“Scottos vero per Daganum episcopum in hanc, quam superius memoravimus, insulam (sc. Britanniam) et Columbanum abbatem in Gallis venientem, nihil discrepare a Brittonibus in eorum conversatione didicimus. Nam Daganus episcopus ad nos veniens, non solum cibum nobiscum, sed nec in eodem hospitio quo vescebamur, sumere voluit.” Such is the account Laurentius, Mellitus and Justus give in their epistle to the Scottish prelates themselves. Beda, Hist. Eccl. ii. 4. And the Keltic example is answered in an equally intolerant spirit by Theodore:—“Qui ordinati sunt Scottorum vel Brittonum episcopi, qui in Pascha vel tonsura catholicae non sunt adunati aecclesiae, iterum a catholico episcopo manus impositione confirmentur. Licentiam quoque non habemus _eis poscentibus_ chrisma vel eucharistiam dare, nisi ante confessi fuerint velle nobiscum esse in unitate aecclesiae. Et qui ex eorum similiter gente, vel quicumque de baptismo suo dubitaverit, baptizetur.” Cap. Theod. Thorpe, ii. 64. See also Canones Sancti Gregorii, cap. 145. Kunstmann, Poenit. p. 141. ----- No sooner had the new creed found a reception among the Saxons than the establishment of bishoprics followed in every separate kingdom. The intention of Gregory had been to appoint two metropolitans, each with twelve suffragan bishops, one having his cathedral in London, the other in York. But political events prevented the execution of this plan: Canterbury retained the primacy of the greater part of England, and (except during a very few years) the rule over all the bishops on this side the Humber; while York, after receiving an archbishop in the person of Paulinus, remained for nearly a century after his death under a bishop only; and never succeeded in establishing more than four suffragan sees, which were finally reduced to two. This state of things naturally sprang from the circumstances under which the conversion took place. Had England been subject to one central power, or had the relinquishment of paganism taken place simultaneously in the several districts, a general system might have been introduced whose leading features might have been in accordance with Gregory’s desire; but this was not the case. The work of conversion was subject to many difficulties which could not have been appreciated at Rome. The pope had probably but sparing knowledge of the relations which existed between the Anglosaxon kingdoms, and how little concert could be expected from their scattered and hostile rulers. Nor could he have anticipated a jealous and sullen resistance on the part of the Keltic Christians, which was perhaps not altogether unprovoked by the indiscreet pretensions of Augustine[851]. But the first bishops were in fact strictly missionaries,—as much so as the bishop of New Zealand among the Maori,—heads of various bodies of voluntary adventurers, who at their own great peril bore the tidings of salvation to the pagan inhabitants of distant and separate localities.