were soon performed at the shrine of the innocent and murdered martyr of freedom. Exasperated probably by this, as well as by the refuge which their opponents found in and about Croyland, the Normans inflicted many calamities on it, and at length deposed the abbot Ulfketil. He was succeeded by an Englishman with the Scandinavian name of "Ingulf," to whom we are indebted for having indited the ancient chronicles of the convent.

The close connection of Croyland with the Danes, as well as its Danish monks and abbots, was a natural consequence of the convent's being situated in Lincolnshire, a part of England which was pretty nearly the earliest and most numerously occupied by them. Satisfactory reasons certainly exist even to justify us in calling this convent peculiarly a Danish one. In consequence of its size and importance, it is highly probable that it was one of the principal places whence the Danish settlers in England derived their civilization. In this manner Croyland answers in England to the convent of Bec in Normandy (from the Danish Bæk, a small rivulet), founded by the Northmen, and afterwards very celebrated; which also seems to have been one of the most important nurseries for the diffusion of a higher Christian and intellectual cultivation among the Scandinavian colonists in Normandy.

The very remarkable evidence which the history of Croyland affords of the Christianity of the Danes in England so early as the ninth century, is, however, by no means solitary. Before the treaty concluded between Gorm (Gudrum) and Alfred in the year 879, the former had already been converted, and received at his baptism the name of Athelstane. In a somewhat later treaty conIcluded by the same King Gorm with Alfred's successor Edward, it is assumed that there must long have been Christians among the Danes settled in East Anglia, and that they had at all events allowed the ecclesiastical institutions to exist unmolested among them. In the year

890 there was in Northumberland a king called Guthred (Gutfred, Godfred ?), a son of the Danish king Hardicanute, of whom it is stated that he extended the bishopric of Durham, and conferred on it considerable rights and privileges, which even at the present day distinguish that see above all others in England. The coins of DanishNorwegian kings minted in the north of England in the ninth and first half of the tenth century (as mentioned at p. 49), also indicate an early conversion to Christianity; as they show both the cross, and frequently also parts of the Christian legend: "Dominus, dominus, omnipotens rex mirabilia fecit;" or, "The Lord, the Lord, the Almighty King, hath performed wonderful things."

About the year 940, Christianity must, on the whole, have had a firm footing among the Northumbrian Danes. It would otherwise be inexplicable how, in the wars which Edmund waged at that time with the Danish king Anlaf, or Olaf, in Northumberland, even the Archbishop of York, 'Wulfstan," should have sided with the Danes against the Anglo-Saxons. Wulfstan subsequently, in the year 943, negotiated a peace between Olaf and Edmund, whereby the latter ceded the country east of Watlinga-Stræt to Olaf. In this treaty a great man, of Danish extraction, took part on the Anglo-Saxon side; namely, Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose father was a Dane who had fought in the host of the Vikings against Alfred the Great. One might almost be led to believe that Wulfstan himself was of Danish origin, and that his name was only the AngloSaxon form of the Scandinavian "Ulfsteen." For under King Edmund's successor, Edred, we again find the Archbishop, together with his clergy, paying homage to the Danish king's son, Erik (son of Harald Blaatand?), although he had shortly before, in common with the Northumbrians, taken an oath of fidelity to the Anglo-Saxon king. After the murder of Erik, King Edred caused the Archbishop to be deposed and thrown into prison; but after

wards gave him the bishopric of Dorchester, though far removed from the Danish possessions.

Another argument in favour of the Danish extraction of Bishop Wulfstan (or Ulfsteen) is, that several of his successors in the archbishopric were undoubtedly Danish; which shows that in those days such men were chiefly elevated to that dignity, as, through their common descent and kinsmanship, possessed an influence over the Danish population in Northumberland; where, also, there was doubtless a great body of Danish clergy. Contemporary with Abbot Thorketil, a certain " Oscetel," or Osketil, is also named as churchwarden (circeværd) in the King's letters-patent in the year 949; probably the same Osketil who, between the years 955 and 970, constantly signed the King's letters as Archbishop of York. As Odo, the Danish Archbishop of Canterbury, lived long after Osketil had become Archbishop of York, we are thus presented, half a century before the reign of Canute the Great, with the singular spectacle of the two chief ecclesiastics of England, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, being both of Danish extraction. Oscytel's successor in the archiepiscopal see of York was also a Danish man, although he bore the Anglo-Saxon name of Oswald. He was both nearly related to Oscytel (his "nepos"), and, moreover, a brother's son of Archbishop Odo; consequently descended in a direct line from the Danish Viking, Odo's father. This Archbishop Oswald published some laws for the Northumbrian clergy which are still extant, and in which, according to Danish custom, fines are computed in marks and öre; whilst in the rest of England they were reckoned in pounds and shillings.

As these facts lead us to suppose that, at that time, a great part of the inferior clergy in England must have been of Danish extraction, and particularly in Danish North and East England; it thus becomes still clearer that the English priests or missionaries, with Scandi

navian names-as, for instance, Eskild, Grimkild, and Sigurd who went over to Scandinavia in the tenth cen tury for the purpose of converting the heathens, were, as their names show, of Danish origin, and undoubtedly natives of the Danish part of England. Sprung from Scandinavian families, which, though settled in a foreign land, could scarcely have so soon forgotten their mother tongue, or the customs which they had inherited, they could enter with greater safety than other priests on their dangerous proselytizing travels in the heathen North; where, also, from their familiarity with the Scandinavian language, they were manifestly best suited successfully to prepare the entrance of Christianity.

The rapid accession of the Danes to the highest ecclesiastical offices in England must satisfactorily convince every impartial person how carefully we should discrimi nate between the Danish or Scandinavian Vikings, who, only for a certain period, robbed and plundered, and the Danish colonists, who, from the beginning of the ninth century were settled down-particularly in the east and north of England-as peaceful Christian citizens; and whose sons soon became sufficiently accomplished and respected to fill the highest places among the already powerful ecclesiastical aristocracy of England. Nor should it be forgotten, that the Danes in England, who, though fewer in number than the natives, yet aimed at the supreme authority, were early obliged to apply themselves to study, and to permit their sons to enter the clerical order; for, the greater the influence they could acquire among the clergy, who at that time held a very large share of power, the stronger and more secure would their position become in the land of their adoption.

After having had, at least, three archbishops of Danish family during the tenth century, it is not surprising that in the following one the English clergy had lost a great deal of their horror for the Danes, and were so willing to do homage to the Danish conqueror, Canute the Great, in

preference to any prince of Anglo-Saxon descent. Nor did Canute betray their confidence. He conformed to their manners, and built churches and convents, whilst his followers imitated his example. Under such a state of things the English clergy must have become still more mixed with Danes. In Canute's time the royal letters are signed by the abbots "Oscytel" (1020-1023) and "Siuuard" (in Abingdon, Berkshire); as also by "Grimkytel," bishop in Essex; and under Hardicanute, by "Sivard" and "Grimkytel" as well as by the diaconus Thurkil. Even long after the fall of the Danish power, as, for instance, in Edward the Confessor's time, we still meet with many high dignitaries of the church, with Scandinavian names; such as the abbots Sivard, Sihtric, Uvi or Ove, abbot of St. Edmundsbury, in East Anglia, and Brand; who was also abbot of a convent on the east coast, namely Peterborough, close to Croyland. We further have Sitric, chaplain to the Bishop of Dorchester, and lastly the Kentish bishop, Siward. William the Conqueror's Doomsday Book likewise mentions several such Danish clergymen; for instance, in the old Danish city of Lincoln, the priests "Siuuard" and Aldene or Haldan. In St. Edmundsbury there was still later (1157) a Danish abbot named Hugo.

The secular nobility, or chiefs, were closely connected with the high church dignitaries of that time. The royal letters before mentioned also show, that whilst the Danes succeeded in placing men of their own race amongst the highest clergy in England, they likewise procured admittance into the ranks of the nobility, and even into the suite that surrounded the Anglo-Saxon kings themselves. This happened not only from the Danish chiefs frequently entering the service of the Anglo-Saxon kings, and often marrying among the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy; but still more from the circumstance, that certain districts became in time so strongly occupied by the Danes, as to fall under Danish chieftains; and consequently the Anglo-Saxon