Iona, governed by a simple elder,[29] had become a missionary college. It has been sometimes called a monastery, but the dwelling of the grandson of Fergus in nowise resembled the popish convents. When its youthful inmates desired to spread the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they thought not of going elsewhere in quest of episcopal ordination. Kneeling in the chapel of Icolmkill, they were set apart by the laying on of the hands of the elders: they were called _bishops_, but remained obedient to the _elder_ or presbyter of Iona. They even consecrated other bishops: thus Finan laid hands upon Diuma, bishop of Middlesex. These British Christians attached great importance to the ministry; but not to one form in preference to another. Presbytery and episcopacy were with them, as with the primitive church, almost identical.[30] Somewhat later we find that neither the venerable Bede, nor Lanfranc, nor Anselm--the two last were archbishops of Canterbury--made any objection to the ordination of British bishops by plain presbyters.[31] The religious and moral element that belongs to Christianity still predominated; the sacerdotal element, which characterizes human religions, whether among the Brahmins or elsewhere, was beginning to show itself, but in great Britain at least it held a very subordinate station. Christianity was still a religion and not a caste. They did not require of the servant of God, as a warrant of his capacity, a long list of names succeeding one another like the beads of a rosary; they entertained serious, noble, and holy ideas of the ministry; its authority proceeded wholly from Jesus Christ its head. [29] Habere autem solet ipsa insula rectorem semper abbatem _presbyterum_ cujus juri et omnis provincia et _ipsi etiam episcopi_, ordine inusitato, debeant esse subjecti, juxta exemplum primi doctoris illius qui non episcopus sed _presbyter_ exstitit et monachus. (Beda, Hist. Eccl. iii. cap. iv.) Moreover it was always the custom to have as governor in that island an abbot who is a presbyter, to whose direction the entire province and also the bishops contrary to the usual method are subject, according to the example of their first teacher, who was not a bishop, but a presbyter and monk.