ECCLESIASTICAL 

 HISTORY 



IN this sketch of the ecclesiastical history of the county of Suffolk, it 

 must be remembered that the general story of the successive bishops of 

 East Anglia, from the time when, under the Normans, the see was 

 transferred to Norwich, belongs far more to the ' Northfolk ' than the 

 ' Southfolk,' and will therefore be more properly considered in the volumes 

 that deal with Norfolk. 1 



The kingdom of East Anglia corresponded in its origin to the Norfolk 

 and Suffolk of later days, together with that part of Cambridgeshire which 

 lies to the east of the great Devil's Dyke at Newmarket, as well as parts of 

 the fen country up to Peterborough. 



Bede tells us that JEWz, king of the South Saxons, about 490, was the 

 first overlord of the East Angles, and that their next ruler was Ceawlin, king 

 of the West Saxons, about 500. To Ceawlin succeeded Ethelbert of Kent, 

 the first Christian overlord of East Anglia. When Ethelbert died, ' twenty- 

 one years after he had received the Faith,' the overlordship passed into the 

 hands of Redwald, who played such an important part in the history of 

 Northumbria, and who had ruled in East Anglia, subservient to Ethelbert, 

 during the latter's lifetime. Edwin of Northumbria took refuge at the court 

 of Redwald, which was probably then stationed at Rendlesham in Suffolk, 

 and it was when he was in exile in this county that Edwin, according to Bede's 

 interesting and detailed narrative, experienced a singular vision which was the 

 eventual means of bringing him to the Christian faith. Through Redwald's 

 assistance, Edwin, in 617, recovered his Northumbrian throne. When Edwin 

 became a Christian, at a later date, Redwald was dead, and had been succeeded 

 by his son Eorpwald, who had had in his youth a curious experience of semi- 

 Christianity. His father, during one of his visits to Kent, had been baptized ; 

 but on his return his wife raised strong objections to his change of belief, 

 with the result that, at the East Anglian court in Suffolk, Redwald had, from 

 that time till the day of his death, ' in one and the same temple an altar for 

 Christian sacrifice, and a little altar for the victims offered to demons.' Ald- 

 wulf, who became king of the East Angles in 663, personally assured Bede 

 that this temple of his great-uncle, with its Christian and Pagan altars side 

 by side, was standing in his days, and that he had seen it when a boy. 

 Through Edwin's influence, Eorpwald was led to abandon all share in 

 idolatrous superstitions, and his whole province is said to have embraced, at 



1 Many incidents ofecclesiastic.il history will also be found in the subsequent accounts of the religious 

 houses, particularly of St. Edmunds, and are not here repeated. 



2 I I 



