15.  From  the  foregoing  facts  and  anecdotes.  The  great

.        .  ...  *       1       r  number  of

no  doubt  can  remam  m  the  mmd  ot  any  unpre-  independent
judiced  reader,  that  the  normal  state  of  episcopacy  the  anticlit
in  Ireland  w^as  as  we  have  described,  non-diocesan,  ch^ch.
each  bishop  acting  independently,  without  any
archiepiscopal    jurisdiction,   and    either   entirely
independent  or  subject  only  to  the  abbat  of  his
monastery,   or  in  the   spirit  of  clanship   to   his
chieftain.
The   consequence  of  this   system  was  neces-
sarily a  great  multiplication*  of  bishops.     There
was   no  restraint  upon  their  being  consecrated.
Every  man   of  eminence  for    piety  or   learning
was  advanced  to  the  order  of  a  bishop,  as  a  sort
of  degree y  or  mark  of  distinction.     Many  of  these
lived  as  solitaries  or  in   monasteries.      Many  of
them  established  schools  for  the  practice  of  the
religious  life,  and  the  cultivation  of  sacred  learn-
ing, having  no  diocese,  or  fixed  episcopal  duties  ;
and  many'^  of  them,  influenced   by  missionary
^eal,   went    forth   to   the    Continent,    to    Great
Britain,    or    to    other    then     heathen    lands,    to
preach  the  gospel  of  Christ  to  the  Gentiles.
*  Multiplication,     That  there  was  sccration  of  bishops  for  villages,  or

*  tendency  to  multiply  bishops  in  places  where  there  were  no  towns.
