The tendency to national unity which was to characterize the new England had thus already declared itself; but the policy of Theodore clothed with a sacred form and surrounded with divine sanctions a unity which as yet rested on no basis but the sword.
The single throne of the one Primate at Canterbury accustomed men's minds to the thought of a single throne for their one temporal overlord.

The regular subordination of priest to bishop, of bishop to primate, in the administration of the Church, supplied a mould on which the civil organization of the state quietly shaped itself.

Above all, the councils gathered by Theodore were the first of our national gatherings for general legislation.

It was at a much later time that the Wise Men of Wessex, or Northumbria, or Mercia learned to come together in the Witenagemot of all England.

The synods which Theodore convened as religiously representative of the whole English nation led the way by their example to our national parliaments.