Bosham then for every Englishman is a holy place only second to
Glastonbury and Canterbury: it is a monument of our conversion, of the
re-entry of England into Christendom, of that Easter of ours which saw
us rise from the dead.
A few ruins, mere heaps of stones, mark the site of the college to the
north of the church. Of Earl Godwin's manor-house only the moat remains
near an ancient mill towards the sea; and there, upon the little green
between the grey church and the grey sea, one may best recall the
reverent past of this lovely spot. Little is here for pride, much to
make us humble and exceeding thankful. God was worshipped here between
the sea and the greenwood when our South Saxon forefathers were not
only the merest pagans, but so barbarous that they knew not even how to
fish, when they were so wretched that in companies they would cast
themselves into the sea because there was no light in their hearts and
nothing else to do. Out of that darkness St Wilfrid led them, but even
before he came with the light of Christ and of Rome, in some half
barbarous way in this little place men prayed and Mass was said, and
there was the means of deliverance though men knew it not, being
barbarians.
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