It is well known that sources for the Anglo-Saxon period are unevenly distributed, and that we are particularly badly off for reliable evidence relating to East Anglia, especially in the period before the Viking raids and settlements. The main reason for this lies in the effects of those raids and settlements, for not only were the monasteries destroyed, but the two East Anglian sees of Dommoc and Elmham ceased to exist, and only Elmham was restored, and not, as far as our evidence goes, much before 955. Henceforward there was only one bishop for the whole of East Anglia, though at times it appears to have had a centre for Suffolk at Hoxne as well as one at Elmham. The East Anglian see was transferred to Thetford in 1071–2, and eventually about 1095 to Norwich. With such breaks in continuity it is not to be wondered that no pre-Viking age manuscripts or charters have come down by preservation in East Anglian churches, and it is doubtful how far any information in post-Conquest writers is likely to go back on genuine tradition. What we know about the early church in East Anglia comes from evidence preserved elsewhere, except in as far as the finds at Sutton Hoo have implications concerning the conversion of this kingdom. Our main source is Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, but this can be supplemented by some pieces of evidence from other sources, and it may be worth while to assemble these and study their implications.