His death did not interrupt the labours of the missionaries. Their meekness and the recollection of Oswald endeared them to all. As soon as the villagers caught sight of one on the high-road, they would throng round him, begging him to teach them the _Word of life_.[68] The faith which the terrible Edelfrid thought he had washed away in the blood of the worshippers of God, was re-appearing in every direction; and Rome, which once already in the days of Honorius had been forced to leave Britain, might be perhaps a second time compelled to flee to its ships from before the face of a people who asserted their liberty. [68] Mox congregati in unum vicani, _verbum vitæ_ ab illo expetere curabant. (Beda, lib. iii, cap. xxvi.) Presently the villagers flocked together earnestly desiring to hear from him the word of life. CHAPTER III. Character of Oswy--Death of Aidan--Wilfrid at Rome--At Oswald's Court--Finan and Colman--Independence of the Church attacked--Oswy's Conquests and Troubles--_Synodus Pharensis_--Cedda--Degeneration--The Disputation--Peter, the Gatekeeper--Triumph of Rome--Grief of the Britons--Popedom organized in England--Papal Exultation--Archbishop Theodore--Cedda re-ordained--Discord in the Church--Disgrace and Treachery of Wilfrid--His end--Scotland attacked--Adamnan--Iona resists--A King converted by Architects--The Monk Egbert at Iona--His History--Monkish Visions--Fall of Iona. [Sidenote: CHARACTER OF OSWY.] Then up rose the papacy. If victory remained with the Britons, their church, becoming entirely free, might even in these early times head a strong opposition against the papal monarchy. If, on the contrary, the last champions of liberty are defeated, centuries of slavery awaited the Christian church. We shall have to witness the struggle that took place erelong in the very palace of the Northumbrian kings.