CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD--RENEWED SCANDINAVIAN INVASIONS--LEGISLATION--ARCHBISHOP AELFHEAH: HIS MARTYRDOM--END OF THE DANISH WAR--CNUT AND THE CHURCH--THE KING'S CLERKS--SPIRITUAL DECADENCE--FOREIGNERS APPOINTED TO ENGLISH SEES--EFFECT OF THESE APPOINTMENTS--PARTY STRUGGLES--EARL HAROLD--PILGRIMAGES--A LEGATINE VISIT--A SCHISMATICAL ARCHBISHOP--THE PAPACY AND THE CONQUEST--SUMMARY: THE NATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [Sidenote: Characteristics of the period, 980-1066.] From the renewal of the Danish invasions to the conquest of England by the Normans the Church threw itself unreservedly into the affairs of the State, and almost lost all separate life. While churchmen directed the councils of the nation, the conciliar action of the Church ceased altogether. Bishops took a leading part in politics, and the ablest of the clergy were employed in secular administration. The Church did the nation good service during the period of invasion, and finally converted a savage conqueror into a beneficent king. Nevertheless it became worldly, and though it exercised vast power, its own life dwindled and sank with the life of the nation to a lower level. The close union between the Church and the nation strongly affected the history of both alike. The struggle against the foreigners who were promoted by Eadward the Confessor to offices both in Church and State has a strongly marked ecclesiastical side. Foreign bishops brought the Church into new relations with the papacy, and impaired its independence and national character. Still, its close connexion with the State was preserved, and the foreign element which had been imported into it was for a time forcibly crushed by the national party in the kingdom. In the hope of bringing the Church into subjection, Rome blessed the invasion of England, and Church and State alike were prostrated at the feet of the Conqueror. Yet the English Church survived the Conquest, and became a powerful agent in preserving the national life, which before long made the conquerors and the conquered one people. [Sidenote: Renewed Scandinavian invasions.]