[7] 27th of the Council of London, 1102 A.D.
[8] Coifi asked, Quis aras et fana idolorum cum septis quibus erant circumdata primus profanare debet ... pergebat ad idola ... mox appropinquabat ad fanum.... In King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon version of Bede, aras is represented by wigbed, fana by heargas, idolorum by deofolgild, a septis in one place by hegum (hedges), and in the other by getymbro. Getymbro may mean a construction of any material, but probably here of timber (“Eccl. Hist.,” ii. c. 13).
[9] There is another notice of the existence of temples among the East Saxons, in the narrative of Bishop Jaruman’s work of reclaiming the half of those people under the rule of the sub-king Sighere, when they had relapsed to their old superstitions as the result of the great plague of 664 A.D. Bede says that the people “began to restore the temples that had been abandoned, and to adore idols”; but Jaruman “restored them to the way of righteousness; so that, either forsaking or destroying the temples and altars which they had erected, they reopened the churches.” At first sight, the narrative gives the idea of a number of temples, and a number of churches scattered over the country; but, on consideration, we call to mind that the East Saxons had been converted by Cedd only ten or twelve years before (653), and that we do not read of his building more than two churches, one at Tilbury on the Thames, the other at Bradwell, at the mouth of the Blackwater, which was probably outside the district in question; and the temples spoken of may not have been more numerous than the churches mentioned in the same vague terms; or Bede may have had in mind the open-air places of worship of the old religion and the prayer stations at which the Christian missionaries used to assemble their converts (“Eccl. Hist.,” iii. c. 30).
[10] Professor Skeat, in letters to the present writer.
[11] Anglo-Saxon nom. hearh; dat. hearge; pl. nom. heargas. Many English words are formed on “dative” types.
[12] In Icelandic, hörgr = “a heathen place of worship, an altar of stone erected on a high place, or a sacrificial cairn built in the open air, and without images.”
[13] Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 500.
[14] Saint Lewinna is said to have suffered martyrdom for her faith at the hands of the heathen South Saxon, during the time of Archbishop Theodore. “Acta Sanct.,” July 24, p. 608, and “Sussex Archeol. Coll.,” vol. i. p. 45.
[15] Some stories of the introduction of Christianity among others of the rude northern peoples are well worth giving as an illustration, in likenesses, and in contrasts, of our own story, and especially because they give a quantity of details which will supply the paucity of such details in our own histories. They are later in time, but they belong to a similar phase of manners.
When Harold Klak, King of Jutland, who had received baptism on a visit to the Court of Louis le Debonaire (A.D. 820), returned home and destroyed the native shrines, proscribed the sacrifices, and abolished the priesthood, his people resented it, and drove him into exile.