scandinavia was also facilitated by the extensive political interactions between the regions that were occurring at the time, such as the formation of the North Sea Empire under Cnut.
