[_Bibliographical Note._--The conversion of heathen England is described in the _Ecclesiastical History_ of Bede (C. Plummer, _Baedae Opera Historica_, 1896). Stress is laid on the imperfect character of the process by L. Knappert, _Le Christianisme et le Paganisme dans l’Histoire ecclésiastique de Bède le Vénérable_ (in _Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, 1897, vol. xxxv). A similar study for Gaul is E. Vacandard, _L’Idolatrie dans la Gaule_ (in _Revue des Questions historiques_, 1899, vol. lxv). Witness is borne to the continued presence of pre-Christian elements in the folk-civilization of western Europe both by the general results of folk-lore research and by the ecclesiastical documents of the early Middle Ages. Of these the most important in this respect are--(1) the _Decrees_ of Councils, collected generally in P. Labbe and G. Cossart, _Sacrosancta Concilia_ (1671-2), and J. D. Mansi, _Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima Collectio_ (1759-98), and for England in particular in D. Wilkins, _Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae_ (1737) and A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, _Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland_ (1869-78). An interesting series of extracts is given by G. Gröber, _Zur Volkskunde aus Concilbeschlüssen und Capitularien_ (1894):--(2) the _Penitentials_, or catalogues of sins and their penalties drawn up for the guidance of confessors. The most important English example is the _Penitential of Theodore_ (668-90), on which the _Penitentials of Bede_ and _of Egbert_ are based. Authentic texts are given by Haddan and Stubbs, vol. iii, and, with others of continental origin, in F. W. H. Wasserschleben, _Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche_ (1851), and H. J. Schmitz, _Die Bussbücher und die Bussdisciplin der Kirche_ (1883). The most interesting for its heathen survivals is the eleventh-century _Collectio Decretorum_ of Burchardus of Worms (Migne, _P. L._ cxl, extracts in J. Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, iv. 1740):--(3) _Homilies_ or _Sermons_, such as the _Sermo_ ascribed to the seventh-century St. Eligius (_P. L._ lxxxvii. 524, transl. Grimm, iv. 1737), and the eighth-century Frankish pseudo-Augustinian _Homilia de Sacrilegiis_ (ed. C. P. Caspari, 1886):--(4) the _Vitae_ of the apostles of the West, St. Boniface, St. Columban, St. Gall, and others. A critical edition of these is looked for from M. Knappert. The _Epistolae_ of Boniface are in _P. L._ lxxxix. 593:--(5) _Miscellaneous Documents_, including the sixth-century _De correctione Rusticorum_ of Bishop Martin of Braga in Spain (ed. C. P. Caspari, 1883) and the so-called _Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganiarum_ (ed. H. A. Saupe, 1891), a list of heathen customs probably drawn up in eighth-century Saxony.--The view