[32] It is possible that some day this difficulty might be surmounted by the willingness of a small group of such Free Church leaders to receive conditional episcopal consecration at the hands of some friendly Gregorian or Nestorian Bishops. They could then preach from the pulpit in Church or Cathedral at the invitation of the authorities of the Church of England, and, by receiving their episcopal orders conditionally, they would place no stigma on their Nonconformist colleagues. The Free Churches would then be somewhat in the position of the old Celtic Churches before the conquest of Britain by Latin Christianity, when Bishops did not rule by monarchial methods over fixed dioceses, but exercised a more personal influence from their monastic homes, where sometimes several Bishops resided together at once. We should thus have a Free Church College of Bishops exercising authority by reason of their personal and spiritual qualifications and seeking no other sanction than the weight which such an influence would give. There may be difficulties in the way of such a proposal, but many Nonconformists who could not agree to accept the diocesan method of Church government would have little or no objection to such overseers of the Free Churches, who, holding an unpaid office, carrying no legal privileges, would have no right to rule, but rather be recognised as teaching, advising or pleading, with the authority of an elder brother in the spiritual family of which they would be members. Such a simple apostolic episcopate, strengthened from time to time by the addition of new members called to accept their office by the voice of their Church, might afford for those who have need of it a sign of visible communion between the Protestant Churches and the older episcopal churches of East and West.