The Second Period (597-1066)
The Second Period concerns the christianization of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain which followed the St. Augustine's mission of 597. It is divided into two main sub-periods, the Early and the Benedictine.
The Early Second Period includes words taken by the English to describe their new religion (bishop, mass, pope), but also household words (cap, plant) and those relating to education (school). The amount and variety of the borrowings show the extent of Christianity's immediate impact on seventh-century Anglo-Saxon society. In this part of the Second Period, direct translation of Latin terms is characteristic. Thus, the Late Latin trinitas trinity (literally, three-ness) is the Old English þrines, and the Late Latin resurrectio is the Old English aerist, from arisan to arise.
The Benedictine Second Period began in the late 900's (see St. Benedict Biscop) when religious reform was under way in the English monasteries. The words still include religious and learned vocabulary, but are no longer related to everyday life. Antichrist, history, and decline (the grammatical meaning) all date from this period. Many words were not fully assimilated (cathedra, bibliothece, prologus), and most of those that have been passed down to Modern English (cathedral, prologue) were reintroduced in the subsequent periods.