the land in every direction. He found her a pastoral country, and before the close of his reign she is described as the granary of her neighbours; and though the expressions of Ailred are probably exaggerated, as an exporting country she must have made considerable progress in agriculture. England may trace the germs of her monarchy to Alfred, and of the union of her people under one sovereign, though it was certainly not consummated in Alfred’s time. First amongst the Cæsars of the Western Empire stands Charlemagne, scarcely, however, the originator of the mighty results of that revival which still continue to influence the continent of Europe. But of feudal and historical Scotland; of the Scotland which counts Edinburgh amongst her fairest cities, and Glasgow, as well as Perth and Aberdeen; of the familiar Scotland of Bruce and of the Stewarts, David was unquestionably the creator. With the close of the eleventh century ancient Gaelic Alban gradually fades into the background, and before the middle of the twelfth, modern Scotland has already risen into existence. CHAPTER X. THE CHURCH. At some remote and long-forgotten period, Christianity was first preached amongst the Provincials of Britain; and it became the established religion of the Romanized portion of the island after the great revolution effected by Constantine. Three British bishops accordingly sat at the Council of Arles, as representatives of the three Imperial provinces; and the presence of a similar deputation from the island is occasionally noticed in the accounts of other important councils. After the Faith had reached Britain from the neighbouring coasts of Gaul, it appears to have passed across the western Channel into Ireland--for there were believers in that country at the beginning of the fifth century;[340] although, from the success attending the labours of St. Patrick amongst the leading clans of the north and west, the conversion of the whole island has been generally attributed to the preaching of that celebrated missionary. From the date usually ascribed to the arrival of Patrick in Ireland, it is not improbable that his mission to that country was connected with one of the visits of Germanus and his companions to the neighbouring island of Britain.[341] The progress of the Pelagian heresy in the country of which its originator was a native, had excited the alarm of the orthodox Britons, who craved the assistance of their brethren in Gaul to aid them in eradicating the evil, and at a council which was held by the heads of the Gallican Church, Germanus and Lupus, the bishops of Auxerre and Troyes, were commissioned to cross the Channel, and refute the doctrines of the arch-heretic Pelagius; whilst about the same time, the notice of Celestine, Bishop of Rome, being attracted towards the state of the West, he dispatched Palladius, the Deacon, to