considerable advance in the years about 280, and that from 260
to 280 may have seen the commencement of British episcopacy.

The records of the signatures at the Council of Nicaea in 325 are, as is
well known, not in such a state as to enable us to say that British
bishops were present. But considering their presence at Arles, the first
of the Councils, and the interest of Constantine in Britain and his
intimate local knowledge of its circumstances; considering, too, the very
wide sweep of his invitations to the Council; it is practically certain
that we were represented there. At the Council of Sardica, in 347, only
the names of the bishops are given, not their sees. But fortunately the
names of the bishops are grouped in provinces. The province of the
Gauls--that is, Gaul and Britain--had thirty-three bishops present. I
think that any one who has studied the dates of the foundation of the
French bishoprics will allow that to make up thirty-three bishops in 347,
several British bishops must have been included. At the Council of Rimini,
in 359, there were so many British bishops present that three were singled
out from the rest of their countrymen as being so poor that they accepted
the Emperor's bounty for their daily support, declining a collection made
for their expenses among their brother bishops. The others, who could do
without the Imperial allowance, refused it as unbecoming.

In the year 358 or 359, in preparation for this Council of Rimini, a
treatise of great importance was addressed to the bishops of the British
provinces, among others. This was the treatise of Hilary, bishop of
Poitiers, on the Synods of the Catholic Faith and against the Arians. He
wrote at a very anxious time, when he was himself in exile for the faith,
and when he earnestly desired that his orthodox colleagues should take a
broad view, so as not to keep out of their communion any who could
properly be included. He addressed his treatise to the bishops of Germany,
Gaul, and the British provinces. He wrote as to men thoroughly familiar
with the very subtle heresy that was dividing the world, men who were
thoroughly sound on the point in dispute, but inclined perhaps to be
rather unflinching on a point on which he desired to make some
concession--concession in terms, not in substance. He specially urged them
not to press as vital one single phrase, not to reject as fatal another.
For, as he pointed out, each phrase could be used with a sound