Prudence indeed dictated the propriety of commencing with those whose authority might tend to secure their own safety, and whose example would be a useful confirmation of their arguments; whose own religious convictions also were less likely to be of a settled and bigotted character than those of the villagers in the Marks. Christianity, which in its outset commenced with the lowest and poorest classes of society, and slowly widened its circuit till it embraced the highest, thus reversed the process in England, and commenced with the courts and households of the kings. ----- Footnote 851: This seems to follow from the relation of what passed at Augustine’s interview with the Welsh prelates. At the same time we should judge very unwisely were we to believe missionary jealousies confined to the nineteenth century. In the distracted state of the British the bishops were almost the only possessors of a legal authority; and it is not at all probable that they would have looked with equanimity on those who came with an open proposal of subordination, even had it been unaccompanied with circumstances wounding to their self-love. ----- Accordingly the conversion of a king was generally followed by the establishment of a see, the princes being apparently desirous of attaching a Christian prelate to their comitatus, in place of the Pagan high-priest who had probably occupied a similar position. Considerations of personal dignity, not less than policy, may have led to this result: the lurking remains of heathen superstition may not have been without their weight: whatever were the cause, we find at first a bishopric co-extensive with a kingdom[852]. But this was obviously an insufficient provision in the larger districts, as Christianity continued its triumphant course, and towards the close of the seventh century, Theodore, the first archbishop who succeeded in uniting all the English church under his authority, finally accomplished the division of the larger sees. From this period till the ninth century, when the invasions of the Northmen threw all the established institutions into confusion, the English sees appear to have ranked in the following order[853]:— Province of Canterbury.—1. Lichfield. 2. Leicester. 3. Lincoln. 4. Worcester. 5. Hereford. 6. Sherborne. 7. Winchester. 8. Elmham. 9. Dummoc. 10. London. 11. Rochester. 12. Selsey. Province of York.—1. Hexham. 2. Lindisfarn. 3. Whiterne. ----- Footnote 852: Kent is probably only an apparent exception. Rochester can hardly have been otherwise than the capital of a subordinate kingdom. Footnote 853: