But you are British archæologists; if it pleases you to visit my native county of York, you will doubtless direct your steps to Goodmanham, or Godmundenham, as its ancient name betokened--the Protection of the Gods. There in that little East Riding village archæology verified the identity of the font in which Paulinus baptized the heathen priest Coifi, with a trough out of which for years farmers had fed their swine. What a commentary on the spread of Christianity, and the need of Christianity, so early as the seventh century in the northern parts of our island is the beautiful story told by the Venerable Bede.[73] “The present life of man,” said the aged counsellor Coifi to his sovereign, “O king, seems to me in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like the swift flight of the sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within is safe from the wintry storm, but after a short space of fair weather he immediately vanishes out of your sight into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before or what is to follow we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, the new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.” In contempt of his former superstition, the king and his counsellors assenting, we are told, the arch-priest mounted the royal war-horse, armed himself with a spear, things otherwise unlawful, and profaned the temple by casting at the idol his spear; and then both king and counsellor were baptized and professed the faith of Christ.[74] Authorities have been divided as to the diffusion of Christianity in Britain, and as to the independence of the ancient British Church. Archæology, on the other hand, by its identification of sacred sites by the nomenclature of native saints, by the designation of parishes and churches, has done much to settle these questions. The science of archæology has discovered Christian symbols, traced British bishops to far-distant Councils;[75] as at Carleon, and Bangor, and elsewhere, it has unfolded the records of a community acting under its own prelates and arch-prelates, enjoying its own native customs, adhering to its own independent rites.