The Archbishop of Tours had eventually eleven suffragans, Le Mans, Angers, Rennes, Nantes, Vannes, Cornouaille, Léon, Tréquier, St. Brieuc, St. Malo, Dol. Some of these bishoprics trace their origin to refugees from Britain in the middle of the sixth century. A marked feature of the Archbishopric was the existence and permanence of the office of Archpresbyter. The Chapter of Tours itself, in its most complete form, consisted of Dean, Archdeacon of Tours, Treasurer, Praecentor, Chancellor, two other Archdeacons, the Archpresbyter of Tours, and fifty or more Canons. The Princeps Archipresbyter preached on the greater Sundays, as the Ecclesiastes Theologus did on other Sundays. At Le Mans, before Alcuin’s time at Tours, there were two Archpresbyters, each in management of half of the diocese; in the eleventh century there were three; in 1200, eight. In 1230 Maurice replaced them by seven Archdeacons, who had under them a number of rural deans, _decani rusticanis negotiis_, an office into which the Archpresbyters, once so important, subsided. Archdeacons of Le Mans are first named in the will of St. Bertramn, in 623. At Angers the chief Archdeacon had under him four Archpresbyters; the second Archdeacon had one Archpresbyter and two Rural Deans; the third Archdeacon had three Rural Deans. At Angers the Archbishop of Tours acted in 1334 much as the Archbishop acted at St. Martin’s at Tours in or before Alcuin’s time; he freed the Chapter from episcopal control and himself confirmed the Deans[214]. CHAPTER XIV Great dispute on right of sanctuary.—Letters of Alcuin on the subject to his representatives at court and to a bishop.—The emperor’s severe letter to St. Martin’s.—Alcuin’s reply.—Verses of the bishop of Orleans on Charlemagne, Luitgard, and Alcuin. In the year 801, or early in 802, a question of sanctuary arose on which Alcuin and Charlemagne took opposite views. The Emperor was imperious in his dealing with the matter. [Sidenote: Ep. 179.] Two of Alcuin’s pupils, Candidus and Nathanael, held offices in the court of the Emperor at Aachen. Nathanael was the pupil to whom Alcuin wrote a well-known letter about the temptations and occupations of the court, his warnings against the temptations being conveyed under cover of figurative language. “Let not the crowned doves come to thy windows, that flit about in the chambers of the palace; let not wild horses break in at the door of thy chamber; do not occupy thyself with dancing bears.” To Candidus and Nathanael he wrote, in evident anxiety, to tell them what had happened, and to bid them put it before the Emperor in a favourable light. This is what he says. [Sidenote: Ep. 180. A.D. 801-2.]