who was sent to england to convert the pagan anglo-saxons
Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England In 595, when Pope Gregory I decided to send a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity,[1] the Kingdom of Kent was ruled by Æthelberht. He had married a Christian princess named Bertha before 588,[2] and perhaps earlier than 560.[3] Bertha was the daughter of Charibert I, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks. As one of the conditions of her marriage she had brought a bishop named Liudhard with her to Kent as her chaplain.[4] They restored a church in Canterbury that dated to Roman times,[5] possibly the present-day St Martin's Church. Æthelberht was at that time a pagan, but he allowed his wife freedom of worship.[4] Liudhard does not appear to have made many converts among the Anglo-Saxons,[6] and if not for the discovery of a gold coin bearing the inscription Leudardus Eps (Eps is an abbreviation of Episcopus, the Latin word for bishop) his existence may have been doubted.[7] One of Bertha's biographers states that, influenced by his wife, Æthelberht requested Pope Gregory to send missionaries.[4] The historian Ian Wood feels that the initiative came from the Kentish court as well as the queen.[8]
Anglo-Saxon Christianity The Benedictine reform was led by St. Dunstan over the latter half of the 10th century. It sought to revive church piety by replacing secular canons- often under the direct influence of local landowners, and often their relatives- with celibate monks, answerable to the ecclesiastical hierarchy and ultimately to the Pope. This deeply split England, bringing it to the point of civil war, with the East Anglian nobility (such as Athelstan Half-King, Byrhtnoth) supporting Dunstan and the Wessex aristocracy (Ordgar, Æthelmær the Stout) supporting the secularists. These factions mobilsed around King Eadwig (anti-Dunstan) and his brother King Edgar (pro). On the death of Edgar, his son Edward the Martyr was assassinated by the anti-Dunstan faction and their candidate, the young king Æthelred was placed on the throne. However this "most terrible deed since the English came from over the sea" provoked such a revulsion that the secularists climbed down, although Dunstan was effectively retired.