Many of the Gaelic monasteries were founded in remote and inaccessible situations; but the most important appear to have been placed, in exact imitation of the Abbey of Tours, at a short distance from the capital, or chief fortress, of the neighbourhood. Such was the case at Armagh, Lindisfarne, and St. Martins near Canterbury--that ancient British church which is said to have retained the early privilege of maintaining a bishop within its walls down to the time of the Norman Conquest.[347] Here the bishop dwelt with his clergy, and the rest of the brethren, of whom the great majority were laymen. All were bound to the observance of the same Rule; and all, as monks, were under the superintendence of the abbot of the community. In one point, however, a wide difference was observable between the constitution of the Gaelic Church, and the ecclesiastical system elsewhere prevailing; and this peculiar variation from the general rule may, in a great degree, be attributed to the circumstances under which monachism was originally introduced amongst the Gaelic people. After Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, the ecclesiastical system was naturally much influenced by the political institutions of a highly civilized and artificial state of society. The bishop and the city were inseparably connected; the diocese was not unfrequently bounded by the city walls; and when a large country district was included within the limits of the episcopal jurisdiction, the Diocesan was assisted by one or more Chorepiscopi, or Country Bishops, whose duties were strictly confined to that part of the diocese from which their name was originally derived. Nothing, indeed, more convincingly demonstrates how completely the Christianity of early times must have been confined to the cities of the Empire, than the epithet of _Pagans_, or “Country people,” which was used to distinguish those who persisted in adhering to the antiquated superstitions of their heathen forefathers. To the two great Christian divisions of clergy and laity, a third was added, when the increasing multitudes of ascetics and anchorites were collected by various pious men, and established in communities as cænobites; and when the ordination of certain members of the fraternity--which in early times was exclusively composed of laymen--and the introduction of the system into cities, brought these societies within the jurisdiction of the bishop, the authority of the Secular Head of the diocese clashed with that of the Regular Superior of the monastery, and frequently became a matter of dispute. Accordingly, the submission of the monks to the Diocesan, in ecclesiastical matters, was strictly enforced, by the rule laid down in various councils of the fifth and sixth centuries, “that no monastery should be erected without the consent of the bishop of the diocese.” In societies already existing, the limits of episcopal and abbatial jurisdiction were carefully defined, whilst a few monasteries