blessing to the countries of the Mediterranean as the similar colony of St Columba at Iona was to the North of Britain. It is easy, however, to fancy how, in the midst of the strife and unrest of the fifth and sixth centuries, such societies tended to become religious, and thus obtain protection from the Church. This they were finally compelled to do, although at the sacrifice of their liberty, by placing themselves under the authority of the bishops, where alone they could find rest and safety. For the Barbarians, many of whom were already Christians, stood in awe of the Church, and the Church strove to secure her ascendancy by maintaining the independence of the spiritual power, and the incapacity of the temporal powers to interfere with it; a doctrine which afterwards led to the terrible struggle for supremacy between the temporal and spiritual powers, represented on the one hand by the Emperor, and on the other by the Pope, a struggle which lasted so long, and involved so many cities in the horrors of the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. During the fearful reign of anarchy and destruction which prevailed in the sixth and seventh centuries, when all security for life and property had disappeared, and the armed hand of the Barbarian bore down all rule and order before it, the authority of the Bishops likewise gave way. Their Sees were invaded by Goths and Franks, who assumed their titles and drew their revenues. The fate of the monasteries was similar. The invaders seized the seats of the abbots, and the recluses were dispersed. Everywhere nothing but decay and disintegration prevailed. No wonder then, that monuments of this period are rare; the marvel is that any human structures should have survived the shock of universal ruin and destruction. Only a few of the more massive Roman monuments, built as if to last for ever, were able to withstand the tornado. The small and modest Christian edifices have been almost entirely swept away; but fortunately a few rare vestiges have been preserved within our district, sufficient to indicate the nature of the early Christian Architecture under the Empire. By the eighth century the Barbarian invaders of Gaul had become somewhat settled in their new possessions, and had abandoned their original wandering mode of life. A certain nominal supremacy had always been accorded to the Merovingian Kings of the Franks, but the royal power, together with the title, had now passed into the stronger and more active hands of the Carlovingians, under whom it grew into a distinct royal authority.