nvented twenty, while they were about it, instead
of only four, for 260 years[33].

The traditions of York do not supply any long list of bishops, continuous
or not. Eborius, at Arles in 314, is the first named. And there are only
three others, each of whom has a date with Matthew of Westminster, Sampson
507, Piran 522, Thadioc 586. York probably fell as early as the date
assigned to Sampson; who, by the way, was created Archbishop of York by
the forgers of the twelfth century, to back up an ecclesiastical claim on
the continent.

The decision at which we arrived in respect of the London list was to give
one name only, that of Restitutus, putting a row of dots above him and
below him, to shew that there were British bishops before him, probably
very few, and British bishops after him, certainly many. Restitutus signed
the decrees of the Council of Arles, as Bishop of London, in the year 314.
That is sure ground; and in a list of bishops, set up officially in the
Cathedral Church, nothing less solid than sure ground should be taken.

As to the British Bishops of London being styled archbishops, there is no
evidence for it. Our famous Dean Ralph (A. D. 1181), no mean historian,
left on record his view that there were three archbishoprics[34] in
Britain--London, York, and Caerleon--which last, he said, corresponded to
St. David's. Whether Gregory had some information that has since been
lost, respecting the ecclesiastical arrangements which had existed here,
we cannot say; but it is a curious coincidence, explicable perhaps by the
mere importance of the two places, that he directed Augustine to make
arrangements for a metropolitan at London, with twelve suffragans, and a
metropolitan at York with twelve suffragans. The complete arrangements, as
set out by Gregory when he sent an additional supply of missionaries to
Augustine, of whom Mellitus was one, were as follows. Augustine was told
to ordain in various places twelve bishops, to be subject to his control,
so that London should for the future be a metropolitan see; and it appears
that Gregory contemplated Augustine's occupying as a matter of course the
position of Bishop of London[35]. He was to ordain and send to York a
suitable bishop, who should in like manner ordain twelve bishops and
become the metropolitan. The northern metropolitan was to be under
Augustine's jurisdiction; but after Augustine's death he was to be
independent of London, and for the future the met