great stage in the revival of learning, and the first movement towards
the establishment of public order in things temporal and spiritual.
Happily, the period stands out in a good historical light, and the chief
elements of its influence are finely exhibited in the persons of
representative men or representative groups.

There is Paulinus, the fugitive missionary from Kent, who made the first
rapid evangelisation of the northern country; King Edwin and his court
form a well-displayed group between the old darkness and the coming
light, as they consult and compare the two; Oswald, returning from exile
to be king, and bringing with him the Scotian type of Christianity;
Aidan, the first Scotian bishop of Lindisfarne, and the model of
pastors; Wilfrid, the champion of Roman unity, confronting Colman at the
synod of Whitby before Oswy, the presiding king, on the absorbing
question of the time; Wilfrid appealing to Rome against Theodore; and
yet again, Wilfrid, the first Anglo-Saxon missionary; Biscop Baducing
(Benedict Biscop), the founder of abbeys, the traveller, the introducer
of arts from abroad; Cædmon, the cowherd, the divinely-inspired singer
and the father of a school of English poetry; Cuthberht, the
shepherd-boy, abbot, bishop, hermit, and finally the national saint of
Northumbria; Willebrord and the two Hewalds, and all the glorious band
of missionaries and martyrs; Winfrid (Boniface), the crown of them all,
apostle of Germany, and martyr; Beda, the teacher and historian;
Ecgberct and Alberct, successively archbishops of York, acknowledged
presidents of Western learning; Alcuin, the bearer of Anglian learning
to the Franks, and the organiser of schools for the future ages.

After Aldhelm, the first Englishman who appeared as an author was Æddi,
better known as Eddius Stephanus. He was the friend and companion of
Wilfrid in his contentions and troubles, and, after his death, he wrote