A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



faith with such earnestness at Winchester that in the following year the 

 king, with his son Cenwalh and many of the chiefs, was baptized. At 

 this function the duty of chief sponsor, who gave the newly baptized 

 Christian his hand as he left the water, was undertaken by Oswald, the 

 famous king of Northumbria, the devoted adherent of the Scottish 

 church. Thus was brought about at this historic baptism a most happy 

 blending of the Christian influences of Celtic and Italian origin, each of 

 which had their share in the enlightenment of Wessex. It may be 

 suggested, without in the least impugning the reality of Cynegils' accept- 

 ance of the truth, that state policy possibly showed the advantage of a 

 Christian alliance. The baptism was shortly followed by the marriage 

 of Oswald with the king's daughter. 



Winchester was not however made the first seat of the West 

 Saxon bishopric. Cynegils, in conjunction with his royal son-in-law, 

 decided that the bishop's stool should be placed at Dorchester-on-the- 

 Thames. It seems at first sight curious that the centre of the see 

 should be placed on the verge of the kingdom, but anticipations as to 

 the future development of their respective kingdoms, which were not 

 afterwards fulfilled, afford the probable solution of this decision of the 

 two friendly kings. Bede tells us how zealously Birinus laboured, build- 

 ing and dedicating churches, and winning much people to the faith. 

 He died in 650 and was buried at Dorchester. 



Although Winchester was not as yet the ecclesiastical capital of 

 the kingdom, Cenwalh built there a great church dedicated to Saints 

 Peter and Paul, the parent of the future cathedral church, and established 

 a monastery whence Christianity radiated into parts that could but rarely 

 be visited by Birinus. 



Into the diocesan divisions connected with the short episcopates of 

 Agilbert, Wini and Leutherius there is no occasion to enter ; suffice it 

 here to say that in 676 Bishop Haedde transferred the episcopal seat 

 from Dorchester to Winchester, and translated the body of Birinus to 

 the cathedral church of the city that had witnessed the royal baptisms 

 of 634. Haedde's great piety secured for him the honour of canoniza- 

 tion, and Bede records many miracles at his tomb. On his death in 705 

 the growing diocese was divided ; Hampshire with the Isle of Wight, 

 Surrey and Sussex forming the diocese of Winchester, whilst the more 

 recently converted parts further west were placed in the charge of a 

 bishop established at Sherborne. 



With regard to the Isle of Wight, it may be remarked that as it 

 lay opposite the division between the two kingdoms of Wessex and 

 Sussex there was much dispute as to its ownership, it being at one time 

 considered part of Wessex and at another of Sussex. Bishop Daniel 

 (7 5-44) was the first person to exercise episcopal authority in the 

 island. Bede's language implies that up to that period it had not 

 received Christianity. 1 From that date onwards it has always remained 

 a part of the diocese of Winchester. 



1 Bede (Engl. Hist. Soc.), iv. 16. 



