is
instrument, the whole ecclesiastical constitution was changed; and not
only was all the power placed in the hands of the chief of the state,
but the provinces and dioceses were entirely remodelled; and, instead of
twenty-three archbishoprics and one hundred and thirty-four bishoprics,
the number of the former, notwithstanding the vast extension of the
French territory, was reduced to ten, and that of the latter to fifty.

The archbishop of Rouen was one of those who suffered least upon the
occasion. His dignity was curtailed only by the suppression of two of
his suffragans, the bishops of Avranches and of Lisieux.[169] The
church, here figured, then resigned the mitre, which it had conferred
from the middle of the sixth century, upon an illustrious, though not an
uninterrupted, line of prelates. It is admitted, in the annals of the
cathedral, that either the see must have been vacant for the space of
four hundred years, or at least that the names of those who filled it
during that period, are lost. Ordericus Vitalis, who resided fifty-six
years in the diocese, and has collected, in the sixth book of his
_Ecclesiastical History_, whatever was to be found in his time, relative
to its early state, acknowledges the chasm, and accounts for it by the
following general remarks.--"Piratae de Dania egressi sunt, in Neustriam
venerunt, et christianae fidei divinique cultus penitus ignari, super
fidelem populum immaniter debacchati sunt. Antiquorum scripta cum
basilicis et aedibus incendio deperierunt, quae fervida juniorum studia,
quamvis insatiabiliter sitiant, recuperare nequiverunt. Nonnulla vero,
quae per diligentiam priscorum manibus barbarorum solerter erepta sunt,
damnabili subsequentium negligentia interierunt."

The city of Lisieux represents the capital of the Gallic tribe,
mentioned by Caesar, and other almost contemporary writers, under the
name of _Lexovii_; and it is supposed by modern geographers, that the
territory occupied by these latter, was nearly co-extensive with the
late bishopric of Lisieux. On this subject it has been observed, that
"it is to be remarked, that the bounds of the ancient bishoprics of
France were usually conterminal with the Roman provinces and
prefectures."[170] _Neomagus_ or _Noviomagus Lexoviorum_, the capital of
the Lexovii, had always been supposed to have occupied the site of the
present town, till some excavations made in the year 1770, for the
purpose of forming a _chaussee_ bet