ropolitan who was senior
in consecration was to have precedence[36]. This takes no account of the
bishops existing in what we call Wales and Cornwall. Gregory specially
declared that those bishops, then at least seven in number, were subject
to Augustine. It is impossible that these seven were to be included among
the twelve suffragans of London, for with Rochester and Canterbury that
would leave only three bishops for the whole of the rest of the south of
England. That the tradition of British times, and a part of the scheme
actually laid down by Gregory, should be carried out in our time, would be
I think an excellent thing. An Archbishop of London, with some half-dozen
suffragans, with dioceses and diocesan rank, in districts of this great
wilderness of houses, would be a solution of some very difficult problems.

There were two names in the traditional list which it was thought we might
at least have included along with Restitutus. One was that of the last on
the list, Theonus. But the evidence for him, though quite sufficient for
ordinary purposes, was not of the highest order. The other was that of
Fastidius, the last but two on the list. His date--for he was a real and
well-known man--was much earlier than that position would indicate, for he
was described, among illustrious men, by a writer who lived a full
century before Theonus, the last on the list. This writer, Gennadius of
Marseilles, informs us that Fastidius was a British bishop. One important
manuscript has, in place of this, "Fastidius a Briton," as if his being a
bishop was not certain. In any case there is nothing to connect him with
the bishopric of London, or with London, beyond the natural assignment to
the most important position of a man not specially assigned by the
earliest historian. His date is probably about 430 to 450.

This Fastidius is the only writer of the British Church, besides Pelagius
if we can properly reckon him as one, whose work has come down to us. I do
not know that the early British Christians produced any writers other than
Fastidius and Pelagius. Had their records not been destroyed, it might
well have been that many a manuscript work of British bishops would have
remained till the middle ages and been now in print. Fastidius and Gildas
are sufficient evidence of the literary tendencies of the British mind.
Indeed, we may credit the Britons of the time of Gildas with having been
laborious students, those, at least, who were