Here we have a fair example of the artifice used by the clergy in
transforming old heathen charms into edifying ceremonies. Men are here
led to pray; to exercise themselves in some of the chief liturgical
formularies of the Catholic Church; to accept Christian versions of
their old incantations; to profess good will to their neighbours, high
and low; and to exercise some bounty towards the poor. Natural means are
not neglected; a change of seed is made a part of the ceremonial.

Such are some of the traces we can gather from the expiring relics of
heathenism. They all come from the Christian period, as was natural,
seeing that the national profession of heathenism ended before our
literature began, unless the annals mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter are exceptions. The facilities of writing must have been very
limited if the only alphabet in use was the Runic. It is, perhaps, a
little too rigid to assume that the use of the Roman alphabet is to be
dated strictly from the Conversion. As the use of Runes did not then
suddenly terminate, but gradually receded before the superior
instrument, so perhaps it is most reasonable to suppose that the
adoption of the Roman alphabet was very gradual, and that the Saxons may
have begun to use it, at least in Kent, before the reign of
Æthelberht.[56]


FOOTNOTES:

[39] T. Wright, "Celt, Roman, and Saxon," p. 389; J.R. Green, "Short
History," i., 2.

[40] "Ecclesiastical History," i., 22.