(2) The second objection urged by Todd is that some of the canons imply a nearer approach to diocesan jurisdiction, and a more settled state of Christianity, than was possible in the days of St. Patrick. (So far as a relatively settled state of Christianity is concerned, it must be remembered that Todd did not realise how far Christianity had spread in Ireland before St. Patrick; and if we take into account that the letter of the three bishops is designed both for those parts of the island where Christian communities had existed many years before, as well as for those (like Connaught) where churches had only recently been planted, there is nothing in the canons that need surprise us on this head). The canons which imply spheres of ecclesiastical jurisdiction are 30 and 34:— 30. Aepiscopus quislib_et_ qui de sua in alteram progreditur parruchia_m_ nec ordinare p_rae_sumat nisi p_er_missionem acceperit ab eo qui in suo principatu[m] _est_; die dominica offerat tantum susceptione et obsequi hic contentus sit. 34. Diaconus nobiscu_m_ similiter qui inconsultu suo abbate sine litteris in aliam parruchiam absentat [MS. adsentiat] nec cibum ministrare dec_et_ et a suo p_re_sbitero quem contempsit per penitentiam uindic_et_ur. The first of these canons implies that a bishop has a defined _paruchia_ and that he cannot perform episcopal acts in another _paruchia_ without the permission of its _princeps_. The second deals with the case of a deacon belonging to a monastic community, the head of which is not a bishop but a presbyter; he is forbidden to betake himself to another district without a letter from his abbot. Canon 30 corresponds to the 22nd canon of the Council of Antioch (A.D. 341, Mansi, _Conc._, ii. 649), ἐπίσκοπον μὴ ἐπιβαίνειν ἀλλοτρίᾳ πόλει ... εἰ μὴ ἄρα μετὰ γνώμης τοῦ οἰκείου τής χώρας ἐπισκόπου.[266] _Paruchia_ means an episcopal diocese[267] as in Eusebius, _Hist. ecc._ v. 33, 1 and 3. For the considerations which show that Patrick must have defined spheres of episcopal jurisdiction, I must refer to Excursus 18 in Appendix C on the Patrician Episcopate. In canon 34 _paruchia_ seems to have a different meaning, and refer to the district which the church of the abbot’s monastery served. It is the district of a presbyter, not of a bishop. This ambiguity would not be fatal to the genuineness of the canon. In the passage of Eusebius, cited above, παροικίαι also occurs in the sense of rural districts, several of which were under one bishop, as Duchesne has pointed out.[268] But the canon may well be a later addition to the genuine document, belonging to an age when the monastic communities had acquired greater importance. (3) The _mos antiquus_ of canon 25 may refer not to Ireland but to the Christian Church generally. (4) Another objection is founded on canon 33, which enjoins: Clericus qui de Britanis ad nos ueniat sine epistola etsi habit_et_ in plebe non licitum ministrare.