A HISTORY OF NORFOLK At the beginning of the seventh century, therefore, we learn that there was a division of opinion in East AngHa between those who had adhered to heathen practices, and those who professed the Christian faith. But when about the year 630 Sigbert became king of East AngUa a new order began, Sigbert in the days of Redwald, his stepfather, had been driven into exile and had taken refuge in Burgundy, where it seems he received his education and religious training at the hands of that brotherhood of scholars and enthusiasts whom Columban had gathered round him at Luxeuil.^ The impression left upon him had evidently been profound, and no sooner had he become established in his East Anglian kingdom than the desire of his heart was to establish the Christian faith among his people, and to ensure its dominance. It is to be noted that up to this time the mission of St, Augustine, which had started with so fair a promise in the baptism of Ethelbert at Canterbury in 597, had been followed by a period of great discouragement. During the quarter of a century following the death of Augustine in 604 the new Christianity imported from Rome had made hardly any way, things were at their worst when Sigbert entered upon his task of propagating the gospel among his East Anglian people. He had hardly returned to his kingdom when one of those many devoted men, aflame with the earnest desire of carrying the Christian religion into distant lands, of whom we hear so much in the seventh century, set out from Burgundy and made his way to Canter- bury, where Honorius, one of the few surviving associates of Augustine, was archbishop, and offered himself as a missionary bishop to go and labour whithersoever he might be sent, Honorius forthwith sent him to Sigbert, who cordially received him, and Felix became the first bishop of the East Anglian kingdom," About the same time, or very shortly afterwards, another band of mis- sionaries had started from Ireland under the leadership of a man of heroic zeal and intense earnestness, who had been moved by a longing to make his way to East Anglia, and join Felix, of whose mission presumably he had heard. This was Fursa, ' so called from a Scotic (Irish) word signifying virtues.' He was of the family of the kings of Munster and had spent some years in a monastery on Lough Corrib, where he had become distinguished for his ascetic practices and the conspicuous sanctity of his life. He appeared at the court of Sigbert with eleven companions,' three of them at least being of his own kin, and was cordially welcomed by Sigbert who at once bestowed upon him the Roman fortress of Cnobheresburg, now Burgh Castle, and here Fursa founded a monastery, doubtless upon the model of that in which he had lived on Lough Corrib. It was here, as tradition reports, that he saw the wonderful vision which in the after-time made so deep an impression upon Dante as to have helped in great measure to inspire the Divina Commedia. It was this vision which, according to Bede, an old monk of Wearmouth remembered in his youth hearing Fursa relate to listeners awe-struck by the speaker's solemnity of utterance. Of course no small mass of fable and legend gathered round the story of Fursa as time went on, but the historical fact ' Jonas, Vita S. Columbani, c. 17, Elseij (a pud Migne, Patrolog. Lat. 87). ' See Plummer's note on Bede, Eccl. Hisl. ii, c. 15. ' Bede (iii, 1 8) implies that this was not the only settlement founded bj- the Celtic mission. 214
