the dying Christianity which had been planted there in the time of the Roman occupation. =8. Conversion of the English.=--The English of Northumberland were still heathens, and, as they were ever fighting with and growing greater at the expense of their neighbours, their state bade fair to become the most powerful in Britain. In the beginning of the seventh century their king _Eadwine_ was supreme over all Britain south of the Forth. But though _Eadwine_ was converted by the preaching of _Paullinus_, the first Bishop of York, the new doctrine does not seem to have spread much among his people; for one of his successors, _Oswald_, who in his youth had been an exile at the court of his kinsman the Pictish king, prayed the monks of Iona to send him one of their number to help to make his people Christian. _Conan_, the first missionary who went, was so much disgusted with the manners of the English that he very soon came back to his brethren. Then _Aidan_, another of their number, devoted his life to the task which Conan had found so distasteful. He taught and toiled among them with a zeal that was seconded by Oswald, the king, who himself acted as interpreter, making the sermons of the monk intelligible to his English hearers. From _Lindisfarne_, where the little church of Aidan was founded, like that of Iona, on an islet, Christianity spread to the neighbouring state of _Mercia_, and many monasteries and schools were founded after the Columban model. =9. English Conquests.=--Oswald and his successor _Oswiu_ extended their dominions beyond the Firths, and it is said that they made the Scots and Picts pay tribute to them. The next king, _Ecgfrith_, marched north and crossed the _Tay_ with a mighty host, but he was routed and slain in a great battle at a place called _Nectansmere_, the exact position of which is uncertain. From that time the English seem to have kept more to the country south of the Forth, and the Picts were more independent of them. This is about the only event of moment that we know of in the history of that people, of whom no records remain, except a long list of their kings down to 843, at which date they became united with the Scots under one king.