foundations were quickly established:--1. The Minster of St. Saviour,
afterwards called Christ Church, and now Canterbury Cathedral; 2. The
Abbey of SS. Peter and Paul, outside the walls of Canterbury on the
east, which was afterwards called St. Augustine's. Of the foundation of
schools nothing is heard at this time; but a generation later,
A.D. 631, we find the Kentish schools taken as a model for
schools to be founded in East Anglia by Felix.[9] It is an interesting
question whether these were the missionary schools, or whether they were
schools which kept up the traditions of Roman education in a degenerate
form like the schools in Gaul. On the ground that our oldest document is
a Code of the first converted king, it has been too easily inferred,
that before this time the Saxons were wholly destitute of literary
appliances. Were the fact more certain, than it is, the conclusion would
be weak. There are in the Chronicles certain archaic annals which have
been thought to be a possible product of the heathen period.

The second home of culture was in Northumbria. A wonderful combination
of influences met on this favoured soil. In the extreme province of the
empire, there had been a concentration of military force, to keep the
Picts in check; the centre of Roman government on the island had been at
York, and here, if anywhere, something of the civilisation of Rome would
naturally remain.

Another important influence was the Irish, or, as it was then called,
the Scotian. It is true that the first evangelist in order of time was
Paulinus, who came from Kent, and represented the Roman mission. But the
savour of the Gospel was first received through the teaching of the
Irish missionaries, of whom the foremost name is Aidan. Never did any
people embrace Christianity with such entire heart as the Irish; and
much of their lofty devotion was communicated to the Angles whom they