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Chad tirelessly evangelised Mercia, and Bede credits him with the conversion of the kingdom, despite the briefness of his episcopate—less than three years. The sons of Penda not only supported Christian missionaries but invested heavily in the Church. Wulfhere greatly endowed the family monastery at Medeshamstede.
Around 628, Eadwine of Deira was baptised and promoted the new religion in Northumbria, being the kingdom north of the Humber. The expansion of Christianity in Northern England was later aided by the Hiberno-Scottish mission, arriving from the Scottish island of Iona around 634. Mercia adopted Christianity after the death of heathen king Penda in
The religion was firmly established in the kingdom by the late 7th century. After 13 years at Repton, 669 AD, Saint Chad (the fifth bishop) moved the bishopric to Lichfield and, in 691 AD, the Diocese of Mercia became the Diocese of Lichfield .
In the seventh century the pagan Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity (Old English: Crīstendōm) mainly by missionaries sent from Rome.Irish missionaries from Iona, who were proponents of Celtic Christianity, were influential in the conversion of Northumbria, but after the Synod of Whitby in 664, the Anglo-Saxon church gave its allegiance to the Pope.
In the 7th century, the Kingdom of Mercia rose to prominence under the leadership of King Penda. [9] Mercia invaded neighbouring lands until it loosely controlled around 50 regiones covering much of England. [10] Mercia and the remaining kingdoms, led by their warrior elites, continued to compete for territory throughout the 8th century. [11]
Some of these Norman and French churchmen adopted and embraced aspects of the former Anglo-Saxon religious system, while others introduced practices from Normandy. [40] Extensive English lands were granted to monasteries in Normandy, allowing them to create daughter priories and monastic cells across the kingdom. [41]
Peada's conversion and acceptance of baptism in Northumbria possibly indicates a continuing sense of disunity or local particularism within Mercia. It is unlikely that Peada could have pursued so different a course from his father, at the strategic and political centre of the Mercian kingdom, without local support among the Middle Angles.
The kingdom of Mercia occupied what is now the English Midlands, [2] bordered by Northumbria to the north, East Anglia to the east, and Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons, to the south. Essex, the kingdom of the East Saxons, included London and lay between East Anglia and the kingdom of Kent. [3]