Runics appear on the coins of the first Christian kings of Mercia, Peada and AEthelred, but soon die out under their successors.
Heathendom was now fairly vanquished.

It survived only in Sussex, cut off from the rest of England by the forest belt of the Weald.

The next trial of strength must clearly lie between Rome and Iona.
The northern bishops and abbots traced their succession, not to Augustine, but to Columba.

Cuthberht, the English apostle of the north, who really converted the _people_ of Northumbria, as earlier missionaries had converted its _kings_, derived his orders from Iona.
Rome or Ireland, was now the practical question of the English Church.
As might be expected, Rome conquered.

To allay the discord, King Oswiu summoned a synod at Streoneshalch (now known by its later Danish name of Whitby) in 664, to settle the vexed question as to the date of Easter.
The Irish priests claimed the authority of St.John for their crescent tonsure; the Romans, headed by Wilfrith, a most vigorous priest, appealed to the authority of St.Peter for the canonical circle.