is Secunda_, was no other than the modern Seez; and, carrying
their conjecture one step farther, they have inferred from locality,
that the _Sagii_, otherwise called _Saii_, must have been the _Sesuvii_
of Caesar's Commentaries. Hence, in more modern _Latinity_, Seez has
generally acquired the name of _Sagium_; though Ordericus Vitalis
occasionally calls it _Salarium_, and Magno, _Saius_. In some maps it is
likewise styled _Saxia_, whence an idea has arisen that it owed its
origin to the Saxons; and that the words, _Saii_ and _Sagii_, were in
reality nothing more than a corruption of _Saxones_ or _Sassones_.

The favorers of this opinion have brought Seez within the limits of the
_Otlingua Saxonia_, a district in Normandy, whose situation and extent
has been the subject of much literary controversy. The learned Huet,
alluding to this very point,[220] observes, with great justice, that "it
is more easy to tell what is not, than what is; and that, though the
limits of bishoprics serve in general to mark the divisions of the
ancient Gallic tribes, yet length of time has introduced many
alterations. Able men," he adds, "have been of opinion, that Hiesmes was
originally an episcopal see, and that its diocese was afterwards
dismembered into three archdeaconries; one of them fixed at Seez, a
second at Lisieux, and a third at Bayeux." Such, however, he says, is
not his own belief; but he thinks that Hiesmes was originally the seat
of the bishopric of Seez. A report to the same effect will be found in
the _Concilia Normannica_; and it is adopted by Rouault,[221] who argues
in its favor; first, that Seez was too insignificant, at the time of the
preaching of the gospel in Neustria, to be dignified with the presence
of a bishop; the apostles and earliest popes having directed that
bishops should only be appointed to considerable towns: and, secondly,
that Hiesmes was really then a place of importance, and probably
continued so till the nineteenth year of the reign of King Henry I. of
England, when that prince destroyed it, as a punishment upon the
inhabitants for their revolt.

Ecclesiastical history refers the establishment of the bishopric of Seez
to the fourth or fifth century. The earliest, however, of the prelates,
of whom any certain mention is to be found, is Litaredus, whose name
appears, under the title of _Oximensis Episcopus_, subscribed to the
council of Orleans in 511. Azo, who succeeded to the mitre in one of the
la