The history of the church in Europe in the tenth and early eleventh centuries is essentially the history of many local churches, in which the dominant role in secular ecclesiastical and religious life was played by the bishops. Parish churches are associated not only with smaller units of a city, such as those created by Bishop Burchard in Worms in the early eleventh century, and with areas in the countryside, but also with individual lords' estates, the so-called Eigenkirchen. The charters witness to contact being maintained between the papacy and churches in England, France, Spain and Germany as well as in Italy and Rome itself. Ever since their first bishop, Anskar, had preached the Gospel in Denmark and Sweden, the bishops, in the way Adam of Bremen tells their story, directed their energies towards establishing the church in Scandinavia. The conciliar decisions of the tenth century overall have a clear and acknowledged debt to Carolingian church councils.

The central theme in the history of eighth-century Francia is the rising power of its Carolingian rulers, above all of Charles Martel (715-41 ), Pippin III (741-68) and Charlemagne (768-814). Until the late seventh century Aquitaine had been an integral part of Frankish Gaul. The inventories of church lands, which later served as the basis for accusing Charles Martel of having plundered the church, were produced as part of a developing process of estate management, but which was much stimulated by the increasing use of written records from the mid-eighth century onwards. At the level of political and military history, the growth of Carolingian power may be understood in terms of an initial military success which allowed Charles Martel to take advantage of a balance of power operating progressively in his favour. In the south of Frankish Gaul, the old Visigothic province of Septimania had been added to Frankish territory and the Franks were able to intervene in Italy.

This chapter provides the understanding of England and the Continent in the eighth and ninth centuries. It concentrations of the evidence, the context for and activities of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries on the Continent, the establishment of new religious foundations in Hesse, Thuringia and Franconia, the Anglo-Saxons' contributions to the Frankish church, their interaction with Frankish rulers and bishops, and their legacy for subsequent connections across the Channel in the ninth century and afterwards. The eighth century in England and Francia was a period of rapid political change. It saw the emergence in England of Mercia, and in Francia of the Carolingian family whose wealth and interests were focused in the Rhine, Moselle and Meuse region, that is, the region where the English missionaries were initially most active. Information about the early life of the first of these missionaries, Willibrord, is meagre. The eighth- and ninth-century relations between England and the Continent were personal connections and local influences that were predominant.