to 644 was the Bishop of Rochester in northern Kent, had been connected with Rædwald's court during the exile of Edwin. Foundation of Cnobheresburg The allegiance of Felix to Canterbury determined the Roman basis of the East Anglian Church, influenced along continental lines, though Felix's training in Burgundy may have been coloured by the teaching of the Irish missionary Saint Columbanus in Luxeuil. In around 633, perhaps shortly before Saint Aidan was sent to Lindisfarne from Iona, the Irish royal hermit and missionary Saint Fursey came to East Anglia from the Athlone area, along with his priests and brethren. Sigeberht granted him a monastery site in an old Roman fort called Cnobheresburg, usually identified as Burgh Castle, near Great Yarmouth. Felix and Fursey both effected a large number of conversions and established many churches in Sigeberht's kingdom. Bede records that Archbishop Honorius and Bishop Felix much admired the work of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne and it is therefore likely that they also appreciated the tasks accomplished by Saint Fursey, whose community also lived according to the ascetic principles of Irish Christianity. Abdication and martyrdom At some point during his reign, Sigeberht abdicated his power to Ecgric and retired to lead a religious life within a monastery he had built for his own use. Bede does not name the location of Sigeberht's monastery, but later sources name it as Beodricesworth, afterwards called Bury St Edmunds. If that identification is accepted, the likely site was in the original precinct of the mediaeval abbey at Bury St Edmunds, probably the 'worth' or curtilage of Beodric after whom the place was originally named. The site occupied a strong position on the upper reaches of the Lark valley, which drains north-west into the Great Fen through important early settlements at Icklingham, Culford, West Stow and others. This was a line of access towards Ely, where a foundation of Saint Augustine may already have existed, and towards Soham, where Saint Felix is thought to have founded a monastery. At an unknown date, which may have been in the early 640s, East Anglia was attacked by a Mercian army and Ecgric was obliged to defend it with a much smaller force, though one that was not negligible. The East Angles appealed to Sigeberht to leave his monastery and lead them in battle, hoping that his presence and the memory of his former military exploits would encourage the