Editing Kingdom of Sussex (section)

===Religion===
{{See also|Anglo-Saxon paganism|History of Christianity in Sussex#Saxon|Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon Christianity}}
After the departure of the Roman army, the Saxons arrived in Sussex in the 5th century and brought with them their polytheistic religion.<ref>Jones. The end of Roman Britain. pp. 164–168</ref><ref name="Armstrong 1971 38–40">{{harvnb|Armstrong|1971| pp=38–40}}</ref> The Saxon pagan culture probably caused a reversal of the spread of Christianity.<ref name="higham79">Higham The English Conquest. p. 79.</ref> Wilfrid's biographer records that in the year 666 Wilfrid's ship ran aground on the Sussex coast near Selsey where it was attacked and a pagan priest sought to cast magic spells from a high mound.<ref name="Brandon 1978 37">{{harvnb|Brandon|1978| p=37}}</ref> Bede also refers to a mass suicide committed by groups of 40 or 50 men who jumped from cliffs during a time of [[famine]]. It is probable that these suicides represented sacrifices to appease the god [[Woden]].<ref name="Brandon 1978 37"/>

[[Aethelwalh of Sussex|Æðelwealh]] became Sussex's first Christian king when he married Eafe, the daughter of [[Wulfhere]], the Christian king of [[Mercia]]. In 681, Saint [[Wilfrid]], the exiled [[Bishop of York]], landed at Selsey and is credited with evangelising the local population and founding the church in Sussex. King Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid which became the site of [[Selsey Abbey]]. According to [[Bede]], it was the last area of the country to be converted.<ref name="bede225"/><ref name="Armstrong 1971 38–40"/> While Wilfrid is credited with the conversion of the Kingdom of Sussex to Christianity, it is unlikely that it was wholly heathen when he arrived.<ref name="Brandon 2006 70–71">{{harvnb|Brandon|2006| pp=70–71}}</ref> Æðelwealh, Sussex's king, had been baptised. [[Damian (bishop of Rochester)|Damianus]], a South Saxon, was made [[Bishop of Rochester]] in the Kingdom of Kent in the 650s and may indicate earlier missionary work in the first half of the 7th century.<ref name="Brandon 2006 70–71"/> At the time of Wilfrid's mission there was a monastery at [[Bosham]] containing a few monks led by an Irish monk named Dicul,<ref name="Brandon 2006 70–71"/> which was probably part of the [[Hiberno-Scottish mission]] of the time. Wilfrid was a champion of Roman customs and it was these customs that were adopted by the church in Sussex rather than the [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic]] customs that had taken root in Scotland and Ireland.

Shortly after Æðelwealh granted land to Wilfrid for the church, Æðelwealh was killed by [[Cædwalla of Wessex]], Sussex was conquered by Cædwalla and Christianity in Sussex was put under control of the [[diocese of Winchester]]. It was not until {{Circa|715}} that [[Eadberht of Selsey|Eadberht, Abbot of Selsey]] was consecrated the first [[Bishop of Selsey|bishop of the South Saxons]].<ref name="Brandon 2006 71">{{harvnb|Brandon|2006| p=71}}</ref>

In the late 7th or early 8th century, [[St. Cuthman]], a shepherd who may have been born in [[Chidham]] and had been reduced to begging set out from his home with his disabled mother using a one-wheeled cart.<ref name="Cons"/> When he reached [[Steyning]] he saw a vision and stopped there to build a church.<ref name="Cons"/> Cuthman was venerated as a saint and his church was in existence by 857 when [[Æthelwulf of Wessex|King Æthelwulf of Wessex]] was buried there.<ref name="Cons"/> Steyning was an important religious centre and St Cuthman's grave became a place of pilgrimage in the 10th and 11th centuries.<ref name="Cons">{{cite web|url=http://www.conservancy.co.uk/assets/assets/arch_EarlyMedieval.pdf|type=PDF|publisher=Chichester Harbour Conservancy|title=Early Medieval – AD 410-1066|access-date=4 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416130300/http://www.conservancy.co.uk/assets/assets/arch_EarlyMedieval.pdf|archive-date=16 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to the [[hagiography]] of the 11th century [[Secgan|Secgan manuscript]], another saint, St Cuthflæd of Lyminster, is buried in or near to [[Lyminster Priory]].<ref>[http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=stowe_ms_944_f029v Stowe MS 944] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20140103065303/http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=stowe_ms_944_f029v |date= 3 January 2014 }}, British Library</ref><ref>The [[Oxford Dictionary of Saints]], [[Oxford University Press]].</ref> In 681, Bede records that an outbreak of the plague had devastated parts of England, including Sussex and the monks at Selsey Abbey fasted and prayed for three days for an end to the outbreak. A young boy with the plague prayed to [[Oswald of Northumbria|St Oswald]] and his prayers were answered, and a vision of St Peter and St Paul was said to have appeared to the boy, telling the boy that he would be the last to die.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stpeters-selsey.org.uk/|publisher=St Peter's Church, Selsey|access-date=14 December 2014|title=History Page-Plague and Pestillence}}</ref>

The church built at Steyning was one of around 50 [[Minster (church)|minster]] churches across Sussex<ref name="SACRush">{{harvnb|Rushton|1999}}</ref><ref name="VCHSxS">{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18259 |publisher=Victoria County Histories |title=A History of the County of Sussex Volume 6 Part 1 Bramber Rape (Southern Part) - Steyning |editor-last1=Hudson |editor-first1=T.P. |year=1980 |pages=241–244}}</ref> and these churches supplied itinerant clergy to surrounding districts.<ref name="Brandon 2006 72">{{harvnb|Brandon|2006| p=72}}</ref> Other examples include churches at [[Singleton, West Sussex|Singleton]], [[Lyminster]], [[Findon, West Sussex|Findon]] and [[Bishopstone, East Sussex|Bishopstone]].<ref name="Brandon 2006 71"/> The jurisdiction of each minster church in the pre-Viking era seems to match early land divisions that were replaced by [[Hundred (county subdivision)|hundred]]s in the 10th or 11th centuries.<ref name="SACRush"/> It was not until 200–300 years after its conversion to Christianity in the 680s that a network of local parish churches existed in Sussex.<ref name="Brandon 2006 72"/>