_Heathenism the religion of the first inhabitants of this town after its revival_, _or restoration_, _under the East-Anglian government—they_, _and the rest of the East Angles_, _together with the other branches of the Heptarchy_, _become professors of Christianity—account of their conversion_. The inhabitants of Lynn, after it had been rebuilt and repeopled by its Anglian masters, appear to have been blind heathens, and gross idolaters; for when the Angles, or Anglo-Saxons seized upon this country, and founded the East-Anglian kingdom, they were a nation of pagans, worshippers of _Thor_ and _Woden_, and the rest of the miserable objects of northern, or Scandinavian adoration; and so continued till the seventh century. At that period, one of their princes, named _Sigebert_, having lived sometime in exile among the Francs, was there converted to Christianity. At his restoration to his kingdom, he brought over with him one _Felix_, a Burgundian priest, who was employed in recommending to the people the religion of their sovereign, in which he appears not to have been unsuccessful. He was consequently appointed the first bishop of the East Angles, and had his see fixed at _Soham_, {242} in Cambridgeshire, and afterwards at _Domnoc_, or _Dunwich_, in Suffolk. He is said to have taken no small pains in promoting the conversion of the inhabitants; and the parts about Lynn seem to have engaged a considerable share of his attention. In these very parts he is reported to have commenced his labours, which issued in the conversion of the whole country. Tradition gives to _Babingley_, by Lynn, the honour of being the place where he first landed, and where was erected the very first christian chapel, or place of worship among the East Angles. The second edifice of the same description is said to have been erected at _Sharnborn_, in the same neighbourhood. At what time the first place of that sort was built at Lynn, cannot now be determined; but it seems very probable that it must have been as early, at least, as the middle part of the seventh century. It cannot, however be said, that the Christianity then introduced was of any great value. The national character was not much, if at all, mended by it; and the people still remained grossly ignorant, profligate, and savage. What they wanted in rational piety and real Christianity, they made up in stupid credulity, blind zeal, and miserable superstition; and it had been well if their descendants had always carefully avoided the imitation of their wretched and pernicious example.