owledge of the
British Church in London may be compared, not inaptly, to our
knowledge of Thornhill's paintings in the concave sphere of the dome.
We know that they exist; but even on a bright May day they are
invisible from below.

=Saxon, Angle, and Dane.=--In the early years of the fifth century the
Romans are stated to have finally abandoned this country. If certain
lists are to be credited, Bishops of London of the original British
series continued until the flight of Theorus in 586. These lists have
now been rejected,[3] although as the taking of London by the East
Saxons was not prior to the date above, there is reason in the
suggestion that church and bishop were still in existence. In the
pages of Bede, writing about a century later, we come across something
more definite, which readers interested in St. Paul's may care to
have.

"In the year of our Lord 604, Augustine, Archbishop of Britain,
consecrated two bishops, viz., Mellitus and Justus; Mellitus to preach
to the province of the East Saxons, who are divided from Kent by the
river Thames, and border on the eastern sea. Their metropolis is the
city of London, situated on the bank of the aforesaid river, and is
the mart of many nations resorting to it by sea and land. At that time
Sabert, nephew to Ethelbert [Augustine's King of Kent] by his sister
Ricula, reigned over the nation, though under subjection to Ethelbert,
who had command over all the nations of the English as far as the
river Humber. But when this province [East Saxons] also received the
word of truth by the preaching of Mellitus, King Ethelbert built the
church of St. Paul in the city of London, where he and his successors
should have their episcopal seat."[4]

Bede, in one sense most interesting, becomes in a second sense most
irritating. We would give much to know how long an interval had
elapsed since the last bishop, whether this rude East Saxon building
was erected on the ruins of another or on a different site, whether
the name ST. PAUL'S was a continuation or no. Bede is silent,
ignoring the distressed and defeated Britons as an inferior race.

Ethelbert may have given the endowment of Tillingham in Essex. "And if
any one should be tempted to take away this gift, let him be anathema
and excommunicated from all Christian society." Whether the deed with
these lines originated with him or with some unknown and later donor,
it is certain that the language has been respected; for when th