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THE 


ANCIENT      C  A  T  H  E  D  R  A  L 


OF 


CORNWALL 


HISTORICALLY      SURVEYED. 


By    JOHN    WHITAKER,   B.  D. 

RECTOR   OF    KUAN-LANYHORNE,    CORNWALl, 


IN   TWO    VOLUMES. 


VOL.  I. 


lontion : 

PRINTED     FOR     JOHN     STOCKDAJLE,    PICCADILLY. 

1804. 


S.  CosxcM.,  P/inter,  Utile  QuceaStittt,  {lolbom. 


Tll£ 


ANCIENT     CATHEDRAL 


OP 


HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED. 


CHAPTER   FIRST. 


•X  HE  history  of  man,  so  voluminous  and  bulky  at  present,  is  very 
slight  and  slender  in  all  the  early  period  of  it.  Either  the  writing  of 
history  was  an  employ  unpractised  by  the  lirst  ages;  or  time  and  war 
have  united  since,  to  sweep  away  tlic  writings.  Thus  man  even  knew 
not  his  own  origin,  before  the  Hebrew  scriptures  disclosed  the  secret  to 
him.  The  world,  therefore,  might  well  be  ignorant,  before,  of  the  origin 
of  the  nations  within  it.  The  history  of  the  world  and  of  man,  indeed, 
stood  then  like  a  colossal  statue  of  anticjuity,  that  had  accidentally  lost 
its  head.  Even  since  the  divine  history  has  given  a  beginning  to  the 
human  annals,  and  so  has  replaced  the  head  upon  the  statue;  much 
darkness  still  spreads  over  the  particular  origin  of  nations.  The  head  of 
this  statue,  like  the  head  of  the  Nile's  at  Rome,  is  still  \\rappcd  up  in  a 
veil.  Nor  do  we  know,  with  any  degree  of  accuracy,  the  primary  period 
of  the  history  of  any  one  nation  in  Europe.  This  is  apparently  tlie  case 
in  our  domestic  annals;  and  in  that  very  period  of  them  too,  which  is 
not  prior  to  the  Romans.  VVc  know  nothmg  ahnost  of  die  earlv  trans- 
actions of  the  Welsh  or  of  tlie  Cob>ish,  before  the  Saxon^  came  to 
invade  them,  and  so  united  their  history  with  their  ow  ii.  Thus  two 
large  communities  of  Britons,  which  had  been  composed  each  of  united 
VOL.  r.  H  tribes 


2  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COUNWALL  [cHAP,   I. 

tribes  of  Britain,  and  enlightened  all  by  the  rays  of  the  literature  of  Rome, 
even  more  enlightened  still  by  the  bright  beams  of  the  Gospel,  sunk  back 
into  the  darkness  nearly  of  their  original  history;  and  owe  the  main 
knowledge  of  theirown  aiinais  immediately  after  the  Roman  departure, 
to  those  rude  bari)arians  who  had  come  from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic, 
and  whom  thev  had  half  raised  into  knowledge,  while  these  had  wholly 
depressed  fhem  into  ignorance.  So  much  heavier  is  the  scale  of  ignorance 
in  man.  than  that  of  knowledge!^  This  "we  see  strikingly  exemplified 
in  the  eariy  history  of  CorxwaLl  ;  with  which  in  general  we  can  begin 
oidv  where  the  annals  of  its  Saxon  invaders  begin;  and  for  which,  as 
the  sun  of  history  was  then  set  among  the  Cornish  themselves,  we  can 
dcrirc  an  illumination  only  from  the  very  moon,  that  was  then  shining 
with  the  rays  of  the  sun,  faint,  indeed,  in  the  rellection,  yet  serving  to 
dispel  the  darkness. 

By  this  kind  of  moonlight  I  mean  to  direct  my  course  in  making  my 
survey  of  the  ancient  cathedral  of  Cornwall.  Yet  I  hope  to  collect  the 
beams  so  carefully  into  one  focus,  as  to  find  them  combining  into  some 
degree  of  lustre,  and  lighting  me  with  tnith  along  the  winding  path  to 
my  point.  In  that  liope,  therefore,  I  set  out;  expecting,  however, 
not  to  find  my  point  within  the  petty  circle  of  any  one  parish,  or  even 
the  ample  orbit  of  a  whole  county,  but  to  trace  it  steadily  across  the 
island,  and  to  pursue  it  occasionally  into  the  continent- 


SECTION  I. 


The  Saxons,  who  had  come  as  auxiliaries  to  tli€  Britons,  but  turned 
their  arms  against  their  employers,  had  gradually  won  their  way  bv 
battles  and  by  sieges,  by  xnctorics  and  b}  concjucsts,  from  the  eastern 
coast  of  Kent,  over  the  whole  nearly  of  Roman  Britain,  from  the  brink  of 
the  Channel  on  the  south,  to  the  friths  of  Forth  and  Clyde  on  the  north. 
Then,  with  that  spirit  of  hostility  which  is  ever  ready  in  the  vitiated 
heart  of  man,  they  had  turned  their  arms  against  each  other;  and  the 

seven 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVF.YED.  3 

seven  kingdoms  which  they  had  erected  upon  tlie  ruins  of  the  British 
empire,  contended  together  for  a  supremacy  over  all.  The  first  and 
vi^eakest  of  all  the  seven  (Kent)  had  a  full  right,  in  reason,  to  thl^ 
honour:  but  how  little  docs  reason  avail  to  convinct",  w  hen  power  is 
prompt  to  decide!  In  that  decision,  the  kingdom  of  the  NN'est  Saxon-;, 
the  very  neighbours  of  the  Cornish,  was  finally  successful.  I'he  honour. 
So  obtained,  rose  into  power  ;  and  their  capital,  ^N'inch ester,  became 
THE  METROPOLIS  OF  ALL  ENGLAND  *.  Tluis  did  the  wliolc  Weight  of 
England  appear  to  centre  now  in  the  very  vicinity  of  Cornwall.  I]ut 
this  was  hardly  effected,  when  the  reduction  of  the  little  kingdom  of  the 
Cornish,  apparently  menaced  by  an  union  of  the  Saxons  under  one  head 
so  near,  was  prevented  by  a  very  extraordinary  incident.  A  new  swarm 
of  Saxons,  as  it  were,  came  from  the  same  shores,  and  began  the  .sanir; 
invasions,  under  the  new  appellation  of  Danes.  Tlu^se  also  made  their 
M'ay  with  fire  and  sword,  through  all  the  Saxon  regions  of  the  island. 
These,  too,  fixed  themselves  in  settlements  of  conquest,  upon  various 
parts  of  them.  Yet  the  genius  of  West  Saxony  struggled  witli  vigour 
against  them  ;  even  recovered  all  their  conquests  from  them,  and  brought 
all  the  Danish  settlers  into  submission.  Thus  was  the  reduction  of  Corn- 
wall again  menaced,  by  the  reviving  supremacy  overall  England  in  its 
near  neighbours  the  West  Saxons. 

*  This  mctropolitlcal  sovereignty  of  Wincliester,  which  lasted  from  thcd.nvi  nf  Ecbcrt 
and  his  reduction  of  the  heptarchy  into  one  kingdom,  in  827,  to  the  settlement  of  the  Con- 
fessor uponThorney  isle,  about  1046  (Saxon  Chronicle,  Gibson),  that  first  coainicncemcnt  of 
Westminster  (and  the  consequences  of  which,  if  it  had  been  continued  to  <Ir-sc  davs,  fancy 
may  readily  picture  to  itself  in  the  changes  that  it  would  have  w  rought,  upon  the  relative  states 
of  Winchester  and  London  at  present),  has  scarcely  a  shadow  now  remaining  of  itself.  The 
only  memorials,  slight  as  they  are,  I  suppose  to  be  lite  statute  of  Winchester.,  as  it  is  called, 
though  "  made  at  Westminster  8  die  Octobris,  an.  13  E.  I. — An.  Dom.  1285;"  and  what 
is  known  only  by  custom   in  its  appellation,   being  never  noiiicd  in   tlie  early  pans  of  out 
statute-book,  being,  indeed,  superseded  there  by  the  measure  of  Loudon  .(anno  31  E.  I.  and 
anno  Dom.  1302)  ;  yet  so  familiar  to  us  in  every  quarter  of  the  kingdom  at  present,  the 
JVinchester  bushel.   This  is  first  noticed  by  its  proper  name,  in  21  Ch.  U.  chap.  viii.  as  "  the 
"standard   marked    in   his  Majesty's  e.vchequer  commonly  called  ihe  /f'imheittr  ntixtsurtf 
"  containing  eight  gallons  to  the  lushel,"  and  existing  still  the  only  legal  measure  for  com 
throughout  the  whole  kingdom, 

n  -2  III 


4  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.    I. 

In  this  State  ot"  the  country,  when  the  only  remains  of  unconquered 
Britons  survived  in  Cornwall,  in  Wales,  and  in  Cumberland;  Athelstan, 
the  son  of  Edward,  and  the  grandson  of  Alfred,  ascended  the  throne  of 
West  Saxony  in  the  year  925  f.  Thf-  next  year  he  married  his  sister 
Kad^vtha  to  Sihtric,  the  Danish  sovereign  under  him  of  that  Northum- 
bria,  which  had  been  for  some  time  Danish;  who,  fearing  the  power  or 
spirit  of  his  acknowledged  lord,  and  offering  to  renounce  the  Danish 
paganism  which  he  had  hitherto  retained,  solicited  by  proxy  and  in  per- 
son this  dose  connexion  with  Athelstan;}:.  But  such  was  the  instability 
of  the  barbarian's  mind,  and  such  the  precipitancy  of  his  measures,  that 
he  soon  rejx^nted  of  what  he  had  done,  divorced  himself  from  his  queen, 
and  flew  off  from  his  Christianity,  restoring  the  native  idolatry  of  Den- 
mark, and  renotmcing  the  s\ipremacy  of  Athelstan  §.  All  this,  indeed, 
was  executed  with  such  a  rapid  revolution  of  ideas,  that  the  whole 
passed  w-ithin  the  compass  nearly  of  a  single  year*.  Such  conduct  natu- 
ral! v  excited  the  highest  indignation  in  the  breast  of  Athelstan.  Asa 
brother,  as  a  king,  and  as  a  Christian,  lie  had  the  strongest  reasons  for 
that  resentment  against  Sihtric,  which  he  immediately  displayed  by 
marching  with  an  army  towards  Northumbria.  But  Sihtric  died  before 
Athelstan  reached  it ;  as  cowardly  as  he  was  base,  I  suppose,  dying  from 
mere  fear  of  the  lion  which  he  had  roused  by  his  injuries,  and  which  he 

t  Sax.  Chron. 

^  Malincsbun-,  f.  27  ;  Savile;  and  Mat.  Westm.  360,  London,  1570.  Concerning  Malnies- 
bury,  thus  pancgyrically,  and  yet  justly,  does  Leland  speak :  "  Quoties  in  manus  sumo 
"  (sumo  autiMTi  cum  frequentissime  tum  lubeniissime)  toties  vel  admirari  coger  hominis 
•'  diligcnliam,  fclicitatcm,  judicium  ;  diligentiam,  quod  passim  ostendat  se  ingentcm  bonorum 
"  autorum  numeruni  legisse;  (olicilatem,  quod  illorum  ulegantiam  et  nervos  smulus  ipse  in 
"  suisclucubrationibus  belle  cxprimat;  judicium  denique,  quod  multa  abaliis  temere  scripta 
"  ad  incndeni  revocct,  revocalaque  luci  et  verilali  resiituat."  (Comnientarii  de  Scriptorlbus 
Britannicis,  by  Hall,  Oxford,  1709,  p.  195.)  But  behold  the  close  of  this  magnificent  culo., 
gium!  «' Obiit  vero  Mcilduni"  (at  Malmcsbury),  "  ubi  et  sepultus  fuit :  sed  ttim  tgo 
"  nupcr  Meilduni  e^isem,  el  locum  ejus  scpulturae  quarercm,  tarn  obscurus  sitis  monachis  fuit, 
'•  ut  unus  aut  alter  tanlum  vomen  in  memoria  relinuerit."  (P.  196.)  So  precarious  is  fame 
in  the  mouth  and  memory  of  inan  ! 

^  M.  Westminster,  360. 

•  Malmcsbury,  f.  27.     •'  Post  annum." 

knew 


CHAP.   1.]  HISTORICALLY    SUllVEYED.  r, 

know  to  be  advancing  with  vengeance  on  its  brow  towards  himf.  He 
thus  took  refuge  from  Athelstaii,  in  the  grave;  but  Godefrid,  his  son  by 
a  former  marriage,  remained.  This  son  had  certainly  engaged  v\  ith  his 
father  in  the  rebeUion  against  Athelstan.  He  had  also  instigated  his 
father,  probably,  to  the  divorcement  of  the  queen  his  step-mother,  and  to 
the  supersedence  of  Christianity  again  by  the  paganism  of  Denmark.  He 
had  accordingly  taken  possession  of  the  throne  on  the  death  of  his  father, 
and  continued  the  rebellion  which  his  father  had  begim+  :  but  now,  as 
Athelstan  approached,  Godefrid,  conscious  of  all  his  offences,  and  sensible 
of  his  great  weakness,  fled  from  York  the  metropolis  of  Northumbria  : 
then  Tork  opened  its  gates  to  the  Saxons.  Their  monarch  afterwards 
took  the  castle,  which  the  Danish  kings  had  erected  tor  their  residcnee  ; 
divided  the  very  ample  booty  within  it,  which  Godefrid  in  the  hastiness 
of  his  flight  had  left  behind  him,  man  by  man  to  his  soldiery;  and,  in  the 
warmth  of  his  resentment  against  the  family  of  Sihtric,  or  in  the  heat  of 
his  resolution  to  terminate  the  Danish  sovereignty  of  Northumbria  lor 
ever,  levelled  the  whole  palace  to  the  ground  §. 


f  Malmesbury,  f.  27,  "  Vita  deturbatus;"  M.Westminster,  360,  "  Mirabilitcr  tcmii- 
"  navil,"  and  "Male  iK-riit." 

.    I  Florence  of  Worcester,  348,  London,  1592,    "  Gulliferdo  qui  patri  in  regnimi  suc- 
*'  cesserat." 

§  Malmesburv,  f.  27.  Tlie  site  of  the  palace  or  castle,  I  suppose,  is  what  Leland  thus 
notices :  "  Tlie  plotte  of  this  castelle  is  now  caullid  the  Old  Baile,  and  the  area  and  ditches 
"of  it  do  manifesieley  apperc."  (Itin.  i.  58,  edit,  third,  1770.)  Of  Leiand's  learning  the 
literary  world  talks  loudlv,  and  I  shall  have  a  thousand  occasions  to  speak  hereafter.  But  of 
what  is  infinitely  superior  to  learning,  the  goodness  of  his  heart,  or  ;,to  use  a  more  proper  ex- 
pression) the  dignity  of  his  spirit,  the  world  says  nothing,  and  I  wish  to  speak  here.  Bale,  in 
a  letter  to  him,  therefore  tlatiering  him  probably,  yet  iiy  the  very  flaiicry  proving  what  cha- 
racter he  wished  to  bear,  writes  thus  of  him  :  "  Carnaiibus  euris  alicnus,  luiijue  quodam- 
"  modo  oblitus,  honorcm  spernis,  spernis  etdiviiias,  dum,  parvula  celU  ssepius  inclusus,  alils 
"  prodcsse  studueris  assiihie."  (Lives of  Leland,  Hearnc,  and  Wood,  Oxford,  1772,  i.  86.J 
Accordingly  Leland  himself  cries  out  in  this  elevated  tone  of  voice,  concerning  a  scholar  suc- 
cessively made  archbishop,  patriarch,  and  cartliaal :  "  Ecce  blandientis  fortunx  nuincra,  qui- 
"  bus  quos  vult  beat !  quanquam,  si  mihi  lieeret  dicere  citra  oflTensain  quod  scnlio,  tantum 
"  abest  ut  hajusnv).ii  sortis  h  initii.s  bcatos  puteni,  ut  mediocritatem  tutam el prlvatam  longi 
"  praferam."   (De  Script.  Brit.  340.)     Mkcum,  et  cum  Jovk,  skntit. 

ILning 


•  TIIF.    CATIIUDUAL    OV    CORKW'ALL  [cHAP.  I. 

Haviiip  done  this,  with  the  same  resolution  or  in  the  same  resentment, 
he  advanced  to  liamhorough  in  Nortluimberland;  which  was  the  original 
capital  of  the  Northumbrian  kingdom,  when   the  kingdom  was  only  a 
county,  and  Northuml)ria    confined    to  Northumberland.-   This  was 
btill  maintained  for  UodctVid,  though  he  himself  had  tied  farther  to  the 
north II ;    but  Athclstan  took  it*,  and  pursued  his  successes  by  following 
Godetrid  to  his  place  of  retreat.     This  young  prince,  whom  we  might 
pity  as  unfortunate  if  we  did  not  consider  him  as  guilty,  had  now  de- 
serted NorLlunnbria  entirely,  and  taken  refuge  with  Constantuue  king  of 
the  Scotsf ;  the  dominions  of  Scotland  tlicn  coming  no  lower  than  the 
friths  of  Forth  and  Clyde,  and  there  meeting  the  dominions  of  Nt)rthum- 
bria.     Athclstaii  therefore  .sent  his  ambassadors  to  this  king,  demanding 
the  royal  refugee  from  him,  and  denouncing  war  against  him  if  he  re- 
fused to  comply +.   Constantine  refused,  for  Athelstan  marched  on.     In 
that  vigour  of  resolution,  and  with  that  promptness  of  action,  which  seem 
to  hav?  strongly  marked  the  character  of  tliis  Saxon  monarch,  he  invaded 
the  country  of  the  Scots.     C'ojistantine  engaged  him  in  the  field,   but 
Athelstan  was  victorious  §.     This  blow  humbled  the  honest  pride  of  the 
Scottish   sovereign.      He   found   himself  obligcrd   to   do   what    he    had 
honourably  refused  before.     He  prepared  to  deliver  up  the  king  who 
had  fled  for  refuge  to  him,  but  took  care  probably  to  give  him  notice  of 
his  preparation.     GodefVid  escaped,  and  threw  himself  upon  the  honour 
of  an  a-^ljoining  sovereign.  He  had  little  choice  to  make  ;  but  he  now  fled 
to  a  king  much  less  able  to  protect  him  than  the  Scottish,  yet  marked 

I  Malmcsbury,  f.  2". 

•  Florence,  34.8,  "  Aldredum — de  rcgia  urbc — cxpulit." 

t  Malmcsbury,  f.  27. 

J  Malmcsbury,  ibid, 

§  Florence,  348,  "  Rcgcin  Scotorum  Constanllnum — prselio  vicit  et  fugavit."  Tiie  Saxon 
Chronicle  says,  ihat  Athelstan  invaded  Scotland  with  forces  by  land  and  sea,  and  ravaged 
much  of  il;  two  circumstances  undoubtedly  false,  as  contradicted  equally  by  the  tenoiir  and 
by  the  dates  of  the  facts  here.  He  advanced  only  towards  Scoon,  I  apprehend,  then  the  seat 
of  the  Scottish  sovereigns,  and  ever  since  therefore  the  scene  of  their  coronation  ;  and,  in  the 
same  train  of  moulding  the  past  events  of  history  in  order  to  please  the  present  generation  of 
readers,  of  stifling  facts  in  order  to  flatter  folly,  the  Scottish  Chronicle  has  suppressed  this 
wtiolc  transaction,     Boecius,  iv.  21,  24. 

out 


CHAP.  I.]  nrSTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  f 

out  by  fame  (I  apprehend)  for  a  high  spirit  of  heroism  and  honour.  This 
was  Eugenius,  Ewen,  or  Owen,  the  sovereign  of  Cumbriii||,  whose 
kingdom  appears,  from  the  present  history,  to  have  been  merely  the 
county  of  Cumberland,  and  whose  eapital  ecpially  appears  from  that,  as 
well  as  other  authorities,  to  have  been  Penrith*. 

Athelstan  accordingly  sent  his  ambassadors  to  Owen,  as  he  had  sent 
to  Constantine  before.  Owen  refused,  like  Constantine  ;  and  AlheLstan 
began  his  march  into  Cumberland.  Owen  was  unable  to  face  him  in  the 
field,  as  Constantine  faced  ;  and  Atiielstun  marched  towards  the  capital, 
without  encouatering  any  ojiposition.  Owen  therefore  \\as  obliged  to 
submit,  like  Constantine ;  and  prepared,  like  him,  to  give  up  his  royal 
refugeef.     But  Godefrid  again  tied;  now  took  the  desperate  resolution 

II  Malmesbury,  f.  27,  "  Eugcnium  rcgum  Cumbroruni ;"  and  Lcland's  Collectanea,  i. 
330,  edition  second,  1770,  from  a  chronicle  now  unknown,  <*  Owino  rege  Cumbroruni." 
Boecius,  iv.  24,  in  the  sotlishness  ot  falsification,  makes  Owen  a  king  from  the  donation  of 
Constantine. 

•  Richards's  Welsh  Dictionary,  "  PenrHyn  Rionedd,  the  seat  of  the  princes  of  Cumbria.*' 
The  full  name  of  Penrith,  therefore,  is  Penrhyn  Rionedd,  now  contracted  into  Pen  Riih.  It 
was  apparently  at  first  the  name  of  the  strong  casilc,  belonging  to  the  kintr,  standint:  (like  our 
own  Penryn  in  Cornwall  and  Pcnrm  Point  in  Flintshire)  at  the  termination  of  a  riilge  of  hill, 
and  thence  overlooking  the  plain  or  beach  below.  (Leland's  Iiin.  iv..  52,  vii.  58,  60  ;  Cam- 
den, 639,  edit.  1607  ;  and  Cough's  Camden,  iii.  188,  189.)  The  other  half  of  a  name  so 
extraordinarily  preserved  in  the  VVelbh  manuscripts,  refers  to  the  quality  of  the  stones  and  soil 
with  and  on  which  it  was  built;  Ruanaidh  (Irish)  signifying  red,  reddish,  and  Rior.nadh 
(Irish)  redness  ;  terms  that  are  now  found  only  in  the  Irish  branch  of  the  British  language, 
because  they  have  been  contracted  in  Welsh,  in  Cornish,  in  Arniorick,  into  Rhydh  or  Reihe 
(see  Leland's  Ilin.  iv.  56),  R\dli,  Ryudd  ;  .u)d  Penrhvii  Rionedd,  by  thii  process  of  contraC' 
lion,  shrinking  up  into  Pen  Rilh,  but  still  meaning  the  Red  Prominence.  "  Penrith,"  notes 
Camden  with  his  usual  sagacity,  "  id  est,  si  e  Britannica  lingua  intcrprctaris,  Caput  vcl 
*^  Ctdiis  Ruber ;  rubel  enim  terra,  et  saxa  e  quibus  construllur."  Mr.  Pennant,  in  his 
Scotch  Tour  of  1769,  ii.  43,  octavo,  argues  this  castle,  by  inference  from  a  record,  to  be 
of  no  high  antiquity,  and  not  existing  even  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  when  its 
British  appellation  proves  it  to  have  been  built  in  the  time  of  the  Biitoiis,  when  it  is  actually 
mentioned  in  the  Drillsli  manuscripts  of  Wales  as  the  seat  of  the  British  kmgs  of  Cumbria, 
and  when  therefore  Mr.  I'enn.aut's  record  cau  only  shew  it  toha\e  lain  duuianilcd  lu  the  time 
of  Henry. 

t  Malmesbury,  f.  27. 

ot 


g  riir    CATIIEDK.VL    Of    COUNWAl-L  [CHAP.   I. 

ofmakinga-i-nnd  push  K.r  ilu-  rrcovcrv  of  his  Northumbrian  royalty; 
eiitert-d  the  roxmUs  ,  atvompanicci  .»nly  by  one  friend,  the  constant  com- 
panion of  his  person,  and  the  unshaken  sharer  of  his  misfortunes;  yet 
was  instantly  joined  bv  several  of  his  mfirc  subjects,  the  Danes.  With 
these  be  ad^anccd  boldlv  to  the  walls  of  Vork,  the  possession  of  which 
would  give  him  great  advantages.  He  tried  by  entreaties  to  win  over 
the  citizens  those  natural  defendants  of  a  city  when  eveiy  citizen  was  a 
soldier,  and  the  artificial  idea  of  a  garrison  of  regulars  was  yet  unknown. 
But  no  entreaties  cotild  prevail  upon  them.  He  had  recourse  to  threats; 
and  tlireats  were  ecpially  incrtcctual.  He  was  in  no  capacity  either  to  lay 
formal  siege  to  it.  or  t(»  give  it  a  brisk  assault.  He  was  obliged  to  abandon 
his  enterprise,  and  to  dismiss  his  soldiery  ;  was  then  seized  with  his 
friend,  and  thrown  into  prison  ;  but  found  means  with  him  to  elude  his 
jailors,  and  cscai)ed.  Such  are  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  an  adventurous 
life!  Yet  he  retained  so  nuich  of  the  mean  and  Danish  turn  for  piracy  as 
to  embark  in  a  piratical  expedition  upon  the  sea  ;  soon  lost  his  friend  by 
shipwreck;  siUlcred  great  hardships  himselt",  by  land  or  by  \^atcr;  but  at 
last,  with  one  of  those  turns,  ccpially  sudden  and  violent,  which  always 
mark  the  mind  of  barbarians,  repaired  as  a  suppliant — to  the  very  court 
of  Athelstan  himself.  There  he  was  received  in  amity,  and  entertained 
with  magnificence  by  this  honourable,  this  splendid  monarch,  who  had 
been  bred  a  scholar,  even  aspiretl  to  be  an  author,  and  was  therefore 
making  the  laurels  of  learning  his  shade  against  the  heats  of  war*.    His 

•  Letand  dc  Script.  Rrit.  i6o  :  "Liquet  Etlulstammi  bonoruni  libronim  fuissc  amatorem, 
•'  eundcmniic  (ut  ego  indc  colligo)  rem  liicrariam  coluissc.  Subserviunt  et  nostras  opiiiioni 
"  nijusdam  Don  'm-cruditi  laudatoris  Hthelstani  vcrMiculi  : 

"  Extimuil  rigidos,  fcnila  crcpitante,  niagislrosj 

•'  Va,  potans  avidis  doctrinje  mclla  mediillis, 

"  Dci-urrit  tencros,  std  non  pueriliter,  annoe. 
••  At  quae  Guticlmus  [Malmcsburiensis]  adfcrt,  longc  (inqiiam)  certiora  sunt.  Scrlbit  enim 
"  Ethrl.it.muni  ituim  fu'ts^e  cnlamo,  atquc  adco  sc  vidisse  librum  ah  eo  scriplum,  quamvis  in 
"  illo  Lalinx  lingua  puritatem  desiderct.  Ergone  cxpiingerem  ex  eruditorum  albo  tanti 
"  principis  nomcn,  parv&  imperfccti  styli  macule  aspersum  ?  Non  certe,  cum  magnis  viris 
*•  vcl  tcntarissc  ut  Latinc  scribcrcnt  non  leve  sit.  Mihi  equidem  mirum  videtur,  quo  pacto 
"  aliquid  lingua  peregrin^  cxararc  potucrit  j  prxscrtim,  cum  csjcl  tot  Danicarum  Irruptionum 
•'  jToccllis  inipclitus." 

^  unlettered 


CHAP.  I.].  HISTORICALLY    SURVETTtB.  g 

unlettered  guest,  however,  by  another  revohition  of  mind  as  violent  and 
as  sudden  as  the  former,  m  Jour  days  grew  tired  of  the  scene,  returned  to 
his  ships,  and  recommenced  his  piracies*. 

In  the  mean  time  Athelstan  had  reached  the  vicinity  of  Penrith,  and 
took  up  his  head-quarters  to  the  south  of  the  town,  upon  the  river  I'irnot 
there,  and  within  the  walls  of  Dacor  castle  :  but  Constantine  had  gene- 
rously come  into  Cumberland  with  his  fomily  to  procure  a  peace  for 
Owen ;  had  come  probably  in  the  very  army  of  the  Saxons,  the  very  so- 
ciety of  Athelstan  ;  and  now  repaired  certainly  to  Owen  in  the  castl(»  of 
Penrith,  to  recommend  submission  to  him.  In  Owen's  situation,  little 
urgency  would  be  required.  The  only  ditBculty  would  he,  the  prcsen  a- 
tion  of  his  honour  to  Jih/i,  who  had  taken  refuge  under  it.  But  this  dif- 
ficulty was  removed  prolrably  by  acting  as  Constantine  had  acted  before, 
by  giving  Godefrid  an  intimation  of  his  danger,  and  suggesting  an  im- 
mediate flight  to  him.  Then  Owen  came  out  of  his  castle  with  Con- 
stantine, and  waited  upon  the  Saxon  sovereign  at  Dacor,  on  the  twentij- 
ninth  day  of  July.  Such  confidence  had  Owen,  like  Godetrid  and  Con- 
stantine, in  the  honour  of  Athelstan  !  Passions  at  once  so  ferocious  and 
so  generous  do  the  agitations  of  war  produce  in  the  mind  of  man!  There 
they  both  entered  into  a  submissive  kind  of  alliance  with  him,  and  swore 
to  the  faithful  observance  of  peace  towards  him.  But  in  order  to  lend 
this  compact  of  amity  an  indissoluble  firmness,  the  binding  obligations  of 
Christianity  were  called  in  ;  an  infant  son  of  Constantine's,  \\  ho  had 
singidarly  been  brought  with  him  in  tliis  very  view,  was  now  bapti/.cd  ; 
and  Athelstan  stood  godtather  to  himf . 

SECTION 

*  Malmesbury,  f.  27. 

t  Florence,  348:  "  li  omnes,  vAi  sc  viderunt  non  posse  stremiltati  illius  resisterc,  pacem  ah 
**  eo  pctentcp,  in  loco  qui  ilicitur  Eamoluni  quarto  idCis  Julii  convencrunt,"  8:c.  Malmct- 
burv,  f.  27  :   "  Ad  locum  qui  Dacor  vocatur  vtnicntes,"  &c. 

This  Eugenius,  Ewen,  or  Owen,  1  believe  to  be  the  very  pcrionage,  to  whom  belong*  a  re- 
markable sepulchre  in  Ptnrith  churchyard,  which  has  Tic\'er  yet  been  endeavoured  to  be  his- 
torically appropriated.  This  is  said,  by  tradition,  to  be  "  the  grave  of  one  Sir  Ewen  Crsarius 
"  knight,  m  old  time  a  famous  warriour  of  great  strength  and  stature  (the  grave  being 
"  about  fifteen  feet  long),  who  lived  in  these  part^,  and  killed  hars  [and  Toilers,"  Gough,  iii. 

vox,.  I.  C  189] 


jQ  THE    CATHF-DRAL   01     COILSWALL  [cHAP.  I. 


SECTIOM  II.  . 

So  far  have  I  brought  AthcUtan  on  Jiis  way,  in  his  march  of  conquests 
toward  Cornwall  ;  and'so  particularly  have  I  delineated  his  march,  iil 
order  to  throw  a  just  light  over  this  illustrious  eoiujueror  of  the  Cor^jish! 
The  vcrv  object  of  his  expedition,  indeed,  was  now  obtained  ;  but  his 

l8o]  "  ia  the  forest  of  Ejiglcviocxl,  which  much  infested  the  country."  (Gibson,  c.  11020.) 
This  story  is  «'  universally  credited  by  tlie  vulgar  inhabitants  of  I'cnrith."  (Arclireologia,  ii. 
48.)  "  The  common  vulgar  report  is,"  says  another  writer,  "that  one  Etreii  or  Ouew  Caesa- 
««  riuj,  a  vcryexlraordinar)'  person,  famous  in  these  parts  for  hunt'nig  and  fghling,  about 
«'  1400  year*  ago,  whom  no  hand  but  the  hand  of  death  could  overcome,  lies  buried  in  thia 
«'  place.  That  there  might  be  in  remote  times,  in  these  regions,  men  of  large  gigantic  figures, 
••  as  there  are  now  near  the  Magellanic  Straits,"  an  assertion,  let  us  remember,  long  prior 
to  the  recent  drscovery  of  thtm  by  Captain  Byron  ;  "  and  that  they  viight  affect  Roman  sur- 
"  names  and  distinctions,  as  the  Americans  about  Darien  do  Spanish,  needs  not  either  to  be 
"  discussed  or  denied."  (Dr.  Todd  in  Pennant,  i.  270,  271.)  This  tradition  has  been  so  far 
confirmed  m  digging,  that  "  the  great  long  hand-bones  of  a  man,  and  a  broad-sword,"  have 
been  found  in  the  grave.  (Gough,Vii.  189.)  Nor  was  the  person,  whoever  he  was,  buried 
here  "  about  1400  vears  ago."  He  was  a  Christian,  as  appears  from  the  crosses  on  the  pil- 
lar* at  the  head  and  foot  of  his  grave.  Bishop  Lyllelton,  indeed,  in  Archjcologia,  ii.  48, 
ipcaks  only  of  "  a  cross,  which  appears  towards  the  summit  oi  one  of  the  pillars  ;"  but  one 
cross  i(  as  competent  as  two,  to  prove  the  Christianity  of  the  interred  :  yet  even  the  Bishop's 
own  plate  shews  a  cross  upon  lolh.  So  inattentive  can  antiquaries  be  at  times,  to  the  evi- 
dence which  they  produce  themselves !  Dr.  Todd  also  notices  hotJi,  as  "  tivo  large  stone  pil- 
««  lars, — eructated  towards  the  top  ;"  and  Mr.  Pennant  equally  describes  loth,  as  having 
"  ihe  relievo  of  a  cross  upon  them."  (ii.  40.)  The  person  buried  here  thus  appears  evidently 
to  have  been  buried,  w  hen  Christianity  h.id  been  established,  even  w  hen  churehyards  had  been 
set  out  for  sepulture.  This  the  site,  the  pillars,  .and  the  crosses,  all  unite  to  shew  :  and  the 
»cry  name  unites  with  the  history,  to  p{ovc  that  grave  the  sepulchre  of  this  king,  Otten  Casa- 
reus,  who  lived  at  Penrith  in  a  period  when  Christianity  was  as  much  established  as  it  is  now, 
and  churchyards  were  equally  the  rejiositories  of  the  dead  ;  when  the  Roman  name  of  Euge- 
nius  had  been  formed  by  the  Britons  into  the  seemingly  British  appellation  of  Ewcn,  or 
Owen',  when  too  the  additional  name  of  C^rioritts,  like  that  of  Ce55a;y«rf  for  the  Romans  in 
the  old  manuscripts  of  Wales  (Richards),  was  assumed  and  given  to  signify  his  Roman  origin. 
Thus  Ambrosius  Aurelianus,  the  son  of  a  British  king,  "  parentibus  purpura  nimirum  in- 
"  dutis"  (Gale,  xiv.),  was  a  Roman  by  descent,  "  Romans  gciitis"  (ilid.J, 

5  activity 


.CHAP.  1,]  HISToniCALLT    SURVKVEDi  -Jl' 

\activitj  of  spirit  had  been  whetted  by  his  exertions,  and  broii;!;ht  ton  fine 
edge  by  his  successes.  He  therefore  went  on  to  a  iie\v  enemy  in  the 
south. 

There  were  several  kings  in  Nortli-Wales  at  this  period  ;  these  he  re- 
quired to  wait  upon  him  at  Hereford.  Impressed  with  a  strong  sense  of 
his  power,  they  actually  came  at  his  requisition.  Then  he  demanded 
.that  they  should  own  him  for  their  paramount  lord.  They  had  already 
<lonc  this  in  tact,  but  were  now  called  upon  to  do  it  in  form  ;  yet  so 
much  more  powerful  is  form  than  fact  upon  the  nund  of  man,  they  were 
averse  to  do  it.  They  were  obliged,  however,  to  submit*  ;  and  Athel- 
stan,  with  an  edge  still  finer  upon  his  spirits,  flew  to  a  new  enemy  farther 
in  the  south. 

South-Wales  had  only  one  king  at  this  period,  though  North-Wales 
had  sevoi-al.  He  was  denominated  by  the  Saxons  the  sovereign  of  ^^'ent, 
because  his  capital,  called  Caer  Guent  in  Welsh,  or  Venta  Silurum  in 
Latin,  was  called  Went  in  English.  But  his  personal  aj)peIlation  was 
M'^crf.  He  was  more  resolute  than  his  brothers  of  North-Wales;  re- 
fused the  submission  which  they  had  made,  and  came  into  the  field  w  ith 
an  army  against  Athelstan,  heading  his  victorious  Saxons.  Athelstan  and 
his  Saxons,  however,  became  more  victorious  still,  ^^'er  was  beaten  in 
battle,  and  comp<Mled  to  submit  1^.  Athelstan  then  punished  his  re- 
sistance, by  dismembering  his  kingdom  ;  took  from  him  all  that  naiTow 
region  which  lies  between  the  Severn  and  the  Wye,  being  (he  famous 
ibrest  of  Dean,  made  this  river  t(3  be  what  it  lias  been  over  since,  the 
eastern  boundary  of  South-Wales  ;  and  annexed  t/iuf  region  of  tbrest,  as 
it  has  remained  ever  since  annexed,  to  the  English  county  of  Gloucester §. 

But 

*  Malmcsbury,  f.  27,  "  Nortli-WallcnsiiuTi." 

+  Flomicc,  348,  "  Rcgcm  Uiicnloruin  Wcrj"  M.  Wcstm.  360,  "  Wlfcrlhupi,"  a 
S.ixon  name,  "  rcgem  Wciitorum ;"  and  Hovcden,  f.  242,  Savilc,  "  Rogcin — Wcntorum 
"  Wuer." 

X  Florence,  348,  "  Wcr  prarlio  vicit  ct  fiigavit." 

§  Malmcsbury,  f.  28,  "  Amiicm  Wai.am  limilem."  I  Iciicc  Griffiu  king  of  South-Wales, 
with  some  pirates  i'rom  Ireland,  in  1049  invaded  England  at  this  (luarlcr.  *'  Hex  ct  ipsi  parucr* 

c  2  "  fluUKI), 


J2  Tlir    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  I. 

But  Althcl5t;in  ha-l  not  yet  completed  his  cireuit  of  liostility  round  the 
island.  Floating  on  a  hii^li  sea  ot"  ambition,  and  home  on  with  violence 
hv  the  tide  of  his  successes,  he  now  pushed  up  to  the  very  margin  of  the 
island  in  the  south.  Triumphant  over  the  Danes,  the  Scots,  the  Cuni- 
hrians,  and  the  Welsh,  he  marched  with  all  the  splendour  of  victory,  and 
all  the  pow  er  of  an  empire,  to  attack,  the  Corxisii.  Of  these,  by  an 
astonishing  fatality  of  illiterateness,  wc  have  not  one  native  hislorv",  one 
native  law,  or  even  one  native  coin.  We  therefore  know  nothing  of 
them  in  general,  as  I  hvivc  intimated  already,  but  what  their  enemies  have 
been  pleased  to  tell  us.  This,  however,  is  very  little  as  nafim/ul  intelli- 
gence ;  it  is  confined  to  a  few  solitary  incidents,  such  as  (to.  pass  OA'er 
ftomc  that  are  only  of  slight  consequence,  or  may  be  noticed  hereafter) 
the  devastation  committed  by  Egbert  in  813,  by  over-running  the 
country  "  trom  eastward  to  westward*;"  the  battle  fought  by  his  forces 
at  Camelford  in  823,  in  which  the  silence  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  con- 
cerning the  issue,  under  the  hands  of  that  partial  sagacity  which  is  keenly 
on  the  watch  to  convert  even  silence  into  evidence,  woulil  intimate  the 
Cornish  to  have  been  victorious,  but  is  directly  contradicted  by  another 
history,  which  says  the  Cornish  were  slaughtered  f;  the  battle  fought  by 
Egbert  himself  in  835  against  those  Britons  and  Danes  united,  who  had 
entered  and  ravaged  England,  but  had  retired  at  his  approach,  were  pur- 
sued into  Cornwall,  Mere  overtaken  at  Hengeston  Hill,  and  there  beaten 
with  a  considerable  slaughter  J;  with  two  that  I  am  now  preparing  to 
relate  ;  so  forlorn  and  abandoned  does  Cornwall  appear  upon  the  face  of 
our  island  historv§! 

At 

"  flumcn,  quod  Weage  nomlnatur,  transcuntes,  Duneciham  inccnderunt,"  burnt  down  the 
town  of  Dean,  "  ct  onines  quos  ibi  rcpcricbant  pcrimerunt."   (Florence,  409.) 

•  Saxon  Chronicle.  Gibson  has  translated  "  eastward"  by  "  australi"  (for  "  orientali") 
"  parte." 

t  Sax.  Chron.  says  only,  that  there  was  a  battle;  but  Florence  adds,  that  the  Cornish 
♦'  catsisiini."  (P.  287.) 

J  Sax.  Chron.  and  Florence,  291. 

§  To  ihcsc  incidents,  from  Saxon  historians,  let  me  just  add  one  that  comes  apparently 
from  a  Wcl>h  pen,  and  has  never  been  noticed  before.  "  Ivor,  Cadwaladri  (ilius,"  says  Le- 
lAod  io  extracts  from  an  anonymous  chronicle  of  Wales,  •'  successit.  Obiit  Cadwaladrus 

'•  anno 


CHAP.  I.]  ntSTORICALLY   SURVEYHD.  13 

At  that  grand  sera  of  confusion  to  half  the  globe,  the  dissolution  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  the  settlement  of  barbarians  within  it,  new  nations 
of  natives  seem  to  emerge  into  notice,  as  new  appellations  superseJe  the 
old,  even  in  regions  \\hich  were  familiar  to  us  before.  Tiie  Britons  of 
Kent,  Sussex,  and  Wiltshire,  of  Jk-dfordshire,  Cheshire,  and  Devonshire, 
of  Somersetshire,  Cornwall,  and  all  England  indeed,  arif?e  before  us  on 
the  pages  of  histon ,  under  the  new  denominations  of  Wealas,  JBryt- 
wealas,  W}  lise,  or  Walena*.  The  Armoricans  of  Gaule  come  to  us  in 
the  same  "  questionable  shape,"  seemingly  ditfcrent  from  themselves, 
and  actually  wearing  the  disguising  title  of  Britons.  The  latter  incident 
therefore  has  given  rise  to  a  report  of  an  embarkation  which  was  never 
made  in  our  ibland,  and  of  a  settlement  \\  hich  was  never  attempted  on 
the  continent.  The  fabulists  on  both  sides  of  the  Chaimel  are  loud  in 
their  assertions  of  a  large  migration  across  it,  of  which  they  cannot  pro- 
duce one  historical  evidence,  and  for  which  they  have  only  the  shadowy 
authority  of  a  name.     They  might  \\  ith  equal  judiciousness  asseit  an 

"annoDom.  680 — Bellum  apud  Heyl  in  Cornulia.  Belliim  Gard  Mailanc.  Bellum  Pcnlun. 
"  In  his  bi-'lis,  regna/ile  Ivor,  Brilones  v'lcerunt  Saxoiies."  (Itin.  viii.  86.)  li'here  this 
batlle  was  fouglu  at  tii-yl  in  Cornwall,  is  pointed  out  to  us  by  a  circumstance,  slight  in  it- 
«clf,  but  u.-eriil  jn  application.  Dr.  Borlase  is  the  only  person  who  has  observed,  that  "  at 
*•  the  mouth  of  this  Heylford  river,"  which  peninsulates  the  region  of  Alenege  from  the 
rest  of  C  )rn wall,  and  issues  into  the  sea  a  little  to  the  soutli  west  of  Fahnouih,  "  iliere  is  a 
*•  cjick  stdl  called  Forth  Sansscn,  or  Saxon's  Port."  Yet  this  creek  does  not,  as  the  Docior 
argue?,  "  thereby  shew  itself  to  have  been  fornicrlyyre^aew/e^/  by  the  Saxons,"  as  it  proves 
itself  to  have  been  merely  used  by  them.  Much  less  docs  it  appear  to  have  been  "frequented 
"  ill  the  time  of  Constanlius  and  his  brothers."  (Borlase's  Antiquities,  ;5o2,  edit,  second.) 
This  is  much  too  early  a  date,  for  the  Saxons  frequenting  a  creek  so  remote  and  vvcsieni  as  .i 
Cornish  one.  It  was  in  fact  used  by  thcui  about  three  hundred  years  later.  Then  they 
landed  here,  were  here  attacked,  and  here  defeated  w  iih  a  slaughter  so  memorable  as  to  fi,<  the 
name  of  the  Saxon  Port  for  ever  upon  the  place,  and  to  be  recorded  with  two  other  de- 
feats of  the  Saxons  ni  the  same  reign,  even  l)y  the  pen  of  a  Wel^h  chronicler.  The  histori- 
cal notice  comes  with  a  decisive  sway  to  mark  the  signification  of  the  name  ;  and  the  name 
comes  with  a  striking  propriety  to  indicate  the  sense  of  the  notice.  The  port  lies  on  the 
northern  side  of  the  Hcvl,  but  in  the  Gieat  Map  of  Cornwall  has  no  denomination  at  all :  it 
lias  none,  cv.nin  iiorlase's  own  abstract  of  that  map:  it  is  marked,  however,  in  the  former 
as  a  nameless  creek  a  little  cast  of  Durgan. 

*  Sax.  Chron.  p.  14,  15,  ao,  22,  25,  70,  39,  45>  S^j  70>and  23>  *5' 

iraipti  )n 


\i  TifR  rvTiiEDnAL  or  Cornwall  [c]la.p.  i. 

irruption  of  tlu-  Welsh  into  Kent,   ami  a  settlement  of  rlie  Walloons  in 
Clirshire*.     These  new  appellations  were  borne  equally  with  the  old. 
during  the  existence  of  (he  Koman  empire  ;   were  only  less  timiiliar  than 
the  old,  at  f/tis  jwriod  ;  and  came  from  various  causes  to  supcrseilc  the 
old.  in  //////.     The  IJritons  of  Kent  were  denominated  Welsh,  while  the 
Hornans  possessed  the  island;  and  were  therefore  noticed  as  A\'clsh,  at  the 
t«)ninicncement  i»t" Saxon  hostilities  against  them-j-.   It  N\as  their  generic 
name  indeed,    while  that  of  Cantii   was   merely  their  provincial  or  na- 
tional one;   they,  and  all  the  other  triljes  \\  Inch  opposed  Ca?sar  in  liis 
second  expedition,  being  equally  denominated  by  the  very  Chronicle  of 
the  Suxons,    Jh•yt-^^aIas;    even  all  the  tribes  south  of  Severus's  wall, 
beitjg  s;iid  in  the  same  Chronicle  to  have  had  this  wall  erected  by  Severiis 
for  them  as  ]Jrit-\\alum  ;  and  even  all  the  tribes  south  of  both  the  walls, 
Antoninus's,  ecpially  with  Severus's,  being  averred  as  Bryt-walas  to  have 
implored  assistance  from  Rome  in  4  13  '^.    So  the  Gauls  of  Armorica  were 
called  iJritons  assuredly,  as  some  Gauls  of  ric;irdy  certainly  were§;  and 
as  all  the  Gauls  of  our  island  avowedly  were,  at  the  time  of  the  Roman 
reduction  ot"  tliem  ;  yet  were,  from  some  circumstances  unknown  to  us, 
generally  called  Armoricans  then  ;  and,  from  others  equally  unknown, 
were  commonly  entitled  iJritons  afterward. 

Thus  the  BriKMis,  to  ilic  west  of  the  Severn  and  tlie  Dee,  were  denomi- 
nated \\'eaIas,or\\'clisse,by  theSaxons||;  are  therefore  denominated  Welsh 
by  ourselves;  and,  even  as  early  as  the  sixth  century,  entitled  their  own 
country  Wallia  or  Wales  ^[,  yet  have  in  all  ages  retained  equally  their 
primary  names  of  Brython  and  Brythoneg,  for  themselves  and  for  their 
language.  Thus  also  the  Britons  of  Cornwall,  bearing  the  general  title 
of  Welsh,  were  distinctively  entitled,  at  times,  the  Western  A\'elsh,  as 

*  Sax.  Chron.  25. 
+  Sax.  Chron.  14. 
X  Sax.  Cliron.  2,  7,  1 1. 
^  Carlr,  i.  56. 
j(  Sax.  ChrDii.  105,  163. 

i  Talicssin  is  cited  by  Dr.  Davics,  in  his  Welsh  Grammar,  as  calling  his  own  country, 
»ith  a  singular  sort  of  iiigcauousut-w,  "  Gwylt  Wallia,"  or  "  Wild  Wales." 

the 


CHAP.    I.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  J5 

the  Britons  of  Wales  were  the  Northern*;  yet  were  occasionally  called, 
as  the  more  westerly  CornLsh  formerly  were,  the  Carnubii^  or  Cornu- 
bians;  their  country  being  considercfi  to  be  the  horn  or  Kcrnoii  ot  Bri- 
tain, as  Cornwall  was  called  in  its  own  language,  or  Kcr/ii/r,  as  it  is 
still  called  in  its  kindred  language  the  AVelshf.  And  at  last,  by  the  du- 
plication of  one  name  upon  1  he  other,  so  prefixing  A't;/7/o«  to  Jl'uUia,  the 
land  and  the  natives  were  denominated  Corxu-gallia,  or  Corn-wall, 
and  Corn-wallish,  or  C:or.msh.  But,  by  the  very  same  process  of 
critical  chemistry,  the  Gallic  region  at  that  angle  of  France  which  corre- 
sponds with  this  angle  of  Britain,  assumed  the  very  same  appellation  of 
Cornu-gaU'ia,  or  Corn-aall.  A  religious  clergyman  of  the  name  of 
Paul  or  Paulinas |,  w  ho  afterwards  lent  his  name  to  that  citv  of  Bre- 
tagnd  in  which  he  presided  as  a  bishop,  St.  Paul  dc  Leon§,  and  has 
equally  lent  it  to  one  of  our  parishes  in  Cornwall,  denominated  Paulin  in 
Pope  Nicholas's  Valor,  but  in  Henry's,  as  in  popular  langiiage  now.  Paid  ; 
is  said  to  have  lived  a  hermit  in  the  sixth  century  "  upon  the  isle  of  Osa, 
"  whic;h  is  separated  in  a  direct  passage  from  the  continent  of  Armorka, 
"  called  Cornu  Galli.i;,  by  a  sea  of  sixteen  paces  ]|."  In  the  5aine  cen- 
tury, 

•  Sax.  Chron.  A.  D.  628,  "  North-Wealas ;"  A.  D.  835,  "  Wcst-Wcalas ;"  Flo- 
rence, 3+8,  "  Occidentalium  Briionuni ;"  291,  "  Occidintaliiim  Eritoniim  lerrani  qua; 
Curvalia  vocatur ;"  Malmcsbury,  f.  27,  "  OcciJcn%ilcs  Britnncs  qui  Cornwallcnscs  vocan- 
"  tur;"ancl  f.  ?8,  "  Aqiiiloiiaribus  Briialinis"  for  those  on  the  Wye. 

t  Cornwall  is  called  "  Coi  nubicn?is-  regie,"  so  early  as  the  sixth  century,  and  by  the 
writer  of  what  is  styled  the  Kegister  of  Llandatf.  Usher's  Brit.  Eeclcs.  Ant.  p.  290,  edit.  2d, 
1687. 

%  Usher,  252. 

§  Usher,  ibid. 

H  Usher,  290,  from  Aymoinus.  "  In  Oia— insul.i,  qux  .i  coniinenti  Armoricanx  re- 
"  gionis  terra,  quam  Cornn  Galliae  noniinant,  pelago  scxdecim  passuum  in  transvcrstnn 
"  porrecto  sejungitur."  What  name  this  isle  of  Osa  now  bears,  let  these  re.isnns  ascertain. 
It  is  certainly  not  Aix,  as  the  correspondency  of  names  leads  the  mind  directly  to  suppose, 
because  Aix  is  in  the  province  of  I'oitDu,  not  Bretagne,  being  at  the  nioutti  of  the  Chartnic, 
the  river  leading  u|)  to  Rochfort.  It  is  assuredly  the  isle  dtnoniinaled  Saintcs,  from  the 
residence  of  this  and  other  samts  upon  it.  It  lies  a  little  to  the  south  of  the  opcni.ng  into 
Brest  harbour,  and  very  near  the  shore;  being  formerly  called,  I  suppose,  like  the  isle  in  the 
Chareiite,  Osa,  or  Aix.  "  Isle  des  Saints— n'cst  scparte  d'une  poinie  de  la  Bret.ignc,  dans 
•'  le  diocese  dc   Kimper,  que   par  un  canal    il'diviron  4000   loises,"  or  iicurly   tive  miles. 

(D'Anvillc'i 


j^  THE   CATIIF.DKAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  I. 

turv.  the  Mxih.  one  Budic  is  said  expressly  to  have  been  born  "  in  Corxu- 
'•  GALLi.i;"  to  luive  gone  into  Soutli-M'ales;  to  have  there  received  an 
..mbassy  '"  from  his  native  region  cfCoRNU-CALUA,"  inviting  him  "  to 
••  receive  the  rovahy  of  Armorkar  to  have  reigned  accordingly  "  oxcvall 
"  .Irmorica,"  and  to  Iiave  been  visited  by  a  Welsh  bishop  at  "  Cornu- 
'•  (i  vLLiA.  which  was  aftcnv  ards  called  Ccrml-  Budic."  from  him*.  Corn- 
mill,  therefore,  was  the  appellation  for  the  /r//o/<' province  of  Brctagne, 
and  lias  surprisingly  remained  the  ai)pellation  for  a  part  to  the  present 
day;  a  peninsular  projection  of  the  coast  to  the  south  of  Brest,  and  near 
the  city  of  Quimpcr,  being  called,  though  little  known  to  be  so,  Cor- 
NouAiLLK,  or  Quimpcrentin  now;  just  as  our  Cornwall  is  called  CornaUle 
in  French  at  present,  and  "  Cornu  Gallia:"  in  Latin  by  an  English 
w Titer  of  the  twelfth  ccnturyf. 

Nor  is  this  all  the  similarity  between  tlic  two  "  chops  of  the  chan- 
nel." Ihc  Damnoniuu  Britons  of  Devonshire,  and  their  region  Domno- 
7i'ia,  as  called  in  the  middle  ages,  were  answered  by  the  region  Dom- 
voncc  in  the  north  of  Brctagnti*.     Tlie  saints  of  Cornwall  were  by  the 

Arm  or  i  cans 

(D'Anvillt's  Notice  de  I'ancicnne  Gaulc,  596.)  The  sea  has  plainly  gained  upon  the  isle 
since  the  days  of  Paulinus ;  and  thus  has  formed  the  breakers  so  formidable  to  a  coasting 
navigation  here,  with  a  channel  between  the  isle  ami  the  continent,  deep  enough  (as  the  ex- 
perience of  our  own  sailors  has  very  recently  proveil)  to  float  one  of  our  forly-gun  ships  of 
war.  Yet  D'Anville  (727}  fixes  Osa  at  Ushant,  from  strangely  reading  the  sixteen  paces 
of  A'moinus  into  twentij-six  ntWes.  Ushant  was  really  named  so,  as  Occident',  Nennius 
nolicuig  Armorica,  or  Rretagnc,  as  "  ad  Cuniuluui  occidtntalem,  i.  e.  Crut-Ockidenit,"  for 
Crug  Ochuient.  (C.  xxiii.) 

*  Usher,  igi  :  "  Naius  dc  Comugallia; — de  nativa  sua  regione  Cornugallia ; — ad  reci- 
piendum regnum  Armoricae  gentis; — per  totam  Arnioricani  terram  ; — Cornugalliam,  quce 
"  postea  vocata  Cerniu  Budic." 

+  Mahnesbury,  18  and  19,  "  Cornu  Gallia»." 

\  Uistoire  de  Bretagne,  par  Dom  Gui  Alexis  Lobineau,  1707;  a  work  more  dignified  in 
the  eucouragcment  than  in  the  execution,  if  I  may  judge  from  the  earlier  part  of  the  whole, 
torn.  i.  6.  "  Le  nom  de  Domnoncc,  -juc  les  Bretons  donnerent  a  la  partie  septentrionale 
«'  de  la  province."  (i.  91.)  "  Toule  la  Domnonee,  c'esla  dire,  les  dioceses  de  S.  Brieuc,  de 
'«  Trcguer,  de  Del,  et  de  S.  Malo."  In  the  Life  of  Paul,  the  bishop  of  Leon,  we  find  him 
attended  at  one  lime  by  "  Induale  cognomenlo  Candido,  Demouonensis  patriae  magna  ex 

♦'  parte 


CHAP.  I.]  mSTORICAI.LYSUnVF.VED.  i; 

Armoricans  adopted  fw  tlicir  saints,  and  assumed  for  their  country- 
3nen§.  Even  particular  appellations  of  places  are  exactly  the  same  in 
both  regions !|.  Tlie  coiuinuuication  between  Bretagne  and  our  Corn- 
wall appears  to  have  been  great  in  the  sixth  century*,  to  have  been  con- 
tinued for  several  centuries  afterwards f,  and  to  have  lasted  as  late  as  the 
middle  of  tlie  sixteenth :|:;  even  (I  suppose)  till  the  incorporation  ot 
Bretagne  into  the  reahn  of  France  in  1532,  annihilated  eventually  ;ill  pro- 
vincial connexions,  and  absorbed  them  in  the  general  interests  of  na- 
tional policy.  That,  however,  did  not  (as  may  be  presumed  by  those 
•who  never  contemplate  more  than  a  single  grain  of  sand  at  a  time,  mIio 
therefore  do  not  ever  consider  it  as  in  union  with  the  whole  mass)  ^t7/<'/-«/c 
the  identity  of  names  in  the  two  regions,  but  coiitinac  them ;  did  not 
unite  with  tlie  identity  of  language,  just  as  wonderfully  preserved  in 
Bretagne  as  in  Cornwall,  by  the  long  detachment  of  both  from  the  rc;st 
-of  the  country,  to  create,  but  to  tranmii'it,  local  appellations  exactly  the 
same  in  both.  Just  in  this  very  manner  we  sec  at  or  about  the  con- 
chiding  residence  of  the  Romans  upon  the  isle,  C/mbri  in  Cornwall, 
C^mro  in  Wales,  and  Cwmbri  in  Cumberland§;  Ci/rnabii,  or  Cornabii, 
in  Scotland,  with  Crtrnabii,  or  Cornavii,  in  Cheshire,  and  Cornabii  in 
Cornwall;  Damnii  or  Damnonii,  in  Scotland;  Damnii  in  Ireland;  I)//m- 
nonii,  Domnonii,  or  D«mnonii,  in  Devonshire ||.  So  clearly  was  all  tliis 
coincidence  of  appellations  derived,  not,  as  nodding  criticism  or  dream- 

parte  ducenobilissimo."  (Uslicr,  290.)  Malmesbiiry,  18,  "  Doninonia  qujcDcvcncschirc." 
Florence,  362,  "  h\  Doninonia  et  in  ipsa  Cornubia," 

§  Histoirc  dc  Bretagne,  i.  9. 

II  Histoire,  i.  92,  "  Kcrahcz,  aiitremcnl  Carhais."  So  Carliayts  in  Cornwall  \i  some- 
times written  Clicrryhayes.     See  also  iv.  5,  lurcafter,  for  Coriult. 

*  Usher,  290. 

t  Usher,  293. 

X  Lcland's  Itin.  ii.  114. 

^  In  Llavarch  H-cn,  a  bard  of  Cviniljcrland,  but  a  refugee  in  Powis,  we  have  tlie  latter 
country  •called  "  Powys  paraduys  Gyniri."   (Llniyd,  259.) 

g  Ptolemy,  Richard,  and  Solinus.  These  and  other  variati(His  of  the  last  name,  .•«<  Donii, 
Dumnani,  Dumnunnii,  in  Kavennas  and  Antoninus,  serve  to  evince,  that  Danmonii,  at  it 
has  been  recently  aflectcd  to  be  read,  and  as  Richard's  map  actually  reads  it,  is  only  a  fj!>e 
formation  of  the  word. 

VOL.  r.  D  i"g 


(g  TllF.    CATHEOnAL    OF    CORXV/ALL  [ciIAP.  I 

Ing  tra*litJon  wouUl  willingly  surmise,  from  the  successive  propagation  of 
colonics,  but,  as  aU  the  facts  unite  to  attest,  from  the  same  circumstances 
attracting  the  same  appellations  in  the  same  language!  The  last  name 
in  all  its  variations  originates  from  a  circumstance  still  existing  univer- 
sally among  the  natives;  the  practice  of  tixing  their  houses  in  the  bottoms, 
to  shelter  themselves  from  the  winds,  that  l>eat  with  uncommon  violence 
upon  this  exposed  point  of  the  island ;  a  practice  familiar  to  this,  with 
other  regions  of  the  isle  at  first,  but  preserved  still  in  this,  because  of 
that  violence.  In  the  other  regions,  tiic  wild  elements  of  the  isle  have 
been  tamed,  by  the  excision  of  tiiose  woods  or  forests,  and  by  the  drain- 
ing of  those  marshes,  mosses,  or  bkes,  which  were  continually  engen- 
dering cold  and  wind;  while  the  protrusion  of  the  land  In  one  long,  but 
gradually  contracted  prominence  from  Somersetshire  a>id  Dorsetshire, 
to  meet  the  extended  waves  of  the  vast  Atlantic,  and  to  encounter  the 
storms  of  the  stormiest  part  of  it,  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  is  a  geographical 
particular  which  nuist  remain  for  ever*. 

Thus  circumstanced,  the  Damnonian  Britons  to  the  tenth  century 
maintained  their  ground  against  the  Saxons,  as  far  to  the  east  as  the 
river  Kxe.  Such  were  the  dimensions  of  Cornwall  in  02/ !  The  Cornish 
then  prcsen-ed  nearly  all  tlicir  old  possessions  safe  from  the  rapacity  of 
their  Saxon  auxiliaries.  Their  capital,  Exeter,  they  had  lost;  but  they 
had  ecpial  access  to  it  with  the  Saxons  themselves,  it  being  all  open  or 
unwalled,  and  had  equal  habitations  in  it-f-.  In  this  manner  had  the  Cor- 
nish and  the  English  lived  for  some  generations;  mixing  together  at  this 
common  point  of  their  confines,  and  preparing  their  spirits  gradually  for 

•  Diifn  (\V.)is  tlcep,  as  Dmin  (A.)  is, and  Dwnfder  (W.)  depth  ordcepness,  Dyfneint  (W.) 
Devonshire,  Dyfet(\V.)  the  Dcmclae  of  Wales,  and  the  Dobuni  alias  Boduni,  the  inhabit- 
ants in  the  bolioms  of  Gloucestershire,  as  opposed  to  the  dwellers  on  the  Cotswold  hills,  or 
to  the  Otadini  of  Northumberland.  Yet  the  Osti-Daninii  of  Strabo  probably,  and  the  Fir- 
Domhnon  of  Ireland,  certainly  arc  derived  from  colonies,  as  the  accompanying  Fir-Bolg  of 
the  latter  wjualiy  are.  History  is  thus  to  be  the  leader,  not  (as  she  is  too  oftea  made) 
the  tollower,  of  Etymology. 

i  Maimcsbury,  28,  "  Exceslra,  quam  ad  id  temporis  aequo  cum  Aaglis  jure  inhabi- 
««  t.Kant." 

5  a  full 


Cn\P.  1.]  HISTORICALLY    SL'nVEYED.        .  IQ 

a  full  incorporation.  But  Athelstan  now  came.  He  wanted  not  to  dis- 
turb the  serenity,  yet  resolved  to  have  his  sovereignty  acknowledged  by 
the  king  of  Cornwall,  as  it  had  already  been  by  the  kings  of  Wales. 
HowEL  was  then  king+;  bearing  a  name  as  familiar  in  Cornwall  still,  as 
it  formerly  was  in  Wales.  l>ut  our  How  el  was  as  little  incUned  as  his 
brothers  of  \\"alcs,  to  own  the  supremacy  of  Athelstan.  He  even  came 
into  the  field,  like  the  king  of  South-Wales,  to  engage  in  battle  with  the 
Saxons.  Athelstan,  therefore,  attacked  him  Mith  vigour§.  The  battle 
was  plainly  fought  near  Exeter,  and  probably  upon  Haldon  Hill.  How  el 
and  his  Cornish  were  beaten,  as  Wer  and  his  Welsh  had  been  before  [|. 
This  victory  was  decisive;  all  resistance  was  crushed  at  once,  and  the 
crown  of  Cornwall  became  subordinate  to  the  crovMi  of  F,r)gland.  Corn- 
wall also,  like  South-Wales,  lost  much  of  its  territories.  \Mth  its  share 
of  Exeter,  it  lost  all  its  land  betwixt  the  Exe  and  the  Tamar.  y///  De- 
vonshire now  became  for  ever  a  part  of  England.  I'he  Tamar  now 
formed,  as  it  forms  at  this  day,  the  contracted  limit  between  England 
and  Cornwall*.  And  this  was  the  sera  of  the  first  subjugation  of  the 
Cornish  to  the  English -f. 

Yet  the  subjugation  was  little  more  than  nominal  in  its  cfTicacv.  It 
atFected  the  sovereign,  but  reached  not  to  the  subject.  It  deprived  the 
former  of  that  independency,  which  is  generally  so  dear  to  the  heart  of 
every  individual,  and  so  material  in  its  consequences  to  a  sovereign.   But 

X  Florence,  348,  "  Regem — Occidcnlaliiim  Brltonmn  HuhaUim."  He  is  called  llumial 
by  M.  Westni.  360;  Hauahl, hy  Hovcdcn,  242  ;  Huual,  by  ibc  Chronicle  of  Mailros,  147, 
Oxon,  1684;  and  Hoel  by  Higdcn,  262.  G:\Ie,  vol.  i.  I  note  vol.  i.  of  Gale,  ihnugli  the 
title-page  promises  only  one  volume,  and  has  deceived  many  bv  its  words;  because  the 
very  next  p.iire  speaks  of  volumes  two:  "  continentur  in  pr'iino  voluminc,"  8ic.  "  conli- 
nentur  in  seaiiido  volniuine,"  &c.  This  real  king  of  Cornwall  is  all  uimoliccd  bv  Dr.  Bor- 
lase,  410,  while  a  number  of  imaginary  kin>^3  or  princes  is  specified  by  bini ;  just  as  ilic  idol 
was  worshipped,  while  the  Deity  was  forgotten. 

§  Malmesbury,  27,  28,    "  Impigre  adorsii?." 

H  I'lorcnct',  348,"  "  Huivaluni — prx>lii)  vicit  ct  fngnvit."  The  name,  then,  would  hr 
derived  from  the  int.ident,  Hix-l-don  corrupted  into  lial-don. 

•  Malmesburv,  28:  "  Ab  Excestra — cederc  compulit,  terminun)  provinci*  su.t  ciir* 
**  Tanibrani  fluvium  statuens." 

t  Iligden,  263,  '*  Cornu<raUianj  subcgit." 

D  2  fueli 


^  THE    CATIir.DRAL    OF    CORN'\VAI.T.  [ctTAP.   I. 

such  an  in.1opcnrl«^ncy  is  only  a  fenthor  o^jrlas^.  glitt.M-ing  in  the  cap  of  a 
suK^ct,  ami  n-aily  at  every  motion  to  drop  into  pi(>crs.  Yrt  national 
priilf  use-fully  considrrs  it  in  an  important  light;  tliinks  it  as  solid  as  it 
is  glittrrinfT,  and  iVcfpicntlyrxiTts  itself  with  a  virtuous  energy,  to  pre- 
serve or  to  reeover  it.  Ilowcl  and  his  Cornish  appear  to  have  done  so  at 
present,  as  we  Hnd  Athelstan  entering  the  country,  vhe  years  nfterward, 
traversing  it  v\  itii  an  army  from  end  to  end,  then  embarking  his  forces 
at  the  western  extremity  of  it,  and  with  them  reducing  the  Sylley  isles. 
These  were  an  appendage  to  Cornwall,  Mhich  must  alv\  ays  have  belonged 
to  its  domain.  These,  therefore,  had  submitted  in  ()27,  with  the  rest  of 
the  kingdom ;  and  could  only  be  in  arms  against  Athelstan  at  present, 
because  all  Cornwall  was.  The  Cornish  had  thrown  off  their  con- 
strained submission  to  the  English.  Athelstan  had  entered  their  country, 
to  rcduci-  them.  Then  their  king  Ilowel,  like  Godefrid  of  Northumbria. 
Constantinc  of  Scotland,  Owen  of  Cumberland,  and  the  kings  of  Wales, 
found  all  active  resistance  vain.  For  that  reason,  no  battles  were  fought 
by  him  at  this  invasion.  Had  there  been  any,  history  must  have 
noticed  them  as  it  notices  the  one  before.  History  in  general,  and 
the  history  of  this  period  in  particular,  is  notliing  more  than  a  nar- 
ration of  Ixiltles.  The  Cornish,  like  the  Northumbrians  and  Cumbrians, 
submitted  every  where  without  opposition.  Athelstan  advanced  towards 
the  liand's  End,  in  order  to  embark  his  army  for  the  Sylley  isles.  About 
four  miles  from  it,  but  directly  in  the  present  road  to  it,  as  he  was 
equally  pious  and  brave,  he  went  into  an  oratory,  which  had  been 
erected  there  by  a  holy  woman  of  the  name  of  Burien,  that  came  from 
Ireland,  and  was  buried  in  her  own  chapel.  Here  he  knelt  down  in 
prayer  to  God,  full  of  his  coming  expedition  against  the  vSylley  isles,  and 
.supplicating  for  success  to  it;  then,  in  a  strain  of  devoutness  that  is  little 
thought  of  now,  but  was  very  natural  to  a  mind  like  his,  at  once  muni- 
ficent and  religious,  he  vowed,  if  God  blessed  his  expedition  with  buc- 
cess,  to  erect  a  college  of  clergy  where  the  oratory  stood,  and  to  endow  it 
with  a  large  income.  So,  at  least,  said  the  tradition  at  St.  .Durien's 
itself,  no  less  than  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago !  And  a  tradition  like 
this,  with  all  the  congniities  of  history  upon  it,  and  with  that  collateral 
support  from  history  in  the  main  point,  which  I  shall  soon  produce,  be- 
comes 


CHAP.   1.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  21 

comes  history  itself.    He  set  out  with  his  annanicnt  for  Sylley.    Troiti 
tlic  necessity  of  crossing  the  sea,  anj  so  trying  his  fortune  upon  a  new 
element,  tlie  success  appeared  dubious,  even  to  tlie  vigorous  mind  of  aij 
Athelstan.     lie  succeeded,  however;  reduced  all  the  isles,  and  returned 
victorious  to  the  Land's  End.     lie  had  thus  completed  the  conquest  of 
Cornwall.     He  sutil-rcd,  indeed,  the  sovereign  of  it  still  to  retain  the 
name  of  sovereign  for  his  life;  ;is,  in  a  charter  given  by  Athclstan,  in 
©38,  and  dated  at  Dorchester,  the  names  of  some  "  sub-reguli,"  or  sub- 
ordinate kings  who  subscribed  it,  are  "  Eugenius,"  the  king  of  the  Cum- 
fcriaus  before,  and  "  Howell,"  the  preceding  king  of  the  Cornish  |.     Jiut 
A  thelstan  exercised  all  the  rights  of  sovereignty  himself     This  he  did  in 
inlciition,  when  he  vowed  the  college  to  St.  Buricn;  and  this  he  did  in 
act,  when  he  ordered  it  to  be  erected  on  his  return.     He  went  to  the 
oratory  of  St.  Burien  again;   presented   thanks  to  God  for  his  success, 
where  he  had  prayed  for  it;  ordered  a  church  to  be  erected  there  for  the 
use  of  the  parish,  and  a  college  of  clergy  to  minister  in  it;  assigned  it 
a  quantity  of  lands,  that  had  fallen  to  him  by  right  of  conquest,  for  its 
endowment ;  and  gave  it  the  privileges  of  a  sanctuary.  Rut,  what  forms 
a  strong  proof  of  the  general  Justness  of  the  tradition,  the   church  is 
actually  noticed  in  Doomsday  Book,  about  a  hundred  and  thirty  years 
only  after  this  period,  as  a  college   of  canons  even  then,  possessing 
an  estate   denominated   Eglos-Iiuric/i,    from    its    attachment    to  their 
chtu-ch,  yet  exempt  from  all  assessments  whatever.     This  even  conti- 
nues to  the  present  moment  a  roijal  free  c?iiipel  in  the  patronage  of  the 
crown,  and  with  a  jurisdiction  so  independent  of  the  ordinary,  that  the 
only  remaining  member  of  the  whole  body,  its  head  the  dean,  receives 
his  institution,  and  takes  liis  oaths  before  the  kin^  IwmseU^  ^  hts  or- 
dinary §. 

All 

X  Malincsbiiry,  lib.  v.  Dc  Pontif.  in  Gale,  i.  364.  "  Siibscripsfre  sub-reguli,  Eugenius, 
*'  flowili,  Morranf,  Indual."     The  two  last  were  assuredly  kings  ot  Norili- Wales. 

§  Lcland's  bin.  iii.  18  :  ''  S.  Jiuiiana,  an  holy  woman  of  Irclaiui,  suuitymc  <iwclljj  in 
'*  this  place,  anil  there  nude  an  oratory.  King  Klhclslan,  fonndor  of  S.  Buriens  cullrgc, 
'•  and  giver  of  the  privileges  and  sanctuarie  to  it.  King  Eilielstan  poyng  hens, 'as  it  is  said, 
"  or.to  SylKv,  and  rcturain^,  made,  ex  loto,  a  col]fg<-  where   the  cr^twrit   wa.>."    Camden, 

»j6: 


23  THE    CATIIF.DnAL    OF    CORKAVALL  [cHAP.   I. 

All  this  denotes  the  high  exertion  of  sovereignty  by  Atlnlstan  in  the 
livelic-t  coloiirs.  He  seems  to  have  then  made  a  triumphant  progress 
through  the  eountPk.and  to  have  marked  his  movements  by  equal  acts  of 
pious  liberality  in  ecjual  displays  of  his  Cornish  sovereignty.  The  towr* 
of  Padstou-,  in  the  days  of  Leland,  considered  Atiiclstan  to  be  "the 
"  chief  gever  of  privileges  onto  it*;"  that  is,  as  appears  from  the  same 
language  concerning  the  college  and  church  of  St.  Burien  itself  f,  to  be 
the  builder  of  its  church,  the  erector  of  its  college,  and  the  presenter  of 
the  laiuls  to  both.  He  thus  i»ecame  the  second  father  of  the  town.  "  Tliis 
"  toiiu,"  adds  Leland.  "  is  aiiiicioit,  bering  the  name  of  Lodenek  yn 
*'  C'ornische  +  ;"  which  intimates  only  the  quality  of  its  site,  and  signifie.*; 
mcrelv  the  bank  of  the  ri\er  on  which  it  stands§.  That  this  was  a  port- 
town  in  the  davs  of  Cornish  independency,  is  confirmed  by  an  incident 
of  the  sixth  century.  In  5\8  IVtrock,  the  son  of  a  king  of  Cumbria, 
who  had  resigned  his  right  of  succession  to  the  throne,  in  order  to  form 
himself  with  some  others  into  a  monastic  society  ;  who  had  aftei^vv'ards 
gone  over  to  Ireland,  spent  twenty  years  there  in  the  cultivation  of  letters 
or  tlie  st\idy  cf  the  Scriptures,  and  then  retired  into  Cornwall;  landed  at 

136  :  "  Viculus  nunc  illi  in>iJet,  St.  Buricn's,  olim  Eglis  Bur'iens,  i.  c.  Ecclesia  Buricnae,— 
"  dictus,  Buricnae  rcligiosac  mulieri  Hibcrnicx  sacer. — Huic,  iit  fama  perhibet,  asyli  jus 
"  concessit  rex  Atliclstanus,  aim  e  Syliuiis  uisulis  hie  victor  appulissct.  Ccrtum  est,  ilium 
*'  ecctlesiam  lut  const nixisse,  clsub  Gulidino  Cojiqucstorc  caiionicorum  liic  fuissc  collegium, 
"  cl  tcrritorium  acljaa.ns  ad  cos  spectissc."  Doomsday  Book,  fol.  121  :  "  Canonici  S. 
"  Bcrrionc  tincnt  Eglos-hrrie,  qux  fuit  libera  tempore  regis  Edwardi.  Ibi  est  i  hida, 
*«  terra  viii  carucatarum.  Ibi  est  dimidium  carucata:  et  vi  villani  ct  vi  bordarii  et  xx  acrre 
•«  pastune.  Valet  x  solidos.  Quaudo  comes  terram  accepit,  valebat  xl  soiidos."  See  also 
TamuVs  Notiiia  Monastica  for  Cornwall,  edit.  1787,  by  Nasmitb;  and  my  v.  i.  hereafter. 

*  Leland's  Itin.  ii.   1 14. 

t  Ltland's  Iiin.  ii.  i8  :  "  King  Eihelslaii,  founder  of  S.Burien's  college,  and — giver  of 
"  the  privileges — to  it." 

I  Itin.  ii.  114. 

§  L/(tJ  yniil  (Welsh)  is  the  coast  or  border  of  a  country  (Lhuyd  under  OraJ,  Llydaiu 
(Welsh  and  Cornish),  of  or  belonging  to  a  shore,  latinized  into  Armuirc/^^/ia/id  in  the 
nuddle  ages  (Usher,  129),  Letcuiccioii  (Nennius,  xxiii.),  Letcvc,  Lali,  Lctavieiises  (Usher, 
ilid.),Lidaiccium  (Sax.  Chron.  p.  88,  115),  the  inhabitants  of  Brctagne,  and  Ladu  or  Ladn 
{BrtfUse),  a  bank.     Loden-ek,  therefore,  is  the  brim  or  brink  of  the  water. 

this 


CHAP.   I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  23 

this  port-town,  as  history  unites  with  tradition  to  shew*.  In  this  state 
Athelstan  found  the  town,  carrying  on  an  intercourse  witli  Irclandf, 
and  built  upon  the  bank  otthe  Alan  ;  but  he  most  probably  settled  a 
COLONY  OF  English  at  it,  as  the  ancient  and  Cornish  name  of  the  town 
was  now  thrown  oti'by  the  inhabitants;  and  as  the  town  now  took  the 
new,  the  English  ap])ellation  of  its  second  founder,  being;  called,  savs 
Leiand,  "  yn  Englisch,  after  the  trew  and  old  writingcs,  Adelstow, 
•'  Latine,  Locus  Atiielstam +."  This  assertion  of  Leland's,  however 
extraordinary  in  itself,  however  unnoticed  by  Dr.  Borlase,  yet  so  signally 
coinciding  with  history,  is  decisivel}-  corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  a 
record  ;  the  church  of  this  town  being  noticed  as  late  as  Pope  >.'icholas's 
Valor  in  I2(j2,  by  the  title  of  "  lu-clesia  do  AUkstowc;^  instead  of 
''  Adchtowe^y  For  that  very  reason,  by  the  saint  superseding  the 
sovereign,  the  name  o^  Adehtow  has  been  since  commuted  into  Vctruch- 
stow,  or  Pad-stow  ;  and  this  Cornish  town  bears  a  name  that  is  half  of  it, 
if  not  the  whole,  purely  English  at  present  ||. 

The  town  of  Bodmin  also,  in  Leland's  time,  retained  a  grateful  memory 
of  Atlielstan's  kindness  to  it.  That  "  toune,"  he  says,  "  takith  king 
"  Edelstan  for  the  chief  erector  and  gyvcr  of  privileges  onto  it^."  This 
was  equally  as  at  Buricn,  by  founding  its  monastery,  and  so  creating  its 

*  Usher,  292  anJ  526,  froniTiiinioiuh's  Life  of  Petrock,  and  from  Leland's  account  of 
him  in  his  treatise  De  Script.  Brit.  But  in  Leland's  Ilin.  viii.  54,  we  have  these  extracts 
from  an  ancient  Life  of  Petrock,  the  very  authority  on  which  Tinniouth  perhaps,  and  LcJand 
certainly,  writes  :  "  Kx  Vitii  Petroci,  '  Petrocus  gcncre  Cfliubcr  [C«nibcr],  i'dmcus  20  annis 
"  studuit  ill  Ilihernia',"  &o.  Tradition  still  reports  the  fact  of  his  arrival  at  Padslow.  Sec 
chap.  iv.  sect.  vi.  hereafter. 

t  This  intercourse  continued  to  the  days  of  Leiand,  Itin,  ii.  114;  though  it  is  all  lost 
now. 

%  Itin,  ii.   114. 

§  See  VVilkins's  Concilia,  ii.  180,  for  settling  the  varied  date  of  this  Valor. 

D  Camden,  14.0:  "  Padstow — coiitraclc  pro  Pf/rocA-5/o/t/,  ut  in  Sanctorum  historiis  legi- 
"  tiir,"  Leland's  Itin.  ix.  xxxii.  :  "  Adelstow,  id  est,  AedeUtani  Locus,  tippiJum  piscato- 
|fr  ribiis  cognilissinium,  quod  vulgo  Padstow  vocatur,  argumsulo,  tl  quidun  mamjcsto,  est 
*'  victoria,"  of  Athelstan's  victorious  rcductiou  of  Cornwall. 

^  Leland's  Itin.  ii.  1 15. 

town. 


24  THE    r\THi:DRAL    OF    COnSWM.U  [CIIAP.    I. 

town.  "  'I  tie  lirst  t'oimdcr,"  a<lds  Lchiiid  from  tlie  very  charters  of  dona- 
tion to  the  moiKi^tery.  "  was  Athei.stan  ;"  then  annexes  on  tlie  maroin 
what  marks  the  actual  year  of  the  foundation,  and  serves  to  ascertain  tiie 
identical  vrar  of  all  these  transactions;  his  pen  giving  us  tiiese  numerals 

thus  correeled,   "  An°.  *  O-'Of." 

Vet  another  event  of  history  coincides  with  all  in  its  general  notation, 
and  conlirms  all  hy  its  particular  adjunct.  Athelstan  appears  from  his  own 
charter,  existing  at  Saint  German's  in  the  days  of  Leiand,  to  have  t/itre 
made  donations  of  lands  to  the  church,  and  to  have  (Jicrc  given  a  bishoj) 
to  the  diocese,  in  the  sa.mf.  yeaiu).U),  but  ox  the  fifth  of  Decembkr 
in  it;J;. 


SECTION  III. 


The  entire  conquest  of  Cornwall  l)eing  thus  sliewn  to  have  been  made 
by  Athelstan  inf)30;  and  Athelstan  being  thus  proved  to  have  signalized 
tlie  year  of  his  conquest,  by  the\Nise  measures  wliich  betook  in  that  year 
for  securing  them,  by  conciliating  his  newly-acquired  subjects,  with  acts 
of  pious  liberality  to  their  country,  and  with  deeds  of  devout  reverence  to 
their  saints  ;  I  go  on  to  point  out  w  hat  was  the  seat  of  the  Cornish 
bishoprick,  St.  German's  or  Bodmin,  before  or  under  this  new  supremacy 
ofTlngtiujd.  Gross  mistakes  have  been  made  upon  the  subject,  but  I  hope 
to  rectify  them.  Tlie  study  of  anti([uarian  literature  is  yet  in  its  inftiney 
only  among  us  ;  and  the  manly  deduction  of  inference  from  premises  ju- 
diciously stated,  has  been  little  practised  hitherto  by  our  antiquaries. 

To  St.  German's,  as  Camden  tells  us,  "  the  bishop's  see  was  trans- 
"  "int^d/'  from  what  place  he  does  not  express,  butcertainlv  means  from 


t  Leland's  Coll.  i.  75,  "  Primus  fundalor  yEihelstanus.' 

.  anno  D"'  936,  non 

Bodmin 


I  Coll.  i.  75,  "  Ex  charta  Conai.  ^ihelstani anno  D"'  0^6,  nonis  Decern 

**  brii."  ^^ 


CHAP.  1.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  25 

Bodmin,  "  for  greater  safety  in  the  time  of  the  Danish  wars;"  thougli. 
in  the  very  hnc  preceding,  he  acknowledges  St.  German's  to  be  merdv 
"  a  village"  at  that  period.  Where  then  could  possibly  exist  '■  the  greater 
"  safety"  of  the  see§  ?  "  The  bushopes  sea,"  with  more  explicitness  adds 
Norden,  who  wrote  his  work  in  1581,  "  was  planted  here  [at  St.  Ger- 
"  man's]  in  the  Danish  troubles,  hruwghtc  liijtiicr  from  Budnuuv,""  or,  a'j 
Norden  writes  still  more  explicitly  in  another  place,  "  one  Herstane, 
"  about  a"  goO,  was  consecrated  bushop"  of  Cornwall,  "  whose  sec  wa^i 
"  at  Bodmyn,  and  called  St.  Petrocks,  \\liiche  churche,  with  the  cloystcr, 
*'  w  as  consumed  by  the  Danes,  and  then  w^as  the  see  removed  to  St.  Ger- 
"  mans*y  But  Dr.  Borlase  subjoins  to  both,  with  an  astonishing  confu- 
sion of  ideas,  what  tells  us  nothing  besides  the  translation  of  the  sec  from 
Bodmin  to  St.  German's.  "  King  Athelstan,"  he  cries,  "  is  said  to  have 
"  appointed  one  Conan  bishop  here  (A.  D.  930).  King  Edred,  brother 
"  to  Athelstan,  who  began  his  reign  in  9-l0,  and  died  in  955  (Speed, 


§  Camden,  139:  "  S.  German's  viculum,  ad  quern  in  Danico  turbine  sedes  cpiscopilci 
*'  timor  transtulit."  In  138  he  speaks  concerning  Bodmin  :  "  Clarius  olim  [fait]  dignitatc 
*' episcopal! — ;  verum  postea — episcopalis  dignitas  ad  S.  Germans  fuit  translata."  Gib- 
son, 21,  translates  "  viculum"  in  the  former  passage,  "  a  little  village."  Mr.  Gough,i.  5, 
renders  it  equally  "  a  little  village."  But  both  have  thus  shewn  themselves  inattentive  to 
their  author's  language,  he  adding  a  word  of  diminution  to  the  term  when  he  means  to  con- 
tract the  idea.  Thus  in  541  he  calls  Holyhead  in  Anglesey,  ^'  tenuis \'\c\xh\i."  Yet  Mr. 
Gough,  ii.  566,  translates  this  equally  "  a  little  village;"  and  Gibson,  8i2,  renders  it 
•'  a  small  village."  Camden  distinguishes,  but  they  will  not  discriminate.  Mr.  Gough 
particularly  appears  here,  what  I  believe  he  may  be  fairly  pronounced  in  general,  a  translator 
of  Camden — from  Gibson ;  avoiding  some  gross  mistakes  in  Gibson,  but  seuing  his  feet 
carefully  in  Gibson's  steps  ;  yet  he  has  once  tripped  dangerously,  by  not  so  setting  ;  when 
what  Gibson,  p.  iv.  renders  "  except  the  olive,  the  vine,  and  some  other  fruits  peculiar  to  the 
•"  hotter  climates,  Britain  produceth  all  things  else  in  great  plenty,"  Mr.  Gough  translates 
in  this  astonishing  manner,  i.  11,  "  besides  the  olive  and  the  vine,  and  other  fruit-trees 
*'  natural  to  warmer  climates,  the  soil  produces  corn  in  considerable  quantities."  Here 
almost  every  variation  from  Gibson  is  a  deviation  into  error;  but  the  first  is  so  monstrously 
erroneous  as  to  make  his  author  speak  the  very  reverse  of  what  he  means,  even  to  plant 
Britain  with  "  the  olive,  the  vine,  and  some  other  fruits  peailiar  lo  the  hotter  cliniaics." 

*  Speeuli  Britannia;  pars  93  and  32,  rightly  supposed  in  account  of  the  aulhor  prefixed, 
from  the  mention  in  Dedication  to  James  1.  of  meeting  Don  Antonio  in  the  West,  to  have 
been  written  in  1584. 

VOL.  I.  K  Chron. 


20  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORXWALL  [ciIAP.   T. 

"  Chron.  p.  3-r6).  is  also  saitl  to  have  onhihied  St.  German  s  to  be  a 
"  bishop's  see;  but,  as  nil  fi'i-^fories  agree,  that  the  bishop  of  Cornwall  did 
"  lint  rewnvej'rom  Budinnu  till  the  year  1)8 r,  it  is  verij  inUlkeli/  that  there 
"  shouia  be  a  bishop  here  before  that  time,  as  hishoj)  'lanncr  rightly  oh- 
"  serves  f;  neither  does  it  sccni  neeessari/  that  there  should  be  two 
•'  bishops  in  so  narrow  a  slip  of  land  as  Cornwall,  and  but  one  at  Crediton 
"  for  all  Devon,  a  country  of  so  much  larger  extent.  The  following  par- 
••  ticulars  tnui/  scn'C  in  some  measurc  to  discover  the  truth.  I  rind  Edrcd 
••  a  benefactor  to  the  see  of  Rodman  ;  for  Henry  III.  confirmed  to  the 
"  monks  there  the  manor  of  Newton,  in  the  same  manner  as  king  Edred 
"  had  granted  it+.  I  en/  Ukeh/  this  was  given  in  order  to  augment  the 
"  rcvcn\iesoftIic  bishopric  there;  and,  for  the  same  reason,  he  ni'ighi 
♦'  have  appointed  the  bishop  of  Bodman  to  be  bishop  of  St.  German's  too, 
"  Again :  Conan  is  said  to  be  the  name  of  the  first  bishop,  placed  here  by 
"  kino-  Atl^lstan.  1  fiiul  also  that  Conan  was  seeoiid  bishop  in  the  see 
"  of  Bodman,  in  the  time  of  king  Athelstan  ;  it  is  possible  therefore  that 
"  Athelstan  might  annex  his  new  priory  of  St.  German  to  the  see  of  B-9d- 
"  man,  for  the  better  maintenance  of  the  c])ispopal  dignity,  and  [might 
"  have]  ordered  also  that  St.  German  s  should  partake  of  the  episcopal 
"  title  ;  by  which  disposition  I  imagine  that  Conan,  at  that  time  bishop  of 
"  Bodman,  became  bishop  of  Bodman  and  St.  Germans  too; — and  this 
"  might  give  occasion  to  tlie  mistakes  of  St.  German's  being  one  bishopric, 

t  Tanner's  Notitia  Monastics,  Cornwall,  St.  German's :."  King  Ethelstan  is  said  to  haAe 
"  made  one  Conan  bishop  here,  A.  D.  936;  thougli  it  seems  more  prolahU  that  the  cpis- 
"  copal  si-e  for  Cornwall  was  not  fixed  here  till  after  the  hurning  of  the  bishop's  house  and 
'•  cathedral  church  at  Bodmin."  We  thus  sec  the  grand  authority  on  which  Dr.  Borlase 
speaks. 

X  Tanner,  Bodmin,  though  the  Doctor  has  no  reference,  "  Mon.  Angl. — toni.  ii.  p.  5. 
"  cart.  57.  H.  3.  ni.  9,  confirm,  cartam  Eadredi  regis  priori  et  canonicis  de  Bodmine,  de 
"  mancrio  de  Niwetone."  Thus  all  the  Doctor's  reasoning  is  cither  Tanner's  own,  or 
founded  upon  Tanner's  notices. 

A  Jove  principium;  Musx  Jovis  omnia  plena. 
But  let  me  add,  in  order  to  prevent  an  immediate  mistake  in  my  reader,  that  Dr.  Borlase 
proves  "  Ei\r\d  a  benefactor  to  the  see  of  Bodman,"  by  adducing  a  donation  from  him  "  to 
'•  the  monks  there,"  or  (as  the  deed  of  donation  more  explicitly  speaks  itself)  "  priori  et 
"  canonicis  de  Bodmine." 

and 


C«.V1*.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  2? 

"  and  Bodman  anotlier ;  but  these  tilings  I  offer  only  as  coujeclinrs* ." 
I  shall  not  stop  to  expose  this  mass  of  conjectures,  all  pleading  a  false 
probability  of  reason  against  a  positive  assertion  of  historv,  all  foinided 
upon  a  false  assun4)tion,  and  all  tending  to  a  false  conclusion.  I  shall 
only  shew  tlic  reality,  and  leave  these  reveries  to  die  awa^at  its  .sid<:. 

"  In  the  division  of  the  West-Saxon  bishopric,"  as  MalinesbuQ-  in- 
forms us,  "  this  is  oljservablc,  that  he  who  had  his  see  at  Winchester 
"  possessed  two  counties,  Hampshire  and  Surry  ;  the  other,  who  had  his 
"  at  Shireburn,  possessed  ^\'iltshire,  Dorsetshire,  Berkshire,  Somer- 
"  setshirc,  Devonshire,  and  Cornirall. — On  the  death  of  EtheUvard," 
bishop  of  Sherborn,  "  the  West-Saxon  episcopate  ceased  for  seven  years. 
"  under  tlie  compelling  violence  of  hostility.  But  at  last  Pleymund, 
"  iirchbishop"  of  Canterbury,  "  and  king  Edward  the  son  of  Alfred, 
"  obliged  by  the  threats  and  edicts  of  the  Pope — ,  appointed  live  bishops 
"  instead  of  two,  Ethelm  to  the  church  of  Wells,  Edulf  to  that  of 
*'  Crediton,  Werstan  to  that  of  Shireburn,  Atlielstan  to  that  q/' Cornwall, 
"  Fidestan  to  that  of  Winchester.  Ethelm  theretbre  had  Somersetshire, 
"  Edulf  Devonshire,  Atlielstan  Corn/call^."  That  Cornwall  then  formed, 
or  was  tltcn  to  form,  a  bishopric  of  ilse/J',  is  evident  tVom  this  appoint- 
ment of  Atlielstan  to  it,  and  of  Edulf  to  Deronshirc.  'Ihis  was  so  early 
as  910,  because  Fidestan,  we  know,  "  feng  to  biscopdome  on  NN'inte- 
"  cestre,"  or  became  bishop  of  Winchester  in  that  year"}:.     Jjiit  it   must 

have 

*  EoHase,  382, 

t  Walmcsbury,  f.  140:  "  In  di-visionc  VVcst-Saxonici  cpiscop.itus,  lioc  ob5crv.itum  palin> 
"  est,  ut  qui  VViiUonias  sedcrot,  h.tberel  duos  p.igos,  Haiiiptoncnscm  ci  Sudrciensem;  alter 
"  qui  Schiroburnix,  haberct  Wiluincnscm,  Uorsetcnscin,  Bcruchenscin,  Somcrselcnseni, 
"  Domnonicnscm,  Cornubicnsetn."  Malnicsbury,  142:  "  Sighclmo  succfssil  Ethclw.irJus, 
"  quo  morluo  cessavit  rpi^copaln;  W'tst-Saxonum  annis  si-plcni,  vi  scillcft  liostilitatis 
^  cogentc.  Postnuuluni  vcro  ricMiuindus  archiepiscnpiis,  ci  rex  Edwardus,  filiiis  JCltrcdi, 
"  minis  et  cdictis  Fonnr>si  Papse  coacli,  quinquc  cpiscopos  pro  duobus  faccre, — Alhclmuin 
"  ad  Wcllcnsem  ccclcsiam,  Kdulfum  ad  Gridicnscni,  Werstaiiuni  ad  Scliircbunicnscni, 
'*  Athclsianuui  ad  jCIornubicnscm,  Fidrstanum  ad  Winlonicnscm.  H.ibcbal  ergo  Kihelnius 
*'  Sonursctaii),  Kdulfiis  Doinnoiiiam,  Atbelstanus  Cornubiain." 

J  Sax.  Cliron.  This  dale  in  a  work  of  such  aulhorily  aslhc  Clironicic,  wkh  tbc  suppns- 
sionofthe  name  of  Fonuosus,  as  then  popi,  who  died  in  896,   removes  al  once  all  t'lc 

£  2  dilli.  liilHs 


ng  TJIE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.    1. 

have  boon  a  part  of  one,  many  centuries  before.  As  the  Britons,  on  the 
Roman  dereliction  of  the  island,  naturally  lost  the  Roman  divisions  of 
provinces,  and  rela|)^ed  again  into  their  only  divisions  by  realms;  so, 
every  realm  becoming  a  bishopric,  Damnonium  formed  at  once  a  king- 
dom and  a  prelacy.  Thus  does  the  episcopate  of  Damnonium  mount 
up  for  its  origin,  even  to  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century !  This  had  its 
seat  undoubtedly  at  Exeter,  equally  the  capital  of  the  reahn  and  the 
metropolis  of  the  bishopric;  continuing  to  have  it  as  long  as  the  kingdom 
of  the  Damnonii  continued  entire.  But  when  Damnonium,  east  of  the 
Ere,  was  reduced  by  the  Saxons,  and  I'.xeter  itself  was  possessed  only  in 
part  by  the  Cornish,  under  the  permission  too  of  the  English;  a  new- 
capital  and  a  new  metropolis  must  have  been  appointed,  by  the  Dam- 
nonii tvest  of  the  Exe.  At  what  time  this  event  happened,  and  Exeter 
lost  its  civil  with  its  spiritual  supremacy  over  Cornwall,  we  may  ascer- 
tain bv  these  successive  incidents  of  history. 

In  5  77,  "  Cuthwinc  and  Ccawlin  fought  with  the  Brytons,  and  slew 
"  three  kings,  Commail  and  Condidan  and  Farinmail,  in  the  place  that 
"  is  called  Dcorham,"  Durham  near  Marshfield  in  the  south  of  Glou- 
cestershire, and  not  far  from  Bath;  "  and  took  three  chesters,  Gleawan- 
"  cester,"  or  Gloucester,  "  and  Cyren-cester,  and  Bathan-c-ester,"  or 
Bath§.  The  Saxons  thus  entered  upon  the  north  of  Somersetshire,  in 
their  way  towards  Devonshire.  In  584,  "  Ceawlin  and  Cutha,"  the 
same  as  Cnthiriiie  before,  "  fought  with  the  Bryttons  in  the  place  that  is 
"  named  Fefhan/eag;  and  Cufhan  was  there  slain:  and  Ceawlin  took 
"  many  towns,  and  spoils  and  treasnres  without  number,  and  then  returns 
"  to  his  own  again\\.''  This  was  plainly,  from  the  last  stroke,  not  an  in- 
vasion of  conquest,  hke  the  former,  but  an  incursion  for  plunder  only: 

«li(!iculties  which  have  been  so  powerfully  raised  against  the  common  dale  of  905  for  this 
fact,  by  the  worthy,  acute,  and  judicious  Wharton,  in  his  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  554,  555.  He 
inclines  to  909  ;  yet  Wilkins,  in  Concilia,  i.  201,  202,  goes  back  to  905,  without  noticing 
the  reasons  of  Wharton  against  it.  Thus  is  knowledge  kept  by  the  leaden  weights  of  negli- 
gence, in  a  continual  state  of  oscillation. 

§  Sax.  Chron. 

I  Sax.  Chroo. 

and 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORICALLT    SURVEYED.  OQ 

and  an  incursion  so  far  into  the  country  of  the  Britons,  that  a  retreat 
back  from  it  into  the  EngUsh  possessions  was  considered  as  an  incident 
memorable  enough  for  notice,  even  in  so  compendious  a  history.     The 
scene  of  the  battle,  therefore,  was  not,  as  has  been  hitherto  supposed, 
Frelhernc  on  the  Severn;  but  some  place  of  the  name  of  I'eatlaj,   if  the 
old  appellation  is  still  presersed,  or  of  some  name  a  little  similar,   if 
that  is  lost,  and  certainly  very  far  imthiii  the  possessions  of  the  Britons 
at  the  time.     For  these  reasons  I   suppose  the  bold  incursion  to  have 
reached  as  far  as  ChucIIeigh  in  Devonshire,  the  latter  half  of  this  appel- 
lation being  the  same  as  the  latter  half  of  the  other,  and  the  place  itself 
about  nine  miles  to  the  west  of  Exeter;  the  Saxon  king  and  his  brother 
to  have  been  ihe?-e  encountered  by  the  Damnonii,  and  the  brother  slain; 
Ceaulin  himself  to  have  been  very  severely  handled,  yet  to  ha^c  made 
good  his  retreat  with  all  his  plunder;  and  the  old  name  of  Fethan-lemr^ 
or  Feat-ley,  to  have  been  superseded  among  the  Saxons  afterward,  in 
consequence  of  Cntha's  or  Chuia's  death  and  burial  there,  by  that  of 
Chi/d-Zeighf.     So    the  castle  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,   which  was  taken 
from  the  Britons  by  Cerdicin  530,  and  given  to  his  nephew  nihf<rar, 
an  appellation  then,  perhaps,  the  same  as  If  hi  faker  now;  is  denominated 
by  the   Saxon   Chronicle   in  the  very  year  530  itself,    IFihtgara-hi/ris, 
Caresbrook  castle  at  present,  merely  from  the  circumstance  of  Wihtgar 
being  buried  there  in  544  J.     But  this  incursion  was  followed   by  its 
natural  consequence,  an  invasion.     In  6l  I,  "  Cyncgils,"  king  of  \\'est- 
Saxony,  "  and  Cwichelm"  his  son,    "  fought  at  Bramdunc,"  Bampton 
upon  the  river  Batham,  in  the  north  of  Devonshire,  on  the  confines  of 
Somersetshire,  and  along  the  very  line  of  the  Saxon  progress  from  Bath 
towards  Exeter;   "  and  slew  two  thousand  and  forty-six  of  the  ^^'eala," 
or  Welsh  of  Cornwall^.  They  gained  the  battle;  counted  the  slain  of 
their  enemies,  and  then,  in  all  probability,  reduced  the  whole  country  to 
the  east  of  the  Exe.     We  accordingly  find  the  east  of  Devonshire  so  far 
under  the  power  of  the  Saxons  in  7:^5,  that  one  of  their  royal  family, 

+  Malniesbury,  f.  5,  calls  him  expressly  "  Cudaj"  and  Iluiitindoii,  f.  180,  Savile,  calls- 
him  "  Cutha,"  and  "  Chula." 
X  Sax.  Chron. 
^  Sax.  Chron. 

4  who 


jQ  THE    CATIir.DRAL    OF    COUXWAI.L  "[cHAP,  1. 

^^Uo  ha.l  hron  slain  at  Melton  in  Surry,  was  brou-ht  to  Avminsfer  for 
nurnucnf.  We  even  find  the  inhabitants  so  thoroughly  anohcized 
lKf.)rc  the  ihM  of  Athelstan.  as  to  have  forgotten  all  their  British  atTec- 
tion.v  and  to  have  adopt<d  all  the  Saxon.  In  851.  "  C'eorl,  alderman," 
or  Saxon  pov<-rnor  of  Kast-Doon,  "  m/M  the  shhc  oJ  Dcjeim,  tought 
••  th<-  heathen  Danes  at  \\iega..-bureh."  or  Wenibury,  near  Ply- 
mouth. '•  nude  a  great  slaughter  of  them,  and  gained  tfie  victoryf. 
IhU  at  an  earlier  period,  in  the  year  833,  we  see  the.n  actually  imHun,ig 
Ihevounin,  o/  their  Coniish  hrcthrcn,  and  actually  pushhir  into  it  as  Jar 
as  (\iwe\lurd  in  ConmalL  Tliat  year  "  tlic  If'cala  fought,  and  the 
^'  Dt'Jna,  at  (JaJttl-JordX'' 

in  this  condition  of  Devon  and  Cornwall,  the  former  consisting  only 
of  the  smaller  half  of  Devonshire,  yet  assuming  the  title  of  the  whole, 
and  the  latter  comprising  all  the  great  remainder;  the  unsxdjdued  Dam- 
nonii  necessarily  formed  a  new  ca|>ital  for  their  kingdom,  and  a  new  see 
for  their  bishopric.  They  appointed,  1  believe,  Leskard  for  then-  capi- 
tal, and  Saint  Gekma.v's  for  their  see. 

Leskard  appears  to  have  been  so  from  its  name;  Li/s  or  Les  signifying 
in  Cornish,  a  manor-house;   in  Armoric  a  royal  house  ;   and  in  Irish  that 
best  preserver  of  the  old  Ikitish.  a  fort.      K/iirt  or  Kidrd,  also  in  Irish, 
the  same  word  as  coi/rt  in   I'liglish,  and  j)ronounced  as  court  is  in  the 
North  of  Ijigland,  cart,  imports   a  palace.     Leskard  thus  means  what 
the  Irisli  so  rcc-ently  had,  the  court  at  the  castle.   "  There  nvs  a  castel," 
savs  Ixdand,  it  having  sunk  away  in   its  o\\  n  antiquity,  as  early  even  as 
his  davs.   "  on  an  hillc  in  the  toun  side  by  north  from  S.  Martin,"  the 
parish-church.     "  It   is  now  al    in    ruinc.     Fragments    and  peaces    of 
'*  waulles  yet  stomle."      Ihit   now  the  castle  is  clearly  demolished;    the 
church  having  been  formerly  rebuilt  with  its  stones,  I  b<'lieve,  a  school 
having  been  more  recently  erected  upon   the  ground  \n  ith   them,  and 
no  appearances    renuining    of  its  existence,   except  in  a  slight,   cruiTj- 
Uing  fence  of  stone  upon  two  sides,  too  slight  and  too  crumbling  ever  to 
Ijavc  been  an  original  part  of  the  whole.     "  The  site  of  it  is  magnifi- 

♦  Sax.  Chroiu  t  Ibid.  +  Ibid. 

"  cent, 


CHAP.   I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED,  31 

•'  cent,  and  looketh  over  al   the  toun.     This   castellc   was  the  cries  of 
♦'  Cornwall§." 

But  ^vhy  then  was  not  the  sec  settled  with  the  court,  at  Leskard?  On 
the  same  principle,  assuredly,  ot"  a  monastic  sequestration  from  court's 
and  crowds ;  upon  which,  when  another  sec  was  added  to  that  ot 
Winchester,  the  metropolis  of  W'cst-Saxony,  it  was  settled  at  Sher- 
born*.  Yet  I  can  give  a  still  stronger  instance:  in  the  same  spirit 
David,  bishop  of  Caerleon,  during  the  sixth  century,  transferred  the  see  of 
Menevia,  a  village  situated  at  the  peninsular  extremity  of  Pembrokeshire, 
exposed  therefore  to  all  the  rage  of  all  the  Atlantic;  and  lent  it  its  pre- 
sent name  of  St.  David'sf.     This  devotee's  humour  actually  became  so 

§  Ldand's  Itin.  iii.  39. 

•  Malmesbury,  f.  140  :  "  Viciilus,  nee  habitantium  frequenlia,  ncc  positionis  gratil, 
*' suavis;  in  quo  mirandum  etpene  pudendum,  sedcm  episcopalem  per  tot  durasse  secula." 
So  solitary  a  place  Malnicsbury  wonders  to  liave  been  selected  for  the  see  of  a  bishop.  The 
very  solitariness  was  the  leading  principle  in  the  selection.  But  there  was  an  additional 
reason,  that  amid  many  sites  of  solitariness  pointed  ovit  this.  "  John  Myer,  abbate  of  Sher- 
"  burne,  said,  "  as  Leland  tells  lis  in  Itin.  iii.  127,  "  that  he  had  redde  in  Latinc  bookes  of 
•'  his  house,  that  Sherburne  was  caullid  Clare  Fons."  But  the  abbot  had  not  observed,  that 
it  was  denominated  Foiis  Argenleus  in  this  passage  of  ancient  biography,  which  lias  been 
equally  unobserved  by  all  our  critics  in  antiquarianism,  yet  shews  us  Sherborne  noticed  in 
history  for  the  first  time,  and  suggests  the  special  cause  of  its  being  raised  into  a  see.  "  V.K 
*'  Vila  Kdmundi  Martyris  :  '  Edniundus  et  Edwoldiis  filii  Alknuiiuh  ex  Sivara.  OflTa,  rc\ 
"  Est-Angloruni  percgre  profieiseens,  ad  cognatuni  suuni  Alkmundum,  in  Saxonia  [\\'e^- 
"  sex  called  here  Saxony,  as  opposed  to  Mcrcia]  comniorantem,  pervcnit,  ibique  Edmun- 
"  dum  ejus  filium  in  hercdem  adoptavit.'  Ex  Vita  Edsvnldi  fratris  Edinundi :  '  Edwol- 
"  dus  vitam  heremiticam  ditxlt  apud  Fonlem  jirgenleum  in  Dursetshir' ."  (Itin.  viii.  1^) 
Sciji  bujin  in  Saxon  is  the  clear,  bright  water.  The  cell  at  it  was  assuredly,  as  the  only  one 
there,  "  St.  John  hermitage  by  the  mille,  now  down."  (liiu.  iii.  126.)  'Hiis  hermit  drew 
some  monks,  probably,  and  then  bishops,  after  hin>  to  the  place. 

t  Usher,  44,  252,  253.  Giraklus  Canibrensis,  in  Itin.  Cambrix,  ii.  i.  Canidtni  Norm.v 
nica,  ?£c.  p.  855,  speaks  thus  of  the  translation  :  "  Prior  ille  locus — longe  metropoliianae 
"  sedi  plus  congrucrit ;  hie  etenrin  angulus  est  supra  Htbcrnicuni  mare  reniotissimus,  itrra 
"  saxosa,  stcrilis,  et  infereunda,  nee  silvis  vcstita,  nee  fluniinibus  disiincta,  nee  pratis  ornata, 
"  ventis  solum  et  procellis  semper  exposila —  ;  ex  induslriti  nanique  viii  saiuti  tafia  silt  d<.  - 
•'  legerunt  halltacula,  ut  populares  slrepittis  ntltcrfuglcndo,  v'Uamque  crcmiticam  loMgi  pas- 
"  torali  prefirendo,"  &c. 

5  trequently 


33  Tnn  -^vTiiEonAL  of  Cornwall  [chap.  r. 

frt*quonilv  cxcrciM-d,  that  after  the  Confiucst  a  formal  canon  was  made  by 
a  council  in  I'nglaml,  tor  counteracting  the  long-continued  operations  of 
it,  and  removing  all  the  sees  back  from  villages  into  cities  J. 

On  this  principle  being  separated  from  the  royal  seat,  why  was  not  the 
episcopal  fixed  at  P.odmin?  "  At  Bodmin,"  intimates  Malmcsbury,  "it 
"  was  fixed  ;"  and  any  intimation  Irom  him  carries  great  weight  with  it. 
"  The  scat  of  the  bishopric,"  he  tells  us,  "  was  at  the  town  of  St. 
"  IVtroc  the  Confi^ssor.  The  place  is  among  the  northern  Britons,  upon 
"  the  sea.  near  a  river  which  is  denominated  Hcgclmithe,"  or  Heyl- 
mouth§.  But  here  he  has  blundered  egregiously  in  the  form  of  his 
intimation,  and  that  blunder  takes  oti'  much  from  the  authority  of  the 
whole.  lie  points  at  liodniin  m  intention,  but  indicates  Padstow  in 
reality;  contounded  by  the  double  monastery  of  St.  Pctrock.  He  there- 
fore pitches  the  episcopal  residence  "  among  the  northern  Britons"  of 
Cornwall,  and  "  upon  the  sea'  there.  But,  by  an  additional  blunder, 
he  undesignedly  pitches  it  at  St.  Ives,  as  "  near  a  river  which  is  deno- 
"  minateil  Hcgclmithe,"  or  Hcylmouth,  Ilaylc  being  the  very  appel- 
lation of  the  river  at  St.  Ives.  Dr.  Borlase,  indeed,  endeavours  seem- 
ingly to  salve  the  last  of  these  blunders,  by  supposing  the  Htylmouth  to 
mean  the  mouth  of  the  Alan  at  Padstow;  this  river,  as  he  boldly  affirms, 
being  "  formerly  called  by  the  name  of  Haylc,  or  Heyle,  a  common 
•'  name  for  any  river*."  Yet  the  endeavour  onh'  shews  the  impositions 
that  the  mind  often  puts  upon  itself  without  knowing  them.  The  Doc- 
tor saw  the  Alan  meant,  yet  the  Heylmouth  mentioned;  and,  with- 
out attending  to  the  accumulation  of  errors  in  Malmesbury  here,  boldly 
supposed,  then  more  boldly  averred,  the  Alan,  ^hich  was  actually  called 
the  Cambala  or  Camel  formerly,  to  have  been  formerly  denominated 
the  Havle  or  Hcyle.  With  such  an  averment  in  the  very  face  of 
fact,  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  notice  a  reasoning  peculiarly  absurd, 

t  Malmesbury,  142  :  "  Sub  quo  cum  ex  canonum,  decreto  edictum  esset,  ut  sedes  episco- 
"  porum  ex  villis  ad  urbes  niigrarciu." 

^  Malnicsbun-,  146  :  "  Quod  apud  Sanctum  Pelrocum  Confessorem  fuerit  episcopatus 
"  tedes.  Locus  est  apud  aquiloiulcs  Britlones  supra  marC;  juxla  flumen  quod  dicitur  He- 
"  gtlmithc." 

•  Borlasf,  379,  380. 

\A'hich 


eilAP.  1.]  HISTORICALLV    Sl'RVEYKD.  33 

which  argues  the  Alan  to  have  been  called  the  He\  le,  or  Ilayle,  because 
this  was  "  a  common  name  for  any  river,"  and  therefore  could  not  be  the 
proper  name  of  the  Alan,  or  of  any  other.  But  a  geographical  blunder 
in  Malmesbury,  enhanced  as  it  is  by  an  absurdity  of  language,  in  speak- 
ing of  "  a  river  which  is  denominated  Hegel -//»7//f,"  or  WcyX-mouih,  is 
thus  made  by  the  Doctor  the  basis  of  an  historical  assertion.  And  the 
substance  of  what  JMalnicsburv  here  says,  is  actually  transmuted  by  the 
wizard's  wand  of  this  antiquary,  in  a  silent  consciousness  (I  believe)  of  its 
numerous  deformities,  into  something  totally  dillerent  from  what  it 
was  made  by  its  author  ;  into  an  evidence  of  what  is  not  l)elieved  even 
by  the  antiquary  himself,  into  an  indication  of  Padstow  instead  of  Bod- 
viin,  and  consequently  into  a  settlement  of  the  see  at  the  former,  not  ar 
the  laflerf. 

Malmesbury,  indeed,  was  seduced  from  all  j)roj)rietv  of  reasoning  and 
of  speaking,  by  that  private  history  of  Glastonbury  abbey,  which  he  aj)- 
pears  to  have  adopted  for  a  true  narration,  even  of  this  early  period.  In 
it  he  found  the  saints  Petrock  and  Patrick  confounded  together;  St, 
Patrick  landed  upon  the  shore  of  Cornwall  instead  of  St.  Petrock;  even 
landed,  and  having  a  church  where  he  himself  places  the  church  of  St. 
Petrock,  at  Haylc-mouth.  In  such  a  maze  was  Malmesbury's  under- 
standing, at  the  moment  of  writing  this  sentence;  and  into  such  a  laby- 
rinth has  he  led  Dr.  liorlascij;! 

Yet, 

t  Borlase,  379,  380 :  "  Tlic  place  where  this  house  was  situate,  was  called,  anciently, 
"  Lodcrick  ;  the  house  itself,  Laflcnac  ; — it  stood  on  the  north  sea,  at  the  mouth  of  a  river,  the 
"  place  called  then  UeUe-mouth,  by  Malmesbury,  lib.  ii.  Hegelmith:  the  river  was  what  we 
*'  now  call  the  Alan : — this  church  was  called  afterwards,  by  the  Saxons,  Padstow." 

X  Uslier,  455,  456  :  "  Patricium  nostrum  nionasticam  Glastonia  vitani  coluisse,  Malmes- 
"  huriensis  auclor  est  [in  Galeo,  i.  300]  :  de  primo  ejus  ad  locum  ilium  accessu,  f.c  Glas- 
"  loiiiensium  fide,  ista  rtfereus:  '  E.\ucniis  diihus  Biiianniani  rcmcans,  priorcni  (nietro- 
"  politani  pallii,  ut  in  magna  Glastiniensi  tabula  addiluni  hie  est)  cclsiludincm  salula- 
"  tioncs(]uc  in  foro  respuens,  super  a//art' suum  Cornullum  appulit:  quod  usque  hodic  apud 
"  incolas  [of  what  place  in  Cornwall  ?]  magna:  vencraiioni  est,  turn  propter  sanctitudinem 
"  et  ulililatem,  turn  propter  infirniorum  saluiem.  Inde  Giasloniam  veniens',"  &c.  The 
Story  of  this  altar  belongs,  undoubtedly,  to  the  saint  of  Padstow ;  Petrock  and  Patrick  being 
the  very  same  appellation,  only  varied  by  the  broad  or  the  thin  pronunciation  of  the  second 

VOL.  I.  F  Iciicr^ 


3^  niF    rATMEDRAL   OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  T. 

Tct,  amidst  all  this  confusion  of"  history  and  geography  in  Malmes- 
bury,  he  could  not  but  listen  to  the  voice  of  others,  and  could  not  but 
record  their  report.  At  tlie  close  he  subjoins  this  remarkable  observa- 
tion, w  hicli  s<-rvcs  to  clieck  the  |)recipitancy  of  error  in  him,  and  ought 
to  have  ehecked  the  repetition  of  it  in  the  Doctor;  w  hich  balances  the 
assertion  before,  that  the  see  was  at  Bodmin;  as  it  makes  the  scale  now 
hang  even  between  it  and  St.  German's.  For  he  thus  cites  the  report 
of  others,  without  any  reprehension,  though  in  direct  contradiction  to 
his  own;  "  some  say,  that  it  [the  see]  was  at  Saint  German's,  near  the 
river  Liner,  upon  the  sea  in  the  south §." 

IcUcr.  Dr.  Burlasc  accordingly  speaks  of  this  altar  expressly,  as  belonging  to  his  Patrick,  and 
our  Pclrock ;  averring  in  the  text,  thai  St.  Patrick  was  "  in  Cornwall,  and  had  an  altar  and 
•'  church  ihcru  dedicated  to  him,  and  much  reverenced  for  the  sake  of  this  excellent  pastor;" 
then  suhjoining  in  a  note,  that  "  the  legend  says  he  was  wafted  over  from  Ireland  into  Corn- 
•«  wall  upon  this  altar,  w  hich  was  greatly  frequented  and  reverenced  for  that  reason."  (P.  369.) 
♦'  Scqueniia  hxc,"  adds  Usher,  "  ex  jam  dicto  Glastiniensis  ecclesia  ant'iquUatum  libello 
"  deprompta,  adjungas  licet : — '  cum  S.  Patricias,  a  Cclestino  Papa,  missus,  Hibernicos  ad 
"  fidcin  Chrifti  convcrtisset,  alquc  eos  in  fide  soiidassct, — Britanniam  rediit,  et  in  portum 
"  qui  Haile-mont  [Haile-mout]  nuncupatur,  appiilit;  ob  cujus  reverentiam  sanclitatisq.  ex- 
"  cclleniiam,  ilidiin  staliiitur  ecclesia  S.  Pulricii  [Petroci]  nomine,  propter  ejus  merita  et 
••  frtqucnlia  niiracula,  insignitd"."  Malniesbury,  we  see,  was  thus  misled  in  history  and  in 
geography,  by  the  confused  notions  of  this  Glastonbury  historian;  to  confound  St.  Petrock 
with  his  predecessor  St.  Patrick,  not  indeed  to  call  the  church  of  the  former  what  the  Glas- 
tonbury historian  calls  it,  St.  Patrick's,  but  to  speak  of  it  by  its  own  proper  name  of  St.  I'c- 
trock,  yet  with  that  historian  to  bring  St.  Patrick  to  it,  and  to  land  St.  Patrick  where  he 
himself  places  the  church  of  St.  Petrock,  at  Haile-mouth.  But  Dr.  Borlase  receives  all 
without  distinction,  only  omitting  in  silence  the  strange  reference  to  St.  Ives.  ♦'  The  first 
"  religious  house,"  he  says,  379,  380,  "  which  we  read  of  [as]  founded  in  Cornwall,  was 
"  that  erected  by  St.  Patrick  in  the  year  432.  The  place  where  this  house  was  situate  was 
"  called  anciently  Lodcric ;  the  house  itself,  LafTenae — .  This  church  was  called  afterwards 
"  by  the  name  of  St.  Patrick  ;  and  I  should  think  the  town  was  afterwards,  in  comme- 
"  nioration  of  thii  saiul,  called  by  the  Saxons  Pad;iow,  or  Patrick-stow,"  when  Patrick- 
flow  it  never  w.->s  called,  though  a  note  add*,  "  the  Irish  calling  hini  Padraick,"  Usher, 
p.  89s  ;  when  the  vulg.ir  abbreviation  at  present  is  Paddy,  for  an  Irishman,  as  a  disciple 
of  Patrick  :  "others  think  it  called  Padstow  from  St.  Petrock ;"  Dr.  Borlase  thus  com- 
inj;  to  the  true  account  at  last,  and,  like  the  glow-worm,  carrying  light  in  his  tail  to  soften  a 
little  the  darknc«s  around  him, 

\  Malmesbiiry,  146:  "  Quidam  diamt  fuisse  ad  Sanctum  Germanum,  juxta  flumen 
*'  Liner,  jupra  mare  in  australi  pane," 

•»  Pie 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTOnrCALLr    SURVEYED.  85 

He  even  sets  down  this  report  in  a  previous  part  of  his  history,  -w  ith- 
out  the  slightest  reference  to  others,  and  with  ail  the  appearance  of  con- 
viction impressed  upon  himself.  The  kings  of  West-Saxony,  he  there 
says,  among  other  counties,  ruled  "  in  Domnonia,  which  is  Devene- 
"  schire,  and  in  Cornubia,  which  is  now  called  Cornwall;  and  there  were 
"  then  two  bishopricks,  one  at  Crediton,  the  other  at  Saint  German's; 
"  now  there  is  one,  and  the  seat  of  it  is  at  Exeter*."  The  autlior  thus 
sheM  s  us  the  original  impression  made  upon  his  mind  from  the  records 
of  history;  the  obliteration  made  unwarily  of  it,  by  some  false  notices 
immediately  before  him  then;  and  the  return  of  his  judgment  at  last,  to 
what  he  had  nearly  lost  in  the  crowd  of  notices  which  had  pressed  upon 
him  since;  a  return  as  partial  as  his  recollection,  but  carrying  a  i)lain 
tendency  to  his  positive  opinion  at  first.  He  set  out  on  his  historical 
journey,  over  an  open  country;  saw  the  hill  to  which  he  was  travelling, 
all  drest  out  in  full  sunshine  before  him;  but  immediatelv  entered  a 
forest  that  intervened,  lost  his  object  in  the  woods  around  liim.  and, 
when  he  reached  it  at  last,  had  a  view  not  half  so  distinct  as  his  former 
one,  catching  only  a  gleam  from  recollection  of  that  vision,  which  had 
shone  so  bright  to  his  eyes  before. 

Nor  is  this  merely  the  solitary  evidence  of  a  single  historian:  others 
unite  with  him.  All,  indeed,  combine  their  testimony  with  his,  who  are 
accurate  enough  to  name  the  specific  see  of  Cornwall.  These  all,  how- 
ever, are  only  two.  But,  as  they  are  all  who  specify,  so  do  two  form  a 
decisive  addition  of  strength  to  the  original  witness.  One  of  tlicsc  is 
Rudborne,  who  wrote  about  1440,  when  the  sec  of  Cornwall  had  ceased 
to  exist  for  ages,  at  either  St,  German's  or  Bodmin.  He  tells  us  of  many 
persons  appointed  to  bishopricks  by  Pleimund,  archbishop  of  Cantcrbuiy, 
and  Edward  the  son  of  Alfred;  but  speaks  of  one  of  these  bishopricks 
expressly,  as  "  the  Cornish  see,  or  the  see  of  Saint  German's -f-.  The 
other  is  a  writer  of  the  same  date  nearly,  sjieaking  of  the  same  set  of  new 

•  Malmesbury,  i8  :  "  In  Domnonia  qux  Deveneschire,  ct  in  Comubia  quae  nunc  Cuniu 
♦•  Galliae  clicitiir;  erantq.  tunc  duo  episcopatus,  unus  in  Crcdinton,  alter  aputl  Sanctum 
"  Gernianum  :  nunc  est  unus,  et  est  sedes  ejus  Exonix." 

t  Wharton's  Anglia  tJaora,  i.  zio;  "  Ad  Cornubiensem  sive  ad  Sanctum  Gcnnanum." 

F  2  prelates. 


30  THE  CATiinouAL  or  cohnwaix  [chap.  r. 

prelates  fixing  tour  of  their  sees  at  Dorchester.  Selsev,  Winchester,  and 
Sherborn,  but  then  adding  tluis:  "  the  king  and  bishop  also  erected  three 
••  collegiate  churches  int.:>  cathedrals,  the  first  of  which  was  the  colle- 
"  pinte'^churcli  of  Sai.vt  TJermax  in  Cornwall,  at  which  they  placed  a 
••  tifih  bishop :J."  So  egrcgiously  have  the  moderns  been  deceived,  as 
to  inutatcand  adopt  an  accider.tal  wrvness  of  neck  in  this  Alexander  of 
history,  even  to  continue  adopting  and  imitating,  though  he  himself 
imitcd  with  his  courtiers  to  convince  them,  that  it  Mas  mrely  acci- 
dental and  temporary ! 

Dicipil  exemplar  viliis  imilabile. 

That  the  see,  irulecci,  was  not  at  Uodnnn,  may  be  shew^n  by  authorlty 
rven  more  decisive  than  either  Rudborne's,  Malmesbury's,  or  any  his- 
torian's. From  the  reduction  of  East-Devonshire  by  the  Saxons  in  Oil, 
the  Cornish  must  have  had  an  episcopate  as  well  as  a  royalty  for  them- 
H-lves.  We  accordingly  observe  the  former,  noted  above  in  91 0;  yet 
in  all  the  interval  between  both,  and  down  to  the  days  of  Athelstan  in 
l;30,  Bodmin  had  no  existence  as  a  town,  none  even  as  a  village,  but  w\is 
merely  a  hermitage  through  the  w  hole  period.  Athelstan,  say  those 
best  authorities  that  we  can  possibly  have,  the  ancient  charters  of  dona- 
tions, founded  a  monastery  at  Bodmin,  "  in  a  valley  where  Saint  Gu- 
"  RON,"  the  patron-saint  and  the  denominator  of  the  parish  of  Gorran 
,near  Mevagissey,  "  was  living  solitarily  in  a  small  hut,  which  he  left  and 
"  resigned  to  St.  Pctroc§."  This  appears,  from  its  position  in  the  valley, 
to  have  been  upon  the  site  of  the  present  churchyard;  and  it  is  pleasing 
to  contemplate  in  this  glass  of  history,  the  area  of  a  tow^n  once  the 
ground  of  a  liermitage.  But  a\  e  can  be  still  more  particular.  "Wliat 
attracted  St.  Guron  to  the  ground,  in  addition  to  the  general  Moodiness 

X  Wharton's  AngVia  Sacra,  i.  555  :  "  Ulterius — rex  et  episcopus  tres  ecclcsias  colletiiatas 
"  — in  calhcdralcs  tcclcsias  crexcrunt;  miaruni  prima  fuit  ecclcsia  collegiata  S.  Germani  ia 
"  Corniibifi,   in  qui  quintuni  posucrunt  episcopum." 

\  Lclanil's  Coll.  i.  75:  "  In  vallr,  ubi  S.  Guronus  [fuil]  solitarie  dcgens  in  parvo 
"  lugurio,  quod  relinqiiens  Iraditiit  S.  Pelroco."  He  went,  pn>bably,  and  settled  in  Gorran 
parish,  which  was  therefore  denominated  from  him ;  residing  (I  suppose)  at  Poltrorran,  or 
Gorran's  Pool,  a  litilt  north  from  the  church.  This  church  bears  the  naine  of  St.  Goran» 
in  the  Valor  cf  Iliury  VIII.  but  is  called  '«  ccclesia  Saucii  Geroni"  in  thatof  Pope  Nicholas. 

and 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEyED.  37 

and  general  solitariness  of  it,  was  that  perpetual,  that  necessary  accom- 
paniment of  a  saint's  hermitage  in  our  island,  a  fine  fountain  of  water. 
This  remains  to  the  present  moment,  at  the  western  end  of  the  church- 
yard, near  the  western  door  of  the  church;  and  so  points  out  the  imme- 
diate site  of  the  hermitage,  with  tlie  strictest  precision.  The  spring  is 
so  copious,  and  the  water  is  so  good,  that  it  is  carried  for  a  few  feet 
under  the  ground  of  the  churchyard,  and  discharged  into  a  stone  basin 
on  tlie  outside,  to  the  amazement  of  all  who  consider  not  the  careful 
conveyance  of  it  througli  the  churchyard,  undisturbed  by  the  digging 
of  graves,  unpolluted  by  the  proximity  of  the  dead,  and  protected  at  the 
fountain  by  an  arched  building  of  stone,  with  a  door  to  it  constantly 
locked;  but  to  the  sensible  satisfaction  of  all  the  adjoining  part  of  the 
town,  wiiich  prefers  the  water  of  this  spring  to  that  of  any  other  ia 
the  ncigh])ourhood*. 

This  ran  waste  between  the  woods  and  the  hills,  till  it  engaged  the 
notice  and  invited  the  residence  of  St.  Guron,  in  the  end  of  the  fifth  ceu- 

*  Carcw's  Survey  of  Cornwall,  123,  edit.  1769:  "  Their  conduit  wa-ter  runneth  thorow 
**  the  duircliyard,  the  ordinary  jilace  of  buriall  for  towne  and  parishe.  It  brcedeth,  there- 
*'  fore,  Hllle  cause  of  niarvaile,  that  every  gencrall  infection  is  here  first  admitted  and  la5t  ex- 
"  eluded."  Norden,  72,  evidently  from  Carcw's  manuscript:  "A  small  brooke"  is  at 
Bodmin,  "  runinge — thorowgh  the  churcheyarde,  whcrdtade  bodyes  are  interred;  by  reason 
•'  wherof  the  water  cannot  be  salutarie,  and  that,  no  dowble,  maketh  the  towne  often  b.ubjecte 
"  to  longc  and  grc)  voiis  infections."  It  is  curious  to  ob^c^ve  in  these  two  authors,  how 
readily  the  human  niiiui  takes  up  an  hypotliesi.;  from  a  superficial  view  of  things,  {.hcvijancies 
incidents  confirmatory  of  it,  and  goes  on  to  repeat  the  tale  of  falsehood  with  all  the  facts  of 
experience  crying  out  in  a  loud  voice  to  overpower  it.  Bodmin  is  knoicii  to  be  as  healthy 
as  any  totiti  in  the  cotintt/.  It  has  only  one  apothecary's  shop  within  it;  and  a  physician  of 
eminence  there  is  reported  to  have  exclaimed  in  a  vein  of  jocularity  again3t  the  drcwljiil 
hcallhiucss  of  it;  just  as  Dr.  Aibuthnot  is  reported  to  have  said  of  Dorchester  in  Dorsetshire, 
\\  here  he  was  once  settled,  and  whence  he  was  met  galloping  aw  ay,  tiiat  it  was  a  town  at  w  i>icti 
a  man  could  neither  live  nor  die. — "  At  Frome,  in  Somersetshire,"  says  Leiand,  vii.  99,  in  a 
strain  wonderfully  according  with  the  circumstances  of  Bodmin,  "  there  is  a  goodly  large 
*'  paroche  churche  in  it,  and  a  ryghl  fuire  springe  in  the  chnrche  yttrdc,  that  by  pipes  and 
"  tienthes  is  conveyde  to  diuers  paries  of  the  towne."  See  also  (Josiling's  Canterbury,  375, 
376,  edition  ad,  for  conduits  of  water  carried  through  the  churchyard  of  the  cathedral,  to 
all  the  ofiices  of  llic  monastery,  the  kitchen,  the  bakcliousc;  and  the  brew  house. 

tiii\  . 


33  THr.    CATHEDRAL    OF    COU.VU'ALL  [cHAP.  I 

tury,  or  at  the  bepiiiniiit;  of  tlie  sixth;  as  St.  Pctrock  came  into  Cornwall 
inilri-f-.     Such  was  IJodmiii  then |. 

Nor  did  it  now  change  much  in  its  condition.  St.  Petrock  brought 
with  him  only  three  i)ersons,  his  pupils  in  learning,  his  disciples  in  reli- 
giousness, and  his  intended  companions  in  solitude.  *'  With  these  he 
••  settled,"  adds  I^'land,  from  other  authority,  "  in  a  monastery  of  the 
"  apostolic  order,  which  he  built  in  Cornwall  some  miles  from  the  Severn 
*•  shorc^;"  the  northern  sea  of  Cornwall  being  then  denominated,  asit  still 
is,  the  Severn  sea.  Thus  the  j)lace  of  St.  Petrock's  settlement  v.as  720f^ 
as  it  has  been  liitherto  fixed*,  though  very  incongruously  with  all  hLs 
scheme  of  sequestration,  at  a  port  of  passage  from  ireland,  and  in  the 
fotvti  of  Padstow.  It  was  some  miles  within  land,  and  at  the  solitary 
valley  of  St.  Guron's  hermitage.  He  turned  the  single  hermitage  into  a 
social  one,  by  rebuilding  it  on  a  larger  scale,  and  then  inhabited  it  with 
his  three  companions.  He  therefore  settled,  as  St.  Guron  had  settled 
l)efore,  on  the  western  end  of  the  present  churchyard,  and  close  to  the 
fine  fountain.  "  S.  Petrocus,"  notes  Iceland,  concerning  the  church  of 
Bodmin,  "  was  patrone  of  this,  and  sumtymc  dwell  yd  iher^."  There  he 
lived  and  there  he  died;  Leland  again  informing  us,  that  "  the  shrine 

t  Usher,  526. 

X  Yet,  "  here,"  says  he  who  has  only  the  credulity  of  fancy  without  the  irradiation  of  it 
(Hals,  in  his  Parochial  History  of  Cornwall,  p.  17),  "  undoubtedly  stood  the  temple  of 
"  j4pollo,  w  hich,  our  annalists  tell  us,"  with  equal  ignorance  and  falsehood,  «  was  built  in 
*'  Cornwall  by  Cunedag,  in  the  year  of  the  world  3172—;  this  temple  of  Apollo  was  the 
"  scat  of  the  Cornish  bishops,  or  druids,  of  the  druids  before,  and  of  the  bishops  after 
«'  Christianity." 

Et  quicquid  Grtecia  niendax 
Audet  in  hisloriil. 

§  Usher,  292 :  "  Ibi,  ut  Lclandus  rem  narrat  (Jo.  Bala:i  Scj-iptor.  Britann.  centur.  i. 
"  c.  60),  «  in  canobio  apostolic)  ordinis,  quod  in  Cornubia  aliquot  passuum  miJIibus  a 
"  Sabrino  litlorc  sedificabat,  discipulos  habuit  Cridaiumi,  Medanuni,  et  Dachanum'." 

•  Camden,  140:  "  Padstow  contracle  pro  Pclrockslow— ,  a  Petroco  quodam  Britannico 
"  in  sanctos  relato,  qui  hie  Deo  vacavit."  Usher,  292:  «  Locus  autem,  in  quo  Petrocus 
"  conscdit,— hodie  Padstow  noniinatur."  Borlase,  380:  «  Others  think  it  called  Padstow 
"  from  St.  Pctrock,  who  settled— and  luUt  litre." 

H  Ilin.  ii.  114. 

"  and 


CHAP.  1.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  89 

"  and  TUMBE  of  S.  Petiok  yet  stoxdith  in  thest  part  of  the  chirche§." 
Nor  let  my  Cornish  reader  think,  as  I  thought  before  I  examined  the 
point,  that  this  tomb  and  shrine  of  St.  Petrock  were  placed  in  what 
Leland  also  calls  "  a  cantuarie  chapel  at  the  east  ende  of  the  church*. 
The  chapel  is  actually  what  j\Ir.  Hals  mentions,  as  "  in  Eodmin  church- 
"  yard,"  at  some  distance  from  the  church,  and  as  "  a  well-built  school- 
"  house  built  over  a  spacious  charnel-house,  or  grot,  where  arc  piled  up 
**  the  dry  bones  of  such  men  and  women  as  are  found  in  new-made 
"  graves,  now  commonly  called  the  bonc-house-f ;"  and  the  school  shews 
itself  at  the  first  glance  to  have  been  a  chapel  raised  upon  a  lofty  arcade, 
that  is  nearly  buried  now  in  the  rising  soil,  but  was  originally  a  walk, 
then  became  a  bone-house,  and  is  now  a  privy;  the  chapel  itself  being 
ascended  by  a  flight  of  stone  steps,  entered  by  an  arched  door  of  stone 
peaked,  having  two  arched  windows  peaked  on  the  north,  with  two  on 
the  south,  and  ending  in  a  large  arched  window  peaked  on  the  east,  with 
three  stone  stalls  peaked  near  it,  as  scats  for  the  three  chantry-priests. 
But  St.  Petrock's  tomb  and  shrine  were  within  the  church,  and  in  the 
eastern  part  of  it.  There,  indeed,  AVilliam  of  Worcester  found  a  chapel 
before  the  days  of  Leland,  then  called  St.  Mary's,  as  the  whole  church 
was  then  dedicated  to  St.  Mary  equally  with  St.  Petrock;  and,  as  Wil- 
liam tells  us,  "  St.  Petrock  lies  in  a  fair  shrine  within  a  chapel  of  St. 
"  Mary,"  that  has  no  length  noted  like  the  church,  from  east  to  west, 
but  "  is  in  breadth,''  from  north  to  south,  "  about  twenty-four  steps;};". 

There 

§   Tlin.  ii.  114,  aiul  ix.  xxxii. :   "  Locus — illustris,  cum  monumento  Pctroci,  tuni,"  Sec. 

*  Itin.  ii.  114.  Notwiihstanding  this  notice  in  Leland,  Tanner  lias  totally  omitted  that 
chapel,  even  in  Nasniith's  edition.  He  has  also  omiued  St.  I'ctrock's  cliapel,  notwiihsiand- 
ing  Leland's  equal  notice. 

t  Ilals,  20. 

X  Itincraria  Simonis  Svmconis  et  Willehni  de  Worccstre,  Nasmith,  Cambridge,  1777, 
p.  100,  loi  :  "  Latitudo  capellie  Beal.x  Marix  coiitinet  circa  24  «tcppys. — Sanctiis  Pctro- 
"  cus — jacet  in  piilchro  scrinio  apud  Bodman  ccelcsiam,  coram  capella  Beata;  ALariw."  This 
author,  whom  I  now  cite  for  the  first  time,  is  no  very  respectable  writer;  but  he  hasmlny 
notices  of  use,  and  travelled  near  a  century  bclore  F^-land  ;  as  he  says,  p.  368,  "  1473,  die 
"  10  Augusti,  iHtsentavi  VV.  episcopo  VVyntonieusi,  apud  Aslier,  libruni  Tullii  dc  Scnct- 
"  lute,  per  me  translatum  in  Anglicisj  sed  iiulliim  rtganliun  reccpi  dc  rphcopo,"     Happily 

for 


40  Tiir.  rvrnF.nnAL  of  Cornwall  [chap.  i. 

There  also  was  a  chai)cl  existing  to  tlie  year  IT/O,  entered  by  a  door 
on  the  south  side  of  the  altar,  and  ranging  parallel  with  the  altar  behind, 
onlv  about  throe  feet  wide  and  nine  lung;  covered  with  a  salt-pic  roof 
of  shingles  that  sloped  to  the  altar  window,  and  had  there  a  gutter  of 
lead  for  conve>  ing  rain-water  from  it.  There  ore  the  ends,  with 
the  side  still  remaining  without,  as  well  as  the  doorway  apparently 
closed  up.  in  that  sort  of  sunken  opening  to  a  cellar  window,  which  the 
Londoners,  with  a  barbarism  peculiar  to  themselves,  denominate  an  area; 
the  earth  on  the  outside  having  swelled  up,  from  burials,  to  such  a 
height  here,  as  to  be  level  nearly  with  the  pitch  of  the  ancient  roof, 
and  to  have  reduced  a  chapel  into  a  mere  fosse.  "We  thus  perceive, 
that  when  the  present  church  was  erected,  about  the  year  1125,  in  all 
the  lottiness  and  grace  which  now  fix  it  by  far  the  finest  church  in  the 
countv}-;  so  much  of  the  old  chapel  of  St.  Petrock,  as  contained  his  tomb 
and  shrirjc.  was  left  out  of  reverence  to  his  memory,  and  his  tomb  with 
his  shrine  was  caretully  preserved  in  it  fo  the  Reformation,  even  through 
the  Reformation  to  the  time  of  Leland.  But  what  had  been  spared  by 
the  wasteful  hand  of  mischief  in  the  Jirsf  reformation,  has  been  since 
destroyed  by  tiie  spades  and  pickaxes  of  the  second;  those  fanatics  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  1  suppose,  \\  ho  defaced  a  little  the  tomb  of  bishop 
Vivian  there,  as  a  monument  of  superstition;  utterly  levelling  the  tomb 
of  St.  Petrock  to  the  ground,  tearing  down  his  shrine  with  its  statue 
from  their  position  over  the  altar-tomb,  and  not  leaving  a  trace  of  any  to 
be  seen  now*.  Thus  was  the  chapel  latterly  considered  only,  as  a  ves- 
try 

(or  die  present  gcncralion  of  clergy,  this  is  not  the  case  now ;  but  every  rav  of  literary  merit 
that  darts  out  among  them,  is  marked  by  the  watching  eyes  of  our  prelates,  is  caught  care- 
hilly  in  their  ready  mirror  of  patronage,  and  reflected  back  with  additional  lustre,  upon  the 
public. 

X  Leland's  hm.  ii.  1 14 ;  "  The  paroch  chirche  standith  at  the  est  endc  of  the  town,  and  is 
'•'  a  fair  large  thyng."  Leland's  Coll.  i.  76  :  "  25  regis  Ilenrici  1""  [A.  D.  1 125]  (]uidam 
"  AJgarus,  cum  connivcntii  episcopi  Exon.  Gul.  Warwcst,  obtinuit  lictntiani  a  rege,"  &c. 
Hals,  19 :  "  Algar— ,  at  his  own  proper  cost  and  charges,  re-edifiedthe— church— at  Bodman, 
"  as  it  now  sunds,  consisting  of  tlirce  roofs,  each  sixty  cloth-yards  long,  thirty  broad,  and 
"  twenty  high;  so  that,  for  bulk  and  magnificence,  it  is  equal   to  the  cathedral  of  Kirton 


*  This  tomb,  says  Hals,  20,  was  "  somewhat  defaced  in  the  interregnum  of  Cromwell, 


as 


CHAP.   1.]  niSTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  .11 

try,  perhaps,  for  the  clergy  once,  was  in  fact  used  as  a  kind  of  lumber- 
room  to  the  church;  and  all  knowledge  of  its  dedication  to  St.  Petrock, 
of  its  ever  having  a  shrine  or  a  tomb  within  it,  was  thoroughly  effaced 
from  the  minds  or  memories  of  the  inhabitants,  till  I  came  in  the  au- 
tumn of  i;g5to  search  for  the  chapel,  and  by  searching  taught  the  in- 
habitants to  discover  it  for  me.   But  the  building,  from  its  own  antiquity, 
from  the  mass  of  soil  which  had  been  accumulated  around  it,  and  from 
the  lowness,  the  meanness  of  its  roof,  had  previously  appeared  so  rude  to 
the  eye,  that  its  original  dedication  being  now  forgotten,  and  its  original 
memorials  now  removed,  reverence  had  no  longer  a  power  to  save  it:  ig- 
norance, in  the  shape  of  an  official,  ordered  it  to  be  unroofed,  and  all  tra- 
dition of  its  existence  would  soon  have  vanished  into  air.     Yet  it  is  no- 
ticed in  another  place   by  Leland,   as   "  a  carnarye  chappell  in    the 
"  chyrchf."     "What,  however,  is  a  "  carnary"  chapel?     We  are  ready 
to  suppose  at  once,  that  it  is  a  chapel  dedicated  to  some  purposes  of  de- 
votion, which  are  now  forgotten  in  the  mutation  of  our  minds,  and  in 
the  variation  of  our  devotions,  since  the  Reformation.     So  apt  are  we 
to  rest  our  idleness  on  our  ignorance,  and  to  suppose  a  point  inexplicable 
because  we  will  not  seek  for  explications!     inland  speaks  in  a  third 
place  of"  a.  charnel  chapeWe ;"  which  was  not  a  mere  charnel-house,  as 
in  the  same  spirit  we  may  fondly  presume  it  to  be,  because  it  is  expressly 
noticed  by  Leland  immediately  afterwards,    to  be  one  "  to  the  which 
"  was  gyvcn  the  prolite  of  a  chapclle  at  Bayworth;}:."     A  carnary,  or 

charnel 

"  as  a  supprslitious  monument."  It  is  defaced,  in  the  cherubims  that  overshadowed  his  face 
with  llieir  wings,  being  so  broken  off  as  to  leave  only  a  part  of  their  wings  behind  them  ; 
in  the  fingers  being  destroyed,  that  belonged  to  the  hands  closed  in  the  act  of  prayer  ;  and  in 
a  part  of  the  inscription  round  the  rim.  But,  what  has  never  been  noticed,  this  tomb  has 
been  removed  from  its  original  site.  "  Thcr  lay  buryed,"  says  Leland,  in  Itin.  iii.  12, 
"  before  the  high  altare,"  now  in  the  northern  aile,  "  in  a  high  tumbc  of  a  very  darkesch 
"  gray  marble,  one  Thomas  Viviane  prior,"  8cc.  We  have  just  such  a  removal  at  Wells,  in 
Leiand's  Itin.  iii.  124:  "  Ad  Borcani  Radulpluis  de  Salapia  episcopus  Wellen.  Hie  antti 
"  tumulalus_/«j/  ante  supremum  altare,  sed  tumulus  obfuit  celcbranlibus  ministris." 

t  Itin.  iii.  12. 

J  Ibid.  ibid.  So  m  iii.  58,  we  find  upon  a  tomb  in  Exeter  cathedral,  "  fecit  capeilani 
"  carnarias  in  cocmiterio."  In  iii.  99,  we  have  "  a  fair  chapclle"  at  Winchester;  "  under 
"  it  is  a  vault  for  a  carnaric,"   or  chanicl-housc;  a<  "  there   be  3  lunibes   of  marble,  ot 

VOL.  I.  o  "  prc'ici 


4C 


TirE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  I. 


rharn«-I  chapc-l,  therefore,  was  one  tliat  had  a  priest  with  an  endowment 
belon{;iii;i  to  it.  and  was  ihc  reposifori/  of  a  saivt's  bones.  Thus  the  "  car- 
"  narvc  cliappell  in  the  ehvrch"  ot"  Bodmin,  was  that  very  chapel  ^^  hich 
I  have  just  described,  within  which  was  the  tomb  of  St.  Petrock,  and  to 
which,  therefore,  the  title  of  a  chapel  caniary,  or  charnel,  was  familiarly 
piven  before  the  Reformation,  as  a  note  of  distinction  from,  and  a  mark 
of  eminence  above,  the  common  herd  of  chantry  chapels§. 

"  prcstcs  custodcs  of  this  tliapclle."  So,  likewise,  in  the  same  page,  we  have  "  a  chapclle 
'*  uitk  a  camary,"  or  chamcl-hoiisc  under  it.  In  iv.  124,  we  liave  "  a  charnel  chapcll ;" 
and  in  Stowc's  London,  356,  wc  have  "  a  charnel!  under  the  chapcll,"  built  about  1282. 
5  The  name  of  I'/iia/i,  for  this  prior  of  Bodmin,  seems  to  concur  with  the  name  of  Bod- 
min itself,  in  fixing  him  for  an  original  native  of  that  county,  in  which  the  family  of  the 
Vivians  is  so  numerous  and  so  respectable  al  present.  The  appellation  is  accordingly  con- 
sidered by  the  linguists  of  Cornwall,  lobe  purely  Cornish  in  itself.  "  Fyvyav,"  says  Bor- 
lasc,  " /i/z/e- ua/er ;  the  name  of  a  fam'ily"  (p.  462).  "  Chuyvijan,"  adds  Pryce,  with 
more  liarshness  in  the  derivation,  "  lo  scape,  to  Jlee:  from  hence  the  family  Vtjvyan  is  sup- 
"  pojid  to  take  its  name,  for  fleeing  on  a  white  horse  from  Lioness,  when  it  was  overflown  ; 
"  that  person  being  at  that  time  governor  thereof;  in  memory  whereof  this  family  gives  a 
•*  lion  for  its  arms,  and  a  white  horse,  ready  caparisoned,  for  its  crest."  These  etymologies 
K-em  to  denionstrate  the  Cornish  quality  of  the  name,  beyond  a  possibility  of  doubt.  The 
former  appears  peculiarly  easy  and  just,  while  the  latter  is  supported  by  an  appeal  to  the 
tradition,  and  a  reference  to  the  arms,  of  the  very  family.  Yet,  after  all,  the  name  of  Vivian 
is  not  Cornish.  It  is  only  one  of  the  appellations,  begun  among  us  originally  by  the  resi- 
dent Romans,  and  continued  amonc  us  afterwards  by  their  descendants  in  Britain.  The 
Abbe  y'nianif  a  dignitary  at  St.  Peter's  in  Rome,  was  seized  in  1796  as  one  of  a  body  of 
republicans,  combined  to  make  an  insurrection  there.  In  1177,  we  find  "  Vivlanus,  cardi- 
"  nalis  lituii  S.  Stephani,  ct  aposiolicaf  sedis  legaUis,"  at  Whitern,  in  Galloway,  in  the  Isle 
of  Man,  and  in  Ireland.  (Leland's  Coll.  iii.  320.)  We  even  find  a  Vivian,  a  respectable 
man  and  a  knowing  lawyer,  at  Rome,  in  the  filth  century  :  "  Data  siquidem  supplications 
•'  conquereris,"  says  Thcodorick  the  king  to  John  the  head  physician,  in  a  letter,  "  virum 
•'  spfctalilrm  Vivianuni,  Irgum  arlificio  (juo  callet  elatum,  personam  tuam  objectis  crimi- 
"  nalionibus  insequutuni,  ct  eousque  pervcntum  ut  indefensus,  contra  juris  ordiucm,  vicarii 
"  urbis  Roma,  scntcnli&  damnareris."  (Cassiodori  Chronicon,  iv.  41.)  But  let  mc  ascend 
10  the  very  meridian  of  Roman  greatness,  for  the  name;  by  observing,  that  it  appears  as  a 
prtenomet)  even  in  Tacitus,  and  that  he  notices  "  Fiviaum  Aiinius"  as  the  "  gener  Corbii- 
•♦  lonis,"  in  the  very  reign  of  Nero  (Ann.  xv.  28).  I  thus  restore  the  Vividns  of  Cornwall 
lo  their  true  digiiKy  of  descent,  a  descent  from  the  Roman  conquerors  of  Britain,  and  a 
dignity  not  communicable,  I  believe,  to  any  other  family  in  the  whole  island,  at  present. 

But, 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORICALLr    SURVEYED.  4.? 

But,  as  Leland  subjoins  from  the  charters  again.  "  St.  Pctroc  professed 
"  a  monastic  Mi'e  under  tlic  rule  of  St.  Benedict,  at  Bodm'm,  as  then 
"  called*."  The  valley  then  took  a  name,  and  the  cell  of  the  hermit 
monks  lent  its  own  appellation  to  it,  Bod-m'tn;  or,  as  this  name  was  at 
the  time  pronounced,  like  Ladock  changed  into  Lazock,  and  Bryttonec 
into  Brezoncc,  at  present;  and,  as  the  name  is  found  actually  written  in 
the  charters,  Bos-matia,  the  mansion  of  the  monks  f.  The  ground,  how- 
ever, was  still  soUtary,  and  had  in  it  a  mere  hermitage;  that  selected  for 
its  sequestration  from  the  world,  amid  the  woods  which  hung  down  from 
the  hills  on  either  side,  and  threw  their  shade  ofsolemnitv  across  the 
valley;  but  this  barely  a  monastic  hermitage,  in  the  bosom  of  these  em- 
bowering woods.  In  the  same  condition  it  remained  to  the  reduction 
of  Cornwall.  The  "  rule"  of  St.  Benedict,  adds  Leland  from  the  very 
charter  still,  "  so  dedicated  to  monastic  discipline,"  and  for  that  reason 
(I  suppose)  denominated  the  apostolic  order  before,  '•  the  monks  tliere 
"  pursued  even  to  the  time  of  Athelstan'^.."'  The  king  then  pulled  down 
the  cell  of  these  four  hermits,  and  erected  a  regular  monastery;  shifting 
the  site  a  little,  fixing  his  monastery  just  without  the  south-eastern  end 
of  what  is  now  the  churchyard,  and  leaving  the  scene  of  St.  Petrock's 
hermitage,  with  the  ground  of  his  well,  for  the  ample  area  of  that 
church  of  his,  which  he  made  equally  monastic  and  parochial §.     There 

the 

*  Coll.  i.  75  :  "  S.  Pctrocus  monasticam  profcssus  vitatn  sub  regula  D.  Bcneciicti,  apud 
*'  Boclminam  tunc  tcmporis  vocatam." 

t  Coll.  i.  75  :  "  Bosmana,  id  est,  mansio  monacljorum."  The  full  name  is  Bos-mnt- 
nach,  which  is  the  same  iu  Armoric  and  Irish,  but  would  be  Bod-niynacli  in  Welsh;  and 
appears  from  Bos-mana  and  Bod-niin  in  the  charters  to  have  been  equally  so  in  the  Comish 
then,  and  to  have  been  then  pronounced  min  and  niana.  "  Z  was  never  used  in  the 
"  Welsh,  but  occurs  frequently  in  the  Cornish  for  dli;  as  blscwon,  Jews,  for  YAhcwon,  and 
■"  ztn  enevon,  for  dlion  ancvon,  to  our  souls."  (I'rycc,  15.) 

X  Coll.  i.  75;  "  Quam  regulam  usque  ad  lenipus  Athclstani,  luonasticx  dicatam  disci- 
"  plinx,  munachl  ibidem  tenuerunt." 

§  "  This  church — ,"  notes  Mr.  lJal<,  20,  "  ajter  dissolution  of  the  priory — ,  was  con- 
"  verted  to  a  parochial  church  for  the  town  and  parisli  of  Bodman."  Vet  it  was,  as  I  have 
here  named  it,  parochial  from  tJie  very  beginning.  So  Leland  tells  us  concerning  it  in  his 
ume,  that  "  the  parocli  chlrch  standith  at  the  est  end  of  the  town,"  and  that  '*  the  late  priory 
'<  sioode  at  the  est  tndc  of  the /»aroc/j  chirch  yard  of  Bodmyne."    It  was  even  as  parochial, 

o  2  convcrud 


.,  J  THE    CATHEDKAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.   I. 

the  house  coiitimied.  to  the  Reformation.  "  The  late  priory  of  blake 
••  canons,"  cries  Lcland  concerning  \\  hat  was  ahcady  alienated  in  his 
time,  •'  stood  at  the  est  endc;"  or  "  at  the  est  south  est"  end,  as  he 
speaks  more  precisely  in  anotlier  place,  "  of  the— chirch  yard  of  Bod- 
"  myne*."  But  it  has  lent  its  appellation  oi priory  to  the  ground,  even 
now  when  all  traces  of  the  priory-house  exist  only  in  two  pillars  of 
inoorstonc,  one  tall  ami  large,  with  a  carved  capital,  but  the  other  low 
and  slight,  with  a  capital  all  plain;  in  the  remembered  position  of  the 
priory  chapel,  on  the  northern  side  of  the  house;  and  in  the  abundant 
discovery  of  bones  lately  by  sinkingacellar  near  itf.  This  king  was  there- 
fore consitlered  in  the  charters,  and  is  called  expressly  by  them,  "  the 
•'  first  founder  ^:thclsran  J."  The  social  hermitage  was  considered  only 
as  the  single  was,  as  a  mere  hermitage  in. itself,  only  admitting  four  per- 
sons instead  of  one,  and  only  imder  a  settled  rule  of  conduct  for  all. 
Athclslan's  construction  thus  ranked  in  time,  for  the  very  commence- 
ment of  the  monastery.  I  have  also  noted  before,  that  the  toivn  of 
Bodmin,  in  Ix'land's  time,  retained  a  grateful  memory  of  Athelstan's 
kindness  to  it;  a  village  soon  rising  in  the  vicinity  of  the  royal  monas- 
tery, and  the  village  extending  afterwards  into  a  town.  This  "  toime  of 
"  Bodmyn,"  as  1  have  previously  shewn  Inland  to  tell  us  in  his  Itinerary, 
"  takith  king  Edelstane  for  the  chief  erector  and  gyver  of  privileges 
"  onto  it."     Bodmin  then  could  vot  possibly  be,  what  it  has  been  inva- 

convcrtcd  from  a  rectorial  to  a  vicarial  church,  before  the  Valor  of  Pope  Nicholas  was  made 
in  129:.  Mr.  Hals  himself,  however  contradictorily,  allows  it  was.  "  This  prioral  rectory 
"  church,"  he  tells  us  almost  immediately  after  he  had  said  the  other,  "  long  before  its  disso- 
"  lution,  was  converted  by  the  prior  into  a  vicarage  church ;  for,  in  the  inquisition  of  the 
"  bishops  of  Lincoln  and  Winchester, — Eccles.  de  Budman — was  taxed — vi  L.  xiii  S.  iiii  D. 
*•  f'kar  eJHsdem  nihil,  propter  paupertatem."  So  completely  and  so  speedily  does  Mr. 
Hals  refute  himself,  yet  remains  seemingly  all  unconscious  of  what  he  is  doing  at  the  mo- 
ment! But  the  words  of  the  Valor  are  not  cited  fairly,  though  the  unfairness  alfects  not 
my  argument.  They  are  really  these:  "  Eccl.  de  Bodmyina,  vi.li.  xiii  S.  iiii  D.  Vicar 
"  ejuidim,  si  S." 

*   Itin.  ii.  1 14,  and  iii.  12. 

+  Hals,  20:  "  The  priory- house — is  yet  extant,  though  his  [the  prior's]  domestic  chap- 
•'  pel  and  burjing-place  be  delapidated  and  demolished."  The  whole  has  been  recently  re- 
built ;  one  single  arch  remained  to  i  794. 

t  Coll.  i.  75:   "  Primus  fundator  ^ihelstanus." 

^  riably 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  .^5 

riably  supposed  to  the  present  moment,  the  primary  seat  of  our  Cornish 
episcopate,  and  the  sole  seat  till  981.  In  0i4,  when  a  new  seat  was 
formed  equally  for  the  episcopate  and  for  the  royalty,  Bodmin  was  only 
a  hermitage.  Bodmin  continued  a  hermitage  only  to  the  year  gsO; 
and  no  epiacop^xte  could  possib/i/  bcjixedntii,  even  so  late  as  this  very 
year§."  section 

§  A  strange  idea  runs  through  all  the  writers,  that  St.  Petrock  died  and  was  buried  at 
JPadstow ;  the  natural  consequence  of  the  error,  in  supposing  him  to  have  settled  there. 
Thus  Usher,  292  :  "  Postquam  hie  [at  Padstow]  cum  sociis  suis  per  triginta  annos  esset 
'•  commoratus,"  &c.  Dr.  Borlase,  therefore,  of  necessity  bows  before  the  tripos,  and  re- 
ceives implicitly  the  oracular  dictum.  At  '*  Padsloiv,"  he  tells  us  in  380,  "  St.  Petrock 
"  settled — ,  and  built  here;  and,  after  thirty  years — ,  died  and  was  buried  here,  A.  D.  564." 
Or,  as  the  Doctor  writes  more  circumstantially  in  372  before,  "  he  settled  in  a  moHUstery 
"  called  before  his  time  Loderic  and  Laffenek,"  when  in  379,  he  says, "  the  place  where  this 
"  house  was  situate  was  called,  anciently,  Loderic,  xhchouse  Laffenacj"  so  contradictory  can  he 
be  in  so  short  a  compass  I  "  but  from  his  name  (as  some  think)  Petrocstow,  now  Padstow  ; — 
"  and  having  resided  there  for  thirty  years,  died  about  the  year  564,  was  buried,"  &c.  Yet, 
all  the  while,  the  authority  of  history,  and  the  evidence  of  remains,  stand  in  triumphant  array 
against  them.  I  have  already  produced  that  authority  and  this  evidence,  in  the  text.  But  Usher 
kindly  furnishes  us  with  additional  authority,  against  himself  and  his  humble  adherent  the 
Doctor.  "  In  editis  historiarum  floribus,"  says  Usher,  293,  concerning  M.  Westm.  353, 
"  sedes  illaepiscopalis  fuisse  dicitur  *  apud  S.  Patrocum  de  Bodwini',"  where  the  mode  of 
writing  the  personal  name  is  just  as  I  juppose  it  to  have  been  originally,  Palroc-stow,  Pad- 
stow  ;  "  vel,  ut  locus  est  Icgendus,  apud  S.  Petrocum  de  Bodmini.  Bodmaniae  enim  vcl 
"  Bodminiae  in  Cornubia  co«<ii/Mwy'«/7  olim  corpus  S.Petroci:  quod,  i«t/e  furto  ablatum, 
"  ad  S.  Mevennii  [S.  Mein]  in  Armorica  Britannia  monasterium  translatum,  et  Henriei  II. 
•'  Anglorum  regis  mandato  restitutum  fuisse,  in  anni  mclxxvii.  historia  Rogerus  Hovede- 
"  flits  ita  narrat,"  Sec.  Dr.  Borlase  saw  this  opposed  evidence,  and  therefore  savs,  372,  "  St. 
"  Petroc  was  buried  Jirst  at  Padstow,  and  afterwards  translated  to  Bodmaii  priory,  dedi- 
"  caledto  himj"  and  adds,  380,  "  the  monastery  o(  Padstow  being  near  the  seashore,  and 
"  exposed  to  the  piracies  of  the  Saxons,  and  after  thcni  of  the  Danes,  the  monks  removed  to 
"  Bodinan,  and,  Iringiug  the  body  of  Petrock  with  them,  the  church  there  was  dedicated  to 
*♦  that  saint,  who  passed  some  part  of  his  retirement  in  this  place."  All  these  incidents  are 
absolutely  false,  in  their  very  substance  ;  except  only  one,  the  retirement  of  St.  Petrock  to  the 
site  of  Bodmin,  which  is  yet  false  in  its  statement  of  some  pari,  and  direcllv  contradicted  by 
the  assertion  from  the  Doctor  befiire,  of  his  spending  thirty  years  at  Paditow,  and  there 
dying.  But,  as  this  allowance  of  some  part  was  made  to  meet  these  historical  accounts  a 
little,  which  aflirm  him  to  have  lived  entirely  at  Bodmin;  so  all  the  others  are  actually  fa- 
bricated by  Dr.  Borlase  himself,  10  cover  the  violent  disruption  of  the  history  made  by  a 
vein  of  untruth,  and  to  unite  the  two  extremities  together. 

la 


irf  TiiL  cvTurnnAL  ov  Cornwall  [chaI*. 


SECTION  IV. 

Having  divotcd  Bodmin  of  its  pretensions,  let  us  turn  to  its  only 
rival  St.  German's.  This  appears  to  have  been  an  actual  sec  at  the  very 
time  that  tlie  social  hermitage  of  liodmin  was  beginning  to  expand  into 
a  just  monaster}-.  '•  St.  German's,"  notes  Leland,  "  was  in  the  time  of 
Ethclstan  an  episcopal  see*."  But  his  authority  for  this  assertion  was 
one.  w  hich  is  decisive  in  itself,  as  it  is  taken  from  the  very  charter 
of  donations  made  bv  Athelstan.  This  king,  the  charter  tells  us,  "  erected 
••  in  the  church  of  St.  German  one  Coxan  bishop,  in  the  year  of  our 
"  r>ord  030,  on  the  fifth  of  December  f."  St.  German's,  therefore,  was 
actually  a  see  when  Bodmin  was  none;  when  Bodmin  had  no  existence 
as  a  town,  or  even  as  a  village;  when  it  had  only  just  risen  out  of  its 
hinnble  nest  of  a  hermitage,  and  just  put  forth  its  pinions  to  mount  into 
a  monasfcrv.  St.  German's,  consequently,  was  the  original  see  of  Corn- 
wall, founded  about  the  year  Hi -J.  when  Leskard  became  the  residence 
of  Cornish  royalty;  the  king  and  the  bishop  retiring  equally,  to  a  distance 
from  the  Saxons  on  the  Exe;  and  remaining  equally  at  this  distance,  to 
the  very  reduction  of  Cornwall.  Then  the  episcopate  was  still  conti- 
nued at  St.  German's,  and  the  royalty  at  Leskard;  as  Howel  still  re- 
mained sovereign,  and  Conan  was  now  made  prelate.  Conan  was  so 
made  assuredly,  in  supersedence  of  the  existing  bishop;  Athelstan  exert- 
ing his  right  of  conquest,  in  the  act  of  supersedence. 

Nor  was  the  civil  sovereignty  permitted  to  exist,  I  believe,  beyond  the 
tingle  life  of  Howel.  Dr.  Borlase,  indeed,  remarks,  that  "  \\hen  Ead- 
'•  gar  was  taking  pleasure  on  the  river  Dee,  in  the  year  973,  and,  sitting 

In  Gibson,  23,  is  a  reference  to  Leland  concerning  Bodmin  church,  by  mistake  placed  to 
Padstow.  This  error  is  corrected  by  Mr.  Gough,  i.  ig.  But  he  has  adopted  all  the  errors 
of  Dr.  Borlase,  la  full  tale  and  weight. 

Quid  te  cxempta  juvat  spinis  de  pluribus  una? 
•  Coll.  i.  75  :  "  Fuit  temimre  Elhelstanl  sedes  episcopalis." 

■t  Coll.  i.  75  :  "  Ex  charta  donationum  jrEthelstani.  '  Erexit  in  ecclcsia  S.  Gerniani 
"  qucudam  Conanum  episcopuni,  anno  D'  936,  nonis  Dcccmbris'." 

"  in 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  47 

"  in  the  stern  of  his  boat,  was  rowed  along  by  eight  liiigti,  who  were 
"  subjects  to  him,  Cressy  (p.  878)  says,  upon  what  authority  he  does 
"  not  mention,  that  Dutihal,  one  of  those  kings,  was  /liiig  of  Wcst- 
"  Wales. —  ^tvy  /ilfcli/,  this  [kintr]  might  be  Eadulphus,"  tliough  Cressy 
calls  him  expressly,  Dutiiuii,  and  the  Doctor  has  himself  recorded  Ea- 
dulphus as  earl  immediately  before +.  In  this  passage  1  know  not  which 
to  admire  most,  the  confusion  of  ideas  which  makes  an  carl  a  king,  and  a 
king  an  carl,  Eadulphus  Dufliial,  and  DutTnal  i:ladulphus;  or  the  credu- 
lous reliance  on  such  an  authority  as  Cressy' s,  for  such  a  national  fact; 
or,  the  absolute  falsity  of  the  whole,  as  referring  to  Cornwall.  But 
I  can  compose  these  dashing  waves  at  once,  by  the  ditTusion  of  a  Uttlc 
oil  overthem§.  One  of  our  original  historians  shews  the  account  to 
be  absolutely  false,  specifying  the  kings  and  their  realms  thus  circum- 
stantially :  "  Rifled,  king  ol"  the  Scots;  Malcolm,  of  the  Cumbrians; 
"  Waco,  king  of  Man,  and  of  very  many  isles;  DitJ'/ial,  hi/ig  of  Dyvocl," 
or  South  AN'ales  ;  "  Siferth  and  Howel,  kings  of  [North]  Wales;  James, 
♦'  king  of  Galloway;  and  Jukil,  of  Westmoreland*."     The  very  passage 

adduced 

X  Borhse,  410,  41 1. 

§  This  principle  in  physics,  so  much  the  boasted  discovery  of  Dr.  Franklin,  and  so  highly 
reprobated  before  as  one  of  the  incredible  mysteries  of  Pliny,  was  familiarly  known  to  ihc 
Highlanders  of  the  Western  Isles,  near  a  centurj'  ago.  "  The  steward  of  Kilda  who  lives  iu 
"  Fabbay,"  as  Martin  tells  us,  p.  48,  edit.  2d,  "  is  accustovtcd  in  tiine  of  a  storm,  to  tie  a 
"  bundle  of  puddings  made  of  the  fat  of  sea  fowl,  to  the  end  of  his  cable ;  and  lets  it  fall 
"  into  the  sea,  behind  the  rudder :  litis,  he  says,  hinders  the  waves  from  breaking,  and  calnrs 
"  the  sea."  Thus  docs  that  first  of  hypocrites  in  political  life,  as  Franklin  is  represented  by 
those  who  best  knew  him  to  have  always  been,  appear  to  have  been  an  hypocrite  even  in  his 
literary  pursuits,  and  to  have  stolen  his  first  hints  in  the  present  case,  from  a  publication  as 
popular  as  it  ts  amusing. 

•  M.  Westm.  375:  "  Kenedo  scilicet  rege  Scotorivm,  Malcolmo  Cuntbrorum,  Maconc 
"  rege  Monae  et  piurintarum  insularum,  Dufnal  rege  DemetiK,  Sifertho  et  Ilowtl  tegibus 
"  Wallix,  Jacobo  rege  Galwallia;,  et  Jukil  VVestmaria:."  What  corroborates  this  evidence 
in  two  names,  is  a  deed  of  Edgar's  in  Monasticon,  i.  16,  17  ;  to  which  the  subscribers  are, 
«'  Kinaditis  rex  Albanlx,"  and  "  Mascusius  archipieala."  Cressy  says  thus  :  "  Dutrnall 
"  (king  of  West-Wales),  Siferth  (king  of  South- Wales),  Howal  (king  of  Norih-Wales), 
"  Inchil  (king  of  Westmoreland), .and  James  (king  of  Galloway)."  It  is  very  observable, 
that  Cressy  begins  with  citing  M.  Westm.  for  "  king  Edgar,  sirnanied  the  I'e.iceablc,"  so 
translating  the  words  "  rex  Eadgarus  Pacificus ;"  ihcn  turns  ojf  fron»  the  explicit  passage 

here 


48  THE   CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.   I 

ad.luroJ  bv  Dr.  Horlasc  fur  the  cotitiiiuanccof  kings  in  Cornwall,  when 
U  is  statcil  in  its  legitimate  form,  and  with  its  genuine  signification, 
not  only  docs  not  prove  his  point,  but  proves  the  direct  contrary  to  it. 
The  non-appearance  of  a  king  of  Cornwall,  or  Jfcst  >\'ales,  among 
those  subject  kings  of  Edgar's,  who  take  in  the  whole  compass  of  the 
island;  proves  no  king  to  have  existed  in  Cornwall  at  the  time,  any 
more  than  in  each  of  the  six  kingdoms  of  the  heptarchy,  and  all  these 
kingdoms  to  have  Ix-en  governeil  at  the  time  by  carls  or  dukes.  Thus 
did  the  royalty  terminate  with  Ilowcl,  in  Cornwall!  The  palace  of 
I^'skard  was  then  seized,  by  the  Saxon  king,  I  apprehend;  and  the 
kings  of  Cornwall,  now  reduced  into  earls,  yet  still  retaining  the  lan- 
guage of  royally,  were  forced  to  settle  upon  the  new  ground  of  Lest- 
withiel;  that  having  nearly  all  vanished  in  the  body  of  it,  250  years 
ago,  having  vanished  in  all  of  it  now,  and  this  having  its  exterior  walls 
standing  loftily  erect  at  present.  This,  I  am  informed,  is  actually  deno- 
minated the  palace  in  the  records  of  the  town.  The  very  ground,  too,  on 
which  it  must  have  been  originally  placed,  that  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  brook  dividing  the  primary  part  of  Lestwithiel  from  the  parish  of 
I^rdivery,  that  on  which  stands  a  large  part  of  the  present,  a  secondary 
sort  of  town,  and  the  mere  production  of  the  palace  itself;  is  entitled  to 
this  day  from  it,  as  lying  on  the  declining  foot  of  a  hill,  Pen-kcnek,  or 
Vfii-knck,  the  hill  of  the  king-f-.     And  the  name  of  Lestwithiel  itself 

Iicrc  cited  from  Matthew,  and  there  standing  only  a  few  lines  above,  to  lose  himself  in  the 
vague  accounts  of  Florence  and  Hovcden.  He  thus  seems  to  play  at  hlindman' s  huff  with 
himself;  these  two  historians  specifying  the  five  last  of  the  royal  rowers  thus  :  "  Dufnallus, 
"  Sifcrthus,  Huwallus,  Jacobus,  Inchillus"  (Florchice,  359)  ;  "  Dufnal,  Sifrethus,  Hiiwal- 
*' dus,  Jacobus,  Inchillus"  (Ilovedcn,  245).  Jiikil  is  the  name,  assuredly,  so  illustrated 
by  the  virtues  of  that  honest  whig.  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll. 

t  "  Penknck  by  Lestwithiel  ;—Penknek  is  yn  Lanlcverscy  paroch."  (Leland's  Itin.  iii. 
35)  So  we  have  an  cntrenchniciit  near  Bodmin,  denominated  Castle  Kynock ;  Kynog 
(Welsh)  signifying  a  sovereign,  and  being  abbreviated  in  Irish  into  Cing,  or  King,  our  Eng- 
lish name  for  a  monarch  ;  as  Kynech,  by  another  kind  of  abbreviation,  is  here  contracted 
into  Knck.  Hence  we  see  it  actually  called  Pen-kenek,  in  a  charter  from  Richard  earl  of 
Cornwall  :  "  '  Pcnkfnck,  nunc  pars  burgi  de  Lostwithiel,  discemitur  rivulo  ab  altera  parte 
"  burgi.'  Ex  charta  Richardi  comitis  Cornubia;  dc  liberlalibus  de  Lostwithiel  et  Pcnke- 
"  nek."  (Lclaad's  Itin.  iii.  J96.) 

points 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTOniCAtLY    StTRVETED.  4A 

points  out  the  very  founder  of  the  house  upon  the  hill-foot,  as  it  sig- 
nifies Withiel's  palace +.  But  the  position  of  this  at  the  foot  of  a  hill, 
along  the  margin  of  a  brook,  sallying  down  the  hill,  and  close  to  what 
was  a  pre^-ious  town§,  shews  it  to  have  been  built  when  wars  were 
ceased,  when  the  country  was  reduced  by  the  long- threatening  reducers 
of  all  the  Britons  to  the  east,  and  when  a  castle  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary for  a  palace.  Yet  with  the  remains  of  the  ancient  ideas,  and  with  a 
partial  attachment  to  the  former  modes  of  royalty,  even  this  palace  was 
built  assuredly,  as  it  certainly  remained  to  the  liftcenth  centurv,  in  the 
form  and  with  the  appellation  of  a  tower  or  castle*.     With  the  same 

ideas, 

X  Lestwithiel,  or  (as  Leland  writes  ihe  name,  Itin.  vii.  121),  Loswilkiel,  or  (as  lie  also 
writes  itin  the  same  page)  Lost  JVIiithiel,  nearly  as  it  is  popularly  pronounced  at  present;  is 
Lys  or  Les,  a  palace :  as  "  Lcs-guenllean"  is  "  Palatium  Vendolcnje,"  in  Leland's  Itin.  v. 
59,  with  that  intermediate  rf  or  /,  which  is  occasionally  omitted  in,  or  occasionally  thrust 
into  Cornish  words,  and  IViihiel,  a  name  still  remaining  as  a  parochial  one  in  Cornwall. 
The  parish  is  marked  in  its  church  thus  by  the  first  Valor,  "  ecclcsiade  Withiel ;"  and  in  the 
second  thus :  "  Withioil,  ali-as  Withiel."  But  the  name  is  a  personal  one  in  Ireland,  as  I 
shall  shew  in  v.  i.  at  the  end.  It  is  even  borne  by  some  of  the  Cornish,  at  this  day.  But 
of  the  t  OT  d  intruding  into  the  body  of  a  word,  we  have  a  striking  instance  in  the  name  of 
a  Cornish  promontory,  within  tlie  parish  of  Gerens,  on  the  soutliern  coast,  Vcdn  Vadn, 
when  the  real  name  is  Pen  Van,  or  little  headland  :  so  likewise  we  have  Pcrfen-mean-due 
Point  close  to  the  Land's  End,  on  the  north ;  Tol-Pcnwith  more  distantly  on  the  south,  and 
Perfn  Boar  Point,  east  of  the  Lizard.  In  Prycc,  17,  also,  we  have,  with  another  view, 
"  Luys,  grey,  now  Lurfzh ;  Guoys,  blood,  Gudzh;  Krery,  to  believe,  Kri(/zhi ;  An  Drenses, 
"  the  Trinity,  An  Drenrfzhcz  ;  Bohosak,  poor,  Bohorfzhak ;  De  Bisy,  to  pray,  Dhe 
"  Pirfzhi."  But,  as  he  adds  afterward  with  a  direct  view  to  this,  "  D  is  inserted — often  be- 
**  fore  a  middle  n,  and  more  rarely  before  r ;  as  Da(/no,  under  him,  where  formerly  Dano ; 
"  and  Dhe  Merfra,  for  Da  Mira,  to  behold."  The  instances  in  the  former  set  shew  the 
interposition  to  be  equally  before  an  s  or  a  z  ;  and  Lcs/-witliit.l  shews  ii  to  be  equally  (ifter 
them. — The  present  ruins  of  the  palace  arc  principally  a  part,  which  was  latterly  fitted  up 
for  a  shire-hall,  but  fitted  up  before  the  days  of  Leland.  "  By  the  shyerc  hawl,"  says  Leland 
concerning  this  very  palace,  "  appcre  ruines  of  auncvcnt  bu\ldinges."  (Itin.  vii.  121.)  Yet 
even  that  part  became  so  ruinous  at  last  from  age,  that  a  new  shire-hall  was  forced  to  be 
built  on  the  grOund  adjoining  to  it.  And  now  the  whole  appears  a  mass  of  wails,  more  or 
less  antique  in  their  appearance,  more  or  less  erect  in  their  stature,  but  watered  by  that  livciv 
brook  which  once  scoured  the  offices  of  the  palace,  and  still  parts  tlu-  parish  of  Lestwithiel 
from  the  parish  of  Lanlivery. 

^  The  real  Voluha  of  Ptolemy's  Geography  and  Richard's  with  Iter. 

•*  It  is  thus  noticed  by  William  of  Worcester ;  "  Tiirris  iJ/f-kcnnok,"  a  name  miswrittcn 

VOL.  b  H  for 


J5P  THE    CATHEDKAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  I. 

itlcaR,  and  in  the  saiiu-  modes,  a  palace  castellated  equally  in  site  as  in 
form!  was  raised  within  the  immediate  vicinity;  and  Restormel  be- 
came the  companion  of  I.e-^twithicl,  the  equal  seat  of  contracted  royalty. 
In  that  dialect  of  our  primaeval  language,  in  which  (let  me  observe 
ag-ain)  the  Briti-^h  13  most  faithfully  preserved  at  this  day,  Restormel 
V ould  \)c  Ris  Tor  Meal,  and  import  the  Kings  Tower  Hill.  I'his  was 
the  summ<-r-residence  of  the  carls  of  Cornwall.  I  suppose,  and  Lestwi- 
thiel  palace  the  winter;  just  as  we  see  John  of  Gaunt,  at  a  later  period, 
inhabiting  the  castle  upon  the  sunimit  of  the  hill  at  Lincoln,  but  inha- 
biting equally  "  a  w  inter  palace  that  he  built  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
*'  town,  of  which  there  are  still  some  remains;  remains,  that  shew  he 
"  was  well  acquainted  with  a  style  of  building  far  different  from  that 
"  of  the  ancient  keep  on  the  hillf."  This  practice  of  having  a  winter 
and  a  summer  residence,  the  natural  suggestion  of  feeling  in  a  climate 

for  Pra-kcnnok,  "  al  anliijuo  propc  Lastydyall,  nuper  Hugonis  Curteney."  (P.  96.)  It  13 
also  cillcd  a  castle  like  Rcsiormd,  in  p.  164;  "  Castrum  Restarmalle  prope  villam  prope  [su- 
«'  pcrfiuous]  Lascudielle,  Castrum  Alasaidielle,  in  Comubid;  ambo,"  &c.  William  even 
tells  us,  ♦*  |icr  a-i.icioneiu  Beiiedicti  Bernani  Armigcri,"  ivlien  the  present  structures  at  both 
tkcrc  built ;  "  ambo  fuiulaiUiir  per  Ricardum  regem  Alemannia,  fratrem  regis  Hcnrici 
"  Tcilii."  Edmund  his  son  succeeding  him  in  the  earldom,  A.  D.  1272  (Collect,  ii.  459), 
was  the  last  earl  who  inhabited  either  of  them  ;  as  William  remarks,  p.  96,  thus :  "  Cas- 
"  trum  Restormallc  stat  prope  Lascudielle,  in  parco  principis,  quondam  Edmundi  comitis 
"  Cornulitc,  uhi  manehat."  Dr.  Borlase,  therefore,  is  so  far  happy  in  his  conjectures, 
p.  357,  that  Richard  actually  built  at  Restormel,  and  that  Edmund  wasactually  the  last  earl 
residing  in  it.  Only,  Richard  did  not  make  the  "  additions,"  because  hcmadethe  original  j 
and  equally  at  LcstwilJnel,  as  at  Restormel ;  and  Edmund  was  the  earl  who  added  the 
•'  chapel,"  the  "  gatew.ny,"  and  the  "  large  windows  in  the  rampart-wall,"  to  the  original 
castle  of  bis  father.  Yet  the  two  twin  palaces  did  not  continue  to  the  last,  sharing  with 
each  other  in  their  fortune  of  sorrow  or  of  joy.  Lestwiihicl  palace,  from  its  low,  snug 
situation,  al  the  side  of  a  town,  and  on  the  margin  of  a  brook,  continued  to  be  inhabited 
long  after  the  palace  on  the  bleak,  dry  prominence  of  a  hill  had  been  deserted;  the  last  in- 
habitant of  th'ti  being  lulmund,  who  died  two  centuries  nearly  before  William's  visit  into 
Cornwall  *'  but  Hugh  Curiency"  having  then  been  "  lately"  an  inhabitant  of  that  who 
succeeded  his  father  as  earl  of  Devonshire,  in  1419,  lived  before,  in  all  probability  as 
"  Hugh  Curteney"  merely,  at  Lrttwithiel,  and  died  in  1422.  (Collins's  Peerage,  vi.  462, 
463,  edit.  4th.)  In  Carew's  Rale,  i.  91,  we  have  "  Manerium  de  peu-Kneth^'  for  Fe7i. 
knek,  "  et  Restormel."  the  two  houses  composing  one  manor, 
t  Arth.  vl.  264. 

like 


CHAP.  I.]  HISTORICALLT    SURVEYED.  <5 1. 

like  ours,  was  begun  within  this  island  by  the  Romans,  in  their  summer 
camps,  and  so  was  regularly  continued  l)y  the  Britons  even  in  the 
warmest  region  of  the  whole,  the  region  which  so  happily  inhales  the 
soft  breezes  of  the  west,  and  is  thus  protected  from  all  those  violent 
rigours  of  frost  that  oppress  the  rest  of  Britain.  On  this  Roman  prin- 
ciple, were  these  two  contiguous  palaces  of  Cornwall  erected  by  the 
British  carls,  as  is  evident  at  once  from  the  British  appellations  of  them 
both+. 

To  shew  with  what  fondness  the  kings  of  Cornwall,  even  in  their 
confessed  reduction  into  earls  or  dukes,  and  their  removed  residence  to 
Lestwithiel,  kept  up  a  soothing  memory  of  their  royalty,  \\  hich  they 
once  possessed;  we  need  only  adduce  a  pompous  kind  of  pageant r}% 
exhibited  yearly  there  through  so  many  ages,  and  under  so  many  dis- 
couragements, till  it  reached  the  times  of  observation,  and  was  recorded 
by  the  pen  of  antiquarianism.  "  There  was  of  late  years,"  says  an 
antiquary,  "  a  custom  observed  in  this  towne  among  the  carle's  free- 
"  holders  of  the  towne  and  manner,  yearcly  upon  Little  Easter-Sunday 
"  (as  they  call  it),  with  vcrie  royall  solemnitie.     Upon  which  day  the  te- 

X  Restormel  castle  is  well  described  by  Dr.  Borlasc  in  356-358;  but  he  has  beea 
strangely  inattentive  to  all  the  original  history  of  It.  Even  the  recent  is  equally  overlooked. 
"  There  is  a  castel,"  says  Leland,  in  Itin.  iii.  35,  "  on  an  hil  in  this  park  of  Restormel," 
a  park  now  turned  into  fields,  "  whcr  sumlynics  the  cries  of  Corncwal  lay. — A  chapel  of  the 
"  Trinite  in  the  park,  not  far  from  the  castelle."  It  was  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  and  for  the 
use  of  those  retainers  of  the  castle,  who  formed  a  kind  of  village  in  the  base  court  of  it.  The 
extent  of  this  base  court,  says  Carew,  138,  "  is  rather  to  be  conjectured  then  discerned, 
"  by  the  remnant  of  some  fevve  mines,  amongst  which  [is]  an  oven  of  14  foot  largenesi,"  or, 
as  Norden  writes  more  precisely,  p.  59,  "  of  4  yardes  and  2  foote  diameter,"  the  common 
oven  for  the  family  above,  and  for  the  servants  below.  But  the  erection  of  a  chapel  in  it, 
though  originally  for  the  family,  as  well  as  the  servants,  shews  it  to  have  been  an  ample 
court.  This  chapel  continued  in  use,  when  even  the  family  chapel  "  cast  out"  of  the  castle 
**  a  newer  work  then  it,"  was  "  now  onrofid;"  and  wIkm  "  the  base  court"  was  yet  stand- 
ing, but  "  sore  defacid,"  even  to  the  days  of  Lelaud  (ibid.)  And  from  this  chapel  of  the 
Trinity,  a  house  built  upon  the  site  of  it  by  a  late  lesser  of  the  court  and  castle,  was  de- 
nominated Trinity  till  a  very  few  years  ago;  when  it  reverted  to  the  more  magnificent  ap- 
pellation of  the  castle,  the  base  court  assumed  the  title  of  its  principal,  and  the  bmldingwas 
denominated  Restormel  House. 

n  2  ■'  nantes 


52  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP,  I. 

'•  nantes  asscmhletl  themselves,  and  one  of  them  yearly  chosen  as  it 
"  came  by  turnc.  neatly  attired,  and  as  well  mounted  as  he  mighte, 
"  hnviv^  (t  crown  on  his  heath,  a  cepter  in  his  hande,  with  a  swordc  borne 
"  hrf'o/r  hlin,  rode  throw gh  the  towne;  the  rest  (mounted  also)  attend* 
"  itijXc  on  this  cowitcrfccte  prince,  to  the  church,  wher  the  minister, 
"  with  prcate  ccrimonic,  mett  him,  and  verie  reverendly  man'd  him  into 
"  the  churche;  and  when  dyvine  exercise  was  done,  he  was  likewise 
"  accompanied  hack  agayn  to  a  howse,  prepa)  red  for  his  entertaynment; 
"  wher,  with  grcatc  cates  and  all  daynties,  with  his  sewer,  taster,  and 
"  other  prince/i/ke  aftcndmife.i,  hcing  [he  was]  served  with  kne/inge  at 
"  giring  the  iirftp,  and  suche  U ke.— It  seemeth,  that  this  devise  was  not 
"  without  approbation  of  some  former  famous  founders,  who  noe  dowbt 
"  firstc  invented  it  to  sett  fourth  the  royalties  of  Cornwall,  and  the  honor 
'♦  of  that  (lukcdome,  or  was  imposed  as  a  ser\  ice,  wherby  they  held 
"  their  frcehoKles  §."  All  the  features  and  lineaments  of  this  pageantry 
arc  too  expressive  in  themselves  to  admit  any  doubt  concerning  its  im- 
port. It  is  the  evident  memorial  of  the  tomb,  the  banner,  and  the 
escutcheon  of  buried  royalty ;  instituted  at  first  by  the  roi/al  earl,  it  was 
continued  by  his  successors.  On  the  octave  of  Easter,  the  concluding 
day  of  the  Easter  festivity,  he  rode  in  parade  through  the  town,  with  all 
the  emblems  of  royalty  about  him,  attended  by  all  his  principal  tenants, 
went  to  the  church,  returned  to  the  palace,  and  then  dined  in  public, 

§  Nordcii,  58.  As  Norden  vislleil  Cornwall  personally,  his  account  is  equally  authentic 
with  Circw'j ;  but  let  us  here  slate  the  latter  as  confirmatory  of  the  former.  "  Upon  Little 
"  Easter  Sunday,"  says  Carew,  13-,  "  the  freeholders  of  the  towne  and  manour,  by  them- 
"  selves  or  their  deputies,  did  there  assemble;  amongst  whom  one,  as  it  fell  to  his  lot  by 
"  turne,  bravely  apparelled,  gallantly  mounted,  with  a  crowne  on  his  head,  a  scepter  in  his 
"  hand,  a  sword  borne  before  him,  and  dutifully  attended  by  all  the  rest  also  on  horseback, 
•'  rode  ihorow  the  principall  streete  to  the  churche;  there  the  curate,  in  his  best  beseene, 
"  solemncly  received  him  at  the  churchvard  stile,  and  conducted  him  to  heare  divine  ser- 
"'  vice:  afier  which  he  repaired,  with  the  samepompe,  to  a  house  fore-provided  for  that  pur- 
"  pose,  made  a  feast  to  his  attendants,  kept  the  tables  end  himselfe,  and  was  served  with 
'*  kneeling,  assay,  and  all  other  rites  due  to  the  estate  of  a  prince :  with  which  dinner  the 
•♦  ceremony  endid,  and  every  man  returned  home  again.  The  pedigree  of  this  usage  is 
^*  dcriwd  from  so  many  descents  uf  ages,  that  the  cause  and  aulhour  outreach  remem- 
"  brance :  howbcit,  these  circumstances  offer  a  conjecture,  that  it  should  betoken  the  roy- 
«'  allies  appertaining  to  the  honour  of  Cornwall.  The  "  custom"  was  <'  only  of  late  days. 
"  d.scoiiliiuied." 

-*  with 


CHAP.  1.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  53 

with  all  the  pomp  of  royalty,  the  sewer,  the  taster,  and  the  cup-bearer 
kneeling.  The  ghost  of  departed  sovereignty  thus  hovered  around  the 
body  which  it  formerly  inhabited,  still  retaining  a  lively  remembrance  of 
its  past  connexions,  still  cherishing  the  fire  of  ambition  in  the  verv  ashes 
of  it,  and  longing  to  see  them  rekindle  into  a  flame  again  :  and  the  Saxons, 
the  Normans  continued  the  custom,  because  they  found  it  a  custom,  be- 
cause earls,  either  Norman  or  Saxon,  love  to  assume  the  appearance  of 
royalty  if  tliey  can,  and  the  ancient  practice  countenanced  them  in 
assuming  it  here.  So  established  for  ages,  the  pageantry  survived  when 
the  princes  were  deceased,  and  the  tenants  continued  what  their  lords  had 
practised  as  well  as  patronized  j|. 

Of  the  British  earls  of  Cornwall,  Dr.  Borlase  specifies  several  by  name 
as  dukes*;  but  these  are  merely  the  creatures  of  imagination,  in  himself 
or  in  others.  Thus  we  have  "  Alpsius,  duke  of  Devon  and  Cornwall," 
without  any  authority  alleged  at  all.  We  have  "  Orgerius — ,  duke  of 
"  Devon  and  Cornwall,"  on  the  authority  of  that  very  historian,  who, 
even  as  cited  by  Dr.  Borlase  himself,  only  styles  him  earl  of  Devon -f-.  ^\''e 
have  also  "  Eadulphus,  son  of  Ordganis,"  noticed  on  the  same  authority; 
though  he  is  not  even  mentioned  by  that  historian  as  earl  of  Devon,  much 
less  as  earl  of  Cornwall,  being  merely  mentioned  as  a  son  to  the  earl|. 
And  we  have  finally  "  A}lmar,  alias  Athelmar, — earl  of  Cornwall,"  on 
the  evidence  of  a  charter  in  the  year  1002,  relating  to  Whorwcll  monas- 
tery in  Hampshire  ;  one  of  the  subscribers  to  wliich  is  "  I  Ethelmar 

H  We  have  even  a  festivity  similar  to  this  in  practice,  and  only  a  little  dissimilar  in  pur- 
pose, at  the  city  of  Bath.  "  King  Eadgar,"  as  Leland  informs  us,  "  was  crounid  with  much 
"joy  and  honor  at  S.  Peter's  in  Bath  ;  wherupon  he  bare  a  great  zcale  to  the  towne,  and 
•'gave  very  great  fraunchescs  and  privilages  onto  it.  In  knowiege  wlierof  they  pray  in  al 
"  their  ceremonies  for  the  soule  of  king  Eadgar.  And  at  JVhitsiinday-tyde,  at  tiie  which 
"  tymc  men  say  that  Eadgar  there  was  crounid,  ther  is  a  king  eltctid  at  Bath  every  yere  of 
"  the  tonnes  men,  in  \.hc  joyfullc  rimemlrannce  of  king  Loilgfir,  and  ilic  privileges  g\vcn  to 
"  the  toim  by  hym.  This  kingisjestid,  and  hisadhvientes,  iy  the  ruliest  rncnne  oj'tht  iouru" 
(Ttin.  ii.  68.). 

•  Borlase,  410.  411. 

t  Malmcsbury,   146:  "  Ordgarum  comitem  Domnonicnsfm." 

H  Maliuesbury,  146:  •' Filii  ejus." 

"  minister,'' 


J  THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  CORNVV^\LL  [cHAP.  I. 

••  „nn>^ia;'  without  any  the  slightest  rct'eiciicc  to  Connvall,  and  with 
the  atten.laiice  of  no  less  than  Jourtccn  others,  equally  subscribing  as 
winisfcrs.  but  desigiung  tlieniselves  merely  to  be  t/iancsji.  These  mis- 
namcil  carls  of  Cornwall,  indeed,  are  all  of  them  confessedly  Saxons,  be- 
cause the  two  first  of  them  are  considered  by  the  Doctor  himself  as  earls 
of  Det-on  equally  with  Cornwall.  Tlic  name  of  the  very  first,  Alpsius,  is 
apparctitly  Saxon;  it  being  equally  the  name  of  a  hisho/)  of  Dorsetshire, 
whodiediny:.8||.  Even  the  name  of  the  last,  Athelmar,  is  acknow- 
ledged by  the  Doctor,  and  must  be  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  equally 
Saxon :  yet  Dr.  IJorlase  has  crowned  all  his  mistakes  by  one  gross  con- 
tradiction to  all ;  on  the  authority  of  Camden  noting  another  earl  "  of 
"  the  roiial  British  blood,"  after  Athelmar,  after  four  successive  kings  of 
En^himl,  and  even  after  "  Algar,"  who  "  founded  the  abbey  of  Bruton 
"  in  Somersetshire,"  or  "  Odda,"  who  "  was  constituted  earl  over,"  not 
Cornwall,  but  "  Devonshire,  Somersetshire,  Dorsetshire,  and  Wales^, 
and  calling  him  ''  Condorus,  alias  Cadocus,  last  carl  of  Cornwall"  in  that 
blood.  Iti  thus  acting  he  is  as  unjust  to  Camden  as  he  is  contradictory  in 
liimself.  Camden  alleges  merely,  that  "  of  the  earls  of  British  blood 
"  only  Candorus,  alias  Cadocus,  the  last  earl  of  Cornwall,  is  mentioned  by 
"  modern  writers*."  He  does  not  aver  the  point,  he  only  cites  authority 
for  it.  He  refers  to  modern  jvriters  for  the  suggestion.  This  reference 
too  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  it  was  not  in  the  first  editions  of  his  work; 
the  pa.^^age  in  i.''.9  t  running  thus:  "  Of  the  earls  of  British  blood  only 
"  Cadocus,  the  last  carl  of  Cornwall,  is  mentioned ■\.'"     Camden  w'as 

$  Monasticon,  i.  258. 

I  Florence,  355  :  "  Alfsius  Dorsetensium  cpiscopus  obilt."  This  is  nearly  the  same  also 
willi  "  AlfsinusDorobcrncnsis  arcliicpiscopus."    (Ibid.) 

^  Borlasc,  411,  says,  "Algar — 1046, — 'Odda  constitutus  fiiit  comes  super  Deferna- 
*'  shire,  Sumcrset,  Dorset,  and  OferWcalas'  (Sax.  Chr.  ad  pag.  1048),"  when  the  page 
cited  is  the  year  in  reality,  when  the  mixture  of  Latin  and  English  in  a  passage  marked  as  a 
citation  is  very  strange,  when  the  "  Oftr  Wealas"  is  only  the  same  in  the  original  as  "Super 
"  Wallos"  in  the  translation,  and  when  the  context  shews  it  clearly  to  have  no  connexion 
at  all  with  Cornwall. 

•  Camden,  142 :  "  E  Britannlci  sanguinis  comitibus  solum  Candorus,  alias  Cadocus, 
"  uliimus  Cornwalliae  comes,  a  recentioribus  niemoratur." 

t  P.  130. 

drawn 


CHAP.  1.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  55 

drawn  away,  like  Dr.  Borlase,  by  the  confident  assertions  of  some  ro- 
mancing moderns,  but  did  what  Dr.  Borlasc  did  not,  recovered  himself 
afterwards,  put  a  proper  mark  upon  his  assertion,  and  founded  it  on  its 
real  basis  of  merely  modern  authority.     He  thus  shewed  his  suspicion  of 
the  whole.     But  Dr.  Borlase  comes,  adopts  his  suggestion,  rejects  his 
suspicion,  yet  rests  all  upon  his  testimony.     The  passage,  however,  thus 
cited  by  Dr.  Borlase,   and    thus   failing  him,   for  one  point,  operates 
strongly  against  him  in  every  other.     Camden,  in  both  forms  of  his  sen- 
tence, shews  us  by  his  restrictive  "  only"   he  knew  not,   whatever  Dr. 
Borlase  may  know,  of  any  other  Briton  mentioned  even  by  the  modems 
as  earl  of  Cornwall.     Yet,  as  we  have  seen  before.  With  ill  was  plainly 
one,  and  the  very  first.     Pontius  also  appears  from  the  same  sort  of  evi- 
dences to  have  been  another  earl,  and  probably  the  second.  At  the  mouth 
of  Lestwithiel  river,  and  for  a  signature  of  Lestwithiel's  jurisdiction  over 
it,  is  what  is  traditionally  denominated  Pontius' s  Cross ;  being  a  cross 
upon  the  left-hand  rock,  defining  the  limit  of  the  town's  jurisdiction, 
and  standing  the  bound  of  the  town's  annual  excursion  by  water  towards 
the  sea.     It  is  plainly  therefore  the  signature  of  an  authority  over  this 
tide-river,  conceded  by  some  earl  who  li\  cd  in  the  palace  here,  and  who 
favoured  the  town  at  its  side.     The  Roman  name  of  Pontius  is  derived 
from  the  British  period  of  our  history,  like  that  of  Amhrosius  Aurelianus 
in  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  and  that  of  Eugefiius  Ccesarius  near 
the  middle  of  the  tenth.  The  name  of  Pontius  continued  even  as  a  family 
appellation  in  the  island,  down  to  the  middle  ages  ;  Thomas  Pontius 
being  abbot  of  Canterbury  in  the  fourteenth  century  +,  and  Nicholas 
Pow////>s' a  member  of  Merton  college  in  Oxford  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth §.     '^I'hus  a  Roman  nam.e,  which  has  been  justly  consigned  to 
infamy  in  the  commencing  annals  of  our  religion,  appears  to  have  been 
borne  even  by  the  true  professors  of  Christianity  in  England  and  in  Corn- 
wall, many  ages  after  the  departure  of  the  Romans  from  our  isle.     The 

J  Leland  De  Script.  Brit.  332,  333.  So  we  liavc,  "  Pontius  ex  LongobardA  filiiis," 
governor  of  Tripolis  for  llie  Clirisli.ius,  in  the  first  cnisaile  (Maluicsbiiry,  f.  86);  and 
**  Poncius — diciiis,  aichidiaconus  dc  Penbroc,"  iu  Wales  (Wharton's  AngliaSacia,  ii.  482). 

§  Ibid.  399. 

name. 


r,n  THE    CATHr.DRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  I. 

iKiinc,  however,  was  anglici/cd  into  Ponci/  \\,  and  frenchified  into 
Police^  ;  the  former,  a  name  not  absolutely  unfamiliar  to  our  ears  at  pre- 
sent in  Poultry ,  and  the  latter,  in  the  days  of  Lcland,  ai)i)licd  with  a  vul- 
jrar  corruption  to  our  cross  at  the  mouth  of  Lcstwithicl  river,  "  The  very 
'•  point  of  land  at  the  east  side  of  the  mouth  of  this  haven,"  says  Lcland, 
"  is  caullid  I'ontus  [Pontius' s]  Crosse,  vulgo  Patmcit  Crosse*."  Such 
were  plainlv  two  of  Cornwall's  British  earls,  both  unknown  to  the  pre- 
tended ennincrators  of  those  earls,  and  the  only  earls  that  are  known  by 
name  ;  Condor,  or  Cadoc,  or  any  others  mentioned  by  moderns,  being  all 
the  non-entitii*s  of  table  :  and  it  comes  from  those  or  other  earls  residing 
in  their  palaces  of  Pcnkenek  or  Restormel,  that  Lcstwithicl  has  now  the 
honour  of  being  the  metropolis  of  Cornwall,  preserving  the  standard 
weights  and  measures  for  the  county,  retaining  the  hustings  of  election 
for  the  county  members,  and  keeping  the  courts  as  w-ell  as  the  prison  of 
the  staiuiarics  \\  itliin  it,  together  with  the  private  right  of  anchorage  in 
the  river,  and  the  Imshclliv^c  of  all  measurable  commodities  in  the  toM'n 
of  Fowey  at  the  mouth 'of  it.  Leskard  must  have  been  the  metropolis 
originally,  as  Launceston  must  have  been  the  metropolis  since.  The  latter, 
indeed,  is  so  far  the  metropolis  still,  as  to  have  the  session  of  the  itinerant 
judges  within  it  alternately  with  Bodmin,  even  to  have  had  it  exclusively 
of  Bodmin,  till  the  party-spirit,  predominant  througli  all  the  government 
of  the  first  George,  wanted  to  punish  the  opposed  party-spirit  of  Laun- 
ceston, so  called  in  Bodmin  to  share  the  consequence  with  Launceston, 
and  extended  the  privilege  of  the  earl's  town,  in  a  paroxysm  of  ignorant 
anger,  to  an  abbot's. 

The  Cornish  episcopate  thus  survived  the  Cornish  royalty,  and  con- 
tinued when  the  royalty  w\as  shrivelled  up  into  an  earldom,  but  survived 
and  continued  only  at  St.  German's.  How  wildly  then  does  Dr.  Borlase 
aver  concerning  Bodmin,  that  "  as  this  was  the  most  ancient  society"  of 
monks  or  clergymen,  "  and  most  flourishing,  in  Cornwall,  and  placed  con- 

II  Thorn  in  Twisden,  2066,  2067,  '•'  Thomi  Poncy." 
fl  Pontius  Pilate  is  called  Ponce  Pilat  in  the  French  Creed. 
•  Itin.  iii.  37. 

"  veniently 


CHAP.  I.]  HT3TORlC.\LLY   SURVETF.D.  57 

"  veniently  for  thai  purpose ;  Edward  the  Elder  settled  here  the  cpLscopal 
"  see,  A.  D.  905  f."  He  alludes  to  that  appointment  of  Athelstan  :is  a 
bishop  for  Cornwall,  whieh  I  have  shewn  before  to  have  Ixicn  made  in 
910,  and  vN'hich  specifies  no  o/ie  see  at  all  in  Cornwall.  We  therefore 
need  only  to  observe  in  addition  to  this  remark,  that  the  appointment  was 
void  and  unmeaning  in  its  cdec,  as  i'oinwall  icas  not  then  reduced. 
That  Cornwall,  indc(\l,  ^^■as  then  considered  by  the  Saxons  as  in  some 
7wc«s/</c  subject  to  them,  is  evident  from  the  very  terms  in  which  two 
Saxons,  Bedc  actually  living  about  two  centuries  before,  and  Malmesbury 
writing  in  West-Saxony  itself  about  two  centuries  after,  speak,  of  the 
Cornish,  as  having  "  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  West-Saxon  kings,"  as  "  not 
"  to  be  forced  by  violence,  b\it  led  by  reasons,  from  a  schism,"  which  the 
Saxons  supposed  them  to  form,  and  even  expressly  as  "  subjects  to  the 
*'  West-Saxons  I'."  Yet  this  consideration  appears  to  have  l^en  merely 
speculative,  from  the  declaration  of  Malmesbury  in  another  place,  tliat 
"  Egbert  gave  the  first  proofs  of  his  prowess  in  futhdi/ing  the  Britons  \\  ho 
*'  inhabit  that  part  of  the  island  which  is  called  Cornwall  §;"  and  tVoni 
the  assertion  of  the  SaxonChroniele  in  harmony  with  it,  that  "he  ravaged 
"  the  country  of  the  West-Wealas  from  eastward  to  M'estward]| ;"  when 
ravaging  or  subduing  the  region,  of  themselves,  in  their  natural  course, 
and  without  the  interposition  of  some  other  facts  to  divert  them  from  it, 
shew  the  natives  not  to  ha^c  been  previously  subjected.  But  it  is  still 
plainer,  from  the  Cornish  n'jection  of  a  Saxon  bishop,  endeavoured  to  be 
imposed  upon  them  by  king  Edward  in  910;   from  Athelstan's  call  upon 

+  Borlasc,  380. 

%  Malmesbury  in  Gale,  i.  349 :  "  Qi.ii  Nortli-Walli,  id  est,  aquilonalcs  Bnioaci,"  he 
certainly  means  the  West- Welsh,  as  the  very  Britons  here  meant,  are  expressly  called  in  tlic 
corresponding  portion  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  '*  parte  West-Saxonum  rcguni  obvenerant," 
while  the  real  XoriluWelsh  could  not  possibly  have  so  fallen,  all  Mcrcia  lying  between  West- 
Saxony  and  tlicm,  while,  indeed,  the  West- Welsh  alone  could,  as  the  only  Britons  border- 
ing upon  West-Saxony; — "  non  vi  cogendos  schisnialicos,  sed  rationibusduccndos."  Bedc's 
Hist.  V,  t8,  "  eorum  qui  Occidcutalibus  Saxonibus  subditi  erant  Britoncs." 

§  Malmesbury,  19:  "  Egbcrtus — prima  viriiini  documcnta  in  BriltaRnos,  qui  cam  iniuhr 
«'  partem  inhabitant,  quae  Cornu  Galliic  dicitur,  dcdit ;  quibus  subjugati>,"  8cc. 

II  Sax.Chrou.  A.D.  813. 

VOL.  I.  I  <^l"'"' 


58  THE    CATIIEDKAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cilAP.  T. 

them  to  acknowledge  his  suprcmacv  in  927  ;  iVom  their  refusal  to  do 
so  ;  troni  their  advance  into  the  field  to  engage  his  army  ;  from  their  de- 
Irat,  their  temporarv  submission,  and  their  absolute  reduction  in  g3(5.  All 
shews  I'.dward's  appointment  of  a  bishop  for  Cornwall  to  have  been  made 
only  from  that  principle  of  usurpation  upon  the  Cornish,  which  was 
founded  on  the  real  weakness,  seeming  jHibmission,  and  timorous  amity,  in 
the  Cornish  towards  the  Saxons.  Thus  in  80/  Alfred,  only  nineteen  3'ears 
of  ape,  went  a-hunting  into  Cornwall,  without  any  fear  in  himself,  or  any 
restraint  from  others  ;  then  turned  aside  one  day  to  pay  his  devotions  to 
Cod  in  a  church  there,  and  earnestly  supplicated  Goo  in  it  for  a  particu- 
lar l-Icssing^f.  All  this  carries  the  ap|)carancc  of  as  much  amity,  or  as 
much  bubmibsiveness,  in  Cornwall  to\N  ards  the  Saxons,  as  could  be  shewn 
even  by  the  Saxons  themselves  :  yet  we  see  the  appearance  still  stronger 
in  another  incident.  Neot,  the  very  near  relation  of  Alfred,  came  also 
into  (^ornwall,  even  settled  as  a  monk,  and  lived  as  a  saint,  in  the  heart  of 
it  :  died  there,  was  buried  there,  and  consigned  his  own  name  to  the 
place*.  W'e  actually  see  the  appearance  stronger  still  in  a  third  incident. 
Altred  nominated  Asser,  his  chaplain  and  historian,  to  the  bishopric  of 
Kietcr,  as  Asser  himself  tells  us ;  and  thus  shews  the  episcopal  seat  of 
Devonshire  decisively  to  have  then  been  as  I  have  placed  it,  and  as  all 
analogy  tells  us  it  must  have  been  originally  placed,  at  that  capital  of  the 
Damncnii,  though  it  was  soon  afterwards  transferred  to  Crediton,  "  with 
'  "  al/  Us  diocese,  which  belonged  to  Alfred  in  England  and  in  Corn- 
"  iral/f:'  The  kings  of  West-Saxony  therefore,  as  early  as  Alfred  and 
before  his  son  Edward,  considered  Cornwall  to  be  distinct  from  their 
realm  of  England,  yet  a  part  of  their  general  dominions ;  considered  it  to 
be  under  their  own  prelate  of  Kxcter ;  and  so,  by  virtue  of  that  principle, 
which  gave  the  patronage  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices  to  those  who 
originally  endowed  them  with  lands,  nominated  a  bishop  for  Cornwall  in 
design  by  nominating  one  for  Devonshire  in  fact.  Then  Edward  came, 
appointed  one  for  Devonshire  by  itself,  and  therefore  appointed  another 

^  Asser,  40,  Wise. 
•  Ibid.  ibid. 

+  Ibid.  SI :  "  Dedil  mihi  Exanccastre,  cum  omni  parochia  qua  ad  se  pertinebat  uiSaxoni^ 
*'  ct  111  Cornubii." 

*  for 


CHAP.   I.]  IIISTORICALLT    SURVEYED.  bQ 

for  Cornwall  by  itself.  If  then  a\  ith  Dr.  Borlase  we  repute  these  nomi- 
nees of  the  Saxon  kings,  to  be  actually  bishops  of  Cornwall;  we  ought  to 
begin  much  earlier  than  the  Doctor's  905  or  my  (jio,  and  mount  up  to 
Asser  as  well  as  Athelstan  for  one  of  our  Cornish  bishops.  Alfred's  or 
Edward's  bishops,  however,  were  only  nominal  prelates  of  C'ornwall;  the 
kings  of  Cornwall  still  retaining  the  power  of  ap]>ointmerit  to  their  own 
bishoprics,  and  tlie  diocese  of  Cornwall  still  remaining  independent  of 
the  see  of  Devonshire.  This  the  whole  tenor  of  the  previous  history 
shews,  and  this  the  whole  of  the  subsequent  will  confirm.  Nor  is  the 
coming  of  Alfred  into  Cornwall,  or  the  settlement  of  Neot  in  it,  of  any 
more  moment  against  this  double  history,  than  the  Cornish  community 
of  possession  with  the  Saxons  in  Exeter  would  be  against  the  certain 
right  of  the  Saxons  to  the  whole  of  a  city,  which  was  the  seat  of  their 
Devonshire  prelate,  and  so  fheir  ecclesiastical  capital  for  Devonshire,  to- 
gether with  Corn\\all  |'. 

But  that  the  monastery  of  Bodmin  was,  what  Dr.  Borlase  asserts  it  to 
be,  "  the  most  flourishing  in  Cornwall,"  as  early  as  905,  must  carry  an 
astonishing  sound  in  it  to  the  ears  of  those  who  have  just  heard  demon- 
stratively, that  there  was  no  real  monastery  at  Bodmin  till  936,  and  that 
the  valley  of  Bodmin  before  was  merely  a  hermitage  for  four  persons. 
"  Here,"  adds  Dr.  Borlase  however,  "  the  bishops  of  Cornwall  resided 
"  till  the  year  081,  when  the  town,  church,  and  monastery  being  burnt 
"  down  by  the  Danes,  the  bishops  removed  their  seat  further  cast,  to  St. 
"  German's  on  the  river  Lyner.  The  monastery  seems  to  have  continued 
*'  in  ruins  for  some  time,  and  went  into  the  possession  of  the  earl  of 
"  Moreton  and  Cornwall  at  the  Conquest  § ."  That  the  main  substance 
of  all  this  is  false  history,  we  have  seen  betbre ;  yet  let  us  see  it  again. 

The  destruction  of  Bodmin  in  98 1  is  all  foimdcd  upon  a  gross  mis- 
apprehension.    In  that  year,  says  Florence  indeed,  "  the  nwniistcnj  of 
"  St.  Petroc  the   coufesaov  in  Cornwall  was  laid  waste  by  the  pirates, 

J  Malmcsbury,  28  :  "  Exceslre,  quam  ad  id  lemporis  aequo  cum  Anglis  jure  inhabiia- 
*'  rant." 

^  Borlase,  380. 


1  2 


n  "  who 


Co  Tnn   CATlIEr.RAl.    of    COnNWALL  [CUAP.  r. 

"  who  laia  waste  Soutluiuiplon  the  year  before;  who  afterwards,"  alter 
sackin^r  Southampton,  '•  did  in  Devonshire,  and  in  Cornwall  itself,  collect 
••  fre<|uent  plunder  alonj;  the  shores  of  the  sea  || ."  But  this  incident  has 
no  relation  to  litMimiir,  it  refers  only  to  Vadstoiv.  The  express  rcstric 
tioii  of  fhfsf  piratical  ravages  to  "  the  shores  of  thcsc:i,"  confines  it  dc- 
tprniinately  to  the  latter.  'I'lic  monastery  which  was  built  by  Athelstan 
with  the  monastery  of  r.odmin.  in  honour  equally  of  St.  Pctrock,  who 
kuidfd  at  Fadstow.  and  in  subjection  also  to  that  of  Bodmin  where  he 
died,  was  erected  upon  the  site  of  that  "  beautiful  house  in  the  neigh- 
*•  bourhood,  like  a  castle,"  as  Camden  says  for  the  first  time  in  1607, 
"  -which  N.  I'ndcaux.  a  gentleman  of  an  ancient  name  and  family,  latehf 
"  built  ill  thoic  western  parts-^]."  This  site  is  familiarly  and  Colloquialiy 
denominated  Place,  but  more  formally  in  the  WTititigs  corjcerning  it 
(I  \uiderstand)  I'luce  Nvtin  ;  the  word  Phts  in  Cornish  originally  signi'- 
tVing  a  Palace  in  English,  and  so  (in  that  derivative  spirit  of  propriety 
among  the  monks  formerly,  v/hich  yet  we  ridicule  among  the  Italians  at 
present)  giving  the  appellation  of  Place  occasionally  to  a  gentleman's 
house  in  Cornwall,  or  in  England  ;  but  coming  at  last  to  signify  in 
Welsh,  what  Place  signifies  in  J'Lnglish,  the  residence  of  any  one,  the 
humble  abode  of  a  very  hermit,  nay  even  the  very  space  that  is  occupied 
by  any  thing*.  Plus  A'oun,  therefore,  imports  the  place  or  palace  of  the 
monks  f.  ThL'^  place  coming  to  the  Prideauxes  v.ntli  the  superior  man- 
sion 

I  Florence,  362:  "  Sancli  Pctroci  confcssoris  monasteriiim  in  Corniibia  devastatuni  e»t  a 
"  piralis,  qui  dcinde  in  Domnonia,  et  in  ipsA  Cornubia,  circa  ripas  maris  frequcntcs  prartlas 
'«  agehanl."     So  l^ovcdfn,  245,  likewise,  and  M.Westm.  379. 

%  Camden,  140:  "  Spctiosae  aedts  instar  rastclli  adiunctcR,  quas  nuper  N.  Pridcaux,  an- 
"  Jiijui  nominis  ct  nobililalis,  in  hoc  occidiio  traclii  extraxil."  The  notice  is  uot  in  tke 
•dition  of  1590,  p.  122,  and  nol  in  that  of  1594,  p.  126. 

•  Lhuyd'i  Archan.l.  282.  So  Place,  a  cell  of  monk*  formerly  at. St.  Anthony  near  St. 
Mawcs,  and  again  at  St.  Anthony  near  St.  German's.  So  "  Place  Amidowe,"  near  Den- 
bigh in  North-W.ilcs ;  "  the  name  declarith  it  to  have  bcenc  the  place  of  an  heremite." 
(Lcland'.^  Iliiu  v.  59.)  Palarc  and  Place  arc  so  truly  Roman-British,  that  neither-crf  them  is 
disiovtrabic  in  the  Saxon,  though  the  latter  is  so  familiar  in  the  English. 

f  Noiuius  in  Utin  is  a  monk,  and  Noma  a  nun;  both  derived  from  the  Iano-na<:e  of  tli.it 
■riginil  seal  of  nuns  and  monks,  Egypt.     Hence  come  Xunnones  for  monks,  in  some  Latin 

caaons 


CHAF.   I.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  6l 

sum  of  Bodmin,  and  carrying  all  its  rights  with  it  to  the  new  possessors, 
gave  to  this  only  branch  surviving  of  the  male  Prideauxes,  a  familv  purely 
Cornish  in  its  origin,  settled  originally  ac  Prideaux  Castle  not  far  from 
St.  Austle,  and  there  endiuL'  in  an  heiress  under  the  reign  of  Henry  Vi., 
the  lordship  of  the  town  ami  the  patronage  of  the  clmrch  of  Padstow,  for 
a  younger  son;  while  the  elder  possessed  the  great  tithes  of  the  parish, 
with  the  great  tithes  and  patronage  of  Bodmin  ehurch  :  and  as  we  have 
seen  Padstow  substituted  for  Bodmin  before,  when  the  town  meant  is 
said  to  have  been  some  miles  from  the  Severn  shore  ;  so  wc  lind  Bodmin 
substituted  for  Padstow  now,  when  the  town  is  declared  to  have  been 
upon  the  shore  of  the  seal;. 

Nor  does  the  monastery  of  Bodmin,  w  hatever  Dr.  Borlase  may  affirm, 
"  aecin  to  have  continued  in  ruins  for  some  time;"  nor  did  it  go,  cither 
ruined  or  not  ruined,  "  into  the  possession  of  the  earl  of  Morcton  and 
•'  Cornwall  at  the  Conquest."  These  incidental  notices  in  Dr.  Jjorlase 
are  just  as  erroneous  as  the  main  substance  has  appeared  before.  Since 
the  monastery  was  not  reduced  into  ruins  in  98 1,  it  coii/d  not  "  continue 
"  in  ruins  for  some  time"  aftcrvi'-ards.  There  is  indeed  no  semblance,  no 
shadow,  however  slight  and  faint,  of  any  such  continuance.  The  mo- 
nastery actually  appears  in  Doomsday  Book,  all  erect  and  entire  as  early 
as  the  preceding  parts  of  William's  reign,  as  early  as  Harold's  reign  pre- 
ceding them,  ev<:n  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Edward  antecedent  to  both;  all 

canons  of  the  Saxon  cluirch  (Wilkins's  Concilia,  i.  97,  "  Monachi  sen  Nunnoi«;s,"  Canon 
XIX,  A.  D.  747) ;.  Nonnos  in  Saxon,  for  "  juniores  in  monasieriis  priorcs  stale"  (Manning); 
A^j/w  in. Saxon,  for  "  pnpillus"  (ibid.);  ami  Ahw,  A'«/?we,  a  nun,  IIcikc  inuloubt<?illy,  by 
mistaking  the  meaning  of  the  word,  come  "  Nunnys"  at  Bodmin  priory  in  Leland's  Iiin,  \\. 
115.  The  word  Xoiin  therefore  for  a  nun  or  monk,  must  furmerly  have  been  in  the  Bfilibh 
language  ;.  though  this  local  appellation  at  Padstow  is  the  only  one  I  know,  iu  which  it  now 
occurs  amongst  all  the  dialtctsof  llu  Briiish. 

X  Carew,  43  :  "  Idem  Will,  [de  Campt^'^rni.lphi]  tenet  iu  Pr'uitas  feodum  :"  44,  "  h;cr« 
"  Thomse  dc  Pridias  tenet  in  Bosvv  hyghergy  i  feod.  paru,  :  "  47,  "  Pridiunx  :"  51, 
"  Rogcrus  PW(/yaj ;"  5s,  "  Duminus  Thouias  dc  Pridias."  And,  says  th«  Baronetage,  ». 
516,  edit.  1741,  from  the  information  of  the  t'ainily:  "  In  this  family  Prideaux  Casllc  con*- 
•'  tinued  till  temp.  Hen.  VI.,  when  it  went  away  with  a  daughter  and  heir,  married  to 
"  Thomas  1  Itilt  of  Wesl'IIcrle  in  the  countv  of  NorthumbcrluaJ." 

the 


;,.  TIIF.    CAXnEDHAL    OI-     CORN-WALL  [CHAP.  1. 

thr-  timr  5M.sM•^-(^^  ol"  inaiiv  estates,  n\  itii  sonic  little  encroachments  upon 
thenj  in  the  reigns  of  Harold  and  William,  even  at  the  period  of  Dooms- 
day Hook  itself,  not  pone  *'  info  the  possession  of  the  earl,"  and  only  de- 
prived of  some  few  lands  by  his  violence.  "  The  church  of  St.  Petroc," 
sa^s  tl»e  record,  "  holds  Bodmine,— there  has  Sai/if  Petrac  lxviii  houses 
••and  one  market  §.  The  church  fV.vt'//' holds  Lanwenehoc — .  The 
"  church  itself  holds  Rieltone— .  Berner  holds  under  Saiut  Pefroc 
"  I^nehehoe  ;  Cadwualant  held  it  under  the  Saint  in  the  time  of  ki7ig  Ed- 
"  Kiiril —.  Earl  Mori  ton  holds  under  Saint  Pet  roc  T\\\;xv\\\e\;  Algar 
"  hehl  it  in  the  time  of  king  Edu^irJ—.  Tlie  same  earl  holds  under 
••  .Saint  I'etroc  lilhill ;  a  thane  held  it  in  the  time  of  Idng  Edward — . 
"  The  same  earl  holds  under  Saint  Pefroc  Calestock  ;  a  thane  held  it  in 
"  the  time  of  king  Edward — .  The  same  earl  holds  under  Saint  Petroc 
"Cardan;  a  tlianc  held  it  in  the  time  of  king  Edward — *."  The 
record  thus  goes  on  for  five  manors  more.  "  Richard  holds  under  Saint 
"  iV//-of  TurgoiJ ;  Godric  held  it  under  the  Saint  in  the  time  of  ki7}g 
"  lldirard — .  Machiis  holds  under  Saint  Petroc  Fosnewit ;  he  himself 
*•  held  it  in  the  \.\mc  o\  king  Edward — .  Saint  Petroc  himself  holds 
"  Elil — .  Saint  Petroc  himself  holds  Widie — .  Saint  Petroc  himself 
"  holds  Tretdeno — f."      The  record  at  last  comes  to  some  lands  taken 

away 

§  The  house,  having  been  "  lately  buiii"  before  1607,  and  with  the  largeness  or  strength 
of  a  castle,  cannot  be  cxpeclefl  to  shew  any  marks  of  the  monastery.  But  just  before  you 
reach  the  gate  in  the  outer  wall,  is  now  one  house,  and  lately  were  two  houses,  very  old,  an 
apparent  appendage  to  the  monastery,  and  the  very  abodes  of  some  families  that  lived  upon 
the  broken  meat  dispensed  at  tiiis  gate  :  and  the  outer  wall  itself  appears  also  to  be  very  old, 
a  door-way  being  seen  closed  up,  the  original  entrance  to  it  before  you  reach  the  gate ;  and 
the  whole  wall,  I  believe,  except  the  gate,  except  the  battlements  also,  being  the  original 
fence  of  the  monastery. 

•  Doomsday  Book,  ful.  120:  "  Eccia  S.  Petroc  tenet  Bodmine — ,  ibi  habet  S.  Petroc 
"  Lxvin  domos  ct  unum  mercatum — .  Ipsa  seccla  tenet  Lanwenehoc — .  Ipsa  aeecla 
"  tenet  Rieltone— .  Berncr  tenet  de  S.  Petroc  Lanchehoc,  Caduualant  tcnebat  de  Sancto 
"  T.  R.  E.— Conns  Moritou.  tenet  de  S.  Petroco  Tiwarthel,  Algar  tcnebat  T.  R.  E. — Idem 
"  comes  tenet  de  S.  Petroco  Elhill,  unus  tainus  tenebat  T.  fl.E. — Idem  comes  tenet  de  S. 
"  Petroc  Calestock,  unus  tainus  tenebat  T.  R.  E.  —  Idem  comes  tenet  de  S.  Petroc  Cargau, 
"  unus  tainus  tenebat  T.  R.  E." 

t  Ibid.  ibid.  "  Ricardus  tenet  de  S.  Petroco  Turgoil,  Godric  tenebat  dc  Sancto  T.  R.  E.— 

"  Machus 


CHAP.  I.]  nrSTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  63 

away  from  the  church.  "  Eaii  Harold  took  from  Saht  Petroc  unjustly 
"  one  hideof  land, /orM'/?/c/i  king  William  commanded  a  judgment  to  be 
"  /leld,  and  the  Sa'n?f  to  be  re-se'mncd  hij  thejmt'wlary  |."  "  From  the 
"  church  of  Saint  Petroc  has  been  taken  away  Cuditord, — the  Iting  holds 
"  /7§."  Thus  the  exemplary  act  of  justice  done  by  AVilliam  before,  ap- 
pears merely  to  have  been  done  because  it  was  against  Harold;  and  the 
sacrilegious  violence  of  Harold  is  here  repeated,  even  by  William  himself. 
Nor  was  William  the  only  plunderer  of  the  church.  The  earl  imitated 
his  sovereign,  and  the  sacrilege  of  both  is  registered  for  ever  in  this  human 
Book  of  Doomsday.  "  These  lands  mentioned  below  have  been  taken 
"  atvai/  from  Saint  Petroc,  cati  Moriton  holds  them,  and  his  men  under 
"  h'im\\ ."  Yet  these  consist  only  of  "  one  virgate  of  land,"  of  "  half  a 
"  hide,"  and  of  another  "  virgate;  of  half  a  hide"  again,  of  "  half  a 
"  hide"  once  more,  of  a  third  "  virgate,"  and  of  a  fourth  ^[.  Such  are 
the  slender  portions  of  land  which  Dr.  Borlase  has  worked  up  into  all  the 
manors  and  estates  belonging  to  Bodmin  priory.  He  has  thus,  vnXh  the 
magic  of  a  hand  making  modern  improvements  in  grounds,  expanded  his 
brook  into  a  river,  and  set  his  vessels  at  anchor  upon  it.  But,  however 
agreeable  such  a  deception  may  be  in  such  improvements,  it  is  all  fraudu- 
lence  and  falsification  in  the  scenes  of  histor}\  "  All  the  lands  above- 
"  described  Saint  Petroc  held  in  the  time  of  long  Edward.  These  lands 
"  never  paid  geld  hut  to  the  church  itself*.''  In  so  flourishing  a  con- 
dition does  the  priory  appear  upon  the  face  of  this  record,  at  the  very 
time  N\'hen  Dr.  Borlase  represents  it  as  in  ruins!  So  richly  endowed  does 

"  Machiis  tenet  dc  S.  Petroco  Fosnewit,  ipse  tenebat  T.  R.E. — Ipse  Saiiclus  Peiro  tenet 
'*  Klil — .     Ipse  Sanctus  Petroc  tenet  Widie — .     Ipse  Sanctus  Petroc  tenet  Tretdeno." 

X  Dootnsdav  Book,  fol.  120:  "  Comes  Haraldus  abstulit  S.  Petro  injusic  i  hidani  terrx, 
**  pro  qua  \V.  Hex  prxcepit  judicamenium  teiieri,  ct  Sanctum  per  justitiam  resaisirj." 

§  Ibid.  ibid.  "  De  aeccla  S.  Petroc  ablata  est  Cudiford — ,  rex  tenet — ." 

II  Ibid.  ibid.  "  Ha  infra-scriptK  tcrrae  sunt  ablatje  S.  Petroco.  Comes  Moriton,  tenet,  et 
"  homines  ejus  dc  to." 

%  Ibitl.  ibid.  "In — una  virgata  terrx — ;  in^limidia  hida  tcrr.x — ;  in — una  virgata 
"tcrrae — ;  in — dimidiahida  terrK — ;  in — dimidiahida  terrx — ;  in — una  virgata  terra; — ; 
"  in — una  virgata  terrx — ." 

*  Ibid.  ibid.  "  Omnts  supcrius  dcicriptas  terras  tenebat  T.  R.  E.  Sanctus  Pelrocus.  Hu- 
•' jusce  tcrrae  nunquam  reddiderunt  gcUlum  nisi  ipsi  xcclx." 

it 


,,^  ni'.  <  \riiKi>r.\L  OF  coiiNWALL  [chap.  I. 

iIalhoapp<-ar  :.i  lUr  vtrx  uiomcnt  when  the  Doctor  seqiicsrcrs  all  its  pro- 
jK-rty,  and  itm^mis  ii  up  to  the  rapacious  hands  of  the  carl  !  But  after  all, 
andiu-onipleie  the  sum  of  all,  about  the  year  llL'.i  '•  Willyam  Warle- 
"  wi5l  hl.hoputHxcf.stre,"  as  Leland  notes,  '•  erected  the  last  foundation 
*'  of  this  priorv.  and  /ind  to  /ii/nise/j' i>art  oUhaunvieut  hauls  of  lioduiyn 
'•  monaslerief."  So  utterly  false  is  Dr.  Borlasc's  account  of  the  Con- 
quest as  atiectin^  lJodn)in  ;  one  of  several  instances  serving  to  sliew, 
how  nuich  our  history  of  that  period  for  the  nation  at  large  remains  to 
this  dav  distorted  l)y  popular  error,  and  discoloured  with  vulgar  folly  ^:. 

!Nor 

t  Lclanil's  Iiiii.  ii.  i  ij- 

J  Yet  Dr.  Bor!asf"s  accuiinl  is  derived  (I  believe)  from  an  aullior,  truly  respectabJe,  but 
nncitcd  ;  Leland  hiiiuell,  who  ha:,  furnished  us  in  his  Itinerary  with  such  an  evidence 
against  the  Doctor,  thus  wandering  away  into  his  mistake  in  another  work.  *'  Comes  Mori- 
"  dunensis,"  he  there  says,  "  — tanum  Petroci  pradih  spoliavil  oinuibus"  (De  Script.  Brit. 
6i).  A  reference  has  also  been  made  to  this  pasi-age  as  containing  a  certain  fact,  by  the  in- 
gctuons  writer  of  "  Sonic  Account  of  the  Church  and  Windows  of  St.  Ncot's  in  Cornwall, 
"  Lfindon,  1786;"  the  writer  saying  thus  of  the  carl  in  p.  3,  "  Leland  informs  us,  that  he 
"  seized — on  all  the  lands  belon^nisr  to  the  monastery  of  St.  I'etroc  in  Bodmyn."— Of  the 
other  instances  alluded  to  in  the  te.xt,  the  tale  of  the  curfcu  is  one.  The  appointment  of  this 
\»as  mt,  as  it  is  generally  believed  to  have  been,  an  act  of  tyramiical  oppression  upoa  tiic 
natives. 

Who,  sliiv'ring  wretches,  at  the  curfew  sound 

Dejected  shrunk  into  their  sordid  beds, 

And,  through  the  mournfid  gloom,  of  ancient  times 
-   JVIus'd  sad,  or  dreamt  of  better. 

It  was  not  even,  as  has  been  recently  and  more  rationally  believed  by  a  few,  a  deed  of  defence 
against  fitcs  by  putting  them  out  for  the  night  ;  the  very  term  couvrc-feu,  or  courfey,  not  in- 
dicating any  extinction  of  fires  at  all,  as  both  the  interpretations  suppose,  but  merely  the 
covering  them  up  for  the  better  preservation  of  them  against  the  morning,  as  is  still  practised 
in  many  parts  of  Kngland  every  night.  In  truth,  it  was  merely  a  mode  of  civil  economy,  for 
the  rei^idation  ij'  the  hours.  In  the  fashion  of  spending  the  day  then,  a  bell  at  eight  in  the 
evening  was  just  as  proper  ai)d  e.xpcdient  to  aniwiuice  the  hour  of  going  to  led,  as  a  hell  at 
five  in  the  morning  was  for  proclaiming  the  hour  of  rising  from  bed.  Both  therefore  are 
almost  equally  continued  among  us  to  the  present  day.— So  likewise,  says  an  author  concern- 
mg  the  tame  tngbih  umler  the  Conquest,  "  it  grew  to  be  customary  with  this  unfortunate 
'«  race,  whether  remaining  at  home,  or  seeking  shelter  in  the  woods,  to  barricade  their  doors 
"  ertry  night,"  as  if  doors  were  not  every  night  barricaded  equally  before  the  Conquest, 
"  and  at  the  same  lime  invoke  the  protection  of  the  Almighty  in  player,  as  uncertain  of  ever 

"  seeing 
0 


CHAP.  I.]  TIISTORICALLV    SUnVEYED.  C5 

Nor  has  the  removal  of  the  see  from  JBodmiii  to  St.  German's  in  08i, 
as  asserted  by  Dr.  Borlase,  any  other  ground  to  rest  upon,  nor  does  it  pre- 
tend to  have  any,  even  in  ihc  misinterpretations  of  history,  than  hisccjuallv 
asserted  ruin  of  Bodmin  it.seh".      T/nd  is  merely  an  inference  from  f//is  ; 
an  inference  wholly  presumptive,  from  an  incident  totally  false.    Bui  the 
presumption  is  refuted  at  once  by  a  record,  v.hicli  shews  i;s  the  see  of  St. 
German's  existing  near  half  a  century  before,  as  we  have  alreadv  seeir, 
and  even  specifies  the  very  clergyman  then  nominated  to  hll  it.     It  is 
again  refuted  by  a  second  record,  which  sinks  in  date  below,  while  that 
rises  above  the  year  981,  thus   hedges  in    the  year  on  both  sides,  and 
exhibits  Bodmin  to  us  in  994,  actually  associated  ivith  St.  (jcrniaus  in 
the  designation  of  the  Cornish  see.     So  thoroughly  is  this  imaginarv  no- 
tion the  very  reverse  of  truth  !     The  town  had  now  risen  bv  the  side  of 
the;  monastery  at  Bodmin,  and  both  were  considerable  enough  to  receive 
this  honour  at  present.     "  For  the  love  of  the  holy  confessor  Gekm.vnus, 
"  and  of  the  blessed  excellent  i'etroc,"  cries  Ethelred  king  of  England,  in 
9P4,  only  thirteen  years  after  Dr.  Borlase  avers  St.  Petroc's  monastery  at 
Bodmin  to  have  been  reduced  to  ruins,  and  to  have  continued  "  for  some 
*'  time"   in  those  ruins;   "  I  have  granted  the  bi.s/iopric  of  Ealdrcd  tlic 
"  bishop  (it  is  in  the  province  of  CornwallJ ,  that  it  be  subject  to  him  and 
"  all  his  successors,  that  he  himself  is  to  govern  and  rule  it  as  his  diocese, 
•'  that  the  place  and  government  of  St.  Petroc  is  to  be  alwavs  in  his 
"  power,  and  in  the  power  of  lids  successors*."     This  is  plainly  an  an- 

iicxuiion 

"  seeing  the  next  Jaj/,"  \vlicn,  for  the  common  credit  of  the  Saxons  as  Christians,  we  mii^t 
believe  thev  equally  every  evening  "  invoked  the  protection  of  the  Ahiiighty  iti  praM-r,"  anil 
when  wcknow  they  were  expressly  required  by  their  clergy,  "  every  one"  to  "  pray  tor  him- 
"  self  twice  a  day  at  least,  that  is,  morning  and  evening."  (Thcodulf's  Capituia,  A.  D.  994, 
Johnson.)  Yet,  to  shew  how  high  the  spirit  of  popular  ahsurdity  can  ascend,  our  aiiilior 
ailds  thus :  "  A  practice  this,"  says  ,1/.  Paris,  "  which  continues  even  to  this  day  (1252), 
*'  though  the  dangers  are  past ;"  as  if  the  custom  of  praying  every  evening,  and  every  evening 
shutting  up  doors,  had  never  been  known  in  the  Christian  world  l)tfore  the  late  period  of  the 
Conijucst  (see  Mr.  N'ewcome's  Ancient  History  of  St.  Alban's  .\bhey,  p.  42).  The  Conquest 
seems  to  have  so  strongly  atfected  the  minds  of  our  countrymen  with  terror,  that  even  now 
they  can  sec  nothing  but  spectres  and  da;mous  dancing  in  the  shade  of  it. 

*  Monasticon,  i.  227  :  "  Pro  anjorc — sancti  eonfessoris  German!,  necnon  et  biait 
"  cximii    I'etroci, — donavi    cpiscopiuni  E:ddredi  cpiscopi  (id  est  in  proNinci.i  Cornubix),  ul 

VOL.  I.  K  "  — sit 


f5  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COKKWALL  [cHAP.   I, 

m-xation  of  the  monastery  of  Bodmin  to  the  episcopate  of  St.  German's. 
'Ihe  meiHion  of  Hermanns,  the  mention  of  him  in  the  p'rst  place,  ami  the 
omission  of  ail  subiugation  of  .SV.  Cen/uw'ti  monastery  to  the  bishop, 
coneur  to  prove  the  bishop  afnadi/  settled  at  St.  Gamians,  and  therejorc 
possessed  ofaufhorifi/  already  over  the  monastery  there.  At  the  sirme  time 
the  very  different  eonduct  of  the  charter,  in  ordering  "  the  place  and  go- 
■••  vernment  of  St.  Pctroc— to  he  always  in  his  power,  and  in  thepov\'crof 
•'  his  successors,"  is  strikingly  contrasted  with  this,  and  marks  the  actual 
mdtjiioatiim  of  Bndniin  nioiiastery  at  the  time,  to  the  bishop  of  St.  Ger- 
man'i^.  This  bishop  "  was  still  to  have  his  diocese  in  the  province  of 
•'  Cornwall, — subject  to  him  and  all  his  successors,"  and  "■  he  himself 
■was  still  •'  to  govern  and  rule  it  as  his  diocese."  No  change  was  made 
in  the  jurisdiction  and  seat  of  the  bishop.  This  was  still  left  at  St.  Ger- 
man's, and  that  was  still  allowed  to  be  commensurate  with  Cornwall. 
IJut  the  inonasteiy  of  Bodmin  was  now  annexed  to  the  see,  the  name  of 
Bodmin  was  now  subjoined  to  that  of  St.  German's,  and  the  bishop  be- 
came bv  this  concession  from  the  crown,  the  prelate  of  Cornwall  under 
the  combined  titles  of  St.  German's  and  of  Bodmin  ;  just  as,  by  the  same 
sort  of  annexation  formerly,  the  see  of  Litchfield  is  now  entitled  Litch- 
lield  and  Coventry. 

In  such  an  inverted  position  has  the  history  of  the  Cornish  episcopate 
been  hitherto  exhibited  to  the  world  !  All  this  has  resulted  from  one 
lalse  assumption  ;  and  a  wrong  step  at  the  outset  has  plunged  all  our 
writers  into  a  wilderness  of  errors.  That  the  see  was  originally  at  Bod- 
min, was  taken  up  for  a  real  fact  by  jNIalmesbury,  in  an  extraordinary 
paroxysm  of  contusion,  in  a  half-conscious  contradiction  to  his  own  aver- 
ment before,  and  therefore  with  a  hesitation  of  spirit  natural  to  such  a 
state  of  mind.  His  authority,  though  balanced  by  the  weight  of  the  true 
opinion,  placed  by  himself  from  others  in  the  opposite  scale;  thotigh  even 
thrown  up  into  the  air  by  his  own  positive  averment  before;  though 

.«  —sit  ei_subjccta  omnibusqne  postcris  ejus,  ut  ipse  gubcmct  afqne  regat  suam  parochiam, 
«'  — locusquc  atquc  rcoimen  Saiicii  Pctroci   semper  in  polcstate  ejus    sit  successoriiniqiie 

fixed 


CHAP.   I.]  HISTORICALLY     SUUVF.YED.  O7  • 

fixed  for  ever  immoveable  there  by  the  concurrent  testimonv  of  tv.o 
other  historians,  by  the  records  of  St.  German's  al>bey,  and  by  the  me- 
morials of  JBodmin  priory;  was  weakly,  wildly  believed  to  prepon- 
derate. The  settlement  of  the  Cornish  see  at  Bodmin  \\  as  transmilied 
from  pen  to  pen  without  examination.  Then  the  whole  system  of  his- 
tory was  obliged  to  be  reversed,  in  order  to  accommodate  the  acknow- 
ledged facts  of  it  to  this  believed  falsity.  The  sun  was  compelled  to  go 
back  in  its  course,  and  to  travel  from  west  to  eabt,  in  order  to  suit  this 
new  position  of  the  heavens*. 

*  Let  me  here  notice  one  very  remarkable  point  in  ilie  true  liisioiy  of  Bodmin  that  id 
wholly  unknown  to  the  writers  of  the  county,  yet  is  still  cognitcil  by  the  iong-reachinjj 
niemoiy  of  tradition  at  the  town,  is  soon  recorded  in  published  annals,  and  serves  to  com- 
plete an  observation  of  some  consequence  which  1  liavc  made  before.  At  the  Conquest,  as 
we  liave  seen,  Bodmin  contained  only  sixy-e'i(^ht  houses  within  it ;  but  it  greatly  increased 
afterwards.  This  the  number  of  churches  and  cha]K'ls  in  the  town,  at  the  time  of  Leland's 
visit  to  it,  forcibly  suggests  to  us.  There  was>  besides  the  priory  or  parish-church,  "  at  the 
"  e^t  endeof  the  town,"  and  besides  "  a  cantuarie  chapel  at  theste  cndc  of//;"  "  a  chapel 

'•'  of  .S ,"  of  St.  Leonard,  I  believe,  as  the  statue  of  a  saint  is  slill  remaining  in  Bodmin 

with  S.  L.  on  the  back,  "  at  the  jt^e.?/  ende  of  the  toune."  There  was  also  the  church 
"  of  Gray  Freres,"  now  the  shire  hall,  "  on  the  iOi^/A  side  of  Bodmin  town,"  founded  in 
1239  (Worcester,  99)  ;  and  there  was  "  another  chapel  in  Bodmvn,  beside  that  in  the  west 
*'  cndc  of  the  toune"  (Ilin.  il.  114,  115)  ;  the  very  charcti  of  Berry  on  the  vorth,  now  re- 
maining in  its  tower  alone,  but  formerly  receiving  its  appellation  from  that  burv  or  camp 
once  there  upon  the  height,  to  which  the  name  of  Castle-street  for  the  eastern  end  of  the  town 
still  refers,  and  formerly  communicating  its  own  appellation  to  the  valley  of  Burg-umb  be- 
low it.  But  I  have  still  better  authority  for  the  populousncss  of  Bodmin  once,  than  mere 
sucrgestions  from  Leiand.  "  In  registro  apud  Bodman  ecclesiam  Fratrum  Minorum,"  says 
William  of  Worcester,  citing  a  register  in  that  very  church  of  the  Gray  Friars  above  : 
Magna  pestilencia  per  imiversum  niundum,  inter  Saracenos, — et  postea  inter  Christianos  ; 
neei)it  prinio  in  Anglia  circa  kalend.  Augusti,  et  paruui  ante  Nativiiateni  Domini  inira- 
"  vit  viilam  Bodminiae,  uij  niortui  fucrunt  circa  mille  auiNGENTos  per  csliinacionem  ;  et 
"  numcrusy}'a/r//?H  dcfunctorum  a  capitulo  gtncrali  Lugdunine  celebratum  [celebrato],  anno 
"  Chrhti  1 35 1,  usque  ad  aliiid  scqucns  capitulum  gencrale,  luit  dcjiatriiiis',"  the  Gray  or 
Minor  Friars  cveri/  where,  "  '  trts-decim  millia  octingenti  oct.aginta  tres,  exccptis  sex  vicariis'." 
(P.  117,  1 13.)  How  populous  must  Bodmin  have  then  been  to  sufler  such  a  sweep  as  this, 
Jiftciii  hundred  of  its  inhabitants  carried  ofl"  by  a  plague  !  But  now  we  can  see  for  \.\\c  first 
time  the  propriety  of  that  remark  in  Norden,  which  says  Bodmin  »'  hath  bene  ot  larger  rc- 
«  ceite  than  now  it  is,  as  appe.ireih  by  the  ruynes  of  sundryc  buylding.?  dccaydc."  (I*.  72.) 
We  also  see  doubly  evident  the  folly  of  attributing  this  decay  to  a  local  unhcalthincss  which 

K  2  docs 


«  c 

i< 


fJ9  THE    C\TnF.DRAL    OF    CORNWAIX  [cHAP.    I. 

does  not  exist.  The  »ccret  ground  for  such  a  charge  now  appears  to  have  been  only  a  sick- 
ncs«  particular  and  itniporar)-,  that  pulled  down  Bodmin  indeed  tVoui  its  proud  pre-eminence 
in  the  county,  to  its  prrscnl  mediocrity  of  consequence  wiiliin  it,  but  invoKcd  equally  wiih 
the  town  the  whole  countv,  the  whole  i^land,  and  the  whole  continent.  It  was  during  lliis 
pcntilence  that  snen  thousami  persons  died  at  Yarmoulh  in  Norfolk  under  the  year  1348 
(Worcoter,  344);  and  that  JiJ'ty  thousand  were  b»iricd  on  the  site  of  the  present  Charter- 
house in  Ix^indon,  under  1349  (Stowc's  Loudon,  477,  478).  'J'liis  pcsililcncc,  says  Stowe, 
477,  "  cntnng  this  island,  began  first  in  Dorsetshire;  then  proceeded  into  Devonshire  [and 
"  Cornwall],  Somersetshire,  Gloucestershire,  and  Oxfordshire,  and  at  length  came  to  Lon- 
"  don  ;  whereupon  Ralph  Stratford,  bishop  of  London,  in  the  year  1348,  bought  the  Charter- 
•'  house  land  above." 


CHAPTER 


SECT.  I.]  niSTOUICALLY    SURVEYED.  frQ 


CHAPTER     SECOND. 

SECTION  I. 

1  HAVE  noAV  shewn  from  the  certain  reports  of  history,  that  the  original 
cathedral  of  Corn\vall  was  at  St.  (icrnian's.  I  therefore  proceed  to  a 
ne\\'  kind  of  testimony,  in  favour  of  the  same  point.  I'he  very  church 
of  St.  German's  concurs  with  all  at  this  day ;  tliere  we  see  the  cathedral 
existing  with  all  the  signatures  of  a  cathedral  to  the  present  moment ; 
while  the  church  of  Bodmin  exhibits  no  signs,  and  so  preser\"es  no  tra- 
ditions of  any  episcopal  pre-eminence  that  it  ever  enjoyed  by  itself  cr 
with  another;  the  church  of  St.  German's  presents  various  relics,  and 
retains  various  traditions  of  tluit  cathedral  dignity  which  it  long  main- 
tained \\ithout  a  partner,  and  even  with  a  partner  maintained  in  a  high 
tone  of  superiority  over  all  the  churches  of  Cornwall.  The  church  of 
Bodmin  indeed,  as  I  have  previously  noted*,  was  rebuilt  about  1125  ; 
and  all  traces  of  its  episcopacy  inai/  liave  then  perished,  with  its  episcopal 
church :  but  as  this  church  became  episcopal  after  it  was  built,  and 
merely  as  a  cathedral  subsidiary  to  St.  Gennan's,  it  could  never  have  had 
any  original  emblems  of  its  episcopate,  and  most  probably  had  never  any 
permanent  at  all ;  if  it  had  ever  possessed  such,  they  would  have  been 
protected  in  tlie  demolition,  we  may  be  sure,  with  a  solicitude  sinjilar  to 
what  was  shewn,  concerning  the  chapel  of  St.  Petrock  :  and  the  tra- 
dition, which  has  fled  equally  with  the  signatures  themselves,  would 
then  have  been  cherished  with  peculiar  liveliness,  by  appealing  continu- 
ally to  those  sensible  vouchers  for  its  veracity. 

The  church  of  St.  German's  consists  at  present  of  a  nave  and  two  ailcs, 
almost  entirely  built  of  a  stone  brought  from  a  (juarry  about  tour  miles 
off,  that  is  called  from  its  position  TartonDown.     The  nave  is  entered 

*  Sec  i,  3 J  bclore, 

under 


-^  -nir.  cATifEDKAi.  OF  <■on^'^v.\LI.  [chap.  ii. 

un.U-r  a  large  portal  fVom  the.  west,  fla.ikcd  on  the  north  and  south  with  a 
towrr.  Hoth  th<-sc  rise  sqiurc  ah(.nt  two  thirds  of  their  height,  even  to 
tfie  cntahlatiu.-  ot"  racli ;  boJh  are  asserted  by  tra(Hlion  to  have  then 
formed  an  ortan<rnlar  turret  tor  the  remainder,  ami  that  on  the  north 
still  forms  one.  'I  in.  soutukkn  towkr  and  souTHF.nx  aile  composed 
TiiF.  SMALL  CATUDDUAL.  'I'licsc  are  aj)parently  one  \\hole  in  themselves. 
Close  to  this  tov\  er  on  the  soutli,  and  with  it  forming  the  western  termi- 
nation of  tliat  aile,  is  what  was  the  primary  portal  of  the  cathedral;  a 
small  porch  of  an  ohiong  square,  with  one  door  to  the  west,  one  to  the 
south,  and  a  third  on  the  ca.st  into  llie  (;hurch  ;  it  \v:\s  therefore  the  one 
dilv  entrance  into  the  chnrch  originally,  but  equally  from  the  south  and 
\\  est.  The  'Mound  on  both  sirfes  has  risen  io  very  high  since  the  coii- 
sti-uction  of  the  church,  that  there  is  i^.ow  a  dc'^cent  into  it  of  one  step  by 
the  western  dooi-way,  ami  of  three  by  the  soutlicrn  ;  though  there  still 
remains,  as  there  must  always  have  been,  a  descent  of  four  from  it  into 
the  church.  This  strongly  marks  the  antiquity  of  the  building,  The 
tow  er  adioining  to  the  porch  has  a  small  arch  facing  the  aile,  and  had  a 
large  one  looking  north,  but  now  dosed  up.  Tilt  aile  itself  is  only  the 
breadth  of  this  tower  and  that  porch,  about  six-and-tvvcnty  feet  only.  So 
narrovv  was  the  cathedral  of  Cornwall !  But  the  whole  is  apparently  di- 
yidcd,  as  a  comj)!cto  church  of  itself,  into  two  parts,  the  body  and  the 
chancel.  .7  he  former  runs  on  with  the  breadth  above,  abcmt  eight-and- 
forty  tect ;  but  then  contracts  into  a  breadth  of  twenty-two  and  a  half 
only  for  a  length  of  thirty-seven. 

At  the  upper  end  of  this  chancel,  is  what  was  apparently  formed  for 
and  is  popularly  considered  as  the  bishop's  throne,  being  a  roimded 
niche  a  foot  deep  in  the  very  substance  of  the  eastern  wall,  evident///  made 
u'iik  it,  and  lixed  in  the  middle  between  the  two  windows  there.  It  is 
about  six  feet  in  height,  with  two  and  a  half  in  breadth,  having  a  stone 
fvixi  at  thebottom,  and  this  raised  six  feet  nine  inches  above  the  level  of 
the  floor.  At  the  head  of  this  niche  ?rithin  arc  some  smaWJi'lefs  of  stone; 
and  a  .small  dove  of  stone,  as  the  emblem  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  centre. 
On  each  side  of  the  niche  u'ifJin/tf  are  the  remains  of  a  staff  carved  on  the 
wall,  carrying  a  cro.ss-picce  on  the  top,  aiul  presenting  the  appearance  of 

^  a  tall 


SECT.   I.]  HIStoniCALLy    SURVETr-D.  7I 

a  tall  crutch  ;  the  true  crozter  of  antiquitv,  as  I  shall  hereafter  .shew  *. 
Directly  over  the  niche  is  equally  carved  upon  the  wall,  but  remains 
more  evident  to  the  eye  at  present,  a  large  and  tall  mitre,  surmounted 
by  a  cross. 

Near  this,  hut  in  the  soiilhern  wall,  is  another  niche,  equally  coacval 
with  the  wall  itself,  \et  much  lower  in  elevation,  and  very  dillerent  in 
form:  it  is  not  rounded  at  the  back  and  to]),  but  flat  behind  and  arch- 
hke  above,  having  much  ornamental  carving  on  some  small  pillars  that 
are  tied  by  a.  fascia  of  stone  into  a  neat  kind  of  arch,  or  (to  exj)ress  my- 
self for  once  in  language  more  technical  in  itself,  but  more  obscure  to  the 
generality)  the  arch,  which  appears  to  have  been  formerly  scalloj>ed,  rests 
on  three  clustered  columns  upon  each  side,  w  hile  the  pediment  over  the 
arch,  and  the  fineals  of  the  buttresses  at  the  sides,  are  richly  purtlcd,  as 
beneath  the  arch  is  an  ornament  of  quaterfoils  :  and  this  niche  carries, 
equally  with  that,  a  stone  seat  at  the  bottom.  This  then  I  consider, 
without  any  aid  from  tradition,  and  from  the  mere  analogy  of  the  whole, 
to  be  THE  STALL  OF  THE  CHAPLAIN  ;  the  oidy  ofllccr  under  the  bishop, 
then  attending  continually  upon  him,  but  acting  equally  as  a  chaplain 
and  a  chancellor  to  him.  Thus  the  kings  of  Wales  retained  only  one 
clergyman  in  the  train  of  their  court,  as  late  as  the  tenth  century  ;  who 
was  generally  called  the  offeirhid,  or  the  administrator  of  the  Eucharist ; 
who  was  to  bless  the  meat  at  meals,  chant  the  LonVs  Prayer,  and  then 
sit  down  at  the  table  opposite  to  the  master  of  the  king's  houmls.  He 
ranked  in  dignity  next  to  the  very  prefect  of  the  palace  ;  was  always  to 
be  about  the  person  of  the  king,  as  one  of  his  inseparable  attendants ; 
and  with  those  two  officers  immediately  below  him,  the  steward  and  the 
judge  of  the  household,  was  to  keep  up  the  dignity  of  the  court,  in 
determiniiiii  such  causes  as  the  kinv  did  not  attend  himself.  He  was  also 
to  reside  in  what  was  denominated  the  chaplain's  house,  together  with 
his  scholars,  that  were  training  up  for  orders  und(M*  him ;  and  for  (hat 
reason  assuredly  was  to  present,  just  as  our  lord  chancellor  for  a  similar 
reason,  but  under  greater  ret:Lrictions,   presents  now  to  churclies  in  the 

•  Ch.ip.  iii.  Sec.  2. 

ro\al 


-2  TIIF.    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAT.   U. 

roval  patronape*.  A\V  fiiul  also  our  Saxon  and  Norman  kings,  attendeil 
rach  like  tlu-  nriti>h  \vitli  a  sinplr  chaplain  only.  Thus  Iniiulplius  speaks 
of  ••  the  fM-eshi/frr  of  the  royal  palace,"  in  the  days  ot  Edmund  Tron- 
sidef;  the  SiLxon  Chronicle  notices  one  Gilfard  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I. 
as  "  the  kings  hird-clerc,"  or  family-clergyman  :J:;  and  the  same  Chroni- 
cle again  notices,  in  the  reign  of  the  Con<pieror,  several  bishops  elect,  as 
^^■hat  the  notice  immediately  preceding  shews  them  to  be,  successively  the 
king's  chaplains,  or  "  the  king's  clerks§ ."  Just  so  we  lliid  Canute,  -when 
sovereign  of  all  I^ngland.  represented  hy  the  same  ('hronicle,  as  giving  a 
church  of  his  ow  n  foundation  to  "  his  own  priest,  whose  name  was 
"  Stigand  ||."  liut,  to  come  closer  to  the  point,  vvc  see  as  early  as  710 
••  Acca,  intfrifrs  priest"  consecrated  to  the  bishopric  that  Wilfrid  had 
held  before^  ;  and  rn  HSri,  u[Hm  .John's  resignation  of  the  bishopric  of 
York,  "  ^\■iIfri(l  his  priest"  consecrated  to  it**.  So  accurately  is  a 
Mngle  seat  formed,  for  the  single  clergyman  then  attendant  on  the 
bibhop  ! 

Nor  are  seats  of  stone  for  bishops  and  their  accomjianying  divines, 
however  strange  they  may  seem  to  my  readers  here,  wholly  unknown  and 
unnoticed  in  other  parts  of  the  island.  In  the  chapter-house  of  Tavistock 
abbey,  a  structure  of  great  beauty,  formed  as  round  as  a  compass  could 
possibly  form  one,  yet  now  ruined,  were  "  36  seats  in  the  inside,  tvrought 
"  out  in  the  nails,  all  arched  over  head  with  curious  carved  sfones-\-\y 
But,  in  the  chapter-house  belonging  to  the  cathedral  of  Elgin  in  Scot- 
land, are  still  "  five  stalls  cut  by  way  of  niches  for  the  bishop  (or  the  dean 

•  Ix;gcs  Hocli  Boni,  Wotton,  18,  14,  19,  23,  30,  ig.  OJfeiriad  is  rendtred  generally 
Priest,  but  in  strict  propriety  means  what  I  have  stated  it  to  mean  ;  as  Bara  Offcrin  is  the 
bread  administered  in  the  Eucharist,  p.  9b  and  181. 

t  P.  4<)Q,  Savilc. 

I  Sax.  Chron.  p.  225. 

§   IbiJ.  p.  186. 

I   Ihid.  p.  151. 

^  Ibid.   p.  50. 

'*    Ibid.  p.  46. 

It  Ltland's  Coll.  vi.  260. 
• 

in 


9ECT.  I.]  niSTORIC.VLLY    SURVEYED.  ;,'5 

"  in  the  bishop's  absence),  and  the  d'/gnijied  clergi/,  to  sit  in;  the  middle 
"  stall  tor  the  bishop  or  dean  is  larger,  and  raised  a  step  higher,  than  the 
*'  other  four*."  These  symbolize  sufficiently  with  ours  at  St.  German's, 
to  shew  the  general  use  of  ours.  Tiiese,  however,  are  not  in  the  church, 
but  in  the  chapter-house.  In  the  abbey-church  of  Glastonbury,  upon 
the  remaining  wall  of  the  quire  on  the  south,  but  between  the  first  and 
second  window  (I  thmk)  from  the  east,  is  a  little  kind  of  canopy  formed 
by  two  slender  pillars  that  run  up  the  side  of  the  wall,  and  unite  in  a 
peak  at  top,  where  tradition  fixes  the  throne  of  the  abbot -f-.  But  in 
Exeter  cathedral,  on  the  southern  side  of  the  altar,  and  below  the  ascent 
to  it,  are  three  regular  stalls  of  stone  (narrow,  tall,  and  carved),  tradition- 
ally reported  to  be  the  same  which  are  historically  known  to  have  existed 
near  the  altar,  and  in  the  middle  one  of  which  Edward  the  Confessor 
with  his  queen  actually  installed  Lcofric,  to  give  him  possession  of  his 
new-erected  prelacy  ;  the  king,  adds  tradition,  then  placing  himself  in 
the  easterly  stall,  but  the  queen  taking  her  scat  in  the  westerly:):  :  and 
in  the  cathedral  at  Rochester  are  ccjualiy  three  stalls  of  stone,  on  the  same 
side  of  the  altar  as  those  at  Exeter,  all  distinguished  by  shields  of  arms, 
and  one  of  them  by  the  very  arms  of  the  see  §.  All  shews  a  stone  stall 
for  a  bishop,  to  have  been  not  uncommon  formerly  near  the  altar  of  his 
cathedral ;  yet  as  seats  of  stone  for  the  prelate  and  his  chaplain  near  the 
altar,  ours  at  St.  German's  1  believe  to  be  unparalleled  in  all  the 
island. 

In  the  body  of  this  church,  and  near  the  eastern  end  of  it,  is  a  door- 
way now  closed  up,  apparent  within  the  church,  but  more  apparent  as 
unplastered  without.       This  is  reported  by  tradition    to  be  the  very 

•  Shaw's  History  of  Moray,  278. 

t  Wc  may  the  less  wonder  at  a  throne  for  an  abbot,  when  we  know  he  had  his  "  abbot's 
"  inn,"  now  the  George,  an  old  and  curious  building,  in  the  town;  and  bis  "  judgnicnt- 
«  hail,"  where  he  tried  and  condemned  ofteuders :  part  i'^  of  the  same  style  in  building,  orna- 
mented (like  that)  with  arms  in  stone  over  the  door,  yet  in  appearance  not  so  old  or  so  large 
as  that. 

J  Monasticon,  i.  229,  and  the  present  work,  iii.  2.  vii-  i. 

§  Archx.  X.  267. 
VOL.  I.  r.  tloor. 


4 


\ 


THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.   II. 

door,  THROUGH    WHICH    THE    BISHOP    USED   TO    EXTER   THE   CHURCH  fiom 

hU  palacf  a  little  distant.  It  now  has  the  ground  a\  ithout  by  length  of 
time  raised  nearly  to  a  level  with  the  crown  of  the  arch,  but  kept  otFfrom 
t!ic  chmch  by  a  wall  and  a  fosse. 

Ju.st  bv  this  on  the  west  is  an  arch  in  the  church-wall  within,  which 
tradition  notes  as  the  tomb  of  the  bishops.  This  consists  of  a  cover- 
ing-Mone,  which  seems  to  have  large  letters  upon  it,  running  in  four 
lines  for  the  length  of  the  stone,  and  all  parallel.  These,  however,  are 
only  the  hollows,  by  which  four  brass  plates  have  been  fastened  to  the 
stone  with  melted  lead  ;  some  of  the  lead  still  remaining  in  the  hollows. 
So  \\c  see  iron  rings  fastened  with  lead  in  the  sepulchral  chest  of  the 
Saxon  bishop  of  \\  inchestcr,  Swithin,  during  the  ninth  century  *.  But, 
what  is  very  remarkable,  tliis  covering-stone  appears  upon  examination 
to  have  been  laid  over  the  tomb,  as  the  throne,  the  stall,  and  the  door- 
way, must  have  been  formed,  at  the  very  time  iclu-n  the  ivall  was  htiUt ; 
being  now  inserted  into  the  body  of  the  wall,  at  the  two  ends  and  on  the 
I'urther  side.  The  foin-th  line  is  more  than  half  buried  within  the  wall, 
and  the  fourth  jilate  must  have  been  affixed  while  the  wall  was  in  build- 
ing f .  It  coultl  therefore  be  merely  general  in  its  inscription,  and  the 
plates  with  particular  inscriptions  could  be  only  three.  This  shews  it  to 
be  a  mere  cenotaph,  prepared  at  the  construction  of  the  church,  and  indi- 
cating the  sepulture  of  the  bishops  near  it.  Accordingly,  upon  removing 
a  part  of  the  front  stone  belo^\',  which  has  some  plain  caning  upon  it,  I 
found  the  whole  substance  of  the  seeming  tomb  to  be  merely  the  wall  of 
the  church,  very  hard,  (juite  solid,  and  only  built  in  the  form  of  a  tomk 
So  built  it  was,  that  those  might  have  an  honourable  memorial  of  their 
bepulture,  who  were  to  act  in  so  dignified  a  relation  to  this  church  ;  and 
who,  by  being  buried  in  the  body  of  the  church,  beneath  the  floor  af  it, 

•  Malraesbnr)',  f.  139:  "  Annulos  ferreos  vioknter  cum  plumbo  lapidi  sepulchri  af- 
"  fixos." 

t  How  erroneously  therefore  has  Mr.  Lcthieullicr  conjeclured  thus,  in  Arch,  ii.  297  : 
•*  Upon  the  whole,  where  we  have  not  a  positive  date,  1  should  hardly  guess  any  brass  plate 
«'  I  met  with  to  be  older  than  1350,  and/w  so  old."  By  such  random  guesses  as  this,  all 
antiquity  is  contracted  to  a  span,  and  ages  arc  squeezed  with  the  Iliad  into  a  nut-shell !      • 

would 


SECT.  I.]  HISTORICALLT    SURVETKD.  75 

would  otherwise  have  no  monumental  memorial  at  all.  Some  of  them 
were  buried  (I  believe)  about  a  yard  directly  to  the  north  of  this  monu- 
ment; and  there  I  explored  the  ground  with  an  iron  bar,  in  search  of 
their  stone  coffins ;  but  when  this  told  me  there  were  none  in  the 
ground,  the  search  was  discontinued.  The  only  relic,  indeed,  which 
I  expected  to  find  in  the  coffins,  was  the  ring  that  each  of  tlie  prelates 
had  formerly  worn. 

Rings  arc  derived  to  us  from  a  custom,  as  universal  as  the  love  of  or- 
nament among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  common  to  the  Romans, 
the  Gauls,  or  the  Britons;  while  the  mode  of  wearing  them  is  wholly 
Roman  among  us  at  present,  and  has  always  been  so  since  the  Roman 
conquest.  This  we  may  collect  from  several  circumstances,  little  in 
themselves  independent  of  each  other,  but  uniting  in  one  testimony. 
The  Romans  wore  rings  even  so  familiarly  upon  their  thumhs,  that, 
among  many  evidences  of  the  bodily  hugeness  of  the  emperor  Maximius 
the  elder,  his  thumb  is  recorded  to  have  been  so  large,  as  to  bear  upon 
it  his  queen's  right-hand  bracelet  for  a  ring*.  We  correspondently 
find,  "  upon  rebuilding  the  abbey-church  of  St.  Peter,  Westminster,  by 
"  king  Henry  III.,"  that  "  the  sepulchre  of  Sebert,  king  of  the  East- 
"  Angles,  was  opened,  and  therein  was  found  part  of  his  royal  robes, 
"  and  his  thumb-ring,  in  which  was  set  a  rulw  of  great  value."  A\'e  also 
know  "  an  alderman's  thumb-ring''  to  have  been  an  object  familiar  to 
the  eyes  of  Shakespeare f.  This  practice  continued  among  us  long  after 
the  days  of  Shakespeare  ;  an  alderman's  thumb-ring  continuing  to  be  no- 
ticed for  its  singularity,  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  J. 
But  the  Romans  also  placed  the  ring  upon  one  of  theiry///o-tV5,  the  large 

•  Hist.  Aug.  Scriptores,  606.  Capitoliniis.  "  Pollicc  ita  vasto,  ut  uxoris  dextrochcrio 
*'  utcretur  pro  anmilo." 

t  Arch.  iii.  390,  Sir  Joseph  Ayloffo,  and  Shakespeare's  Part  ist  of  Henry  I\'.  act  ii. 
ficene  iv.  '*  Whin  I  was  about  thy  years,  Hal,  I  was  not  an  eagle's  talon  in  the  waist;  I 
••  could  have  crept  into  any  alderman's  thumb-ring." 

J  "  An  alderman's  thumb-ring  is  mentioned  by  Bronic,  in  the  Antipodes,  1640 — ;  .ignin 
♦*  in  the  Norl/wrii  Imss,  1632 — j  again  in  H'it  in  a  Comiabk,  1640."  (Johnson's  and  iJlec- 
"  vcns's  edition,  1793J  vol.  viii.  468.) 

L  2  statues 


-5  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COUXWALL  [CHAP.  U. 

Statues  in  bronze  of  emperors  and  empresses  at  Portici  liaviiig  each  of 
!hcm  a  ring  upon  the  tuurtli  finger§  ;  and  Pliny  informing  us,  that  "  the 
••  custom  was  oiiiiinally  to  \\ear  it  upon  the  fuigcr  next  io  the  least, 
"  as  we  see  in  the  statues  of  Numa,  and  8ervius  TuHius*."  The  cus- 
tom of"  tljc  kings  was  thns  revived  by  the  emperors,  and  continued 
very  late.  But,  m  the  inten'al  between  the  revived  and  the  original 
custom,  the  ring  was  put  by  the  Romans  on  the  fore -finger;  "  the  very 
♦•  images  of  the  gods."  says  Pliny,  "  carrying  it  on  the  finger  next  to  the 
"  thumbf ;"  and  a  Roman  monument  remaining,  in  which  a  man  ap- 
pears actually  putting  a  ring  upon  the  fore-linger  of  a  woman,  in  the 
act  of  marr\ing  her"|.  We  accordingly  use  rings  upon  both  these 
fingers  at  prcbcnt.  J3ut  we  denominate  the  fourth  particularly,  just  as 
the  Romans  and  the  Saxons  did,  the  ring-finger,  as  being  that  on 
which  the  ring  is  placed  in  marriages §;  while  the  native  Britons,  like 
the  native  Gauls,  wore  the  ring  upon  the  middle  finger  alone,  the  very 
finger  which  alone  was  excepted  by  the  Romans ||.  Thus,  in  1012,  on 
removing  the  bones  of  Dunstan  at  Canterbury  by  four  men  who  had  been 
the  depositors  of  his  body  before,  in  what  is  called  a  mausoleum,  and  who 
now  opened  it;  "  they  foimd  the  bones  more  valuable  than  gold  and 
"  topazes,  the  tlesh  having  been  consumed  by  length  of  time,  and  recug- 
"  w^cA  that  ring  put  upon  his  finger  when  he  was  committed  to  the 

§  "  Lts  pi'is  grandcs  statues  en  bronze  a  Portici,  rcpresentcnt  des  empereurs  et  des  impe- 
"  ratrices,  cl  il  n'tn  cit  aiicune  qui  ne  soit  audessus  de  la  grandeur  natunlle ;  mais — dies  ne 
"  prcsentent  dc  rtmarquabic,  que  I'aitneau  place  au  doigt  annulaire dt  la  main  droite  de  quel- 
"  qucs-uns  des  empereurs."  Encyciopedie  Methodiquc,  dix-huitieme  liviaison,  Antiquites,  i. 
Annian.  bague.  p.  184. 

•  Pliuy,  xsxiii.  I  :  "  Singulis  prinio  digitis  geri  mos  fuerat,  qui  sunt  minimis  proximi; 
"  fie  in  Numx  et  ServiiTullii  statuis  vidcnuis." 

•t  Ibid.  ibid.  "  Posiea  [digito]  pollici  proximo  induere;  etiam  dcorum  simulachris." 

X  Montfaucon,  iii.  part  1st,  11,  17.  1  refer  to  the  translation  by  Humphreys,  1721,  a» 
more  within  the  reach  of  a  country  clergyman's  purse,  than  the  original,  with  its  French 
and  Latin  expensively  doubling  one  over  the  other.  I  so  refer  generally,  though  I  occa- 
lionally  cite  the  onginal  as  consulted  by  my  friends  for  me. 

§  Rubric  to  our  marriage  service  directs  the  ring  to  be  "  put— upon  ihe  fourth  finger 
"  of  the  woman's  left  hand." 

II  Phny,  xxxiii.  t  :  "  GaUix  Bntanniiequc  in  medio  dicuntur  use  ;  hie  7iunc  solus  ex- 
"  cipilur." 

"  grave. 


SECT.  I.]  niSTORICALLT   SURVEYED.  77 

"  grave,  which  he  himseltis  reported  to  have  made  in  liis  tender  years*." 
The  bones  were  then  transferred  to  Glastonbury,  and  172  vears  after- 
ward agaui  found  tliere;  the  explorers  coming  to  "a  a^ffin  of  wood, 
"  bound  firmly  with  iron  at  all  the  joints,"  opening  this,  seeing  the  bones 
within,  "  with  Ids  ring  upon  a  particular  bone  of  his  finger;  and,  to 
"  take  away  all  semblance  of  doubt,  discovering  his  picture  within  the 
"  coffin,  the  letter  S,  with  a  glory  on  the  right  side  of  the  coffin,  the 
"  letter  D,  with  a  glory,  on  the  leftf."  The  ring  was  put  upon  the 
finger  of  a  bishop  at  his  burial,  because  a  bishop  always  wore  a  ring 
in  his  life;  and  because  he  wore  it,  as  queen  Elizabeth  wore  one 
through  life  with  the  same  reference  to  her  kingdom,  in  token  of  his 
marriage  to  his  diocese.  Thus,  Mhen  Egelric,  a  monk  of  Peterborough, 
was  made  bishop  of  Durham,  in  1048,  and  afterwards  resigned  his 
bishopric  in  favour  of  his  cousin  Agelwin,  another  monk  of  Peterborough; 
he  is  reported,  by  Ingulphus,  to  have  "  resigned  up  his  ring  to  his  cou- 
"  sin|."  Brithwold,  who  became  bishop  of  Salisbury  in  1045,  is  rejiorted, 
in  redeeming  some  lands  from  the  crown  for  the  abbey  of  Glastonbury, 
when  a  farthing  (a  fraction  then  much  more  valuable  than  now)  was 
deficient  "  in  the  payment  of  the  sum  stipulated;  to  ha^e  magnifi- 
"  cently  thrown  his  ring  into  the  mass,  and  to  have  shewn  the  devo- 
"  tion  which  he  had  for  the  abbey,  by  exhibiting  the  workmanship  upon 
"  it§."     Bishop    Ednod  also  is  attested,  "  in  the  battle  at  Assandun, 

*  Malmesbury,  Gale,  i.  302  :  "  Ossa  Sajicti  Diinstani  super  aurum  et  topazium  prciiosa, 
"  reperiunt,  carne  tarn  dlutiirni  temporis  spatio  rcsoluta — .  Aniuiluni  etiani  digito  Saiicli 
''  cum  sepulturip  trailcretur  iiuposlluni,  cjucni  tt  ipse  astate  tciitriorl  fecissc  tlicilur,  recog- 
"  nosciint." 

+  Ibid.  Gale,  i.  304:  "  Locclluin  ligncuiii,  ferrea  compaginc  undique  consolidatum,— 
"  aspiciunt — ;  thccani  apcrientcs,  sacralissimi  bcati  Diinslaiii  ossa  rcperiiinf,  simulquc  an- 
•'  nuluin  suum  super  quoddam  os  digiti —  ;  ct,  ad  omncm  anibigiiiiaii*  nodiiin  absolvmdum, 
"  picturam  videiit  iulrinsccus,  et  S  cum  titulo  in  dextr&  parte locelli,  D  cum  titulo  in  siulslra." 
Joannes  Glastoniensis,  in  his  Mistoria  de  Rebus  Glastonicnsibus,  i.  14.5,  Hearnc,  1726, 
fiays :  "  ostenditur  dictus  annulus  in  ihesaurariii  GlasloniK,  U5que  in  hodiernuni  dicm." 
John  brings  down  his  history  to  I4<)3.  (i.  283.) 

J  Savilc,  510:  "  Germane  sue  suum  annuKun  rcsignavit." 

§  Mahncsbury,  Gale,  i.  326  :  "  Sicut  dicunt,  tiini  de  rcdcinptlonc  obolus  deessct,  vir 
"  magnificus  aniiulum  suum  crcditonbus  projieiens,  devotioneni  quam  in  Glastoniam  habc- 
**  bat,  opcris  ttstabatur  cxhibiiione," 

"  between 


-^  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  U. 

'"  botuccn  kiMK  I-l"Hmd  and  Canute,  to  have  been  slain  by  the  Danish 
••  soldiers  of  Canatc.  while  he  was  chanting  the  mass;  first  his  right 
-  hind  '•  that  was  lifted  up  in  prayer,  "  being  cut  off  dose  to  hs  ring, 
..  and  then  his  nn  hole  body  mangled  *."  All  shews  us  what  we  should 
assuredly  have  nut  witii  in  this  episcopal  grave,  coffins  of  wood 
bound  fi'rmly  at  the  joints  with  iron,  and  the  bones  of  a  bishop  in  each 
of  them,  if  we  had  "been  searching  within  two  hundred  years  after  the 
burials;  or.  f,cr/iap.^,  a  ring  to  every  bishop,  at  the  distance  of  time  in 
which  we  explored  the  ground.  '1  his  uncertain  chance  I  wilhngly  lost, 
however,  in  what  I  thought  an  honourable  delicacy  of  respect  to  re- 
mains, which  must  have  been  disturbed  by  any  farther  inquisition.  Con- 
tent to  have  searched  for  the  bones  in  some  repository  of  a  permanent 
nature  ;  I  desisted  wlien  I  found  there  \\-as  none.  Only  I  a\  ish  to  ob- 
scnc  at  the  close,  that  this  cenotaph  of  the  bishops  concurs  with  the 
door,  the  stall,  and  tlie  throne,  to  prove  the  whole  church  an  episcopal 
one,  at  t/ie  von/  consi ruction  of  it\. 

Nor  need  we,  a\  ith  an  antiquary's  imbecility  of  mind,  to  regret  the 
loss  of  such  a  ring ;  because  lord  Eliot,  the  present  proprietor  of  the 
abbey  once  annexed  to  this  church,  still  preserves  one  in  his  possession. 
It  was  toiuul  in  the  earth  some  years  before  my  search,  when  my  lord 
was  reconstructing  the  southern  front  of  the  abbey.  It  is  of  silver  gilt, 
presenting  the  appearance  of  two  hands  joined,  two   thumbs  attached 

•  Hi.-i'jria  Elicnsis,  Gale,  i.497  •  "  ^"  ''^""  liiod  fuit  inter  iEdmundum  regem  ct  Canutum 
"  apiid  Ass.indun,  dum  niissam  cantarct,  a  Danis  Caiiuli  sociis,  prius  dcxteia  propter  annu- 
"  luni  aniputaiA,  dcindc  toto  corpore  scisso,  interfectus  est."  Mr  Bentham,  in  his  account 
of  Ely  Cathedral,  p.  89,  renders  the  words  "  propter  annulum"  in  this  schoolboy  manner; 
"  for  the  sake  of  a  ring:"  as  if  his  whole  hand  would  be  cut  off,  for  the  sake  of  what  was 
upon  hii  finger  only.  Mr.  Bentham  might  as  well  have  averred,  that  "  his  whole  body 
"  wai  mangled  for  the  sake  of  a  ring." 

t  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  632,633.  In  1190,  "  ad  notitiam  suam  pervenit,  et  cpis- 
"  coporum  cxicrorum  in  fcsto  suo  apud  Ely  sccum  cxistentium,"  on  William  Lonarchamp's 
taking  possession  of  his  bishopric;  "  (piod  sepuichriun  Galfridi  praedccessoris  sui  fuit  vio- 
"  Ulum,  quoniani  annulus  pontificalis,  quern  scpulturae  traditus  habuit  in  digito,  fuerat 
"  latentcr  subiractus.  In  pulpitum  ascciidcntcs  cpiscopi  violatores,  tam  facicutes  quam 
"  conicnlicntcs,  sub  anathcniaic  coiicluserunt." 

upon 


SECT.  1.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  79 

upon  one  end  of  the  rim,  and  the  tips  of  the  fingers  coming  up  on  the 
other.  This  has  been  tlicrefore  asserted  by  some  anticiiiarics,  particu- 
larly by  the  late  Dean  Milles,  I  understand,  in  the  usual  largeness  of 
language  (I  believe)  from  antiquaries  toward  the  rest  of  the  world,  to 
have  been  a  parish  wedding-ring;  that,  by  which  all  couples  were 
married,  and  of  which,  though  there  must  necessarily  have  been  one  in 
every  parish,  only  two  or  three  are  said  to  be  preserved  at  present. 
Such  a  circumstance  alone  throws  an  air  of  gross  suspectibilitv,  over 
the  whole;  when  so  many  thousand  rings  must  have  existed  in  the  king- 
dom, yet  so  few  are  preserved;  and  when  so  many  are  preserved  out  of 
so  few  that  belonged  to  kings  or  to  bishops.  But  the  fact  is,  that  the  ex- 
istence of  parish-rings  (if  ever  supposed  in  reality)  is  all  the  dream  of 
slumbering  antiquariaiiism.  Not  a  canon,  not  a  nibric  is  to  be  found, 
commanding  parishes  to  keep  such  rings.  Even  the  very  form  of  mar- 
riage, which  was  in  the  Sarum  Liturgy  before  the  Reformation,  which 
is  what  was  used  over  nearly  the  whole  of  England,  over  Wales,  and 
over  Ireland,  long  before,  being  composed  by  Osmond  bishop  of  Sarum 
about  the  year  1080*,  speaks  directly  to  the  contrary,  and  proves  the 
wedding-rings  to  have  been,  as  they  now  are,  private  propcrtv,  or  per- 
sonal decorations.  In  this,  there  is  a  formal  benediction  of  the  rins  at 
even/  marriage,  before  it  is  put  upon  the  liugcr  of  the  bride ;  an  act  su- 
perfluous to  be  done,  and  impossible  to  be  ordered,  if  the  same  ring 
was  always  used.  This  benediction  was  made,  in  two  supplications  to 
God.  The  former  of  them  runs  thus,  in  English:  "  O  Creator  and 
*'  Preserver  of  the  human  race;  Giver  of  spiritual  grace  ;  Bcstower  of 
"  eternal  salvation:  do  thou,  O  Lord,  send  thy  blessing  upon  this  ring, 
"  that  she  ivlio  shall  wear  if,  may  be  armed  with  the  virtues  of  celestial 
"  defence,  and  be  sulTicicnt  for  her  own  eternal  salvation,  through 
"  Christ  our  Lord  i"."     Here  we  see,  that  the  bride  was  to  cany  away 

*  Kuygliton,  Twisden,  c.  2351  :  "  Coniposuit  librum  nrdinalcm  ccck-siasiici  officii,  qucm 
"  consuetudiuarium  vocant ;  quo  fere  mine  tola  Anglia,  Wallia  iiliiur,  ct  tliberma." 

+  Nichols   on   Common  I'rayer,    2J  edition,    1712.     Malrinnny.     "  Creator   ct  Con- 

"  scrvator  luiniani  generis,  Daior  gfatia;    i^pirituaiis,   LargUnr  ;cl<.riiac  salutis,  tii,  Doininc, 

"  mine  bencdietionem  tuam  super  Inine  annulum  ;   ut  qua:  ilium  gesiaverit  .-.it  armala  vir- 

•'  tute  ecelesiis  defiusionisj  ct  sufficiat  iili  ad  saluleiu   jclcrnani;  per   Chrisluiu  Donunun\ 

"  nostrum." 

lllC 


^^Q  THE    CATIIEDRVL    Ol-    COPNWALL  [ciIAP.  11. 

the  rinu;  >\  ith  her  after  the  service  was  linishcd,  as  she  carries  it  at  pre- 
sent; ami  was  to  wear  it  upon  her  finger  for  the  rest  of  her  Ufe,  just 
as  at  present  she  wears  it.  But  tlie  latter  prayer  runs  thus:  "  O  Lord 
'•  Christ,  bless  ////*  ring,  wliich  we  bless  in  thy  holy  name,  that  tcliaf- 
"  sfK'irr  uvnuin  shall  hear  it  away  may  be  in  thy  peace,  and  remain  in 
'•  thv  good-will,  and  in  thy  love  live  and  grow,  and  go  on  to  old  age, 
"  and  be  continued  fyr  a  length  of  days,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  J." 
So  plainlv  was  the  ring  borne  away  by  the  bride,  that  the  prayers  of  be- 
nediction are  both  of  ihcm  founded  upon  the  fact,  and  in  reality  are  be- 
nedictions upon  the  hearer  only§.  It  was,  indeed,  from  this  very  form 
of  the  bride's  not  putting  on  a  ring  for  the  short  interval  of  the  marriage- 
service,  then  resigning  it  up  for  the  equally  short  use  of  the  next  bride; 
or,  as  must  have  been  the  case  of  numerous  weddings  in  the  same  mo- 
ment?, of  transferring  the  ring  hastily  from  hand  to  hand,  and  never 
suticring  it  lo  rest  at  all  upon  any;  but  of  the  bridegroom's  bringing  his 
own  ring,  and  (»f  the  bride's  \\earing  it  on  her  hand  through  life,  as  a 
part  of  her  new  property,  or  as  an  ensign  of  her  new  state;  that 
bishops  or  kings  came  to  have  a  ring  put  upon  their  hands,  at  taking- 
possession  of  their  otlices  ;  to  wear  the  rings  upon  their  hands,  as  equal 
ensigns  of  their  marriage  to  their  dioceses,  or  kingdoms;  and  even  to 
wear  them  w  ith  s\ich  a  rigid  fidclitv  as  to  be  buried  with  them. 

t  Nichols  on  Common  Prayer,  2d  edition,  1712.  Matrimony.  "  Bene,  Chrisfc,  die, 
"  Domiiic,  liunc  annuluni,  quem  nos  in  tuo  sancto  nomine  bencdicinni?,  iit  quascunque 
"  cum  portavcril  lua  pace  consistat,  et  in  tua  voluntate  pcrmaneat,  et  in  tuo  ainorc  vivat,  et 
"  crcicat,  el  scnescat,  et  mulliplicetur  in  longitudineni  dierum,  per  Dominum  nostrum 
"Jcsum  Christimi."  The  elision  of  henedic  into  letie,  and  die  with  Chr'isie  inter- 
posed, is  very  extraordinary;  but  the  application  of  an  accusative  case  to  the  verb, 
however  offensive  to  a  classic  ear,  is  common  to  this  Latin  prayer  in  the  Sarum 
Lilurg>- ;  to  the  Latin  graces  at  our  colleges  in  Oxford,  and  to  all  the  Latin  of  the  middle 
ages.  The  famous  tapestry  of  Baycux  in  France,  coxval  with  the  Conquest,  and  relating  an 
incident  at  it,  says,  "  hie  episcopus  polum  et  cibum  benedieit."  See  it  in  p.  20  of  Appen- 
dix to  Anglo-Norman  Antiquities,  by  Dr.  Duearel,  1767.  Our  forefathers  were,  much 
to  iheir  honour,  careful  lo  say  grace  at  their  meal.;  but  even  their  bishops  said  it  in  false 
Latin. 

§  The  marriage-service  also  in  the  church  of  Rome  to  this  day  is  so  far  the  same  exactlv 
th..l  the  oflic.ating  clergyman  equally  blesses  the  ring  In  a  prayer,  and  that  this  prayer  equally 
has  the  words,  «^  qux  eum  gestavcrif  in  it.     Sec  Rituale  Romanum,  Antverpis,  1669,  p. 

*  Tet 


SECT.  I.]  nrSTORlCALLY   8XTRVEYED.  81 

Yet  let  me  note  one  circumstance  more  concerning  lord  Eliot's  rinu;. 
The  marriage-ring  of  the  Romans  was  iron,  as  late  as  the  days  of  Pliny*. 
But  it  became  gold  afterwards,  even  so  long  before  the  days  of  Tertul- 
lian,  that  he  mistook  the  new  custom  for  the  old  one,  and  thought  the 
ring  had  always  been  made  of  gold  f.  It  was  equally  made  so  among 
the  Saxons,  as  the  .Saxon  appellation  for  our  ring-linger  demonstrates  at 
once,  being  simply  gold-fipigrr.  And  from  the  Saxons  has  descended, 
in  the  mere  course  of  traditionary  practice,  \\  ithout  any  impulse  from 
Avritten  authority,  the  plain  gold  ring  of  our  marriages  at  present  %.  In 
this  view  of  the  varying  metal,  the  real  marriage-rings  a]ipear  to  have 
been  distinguished  from  the  metaphorical,  by  one  grand  dirference  in  the 
composition  of  them  ;  these  being  formed  only  of  silver  gilt,  while  iltose 
were  fabricated  of  gold  §.  What  we  should  ha\e  found  therefore,  if  \\c 
had  ransacked  the  ground  with  a  more  irreverent  curiosity,  would  have 
fceen  one  of  those  rings  of  silver  gilt,  a  metaphorical  ring  of  one  of  the 
bishops.  Such  a  ring  had  been  already  presented  to  the  eye  of  anti- 
quarianism,  without  the  irreverence,  and  by  mere  accident  in  lord  Eliot's. 
Buried  with  the  bishop  to  whom  it  belonged,  and  proving  one  bishop  to 
have  been  buried  tvitlwut  the  church,  it  had  mixed  with  the  earth  when 
his  coffin  \^'as  broken  by  accident,  had  been  thrown  with  the  removes! 
earth  to  the  surface,  and  was  there  picked  up  by  the  hand. 

Such  are  the  luminous  evidences,  that  the  church  of  St.  German's  bears 
in  its  bosom,  of  that  cathedral  dignity  which  it  very  anciently  possessed 

•  Pliny,  xxxiii.  i :  "  Etiam  nunc  sponsae  anulus  ferrcus  mlttitiir." 

t  Teruillian  Apol.  c.  vi. :  "Circa  feniinas  quidem  eliani  illaniajoruminstiUita cecidomnt, 
"  qiiK  cnodesliae,  quae  sobrietati  patrocinabaiitur ;  cum  aurum  nulla  norat,prilcr  unko  digilo 
*' queu)  spofisiis  opYixgncrksset  pronuio  annulo." 

X  Among  the  Romans,  even  the  iron  ring  of  the  bride  was  to  be  plain,  "  isque  sine  gcm- 
"  mi."  \V\\ny,  xxxiii.  i.) 

§  The  ring  at  first,  according  to  that  oracle  of  canon-law,  Swinburne,  was  not  of  gold, 
but  of  iron,  adorned  with  an  adamant.  Swinburne  thus  confounds  the  Romans  with  the 
Saxons,  gives  the  iron  ring  to  the  Saxons  when  it  belongs  to  the  Romans  only,  yd  seems  not 
to  have  known  at  all  of  the  gold  ring  among  the  Romans  and  Saxons,  but  has  fixed  a  diamond 
in  that  iron  ring  of  the  Romans,  which  never  had  a  gem  in  it,  and  which  shews  the  gold 
ring  to  have  equally  had  none, 

VOL.  I.  M  ♦^^'^^ 


H3  the:  cathedral  of  Cornwall  [chap.  it. 

over  -A]  Cornwall  1  Evidences  they  arc,  that,  like  a  catoptric  glass,  at 
once  rtrciv*-.  n^Hcrt.  ou<\  redouble,  the  bright  beams  of  the  sun  of 
liistorv. 


SECTION  II. 


In  the  common  mode,  indeed,  of  estimating  the  age  of  buildings  by  the 
round  or  bv  the  peaked  arch,  t/uU  prevailing  a  century  below  the  Con- 
quest, this  commencing  at  the  end  of  that ;  the  cathedral  dignity  of  our 
church  cannot  /ye  very  ancient,  and  we  must  reduce  the  origin  of  it  con- 
sidcrabiv.  The  two  external  doors  of  the  porch  have  both  of  them 
peaked  arches,  though  tlic  southern  of  them  is  but  slightly  peaked.  The 
door  into  the  church  has  a  rounded  arch  ;  but  in  the  tower  the  small  arch, 
and  the  large  one,  are  hoih  pca/iec/.  The  window  over  the  porch,  now 
blocked  up,  but  apparent  within  the  church,  and  more  apparent  without, 
is  alsopeake^i.  The  first  window  in  the  southern  wall  is  rounded  ;  the 
second  very  sharpl}-  peaked ;  the  tliird  more  peaked ;  the  fourth  very 
slightly  ;  the  fifth  very  sharply,  and  exceedingly  fretted  in  the  stones  of 
the  compartments  by  age  ;  the  sixth,  a  very  large  one,  is  slightly  peaked 
within,  where  the  whole  arch  is  seen,  but  is  now  formed  without  into 
two  windows  of  moor-stone,  while  the  other  windows  are  of  the  same 
with  the  church,  the  stone  of  Tarton  Down;  and  those  consist  each  of 
three  long,  narrow,  parallel  compartments,  with  round  heads  to  them. 
In  the  eastern  wall  are  three  windows,  two  below  and  one  above;  the 
two  being  at  the  sides  of  the  throne,  and  the  other  merely  modern  in  its 
fashion,  a  transome  window  in  a  wooden  frame,  denominated  therefore 
the  Presbyterian  window  by  some,  but  very  recently  altered  back  into  a 
form  of  antiquity  by  lord  Eliot,  from  some  remains  found  in  the  ruins  of 
that  chancel,  which  I  shall  speedily  notice.  Both  the  windows  at  the 
sides  of  the  throne  are  sharply  peaked.  The  chaplain's  stall  is  sharply 
peaked  also,  and  the  hishop's  doorway  \s  peaked  a  little.  All  these  peaks 
in  the  arches  should  tell  us,  according  to  the  received  opinions,  what  the 
tenor  of  the  whole  building  absolutely  denies.  Those  opinions  let  him 
announce,  y,\io  is  the  latest  writer  upon  the  subject,  I  think;  who  has 

"^  been 


/ 


9EGT.  II. J  HISTORICAiLy    SURVEYED,  ^ 

been  raised  into  reputation  by  the  credit  of  having  received  some  notices 
from  Mr.  Gray,  that  were  apparently  of  no  great  moment  in  themselves; 
and  only  the  same  in  consequence  as  v\  hat  were  supplied  by  others*;  who  /^ 
had  not  vigour  of  intellect  enough  to  think  freely  for  himself,  and  is  only 
pacing,  we  may  therefore  be  sure,  in  the  very  harness  or  with  the  \erv 
bells  of  the  common  stagers  on  the  road.  "  It  is  proper  to  observe,"  Mr. 
Bentham  tells  us  in  his  History  of  Ely  Cathedral,  ''  that  the  general  plan 
"  and  disposition  of  all  the  principal  parts,  in  the.  latter  Saxon  and  ear- 
"  Uest  Norman  chwvchQfi,  was  the  same — ;  the  arches  and  heads  of  the 
*'  doors  and  ivindows  were  all  of  them  circular  f ."  In  "  the  works  of 
"  the  Norm anji,'"  he  adds  at  another  place,  the  "  pillars  were  connected 
"  together  by  various  arches,  all  of  them  circular '\.."  And  "  I  think  we 
"  may  venture  to  say,"  he  subjoins  at  a  third,  "  that  the  circular  arch, 
"  round-headed  doors  and  windows, — were  univcrsalh/  used  by  them  to 
"  the  end  o(  ling  Henry  the  Firs f  s  reign  ^ ."  But  these  opinions,  how- 
ever received  commonly,  however  echoed  backwards  and  forwards  by  our 
antiquaries,  are  all  false  in  themselves,  refuted  at  once  by  the  aspect  of 
this  very  church,  and  doubly  refuted  by  a  variety  of  other  buildings  || . 

*  "  My  grateful  acknowledgments,"  says  Mr,  Bentham  himself  in  his  preface,  p.  iil. 
"  are  clue  to  the  Rev.  Mr,  Cole  of  Milton  near  Cambridge,  to  the  Rev,  Mr.  Warren, 
"  prebendary  of  Ely,  and  to  Thomas  Gray,  Esq.  of  Pembroke-hall,  for  their  kind  assistance 
"  in  several  points  of  curious  antiquities,  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hughes,"  &c.  Yet  Mr.  Mason  led 
the  way  to  that  error,  as  in  his  Memoirs  of  Gray,  340,  he  alleges,  on  the  authority  of  this 
acknowledgment,  that  Mr,  Bcntham's  remarks — convey  mamj  sentiments  of  Mr.  "  Gray." 

t  Bentham,  32. 

t  Ilj'd-  33* 

§  Tbid.  34. 

U  From  Mr.  Bcntham's  acknowledgment  concerning  Mr.  Gray  we  find,  that  the  senti- 
ments of  the  latter  upon  the  origin  of  the  peaked  arch  were  in  general  unison  with  those  of 
the  former.  Accordingly  we  hear  Mr.  Gray  himself,  p.  295,'  saying,  "  Ihe  vaults  under 
*'  the  choir"  of  York  Minster  *'  arc  irult/  Saxon,  only  that  the  arches  ix^ pointed,  though  very 
"  obtusely ;"  p.  296,  adding,  "  in  the  beginning  of  Henry  the  Illd's  reign — all  at  once  come 
"  in  the  tall  picked  arches  ;"  and  p.  295,  declaring,  "  in  this  reign  it  was,  that  the  beauty 
"  of  the  Gothic  architecture  began  to  appear:"  Mr.  Gray  however,  though  Mr.  Mason  to- 
tally overlooks  the  circumstance,  varies  much  from  Mr.  Bentham  in  the  reign  assigned ;  Mr. 
Gray  specifying  the  third  Henr)''s  rclgn,  and  Mr.  Bentham  the  /Frj?. 

M  2  ''  About 


S4  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  11, 

•'  About  th<'ycar  of  Christ  132,"  remarks  an  author  very  happily  and 
vcrv  judiciou?lv.  amid  many  assertions  ingenious  but  arbitrary,  and  some 
conclusions  refined  but  erroneous,  "  Antinous,  the  favourite  of  the  em- 
••  pcror  Adrian,  was  drowned  in  the  Nile.     This  prince,  to  perpetuate 
«•  bis  memory,  founded  a  city  in  Kpypt"  at  the  point  of  the  Nile  m  here 
he  Was  drowned,  "  and  called  it  after  his  name."     As  this  incident  is 
the  tbundation  of  the  whole  reasoning,  I  here  establish  it  upon  the  au- 
thority of  Dio.  who  says  Adrian  "  re-erected  in  Egypt  that  city,  which 
"  was  denominated  from  Antinous*;"  and  again,  upon  the  better  testi- 
mony of  a  writer  nearly  cotemporary  with  Adrian,  who  adds  that  Adrian 
"built  the  city  bearing  Ant'mous's  appellation  f."     This  city  is  men- 
tioned by  Ptolemy  as  Ayjivw  HoX/f,  or  Antinopolis,  the  capital  of  a  district 
lying  along  the  eastern  bank;J;;  and  has  transmitted  its  remains  under 
the  title  of  Ensineh  to  the  present  times  §.    "  Pcrc  Bervat  made  draw-' 
"  ings  ofits  ruins,  which  are  in  the  third  tome  of  Montfaucon's  Antiqui- 
"  tics  ;  among  t/icm  is  the  pointed  anJi,"  in  a  fine  old  gateway,  formed 
alter  the  usual  fashion  of  triumphal  arches  among  the  Romans,  as  having 
one  lotty  avenue  through  it  in  the  centre,  and  a  lower  upon  each  side, 
but  terminating  all  three  in  a  peaked  arch  above.     This,  however,  is 
"  not  perfectly  Gothic,  but  that  called  constrasted,''  and  very  sharp  in 
the  peak  II .     See  the  plate  here.     ''Another  constrasted  arch  appears 

"  in 

Dlo,  Ixix.  1 1  59,  Rcimar  :  E»  it  tu  Atyxntu  ««  tw  Atlinu  uionaa-fitn*  «»4ixoJo|iir(r(  ^■o^^y. 

f  Eu'^ebiiis  Eccl.  Hist.  iv.  8,  Rfading,  Uakn  w1wi»  nr«»ii/xo»  A»1i»«a,  from  Hegesippus. 

X  Ptolemy,  iv.  5,  p.  121,  Bertlus. 

§  Pocockc,  i.  73. 

I  Rev.  Mr.  Lcdwich  of  Dublin,  in  Archxologia,  viii.  192.  The  reference  to  Montfaucon 
should  le,  as  Mr.Lcdwich  very  obligingly  informed  me  by  letter  in  answering  my  inquir)',  to 
the  third  tome  of  the  Supplement,  p.  55,  page  156,  Paris,  1724;  there  we  have  thif  descrip- 
tion 1.1  Latin  :  •'  Porta  ilia  quae  ad  meridiem  respicit,  quceque  in  tahuU  secjuend  reprcesenta- 
"  <f/r,"and  th^ce  copied  in  the  plate  here,  "est  quasi  triumphalisarcus,  in  quo  tres  ampl« 
"  sunt  porta  fornlcibus  instructs.  Media  aulcm  porta  latitudine  viginti  duos  re<Tios  pedes 
"  habct,  altiludine  quadraginta.  Duabus  porro  ligneis  foribus  ferro  opertis  claudebatur,  quae 
"  mfcriori  aevo  Cairum  translata:  sunt,  ut  fornicem  qucmdam  obstruerent,  dictum  Bab  Ez- 
"  «'^-^"-^.  props  xdes  m..gni  pr=epositi.     Ambs  vero  port^  a  lateribus  ahuudinem  habent 

v.gmi,  quatuor  e.rc.ter  pedum,  latitudinem  decem  vel  duodecim  pedum  ;  supra  illns  autem 

mrnore,  januas,  vis.lur  ecu  fenestra  qusdam  quadrata,  qux  latitudine  portas  inferius  posi- 


('«/  ;  /%«■#«. 


ATKOMAK  UATK>\'AYat  A>-Tl*Oa'Ol.JS  u.ElitTT  . 


fkMil-J  M^- , '  /  -4  <r  ISI^<-UJ.  ft^JOfr. 


<.-' 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  85 

**  in  the  Syrlac  M.  S."  of  the  Evangelists  at  Florence,  written  A.D.  580, 
and  full  of  pictures  exhibited  in  twenty-six  leaves*.  And  "in  a  very  cu- 
"  rious  manuscript  which  I  was  once  favoured  with  a  sight  of,"  says 
another  w  riter  who  happily  harmonizes  with  both  these  evidences  be- 
fore, a  manuscript  "  containing  an  account  of  the  late  earl  of  Strath- 
"  more's  travels  through  Spain,  mention  is  made  of  a  singularity  ;  for  in 
"  the  aqueduct  near  Segovia,  which  was  undoubtedly  built  in  tlie  time  of 
"  Trajan,"  an  emperor,  the  immediate  Successor  of  Adrian,  "  there  are 
*'  some  pointed  arches -^y 

"  In  Horsley,"  adds  Mr.  Ledwich,  "are  Roman  sepulchral  stones  y>\th 
*'  pointed  arches."  In  this  vague  mode  of  reference,  which  is  becoming 
so  indolently  fashionable,  yet  is  so  thoroughly  incompatible  with  the 
purpose  of  proving  in  contradiction  to  popular  opinions,  Mr.  Ix'dwich 
appeals  to  no  stone  in  particular.  But  there  are  no  less  than  eleven  in 
Horsley,  No.  33  of  Scotland,  No.  QO  of  Northumberland,  and  No.  39, 
71,  75,  of  Cumberland,  No.  7  of  Yorkshire,  No.  1  of  Lincolnshire, 
No.  11,  3ig,  of  Somersetshire,  and  No.  1  of  Middlesex;  all  sepulchral. 
There  is  also  a  monument  with  a  pointed  arch.  No.  1  of  Scotland,  in- 


"  tas  noncxaequat.  Totius  porro  aedificii  latitude  est  sexaginta  sex  circiter  pedum,  profundi- 
"  tas  autcm  quindecim  aut  viginti,  altitudo  quadraginta  quinque.  Duae  facies  octo  parasira- 
"  tis  Corinlhiis  exornantur,  a  medio  ad  basim  usque  striatis.  Capitclloruni  anguli  usque 
"  adeo  erumpunt  et  extenduntur,  ut  hinc  occasione  sumpta  Arabes  seu  Mauri  illani  portam 
*' vocaverint  j4io«  el  Qutroun,  sive  Portam  Cornuuni.  E  regione  illarum  octo  parabtarum, 
"  quinque  sexve  passibus  intcrcedentibus,  octo  columnae  erant  Corinihiz  ex  caiidido  lapide 
"  erectae,  ^MC/wor  pedibus  columna  sola  alia  erat.      Uitaqusque  coiunina  c\ 

**  quinque  lapidibus  erat,  striataque  ab  ima  parte  adusque  medium.  A  tcmporum  injuria 
"  illaesae  mauscrunt  dux  columns,  stylobatis  suis  insisicntes  ;  quae  urbem  respiciuut.  Duae 
"  alise  plusquam  media  sui  parte  sunt  dirutiE.  Earum  vero  quae  agros  rcspiciunt,  quseque 
•'  notantur,  ne  rudcra  quidem  comparcut."  I  bavc  left  a  blank  above  for  a  word  evuU-uily 
deficient.  The  French  has  the  same  deficiency,  "  huit  colonnes  Corinihiennes  de  pierre 
"  blanche  avoient  ete  elevees  de  ijuatre  pieds  de  fust."  But  a  note  adds  thus,  '*  II  y  a  unc 
*'  faulc  d'impression  dans  I'origiual." 

•  See  Mr.  Led^vich  in  Arch.  170,  for  thedateof  this  MS.  There  he  has  also  delineated  to 
US  four  of  the  arches  in  that  MS.,  but  has  omitted  the  cunsir.istcd  arch. 

i  Arch,  iv.  410. 

scribed 


g,j  THE    CATltEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciUP.  II.. 

i 

scnbea  to  Titus  JEViua  Hadnanus  ;  having  on  it  "  a  pediment  supported 
"  by  two  Curint/iian  pilasters  channelled,"  seeming  therefore  to  coin- 
cide strikingly  in  form  and  in  time,  with  what  INIonttaucon's  author, 
notices.  "  tlie  Corinthian  pilasters  striated"  in  the  ruins  of  Adrian's  An- 
tinopohs  •.  But  the  inscription  at  full  length  is  to  Titus  ^liiis  Iladrianus 
Jntonhins  Pius,  and  is  commemorative  of  the  wall  erected  in  his  reign 
between  the  fritlis  of  Forth  and  C'lvdc  f .  We  have  likewise  the  goddess 
Minerva  sculptured  upon  a  rock  near  Chester,  with  a  canopy  of  a  pointed 
arch  owr  her  head  l-  Yet  on  tliese  instances,  however  numerous,  we 
can  hardiv  ground  any  reasonings  concerning  the  use  of  the  pointed  arch 
in  buildings  here.  But  we  have  one  stone  in  Horsley,  which  exhibits  the 
pointed  arch  in  so  regular  a  form  of  an  arch,  and  with  accompaniments  so 
purely  Gothic  in  their  very  aspect,  as  arrested  my  eye  more  than  thirty 
\cars  ago,  as  must  arrest  every  eye  that  views  it,  and  loudly  tells  what  so 
nuinv  vcars  ago  I  resolved  some  time  or  other  to  proclaim  from  it,  the  use 
of  the  pointed  arch  in  the  Roman  buildings  of  Britain.  It  is  his  No.  14 
ofScotlatid.  "  This  is,"  says  Horsley,  a  "sepulchral  monument,  but  im- 
"  perfect.  It  still  remains  at  Skirvay,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  west  from 
"  Kilsyth, — dug  up  at  a  place  a  little  cast  from  this  house,  I  suppose  at 
"  Barhill  Fort,  or  near  it,"  upon  Antoninus's  wall.  "  The  name  of  the 
••  person  for  whom  it  was  erected,  was  Verecundus,  who  probably  died 
"yotmg;  and  therefore  the  stone  is  adorned  with  a  garland — .  T/ie 
"  shape  of  the  stone  at  fop  is  somewhat  peculiar — §."  So  Uttle  did  the. 
sight  of  the  original,  so  little  did  the  very  delineation  of  it,  carry  to  the 
mind  of  tliis  excellent  antiquary,  what  it  so  obviously  carries  to  every  re- 
flecting mind,  the  impression  of  an  arch  truly  Gothic  upon  a  monument 
certainly  Roman  ;  that  he  only  noticed  something  peculiar,  in  the  shape  of 

•  Horsley,  194  ;  and  Mountfaucon's  Supplement,  iii.  156  :  "  Parastratis  Corinthiis  exor- 
"  nantur,  a  medio  ad  ba&im  usque  striaiis." 

t  The  inscription  is  this  :  "  Imperatori  Caesari  Tito  MWo  Hadriano  Antonino  Augusto 
"  Pio,  patn  palriar,  vexillalio  legionis  vicesimae  Valentis  victricis  fecit  per  passus  quater 
«'  millc  quadringemos  uiidctim."  The  stone  "  belongs  to  the  first  fort  that  has  been  at  the 
'•  west  end  of  the  wall,  near  Old  Kirkpatrick."  (Horsley,  194.) 

X  Horsley,  No.  4,  Cheshire,  and  p.  316. 

§  Horsley,  199,  and  198. 

the 


SECT.  11.]  HISTORICALLY  SURVEYED.  67 

the  stone  at  top  !  The  strongest  light  of  evidence  shines  in  vain  upon  any 
mind,  that  is  not  in  the  general  habit  of  opening  its  ejes  to  evidence,  and 
is  not  also  disposed  hy  some  previous  considerations,  to  receive  the  parti- 
cular evidence  at  the  moment. 

The  arch  here  is  equally  regular  and  sharp,  consisting  of  three  ribs 
united,  all  curving  into  one  peak  above,  and  all  sweeping  downwards  from 
it  in  one  pillar  upon  each  side.  The  whole,  indeed,  is  drawn  upon  a 
small  scale,  because  the  confined  space  of  a  gravestone  made  this  neces- 
sary :  yet  the  whole  is  exhibited  in  so  full  a  proportion,  and  has  been  pre- 
served in  such  a  state  of  integrity,  that  we  see  it  in  all  its  principal  parts 
completely.  Only  the  legs  of  the  pillars  have  been  abridged  a  little  of  their 
length,  by  a  piece  of  the  stone  having  been  broken  otFat  the  bottom,  and 
carrying  away  the  rest  of  the  inscription  with  it.  The  interval  between 
the  legs  is  filled  up  with  D.  M.  for  Dis Manibus  in  one  hne ;  v\ith  the 
personal  name  of  VEREC,  in  a  second  ;  and  with  the  continuation  of  it 
CVNDAE,  in  a  third  *.  The  person  therefore  is  not  a  man,  but  a  woman. 
The  reference  to  the  Di  Manes,  however,  seems  to  mark  Verecunda  as  a 
Heathen  ;  yet  there  are  signatures  upon  the  stone  that  point  her  out  for  a 
Christian.  There  is  a  garland  engraved  upon  it,  as  there  equally  is  upon 
another  gravestone  found  at  the  same  place  f .  Nor  is  there  one  grave- 
stone more  among  all  the  monuments  in  Horsley,  charged  with  a  garland. 
Christianity,  indeed,  has  alone  found  out  the  happy  art,  of  taking  away 
the  natural  mournfulness  of  death  in  general,  of  turning  it  into  a  ground 
of  triumph,  and  of  crowning  the  gravestones  of  its  professors  with  the 
garlands  of  victory.  Accordingly  we  find  upon  the  accompanying  stone, 
even  in  Horsley's  description  of  it,  "  a  garland,  two  branches,  probably  of 
"  cypress,  and  tivo  gluhes  (jaartered'l,'"  or,  as  the  eye  tells  us  at  once, 
tivo  croftses,  one  upon  each  side  of  the  upper  part  of  the  garland,  and  the 
cypress  branches  on  each  side  of  the  /uirer,  signitiicant  emblems  ot  the  tn- 

•  Couch's  Brilannia,  ill.  plate  XXV.  p.  359-  . 

t  Horsley,  No.  .3  of  Scotland;  and  Gough,  phlc  xxiv.  p.  358.  The  inscripUou  upon  ih.s 
tt,  "  D.  M.  Sahnan."  in  Horsley  ;  but  in  Gough,  «'  D.  M.  Saluiiiies." 
I  Horsley,  199,  No.  it  of  Scotland. 

umph 


gg  THF.    CATIIEDnvL    OF    COUNWALL  [ciIAP.   IJ. 

„n,l>h  of  Christianity  over  nature  V  Just  so  we  find  on  this  gravestone,  a 
{jarland  directlv  under  the  peak  of  the  arch,  and  a  cross  a  little  higher  upon 
Tach  side  n{  it."  The  cross  prcccdhig  is  formed  only  of  two  lines,  cutting 
rach  other  ohiiquely,  vet  equidistantly  ;  but  the  cross  on  this  is  a  more 
formal  one,  composed' of  two  lines  cutting  each  other  at  right  angles,  and 
of  a  third  cutting  both  ol^fKiucly  at  their  point  of  contact  f-  The  person 
thus  buried  appears  to  have  been  equally  a  woman,  with  the  person  under 
the  preceding  gravestone;  Vekecunda  and  Salmane  forming  the  two 
first  Christians,  that  «e  know  by  name  to  have  existed  in  Roman  Britain; 
both  \\  omen,  both  buried  at  the  same  place,  and  both  bearing  crosses  on 
their  gravestones  ;  the  female  sex,  let  me  say  from  the  full  conviction  of 
my  mind,  having  in  all  ages  shewn  more  of  religiousness  than  our  own, 
more  of  the  soft  sensibilities  of  feeling,  and  therefore  more  of  propensity 
(oadevontnessof  soul,  to  an  aM-ful  consideration  of  the  world  of  spirits, 
or  to  a  solemn  reverence  for  the  Father  of  spirits  %. 

•  Such  a  cross  is  on  monuments  confessedly  Christian,  in  Leland's  Itin.  ii.  125. 

+  Mr.  Gouch  havinc  given  ns  draughts  of  these  two  monuments,  a  little  different  from 
IIoriilcy"s  in  ihe  crosses,  I  have  formed  my  description  from  both.  But  see  another  cross, 
described  m  iii.  3,  hereafter. 

X  Uland  De  Script.  Brit,  17,  18;  Usher,  5;  Slillingflcel  in  OriginesBritannicas,  43>44; 
and  Carle,  i.  134,  believe  the  Claudia  of  2  Tim.  iv.  21,  to  be  the  Claudia  Rufina  of  Martial, 
iv.  33,  xi.  54 ;  and  Carte  supposes  the  latter,  who  was  certainly  a  Briton,  to  be  the  daughter 
of  kins  Cocidunus  (simamed  Claudius  upon  a  monument)  in  Britain.  These  also  believe 
Pomponia  Graecina,  that  wife  of  A.  Plautius,  propraetor  of  Britain,  who  is  so  strikingly  to 
the  eve  of  a  Christian  delineated,  as  "  insignis  fcmina, — superstitionis  externa  rea,"  to 
whom  *•  longa — xtas  et  conlinua  tristitia  fuit"  (Tacitus  Ann.  xiii.  34),  to  have  been  a 
Christian.  This  is  assuredly  true,  but  thai  certainly  false.  The  very  praises  of  Rufina  by 
Martial  prove  her  to  be  no  Christian  :  and  Grxcina  is  a  woman,  as  far  as  we  can  judge, 
purelv  Roman,  a  native  of  Rome,  even  a  resident  of  Rome  only.  But  let  me  remark  in  a 
strain  of  Christian  triumph,  upon  the  character  of  Graecina  as  a  Christian,  how  little  Tacitus 
thought  when  he  drew  the  character,  that  he  was  delineating  one  who  had  dignity  of  mind 
to  embrace  a  religion  in  the  first  moments  of  its  appearance,  and  had  fortitude  of  spirit  to 
profess  a  religion  under  every  discouragement  from  the  world,  which,  however  it  miirht  ap- 
pear to  some  grovelling  souls,  the  mere  politicians  of  earth,  and  the  limitary  intelligences  of 
this  potty  orb,  did  yet  open  the  vast  scenes  of  eternity  to  our  views,  present  the  interminable 
happiness  of  them  to  our  hopes,  and  provide  even  miraculous  assistance  in  grace  for  our  ac- 
quirement of  their  happiness ;  thus  uniting  heaven  and  earth  in  one  chain  of  blissful  reli- 
giousness, and  calling  down  the  lustre  of  that  by  anticipation  to  gild  the  gloom  of  this. 

The 


SECT.  11.]  HISTOniCALLT    SURVEYED.  SQ 

The  Roman  Verecunda,  indeed,  appears  from  all  to  have  been  buried 
at  a  church  within,  and  under  an  arch  of  it,  that  had  just  such  a  pointed 
curve  as  this.  Those  stood,  in  all  probability,  at  Kilsyth  itself,  as  the 
stone  is  now  at  Skirway,  about  a  mile  and  a  hix\f  wesf  from  Kils\  th  ;  as 
it  is  kno\vn  to  have  been  found  at  a  place  a  little  cdsf  from  Skirw  av;  and 
as  the  British  name  of  K'dsijth,  so  analogous  to  the  names  of  Irish  cathe- 
drals, or  Highland  churches  at  present ;  Kil-kennj,  Kil-laloe,  or  Kil- 
fenora,  Kill-chollim  kill,  Kil-cho\^n,  Kill-chiaran,  or  Kill-han  Alen,  in 
the  single  isle  of  Jura,  proves  a  cell  of  peace  to  have  been  erected  there 
for  a  church  in  the  time  of  the  Britons*.  It  was  erected  there  in  that 
mixed  intenal  of  time,  when  Christianity  began  to  impress  her  victo- 
rious banner  the  cross  upon  her  gravestones,  even  to  erect  churches 
for  the  public  devotions  of  her  disciples;  when  burials  began  to  be 
made  within  her  very  churches-f-;  and  when  the  heathen  style  of  frmc- 
ral  inscriptions,  in  its  best  meaning  (as  here)  of  reference  to  the  ghost  of 
the  deceased |,  was  yet  retained  upon  her  graves.  Such  an  interval  it 
is  religiously  pleasing  to  observ^e,  in  the  private  history  of  Rome,  but  at 
a  period  a  little  later  than  our  own.  Then,  as  Zosimus  the  heathen 
tells  us  about  the  year  304,  "  when  Theodosius  the  elder — came  to 
"  Rome,  and  infused  into  all  ranks  a  contempt  for  the  sacred  worship 
"  of  heathenism,  refusing  to  supply  the  sums  for  the  sacrifices  out  of 
"  the  treasury;  the  priests  and  priestesses  were  driven  away,  and  the 
"  temples  were  deprived  of  all  service.  Then,  therefore,  in  a  ridicule  of 
"  them,  Serena,"  the  daughter  of  Theodosius,  and  the  consort  of  Sti- 
hcho,  "  desired  to  look  into"  a  temple  situated  upon  mount  Palatine, 
"  the  temple  of  the  mother  of  the  gods,"  Cybele  alias  Rhea  ;  "  and  be- 
"  holding  upon  the  statue  of  Rhea  encircling  the  neck  of  it,  an  ornament 
"  worthy  of  the  divine  worship  paid  her,  she  took  it  off  from  the  statue, 

*  CHI  (I.)  is  a  cell  or  a  church,  aad  Sith  (1.)  is  peace.  See  Martin,  243;  and  I-cdm- 
Itill  is  merely  ihc  isle  of  Columbus's  church,  p.  256. 

t  Brcval's  First  Travels,  ii.  324:  "  The  following  Christian  monument  of  great  anti- 
"  quity,'  is  "  in  one  of  the  archos  of  the  great  chun/i"  at  Bria  in  Portugal,  "  yl.  //'. 
"  Severus  Presbit.  fumvlus  CItiisl'i,  v'lx'il  aim.  L^'.,  requitvit  in  pacn  Domini  xi.  KuL 
"  Novcmh.  era  Dcxxn." 

J  Horslcy,  199. 

VOL.  I.  N  "  and 


^0  THE   CATHFOnAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  11. 

"  anil  put  it  rouiul  her  own  neck.  Anil  when  one  of  the  vestal  virgins," 
7iot  (a-iwe  suppose  at  first)  one  from  the  temple  of  Vesta  in  the  ad- 
joining; l>arts  of  the  Forum,  bttf  an  actual  priestess  of  Cybcle,  occa- 
ftioiiailv  considered  hy  the  Romans  as  a  vestal  too,  "  one  that  had  been 
"  left"  out  of  the  priestesses  o*'  this  very  temple,  "  and  who  was  now 
"  prown  oKi,"  the  last  vexhd  that  is  itientioued  in  the  history  of  Rome, 
"  rej>roaehed  her  to  her  tace  for  the  impiety;  Serena  treated  her  with 
"  injin-iou.s  lanpnage,  and  ordered  her  attendants  to  turn  her  out  .of  the 
••  temple.  'J'be  woman,  as  she  was  going  down  the  steps,  impreeated 
*'  oerv  evil  that  such  imj>iety  deserved,  to  full  on  Serena,  her  husband, 
"  and  her  children.  But  Serena,  taking  no  account  of  her  imprecations, 
"  retired  out  of  the  temple  afterwards,  decorated  with  the  ornament§." 
In  such  just  contempt  was  the  mighty  mother  held  by  the  rising 
spirit  of  Christianity,  as  to  have  her  temple  deserted  by  all  her  wor- 
shippers, to  retain  only  one  old  priestess  in  attendance  upon  a  service 
no  longer  perfornied,  and  to  have  her  very  image,  solitary  as  it  stood  in 
the  locked'up  fane,  even  stripped  of  its  necklace  by  a  visiting  princess 
for  an  ornament  to  her  own  neck;  or,  as  Jerome,  a  Christian,  more 
comprehensively,  and  therefore  more  significantly,  says  about  the  same 
jKTiod,  "  the  gilded  (?apitol  is  now  squalid;  all  the  temples  <  f  Rome  are 
•'  covered  with  smoke,"  from  the  sacrifices,  "  and  with  cobwebs,"  from 
the  neglect;  "  the  whole  city  is  moved  from  its  foundations;  and  the 
"  crowds,  that  used  to  flow  in  tides  to  the  altars,  half-overset  at  prt'sent, 

§    ZosiniUS.  V.  351,   Oxon,  I679  :     Ols  ©ioisa-io;  0  a-f-j-'i/V,,—  m.  PiT^ni  x«lfX»?£,  kxI  rt,(  iifu:  «yij-iix; 

jMilfX.urawi'io  ii  warr,;  ffyfym;  r»  ti|u!vii.  Toli  T6i»tr  iirfyAXfir*  Taloif,  n  S-ifn/a  to  Mi1,iw  iJsi»  £?a>,r,9«.  $i«. 
oa^fiii  ti  ry  ni;  Pix,-  «-/»>.fia!j,  «i;i(ii^iKif  m  Ta  T;«;^;f,X«,  Kcsr/xo»  Tr;;  9ii«;  ixrwii;  «fio»  Kyiriia;  wepifXswa 
r*  •yaJ.^ale;,  Tw   I»i1nv    tTl9«!  Tf«;(i|Xa'    »«HTiiJ.)  Wf'Toi/li,"  £x  T«»  EpaxM  wt,'^!^!'/^,«i>1  nafSsvay,    fc»!iJij-[v 

0  Tt  Tfcwn;  »{w.  Tn,-  ciri^Ka;,   iXSsi,  aulj  Sufnra,   km  aiJfl,   it«i  TiKvo,-:,   r.,-S5r«1o.  cTrii  «£    a^i.of  Tiliv  rooir.o-Kiisj^ 

x»yw,  otix»f«  T*v  TifiiKf,  iy««>A«ri{o^i„  T^  xaru*-.  In  Moiufaucon's  AlTt.  Expl.  I.  II.  6.  ue 
l.ave  iJif  lion*  of  Cybdc  wilh  the  figure  of  Vcefa  upon  a  lamp,  and  a  siaiuc-  of  Vesia  wiih 
the  towcM  of  Cylielf  on  her  head,  Cybelc  atuj  \'csta  weic  tonsidcrcd  aiually  as  ihe  carih, 
and  had,  iliuelorc,  an  intcf-communioiiorHUribiile«,  as  wdl  as  appellations.  So  confounded 
w«i  Ihe  very  theology  of  heathenism,  in  its  very  ideas  of  its  gods  !  From  this  temple  on 
mount  Palatine,  Cybcle  \i  called  "  Palatina"  in  an  ancient  inscription;  a  circumstance  thai 
ha«  escnpcd  .Monlfauc<m  in  i.  i,  4.     See  also  v.  pt.  2d,  ii.  4, 

*'  run 


SECT.   11.]  HISTOmCALLT    SURVEYED.  91 

"  run  to  the  [churches  containing  the]  tombs  of  the  martyrs*."  In 
this  period  of  struggle  between  Christianity  and  heathenism,  between  the 
good  sense  of  Heaven  and  the  nonsense  of  earth;  when  the  eagle  of 
Heaven,  as  in  one  of  Virgil's  similes,  had  seized  the  serpent  of  earth, 
had  infolded  it  with  his  t'cct,  and  j)ierced  it  with  his  talons,  had  seen  it 
writhing  in  its  wounds,  and  heard  it  hissing  with  its  mouth,  to  fix  its 
deadly  fangs  upon  him,  but  had  pressed  it  the  more  severely  with  his  beak 
to  subdue  it  completely,  and  at  last  was  beating  the  air  in  triumph 
with  his  pinionsf ;  the  adoption  of  D.  M.  upon  monuments  plainly 
Christian,  appears  very  manifest;}:. 

*  Hieron.  Epist.  ad  Lxtam,  Opera  Omnia,  edit.  Francof.  i.  35  :  "'Auratum  squalet 
"  Capitolium,  fiiligine  el  araucaruni  tdis  omnia  Romae  templa  co-opcrta  sunt,  movelur  urbs; 
'*  sedibus  suis,  et  inundans  populus  ante  dclubra  seniiruta  currit  ad  niartyruni  tumiilos." 

t  iEneid  xi,  751,  judiciously  varied  from  Iliad  xii.  aoo. 

Utque  volans  alte,  raptum  cum  fulva  draconem 
Fert  aqnila,  implicuitque  pedes,  atque  unguibus  lixsit  j 
Saucius  at  serpens  sinuosa  volumina  versat, 
Arrectisque  borret  squamis,  et  sibilat  ore, 
Arduus  insurgens ;  ilia  baud  minus  urget  aJunco 
Luclanlera  rostro,  sinml  sdiera  verberat  alls. 
Haud  abler  praedam  Tiburtum  ex  agmine  Tarclion 
Portat  ovans. 

^  Mabillon,  in  Tier  Italicum,  73,  136,  notices  two  funeral  inscriptions  from  Fahretti,  "  una 
"  cujusdam  niartyris  cpitapliiuin — lapidi  niarmorco  inscriplum,  habens  ex  altera  parte  Irag- 
"  nientum  sodalitii  Paganorum  sub  dco  Silvano,"  saying  there  are  many  such  in  Home; 
"  altera  inscriplio — solcmnem  Paganorum  diis  manibus  dicalioncm,  cts'i  hominis  sit  Cliris^ 
"  t'umi,  cxbibct."  The  Pagan  aud  Christian  parts  arc  these,  "  D.  Ma.  Sacrum,"  and  "  lu 
"  paccm  cum  Spirita  [Spiritu]  Sancta  [Sancto]  acccptuni."  He  also  mcirtions  another,  as 
»*  apud  Smetium,"  with  "  D.  M."  and  "  Bonne  Memoriae"  upon  one  side,  and  Alpha, 
Omega,  on  the  other.  But  such  Infcriptions  prove  nothing  for  our  present  point.  Fleet- 
wood, however,  in  his  "  Inscriptionum  Syllogc,  London,  1691,"  p.  345,  gives  us  one  that  is 
jjlaiuly  Pagan  and  plainly  Christian  at  once  :  "  D.  M.  Aurelio  Balbo  vita  integcrrimo  mo- 
"  ribusque  ornato,  qui  sc,  qiiietioris  perfectioiisque  vitfc  desiderio,  e.x  negoliis  civilibus  iiT 
"  quibus  fuerat  cum  laude  versatus,  Jovis  Op.  Ma.  bencficio..  ducto,  hie  in  spc  rcsiirreclioiiii 
"  quiesccnti,  locus  publice  datus  est."  In  p.  450,  he  mentions  another,  "  D.  M.  S.  Kilio 
"  duleissimo  Niceroti  parcntes  fccr runt  in  Deo."  In  p.  502,  he  cites  a  third,  "  D.  M.  .  . 
**  Jaiuiarius  Exorcista  sibi  et  conjugi  fecit." 

K  2  '■  ^"<- 


pj  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNVTALL  [tH.VP.  It. 

••  ()«tf  example,"  subjoins  Mr.  Lcchvichveiy  justly,  concerning  peaked 
archw, '•  and  dicre  luust  have  been  many  now  fallen  a  prey  to  the 
"  i-a^-ages  ottimc,  u-onld  have  been  sujieient  to  have  proved  their  exist- 
'f^  eticf  ami  use*.'  But,  in  order  to  preclude  the  necessity  for  such  an 
appeal,  however  just,  to  these  instances  let  nie  add  another:  in  that 
churdi  ot  the  Holv  Sepulchre,  which  (he  empress  Helena  built  with  so 
nuich  Qiagnificence  at  Jerusalem,  which  every  Christian  of  sensibility 
contemplates  there  with  so  deep  a  reverence  of  soul  at  present,  and  in  the 
very  cliapel  over  that  "  holy  cave,  which  she  decorated  first  of  all,  as, 
"  in  sonic  measure,  the  head  of  allf  ;"  amid  the  round  arches  that  ap- 
pear on  every  side  of  the  church,  that  particularly  support  the  dome 
over  tlic  sepulchre  and  its  chapel,  we  see  tlie  doorway  into  the  chapel  a 
tall  arch  peaked,  and  sharpli/  peaked  Xoo%.  'J'he  peaked  arch,  therefore, 
api»ean  demonstrably  to  have  been  introduced  among  the  Romans,  how- 
ever it  has  been  denominated  Gothic.  It  was  used  by  an  empress  at 
Jerusalem,  in  her  glorious  zeal  for  the  new  religion  of  Christianity, 
thoiigh  at  the  declension  of  Roman  architecture.  It  was  also  used  by 
an  emperor  in  Spain  two  ages  before,  in  all  the  splendour  of  that  archi- 
tecture. It  was  again  used  by  a  prior  emperor  in  Eg}^'pt,  but  still  under 
all  the  splendour  of  that  arcliitecture,  and  with  all  his  idolatrous  extrava- 
gance of  respect  for  a  deceased  favourite;  and  it  was  finally  used  so  much 
in  our  Uoman-British  churches,  even  within  the  distant  region  of  the 
farther  wall,  but  about  the  very  period  of  the  empress's  use  of  it  at 
Jei-usalem;  when,  as  Gildas  tells  us  expressly  of  the  British  Christians, 
"  they  renew  their  churches  that  had  been  thrown  to  the  \ery  ground; 
"  Xhcy  found,  raise,  and  finish  grand  churches  in  honom'  of  the  holy 
"  martyrs,  and  every  where  display  (as  it  were)  their  victorious  ensigns§," 

•  Arch,  viii,  193, 

■t  Eusibius  ill  Vita  Constant,  iii,  33,     Reading,  i.  597:     Ta  tkvTp;  ».<rTff  w«  h??«x«»,  ir^-Jlo, 

I  Pocockc,  ii.  part  ist,  p.  16,  plate  iv.  No.  D. 

f  Giltlas,  c,  viii.  "- Rcnovaru  ccclcsias  nd  solum  usque  dcstructas;  basilicas  sanctorum 
"  niartymm  fuudant,  construimt,  perficiunt;  ac  vclul  victricia  sigiia  passim  propulant." 
For  my  interpretation  of  basiUcc^,  ace  Eddius,  c.  xvi.  in  Gale,  i.  59;  where  wc  have  the  old 
^athtdral  of  York,  that  was  built  by  Paulinus  at  the  conversion  of  Edwin,  called  "  basi- 
"  lira,-'  or  "  basilica  oritorii  Dei;"  and  where  we  have  also  the  old  church  at  Rippon 
f<iuilly  dcnonjinaltd  a  "  basilica." 

as 


SECT,  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  Q3 

as  to  be  delineated  upon  a  Roman  gravestone  there",  exactly  like  one 
of  our  cathedral  arches  at  present. 

But  let  us  p\ish  tlie  point  of  our  argument  still  farther  in  Britain.  We 
have  a  church  remaining  to  this  day  at  Canterbury,  which  we  know  to 
have  been  built  by  the  Romans,  and  see  to  have  pointed  arches.  "  There 
"  was,"  says  Bede  concerning  the  arri>al  of  Augustin  at  Canter- 
bury in  597,  "  near  the  very  city,  upon  the  eastern  side  of  it,  a  church 
"  built  in  those  former  times,  in  which  fJw  Romans  yet  inhabited 
"  Britain,  and  then  dedicated  to  the  honour  of  St.  Martin ;  in  which 
♦'  that  queen"  of  Ethclbert,  king  of  Kent,  "  whom  we  have  previously 
"  noticed  to  have  been  a  Christian,  used  to  ofler  up  her  devotions," 
together  with  her  Christian  attendants,  under  the  ministry  of  the 
bishop,  her  chaplain  *.  "  In  this,  therefore,  they  themselves,"  Au- 
gustin and  his  colleagues,  "  began  at  first  to  assemble,  to  sing,  to 
'*  pray,  to  consecrate  the  eucharist,  to  preach,  and  to  baptizcf."  This 
church  is  (as  it  were)  miraculously  presened,  like  our  o\\n  at  St. 
German's,  to  the  present  moment.  In  the  middle  of  it  is  a  font  very 
large,  carrying  a  venerable  face  of  antiquity  in  its  form,  and,  from  the 
whispers  of  a  tradition  that  hardly  presumes  to  use  a  bolder  tone, 
supposed  to  have  been  the  very  font  in  which  they  thus  baptized  some 
of  the  king's  subjects,  yea  even  finally  baptized  the  king  himself |. 
The  church  also  is  half-buried  in  the  soil  thrown  up  by  the  hand  of 
time  against  it;  the  two  doorways  on  the  south,  one  into  the  chan- 
cel, the  other  into  the  body  of  the  church,  having  the  ground  be- 
fore them  raised  more  than  half  way  up  to  the  crowns  of  their  arches. 
Its  walls,  too,  exhibit  those  sure  signatures  of  Roman    architecture, 

*  Bede,  i.  25  :  "  Quain  ca  conditionc  a  parentibus  acccperat,  ut  ritum  tidci  ac  rcligionis 
"  suae  cum  episcopo  qucm  ei  adjutorcm  fidci  dcdcrant,  nomine  Liiidhordo,  iiiviolalum  scr- 
"  vare  liccntiaii)  Iiaberet," 

+  Bede,  i.  26;  "  Erat  autcm  pi'ope  ipsam  civitatem,  ad  oricntem,  ecclcsia  in  hoii(>rcm 
"  Sancli  Martini  anticjuiius  tatta,  duni  adluic  Roniani  Ikitanniam  incolcrcnt  j  in  qua  rcgina, 
"  quam  Chrislianam  fuiBse  praediximiis,  orare  consueverat :  in  liic  ergo  et  ipsi  primo  con- 
"  venire,  psallcre,  orare,  niissfts  facere,  prcedicarc,  tt  baplizare  co-pcrnnt,  donee,"  &c. 

X  Hede,  i.  26  :  "  J)oncc,  rcgc  ad  fidem  convcrso,  raajorcni,"  &c.  "  ipscctiam  inter  alios 
**  crcdvns  bapiizuiiis  est." 

1  Roman 


{,  ,  THE    C.VTIIEDnAl.    OF    COnXWALL  [cUXV.  U. 

Roman  britks  used  in  tluir  composition  ;  not  used  only  here  and  there  in 
the  rompo^^ition,  as  the  rehes  of  some  former  building,  but  used  regu- 
larU  in  courses  throughout  the  v  hole,  except  only  where  the  hand  of 
repanition  has  been  iMJsy  in  two  places,  and  not  merely  in  the  chancel, 
but  in  the  bodv;  used  too  in  ))oth  with  sut;h  an  uniform  poverty  of  style, 
as  proves  both  to  have  been  of  one  age  and  one  hand,  a  mere  country- 
chapel  of  the  ehi-istianized  l^omans.  Vet,  in  this  very  chapel,  wo 
have  the  two  doorways  rounii/i/  arched,  and  f/ic  irindon'S  all  arched  in 
peaks:  one  in  a  repaired  [)art  near  the  western  end,  small,  narrow,  and 
modern-  another  about  the  middle,  taller,  wider,  and  ancient,  a  third  at 
the  west  end  of  tJic  chancel,  tall,  narrow,  and  modern,  but  having  close 
to  it  on  the  east  the  plain  traces  of  another,  now  closed  up  and  short- 
ened in  repairing  this  part  of  the  church,  with  a  fifth  near  the  eastern 
end,  large,  wide,  and  ancient ;  yet  all  of  them  peaked,  the  ancient  less 
sliarply  than  the  moJern,  but  s\\\\  peaked  ^.  Here,  then,  we  have  a 
btiilding  under  our  own  hands,  as  it  were,  proved  historically  by  our  do- 
mestic records  to  be  a  work  of  the  Roniiuis,  yet  exhibiting  to  the  very 
eyes  of  the  present  generation,  at  the  very  metropolis  ecclesiastical  of  all 
the  kingdom,  the  peaked  arch  in  its  windows  with  the  round  arch  in  its  * 
doorways.  Such  critics,  however,  as  love  to  shew  their  sagacity  in  their 
scniples,  to  display  their  force  in  their  feebleness,  and  to  entangle 
themselves  like  flies  in  the  slightest  cobweb,  will  object  to  the  identity  of 
the  present  building  with  the  building  raised  by  the  Romans.  But  the 
objection  is  a  cobweb  too  slight  to  catch  any  except  the  feeblest  of 
flies.  'Jhe  dirTcrence  of  the  present  structure  from  the  Roman,  is  not  to. 
be  sugiifsted  only.  It  must  be  proved,  before  it  can  be  admitted.  The 
fair  presumption  of  reasoning  is  always  in  favour  of  possession.  The 
contrary  is  therefoie  to  be  shewn  ;  yet  it  cannot  be  shewn  here. 
The  identity  stands  evident,  upon  every  circumstance  of  the  building; 
and  history  unites  with  aspect,  to  proclaim  it  a  Roman  consti-uction. 
>N'e  thus  see  the  Romans  discovering  their  use  of  the  peaked  arch  in 
their  buildings,  not  merely  at  the  distance  of  Antinopolis,  or  Jerusalem, 


%  Somncr's  Cantcrbiin-  by  Battcly,  part  ist,  p.  34;  part  2d,  p.  175,176;  Stukeley*: 
Inn.  117;  and  Goslling's  Walk  in  ami  about  Cautcrbiiry,"  edition  2d,  1777,  24-263  witl 
plalr  48  of  Stukclcy. 

or 


s 
ith 


•SECT,  ll.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  OJ 

or  even  Spain  from  us,  but  in  our  own  island,  in  the  south  ot"  it,  in  the 
very  province  of  passage  between  it  and  the  continent;  even  there,  not 
merely  in  a  delineation  of  a  single  <hurch-arch  upon  a  single  gravestone, 
but  in  real  arches,  in  several  arches,  in  all  united  into  a  church  existinsr 
at  this  moment*.  1„ 


*  I  have  not  produced  another  argument  from  a  building  bearing  the  same  aspect  as  St. 
JMarlin's,  because  it  lias  not  a  purely  historical  authority  for  its  construction  by  the  Honiaus. 
Yet  it  was  so  constructed,  I  am  firmly  persuaded.  For  this  it  carries  the  authority  of  that 
tradition,  which  is  little  less  than  history  ;  is  oral  history  instead  of  written,  is  much  more 
liable,  therefore,  to  be  corrupted,  yet  is  history  still.  "  Erat  autem,"  says  Thome,  from  this 
lower  kind  of  history,  "  nun  longc  ab  ipsa  civitate  ad  orienteni,  medio  itinere  inter  eccle- 
*' siam  Saiicti  Martini  et  muroa  civiiatis,  phaiium  sivc  ydolum  situm,  ubi  rei;  Eihelbeitus 
"  st'cunduin  ritum  genlis  suae  solebat  orare,  ct  cum  nobilibus  suis  dxmoniis  et  nun  Deo 
"sacrificare;  quod  fanum  Augustinus  ab  inquinamentis  et  sordibus  gentilium  pur^avit,  et, 
*'  simulachro  quod  in  eii[eo]  cratconfracto,  synagogam  [diaboli]  mutavil  in  ecclesiani  [Dei], 
**  et  cam  in  nomine  Samli  Pancrani  Martyris  dedicavit;  et  hxc  est  prima  ecclcsia  ab  Au- 
*' gustino  dedicata."  (Twisden,  1760.)  Nor  is  this  relation  at  all  contradictory,  as  Somner 
pretends  it  is,  to  the  narrative  of  Bede;  Thorne  not  alleging,  as  Somner  represents  him  to 
allege,  that  this  was  the  first  church  in  which  Augustine  cclcljrated  mass,  St.  Martin's  being 
certainly  the  first,  but  the  first  which  he  dedicated,  because  it  was  dedicated  before  St. 
Saviour's.  "  I  will  grant,"  adds  Somner,  with  great  ingenuousness,  *'  that  a  chapel  of 
"  that  name,  of  no  small  antiquity,  there  was  sometime  standing,  where  a  good  part  of  her 
"  ruins  are  ytt  left,  built  almost  ivkolli/  of  Ilrifon  or  Roman,"  that  is,  of  Roman-British, 
"  brick,  injulliile  remains  of  anlKjuily."  (Ibiil.  ibid.)  "  Without  the  town,"  remarks  Ix;- 
land,  "  at  S.  Pancrace's  chapel  and  at  S.  Marline's,  apperc  Briton  brickes.^'  (Ilin.  vii.  145.) 
There  arc,  as  Stukeley  notes  in  Itin.  Cur.  i.  123,  "  the  walls  of  a  chapd  said  to  have  been  a 
"  Christian,"  a  heathen,  "  temple  lefore  St.  Augustine's  time,  and  )e- consecrated  by  him  lo 
"  St.  Puncras.  A  great  apple-tree,  and  some  plum-trees,  now  grow  in  it.  The  loner  part 
"  of  it  is  really  old,  and  mostly  made  of  Roman  brick,  and  thicker  walls,  as  all  jubstructions 
"  are,  than  the  superstructure.  There's  an  old  Roman  arch  in  the  south-side  toward  the  altar, 
*'  the  top  of  it  about  as  high  as  one's  nose,  so  that  the  ground  has  been  much  raised,  Thi! 
"  present  east  window  is  a  roiNTED  arch,  though  made  of  Roman  I  rick  — .  Aear  ii,  a  little 
■'  room  said  to  have  been  king  Etlielberl's  Pagan  chapel.  However  it  bi-,  boili  these,  and  the 
^^  wall  adjoining,  Avz 'motthj  hiiill  of  Hainan  brick;  the  bredlh  of  ihc  morter  is  rather  more 
•'  than  the  bricks,  and  /n//  nf  pelbeU,  '  as  Roman  mortar  aU-ays  is.  The  larger  building, 
therefore,  was  the  I'agiii  temple,  and  the  lesser  near  the  east  wind6w  was  the  royal  clu^et  ot 
V'.thelbert,  the  Saxon  king  of  Kent,  and  of  (he  Hritish  kings  before  him,  during  the  reign  of 
heai'hcnism.  Yet  the  cast  window,  though  visibly  Roman  with  all  the  parts  in  general,  the 
upper  as  well  as  the  lower,  and  though  apparently  J{om;in  in  itself,  to".  as  "  made  of  HouKin 

«'  h'iek  • 


^(^  THE    CATHEDKAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.   11. 

In  that  manner  being  begun  among  the  Romans,  in  that  being  dif- 
fused  along  Roman  Judira,  Roman  J'gypt,  Roman  Spain,  and  Roman 
Britain;  the  peaked  arch  went  on  of  course  through  those  ages,  which 
succeeded  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  which  are  with  a  peculiar  pro- 
priety denominated  the  Gothic,  and  have  ignorantly  been  made  to  tather 
it  by  giving  it  their  app<>llalion  :  yet  the  respectable  author  so  much  cited 
before,  Mr.  Ix^dwich,  does  not  allow  it  to  have  thus  gone  on.  No  !  he 
breaks  the  thread  of  continuance  short  at  once.  From  the  monuments 
urged  bv  himself,  specifically  at  Antinopolis,  and  generally  in  Britain,  he 
inters  only— what?— "  the  probability  of  their  serving  as  models,  after  a 
'•  /apse  of  years,  for  a  «cw  style  *,"  alter  et  idem!  But  tchen  does  he 
suppose  this  veiv-old  style  to  have  begun  ?  It  "  seems,"  he  says,  "  to 
"  have  begun  about  A.  L).  looo."  Yet  he  instantly  adds  what  proves  it 
to  have  begun  before,  and  what  is  of  great  moment  in  our  present  inquiry. 
"  The  arches  of  churches  on  the  coins  of  Bcrengarius,  king  of  Italy,"  who 
became  king  as  early  as  888,  "  and  Lewis  the  Pious,"  who  became  em- 
l)cror  in  814;  "  and  those  in  the  Menologium  Grascum,  Urbini,  1727; 
"  shew  the  strait  areh  was  in  use  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,"  con- 
sequently one  or  two  centuries  before  A.  D.  looo,  or  the  commencement 
of  the  eleventh  century.  Thus  does  the  continuation  of  the  arch  from 
the  Romans  become  more  apparent,  especially  as  Italy  was  the  scene  of 
some  of  these  constructions  upon  coins.  "  On  a  coin  of  Edward  the 
"  Confexwr,  in  Camden,  is  a  pointed  arch ;  the  church  there  is  supposed 
**  to  be  that  of  Bury  St.  Edmund,  repaired  by  him,"  who  came  to  the 

••  l>rick"  cniirciv,  shews  even  to  this  day  a  pointed  arch.  Nor  let  us  leave  these  two  build- 
ines  so  totally  undistinguished  as  they  arc  left  by  the  antiquaries  of  Canterbury,  so  confounded 
bv  Stukcley,  and  so  unappropriated  by  all,  without  producing  a  testimony  for  their  connexioa 
that  lies  obvious  on  the  page  of  Somner.  "  llaniond  Beale,"  he  cries,  considering  it  only 
to  perplex  himself,  and  to  make  him  answer  as  Thome's  what  is  merely  this  Hamond's, 
•'  — anno  1492  gives  by  his  will  to  the  reparation  of  Sahit  Paiicrace  his  chapel  within  the  pre- 
♦•  tinct  nf  St.  Auguslin's  churchyard,  and  of  the  chapel  where  St.  Augustin"  is  falsely  said 
to  have  "Jfrs/  cdelruled  mass  in  England,  annexed  to  the  former,  3I,  6s.  8d."  (Somner,  ibid.) 
I  thus  do  what  the  local  antiquaries  were  not  able  to  do,  explain  their  own  remains,  vindicate 
their  own  traditions,  and  discover  another  arch  of  a  pointed  form  among  the  Romans  of  their 
own  city. 

•  Arch.  viii.  193. 

throne 


SECT.  11.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  fjj 

throne  in  lon-10-i2f.  "  As  all  our  ancient  historians  resent  his  at- 
"  tachment  to  the  Normans,  among  whom  he  was  educated  ;  it  is  likclv 
"  he  saw  this  naw  arch  upon  the  continent,  and  introduced  it  into  his 
"  zvor/is:  it  must  therefore  be  earlier //?e/r  than  the  date  of  its  adoption 
*'  here,  and  may  be  of  the  age  before  assigned  for  its  revival :{:."  This 
very  ingenious  and  very  learned  author  has  already  shewn,  that  "  tlic 
"  straight  arch  was  in  use"  on  the  continent,  "  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  ccn- 
*'  turies  ;"  and,  as  to  the  island,  in  his  reference  to  "  Roman  sepulchral 
"  stones  with  pointed  arches"  in  Horsley,  which  are  all  Pyritish,  has  said 
*'  one  example — would  have  been  sufficient  to  have  proved  their  existence 
**  and  use"  in  Britain.  I  have  also  proved  by  a  specific  examjile  in 
Judiea,  by  a  second  in  Spain,  and  by  a  third  in  Britain,  "  their  existence 
"  and  use"  throughout  the  whole  empire  of  Rome.  Yet  now  Mr.  f^d- 
wich,  unconscious  indeed  of  some  of  these  facts,  is  for  burying  both  the 
British  and  the  foreign  gothicism  of  arches  in  the  grave  of  time,  merely 
—that  he  may  raise  it  to  hfe  again.  But  an  order  of  architecture,  once 
lost,  is  as  little  likely  to  have  been  recovered  in  those  ages  of  harharisni ; 
as  the  soul,  if  once  laid  to  sleep  with  the  body  by  the  hand  of  death,  ac- 
cording to  the  wild  fancies  of  some  that  it  will  be,  is  to  be  awakened 
again:  the  revival  of  either  must  be  an  actual  creation  of  it.  The  soul 
therefore,  lapped  iip  in  its  own  immortality  as  armour  of  proof  against  the 
weapons  of  death,  continues  to  exist,  is  found  and  felt  to  exist  while  the 
man  is  awake,  and  even  exists  (we  find)  Nvhere  it  is  frequently  not  felt — 
under  the  body's  death  of  sleep.  Just  so  is  the  Gothic  architecture.  Found 
existing  first  among  the  Romans  in  Egypt ;  it  went  on  imdoubtcdlv  in 
Egypt,  in  Judaea,  in  Spain,  in  Britain,  in  all  the  parts  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire ;  not  the  legitimate,  the  original,  the  severe  architecture  of  the  em- 
pire, but  the  pleasing,  the  fantastical,  the  alfoctcd  ;  repeatedly  observed 
at  times  in  the  ages  immediately  succeeding  the  empire,  and  so  known 
to  have  existed  in  the  pcriud  between  both.  From  the  elevated  mount 
of  history,  we  catch  a  viev*  of  the  current  in  diilorent  points  ;  and  though 
Tve  cannot  trace  iiti  line  of  progression  with  our  eye,  yet  are  sure  tlwj 

t  Arch.  viii.  193. 
J   Ibid.  ibid. 

VOL.  I.  o  sunnv 


fiti  Tnr.    r.ATIIF.DRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cH.VP.  II, 

sunny  glcnms  that  \vc  see  of  its  waters,  are  only  the  parts  of  one  con* 
tinned  whole. 

But  as  he  proceeds,  to  %vhom  I  owe  so  much  information,  and  with 
\(honi  antiquarianism  has  here  taken   such  an   imcommou   circuit  of 
enidition,  "^  some  architectural  novelty  seems  to  have  made  its  appear- 
••  ance-at  this  period,"  about  A.  D.  looo,  "  as  may  be  collected  from  the 
"  wordsofGlaber  Rudolph,  a  Henedictine  monk  and  cotemporary;  and 
"  cliurches,  no  doubt,  took  the  form  of  this  fashionable  innovation"  of 
peaked  arches  ♦,     Mr.  Ledwich  has  very  fairly  given  us  the  passage  in- 
Rudolph,  at  the  bottom  of  his  page ;  and  I  find  it  to  be  what  I  am  sorry 
to  pronoiuice  it,  all  foreign  to  his  purpose.     "  Below  the  thousandth 
"  year,"  as  I  translate  it  literally,  referring  the  original  still  to  the  bottom 
of  the  page,  "  when  now  the  third  year  was  almost  come,  it  happened  in 
"  nearly  all  the  earth,"  by  which  he  means  only  all  Christendom,  "  but 
*'  especially  in  //«/y  and  France,  that  the  grander  churches  were  formed 
"ancwf."     I   have  thus  endeavoured  to  preserve  in  my  translation 
that  equivocal  if  If  of  expression  in  the  principal  word,  which  is  in  the 
original,  and    has  imposed  upon   Mr.   I,edvvich.     He  applies  the  neio 
formation  in  the  passage,  to  the  introduction  of  the  pointed  arch  on 
the  continent  ;  yet   that  is  here  fixed  to  the  years   1002-3  ;  and  this 
has  h«'en  j^reviously  proved  by  Mr.  Ledwich   himself,    to   have  been 
there  "  in  use  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries"  before.     So  unfor- 
tunately contradictory  is  our  very  searching  and  veiy  successful  antiquary 
in  his  evidences!    But  the  present  evidence  has  really  no  connexion 
with   the  subject.     It  cannot  possibly  have  any  reference  to  pointed 
arches,   as  the  innovation  then   introduced  on   the  continent;   because 
pointed  arches  were  there,  in  the  two  centuries  immediately  preceding; 
nor  does  the  passage  relate  to  any  innovation  of  architectures  at  all.     It 
speaks  only  of  an  innovation  of  buihlings ;  not  of  doors,  not  of  windows, 
iiot  ot  pdlars,  not  indeed  of  any  parts  of  a  building,  but  of  the  zvho/e.     It 

•  Arch.  viii.  193, 

■^  ••  Infra  millcsimum,  tertio  jam  fere  imminenle  anno,  contigit  in  universo  pene  terrarum 
orbc   pra^apuc  umcn  .n  I.alia  cl  Galliis,  innovari  ecclesiarum  basilicas."  (iii.  c.  4,  apud 
Du  Chcsnc,  Hiit.  Francor.  Scriptorcj,  iv.  p.  27,  28.) 

therefore 


SECT.   II.]  HISTORICALLr  SURVErED.  g.l 

therefore  incaiis  apparently  the  rc-comtmct'ion  of  the  \n  hole,  the  renova- 
tion of  the  greater  ehurches,  and  this  called  innovation  hy  Jludolph.  It  i? 
iictualK-  denominated  in?iovation  hy  our  own  Ingulphus,  about  the  same 
period,  and  again  by  our  own  historian  of  Ely,  a  little  later ;  while  it  is 
e(iually  denominated  renovation  by  our  Gildas  a  few  centuries  before,  and 
even  by  the  liistorian  of  Ely  in  another  place  ;};.  A  spirit  t/ioi  appeared 
in  all  the  Christian  world,  says  Rudolph,  especially  in  France  and  Italv, 
■which  caused  the  grander  churches  to  be  rebuilt ;  and  we  shall  soon  find 
the  same  spirit  prevailing  speedily  afterwards  in  England. 

But  as  Mr.  Ledwich  pursues  his  mixed  maze  of  erudition  and  ingeni- 
ousness  till  he  has  nearly  lost  himself  in  his  own  labyrinth,  "  a  dravi^ing 
*'  of  the  sanctuary  at  Westminster  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Archaeolo- 
"  gia,  supposed  to  be  constructed  by  Edward  the  Confessor,  has  pointed 
"  arches;  and  [thus]  authentic  evidence  corroborates  what  has  been  ob- 
■"  served  on  this  coin,"  the  coin  of  Edward  the  Confessor  before,  carrying 
the  figure  of  a  church  with  a  pointed  arch  upon  it,  "  as  well  as  the  notice 
"  in  Rudolph."  There  is  a  little  impropriety  here  in  speaking  of  "  this 
*'  coin,"  when  it  is  at  such  a  distance  behind;  and  in  deducing  "authentic 
"  evidence"  from  a  building,  only  "  supposed  to  be  constructed  by  Ed- 
■*'  ward."  But  I  attend  Mr.  Ledwich  in  his  farther  progress.  "  The 
""  church  of  Kirkdale,  mentioned  by  Mr.  Brooke,"  and  proved  by  a  Saxon 
inscription  to  be  a  Saxon  church  §,  "  has  also  the  pointed  arch,  and  is  of 
"  the  age  of  the  Confessor  |[."  The  cluu'ch  of  Aldbrough  in  Ilolderness  too, 
let  me  add,  which  is  equally  mentioned  by  Mr.  Brooke,  which  is  equiUly 
proved  by  a  S:ixon  inscription  to  be  a  Saxon  church,  and  appears  equally 
to  be  of  the  age  of  the  Confessor,  has  on  the  south  side  of  the  nave  tvso 
arches  sharply  pointed,  with  the  Saxon  inscription  immediately  between 

%  Tngulpluis,  f.  500  :  "  Jiissit  cnices  lapideas  terininonim  innovari,  et  long'ius  a  ripis  flii- 
**  viorum, — lie  fortii — in  lluinina  corruerint,  prout  antlquas  cwicm, — Ibidem  ulicjuatido  ap- 
"  po'iitas,  intellexerat  corrui5.6e."  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  603  :  "  Ecclcsiam  ipsam,  ab 
*'  Ingnare  destriictam  et  per  centum  annos  desolatam, — diligenter  innovaiit  j"  613,  "  Ecclc- 
*' siam  rcnornnt."     Gildas,  c,  viii.  *' Renovant  ccchshs," 

§  Arch.  V.  188. 

j  Arch.  viii.  192,  193. 

o  2  them ; 


jOy  TUP    rATHFDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.   II. 

them  :  arul  on  the  south  side  of  the  chancel  a  doorway,  the  arch  of  which 
is  richly  laced  with  zi{;-zag  mouldings,  but  still  more  sharply  pohited*^. 
And.  tu  note  ordy  one  inst:uice  immediately  below  the  Conquest,  in  that 
new  part  of  the  abbey-church  at  St.  Alban's,  vxhich  I  shall  hereafter  shew 
to  have  btn-n  erected  between  the  years  ior7  and  loys  ;  Mhile  in  the  old 
parts  "  the  arHies  are  semi-circular,"  and  "  there  is  no  arch  but  the 
'•  plain  semi-circle,"  in  that  "  the  pointed  arch  is  to  be  seen  hi  all  the 
"  sevenil  s^Kcimens  of  good  and  complete  building*." 

•'  1  s.ub^uul^^illI}:^cat  deference  to  the  judgment  of  the  [Antiquarian] 
"  Societv."  finallv  Mibjuins  Mr.  Ledw  ich,  always  learned  and  always  m- 
genious.  "  whether  llie  novum  genus  (edijicaudi  of  William  of  Malmes- 
•'  burv,  applied  to  the  architecture  of  tlic  Conqueror's  reign,  does  not  im- 
"  ply  something  more  than  extent  and  magnilicence ;  and  whether,  to 
"  complete  the  idea  of  a  new  style,  we  ought  not  to  take  in  the  pointed 
"  arch  and  Gothic  ornaments  f."     Mr.  Ledwich  tlius  closes  his  course  of 

arguments, 

%  Arcli.  vi.  39.  Mr.  Peggc,  in  Arch.  vii.  86-89,  has  only  ir'ijled  in  endeavouring  to 
object. 

•  Mr.  Newconic'j  Hist,  of  St.  Alban's  Abbey,  p.  45,  95,  and  vi.  2,  hereafter.  Yet  we 
arc  loIJ  by  Mr.Ncwconie  himself,  in  p.  95,  "  that  we  may  here  plainly  discern  the  error 
"  of  those  critics  in  architecture,  who  assert  that  the  pointed  arch  arose  Jirst  in  the  time  of 
♦'  Htnr)-  in."  [he  means  Henry  I.],  "  and  'isseldo?n  found  in  earlier  constructions;"  astate- 
mcnl  surely  very  inaccurate  in  point  of  language  !  "  whereas,  in  this  structure,  the  pointed 
"  arch  is  to  be  seen  in  all  the  several  specimens  of  good  and  complete  building  ;  and  the  same 
"  was  undoubtedly  erected  in  the  time  of  the  Conqueror  and  his  sons,"  William  and  Henrijy 
"  before  1 1 15,"  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  /'r.si  Henry's  reign.  How  very  confusedly  is  all 
ihii  s<rd  and  meant !  But,  worse  than  all !  the  grand  point  in  the  whole  is  directly  contra- 
dicted by  Mr.  Ncwcome  himself  in  p.  502,  and  w  hat  is  here  noticed  as  an  "  error,  '  is  there 
asserted  for  a  truth.  "  In  the  time  of  Henry  Third,"  he  there  affirms  without  hesitation, 
" — dxQ  iemi-ciratlar  zxi-h  gave  way  \.o — \.\\t  pointed  a.Tc\i."  He  seems  to  have  had  Mr. 
Criv  and  Mr.Bcntham  before  him  at  once,  to  have  listened  now  to  one  and  then  to  another, 
but  Ixiwecn  both  to  have  been  so  confounded  as  to  become  contradictory  to  both  and  to 
himself. 

■t  Arch.  viii.  193.  This  application  of  the  passage  in  Malmcsbury  is  much  more  rational 
ibao  what  the  celebrated  Thomas  Warton  of  Oxford,  a  writer  of  considerable  taste  and 
Ulents,  but  only  half  an  antiquary  in  erudition,  had  previously  made  in  his  Observations  on 
the  Fairy  Queen  of  Spenser.     "  The  Confiucror,"   he  says  there,  ji,  186,  edit,  2d,  fjbz, 

'•  imported 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  101 

arguments,  and  (as  I  add  witli  a  reluctant  hand)  thus  rounds  his  circle  of 
contradictions  together.  He  noiv  suggests  the  pointed  arch  to  have  been 
introduced  into  England  in  "  the  Cojiqi/avr^s  reign,"  when  he  has  pre- 
viously proved  it  to  have  been  introduced  in  the  days  of  the  Confessor. 
lie  notv  pleads  for  the  Conqueror  s  introduction  of  it;  though  "  it  is 
"  likely,"  he  has  said  of  the  Confessor  before,  "  he  saw  this  new  arch  on 
"  the  continent,  and  introduced  it  in  his  works."  He  fiow  argues  for  the 
first  appearance  of  this  arch  in  our  churches,  as  uniting  with  "  Gothic  or- 
"  naments"  to  form  that  "  novum  genus  eedificandi,"  which  Malmesbury 
ascribes  to  the  Normans  of  England  after  the  Conquest ;  yet  has  abso- 
lutely precluded  all  possibility  of  admitting  his  own  hypothesis,  by  ap- 
pealing for  a  pointed  arch  in  a  church,  to  a  coin  of  the  Confessor,  to  a 
drawing  of  the  sanctuary  at  Westminster  built  by  the  Confessor,  and  to  a 
representation  of  Kirkdale  church  constructed  in  the  days  of  the  Con- 
fessor. But  such  contradictions  are  incident  equally  to  genius  and  to 
learning,  when  either  of  them  is  strongly  on  the  quest  after  a  favourite 
game ;  and  are  peculiarly  incident  perhaps,  when  learning  and  genius 
are  hunting,  as  here,  in  one  couple  together  ;  yet  not  more  pertinent  to 
the  point  is  the  extract  from  Malmesbury,  than  the  citation  from  Rudolph 
before :  they  both,  indeed,  relate  to  one  object,  but  at  different  periods 
and  in  different  regions.  Ruilolph  says,  that  in  A.  D.  ioo2-3  all  over 
the  world  almost,  but  especially  in  Italy  and  France,  the  grander 
churches  were  rebuilt ;  and  Malmesbury  adds  what  is  the  se(iuel  to  this 
intimation,  that  as  Italy  (I  suppose)  had  begun  the  practice,  and  France 
had  followed  her  in  it,  so  the  Normans  of  France  settled  it  with  them- 
selves about  sixty  years  afterwards  in  England,  'I'he  Saxons,  says 
Malmesbury,  "  spent  all  their  estates  in  feasting  within  small  and  petty 
"  houses,  much  unlike  the  French  and  Nornnu/s,  who  gave  moderate  cn- 
"  tertainments  in  ample  and  superb  edifices ;"  and,  as  he  subjoins  at  some 
distance  afterwards,  in  the  very  same  tenour  of  observation,  under  the 
Normans  "you  inaysee  everywhere  churches  in  towns,  minsters  in  villages 

"  imported  a  more  magnificent,  though  not  a  difTcrcnt,  plan — ;  the  style  llion  used  consisted 
*'  of  round  arches,  rouml-lwaded  windows,"  &c.  "  This  lias  been  named  the  Saxon  style, 
"  Ueing  the  national  architecture  of  our  Saxon  ancestors — j  for  the  Normans  only  extended 
"  its  proportions,  and  enlarged  its  scale," 

•'  and 


j(j2  Tiir  cvmiLDiivL  or  Cornwall  [chap,  ii. 

•^  atul  cities,  rhitig  in  a  tictvfonu  oj'iovslnictiou  |."  There  the  union  of 
X\\t  two  |uirts  shews  the  meaning  o{  the  latter  decisively.  But  still  more 
dn-isivelv  does  it  uppe^tr,  iVom  another  passage  in  another  place  of  his 
v^urkA  ;  when  he  siK-aks  of  a  clnuch,  built  (as  tradition  .said)  in  the  dajs 
of  Ina,  "  Uk*  eastern  end  of  which  has  lately  been  canicd  much  farther 
^jwward,  by  the  umlnt'iom  Jhmlness  far  new  constructions  ^  ^  Thus, 
and  only  tlHis,  were  raised  what  this  very  historian  has  made  one  of  his 
personages  to  denominate^  in  another  place;  the  "  pompaticee  aedes,'-" 
or  pompous  churcbes,  of  the  2^'ormans  || .  ''  The  new  form  of  construc- 
"  tion"  tlicrcfore  appears  to  be,  not  a  variation  in  the  mould  of  the  arch, 
a  substitution  of  the  pointed  for  the  round,  hut  something  more  striking 
to  the  eveof  liistorv,  an  addition  of  size  in  their  new  churches.  The 
renovation  of  the  churches  upon  a  larger  scale  liad  begun  on  the  conti- 
nent abovit  1002-3,  but  was  then  coniined  to  grander  churches.  It  had 
now  proceeded  so  rapidly  there,  that,  on  its  importation  into  England  by 
the  Normans,  it  extended  itself  not  merely  to  grander  churches  in  cities, 
tut  to  those  in  villages,  even  to  common  churches  in  towns,  and  to  all  of 
them  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  In  the  space  only  oi  ff'ty-four  years 
after  the  Con(|uest,  and  at  the  very  period  of  jSJalmcsbury's  writing,  had 
that  spirit  so  diffused  itself,  and  had  those  efibcts  been  so  produced  by  it- 
"■  Yuu  may  sec,"  he  cries,  "  every  where  churches  in  towns,  minsters  in  vil- 
"  lages  and  cities,  rising  in  anew  form  of  construction i"  like  the  eastern 
end  of  the  church  above,  carried  on  to  a  greater  length,  and  like  the  pri- 

%  Malmcsbury,  t.  57  :  "  Parvis  et.abjectisdomibus  totos  sumptus  absumcbant,  Francis  et 
"  Nornuniiis  absimilcs,  qui  amplis  et  supcrbis  sedificiis  modicas  cipensas  aguut. — Videas 
*'  ubitjiic  in  villib  ccclcsias,  in  vicis  ct  urbibus  monasteria,  novo  Edificandi  genere  consut- 
*•  gcre."  Monasleria  I  IransLite  Minsters,  because  this  word  is  the  relative  to  that,  com- 
prehends eqtully  the  calhtdml  and  colU:giate  churches,  is  thus  the  middle  term  appropriated 
by  our  Saxon  ancestors  lo  both,  and  is  still  preserved  colloquially  among  us  in  Eippon 
Minster,  York  Mi/istir,  Winburn  Minsler,  and  West  Minster. 

^  Malmcr-bury,  lib.  v.  Dt  Pontificibus,  Gale,  i.  354:  "  Hujus  orientalcm  frontem  nuper 
*'  in  majut  porrcxit  reccntis  idificationis  ainbilio." 

I  Malmtsbur)-,  f,  160,  Saviic :  "  I>joi)  novcrat  Ula  felicium  virorama;tas  pompaticas  jedes 
»«  cbiulrucrc/' 

vate 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  lOa 

vate  houses  made  ample  edifices,  in  the  room  of  the  petty  that  were  there 
before  %. 

The  use  of  the  peaked  arch  then,  if  wcgo  upon  those  facts  which 
alone  ought  to  fix  our  faith,  is  prior  to  the  Conquest  within  this  island. 
The  church  of  Kirkdalc,  the  church  of  Aldbrough,  the  sanctuary  of 
Westminster,  and  the  coin  of  the  Confessor,  shew  the  arch  to  have  been 
used  here  in  the  Confessor's  days.  The  appearance  also  of  the  peaked 
arch,  in  the  empress  Helena's  magniiicent  church  of  Jerusalem,  upon  a 
monument  of  the  Romans  in  the  north  of  Britain,  and  in  a  remaining 
church  of  theirs  within  the  south,  proves  it  to  have  been  equally  used 
here  as  early  as  the  days  of  the  Romans.  Then  the  old  cathedral  of  St. 
German's  comes  in  to  fill  up  the  vacuity  of  the  ages  between,  and  forms 
an  intermediate  link  in  the  chain  of  transmission  betwixt  the  Romans 
and  the  Confessor.  Whatever  antiquity  of  an  earlier  nature  it  may  chal- 
lenge, cerfaini//  built  as  early  as  the  conquest  ofCorY]\vii\l,certa/nh/  coaeval 
in  existence  with  Athelstan's  appointment  of  a  bishop  there  under  Q36  ; 
it  is  prior  to  the  reign  of  the  Confessor  by  more  than  a  century,  and  co- 
temporary  with  any  coins  of  the  tenth  century,  representing  a  church 
with  peaked  arches  upon  the  continent*. 

SECTION 

^  Malmesbury,  f.  98,  appears  writing,  "  usque  in  annum  vicesimum,"  and  (as  an  appa- 
rently later  copy  reads)  correcting  "  usque  in  annum  vicesimum  oclavum/'  of  Henry  I.'s 
reign,  A.  D.  1 1 20  or  1 1 28. 

•  Dr.  Ducarrel,  in  his  Anglo-Norman  Antiquities,  p.  102,  observes,   '^  Pointed  arches , 

*'  I  apprL-hend,  were  not  introduced  till  near  the  end  of  the  tivelfth  century,"  a  few  years 
prior  to  the  reign  of  Henry  HI.  :  and  p.  103,  adds,  "  the  plain  round  arch  may  therefore  be 
"  deemed  \\\c  fashion  of  the  Conqueror's  reign."  So  saying,  he  in  general  speaks  only  as 
others  are  talking  around  him.  But  he  carries  an  imprudence  peculiar  to  himself  in  so  do- 
ing, as  in  p.  59  he  tells  us,  "  King  William  the  Conqueror  built  a  stately  palace  for  his 
"  own  residence,"  at  Caen  ;  "  several  parts  of  it  still  rcn)ain,  particularly  one  apartment, 
"  which  is  very  large,  and  makes  a  nul)lc  appearance;"  and  as  in  his  plate  of  this  "  part  of 
"  the  ancient  palace  of  William  the  Conqueror  at  Caen,"  the  very  numerous  windows, 
running  in  two  tiers,  filling  up  nearly  the  whole  extent  of  the  wall,  and  therefore  coievai  cer- 
tainly with  the  wall  itself,  are  actually  all  peaked  in  their  arcftes.  In  p.  104  also  he  conjec- 
tures pointed  aiehes  ia  the  same  building  with  round,  to  mark  iho  former  as  additions  made 
to  the  latter  J  when  in  that  very  plate  of  William's  palace  one  arch  upon  the  ^ound-Jioory 

the 


.104 


THE    CAT1IEDR.M,    or    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  IL, 


SECTION  111. 


Bit  U-t  not  lljc  assertion  of"  MalinrshuiT,  rom-crning  the  comparative 
smalliifss  of  tlic  Saxon  and  Norman  churches,  be  taken  without  con- 
si<Jrral)Ie  allowances.  He  has  certainly  overcharged  his  picture  of  the 
Saxon  with  shade :  he  has  even  thrown  such  a  vast  profusion  of  shade 
over  it.  as  to  rover  and  conceal  the  light  of  truth.  In  proof  of  this,  I  need 
apj.cal  onlv  to  some  descriptions  of  Saxon  churches  ;  and  such  an  a])peal 
is  neces.virv  to  the  very  illustration  of  my  present  suney  of  the  Cornish 
cathedral. 

W'c  first  find  them  decorated  richly  ^\  ith  silver,  gold,  or  jewels;  and 
mav  therefore  be  sure  in  general  they  were  temples  ^^■orthy  to  be  the  re- 
positf»rie9  of  siich  valuable  oblations-f.  Thus  the  church  of  Ramsey  abbey 
had  "  a  tablet  of  wood  in  the  front  of  the  higher  altar,  finely  ornamented 
"  with  broad  and  solid  plates  of  silver,  as  well  as  gems  of  various  kinds 
"  and  colours  +."     Thus  also  the  church  of  Ely  received  from  Edgar  as 

the  dtXJnvsv  up  into  the  great  tower,  is  round  amid  all  the  po'int-ed  arches  alovc,  and  witli  one 
pointed  arch  directly  over  it  in  the  same  touer;  when  also,  in  this  very  pagu-  104,  he  iwtices 
*'  iht  wfsi  front  of  the  ehurch  of  Ponl-Audcmer,  where  the  middle  window  hath  a  pointed 
•'  arch,  and  is  wider  than  the  two  side  ones,  whicli  have  roii/id  arches."  A  fixed  principle, 
nken  up  wiiiioul  examination,  and  impressed  upon  the  mind  by  continual  transmission  from 
mouth  tooioulh,  or  from  pen  to  pen,  hangs  like  a  leaden  bias  upon  the  reason,  and  draws  it 
off  continually  into  obliquities  of  movement.  In  the  very  plate  loo  which  Dr.  Ducarrel 
him»tlf  gave  to  Mr.  Bcnlham's  account  of  Ely  cathedral,  the  oki  conventual  clun-ch  appears 
H  ihc  p.irt  jaid  to  be  rebuilt  durmg  1 102,  with  two  rowid-keadcd  windows  ivillmi  arches  of 
«  peaked  form,  5ee  p.  29.  The  Doclor,  indeed,  and  Mr.,  Bentham,  in  deference  to  all  their 
betters,  uijsiakc  the  predominancy  of  the  peaked  arch  for  the  origin  of  it ;  and  date  the  intro- 
duclio/i  of  the  peaked  to  the  round,  uliere  they  should  fix  the  nipersedence  of  the  round  by 
the  pcikid;  t)ius  inverunjz  ihc  course  of  the  current,  ond  placing  the  springs  of  the  Nile  at 
Ihr  (cvrn  mnutlu  uf  it. 

t  .Sec  Arch-  iv.  55-68, 1'.rMr.  Peggc's  judicious  illustration  of  the  state  of ''Saxon  jewelry 
"  pfcvi-.iw  In  the  rfij^n  of  Alfred;"  an  illustration  usefully  according  with  what  I  shall  now 
write. 

X  HiiU  Rainsticnsis,  c,  54,  Gale,  i.  420;  «  Tabulara  ligncam  in  fronte  eminentioris  aU 
"  uri*— ,  anipli*  ti  solidi*  argcnti  lamtnis,  cum  varii  tarn  coloris  ^uim  generis  geminis 
"  [Bciiujii*],  insignitcr  prrornavji." 

a  present, 


SECT.   III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  JO:) 

a  present,  "  his  o-wii  cloak,  ibrmed  of  line  purple,  and  intenvoveii 
"  throughout  with  threads  of  gold  in  plates,  like  a  coat  of  mail§." 
INIalmesbury  himself  informs  us  concerning  the  church  of  Sherborn,  that 
Sighclm,  bishop  of  it,  was  "  sent  over  sea"  bv  Alfred  to  Rome  "  Mitli 
*'  some  of  the  king's  alms,  and  even  to  the  Christians  of  St.  Thoiiius  in 
"  India  r  that  "  with  a  wonderful  success,  which  must  excite  admira- 
"  tion  in  the  present  age,"  excite  it  even  in  our  own,  after  a  complete 
discovery  of  those  Cliristians  and  this  country,  "he  actually  penetrated 
"  into  India,  and  on  his  return  brought  back  the  exotic  gems  [as  \\  cU  as 
"  the  aromatic  liquors'],  with  which  the  country  abounds;"  and  that 
■*'  some  of  the  gems  are  yet  seen  in  the  monuments  of  Sherborn  church  || ." 

We  actually  find  a  Saxon  abbot  of  St.  Alban's,  during  a  general  famine, 
laying  out  in  relieving  the  poor,  "  the  treasure  long  before  reserved  for 
*'  the  fabrication  of  the  church, — with  the  vessels  of  gold  and  silver  bc- 
**  longing  to  his  own  table,  as  well  as  to  the  church;  retaining  only  some 

§  Lclantl's  Coll.  ii.  593:  "  Ex  Annalibus  Eliensis  Monasterii.  '  Idem  rex  chlamidem 
"  siiam,  de  insigni  purpura,  ad  niodum  loricte  auro  undique  contextani,  illuc  coiUulil'." 
Mr.  Bentham  has  strangely  translated  the  words  thus,  "  his  own  royal  robe  of  purple,  em. 
"  broidcred  with  gold,"  p.  78. 

II  Malmesbury,  f.  141  :  "  Sighclmus  trans  mare  causi  elecmosynarum  regis,  et  etiam  ad 
"  Sanctum  Thomam  iu  Indiani  missus,  mira  prosptrilate,  quod  quivis  in  hoc  seculo  miretur, 
♦'  Indiam  penetravit;  indeque  rediens,  exotici  generis  gemmas"  [and  "  liquores  aromatum," 
as  he  interpolates  in  f.  24],  "  quarum  ilia  humus  fcrax  est,  exportavit.  NonnuUa;  illnrum 
"  [gcnnuarum]  adhuc  in  ecclcsite  nionunicntis  visiintur."  This  hint  of  aromatic  liquors 
from  India,  is  peculiarly  curious.  I  know  of  none  which  can  answer  the  hint  at  present, 
except  that  extract  from  the  blossom-bunch  of  the  cocoa-tree,  which  we  denominate  ariiack. 
This  answers  compktilv,  and  this  alone  I  suppose  to  be  meant.  \Vc  tluis  obtain  a  very 
early  intimation  of  the  use  of  this  finely  flavoured  liquor  in  England.  The  extract  appears  to 
have  been  known  among  us  «o  earlv  as  the  reign  of  Alfred,  and  this  worthy  sovereiirn  drank 
arrack  a  thousand  years  nearly  before  his  subjects  of  the  present  generation.  Alfred's  quan- 
tity ui  arrack,  however,  must  liavc  been  very  small  ;  being  all  brought  over  land  from  India, 
and  consequently  within  a  small  vessel.  It  was  then  considered  undoubtedly  as  the  choice.-t 
of  all  liquor*,  the  very  nepenthes  of  the  ancients ;  though  we  are  now  so  familiar  with  it,  that 
the  appellation  ^nr  arrack  ilropping  fresh  from  the  wounded  bunch,  is  used  popularly  anionjr 
us  for  another  liquor,  even  the  farmers  of  Cornwall  drinking  toildij  eomiHjsed  of  iravj/j  ar.ii 
■uulcr. 

vol,,  t.  P  "  precious 


lOfi  THE    CATnEDRVL    OF    CORNWALL  [gHAT?.  II. 

"  pnx-iom  perns  for  which  he  did  not  find  purchasers,  and  some  noble 
••  eiignivfd  stories,  uhi(  h  we  cornnioidy  call  caM/Eoes  ;  of  w  hich  a  great 
••  part  was  reserved  for  decorating  the  shrine  of  St.  Alban,  when  it 
"  ^l^ould  be  framed  ^  ." 

To  these  evidences,  so  strikingly  attesting  the  commacial  wealth  of 
the  Saxons,  and  so  strongly  indicating  the  peculiar  splendour  of  their 
churches,  I  shall  add  only  one  more.  The  founder  and  abbot  of  Croj- 
land,  in  the  reign  of  Edgar,  assigned  for  the  service  of  the  eucharist  there 
"  one  cu|)  of  gold,  and  two  phials  of  silver  gilt,  modelled  in  the  form  of 
"  two  angels,  with  enchased  work  upon  them  ;  and  two  basins  of  silver, 
*'  wonderful  in  their  workmanship  and  size,  very  finely  enchased  witli 
"  soldiers  in  armour  ;  all  which  vessels  Henry,  emperor  of  Germany, 
"  had  formerly  presented  to  him,  and  up  to  the  time  of  presenting  had 
"  always  retained  in  his  own  chapel  *." 

^  M.  I'jris,  995  :  "  Thesaunim  ad  fabricam  ccclesiae  diu  ante  reservatum,  cum — vasia 
*'  aurcis  cl  argeiitcis,  Um  sua:  mcnss  quam  ccclcsia;  dcputatis,  in  paupcruni  expendit  susten- 
"  (ationcm  ;  rctcntis  lantunimodo  quibusdam  geminis  preciosis,  ad  quas  non  invcnil  enipto- 
"  rc»,  el  quibus  [quibusdam]  nobilibus  lapidibus  insculplis,  quas  [quos]  camceeos  vulgariter 
'•  apprllamus,  r)uorum  magna  pars,  ad  feretrum  decoranduni,  est  reservata."  We  thus  find 
our  present  term  of  cameyo,  used  so  early  as  the  Saxon  limes.  It  was  derived  to  us  originally 
from  the  Elast,  in  canusa,  the  Oriental  name  of  a  kind  of  onyx,  found  in  Egypt,  in  Arabia,  in 
Persia,  and  in  the  East  Indies.  But  it  was  applied  by  the  Saxons,  we  see  from  this  passage, 
*'  nobilibus  lapidibus  i;iJc«//)/ij,"  just  in  the  sense  in  which  we  apply  it  now.  For  the  inter- 
course, which  could  bring  the  gem  and  the  name  among  the  Saxons,  we  have  seen  sufficient 
already.  Wc  find  camajoes  also  in  other  monasteries,  being  mentioned  so  late  as  the  Rc- 
foimalion,  and  then  specified  as  .intiques ;  because,  at  the  general  plunder  of  our  churches 
by  the  royal  ftlon  in  sacrilege,  Henry  VIII.  we  see  "  delivered  unto  his  majesty  the 
"  ixvi  day  of  June,  anno  xxjui"  of  his  reign,  154.1,  "  a  great  amatist  [amethyst],  a  great 
••  saphire,  certain  camewes  or  anlicks,"  &c.  "  parcels  of  such  stuffs  as  came  from  the  cathe- 
"  dral  church  of  Lincoln."  (Stevens's  Additions  to  Monasticon,   i.  83.) 

*  Ingulphus,  504  :  "  Calicem  aureum,  et  duas  phialas  argenteas  et  dcauratas,  ac  in  formani 
"  duorum  angtlorum  opere  csclatorio  fabrcfactas,  et  duas  pelves  argenteas,  miri  operis  ac 
•«  magnitudinis,  pulcherrimi  cxlatas  cum  militibus  armatis.  Qux  vasa  universa  impe- 
"ratorAlcmannixHcnricusaliquaadocontulcrat,  et  usque  ad  illud  tempus  semper  iu  sua 
"  capella  rescrvaral." 

Nor 


S£CT.  HI.]  HISTORICALLY    SUR^^:YED.  10^ 

Nor  let  US  suppose  such  vessels  to  have  been  merely  tbrcign,  and 
tlicrefore  rare.  We  lincl  a  remarkable  instance  to  the  eontrarv,  even  in 
a  dignified  clergyman  of  the  Saxons.  The  famous  Dunstan  "  was  blessed 
"  with  such  a  natural  genius,  that  he  readily  comprehended  very  acutely, 
"  and  retained  very  firmly,  any  subject ;  and,  though  he  was  superUij 
"  great  in  other  zxts,  yet  he  attached  himself  with  a  peculiar  affection 
**  to  instrumental  music;  taking  the  psaltery  like  David,  striking  the 
"  harp,  modulating  the  organ,  touching  the  cymbals.  Being  besides 
"  dexterous  in  everij  manual  opaafloii,  he  could  fbrtn pictures  or  inscrip- 
"  tions,  imprint  tlicm  with  a  grai.cr,  upon  gold,  silver,  brass,  or  iron,  and 
"  indeed  execute  any  thing.  H-e  also  fabricated  hells  and  cymbals*." 
Weevenfirid  that  appellation  of  Jilagree,  by  which  we  at  present  dis- 
tinguish the  finest  part  of  our  workmanship  in  silver,  the  open  and  thread- 
like vcrmiculations  of  the  graver ;  actually  used  and  actually  well  known 
within  a  few  years  after  the  Conquest,  in  the  most  northerly  parts  of  the 
kingdom;  the  historian  of  Hexham  church  informing  us,  that  one  who 
had  been  chaplain  made  a  return  for  kindnesses  received,  "  in  a  beautiful 
"piece  of  filatery,  nanu^ly,  a  silver  cross,  in  which  the  relics  of  the 
"  holy  confessors  and  bishops,  Acca  and  Alchmund,  were  contained -f." 

And 

•  Twisdcn's  Decern  Scrlptnres,  c.  1646,  Gervase  :  "  Erat  ila  naturali  praeditus  iiigcnio,  ut 
"  facile  qiiainlibct  rem  aciitissime  intdligerct,  firmissime  retiiierel,  I't,  quamvis  aiiis  artibus 
**  magnifite  poUeret,  musicam  tamen,  earn  videlicet  quae  instriimeniis  agitaiur,  special!  qiii- 
"  dam  afiectione  vendicabat ;  siciit  David  pBallerium  suniens,  citharam  percutiens,  moditians 
"  orcana,  cinibala  langcns.  Prajterca  maiui  aptus  ad  omnia,  facerc  poii:it  picniram,  literes 
'*  formart,  scaiK-llo  imprimerc,  ex  aiiro,  argciuo,  xre,  et  firro,  et  quidlibet  operari.  Signa 
"  quoquc  ct  ciiiibala  facicbat." 

•t  Twisden,  c.  305,  Richard  :  "  Fecit  igitiir  iilam  [reddilionem]  cum  qiiodam  pokhro 
'^Jilateriv,  scilicet  crace  argiiUea,  in  qua  sanctorum  coufessorum  et  e|)iscoj)oriuii,  Acc.-e 
"  ct  AlchniunJi,  rcK-iiiia;  coaliiKbautiir ;"  or,  as  the  title  to  the  chapter  pays,  "  per  pui- 
"  chram  philaclorhim."  .So  in  "  Gregor.  licgisl,  lib.  12,  e|)i!-t.  'j,-—/ilateria — ,  id  cfl, 
*'  crucem  cum  liifiio  sanctcc  crucis  Domini."  (Spelman.)  The  ttru)  therefore  is  not,  as  tlic 
inqiiisiiive  reader  naiiirallv  sti]  pofcs  at  lirst,  a  derivative  from  jUum,  and  dcstriptivc  of  the 
thread-like  vcrmiculations  J  hy\\.  plujlacttTrium,  philactcry,  or  fi'/altri/,  as  a  vc.-i.-iei  of  iilver, 
pierced  in  lattice-work,  Jo  shew  the  relit  s  whieh  it  enclosed,  and  so  coming  to  signify  in 
f.ligrunnc,  French,  in  Jliigrtin,  filagree,  l^sgiish,  what  it  now  signilii*.  The  uneit-nt 
Jih^rce  W3.^  somtlimej  in  gold  also,  as  we  have  "  phUaimum  aiirmm,  cujus  prctium  ernt  12 

F  2 


,(jg  THE    tATUFDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.    H. 

And  to  mention  one  instance  more  of  Saxon  workmanship,  as  more 
apposite  to  iIr-  prcM-nt  point,  Kthclwold,  abbot  of  Aljingdon.  in  the  reign 
of  Edfjar.  "  j;avethe  church  one  golden  dialice  of  immense  weight,  in 
'•  honour  and  reverence  to  the  body  and  blootl  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'" 
with  ••  three  crosses  ver>-  finely  formed  of  pure  silver  and  gold:— he  alsa 
"  decorated  the  church  with  texts,  as  well  in  pure  silver  as  in  standard 
"  gold,  and  with  very  valuable  stones,  witli  censers  and  phials,  basins  of 
"  cast  metal,  and  chandeliers  of  molten  silver  :— he  made  two  bells,  as  is 
"  reported,  uit/i  Iiisoun  liamls,  and  placed  them  in  the  monastery  toge- 
"  therwilh  two  others  of  a  larger  size,  which  even  the  blessed  Dunstan: 
"  is  said  to  have  made  n'lth  his  own  hands. — lie  (msWy  fabricated  a  cer~ 
"  tain  n  heel  full  of  hells,  which  he  denominated  the  golden  wheel,  be- 
"  causcof  the  gilded  plates  on  it;  and  which  he  ordered  to  be  turned 
'•  round  and  rung  upon  festivals,  to  excite  the  greater  devotion*."  So 
much  were  the  churches  in  our  island  then  decorated  with  the  choicest 
productions  of  the  fine  arts,  and  many  of  these  productions  fabricated  by 
the  hands  of  the  Saxons  themselves  !  But  let  us  come  still  closer  to  the 
point,  and  see  how  the  Saxon  churches  were  actually  huilt.  The  autho- 
rity of  such  an  historian  as  MaJmesbury  is  not  to  be  opposed  without 
positive  proof  adduced  against  itf. 

Aldred, 

««  marcamni  auri,"  at  Ramsey.  (Lcland's  Coll.  ii.  587.)     So  in  Wharton's  Anglki  Sacra,  i.. 
604,  wc  have  concerning  Edgar,  «'  dcdit  etiam  dc  sua  capcila  capsides  et  philaleria;"  in  i. 
633,  concerning  a  bishop  in  the  reign  of  Richard  I.,  that  he  gave  to  Ely  cathedral,  "  capsam 
"  argcnt<.Tini  ci\m  filaiorio  aiireo;"  and  in  i.  634,  concerning  a  third  bishop,  that  he  gave, 
'«  \\. Jilatcrut  pulchrc  fabrefacta  cum  lapidibus,  sub  quibiis  rtliquix  S.Thomse  marlyris  et 
"  aliorum  unclorum  contincbantur." 

•  Monasficon,  i.  104:  "Dcdit — caliccm  iiiuim  aurcum  inimensi  ponderis,  oh  honorem 
•'  cl  rcvcrcniiani  corporis  cl  sanguinis  Domini  nosiri  Jtsu  Chrisli ; — dedit  etiam  tres  cruces 
"  adniodum  dccoras  ex  argentoct  auropnro.— Ornavit  etiam  ccclcsiam  textis,  lam  tx  argento 
"  puro  quam  ex  auroobrizo,  pariler  et  lapidibus  preciosissimis,  ihuribulis,  et  fialis,  pelvibu 
"  fusilibus,  tl  candclabris  tx  argenio  ductilibus— .  Fecit  etiam  duas  campanas  propriis  ma- 
"  nibus,  ut  diciiur,  quas  in  hac  domo  posuit  cum  aliis  duabus  majoribus,  quas  etiam  Beatus 
"  Dunsuaus  propriis  manibus  Iccisse  pcrhibcter— Frxtcrea  iecit— quandam  rotam  tmtinna- 
'«  bulis  plenam,  quam  aurtam  nuncupavit  propter  laminas  ipsius  deauratas,  quam  in  festivis 
"  dicbusad  niajoris  exciialionem  devotionis  reduccndo  volvi  constituit." 

t  One  Dung  .s  recorded  of  the  famous  lady  Godiva,  buried  at  Coventry,  by    Malmesbury 

himself: 


s 


sect;  nij  historically  surveycd.  ioq 

Aldred,  the  last  of  the  Saxon  archbishops  of  York,  when  he  was  only 
bishop  of  Worcester,  was  sent  ambassador  by  Edward  to  the  emperor  of 
Germany;  afterwards,  when  bishop  of  Hereford,  crossed  the  sea,  passed 
thro\igh  Hungar}',  and  reached  Jerusalem,  "  which  not  one  of  the  arch- 
"  bishops  or  bishops  of  England,"  says  an  author,  "  is  known  to  have 
"  done  before ;"  and,  soon  after  his  return,  was  raised  to  the  see  of  York 
by  the  Confessor.  Then  he  "  enlarged  the  old  church  of  Eevcrlcv  with 
"  the  addition  of  a  new  chancel,  and  built  the  u  hole  church  from  this 
"  chancel  even  to  the  tower  consti-ucted  by  his  predecessor  Kinsius,  in  a 
"  very  wonderfial  manner;  with  that  kind  of  painting  over  head  which 
"  is  called  ceiling,  variously  bespangled,  and  bedropt  with  gold.  Above 
"  the  door  of  the  quire,  also,  he  caused  a  pulpit  to  be  made  with  in- 
"  comparable  workmanship,  of  brass,  silver,  and  gold  ;  he  erected  an  arch 
"*  on  each  side  of  the  pulpit,  and  a  taller  arch  in  the  middle  over  the  pulpit, 
"  bearing  a  cross  at  the  top  of  it,  and  all  made,  like  the  pulpit,  of  brass, 
"  silver,  and  gold,  in  German  uvrlt*.''  So  early  did  the  Germans  practise 
the  art  of  inlaying  brass  with  silver  and  gold;  so  early,  also,  did  our  an- 
cestors  begin    to    imitate  this  "  German    work,"   it    being  assuredly 

"  Cum  thesauros  ibi  vivens  totos  congessisset,  jam  jamque  moritiira,  ctmilum  gemmariim, 
"  quern  Jilo  insiterat,  iit  sivgularum  contactu  singulas  orationes  incipiens  numerum  non  pree- 
"  termiltcrct ;  himc  ergo  gctumarum  circulum,  collo  imaginis  sanctx  Marin:  append!  jiissit" 
(f.  165).  This  is  a  bead-roll,  at  once  the  most  ancient,  I  suppose,  and  the  most  sumptuous,. 
I  believe,  that  is  recorded  in  our  history.  And  the  historian  says,  in  another  place,  that  the 
whole  monastery  was  built  in  1043,  "  tanto  auri  et  argcnti  spectaculo,  ut  ipsi  parictcs  eccle- 
"  sias  angusti  viderentur  thesaiirorum  receptaculis,  miracuio  porro  magno  visentium  oculis" 

(f-73)- 

•  Twisden,  c.  1701,  Stubbs  :   "  Quod  nullus  archiepiscopornm,  vcl  cpiscoporiim  Anglia; 

•'  dinoscitur  catenus  fecissc."  C.  1704  :  "  Vetercm  ecclesiam  a  presbyterio  uscjuc  ad  lurrim  ab 

"  anlcccisore   suo   Kinsio  constructam,  superius  opcre   pictorio  iiuod   coclum   vocant,  auro 

"  muUitormitcr  intermixto,  mirabili  arte  construxit.     Supra  hostium  ctian>  rhori  pulpitum, 

"  sere,  auro,  et   argcnto,  opcrecine   incomparabili,  fabricari  fecit;  et  in  utraquc  parte  pnlpiii 

"  arcus,  et  in  medio  supra  pulpitum  arcum  eminentiorcni,  cruccm  in  summitate  gcstanlem, 

"  similiter  ex  arc,  auro,  et  argcnto,  opcre  Tcutctnico,   labrelactos  ercxit."     So  M.    I'aris, 

1054,  as  it  is   printed,  but  1062,  as  it   ought    to    be,  "  pulpitum    in  medio   ccclcsix"  cum 

"  magna  cnice  sui,  Maria  quoquc,  ct  Johanne,"  &c. 

brough^. 


j,^,  THE    CATHEDR.VL    OF    CORNWALL  [c«Ar.   11. 

bnntpht  bv  Akl.ea  fVom  Gorinam-,  %n  Iumi  he  relumed  trom  his  embassy 
to  llxc  emperor,  it  iK-iiij^  undoubtedly  used  by  /Udred  at  Beverley,  whcii 
he  rebuilt  the  rlmreh  there;  and  so  large,  so  decorated,  was  this  Saxon 
church  of  Hcvcrlcyf!  ^"t 

t  In  Arch.  h.  117,  Mr.  Pownail  says,  "  Here  is  the  first,  and,  as  f^ir  as  I  can  find,tlic 
"  i.nl);  mcnti..ii  made  of  ihe  Teutonic  order,  expressly  described  as  a  fabrication  of  frame- 
••  work,— limber,  building  ;''  »•>»■•"  the  account  is  all  confined  '«  expressly"  in  Mr.  Pownall's 
own  ciUlion  to  •  cross,  ♦•'  crucem  in  sutnmilalc  gestanteni,— opere  Teutonico  fabrefac- 
"  tain ;"  when  in  the  original  it  is  extended  to  a  cross  and  some  arches,  "  arcus,  ct— arcum 
"  cmincnliorem,  cruccni,  opcre  Teutonico /airr/ac/oJ ;"  and  when,  in  the  original  etiually 
with  the  citation,  all  are  "  expressly  described  as  a  fabrication,"  not  of /rame  or  timlet- 
work,  but  oi  metal,  "  ex  xre,  auro,  et  argcnto,  opcre  Teutonico  fabrcfactos."  Yet  on  this 
basis,  rotten  as  it  is  to  the  core,  and  dissolving  into  dust  under  the  pressure  of  a  finger,  does  he 
found  an  hypothesis:  "  that,  the  churches  throughout  all  tiic  northern  parts  of  Europe  be- 
"  ing  in  a  ruinous  state,  the  Pnpe  created  several  corporations  of  Roman  or  Italian  archi- 
"  Iccis  and  artists;"  when  Mr.  I'ownall's  own  reasoning  requires  they  should  nothc  Roman, 
fK)<bc  It.dian,  iut  Teutonic  or  Cierinan.  "  The  coniuion  and  usual  appellation  of  this  cor- 
"  poratiun  in  Englind,  was  that  of  tlie  free  and  accepted  masons"  (p.  117,  118)5  an  appel- 
lation, surely,  that  betrays  them  to  be  purely  linglish  ni  their  origin.  "  My  notes  and  me 
"  morandums  inform  nit,  that  this  corporation  was  established  about  the  time  of  the  early 
"  parts  of  the  reicn  of  enry  HI.  of  England."  (P.  121.)  Yet  the  first  mention  of  ihcni 
which  Mr.  Pownail  himself  can  adduce,  "  is  in  a  law  of  the  3d  of  Henrv  VI.;"  and  iliis 
mention  proves  them  undeniably  lobe  Englis-h.  "  Whereas,"  says  the  statute-book  in  our 
own  language,  "  by  the  yearly  congregations  and  confederacies  made  by  the  masons  in 
"  their  general  chapiters  and  assemblies,  the  good  course  and  efiect  of  the  statutes  of. /a- 
••  bourers  he  o|)fnly  violated  and  broken  ;"  thost  confederacie*  and  congregations  are  for- 
bidden. The  quality  of  these  "  artists"  and  "  architects"  was  merelyrthat  of  "  labourers," 
then;  ai»J  their  appcllstion  thai,  as  now,  was  solely  that  of  "  maso«s,"  It  was  so  in 
English  ;  it  was  equally  30  in  French;  the  same  law  speakingof  them  in  Mr.  Pownall's  own 
quotalinii,  as,  ••  les  masons"  (p.  119).  Their  . origin,  therefore,is  no  more  derived  from 
Borne,  Itily,  or  even  Germany,  than  it  is  from  the  nioon.  Yet,  to  shew  how  wits,  lilce 
giants,  can  pde  mountain  upon  mountain,  till  they  reach  the  region  of  the  moon  itself;  Mr. 
Pownail  subjoins,  in  \\  i;i,ihat  "  t lie  Gothic  architecture  used  '  citra  Alpcs  nioiitcs'," 
tnnu  fofur.rd  into  practice  is  a  "  regular  .ctaUhhed  order  about"  the  beginning  of  the 
third  Henry's  reign,  ulien  be  himself  has  been  just  finding  it  as  "  the  Teutonic  order,"  in 
the  reign  f.l  the  Confessor,  two  cenUiries  before;  and  when,  all  the  while,  the  "  Teutiuiic  ex- 
"  ccuiing"  was  confined  entirely  to  brass,  silver,  or  gold.  Nor  are  the  "  masons"  to  be  con- 
founded, af:  they  have  so  frequently  bi:{ii,  with  the  Flemings,  who  vvere  invited  hither,  as 
art hitccu.  ^Ar.  h,  ii,  1 2.)     These  were  architects,  while  those  were  mere  "  labourers."  Be. 

hold. 


SECT,   in.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  1  ]  1 

But  let  US  turn  to  the  church   of  Rippon,  at  a  much  earher  period. 
There,  savs  the  attendant  and  sur\'ivor  of  the  famous  Wilfrid,  he,  in  the 
year  670X,  "  built  a  minster  of  polished  stone,  from  the  foundations  in 
"  the  earth  to  the  summit  of  the  whole,  reared  it  upon  various  pillars, 
"  raised  it  high,  and  completed  it.     When  the  house  was  finished,   he 
"  invited  against  the  day  of  Ihc  dedication,  the    most  Christian  hins^s 
"  Eagfrid  and  ^Iwin,  brothc-rs§,  with  the  abbots,  prefects,  subrcguli, 
"  and  all  the  persons  of  dignity^  who  all  convened  at  the  church.     lie 
"  consecrated  the  house  to  the  Lord,  by  dedicating  it  to  St.  Peter,  and 
"the  prayers-  of  all  who  should  make  responses  in  it;  dedicated   the 
"  altar  and  its  pediments  to  the  Lord;  covered  it  \Aith  purple  interuovoi 
"  with  threads  of  gold  j  and  completed  all  by  administering  the  eucharist 
"  there  to  the  persons  present. — He  also  gave,  among  other  donations 
"  for  decorating  the  house  of  God,  a  present  unheard  of  by  our  times 
"  before,  a  kind  of  prodigy ;  ordering  a  copy  of  the  four  Gospels  to  be 
"  written  for  it,  in  letters  of  the  purest  gold,  upon  leaves  of  parchment, 
"  pwpled  in  (he  ground,  and  coloured  variously  upon  the  surface.     And 
"  he  commanded  jewellers  to  bind  all  the  books  in  the  church's  library, 

hold,  ihen,  the  glorious  beginners  of  the  Gothic  order  of  architecture  in  England.  They 
first  appear  as  early  as  the  eleventh  century,  all  wrapped  up  closely  in  German  frocks ;  re- 
appear in  the  thirteenth,  ail  folded  loosely  in  Roman  gowns ;  and  re-appear  asrain  in  the 
fifteenth,  without  any  disguises,  English  masons  dressed  in  English  habits,  stripped  to  their 
waistcoats,  brandishing  their  trowels,  and  wearing  their  leathern  aprons.  Behold,  too,  the 
mighty  fathers  of  those  free  and  accepted  masons,  who  were  once  so  very  numerous  among 
lis,  who  are  still  so  respectable  in  many  of  their  members,  yet,  in  a  strain  of  romancina 
foolery  trace  up  their  origin  to  the  clouds;  but  who  were  mere  masons,  mere  labourers,  three 
or  four  hundred  years  ago,  combined  logetiior  for  the  purposes  ot  their  manual  em])loy,  as 
we  now  sec  tailors,  or  shoemakers,  coml>iucd  at  times,  and,  like  them,  presuming  to  pre- 
scribe rates  of  wages  to  the  public  for  their  manual  labours.  See  No.  II.  in  Appendix^ 
here,  for  some  more  remarks  on  the  origin  of  Free  Masons. 

X  Bcdc,  751. 

§  We  thus  sec  the  modern  title  of  the  kings  of  France,  attributed  by  one  writer  to  tw<y 
princes  of  Northumbria,  many  centuries  ago;  so  in  Ingulphus,  497,  we  sec  the  collective 
appellation,  which  James  the  First  very  wisely  gave  to  the  whole  of  this  island,  then  iwiited 
into  one  whole,  for  the  first  time  during  sixteen  hundred  years  preceding,  and  probably 
during  some  hundreds  before;  actually  anticipated  by  Edred,  the  sovereign  only  of  tha 
heptarchy^  "  Ego  Edredus  re.x, — Magna  "  Britannia  temporale  gcrcns  imperium." 

"  gild 


JJ2  TirE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COUy\VALL  .  [cHAP.  lU 

"gihi  them  uith  the  purest  gohl,  :md  emboss  them  tvith  the  dearest  gems. 
"  All  of  these  donations,  ami  some  others,  in  testimony  of  his  blessed 
"  nieinorv.  are  pre  served  to  this  daij  in  oi/r  church*.^'  So  capaeious  were 
some  churehes  of  the  Saxons,  and  so  magnilieent  were  the  Saxons  in  the 
decorations  of  some  of  tiirni! 

We  aelualW  Ix-hold  some  decorations,  more,  that  are  very  striking  in 
themselves,  and  not  confined  to  a  single  church,  but  extended  to  two. 
Canute  is  reported  by  Malmcsluiry  himself,  to  have  visited  the  tomb  of 
Kdnnmd  Ironside  at  Glastonbury,  and  to  have  thrown  over  it  "  a  pall,  in- 
"  tcrwovcn  (as  it  seems)  with  the  variegated  feathers  of  the  peacock  f." 
Adhelm,  adds  the  same  Malmesbury,  in  another  [)lacc  concerning  a  Saxon 
in  the  reign  of  Ina,  went  to  Rome,  and  officiated  at  the  altar  in  the  La- 
tcran  thei-e,  "  in  a  garment  which  is  called  a  casula,''  and  which,  at  the 
end  of  the  sen'ice,  "  he  threw  oft'  behind  ;  a  garment,"  evidently  o])en 
before  like  a  modern  surplice,  and  more  recently  denominated  a  chesiible 
among  us,  "  of  which  it  is  uncertain  whether  he  carried  it  uith  him 
"Jrom  England,  or  borrowed  it  there  for  the  time,  and,"  what  proves 
he  did  tiot  borrow  it,  hut  brought  it  with  him,  "  which  is  still  prc- 
"  served  among  as;  being  made  of  the  most  delicate  threads,  saturated' 
"  icilh  the  dies  of  the  shcU-Jishes,  and  tJicrcforc  of  a  purple  colour,  while 

•  Eddius,  c.  17.  Gale,  i.  59,  60:  "  In  Hrypis  basilicam  cum  polito  lapide  a  funda- 
"  mentis  \4  It-rra  u;qiie  ad  suinmum  .-edificatam,  variis  columnis — suffidtain,  in  ahum 
"  crexit,  cl  consunimavit.  Jam  postea  pcrficul  donui,  ad  diem  dtdicationis  ejus  invitatis 
"  regibus  Chnsiianissimis  tagfrido  el  ylilwino  fratribus,  cum  abbalihus,  prsfcctisque,  et 
"  cub-rcgulis,  lotitisqiic  dignitatis  personis ;  simul  in  unum  convenerimt :  consecrantcs 
"  domuoi  Domini,  in  honorem  Sancti  Petri — dicatam,  preccsque  in  ea  populorum  suflTra- 
"  gantium  ;  altare  quoque,  cum  basibus  suis,  Domino  dedicantcs,  purpuraqiie  auio— ttxla 
"  md.icnlcs;  popiilique  comnumicantcs  omnia  canonice  complcverunl :— addens  quoque 
"  unctui  ponlifex  nortcr,  inter  alia  dona  ad  decorem  domus  Dei,  inauditum  ante  seculis 
"  noslris  quoddam  miraculum  j  nam  quatuor  Evangelia,  de  auro  purissimo  in  merobranis 
"  dcpiirpuratis,  coloratis,  scribcre  jussit.  Nccnon  et  bibliolhecani  libiorum  eorum  omnem, 
••  dc  auro  p..ris«imo  et  geromis  preciosissimis  fabrefactam,  conqiaginare  intliiforcs  gemma. 
•'  rum  prxccpit:  quae  omnia,  et  alia  nonnulla,  in  testimonium  beatx  niemori»  ejus,  in 
**  ccckaiA  nostra  uuque  hodie  reenndimlur." 

t  Gale,  I,  323  :  '•  Palliain  vtrs^coloribui  pennis  pavonum,  iit  vidctur,  intcxtiim." 

^  "  the 


SECT.  III.]  niSTORICALLY   SfRVEYED.  113 

"  the  black  circles  upon  if  have  various  peacocks,  imaged  oat  to  a  spa- 
"  cioiis  length  tvilhin  them'l.''  These 

X  Gale,  i.  351  :  "  Missa  dicla,  vcstem  quam  casulam  vocant  post  terga  rcjecit — :  hxc 
"  autem  vestis,  incerluman  ah  Anglia  secum  delata,  an  ibi  aJ  tempus  comniodata,  hactcnus 
♦'  apiid  nos  habetnr: — est  autem  fili  delicatissimi,  quod,  couchylioriim  fucisebriiim,  rapnerit 
"  colorem  cocciiieum,  habeiilque  nigra;  rolula:  intra  se  cffigiatas  species  pavoniim  longitudi- 
"  nis  spatiosoe."  The  castila  was  not  an  all,  being  expressly  distinguished  from  it  by 
Malmesbury,  in  Gale,  i.  325,  "  Albam — ,  cappas— ,  casulam."  Spclman  says,  ac- 
cordingly, "  Ort.  Vocah.  Cusuln  a — chesulle,  et  Dictioiiar.  Vet.  "  Anglo-Lat.  Chcsille, 
"  casula."  It  was  plainly  in  Adhelm's  case,  a  garment  only  for  officiating;  as  Adhclm  is  said 
"  to  have  thrown  it  off  behind,  when  he  had  said  mass."  It  was,  however,  not  what  Spel- 
iTian's  "  Ort.  Vocab.  Casula"  calls  it  equally,  "  a  Ultle  cope,  or  chesuble."  It  was  too 
large  to  be  a  cope,  and  much  too  large  to  be  a  Utth  cope.  This  is  plain  from  the  descrip- 
tion of  Adhelm's  casula,  with  "  various  peacocks  imaged  out  to  a  spacious  length,"  within 
some  black  circles  upon  it.  This  is  also  plain  from  an  ancient  description  of  the  casula  in 
general,  that,  "  instar  parvae  casae,  totum  hominem  tegit."  (Spelmanfrom  Balbus.)  The 
garment,  therefore,  was  one,  which  hung  all  over  the  body  like  a  present  surplice,  was  like 
this  worn  only  for  the  hour  of  ministration,  and  then,  like  the  modern  surplice,  cut  open 
before,  could  be  thrown  off  behind.  Yet  it  was  certainly  not  a  surplice,  as,  in  the  form  of 
degrading  an  archbishop,  the  "  super-pellicium"  is  mentioned  first,  afterwards  comes  the 
*'  alba,"  and  then  the  "  planeta,"  or  casula.  (Spelman  under  Manipvlus.)  It  was  merelv  a 
chesuble.  Yet  Mr.  Bentham  interprets  it,  without  any  seeming  suspicion  that  he  can  be 
wrong,  not  a  chesuble,  not  a  surplice,  not  a  cope,  but  a  cassock.  "  On  inspecting  the  body 
'•  of  Wolslan,  archbishop  of  York,"  he  says,  p.  91,  "  they  found  it  quite  decayed;  but  the 
"  clothing,  particularly  the  cassock,^'  casulum,  "  and  archiepiscopal  pall  affixed  to  it  with 
"  gilded  pins,  and  the  stole  and  maniple — entire."  That  casula  should  signify,  at  once,  a 
c/tej«f'/e  and  a  cffMoc^,  is  impossible;  in  fact,  it  signified  only  the  former.  Ji  was  a  dress 
worn  merely  in  officiating;  as  "  casula  dicitur  vulgo  planeta,"  "  presbytcri,"  says  Balbus,  in 
Spelman,  and  as  planetas,  adds  St.  Jerome  iii  Spelman  again,  is  "  tunica  qua  utcbar  in 
"  ministerio  Chrisli,"  and  the  reason  for  finding  tl\e  cupula  with  the  pall,  the  stole, 
and  the  maniple,  on  archbishop  Wolstan,  is  sufficiently  explained  to  us  in  this  passage 
concerning  archbishop  Bcckct,  whom  the  attendants  hastily  buried  af"ier  his  murder, 
.•^ays  W.  Fitz-Stephen,  in  Sparkcs,  89,  "  ipso  eodcni  in  quo  ordinatus  luit  vcstimenlo, 
"  alba — ,  supcrhumerali  siniplici,"  the  tippet  still  worn  by  |iroctors  and  preachers  at 
Oxford;  "  chrismalicA,  niiira,  stola,  niapulii  [manipulaj,  qu.-e  omnia  rcscrvari  pra;- 
"  ccpcrat,  foite  in  diem  scpultura:  sux  ;  supra  qua>  habuit  archicpiseopaliter  lunieam, 
'*  dalnuaticam,  casulam,  pallium  cum  spinulis,  caiicem,  chirolhecas,  annuluni,  san- 
'■•  dalia,"  S^e.  So  perplexed  are  our  antiquaries,  at  present,  with  the  names  of  occlcsias- 
tical  garments  that  must  once  have  been  very  familiar!  Such  an  influence,  indeed,  Jias 
i)ur  necessary  revolt  from  popery  to  protestantism  had  upon  the  mind  of  the  nation,  that  anti- 
«]uarics  are  obliged  to  explain  to  the  learned  ilie  meaning  of  ihoic  uaaics,  which  must  once 

VOL.  I.  ■  a  hav 


,,^  THE    CATHEOnXL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  II. 

Th«e  instances  wciuld  be  sufficient  of  themselves;  but  I  add  one 
more-  the  Saxon  que<-.,  of  Canute  "  wrought,  with  her  oivn  hands ^j^^nc 
"  piece  of  purple,  surrounded  on  every  side  7rifh  a  border  of  gold  Jrmge, 
.-and  onuunentcd  at  mrrul  parts  of  it  by  extraordinary  workmanship 
-  uith  <rold  and  precious  gems,  as  mstories;  and  presented  it  to  the  church 

•'  of  KIV.  that    NOWHERE    ELSE   IN   THE    REGION  OF  ENGLAND  SHOULD  BE 
••  FOUND    A    PIECE    OF   SUCH    WOnKMANSHIP    AND    VALUE  f." 

Let  us  then  attend  singly  to  the  size  of  the  Saxon  churches  ;  for  that 
purpose  enter  Hexhan  church  particularly,  and  survey  the  structure  of  it. 
This,  says  a  cotemporary  historian,  is  one  "  the  deepness  of  which  in 
'•  the  ground,  all  with  the  rooms  founded  of  stones  admirably  pohshed, 
"  but  ha\inp  above  ground  one  room  of  many  parts,  supported  on  va- 
••  rious  columns  and  on  many  underground  chapels,  yet  possessing  a 
V  wonderful  length  and  height  of  walls,  and,  by  various  passages  winding 
••  in  lines  carried  along  spiral  stairs,  sometimes  up,  sometimes  down  *." 

This 

have  bc«n  a$  well  known  to  the  vulgar,  as  the  very  garments  themselves.  The  oldest  chesublc 
racmioncd  incur  annals,  I  believe,  is  one  in  the  Life  of  St.  Wencfrcd.  (Lcland's  Itin.  iv. 
137.)  Bat  the  chesublc  of  Adhelni,  mentioned  above  by  Malnicsbury  as  existing  to  his 
lime,  existed  equally  to  the  lime  of  Lcland,  the  very  reverence  for  founders  and  saints  proving 
an  elegant  spirit  of  virtii  to  the  monks ;  "  Mailduni — adhiic  monachi  sui  patroni  moni- 
"  menta  ostentant,  ncmpe  sacram  vestem,  qua  indiitiis  misiam  celelrare  solehat . — Hrec,"  this 
and  other  relics,  "  ego  nuper  Meilduni  vidi."  (Dc  Script.  Brit.  100.) — For  a  cassock,  see  vi. 
I,  hereafter. 

^  Gale,  i.  502,  and  Wharton's  Angla  Sacra,  i.  607  :  "  Insignem — purpurani  aurifrisio 
"  undiqiic  einctam  fecit,  et  [per  Gale]  partes  auro  ct  genimis  pretiosis  niirifico  opcre,  velut 
"  tabulati;:,  adornavit,  illicquc  oblidit ;  ut  nulla  ;\!la  in  Anglorum  rcgione  talis  operiset  prelii 
"  inveniatur."  Of  this  says  Mr.  Bcnlham  only  thus :  "  One  piece  of  purple  cloth,  wrought 
"  with  gold,  and  worked  in  several  compartments  with  gold,  and  set  with  jewels,  such  as 
"  there  was  none  like  it  for  richness  in  the  kingdom."  (P.  95.)  It  remained  to  the  days  of 
the  historian,  the  9th  of  Henry  I.  1109,  "  quae  penes  nos  hactenus  rcponuntur."  (Whar- 
ton, ibid.) 

•Eddius,  c.  xxii. :  "  Cujus  profunditatem  in  terra,  cum  domibus  mirifice  ptjiitis  lapidibus 
*'  fundatam,  et  super  terrani  multipliccm  doniuni,  coUimnis  variis  ct  porticibus  multis  suf- 
*'  fuham,  mirabilique  longitudinc  et  altitudine  murorum  ornatam,  et  variis  linearum  [linea- 
"  rium]  anfractibus  viarum,  aliquando  sursum,  aliquando  deorsum,  per  cochleas  circnmda- 
"  tarn."  That  "  porticibus,"  here  means  underground  chapels,  is  plain  from  the  word 
"  (ui!uham"  applied  to  them,  and  applied  to  them  equally  as  to  the  pillars.     Mr.  Bcnthan), 

p.  22, 


SECT.  iri.J  HISTORICALLY   SL'RVETED,  115 

This  is  a  delineation,  we  must  feel,  that  would  even  accord  ^^  ith  any  of 
our  cathedrals  at  present  f- .  But  the  author  closes  his  account  with  a 
declaration  of  a  very  extraordinary  energy  and  comprehensiveness ;  "  nor 
•'  did  I  ever  hear  of  any  other  house  on  this  side  of  the  Alpine  mountains, 
"built  equal  with  fhisX^  Where  then  are  the  small  churches  with 
which  Malmesbury  has  comparatively  characterized  the  Saxon  jera  of  our 
history  ?  We  see  the  Saxons  erecting  some,  superior  in  form  and  in 
inagnitude  to  an}-  out  of  Italy,  that  source  of  revived  gi'andeur  in  archi- 
tecture to  all  Europe.  But  perhaps,  as  a  Saxon  is  the  describer,  he  may 
have  carried  his  description  beyond  the  truth ;  not  from  any  desire  of  am- 
plifying, only  from  the  natural  wonder  of  a  man  accustomed  to  small 
churches,  at  a  church  a  little  larger,  though  not  very  large.  To  a  pigmy 
amid  a  race  of  pigmies,  the  common  stature  of  man  might  appear  gigantic 
tallness.  Let  us  see,  therefore,  how  a  Norman  describes  this  very  church 
of  Hexham  ;  and  whether  then,  xmder  the  fair  glass  of  truth,  it  contracts 
into  a  church  a  little  more  than  small. 

"  The  deepness  of  the  church,"  says  Richard,  the  prior  of  it,  about  a 
hundred  years  after  the  Conquest,  "  he  [M^ilfrid]  founded  helow  with 
"  great  labour,  in  crypts  and  oratories  subterraneous,  with  winding  pas- 
"  sages  to  them  § ."     But  as  the  author  proceeds,  "  the  walls  he  erected 

"  of 

p.  22,  renders  the  words  "  vaiiislincanim  [lincarlum]  anfractlbus,"  as  if  they  were  distinct 
from  "  viarum  aliquando  sursuni  aliquando  dcorsiun  per  cochleas  circuindalam/'  in  this 
wild  way,  "  surrounded  with  various  mouldings  and  bands  curiously  wrought ;"  then  adds 
thus,  "  and  the  turnings  and  windings  of  the  passages,"  &c.  He  did  not  understand  the 
sentence,  he  guessed  at  the  meaning,  and  he  missed  it  totally. 

+  W.  Fitz-Stcphens,  in  Sparkc,  86,  for  Canterbury  cathedral  :  "  Crypta  crat  prope,  in  qu3 
**  multa,  et  pleraquc  tcnebrosa,  diverticula.  Item  erat  ill  aliud  ostium  prope,  quo  per  cocleam 
*'  ascenderet  ad  cameras  et  tcstlduncs  ecclesiae  superioris." 

X  Eddius,  c.  xxii. :  "  Ncquc  uUam  domum  aliam  citra  Alpes  monies,  talem  aedificatam 
**  exaudivimus." 

^  Twisden,  c.  290 :  <'  Profunditatcm  ipsius  ccclesioe  criplisct  oratoriis  subterrancis,  et  vi- 
"  arum  anfractibus,  inferius  cum  magnft  industrid  fundavit."  Mr.  Bentham  thus  wildly 
renders  the  words  :  "  The  foundations  of  this  church— St.  Wilfrid  laid  deep  in  the  earth,  for 
**  the  crypts  and  oratories,  and  the  passages  leading  to  them,  wliich  \\cre  ihi-re  with  great 

Q  2  "  ffactnes^ 


,,^  THE   CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  '  [cHAP.  IT. 

•*  at  immense  length  andhnnht,  supportc-a  i,n  columns  of  squared,  varied, 
'•  ;vcll-iu.l.shea  stones  an.l  ciivklcd  into  three  stories\\r  "  The  ^^all9 
'•  the.nselves."  he  adds,  -  «ith  the  capitals  of  those  columns  by  which 
••  the  walls  were  supported,  as  also  the  coved  ceiling  of  the  sanctuary,  he 
"  decorated  «ith  histories,  statues,  and  various jigures projecting  in  sculp- 
••  tare  from  the  stone,  with  the  grateful  variety  of  pictures,  and  with  the 
-  tvomlerfiil  U-auty  of  coUmrs^r  "  He  also,"  subjoins  the  Mriter, 
'•  surrounded  tlie  very  body  of  the  church,  with  chapels  lateral  and  sub- 
«'  terraneous  on  every  side';  which,  >\  ith  wonderful  and  inexplicable  ar- 
"  lifice   he  separated  bv  walls  and  spiral  stairs  above  and  below  *." 

"  But 

«« txttclnn^  contrived  and  hiUt  under  ground."  (I'.  22.)    For  fear  of  stumbling  upon  straws, 
tlie  ciinnine  wilch  lliis  on  her  broomstick  over  tlicni. 

M  T*isdcn,  c.  290  :  "  Parictes  autem  quadralis  ct  variis  et  bene  politis  columpnis,"  not 
tquared  .olumns,  as  tlic  words  do  naturally  signify,  but,  as  the  words  of  Eddius  before  shew, 
of  columns  of  *tonc«  squared  and  polished,  "  suffultos,  ct  Iribus  tabulatis  distinctos,  Im- 
•'  mcnsi  longituJinis  ct  allitudinis  ere.xit."  Yet  Mr.  Bentham  translates  thus,  p.  22  : 
*•  The  walls,  which  were  of  a  great  length  and  raised  to  an  immense  height,  and  divided  into 
"  three  several  stories  or  tir«?s,  he  supported  by  square  and  various  other  kinds,"  as  round, 
angular,  triangular,  or  nnillaiigular,  "  of  well-polished  columns." 

^  Twisden,  c.  290:  "  Ipsoseiiam,  et  capitella  columpnaruni  quibus  sustentantur,  et  ar- 
"  cum  sanctuarii,  hisloriis  et  imaginibus,  et  variis  caelaturarum  figuris  ex  lapide  prominenlU 
"  bus,  cl  piclurarum  et  colorum  grat4  varictate  niirabiliquc  decore,  devoravlt." 

•  Ibid,  ibid,  :  "  Ipsum  quoque  corpus  ecclesix  appcnticiis  et  porticibus  undique  cir- 
'*  cumciiuit;  qux,  miro  atque  inc.xplicabili  artificio,  per  parietes  et  cochleas,  iuferius  et  su- 
"  pcriQS,  dislinxil."  The  mention  of  "  crypts  and  oratoiics  subterraneous"  before,  and  of 
"  winding  passages  to  them,"  confirms  the  interpretation  which  I  have  given  to  the  word 
"  I'orticibus"  in  Eddius  before ;  and  the  use  of  the  very  same  word  here,  as  uniting  with 
"  Appcnticix,"  10  express  rooms,  that  "  surrounded  the  body  of  the  church  on  every  side," 
yci  were  separated  from  each  other  by  walls  and  by  stairs,  by  stairs  from  the  rooms  above, 
but  by  walls  from  each  other  above  and  below,  doubly  confirms  it.  The  word  porliciis  is  also, 
in  Bcdc,  V.  20,  for  the  same  object;  but  has  never  yet  been  understood,  T  believe,  either  here 
or  there.  Mr.  Bentham  has  particularly  puzzled  himself  about  it,  translating  it  "  Portico," 
lli-n  pro\ing  it  to  be  within  the  church,  and  therefore  speaking  of  "  the  portico  or  isle." 
(P.  19,  20.)  Yet  so  much  beUer  calculated  to  win  upon  the  world,  is  a  plain  meaning  than 
ii  dubious  one,  however  erroneous  in  itself  the  former  may  be,  however  contradictory  in  the 
author  :  the  last  imprprttation  of  a  jiortico  into  an  aiic  has  been  adopted  by  others,  and  is  be- 
ginning to  circulate  as  the  legitimate,  the  acknowledged  interpretation  of  it.  "  There  were 
"  portkofsoT  to-falls,"  says  Mr.  Shaw,  describing' the  cathedral  of  Elgin  in  his  History  of 

Moray, 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SITRVEYED.  l]/ 

"  But  in  the  very  stairs  and  upon  them,"  the  author  goes  on,  ••  he 
"  caused  to  be  made  of  stone  ways  of  ascent,  places  of  landing,  and  a  va- 
"  riety  of  windings,  some  up,  some  down,  yet  so  artificially,  that  an  in- 
"  mnncraldc  vudtUude  of  vicn  might  be  there,  and  stand  all  about  the 
"  very  body  of  the  church;  but  not  be  visible  to  any  that  m  ere  belotu 
«'in  itf." 

"  With. 

Moray,  p.  2:77,  "  on  each  side  of  the  church,  eastward  from  the  traverse  or  cross,  jvhich  tvere 
"  eighteen  feet  broad  luithout  the  walls."  The  autlior  then  speaks  of  "  windows  in  the  por- 
"  ticoes,"  and  of  windows  "  above  the  porlivoes." — As  to  tlie  "  appenticias,"  or  lateral 
chapels  here,  I  shall  speak  to  them  again  in  Sect.  4,  and  iii.  i.  Yet  here  let  me  observe, 
that  they  additionally  serve,  as  meaning  lateral  chapels  themselves,  to  fix  the  porticoes  for  the 
c\{d,^fi\i  tiiider  ground ;  for  what  Camden,  in  edit.  1607,  has  called  very  properly  "*crypto- 
"  porticus,"  as  St.  Faith's  chapel  under  St.  Paul's,  p.  306.  This  meaning  of  the  word  con- 
tinued among  us  below  the  Conquest.  Thus  when  the  church  of  Ely  was  burnt  by  the  Danes  in 
870,  as  the  historian  of  blly  tells  ws  about  the  year  1 109,  some  of  the  clergy  returned  because 
the  enemy  was  gone,  "  patched  up  again  the  porticoes  of  the  church,  and  performed  divine 
"offices  in  them."  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  602  :  "  Por/;rj«  ecclesias  resarcientes,  divi- 
"  num  oflicium  solvebanf."  But  what  w  ere  tliese  porticoes  P  The  whole  church  was  burnt 
down,  "  ecclesia — ignc  consmnpta  est,"  and  "  flamma  tt.  krro  ciincta  consitmunlur."  Yet 
let  us  not  rest  wholly  upon  general  expressions,  so  apt  in  cases  of  distress  to  be  too  big  for  the 
fact ;  but  let  us  estimate  the  ruins  by  the  repairs.  From  these  all  the  parts  above  gromid  ap- 
pear to  have  been  left  with  frightful  chasms  in  the  walls,  and  with  little  or  no  roof  over  head. 
The  new  abbot  "  ecelesiae  su;e  viriliter  instabat ;  ex  parte  cw'wn  lapsa,  velut  nova,  non  sine 
"  grandi  labore  adimplevit,  ac  dcindc  tectis  reparatis  qiice  fuerant  igne  consnmpta,"  &c. 
i,  604.  The  ailes  then  were  still  roofless  equally  with  the  nave,  and,  as  being  extrinsic  to  the 
nave,  must  have  been  more  exposed  still  to  the  chasms  in  the  walls.  The  ailes  therefore 
could  not  possibly  be  the  porticoes  that  had  been  patched  up;  the  underground  chapels 
alone  could  be  ;  and  the  chasms  in  the  walls  of  the  ailes  were  so  many,  that  the  reparation  of 
them  is  denominated  a  new  construction  ;  "  templum  rursus  xdificatum,"  ibid.  ibid.  Sec- 
Mr.  Bentham,  70,  74,  all  erroneous  on  the  point. 

t  Twisden,  c.  290,  ■291  :  "  In  ipsis  vcro  cochleis,  et  super  ipsas,  ascensoria  ex  lapide,  ef 
"  deambulatoria,  et  varios  vianmi  anfractus,  modo  sursum,  modo  deorsum,  arlrficiosissimc 
•'  ita  machinari  fecit;  ut  innumera  hominum  multitudo  ibi  existere,  et  ipsum  corpus  ecelcsiac 
"  circumdare  possil,  ciim  a  neniine  tamen  infra  in  cX  existcntiuni  videri  queat."  Mr.  Bentham 
translates  thus  in  p.  22  :  "  Within  the  staircases,  and  above  them,  he  caused  flights  of  slaps 
*•  and  galleries  of  stone,"  Mr.  Bentham  transferring  "  ex  lapide"  to  "  deambulatoria,"  so 
leaping  over  the  intermediate  "  et"  with  them,  and  alt.achiiig  that  to  "deambulatoria," 
which  is  fcrniiiv'lv  attached  to  '*  ascensoria"  in  the  original,  but  in  reality  belongs  to  all,  as 
all  were  equally  of  stone,  "  and  several  passages  leading  from  them,"  passages  leading  from 

— passages  ! 


j,R  THE    CVTHnDHAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.    U. 

•  Wnh  rrrr  great  attention  and  addirss,"  as  the  writer  closes  hisac- 
rount  ••  lie  also  tornu-a  verv  many  oratories,  very  priA  ate  and  very  hand- 
••  some  ahoN  e  and  beloxv ,  in  the  very  chapels  subterraneous  [and  lateral] ; 
♦•  in  which  he  ordered  altars,  nn  ith  their  accompaniments,  to  be  placed. 
.•  From  this  circumstance,  some  of  those  oraforhs  even  at  this  Jay  rear  their 
••  ht'iuls.  like  so  nimty  toners  ami  />,ihrar/,s.—^ov  do  ^^e  dwell  on  the 
"  multiplied  ami  very  curious  construction  of  buihiin<rs,  winch  waste  and 
••  devastation  have  detnolished  ;  thotigh  ren/  numerous  foundations  are 
•«  to  this  day  found  there,  on  every  side.  1  or,  as  ancient  histories  and 
«•  chronicles  testitV,  of  the  nine  minsters  over  which  WiltVid  was  a  father 
•'  and  a  patrtm.  as  also  of  all  the  others  throughout  the  ivhole  of  England; 
••  ilus  surfnissed  all,  in  judiciousness  of  disposition,  and  in  fineness  of 
'•  fabrication.     Finally,  no  such  could  then  be  found  on  this  side  of  the 

This 

—passages !  "  bolh  for  ascending  and  descending,  to  be  so  artfully  disposed,  that  multitudes 
"  of  people  might  be  there,  and  go  round  t/ic  church,"  a  most  ridiculous  interpretation  of 
<«  ipsum  corpus  cctlesia:  cirLumdare,"  and  one  that  shews  the  translator  caught  not  a  glimpse 
of  hii  author's  meaning,  ''  without  being  seen  by  any  one  below  in  the  nave,"  when  the 
words  of  the  original  arc,  "  anemine  tamen  infra  in  ea  [ecclesia]  existentium,"  and  mean  the 
persons  («/oM/  in  the  c/iKrcA,  in  the  underground  chapels  of  it.  "  Multitudes  of  people," 
and  especially  as  the  version  ought  to  have  been,  "  an  innumeralle  multitude  of  men,"  could 
stand  only  where  they  are  expressly  placed,  "  in  the  lodij  of  the  church;"  and  these,  so 
placed,  could  not  be  seen  from  the  undcr-croft.  But  Mr.  Bentham  has  transposed  the  whole 
scene,  placed  the  multitudes  in  his  private  passages,  and  fixed  ihtfew  in  his  nave.  He  has, 
indce<l,  been  hurried  away  into  a  total  misconception  of  his  author's  meaHing,  by  never  ad- 
verting once  to  the  oratories  under  the  church,  and  by  therefore  supposing  the  stairs  down  to 
them  to  be  merely  those  narrow  and  concealed  galleries  which  are  formed  high  in  the  walls  of 
most  of  our  uld  minsters,  as  private  passages  for  the  workmen  in  repairing  the  loftier  parts  of 
them.  The  whole  substance,  indeed,  of  Richard's  description  of  Hexham  church,  is  thus 
condensed  by  Malniesbury  in  his  account  of  the  old  cathedral  of  London  ;  "  tanta  criptts  laxi- 
••  tas,  UnU  superioris  adis  capacitas,  ut  cuililet  populi  multitudini  videatur  posse  sufficere" 
(f.  '35-) 

;  Twisdcn,  c.  291  :  "  Oratoria  quoque  quam  plurima,  superius  et  inferiias,  secretissima  et 
"  pulcherrtma,  in  ipsis  porticibus"  [and,  as  the  words  "  superius  et  inferius"  before  shew 
thould  be  added,  et  appenticiis],  "cum  maxima  diligentia  et  cautela  constituit ;  in  qui- 
"  bus  altari.i— cum  corum  apparatibus — prxparari  fecit.  Undc  ctiam,  usque  hodie,  quas- 
"  dam  illoruui  ul  tunes  et  propugnacula  supererainent.     Mullipliccni  et  curiosissimam  a:di- 

"  ficiorum 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICVLLr    SURVEYED.  Ug 

This  delineation  is  uncommonly  full,  uncommonly  precise;  and  re- 
minds us  strongly  in  the  subterraneous  crypts  with  oratories  in  them,  of 
our  late  cathedral  of  St.  Paul's,  with  Jesus  chapel  and  St.  Faith's  church 
in  "' the  crowds"  under  it  §;  or  of  our  present  cathedral  of  Canterburv, 
with  its  "  under-croft,"  and  AValloon  church  below.  The  Saxons,  we 
see,  very  early  built  churches  upon  the  models,  on  which  the  finest  of  our 
cathedrals  have  been  since  built.  Even  the  very  appellation  ot  crypt, 
from  which  the  names  of  under-c/'o/if  and  crowds  are  by  an  anglicized 
pronunciation  derived,  was  familiar  to  the  Saxons ;  as  is  evident  from  the 
retention  of  the  name  in  those  disguised  forms  amongst  us,  from  the  use 
of  it  by  the  historian  of  Hexham  before,  so  soon  after  the  Conquest,  and 
from  the  very  declaration  of  the  historian  of  Ramsey,  that  king  Canute 
built  a  nunnery  in  Ramsey  isle,  and  "  the  crypt,  which  had  been  formed 

*'  ficioruni  structuram,  quae  vastatio  et  vastilas  delevit,  superscdemus ;  cum  tamen  funda- 
"  menta  plurima  adhuc  ibi  passim  reperiantur.  Sicut  cnim  amiqux  historic  ct  chronica  tes- 
"  taiUiir,  inter  i.\.  monasteria  quibus  prxdictus  praesul  pater  et  patromis  prseerat,  et  inter 
"  omnia  alia  totius  Anglix,  artificiosa  compositione  et  cxiniia  pulchritudiue  hoc  prcecellebat; 
"  denique,  citra  Alpcs  niiUuni  tale  tunc  temporis  rcperiri  potcrat."  Mr.  Bcntham  renders 
the  words  thus,  p.  22,  23  :  "  Moreover,  in  the  several  divisions  oi  the  porticoes  or  isles,  both 
"  above  and  below,  he  erected  many,"  &c.  What  are  the  "  divisions"  of  an  "  isle"  in  a 
church,  either  "  above"  or  "below  ?"  They  seem  to  be  the  fortuitous  creations  of  a  dash- 
ing chaos  in  the  mind.  So  thoroughly,  indeed,  was  this  writer  in  a  chaos  of  intellect,  as  to 
the  import  and  tendency  of  these  descriptions,  that  was  an  architect  to  build,  supposing  any 
could  build,  this  church  anew  upon  his  description,  the  original  architect  could  not  possibly 
recognise  his  own  in  it ;  and  the  whole  would  ap[iear  to  Mr.  Bcntham  himself,  even  to  all  the 
world,  a  mass  of  parts  without  relation  to  each  other,  a  mere  mockery  of  building,  a  very  Babel 
of  confusion. 

§  Stowe's  London,  354,  355  :  "  Under  the  quire  of  Paul's  is  a  large  chappcll,  first  dedi- 
"  cated  to  the  name  of  Jesu, — confirmed  the  37.  of  lien.  VI.  as  appearcth  by  his  patent 
"  thereof,  dated  at  Crowdowne — ."  In  this  patent  the  chapel  is  said  to  be  "  in  a  place 
"  called  the  Crowds  of  the  calhedrall  church  of  Paul's  in  London;"  and  a  guild  to  be  be- 
longing to  it,  "  which  hath  continued  long  time  peaceably  till  now  of  late."  But  "at  the 
"  west  end  of  this  Jesus  chappcll,  under  the  fpiirc  of  Paul's,  also  was  and  is  a  parish-church 
"  of  St.  Faith,  commonly  called  St.  Faith  under  Paul's,  which  served  (as  still  it  doth)  for  the 
"  stationers  and  others,  dwelling  in  Paul's  churchyard,  Patcr-noster-row,  and  the  places 
"  ncere  adjoyning.  The  said  chappeil  of  .lesus  being  suppressed  in  the  reignc  of  Edw.  the  VI., 
♦'  the  parishioners  of  St.  Faith's  church  were  removed  into  the  same,  as  a  place  more  suf- 
"  iicient  lor  largeness  and  lightsomnesse,  in  the  yeere  1551  j  and  so  it  rcmaineth." 

5  "  under 


^-O  THE    rATHEDRAL    OF    COKNWALT.  [ciIAP.   IT. 

••  under  the  preat  altar  of  the  church  itself',  remains  undcmolishcd  to  this 
'•  dav  in  our  cemetery,  an  index  and  a  w  itness  of  the  luiilding  || ." 

"Nor  docs  the  church  of  Ilcxluun  appear  to  lla^e  been  the  only  one  of 
pnujdeur  anil  elegance  among  the  Saxons.  We  have  already  seen  it  was 
not.  >\'e  even  see  here,  that  AN'iltrid,  the  prior  and  builder  of  this,  had 
ef|uaUv  other  minsters,  "  over  a\  hich  he  was  a  father  and  a  patron,'  and 
«)ti  w  hich  also  he  employed  his  magnificence  or  taste.  We  likewise  see, 
that  there  were  many  other  minsters  in  England  then,  as  well  as  these, 
which  might  pretend  to  raise  their  heads  in  some  degree  of  competition 
u  ith  it.  though  they  could  not  be  allowed  to  rival  it.  And  we  have 
(inallv  that  high-toned  declaration  repeated  again  in  our  ears,  which 
says,  "  no  such  [church]  could  then  be  found  on  this  side  of  the  Alps." 
So  little  do  we  find  the  fame  of  our  Saxon  minster  contracted,  by  passing 
from  Saxon  into  Norman  hands,  that  it  seems  rather  to  be  enlarged  by 
the  Norman,  beyond  the  dimensions  given  it  by  the  Saxon  ! 

I  might  additionally  notice  the  Saxon  minsters  of  York,  of  Rippon 
again,  of  Thornev.and  of  Malmesbury ;  all  as  descrihed  by  that  very  Imto- 
linii,  who  has  insinuated  rather  than  asserted  the  churches  of  the  Saxons 
to  be  small ;  and  who  plainly  means  no  more,  we  now  see,  than  that  they 
were  generally  enlarged  by  the  Normans  *.  I  have  thus  produced  enough 

for 

\  Gale,  i.  4;57 :  "  Crypta,  qux  subtus  majus  ipsius  ecclesiffi  altare  fuerat,  ejusdem  asdificii 
**  icsiis  ct  index,  in  coeniilerio  nostro  hodieque  indemnis  perdurat." 

•  Malmcshury,  f.  148  :  "  Basilica,  quondam  ah  Edwino  rcge  moniiu  Ecati  Paulini  in  Elo- 
"  raco  facia,  tc(^o  vacabat ;  parlctcs  scmiruti,  ct  ruinam  plciiam  niinantcs,  solis  nidis  avium 
"  scn-iebant.  I'ro  indignitate  rei  pontifex  interno  dolore  commouis,  materiam  solidavit,  cul- 
"  men  Icvavit,  levalum  plumbeis  laminis  ab  injuria  procellarum  munivit,"  Sec.  "  Sensit  et 
**  Rifiis  indiistriam  antislitis ;  acdificata  ibi  a  fundamentis  ccclesia,  viiroforninim  inflexu,  la- 
''  p'tdtim  laiulatu,  porlicuinn  anfraciu."  V.  168:  "  Quid  dicetur  de  sedificiorum  decore," 
alTAorr/fy,  "  qux  solum  mirabilc,  quantum  inter  illas  paludes  solidum,  inconaissis  funda- 
"  mtntis  suslinetP"  Gale,  i.  349:  "  Fecit  ergo  ecclcsiam  [Adhclmus]"  at  Malmeshury, 
"  eiacmque  alteram  contiguam— ,  cujus  nos  vestigia  vidinuis;  nam  /rt/amajorisecclesije  fabri- 
"  ra,  ciUlrii  ct  illilala,  noftro  quoque  perslitit  xvo,  vi/icens  decore  et  magmtiidine  quicquid 
"  iiS(\\izmecclesiarum  antujiiitiisfaclvrnvisebatiir  in  Anglia.  Ad  hoc  ergo  tempi um  exqui- 
"  silius  icdificandum,  post  lapldeim  taiiualuvi,"  a  roof  of  stent,  as  in  "  lapidum  tabulatu" 

at 


SECT,  irr.]  HISTORrCALLY   SURVEVED,  121 

for  the  satisfaction  of  my  reader,  and  for  the  purposes  of  my  under- 
taking. I  shall  therefore  cite  only  the  attestation  of  tliis  historian  him- 
self, to  this  very  luifister  of  Hexficnu,  this  queen  of  all  (he  minsters  in 
England,  even  of  all  on  this  side  of  the  Alps,  for  judiciousness  of  dispo- 
sition, and  for  fineness  of  fabrication.  J^ven  he  speaks  of  it  in  these  mag- 
nificent terms:  "  These,"  he  cries,  "  the  buildings  raised  tvith  a  fhrcaicn- 
"  ing  height  of  walls,  and  carried  round  by  divers  winding  passages  along 
"  spiral  stairs,  it  is  jvonderful  how  elegant  he  made :  doing  much,  indeed^ 
"  ttnder  the  direction  of  his  own  taste,  but  much  also  under  the  control 
"  of  workmen,  ivhoni  the  hope  of  his  munificence  attracted  to  him  from 
"  Rome.  A  report  was  then  popular  and  very  loud,  which  has  even 
"  made  its  way  into  the  page  of  history,  that  there  was  no  such  Imildinfr 
"  avj/  u'here  on  this  side  of  the  Alps.  At  present,  those  who  come  from 
"  Rome  allege  the  same  ;  so  that  such  as  behold  the  fabric  at  Hex- 
"  ham,  COULD  swear  thev  had  the  Roman  ambition  of  architec- 
"  TURE  imaged  out  BEFORE  THEIR  EYES.  So  much  elcgancc  is  left  upon 
"  the  face  of  the  buildings,  after  all  the  numerous  injuries  of  time  and 

Thus 

at  Rippon  before,  "  shie  ulU  parshnonia  sumpturum  [simiptuum],  .iggercbatur  copia  I'ktio. 
"  rum,"  Sec. 

*  RIalmesbiuy,  f.  155:  "  Ibi  xdificia  minaci  altitiidinc  niurorum  erecta,  et  diversis  an- 
**  fractibus  per  cochleas  circunducta,  niirabile  quantum  expolivit,  arbitratu  quidem  niulia 
"  [agens]  proprio,  sed  et  csmentariorum,  quos  ex  Roma  spcs  munifiecntiz  attraxerat,  ma- 
"  gisicrio.  Fercbaturque  tunc  in  populo  cclebre,  scriptisquc  etianj  est  indilum,  nusquam 
*'  citra  Alpes  tale  esse  aedificiuni.  Nunc  qui  Roma  veniunt  idem  ailegant,  ut,  qui  ilangus- 
•*  taldenseni  fabiicam  vident,  ambitionem  Romanam  se  [sil)i]  imaginari  jurent.  Adeo  tot 
*'  temporum  et  bellorum  injurioe  vcnustatcm  ajdificiis  non  tulere."  This  church  remains  in 
part  to  the  present  day  ;  and  the  crijpt  imdur  it  was  accidentally  discovered  in  1 726.  "  The 
*'  cathedral,"  says  Dr.  Suikelcy  concerning  this  church,  "  is  a  large,  lofty  structure  in  the 
"  cftanbel;  but  the  bodif  or  west  end,  and  the  two  towers,  are  entirely  demolished  :  it  was 
"collegiate;  a  great  building,  called  the  College  [still  remains].  Between  it  and  the 
"  cliurch  are  [rather]  cloisters,  now  a  garden. — Here  has  been  much  old-fashioned  painting 
"  upon  wainscot  and  stucco,  of  bishops,  saints,  kings,  and  queens;  but,  to  the  loss  of  his- 
"  tory,  defaced.  This  town  was  undoubtedly  Roman.— On  the  site  of  the  cathedral  once 
"  stood  A  Roman  temple.  Digging  for  a  foimdation  of  a  buttress  to  be  built  on  the  west 
"  side  of  the  stccjilc,"  and  consfcpunilv  wiiiiin  the  old  I o<lt/ nt'  the  church,  "  they  opened  a 
"  vault,"  the  head  of  one  of  the  spiral  staircases,  "  vshich  descends  under  the  church,"  the 

VOL.  I.  K  chancel 


,2J  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  (cHAP.  115, 

Thus  is  that  very  historian  himself  in  full  unison  with  Richard  and 
with  Kddius,  in  his  praises  of  this  Saxon  church  for  elegance  and  for 
crandeur:  thus  docs  he  particularly  harmonize  with  both,  in  that  deep 
ba.5  of  panegyric,  the  exaltation  of  it  above  aU  the  churches  out  of 
Jtaly*.  '^"^^°^ 

chancel  of  it,  «  to  a  .ubtcrraneons  oratory,"  the  crypt,  originally  divided  into  many  oratories. 
"  Thi.  place  «a5  built  out  of  the  rums  of  the  ten.ple.  Over  the  inward  entrance  to  the 
•'  vault,"  the  doorway  fro.n  the  landing  to  the  stairs,  «  is  laid  flat  a  fine  Roman  inscription  ; 
•«  the  report  of  which  led  us  down  thither,  though  tlu;  passage  to  it  was  as  bad,"  as  low  and 
mrrow,  •'  as  that  of  Poole's  Hole,  Derbyshire.— Over  the  next  door,  loner  down,"  the 
iloorwav  opening  from  the  stairs  into  the  crypt,  "  a  large  stone  is  set  perpendicular,  and  half 
««  of  it  cut  away,  in  nature  of  an  arch—.  Upon  the  walls  of  the  crypt,  we  saw  many  Roman 
•«  fragments  of  mouldings,  and  carved  work,  with  bits  of  fluted  and  cabled  pilasters.  In 
••  searching  about  the  orator),"  the  crypt,  that  nest  of  oratories,  '•  wc  found  a  very  fine 
•«  altar,  aUuoHcm'nc,  laid  sideways  into  the  very  foundation.— This  church  is  a  very  vene- 
•♦  rahle  and  nolle  Saxon  structure,  and  may  serve  for  a  specimen  of  the  manner  of  raising 
"  those  Jairiis  at  that  lime  of  day."  (Itin.  Curios,  ii.  62,  63.)  See  also,  ilorsley,  247, 
for  this  crypt.  Infinitely  false,  therefore,  is  that  assertion  of  Somner's,  in  his  account  of 
Canterbury,  i.  86  ;  Batlely's  edition  :  "  Before  the  Normans'  advent,  most  of  our  monas- 
••  lerics  and  chureh-buildings  were  of  wood, — and — upon  the  Norman  conquest — gave 
•'place  to  stone-buildings  ruind  upon  an  lies,  a  form  of  structure  introduced  by  that 
*'  nation."  This  appears  so  extravagantly  wild  and  ridiculous,  after  what  I  have  proved  in 
Ihe  text,  that  he  who  once  denied  all  power  of  movement  in  man,  or  he  who  now  argues  his 
6oul  to  be  merely  material,  can  hardly  be  more  so.  Yet  the  materiality  of  man's  soul  has 
been  argued,  and  the  power  of  movement  in  his  body  has  been  denied  by  Mr.  Warton,  in 
his  short  but  much  admired  digression  upon  Gothic  architecture,  and  in  this  poor  echo  of 
Somner's  voice  of  follv.  "  The  Normans,  at  the  Conquest,"  he  cries,  "  introduced  arts- 
"  ami  civility,"  as  aliens  to  tl»e  isle;  "  the  churches,  before  this,  were  of  timber,  or  other- 
"  wise  of  very  mean  construction."  (ii.  185,  1 86.)  That  Somner  should  so  write,  is  to  be 
pardoned;  yet,  that  a  Warton  should,  is  unpardonable.  The  critic,  therefore,  may  ex- 
claim with  Cxsar,  "  Kt  tu.  Brute?"  But  authors,  like  conspirators,  at  times,  draw  in  one 
another  to  the  violation  of  all  justness,  and  to  a  confederacy  against  all  right. 

•  The  Saxons  were  even  so  far  refined,  as  actually  to  have  vinevards  among  them.^  A 
controversy,  indeed,  was  carried  on  a  few  years  ago, beween  two  members  of  the  Antiqua- 
rian Society,  concerning  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  vineyards  formerly  in  England, 
One  of  these  gentlemen,  Mr.  Pegge,  produced  a  multiplicity  of  proofs  in  favour  of  their  ex- 
istence; the  only  proofs  that  could  be  produced  for  an  ancient  incident,  extracts  from  his- 
torical or  other  records,  remains  of  names  ;  and  relics  of  traditions.  (Arch.  i.  319,  232, 
111.  53,  66.)  The  other  gentleman,  Mr.  Rarrington,.oppo.,cd  this  host  of  evidences,  prin- 
cipally by  shewing,  what  every  one  knew  before,  that  it  mij^lu  possibly  be  all  a  host  of  mis- 
take s^ 


SECT.  IV.]  KISTORICALLT   SimVEYEO.  1 1'3 


SECTION  IV. 

Many  of  the  Saxon  churches  then  were  large  and  ample,  raised 
upon  fine  models  of  architecture,  supported  by  fine  rows  of  pillars,  and 
rearing  their  heads  on  high.  But  let  me  now  apply  the  conviction  that 
we  have  gained  of  this,  to  the  elucidation  of  the  history  of  our  (Cornish 
cathedral.  This  is  also  a  Saxon  church;  but  in  apart  that  I  have  not 
yet  described:  and  I  now  proceed  to  prove  it  Saxon f. 

Parallel 

takes,  because  the  word  vine  has  been  applied  lo  cyder,  to  mead,  or  to  perry  (Arch.  iii.  67, 
95);  and,  as  he  might,  with  equal  propriety,  have  urged,  to  malt  liquor  loo,  the  c»sc>  x^-iSno,,  or 
barley-wine  of  some  writers;  and  even,  as  good  housewives  could  have  told  him,  to  the  very 
fruits  of  the  garden,  the  very  flowers  of  the  field,  or  the  very  sap  of  the  trees.  Vet  neither  of 
these  authors  found  any  evidence  for  the  existence  of  vineyards  among  the  Saxoju;  and  the 
latter  of  them  actually  alleged  the  want  of  any  Saxon  term  for  the  grape,  as  an  argument 
against  its  Saxon  cultivation  (iii.  89) ;  but  the  allegation  is  wholly  untrue,  the  Saxons  really 
liaviog  the  Saxon  terms,  /^7rt,  for  wine;  /^iH-Zw/a/?,  for  grapes;  IVuKern,  for  a  tavern  ; 
with  IVin-hritla,  for  a  tavern-keeper,  &c.  &c.  Yet,  to  sweep  away  all  this  dust  of  sophis- 
try from  the  face  of  rcasonhig,  and  to  exhibit  the  truth  in  its  full  fairness  of  demonstration, 
let  me  here  produce  a  fact,  a  Saxon  fact,  and  produce  it  from  the  best  of  all  historical  autho- 
rities. In  the  Danish  part  of  the  Saxon  period,  says  he  who  wrote  so  early  as  1 120,  concern- 
ing his  own  monastery  of  Malmcsbury,  "  codem  tempore  venit  ad  locum  quidam  mona- 
"  chus  Gr«cus,  nomine  Con.stantinus; — hie  primus  autor  viNE.4i  fuit ;"  not  of  vine- 
yards in  general  among  the  Saxons,  but  of  that  in  particular  at  this  monastery  ;  "  quae,  in 
♦'  colic  monasterio  ad  aquilonem  vicino  sita,  flures  duravit  annos — :  festorum  dicrum 
"  in  oratlonibus  consumebat  fcrias,  ca^tcrorum  in  vine.k  opere  totas  consumebat 
"  HORAs."  (Gale,  i.  370,  Malmcsbury.)  Here  the  Graecian  birth  of  the  monk,  and  his 
own  working  in  the  vineyard,  prove  it  to  have  been  a  real  one;  the  continuance  of  it  for 
joveral  years,  shews  it  to  have  brca  cultivated  when  the  Graecian  was  dead  :  and  the  easy 
mode  in  Maime?bury  of  noticing  the  whole,  proves  vineyards  in  general,  real  or  genuine 
sincyards,  to  be  familiar  when  he  wrote,  both  to  himself  and  to  his  expected  readers;  fami- 
liar to  the  Normans  now,  familiar  to  the  Saxons  before  ihcm  :  sucli  virtue  is  there  in  this 
short  passage ! 

t  Mr,  lientham,  who  has  magnified  the  difference  of  size  in  the  Saxon  and  Norman 
churches,  beyond  all  proportion,  gives  this  as  his  grand  reason:  that  "  the  Saxon  churches 
i<  wpre — frequently  begun  and  finished  \nfve  or  six  years,  or  less  lime"  (p.  33) ;  while  the 

R  2  Normans, 


J 24  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  II. 

Parallel  willi  the  part  that  I  have  described,  but  longer  at  the  western 
end.  and  vcrv  much  longer  once  at  the  eastern,  is  the  present  nave. 
N«.r  lei  us,  with  the  sensitiveness  of  a  halt-taught  antiquary,  shrink  back 
at  the  production  of  the  word  nave,  for  a  part  of  a  church  of  the  Saxons. 
It,  and  its  cor-relativc  term  ailes,  were  applied  by  the  very  Saxons,  and 
even  by  the  very  Romans,  themselves.  Thus  the  historian  of  Ramsey 
speaks  of  tlie  abbot  and  monks  there,  "  on  St.  Michael's  day,  perform- 
"  ing  the  evening  service,  and,  according  to  the  custom  derived  fro?n  an- 
"  tiquity,  proceeding  into  the  nave  of  the  church  to  their  station  before 
•'  the  rr()?s:{:.'  The  church,  also,  erected  by  Lanfranc,  at  Canterbury, 
alter  the  C'oiuiuest,  is  described  by  Gcrvase,  the  historian  of  the  cathe- 
dral, as  having  "  the  body  of  the  church  divided  from  its  sides,  which 
"  are  called  n/rr,"  ailes.  or  wings §.  But  let  us  mount  up  at  once  to 
the  Romans,  whose  alphabet  formed  nearly  the  ANhole  of  the  eccle- 
^iasticaI  language  of  western  Europe,  and  from  whom,  therefore,  both 
tliese  appellations  are  apparently  deduced.  The  first  church  of  Canter- 
burv.  savs  Eadmer,  "  was  the  work  of  the  Romans,  as  is  testified  in  the 
••  history  of  Hede;  and  was  in  one  part  formed  upon  the  model  of  the 
*'  church  of  the  blessed  prince  of  the  apostles,  Peter,"  at  Rome. — "  To 
*'  these  altars  was  an  ascent  of  some  steps  from  the  quire  of  the  singers, 

Kornians,  he  adds,  "  laid  out  tlicir  wliole  design  at  first,  scarcely  (we  may  imagine)  vvith  a 
"  view  ot" ever  living  to  sec  it  completed  in  their  lifetime,"  but  "  carried"  it  "  on  as  far  as 
•'  ihcy  were  able,  and  then  left"  it  "  to  their  successors  to  be  completed."  fP.  33,  34.)  Yet, 
lo  shew  how  arbitrary  the  assumption,  and  how  false  the  assertion  is,  the  very  cathedral  of 
Canterbury,  rebuilt  by  Lanfranc,  one,  surety,  of  the  pre-eminent  constructions  made  by 
the  Norman*,  was  finished;  not  by  his  successors,  but  by  himself;  not  by  himself,  through 
a  long  life  of  forty  or  thirty  years,  but  in  little  more  than  the  short  compass  only  of  scuen. 
"  .Edificatit  ct  curiam  sib'r,"  says  Eadmer,  his  catcmporar)',  p.  8,  Seldcn,  "  ecchsiam 
"  prxttrca,  quani  A/)o/;<)  septem  annorum  hi  i\.\n(\i.mcv\Ui  Jl-rme  totam  pcrfectam  reddidit." 
Malnusbary  praises  liim  accordingly,  for  the  very  (]ulck  dispatch  which  he  made  in  the 
work:  "  ille,  delurbatis  veteribiis  Jinidamentis,  siiscitavii  in  ampliorem  stalum  omnia;. 
"  ipnorc^  majorc  pulchritudine,  an  vtlocitole,  auxit  enim  bouse  voluntatis  gloriam  celeritatis 
"  :i:iluitr!a"  (f.  118,  misprinted  for  122). 

;  (.ale,  I.  451:  "Indie — Sancti  Mithaelis,  fralribiis  vespertlnam  synfaxim  celebraiiti- 
"  li»s  It,  juxta  consueludineni  antiquitus  usilalani,  ad  stationcm  ante  crueeni  in  navem 
"  crclcsix  priiccdtntibus." 

^  Twisdcn,  c.  1294  :  «'  Corpus  cccltsix  a  suis  lattrlbus  qua;  alee  vocantur  dlvitlcbat." 

"  which 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY   SfRVEYED.  125 

«*  which— was  built  below  like  that  at  St.  Peters."  He  also  notices 
"  the  nave"  or  "  hatl  of  the  church,"  and  "  the  a'lles"  of  it  ^.  So  early 
were  ailes  and  a  nave  introduced  into  our  greater  churches,  even  by  the 
Romans  themselves  ;  so  invariably  did  they  continue  there,  through  the 
period  of  the  Saxons  ;  and  so  historically  do  we  account  too  for  the  Ro- 
man appellations  of  nave  and  of  ailes  still  remaining  among  us  ! 

But  the  nave  at  St.  German's  originally  went  on,  as  the  nave  of  all  our 
greater  churches  went,  and  as  the  nave  of  the  Roman  church  at  Canter- 
bury went  also,  into  a  quire  or  chancel,  as  now  called,  a  presbytery,  as 
called  by  the  describer  of  the  Canterbury  church,  or  a  sanctuary,  as  called 
by  the  historian  of  Hexham  ;  names,  all  derived  equally  with  those,  and 
with  this  the  finest  part  of  our  greater  churches  generallv,  from  the  lan- 
guage, the  modes,  and  the  architecture  of  the  Romans*.  The  chan- 
cel at  St.  German's,  however,  now  survives  only  in  the  memory  of  tra- 
dition, and  in  one  or  two  incidental  notices  of  history.  "  A  great  part  of" 
this  "  chauncel,"  notes  Carcw,  "  anno  l.'')92  fel  suddenly  dovvne  upon  a 
*'  Friday,  very  shoi-tly  after  p\iblicke  service  was  ended"  in  it,  public 
service  being  then  kept  up  in  the  church,  upon  a  Friday  as  well  as  a  Sun- 
day, being  kept  up,  as  it  had  probably  been  before  the  Reformation,  with- 
in the  chancel  particularly,  and,  as  instantly  appears,  being  numerously 
attended  by  the  people  there;  **  which  heavenly  favour  of  so  little  respite 
"  saved  many  persons'  lives,  w  ith  whom  immediately  before  it  had  been 


51  Twlsdcn,  c,  1291,  1292  :  '•  Erat — ipsa  ccclcsia — ,  sicut  in  historiis  Baeda  teslaturj  Ro- 
"  nianoruHi  opcrc  facta;  ct,  ex  qiu'iclam  piirtc,  ad  iniitatloncm  cccloiiai  bcati  apostolonini 
*'  principis,  Petri. — Adhcec  altaria  nonnullis  gradibus  asccndcbalur  a  choro  cantoruni — . 
*'  Subtus  erat  ad  instar  confessionis  Sancti  iV'tri  fabricata."  lie  then  speaks  also  of 
••'  aulaj  ipsiiis,"  called  "  aula  ecelraiae"  just  before,  called  "  navis"  by  Clervasc  eonccrniiu'' 
the  very  same  church  in  c.  1290,  and  again  called  by  Gervasc-  '*'  navis  vel  aula  eeclesia;"  in 
t.  1293.     In  c.  1292,  Eadnur  mentions  "  ecclesijc  alas,"  in  tlie  very  same  church. 

•  Twisden,  c.  290:  "  Arcutn  sauctuarii,"  for  Hixhani  church.  0.  1291,  Eidnur: 
"  Majori  allari,  (juod  in  oricntali  presbytcrii  parte  pari".ci  coniis^uuni — erat."  C.  1281J- 
1291  :  "  Chorus — ille  gloriosus,"  was  consumed  by  (ire  in  j  174.  Tho  monks  therefore  re- 
Biovcd  the  bodies  of  Dunstan  .nnd  Klphcge  in  their  cofiins,  "  Je  churo  c.itra.xcruut,"  and 
"  posuerunt  in  navi." 

5  "  stuff cd." 


,2n  THE   CATirEDRAL   OF    CORNWALL  fcHAP.  «; 

"  Stuffed  \r  Surh  an  incident,  coming  so  near  to  the  times  of  reforma- 
tion, could  not  be  occasioned  by  the  principle,  to  which  it  has  been 
hitherto  rc;erred  ;  a  neglect  in  the  new  possessors  of  the  adjoining  priory, 
in  the  new  patrons  of  tlic  church,  or  in  the  new  clergyman  nominated  to 
the  church  it»ch|.  It  mustliave  been  the  result,  either  of  some  sinking 
in  the  foundations,  or  some  over-pressure  in  the  roof  It  was  seemingly 
of  tfie  latter,  as  the  conse(|uenccs  t)f  the  fall  were  removed  by  a  repara- 
tion iinmctliatcly ;  as  "  the  devout  charges  of  the  parishioners,"  adds 
Carew.  •' cpii.klv  repayrcd  this  ruine§."  But  it  was  actually  of  the 
former,  as  the  removal  was  only  for  the  present,  and  the  operative  cause 
of  all  went  on  to  repeat  the  injmy,  till  it  has  terminated  in  the  demolition 
of  the  whole  chancel.  Tlu'  grounil  of  the  church  and  churchyard  is  not 
verv  dry  in  general ;  but  at  the  south-eastern  angle  of  the  nave  without, 
at  the  verv  point  of  union  between  the  nave  and  the  chiuicel,  it  is  peculi- 
arlv  wet,  a  large  drain  remaining  tluM-e  at  .present,  a  certain  evidence  of 
the  long-prevailing  moisture  in  the  soil.  This  drain  falls  into  a  sewer  of 
the  hou.se,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  latter  :  but  it  is  so  large  in  itself  and 
so  old  in  its  existence,  that  the  common  people  of  the  town  consider  it  as 

t  Carci*",  109. 

X  Willis's Noiiiial'arliamcniaria,  1716,  ii.  150, 151:  "  At  the  dissolution," — other  parts 
of  the  church,  ami  llic  chaiiccl,  have  been  suflercd  "  to  go  to  ruin,  insomuch  that  great  part  of 
"  the  latter  falling  down,"  &c.  Mr.  Willis's  account  of  this  church  is  the  more  to  be  de- 
pended upon,  as  he  personally  visited  it,  as  he  was  a  near  relation  to  the  Eliots  at  it,  and  as  he 
continued  for  some  time  inspecting  it.  But  his  account  is  not  inserted  ia  the  later  editions 
of  his  Notitia,  to  the  puxzliug  and  perplexing  of  all  who  do  not  know  that  he  lieserled  his 
, original  plan,  and  formed  a  new  one.  "  If  it  bc-inquircd,"  he  says  in  his  preface  to  that 
contraclrd  edition  which  he  published  in  1750,  "  why  I  tlo  not  proceed  in  the  same  method 
"  that  I  took  in  my  two  first  volumes  of  my  Notitia  Parliamentaria  ;  the  great  expense  it  hath 
"  alreidy  crcatet!  me,  and  may  farther  occasion,  beyond  my  present  ability  to  bear,  will  be  a 
"  sufHrieni,  as  it  is  really  a  true,  apology-.  Ft  is  not  easy  to  conceive  the  expenses,  pains, 
'•  and  trouble,  attending  searches  of  this  nature}  and  I  wish  I  could  as  well  continue  to  sup- 
"  port  that  expense,  as  I  have  been  hitherto  free  in  giving  my  time  and  trouble  to  the  public." 
(I*.  .X.)  This  upology  is  unhappily  too  "  sudident,"  and  that  it  is  "  true"  reflects  disgrace 
yjH>n  "  the  public."  Mr.  Willis  was  therefore  compelled  to  check  these  useful  excursions 
in  his /«.'«rt*  progress.  He  even  cut  off  I ho<e  in  the  past,  and  threw  them  into  a  distinct 
public.iiinn,  a  History  of  Atbics,  in  two  volumes  octavo,  1719. 

§  C.^rcw,  IC9. 

a  subter- 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  12/ 

a  subterraneous  road  for  the  bishop  from  his  palace  to  his  church.  Several 
yards  higher  up  in  the  hill,  and  nearer  to  the  road  from  the  town,  are 
some  springs,  ^\•hich  are  now  drawn  down  by  pipes  across  the  site  of  the 
chancel,  and  furnish  the  principal  supplies  of  Mater  to  the  house.     This 
humidity,  predominating  at  that  particular  end  of  the  church,  accounts 
decisively  for  the  fall  of  the  chancel ;  ^^•hiIe  the  cocE-val  nave  still  stands 
from  the  greater  dryness  of  its  site,  but  stands  (as  I  shall  soon  notice  par- 
ticularly) leaning  upon  one  side ;  and  the  south  aile  continues  all  erect, 
in  defiance  of  its  greater  antiquity.     The  nave  leans  to  the  north,  the 
chancel  therefore  leaned  probably  the  same  way,  and  the  south  aile  i$ 
prevented  from  so  leaning  by  having  the  nave  upon  that  side.     The  fall 
too  was  principally  where  the  drain  now  is,  and  where  I  suppose  the 
springs  to  have  soaked  into  the  ground  ;  the  middle  part  of  the  chancel 
rearing  up  its  walls  so  lofty  and  so  sound,  within  these  few  years,  as  to 
carry  a  roof  of  slate  and  to  be  used — for  a  brewhouse  ;  while  the  parts 
more  remote  from  and  the  parts  nearer  to  the  nave  respectively,  shewed 
only  some  ragged  remains  of  a  wall  on  each  side.    All  were  wildly  over- 
grown with  ivy,  that  sure  signature  of  the  "  cruda  senectus"  of  antiquity 
in  buildings.     But  nil  were  levelled  to  the  ground,  and  their  ver}^  founda- 
tions dug  up,  when  the  whole  ground  adjoining  to  the  church  upon  three 
sides,  was  laid  not  lorip-  since  into  a  kind  of  lawn.     Not  one  trace  of  it 
appears  at  present,  and  a  smooth  coat  of  grass  covers  all  the  site  of  that 
chancel,  which  measured  while  it  stood,  about  fil'ty-live  feet  in  length  and 
twenty-four  in  breadth  || . 

Yet  it  was  luckily  visited  by  Leiand  more  than  forty  years  Tiefore  it$ 
first  fall,  though  not  (as  his  words  seem  in  sound  to  import)  even  before 
the  dissolution  of  the  priory  adjoining.  In  "  a  towne  cawlcd  S.  Ger- 
"  mayns,"  he  tells  us,  "  — is  xow  a  priori  of  blake  chanons,"  meaning 
not  the  priory  itself  but  the  priory  church,  as  the  words  immediately  fol- 
lowing shew  us  ;  "  and  a  paroche  chirche^;?  the  lively  of  the  same,"  as  I 
shall  soon  remark  to  be  actually  the  case  witli  the  church*.     "  Besii/c 

II  Willis,  151. 

•  So  in  Loland's  /tin.   ii.  75,  concerning  Bodmin,  "  I  saw  ro   uimbts   iti   the   piiory 
f  [church]  very  nolable,  but  Thomas  Viviaiies  "  still  rtmaining  in  tli«  chutch. 

"  the 


,29  JIfE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  11. 

••  the  hi/c  allarc  of  the  same  priory  [church],  on  the  ryght  hand,  ys  a 

"  TUMBE  YN  THE  WALLE,    with   AX    IMAGE    OI-    A    BISHOP,    and   OVER    THE 

'•  TLMUE  A  XI.  uisiiops  PAYNTED  with  their  NAMES  and  VERSES,  as  token 
"  of  so  mam/  hishups  biricd  there,  or  tliat  ther  liad  bcene  so  wavy  Imhoppes 
*'  ofConiauI/e  that  had  thei/r  sccte  [scate]  ///cerf."  This  tact  fixes  the 
date  of  the  chancel,  and  shew  s  it  to  have  been  buiU  with  its  nave,  bej'orc 
Uk-  sec  was  removed  tVom  St.  German's,  and  consequently  (as  I  shall 
jioint  out  hereafter)  before  the  Saxon  empire  had  fallen  |.  The  nave  and 
chancel,  therefore,  were  built  by  the  Saxons.  The  nave  accordingly  ex- 
hil)its  two  or  three  features  plaiidy  Saxon  in  its  aspect;  the  pillars  being 
niassv,  and  the  roof  lofty.  The  whole  too  is  a  huntlred  and  two  feet 
in  length  within  the  walls  §  ;  and  at  the  eastern  end  without,  on  the 
southern  side,  it  has  a  seam  of  separation  between  it  and  the  south  aile; 
wl'iich  proves  to  our  very  senses,  the  posterior  erection  of  that  to  this. 

\\'ithin  a  little  to  the  west  of  the  present  altar,  where  the  screen  be- 
tw  ecn  the  nave  and  the  chancel  must  once  have  ranged  across  the  church, 
and  in  the  north  wall  of  the  nave,  is  a  low  opening  for  a  doorway,  just  co- 
\cred  by  the  wood-work  in  the  bale  pew,  and  giving  admission  up  a  spiral 
staircase  on  the  other  side.  This  is  comprized  within  a  rounded,  yet  an- 
gular, projection  of  stone  in  the  north  aile,  still  mounts  up  w  ithin  it  as 
hi^h  as  the  top  of  a  thick  ledging  in  the  wall  on  the  southern  side,  and  has 
its  head-stone  of  an  entrance  into  a  gallery  once  there  about  five  feet 
above  the  ledging.  There  tradition  faintly  reports  an  organ  to  have  for-, 
nu-rly  stood.  So  at  I^ubtow  church  in  this  county,  \\  hich  is  not  Saxon 
indeed,  being  rebuilt  assuredly  when  its  superior  church  of  Bodmin  was, 
as  constructed  in  the  same  length  and  loftiness  a  little  abated,  is  a  ceiling 
verj-  handsome  in  it.self,  laid  out  in  pannels  of  MOod,  and  tufted  with  gilt 
knots  at  the  angles,  over  that  interval  between  the  nave  and  the  chancel, 
\\  hich  w  as  filled  (as  tradition  says)  with  an  organ-loft,  and  still  shews  in 
the  norlli  aile  a  doorway  up  to  it.  Nor  were  organs  unknown  in  tlie 
superior  churches  of  the  Saxons.     "  Dunstan,"  saA  s  :Malmesburv,  "  in 

t  Leland's  Itin.  vii.  122.     Sec  also  my  vi.  4,  and  vii.  l,  hereafter. 
+  Sec  my  vii.  i. 
§  WilUs,  151. 

•'  the 


g«CT.   IV.]  niSTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  IL'Q 

"  the  munificence  of  his  spirit  to  many  places,  loved  frequently  to  make 

*'  presents  of  such  things  as  were  then  objects  of  high  marvellousness  in 

**  England,  and  displayed  at  once  the  taste  with  the  dignity  of  the  pre- 

**  senter.     Amongst  these  he  gave"  to  the  church  of  Malmesbury  "  an 

"  ORGAN,  in  wliich,  through  pipes  of  brass  formed  upon  musical  pro- 

"  portions, 

"  The  bellows  breathe  the  long-collected  winds. 

^*  There  he  imprinted  the  following  distich  on  the  brazen  pipes  : 

"  T,  Diinstan,  give  this  organ  to  the  fane  ; 

"  May  he,  who  robs  it,  ne'er  to  heav'n  attain  •  1  " 

Organs  thus  mount  up  in  England,  as  high  as  the  reign  of  Edgar.  On  his 
death,  adds  the  History  of  Ramsey,  "  all  England  was  disturbed,  the  quire 
*'  of  monks  was  turned  to  mourning,  the  organ  to  the  voice  of'  lanicn- 
*'  tcrs-f."  In  the  reign  of  Ethelred  his  successor,  a  benefactor  gave 
"  thirty  pounds"  to  Ramsey  "  for  fabricating  orgav-recds  of  copper, 
*'  which  were  fixed  into  their  holes  within  their  nest  in  a  thick  row, 
**  ahcrve  one  of  the  npirnl  stairs  ;  were  played  on  festival  daijs  with  tlie 
**  strong  breath  of  bellows,  and  uttered  a  most  sweet  melody,  with  a  far- 
**  resounding  clangor  J."  Even  as  early  as  about  the  year  08o  mc  see 
organs  so  familiarly  known  to  the  Saxons,  that  a  ^Mercian  earl  thus 

*  Gale,  i.  366  :   "  Ideo  in  multisloco  [locis]  munificus,  quoe  tunc  in  Anglia  niagni  mira- 
*' culi   esscnt,  decusquc  ct  ingeniiim  confcrentis  ostenderent,  offcrre  crcbro;  iuter  qure,— • 
*'  organa,  ubi  per  aereas  fistulas,  musicis  mcnsuris  elaboratas, 
"  Dudum  conceptas  follis  vomit  anxius  auras. 
*'  Ibi  hoc  distichon  laminis  oereis  impressit : 

"  Organa  do  sancto  prxsul  Dunstaiius  Adhelmo; 

•'  Perdat  hie  aeternum,  qui  vult  hinc  toUere,  regnum !  " 

Diinstan  even  made  two  fine  organs  with  his  own  liand  :  "  fecit  organa — duo  prxcipua." 
(Gale,  i.  324.) 

+  Gale,  i.  412:  "  Tota — Anglia — perturbatA,  cum  vertcretur  in  kictum  chorus  mona- 
"  chorum,  organa  in  vocem  fit  ntiuni."  An  allusion  is  nia<le  to  Job,  xxx.  31  ;  but  a  reference 
is  plainly  kept  up  to  objects  before  tlie  eye. 

X  Gale,  i.  420  :  "  Triginta — libras  ad  fabricandos  cupreos  orgaiiorum  calamos  crogavit, 
**  qui  in  alvco  suo  super  unam  coclcarum  denso  ordine  foraniinibus  insidcntes,  ct  diebus 
"  festis  foHiuin  spiramento  forliore  pulsati,  prxdulceni  melodiani  et  clangorcm  longiiis  rc- 
*'  sonantem  cdldcrunt." 

VOL.  I.  s  alludes 


J  30  THE    CATnEDHAL    OF    CORN'WAT.L  [ciIAP.  II. 

nWuAi^  tothrm  in  his  dcsoription  of  those  joys  otTiitnrity,  to  which  the 
unvitiatPil  sou)  of  man  n:lturally  leans  forward  with  rapture ;  "  as  hfe 
•'  ramnllv  slides  away  to  ruin,  we  should  hasten  with  all  our  speed  to  the 
••  pleasjint  fields  of  unspenkahlc  joy.  where  the  angelic  organ  of  jubilee 
•*  hvinninj^s— is  taken  deeply  in  by  the  cars  of  the  blessed  *."  But,  in  the 
reign  of  Kd^'ar.  we  see  such  a  double  kind  of  organ  at  A\'inchcster  cathe- 
dral, as  Knglanil  cannot  equal  even  at  present  ;  this  gigantic  instrument 
having  tn-e/iv  bellows  in  one  row  al)OYe.  Vin^X  fourteen  in  another  below, 
these  alternately  blow  ing  with  vast  poMcr,'  and  requiring  seventy  stout 
men  to  manage  themf .  From  the  description  of  both  the  organs  at 
Kainsey,  from  the  seeming  intimation  of  "  such  things"  being  then 
"  objects  of  high  mar\cIlousness  in  Kngland,"  and  from  the  express 
declaration  that  one  of  tiicm  was  "  played  on  festival  days;"  we  might 
infer,  that  organs  were  very  rare  and  uncommon  then,  even  in  our  supe- 
rior churches.  But  wiien  wc  mark  the  historian  of  Ramsey,  describing 
the  general  grief  of  England  for  the  death  of  Edgar,  by  the  quires  of  our 
niinstcr-moiiks  being  turned  to  sorrow,  and  the  organs  to  tones  of  lament- 

•  Gair,  i.  34p  "  Quia  ipsa  ruinosa  camalitcr  dilabifur,  fummopere  fcstinandum  est  ad 
•*  amceiia  indi(.ibiiis  ixtiiix  arva,  ubi  angelica  hymiiidica;  jubilationis  organa — auribus  feli- 
"  citim  hauriuiitur." 

t  Inland's  Coll,  i.  252  :  "  Ex  Kpislola  Wolstani  Monachi,  Prsecentoris  Ventanae  Eccle$i», 
"  ad  iElpheguin  Episcopum  Ventanum." 

"  '  Talia  ct  aoxbtis  hie  organa  qiialra,  niisqiiara 

"  Ccrnuntur,geniiiit)  constabilita  sono. 
"  Bisscni  supri  sociantur  in  ordine  follcs, 

"  Inferiilsquejacent  quaituor  atqut  decern. 
"  Flatibus  alternis  spiracula  maxima  reddunt^ 

"  Qiios  agiranc  ralidi  septuaginta  viri'." 

This  poetical  cpisilc  appears  from  two  lines  subjoined  to  have  been  written  as  early  as  the 
reign  of  Ethilrcd,  the  second  son  of  Edgar,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  the  throne  thrae 
years  after  the  father's  death  : 

"  •  Regis  Etheiredi  visu  ccrnente  modesti, 
"  In  regni  solio  qui  supcrest  hodie'."  ■ 

Thi«  wonderful  organ,  I  believe,  is  not  noticed  by  any  other  writer;  yet  I  suppose  it  to  have 
remained  till  the  grand  rebeliioD,  when  the  rebel  soldiers  are  known  to  have  destroyed  the 
organ  of  this  cathedral. 

ation; 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  131 

ation  ;  when  we  see  organs  alluded  to  tv\ o  or  three  ages  before,  as 
making  a  part  of  the  choral  harmony  of  Heaven  ;  and  when  we  behold 
snch  a  prodigy  of  an  organ  at  AVinchester,  in  the  days  of  Edgar  ;  wc  find 
them  considered  as  equally  a  part  of  our  minster-service  with  the  quire 
itself,  as  equally  a  part  then  and  now,  as  even  constructed  at  times  upon  a 
scale  of  magnificence,  to  which  ice  can  only  look  up  with  astonishment, 
and  in  which  we  see  even  the  'mighty  organ  of  Ulm  in  Germany,  that 
portentous  construction  of  modern  times,  shrink  up  into  insignificance 
before  this  organ  of  NA^inchester,  ashamed  to  boast  any  longer  its  sixieen 
pairs  of  bellows  against  twenty-six. 

Nor  let  an  obstacle  occur  to  our  progress  in  conviction,  from  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  wall,  (he  doorway  to  the  stairs,  and  the  opening  al>ove 
them  into  the  organ-loft  at  o/^/"  cathedral.  The  wall,  indeed,  is  .so  thick 
as  to  cover  in  part  the  very  capital  of  the  pillar  immediately  on  the  vi  est ; 
and  therefore  appears  to  have  been  formed,  posterior  to  the  plan  drawn 
for  the  building,  even  during  the  very  moments  of  erecting  the  wall,  in 
order  to  admit  the  making  of  a  doorway  through  it.  The  stairs  J:oo, 
which,  in  the  mode  practised  at  most  of  our  greater  churches,  ghould  liave 
winded  up  the  inside  of  one  of  the  pillars,  push  out  in  an  awkward  pro- 
tuberance into  the  aile  :  and  the  square  doorways,  that  are  now  universal 
among  us,  very  extraordinarily  make  their  appearance  here ;  the  door- 
way through  the  wall  being  absolutely  square  in  the  head,  and  the  door 
at  the  top  of  the  stairs  being  nearly  so.  Yet  the  whole  is  still  Saxon.  The 
lowness  of  the  doorway  through  the  wall  shews  it  to  be  very  ancient,  as 
the  ground  can  have  risen  so  high  merely  from  continued  ages  of  burying 
there,  llie  fondness  for  organs  too,  so  pecuUarly  evidenced  by  the 
Saxons  above,  carries  us  of  course  to  the  constructors  of  the  nave  at\d 
aile,  for  the  erectors  of  an  organ-loft  in  them.  The  stairs,  indeed,  were 
not  winded  in  a  spire  within  a  hollow  pillar,  because  of  the  danger  pro- 
bably that  might  result  to  the  whole  building  from  such  a  pillar,  upon 
ground  that  I  shall  soon  shew  to  be  swampy  all  along  this  side  ot'  it.  For 
the  same  reason  probably,  all  idea  of  an  organ-loft  was  resigned  when  the 
nave  was  planned;  and  yet  was  admitted  again,  when  the  nave  was  fabri- 
cated here.     The  oiUy  mode  then  remaining  for  the  purpose,  was  what 

s  2  we 


,33  TJIE    r^THEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  11. 

WO  Mr  to  have  been  acluallv  practised,  to  build  here  a  solid  ^vall  of  great 
thickness  for  the  M.pport  of  an  organ-loft,  to  leave  an  opening  m  the  xvall 
for  a  doon^-av.  and  to  pu>h  out  a  stairease  npon  the  other  side.  1  he  pil- 
lars on  the  west  having  l.een  previously  settle.l  in  their  places,  the  thick 
txallnreesscinlvcaine  advancing  forward,  encroached  upon  the  side  of 
the  nearrM  piliar.  and  usurped  on  the  very  capital  of  it.  Nor  will  the 
•Kjuai-eness  of  the  two  doorways  avail  in  impeaching  their  pretensions  to 
a  Saxon  origin.  Such  lloor^vays  are  not  so  modern  as  is  popularly 
imagined. 

We  hnd  one  very  early  in  England,  the  door  into  the  cathedral  of  Ely 
at  tlie  west  end  of  the  cloister,  where  the  sweep  of  the  round  arch  is 
filled  up  w  ilh  stones  caned  into  figures,  and  the  Avhole  terminates  in  a 
right  lifu*  helow,  supported  by  two  heads  for  brackets,  as  well  as  by  the 
interior  pillar  of  the  doorway  *. 

> 

We  even  find  another  in  that  conventual  church  of  Ely,  which  was 
founded  so  early  as  0"3,  and  repaired  so  early  as  970  ;  the  northern  door 
there  being  a  round  arch  again,  filled  up  again  with  stone,  though  without 
any  carving  of  figures  upon  it,  and  the  supplement  again  resting  in  a 
right  line,  upon  the  interior  part  of  the  \\a\],  as  well  as  upon  two 
brackets  f.  One  great  use  of  the  square  head  in  a  door,  therefore,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  for  filling  up  the  concave  of  the  arch  ;  but  to  have 
been  introduced  among  us  in  this  form  before  the  Conquest,  and  to  have 
been  continued  in  this  form  through  all  ages  since  ;  to  have  been  con- 
tinued for  doors  of  less  significance,  the  northern  or  the  southern  side 
door,  or  perhaps  some  petty  doorway  within,  while  the  arch  itself  was 
retained  in  its  full  compass  and  orbit  of  grandeur,  for  the  great  or  western 
door  at  the  end;):. 

Yet 

•  Bcnthatn,  35,  plate  vii. 

t  Ibid.  29,  plalc  V.     Sec  also  p.  54  and  74. 

X  Arch.  vi.  246,  refers  us  to  "  the  door  of  an  old  Saxon  tower  of  a  church  at  Lincoln," 
which  is  a  round  arch  filled  up  and  made  square.  "  There  is  also,"  adds  247,  "  a  rcmark- 
"  iblr  specimen  of  this  kind, — even  of  an  imitation  of  a  species  of  flat  transome  stoni;  across 
*•  ll>e  lower  pari  of  an  arch,  preserved  in  the  enriched  portal  of  Barfreston  church  in  Kent.'* 

ijee 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY  SURVEYED.  133 

Yet  let  lis  not  content  ourselves  with  carrying  the  origin  of  our  square- 
headed  doors  even  so  very  high.  A\^e  can  prove  them  to  be  still  older. 
In  that  very  arch,  which  forms  the  doorway  into  the  chapel  over  tlie 
Holy  Sepulchre,  and  which  we  have  noticed  before  as  sharply  peaked  ; 
we  see  the  curve  of  the  head  filled  up  with  stones,  like  the  two  at  Ely 
before,  and  the  peak  thus  reduced  into  a  scjuare.  AVe  also  behold  two 
windows  in  the  chapel,  that  are  now  closed  up,  but  were  as  regular 
squares  as  any  of  our  own  are  at  present  *.  We  equally  observe  the  two 
round  arches  at  the  grand  entrance  into  the  church,  to  have  been  filled 
up  with  stone  in  their  sweeps,  to  terminate  in  a  rectilinear  "  transome 
"  engraven  with  historical  figures,"  and  to  rest  with  this  upon  "  three 
**  columns  of  marble,"  composed  each  of  three  pillars,  and  all  decorated 
with  Corinthian  capitals  "f.  In  the  remains  of  that  temple  also,  which  is 
still  visible  in  part  at  Nismes,  \\  hich  is  traditionally  asserted  to  have  been 
Diana's,  but  by  Montfaucon  is  believed  from  its  number  of  niches  to  have 
been  a  pantheon,  and  was  assuredly,  like  Montfaucon's  own  temple-  of  ^li- 
ner\'a  Medica  at  Rome,  the  one  as  well  as  the  other;  Diana,  like  Minerva, 
being  the  principal  divinity,  yet  letting  other  divinities  share  the  worship 
with  her,  these  placed  in  the  shallower  niches  at  the  sides  of  the  temple, 
but  that  with  her  in  the  two  deep  niches  at  the  upper  end  ;  we  see  the 
windows  all  square,  and  its  entrance  reduced  from  an  arch  into  a  square 
by  a  transome  J.  We  thus  find  the  square  door,  that  we  arc  so  apt  to  date 
at  a  very  low  period,  even  just  a  little  before  our  own  times,  to  have 
been  in  use  among  the  Romans,  as  early  as  the  fourth  century. 

But  we  can  actually  ascend  with  it  a  couple  of  centuries  higher,  and 
place   it  in  the  meridian  blaze  of  Roman  architecture.     In  that  very 

See  also  figure  xliv.  at  p.  304,  for  a  round  arcli  in  a  window  of  Canterbury  castle,  equally 
squared  with  a  transomL'  stone.  And  in  p.  377  we  observe  "  a  small  door  having  a  scmi- 
'•  circular  arch,  crossed  by  a  transonic  stone  in  the  ancient  Saxon  ityle,"  as  delineated  in 
plate  Lv.  D, 

*  Pococke,  ii.  part  i.   p.  16,   plute  iv.  No.  C, 

t  Sandys's'l  ravels,  125. 

X  Montfaucon,  part  i.  ii.  3,  plate  3,  fig.  9,  for  "  a  section  of  it,"  and  a  '•'  phm  accurately 
•'  delineated  by  the  order  of  M.  Flechier,  bishop  of  Isisnies." 

4  Antinopolis^ 


on 

imiiK 

arr 


,3^  THR    CATHP-DR-VL    or    COnVWAlX  [ciIAP.  ir. 

A..tlnorc>lis  Nxhirh  gives  us  so  clear  a  si^ht  of  llic  peaked  areh,  we  eatch 
riiinl  sight  of  the   square  doorway,  and  square   ^Mndo^v.      1  hus, 
iKiliatrlv  over  the  two  <ulc  arches  engraved  in  plate  i.  p.  8-1,  betore, 
..,  two  windows  opened  through  the  substance  of  the  wall,  each  an  ob- 
long square,  each  appearing  like  a  superior  window  among  the  moderns, 
and  each  regularlv  eased  with  stone  like  a  modern  window.     "  I  had  a 
••  view."  s;ivs   Pococke,  also.  "  of  a  very  fine  gate  of  the  Corintimm 
"  order,  of  exquisite  workmanship."  of  which  he  gives  us  a  plan  and  up- 
right.    \\v  thus  exhibits,  unconsciously  to  the  astonished  eye,  a  Roman 
pitewav  of  the  lirst  form,  consisting,  like  the  gateway  before,  and  like 
all  the  gatewavs  among  the  Romans,  of  three  principal  parts,  a  middle, 
Nvith   two  side  passages;   the  middle  very  tall,  yet  a  regularly  oblong 
s.|.Kire;  the  side  not  so  tall,  but  as  regularly  square,  with  even  a  modern 
pediment  over  both  of  them  *.     Even  in  Pompeii,  which  was  buried 
with  showers  of  ashes  when  Jlerculaneum  w%is  deluged  with  a  torrent 
of  lava,  in  the  vear  79;  we  find  a  private  house  with  a  square  door,  a 
.square  window  on  each  side,  and  two  square  doors  at  a  distance,  leading 
into  offices.     We  find  also,  at  the  temple  of  Isis  there,  and  in  the  build- 
ing over  the  well  of  it.  a  scpiare  doorway  again,  with  a  pediment  over 
it.     And  we  tind  at  a  villa  near  the   to^^  n,  a  long  arcade,  ending  one 
wav  in  a  room  with  a  large /w/i'  tri/n/oir,  in  which  were  found  fragments 
of  /dim'  panes  of  glass ;  having  several  rooms  opening  with  it  into  a  gar- 
den and  court,  but  richly  ornamented  with  paintings,  as  fresh  as  the  day 
thev  were  executed  ;  and  having  an  open  terrace  aboAC,  that  led  to  the 
greater  apartments  of  the  house;  all,  with  the  arcade  itself,   shewing 
oidv  doorways  square  in  the  head,  except  at  the  two  ends  of  the  arcade, 
each  of  which  presents  a  round  arch  to  the  eye-f-.     And  we  finally  find 
that  delicate  clfusion  of  taste  and  genius,  which  cardinal  Richlieu  wanted 
to  iransj)ort  entire  as  a  fine  decoration  even  to  Versailles  itself,  ^^'hich 
also  (as  all  the  world  must  say  with  another  cardinal,  Alberoni)  requires 
a  box  of  gold  to  cover  it  from  the  injuries  of  the  very  air,  and  which  is  as 
pr«jbably  from  its  elegance  of  form,  as  from  its  inscription  conjecturally 

•  Pocotke,  i.  73. 

t  Arch.  iv.  164,  plate  x.;  165,  plate  xi.;  171,  plate  xvii.    The  building  over  the  well  is 
tilled  a  ictnple  j  166  and  1 73;  when  it  was  only  au  appendage  lo  the  temple. 

recovered. 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  135 

recovered,  of  the  very  Augustan  age;  is  entered  by  a  door  from  the 
portico,  quite  square  in  the  head+.  So  very  difTercnt  dor;s  the  square- 
hcadetl  door  or  gate  appear,  from  what  I  myself  supposed  it  at  tirst; 
not  modern,  not  even  of  the  middle  ages,  but  of  the  Roman  period, 
and  even  of  tlie  first  century  in  that  period §. 

Nor  must  we  even  stop  here:  the  square-headed  door  is  the  first  door 
of  anti(|uity,  derived  from  the  first  principles,  and  forming  the  first 
style  oT  architecture  in  the  world;  the  arch,  either  round  or  peaked, 
being  merely  a  scientific  improvement  upon  that.  Thus,  when  man  in 
Ids  primitive  state  of  simplicity,  with  few  tools,  little  consideration,  and 
no  experience,  came  to  rear  for  himself  a  house,  m  hich  should  afford 

X  Sec  a  good  drawing  in  A  Year's  Journey  through  France,  and  a  Part  of  Spain,  by  Philip 
Thickncsse,  i.  98,  edit.  3d,  1789;  and  a  still  bcticr  in  Monlfaucon,  part  i.  ii.  18,  plate  13, 
fig.  I.  See  also  in  the  latter,  ibid.  ibid,  plate  5,  fig.  2,  3,  4,  8,  10,  and  13,  for  the  square 
doorways  of  other  temples  at  Rome,  and  various  figures  in  plates  6-13. 

§  Mr.  King,  the  worthy,  the  ingenious,  the  judicious  Mr.  King,  in  Arch.  vi.  237,  238,- 
was  so  little  apprized  of  this  practice  among  the  Romans,  in  Constantino's  reign,  of  reducing 
arches  into  squares  by  the  insertion  of  a  transonic  stone,  as  to  write  thus:  "  Although  there 
"  is  a  stone  arch  turned  over  it,"  lie  says  of  Connisborough  castle,  in  Yorkshire,  *'  in  imi- 
"  talion,  probably,  of  those  which  had  been  seen  in  Roman  buildings;  yet  the  nature  of 
"  suck  an  arch  seems  hardly  to  have  heen  understood,  nor  was  it  truUedto;  for,  directly 
"  across  the  diameter,  and  underneath  ii,  is  placed  a  great  tranwme  stone,  like  a  beam;  and 
"  the  space  between  it  and  the  arch  is  filled  up  with  stone- work,  as  if  to  assist  the  arch  in 
"  supporting  the  wall  above."  "  The  front  of  this  fire-place,"  he  adds,  in  240 — "  is  sup- 
"  ported,  just  like  the  door  of  entrance,  by  a  wide  arch,  not  trusted  to  as  suffix'ent  for  the 
*'  purpose,  but  having  two  great  transome  stones  running  across  undi-r  it.  To  this  rude  irni' 
"  tation  of  the  Roman  arch  is  joined,"  &c.  "  There  is  a  narrow  doorway,"  he  says,  in 
241,  "  where  the  arch  was  either  forgotten  or  thought  quite  useless,  and  where  a  transome 
"  stone  alone  covers  the  top  of  a  window."  "  The  window,"  he  adds,  in  242,  "  like  the 
"  doorway  underneath,  has  an  handsome  arch  at  top,  but  has,  moreover,  just  in  the  same 
"  manner,  the  assistance  of  a  great  transome  stone."  And  in  246,  he  proceeds  to  shew, 
"  in  what  manner  the  transome  was  by  gradual  degrees  left  out,  and  the  fialtish  under-arch 
"substituted  in  its  room:"  he  thus  inverting  the  very  order  of  history,  and  making  the 
stream  flow  back  to  the  source.  Yet,  how  many  antiquaries,  old  as  well  as  young,  have 
triumphed  at  reading  these  passages,  with  a  superior  air  of  wisdom,  in  their  own  acquaintance 
vith  the  mechanic  powers  of  a  Roman  arch,  and  in  the  simplicity  of  iIksc  barbarous  ages 
for  not  knowing  them  ;  when,  all  the  while,  the  transome  stone  was  used  by  the  very 
liouians  ihcmsclvcsj  at  tiaies^  in  their  owu  arches. 

him 


13d  TIIF.    rvTIirl>l!\l-    OF    COR^•^^ArX  [ciIAP.  II, 

him  tlir  shdtcr  that  an  arl>our  coiiUl  no  longer  lend,  against  the  cold  of 
tlie  north,  or  the  rains  of  tl>c  south;  he  naturally  trained  his  doomay 
i!ito  it,  with  t\v»  posts  c-nvtcd  pjMju'nilirularly.  and  one  laid  across  them. 
\W  this  means  he  tornied  that  sf|uare-headed  doorway  at  once,  to  which, 
in  a  vcrv  extraordinary  revolution  of  taste,  modern  ages  have  now  re- 
turned with  one  consent.  Man  has  gone  round  the  whole  circle  of 
arehitectuiT,  and  e(»nie  back  at  last  to  the  very  point  from  which  the 
earliest  ancestors  of  his  race  set  out. 

Hut  let  us  attend  to  our  own  island,  particularly:  there  we  find  this 
antediluvian  and  native  o/v/tr  of  architecture,  actually  appearing  among 
our  Hriti.sh  tatiiers.  The  vcn/ Jirst  temple  oi'  the  Britons,  indeed,  formed 
with  any  iilcas  of  grandeur,  that  at  Abury,  in  Wiltshire,  we  see  to  have 
been  composed  ot"  vast  rough  blocks  of  stone  reared  upon  their  ends, 
lifting  up  their  tall  heads,  spreading  out  their  broad  sides,  but  connected 
onlv  bv  the  circular  figure  in  which  they  w^ere  arranged,  and  by  the 
lotiy  mound  \\ith  which  they  were  enclosed.  Yet,  as  soon  as  the  idea 
of  a  connected  edifice  occurred  to  the  minds  of  the  Britons,  we  see  their 
Abury  improving  into  a  Stonchenge;  the  shapeless  immensity  of  its 
rocks  moulded  by  tlie  chisel  into  sfpiare  columns,  and  one  column  laid 
upon  two  others,  to  form  an  entrance  every  where  around.  The  square- 
li«*;uled  doorway  thus  appears  in  the  first  attempt  at  a  regular  building 
made  by  the  genius  of  Jiritain;  and  f/r  are  now  modelling  our  doors, 
after  aW  our  acquaintance  with  Roman  architecture,  just  as  our  savage 
ancestors  modelled  theirs,  before  they  knew  any  thing  of  it.  But  in 
this  we  are  partly  doing  \\  hat  the  Romans  themselves  did  before  us. 
The  Romans  used  the  scpiare  door  and  the  square  window^  occasionally 
together  with  the  peaked  arch,  and  even  with  the  round  ;  and  we  have 
only  carried  this  Roman  license  so  far,  as  to  use  them  without  a  mixture 
of  cither,  even  to  the  supersedence  of  both  in  our  domestic  buildings. 
So  little  re:ison  have  we  to  be  startled  at  a  square-headed  door,  in  a 
building  maintained  to  be  Saxon!  Such  a  door  is  primitive,  is  Roman, 
is  Saxon  ;  and  has  been  transmitted  to  us  through  the  Saxons,  from  the 
Romans,  even  from  the  very  first  ancestors  of  our  w  hole  race*. 

Thus 
♦  In  Nordcn's  drawings  of  Egyplian  buildings,  we  frequently  meet  with  the  square  door- 

way 


SECT.  IV.]  ■  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  137 

Thus  erected  at  first,  and  thus  ascended  from  the  nave,  the  gallery 
came  projecting  over  the  nave,  at  St.  German's,  while  the  organ  faced 
equally,  I  suppose,  to  the  nave  and  to  the  chancel.  Nor  Avas  it  destroyed 
there,  I  believe,  by  those  whom  we  have  such  pregnant  reasons  for  sus- 
pecting of  such  an  act,  those  reducers  of  man  to  the  abstract  nakedness 
of  his  nature  in  devotion,  though  not  in  life,  those  jarring  elements  of 
our  Protestant  orb,  those  haters  of  all  harmony,  and  those  proscribers  of 
all  pomp  in  the  public  worship  of  God,  the  Presbyterians  of  the  last 
century.  It  was  destroyed,  I  apprehend,  at  an  earlier  period  even  by  that 
leaven  of  Presbyterianism,  which  fermented  occasionally  in  the  very 
Reformation  itself,  did  so  even  among  the  English,  but  swelled  and 
heaved,  and  spread  its  sour  influence  with  peculiar  malignity,  among  the 
Scotch.  Our  fanatics  were,  in  general,  a  full  century  behind  the  Scotch, 
in  this  folly  of  gloominess;  yet,  here  and  there  shewed  particular  evi- 
dences of  its  existence  among  them.  The  position  of  the  bahc  pew,  so 
directly  before  the  doorway,  and,  in  all  probability,  fixed  there  (as  I 
shall  hereafter  shew*)  within  a  few  years  after  the  Reformation,  con- 
firms me  in  that  opinion.  The  galler}-,  the  organ,  were  then  destroyed; 
both  were  gradually  forgotten  afterwards  ;  and,  at  the  close  of  nearly 
two  centuries  and  a  half,  nothing  might  well  remain  of  either,  but  in  the 
faintest  murmurs  of  tradition.  These  induced  lord  Eliot  and  myself,  in 
May  1/03,  to  explore  the  rounding  protuberance  of  the  north  aile. 
The  cap  of  plaster  at  the  head  of  it,  we  ordered  a  mason  to  break 

way  to  them ;  but  I  shall  notice  it  only  in  such  as  have  some  strong  mark  of  antiquity  upon 
them.  Thus  in  plates  cv.  cvi.  among  the  reputed  ruins  of  ancient  Thebes,  we  see  two 
doors,  an  arcade  and  a  portal,  all  square-headed.  The  portal  even  appears  covered  with 
hieroglyphics,  in  ci.x.  In  cxv.  we  have  an  ancient  temple  atEssenay,  the  ancieni  Latopolis, 
and  the  rectilinear  entablature,  .ill  charged  with  hieroglyphics;  in  cxviii.  at  Edfu,  or  Apolli- 
nopolis,  two  doors,  and  both  square,  the  massy  and  high  kind  of  towers  at  the  sides  covered 
with  hieroglyphics;  in  cxxxii.  the  anoicnt  teniple  of  the  serpent  Knuphis,  upon  the  isle 
tlephantine,  all  loaded  with  hieroglyphics,  and  all  square  in  the  openings;  in  cxxxvii.  a 
portal  and  a  door  at  the  isle  of  Pliilc,  both  square-headed ;  in  cxii.  at  the  isle  Ell  HciiT,  be- 
yond Syene,  the  temple  of  Isis,  with  its  principal  entrance,  a  square  portal,  and  a  square 
door  upon  each  side  of  it;  and  other  temples,  with  similar  portals,  or  similar  doors,  in 
cliv.  civ. 

t  Chap.  iii.  Sect.  3,  at  beginning. 

VOL.  I.  T  open 


,3S  THE    CATIir-URAn    OF    CORXTTALL  [cHAP.   11. 

«I>cii :  ami  thou,  hv  the  h.lp  of  a  irandle  introduced,  he  beheld  the 
Morw  steps  brio,',  1 1<-  lot  hinisolt"  down  through  the  opening;  pursued 
Ihc  Hicps  to  ihcir  ttrinination  at  the  bake  pcA\  :  found  liie  top  of  the 
V  !^va.v  ncarlv  as  hi^rh  as  the  top  <»f  the  pev\ ,  and  rcaseendcd  the 
M. ;.-  to  a  licMd-blonc  for  anotlicr  doorway  through  the  A\all  above  ;  atid, 
l)V  takinjr  otl'  a  vcrv  Httle  of  th('  wood-work,  in  the  pew,  the  top  of  the 
dJinrwav  apprareil  visible  in  the  nave  itseJf;  the  \>c\v  having  been 
placed  so  ha.-tily  against  tlie  doorway,  as  not  to  admit  the  scen)ingly  ne- 
trssark'  prrcaulion  of  walling  or  plastering  uj)  the  doorway  tirst. 

Hut  these  stairs,  let  me  tart  her  observe,  conic  out  rounding  into  that 
m.rtlurn  aiic,  w  hich  carries  all  the  features  of  a  Saxon  one.  We  have 
•icen  Richard  the  Norman,  [)rior  of  Hexham,  describing  the  fine  church 
of  \N  illriil  there,  and  making  Wilfrid  "  surrnuml  tlie  very  body  of  the 
"  cluirch  w  iih  lateral  chapels,"  it  having  a  south  aile  as  well  as  a  north. 
These  '*  lateral  ehaj>els,"  as  I  must  now  remark,  he  distinctly  charac- 
terizes with  the  apj)ropriate  appellation  of  "  appenticize,"  appendages, 
pentices,  or  (as  we  have  now  vitiated  the  word),  pent-houses;};.  He 
thus  points  out  the  form  of  the  ailes  in  the  Saxon  churches,  vciy  signi- 
ficantly; and  shews  them  to  have  been,  in  fact,  mere  pentices  to  the 
nave.  Just  such  a  builihng,  exactly,  is  the  north  aile  of  this  church; 
"  low  and  narrow,"  says  Mr.  Willis  himself,  who  ne^-er  thought  of  its 
Saxon  ci'^gin.  ••  and  the  roof  slanting§,"  presenting,  indeed,  from  its 
low  pitch  an<l  its  sloping  roof,  the  very  idea  of  a  pent-house,  to  every 
beholder. 

In  this  view  of  the  :iges  of  the  church,  we  see  the  nave,  the  north 
aile,  and  the  chancel,  tlie  fabrication  of  the  Saxons  ;  the  work  of  Athel- 
stan,  therefore,  about  g.Ri.  Wc  thus  find  a  church  m  orthy  of  a  king, 
worthy  of  an  Athel.staji,  worthy  of  the  conqueror  of  Cornwall.  To  this 
the  Norman  "  ambition"  of  adding  to  the  Saxon  churches,  was  coiii- 
pelled  to  be  content  with  adding  only,  I  suppose,  the  octangular  tower 
at   the  north-western  end,  with  the  grand  portal  between  it  and  the 

X  TwiKlcn,  c.  290  :  "  Ipsum  quoquc  corpus  ecclcsioe  appenticiis— circumcin.xit." 
§  Willis.  151. 

■  south- 


SECT.   IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SCTRVEYED.  V3l) 

south-western  tower.  That  tower,  notes  ISfr.  Willis,  very  justly,  "  is  a 
"  gi-eat  ornament  to  the  west  front;"  with  "  a  very  antique  portal" 
between  it  and  the  otlier  tower,  making  the  whole  "  look  very  majestic 
"  and  cathedral-like*," 

The  portal  bears  above  what  is  dcnominale^d  a  Catharine-w heel  cross; 
a  cross  within  a  wheel,  and  what  was  reported  by  the  late  Dean  jNIilles 
(I  understand)  to  be  a  mark  of  the  highest  antiquity  in  any  building. 
Yet  this  report,  if  real,  onlypi-oves  the  confusedness  of  anti(piariaii  rea- 
soning, at  times,  of  knowledge  without  accuracy,  and  of  erudition 
without  judgment.  No  symbol  upon  a  building  can  prove  the  aged- 
nessof  it,  unless  the  symbol  be  not  only  antique  in  itself,  but  confined 
to  antiquity.  Even  if  this  kind  of  cross  be  the  first  and  earliest  that 
was  adopted,  yet,  if  it  was  also  continued  in  the  ages  subsequent,  it 
will  as  soon  prove  a  building  to  be  of  the  last  period  as  of  the  first. 
The  fact,  however,  is,  that  this  kind  was  not  used  in  the  first,  as  the 
cross  of  Constantine  is  a  very  dilfcrent  onef ;  and  that  this,  too,  was 
actually  used  in  the  later  ages,  as  the  portal  cannot  possibly  be  older 
than  the  church  itself,  yet,  while  the  portal  carries  a  Catharine-wheel 
cross,  the  church  bears  a  common  one  just  aboAc  it. 

The  portal  is  round  in  the  arch,  and  has  mouldings  on  it,  either 
])lain  in  themselves,  or  variations  of  the  zig-zag,  with  a  narrow  band 
w  ithout  the  whole,  that  is  now  defaced  much,  but  appears  to  have  been 
formed  of  foliage.  This,  therefore,  is  such  a  portal,  as  frem  its  curved 
concave  is  universally  denominated  Saxon  by  our  antiquaries,  }'et  ap- 
pears either  \vith  or  without  carvings,  to  be,  in  fact,  daived  to  us 
■whoUif  from  the  Normans.  Thus  we  find  a  portal  at  the  \A-esLern  end  of 
that  cathedral  of  Rouen,  in  Normandy,  which  was  begun  about  the  year 
090,  and  finished  in  loO."?;  flanked,  too,  like  our  own,  by  two  towers; 
and,  what  is  Acry  rcinarknblc,  tlunigli  a  nicn^ly  casual  addition  of  coinci- 

•  Willis,  151. 

t  Described  by  Euscbius,  in  Vita  Coiislaut.  i.  31 ;  vol.  i.  p.  516,  and  ddinealcd  from  a 
coia  in  Gravius's  Thesaurus,  x.  1529. 

T  2  dcncc. 


140  Tlir    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.    II. 

dcncf,  two  tower?  that  arc  not  unitorm;  even  a  portal  at  the  north  end 
of  the  cross-aile,  and  a  portal  at  the  south  end  of  it,  each  equally  Hanked 
with  two  towcrsV  We  sec  another  at  the  west  end  of  the  principal 
church  in  I'ont-Audemer,  an  atuicnt  town  of  Normandy;  and,  like  our 
own  at  St.  (ierman's,  with  "  three  windows  over  the  portal,  the  middle 
"  window  wider  than  either  of  the  tAvo  side  ones;"  but  that  carrying  a 
pointed  areh."  and  ///<•.«' .shewing  "  round  arches,"  while  our  arches  are 
all  roundf.  M'c  find  at  Hourgachard,  a  village  of  Normandy,  "  all 
«•  the  w indow s  at  the  west  end  small  and  narrow,  having  round  arches," 
like  our  own;  "  as  hath  also  the  west  door,"  like  our  own,  "  which 
••  is  moreover  adorned  w  ith  mouldings,"  like  some  o(  ours  in  the  zig- 
zag t"orm^.  So  the  parish-church  of  St.  Saviour  at  Caen,  which  is  a 
very  ancient  building,  exhibits  a  portal  on  the  west,  with  a  large,  plain, 
peaked  arch,  and  a  kind  of  slender  steeple  on  each  side  of  it ;{:.  The 
large  and  magnificent  abbey  of  St.  Stephen  in  Caen,  which  was  founded 
hv  William  in  ioO»,  two  years  before  the  Conquest,  and  of  which  the 
church  was  dedicated  in  1077,  eleven  after  it,  has  a  great  door  at  the 
western  end.  ornamented  with  various  mouldings,  and  flanked  with  two 
towers§.  The  abbey  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in  the  same  city,  which  was 
t'oundcd  by  Matilda,  the  consort  of  William,  about  the  same  time 
that  William  t'oundcd  St.  Stephen's,  and  was  endowed  by  her  with  great 
munificence  in  io82,  has  equally  a  grand  door  on  the  west,  ornamented 
much  more  richly  with  mouldings,  but  flanked  equally  with  two 
towcrs||;  qnd  the  cathedral  of  Bayeux,  which  was  erected  in  1159,  has 
a  portal  in  the  western  end,  void  of  ornaments,  peaked  in  the  arch,  as 
the  whole  church  is,  and  flanked  by  two  -  towers  ^ .  These  instances 
abundantly  prove  the  taste  of  the  Normans,  both  before  and  after  the 
Con(piest.  for  portals,  caned  or  uncancd,  to  the  western  end  of  their 
chuahes,  and  for  towers  to  flank  them.  Eut  the  Temple  church  in 
London,  which  was  finished  in  1 184,  and  consecrated  in  1185**,    pre- 

•  Ducarrcl'i  Anglo-Norman  Ant.  12,  13. 

t  Ibid.  46.  ♦  Ibid.  45,  and  lot.  +  Ibid.  74.  §  Ibid.  51,  and  loi. 

I  Ibid.  63,  and  loi.  fl  Ibid.  77. 

••  Wand'.  Coll.  i.    107:  "  Templum  juxla  FL'lestrecte   LoH6?/n/.— Hcraclius  patriarcha 

"  Hierosolymiianus  consccravit,    11 85;    32   H.   2 Ttmplum    tetus   in   Holhurne 

"  LoodiDi. — Collapiuincst  ctdesolatum  an.  1184,  31  H.  2." 

seats 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  141 

sents  us  with  a  western  and  carved  portal,  purely  English,  of  the  same 
period ;  thus  exalts  our  reasoning  into  reality,  and  proves  the  Normans 
to  have  introduced  the  portal  of  their  own  country  into  England.  Away, 
then,  with  all  that  ascription  of  our  western  portals  to  the  Saxons, 
which  has  hitherto  prevailed  among  our  antiquaries,  and  taken  away  the 
portal  at  Mey,  near  Oxford,  the  portal  of  St.  Leonard's  near  Stamford*, 
w^ith  various  others,  without  argument,  without  authority,  from  the 
Kormans,  their  rightful  proprietors!"  The  portal  of  St.  German's, 
then,  was  an  addition  made  to  Athelstan's  church  by  the  Normans. 
who  also  built  a  new  tow  er,  in  order  to  '  flank  tlie  portal  pvopcrlv, 
and  so  render  this  conformable  to  those  in  their  oAvn  country. 

Thus  formed,  the  tower  has  Uvo  arches,  facing  exactly  as  tliose  cf 
the  other;  one  looking  towards  the  other  tower,  and  one  looking  up 
the  aile.  It  has  also  an  opening  high  in  the  southern  face  of  it,  to 
'Correspond  with  an  opening  once  existing,  now  closed  up,  but  still  appa- 
rent, at  the  same  height,  in  the  opposed  face  of  the  other,  which  must 
liave  served  for  a  window  in  this,  yet  was  imitated  in  that,  when,  from 
the  faces  of  both  being  now  brought  icttlim  the  church,  it  could  not 
have  served  any  purpose  at  all,  but  merely  one  of  correspondency. 
The  roof  of  the  church,  too,  between  the  towers,  over  the  portal,  and 
for  several  yards  of  advance  up  the  nave,  lately  carried  an  elevation 
within,  that  was  visible  to  every  eye;  but  because  it  aff^ected  the  voices 
of  the  singers  immediately  under  it,  has  been  lately  levelled  by  a  thick 
ceiling  of  plaster ;  yet  it  carries  one  very  visible  at  this  moment,  ivith'- 
oiit,  and  forms  a  fall  in  the  slating  of  twenty  or  twenty-five  inches  ia 
depth,  at  the  union  of  this  part  with  the  rest.  We  thus  find  an  e>  idence 
addressed  to  the  senses,  of  the  posteriority  of  the  portal  in  time  to 
the  nave,  with  which  it  is  now  associated;  and  (as  I  wish  to  remark 
additionally)  the  earth  had  lately  grown  up  so  high  upon  the  sides  of 
the  portal,  from  the  large  accretion  that  was  found  there,  of  lime  and 
stone  used  at  the  construction  of  it,  that  the  base  was  buried  no  less 
than  five  feet   six  inches  deep  in  the  accumulated  soil,  and  the  damp 

*  Duc.irrcl,  loi. 

of 


112  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORXW AI.L  [ciIAP.  11. 

ut'  ihis'h;i»  tixedjiht'lf  in  sucli  n  manner  upon  the  stones,  as  is  probably 
imlrliblf  ibr  ever.  Such  an  elevation  of  tlie  ground  Mas  evidently 
designed  l)V  the  Normans,  because  they  had  thrown  their  stone  and  lime 
U»cn!  at  the  ronslruetion  otthat  end  olthe  nave,  and  because  they  atiected 
a  Jt'Sixiii  into  tlieir  churches.  *'  '1  he  entrance,"  remarks  Dr.  Ducarrel, 
••  is  itlii'uifs  b\  a  descent  ot"  three  or  tour  steps;  contrary  to  the  assertion 
••  of  Mr.  Stavely,  that  the  Normans  made  their  churches  with  ascents 
••  to  themi ."  Hut  the  earth  was  raised  still  hiffher  to  the  r'lght  and  left 
of  the  |K)rtal.  where  the  necessity  of  maintaining  a  road  of  entrance, 
and  the  desire  of  main(ainin<r  it  in  a  descent,  could  not  operate;  merely 
from  the  constant  re])t"tilion  of  burials  there,  and  from  the  continual 
a<Idition  of  human  mould  to  the  other.  The  ground  was  thus  level,  or 
nearly  le\cl.  with  those  windows  of  both  the  adjoining  towers,  which 
arc  now  about  twelve  feet  above  it.  In  the  mass  so  amazingly  heaped 
u|>  at  the  tior/lieni  tower,  but  about  twenty  feet  from  it,  were  actually 
seen,  very  lately,  in  torming  a  drain  from  the  portal,  five  or  six  coffins 
of  stt)ne.  all  lying  in  a  line  at  the  side  of  the  drain,  and  were  left  there 
undisturbed,  about  two  feet  below  the  present  surface.  All  shews  the 
iM.-iil  In  hi-  \rrv  antique,  and  all  proves  it  to  be  of  Norman  antiquity. 

The  portal,  then,  being  Norman,  while  the  nave,  with  its  north  ailc 
and  chancel,  is  Saxon,  we  see,  ^^■ith  mld'itionul  lustre,  to  what  age  we 
iuu.it  refer  the  only  remaining  part  of  the  whole,  the  south  aile.  This  we 
have  found,  betbrc,  to  have  bc<;n  originally  one  complete  church  of  itself; 
to  have  been  als(»  constructed  w  ith  a  throne  for  a  bishop  in  the  body 
of  the  eastern  wall;  with  a  stall,  supposed  for  his  chaplain;  with  a 
doorway  tor  his  own  niii,iitt;uire  fioni  his  palace,  and  with  anarch  over 

t  Ducaml,  97.  The  passage  runs  thus  in  Stavelcy's  History  of  Churches  in  EnsrUnd, 
cJ.i.  ad,  1773,  P-  «S«  :  "'  Tlie  Saxom  made  theirs,  generally,  with  descents  into  thenj,  and 
"  the  AVmarw,  contrarily,  \vitha9ce«/i."  Nor  is  this  position,  apparciuly  false  as  it  is,  to  be 
wondcrvd  at  in  a  writer  who,  with  a  credit  for  giving  good  information;  does  so  frequently. 
ohlnidc  upon  us  bad ;  who  writes  with  confidence,  because  he  writes  in  icrnorance;  who 
.pcak5  frequently  without  authority,  yet  as  frequently  nusinterprets  his  authority  when  he 
rcfcrMo  a;  who  is  theretorc  too  r.ish,  too  inaccurate,  too  injudicious,  or  too  ignorant,  to 
be  any  longer  considered  with  respect  by  real  antiquaries. 

5  a  seeming: 


SECT.  lY.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED,  1-13 

a  seeming  tomb,  Ur  mark  his  own  place  of  sepulture,  in  the  substance  of 
the  southern.  Yet,  we  now  see  it  was  not  built  by  Athelstan,  because 
Athelstan  built  the  nave,  the  north  aile,  and  the  chancel.  It  was, 
therefore,  prior  to  them  ami  to  him  :  it  Avas  the  church  of  a  bishop 
when  Athelstan  built  the  other  parts  of  it ;  when  he  built  a  church, 
■worthy,  in  his  ideas,  tc  be  the  episcopal  see  of  Cornwall;  and  when  lie 
left  the  prior  church  of  the  Cornish  bishops,  out  of  reverence  for  their 
memories,  to  stihd  as  a  south  aile  for  his  own.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
very  church  which  was  erected  by  the  Cornish,  when  they  set  up  a  dis- 
tinct episcopate  among  them;  the  Jirsf,  the  hixt  cathedral  of  Corn- 
wall. But,  what  is  very  .surprising,  a  tradition  still  remains  at  St.  Ger- 
man's, as  an  intimation  is  also  given  us  by  Leland,  uniting  to  confirm 
this  conclusion,  tliough  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  has  been  yet  con- 
sidered, in  its  obvious  consequences.  "  Before  the  dissolution,"  says 
Mr.  Willis,  "  this  church  was,  as  Leland  tells  us,  "  divided  in  two 
"  parts;  the  great  south  isle,  or  (as  strangely  denominated  besides) 
•'  nave,  with  a  tower  at  the  west  end  of  it,  serving  for  the  use  of  the 
"  PARISHIONERS;  and  the  middle  isle,  or  nave,''  as  if  there  could  be  two 
naves  in  one  church;  "  together  with  the  low  north  isle,  and  tower  at 
"  the  west  end  thereof,  with  the  chancel  or  choir,  being  approjiriated  to 
"  the  use  of  the  convent;}:."  INIr.  Willis  has  here  reversed  the  natu- 
ral order  of  things,  and  made  that  echo  of  history,  tradition,  to  speak 
more  fully  than  the  voice  itself.  There  is,  says  this  voice  in  Leland, 
"a  priori  [church]  of  blake  chanons,  and  a  paroche  chirche  yn  the 
*"■  boclij  of  the  sained  This  general  notice  is  detailed  by  tradition,  in 
all  the  ample  form  in  which  Mr.  Willis  details  it.  When  Athelstan, 
therefore,  constnicted  his  nave,  north  aile,  and  chancel,  in  addition  to 
the  episcopal  church  existing  before;  he  built  all  for  the  use  of  the 
clergy,  whom  he  attached  in  a  college  to  the  church,  and  whom  he 
iixed  in  a  collegiate  house  adjoining  to  it;  but  left  the  previous  part  of 
the  church  to  the  use  of  those,  by  whom  it  had  been  used  before, 
the  bishop,  his  chaplain,  and  the  parish.  Such  a  superadded  evidence 
have  we  here,  in  this  slight  circumstance,  of  the  great,  the  long-conti- 
nued priority  of  the  south  aile  to  the  north  and  the  nave! 

X  Willis,  150. 

But, 


J4  1  THR    CATHr.DRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CH  VP.   11. 

But.  bt'fore  I  conilude  the  chapter,  let  me  notice  three  particulars 
«>f  church  architecture,  visible  at  other  churches,  and  not  found  at  this: 
one  is  that  tlus  has  only  towers,  not  s/nfr:i,  to  it.  ''  Spires,''  indeed, 
savs  Mr.  W'arion,  "  were  never  used"  at  all  "  ////  the  Saracen  mode 
"  hMik  f>laa\''  troin  the  crusades.  "  1  think  we  find  none  before  1200. 
••  I  he  spire  of  old  St.  Paul's  was  finished  1L'2I  ;— the  spire  of  Nor- 
'•  wich  cathedral,  about  12;8.  Sir  Christopher  Wren  informs  us,  that 
the  architects  of  this  period,—"  '  atTccted  steeples  ,''  not  sp'tres,  as  Mr. 
Warton  fancies  him  to  say,  "  '  tliough  the  Saracens  themselves  used 
"  cupohis'."  Hut — I  cannot  help  being  of  opinion  that,  though  the 
"  Saracens  themselves  used  cupolas,  the  very  notion  of  a  spire  teas 
••  hmiiuht  from  the  East,  where  pvramidical  structures  were  common, 
"  and  g/iiral  ornaments  were  the  fashionable  decorations  of  their 
"  mosques,  as  may  be  seen  to  this  day,"  in  their  minarets*.  Thus  are 
our  spires  deduced,  with  a  seeming  decisiveness,  from  our  crusades  in  the 
I'last.  Yet,  the  deduction  is  evidently  false.  ^\q.  find  them  in  Normandy, 
Ix'forc  the  very  crusades.  The  cathedral  of  Rouen  was  begun  about 
the  year  oyo,  and  was  completely  finished  in  1003;  "but  "  the  transept 
"  of  the  cross  forms  a  beautiful  lantern,  over  which  stands  a  very 
"  K)fty  spire,  three  hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  height,  which  is  a  great 
"  ornament  to  the  church -f-."  'J'he  abbey  of  St.  Stephen's,  at  Caen, 
begun  in  ior»i,  and  finished  in  10/7,  has  its  west  end  "  flanked  with 
"  two  towers — ,eac]i  surmounted  with  a  spire  of  remarkable  height," 
lightness,  and  elegance  |.  The  cathedral  of  Bayeux,  too,  erected  in 
1 1.19,  has  its  portal  on  the  w^jst,  "  flanked  by  two  square  towers,  each 
"  of  which  terminates  in  a  very  lofty  steeple;'"  the  author  means  a 
v/)»/r,  as  his  very  plate  shews§.  And  the  remains  of  the  Conqueror's 
palace  at  Caen,  in  w  hich  (according  to  tradition)  he  entertained  with 
a  sumptuous  banquet  his  own  mother,  on  her  re-marriage  to  the  Count 
dc  Contevillc,  many  years  before  the  Conquest,  appears  still  to  have  five 
slender  turrets  at  its  sides,  all  topped  with  short  spires  \\ .  These  are  plain 
proofs  of  the  existence  of  spires,  long  before  the  crusades.  Spires,  tlierefore, 

•  Warton  ou  Spenser,  ii.  195,  196,  from  Wren's  Parentalia,  305. 

♦  Ducarr.-!.  ..,  ,3.  .  jbid.  50,  5,,  and  plate.  §  Ibid.  97,  98. 
H   IbiJ.  59,  plate.  ^'    ^ 

came 


SECT.   IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  145 

came  not  from  the  Saracens  to  us ;  nor   yet  did  they  come  from  the 
Normans.     They  were  in  Normandy  before  the  Conquest  indeed,  and 
they  appear  in  England  soon  after  it.     But  they  came  to  both  from  one 
common  fountain  of  all  refinement  in  general,  and  of  architecture  in  par- 
ticular, Italy ;  the  very  term  by  which  -v^e  distinguish  this  pyramidal  kind 
of  steeple,  being  merely  (as  the  judicious  Skinner  observes^  the  "  Italian 
"  spira,  pyramis,  turris  fastigiata."     Nor  is  the  term  solely  Italian.    It  is 
equally  Latin,  though  in  this  signification  not  classical;  distortedly  bend- 
ing to  import  "  a  round  pyramid,"  as  Johnson  observes  concerning  the 
derivative  English,  "  — perhaps  because  a  line  drawn  round  and  round  in 
"  less  and  less  circles,  would  be  a  spire."     Accordingly,  in  that  very  cu- 
rious because  very  ancient  view  of  Rome,  which  is  gi^'en  us  in  the  A'o////a, 
the  only  perspective  indeed  that  we  have  of  this  imperial  city,  the  other 
view  of  it  on  the  pavement  of  a  temple  at  Rome  being  merely  a  ground- 
plan  *  ;  amid  much  indistinctness  of  vision,  yet  with  a  prominent  view 
of  the  Pantheon,  we  behold  two  tower-like  buildings,  actually  surmounted 
with  round  pyramids,  behold  an  apparent  church  just  ^^  ithout  the  walls 
having  a  tower  with  a  short  blunt  spij^e  to  it,  even  again  behold  within 
the  walls  the  apparent  tower  of  a  church,  shooting  vp  into  a  tall  spire,  and 
carrying  a  cross  on  the  top  of  it  f.     All  shews  the  use  of  spires  among 
the  Romans,  very  satisfactorily.     But  in  the  Notifia  is  a  perspective  of 
another  city,  Achaia  being  delineated  as  a  female  personage  with  her 
proper  attributes,  and  in  the  back-ground  of  the  picture  appearing  a  view 
of  a  city,  Corinth  assuredly,  the  capital  of  the  province ;  in  which  the 
loftier  buildings  only  are  seen  of  course  ;  but  out  of  five  towers  that  are 
seen,  three  seem  to  have  short  spires,  and  two  have  spires  as  fall,  as  taper, 
as  conspicuous,  as  any  of  our  own  %.     I  thus  account  for  the  present  use 
of  spires,  among  ourselves  and  among  the  vSaracens,  derived  equally  to 
both  from  the  Greeks  through  the  Romans  ;  beginning  among  oiirselvcs 
particularly  at  the  same  time  with  towers  to  our  churches,  though  much 
rarer  probably  in  their  use ;  and  continued  by  the  Saracens,  not  inno- 
vating certainly  in  all  points,  as  they  have  been  wildly  supposed  to  be, 
even  retaining  Roman  mosaics,  even  copying  Roman  grotesques,  even 

*  Graevius,  iv.  1954.  +  Pancirolliis  at  the  beginning.  J  IbiJ.  70. 

VOL.  I.  u  copyijig 


^^^  THE    CATHEDRAL    OK    CORNWALL  [cHAP.   II. 

copyiup  all  thi-  singularHirs  of  thrir  arclutrcHurr,  pcrhafis  from  the  Ei!j^p- 
tiaiio,  with  that  wry  invention  of  the  (;rccf,s,  an  arch§. 

Another  delicienev  at  St.  German's  is  a  form  of  internal  disposition  in 
our  iMrish-ehur.hes'of  Cornwall,  which  is  retained  by  ma!iy  of  the  old 
anionj;  us,  which  1  Iwar  to  be  still  retained  e.|ually  by  some  in  Devon- 
shin*,  but  which  I  have  never  foimd  noticed  in  any  either  here,  or  there, 
t.r  cisewhei-e.     'I'hc  churches  consist  in  their  original  state  of  a  single  aile 
gcncrallv.  and  of  (/  projcctiim  running  at  right  ong/csfrom  if;   tliat  con- 
stituting the  body  of  the  church,  and   this  composing  the  /ord's  chapel. 
Tlu"  projection  rxists  large  and  striking  in  my  own  church,  in  that  of 
Vcr>an.  that  of  i'hillcy,  that  of  St.  Ewe,  and  in  those  of  Lamorran,  St. 
Just,  Trcgonev,  &c.    But  tlicn  the  projection,  being  now  or  formerly  en- 
closed with  rails  as  a  chapel,  and  having  only  a  direct  view  across  the 
bo<lv  of  the  church  ;  an  opening  was  made  through  the  substance  of  the 
wall  upon  one  side,  to  give  the  family  kneeling  in  the  chapel  a  view  of  the 
altar.     This  opening  has  been  closed  again,  in  some  churches;   as  at 
Veryan  it  appears  to  have  been  filled  up,  when  the  chapel  was  converted 
into  a  l)elt'rcy,  and  what  was  a  bclt'rey  Itefore  became  a  porch  to  the 
church.     At  Tregoney  the  opetfmg  for  sight  has  been  enlarged  into  a  gal- 
lerv  for  access  towards  the  altar,  by  tearing  down  the  wall,  rebuilding  it 
with  a  tall  arch,  and  forming  a  low  avenue  into  the  chancel"undcr  a  wall 
sloped  out  into  the  churchyard.     At  'i'ruro  likewise  the  chapel  has  been 
destroyed  tor  the  construction  of  a  northern  aile  ;  only  the  western  part 
of  its  partitioning  wall  has  been  left,  with  its  arch  of  entrance  on  the 
east ;  low,  indeed,  in  its  pitch,  yet  not  lower  than  the  side-door  on  the 
south  ;  and  the  upper  half  of  this  arch  is  left  open  for  tlve  common 
people,  who  now  sit  where  the  family  of  the  lord  once  sat,  to  see  the 
pulpit  on  the  opposed  side  of  the  church,  and  to  hear  directly  the  clergy- 
man preaching  from  it.     But  in  other  churches,  particularlv  my  own, 
this  opening  remains  as  it  was  originally,  a  nierc  avenue  for  the  eye  to- 

^  Swinburne  in  Sp.iin,  i.  288  ;  280,  jjl.nlc ;  and  Pocockc  in  Egypt,  i.  215,  220.  Compare 
the  pillar*  and  capitals  in  the  former,  i.  2R0,  wiih  those  in  the  latter,  i.  216,  217.  The  very 
minartli  arc  itnicturcs  betwctn  lowers  and  spires,  being  spires  in  form  but  towers  in  fact,  as 
men  stand  on  them,  and  proclaim  the  hours  of  praver. 

wards 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  I47 

wards  the  altar ;  not  large,  but  rounding,  about  the  height  of  the  head  to 
a  kneelcr,  and  pointing  immediately  to  the  altar.     All  these  circumstances 
unite  to  mark  its  designation  ;   to  shew  it  calculated  fur  presenting  a  view 
of  the  priest  at  the  altiir,  in  the  act  of  elevating  tlie  sacramental  elements, 
for  the  invoked  consecration  of  them  by  the  Holy  Ghost.     Ihis  elevation 
was  at  once  primitive,  popular,  and  proper,  being  still  traceable  in  all 
the  liturgies  of  the  primitive  church  *,  being  retained  for  many  ages  after- 
ward,   and"  appearing  strictly  proper  in  itself,  when  material  substances 
were  to  be  made  the  awful  conveyancers  of  spiritual  benefits,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  supplicated  to  make  them  such.     We  even  see  the  prac- 
tice more  plainly,  in  an  accidental  intimation  given  us  by  Florus,  the  very 
ancient  enlarger  of  Bcde's  Martyrology,  from  the  still  more  ancient  acts 
of  a  bishop  in  the  days  of  Cons  fan  tine  ;  of  whom  it  is  said,  that  "  at  the 
"  hour  of  breaking  celestial    bread,    when,   according  to  the  sacerdotal 
"  custom,  he  with  elevated  hands  offered  up  the  Host  to  the  Third  in  the 
"  Godhead  for  his  benediction,"  &c.  -j-.    The  usage,  indeed,  was  retained 
among  us  till  the  Reformation,  when  the  first  liturgy  of  our  Edward,  in 
1549,   preserved  the  prayer  of  oblation,  but   ordered  it  "  to  be  sayed 
"  turning  still  to  the  altar,  without  any  elevation,  or,"  as  the  order  use- 
fully adds  in  reference  to  our  present  point,  "  sbening  the  sacrament  to 
*'  the  people  1^."     A  little  before  this  event  had  Truro  church  been  built, 
and  a  little  after  this  must  Tregoney  have  been  altered.     Truro  church  is 
of  the  elegant  sort  of  Gothic  which  took  place  among  us  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VH.,  and  which,  perhaps,  might  be  wished  to  have  still  continued 
among  us,  as  happily  uniting  the  solemn  solidity  of  the  Gothic  with  the 
luminous  lightness  of  the  Roman.     Accordingly,  in  that  window  of  the 
south,  which  is  the  third  from  the  east,  is  an  express  date  of  1518  :  yet 
this  church,  though  so  late,  had  its  chapel,  and  consequently  its  opening; 
that  now  superseded  by  tlic  end  of  the  new  aile,  this  now  screened  from 

*  See  a  Collection  of  the  principal  Liturgies,  used  by  the  Ghristian  Church  in  the  Cele- 
bration of  the  Holy  Eucharist ;  with  a  Dissertation  upon  them  ;  by  Thomas  Brett,  L.  L.  D. 
1720,  p.  9,  17,45,  ?cc.  of  the  Liturgies  ;  p.  103,  104,  of  the  Dissertation. 

t  Bede,  418:  "  In  horii  confractionis  panis  ccelestis,  duni.  de  more  saccrdotali  hosliarn 
*'  elevatis  manibus  Tertio  Deo  oblatani  benediccndam  olfcrret,"  Sec. 

X  Brett,  134,  of  Liturgies. 

U  2  view 


J, J  THE    CATIIFDUVL    Ol     COK.WVALL  [CHAP.  II- 

view  by  plastrrinp  and  by  inomimrnts  ;  because  tlie  elevation  was  still 
cotitiniied.  Hut  at  TregoiK-y  the  openiii-  Avas  ehanged  into  an  avenue, 
h<-.aus«-  the  elevation  was  now  forbidden.  Previously  to  this  tlie  eleva- 
t;M„  had  Ijeen  e«)n.sidered  as  an  act  of  peculiar  solemnity  in  the  very 
>iAvnm  sen-ice  of  the  cucharist,  as  what  peculiarly  tended 

To  swtll  the  pomp  of  dreadful  sacrifice. 
«•  i  U-hcve."  .sa\sa  poet,  a  critic,  and  a  Protestant,  "  few  persons  have 
"  ever  been  present  at  //ic  celchnitiiig  a  mass  in  a  good  choir,  but  liave 
••  Ik-cu  aJfectcd  witii  awe,  if  not  with  devotion  § ."  Yet  what  is  the  most 
artj-cting  part  of  the  whole,  let  his  own  anecdote  proclaim.  "  Lord 
••  IJolingbroke,"  adds  the  same  author,  "  being  present  at  this  solemnity 
•'  in  the  chapel  at  Versailles,  and  seeing  the  archbishop  of  Paris  elevate  the 
"  host,  \Nhisj)ered  his  companion  the  marquis  de  **♦**,  '  If  I  were  king 
"  of  Trance,  I  would  always  perform  this  ceremony  myself  ||  ."  To  see 
this  act  therefore,  was  sure  to  be  the  wish  of  all  in  the  congregation  ;  yet 
was  denied  to  the  very  family  of  the  lord  himself,  from  the  very  position 
of  his  chapel.  To  retain  the  position,  but  preclude  the  denial,  the  wall  of 
the  chapel  was  let't  open  near  its  union  with  the  church,  and  a  visto  was 
ffirmcd  for  the  eye  to  the  altar.  Such  a  visto  must  once  have  been  uni- 
versal in  and  out  of  Cornwall,  where  the  lord's  chapel  so  projected  from 
the  i>arish-church  :  and,  as  the  projection  was  not  confined  to  Cornwall, 
the  visto  (1  hear)  is  still  to  be  found  in  Devonshire:  yet  even  in  Cornwall 
it  is  vanishing  away,  and  has  never  been  noticed  by  the  antiquaries  of 
church-architecture  before.  At  St.  German's  and  all  the  larger  churches, 
it  cannot  appear,  because  they  have  no  lord's  chapel  at  all.  It  can  appear 
only  in  those  that  have  one,  and  that  have  one  forming  (as  it  were)  a 
single  arm  of  a  cross  to  the  church. 

The  third  deficiency  at  St.  German's  is  more  imaginary  than  real ;  yet 
ha.s  been  reported  so  confidently  for  real,  as  to  demand  my  particular 
notice  here,  in  t)riler  to  clear  up  confusion,  and  to  rectify  erroneousness, 
-even  with  those  very  anticiuaries  through  whom  I  receive  much  of  my  in- 

^  Warton's  Essay  on  I'opc,  i.  325,  edit.  id.  g  Ibid.  325,  326. 

formation, 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SUnVEVF.D.  M,, 

fonnation.  These  have  been  long  proclaiming  to  the  u  orld,  and  pro- 
clainiing  with  a  tone  of  authority  seemingly  just,  that  such  an  entrance 
as  our  own  into  the  church  was  denominated  the  parvis  among  our  an- 
cestors. Yet  whence  could  an  appellation,  so  strange  to  our  ears,  and 
so  perplexing  to  our  understandings,  be  dcri^'cd  ?  \of  trom  paradise 
undoubtedly,  as  Spelman  in  a  high  fever  of  fancy  dreams,  and  dreams  for- 
sooth !  because  the  porch  is  to  the  church  what  paradise  is  to  heaven  ^ ; 
not  "  a  parvis  pueris"  there  taught,  as  Watts,  in  a  paroxysm  of  learning 
run  mad,  affirms*.  It  resulted  from  a  circumstance  in  the  internal  dis- 
position of  our  churches,  that  is  rarely  found  at  present,  that  is  equally 
with  the  name  unknown  at  St.  German's,  but  was  naturally  characteristic 
enough  to  attract  a  particular  title  once. 

The  parvis  in  the  church  was  plainly  a  school;  as  a  poor  clerk  of  France, 
says  M.  Paris  under  1250,  was  forced  to  drag  on  "  a  star\'ing  life  in  the 
"parvis,  keeping  a  school,  and  selling  petty  books -f."  It  thus  formed 
such  a  part  of  the  building,  as  we  still  see  in  some  churches  of  Normandv; 
the  portal  "  at  the  north  end  of  the  cross  aile"  in  Rouen  cathedral,  being 
to  this  day  "  called  Le  Portail  des  Libraires,''  or  the  porch  of  the  book- 
sellers ;  not,  as  has  been  surmised,  "  from  its  opening  into  a  place  where 
*'  formerly  stood  several  booksellers'  shops,"  but,  as  the  name  and  the  his- 
tory unite  to  shew,  from  its  being  the  scene  of  such  portable  shops  it- 
self;}:. Such  shops  we  see  still  continued  in  the  streets  of  London,  by 
men  who  shew  us  in  lively  portraits  the  originals  of  all  our  stationers, 
with  their  rubric  posts,  at  present.  "We  see  them  still  nearer  to  the 
level  of  those,  in  the  humbler  stationers  attending  after  dinner  at  the  halls 
of  our  colleges  in  Oxford,  ranging  out  their  libraries  of  a  score  of  pam- 
phlets upon  the  ground,  and  carrying  off  their  unsold  stocks  in  the  package 
of  a  basket  Thus  did  the  name  of  parvis  become  the  hereditary  and 
statutable  distinction  at  Oxford,  for  what  in  common  language  w^e  de- 
nominate the  Schools  there ;   those  places  of  exercise  for  the  literary 

fl  Spelman  :  "  Contractc  a  Lat.  Paradisuu,— i.  e.  atrium  ecclesiae." 

•  Walls,  Glossarium  to  his  M.  Paris  :  "  A  parvis  pueris  ibi  edoctis," 

t  Paris,  690 :  "  Scljolas  exercens,  venditis  in  parvisio  libellis,  vitara  faaielicani." 

J  Ducarrtl,  13. 

I  •  genius 


^5^  THE    CATHF.nRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.   U. 

Ki-niusof  ihatui.lvcrMtv.  in  %vhich  this  eagle  beats  his  young  pinions 
and  strain*  his  voung  cyci,.  tor  a  flight  towards  the  noon-day  sun  of 
learning. 

Equally  transferred  was  the  name  of  pmivis,  as  ^^'atts  in  a  moment 
of  more  sobriety  thinks,  to  those  scholastic  exercises  of  young  lawyers, 
which  were  formerly  termed  moots,  as  the  cases  proposed  in  them  were 
termed  moot-points  §  .  But,  as  the  fact  appears  undeniably  to  have  been, 
ihc  very  place  that  was  the  station  of  these  booksellers,  was  equally  made 
a  court  of  judicature,  like  Westminster  Hall  at  present,  and  all  the  serious 
warfare  of  the  law  was  prosecuted  in  it.  This  we  sec  by  reflection  from 
that  only  mirror,  whidi 

Catches  the  manners  living  as  they  rise, 

which  retains  them  faithfully  upon  its  surface  aftei-wards,  and  is  always 
exhibiting  them  to  the  attentive  eye  ;  the  allusive  language  of  our  ances- 
tors. Thus  a  Serjeant  at  law,  now  our  highest  dignitary  in  the  scale  of 
acting  lawyers,  but  formerly  (as  the  name  shews)  a  mere  apprentice  to 
Uie  trade  of  law,  is  thus  complimentud  by  Chaucer  for  his  knowledge  and 
f  xperiencr.  as  actually  the  highest  digifitary  even  then  : 

A  Serjeant  at  law  ware  and  wise. 
That  oftin  had  been  at  the  parvise  \ , 

Ihii  Fortescue,  that  grave  and  learned  judge,  speaks  exactly  in  the  same 
tone  of  language  w  ith  the  comic  bard  ;  describing  those  who  had  any 
•'  picas"  or  suits  in  the  court,  as  "  going  away  to  the /jams,  and  there 
•'  consulting  with  xhew Serjeants  at  lair  or  other  counsellors^."  Both 
these  notices  intimate  the  high  conse<]uence  of  this  court  in  the  portal,  the 
g<iieral  resort  of  the  people  to  it,  and  the  great  abilities  of  the  lawyers  in 
it.     Yet  all  sccnis  to  have  vanished  from  the  page  of  history,  and  to  have 

§  Walts  :  "  Etiam  el  in  collegiis  jurisperitorum  nostratinm,  exercitium  s>ive  colloquium 
"  »t  .dcntiiimjunionim  the  parvise  vocabatur,  quod  nnnc  moot  dicimus." 

II   Walts  wasihc  first  who  cited  these  lines,  and  he  cites  them  from  Chaucer,  Prolog.  9. 

^  Walls  from  Fortescue,  cap.  51  :  '•  i'lacitantcs  tunc  se  divertunt  ad  parvisum,  consu- 
••  Icnic*  cum  servientibus  ad  legem  el  aliis  consiliariis  sms."  Siaveley,  159,  turns  the  plea 
into  pleadings,  and  so  mars  the  meaning. 

left 


SCCT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  15  1 

left  not  a  trace  behind.  I>ut  that  it  has  so  left  or  so  vanished,  is  only  the 
vision  of  idleness,  unwilling  to  exert  itself  in  inquiries,  and  therefore 
hanging  lazily  over  supposed  vacuity. 

There  is  a  passage  in  one  of  our  ancient  historians,  a  private,  a  local 
historian,  and  consequently  more  an  historian  of  manners  than  a  public,  a 
general  one  ;  which  comes  up  to  the  height  of  both  these  notices,  satis- 
factorily accounts  for  them  both,  and  so  lays  open  a  point  new  but 
striking,  very  curious  but  very  important,  in  the  economy  of  our  ancient 
constitution.  "  Of  two  towers  at  the  middle  of  the  length"  of  Canter- 
bury cathedral,  says  Eadmer  in  his  description  of  it  just  after  the  Con- 
quest, "  one  on  the  so/if h  had  in  its  side  the  principal  door  of  the  church, 
"  which  door  is  offoi  mentiutied  by  name  in  the  laws  of  oiu:  ancient  kings; 
"  by  ivhich  laws  it  is  decreed,  that  even  all  suits  of  the  whole  realm,  which 
"  cannot  be  legally  determined  in  hundred  or  county  courts,  or  certainlii 
"  decided  in  the  kings  own  court,  must  have  their  determination  here  as 
''  in  the  highest  court  of  the  king*,''     This  is  a  declaration,  amazingly 

pregnant 

•  Gervase,  1292,  Twisclen :   "Sub  medio  longitudinis   aulae  ipsius  duas  turres  erant, 

**  qiiarum  una,  quae  in  auslro  erat — ,  habcbat — iu  latere  principale  hoslium  ccclesice; — quod 
" — in  antiquorum  legibus  regum  suo  nomine  saepe  exprimitur;  in  quibus  eciam  omnes 
"  querelas  totius  regni,  quae  in  hundredis  vel  comitatibus,  uno  vel  piuribus,  vel  certe  in  curia 
"  regis,  non  possent  Icgaliter  diffiniri,  fincni  inibi,  sicut  in  curia  regis  sumni?  [summJ],  sor- 
"  tiri  dcbere  discernitur."  These  words  were  not  understood  by  him,  w  ho  first  produced 
them  as  relative  to  the  parvis;  Stavelcy  rendering  them  thus  in  i6o,  "  That  all  the  diflercnees 
*«  in  the  hundreds  were  there  determined,  as  in  the  king's  court."  But  Selden,  who  had  pro- 
duced them  before  without  any  reference  to  the  parvis,  saw  tlieir  import  thoroughlv,  and  cries 
out  with  amazement  at  it;  "  Impcnse  miranda  est  jurisdictiouis  heic  prodigiosa  aniplitudo, 
"  nee  sane  minor,  ut  verba  sonant,  quam  si  dixisset  sumnuim  ibi,  quoad  causas  eliam  totius 
"  regni  omnimodas,  inio  ct  regiis  supcrius,  tribunal  archiepiscopale  ibi  locum  tunc  habuisse 
"  idque  in  legibus,  quas  diximus,  discern}.  Res  quidcm  aliunde  perquam  inaudita,  et  juri 
"  apud  majores  nostros,  turn  regio  turn  populi,  quale  tunc  ct  semper  postea  viguisse  recipi- 
"  tur,  undiquaque  dissona."  (P.  xliv.  xlv.  Praefalio  to  Twisden.)  Yet  Selden  does,  as  everv 
nun  of  sense  must  do.  lie  bulie^ves  the  account,  however  extraordinary,  upon  the  credit  of 
an  historian  so  grave  and  so  faithful  ;  he  cited  Eadmer  :  "  Adeo  fidclis  tamcn  ac  gravis  mibi 
"  icriptor  est  Eadmerus."  He  tays,  (p.  xliii.)  "  ut  de  re  ipsft — ilubitare  nequcam."  Hut 
"  quonam  in  opnsculo  scripserit  hoc  Eadmerus,  mihinondura  constat.  -Cerli:  nee  iii  historiu 

"  ejus  • 


^yj  XIIK    CATHEDHAK    OF    CORXWALI.  [cH\P.   IT. 

pn-unant  >v.th  intcllitrcncc  and  novelty.  The  judicature  of  the  cliurch 
a,,|H-arsrvidc-ntlv  to  have  been  //«•  /lii^h  court  of  chancer,/  tlicn  in  the 
kinjidutn.  "  AH  suits  of  the  %vIiol»reahii."  which  either  could  not  be 
drtirndnrd  in  llic  courts  ot"  tl»c  hundred  ur  the  county,  as  courts  having 
not  a  lejral  coniix-tency  ot  juriMhction  over  them,  or  could  not  be  finally 
decided  m  the  kin-'s  bench  <.t*the  day,  were  decided  and  determined  in 
tliat  *•  hljihest  court  of  the  kinp,"  which  was  held  in  the  southern  portal 
of  Cantcrburv  cathedral,  and  therefore  had  the  archbishop  undoubtedly 
presiding  in  person  at  it  f .  Tor  this  reason  it  is  noticed  equally  by  a 
bard  and  by  a  judge,  that  speaking  the  language  of  the  multitude,  but 
this  the  language  of  the  law  ;  as  the  grand  court  of  appeal  to  the  whole 
nation,  as  the  grand  court  for  numerousness  or  selectness  of  lawyers,  as 
therefore  the  natural  representative  of  all  the  courts. 

Yet  at  what  period  did  commence,  and  in  what  period  did  conclude, 
this  very  extraordinar}- judicature,  which  has  so  long  lain  hid  from  our 
eyes  in  the  clouds  of  our  own  ignorance,  or  in  the  fumes  of  our  own  in- 
curiousness  }  It  commenced  undoubtedly  with  the  very  commencement 
of  Saxon  Christianity,  and  it  concluded  not  for  four  ages  after  the  Con- 
quest. Mentioned  by  Eadmcr  about  the  year  1  lOO,  without  any  note  of 
its  diminished  aulliority ;  we  find  it  about  the  year  1250,  still  existing  at 
Canterbury,  still  appearing  as  a  grand  court  of  appeal,  and  still  attended 
by  a  number  of  counsellcrs.  Petrus  Blescnsis,  a  chaplain  of  the  arch- 
bishop's, and  archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  yet  liru/g  regularly  hi  the  palace 
with  the  archhishof),  during  the  life  of  Becket ;  in  some  epistles  which  he 
published  speaks  incidentally  of  "  a  college  even  of  counsellers  flourish- 
"  ing  there,"  and  "  of  himself  a  considerable  member  of  it,"  probably 
therctore  in  the  very  palace  of  the  archbishop ;  adding,  that  "  all  the 
"  knot  I  If  qiiestions  oUhc  kingdom  are  referred  to  ?/s  +."     So  strongly  lias 

the 

"  ejoK  novorum,  nee  in  Anselmi  Vit4— reperitur.  Siispicor  equideni  S.  Wilfridi  archiepis- 
•«  copi  Eboraccnsis  Vitx,  ab  co  conscriptse,  illud  esse  inscrtum.  Vitam  illam  nondum  vidi." 
(P.  xlii.  xliii.) 

t  Hence  Sclden  calls  it  «'  tribunal  archicpiscopalc." 

t  Sclden,  p.  xiv. :  ««  Collegium  ibi  florcrc  ostendit  etiam  juris-consultorum,  quorum  ipse 
"  magna  pars,  el « omncs,'  inqujt,  '  quxstiones  regni  nodosae  referuntur  ad  nos'."     But,  as 

Selden 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  153 

the  sun  of  history  shone  upon  the  court,  without  illuminating  the  dark- 
ness of  it  to  the  blind  optics  of  our  antiquarian  critics  !  The  court  con- 
tinued even  to  the  days  of  Chaucer  and  of  Fortescue,  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries ;  with  a  high  degree  of  brightness  beaming  around  its 
head,  yet  all  wrapt  up  in  a  thick  gloom  to  the  dim  eyes  of  antiquarianism. 
Thus  the  island  of  ACadcira  apj)carcd  for  a  long  time  to  an  adjoining  isle, 
a  mere  cloud  of  darkness,  impenetrable  to  the  rays  that  shewed  it  rising 
up  from  the  sea,  and  reaching  as  high  as  heaven ;  when  all  the  while  it 
was  only  a  mountainous  land,  with  a  thick  wood  upon  it.  Seidell 
at  last  saw  and  confessed  the  court,  but  stared  at  it  for  a  prodigy  ; 
just  as  that  island,  on  a  nearer  view,  was  thought  to  be  peopled  by 
monsters. 

Yet  still  how  came  this  court,  so  visible,  though  so  unseen  for  ages,  to 
be  denominated  the  parvis  ?  The  same  historian,  who  exhibits  the 
court  itself  in  such  magnificent  colours,  will  help  us  to  explain  the  name. 
The  door  at  which  the  court  was  held,  he  tells  us,  "  was  uncictitlij,  and 
"  even  noiu  is,  denominated  by  the  English  the  southern  door — ;  but 
"  another  tower  has  been  built  on  the  northern  side, opposite  to  the  former, 
*'  having  the  cloysters,  in  which  the  monks  convei;sed,  ranging  about  the 
"  sides  of  it,"  and  consequently  with  a  door  opening  into  them.  "  In  the 
*' former,  forensic  suits  and  secular  pleas  were  prosecuted;  but  in  the 
"  latter,''  as  the  author  astonishingly  proceeds  to  lay  open  the  very  school 
of  the  portal  with  which  he  began,  "  the  more  adult  monks,"  not 
"  children"  therefore  §,  Jiot  "  parvi  pueri,"  either  clerical  or  laical,  as 
has  always  been  hitherto  supposed,  but  solely  "  monks,"  solely  "  adults" 
among  them,  and  solely  "  the  more  adult"  of  the  number,  "  were  trained 
"  up  night  and  day  ()))  turns,''  not  in  the  common,  the  secular  principles 
of  literature,  but,  as  better  became  men  preparing  for  orders,  "  in  Icarn- 

Stlden  remarks,  "  degcbat  Petrus  ille  ut  minister  ac  famulus,  etiam  ct  archidiaconu-:,  C.iii- 
*'  tiiariensis,  in  xdibus  archiepiscopi  illius;  quod  vilce  genus  omninoaulicum  tunc  crat  splen- 
"  didissimnnK[iie." 

§  Slavcley,  157:  "There  was  a  certain  part  of  the  churcli  anciently  called  the  parvis, 
"  that  is,  a — part  of  the  church  set  apart  and  used  for  the  teaching  oi  children  in  it." 

VOL.  I.  X  *'  ins 


,54  THE    CATULDR\i:.    OF    CORXWAI.L  [cHAP.  U. 

"  iHg  the  offices  of  the  church  \\ ."  V^c  thus  find  the  scliool  and  the  court 
very  tortunatrU  united  t<>};.'ther  in  '  1^      iVt  let  us  not  leave  this 

iiortluTn  tfwr,  as  it  is  so  very  importaii.  .,.  .>ar  intended  explanation  of  the 
nainc.  to  i  he  seeming  dubiousness  of  an  inference;  when  we  can  prove 
lis  exislenee  at  once.  "  In  l-'O'.).  the  Qlh  of  September,'"  says  anotlier 
h!st<»rian,  "  Rtibert  archbishop  of  Canterbury  celebrated  the  espousals 
••  iKttwcen  king  IMward  and  Margaret,  sister  to  the  king  of  France,  at 
"  that  ihxtroi  i'*^nst-c\nlTch  in  Canterbury',  ichich  is  towards  the  cloy^ 
"  tter  % ."  1  hat  marriages  weie  made  at  the  church-door  fornierl}',  was 
well  known  to  antiquaries;  but  no  antiquary  has  yet  produced  this 
illustrious  passage  in  proof  of  the  point.  Th?  two  doors  therefore  Mere 
like  the  two  towers  in  which  they  were  "  opposite"  to  each  other.  The 
space  Ix'tween  them,  we  see,  had  a  school  or  "  panis"  at  one  end^  and  a 
court  or  "  parvis"  at  the  other,  not  kept  in  the  same  portal,  as  has  been 
always  believeil,  and  as  I  believed  myself  w  hen  1  began  my  researches,  but 
at  two  |M)rtalh  directly  opposite.  A  visto  was  thus  formed  for  the  eye  across 
the  breadth  of  the  church;  and  this  lusfo  is  what  theNormans  expressed  by 
par-riiinr sccii-fhroiigh,ju^t  as  ris-a-vis  signifies  any  thing  opposite  at  pre- 
sent, and  ;is  a  small  carriage,  holding  two  persons  opposed  to  each  other,  is 
denoniitiatcd  a  vis-ii-fk  among  ourselves.  Here  then  is  the  mighty  mystery 
dissolved,  that  has  hung  so  long  like  a  spell  upon  the  name  of  pauyis  for 

I  Gcrvasc,  1192:  "  Anliquitus  ab  Anglis,  cl  nunc  usque,  Siithdure  (Wc'itur; — alia  vcro 
"  lurris  in  plagA  .iqiiilonali,  c  rcgionc  illiiis,  comlila  fuit,— claustra  in  quibus  monachi  con- 
"  vi-rtabanUir  liinc  indc  habcns.  Et  sicut  in  alia  forcnses  litcs  et  sccularia  placita  excrccban- 
**  tur,  iiA  in  istA  adolcsccniiorcs  fratrcs  in  disccndo  ecclt-sia'-tica  officia,  die  ac  nocte,  pro 
•'  Icmporuni  ticibus  inslitucbantiir."  So  the  most  westerly  part  of  the  church  at  Glaston- 
I)nry  i»  j.iiJ  by  tradilion  to  have  been  appropriated  for  the  education  of  some  who  arc  de- 
nominated children  ;  but  these  appear  to  have  been  young  monks. 

^  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  51  :  "  Anno  mccxcix.  v.  Id.  Scplembr.  archiepiscopus- 
"  Cantuaricnsis  Robertu<  cclebravit  sponsalia  inter  prxdictum  regcni  Eilwardiim  et  Margare- 
•'  tani  sororcm  regis  Francix,  in  ostio  eccksioe  Christi  Cantuariensis  versus  claiistriim." 
By  this  door  Brtkct  went  from  his  palace  into  the  church,  followed  by  his  murderers.  "  In 
*•  clauilrum  monachorum  c«mi  vcnisstmus,"  says  one  of  his  attendants,  "  volucrunt  mona- 
"  chi  oUiam  post  cum  acclauderc,"  but  he  would  not  permit  them  ;  "  intratum  est  in  eccle- 
»  sum  islam ;  iturus  ad  aram  M.pcrius,— jam  quatuor  gradus  ascenderat,  cum  ccce  !  ad  ostium 
••  cliimn— ailest,"  Sec.     Sparke,  85,  ^■ila  S.  TbomK. 

a  part 


SECT.   IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEVED.  153 

a  part  of  our  churches,  and  defied  all  the  wizard  powers  of  aiiticpia- 
rianism  !  It  signifies  solely  a  visto  through  the  church.  It  was  not  con- 
fined therefore  to  the  porch,  even  to  the  lower  end  of  the  church  at  large, 
as  has  been  always  asserted,  and  always  believed,  hitherto  *.  AVe  see 
the  visto  at  Canterbury  cathedral  across  the  iniilJIc.  The  parv'is,  how- 
ever, was  frequently  at  the  vvestei-n  end  of  the  church,  and  consequently 
without  any  visto  at  all ;  even  extended  with  the  crowds  repairing  to  it  as 
a  court,  and  communicated  its  name  to  an  enclosnre  app(Midant  to  this 
end.  Thus  at  the  only  church  in  Normandy,  in  which  I  know  the  ap- 
pellation of  parv'is  to  be  still  retained,  it  is  retained  only  by  this  appendant 
part ;  as  at  Rouen,  "  adjoining  to  the  west  end  of  the  cathedral,  is  a  large 
"  square  piece  of  ground,  enclosed  ^^■ith  a  stone  wall,"  the  atrium,  of  the 
church  at  this  end,  and  therefore  "  called  to  this  day  parvis  or  aitre  f ." 
From  this  position  it  is,  that  parvis,  in  the  present  language  of  France, 
signilics  vot  a  visto  through  a  churcli,  not  a  j)ortal  at  the  end  of  it,  but 
merely  a  place  before  a  portal.  And  thus  at  last  we  find  the  appellation, 
w  hich  has  been  wiklly  attached  to  most  of  our  churches,  and  wildly 
alfixcd  to  the  western  portal  of  them,  incident  only  to  such  as  had  a  visto 
across  their  breadth,  atiixed  only  to  one  church  in  fact  through  all  the 
kingdom,  and  from  its  attachment  to  the  school  with  the  court  of  this, 
lending  itself  through  the  celebrity  of  its  school  to  the  Schools  at  Ox- 
ford, even  diti'using  itself  with  the  splendour  of  its  court  over  all  the 
kingdom;}:. 

♦Watts:  "  Sane  aliquando  pars  qujcdain  Ininferiore  navi  ecclcsias — the  parvis  i\c?hM\.\T ." 
Staveley,  159,  160:  "  Most  churches,  especially  the  greater  ones,  have  a  north  door  antl  a 
"  south  door  towards  the  nether  end  of  the  church,  and  one  of  them  just  opposite  to  the 
"  other,  whereby  a  passage  or  thoroughfare  is  made  through  that  part  of  the  church — ;  now 
"  the  lowest  part  of  the  church  next  to  the  doors,  was  called  the  parvii.'* 

t  Ducarrcl,  13:  Aitrc  at  present  signifies  the  closet  of  a  house,  but  (as  the  analogy  tells 
us)  of  a  closet  piojectiiig  over  the  atrium,  and  thence  of  any  room  of  a  house.  A\'hen  sve 
once  discover  the  radical  idea,  we  thence  trace  the  ramifications  with  certainty. 

X  Staveley,  160,  161,  refers  to  Simeon  Dunelmensis,  35,  Twisdon,  for  a  court  similar  to 
that  at  Canterbury.  But  Simeon's  court  is  only  similar,  as  licing  in  a  church.  It  was  in  a 
country  church,  "  non  longe  ab  urbe — ccelcsiani ;"  and  it  was  a  court  merely  occasional  in 
it?elf,  because  imexpcctcd  by  the  priest,  the  periodical  court  of  a  manor. 

X  2  CHAPTER 


KC 


Tlin    CATIIEUKAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.   111. 


cii  A  rTi:u    THIRD. 


SFXTION  I. 


In  the  prfccding  account  of  the  Saxon  churches,  \vc  see  underground 
ch:»pfls,  or  (as  they  were  then  called  at  times)  porticoes,  belonging 
r<|uallv  with  "  appcnticia:"  or  side-chapels  to  them.  We  may  see  them 
again  in  Wilfriil's  church  at  Nippon,  as  described  by  ISfalmesbur}^  himself, 
where  the  church  is  said  to  have  been  "  built  by  him  from  the  founda- 
"  tions,  with  a  wonderful  bowing  of  arches,  a  roofing  of  stones,  and  a 
"  winding  of  porticoes,"  or  underground  chapels*.  These  also  appear, 
though  the  circumstance  has  never  been  noted  by  any  writer  hitherto,  to 
have  been  constructed  originally  tor  conff.ssioxals.  The  first  church  of 
Canterbury,  that  which  was  built  by  the  Romans,  says  Eadmer  the  only 
describee  of  it,  had  "an  ascent  of  some  steps  from — what  the  Romans 
"  call  a  cn//)t  or  confessional ; "  and  this,  he  adds,  "  was  built  below  like 
"  the  confessional  of  St.  Peter's"  in  Komef.  "  There  was,"  says  the 
same  author  concerning  a  church  on  the  continent,  a  certain  cnjpt — , 
"  whicli,  according  to  custom,  obtained  the  name  of  a  confcscional  "l." 
'i'he  shadincss  of  an  undercroft  seems  peculiarly  calculated  for  a  work,  at 
which  our  Protestant  prejudices  are  apt  to  start  away  mto  suspicions  and 
surmises  ;  into  suspicions  of  what  abuses  mat/  be  engrafted  upon  it,  and 
mto  sunniscs  of  w  hat  actually  are.     Yet  as  an  exercise  of  casuistry,  as  an 

Mafmcibiiry,  f.  148:  "  iCdificata  ibi  a  fundamentls  eccleslae,  niiro — fornicum  inflexu, 
"  lapidum  tabulaiu,  porliciuim  anfractu." 

f  Iwisdcn,  1291:  "  Nonnullis  gradibus  asccndcbatur  a  choro  catitoriim,  quam  criptani 
"  vcl  confissioDcm  Romani  vocaiit ;  subtus  crat  ad  imilali6nem  confessionis  Sancti  Petri 
••  fabricaia." 

:  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  ii.  195  :  "  Cripta  qu.-cdam  crat— ,  qui  locus  confessionis  no- 
*'  niea  pro  more  obtinuit." 

act 


SECT.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  157 

act  of  private  monition,  and  as  an  operation  of  personal  remonstrance,  it 
is  found  abroad  to  be  expedient  in  itself;  though  (equally  with  all  other 
exertions  of  authority)  it  is  certainly  liable  to  much  abuse,  subjects  the 
clergy  to  nmch  trouble  in  the  matter,  and  exposes  the  clergy  to  much 
censure  in  the  manner.  It  was  ^//t're/o/'e  directed  to  be  performed  at  first 
wittim  the  walls  of  the  cliurch,  in  order  to  throw  a  greater  sanctity  over 
the  deed ;  but  within  the  chapels  of  the  crypt,  in  order  to  give  a  greater 
privacy  to  it.  Nearly  so,  within  the  remains  of  that  fine  dilapido.ted 
mansion  of  theTregyons  at  Golden  in  Cornwall,  which  was  in  building 
at  the  very  period  of  Leland's  visit  into  the  county  §  ;  upon  the  left  side 
of  the  gateway  is  the  chapel,  but  on  the  right  what  tradition  reports  to 
have  been  the  chaplain's  apartment,  and  within  it  a  small  room  half  under- 
ground, with  no  light  into  it  except  through  the  opened  door,  and  with 
two  stone  seats  in  it,  reported  equally  by  tradition  to  have  been  the  coii- 
fessionul  of  the  family  || .  And  in  the  nunnery  at  Littlemore  near  Ox- 
ford, where  "  the  chapel  is  now  standing,"  ^ith  "  the  nunnery  itself,  at 
"  least  a  very  great  part  of  it,  all  rebuilt  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III. ; 
"  amongst  other  rooms  of  the  nunnery  there  is  one  above  stairs,  all  dark 
"  and  entire,  which  is  that  in  which  the  nuns  used  to  make  their  confes- 
"  sions  to  their  ghostly  father  *."  I  thus  account  for  a  s«i-struction,  that 
has  long  perplexed  all  our  antiquaries ;  and  account  for  it  in  a  manner 
peculiarly  suggested  by  its  nature,  as  well  as  historically  true  in  itself  f. 

But 

§  Leland's  Itin.  iii.  28:  '*  Mr.  Treg)on  hath  a  maner  place  richely  begon  and  amply, 
"  but  not  ended,  caullid  Wulaedon  alias  Goldoun." 

11  I  owe  this  intimation  to  the  late  vicar  of  Probus,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Seccomb. 

•  Itin.  ii.  152. 

t  "  I  happened  to  be  present,"  says  one,  "  whilst  the  service  was  read  in  the  French  lan- 
"  guagc,"  at  theWallon  church  of  Canterbury  ;  "  but  though  the  day  was  bright,  it  was 
"  difficult  to  distinguish  the  countenances  of  those  who  were  present,"  (Arch.  viii.  445.) 
The  aiuhor  then  mentions  the  crypt  uniler  St.  Paul's.  "  A  third  instance  of  such  a  subter- 
"  laneous  church,"  he  adds,  "  is  to  be  found  in  the  cathedral  at  Glasgow.  Now  it  so  hap- 
"  pens,  that  each  of  these  crypts  are  [isj  situated  under  tlie  choirs  of  their  respective  calhe- 
"  drals."  Yet  where  should  they  be,  but  under  the  most  elevated  part  of  the  cathedrals  ? 
"  Erasmus  says,"  as  another  tells  us  of  the  Canterbury  crypt  in  Arch.  .x.  46-48,  "  that  the 
"  eastern  \x\n  "  of  the  crypt  "  being  somewhat  olscure,  till  lights  were  brought  he  could  not 
"view  to  adcanta^e  \hQ  tlegant  chapel  of  the  \'irgin  Mary"  there.     The  writer  therefore 

assigns 


Tlir    CATHEUnvL    OF    COWNWAI.L  [OHVP.   III. 

luit  AtlirUtancoii'itnirttNl  no  undercrofts  to  his  churcli,  for  a  reason  of 
:.  Mrilvirj',  natun-.  When  the  I'.rilons  of  (\)rn\vall  first  fixed  a  churcli 
upon  the  site,  tliev  did  as  tlie  Jiritons  and  Saxons  of  Cornwall  equally  do 
tothi<.  dav.  <»vfr!ook  all  f<*ar  of  dampness  in  the  predominating  dread  of 
winds:  ihev  therefore  chos<' a  ground  sheltered  from  the  winds,  though 
it  Mas  moi?»t  in  itself,  for  the  position  of  their  church  ;  and  the  Saxons 
chose  an.jthcr  more  moist  but  more  sheltered,  even  the  site  below  the 
church,  for  their  college.  Accordingly  a  dnin  has  been  found  requisite 
bv  lord  Kliot.as  I  have  hinted  before,  to  run  from  the  northern  tower  and 
along  the  chtirchvard,  in  order  to  draw  otfthe  natural  moisture  of  the 
ground,  and  divert  it  from  the  duuch.  My  lord  has  even  found  his 
houHc,  the  Saxon  college,  from  the  door  westward  nearly  up  to  the  end  of 

aiiignt  a  reason  for  ihc  darkness,  which  is  none  at  all;  that  ihls  crj'pt  was  "  designed  to  have 
*'  I  mnstaiit  comnniiiication  with  the  vaults"  more  easterly,  and  miglit  therefore  have  been 
mlightcncd  from  them.  Even  supposing  that  to  have  been  onre  designed  and  then  umiued, 
of  nhicL  this  author  gives  no  proof  at  ail ;  yet  the  question  btill  reeurs,  and  the  answer  is 
Still  wanted,  why  the  darkness  was  not  removed  by  some  new  expedient.  "  The  French 
"  church  is,  however,  less  lightsome  than  it  was  formerly,  in  eonsujuencc  of  the  ground 
*'  without  it  being  considerably  raised."  This  reason  can  have  had  only  a  slight  influence, 
M  wc  ice  the  darkness  of  the  place  in  the  days  of  Erasmus.  Even  our  author  acknowledges 
it  afterwards  to  hive  been  so  dark  from  the  first,  as  hardly  to  admit  the  celebration  of  service 
Ity  the  light  of  day,  and  therefore  to  have  wanted  the  assistance  of  lamps.  "  In  these 
"  crypi.«,"  be  concludes,  "  there  might,  in  general,  be  light  suflicient  for  the  celebration  of 
*•  divine  rites  ;  and,  in  compliance  with  the  superstition  of  the  age,  there  were  lamps  burn- 
"  ingat  ihc  several  alurs."  The  intimation  is  annihilated  by  the  assertion;  and,  if  lamps 
were  wanted,  tiitre  iiai  not  d.iyliglu  sufficient.  Yet,  what  shews  the  assertion  7wt  to  be 
true,  we  have  just  seen  even  "  the  elegant  chapel  of  the  Virgin  Mary"  there,  too  dark  to  be 
vicwctl  by  daylight,  and  requiring  lights  to  be  brought.  We  see  also  again  in  the  much  ear- 
licr  days  of  Bcckel,  th.it  "  the  crypt  had  many  turnings  in  it,  and  most  of  them  gloomy. " 
(Sparke,  86  :  "  Crypia— ,  in  quii  multa,  ct  pleraquc  tcnebrosa,  diverticula.")  And  the  crvpt 
of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  the  \-ery  model  or  pattern  of  our  original  crypt  at  Canterbury,  is  so 
rcrx-  dark  at  this  moment,  «♦  that  there  is  no  seeing  any  thing  without  the  light  of  a  torch." 
(Kcysler's  Travels,  tr.tiulatcd  1760,  ii.  260.)  ««  To  the  crypts  under  the  choirs  of  cathedrals 
"»peciGed-  above,  finally  remarks  our  author,  "  may  be  added  that  at  Itochesier,  con- 
♦^'.tructed  by  Gundulph."  But  Uland  telis  us  of  another  under  Winburn  minster,  as 
•  Ihc  cr^ptei  .n  the  «t  part  of  the  chirch  is  an  old  pe.ice  of  work."  (Itm.  iii.86.)  At  Exeter 
a^»  we  Dnd  "  cripta  ejudem  ecclesia.,"  the  cathedral.  (Monasticon.  i.  an.)  And  at 
Br«iul  we  find  two  churches  wiU.  crypts.  (Lciand's  Hin.  vii.  90.)  ' 

5  his 


SECT.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  IBQ 

his  gallery  there,  built  upon  piles  driven  into  the  mud  of  the  sen-beach; 
though  from  that  door  eastward,  all  along  the  eastern  end  of  the  house,  it 
was  raised  upon  a  rock.  And  cveiy  eye  may  discern,  what  shews  the 
swampiness  of  the  ground  along  this  side  of  the  church,  in  the  strongest 
light,  that  the  northern  arches  of  the  na%e  haAC  all  gone  off  from  their 
perpendicular,  are  now  leaning  a  little  toward  the  house  below,  and,  if 
the  northern  ailo  with  its  buttresses  did  not  check  the  tendency,  would 
lean  considerably.  Yet  we  cannot  believe  these  buttresses  to  have  been 
raised  by  the  Normans,  for  shoring  up  the  then  inclining  nave.  We 
find,  indeed,  at  the  ancient  royal  abbey  of  St.  Audocn  in  Normandy,  that 
"  the  v\a!ls  of  this  church  are  eased  on  the  outside  by  thirty-two  arc- 
*'  boufants  or  buttresses,  placed  at  equal  distances,  and  so  contrived  as  not 
"  in  the  least  to  impede  the  light  from  piercing  the  windows*."  AVe 
see  also  buttresses  between  the  windows,  at  the  ancient  palace  of  the  Con- 
queror in  Caen,  and  at  the  cathedral  church  of  Bayeux-f-.  We  even 
seem  to  have  borrowed  the  very  appellation  of  buttresses  from  the  Nor- 
mans of  France  ;{;.  Yet,  however  this  may  be  true  and  ^/m^  is  certainly 
so,  the  use  of  buttresses  is  very  ancient  among  us.  We  behold  them  at 
the  north  aile,  coaeval  undoubtedly  with  the  aile  and  the  nave.  We  see 
them  again  at  the  south  aile,  equally  coseval  with  the  aile  itself,  used 
therefoi'e  by  the  Britons  of  Cornwall  in  the  seventh  century,  and  received 
by  them  with  all  their  architecture  from  the  Romans  themselves  §.  And 

•  Diicarrcl,  27. 

t  ILid.  59  and  78. 

X  The  name  comes  to  us,  I  believe,  from  a  word  no  longer  existing  in  the  language,  yet 
leaving  its  family  of  words  behind  it  ;  arc-boutant  a  buttress,  because  buttresses  used  to  ter- 
niinal-C,  as  lliey  still  terminate  at  limes,  in  a  half-arch  ;  aioutir  to  border  or  abut  upon, 
aboiUissmnent  bordering  or  abutting  upon,  louthse  a  stone  laid  across,  loutnir,  lute,  a  farrier's 
buttress.  Buttresses  seem  to  have  been  used  originally,  at  the  end  of  buildings.  Hence  are 
derived  the  French  ideas  abo\e,  and  our  own  of  the  lult  end  of  any  thing.  The  earliest 
mention  that  I  have  noticed  of  buttresses  in  our  island  is  this,  concerning  lateral,  not  final, 
buttresses,  even  some  at  the  angles  of  a  lower:  "  Turris  manerii  de  Ilowndesdon  per  iili  mi!- 
"  liaria  dc  VVoar  villa,"  Ware  in  Hertfordshire  ;  " — in  quolibet  latere  dictas  turris  sunt  vii 
*<  i'0/)v/?.>e.s  inagr.ae  latiludinis."   (Itineraria — Wi.deW.  p.  89.) 

§  The  term  in  Saxon  was  probably  spur,  and  in  British  spor  {\,)j  still  used  for  a  shore  ot 
prop  among  our  builders  j  just  as  epervn  is  used  by  thcFreach  at  present. 

the 


iflO  Tlir.    CATHEDRAL    OF    COIINUALL  [c'lIAP.    Ill, 

theinrliintion  oftlic  arches  has  been  gradually  j:ro\\  ing,  from  the  erec- 
tion of  them  bv  Athelstan  to  the  present  moment  f. 

Yet  thoiiph  Athelstan.  for  the  swampiness  of  the  soil,  built  no  porti- 
coes or  imdtTgrountl  chapels;  he  raised  h\s  pent  ices  for  confessionals. 
Thesf,  p«iually  w  ith  those,  were  always  separated  from  each  other  and 
from  the  nave  hy  walls.  A  separation  from  the  nave,  however,  is  a  cir- 
cumstance unknown  to  all  our  critics  in  church-architecture:  but  it  is 
vrry  apparent,  in  the  report  of  histor}-,  and  in  the  view  of  remains.  Wil- 
frid, in  building  the  church  at  Hexham,  says  the  Norman  dcscribcr  of  it, 
"  surrounded  the  very  body  of  the  church  with  peiiticcs  and  porticoes  on 
*' every  side, // 7/ /c// ^f — separuted h;/  nails*.''  In  the  clioir  of  Conrad 
tliat  was  raised  at  Canterbury,  says  Gervase,  "  there  was  a  wall,  which 
"  divided  the  Itody  of  the  church  from  those  sides  of  it  that  are  denomi- 
"  iiatcd  ai/esf."  "  There  were,"  adds  Shaw  in  his  description  of  Elgin 
cathedral,  "  porticoes  or  to-falls  on  each  side  of  the  church,  eastward 
"  from  tlie  traverse  or  cross,  \Nhich  were  eighteen  feet  broad  without  the 
*'  nud/s  ;"  and  there  was,  "  besides  the  great  \n  indows  in  the  porticoes, 
*^ — a  row  of  attic  \\indows  in  ihe  ira/Is,  each  six  feet  high,  above  the 
"  porticoes;"  he  confounding  the  pcntice  with  the  portico,  giving  the 
name  of  portico  to  the  pcntice,  but  shewing  the  pentice  to  be  divided 
from  the  nave  by  walls |.  And,  in  the  rchcs  of  the  abbey-church  at 
Reading,  the  remains  of  this  dividing  wall  still  salute  the  eye,  still  attract 
the  wonder  of  spectators  uninformed  of  such  a  separation  in  other 
churches,  and  unable  to  account  for  it  in  any§.     Accordingly,  all  access 

to 

^  ThJi  has  even  gone  on  so  rapidly  since  I  wrote  the  account  above,  that  in  1803  the 
whole  of  the  ailc  has  been  taken  down,  and  the  services  of  the  church  have  for  a  twelve- 
month past  been  transferred  to  a  room  in  the  house.— July  16,  1804. 

•  Twisdcn,  c,  290:  "  Ipsum— corpus  efcclesise  appenticiis  et  porticibus  undique  circum- 
"  cinxit,  <)nw — jht  parieles — distinxit." 

t  Twisden,  c.  1294:  "  Murus  erat— ,  qui— corpus  ecclesiE  a  suis  lateribus  qua  ala  vo- 
"  cantur  dividebat." 
J  Sha-A's  Moray, U77. 

$  Arch.  vi.  65,  sir  Henry  Englcfleld  :  "  There  is  a  circumstance  which  Is  really  very  sin- 
guJar,  m  the  .hsposuiou  of  the  walls  of  .he  [abbey]  church ;  that  is,  that  the  side-ailes 


seem 
"to 


SECT.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  iQl 

to  our  pentices  was  originally  from  ivithout,  there  was  no  communication 
betv\  ixt  them  and  the  church  within,  while  the  rooms  themselves  were 
equally  small  and  dark,  each  being  divided  from  the  nave  by  a  wall  be- 
tween the  pillars,  which  still  remains  at  the  site  of  the  organ-loft.  Near 
the  tvestern  end  of  this  aile,  about  six  feet  only  from  the  northern  tower, 
appear  the  plain  vestiges  of  an  ancient  doorway  in  the  outer  wall ;  that 
was  about  eight  feet  high,  with  something  more  than  three  wide,  had  a 
round  arch  above,  yet  is  now  formed  into  a  modern  kind  of  window  with 
narrow  parallel  compartments,  but  must  have  led  into  a  small  room  there 
between  the  door  and  the  nave.  A  few  yards  to  the  east  of  this,  and  di- 
rectly o[)positc  to  the  new- discovered  staircase  of  stone,  was  another 
door,  the  eustomaiy  entrance  into  the  church  for  the  Eliot  family,  within 
these  few  years  ;  some  stone  steps  mounting  up  to  the  level  of  the  floor, 
a  round  arch  (equally  as  in  the  former  doorway)  still  appearing  over  head 
within,  the  same  sort  of  modern  window  filling  up  this  as  tliat,  and  all 
marking  out  to  us  the  room  of  a  second  confessional.  But  at  the  eastern 
end  of  this  was  very  lately  another  room,  only  a  few  feet  square,  havino- 
no  outlet  at  all,  having  only  a  small  window-like  opening  on  the  south, 
and  approachable  only  from  the  aile  by  a  doorway  that  still  remains,  that 
proves  itself  modern  by  the  letters  R.S.  cut  in  the  stones  of  it,  and  shews 
the  partitioning  wall  to  be  equally  modern  with  itself.  Thus  partitioned, 
however,  from  the  rest  of  the  aile,  this  room  was  considered  as  the  tomb- 
house  of  the  Scawens  once  existing  at  ]Molinek  in  the  parish  ;  but  being- 
taken  down  a  few  years  ago,  when  lord  Eliot  purchased  the  estate  at 
Molinek,  and  a  buttress  being  erected  upon  the  ground  to  secure  this 
angle  of  the  church  from  warping,  not  the  least  vestige  of  a  grave  was 
discovered,  though  the  whole  floor  of  the  room  was  necessarily  turned  up 
in  the  operation.  Yet  the  room  was  undoubtedly  destined  fof  this  pur- 
pose, when  the  partitioning  wall  Mas  erected,  and  the  recording  letters 
were  inscribed  upon  the  doorway  ;  or  an  appropriation,  so  antique  in  its 

"  to  have  been  separated  from  the  rest  ly  continued  walls,  which  still  are  \n  some  parts  three 
"feet  above  the  turf;  this,  indeed,  I  cannot  account  for."  Yet  how  easily  does  the  text  ac- 
count for  it  here  !  Mr.  Bcntham  even  says,  p.  29,  that  in  the  first  churches  "  their  porti- 
"  cocs,"  or  ailes,  "  were  open — towards  the  nave."  So  requisite  was  a  new  account  of  our 
ancient  cinirchesj  to  clear  away  the  falsehoods  ot  the  uld  ! 

VOL.  I.  Y  origin. 


,g2  -nJE   CATnr.ORAL   of  CORNWALL  [cttAP.  hi. 

toripin,  wouUl  ncrcr  have  been  conceived  bv  the  common  people  :  but 
still  it  was  never  used,  rrcviously,  indeed,  to  the  erection  of  the  par- 
tioninp  wall,  it  must  have  been  all  open  to  the  aile,  was  in  fact  a  mere 
part  of  the  second  confessional,  and  shews  us  very  clearly  the  original  na- 
ture of  both.  There  was  no  light  admitted  into  either  from  withouf,  the 
pn-M-nt  windows  into  the  aile  being  all  apparently  modern,  and  two  of 
them  b<Mng  evidently  doorways  at  -first.  Tet  some  was  admitted  from 
u'Uhiii,  as  the  window-like  opening  in  this  room  must  have  looked  for* 
merlv  into  the  chancel,  looking  latterly  into  the  interval  between  th6 
present  altar  and  the  late  brewhouse.  So,  at  the  cathedral  of  Elgin  be- 
fore, we  have  seen  the  "  to-falls"  running  "  on  each  side  of  the  church, 
*'  costirmd  from  the  traverse  or  cross."  Tims  the  absolute  darkness  of 
an  unwindowed  room  was  qualified  a  little,  by  the  introduction  of  a 
secondary  liglit  tlirough  glass,  from  the  softened  gloom  of  the  church  it- 
kelf.  The  shade  was  now  strong  enough  to  throw  an  air  of  deep  solem- 
nitA-  over  the  intercourse  ;  while  the  view  into  the  church  called  in  all  the 
ideas  of  religion,  and  diffused  a  solemnity  still  deeper  over  all.  So  hap- 
pily docs  the  soul  derive  her  tempers  from  the  f'eelwgs  of  the  body  at  the 
moment  !  So  happily  also  is  the  ei/e  adapted  to  take  in  impressions  from 
matter,  and  fix  them  upon  spirit! 

"  Entirely  demolished,"  says  Mr.  Willis  in  1716,  " — is  [are]  the  roof 
"  and  lofts  of  the  north  tower,  though  the  walls  yet  stand.  In  it  were 
"  [was]  ])ef()re  the  dissolution  rt^c^  of  hells,  vvhich  were,  as  the  parishio- 
*'  ncrs  have  a  notion,  carried  to  the  neighbouring  churches."  If  they  were 
iBo  carried,  as  the  tradition  leaves  us  little  doubt  but  they  were,  we  may  be 
»urr  they  were  carried  only  because  they  had  been  sold.  We  know  not 
vuicfi  indeed  of  the  horrible  rapacity  for  gain,  which  actuated  the  hearts 
and  impelled  the  hands  of  the  busiest  of  our  reformers.  Yet  a  few  in- 
stances will  teach  us.  At  Dale  in  Derbyshire,  "anno  1450  [15-10]  the 
••  abbey  clock  sold  for  six  shillings  ;  the  iron,  glass,  paving-stones,  and 
••  gravestones,  sold  for  eighteen  pound  ;  the  cloyster  sold  for  six  pound  ; 
••  here  were  six  bells  weighing  47  cwt."  At  Darleigh  in  the  same 
county.  "  anno  1 540  the  tombs  and  the  tvhoie  church  were  sold  for  tiventy 
"  f  «MUKb,  the  cloyster  for  ten  pounds,  the  chapter-house  for  twenty  shil- 

■*  "  lings  ; 


SECT-  I.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  1(5.;; 

"  lings ',  here  m  as  then  received  for  six  bfxls  forty-five  pounds,  one 
"  shilling,  and  ten  pence."  At  Delacres  in  StatTordshirc,  "  the  pave- 
*'  ment  of  the  abhcy-clmrch,  iles,  roof,  and  gravestones,  were  sold  for 
"  13/.  Os.  8d.  anno  ],540  ;  here  were  then  six  bells,  weight  fifty  him- 
"  dred,  which  were  valued  at  3//.  10;$."  At  Merival  in  Warwickshire, 
*'  the  whole  buildingsof  the  abbey,  valued  1540  at  135/.  I2.s\  2(1.;  four 
"  BELLS,  valued  at  3o/.  ;  six  gravestones  Avith  brasses  on  them,  sold  for 
"  5s.  *."  So,  on  July  the  r.th,  1542,  was  "  sold  to  Henry  Crips  of 
**  Burchington  and  Robert  St.  Leger  of  Feversham,  certain  bell-metal, 
"  containing  twenty-four  thousand,  six  hundreth,  one  quartern,  twenty 
"  and  one  pounds,  in  waight ;  being  parcel  of  the  five  bells  late  in  the 
V  grei\t  bellfrage  of  Christ-church  in  the  city  of  Canterbury  -f."  But  let 
nie  enlarge  this  catalogue  of  iniquities,  by  the  addition  of  one  more.  Near 
to  the  school  iq  St,  Paul's  churchyai'd  at  London,  says  Stowe,  was 
"  a  great  and  high  cloclner  or  bell-house,  fourc-sq\iare,  buildcd  of  stofie, 
"  and  in  the  same  a  most  -strong  frame  of  timber,  with  fouke  bells,  the 
"  greatest  that  I  have  heard  ;  these  were  called  Jesus  Bells,  and  belonged 
"  to  Jesus  chai)pell.  The  same  had  a  great  spire  of  timber,  covered  with 
*•  lead,  with  the  image  of  St.  Paul  on  the  top  ;  but  was  pulled  down  by  sif 
"  Miles  Partridge,  knight,  in  the  rcigne  of  Henry  thcEighthe.  The  com^ 
"  mon  speech  then  was,  that  hee  did  set  one  hundred  pounds  upon  a  cast 
"  oj  dice  against  if,  and  so  wonne  the  said  clochier  and  bels  of  the  king  ; 
"  and  then,  causing  the  hels  to  he  brolien  as  they  hung,  the  rest  was  pulled 
"  dovvne  |."  "  Sir  Thomas  Audlcy,"  adds  Sto.v\  e  concerning  one  of  the 
more  dignified  wretches  that  were  satisfied  to  receive  a  reward  for  their 
services  to  the  king,  by  sharing  at  second  hand  in  his  robberies  upon  the 
church,  **  ofFtred  the  great  church  qf' this  prior ie,"  Christ-church  on  the 
right-hand  within  Aldgate,  "with  a  ring  of  nine  bells  we\\  timed,— to 
!"  the  parishioners  of  St.  Katharine  Christ-church,  in  exchange  for  their 
"  small  parish- church,  minding  to  have  pulled  it  downe,  and  to  have 
"  builded  there  towards  the  street ;"  and  on  their  refusal,  "•  J'oure  the 
"  greatest"  bells  "  were  since  sold  to  the  parish  of  Stebunhith,"  or  Stcp- 

*  See  Tanner,  p.  xx.xix.  x],  xlvi.  xlviii.  Mr.  Willis's  own  iioIilcs. 
i  Eattely,  24.    .  J  Stowe,  357. 

Y  2  ne\' 


,0,  THE   CATHEnnAL   OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  Til. 

nrv,  •*  and  the  firr  Icssct-  to  the  parish  of  St.  Stephen  in  Coleman-strect*." 
To  \o  ahominable  an  extent  did  the  spirit  of  vulgar  sacrilege  then  go ! 
Yet  thus  to  expose  the  nakedness  of  our  reformers  before  the  startled  eye 
of  thcworld.  Ijccomesaduty  necessarA'toour  own  honour,  to  vindicate 
oufjolvcs  from  participating  in  heart  or  head  with  the  perpetrators  of  such 
rnorinities.  Tlic  fin«'st  monuments  of  religion,  we  see,  were  considered 
J.V  these  Cioths  and  Vandals  of  our  own  country,  not  with  any  respect  for 
thcin  as  fine,  not  with  any  reverence  for  them  as  religious  ;  but,  in  a  gross, 
jx^lar-likc  barbarism  of  thought,  as  so  many  pounds  or  so  many  yards  of 
a  commodity  saleable  at  a  shop. 

Yet.  as  Mr.  Willis  proceeds  concerning  the  northern  tower  of  our 
church.  "  this  was  undoubtedly  a  clock-house  to  the  parish,  and  served 
•'  to  the  use  of  tlie  priory  ;  which,  being  dissolved,  rendered  (in  the 
*'  opinion  of  sacrilegious  persons)  this  building  altogether  needless  f;"  or 
(to  sj)eak  in  a  style  more  consonant  to  facts)  capable  of  being  profitably 
plundered.  This,  however,  was  "  undoubtedly"  ?io  "  clock-house  to 
"  the  parish;"  since  Mr.  Willis  has  already  told  us  from  Leland  and  from 
tradition  united,  that  before  the  dissolution  it  was  always  "  appropriated 
•'  to  the  use  of  the  convent."  Accordingly,  the  course  of  Mr.  Willis's 
own  argument  here  concurs  with  that  declaration  before,  though  he 
.spe-aks  himself  in  .so  different  a  language  now;  as  the  priory  "being 
*'  dissolved,"  he  adds,  "  rendered  (in  the  opinion  of  sacrilegious  persons) 
"  this  building  altogether  needless."  So  inseparably  united  with  the 
priory  does  this  building  appear,  even  in  Mr.  Willis's  own  ideas  ;  at  the 
ver)-  moment  in  which,  by  a  strange  singularity  of  confusedness,  his  ar- 
gument revolts  from  them  and  from  the  truth  !  Yet  it  was  not,  as  Mr. 
W  ill  is  in  a  moment  of  confusion  peculiarly  confounded  intimates 
equally,  common  to  the  priory  and  the  parish,  by  being  "  a  clock-house 
"  to  the  parish,"  and  yet  "  serving  the  use  of  the  prion ."  Wliat  I  have 
already  said,  provcg  it  to  have  been  ivhoUi/  an  appertinence  to  the  priory, 
in  Mr.  \\  illis's  opinion  before  and  in  reality.  As  such  an  appertinence 
only,  cuii/(i  it  have  been  considered  as  "  altogether  needless"  on  the  dis- 

•  Stowe,  146.  t  WiLis,   151. 

solution 


SECT.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  1 65 

solution  of  the  priory,  or  would  it  have  been  actually  deprived  of  its  bells. 
It  was  therefore  the  belfrey  of  the  priory,  as  the  other  tower  was  what 
it  still  continues,  the  belfrey  of  the  parish.  It  had  over  it  a  "  roof;"  it 
had  in  it  "  lofts,"  with  a  "  set  of  bells,"  and  so  was  (we  may  be  sure) 
in  its  disposition  within,  as  it  was  in  its  configuration  without,  exactly 
conformable  to  the  other  tower  with  its  six  bells  at  present.  It  was, 
however,  stripped  of  its  bells  at  that  grand  interval  of  rapine  and  ravage, 
which  commenced  with  the  dissolution,  which  "  broke  up  the  fountains 
"  of  the  great  deep"  of  avarice  in  the  heart  of  man,  and  deluged  the 
whole  world  of  Reformation  with  a  flood  of  sacrilege,  till  the  violence 
of  the  hurricane  was  a  little  abated,  till  the  property  seized  by  villainy 
was  wanted  to  be  secured  by  law,  and  the  estates  dedicated  to  religion 
had  settled  secure  in  the  hands  of  their  laical  plunderers,  their  laical 
solicitors,  or  their  laical  purchasers.     Such  an  interval  happened  here. 

On  March  the  2d,  1539,  king  Henry  VIII.  that  robber  of  the 
church,  and  that  oppressor  of  the  state,  compelled  the  prior  and  his 
subordinates  to  yield  up  Athelstan's  college,  with  all  its  estates,  into 
his  hands:  one  king  taking  to  himself,  what  another  had  given  to  God. 
In  those  hands  it  remained,  amidst  all  the  wild  profusion  very  naturally 
generated  by  successful  robbery,  through  the  astonishing  length  of  no 
less  than — three  whole  years.  Then,  in  the  style  of  the  times,  when 
the  king's  servants  were  ever  ready  to  solicit,  and  the  king  himself  was 
ever  prompt  to  1>estow,  two  of  his  servants,  John  Ridgeway  and  Walter 
Smith*,  waited  at  the  door  of  the  king's  apartment  against  his  coming 
out  of  it;  probably  after  he  had  been  banquctting  very  plentifully,  and 
therefore  was  in  high  good  humour  for  giving.  But  let  me  relate  the 
anecdote,  as  it  shews  us  the  full  soul  of  Henry  and  his  courtiers,  in  the 
very  words  of  the  first  communicator,  and  with  the  very  tone  of  tradi- 
tion to  him.  "  John  Champernowne  sonne  and  heii'e  apparant  to  sir 
"  Philip  of  Devon,  "  says  Carew,  "  in  Henry  the  8.  time,  followed 
"the  court,  and  through  his  pleasant  conceits,  of  which  much  might 
*'  be  spoken,  wan   some  good  grace  with  the  king.     Now,  when  the 

*  Willis,  142. 

"  golden 


jrtU  THK    C.VTIIEDRVI,    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.  HI. 

•'  poKJrn  showrc  of  i he  dissolved  al.bev-bnds,  rayned  vvelncre  into  eveiy 
«•  gapers  mouth,  souk-  i'  or  3  gt-ntlemon,  tlickin^^'s  servants,  aiid  master 
"  ChaniptTnowiies  acquaintaticT.  waitetl  at  a  doore  wlu-re  the  king  was 
<♦  to  passe  lorth,  \^  ith  jmrpose  to  beg  such  a  matter  at  ins  liands.  Om- 
••  pfnfleman  became  incjuisitive  to  know  their  suit;  they  made  strange 
•*  to  impart  it."  At  a  time  when  so  much  was  asked  and  so  much 
obtained,  >%  hen  the  king  appeared  hke  another  Jupiter  descending  in 
showers  of  gold  into  the  laps  of  his  tavourites;  Champcrnown  saw 
thrv  ha«l  a  soUcitation  to  make,  aiid  wished  to  be  admitted  into  a  partner-- 
.ship  with  th«-m.  They  were  shy  of  reve:ding  the  objects  of  their  suit, 
that  thev  might  ke<'p  all  the  success  of  execution  to  themselves.  But' 
an  ineident  hapi)ened.  such  as  frequently  decides  the  fate  of  empire  ;  that 
diselosetl  their  objects  without  their  eonnnunication,  in  an  instant,  and 
pave  him  a  share  in  their  success  without  their  consent.  "  This  while," 
adds  C'arew,  "  outcomes  the  king:  they  kneele  down;  so  doth  master 
"  Champernowne;  they  preferre  their  petition;  the  kinggrauntsit;  they 
"  ren«ler  humble  thanks;  and  so  doth  M.  Champernowne.  Afterwards, 
"  he  requireth  his  share;  they  deny  it;  he  appeales  to  the  king;  the 
•'  kin<»  avoweth  his  equall  meaning  in  the  largesse  ;  whereon  the  over- 
"  taken  companions  were  Jd'juc  to  allot  him  this  prior ij  for  his  part^ 
"  nscf."     .Such  a  sweeping  donation  must  this  have  been,    when  a 

t  Cirew,  109.  As  a  kiod  of  comment  to  this  text,  let  nic  just  add  what  Leland  and 
another  Icll  u?  incidinlally,  and  briefly  thus  :  "  There  was,"  says  the  former,  "  a  place  in 
"  Burford,  callyd  the  priorie.  Herman,  the  king's  harlar,  hathe  now  the  lands  of  it." 
(Iiin.  vii.  -3.)  The  barber  took  his  majesty  ly  the  nose  very  much  to  his  own  advantage. 
See  also^  iv.  71,  for  a  nunnerj-  given  to  a  groom-porier.  See,  hkewise,  Newcome,  in  his 
lli<itorv  of  St.  Alban's  Abbey,  520,  for  some  of  its  lands  being  given  to  one  who  was  "  groom 
••  of  the  privy  chamber,  and  larler  and  porter  to  the  king  :"  for  others  given  to  his  sergeant 
"  o(  lUe  buck-hounds ;  and  given  to  both,  as  "there  is  ground  sufficient  to  shew,"  for 
««  wages"'  due.  •*  Tenements"  arc  mentioned  byStowe,  144,  "  some  time  belonging  to  a  late 
"  dissolved  pnory,  hut  since  possessed  by  Mistris  Cornewallies,  widow,  and  her  heires,  by  tlie 
"  pifl  "f  king  Henry  the  eighth,  in  reward  if  Jhie  puddings  (as  it  was  commonly  said),  by 
•'  her  made,  wherewilk  slie  had  presented  him:  such,"  and  so  horrible,  indeed,  "  was  the 
"  princely  liberality  of  those  limes"  of  rapacious  sacrilege.  But,  could  we  trace  the  occu- 
pations or  characters  of  others  to  whom  the  nunneries  or  the  monasteries  were  given  away, 
we  should,  probably,  6nd  those  distributed  frecjuently  to  the  ichores,  and  these  to  the 
drtaucketi  of  the  court. 

third 


SECT.  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  lO? 

third  person,  an  accessory,  an  accidental  one,  received  out  of  it,  against 
the  will  of  the  others,  the  priory  of  St.  German's  for  his  share!  Such 
an  execrable  scramble  was  now  made  among  all  the  retainers  of  the 
court,  for  the  spoils  of  religion  and  the  church!  To  so  little  purpose 
did  the  king  dip  his  arms  up  to  the  very  shoulders,  in  the  foul  and 
venomcd  cistern  of  sacrilege,  only  to  stand,  like  a  blind  Fortune  on  a 
wheel,  to  give  away  all  as  importunity  kneeled,  or  as  opportunity  sup- 
plicated before  him,  and  then  to  become,  by  the  judgment  of  folly  upon 
sin,  more  needy  than  the  very  men  whom  he  had  so  capriciously 
enriched;]:!.  Mr. 

X  In  the  statute,  c.  xiii.  31  H.  VIII.  for  the  dissolution  of  monasteries,  many  abbots  are 
said,  at  the  very  outset,  "  of  their  own  free  and  voluntary  minds,  good  wills,  and  assents, 
"  without  constraint,  coaction,  or  compulsion,  of  any  manner  of  person  or  persons,"  to 
have  given  up  their  houses  and  lands  to  the  king  :  so  founded  on  falsehood  is  the  dissolution  ! 
But  then  the  statute  goes  on  to  confirm  those  monasteries  to  the  king,  and  "  also  all  other— 
"  which  hereafter  shall  happen  to  be"  freely  given  like  those,  as  we  expect  the  sequel 
simply  to  be,  but  as  it  is,  in  fact,  to  be  "  dissolved,  suppressed,  renounced,  relinquished, ybr- 
"feited,  given  up,  or  bi/  any  other  mean  come  unto  the  king's  highness."  Such  a  direct 
acknowledgment  of  violence  intended,  and  such  an  indirect  one  of  violence  actually  shewn, 
have  we  here  :  in  full  contradiction  to  the  free  consent,  asserted  at  the  beginning  !  But  it 
finally  shews  us,  that  the  duke  of  Norfolk  and  lord  Cobham  had  respectively  been  licensed 
"  by  his  Grace's  word,  without  any  manner  of  letters  patents,  or  other  writing,"  to  *'  pnr- 
'"  chase  and  receive"  the  monastery  of  Sipton,  in  Suffolk,  and  the  college  of  Cobham,  in 
Kent,  and  confirms  them  to  those  lords,  respectively,  as  being  "  noiv  dissolved."  Such  a 
monument  of  folly,  impudence,  and  tyranny  combined,  is  this  sweeping  statute!  Yet,  let 
me  here  notice,  briefly,  the  additional  robbery  of  sacramental  plate,  committed  upon  the 
churches  by  this  royal  plunderer.  Thus  we  find,  "  delivered  unto  the  king's  majestie,  x. 
"  die  Maii,  anno  xxxi."  of  his  reign,  1540,  "  a  small  crossc  of  golde  with  one  iman-e,  g-ar- 
"  nishcd  with  xv  emeralds,  six  garnets,  and  certayne  smalie  perles,  parcel  of  such  stiifti;  as 
"  came  to  his  Grace's  use,  as  well  by  the  surrender,  as  by  the  visitation  of  diverse  religious 
"  howsese  and  cathedral  chirches  in  the  west  partes — :  the  same  day  of  the  same  stuffe, 
"  four  CHALICES  of  goldc,  with  four  patents  [patens]  of  golde  to  the  same,  and  a  spoone 
"  of  golde,  weinge  all  togcithcrs  an  hundred  and  six  ounces  :  — The  first  day  of  October,  xxx 
"  yere — ,  a  chalice,  gilt,  weighing  fourtie  unces, — a  chalice  gilt,  with  a  paten,  wcince 
"  twenty  and  six  uhces  di. — ,  another  chalice  with  a  paten,  gilte,  weinge  twentye  and 
"  three  unces  di.; — the  twenty  sixth  day  of  February,  anno  xxxi, — a  chalice,  with  a 
"  TATEN  of  silver,  and  gilt — ;  the  twenty  seventh  die  of  April,  anno  xxxii, — a  chalice 
"  gilt,  parcel  of  such  stuffe  as  came  from  Christ-church,  in  Canterbury  ; — the  saine  day, — 


168  THE    CATItnOKVL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.   HI. 

Mr.  Champcrnown  was  of  a  family  that  had  marked  itself  out  to  the 
historical  eye  of  religion,  by  its  religious  donations;  an  ancestor  of  his 
being  the  founder  of  Trewardreth  monastery  in  our  own  county;  and 
this  "  Sonne  and  heire  apparant  to  sir  I'hilip  of  Devon,"  in  that  awful 
wheel  of  Providence,  which  shews  us  wise  men  and  fools,  honest  men 
and  knaves,  religious  and  sacrilegious  men,  succeeding  one  another  in 
the  same  family,  now  hastening  to  reverse  the  pious  liberality  of  his 
ancestor,  by  taking  as  much  property  from  the  church  as  the  other 
had  given  to  it  §.  He  thus  got  the  priory  of  St.  German's:  but  as,  in 
the  midst  of  the  general  rapacity,  an  "awful  terror  for  sacrilege  hung 
upon  the  minds  of  the  solicitors,  these  or  their  immediate  heirs  fre- 
quentlv  transferred  their  possessions  to  others,  and  Mr.  Champernown's 
heir*  sold  his  to  Richard  Eliot,  Esq.  of  Devonshire;  the  representative 
of  a  family  which  had  tiuurished  there  for  eight  or  ten  generations 
before,  and  had  married  into  several  families  of  note  in  that   county  f. 

Thus 

"  a  CHALICE  with  a  patten,  giltc," 8cc.  &c.  (Steevens's  Additions  to Monasticon,  i.  83,  86.) 
Thus  did  our  Henry  command  the  chalices  and  the  patens  to  be  taken  from  the  altar  of  the 
Lord,  and  placed  upon  his  own  sideboard;  becoming  a  second  Bt-lshazzar  by  the  act,  and 
ranking  nearly  in  equal  pre-eminence  of  sacrilege  with  him. 

§  Lcland's  Itin.  iii.  47  :  At  Modbury,  in  Devonshire,  "  Campernulph  is  now  chief 
"  lord — .  There  was  another  house  of  the  Campernulphes  more  auncient,  caullid  Caniper- 
"  nulphe,  of  Bere.— Thcris  one  of  the  Fortecues  dwelling  in  Modbury,  whos  father  had  to 
"  wife  the  mother  of  syr  Philip  Chaumburne,  now  lyviiig,"  14:  "  Campernulphus,  alias 
"  Chambc[rnon],  dominus  de  Trewardreth,  [ct  fundator]  prioratus  monachorum,  qui  post 
"dominiV^I'T^Tmanerii.  Nunc  [Campernulphus  dominus  de]  . '^i°t":y.  [Devoniffi]." 
This  extract  from  a  record  precludes  all  the  doubts  reported  in  iii.  32,  whether  Campernul- 
phus, or  Cardinham,  or  Arundel  of  Lanherne  was  founder.  Campernulphus  was,  while 
Arundel  or  Cardinham  could  only  be  benefactors, 

*  Carew,  109. 

1-  Willis,  144,  145  :  "  Anno  1433,  temp.  Hen.  VI.  Walter  Eliot  was  returned  among 
"  the  gentry  of  Devonshire;  and  to  this  family,  as  should  seem  ly  the  arms,  was  ally'd  sir 
"  Richard  Eliot,  made  by  king  Henry  VUl.  one  of  the  justices  of  the  King's  Bench ;  who 
"  was,  as  I  take  it  [and  as  the  fact  certainly  is,  see  Leiand's  Coll.  iv.  141],  father  to  the 
"  famous  sir  Thomas  Eliot.  This  sir  Richard,  by  his  will,  which  I  have  seen,  appointed 
"  his  body  to  be  bury'd  in  the  cathedral  of  Salisbury,  anno  1 520,  of  which  church  Robert 
f'  Eliot  dy'd  a  dignitary,  anno  1562,  who  was  unkle,  as  I  guess  by  the  pedigree,  to  Richard 

"  Eliot 


SECT.  I.]  niSTOniCALLY   SURVEYED.  ICq 

Tlni's  the  Eliots  came  into  the  estate  by  purchase.  Yet  Richard,  who 
went  immediately  to  reside  in  the  priory,  appears  to  have  been  so  little 
satisfied  even  under  the  right  of  purchase,  with  the  previous  relation  of 
the  house  and  lands  to  the  church;  that  he  affected  to  suppress  its  very 
appellation  of  prior}%  and  to"  supersede  it  by  the  imposition  of  his  family 
name;  that,  for  (his  purpose,  he  took  advantage  of  its  position  at  the 
head  of  a  natural  bay,  dignified  this  bay  with  the  too  presuming  title 
of  a  port,  and  then  gave  the  convent  that  unmeaning  appellation  which 
it  retains  at  this  day,  of  Port  Eliot];. 

AN^'hen  he  came,  however,  to  reside  in  the  house,  let  us,  with  more 
satisfaction,  remark  from  Carew,  his  coteniporary,  the  priory  still,  "  by 
"  the  owner's  charity,  distributeth,  pro  virili,  the  almes  accusfoniahly 
"  expected  and  expended  at  such  places^"  He  thus  kept  up,  even  to 
the  days  of  Carew's  writing,  all  the  charitable  dignity  of  the  prior  him- 
self, and  precluded  all  perception  of  loss  to  the  poor,  in  the  substitu- 

"  Eliot,  who  not  long  after  seated  himself  here."  (Willis,  145.)  "These  gentleman,"  add? 
Ilals,  143,  "  I  take  to  have  been  of  Scotih  original,  and  so  denominated  from  a  place  called 
*' Elliott,  near  Dundee,  in  Scotland ;  and  their  descent  of  latter  time  from  the  Elliotts  of 
"  Devonshire,  Berkshire,  or  Cambridgeshire,  of  which  las(  county  one  sir  Thomas  Eliott, 
•'  knt.  was  slRrifT,  24  Henry  VIII.  also  36.  This  gentleman  wrote  a  book  called  '  Defen- 
*'  so'ium  bonarum  Mulicrum;'  the  Defence  of  good  or  virtuous  Women.  But  that  which 
*'  made  him  most  famous,  was,  he  writ  and  composed  the  first  Latin  and  English  Dictionary 
*' that  ever  was  seen  in  England,  about  the  year  1540."  "  Thomas  Elyot,"  as  another 
author  subjoins,  •'  obliged  our  countrymen  with  the  publication  ofa  Latin  and  Enclish  Dic- 
"  tionarj,  pruned  at  London  in  the  year  1542,  in  folio,  under  the  title  of  Bibliotheca  Eliotte. 
** — This  author  was  born  of  a  knightly  family  in  Su^^'olk, — died  in  March  1546,  and  was 
•'  buried  at  Carletony  in  the  county  of  Camtn'Jg'e."  (Ainsworth's  Preface  to  ist  edition.)  All 
shews  we  camiot  travel  be)  ond  Devonsliirc  with  any  di."grce  of  certainty,  for  the  origin  of 
this  family. 

:j:  "  The  prioryhousc,"  says  Hals,  142,  "before  its  dissolution,  was  called  Porth-Priour, 
"  or  Port-Priour — .  It's  now,  after  tlie  name  of  its  owner,  transnominaied  to  Port  or  Porth 
"  Ellyot."  Hut,  as  Carew  remarks,  the  "  Priory, — at  the  ocneral  suppression,  chanc;- 
*<  ing  his  note  wiih  his  coate,  is  now  named  Port  Elliott."  [F.  rog.)  "  This  priory," 
adds  Willis,  who  married  into  the  fimily,  "  upon  Mr.  Eliot's  purchasing  it,  was 
"  named  Port  Elk)i :  since  when,  this  appellation  has  so  far  prevailed,  that  Port  Eliot  has 
"  been  inserted  in  the  maps,  as  if  it  was  a  particular  vill."  (P.  144.) 

<5   Carew,  109. 

VOL.  I.  Z  tioQ 


\yO  THF.    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP,  IIL 

(ion  of  a  laical  for  an  ecclesiastical  prior.  He  therefore  began,  pro- 
bably, that  attention  to  this  fine  sliiicture,  which  was  certainly  shewn 
by  the  ecclesiastical,  which  seems  to  have  been  followed  by  the  poste- 
rity of  the  laical  after  him,  and  is  eminently  displayed  with  all  the  fond- 
ness of  an  antiquary,  all  the  taste  of  a  scholar,  and  all  the  reverence  of  a 
Christian,  by  his  ennobled  descendant  tlie  late  lord*. 

But  before  he  came,  in  the  three  years  of  Henry's  possessing  the 
priory,  in  the  thirty  or  forty  of  Chanipernown's  and  his  heir's  holding 
itf,  rapine  had  full  power  to  execute  its  work  of  wastefulness.  Those 
bells  were  taken  down  from  the  priory  tower,  which  had  Ijcen  put  up 
by  the  Normans,  the  builders  of  it,  and  equal  lovers  of  bell  harmony 
witli  the  Saxons.  "  The  Normans,"  indeed,  we  find,  in  their  own 
cmmtry  at  present,  "  are  strangers  to  the  ringing  of  bells  harmoniously 
•'  in  peals,  as  is  done  in  England;  it  being  their  custom  to  ring  no 
"  more  than  three  bells  at  any  one  timeij;."  Even  the  French  them- 
selves "  have  no  idea  of  ringing  bells  harmoniously  in  any  part  of 
*'  France §."  But,  as  1  hope  I  may  say  in  a  jocular  travestie  of  Horace, 
being  myself  a  fond  admirer  of  the  melody  of  bells.,  softened  down  by 

*  RicTjard  Eliot,  esq.  "  wos  bury'd  in  this  church  of  St,  German's  June  24,  1609." 
John,  his  son,  afterwards  sir  John,  "  by  tlie  inquisition  taken  after  liis  dcalb — is  said  to 
*'  have  dy'd  Nov,  27. — 1632."  His  son  and  heir  "  was  buried  here,  near  liis  grandfather, 
*' at  the  upper  end  of  llic  south  isle — of  this  church,  March  25,  1685."  His  only  son, 
"  Daniel  Eliot,  esq.  my  father-in-law,  departed  this  life  about  the  60th  year  of  his  age  ;  was 
"  buried  among  his  ancestors,  October  28,  1702.  This  gentleman,  in  regard  he  had  only 
"  one  daughter,  named  Katharine,"  and  married  to  Willis ;  "  bequeathed  his  estate  in  order 
"  to  keep  up  the  name  of  his  family,  to  Edward  Eliot,  grandson  to  Nicolas  Eliot,  fourth 
"  son  of  sir  John  Eliot,  knt.  aforesaid."  (Willis,  145,  146.)  "  Edward  Eliot,  esq."  adds 
Hais,  143,  "  is  now  In  possession  of  the  estate  ;  he  married  the  daughter  of  Craggs,"  the 
secretary  of  state,  and  had  bv  her  one  child,  James,  who  died  unmarried;  when  the  estate 
went  to  Richard,  his  uncle,  then  living  atMolinek,  in  the  parish,  and  his  son  died  a  few 
months  ago  in  possession  of  it,  Edward  Craggs  Eliot,  lord  Eliot. 

I-  WiHis,  143. 

X  Ducarrel,  98. 

^  Thi-ckncssc,  ii.  65. 

a  distance 


SECT.  T.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  l^l 

a  distance  of  position,  and   more  fond  in  the  days   of  youthful,    but 
serious  sensibility ; 

Grsecia  capla  fcrum  victorem  cepit,  et  artcs 
Intulit  agrfstl. 

The  Normans  of  England  heard  the  harmony  of  our  bell-towers; 
were  deliglited  with  its  soothing,  mellow,  melancholy  tones,  and  so  con- 
tin\ied  it  to  the  present  times.  Of  this  we  have  a  remarkable  evidence, 
at  the  very  moment.  "  He  caused  two  great  bells  to  be  made,"  says 
Ingulphus,  a  Norman  prior  of  Croyland,  jms^  o/iftr  the  Conquest,  con- 
cerning a  Saxon  prior,  about  a  century  before,  "  which  he  named  Bar- 
"  tholomew  and  Betteline,  and  two  middle  bells,  which  he  called  Turke- 
"  tyl  and  Tatwin;  and  two  lesser  bells,  which  he  entitled  Pega  and 
"  Bega:  but  lord  Turketyl,  the  abbot,  had  previously  caused  one  very 
"  ^reat  bell  to  be  made,  Guthlac  by  name  ;  which  being  now  united  with 
"  the  bells  aforesaid,"  as  this  Norman  exclaims,  with  the  soul  of  a  Saxon 
transfused  into  him,  "  all  formed  a  wonderful  peal  of  harmony, 
"  nor  was  there  then  such  a  set  of  tuneable  bells  in  all  Eng- 
"  LAND*."  And  so  thoroughly  was  the  love  of  bell-harmony  diifused 
through  the  whole  kingdom,  that  John  Major,  the  Scotch  historian 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  describes  it  in  terms  seemingly  raised  beyond 
the  truth  by  his  astonishment  at  it.  In  St.  Edmundsbury,  he  cries, 
"  is  reported  to  be  the  greatest  bell  of  all  England,"  though,  "  in  Eng- 
"  land  is  a  vast  number  of  bells  of  the  finest  tone,  because  England 
"  abounds  with  the  materials  for  bells  ;  and,  as  they  are  reported  to  excel 
"  all  mankind  in  music,''  a  compliment  to  our  national  genius,  very 
amazing  in  itself,  and  peculiarly  amazing  for  the  time ;  yet  previously 
founded  by  our  author,  not  on  mere  report,  but  upon  his  own  opinion  ; 
"  so  likewise  do  they  excel  in  the  soft  and  ingenious  modulation  of 
"  their  bells.     Not  a  xillage  of  forty  houses  you  see,  icithout  fve  bells 

*  Ingulphus,  505  :  "  Fecit  ipse  fieri  (luas  niagnas  canipanas,  quas  BartholoniKuni  et 
"  Bettelinuni  eognuminavit,  et  cluas  mcdias  quas  Turkelulum  et  Talwiiium  vocavit,  et  iluas- 
•' niinorcs  quas  Pegam  et  Begam  appeilavit.  Fecerat  antea  licri  domiiuis  Turkctulus  al)bas 
*' unam  maxiiiiam  canipanam,  nomine  Guthlacuni;  qua  cum  prxdictis  eampanis  compo- 
"  silA,  ficbat  mirabiiis  liarmonia,  nee  crat  tunc  tanla  consonantia  catiipanarum  in  toi.l 
"  Anglia.'' 

Z  2  ♦*  of 


172  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cftAr.  HI. 

"  of  the  su'cetcAt  tones ;  and  in  every  mansion-house  of  an}'  size,  you 
"  will  always  hear  the  most  agreeable  chimes  playhig  every  third  hour. 
"  While  I  was  studying  at  Cambridge,  upon  the  great  festivals  /  spent 
"  very  many  flights  without  sleep,  listening  to  the  mehdy  of  the  bells.  The 
"  university  stands  upon  u  river,  and  the  sound  is  the  sw  eeter  from  the 
"  undulation  of  the  water.  Tliere  are  no  bells  in  England  thought  supe- 
"  rior  to  those  of  Oseney  abbey,"  near  Oxford.  "  When  they  want  to 
"  form  a  fine  tone,  with  the  common  materials  they  mix  a  quantity  of 
'f  silver.  The  Walloons  and  the  Flaiiderkins  are  said  to  observe  the  same 
"  rule  as  the  English,  in  their  sweet-toned  bells ^."  This  account  of 
our  own  fondness  and  that  of  our  fathers,  for 

So  muBical  a  discord,  such  sweet  thunder, 

as  are  produced  by  the  fine  tones  of  our  church-bells,  is  truly  striking  to 
7ny  mind,  yet  little  known  to  the  public  at  large.  This  fondness  now  ap- 
pears to  have  commenced  before  the  Conquest,  to  have  gone  on  uninter- 
rupted by  it,  and  at  last  to  have  replenished  almost  all  our  church-towers 
from  the  cathedral  and  the  conventual  down  to  the  parochial,  with  peals 
of  bells. 

But  let  me  add  to  this  account  of  our  bells  in  general,  by  noting  the  size 
of  some  of  them  in  particulai*.  At  Westminster  abbey,  says  an  author 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  "  are  two  bells,  which  over  all  the  bells' in  the 

^  John  Major  D«  Gestis  Scotorum,  iii.  i,  fol.  xxxviii.  t  "  Illic  fertur  esse  maxima  cam- 
"  panarum  totitis  Anglire.  In  Anglia  campanarum  optinie  resonantium  ingens  est  copia, 
*'  quia  campanarum  materia  Anglia  abundat.  Et  sicut  in  musica  caeteros  mortales  antecel- 
*•  Icre  dicuniur,  ita  in  campanarum  dulci  et  artificioia  modulatione.  Nullum  vicum  xl  domo- 
"  rum^  sine  quinque  canipanis  suavissime  snnantibus,  invenies ;  ct  in  qualibet  alicujus 
"  magnitudinis  villa  semper,  dc  tertia  in  tertiani,  chiniam  dulcissiniam  audies.  Dum  studens 
"  Cantabrigice  eram,  in  magnis  festis  plurimatn  noctem  insomnem  duxi,  ut  campanarum 
"  melodiam  audirem.  Super  flunien  univcrsitas  stat;  proptcrca  ex  aquae  rcdundantii  sonus 
"  est  suavior.  Campanis  csenobii  de  Osneia  nullae  in  Anglia  meliorcs  putantur.  Cum  dul- 
■"  cem  sonum  exposcant,  cum  campanarum  communi  materia  argenti  copiam  misccnt. 
"  Similem  ritum  cum  Anglis  in  dulcibus  campanis,  Valcnschaencni  et  Flandri  Itncre 
"  dicuntur."  Fol.  viii.  he  says  positivdy  of  the  English,  "  in  Europa,  opinionc  mca,  in 
'*  muaica  sunt  primi." 

"  ivorld 


SECT.  1.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  i;^ 

**  ivorld  obtain  the  precedence  in  wonderful  size  and  sound  *."     Yet  %ve 
know  much  more  distinctly  from  a  writer  of  the  twelfth,  that  at  the 
cathedral  of  Canterbury  the  prior,  Conrad,  fixed  in  the  clock-house  five 
exceedingly  great  bells  ;  of  which  one  required  e/o^/?^  men,  two  others  ten 
each,  the  fourth  e/c^w/?,  and  the  fifth  even  twenty-four,  to  ring  themf. 
We  thus  seem  to  mount  the  climax  of  size  in  bells,  and  to  stand  at  the 
very  summit  of  it.     Yet  we  do  not,  as  we  can  mount  still  higher.  A  suc- 
ceeding prior,  in  the  very  same  century,  set  up  a  bell  in  the  clock-hoiise, 
which  demanded  no  less  than  two-and-thirty  men  to  ring  it  %.     In  v.^hat 
exact  degree  of  comparison  to  this  stands  that  great  bell  at  St.  Paul's, 
which  announces  the  death  of  the  bishop  or  of  any  of  the  royal  family  ; 
or  that  still  greater,  I  believe,  which  by  the  hundred  and  one  strokes  of  its 
clapper  proclaims  to  the  colleges  at  Oxford  the  hour  of  shutting  the  gates 
in  the  evening  ;  I  leave  others  to  determine.     Certainly  all  of  a  specified 
size  above  continue  rising  in  a  cale  of  grandeur  till  they  "have  risen  very 
high  ;  and  the  last,  I  believe,  stands  at  a  height  of  magnificence,  superior 
to  cither  that  at  St.  Paul's,  or  to  this  which  has  the  repute  of  being  the 
largest  in  England  at  present,  the  celebrated  Tom  of  Oxford,  traditionally 
known  to  be  a  derivative  from  the  adjoining  abbey  of  Oscncy,  and  there- 
fore uniting  once  with  others  there,  to  form  the  peal  so  highly  com- 
mended by  Major  above. 

With  the  bells  of  o\u-  conventual  church  at  St.  German's,  were  also 
taken  away  the  very  roof,  the  very  planks,  even  the  very  timbers,  of  the 
bell-room,  and  of  the  ringing-room,  as  quite  useless,  when  the  bells  them- 
selves were  removed.  With  such  rash  dexterity  of  fraud  did  one  sacri- 
lege lend  a  plea  for  another  !  With  such  hasty  strides  too  was  rapacity 
advancing  to  the  demohtion  of  this  Norman  tower !  Thus,  indeed, 
would  it  probably  have  triumphed  in  the  full  execution  of  its  viev^'s,  if 

*  Ttln.  Simon'is  Symeonis,  published  with  W.  of  Worcester,  p.  5  :  "  Ubi  sunt  tUiae  cam- 
"  panne,  qiiK  inter  omncs  miuidi  campanas  primatem  obtincnt,  in  magnitudine  ct  in  sono 
<•  admirabili." 

+  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  K  137:  Quinque  signa  pcr-maxinia,  cjuonim  primum  x,  similiter 
*'  secundum  x,  tertium  xi,quartum  viii,  quiiitum  vcro  xxiv  homines,  ad  sonandum  trahunt." 

\  Ibid.  38  :  "  Signuui — magnum  iu  ciocario  posuit,  quod  triginta  duo  homines  ad  sonan- 
"  dum  trahunt," 

5  :Mr. 


171  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COnX\VALL  [ciIAP.  tlf, 

Mr.  Eliot  had  not  come  to  reside  in  the  pi-iory,  ;ind  \\  ith  the  spirit  of  a 
prior  protected  the  orphan  church.  The  staircase  within  appears  much 
injured  at  present,  entire,  indeed,  at  the  top  and  bottom,  but  broken  iit 
the  middle,  being  at  the  nortli-western  angle.  About  fifteen  years  agO' 
it  was  even  beginning  to  separate  from  the  waUs,  and  threatening  to  biing 
down  all  that  angle  of  the  toM-er  with  it.  Lord  Eliot  therefore  applied  a 
remedy  to  the  disorder,  fixing  two  strong  beams  at  right  angles  from 
Avail  to  wall,  bolting  them  together  with  iron,  and  so  preventing  any  part: 
of  the  wall  or  staircase  from  starting.  My  lord  also  put  a  new  roof  over 
the  whole,  to  keep  the  timbers  dry.  Before,  as  tlie  wliole  interior  of  the 
tower  v\  as  exposed  to  the  w  eathcr,  and  as  the  church  was  also  exposed 
through  the  two  arches  of  the  tower  below  ;  these  had  been  naturally 
closed  up,  with  a  supplemental  wall  of  stone  and  mortar.  They  thus  re- 
mained just  apparent  to  the  eye  within  the  church,  but  unseen  from  with- 
out, except  through  the  dark  and  narrow  windows,  till  October  1793  ; 
when  that  representative  of  the  prior  in  all  ccclcsixisticnl  rights  over  the 
church,  my  amiable  and  worthy  friend  the  Rev.  Mr.  Pcnwarne,  to  whom- 
I  owe  much  of  local  information  in  the  present  work,  at  the  suggestion 
of  lord  Eliot  and  myself,  permitted  a  square  doorway  to  be  cut  through 
the  supplemental  wall  of  the  southern  arch,  for  the  full  inspection  of  the 
tower  within,  and  for  the  continual  exhibition  of  the  two  arches,  both, 
handsome,  both  pointed  there:  nor  does  any  thing  seem  to  be  now  wanted 
for  the  preservation  of  a  tower,  so  abandoned  to  desolation  through  more 
than  two  centuries  before;  than  v^dth  an  honourable  sacrifice  of  sightliness 
to  safety,  to  tear  away  the  ivy  richly  mantling  around  it,  which  lends  it 
indeed  the  venerable  air  of  antiquity,  but  is  contributing  all  the  while  to 
make  it  more  an  antiquity  than  ever,  by  feeding  upon  the  heart  of  its 
cement,  thrusting  its  roots  between  the  stones  in  search  of  this,  and  keep- 
ing the  damp  of  the  weather  in  a  continued  corrosion  of  both  ;  that  the 
tower  may  remain  for  two  or  three  ages  longer,  to  ornament  the  most 
conspicuous  view  of  the  chiirch,  to  lend  a  fulness  of  dignity  to  this  most 
dignified  part  of  the  whole,  and  to  exliibit  it  in  all  its  original  complete- 
ness to  the  eye*.  SECTION 

*  Having  repeatedly  mentioned  the  late  lord  Eliot  with  honour  in  the  teNt,  I  must  here  do 
justice  10  him  and  to  niyself  in  a  note.    He  was  my  original  instigator  for  writing  the  present 

work. 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLr   SURVEYED.  175 

SECTION  IL 

"  The  south  isle  and  nave"  remarks  Mr.  Willis,  still  continuing. the 
misnomer  which  he  began  before,  "  appears  to  be  the  neivest  buildingf ." 
So  much  was  the  judgment  of  this  antiquary  seduced  by  his  eye,  that  he 
has  selected  the  demonstrably  oldest  part  of  the  whole  for  the  newest ! 
There  is  a  lightsomcness  in  the  aspect  of  this  oldest  part,  m  hich  may  na- 
turally seduce  an  eye  not  directed  by  historical  reasoning.  From  its  rela- 
tion probably  to  the  Romans  in  its  constructors  the  Roman  Britons,  it 
carries  an  illuminated  face  with  it ;  even  now  when  its  western  window 
has  been  closed  up,  and  when  it  has  been  also  deprived  of  all  its  northern 
windows,  by  the  collateral  addition  of  Athelstan's  church  to  it.  The 
gloominess  of  this  forms  a  strong  contrast  to  the  luminousness  of  that,  and 
therefore  casts  an  air  of  superior  freshness  over  it.  Gloominess  seems  to 
liave  been  afTccted  in  our  clmrchcs,  by  both  the  Sajv?i  and  the  Norma?} 
constructors  of  them  ;  not  merely  in  their  practice  of  shading  the  win- 
dows with  paintings,  but  in  the  fewness,  the  conti-actedness  of  the 
windows  themselves.  AVe  see  this  exemplified  by  our  own  church, 
w  hci'e  the  nave,  erected  by  the  Saxons,  had  not  a  single  window  along  its 

work.  In  a  vi^it  to  him,  solicited  by  liimselfj  1  llirew  out  sonie  remarks  as  I  viewed  the 
church  concerning  the  age  of  it ;  which  my  lord  politely  questioned,  and  I  deliberately 
maintained.  This  led  me  to  put  my  sentiments  upon  pajjcr,  and  my  lord  exulted  probably 
in  his  finesse  of  drawing  mc  out.  But  when  the  ardour  of  iwy  mind,  kindling  like  a  chariot- 
wheel  with  its  own  niovements,  pushed  me  on  to  prosecute  my  suncy,  and  my  essay  bad 
swelled  into  a  book  ;  my  lord  began  to  foresee  the  consequence  to  himself.  He  apprehended 
a  (Insign  upon  his  finances.  Nor  would  he  share  mnney  for  Uteriiture,  for  literature  even  qoi\- 
ctrn'mg  hU  favourite  church.  lie  tlurefore  refrained  from  all  intimations  that  would  roil  him 
any  thing,  while  the  work  was  umlt-r  my  hands.  Even  when  I  had  finished  it,  he  expressed 
no  wish  for  perusing  it  in  manuscript;  he  put  forth  no  finger  to  push  it  into  publication.- 
Tic  abandoned  it  to  its  fate,  without  one  solicitude  felt  for  it,  I  believe;  without  one  inquiry 
made  about  it,  I  know.  The  solicitude  was  suppressed,  and  the  inquiry  was  precluded  in  a 
cautious  delicacy  for  his  purse.  lie  tvished  to  he  a  patron  nnllioiit  any  expense  of  patronage. 
Nor  would  this  work,  so  abandoned  by  him,  have  ever  been  published  by  me,  if  my  lord 
iiad  not  died,  if  my  indignation  at  such  treatment  had  not  been  buried  in  his  grave,  and  i( 
at  the  same  lime  I  had  not  accidentally  become  rich  enough  to  risk  the  expense  myself, 
t  Willis,  151. 

whole 


I/O  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    rOR!CWALL  [cHAP.   HI. 

whole  range ;  and  the  portal  adjoined  by  the  Normans  had  only  three 
wixidows  over  the  entrance,  short,  narrovs^  even  half-buried  in  their  own 
lead.  In  the  same  strain  docs  Lcland  remark,  that  "  there  is  but  one 
*'  paroch  church  in  Leominster,  but  it  is  large,  sotticirhat  {hirlic,  and  of 
"  ancient  buUd'mge ;  insomuch  tliat  it  is  a  great  Uliehjhood  that  it  is  the 
"church  that  ivas  somewhat  afore  the  Cotiquesf^."  So  the  abbey- 
church  of  Waltham  in  Essex,  which  was  built  by  Harold  in  1062,  in  the 
inten^al  almost  betwixt  the  Norman  and  Saxon  periods,  appears  from  the 
remains  of  it  at  this  day  to  have  been  "ji  Gothic  building,  rather  large 
"  than  neat,  firm  than  fair,  very  dark,  save  that  it  teas  helped  again  by 
"  artijicial  lights  ^ ."  All  our  old  churches  are  so  gloomy  in  general, 
that  every  lively  spirit  necessarily  feels  a  sensation  of  religiousness,  at  the 
very  entrance  into  them.  Our  own  at  St.  German's  is  even  so  gloomy, 
with  the  addition  of  an  altar-window  where  the  chancel  once  com- 
menced ;  that  a  window  has  been  latterly  opened  in  the  ceiling  for  the 
benefit  of  the  clergyman  officiating  in  the  desk  or  pulpit.  Previously  to 
this  relief,  in  our  church  as  well  as  in  others,  the  officiating  divine  must 
generally  have  gone  through  the  ser\'ice,  not  indeed  from  that  exertion 
of  memory,  which  is  generally  made  at  present  in  the  reputedly  extem- 
poraneous sermons  of  the  continent,  but  by  that  shadowy  sort  of  illumina- 
tion, which  candles  awfidly  diffuse  over  the  evening  sen'ice  of  our  greater 
churches  in  winter.  This  practice  began  very  early  in  the  temples  of 
Christianity  ;  an  express  mention  being  made  by  some  canons,  that  from 
their  spirit,  or  from  their  age,  or  from  both,  were  thought  worthy  to  be 
denominated  apostolical,  and  are  certainly  some  of  the  most  ancient 
among  Christians,  of  "  the  oil  for  the  lamp,"  even  in  the  service  of  the 
eucharist  || ,  We  accordingly  see  Conrad  the  prior  of  Christ-church  in 
Canterbury  as  early  as  1 IO8-9,  giving  to  the  cathedral  "  a  candlestick  of 
"  wonderful  greatness,  composed  of  brass  ;  having  three  branches  upon 
"  one  side  wilh  three  upon  the  other,  all  issuing  from  their  proper  stem 
"  in  the  middle ;  and  so  being  capable  of  admitting  ievai  wax-lights  into 

X  Itin.  iv.  93, 
•  ^      §  Sttevens's  Additions  to  Monasticon,  iii.  113. 
I  Colelerius's  Patres  Apostolic!,  i,  437. 

"  it." 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLT    SURVEYED.  ]  7f 

"  it  ^ ."  This  had  only  one  range  of  receptacles  for  candles,  and  was  not' 
suspended  by  a  chain,  but  raised  upon  a  pillar,  and  so  had  one  receptacle 
in  the  centre.  But  others  had  three  ranges,  like  our  present  chandeliers, 
yet  still  raised  upon  a  pillar,  and  still  having  one  receptacle  in  the  centre. 
Thus  in  the  chapel  at  Glastonbury  abbey,  besides  the  Easter  candle,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  pounds  and  a  half  in  weight,  besides  four  other  sorts 
of  candles,  a  quarter  of  a  pound,  half  a  pound,  a  whole  pound,  and  three 
pounds  each  :  there  w^as  a  candlestick  of  three  ranges,  the  lowest  hold- 
ing ten  candles,  but  all  holding  twenty-five,  each  half  a  pound  in  weight; 
and  on  certain  festivals  "  all  the  ranges"  were  lighted,  with  "  the  middle 
"  candle  at  the  top  of  them."  All  these  candles  too  were  not  even  the 
mould  that  we  generally  burn  in  our  parlours  at  present;  w^ere  not  even  the 
spermaceti,  that  we  at  present  burn  in  some  of  our  churches  or  chapels  ; 
but  were  the  most  elegant,  the  most  expensive  of  all,  candles  of  wax. 
The  use  of  these  was  so  regular  and  steady,  that  language,  which  (like 
some  substances  in  mines)  catches  the  impression  of  every  object  long  in 
contact  with  it,  still  shews  us  the  impression  when  the  object  is  gone  ; 
and  the  very  appellation  for  a  church-candle  among  our  ancestors,  wa$ 
merely  a  wax-light.  And  what  is  now  the  highest  luxury  of  refinement 
in  our  dra'w  ing-rooms,  was  then  the  ordinary  decoration  of  our  superior 
churches  or  chapels  ;  we  expending  upon  ourselves,  what  our  ancestors 
gave  to  God  *.  So  much  did  the  Normans  and  Saxons  love  a  gloom 
in  their  churches,  softened  down  by  an  artificial  light !     Yet  the  taste  of 

%  Wharton's  Anglla  Sacra,  i.  137:  "Candelabrum  inirae  magnitudinis,  de  aurichalco 
*'  fabrcfactum,  habeas  trcs  hinc  et  tres  inde  ramos,  ex  medio  proprio  prodeuntes  stipitc,  undo 
"  septem  recipit  cereos." 

*  Joannes  Glastoniensis,  358  :  "  Consuetudo  luminarii  slve  cereornm  in  ccclesia  Glaslo- 
*«  niensi. — Pr:rtcr  cercum  paschalem,  qui  conti'net  cxx  libras  ct  dimidiam,  quatuor  sunt  genera 
'*  cereorum.  IVinumi  niajoris  formas  [scilitct]  de  tribus  libris.  Stenndum  processionaliiuii, 
"  3.  de  una  libra.  Tcrcium  de  dimidia  libra.  Quarlum  minoris  forms,  s.  de  uno  quartcrio. 
"  Adjicicndum  ctiani,  quod  trcs  sunt" — p.  359 — "  ordines  eorundcm  cereorum.  Primus 
"  in  ill  tralnbua,  continenlibus  xxv  cereos,  quemlibct  de  dimidia  libra. — In  omnibus  iiii"' 
"  cappis  accendi  debcnt  omnes  trabes,  conliucntes  xxv  cereos."  P.  360  :  "  Inferior  tralcs, 
"  contincns  x  cereos."  P.  361  :  "  Cercus  medius  super  trabem."  Wharton's  Anglia 
Sacra,  i.  290,  under  a  year  so  early  as  1035  :  "  Rex  Canutus  dedit  Winioniensi  ccclesia: — 
"  candelabrum  ari^enteum  cum  vi  brachiis  qualia  OTO(i()  in  cccksiis  videmus  prctiosissini*  dQ 
"  aurichalco." 

YOL.  I.  A   \.  tltC 


178  THE    CATIIEDnAL    Of    CORNWALL  [oUAP.   III. 

the  Britons  appears  very  ilitfercnt,  less  judicious,  and  more  modern; 
neglecting  all  appeal  to  sensation,  perhaps  because  it  is  not  sentiment 
forsooth,  thus  abstracting  man  with  a  kind  of  Quaker's  logic  into  a  being 
merely  spiritual,  and  throwing  as  gay  an  irradiation  ot  daylight  over  a 
church  as  over  a  draw  ing- room.  This  appears  also  the  more  singular  in 
the  TJritons,  because  the  Romans  we  see  coinciding  with  the  is'ormans 
and  Saxons,  in  their  love  of  gloominess  for  their  temples  ;  in'  their  fond- 
ness, therefore,  for  the  mixed  mass  of  light  and  shade,  which  is  produced 
bv  an  artificial  imitation  of  day.  That  stern  monument  of  majesty  in 
building,  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  has  almost  all  the  darkness  of  a  funeral 
vault  within.  Even  that  elegant  casket  of  architecture,  tliat  fine,  fillagree- 
model  of  a  temple,  executed  in  stone  instead  of  silver,  the  nuiison  quarriie 
of  Aries,  received  no  daylight  into  it  originally  but  from  the  opehed 


door. 


So  officiating,  in  what  habit  or  dress  did  the  clergyman  appear  for- 
merly, within  our  own  and  other  churches  ?  This  is  a  point  little  known 
to  even  the  antiquaries  among  the  clergy  themselves.  I  knew  it  not  w^ith 
any  exactness,  till  my  subject  suggested  my  inquiry  :  and  Mhat  hasgivea 
7/^e  knowledge,  will  give  knowledge  (I  presmne)  toothers. 

A  clergymrm,  tl-.en,  is  still  enjoined  by  the  municipal  laws  of  our 
church,  whenever  ho  consecrates  the  eucharist,  to  wear  "  a  white  alb 
"  plain,  with  a  vestment  or  cope;"  while  the  assistant  clergymen,  if 
any,  are  to  wear  "  alues  with  TUNACLEsf."  The  very  appellations  of 
these  garments  proclaim  their  antiquity  to  our  ears,  and  the  long  disuse 
of  them  compels  even  elergj-raen  to  seek  their  nature  in  books.  From 
these  we  learn,  that  the  ale  is  not  what  even  now  I  felt  myself  strongly 
inclined  to  suppose  it  was,  only  the  surplice  under  a  less  familiar  name ; 
especially  when  T  observed  the  first  liturg}^  of  Edward  VI.  ordering  a 
bishop  to  wear  at  the  communion  "  a  surplice  or  alb,  and  a  cope  or 
"  vestment  ij;."    The  alb,  indeed,  was  a  kind  of  surplice,  but  very  distinct 

t  Wheatly's  Rational  Illustration,  a  favourite  book  with  me  in  the  more  serious  and  (I 
thank  God)  the  more  early  part  of  my  youth,  edit.  7th,  p.  82  and  lojt 
\  Ibid.  lO'Z. 

2  from 


SECT,  ir.]  MISTORrCALLV    SURVEYED.  179 

from  it,  being  less  loose  in  its  form,  bound  about  the  middle  like  a  cas- 
sock, and  eitlier  tight  in  the  sleeves  like  a  cassock,  or  gathered  at  the 
wrist  like  a  shirt  §.  It  thus  became  so  similar  to  a  surplice,  that  (he  real 
distinctioi\' was  sooner  lost  in  the  little  difference,  the  surplice  more  easily 
usurped  upon  the  alb,  and  the  alb  more  readily  sunk  into  disuse  among 
us.  The  same  fate  has  been  shared  by  the  tunacle,  and  we  now  know 
it  only  to  have  been  a  smaller  sort  of  cope|(  . 

The  cope  itself,  to  which  we  are  thus  referred  for  the  tunacle,  remained 
in  our  churches  nearly  to  our  own  times.  Watts,  the  republishcr  of 
Matthew  Paris's  two  Histories  in  l084,  attests  the  cope  to  have  been 
generally  worn  at  the  time  in  our  church-service  %.  It  is  even  reported 
to  have  been  retained  in  the  cathedral  at  Durham,  as -late  as  the  present 
generation ;  and  the  reliques  of  the  last  set  of  copes,  I  understand,  are 
still  shewn  in  the  wardrobe  there.  Originally  the  cope  was  a  garment, 
common  among  the  laity  male  or  female,  and  denominated  merely  from 
its  essential  appendage,  a  cup  or  hood ;  as  this,  by  lying  back  upon  the 
shoulders,  has  lent  its  appellation  equally  to  the  similarly  posited  cape  of 
our  coats  *.  In  i  igi  a  bishop  flying  out  of  England,  says  M.  Paris,  dis- 
guised himself  like  a  woman,  "  putting  on  a  woman's  go%\'n  of  green 
"  with  a  cope  [that  is,  a  hood]  of  the  same  colour -i-."  Henry  III.  also, 
commanding  the  clerg}'  of  London  to  meet  him  at  St.  Paul's,  "  all  clad  iti 
•'  a  festival  form  with  surplices  and  copes,"  for  receiving  a  reputed  por- 
tion of  our  Saviour's  blood,  just  sent  him  from  Jerusalem  ;  he  appeared 
himself  for  carrying  to  Westminster  abbey  the  fine  vase  of  crystal  con- 
taining it,  "  drest  in  a  humble  habit,  a  poor  cope  tmthoiit  a  hood  | ." 
Even  Chaucer  mentions  as  riding-habits  among  the  genteeler  laity  of  his 

I 

^  Durand's  Rationale  in  Wheatly,  107  ;  and  Spelman  under  Alia, 
I  Wheatly,  108. 

^  M.Paris,  Glossarium,  Capa:  *' Nos  Angli — in  liturgia  adhuc  iis  [capi.s]  ulimur." 
•  Watts's  Glossarium,  Capa. 

t  M.  Paris,  139:  '•  Virum  in  fcminam  ccaivcrtit,  tunica  viridi  foeminca  uadutus,  capani" 
(p.  140,  "  capicium)  habens  cjustieni  coloris." 

I  ibid.  641  :  "  ilabcns  JiumiJcm  habiluni,  scilicet  paupcrcm  capam  sine  capulio." 

A  A    2  own 


180  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  HI. 

own  time,  "  coaps,"  and  "  semi-coaps§  ;"  the  latter,  I  suppose,  a  kind 
of  modern  spencers  with  hoods. 

Tet  how  were  the  copes  worn,  by  either  the  laity  or  tlic  clergy  ?  I  had 
always  supposed  them,  till  I  came  to  examine  now,  a  kind  ot  woman's 
cloak,  fastened  under  the  chin,  receding  from  the  breast,  and  resting 
upon  the  shoulders  :  but  they  were  worn  and  formed  in  a  very  different 
manner.  They  were  worn  as  a  carter's  frock  is  at  present,  as  a  clergyman's 
gown  formerly  was,  as  the  latter  continued  to  be  in  some  of  our  schools 
(I  apprehend)  to  the  end  nearly  of  the  seventeenth  century  || ,  and  as  the 
surplice  was  within  our  ov^n  nicmor}',  by  putting  the  head  through  an 
opejiing  in  the  middle,  and  letting  the  garment  hang  dov\  n  from  the 
shoulders.  The  last,  indeed,  was  so  regularl}'  v^orn  in  an  unopened  form 
within  these  forty  years,  that  a  shrewd  parish-clork  of  the  north  of  Eng- 
land, who  had  often  assisted  in  robing  academics  and  non-academics,  used 
to  discriminate  these  from  those  by  their  want  of  adroitness  in  the  ne- 
cessary acts,  of  laying  hold  upon  one  side  of  the  collar  with  the  teeth,  of 
thrusting  the  arms  through  the  inverted  sleeves,  then  with  both  hands 
gathering  up  the  rest  into  a  roll,  and  so  tossing  it  over  the  head  without 
discomposing  the  hair.  Henry  I.  says  Matthew  Paris  accordingly 
concerning  the  cope  in  1135,  "putting  on  a  new  robe  of  scarlet,  and 
"  being  accustomed  (whenever  he  had  one)  to  send  another  from  the 
"  same  cloth  reverently  to  his  brother,"  duke  Robert  then  his  blinded  pri- 
soner, "  when  he  attempted  to  put  on  the  cope,  found  that  entrance  at 
"  the  hood  which  is  commonly  called  the  collar  in  French,  too  tight  for 
"  him,  burst  a  stitch  of  the  sewing  in  the  attempt,  therefore  laid  it  down, 
"  and  said.  Let  this  cope  be  carried  to  my  brother  the  duke,  because  he 
"has  a  smaller  head  than  mine*."      So  evidently  was  the  cope  in 

dressing 

§  VVatts's  Glossary,  the  source  of  almost  all  my  intelligence  concerning  copes. 

y  Watts's  Glossary,  Capa  :  "  Clausa — et  toga  olim,  imo  et  adhuc  in  schola  una  aut  alterS 
'*  in  Anglia  nostr^,  uti  audivi." 

*  M.  Paris,  6i  :  "  Cim  rex  novam  robam  de  scarleto  sumens  (assuetus  de  eodem  panno, 
"  quoties  et  ille  sumpserit,  fratri  suo  rt\erenter  transmitterf),  capum  conaretur  induere,  quod 
"  invcnit  iiitroiluni  capiitii,"  calkd  merely  "  caputium"  by  Matthew  Westminster,  p.  34, 
pars  secunda,  <'  qui  galerum  vulgariler  Gallice  appellatur,  nimis  arctum  j  inde  contigit, 

**  quod 


sect;  I r.]  historically  surveyeb.  I8i 

dressing  ])iit  on  over  the  head,  and  by  an  opening  barely  sufficient  to 
admit  the  head  through  it  I  In  this  manner  was  it  equally  put  on  by  the 
clergy,  we  may  be  sure ;  the  mode  being  borrowed  with  the  mantle 
from  the  laity.  Even  M'hen  the  laity  had  thrown  the  mantle  aside,  the 
clergy  still  retained  it  on  that  principle  of  propriety,  which  has  given 
them  almost  all  their  distinctive  dresses,  by  opposing  the  gravity  of 
steadiness  to  the  levity  of  innovation,  even  in  fashions.  So  put  on,  it 
hung  over  the  arms,  but  (like  a  woman's  cloak  at  present)  had  holes  in  it 
undoubtedly  for  the  emission  of  the  arms,  and  then  fell  (as  it  still  falls  on 
the  cozitinent,  I  apprehend)  do\s'n  to  the  knees. 

But  on  the  same  principle  of  general  inflexibility  to  the  fluttering  vari- 
ations of  fashion,  when  the  laity  opened  their  copes  before,  the  clergy 
still  kept  theirs  closed.  Even  canons  were  made,  expressly  requiring 
them  to  use  closed  copes,  "  especially  in  the  church  *."  There  they 
were  worn  over  the  surplice;  as  in  1237  the  pope's  legate  is  said  by 
Matthew  Paris,  to  have  entered  St.  Martin's  church  in  London  "dressed 
"  in  his  pontificals,  a  surplice  ;  iipon  it  a  choral  cope  furred  with  various 
"  skins,  and  a  mitre  f."  Yet  since  fashion  will  finally  predominate  over 
the  clergy  as  well  as  tlie  laity,  and  even  ought  in  strictness  of  propriet}  to 
predominate  at  last,  that  the  clergy  may  not  appear  too  much  insulated 
from  the  laity  around  them  ;  the  open  copes  were  adopted  in  time  by 
the  clergy,  were  even  adopted  witli  a  laical  addition  made  to  them  in 
consequence  of  their  openness.  Being  no  longer  suspended  steadily 
from  the  shoulders,  they  were  provided  with  sleeves  for  their  supporters. 
Thus  another  legate  is  recorded  by  the  same  historian  under  1258,  to 
have  entered  London  with  a  train  of  twenty  horse  behind,  and  m  itii 
ten  domestic  chaplains  at  his  side,  the  latter  "  all  proudly  encircled  ^^'ith 

"  quod  imam  suturas  puncturam  tantum  confringens,  earn  deposuit,et  ait,  Hic  capa  deferatur 
*'  danda  fratri  mco  duci,  qui  argatius  me  caput  habct."  Now  collier  is  French  fur  a 
coll;'r. 

♦  Waus's  Glossary. 

i  M.  Paris,  357  :  Pontificalibus  se  induit,  scilicet  superptlliceOj  et  desuper  cap5  chorali, 
"  pellibus  variis  furrati,  el  niitr&." 

"  copes 


1^2  THE    CATHEnRAL    Ot    COTII^WALL  [CHAP.  111. 

"  cop(*s  of  the  best  morcev,  five  of  them  closed, ^wA  fivt.  sleeved*."     The 
closed,  we  see,  were  not  sleeved,  and  the  sleeved  v^•e^c  not  closed. 

l3ut  whether  closed  or  sleeved,  thej  were  used  in  the  church  upon  fes- 
tival davs  only,  e\-en  such  days  as  were  more  than  ordinarily  festival.  I'his 
we  learn  from  our  general  and  verj  useful  informant  concerning  this 
dress,  the  historian  Matthew  Paris  ;  who,  in  his  private  history  of  St. 
Alban's  abbey,  tells  us  of  "  six  wax-candles  ordered  to  be  burnt"  in  th« 
church  there  "  upon  the  festivals  in  copes,  and  on  the  very  highest  of 
"  them-f!"  They  were  used  too  as  early  as  1240,  with  iinc  fringes  of 
gold  upon  them.  Accordingly  the  pope,  notes  Paris,  "  beholding  on  the 
"  ecclesiastical  ornaments  of  sonic  Englishmen,  as  on  their  choral  co/tes 
"  and  ihitres,  very  desirable  gold-fringe,  asked  where  it  was  manufac- 
'*  tured  :  and  being  answered.  In  England,  cried  out>  Truly  England  is 
"  our  garden  of  delights +."  Thus  did  the  richness  of  our  manufac- 
tures, even  at  that^arly  period>  engage  the  admiration  of  Roman  elegance 
itself;  and  thus  did  the  splendour  of  our  ecclesiastics  in  their  habits,  ex- 
ceed ev6n  the  Papal  ambition  of  pomp  in  church-dresses  !  Yet  we  find 
that  splendour  drtd  that  richhcBs  irt  one  instance  at  least,  mounting  much 
beyond  even  this  high  pitch  of  cccilesiastical  luxury  in  dress.  Conj'ad,  the 
famous  prior  of  Christ-church  in  Canterbury,  under  the  weight  of  n\any 
misfortunes,  "  caused  a  most  costly  cope  to  be  made,  ANorked  without  on 
*'  all  sides  with  threads  of  the  purest  gold,  having  below  in  a  range  all 
"  round  a  hundred  and  forty  bells  of  silver  gilt,  and  shelving  some  very 
"valuable  stones  between  them§."     This  Conrad,  ^ho  was  really  a 

•  AL  Paris,  826  :  "  Venit  Londinium  cum  viginti  equitahiris,  cujus  faniilia  collatcralis 
"  octo  [decern]  capis,  videlicet  quintjue  clausis,  et  quinqiie  manicatis,  de  optinio  inoreto  su- 
"  pcrbivit  redimita."     I  gue^s  at  the  meaning  of  "  morttum." 

t  P.  1055:  '*  Sex  cereos,  in  fcstis  quas  in  cappis  fiunt,  et  maxime  prxcipuis,  accen- 
"  deiidos." 

X  P.  616:  "  Vldcns  in  aliquoriim  Ahgli6Anim  ornamentis  tcclesiasticis,  utpote  in  capis 
"  choralibus  et  infulis,  auri  frisia  concupiscibilia,  intcrrogavit  ubinam  facta  fuisscnt,  Cui 
"  rcsponsum  est,   In  Anglia.  At  ipse,  Vere  hortus  noster  delitiarum  est  Aiiglia." 

^  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  I37  :  "  Cap'pani  pretiosissimam  iindique  exterius  aiiropuris- 
"  simo  contextam,  inferius  ct  per  circuitum  Cxi  nolas  argenteas  ?cd  deaiitstas  hiibenteni, 
'•  iMinnullis  lapidibiis  pretiosissiniis  interpositis,  fieri  fecit." 

great 


SFXT.   II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  183 

great  architect,  and  actually  planned  what  was  called  w  hile  it  continued 
his  glorious  quire  at  Canterbury  cathedral,  seems  to  have  been  peculiarly 
fond  of  music,  hanging  a  fringe  of  no  less  than  a  hundred  and  forty  bells 
to  his  cope.  But,  in  doing  this,  he  copied  merely  the  prescriptions  of 
God  to  his  high-priest  among  the  Jews  :  when  he  orders  "  the  robe  of 
"  the  ephod"  for  Aaron,  to  have  "beneath  upon  the  hem  of  it — pome^ 
"  granates— ,  and  bells  of  gold  between  them  round  about,  a  golden  bell 
"  and  a  pomegranate,  a  golden  bell  and  a  pomegranate,"  so  that  "  his 
"  sound  shall  be  heard  when  lie  goeth  in  unto  the  holy  place  before  the 
"  Lord,  and  when  he  conicth  out  *." 

So  settled  as  our  copes  were  within  the  very  sanctuary  of  the  church, 
no  storm  of  violence  (we  are  ready  to  suppose^  could  have  ever  torn  them 
from  the  sides  of  the  altar,  except  that  grand  stprm  of  the  Reformation.. 
Yet  this,  as  I  have  already  shewn,  did  not  tear  them  away.  They  sur- 
vived the  storm,  and  live  even  in  our  church-formulary  at  present,  But^ 
there  they  live  in  vain.  They  have  gradually  been  disused  by  the  clergy, 
and  are  hardly  known  to  them  by  name  at  present.  The  tide  of  national 
iileas  had  for  ages  been  running  strong  in  favour  of  external  religion,  of 
solemn  services  in  the  church,  and  of  pompous  habits  on  the  church- 
men officiating  in  them.  This  flood  began  to  turn  at  the  Reformation  ; 
it  has  been  ebbing  away  ever  since.  The  powerful  and  continued  suc- 
tion, therefore,  has  carried  down  the  channel,  and  absorbed  in  the  ocean, 
the  very  cope  of  our  canons  and  rubrics.  The  intellect  of  man  is  thus 
influenced  by  the  mere  accidents  of  social  life,  by  the  fluctuations  ot 
general  opinion,  and  by  the  varying  phases  of  the  moon..  Some  adver- 
tisemcnls  (as  they  were  called)  being  made  by  queen  Elizabeth  in  the 
seventh  year  of  her  reign,  yet  meant  for  laws  to  tlie  church  by  this  ca  er- 
hypocritical  woman,  and  received  as  laws  by  a  church  trampled  under  the 
feet  of  this  termagant  tyrant ;  surplices  were  enjoined  to  be  used  in  all  tli<? 
ordinary  services  of  the  church,  and  copes  w€re  confined  to  the  eucha- 
rist-f-.  But,  in  that  change  of  the  pubhc  mind  which  commenced  at  the 
Reformation,  the  very  eucharist  itself  began  to  be  deserted.     The  Puri- 

*  Exodus,  xxvlii,  31,  33,  34,  and  35.  -t  Wheatly,  108. 

tans 


184  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  IIL 

tans  among  us  felt  the  ferment  of  irreverence,  so  sharply  impregnating 
their  understandings  and  affections  ;  that,  during  their  tyranny  of  twelve 
years  over  the  university  of  Oxford  in  tlie  seventeenth  century,  the  eucha- 
rist  was  never  administered  once  in  the  cathedral  of  Christ-church,  was 
never  administered  once  in  the  chapels  of  All  Soids,  New,  Jesus,  and 
prohably  other.coUcges,  was  never  administered  once  in  that  church  of  the 
whole  uni^•crsity,  St.  Mary's ;  thougli  it  was  before  on  the  first  day  of 
every  term  at  the  imiversity-clnirch,  in  every  month  within  the  chapels, 
and  upon  every  Sunday  in  the  cathedral  *.  The  irreverence,  indeed,  was 
at  that  period  working  so  violently  among  them,  as  to  form  the  very 
leven  which  separated  some  of  their  own  votaries  from  them,  and  com- 
bined these  Pu 71  fans  of  the  Puritans  into  those  most  paradoxical  of  all 
characters  in  the  kingdom;  those  slyest  children  of  craft  in  business, 
those  wildest  children  of  enthusiasm  in  reHgion  ;  those  half  Christians, 
and  half  Deists  ;  from  a  very  Christian  principle,  and  from  very  fanati- 
cism in  it,  made  half  Deists  ;  who  still  remain  among  us  under  the  ap- 
pellation of  Quakers,  but  who,  to  the  astonishment  and  terror  of  all 
Christendom,  have  actually  rewow??cec?  the  cucharist  in  full  form.  Even 
the  church  in  the  growing  irreverence,  though  it  has  not  gone  the  hor- 
rible lengths  of  the  dissension,  yet  has  run  a  course  among  its  laity, 
that  is  amazing  to  every  well-taught  Christian  ;  and  has  felt  the  eucharist 
shamefullv  deserted,  by  the  generality  of  them.  In  this  conduct  even 
the  clergy  have  been  so  far  participant  as  to  leave  off  by  degrees  the  ap- 
propriate dresses  of  the  communion;  to  divest  the  eucharist  of  its  peculiar 
pomp,  in  albs,  in  tunacles,  or  in  copes  ;  and  thus  (as  it  were)  to  sav^e  the 
cucharist  itself  in  the  threatened  wreck,  by  throwing  all  its  distinguishing 
decorations  overboard. 

Such  were  the  dresses,  in  which  the  clergy  officiated  ever  since  the 
Reformation,  w  itliin  our  cathedral  of  Cornwall.  Eut  let  us  attend  to 
another  circumstance  of  divine  worship  there,  the  use  of  incense  within 
it.  The  use  Mcsee  expressly  enjoined  by  God  in  that  ritual,  which  alone 

•  Walker's  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy,  p^.  143  ;  a  work  pregnant  with  anecdotes  of  that  cen- 
tury ;  and  a  kind  of  true  sanctology,  for  the  confessors  or  martyrs  of  the  church  of  England 

«lurtng  it. 

Of 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SUUVEYED.  185 

of  all  the  rituals  in  the  world  had  the  honour  to  be  prescribed  by  God 
himself.   In  this  we  hear  Moses  told,  "  Thou  shalt  make  an  altar  to  burn 
*'  incense  upon — ;  and  Aaron   shall    burn  thereon  street  incense  every 
"  morning  ;  when  he  dresseth  the  lamps,  he  shall  burn  incense  upon  it ; 
*'  and  M  hen  Aaron  lighteth  the  lamps  at  even,  he  shall  burn  incense  upon 
"  it ;  a  perpetual  incense  before  the  Lord,  throughout  your  generations*.'' 
This  incense  is  expressly  ordered  in  a  previous  passage,  in  a  passage 
noticing  incense  for  the  first  time  to  be  "  spices  for — sweet  incense  f;  " 
and  are  expressly  announced  in  the  execution,  to  have  been  "  the  pure 
"  incense  of  sweet  spices  according  to  the  work  of  the  aj)othecary ;{:." 
Nor  let  us  suppose  in  the  degrading  taste  of  such,  as  think  only  of  cor- 
poreal points  in  objects  of  a  spiritual  nature,  and  fancy  every  circum- 
stance of  worship  appointed  more  from  attention  to  man,  than  from 
reverence  to  God  ;  that  this  requisition  of  incense  was  made  to  overcome 
the  smell  of  the  beasts  slain  for  sacrifice  in  the  temple,  and  to  keep  the 
rank  odours  of  a  slaughterhouse  from  disgusting  the  senses  of  the  wor- 
shippers.    We  see  the  incense  required  \\hen  no   temple  was  yet  built, 
when  a  tent  composed  the  only  fane  of  God  then  existing  among  the 
Jews,  and  when  consequently  no  offering  but  incense  was  to  be  made 
within  it  §.     Nor  was  an  oblation  of  incense  peculiar  to  the  people  of 
God,     It  was  common  to  all  the  nations  of  heathenism.     This  we  see 
from  the  very  code  that  prescribes  incense  to  the  Jews;  prescribing  it  in 
so  easy  a  manner,  as  shews  it  to  have  been  familiar  to  the  mind  of  Moses 
at  the  time  ||  ;  and  speaking  of  "  the  altars  for  incense,"  erected  by 

*  Exodus,  XXX.  I,  7,  8. 

t  Ibid.  XXV.  6. 

J  Ibid,  xxxvii.  29.  The  meaning  of  this  is  explained  by  xxx.  34,  35 :  "  Take  unto 
*'  thee  sweet  spices,  stacte,  and  onycha,  and  galbanuni,  these  sweet  spices  with  pure  frank- 
"  incense;  of  each  there  shall  be  a  like  weight;  and  thou  shall  make  it  a  perfume,  a  con- 
"  fection  after  the  art  of  the  apothecary."  This  was,  on  pain  of  death,  to  be  made  for  the 
altar  alone. 

§  Exodus,  xl.  5  :  "  Thou  shalt  set  the  altar  of  gold  for  the  incense  before  the  ark  of  the 
•'  testimony,  and  the  hanging  of  the  door  to  the  tabernacle;  and  thou  shalt  set  the  a'lar  of 
**  lurnt-offering  before  the  door  of  the  tabernacle." 

|]  Exodus,  XXV.  6,  ordering  **  oil  for  the  light,  spices  for  anointing  oil,  and  for  sweet  In- 
"  cense." 

VOL.  r.  B  B  the 


180  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  IIT. 

the  heathens  around  them*.  Accordingly,  we  find  the  temples  of  hea- 
thenism having  incense  burnt  within  them,  at  the  religious  services  of 
the  Greeks.  In  proof  of  this  I  need  only  mention,  that  the  very  terms 
used  most  familiarly  for  sacrificial  worship  by  the  Greeks,  do,  in  their 
pi-imitive  import,  signify  merely  an  oblation  of  incense -f.  We  even  find 
the  altars  of  incense  in  the  temples,  so  early  as  the  very  days  of  Homer; 
Jupiter  retiring,  in  the  Iliad,  to  "  Ida  of  many  fountains,  the  mother  of 
"  wild  beasts,  even  to  Gargarus,  where  was  the  grove  of  his  temple,  and 
*'  his  altar  breathing  incense;" 

Yet,  whence  was  the  incense  derived  ?  In  all  the  countries  adjoining 
to  Arabia,  it  \\as  derived  from  this  native  region  of  perfumes.  When 
God  condescended  to  prescribe  a  composition  for  incense  upon  his 
altar,  to  other  spices  he  expressly  added  "  pure  frankincense."  But, 
"  to  what  purpose,"  says  God  at  another  time  to  the  Jews,  indignant  at 
a  reverence,  merely  external,  shewn  him,  "  cometh  there  to  me  incense 
"from  Sheha,  and  the  sweet  cane  from  a  far  country ||?"  Sahara  in 
Arabia,  is  equally  proclaimed  by  the  heathens  to  have  supplied  them  also 
with  their  incense§ ;  even  "  the  sweet  cane"  of  Scripture  had  been  brought 
to  Rome,  in  "  rods  of  frankincense,"  so  early  as  the  days  of  Pliny*;  and 
*'  when  Alexander  the  Great,"  says  Pliny,  "  was  heaping  incense  with- 

*  2  Chron.  xxx.  14,  xxxiv.  15  ;  Jeremiah,  xi.  12,  17;  and  xlviii.  35. 

+  Gti,  to  sacrifice,  betrays  its  original  meaning  in  that  of  its  derivatives,  5oa,  an  odoriferous 
tree;  Gvksij,  odoriferous  j  Su>iA>i,  the  bag  in  which  incense  was  held;  fivriXn^etlK,  the  inccDse  itself; 
imfut,  the  same;  flu'o-Kn,  flu/o-xo;,  a  censer;  fic/xa,  incense^  flf/iafia,  flvftiooij,  incense ;  Btjialiijiw, 
a  censer ;  O^.^ias  to  offer  incense ;  SkuJus,  odoriferous ;  Gwweis,  the  same;  fli/i/^a,  incense. 

X  Iliad  viii.  47,  48. 

11  Exodus,  XXX.  34;  and  Jeremiah  ri.  io. 

§  Virgil:  "  Mittunt  sua  thura  Sabxi ;"  and  Pliny,  xii.  14:  "  Thura,  praeter  Arabiam, 
"  nuUis,  ac  ne  Arabiasquidem  universae  ;  in  medio  ejus  fere  sunt  atraniits,  pagus  Sab^eorum, 
*'  capite  regni  Sabota — ;  regio  eorum  thurifcra,  Saba  appcllata." 

*  Pliny,  xil.  14:  "  Virgis  etiam  thuris  ad  nos  commeantibus."  This  is  called  "  sweot 
"calamus,"  in  Exodus,  xxx.  23  ;  in  Ezekid,  xxvii.  22,  \vc  see  the  spices  were  brought  to  Tyre  j 
"  The  mercliants  of  Shcba  and  Raama,  they  were  thy  merchants;  they  occupied  in  thy  fairs 
"  with  chief  cif  all  spices." 

4  *'  out 


SECT.  II.]  niSTOUICA^LY   SURVEYED.  18; 

*'  out  parsimony  on  the  altar,  his  tutor  Lconidcs  told  liim,  that  he  should 
"  supplicate  Heaven  in  so  profuse  a  manner,  ichen  he  had  conquered  the 
*'  region  wliere  incense  grew;  and  when  Alexander  had  made  himself 
"  master  o(  Arahia,  he  sent  his  tutor  a  ship-load  of  incense,  exhort- 
"  ing  him  to  he  liberal  in  his  adoration  of  the  godsf."  Yet  the  incense 
of  Arabia,  Pliny  tells  us,  was  not  introduced  into  use  so  early  as  the 
Trojan  war"|;  when  we  have  already  seen  it  in  familiar  use,  four  hun- 
dred years  before.  At  a  very  early  period,  however,  the  cedar  and  the 
citron  gave  their  fruits  to  he  burnt  for  incenac§.  There  was  even  one 
tree,  which  assumed  to  itself  thesuperemirient  appellation  of  the  incense- 
tree,  and  therefore  appears  to  have  been  burnt  in  the  wood  itself,  like 
"  the  sweet  cane"  of  Scripture,  at  sacrifices.  "  The  tree  Thya,''  says 
Pliny,  "  was  known  to  Homer;  by  the  Greeks  it  is  called  Qaov"  or  qwj, 
as  some  copies  read,  the  divine,  or  the  incense;  "  by  others  Thya,"  the 
very  same  appellation,  ©i/«,  Qva. ;  "  this,  then.  Homer  reports  to  be  burnt 
"  in  the  banquets  of  that  Circe,  whom  he  tvished  to  be  considered  as  a 
*'  goddess,  to  the  conviction  of  a  gross  error  in  those  who  understand 
''  mere  odours  imdcr  that  word ;  though,  in  the  very  same  line,  he 
"  speaks  of  the  cedar  and  of  the  larch  with  it,  so  manifesting  himself 
"  to  speak  of  trees  alone  ||."  This  tree  grew  about  the  temple  of  Jupiter 
llammon,  and  within  the  interiors  of  C^rene^.  It  is  even  yet  known 
under  the  title  of  Thuya,  as  a  native  of  warm  countries.  But  the  name 
of  this  tree  bet  rays*  another  secret,  telling  us  that  the  very  term  for  incense 
in  Greek,  really  means  divine,  Q^tov,  or  Qjov;  and  that  even  the  appropriate 

t  Pliny,  xii.  14  :  "  Alexandro  Magno  in  pueritia  sine  parcinionia  thura  ingercnli  aris, 
"  paeilaeogus  Lconidcs  dixerat,  ut  ilio  modo,  cum  dcvicissct  tluirifcras  gcntcs,  siipplicaret; 
*'  ut  ille  Arabia  potitus,  thure  oniistam  navem  niisit  ei,  exhortatus  ut  large  deos  adorarct." 

X  Pliny,  xlii.  i.  "  Iliacis  teniporibus  non — tluirc  supplicabatur.-' 

§  Pliny,  xiii.  i  :  "  Cedri — cl  citri  suornm  friiclicuni,  in  sacris,  fumo  convolutum  ni- 
"'  dorem  vcrius  quam  odorcm  novcrant." 

II  Pliny,  xiii.  16:  "  Thya  arbor  qiije.     Nota  etiam  liomcro  fuit;  flsiov  [Dal.  fluo']  Graecfe 

«'  vocatnr,  ab  aliis  thya  ;  banc  igitiir  inter  odores  url   tradit   in  dcllciis  Circes,  quani  deani 

*'  volebat   intclligi ;  niagno  errorc  coruni,  <)ui  odoramenta  in  co  vocabulo  accipiunt ;  cum 

•«'  praeserlim  in  eodem  versu  ccdruui  lariccnique  una  tradat,  in  (juo  iiiauifc?tum  est  dc  arbo- 

*'  ribus  tanlim  locutuiu." 

^  Plinvj  xiii.  16. 

BB  2  title 


18S  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.  Til. 

title  for  the  Arabian  frankincense  among  the  Latins,  TJius,  is  merely  the 
Greek  Qvcg,  and  signifies  merely  the  thing  dirinc*.  At  last,  however, 
from  the  growing  acquaintance  that  commerce  formed  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  world,  lapping  round  the  globe  in  a  chain  of  gold,  the  trees 
of  Arabia  were  found  to  be  particularly  calculated  for  incense ;  and  that 
predominating  business  of  the  world  then,  the  worship  of  God,  instantly 
appropriated  the  knowledge  to  itself  But  the  timber  was  now  spared, 
and  the  gum  alone  was  used,  as  creating  less  of  a  disagreeable  smoke, 
and  generating  more  of  an  agreeable  odour.  From  that  period  to  the 
present,  Sabcea,  or  Sheba,  has  supplied  all  the  heathen,  all  the  Christian 
world  with  incense;  and  has  thus  had  the  honour  of  sending  up  its 
spicy  gums  for  more  than  three  thousand  years,  in  otferings — "  a  sweet 
*'  savour"  unto  God. 

Hence  have  been  derived  into  our  language  the  terms  incense  and  cen- 
ser, the  incensum  and  incejisoriuni  of  the  Latins,  still  retained  in  the  in- 
censo  and  incensorio  of  the  Italians.  Incense,  however,  was  not  intro- 
duced into  the  temples  of  Christianity  very  early.  It  could  not  be,  in- 
deed, till  temples  were  built ;  till  the  upper  rooms  of  houses  had  been 
superseded  by  large  structures  erected  for  the  purpose  ;  till  the  solemnity 
of  temple-service  was  nationally  transferred  to  the  service  of  our  churches. 
Accordingly  Tertullian,  at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  says  in  his 
Apology  for  the  Christians,  "  Certainly  we  do  not  buy  incense,  the  obla- 
"  tion  of  it  being  generally  the  act  of  individuals  ;  and,  if  Arabia  com- 

*  Hasselquist,  indeed,  says  thus,  250  :  "  The  gum"  Arabic  acacia  '*  is  gathered  in  vast 
•'  quantities  from  the  trees  growing  in  Arabia  Petraea,  near  the  north  bay  of  the  Red  Sea, 
*'  at  the  foot  of  mount  Sinai ;  whence  they  bring  the  gum  thus  (frankincense),  so  called  ly 
*'  the  dealers  in  drugs  in  Egypt,  from  thiLr  and  thor,"  as  answering  to  thus  thuris,  "  which 
"  is  the  name  of  a  harbour  in  the  north  bay  of  the  Red  Sea."  But  this  name  was  given  it, 
probably,  at  first,  by  the  Greeks  of  Alexandria,  the  original  mart  of  frankincense  (Pliny, 
xii.  14:  "  Alcxandriae — thura  iuterpoiantur")  j  and,  certainly,  ages  before  any  such  har- 
bour as  Thor  or  Thur  existed,  for  the  importation  of  the  gum  across  the  Red  Sea  into 
Egypt.  Frankincense  was  brought  out  of  Arabia  so  late  as  the  days  of  Pliny;  not  from  any 
"  bay  of  the  Red  Sea,"  to  Egypt,  but  over-land  to  Gaza  in  Judasa;  "  evehi  non  potest  nisi 
•'  per  Gebanitas, — caput  eorum  Thomma  abest  a  Gaza,  nostri  littoris  in  Judaea  oppido> 
"  Ixxx.  xxvii.  miiruini  passuum,  quod  dividitur  in  mansiones  Qamelorum  Ixii." 

"  plains 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  1 8^ 

"  plains  of  this,  the  Sabccans  shall  know  the  Christians  expend  their 
"  wares  at  a  higher  price,  and  in  a  larger  quantity,  for  embalming  their 
"  dead,  than  the  heathens  in  fumigating  their  gods  *."  Incense  was 
not  adopted  then  in  Christian  worship  ;  but  it  was  immediately  after 
the  establishment  of  Christianity,  "  incense"  being  expressly  mentioned 
in  the  second  of  those  apostolical  canons,  which  are  cited  by  name  as  early 
as  394  f  ;  and  the  "  incense"  being  then  confined,  as  now,  to  the  eu- 
charist  J,  It  thus  began  with  the  establishment  of  Christianity,  and  went 
on  with  it  through  the  ages  afterwards.  In  our  own  country,  and  under 
the  year  1141,  a  monk  of  Durham  describes  the  profanation  of  St.  Giles's 
church  near  that  city,  which  had  been  garrisoned  by  one  party  and 
stormed  by  another,  in  these  terms :  "  The  violators  of  peace  lighted 
"  fires  in  the  church,  and  offered  up  the  smell  of  the  meat  which  they 
"  boiled,  instead  of  the  odours  of  incense  § ."  But  in  our  own,  and  proba- 
bly in  other  countries,  incense  was  of  a  double  kind,  domestic  and 
foreign.  The  foreign  was  dear,  even  at  Rome,  and  in  Pliny's  time  || . 
This  would  naturally  preseiTC  the  cedar  and  the  citron  incense  from  be- 
ing superseded  entirely  and  universally  by  the  Arabian.  The  last,  in  all 
probability,  were  used  only  within  superior  temples  or  churches,  and  the 
inferior  was  perfumed  with  the  others  only.  This  at  least  was  obviously 
the  case  in  our  British  isles.     Here  the  cones  of  firs  were  burnt  in  most 

•  Apologeticus,  xlii. :  "  Tluira  plane  non  emimus;  si  Arabise  queruntur,  sclent  Saboci 
"  pkiris  et  carioris  suas  mcrces  Christianis  scpcllendis  profligari,  quani  diis  fumigandis." 
t  Cotflerius's  Patres  Apostolici,  i.  424. 

\  Ibid.  437:  ©ffiiafia  Tu  Sxaifu  Tuf  (la;  avaifoja;,  or,  as  Dionysius  Exiguus  renders  the  passagc 
about  525,  "  thymiama,  id  est,  incensum,  tempore  quo  sancta  cclebratur  oblatio."  (Ibid, 
ibid.)     Incense  is  still  confined  to  the  cucharist ;  and  Mr.  Pope  accordingly  says  in  his  dc- 
.  scriplion  of  high  mass. 

When  from  the  censer  clovids  of  fragrance  roll. 
And  swelling  organs,  &c. 

The  second  canon,  indeed,  is  urged  by  some  to  be  interpolated  here.  But  interpolations  must 
be  proved  before  they  can  be  alleged.  Mere  suspicions  and  surmises  are  only  cobwebs  to 
catch  (lies. 

§  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  i.  714:  "  In  loco,  pacis  violatores  focos  accendcbaut,  nidores 
"  carnium  quas  coqncbant  pro  thimiatura  odoribus  adolentes." 

U  Pliny,  xii.  14. 

of 


igO  THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  CORNWALL  [cHAP.  III. 

of  our  churches  ;  and  those  who  have  experienced  cones  in  the  grates  of 
our  parlours,  know  they  make  a  fine  fire,  and  throw  out  a  fine  aromatic. 
I  learn  the  fact,  however,  of  their  being  burnt  for  incense  in  our 
cluirchcs,  from  a  single  solitary  passage,  accidentally  noticed  by  my  eye 
in  Giraldus  Cambrensis.  "  'I'hc  numerous  woods  of  Ireland,"  remarks 
this  author,  ''  aboimd  in  fir,  ihe  mother  of  incense  and  ft'aiinincensc% ." 
Yet  the  gum  of  Arabia  was  still  used,  in  superior  churches.  Tliis  I  know 
from  a  very  early  period  of  our  history,  even  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Al- 
fred; that  king  one  day  presenting  to  Asser,  then  only  an  abbot  in  Wales, 
"  two  monasteries — ,  and  a  very  costly  pall  of  silk,  and  a  stwng  mans 
•'  burden  of  incense  *."  That  incense  was  used  among  the  Britons  be- 
fore the  Saxons,  is  evident  from  the  Roman  names  for  it,  and  the  censer 
still  remaining  in  the /JW/wA  dialects  ;  T/ii/s  and.  TJii/sser  in  Welsh,  En- 
fi'ois,  Inkois,  and  Inkoislester  m  Coniish ;  Tnis,  Tuisken,  Taiskean,  and 
Tuirieval  in  Irish  -j-.  And  it  was  this  distinction  of  incense  into  foreign 
or  domestic,  I  apprehend,  which  has  produced  that  otherwise  unaccount- 
able variation  of  titles  for  it  in  our  language,  incense  and  franhin- 
^ense  ;  titles  not  always  kept  distinct,  but  plainly  meant  to  be  so ;  the 
former  being  a  name  common  to  both,  and  the  latter  an  appropriate 
nam€  for  the  foreign.  Yet  this  is  not  appropriated,  as  Skinner  dreams, 
because  the  gum  is  burnt  v^ith  a  frank  liberality  on  the  altar ;  or,  as 
Johnson  dreams  in  the  same  tcnour  of  reveries,  with  a  nearer  approach, 
however,  to  reason  and  reality,  from  its  fi"ank  distribution  of  odours  ;  but 
from  its  coming  to  our  Saxon  ancestors,  I  believe,  through  the  country 
of  France,  the  Franc-land  of  the  Saxons.  So  it  even  conies  to  our  neigh- 
bours at  present ;  as  "  the  greatest  part  is  carried,"  even  noiv,  from  Cairo 
in  Egypt  "  to  Marseilles"  in  France,  "  whence  it  is  by  the  Dutch  car- 
"  ried  to  ^luscovy;"  and  "  a  large  quantity  is  burnt  by  the  INIuscoA'ites 

fl  Camden's  Anglica,  &c.  739  :  "  Abundat  abiete  sylvositas  Hibernias,  thuris  et  incensi 
«'  matre." 

*  Asser,  50 :  "  Mihi  eodem  die  tradidit — duo  monastcria — ,  ct  sericum  pallium  valde 
"  pretiosum,.  et  onus  viri  fortis  de  incenso." 

t  Lhuyd  under  TJms  Thurihulum.  Richards's  Dictionary  and  O'Brien's  are  both  defec- 
tive here  :  tlie  former  omits  both  the  Welsh  words,  and  the  latter  has  only  the  Irish  first. 

"  and 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEl'ED.  I9I 

"  and  Roman  Catholics  in  their  churches  .| ."  Ifc,  in  oxvc  extended  com- 
merce, might  bring  it  directly  from  Cairo  :  but  growing  more  penurious 
in  our  worsliip  of  God,  as  we  become  more  expensive  in  attentions  to 
ourselves,  inverting  the  character  which  does  high  honour  to  the  earlier 
Romans,  of  being  "  frugal  in  the  management  of  their  houses,  but  mag- 
'' nificent  in  the  economy  of  their  temples  §,"  and  sinking  in  religious 
dignity  of  sentiment  infinitely  lower  than  the  very  heathens  themselves ; 
ever  since  the  Reformation  we  have  ceased  to  use  it  even  in  our  royal 
chapels.  Thus,  whatever  we  may  hear  of  the  churches  abroad,  Greek  or 
Romish,  whatever  we  may  read  of  the  practice  of  angels  in  Heaven,  yet, 
even  at  the  chapel-royal,  never  does  "  the  smoke  of  the  incense — come 
"  with  the  prayers  of  the  saints,"  and  "  ascend  up  before  God  ||  ;"  dis- 
pensing its  grateful  odours  around,  so  uniting  with  music,  with  paintings, 
to  gratify  all  the  dignified,  the  intellectual  senses  of  the  body,  and  to  wrap 
the  whole  man  into  that  which  is  his  highest  feeling,  as  well  as  his 
greatest  glory,  an  ecstacy  of  devotion  towards  God  ^ ." 

With  this  incense  in  the  church,  and  with  those  robes  on  the  officiator 
in  it,  "  at  the  upper  end  of"  what  Mr.  Willis  calls  its  "  south  isle  and 
"  nave,"  as  he  remarks,  "  near  the  high  altar,  are  niches  handsomely 
**  carved  in  stone,  together  with  an  ancient  monument  under  an  arch  in 
"  the  wall,  erected  here  after  rebuilding  this  part*."  All  this  is  an  accu- 
mulation of  errors.     The  "  niches,  handsomely  carv'ed  in  stone,"  are  ap- 

J  Hasselquist,  297. 

§  Sallust  in  Catilina,  ix. :  "  In  suppliciis  deorum  magnificij  domi  parci." 

){  Rev.  viii.  3,  4. 

^  As  ail  atldliiunal  proof  of  the  coming  of  incense  into  Britain,  let  me  notice  this  passage 
in  the  Description  of  London  by  Fitz-Stcphens  :  '•  Ad  hanc  nrbcm,  ex  onini  natione  qiiae 
"  sub  coelo  est,  navalia  gaudent  institorcs,"  those  of  Marseilles  particularly  for  the  incense, 
"  habere  commcrcla  : 

"  Aiirum  mittit  Arabs,  specie's  et  thma  Sab<rus." 

Pcgge's. edition  in  1772.  "These  articles,  which  were  tlu-n  very  valuable,"  before  we 
opened  a  direct  comraunication  with  the  spice-islands  of  the  East-Indies,  "came  from 
♦'  Arabia  Felix,  and  the  countries  still  more  eastern,"  even  the  very  Spicc-islaiids  tlicmselves 
(1  suppose),  uhiuvitely,  "  to  Alexandria;  and  thence  were  imported"  by  Marseilles  "  into 
1*  Europe."     P<^ge's  note  to  his  translation,  p.  40, 

•  Willis,  151,  152. 

pnrcntly 


102  THE    CATHEDUAL    OF    COKXWALL  [criAP,   HI. 

parently  the  tlirone  and  the  stall,  thus  slightly  noticed  by  the  iindistin- 
guishuig  pen  of  a  writer ;  who,  it"  he  had  known  their  real  quality,  \\ould 
have  placed  himself  with  an  antiquary's  satisfaction  in  the  seat  of  the  one, 
and  have  knelt  with  an  episcopalian's  reverence  at  the  foot  of  the  other. 
lie  considered  them  only  as  mere  "  niches,"  so  lost  the  reverence  in  his 
inattention,  and  missed  the  satisfaction  in  his  ignorance.  Antiquaries  are 
generally  supposed  by  "  the  million,"  to  view  objects  through  a  mi- 
croscopic glass,  thus  to  see  much  more  than  nature  presents  to  the  naked 
eye,  and  indeed  to  talk  of  beholding  what  "  the  great  vulgar  and  the 
"  small"  can  never  believe  to  exist.  But  we  here  find  an  antiquary,  who 
has  reversed  the  case  entirely,  whose  microscope  is  as  dull  as  the  com- 
monest eye,  and  who  could  not  see  what  was  apparent  before  him.  He 
looked  at  a  niche,  but  beheld  not  a  throne.  He  viewed  it,  but  surveyed 
not  the  expressive  accompaniments  of  it.  He  saw  not  the  mitre  particu- 
larly at  the  top  of  it.  Though  this  is  no  less  than  three  feet  six  inches  in 
length,  from  the  base  to  the  summit ;  though  the  cross  upon  the  summit 
is  no  less  than  one  foot  in  length  ;  though  both  come  projecting  from  the 
w^all,  and  both  stand  conspicuous  to  the  eye,  with  a  "window  on  each  side 
of  them  ;  yet  he  saw  them  not.  Minds  not  informed  with  antiquarian 
knowledge,  though  manly  in  their  general  exertions,  and  practised  in  in- 
tellectual exercises,  are  apt  to  impose  upon  themselves  for  fear  of  being 
imposed  upon  by  antiquaries,  and  take  refuge  in  a  kind  of  wilful  blind- 
ness from  the  dreaded  credulity  of  antiquarianism.  But  that  an  antiquary', 
one  so  much  an  antiquary  as  to  be  deservedly  smiled  at  for  his  credulity 
by  many,  should  not  see  even  while  he  beheld,  is  a  very  singular  phe- 
nomenon in  the  reigns  of  literature.  Yet  even  he  ^^"anted  some  brother- 
antiquary  to  stand  by  him,  as  Michael  stands  by  Adam  in  Milton : 

then  purge  with  euphrasy  and  rue 

The  visual  nerve,  for  he  had  much  to  see, 
And  from  the  well  of  life  three  drops  instil. 

For  want  of  this,  missing  that  grand  accompaniment  the  mitre,  he 
might  well  miss  the  others,  the  small  dove  over-head,  the  tall  croziers 
at  the  sides,  and  eren  the  high  elevation  of  the  whole  niche  above  the 
level  of  the  floor :  yet  all  should  have  united  to  flash  conviction  in  a 

stream 


^CT.  11.]  HISTORICALLY  SURVEYED.  1Q3 

Stream  of  lightning  on  his  mind,   to  rouse  him  from  the  letharg\'  of  vul- 
gar spirits,  and  awaken  him  to  the  rcahty  displayed  before  his  eyes. 

ButiinawakeneJ,  unrouscd,  he  appears  to  have  gone  On,  walking  in 
his  sleep,  stumbling  at  every  step,  and  plunging  out  of  one  dilficulty  into 
another.  He  must  have  heard  the  tradition  concerning  the  tomb,  the 
throne,  the  door,  and  the  palace,  of  the  bishop  ;  yet  he  turned  a  deaf  ear 
to  the  sound,  notes  not  the  palace  or  the  door  at  all,  notes  the  tomb  only 
as  "an  ancient  monument  under  an  arch  in  the  wall,"  and  notes  the 
throne,  the  stall,  as  merely  two  "  niches."  So  much  were  his  eyes  and 
his  ears  in  a  conspiracy  together  against  the  truth  !  Then  his  under- 
standing sunk  at  last  into  that  pitfall  of  incredulous  credulity,  to  suppose, 
even  to  aver,  the  tomb  and  the  niches  were  "  erected  here  ixiicv  rebuilding 
"  this  part."  He  thus  supposes  a  rehuildwg,  for  which  he  attempts  not 
to  produce  any  the  most  hypothetical  reason  ;  and  avers,  what  he  pre- 
tends not  to  prove  by  any  the  most  frivolous  evidence.  No  rebuilding 
appears  to  have  ever  taken  place.  The  door  of  the  bishop,  now  blocked 
up  by  the  rising  earth  without,  of  itself  proves  that  none  has  :  nor  would 
even  a  rebuilding,  if  as  real  as  it  is  imaginary,  at  all  solve  those  difficulties 
concerning  the  niches  and  the  arch  ;  for  the  solution  of  which  it  seems  to 
have  been  fancied  by  Mr.  Willis.  The  arch  and  niches  were  "  erected 
"  here,"  he  says,  "  after  rebuilding  this  part."  If  they  were  thus 
erected,  they  could  not  possibly  be  wrought  into  the  very  substance  of 
the  wall :  yet  so  wrought  we  have  actually  found  the  tomb  ;  and  so 
wrought  are  the  door,  the  stall,  the  throne,  apparently  to  every  eye. 

Let  us  attend,  however,  to  one  more  mistake  in  Mr.  Willis,  because  it 
may  equally  deceive.  "  Over  which,"  he  subjoins  concerning  his  niches 
and  monument,  "  were  painted,  I  presume,  those  effigies  of  bishops 
"  mentioned  in  Leland,  which  it  is  a  great  pity  should  have  been  de- 
"  fiiced*."  The  want  of  precisencss  here  is  as  remarkable  as  the  absence 
of  truth.  He  specilics  not,  over  which  of  the  three  he  fancies  the  images 
to  have  been  placed;  and  he  unwittingly  intimates,  that  they  were  over 

•  Willis,  152. 
VOL.  I.  c  c  all. 


194  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  rtt. 

all.  With  so  much  confnsedness  of  ideas  and  terms,  we  must  not  cxpcet 
any  justness  of  reasoning.  Mr.  Willis,  indeed,  has  applied  to  the  south 
aile,  M'hat  Leland  has  confined  to  the  chancel,  and  what  can  suit  the 
chancel  alone.  "  Beside  the  hye  altare  of  the  same  priorv."  says  Le- 
land, "  on  the  rvght  hand  vs  a  tumbe  yn  the  walle  with  an  image  of  a 
"  bishop,  and  over  the  tiimbe  a  xi  bishops  payntcd*,"  &c.  We  thus 
find  the  paintings  Mere  over  the  tomb.  But  was  this  tomb  that  in  the 
south  aile  ?  It  certainly  was  not ;  it  was  in  the  "  priory"  part  of  the 
church,  while  that  is  in  the  parish  part.  It  was  "  beside  the  hye  altare," 
while  that  is  nearly  half  the  length  of  the  church,  from  any  altar  that 
could  ever  have  been  in  the  aile.  There  ^vas,  indeed,  no  <*  hye  altare"  in 
the  aile,  there  could  be  none,  though  Mr.  Willis  has  previously  given  it 
one,  and  (as  now  appears)  from  the  meditated  transfer  to  the  aile,  of  this 
passage  in  TiCland  concerning  the  chancel  ;  because  there  could  be  only 
nnc  when  the  aile  was  a  church  of  itself,  and  there  could  be  no  "  hye 
"  altare"  while  there  was  only  one;  because  too,  when  the  church  was 
turned  into  an  aile,  "  the  hye  altare"  was  certainly  placed  at  the  upper  end 
of  the  chancel,  and  only  an  inferior  altar  could  then  have  remained  here. 
So  many  mistakes  in  his  account  of  this  church  has  he  made,  who  in 
general  merits  high  commendation  from  all  his  brethren  of  the  antiqua- 
rian family,  whose  knowledge  was  considerable,  whose  industiy  was  un- 
remitted, and  Avlio  by  both  is  holding  out  the  torch  to  thousands  at 
present. 

Yet  let  me  add  concerning  the  throne  and  its  accompaniments,  that 
these  were  so  loudly  pointed  out  by  tradition  to  be  what  they  plainly  are, 
as  to  attract  the  notice,  and  call  out  the  zeal  of  the  Presbyterians  in  the  se- 
venteenth century.  Highly  charged  as  the  Presbyterians  were  withelectri- 
cai  fire,  against  popery,  and  against  what  their  Bedlamite  ideas  had  asso- 
ciated with  it,  prelacy  ;  a  bishop's  throne,  a  bishop's  mitre,  a  crozier,  and 
a  cross,  the  last  from  the  same  insanity  of  associations  combined  in- 
vidiously with  the  three  others,  were  sure  to  draw  forth  the  sparks  in 
great  abundance,  and  feel  them  discharged  in  a  burst  of  lightning.    They 

*  Leland's  Itin.  vii.  122. 
2  accordingly 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  igS 

accordingly  went  to  work,  with  the  seeming  animosity  of  heathenism 
against  Christianity,  to  demolish  the  cross,  the  croziers,  and  the  mitre 
here,  by  chipping  them  with  adzes,  and  levelling  the  projection  of  them. 
I'hey  have  thus  effaced  some  parts  of  the  croziers,  and  taken  off  much 
from  the  bold  relievo  of  all.  But,  as  all  were  formed  of  very  hard  stone, 
the  labour  became  too  tedious,  fanaticism  languished  in  its  Gothic  exer- 
tions, and  imUilence  had  recourse  to  a  more  compendious  process.  They 
luckily  resohcd  to  conceal  what  they  could  not  easily  destroy.  They 
filled  up  the  deeper  part  of  the  throne,  even  the  deeper  part  of  the  stall 
adjoining,  with  a  wall  of  stone  ;  and  they  covered  the  mitre,  the  cross,  as 
well  as  the  upper  end  of  the  throne,  with  the  arms  of  the  state.  Then 
too,  undoubtedly,  were  the  four  plates  torn  off  from  the  tomb  of  the 
bishops  ;  as  the  farther  of  the  four,  from  the  wall  resting  upon  one  side 
of  it,  must  have  required  some  extraordinary  violence  to  extract  it.  Nor 
let  us  impute  any  of  those  rude  and  anti-christian  outrages  upon  these 
venerable  monuments,  to  the  influence  of  that  son  of  the  first  Eliot,  who 
is  so  well  known  as  a  patriot  in  the  days  of  Charles,  under  tlie  knightly 
title  of  sir  John.  He  died  long  before,  in  November  iG32;  and  his  son, 
then  in  his  twenty-first  year,  appears  not  to  have  taken  any  part  in  the 
civil  confusions  afterward,  not  even  serving  in  the  parliament  of  lO-li  *. 
All  was  done  assuredly  without  any  encouragement  from  Port-Eliot,  per- 
haps wnth  remonstrances  from  it,  by  that  w  ild  zeal  against  monuments  of 
anticjuity,  which  always  actuates  the  vanity  of  vulgar  reformers,  and 
which  was  throw  n  into  a  sharp  ferment  in  the  Presbyterians,  by  their  just 
abhorrence  of  popery,  as  well  as  by  the  native  sourness  of  their  own 
spirits.  Thus  was  the  depth  of  the  stall  and  throne,  the  upper  half  of 
the  latter,  but  the  whole  of  the  cross  and  mitre,  concealed  for  a  great 
number  of  years  ;  even  till  the  Rev.  Mr.  Trevanion,  w  ho  died  minister 
herein  1772  aged  about  thirty-five  only,  began  to  explore  the  walls,  for 
w  hat  he  must  have  learnt  merely  from  tradition  to  be  there.  He  probed 
the  niche  in  the  eastern  wall,  he  probed  the  niche  in  the  southern,  whh 
his  penknife,  as  the  first  instrument  ready  to  his  hand  at  the  moment; 
found  the  adventitious  wall  williin  both,  procured  a  mason,  and  set  him 

•  Willis,   146,  153. 

C  C   2  to 


^fl(^  THE    CATHF.DR.VL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.   IH. 

to  clear  both  from  their  prcsbyterian  obstructions.  Tlien,  in  the  progress 
of  discovery,  in  the  pursuit  of  light  breaking  in  n])on  him,  he  took  away 
that  screen  of  dust  and  darkness,  the  royal  arms,  from  tlie  mitre,  the 
cross,  the  croziers,  and  the  throne.  So  very  early,  indeed,  as  Mr.  W  illis's 
visit  to  this  church,  and  betore  the  year  of  his  j)ul)lication  171O,  we  see 
the  throne  e(|ually  apparent  to  the  eye  with  the  stall ;  and  both  therefore 
described  by  him  as  "  niches  handsomely  carv'd  in  stone,"  *'  at  the  upper 
"  end"  of  the  ailc,  '•  near  the  high  altar."  They  were  both  apparent, 
though  much  contracted  in  their  depth,  and  so,  perhaps,  seeming  to  be 
niches  only.  Yet  the  croziers,  I  am  forced  to  say,  could  not  be  covered 
\\hen  the  hollow  of  the  throne  was  manifest,  however  reduced ;  and  must 
Iiavc  been  obvious  with  all  their  defacements,  upon  each  side  of  it.  These 
therefore  sliould  lune  led  the  critical  sagacity  of  antiquarianism,  to  trace 
out  the  design  of  the  hollow,  to  pursue  it  under  the  royal  arms,  thus  to 
anticipate  the  exploring  hanil  of  Mr.  Trevanion,  and  to  make  his  discovery 
of  the<:rozi€rs,  the  mitre,  the  cross,  and  the  throne.  A  ciitical  antiquary 
should  be  in  sagacity,  in  struggles,  and  in  success,  like  that  celebrated 
general  of  Greece,  Aristomencs  ;  who,  being  taken  prisoner  by  his  ene- 
mies, precipitated  with  fifty  others  into  a  deep  dungeon,  and  the  only 
©ne  of  the  number  that  escaped  death  in  the  fall,  had  sufficient  quickness 
of  perception  to  see  a  fox  feeding  u])on  the  carcases,  and  sufiicient  pre- 
sence of  mind  to  meditate  his  deliverance  by  it ;  seized  it  therefore  with 
one  hand  by  the  mouth,  and  with  another  by  the  tail ;  then  let  it  lead 
liim  to  the  narrow  opening  by  which  it  came  in,  followed  it  into  the 
opening  holding  by  its  tail,  tlnis  wriggled  slowly  with  it  through  the 
winding  hole,  at  last  saw  light,  dismissed  his  guide,  worked  his  way 
safely  i«to  liberty,  and  to  the  astonishment  of  his  enemies,  who  supposed 
him  long  since  incorporated  with  the  mass  of  carnage  in  their  dungeon, 
appeared  at  the  head  of  liis  soldiery  again,  to  be  victorious  again  with 
th^m.  But  Mr.  Willis  was  not  an  Aristomenes ;  he  Imd  no  fox  to  guide 
him  ;  he  had  no  sagacity  to  make  it  his  guide,  if  lie  had  found  one  ;  he 
saw  the  opening,  but  pres.sed  not  in;  he  even  beheld  the  light,  but  pushed 
not  for  it ;  he  sunk  imder  his  ditliculties,  despairing  of  all  relief,  and  not 
trying  for  any  ;  he  either  looked  not  under  the  arms,  or  saw  nothing  there 
to  inform  him.     Jle  thus  left  a  young  antiquary  to  do,  what  he  should 


S'KCT.  n.]  fflSTOniCALLY    SURVRVED.  tf)7 

liave  done  himself.  And  coiild  he  now  behold,  what  ^fr.  TfCA'anion  has 
done;  see  the  croziers,  the  throne,  the  mitre,  the  cross,  and  the  stall,  all 
exhibiting  themselves  in  their  tuU  dimensions  to  tlieeye;  hear  the  corro- 
borating reports  of  tradition  concerning  all,  concerning  also  the  tomb,- 
the  door,  and  the  palace;  then  he  told  the  preche  rclat'ion  of  each  to 
each,  with  the  full  reference  of  all  to  the  church,  as  the  ancient  cathe- 
dral of  Cornwall:  he  would  stand  amazed  at  his  own  want  of  attention 
to  objects  so  aj^parent  in  themselves,  he  would  be  ftxed  in  astonishment 
lo  tind  his  eyes  had  been  so  dim,  his  ears  so  dull, 

And  knowledge  at  each  cnimnce  quite  shut  out. 

But  he  would  triumph  through  all  his  anti(iuanaa  feeliagS)  at  tlie  hap- 
piness of  the  whole  discover}-. 

Jflicn  the  CRoziER  became  a  mark  of  episcopacy,  I  know  not;  as  I 
see  no  traces  of  it  in  the  earliest  antiquity.  It  was  originally,  I  believe, 
the  mere  walking-stick  of  our  aged  prelates,  religiously  decorated  with  a 
cross  at  the  top,  and  so  forming  the  first  crutch-stick  ever  used.  Accord- 
ingly, thecrozier,  even  of  so  late  and  so  active  a  prelate  as  Becket,  which 
was  preserved  as  a  relic  to  the  Reformation,  is  noticed  by  Erasmus  ta( 
have  been  merely  "  a  cane,  plated  over  with  silver,  lii^ht  in  its  ivcight, 
"  plain  in  its  appearance,  and  ?io  taller  than  to  reach  up  front  the  gt^ound 
"  to  the  girdle*."  It  thence  became  a  baton  of  honour,  and  was  lengthened 
into  a  crutch-staff,  for  an  ensign  of  episcopacy.  Thus  we  find  the  pa- 
triarch of  Abyssinia  carrying  in  his  hand  a  staff  formed  info  a  cross,  even 

*  Somner,  95,  from  Erasmus,  in  Pcrogrin.  Rcligionig  ergo  :  "  '  Ibidem  \\d\m\}s  pedum 
<*  divi  Thomoe.  \'ic'cbatur  arundo,  lainiiia  argenlL-a  obvcstiia,  minimum  erat  pondcris, 
"  nihil  operis,  nee  altius  qiiam  u»quc  ad  cingulimi'."  Wc  can  even  trace  this  crozier,  till 
U  was  engulfed  in  the  swallow  of  Henry's  avarice;  a  note  of  the  time  mentioning,  as  de- 
livered to  the  king  on  April  the  27th,  1541,  with  other  articles  from  Christ-church,  in  Can- 
terbury, "  astaff'e  garnished  with  silt'er,  called  Thomas  Behkct's  staffe."  (Stcevens's  Additions 
to  Monastieon,  i.  86.)  I  know  nut  that  any  writer  has  ever  noticed  the  chair  of  Becket,  a> 
preserved  for  a  relic  at  Canterbury  ;  yet  it  seems  to  have  been,  from  this  additional  article 
in  ibid.  87  :  "  Item,  delivered  more  unto  his  majesty  a  chair  of  icoodc,  covered  with  crym- 
*'^ey  [crimson]  velvet,  and  the  pomells  and  handHls  thereof  ^arniihsd  with  silver,  parcel/- 
"  of  such  ituff'e  as  came  from  Canlerlini/e," 

very 


108  THE    CATKEDRAL    OF    COKNVVALL  [(  IIAI'.   HI. 

very  recently.  The  Greek  archbislioi)  of  Phikulrlphia  too,  says  an 
author  who  saw  him  in  the  seventeenth  century,  "  luul  a  hug  sidd]  black, 
"  and  silvered  over  ;  i/ic  top  of  it  was  Ukc  a  cr/itc/i  -}-."  I^en  in  our  own 
country,  and  in  the  late  da)  s  of  archbibhop  Chicheley,  upon  his  monu- 
ment existing  at  his  cathedral  of  Canterbury,  wc  see  his  cro/.ier  exlii- 
bited,  and  find  it  "  is  as  suhstuntial  as  that  of  an  halbert,  as  tall  as 
"  the  matr  himself,  "  and  luis  a  cross  at  the  top;''  so  being,  in  fact,  the 
very  configuration  of  our  croziers  at  St.  Gern)an's];.  Such  was  the  ori- 
ginal form  of  the  crozier;  the  same  in  Africa,  the  same  in  Asia,  and  the. 
same  in  Europe!  But,  in  Europe,  the  form  has  been  varied  ;  the  cross 
at  the  top  being  curved  into  a  crook,  and  the  whole  denominated  a 
hacidnm  pastorale,  or  pastoral  staff,  in  a  fanciful  allusion  to  tlie  care  of 
bishops  over  their  flocks.  The  allusion  gave  rise  to  the  form,  and  the 
fancy  started  forth  into  a  reality.  In  this  form  have  been  almost  all  the 
croziers  of  our  island,  for  some  ages.  Tet,  as  the  very  appellation  of 
crozier  in  English,  and  of  crosse  in  French  for  it,  proves  it  to  have  been 
formed  originally  with  a  cross  at  the  top  ;  so  do  the  two  croziers,  ex- 
hibited on  the  walls  of  St.  German's  church,  and  the  two  once  existing, 
or  now  exhibited  at  Canterbury,  come  in  very  usefully  to  corroborate  the 
proof,  to  shew  us  the  crozier  in  its  primitive  form,  imd  to  carry  this  form 
up  to  an  early  period  in  our  own  country. 

"VVe  even  see  the  crozier  retaining  this  A'ery  appellation  and  form, 
among  the  Britons  of  Wales,  at  a  period  very  early,  "  In  this  province 
of  Warthrenion,"  says  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  about  the  year  11  "5,  con- 
cerning a  region  near  Radnor,  "  in  the  church  of  St.  Germanus,"  our 
ow^n  saint,  whom  we  know  to  have  personally  visited  that  region,  "  is 
"  found  a  staff,  which  is  said  to  have  been  that  of  St.  Cyricus,"  a 
saint  having  equally  a  relation  (I  believe)  to  Wales  and  to  Cornwall, 
being  born,  probably,  in  Cornwall,  as  he  has  several  churches  dedicated 
to  lum  in  it§i  but  being  a  bishop  in  Wales,  as  liis  crozier  was  left  to 

this 

t  Arch.  i.  344. 
X   Gostling,  286. 

i^  So  Luxulyan  is  dedicated  to  St.  Cyriais  and  Julieta^  and  Vepe  to  St.  Ciricius,  as  the 
nanie  is  varyingly  written  j  or,  as  Leiand  more  varyingly  writes  the  name,  **  in  the  middle 

:  "  of 


SECT.    II.]  IITSTORICALLY    SUUVEYUD.  lOQ 

this  cliuvdi,  and  havi?ig,  perhaps,  hiscrozier  left  there  by  St.  Germanus 
hhnsclt';  "  at  the  top  it  is  protended  a  little  on  both  sides  in  the  form 
♦'  oj'  a  eross,  covered  all  round  with  silver  and  gold  *."  This  is  far  the 
oldest  crozier,  I  believe,  that  is  noticed  in  the  whole  isle.  M^c  afterwards 
see  the  cro/.ier  familiarly  mentioned  in  those  Welsh  laws  of  the  tenth 
century,  which  ar(;  mere  transcripts  in  their  substance  from  the  ancient 
institutes  of  the  Eritonsf ;  find  it  distinguished  by  the  same  appellation 
of  a  staff',  as  St.  Cyric's,  and  therefore  have  a  right  to  infer  it  still  retaining 
the  same  configuration  as  liis.  "  If  two  ecclesiastics,"  says  the  code  of 
IJowel  [)ha,  "  having  the  privilege  of  the  /><7o-/,"  baculum,  or  stafi", 
"  cither  bishops  or  abbots,"  just  as  the  French  speak  of  an  abbot,  miir6 
et  crosse,  mitred  ami  croziered,  "  are  engaged  in  settling  boundaries ; 
"  he,  whose  state  is  superior  to  the  other's,  shall  determine,  on  oath 
"  being  first  taken  upon  his  hugl  and  his  Gospel,  which  bagl  aad  Gospel 
*'  shall  be  both  there  when  the  oath  is  taken  J."  "  A  church,"  adds  the 
code,  "  has  one  prerogative  above  the  king's  court;  that,  in  settling  the 
"  limits  of  lands,  it  shall  swear  first,  provided  it  has  the  privilege  of  the 
*' Imgl  and  Gospel  §."     "  When  the  church  determines,"  the  code  de- 

*' of  tliis  creek,"  what  Lclantl  calls  "  S.  Carac  creek,"  running  out  from  Leryn  creek, 
between  St.  Veep  and  Leslwilliiel,  "  on  the  north  side  was  a  litle  cellc  of  Sainct  Cyret 
"  and  Jiiletta,  longging  to  RIontegue  [Montacute]  priory,"  in  Somersetshire}  "  from  the 
"  month  of  S.  Carak  pille,"  &c.(Itin.  iii.  37)  ;  but  called  "  prior.  S.  Cyriaci,"  in  Itin.  viii. 
66.  I'rom  the  union  of  Julieta  to  Cyric  or  Cyrct,  in  two  of  these  notices,  the  saint  seems 
to  have  been  a  married  one,  and  to  have  been,  therefore,  put  into  the  calendar  of  Cornwall 
with  his  ivije.  Just  so,  the  saint  of  Probus  parish,  in  Cornwall,  is  popularly  denominated, 
at  that  season  when  he  is  principally  mentioned,  tlie  days  of  the  parish-feast,  Probus  and 
Grace;  and  the  saint,  also,  of  Veryan,  equally  unknown  with  Probus,  I  understand  to  have 
been  lately  exhibited  in  painting  upon  one  of  the  windows,  with  his  wife  at  his  side.  So  well 
known  is  St.  Cyric  in  Cornwall;  but  in  Wales  is  almost  wholly  unknown  at  present,  only 
one  church,  Langurrick,  in  Montgomeryshire,  acknowledging  him.  (Leland's  Itin.  v.  86, 
and  Liber  Regis.) 

*  Camdeni  Anglica,  Normannica,  Sec.  p.  821  :  "  In  hac  eadem  provinci/i  dc  Warthrc- 
"  uion  [see  Ncnnius,  c.  -xlv.'J,  in  ecclesia  videlicet  Sancti  Gcrmani,  baculus,  qui  Sancli  Cy- 
"  rici  dicitur,  invcnitur;  superius  iu  crucismodum  paulisper  utrinque  protensus,  auro  et  ar- 
"  gento  undique  contectus." 

t  Hist,  of  Manchester,  i.  viii.  3,   octavo. 

+  Wotlon,  453. 

§  Wolton,  153. 

\  clares 


200  THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  CORN'^'ALL  [cHAP.  III. 

clares  again,  "  the  bounds  shall  be  settled"  by  the  bishop  as  is  meant,  but 
"  by  the  bagl  and  Gospel,"  as  is  expressed ;  the  bishop  being  familiarly 
designed  by  those  two  well-known  memorials  of  his  quality  *,  Ta 
mention  only  one  instance  more  :  Ho\^■el  Dha  is  said  expressly  for  the 
formation  of  this  code,  to  have  assembled  men  "  who  had  the  dignity  of 
"  the  hoirl,  bishops,  archbishops,  abbots,  and  learned  doctors  ;"  or,  as 
another  manuscript  reads  with  more  propriety  and  explieitness,  •'  all 
"  churchmen  that  had  the  privilege  of  the  hagl,  namely,  the  archbishofi 
"  of  ,57.  Dav'uVs,  the  bishops,  and  abbots,  and  priorsf ." 

*  Wotton,  172. 

t  Woiton,  4  :  "  Bagl,"  which  here  he  renders  "  VIrga,"  and  fancies  ''  a  verge  or  mace  j" 
dlreclly  contradicting  the  whole  current  of  analogy  in  the  text,  in  his  own  translation,  and  in 
one  of  his  own  notes.     There,  p.  172,  he  remarks,  "  Baculum  hie  vidctur  esse  pe(/«w  pai- 
*•  torale."     In  his  own  Glossary,  too,  at  the  end  of  all,  he  speaks  thus  in  a  positive  tone  of 
Voice,    while  he   explains,    "  lagl  ac    effengyl"   to  he  "  perfj^m  pa,f/or«/e,  el  Evangclium; 
*'  dicitur  de  episcopis  et  abbatibus,  qui  jus  coram  se  gestandi  Evangclii  etpedi  habuerunt." 
(P.  557O  Wotton  was  uninformed  at  his  outset  concerning  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and 
therefore  rendered  it  a  verge  or  mace  ;   but  became  acquainted  with  the  meaning  as  he  pro- 
tceded,  and  with  some  little  dubiousness  translated  it  a  pastoral  crook ;  yet,  at  the  conclu- 
sion, rose  into  full  assurance,  without  any  dubiousness  explaining  it  to  mean  a  crook.     This 
progress  and  march  of  the  mind  is  a  very  natural  one,  what  happens  continually  in  literary 
pursuits.     The  only  strangeness  at  present  is,  that  at  the  conclusion  he  did  not  turn  back  to 
p.  172,  there  to  change  the  old  dubiousness  into  his  new  certainty;  and  that  then  he  did  not 
still  more  turn  to  p.  4,  there  to  alter  the  verge  or  mace  into  what  he  now  knew  it  should  be,  a 
crook. — In  the  same   strain  he  censures  the  word   priors,  and  makes  the  persons  lawyers, 
■with  Blegorid  at  their  head  (p.  6)  ;   when,  in  p.  4,  he  makes  Blegorid  expressly  to  be  a  cler- 
gyman, even  archdeacon   of  LlandaH";  when,  in    the   very    reading  that   he  prefers,  "  the 
"  bishops,  archbishops"    in  the  plural,  though  there  was  only  one  in  all  Wales,  "  abbots 
"  and  learned  doctors,"  are  all  expressly  said  to  have  had  "  the  dignity  of  the  Lngl"  (p.  4) ; 
and  when,  in  one  of  his  copies,  there  is  a  reading  that  speaks  for  its  own  propriety,  tells  ex- 
plicitly they  were  "  churchmen  who  had  the  privilege  of  the  hagl,^'  and  then  recites  them  by 
name,  as  "  the  archbishop  of  St.  David's,  the  bishops,  the  abbots,  and  priors"    (p.  6). 
That  "  prior  was  not  a  name  in  use  during  the  age  of  Howcl,"  as  Wotton  alleges  in   p.  6. 
js  most  probably  not  true  in  fact ;  priors  appearing  at  Canterbury  so  early  as  1088,  appearino- 
as  priors   are  ranged  in  Ilowel's  laws,  distinct  from  abbots,  but  inferior  to  them,  as  officers 
^vell   known   there,  coaeval  with   abbots,  probably,  and  certainly  of  a  long  standing.  (Sax. 
Chron.  179,  180.]     The  abbot    is  as  old  as  the  monastery  there  (Bede,  38,  39,  209,  294) ; 
and  the  prior  is   asserted  by  archbishop  Baldwin  in  the  twelfth  century,  to  be  equally  old 
(Twisden,  1304,    Gervasc  :    "  Ab  antiquis  temporibus — positio  et   depositio  prioris,  sub- 
priotis").  See  also  Beutham  for  Ely,  I2H,  126. 

3  We 


6ECT.  n.^  ttrSTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  201 

Wc  tlius  see  the  crozier  retaining  its  primitive  appellation  of  a  stalf. 
and  therefore  infer  it  from  St.  Cyric's  before,  to  preserve  equally  its  pri- 
mitive form  of  one,  among  the  Britons  of  Wales  to  the  tenth  centiirv. 
But  we  sec  the  inference  remarkably  confirmed,  by  a  variation  that  took 
placc  in  the  very  name,  when  the  form  came  to  be  varied.  What  wa<. 
nearly  a  crutch-siatF,  was  naturally  denominated  a  bagl,  or  staff;  but,  when 
it  was  turned  into  a  crook,  it  was  as  naturally  denominated  a  cmnbaca,  or 
crooked  stafT.  The  crook  superseding  the  cross  at  the  top,  the  appella- 
tion of  canihaca  superseded  the  name  of  bagl  for  it  * ;  and  we  find 
nearly  the  same  mutation  of  names  with  the  same  variation  of  forms 
among  ourselves.  We  first  find  the  original  form  with  the  original 
name,  among  the  Saxons  and  early  Normans.  So  late  as  the  reign  of 
Rufus,  and  under  the  year  logi,  the  Saxon  Chronicle  notices  that  king 
to  have  taken  the  bishopric  of  Thetford  from  one  Herbert,  by  saying  he. 
deprived  the  bishop  of"  his  staff  ■\."'  In  the  succeeding  reign  of  Henrv 
and  the  year  11 02,  the  king  is  equally  declared  to  have  deprived  manv 
clergymen,  Ijoth  French  and  English,  of  their  staffs,  and  their  "  rice,"' 
of  their  episcopal  quality  and  episcopal  kingdom,  their  respective  bishop- 
ric/isX-  AH  this  while,  the  shape  was  transmitted  equally  with  the 
name ;  the  name  being  continued  no  later  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  and 
the  shape  varying  just  about  the  same  year.  In  the  only  representa- 
tion that  we  have  of  the  last  king  of  the  Saxons  in  England,  Harold, 

•  Spelman,  in  Glossarj',  55,  says  thus  under  Baculosus  Ecclesiasticus ;  "  In  L.L.  M.S. 
"  Hoeli  Boni  dicitur  pro  episcopo,  vel  ahlate  episcopali  functo  jurisdictione,  utpote  qui 
"  laailo  pastorali  insignhur,  quem  co  scculo  camlocam  vocabant."  There  is  no  such 
word  as  camboca  lo  be  found  in  Welsh  at  present;  though  it  actually  appears,  as  we  here 
find  from  Spelman,  in  some  copies  of  Howel's  Laws.  So  deficient  in  its  very  enumeration 
of  words,  is  the  very  best  Lexicon  that  we  had  of  Welsh,  Riehards's;  before  we  were  favoured 
with  the  Lexicon  now  in  publication  by  William  Owen,  F.  S.  A.  But  Cam,  crooked,  and 
Back,  the  same  in  Cornish  as  Bagl  in  Welsh,  the  same,  therefore,  in  Welsh  formerly,  would 
compound  into  cam-baca,  or  cam-loca  in  Latin,  and  signify  a  crooked  staff".  The  word  had 
been  inserted  in  some  copies  of  the  laws,  and  Spelman  had  met  with  a  copy  bearing  it,  as 
one  more  familiar  to  the  eye  and  ear  after  iht  form  had  been  varied,  than  the  original  bai^l 
was. 

t  Sax.  Chron.  p.  200. 

J  Sax.  Chron.  p.  210. 

VOL.  I.  D  D-  which 


20a  THE  CATHEDHAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  HI. 

which  is  a  beautiful  illuminated  drawing  in  a  prayer-book  of  Harold's 
own  century,  the  eleventh  ;  two  bishops,  one  upon  each  side,  appear 
each  holding  up  his  right  hand  to  bless,  and  each  having  in  his  left  a 
crozier,  exactly  similar  to  our  own  at  St.  German's,  tall  and  crutch-like§. 
We  also  see  Odo,  bishop  of  Bayeux,  in  Normandy,  represented  upon  his 
seal  as  equally  holding  up  his  right  hand  to  bless,  and  as  equally  having  in 
his  let't  a  crozier  exactly  the  same  in  sliape  with  our  own  *.  But  Anselm, 
who  became  archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  1093,  five  years  before  the- 
death  of  Odo,  is  exhibited  upon  his  own  seal  equally  in  the  act  of  blessing, 
and  equally  with  a  crozier  in  one  hand  ;  yet  a  crozier,  110  longer  crossed 
cr  crutched  at  the  top,  and  actually  curved  into  a  crook  there  \.  Anselm 
thus  stands  before  us,  in  all  probability  the  first  introducer  of  the  crozier- 
crook  among  us,  and  in  full  certainty  the  first  who  is  known  to  carry  it, 
the  superseder  of  the  crozier-stafFin  his  own  practice,  the  superseder  of 
it  in  others  by  imitation,  and  the  abolisher  almost  of  the  very  memory  of 
it  within  a  couple  of  centuries  afterward  % , 

But 

^  Dacarrel,  p.  i,  preface,  iv, 

*  Ducarrcl,  75  ;  preface,  vi. ;  and  Arch.  1.  336. 

t  Ducarrel,  59,  See  Sax.  Chron.  p.  198,  for  Anselm;  and  Malmesbury,  f.  63,  for  Odo. 
A  crozier  of  the  original  form  assuredly,  and  one  certainly  very  remarkable  in  itself,  is  thus 
mentioned  by  Simeon  Dunelmensis  in  some  account  of  Odo;  "  quaedam  etiam  ex  orna- 
"  mentis  ecclesioe  [Dunelmensis],  inter  quae  et  laculum  pastoralem  materia  et  arte  miran- 
**  dum,  erat  enini  dk  saphiro  factus,  prxfatus  episcopus  abstulii."  (Twisden,  c.  48.) 
The  whole  cross  or  crutch  part,  I  presume,  was  formed  of  one  occidental  sapphire. 

X  Of  this  we  have  a  remarkable  proof.  "There  are"  within  the  cathedral  of  Ely, 
"  — eight  pieces  of  scufpture,  one  on  each  side  of  the  pillars  that  support  the  dome  avd 
"  lantern;  all  of  them  historical,  and  relate  [relating]  to  the  history  of  our  St.Etbeldreda." 
(Bentham,  52.)  To  know  the  age  of  these  sculptures,  which  have  some  crozier-crooks  ia 
them,  we  must  not  refer  to  the  general  construction  of  the  churchy  under  the  years  1081- 
1215  (ibid.  107,  108,117,  118,  143,145).  No!  We  must  go  much  lower.  "  In  the  be- 
*'  ginning  of  the  year  1322, — the  old  tower  in  the  middle  of  the  church  suddenly  failing 
"  down,  ruined  also  the  choir  that  was  under  it.  The  sacrist,  to  whom  the  care,  oversight, 
"  and  repairs  of  the  fabric  belonged,  the  same  year  formed  the  design  and  plan,  and  laid  the 
"  foundations,  of  that  more  convenient  as  well  as  more  elegant  kind  of  structure  in  Its  room, 
"  which  we  now  sec;  it  is  of  an  octogon  form  supported hy  eight  pillars,  covered  with  a 
'•  dome,  and  crowned  with  a  spacious  lantern."  (Ibid^  if?-)  This  then  is  the  date  of  the 
sculptures,  as  it  is  the  date  of  the  pillars  on  which  they  are  found  ;  though  Mr.  Bentham  has 
strangely  left  us  to  settle  by  ourselves  the  age  of  those  very  sculptures,  which  he  thought  it 

worth 


SECT,  ri.]  nrSTORTCALLf  Sl'RVEYED.  203 

But  let  me  now  turn  to  the  mitre.  This  kind  of  episcopal  coronet, 
which  has  been  for  ages  appropriated  to  the  heads  of  bishops,  which  is 
still  worn  by  officiating  bishops  on  the  continent,  which  was  formerly 
worn  by  our  own,  and  is  retained  by  them  in  signature  or  representa- 
tion at  present,  makes  its  historical  appearance  in  our  island,  even  among 
the  Saxons.  Thus  Elphege,  who  was  appointed  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury in  looO,  is  recorded  to  have  continued  through  the  whole  day  on 
high  festivals,  in  the  same  dress  in  which  he  had  officiated  at  the  altar  be- 
fore, "  robed  in  white,  covered  with  a  pall  over  that,  and  having  a  mitre 
*'  tied  upon  his  locks  *."  Nor  is  this  the  only  mention  of  that  episcopal 
ornament  in  the  Saxon  period.  The  historian  of  Ramsey,  writing,  per- 
haps, after  the  Conquest,  as  his  history  is  continued  by  his  own,  or  an- 
other's hand  below  this  aera  ■]•,  but  using  certainly  the  language  which 
had  been  long  familiar  to  the  ears  of  scholars  ;  says  that  Etheric,  a  young 
monk  of  Ramsey,  who  was  at  last  made  bishop  of  Dorchester  by  Canute, 
was  by  his  virtues  preparing  himself,  from  his  youth  for  the  episcopal 
dignity  ;  and  expresses  this  sentiment  in  these  words,  "  was  preparing 
"  for  himself  the  pontifical  diadem  "l"     Oswald,  successively  bishop  of 

worth  while  to  delineate  and  engrave  for  his  readers.  From  them  wenow  learn,  that,  in  a  couple 
of  centuries,  the  new  crozicr  was  become  so  familiar  to  the  eyes  and  minds  even  of  scholars,  as 
to  have  buried  nearly  all  memory  and  extinguished  nearly  all  knowledge  of  the  old ;  to  have 
been  thus  put  into  the  hands  of  prelates  before  the  Conquest,  of  prelates  four  centuries  before; 
and  so  to  have  been  apparently  considered  by  the  sculptors,  by  their  directors,  or  by  both,  as 
tlie  Norman,  the  Saxon,  the  primitive  crozler  of  the  church.  There  are  therefore  no  less  than 
six  crozier-crooks,  in  three  sculptures  of  plates  xi.  and  xii.;  though  these  refer  to  events  in  the 
biography  of  St.  Etheldreda,  happening  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century.  Yet  in  one 
of  plate  xii.  the  sculptor,  or  the  director,  had  such  an  insight  into  the  erroneousness  of  the 
form  in  the  three  others ;  as  to  desert  it,  to  shape  his  crozier  in  the  mould  of  antiquity,  and 
to  put  a  regular  trozicr-staff,  tall  and  crutch-like,  but  with  the  top  rising  above  the  cross- 
piece,  into  the  hands  of  an  abbot.     See  No.  7,   p.  58. 

•  Twisden,  c.  1649  :  •'  la  vestitu  candido,  desuper  amictus  pallio,  mitra  caesarie  con- 
*'  strictus." 

t  See  Gale's  account  of  him. 

If.  Gale,  i.  434.:  "  Pontificalem  slbl  infulam  prifparavit."  So,  at  the  general  wreck  of 
ecclesiastical  antiquities  in  tlie  storm  of  the  Reformation,  we  find  brought  to  the  sacrilegious 
king  •'  a  pontifical  of  gold,  wherein  is  set  a  great  saphire,  boitli"  it  and  a  cross  "  beinge 
**  parcells  of  such  stufTe  as  came  from  Wynchester."  (Sleevens's  Additions  to  Monasticon, 
i.  84) 

D  1)  1'  "Worcester 


20-1  THE    CATIIF.DRAL    O?    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  IIU 

Worcester  and  archbishop  of  York,  died  in  092  § ;  was  buried  in  the 
cathedral,  which  he  built  himself  at  Worcester ;  but  left,  as  Stiibbs  in- 
forms us,  "  his  dladcin  of  purple  colour,"  \\  hich  was  therefore  f"a])ri- 
cated  of  doth,  and  not  of  metal,  as  the  later  mitres  alv\ays  were  of  silver 
gilt,  1  believe,  and  as  the  only  mitre  (I  apjirehcnd)  now  remaining  in  the 
kingdom,  that  of  ^Vickham  at  New  College  in  Oxford,  is  at  present ; 
"  decorated  with  gold  and  gems;  to  be  preserved  at  this  day  in  the  clnu'cli 
"  of  Beverley,  and  to  shine  still  with  its  original  beauty  ||  ."  \\  c  even 
lind  an  abbot  of  P^ly  in  the  same  reign  of  Canute,  presenting  many  fine 
dresses  for  the  officiating  abbot  and  monks,  among  which  was  "  a  diadem 
"  ot'aridn/  colour,"  equally  fabricated  therefore  oi'  clot/i,  "  stiHencd  out 
"  behind,"  iis  cloth,  "  by  wondcrfid.  workmanship  with  llowers  both 
'*  above  and  below,  but  guarded  before  with  gems  and  gold  in  a  kind  of 
"  roof-work  ^."  Even  that  very  cloak  of  purple,  which  Edg;u:  used  to 
M-ear  himself,  but  presented  to  the  church  of  YAy,  "  was"  (says  positively 
the  historian  of  Ely)  "  made  into  a  diadem  *."  These  notices  :u"e  as  cu^ 
rious  in  their  quidity,  as  they  are  new  in  their  exhibition  to  the  ptiblie, 
demonstrate  the  existence  of  Saxon  mitres,  even  inform  us  very  clearly  of 
their  materials  and  their  ornaments  -j-. 

^  Sax.  Chrort. 

I  Twisdcn,  c.  1699  :  "  Hujus  iiifula  purpurea,  et  aura,  gemmis  omata-,  et  prisca  pulchri- 
**  tudine  fulgida,  Bevcrlacensi  adhuc  reservatur  ecclesia."  The  list  made  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, of  objects  for  plunder  belonging  to  the  cathedral  of  Winchester,  mentions  "■  three 
"  standing  mitres  of  silver  gilt,  garnished  with  pearls  and  precious  stones,  item,  ten  old 
♦'  mitres,"  not  standing,  not  of  silver,  but  "  garnished  with  pearls  and  stones  after  the  old 
"fashion."  (Hist,  of  Winchester,  i.  26.) 

f  Gale,  i.  504 :  "  Infula  rabea,  mirando  opere  subtus  et  desupcr  floribus  retro  extensa,  et 
"  velut  quodam  tabulalu  gemmis  et  auro  ante  munitusfmunita]."  This  donation,  from  one 
of  his  own  abbots  to  his  own  church  and  monastery,  is  totally  omitted  by  the  historian  of  all, 
Bentham,  92-97. 

*  See  ii,  3,  before,  and  Wharton's  Anglla  Sacra,  i.  604 :  "  De  qua  infula  facta  est." 

+  I  might  have  adduced  as  a  proof  of  the  early  use  of  mitres  among  the  Saxons,  that  a 
statue  of  St.  Erkenwald,  who  was  bishop  of  London  about  674  (Bede,  iv.  6),  was  kept  there 
to  the  Reformation  with  a  mitre  on  his  head  and  a  crozier  in  his  hand  >  as  then  was  seized 
by  the  king  "  an  image  of  Seynt  Erkenwalde  with  his  myter  and  crosier  gilt."  (Steevens's 
Additions  to  Monasticon,  i.  84.)  But,  as  the  argument  must  have  been  founded  upon  the 
identity  of  dress  in  the  statue,  from  the  first  to  the  last,  I  declined  to  use  it. 

2  Nor 


SECT.  II.]'  HISTORICALLT    SUnVEYED.  205 

Nor  need  we  be  anxious  about  the  British  existence  of  mitres  ;  thouo-h 
we  have  proved  the  mitre  on  the  wall  of  our  St.  German's  church,  to  be 
coaeval  with  the  church  itself,  and  have  referred  the  construction  of  the 
church,  to  the  Britons  of  the  seventh  century.     This  personal  decoration 
of  the  ofBciating  prelates  of  our  religion,  was  introduced  among  us  un- 
doubtedly with  the  establishment  of  our  religion  itself,  from  the  continent, 
of  the  Roman  empire  ;  when  the  zeal  that  induced  the  insular,  the  con- 
tinental natives  to  embrace  Christianity,  equally  induced  them  to  honour 
the  Master  in  Ids  minister,  to  throw  a  particular  lustre  of  dignity  over  the 
prelates,  to  seat  their  persons  upon  thrones,  and  to  cover  their  heads  with 
aowns.     Thus  we  find  in  the  very  first  periods  of  established  Christi- 
anity, that  bishops  were  distinguislied  by  having  a  scat  in  the  church, 
which  was  denominated  a  throne  ;  as  Eusebius  calls  the  seat  of  the  bishop' 
at  Jerusalem  "  the  apostolic  throne,"  because  the  apostle  James  had  sittcn 
in  it,  and  as  Gregory  Nazianzen  entitles  the  seat  of  the  prelate  at  Alexan- 
dria, for  a  similar  reason,  "  the  throne  of  St.  Mark.+  ."     Just  so  we  see 
the    bishops  in  general  addressed  by  compellations  referring  to  their 
mitres  ;  the  common  form  being  nearly  such  as  w:e  now  use  to  our  kings,, 
to  supplicate  them  by  their  crown,  or  to  sue  to  the  croicn  upon  them  ;  this 
very  form  appearing  in  Sidonius  Apollinaris,   Ennodius,    Austin,   and 
Jerome,  the  very  citizens  of  that  empire  in  which  the  Britons  were 
equally  included,  the  very  members  of  that  church  into  which  the  Britons 
had  been  equally  initiated,  and  only  speaking  the  current  language  of  all 
the  empire,  all  the  church,  for  a  century  or  two  before  §  .. 

Yet 

X  Bingham's- Origines  Ecclesiasticce,  i.  127,  128,  edit,  ad,  1720. 

§  Bingham,  i.  124,  125:  "  Sidon.  lib.  6,  cp.  3,  '  A uctoritas  corona?  tii.neV.&c.  Idem, 
"  lib.  7,  ep.  8,  ad  Euphron.  *  De  minimis  rebus  coronam  liiam,  n)aximi:>qiie,  consultrcm.' 
"Eniiod.  lib.  4,  ep.  29,  ad  Symonac.  lib.  5,  ep.  17,  ad  MarccHiiium,"  Sec.  See.  Bino^hani, 
whose  learning  is  greater  than  his  judgment,  argues  against  the  word  corona  signifyimr  a- 
vdtre  in  the  passages  above.  But  both  his  arguments  revolt  from  their  ma>ter,  and  turn  iljcir 
force  against  him.  "  Savaro  and  some  others  fancy,"  he  cries  in  i.  125,  "  it  respected  the 
"  ancient  figure  of  the  clerical  tonsure,  by  which  the  hair  was  cut  into  a  round  form  from 
"  the  crown  of  the  head  downwards."  Yet,  as  he  subjoins  himself  in  1.27,  this  •'  tonsure," 
though  "  sometimes  called  corona, — was  not  peculiar  to  liihops,  but  common  to  uU  the- 
"  clergy."  An  address  to  bishops  therefore  by  such  a  reference  would  have  been  so  far 
from  "  prefacing  the  discourse  with  some  title  of  honour,"  which  Bingliam  himielf,.!n  125, 

expressly 


300  Tlir.    CATHEDUAL    OF    CORNWALL  [c«AP,  Iir. 

■'  Yet  still  a  question  recurs  to  the  inquisitive  mind,  when  and  from 
whence  this  peculiar  kind  of  crown  was  selected,  as  an  ornament  to  the 
heads  of  bishops.  This  question  I  wish  to  answer  satisfactorily,  because 
Montfaucon  has  erred  egregiously  concerning  it,  and  his  authority  is  likely 
to  carry  .a  sinister  influence  ivpon  my  readers.  "  The  episcopal  mitre,"  he 
avers,  "  six  or  seven  centuries  ago  vi-as  only  a  bonnet  or  cap  with  a  sharp 
"point"  and  not  "  the  mitre  of  these  later  agesj|."  This  averment. 
ho\\'ever,  is  very  false.  In  contradiction  to  it,  I  need  only  appeal  to  the 
mitre  on  the  walls  of  our  own  church.  That  refutes  the  assertion  di- 
rectl}'.     That  cannot  be  later  than  the  throne,  over  which  it  is  carved ; 

expressly  states  the  other  to  be,  that  it  would  have  been  a  degradation,  and  have  levelled  the 
bishops  with  the  merest  monks.  We  might  as  well  believe,  that  the  compellation  was  by 
the  crown  of  their  head,  and  so  have  put  them  at  once  upon  a  footing  with  all  mankind.  "  It 
"  seems  most  probable,"  for  this  reason  (I  suppose)  adds  Bingham  in  126,  "  that  it  was  no 
*'  more  than  a  metaphorical  expression,  used  to  denote  the  lionour  and  dignity  of  the  opisco- 
**  pal  order."  But  this  it  could  never  have  denoted,  unless  it  referred  to  some  decoration  of 
dignity  and  honour  used  before.  To  solicit  a  king  by  his  crown  is  proper,  because  he  wears  a 
crown  ;  but  to  solicit  any  person  by  the  crown  which  he  does  not  wear,  would  be  only  bur- 
lesque or  ridicule :  and  as  that  piety,  which  gave  a  throne,  would  naturally  give  a  crown  to  a 
bishop  ;  so  we  find  both  among  the  Christians  of  the  Roman  empire. 

II  Montfaucon's  Ant.  Exp.  i.  i.  3.  So  in  "  Encyclopedic  Methodique,"  published  at 
Paris  in  1789,  under  Mitre,  "  la  forme  de  cet  ornament  n'a  pas  toujours  etc  la  mcme,"  and 
"  les  mitres,  que  Ton  voit  sur  un  tombcau  d'eveques  a  S.  Remy  de  Rheims,  ressembleni  plus 
*'  a  une  coefle  qu'aun  bonnet."  Just  in  the  same  manner,  upon  the  sculptures  that  are  on 
some  pillars  in  Ely  cathedral^  are  the  heads  of  two  bishops  wearing  conical  caps,  the  very 
mitres  assuredly  of  Montfaucon  and  of  St.  Remy.  (See  Benlham's  Ely,  p.  48,  No.  i,  2.)  But 
then  these  sculptures  I  have  lately  shewn  to  be  as  recent  as  the  fourteenth  century.  Even 
with  these  figures  upon  some  of  the  sculptures  appear  heads  equally  episcopal,  as  having  each 
a  crozier  borne  by  an  attendant  close  to  it,  ornamented  with  the  present  mitres.  (See  ibid. 
p.  54,  plate  xi.  fig.  5,  and  p.  58,  plate  xii.  fig.  7.)  The  conical  cap  therefore  appears  to 
have  been  not  the  same  with  the  mitre,  but  a  different  kind  of  head-covering  ;  used  indeed, 
upon  solemn  acts  of  oflTice  equally  with  the  mitre,  as  it  is  used  by  the  very  bishop  who  is  pro- 
nouncing the  benediction,  in  the  marriage-service  of  Etheldreda  and  king  Egfrid  (Bentham, 
p.  48):;  -yet  used  only  as  we  see  coronets  actually  used  by  two  croziered  persons  (Bentham, 
p.  58),  and  as  we  also  see  even  a  flat  cap  with  a  double  string  of  beads,  used  by  a  third 
(Bentham,  p.  58).  Those  therefore  can  no  more  be  mitres  than  these.  But  the  appearance 
of  those  upon  the  heads  of  bishops  accounts  at  once  for  the  erroneous  supposition  of  their 
being  mitres. 

and 


«ECT.  11.]  MISTORICALLT  SURVEYED.  207 

and  neither  of  them  can  be  later  than  the  episcopal  dignity,  once  attached 
to  the  church :  that  therefore  cannot  be  less  than  •'  six  or  seven  centu- 
*'  rics"  old;  as  I  shall  hereafter  shew  the  dignity  to  have  been  taken 
away,  more  than  seven  centuries  ago  * .  But  we  can  happily  mount  to 
a  much  earlier  period,  and  Montfaucon  himself  shall  aid  us  in  our  ascent. 

Gemmeus  iste  tibi  miles  et  hostis  erit. 

"  We  come  naw,"  says  this  very  extensively  learned  writer,  "  to  the 
*'  most  curious  and  singular  representation  of  the  Syrian  goddess," 
Cybcle  ;  "  this  is  the  inscription.  Mater  Deor.  Mater  Syrice.  The  tigure 
*'  is  very  extraordinary  and  remarkable  in  all  its  parts.  She  is  in  a  sitting 
*'  posture,  and  hath  upon  her  head  an  episcopal  mitre,  adorned  on  the 
"  lower  part  with  towers  and  pinnacles — .  The  goddess  wears  a  sort  of 
•'  surplice,  exactly  like  the  surplice  of' a  priest  or  bishop;  and  upon  the 
"  surplice  a  tunic,  which  falls  down  to  the  legs ;  and  over  all  an  episco' 
"  pal  cope,  with  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac  wrought  on  the  borders. — 
"  This  figure,  if  it  he  indeed  an //grj/e,  represents  Nature^—,  ff^haf  gives 
"  us  7-oom  to  suspect  is,  that  we  find  this  figure  onli/  m  some  drawings  of 
"  Pirro  Ligorio,  an  ancient  Neapolitan:  painter/'  who  lived  about,  two 
centuries  ago  f;  and  who  says-  "  he  copied  it  frmn  an  antique  of  Vir- 
"  ginio  Ursini,  count  of  Anguillara..  This  is  that  Pirro  Ligorio,  whom 
"  that  skilful  antiquary  Raphael  Febretti  frequently  blames,  in  his  book 
*'  of  Trajan's  pillar,  but  chiefly  in  his  large  collection  of  inscriptions. — 
"  ^\xX  what  increases  our  suspicion  the  more  is,  we  observe  nothing  (^' this 
"  kind  in  the  habits  of  Cybele,  or  any  other  deity.  Nevertheless,  Bellori, 
"  a  very  skilful  antiquary,  hath  pubhshed  it,  and  without  intimating  any 
"  manner  of  doubt  concerning  the  truth  of  this  monument;};."  Bellori, 
i?»  my  opinion,  shewed  the  judiciousness  of  his  mind  by  this  manner  of 
acting.  The  monument  is  assuredly  genuine.  Singularity  can  never 
prove  spuriousness  ;  if  it  should,  there  could  not  possibly  exist  in  the 
world  such  a  monument  as  an  unique.  Nor  can  any  censure  from  Fiibretti 
upon  Ligorio  suffice  to  make  us  disbelieve  the  latter,  when  he  says  that 
"  he  copied  it  from  aa antique;"  and  especially  when  he  adds,  that  this 

*  See  vii.  I.         f  Montfaucon  Ant.  Exp.  ill.  iii.  16.  %  Ibid.  i.  i.  3. 

3  ver 


308  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  HI, 

very  antique  was  in  the  possession  "  of  Virginio  Ursini,  count  of  Anguil- 
'■  lara.  "  Even  Montfaucon  himself,  however  modest,  however  timid, 
who  therefore  pronounces  the  monument  "  very  doubtful"  at  the  head  of 
his  chapter  ;  yet  comes  at  the  close,  we  see,  to  rest  upon  the  opinion  of 
Bellori,  to  praise  Bellori's  skill  in  such  monuments,  and  to  refer  without 
reprehension  to  Bellori,  for  his  publication  of  it  without  <Hie  expression 
of  doubt.  The  grand  reasons  in  Montfaucon's  mind  for  doubting  at  all, 
were  his  full  conviction,  that  the  mitre  of  a  bishop  only  a  few  centuries 
ago  was  different  from  this,  a  conviction  which  I  have  she\\n  to  be  all 
erroneous  ;  and  a  persuasion  equally  full,  which  I  can  equally  prove  to  be 
erroneous,  that  wc  observe  "  nothing  of  this  kind,"  no  7/?77/'e  particularly, 
"  in  the  habits  of  Cybele."  The  very  appellation  of  mitre  is  derived 
from  the  language,  as  the  very  use  of  a  mitre  is  found  in  the  practice,  of 
the  priests  or  priestesses  of  Cybele. 

She  and  they  were  all  Phr}'gian  together,  and  wore  what  they  called 
the  mitra  in  Phrygian,  as  the  appropriate,  exclusive  symbol  of  all ;  the 
mitre  being  originally  a  bonnet  for  females  in  Phrygia  §,  therefore  worn 
bv  herself,  and  so  worn  by  her  feminine  priests  after  her.  This  appears 
from  some  lines  in  Virgil,  which  Montfaucon  has  astonishingly  oACrlooked. 
There  the  rough  African,  larbas,  thus  sneers  at  ^neas  and  his  Trojans  as 
i'hrygums,  as  the  votaries  and  priests  of  the  Phrygian  Cybele  : 

Et  nunc  ille  Paris,  cum  semiviro  comitatu, 
Meccnia  mentura  natru,  crinemqu<;  madenteni) 
Subnexus  || . 

So  expressly  is  the  mitre  denominated  the  Mceonian,  as  the  instituted 
ensign  of  Ci/hele,  the  daughter  of  ^fceon  !  So  plainly  did  the  eunuch 
priests  of  Cybele  in  the  days  of  Virgil  at  least,  and  for  such  a  time  before 

§  Oml: 

Picta  redimitus  tempora  im'fra 

Assimilavit  anum. 

Pliny,  XXXV.  9  :  "  Polycnotus  Thasius — primus  mulieres  lucida  veste  pi nxit,  capita  earum 
'*  mitris  versicoloribus  opcruitj"  &c. 
I  iEneid,  iv.  215-217. 

as 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY    SUKVEYED.  20^ 

as  could  authorize  even  a  poet  to  place  the  fact  cotemporary  with  the 
Trojan  war,  move  in  their  ministries  to  their  goddess;  with  mitres  placed 
upon  their  heads,  but  tied  under  their  chins,  exactly  like  the  mitres  of 
our  bishops !  Virgil  has  even  applied  the  sarcasm  a  second  time,  and 
made  Turnus  like  larbas  to  insult  over  the  Trojans  in  a  strain  of  allusion 
to  the  Phrygian  priests  of  Cybele  ; 

Vobis  picta  croco  eX  fulgenti  murice  veslis  j 
Desidiae  cordi ;  juval  indulgeie  chords, 
Et  tunica  manicas  et  habent  redimicula  MixRiE. 
O  verc  Fhrygi<r,  neque  enim  Phryges,  ite  per  alta 
Dindyma,  ubi  assuetis  biforem  dat  tibia  cantum  ; 
Tympana,  vox,  luxusque  vocal  Berecynthia  matris 
Idaa  f . 

The  Trojans  thus  appear  a  second  time  insulted  as  Phrygians,  as  therefore 
the  worshippers  of  the  Phrygian  goddess,  as  consequently  having  priests 
emasculated,  effeminate,  clad  in  tunics  half  purple,  half  saffron  in  colour, 
■with  long  sleeves  to  them,  crowned  with  mitres  that  had  long  strings, 
and  dancing  on  the  mountains  of  Phrygia,  Dindymus,  Berecynthus,  or 
Ida,  to  the  united  sounds  of  their  own  voices,  of  their  double  flutes,  and 
of  their  drums. 

Such  was  evidently  the  origin  of  the  mitre,  Phrygian  in  its  xery  name, 
sacerdotal  in  its  very  rise  nearly,  but,  together  with  the  surplice  and  the 
cope,  even  divine  at  last  in  its  application  !  The  mitre  afterwards  passed 
M'ith  the  cope  and  surplice,  as  habits  august  in  themselves  and  consecrated 
to  Deity,  into  the  service  of  a  priesthood  formed  with  views  of  a  much 
more  dignified  nature,  acting  for  purposes  truly  sublime  and  sacred, 
fixing  indeed  (as  every  priesthood  must  fix)  its  feet  upon  earth,  but  rear- 
ing its  head  to  heaven.  Nor  can  any  objection  be  made  in  morality  to 
this  translation  of  the  ornaments  *  ;  except  from  tliat  fatuity  of  fanati- 
cism, which  considers  every  object  once  applied  to  wrong  j)nrposes  as 
thoroughly  vitiated  in  its  substance  ;  which  once  turned  Christmas-day, 

^  j^neid.  IX.  614-621. 

*  Montfaucon,  i.  part  i5t,  i.  3  :   '<  I'irro  Ligorio  pretend?,  tbc  Clirislian  bisliops  borrowed 
"  their  habits  from  thcni." 


VOL.  I.  E  E 


US 


•210  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAr.  III. 

as  a  day  ot"  feasting  occasionally  absurd,  into  a  blasphemous  kind  of  fast ; 
%vhich  therefore  could  not  suffer  either  priests,  or  sacraments  or  devo- 
tions, any  religion,  any  government,  even  any  action  or  dress  at  all,  to  be 
confi/iued  among  mankind  ;  which  must,  indeed,  have  consigned  the 
earth  to  flames  and  man  to  perdition,  at  the  very  first  introduction  of  sin 
into  the  world.  And  as  we  find  the  priests  of  Cybele  remaining  beyond 
the  establishment  of  Christianity  in  the  empire  ;  so  we  see  St.  Austin  de- 
scribing them  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  neai'ly  as  Virgil  describes 
them  before  the  commencement  of  the  first ;  tcithout  the  mitre  indeed,  as 
now,  perhaps,  with  the  cope  and  the  surplice  of  the  statue  translated 
already  to  the  true  religion,  tvitliout  also  those  long-sleeved  tunics  of  saf- 
fron and  purple  colour,  of  which  the  statue  wears  one  between  the  cope 
above  and  the  surplice  below ;  yet  as  "  effcminaie  fellows,  consecrated 
'*  to  the  great  mother  contrary  to  all  decency,  either  in  men  or  women" 
being  still  the  "semiviri"  of  Virgil,  "who  went  up  and  down  Carthage," 
such  was  the  tolerating  spirit  of  Christianity  toA\ards  them!  with  dances, 
songs,  pipes,  and  drums  assuredly,  as  in  former  times,  certainly  "  with 
*^  perfumed  hair,"  the  veiy  "  crines  madentes"  of  Virgil,  "with 
"faces  painted  white,"  as  women  tricked  out  for  a  theatrical  show,  "  and 
"  with  an  effeminate  mien"  like  the  eunuchs  employed  in  the  choral 
services  of  Italian  cathedrals  at  present ;  "  obliging  the  people  to  sup- 
"  port  this  infamous  life  with  their  bounty,"  every  month*. 

Yet  let  us  seek  an  origin  for  mitres,  at  once  more  honourable  and  rnore 
ancient  than  this.  "  The  kings  of  the  Orientals,"  says  Philo,  "  have  been 
"  in  the  habit  of  using  a  hdaris,"  or  mitre,  "  for  a  diadem  f."  By 
*'  the  kings  of  the  Orientals,"  Philo  means  the  sovereigns  of  Persia,  who 
actually  used  a  mitre  for  a  crown,  actually  called  it  a  Aidaris,  and  actually 
used  it  more  in  the  shape  of  the  present  mitre  than  of  the  Phrygian  :  the 
latter  was  nearly,  what  Montfaucon  falsely  says  the  former  war,  a  few 
centuries  ago,  "  only  a  bonnet  or  cap  w^ith  a  sharp  point;"  being  only  a^ 
round  cap,  rising  to  a  short  blunt  peak  at  the  crown,  and  there  dropping  a 

*  Montfaucon,  i.  part  ist,  i.  3. 

■^  De  Vita  Mosis,  iii.  671  :  KiJajet  yaj  ci  tw  Ewwy  ^turiKui  «/I»  JiaJifialcf  imOcv  j^fw8«(. 

5  little 


5BCT.   11.]  niSTOKICALLY   SURVEYED.  211 

little  forwards ;{:,  But  the  Persian  was  like  the  present  mitre,  rising  up 
stiffly  without  any  drop,  and  spiring  into  a  sharp  point  § .  This  form  of 
a  mitre,  however,  was  appropriated  to  the  kings ;  the  subjects  being  con- 
fined to  mitres  that  bent  down  to  their  foreheads  or  their  eyebrows  |]. 
Accordingly  we  know  the  very  priests  to  have  worn  mitres  flat  in  their 
appearance  above,  and  resembling  turbans  in  their  configuration  ^.  And, 
at  some  distance  from  the  ruins  of  Persepolis,  are  human  figures  still  cut 
in  the  face  of  a  rock ;  one  representing  a  man  with  something  like  a 
turban  on  his  head,  another  with  the  appearance  of  a  present  mitre  on 
his,  but  leaning  his  hand  on  the  guard  of  a  great  sword  *. 

We  have  thus  pushed  up  the  current  to  the  fountain  :  yet  still  we  have 
not  reached  the  original  source  of  the  mitre,  as  a  tiara  for  the  heads  of  our 
Christian  prelates.  This  source  lies  concealed  in  a  period  of  time  much 
more  removed  from  the  present,  with  a  people  much  more  related  to 
Christianity,  and  among  a  priesthood  the  immediate  predecessors  of  the 
Christian.  So  early  as  the  year  of  the  Exodus,  I-491  years  before  Christ, 
God  condescended  to  prescribe  the  nature  and  shape  of  the  vestments 
for  his  high-priest.  "  These  are  the  garments,"  he  says  to  Moses, 
"  which  they  shall  make,  a  breast-plate,  an  ephod,  and  a  robe,  and  a 
"  broidered  coat,  a  mitre,  and  a  girdle;  and  they  shall  make  holy  gar- 
"  ments  for  Aaron  thy  brother,  and  his  sons,  that  they  may  minister  unto 
"  me  in  the  priest's  office. — Thou  shalt  make  a  j^late  of  pure  gold,  and 
"  grave  upon  it  like  the  engravings  of  a  signet,  Holiness  to  the  Lord; — 
"  thou  shalt  put  it  on  a  blue  lace,  that  it  may  be  upon  the  mitre  ;  upon 
*'  the  fore-front  of  the  mitre  it  shall  be  ; — thou  slialt  make  the  mitre  of 
*'  fine  linen,  and — shalt  put  the  mitre  on  his  head,  and  put  the  holy 
"  crown,"  the  plate  of  pure  gold,  "  upon  the  mitrf.-I"."  Nor  was  this 
denominated  a  mitre  in  our  translation,  merely  from  that  accidental  asso- 
ciation of  ideas  which  had  prevailed  from  the  use  of  mitres  among  our 
bishops,  for  some  ages  antecedent  to  the  translation.     It  is  so  dcnomi- 

\  Sec  the  bonnet  sculptured  on  a  Roman  stone,  in  Horsley's  Chebhire,  No.  v. 

§  Ant.  Univ.  Hist.  v.  121. 

II  Ibid.  ibid.  «[  Ibid,  plates  31,  32.  "  Ibid.   iiS. 

f  Kxodus,  xxviii.  .1,  36,  59,  xxl.\,  6.     So  Leviricus,viii,  9;  "  Ther;olJfn  plate,  ihe  holy  crown." 

E£  2  tiatoil 


212  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cMAI'.  III. 

nated  expressly  by  Plutarch^  ;  while  the  Hebrew  appellation  is  ;/?/a'/- 
nepheth,  referring;  only  to  the  roll  ol"  linen,  sixteen  eiibits  in  length,  that 
was  wrapped  round  a)id  round  mio  this  tiara*.  But  the  mitie  of  Moses 
here  is  plainly  one  for  Aarcm  ami  for  his  sons,  for  the  high-priest  equally 
with  the  other  priests.  Yet  the  high-priest's  "  mitre"  is  distinguished 
by  a  different  name,  from  the  "  bonnet"  of  the  common  priest  f;  and 
was  therefore  dilTerent,  either  in  form  or  in  fabric.  In  fabric  it  is  dif- 
ferent, being  made  of  a  linen  finer  in  its  texture,  and  peculiar  in  its  title, 
Shi'sh  being  supposed  to  be  a  fine  sort  from  Egypt ;  while  the  linen  of 
the  bonnet  is  of  a  more  common  kind,  and  therefore  denominated  Bad  J. 
Eat  how  was  it  different  in  form  "i  Against  a  host  of  opponents,  I  main- 
tain, that  the  difference  was  really  what  the  veiy  appellations  of  mitre 
and  bonnet  suggest  it  to  have  been.  The  latter,  says  Josephus,  is  "  not 
"  conical  § ."  But  the  former,  he  subjoins,  "  has  over  the  latter  another 
"  sewed,  fabricated  of  purple  in  stripes  ;  a  crown  of  gold  runs  round  it, 
"  with  letters  engraved  upon  it  in  three  rows  ;  and  at  the  top  of  the 
"  whole  is  displayed  a  cup  of  gold,  similar  to  that  in  the  henbane 
"  plant;"  which,  as  he  additionally  subjoins,  "  has  a  cup  as  big  as  ajo'int 
"  of  the  little  jinger,  but  carrying  with  it  the  circumference  of  a  Z»ow7|[." 
This  therefore  was  plainly  in  the  form  of  a  Persian  hidaris,  or  a  present 
mitre.  And  Philo  unites  with  Josephus,  to  call  it  expressly  a  hidans. 
"  The  high-priest  puts  upon  his  head,"  says  the  former,  without  hesita- 
tion, without  qualification,  "  a  hidaris  for  a  diadem  ;  so  asserting  him- 
"  self  as  one  consecrated  to  God,  whenever  he  officiates  in  his  character 
"  of  high-priest,  to  be  superior  to  all,  not  merely  private  persons,  but 
"  even  kings  themselves  **."     And  when  "  Alexander"  the  Great  "  saw 

"yet 

^   O  itptu;  fi/lpo^ofo;. 

*  Ainsworth  on  the  place. 

•(•  Exodus,  xxviii.  40 :  "  For  Aaron's  sons — honnels  shall  thou  make — ,  for  glory  and  for  beauty." 

X  Ant.  Univ.  Hist.  v.  75. 

§    Ant.  iii.  3.  XliXoi  axmov, 

II  Ibid.  7.  Tffff  avion  Je  (Tvvtfja^syos  tlfgof,  e|  vaxiv9u  itetoikiX^ivo;.  irifit^;^Ela»  Ji  f'^aiot  j(jiiatO{,  itri 
Tpiirlctjjiay  xij^aAxiuptyos'  9aXX£i  J'  t^r'  eculu  xaXv|  Xjucrio?  Tri  o-axxa^u  /SoVvii  aTOjUS^i^nvo;.— c  Ji  naXv^  ^tyiQt^ 
ir>  (Txi/laXiJos  T«  jxix^ti  JaxluXa,  x^alr^t  J"  (/ilptjus  T»iv  TTE^iyfaifnv. 

**  De  VitS  Mosis,  iii.  673  :  KiJajin  Jt  a/li  JiaJnfialoj  iTiliflixTi  rri  xf?aXi),  hxaiu*  tov  ii^uixitof  T«  8(w, 
xaO'  cy  x^tot  ii^otlaiy  TfO^i^iu  aTayliO',    x.cn  fjut  /mho*   iJiwlwy,  kK\»  xx<  fa^iXiui,      The  Vulgate  accordingly, 

though 


SECT.   II.]  HISTORICALLY    SFRVETED.  213 

"  yet  at  a  distance  the  multitude"  of  citizens  "  in  white  vestments^'  the 
surplices  still  worn  by  the  laical  as  well  as  clerical  retainers  of  our  greater 
churches,  "  and  the  priests  preceding  them  in  their  laivn  dresses,"  dresses 
still  continued  partially  by  our  bishops  in  their  lawn  sleeves,  "  and  the 
"  high-priest"  preceding  all  "  in  his  purple  robe  bedropt  with  gold,"  a 
colour  equally  worn  by  our  bishops  in  their  purple  coats,  "  having  a 
"  kidaris  on  his  head,  and  a  ductile  plate  of  gold  upon  the  Mdaris  ;  on 
"  which  latter  was  written  the  name  of  God,"  as  we  read  in  Josephus's 
history,  and  thus  catch  the  high-priest,  the  priests,  with  the  multitude  of 
others,  probably  Levites,  all  marching  in  a  picturesque  procession  from 
Jerusalem,  to  supplicate  Alexander  for  the  city  which  he  was  bent  to 
sack  ;  "  Alexander  advanced  alone,  worshipped  the  name,  and  prevented 
"  the  high-priest's  salutation  by  his  own*."  So  much  in  this  accidental 
review  of  the  Jewish  clergy  do  we  see  concerning  the  Christian,  and  so 
frequently  do  we  recognise  the  dresses  of  these  in  the  habits  of  those! 
The  high-priest  then  among  the  Jews,  and  after  him  the  high-priest 
assuredly  among  the  Persians,  distinguished  themselves  from  the  common 
priests  among  both,  by  raising  the  turbans  of  the  latter  into  mitres  for 
themselves  ;  so  opened  a  readier  road  for  mitres  to  the  heads  of  the  kino  s 
of  Persia,  because  the  Jewish  originally  was  king  as  well  as  high-priest ; 
and  again  transferred  mitres  from  their  own  heads  to  those  of  our  high- 
priests,  their  natural  imitators  as  their  legitimate  successors  in  thcroyalty 
of  religion  f. 

So  originated,  the  mitre  is  found  very  early  in  theEast  and  in  the  West; 
appearing  on  the  heads  of  those  who  succeeded  St.  James  in  the  episco- 
pate of  Jerusalem  ;  appearing  equally  on  the  head  of  St.  Peter,  in  an  an- 
cient figure  more  than  a  thousand  years  old,  over  the  gate  of  the  monas- 

though  in  xxviii,  37,  it  was  "  tiaram,"  and  in  xxix.  6,  even  '♦  niitras,"  yet  actually  uses  "  cidarim  " 
io  xxviii.  4. 

*  Ant.  xi.  vni.  5.  O  yaj  AXtJ»»Jjo{,  i\i  nro^fuSi*  iStui  to  /iiy  wAnSoi  <»  Taij  Xiuxai;  laOriO-i,  Tj#<  it  iifti;  Tjoiirwlat 
IV  Tai^  ^vwMtii  aulwy,  Toy  ct  a^;i^it^ict  iv  ^Yt  vaKiyQtvi)  xa*  J.a;^ow7w  (r7oX>),  xotj  tvi  rrs  K'Qa.\rii  i\i>Aa,  Trjy  xtdopjy,  xa% 
^»i«r«y  it'  a\J'\-ni  iXour^,    u  to  Tb  ©(«  (yiyja;r7o   ovo^"  TfO<nX9iy    ^vo;,   ir^atKVnai    to  oyofia,  xai  Toy  a^x,"i"* 

+  How  falsely  then  do  all  the  delineations,  all  the  descriptions  of  the  high-priest's  dress, 
represent  both  it  and  him  I 

tcrj* 


214  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COnXWAM-  [cHAP.  III." 

tery  of  Corbie  near  Amiens  in  France  ;  and  appearing  also  in  the  ancient 
portraits  of  the  bishops  or  popes  of  Romef .  It  is  also  mentioned  ex- 
pressly as  a  mitre,  by  Theodulphe,  a  pocticid  bishop  of  Orleans,  M'ho  died 
about  the  vcar  32 1 ,  and  of  whose  works  Father  Sirmond  gave  an  edition 
in   16-16;  the  bishop   speaking  thus  of  another  bishop  in. one  of  his 

poems, 

A  shining  mitre  therefore  grac'd  his  head  J. 

I  now  leave  these  facts,  to  ])ro(luce  their  full  conviction  upon  the 
mind  of  my  reader ;  and  pass  on  to  another,  concerning  the  kindred 
assignment  of  thrones  to  bishops.  One  fact  speaks  more  loudly  to  the 
understanding  than  all  the  reasonings  in  the  world. — At  the  first  re- 
constniction  of  the  ruined  churches  of  our  religion,  and  in  the  description 
which  is  given  us  by  Eusebius,  of  one  of  these  built  at  Tyre  under  the 
authority  of  Constantine,  about  the  year  315;  we  see,  "  when  the  builder 
"  had  finished  the  temple,  and  decorated  it  with  thrones  very  lofty  in 
"  honour  of  those  who  were  to  preside  in  divine  offices,  and  with  stools 
"  ranged  in  a  becoming  order  along  the  whole  church ;  additionally  to 
"  all,  he  placed  the  holy  of  holies,  the  altar,  in  the  middle,  and  then 
"  secured  from  the  access  of  the  multitude  all  this  part  of  the  church/' 
which  was  denominated  the  ascent  from  the  step  or  steps  leading  up  to 
it,  "  with  a  net-work  of  wood,"  those  wooden  cancclli,  Mhich  gave  this 
part  in  the  west  of  Europe  the  still-preserved  name  of  chancel  § .     This 

t  Encyclopedie  Methodique :  "  Le  Pere  Martenne,  dans  son  Trade  des  anciens  Rites  de 
"  I'Eglise,  dit  qu'll  est  constant,  que  la  niitrc  a  ete  de  I'usage  des  eveques  de  Jerusalem,  siic- 
"  cesseurs  de  S.  Jaqiies  :  on  le  voit  par  une  lettre  dc  Thcodose,  palriarchc  de  Jerusalem,  ^S. 
"  Ignacc,  patriarche  de  Constantinople,  qui  fut  produitc  dans  le  huitieme  con^ile  general, 
"  II  est  encore  certain,  ajoute  le  niemc  auteur,  que  I'usage  des  mitres  a  eu  lieu  dans  les  eglises 
"  d'occidcnt,  long-temps  avant  Pan- i coo  ;  il  est  aise  de  le  prouver  par  une  ancienne  figure 
*'  de  S.  Pierre,  qui  est  au-devant  dc  la  porle  du  monastcre  de  Corbie,  et  qui  a  plus  de  mille 
"  ans,  et  par  les  anciens  portraits  des  papes,  qui  les  Bollandistes  ont  rapporles." 

J  Ibid.  ibid.  :  "  Theodulphe,  <  veque  d'Orleans,  fait  aussi  mention  dc  la  mitre  dans  une  de 
'^  ses  poesies  ;  oii  il  dit,  en  parlant  d'un  evequc, 

"  mills  ergo  caput  lesp'endens  M/Vrrt  tegebat." 

§  Eusebius  Hist.  X.  iv.  vol.  i.  p.  474:  To*  v:w  iin'ltX'.irai,  %o>o(;  te  to/;  mulalii  11;  t>iv  tuv  ^^osJfw  tj/xw, 
xai  Cf'.o-sli  /SaSjoi;  ;»  T*?!!  toij  kbS'  o\b  xcila  to  irftvo,  x.sa-fA.r.a-a.f  t^'  ava<ri  te  tsjv  ayiin)  ayiov,  Si,'3-/arif't>»,  ev 
fi'.irai 'in;,  Si/^if  xoH  'rah,  u;  ay"  tm  Te/;  ffoXXrfij  etralss,  to(;  hvo  |i/?i.a  Ti^iEiffaTlF  ii/Jlvoif.  See  also  the 
plan,  472. 

church 


8ECT.   n.]  HI5T0RICALLT  5UUVEVED.  215 

church  in  general  corresponds  exactly  with  our  own  at  St.  German's.  The 
chancel  here  rises  by  a  step  from  the  nave ;  the  throne,  the  stall  arc 
within  it,  t/iis  upon  one  side  of  the  altar,  that  beyond  it ;  and  the  mark 
of  the  partitioning  canccUi  still  remains  in  a  tall  seam  upon  the  plastering 
of  the  southern  wall. 

Accordingly,  in  that  Roman  church  at  Canterbury^  which  under  the 
Saxons  became  the  metropolitan  chuix-h  of  England,  and  continued  so  till 
it  was  rebuilt  by  the  Normans  in  the  twelfth  century  ;  we  find  "  a  pon- 
*'  tilical  chair,"  not  made  of  wood,  like  the  episcopal  throne  there  *,  but 
*'  constructed  in  decent  workmanship,"  says  Eadmer,  "of  great  stones 
*'  and  cement  f ."  This  comes  very  near  to  our  own  at  St.  German's,  in 
the  substance  and  fashion  of  it ;  but  was  not,  Uke  ours,  coaeval  with  the 
structure,  being  only  formed  by  the  Saxons,  when  they  made  the  church 
a  metropolitan.  So  necessary,  indeed,  did  the  Saxons,  from  the  Christians 
of  the  isle  and  of  the  continent,  consider  a  throne  in  the  cathedral  to  an 
episcopate  over  the  diocese,  that,  when  the  Confessor  settled  the  episco- 
pate of  Devonshire,  &c.  in  St.  Peter's  church  at  Exeter,  he  did  ?o  by  his 
and  his  queen's  placing  the  bishop  formally  in  that  episcopal  chair,  which 
remains  within  the  church  to  the  present  day  J.  Even  the  very  appel- 
lation of  a  bishop's  see  for  the  scene  of  his  residence,  is  derived  solely 
from  this  scdes  or  seat  of  the  bishop  in  the  cathedral  § ;  and  from  that 
omission  of  the  intermediate  letter  in  pronunciation,  which  was  probably 
common  to  the  Romans,  which  was  certainly  common  to  the  Britons  and 

■*  Somner's  Canterbury,  1,  93  :  "  Above  these  stalls,  on  the  south  side  of  the  quire,  stands 
"  the  archbishop's  wooden  scat  or  chair,  sometime  richly  gilt  and  otherwise  well  set  forth, 
*•'  but  now  nothing  specious  through  age  and  neglect.  It  is  a  close  scat,  made  after  the  old 
"  fashion  of  such  stalls,  called  thence  Faldistoria  :  only  in  this  they  differ,  that  theT/  were 
*'  made  moveable  ;  this  is  fixed."  On  the  coming  of  a  new  archbishop  to  take  possession, 
the  archdeacon  inducts  him  into  and  seats  him  in  "  the  episcopal  throne  and  chair,  and  there- 
*'  by  puts  him  into  the  real  and  actual  possession  of  all  the  rights  and  jurisdictions  of  his 
"  bishopric,  as  being  diocesan  of  the  see  of  Canterbury.'  (u.  86.) 

+  Twisdcn,  c.  1292  :  "  Cathedram  pontificalem  decenti  opere  ex  magnis  lapidibus  et 
«'  cemento  constructam." 

}  See  ii.  i,  before. 

§  Gale,  i.  58,  Eddius:  **  Sedes  episcopalisj"  59,  "  Scdcm  episcopi." 

the 


216  THE    CATHr.DnAL    OF    COnNWAM,  [CHAP.   III. 

the  Sa-xons  || .  Acroidingly  in  the  Saxon  (-hroniclc.  that  sure  register  of 
the  language  of  England  in  the  times  of  the  Saxons,  we  meet  with 
many  notices  to  this  eliect.  In  984,  Godwin,  the  new  bishop  of  Win- 
chester, is  upon  the  feast  of  St.  Simon  and  St.  .hide  "  seated  on  the 
**  hiaJtop-sfol"  there,  the  stool  or  throne  of  the  bishop  in  that  cathedral, 
as  in  /()1  we  have  k'mg-stolc  for  a  royal  throne.  When  Paulinus  re- 
turned out  of  Yorkshire  into  Kent  in  033,  the  two  prelates  there  re- 
ceived him  with  honour,  and  gave  him  '*  t\nt  bishop-set  tie '\n  Rochester." 
Paulinus  liad  received  from  king  J''dwin  of  Northumhria,  in  020  before, 
"  the  bishop- set  tie'  at  York.  I'thelbert,  king  of  Kent,  in  004,  gives  to 
Justus  "  the  bishop-settle"  in  Rochester,  and  to  Mellitus  "  the  bishup- 
"  settle"  in  London.  Sideman,  bishop  of  Devonshire,  dies  in  977,  and 
desires  to  be  buried  at  Crediton,  "  his  bishop-stol ;"  and  in  108O,  we 
are  told  of  Odo,  that  "  at  Bayeux  was  his  bishop-stol." 

But  let  me  note  one  point  more,  concerning  these  seats  of  episcopal 
royalty.  The  "  pontifical  chair"  of  Canterbury  was  placed  in  the  time  of 
Eadmer,  the  only  mcntioner  of  it,  at  the  very  AS'cst  end  of  the  cathe- 
dral. "  The  end  of  the  church,"  built  by  the  Romans,  he  says,  at  the 
close  of  his  movements  from  the  east,  "  was  graced  with  an  oratory  of 
"  Mary,  the  blessed  mother  of  Gou  ; — upon  one  side  of  which  was  an 
"  altar,  consecrated  in  reverence  of  our  Lady  herself; — when  the  priest 
"  performed  divine  offices  at  this  altar,  he  had  his  face  to  the  cast,  an4 
"  behind  to  the  tvcst  the  pontifical  chair,  this  far  removed  from  the 
"  Lord's  table,  as  tvholly  contiguous  to  that  wall  of  the  church  which 
"  went  round  the  whole  temple  *."  This  seems  a  strange  position  for  the 
throne,  and  vitterly  incompatible  with  all  our  previous  ideas  of  it.  But 
there  was  a  singular  reason  for  the  last.     The  "  pontifical  chair,"  which 

H  Hist,  of  Manchester,  ii.  239,  octavo. 

•  Twisdcn,  c.  1292  :  "  Finis  ecclesias  ornabatur  oratorio  beatae  Matris  Dei  Mariae — ;  in 
•'  cuius  parte  orientali  erat  altarc,  in  veneratione  ipiius  Domina;  consccratum — ;  ad  hoc 
"  altare  cum  sacerdos  ageret  divina  tnisteria,  facieni  ad  oricntcm  vcrsam  habebat,  post  se 
*'  vero,  ad  occidentem,  cathcdrani  pontificalem,  ct  banc  longe  a  dominica  mensH  remotam, 
*'  utpote  parieti  ecclesiae  qui  lotius  tenipli  complexio  erat  oninino  contiguani."  See  also 
a  long  note  concerning  the  general  purport  of  this  passage,  in  vi.  2,  hereafter. 

could 


SECT.  U.]  lUSTOKICALLY    SURVKrF.D.  217 

could  have  been  fabricated  only  n\  hen  (,^anterbuiT  cathedral  became  me- 
tropolitan, had  in  Eadnier's  time  been  superseded    by  a  "  jvitriarchal 
'•  chair,"  a  tlirorieof  the  same  nature  under  a  different  designation,  placed 
exactly  as  we   should   expect  it  to  be    ])laced,    -while  the    other  -\\a$ 
banished  to  a  chapel  at  the  opposite  extremity  of  the  church.     Anil, 
\\hilc  the  pontiiical  was  destroyed  when  the  cathedral  \\as  rebuilt  by 
the  Normans*;  the  patriarchal  remains  to  this  moment.     ''There  was 
"  a  wall  of  marble  plates,"  says  Gervase,  a  cotemporary  with  the  erec- 
lion  of  the  new  church,  "  which  went  round  the  quire  and  the — high 
^,'  altar  dedicated  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ — ;  upon  this  wall,  in  the 
'•  rounding   of   it,   Mas    beiii^^d  the  altar,   and    opposite  to  it,  the 
"  chair  of  the  patriarchate  framed  out  of  o/?c  stone ;  in  wliich,  by  the 
"  custom'  of  the  church,  the  archlnsliop  used  to  sit  on  principal  festi\als 
"  at  the  solcnmiiy  of  mass,  eyen  till  t\\c  consecration  of  the  sacrament; 
''  and  then  they  descended  hy  eight  steps  to  the  altar  of  Christ -f."    By 
"  an  ascent  of  eight   stej)S  towards  tlie  east,"  adds  Battcly,   "  behind 
''  tiie  altar,  we  come  to  the  archiepiscopal  tlirone,  which  Gervase  calls 
"  the  patriarchal  chair;  it  was  made  of  one  stone:  in  this  chair  the  arch- 
"  bishop — was  wont  to  sit, — until  the  consecration  of  the  host ;   then  he 
"  came  down  to  the  altar,  and  performed  the  solemnity  of  consecra- 
"  tionj."     All  this  Mr.  Battely  states  him  to  have  done,  from  the  evi- 
dence of  Genase,  without  once  reflecting,  th^t  nothing  of  this  is  possible 
to  be  done  in  the  new  position  of  the. chair;  without  considering  for  ;i 
moment,  that  the  chair  now  stands  behind  tli^e  screen  of  the  altar,  and 
then  stood  upon  the  wall  of  the  screen,  in  the  i>punding  of  it,  just  behind 
the  altar  itself.     "  The  cboir  is  separated  from  the  side-isles,"  adds  Mr. 
Gostling,   "  by  a  wall — of  stone,  7iot  marble,  as   Geinase  represents  it, 
"  — solid  to   about  eight  feet  high,  above  which  was  the  patriarchal 

*  Somncr,  il.  8,  and  plan.  „    ,p, 

t  Twisdcn,  c.  1294:  "  Miiriis  crat  tabiilis  marrhorcis  compositii?, — chorum  cinf^ens  ct 
"altarc  magnum  in  nomine  Jesu  Christi  dcdicatum — ;  supra — nniruni  incircinationc  illS, 
*'  retro  altare  ct  ex  opposite  ejus,  cathedra  erat  palriarchatus,  ex  uno  lapide  facta ;  in  qua  sedere. 
"  solebant  archicpiscopi,  de  more  ecclcsiae,  in  festis  proicipuis  inter  niissarum  solennia, 
"  usque  ad  sacrameuti  eoustcrationcm  ;  tunc  cnim  ad  altareCbris^ti  per  gradus  octo  dcr 
"  scendchant." 

X  SomncT,  ii,  11. 

VOL.  I.  F  F  "'  chair. 


218  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  III. 

"  chair,  ascendible  by  as  many  steps,  and"  now  "  is  a  range  of  open 
"  Gothic  v\'ork  for  about  six  feet  more,  finishing  at  the  top  with  a 
"  battlement. — Tlic  patriarchal  or  metropoUtical  chair  is  of  grey  marble 
"  in  three  pieces,  carved  in  panncls;  the  seat  is  sohd  from  the  pave- 
"  ment. — The  place  \\hcre  this  chair"  vnjo  "stands,  is  between  the 
"  altar  iixiA  the  chapel  of  the  Holy  Tnn'itif.  —  ]n  this  the  arch- 
"  bishop  (or  his  proxy)  is  placed  with  much  ceremony*,"  in  that 
form  of  induction  into  all  his  rights  as  archbishop  over  the  pro- 
vince f,  which  carried  a  great  propriety  with  it,  when  the  chair 
was  thus  raised  conspicuously  upon  the  wall  immediately  behind  the 
altar,  but  appears  truly  burlesque  at  present,  luhcn  the  chair  is  removed 
out  of  the  qxiirc  entirely,  placed  behind  the  very  screen  of  the  altar, 
even  thrust  into  a  void  place  between  the  altar  and  a  chapel.  Thus, 
however,  we  have  an  altar  and  a  throne  at  Canterbury,  agreeing  very  ex- 
traordinarily with  our  own  St.  German's.  Our  throne  indeed  is 
wrought  and  worked  into  the  church  wall,  while  that  was  merely  move- 
able in  itself,  and  merely  placed  upon  the  top  of  the  altar-wall.  Yet 
that  was  placed,  like  ours,  immediately  beyond  the  altar,  and  as- 
ceridible  by  several  steps  from  it ;  by  as  many  steps  in  number  as  it  was 
feet  in  height,  eight  in  all,  and  so  shewing  ours,  which  is  nearly  seven 
feet  in  height,  to  have  had,  probably,  seven  steps  to  it.  There  the  pre- 
late of  Cornwall  continued,  assuredly,  like  the  archbishop  of  the  pro- 
vince, during  the  whole  of  the  eucharistic  service  to  the  consecration 
of  the  elements;  and  then  <lescended  by  the  steps  to  the  altar  itself, 
followed  by  the  chaplain  from  his  stall  near  the  southern  end  of  the 
altar.  The  throne  therefore  stootl  "  behind  the  altar,  and  opposite  to 
"  it;"  the  altar-rails  receding  equally  from  the  stall  and  the  throne,  to 
leave  an  interval  of  ground  behind  them ;{:.  In 

•  Gostling,  p.  246,  279,  280,  281,  279.     See  plate  also,  279. 
'f  Somner,  li.  86. 

+  "  Tn  the  cathedral  of  St.  John  at  Lyons, — the  episcopal  throne  is  raised  on  four  steps 
"  at  the  end  of  the  absls,"  behind  the  altar.  "  In  the  cathedral  of  St.  Maurice  at  Vienne, 
**  the  archbishop  is  thus  seated — .  The  cathedral  at  Rheims  affords  another  example — .  It 
*'  is  thus  at  Laon,  Soissb'ns,  &c.  afid  seems  nearly  the  general  custom.— ^Such  is  the  situation 
"  of  the  archbishop  of  Cambray,  when  ponlifically  officiating;  as  may  be  seen  from  the 
"  placing  his  chair,  always  fixed  in  the  sanctuary,  on  the  epistle  side,  having — its  lack  to  the 

"  east. 


SfedT.  n.J  nrSTORICALLT    SURVEYED.  21^ 

In  the  first  churches  of  our  religion  after  its  adoption  by  the  empire, 
the  upper  end  of  the  chancel  commonly  terminated  in  an  apsis,  ahsis, 
or  semicircle  beyond  the  altar;  and  the  throne  of  the  bishop  was  placed 
within  it,  Mith  the  seats  of  its  presbyters  a  little  lower  at  his  side.  In 
the  church  built  at  Tyre  about  the  year  315,  as  we  have  seen  before, 
were  "  thrones  very  lofty  in  honour  of  those  who  were  to  preside  in 
*'  divine  offices,"  that  is,  of  the  bishop  and  his  presbyters.  Hence 
Nazianzen,  speaking  of  the  presbyters  us  "  the  rulers  of  the  people," 
and  '*  the  venerable  senate"  of  the  church,  calls  their  seats  "  the  second 
**  thrones,"  as  thrones  lower  in  their  position  than  the  high  throne  of 
the  bishop  J.  Hence  also  the  same  bishop  sj)eaks  of  himself  as  *'  sitting 
"  upon  the  throne  above,"  and  of  his  prcsbjters  as  "  seated  below  him, 
"  at  his  side§."  From  this  position  of  the  seats  and  of  the  throne,  we 
see'  the  altar  could  not  be  close  to  the  eastern  wall,  but  stood  at  a  little 
distance  from  it,  to  leave  room  for  the  throne  and  seats  behind  it.  The 
altar  was  thus  insulated  in  the  ancient  church,  and  Sj'nesius  accordingly 
says,  on  his  flying  to  sanctuai-}'  he  would  take  shelter  in  the  church,  "  and 
"  encircle  the  altar*."  This  account  of  the  primitive  churches  in  the 
East,  quadrates  so  exactly  with  our  own  at  St.  Gcnnan's,  that  I  need 
not  point  out  the  resemblance.  They  differ  from  ours  in  one  point  only, 
they  ending  in  a  semicircle  behind  the  altar,  and  ours  in  a  right  line. 
The  semicircle,  however,  was  so  much  adopted  even  in  Britain,  that, 


<{ 


east.  In  the  famous  cathedral  at  Rouen,  which  has  flourished  from  the  fonrlh  age,  are 
"  also  the  remains  of  the  throne,  occupying  its  so  frequently  instanced  situation.— Thus, 
♦'  also,  is  situated  the  patriarchal  throne  at  Rome — ,  Formerly,  in  the  cathedral  at  Norwich, 
"  the  bishop's  chair  was  placed  between  the  easternmost  pillars  of  the  presbytery, — and 
"  immediately  behind  the  high  altar;  it  was  ascended  by  three  steps,  and  raised  so  high,  that, 
"  before  the  erection  of  tlie  rood-loft,  the  bishop  could  see  directly  in  a  line  through  the  whole 
"church."  Arch.  xi.  322-324. 

t  Naz.  Carm.  iambic.  23:  njJlit  ftE»  01  1»  Jiulijst  S,-o»i,»  Xi^.vfX'I'U  ^'^  tjioiJ^oi  •xfia-tviou,  Ci>nm 
yi^njia.     Hiiigham,  iii.  185. 

§  Nazian.  Somn.  Anastas.  toni.  ii.  p.  78:  E5c-9ait/T<r9jO)3f— 0/ J'/^ioi  a.u^'Js.-kSf, tifiEJ^WFToyffa.Tj. 
col^ms  iiyif*oyi{.     Ibid.  l86. 

•  Syncs.  Catastasis,  p.  303 :  KuxXio-tud*  to  Si/iriarifi''"'.  So  at  Exeter  cathedral,  as  late  as 
Leland,  "  bishop  Stapkton  made— the  richc  froutc  of  stone  worke  ai  tlw  h'g/i  ultare — ,  aud 
"  also  made  the  richc  silver  table  ia  the  miJle  of  it."  (Iiin.  iii,  66.) 

r  F  2  peiiiapa. 


220  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.    ITI. 

perhaps,  tire  TJritish  church  at  Canterbury,  certainly  Lanfranc's  rc-cdi- 
licatuMi  of  it.  was  turned  semicircular  at  the  eastern  end  i";  that  the  old 
conventual  cJiurch  of  Ely,  founded  in  0/3,  was  equally  so  turned;  and 
that  a  reconstruction  of  this  part,  made  about  ]  102,  was  so  turned  like- 
wise |.  The  adoption  was  even  carried  so  far  in  one  solitary  instance, 
^hat. the  wesfern  end  of  a  church  at  Abingdon  -was  made  equally  semi- 
circular with  the  eastern  §.  This  mode  of  terminating  '^'hat  is  always 
the  upper  end  of  such  a  building,  as  the  entrance  was  always  (like  ours) 
from  the  west,  and  what  is  actually  the  most  dignified  part,  the  kebla, 
of  the  v^'hole ;  was  dictated  by  the  finest  feelings  of  taste.  A  semi- 
circle seems  to  retire  from  the  eye,  to  deny  it  rest,  and  to  go  on  in  an  in- 
terminable line,  like  a  piece  of  water  artfully  disposed  so  as  to  be  seen 
su-^eping  round  a  point,  then  vanishing  from  view,  and  promising  a 
length  of  course  beyond,  while  a  tlat  line  stops  the  eye  at  once, 
leaves  no  scope  for  fancy,  but  presents  the  whole  in  a  single  glance,  like 
the  piece  of  water  ending  at  a  high  bank  within  view.  Yet,  though  the 
principle  was  felt,  and  the  practice  adopted  in  Britain,  it  was  not  adopted 
generally.  The  present  cathedral  of  Ely,  the  present  cathedral  of 
Canterbury,  and  almost  all  our  cathedrals,  I  believe,  end  in  this  abrupt 
manner  on  the  east:  even  so  ends  our  own  cathedral  of  St.  German's, 
This  effect  was  produced  in  the  other  cathedrals,  by  an  humour  v\  hich 
appears  to  have  been  very  prevalent,  that  of  prolonging  the  church  into 
a  chapel  to  the  east  of  the  altar,  while,  in  our  own,  it  was  the  very  re- 
stilt  of  the  original  plan  itself,  the  wall  being- raised  from  the  first  as  flat 
as .  ft;  now  is,  for  the  still-remaining  throne  of  the  bishop  in  the  niche 
within  it. 

We  thus  behold  a  throne  and  a  mitre,  tvvo  accorapanimcnts  of  the 

Saxon  and  of  the  British  prelacy ;  derived  to  the  Britons,  derived  to 

the  Saxons,  together  with  their  religion,  from  the  usages  on  the   con- 
tinent *. 

+  Gostling,  226. 
'  j  Benthan),  ig. 

§  Monasricon,  i.  98 :  "  Ilabebat  in  longitiulinc,  c.  et  xx,  pedes,  et  crat  rotunJum,  tami 
•'  in  parte  occidontali  quam  in  parte  orientali." 
*  AtTcraple  Bruurn,  in  Lincolnshire,  says  Leland,  at  Ilin.  i.  30,  "  there  be  great  and 

•*  vaste 


<( 

¥ 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  221 


SECTION  III. 

When  the  prior  and  his  society  Uvcd  in  their  college  adjoining,  they 
repaired  in  formal  procession  to  the  church  on  Sundays  and  holydays, 

I  suppose, 

<'  vaste  buildingcs,   but   rude, — and  the   este  ende  of  the  temple  is   made  opere  cirailari 

"  dc  more ;"  not  "  Templariorum,"  as  the  churches  of  the  Templars  are  ivhola 

rounds  in    thcm'^dvcs,    like   that  cathedral  of'  theirs  in   England,  the   old   Temple  church 
in   London,  and  therefore   cannot  turn  either    circularly  or   scmicircidarly  at   the    eastern 
or  at  the  toeslern  end,  cannot,  indeed,  have  any  end  at  all ;  iiit  "  antiquorum,"  I  conjec- 
ture, as  we  have  seen  the  fact  to  be  above.     "  One  of  the  old  churches"  at  Northampton, 
*'  .St.  Sepulchre's,"  cries  Dr.  Stukelcy,  "  seems  to  have  belonged  to  the  knights    hospitalers 
of  St.   John  of  Jerusalem   [the  knights  templars],  cf  a  circular  form  ;  there  has  been 
'  another  tackt  to  it,  of  later  date,  with  a  quire  and  steeple,  as  to  that  at  Cambridge  of  the 
**  same  name  and  figure,  so  a  new  church  has  been  added  to  the  old,  at  the  Temple,  in  Lon- 
**  don.     Another  such,  I  am  told,  is  at  Guiklford,  \\  hich  are  all  of  this  sort  that  I  know  of 
*'  in  Englands."  (Itin.  Cur.  i.  3.)     He  forgets  the  main  church,  the  old  Temple  church   in 
Fleet  Street,  and  the  still  older   in  Holborn  ;   the  former  still   existing,  the  latter  once  exist- 
ing "  round  in  forme,  as  the  new  Temple  by  Temple.  Barre,  and  the  other  Temples  in  England." 
(Stowe,  486,  487.)     "  I  suspect,"  adds  Stukeley,  "  these  are  the  most  ancient  churches  in 
"  England,  and  probably  built  in  the  later  times  of  the  Romans  for  Christian  service,  at  least 
*\  in  the  early  Saxon  times."  (Ibid.)     How  r;  shly  adventurous  I     They  cannot  be  older  than 
the  Templars  themselves,  who  began  only  about  A.  D.  1 1 18.     That  church,  "  at  London, 
•'  wasthcirchiefehouse,  which  they  builded  nftcr  theforme  of  the  lempleneerc  to,"  afli:rihc{onn 
of  the  dome  over,  " //iescpii/t/ireofourLord  at  Jerusalem.  They  had  also  their  tem|)les  in  Cam- 
*'  bridge,  Bristow,  Canterbury,  Dover,  Warwicke."  (Stowe,  ibid.)  That  dome  stands  upon  pil- 
lars, which  compose  about  three  fourths  of  a  circle  ;  while  the  Temple  itself  is  an  obloijg,  ending 
seinic'trculurlij  on  the  east.     Nor  let  us.lull  ourselves  into  a  dream,  of  supposing  this  ehurcbi 
not  to  be  the  same  that  Helena  built;  as  an  author  has  done  in  Arch.  vi.  )68.     Tliere,  in  an 
essay  on   the  origin  and  antiquity  of  round  churches,  ISlr.  Essex,  the  architect,  argues  the 
present  church   not  to  be  the  same;  because  Bede  describes  it  as  a  "  round  church,  which 
"  differs  very  much  from  the  present  building."     Bede  only  describes  it  as  Stowe  has  just 
described  it,  and  as  all  ages  have  combined  to  describe,  while  they  imitated  it,  from  the  pro- 
minent,  the  principal    part  of  the  whole,   the  dome.     Even  Mr.  Essex  himself  allows  the 
justness  of  this  remark  in  a  subsequent  page,  however  cotitradictory  ihe  allowance  is  to  his 
argument  here.    "  The  church  of  St.  Sophia  in  Constantinople,"  he  says  in  p.  170,  "  was 
"  first  built  hy  Constantine  j  which,  being  covered  with  an  hemispherical  dome,  is  by  Bede 
*'  called  a  round  church."    So  decisively  is  Mr,  Essex's  argument  refuted  at  once,  by  that 
J,;  very 


223  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNNVALL  [cHAP.  HI, 

I  suppose,  and  entered  it,  of  course,  by  tlic  only  access  immediate  into 
the  priorv  part  ot'  the  church,  tlie  folding-doors  of  the  portal  on  the  west. 
Yet  they  moved  not  to  it  under  any  range  of  cloisters  from  the  college, 
^as  Mr.  >S'il!is  conjectures  they  did-f ,  and  as  all  appearances  deny  ;  there 
being  no  mark  upon  the  wall  of  the  church  to  shew  the  union  of  a 
cloister  with  it,  and  no  traces  of  a  foundation  appearing  in  the  ground 
below,  on  removing  the  great  swelling  of  earth  at  the  base  of  the  portal, 
'I'he  prior  and  society  then  walked  up  the  nave ;  he  took  his  seat  in  a 
stall  of  the  chancel;  the  clergy  took  theirs  immediately  adjoining  the 
chancel  ;  and  the  clerks,  the  servants,  those  more  distant  from  it.  As  a 
rule  for  our  ideas  upon  this  point,  let  us  just  glance  at  the  church  of  St. 
.John  in  Beverley  ;  uhicli  John,  archbishop  of  York,  in  the  eighth  century, 
enlarged  (as  Athelstan  enlarged  St.  German's  church),  for  the  monastery 
that  he  adjoined,  by  annexing  a  choir  to  the  church  ;  then  assigned  thp 
rector,  now  made  prior,  a  place  in  his  new  choir,  and  pro^  ided  for  the 
seven  presbifters  and  as  many  clerks,  whom  he  associated  with  him  in 
this  monastery,  and  a  nunnery  adjoining  that  place  in  the  nave,  which 
the  rector  used  to  occupy  before ;|;.     But  when  the  priory  was  dissolved 

very  force  of  truth  which  yet  was  too  weak  to  preclude  It !  But  upon  this  surmise,  so  rashly 
taken  up,  and  so  unconsciously  abandoned,  Mr,  Essex,  in  p.  169,  argues  another  churcii  built 
by  Helena  on  mount  Olivet,  to  have  been  destroyed  since  Bede's  description  of  it ;  as  Bede 
calls  it  round,  when  it  is  octangular.  Mr.  Essex  thus  raises  an  evil  spirit  of  scepticism,  to 
haunt  the  world  of  anliquarlanism.  But  he  is  kind  enough  in  act,  though  not  in  intention, 
to  lay  the  spirit  again,  as  he  laid  it  before,  Bede's  round  church  of  St.  Sophia,  he  says 
himself,  p.  170,  "  is  not  of  that  form  within,"  and  therefore  is  ivithout.  And  Bede's  round 
church  on  mount  Olivet,  he  equally  owns,  "  is  octangular  on  the  outside,  but  is"  actually 
"  circular  within."  So  happily  does  our  Mercury  grasp  his  magic  wand,  and  exert  his 
magic  power,  here ! 

Turn  virgatn  capit ;  h'l c  animus  ille  evocat  Oreo 

Pallentes,  alius  sub  tristia  fartara  niiltit  j 

Dat  somnos  adimitque,  ct  lumina  morte  resignat, 
t  Willis,  150. 

J  Leiand's  Col,  iv.  99,  100  :  *'  Ex  libro  inccrti  autoris  de  Vita  Joannis  Archiepiscopl  TthoY. 
.^"'Joannes  repcrit  in  Beverlic,  eccl.  parochialem,  S,  Johanni  Evangel,  sacram, — eccle- 
*'  siam  auctanj  in  monasterium  convertit,  et  monachis  assignavit. — Ch«rum  eccl.  de  novo 
*'  ibi  construct,  habente  priori  cedes,  S.  Joann,  locum  in  navl  eccl.',"  He  then  built  near 
it  what  he  afterwards  turned  into  a  nunnery.  *'  '  Associavit  monasteriis  istis  septem  presby- 
"  teros,  et  tolidem  clericos,  in  nay  eccl.  S.  Joannio'." 

at 


SECT,  m.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  223 

at  the  Reformation,  and  all  the  old  institution  of  things  was  changed, 
an  invasion  was  soon  made,  I  believe,  without  authority  from  the  king, 
without  concurrence  from  the  Champcrnowns,  and  merely  in  the  in- 
novating spirit  of  the  times,  upon  the  collegiate  parts  of  the  church; 
the  laical  gentlemen,  who  had  sitten  with  their  families  for  ages  in  the 
south  aile,  boldly  transferring  their  scats  into  the  nave.  This  was  cer- 
tainly not  done,  when  Iceland  visited  the  church  about  1541,  and  called 
it  "  a  priori  [church]  of  blake  chanons,  and  a  paroche  cMrche  yn  the 
"  body  of  the  same."  But  all  was  done,  I  conjecture,  before  Mr.  Eliot 
came  to  the  convent  several  years  afterward;  though  the  chancel  was 
still  left  to  the  new  prior,  his  wife,  and  his  children,  a  society  and  a 
principal  veiy  different  from  the  clerical  before  :  for,  in  consequence  of 
the  chancel's  fulling  down  about  two  years  afterward,  and  in  spite  of  all 
reparations,  soon  sinking  into  final  ruin,  the  very  family  of  the  Eliots 
possesses  not,  what  all  the  other  families  of  gentry  in  the  parish  possess, 
an  appropriated  seat  in  the  nave,  and  has  been  obliged  to  form  itself  one 
in  a  side-chapel.  When  Mr.  Eliot  came  to  reside,  therefore,  he  saw 
the  encroachment,  and  overlooked  it.  Time  had  lent  some  sanction  to 
it;  and,  as  a  "  novus  homo"  in  the  priory  or  the  church,  he  could 
not  exert  himself  to  repel  it.  In  such  a  situation  as  his,  with  such  ideas 
concerning  it  as  were  then  prevalent  ail  over  the  country,  the  strongest 
mind  would  repose  in  a  modesty  of  spirit;  and  an  incidental  injury 
ofl'ered  to  himself  would  be  tolerated,  from  a  consciousness  of  the  general 
injustice  done  to  the  clergy.  In  this  strain  of  modesty,  too,  he  would 
naturally  avoid  the  proper  parade  of  the  college,  and  walk  to  his  prior's 
stall  in  the  chancel ;  not  by  the  grand  door  of  the  portal,  which,  from 
the  Reformation  to  the  present  moment,  appears  to  have  been  seldom 
entered,  except  for  burials ;  but  by  a  door  which  I  have  alreadv  no- 
ticed, as  one  of  the  two  communicating  with  the  side-chapels  from 
without,  as,  indeed,  the  very  door  used  by  his  descendants  for  their 
entrance  into  the  church,  within  these  few  years.  Then  a  tall,  sqiiare 
doorway  was  cut  tlu'ough  the  wall  of  partition  betwixt  the  side-chapcl 
and  the  nave,  wliich  still  appears,  though  slightly  rilled  up  again,  and 
stands  almost  directly  opposite  to  that  door  of  entrance.  The  wall  of 
partition  here  was  made  peculiarly  thick,  as  I  have  observed  before,  for 

4  admi^^iuI^ 


224  TIIP,    CvTIIEOnAL    OF    COUX'SVAI-L  [ciI.VP.   III. 

;Klini>sion  of  n  door  throupli  it,  and  of  stairs  at  the  back  of  it,  lip  to  the 
prgan-loft  ;  and  the  tall  doorwar,  tliorefore,  is  t\vo  feet  seven  inches  m 
depth.  But  tlie  inipiovidence  of  cutting  it  so  very  tall,  no  less  than  nine 
feet  two  inches  in  hei<^ht,  with  the  view  of  making  the  entrance  (I  sup- 
pose) as  conspicuous  ;u5  it  was  convenient  for  the  laical  prior ;  even  under 
tJu":  preeautioh  of  cutting  it  most  disproportionally  narrow,  only  two  feet 
four  inches  in  w  idth,  made  the  rest  of  the  wall  on  the  cast,  I  apprehend,' 
>.oon  begin  to  fail:  an  elliptical  arch  has  been  there  formed,  springing 
from  the  sides  of  the  capitals  of  two  pillars,  very  different  from  all  the 
Others,  much  massicr,  and  much  shorter.  T/i'm  being  formed,  a  mucli 
better  entrance  -was  }iou'  made  for  the  Port-Eliot  family  intor'thc  nave  ; 
which  continues  to  be  their  entrance  at  present,  when  their  chancel  is  all 
levelled  w  ith  the  ground,  when  their  pew  is  about  the  middle  of  this  aild» 
and  when  they  now  enter  the  aile  to  their  pew  at  the  door  inscribed  it.  (S'a 
Tlie  tall,  square  opening,  cut  through  the  thickness  of  the  wall  before, 
tlias  became  useless,  and  was  closed  up  as  it  still  continues  with  a  coat  of 
mortar,  upon  the  aile  side.  But  as  this  coat  is  only  four  inches  thick, 
and  the  \^■all  is  two  feet  seven,  in  the  recess  on  the  nave  side  are  lodged 
some  remains  of  the  chancel  that  I  now  come  to  notice. 

These  are  between  fifty  and  sixt}-  squares  of  a  tesselated'  pavement, 
which  ai'e  laid  by  the  care  of  lord  Eliot,  as  a  flooring  for  this  recess  in 
order  to  their  preservation.  They  were  found  about  the  same  number  of 
feet  to  the  east  of  the  present  altar,  to  which  the  chancel  is  known  to 
have  extended.  They  were  in  all  probability,  therefore,  the  flooring  of 
the  ground  close  to  the  old  altar  there.  They  are  each  about^rc  inches 
square,  with  a  ground  chiefly  red,  but  presenting  colours  white  and 
yellow  to  the  eye ;  stamped  also  with  flowers  or  figures  of  Aarious  shapes, 
yet  carrying  no  particular  reference  with  them.  Just  such,  or  nearly 
such,  wc  find  in  the  great  guard-chamber  and  the  barons'  hall,  within 
the  palace  of  W^illiam  the  Conqueror  at  Caen  in  Normandy.  "  Round 
"  the  whole  of  the  room,"  says  Dr.  Ducarrel  concerning  the  foi'mcr, 
"  runs  a  stone  bench,  intended  for  the  convenience  of  the  several  persons 
"  doing  duty  therein.  The  floor  is  paved  with  tiles,  each  near  five 
"  inches  square — .     Eight  rows  of  these  tiles,  running  from  east  to  west, 

*'  are 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEVED,  225 

"  are  charged  with  different  coats  of  arms,  generally  said  to  be  those 
*'  of  the  families,  who  [which]  attended  duke  William  in  his  in- 
"  vasion  of  England.  The  intervals  between  each  of  these  rows  are 
"  filled  up  with  a  kind  of  tessclatcd  pavement ;  the  middle  whereof  re- 
**  presents  a  maze  or  labyrinth,  about  ten  feet  in  diameter,  and  so  artfully 
**  contrived,  that,  were  we  to  suppose  a  man  following  all  the  intricate 
"  meanders  of  its  volutes,  he  could  not  travel  less  than  a  mile  before  he 
"  got  from  the  one  end  to  the  other.  The  remainder  of  this  floor  is 
"  inlaid   with   small  squares  of  different   colours,  placed  alter- 

*'  NATELY,  and    FORMED  INTO  DRAUGHT  OR  CHESS  BOARDS,  for  thc   aHlUSC- 

"  ment  of  the  soldiery  while  on  guard  *." 

Nor  let  my  reader  start  aside  into  a  disbelief  of  the  whole,  as  cotempo- 
rary  with  William  the  Conqueror,  on  perusing  this  last  declaration  ;  and 
point  at  the  existence  of  a  chess-board  upon  the  tiles,  as  a  sure  proof  of 
their  being  later  than  William.  The  honourable  Daines  Barrington  in- 
deed, in  a  set  treatise  upon  the  origin  of  chess,  has  laboured  to  prove  it 
introduced  into  the  AVest  from  Constantinople,  at  a  period  of  time  much 
later  than  the  Conquest.  "  It  is  possible,"  he  remarks,  "  that  chess  might 
"  be  known  in  England,  in  the  next  century  q/iftT  the  J?rs^  crusade  had 
*'  tahen  place,''  which  began  in  the  outset  of  the  crusaders  under  the 
month  of  March  1096  f ,  and  ended  some  years  after  the  commencement 
of  the  twelfth  century,  or  (as  Mr.  Barrington  evidently  means)  in  the 
twelfth  century  itself;  "  but,  as  I  would  rather  suppose,  during  the 
"  thirteenth  century,  upon  the  return  of  Edward  the  First  from  the  Holy 
*'  Land,  where  he  continued  so  long,  and  was  attended  by  so  many 
"  English  .I ;"  Edward  setting  off' for  the  Holy  Land  in  May  12()0,  and 
returning  in  August  12/5  §.  In  this,  however,  as  in  all  thc  principal 
points  of  his  treatise,  Mr.  Barrington  has  been  satisfactorily  refuted,  I 
think,  by  an  author  in  the  English  Review  for  January  and  February 
]  792  11 .     But  to  the  arguments  there  adduced  for  thc  early  introduction 

*  Ducarrrcl,  59.  t  Malmesbury,  75.  I  Arch.  ix.  28. 

§  M,  Westm.  349,  363. 

U  See  the  articles  copied,  with  notes,  in  my  Appemlix  here,  No.  I. 

VOL.  I.  G  G  of 


220  THE    CATnEDRAL    OF    COHNWALL  [cHAP.  UU 

of  chess  into  England,  let  me  add  some  evidences  that  are  all  unnoticed 
by  tliis  writer.  When  Becket  was  made  chancellor  just  after  the  coro- 
nation of  IlcnrvII.  in  1154,  and  viore  than  a  icholc  ccntnnj  before  Ed- 
ward's expedition,  "  he  diverted  hiniscltV'  says  his  biographer,  cotempo- 
rary,  and  secretary,  "  very  much,  but  in  an  eas}'  way,  not  with  a  mind 
"  set  upon  the  work,  in  ha\\  king  and  in  hunting;  and,  icilh  stones  oj' I  wo 
*'  cl/ff'crenf  colours, 

"  He  play'd  the  tattles  of  the  amlusk'd  Irave^." 

This  passage  is  sufficiently  explicit  of  itself,  in  its  intimation  of  "  the  bat- 
*'  tics  of  the  ambushed  brave,"  as  exhibited  in  a  game  ;  and  in  its  specifi- 
cation of  "  stones  of  two  ditJbrcnt  colours,"  as  the  weapons  with  which 
those  battles  were  played.  But,  to  preclude  all  possibility  of  doubt,  I 
subjoin  an  incidental  passage  in  the  very  same  author,  concerning  the 
very  same  personage ;  which  carries  in  it  the  appropriate  appellation  of 
tlie  game,  retained  with  so  much  softening  in  the  French  cchec  and  bur 
chess,  but  preserved  with  all  its  original  orthography  in  the  German 
scach  or  scach-spil  for  the  game,  or  scuch-tafcl  for  the  board  *.  Becket, 
"  when  chancellor,"  says  his  historian,  *'  was  confined  for  some  time 
'*'  with  a  severe  illness,  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Gervase  at  Rouen  ;  two 
"  kings  came  together  to  visit  him,  the  king  of  France,  and  the  king  of 
"  England  his  sovereign  ;  he  having  at  last  a  tendency  to  health,  and  be- 
"  ing  upon  the  recovery,  was  one  day  playing  at  chess  f ."  This  demon- 
strates the  "  stonies"  and  the  "  battles"  before,  to  i*efer  directly  to  chess; 
and  the  game  of  chess  to  have  been  so  A\ell  known  at  the  time,  that  de- 
s^iptions,  which  may  seem  vague  or  unspecific  to  some  at  present, 
pointed  it  out  significantly  to  all  then.     Their  familiarity  with  the  game 

^  .Sparkc,  14  :  "  Ludcbat  plerumque,  sed  pcrfunctoriej  non  dedita  opera,  in  avibus  coell, 
*'  et  caiiilni3  venaticis ;  et  in  calculis  bicoloribus 

"  Iiisicliosonim  luiiebat  bella  latromim." 
The  line  is  borrowed  from  Martial,  xiv.  20.  •» 

■*  Spclman's  Glossary. 

+  Sparke,  17  :  "  Fuit  aliqiiando  gravi  tentus  infirniitatc  cancellarins,  Rothomagi,  apud 
"  Sanctum  Gcrvasiimi ;  venurunt  cum  duo  regcs  simul  videre,  rex  Francorum  ct  rex  Ansrlo- 
"  rum  dominus  suns;  tandem  dispositus  ad  sanilatemj  ct  convalescens,  una  dierum  sedit  ad 
"  Iiidiim  scaccorum." 

4  enabled 


SECT,   in.]  ITISTORICALLT    SURVEYED.  22/ 

enabled  them  to  understand  the  description  at  once.  Having  only  the 
game  of  chess  among  them,  any  general  description  was  precise  and 
pointed  enough  to  indicate  it.  Not  needing  to  guard  against  any  conci- 
sion of  ideas,  from  the  congeniality  of  any  other  game  to  chess;  their 
writers  used  only  general  descriptions  at  times.  And  as^'the  occasional 
use  of  the  appropriate  appellation  for  chess,  binds  down  for  ever  those 
general  descriptions  to  this  particular  object,  even  in  the  ears  of  modern 
readers  ;  so  the  very  manner  of  those  descriptions,  unspecificas  it  may  be 
to  some,  then  proves  the  great  familiarity  of  the  game,  to  their  own  times, 
or  to  their  immediate  readers. 

But  in  that  famous  treatise  concerning  the  exchequer,  which  has  been 
improperly  attribut(Hl  to  a  Gervase  of  Tilbury,  and  was  certainly  written 
by  one,  who  was  an  olHcerof  the  exchequer  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  H.  ^  ;  the  origin  of  the  name  of  exchequer  is  stated  to  be  this: 
*'  No  truer  reason  for  it  occurs  to  me  at  present,"  adds  the  writer,  a  co- 
temporar)--  with  Becket  and  with  Beckct's  historian,  "  than  that  the 
*'  table  there  carri^  the  appearance  of  the  game  of  cJiess  ; — for,  as  in  the 
"  game  of  chess  there  are  certain  7'an/is  of  combatants,  and  these  proceed  or 
"  stop  1)1/  certain  /a/t's  and  at  certain  limits,  some  presiding,  and  others 
"  assisting  ;  so  in  this  some  preside,  some  assist,  officially,  and  no  one  is 
♦'  at  liberty  to  go  beyond  the  constituted  laws. — Again  :  as  /;/  the  game  a 
"  battle  is  fought  between  the  kings,  so  in  this  there  is  a  conflict  and  battle 
"  principally  between  two,  the  treasurer  and  the  sheriff  §."     Thus  does 

th^ 

X  Matlox,  in  his  History  of  the  Exchequer,  has  published  this  treatise,  ii.  349-452,  and 
prefixed  a  dissertation  for  ascertaining  the  author,  his  age,  &c.  The  author  was  not  Ger- 
vase of  Tilbury,  a  name  of  nobody  (342-344),  but  Richard  Fitz-Nigell,  bishop  of  London 
in  the  reign  of  Richard  I.  and  treasurer  for  many  years  to  Henry  H.  (344,  345.)  He  was 
even  vice-treasurer  occasionally,  in  the  early  part  of  this  Henry's  reign  ;  he  himself  declarin"' 
expressly  he  had  supplied  at  times  the  place  of  Nigell,  bishop  of  Ely,  and  treasurer  in  his  ab- 
sence; and  this  Nigell  dying  in  1169,  the  15th  of  Henry  (337).  And  he  himself  also  declares, 
he  began  to  write,  or  to  think  of  writing,   "  anno  xxiii.  rcgni  regis  Elenrici  Secimdi"  (351). 

§  Madox,  353:  "  Nulla  mihi  [ratio  hujus  nominis]  vcrior  ad  prcsens  occurrit,  quam 
*'  quod  scaccarii  lusilis  siinilem  habct  formam — .  Sicut  enim  in  scaccario  lusili  quidara 
*'  ordincs  sunt  pugnatoruni,  el  ccrtis  legibus  vcl  limitibus  proccdunt  vcl  subsi^tunt,  pra-si- 

G  G  2  •*  deniibus 


223  THE    CATHEDRAL    OP   CORN'WALL  [cHAP.  ni, 

the  author  alhide  to  the  game  of  chess  so  plainly,  describe  it  so  clearly, 
and  name  it  so  expressly,  that  every  thinking  reader  must  be  astonished 
to  find  any  attempt  made  in  the  very  face  of  it,  for  dating  the  origin  of 
chess  in  England  a  whole  century  later.  His  manner  shew  s  the  game  to 
have  been  very  familiar  to  him,  and  to  all  at  the  moment ;  as  his  apphca- 
tion  of  the  game  to  explain  the  title  of  that  exchequer,  which  he  himself 
refers  by  tradition  to  ^^'illiam  the  Conqueror,  to  the  very  period  of  the 
Conquest,  even  to  a  previous  exchequer  in  Normandy,  carries  the  whole 
up  to  an  eera,  two  centuries  prior  to  INIr.  Barrington's,  and  coinciding  with, 
the  date  of  William's  palace  in  Normandy  |[. 

Yet  let  us  not  rest  the  point  upon  a  mere  inference,  when  we  have  a 
positive  proof  for  it.  Robert,  who  was  made  bishop  of  Hereford ^re  or 
six  years  only  after  the  Conquest,  "  was  very  well  skilled  in  all  the  liberal 
*'  arts,"  says  Malmesbury ;  "  lie  particularly  hneiv  chess'"  as  one  of  the 
liberal  arts! ! !  "  and  the  computations  of  the  moon,  and  the  course  of  the 
"  celestial  stars  ^."  We  thus  rise  on  the  basis  of  fact  itself,  nearly  up  to 
the  period  of  Dr.  Ducarrel's  chess-board;  and  instantly  tower  above  it. 
In  the  reign  of  Canute,  who  came  to  the  crown  near  half  a  century  be- 
fore the  Conquest,  a  bishop  late  at  night  (as  the  historian  of  Ramsey  tells 
us)  "  found  the  king  yet  relieving  the  tiresomeness  of  a  long  night,  with 

"  dentibus  aliis  et  aliis  pracedentilus,"  the  context  requires  assiJentilus  ;  ''  sic  in  hoc  qui- 
"  dein  [quidam]  prcesldciit,  quidain  assident,  ex  officio,  et  non  est  cuiquam  liberiim  leges 
•'  conslitutas  excedere. — Item:  sicut  in  lusili  pugna  committitur  inter  regcs,  sic  in  hoc  inter 
'*  duos  principaliter  conflictus  est  et  pugna  committitur,  thesaurarium  scilicet  et  vice- 
*'  comiteni." 

II  Madox,  359 :  *'  Ah  rpsa — regni  conquisitione  per  regem  Willelmum  facta  coepisse 
♦' dicitur,  sumpta  tamen  ipsius  ratione  a  scaccario  transmarine."  So  the  clergy,  monastic 
and  secular,  at  the  Conquest,  says  Malmesbury,  used  to  play  at  chess ;  "  canuni  cursibus 
*'  avocari,  avium  prsedam  raptu  aliarum  volucrum  per  inane  scqui,  spumantis  cqui  terguni 
"  premere,  tesseras  quatere"  (f.  ii 8,  misprinted  for  122).  Bucket's  practice  before  fixes 
this  to  be  chess,  "  ludebat  in  avibus  cceli,  et  canibus  venaticis,  et  in  calculis  bicoloribus ;" 
the  last  (we  shall  soon  see)  being  denominated  "  tesser£e,"  as  here.  Yet  because  I  want 
not  the  artriiment  in  my  text,  1  only  make  the  observation  in  my  notes. 

«1  Savile,  163;  "  Omnium  liberalium  artium  peritissimus  J  abacum  priecipue,  et  luna- 
<«  rem  compotum,  et  ccelestium  astrorum  cursum,  riraatus." 

"  the 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  229 

*•  the  game  of  tessera:  or  chess  *."  So  striking  a  proof  have  we  under 
our  eyes  here,  of  the  early  knowledge  of  chess  in  England  ;  and  so  much 
more  erroneous  than  ever  is  Mr.  Barrington's  late  introduction  of  it  into 
this  kingdom  ! 

But  we  can  proceed  still  higher  up  the  current  of  Saxon  antiquity,  and 
even  reach  the  lower  of  its  two  sources,  for  the  appearance  of  chess  upon 
the  continent.  The  writer  in  the  English  Review  has  pointed  out  the  higher 
of  those  sources,  by  shewing  chess  to  have  been  originally  derived  to  us 
through  the  Romans  from  the  Persians,  and  in  I09O  to  have  been  prac- 
tised by  a  Saracen  general  of  Persia.  But  John  XY.  pope  of  Rome, 
and  the  writer  of  a  kind  of  manifesto  to  all  Christians  against  our  Saxon 
sovereign  Ethelked  under  QQi  ;  in  his  youth,  and  therefore  very  many 
years  before,  stole  away  from  Fj-ance  into  Spain,  "  principally  intending 
"  to  learn  astrology,  and  other  arts  of  the  same  kind,  from  the  Saracens. 
"  — Coming  to  them,  he  gratified  his  wishes.  He  there,  by  his  know- 
"  ledge,  excelled  Ptolemy  in  the  use  of  the  astrolal^e,  Alcandrceus  in  the 
"  intervals  of  the  stars,  Julius  Firmicus  concerning  fate. — Arithmetic, 
"  music,  and  geometry,  he  so  imbibed,  that  he  shewed  them  to  be  below 
"  his  genius ;  and  very  carefully  did  he  call  wholly  back  into 
"  J'rance  arts  which  had  now  beex  for  some  time  obsolete 
"  there.  He  was  certainly  the  first  who  stole  the  chess  from  the 
"  Saracens,  and  (in  the  abbey  of  St.  Maximin  near  Orleans)  for  playing 
"  chess  gave  rules  which  are  scarcely  understood  by  the  most 
**  PRACTISED  chess-players  AT  PRESENT  f."     This  is  a  vcry  extraordi- 

narV 

*  Gale,  i.  442  :  "  Rcgem  aclhuc  tesseraruni  vcl  scaccorum  ludo  longioris  taedia  noctis  re- 
"  Icvantcm  invenit." 

t  Malmusburv,  36:  "  Animo  pr.Tcipue  intcndcns,  ut  astrologiam,  et  caeteras  (id  genus) 
"  artcs,  a  Saractnis  addisccrct. — Ad  hos — perveniins,  desiderio  satisfccit.  Ibi  vicit  sciuntia 
*•  I'tolemaeum  in  astrolabio,  Alcandrneum  in  astrorum  interslitio,  Juliiim  Firniicuni  in  fato. 
"  — Dc  arithmetics,  musicft,  ct  gcomctriii  niliil  altinct  diccre,  quas  ita  ebibit,  ut  infcriores 
"  ingcnio  suo  ostcndcrct,  ct  magna  industria  rcvocaret  in  Galliani  omnino,  ibi  jampridcni  ob- 
"  solclas.  Abacuni  ccrtc  primus  a  Saracenis  rapicns,  rcgidas  dedit,  qua:  a  sudaniibus  aba- 
"  cistis  vix  intclliguntur." — Malnicsbury  afterwards  notes,  that  John  published  his  rules  for 
chess  in  the  monastery  of  St,  Ma-ximin  near  Orleans  j  "  habebal  comphilosophos  et  studi- 

'*  oruui 


230  THE    CATUnDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  IH. 

nary  passage  indeed,  and  has  been  very  extraordinarily  OA'Cilooked  hither- 
to. It  shews  chess  to  have  been  very  miicli  practised  in  England,  before 
llie  author  wrote,  before  the  year  1 128  at  farthest.  It  shews  chess  also  to 
liave  been  so  much  practised  in  England  and  on  the  continent,  before  tiie 
year  091  at  leant,  and  very  many  years  before;  that  a  set  of  rides  was 
drawn  up  by  John  for  playing  it,  yet  not  a  plain  set  as  for  mere  novices 
in  the  game,  but  so  deep  and  so  comprehensive  in  themselves,  that  the 
most  practised  players  in  the  days  of  Malmesbury  could  scarce  understand 
them.  And  it  finally  shews,  that  though  the  Romans  first  introduced 
ihcss  into  this  island,  as  the  English  Reviewer  (I  think)  has  fully  proved; 
yet,  with  other  arts  of  more  consequence  introduced  by  them,  it  had 
"  for  some  time"  groA\n  "  obsolete,"  or  little  practised  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, both  within  England,  and  within  that  country  of  France  which  has 
been  the  transmitter  of  all  the  arts  to  England.  It  was  then,  revived  in 
both  countries  again,  by  an  accidental  derivation  of  it  through  the  vigour 
of  one  enterprising  genius,  from  the  Saracens  of  the  East,  at  that  time 
masters  of  Spain.  Yet  even  this  derivation  attests  the  previous  existence 
of  it.  Chess  had  merely  "  for  some  time"  before  become  "  obsolete." 
The  Roman  source  of  the  current  had  been  in  a  great  measure,  but  not 
entirely,  choked  up  ;  the  current  still  creeping  on  in  j^rivate  and  subter- 
raneous rills,  though  the  open  stream  was  no  longer  seen  to  flow ;  and 
even  this  revolution  ha%-ing  taken  place,  only  "  for  some  time"  before. 
But  now  the  subterraneous  rills  broke  out  again  in  a  lower  part  of  the 
ground,  the  private  streams  all  united  with  the  new  one,  and  the  current 
instantly  rose  into  sufficient  strength,  to  flow  on  unimpeded,  tmimpaired, 
as  low  as  our  own  age.  In  saying  this,  I  complete  the  history  of  chess 
within  this  kingdom ;  and  shew  decisively  by  an  accumulation  of  evi- 
dences, that  chess  was  known  in  this  country,  as  well  as  Normandy,  long 
before  the  construction  of  the  Conqueror's  palace  at  Caen  there,  long 
therefore  before  the  laying  of  the  chess-board  floor  in  the  great  guard- 
chamber  of  it  %. 

But 

"  orum  sociosj  Constantinum  abbatem  luonasterii  Sancti  Maxlmini,  quod  est  juxra  Aureli- 
*'  anis,  apudqiiem  ediilit  regulas  de  abaco,"  &C. 

X  In  Lcland's  Coll.  iv.  97,  98,  are  some  notices  of  and  extracts  from  an  ancient  work, 
''  ex  libro  vctcri,  cjiicui  nmluo  siunpsi  a  Talcboto,"  that  again  shew^the  knowledge  of  chess 

to 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  231 

But  Dr.  DucaiTcl  also  speaks  of  this  floor,  as  "  formed  into  draught  or 
*'  chess  boards;"  while  ^Nlr.  Barrington  says  the  game  of  draughts  "  is 
*'  very  ancient,  bears  a  considerable  affinity  to  chess,  and  equally  requires 
*'  a  chequered  board  §."  Yet  Mr.  Barrington,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
has  such  an  unhappy  propensity  to  puzzle  himself,  and  such  an  unfortu- 
nate dexterity  in  perplexing  his  reader ;  that  we  have  reason  to  suspect 
the  dashing  hand  of  confusion  employed  by  him  even  in  this  slight  aver- 
ment. Draughts,  indeed,  are  plainly  not  very  ancient,  and  merely  a 
modern  dcrivati\'e  from  chess.     They  are  not  noticed  by  any  ancient 

to  have  been  familiar  in  the  days  of  the  Saxons.  The  volunic  was  composed  of  two  dis- 
tinct works  :  one  was,  "  Carmina  Abbonis  Monachi,  Natione  Itali,  Numero  septuaorinta, 
*' dedicata  vcro  Dom\no  Dunstano,  Episcopo  y//;g/o,"  dedicated  abroad  to  Dunstan,  then 
bishop  of  Worcester,  as  he  v\as  made  in  957  (Sax.  Chron.),  or  bishop  of  London,  as  he  was 
also  made  in  958  (Hist.  Rams,  in  Gale,  i.  390),  and  not  yet  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  as  he 
was  made  in  961  (Sax.  Chron.).  The  other  work  is  thus  mentioned  :  "Ibidem.  Doetissima 
**  Figura  edita  a  Bryghtfcrdo,  Monacho  Ramesiensis  Ccenobii,  de  Concordia  Mensium  etEle- 

*'  mentorum Ibidem.  Calendariiim,  in  quo  festi  Dies  per  singulis  Menses  Carminibiis 

*'  notantur.  Videtur  (quamvis  pro  certo  affirmare  non  ausim)  hoc  Calendarinm  a  Brv'ht- 
*'  fcrdo  fuisse  scriptum — ."  Then  comes  the  Calendar,  followed  by  this  remark,  *'  post 
*'  hffc,  multa  scquunlur  dc  circulo  paschali,  et  dc  abaco,"  a  term  (we  see  from  Malmcs- 
bury  in  the  note  immediately  preceding)  nearly  as  appropriate  for  chess  in  the  middle  acres, 
as  scacchia  itself,  "  insuper  de  asse  et  de  ejus  partibus."  But,  to  shew  the  age  of  Brygt- 
ferd  more  plainly,  let  me  cite  Leland's  other  account  of  him  in  his  Commentarii  de  Script. 
Brit,  one  more  chronological  and  more  peremptory  than  this  :  "  Brightfertus,  monachus 
"  Ramscganus,  vol,  ut  quidam  volunt,  Thorneganus,"  he  says  in  p.  171,  placing  him  r.p- 
parcnlly  about  the  reign  of  Edgar  and  the  days  of  Dunstan,  as  placing  him  next  but  one 
after  a  "  writer"  patronized  by  Odo,  the  immediate  predecessor  of  Dunstan  in  the  arch- 
bishopric, "  sccutus  religiose  sute  aetatis  sludia,  ad  jiialliain,  accrrimorum  iiigeiiiorum  exci- 
"  tatriccm,"  Leland  thus  speaking  from  those  prejudices  of  his  education,  which  art  so  pre- 
valent at  Cambridge  now,  and  very  remarkably  appear  here  to  have  been  as  prevalent  in  the- 
days  of  Leland,  "  animum  applieavit.  In  quo  cruditionis  genere  sic  postea  enituit,  ut  arteni 
"  per  se  claram,  depictis  graphicc  organis,  et  additis  eomnientariis  tum  doctissiaiis  turn  luci- 
*'  dissimis,  clariorein  redderct.  Illustravit  prtetcrea  scholiis,  non  de  trivio  pelitis,  Bedoe 
"  Girovicensis  libellum  De  JNatura  Rerum;  in  quo,  dum  tempora  supputat,  facile  ostcndit 
"  quantum  in  expedita  numerorum  rationc  valeret.  Multa  ibi  dc  circulo  paschali,  de 
"  ABACo,  dc  asse  et  ejus  pariibus.  Ilunc  ego  aliquando  a  candido  Talboto,  hominc  nici  loci 
"  atque  ordniis,  libnini  uiuluo  accepi ;  tl  accei-lum,  vcluli  avidus  helluo,  tolum  profcclo 
"  devoravi." 
^  Arch.  ix.  32, 

writer^ 


232  TIIF.    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  111. 

writer,  and  have  no  ancient  appellation  common  to  us  with  other  na- 
tions. 'I'he  oldest  mention  ot"  them  that  INIr.  Barrington  himself  pro- 
duces, is  so  late  as  the  reign  of  Richard  ill.  ;  when  lady  Morley  is  said 
to  have  "  had  no  harpinges  or  lutinges  during  Christmas,  but  playing  at 
"  tiihles  and  chess  ||."  By  the  French  they  are  denominated  dames,  ovjeic 
tie  dames,  not,  as  Mr.  13arrington  alleges,  because  "  the  common  pieces, 
•'  by  reaching  the  top-square  of  the  antagonist,  become  queens  ^ ,"  which 
forms  no  interpretation  of  the  name,  d'awcs  not  signifying  queens;  but 
because  the  French  consider  the  pieces  moved  to  be  ivomen,  and  so  call 
the  crowned  pieces  queens,  as  we  consider  all  to  be  men,  and  call  these 
1,/ngs.  Thus  dame,  a  ivoman  in  French,  comes  to  signify  a  ;;/a;?  there, 
dainier  the  board  on  which  the  men  are  moved,  dames  the  game  itself, 
and  dame-damde,  properly  a  woman  of  quality,  the  man  hinged  in  the 
game.  But  they  are  denominated  among  ourselves,  by  the  various  ap- 
pellations of  tables,  which  speaks  its  import  at  once,  of  draughts,  from 
the  men  drawn  up  in  military  array ;  both  derived  purely  from  the 
English  language,  from  modern  English  too  *  ;  and  of  chequers,  which  is 
equally  English,  equally  modern,  but  decisively  marks  the  relation  of 
draughts  to  chess  in  their  origin.  They  are,  indeed,  a  merely  spurious 
kind  of  chess,  an  European,  a  modern  simplification  of  the  game  of  Asia ; 
and  such  a  simplification,  as  has  reduced  the  elaborate,  the  complicated, 
the  manly  operations  of  one  game,  from  the  indolence,  studious  or 
yawning,  of  later  times,  into  the  go-cart  movements  of  an  infant's  pastime 
in  the  other  f . 

Yet,  as  Dr.  Ducarrel  proceeds  in  his  description  of  the  great  guard- 
chamber  and  the  barons'  hall  at  Caen,  the  latter  "  is  paved  \\  ith  the  same 
**  sort  of  tiles  as  the  former ;  but  with  this  diifcrcnce,  that  instead  of 

Ij  Arch.  ix.  30. 

%  Ibid.  26. 

*  Ibid.  26  :  "I  do  not  know,  from  what  nation  we  have  borrowed  this  term  of  drafts." 
Some  objects  press  too  much  upon  the  eye  to  be  seen. 

t  This  indolence  is  strikingly  attested  by  the  popular  report,  that  a  game  at  chess  may  be 
ti'ansmilted  as  an  inheritance  for  grandchildren  to  finish  j  though  "  most  chess-matches 
'^  are  decided  in  an  hour,  and  perhaps  never  exceed  two,  unless  the  players  take  u  nap  le- 
"  tiveen  the  moves,"  (ix.  30.) 

"  coats 


SECT,  in.]  niSTOniCALLT    SURVEYED.  233 

"  coats  of  arms,"  which  are  generally  said  (as  we  have  heard  bctbre)  to 
be  those  of  the  famiUes  attending  duke  William  in  his  invasion  of  Eng- 
land, "  they  are  stained  with  the  figures  of  stags  and  dogs  in  full  chase. 
"  The  walls  of  this  room  seem  to  have  been  adorned,"  as  the  floor  of  the 
other  actually  is,  "  with  escutcheons  of  aums,"  belonging  equally  (we 
must  infer  from  analogy)  to  the  famihcs  of  those  who  attended  William 
into  England,  but  here  "  painted  in  heater  shields,  some  of  which  are 
"  still  rewaiiiivg,"  and  therefore  carry  the  seeming  into  certainty.     "  It 
"  was  in  tliis  guard-chamber,  and  the  barons'  hall  adjoining,  that  king 
*' ^^^illiam  the  Conqueror,  as  tradition  tells  us,  in  the  most  sumptuous 
*'  manner  entertained  his  mother  Arlette  with  her  wedding-dinner,  on 
"  the  day  of  her  marriage  to  Harluin  count  de  Conteville,  by  whom  she 
"  had  Odo,  bishop  of  Baj-eux  J;"  who  was  old  enough  to  go  in  William's 
army  to  the  conquest  of  England,  who  was  also  old  enough  to  be  a  bishop 
then,  and  whose  mother's  marriage  to  his  father  must  therefore  have 
been  many  years  before,  when  William  was  no  king  and  only  a  duke^. 
We  thus  sec  tradition  concurring  with  remains,  to  mark  these  rooms 
built  and  these  floors  laid,  several  years  before  the  Conquest.     Nor  Ictus 
be  beaten  off  from  this  conviction,  by  an  objection  which  Dr.  Ducarrel 
has  proposed  himself,  immediately  after  the  last  passage  cited  from  him; 
"  that  the  bearixg  of  arms,  as  a  family-distikction,  was  ukkxowk 
"  DURING  HIS  [William's]  reign; — and  that  therefore  it  is  more  probable 
"  this  pavement  was  laid  down  in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  king 
"  John,  while  he  was  loitering  away  his  life  at  Caen  with  the  beauteous 
"  Isabel  of  Angouleme,  his  queen,  during  which  period  the  custom  of 
"  wearing  of  coats  of  arms,"  either  as  family  or  as  personal  distinctions, 
'•  WAS  introduced  II ."     This  objection  the  author  proposes  agai/isf  him- 
self, and  never  attempts  to  ansuer  it.     He  conjures  up  a  ghost  to  haunt 
him,  and  endeavours  not  to  lay  it  again  :  I  shall  therefore  try  to  do  this 
for  him  :  it  is  a  ghost  of  the  same  complexion  with  that  before ;  and 

J  Ducarrel,  59,  60. 

§  For  "  Odoj  bishop  of  Bayeux,"  being  present  at  the  battle  of  Hastings,  soc  Dr.  Ducar- 
rel himself  in  p.  79. 
11  Ducarrel,  60, 

VOL.  I.  H  H  may 


234  THE   CATttEDnAL    OF    COR^^V^'ATX  [CHAl'.  HI. 

may  be  as  effectually  laid  as  that  has  been,  though  it  asks  a  longer  charm 
for  the  work : 

Sunt  ccria  piacula,  qiise  fe 

Ter  pure  leclo  polerunt  recrearc  libcllo. 

The  use  of  armorial  bearings  was  first  upon  shields;  as  the  pannel  or 
compartment  within  which  the  bearings  are  painted,  is  still  called  a  shield 
or  an  escutcheon.  But  it  was  afterwards  upon  coat-armour  too ;  and 
therefore  we  call  the  bearings  a  coat  of  ai*ms.  In  both  cases,  the  depicted 
ensigns  were  denominated  arms  ;  because  they  were  depicted  upon  that 
weapon  of  defence  a  shield,  and  upon  that  coat  of  defence  a  mail.  We 
thus  see  devices  upon  shields,  at  the  very  invasion  of  England  by  Wil- 
liam, and  in  that  \tvy  tapestry  of  Bayeux,  which  is  an  historical  work 
equally  delineating  as  describing,  being  woven  (according  to  the  report 
of  tradition)  by  the  hands  of  Wilham's  queen  and  her  ladies*. 

In 

•  Ducarrel,  79,  80  :  "  The  ground  of  this  piece  of  work  (which  is  extremely  valuable,  as 
'''  preserving  the  taste  of  those  times  in  designs  of  this  sort)  is  a  white  linen  cloth,  or  canvas, 
"  one  foot  eleven  inches  in  depth,  and  two  hundred  and  twelve  feet  in  length. — There  is  a 
*'  received  tradition,  that  queen  Matilda,  wife  of  the  Conqueror,  and  the  ladies  of  her  court, 
*'  wove  this  tapestry  luith  their  own  hands. — In  an  old  inventory  of  the  goods  of  the  cathedral 
"  of  Bayeux,  taken  in  the  year  1476,  this  \)\tct  oi  veedlework,"  as  \\\'\s  woven  tapestry  is 
miscalled  by  Dncarrcl,  "  is  entered  thus,  '  une  tente  tres  longue  et  etroite,  de  telle  a  brodcrie 
•*  de  yniageset  eserpteanlx,  faisans  representations  du  conquest  d'Angleterre' — ."  Yet  to  our 
astonishment  the  Doctor  instantly  informs  us,  in  despite  of  record  and  of  tradition,  that 
**  the  piiests  of  this  cathedialy  to  whom  I  addressed  myself  for  a  sight  of  this  remarkable 
"  piece  of  antiquity,  knew  nothing  of  it.  The  circumstance  only  of  its  being  annually  hung 
"  up  in  their  church,  ted  them  to  understand  what  I  wanted ;  no  person  there  knowing,  that 
**  ike  object  of  my  inquiry  any  ways  related  to  William  the  Conqueror."  This  is  plainly 
written  in  that  aiv  of  superciliousness,  with  which  we  of  this  island  have  too  often  affected  to 
look,  down  upon  the  ignorance  of  the  clergy  in  France,  and  from  which  the  falsehoods  pre- 
dominant in  conversation  have  too  often  stolen  into  writings  to  degrade  them.  The  igno- 
rance, here  charged,  is  impossible  to  le  true  as  stated.  "  By  tradition,"  adds  Mr.  Ltthieul- 
licr  in  a  dissertation  upon  the  tapestry,  "  it  is  called  duke  William's  toilet,  and  said  to 
"  le  the  itork  of  Matilda  his  queen,  and  the  ladies  of  her  court,  after  he  obtained  the  crown 
"  of  England."  (Ducarrel's  own  Appendix,  p.  2.)  Accordingly,  when  "  an  illuminated 
«•  drawing  of  one  part"'^iiad  been  found  "  among  the  manuscripts  of  the  famous  Monsieur 
"  Foucaut,"  about  seventy-four  years  since;  and  Montfaucon  "wrote  to  every  part  of 
_"  France,"  with  \i(luch  Foucaut  had  been  connected,  to  get  intelligence  of  the  original ;  he 

wag 


SECT,   in.]  ftrSTORICALLl-    SURVEYKD,  235 

In  this  singular  kind  of  illuminated  manuscript,  cotcmporaiy  Avith  all 
that  it  records,  and  therefore  a  witness  of  the  highest  authority,  having 
been  drawn  up  from  some  narrative  written  for  the  purpose  ;  we  see 
Guy  earl  of  Ponthieu  seizing  Harold  the  moment  he  lands  on  the  coast, 
and  the  four  men,  who  followed  Guy  on  horseback  to  assist  in  the  seizuj-e, 
carrying  shields  all  charged  with  devices.  Of  these  the  first  appears  to  be 
a  dolpliin  ;  the  next  is  a  number  of  small  rays  of  the  sun,  issuing  out  of  a 
cloud  on  the  dexter  side  of  the  field  ;  the  third  is  what  is  called  a  cross 
pallee;  and  the  fourth  a  dogf.  So,  in  two  pennies  of  silver  minted  at 
Rouen  by  William  duke  of  Normandy  before  his  conquest  of  England, 
we  have  a  cross  pa f fee  in  the  centre  of  each,  and  one  cross  upon  each 
having  four  half-moons  within  its  four  quarters,  while  another  has  in  its 
quarters  three  and  a  fleur-de-lys :{: .  The  two  messengers  of  William  to 
Guy  demanding  the  release  of  Harold,  are  also  represented  bearing  each  a 
dolphin  on  his  shield,  but  one  facing  to  the  sinister  and  the  other  to  the 
dexter  side  of  the  field  §.  And,  to  mark  the  precise  fidelity  with  which  the 
tapestry  proceeds  ;  to  shew  the  justice  which  it  means  to  practise,  in  allot- 
ting to  every  man  concerned  his  actual  share  of  the  business;  William  de- 
livers his  message  to  one  man  of  dwarfish  stature  immediately  close  to  him/ 
and  to  two  much  taller  men  close  behind  the  other;  the  three  accordingly 

was  inslanthj  informed  hy  one  of  the  clergy  of  Baycux,  that  the  original  was  preserved  in 
the  cathedra!  there ;  that  the  part  drawn  was  "  ahout  thirty  feet  in  length,  and  one  foot  and  a 
"  /io//"  broad,"  not  (as  Dr.  Ducarrel  writes  above)  "  one  foot  eleven  inches;"  that  the  rest 
was  "  two  hundred  and  thirty-two  feet  long;"  thait  the  wiiole  therefore  was  two  hundred 
and  sixty-two  feet^  not  (as  Dr.  Ducarrel  measures  it)  "  two  hundred  and  iwelpe  feet,  in 
"  length  ;"  but  that  "  the  most  ancient  account  they  have  of  it,"  the  inventory  of  1476, 
says  it  was  "  representations  de  la  corujuest  d'ylngleterre."  (Ducarrcl's  Appendix,  p.  i,  2.) 
So  inaccurate,  so  contradictory  is  the  Doctor  here  I  Montfaucon,  however,  having  thus 
found  his  way  to  them  by  the  torch  of  tradition,  and  seeing  them  by  the  daylight  of  his- 
tory, too  important  records  to  be  left  any  longcT  in  danger  of  destruction,  delineated,  en- 
graved, and  published  them,  in  his  "  Monumens  de  la  Monarchic  Fran^oise."  Smart 
LothieuUier,  esq.  wrote  a  description  of  them,  and  Dr.  Ducarrel  published  it  in  his  Appendix. 

t  Ducarrcl's  Appendix,  No.  i,  plate,  page  4,  5.     See  also  plate,  page  25,  as  hereafter 
noticed. 

X  Ducarrel,  33  and  49. 

§  Plate,  page  4,  5.    Here  the  tapestry  h^s  made  a  transposition  of  the  events,  the  mcsseu 
gcrs  delivering  their  message,  then  riding  to  deliver  it,  and  then  receiving  it. 

H  H  2  .  appear 


236  TKE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAl'.   III. 

appear  delivering  the  message  to  G\iy,  one  speaking,  another  standing 
behind,  but  the  third,  the  dwarf,  holding  their  horses  by  the  bridles,  and 
having  his  natne  Tttrohl  over  his  head  *.  One  of  the  taller  men,  as  they 
are  all  three  receiving  the  message  from  William,  rests  upon  a  shield 
charged  witfi  an  animal,  that  we  see  a  little  from  its  appearance  here,  and 
see  still  more  from  its  reappearance  as  they  are  riding,  to  be  a  dolphin  f* 
Harold  is  thus  surrendered  up  to  William  by  Guy,  we  see  Guy  surrender- 
ing him,  and  a  person  immediately  behind  William  bears  in  his  shield  a 
winged  dragon  J.  William  carries  Harold  to  his  own  palace,  then  sits 
upon  his  throne  in  form,  and  receives  Harold's  message  from  king  Ed- 
ward ;  Harold  being  attended  by  four  men,  all  having  shields,  one  with  a 
St.  Andrew's  cross  upon  it,  a  second  with  three  bezants  crossing  the  field 
in  a  line  above,  then  one  upon  each  side  of  a  plate  below,  and  three  in  a 
triangle  below  all,  with  a  third  and  a  fourth  shewing  only  a  single  6exa?// 
at  present,  upon  the  sinister  side  of  each  §,  So  of  the  two  silver  pennies 
mentioned  before,  as  carr}ang  each  a  cross  pattee  with  half-moons  and  a 
fleur-de-lys  in  the  quarters  upon  one  side,  each  carries  on  the  other  a  cross 
pattee  with  a  bezant  in  every  quarter  of  it  ||.  Then  William  and  Harold 
appear  marching  out  against  Mount  St.  Michael,  cross  a  river  just  be- 
yond it,  and  are  some  of  them  unhorsed  in  a  quicksand ;  when  the  shield 
of  one  of  them  is  seen  upon  the  sand,  charged  with  a  regular  square, 
seemingly  a  fort  with  a  tower  at  each  angle  ^f ,  two  bezants  crossing  the 
field  above,  and  four  disposed  in  a  kind  of  lozenge  below  **.  William 
and  Harold  attack  I)inant ;  one  of  the  besieged  stands  high,  and  shews 

*  Plate,  pages  4,  5,  and  9.  This  Turold  is  not  improbably  the  "  Toraldus  de  Papilion," 
who  is  a  witness  to  a  cliarter  from  the  Conqueror  to  the  church  of  Durham.  (Leland's  Coll.  ii. 
385.)  In  the  charter  itself  he  appears  signing  as  *'  Turoldus  de  Papilion."  (Monasli- 
con,  i.  44O 

+  Plate,  pages  4,  5,  and  9. 

J  Plate,  page  9,  and  the  Saxon  standard  in  plate  27. 

§  Plate,  page  9.  The  tapestry  has  here  made  one  shield  more  than  it  has  made  attendants, 
but  a  blank  one. 

I  Ducarrel,  plate  iii.  p.  49, 

<[  This  fort  is  like  the  blockhouse  once  at  Plymouth,  a  "  castel  quadrate,  having  at  eche 
"  corner  a  great  round  lowct,"  (Leland's  Itiu.  iii.  4.) 

•*  Plate,  page  9. 

.  2  his 


SECT.   Iir.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  237 

his  shield  with  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  upon  it ;  four  others  stand  behind 
him,  and  s^ew  the  traces  of  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  upon  each  of  their 
shields  ;  w  hile  two  of  the  besiegers  below  are  setting  fire  to  the  town 
with  torches,  and  have  a  shield  behind  either,  charged  with  a  St.  An- 
drew's cross  like  the  others.  Only  of  the  two  last,  this  has  two  bezants, 
one  over  the  other,  in  three  of  its  quarters,  had  therefore  (I  suppose)  in 
all  once  ;  and  ^Aa^  with  equal  regularity  has  two,  one  over  the  other,  in 
the  two  opposite  quarters  dexter  and  sinister*,  William  appears  to  re- 
ceive the  keys  of  the  town,  with  a  cross  patovce  on  his  shield,  three 
bezants  in  one  cur^^e  above  it,  and  three  in  another  below  it;  while  im- 
mediately behind  him  are  twa  warriors,  both  bearing  St.  Andrew's 
crosses  upon  their  shields,  and  one  shewing  a  Z/exa;?^  upon  each  side  of  the 
upper  limb  of  his  f .  So  far  we  see  devices  upon  shields,  almost  as  fre- 
quent upon  the  continent  then,  as  they  are  now  ;  and  the  use  of  armorial 
ensigns  there,  almost  as  regular  in  itself,  even  as  diversified  in  some  of  its 
signatures,  as  it  is  within  our  own  island  at  present. 

But  let  us  enter  the  island,  with  this  heraldric  luminary  shining  bright 
before  us  ;  only  noting  in  our  passage  to  it,  that  on  the  stern  of  the  large 
vessel  on  which  William  is  going  to  embark,  appears  a  shield  with  a  St. 
Andrew's  cross,  bearing  four  bezants,  two  and  two,  in  the  sinister 
quarter ;  that  on  the  stern  of  the  vessel  immediately  ahead  ©f  it,  is 
another  shield  with  the  same  kind  of  cross^  beaiing  four  bezants,  two 
and  two,  nearly  opposite  in  the  dexter  and  sinister  quarters  ;  that  on  the 
stem  of  the  third  are  two  shields  more,  one  having  four  bezants,  two  and 
two,  but  the  other  having  six  in  a  circle  about  a  plate  ;{;.  Now  we  see 
William's  warriors,  instantly  after  disembareation,  pushing  on  for 
Hastings  ;  while  one  of  them  has  a  shield  marked  with  seven  bezants, 
three,  two,  and  two,  in  three  successive  lines  §.  Harold  is  reported  to 
be  approaching  with  his  army,  the  Normans  march  out  from  Hastings  to 
fight  them,  William  appears  interrogating  one  Vitalis  what  intelUgence  he 
brought  concerning  them,  and  Vitalis  bears  a  shield  of  ten  bezants,  two, 
four,  in  two  lines  above  a  plate,  three,  one,  in  two  hues  below  it  ||.     Thb 

*  Plate,  page  9.         I  Ibid.         %  Plate,  pnge  17.         §  Ibid,         |  Plate,  page  22. 

mention 


2.33  THE  rvTiiEDnAL  OF  conrrWALL  [CIIAP.  III. 

mention  of  a  particular  person,  subordinate  in  quality  anci  unknown  to 
historv,  unites  Vv  ith  the  specitication  of  another  before,  one  still  more 
subordinate  in  quality,  but  marked  by  his  low  stature,  to  shew  with  what 
fidelitv  anil  accuracv  the  tapestr\'  proceeds  to  detail  the  incidents:  and 
UiP  attribution  of  armorial  ensigns  to  the  former  shews  them  to  have 
been  equally  appropriate  with  the  name  to  the  bearer  of  both.  The  next 
but  one  after  /'i/a/is  has  hezants  upon  his  shi<>ld,  two  now,  but  formerly 
(ais  appears  from  their  position)  thre'e,  in  one  line,  three  more  in  a  second, 
three  ijl  a  third,  and  one  in  a  fourth*.  This  person  ir,  plainly,  from  die 
strange  sort  of  helmet  which  he  wears,  and  which  gives  him  to  our  eye3 
all  the  appearance  of  wearing  a  wig,  the  very  same  person  who  is  repre- 
sented on  the  landing  and  at  the  banquetting,  with  this  inscription  over 
him,  {Jic  est  IFadarJ,  but  with  no  device  iqion  his  shield  :  as  he  is  here 
i-epresented  again,  without  any  name,  but  with  his  device  f.  So  inter- 
changeable do  devices  and  names  appear,  in  this  instance !  The  scene 
next  changes  to  Harold's  army ;  a  warrior  is  beheld  upon  the  watch, 
holding  up  his  right  hand  in  admiration  of  what  he  sees,  William's  army 
undoubtedly,  and  bearing  eight  bezants  in  a  shield  on  his  left  arm,  three 
in  a  slight  curve  above,  one  upon  each  side  of  a  plate^  \\ith  two,  one,  in 
two  linos  below  |.  Another  warrior  appears  immediately  afterwards, 
but  with  his  back  tun>cd  to  the  fonner,  bearing  a  shield  ot  bezants,  two 
and  two  above  a  p/ctte,  t\\  o  and  one  below  it ;  telling  Ilai'old  of  William's 
approach,  and  pointing  with  his  finger  backwards  to  the  warrior  on  the 
watch,  as  the  author  of  his  intelligence,  and  the  person  by  whom  he  was 
«ent§.  Harold  him,self  appears  receiving  the  intelligence,  pointing  forward 
with  his  finger  as  to  the  warrior  on  the  watch,  and  bearing  nine  bezants 
on  his  shield,  one  above  a  plate,  one  upon  each  side  of  it,  three,  two,  and 
.one,  below  it  ||.  William  harangues  his  soldiery,  they  prepare  for  battle, 
they  advance  on  horseback ;  but  the  English  meet  them  on  foot.  The 
'fopcjnost  man  of  the  English  appears  with  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  upon  his 
shield, 'three  bezants  in  a  line  above,  one  (originallv  two,  I  believe)  on  the 
dexter  side,  two  still  on  the  sinister,  and  one  below  ;  the  shield  having 
Iwo  arrow  s  from  th.&  Norman  archers,  infixed  into  it  ^f*     The  second 

*  Plate,  page  22.  %  Plate,  page  22.  )',   Plate,  p.ige  22. 

t  i'late,  page  17.  §  Ibid.  t^  Plate,  plate  25. 

man 


SECT.    III.]  •  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  239 

man  Iws  the  same  aort  of  cross,  with  only  one  bezant  below  *.  The  third 
has  no  cross,  but  two  Norman  arrows  and  six  bezants,  two,  two,  and  two, 
obliquely  ranging  down  the  shield  f .  The  fourth  has  two,  two,  and  one, 
placed  as  obliquely  X-  The  filth  and  sixth  have  two  bezants,  one  above, 
tlie  other  below,  but  those  near  the  middle  of  the  field,  and  these  near  the 
upper  end  of  it§.  The  seventh  has  four  bezants,  two  and  two;  the 
eighth  has  three  (two,  one) ;  and  the  ninth  has  seven  (two>  three,  two), 
with  a  Norman  arrow  sticking  in  the  second  line  ||.  So  carefully  are  the 
shields  diversified  one  from  another,  even  among  the  English  %\arriors  ; 
and  so  strongly  does  the  care  of  diversifying  indicate  a  regular,  a  steady 
appropriation  of  the  ensigns  to.  persons  !  The  English  army  is  made  im- 
mediately to  face  about,  in  order  to  exhibit  the  Normans  again  to  our 
vie.w ;  and  the  English  now  appear  with  shields  all  blank,  because  their 
ensigns  have  been  displayed  before.  Only  in  the  border  below,  which 
here  begins  (like  tlie  margin  of  some  books)  to  be  equally  historical  with 
the  work  itself,  among  many  dead  and  all  English,  because  all  on  foot, 
lies  one  covered  with  a  shield  to  mark  out  iclio  he  is,  of  four  bezants  above 
a  plate,  two  and  one  below  it  %.  The  Norman  warriors  are  now^  ex- 
hibited, five  in  number,  all  having  shields,  and  all  bearing  ensigns  upon 
them.  The  first  has  ten  bezants,  four  in  a  line  above,  three  in  a  triangle 
below,  and  three  injinother  below  that**.  The  second  has  only  two 
bezants  above  a  plate,  and  none  below  it  -f -|-.  The  third  has  five  in  a 
circle  about  a  plate :{:]:.  The  fourth  has  six  in  a  circle  about  the  same  ob- 
ject §§.  And  the  fifth  has  a  cross,  with  a  bezant  in  each  quarter  of  it  j|||.. 
But  the  tapestry  now  becomes  still  more  particular. 

Levine  and  Gurd,  the  two  brothers  of  Harold,  are  killed  as  they  fought 
on  foot.  Levine  appears  pierced  with  a  lance  under  the  right  shoulder,, 
but  Gurd  by  a  lance  in  tlie  neck.     The  slayer  of  both  is  exhibited  several 


*  Plate, 

page 

25. 

*•  Plate,  page  25. 

t  Ibid. 

tt  Ihid.     Sec  it  again  in  plate,  p.ige  27. 

X  Ibid. 

tt  Ibid. 

§  Ibid. 

§§  Ibid. 

11  Ibid. 

(II  Ibid. 

f  Ibid. 

times. 

S46  THE  ^ATHEBiRAL    OF    COftNWALL  [cRAP,  Itr. 

times,  yet  each  time  is  marked  by  the  same  bearings  in  his  sliicld,  two 
bezants  above  a  plate,  one  on  each  side  of  it,  and  two  below  ;  in  order  to 
shew  decisively  who  he  is,  and  to  give  him  the  full  honour  of  his  con- 
duct in  that  day's  victory.     He  first  appears  piercing  lycvinc  under  the 
shoulder,  and  carrying  a  shield  of  vs  hich  we  can  see  only  the  under-side; 
but,  for  this  very  reason,  his  shield  is  placed  in  the  border  immediately 
below,  witli  the  other  side  upward.     It  is  placed  there,  even  twice ;  the 
first  time,  covering  the  dead  body  of  a  man  in  armour,  Ix'.vine  undoubt- 
edly ;  then  a  second  time,  and  very  near,  lying  by  a  body  in  amiour  with 
the  head  separated  from  the  rest ;    but,   both  times,  bearing  the  same 
bezants  m  the  same  disposition  of  them,  to  ascertain  completely  who 
killed  Levine  and  cut  off  his  head.     The  same  Norman  instantly  appears 
again  in  this  peculiar  kind  of  history,  bearing  the  same  bezants  in  the 
.sa.mc  disposition  again,  and  fighting  with  Giird  ;  the  latter  armed  with 
a  long  lance  and  a  bossy  shield,  having  thrust  his  lance  into  the  breast  of 
the  former,  while  the  former  has  thrust  his  into  the  neck  of  Gurd.     But 
the  same  Norman  instantly  appears  once  more,  marked  by  the  same  bear- 
ings, and  engaged  in  the  same  fight  with  Gurd,  who  has  now  thrown 
away  his  shield,  which  is  placed  in  the  border,  has  thrown  away  his  lance 
too,  which  is  placcxl  partly  under  the  belly  of  the  Norman  horse,  is  wield- 
ing a  battle-axe  in  one  figure,  but  in  another  immediately  behind  is  falling 
to  the  ground  ;  yet  is  shewn  under  all  these  variations  to  be  Gurd,  by  the 
bearings  upon  the  shield  of  his  antagonist,  and  by  the  lance  of  this  anta- 
gonist being  thrust  into  his  neck  *.     So  appropriate,  so  distinguishing 
were  armorial  ensigns  then  to  and  of  the  warriors,  in  England  and  in 
Nonnandy  !    So  much,  indeed,  were  they  then  what  they  are  at  present, 
badges  known  to  the  generation  passing,  badges  sure  to  be  known  by 
the  generations  succeeding;  or  they  would  never  have  been  inserted  with 
so  much  attention,   and  repeated  with  so  much  formalitj',  in  a   work 
calculated  for  future  ixa  well  as  present  generations  ! 

Behind  these  is  an  Englishman  on  foot,  with  a  sword  in  his  hand  and 
shield  on  his  arm,  bearing  bezants  obhquely  placed,  two  above,  one 
(probably  two,  as  one  is  bid,  I  beheve,  by  his  arm)  in  the  middle,  and 

•  Plate,  page  25. 

two 


SECT.   III.]  HTSTORTCALLY    SURVEYED.  211 

two  below  ;  the  very  man,  who  appears  tlie  third  in  the  group  before, 
M'ith  the  same  bearings,  and  two  arrows  sticking  in  his  shield*.  A  Nor- 
man succeeds  on  horseback,  with  eleven  bezants  on  his  shield,  four  in  one 
line  above  ?i  plate,  two  on  each  side  of  the  plate,  and  two,  one,  below 
it  f .  A  Norman  horseman  is  seen  fallen  to  the  ground,  and  by  him  is  a 
shield  to  shew  who  is  meant,  having  the  same  sort  of  sun's  rays  issuing 
out  of  a  cloud  upon  the  dexter  side  of  the  field,  that  we  beheld  with  one 
of  Cuy's  men  before  J.  The  English  appear  rail}  ing,  and  three  of  them 
stand  upon  an  eminence,  fighting  with  Normans  on  horseback  ;  two  of 
the  three  (as  being  brothers,  I  suppose)  bearing  the  same  ensigns  on  their 
shields,  five  bezants,  one,  three,  one;  but  the  third  bearing  only  three 
bezants,  two,  one  §.  A  Norman  horseman  is  seen  thrusting  his  lance 
into  the  body  of  an  Englishman,  equally  as  the  other  Englishmen  here 
without  armour ;  and  bearing  bezants  in  the  same  number,  and  with 
the  same  disposition,  as  the  two  Englishmen  before  ||.  This  identity  is 
remarkable,  yet  not  the  only  one  that  I  shall  notice  in  the  tapestry. 
Another  Norman  succeeds  with  five  bezants,  two,  one,  two  ;  and  his 
shield  appears  again  in  the  border  no  less  than  three  times,  once  covering 
an  Englishman  in  armour,  but  without  a  horse,  to  shew  what  Norman 
killed  the  Englishman  ;  then  covering  a  Norman  who  has  just  fallen  ex- 
piring over  the  head  of  his  horse,  to  point  out  the  Norman  himself  as 
killed  at  kist ;  and  finally  held  tip  by  an  Englishman  on  foot  but  in  ar- 
mour, to  shew  he  killed  the  Norman  ^[.  As  such  clear  and  certain  signa- 
tures, as  speaking  So  determinately  to  the  eyes,  and  appealing  so  decidedly 
to  the  knowledge,  of  all  inspectors,  do  these  bearings  continue  to  be  used 
in  this  historical  tapcstiy  ! 

On  the  right  of  these  is  another  shield  in  the  border,  with  three  bezants 
running  perpendicularly  down  the  field  of  the  escutcheon  ;  to  shew  the 
owner,  w  ho  lies  close  to  one  side  of  it,  with  his  head  cut  otf,  and  with  a 
^sword  on  the  other  side  of  it,  then  a  well-known  owner,  and  plainly  an 
Englishman  as  he  has  no  horse  by  him,  to  have  been  slain  at  that  stage 

*  Plate,  page  25.         |   Plate,  page  25.  See  plate,  page  4,  5,  before.         ||   Plate,  page  25. 
t  Ibid.  §   Plate,  page  25.  ^  Ibid. 

VOL.  I.  I  I  of 


2-42  THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  CORXU'ALL  [cHAP.  HI. 

of  the  battle  *.  Odo  is  then  exhibited  twice,  once  as  brandishing  his 
club,  afterwards  as  holding  his  club  and  beckoning  the  Normans  to  ad- 
vance. William  also  is  seen  throwing  both  his  arms  abroad,  as  conjuring 
the  Normans  to  rally  ;  but  holding  in  one  hand  his  standard,  all  stream- 
ing to  the  wind.  Both  reanimate  the  Normans.  'J'he  horsemen  are 
pushing  on,  the  archers  are  letting  fly  their  arrows  in  the  border,  and  the 
English  are  hard  pressed.  Four  of  them  appear  in  armour  ;  the  last 
falling  headlong  to  the  earth  without  any  shield,  but  lying  dead  in  the 
border  with  a  bossy  shield  close  to  him,  such  as  we  have  seen  before,  yet 
still  with  no  bearings  upon  it ;  the  first  being  armed  with  a  sword,  and 
bearing  on  his  shield  m  hat  we  have  not  seen  latcl}',  though  we  saw  it  so 
frequently  once,  a  cross,  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  with  a  bezant  in  each 
quarter  of  it ;  the  second  brandishing  a  battle-axe,  and  exhibiting  the 
very  same  bearings  as  before  ;  and  the  third  bearing  a  St.  Andrew's  cross, 
"with  no  bezants  to  it  at  all  ■\.  From  the  sameness  of  bearings  in  the 
second  with  the  first,  and  from  the  immediate  proximity  of  one  to  the 
other,  I  again  suppose  the  owners  to  be  brothers.  But,  as  both  are  ex- 
actly the  same  with  those  of  an  evident  Norman  before,  and  as  just  before 
we  find  both  an  Englishman  and  a  Norman  bearing  three  be%ants  each 
upon  his  shield,  disposed  in  the  very  same  manner,  we  find  an  identity  of 
armorial  ensigns  to  have  occurred  so  early  even  as  that  period  ;  Saxon  and 
Norman  families  to  have  even  then  had  a  community  of  arms  ;  a  per- 
plexity to  have  thus  begun,  which  has  ended  in  a  fantastic  derivation  of 
Saxon  families  from  Norman,  among  ourselves  ;  but  the  queen  herself  to 
have  adhered  amidst  the  perplexity,  to  truth  and  to  fact.  Another 
Englishman,  with  his  shield  at  his  back,  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  upon  the 
shield,  and  bezants  most  irregularly  disposed  in  the  quarters  of  it,  two  in 
the  first,  one  in  the  second,  five  in  the  third,  and  one  alone  in  tlie  fourth  ; 
is  wielding  his  battle-axe  against  a  Norman  horseman,  armed  only  with  a 
sword,  and  with  a  shield  of  three  bezants  in  a  curve  above  a  swan  X-  A 
Norman  is  then  seen  on  horseback,  with  a  shield  of  three  bezants  in  3 
curve  above,  like  the  tbrmer,  but  with  no  animal  below,  with  onlv 
bezants,  two,  one,  there  § .     So  closely  were  the  arms  of  one  warrior 

*  Hate,  page  25.  f  Ibid.  J  Ibid.  $  Ibid; 

assimilated. 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  "  243 

assimilated,  at  times,  to  those  of  another  !  Yet,  so  nicely  does  this 
loom-wrought  chronicle  distinguish  in  general  bet\\'een  them  !  and  so 
boldly  does  it  bring  them  close  together,  to  shew  it  docs  distinguish 
them  ! 

The  death  of  Harold  is  coming  on,  that  grand  consummation  of  vic- 
tor}' to  the  Normans.  Three  Englishmen  in  armour,  and  on  foot,  are 
opposing  the  Norman  horseman  before.  The  foremost  of  these  is  pro- 
tending his  lance  against  him,  and  bearing  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  upon  a 
shield,  that  is  quartered  with  as  much  of  heraldric  formality  as  a  modern 
escutcheon,  having  in  the  first  and  third  quarters  respectively  three 
bezants  in  a  curve,  but  in  the  second  and  fourth  only  one  bezant  each*. 
The  next  behind  is  the  great  standard- hearer  of  England,  grasping  with 
his  right  hand  the  statf  of  his  standard,  which  is  rested  upon  the 
ground  and  bears  the  Saxon  dragon  above ;  yet  carrying  on  his  left  a 
shield,  that  is  a  half-moon  in  form,  has  a  long  spike  projecting  from  the 
boss,  and  shows  three  bezants  in  a  kind  of  triangle  upon  the  upper  half, 
but  four  in  a  kind  of  lozenge  upon  the  lower  f .  This  shield,  there- 
fore, must  have  been  as  well  known  at  the  moment,  to  be  appropriated 
to  this  Saxon,  and  to  be  characteristic  of  him;  as  the  standard  was  to 
be  characteristic  of,  and  appropriated  to,  liis  very  office.  Behind  him 
is  the  king  himself,  his  standard-bearer  not  merely  stepping  before  him 
in  the  moments  of  cUuiger,  hut  his  own  station  being  ordinarily  as  king, 
between  what  was  called  flic  standai-d  as  the  king's  own,  and  the  dragon 
as  the  standard  of  the  nation +.  Yet  lie  himself  is  not  now  (as  we  have 
seen  him  before)  on  horseback,  A\ith  a  lance  in  one  hand,  and  a  shield 
upon  his  shoulder,  of  nine  bezants,  with  a.  plate  ^.  He  is  on  foot,  with 
a  lance  protended  by  his  right  arm,  and  a  shield  hanging  upon  his  letV, 
of  a  St.  Andrew's  cross  ;  one  bezant  in  each  of  the  first,  second,  and 
fourth  quarters,  and  five  bezants,  two,  two,  one,  obliquely  iii  the  third  *. 

*  Plate,  p.  27. 
t  Ibid. 

X  lluiuiiiJon,  208;  "  Loco  rcgio—,  quod  crat  ex  more  Inter  dratoncm  ct  insignc  quod 
"  vociitur   Standard." 
§  Plate,  page  22. 

•  Plate,  page  27. 

I  I  2  He 


241  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  IIL 

He  had  been  unhorsed,  probably,  in  the  battle ;  had  therefore  lost  his 
own  shield,  and  had  taken  up  another's.  The  owner  of  this  is  pointed 
out,  by  the  preservation  of  the  bearings  upon  it ;  as  Harold  himself  is 
decisively  indicated  under  the  disguise,  by  the  largeness  of  his  stature, 
and  bv  the  name  of  Harold  rex  inscribed  directly  over  his  head.  But 
the  standard-bearer  appears  dangerously  \N'ounded  by  the  Norman  horse- 
man above,  the  lance  of  the  latter  running  through  the  neck  of  the 
former,  and  the  point  coming  out  behind.  This  is  a  capital  inci- 
dent, in  the  closing  part  of  the  battle.  The  tapestry,  therefore, 
dwells  upon  it,  and  in  the  only  manner  in  which  tapestry  can  dwell,  by 
a  mark  of  progression,  and  a  signature  of  appropriation.  The  man  who 
stands  grasping  the  staff  of  his  standard  in  the  higher  line  of  the  work, 
is  thrown  forward  to  the  ground  in  the  lower,  to  shew  he  was  killed;  and 
to  shew,  likewise,  who  killed  him,  he  is  thrown  under  the  head  of  the 
Norman's  horse,  with  his  dragon  close  to  the  fore-feet  of  the  horse *.. 
The  death  of  Harold  then  follows :  the  position  of  the  warriors  is 
changed.  Another  Norman  on  horseback,  having  a  sword  instead  of  a 
lance  in  his  hand,  has  been  engaged  with  Harold,  no  longer  armed  with  a 
shield  and  a  lance;  but  having,  as  in  a  desperate  situation,  seized  a  battle- 
axe,  now  sinking  with  the  axe  in  his  hand  towards  the  ground,  and  bear- 
ing over  him  the  words  interfectus  est.  He  appears  again  in  the  border, 
as  quite  dead;  while  close  by  him  is  a  shield  of  four  bezants,  two  and 
two,  to  denote  the  Norman  who  killed  him,  who  is  not  denoted  in  the 
regxdar  line  of  the  work,  but  who  bears  the  same  arms  with  the  seventh 
Englishman  in  the  Saxon  group  before  f  ;  yet  the  same  that  appear  at 
the  stern  of  the  third  vessel  of  the  Normans  X-  The  English  still  make 
a  stand,  the  Normans  on  horseback  attack  them,  and  one  of  the  latter 
shews  a  shield  charged  with  thirteen  bezants,  three,  four,  above  a  plate, 
three,  two,  one,  below  it ;  while  another  of  them  has  only  two  in  one 
line  above  :i  plate,  but  none  below  it§;  being  the  same  person  that  we 
have  seen  the  second,  in  the  Norman  group  before  ||. 

Here  the  work  ends,  leaving  some  figures  that  were  never  finished, 
and  not  going  on  (as  was  plainly  intended   once)   to  the  coronation  of 

*  Plate,  p.  27.         t  V\zXe,  p.  25.         %  Plate,  p.  17.         §  Plate,  p.  27.         )|  Plate,  p.  25. 
A  William 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED,  245 

William  at  Westminster*.  But  we  thus  see  the  use  of  armorial  devices, 
common  to  A\'il]iam  and  to  Harold,  common  to  the  Saxons,  to  the 
Normans,  and  to  the  French,  at  and  hefore  the  Conquest;  even  as  dis- 
tinctly characteristic  of  particular  warriors  then,  as  ever  they  wei'e  in  any 
future  period  of  our  history.  The  arms,  therefore,  of  Normans  in  the 
great  guard-chamber  and  barons'  hall  of  William's  palace  at  Caen, 
those  of  the  latter  being  in  ^^  hat  are  denominated  by  Dr.  Ducarrcl  heater 
shields,  as  almost  all  those  in  the  tapestry  are  upon  shields,  not  square 
at  the  upper  end,  like  present  heaters,  but  as,  perhaps,  ancient  heaters 
were;  rounding  there,  then  contracting  gradually  at  the  sides,  and  end- 
ing in  a  point  below ;  may  be  all  that  they  are  considered  by  tradition 
to  be,  an  original  decoration  of  the  floor  and  walls  ;  from  their  connexion 
with  the  palace,  should,  in  all  nght  i-easoning,  be  so  considered,  unless 
there  was  positive  proof  to  the  contrary ;  and,  from  their  connexion 
with  the  tapestry,  as  well  as  the  palace,  viiist  be  actually  considered  so 
at  present  f.  But 

*  In  this  stage  of  the  work,  it  appears  to  have  been  discontinued.  Tlien,  being  found 
upon  admeasurement  to  be  casually  as  long  as  the  nave  of  the  cathedral  at  Bayeux,  it  was 
begged,  probably,  by  Odo,  the  bishop  of  this  church,  and  half-brother  to  William, 
as  a  hanging  for  the  nave.  It  has,  therefore,  been  used  as  a  hanging  for  it,  imnicmo- 
rially.  On  St.  John's  day,  and  during  the  octave  anne.xed  to  it  in  the  Romish  liturgy,  it 
is  there  hung  up  as  a  peculiar  decoration  for  a  particular  festival.  It  is  accordingly  noticed 
in  the  old  inventory  of  1476,  as  "  une  tente — ,  lequclle  est  tcnduc  environ  la  nef  de 
"  I'eglise,  le  jourct  par  les  octaves  dcs  reliques."  All  the  rest  of  the  year  it  is  '*  carefully 
*'  kept  locked  up  in  a  strong  wainscot  press"  within  a  chapel.  (Ducarrcl,  79.)  And  this 
careful  keeping  has  united  with  that  annual  airing,  to  preserve  the  tapestry  in  its  present 
state  of  perfection.  It  is  said,  however,  to  have  narrowly  escaped  destruction  in  that  burst 
of  barbarism,  which  recently  broke  out  like  a  volcano  in  Fi-ancc,  from  the  fiery  materials 
of  liberty^  and  raged  with  particular  fury  under  the  government  of  the  wretched  Robespierre. 

t  "  A  few  years  ago,"  says  Dr.  Ducarrcl,  p.  60,  •'  four  of  these  tiles  were  brought  to 
"  England  ;  one  of  them  was  soon  after  presented  to  my  worthy  friend,  Horace  Walpole, 
•'  esq.;  and  the  other  three  are  now  in  my  own  possession."  Twenty  of  the  tiles  were  taken 
up  in  the  summer  of  1786,  presented  to  Charles  Chadwick,  esq.  of  Healy  Hall  in  I>ancashire, 
and  exhibited  in  two  drawings  to  the  Society  of  Anticjuaries,  some  time  afterwards.  But,  as 
the  arms  upon  the  tiles  were  repeated  upon  two  diflVrent  rows  of  tiles  ;  as  "  ces  .xx  ecussons," 
^ays  an  in^cription  now  put  up  in  the  cloisters,  by  the  monks  of  the  abbey  to  which  these 
remains  belong,  *'  sonl  plus  ou  moins  rcpctes  surdcux  bandes  de  xvii  toises  de  long;"  Mr. 
llennikcr  procured  si.\teen  of  the  second  row,  some  few  months  afterward.     He  then   drew 

up 


2ifi  THE    C.VTHEDUAL    OV    COK.NVVALL  [ciIAP.   III. 

But  let  US  not  leave  the  point,  even  here.     So  long  and  so  grossly  mis- 
taken as  it  has  been,  let  us  mount  a  tew  ages  higher  in  the  country  of 

France, 

up  a  Ireatise  on  them,  and  printed  it  for  distribulion  among  his  friends ;  which  I  have  never 
seen,  ami  know  only  from  an  antagonist.  From  ihe  latter  I  find,  that  the  former  maintained 
in  it,  as  I  have  dune,  the  use  of  arms  before  the  Conquest;  and  appealed,  as  I  have  equally 
done,  to  the  tapestry  of  Baycnx  in  proof  of  llie  point,  but  appealed  also  to  the  ll]y  picture, 
which  I  have  not  done,  and  cannot  in  any  propriety  do.  (See  Bentham's  Ely,  Appendix,  p. 
3.  9.)  His  antagonist  replies,  that  he  has  "  examined  the  engravmgs  of  the  Bayeux 
"  tapestry  very  minutely,"  but  is  "  sorry"  he  *'  cannot  find  the  least  trace  of  what"  he 
"  would  venture  to  call  coats  of  arms."  Indeed,  "  there  are  upon  it,"  he  owns,  "  spurs, 
*'  buckles,  sword-chapes,  and  other  small  articles  yar  less  than  armorial  bearings."  This 
©"ic  is  admirable.  Because  the  arms  are  not  tricked  out  in  all  the  magnitude  of  modern 
arms,  they  are  no  arms  at  all  j  and  the  smallness  of  a  man  annihilates  his  very  nature.  But 
"  spurs,  buckles,  sword-chapcs,  and  other  small  articles,"  it  seems,  are  not  "  armorial  bear- 
"  ings,"  in  the  opinion  of  this  herald;  when  they  actually  appear  in  sei/era/ bearings  af 
present,  have  equally  appeared  forages,  and  when  one  of  them,  the  buckle,  appears  in  one  of 
his  own  coats  at  Caen.  (See  the  Gent.  Mag.  lix.  211,  212,  shield  2d,  in  drawing,  and  Ix.  711.) 
Nor  has  the  author  "  examined"  the  tapestry  in  the  engravings,  "  very  minutely,"  what- 
ever he  may  say ;  there  being  no  spurs,  110  buckles,  no  sword  chapes,  upon  the  shields  in  it, 
and  there  being  coats  of  arms  (as  we  have  seen)  repeatedly  there.  Vet  he  contends,  that 
•e<jat-armour,  if  used,  was  not  hereditary  at  the  Conquest  (p.  711);  when,  to  complete 
the  confusion  that  he  has  made  before,  in  lix.  212,  he  really  appropriates  some  of  his  own 
coats  at  Caen  to  Eng!ish-Normanyaw///e.9,  as  still  bearing  them;  and  when,  in  Ix.  711,  he 
equally  appropriates  one  of  these  very  coats  to  a  French-Norman yami/y,  as  equally  hearing 
it  still.  The  arms,  then,  are  as  old  as  the  palace,  and  the  palace  as  old  as  tradition  makes 
it.  "  CeS'Xx  p.i\es,"  say  the  monks,  as  they  record  the  tradition,  "  ont  ete  rcleves  d'une 
"  des  salles  de  I'ancicn  palais  les  dues  tie  Normandie  a  Caen,  autour  dc  la  quelle  avoient  etc 
"  peints  Ics  ecus  de  seigneurs,  <jui  avoient  accompagnes  le  due  Guillcaume  a  la  conqutte  de 
"  I'Angleterre."   (P.  212.) 

Since  I  wrote  the  paragraph  above,  even  in  January  1 795,  Mr.  Ilenniker  published  that  ac- 
count in  the  form  of  a  letter,  with  a  letter  additional,  under  the  title  of  "  Two  Letters  on  the 
"Origin,  Antiquity,  and  History,  of  Norman  Tiles,  stained  with  armorial  Bearings."  In 
this  work  Mr.  Ilenniker,  now  Mr.  Henniker  Major,  refers  the  commencement  of  arms 
among  us  to  the  feudal  tenures  (p.  16,  19),  and  to  the  introduction  of  these  tenures  into  Eng- 
land (p.  io-22);  appeals  to  ihc  Bayeux  tapestry,  but  not  very  minutely  or  very  forcibly,  for 
arms  (p.  24-28),  ascribing  toDucarrel  what  belongs  only  to  Lethicullier  (p.  25,  26] ;  appeals 
to  the  Ely  picture,  but  very  slightly  ^p.  31,  32);  and  shews  several  families,  Norman  or 
English,  to  bear  the  same  arms  as  those  on  the  tiles,  adding  four  more  to  the  sixteen  (p.  34- 
45,  misprinted  and  transposed  for  43,  48,  49,  52-S4>  55-6',  68,  71-73,  73,  74,  74,  75,  75- 

91.) 


SECT.   III.]  HISTORICALLY   SUUVEYED.  247 

France,  that  parent  at  once  of  population  and  refinement  to  this  island, 
which  appears  to  have  attained  the  character  that  it  lately  bore,  of  supe- 
rior polish  in  manners,  even  as  early  as  the  ninth  century*,  in  order 
to  shew  more  clearly  still  the  erroneousness  of  all  those  antiquaries, 
■who  have  reduced  the  commencement  of  escutcheons  and  of  arms  to  a 
period  bcloM'  the  Conquest.  I  shall,  however,  adduce  only  one  monu- 
ment for  the  purpose.  Tliis  is  the  famous  arch  of  Orange,  which  in 
another  work  I  have  shewn  to  have  been  erected  by  Domitius  ^Eno- 
barbus,  about  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  before  our  aera-f-.  In  this  mo- 
nument, though  about  twelve  hundred  years  prior  to  the  tapestry,  wc 
have  many  shields  equally  charged  with  devices  or  arms.  This  may 
seem  astonishing  to  most  of  my  readers,  but  is  actually  true  in  itself. 
Upon  the  eastern  face  of  the  arch  we  have  three  compartments,  each 
containing  a  trophy,  with  a  shield  on  either  side,  andyo«r  of  the  shields 
apparently,  all  six  seemingly,  decorated  with  figures,  not  reducible,  per- 
haps, to  any  in  the  present  system  of  heraldry,  but  prubably  trunks  of 
trees  with  branches,  transverse  or  lateral  J;  and  certainly,  as  appears  from 
Florus's  very  early  account  of  these  trophies.  Barbarian  or  Gallic§. 
On  the  western  face  are  two  trophies,  with  two  shields  exactly  the  same, 
and  one  above,  seemingly  Roman  ||.      Upon  the  northern  are  three  tro- 

91.)  "  There  have  been  other  armorial  bearings,'  adds  the  author,  p.  91,  "  in  the  same 
"  building  from  which  these  tiles  are  taken,  now  effaced  by  age.  La  Rocque,  in  the  second 
"  vol.  p.  1291,  asserts,  that  he  had  seen  the  arms  of  Percy,  viz.  a  shield  sable,  with  a  chief 
•*  indented  Or."  But,  as  the  author  subjoins  in  p.  107,  "  Robert  Wacc,  who  lived  in  the 
*'  time  of  our  Henry  the  First — ,  when  this  poet  describes  tlii-  battle  of  W'alesduncs,  fought 
"  in  1046, — says  that  there  was  no  baron, — who  had  not  his  gonfaron  (standard-bearer) 
^'following  him,  and  that  every  one  [all  of  them]  had  their  arms  painted  in  dfjferent  man- 
"  ners." 

♦  Gait,  i.  360,  Malmesbury  :  "  Carolus  [Calvus]— ,  cun)  vidissel — Johannem  [Scotuni] 
"  quiddam  fccisse  quod  Gallicanam  comitalem  offenderet,"  &c. 

t  Course  of  Hannibal,  i.  36-39. 

+  Breval's  Second  Travels,  ii.  144,  145,  and  plate. 

§  Florus,  iii.  2  :  "  Saxcas  erexere  turrcs,  ct  desuptr  e-xornata  artnis  ho^tiliius  troprea 
•'  fixere."  Mr.  Pownall,  in  his  Antiquities  of  Provence,  &c.  first  suggested  this  useful  appli- 
cation of  Florus,  p.  28. 

II  Sec  Brcval's  plate. 

|)hics, 


2  18  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  Ilf, 

phies,  with  twelve  shields,  all  equally  Gallic,  therefore,  some  presenting 
the  same  devices  as  the  preceding,  others  exhibiting  similar,  but  one  bear- 
ing a  large  circle  within  it*.  On  the  southern  are  three  trophies  and 
seven  shields  more,  the  latter  equally  Gallic,  therefore,  with  all  the  rest, 
bearing  devices  similar  to,  or  the  same  as,  the  others,  onlyone  of  them 
bearing  a  kind  ol"  gate  upon  it-f-.  These  Gallic  shields  have  two  among 
them  inscni)ed  with  Roman  names,  AJarius  and  Cuius,  but  names 
adopted,  undoubtedly,  by  (jauls,  as  the  shields  are  Gallic,  and  inscribed 
upon  the  shields  apparently  to  denote  their  Gallic  owners |.  Others 
bear  names  that  are  as  evidently  Gallic  as  the  shields  themselves,  Udillo, 
Dacurdo,  lloJagus,  and  Bodiiacus;  all  w  ritten,  like  the  Roman  before, 
in  Roman  characters,  within  an  adscititious  border  §.  But  we  have 
actually  one  shield,  that  has  a  regvlar  coat  of  arms  upon  it;  a  stork  in 
the  firbtand  fourth  quarters,  m  ith  a  kind  of  small  windmill  sails  cross- 
ing each  other,  so  used  (I  suppose)  on  board  the  Gallic  vessels  here  re- 
presensed,  on  the  second  and  third  Ij.  All  this  must  certainly  appear 
astonishing  to  our  minds,  when  Me  recollect  what  Dr.  Ducarrel  and  the 
heraldric  antiquaries  are  continually  averring,  about  the  late  origin  of 
arms^.  Yet 

*  See  Breval's  plate. 

+  See  the  same  plate. 

X  Breval,  149,  and  Pownall,  26,  plate  also,  p.  25. 

§  Breval,  149,  150;  Pownall,  26.  Let  me  add,  however,  in  opposition  to  Breval,  150, 
that  the  Bituitus  of  the  history  cannot  be  the  Boduacus  of  the  arch  ;  because  Biliiitiis  was  in 
the  battle  against  FaLii/s,  not  in  that  against  Domilius.  The  latter  "  adversiis  Allol)rogas 
"  ad  oppiduni  Vindalium  feliciler  piignavit,"  while  the  former  "  adversus  AUobrogas,  et 
"  Biluiium  Arvernorum  rcgem,  feliciter  piignavit."   (Livy's  Epitome,  1x1.) 

(I  See  Pownall's  plate  25. 

•[  Mr.  Swinburne,  in  his  Travels  through  and  from  Spain,  ii.  445,  arguing  against  the 
ascription  of  the  arch  to  Marius,  and  aiming  to  reduce  the  date  of  it  as  low  as  Adrian,  or  the 
Antonines,  terminates  all  his  reasoning  with  this  fundamental  assertion ;  that,  in  the  time 
even  of  Marius,  "  Rome  had  not  then  deviated  so  much  from  the  austere  simplicity  of  her 
"  republican  principles,  as  to  suffer  her  generals  to  erect  trophies  of  their  victories."  In 
modern  reasoning,  assertions  merely  gratuitous  are  often  brought  forward  as  conclusive  argu- 
ments. We  see  one  so  brought  here ;  and,  to  shew  how  false  it  is,  I  need  only  repeat  at 
large  what  I  have  partially  cited  before  from  I'lorus,  as  relative  to  this  very  arch  and  another : 

*'  utriusque 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVF.TED.  210 

Yet,  to  carry  that  origin  to  its  full  point  of  remoteness,  let  me  in  con- 
clusion remark  with  Mr.  Pow  nail,  that,  in  this  GaUic  memorial  erected 
by  Roman   hands  so   many  centuries  ago,  almost  "  each  boitcfcr''   [an 
Englishman  would  have  said,  bucldcf]  "  seems  to  have  its  charactcrisfic 
"  mark  and  distinctive  engraving  on  it,  according  to   the  custom  of  the 
"  Gauls  and  Germans,  and  indeed  of  all  military  nations  ;  which  was  ex- 
"  pressed,  not  only  by  lines,  but  colours  *."     Mr.  Pownall  here  cites  in  a 
note  what  is  so  happy  an  evidence  of  his  assertion,  that  it  ought  to  be  ex- 
alted into  the  text.     "  Nothing  was  so  conspicuous  in  the  triumph,** 
Florus  tells  us,  "  as  king  Bituitus  himself  in  those  varionshj  coloured  arnnj, 
"  in  which  he  had  fought  f."     And  the  Germans  "  distinguish  their 
"shields,''   adds  Tacitus,   "with  the  choicest  colows"^.''     But,  as  Mr. 
Pownall  proceeds  very  judiciously  in  the  general  sentiment,  "  this  bear- 
"  ing  of  a  national,  a  family,  and  even  a  personal,  distinctive  mark 
<'  amongst  warrior-nations,  has  always  been,  and  is,  common  to  all  people  in 
*'  every  stage  of  civilization.  Warriors,  in  that  state  which  we  call  savage, 
"  observe  this  custom.     The  savages  of  America  do  at  this  day,  vi  hat  the 
"  roving  savages  of  Rome,  and  those  of  the  North,  did  formerly.     They 
"  [these]  took  for  their  distinctive  mark  the  eagle,  the  boar,  the  dog,"  and, 
as  he  should  in  consistency  have  added,  the  stork  §  ;   "  these  [those]  take 

"  utriusque  vicloriae  quod  quantumque  gaudium  fiierit,  vel  hinc  existimari  potest,  quod  et  Do- 
"  mitius^uobarbus  et  Fal)ius  Maximus,  ipsis  quibus  dimicaverant  locis,  saxeas  ercxerc  turres, 
"  ctdesuper  cxornataarmishostilibus  iropaea,  fixere;  quum  hicmos  iniisitatus  fuerit  rostris!," 
not  because  they  were  republicans  forsooth  !  an  intimation  worthy  only  of  a  Bcdhimite 
Frenchman  at  present !  but  "  nunquam  enim  populus  Romanus  hostibus  domilis  victoriam 
"  suam  exprobravit,"  a  position  equally  false  in  fact,  yet  much  more  honourable  in  sen- 
timent. 

•  Pownall,  25. 

t  Florus,  iii.  1  :   "  Nil  tam  conspicuuni  in  triumpho,  quam  rex  ipse  Bituitus  discoloribus 
"  in  armis — ;  qnalis  pugnaverat." 

X  Tacitus  De  Mor.  Germ.   §   6  :     "  Scuta   autem  [tantum]  lectissimis  coloribus  dis- 
"  tinguunt." 

$  "A  stork,  the  proper  emblem  of  migration,  and  peculiarly  of  migration  from  winter 
•*  regions  to  those  nearer  the  sun."   (Pownall,  36.) 

VOL.  I.  K  K  ••  some 


250  THE    CATnEDUAL    OF    COKNWALL  [cHAP.  Ml. 

"  some  bird  or  beast,  according  to  tbc  idea  of  tbe  character  which  they 

"  would  express  ||." 

Even 

II  Pnwr.all',  25,  26.  Tliis  ;aitrioi-  knew  notliiiig  of  Breval's  plates  and  Breval's  description  of 
the  artli,  iliL-rcforc  takes  no  notice  of  them  in  his  eniuueration  of  writers  and  designers,  p.  22', 
23,  and  thus  has  missed  what  I  may  fairly  call,  I  believe,  the  best  representation  of  the  arch  ever 
yet  given,  with  the  best  account  before  Mr.  Pownall's  own.  The  aiuhor  also  sees  not  the 
name  of  Caiw,  seen  bv  Mr.  Brcval  there;  and  reads  the  other  names  of  Mr.  Breval,  Mario 
or  Marco,  D.icado  or  Ricard,  Unllus,  Auto,  Sacrol'uig,  and  Ruduacus  (26,  27).  In  tliis 
opposition  and  encounter  of  readings,  which  of  them  shall  we  prefer?  Not  kis  surely,  whoj 
assigning  tlie  arch  to  Fabius  v;hen  it  belonged  to  Domitius,  actually  spies  one  characteristic 
circumstance  of  Fabius's  victory  in  Domitius's  arch.  But  indeed  Mr.  Fownall  is  even  too 
lively  and  too  ingenious  to  be  consistent  and  uniform.  He  says  in  my  text  above,  that 
"  this  bearing  of  a  national,  a  family,  and  even  a  personal,  distinctive  mark  Has  always  been, 
"  and  is,  common  to  all  people  in  every  stage  of  civilizaiion  ;"  yet  he  instantly  adds,  that 
"  the  civilized  Romans  abided  not  by  these  silly  marks  ;"  and  he  equally  adds,  that  "  this, 
"  before  writing  was  in  common  use,  was  of  course  and  necessity  the  study  and  peculiar  busi- 
"  ness  of  the  heralds  of  an  army,  but  thai  this  j)icture-writing,  since  elementary  writing  and 
"  names  are  the  conmion  and  the  proper  modes  of  communication  and  distinction,  should 
"  become,  in  all  the  pomp  and  circumstances  of  savage  manners,  a  science  of  high  name 
"  called  Heraldry,  is  too  absurd' for  any  thing  but  the  poverty  of  pride."  The  period  runs  off 
with  all  the  graceful- rapidity  of  a  fine  race-horse  upon  the  turf; 

Quadrupedante  pntrem  sonitu  quatit  ungula  campiim ; 

and  it  reaches  the  goal,  in  a  career  of  triumph.  But  unfortunately  the  poor  animal  has  given 
bis  back  a  fatal  strain,,  bv  his  exertions.  Wliat  has  "  always  been  common  to  all  people 
"  in  every  stage  of  civilizaiion,"  was  actually  despised  as  "silly"  by  "  the  civilized  Ko- 
"  mans,"  and  really  had  its  birth  "  before  writing  was  in  common  use,"  even  in  all  the 
'*  pomp  and  circumstance  of  savage  manners."  This  is  a  splendid  instance  of  that  meteorous 
kind  of  composition,  which  bur^sts  out  in  a  blaze,  then  loses  itself  in  its  own  smoke,  and, 
when  it  bursts  out  again,  appears  to  have  migrated  into  an  opposite  point  of  ilie  heavens. 
The  fact  is,  that  Mr.  Pownall  began  with  considering,  the  distinctions  of  arms,  as  maintained 
in  all  ages  of  civilization ;  that  he  afterwards  reflected,  they  were  found  also  among  sa^'age 
uations ;  that  his- train  of  ideas  took  fir-e  at  the  reflection,  and  blazed  out  in  making  the 
civilized  Romans  despise  these  distinctions,  so  throwing  abuse  upon  heraldiy  as  founded  only 
on  savage  manners.  Such  grass  contradictions  is  a  mind  like  Mr.  Pownall's,  brilliant,  re- 
fined, and  learned,  capable  of  admitting  within  so  short  a  compass.  But  let  us  advert  to 
another  set  of  them.  In  p.  28,  29,  Mr^  Pownall  argues,  that  the  arch  was  not  "  erected  to 
i'  the  honour  of  the  victory  gained  by  Marius  over  the  Cimbri  and  Ambrones,"  because  thea 
'<  we  should  have  seen  amongst  the  torphees  the  bull's  head,^'  the  ensign  of  the  Cimhri,  Yet 
m  p.  25  he  says,  that  "  each  bonder  seems  to  have  its  characteristic  mark   and  distinctive 

"  engraving 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  2f.  1 

Even  in  our  own  country,  let  me  subjoin,  in  order  to  bring  the  \\hole 
home  to  ourselves,  we  find  armorial  bearings- in  use  among  us  before  the 
Conquest.  In  that  church  of  Aldbrough  within  Holderness,  which  I 
have  noticed  before  as  proved  to  be  Saxon  by  a  Saxon  inscription  on  its 
walls,  and  which  exhibits  the  inscri[)tion  engraved  upon  the  southern  wall 
of  the  nave,  running  round  a  stone  that  projects  about  two  inches  from 
the  wall,  and  has  the  area  within  divided  into  eight  segments  by  lines 
from  centre  to  circumference,  merely  in  the  ancient  mode  of  delineating 
the  cross  of  Christ,  is  within  one  of  these  segments,  but  near  the  bottom 
of  the  stone,  what  is  denominated  even  by  a  herald  "a  rude  figure,  com- 
"  posed  of  six  lines  crossing  each  other  at  right  angles*."  So  much 
does  misapprehension  disguise  objects  by  description  !  The  object  is  ap- 
parently to  the  eye  a  port-cullis  ;  that  armorial  bearing,  which  became 
the  characteristic  ensign  of  the  house  of  Lancaster  particularly,  and  is  still 

*'  engraving  upon  it,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Gaiils  ami  Germans;"  in  |).  26  he  adds, 
that  "  the  savages  of  America  do  at  this  day,  what  the  roving  savages — of  the  North  did  for- 
"  mcrly;"  in  p.  27  asserts  with  regard  to  Sacroling,  a  name  read  by  him  on  the  arch,  that 
"  ling  is  a  termination  commonly  used  among  the  itorlhern  people,  to  express  descendants  or 
"  emigrating  colony;"  in  p.  35,  36,  remarks  concerning  the  Gallic  names  on  the  arch,  that 
"  he  thinks  they  belonged  to  some  of  those  people"  [a  note  here  specifies  "  the  Cimbri"  ex- 
pressly], "  who,  coming  from  the  North,  were  settled  on  the  coast  in  Aquitaine  and  I'oictou, 
"  countries  so  called  from  these  settlers,  as  Ach-y-Tane,  the  tribes  of  the  Tanes,  in  later 
"  times  called  Danes ;"  and  in  p.  36  observes  finally,  that  the  device  upon  one  of  the  shields, 
"  a  stork,  the  proper  emblem  of  migration,  and  peculiarly  of  migration  from  ii'inter  regions 
"  to  those  nearer  the  sun,"  confirms  him  in  his  opinion.  Thus  the  argument  derived  from 
the  absence  of  the  bull's  head  among  the  hostile  ensigns  on  the  arch,  is  first  precluded  in 
p.  25-27,  then  proposed  in  p.  28,  29,  and  then  rejected  again  in  p.  35,  36,  while  Mr.  Powiiall 
is  wholly  unconscious  of  all ;  the  Cimbri,  in  full  despite  of  the  argument,  being  held  and 
held  to  have  been  the  nation  beaten  in  the  victory  eommemoraled  upon  it.  Coiitradu.iions 
so  striking  as  these,  are  the  death-wounds  of  an  author,  inflicted  by  his  own  hand;  and 
carry  him  at  once,  with  self-murder  on  his  head,  to  the  bar  of  condemnation. 

•  Mr.  Brooke,  Somerset  Herald,  and  a  man  of  considerable  abilities,  in  Arch.  vi.  40,  41, 
and  plate  :  "  The  three  crosses  combined,"  as  Mr.  Fegge  callo  the  Jmir  lines  intersecting 
each  other  at  the  centre,  "  in  the  area  of  the  stone,  may  probably  allude  10  the  Trinity." 
(Arch.  vii.  89.)  But  in  ii.  2,  before,  we  have  a  cross  nearly  similar,  yet  formed  only  oi  three 
lines  ;  and  a  second,  formed  only  of //ro.  We  see  that  therefore  to  be  nv.'iclya  sincle  cross, 
a  little  more  involved  and  complex  than  these,  but  still  iu  the  very  form  ol  them. 

K  K  2  retained 


257  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  IH. 

retained  by  its  descendants  the  dukes  of  Beaufort ;  only  uithortt  the 
square  piece  of  timber  that  now  guards  the  sides  of  it,  uithout  the  rings  or 
the  cliains  that  now  are  attached  to  the  corners,  and  in  its  ancient,  primi- 
tive fashion  among  us.  The  figure  is  apparently  armorial,  as  it  was  evi- 
dently intended  to  unite  with  the  inscription,  in  shewing  by  whom  the 
church  was  built.  The  builder  assuredly  lived  in  a  castle  at  Aldbrough, 
which  is  found  existing  a  few  years  afterward  f  ;  and  therefore  took  the 
port-cullis  for  his  badge,  just  as  the  founder  of  the  house  of  Lancaster 
took  it  afterwards,  from  his  castle  of  Beaufort  in  Anjou.  Nor  let  it  be 
presumed  in  the  vanity  of  ignorance,  which  is  almost  always  attributing  a 
singular  invention  to  modern  times,  that  a  port-cullis  is  merely  a  modern 
defence  for  an  ancient  gate.  It  is  plainly  an  ancient  one,  derived  to  us 
from  those  who  certainly  had  castles  in  the  island,  the  Romans  or  Roman 
Britons  %  ;  and  transmitted  through  the  Saxons  to  ourselves.  The  Ro- 
mans had  the  port-cullis  in  use,  so  early  as  the  days  of  Hannibal ;  when 
he  sent  a  party  of  Roman  deserters  to  enter  Salapia  in  Italy  by  night  as 
Romans,  and  when  these,  says  Livy,  found  "  the  gate  was  closed  as  the 
"  cataract  was  let  dotvn ;  this  the  garrison  partly  raise  hy  levers''  in  a 
windlass,  "  partly  lift  hy  ropes''  fastened  to  the  ends  and  to  the  windlass, 
"  so  high  that  the  deserters  could  pass  under  it  erect;  the  way  was 
"  scarcely  opened  enough,  when  the  deserters  rush  in  eagerly  through 
"  the  gate ;  but  when  nearly  six  hundred  had  entered,  the  rope  hy  ivhich 
'•  the  cataract  tvas  suspended,  being  suffered,  to  run  hack,  it  fell  down  uith 
"  a  frreat  noise  §."  Here  we  see  the  modern  port-cullis  in  full  form 
among  the  ancients.  We  also  see  the  Roman  nature  of  the  name,  Porta 
Clausa ;  in  French,  Porte  d'Ecluse,  now  applied  only  to  a  sluice  or  flood- 
gate by  the  French,  the  very  object  to  which,  equally  as  to  a  port-cullis, 

t  Arch.  vi.  45,  46,  47  :  "  In  early  times,"  says  Mr.  Brooke  himself,  p.  49,  "  hefore 
''  the  use  of  autographs,  and  when  seals  were  the  only  evidence,  we  find  our  ancestors  were 
"  much  more  tenacious  of  such  [armorial]  ensigns,  than  oi  th^ir  nominal  appellation." 

X  Nennius,  c.  ii.  p.  98  :     "  Cum  innumeris  castellis  ex  lapidibus  et  lateribus  fabricatis." 

%  Livy,xxvii.  28:  "[Porta]  Cataracta  dejecta  clausa  erat ;  cam  partmi  vectibus  levant, 

"  partim  funibus  subducunt,  in  tantuni  altitudinis,  ut  subire  recti  possent ;  vixdum  satis 

"  patcbat  iter,  quum  perfugx  certatim  ruunt  per  portam ;  et  quum  sexcenti  ferme  infrassent, 

"  rtmisso  fun.e  quo  suspensa  erat,  cataracta  niagno  sonilu  cecidit." 

2  was 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  25iJ 

was  Cataracta  applied  by  tlie  Romans  ;  and  in  Welsh,  what  is  obviously 
the  very  source  of  our  English  appellation,  Porth-cwlis,  a  gate  being 
Forth  in  Welsh,  and  CwUs  literally  a  closer,  but  largely  a  wear,  a  cata- 
ract, and  even  by  itself  a  port-cuUis.  Little  reason  therefore  have  we  to 
fear  finding  a  port-cuUis  among  the  Saxons,  though  the  French  have  so 
far  lost  the  name  and  the  origin,  as  to  call  it  only  Ilerce,  a  harrow,  or 
Sarrashie,  the  harrow  of  the  Saracens.  Being  the  ancient  closer  of  a 
castle-gate,  it  became  the  natural  symbol  of  a  castle,  was  therefore  used 
as  such  by  John  of  Gaunt  from  his  castle  in  Anjou,  and  had  been  pre- 
viously used  by  Ulf  from  his  castle  of  Aldbrough.  Tliis  latter  castle  was 
soon  taken  from  the  family  of  Ulf,  in  the  violence  of  the  Norman  con- 
quest ;  and  the  family  therefore,  though  restored  in  its  dignity,  yet  not 
reinstated  in  its  castle,  retained  not  the  cognizance  afterwards  ||.  But, 
previously  to  this  humiliation  of  the  house,  the  port-cullis  served  as  an 
useful  indication  of  the  founder ;  and  he,  who  is  simply  denominated  Ulf 
in  the  inscription,  is  by  the  cognizance  marked  out  to  be  Ulf,  the  lord  of 
the  castle.  We  thus  find  an  armorial  ensign  even  in  the  times  of  the 
Saxons,  used  as  famiharly  and  easily  as  in  our  own,  to  denote  a  particular 
famil}'. 

Yet  let  us  mount  still  higher.  In  Nennius,  who  wrote  about  630  ^  ; 
or  in  his  Enlarger,  who  interpolated  under  858  *  ;  we  find  Arthur  re- 
ported "  in  the  battle  of  Castle  Gunnion,  to  have  borne  tlie  image  of  the 
"  cross  of  Christ,  and  of  the  perpetual  flrgin  St.  Mary,  upon  his 
^  shoulders  ;"  or,  as  another  historian  Mriting  about  1 120,  and  calling 
it  merely  the  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  more  pointedly  says,  to  have 
borne  it  "  fastened  to  his  armour;"  or,  as  a  third  v\  riter  speaks  about  the 
same  year,  in  a  strain  of  explicitness  more  consonant  with  historical  pro- 
priety, "  to  have  had  a  shield  on  his  shoulders,  on  which  was  painted  the 

H  Arch.  vi.  43, 45,  48,  49. 

^  The  history  comes  clown  in  the  last  chapter,  the  65th,  to  the  baptism  of  Edwin  king  of 
Northiniibria  ia  627.  (Bedc's  Hist.  ii.  4.J  This  marks  the  general  rera  of  his  writing  very 
accurately. 

*  Nennius,  53,  94:  "  Octingcntesimo  quinquagcsimo  octavo  anno  Dominica:  Tncar- 
**  nalionis." 

"  image 


254  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORxNWALL  [cHAP.  Til. 

"  image  of  St.  Mary,  the  jNIother  of  God:"  "  and  the  Pagans  were 
"  turned  to  flight  that  day,  and  many  fell,  and  a  great  destruction  came 
"  upon  them,  by  the  virtue  of"  the  image  of  "  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
"  and  of  his  holy  Mother  f."  This  shews  us  very  hvelily  the  great  rea- 
son, why  the  cross  was  so  much  borne  as  we  have  seen  it  before  by  vs-ar- 
riors  ;  men  very  naturally  deviating  into  a  too  confident  but  a  still  re- 
ligious fasliion,  of  transferring  an  aid  merely  spiritual  to  a  purpose  ivhnlli) 
temporal,  when  the  battle  is  between  Christians  and  Christians,  but  half 
spiritual  as  well  as  temporal,  when  the  battle  is,  as  in  Arthur's  case  it 
was,  of  Christians  against  Pagans.  Arthur  therefore  took  for  his  cogni- 
zance on  his  shield,  our  Saviour  upon  the  cross,  and  the  Virgin  Mary  at 
the  foot  of  it ;  moved  through  the  ranks  as  he  gave  his  orders,  bearing 
bis  shield  upon  his  shoulders ;  and  modestly  attributed  his  great  victory 
at  last,  not  to  his  ow  n  good  management,  but  to  the  Providence  of  God 
in  general,  to  tlie  power  of  our  Saviour  and  his  JNIother  in  particular,  so 
pourtrayed  upoii  his  shield.  Arthur  thus  acted  like  a  Crusader,  though 
ages  before  Crusades  begun  ;  and  felt,  I  doubt  not,  an  energy  from  the 
act,  that  braced  his  arm,  that  strung  his  heart,  that  gave  him  at  once  the 
calm  dignity  of  intellect  and  the  impelling  fervour  of  passion,  that  thus 
made  him  more  a  hero  than  mere  nature  could  ever  have  made  him. 

The  floor  of  duke  William's  palace  then  at  Caen  in  Normandy,  A^hat- 
evcr  Dr.  Duearrel,  in  a  mere  echo  of  the  common  babble  of  antiquaries, 
may  repeat  to  the  contrary,  might  be  many  ages  older  than  tradition  re- 
ports it  to  be,  notwithstanding  the  armorial  distinctions  delineated  upon 
it.  This  floor,  let  me  repeat  from  the  Doctor,  "  is  paved  with  tiles — ; 
"  eight  rows  of  these  tiles  are  charged  with  ditTcrent  coats  of  arms — ; 
"  the  intervals  between  each  of  these  rows  are  filled  up  with  a  kind  of 

t  Ncnnius,  Ixlli.  :  "  Bellum  in  Castello  Gunnion,  in  quo  Arthur  portavit  imaginem  crucis 
"  Christi,  et  Sanctse  Marias  semper  Virginis,  super  iuimeros  suos ;  et  Pagani  versi  sunt  in 
"  fugani  in  jllo  die,  et  niulti  cecicierunt,  piagaque  magna  super  eos  vcnit,  per  virtutem 
"Domini  Jesu  Christi,  sanctacque  sua;  Genitricisj"  or,  as  Maimesbury  adds,  Arthur 
acted  that  day  "  frctus  imagine  DominiciE  Matris,  qnam  arniis  suis  insuerat"  (f.  4) ;  or,  as 
an  author  in  Wharton's  Anglia  Sacra,  ii.  658,  writes  "  humeros  etiam  suosclipeo  protegit, 
"  quo  luiago  S.  Maria;,  Dei  Gcnitricisj  depicta  constitit." 

"  tesselated 


SRCT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  255 

"  tesselated  pavement ;  the  middle  whereof  represents  a  maze  or  laby- 
"  rinth,  about  ten  feet  in  diameter,  and  so  artfully  contrived,  that  were 
"  we  to  suppose  a  man  following  all  the  intricate  meanders  of  its  volutes, 
"  he  could  not  travel  less  than  a  mile  before  he  got  from  the  one  end  to 
*'  the  other."  This  maze  was  made,  we  may  be  sure,  in  representation 
of  that  usual  appendage  once  to.  all  our  grander  pleasure-grounds,  the 
winding  labyrinth.  At  Hampton  Court,  in  a  wilderness  of  ten  acres,  is 
"  a  labyrinth  possibly  as  old  as  the  time  of  Henry  VHI.  As  this  is  per- 
"  haps  the  only  such  garden-device,  now  remaining  after  the  devastations 
"  of  JMcssrjs.  Kent  and  Brown,  I  shall  mention  some  particulars  relative 
"  to  it.  The  tvinding  ivalhs  amount  to  half  a  mile,  though  f he  whole  e.r- 
"  tent  is  not  perhaps  more  than  a  quarter  of  an  acre;  and  there  is  a  stand 
"  adjacent,  in  which  the  gardener  places  himself,  in  order  to  extricate  you 
"  by  his  direction,  after  the  stranger  acknowledges  himself  to  be  com- 
"  pletely  tired  and  puzzled. — Switzer,"  in  his  Ichnographia  Rustica, 
3  volumes  octavo,  "  condemns  this  labyrinth  for  having  hnt  four  stops, 
"  whereas  he  had  given  a  plan  for  one  with  tirentij  *."  Such  tesselated 
pavements,  however,  as  this  which  had  the  maze  in  the  middle  of  it,  came 
to  us  originally  from  the  Romans  ;  and  the  Romans  had  them  from  their 
general  masters  in  knowledge,  the  Greeks.  "  Pavements  had  their  rise," 
says  Plinv,  "  among  the  Greeks,  being  elaborated  by  art  in  the  manner. 
"  of  a  picture,  till  the  lithostrota,"  or  floors  formed  of  inlaid  stones,  "  ex- 
*•  pelled  thcmv — The  pavements  first  formed,  I  believe,  are  what  we  are 
"  now  recalling  into  use,  the  harharic  and  the  tile-made,  paved  with 
"  beetles  in  Italy..  This  we  may  conclude  from  the  name  itself,"  of  Bar- 
baric. "  One  so  wrought  at  Rome  was  first  made  in  the  temple  of 
"  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  after  the  commencement  of  the  third  Punic  war. 
"  Rut  that  pavements  were  frequent  before  the  war  wiih  the  Cimbri 
"  afterwards,  to  the  high  gratification  of  taste,  is  evident  from  that  line 
"  in  Lucilius, 

"  Pavements  inlaid,  and  worm'd  all  o'er  with  art +." 

The 

*  Arch.  vii.  1-25,  126;    Mr.  Barrington, 

t  Pliny,  xxxvi.  25  :  "  Favinienta  origineni  apuii  Grxcos  habcnt,  cliborala  arte  picturce 
"  rations,  d:>nec  lithostrota  cxpuiere  tani. — Pavimenia  credo  priiuum  I  icia,  quae  lumc  revo- 
"  cannis,  barbarica  atque  subtegulanea,  in  Italia  fistucis  pavila  ;  hoc  certc  ex  nomine  ipso 

•'  jntclligi 


2oO  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORXWALL  [cHAP.  III. 

The  lines  of  Lucilius  himself  are  rather  more  apposite  still : 

I  , Small  squares 

Inlaid  by  paving,  and  worni'd  o'er  with  art, 
Forni'd  in  one  whole  |. 

Rut  "  the  lithostrota,"  or  floors  formed  of  inlaid  stones,  adds  Plinj, 
•■'  l)ogan  now  under  Sylla  with  crusts  of  stone  very  small  indeed  ;  and 
"  tliat,  A\-hich  he  laid  in  the  temple  of  Fortune  at  Prceneste,  remains  to  this 
"  day.  Then  pavements  were  raised  from  the  ground,  transferred  to 
"  rooms  with  vaults  under  them,  and  made  glassy.  This  is  a  very  late 
"  invention ;  as  Agrippa,  who  painted  the  tile-floors  in  his  baths  at 
"  Rome  with  enamel,  and  decorated  all  the  walls  with  whitewash,  would 
"  certainly  have  framed  his  chambers  with  glass//  floors,  if  that  invention 
"  had  been  then  known  §."  These  four  sorts  of  flooring  we  surprisingly 
find  all  together,  in  the  great  guard-chamber  and  barons'  hall  of  Wil- 
liam, which  were  rooms  upstairs,  and  had  waiting-rooms  (now  granaries 
equally  with  themselves)  under  them.  In  the  guard-chamber  "  the 
"  floor  is  paved  with  tiles,  baked  almost  to  a  vitrification"  A  part  also 
is  "  elaborated  by  art  in  the  manner  of  a  picture,"  as  "  eight  rows  of 
"  these  titles — are  charged  with  diflerent  coats  of  arms,"  and  as  those  in 
the  barons'  hall  "  are  stained  with  the  figures  of  stags  and  dogs  in  fiill 
"  chase."  Another  part  exhibits  "the  lithostrota,"  or  floors  formed  of 
inlaid  stones,  as  "  the  intervals  between  each  of  these  rows  are  filled  up, 
"  with  a  kind  of  tcssclated  pavement."     We  have  also  here 

"  intelligl  potest.  Roinae  scalptiiratum  in  tempio  Jovis  Capilolini  aede,  primum  factuni  est 
"  post  tertium  Punicum  bellum  initum.  Frequentata  vero  pavimcnta  ante  Cimbricum, 
"  magna  gratis  animoi'um  ;  indicioest  Lucilianus  ille  versus, 

"  Arte  pavimeiita  atque  eniblemata  vermiculata." 
X  Lucilius, 

TesserulK 

Arte,  pavlmento,  atque  emblemate  vermiculato, 

Composite. 

§  Pliny,  xxxvi.  25 :  "  Lithostrota  coeptavere  jam  sub  Sylia,  parvulis  certe  crustis;  extat 
"  hodieque,  quod  in  Fortunce  delubro  Prasneste  fecit.  Pulsa  delude  ex  humo  pavimcnta ;  in 
"cameras  transiere  e  vitro:  novitium  est  hoc  inventum.  Agrippa  eerie  in  thermis  quas 
"  Roniae  fecit,  figlinum  opus  encausto  pinxit  j  in  reliquis,  aliwria  decoravitj  non  dubie 
"  vitreas,  faclurus  cameras,  si  prius  iuventum  id  fuisset." 

Small 


SECT.  m.].  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  25? 

Small  squares 

Inlaid  by  paving,  and  worm'd  o'er  with  art, 
Form'd  in  one  whole; 

as  the  middle  of  this  tesselated  pavement  represents,  what  exactly  meets 
the  very  terms  of  Lucilius,  and  what  therefore  I  suppose  Lucilius  to  have 
actually  meant,  a  maze  or  labyrinth ;  such  as  we  know  to  have  been 
framed  in  Lemnos,  in  Crete,  and  in  Egvpt,  composed  less  artfully  than 
ours  of  great  buildings,  yet  wound  so  well  in  all  the  spires  and  folds  of 
an  artificial  serpent,  as  not  to  be  traced  without  a  clue.  We  see  also  the 
iltliostroton  again,  in  that  judicial  chamber  without  the  prcetorium  at 
Jerusalem  ;  at  which  the  president  of  the  province  sat  in  state  upon  his 
tribunal,  and  for  which  we  are  obliged  in  our  English  Bible  to  use  only 
the  simple  appellation  of  pavement*.  We  see  it  once  more  in  those 
"  inlaid  square  pieces  of  coloured  marble  in  floors,"  says  an  author  who 
wrote,  I  believe,  about  the  year  171O,  "  such  as  ivere  lateh/  discovered  at 
"  Blcnheim-Jiouse,''  on  pulling  down  (a  few  years  before)  that  hunting- 
seat  of  our  Norman  and  Saxon  kings  f .  But  we  see  it  finally  in  the  tiles, 
which  have  been  equally  discovered  in  the  Saxon  chancel  of  St.  German's, 
so  very  like  in  one  grand  point  to  the  tiles  of  the  great  guard-chamber, 
which  are  "  baked  almost  to  a  vitrification  ;"  so  very  like  too,  to  the 
"  glassy  floors"  of  Pliny;  being  covered  over  with  a  thin  coat  of  vitri-^ 
ficd  or  glassy  matter  on  the  surface,  thin  enough  to  be  transparent  in  it- 
self, and  to  shew  the  flowers  or  figures  below. 

This  sort  of  ornamental  pavement,  in  its  introduction  at  Rome,  was 
first  employed  in  decorating  a  temple.  Thus  "  the  barbaric  and  the 
"  tile-made,"  which  Pliny's  cotemporaries,  he  tells  us,  "are  now  recalling 
"  into  use,"  and  \\hich  therefore  prevailed,  I  suppose,  so  much  as  from 
their  remains  we  find  them  prevailing,  through  three  or  four  ages  after- 
ward, was  first  laid  "  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  CapUoUtius,  after  the  com- 
"  mencement  of  the  third  Punic  war."  'J'hus  also  "  the  I  it  host  rot  a  be- 
*'  gan — under  Sylla  ;  and  that,  which  was  laid  in  the  temple  of  Fortune 
"  atPraMR'stc,  remains  to  this  day."     Such  facts  do  honour  to  the  head 

*  John,  xix.   13.   Ai5o<-fai'io». 

t  Ainsworlh  under  Crtisla;  the  only  preserver  of  the  fact,  I  believe. 

VOL.  I.  L  1.  and 


258  Trir.    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.  lU, 

ami  licarl  of  the  Romans.;  a  reverence  for  the  Great  Lord  of  all,  being 
one  of  tUejustest  sentiments  and  finest  feelings  in  the  soul  of  man,  one 
that  most  exalts  even  wliile  it  humbles  the  soul,  one  that  raises  the  soul 
nearest  to  a  level  with  the  adoring,  yet  dignified,  Intellects  of  Heaven. 
So  applied  to  the  decoration  of  temples  at  first,  the  art  of  making  what  the 
Romans  called  musire,  and  we  with  some  deviation  from  them  denomi- 
nate mosaic,  was  transt'erred  afterwards  to  ornament  the  houses  of  pro- 
vincial presidents,  the  very  pavilions  of  generals,  and  the  very  parlours  of 
private  gentlemen.     Juhus  Caesar,  as  Suetonius  informs  us,  always  "  car- 
*'  ricd  about  with  him  in  his  expeditions,  pavements  tesselated  and  cut  " 
for  the  tlooring  of  his  tent*,     ^^'e  are  finding  such  pavements  continu- 
allv,  in  all  the  Roman  parts  of  our  own  island  ;  not  confined  to  baths,  as 
the  popular  opinion  of  our  antiquaries  too  narrowly  confines  them,  but 
the  fixed  carpetting  of  Roman  or  Roman-British  parlours,   suspended 
upon  low  pillars  of  brick  or  stone,  and  so  having  a  fire  occasionally 
lighted  under  them  from  without  for  the  sake  of  warmth.     The  Romans 
thus  avoided  all  that  inconvenience  of  smoke,  to  which  our  modern  par- 
lours are  exposed  ;  but  lost  all  that  a  domestic  man  feels  so  grateful  to  his 
spirits,  the  cheerfulness  of  a  fire  burning  brightly  before  him  ;  and  did 
not  even  gain  the  warmth,  which  our  boarded  tloors  and  our  woollen  or 
silken  carpets  now  give  us.     These  cai-pets  betray  themselves,  by  their 
fesserce  or  squares,  to  be  a  mere  imitation  of  the  tesselated  floorings  of 
anticpiity  ;  as  the  pavements  vitrified  or  glazed  are  still  imitated,  in  our 
floors  so  glossy  as  to  be  slippery,  and  even  so  slippery  at  times,  as  to  re- 
quire the  use  of  chalk,  delineating  a  fantastical  kind  of  scroll-work  upon 
them.     The  same  are  equally  found  upon  the  continent,  though  not  so 
often  as  in  ]>ritain,   I  believe,   with  these  subterraneous  stoves  under 
them  ;  the  diif(>rcnce  in  the  climate  causing  this  vaiiation  in  the  struc- 
ture.    "  We  discover  works  of  mosaic,"  sa^s  the  French  historian  of 
Lvons,  "  in  almost  all  the  ancient  towns  ;  but  principally  in  those  which 
"  \\'cre  "   the   principal  towns   of  the   countr}",   "  Roman  colonies,   as 
"  Lyons,  Aries,  Narbonne,  Nimes,  Orange,  Frejusf,"  &c.     But  floors  of 

mosaic 
•  Siietoii'uis,  c.  47  :  "  In  cxpediiionibus  tesscllata  ct  sectilise  pavimenta  clrcuniUilisse." 
t  Histoire  Litcraiie  de  la  Ville  de  Lyon,  par  le  P.  de  Colcnia,  in   2  vols,  quarto,  1728, 
i.  240  :  "  On  trouve  de  ces  ouvrages  a  la  mosaique  presque  dans  toutcs  les  villes  anciennes, 

*'  mais 


4 


SECT.   III.]  irrSTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  2r,Q 

mosaic  t^till  continued  to  b(^  used  in  fciiip/r-s ;  as  in  ]  OOC  a  lloor  was 
found  under  a  vineyard  at  Lyons,  that  had  a  wall  covered  w  ith  inlaid 
work  of  wawscoi,  and  exhibited  the  figures  of  a  female  Hermes,  a  Cupid, 
a  Satyr,  with  a  Silvanns.  "  This  pavement,"  says  the  historian,  "  which 
*'  is  about  twenty  feet  in  length  and  ten  in  breadth,  is  happily  preserved 
*^  entire  :  it  is  composed  of  small  tiles  in  squares  of  different  hut  natural 
*'  colours,  curiously  arranged,  but  bound  together  by  a  cement,  or  rather 
'  gum,  so  delicate,  that  unth  difficulty  can  you  perceive  the  joints  in  it, 
"  yet  so  strong  as  to  resist  the  injuries  of  cither  air  or  time.  'J'he  middle 
"  of  this  pavement  is  filled  up  with  a  square,  three  feet  long  and  four 
<*  broad ;"  where  those  ridiculous  deities  of  heathenism,  those  mockeries 
even  of  the  mock-divinities  of  the  pagans,  were  all  figured  forth  as  objects 
of  worship  to  the  deranged  mind  of  man -f.  This  shews  the  taste  and 
ingeniousness  with  which  these  mosaic  floors  continued  to  be  made  for 
temples.  But  the  ingeniousness  and  the  taste  were  naturally  transferred 
to  churches ;  when  all  the  goblins  and  all  the  fiends,  that  had  so  long 
walked  the  earth  under  the  darkness  of  paganism,  were  chased  away  by 
the  bursting  sun  of  Christianity.  "  The  pavement  of  our  clnu'ch  of 
*'  Aisnay,"  the  historian  of  Lyons  again  tells  us,  '•  close  to  the  high 
*'  altar,''  just  as  the  pavement  in  St.  German's  church  was  found,  but 
**  before  the  high  altar,"  a  notice  which  fixes  the  precise  position  of  the 
other  at  St.  German's,  "  is  wholly  mosaic."  So  we  find  a  mosaic  to 
have  been  laid,  before  the  high  altar  at  Westminster  abhty,  before  the 
altar  at  the  prior's  chapel  in  Ely,  and  before  the  high  altar  at  Worcester 
cathedral ;  being  at  Worcester  composed,  like  our  own,  of  painted  squares 
of  brick,  and  shewing  one  of  the  squares  still  upon  the  J:rst  step  ;  thus 

*'  mais  sur  tout  dans  celles  qui  ont  cte  des  colonies  Romaincs,  comme  Lyon,  Aries,  Nar- 
*'  bonne,  Nimcs,  Orange,  Frejus,"  See. 

t  Histoire,  i.  237-239  :  "  Le  pave,  qui  a  environ  vinglpiedsdc  longueur  snr  dix  de  lar- 
*'  geur,  est  heureuseniciit  reste  tout  cnticr,  Ce  pave  est  compose  de  pt-lits  carreaux  dc  diverses 
**  couleurs  nalurcllcs,  artistement  arranges,  et  lies  ensemble  avec  un  cement  ou  plulot  un 
*'  mastic,  si  delicat,  qu'a  peine  en  apper^oit-on  les  jointures,  et  ncanlmoins  si  fort,  qu'il 
*'  resiste  aux  injures  de  I'air  et  du  temps.  Le  milieu  dcce  pave  est  rcmpli,  par  un  quarre  de 
"  trois  pieds  haul  [long]  et  de  quatre  dc  large." 

L  L  2  forming. 


2fi0  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  III. 

forming,  in  all  those  churches,  the  immediate  approach  to  the  altar  j;. 
"  We  see  there,"  adds  the  historian  of  Lyons,  and  means  in  the  middle  of 
it,  "  the  <i}]n^ire  of  archbishop  Amblard,"  M'ho  caused  this  church  to  be  re- 
built in  the  fcnf/i  century,  or  rather  (as  tlie  author  corrects  himself  after- 
wards) pope  Pascal,  who  consecrated  it  in  the  hvelfth,  in  11  of),  and 
"  who  holds  a  representation  of  the  church  in  his  hands,"  formed  of 
small,  black  stones  ;  "  a  verse  written  equally  in  mosaic,  but  half  fretted 
"  away  by  time,  informs  us  that  it  was  pope  Pascal  II.  who  consecrated 
"it*."  This  church  of  Aisnay,  therefore,  was  rebuilt  about  the  same 
time  that  our  nave,  our  chancel,  and  our  north  aile  at  St.  German's  were 
constiTJcted  ;  and  the  mosaic  was  placed  there,  just  after  the  consecra- 
tion. But  we  find  even  in  a  church  at  Lyons  a  mosaic,  which  is  con- 
sidered as  still  older.  "  The  church  of  St.  Irenaeus,"  the  historian  as- 
■sures  us,  "  was  also  paved  anciently  with  mosaic.  A  part  of  this 
"  pavement  remains  for  our  inspection  at  present,  preserved  under  the 
*'  planks  that  cover  it ;  and  we  may  read  upon  it  eight  Leonine  verses, 
"  which  are  judged  by  their  style  to  be  of  the  tenth  or  eleventh  cen- 
*'  tury-|^."     So  late  did  the  use  of  those  mosaic  floors  continue  in  our 

churches, 

X  Mr.  Gough  in  Arch.  x.  154:  "  The  floor  before  the  altar,"  says  Thomas  concerning 
ihe  cathedral  of  Worcester,  "  seems  to  have  been  paved  with  pa'inlcd  quarries  of  brick,  and 
"  some  of  them  witli  coats  of  arms  as  in  Malvern  church:  one  still  remains  on  the  first  step, 
"  bearing  quarterly,"  &c.  (P.  82.) 

*  Histoirc,  i.  240  :  "  Le  pave  de  notre  eglise  d'Aisnay,  pres  du  grand  autel,  est  tout  a  la 
"  mosa'ique.  OnyToit  [au  milieu  de  ce  pave,  ii.  31]  la  figure  de  I'archevcque  d'Amblard, 
■*'  qui  fit  rebatir  cette  eglise,  donl  il  tient  la  representation  entre  les  mains.  Un  vers  ecrit 
".aussi  en  mosaique,  mais  a  denii  ronge  par  le  temps,  nous  apprcnd  que  ce  fut  le  pape 
*'  Pascal  II.  qui  la  cousacra. 

"  *  Hanc  a:dem  sacram  Paschaiis  papa  dicavit'." 
Histoire,  ii.  30  :  "  II  est  vrai  qu'Amblard  fit  rebatir  dans  le  dixieme  I'cglisc  de  Saint 
"  Martin,"  in  Aisnay;  which  had  been  ruined  by  the  Saracens  "dans  le  huiticnie  siede;" 
but  was  not  consecrated  lill  A.D.  1106.  (P.  31-33.)  "  L'inscription  qui  accompagne  cette 
"  effigie  mosaique,  me  fait  croire  que  c'cst  celle  du  pape  Pascal,  dont  on  lit  le  nom  encore 
"  bien  entier  et  bien  marque  dans  ce  vers,"  &c.  (p.  32)  ;  " — on  voit  cffigie  cUi  pape 
"  Pascal  II.  qui  est  placce  devant  le  grand  autcl  "  (p.  31) ;  "Ma  representation  de  d'eglise 
*'  faitc  avec  ce  mcnrc  pave  de  petitcs  pierres  noires'"   (p.  34,  from  Spon). 

t  Histoire,  i.  240 :  "  I/eglise  dc  Saint  Irenee  etoit  aussi  autre-fois  pave  a  la  mosaique. 
**  II  nous  reste  encore  adjourdhui  une  parlie  de  ce  pave,  qu'on  conserve  sousdes  planches  qui 

"le 


SECT.   III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  20l 

churches,  which  now  constitute  one  of  the  grand  decorations  of  them  at 
Rome;  being  transmitted  from  the  Romans  and  their  temples,  but  generally 
transmitted,  as  we  even  see  in  some  mosaics  still  existing  at  St.  Peter's 
in  Rome,  with  the  foul  adherences  of  that  barbarism,  through  the  hamis 
of  M'hich  it  was  conveyed  ;  paving  the  area  of  some  churches  at  Rome 
in  part  or  in  whole,  but  in  French,  in  English  churches  paving  only  just 
before  the  high  altar ;  paving  that  part  in  France  with  a  mosaic,  not 
very  fine,  as  I  infer  from  all  suppression  of  praise  by  the  historian  con- 
cerning it,  and  indeed  rude  in  itself,  as  I  equally  infer  from  the  rude 
manner  in  \\  hich  the  verses  are  written  upon  it  J  ;  even  paving  the  im- 
mediate approach  to  the  high  altar  at  St.  German's,  with  squares  of  mo- 
saic still  more  rude  in  all  probability ;  but  paving  that  certainly  after 
the  consecration  in  iioO,  consequently  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  this 
assuredly  at  the  very  construction  of  the  chancel,  in  the  tenth  §. 

"  Ic  touvrent,  et  siir  lequel  ont  lit  huit  vcrsLeonins,  qu'onjuge  a  leur  stile  etre  du  dixiemeou 
"  du  onzieme  siccle." 

X  Histoire,  ii.  34,  exhibits  them,  and  they  are,  says  the  author  from  Spon,  "  ecrits  d'uii 
*'  caractere  fort  cmbrouille,"  the  letters  being  "  caractcres  Gothiques  qui  la  [inscription] 
"  composcnt,  ft  qui  en  rendent  la  lecture  assez  difficile."  (P.  34  and  35.) 

§  In  Arch.  x.  152,  Mr.  Gough,  in  proof  that  Constantine  the  Great  transferred  mosaics 
from  temples,  very  usefully  for  us  appeals  to  "  the  mosaics,  with  which  the  dome  of  tho 
"  church  of  St  Constantia  in  the  Via  Nomentana  at  Rome  was  decorated  by  him  (Ciampini 
*'  Vetera  ^dificia,  part  ii.  p.  1-5,  Rom.  1699)  j  which  were  probably  removed  from  some 
*'  pagan  temple." 

At  St.  Peter's  in  Rome  are  some  "  subterraneous  vaults,  which  are  full  of  excellent  mo- 
"  saic — ,  formerly  the  pavement  of  the  old  church  of  St.  Peter. — This  pavement  is  sup- 
"  posed  to  have  been  made,  in  the  time  of  Constantine  the  Great. — This  curious  art "  of 
working  in  mosaic  "  has  been  greatly  improved  during  these  tiro  hit  centuries,  as  mai/  be 
"  seen  by  the  coarse  works  of  the  old  small  cupolas  in  St.  Peter's ;  where  the  studs  are  made 
"  of  burnt  clay,  and  varnished  with  several  colours  on  the  surface  only  ;  but  ihey  are  gradu- 
"  ally  taken  away,  to  make  room  for  the  finer  work  of  later  times."  In  the  Clementine 
chapel  at  St.  Peter's,  "  a  mosaic  work,  representing  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  is  said  to  be  eight 
"  hundred  vcars  old."  At  the  church  of  St.  Paul  without  the  walls  of  Rome,  "  the  mosaic 
"  work  on  the  arched  roof  is  of  so  old  a  date  as  the  lime  of  Leo  the  Great ;  and,  according 
"  to  the  following  inscription  near  it,  was  probably  done  at  the  expense  of  Placidia,  sister  to 
"  the  emperors  Honorius  and  Arc.idius  j 

"  Placidix  pia  mens  operis  decus  hoc  faciebat, 
"  Siiadct  pontificis  studio  splendtre  Lcoiiis." 

Kfvsler's  Travels,  ii,  260,  274,  275,  zti,  246. 

"  Tlic 


202    .  THE    CATHEDRAL    OP    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  111. 

*'  The  church  of  St.  Urbano  alia  Caflarclla  was  a  temple  of  Bacchus,  and  graceful  indeed 
•'  are  its  remains.  It  is  built  of  brick,  with  strength  and  solidity.  The  mosaic  in  the  arched 
"  roof,  and  between  the  double  row  of  pillars,  is  finely  done.  Here,"  because  in  a  temple  of 
Bacchus,  because  a  temple  dedicated  to  theencouragement  of  drunkenness  as  an  indulgence, 
to  the  exaltation  of  drunkenness  as  a  virtue,  to  the  worship  of  drunkenness  as  a  very  deify,. 
"  are  representations  of  the  vintage  through  all  its  progress  ;  the  wine- press  is  particularly 
*•  worth  observing.  The  different  figures  of  birds^  large  as  life,  are  elegatitly  executed  j  ai;d 
55  the  pheasants,  superior  to  the  others."  (Mrs.  Miller,  iii.  50,) 


CRAPTEB 


:«RCT.  1.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  J2G3 


CHAPTER     FOURTH. 


SECTION  I. 

J.  HE  name  of  Saint  German  is  associated  witli  the  history  of  our 
Cornish  church;  not  merely  by  the  casual  connexion  of  his  being  the 
denominating  saint  of  it ;  but  as  that  traditional  history  says,  which 
often  so  usefiiUy  supplies  the  defects  of  written  records,  from  his  actual 
residence  in  the  parish,  from  the  personal  view  of  his  holiness,  and  from 
the  remembered  utility  of  his  visit.  He  came  into  Britain  at  the  solicita- 
tion of  the  Bi'itish  clergy,  to  unite  with  them  in  repelling  a  heresy,  which 
was  spreading  over  the  island,  and  was  denominated  Pelagianism  from 
its  founder.  This  was  that  proud  heresy  which  has  frequently  appeared 
since  in  the  Western  church  ;  though  it  has  never  produced  again  such  a 
solicitation,  and  such  a  mission,  as  this.  The  children  of  the  world, 
grown  too  wise,  forsooth  !  to  perplex  their  understandings,  generally, 
about  errors  in  theologj^  and  very  ignorant  concerning  their  quality, 
their  importance,  or  their  obliquity  ;  in  the  conceitedness  of  their  igno- 
rance, stare  at  the  mention  of  such  bustle  about  such  an  object.  Just  so, 
a.  peasant  of  the  Hampshire  coast  is  said  to  have  stared  with  surprise,  at 
the  bonfires  made  by  the  Isle  of  Wight,  on  the  restoration  of  monarchy 
in  iGOo;  to  have  passed  over  to  the  isle  with  the  amazement  of  curiosity, 
in  order  to  inquire  the  cause ;  and,  on  being  told  that  the  king  was 
come  back,  to  have  asked,  with  equal  astonishment  of  mind  and  tiituity 
of  face,  where  he  had  been  then.  But,  what  aggravates  the  ridiculousness 
of  this  rising  spirit,  these  sons  of  earth  instantly  turn  to  objects  infinitely 
trifling  iii  themselves;  agitate  their  minds,  and  harass  their  spirits,  in 
chasing  the  straws,  the  chaff,  or  the  gossamere,  that  are  perpetual!)  float- 
ing in  the  world  of  }>olitics  ;  just  as  if  the  peasant,  who  wondered  at 
bonfires  made  for  a  restoration  of  church  and  state,  should  instantly,  on 

1  his 


204  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  III. 

his  coming  back,  have  kindled  those  bonfires  himself,  which  peasants  do 
in  many  counties,  for  a  blessing  upon  his  apples,  or  for  a  return  of  sum- 
mer. Pelagianism  was  a  heresy  that  did  not  presume  to  deny  the  fact 
of  the  fall  of  man,  but  was  unwilling  to  allow  the  legitimate  conse- 
quences of  it.  Pelagianism  asserted  man,  though  fallen,  still  to  retain  in 
liimselfthat  independent  power  of  becoming  religious,  which  he  cer- 
tainly possessed  before  his  fall;  not  to  need,  therefore,  that  supernal  aid 
which  the  code  of  revelation  denominates  the  grace  of  God,  and  which 
our  own  feelings  tell  us  is  requisite  to  come  in  as  auxiliary  to  a  reason, 
once  competent  to  the  office  of  directing  man,  but  now  debilitated  In  all 
her  commanding  energies,  by  the  predominance  of  passion*.  This  he- 
resy, which  flattered  man  with  a  faculty  that  he  once  had,  and  so  raised 
him  in  fancy  above  the  principal  humiliation  of  his  fall,  was  ad- 
dressed directly  to  his  pride,  thus  reared  itself  (like  the  serpent  before  the 
fall)  haughtily  upon  its  own  spires,  and  (like  that  serpent  again)  suc- 
ceeded in  seducing  the  understanding  of  man.  In  vain  did  Scripture, 
in  vain  did  experience,  oppose  their  united  voice  to  the  delusion.  It 
spread  wildly  through  the  island ;  the  more  wildly,  perhaps,  because 
Pelagius,  who  has  lent  his  name  to  the  heresy,  was  a  Briton  by  birth  ;  so 
that  the  clergy  of  Britain,  still  faithful  to  their  great  trust,  were  com- 
pelled to  call  in  foreign  auxiliaries  to  their  assistance -f-. 

"  An 

*  Usher,  170. 

t  That  he  was  a  Briton,  is  plain  from  St.  Austin ;  "  Pclagium— "Crcdimus,  ul  ab  illo  dis- 
"  tingueretur  qui  Pelagius  Tarenti  dicilur,  BritoTieni  fuissc  cognominatum  ;"  from  Prosper, 
in  his  Chronicon,  "  Pelagius  Brilo  dogma  nominis  sui — exerit  j"  from  Prosper  again  ds 
Ingrat.  cap.  i.  and  34, 

"  Pestifero  vomuit  cohiber  sermone  Britannui, 
And     "  I  procul  insana  impietas,  artesque  malignas 

"  Aufer,  et  authorem  coaiitare  exclusa  Britaunum. — Usher,  iit,  112. 

But  that  he  was  denominated  Morgan  in  his  native  language  of  Britain,  as  he  is  seemingly 
believed  by  Usher,  112,  and  boldly  pronounced  by  every  scribbler  of  history,  is  all  a  wild 
dream  of  sagacity  on  the  scent  for  imaginary  likenesses.  Even  if  Morgan  could  ever  be 
allowed  to  mean,  what  without  great  violence  it  cannot,  the  same  as  Marigena  in  Latin ; 
yet  the  natural  import  of  it  is  very  different,  it  being  merely  the  inverse  of  Can-vior,  and  there- 
fore, with  Can-mor,  signifying  great  head.  But  every  Briton  had  not  a  British  name,  after 
the  Romans  came  j  as  we  have  seen  Eugcnius  Coesarius  with  Ambrosius  Aurclianus  before, 

and 


SECT.  1.]  UISTORICALLST    SURVEYED.  2^5 

"  An  embassy  directed  out  of  Britain,"  says  an  author  so  nearly  co- 
temporary  with   the  facts  specified  by  him,  that  the  memory  of  Ger- 
manus  was  yet  fresh  in  the  mouths  of  all,  and  several  still  survived  who 
had  seen  him  alive  ;{;,  "  announced  to  the  bishops  of  France  that  the  iVla- 
"  giau  pcrvcrseness  had  infected  the  Hocks  widely  in  their  districts,  and 
"  that  the  Catholic  faith  ought  to  be  very  expeditiously  supported.   Upon 
"  this  account  a  large  synod  was  convened;  and,  by  the  judgment  of  all, 
"  two  glorious  luminaries  of  religion,  those  apostolic  priests  Gcnuavus 
"and  Lupus,  who  inhabited  the  earth  bodily,  but  dwelt  in  heaven  spi- 
"  ritually,  are  universally  solicited  and  besought  to  go  into  Britain  :  and 
"  the  more  pressing  the  necessity  appeared,  the  more  promptly  did  these 
"  heroes  in  devoutness  undertake  the  business  ;  the  keenness  of  their  faith 
"  outrunning  the  celerity  required  by  this§."     They  accordingly  landed 
in  Britain  during  the  year  429*;  Lupus,   says  his  ancient  and  particular 
biographer,   "  having  then  been  two  years"  only  "  bishop  of  Troycs,'" 
in  Champaigne,  as  being  very  young  in  comparison  with  his  colleague, 
yet  "  powerful  in  understanding,   celebrated  for  eloquence,  eminent  for 
"  h61iness,"  and  coming  with  '■'  Saint    German,"  who  had  then  been 
long  bishop  of  Auxerre,  adjoining    in  Burgundy,  and  was    "  a    man 

and  shall  sec  Constantiue  with  others  hereafter.  The  British  Pelagius  was  so  called,  assuredlv, 
as  the  Pelagius  of  Tarentum  was  by  the  Greeks,  with  whom  he  lived  as  a  native  of  the  sea- 
coast;  and  so  called  at  the  very  period  in  which  he  was  admitted  a  monk  at  Jerusalem. 
(Usher,  113,  for  his  being  a  monk,  and  135,  for"  Pelagius — Hierosolymis  constitutus.") 

X  Usher,  175,  176  :  "  *  Cum  per  ora  cunctornm  saneti  recens  adhuc  spirarct  memoria, 
"  pluresque  qui  cum  dcgtntem  in  seculo  vidcrant  supcresscnt'." 

§  Usher,  176  :  "  '  Ex  Britannia  directa  legatio  Gallicanis  cpiscopis  nunciavit,  Pelagianain 
"  perversitatem  in  locis  suis  late  populos  aceepisse,  et  quamprimum  fidci  Catholica:  debere 
"  succurri.  Ob  quam  causam  synodus  numerosa  collecla  est;  omniumque  judicio,  duo 
"  preclara  religionis  lunnna  universorum  prccibus  ambiuntur,  Gcrmanus  et  Lupus  aposto- 
"  lici  sacerdotes,  terram  corporibns  coeluni  merilis  possidentes.  Et  quanto  laboriosior  ncces- 
"  sitas  apparebat,  tanio  earn  proniptiiis  heroes  devotissimi  snsceperunt ;  celcritatem  negotii 
"  fidei  stimulis  maturantes'."  In  this  passage  Usher  reads  "  '  mentis',"  and  notes  on  the 
margin,  "  mentiius  Baron,  male;"  when  the  justness  of  Baronius's  reading  is  apparent  of 
itselt,  and  is  confirmed  by  this  passage  in  Huntingdon,  194,  *'  Beda  semper  mente  inhabitata, 
"  coeli  conscendit  palatia," 

*  Usher,  175. 

VOL.  I.  M  M  "  replt-ttr- 


-JC.Q  TIIF.    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP.   IV. 

••  rcph'fc  nith  all  perfect  tun  and  spirifnal  sirncc;  while  both  were  united 
"  with  one  spirit,  ami  co-operatc<l  with  one  zcalf  .'* 

Then,  as  Constaiitius,  the  nearly  cotcniporary  historian  of  Gcrmanus, 
goes  on,  "  these  apostolic  priests  quickly  filled  the  island  with  their  con- 
**  versations,  with  their  preachings,  with  their  virtues :  and  when 
"  they  were  daily  surrounded  with  flocking  crowds,  the  word  of  God 
"  was  disseminated,  not  only  in  the  churches,  but  also  through  the 
*'  streets  of  the  towns,  through  the  lanes  and  villages  of  the  country, 
"  through  the  wilds  and  mountains  ;  so  that  the  faithful  Christians  were 
*•'  esUiblished  every-where,  and  the  perverted  recognised  the  truth  under 
"  their  correcting  tongues;}:.  There  was  in  them,  as  in  the  api)stles,  a 
"  glory  and  an  authority  derived  from  conscience,  a  power  of  teaching 
"  from  their  literature,  a  lustre  of  virtue  from  their  merits,  and  an  addi- 
"  tional  honour  sat  upon  preachers  so  great,  from  their  assertion  of 
*•  the  truth §.  The  whole  country,  therefore,  passed  readily  over  to 
"  their  sentiments.  The  preachers  of  the  sinister  persuasion  lay  linking 
"  in  secret,  and,  like  the  malignant  spirit,  lamented  the  loss  of  the 
"  crowds  escaping  from  them*.  At  last,  after  long  meditation,  they  pre- 
"  sume  to  engage  in  conflict.  They  come  forward,  ostentatiously  shew- 
"  ing  their  wealth  by  the  splendour  of  their  dress,  surrounded  by  many 
"  flatterers  ;  and  choose  to  run  the  risk  of  an  encounter,  rather  than 
*'  incur  from  the  people  whom  they  had  perverted,  the  reproach  of  not 
"  replying,  lest  they   should  seem  to    stand  selfrcojidemncd  by    their 

t  Ush',T,  176  :  "  '  Exacto  blciinii  spatio,  cam  essct  [Lupus]  pollens  ingcnio,  clarus  elo- 
•'  quio,  sanctitate  praecipuus,  ciuii  S.  Gcrmano  totiiis  perfcclionis  ut  gralise  spiritalis  pleno^ 
•'  — lino  spirilu  juncti,  et  pari  voluntate  Concordes'." 

\  Usher,  176:  "  '  Britannianini  insulani — r.iptim  opiiiionc,  prtriiicatione,  virtutibus  im- 
"  pieverunt.  Et  cum  quotitlie  irrutnte  frcqueniia  faparciitur,  divinus  sorino  non  solum  in 
•*  ecclesiis,  verum  c-tiam  per  trivia,  per  nir?.,  per  dcvia  diHundebaiur  ;  ut  passim  et  fideles- 
»*  Calholici  firmarcntur,  el  depravat'i  viam  correctionis  aguosccrcnt'." 

§  Usher,  176  :"  '  Erat  in  illis,  apost;  lonun  iiisiar,  et  <;!oriaei  authoritas  per  couscieiitiam,. 
"  doctrina  per  literas,   virtutes  ex  merliis;  .accedtbat  prrelerea  a  taiuis  auctoribiis  astcrtio- 
-*•  veritatis'." 

•  Usher,  176:  "  '  Itaque  regionis  univcrsitas  in  eorum  scntcntiam  prompta  traneierat. 
<'  Latebant  abditi  sinistrae  pcrsuasionis  authorc?,  et,  more  inaiigni  spirlluii  geaiebant 
"  perirc  slbi  populos  cvadenles'." 

*'  silence. 


SECT.   I.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  20; 

"  silence*.  A  multitude  of  men,  apparently  immense,  v^-as  collected 
"  at  the  place ;  excited  by  the  report,  and  bringing  even  their  wives, 
"  their  children,  with  them  f .  The  people  w^ere  present,  in  order  to  be 
"  spectators  and  judges;}:.  The  parties  stood  forward,  discriminated  by 
"  the  diti'erence  of  their  condition  ;  here  was  divine  authority,  there  hu- 
"  man  presumption  ;  here  belief,  there  unl)elief ;  here  Christ,  there 
"  Pelagius,  tor  the  preacher  §.  "^J'hosc  most  blessed  priests  gave  their  ad- 
"  versaries  the  first  liberty  of  speaking;  v.hich  they  took,  in  engaging 
"  the  time  and  the  ears  of  the  audience,  long  but  emptily,  with  mere 
"  naked  words ||.  Then  the  venerable  prelates  poured  forth  the  tor- 
"  rents  of  their  own  el(Kpience,  with  the  thunders  of  the  apostles  and 
"  the  evangelists  ^,  Their  own  w  ords  were  mixed  with  the  word  of 
"  God,  and  their  strongest  assertions  were  followed  by  the  testimonies  of 
"  Scripture**.  Vanityis  confuted,  unbelief  is  convicted;  so  that,by  theirin- 
"  ability  to  reply,  they  pleaded  guiliy  to  every  objection.  The  arbitrating 
*'  crowds  can  scarce  withhold  their  hands,  but  testitS'  their  opinions  by 
"  their  acclamations'l"f-."  'J'his  conference  appears  very  clearly  from  tradi- 
tion, to  have  been  held  in  themost  celebrated  of  all  our  ancient  towns  ;  that 

•  Usher,  176  :  "  '  Ad  cxtrcnnim,  diiiturnl  meditatione  conceptii  praeSuniunt  inire  coft- 
*'  flicturn.  Proccdunl  couspicui  diviliis,  veste  fiilgentcs,  circunidali  ajscntatione  iDultorum  ; 
•'  coiUcntionifcjiie  siibire  alcam  nialiierunt,  quiin  in  populo  qucin  subvcitcrant  pudorcm 
*'  tacjtiiniitatis  iiiciirrcrc ;  11c  videicntur  so  ip?i  sileiuio  damnavisse'." 

t  Usher,  176:  "'  Illic  plane  immensa  mulliludinis  numerositas,  etiam  cum  conjiigibus 
"  ac  liberis,  excita  convcncrat'." 

X  Usher,  176  :  "  '  Aderat  popiiUis,  spectator  fiitiirus  ct  judex'." 

§  Usher,  176:  "  '  Adstabant  paries,  dispaii  conditione  dissimiles:  hiiic  divina  auctori- 
"  las,  inde  humana  prasumptio  ;  hinc  lldcs,  hide  pcrfidia  j  hinc  Cbn^lus,  inde  Pelagius, 
"  auctor'." 

II  Usher,  176:  "  '  I'rimo  in  loeo,  bcalissinii  saccrdolcs  pra;bucrunt  adversariis  copiam 
"  disputandi ;   qux,  sola  nuditatc  vcrborum,  diu  inanitcret  aures  occupavit  ct  tempora'." 

^  Usher,  176:  "  '  Deinde  anlistitcs  ventrandi  lorrcntes  eldquii  sui,  cum  apostolicis  et 
"  evangclicis  tonitribus  profuderunt'." 

*•  Usher,  ij6:  "  '  Misccbatur  termo  proprius  cum  dlvino,  et  assertiones  violcnlissimas 
"  lectionum  testinionia  scquebantur*." 

It  Usher,  176:  "  *  Convincitur  vanitas,  pcrfidia  confutahir;  ita  ut  ad  singulas  vcrborum 
"  objcctiones  rcoi  sc,  duni  rcsponderc  ncqueunt,  faterentur.  Populus  arbiter  vix  mauus  eon- 
"  tinct;  judicium  cum  ciamorc  testatur'." 

M  M  2  Vcrulam, 


208  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COUXWAI-L  [ciIAl'.   IV, 

Vcrulam,  \vlii(h  now  exhibits  only  some  shadowy  appearances  of  its 
former  existence  ;  but  amidst  them  presents  the  ruins  of  a  chapel,  con- 
structed on  the  verv  ground  upon  ir/iic/i  (Jcnnanus  stood  when  he  spohc 
at  the  conference,  and  still  retaining  his  name  *.  So  much  did  Ger- 
manus  eclipse  his  associate,  by  the  splendour  of  his  reputation,  and  so 
thoroughly  was  the  whole  success  attributed  to  Germanus! 

The  work  which  had  carried  him  and  his  associate  into  Britain  being 
thus  executed,  they  returned  to  the  continent,  i^'t  Germanus  was 
soon  called  upon  a  second  time.  "  News  is  brought  out  of  Britain,"  adds 
Constantius,  *'  that  the  Pelagian  perverseness  is  again  ditiuscd  by  a  few 
'•  preachers.  The  supplications  of  all  are  once  more  conveyed  to  this 
"  most  blessed  man,  that  he  would  come  to  secure  the  cause  of  God, 
*''  which  he  had  formerly  won.  With  this  petition  he  hastily  complies, 
"  being  delighted  with  the  labour,  and  willingly  spending  himself  for 
*'  Christ-f ."  Lupus  did  not  accompany  him,  though  he  was  still  alive, 
and  even  survived  Germanus  thirty  years |.  But  Germanus  Mas  ac- 
companied by  one  who  was  Lupus's  scholar,  Severus,  "  a  man  of  all 
"  sanctity,"  as  Constantius  describes  him  ;  "  who,  being  then  conse- 
*'  crated  bishop  of  Treves,  was  preaching  the  word  of  life  to  the  inha- 
*'  bitants  of  Germania  Prima§."  This  second  expedition  was  per- 
formed in  4-17  II-  "  In  the  mean  time,"  as  Constantius  proceeds,  "  the 
"  wicked  spirits,  flying  through  the  whole  island,  Asith  unwilling  pro- 
"  phecies,  announced  the  coming  of  Germanus;  so  much  that  Elaphius, 
"  a  certain  chief  of  the  regi«n,  hastened  to  meet  the  saints  without  any 
♦*  information  from  a  visible  messenger^.     The  whole  province  follows 

"  him  ; 

■*  Usher,  176. 

+  Usher,  205 :  "  *  Interea  ex  Brhanniis  nunciatur,  Pelagianani  perversitatem  iterato,. 
•'  paucis  auctorihus,  dilatari.  Rursusquc  ad  beatissimutn  viruni  preces  omnium  deferuntur, 
"  ut  causam  Dei,  quam  prius  obtimierat  tutarclur.  Quorum  pctitioni  festinus  occurrit,. 
"  dum  el  laborlbus  dclcctatur  ct  Christo  se  grataiiter  impeiulit'," 

X  Usher,  205. 

§  Usher,  205  :  "  '  Totius  sanclitatis  vir,  qui  tunc  Trcvcris  ordinatus  episcopus,  gentibus. 
*'  Primse  Germanlae  verbum  vltae  prxdicabal'." 

II   Ushtr,  204. 

ly  Usher,  205  :  "  '  Interca  siiiislri  spiritus,  pervolantes  per  totam  insulam,  Germanum 

•*  venire 


SECT,  I.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  2(l9 

"  him;  the  priests  coinc;  the  multitude  meets  them,  witliout  any  pre- 
"  vious  intelligence;  immediately  those  pour  out  a  benediction  upon 
*'  these,  and  preach  the  word  of  God  to  them*.  Gcrmanus  finds  the  people 
"  continuing  in  that  belief,  in  which  he  had  left  them.  Uc  and  his  asso- 
"  ciate  understood  the  fault  to  be  that  of  a  few;  seek  out  the  preachers. 
"  find,  and  condemn  themf . — They  then  turn  to  the  people,  preaching 
"  to  them  the  necessity  of  correcting  prevarication.  The  preachers  of 
"  the  depraved  doctrine,  therefore,  being  banished  from  tlic  island  by  the 
**  sentence  of  all,  are  brought  to  these  priests  to  be  transported  by  them 
"  into  the  regions  in  the  Mediterranean  ;  that  the  country  may  be  ab- 
"  solved,  and  the  offenders  be  reformed^.  This  was  done  so  very  use- 
"  fully,  that  even  now,"  about  forty  years  afterward  §,  "  the  faith  re- 
*'  mains  unpolluted  in  those  parts  ||."  But  this  second  conference,  like 
the  first,  was  held  at  Verulam,  assuredly;  as  there,  and  there  only,  is  any 
tradition  or  any  monumeut  of  Germanus's  preaching. 

In  these  two  expeditions  into  Britain,  w  hich  were  better  than  the 
military  which  so  loudly  fill  the  trump  of  history,  as  directed  to  higher 
objects,  and  as  terminating  in  grander  circumstances;  how  much  farther 
than  Verulam,  that  farthest  reach  of  Caesar's  expeditions,  did  Ger- 
manus  penetrate  into  the  island.?  Constantius  carries  him  expressly  to 
Verulam^,  and,  in  Usher's  opinion,  into  North-AVales **.     Nennius,  or 

^  venire  invltis  vaticinationibus  nunciabant;  in  tantum,  utEiapbius,  quidam  regionis  illiiis 
•'  primus,  in  occursum  sanctorum  sine  ulli  manifest!  nuncii  relatione  properaverit'." 

•  Usher,  205  :  "  *  Hunc  Elapbium  provincia  tota  subsequitur,  veniunt  sacerdotes,  occur- 
•»  ril  inscia  mullitudo  ;  confestim  bencdictio,  et  sermonis  divini  doctrina,  protunditur'." 

t  Usher,  205  :  "  '  Recognoscit  popuium  in  ca  quani  rdiquerat  creduhtate  duranteir^ 
"  Intelligunt  culpam  esse  paucorum,  inquirunt  auctorcs,  inventosque  condemnant'." 

X  Usher,  205  ;  "  '  Prccdicalio  deinde  ad  plebcm,  de  prxvaricalionis  enicndatione,  converli- 
"  tur  ;  omniumque  scntcnlia  pravitaiis  auctores  expulsi  ab  insula,  sacerdotibus  adducunlur, 
*'  ad  Medlterranca  dcfcrendi  j  ul  tt  regio  absoliilionc,  ct  ilii  eniendalione,  frutrcutur'." 

§  Usher,  205. 

H  Uaher,  205  :  "  *  Quod  in  tantum  salubritcr  factum  est,  ut  in  illis  locis  etiam  nunc  fides 
"  intcnierata  pcrdurel'." 

f  Usher,  176,  177. 

*•  Sec  a  dissertal'ion  in  Appendix  to  the  present  work,  No.  Til.  upon  a  piece  of  history,  in 
which  folly  and  falsehood  have  united  to  dress  up  this  apostolic  bishop  as  a  warrior. 

his 


2;0  Tlir.    CATIIKDR.VL    OV    COT,  NWAM.  [CHAl'.   IV. 

his  enlar<i;er,  states  liim  positively  to  haAC  gone  into  ••  the  region  of  the 
"  Tovisi,"  or  I'owis-Iand.  at  one  time;  to  have  been  in  "  the  regioji 
"  which  is  railed  Guenedh,"  or  North-Wales,  at  anbthcr;  and  to  have 
p;one  at  a  third  "  to  the  region  of  the  I)iineta%"  or  Southr Wales, 
'•  upon  the  river  Teibi*."  The  tradition  at  St.  German's,  too,  con- 
curs with  all,  to  bring  him  into  Cornwall,  and  to  tix  him  as  a 
visitor  in  our  parish.  "  During  his  stay  here  [in  Britain]  this  [second] 
"  time,"  says  Mr.  Willis,  concerning  the  parish,  "  he  is  likewise  kj:- 

"  PORTKD  TO  HAVE  VISfTEl)  THESE  PARTs"  of  (-urnwall,  "  aUll  TAKEN  UP 
"   HIS    RESrOKNCE    IN    THIS    PLACE;     of   wluch    THE    IXH  VBITANTS    RETAIN' 

*'  SEVERAi,  STORiEs|."  All,  indccd,  is  corroborated  by  another  tradition  in 
the  adjoining  parish  of  Rainc,  which  forms  the  western  point  of  Ply- 
mouth sound,  in  its  denominating  promontory  the  Ram-head,  and  of 
Avhich  the  very  church  is  dedicated  to  his  memory  still :  that  at  Rame 
he  departed  out  of  Cornwall,  thence  (as  the  gigantic  language  of  romance 
speaks)  striding  across  the  channel,  and  (as  the  history  veiled  in  this 
mist  of  romance  intimates)  taking  his  departure  for  the  continent,  at 
the  mouth  of  Plymouth  sound  §. 

•  Nentiius,  c.  xxxv.  p.  107  ;  Gale,  i.  :  "  Omnis  rcgio  Poviiorum"  fsee  I'ennant's  Tour  in 
Norlh-Wales,  ii.  ■212,  for  the  extent  of  Powis-land),  and  Usher,  206,  on  c.  xlv.;  c.  xliv. 
p.  no:  "  Usque  ad  regionem  qure  vocatur  Gi/ennesi"  (or  Gueuedi,  as  \vc  have  in  p.  116, 
"  regione  Gucaedota;,"  and  "  Guoudotia;  rcgionis,"  in  c.  xl.  "  illani  regionem  qucs  vocatur 
"  Guoienit,"  marked  by  the  "  niontibus  Heriri,"  pr  Snowdon,  and  denominated  exprcsslv 
"  Wynez,"  by  an  ancient  hard  in  Owen's  Dictionary,  1793,  under  Brodawr ;  "  Gucncz," 
too,  by  Lhuyd,  in  his  Archaiologia,  223),  and  "  Cair-Guorlhigirn,"  with  Camden,  478, 
479;  Gibson,  700,  701;  Pennant,  ii.  213;  Gough,  ii.  465,  466;  c.  xlix.  "  in  rcgioac 
<'  Dimetoruni  juxta  flumen  Teibi,"  and  Usher,  206,  207. 

X  Willis,  141. 

§  Usher,  in  184,  cites  an  old  Life  of  St.  Brioc,  tliat  saint  who  has  given  name  to  a  pa- 
rish in  Cornwall  tiist  noticed  in  the  last  Valor,  St.  Breoke,  near  Wadebridge  ;  for  this  saint 
being  "  e  provincia  Corticiana,  nobili  editus  stirpc,  a  sancto  Germano  Autissiodorensi,  fidcm 
*'  ihi  disseminante  orthodoxam,  in  Galliam  abductus,"  where  lie  has  given  name  to  St. 
Brieu,  on  the  northern  coast  of  Brctagiie.  This  province  Usher  thinks,  with  Camden,  to  be 
the  county  of  Cork  in  Ireland  (p.  165).  But  Carte,  i.  185,  very  judiciously  objects,  that 
St.  German  never  disseminated  orthodoxy  in  Ireland,  and  so  could  not  carry  St.  Brioc  from 
Cork.  He  therefore  interprets  the  region  to  be  Cardiganshire  ;  a  coiuity  which  unites  with  all 
the  notices  here,  and  was  actually  called  Cerelica  at  this  period.  Paternus,  says  Camden  him- 
5  self. 


SECT.  II.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  2^1 

SECTION  II. 

For  what  purpose  he  penetrated  tlius  into  the  island,  the  whole  tenour 
of  the  history  evinces  decisively  :  yet,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  W'ho  can 
think  as  well  as, read,  the  very  writer  of  the  history  has  at  one  time  re- 
presented the  object  to  te  very  different  from  what  it  appears  to  be  at  all 
odia-  times,  upon  the  face  of  his  own  narrative.  Two  expeditions, 
calculated  solely  and  exclusively  for  recalling  the  established  Christianity 
of  Roman  j]ritain  from  an  error  in  opinion,  against  which  the  established 
clergy  of  the  countr)'  were  struggling  ineffectually  with  their  own 
powers,  are  made  in  one  of  them,  and  at  one  part  of  Roman  Britain,  to 
terminate  in  a  conversion  of  the  inhabitants  from  Heathenism  to  Christi- 
anity, and  a  general  initiation  of  Pagans  by  baptism  into  the  church  of 
^l;irifit*.  This  is  so  apparently  false  in  itself,  so  directly  opposite  to  the 
coursp  and  current  of  his  own  facts,  yea  so  violently  borne  down  by  the 
whole  weight  of  general  history,  that  it  is  amazing  to  think  how  any  man 
with  half  a  dozen  ideas  could  be  capable  of  such  a  gross  contradiction  ; 
and  that  it  is  astonishing  to  find,  how  many  have  been  induced  to  adopt 

self,  p.  518,  "  Cereticorum  (ut  habet  ejus  vita)  ecclcsiani  et  pascendo  rcxit  et  regenda 
•*  pavit}"  the  see  being  fixed  alLlan  Badern  Vawr  in  Cardiganshire.  See  also  Usher,  253. 
275,  439;  and  Leiand's  Itin.  viii.  54,  for  Ceretia. 

In  Nennius,  c.  xlv.  :  "  Guorllieinir, — in  synodo  habita  apud  Guartherv'iauT., — ad  pedes 
♦'  ejus  sancti  [Germani]  cecidit  veniam  posiulans ;  atqiie  pro  illata.  a  patre  suo — Sancto 
V  Gcrmano  caluninifi,  terram  ipsani,  in  qua  praedictus  episcopus  obprobrium  la!e  susiinuit, 
♦♦  in  oeternum  suam  fieri  sanxivit.  Unde  et  in  memoriam  Sancti  Germani  Guareitniaun  ;" 
ur,  as  the  name  is  written  before,  and  as  it  therefore  should  be  written  here,  Guartheniinunf 
'•  jiomen  acecpit,  quod  Laiiiie  sonat  Calumnia  juste  rctorla  ;"  Giiarlh  (Welsh)  signifying 
teproach,  scandal,  and  the  other  word  being,  not  (as  I.hmd  in  Gibson,  c.  701,  interprets  it) 
F.nlawn 'y\9\.,  because  I  know  of  iu)  such  word,,  and,  if  1  did,  it  would  not  answer  the  idea, 
a  just  reproach  being  indeed  tlie  very  opppsite  of  a  reproack  jn>tLii  reUnted;  but  i>/»/t', 
Eriti/wianl,  meaning  li>e  same-' i!ki)  is.  DiriiiiLo  now  does,  n  sive  h.irnile.->,  to  inden.nify. 
We  find  aecordingly  "  in  hac  eideni  provineid  de  ft'arthretiian  "  near  Radnor,  "  eeelesia— r 
"Sancti  Gerniuni."  (Giraldus's  Iiih.  Cambrife,  821.)  "  Necduni  nonien  intercidit — ,  sunt 
'*  cnitn  qui  exislimant  Gulhrcvioii  rastrum  ex  ejus  rudcribus  extitisse,"  ralhir  to  have  been 
the  very  bame,   "  quod  anno  MCCI  Walli — solo  coniplunuruul."   (Camden,  470.) 

•  See  No.  IJI.  in  my  Appendix. 

his 


r?;3  THE    rATItr^DItA.!.    OF    COTIXVV'ALL  [cHAP.  IV. 

his  coiitiadiclioii  in  repugnance  to  his  histoiv,  to  take  the  Roman  Britons- 
lor  Pagans  while  they  actually  professed  .('In-istianity,  actually  had  u 
clergy,  actually  had  this  clergy  using  c\cry  endeavour  to  preserve  them 
from  Pelagianism.  Rut  the  world  of  letters  is  composed  principally  of 
men,  that  read,  that  write,  yet  never  think.  Amongst  these  I  am  obliged 
to  particixlarize  Dr.  Borlase,  not  indeed  as  seduced  dirdct'lv  by  Clonst.m- 
tius,  for  he  seems  to  know  nothing  about  him  ;  but  as  acting  imder  (he 
influence  of  the  general  seduction,  as  strengthening  that  influence  by 
some  secret  propensities  within,  and  as  from  both  representing  the 
Cornish  at  this  period,  in  a  state  of  absolute  heathenism.  "  In  the  re- 
"  mote  corners  of  the  island,"  he  cries,  "  druidism  had  taken  deep  root," 
as  it  had  equally  taken  in  the  interiors  of  the  island,  as  indeed  all  religions 
established  for  such  a  number  of  ages  must  necessarily  take  in  both,  "  and 
"  it  would  not  give  way  to  weak  elforts  :  hence  it  is,  that  after  the  Roman 
"empire,  and  much  the  greatest  part  of  [Roman]  Britain,  had  been 
"  Christian,  we  find  mani/  imniijrs  suffering  dcdth  m  Cornwall,  for  the 
"  Christian  faith ;  and  hence  it  is"  also,  "  that  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
"fourth,  during  all  the.  Jiff  h,  and  most  part  of  the  sixth  centuries,  we 
"  find  so  many  holy  men  employed  to  convert  the  Cornish  to  the  Christian 
"  religion  f ."  This  is  all  as  much  a  mistake  in  reasoning  and  in  facts,  as 
Constantius's  is  an  error  in  consistency  and  common  sense.  Nor  let  us 
disdain  to  prove  it  is. 

Only  I  would  first  observe,  that  Dr.  Borlase,  who  finds  druidism 
taking  such  a  deep  root,  and  laying  such  a  vigorous  hold,  in  and  upon 
the  soil  of  Cornwall,  finds  the  same  draidism  very  feeble  in  its  hold,  and 
very  shallow  in  its  root,  upon  the  ground  of  Paris  in  France.  A^'^ithin  the 
cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  there,  as  the  earth  was  broken  up  in  the  month 
of  March  1 7 1 1 ,  to  form  a  sepulchral  vault  for  the  archbishops  of  Paris  ;  a 
heathen  altar  was  discovered  at  some  depth,  consisting  of  four  stones,  of 
which  each  had  four  faces.  The  first  stone  had  this  inscription  upon  one 
face,  Tib  Caesari  Aug  Jovi  Optum  Maxsu:^io  \\P  Nautae  Parisiac 
ublice' posieruxt;  but  also  had  grouped  figures  of  men  armed  with 
helmets,  spears,  and  shields,  on  the  other  three  faces ;  with  these  words 

t  Borlase,  368. 
-  overhead 


3ECT.    II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  '2j:i 

overhead  on  the  third  and  fourth,  Euri.^e  Scnani  Velo.  The  second  and 
third  stones  liad  simple  figures  with  inscriptions  over  them,  as  Folcamcs, 
Jovis,  Esus,  Castor,  Cii  nunuos,  &c.  And  the  fourth,  upon  each  face,  had 
grouped  figures  pretty  similar  to  those  on  the  first.  All  this  therefore,  as 
good  sense,  unvitiated  by  erudition,  would  instantly  pronounce,  indicates 
the  altar  to  have  been  erected  by  the  boatmen  of  Paris,  and  the  grouped 
figures  to  be  the  very  boatmen  themselves,  marching  in  solemn  procession 
with  military  array  to  that  Pantlieon  kind  of  temple  w  hich  they  had  con- 
tributed to  build  on  the  present  site  of  the  cathedral,  and  to  that  Pan- 
theon kind  of  altar  whicli  they  had  united  to  erect  \\ithin  it.  But  Dr. 
Borlase's  Celtic  genius  spurns  at  such  low  ideas,  and  his  druidical  fancy 
mounts  up  to  the  clouds  at  once.  He  considers  the  grouped  figures  to  be 
all  Druids,  departing  under  the  proscription  of  the  emperor  Tiberius,  and 
in  full  march  for  some  happier  clime  with  all  the  symbols  of  druidism  in 
their  hands.  He  thus  contradicts  the  very  inscription  refci'ring  all  to  the 
hoatmen,  and  proves  the  departure  of  druidism  from  Gaule  by  a  monu- 
ment actually  charged  icith.  druidical  deities.  This  is  the  very  frenzy  of 
antiquarianism.  But,  what  aggravates  this  moodiness  of  mind  in  the 
Doctor,  he  shews  the  druidical  heathenism  of  the  Gauls,  yielding  readily 
to  the  equally  irrational  heathenism  of  the  Romans,  flying  at  once  before 
the  frown  of  the  profligate  Tiberius,  and  tremulously  retiring  to  the 
mountains  of  Cornwall,  of  Mona,  or  of  the  moon  ;  while  he  describes  the 
druidism  of  Cornwall,  as  another  religion  in  itself,  or  actuated  by  another 
soul,  as  struggling  even  against  Christianity,  victoriously  resisting  the 
preachings  of  its  clergy  with  the  lives  of  its  professors,  even  resisting  all 
the  thunder  of  its  miracles,  and  all  the  lightning  of  its  doctrines,  for 
many  ages.  The  opposition  between  these  two  accounts  is  glaringly 
great,  and  of  itself  proves  one  of  them  to  be  absolutely  false.  They  are 
both  false,  indeed.  The  Gallic  druidism  did  not  so  tremble  or  so  fly,  as 
the  Doctor  surmises  from  his  wild  misrepresentation  of  the  altar,  the  ver\- 
altar  itself  shewing  the  direct  contrary  ;  nor  was  the  Cornish  so  sullenly 
obstinate,  as  the  Doctor  avers,  as  I  deny,  and  as  1  now  proceed  to  deny  in 
full  form  *.  1  or 

*  Montfaucon,  ii.  pi.  2.  v.  4.  He  thinks  lhe\VP  to  be  the  last  letter  of  a»am  ;  hut  [  ihink  it 

to  be  mp  in  a  complication,  and  to  mean  temp,  for  templum,  Borlase,  1 53,  sees  "  platn  signs 

VOL.  I.  N  N  •'  o( 


2/1  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORN'WALL  [cHAP.  IV. 

For  this  purpose  I  shall  not  recite  such  authorities,  as  shew  individual 
Rritons  to  have  been  converted  to  the  Gospel,  but  such  as  prove  the 
Gospel  to  have  been  received  in  those  Roman  provinces  of  Britain,  of 
which  Cornwall  was  an  integral  part.  Origen,  who  wrote  before  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  intimates  "very  many"  of  the  Eritons, 
Germans,  Daci,  Sarmattc,  or  Ssjthce,  to  have  not  hei>rd  then  the  %\ord  of 

'  "  of  the  Druids  giving  way  to  the  imperial  edict,"  turns  the  spear  of  one  into  a  "  virga  di- 
"  vinatoria  perhaps,"  of  a  second  into  a  "  torcli — ,  a  symbol  of  their  holy  fires,"  and  the 
shield  of  each  into  "  an  octangular  kind  of  plate,"  "  rather  some  musical  instrument  of  the 
"  bards,  or,  perhaps,  some  tablet  on  which  they  were  used  to  cast  their — lots  in  divination  j" 
makins  a  young  man  "  perhaps — aDruidcss;"  giving  to  an  old  man  "  the  magic  circle,  of 

<(  which the  Druids  were  extremely  fond,"  when  it  is  only  the  hoop  of  such  a  round  coracle 

probablv,  as  is  still  used  upon  the  Severn  ;  and  placing  upon  the  head  of  another  "  the  ap- 
"  pearanee  of  a  diadem,"  instead  of  a  helmet.  Never  did  systematic  prejudice  luxuriate  in 
richer  folly,  llnin  it  here  does. — But  let  me  in  addition  explain,  what -neither  Borlasc  nor 
Montfaucon  have  pretended  to  understand ;  the  words  over  the  third  and  fourth  faces  of  the 
first  stone.  EVRISE,  as  the  word  is  exhibited  by  Montfaucon,  who  professes  to  have  taken 
all  necessary  care  for  having  the  drawings  made  as  accurate  as  possible,  and  not  IV'RTSE,  as 
Borlase  exhibits  it,  is  merely  the  same  word  in  Gaulish  as  Elurovice,  now  Eureiix,  and  sig- 
nifies WATERMEN.  Then  SENANI,  as  in  Montfaucon  again,  not  ENANI,  as  in  Borlase, 
the  same  word  with  St'««.<  or  Shannon,  the  name  of  a  river  in  Ireland,  imports  the  Sequana 
or  Seine,  the  river  of  Paris.  And  VELO,  as  Montfaucon's  plate  represents  the  word,  not 
VEILO,  as  Borlase's  does,  is  the  god  Belus  of  the  Gauls,  answering  here  to  ihc  Jupiter  of 
the  Latin  inscription,  and  the  same  with  that  Bcal  or  Beil,  whose  feast  is  kept,  and  whose 
fires  are  lighted,  on  the  first  of  May  in  Ireland  to  the  present  period.  The  words,  therefore, 
present  a  very  fair  meaning.  This  is  the  first  point  to  be  secured,  in  interpreting  an  inscrip- 
tion. Tliey  also  say  in  Gaulish,  exactly  what  the  others  say  in  Latin  ;  that  "  the  watermen 
"  of  the  Seine,"  the  very  "  nautx  Parisiaci"  before,  then  called  at  Paris  as  we  now  call  our 
boatmen  at  London  ivatermen,  "  built  this  temple  to  Belus,"  a  name,  says  Montfaucon 
himself,  used  for  Jupiter,  for  Saturn,  for  the  Sun,  and  for  almost  all  the  deities  (i.  pt.  2d,  4. 
2I  but  here  used  in  the  truest  propriety  for  .lupiter  alone.  This  coincidence  of  the  Gaulish 
inscription  with  the  Roman,  decisively  proves  the  justness  of  my  interpretation.  And  the  V 
is  so  frequently  substituted  for  the  ^B,  even  in  the  Latin  language,  that  we  can  be  no  more 
surprised  at  /-elo  for  J5elo,  than  at  Fene  for  i^enc,  Livertus  for  Liierlus^  and  Incomparavilis 
for  Incompara/'iiis.  "  The  Greeks  and  Spaniards  often  pronounce  the  B,  we  find,  as  a  ^^ 
"  consonant,  and  the  Britons — used  formerly  no  other  than  B  ovM,  as  neither  doe  the  Irish 
"  at  this  day  :  the  F  of  the  modern  Welsh  was  anciently  expressed  by  B  or  M,  and  is  still 
"  so  by  the  Irish,  as  W.  JJ'al,  Ir.  JJbhal,  an  apple."  (Lhuyd,  21,  Comparative  Ety- 
mology.) 

the 


SECT,  ir.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.    -  2/5 

the  Gospel,  as  "  very  many"  of  the  Britons  were  Piets  ;  but  wost  to  have 
heard,  as  all  the  provincials,  and  among  them  therefore  the  Cornish  of 
course,  actually  had.  "  When  did  the  land  of  Britain,"  he  then  asks 
triumphantly,  "  ever  agree  in  the  religion  of  one  God  before  the  com- 
"  ing  of  Christ  f  ?"  All  this  is  as  clear  as  it  is  important.  YetTertul- 
lian,  who  wrote  near  half  a  century  previous  to  Origen,  corroborates  his 
meaning  very  strongly,  fixes  it  very  pointedly  just  as  I  have  fixed  it,  and 
even  adds  very  greatly  to  the  import  of  it ;  telling  us,  that  "  the  parts  of 
"  Britain,  which  were  inaccessible  to  the  Romans,"  the  regions  of  the 
Picts,  "  were  subdued  to  Christ  ;};."  This  passage,  with  every  deduc- 
tion that  may  be  made  for  the  natural  exaggerations  of  oratory  like  Ter- 
tullian's,  brief,  brisk,  and  brilliant,  shews  the  50«/A  of  Britain  to  have  had 
multitudes  of  Christians  within  it,  as  even  the  north  had  numbei's ;  and 
Cornwall  to  have  certainly  received  "  the  golden  day"  of  the  Gospel  deep 
into  its  bosom;  when  even  Caledonia  itself  had.  Accordingly,  on  the 
elevation  of  Christianity  with  Constantine  to  the  imperial  throne,  as  our 
own  countryman  Gildas  informs  us,  "  all  the  pupils  of  Christ  in  Britain, 
"  after  a  long  but  wintery  night,  with  joyful  cjes  receive  the  temperate 
"  serene  light  of  the  air  of  heaven  ;  rebuild  the  churches  that  were  torn 
•'  down  to  the  very  ground,;  lay  the  foundations  of  large  chuEchcs,  in 
"  honour  of  the  holy  martyrs  ;  rear  them,  finish  them,  and  everywhere 
"  display  (as  it  were)  their  victorious  standards  ;  celebrating  the  feasts" 
of  the  church,  "  performing  the  sacred  rites"  of  it,  *'  yea  all  rejoicing 
"  as  sons  fostered  in  the  bosom  of  their  mother  the  church  §."     ^^'hat 

these 

t  Usher,  74,  from  TractaUis  28  in  Matthaeuni :  "  'Quid  dicamus  de  Britannis  aut  Ger- 
"  maiiis,  qiTi  sunt  circa  occanum,  vci  apud  barbaros  Dacos,  ct  Sarmatas,  et  Scytlias  ?  quo- 
"  run!  plurimi  nondum  luidicrLinl  Evaiijrclii  vcrbum  ? — Quando — terra  Britannix,  ante  ad- 
"  vcntum  Chrisii,  in  unius  Dei  conscnsit  reiigioneni'  ?  "  I  ciic  Usher  fur  these  and  otlicr 
passages,  because  he  has  judiciously  brought  them  forward,  and  because  Dr.  Borlasc,  in 
liis  coming  references  to  Usher,  ought  to  have  considered  these  extracts  in  him.  bccisive  in 
themselves,  they  are  doubly  decisive  against  Dr.  Borlasc. 

X  Usher,  75,  from  Tertull.  lib.  advers.  JurUcos,  cap.  7  :  "  '  Britannovum  inaccessa  Romanis 
"  loca,  Chrisio  vero  subdita'." 

§  Usher,  103,  from  Gildas,  c.  viii. :  "  '  Lactis  luminibus  omnes  Christ!  tyroncs,  quasi  post 
*'  hyemalem  ac  prolixani  noclcn),  tempericm  luccmque  serenam  aura;  cceleslis  excipiunt ; 

N  N  2  "  renovant 


270  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  TV. 

these  churches  were  we  know,  because  we  know  who  were  the  martyrs, 
even  Albanus  of  Vcrulam,  Aaron  and  Julius  of  Caerleon  || ;  two  of  them 
apparently  Romans  in  their  names,  one  of  them  apparently  named  when 
he  was  baptized,  and  all  three  assuredly  Romans  from  their  residence  at 
Caerleon  or  Verulam.  We  actually  know  three  churches  to  have  been 
very  early  erected,  in  honour  of  these  three  martyrs  %.  ]?ede  attests  one 
of  them  to  have  been  really  erected  at  this  period  *  ;  and  Gildas  equally 
attests  all  to  liavc  been  so  f.  Thus  widely  had  our  religion  spread  itself 
over  the  proyincds  of  Britain,  not  confining  its  operations  to  the  south- 
eastern parts  of  the  island,  but  diffusing  its  strength,  propagating  its  in- 
fluence, and  generating  martyrs,  in  Wales  as  well  as  Hertfordshire  or 
Middlesex,  in  tliat  Britannia  Ptima  which  included  Cornwall  within  it, 
even  in  that  Britannia  Secunda  which  comprehended  all  "Wales  ;  before  it 
tired  out  the  Herculean  arm  that  was  grappling  \\ith  it,  and  rose  with 
renewed  vigour  from  every  throw  to  the  ground  !  Thus  generally  was  it 
then,  professed,  were  its  churches  erected,  its  martyrs  honoured,  its  festi- 
vals observed,  and  its  rites  administered  ;  all  over  the  country,  from  the 
Clyde  into  Kent,  from  the  Forth  into  Cornwall !  But  we  particularly  find 
its  usual  polity  established,  in  its  primitive  institution  of  bishops.  This 
■we  have  seen  in  part  already.     But  at  the  council  of  Aries  in  314,  we  see 

"  renovant  ecclesias,  ad  solum  usque  destructas ;  basilicas  sanctorum  martyrum  fundant, 
*' construunt,  perficiunt,  ac  velut  victricia  signa  passim  propalant ;  dies  feslos  celebrant ; 
"sacra  mimdo  cordc  oreque  couficiuut ;  omnes  exultant  filii,  greraioacsi  matris  ecclesiae 
"  confoti'." 

II   Usher,  89. 

^  Usher,  90,  from  Giraldus  Cambrensis  Itin.  Cambriae,  i.  5  :  "  *  Egregiae  in  hac  urbe," 
Carleon,  "  anliqiih  lemporUiis  fucrunt  ecclesiae  ;  una  Julii  martyris — ,  altera  vero  Beati 
''Aaron  socii  ejusdein  nomine  fundata'." 

*  Usher,  104,  from  Bede,  i.  7  :  "  '  Redeunte  temporum  Christianorum  serenitate,  ecclesia 
"  mirandi  operis,  atque  ejus  martyrio  condigna,  exstructa',"  at  St.  Alban's  near  Verulam. 

t  Gildas,  c.  viii.  :  "  Clarissimas  lampacics  sanctorum  mariyrum  nobis  accendit,  quorum 
"  71U71C  iorporiim  m-i itlturcB  et  passioiiuM  lota,  si  non  Ingubri  divortione  barbarorum — civi- 
*'  bus  adimerentur,  non  minimum  intueiuiuni  nientibus  ardorem  divinae  charitatis  incute- 
"  rent;  Sanctum  yllLanum  Verolamensem,  Aaron  et  Julium  Legionum  urbis  cives, — dico." 
Gildas  uses  the  plural  number,  for  the  churches  of  the  martyrs  taken  from  the  Britons;  but 
appears  from  the  very  course  of  the  hiatory,  to  mean  only  one,  St.  Alban's.  Caerleon  was 
uot  taken  till  many  ages  afterward. 

5  assembled 


SECT.   II.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED,  2// 

assembled  with  the  other  bishops,  no  less  than  three  from  Britain  ;  and 
we  know  the  very  cities,  which  were  the  cajiitals  of  their  sees.     One  of 
these  prelates  was,  "  Eborius  the  bishop  of  the  city  of  York,  in  the  pro- 
"  vince  of  Britain  ;"  another,   "  Restitutus  the  bishop  of  the  city  of  Lon- 
"  don,  in  the  province  above-mentioned  ;"  and  the  third,  "  Adelfius  the 
"  bishop  of  Me  colony  of  Londoners,''  that  is,  of  Richboroiigh  in  Kent, 
tlien  tlie  colony  of  those  soldiers  of  the  second  Augustan  legion,  who 
had  been  transplanted  from   London;};.     AVe  here  find  the  church  of 
Britain  settled  in  all  that  plenitude  ot"  polity,  in  which  the  church  of  Eng- 
land appears  at  present ;  every  province  of  Britain  having  its  prelate,  every 
civil  metropolis  being  formed  equally  into  a  spiritual  one,  York  standing 
as  the  see  of  ^laxima,  London  presiding  over  Flavia,  but  Richborough 
reaching  out  her  episcopal  sceptre,  from  the  South-Foreland  and  the 
Thames-mouth  to  Cornwall  and  her  western  isles.     At  the  peculiarly 
necessary  council  of  Nice  in  325,  at  the  council  of  Sardica  in  347,  at  the 
council  of  Ariminum  in  359  ;  the  bishops  of.Britain  we  know  in  general 
to  have  been  ecjually  present  §,     But  let  us  particularly  remember  that 
very  curious  article  of  intelligence,  which  Gildas  has  given  us  of  the  first 
introduction    of   Arianism    into   this  island ;     intelligence  which  (Hke 
the  account  of  Pelagianism  before)  proves  Christianity  to  have  previouslyv 
flourished  much  within  it.     "  This  pleasing  union  of  Christ  the  head 
"  and  of  the  members,"   says  the  historian,  "  continued"   in  Britain 
"  till  the  Arian  unbelief,  like  a  fierce  serpent,  vomiting  its  transmarine 
"  poisons  upon  us,  destructively  separated  brethren  who  were  in  unitv 
"  before  |(  ;"  or,  as  Bedc  repeats  from  him  in  a  somewhat  ditierent  tone 

X  Usher,  104,  from  torn.  i.  Concilior.  Gall ijp,  edit.  Paris,  an.  1629,  p.ig.  9:  "'Ebo- 
•' rius,  cpiscopus  de  civitate  Eboraceiisi,  in  provincia  Brilannii;  Restitutus,  episcopus  de 
"  civitate  Londonensi,  provlncia  supra  scripta  ;  Adelflus,  episcopus  dc  colonia  Londiuen- 
•'  sium  ' :"  and  Hist,  of  Manchester,  ii.  192-195,  octavo. 

§  Usher,  105,  106. 

II  Usher,  106,  from  Gildas,  c.  xix. :  "  'Mansithsec  Christi  capitis  inembroruniquc  con- 
"  sonantia  siiavis,  donee  Arriana  perfidia,  atrox  ceu  aiiguis,  transniarina  nobis  cvonicns 
"  venena,  fratres  in  unura  habilaiites  exitiabile  faceret  sejungi'."  In  my  Orir  in  of  Arianism, 
451,  1  translated  the  words  "  Arriana  perfidia"  literally  ;  but  have  been  now  taught  by  the 
language  of  Conslaiilius  before,  to  see  they  mean  not  perfidy  but  unlellrf, 

of 


•Jja  THE    CATHr.DRAL    OF    CORNWAl.t.  [cHAP.   IV. 

of  voire,  though  exactly  with  the  same  combination  of  ideas,  "  this  peace 
"  continued  among  tlie  churches  of  Christ  that  v^crc  in  Britain,  even  to 
"  tlie  times  of  the  Arian  madnkss,  which,  when  it  had  corrupted  the 
"  whole  worlil,  infected  even  this  islanil  so  much  sequestered  from  the 
"  N\()rld,  witli  the  venom  of  its  error  ^."  In  so  pointed  a  manner  did 
tlic  believing  world  of  (Jhristians  formerly  reprobate  that  "  sort  of  half- 
"  way  house"  to-absolute  infidelity,  as  Arianism  is  most  characteristi- 
callv  called  by  a  writer;  who,  with  a  spirit  of  religion,  warm  yet  just, 
rational  yet  scriptural,  atiectionate  yet  judicious,  manly,  bold,  and  bright, 
has  lately  addressed  the  nation  upon  the  declining  state  of  Christianity 
among  us,  and  entitled  himself  to  the  applause  of  eveiy  friend  to  religion 
in  the  isle*!  In  so  pointed  a  manner  did  particularly  the  Christian 
Saxons,  the  Chtistian  Britons,  reprobate  it !  Ihit  the  council  of  Nice  in- 
terposed to  crush,  and  actually  crushed  for  thirteen  hundred  years,  this 
most  impertinent  of  all  impertinent  heresies  ;  which  presumes  to  think, 
that  even  the  inspired  writers  of  the  Scripture,  either  did  not  imderstand 
the  nature  of  God  so  well  as  the  Arians  do,  or  did  not  express  it  so  pro- 
perly as  the  Arians  coukl  have  done;  which  is  therefore  engaged  in  a  per- 
petual w^arfare  with  the  words  or  the  ideas  of  Scripture,  by  remarks  re- 
pugnant to  every  principle  of  common  sense  in  criticism  to  fritter  away 
their  meaning,  by  new  modes  of  punctuation  to  make  them  speak  non- 
sense rather  than  their  obvious  sense,  or,  w  hen  both  these  frauds  fail,  vio- 
lently to  eject  whole  sentences  out  of  the  Scripture ;  is  thus  labouring, 
w  itli  a  little  of  the  insolence  of  the  ancient  giants,  and  with  much  of  the 
impotence  of  the  ancient  pigmies,  to  pile  hillock  upon  hillock,  to  heap 
mole-hill  upon  mole-hill,  in  a  petty  sort  of  hostility  against  Heaven.  But 
this  Arianism  of  our  British  fathers  demonstrates  the  establishment  of 


%  Usher,  io6,  from  Bede  Hist.  i.  viii.  :  "  '  Mansit — hasc  in  ecclcsiis  Christi  qure  erant 
"  ill  Britannia  pax,  usque  ad  tenipora  Arrlanae  vesaniae  5  qiife,  corrupto  orbe  toto,  banc 
"  ctiam  insulam,  extra  orbcm  tani  longe  reniotam,  vencno  sui  infecit  crroris'." 

*  Mr.  Wilberforce,  in  his  Practical  View  of  the  prevailing  religious  System  of  professed 
Christians,  p.  475,  edit.  41I1,  1797.  '"  ''"*  praifc  I  note  not  a  few  faults  in  the  work,  re- 
sulting from  the  author's  prejudices  of  partiality  towards  the  Dissenters.  They  are  lost  lo  my 
eye,  in  tlie  lustre  of  his  excellencies. 


Christianity 


SECT.  III.]  illSTOlUCALLY    SURVEYED.  270 

Christianity  among  them  ;  equally  as  the  revived  Arianism  of  our  own 
days  demonstrates  that  establishment  among  ourselves  •+-. 


SECTION  III. 


Nor  can  the  facts  alleged  by  Dr.  Borlase  be  of  the  slightest  weight  in 
the  balance  against  this  full  and  heavy  scale  of  evidence.  The  first  fact 
alleged  is  this,  "  that,  «/>o?// the  year  41 1,  St.  Melor  (although  son  of 
"  Mclianus  duke  of  Cornwall)  sulfered  martyrdom;"  alleged  upon  the 
authority  of  Capgrave,  and  the  testimony  of  Usher  ;|: .  Let  us  therefore 
examine  this  testimony  and  that  authority.  "  Philip  FeiTars,  in  his  Ge- 
"  neral  Catalogue  of  Saints,"  says  Usher  concerning  St:  Melor,  at  the 
third  oi  January  calls  him  MeUor  ;  and  notes  him  from  John  Capgrave, 
"  to  have  sufl'ered  in  the  year  411  ;  though  Capgrave  declares  him  to 
*'  have  terminated  his  life  by  martyrdom,  on  the  Jirsf  of  October,  in  the 
"very  commeneement  of  Christianity  accepted  by  the  Britons §.''     So 

falsely 

+  Having  here  cited  the  authority  of  Bede  for  the  first  lime  particularly,  and  havinc;  occa- 
sion to  cite  him  very  particularly  hereafter,  I  subjoin  in  this  note  one  remark  concerning 
him.  The  name  of  Bede  is  repeated  with  applause  by  every  tongue,  that  speaks  of  our  earlier 
history.  Bede  however,  let  jne  observe,  was  not  merely  great  as  a  writer,  but,  what  is  in- 
finitely more  in  itself,  was  truly  good  as  a  man.  The  trying  hour  of  dcatli  shewed  him  to  be 
so.  The  particulars  of  his  death  are  detailed  to  us  by  a  scholar  of  his.  And  the  account 
concludes  thus:  "  Omnes  autem  qui  audierevel  videre  bcati  patris  obitum,  nunquam  se  vi- 
"  disse  ullum  alium  in  magna  devotione  ac  tranquillitaie  vitam  sic  finisse,  dicebant;  quia, 
"  sicut  audisti,  quousque  anima  in  corpore  fuit,  '  Gloria  I'alri,'  et  alia  quaedani  cecinit  spiri- 
'*  tualia,  et  expansis  manibusDeo  vivo  et  vcro  gratias  agcre  non  cessabat."  (f-eland's  Coll. 
iv.  80;  and  Simeon  Dunelmensis,  i.  15,  Twisden.) 

X  Borlase,  369. 

§  Usher,  241  :  "  Meliorem  cum  appcllat  Philippus  Ferrarius,  in  Catalogo  Sanctorum 
"  sjcnerali,  ad  diem  iii.  Januarii  ;  ct  anno  ccccxi.  passimi  fuisse  ex  Johanne  Capgravio  an- 
"  notat ;  quanquam  Capgravius  calendis  Octobris  martyrio  vitam  ilium  finiisse,  dicat,  in 
"  ipsis  Chrisfian.x  fidei  a  Britannis  acceptx  primordiis." — "  John  Capgrave,  pro\inciaI  of 
"  tlie  Augustine  friars,  and  confessor  to  the  famous  Humphrey  duke  of  Gloucester,  epito- 
"  mized  Tynmouth's  book,"  the  Saiiclilogiiim  Jiritannicc  by  John  of  Tinmoulh,  yet  in  ma- 
nuscript;  "  adding  here  and  there  several  fancies  and  interpolations  of  his  own.  It  was 
"  translated  into  English  by  Caxton,  and  first  printed  in  the  year  15163  since  which  it  has 

"  been 


V 


380  TIIF.    CATHEDnVL    OP    CORXWAI.I.  [cHAP.  IV. 

falsclv  is  Ferrars's  Catalogue  drawn  up,  as  not  to  be  faithful  to  the  very 
author  that  it  cites  for  its  facts,  to  assign  them  dates  very  different  from 
M'hat  the  author  assigns,  and,  in  the  very  moments  of  reference  to  liim. 
M  hirl  away  his  facts  from  their  place  to  one  later  by  tw^o  or  three  centu- 
ries !  So  much  of  the  same  spirit  too  has  J)r.  Iiorlase  imbibed,  by  keep- 
ing company  with  Ferrars,  and  by  finding  he  accidentally  soothed  him  in 
some  prepossessions  concerning  the  continuance  of  druidism  here  ;  that, 
though  he  refers  to  Usher  and  appeals  to  Capgrave,  yet  he  minds  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other,  slights  the  falsification  in  Ferrars  pointed  out  by 
Usher,  and,  in  the  very  act  of  appeal  to  Capgrave,  takes  up  Fcrrars's  falsi- 
fication for  Capgrave's  assertion  !  This  a\  as  done  merely,  because  the 
falsity  was  more  ductile  to  some  chimeeras  of  the  Doctor's  own,  than  the 
truth  would  be.  He  appears,  indeed,  half-conscious  of  the  fraud  that  he 
was  putting  upon  himself  and  upon  his  readers.  He  therefore  adopts  the 
date  which  Ferrars  assigned  for  the  martyrdom,  with  some  marks  of  diffi- 
dence; and  dubiously  fixes  "  about  the  year  -til,"  what  Ferrars  positively' 
places  "  ?«  the  year  41 1."  And  all  forms  such  a  splendid  instance  of 
unfaithfulness  in  the  Doctor  to  the  very  authorities  upon  which  he  pro- 
fesses at  the  moment  to  write  ;  one  occurring  at  the  examination  of  the 
very  first  fact  which  he  alleges,  as  should  make  us  examine  his  other  alle- 
gations with  the  strictest  severity. 

Yet  let  us  not  proscribe  all  at  once,  what  the  Doctor  has  said  upon  tiie 
point ;  and  think  we  have  for  ever  annihilated  the  w  hole  story,  as  relative 
to  Cornwall  in  the  fifth  century.  The  Doctor,  who  shewed  his  half- 
consciousness  before  in  his  dubiousness  of  date,  who  vet  fixes  the  date  in 
the  fifth  century,  as  "  about  the  year  411  ;"  afterwards  becomes  so  much 
alarmed  by  his  own  suspicions,  as  to  reas07i  himself  into  the  error,  and  to 
argue  for  the  correspondency  of  Capgrave's  date  with  Ferrars's.  "  Cap- 
"  grave,"  he  cries  out,  "  says  that  this  happened  soon  after  the  Britans 
"  had  received  the  Christian  faith  ;  by  which  Britans  he  must  mean  the 

"  been  frequently  reprinted,  both  here  and  beyond  the  seas,  and  is  common  in  the  families  of 
"  our  gentlemen  of  the  Roman  communion."  (Nicholson's  Eng.  Hist.  Library,  ii.  31, 
edit.  1696.)  Yci  I  have  never  met  with  it,  and  never  met  with  any  man  who  had.  I  know 
only,  that  there  is  a  copy  iu  the  Bodleian,  No.  i.  ii.  Tho.  Seld.  fol.  239. 

"  Cornish, 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  281 

''  Conmli,  for  tJic  olhers  had  been  converted  above  two  huvdred  years  he- 
"  fore*"     Dr.  Borlase  thus  argues  from  the  wrong  against  the  right ; 
a.nA.J'rom  the  fact  which  should  have  convinced  him  of  his  error,  reasons 
to  fix  himseh"  more  deeply  in  it.     Such  is  the  wild  whirl  of  his  ideas  at 
the  moment !     By  some  strange  disturbance  in  his  judgment,  he  con- 
siders the  date  which  the  falsifying  Fcrrars  has  attributed  to  Capgrave, 
that  of  the  year  411;  as  Capgrave's  own  date,  and  as  irrefragable  in  it- 
self. On  this  hollow  ground  he  takes  his  stand,  fixes  his  engine,  and  then 
strains  his  cords  to  wrench  the  rectiUnear  language  of  Capgrave  into  all 
his  own  or  Ferrars's  obliquities.     "  M'hen  in  the  beghuiing  of  the  Chris- 
"  tiaufu'ithi''  Capgrave  tells  us,  not  confining  his  remark  to  Cornwall, 
not  restricting  it  even  to  Britain,  but  making  it  as  broad  and  general  as 
the  universe  itself,  "  the  apostolical  doctrine  was  spread  into  all  nations 
"  over  the  wot^ld,  the  Gentiles  of  Britain,"  not  of  Cornwall  particularly, 
but  of  Britain  at  large,   "  were  converted  to  the  faith  ;  and  many  believ- 
"  ing  in  the  Lord,  and  practising  the  apostolical  precepts,  shone  with  va- 
"  rious  and  miraculous  virtues  ;  of  the  7unnher  of  ivhich  we  confidenthj 
"  believe  the  blessed  Melor  to  have  been  one.     For  the  blessed  JVIclor  was 
"  of  a    noble   family  in   ]3ritain,  his  father  being  vidian,   who  pos- 
*'  sessed  the  dutchy  of  Cornwall  f."     Dr.  Borlase's  attempt  therefore  to 
make  Capgrave  mean  the  Cornish  only,  when  he  speaks  in  positive  terms' 
of  "  the  Gentiles  of  Britain"  at  large,  is  equally  violent  and  simple,  be- 
traying such  a  debility  of  intellect  as  woidd  bend  to  any  force  of  hvpothe- 
sis,  and  such  a  ductility  of  faith  as  would  ply  with  any  impulse  of  tempt- 
ation.    Jiut  a  mind  coloured  over  with   the  tincture  of  druidism,  and 
viewing  objects  through  a  druidical  spectre-glass,  beholds  all  nature  under 
a  wonderful    transfiguration ;    views    Druids    moving   in   their  mystic 
rounds,  within  tlic  very  churches  of  Christianity  ;  what  is  more,  sees  one 

•  Borlase,  369. 

t  Usher,  241  :  "  '  Duin  in  exordio,'  inquit,  '  ChriitiaiiE  fidei  apostolica  doctrina 
♦'  per  orbcni  Icrraruin  in  omnibus  gentihus  difiiinderctur,  conversa  est  I'ritanniae  gcntilitas 
"  ad  tidcm  ;  ct  niidii  Domino  crcdtntc.-i,  tl  apoiloliia  prapccpta  sccpitntcs,  variis  virluiuni 
*'  miraculis  fidscrunt ;  dc  quorum  numcro  bcalum  Mcloriim  fidcntcr  credimus  cxtitissc;  fuit 
"  enini  bcaUis  Mtlorus  dc  nobili  Britannornm  gonerc,  cujus  pater  Mclianus  ducatiiin  Cor- 
"  nubiiC  tcnuh'," 

VOL.  I.  o  o  sinali 


;q2  the  CATHET^n.vL  or  Cornwall  [chap,  iv, 

small  angle  of  the  island,  always  coming  forward  to  the  eye  as  the 
whole,  and  Britain  in  all  her  ample  dimensions  contracted  into  the  nar- 
row nook  of  Cornwall. 

Nor  could  this  saint  have  ever  been  supposed  to  be  the  son  of  a  dithe  of 
Cornwall,  till  Cornwall  had  been  reduced  from  a  royalty  to  a  dukedom  ; 
and  till  it  had  been  reduced  so  long,  that  petty  antiquaries  knew  not  it  had 
ever  been  a  royalty  at  all.  Then  a  Capgrave,  gleaning  the  field  of  history 
with  the  borrowed  hand  of  tradition,  picked  up  the  story  of  his  birth 
and  of  his  sufferings  very  honestly,  referred  them  to  their  natural  place  in 
our  history,  and  only  erred  with  the  vulgar  in  making  his  father  a  duke, 
instead  of  a  king  of  Cornwall. 

So  pregnant  with  folly  is  this  first  proof  in  Dr.  Borlase,  of  martjrs  suf- 
fering for  Christianity  in  Cornwall  during  the  fifth  century  ;  and  so  to- 
tally inapplicable  is  the  whole,  to  the  point  intended  to  be  proved  by  it ! 
But  let  us  grapple  with  the  Doctor,  in  a  still  closer  contest  upon  the 
point ;  and  give  him  that  Cornish  hug  at  once,  which,  like  the  wand  of 

the  magician, 

Can  unthread  the  joints. 

And  crumble  all  the  sinews. 

"  Melor,"  says  an  ancient  history  of  his  life,  as  extracted  by  Leland, 
"  was  the  son  of  Melian  king  of  Cornwall ;  Haurilla,  the  daughter  of 
"  earl  Rivold,  and  born  in  Devonshire,  was  the  mother  of  St.  Melor ; 
"  Rivold,"  the  son  of  the  other  Rivold  and  the  brother  of  Haurilla,  "  be- 
"  came  the  murderer  of  his  brother"  Melian,  "  and  the  invader  of  Corn- 
"  wall ;  he  deprived  his  nepheio  Melor  of  one  foot  and  one  hand :  INIelor 
"  was  bred  up  in  a  monastery — ;  Melor,  at  the  suggestion  of  his  nncle 
"  Ri/wld,  was  murdered  by  his  own  foster-father  Cerealtine  *."  Melor 
therefore  was  the  son,  not  of  a  dtihe  of  Cornwall,  as  no  duke  existed  there 

*  Leland's  Itin.  iii.  194  :  "Ex  Vita  S.  Mciori.  '  Mclorus,  filiiis  Meliani  regis  Corniibia;. 
"  Haurilla,  comitis  Rivoldi  filia,  in  Devoiiia  orta,  mater  S.  Melori.  Rivoldus,  fratricida,  ct 
«'  jnvasor  Cornubia:,  nepotem  siiiim  Mclorum  altero  pede  et  manu  altera  privavit.  Meloriis 
"  enutritus  in  coenobio — .  Melorus,  cousilio  Riboldi  patrui  sui,  a  niitritua  suo,  Ccrealtino, 
"  occisus  est'." 

fur 


BECT.  III.]  HISTOHICALLY    SCRVEYED.  283 

for  ages  after  Melor,  but  of  a  Iting.  Nor  did  he,  as  Dr.  Borlase  and  his 
authors  agree  to  intimate,  ever  surter  martyrdom  for  Christianity.  He 
died  under  the  hand  of  that  ambition  which  is  so  wildly  fermenting  in 
the  heart  of  man  at  times,  and  now  acted  the  daemon  so  savagely-  in  this 
king  of  Devonshire.  Melor's  maternal  uncle  invaded  the  country  of 
Cornwall,  seized  the  person  of  INIelor's  tather  the  king,  and  murdered 
him  ;  but  was  content  for  the  present,  with  only  maiming  Melor  himself 
by  cutting  off  one  hand  and  one  foot ;  yet  afterwards  instigated  the  very- 
man,  who  by  the  customs  of  Britain  was  next  to  Melor's  own  father  in 
relationship  to  him,  even  his  foster-father,  to  murder  him.  Such  a  com- 
plication of  villanies  meeting  in  the  murder  of  jNlclor,  the  son  of  a  king, 
a  king  himself  by  the  murder  of  his  father,  and  a  Christian  as  bred  up  in 
a  monastery  ;  induced  the  Christians  of  Cornwall,  his  and  his  father's 
subjects,  to  consider  him  as  a  martyr  in  their  minds,  and  to  rank  him  as  a 
martyr  in  their  calendars.  We  have  an  instance  exactly  similar  in  our 
Saxon  history ;  when  Edward,  the  young  and  amiable  son  of  Edgar,  was 
in  978  assassinated  by  the  queen  his  step-mother,  to  make  way  for  her 
own  son  to  the  throne  ;  and  when  the  w^hole  church  of  the  Saxons 
united,  to  register  him  as  a  saint,  to  honour  him  as  a  martyr  *.  But  we 
have  a  similar  incident  in  a  region  still  nearer  to  us;  the  St.  Sidwell  of 
Exeter  being  the  daughter  of  one  Benna  there  about  the  year  740,  and,  as 
such,  the  heiress  of  his  lands  in  the  eastern  suburb  of  the  city  ;  but  being 
murdered,  like  Edward,  by  a  step-mother  for  the  sake  of  those  lands,  be- 
ing on  that  account  reverenced  for  a  saint  by  the  Christians  of  the  place, 
and  having  a  church  dedicated  to  her  memory  at  it,  as  the  scene  at  once 
of  her  life,  of  her  martyrdom,  and  of  her  sepulture  f .     Dr.  Borlase  therc- 

*  Sax.  Chron.  aiiJ  Bronipton  in  Twisclen,  873,  874,  "Martircni." 
t  Ltland's  Itin.  iii.  60 :  "  The  subiirbc,  lliat  lyilh  vvilhout  the  est  gate  of  Excestcrj  is  the 
"  biggest  of  all  the  suburbcs  of  the  towne,  and  berith  the  name  of  S.  Sithewelle,  where  she 
"  was  buried,  and  a  chircli  dedicate  thcr  to  her  name."  Ibid.  ibiJ.  62  :  "  Ex  Vila  Sanctx 
"  Sativolae.  '  Bcnna  pater  Sativolx.  Sativola  nata  Exoniae.  Sativola,  Julo  nQvercx,  a 
"  Feniseca  amputaio  eapite  occisa,  ut  subiirbana  prxdia  ei  prxripcret.  Fens  Sativola;. 
"  Ecclesia  constructa  in  honorem  Sativolx'."  Crcssy,  p.  594,  from  tlie  MartyrologUnn, 
fixes  this  incident  about  the  year  740.  Worccstrc,  91  :  "  Sancta  Sativola,  virgo  canonizata, 
*'  jacet  in  ecclesia  Sancli  \o\x  [Sanctivolx]  civitatis  Exonix  ultra  puiUcin  [portamj  oricn- 
"  laleni." 

o  O  2  fore 


2S4  TWE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  IV. 

fore  has  been  just  as  much  imposed  upon  by  the  mere  sound  of  a  word, 
in  this  first  instance  of  Cornish  martyrdom  for  the  Gospel,  and  in  this 
iirst  proof  of  Cornish  violence  against  Christianity;  as  if  he  had  adduced 
the  fact  of  Sidwcll's  or  Edward's  iniu-der,  fur  an  equal  proof  of  hea- 
thenism in  Dorsetshire  or  Devonshire,  and  had  urged  it  us  an  instance  of 
U  Siuvn  martyrdom  for  the  Gospel. 

We  see  this  principle  of  canonizing  sufferers  for  martyrs,  carried 
to  so  high  an  extreme  of  amiable  compassion,  in  our  own  region  of 
Cornwall  itself;  that  we  find  "  St.  Filloc,  a  hermit  and  martyr,  bom 
*'  of  Irish  parents,  but  of  the  parish  of  hantcghs,  where  Waker  bishop 
"  of  Norwich  was  born  in  the  said  parish,  one  mile  from  the  town  of 
"  Fowey  ;  and  the  said  saint  has  his  feast  observed,  on  the  Thursday 
"  next  before  Whitsunday. — St.  JFylloiv  was  beheaded  by  Mehjn  his  re- 
"  lation,  near  the  place  where  Walter  bishop  of  Norwich  was  born;" 
that  is,  near  the  mill,  as  Walter  was  a  son  to  the  miller,  where  also  the 
saint  had  his  hermitage:  "  and  he,"  like  St.  Dennis  of  France,  and  St. 
Genys  of  Cornwall,  "  carried  his  head"  after  death,  and  carried  it  even 
"  to  the  bridge  of  St.  Wyllow,  by  the  space  of  half  a  mile,  to  the  place 
**  on  which  the  said  church  is  founded  in  honour  of  him  ;"  the  chapel 
of  St.  Wyllow,  of  which  we  know  from  another  writer,  and  to  which 
our  informant  has  only  alluded  tacitly  in  his  intimation  of  its  feast  be- 
fore *.  But 

*  Itineraria,  IT3  :  "  Sanctus  Vylloc,  heremita  et  niartlr,  natus  dc  Hibemia,  de  parochid 
"  Lanteglys,  uhi  Walterus  episcopus  Norwiccnsis  fuit  natus  in  dicta  parochia,  per  iinimi 
"  miliare  villae  de  Fowcy  ;  et  dictiis  sanctus  habet  fcstum  ejus  custodituni,  die  Jovis  proxinie 

■**  ante   feslum  Pentecosten Memorandum,   quod   Walterus  episcopus  Norwicensis 

"  fuit  natus  in  dicta  villa,"  Lanteglys  villa,  ]\.\^\.  mtwUontd  before,  "  ct  fuit  filius  moien- 
"  darii.  Sanctus  Wyllow  fuit  decapitatus  per  Mehjn  ys  hjnrede,  prope  locum  ubi  episcopus 
"  Norwiei  Walterus  fuit  natus;  et  portavit  [suuni  caput]  usque  pontem  Sancli  Wyllow,  per 
'*  spacium  ditnidii  miliaris,  ad  locum  ubi  dicta  ecclesia  fundatur  in  suo  honore."  Leiand's 
Itin.  iii.  37  :  "  From  Bodenek  to  Pelene  point,  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  here  euterith  a  pilleor 
"  creek  half  a  mile  up  into  the  land.  At  the  hed  of  this  piUe  is  a  chapel  of  St.  (filow,  and 
"  by  it  is  a  place  caullid  Lamelin,"  Lan  Melin,  or  Mill  Close,  "  lately  loiigging  to  Lanielin. 
«  — On  the  south  side  of  this  creke  is  the  paroch  chirch,  caullid  Lanteglise  juxta  Fawey." 
Itineraria,  135  :  *•'  In  Britanniaj  Sancti  Geuesii- martiris,  qui  ob  capitis  truncalionem  ..... 

♦*  ift. 


SECT.  III.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  285 

But  we  see  this  principle  even  in  the  very  incident  of  Cornish  history 
primarily  before  us;  when  one  who  was  certainly  an  equal  sufferer  with 
Melor,  who  must  have  been  equally  a  Christian  with  him,  even  his  father 
Melian,  that  had  bred  him  up  in  a  monastery,  was  equally  sainted  with 
him.  Thus  a  Cornish  church  in  the  west  is  denominated  "  Mullyan," 
by  the  later  Valor,  and  said  to  be  dedicated  to  "  St,  Melian,"  but  is 
called  expressly  by  the  earlier,  "  ecclesia  Sancti  Mellani ;"  while  a  church 
in  the  cast  is  entitled  by  that,  "  St.  Mcllyan  alias  St.  Mellyn ;"  and 
by  this,  "  ecclesia  Sancti  Mellani." 

So  extravagantly  false  does  Dr.  Borlase's  assertion  finally  appear,  that 
"  St.  Melor,  although  son  of  Melianus  duke  of  Cornwall,  suffered 
"  martyrdom,"  when  ]Melor,  in  reality,  suffered  merely  a  murder,  when 
his  father  suffered  equally  with  him,  and  when  both  suffered  only  from 
that  ambition  which  has  been  making  such  martyrs  in  every  age  of 
Christianity  since -j-!  But, 

"  in  ecclcsiae  [ecclesia]  canonicoriim  Lancesdon  .  .  .  .  Et  fuerant  iii  fratres  sub  nomine 
**  Sancti  Genesii,  et  unusquisque  caput  suum  portibal;  unus  archiepiscopus  Lismore."  This 
last  circumstance  shews  them  all  to  be  Irish  saints;  and  the  local  mark  "  in  Britannia"  is 
only  in  opposition  to  this  preceding  it,  "  in  Hibernia  translatio  Sancti  Genesii  Lismorensis 
"  arcliiepiscopi,  6  vel  5  nonas  Maii."  At  the  church  of  Launceston  was  also  "  translatio 
'•  a//)i^j5  Sancti  Genesii  martiris  14  kal.  Aug."  Between  Mont  Martre  and  Paris  was  lately 
a  statue  of  St.  Dennis,  now  swept  away  (I  suppose)  with  ten  thousand  objects  of  a  much 
better  quality,  carrying  his  head  under  his  arm  like  a  c/iapcau  de  bras.  And  St.  Genys  is  a 
parish  on  the  northern  coast  of  Cornwall,  between  Tintagell  and  Bude  Haven  ;  being  that 
very  point  of  our  region  assuredly,  at  which  St.  Gcnys  and  his  two  brothers  were  beheaded, 
like  St.  Wyllow,  but,  like  him,  as  equally  Irish  with  him,  and  coming  with  him,  probably, 
from  Ireland,  beheaded  only  by  private  malignity.  The  church  of  St.  Genys  was  appro- 
priated to  Launceston  church;  and  for  that  reason  was  "  the  translation  of  the  head"  of 
St.  Genys  observed  as  a  festival,  in  ihc  latter. 

t  So  in  Iceland's  Itin.  viii.  73,  we  have  this  notice:  "Ex  Vita  S.  Clitanci.  *  Clitaiw 
"  cus,  Southe-Wallia;  rcgulus,  inter  vtnandvmi  a  suis  sodalibus  occisus  est.  Ecclesia  S. 
"  Clilanei  iti  Southe-Wailia." — But  all  this  storv  of  Milor  and  Melian  is  astonishingly  trans- 
ferred in  some  confessed  legends,  from  Cornwall  to  Bretagnc.  "  Ce  seroit  ici  le  lieu  de  parlor 
*'  de  Grallon  compte  de  Coniouaille,"  on  the  continent, — '•  de  Daniel,  Budie,  ct  Melian  suc- 
"  cesscurs  de  Grallon,  de.i  cruaulez  de  liiuod  Jrern  de  Melian,  du  murtyre  de  Mehirc  fits 
"  dc  Melian,"  Sec.  3  "  mais  en  vcritc  il  y  a  si  peu  de  funds  a  fairc  sur  Ics  Ugendcs  qui  font , 

"  los 


I'SO  Tlir.    CATriMiUAL    OP    COtlNWALL  [CHAP.  IV. 

But,  as  Dr.  Borlase  instantly  proceeds  to  a  sf.coxd  incident,  perhaps  he 
niav  be  more  fortunate  in  this.     "  By  persisting  in  their  druidisni,"  he 
savs,  and  speaks  onlv  as  before  from  the  plenitude  of  his  own  antiqua- 
rian  ideas,  all  intianied  w  ith  writing  so  much  about  druidical  remains, 
real  or  supposed, and  allsM  clling  out  into  this  j)rotuberance  of  false  history., 
that  druidism  was  more  predominant  and  more  rooted  in  Cornwall,  than 
in  any  other  region  of  Britain;   "  the  Britons  of  Cornwall  drew  the  at- 
"  tention  of  St.  Patrick  that  way,  who  about   the  year  432,  v^ith  20 
"  companions,  halted  a  little  in  his  way  to  Ireland  on  the  shores  of  Corn- 
"  wall,  where  he  is   said  to  have  built  a  monastery.     Whether  Sai.st 
*'  Germax  was  in  Cornwall  at   this  time,  I   cannot  say,"   though  the 
tradition  is  recorded  so  strongly  by  ]SIr.  Willis,  and  in  such  a  work  as  his 
account  of  a  Cornish  parish;  an  argument  of  the  Doctor's  neglect  in  con- 
sulting even  local  accounts  for  his  local  history;  "  but,  according  to 
*'  Usher,  he   was  either  in  Cornwall  or  Wales;  for  St.  Patrick  is  said 
"  '  ad  pra'ceptorem  suum  beatum  Germanum  divertisse,  et  apud  Britan- 
"  nos  in  partibus  Cornubiae  et  Cambrire  aliquandiu  substitisse ;'  or,   as 
**  the  words  literally  translated,  run,  *  to  have  turned  aside  to   his  prc- 
*'  ceptor,  the  blessed  Germanus,  and  to  have  staid  some  time  among  the 
"  Britons  in  the  parts  of  Cornwall  and  of  Wales' ;{;."     This  allegation, 
however,  is  all  as  unfortunate  as  the  preceding. 

That  "  the  Britons  of  Cormvall  drew  the  attention  of  St.  Patrick, 
"  that  zvayT  that  "  he  halted  a  little  on  the  shores  of  Cornwall ;  yet 
"[  is  said  to  have  huilt  a  monastery'  there;  that  the  Britons  of  Cornwall 
drew  him  into  the  country,  "  by  persisting  in  their  druidism,"  yet  "  he 
"  halted  but  a  little"  among  them;  "  built  a  monastery,"  but  made  no 
converts ;  that,  however,  he  actually  came  merely  to  visit  "  his  pre- 
"  ceptor  the  blessed   Germanus,"  and  actually  "  staid  some  time'  with 

_"  hs  seid  memoires  dont  on  pourroit_tirer  ce  que  Ton  aiiroit  a  en  dire,  qu'i/  vaul  mieux  s'en 
"  taire  tout  afait.'^  (Lobineau,  i.  9.)     The  only  excuse  for  this  falsification  of  history,  is, 
what  was  in  all  probability  the  very  cause  of  it,  a  confusion  made  in  the  mind  by  the  two 
Cornwalls,  and  a  consequent  transfer  of  facts  from  the  English  Cornwall  to  the  French. 
^        :t  Eorlase,  369. 

5  him ; 


gECT.  III.]  HTSTORICALLV    SURVEYED.  287 

him;  yet  that  then  he  staid  not  in  Cornwall  positively,  but  "either 
"  in  Cornwall  or  Wales,"  and  (as  the  author  unconsciously  corrects 
himself  afterwards)  mholli,  even  "  among  the  Britons  in  the  parts  of 
"  Cornwall,  and  of  Wales;"  all  carries  such  an  amazing  train  of  con- 
tradictions upon  the  face  of  it,  as  shews  us  chaos  in  all  its  wildest  com- 
motions, billow  dashing  against  billow,  and  the  whole  whitened  over 
with  fragments  of  broken  waves. — Let  us,  however,  examine  these 
fragments  one  by  one,  as  well  as  we  can. 

That  St.  Patrick  is  "  said"  to  have  built  a  monastery,  is  derived  only 
from  the  vulgar  error  which  I  have  previousl}'  pointed  out,  of  confound- 
ing St.  Patrick  with  St.  Fetrock  *.  That  St.  Patrick  was  ever  in  Corn- 
wall, is  collected,  indeed,  from  the  words  of  Usher,  translated  above.  But 
then  these  are  the  \\  ords  of  the  Index  only,  and  end  with  another  word, 
"  traditur,"  annexed,  which  Dr.  Borlase  has  wholly  suppressed,  which 
yet  throws  a  dubiousness  over  all  the  preceding,  refers  solely  to  the  evi- 
dences in  the  work,  and  leaves  these  to  carry  merely  their  due  weight 
with  the  readerf .  Dr.  Borlase,  however,  cites  the  Index  instead  of  the 
work  itself,  maims  the  body  of  that  by  lopping  off  an  important  limb, 
and  never  consults  the  evidences  in  this  at  all.  Jfc,  therefore,  must 
do  what  he  ought  to  have  done.  Then  we  find  the  passage  to  \^■hich 
the  reference  is  principally  made,  running  thus  in  Jocelin,  as  he  describes 
the  journey  of  St.  Patrick  from  Rome  to  Ireland.  In  his  way,  savs  this 
his  best  biographer,  "  he  turned  aside  to  visit  him  who  had  bred  and 
"  educated  him,  the  blessed  Germanus|;"  then  certainly  not  in  Cornwall, 
as  Germanus  certainly  came  not  into  Cornwall  so  early  as  "  about  the 
"  year  -132  ;"  but  at  his  sec  of  Auxerre,  in  France,  as  the  non-specification 
of  the  place  sulHcicntly  implies  of  itself,  and  as  Usher  has  actually  inti- 
mated iu  some  words  which  Dr.  Borlase  has  suppressed  again.  They 
are  these  that  I  mark  with  Italics;   "  turned   aside  to  visit  the  blessed 

*  Sec  i.  3. 

t  Ublier,  516  :   "  '  Patricias,  cum  ,xx — comitibiis, — instituto  in  Ilibcrniain  iiinerc,  ad — 
♦•  bcatum  Gcrmaniini — diverlissc,  et  apiid  Britannos — aliquamdiu   siibsiitisse  traditur. '  4), 
««  238,  428,  43«j  &C-" 
f         Usher,  438  :  "  '  Dtvcrtit — ad  bcaluin  Gcrmanum,  luitrilorcni  ct  cruditorcni  smiwi  ." 

"  Germanus, 


1'88  TTIE    CVTirEHRAL    OI'    C'ORNW  VtX  [cHAP.   IV. 

"  GennatuK,  bishol)  of  Jt/xcrref."  Usher  also  confirms  this  inter- 
pretation in  another  passaj^c,  in  which  he  observes  some  part  of  a  pe- 
riod in  the  saint's  hte  must  be  assigned,  not  any  to  his  visit  of  St.  German 
in  Cornwall,  but  "  all  to  his  stay  at  Auxenc  with  St.  German:]:."  Yet, 
as  he  expressly  tells  us  at  the  very  place,  "  .Tocclin,  with  others,  sliews 
"  us,  that  this  \ery  famous  prelate  of  the  cliurch  of  Auxerre — staid  at 
"  hoiin',  both  tchen  he  sent  Patrick  to  Cclestin,"  at  Rome,  "  accom- 
"  panied  by  his  oldest  prcsbjter,  and  tv/icn  he  aotiin  foo/i  leave  of  him 
*'  after  Jiis  return  J'roin  lloi/ic^."  Jocclin  certainly  shews  the  latter  visit 
to  have  been  at  Auxerre,  by  the  very  tenour  of  his  narration  ;  saying  that 
*'  Patrick  hastened  his  return"  from  Rome  "  to\\ards  Ireland,  %\  ith  the 
*'  twenty  men  celebrated  for  the  goodness  of  their  li\es  and  the  great- 
"  ness  of  their  wisdom,  who  had  been  deputed  by  the  pope  himself 
"  to  assist  him;"  that  "  yet  he  turned  aside"  in  France  "  to  the  blessed 
*'  Germanus,  who  had  bred  and  educated  him,  //ow  ivhose  liberalitif  he 
"  received  chalices  and  sacerdotal  vestments,  a  variety  of  books,  and  other 
"  articles  belonging  to  the  service  and  ministry  of  the  church*.'"  So 
inuch  worse  than  negligent  docs  the  Doctor  here  appear!  so  easily  have 
\\c  w  hirled  away  his  Cornwall,  and  settled  it  in  the  heart  of  France  ! 

In  vain  then  does  the  Doctor  maintain,  from  the  Index  of  Usher,  that  St. 
Patrick  came  into  Cornwall,  and  continued  some  time  in  it.    Those,  who 

Thus  catch  the  eel  of  science  by  the  tail, 

are  often  deluded  in  their  grasp,  as  they  find  it,  in  spite  of  all  their 
elibrts,  \\rithing  and  wriggling  out  of  their  hands.  Tet,  when  we  turn 
to  the  testimonies  in  the  body  of  Usher's  \^-ork,■  we  find  one  evidence 

t  Usher,  516:   "  Ac!  beatuni  Germanum  Autissiodorcnscm  cpiscopum  divertisse." 
X  Usher,  435  :   "  Auiissiodorensi  apiid  S.  Gcrmanum  incolatui  assignaiuluni  censenius." 
§  Usher,  438  :  "  Celeberrimuni  ilium  Autissiodorensis  ecclcsire  antistitem — doml  man- 
"  sisse,  et  quum  Patricium  ad  Celestinum  una  cum  scniore  suo  presbytero  mittcret,  et  quum 
"  eunxlcm  Roma  redeuntem  itenmi  a  sc  dimittcret ;   praeter  alios  ostendit  Jocelinus." 

*  Usher,  438  :  "  '  Versus  Hiberniam,  cum  vigiiiti  viris  vitii  ac  sapientia  priEcIaris,  ab 
*'  ipso  summo  ponlifice  sibi  deputatis  in  adjutorium,  regressuni  maturavit ;  diverlit  autem  ad 
<'  B.  Gernianum,  nutritorem  et  eruditorcm  suum,  ex  cujus  muncre  accepit  calices  et  vesti- 
"  nienta  sacerdotalia,  copiam  codicum,  cl  alia  qux  pertinent  ad  cultum  et  niinisteriuni  eccle- 
"  siasticum'." 

for 


*ECT.  III.]  lIISTOniCALLT   SURVKYEn.  289 

for  St.  Patrick's  visit  in  Cornwall,  even  that  of  archbishop  Anselm  ;  but 
of  Ansclm  opposed  by  all  other  evidences,  and  of  Anselm  abandoned 
even  by  the  credulity  of  Dr.  Borlase  himself  Under  all  these  circum- 
stances of  disparagement,  however,  Jet  us  just  stop  to  examine  it  for  the 
sake  of  purging  the  history  more  thoroughly.  "That  glorious  and  ever- 
"  memorable  confessor  St.  Patrick,"  affirms  Anselm,  "  while  he  staid  in 
"  the  country  of  Cornwall,  intent  upon  holy  actions  ;  was  admonished 
"  by  the  voice  of  an  angel  to  go  into  Ireland,  in  order  to  preach  the  faith 
"  of  Christ  in  it :  then — he  arose'  without  delay,  and  repaired  to  the 
"  place  poined  out  to  him  by  God*."  In  this  relation  we  see  St. 
Patrick,  residing  in  no  specified  part  of  Cornwall,  but  there  receiving 
the  first  warning  from  Heaven  to  go  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  Irish. 
Tet  tliis  is  contradicted  directly  by  all  the  biographers  of  St.  Patrick, 
who  declare,  M'ith  one  voice,  that  he  vp^ent  from  Rome  to  preach  to  the 
Irish  f  ;  and  by  Ncnnius  or  his  enlargcr,  the  oldest  of  them  all,  who  par- 
ticularly asserts  him  to  have  received  his  angehc  monition  in  RomeIJ:. 
This  contradiction,  therefore,  breaks  the  spider's  thread  of  authority  in 
Anselm,  directly;  and  turns  the  residence  of  St.  Patrick  upon  the  shores 
of  Cornwall,  occasioned  by  we  know  not  what,  and  calculated  in  his 
coming  into  the  county  like  Cato's  into  the  theatre,  merely  for  his  going 
out  again,  into  a  mere  nothing,  the  poor  impertinence  of  fable,  and  the 
airy  gossamere  of  ignorance  §. 

•  Usher,  4.39 :  "  '  Gloriosu?  et  praedlcandus  ub'ique  Domini  confessor  Patricius,  cum  ia 
*'  Cornubia:  parlibu?  Banutis  actibus  niorarctiir,  iiitentus,  admonitus  est  voce  angelicS,  ut 
"  Hibcrnioe  insulam,  fidcm  Christ!  in  cA  prpedicaturus,  adirel.  Tunc — sine  mora  siirrexit, 
"  et  locum  tibi  pracslgaatum  a  Deo — expetiit'." 

t  Usher,  436-438. 

t  Usher,  437:  **  *  A  Coelcstino  pap3  Romano,  et  angcio  Dei  cni  nomen  crat  Victor 
"  mortnitc, — millitur'."  Giraldns  Oambrcnais  (Usher,  439)  asserts  him  to  have  received 
the  angelic  monition  at  St.  David's  in  Wales.  Local  atlatbmcnis  fonn  a  centre  of  gra- 
vitation in'  history  at  times,  that  violently  attracts  the  whole  system  to  it,  and  thrqws  all  the 
operations  of  all  the  orbs  into  disorder. 

§  Borlase,  369,  370,  slightly  notes  another  visit  by  St.  Patrick  into  Cornwall.  As, 
however,  he  cites  no  author  for  the  visit,  there  is  no  need  to  oppose  him.  "  Earth's  base, 
♦•  bulk  on  stubble,"  falls  back  into  chaos,  of  course.  But  I  have  previously  shaken  it  into 
atoms,  in  a  note  tb  i»  3. 

VOL.  I.  p  p  Let 


UQO  THE    CATHEDKAL    OF    CORISWALI.  [cHAT.   IV, 

TiOt  US.  therefore,  go  on  to  Dr.  Borlase's  third  proof.  Of  the  scho- 
lars of  St.  Patrick,  he  tells  us>  "  Fingaras,"'  who  is  called  also  Guigner, 
and  now  Gwinear  in  a  parish  of  Cornwall  adopting  his  appelLition, 
"  from  Arniorica,  whither  the  like  druid  superstition,  which  had  over- 
"  spread  all  the  west,''  just  as  it  had  overspread  all  the  cast  too,  botli 
of  Gaule,  and  of  Britain,  "  had  probably  called  him,''  when  Christianity 
had  certainly  triumphed  over  druidism  in  the  ivcst,  equally  as  in  the  east, 
of  both  ;  "  passing  into  Ireland  his  native  count r)%  andjivdii/g  it,  by  the 
"  labours  of  St.  Patrick  and  his  priests,  thoroughly  converted  to  Chris- 
"  tianity,"  as  if  he,  who  was  one  of  the  scholars  of  St.  Patrick,  a  native 
Irishman,  ajid  therefore  (we  may  be  sure)  one  of  his  most  active  agents 
in  converting  Ireland,  should  not  have  known  this  before,  "  gave  up  his 
"  right  to  a  crown,  by  that  time  fallen  to  him  upon  the  decease  of  his 
"  father  Clito,  and  with  his  sister  Piala,  eleven  bishops,  and  a  numerous 
"  attendance,  all  baptized  [end  some  of  them  consecrated]  by  St.  Patrick, 
"  came  into  Cornwall ;,"  not  to  retire  into  solitude,  as  Sl  Petrock  appa- 
rently came,  and  as  the  facts  (if  true)  will  compel  us  to  suppose  these 
came,  but,  as  the  Doctor's  argument  infers  and  his  conclusion  speaks  out, 
to  convert  the  Cornish  to  the  Gospel ;  "  and,  Lmding  at  the  mouth  of  the 
''  river  Hayle,  was  there  put  to  death  with  all  his  company  by  Theo- 
"  dorick  king  of  Cornwall,  ybr/ea;'  lest  they  should  tuim  his  subjects  Jrom: 
"  their  ancient  religion  ^." 

For  tliis  the  FTnctor  again  quotes  Usher,  and  not  Usher  in  his  Indexv 
but  in  the  body  of  his  work  *.  So  quoted.  Usher  certainly  is  very  re- 
spectable authority,  and  Usher";,  witness  says  all  that  the  Doctor  alleges 
from  Usher.  But  his  witness  is  cnly  tlie  convicted  Ansehn  again,  and 
Anselm  again  opposed  by  Jocelin  the  biographer  of  St.  Patrick.  Jocelin 
mentions  not  Pindar's  return  to  his  native  country  of  Ireland;  mentions 
no^  his  resignation  of  a  crown  in  Ireland;  mentions  not  his  leaving  Ire- 
land "  with  his  sister  Piala,  eleven  Ir^hopsj  and  a  numerous  attendance;" 
mentions  }iot  his  coming  with  them  into  Cornwall ;  and  mentions  jwt  his 
or  tlieir  being  murdered  in  Cornwall.     Jocelin  does  not  mention  Fingar 

f  Borlase,  370.  •  "  Usher,  cap.  xvii.  p.  869.'^ 

at 


ST.CT.    in.]  HISTORICALLY    SUIXVEVED.  291 

at  all :  nor  does  any  author  notice  him,  before  the  falsifying  Anselm; 
who  has  attributed  to  him  that  very  act  of  reverence  towards  St.  Patrick, 
in  rising  to  the  saint  on  the  saint's  coming  into  a  large  assembly  of  the 
Irish,  and  giving  him  his  seat,  which  Jocelin  attrii)utes  to  Dubtag  a  capital 
bard  f.  Nor  has  Dr.  Borlase  acted  more  honestly  in  this  reference  to 
Usher,  than  he  acted  in  the  one  immediately  preceding.  FIc  has  totally 
suppressed  that  half-brand  of  reprobation,  which  Usher  has  put  upon  the 
forehead  of  the  whole.  He  h:us  related  as  certain  under  the  sanction  of 
Usher's  name,  what  Usher  has  actually  detailed  as  dubious  and  suspect- 
able.  He  has  thus  abused  the  authority  of  Usher,  and  imposed  upon  the 
credulity  of  his  reader,  at  once.  Usher  relates  the  whole  from  Anselm  ; 
and  then  subjoins  this  significant  catition,  that  *'  he  leaves  the  credit  of 
'*  the  relation  to  the  testimony  of  the  relator  J,"  By  this  stroke  he  shews 
his  own  opinion  to  be  in  unison  with  that  of  every  man,  who  knows  any 
tiling  of  the  religious  state  of  Britain  at  this  period. 

But  with  or  without  Usher,  we  must  violently  drive  away  these  poor 
ghosts  of  murdered  saints,  which  have  been  conjured  up  by  the  wand  of 
that  necromancer  Anselm.  They  have  at  times  haunted  the  benighted 
scene  of  history  ever  since  :  yet  they  have  only  just  shewn  their  pale  faces 
hitherto  to  the  clouded  moon,  then  vanished  instantly  avvay,  and  retired 
into  their  proper  invisibility  again.  They  have  now,  however,  with  Dr. 
Borlase,  come  forward  in  open  day,  beneath  the  beams  of  the  sun,  even 
in  the  midst  of  meridian  splendours,  to  stalk  along  the  stage,  to  unfold  the 
tale  of  murders  never  committed  upon  them,  and  to  point  their  fingers  at 
the  monarch  tvho  never  vmrtyred  them. 

t  Usher,  c.ip.  xvii.  442,  443.  Opus  tripartitum  de  Vita  Patricli  snys  lie  was  "  '  Ercus 
'•'  nomine,  filius  Dcgo',"  and  "  '  in  civitate  Slaniae,'  eiim  '  ad  ccelcstia  niigravissc,'  Jocelinus 
"  eliani  confirmat."  But  Probus  in  his  Life  of  St.  Patrick  calls  him  "  '  Dubtag  poetani  op- 
"  timuni',"  even  the  Opus  Tripartitum  calls  him  afterward  "  '  Dubtachus  filius  Vulgayr'," 
vvhith  shews  the  same  person  to  be  meant  under  both  the  names;  "qui  dcinde,  ut  Jocelinus 
"  addit,  '  baptizatus  ct  in  fide  Christi  conhrmatus,  carmina — in  usum  mcliorcni — com- 
"  posult'."  llicn  comes  the  fabling  Anselm,  and  "  Fingarcm  sivc  Guigncrum,  cujus  acta 
"  ille  deficripsit,  primuni  et  solum  Patricio  assurrexisse  narrat."  Anselm:  "  '  hie  de  uni- 
"  versis  doIus  sancto  assurgens  Patricio',"  Sec. 

\  Usher,  451  :  *'  Fide  narrantibus  rclicta." 

P  P   2  SECTIOX 


202  THE    CATHKDRAL    OF    COKNWALI.  [ciIAr.   lY, 

SECriON  IV. 

Such  then  arc  the  facts  alleged  by  the  Doctor,  to  prove  the  persevering- 
druidism  of  the  Cornisli,  as  low  us  "  most  purl  of  the  sixth  century  ;"' 
when  the  veiy  latest  of  them  is  fixed  by  the  Doctor's  own  author,  Usher^ 
to  come  no  lower  than  about  the  year  40o,  a  little  beyond  the  middle  of 
the  Jifth  §  ;  and  when  all  of  them  appear  to  be  only  the  shadowy  cre- 
ations of  the  fancy.  Yet  the  restriction  of  druidism  merely  to  "  most  part" 
of  the  sixth,  I  believe,  arises  wholly  from  the  secret  influence  of  one  fact, 
that  Dr.  Borlase  has  omitted  to  notice  in  his  narration  here,  and  has  thrown, 
into  a  corner  in  his  chronology  afterwards  ||.  The  magnetism  of  this  in- 
cident was  felt,  I  suppose,  as  soon  as  the  incident  itself  was  discovered. 
It  was  then  found  strong  enough,  I  apprehend,  to  i*epel  him  from  a  pai't 
of  the  sixth  century,  and  to  change  tlie  whole,  as  I  presume  his  language 
once  to  have  run,  into  most  part,  as  it  no>v  runs.  But  let  us  see  this  liict, 
as  it  is  an  extraordinary  one  in  itself,  and  the  first  evidence  that  Dr.  Bor- 
lase could  find,  of  the  prevalence  of  Christianity  in  Cornwall ;  yet  more 
fully  than  we  find  it  in  the  Doctor  himself,  even  with  some  accompani- 
ments, illustrative  or  confirmatory,  of  which  he  had  hardly^  glimpse. 

An  epidemical  disease  breaking  out  in  Wales,  like  the  yellow  fever  of 
the  West-Indies  in  1793- 1802,  and  actually  called  by  an  appellation 
nearly  the  \cvy  same,  the  yellow  plague  ^f ;  which  spread  its  ravages 
over  the  country:  "  Teliau,  bishop  of  Landaff,"  nephew  to  David  the 
great  denominator  of  St.  David's,  "  embarked,"  says  an  ancient  history 

§  Usher,  521  :  "  Cccglx, — Circa  haec—tempora,  Fingarcm  sive  Guigncruni,  ex  Britan- 
"  nia  Armorica  in  paLriam  reversum,  Hiberniam  legibus  Christi  subditam  invenisse,"  &c. 
"  An5clinus  narrat." 

II  Boi-lasc,  408. 

%  Usher,  40,  41,  from  Giraldus  Cambrensis :  "  'Ingruente  per  Cambriam — peste  qiiS- 
"  dam,  qua  caten-atim  plebs  occubuit,  qiiam  fiavam  pcstem  vocabant,  quam  et  physlci  icte- 
*'  riciam  diciint  passioiiem' — Pestis  ista— -Britannis,  a  flavo  colore  quo  afiecti  inorbo  tinge- 
"  baiitur,  y  gall  velen,"  or  the  yellow  plague,  «  appellata."  In  the  book  of  Landaff,  says 
Richards,  ball  is  used  for  a  plague,  but  "  corruptly  for  maU."  The  word  is  really  either 
mall,  Or  hall,  or  gall,  without  any  corruption. 

of 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYEb.  293 

of  him,  inserted  in  what  is  named  the  Register  of  Landaff,  "  with  some 
"  of  his  suffragan  bishops,  men  of  the  other  orders  of  ecclesiastics,  and 
**  laical  persons  of  both  sexes,  men  and  women,"  for  Dole  in  Bretagne, 
the  archbishop  of  which  M-as  Sampson,  his  countryman  of  AVales,  and  his 
fellow-pupil  under  Dubricius  there,  "  He  came  first  to  the  region  of 
"  Cornwall,  and  was  -well  received  by  Gekenxius  the  king  of  that 

**  country,  who    TREATED     HIM    AND    IIIS    PEOPLE    W^TH    ALL    HONOUR." 

This  was  in  588,  and  is  a  sutficient  evidence  of  the  establishment  of 
Christianity  in  Cornwall  then.  "  The  saint  went  thence  with  his  com- 
*'  pany  to  the  people  of  Armorica,  and  was  well  entertained  by  them 
"  continually.  There  he  and  St.  Sampson  planted  a  great  wood  of 
"  orchard- trees,  about  three  miles  in  length,  that  is,  from  Dole  even 
"  to  Cai ;  as  the  very  groves  are  honoured  with  their  names  even  at  this 
"  day,  being  called  the  Orchards  of  Teliau  and  Sampson.  Ever  since  that 
"  time  has  the  see  of  Dole  been  honoured  and  celebrated  by  the  testi- 
"  mony  of  all  the  Armorican  Britons,  for  the  conversation  of  the  vene- 
"  table  St.  Teliau.  In  the  mean  time,  while  these  things  were  done  and 
"  transacted,  it  happened  that  Christ,  in  his  compassion,  ordered  the  yel- 
"  low  plagxie  to  depart  and  vanish  out  of  all  Britain.  On  hearing  this, 
"  that  faithful  leader  Teliau  was  exhilarated,  though  moderately ;  yet 
"  under  the  admonition  of  the  Holy  Spii'it,  sending  messengers  into 
"  France,  beyond  the  Alps  into  Italy,  or  wherever  he  knew  his  ,com- 
"  patriots  to  have  fled,  diligently  collected  them  together  ;  that,  now  the 
"  pestilence  had  ceased,  they  might  all  return  under  the  granted  peace, 
"  from  all  quarters  to  their  own  homes.  At  last,  having  prepared  a  great 
"  bark,  after  a  completion  of  seven  years  and  seven  months,  which  he  had 
"  spent  in  the  coimtry  of  Armorica,  he  entered  the  bark,  with  many 
"  doctors  and  some  others  who  were  bishops.  In  this  they  all  arrived  at 
"  THE  PORT  called  Dingerein,  king  Gerennius  then  hfmg  hi  the  hist  cx- 
"  tremc  of  life;  who,  .w^hen  he  had  received  the  body  of  the  Lord- 
"  from  the  hand  of  St.  Teliau,  departed  in  joy  to  the  Lord  *." 

This 

•  Usher,  533,  "  ULXXXvui ; "  534,  "  dxcvi  ;"  290,  '"'  '  Surrcxit— Saiictus  Teliaus, 
"  adduccns  seciim  quosdani  suflTraganeos  cpiscopos  suos,  ct  csEteroruni  ordinum  viros,  cum 
"  utriusque  scxus  honiiuibus,  viris  «-t  mulicribus.     Et  devcnlt  priinitus  ad  Cornubienscm  re- 


29-1  rUK    CATHF.DK  Vh     or    CORNWALL  [ciIAV.  lY. 

This  Gcreniiius,  as  Dr.  Rorlasc  very  properly  remarks.  "  lived  at  DiJi- 
"  gi:rein,  i.  e.  the  fort  of  Oereoniiis  ;  -which  most  likely  was  sonit'\\here 
"near  the  ehiirrh,  called  t'rom  this  prince  (as  'tis  supposed)  Gernins; 
•'  and  gave  name  to  the  harbour,  thence  called  Dingerein  Portf."  This 
is  very  happily  said.  O  si  sic  omnia  !  The  very  Din-(jerein,  or  the  fort 
of  Gerennius,  now  remains  in  its  ground-plot  within  the  parish  of 
Gcrens,  thougli  at  a  great  distance  from  the  church,  and  is  the  very  fiite 
thus  described  by  Kehxnd.  "  About  a  myle  bywest  of  Pcnare,"  notes  this 
very  nsef\il  antiquary  in  a  passage  wholly  unobserved  by  the  Doctor,  "  is 
"  a  force,"  or  strong  hold,  "  ncre  the  shore  in  the  paroch  of  St.  <Jerons. 
"  It  is  single  diky'd,  and  within  a  but  shot  of  the  north  side  of  the  same, 
"  appcrith  an  hole  of  a  vault  broken  up  by  a  plough  yn  tylling.  This 
"  vault  had  an  issue  from  the  castelle  to  the  se  :  and  a  little  by  north  of 
"  the  castelle  [are]  a  4  or  5  borowes  or  c:ist  hilles|." 

This  "castelle"  or  "  force"  still  shews  its  earthworks  conspicuous  to  the 
eye,  "  about  a  mj  le  bywest  of  Penare,"  and  "  nerc  the  shore,"  being  on 

"  gionem,  et  bene  sii?ceptus  est  a  Gerenmo,  rcgc  iHlus  palrlce, — ct  Iraclavit  ilium  et  sunm 
"  populum  cum  omni  honore.  Inde  perrcxit  sanctus  cum  siiis  comitibus  ad  Armoricas 
^'  gentes,  et  bene  continuo  susceptum  est  ab  cis.  Ib't  ipsext  S.  Sampson  plantaverunt  niag- 
"  mm)  nemus  arboreii  fnictiferi,  quasi  ad  tria  milliaria,  id  esl,  a  Dol  usque  ad  Cai ;  el  dcco- 
"  rantur  ipsa  ntmora  eorum  nomine,  usque  in  hodlcrnum  diem  ;  vocantur  enini  Arboreta 
"  Teliavi  et  S.  nisoiiis.  Et  ex  illo  tempore,  et  deinreps,  epistopatus  Dolensis  decoratur  et 
"  celebratur,  sub  testimonio  omnium  Armoricorum  Brltonnm,  ob  conversationem  et  reveren- 
"  liam  Sancli  TelJavi.  Inlerca  dum  biec  ^erenlur  et  tractarentur,  conligit  quod  Christus 
"  perinisericordiam  suam  prajciperet,  ut  ilia  prasditta  iues  qua:  flava  dicebalur  exirct  et 
"  evanesceret  dc  Britannia  insula  tota.  Quo  audi lo,  fidclis  ductor  Tcliaus  in  modicum  ex- 
"  bilaratus,  et  Sancto  Spiritu  summonitus,  ni'issis  legaiis  in  Franciam,  et  ultra  Alpes  in  Ita- 
"  liam,  et  quocuiKjue  cognilum  sibi  erat  eos  aufugisse,  recollegit  compatriotas  diliffenter  in 
"  unum  J  ut  omneS)  extincia  pestikniia,  cum  data  pace  per  omnia  redirent  ad  propria. 
"  Demiim  preparata  magna  barca,  peractisque  septem  annis  ac  septem  mensibus,  quos  S. 
'*  Tcliaus  tluxerat  in  Armoricanorum  patria,  intravit  in  cam  cum  multis  doctor\bus  et  qui- 
"  biisdam  aliis,  cpiscopis;  ct  applicucrunt  in  portum  vocatum  Diuerein,  rtge  Gerennio  In 
"  extremis  turn  posito  ;  qui,  acccpto  corpore  Domini  de  manu  S.  Teliaui,  Icetu.s  migravlt  ad 
"  Dominum'."  for  Teliau's  relationship  to  David,  for  Sampson,  and  for  Dubricius,  see 
Usher,  41. 

+  .Borlast,  408.  J  Leland's  Itin.  lii,  30,  31, 

the 


SECT,  IV.]  IIISTORTCALLY    SURVEYED.  295 

the  exterior  rim  of  tlie  sea's  sloping  bank,  about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  to 
tJio  north  of  Gerens  church,  close  at  the  left  of  the  road  from  Tregoney  to 
St.  Mawes,  and  just  upon  the  Tregoney  side  of  TrewiUiien,  "  in  the  pa- 
*'  roch  of  St.  Gerons."     The  military  aspect  of  it  at  the  margin  of  the 
road  attracts-  the  attention  of  every  eye,  and  solicits  the  curiosity  of  eveiy 
mind  :  but  it  has  hitherto  solicited  and  attracted  in  vain.     For  years,  as  I 
have  been  riding  by  it  myself,  I  have  felt  a  strong  desire,  and  have  formed 
n  full  resolution,  to  return  at  a  future  hour  of  leisure,  and  to  explore  its 
nature  carefiJIy.     Yet  I  should  probably  have  gone  on  through  life  so 
feeUng  and  so  forming,  if  my  present  undertaking  had  not  found  it  with- 
in the  sweep  of  its  iw/e.r,  and  so  drawn  it  into  the  centre  of  its  waters. 
My  examination  of  the  antiquity  thus  became  necessary,  to  the  complete- 
ness of  my  work.     I  then  found  the  fortress  standing  upon  the  southern 
side  of  a  little  eminence,  and  viewing  the  ground  to  fall  from  it  gently 
on  the  south  toTrewithien,  but  sharply  on  the  east  to  the  sea.  The  whole 
is  nearly  circular,  about  an  acre  in  compass ;  a  fair  level,  formed  by  arti- 
ficial soil  accumulated  upon  the  ground,  and  denominated  the  plain  fami- 
liarly by  the  farmer,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  rest  of  the  field  at  the  head 
of  which  it  lies.     Up  this  field  is  the  approach  to  it,  where  it  comes  for- 
ward to  the  eye  as  an  eminence  raised  by  the  hand,  with  a  tall  bank  de- 
scending steeply  from  it.     But  at  the  northern  end  of  the  bank  is  the  en- 
trance into  it,  wound  with  great  artifice  about  two  sides  of  it ;  a  broad 
fosse  there  opening  upon  you,  carrv'i-ng  a  rampart  on  each  side,  and  still 
shewing  at  the  mouth  of  it  the  remains  of  that  cross  rampart,  which 
once  united  with  gates  to  secure  this  only  avenue  into  the  castle.     The 
fosse  has  been  scooped  out  with  great  labour,  and  the  earth  of  it  thrown 
upon  the  area  within  ;  which  has  made  the  remaining  soil  of  it  a  crv  shal- 
low.  It  thus  proceeds  with  a  rampart  of  nine  or  ten  feet  in  height,  on  the 
right  and  left ;  that  on  the  left  the  mere  fall  of  the  area,  but  that  on  the 
right  a  regular  bank  of  eartli,  perpendicular  without,  yet  sloping  within, 
carrying  two  or  three  eminences  in  its  line,  that  spire  up  like  so  many 
turrets  of  earth,   and  have  been  long  supposed  by  the  noticing  ncighr 
hours  to  be  stations  for  sentinels.     In  this  manner  the  fosse  reaches  the 
south-western  angle,  when  the  bank  of  the  area  instantly  reclines  into  a 
smooth  ascent  of  nine  or  ten  feet  in  breadth,  and  so  marks  the  \ci\ 

entrance; 


290  THE    C.VniF.DRAL   OF    COnNWALL  [cHAP.   IV. 

entrance  into  the  castle.  With  such  adthc&s  and  ln{2;eiuuty  was  the 
avenue  up  to  it  managed,  by  the  original  constructors  of  it  !  This 
striking  feature  in  the  complexion  of  the  building,  very  plainly  indicates 
it  to  have  been  constructed  at  a  period  when  the  violence  of  war  was 
swayed  by  the  wisdom  of  policy,  when  warfare  had  been  improved  into 
a  system,  and  the  muid  predominated  strongly  over  all  the  motlcs  of  de- 
fence. The  rest  of  the  area  is  left  to  its  own  securities,  its  elevation  above 
the  ground  adjoining,  the  gentle  fall  on  the  south,  and  the  sharp  descent 
on  the  east.  It  has  therefore  no  fosse  in  fi  ont  and  upon  one  side.  Thus 
is  the  whole  as  Leland  describes  it,  "  single  diky'd,"  or  having  only  one 
ditch  about  it.  But  what  lends  a  fulness  to  the  evidence,  close  by  it  on 
the  north,  in  the  lane  leading  along  it  from  the  road  towards  the  sea, 
upon  a  small  vacancy  of  ground  at  the  union  of  both,  were  within 
memory  some  of  those  "  4  or  5  borowes  or  cast  hilles,"  which  Ix;land 
places  "  a  little  by  north  of  the  castelle ;"  one  of  them  very  large,  all  of 
them  assuredly  the  sepulchres  of  the  family  once  resident  within  it ;  as 
upon  the  formerly  probably  was  fixed  the  beacon,  that  has  lent  the  appel- 
lation of  Beacon-hill  to  the  vacancy,  has  communicated  the  title  of 
Beacon-close  to  the  field  immediately  adjoining  on  the  north,  and  occa- 
sionally extends  the  former  appellation  to  the  fortress  itself. 

"  Within  a  but  shot  of  the  north  side  of  the  same,"  as  Leland  adds  in  a 
language  of  niensiu*ation  allusive  to  archery,  once  therefore  as  familiar  as 
archery  itself,  but  now  with  archery  nearly  lost,  and  meaning  as  far  as  a 
shaft  used  in  shooting  at  a  butt  can  carry  point  blank,  or,  in  other  words, 
about  twelve-score  yards  fronj  the  north  side  of  the  fortress  *  ;  "apperith 
"  a  hole  of  a  vault,  broken  up  by  a  plough  in  tylling.  This  vault  hadayi 
"  issue  from  the  castelle  to  the  se."  Here  we  have  a  very  extraordinary 
discovery.  Yet  Leland  saw  it  with  his  own  eyes,  as  he  says  the  "  hole 
"  of  a  vault"  yet  "  apperith."  A  subterraneous  passage  had  been 
formed  in  the  ground,  from  this  fortress  along  the  land  immediately  ad- 
joining on  the  north,  and  to  the  sea  at  its  eastern  side.     But  it  had  been 

*  Shakespeare,  Hen.  IV.  Part  sd,  i.x.  127:  "Dead!  he  shot  a  fine  shoot: — John  of 
"  Gaunt  lov'd  him  well,  and  betted  nmch  money  on  his  head.  Dead  I — he  would  have 
"  clapp'd  i'th'  clout  at  twelvescore."     See  also  Part  ist,  viii.  485. 

1  for«ied 


-SECT.  IV. 3  HISTORICALLY  SURVEYED.  297 

formed  so  slight  in  itself,  and  so  shallow  in  the  ground  there,  as  to  have 
been  opened  by  the  plough  in  tilling ;  the  coulter  dipping  a  little  lower 
than  usual,  tearing  up  some  of  the  covering  stones,  and  disclosing  the 
channel  to  the  eye.  It  then  appeared,  how  ever,  to  the  ver}'  judgment  of 
a  Leland,  an  evident  "  vault ;"  an  excavation  much  larger  than  the  mere 
channel  of  a  sewer  to  the  castle ;  a  passage  ample  and  vaulted.  It  ap- 
peared also  to  him,  evidently  extending  one  way  up  to  the  castle,  and 
another  way  down  to  the  sea  ;  and  he  thought  the  discovery  considerable 
enough  to  be  recorded  even  in  his  brief  chronicle  of  incidents  :  yet,  as 
Leland  usefully  subjoins  in  the  margin,  "  [a  mile]  dim.  from  this,"  by 

which  he  means  a  mile  and  a  half-^",  "  [there]  is  another  in  a /'or 

"  in  the  syde,"  as  Stowe  reads  the  words,  "  of  an  hille  :  .  .  V^^'^.  .  are  a 

"  quarter  .  .  .  pf?"."'?  .  .  .  from  the  lordship   of .  thy,"  Tre- 

withyen,  "  sumtyme  the   [Archd]ekens"  of  Ruan  Lanyhorne  castle, 
"  now  [Corbctt]es  and  Tre[gions]  \,"     This  second  "  hole  of  a  vault," 
which  equally  "  had  an  issue  from  the  castelle  to  the  se,"  and  was 
equally  "  a  quarter  of  a  mile"  from  Trewithien,   is  apparent  still  when 
the  other  is  lost.     The  other  ran  towards  the  sea  through  ground  still 
earthy  and  loose,  often  falling  away  in  the  cliffs,  and  always  admitting 
badgers  to  burrow  in  it  ;  was  discovered  in  its  course  by  an  accident  no 
longer  remembered,  yet  is  now  lost  equally  to  the  eye  and  to  the  memory 
itself     But  this  remains  from  the  rocky  nature  of  the  ground  through 
which  it  was  cut,  comes  out  therefore  to  the  eye  "  in  the  syde  of  an 
"  hille,"  opening  through  the  side  of  the  hill-clitFin  what  is  commonly 
called  the  Mermaid's  Hole,  and  engaging  the  speculations  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood greatly.     The  mouth  of  it  is  large  enough  to  admit  a  man 
walking  erect,  has  been  often  entered  by  the  steps  of  timorous  curiosity, 
and  even  pursued  by  some  of  a  more  daring  spirit  for  forty  or  fifty  yards 
up  into  the  land  :  at  that  distance,  from  the  f;illing-in  of  the  roof,  it  con- 
tracts very  much,  obliges  a  person  to  creep,  but  allowed  a  boy  in  that 

t  So  in  iii.  26:  "  Tlierc  lyith  a  litile  cape  or  foreland  wiihin  the  haven"  of  Falmouth, 
"  a  mile  dim."  from  and  "  almost  aiiain  Mr.  Kilicrcwc's  house,  caullid  Pcnfusis." 
29  :  "  From  S.  Just  pillc  or  crckc  to  S.  Manditus  crekc  is  a  mile  dim."  30:  "  From  S.  An- 
"  tonic  Foint  at  the  mayn  sc  to  Penarc  Point  «  ^milcs  dim," 

X  The  hooks  arc  in  the  printed  copy,  the  words  overhead  are  supplied  by  me. 

VOL.  I.  Q  Q  posture 


298  THK    CATIIEDBAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CIIAP.  IV. 

posture  not  long  since  to  push  sonic  yards  t'anhcr  up  it;  %\  ho  crept 
liastilv  back,  however,  in  a  fright  at  encountering  two  otters  there. 
Foxes  have  equally  been  found  in  it  at  times.  Some  theep  also  are  said  to 
have  been  drowned  in  it  a  tew  years  ago,  by  the  influx  of  the  tide  catching 
them  there.  And  it  takes  its  appellation  of  Mcnuahrs  Hulc,  from  the 
idea  of  this  modern  rciiiis  of  the  sco,  with  her  comb  and  her  looking- 
glass,  entering  it  upon  the  top  of  the  tide ;  so  low  does  it  lie  in  the  side 
of  the  chtf! 

Yet  for  what  purpose  could  these  two  tunnels  have  been  formed  ? 
Even  the  smaller  of  them  appears  too  large  for  a  sewer,  and  the  bigger 
of  them  is  very  much  too  large.  They  both  moved  in  a  direction  like- 
wise, too  long  in  itself,  too  diverging  from  the  castle,  to  be  sewers.  Nor 
would  there  have  been  ttvo  sewers.  One  alone  would  have  sufficed,  have 
gone  a  few  yards,  perhaps,  underground  from  the  castle,  and  then  have 
dismissed  its  contents  to  find  their  way,  by  tiowing  in  some  open  channel, 
or  by  tumbling  over  the  clitfs  to  the  sea.  These  were  therefore  that  cau- 
tious provision  of  private  sally-ports,  of  which  we  hear  so  much  by  tra- 
dition at  some  of  our  ancient  castles,  and  learn  enough  from  history  to 
credit  its  report.  Thus,  at  Launceston  castle  in  our  own  county,-  tra- 
dition pronounces  with  a  firm  tone  of  voice,  that  there  was  a  subterra- 
neous way  out  of  the  keep,  diving  down  through  the  body  of  the  hill,  and 
emerging  in  the  country  below  :  some  carry  it  into  the  town,  and  others 
into  the  fields  at  the  back  of  the  castle  ;  but  all  are  so  fully  convinced 
of  its  existence,  that  they  say  it  commenced  in  the  keep  under  a  blue 
stone,  and  went  from  this  to  its  termination.  At  Restormel  castle  also, 
which  \A  as  erected  equally  by  the  lords  of  the  count}',  and  constriictcd 
upon  a  plan  of  defence  nearly  the  same,  a  subterraneous  road  is  so  far 
knoivn  by  tradition  to  have  penetrated  through  the  heart  of  the  hill,  from 
top  to  bottom  ;  that  the  very  opening  at  the  bottom  is  reported  with 
confidence  to  this  moment,  though  tradition  presumes  not  to  point  a  siu*e 
and  steady  finger  at  the  place.  To  cut  such  a  winding  passage  through 
the  rock,  must  have  ])ccn  a  work  of  considerable  difficulty;  yet  no  diffi- 
culty could  deter  men  who  had  the  force  of  a  whole  county  at  their  com- 
mand, who  studied  every  art  of  warfare  with  particular  attention,  and 

practised 


Sl-.CT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY  SCRVETED-  2Q9 

practised  every  labour  of  warfare  with  peculiar  promptness  :  and  such  a 
dark,  subterraneous  wicket,  which  was  calculated  only  for  the  last  mo- 
ments of  distress,  and  reserved  as  a  means  of  escape  muler  the  pressure  of 
desperate  necessity,  woiild  naturally  be  known  to  few,  be  kept  as  a  secret 
in  the  breast  of  the  principal  officer,  begin  in  some  sequestered  room 
within,  and  terminate  in  some  sequestered  place  without ;  open  at  its 
outset  under  a  blue  or  a  black  stone  in  a  locked-up  chamber,  and  end  at  its 
vent  under  a  bank,  imder  a  busli,  or  under  a  thicket :  tlwrc  the  stone 
might  never  be  seen  by  any  but  one  of  the  garrison,  and  licrc  the  mouth 
of  it  would  present  merely  the  appearance  of  a  drain.  All  this  we  see 
livelilv  exhibited  to  our  eves  in  a  sin<>le  incident  of  our  national  historv. 
The  castle  of  Nottingham,  which  we  know  to  have  been  maintained  by 
the  Danes  and  bcsiejicd  by  the  Saxons,  so  early  as  the  vear  8(58*.  had 
just  such  a  subterraneous  conveyance  as  this  out  of  it.  Upon  the  western 
side  of  that  rock  on  which  the  castle  rears  its  head,  was  a  cave  of  dismal 
aspect,  leading  into  a  narrow  gallery  that  had  been  hewn  through  the 
earth  stony  or  loose  in  a  very  uneven  manner,  till  it  reached  the  rock  it- 
self. Into  this  it  entered  at  the  foot  of  a  pair  of  stairs,  ascended  up  it  by 
the  stairs,  and  came  out  within  the  keep  or  chief  tower  abovef .  "  There 
"  is,*'  says  Leland.  describing  the  castle  as  it  then  stood,  and  speaking 
from  traditions  then  uiunixed  with  romance,  "  a  choclea  [cochlea  or 
"  spiral  stairs]  with  a  turret  over  it"  in  the  chief  tower  or  keep,  "  wher 
"  the  keepers  of  the  castelle  say  Edward  the  Thirde's  band  came  up 
"  through  the  rok,  and  toke  the  erle  Mortymer  prisoner.  Ther  is  yet  a 
"  fair  staire  to  go  down  by  the  rok  to  the  ripe  of  Line  J."  This  passage 
still  remains,  winding  through  the  upper  part  of  the  rock  without  stairs, 
and  walled  up  for  the  remainder,  but  was  wholly  unknown  to  all  except 
the  constable  of  the  castle,  in  l33o.     He  then  stole  out  of  the  castle  to 

*  Asser,  19,  20. 

t  History  of  Ldvvard  III.  by  .loshiia  Barnes,  1688,11.48;  and  Carte,  ii.  405,  406,  the 
copyist  of  Barnes. 

X  Itin.  i.  107.  The  keepers  had  not  then  forgotten  so  far  their  talc,  a.;  to  tell  what  thoy 
told  to  Camden  afterwards.  '•  In  supcriori — eastri  parte  ([ikc  sublime  in  rupe  surgit,  per 
"  gradus  in — camerani  subterrancani — devenimus,  fjuani  Mortimer's  Hole  vocaut,  quod  i* 
"  cti  delilnit  Rogojus  ilie,"  See.  p.  413. 

Q  Q  2  Edv.ard 


300  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CHAP.  IV. 

Edward  in  the  nciglibouihoud,  led  Edward's  party  at  midnight  into  that 
cave,  along  that  gallery,  and  up  those  stairs,  surprised  the  queen,  sur- 
prised Mortimer,  and  fixed  the  appellation  oi  JMoiiimcrs  Hole  upon  the 
passage  c^t!r  since  §.  Such  a  private  sally-port  had  the  royal  castle  of 
Nottingham,  and  the  nearly  royal  castles  of"  Launceston  or  Restormel,  be- 
longing to  each  of  them  !  But  our  royal  castle  of  Gerens  was  magni- 
ficently provided  with  a  couple  for  graiter  security ;  each  taking  so 
oblique  a  ra:ige,  as  to  run  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  before  it  reaches 
the  sea  ;  each  therefore  diverging  so  w  idcly  from  the  other,  as  to  have 
been  at  their  mouths  "  a  mile  dimid.  from"  each  other  ;  and  each  issuing 
in  an  opening  to  the  sea,  which  would  seem  from  the  divergence,  the  ob- 
liquity, or  the  length,  to  have  no  connexion  with  the  castle,  or  if  thought 
connected,  as  connected  they  must  certainly  appear  on  reflection,  to  be 
merely  tlic  vents  of  drains  from  it. 

This  then  was  the  Din-Gerein  of  the  Landaff  Register,  standing  upon 
high  ground  near  the  cliffs  of  the  sea,  lending  its  own  appellation  to  the 
fine  rounding  bay  of  Creek  Stephen,  alias  Pendower,  below,  causing  it  to 
be  called  "  \hG  port  of  Din-Gerein,"  and  being  in  reality  what  the  very 
name  signifies  in  British,  the  "  Din"  or  Castle  of  "  Gerein."  In  this  the 
king  hospitably  entertained  bishop  Teliau  with  his  company,  A.  D.  588  ; 
then  flying  by  sea  from  Wales  into  Bretagne,  and  putting  by  the  way  into 
that  port.  In  this  too  the  bishop,  on  his  return  seven  years  afterward, 
administered  the  eucharist  to  the  king,  then  on  the  awful  bed  of  death  ; 
and  in  this,  almost  immediately  afterwards,  the  king  "  departed  in  joy 
"  to  the  Lord."  The  king  therefore  had  been  long  a  Christian,  an  avoucd, 
a  tccU-knoicn  Christian  ;  even  well  kno\\  n  to  the  clergy  of  ff'ales,  for  an 
avowed  Christian.  But  he  was  even  more  than  this.  Amid  subjects 
professing  Christianity  equally  with  himself,  he  stood  so  conspicuous  in 
his  life  and  spirit  as  to  be  revered  for  his  devoutness,  and  to  be  sainted  for 
his  holiness,  immediately  afterwards  among  them. 

His  body,  indeed,  was  removed  by  his  son  assuredly,  and  interred  in  the 
palish  of  \'cryan  ;  the  son  living  there  in  a  castle  constructed  nearly  on 

§  Barnes,  48 ;  and  Carte,  ii.  405,  406. 

5  the 


SECT.  IV.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  301 

the  same  model  as  Din-Gcrein,  and  therefore  placing  his  father  in  a  most 
dignified  monument  near  him.  In  that  parish,  and  within  an  estate  called 
Gvvendraeth*,  is  afield  denominated  Borough-close  from  an  oval  en- 
trenchment there,  reputed  hy  tradition  and  reported  by  remains  to  have 
been  a  castle  ;  the  side  of  a  hill  having  been  reduced  to  a  sloping  level  for 
the  area  of  it,  somewhat  similarly  to  the  ground  at  Gerens  ;  the  whole 
too,  like  that,  being  nearly  an  acre  in  extent,  and  having  its  avenue,  like 
the  avenue  of  that,  winding  cautiously  in  a  fosse  about  a  great  part  of  it, 
before  it  j)resumes  to  enter.  Tnis  fosse-way  mounts  up  the  hill  from  the 
base  of  the  eminence,  clipping  in  the  eminence  on  both  sides,  improv- 
ing in  depth  as  it  gains  in  ascent,  and  entering  the  area  by  its  only  gateway 
on  the  south-east  above.  This  fortress  has  even  assumed  all  the  importance 
which  Din-Gerein  itself  once  possessed,  of  comnmnicatingits  own  name 
to  the  port  under  it ;  the  last  being  denominated  even  to  these  later  days, 
"  Gwindruith,"  or  "  Gwyndraith"  bay  f,  the  bay  of  the  white  sand. 
Here  therefore  1  apprehend  the  son  of  Gerein  to  have  resided,  at  the 
death  of  his  royal  father ;  and  hitiier  I  believe  him  to  have  transferred 
the  remains  of  the  king,  in  order  to  bury  them  in  that  great  barrow  near 
the  Borough-close,  which  is  so  apparently  from  its  size  the  sepulchre  of  a 
king.  It  is  one  of  the  largest  ban-ows  in  England,  being  about  3/2  feet 
in  circumference  at  the  base,  while  that  amazing  mass  of  accumulated 
mould,  Silbury-hill,  is  only  about  500  %.  It  was  originally  called  the 
Came,  as  the  estate  enclosing  it  is  still  denominated  Came,  and  as  it  is 
popularly  styled  itself  at  present  from  a  beacon  erected  upon  it.  Came 
Beacon ;  the  appropriated  term  for  a  barrow  being  still  Cum  in  Welsh. 
In  analogical  strictness,  indeed,  Carne  signities  one  made  of  accumulated 
stones,  so  shews  this  kind  of  barrows  to  lie  prior  in  time  to  any  other,  but 
in  use  and  practice  imports  aho  one  composed  of  earth,  hke  this.  Kor 
did  the  fashion  of  burying  in  barrows  terminate  with  the  reign  of 
heathenism.  It  went  on  equally  under  Christianity.  One  single  fact 
demonstrates  this.     The  kirrovv  of  A'ortigern,  that  famous  monarch  of 

•  Gucndracth,  commonly  called  Gwuutlra,  takes  its  name  as  Gwcn  Dracth,  from   the 
while  beach  below  it,  ilic  white  sanJs  ot  I'ciidower. 
+  Nordcn  55,  and  Map  of  Powder  Hundred  there. 
%  Slukciey's  Abury,  43. 

all 


302  THR    CATHF.OnAL    OF    COnXW'AI.L  [cHAP.  IV. 

all  Roman  Britain  about  the  middle  of  the  liftli  century,  was  placed 
among  the  mountains  of  Caernarvonshire,  was  there  opened  during  the 
last  centurv,  and  Ibimd  to  be  a  collection  of  small  stones,  as  ours  is  of 
loose  soil,  covering  a  diest  or  coffin  of  stone,  as  ours  assuredly  covers, 
and  so  forming  the  strongest  protection  possible  to  be  fornicd  for  the  body 
of  the  king  within.  But  the  fashion  went  on  with  the  natives  of  Ire- 
land, Wales,  and  Scotland,  for  ages  afterward;  even  still  remains  inallu- 
siveness  of  expression  or  in  similarity  of  practice  among  them,  to  this 
day*.  It  even  remains  unnoticed  among  oin.scircs  at  the  present  mo- 
ment; those  conmnonest  of  all  barrows,  as  requiring  the  least  labour  in 
making,  the  long,  being  still  exhibited  to  every  eye,  and  still  striking  the 
eye  of  antiquarianism  particularly,  in  the  long  rolls  of  earth  over  graves 
within  our  country  churchyards.  But  what  serves  to  appropriate  this 
monument  to  that  king,  tradition  talks  of  a  hoat  entering  the  barrow,  to 
be  fhere  buried  with  its  oars  of  si/rer  and  its  sides  of  gold.  The  tra- 
ditionary tale  is  so  deeply  stamped  upon  the  popular  imagination,  that,  on 
a  reported  design  in  me  to  explore  the  interiors  of  the  barrow  lately,  the 
farm-servants  began  to  request  their  masters  for  a  holyday,  in  order  to  see 
this  buried  boat  unearthed.  The  royal  remains  were  brought  in  great 
pomp,  probably  by  water,  from  Din-Gerein  on  the  western  shore  of  the 
port,  to  Carne  about  tuo  miles  off  on  the  northern  ;  the  barge  with  the 
royal  body  was  plated,  perhaps,  with  gold  in  j^laces,  perhaps,  too,  rowed 
with  oars,  having  equally  plates  of  silver  upon  them  ;  and  the  pomp  ot 
the  procession  has  mixed  confusedly  with  the  interment  of  the  body,  on 
the  memory  of  tradition.  Thus  was  the  monument  fixed  here,  in  order 
to  be  near  the  son,  near  his  palace,  near  the  descendants  of  him  and  the 
inhabiters  of  it. 

Such  honour  was  paid  him  by  his  own  family;  but  still  greater  was 
paid  him  by  his  subjects.  Din-Gerein,  which  appears  from  his  name  in 
its  to  have  been  constructed  by  hiw,  was  now  deserted  at  his  death,  and 
therefore  took  the  appellation  m  Inch  it  bears  with  some  fields  about  it, 
Cnrgiirel/,  or  the  Court-castle  ^^'alls  ;  the  walls  rising  in  ruins,  and  the 

•  Hist,  of  Manchester,  ii.  139-141,  o:tavo. 

clay 


SECT.  IV.]  niSTOniCALLY    SURVEYED.  20:i 

clay  or  the  lime  mortar,  or  both,  mixing  with  the  mould  ot  the  area,  to 
give  it  that  riclmess  of  vegetation  which  it  now  possesses*.  Yet,  soon 
after  his  burial,  and  while  the  celebrity  of  his  religiousness  was  still  im- 
pressed upon  the  minds  of  the  many,  the  church  of  Gerens  appears  to 
have  been  built,  and  to  have,  therefore,  adopted  his  sainted  name.  His 
name  is  the  same  with,  though  his  person  is  very  different  from,  that  of 
Gercinte,  king  of  Wales,  ^vho  lived  a  little  afterwards  -f-;  that  of  Gcrunt, 
who  was  actually  a  king  of  Cornwall,  and  lived  a  whole  century  after- 
wards|;  or  that  of  Gcrcint  ap  Erbvn,  who  was  equally  a  king  of  Corn- 
wall, and  lived  much  nearer  to  583  than  eithcr§.  Hence  the  church  is 
called,  in  the  Valor  of  pope  Nicholas,  "  ecclesia  de  Sancto  Gerent/o,"  and 
"  ecclesia  de  Sancto  Ger//nr/o;"  but  in  the  Valor  of  Henry  VHI. 
as  it  now  is,  Gerens.  And  the  parishioners  carefully  observe  the  day  of 
his  death  to  the  present  time,  though  they' have  long  forgotten  his  me- 
mory ;  keeping  the  feast  of  their  sainted  monarch,  on  the  Sunday  imme- 
diately succeeding  the  loth  of  August,  a  season  of  the  year  veiy  favour- 
able for  the  prosperous  navigation  of  his  Welsh  visitors  from  Bretagne, 
yet  very  unfavourable  for  the  observance  of  his  feast-day,  because  of  the 
harvest,  and  so  proving  more  strongly  the  loth  of  August  to  be  the  very 
day  of  his  death.  The  festival  of  a  saint  is  fixed  by  custom,  with  a  dig- 
nity of  spirit  that  the  Gospel  alone  could  infuse  into  the  mass  of  man- 

*  Inlhe  legal  papers  of  the  estate  the  name  is  so  written,  not  Crtrgurrell,  as  in  the  great 
map  of  Cornwall.  Cur  is  a  court  (I'ryce),  being  merely  the  Latin  Curia;  but  Gur  is  thus 
licrived  :  Cader  (W.),  Cathair,  Cahir  (I.),  Cacr  (W.),  Caer,  Gceie  (C),  is  a  fortress,  all  im- 
plying war  in  the  radical  idea  ;  as  Cad  (W.),  Caih  (I.j,  and  Cad  (C),  is  a  fight ;  and  so 
producing  a  word,  unknown  in  this  sense  to  the  British  vocabularies,  yet  evidently  existing 
in  the  British  language  once,  Gaer  for  war.  Thus,  Tre-gaer,  a  local  name  fnqucnt  in 
Cornwall,  signifies  the  war-house  or  castle.  Guerre  is  still  French  for  war,  and  "  Din 
"  Guaijr  Guarth  Berneich,"  or  "  Din  Guo  Aroy"  for  "  Din  Guoaroy,"  was  the  Briii'sh 
appellation  for  Bamborough  castle  in  the  days  of  Nennius,  importing  "  the  War-town,  the 
"  capital  of  the  Bernicii"  (Ncnnius's  Appendix  in  Gale,  i.  116,  117)  ;  and  the  icrmiiiaiiiic- 
syllabic  is  Gual  (C.)  a  wall,  pronounced  as  wall  is  in  Burralli,  fur  Burj^h-wall.-,  at  Bath, 
and  in  gunnel,  for  gun-wall,  on  board  a  shin. 

+  Sax.  Chron.  50,  and  Huntingdon,  loj. 

I    Usher,  478,  540. 

§  tjte  next  note. 

.  kind; 


sot  TirE    CATHEDRAL    OP    CORiNW'ALL  [cHAP.  IV. 

kind;  not  upon  his  birthcUiy;  not  upon  any  day  of  memorable  activity 
in  his  hie,  huf  upon  the  very  day  of  his  death;  the  day  on  w-iiich  he 
viehled  to  the  superinduced  principle  of  corruption  in  our  bodies,  but 
the  dav  also  on  which  he  rose  in  his  soul  superior  to  corruption,  trium- 
phant over  siu,  a  companion  iov  angels,  and  a  favourite  with  God*. 

SECTION 

*  Gereint  ap  Erbyii  was  the  father,  probably,  to  our  Gerehi,  however  the  genealogies  of 
Cornwall  may  assign  liim  another  fatiier.  (Boriasc,  407,  408.)  Concerning  him,  Lhiiyd,  239, 
240,  very  convincingly  remarks,  that  there  is  a  place  in  Ci)rn\vall,  "  called  Trcv  Erbin, 
which  "  might  be  so  denominated  from  his  father."  There  is  one  near  St.  Austle,  and 
another  near  St.  Ncots.  The  latter  is  called  Trev-Erbyn  I'ark.  But  he  observes  addi- 
tionally, that  "  there  is,"  also,  "  yet  in  Cornwall  a  place  called  Gereni  which  is  their  modcrit 
"  proiiuncialion  of  Gereint,  they  constantly  changing  /  intoi."  Pryce  takes  no  notice  at  all 
of  this  mode  of  pronouncing  the  t  as  s  in  Cornish.  lie  only  mentions,  and  incidentaHy 
too,  that  "  Biiqueih — has  been  changed  into  Bisqtteih"  But  this  instance  concurs  with 
Giienedhi  pronounced  as  Gnenesi,  Welsh,  to  shew  the  mode  was  common  to  both  dialects. 
The  authority,  indeed;  of  Lhuyd  alone  is  decisive,  for  the  Cornish  "  constantly  changing  t 
"  into  s."  Nor  was  this  mode,  however  Lhuyd  declares  that  it  was,  merely  "  modern." 
The  concurrence  of  the  Welsh  with  the  Cornish  in  it,  proves  it  not  to  be  "  modern  ;"  and 
the  Cornifh  pronunciation  we  see  at  once  to  he  ancient,  in  the  same  appellation  being  written 
so  dissimilarly  as  Gereint,  Gcrend,  Gcrcnniiis,  or  Gerens.  This  Gereint  ap  Eibyn,  however, 
Lhuyd  calls  "  a  nobleman  of  Cornwall  or  Devon,  about  the  year  540;"  and  similarly  adds, 
he  "  was  oi  the  borders  of  Devon."  In  so  speaking,  Lhuyd  relies  on  a  poem  of  Llowarch- 
Ilen,  a  Welsh  bard,  in  which  this  king  is  said  to  be  of  the  "  Dyvncint."  The  poem  has 
been  iccentiy  published,  and  translated  among  the  "  Heroic  Ekgies  and  other  Pieces  of  Lly- 
*' warch  Hen,  by  William  Owen,  1792."  In  this  lamentation  upon  Gereint's  death,  he  is 
styled  "  "  TywysawgDyvnaint,"  in  the  original,  and  "  Prince  of  Devon"  in  the  translation. 
But  when  Llowarch  wrote,  and  (as  I  shall  soon  shew)  for  two  centuries  afterward,  Dyvncint 
or  Damnonia  certainly  included  Cornwall  with  Devonshire,  and  did  not  become  the  exclu- 
sive denomination  of  Devonshire,  till  some  time  afterwards.  Nor  was  this  hero  slain  (as 
both  Mr.  Owen  and  Mr.  Lhuyd  seem  to  insinuate)  in  any  nmal  buttle  against  the  Saxons. 
No  such  battle  is  known  in  the  whole  history  of  the  Saxon  invasions;  nor  will  the  name  of 
Longburth  for  the  place  at  which  he  was  killed,  however  it  may  signify  Ship-harbour,  prove 
any  such.  It  proves  the  battle  only  to  have  been  at  some  great  harbour,  tiien  denominated 
Longburth.  And  the  wliole  tenour  of  the  elegy  proves  it  to  have  been  upon  land  there, 
Gereint  and  his  enemies  being 'equally  inoiinlcd  on  horses.  It  was  fought  while  Arthur 
was  the  "  emperor  and  conductor  of  the  toil  of  war."  It  was  fought,  therefore,  not  at  Lon- 
don, as  has  been  gencrallv  supposed  from  some  trifling  consonance  of  names;  not  at 
Portsmouth,  as  Mr.  O'.ven  less  idly  conjectures,  but  at  Plymouth,  probably,  as  the  Porth 
Long  or  Longborth  of  JDfiWirtOwift;  at  Wcmbury,  perhaps,  on  the  eastern  side  of  Plymouth 

Sound, 


SECT,  v.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  .505 


SECTION  V. 

So  plainly  was  he,  so  plainly  were  they,  all  Christians  at  the  very  time! 
But,  with  the  commencing  incident  in  my  history  of  Cornish  Chris- 
tianity, let  me  couple,  as  in  some  measure  a  part  of  it,  an  incident  re- 
lative to  the  same  region  of  Cornwall,  belonging  nearly  to  the  same  pe- 
riod of  time,,  and  strongly  confirmatory  of  the  whole. 

Under  the  year  50-1,  according  to  the  Galilean  martyrology,  or  (what 
is  the  same  in  effect)  under  570,  according  to  Usher;  died  a  religious 
native  of  Britain,  who  is  better  known  in  France  than  in  his  own  coun- 
try, but  who  has  left  some  memorials  behind  him  in  Cornwall,  that  have 
never  yet  been  applied  to  history.  Saint  Maclovius,  St.  Malo,  St. 
Machutus,  or  St.  Machu,  for  he  is  known  by  all  these  names  abroad,  is 
said  by  this  Usher  and  that  martyrology,  to  have  been  born  in  Glamor- 
ganshire, but  by  his  own  biographer  at  Cacr  Went  in  Monmouthshire, 
and  to  have  passed  into  an  isle  near  St  INIaloe's  in  Brctagne,  that  had 
been  latterly  denominated  Aaron,  from  some  saint  who  had  settled  there 
before,  but  originally  bore  the  appellation  of  Canalchius.  There  he 
lived  as  a  hermit,  till  the  fame  of  his  devoutness  was  ditTuscd  over  the 
country,  and  the  king,  the  clergy,  the  laity,  all  united  with  a  zeal  which 
appears  amazing  to  an  age  buried  in  worldly  selfishness,  to  place  such  a 
saint  in  episcopal  authority  over  them.  Partly  by  force,  partly  by  per- 
suasion, he  was  induced  to  become  the  bishop  of  the  city  of  Alcth,  dis- 
tant about  two  miles  from  him,  then  the  metropolis  of  Brctagne,  and 
the  residence  of  the  king.  The  son  of  this  king  afterwards  treated  him 
so  injuriously,  that  he  abdicated  his  episcopate,  abandoned  his  city,  and 

Sound,  noticed  as  Wicgan-beorche  in  Saxon  Chronicle,  A.D.  851 ,  the  scene  of  a  battle  then 
uilh  the  Danes,  l)ut  like  I'arrot-mouth  in  Somersetshire,  and  Carrum  in  Dorsetshire,  both 
equal  scenes  of  battles  with  the  Danes,  having  had  its  appellation  before,  and  being  culled 
Wicgan-beorche,  from  this  wic  or  battle  with  the  Britons. 

VOL.  I.  R  R  took. 


300  TflK    CATHEDUAL    OF    COR!xn\'AX.L  [criAl'.  IV. 

took  refuge  with  a  brother  bishop  at  Saintes,  in  Aquitaine*.  Ttiither 
his  spiriluiil  subjects  t'ollowed  him,  with  professions  of  their  penitence 
and  wltli  suppHcations  for  his  return.  He  returned,  was  well  received, 
and  continued  with  them  a  httle  while;  then  went  into  Aquitaine  to 
die,  died,  and  was  buried,  there.  But  such  was  the  opinion  of  his  pla- 
cability, his  devoutness,  and  his  holiness,  entertained  by  the  people  of 
his  own  city  ibr  ages  afterward;  that  in  the  twelfth  century  they 
transferred  their  city  and  his  see,  to  the  very  isle  on  whicii  he  had  lived 
as  a  hermit ;  and  gaAC  them  both  the  appellation  which  the  isle  must 
have  had  before,  that  of  St.  Maloe's,  from  him.  Such  was  the  bishop 
ofBrctagnef.  But 

*  This  saint  has  been  drest  up  by  his  early  biographer  Bifi,  and  by  his  late  biographer 
John  of  Tinmoulh,  in  colours  furnished  only  by  their  own  characters  j  as  invoking  a  curse 
upon  his  ptrsccutors  of  Aleth.  (Coll.  ii.  432;  Usher,  277;  and  Cressy,  254.)  But  the  Gal- 
]ican  niariyrology,  with  a  contrariety  to  them,  which  proves  its  own  veracity,  says  that  he, 
"  although  so  disgracefully  and  unjustly  exiled,  was  not  unmindful  of  his  flock,  but,  fcyr  ■ 
*'  getting  all  injuries, — dayhj  invoked  our  Lord's  clemency  for  the  conversion  of  that  stub- 
•'  lorn  people.'  (  Cressy,  254.)  And  the  subsequent  parts  of  the  saint's  history  in  the  text, 
all  unite  to  confirm  the  report  of  the  Gallican  martyrology.  "  However,"  as  Cressy  re- 
marks with  a  sarcasticalness  directed  by  propriety,  "  the  centitriafors  of  Magdcburgh  cha- 
*'  rilably  remember  only  his  cursing,  and  not  his  prayers."  (P.  254.)  They  might  be  igno- 
rant, or  they  might  be  wilful ;  whichever  they  were,  they  plainly  inverted  the  blazoned  por- 
trait of  the  saint,  and  then  remarked  how  all  his  glory  was  laid  low. 

t  Usher,  532,  277,  40;  Cressy,  253,254-;  and  Leland's  Coll.  ii.  430-432,  iv.  14.  Th» 
island  of  his  retirement  in  Eietagne  is  7iol  specified  by  the  Gallican  martymlogy  ;  w  specified 
by  his  biographer  in  Leland,  i)ut  tlxed  as  his  place  of  retirement  aj'to-  he  became  bishop.  It 
was  clearly  so,  before.  The  tow  n  of  Attih,  loo,  is  averred  to  be  a  desolated  city  by  his  bio- 
jj^rapher;  yet  is  made  by  him,  in  union  with  Usher's  and  Cressy 's  authors,  the  see  of  the 
bishop,  hi  perusing  such  pieces  of  history,  the  mind  must  be  kept  ever  awake,  and  select 
those  incidents  alone  which  criticism  can  combine  into  history.  "  '  S.  Machutus  venit  ad 
'*  Aaron  insulam,  ct  ibi  aliquamiliti  mansit'."  (Coll.  ii.  431.)  "  '  Princeps,  qui  tunc  diix 
*'  Britannix — nomine  Judicluitl  erat,  electione  populi  et  sacerdotum  consensu,  in  honoTem 
"  episcopatiis  cathcdrie  Aletis  civitatis  eum  sublity.are  volens,  ad  se  accersiri  ]\if.s\l' ."  (Ibid. 
"  ibid.)  "  '  Britonum  episcopi,  videlicet  Sampson,  Machu,  Palenms',"  &c.  (Ibid.  432.) 
"  <  Kelhuualdus,  filius  Judic«el,  regis  Britonum  ;  hie  S.  Machutum  sede  et  fundo  vicino  spo- 
"  liare  salagebat. — Reduuallus  filios  Judicael  interticerestudebat —  ;  unus  filiorum  Judicael, 
"  confugiens  ad  cellum  S.  Machutt' ,"  in  the  isle  of  Aaron,  "  '  inde  distractus,  a  Reduuallo 
"  inlcrfcctus'."  (Ibid,  ibid.)   "  '  Canalchius  insula  tjwtjc  S.  Machiiti  nomine  dicta'."  (Ibid. 

a  ibid.) 


SECT,  v.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  30^ 

But  let  me  now  attach  him  in  one  period  of  his  lite,  to  onr  own 
Cornwall.  "  Machutus,"  says  his  biographer,  "  came  to  Corsult,  where 
"  he  restored  a  dead  young  man  to  lite."  But  vhcre.  was  this?  The 
very  next  words  will  shew  us.  "  Ciauiwr"  adds  the  biographer,  "  was  at 
"  that  time  duke  of  the  Damnoman  region  *."  Nor  let  my  reader  be 
startled  at  my  arguing  Corsult  to  be  in  Cornwall  by  proving  it  to  be 
*'  ill  tlieDamnonian  region."  That  this  region  Avas  actually  inclusive 
of  Cornwall,  is  plain  from  tliG  very  name  of  that  prince  of  the  rcoion, 
being  found  upon  a  sefjuldu-al  monument  in  Cornwaf/f.  Cornwall, 
indeed,  was  not  merely   included  within  the  circuit  of  Damnonia,  as  I 

ibid.)  But  this  is  only  the  isle  of  Aaron.  (Usher,  277;  Cressy,  254..)  "  'Nunc'"  shews  the 
isle  to  have  had  the  name  of  St.  Maloe's,  before  the  see  was  removed  from  Aleth ;  as  the 
author,  in  p.  430,  speaks  of  Alclh  as  still  standing,  and  still  a  see,  "  '  nos  qui  dioccsin 
"  Aletis  civitatis  colimus'." 

*  Leland's  Coll.  ii.  432:  "'Machutus — venit    ad  Corsult,  ubi   juvenem    defunclum 
"  vitiE  rcstituit.     Cunmordux  tunc  temporis  Domnonica:  reglonis'." 

t  Gibson,  c.  18:  "  In  the  highway,  near  Fowy,  is  a  stone  commonly  called  the  long 
*'  stone,  on  which  is  this  inscription,  Cirusius  kicjacit  Cunowori  Jiliu.f ;  for  the  w  in  Cuno- 
"  mori  must  needs  be  a  m  reversed,  the  letter  w  being  but  lately  introduced  in.to  ani/  al|)habct. 
*'  This  man's  name  in  British,"  by  which  he  means  Welsh,  "  was  Kirys  ap  Kynvor;  and 
*'  it  is  probable  that  Pol-Kirys  (a  village  within  half  a  mile  of  this  stone)  received  the  name 
"  from  him."  Borlasc,  392  :  "  '  A  mile  off  (viz.  from  Castle-dor),  is  a  broken  crossc,'  savs 
*•  Leiand,  *  thus  inscribed  :  Conomor  et  filius  aim  domina  Clusilla;'  but  Mr.  Lhuyd,  who 
**  was  better  acquainted  with  the  old  character,  reads  the  inscription  (as  published  in  Cam- 
"  den  from  his  papers  (p.  18),  Cirusius  hie  jacet  [jacit] — Cunowori  fdi us.  The  same  learned 
*'  person — justly  thinks  the  tu  to  be  a  m  reversed,  the  iv  being  biit  lately  introduced  into 
"  the  British  alphabet. — This  monument — was  removed  about  twelve  years  since,  from  the 
"  four  cross-ways,  a  mile  and  a  half  north  of  Fawy,  and  lies  now  in  a  ditch,  about  two 
"  bow-shots  farther  to  the  north,  in  the  way  from  Fawy  to  Custledor. — Mr. — Lhuyd — in  a 
*'  letter — says,  that  this  inscription  is  probably  of  ihe  f/th  or  sixth  century.  Mr.  Moylc, 
*•  in  his  letter  on  this  inscription,  says,  "  *  the  letters  resemble  the  common  inscriptions  of 
•'  the  fourth  and  Jif'th  century'."  How  strikingly  do  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Lhuyd,  a  much 
superior  judge  to  Mr.  Moyle,  coincide  with  the  general  date  here  assigned  to  the  royalty  of 
C^unmor,  in  Cornwall !  Dr.  Borlase,  however,  wanders  away  to  "  Kinwarwy,  son  to  Awy, 
**  a  lord  of  Cornwall,"  who,  according  to  Rowland,  155  and  183,  naming  him  Kynfam-y,  son 
of  Awy  ap  Llehenog,  "  gave  name  to  a  church  in  Anglesea,  which  was  built  A.D.  630." 
More  judiciously  he  observes  in  a  note,  that  "  Connior  was  a  royul  name  among  the 
"  ancient  Scots,"  and  is  so  used  in  the  poems  of  Ossian. 

R  R  2  have 


308  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CIIAP.   IV. 

have  alleged  before,  but  as  1  now  allege  additionally,  was  even  called 
Damnouia  exclusi^■elv,  in  that  period  of  its  history  antecedent  to  the  reign 
of  Athelstan,  in  which  it  extinded  its  authority  beyond  the  Tamar  to  the 
east,  even  up  to  the  very  Exe  itself;  and  in  which,  embracing  all  the 
west  of  Devonshire  with  the  full  compass  of  the  present  Cornwall,  it 
naturally  retained  still  the  original  appellation  of  Cornwall  and  Devon- 
shire together.  Thus  Adhclm  of  ^V'^est-Saxony,  addressing  a  letter  to 
tlie  king  ap.d  the  clergy  of  Cornwall  in  705,  directs  it  expressly  "  to  my 
"  glorious  lord  Geruntius,  king  of  the  western  kingdom, — and  likewise 
"  to  all  God's  priests  inhabiting  Danmonia*.''  Corsult,  therefore,  was 
in  "  theDamnonian  region"  of  Cornwall.  Nor  let  us  be  driven  from  this 
conviction  by'  what  such  will  object,  as  have  not  vigour  of  intellect  suf- 
ficient to  form  a  decisive  opinion,  as  therefore  hang  hesitating  in  perpe- 
tual doubt,  and,  like  the  ass  between  the  two  bundles  of  hay,  are  unable 
to  incline  on  either  side  of  a  question;  that  there  is  a  Corseidt  and  a 
Doniiioiii'c  in  the  very  i-egion  of  Bretagne,  in  which  Machutus  was  living 
at  the  time;  and  that  there  is  even  a  Comor  ov  Cono-inaiir,  in  the  same 
region.  Eut,  seemingly  balanced  as  the  probabilities  may  thus  be, 
there  are  some  circumstances  which  weigh  dow  n  one  of  the  scales  to  the 
ground.  The  site  of  Corsult  is  fixed  by  the  narration,  not  in  Bretagn^, 
but  in  some  other  region  to  which  the  saint  came,  "  in  his  way  to  his 
"  own  country"  of  AVales-f".  It  was,  therefore,  not  in  the  Dotmwnee  of 
Bretagne,  but  "  in  the  Damnonian  region"  of  Britain.  And,  while 
Cono-maitr,  or  Comor,  is  confessed  by  the  very  historian  who  mentions 
him,  to  be  merely  the  hero  of  a  legend;]:  ;  the  Cunmor  of  the  narration 
is  actually  recorded  in  that  best  of  all  registers,  a  sepulchral  inscription 
tipon  a  stone  "  in  the  Dan)nonian  region"  of  Cornwall  itself.     Where 

*  Cressy,  481.  This  Geruntius  is  that  "  Geroncrus  rex,"  as  the  names  shew,  who  "  dedit 
"  Macnir,"  probably  Maker,  "  de  v.  hid.  juxfa  Tliamer,"  to  Sherborne  church.  (Monas- 
ticon,  i.  62.) 

t  Lcland's  CoH,  ii.  432  :  "  Mochutus,  patriam  suam  repetiturus,  vcnit  ad  Corsult." 
\  I.ohineau,  i.  y  :  "  Ce  scroit  ici  le  lieu  de  parler  de — I'origine  du  fameux  Comor  ou  Co- 
"  no-maur;  mais  en  verltc  il  y  a  si  peu  de  fonds  a  faire  sur  Ics  legendes,  qui  sont  les  seuis 
"  mcnioires  dont  on  pouiroit  tirur  ce  que  I'on  auroit,  a  en  dire,  qu'il  vaut  mieux  s'en  taire 
"  tout  a  fait."  In  i.  2,  he  mentions  Corsult,  as  about  a  league  from  Dinan,  and  taking  its 
appellaliou  from  the  Curioroliles.     Domnmee  I  have  noticed  in  i.  2^ before,  from  his  i.  6. 

in 


SECT,  v.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  309 

in  our  region  it  was,  the  following  notices  clearly  intimate.  "  From 
"  S.  Juste  pille  or  creke,"  as  Leland  tells  us  in  his  minute  description  of 
Falmouth  harbour,  on  the  east,  "  to  S.  Manditus  [Mauditus]  creeke,  is 
"  a  mile  dim.  The  point  of  the  land  betwixt  S.  Just  creke  and  S. 
"  Maws,  is  of  sum  cauJhd  Pcndinas;  on  this  point  standith  as  yn  the 
"  entery  of  S.  Maws  creeke,  a  castelle  or  forteres  late  begon  by  the  king. 
"  This  creke  of  S.  Maws  goith  up  a  2  miles  by  est  north  est  into  the 
"  land — .  Scant  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  castel,  on  the  same  side, 
"  upper  into  the  land,  is  a  praty  village  or  fischar  toun  with  a  perc, 
"  cawlid  5.  Maws;  and  there  is  a  ciiapelle  of  iiym,  and  his  chaire 
"  OF  STONE  a  litle  without,  and  his  welle.     They   caulle  this  sainct 

"  there  S.  Mat ;  he  was  a  bishop  in  Eritain,  and  [is]  painted 

"  as  a  schole-master*."  The  name  of  this  saint  is  so  disfigured  by  pro- 
vincial pronunciation,  both  in  Brctagne  and  in  Cornwall ;  that  we  should 
hardly  recognise  Maclovius  in  Machutus  and  Machu,  if  all  the  names 
were  not  used  by  the  same  biographer  for  the  same  person -f-,  and 
should  never  believe  St.  Maudite,  St.  Mat,  or  St.  Mawe  of  the  island,  to 
be  the  very  Machu,  INIachutus,  or  Maclovius  of  the  continent,  if  the 
former  had  not  been  averred  to  have  been  what  we  know  the  latter  was, 
a  hisliop  in  Brctagn6.  This  stroke  of  traditional  history  rivets  all  the 
hnks  of  intelligence,  into  one  chain.  AVith  this  around  us  we  recog- 
nise, we  revere,  the  saint  of  Wales,  and  the  prelate  of  Bretagne,  as  once 
a  resident  upon  the  shores  of  Cornwall,  and  at  the  side  of  Falmouth 
harbour.  The  well,  the  chair,  and  the  chapel,  like  those  of  another 
saint  upon  another  part  of  our  coast,  as  I  shall  speedily  shew  J,  combine 
to  mark  the  residence  of  the  saint  at  the  place.  He  came  to  Corsult 
— in  the  "  Damnonian  region,"  in  that  half  of  it  which  is  now  called 
Cornwall,  and  in  that  part  of  this  half  which  was  then  denominated 
Corsult,  but  is  now  the  parish  of  St.  Just  §.     In  his  way  from  AN'ales, 

*  Lcland's  Ilin.  iii.  29,  30. 

t  Lcland's  Coll.  ii.  430-432:  "Machutus — ,  S.  Maclou — ,  Machiilus — ,  Machu. "^ 
This  has  occasioned  an  author,  in  Usher,  40,  to  make  Macliulus  and  Maclovius  into  difl'erent 
saints,  and  so  to  discriminate  a  man  from  himself. 

X  Section  7th  of  this  chapter. 

§  So  wc  have  Canella  in  St.  Dennis,  and  CorsuUan  in  St.  Kcvern. 

undoubtedlv, 


31  a  THE    CATJIEDKAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.  rv. 

undoubtedly,  when  he  had  leisure  for  such  a  work,  and  not  (as  his  bio- 
•irapher  says)  on  some  occasional  return  to  ^^'ales§,  ivhcn  he  was  too  fully 
employed  for  such  a  business  ;  he  settled  at  a  point  of  the  seashore  here, 
then  all  solitary  in  itself,  and  mereh'  a  long,  sloping  descent  of  rock  to 
the  water,  with  a  broad  lofty  heath  at  the  back  of  it,  1  believe,  giving  ap- 
pellation to  the  whole  II . 

Thus  settled,  he  was  not,  indeed,  under  the  protection  of  king  Gereu- 
jiius  hiniself,as  then  living  in  his  castle  about  four  miles  from  St.  Mawe's. 
From  the  collated  chronology  of  the  king  and  the  saint,  Gercimius  ap- 
pears to  have  been  hardly  }et  born  *.  He  was  under  the  protection  of 
some  king  earlier  than  Gerennius,  his  father  probably,  Gereint  ap  Erbyn. 
The  existence  of  a  well  combined  with  the  solitariness  of  the  site,  and 
with  the  warmth  of  a  rocky  bank  facing  the  noon-day  sun,  to  iivite  his 
settlement  at  this  particular  ground.  There  he  lived  as  a  hermit ;  form- 
ing himself  a  chair  in  the  rock  above  the  well  for  his  enjoyment  of  the 
Marm  situation,  in  occasional  survevs  of  the  creek  under  him,  of  the  bar- 
hour  upon  his  right,  and  of  the  sea  in  front  of  the  latter,  then  all  assuredly 
as  solitary  almost  as  his  very  site  itself. 

Thence,  howevei*,  the  fame  of  his  sanctity  diffused  itself  over  the  neigh- 
bourhood, as  we  have  previously  seen  it  do  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Maloe's; 

§  Coll.  ii.  432  :  "  Machutus,  patriam  suam  repctiturus,  venit  ad  Corsult." 
II  Cor  (W.)  is  a  moor,  and  Sidl  (C.)  conspicuous.  <'  So  St.  Michael's  Mount  was  ori- 
"  ginally  called  in  Hritish  Din-.ml,"  says  Borlase  in  his  Scilly  Isles,  p.  60  :  yet  (as  I  add)  not 
"  i.e.  the  hill  belonging  or  dedicated  to  the  sun,"  but  with  a  meaning  much  nearer  to  the 
level  of  common  sense,  the  Conspicuous  Hill.  The  name  of  the  Syllcy  Isles  themselves,  in- 
terpreted by  Borlasc,  ibid,  as  Sulleh  into  flat  rocks  "  of  or  dedicated  to  the  sun,"  is  derived 
merely  from  the  national  possessors  of  the  isles,  the  Silures  of  Wales.  (Sec  my  Genuine  Hist, 
of  the  Britons  asserted,  p.  89,  edit.  2d.)  So  little  does  etymology,  under  the  guidance  of  good 
sense,  appear  wh:it  it  is  in  the  man.igement  of  the  gencralitv,  a  mere  meteor  generated  by  a 
collision  of  atoms  ;  but  a  light,  sober  and  steady,  a  beam  of  the  sun  reflected  by  the  moon, 
and  usefully  supplying  the  place  of  a  stronger  illumination  I 

*  Machutus  is  said  to  have  lived  133  years  (Coll.  ii.  432),  yet  died  in  564  or  570;  to 
liavc  acted  as  bishop  of  Alcth  for  near  forty  years  (431),  and  to  hare  continued  at  Saintes 
seven  years  before  he  retur;jed  to  Aieth  (Usher,  277,  278). 

the 


SECT,  v.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  311 

the  world  of  Christians  then  turning  with  attention  and  reverence  to  every 
character  particularly  religious,  considering  themselves  only  as  citizens  of 
earth  for  a  few  years,  and  habitually  looking  forward  in  their  hopes  or 
fears  to  another  country,  as  their  permanent  habitation,  as  their  everlast- 
ing residence.     He  thus  became  troubled  probably  \\'ith  the  resort  of 
people  to  him,  removed  across  the  channel  to  find  a  more  solitary  situ- 
ation, and  settled  in  an  uninhabited  islet  for  the  effectual  preclusion  of 
all  visits.     The  shortness  of  the  passage  into  France,  and  the  known  pre- 
dominance of  Christianity  equally  in  Cornwall  as  in  Wales,  had,  in  alt 
probability,  brought   him  hither  at  first :  and  he  note  took  the  short 
passage  which  he  had  formerly  intended  to  lake,   crossing  over  directly 
to  the  opposite  shore  of  St.  Maloe's.     "  Grcfe  islet,"  says  Leland  con- 
cerning what  is  denominated  the  Gray  in  our  maps,  and  the  Gull  Rock  ia 
our  conversation,  a  little  to  the  east  of  St.  Mawe's,  "  — lyith  northe  from 
"  the  Forne,  a  point  or  foreland  in  Britain,"  now  Le  Four  to  the  east  of 
Ushant,  I  believe,  "  hyhvene  the  wich  is  the  entcry  of  the  sieve  of  the 
"  ocean;  and  betwixt  Forne  and  Gref  is  a  v.  kcnnynges,"  or  a  hundred 
miles  in  Leland's  rate  of  estimation  f  ;   "  and  here  is  brevissimus  trajectus 
"  by  estimation,  from  Cornewallc  Into  Britain  continentes  [continent]  J.'* 
Or,  as  a  writer  almost  a  century  older  says,   "  the  isle  of  Grcef  is  situated 
*•  in  Cornwall,  near  the  priory  of  monks  of  Trc\A'ardreth,  near  the  town 
*'  of  Fowey,  three  miles  to  the  west ;  and  the  said  isle  lies  opposite  to  the 
"  country  of  Bretagnd,  called  Le  Foorne:  and  the  isle  of  Ushand  lies  in 
"  sea-board,  or  (to  speak  English)  south  and  north,  by  the  distance  of  the 
"  breadth  of  the  narrow  sea,   called   otherwise  the  Channel  of  Flan- 
"  dcrs,  by  the  space  of  five  kenyngs ;  and  every  kennyng  contains  seven 
"  leagues,   that  is,  one  and  twenty  miles;   from   which  they  arc   105 
"  miles  §."     After  his  removal,  the  hermitage,  the  chair,  and  the  well, 

appear 

+  Leland's  Itin.  iii.  iq:  "  Scylley  is  a  kenning,  that  is  to  <av,  about  a  xx  miles,"  now 
twenly-sevcn,  "  from  the  very  westcste  poinle  of  Coruevvaulle." 

J  Itin,  iii.  30.  In  vii.  120,  it  is  thus  menlioneil  also:  "In  the  mydde  way  bctwene 
"  Falcmuth  and  Diidman  is  an  islet  or  rok  bcryijig  grcssc,  cawled  Grefle,  a  ii  atres  abo«i," 
now  hardly  one;  "  but  standyng  yn  the  middcs,  torring  up  right;  ther  bredelh  yn  the  ifle 
«  se  fowlc." 

§  llincrar.  Willclmi  de  WorcestrCj  p.  no:  "  Insula  de  Greef  scita  est  in  Cornubia, 

"  juNta. 


312  THE    CATHEDRXL    OP   CORNWALL  [cHAP.  IV. 

appear  to  liave  been  visited  and  admired  for  his  sake,  tlic  admiration  of 
his  character  naturally  attaching  to  every  oljcct  connected  w\{h  it,  and 
the  body  being  honoured  from  respect  to  the  soul  that  lately  inhabited  it. 
Alter  lie  was  dead  and  sainted,  this  admiration  of  course  rose  into 
reverence,  the  \a'c11  was  visited  in  greater  crowds,  the  chair  was  viewed 
with  deeper  respect,  and  the  hermitage  was  entered  with  devouterawe. 
This  gave  a  commencement  to  the  town,  the  votaries  of  the  sainted  her- 
mit settling  in  houses  around  his  hermitage,  and  the  liermitage  itself  being 
reconstructed  into  a  chapel  t\)r  their  devotions.  Thus  continued  all  to 
tlie  Reformation,  the  reverence  having  its  foundation  in  religion,  and  the 
devoutness  rearing  its  head  towards  heaven  ;  when,  amidst  the  many 
blessings  attendant  upon  that  revolution  in  the  church,  one  evil  prevailed 
in  slighting  the  characters  of  the  saints ;  in  withdrawing  the  honours 
paid  to  their  names,  even  in  dilapidating  or  desecrating  the  fanes  dedi- 
cated to  their  memories.  Jt  the  Reformation  the  well  was  still  attended 
witl)  a  respect  that  was  called,  and  perhaps  had  mounted  into,  super- 
stition ;  tlic  chair  still  remained  all  of  solid  stone  in  the  cemetcrv  of  the 
chapel,  reported  even  then  by  trailition  to  have  been  frequently  used  by 
the  saint ;  and  the  chapel  itself  still  exhibited  a  portrait  of  its  patron, 
"  painted  as  a  scholemaster,"  in  the  loose  gown,  I  beUeve,  still  worn  fre- 
quently by  schoolmasters  in  the  north  of  England,  yet  equally  worn  by 
clergymen  of  the  north  or  south  in  their  studies  at  present  [|. 

"  juxta  prioratum  monachoriim  de  Trewdreth,  juxta  villain  de  Fowey,  per  tria  milliaria  ex 
"  parte  occidental! ;  et  dicta  insula  jacet  ex  oppo^ito  patria;  Britanniae,  vocata:  Lc  Foorne. 
'•  Et  insula  Ushand  jacet  in  lc  seeboord,  Anglice,  south  ct  north,  per  distanciam  latitudinis 
"  de  le  narrow  see  vocatum  aliter  Le  Channel  de  Flaunders,  per  spacium  v,  kennyngys  ;  et 
*' qudibet  kennyng  continct  vii  leiica?,  id  est,  21  milliaria;  unde  sunt  cv  milliaria.  Ha;c 
"  habentnr  per  informacioncm  Robert!  Braccy,  consangninci  mci,  apud  Fowey."  Crib, 
(riiab  (C),  is  the  comb  of  a  bird.  "  Hence  the  rocks,  called  the  Crel's  in  many  places,  for 
"  that  ihey  appear  like  the  comb  of  a  cock  at  low  water,"  (Prvce.)  Hence  crib  an  tshyi  (C.^ 
the  ridge  of  a  house;  and  hence  also  the  Grccb,  one  headland  in  Gerens  parish,  a  little  to 
the  west,  and  another  near  Porthluny  to  the  east,  of  the  Grecf,  Gref,  or  Grav. 

I  Ltland's  Itin.  ix,  xxii.  "  Fanum  Mauditi;"  xxxv.  "  Sainctc  Maws;"  p.  84,  "  Mauditi 
•*  CasTrum,  vulgo  Saincte  Mawes — .  Incolae  ostentant  in  coemilcrio,  fano  adjacenti,  cathc- 
"  dram  ex  solido  saxo,  qua  frequenter  scdcbat,  fontemque  superstitione  celebrem." 

But 


SECT,  v.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  3  IS 

But  now,  when  the  "  praty  village  or  fischar  toun  with  a  pere"  has 
been  exalted  intf)  a  parliamentary  borough,  as  it  was  for  the  first  time  in 
the  5th  of  Elizabeth  ^  ;  being  then  probably  in  the  fee  what  it  still  is  in 
the  royalty,  as  it  probably  ^\  as  during  the  days  of  St.  Machu  or  St.  Ma  we, 
the  properly  of  the  crown ;  and  Elizabeth,  from  her  political  foresight  of 
the  ascending  scale  in  the  balance  of  our  constitution,  wisely  securing  the 
right  of  suffrage  for  tlic  royal  towns  or  villages;  almost  all  is,  gone. 
A  craving  spirit  of  venality,  once  implanted  in  the  breast,  and  always  to 
be  fed  with  the  rapine  of  elections,  superinduces  a  gross,  grovelling 
earthliness  of  soul,  that  is  brutally  forgetful  of  the  past,  brutally  hostile, 
to  all  memorials  of  it,  and  brutallv  gratified  only  by  the  paltry  present. 
Only  the  well  appears  cut  deeply  in  tlie  living  rock,  on  the  right  of  the 
road  into  the  village  ;  running  endlong  into  the  heart  of  the  rock,  arched 
over  for  its  whole  length,  and  faced  with  a  slightly  peaked  arch  of  stone. 
The  water  is  good,  but  rather  hard  ;  and  the  fountain  is  still  denominated 
pre-eminently  above  others  that  are  in  the  tillage,  St.  Maw e's  ^^'ell. 
Close  to  it  on  the  south,  but  lower  on  the  descent  of  the  hill,  was  the 
chapel,  well  know  n  by  tradition  to  have  been  such,  and  rejJorted  by 
that  tradition  to  have  fallen  into  ruins,  before  the  aged-seeming  stones 
were  worked  up  again  into  the  present  dwelling-house.  Some  of  these 
stones  are  said  from  their  quality  to  have  been  brought,  with  the  stones  in 
the  doors  and  windows  of  the  parish-church  about  a  mile  to  the  north,  St. 
Just's,  from  a  quarry  near  St,  Austlc,  fifteen  or  sixteen  miles  off*.  A  pillar 
about  three  feet  long,  and  multangular  in  its  form,  now  lies  as  the  corner- 
stone of  the  house  against  the  fall  of  the  Iiill.     Another  of  the  same  size 

f  Willis,  ii.  166-170. 

•  This  is  the  same  (|uarry,  T  prcsimic,  which  is  mentioned  bv  Lcland's  Ttin.  iii.  31,  thus: 
*' There  is  a  fair  qiuiiTL' of  whit  frc  stone  on  the  shore  betwixt  Pcntowcn  and  Blak-hed, 
**  whereof  sum  be  usid  in  the  inward  partes  of  S.  [Mawes]  forteresse;  and  PcnJinas  castulie 
"  is  of  the  same  stone,  except  thie  waliinge."  It  is  also  noticed  by  Carew  thus,  "  Pentuau 
"  [stone]  digged  out  of  the  sea  cliflcs,  and  in  colour  somcw  iiat  rcscmbleth  gray  marble" 
(p.  6) ;  and  by  Norden,  as  "  the  best  free  stone  that  Cornwall  ycaldctli,  and  the  moste  of 
"  the  churches  and  towres  thcrabout  were  buyldcd  of  them"  (p.  61).  And  this  circumstance 
accounts  for  what  notliiiig  cL-c  can  account  for,  the  strange  position  of  St.  Just's  church  with 
its  parsonage  at  the  bottom  of  the  bank  shelving  down  to  an  arm  of  Falinuulh  harbour,  even 
on  the  very  brink  of  tlic  water, 

VOL.  I.  s  s  and 


'311  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    C0R:!!AVALL  [cHAP.  IV, 

ind  form  is  remembered  to  have  been  used  in  tlie  walls ;  with  a  third, 
reported  at  the  time  to  be  the  font,  but  having  no  bason  on  it  for  the  bap- 
tismal water,  and  being  therefore  the  mere  pillar  of  the  font.     Upon  the 
floor  of  the  house  still  remains  the  pavement  of  the  chapel,  covered  over 
(in  the  growing  tenderness  of  the  times)  with  a  new  floor  of  boards,  but 
knowh  to  be  a  blue  stone  cut  very  nicely  into  squares.     On  the  north 
side  of  the  house,  the  ancient  ^\'all  of  it  remained  pretty  entire  within 
these  few  years,  and  had  a  small  window  in  a  Gothic  arch  of  stone  curi- 
ously wrought.     Over  the  well,  along  the  northern  side  of  the  chapel, 
and  two  or  three  yards  above  the  level  of  it,  was  the  chapel-yard  ;  still 
remainnig  in  an  open  area  above  the  well  itself,  but  built  upon  for  the  re- 
mainder.    The  buildings,   however,  were  raised  within   memory,  and 
human  bones  were  dug  up  in  laying  the  foundations.     These  buildings 
are  styled  in  their  leases  expressly  the  chapel-yard  tenement,  and  the 
house  adjoining  is  styled  as  expressly  the  chapel  tenement ;  both  belong- 
ing to  one  person,  Mr.  Buller,  to  whose  ancestors  (I  suppose)  they  were 
given  at  the  Reformation  f  ;   and  both  being  for  that  reason,  as  not 
equally  with  the  rest  of  the  village  in  the  fee  of  the  crown,  shut  out  cun- 
ningly by  Elizabeth,  as  they  still  continue,  from  the'pale  of  the  borough. 
But  the  stone-chair  and  the  portrait  of  the  saint  have  been  so  long  de- 
molished, that  tradition  knows  nothing  concerning  either.     They  were 
therefore  destroyed  probably,  not  indeed  in  the  first  paroxysm  of  re- 
formation under  Henry  YIII.  asLeland  then  could  not  have  seen  them, 
but  in  that  second  which  took  place  soon  afterwards  \mder  Edward  and 
Elizabeth  I ,    deriving  strength  trom   the  first,   shewing  an  additional 
violence,  and  threatening  destruction  to  all  literature,  all  religion,   all 
Christianity,  among  us  ;  till  the  church  of  Enghmd  arose  like  a  phoenix 
from  the  ashes  of  its  parent,  and  almost   as  miraculously,   to  restore 
literature,  to  re-establish  religion,  and  to  re-invigorate  Christianity ;  to 
last  therefore  (I  hope  and  trust)  as  long  as  Christianity  itself  lasts  in  our 

t  Tanner  knows  nothing  about  the  chapel,  except  that  he  strangely  supposes  it  to  be  St. 
Matthew's;  and  then  says  what  directly  refines  his  supposition,  that  "Si.  Mawes  appears 
"  in  the  Exeter  Registers — ,  lo  be  uo  other  than  a  corruption  of  Si.  Mauduit's."  See  his 
Cornwall,  No.  xvii. 

X  See  sec.  7th. 

isle. 


SECT,  v.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  315 

isle,  and  then  to  cnslirinc  her  remains  in  the  temple  of  Religious  Fame 
for  ever.  Thus,  in  strict  propriety,  the  well  is  all  that  we  see  at  present 
of  St.  Mawe's  memorials  here.  So  much  longer  is  preserved  by  man, 
w^liat  ministers  to  his  bodily  necessities,  than  w  hat  refers  to  his  spiritual 
wants  :  what  serv'cs  the  petty  ends  of  iliis  short  day  of  our  being,  than 
what  promotes  the  a^ful  purposes  of  an  ctcrmtij  in  the  nexL  So  much 
too  is  the  genius  of  Ihis  borough-village  altered,  from  what  it  originally 
was  ;  that  its  inhabitants  are  turned  from  being  the  just  admirers,  the  re- 
ligious reverers,  oi  their  sainted  liermit,  into  men  unconscious  of  his 
merits,  ignorant  eveii  of  his  existence,  and  staring  in  amazement  at  any 
inquiries  concerning  him  or  his  §. 

§  Mr.  Willis,  in  ii.  i68,  says,  "  there  being  more  towns  of  this  name  in  Cornwall,  it  may 
"  puzzle  the  greatest  pretender  to  anLicjuities,  unacquainted  in  this  country,  to  distinguisti 
"  thcni,"  when  the  main  assertion  is  astonishingly  false,  there  being  no  other  town,  viliaire, 
or  place,  so  called  except  this  ;  "  as  well  as  discourage  an  indifferent  person,  disappointed 
"  in  receiving  any  satisfaction  from  his  repeated  inquiries."  The  inhabitants  of  St.  Mawe's 
thus  appear  to  have  been  eighty  years  ago,  just  as  they  are  now,  incurious  and  unknown.  Yet 
they  had  knowledge  and  curiosity  enough,  as  I  find  from  a  notice  latent  in  additions  to  Mr. 
Willis's  volume  at  the  end,  to  inform  him  at  last,  "  there  is  a  place  caU'd  a  chapel  near  a 
<'  well  in  the  town,  now  dwelling-houses."  (P.  544.)  But  Mr.  Willis  has  principally  erred, 
in  preferring  the  false  and  dubious  account  of  Itin.  ix.  84,  to  the  true  and  certain  one  of  iii.  30. 
— In  Hals's  time  was  observed,  at  St.  Mawe's,  "  an  annuall  faire  on  Friday  next  after  Luke's 
*'  day"  (Hals's  MS.),  which  day  is  the  i8th  of  October.  Yet  St.  Machutus's  day  is  in  the 
Gallican  martyrology  the  15th  of  November  (Crcssy,  253),  and  is  equally  so  in  our  own 
calendars.  Tliat  is  the  parish-feast  of  St.  Just,  held  on  the  Sunday  next  after  St.  Luke's 
clay  ;  held  for  some  years  past  at  Midsummer  by  the  borough,  in  consequence' of  a  shoal  of 
pilchards  being  lost  from  the  absence  of  the  boatmen  at  the  feast  in  the  fA«rc/t-/ozfnj  but 
always  observed  in  October  by  the  parish,  and  now  beginning  to  be  re-obscrved  in  October 
by  the  borough.— Yet  let  me  add,  injustice  to  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Mawe's,  and  in  com- 
pensation for  what  1  have  said  against  them;  that,  however  incurious,  however  unknowjnc, 
they  may  now  be  concerning  their  own  antiquities  and  history,  they  are  particularly  eminent 
.as^  pilots  ;  pushing  out  in  their  boats  to  any  vessel  in  want  of  their  aid,  with  a  boldness  that 
is  often  strained  into  rashness,  but  with  a  skill  that  often  turns  their  rashness  iiito  just  eonfi- 
dence,  yet  too  often  with  a  fortune  that  buries  their  confidence  or  their  rashness  in  the  ocean. 
Many  are  the  families  that  have  lost  a  father,  a  brnthcri  or  a  son,  in  this  employ,  so  necessary 
in  itself  at  the  mouth  of  such  a  very  frequented  harbour  as  Falmouth,  so  useful  in  its  opera* 
tions  upon  the  ships  coming  to  it,  and  so  gainiul  in  its  rewards  to  themselves. 

S  S    2  SECTION 


3l6  THE    CATHEDRAL    01-    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  IV. 

SECTION  VT. 

This  inciilont  carries  us  back  a  considerable  ^\ay  loiraids  the  heart  of 
the  sixth  century,  even  into  or  above  it.  Eut  1  shall  reproduce  an  inci- 
dent now,  that  will  lead  us  back  to  the  very  commencement  ot  this  con- 
turv.  I  have  previously  noticed  Saint  Petrock  to  have  landed  at  Pad- 
stow  in  the  year  518  |(  ;  and  I  now  mean  to  apply  tiie  fact,  as  a  proof  of 
the  predoniinaiico  of  Christianity  in  Cornwall  at  the  time. 

St.  Petrock  came  not,  as  Dr.  Borlase  in  all  this  sleeping  part  of  his  his- 
tory dreams,  "  to  preach  the  Gospel,"  or  to  "labour  in  the  word  of 
"  God  ^."  He  came  only  to  sequester  himself  from  the  w  orld,  to  retire 
into  some  solitude  of  Cornwall,  and  to  resign  himself  up  to  all  the  un- 
interi'uptcd  abstractedness  of  devotion  *.  That  indeed  he,  who  was  a 
native  of  Cumberland,  and  had  been  a  student  for  twenty  years  in  Ire- 
land, should  seek  for  a  solitude  in  any  other  countrx',  seems  extraordi- 
nary to  reason,  when  reason  is  not  influenced  by  fancy.  But  in  such  a 
plan  of  sequestration  from  the  world,  however  religious,  however  digni- 
fied, however  angelic,  in  the  spirit  proposing  it ;  yet  fancy  has  a  consi- 
derable inliuence.  The  more  remotely  the  scene  of  solitude  is  fixed  from 
places  familiar  to  the  mind,  the  more  completely  it  seems  to  answer  the 
wishes  of  a  soul,  aspiring  to  throw  off  the  impediments  of  common  societv, 
to  rise  above  the  gross  atmosphere  of  common  conversation,  and  to 
mount  up  into  the  pure  jpther  of  a  contemplation  of  angels,  a  contempla- 
tion of  God,  even  an  awful  union  with  them  in  the  adoration  of  PIim. 
Cowley,  we  all  know,  when  he  wanted  to  withdraw  from  the  world  on 
motives  not  so  high  set  as  these,  had  once  formed  a  scheme  of  burying 
himself  in  the  wilds  of  America;  yet  actually  found  a  solitude  sufficient 
for  all  his  purposes,  a  sepulchre  for  the  firing  bard,  in  the  very  neighbour- 
hood of  London,  and  at  the  very  village  of  Chertsey.  But  we  see  this 
reasoning  still  more  powerfully  confirmed,  by  a  still  stronger  incident  of 

II  Chap.  i.  sect.  id. 
^  Borlase,  372,  380. 
•  Cjniden  ihcrtforc  says,  140,  that  he  iu  Cornwall  "  Deo  vacavii." 

antiquity 


SECT.  VI.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  -      317 

antiquity  itself,  by  men  rclinquisliing  this  very  Ireland  for  the  sake  of  /lo/i/ 
seclusion  from  their  relatives,  and  actually  coming  into  Cornwall,  ic/icn 
Christianity  is  confessed  by  Dr.  Rorlase  himself  to  have  been  fiillv 
established  over  the  whole  of  A/'^  region  of  persisting  druidism.  In  89], 
says  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  '' three  Scots  came  to  Alfred  the  king  from 
•*  Ireland,  in  one  boat  without  any  rowers  [without  any  sails] ;  they  had 
"  stoltin  away  from  Ireland,  hecatote  ihey  would  for  the  love  of  God  go 
"  abroad,  they  cared  not  trhither.  The  boat,  in  which  they  put  out,  \a  as 
"  made  of  two  hides  and  a  half;  and  they  took  with  them  meat  for  seven 
"  days ;  and  they  came  in  seven  days  to  land  among  the  Cornish  ;  and 
"  they  went  soon  to  Alfred  the  king.  They  were  thus  named,  Dubslane,, 
"  and  Macbeth,  and  Maelinmun  f ."  With  this  spirit,  but  under  asoberen 
impulse  of  it,  St.  Petrock  came  from,  Ireland  to  Cornwall,  landed  at  Pad- 
stow,  and  removed  to  Bodmin;  preached  not,  and  attempted  not  to 
preach,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  country,  any  more  than  Cowley  meant 
to  have  preached  to  the  natives  of  America,  or  than]\raelinmun,]Macbeth,i 
and  Dubslane,  meant  to  preach  to  the  Cornish  or  the  Saxons  ;  but  se- 
questered himself  immediately  with  his  three  companions,  in  a  solitarv 
valley  at  l^odmin,  and  in  the  hermitage  of  St.  Guron  there;}:.  This  fact 
implies  of  itself,  that  the  Gospel  had  been  already  "  preached"  in  Corn- 
wall, that  "  the  word  of  God"  had  been  already  adopted  there,  and  that 
the  Cornish  were  known  in  Ireland,  to  have  been  already  folded  under 
some  shepherd  or  bishop  of  Christianity;  when,  indeed,^  the  remote  ' 
Britons  of  Ireland  had  all  been,  it  is  a  strange  paradox  in  antiquarianism 
to  suppose,  and  a  most  ridiculous  solecism  in  history  to  assert,  that  the 
neighbouring  Bfitons  of  Cornwall  luid  not  been.  But  the  very  incident 
of  St.  Petrock's  visit,  even  according  to  Dr.  Borlase  himself,  proA  es  they 
had.  He  landed  at  Padstow,  as  the  Doctor  intimates,  and  actually  found 
a  CHURCH  there,  of  which  Ave  have  the  very  name  preserved  by  the 
Doctor,  Laffcnac.  It  is  very  amazing,  in  truth,  that  Dr.  Borlase  should 
acknowledge  this  fact,  when  it  is  so  subversive  of  all  \A"hich  he  has  just 
spoken,  concerning  St.  Petrock  coming  "  to  preach  the  Gospel"  among 
the  Cornish,  and  to  •'  laiiour  in  the  word  of  God,"  by  converting  (he 

t  Sax.  Chron.  and  Florence,  328,  "  sine  velo." 
,  :[   Sec  cliap.  i.  sect.  3,  before, 

Cornish 


3in  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [CUAF.   It. 

Cornish  to  it.  Yet  he  even  enters  into  an  explanation  of  the  name,  and 
interprets  it  in  n  uiaiincr  equally  subversive  of  his  preccthjig  positions  ; 
resolving  it  either  into  La7i  Mcuc/i  tiie  clnurh  of  stone,  or  into  Lan, 
Manacli  the  church  of  monks  §.  On  either  interpretation,  the  Doctor 
confesses  a  church  to  have  been  existing  at  Padstow  for  the  public  devo- 
tions of  Christianity,  at  the  very  time  that  St.  Petrock  landed  in  tlic  port,, 
even  as  early  as  the  year  518.  And  the  interpretations  given  unite  with 
the  fact  confessed,  to  prove  against  the  Doctor  the  public  profession  o£ 
Christiimity  in  Cornwidl,  long  before  Sf.  Petrock  came  into  the  tvantry ;, 
even  to  refute  ^ro;«  himself  his,  own  assertions  concerning  the  d«  .:gu  of 
St.  Petrock's  coming,  in  the  fullest,  the  closest,  and  the  most  poiiited 
manner.     Never  before,  I  almost  believe,  was 

An  eagle,  towering  in  its  pride  of  place, 

brought  down  so  decisively  from  its  flight  towards  the  sun,  hy  an  arrow 
feathered  from  its  own  wing. 

Yet  the  Doctor  is  even  more  contradictoiy  to  himself  than  I  have 
shewn  him  to  be.  He  not  merely  refutes  by  a  fact,  wltat  he  has  asserted 
in  particular  concerning  St.  Petrock  ;  but  even  annihilates  all  that  he  has 
maintained  in  general,  of  the  continuance  of  druidi&m  "  during  all  the 
"Jifth,  and  most  of  the  sixth,  centuries."  Both  general  and  part^pular  he 
unconsciously  sweeps  away  together,  by  averring  this  church  which  St. 
Petrock  found  at  Padstovr  in  518,  to  have  been  even  "  erected  bj' St. 
"  Patrick  in  the  year  432  (| ."  So  very  inconsistent  can  a  little  confused- 
ness  of  understanding  make  a  man  !     He  actually  appeals  in  lorm  to 

§  Borlase,  379,  380  :  "  The  first  religious  house  that  we  read  of  [as]  founded  in  Corn- 
*♦  wall,  was  that — called  anciently — LafTunac  j  either  from  the  church's  being  built  with 
*'  stone — [quasi  Lan-menck], — or — quasi  Lan-manach,  the  church  of  the  monks. — The 
"  town  was  afterwards — called — Paditow — .  Saint  Petrock — settled  in  the  same  house," 
P.  372  :  "  He  settled  in  a  monastery,  called  before  his  time—Laffenek." 

11  Borlase,  379.  A  note  siys,  "  prohalhj  the  same  that  St.  Patrick  had  founded  in  the 
"  yrar  4-J2-."  But  the  text  iwaintains  its  usual  tone  of  confidente,  and  speaks  without  hesi- 
tation of  "  the  monastery  erected  by  St.  Patrick,  and  that  which  St.  Petrock  afterwards  lived 
"  and  taught  in." 

Usher, 


SECT.  VI.]  nrSTORlCALLY   SURVEYED.  3  ]<) 

Usher,  for  St,  Patrick's  erection  of  a  church  in  Corn\Vall  under  that  -(car; 
citing  his  very  words  thus,  "  'where  (to  wit,  in  Cornwall)  and  at  St. 
"  David's  they  report  him  to  have  built  a  monastery'^."  His  appeal 
only  serves  to  aggravate  his  inconsistency.  The  ereciion  of  a  church,  the 
construction  of  a  monastery,  is  certainly  a  decisive  evidence  for  the  public 
prolcssion  of  Christianity  in  the  country. 

I  mean  not,  however,  to  raise  the  temple  of  truth  upon  the  pillars  of 
falsehood.     Dr.  Borlase  is  here  as  uiijust  as  he  is  inconsistent,  and  alir  'es 
Usher  for  what  he  never  says,or  means  to  say;  Usher  never  asserting  him- 
self, never  referrnig  to   others  as  asserting,  that  St.  Patrick,  about  432, 
built  a  monastery  in  Cornwall.   Usher  only  refers  to  some  as  sayii^f^Hhat 
St.  Patrick,  in  his  way  from  France  to  Ireland,  "  tarried  awhile  among 
*'  the  Britons  of  Cornwall  ami  IFales,  where,  even  at  Saint  David's,  tliey 
*'  report  him  to  have  built  a  monastery  *."     Tliis  is  the  clear,  the  literal 
import  of  the  Latin  words  in  Usher,  and  the  specitication  of  St.  David's 
shews  it  to  be  the  certain   one :  yet  Dr.  Borlase,  with  a  schoolboy's 
poverty  of  ideas  in  interpretation,  considers  St.  David's  as  woMncludcd  in 
Wales,  hid  opposed  to  Cornwall ;  so  believes,  or  pretends  to  believe,  one 
monasteiy  erected  at  St.  David's  in  Wales,  and  another  at  some  un- 
.specified  place  in  Cornwall.     He  thus  shews  his  judgment  warped  and 
bent  and  llistorted,  by  the  false  fires  of  a  local  antiquary;  a  sacrifice  being 
made  by  him  of  all  understanding,  upon  the  mean,  the  mud-formed  altar 
of  local  attachments.     Had  the  Doctor  turned  from  the  index  back  to  the 
work,  pursued  the  references  in  that,  and  examined  the  testimonies  in 
this;  a  task,  imposed  surely  upon  every  citer  of  e\  ery  book,  yet  as  easy  in 
its  execution  as  it  is  requisite  in  itself;  he  would  then  have  found  that 
Anselm,  the  only  relator  of  St.  Patrick's  \h\t  to  Corn wa//,  says  not  one 
word  of  his  erecting  a  church,  or  of  his  building  a  monastery,  there;  and 
that  the  only  monastery  or  chinch,  which  Usher's  witncbses  ;irtirm  St. 
Patrick  to  have  built,  was  not  in  Cornwall,  but  (as  the  language  of  his 

%  Boriase,  37Q,   in  a  note  :   "  '  UIji    (in  Conuibid  scil.)  et  MctieViae  coenobiuiii  coa- 
*'  struxisBC  fenint.'     Usher,  p.  iioo." 

•  Usiicr,    -,i'>  :   "  A|)i'tl  IJiil:;  lu-  it'  j'lirtibus  Coruubiiu    a   Camlritc,  uLi,  ct  Mcneviw, 
f*  ccKuobiuin  eum  construxissc  fcrunt,  aliquumJiu  bubslitiese  Iradilur." 
,,  ,i/,  5  index 


320  TIIK    CATHEDRAL    OF    COPSWAIL  [CH  Vl».  IV. 

index  denoted)  at'St.  David's  in  ^\'alcs  f .  So  vcrv  careless  could  Dr. 
Borlase  be  in  writing  a  work,  w  liich  has  been  exalted  by  the  praises  ot 
men  just  about  the  same  level  of  intellect  w  itb  himself,  as  one  of  the  most 
satist'actorv  histo<ies  of  a  county  that  ever  was  written.  ]>r.  Borlase,  in- 
deed, does  not  ever  mislead  us  by  any  metcorous  flashes  of  genius  ;  seldom 
darts  upon  us,  with  even  the  bright  cllulgence  of  an  Italian  sun;  but 
coiumotdv  moves,  like  the  generality  of  our  British  suns,  behind  a  trans- 
parent screen  of  clouds  %.  Yet  for  sucii  a  luminary  to  fail  us  egregiously, 
to  carrv  the  delusiveness  ^^ithout  the  blaze  of  a  meteor,  or  to  be  fre- 
quently  wrapt  up  in  darkness  with  hardly  one  eruption  of  radiance,  is  yery 
extraordinar\-.  The  great  virtues  of  JJr.  Borlase,  as  a  \\  riter,  ought  to  be 
fidelity  and  judiciousness;  but,  as  we  sec  in  all  this  portion  of  his  history, 
his  fidelity  is  frefjuently  violated,  and  his  judiciousness  is  more  frequently 
betra-v  cd,  bv  the  perfidious  impotence  of  his  prejudices.  The  fact  is,  that 
St.  Patrick  (as  far  as  historical  testimony  goes)  never  was  in  Cornwall, 
and  (as  far  as  probability  weighs  against  weak  evidence)  never  was  in 
AVales  also.  I  shall  therefore  take  no  advantage  of  Dr.  Borlasc's  con- 
, cessions  at  one  time,  so  contrary  (o  his  assertions  at  another.  I  have 
noticed  them,  to  shew  him  to  my  readers  in  his  assumed  dress,  and  to  ex- 
hibit him  in  what  I  must  unwillingly  call  his  fool's  coat  of  many  colours. 
But,  having  done  this,  I  shall  rest  my  own  history  upon  better  ground, 
upon  ground  firm  in  itself,  and  reaching  in  its  foundations  to  the  centre. 

t  See  particularly  Usher,  439  :  "  Qui — Davidio  Mciievensis  vitam  descripscre,  Ricemar- 
'*  chus  Sulffeni  filius,  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  et  Johannes  Tinruuthcnsis,    I'atrieium  Vallem 
"  Rosinani  sivc  JMeneviam  in  Cambria — sedem  sibi  eligere  vdluisse,  atque  ab  co  portu  (mu- 
.  "  tato  postea  consilio)  in  Hiberniam  trajecisse  assenmt." 

J  Once  he  writes  so  agreeably,  that  I  cannot  but  produce  the  passage  to  my  reader,  though 
it  be  in  another  work.  "  Shall  we  attribute  this  variation"  in  the  forms  of  mundic,  and  in 
their  similarity  to  plants,  to  animals,  to  fancy-formed  figures,  or  to  tlie  objects  of  science, 
"to  a  plastic  power  superintending  the  congress  of  fossils,  and  sporting  itself  with  natural 
"  or  prcternaturai  representations ;  or  shall  we  rather  say,  that  the  Great  Power,  which  con- 
"  trived  and  made  all  things,  needing  no  delegate,  artfully  throws  the  flexile,  liquid  materials 
"  of  the  fossil  kinirdom  into  various  figures,  to  draw  the  attention  of  mankind  to  his  works, 
•*  and  thence  lead  them,  first  to  the  acknowledgment,  then  to  the  ?.doraiion  of  .in  Intelligent 
"  Bcino-,  iaexhaustiblv  wise,  good,  and  glorious?  Doullless  these  are  the  works  nf  that 
"  same  Lover  of  shape,  colour,  and  miiformity,  that  paints  the  peacock's  train,  that  veins  the 
"  QHi/x,  that  streaks  the  zebra."  (Nat.  Hist.  142,) 

"^^'iiea 


.SECT.  VI.]  HISTORICALLY   SURVEYED.  31.' 1 

When  St.  Petrock  landed  at  Padstovt'  about  518,  lie  certainly  found  a 
CHURCH  there,  and  he  certainly  found  it  denominated  L.\ifen.\c  §.  Here 
therefore  we  find  Christianity  openly  professed,  worship  openiv  paid  to 
our  Lord,  even  a  temple  openly  erected  for  liiin,  and  this,  in  the  very 
spirit  of  the  ages  avowedly  Christian,  lending  its  own  appellation  to  the 
town  itself  ||.  We  thus  see  our  religion  happily  triumphing  in  Cornwall, 
so  early  as  the  year  518,  so  much  earlier  indeed  as  the  church  was  old  in 
that  year;  and  dis])laying  its  victorious  banners  in  the  erection  of 
churches,  in^the  imposition  of  sainted  names  upon  them,  in  the  very  de- 
nomination of  towns  and  parishes  from  them.  Yet,  w  ith  all  this  evidence 
before  us,  Dr.  Borlasc  contrives  to  pick  up  some  sugge.'Stions  that  shall 
indulge  his  own  attachment  to  the  doctrines  of  druidism,  and  still  main- 
tain the  honour  of  Cornwall  in  continuing  its  devotion  to  them.  "  When 
"  St.  Petrock  came  last  to  visit  the  Cornish  Britans  about  the  middle  of 
"  the  sixth  century,  A.  D.  557,"'  says  the  Doctor, — "  Tendurus,  a  man  of 
*'  a  savage  and  cruel  disposition,  and  probably  a  heathen,  was  king^." 

The  "  last"  visit  of  St.  Petrock  is  thus  dated  about  557,  and  the  first 
about  518  ;  because  the  saint  is  described  by  John  of  Tinmouth,  in  a 
rambUng  disposition  that  is  all  incompatible  with  a  studious  \iic  of  twenty 
years  in  Ireland  before,  and  an  hermitical  life  of  thirty  afterwards  in 

§  Camden,  140  :  "  Padstow — contracte  pro  Petrockstow  (ut  in  Sanctorum  Historiis  Icgi- 
"  tiir)  aPelroco  quodam  Britannito  inter  sanctos  rclato,  qui  hie  Deo  vacavit  j  cum  antca — 
*'  LafTenac  vucaretur."  The  meaning  of  the  name  Laffenac,  1  believe,  is  the  latter  of  the 
two  significations  si>ggested  by  Dr.  Boriase,  Lan  Manacli,  or  the  church  of  monks.  So  Bod- 
manacli  appears  varied  in  pronunciation  into  Bod-venah  (Boriase,  379).  And,  by  that  sup- 
pression of  the  letter  n  in  pronunciation  also,  which  runs  equally  through  the  Latin,  the 
Knglish,  and  the  British ;  forming  Coiivcnientia  into  Covenant,  Conuentus  into  Covenl  or 
Covenlrij,  or  Covent- garden,  Lan  Moron,'  or  Lan  Male,  or  Lanrake,  or  Penryn,  the  names 
of  three  parishes  arid  one  town  in  Cornwall,  with  the  analogous  PfH?i//i  in  Cumberland,  into 
Lamorran,  or  Lauaie,  or  Larake,  or  Pu-ryn,  or  Pc-rith  (Lcland's  Itin.  iii.  28,  vii.  120, 
vii.  60) ;  and  is  therefore  noted  at  times  in  writing,  by  a  mere  stroke  over  the  two  letters  ad- 
joining ;  Lan  Manach  would  melt  in  pronunciation  into  Lawenec,  the  name  of  a  parish  now 
in  Cornwall,  Lavennec,  like  Bod-vunah  for  Bodmin,  and  I^ffcnac,  the  name  of  the  church 
at  Padstoiv. 

II  Camden,  140:  "  PaJi/o«/— -antea — Laffenac  \OQv:t\.\\v." 

^  Boriase,  408  and  372. 

VOL.  I.  T  T  Cornwall, 


322  Tiir    CATHF.DRAL    01:'    CORNWALL  [cHAP.  W. 

Cornwall,  to  have  gone  awas  for  Home,  &c.  Nor  is  he  pretended  to  have 
set  out  for  Rome,  as  Dr.  Borlase,  in  his  desire  to  disguise  the  stran}i;e  iiv 
conipatibiUty  of  the  incident  with  his  former  hfc,  ventures  to  insinuate, 
because  Rome  was  "  tfie  chief  university  of  the  empire*,"  but  merely 
because  it  was  in  his  way  to  Jerusalem.   This  city  he  is  pretended  to  have 
visited  from  it ;  though  the  visit  is  totally  suppressed  by  the  J)octor,  now 
beginning  to  shrink  from  the  incredible  tale,  now  refusing  to  proceed 
any  farther  with  it  f .     The  saint  is  even  said  by  the  same  biographer,  tu 
the  amazement  (I  doubt  not)  of  all  my  readers,  to  have  pushed  on  from 
Jerusalem  as  tar  as  the  FaisI  Indies,  to  have  lived  a  solitary  hermit  in  an 
island  there  for  seven  years,,  and  then  to  have  returned  to  his  three  disci- 
ples in  his  hermitage  at  Bodmin  |.    St.  Petrock  therefore  must  have  been 
about  SEVENTY  ycars  of  age,  when  he  set  out  on  this  astonishing  expe- 
dition, and  more  than  seventy-seven  when  he  again  set  out  on  his  re^ 
turn  ;  at  such  an  advanced  period  of  life  travelling  so  many  thousand 
miles  forward,  to  enjoy — what  he  was  enjoying  at  Bodmin,  and  travelling 
so  many  thousand  miles  back  again,  to  enjoy — what  he  had  been  thirty 
}  ears  enjoying  at  Bodmin  before.     This,  this,  with  the  gross  contradic- 
toriness  of  all  to  a  hfe  of  fifty  years  spent  in  studious  or  religious  serpies- 
tration,  is  sutHcient  to  annihilate  the  credibility  of  the  v\  hole  storv^ 
framed  as  it  is  from  that  flimsy  texture  of  authority,  the  fabulous  John  of 
Tinmouth.     This,  indeed,  is  so  flimsy,  even  in  the  opinion  of  Usher,  that 
lie  has  fixed  his  broad  arrow  of  condemnation  upon  the  story ;  adding 
thus  at  the  close  of  the  whole,  "  if  we  can  give  credit  to  these  narrations 
"  of  John  Tinmouth  §."    But  Leland,  who  has  written  an  account  of  St. 
Petrock,  and  w  hose  accuracy  of  intbrmation  is  equalled  only  by  his  fidelity 
of  relation,  totally  omits  all  these  eccentric  adventures  ;  thus  purges  the 
biography,   of  what   is    very   degrading  to  the  character  ;    and  makes 
the  saint  to  pay  only  one  visit  into  Cornwall,  to  come,  to  stay,  to  die 
tliere  ||. 

St. 

*  Borlase,  372. 

t  Borlase,  372  :  '»  After  paying  a  \init  to  Rome,  he  returned  info  Cornwall." 

X    Usher,  292. 

§  Usher,  292:  "  Si  Johannis  Tiniinuhensis  narrationibus  fides  sit  adhibenda." 

T)  Leland  Dc  Script.  Erii.  61.     In  Lclajid's  Itin.  \iii.   54,  we  have  these  extracts  made 

by 


Sr.CT.   VI.]  HISTORICAIXV    SURVEVED.  ."J^.l 

St.  Pctrock,  however,  adds  liis  lying  biographer,  on  his  return  into 
Cornwall  found  "  Tendurus  reigning  there,  a  man  fierce  and  savage  in 
"  his  manners  ^[."  Dr.  Borlase  t/ienfore  supposes  him  to  have  been 
"  probably  a  heathen  ;"  with  a  compliment  unintended,  I  believe,  to  the 
Iiumanizing  powers  otCin'istianity,  v,  hicii  I  wish  was  «/<it'«^s  just ;  but 
with  a  design  ccrUiinly  of  wresting  the  quality  of  the  character,  to  the 
purposes  of  his  own  hypothesis.  'J'he  Doctor,  too,  supposes  him  a 
lieathen,  when  his  argument  requires  he  should  prove  him  one  ;  he 
having  undertaken  to  prove  wliat  w<;  liave  seen  him  assume  before,  that, 
from  the  attachment  of  the  Cornish  to  tlieir  druidisin,  "  in  the  latter  end 
"  of  the  fourth,  during  all  the  iiftli,  and  most  part  of  tlie  sixth  centuries, 
"  we  find  so  many  holy  men  employed  to  tviivert  the  Cornish  to  the 
*•'  Christian  religion."  But  suppositions  are  more  ready  instruments  of 
action  than  proofs  ;  and,  eager  in  his  work,  the  Doctor  took  the  tools 
that  he  could  most  promptly  find.  Yet  either  suppositions  or  proofs 
must  have  equally  failed  him  here.  That  this  sovereign  was  no  heathen, 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  history  demonstrate.  When  St.  Petrock 
landed  in  518,  he  not  only  found  a  cliurch  erected  at  Padstow,  found  a 
hermit  living  at  Bodmin,  and  fixe<l  himself  there  as  a  hermit  with  three 
others,  but  lived  with  them  there  for  thirty  years  together.  During 
his  residence  there,  and  early  in  it  probably,  he  found  that  "  in  the  very 

by  Leiand  "  Ek  Vita  Pctroci  ....  *  Petrocus  Romam  petlit,  Petrociis  Roma  reversus  C3t  ad 
"  suuni  monasteriuin  in  Cornuhia'."  These  assert  the  excursion  of  St.  Petrock  from  Bod- 
min to  Rome,  but  deny  the  farllier  excursion  to  Jerusalem,  the  still  farther  to  the  Indies,  and 
the  settlement  for  seven  years  in  an  Indian  island.  This  life  ihcrefore  appears  to  have  been 
the  groundwork  for  all  Tinmouth's  account;  the  coloured  canvass,  on  which  he  boldlv 
sketched  his  extravagant  portrait.  He  found  tlie  expedition  to  Rome  there,  and  with  all  the 
rash  dexterity  of  a  forgci  extended  it  to  Jerusalem,  to  the  La^st  Indies,  to  the  island  there. 
Yet  that  both  the  life  and  the  ailditious  were  equally  fabulou:-,  and  were  considered  as  equally 
fabulous  by  Leiand  himself,  is  apjiarcnt  from  Leland'i  own  life  of  St.  I'etrock  ;  in  which  he 
has  omitted  equally  the  journey  to  Home,  and  the  peregrination  to  tlie  East.  There  were 
frequently,  I  believe,  //to  lives  of  a  saint,  one  fabulous,  the  other  genuine.  This  was  llie 
case  particularly  with  Petrock  ;  and  Leiand,  who  met  with  the  genuine  after  he  had  made 
extracts  from  the  fabulous,  rejected  (his  as  fabtdous,  and  drew  up  his  life  from  thai  as 
genuine, 

l|  Uiilicr,  297. :  "  Tendnruf,  vir  atrox  et  fcrus  moribus." 

T  T  2  "  neighbour- 


324  THE    CATHEDRA.L    OF    CORXWALL  [cHAP.  IV. 

"  neighbourhood  one  Samso\,  conspicuous  like  Pctrock  for  his  piety, 
"  had  chosen  himself"  a  place,  in  which  he  hved  as  a  hermit"  too  * ;  his 
hermitage  being  in  the  present  parish  of  Gullant  or  Giant  assuredly,  as  to 
St.  Sampson  the  church  there  is  dedicated,  and  as  the  ecclesiastical  ap- 
pellation of  the  parish  is  St.  Sampson's  f .  This  incident  unites  v\  ith  all 
before,  to  shew  Christianity,  and  not  druidism,  the  religion  of  the 
country  at  the  heginnifig  of  the  sixth  centur}'.  Nor  is  Tendurus  a 
heathen,  even  upon  the  face  of  Tinmouth's  own  history.  The  very  con- 
tinuance of  St.  Petrock's  cell  under  him,  the  very  return  of  St.  Pctrock  to 
it,  and  the  very  residence  of  St.  Pctrock  in  it  till  his  death,  all  prove  he  i.s 
not.  Even  the  very  silence  of  the  biographer,  in  not  noticing  the 
heathenism  when  he  notices  the  savageness,  again  proves  he  is  not.  So 
completely  false  is  the  Doctor's  supposition  in  every  view  of  it ! 

But  indeed  the  biographer  has  injured  the  king,  and  transposed  the 
history ;  mentioning  Tewdurus  as  king  on  the  pretended  return  of  St. 
Petrock,  when  Teadurus,  as  his  name  should  be  written,  was  actually 
king  at  his  first  landing,  and  when  as  king  he  actually  shewed  great 
civility  to  St.  Petrock.  "  When  Petrock  was  come  to  maturity  of  years," 
notes  Leland  in  his  useful  abstract  of  his  life,  "  he  left  his  country,  and 
•'  sailed  with  a  fair  gale  to  Ireland.  There,  glowing  with  an  uncommon 
"  degree  of  fondness  for  studies,  he  had  the  most  learned  teachers ;  nor 
**  did  he  desist  from  the  work,  before  he  had  spent  the  whole  of  twenty 
"  years  in  the  perusal  of  good  authors.  The  treasure,  collected  by  this 
"  laborious  attention  to  knowledge,  w  as  found  at  last ;  and,  that  it  might 
"  be  no  longer  concealed,  the  finder  transported  the  treasures  of  Ireland 
"  into  Cornwall,  and  exhibited  them  conspicuously  to  all :  at  that  time, 
"  two  petty  kings  reigned  in  Cornica/l,  celebrated  in  fame,  Theodore  and 
"  Constantine  ;  by  the  liberality  and  piety  of  loth  whom  being  assisted, 

*  Usher,  292  :  "  In  proximo  vicinid  Samson  quidam,  sanctitate  item  conspicuus,  sedcm 
"  sibi  elegerat,  in  qui  solitariam  vitam  duceret." 

t  dmiitcd  in  the  first  Valor,  as  a  part  of  the  parish  of  Tywardreth,  probably  ;  it  is  thvi3 
mentioned  in  the  second,  "  St.  Sampson's,  alias  Guhmt,  or  Giant,  Cur.  Pri.  Tywardretl» 
"  Prop."  It  is  also  called  "  S.  Sampson,"  or  "  S.  Sampson's,"  in  an  ancient  rate  for  the 
payment  of  fifteenths  in  Cornwall.   (Carcw,  91  and  95  ) 

4  "  "  he 


SECT.  VI.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  325 

"  he  received  a  place  very  Jit  for  bii'dding  a  vionastertj, — to  which  the 
*'  monks  gave  the  name  of  Bosmanach  in  their  native  language  *."  Here 
then  the  whole  air  of  mystery  is  dissipated,  the  enchantment  raised  by 
that  falsifying  magician  the  biographer  is  dissolved,  and  the  history  shews 
itself  in  all  the  colours  of  reality.  Christianity,  not  druidism,  was  the 
religion  of  the  country  at  St.  Petrock's  visit  to  it ;  the  saint  of  Cumber- 
land, with  his  three  companions  from  Ireland,  was  well  received  by 
Theodore  and  Constantine,  that  the  father  having  relinquished  the  activi- 
ties of  government  to  tins  the  son,  though  still  retaining  the  rights  of  a 
sovereign  with  the  precedence  of  a  parent;  and  had  land  allotted  imme- 
diately for  his  hermitage,  by  this  king  acting  in  the  name  of  that.  The 
appellation  of  Tewdurus  therefore  appears  to  be  nothing  more  than  the 
mistake  of  the  eye  for  Tc?/durus,  Tudor,  or  Theodore.  Only  Tinmouth 
has  made  one  blunder  additional  to  all,  in  confounding  this  Constantine  of 
St.  Petrock,  who  was  reigning  the  assessor  of  his  father  in  518,  with  the 
Constantine  of  Gildas,  who  was  reigning  by  himself  in  504  ;  in  con- 
founding "  the  very  pious  father  noticed  by  Gildas,  with  the  profligate 
and  murderous  son  mentioned  by  him  ;  and  in  so  laying  upon  the  head  of 
Theodore  as  the  principal  in  the  sovereignty,  what  was  meant  for  the 
mistaken  assessor  in  it  f .     Thus  has  he  attributed  that  "  fierceness  and 

"  savageness 

•  LeIanJ  De  Script. Brit.  6i  :  "  Ubi  tnaturos  pcrvcnerat  ad  annos,  relicli  patriS,  in  Hi- 
'•  berniam  secundis  vtntis  navigavit.  Ibi,  studioriini  insolito  qiiodam  conflagrans  amorc, 
"  prieccptores  exiniic  doctos  excoluit;  nee  inanum  prius  de  tabula  sustulit,  quam  totos  vi- 
"  ginti  annos  in  lectione  bonorum  autorum  exegisset.  Qusesitus  hdc  laboriosa  scicnliae  tbe- 
"  saurus  cura,  tandem  inventus  est;  qui  jam  nc  deliteret,  inventor  Hibernicas  gazas  in  Co- 
•'  riniam  transtulit,  et  videndas  omnibus  exhibuit.  Regnabant  eo  in  Corinii  sasculo,  duo 
"  reeidi,  fama  celebres,  Theodorus  et  Conslanlinus;  quorum  cum  liberalitale  tum  pictate 
"  adjutus,  locum  condendo  aptissimum  monasterio — accepit,  cui  nomen  patria.  lingua  Bos- 
"  manach  a  monachis  inditum." 

t  Giidas's  history  was  written,  as  be  tells  us  himself  in  c.  xxvi,  forty-four  years  after  the 
battle  of  Badon,  or  in  the  ye.nr  564  (Usher,  526,  527,  532) ;  and  his  epistle  the  same  year, 
"  hoc  anno"  (Gale,  i.  18).  This  therefore  "  found"  Constantine,  not  (as  Dr.  Borla.se  savs, 
408)  •'  in  the  year  583,"  but  nineteen  years  preceding.  It  found  him,  and  (as  tradition  re- 
ports) broucfht  him  to  a  just  sense  of  his  profligacy.  "  Unum  ex  iis  [regibus],"  says 
Gale,  1.  praefatio  ad  lectorem,  "  ad  sanam  mentem  revoeavit ;  nam  in  quodam  ehronico 
"  Cambrico  Icgi  de  Constantino  qucni  Gildas  increpuit,  •  Conversio  Constanlini  ad  Donii- 

•'  num'." 


3:20  Tiir.  -CATiinoiiAL  oi-  conxwAtL  [(ttiap.  iv, 

"  sav:igciipss  of  manners"  to  Theodoro,  to  which  he  has  probably  no 
riglit,  and  ot' which  very  imich  certainly  belongs  to  the  younger  Cou- 
s'tantine  ;  giving"  those  (|ualities  to  the  grandlatlu-r,  \\  Inch  the  grandson 
had  alone,  but  which  even  the  grandson  hin.self  had  not  at  the  time 
assigned,  the  arrival  of  St.  Pet  rock.  That  assasisinator -of  two  youths  in 
the  Acrv  temple  ot  God,  at  the  very  altar  of  God,  under  the  very  robes  of 
the  olliciating  abbot,  and  in  the  very  arjiis  of  their  mother  there*  ;  that 
man  therefore,  who  was  very  truly  *•  fierce  and  savage  in  his  manners  ;" 
w  honi  J)r.  Borlasc  in  strict  consistency  must  theretore  believe  to  be  a 
heathen,  even  though  wc  find  with  him  a  very  temple  of  (ioD,  a  very  altar 
of  God,  and  a  verv  abbot  olliciating  in  his  robes;  even  he  was  not  yet 
born  probably.  His  "  very  pious  fathei""  was  yet  a  mere  associate  with 
his  father,  in  the  toils  of  government;  and  with  him  the  protector,  the 
patron,  the  friend  of  St.  Petrock,  as  well  as  St.  Tctrock's  three  com- 
panions .+.  So 

•*<  imm'."  Dr.  Borlase  accoiJingly  considers  him  as  a  saint,  and  even  (in  his  wild  way  of 
Tiiakinor  martyrs,  borrowed,  ho\ve\er,  from  the  Romish  calendar  without  any  acknowledg- 
inicnt)  a  very  niartvr  for  the  Gospel.  (Itinerar.  W  de  Worcestre,  p.  107,  "  Sanctus  Constan- 
"  tinus  rex  et  martir."}  Gildas's  epistle,  adds  Dr.  Borlase,  "  made  such  an  impression  on 
*'  him,  that  he  turned  monk — .  He  is  supposed  to  have  suffered  martyrdom,  and  is  there- 
^'  fore  reckoned  a  saint.  We  have  a  churcli  dedicated  to  him."  (P.  408.)  That  he  suffered 
martyidom  as  a  Christian,  it  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  ;  when  he  had  been  himself  a  king 
professine  Christianity,  and  when  his  subjects  were  all  Christians.  (Gildas,  18.)  He  nuist 
have  been  the  son  too  of  St.  Pctrock's  Constantine,  that  "  piissimus  pater"  of  the  Constan- 
tineof  GiUlas.  (P.  18,  19.) 

*  Gildas,  18:  "In  duarutn  vencrandls  matrum  sinibus,  ecclesioe  carnalisque,  sub  sancti 
"  abbatis  araphibalo, — inter  ipsa — sacrosancta  altaria,"  &:c. 

t  How  Constantine  the  king  became  a  martyr,  we  know  not.  He  certainly  could  not  bc- 
«omc  one,  in  the  just  sense  of  the  word.  He  was  killed  therefore  by  some  one  in  his  retirc- 
nicnt,  out  of  resentment  for  the  past.  But  where  was  his  retirement  ?  Not,  as  we  naturally 
suppose  at  first,  in  the  jiarish  denominated  from  him.  At  the  church  of  this  parish  was  no 
*•' religious  house,"  as  Dr.  Borlase,  misled  by  Tanner,  supposes  there  was.  (!';  390.)  The 
very  words  of  Doomsday  Book,  cited  by  him  to  prove  there  was,  prove  there  was  none. 
*«  Sanctus  Constanlinus,"  a  language  appropriated  to  a  church  merely  parochial,  while  tlie 
colk'sriaic  or  conventual  church  is  distinguished  by  the  addition  of  "  Clerici,"  or  "  Cano- 
•'  nici,"  of  the  saint,  "  habei  dimidium  hida:  terr;e,"  &c.  And  the  Valor  of  pope  Nicholas 
concurs,  noticing  "  ccclesia  Sancti  Constantini"  just  as  it  notices  all  merely  parociiial 
fharohes.  But  at  another  point  of  Cornwall  was  it,  th.vt  Constantiue  Jived  as  a  hermit,  even 

at 


SECT.  VII.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEyF.I>.  52/ 

So  coniplerely  have  we  j)rovcd,  in  opposition  to  seming  authoiity,  in 
contradiction  to  gross  falsehoods  carrying  the  forged  stanij>  of  authority 
upon  them  ;  tliat,  when  St.  Petrock  landed  in  Cornwall  about  the  year 
518,  he  landed  in  a  country  all  Christian,  inhabited  by  Christian  subjects, 
governed  by  Christian  kings,  replenished  with  hermitages,  churches,  and 
monasteries  of  Christianity  *. 


SECTION  YII. 


Yet  let  us  trace  the  current  of  Dr.  Borlase's  evidences  a  little  higher  up 
the  channel  of  time,  and  mount  along  the  channel  nearly  to  the  very 
point  of  Germanus's  visit  into  Cornwall. 

"  Fingarus,"  Guignec,  or  GvA'inear,  says  the  Doctor  (as  we  have  seen 
before),  "  with  his  sister  Piala,  eleven  bishops,  and  a  numerous  at- 
"  tendance,  all  baptized  [and  some  even  consecrated]  by  St.  Patrick,  came 
"  into  Cornwall,  and,  landing  at  tl>e  mouth  of  the  river  Hayle,.  was  there 
"  put  to  death  m  the  year  46o,  with  all  his  company, by  Theodorick  king 
"  of  Cornwall,  for  fear  lest  they  should  turn  his  subjects  from  their  an- 
"  cient.  religion."     But,  as  he  also  subjoins  immediately,  "  about  the  same 

at  St.  Merin  near  Padstow.  There,  and  there  only,  "  is  yet  extant  Saint  Constantine's 
"  IVell,  strong  built  of  stone,  and  arched  over ;"  as  near  it  are  "  the  ruinesof  an  old  church, 
"  chapcll,  and  cemitery  pcrtayninge  therto,  dedicated  to  St.  Constantine;"  a  chapel  (I  prt« 
sumc)  to  Padstow,  as  St.  Merin  is  no  parish  in  pope  Nicholas's  Valor;  the  original  thaptl 
ot  the  district,  as  tradition  points  its  finger  at  it  for  the  original  church  of  the.  parish  ;  and  a 
chapel  nearly  buried  now  in  the  encroaching  waves  of  the  sea.   (Hals's  MS.) 

*  At  i.  3,  before,  1  have  shown  in  opposition  to  a  prevailing  error,  that  St.  Petrock  at  his 
death  was  buried,  not  at  Padstow,  but  at  Bodmin.  In  confirmation  of  this  I  now  add,  that 
his  three  companions  appear  also  to  have  been  buried  at  Bodmin.  "  E.xtai  Petroburgi  libcl- 
"  lus  dc  sepulturd  sanctorum  Anglorum,  ex  quo  liquet  Credamtm,"  not  the  denominator'of 
CVee<i  church  near  Grampound,  which  is  called  "  ecclesia  Sanci.x  Creda:"  in  pope  Nicho- 
las's Valor,  "  Mtdanum,  et  Dachunum,  viros  sanctitate  vita:  illustres,  tt  Petroci  imitatores, 
"  in  Bosmanach  fuisse  sepultos."  (De  Script.  Brit.  61.)  See  also  that  very  book,  in.  ex- 
tracts made  by  Coll.  i.  10;  "  S.  Petrociis,  S.  Credanus,  S.  Medanuf,  tt  S.  Dachuna  vir,  in 
*•  Botiaemc,"  Bodmin,  "  in  Coruubia." 

"  tniie 


328  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.  IV. 

*'  ftmc  came  over  from  Irclaiul  St.  Breaca  (now  called  Breag)  attended 

•"  with  many  saints,  among  whom  were  Sinmnls,"  alias  Senanus,  sajsa 

note,  "  the  abbot,  who  had  been  at  Rome  with  Patrick,  Germochus,  an 

•  "•  Irish  king  (as  tradition  says),  and  several  others.  She  lantled  at  Re>yer 

■"on' the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  IJayle,  in  the  hundred  of  Penwith, 

"  where  Theodorick  (or  Tudor)   had  his  castle  of  residence,  and  sle%v 

"  great  part  of  fh'is  holy  assembly  a/so*.''    To  the  first  part  of  this  account 

I  have  replied  already',  and  shall  hereafter  reply  again -j-.     But  I  mean  to 

answer  the  last  at  present. 

This,  however,  referring  to  no  authority,  I  considered  it  for  some 
time  as  capable  of  no  I'etlitation.  Secure  in  its  own  airhiess  of  sub- 
stance, I  cried,  it  bids  defiance  to  all  criticism; 

For  it  is,  as  the  air,  invulnerable. 
And  our  vain  blows  malicious  mockery. 

But  I  afterwards  discoAcred  the  evidence,  upon  which  the  Doctor 
grounds  .his  relation ;  though,  cither  wilfully  or  negligently,  he  sup- 
presses all  acknowledgment  of  it.  In  Leland's  Itinerary  we  have  some 
extracts  out  of  a  life  of  Breaca,  which  are  the  more  valuable  because 
the  life  is  since  lost,  I  believe,  and  are  the  very  foundations  of  the 
Doctor's  edifice.  I  shall  produce  them,  in  order  to  destroy  his  edifice, 
iind  to  expose  the  mode  of  architecture  in  which  he  has  presumed  to 
build  upon  tl^m.  "  Breaca,"  says  the  cited  biographer  concerning  one 
who  had  been  in  the  nunnery  of  St.  Brigid,  within  the  Irish  county 
ofMcath,  "  came  into  Cornwall  accompanied  by  many  saints;  among 
*'  M-hom  were  Sinnin,  the  abbot,  who  had  been  at  Rome  with  Patrick, 
*'  Maruax  the  monk,  Germoch  the  king,"  not  merely  what  Dr.  Bor- 
lase  represents  him,  "  an  Irish  king,  as  tradition  says,''  but  positively  a 
king,  as  this  history  says,  equally  Irish  with  the  rest,  '■'  and,"  as  the 
•Doctor  adds,  "  several  others;"  but,  as  this  history  very  usefully  speci- 
fies besides  Maruan  before,  "  El  wen,  Crewenna,  Helena:};."     These 

are 

*  Borlase,  370.  +  See  v.  i. 

I  Leland's  Itin.  iii.  4:  "  Ex  Vita  Sanctse  Brcacas.  '  Campus  Breacae  in  Hibernia',"  see 
Uiber,  361,  362,  "  '  in  quo  Brigida  oratorium  construxit,  et  postea  monasterium,  in  qno 

"  fuit 


SrXT.   Vfl.]  niSTOUICALLY    SL'RVEVKD.  320 

are  all  names,  so  celebrated  for  a^es  iji  Corinvall,  a.s  to  lia\  c  liud  clnirches 
and  parishes  for  ages  denominated  from  them.  "  Breaca  landed  ne^r 
"  IJevjer  with  her  company,  a  part  of  w  hich,"  not  a  '•  great  part;" 
as  the  Doctor  alleges,  but  only  "  a  part,"  as  tlie  history  avers,  "  was 
"  killed  by  Tewder*."  Now  "  Revier,"  adds  Leland,  in  an  explanatory 
remark,  "  was  a  castle  of  Theodore's,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  mouth 
"  of  the  Haylc  river,  at  present  (in  theoj>inion  of  some  persons,  buried 
"  in  the  sands  f,"  which  have  buried  not  a  little  of  the  lands  adjoining, 
yet  began  to  drive  only  about  the  year  i:;2().  Tradition,  indeed,  re- 
ports at  the  neighbouring  Lanant,  that  the  driving  began  in  a  deluge  of 
sands,  so  violent  and  so  sudden,  as  in  the  compass  of  two  nights  to  burv 
many  of  the  houses.  The  lower  parts  of  these  have  actually  been  found 
since  in  digging,  and  even  with  furniture  in  some  of  them.  Accord- 
ingly, Leland  informs  us,  that  in  his  time,  so  near  to  the  very  com- 
mencement of  the  ravages,  "  most  part  of  the  houses  in  the  peninsula," 
on  which  the  adjoining  St.  Ives  stands,  "  be  sure  o/)prcssid  or  over- 
"  covcrid  with  sandes,  that  the  stormy  ^windes  and  rages  castith  up 
"  there;  this  calamite  hath  continuid  ther  little  above  t/renti/  i/cres  :  the 
"  best  part  of  the  toun  now  standith  in  the  soitth  part  of  the  peninsula, 
*•■  up  toward  another  hille,  for  defence  from  the  sandcs|."  Or,  as  Carew 
notes  a  little  later  in  time,  "  the  light  sand,  carried  up  by  the  north 
*'  wind  from  the  sea  shore,  doi/ij  continneth  his  covering,  and  marring 
*'  the  land  adjoynant;  so  as  the  distresse  of  this  deluge  drave  the  inha- 
"  bitants,  to  remove   their    c/nirch  as  well  as  their  houses§."     Or,  as 

Dr. 

"  fiiit  et  S.  Breaca.  Breaca  vcnit  inCornubiam  comilata  nniltis  Sanctis,  inter  quos  fucriint 
"  Sinninus  abbas,  qui  Honiae  cum  Patricio  fuil,  Manianus  nionacbus,  Gcrmochus  rex, 
"  Elvven,  Crcucnna,  Helena'." 

•  Leland's  Iiin.  iii.  4.  "  '  Breaca  appulit  sub  Revycr  cum  suis,  quorum  partem  occidit 
"  Tcwdcr'." 

t  Ibid.  16:  "I'evicr  casteilum  Ti>eodori,  in  orientali  jiartc  ostii  Ilaylc  flu.,  nunc,  ut 
'*  qiiidani  pulant,  absorplum  a  sabulo." 

X   Ibid.  21. 

§  Carcwj  14S.  So  Norden,  42,  remarks  of  "  Uny-juxii-Lalant,"  tbat  "  of  late — the 
**  sande — lutb — buried  niuclie  of  the  landc  and  bowscij;  and  many  devises  they  use  to  pre- 
"  vent  the  olsorpat'ion  [absorption]  of  the  churche;"  and.  68,  observes  of  Piran,  that  "  the 
*'  parish"  is  "  almost  drowned  with  the  sea  sand — ,  in  such  sortc,  as  ihc  inhabitantcs  have 

vot,  I.  V  v  "  bene 


330  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [ciIAP.  IV. 

Dr.  Borlase  .subjoins  to  both  in  his  Natural  Jlistory,  "  from  the  luoutli  of 
"  Ilcyl  In  ?cnv\ith.  along  to  Biuk*  Haven,  Cornwall  has  lost  a  peat 
'**  deal  of  ai'ohlc  giouml  on  the  north(>rn  coast,  by  means  of  the  blov\n 
"  sea-sand,  which  is  still  increasing  \n  the  parishes  of  St.  Ives,  Lannanl, 
"  Pliilac,  Gwythien,  St.  Agnes,  Piran  Saml,  Carantoc,  Cuthbert,  ]'ad- 
"  stow  ;  and  the  sand  spreads  every  ?('here,  but  where  the  height  of 
"  the  cliif  protects  the  land  from  its  invasion +."  These  sands  come  all 
from  the  vv-est,  and  are  found  upon  examination  to  be  merely  the  shells  of 
the  ocean,  reduced  into  powder  by  collision  between  the  waves  and 
the  rocks,  then  thrown  up  by  the  tides  upon  the  beach,  and  fuudly 
blown  by  the  winds  upon  the  fields.  Yet  this  torrent  of  fleeting  par- 
ticles has  been  latterly  begun  to  be  stopped,  even  the  covered  land  to  be 
reclaimed  from  the  waste  again,  by  planting  rushes  upon  it  to  fix  the  fly- 
ing soil,  then  spreading  a  coat  of  grass  over  it  in  some  places,  and  so 
turning  the  barren  wilderness  into  an  useful  dairy-ground.  Amid  this 
range  of  salt  sand  and  powdered  shells,  on  the  east  of  the  Hayle  river, 
and  on  the  north  of  Phillac  creek  from  it,  still  remains  the  Revyer  of  the 
history,  no  longer  a  castle,  but  still  an  estate;  deformed  only  in  popular 
pronunciation  into  Rovier,  yet  known  to  be  denominated  R/vier  in  the 
legal  papers  of  it,  and  actually  denamlnated  Rovier,  Rcvier,  River,  or 
R^v^cr  by  Leland§.  Here, 

"  hcne  once  ^iUcdy  forced  (o  remove  their  church."  In  the  Statute  Book,  Philip  and  Mary, 
cap.  xi.  "  The  great  hurt,  nusancc,  and  losses,  that  cometh  and  chanccth  to  the  queen's 
**  highness  and  her  subjects,  by  reason  of  sand  arising  out  of  the  sea,  and  driven  to  land  by 
*♦  storms  cmd  winds,  whereby  much  good  ground  lying  on  the  sea  coasts  in  sundry  places  of 
"  this  realm,  awi.  especially  in  the  county  of  Glamorgan,  is  covered  with  such  sand  rising 
**  out, of  the  sea,  that  there  [is]  no  proiit  of  the  same,  to  the  great  loss  of  the  queen's  hic^h- 
".  ncss  and  her  loving  suljjects,  and  more  is  like  to  issue  if  speedy  remedy  he  not  therein  pro- 
"  vided."  Commissioners  of  sewers  are  authorized  to  provide  one  "  for  the  withstanding 
"  and  avoiding  the  outrageous  course  and  rage  of  the  sea."  This  overflow  of  sand  upon 
Glamorganshire  appears  to  have  been  later  in  its  date  than  that  upon  Cornwall  and  its  isles. 

t  Nat.  Hist.  74. 

§  Leland's  Iiin.  iii.  18:  "  Revicr  castel — ,  now,  as  sum  think,  drounid  with  sande. 
"  This  was  Theodore's  castellc. — Cayl  castelle  a  mile  by  est  from  Hiver — ,  Nikenor,  a  two 
••'  miles  from  Ryvier, — Carnbray — a  mile  west  of  Revier  toun." — A  similar  torrent  has  op- 
f  rcsscd  the  Sylley  isles.  At  St.  Martin's,  says  Borlase,  53,  "  the  higher  parts  are  all  one 
**^  common,  the  surface  being  either  too  stoncy  and   shallow   to  make  arable  ground,   or 

J  "  covered 


SfeCT.  VII.]  HISTOllICALLY    SUUVF-rED.  331 

Here,  then,  we  have  two  martyrdoms  inflicted  upon  two  parties  of 
Christians,  both  parties  arpiving  about  the  same  year,  40o,  both  coming 
from  the  same  country,  Ireland,  both  landing  at  the  mouth  of  the  same 
river  of  Cornwall,  and  both  murdered  by  the  same  king  of  Cornwall. 
Tlietwo  tales  are  so  exactly  the  same  in  their  begiiming,  their  middle, 
and  their  end,  that  credulity  itself  can  hardly  sooth  its  mind  into  a  belief 
of  their  difference,  and  criticism  must  pronounce  them  to  have  been  the 
very  same  originally.  The  story  of  J'ingar,  as  we  have  seen  before,  rests 
upon  no  other  authority  than  that  of  a  convicted  falsifier,  Anselm; 
\\  hile  the  story  of  Jireaca,  as  mc  now  see,  is  founded  upon  the  evidence 
of  an  ancient  biographer.  D'laf,  therefore,  is  merely  this,  varied  by 
falsehood,  distorted  by  ignorance,  and  now  running  in  one  "screw  of 
curves  around  the  right  line  of  this.     But  let  me  make  another  remark : 

**  covered  with  sand  blown  in  from  some  northern  coves:  however,  what  hassufiered  so  mucU 
"  from  the  sand  in  former  ages,"  tlic  author  referring  the  commencement  of  tliis  drv  deluge 
to  a  period  much  earlier  than  the  year  1520,  "  has  in  length  of  time  contracted  soil  enough 
*'  to  form  a  turfy  pasture,  on  which  the  inhabitants  keep  many  shecpj  the  sheep-run  being 
**  two  miles  long;  but,  below  this  turf,  there  is  nothing  but  sand/or  a  great  depth."  This 
shews  the  deluge  to  have  conmicnced  at  the  isles  earlier  than  on  the  continent  of  Cornwall. 
At  the  isle  of  Samson,  "  the  sand,"  lie  adds  in  63,  "  sonic  of  the  brightest  colour  I  saw  in 
"  all  the  islands,  has  been  blown  up  by  the  northern  wind-;,  and  covered  great  part  of  that 
"  which  is  called  the  Brchar  hill  of  Samson  ;  it  is  blown  oil'  again  in  some  little  breaks  and 
"  channels  of  the  hill,  where  I  saw  hedges  of  stone  six  feet  under  tiic  common  run  of  the 
"  sand-banks."  Tliis  unites  with  the  notice  preceding,  to  shew,  that  the  deluge  here  was 
much  earlier  than  at  St.  Ives.  Ikit,  as  Borlase  subjoins  in  67,  "  In  several  places  I  cx- 
"  amincd  their  sand,  and  found  it  to  consist  of  small  gravel,  mostly  broke  off  (as  it  seemed 
"  to  me)  by  the  violence  of  the  sea  from  the  7noorstone,  which  lines  the  shores  of  all  the 
*'  islands  in  great  plentv.  The  finest  sand — is  found  only  in  Porlhmellyn  cove,  on  St. 
*'  Mary's.  Upon  examining  this  bv  a  microscope,  I  found  it  to  consist  of  globes  of  white 
"  transparent  crystal,  and  talc  or  talk."  The  particles  of  the  torrent,  therefore,  are  as  difler- 
cnt  from  those  on  the  nonhtrn  coast  of  Cornwall,  as  are  the  beginnings  of  the  two  torrents. 
Yet  another  deluge  has  conmieneed  at  the  isles,  I  believe,  the  same  with  our  own  on  the 
continent.  This,  however,  is  only  noticed  in  a  slight  manner  by  Borlase,  and  seems  froin 
his  notice  to  be  but  recent  in  its  date.  "  In  one  part  only  of  St.  Marfs,"  he  observes,  in 
67,  "  they  have  a  shelly  sand  ;  and  those  who  carry  on  the  best  husbandry  ait?  this,  and  find 
"  their  account  in  it,"  while  the  generality  use  the  other,  though  '•  certain  it  is  that  all 
"  their  moor^tonc  sand  contributes  to  vegetation  no  longer  than  whilst  it  rel.iins  the  fcalt 
*'  which  it  brings  from  the  sea." 

U  U  2  the 


333  THE    CATHEDRAL    OF    COKJsWALL  [c«Al>.  tV. 

the  "  Theodorick  king  of  Cornwall,"  in  botli  these  talcs,  is  nothing 
more  or  less  than  th<;  very  Theodore  ot"  'J'inincmth  before,  "  lieree  and 
"  savage  in  his  manners,"  aeconling  to  Tinnioiuh,  but,  in  fact,  a  pro- 
fessed Christian,  the  sovereign  of  professed  Christians,  the  father  of 
a  "  verj  pious"  prince,  and  the  patron  of  St.  Petroek,  on  his  arrival 
from  the  same  country,  Ireland,  Thus  we  have  *' Teudrie,  or  Theo- 
"  doric,"  king  of  Glamorganshire,  in  Wales,  about  this  very  period; 
who  resigned  his  crown,  retired  into  a  hermitage,  but  was  forced 
into  the  tumults  of  life  again  by  a  Saxon  iuAasion,  headed  those  vete- 
rans who  had  always  been  victorious  under  him,  attacked  the  pagans, 
beat  them,  but  was  mortally  wounded  in  the  action,  and  so  fell  a  re- 
puled  martyr  for  Christianity*,  Dr,  Borlasc  himself,  therefore,  calls 
our  king  of  Cornwall,  "  Theodorick,  or  Tudor;"'  the  biographer  of  St, 
Breaca  denominates  him  simply  "  Tewder;"  and  Leland  dcnonfmatcs 
him  as  simply  "  Theodore."  The  very  name,  by  its  derivation  from 
the  Greek  church,  and  by  its  reference  to  God,  of  itself  prove.^  him 
to  have  been,  what  so  many  other  evidences  have  united  to  prove  him, 
a  Chri^tianf.  Such 

•  Usher,  292,.froni  the  Register  of  Landaff:  "  Glamorganiae  eo  tempore  rexerat  Teudrie 
"•sivt'nieodoricus,  de  quo  in  eodem  regesto  Icgimus:  '  Rex  Teudrie — recniim  suum  com- 
••'  mcmlavit  filiosuo  Mourico,  et  vitani  creniitaleni  in  rupibus  Diri'lyrn  coepit  ducert.  Qui 
'•  ciinj  csset  in  vita  illii,  ccepcrunt  Saxones  tcrram  suaui  invaderc —  De  quo  Teudrie  dice- 
"bant,  eum  rcgnum  suum  teneret,  quod  nuiiquam  victus  ab  hostibus  fuerat,  sed  semper 
"  victor — '.•■'  And,  as  Godwin  ainlinues  the  narrative,  "  '  hune — invitum  sui  ab  eremo 
"abduxerunt,  qui  'I'internas,  juxta  Vagam  ftuvium,  occurreuteui  hostcni  magno  prxlio  fudit. 
'*  Se<i  accepto  in  capite  vulncre  (quod  euni  non  latuit)  niorlif'cro,  reditum  uiaturavit  ut  inter 
"  suos  expirarel',"  yet,  "  '  ad  confluentes  Vagas  et  Sabrinje  spiritum  emisit,  Qiiare  eo  ipso 
"-in  loco — ccclesiola.  excitata,  cadaver,  loculo  indituni  estsaxeo;  quern  nupcr,  seu  ca?ucon- 
"  fractum  seu  vetustatc  fatisccntem,  dinii  reflei  curarcm,  ossa  reper'i,  post  mille  arinos  ve 
"  mhiimnm  quldem  consitmpta,  I'ltliwris  iynmanis  taiujuam  recent er  facti  in  a'anio  remanente 
"vestigio. — ^Loeo  a  posteris  nonicn  antiquitus  impositum,  Merthir-Tewdrick,  quasi  dicas 
"  Martyriuni  Thcodorici,  qaeni,  <]u6d  in  hello  ceciderit  contra  Christiani  nominis  hosfcs 
"  gesto,  pro  martyre  ducendtim  arbitrati  sunt,  Postea  vero  coniraetius  Merlklrn  .ippellarL 
*'  ctepit,  et  deinde  (sicut  hodie)  Mathaii." 

t  In  Cortiwdl,  we  have  a  local  appellation,  exactly  similar  to  that  in  Wales,  and  indi- 
cating some  incident  of  a  similar  nature,  iV/c77/tpr,  a  chapelry  at  one  angle  ot  ihe  very 
large  parish  of  Probus,  in  its  '«  name — refers  to  the — guardian  saint  of  the  church,  who, 
"  it  seems,  was  murdered  and  slaync  for  tlie.  Christian  religion  as  a  martyr,  viz,  one  Saint 

"  Cohan^ 


SECT.  Vll.]  HISTORICALLY    SrRVEVF.D.  333 

Such  a  man,  and  such  a  kuig,  could  not  have  slain  either  "  a  part"  of 
St,  Breaca's  company,  as  her  biographer  witnesses  him  to  have  done,  or 
the  tc/io/e  of  St.  Gwinear's,  as  Anselni  in  his  new  work  of  •superfbctation 

"  Cohan,  a  BrUaine  of  this  parish — ;  whose  little  well  and  consecrated  chappcll  annexed 
"  tlicrcto,  was  latelij  extant  upon  the  landes  of  Egles  Merlher  barton, — though  now  in  a. 
"  manner  demolished  by  greedy  searchers  for  money.    I  take  this  martyr  to  have  been  slayne 
*^  by  the  Saxons,  upon  fore-thought  malice."     In  a  record  of  '•'  1480,"  the  saint  is  expressly 
styled  "  St.  Cohan,  martyr  of  Merlher."    (Ilals's  MS.)     This  unknown  saint  appears  from 
his  well,  to  have  lived  as  a  hermit  at  the  place ;  and  from  the  tradition,  to  have  been  slain  at 
his  hermitage,  nolr  indeed,  by  the  pagan  Saxons  in  some  very  early  invasion  of  Cornwall,  as 
no  such  invasion  appears  either  certainly  or  probably  to  have  been  made,  but  in  some  personal 
pique  by  that  private  Saxon,  assuredly,  who  at  Athelstan's  conquest  of  Cornwall,   settled   in 
the  house  so  singularly  denominated  Trc-Saiise?!,  or  the  Saxon's  house,  and  King  about  a  mile 
to  the  south  of  the  well.    From  his  murder  and  his  character,  as  a  hermit  and  a  saint,  he  was 
honoured  for  a  martyr  by  the  neighbouring  Christians,  just  as  we  have  seen  Edward,  Sid- 
well,  Melor,  and  JMelian,  honoured   before.     His  hermitage  afterwards,  as  we  have  equally 
seen   practised  at    St.  Mawes,  became  a  "  consecrated  chapell,"   and   was   therefore  "  ait^ 
"  nexed"  to  the  well.     The  well  was  thus  formed  like  one  equally  noticed  by  ilals  ia  the 
adjoining  parish  of  Kenwyn  :     "  St.  Clare's  consecrated  and  walled  well,  chapelunse-lidlt." 
And,  as  "  tempore  James  2d,  some  of  the  inhabitants"  of  Kenwyn  "  pulled  down  the  walls, 
"  and  totally  defaced  the  chapel- luell,  in  quest"   of  money  concealed  there;  "  and  proballij 
"  succeeded;"  so,  from  that  e.xamplc  and  this  success,  the  chapel  and  well  at  Merlher  were 
"  lately — in  a  manner  demolished  by  greedy  searchers  for  -moneij,"     The  record  of  1480, 
to  which  Hals  refers  us  above^  is  one  of  1484  ;  the  composition  made  between  the  vicar  of. 
Probus  and  the  inhabitants  of  Merlher,  concerning  the  chapel  at  Merther  ;  and   in.  this  the 
chajH-l  is  denominated  "  Capella  Sancll    Coani,  martyris,de  Merlher."     This  chapel  is  also 
spoken  of  there,    as   "  Jnstauri    capellne    S"  Coani,"  and    "  capella;   sive  instauri ;"  our 
English  words,  "  in  store,"  being  first  rendered   into  Latin  as  in  Worcestre,  88  :   "  habuit 
"in  staurot\v  auro  Francias  in  cista — circa  septem  millia  marcanim;"  or,  as  in  Wharton's 
Anglia  Sacra,  i.  771,  "  instaurum,  quod  habuit  in  ^^'erdall — tunc  (ut  reilimalum  fuit)  bene 
"  valebat  400  marcasct  ampliusj"  being  then  used  as  in  Wharton's  Anglia   Sacra,  i.  483, 
"  omne   illorum    instaurum    abstulerunt,"    in   i.  756,  "  tolum  insiaurum ;"' and   in    Wil- 
kins's  Concilia,  ii.  140,  "  de  eccksiaruin  instanro  ipsius  custodes — quolibet  anno  compolum 
"  fideliter  reddant, — nee  ipsum  instaurum  in  alios  usus  nisi  ecclesice  ullatcnus  converl.itur," 
for  the  contingent  benefactions  made  to  the  "  truncus,"  or  trunk,  which  the  clcrsyman 
of  the   church  alone  is  here  permitted  to    set  up  for  receiving   benefaclions  ;  and  thence 
coming  from  the   treasury   of  a  church,  to  signify  (as  in  this  recordj  a  church  iistlf.     Yet 
neither    the   Benedictine   (the  second)  edition  of  Du  Frcsnev's   Glossary,  nor  Carpcniicr's 
Supplement  to  it,  notice  this  last  signification  of  the  word.     Our  record  alone  docs  this. 

npon. 


334  THE    CATHEDR\L    OF    CORNWALL  [cir.VP.    IV, 

upon  the  original  Story  describes  him  doing;  "for  fear  lest  they  should 
*'  turn  his  subjects  from  their  ancient  religion."  They  and  he  were 
already  turned,  and  had  all  equally  renounced  the  stupid  sottishness  of 
druidism  lor  the  illuminated  good  sense  of  the  Gospel;  the  blackness  of 
midnight  darkness  just  rendered  more  visible  by  the  twinkling  of  two 
or  three  stars  of  heaven,  for  the  bright  effulgence  of  the  Gospel-sun. 
He  actually  slew  "  a  part,"  however,  of  Breaca's  company,  a  sniall  part, 
a  part  so  vcnj  small  indeed,  that  we  hardly  can  even  conjccfure  of  whoni 
in  particular  it  consisted.  But  he  hurt  not  the  large  remainder ;  he 
touched  not  a  hair  ot  their  heads,  and  seized  not  a  thread  of  f heir  gar- 
ments. He  even  assaulted  the  other  or  others,  from  some  misconcep- 
tion of  their  quality,  from  some  misapprehension  of  their  design,  and 
from  some  suspicion  that  they  were  pirates,  landing  under  the  w  alls  of 
his  castle  by  night,  in  order  to  surprise  it.  He  instantly  discovered  his 
mistake,  probably,  but  not  before  he  had  killed  one  or  two  of  their 
party,  sent,  pcrha]>s,  as  messengers  to  the  palace,  in  order  to  explain  the 
cause  of  their  coming;  there  nm  through  tlie  body  by  the  sentinels,  in 
the  lirst  and  hasty  tunudt  of  alarm;  yet  having  breath  enough  left  them 
bcfoie  they  died,  to  say  who  thei/  were,  and  \^■ho  she  was. 

Theodore  would  then  receive  them  with  the  hospitality  and  the 
respect  that  was  due  to  the  sex  of  some,  to  the  rank  of  several,  and  to 
the  religion. of  all.  AVe  accordingly  find  in  this  very  life  of  St.  Brcaca, 
that  he  gave  them  their  full  liberty  of  acting;  that  he  permitted  them 
to  travel  over  his  country  as  they  pleased;  that  he  allowed  them  to 
settle  as  they  liked  in  any  part  of  it:  to  build  hermitages,  or  to  erect 
churches,  agreeably  to  their  fancies.  This  part  of  his  conduct  forms  a 
full  and  pregnant  evidence  singly  as  it  stands  in  the  Life,  detached  from 
all  other  testimonies;  of  his  own  Christianity,  of  the  Christianity  of  his 
subjects,  and  of  the  public  profession  of  Christianity  by  both  before. 
But  Dr.  Borlase,  with  more  policy  than  probit}-,  has  suppressed  the 
narrations  which  prove  this;  and  for  the  same  reason,  I  fear,  has  sup- 
pressed all  reference  to  the  narrator,  even  for  the  facts  which  he  himself 
recites  from  him.  Let  me,  however,  produce  w  hat  he  has  thus  con- 
cealed. 

"  Breaca," 


8ECT.  VII.]  IirSTORICALLV   SURVEYED.  335 

'*  Breaca,"  adds  the  biographer,  as  cited  im mediately  afterwards  by 
Leland,  "  came  to  Pcncuir,"  a  bill,  as  Leland  notes,  in  the  parish  of 
Pcmbro  ;  "  and  came  to  Trenewith,"  a  httle  from  the  parish-church  of 
Pembro,  as  Leland  c(]ually  notes,  where  the  parish-church  stood  before  it 
was  removed  to  Pembro  *.  Ereaca  thus  moved  unmolested  across  the 
breadth  of  the  kingdom,  and  went  from  the  northern  to  the  southern  sea 
of  it.  She  moved  also,  accompanied  by  the  Irish  king  ;  as  Leland  speaks 
of  "  S.  Germocus,  a  chirch  3  miles  from  S.  Michael's  Mont  bv  est  south 
"  est,  and  a  mile  from  the  se  ;  his  tumh  is  yet  scene  the/:  S.  Germok  /her 
"  buried.  S.  Germoke's  chair  in  the  chirch-yard.  S.  Germokc's  ^cel/e  a 
"  litle  without  the  chirch-yard  f."  The  well  and  the  tomb  are  now  lost, 
overlooked  and  forgotten  in  the  frigid  philosophy  of  Protestantism  to- 
W':ards  »ll  relics  of  ancient  saints,  and  in  the  idiot  contemplation  of  Ger- 
mochus  as  an  ancient  Papist.  Yet  what  is  called  his  chair  remains  in  per- 
fect preservation,  a  covered  seat  of  moorstone  at  the  north-eastern  corner 
of  the  chapel-yard,  turning  its  face  toward  the  south-west,  having  its 
front  supported  by  three  stone  pillars,  which  form  two  elliptical  arches 
of  six  feet  in  height  for  the  entrance,  presenting  a  bench  within  more 
than  six  feet  long,  but  divided  into  three  compartments,  for  the  king  (as 
tradition  says)  and  his  two  assessors,  yet  shewing  two  smaller  pillars,  one 
upon  each  side  of  the  king's  seat.  These  unite  with  the  end-\\alls  of  the 
whole,  to  compose  three  elliptical  arches ;  at  the  centre  of  the  middle 
arch  is  a  man's  head  cut  in  moorstone  with  a  coronet  upon  it;  in  the 
front  also,  at  the  very  summit  of  the  building,  is  another  head,  smaller  in 
size,  but  equally  wearing  a  coronet  X-  This  therefore  is  apparently  not 
that  original  chair  of  rock,  which  we  should  have  viewed  m  ith  more 
veneration  in  its  rude  and  rustic  simplicity  of  style,  than  we  can  view 
this  pompous  and  magnificent  seat.     That  however,  in  an  equal  piety  of 

•  Leland's  Itin.  iii.   15:  "'Breaca  vciiit  ad  Pcncair.     Breaca  venlt  ad   Tienewiih'." 

Ibid.  i6:  "Pcncair,  an  hllle  in  Pembro   paroch,  vulgo  S [Bieag's].— Trenewith, 

"  a  little  from  the  paroch  [church]  of  Pembro,  wher  the  paroch  chirch  [was]  or  ever  it  was 
"  set  at  Pembro." 

t  Leland's  Itin.  iii.  i6. 

J  From  ihc  inforroiition  of  the. thinking  and  judicious  rector  of  the  parish,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Marshall. 

spirit : 


330  TlIF,    CATIIF.DRAL    OT    CORNWALL  [CH  \1'.  IV. 

spirit  and  poverty  of  taste,  lias  been  put  tor  i/iis  ;  and  by  a  family  ot  ISIil- 
bton,  which  is  said  with  truth  to  have  hvcd  at  Pcngersick  about  halt  a 
mile  from  the  chapel,  but  is  also  reported  w  ith  falsehood  to  have  built 
this  chair  for  the  convenience  of  resting  themselves  when  they  came  to 
the  chapel.  They  built  it  undoubtedly  in  honour  of  Germochu.s,  and 
s'nice  the  days  of  Leland  ;  /lis  chair  of  Gcrmochus  being  '•  in  the  church- 
"  yard,"  and  theirs  out  of  it;  his  having  been  destroyed  by  those  who 
destroyed  the  chair  of  St.  Mawe,  the  fanatical  part  of  the  Protestants  in 
the  reigns  of  r-dward  and  Elizabeth,  anil  f/wirs  supplying  its  place  §.  So 
.nnioha  friend  to  Christianity  was  that  king  of  Cornv\all,  Mho  thus  per- 
mitted his  brother-king  of  Ireland  to  settle  in  peace  and  solitude  under 
liis  protection!  But  "  Breaca,"  adds  another  biographer,  the  ^^ riter  of 
-the  life  of  one  of  her  companions,  St.  Elwin,  as  he  is  also  cited  by  Le- 
Jand,  "  ERECTKD  A  CHURCH  iu  Trenevvith,"  a  place  (as  Leland  has  al- 
ready told  us)  in  the  parish  of  Pcmbro,  "  and  Talmeneth,"  a  place  (as  he 
,now  tells  us)  in  the  same  parish  Ij.  This  therefore  is  our  present  parish 
:of  Brciig,  the  secular  name  of  which  thus  appears  to  be  Pcmbro,  as  that  of 
Vervan  is  Elerkie.  The  highest  hill  in  this  parish  is  denominated  Tre- 
gonin  Hill  at  present,  from  the  principal  house  and  estate  upon  it,  once  a 
place  of  very  considerable  importance,  as  having  a  large  building  and  a 
chapel  at  it.  On  a  part  of  this  estate  is  a  tenement  called  Castle  Pencayre, 
running  up  to  the  summit  of  the  hill,  .and  there  bordering  upon  a  circular 
kind  of  fort  at  another  part  of  Tregonin,  extending  above  a  hundred 
yards  in  diameter,  fenced  (as  appeared  lately  in  digging)  by  two  walls  of 
masonrv,  with  a  ditch  between  Ihem  wide  enough  for  three  men  to  stand 
.abreast  in  it,  but  now  defaced  by  persons  on  the  quest  for  tin,  and  for 
treasure  supposed  fo  be  huricd  there.  This  therefore  is  plainly  the  very 
"Cair  Kenin,  dXnxs  Goiiyn  and  Conin,''  or  "  the  Castle  of  Conan,"  in  Le- 
land, Mhich   "  stoode  in  the  hille  of  Pejicair;    there  yet  apperith  2 

§  Leland's  Itin.  iii.  14:  "  Milatan  dweHith  at  Pergroiiiswik,"  in  p.  16,  called  "  Gar- 
"  sikc,  alias  Pengarsike."     This  family  ended  in  heiresses  under  Elizabelh.   (Carew,  152.) 

U  Ibid,  15,  16:  "'Brcica  redillcavit  eccl.  in  Trencwitli  ct  Talmenelb,'  ut  legitiir  in 
■*'  VitaS.  Klv.iai, — ^Talmeneth,  a  mansion-place  in  IVnibro." 

"  diches." 


SECT.  VII.]  HISTORICALLY    SmVEYED.  337 

"  dichcs^f."     The  castle  was  afterwards,  in  a  less  perturbed  state  of  the 
Cornish  kingdom,  changed  into  a  house,  and  removed  lower  down  to 
Tre-gonin  ;  this  retaining  still  the  appellation  of  reference  to  Conan,  but 
carrying  not  the  same  appearance  of  hostility  with  it.     Much  lower  than 
renrajTC,  and  about  two  miles  from  it,  Ls  Tre-7ieinth,  or  the  New  House; 
an  accompaniment  to  the  church  when  it  was  set  originally  here,  and  a 
site  peculiarly  pleasant  for  both.     Between  Tregonin  and  Trcnewith, 
nearer  to  the  former  than  the  latter,  being  from  the  latter  a  mile  at  least, 
is  the  estate  and  village  of  Talincneth,    now  denominated  Tolmcnor, 
standing  high  on  the  side  of  Tregonin  Hill,  and  preserving  the  origiiial 
name  of  the  lull,  the  name  which  it  bore  before  Conan  built  his  castle, 
Tal  (C.  andW.)  high,  Mynydd  (W.  and  C.)  a  mountain.     This  is  evi- 
dently the  Penibro  of  Leland,  to  which  the  church  was  removed  from 
Trenewith  ;  Pen  Bre  (C.  and  W.)  signifying  the  mountain-height,  and  so 
answering  to  Tal  Mynydd,     The  name  of  Pembro,  indeed,  is  now  lost, 
from  that  principle  of  inattention  to  the  Cornish  language,  which  has 
pei-vaded  the  whole  mass  of  the  Cornish  people  at  present,  and  vitiated 
Talmeneth  into  Tolmenor.     Yet  we  now  understand  from  all,  w  hat  is 
really  meant  by  the  strange  expression  of  Breaca's  building  a  church  "  in 
"  Trenewith  and  Talmeneth ;"   it  meaning  merely,  that  Breaca  "  built 
"  the  church  o/"Trenevvith  w^  Talmeneth  *,"  a  site  so  anciently  selected 
for  it  upon  its  removal,  that  tradition  is  totally  silent  concerning  its  prior 
position,  and  that  even  inquisitiveness,  for  \\ant  of  Ivcland's  intelligence, 
falsely  believes  its  site  to  have  been  always  the  same  f .     Breaca  thus  ap- 
pears to  have  found  A  CHURCH  ALREADY  ERECTED,  and  TO  HAVE  ERECTED 

ANOTHER  BY  TRANSFERRING  THAT.  She  rebuilt  tlic  old  cliurch  of  the 
parish  upon  a  new  site,  at  her  own  expense  ;  as  she  ap[)ears  from  the  pre- 
sence of  an  Irish  king  in  her  company,  to  have  been  a  \^oman  of  con- 
siderable fortune.  She  thus  settled  near  the  beginning  of  the  famous 
indent  into  the  southern  shore,  so  deeply  scooped  out  (as  appears  from 

f  Lcland's  Itin.  iii.  i6 :  "  Castrun  Conani"  on  the  inargiu.  "  Sum  say  that  Conan  had 
"  a  sun  caiillid  Tristramc." 

•  Il)id.  15  :   "  'Breaca  xdificavit  cccl.  in  Trenewith  r/  [ad]  Talmeneth'." 

t  For  llie  local  circumstances  here,  I  am  indebtetl  to  the  Hev.  Mr.  Marshall,  late  rector  of 
the  parish,  equally  friendly  and  judicious. 

VOL.  I.  XX  (raditipn, 


338  TllK    CATHEDRAL    OV    COR.NWAI.I,  [cIIAP,   IV. 

tratlition*,  from  reniains-f,  and  particularly  from  the  insulated  .slate  of 
that  "  Rock  in  a  Wood,"  which  has  given  it  the  name  of  Mount's  Bay) 
bv  the  working  billows  of  the  sea  alone  ;  so  famous  therefore  for  wrecks, 
from  ships  being  drawn  by  the  inlbix  of  the  tide  into  it ;  and  so  infa- 
mous also  for  the  conduct  of  its  inhabitants  towards  the  wrecked.  This 
conduct  probably  attracted  Breaca  to  the  parish,  to  reform  what  is  so 
hostile  to  every  principle  of  Christianity,  so  brutal  to  the  owners  of  ships 
or  wares  in  danger  of  being  lost,  so  barbarous  to  the  men,  women,  or 
children,  in  the  very  act  of  perishing  ;  and  what  still  remains  a  strong 
brand  upon  the  fronts  of  the  parisliioners,  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  other 
Cornish  at  present.  With  her  settled  Germochus  the  king,  even  at 
Gerino  a  little  on  the  west,  but  in  her  parish  of  Breag.  Crewenne  set- 
tled at  Crowan  near  both,  a  church  still  dedicated  to  St.  Crewenne,  and  a 
little  on  the  north.  But  others  of  them  seem  to  have  separated  to  a  dis- 
tance from  all,  Sikninus  to  St.  Sennan,  in  the  parish  of  Burien;  Helen 
to  Helland  in  the  east,  a  parish  near  Bodmin,  originally  denominated  from 
and  still  dedicated  to  her ;  Maruaist,  not  to  Morwinstow  on  the  north  of 
Stratton,  as  the  name  may  lead  us  to  suppose,  till  we  find  this  parish  is 
denominated  from  a  female  saint,  Morvenria,  but  to  Lan  Moran,  popularly 
Lamoiran,  in  the  two  Valors  Lamoren,  the  parish  and  church  of  St.  Mo- 
fen  +;  and  Er,wix  to  St.  Allen,  or  (as  called  in  the  early  Valor)  St.  Alun, 
dedicated  to  St.  Alleyn.  So  widely  did  these  Irish  saints  spread  thcm- 
i<*lves  over  the  country  \  So  evidently  was  the  king  of  Cornwall  then,  so. 
evidently  were  his  subjects  too,  all  professors  of  Christianity  !  And  so 
clearlv  does  that  narration  of  facts,  w  hich  has  been  produced  by  Dr.  Bor- 
lase  to  prove  the  continuing  druidisin  of  Cornwall  in  4Co,  prove  directly 

*  Camden,  136:   "  Sinus  kmatiis  admittltur,  Mountsbay  vocant,  iii  quo- oceanum,   avitio 
*'  mcatu  irvucnteii),  terras  dzmersisse fama  oltlnct." 

t  Lclaiid's  Ilin.  iii.  18  :'  "  Ttiere  bath  bene  much  land  devourid  of  the  sea,  betwixt  Pen— 
'•  sandcs  and  Mousehole.     Ther  is  an  old  legend"  or  church. lesson  for  the  feast  "ofS.. 
•'  Michael,  [which  speakelh  ofj  a  tounlet  in  this  part  now  defaced,  and  lying  under  the 
"  water."     Itin.  vii.  118  :   "  In  the  bay  letwyxl  the  Mont  andPensants,  be  fownd  neere  the 
*'■  lowe  water  marke  rootes  (f  trees  yn  dyvers  places,  as  a  token  of  the  ground  wasted." 

Lan 

I   Leland's  Itln.  iii.  28  •  "  Caullid  La  Moran  crekc  of  the  chirch  of  S.  Moran." 

the 


SP.CT.   Vin.]  HISTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  339 

the  re\  ersc,  when  it  is  detailed  in  all  its  amplitude  of  incidents,  when  the 
whole  is  allowed  to  he  greater  than  a  part ;  and  evince  the  predominance 
of  Christianity  over  druidism,  from  the  one  end  of  Cornwall  to  the 
other  * . 


SECTION  VIII. 


L\  this  manner  did  druidism  expire  through  all  Cornwall  and  through 
all  Britain !  Yet  it  has  left  some  faint  traces  of  its  long  existence  among  us, 
in  our  retention  of  customs  not  wholly  divested  of  their  idolatry,  and  in 
our  continuation  of  <:xpressions  half-idolatrous  at  present.     Even  a  fond- 

•  As  to  ihe  part  of  Breaca's  company,  tliat  was  unwarily  slain  by  Theodore  ;  because  they 
arc  not  specified  in  the  Life  of  Brcaca,  wc  can  barely  conjecture  who  they  were.  They  were, 
I  conjecture  therefore,  two  saints  thus  named  by  W'lliam  of  Worcester.  "  Sanxtus  Justus 
"  MARTIR,"  he  says,  "  jacet  in  piToch'il  Sancti  Yoeit ;  distat  a  Pensans  versus  occidenlcm 
"  per  5  miliaria,  super  littusoccidentaiissimae  partis  Angiiai."  (1*.  126.)  "  Sanctus  Morta- 
"  nus[MoTRANUs]  MARTIR,"  he  adds,  "  est  in  parocliia  Saiicti  Mortani  IMotraiii]  ;  dis- 
"  tat  ultra  villam  Pensans  per  4  miliaria,  super  littus  maris."  (P.  126.)  Tiiese  are  ranked  as 
martyrs,  we  sec,  in  the  Sayiciologies  of  Connvaii ;  yet  have  no  history  appendant  to  their 
names.  These  stand  recorded  as  martyrs,  but  were  made  martyrs  we  know  not  when  or 
why.  We  may  therefore  refer  them  with  full  propriety  to  this  ruling  incident  in  the  history 
of  our  Cornish  saints,  in  which  we  know  some  to  have  been  slain,  and  are  sure  the  slain 
would  be  considered  as  martyrs.  Wc  thus  find  martyrs  wilhuiit  names  in  one  part  of  our 
narration,  then  find  martyrs  with  names,  but  luithont  any  narration  ainiexed,  and  finally  fill 
up  the  chasm  in  that  by  an  insertion  from  this;  taking  the  names  of  the  one,  attaching  the 
narration  of  the  other,  so  making  two  incomplete  notices  unite  into  one  complete.  In  re- 
verence to  their  remains  as  martyrs,  the  body  of  St.  Motran  seems  to  have  luen  begged  by  a 
parish  a  little  distant  to  the  south-west,  to  have  been  buried  in  its  cliurch,  and  therefore  to  have 
lent  it  his  name,  now  varied  a  little  into  "  ecclesia  Sancti  Madenti"  in  the  firs!  Valor,  but 
into  *'  Madern,  alias  St.  Madern,"  in  the  second.  In  the  same  manner  the  relics  of  St. 
Just,  his  brother  in  martyrdom,  were  carried  to  the  parish-cluuch  directly  beyond  ilial  10  ihe 
west,  and  gave  it  his  own  appellation  ;  which  is  popularly  pronounced  at  this  day  in  Corn- 
wall, not  St.  Yoc!,l,  as  William  represents  it  above,  but  St.  Yst,  or  rather  St.  Est^  a  Ronian 
name  adupted  byiiini  at  baptism  in  superfCtlcnec  of  his  Iri>h  name  before.  I  thus  account 
for  two  saints  that  are  well  known  by  the  denominations  of  their  |)arislus  in  Cornwall,  and 
one  of  them  even  as  the  denominator  of  two  parishes;  but  the  history  of  boih  wliom  ha» 
been  biihertn  hid  in  ilie  darkness  i>f  midnight. 

X  X   'J  ncss 


340  THE    CATflJ-.DRAL    OF    CORNWALL  [OHAP.  IV. 

ness  for  druitlism  at  large  has  lately  prevailed  amoii<i;  us,  in  an  exlraordi- 
nary  degree;  the  reading  part  ot'  the  nation  taking  their  tone  ot"  think- 
ing or  talking  tVoin  our  writers,  and  these,  like  our  delineators  of  natural 
religion,  tricking  out  their 

Idol  of  Majesty  Divine 

in  all  the  borrowed  decorations  of  Christianity  itself.  Men,  who  were 
impressed  Avith  a  masculine  reverence  for  Christianity  as  the  sun  of  the 
soul  in  ilhimination  ;  men,  who  felt  a  dignified  fondness  for  Christianity 
as  the  life  of  the  soul  in  exhilaration,  have  recently  seemed  to  fall  in  love 
with  druidisni  by  looking  long  upon  its  face  ;  and  have  thus  described  a 
mere  heathenism,  that  participated  in  all  the  idolatries  of  heathenism, 
that  \^  as  even  deformed  with  some  scars  of  idolatry  peculiar  to  itself,  to 
be  what  was  essentially  opposite  and  avowedly  opposed  to  it,  a  kind  of 
patriarchal  religion,  a  sort  of  anticipated  Christianity.  Under  tliis  wild  ec- 
centricity of  learning  itself.  Dr.  Stukeley  is  well  known  in  a  sermon  over  a 
deceased  clergyman,  to  have  ventured  with  the  approbation  of  many,  of 
even  myself  also,  then  very  young,  upon  denominating  the  divine  a 
dritich  ISIr.  Collins  the  poet  has  even  presumed  to  fix  the  title  of  a.  (I)y/id 
upon  the  head  of  his  brother-poet  Thomson  ;  the  name  of  druid  fasten- 
ing strong  upon  the  fanc}-^  of  a  poet,  and  his  untutored  intellect  confound- 
ing a  druid  with  a  bard.  Then  came  Dr.  Borlase,  a  Christian  firm  in 
faith  and  steady  in  practice,  yet  rising  into  the  temerity  of  telling  us,  that 
"  in  the  remote  corners  of  the  island  druidism  had  taken  deep  root,  and  it 
"  would  not  give  way  to  weak  efforts"  from  Christianity  itself.  And 
^Ir.  Macpherson,  a  man  of  brighter  genius  than  Dr.  Borlase,  more  bold 
in  his  spirit,  more  irreligious  in  his  affections,  took  a  larger  scope  in  his 
vindication  of  British  heathenism,  by  denying  the  Britons  to  have  been, 
idolaters  at  all  %.  In  this  state  of  the  national  mind,  had  the  insanity  of 
I'.'-ance  been  transplanted  into  the  soil  of  Britain,  we  should  have  had,  per- 
iiaps,  a  kind  of  modified  madness  among  ourselves;  and  instead  of  the 
horrors  of  annihilation  authoritatively  denounced  to  mankind,  or  the  very 
front  of  atheism  impudently  turned  up  in  defiance  against  Heaven,  wa 
should  have  liad  druidism,  witli  all  its  fooleries  of  grossest  idolatry,  and  all 

^  Hist,  of  Manchester,  octavo,  vol.  ii,  p,  91* 

its 


a-ECT.  Vlir.J  mSTORICALLY    SURVEYED.  341 

its  sangiunarincss  of  human  sacrifices,  established  in  our  isle  again.  But 
as  the  AA'iidfirc  of  passion  for  druidisin  had  not  such  a  scope  of  mischief 
given  it,  and  will  probably  be  extinguished  for  ever  by  these  animadver- 
sions upon  it,  we  can  with  more  calmness  contemplate  some  rehcs  of. 
druidism  among  us,  innoxious  of  themselves,  though  not  innocent  in 
their  nature,  directly  calculated  to  catch  the  eye  of  a  druidical  antiquaiy, 
yet  not  noticed  by  the  pen  of  any  hitlierto. 

The  fires  of  May-day  are  well  known  to  antiquaries,  as  the  Beal-tine 
of  Ireland  ;  being  large  fires  upon  the  hills  lighted  on  that  day  by  the 
druids,  and  giving  the  appellation  of  Btal-tiiie  to  tlie  day  itself  in  the 
Irish  language  at  present.  These  consisted  each  of  two  fires  together, 
and  all  the  cattle  of  the  counry,  being  driven  between  the  two,  thu;s 
"  passed  through  the  fire"  to  this  seemingly  mild  Moloch  of  Britain,. 
Belus  or  the  Sun ;  the  ceremony  being  considered  only  as  a  sort  of  re- 
ligious consecration  of  them  to  the  Sun,  and  an  useful  amulet  of  protec- 
tion for  them  from  all  contagious  disorders  through  the  year  *.  Yet 
heathenism  could  not  lose  its  dreadful  sanguinariness,  and  dniidism 
would  not  resign  its  human  sacrifices.  M'hatcver  antiquaries  have  dared 
to  announce  of  these  May-day  fires,  as  if  this  was  the  whole  of  ^\  hat  was 
done  in  honour  of  Belus  ;  yet  much  more  was  done,  1  find  upon  exami- 
nation, and  the  Belus  of  Britain  was  actually  the  very  Moloch  of  Canaan 
in  savageness.  Language  is  often  expressive,  where  history  is  silent ;  anil 
a  cloud  reflects  the  radiance  of  the  sun,  w  hen  its  orb  has  sunk  below  the 
horizon.  "  In  those  days,"  says  Mai'tin  concerning  the  days  of  druidism 
from  tradition  in  the  Western  Isles  of  Scotland,  yet  is  not  fully  sensible 
himself  of  the  import  of  his  own  information,  "malefactors  were  burnt 
"  between  twojires,"  those  very  fires  of  Belus,  concerning  which  he  ha,d. 
been  speaking  inunediately  before,  and  to  which  what  he  speaks  immedi- 
ately afterwards  is  of  course  referred  ;  "  hence,  when  they  ivuuld  e.ijiress 
"  a  man  to  be  in  a  great  strait,  ihvy  say  '  he  is  between  the  tirojircs  of 
'^  iJt'/'f ."     Persons  condenmed  to  death  as  oblations  to  Belus,  it  is  plain. 

•  Bishop  Obrien's  Irish  Dictionan-,  Paris,  1768,  quartoi,  under  Beal-tinc, 
Y  I'.  105,  edit.  ad. 

2  from. 


3-12  THE    CATITEDRVL   OF    CORXWALL  [cilAP.   l\\ 

from  ihc  proverbial  natufc  of  this  language,  wevefrcguefifli/  tied  to  a 
stake  in  the  narrow  interval  between. each  lire,  and  there  roasted  to  death 
by  the  operation  of  each;  a  sacrifice  pecuharly  horrible  to  our  minds,  and 
an  everlasting  disgrace  u])on  the  memory  of  druidism  !  So  apparently 
does  this  slight  intimation  shew  us  the  driiidical  Belus,  v\orshipped 
nearly,  and,  perhaps,  wholly,  as  Nvas 

Moloch,  horrid  king,  besmear'd  with  blooti 

Of  human  sacrifice,  and  parents'  tears. 

Though  for  the  noise  of  drums  and  timbrels  loud 

Their  children's  cries  unheard,  that  pass'd  through  fire 

To  his  grim  idol. 

Yet,  to  slicw  how  tenderly  the  spirits  of  authors  feel  at  present  for  the 
honour  of  heathenism,  let  us  obseiTc  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Newton  himself, 
the  grave,  the  learned,  the  theological  author,  in  his  annotations  upon  this 
text  of  Milton  ;  as  he  first  notes  Moloch  to  be  called  horrid,  "  because  of 
"  the  human  sacrifices,  which  zvere  made  to  him,''  who  is  supposed  by 
some  (he  says)  "  to  be  the  same  as  Saturn,  to  whom  the  heathens  sacri- 
"  feed  their  children,  and  by  others  to  be  the  sun,"  to  whom  we  see  the 
druids  here  oiicring  human  sacrifices.  "  Not  that,"  he  adds  in  contra- 
diction equally  to  Milton  and  to  himself,  "  they  always  actually  burnt 
"  their  children  in  honour  of  this  idol  ;  but  sometimes  made  them  only 
"  leap  over  the  flames,  or  pass  nimbly  hchcccn  two  jircs"  as  the  druids 
made  the  cattle  pass.  Yet  ^Moloch,  he  instantly  subjoins,  was  an  idol, 
'*  liaving — his  arms  extended,  to  receive  the  miserable  victims  w  hich  were 
"  to  l)€  consumed  in  the  flames.'"  A  valley  near  Jerusalem,  he  says  also, 
"  was  called — Tophet  from  the  Hebrew  To[)h  a  drum,  drums  and  such- 
"  like  noisy  instruments  being  used  to  drown  the  cries  of  the  miserable 
"  children,  who  were  offl-red  to  this  idol."  And  "  Gehenna — is  in  several 
"  places  of  the  New  Testament,  and  by  our  Saviour  himself,  made  the 
"  name  and  type  of  IIcll, /)j/  reason  ofthejire  that  teas  kept  up  there  to 
"  Moloch,  and  o^  the  horrid  groans  and  outcries  of  human  sacrijiccs."  So 
plainly  is  Dr.  Newton's  tenderness  repelled,  by  the  very  facts  which  he 
produces  together  with  it !  Yea,  so  plainly  was  the  Belus  of  Britain  the 
very  Moloch  of  Canaan,  by  not  having  "  malefactors"  merely,  but  chil- 
dren 


SECT.  Vni.]  HISTOniCALLY    SURVEYED.  3-13 

drcn  devoted  as  malefactors,  sacrificed  to  him  !  So  plainly''  too  did  the 
Britons  "  sacrifice  their  sons  and  their  daughters  unto  devils,  and  shed  m~ 
"  nocent  hluod,  even  the  blood  oj  their  sons  and  of  their  daughters,  whom 
"  they  sacrijiccd  unto  tlie  idols  of  Canaan;  and  the  land  was  polluted 
"  with  blood  r' 

There  was,  indeed,  anotlicr  kind  of  worship  paid  to  this  devil,  infinitely 
more  harmless  in  itself.  This  was  not,  we  maybe  sure,  "  from  the  cus- 
"  torn  practised  by  the  druids  in  the  isles,"  as  Martin  avc.rs  it  was,  "of 
"  extinguishing  all  the  fires  in  the  parish  until  the  tythes  were  paid  ;  and 
"  upon  payment  of  them  the  f  res  were  liindled  in  each  family,  arfd  never 
"  till  then  ;};."  Such  a  rule  could  never  have  been  instituted  before  parishes 
were  formed  and  tythes  established  by  Christianity.  But  as  Keating  him- 
self expressly  remarks  concerning  ISIay-day,  "  all  the  inhabitants  of  Ire- 
"■  land  quenched  their  fires  on  that  day,  and  kindled  them  again  out  of 
"  some  part  of  the  fire"  of  Beal  §.  This  custom  was  afterwards  converted 
probably,  as  Martin's  intimation  suggests  to  us,  into  a  political  engine  for 
compelling  the  payment  of  tythes  before  May-day.  The  fires  were  con- 
tinued in  Ireland,  we  know,  for  ages  after  Christianity  was  professed; 
and  the  political  application  of  them  by  Christianity  seems  here  to  be  at- 
tested in  the  isles.  Such  were  the  relics  of  druidism,  as  remaining  mixed 
with- Christianity  in  the  isless  and  mixed  or  unmixed  in  Ireland  ! 

Nor  were  nor  are  all  rehcs  of  druidsm  confined,  either  to  Ireland  or 
to  the  isles.  Some  still  adhere  to  the  language  of  France,  and  some  still 
hang  upon  the  language  of  England  :  yet  tJiey  have  never  been  pointed 
Gilt,  in  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

There  is  a  petty  kind  of  oath  among  the  people  of  France,  which  the 
vulgar  speak  without  meaning,  and  the  gentry  hear  without  understand- 
ing, while  both  understand  it  to  mean  an  oath  of  atlirmation  or  an  excla- 
mation of  swearing.    Purblieu  and  SaoreUieu  are  two  terms  of  averment, 

XV.  105,  edit.  2il. 

§^  Bishop  Obrien's  Dictionary  \m6cxBcal-tine  itself. 

vejy 


344  TTIE    CATHRDEAL    OF    CORNWALL  [cHAP-  IV. 

very  coinmoii  in  the  rapid  surpluses  of  conversation  among  them,  refer- 
ring exprcsslr  to  something  sacred,  and  carrying  expressly  the  name  of  a 
sacred  person.  The  namC  and  the  reference  are  equally  of  and  to  this 
veiy  god  Bclus,  still  pronounced  Beul  in  Irish,  but  once  by  transposition 
pronounced  Bcleii  in  Gaulish,  I  believe,  and  since  contracted  into  Bleu  in 
the  celerity  of  conversation.  So  we  have  Bloir-mon  or  Bleu-mon  in 
Welsh,  and  Bleu-mon  or  B/cit'-mon  in  Cornisli,  for  a  Moor  or  an  Ethio- 
pian, as  (I  suppose)  a  Man  of  the  Sun  II .  This  B/eii  or  Bcleu  had  been 
considered  savred  as  a  god,  and  as  a  god  made  the  object  of  voivs  or 
■oaths,  among  the  druidical  heathens  of  Gaule  ;  even  for  that  reasov,  as 
religion  itself  cannot  soon  obliterate  the  still-recurring  usages  of  lan- 
guage, continued  sacred  and  an  object  through  all  succeeding  ages  to  the 
present. 

Just  so,  but  with  another  deity  of  druidical  heathenism,  we  English- 
men have  a  curse  aftiong  us,  that  liad  its  source  among  our  remotest  an- 
cestor, and  has  come  down  to  us  on  the  current  of  familiar  conversa- 
tion. "  Deuce  take  you,"  we  all  know  as  an  execration  merely  sportive 
in  itself,  yet  as  an  execration  too  frequent  on  our  tongues,  and  referring 
evidently  to  some  daemon  or  deity  now  forgotten.  Skinner  recognises 
the  execration  from  Junius,  then  refers  it  with  Junius  to  the  Saxon  Duej-, 
a  spectre,  a  phantom,  and  finally  interprets  this  mere  phantom  or  mere 
spectre,  with  a  most  hardy  violence,  into  "  the  Devil"  himself  But  the 
name,  says  Dr.  Johnson,  is  written  "  Dense  more  properly  than  Deuce, 
"*  Junius,  from  Dus'ius,  the  name  of  a  certain  species  of  evil  spirits  ;"  and 
signifies  "  the  Devil."  We  are  thus  referred  to  a  Saxon  word.  Dues, 
that  (as  Skinner  confesses)  occurs  only  in  Jiuiius,  and  to  another  word, 
or  the  same,  Dusius,  that  has  not  even  its  language  assigned  ;  for  the  ori- 
ginal signification  of  Deuce  as  a  spectre  or  as  a  spirit,  and  for  the  posterior 
as  the  Devil  himself  All  proves  no  satisfactory  etymon  to  have  been  yet 
discovered.    But  there  is  one,  I  think,  in  the  appellation  of  a  British 

II  Richards  notes  the  former,  though  Owen  omits  it;  and  Pryce  omits  the  latter,  though 
I.huyd  (233)  notes  it.  We  have  also  Mo«ac  (Welsh,  see  Lhuyd,  2i8j,  Mon  [Armonc), 
and  Man  (fc'.rse),  for  human  kind  in  general. 

deit//, 


SECT.  VIII.]  HTSTORICALLY    SnuVF.YI^D.  S-15 

di'ifij,  the  deity  of  a  whole  nation  of  Britons,  even  of  the  Brigantcs  of 
Yorkshire.  At  Gretland  near  Hah  fax  there,  "  on  the  smnmit  of  a  hill 
".  inaccessible  on  every  side  but  one,"  and  tl!«refore  the  site  of  a  cainf) 
assuredly,  "  was  dug  up  this  votive  altar"  of  the  Romans,  as  in  a  Rnmaii 
camp  assuredly,  *'  inscribed  (it  seems)  to  the  topical  god  of  the  Bri- 
"  gantes^f."  'I'he  material  words  of  the  inscription  are  these:  "  Dui  (>i. 

"  Brig,  et  Num.  ""^^(jg''  ^^  ^^^^  "  '^^''^  of  the  state  of  the  Brigantcs  and 
"  to  the  Divinities  of  the  two  Augusti,"  Antoninus  and  Geta  mentioned 
upon  another  side  as  then  consuls  *.  Here,  therefore,  we  have  the  very 
deity  before  us  that  was  adored  by  the  idolatrous  Britons  at  first,  that  in  a- 
strange  facility  of  faith  \n  as  adopted  afterwards  by  the  Romans  into  their 
grov^ing  family  of  deities,  and  has  been  transmitted  to  us  from  both  as  a 
deity,  to  whom  vows  \\ ere  made  as  altars  were  erected  by  both.  Yet 
what  is  the  import  of  this  appellation?  "Whether,"  says  Camden, 
"  that  Dlti  be  Gon  himself,  whom  the  British,"  more  properly  the 
Welsh,  "  now  call  Due,  or  whether  he  be  the  peculiar  local  genius  of 
"  the  Brigantcs,  let  the  learned  inquire  f ."  But  "  Mr.  Ward  thinks/' 
as  Horsley  informs  us,  that  "Diu,  the  name  of  this  British  deity,  is  a 
"  corruption  of  Aii^j,  which  (as  Hesjchius  says)  was  the  same  as  Z.'jj — ; 
*'  and  the  Britons  could  not  but  frequently  hear  the  name  of  this  deity 
"  from  the  Greeks,  who  came  hither  with  the  Romans,  as  we  find  by  the 
"  Greek  inscriptions  |."  Thus  too  much  learning  serves  only  like  too 
much  light,  to  dazzle  the  eye,  and  to  mislead  the  man.  This  very  god 
of  the  Brigantcs,  this  very  Jupiter  of  the  Greeks  or  Romans,  is  actually  a 
goi/dcss,  and  is  therefore  denominated  Duis,  In  the  two  only  dialects  of 
the  Celtic  which  have  preserved  the  appellative  for  this  deity,  we  have 
X)«?r  (^^^elsh),  Doc  (Armoric),  signifying  God,  Does  ov  Doues  {\vmo-> 

^  Camden,  563  :  "  Ad  Gretland,  in  cacumine  montis  in  qiicm  nulliis  nisi  uni  parte  ac- 
"  cessus,  effossa  fuit  haec  ara  votiva  deo  civitatis  Brigantum  topico,  ut  vidflur,  posita," 

*  See  it  in  Camden,  563  ;  and  in  Horsley,  plate  xxxiv. 

t  Camden,  563:  "  An  vero  Dui  iilud  sit  Deus,  queni  D.rw  iiuuo  vociJU  Urilanui,  au  p«- 
*'  culiaris  lirij^aiitiini  geuiut  tcujicus,  disquiraat  docliorci." 

X  Horsley,  313. 

VOL.  I.  Y  r  ric). 


340  THE    CATTIEDRAL    OF    CORXWaTL  [chaP.  iV. 

ric),  and  Durijics  or  Dtiii'ies  (Welsh),   signifying   (jO(UIe5..s.     Accord- 
ingly we  find  an  inscrij)t!on  equally  votive  as  the  |)reccding,  but  dis- 
covered close  to  the  Picts^Wall  in  (Jiunberlanil,  and  addresbed  expressly 
'•'  to  the   goddess  ni/mph   of  the  Brigantes,"    even  "  for  the  safety  of 
"  Plautilla  the  consort  of  the  emperor  Marcus  Aurclius  Severus  Anto- 
"  ninus — ,  and  all  his  divine  house,"  by  a  "  qussior  devoted  to  the  deity 
♦*  of  Augustus  §."     So  far  had  spread,  with  the  successes  of  the  Brigantes, 
the  worship  oi  their  goddess  ;  in  the  mean  propensity  of  mankind  to  ido- 
lize success,   that  worship  sallying  forth  from  the  wilds  of  the  West- 
riding,  and  from  the  cathedral  of  the  worship  perhaps  (as  the  name  sug- 
gests) at  Deirshoroiigh  near  ^^'akefield  ||,   to  the  vicinity  of  Lancashire, 
and  into  the  north  of  Cumberland.     We  even  find  another  proof  of  that 
propensity  and  this  worship,  in  an  inscription  discovered  at  Chester,  "  to 
•'  the  goddess   nymph  of   the  Brigantes  *."     We  find  even  a  third  in 
Scotland  ;  at  Middleby  in  Anandale  being  discovered  under   the  year 
1732,  within  the  ruins  of  a  Roman  temple  that  was  only  36  feet  by  12 
without  the  wall,  a  statue  of  a  goddess  exhibited  at  full  length  as  in  a 
jiiche,  wearing  on  her  bushy  but  curled  head  of  hair  a  helmet,  that  \\  as 
crested  with  leaves  of  olive  above,  and  encircled  with  a  mural  crown 
below ;  having  wings  to  her  shoulders,  a  belt  about  her  middle,  and  a 
shield  by  her  side,  a  spear  in  her  right  hand,  a  globe  in  her  left,  and  a  Gor- 
gon s  head  on  her  breast,   with  an  inscription  at  her  foot  which  at  onc6 
appropriates  all  as  "  sacred  to  Brigantia,  and  erected  byAmandus  thear- 
'*  ehitect  under  the  injunction  of  the  emperor  Julian -i'."     Thus  had  the 

Dlis 

§  Horsley,  269 :  "  Dcse  Nymphae  Brig,  quod  voverat  pro  salute  Plautillae  Co.  Invictae 
"  Dom.  nostri  Invictl  Imp.  M.  Aurelii  Sever!  Antoniiii  Pii  Fel.  Caes.  Aug.  totiusquc  clonius 
"  divinte  ejus  M.  Cocceius  Nigrinus  Q.  Aug.  N.  devotus  libens  susceptum  S.  Lasto  ii." 
See  also  Gibson's  Camden  at  the  end  for  Holland's  insertions. 

H  Camden,  565:  "  Dewslorongh  sub  colle  excelso  positum ;  an  nomen  habuerit  aDui 
•'  illo  quern  toodo  dixi  deo  topico  non  dixerim,  nomen  sane  non  abludit,  sonat  cnim  Dttis 
*'  Bur  gum." 

*  llorsley,  315:   "  Dcce  Nymphoe  Brig." 

t  Horsley,  plate  xxxiv.  Scotland,  one  added  with  two  others  after  the  narration  was 
printed,  and  with  them  therefore  not  described  by  it,  p.  207.     But  Mr.  Gough  in  his  Bri- 

A  tannia, 


SECT.  Virr.]  ITISTORICALLT    SUTlVF.YEtK  34;? 

Duis  of  the  Erigantes  in  Yorkshire,  from  tlie  conquests  of  tliosc  Bri- 
grintcs  over  Lancashire,  Cheshire,  Ciimherland,  and  Aiiandale,  all  at- 
tributed assuredly  to  the  influence  of //(;r  patrgnage,  hccome  "the  ""od- 
"  (less  nymph  of  the  Brigantes"  in  two  of  these  conquered  counties,  and 
at  last  "  the  goddess  Brigantia"  herself  in  one  of  them.  She  was  from 
those"  very  successes  worshipped,  with  peculiar  reverence,  by  the  very 
Romans  ;  having  a  vow  recorded  formally  upon  an  altar  to  her,  for  all 
the  imperial  family  at  one  time  ;  having  a  statue  erected  to  her  in  a  Ro- 
man temple,  by  the  express  order  of  an  emperor  at  another :  she  was 
actuallv  dressed  like  Pallas  herself,  but  like  a  Pallas  victorious  over  tlie 
world  ;  and  was  restored  therefore  by  an  emperor  with  peculiar  zeal,, 
when  he  wanted  to  make  his  subjects  as  vile  apostates  as  himself  from 
Christianity.  Yet  at  last  she  appears  to  be  only  the  Deuce,  that  (without 
knowing  who  or  what  or  whence  she  is)  we  bandy  about  in  our  coda  er- 
sation  at  present. 

So  completely  has  this  species  of  heathen  stupidity  w  hich  Ave  call 
druidism,  a  species  indeed  less  stupid  than  most  others,  as  retaining  that 
vind  element  of  all  possible  religiousness  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  \et 
so  sottish  as  to  debase  it  with  the  transmigratioji  of  souls,  and  so  sensu- 
alized as  to  institute  clubs  of  husbands  using  the  wives  of  all  in  common, 
been  swept  away  from  our  minds  or  memories  throughout  Cornwall  and 
throughout  England  ;  that  even  antiquaries  can  catch  a  glimpse  of 
it  only  in  those  cobwebs  of  history,  which  grow  gradually  hner  as 
they  are  left  to  be  extended,  and  at  last  assume  a  brilliancv  o\  co- 
lours from  their  length  of  continuance,  the  very  customs  of  our  an- 
cestors, or  the  very  suggestions  of  our  language!     So'happilv  did  the 

taiinia,  iii.  323,  has  described  it  from  Ptnnanl's  Appendix  lo  Tour,  Part  ii.  1772,  409  ;  and 
adds  thus,  "  it  is  pity  Mr.  P.  did  not  procure  a  correct  drawing  of  this  curious  figure.  "  Is 
Mr.  Cough's  then  tliis  or  another  ?  The  inscription  is  **  Brigantix  S.  Aniandus  Arcilcclus 
"  ex  imperio  Imp.  I." 

Sim 


S-ia  Till*.    CVTHEDRAL    OV    rORXAVALL    HISTORIC AI.I.T    SURVEYED. 

Sun  of  %\'is(lom  arise  upon  the  besotted  \\  orkl  in  (ho  form  of  Thris- 

-tiauit\ ,  when 

now  went  forth  the  morn, 

Such  as  in  highest  hcav'n,  array'il  in  gold 
Empyreal ;  from  before  her  vanish'd  ni{^I)t, 
Shot  iJiroiijjh  with  orient  beams. 


KND    OF  THE   FIUST   VOl,UME. 


S.  GwsNELi,  Primer,  Little  Queen  Stieet,  Holbojo. 


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