Theodore arrived in England on Sunday 27 May 669, a year to the day after he had set out from Rome (HE IV.2), and Hadrian arrived the following year. We can scarcely imagine their first impressions of England, though the sight of tiny wooden churches dotting the landscape must surely have evoked memories in Theodore of Hagia Sophia and Hagia Eirene in Constantinople, and in Hadrian of St Restituta and the Stephania in Naples, and in both of them of the great basilican churches in Rome. Nevertheless they set determinedly and expeditiously about reconstructing the administrative organization – if not the architectural fabric – of the English church. Their first undertaking was, as Bede tells us, a visitation of those parts of the island inhabited by the English (HE IV. 2: peragrata insula tota, quaquauersum Anglorum gentes morabantur). During this tour, Bede goes on to say, they gave instruction in the ‘correct’ manner of the Christian life (rectum uiuendi ordinem) and in the ‘canonical’ custom of celebrating Easter (ritum celebrandi paschae canonkum). We shall consider the literary evidence for Theodore's concern with orthodox belief and canon law shortly, but it may be helpful to preface those considerations with a very brief account of the administrative arrangements he made to effect the resuscitation and reconstruction of his new archdiocese.

ECCLESIASTICAL ADMINISTRATION

When Theodore arrived, his own see had been vacant for nearly five years, and there were similar vacancies in episcopal sees in the kingdoms of Mercia, Wessex and East Anglia. Indeed the only three bishops in office in the whole country were Wini, bishop of London, Ceadda, bishop of York, and Wilfrid, bishop of Ripon.