ABSTRACT
The acceptance of Christianity by Wulfhere, king of Mercia, had removed one of the remaining obstacles to the expansion of the Church’s activity and the adoption of Roman practices by the Northumbrian king ended the danger of religious disunity. But during the sixty years after the synod of Whitby the eclipse of Northumbrian supremacy and the inability of any of the southern kingdoms to assume a comparable hegemony generated a political instability and its attendant constant warfare which made the work of ecclesiastical leaders far harder than in the days when they could depend on the powerful support of kings whose influence was fel tover all England. That despite an unfavourable political climate this period could in retrospect be regarded as a golden age for the Church is tribute to the supreme talent of a papally appointed archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus.
