<P> The Synod of Whitby in 664 forms a significant watershed in that King Oswiu of Northumbria decided to follow Roman rather than Celtic practices . The spokesman of the dominant faction was St. Wilfrid, who had been much impressed by the power and lavish life style of the Roman Church in comparison with the austerity and subservience to local rulers of the Celtic Church . Using subsidiary arguments about Easter and the tonsure, Wilfrid established the model of the Church as not ultimately answerable to the local king but to the Archbishop and to the Pope . It became a tradition for each Archbishop of Canterbury to receive the pallium from the Pope in Rome . This issue was to be frequently revisited until the Reformation . </P> <P> The Anglo - Saxon mission on the continent took off in the 8th century, assisting the Christianisation of practically all of the Frankish Empire by AD 800 . </P> <P> The Benedictine reform was led by St. Dunstan over the latter half of the 10th century . It sought to revive church piety by replacing secular canons - often under the direct influence of local landowners, and often their relatives - with celibate monks, answerable to the ecclesiastical hierarchy and ultimately to the Pope . This deeply split England, bringing it to the point of civil war, with the East Anglian nobility (such as Athelstan Half - King, Byrhtnoth) supporting Dunstan and the Wessex aristocracy (Ordgar, Æthelmær the Stout) supporting the secularists . These factions mobilsed around King Eadwig (anti-Dunstan) and his brother King Edgar (pro). On the death of Edgar, his son Edward the Martyr was assassinated by the anti-Dunstan faction and their candidate, the young king Æthelred was placed on the throne . However this "most terrible deed since the English came from over the sea" provoked such a revulsion that the secularists climbed down, although Dunstan was effectively retired . </P> <P> This split fatally weakened the country in the face of renewed Viking attacks . </P>

Who led a mission to convert anglo-saxons in england