whatever variety of form the heathendom of the anglosaxons may have assumed in different districts, we are justified in asserting that a sacerdotal class existed, and that there were different grades of rank within it. we hear of priests, and of chief priests; and it is not unnatural to conclude that to the latter some pre-eminence in dignity, if not in power, was conceded over their less-distinguished colleagues. similarly, the necessities of internal government and regulation, and the analogy of secular administration, had gradually supplied the christian communities with a well-organized system of hierarchy, which commencing with the lower ministerial functions, passed upward through the presbyterate, the episcopal and metropolitan ordinations, and found its culminating point and completion in the patriarchates of the eastern and western churches. the paganism of the old world, which admitted the participation of different classes in the public rites of religion, if it did not cause, could at least easily reconcile itself to, this systematic division. our own heathen state is not well known enough to enable us to affirm as much of our forefathers; but the immediate foundation of

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an episcopal church in all the newly-converted teutonic countries, seems to show that no difficulty existed or was apprehended as to its ready reception. in england, as elsewhere, the introduction of christianity was immediately followed by the establishment of bishops. but it is necessary to draw a distinction between the effects of this establishment in england and in various parts of the continent. as we pursue the inquiries which necessarily meet us in investigating the history of conversion in the west, we are led to a remarkable fact, viz. that the power of the roman see was, generally speaking, most substantially founded by the efforts and energy of teutonic prelates; while a much more steady opposition to its triumph was offered by the provincials who usually filled the episcopal office in the cities of gaul.