372 THE pbesident's addbbss. 



In Brittany, wherever the city surrounds the great church, 

 as at Dol, Treguier, Quimper, S. Pol de Leon, it is because these 

 were settlements of the Sacred Tribe which survived the Secular 

 Tribe and absorbed its land and jurisdiction. Eennes, 

 Nantes and Vannes are exceptions, but they were founded by 

 the Q-allo-Latin church. The Breton cities were capitals of 

 principalities in which the saint was sovereign. 



In them the token of ecclesiastical supremacy was maintained 

 through the middle ages. The great prelates allowed but a 

 nominal recognition to the authority of the Dukes of Brittany. 

 The ceremonial of their installation marked their sovereign rights, 

 for the chief nobles were required to hold the stirrup of the 

 bishop as he descended from horseback, to draw off his boots, 

 and to carry him in a chair to the altar. 



From what has been said it will be seen that no man or 

 woman — with the rarest exceptions — could be a saint unless he 

 or she were of royal blood, for saintship was a profession, and 

 when, under peculiar circumstances, no one of the royal family 

 was qualified to become head of the ecclesiastical tribe, then 

 another might be appointed, but he had to give securities that 

 when a properly qualified member of the ruling family appeared, 

 he would surrender to him his rule. 



Not for one moment do I wish it to be thought that these 

 saints were not full of missionary ardour, and that they adopted 

 the ecclesiastical profession without proper call. Everything we 

 learn about them shows how truly zealous and apostolic they 

 were. But this was an institution of the race that existed before 

 ever it embraced Christianity. 



Now, from this constitution of the Sacred Tribe, it followed 

 that jurisdiction, rule, was in the hands of the Head of the 

 Tribe, the Saint, whether male or female, priest or layman. He 

 it was who sent out the several priests to minister in the several 

 hills and lanns, and he it was who presided in his lis, the court of 

 justice of the tribe. This was productive of a condition of 

 affairs very surprising and inexplicable to Latin ecclesiastics. 

 For each saint kept at least one bishop on his staff, and sent him 

 about to ordain and consecrate, but the bishop was invested 

 with no jurisdiction. 



