For this edition, the author has added a new preface in which he reconsiders some of his earlier conclusions and addresses recent developments in the scholarship. In a completely new chapter, Mayr—Harting appraises the work of Boniface of Devon, the greatest missionary of the early Middle Ages whom he calls the "Mirror of English History." Mayr—Harting thereby extends his account of early Anglo—Saxon Christianity from the Gregorian mission of the late sixth century up to the eighth—century English mission to the Continent, perhaps the crowning achievement of early English history.