By taking a single view of the ecclesiastical arrangements of the whole of the Western Empire on this side of the Alps and the Pyrenees, some instructive lessons may be learned. Such a way of looking at the map will bring out more strongly the differences between bishoprics of earlier and later foundation. ♦Gaulish and German dioceses.♦ And, if we take the name of Gaul in the old geographical sense, taking in the German lands west of the Rhine which formed part of the older Empire, we shall find that several ecclesiastical provinces may be called either Gaulish or German. With the boundaries of the French kingdom we have no concern, except so far as the boundary between the Eastern and Western kingdoms of the Franks did to some extent follow ecclesiastical lines. Modern annexations of course have had no regard to them. ♦Province of South Gaul.♦ On first crossing the Alps from Italy, we find the ecclesiastical phænomena of Italy continued in the lands nearest to it. The two provinces of _Tarantaise_ (answering to the civil division of _Alpes Penninæ_) and _Embrun_ (_Alpes Maritimæ_) which take in the mountain region between Italy and Gaul, are of small size, though of course in the actual mountain lands the bishoprics are less thick on the ground. ♦Tarantaise.♦ The Tarantasian province contained only three suffragan sees, _Sitten_, _Aosta_, and _St. John of Maurienne_, three bishoprics which now belong to three distinct political powers. ♦Embrun.♦ But in the southern part of the province of Embrun, which reaches to the sea, the bishops’ sees are thick on the ground, just as they are in Italy. ♦Aix and Arles.♦ So they are in the small provinces of _Aix_ (_Narbonensis Secunda_) and _Arles_. But, as soon as we get out of Provence into the parts of Gaul which were less thoroughly Romanized, and where cities, and consequently bishoprics, lay less close together, the phænomena of the ecclesiastical map begin to change. ♦Vienne. | Narbonne.♦ The Provençal provinces of Aix and Aries are bounded to the north and west by those of _Vienne_ (which with Arles answers nearly to the civil _Viennensis_) and _Narbonne_ (answering nearly to _Narbonensis Secunda_). These provinces are of much greater size, and the suffragan sees are much further apart. ♦Auch.♦ To the west lies _Auch_, answering to the oldest Aquitaine or _Novempopulana_, and to the north of these, in the remainder of Gaul, the original provinces are of still greater size. Most of them answer very nearly to the older civil divisions. ♦Bourges, Bourdeaux, Lyons, Rouen, Tours, and Sens.♦ _Aquitania Prima_ is the province of _Bourges_, _Aquitania Secunda_ that of _Bourdeaux_. _Lugdunensis Prima_, _Secunda_, _Tertia_, and _Quarta_, answer to _Lyons_, _Rouen_, _Tours_, and _Sens_. Of these Lyons, as having been the temporal capital, became the seat of the Primate of all the Gauls. The province of Rouen too answers very nearly to the duchy of which that metropolis became the capital; its