The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall; divers sketches and studies

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THE CELTIC CHRISTIANITY
OF CORNWALL

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THE

CELTIC CHRISTIANITY

OF CORNWALL

DIVERS SKETCHES AND STUDIES

BY

THOMAS TAYLOR, M.A., F.S.A.

VICAR OF ST. JU8T-IN-PENWITH
AUIHOR OF "THE LIFE OF DR. TAYLOR OF ASHBURNE "

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS

1916

>H'>

TO

M. JOSEPH LOTH

PROFESSEUR AU COLL^^GK DE FRANCE

IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF A FRIENDSHIP

FROM WHICH I HAVE REAPED THE

FRUITS OF DISCIPLESHIP

Sed quanquam utilitates multae et magnae
consecutae sunt, non sunt taraen ab earura spe
causae diligendi profectae.

357804

PREFACE

IN one of the most brilliant of modern books its
author ^ calls attention to the common fallacy
which assumes that " if you can find a principle
which gives an adequate explanation of three different
facts it is more likely to correspond with the truth
than three different principles which give adequate
explanations of the same facts severally."

This fallacy underlies much that is being urged in
favour of a common origin for religious doctrines and
methods of worship. A single source of religious
belief or of religious phenomena is preferred to several
sources as being more tidy and more in keeping with
what we have learnt to expect in other departments
of research. It may be illogical, but still it is recom-
mended as a safe guide to the truth.

Indeed, it is difficult for a modern student to con-
ceive how any real advance can be made in scientific
pursuits unless the principle, which prefers one ex-
planation of phenomena to many, is favoured.

Before the days of Kepler and of Newton it may
have been possible, it may be possible still, to imagine
more than one explanation of the fall of a heavy
body to the ground and of the action of one inert
mass upon another. The law of gravity, as elaborated
by Newton, represents what, so far as we know, has

^ R. A. Knox, Some Loose Stones, p. 89.
vii

viii Celtic Christtanky of Cornwal

invariably happened and what we believe will in-
variably happen in space between two or more bodies,
namely, that they will, as heretofore, each attract all
the other bodies directly as their mass and inversely
as the square of their distance. This law is not
merely preferred before all other laws ; it is the very
foundation of the whole of what is called Physical
Astronomy. It is a law to which there are, within
its own province, no known exceptions.

We accept this law not because we prefer one ex-
planation to many, but because it meets not only the
requirements of cases which might conceivably be
explained in other ways but also the requirements of
cases for which no other explanation has been sug-
gested or conceived. Among laws, which are not
received as self-evident, the law of gravity is unique.
This will be clear to anyone who contrasts the secure
position which it occupies with the perilous position
occupied by laws which have been formulated within
recent years.

Men do not prefer Newton's explanation to other
explanations : the evidence in its favour is so over-
whelming that they feel compelled to accept it.

It is far otherwise with other laws like evolution.
These fascinate or repel from the very first. Prefer-
ence undoubtedly enters into the complex intellectual
process which leads us first to accept and then to
defend this or that explanation of an array of facts.
And this preference, admittedly illogical, may arise
from our limited knowledge of the facts or from regard
for some particular protagonist of one of many con-
flicting theories ; but, other things being equal, it
seizes hold of that explanation which claims to cover
the most ground and to reconcile the largest number

Preface ix

of facts. It only becomes mischievous when it claims
infallibility.

It is perhaps too readily assumed that in the domain
of religious phenomena there is a law by which these
phenomena are bounded and conditioned. Assuming
such a law to exist, the attempts to formulate it will
be directed in a greater or less degree by preference.
For religious phenomena, by which is here meant
the outward manifestations of religions, cannot be
examined and classified, without a comprehensive
knowledge of the religions themselves. And if, as a
French ^vriter has contended, " the man who would
write the history of a religion must believe it no
longer but must have beheved it once," it follows
that few persons, even in this versatile age, can claim
to be proficient in more than three or four religions.
From which it also follows that lack of knowledge
must be supplied by fertility of imagination or by the
exercise of preference on the part of him who employs
the comparative method in order to discover the law.

And yet, it is only by eliminating this personal
element and by confining our attention to material
which is neither inaccurate nor defective that we
can hope to arrive at the truth. It must be confessed
that the rough and ready generalisations with which
we are so familiar in this connection and the lack of
care which is taken in gathering and sifting the
materials upon which they are based, almost lead us
to despair of useful results. The attempt to evolve
a law from insufficient data is like an attempt to
measure volume in terms of two dimensions or like
an attempt to classify animals without an intimate
knowledge of them. A salamander has four legs and
a tail : so has a sheep. A zoology based on these

X Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

criteria alone would not carry us very far. The
biologist might kindly step in with his law of evolu-
tion and say some soothing w^ords respecting their
common origin, but we should leave off where we
began and know no more of those animals than
we did at the start, namely, that they each have
four legs and a tail.^

In studying religions those points of resemblance
which are most obvious are sometimes the most mis-
leading. And for this reason. The essence of a religion
— what may be called its soul — is not always revealed
in its methods of worship. This is said to be especially
true of Buddhism, at least by those writers who, like
Mr. Feilding, strive to commend it to the Western
world. Certainly it is no disparagement of a true
religion that it should have, in the department of
worship, many points in common ^vith a false one.
Every religion requires some machinery if it is to do
its work. And it is more true to say of religions that
they agree in machinery but differ in what they teach
than to say that they agree in what they teach but
differ in machinery. It would be most untrue, never-
theless, to assert that these common elements have
always been acquired in the same way or have meant

* A friend of mine performed the surprising feat of evolving an
entire system — god, religion, worshippers and all — out of much less
than four legs and a tail. His only material consisted of a word,
half-obsolete, of uncertain derivation and meaning. The jaw-bone
in the hands of Samson was as nothing compared with the magic
of tliis word in the mind of the valiant expositor of prehistoric
religions. While reading the paper in which he proclaimed his
discovery to a learned society, one could not fail to note the pro-
found impression which it made upon the hearers or to admire the
transparent sincerity of the reader.

It will not surprise those who read this book to learn that its
author spent some portion of the wakeful night which followed the
reading of the paper in the composition of a simple liturgy to crown
his friend's achievement.

Preface xi

the same thing or have been used with the same
object. Before any deductions whatever can be
legitimately drawn the religious })henomena must be
submitted to the most rigorous scrutiny. Dates,
places, distances count for more, whether the pheno-
mena be prehistoric or historic, than almost anything
save accurate definition. This will be clear if we take
an imaginary case. Let us consider the eagle as an
object of worship. In the year 4000 a.d. a popular
archaeologist of liberal views notes the immense
number of brass eagles which are unearthed from
beneath the sites of ancient churches, and inasmuch
as no mention is made in history and no rubric is to
be found in any of the old service books of the func-
tion assigned to the image of the king of birds, he
comes to the conclusion that the Christians of the
Victorian era were, in spite of much quarrelling con-
cerning the point of the compass towards which the
priest should stand at the altar and the use of lights
and incense, united at least on one point — the worship
of the eagle. He reflects that reverence for the eagle
was as dear to the hearts of Roman soldiers as it was
abhorrent to the Jews. He recalls the incident at
Csesarea. He does not forget that long after the
Roman Empire had ceased to be an important factor
in European poHtics the Jews were regarded with
unreasoning hatred. Putting two and two together
he comes to the conclusion that Christians, in order to
emphasise their contempt for Jewish susceptibilities,
admitted into their religious system the cult of the
eagle and that this cult attained its high-water mark
in the nineteenth century. If it be objected that such
a notion is altogether preposterous and absurd, that
it is, in fact, an insult to average intelHgence to

Xll

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

attempt to influence human judgment by a fiction
so transparent, it ought to be sufficient to recall the
erudite expositions of rock basins, stone circles and
dolmens which, elaborated by men of the highest
eminence, were welcomed as brilliant discoveries by a
generation by no means remote. It is a common
enough practice, but it serves no useful purpose to
hold up the wisdom of one age to the scorn of another.
There are two cautions which are needed in all ages ;
the first, that eminence in one department of human
learning does not, of itself, constitute a qualification
to pass authoritative judgments in other departments ;
the second, that as all knowledge, when unhindered,
is progressive the present generation may indeed
hope to have got somewhat nearer the truth than its
predecessors, but in virtue of the same principle it is
still far from its final stage.

Archaeology which at the beginning of the nineteenth
century could hardly claim to be regarded as a science,
had by the end of that century attained to the highest
rank as a science. It has not outlived the record of
past mistakes and some years may yet have to elapse
before its achievements are fully recognised.

It is impossible to discuss the Christianity of Corn-
wall in its earlier stages without devoting some space
to its Celtic inhabitants. This is all the more neces-
sary because in the county there are many monu-
ments, both pagan and Christian, and in some
quarters there has been a disposition to confound
them. Only by referring the pagan monuments to
their true place in pre-history is it possible to avoid
this confusion.

For such knowledge as he possesses of archaeology
the writer is largely indebted to M. Joseph Uechelette's

Preface xiii

Manuel d'Archeologie. There is no work in English
which, based on sound principles, attempts, as this
does, to cover the whole ground. Like the Principles
of Geology the Manuel stands alone.

When the losses in human life, due to the Great
War, come to be reckoned up and those losses come to
be analysed, there will be few names to take prece-
dence of that of M. Dechelette. The Revue Celtique^
after expressing its profound regret for his death,
says that after honouring France by solid and learned
works, notably by his Manuel d' Archeologie — a unique
monument of erudition — ^at the age of fifty-three,
though not compelled to serve in the army, he chose
to take part in the campaign and to die like a hero.
An order of the day of the French army supplies
particulars of his death. He was a captain in the
29th Regiment of infantry and was shot down while
leading his company. With his men he had won
800 metres of ground. As he lay dying he asked his
colonel whether they had kept the conquered ground,
and being answered in the affirmative, he replied that
he was happy that his death was of service to France.
The writer finely adds, Belle vie, et fin plus belle encore.

In a small book hke the present, there will neces-
sarily be many points which deserve some fuller ex-
planation than was possible, while here and there
some points will seem to be unduly magnified. The
chapter on St. Michael's Mount might, at first sight,
seem to add little to the main subject, but in this
case it was not so much the hope of gain as the fear
of loss which had to be considered. Should the
reader meet with phrases and expressions which ap-
pear to him inconsistent with a serious treatment of
the subject the writer can only crave his indulgence

xiv Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

and assure him that they were not altogether un-
provoked.

Chapter III was in substance contributed to the
Truro Diocesan Magazine ; Chapter IV was read at
a conference of the Kirrier Rural Deanery ; Chapters
V and VI were printed concurrently in the Revue
Celtique and the Journal of the Royal Institution of
Cornwall. For permission to reprint them their
author tenders his thanks to those journals.

Besides the Manuel d'ArcMologie there are two
other works to which he is much indebted, Dom
Gougaud's Chretientes Celtiques and Miss Clay's
Hermits and Anchorites of England. No better intro-
duction to Celtic Christianity could be desired than
Dom Gougaud's book. Miss Clay has treated her
subject with a particularity which is as rare as it is
valuable, and although her book furnished little
material for the present work, it was of great value
in supplying the cartography of an unfamiHar region.

To Professor J. Loth and to Mr. H. Jenner, f.s.a.,
his obligations are of a more personal character and
therefore more difficult to express. To both of them,
in all matters which concern Celtic language and
hterature, he stands in the relation of pupil to master.
As such he acknowledges gratefully their friendly and
patient guidance and ever ready help.

It should be needless to add that in so doing he
has no wish to shelter himself behind great names.
For all blundering and backsliding he and he alone is
responsible, inasmuch as throughout the perilous ad-
venture he has cheerfully bestridden his own beast.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAOB

I. Coincidence and Resemblance . . . 1

Often misleading. The Eucharist. Christian Passover
a development of the Jewish and its origin to be sought
in primitive Israel. Ancillary Christian Festivals. Direct
and Collateral descent. St. Patrick's fire.

II. The, Celts . . . . . 18

Prehistoric Remains in Cornwall. Ligurians, Iberians,
and Celts. No trace of Phoenicians. Celtic worship.
The Druids. Fetich worship. Cornish crosses.

III. Cornwall and Brittany . . . . 37

Dumnonian Exodus. Breton nobles in the Conqueror's
army. Tristan and Iseult. Henry the Eighth's subsidy
roll. Mystery and Morality Plays.

IV. The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall . . 50

Language. Isolation of Cornwall. Monasticism.
Church Dedications. Easter and Tonsure controversies.

V. The Monastery-Bishoprics of Cornwall . . 58

Celtic Monasticism sui generis. Episcopacy. Gildas,
Kenstec, and Plegmund. Athelstan. Bodmin Gospels.
Lyfing. Leofrlc. See of Exeter.

VI. Evolution of the Diocesan Bishopric . . 70

Episcopal manors in Domesday Book— their sources
and their value. Three important holdings— Pawton, St.
Germans, and Gerrans. Independent of each other.
Each of them sees of Celtic bishops. Kerrier and Pen-
with.

xvi Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

CHAPTEK PAOB

VII. Cornish Saints. . . . 90

Not topological or eponymous. St. la, St. Dennis, St.
Allen, St. Paul, and St. Buryan. Lives of the Saints.
Religion of the Cornish.

VIII. Ancient Religious Houses . . . 104

Celtic or English? Monasticon and Domesday Book
examined. Conversion of Celtic monasteries to Norman
estabUshments. St. Kew. Summary of results.

IX. Cornish Hermits . . . . 122

St Guron. The Three Brothers. St. Neot. Ogrin.
Andrew Paugan. SS. Philip and Robert. Roger God-
man. Cecilia and Lucy Moys. The Hermit of St.
Teath. Margaret of Bodmin. Roche Rock.

X. St. Michael's Mount . . . . 141

Ictis. Dinsul. Mons Tumba. Cult of St. Michael.
Pre-Norman origin of the monastery. Examination of
Charters and Domesday extracts. Identification of St.
Michael's lands. The Meneage. WiUiam of Worcester.

APPENDICES

A. Extract from Vita Samsonis . . .169

B. Edward the Confessor's Charter . .172

C. The Count of Mortain's Charter. . . 173

D. Erection of St. Michael's Priory by Abbot

Bernard . . . . . 175

THE CELTIC CHRISTIANITY
OF CORNWALL

I

COINCIDENCE AND RRSFMRT Aisiri^

CORRIGENDA

p. XV, last line but one, for " Each " read " All."
p. 48, line 22, for "but which, as" read *' when."
p. 48, line 24, omit " is."

as an insurance agent would have told them was
extremely probable. A succession of such coincidences
does not lead them to study the insurance tables, or to
calculate the expectation of life ; it only helps to
confirm the superstition.

The sight of one magpie by the road-side alarms :
the sight of two encourages. At the end of the day
the single magpie is recalled when reckoning up the
day's disappointments.

The devout Christian behever is not more prone
to superstition than others. A man lay dying of
consumption at St. Just. He was a crack rifle shot,

2. . Cdtia Christianity of Cornwall

an unbeliever and inclined to suicide. He insisted
upon having his rifle by him as he lay in bed and,
for the sake of peace, his ^vife allowed it. A single
magpie came and perched daily on the hedge outside
his bedroom window. One day seizing his w^eapon
and steadying it on his knee as he lay there, he shot
the magpie. The death of the solitary bird brought
peace and all thought of suicide was banished and
forgotten. The above are examples of superstition in
the sense in which the word is here used.
But the shepherd's proverb :

'' A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning :
A rainbow at night is the shepherd^s delight."

and the fisherman's

'^ When the wind is in the south
It blows your bait into the fish's mouth."

are based upon sound observation and contain no
taint of superstition ; they could doubtless be referred
to recognised scientific principles.

Again, the study of biology has led men to look,
not in vain, for resemblances between the gills of a
fish and the lungs of a mammal, between the hands
of a man and the forefeet of a quadruped. Postulating
the theory of evolution a common origin is discovered
in either case.

The prehensile and tentacular movements of
certain plants call to mind the like movements
of certain fishes. Whether by means of the same
theory, with the aid of the accredited results of
research, they can be held to have had a common
origin ; whether, for example, they can be re-
ferred to some such quality or instinct as that
which characterises the Proteus animalcule is perhaps

Coincidence and Resemblance 3

an open question. It seems, however, quite clear
that these bhnd, involuntary movements on the part
of fishes are not derived from the similar movements
of plants or vice versa, but that, if a common origin
is to be found, it must be sought in some very early
stage before animal and vegetable became differ-
entiated. The evolution hypothesis, whether it be
regarded as proved or unproved, is in any case in-
valuable because it stimulates thought, observation,
and research. By means of it knowledge becomes
coherent, articulate, scientific.

The application of this principle to religion is be-
coming more and more the vogue, and, provided
that its adherents are content to work on the same
lines as the students of physical science, there is no
reason why useful results should not be obtained.
There is, however, a tendency to transmute this
working hypothesis into a superstition which, in
point of sanity, is only comparable to that of the
number thirteen and that of the single magpie — ^the
superstition, in short, which notes coincidences and
resemblances and ignores their opposites.

It is by no means clear that resemblance of rite
and ceremonial and coincidence in point of time of
calendared festivals furnish the proper material from
which to formulate the law and to determine the
source of religious observance. For example, how-
ever we may judge of the Salvation Army, it is obvious
that a very different principle underlies and animates
Mr. Booth's following from that which inspires the
soldiers of King George. Military organisation merely
suggested a useful and convenient form of discipline.
In this case resemblance is utterly misleading, and
the archaeologist of the distant futiire, who should

4 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

argue that the venerated coat of the General, suppos-
ing it to have been preserved, points to some mad but
futile attempt to repeat the religious conquests of
Mahomet, would be quite as wide of the truth as he
who should seek the General's prototype in the
militant ecclesiastic of the Middle Ages.

A further danger attends the student of religions.
This arises from prepossession rather than from hypo-
thesis and leads him to mistake deduction for induc-
tion. He finds, we will suppose, what he takes to be
a latchkey. It is an instrument considerably the
worse for wear and of a somewhat unusual pattern.
He is quite certain it is a key. There is no room for
doubt. He determines to find a lock which it will fit.
Starting with the key he examines locks prehistoric,
mediaeval and modern, but all in vain, for the simple
reason that the implement in his hands is not a key
at all but the head of a fish spear.

It is not the critical method of induction but the
uncritical method of deduction which is to be repro-
bated. When, for example, we discover by observa-
tion, the practical universality of sacrifice as a dis-
tinguishing mark of rehgion, we may explain the fact
in a dozen different ways, but in every case we are
compelled to recognise the behef in a God of some
sort, and when we find that generally, at some stage
of religious development, sacrifice is offered by way of
propitiation, we are led to the conclusion that safety
and salvation were held to be only possible by atone-
ment. We have before us a multitude of locks and
one key fits them all, and we are therefore led to con-
clude that aufond offence and sacrifice are related as
poison to antidote. When, however, we descend to
particulars, resemblances and coincidences are found

Coincidence and Resemblance 5

to be as misleading as the Salvationist's tunic. Their
evidential value, to use a threadbare but useful
phrase, is infinitesimally small and sometimes a
negative quantity.

Relying upon resemblance, a person might be led
to conclude that it was the spring turnip which sug-
gested the shape of the watch and the duck's tgg the
morphology of toilet soaps.

Utility and convenience have entered largely into
the ritual systems of all religions. The same acces-
sories are required for the worship of Baal as for the
worship of Jehovah. To identify Baal with Jehovah
is to beg the question and to fall a victim to the
tyranny of coincidence and resemblance.

When 'attempts are made to discover a common
origin for the Christian Eucharist, the Aztec com-
mmiion described by Prescott, and the ceremonial
eating and drinking practised by the worshippers of
Mithras, it is often assumed that the closer the ritual
resemblance between them the stronger the argument
in favour of a common origin. It does not seem to
have occurred to the maintainers of this hypothesis
that public worship, of whatsoever kind it may be,
finds expression in a symbolism of its own, just as
thought expresses itself in speech and in written lan-
guage. The fact that Christianity expressed itself in
symbol and sacrament does prove that from the very
first it claimed to be a religion and not a mere philo-
sophy or school of thought, but it does not prove
identity of origin or of intention with the pagan
religions which employed the same or similar sym-
boHsm. It was inevitable that the Christian Pass-
over should have been singled out in order to illus-
trate the prepossession that in origin it is essentially

6 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

pagan. In this case, however, it is not resemblance
but coincidence (in point of time) which is supposed
to afford the ground of proof. One writer, at least,
who rightly connects it -with the Jewish Passover, in
order to exhibit its sacrificial character,^ does not
hesitate to refer its origin to the worship of Attis
or Tammuz, the earth-god, on the ground that the
time of its occurrence roughly coincides with the
solemnities of Attis. No better illustration of the
tyranny of observed coincidence could be found than
in his ingenious but futile attempt to apply the
principle to Cornwall. His object is to identify the
May-day festivities, which he conceives to be a sur-
vival of Beltane solemnities, with those of the Chris-
tian Passover. Unfortunately for him the latter
festival occurs too early ; it can never occur later
than the twxnty-fifth of April. But he has read of
Little Easter, which occurs a week later, and attribu-
ting to the Cornish a preference for a rechauffe of the
Easter banquet to the banquet itself — a preference
for which no reasons are vouchsafed — he concludes
that Little Easter is the Cornish equivalent of the
Beltane Feast. It might have occurred to the main-
tainer of this opinion to test it by means of the same
calculations which forbade the synchronising of
Easter itself with the pagan solemnity. Had he done
so he would have found that Little Easter (Paskbian)
or Low Sunday occurs in May only once in sixty or
seventy years, and on May-day less than once in a
century.'^ A coincidence which occurs once in a
century does not convince the writer and will hardly

* R. A. Courtney, The Rill and the Circle, p. 15.

• Between the years 1854 and 1930, inclusive, Little Easter
occurs once — on the 2nd of May, 1886.

Coincidence and Resemblance 7

convince the reader of the identity of the Celtic feast
of Beltane with the Christian Passover, or even with
the Low Sunday celebration at Lostwithiel described
by Richard Carew, the historian.^

It is impossible, without destroying the character
of this enquiry, to consider the Christian Passover in
all its bearings upon the subject before us, but a few
remarks are needed in order to place it in a right
relation to the more ancient solemnity from which
incidentally it sprang.

The Jewish Passover was kept at the time of the
first full moon which followed the vernal equinox.
The primitive Christians of Asia Minor, claiming for
precedent the practice of St. John the Divine, com-
memorated our Saviour's Passion on the same day
as the Passover and His Resurrection on the third
day after. Thus it frequently happened that the
very event which had led to the observance of the
first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath had
its yearly commemoration on some day which was
not the Christian Sabbath. On the other hand, the
Christians at Rome, following as they believed the
practice of St. Paul, kept not only the weekly but
also the yearly feast of the Resurrection on the first
day of the week and the anniversary of the Passion
on the third day before, in other words they kept
their Paschal feast as we do now on the first day of
the week which occurred next after the first full
moon following the Spring equinox. The origin and
signification of the feast were the same for both
Eastern and Western Christians. It was the Christian
Passover (Pascha) and was known by that name.
The ancient Cornish word for it was Pask. In North

* Quoted in the Parochial History oj Corjiwall, iii., 176.

8 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Staffordshire forty years ago it was the custom,
and it is probably still the custom, for bands
of men and maidens to soHcit Pace (Pasch) eggs.
The use of the term Easter, of Saxon origin, is
merely a proof of the stubborn independence of the
English character which refused to receive not only
the names of the days of the w^eek but also of the
Christian seasons from the Latin. The coincidence in
point of time of the Paschal feast with a pagan feast,
if such coincidence can be discovered, was purely
accidental ; and the same can be said of Ascension,
Pentecost and all other movable feasts which are
ancillary to or supplementary of it. In this connec-
tion it is noteworthy that throughout the bitter con-
troversy, dating from an amicable discussion held in
the year 162 when Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, paid
a visit to Anicetus, bishop of Rome until the sixth
century, it never occurred to either party to suggest
a pagan origin for the feast or to connect the time of
its celebration with nature or nature worship.^ As
the commemoration of a notable historical event —
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ — it was observed
by East and West, just as the Jewish Passover was
observed as the anniversary of the " self -same day
that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of
Egypt by their armies," and of that hurried meal of
which a lamb of the first year and unleavened bread
were the more important constituent elements. In
the Bible and in the Primitive Church the two feasts
are so closely linked together that, in order to demon-
strate identity of origin for the Christian Passover
and the feast of Tammuz the earth-god, it will be

* The Celtic controversy respecting the incidence of the Christian
Passover was concerned solely with astronomical calculations and
has, of course, no bearing upon the matter here under discussion.

Coincidence and Resemblance 9

necessary to show that the Jewish Passover derived
its raison d'etre from the same source as the wor-
ship of Tammuz. That any such source has been
found or that any connection has been found, or
will be found, is not to be taken for granted. The
connection between the Jewish and the Christian
Pascha is not open to dispute. Had the Christian
Church repudiated the Pascha and kept a festival of
the Resurrection entirely distinct from it, something
might have been urged in favour of a pagan origin.
It is the indissolubility of their union which forbids
any such interpretation.

The wi'iter has no desire to be regarded as an
obscurantist and, for this reason if for no other, he
offers to the students of folklore in general and to all
deductive philosophers obsessed with the unique
evidential value of coincidence and resemblance in
particular, the following facts, for the authenticity of
which he is prepared to vouch whenever he is required
so to do. He believes that when their import is
fully grasped they will carry, to the minds of the said
philosophers to whom the discovery, never previously
announced, is humbly but confidently dedicated,
the conviction that not in Asia, the accredited home
of mystery, not in Africa the cradle of theologies old
and new, not in America the foster mother of science
Christian and otherwise, but in Australia will be found
the true origin of the Easter festival and its cere-
monial. He regrets that his command of scientific
language is unequal to the task which a discovery of
such absorbing interest and far-reaching possibility
demands. He therefore craves the indulgence of the
learned for expressing himself in terms which he hopes
will be intelligible to learned and unlearned alike.

10 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

In the low-lying land which borders Hahfax Bay
in the colony of Queensland there is to be found an
edible root called the bulgaroo which, at the time of
the European Spring equinox, after the heavy rains
wliich begin in the month of February, betrays its
presence by sending forth shoots of a bright and tender
green colour. For some occult reason this root is
preferred by the aboriginal inhabitants to the choicest
delicacies which the white man, notwithstanding his
cultivated taste in the matter of food and drink, can
supply. Accordingly every year the black man, if
employed, seeks his master's permission for a month's
sojourn in the land of the bulgaroo. It is well known
to all who have lived in Queensland that the black
man is a keen observer of the heavenly bodies and is
much distressed by the sight of an eclipse of the sun
or moon, from which it may be inferred that he re-
joices when the sun and moon are not obscured.
Whether, strictly speaking, he can be described as a
sun worshipper has not been determined, but it is
believed that the disclosure of these particulars will
help incidentally to solve this as well as the larger
problem under discussion. The coincidence of the
Spring equinox with the resurrection of the said
bulgaroo from its dark retreat under the earth, and
of both events with the assembling of the aboriginal
tribes and of their partaking together of what may
not unfitly be described as the root of ages (for in
all probability we have here a vegetable food known
to the black man's ancestors long before they emerged
from a pre-human archetype) ; above all, the addi-
tion to the bulgaroo banquet of human flesh when-
ever it may be safely had, and the marked preference
for those portions of the human body which, like the

Coincidence and Resemblance 11

heart, are essential to life, and therefore, as they
suppose, are the better fitted to stimulate and in-
crease the eater's physical courage and efficiency ;
to which must also be added the attendant dance and
song of corroboree and the more secret and mysterious
bora meeting whereat, after due proof has been given,
both oral and experimental of the candidate's forti-
tude, he is admitted to the full privileges of manhood
by a solemn rite of initiation : all these ceremonial
acts, whose significance it is impossible to misinter-
pret and to exaggerate, strengthened and not weak-
ened (as might be supposed by a superficial observer)
by the fact that at the antipodes Spring synchi'onises
with European Autumn, estabhsh a strong presump-
tion that the continent of Australia affords the verit-
able solution of the great problem of the origin of
Christian ceremonial observance. Nor is this sur-
prising when we remember that according to an
eminent German archaeologist, Dr. Buttel-Reepen,^
the Australian aborigines are the direct descendants
of the propithecanthropi, i.e. pre-ape-men or common
progenitors of apes and men, " since their foot had
not yet undergone the definite change from a grasping
organ to a supporting apparatus." Nay more, when
we reflect that from the great concourse of pre-men
one huge horde poured away in the direction of
Africa, some of its members pursuing their wanderings
through generations, until they eventually reached
Europe across a bridge of land that then united the
two continents ; being accompanied in their migra-
tion by the pre -glacial fauna, the Elephas aniiquiis,
Rhinoceros merckii and other great beasts whose
fossilised remains bear ^vitness of this emigration,
^ Buttel-Reepen, Man and Hia Forerunners, pp. 72-3.

12 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

we are driven to conclude that throughout incal-
culable periods of time, from the Tertiary era at least,
when, according to Dr. Woodward, man was already
emerging from his pre-ape condition, down through
the ages, palaeolithic, neolithic, bronze, and iron,
across continents which have been overwhelmed or
refasliioned, this simple meal of bulgaroo has per-
sistently held its ground and won its triumphs in the
social and afterwards in the religious life, pagan and
Christian, of man as he has progressed steadily but
surely from generation to generation.

Absurd as the foregoing presentment of a few,
plain verifiable facts will appear to the reader, it is
neither more absurd nor more wildly fantastic than
much that passes for penetration with those who
allow themselves to become the slaves of resemblance
and coincidence. So far as the bulgaroo feast is con-
cerned, it would be possible to write in the same
grandiloquent manner and with an equal amount of
wisdom of a beanfeast at Blackpool.

To resume. The deductive philosopher having
identified the Cliristian Passover, which in England
is commonly known as Easter and which always occurs
in March or April, with the Celtic feast of Beltane
which always occurs in May, it would be strange if he
did not discover a pagan archetype for Christmas.

In this case both coincidence and resemblance
point to the birthday of Mithras the Persian sun-god
whose worship was introduced at Rome in the time
of the Emperors. Is it unfair to remark that here
conviction is rendered doubly certain by reason of
the fact that the date of the earliest Christian observ-
ance of the Christmas festival is somewhat obscure ?
We know that it originated at a very early period

Coincidence and Resemblance 18

and that the Alexandrians and the Churches of
Palestine kept it, until the year 428, at Epiphany^
and not on the 25th of December. Clement of
Alexandria, who died about a.d. 220, refers to cal-
culations of the year and day of the Lord's nativity
not to encourage but to caution. It is noteworthy,
however, that he gives no hint of the danger which
might arise from the possibility of its being con-
founded with pagan celebrations of like nature. It
is well known that a festival of the sun was held at
the time of the winter solstice (dies natalis invicti
soils), but it is equally well known that the early
fathers never ceased to warn the people against con-
founding^Christian festivals with pagan. ^

Having satisfied himself that the keeping of Christ-
mas originated in sun worship at the winter solstice,
our philosopher would hardly do himself justice did
he not discover a similar explanation of the com-
memoration of the birthday of St. John the Baptist
at Midsummer. The ordinary uninstructed Christian
would probably argue, and to better purpose, that if
you keep the Saviour's birthday on the 25th of Decem-
ber you ought to keep the Baptist's birthday on the
24th of June, because the latter was six months older
than the former. ^

It is possible that pagan rites may have become
associated with the Christian festival, but in Cornwall
the Midsummer fires do not appear to have been so
associated. Whatever their origin may be, there is

^ The Armenians still keep the Nativity on the 6th of January.

2 The subject is fully dealt with by Neander ; Church History
(Bohn's ed.), vol. ii., pp. 419-48.

' He would be led so to argue by reflecting that in the Church's
Kalendar Ascension and Pentecost are similarly related to the
Paschal Feast and Annunciation to Christmas.

14 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

no evidence that they have at any time entered into
the Christian system.

The position for which, in the interests of truth, it
seems vital to contend may be illustrated by citing a
familiar episode from the life of St. Patrick — ^the
episode of the Paschal fire. There is indisputable
evidence that, from the days of the Emperor Constan-
tino (a.d. 274-337) at least, Easter was distinguished
by the Christian Church from other festivals by the
lighting of fires or tapers to signify the rising of
Christ from the dead to give light to the world.
When St. Patrick arrived at the hill of Slane, in sight
of Tara, on the eve of the Christian Passover, he set
about preparing for that great solemnity. He lighted
the sacred fire. But it so happened that the then
pagan Irish were, at that moment, equally intent
upon keeping a festival of their own, and that their
festival also involved the observance of a similar
ceremony. They, too, had a fire to light, and the act
of lighting by anyone except King Leoghaire himself,
or by one of his ministers at a signal given by him,
was punishable with death. St. Patrick in ignorance
of the prohibition lighted his fire first, and the fire
was seen by the King and his subjects at Tara. He
would doubtless have acted as he did had he known
of the edict ; but it was, as events soon showed, this
particular transgression, insignificant enough in itself,
which at once brought about the collision between
him and Leoghaire.

St. Patrick manifestly was not consciously observ-
ing a practice of pagan origin. Whatever thoughts,
memories or associations his fire kindled within him
they were definitely Christian. We are not told what
meaning the King's fire had for him. The casual

Coincidence and Resemblance 15

onlooker would probably have seen little to choose
between the one fire and the other : he might con-
ceivably have regarded them as expressive of one
and the same intention. Had a modern philosopher
been present he would almost inevitably have dis-
cerned a common origin and therefore a more or less
near relationship. Yet both would have been wrong ;
the first, because the motives and intentions of
Patrick and Leoghaire were not the same ; the second,
because until a common origin has been shown any
inference derived from similarity of ceremonial is apt
to be misleading however reasonable it may seem.

An inference is misleading when it carries with it
consequences w^hich are irrelevant to the main facts
upon which it is founded.

You cannot say that because the Christians used
fire in their worship at Easter and the pagans also
used fire in their w^orship, therefore the Christians
adopted the practice from the pagans ; still less can
you say that Easter originated in a pagan festival.
All you can say is that fire, as an accessory of worship,
was used by both, just as prayer was also so used
by both. The paraphernalia (using the term in a
neutral sense) of two religions may be precisely alike,
while the religions themselves may be as wide as
the poles asunder. And the complaint one has to
make against much that is brought forward as evi-
dence of a common origin for customs, both religious
and secular, is that it is not evidence at all, and that
though it be repeated or multiplied a thousandfold, it
follows the familiar rule of mathematics and amounts
to nothing. Even when legitimate inferences have
been drawn from groups of observed facts, it is by
no means uncommon to find them so manipulated by

16 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

writers as to convey wrong and erroneous impressions.
Having regard to the laws of the physical growth and
development of organic matter and to other considera-
tions of a more technical character it may be con-
sidered a legitimate inference that men and apes are
descended from a common ancestor, but it is a mis-
representation of the inference to say that it implies
that men are descended from apes. For although it
may be a source of comfort to all English-speaking
people to believe that their ancestors " either came in
with William the Conqueror or went out in the May-
flower,'* it is clearly impossible for them to believe that
they can all trace their descent either from George the
Third on the one hand, or from George Washington
on the other. A genealogical enthusiast may perhaps
be pardoned for seeking to embrace as many of the
elect as possible in his family tree, because even in his
moments of deepest depression he can point to Adam as
the common ancestor. The student of religions in like
manner may be pardoned for desiring to express in tabu-
lar form the successive stages through which doctrines
and rites have passed ; have been developed, arrested,
modified, governed and conditioned. But neither the
genealogist nor the religious philosopher can be par-
doned for mistaking a collateral for a direct ancestor.
The Christian Church has, with generous and ready
welcome, received into her bosom all that could
produce credentials of kinship, holding nothing as
common or unclean, however unworthy its associa-
tions and however perverted its use in the past.
Painting, music, poetry, drama, philosophy, archi-
tecture, ritual, organisation, each has found a place
and received a fresh consecration as the result of
its admission to the embrace of the true mother

Coincidence and Resemblance 17

of them all. Only one barrier has she interposed —
the barrier of heresy. She has always insisted that
the postulant's real intentions should be clearly known.
By sacrament, creed, and confession she has exercised
every precaution to secure peace within her sacred
walls. She has sacrificed popularity, endured perse-
cution, incurred hatred in order that all her children
should share the same affections, should speak the
same things and think the same thoughts. This has
ever been and is still her great offence, her unpardon-
able sin, in the eyes of those outside her communion,
viz. that she has been so uncompromisingly true to
herself. For this reason it might have been thought
superfluous, or at any rate a more or less academic
matter, fo discuss the origin of her symbolism and
its affinities. The human mind, however, almost in-
evitably, refuses to admit the appropriateness of a
newly imported symbol unless its past associations
are free from suspicion. Not only so, the student of
religions obsessed with the superlative value of re-
semblance and coincidence, is apt to suppose that if
he can show that the paraphernalia of Christian wor-
ship approximately resembles that of some pagan
religion he has proved identity of intention and belief.
By way of reply it would be possible to argue, with
greater force and to better purpose, that historically it
can be shown that Christian worship would be, at this
time, fuller, richer, more ornate, more attractive and
possibly not less true to its supreme purpose if larger
use had been made of the common sources of religious
ceremonial. The history of heresy is, however, a suffici-
ent refutation of the main contention. An examination
of some particular forms which the pagan theory has
assumed in relation to Cornwall will be given later on.

II

THE CELTS

IT is almost, if not quite, impossible to acquire a
right perspective of the position which the Celts
occupy in British history without examining the
incidence of that position and some of its relation-
ships by the light of the results of modern archae-
ological research.

In Cornwall, as elsewhere, the prehistoric races
which inhabited the county before the Celts appeared
have left abundant evidence of their presence. That
evidence, however, will be hard to discover in the
warp and bent of character and in the physical
development which doubtless all Englishmen have
in some measure inherited from them, and towards
which these extremely remote ancestors have to
some slight extent contributed. We shall probably
never know enough about any of them so as to be
in a position to say of any one living in the county
as we might say, for example, of an Irishman " that
splendid act of daring or that hairbrained escapade
must be set down to his Irish breeding.'* Yet, inas-
much as no one supposes that an incoming race
commonly extirpates the race it supplants there is
always the suspicion that the new race may have
yielded to the moral influence or to the religious
atmosphere of the old. History supplies us with

18

The Celts 19

instances of this triumph of spiritual over physical
force, Christianity itself being the most striking
instance of all.

For this reason it is necessary to go back to those
ages which have been distinguished as palaeolithic,
neolithic, and bronze, in other words to those periods
during which unpolished stone, polished stone, and
bronze implements were in use,^ in order to dis-
cover, if possible, whether as the tide of industrial
progress flowed in, there are indubitable signs of an
unbroken tradition of religious thought and practice
which became articulate in the historic narrative of
Julius Caesar.

Mr. Clement Reid, f.r.s., has thought that he
detected traces of the palaeolithic age in the raised
beach at Prah Sands, ^ and there is, a priori, no reason
to suppose that his discovery will not be confirmed
by further investigation. Quite the contrary ; it is
not unlikely that some of the implements which
have been found in the county and which are now
commonly regarded as belonging to the later stone
age will be found to belong to the earlier. This
consideration, however, has only a very indirect
bearing upon the present enquiry, for it has not yet
been shown that the men of the earlier period had
any religious belief at all.

On the other hand, there is a very strong presump-
tion that the races of the later period had, towards
the end of it, religious beliefs more or less definite.
In this connection there is no need to call attention

1 A still earlier age, the eolithic, which in Sussex has supplied
my school contemporary, Dr. A. Smith Woodward of the British
Museum, with what he believes to be a link between man and his
pre-human ancestor is not represented in Cornwall.

» Qeology o/ the liQud'a End District, pp. 79-80.

20 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

to the different kinds of stone implements which
have been fomid in Cornwall and which have been
identified with this — ^the neolithic — period. It will
be useful, however, to consider, very briefly, the more
striking of its monuments, found chiefly in the wxst
and, by reason of their size, styled megalithic. They
are distinguished as dolmens sometimes but incor-
rectly termed cromlechs, cists (stone chests), circles,
menhirs or long stones, and ahgnments of w^hich there
are comparatively very few in the county. All belong
to the same period ; all appear to have been erected
by the same race. They are all found in greater
numbers and of larger dimensions in Brittany. The
general opinion of competent archseologists is that,
with the exception perhaps of the menhirs, they are
all sepulchral in character and with the exception of
some of the cists that they all belong to the neolithic
or else to the earlier half of the Bronze Age. The
dolmens, of which Chun Quoit and Lanyon Quoit are
good examples, differ only in size and detail from the
cists which are abundant in Cornwall, and which have
been proved to be depositories for the dead by their
contents. The circles probably performed the very
useful function of marking and protecting either
single graves, as many of the smaller ones are still
found to do, or a more or less large collection of graves
like a modern churchyard wall. The fact that some
of the circles no longer surround human interments,
or that some cists are found without circles to protect
them, presents no difficulty to those who accept this
explanation, but who at the same time admit a variety
of use in the disposal of the dead and who have
abundant proof of a bygone vandalism which is not
unknown in Cornwall to-day. Stonehenge is not

The Celts 21

only larger and more elaborate, but of later date
than most of the larger circles, being the only one in
England which is constructed of hewn stone, all the
rest being built of undressed stone. Even of this,
for which, on that account, there might have been
presumed a quasi -religious origin. Sir Arthur Evans,
one of the most eminent of living archaeologists, can
only assert that " it is one of the large series of primi-
tive rehgious monuments that grew out of purely
sepulchral architecture."

Of alignments it is hardly possible to say more
than this, that they are usually associated with
circles and may have served as avenues to them.
The menhirs, sometimes isolated and independent of
other ancient remains and sometimes as, for example,
at St. Buryan and Dry cam, sufficiently near to
circles to suggest association with them, are even
less easy to explain. Some of them are of enormous
dimensions, like the Men-er-Hroeck at Locmariaquer
in Brittany ; some are so small as to be liable to be
mistaken for the rubbing stones of cattle. The former
must have required vast numbers of men to erect,
and it is their weight and size which has invested
both the smaller and the greater with an interest and
importance which would otherwise have been lacking.
It is probable that some of them served as boundary
stones, some as guide posts, and others as stones of
memorial, like those reared by Jacob at Bethel,
Joshua at Jordan, and Samuel at Ebenezer. The
isolated menhirs of the largest size, i.e. the true
menhirs or great undressed stones, reared by human
instrumentality, wherever no traces of burial can be
found either underneath or near them, undoubtedly
suggest a rehgious purpose. While there is nothing

22 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

to connect them with nature worship,^ as commonly
miderstood, or with solar worship, it is difficult to
conceive how they came to be erected unless it was
either to commemorate a departed chiefs or to serve
as symbols or objects of religion. Reverence paid to
the dead, at certain stages of human development,
may and probably does imply a belief in life after
death. These monuments are of the late neolithic
age.

The transition from it to the Bronze Age took
place in Europe, according to the best authorities,
about 1800 years before Christ. Bronze gave place
to iron about 900 years later. The use of bronze in
Cornwall, judging from the comparatively small
number of bronze implements which have been dis-
covered in the county, and from the fact that for its
manufacture both of its constituent metals are
abundant, would seem to have been of shorter dura-
tion here than elsewhere. Bronze celts have been
found in Lelant, St. Just-in-Penwith, St. Hilary, St.
Mawgan-in-meneage, Gwinear and in a few other
places, but the net result is somewhat disappointing.

It is, however, during this period that in Gaul we

^ " Le preiendu caractere phallique de quclques-una de ces monu-
ments rCeat q'une conjecture chimerique qui a permis d certaitis eaprits
imagintaifs de ae donner carriere.'' D^ohelette, Manuel d'Archdologie,
I, 431, n. 2.

2 W. C. Borlase, Ncenia Cornubice, p. 99 :

'* Wishing to put beyond dispute the origin and purpose of some
few at least of these monoliths, and to ascertain if any were indeed
sepulchral, the author . . . examined the ground roimd some half-
dozen of them."

At the foot of a menhir at Pridden, St. Buryan, he foimd " a
deposit of splinters of human bone." At the foot of a menhir at
Trelew, St. Buryan, ho found "a deposit of splintered bones similar
in quantity and appearance to that found at Pridden." A precisely
similar discovery was mado at Trenuggo, Sancreed. Another at
Tregonebria.

The Celts 28

meet with two races, the Ligurian and Iberian,
occupying lands east and west of the Rhone respec-
tively. These races must not be identified too closely
with the countries whose names they bear.

They appear to have followed different occupations,
the Ligurians devoting themselves to agriculture and
the Iberians to the keeping of sheep and cattle.^

It is remarkable that little evidence should have
been discovered respecting the character of the
reHgion of either race. A bronze disc from Ireland
and a horse mounted on (not harnessed to) a six-
wheeled curricle to one of the axles of which is affixed
a disc, from Denmark, have been supposed to be
emblematic of the Bronze Age sun worship of those
countries. Again, the swan-shaped prow of Scan-
dinavian boats has been recognised as a solar emblem,
but the freedom with which that ancient bird has
been treated for decorative purposes, leaves one
somewhat in doubt as to its religious signification.
No evidence of the use of either symbol has appar-
ently been found in Britain or in Armorica.

If the distinction between Ligurian and Iberian
can be sustained is it not possible that the latter if
not both emblems were confined to the Ligurians and
were introduced by them along with their religious
associations as traders engaged in the overland
amber traffic between the Baltic and the Mediter-
ranean ?

The same dearth of evidence meets us when we
come to consider the cult of the bull and the sacred
horns and that of the axe. Had this cult been peculiar
to a pastoral people like the Iberians an irreverent

^ This is sho^vn by the presence of bronze sickles in Ligurian
graves and their absence in Iberian.

24 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

mind might have been pardoned for suggesting that
they hit upon a very appropriate symbohsm. Un-
fortunately the Bronze Age of Britain and Armorica,
whether Iberian or otherwise, supphes us with very
few if any illustrations of it. Two bronze bulls of
small size found in Morbihan have been claimed to
represent it in Armorica. The bronze bull found in
the Vicarage garden at St. Just, undoubtedly fashioned
for a religious purpose, seems to have an equal
claim ; but until more evidence is forthcoming it is
allowable to doubt whether the Minoan beliefs,
associated with the bronze period in the JEgea,n,
ever gained a footing in Britain. M. Dechelette has
with great pains striven to show that the mythology
and the metal were closely related, perhaps contem-
poraneous and coextensive^ — at least this seems to
be the general drift of his exposition. While yield-
ing to no one in gratitude for his great work — a
challenge to English archaeologists — it seems to the
present writer that, in dealing with the religious
symbolism of the Bronze Age, so far as North-
western Europe is concerned, he has done little more
than to show that the double axe (bipenne) of the
-^gean has its analogue, perhaps archetype, in the
single axe with handle (hache simple et emmancMe)
which is found inscribed on some of the Ai'morican
dolmens of an earlier age. Nor is it self-evident that
either the sacred horns or the axe is a solar emblem,
though both appear to have been received into the
Minoan system.

When we leave the Bronze Age and come to the
Iron, we enter upon what has been termed proto-
historic archaeology. Within about 300 years of its
* Archdologie : Age du Bronze, chap. xiii.

T}i£ Celts 26

commencement we find ourselves in the presence of
a race which has survived and has in a measure
retained its individuahty up to the present time.

The Celts, it is true, were only one of several races
wliich from the east and north pressed westward and
southward over Europe for a period of over a thousand
years ; but no invasion has ever been more complete
or the effects of an invasion more profound and per-
manent. The Celts became identified with our island
to a greater extent than either of their successors,
the Saxons and Normans. The second body of them
imparted to it its name. In the fifth century before
Christ they had reached the Atlantic and had begun
to invade^ Britain although the main body were near
the Danube. In 387 B.C., they sacked Rome, and in
the succeeding century a section of them crossed the
Hellespont, overran Asia Minor and eventually
settled in what became known as Galatia.

The point of greatest importance at the present
stage of our enquiry is that of the Celtic rehgion
between the close of the Bronze Age and Caesar's
invasion of Gaul and Britain. Was it one of the
many forms of nature worship w^hich found the central
object of its adoration in the glorious orb who in the
words of the Psalmist " cometh forth as a bridegroom
out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a giant to run
his course " ? Did the worship of the sun form its
most prominent distinguishing featm-e ?

The much-quoted passage given by Diodorus the
Sicihan, who lived in the first century before the
Christian era and who reproduced it from the De-
scription of the World written by Hecataeus in the
fifth century, states that in the island of the Hyper-
boreans over against Celtica there is a magnificent

26 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

circular temple which they have erected to Apollo.^
The passage presents more than one difficulty. The
Hyperboreans were known to the ancient world as
the possessors of the sources of amber, a substance
which is not found in Britain but in the neighbour-
hood of the Baltic. Those who would identify the
Hyperborean island with Britain and the temple
with Stonehenge, have to face the greater difficulty
of accounting for the fact that a sepulchral structure
erected in pre-Celtic times was, in the fifth century
before Christ, being used for sun worship by Hyper-
boreans who may or may not have been Celts, but
who in the passage are described as having erected
it for that purpose. It should be remembered that
Hecataeus had been dead for over a century when
P3^heas the daring Greek explorer made his famous
voyage of discovery, and that if that voyage was,
as M. Dechelette contends, ^ to the navigator of the
fourth century before the Christian era what a polar
expedition is to the navigator of to-day, it is hardly
likely that Hecataeus could have had very rehable
information concerning either Britain or its Celtic
inhabitants.

It may, perhaps, be allowable to hazard an opinion
wliich after all is only an opinion, viz. that the Ligur-
ians who dwelt along the transcontinental amber
route were sun worshippers, but that until the days
of Julius Caesar we know very little, if indeed any-
thing for certain, of the religion of the Celts who
inhabited western Gaul and Britain. Whether Stone-
henge was the temple referred to is very doubtful ;

* Quoted by D6chelette, ArcMologie, II, pp. 413, 667 ; by Lord
Avebury, Prehistoric Times, p. 132 ; by D. Gougaud, Chr^tientiSf
p. 13.

• ArcMologie, II, p. 30.

The Celts 27

whether it was orientated with respect to the sun is
a matter which, as Professor Oman justly observes,
need not be taken seriously. ^

But what of the Phoenicians, and where do they
come in ? It is a cruel thing to say to a generation
which can ill afford to part with any fragment of its
diminished archaeological patrimony, but it must be
said without reserve or qualification : the Phoenicians
do not come in at all.

It would be comparatively easy, as some have
already found, to provide Celtic Britain with all the
elaborate machinery of sun worship if it could be
shown that there were direct and close relations
between Britain and Phoenicia either before or after
the Celtic invasion. No one, of course, doubts or denies
the glory of the Phoenician thalassocracy. The Bible
is only one of many witnesses. Hiram King of Tyre
supplied Solomon both with craftsmen for the brass
work of the Temple at Jerusalem and with sailors for
his trading expeditions to India. Gades (Cadiz) the
port of Tartessus, or Tarshish, was founded by the
Phoenicians before 1100 B.C. The ships of Tarshish
are rooted in the memory like the bulls of Bashan
and the cedars of Libanus. Ezekiel's lamentation
for Tyre 2 is not only one of the most profoundly
pathetic but also one of the most illuminating passages
in the Old Testament.

Speaking of Tyi'c, he says, "Tarshish was thy
merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of
riches, with silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded
in thy fairs : " " the ships of Tarshish did sing
of thee in thy market : and thou wast replenished

1 England before the Norman Conquest, p. 9.

2 Ezekiel, xxvii and xxviii,

28 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

and made very glorious in the niidst of the
seas.'*

Nevertheless, great, extensive and varied as was
the commercial enterprise of the Phoenicians, scholars
are now generally agreed that they never got beyond
Gades in their Atlantic voyages.

Moreover, the Cassiterides or Tin Islands, men-
tioned by Diodorus, which a former generation strove
to identify with the Scilly Isles, lay undoubtedly to
the north of Spain. ^ At the same time it must be
noted that the same author Diodorus, who probably
had his information from Poseidonius (born circa
135 B.C.), does expressly state in the same passage
that tin was conveyed from Britain to Gaul and over-
land to Marseilles. By that time, however, the doom
of Carthage, the daughter city of Tyre, situated on
the Bay of Tunis, had also been sealed.

This absence of historical evidence respecting
Phoenician intercourse with Britain, supposing such
intercourse to have existed, might have been in some
measure explained — and not as the Privy Council
explained the Ornaments Rubric of the Church of
England, by arguing that omission impHes prohibi-
tion— by assuming that the source of the tin supply
was kept secret, like that of amber, by the traders
in that commodity. It is the fact that no vestige of
these Semitic navigators has been found either in
Gaul or in Britain, which decisively excludes the
supposition that they ever visited those countries.
Dr. Birch in giving his judgment upon the bronze
bull found in the garden of St. Just Vicarage states
it as his conviction that no object has yet been found
in Britain which can be satisfactorily identified with
* Sir Hercules Read, Early Iron Age, p. 85.

The Celts 29

the Phoenicians, 1 and M. Dechelette is equally
emphatic respecting the absence of similar objects in
Gaul. 2 What M. Alexandre Bertrand says of Celtic
civilisation, namely, that neither the Ligurians, nor
the Phoenicians, nor the Greeks, nor the Iberians
collaborated in that educational work, may with
some reservations in favour of the two latter nations
be accepted as true of the Celtic religion.

From Julius Csesar some useful information is to
be gained respecting the religion of the Celts of his
own day. He states that they had many gods, the
chief of whom, in Gaul at least, answered to the
Roman Mercury, patron of arts and crafts. Mars,
Apollo, Minerva and Dis Pater were represented in
the Celtic system, but it is not easy to equate them
satisfactorily. After the Roman conquest the Britons
followed the custom of other subject races and iden-
tified their gods with those of Olympus. Some of
their gods found no corresponding analogue, like
Nodens, whose temple overlooked the Severn ; others
again were purely local and patronal.

During the three centuries while Britain remained
a province of the Empire the Romanisation of the
native religion had free scope, the spread of Chris-
tianity meanwhile striving -with indifferent success
to keep pace with it. " The larger half of the altars
and shrines, discovered in Britain are simply set up
to honour the ordinary gods of the Roman world." ^
Among these latter were many strange divinities, who
in origin were neither Celtic nor Roman, but were
those of ahen races led to Britain by the hope of pro-
fitable traffic or by compulsory miUtary service.

^ Arch. Journal, viii, 8. ^ Age du Bronze, p. 29.

^ Oman, England before the Norman Conquest, p. 107,

80 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Mithras, for example, whose worship was intro-
duced at Rome under the Emperors, found in this
way a place in the British pantheon.

There is no evidence to show that either nature
worship or sun worship was the dominant religion of
the Celts either before, during or after the Roman
occupation. It is, of course, possible to say of the
Romans that they practised both, but it is an abuse
of language to say that they were either sun wor-
shippers like the Egyptians or nature worshippers
like the Phoenicians. The same holds good of the
Celts.

Under Roman influence the days of the week
received Latin names derived from the planetary
system, all of which except Sunday (Dies Solis which
became Dies Dominica) continued to be used by our
lawyers until English took the place of Latin in the
courts of record. In Cornwall, notwithstanding the
Saxon invasion, the Latin names were retained until
Cornish ceased to be a spoken and written language.
Thus Sunday, Dies Solis became De Zil, Zil being the
Cornish derivative of Sol and not a variant of the
Cornish word Houl.^ Until the Roman occupation
the Celts reckoned time by nights, not days. Thus
the first night (of the week if they had weeks) was
the sixth night after new moon, that is when the
moon was on the point of becoming half -full. Their
year, therefore, consisted of thirteen months. The
Celtic mind appears to have revelled in the realm

1 Mr. Henry Jenner, r.s.A., to whom I am indebted for this
statement, has reminded me that St. Michael's Mount is given in
the Life of St. Cadoc as Dinsul (Mens solis) and that Tregaseal in
St. Just may be a compound of which 8eal=Zil=8ol. Both are
possible. Roman intercourse with the extreme west of Cornwall
is proved by the Roman milestone at St. Hilary, which is within
easy distance of both places,

The Celts 81

of mystery. The practice of magic ; the prevalence
of human sacrifice ; the numerous local divinities,
with strange names preserved to us only in the
dedications of their shrines, whose attributes and
powers remain unknown ; the hidden virtues of the
mistletoe and the selago ; above all, the secrets of
the Celtic priesthood — ^the Druids — suggest, but un-
fortunately only suggest, a religious differentiation
which carries us back to a period more remote than
that of any religious system with which we are familiar.

Professor Sir John Rhys has attempted to show
that Druidism was a pre-Celtic survival, the religious
system, in short, of some race which preceded the
Celts in Britain, and his judgment would doubtless
have been accepted had there not been good evidence
to show that the system was not peculiar to Britain
but to the Celts themselves. It prevailed among the
continental Celts just as it prevailed among those of
Britain and Ireland. On the other hand, its affinities
with classical m)i:hology are not sufficiently pro-
nounced at the time when it is first encountered to
indicate an iEgean origin. When the original home
of the Celt has been determined it may be possible
to discover the home of his religion.

The Druids 1 were the interpreters of divine things
to the Celtic conscience. They shared with the
knights the administration of public affairs, expounded
the ceremonial law and determined the times and
modes of its application. Caesar states, but not on

^ Gougaud, Chretientes, p. 22. The derivation of the word
Druid is uncertain. There appears to be no doubt that the Druids
practised a form of divination founded not on the flight but on
the song of birds, that of the wren in particular. Dren is Irish for
wren. From this some have inferred that Druid is derived from
dren drui-en. There is another Irish word drM (genitive druad)
which meant a magician, Anwyl, Celtic Religion, p. 56,

32 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

good authority, that Druidism originated in Britain,
and Tacitus, who lived towards the end of the first
century of the Christian era, that Anglesey was its
religious centre. An impressive picture is given of
the scene (a.d. 60) which was presented to the army
of Suetonius Paulinus preparing to attack that
venerable sanctuary. " Along the shore was seen a
dense line of armed warriors, while women were rush-
ing about between the ranks garbed like the Furies,
in black go^vns, their hair flowing loose, and torches
in their hands. The Druids were visible in the rear
offering sacrifices to their gods, raising their hands
to heaven, and calHng down dire imprecations upon
the head of the invader."^

Of Druidical worship in Cornwall there is no direct
evidence. 2 The kinship and intercourse and close
relations, however, which subsisted between Cornwall,
Wales and Ireland leave no room for doubt that
Druidism was its religious system. It should be need-
less to observe that its megalithic remains, dolmens,
circles, and the like, which were erected many cen-
turies before the Celts appeared in Britain, had
originally no connection with Druidism and that there
is no evidence to show that they ever became identified
with it.

Without stopping to compare Irish and Gaulish
Druidism with that of Britain there is one point
which claims attention and which, whether Druidical
or essentially primitive and sporadic, bears witness
to the existence of a cult which, occurring in Ireland,
could not have been introduced by the Romans.

* Prof. Oman's translation, England before the Norman Conquest,
p. 74.

' See, however, chap, iv.

The Celts 88

From the life of St. Patrick we learn that in Ireland
idols of stone, sometimes adorned with gold, silver,
or copper, and in particular one stone, that of Ceen
Cruaich or Cronn Cruach, were worshipped by all
the people of the land.^ Practices similar though not
necessarily identical — in other words idol worship —
characterised the Cornish paganism of the sixth cen-
tury. Henoc the biographer of St. Sampson relates
an incident of such absorbing interest that a transla-
tion of the Latin, 2 however imperfect, will be wel-
comed. It was during the saint's sojourn at Docco
(St. Kew) that we read, " Now it came to pass, on a
certain day as he journeyed through a certain district
which they call Tricurius (the hundred of Trigg) he
heard on his left hand {in sinistra parte de eo) to be
exact, men worshipping (at) a certain shrine after
the custom of the Bacchantes by means of a play in
honour of an image. Thereupon he beckoned to his
brothers that they should stand still and be silent
while he himself, quietly descending from his chariot
to the ground and standing upon his feet and observ-
ing those who worshipped the idol, saw in front of
them, resting on the summit of a certain hill an abom-
inable image. On this hill I myself have been and
have adored and with my hand have traced the sign
of the cross which Saint Sampson, with his own
hand, carved by means of an iron instrument on a
standing stone. When Saint Sampson saw it (the
image), selecting two only of the brothers to be with
him, he hastened quickly towards them, their chief
Guedianus standing at their head, and gently ad-

1 D. Gougaud, Chritientds, pp. 16, 17.

2 Edited by M. Fawtier (Paris, Champion, 5 Qiiai Malequais,
1912). The Latin text is given in the appendix to this book p. 169.

84 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

monished them that they ought not to forsake the
one God who created all things and worship an idol.
And when they pleaded as excuse that it was not
wrong to keep the festival of their progenitors in a
play, some being furious, some mocking but some of
saner mind strongly urging him to go away, straight-
way the power of God was made clearly manifest.
For a certain boy driving horses at full speed fell
from a swift horse to the ground and t^visting his
head under him as he fell headlong, remained, just
as he was flung, little else than a lifeless corpse.

" Then St. Sampson, speaking to the tribesmen as
they wept around the body, said, ' You see that your
image is not able to give aid to the dead man. But
if you will promise that you will utterly destroy this
idol and no longer adore it I, with God's assistance,
will bring the dead man to life.' And they consent-
ing, he commanded them to withdraw a little further
off and after praying earnestly over the lifeless man
for two hours he delivered him, who had been dead,
alive and sound before them all.

" Seeing this they all with one accord, along with
the aforementioned chief, prostrated themselves at
St. Sampson's feet and utterly destroyed the idol."

It will have been noticed that the writer does not
state whether the idol was of stone or of wood ; nor
is it quite clear whether it was itself the object of
worship or the representation or symbol' of a god.
Probably it was the latter.

Whatever its nature and character the saint decided
upon its destruction and marked the sign of the cross
not upon it but upon a stone standing in its vicinity.
It does not seem likely that the word abominable
(simulacrum ahominabile) would have been employed

The Celts 85

to describe a wheel-headed stone. The idol was
probably a fetich pure and simple or possibly a symbol
of nature worship.

Whatever may have been the pm-poses for which
menhirs were erected during the neolithic period and
whatever adoration may have been paid them by
succeeding races — we have no evidence that such
adoration was paid — it appears certain that they had
nothing to do with sun worship. The Minoan sym-
bolism, as such, which included the cross or rather
the wheel with foiu* spokes (in this connection a better
and more accurate description because it explains the
most beautiful form which it assumed as the swastika),
is entirely absent from the prehistoric monuments of
Western Europe.^ The stone crosses of Cornwall are
not of an earlier date than the sixth or seventh
century of our era, and by that time not only was
the county actively Christian but the Minoan sym-
bolism was dead, buried and forgotten.

Stones may be, and in many ages and in many
lands have been, venerated for their supposed powers
and virtues. Such stones, especially in Brittany,
have received Christianisation, that is, have been
marked with or surmounted by a cross within com-
paratively modern times. There is no reason why
some such course may not have suggested itself to
the Cornish Christians of the seventh and succeeding
centuries. But the golden age of Celtic Christianity
was during the latter half of the seventh and first
half of the eighth century, and at that time Cornwall
was in constant communication with Ireland, the
centre of Christian learning. ^

^ Dechelette, ArcMologie Prdhistorique, p. 441.

2 Oman, England before the Norman Conquest, p. 30.

86 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

About 270 stone crosses are to be found in Cornwall.
They are mostly of granite and have been fashioned
by means of iron implements, in some instances with
considerable taste and skill.

They are too well known to require description.
To suppose them to have been erected by sun
worshippers in the sixth and succeeding centuries
is to suppose the prevalence of a religion in Cornwall
which at that time prevailed nowhere else in Europe
and concerning which history is silent. On the other
hand, to suppose them to have been originally con-
nected with nature worship of a peculiarly revolting
character and to have been Christianised by signing
them with the sign of the cross is highly improbable
if, as the maintainers of this hypothesis assert, that
sign was regarded as pagan.

A much simpler and more convincing explanation
is that the stone crosses were erected in order to
disaffect and sanctify places which from time im-
memorial had been devoted to old pagan super-
stitions.^ This at any rate has the merit of being
in accordance with the facts disclosed by the Sampson
episode. Moreover, it avoids the anachronism which
connects them with sun worship, while at the same
time it disallows the charge of incredible folly which
must otherwise be imputed to the founders of Cornish
Christianity if we suppose those earnest men to have
retained a degrading symbol of nature worship with
little or no modification of its structural features.

* Anatole le Braz, La nuit des feux.

Ill

CORNWALL AND BRITTANY

ALTHOUGH much good work has been done and
useful results have been obtained in many fields
of research both by individual Cornishmen and by
societies like the Royal Institution of Cornwall,
there is one department at least which has been
somewhat, neglected by those for whom it might
have been expected to possess a special attractive-
ness.

The interest which of late years has been awakened
in the Cornish language and in Celtic Christianity
has not been the result of any revival in Cornwall
itself. Mr. Whitley Stokes is an Irishman by birth
and extraction, Professor Loth a Breton, Mr. Henry
Jenner a Cornishman. In fact no Cornishman
except the last-named has so far thrown himself
wholeheartedly into the movement which has for
its object the critical study of the language and
religion of the Celtic-speaking nations. This is much
to be regretted, because both of these subjects were
assigned a place in the comprehensive scheme of
Dr. Borlase, which, as conceived and elaborated by
him, entitled him to rank among the leading European
antiquaries of his own day. Although Dr. Borlase
achieved little of permanent value in the way of
exposition, he gathered much valuable material
which, but for him, would have been lost, and by his

37

38 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

sagacity and diligence succeeded in riveting the
attention of his compatriots.

He was, hke all the leading archaeologists of his
time, a resolute believer in the Druidical origin of
the preliistoric remains of the county, a theory
which he advocated with consummate skill and
particularity. Since his death the theory has been
found to be untenable without any serious injury,
however, being done to his high reputation.

The brilliant essay of his great-great-grandson, the
late Mr. William Copeland Borlase, on the Age of
the Saints f first printed in 1878, has been one of the
very few original works accomplished in the county
having for its object the exposition of Celtic Chris-
tianity. In this work its writer attempted too much.
Subsequent research has shown that many of his
identifications of the Cornish saints are untrust-
worthy, and that his arbitrary delineation of the
spheres of influence of the respective groups of Irish,
Welsh and Breton saints is often fanciful and mis-
leading.

Given leisure and the spirit of enquiry, the two
subjects which ought to appeal most strongly to a
Cornishman are the ancient religion and the ancient
language of the county to which he belongs.

Both subjects are now^well within his reach owing
to the immense amount of material which has, within
recent years, been made available by the publication
of ancient records. The Councils and Ecclesiastical
Documents of Haddan and Stubbs, the Episcopal
Registers, edited by Hingeston-Randolph, the Parish
Registers, edited by Phillimore and others, the
p ublications of the Record Commissioners and of the
Royal Institution of Cornwall, the Revue Celtique,

Cornwall and Briitany 89

the Ancient Cornish Drama, edited by Mr. Edwin
Norris, the critical works of Mr. Whitley Stokes, of
Pi'ofessor Loth and Dom Gougaud, the Cornish
Grammar of Mr. Jenner ; these are a few of the
many sources whence valuable information may be
derived for the comparative study of these subjects.
In this connection it may be observed that little
satisfaction will be gained from facts and statements
which are obtained at second hand. Facts must be
sought out in the original documents and examined
in their original settings.

The context is often more illuminating than the
fact which it enshrines. Not documents only ; the
to^^Tis, villages, hamlets and homesteads, with their
ancient 'names, address silent appeals to the hearts
and understandings of those who live among them.

An interesting illustration is supplied by the three
Cornish words, Eglos (Ecclesia), Escop (Episcopus)
and Pleu (Plebs) — interesting because the final judg-
ment must be held in suspense until a survey has
been made of their ramifications. All three words
arc found in the place-names of this county. Eglos
is found in Lant eglos, Egloskerry and in some other
places ; Escop is found in Trescobeas in Budock,
formerly appendant to the bishop's manor of Penryn,
also in Mainen Escop (Bishop's Rock), in the Isles
of Scilly ; Pleu is found in Plunent, the ancient name
of Pelynt, in Pluvathack (Budock) and possibly in
Bleu Bridge in Gulval. Names beginning or ending
in Eglos are numerous in Cornw^all ; those having Pleu
for the first syllable are very few in number. In
Brittany very few place-names are composed of
Eglos and Escop, w^hereas Pleu enters into many.
Why does Pleu rather than Eglos lend itself so

40 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

readily in Brittany to the exigencies of ecclesiastical
nomenclature ? Were it not that Lan (monastery)
is equally distributed in the two countries, we should
be tempted to say that in Cornwall a Celtic word
(lan) was preferred to a Latin word (plebs) to describe
the ecclesiastical unit. Some difference of condition
or of association there must have been to account
for it. That which most readily occurs is that
Armorica was thoroughly Latinised before the
insular Celts arrived there, whereas Cornwall was
probably never brought into close contact -svith
f Roman civilisation as such except on and near the
coast ; in other words, that Plebs was in use in the
former country before it became Christian and
acquired afterwards a specific ecclesiastical significa-
tion, whereas in Cornwall it was introduced along
with Christianity or after Christianity had taken
root. Very few traces of Roman civilisation are to
be found in this county. The Roman milestone at
St. Hilary is almost unique. Roman coins, of which
many have been found in the county, do not prove
Roman settlement. It is certain, however, that
Britain had become Christian, at least in name, before
the Roman legions were withdrawn, and it is there-
fore probable that the words Eglos, Escop and Pleu
had been received into the Cornish language before
that time. And the true explanation of the per-
sistence of Pleu in the place-names of Brittany seems
to be that the insular Britons, who had acquired the
word Plebs during the Roman occupation, con-
verted it, for ecclesiastical purposes, into Pleu and
took it with them when they emigrated to Armorica,
where very soon it had to give place to the word
Pares (from the French Paroisse), though not before

Cornwall and Brittany 41

it had taken root in the place-names. In Cornwall
and Wales, on the other hand, Pleu remained in
current use and is therefore seldom found in the
place-names of those countries. Making allowance
for changed conditions, the same explanation accounts
for the persistence of the word Lan in the place-names
of all three countries — it persisted in the place-names
because it had fallen out of current use.

For reasons which will appear later, it is important
to keep well in mind the relations which subsisted
between Cornwall and Brittany from the time of the
Dumnonian exodus, which began in the first half of
the fifth century, until those relations were inter-
rupted in the sixteenth century.

Leaving for future discussion the question of
religion, there are points of contact between the two
countries which deserve attention, not only because
they are interesting in themselves, but because they
can hardly fail to suggest others.

The colonisation of Armorica by the people of
Dumnonia is accepted by every scholar of repute.
The gradual re -settlement of Bretons in Cornwall is
not so well kno^vn. Nevertheless, the historical
evidence is not open to question. Domesday Book
shows that, with, three exceptions, all the landholders
in Cornwall were, in the days of Edward the Con-
fessor, Saxons. When WiUiam the Norman set
about the conquest of England, he was joined by
several Breton nobles, who, by way of reward,
received considerable grants of land in Cornwall.
Richard Fitz Turold, the ancestor of the baronial
house of Cardinan, received thirty-one manors,
Brient six, Blohiu five, Jovin thirteen, Wihumar
three and Judhel one.

42

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

It was, doubtless, owing to the presence of these
Breton knights that Cornwall came to play so
important a part in the Arthurian romances, which,
soon after the Conquest, became kno^vn throughout
western Europe. There has been much controversy
respecting their origin. They have been attributed
to England, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. That of
Tristan and Iseult was, until quite recently, com-
monly referred to an English archetype which
assumed literary form at the hands of British and
Welsh minstrels or jugglers.

It has remained for Professor Loth to demonstrate,
beyond the possibility of doubt, that it originated in
Cornwall at a time when Celtic, Saxon and Norman
were all spoken languages. Those who are famiUar
with the romance will have been puzzled by the
presence of two Iseults in one and the same story.
On this point M. Loth says, " in my opinion it is
from the juxtaposition in Cornwall of two legends,
the Cornish and the Armorican, and from a com-
promise between the two that the creation of the
two Iseults has originated."^

No better proof could be found of the friendly spirit
which existed between the two nations than their mu-
tual consent to share the tales and traditions of both.

It was a Breton who, in 1177, carried away the
body of St. Petrock to the monastery of St. Mewan
in Brittany. As a canon of Bodmin he had learnt
to venerate the saint, and doubtless considered that
he could confer no greater boon upon his own country-
men than to present them with the saint's relics.
At the instance of Henry II, Roland de Dinan
restored them to the Priory.

1 Romans de la Table Bonde, p. 110.

Cornwall and Brittany 43

The trade between the two countries was con-
siderable. The Patent Rolls supply ample evidence
of this. In 1343 we find an inquisition respecting
certain mariners of the county of Cornwall who had
been received into the service of the Duchess of
Brittany, but who had turned pirates and plundered
the vessels of both countries.

More convincing still is the evidence supplied by
the first subsidy roll of King Henry VIII. The roll
is undated, but the date cannot be later than 1523.
In it are given the names of all those who were
required to contribute to the subsidy and the several
amounts of their assessment, in land and goods, for
the purpose. The roll for the hundred of Penwith
is almost complete, only the parishes of Crowan,
Illogan, Redruth and a part of Camborne being
missing.^ In all the Penwith parishes, save five of the
smaller ones, are found Bretons who are described as
nati in partibus Britannice sub obediencia Regis
Francorum. These Bretons constitute more than
one-sixth of the total tax-paying population of the
hundred of Penwith. They are described as tinners,
fishermen, smiths, servants, labourers and cooks : the
occupations of twenty-nine of them are not given.
Although the several amounts to be contributed by
them are in every case in respect of goods and com-
paratively small, there is fortunately reliable evidence
to prove they were not mere sojourners but persons
who had come to stay.

The order to keep parish registers issued by Thomas

* The Roll was printed by the Royal Institution of Cornwall in
1887. Extracts from some of the later rolls are given by Mr. J. H.
Matthews in his History of St. Ivea, Lelant, Towednack and Zennor^
pp. 133-42 ; and by Dr. W. J. Stephens in liis Collections for a
History of Crantock.

44 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Cromwell in 1537, and the further order, in 1597,
requiring a transcript of them to be made on parch-
ment, would have provided future generations with
an invaluable source of information, had those orders
been generally obeyed and the records carefully
preserved.

Unfortunately, few parishes can claim to possess an
uninterrupted record of baptisms, marriages and
burials from the year 1538 up to the present time.
In Penwith only Camborne enjoys this distinction.
All the rest of the registers begin after the accession
of Queen Ehzabeth. The earliest of the Madron
registers, which begins in 1577, has been printed and
is accessible : the Camborne marriages have also
been printed. From these two registers it will
suffice to give extracts which bear upon Breton
settlement in the county. Camborne supplies the
following marriages :

1538. John Cart ho we, brito, and Nora his wife.
1540. Stephen Bryton and Jane his wife.
1540. G'ua Bryton and Margaret his wife.
1540. Uden John, brytton, and his wife.
1540. Gregorie Brytton and Margaret his wife.
1546. John Gerecrist and Margaret Willm, bryttons.
1568. Peres Brytton and Alson his wife.

If the above list is compared with the subsidy roll,
to which reference has been made, it will be clear
that Bryton is not a surname but a descriptive
epithet. The list, in fact, supplies only four surnames,
Carthowe, John, Willm and Gerecrist. Of these the
first and last are interesting : the first survives in
Cornwall as Carthewe and in Brittany as Carzou ;

Cornwall and Brittany 45

the last is a Breton place-name — Kergrist, near
Pontivy.^

As showing that the Breton immigrants did not
return to their own comitry the following entries
from the Madron register ^ will be helpful, if not
conclusive. Among the burials we have :

1582. Jane, wife of John Brittayne.

1585. Elizabeth, wife of Oliver, the Brittonn.

1587. Joane, wife of John Britton.

1599. Peres Brittayne.

Unfortunately the Madron baptisms are missing
until 1592 and the marriages until 1577. It is im-
possible, iiowever, with the Camborne marriages and
the Madron burials before us, to resist the conclusion
that in the first half of the sixteenth century Bretons
arrived, married and were buried in the county. They
doubtless left descendants. It is remarkable, however,
that whereas, at the present time, in Cornwall the
surname Britton or Bridden is rare, in the Midlands,
where Breton influence was never considerable, it is
comparatively common. The explanation appears
to be that the Christian names of the Breton immi-
grants became surnames, and in this way the number
of Christian surnames, which in West Cornwall now
amounts to little short of 30 per cent of the whole
number, was vastly increased.

For how long the tide of Breton immigration had

^ I am indebted to Professor Loth for the identification of these
surnames.

* Some further light would doubtless be thrown on the subject
if the Camborne registers were searched for the children of the above
marriages and for the burial of their parents. It is noteworthy that
Carthew marriages were solemnised at Camborne in 1683 and 1588.
They may have been, and probably were, those of John Carthowe's
children.

46 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

been flowing, when we meet with it in the sixteenth
century, it is impossible to say. Its persistence in
the first half of that century is not more noteworthy
than its arrest in the second half.^

Brittany had become a French province in 1495
by the marriage of Anne, Duchess of Brittany, to
Charles VIII. The tortuous foreign policy of Queen
Elizabeth of England, no less than the political and
religious complications of her protracted reign, could
hardly have been favourable to Breton immigration.
The reformed religion and the decline of the Cornish
language have prevented a renewal of close relations
between the two countries.

The mystery and miracle plays constituted another
link between Cornwall and Brittany. Whether
written in Cornish or Breton they could be under-
stood by the inhabitants of both countries.

They were acted on both sides of the Channel in
the open air. The subject matter — sacred history
and religious biography — was the same for both.
The trilogy called the Ordinalia, which, in three plays,
covered roughly the same ground as the Old and
New Testament, represents the Cornish treatment,
by means of the Cornish language, of the mystery,
wliich, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was
common to western Europe. But the miracle play
of Beunans Meriasek, the life of St. Meriasek, was
Celtic in origin and treatment. The Cornish version,
written by Dom Hadton, in 1504, had probably a
Breton archetype. St. Meriasek or Meriadec, who
shares with St. Martin the patronage of Camborne,

^ As late, however, as 1599 we meet with Bretons at Redruth,
who contributed handsomely to the subsidy of that year. Six may
bo noted in the St. Ives district in 1571, but none in 1693 or after
that date (Lay Subsidies, 87 (218) ).

Cornwall and Brittany 47

was unquestionably a very important personage in
Brittany. He gave his name to a tr^ve of Plumergat,
Pluvigner, Pluneret and Noyal-Pontivy i^ he is the
patron of Stival and of Plougasnou. He was also
numbered among the early bishops of Vannes, though,
according to M. Loth, mistakenly. ^

It is significant that in the Cornish Beunans
Meriasek his elevation to that see forms an important
episode. This fact, of itself, would suggest a Breton
origin for the play. Mi-. Thurstan Peter has, on other
grounds, arrived at the same conclusion.^

The mystery and miracle plays were still in vogue
when Richard Carew wrote his Survey of Cornwall.
There is iip need to quote the well-known passage in
which he describes the degradation of what had once
been a valuable means of instruction, but which, in
his day (1590), had become a questionable form of
popular entertainment.

At St. Just-in-Penwith and Perranzabuloe the
plain- an-gware, place of the play, is more or less
carefully preserved. The populous district of Plain-
angwarry in the parish of Redruth also reminds the
inhabitants of the days of old and the years that
are past. In more than one manorial extent, as, for
example, in that of the manor of St. Buryan, the
writer has found a tenement, described as Plain-
angware, the site of which is now unknown. It is
not improbable that every considerable Cornish
parish had formerly a space reserved for the mystery
and miracle play.

^ The tr^ve is described by Dom Gougaud as a parochial sub-
division still recognised in certain cantons of Brittany (Chrdtientds,
p. 124).

* Loth's Les Saints hretona, pp. 92, 93.

2 Peter, Old Cornieh Drama, p. 34.

48

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

No attempts have hitherto been made to revive
these plays in Cornwall. ^ A graduate of Missouri
University, visiting the Plain -an -gware at St. Just,
informed the writer that in New York, with the
assistance of wealthy patrons, the Cornish plays had
been successfully rendered by members of the
University. In Brittany there has been of late years
a notable revival of the mysteries on modern lines in
the Breton language. Under the direction of an
enlightened clergy, encouraged by eminent Celtic
scholars, the plays are attracting the attention of
many besides those for whom they have been written.
The marked histrionic ability of the players, most, if
not all, of them simple country folk, the atmosphere
of reverent adoring faith, and of robust inspiring
patriotism, the utter absence of anything like vanity
or pretence, the intense reality of the Gospel story
which, too often, in the case of ordinary Englishmen,
has, under the soothing influence of an inimitable
authorised version of the Holy Scriptures, become an
idyllic, poetical and idealistic presentment of Scrip-
tural truth, but which, as proclaimed by the living
voice and the impassioned fervour of believing hearts
amid circumstances not very dissimilar to those
which gave it birth: all this is irresistibly pathetic
and convincing.

No one who has been present at St. Anne d'Auray
and who has followed, even by means of a French
translation, the Boeh-er-go^d (the Call of the Blood),
in which the parable of the Prodigal Son is unfolded

1 After the above was written, Mr. Thurstan Peter, President of
the Royal Institution of Cornwall, announced that under the segia
of that institution the Beunans Mcriasek would be performed in
the year 1915. The great war hewa necessarily caused the postpone-
ment of the enterprise.

Cornwall and Brittany 49

strictly on the lines of the sacred narrative, can ever
forget it. In the words of Abbe le Bayon, the writer
of the Hbretto, it is " par dela ce pauvre pere qui
souffrit un jour, dans quel que coin ignore, de
Tabandon inqualifiable de son fils — que chacun des
spectateurs veuille bien entrevoir ; le coeur de Dieu
^ternellement blesse des abandons humains ; mais
aussi, la vieille Bretagne toute dechiree au delaisse-
ment des siens et confiante encore, toujours aimante,
rappelnnt a sa vieille langue, a ses croyances anciennes,
les fils oublieux en qui repose I'espoir de la race."
The appeal " a sa vieille langue " for Cornishmen
comes too late, but that " a ses croyances anciennes "
should meet with a response from those at least who
are zealous for the traditions of their Cornish fore-
fathers.

THE CELTIC CHRISTIANITY OF
CORNWALL

BY comparing the development of Christian in-
stitutions in the various portions of the Celtic
world and observing those elements which were, for
three centuries at least, characteristic, common and
permanent, it ought to be possible to arrive at some
very definite and useful results. It ought to be pos-
sible to supplement the evidence, supplied by writers
like Gildas and the venerable Bede, and, from the
common store of Celtic learning, acquired in Wales,
Ireland and Brittany, to remedy our defective
knowledge of Cornwall and of Cornish Christianity.
Obviously the closer the relations between the four
Celtic families the stronger the presumption in favour
of an identity of ecclesiastical organisation.

Until the Saxon raids, wliich began in the year 428,
Cornwall and Wales were integral portions of Great
Britain ; the inhabitants, though differentiated into
kingdoms, were bound together by a common religion
and by a more or less common language.

The Roman occupation which in Armorica had
changed the vernacular from Gaulish to Latin (which
in the fifth century was, in that country, already
giving rise to a romance language) achieved no such
marked result in Britain. Latin may have been spoken
in the centres of population and in places where the

50

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall 51

Roman influence was exceptionally strong ; it may
have been spoken, as Professor Haverfield contends,
in the eastern counties ; but the absence of any f
trace of a romance language goes to prove that it
was never the vernacular.

The Saxon invasion which, during the fifth and
sixth centuries, reduced the Britons to a state of
servitude, or drove them to the more inaccessible f
and remote regions of Wales and Cornwall, was the
immediate cause of a great exodus to Armorica. No
event in British laistory proved more fruitful in results:
no event is more suggestive for the purpose of eluci-
dating Cornish Church history. How large was the
share taken in that emigration by the people of
Dumnonia (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset)
may be gathered from the fact that the language
which the emigrants introduced into Armorica — a
language wliich speedily superseded Latin just as
Latin had superseded Gaulish — was Cornish rather
than Welsh, the language, in short, which survived
in some parts of Cornwall until the eighteenth cen-
tury and which is, wdth some slight modification, still
spoken in Finist^re and to some extent in Morbihan
and C6tes du Nord. Professor Loth, whose eminence
as a Celtic scholar no one will dispute, has wiitten,
"it is certain that hnguistically the Britons of Corn-
wall were nearer of kin to the emigrants than the
Welsh : they doubtless occupied the nearer neigh-
bourhood of ancient Dumnonia." " The Breton
language forms with Cornish a closely compacted
unity as opposed to Welsh, although the three
languages were assuredly very near neighbours at
this period " (the fifth century). ^

^ Led Noma de^ Saints bretons, p. 143.

52 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Armorica itself became known as Brittany in the
sixth century. Cornwall (Cornouaille) was adopted
as the name of that portion of it between the Elorn
and the Elle soon afterwards. Dumnonia was the
name given to the northern portion between the Elorn
and the Cuesnon in the ninth century. The settlers
in Armorica introduced their own form of Christianity,
and the object of the British and Irish missionary
saints who flocked thither soon afterwards was not,
as ancient writers have supposed, in order to convert
the pagan Gauls, but rather to administer to the
spiritual needs of their compatriots. To these mis-
sions our Dumnonia contributed little in comparison
with Wales. Cornwall after the foundation of the
kingdom of Wessex in 519 became isolated : its
relations with Brittany were doubtless closer than
with Saxonised Britain. But it never became, like
Wales and Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, a
great missionary centre. The founders of the Breton
monastery-bishoprics — Pol Aurelian, Lunaire, Mag-
loir c. Me wan and Malo were all Welsh : Tutwal only,
the founder of Treguier, was of British Dumnonia.
Of the British saints whose names are found in the
parishes, fractions of parishes and holy places of
Brittany, from 80 to 90 are Welsh ; about 60 appear
in Cornwall ; from 30 to 40 appear only in Brittany
and in Cornwall and Devon, and a few in Somerset.^

The British refugees remind us of iEneas whom
tradition represents as bringing with him his Lares
and Penates to Italy. The Dumnonian immigrants
brought with them the cult of their own insular
saints. At a later period Brittany was able to make
a return in kind. Pol Aurelian, Sampson, Columba,
1 Loth, ibid., p. 124, n. 1.

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall 58

Meriadec, Corentin and others of Breton fame were
received into the devotional system of Cornwall.

Not only were the Breton and Cornish people one
in origin, tradition, language and religious sentiment,
they were one in their Celtic ideal of the priestly and
religious life. Theirs no less than that of the Welsh
and Irish was the monastic ideal. Every Cornish
place-name bearing the prefix Ian, together with
some j)lace-names bearing the prefix nan, implies a
monastic foundation. Lanisley, Landithy, Lan- ,
hydrock, Lanherne and Landegy, Nancekuke and
Nansladron are a few examples which show that the
quasi -monastic foundations of Domesday Book were
only modified survivals of what was in the sixth .
century the accepted ecclesiastical type, a type which
continued to exist apparently long after the parochial
system made its appearance. A body of celibate
clergy, living in community, observing a religious
rule and entrusted with the care of souls over an ill-
defined area will probably represent the normal, just
as an anchorite living solitary with a view to the
perfecting of his soul in holiness will represent the
abnormal development of the monastic ideal. We have
no means of estimating the number of monks whose
segregation constituted a Cornish lan. It is probable
that the communities were small as compared with
those of Wales and Ireland. The great monastery of
Bangor Iscoed on the Dee had, according to the Vener- ^
able Bede, at the beginning of the seventh century no
less than 2100 monks. Clonard, in the county of
Meath, founded by St. Finnian about the year 520, ■
is said to have been larger. It may be extravagance
on the part of the biographer of St. Patrick to state
that the saint enjoined a levy of a tithe of the men as

54

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

well as a tithe of the land for the support of the
Church, 1 but there can be no doubt that a very con-
siderable fraction of the Celtic population embraced
the religious life. At the same time we shall probably
arrive at a false economic inference unless we bear
in mind the tripartite division of the monk's day
which required one-third of it to be spent in manual
labour.

Professor Loth, as the result of a careful study of
Breton toponomastic, has arrived at the conclusion
that the Armorican parishes were placed as early as
the sixth and seventh century under the invocation
of the saints — ^national, emigrant, or otherwise —
whose names they still bear. ^ It is therefore possible,
I think probable, that the Cornish parish is older
than the English. The reforms of Archbishop Theo-
dore (668-690) which resulted in the subdivision of
dioceses and the formation of parishes, were begun
though not completed a little less than a century
later. Cornwall and Wales were unaffected by these
reforms, the Archbishop of Canterbury's jurisdiction
not being acknowledged by Cornwall until the days
of Egbert (803-839), or by Wales until the beginning
of the twelfth century.

In the absence of clear historical evidence it would
be rash to assert that every development in Wales,
Brittany and Ireland was followed by a corresponding
development in Cornwall, but where the same religious
influences were at work in every other Celtic-speaking
country it may be assumed that those influences were ■
at work in Cornwall, and the receptivity of the Cornish
in the matter of religion, when the influence was held

* Quoted by Dom Gougaud, Les ChrHierUia cdtiques, p. 82.
■ Gougaud, ibid., p. 107,

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall 55

to come from the right quarter, is witnessed by the
readiness wherewith they admitted Welsh, Irish and
Breton saints into their hagiologies.

At the time imder discussion it will be borne in
mind that the saints reverenced in Cornwall were \
almost if not wholly Celtic. Even at the present time,
in spite of the Saxon conquest and the submission to
Canterbury, in spite of the attempt to substitute
saints from the Roman Kalendar for the Celtic patrons
of Cornish churches in the fourteenth century, and
in spite of the ignorant perversion of spelling and the
abortive attempts at identification on the part of the
Enghsh registrars who conducted the business of the
bishop's court at Exeter, it is a matter for wonder
and gratitude that so many Cornish churches should
still be known by their ancient saints' names.

If we compare the dedications of Derbyshire with
those of Cornwall we find that of the 168 ancient
churches in the former county, 72 are under the
invocation of Scriptural saints, 18 under St. Michael,
28 under All Saints, 34 under historical saints like
Martin, Lawrence and Giles and about 16 under
English and Saxonised saints, like Edmund, Oswald,
Wilfrid, Wer burgh and Cuthbert.

On the other hand, in Cornwall, of the 200 dedica-
tions 30 are Scriptural, less than 30 are strangers
(either historical and non-English like Martin, Ger- j
man and Clement, or aggressively English, like
Morwenna, Werburgh, Swithun and Neot, or Saxon-
ised like Cuthbert, Olave, Odulph and Hugh) and the
rest, more than two-thirds of the total number, are
Celtic. Nor is it difficult to account for the presence
of the Saxon element. The monastic ideal presented
by Werburgh the abbess and by Cuthbert the abbot-

56 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

bishop would appeal to the prevailing monastic
temper, while the early settlement of Saxons in the
north-eastern portion of the county, of which we have
abundant proof in its toponomastic (e.g. in Morwen-
stow, Jacobstow, Aldestow and Neotstou) and in the
will of King Alfred (871-901) whose possessions in
Triconshire (the hundred of Trigg which at that time
probably embraced the hundred of Stratton) are
expressly mentioned, will account for saints like
Neot, Swithun and Morwenna who probably dis-
placed the Celtic saints of an earlier period.

Before passing to what is of greatest interest — ^the
Celtic episcopate — a few words are required respect-
ing the two great controversies, which, however
trivial in themselves, served the purpose of furnishing
records of a period concerning which records are very
scarce.

The Easter no less than the Tonsure controversy
was one of the results of the isolation of Celtic Chris-
tianity. In order to find Easter the Roman Church
had, until the year 457, used the old Jewish cycle of
84 years. In that year a cycle of 532 years was
adopted. The Welsh and Cornish, who had received
their Christianity during the Roman occupation of
Great Britain, and therefore long before 457, con-
tinued to use the Jewish cycle. They refused to
conform to the Roman use and persisted in their
refusal for a very considerable period. Ireland, which
had also become Christian before 457, was the first to
adopt the Roman Easter in 633. Cornwall followed
in or about 705, as the result of St. Aldhelm's famous
letter to Geruntius, prince of Dumnonia. North
Wales held out until 768 and South Wales until 777.^
* Haddan and Stubbs, Councils^ etc., i, 201.

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall 57

Mr. Haddan, who identifies the " errores " of bishop
Leofric's Missal (909) with the " egregium errorem
Brittonum " of Bede's history, is incUned to the
opinion that St. Aldhelm's letter was inoperative out-
side the Kingdom of Wessex ;^ but the opinion is
open to dispute.

The shaving of the head does not appear to have
been associated with the Christian ministry until the
fourth century. The apostolic injunction respecting
long hair was observed, but it was the monks who
introduced the tonsure which, at first, was a tonsure
of the entire head and known as that of St. Paul.
St. Peter's tonsure, which allowed to the shaven
ecclesiastic an aureole or crown of hair around the
denuded pate, was not introduced until the sixth
century. Long before this time, however, the monks
of the Celtic world had become distinguished by a
tonsure which apparently made bare the fore part
only of the head and left a semicircular fringe in
front. The Celtic tonsure was taken by the British
refugees to Brittany and Galicia. It was as char-
acteristic of the Celtic clergy as the kilt is characteris-
tic of Scottish soldiers to-day. Its origin was almost
certainly Druidical, and, if so, it is one of the few
shreds of evidence we possess of the presence of
Druids in Cornwall. Their presence in Great Britain
at an earlier period is generally allowed ; their
presence and power in Ireland is conclusively proved.

The Celtic tonsure appears to have been abandoned
at the time when the Roman Easter was accepted.
1 Ibid., i, 674 and 676.

THE MONASTERY-BISHOPRICS OF
CORNWALL

THE chief interest of Celtic Christianity gathers
around the monastery-bishopric and the abbot-
bishop who ruled it. In the sixth century the
religious hfe had become much more than a counsel
of perfection. In Ireland the Church was almost
exclusively monastic. In Wales St. German is said
to have founded a monastery during his second visit.
Iltut, whom he ordained priest, was the founder of
Llantwit, the great school of monks whence came
Sampson, Paul Aurelian and possibly Gildas and
David.

At the outset it is necessary to guard against
the undercurrent of thought which connects Celtic
monasticism with one or other of the great religious
orders. The earliest of these orders — ^that of St.
Benedict — was not established until about a.d. 529,
and was not introduced into Britain until St. Augus-
tine's arrival in a.d. 597. At the interview between
Augustine and the Welsh bishops in 603 Dinoot
abbot of Bangor Iscoed was among the strongest
opponents of compromise. Celtic monasticism owed
nothing to St. Benedict or to St. Augustine. When
therefore we read the statement of a shrewd and
learned wi'iter like Sir John Maclean that "St. Pet rock
founded his monastery at Bodmin adopting the rule

58

Monastery-Bishoprics of Cornwall 50

of St. Benedict " and when we recall an admission
by the same writer that Petrock was educated at
the great monastery of Clonard towards the end of
the fifth or at the beginning of the sixth century,
i.e. presumably between 490 and a.d. 510 and
therefore before the Benedictine order was founded,
we realise how mischievous this undercurrent of
thought may prove.

There is no evidence that any early monastic
foundation in the Celtic world was established in
accordance with the Benedictine discipline. Celtic
monasticism was quite definitely sui generis. The
mission of St. German in 429 and 447 probably laid
the foundations of it in Britain.

It had achieved some of its greatest victories before
St. Augustine of Canterbury was born. Paul Aurelian,
the Welsh monk, established the monastery -bishopric
of Leon in a.d. 530 : Sampson, a compatriot, the
similar foundation at Dol in a.d. 565 : Tutwal of
British Dumnonia was abbot before he became abbot -
bishop of Treguier in the same century. In Ireland
the monastery of Clonard was founded before the
Benedictine order came into existence. St. Patrick
was a contemporary of St. German. Celtic Chris-
tianity, while it was practically independent of
Rome,^ became intensely monastic. There is nothing
therefore to lead us to regard the canons of St.
Petrock, St. Piran, St. Stephen, St. Keverne and
St. Probus, mentioned in Domesday Book, as
subject to the discipline of St. Benedict. Such

1 Cornwall's independence of Rome implied neither repudiation
of nor secession from the Roman Church. It was merely the
temporary suspension of outward communion with Latin Chris-
tianity as the result of political events which had placed Cornwall in
a state of isolation.

60 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

evidence as we possess tends to confirm the contrary
opinion. What has been said of the order of St.
Benedict appHes with greater force to that of St.
Augustine, the Black Canons, whose earhest founda-
tion in England dates from a.d. 1108, that is, 22
years after Domesday Book was compiled. Cardinal
Gasquet truly says the clergy of every large church,
as being subject to rule, were called canons. The
rule of St. Augustine w^as not introduced at
Bodmin until the time of Bishop William Warelwast
(1107-36).!

Under the strong pressure exerted by monastic
expansion the governmental character of episcopacy
became attenuated. This was especially the case in
Ireland and in those churches which owed their
foundation to Irish missions. The multiplication of
bishops tended to degrade the office. It is impossible
to read the accounts of monastic rule as developed by
St. Bridget at Kildare and by the Irish mission at
lona, and of the mechanical and subsidiary part
which the bishops were called upon to play in the

1 The statement is based upon the assumption that the decrees
of Pope Leo III were as inoperative in Conawall as they were in
Wales and Ireland. It should be needless to warn the reader against
confoimding Augustine of Canterbury with the bishop of Hippo.
The latter is said to have sanctioned certain regulations for the
religious life which subsequently became loiown as the rule of
St. Augustine. In the beginning of the ninth century Pope Leo III
made this rule obligatory upon all the clergy who had not embraced
some other rule. Had the monks of St. Petrock been in outward
communion with western Christendom they would probably have
become canons, regular or secular, of St. Augustine and, in that
case and in that sense only, Sir John Maclean's statement might
have been excusable. But in that sense the words had no meaning
in the sixth century when St. Petrock founded the Cornish com-
munity. Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk nnd
the canons regular introduced by Bishop Warelwast, knovm as
Black Canons, belonged to one of the three great orders which
sprang from the rule attributed to his groat namesake the bishop of
Hippo.

I

Monastery- Bishoprics of Cornwall 61

drama, without being aware of the subversion of one
of the fundamental marks of episcopacy. The
present wi'itcr has found but slight evidence of this
disastrous policy in Wales and Brittany. There the
abbot -bishop is seen as the ruler of a monastery or
of a tribe. Innumerable monasteries had no bishop
at all. The presence of a bishop gave to the monastery
the elements of permanence and priority. The Breton
and Welsh monastery-bishoprics have in many
instances survived as bishoprics up to the present
time solely, as it would seem, owing to their early
episcopal character.

The distinction between the Irish and British
conception of episcopacy must be borne in mind
when we attempt to reconstruct the ecclesiastical
institutions of Cornwall. It has been shown that the
relation between Cornwall and Brittany was that of
mother and daughter. Between Wales and Cornwall
the relation, though probably less close, was far closer
than that between Ireland and Cornwall. It is there-
fore more than probable that while the abbot -bishop
was everywhere a distinguishing feature of Celtic
Christianity there was here (in this county) no such
perversion of the episcopal office as to give rise
to a body of episcopi vagantes of whom we read in
connection with Ireland and Irish missions. ^

That Cornwall possessed bishops is certain, and
that they ruled monasteries is equally certain,
diocesan bishops being, during the period under
consideration, practically unknown to the Celtic
world. History helps us little as regards Cornwall.
We know that in a.d. 664 two British bishops (duobus

^ Dom Gougaud speaks of them as ^iqties dddasees et errants
{Chrdtientes, p. 219).

62 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

de Brittonum gente episcopis), whom Mr. Haddan
considers to have been Cornish, assisted Wini, the
Saxon bishop of Wessex, in the consecration of
St. Chad.i

Gildas, the Jeremiah of Britain, whose De Excidio
is stated to have been written in the sixth century,
introduces us to an ecclesiastical system which, in
respect of its main features, differs hardly if at all
from that ^vith which we are famihar, but wliich
both surprises us by the evidence of its progress and
alarms us by the extent of its perverseness. Gildas
speaks of the clergy " intruding themselves into the
preferments of the Church, yea, rather buying the
same at a high rate " and " after the example of
Simon Magus buying the office of a bishop or of a
priest." There was, therefore, already in the sixth
century, if the traditional date of the De Excidio be
accepted, a gradation not only of dignity but also of
office and emolument, for which, without Gildas'
evidence, we should hardly have been prepared. The
denunciations of Gildas have been held to apply to
the civil rulers and the secular clergy only,^ but
there seems to be no good reason for accepting this
hypothesis unless we read into the sixth century
conditions which are found at a later period. It is
important and sufficient for us to know that the
British Church was highly organised and compara-
tively wealthy at this time.

To suppose, however, that Celtic monasteries were
large, solid structures of stone with cloisters, refec-
tories, dortors and the like is to mistake the economic
conditions of the period and of the countries under

* Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 1, 124.

* Gougaud, Chritientis, p. 67.

I

Monastery-BisJioprics of Cornwall 63

review. To associate the Celtic bishop with a durable
and spacious cathedral church is almost as grotesque
an anachronism as to represent St. Lucy (who died
in the year 303), as they do in the sailors' church at
Naples, apparelled in a modern court dress with a
tiara of gems and a necklace of beautiful pearls.

The Celtic monastery has been compared to a
pioneer settlement. It consisted of a congeries of
detached cells, each suitable for the habitation of one
or more monks. The cells, like the churches of the
period, were commonly of wood, sometimes of stone.
It is therefore, after the lapse of so many centuries,
usually futile to seek for traces of them. Of existing
Christian remains of the Celtic period in Cornwall
the most noteworthy and interesting are the granite
crosses and those monuments especially which bear
the Chi-rho monogram. The chapels at Perranza-
buloe, at Gwithian and at Madron are also of this
date, the two former probably owing their preserva-
tion to the sand which buried them and the latter
to the healing virtues of the waters of the holy well
which flow through it.^

Having sho^vn that the Celtic conception of
episcopal jurisdiction was definitely monastic, as
opposed to the Roman which, at an early period, had
become diocesan, it is necessary to fix approximately
the date at which, in Cornwall, the former gave place
to the latter. Upon the solution of the problem
depends the character to be assigned to the four
Celtic bishops, Kenstec, Conan, Daniel and Comoere,
whose names are disclosed in certain authentic docu-
ments and are given in the Truro Diocesan Kalendar.

^ To this period Mr. Jenner would also assign the dwellings at
Chysauster which may indeed, as he suggests, have been St. Gulval's
nunnery.

64 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

In Brittany, a more progressive country and less
isolated than Cornwall, the change was violently
effected by the patriot Nominoe in the year 849. In
Ireland the diocesan system was not adopted until
1152.1 Wales submitted to the jurisdiction and
discipline of Canterbury in 1207. It is certain, there-
fore, that Cornwall, more opposed to Saxon influence
than any of the others, did not accept the diocesan
system until the days of Egbert (836). There is good
reason to believe that the change took place much
later. Kenstec's letter to Archbishop Ceolnoth
(833-870) states explicitly that his bishopric was
monastic (Ego Kensiec . . . [ad] episcopalem sedem
in genie Cornubia in monasterio quod lingua Brettonum
appellatur Dinuurin electus, etc.).^

The next bit of historical evidence is that of Asser,
the adviser of King Alfred, to whom Alfred in 884
committed Exeter cum omni parochia quae ad se
pertinebat in Saxonia et in Cornubia.^ The precise
nature of the commission is uncertain. If the gift
was made after Asser became bishop of Sherborne
it probably involved the oversight of Devon and of
that portion of Trigg, in Cornwall, where Alfred's
possessions were situated. There is nothing to lead
us to conclude that the Celtic Christianity of Cornwall
was to be affected by it.

A very distinct advance, in intention if not in
achievement, was made when, in 909, Archbishop
Plegmund constituted the see of Crediton. To Eadulf
the bishop were given three vills in Cornwall, —
" Pollton, Coelling and Landuuithan from wlxich

1 stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, p. 347.
« Haddan and Stubbs, CounciU, I, 676,
» Ibid., I, 676.

Monastery-Bishoprics of Cornwall 65

year by year he might visit the Cornish people in
order to extirpate their errors. For in times past, as
far as possible, they resisted the truth and were not
obedient to the apostolical decrees." Pollton and
Landuuithan are unquestionably Pawton in St.
Breock and Lawhitton. CoeUing presents some
difficulty because Domesday Book and all subsequent
records represent Callington (with which it has been
identified) as ancient demesne of the Crown. It is
possible, however, that before the Norman Conquest
Coelling may have been surrendered to the King or
have been exchanged for another holding.^

How far Eadulf was successful it is again im-
possible to say. A conquered race does not readily
surrender its traditional religious customs. One of
the most instructive records of the Jewish captivity
is that which preserves the pedigrees of the priests
who were themselves to preserve and perpetuate the
priestly succession. ^

Athelstan's policy (925-940) of excluding the
Cornish from Exeter and confining them within the
limits of their own province does not at first sight
point to improved relations between the two races.
His conquest of the whole of Cornwall may be
accepted as fact and also his grant of lands to the
church of St. Buryan. Perhaps the most important
act of his life, so far as Cornwall was concerned, was,
in the words of Leland, " to set up one Conan to be
bishop in the church of St. Overman. '* The statement,
even if copied from what he regarded as a trust-
worthy document, would have carried little weight

* It is even possible that Coelling may be Callestock in Perranza-
buloe. The canons of Exeter had lands in that parish in the twelfth
century.

» Ezra VII ; Nehemiah XII.

66

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

as coining from a writer who lived 600 years after
the event, had not Bishop Conan been found signing
chai-ters, undoubtedly authentic, between the years
931 and 934. Moreover, the name Conan is Celtic
and occurs frequently in Cornish place-names. I am
inclined to think that the Bishop Donan whose name
is appended to the St. Buryan charter is a tran-
scriber's mistake for Bishop Conan. ^ The question
naturally suggests itself, how was it possible for a
people smarting under recent defeat to accept the
religious ministrations provided by their conqueror ?
Close upon a century had elapsed since the decisive
battle of Hengestisdun, and during the interval
doubtless a considerable portion of the Cornish had
come to accept the Saxon supremacy. Athelstan's
mission may have been, generally speaking, pacific
though involving punishment to the disaffected and
rebellious.

In choosing a Cornishman, and one probably
already a bishop, for the see of St. Germans, he would
be acting in a conciliatory spirit, especially if he, at
the same time, recognised the traditional type of
Cornish Christianity. There is no reason to interpret
his action as involving a departure from it.

An interesting note is given by Haddan and Stubbs^
which calls attention to the signature of one Mancant,
a bishop, to a charter of 932 to which also Bishop
Conan's name is appended. The learned editors
rightly conjecture that Mancant was a Cornish
bishop (Mancant, or more correctly Maucant). Coeval

* Donan, however, is a Celtic name (see Loth, Rev. Celt., XXIX,
277). For the purpose of the argument which is here put forward
it would have been more convenient to have distinguished between
them.

« Councils, I, 979.

I

Monastery 'Bishoprics of Cornwall 67

Cornish bishops are just what we should expect to
find in the tenth century no less than in the sixth.

Quite the most valuable extant document of
Cornish Christianity, however, is the List of Manu-
missions on the Bodmin Gospels which dates from the
year 942 and carries us almost to the middle of the
eleventh century. From this precious manuscript
we gather that there were during that period the
following bishops in, or connected with, Cornwall ;
(1) Athelgea[rd] possibly bishop of Crediton, (2)
Comoere contemporary with Edgar (958-975), (3)
Wulfsige of a slightly subsequent date, (4) Burthwold
mentioned in Cnut's charter and described by William
of Malmesbury as uncle of Living or Lyfing the
penultimate bishop of Crediton. Charters also dis-
close two additional bishops : Ealdred (993-997) and
Aethelred (1001). Of these Comoere, Wulfsige and
Ealdred are identified by Mr. Haddan with Bodmin
and Burthwold with St. Germans. Comoere's name
is Celtic ; the rest of the names are Saxon. But the
important point is that they are all, except possibly
the first, contemporary with, though not identical
with, bishops of Crediton, in other words, some
measure of independence continued to exist between
the Saxon see and the see or sees of Cornwall. There
is nothing to show that, before the days of Wulfsige
(967), i.e. until within 80 years of Leofric, the first
bishop of Exeter, the greater part of Cornwall was
not Celtic both in religion and language. The change
of ecclesiastical organisation was made at a period
much later than is commonly supposed.^

^ In the West of Cornwall there are indications in Domesday
Book (1086) of the recent introduction of Saxon place-names, e.g. in
Edward the Confessor's time it can hardly be a coincidence that
Aluuarton {hodie Alverton) was the holding of Aluuar.

68

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

The charter of King Aethelred to Bishop Ealdred
(994) seems to point to a period of transition. He
gives to Bishop Ealdred episcopal jurisdiction in the
province of Cornwall that it (the province ?) may be
free and subject to him and his successors, " that he
may govern and rule his diocese (parocJdam) in the
same way as other bishops who are in his realm,
both the monastery (locus) and the domain (regimen)
of St. Petrock being under the control of him and
his successors." If the English conception of
diocesan jurisdiction had been generally known and
allowed in Cornwall there would have been no need
to require the stipulations contained in the con-
cluding paragraph. Ealdred was to administer the
see of St. Petrock on English lines. History does not
tell us what was, in the meanwhile, happening at
St. Germans ; but twenty-four years later (in 1018)
we meet with a grant of lands, in Landrake and
Tiniel, by King Cnut to Burhwold bishop of St.
Germans ; the Landrake lands were to be held by
the bishop during his life and after his death they
were to be held for the good of the souls of him and
the King. The Tiniel lands were to be used as the
bishop thought fit. It is interesting to note that
these lands were not annexed to the bishopric but
continued to be held by the prior of St. Germans until
the dissolution of the priory in the sixteenth century.

At the time of Cnut's grant Cornwall had practically
lost its independence both civil and ecclesiastical.
All the witnesses of his charter, twenty-seven in
number, bear Saxon names.

Burhwold died in or about a.d. 1043. Lyfing his
nephew, who had become bishop of Crediton in 1027,
was, in pursuance of an arrangement made long before

Monastery-Bishoprics of Cornwall 69

between him and King Cnut, allowed to hold both
sees. On Lyfing's death, in the third year of the
Confessor's reign (1046), Leofric the King's chaplain
was appointed to the united bishopric (episcopatum
Cridionensis ecclesiae atque Cornubiensis provinciae)
and the see transferred to Exeter. Papal sanction was
obtained for the transaction three years afterwards.

By his charter of ratification, dated 1050, Edward
the Conficssor transfers the Cornish diocese which had
formerly been assigned to a bishop's see (episcopali
solio) in memory of Blessed German and in veneration
of Petrock, this, with all parishes, lands, etc., he
transfers to St. Peter in the city of Exeter. The
absence of clear definition in the last paragraph is
sufficiently obvious : no clearer definition was pos-
sible. There had been hitherto no Cornish diocese
in the English and Roman acceptation of the word.
There had been bishops both at Bodmin and at
St. Germans within living memory holding lands and
exercising jurisdiction, but the monastic tie was still
probably stronger than the diocesan.

Yet it was obviously important, now that Exeter
was to be the seat of ecclesiastical government for the
two counties, that ample provision should be made
for the great bishop who was to occupy it. Exeter
lacked lands, books and almost every church orna-
ment ; so stated Pope Leo in his letter to King
Edward. Accordingly the King not only gave to it
lands of his own but he provided for the transfer of
all that could under any reasonable pretext be claimed
for its support. In effect, he made it possible for the
Exeter bishopric to derive nearly one-half of its entire
revenue from Cornish monastic lands. But the endow-
ment of the see of Exeter requires a chapter to itself.

VI

EVOLUTION OF THE

DIOCESAN-BISHOPRIC FROM THE

MONASTERY-BISHOPRICS OF CORNWALL

THE Roman and, consequently, the Saxon con-
ception of episcopal government was territorial
and diocesan ; the Celtic conception was tribal and
monastic. An ecclesiastical system based upon tribal
and monastic principles, recognising no supreme
central authority, can afford to dispense with clearly
defined boundaries. At the same time a monastic,
no less than a tribal organisation, requires a centre of
its own, towards which its activities may converge,
and from which its influences may radiate.

The present is an attempt to show where the more
important of such centres existed in Cornwall before
diocesan was substituted for monastic rule. Doubtless
every Ian represented some such centre, however in-
significant, just as every caer represented a fortified
seat of civil authority. The Ian justified its existence
by the strength and fervour of its prayers and
spiritual influence : the caer by the strength of its
natural position and its artificial defences. A monas-
tic settlement with a definite amount of demesne land,
corresponding to its size and importance, upon which
the monks worked for the support of the community,
will sufficiently indicate what is meant. Some mon-
asteries had bishops ; some — the greater number —

70

Evolution of Bishoprics 71

were without them. The great monasteries of Lan-
devennee in Brittany, Llantwit in Wales, and Bangor
in Ireland, do not appear to have had bishops of
their own, or, if they had, their episcopal character
was submerged. On the other hand, the monastery-
bishoprics of all three countries are too well known
to require demonstration. The isolation of the Church
in Cornwall until the middle of the tenth century
encouraged and perpetuated the system in the
mother country which in the fifth and sixth century
it had helped to establish in Brittany.

Domesday Book, when studied by the light of
earlier and later records, supplies invaluable informa-
tion upon the subject of Cornish ecclesiastical organ-
isation even before the Saxon conquest.

At the time of the Great Survey (1086), the bishop
of Exeter held the following manors in Cornwall :

Treliuel (Treluswell in St. Gluvias).
Matela (Methleigh in St. Breage).
Tregel (Trewell in St. Feock).
Pauton (Pawton in St. Breock).
Berner (Burneir in Egloshayle).
St. German (St. Germans).
Lanherneu (Lanherne in Pydar).
Tinten (Tinten in St. Tudy).
Languititon (Lawhitton).
Landicla (Gulval).
St. Winnuc (St. Winnow).

Of these eleven manors all except five, viz. Burneir,
Lanherne, Tinten, Lanisley, and St. Winnow, were
demesne lands, the whole of their revenues going
direct to the bishop. Richard Fitz Tm'old held
Burneir and Tinten of the bishop, who received the

72 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

profits of the former. Fuleard held Lanherne, and
Godfrey St. Winnow. The services or profits rendered
to the bishop in respect of four of the five manors
would be comparatively trifling, except on the death
of the tenant in demesne and during the minority of
his heir. Consequently they are not considered worthy
of mention in the Taxatio, made by Pope Nicholas IV
of the bishop's temporalities in the year 1291.

In order to estimate the extent and value of the
bishop's possessions in Cornwall it will suffice to com-
pare them with those of the clergy, as given in the
Taxatio or assessment just mentioned. It must,
however, be remembered that Methleigh had ceased
to be an episcopal manor before that assessment was
made, having been granted by Bishop Robert Warel-
wast, between 1155 and 1161, to the dean and chapter
of Exeter.^ On the other hand, the manor of Cargol,
in Newlyn, had been acquired in the meanwhile. ^
Moreover, Treluswcll and Tregella, for civil purposes,
had become differentiated into Camwerris (Penwerris),
Trevella, Tolverne, Fentongollen, Trevennal, and
Trelonk,^ and for the purpose of ecclesiastical assess-
ment had become known as Tregaher and Penryn.*
In 1306 Tregaher, or Trocair, was the name of the
major portion of the hundred of Powder, and was
itself regarded as a hundred. The Bishop's holdings
by military tenure in this hundred were rated at four
knights' fees. Tregaher, the seat of these possessions,
which lay east and west of the river Fal, is now known
as Tregear in Gerrans. Roughly speaking, the bishop's
manors in this district included the whole of the

^ Inventory of Bp. Grandisson.

" Exeter Episc. Registers, Stapeldon, p. 97.

3 Feudal Aids 1303, 1306, 1346.

* Episc, Reg. Bronescomhe, App. p. 473.

Evolution of Bislioprics 78

parishes of Gerrans, St. Gluvias with Falmouth,
Budock, Mabe, Mylor, Philleigh, Merther, St. Just-in-
Roseland, and Ruan Lanyhorne. His demesne lands
were very extensive and valuable, as will be seen by
comparing the papal assessment of Tregaher (£20
lis. 5d.) with that of the rectory of Gerrans (£2 6s. 7d.)
and the assessment of Penryn (£21 8s. Id) with that
of the benefice of St. Gluvias (£2).

PaA\i:qn and Burneir must be considered together,
for they were doubtless both included in the grant
made by King Edward the Elder to Eadulf when the
see of Crediton was constituted in 909. The extent
of the bishop's holding in Pawton at the time of the
Domesday Survey (1086) is declared to be the entire
hundred of Pawton, comprising 44 hides of land. It
extended over the parishes of St. Breock, Egloshayle,
St. Ervan, St. Eval, St. Issey, Little Petherick, St.
Merryn, and Padstow. Pawton is only a contracted
form of Petrockton, and there is sufficient reason to
believe that these lands of the bishop had formerly
belonged to the monastery of St. Petrock. In the
Inquisitio Geldi (1085) the scribe appears to have
found it difficult to describe the hundred of Pawton
according to the prescribed formula. In his list of
the hundreds he has interlined over " Rieltone
Hundret " the words " Sci Petrochii,"^ and has
added Pauton at the end of the list. In his second
attempt he has placed the hundred of Pauton first
and omitted St. Petrock's altogether. It is interesting
to observe that so late as the year 1691 the hundred

^ St. Petrock's hundred had, of course, no connection with
Rielton or Rillaton, subsequently known as the hundred of East.
The confusion may have arisen from the fact that the baiUwick of
Pydar was at Rialton, and that of East at Rillaton, formerly
Rielton.

74 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

of Pydar is described in a grant from the Crown as
" Petrockshire alias Pidershire alias the hundred of
Pider." ^ Whether the word Pydershire is a sublimated
equivalent of Petrockshire is a question for etymo-
logists. That the two were not quite territorially
conterminous is evident from Domesday Book itself,
in which Nancekuke in Penwith and Forsne^vth in
West are included among the manors of St. Petrock.
The important point to grasp is that out of the very
heart of St. Petrock's province, Pawton, and with it
what subsequently became known as the bishop's
peculiar jurisdiction, embracing five parishes {decana-
ius de Poltone), was transferred in 909 from the
monastery of St. Petrock to the new see of Crediton,
and in 1046 to the see of Exeter. The episcopal
revenue from Pawton in 1291 may be estimated by
comparing its assessment (£49 16s. 3d.) with that of
the church (appropriated rectory and vicarage) of
Egloshayle (£5).

Lawhitton, given to Crediton at the same time as
Pawton, was also of considerable extent. It con-
sisted of eleven hides of land in 1086, and was assessed
in 1291 at £25 10s. lid., while the church or rectory
of Lawhitton was assessed at £2. From what source
it was obtained for the endowment of Crediton is not
clear. Along with Lezant and South Petherwyn it
was subsequently within the bishop of Exeter's
peculiar jurisdiction. Possibly it had been taken
(in 909) from the canons of St. Stephen near Launces-
ton.

The manor of St. German, or, as it is called in the
Exchequer Domesday, the manor of the church of
St. German, consisted in 1086 of twenty-four hides
» Patent Roll, 3 William and Mary.

Evolution of Bishoprics 75

of land, the whole of which had been held by Bishop
Leofric in the time of the Confessor. At the time of
the Survey (1086) the bishop had twelve hides and
the canons of St. German had twelve hides. The
bishop had one hide in demesne, and the canons had
one hide in demesne : the rest of the land was held
by villeins either of the bishop or of the canons. It is
clear, therefore, that between 1066 and 1086 a redis-
tribution had taken place, as the result of which the
bishop and the canons had been assigned equal
shares of the lands. A Sunday market which had
fallen to the latter had been reduced to nothing owing
to a market on the same day having been established
at Trematon Castle by the Count of Mortain. There
had also been taken away by the Count from the
church of St. German a hide of land which rendered
as custom a cask (cupa) of ale and 30 pence, an acre
(Cornish) of demesne land sufficient for one plough,
and a virgate of demesne land which called for no
remark. Of the usurped lands Reginald de Valletort
held the two former, and Hamelin the latter, of the
Count. In 1291 the bishop's manor of St. German
was assessed at £17 16s. 5d., and the prior's holding
at £14 13s. 4d. for lands in St. Germans, £l for dues
from South PetherwjTi and Landulph, and £9 16s. 2d.
for lands, including those of Tiniel and Landrake
given to Bishop Burhwold by King Cnut in the year
1018. In the Valor ecclesiasticus (1535) to the
revenues of the priory from the above sources there
is added the impropriated tithe of Gulval, of which
something more will be said when treating of Lanisley.
What actually happened shortly after the Norman
Conquest in regard to St. Germans is not obscure,
although some confusion has resulted owing to a

76 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

misapprehension on the part of more than one writer.
Cnut's gift to Bishop Burhwold, as we have seen,^
only served to augment the revenues of the religious
community, of which Burhwold was doubtless the
head. Under Lyfing, the nephew and successor of
Burhwold, and before the death of Cnut, the see of
St. Germans, such as it was, was united with that of
Crediton, the community still consisting of secular
canons. Leofric succeeded Lyfing, and in his days the
see of Crediton and its possessions were transferred
to Exeter. The revenue of St. German was conse-
quently impoverished. Nothing appears to have
been done to repair the loss until after Edward the
Confessor's death, but, somewhere between 1066 and
1073, Leofric consented to a partition of the revenue
by which the bishop and the canons became possessed
of equal shares, as stated in Domesday Book.^

* See Monastery-Bishoprics, supra.

* The Patent Roll of 7 Richard II (cf . also Monaaticon, edited by
Oliver, p. 4) should be compared with the Patent Roll of 9 Richard
II. The former states that Cnut was the foimder of the priory
of St. German, while the latter states that Leofric was the founder.
Inasmuch as the charter of Cnut required the land of Landrake to
be given after Burhwold's death to St. German for the good of the
souls of Cnut and Burhwold {Terram . . . commendat . . . Sancto
Oermano) it follows that both statements were (and were probably
imderstood to be) legal fictions. The earlier document, however,
confirms, if confirmation were needed, the evidence as to the
reconstruction of the monastery by Leofric as given in Domesday
Book, though it is not necessarily conclusive as to the substitution
of regular for secular canons. Preb. Hingeston Randolph {Architec.
Hist, of St. Oermans, p. .31) states that "there is no reason to
suppose that Leofric took any steps to found a priory at St.
Germans." The statement is far too sweeping. On the other hand,
Mr. Haddan {Councils, etc., I, 704) relies upon the ipsisaima verba
of the Patent Roll for one of his main arguments for a single Comisli
see in the days of Cnut. By itself the evidence supplied by an early
patent roll relating to a transaction which took place nearly four
centuries previously is not conclusive, especially when, as in this
case, a legal title was needed in order to settle a dispute, and to
place a bishop in midisputed possession of an advowson.

Evolution of Bishoprics 77

Having briefly reviewed the more important of the
Cornish contributions to the revenue of the Exeter
bishopric, a few words are required respecting the
manors wlxich, though absent from the Taxatio of
1291, were in 1086 amongst the possessions of the
bishop, and were recorded in Domesday Book.

Matela or Methleigh, reckoned at a hide and a half
in 1086, was granted by the bishop to the dean and
chapter-of Exeter, about the year 1160 and, by them,
was conveyed soon afterwards to the family of Nan-
sladron. It was to this manor that the church of
St. Breage was appendant, and it may well have
been the demesne land of a religious community
before the Saxon invasion.

Landicla or Lanisley, also a hide and a half, was
held by Holland the archdeacon, of the bishop in
1086, having been Bishop Leofric's in the time of
the Confessor. It embraced the whole parish of
Gulval. Before the enactment of the statute Quia
emptores in 1290, the whole of the demesne land ap-
pears to have been granted to the family of Fitz Ive.
There is consequently no mention of it in the Taxatio
of the following year, although the seignorial rights
were subsequently claimed and exercised by the
bishop from time to time as occasion arose. In 1580
it is described in an inquisition as having been held
by John Tripcony of the bishop as of his manor of
Penrjm Foren, but the description, far from indicating
a common origin of the two manors, probably only
indicates a late expedient enabling the bishop to
claim the services and collect the dues, if any, at his
chief manor in the west. The advowson, and with it
the rectorial tithe of Lanisley or Gulval, was at an
early date held by the prior and canons of St. Germans,

78 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

and continued to be held by them until the dissolution
of their religious house in the sixteenth century. In
the Valor ecclesiasticus their holding was assessed at
£10 6s. 8d. It is not unlikely that when Bishop
Leofric reconstituted the church of St. German he
gave to it the advowson of Lanisley. ^

Lanherne, the Lanherneu of Domesday, was a
holding of Bishop Leofric before the Norman conquest,
and was in 1086 held by Fulcard of the bishop. It
was estimated at three hides. Of the incidents of
tenure in subsequent times nothing remained to the
bishop save homage, wardship, and the like, and the
manor was not considered worthy of assessment in
the Taxatio of 1291. It would be interesting to know
how this manor came into the bishop's hands. It
adjoined his manor or hundred of Pawton, and may
have passed with it, but, curiously enough, the parish
of St. Mawgan, with which it was almost conterminous,
was not within the bishop's peculiar jurisdiction. The
manor was, doubtless, St. Petrock's before it became
the bishop's.

The manor of St. Winnuc or St. Winnow had already
passed to a sub-tenant at the time of the Domesday
Survey, and the impropriated tithe and advowson
of the church of St. Winnow to the dean and chapter
of Exeter, before 1291. There is nothing to suggest
the source whence the manor was obtained for the
endowment of the bishopric, save that St. Winnow

* There is a temptation to identify Lanisley with the Lannale-
densis of the Miasa S. Oermani (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., I,
696). Alet, or Aloth, and Idles, in the parish of Konwyn, are
regarded as synonymous, if not identical, in several ancient charters.
On the same principle Lanaleth would become Lanidles, a form
sufficiently near that of Lanisle to convey the idea of identity. But
Mr. Haddan is satisfied that Lanadleth is the British name of
St. Germans, and the confusion introduced by the above suppoBition
would be practically insurmountable.

Evolution of Bishoprics 79

adjoins Lanhydrock, which belonged to St. Petrock,
and may, therefore, have been taken from the saint.

The manor of Tinten in St. Tudy, held in 1086 by
Richard, of the bishop, was not considered worthy of
separate mention in the Taxatio of 1291. It is the
only episcopal manor the name or locality of which
does not suggest an ecclesiastical origin. The ad-
vowson of St. Tudy was independent of it being
appendant to the manor of Trethewell in St. Eval.
Does the half hide of Tinten represent the lay con-
tribution of Cornwall towards the endowment of the
see of Exeter ?i

We are now in a position to summarise the results
of the foregoing survey. We have seen that the
Cornish possessions of the see of Exeter, at the time
of the Domesday Survey, consisted chiefly of manors
wliich had St. Germans, Lawhitton, Pawton and
Penryn (or Tregear) for their centres. St. Germans
and Pawton, and probably Lawhitton, were derived
from monastic sources, viz. from the monasteries of
St. German, St. Petrock, and probably from St.
Stephen. The possessions in and around Penryn
require further examination.

That there was a monastery-bishopric at Dinurrin
or Dingerein in the ninth century is clear from
Kenstec's profession of obedience to Archbishop
Ceolnoth. To treat of Gerrans and its associations
in an impartial spirit is wellnigh impossible. Legend,
history and fact are so strangely and so suggestively
interwoven that the temptation is equally great to
say too much or too little. The name Gerrans is a
modern form of Geraint or Geruntius. The presence

^ Eglostudic (St. Tudy) and Polrode belonged to St. Petrock in
the time of the Confessor, and Tinten may have been claimed for
Exeter by virtue of the grant of 909.

80 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

of Gerrans, Just and Cuby, as the names of three
churches and parishes near together, is indeed a
remarkable coincidence if they are not identical with
Geraint of Anglesey, his son Jestyn or Just, and his
grandson Cuby, son of Selyf. No valid reason has
been offered against the identification. Mr. Baring-
Gould considers St. Gerrans the same person as
Gerennius, King of Cornwall, who requested St. Teilo
to visit and communicate him when dying (circa

Both Geraint and Gerennius must be distinguished
from Gerontius, prince of Dumnonia, to whom St.
Aldhelm wrote at the request of an English synod in
705 urging him to abandon the Celtic method of deter-
mining Easter and the Celtic tonsure which the saint
described as the tonsure of Simon Magus. All three
(who are here distinguished as (ieraint, Gerennius
and Gerontius, though the names are identical) were
historical personages and worthy of the veneration
of after ages. For our present purpose it is not
material to determine the identity of St. Gerrans : it
is sufficient for us to know that Dingerein may be
derived from any one of them. In the ninth century
Dingerein or Dinurrin was the seat of the Abbot-
bishop Kenstec. In the absence of evidence to the
contrary we may suppose that his episcopate was con-
centrated at Gerrans and embraced the lands or
parishes bordering the estuary of the Fal — ^those
parishes in fact which subsequently became for
ecclesiastical purposes the deanery of Penryn, and
for civil purposes formed a large portion of the
hundred of Trocayr or Tregeare. There is nothing to
show that, either for ecclesiastical or for civil pur-
poses, there were close relations, much less that there

Evolution of Bishoprics 81

was a bond of union, between the Gerrans territory
and that of Pawton, Pydar, St. German or Lawhitton.
Gerrans was self-contained and independent. It may
have retained, and probably did retain, traces of its
episcopal character until Edward the Confessor, by
charter, transferred the Cornish diocese with its lands
and parishes to the see of Exeter. Some justification
was doubtless required for the annexation of so much
land in and around Gerrans to the bishop's demesne,
and the only justification which is apparent is that it
was already regarded as such.^

In the case of St. Gerrans hardly any trace was
left of its monastic and episcopal associations. In
the Taxatio of 1291 the benefice of St. Gerrans con-
sisted of two portions, the rector's and the prior of
St. Anthony's, which may point to a corporate life
at an earlier date.

A glance at the map of Cornwall, in the light of
what has been said, reveals, at the time of the Domes-
day Survey, present or past activities, on a consider-
able scale and monastic in character in every part of
the county except in the north-east, and in the pro-
montories of the Lizard and of the Land's End.

The north-east became Saxonised at a very early
period. This is clear from the place-names. There is
no reason to doubt that St. Neot, the Saxon monk
of Glastonbury, settled in that part of Cornwall which
bears his name, in the ninth century, and after found-
ing a college of priests died, and was buried there.
There is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy
of Asser's narrative — ^whether it be Asser's or another's

^ At a much earlier date (670) St. Wilfrid claimed ecclesiastical
endowments of the British for the Saxon Church in the neighbour-
hood of Ripon.

82 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

— which states that Alfred the Great hunted in the
neighbourhood of St. Neot, and was healed, or be-
lieved himself to have been healed, at the shrine of
St. Guerir. Alfred's possessions in Triconshire have
been referred to. The community at St. Neot held
two hides of land in the days of the Confessor, but
the whole of it save one (Cornish) acre had been stolen
by the Count of Mortain in 1086.

Again, the canons of St. Stephen-by-Launceston
appear to have suffered a diminution of their power
and also of their revenue owing to Saxon settlement.
At the time of the Survey their affairs were in a state
of utter confusion. They were attempting to hold
on to lands which had been theirs, and are styled
theirs in Domesday Book, which Harold held before
the Norman Conquest, and which the Count of
Mortain was striving to re-annex. In North-East
Cornwall the Celtic type of Christianity had given
place to the Saxon.

The promontory of the Lizard never became
Saxonised. Everything here points to the persistence
of the Celtic type and to very close and fruitful
relations with Brittany. The names of the churches,
including Manaccan, the monks' church,^ are all to
be found in Armorica except Grade (of very uncertain
derivation) and St. Keverne. The word Meneage is
itself possibly a derivative form of Manach. The
lands given by the Count of Mortain to St. Michael's
Mount, and described in his charter as situated in
Amaneth,^ were certainly in Meneage. Landivick,
Langwcath, Lantenning and, above all, Landewednack
speak of monastic settlement. It is curious that the

^ Loth, Lea Noma dee Saints hratona, p. 87.

* Amaneth may be an English equivalent for Anmanach. Tre-
veneage appears at Trevanek in 1284, and as Trevanaek in 1361.

Evolution of Bishoprics

83

84 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Breton monastery of Landevennec and the church of
Landewednack both claim Winwaloe for patron,^
although St. Guenoc is possibly their true patron.
However this may be, it is clear that a common
influence has been at work in determining the nomen-
clature in both countries. In Domesday Book the
hundred of Kerrier appears as Wineton or Winenton,
the usual Saxon termination being added to a Celtic
word as in Tedinton and Conarton. In later docu-
ments it is found as Winianton, and as such it re-
mained until comparatively recent times, when it
became Winnington. The point less than a mile
west of Winianton is known as Pedngwinion. Mr. H.
Jenner has suggested an interpretation which is
almost certainly correct, viz. that Winianton means
the home of the shining or blessed ones. Winianton,
as the name of a hundred, implies some sort of local
pre-eminence, past or present. Before the Norman
Conquest the manor of Winianton embraced 22
sub-manors which were in the hands of 17 thegns.
The description of these thegns is interesting — ^they
could not be separated from the manor and they
rendered custom in the same manor. Before 1086
they were supplanted by the Count of Mortain's men.
A thegn, according to Professor Maitland, was, before
the tenth century, " a household officer of some great
man " and, from the tenth century until the Norman
Conquest, a person socially above a churl with corre-
sponding privileges and responsibilities. ^ Now it is
remarkable that the thegns of Winenton differed in
no respect from those of St. Petrock, except that
whereas the former could not be separated from the

* Loth, Les "Noma dee Saints bretons, pp. 52, 63.
« Hist, of English Law, i, 33.

Evolution of Bishoprics 85

manor, the latter could not be separated from the
saint.

Have we here the note of tragedy, inseparable from
a lost cause, of which the Lizard district, to its lasting
credit, furnished two other conspicuous examples in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ? It looks^
as if there had been the overthrow of monkish
supremacy by the Cornish, followed by Saxon Con-
quest, and in the meantime the preservation of thegn-
ship until the Norman Conquest. The small com-
munity of St. Keverne despoiled by the Count of
Mortain represents Irish influence, if we suppose with
Mr. W. C. Borlase that Keverne is identical with
Kieran. This saint is not found among the Breton
dedications, Peran and Kerrien being regarded by
Professor Loth as different saints, and neither of
them identical with Keverne or Kieran. We, there-
fore, conclude that the agency which compassed the
destruction of Brittonic monachism in Meneage left
the Irish house to the tender mercies of the Norman
invader. It is possible that in the church of St.
Breage we have an attempt at reparation. From
time immemorial it embraced Germoe, Cury, and Gun-
walloe as chapelries. Methleigh, the only manor which
escaped Norman rapacity as the result of its having
been added to the Exeter bishopric, may have been
originally a portion of the demesne of the monastic
body which dominated the Lizard peninsula.

Respecting the hundred of Penwith, we have little
historical evidence prior to the Norman Conquest.
Athelstan's grant to the church of St. Buryan and
Edward the Confessor's grant to St. Michael's Mount,

> The references are to Kilter's rising in 1649, and to the pro-
longed defence of Little Dennis by Sir Richard Vyvyan in 1646.

86

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

whatever fault may be found with the charters, as
they have come down to us, are sufficiently authentic.
The story of St. la's arrival with her Irish companions
must be received with caution ; but there is no reason
to doubt that a substratum of truth lies beneath a
legend which is by no means modern. Seven churches
in Pen with bear the names of these missionaries. On
the other hand, no less than fourteen dedications,
including two which subsequently became obsolete
and two which are among those of the Irish mission,
are common to Pen with and Brittany. The remaining
dedications are of doubtful origin. It seems, there-
fore, certain that Irish and Breton influences had a
great deal to do with the moulding of the church life
of the hundred. The preponderating influence was
Breton. The presence of St. Pol Aurelian (Paul) and
of Winwaloe (Towednack) is sufficient evidence of
this. It is remarkable that four, if not more, of the
Pen^vith churches afford traces of presumably earlier
dedications. St. Erth (possibly also Perranuthnoe)
was known as Lanudno, Gulval as Lanisley, Madron
probably as Landithy,^ and Illogan probably as
Lancichuc. St. Just may have borne the name of
Lafrowda, as being situated near the holy springs.
Udno (Goueznou) the companion of Pol Aurelian
(circa 530) is commemorated in three Breton parishes.
Pol was originally of Wales, and a contemporary of
Just of Anglesey, who is probably the patron of the
church which bears the name in Penwith. If this be
so, St. Levan will be Seleven, Salomon, Selyf, or
Selus, whose memorial stone is preserved in St. Just
Church. It is quite possible that the changed dedica-

^ The evidence is indirect. Trengwainton, to which the advow-
son was appendant, was itself a sub-manor of Rosoworthy in
Gwinear. Landithy is only a short distance from the church.

Evolution of Bishoprics 87

tions indicate a change from monastic to some sort
of parochial organisation. In Penwith there does
not appear to have been any monastic community of
commanding importance whose revenues could be
seized without leaving the people spiritually destitute.
Lanisley may have been one which had outstayed its
welcome and on that account may have become
attached to what was eventually to become the see
of Exeter.

To sum up. Three large holdings, or, to use a
modern though inadequate word, estates, stand out
clear and distinct, viz. those of Gerrans, Pawton and
St. Germans, each of them at one time or another
associated with the see of a Cornish bishop, monastic
in character. Such records as we have, carefully dis-
tinguish these lands from one another. Neither St.
Petrock (Pawton) nor St. German possesses any
rights in Gerrans, nor Gerrans in Pawton or in St.
Germans. Neither does St. Germans claim rights in
Pa^vton, nor Pa^vton in St. Germans. It is not only
opposed to the evidence of Domesday, it is incon-
ceivable that any Cornish bishop exercised lordship
ovcj all three at the same time. The Pawton lands
were almost certainly claimed by Crediton by virtue
of the provision made in 909 for missionary visits to
them yearly by the bishop of Crediton. The St.
Overmans holding was certainly annexed to Exeter
when that see was founded. The Gerrans holding
presents several difficulties. We have no record of
any bishop at Gerrans save Kenstec (865). But
because no records have been preserved, we cannot
say that no bishops existed. Such a principle if
applied to Cornish parishes w^ould be fatal to their
claim to have had a rector before the days of Bishop

SS Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Bronescombe (1257). Nevertheless, the absence of
recorded evidence is distinctly embarrassing. What
were the events or circumstances which justified the
annexation of the Gerrans property to the see of
Exeter ? Some justification there doubtless was.
Was it found in the letter of submission written by
Bishop Kenstec to Archbishop Plegmund (833-870)
about fifty years before the see of Crediton w^as
founded ? Was it found in the forfeiture of royal
possessions consequent upon the conquest of Cornwall
by Athelstan (925-940) ? It is possible that both
these events may have contributed to the result, for
there is good reason to believe that Gerrans was a
residence of the kings of Cornwall in the seventh
century, and it is certain that it was the residence of
Kenstec in the ninth century. If the lands w^ere
claimed by King Athelstan there ought to be some
charter to show when and by whom they were trans-
ferred to the see of Crediton or of Exeter. If they
passed to the Saxon bishopric by virtue of the grant
of Edward the Confessor in 1050, then we must con-
clude that they had preserved their episcopal associa-
tions until within a few years of that time, and that,
therefore, Bishop Kenstec probably had successors
at Gerrans. It is inconceivable that there were not
valid grounds for the transfer of the lands. The fact
that they were monastic lands would not have
sufficed, for the canons of St. Petrock and St. German
survived the annexation of a portion of theirs,
whereas no vestige of a monastery remained at
Gerrans in the days of the Confessor. It was its
former connection with episcopal rule which led to
the inclusion of Gerrans in the endowments of the
bishopric of Exeter.

I

Evolution of Bishoprics 89

The foregoing fragmentary sketch is not to be
regarded as a conclusive proof of the existence of
concurrent Cornish bishoprics so late as the eleventh
century, but it is intended to call attention to some
of the sources from which others may seek the
necessary means of forming a judgment for them-
selves. That the monastery-bishoprics were hard to
suppress will be evident to everyone who examines
the evidence. That they survived in Cornwall for a
much longer period than is generally supposed seems
more than probable.

VII

CORNISH SAINTS

IN the first chapter it has been attempted to show
how the t;yTanny of resemblance and coincidence
leads to false analogies and ^vrong inferences. Some
further illustrations of this principle which have a
direct bearing upon the main purpose of the present
enquiry may be found instructive.

In this chapter we are not so much concerned with
the Lives of the Cornish Saints, as they have come
down to us, as with the question whether they had
any actual existence as human beings at all. Of la,
Uny, Dennis, Allen, Paul and Berrian it has been
stated that "it is more than probable that there was
no man in either case. la is the Island saint, Uny
the Downs saint, Dennis the Hill saint, Paul or Pol
the Pool saint," Buryan or Berrian the saint of
Berrie.

But why stop there ? Domesday Book supplies us
with Eglostudic, Sainguilant and Sainguinas. It is
just as easy to imagine places bearing the names of
Tudic, Guilant and Guinas as to imagine one bearing
the name of Berrie, and quite as good etymology to
derive them from Tutton a chair, Guilan a king-
fisher and Guenan a blister.

Most will admit that a chair saint is suggestive of
saintly pursuits — study and contemplation ; many
saints have been fishermen ; some have suffered

90

Cornish Saints 01

from pimples and perhaps have known how to cure
them.

Again we have two more ancient parishes one of
which occurs in Domesday Book, viz. Eglosros
(Philleigh) and Egloshayle, the church on the heath
and the church on the estuary, yet no one has ever
ventured to describe or to speak of them as the
churches of St. Rose and St. Hayle, and for the
obvious" reason that Cornish saints have not been
manufactured in the way that has been suggested.

In choosing la, Uny, Dennis, Allen, Paul and
Berrian to demonstrate his theory, the critic could
hardly have made a more unfortunate selection.
With one exception they are all to be found in
Brittany.

la is said to have been an Irish missionary who
came with her brothers Uny and Erth and some
others to complete the conversion of the Cornish in
the golden age of Celtic Christianity. For our
present purpose it is not material to accept the
legend, but it is useful to know that la is com-
memorated at St. Ives in Cornwall and in Finistere
in Brittany, Erth at St. Erth in Cornwall and at
Chittlehampton in Devon, Uny at Lelant and
Redruth in Cornwall and at Plevin in Cotes du Nord.
St. Dennis (or Denys), his church being situated in
the centre of a hill-fort, is the only one whose name
seems, at first sight, to lend colour to the new
criticism. But to quote Professor Loth, writing on
a totally different subject,^ "it is quite impossible
for Dinas by itself to be a man*s name. It is one of
the most widely distributed place-names in Cornwall.
Dinas in Cornish, as in Welsh, signifies a fortified
^ Bomans de la Table ronde, p. 90.

92 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

town." Assuming that a personage derived his name
from the place Dinas we should have Dinan as in
Cardinan. St. Dennis or Denys appears to have
been the name given to a chapelry of St. Stephen
(Etienne) but there is no reason to suppose that it
was ancient when it first appears along with that of
Caerhayes in the Inquisitio Nonarum (1340) as Capella
Sci. Dionisii. St. Denys, supposed, but mistakenly,
to be identical with Dionysius the Areopagite, was
from the seventh century onwards venerated through-
out Europe, and it is not remarkable to find him the
patron of a chapel in Cornwall in the fourteenth
century.

That the name of the site of the chapel may have
suggested to its founder a name for its patron saint
is quite possible. As late as the seventeenth century
the heralds chose St. John Baptist's head for the
arms of Penzance (holy head). There are, in truth,
no better grounds for regarding St. Dennis as
mythical than St. Stephen to whom his chapel was
appendant.

St. Allen, as the presiding saint of the hail or moor,
reminds one of some rather irreverent lines by the
greatest of Irish poets :

Our preacher prays he may in'erit
The hinspiration of the Spirit.
Oh ! grant him also, 'oly Lord,
The haspiration of thy word.

St. Allen is found as St. Alun in the Episcopal
Registers. The name occurs in the cartulary of
Redon and in Coed-Alun near Carnarvon in Wales.
St. Alan is among the disciples of Iltut and is the
patron of Corlay (Cotes du Nord). In no instance is
the name found with the aspirate, or hail without it.

Cornish Saints 93

Pol de Leon is a personage quite as historic as
Napoleon. It must rest with the reader to say
whether the church in Cornwall which bears his
name got it from Gwavas Lake or from the well-
known British saint, a disciple of Tutwal, who
founded a Breton bishopric, who was a fellow-
student of St. Sampson the patron of Golant and
who is himself the patron of fifteen parishes, one of
which curiously enough is in Cornouaille in Brittany.

Eglosberria remains and this, we are told, is com-
pounded of Eglos and a Cornish place-word presumed
to be Berrie. The fact that no such place is now
to be found in the parish of St. Buryan does not, of
course, prove that in the far remote past there may
not have been one. Nor does it concern us much to
know that in the parish berries of sorts are abundant,
holly berries, elder berries, blackberries and goose-
berries ; still less to consider whether the last-named
berry is indigenous or acclimatised. This is not a
treatise on Botany.

Had our critic consulted his reference, Domesday
Book, he would have read in the Exchequer redaction,
" The Canons of St. Berriona hold Eglosberrie " ;
in the Exeter book — the original document — under
the heading Inquisitio Geldi (1085), " St. Berriana
holds a hide of land " ; and under the heading Land
of St. Berriona the Virgin, " the Canons of St.
Berriona hold a manor which is called Eglosberria,
which the same Virgin held in the time of King
Edward freely " (i.e. free from the payment of dues).
The first point to notice is that in every case the
name of the saint is trisyllabic, Berrian or Berrion.
Berria, the second half of the name of the manor, is
probably only a contraction for Berriana made by

94 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

the earlier scribe and copied by the later. This
explanation is placed almost beyond dispute by
earlier and later documents concerning the manor
and the church. Again it is well known that the
letters b and v are, in certain Cornish words, inter-
changeable as, for example, in Trebean and Trevean.
Professor Loth had pointed out to the present
writer that Berrian (Buryan) and Verrian (Veryan)
were identical, but it was two years before a striking
confirmation of his statement was disclosed. A
charter dated 1450 was recently handed to me to
decipher relating to this very manor of Eglosberrie.

In it the lands were described as those of Eglos-
veryan. The Domesday record is not only in perfect
agreement with, but confirms, the charter of Athelstan,
which, in spite of some adverse criticism, probably
arising from the fact that it has been copied and
attested more than once, is acknowledged to be a
trustworthy document, and as such was always
regarded whenever the rights and privileges of the
royal chapel of St. Buryan were called in question.
Veryan and Buryan being identical, it follows that,
on the assumption that they are derived from Berrie,
a place-name, that place will be found in both
parishes. It is found in neither. It is purely
mythical.

It may be asked, why devote so much space to a
matter of secondary importance ? The reason is that
here we have to meet an attempt to bring the Celtic
saints within the province of comparative m>i:hology,
an attempt to show that they were eponymous in
somewhat the same sense as Romulus, Cypris,
Pallas Athene and Ceres (as representing Siculus)
were the genii and afterwards the presiding deities

Cornish Saints 95

over Rome, Cyprus, Athens and Sicily. It is useless
to deny the assertion that " the Church history of
Cornwall before the Norman Conquest is chiefly a
matter of legendary lore " and that " the cult of
the sun was that of Cornwall not a thousand years
ago " unless we have something to say in support of
our denial.

Let us therefore carry the argument a little further
— let us^ suppose that the topological origin of the
saints is the true one ; let us suppose that there
is indisputable evidence, gathered in Cornwall, in its
favour ; in other words, that the Cornish saints are
local divinities ; how will it fare with them when
their votaries have crossed the seas ? Will the Island
which gives its name to St. Ives, will the Downs of
Lelant, the Hail (deprived of its aspirate), the Dinas
of Mid-Cornwall and Gwavas Lake win Armorican
devotion ? Or conversely, assuming the saints to
have been of Armorican manufacture, will they
appeal to the devotional instincts of the Cornish ?
Or must we assume that there was a sacred island
at Plouye, a sacred downs at Plevin, a sacred pool at
L6on and a sacred Berrie at Berrien and Lan-verrien
in Finist^re ? It is as difficult to imagine an affirma-
tive answer being returned to any of these questions
as St. Thomas Aquinas found it to bcHeve that a
religious could tell a lie, and therefore, according to his
biographer, more difficult to believe than that an ox
could fly. The Celtic saints were not eponymous, but
men of like passions with us, who lived their lives, told
their story, impressed their contemporaries and were
gathered to their fathers, men honoured in their
generation and the glory of their times.

This leads to a brief notice of their biographies.

96 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

The subject is not free from difficulty. It requires
a rearrangement of thoughts, a re-focussing of ideas.
The Lives of the Saints do not conform to ordinary
standards or respond to ordinary appeals.

They are not plain, unvarnished accounts of simple
earnest men written by their contemporaries, but, in
their present form, they are for the most part highly
coloured stories addressed not to the intellect but
to the imagination. They are not always free from
anachronisms. The ideals of their Avi'iters are not
ours to-day.

They abound in the miraculous. They are
adorned after a common pattern peculiarly their
own. They draw largely upon Holy Scripture.
Incidents related of one saint are sometimes trans-
ferred to another. Similarities of expression are
found in them, perhaps pointing to a common origin
or authorship. In short, all the elements which
provoke adverse criticism are found in them.

And yet, making due allowance for the mentality
of those who wrote and those who read them, there
is no sufficient reason for impugning the veracity of
the writers, much less for despising them.^ They
were neither deceivers nor deceived. The hagio-
grapher had probably as great a regard for truth as
his modern critics, but he knew nothing of the canons
of literary excellence. He had never heard of
" nature unadorned " ; but he knew, just as we

1 To quote M. Loth, whose gentle irony would be spoiled by
translation, in his answer to M. Fawtier's criticism : "II (M.
Fawtier) a 6t6 6videmment, d'avance, facheusement impres8ion6
par lo fait meme d'avoir affaire A un hagiographe et ce qui plus est,
comme il I'avoue sans d6tour d un hagiographe breton. Si nos
hagiographes meritent uno place d'honneur dans le martyrologe de
la critique, c'est peut-6tre bien que nos vies de saints sent d'une
assez basse 6poque : la vie de Samson mise k part, les deux plus
anciennee ont 6t6 redig6es vers la fin du ix" ei^cle,"

Cornish Saints 97

know, how banal and commonplace are the lives of
many of the best men and women who have lived
and worked for others, and he strove to portray
them in colours which might make them interesting
to a generation whose intelligence, so far as religion
was concerned, had been chiefly moulded by Holy
Scripture. He recognised analogies and emphasised
them. He was conversant with the main facts and
knew ho\y impressive had been the personality and
the life of his hero, but he had not, like Boswell,
followed him about with a note-book. He was
himself an impressionist and by no means sparing
of his paint, one whose work doubtless won the
approval of the age in which he lived. He had no
message for succeeding ages.

At the same time only ignorance or prejudice will
place all hagiographers on the same level or refuse
to take account of alleged facts, even when they are
concealed underneath an intolerable deal of fanciful
adornment.

In some cases the Lives of the Saints, as presented
by their authors, possess real historical value. Those
of Sampson, Paul Aurelian, Winwaloe, Tutwal and
Malo (Machutus) fall within this category. ^ The life
of St. Sampson drawn up, according to Mgr.
Duchesne, towards the end of the seventh century,
of which the earliest and most valuable MS. is of
the eleventh century, will repay diligent study. ^ It
has a direct and important bearing upon monastery-
bishoprics, and ought to possess a special interest for

1 J. Loth, Revue Celtique, xxii, p. 96.

' Tho text has been edited by M. Favvtier and published by
MM. Champion (Paris). The reader should consult also the more
critical notes on S. Samson de Dol, by Prof. Loth (Champion,
Paris) and if possible a very illuminating little treatise, La vie de
S. Samaon, by M. L'Abbd Duine.

98

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

the people of Cornwall whose forefathers profited by
St. Sampson's ministry. The biography, as we should
expect, contains its full share of miracles, but is,
nevertheless, characterised by veracity in those
statements which relate to the saint's parentage,
private life, travels and career. The picture is a true
picture, however much we may dislike the method
of treatment. The landing of the saint near Padstow,
his sojourn at St. Kew, his destruction of the pagan
idol in the hundred of Trigg and other details are
all related and the topographical knowledge of the
writer has been shown to be accurate. ^ It is doubtful,
however, whether, at the present stage of historical
research, it is possible for those, who are most
competent to form a judgment of the value of the
evidence afforded by the Lives of the Saints, to do
so dispassionately and impartially owing to the
antagonism which is provoked by the extraordinary
play of fancy on the part of their writers.

That some of them possess historical value is
proved by a Life the earliest MS. of which is com-
paratively recent. In the life of St. Petrock the text
of which is not earlier than the fifteenth century it
is stated that " Petrock, after visiting his com-
patriot St. Sampson, betook himself ad cellam
Wethnoci episcopi. A little further on we read unde
etiam lingua gentis illius Landuuethmoch (for Lann-
wethnoc) adhuc usque hodie dicitur. Now Lann-
wethnoe presents itself in Domesday Book under
the forms of Lanwehenoc (wrongly written Lan-
wenahoc) and Lan-guihenoc."^

The remarkable thing is that a fifteenth-century

1 Loth, Saint Samson de Dol, p. 26.
• See the previous footnote.

Cornish Saints 99

writer should have recorded two facts which were as
Httle kiioAMi at the time when he wrote as they are
to the generahty of EngHsh readers to-day ; the
first, that in the days of St. Petrock a bishop might
have been found occupying a cell, living as a monk or
hermit, though not necessarily living alone ; and the
second, that there was in pre-Norman times a place
bearing the name of Languihenoc, both of which are
placed beyond dispute by the evidence given us in
the chapter on Monastery-Bishoprics and by the
testimony of Domesday Book. It surely requires an
imagination of -svider scope to believe that the writer
was not transcribing or interpreting an authentic
document than to accept the most fantastic legends
of Celtic saints. The service rendered to research is
twofold : it witnesses to the historicity of the Life
even if it does not establish the reputation of its
writer, and it adds one more to our list of Celtic
bishops in the person of Guethnoc, who as Gwethnoc
is honoured in Finistere and elsewhere in Brittany.

At this point it seems convenient to summarise the
results of our survey. It has been maintained that
coincidence and resemblance have been invested
with an importance disproportionate to their Teal
value, that where coincidence has been claimed for
the purpose of discrediting traditional doctrine it
has often proved as illusory as the rainbow, that
resemblance unsupported by other evidence has
proved to be imaginary or superficial, that in the
case of the Cornish saints, whose names have been
supposed to resemble place-names, there is nothing
to warrant the suspicion that they are eponymous,
that the Lives of the Saints as they have come down
to us must be estimated in the lighrof the mentality

100 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

of the writers and readers of them, that, however
ornate or barbaric they may be considered to be,
when they record ordinary events the statements
are worthy of investigation and often of historical
value, and that a comparatively modern life of a
saint may afford evidence of the substantial accuracy
of the facts which it records.

It may not unreasonably be asked what then is
the attitude to be observed towards those students
of comparative mythology who endeavour to find
a common origin for all religions by studying religious
phenomena ? There is no reason why it should not
be friendly or even helpful. But, whatever may be the
final verdict of that study, its present value will be
generally determined by psychology rather than by
logic. The man who starts with a theory, whether in
favour of a common origin of religious belief or with
one opposed to a common origin, will probably find
enough evidence to confirm his theory. Darwins are
not born every day ; yet there is no hope which is
more widely shared or more secretly cherished by
those who give themselves to mythological research
than the hope that they are at least potential
Darwins. The desire to be scientific, that is, to
reduce to system an array of facts, vastly pre-
ponderates over the desire to ascertain the accuracy
of certain alleged facts and their relation to other
facts of a similar nature. It is possible to accept the
statement that worship originated in sacrifice, in the
attempt to propitiate an offended deity, and to
deduce conclusions diametrically opposed to each
other. To the Catholic Christian it will perhaps be
a substantial aid to faith, to the Protestant an
encouragement to discard the errors of paganism, to

Cornish Saints 101

the unbeliever a confirmation, of unbelief. The
subject — only as yet in its infancy — can hardly be
ignored. At the same time its ramifications cover so
much ground that comparatively few can be expected
to acquire sufficient knowledge to be in a position
to judge of its conclusions. Archaeology, philology,
ethnology, ancient philosophy, theology and myth-
ology are only some of the departments of a study
which aims at determining the origins of religious
belief. Who then is sufficient for these things ? He
has yet to be born.

Cornwall, with its large admixture of Celtic blood,
until lately speaking a Celtic language, inheriting
a Celtic tradition, for centuries in close contact with
Brittany, might have been expected to furnish
materials enabling the student to differentiate the
quality of its religious belief and practice from that
of the Midlands. To accept the same creed is not
necessarily to hold the same belief or to have the
same religious ideal. Each people has doubtless its
own instinctive beliefs which may or may not find a
place in the creed which is professed. If those beliefs
do find a place in it they will find emphasised expres-
sion in the popular worship. The appeal of Wesley in
the eighteenth century struck home to the instinctive
beUefs of the Cornish. In spite of the marked pro-
gress of Anglicanism during the last half- century
the Cornish are largely Methodists, whose worship is
still conducted in buildings which usually have as
little claim to beauty as a railway station. They
have no stereotyped form of service, no liturgy which
lends itself to musical adornment. The hospitals and
other charitable institutions in the county have in
many cases been built and are mainly supported by

102 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

others. And yet the Cornish possess a keen sense of
beauty. They are musical, refined and generous. In
skill and intelHgence they will bear comparison with
the rest of the United Kingdom. jThey are open-
minded, fond of discussion and never tired when it
takes a religious turn. Their nearest kinsmen in
blood are the Bretons, with whom they have much in
common, although in the matter of religious practice
they are as far as the poles apart. While the latter
cling with unrivalled devotion to the old religion, the
former spend much time, like the men of Athens, in
telling or hearing some new thing. Methodism on
the old lines is moribund in Cornwall ; Catholicism
on the old lines is a living and a growing power in
Brittany. During the last quarter of a century a
remarkable change has passed over the face of
Cornish nonconformity. Revivals have almost
become things of the past. Conversion, theoretically
the starting-point of Methodist religion, is no longer
required to be sudden. The class meeting has lost
much of its attractiveness. There is less reverence
for the Holy Scriptures. Many of the old doctrines
are being recast. Methodism is in a state of tran-
sition. The drift is towards rationalism, but the
end is not yet in sight. Under these circumstances
it is not easy to form a right judgment or to forecast
the future of Cornish Methodism, but to one who has
spent twenty-five years in its midst and who knows
how deeply and instinctively religious is the character
of the people it would seem that at a no distant date
there will be a volte-face, in other words, that the
essentially religious instinct will reassert itself. Two
alternatives may supervene. There may be a return
to the Cathohc faith, AngUcan or Roman, of which

Cornish Saints 103

there are already signs or there may be recourse to
Christian Science, Spirituahsm or some occult system
which attracts by its novelty and promises to satisfy
religious craving. Rationalism, which may suit the
Teutonic race and be a substitute for religion, is
impossible to the emotional God-fearing temper of
the Celt.

VIII

ANCIENT RELIGIOUS HOUSES

A BRIEF survey of the monastic and quasi -
monastic foundations is required in order to
determine if possible which of them, if any, were
originally Celtic in character. It will suffice to take
the Monasticon, as edited by Dr. Oliver, and to ex-
amine the charters and notes respecting the several
houses and to check them by means of such other
records as are available. Neither Sir William Dug-
dale nor Dr. Oliver distinguished between institu-
tions which were Celtic and institutions which
were the common heritage of Western Christi-
anity.

If a monastery existed before the Norman Conquest
their main purpose was to trace it back, if possible,
beyond that date, and, having done this, to record
its fortunes as it fared forth through the centuries
which followed. This purpose they achieved by
printing in chronological order all its charters, whether
preserved as chirographs or as inspeximi^ derived
from Charter and Patent Rolls. The following list

* Inspeximi is a convenient plural of the word inspeximue (we
have inspected). Royal grants of liberties and privileges are
frequently baaed upon earlier grants which the Royal grantor
declares ho has inapected. The charters of these earlier grants in
many instances no longer exist.

10^

Ancient Religious Houses 105

comprises all the Cornish religious foundations given
in the Monasticon :

St. Petroek's (Bodmin) Priory.

St. German's Priory.

St. Michael's (Mount) Priory.

St. Stephen's (Launceston) Priory.

St. Buryan Collegiate Church.

St. Crantock Collegiate Church.

St. Cyricus, or St. Cyriacus, Priory.

St. Probus Prebendal Church.

St. Keverne Collegiate Church.

St. Piran Collegiate Church.

Minster or Talkarn Priory.

Scilly Priory.

Tregony Priory.

Tywardreath Priory.

St. Anthony, Cell of Plympton.

St. Michael of Lammana Cell.

Truro Convent.

Endellion Collegiate Church.

Glasney Collegiate Church.

St. Michael's (Penkevil) Collegiate Church.

St. Teath Collegiate Church.

Helston Hospital of St. John the Baptist.

Liskeard Lazar-house.

Of the twenty-three religious houses enumerated the
first nine are mentioned in Domesday Book, which
also mentions the priests of St. Neot, the lands of St.
Constantine and of St. Goran and the honour of St.
Che {Honor St. Chei), There are also a few churches
which call for examination like those of St. Kew,
Mawnan and Manaccan whose religious character is
omitted in both. Languihenoc and Gerrans have

106 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

been already considered. It is obvious that to give a
full and complete review of all of them would require
not a chapter but a volume.

Before attempting to deal with the subject, within
even the narrowest possible limits, we may profitably
ask ourselves what courses were open to the members
of monastic communities, which had been in the
ascendant until the Saxon Conquest of Cornwall, in
order that they might come into line with the new
ecclesiastical regime ? Three courses presented them-
selves. The first was to allow themselves to be
disbanded as the regular clergy were compelled to
be at the time of Henry's reformation ; the
second was to conform to the rules of one or other
of the recognised western orders and to become
affiliated to it ; the third was to transform their
convents of regular clergy into colleges or collegiate
churches of secular clergy. No doubt there was a
strong conservative party who resisted all change,
otherwise it would be difficult to understand the
spoliation of which there are traces during the Saxon
period and of which after the Norman Conquest
there is abundant proof in Domesday Book. Of the
three courses which have been suggested the third
seems to have been favoured under the Saxons and
the second under the Normans.

Taking the nine monastic bodies which stand at
the head of the foregoing list in order, it will suffice
to say that after serving as the seat of an abbot -
bishop the monastery of St. Petrock probably became
collegiate and parochial. In Domesday Book it is
always referred to as St. Petrock or the Church of St.
Petrock. The date of its reconstruction as a monas-
tery is obscure. There does not appear to be any

Ancient Religious Houses 107

evidence to show to which of the religious orders it
belonged until the Ordinatio of the Priory by Bishop
Grandisson in 1347, in which it is ordained that the
prior and convent shall celebrate the Divine Office
and observe vigil, fast, silence and prayer according
to the rule of Blessed Augustine. Long before that
date it had therefore doubtless become a convent of
the Black Canons. Sir John Maclean expressly states,
though 'on what authority I have not been able to
discover, that it was Bishop William Warelwast
(1107-1136) who settled therein regular canons of
St. Augustine. In the Taxatio of the vicarage, by
Bishop Bronescombe in 1269, the vicar was assigned,
as a part of his emolument, the victuals {liberacionem)
of one canon.

The monastery of St. Germans was served by
secular canons before the Norman Conquest. Bishop
Leofric (1046-1073) removed them and introduced
canons regular. In 1270 Bishop Bronescombe ordered
the excommunication of certain persons concerning
whom he vouchsafes no particulars save that they
were Sathane satellites, proprie salutis immemores and
that they had expelled those whom he had sent to
take charge of the priory during the vacancy caused
by the death of Richard the late prior. His letter
is valuable because it affords evidence that the bishop
of Exeter claimed absolute power over the priory
and its possessions so long as there was no prior ap-
pointed, and apparently the right of confirming the
prior's appointment.

Of St. Michael's Mount some particulars will be
found in Chapter X.

The church of St. Stephen by Launceston was Hke
that of St. German served by secular canons at the

108 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

time of the Domesday Survey. By Bishop WilHam
Warelwast (1107-1138) to whom Ralph the dean of
St. Stephens had surrendered the deanery it was
made an Augustinian priory and so remained until the
dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII.
Harassed and despoiled by Robert Count of Mortain
in the years which followed the Norman Conquest,
under the fostering care of Reginald Earl of Cornwall
(1140-1175) and Richard King of the Romans (1225-
1272), it soon became the wealthiest of the religious
houses in Cornwall. The relations between the
parochial church of St. Stephen and the priory are
somewhat obscure. The church was taxed inde-
pendently of the priory in 1291, but in the Inquisitio
nonarum of 1346 the church was assessed at £10, of
which 40s. was chargeable to the prior.

The collegiate church of St. Buryan is undoubtedly
an early instance of the conversion of a Celtic monas-
tery to a recognised Enghsh type. King Athelstan
by charter gave a small piece of his land in a place
which is called the church of St. Berrian ... to
be free of all taxation unless the clerks who had
promised him their prayers, viz. 100 masses, 100
psalters and daily supplications failed, to perform
their task. The place which is called the church of
St. Berrian was evidently Eglosberria or Eglosveryan,
of which we have already spoken. In later times it
was advantageous to the dean and liis fellows to cite
Athelstan as their founder and their church as a
royal chapel. All that the Saxon King did for them
was probably to guarantee to them security of tenure
for the lands which they already held and freedom
from payment of geld.

The Canons of St. Crantock who held the manor of

Ancient Religious Houses 109

Langorock at the time of the Survey (1086) also sur-
vived the various changes made in the constitution
of their community until their dissolution in 1536.
Robert, Count of Mortain, had already seized their
lands when the Survey was made. His son, Count
William, founded the Cluniac house at Montacute
in Somerset, and to it he is said to have given the
church of St. Crantock. It is certain that in 1236
the pricTr of Montacute transferred the church and
its possessions to William Briwer, bishop of Exeter.
The bishop thenceforth became patron of the deanery
and prebends. In 1291 there were on the foundation
a dean and nine prebendaries. St. Crantock had
become a typical collegiate church. The several
stages through which it passed leave no doubt that
as Langorock it had established its claim to consider-
ate treatment by Saxon and Norman alike.

Of St. Keverne we learn from Domesday Book
that the canons of St. Achebran had one manor which
was called Lannachebran, which the same saint had
held in the Confessor's time. There is, however,
evidence of its quasi -prebendal character more than
a century before the Survey was made. ^ By Richard,
Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, the
church was given to the abbot and convent of Beaulieu
for the good of his own soul and that of King John
his father. 2 The vicarage was taxed by Bishop
Bronescombe, in 1260, very unfavourably to the
vicar, there being assigned to the abbot and convent
of Beaulieu more than five-sixths of the income.
Leland, writing about the year 1530, states that
near " The Paroch church of S. Keveryn otherwise

1 Jour. Arch. Asaocn., XXXIX, 282.
« Pat. RoU, 18 Edw. Ill, 1345.

110 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Piranus," there is a sanctuary with ten or twelve
dwelling houses and hard by " there was a sel of
monkes but now gonn home to ther Hed Hows."
These monks were doubtless Cistercians from Beaulieu
who, for some reason or another, had been temporarily
resident in the parish. The appropriation of the
church by Earl Richard, and its taxation by Bishop
Bronescombe, had left it a rather poorly endowed
vicarage, of which the patronage and greater tithes
belonged to Beaulieu. That Lannachebran was
originally Celtic and monastic does not admit of
doubt.

The account supplied by Domesday Book respecting
St. Pieran (Perranzabuloe) is very illuminating.
" The Canons of St. Pieran,'* so the statement runs,
" have a manor called Lanpiran, which in the time
of King Edward they held freely. . . . From this
manor have been taken away two manors which in
the time of King Edward rendered to the Canons of
St. Pieran four weeks* farm {firmain Hi septimanarum).
Of these manors Berner holds one of the Count.
And from the other hide which Odo holds of St.
Pieran the Count has taken away all the stock
(pecuniam). These two manors rendered to the Dean
by way of custom 20s. in addition to the said farm
(firmam)y The first of these two manors was that
of Tregebri, which elsewhere in Domesday Book is
described as being " of the honour ^ of St. Perann.'*
The Count of Mortain took from both all that had

* Another honour is mentioned in the same record, viz. that
of St. Cheus, which awaits identification. The Exeter book reads
correctly that Tremar uustel is de honore S. Chei, whereas the
Exchequer version has belongs ad honore S. Chei. This led General
James to translate the words " belongs to the honours of Chei " :
honore is probably an abbreviation for honorem and the full stop
after the S a contraction of SancH,

Ancient Religious Houses 111

formerly belonged to the saint. Dean and canons
were swept away at an early date and the church
given by Henry I to the dean and chapter of Exeter.
When the vicarage was taxed in 1269, to the vicar
was assigned the altarage of the mother church of
St. Piran and of the chapel, together with all the
offerings derived from the exposition of the relics,
the vicar rendering a yearly tribute of six marks to
the dean and chapter. The relics referred to were
those of St. Piran the founder of the church, con-
cerning which some interesting particulars are supplied
in an inventory of the year 1281. Among other trea-
sures mention is made of a reliquary in which is kept
the head of St. Pyeran, with the rest of the relics
secured with iron and a lock, a hearse in which the
body of Pyeran is placed for processions, a tooth of
St. Brendan and a tooth of St. Martin within a silver
box, also a pastoral staff of St. Pyeran adorned with
silver and gold and precious stones. Two centuries
later when making St. Agnes parochial, the bishop
ordained that if the parishioners of St. Pyran should
bring the saint's relics to St. Agnes in procession as
formerly, on Rogation Tuesday, they should receive
honourable welcome and the oblations presented in
the chapel of St. Agnes according to custom.

There has been much doubt concerning the identity
of St. Piran. From the inventory of 1281 it would
seem that at that time he was identified with St.
Kieran of Saighir in Ireland, otherwise it would be
difficult to account for the presence at Perranzabuloe
of relics of St. Brendan, the friend to whom the saint
sent a supply of milk in the form of a milch cow, and
of those of St. Martin the founder of churches in
Ossory, St. Kieran's native county, a person so

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

highly esteemed by the saint that he extracted a
promise from him that when they died they should
be buried in the same grave. It is certain that in
the thirteenth century, and a fortiori in the eleventh
century, the foundation of St. Piran was regarded as
Celtic and that the church claimed to have in its
custody the crozier of its episcopal founder.

" The canons of St. Probus have one manor which
is called Lanbrabois (Lamprobus. Exch. D.) which
King Edward held at the time of his death." Such
is the testimony of Domesday Book. The name of
the manor suggests a monastic origin, but nothing
whatever appears to be known of the saint or of the
founder of the prebendal church. Had St. Edward
been the founder it is probable that some use would
have been made of the circumstance by succeeding
generations. King Jolm confirmed the grants of the
church made by his ancestor (avi) Henry I and by
his father Henry II to the bishop and cathedral
church of Exeter.^ By Bishop Briwer it was appro-
priated to the office of treasurer of the cathedral,
together with the patronage of the five prebends, but
the patronage was subsequently transferred to Bishop
Bronescombe and exercised by him and his succes-
sors until the suppression of the prebends by
Edward VI.

Having briefly considered the rehgious houses —
using that term in its widest sense — concerning which
mention is made in Domesday Book, it is worth while
to pass on to those whose endowments either excited
not the rapacity of the Norman, or were too slender to
find a place in the Great Survey, and to those which
were evidently founded after the Norman Conquest.
* Monasticon, p. 72.

Ancient Religious Houses 113

Taking them in the order already indicated, we have
the five estabhshments dignified by the name of
priories.

The priory of St. Cyricus or St. Cyriacus in the
parish of St. Veep is stated by Lysons to have been
founded by WilHam Count of Mortain, but no au-
thority is quoted for the statement. In 1236 Bishop
Briwer wishing to reheve the church of St. Nonn
(probably the neighbouring church of Pelynt) from
a yearly charge of six marks, four shillings and three
pence heretofore payable to the little cell (cellula) of
St. Cyricus, granted to the latter out of the revenues
of his see a yearly payment of five marks. The cell
was affiliated to the Cluniac priory of Montacute in
the county of Somerset and was for a long time in
the patronage of the family of that name. It is futile
to speculate respecting its origin, and it is not safe
to say that it was of Saxon or Norman origin, for St.
Carreuc is found in three Breton parishes. ^

The priory of Minster or Talkarn described as the
church of St. Merthian of Laminster was, somewhere
about the year 1130, given by WiUiam, son of Nicholas
(Botreaux), to the monks of the Benedictine abbey of
St. Sergius at Angers. Here again we have monastic
associations suggested by the locality of the priory.
Laminster was apparently already a place-name
when the gift was made little more than half a
century after the Norman Conquest. The priory,
by reason of its connection with the French abbey,
was suppressed during the fourteenth century.

The priory or cell of St. Nicholas, situated on the
island of Tresco, Scilly, was probably Celtic in origin.
The Charter of Henry I granting to the abbot and
^ Loth, Lee Nome dee Saints bretona, p. 19.

114 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

church of Tavistock and to its monk Turold, the
churches and land in Scilly uses the following words
to limit and describe the tenure of the land — ^it is to
be held " just as the monks or rather hermits {monachi
aut heremite melius) held it in the time of King
Edward of Burgald bishop of Cornwall."
^ Tavistock was a Benedictine abbey founded in the
latter half of the tenth century. The rule of St.
Benedict was broad and elastic, and monasteries
could and did embrace it without parting entirely
with their traditions.^ It was, in fact, the only rule
recognised in England during the whole of the Saxon
period. Admitting all this the phrase " monks or
rather hermits," is so studiously vague as to imply
a doubt as to whether the brothers had in the Con-
fessor's day submitted to any recognised rule what-
ever. It is certain that while bringing them into a
closer relationship with Tavistock the King intended
to enforce a stricter discipline, otherwise his further
provision that they should, like " the King's own
prebendaries " have his peace and protection, would
have been unnecessary. The King does not confu*m
any supposed charter of Athelstan or of Edward,
but gives the religious community at Scilly to the
abbey at Tavistock, and, apart from the reference to
the latter King, there is nothing to lead us to regard
the monks as Benedictine or as affiliated to the abbey
until Henry's charter was granted. As a cell of
Tavistock, the Scilly monastery appears to have
existed until the suppression of the mother house,
but little is known of it subsequent to the middle of
the fifteenth century.

Tregony Priory. At an early date the churches of
* Oasqiiet, English Monastic lAfe, p. 214.

Ancient Religious Houses 115

St. James, Tregony, and of St. Cuby, appear to have
accepted the rule of St. Augustine and to have been
constituted a cell of the abbey of de Valle in Nor-
mandy. When and by whom this appropriation was
made is unknown, but it is certain that it was
made after the Norman Conquest. In the year 1278
Bishop Bronescombe gave his sanction to the transfer
of the priory of Tregony to the priory of Merton in
the county of Surrey. This was in furtherance of an
arrangement between the prior of Merton and the
abbot of de Valle, whereby the possessions of the
former in the diocese of Bayeux were exchanged
for those of the latter in England. Bishop Quivel
confirmed the sanction of his predecessor in 1282,
and until the dissolution of the religious houses the
cell, which had become a vicarage, belonged to the
monastery of Merton.

Of Tywardreath Priory little need be said here. At
the time of the Domesday Survey, Tywardreath was
one of the thirty manors in Cornwall which had been
given by the Conqueror to Richard Fitz Turold.
By Richard the priory was founded and affiliated to
the great Benedictine abbey of SS. Sergius and Bacchus
at Angers. The list of charters recording successive
endowments is exceptionally complete, and for
genealogical purposes the charters are of very great
value, but they afford no suggestion of a pre-Norman
foundation.

The cell of St. Anthony in Roseland represented a
survival of an order of things of which we have
little recorded evidence. In the thirteenth century
it derived its main support from the church of St.
Gerrans. In the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV the
prior of St. Anthony is assessed at the same amount

Celtic Christianity of

for his portion in the church of St. Gerrans as the
rector himself. A httle more than a century later,
in the Inquisitio nonarum, St. Anthony is described
as a chapel (capella) of St. Gerrans. Such informa-
tion as we have points to a quasi -monastic establish-
ment of St. Gerrans, followed by a parish church at
Gerrans and a small monastery at St. Anthony. The
latter was made, at an early date, dependent on the
Augustinian priory of Plympton, and in the earlier
half of the sixteenth century consisted of two
canons.

The Cell of St. Michael of Lammana, situated in
the parish of Talland opposite Looe Island, which
formed a portion of its possessions, was given by
John de Solenny in the twelfth century to the Bene-
dictine abbey of Glastonbury. Richard, Earl of
Cornwall, granted to the abbot a licence to farm out
its revenues, and this probably accounts for the scant
information supplied by the public records respecting
the cell. The name Lammana points to Celtic
monasticism.

The Convent of the Preaching Friars at Truro
throws no light upon the subject before us. The friars
first came to England in the year 1221. It is a
striking proof of the rapidity with which the order
spread that Bishop Bronescombe should Iiave dedi-
cated their church at Truro in 1259.

The origin of the Collegiate Church of Endellion is
obscure. In 1273 the rectory belonged to the prior
and convent of Bodmin ; in 1342 Bodmin or King's
prebend belonged to the same ; in 1265 Marny*s
prebend belonged to the family of Bodrugan, and in
1266 Trehaverock prebend belonged to the family of
Modret. The parish of Endellion was not in St.

Ancient Religious Houses 117

Petrock*s hundred of Pawton, nor do any of its three
Domesday manors appear to have belonged to the
saint. It would therefore seem as if the advowson
or a moiety of it had been given to the priory after
its reconstitution on English lines. In any case it
would be rash to claim a pre-Norman origin for
Endellion Collegiate Church.

The similar establishment at Glasney, near Penryn,
owed its foundation to Bishop Bronescombe, who in
1267 consecrated the church of St. Thomas the
Martyr and its churchyard. Glasney was an entirely
new college, not the rehabilitation of an earlier institu-
tion, and on that account it does not enter into the
present enquiry. ^

The church of St. Michael Penkevil was made
collegiate in 1319, as the result of the benefaction of
Sir John de Trejagu. It was to be administered by
an archpriest and three fellows who were to live
under the same roof and to dine at the same table.
It had no early monastic associations.

The date of the erection of St. Teath into a Collegi-
ate Church is more obscure. Between the years 1258
and 1264 Bishop Bronescombe founded two prebends
in St. Teath church, and, inasmuch as the number of
prebends does not appear ever to have exceeded two,
it is probable that the church owed its prebendal
character solely to the bishop.

The Hospital of St. John the Baptist at Helston
and the Lazar house at Liskeard, being comparatively
modern foundations, need not be examined.

Reference has been made to three churches or
religious houses — it is not clear which is the appro -

* Mr. Thurstan C. Peter has written an interesting and reliable
account of Olasney Collegiate Church (Camborne, 1903).

118 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

priate term — ^which are mentioned in Domesday-
Book, but which are omitted in the Monasticon,

In the former document it is stated that St. Con-
stantine has half a hide of land which in the time of
King Edward was free of all service, but since the
Count of Mortain received the land it has always
rendered geld unjustly like villeins' land. This land,
known as the manor of Tucoyes, was bestowed upon
Wihumar and henceforth lost to the Church. The
exemption from geld implies a monastic foundation,
but no other trace of monastic origin has been found
in connection with the church of St. Constantine.

Of St. Neot it is stated that the saint held a manor
called Neotstou, consisting of two hides of land in
the time of the Confessor, Godric being the priest in
charge, and that the Count of Mortain has despoiled
the priests of all their land save one (Cornish) acre.
It is also stated that the two hides of land have never
rendered geld. Monastic the church of St. Neot un-
doubtedly was, but in this case we have trustworthy
historical evidence to prove that it was not Celtic
but Saxon. St. Neot had himself founded the house
in Saxonised territory. No trace of its original
character is to be found in later documents. It would
therefore seem that it load already become (in 1086)
purely parochial.

The honour of St. Che us or Che, of which the manor
of Tremaruustel was a member at the time of the
Domesday Survey, has hitherto resisted all attempts
at identification. It probably represents a moribund
and extinct monastic holding of considerable extent.

The Domesday manor of St. Mawnan (wrongly
written Maiuian or Ma wan in both copies) had fallen
into the King's hand before the Conquest. But the

Ancient Religious Houses 119

church of St. Mawnan is referred to in many subse-
quent translations under the name of Minster, which
suggests a monastic origin.

Manaccan, the monks' church, calls for no com-
ment.

A very interesting and convincing example of the
conversion of a purely Celtic monastic house to
English uses is supplied by St. Kew. On linguistic
grounds' alone Professor Loth arrived at the con-
clusion that Docco, the monastery where St. Sampson
made the acquaintance of St. Winniau, was St. Kew.
An examination of the various forms under which
the church is described in the Episcopal Registers
revealed the forms Landoho, Lanho and Lanow. A
Patent Roll of 1307 furnished the following state-
ments, viz. that King Edgar (958-975) gave to the
canons of Plympton two carucatcs of land, 100s. of
rent in Landoho and the church there for the support
of two canons celebrating divine service there and
dispensing alms and hospitality to the poor, to
pilgrims and other guests, that in a case tried before
John de Berewyk and other justices (circa 1300) it
was shown that the prior and convent of Plympton
had failed to fulfil the above conditions and that,
taking into account all the circumstances, the King
now (1307) grants to the prior and convent the right
to substitute a secular vicar and chaplain for the
two canons at Landoho.

An examination of the Plympton charters showed
that Henry I gave the church of Tohou to William
Warelwast, bishop of Exeter, and that he gave the
church to the priory of canons regular which he
founded at Plympton in the year 1121. No one can
doubt that Tohou and Docco are variants of the

120 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

same word, which is found in Brittany as Tohou and
Ohou. It is not difficult to follow the various acts of
spoliation. King Edgar evidently reduced the
patrimony of the Celtic monastery to the amount
specified above while retaining the manor of Landoho,
which until the Norman Conquest embraced the
manors of Poundstock and St. Gennys. The three
manors passed as an undivided whole to Earl Harold
as demesne lands. By the Conqueror they were given
to the Count of Mortain. Henry I claimed the re-
maining revenue of the monks and gave it to the
bishop who transferred it to Plympton priory. Edgar's
gift to Plympton was a legal fiction which enabled the
priory to evade responsibilities which were implied
in the charter of Henry I and explicitly stated in
that of Henry II when canons regular were substituted
for secular canons.^

In brief, St. Kew was the site of an important
Celtic monastery wliich, visited by St. Sampson in
the days of St. Winniau, despoiled by King Edgar
and stripped bare by Henry I, nevertheless retained
some semblance of its ancient glory until the latter
half of the tloirteenth century.

As the result of the above examination it will be
observed that of the twenty-six religious houses about
one-half afford evidence of Celtic origin. In some
cases the evidence is convincing ; in some it is of
itself insufficient to convince. Taken as a whole, it
adds considerably to the weight of the argument
which is here advanced, namely, that in Cornwall the
Celtic form of Clxristianity had not wholly disappeared
at the time of the Norman Conquest. Of its secure
and comprehensive hold upon the religious life of the

* MonasHcon, p. 136.

Ancient Religious Houses 121

whole county at an earlier period there is abundant
proof in the names of the parishes. Excluding those
which have been considered, fifteen bear the prefix
Lariy the mark of monastic settlement. Others, like
St. Erth (Lanudno), St. Madron (Landithy), St. Just-
in-Penwith (Lafrowda), Kea (Landegy), Gulval
(Lanisley), Lelant (Lananta), Lezant (Lansant), re-
tained the prefix for a time, in an alias, which in some
cases suggests an earher dedication ; or, as in the
case of Lanherne, Langunnet, Lanyhorne and Lan-
hadron still retain it in the name of the manor to
which the advowson of the church was appendant ;
while a very large number bear, without prefix or affix,
the names of Celtic saints, many of them unknown
to the outside world. From one end of the comity to
the other the impress of Celtic Christianity can be
clearly traced. It is monastic in character. But it
is not a monasticism which has intruded within the
confines of parishes already formed, but a monasticism
wiiicli has occupied the whole territory from the very
first. This it is which, in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, either finds itself gradually superseded by
the newer parochialism, or which ensures, in some
sort, its survival in collegiate bodies or in recognised
monastic orders by submitting to new conditions and
new ideas.

IX

CORNISH HERMITS

THE subject of English hermits and anchorites
has been so exhaustively dealt with by Miss
Rot ha M. Clayi that a writer may well hesitate before
he ventures to enter upon a small portion of the ground
which she has covered. Miss Clay has performed her
task with great judgment, learning and literarj^ skill
and with consummate diligence. So conscientiously
and so impartially has she performed her task that
the reader will seek in vain to discover whether she
is in full sympathy with the hermit's vocation or the
reverse. Her book will be read with pleasure and
with profit by all.

The present writer wishes to acknowledge his
obligations to Miss Clay, whose researches have both
confirmed and supplemented conclusions already
formed. The titles of the several chapters of her
book are illuminating and suggestive, and the con-
tents abundantly justify the distinction she has
made between one type and another. We find our-
selves introduced in succession to hermits of island
and fen, forest and hillside, cave, lighthouse, liigh-
way and bridge, town, church and cloister.

Unless the student keeps in mind the fact that the

eremitical impulse fulfilled itself in varied activities

he will fail to understand its true nature and purpose.

1 Hermite and Anchorites of England, Methuen & Co.

122

{

Cornish Hermits 123

Here was no lawless spirit, disdaining the restraints
of an ordered life, but " the fiery glow that whirls
the spirit from itself away " to make it the ready
instrument in God's hands for works of mercy, charity,
counsel and service while seeking by prayer, medita-
tion, vigil and fasting to attain unto perfection.

Again, while it is allowable to assume that the
hermit who dwelt apart and in solitude was the
precursor of the conventual body — ^the word monk
implies as much — it nevertheless seems certain that,
at the time when he first emerges into the clear light
of Celtic history he is not, as popular fancy has im-
agined, a distraught enthusiast seeking refuge and
rest from an evil and adulterous generation, but a
tried soldier who has learnt in the convent by precept
and by practice the art of war, and who goes forth
in all the panoply of celestial might to fight singly
and alone the enemies of his soul and to bring deliver-
ance to others. No sooner has he achieved his own
salvation than he sets about the salvation of his
fellow-men. He has little in common with the self-
regarding Christian of the Pilgrim's Progress. He is
eager to be of use. He becomes a minister to the
dwellers amid untrodden ways and in remote corners,
it may be as a waywarden, a bridge repairer, or a
light keeper, but in any case as the guide, the coun-
sellor, the friend of all. Inevitably his sphere of
influence widens out. Soon he has become equally
necessary to the pilgrim, the traveller and to those
who are round about him. As time goes on his cell
and the little sanctuary where he and they have met
for worship become hallowed by association, and,
when he dies, a successor must be sought to carry on
the tradition. The hermitage thus remains as a

124 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

memorial of its foimder long after his name has been
forgotten.

Or, it may be, the hermit is joined by others like-
minded and founds a religious community, a Ian
whose growth and permanence are promoted by the
industry and self-denial of its members. This would
seem to have been the normal course of events in
Cornwall. In this case the individual founder is
often content to leave his work to be carried on by
others during his lifetime. He may be a bishop,
priest, deacon or layman who determines to undergo
the hardships of the wilderness for a season, but who
has no intention of devoting his whole life to solitude.
Diversities of gifts under the spell of a common im-
pulse give rise to diversities of ministration and of
operation.

Of the hermits of the Celtic period in Cornwall we
have very little historical evidence. Presumptive
evidence we have which, if it told against the tradi-
tional interpretation of early Christianity, would
doubtless be held to possess great value. For ex-
ample, we have, in the Hves of the saints, references
to ecclesiastical types and economic conditions which
had been obsolete for centurie's when some of those
lives are held to have assumed their present literary
form.

We have holy wells bearing the names of saints
which are not the names of the patron saints of the
parishes in which the wells are situated. We have
legends which, for the purpose of comparative myth-
ology, are highly esteemed. There are, for example,
holy wells at St. Ingunger, Chapel Uny (St. Uny's)
and Jetwells, but these are not the patrons of the
parishes, though they are all three well-known Celtic

Cornish Hermits 125

saints. On the other hand, there are wells bearing
the names of St. Levan, St. Madron, St. Clether, St.
Keyne and St. Just (Venton — east) situated in the
parishes which do bear their names. If the ancient
Cornish churches derived their names from their
founders or founders' kin it seems probable that the
holy wells acquired their names from association with
the saints whose names they bear.

There >would be the same inducement for a hermit
to fix his abode near a spring of water as there is for
an Australian squatter to choose a similar spot for
the headquarters of his sheep or cattle station. So
late as a.d. 1086, when Domesday Book was com-
piled, the county of Cornwall was very sparsely
populated. In the place-names may be recognised
traces of a fauna long extinct but nevertheless extant
in Celtic times. ^ It is necessary to bear in mind the
transformation of the county, which during the last
thirteen centuries has resulted from increased settle-
ment and the more extensive cultivation of land, in
order to be in a position to estimate the value of the
evidence supplied by the hagiographer.

Early in the sixth century St. Petrock succeeded
St. Guron at Bodmin ; such is the tradition. Leland
(circa 1540) thus records the event, ^ Bosmana, id est,
mansio monachorum in valle, ubi St. Guronus solitarie
degens in parvo tugurio, quod reliquen(s) tradidit St,
Petroco. Guron was doubtless a hermit. Petrock
enlarged the hermitage, which was situated in the
valley where the town now stands and near the well
which still bears the hermit's name, so as to make it

^ Nancherrow and Camyorth, two neighbouring hamlets in
St. Just-in- Penwith, denote respectively the valley of the stag and
the hill of the roebuck.

' Leland, Collectanea^ i, 76.

126 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

capable of sheltering himself and three brethren.
Guron is probably the same as Gk)ran, the name-saint
of the parish in the ancient deanery of Powder.
Traces of the name are to be found in Brittany.^

William of Worcester (1478) introduces us to three
Cornish hermits, Vylloc or Willow, Mybbard and
Mancus. They were companions.

The first is described as a hermit and martyr born
in Ireland and beheaded by Melyn's kinsfolk {Melyn
ys kynrede) near the place (in Lanteglos-by-Fowey)
where Walter, bishop of Norwich, was born.

From this place to the bridge of St. Willow, a
distance of half a mile, he carried his (head) to a spot
where the said church was built in his honour. 2
Mybbard, otherwise Calrogus, is stated to have been
a hermit, the son of a King of Ireland, and his body
is said to rest within the shrine (scrinio) of Cardynham
Church. Mancus, their companion and a hermit, is
said, on the authority of Robert Bracey, to lie in
the church of Lanreath, within two miles of Fowey,
and, on the authority of the canons of Launceston, in
the parish of Lanteglos presumably at Bodinnick.
All three are said to be commemorated on the same
day, viz. the Thursday next before Whitsunday.
William of Worcester's account of the three hermits
is prefaced by the sentence " there were three brothers
under the name of St. Genesius and each carried his
head, one of them archbishop of Lismore.** Is it
possible that St. Gennys may be a corruption of a
Latinised Greek word auyyevei^ (kinsmen) ? It is
curious, in any case, that the feast of Cardynham and
St. Gennys should be held on Whitsunday, that of

* Loth, Lee Noma dee Saints bretone, p. 48.

■ Parochial History of Cornwall, Supplement, pp. 102, 110.

Cornish Hermits 127

Lanteglos having been abandoned and that of Lan-
reath, whose patron is now given as Marnarch, being
kept on the third of August. Anciently there was a
chapel at Bodinniek bearing the name of St. John
the Baptist. St. Willow is regarded as the patron of
Lanteglos and Mybbard as the patron of Cardynham.
When all due allowance has been made for accretions
and errors in transmission it seems impossible to doubt
that thre^ Irish hermits were martyred at or near
Lanteglos and commemorated by churches built in
their honour.

St. Neot represents a prevalent type of religious
which, from the first days of British Christianity
until the eleventh century, combined the habits and
aspirations of the hermit with the practical useful-
ness of the missionary. Neot was born in the earlier
years of the ninth century of parents who were nearly
related in blood to the West-Saxon Kings. For-
saking a military career for which he had been
intended, he entered the monastery of Glastonbury,
where he received Holy Orders and became eminent
for piety, learning, ^visdom and counsel. The fear of
popular applause drove him forth into the wilderness.
He fixed his abode in the Cornish parish which now
bears his name, near to a hamlet then known as
Hamstoke and therefore apparently already a Saxon
settlement. Here he lived seven years. At the end
of that time he visited Rome and was advised by
the Holy Father to renounce his habit of solitary
devotion to return home and scatter the word of
God among the people of Cornwall.

He came back to Hamstoke and founded there the
college of priests of which mention is made in Domes-
day Book. At Hamstoke he was visited more than

Celtic Christianity of Cornwai

once by his kinsman Alfred the Great, who hunted
in the neighbourhood and who is said to have been
healed at the shrine of St. Guerir of a malady which
had afflicted him from boyhood.

St. Neot's hermitage was near the spring which is
about half a mile west of the church and is known as
St. Neot's well. In his day there appear to have
been two pools, one of them with an unique un-
failing supply of three fishes, of which one only was
to be caught in a day, and the other, a pool in which
the saint was wont to stand daily while repeating
the Psalter. Many stories are told of the saint's
sojourn by the well. The fox which stole his shoe,
the rescue of the doe from the hounds, the theft of
his working bullocks and the employment of stags
for the ploughing of his land are sufficiently well
kno^vn.

By the advice of St. Neot King Alfred is said to
have restored the English school at Rome. The saint
continued to be abbot of his own foundation until
his death, which took place on the 31st of July, 877.
He was buried in the church which he had built on
the site of the chapel of St. Guerir. About a century
later his bones were fraudulently removed to the
monastery of Eynesbury in Huntingdonshire.

There are several points of interest. There does
not appear to have been any marked difference be-
tween St. Neot's eremitical career and that of others
of Cornish origin. This may be owing to the late
composition of the lives of many of the saints. The
substitution of St. Neot for St. Guerir as the name-
saint of the church has many precedents and would
call for no remark here did it not afford a good
example of what was also in Cornwall a fairly general

Cornish Hermits 129

practice, of which the proofs are not abundant — that
of calling churches after the names of their founders.^
At this point it is convenient to call attention to
the story of Tristan and Iseult, which has been shown
to be of Cornish origin and which assumed literary
form probably towards the end of the eleventh cen-
tury. Most of the places mentioned in the story are
found in Cornwall and, although the actors in the
drama are presumed to have lived some five centuries
before their deeds were committed to writing, there
are nevertheless inferences to be derived from the
record of them which have a direct bearing upon our
subject even if we suppose the setting of the story to
have been, at the time, comparatively modern. The
following episode is an example. During the sojourn
of Tristan and Iseult in the forest of Morrois (Moreske),
which then extended from the Fal to the Helford
river, they meet with a hermit, Ogrin by name, who
does not hesitate to give them some much-needed
advice. He calls them to repentance and then listens
patiently to Tristan's excuses. It is not suggested
that in admonishing them he is exceeding his duty.
He is described as a hermit with a hermitage in the
forest, a personage quite distinct from the parish
priest, whose sphere of influence had already become
a recognised geographical unit, as is shown by the
following passage :

En Cornoualle n'a parroise
Ou la novele n'en angoise
Que, qui porroit Tristan trover
Qu'il en feist le cri lever.

Ogrin, as a man of sense, advises the Queen to return

* The name of Neot's predecessor, like that of Veronica, may
have been suggested to Asser by the reputed miracle ; but, if so,
it would not invalidate the truth of the narrative so far as it relates
to the successive founders of the church.

130 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

home, and himself undertakes the delicate task of
reconciling the lovers to King Mark.

Throughout the narrative he is represented as a man
of God. It does not seem to have occurred to the
romancer that there is something slightly incon-
gruous in selecting a hermit for a shopping expedition
to the market of St. Michael's Mount, where, for the

lair Iseult : Asses achate ver et gris

J)ras de soie et de porpre bis,
Escarlates et blanc chainsil,
Asez plus blanc que flor de lil,
Et palefroi souef amblant
Bien atorne d'or flaiiboiant.

The hermit, as a man of affairs, may have been familiar
to those for whose ears the romance was intended.
It is difficult, otherwise, to assign a reason why
the writer exaggerated his character beyond the
bounds of recognition. The position which the
hermit occupied in the popular estimation, august
as it undoubtedly was, was not more exalted than
that which was voluntarily conceded to him by those
who were highly placed. To this fact must doubtless
be attributed the more or less successful attempts
to perpetuate the office when its occupant was re-
moved by death. It is therefore possible that in the
hermit of Colemanshegg, mentioned in a Roll of 1258,
we have a reference to one of Ogrin's successors. ^
Of this latter personage we know nothing save that
Richard hermit of Colemanshegg received 50s. yearly
to find a chaplain to celebrate divine service for the
soul of Catherine the King's daughter.

But for this mention of Richard of Colemanshegg

^ Colemanshegg is probably Kelmonsog (1308)=Kilmon8eg
(1332)=Kilmon8ek (1427)=Kyliyniansak (1442)=Calainansack
(hodie), in Constantine pariali, which in the eleventh century was
embraced in the forest of Morrois.

Cornish Hermits 131

the earliest notice of a Cornish hermit after the
Norman Conquest would have been that contained
in the Assize Roll of the 30th year of Edward I
(1301-1802) in which it is recorded that Thomas de
Pentnargh noctanter intravit domum Andreae Paugan
heremitae infra capellam Divi Justi et eum occidit.
Johannes filius Andreae heremitae primus invenitor.
The entry is under the heading of the hundred of
Penwitb. Penmargh is doubtless Penmarth in Wen-
dron. Pagan, of which Paugan may be a variant, is
not uncommon as a personal name in early records.
We are not told why Thomas of Penmargh killed
Andrew, or how long it was before John discovered
the dead body of his father, but it looks as if Andrew
had been seen alive the day before his death and
found dead by his son the day after. Where was the
hermitage ? It is described as below the chapel of
St. Just, but St. Just was not a chapel (capella). It
was a church (ecclesia), and the terms are never used
indiscriminately. If it be allowable to render the
passage " below a chapel of St. Just," that is, below
a chapel in the parish of St. Just, the record is very
significant.

For one of the most interesting spots in that parish
is Chapel Carn Brea, upon the summit of which stood
until 1816 a chapel of which a sketch was made by
Dr. Borlase, who described it as being approached
from the south side by a large flight of steps and as
being twenty feet in height, and the roof arched
^vith stone well wrought. Hals tells us it was about
ten feet wide and fourteen feet long, with a window
in the east end. Both writers speak of an immense
heap of stones lying around it, suggesting a large
vault or hermitage underneath. The chapel was

182

Celtic Chnmanuyo} Cornwall

pulled down in 1816 to build a barn elsewhere. When,
in 1879, Mr. W. C. Borlase made an examination of
the confused mass of stones which remained, and still
remain, he failed to discover any trace of a hermit's
cell, and concluded that the greater portion of the
debris had done service as a covering for the pre-
historic chambered grave which was found at a lower
level. While it is not unlikely that the tumulus sug-
gested, at a very early period, the site for the chapel
to the first Christian solitary who found his way to
that remote spot, the amount of stone there at the
present time is too great to warrant the conclusion,
unless the tumulus was of a type and size which has
no rival in the county.

Some building doubtless existed besides the chapel,
the size of which was obviously too small for public
worship.

The most striking feature of Chapel Cam Brea is
the commanding view which it affords not only of
the Channel but of the whole of Penwith and of a
large portion of the Lizard. No better spot could be
chosen for a beacon.

Within a couple of hundred yards is the ancient
mule track from Marazion to the Land's End. After
reading Miss Clay's chapter on hermits as light -
keepers, it seems impossible to doubt that the hermit
of Chapel Carn Brea was one of those who in the day
of small things performed that function, and whose
simple signal was to the seafarer no less than to the
traveller over the lonely moor a bright beacon of
God. Andrew Paugan was probably only one of a
long line of hermits who dwelt on the hill. A curious
extract is found in Dr. Borlase's collections which, as
one of the latest specimens of Cornish literature, has

Cornish Hermits 133

a value all its own and, as the witness of a tradition
extant in the latter half of the seventeenth century,
is useful for the present purpose. I am indebted to
Ml'. Henry Jenner for a transcript and translation of it.

" The Accusation of the Hermit (who Uv'd in Chapel
Karn Bray in Buryan) address'd to ye Duchess.
Rag an Arlothus woolaes Kernow
/ Dreth 'guz kibmias beniggas.

Why ra cavas dre eu an gwas Harry ma Poddrack
broas.

Kensa, wit a hagar-awal iggeva gweel do derevoll
war ren ny Keniffer termen dre ra ny moas durt
Pedden an woolaes do Sillan. Nessa, wit an skavoll
Crack-an-codna iggava setha war en cres a'n awles
ewhall (cries tutton Harry an Lader) heb drog veeth.
Tregga, wit an gurroll iggeva gwell gen askern skooth
Davas, etc."

To the Countess of the Dominion of Cornwall.
By your sacred leave.

You shall find by him that this fellow Harry is a
great witch.

First, from the stormy weather he does work to
raise upon us every time that we do go from the end
of the Land to Silly. Second, from the break-neck
stool which he can (or does) sit upon in the middle
of the high cliff (call'd The Chair of Harry the Thief),
mthout any hurt. Thirdly, from a sliip he does make
with the bone of a shoulder of mutton.

Mr. Jenner is inclined to think that the " seat of
Harry the thief " (Tutton Harry an Lader) refers to
a piece of cliff at Tol Pedn Pen with called " Chair
Ladder." The whole passage as it stands detached

134 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

from the context (which has been lost) is Httle more
than so much gibberish. Possibly it may have been
so intended, for the romance, of which it is a fragment,
was written by Mr. Boson for his children. But this
consideration, assuming it to be well founded, would
not rob the allusions of their evidential value. Quite
the contrary. Every romance requires some element
of fact or vraisemblance to recommend it to the
popular imagination. Not more than half a mile
from Chapel Carn Brea, at the foot of the hill, is
Crows -an- Wra, the Witch's Cross, which may have
suggested the character personified by Harry the
Wizard of the break-neck stool. Some vague
memories of the hermit who served the little chapel,
tended the beacon and directed the travellers across
the desolate moor doubtless still survived. Andrew
Paugan was only one of the occupants of the cell,
one who like many others in various parts of England
spent his life in solitude, enduring privation and
hardship and cultivating piety by prayer, meditation
and active philanthropy. He was probably a widower
when he gave himself to the career which Thomas
of Pcnmargh, in the stillness of night, for some un-
known reason brought to an untimely end.

The next mention of Cornish hermits is found in
the Inquisitio post-mortem of Edmund, Earl of Corn-
wall.^ Following the inventory of honours, lands
and services held by him at the time of his death
there is a list of the charges upon his estates and among
them the entry : " alms to St. PhiUp of Restormel,
hermit, and St. Robert of Penlyn, hermit." The earl-
dom and its possessions reverted to the King on Earl
Edmund's death, and we are therefore not surprised

1 Inq. p.m., 28 Edw. I, 44 (4).

Cornish Hermits 135

to find an entry in the Close Roll of the following
year, 1301, which reads as follows : " To the sheriff of
Cornwall. Order to deliver to brother Robert of
Penlyn, hermit, the island surrounded {inclusam) by
the water of Fawe with a rent of 56s. 2d. from certain
tenants of the manor of Penkneth, to be held by him
for life as he held them before the death of Edmund,
Earl of Cornwall, by reason of whose death the sheriff
took tiiem into the King's hands ; on the same
terms as the earl granted them, together with the
houses built on the island, to Robert by his charter
which the King has inspected."^

All attempts t© identify the island have hitherto
failed. The manors of Penlyn or Pelyn and Penkneth
or Pennight are in the parish of Lanlivery, of which
the river Fowey is, roughly speaking, the eastern
boundary, but no island is now to be discovered in
its course. The site of the hermitage of Restormel
is also uncertain. It may have been that of the chapel
of the Holy Trinity in the park, sometimes called the
King's free chapel, to which frequent reference is
made in the Rolls, and from which, according to an
inventory made in 1338, a bell weighing 100 lbs. had
been removed to the chapel within the castle walls of
Restormel. There is nothing to lead us to suppose that
St. Philip and St. Robert had successors. It is not im-
probable that royal chaplains were substituted for them.

In 1339 the Patent Roll records the King's pro-
tection granted to Roger Godman, hermit of the
chapel of St. Mary by Liskeard (Liskerith), collecting
about the realm the alms whereon he depends for
subsistence. 2 It is probable that the chapel of St.

1 Calendar of Close Rolls, 20 May, 1301, p. 488.
« Pat. R., 13 Edw. Ill, 1339.

136 Celtic ChrisU

of Cornwall

Mary was the same as the King's free chapel of St.
Mary in the park of Liskeard to which Edward II
appointed Roger de Aqua his chaplain in 1316.^ It
must be distinguished from that of the Hospital of
St. Mary Magdalen. The former appears to have
become a chantry, for, in 1378, a royal grant was
made to Richard Lagge, chaplain, that he might
celebrate service in it, and in the same year the
bishop issued a licence to him in which it is stated
that he is to celebrate for the welfare of the King.^
The chantry was suppressed by Edward VI, and the
" Chapel of our Lay dye " granted to Thomas Pomray
in 1549.2 It is interesting to compare the fortunes of
this chapel with that of the Holy Trinity in the park
of Restormel. Both of them appear to have been
served originally by hermits, to have been converted
into royal chapels and to have shared the same fate.
A little more than half a century later, in 1403,
the following entry occurs in Bishop Stafford's
register : " One Cecilia Moys, desiring to lead the
contemplative life of an anchorite* in a certain house
in the cemetery of Marhamchurch, the bishop on
the 4th of May, 1403, commissioned Philip, abbot of
Hartland, and Walter Dollcbcare, vicar of Southill,

» Ibid., 9 Edw. II, 1316.

» Ibid., 1 Rich. II, 1378, and Reg. Brantynyham, p. 387.

» Pat. R., 3 Edw. VI, 1549.

* Hermit (Gr. Eremites, L. Hercmita), one who lives in the
desert ; Anchorite (Gr, Anachoretcs, L. Anchorita), one withdrawn
from the world ; Monk (Gr. Monachos, L. Monaclius), one wlio
dwells alone. The difference between a hermit and an anchorite
was that the former was free to move from place to place, the latter
was confined. The monk wlio had at first been a solitary soon
became a member of an ordered and celibate community.

It is curious to notice that the impulse which created the hermit
produced the monastery, and that, at a later date, the monastery
incidentally produced the hermit.

Cornish Hermits 137

to place her there under proper protection, assigning
her till Christmas as a time of probation."

Churchyards were regarded as places specially
suitable for the dwellings of anchorites as being dead
to the world. It was, moreover, an obvious advantage
to the parish priest that they should be near the
church for the purpose of Communion. A second
entry in the same bishop's register probably refers
to the same anchorite, though the name is given as
that of Lucy Moys, anchorite of Marhamchurch.

She receives on the 10th of October, 1405, a licence
to choose her confessor. Another entry in the same
register records a bequest of 40s. by Richard Tyttes-
burry, canon of Exeter, to the anchorite of Marham-
church. His will was made on the 24th of February,
1405, and proved on the 7th of June, 1409. ^

At St. Teath there was a hermit, name unknown,
who in 1408, under the will of Sir WilHam Bonevylle,
received 20s. to pray for the soul of the testator :
" al heremyte de Stetth pour prier pour moy." In
the Lambeth manuscript the bequest is recorded
" a lermytage de Stath," suggesting, but by no means
proving, a permanent hermitage in the parish. ^

Seven years later, in 1415 : " Margaret an anchorite
dwelling near Bodmin, having asked permission to
migrate to the monastery of St. Bridget by Schene
and to join the order settled there, is licensed by the
bishop accordingly." To her or to her predecessor
Richard Tyttesburry, whose name has been already
mentioned, bequeathed in 1405 the sum of 40s. ^

It has been generally supposed that Roche Rock,
a natural and rugged monolith some 300 feet in

1 Register Stafford, pp. 26, 251, 294.

' Ibid., p. 391.

3 Ibid., pp. 25, 294.

138 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall^^^^M

height, situated in the parish which bears its name,
was formerly the seat of a hermitage, and there is
much to favour the supposition. Norden (1584)
describes it as "a verie high, steepe and craggie rock,
upon the top whereof is placed a cell or hermitage,
the walls whereof are partly wroughte, and that with
great labour out of the obdurate rock." In the
illustration, which he gives, the building is complete
with roof, windows and door. A detailed account
is supplied by Davies Gilbert (1838), from which it
appears that in his day the roof and upper chamber
(as shown in Norden's plate) had already disappeared,
the beam holes of the chamber being the only evidence
that such a chamber had existed. The dimensions
of what is supposed to have been the chapel are
given by him : the length 20 feet, the breadth 12 feet
and the height 10 feet.

There are apparently only two purposes for which
a building, at such an elevation and in so desolate
and remote a spot, could serve — ^that of a beacon
house or of a hermitage. The former is the less
probable explanation because of more suitable sites
in the neighbourhood. The lack of documentary
evidence in support of the latter hypothesis is not
surprising and will carry little weight with those who
reflect that it is only, as it were, by accident that we
have any evidence at all respecting the other hermit-
ages in the county. Comparing the cell on Roche
Rock with other similar cells in various parts of
England it may be inferred that the building was at
one and the same time used by its occupants for both
purposes.

The foregoing survey discloses no such secrets as
might have been expected. It leaves the story of

Cornish Hermits 139

Cornwall's conversion where we found it. The key
of the position remains undiscovered — the key where-
with to open and unroll the unwritten record of the
struggles of those first fateful days when the Christian
faith gained a foothold in the land. We are thrown
back upon the witness of an age so late as to render the
witness of doubtful value. If we refer to it, it is
with diffidence, having little or no hope that, as evi-
dence, it will receive the consideration it deserves.
Yet in spite of all that may be urged against any
particular legend, we must not forget that hagio-
grapher and monk, chronicler and poet, cross and
cell, holy well and church, all proclaim the same story
and tell the same tale when they represent the heralds
of the good tidings as wandering in deserts and in
mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. The
account of St. Sampson's visit and the legend of St.
Petrock are but types of the rest.

It would doubtless help towards the solution of
the problem if something more definite could be
known of the quarter whence the earliest of those
heralds came. Was it from Gaul, from Lerins, from
the East or from Rome ? We know that St. Hilary
of Poitiers, in the middle of the fourth century,
dedicated his treatise Be Synodis to the bishops of
the British provinces, that St. German of Auxerre
accompanied by St. Lupus of Troyes came over to
Britain in 429 to assist in extirpating the Pelagian
heresy. Does this point to some closer and deeper
connection than that of mere propinquity between
the Churches of Gaul and of Britain ?

The intercourse between Rome and Britain, the
Roman soldiers and merchants who during the occupa-
tion were brought into daily contact with the Britons

140 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

could not fail to effect some change in the religious
attitude of the latter. It is not, however, this slow,
silent, indirect influence which excites our interest.
It is rather of that direct attack upon paganism
which so far succeeded as to impress a definite
character and to make it possible to speak of Celtic
Christianity as a distinct type that we wish to hear.

We allow that the same truths when accepted by
different races produce different effects and find ex-
pression in different ways. An orthodox Russian
Churchman and an English Churchman profess the
same creeds, accept the same Scriptures, and are in
all essentials of one heart and of one soul ; yet it
will be some time before the latter can be got to feel
at home in the public worship of the former. Race,
temperament and tradition reveal themselves in
external modes of worship. This is true, but it is
not sufficient to account for the role of isolation
assumed by the British Church and by the daughter
Church of Brittany. Some external influence appears
to have been at work at a very early period, monastic
in character, which was unfavourable to the cultiva-
tion of close relations with the rest of Western
Christianity. It could hardly have been either of
Roman or of Gaulish origin. Had it been Roman it
would have constituted a bond of union instead of
being, as it was, a barrier against which Augustine
could not prevail ; had it been Gaulish it would
probably have been attempered by intercourse with
the source of its inspiration. Possibly it came from
the Mediterranean or from the East by way of
Marseilles.

X

ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT

IT is of little consequence to consider when and
by whom the suggestion was first put forward,
but it was one which captivated all who were anxious
to endow their native county with a unique distinc-
tion. The suggestion was that St. Michael's Mount
was identical with the island of Ictis, mentioned by
Diodorus Siculus about the beginning of the first
century before the Christian era.

Assuming the truth of this hypothesis, for which,
indeed, many cogent arguments could be urged, his-
torical writers were enabled to make a better start
in the case of Cornwall than in the case of any other
English county.

It is therefore somewhat disquieting to find a
distinguished geologist staking a great reputation
upon a counter -theory which, though promulged so
recently as the year 1905, has at the present moment
the support of the majority of those who are com-
petent to form a judgment of its scientific value. Mr.
Clement Reid, f.r.s., basing his arguments upon the
evidence of geology and physical geography, has been
able to show^ that, nineteen hundred years ago, the
Isle of Wight was, at high water, an island and, at
low water, a peninsula answering exactly to the
description of the island of Ictis given by Diodorus,

1 Archaeologia, LIX (2), 281 et seq.
141

142 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

whereas St. Michaers Mount was at that time " an
isolated rock rising out of a swampy wood." On the
other hand, however, it is only fair to say that
Prof. Oman, who has doubtless examined and weighed,
with his accustomed acumen, Mr. Reid's reasoning
and conclusions, remains unconvinced. The Rev.
H. R. Coulthard has broached a new theory, which
has perhaps not yet received the attention it deserves ;
it is that Ictis was the entire peninsula of Western
Penwith. As against this, there is the evidence of
Pliny who, on the authority of Timaeus, states that
the island of Mictis, apparently only another form of
Ictis, was distant six days' sail along the British
coast, a statement which is as fatal to the claims of
Penwith as to those of the Mount itself.

The question can hardly be said to be finally
decided, but the prevailing opinion is in favour of
the Isle of Wight.

The Mount has had several names. In the life of
St. Cadoc^ it is called Dinsul, which probably means
the citadel of the sun.

St. Cadoc is said to have visited his aunt St.
Keyne there, and to have miraculously provided the
Mount with a supply of water.

By the Cornish it was called Careg Cowse, or Karrek-
luz-en-Kuz, which William of Worcester correctly
translates " Hoar Rock in the Wood." It would be
interesting to discover earlier evidence of this name.
Its survival in the fifteenth century 2 — in spite of the
monastic and military occupation of the Mount for
many centuries — is very remarkable and seems to

1 Cott. MS. Vesp. A. XIV.

' The namo survived until the Cornish language was obsolete.
Boson (1702) uses it.

St. Michaels Mount 143

carry us back to the time when Mr. Reid*s descrip-
tion was exactly reaHsed.

At some period, very difficult to determine, the
Mount became known as Mons Tumba.^ A charter
in the Otterton custumal recording the reconstitu-
tion of St. Michael's priory, in the reigns of Henry I,
and Stephen, enjoins that the Cornish monks shall
receive the blessing of their abbot at Monte Tumba
unless, perchance, it shall please him to come into
Cornwall and bless them there ; from which it may
be inferred that the religious house in Monte Tumba
was at that time identified \vith Mont St. Michel in
Normandy, although the latter was then, at an
earlier date and long afterwards, commonly described
as St. Michael in Periculo Maris. ^ When dealing with
the medley of notes collected by William of Worcester
it will be necessary to bear this in mind.

The Mount was associated with St. Michael before
the Norman Conquest, in all probability before the
Saxon invasion of Cornwall.

As Professor Loth has pointed out,^ the name-
saints {hagio-onomastique) of ancient Brittany are
entirely national. " With the exceptions of some
apostles, of St. Michael, St. Matthew, of St. Peter
who has given his name to Ploubezre, it is useless to
seek for them in Gaul and the Roman Church : they

^ See dispensation granted by Thomas (Cranmer) to John
Arscott, archpriest of St. Michael de Monte Tumba Exonienaia
diocesis {Monasticon, p. 30).

' The statue of the Blessed Virgin in the parish church of Mont
St. Michel, known as the black virgin, also bears the name of Notre
Dame de Mont Tombe and the small island in the bay about two
miles from Mont St. Michel is called Tombelaine. Tumba [iwinp in
Welsh from Latin tumulus) and Tombelaine (the Teutonic diminu-
tive of Tumba) are probably derived from the prehistoric remains
of which there is now no trace.

* Lea Noma dea Sainta bretona, p. 5.

144 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

are all of them insular (British or Irish) or native
Breton." The same may be said of Cornwall with
very few exceptions. The position assigned to St.
Michael was everjrvvhere unique. At some time
subsequent to the Babylonish captivity St. Michael
came to be had in special veneration of the Jews.
From apostolic times in the East and from the fifth
century, at least, in the West, he was received into
the devotional system of the Christian Church.
Nothing could have been more sane or scriptural
than the honour paid to St. Michael. As the Prince
of God's people and the Captain of the heavenly
hosts ^ {militiae celestis signifer) he, who had prevailed
against the Spirit of evil, might well be expected to
lend his aid when the wrestling was against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.
And what spot so worthy to be the site of an earthly
fane for one whose warring is in the regions above
man's head, as the lonely mountain's top. There is
a sense of security felt by those who live on, or sur-
rounded by, hills even now when so many ages have
run since they were remotely responsible for it.
The proper seat of the Archangel was clearly on the
hill-top. They " found liim an house " accordingly
on the Cornish Mount, on Ro^vtor, on Rame Head, on
Penkevil, on Caerhayes and on the western Cam
Brea. Whether the cult of St. Michael superseded
some earlier pagan cult in Cornwall it is impossible
to say. Until some evidence is forthcoming it can
serve no useful purpose to dilate upon the possible
identity of Michael, Elias and Helios, or upon the
possibility of one whose most notable achieve-
ment was the destruction of sun worship on Mount

» Dan. X. 13, 21 ; xii. 1 ; Rev. xii. 7.

SL MichaeVs Mount 145

Carmel, being himself its personification to after
ages.

That there was a rehgious community at the Mount
bearing the name of St. Michael before the Norman
Conquest hardly admits of doubt. All the saints, with
three exceptions, found there by William of Wor-
cester, in the Calendar, were Celtic and insular.

The late Professor Freeman and Mr. Horace Round
have, hoAvever, expressed a contrary opinion based
upon the doubtful authenticity of two charters, certain
particulars of which, connected chiefly with their
attestation, are admittedly and obviously inaccurate.

The first of these charters ^ purports to be a grant
made by Edward the Confessor, " King of the
English, to Michael the Archangel for the use of the
brethren serving God in that place, of St. Michael
near the Sea, of the whole of the lands of Vennefire
and of the port called Ruminella with its mills and
fisheries." This charter bears the signatures of
Edward the King, Robert archbishop of Rouen,
Herbert bishop of Lisieux, Robert bishop of Cou-
tances, Ralph, Vinfred, Nigell the sheriff, Anschitill,
Choschet and Turstin. The second charter^ claims to
be a grant by Robert Count of Mortain to the monks
of St. Michael in Periculo Maris (Normandy), of St.
Michael's Mount in Cornwall with half a hide of land
and a market on Thursdays ; and three (Cornish)
acres of land in Amaneth, namely Trevelaboth, Lis-
manoch, Trequaners and Carmailoc, the signatories
being King William (the Conqueror), Queen Matilda,
Count Robert, William Rufus the King's son, Henry
the Boy (prince), Robert Count of Mortain, Matilda
(his) countess, their son William, William Fitz

1 See appendix, p. 172. * Ibid., p. 173.

146 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Osborn, Roger de Montgomery, Tossetin the sheriff,
Warin and Turulf.

To the grant there are added, 1 — a confirmation
of it by Livric (Leofric), bishop of Exeter, bearing
date 1085 ; and 2 — a postscript signed by the bishop,
exempting by command of Pope Gregory, the church
of St. Michael in Cornwall from episcopal control and
conveying a remission of one -third of their penance
to those who should enrich, endow or visit the said
church.

With regard to Edward's charter, it has been
pointed out by more than one writer that Edward
probably did not assume the title of King of the
English until after the death of Hardicanute in 1042,
and that Robert, archbishop of Rouen, died in 1037.
It is not stated whence Dugdale obtained his copy
of the charter, but a footnote by Oliver informs us
that the MSS. of the abbey of St. Michael are pre-
served in the public library at Avranches ; and it is
noteworthy that the charter in his Monasiicon is
labelled Carta Edwardi regis Anglorum pro abbatia
Sancti Michaelis, and that the three episcopal signa-
tories are Norman ecclesiastics. It is therefore pos-
sible that during his sojourn in Normandy Edward

, . . loved tlie holy company

Of jjeople of religion,

Wlio loved only all tliat was good ;

Especially a monk who led

A high and heavenly life

may have been induced to promise or to give Cornish
lands to the Norman St. Michael and that his friends
may have styled him Rex Anglorum, knowing that
only when he became de facto King of the English
could any benefit accrue to the abbey. But it seems

St. MichaeVs Mount 147

more probable that a gift of lands was made by him
to the Cornish St. Michael after Hardicanutc's death
and that after the Norman Conquest when the two
religious houses were united by the cession of the
Cornish priory to the Norman abbey the deed which
may have borne the signature of Robert, archbishop
of Canterbury, was altered so as to bear that of
Robert, archbishop of Rouen. In that case the grant
would have been made between 1050 and 1066. There
were undoubtedly bold and fruitless attempts made
on the part of the Norman abbots to enrich the
Norman at the expense of the Cornish house, just as
at a later period there were bold and successful
attempts made to enrich the latter by borrowing the
legends and traditions of the former.

The substantial genuineness of Edward's charter
will be regarded as probable when it is remembered
that no ultimate advantage can be shown to have
accrued from it to either house. A spurious document
would hardly have been preserved in the face of facts
witnessing to its failure. Neither Domesday Book
nor the Inquisitio Geldi makes mention of any
possessions in Meneage belonging to St. Michael.

The suggestion offered in Chapter VI, viz. that the
Meneage was at an early period monks' land both in
name and in fact, may possibly account for the
entire series of transactions. Grants to religious
houses and for religious purposes have not infre-
quently been a trifling recompense made to Paul
for the spoiling of Peter. It was notably so in the
reign of King Henry VIII. If in the early part of the
eleventh century the Meneage represented alienated,
that is, usurped monastic land, no one would have
been more disposed than King Edward to make

Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

restoration or to honour St. Michael by granting it
to the Mount. It is not unhkely that the grant
remained inoperative owing to the difficulty of making
terms with the layfolk in possession.

In the appendix 1 to volume iv. of his Norman
Conquest, Mr. Freeman, after referring to the doubtful
authenticity of Edward the Confessor's charter,
goes on : " doubtful as this charter is, the spurious -
ness of that which accompanies it (the charter of
Robert Count of Mortain) is still more manifest."
He then recites the fact that whereas the latter charter
is dated 1085, it bears the signatures of Queen
Matilda, who died in 1083, and of Bishop Leofric,
who died in 1072 ; also the exemption from ecclesias-
tical jurisdiction granted by Leofric at the instance
of Pope Gregory, who did not become Pope until
after Leofric's death — altogether a most formidable
indictment — and he proceeds to quote from the Exeter
Domesday, with a view of establishing the real date
of the foundation of St. Michael, the following
passage (which will also be found below labelled A.) :

" Sanctus Michahel habet i. mansionem quae
vocatur Treiwal quam tenuit Brismarus ea die qua
Rex E. fuit vivus et mortuus. . . . De hac mansione
abstulit Comes de Moritonio i. de praedictis ii. hidis
quae erat de dominicatu beati Michahelis."

" This," he says, " is the only mention of the
house I can find, and it would seem to imply a founda-
tion between 1066 and 1085. Brismar was a man of
large property in all the three shires. He is not
unlikely to have been the founder of the Cornish
Saint Michael, and if so he must have founded it, or
at least have given the estate, after Edward's death."

* Norman Conqueat, pp. 766, 767,

SL Michaels Mount 149

" It seems plain . . . that whoever was the founder
of the Cornish house it was not Earl Robert." And
he concludes, *' a note in the Monasticon (vii. 989)
speaks of another tradition as naming Robert's son
William as the pei^son who gave the Cornish house to
the Norman one. Here we most likely have the clue
to the mistake."

When therefore Mr. Round is found endorsing Mr.
Freemah's opinion ^ that " Treiwal was given to St.
Michael between the death of Edward the Confessor
and the making of the great Survey," and suggesting
that Earl Brian (who could have had no footing
in England before the Conquest) may have been the
founder, it may seem presumption to express an
opinion clean contrary to both. But let Domesday
Book tell its own story. There are three references
in the Exeter Book and two in the Exchequer Book
which bear upon the subject. They are given below
and labelled A, B, C, D, E for convenience of refer-
ence— ^those portions only being omitted which do
not concern the present discussion. The extensions
are for the use of those who are not familiar with
the abbreviated Latin text.

A. Exeter Domesday, fol. 208b. (Ed. 1816, p. 189).

Terra Sancti Michahelis de Cornugallia. Sanc-
tus Michahel habet unam mansionem quae vocatur
Treiwal quam tenuit Brismarus ea die qua rex Ed-
wardus fuit vivus et mortuus. In ea sunt ii hidae
terrae quae nonquam reddiderunt gildam. Has pos-
sunt arare viii carrucae. Ibi habet Sanctus Michahel i
carrucam. . . . De hac mansione abstulit comes de
Moritonio i de praedictis ii hidis quae erat de domi-
nicatu beati Michahelis.

1 Genealogist, N.S., XVII, 2.

150 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

B. Ibid., fol. 508 (Ed. 1816, p. 471).

Sanctus Michael habet i mansionem quae vocatur
Treiwal de qua abstulit comes de Moritonio i hidam,
quae erat in dominicatu Sancti die qua rex Edwardus
fuit vivus et mortuus.

C. Ibid., fol. 258b (Ed. 1816, p. 138).

Comes habet i mansionem quae vocatur Treuthal
quam tenuit Brismarus sacerdos ea die qua rex
Edwardus fuit vivus et mortuus. In ea est i hida
terrae et reddit gildum (sic) Sancto Michaele (sic).
Hanc abstulit comes Sancto. Bluliidus Brito tenet
cam de comite.

D. Exchequer Domesday, page ii, column 2.
Terra Sancti Michaelis. Ecclesia Sancti Michaelis

tenet Treiwal. Brismar tenebat tempore Regis Ed-
wardi. Ibi sunt ii hidae quae nunquam geldaverunt.
. . . De his ii hidis abstulit comes Moritoniensis i
hidam.

E. Ibid., columns 1 and 2, 125 a and b.

Idem (Blohiu) tenet Trevthal. Brismar tenebat
tempore Regis Edwardi . . . Hanc terram abstulit
comes aecclesiae Sancti Michaelis.

The very title which introduces extract A is sug-
gestive. The land of St. Michael " of Cornwall '*
implies another St. Michael just as "St. Ives in
Cornwall " implies a St. Ives elsewhere. And it is
this St. Michael of Cornwall and no other who " has
one manor which is called Treiwal which Brismar
held at the time of Edward the Confessor's death.
There are two hides of land which have never paid
geld. From this manor the Earl of Mortain has taken

St, MichaeVs Mount 151

away one of the aforesaid two hides which was of
Blessed Michael's demesne." If St. Michael of Corn-
wall did not exist before the Conquest it is difficult
to understand how he could have had lands in demesne
in the time of the Confessor. But it may be objected
there is here no mention of the saint holding lands
in the time of the Confessor. Accepting the correc-
tion for what it is worth, which is probably infinitesi-
mal, because the whole tenor of the Domesday assess-
ment— both as regards its ruling principle and its
literary flavour — ^is found in the reiteration of the
contrast or comparison of the land values as deter-
mined in the days of King Edward and at the time
of the Survey, admitting the correction, let the reader
refer to extract B. This reads, " St. Michael has one
manor, which is called Treiwal, from which the Count
of Mortain has taken away one hide which was in
the demesne of the saint on the day upon which
King Edward was alive and dead." St. Michael (of
Cornwall) was, therefore, quite as truly alive at the
decease of the Confessor as Edward was dead. In
the light of what has been said consider extract C.
This is important, because it tells us that Brismar
was a priest and a very different person from the
magnate described by Mr. Freeman who held lands
in three shires.

Extract C also introduces us to Treuthal, which
Brismar the priest held at the Confessor's death.
" Therein is one liide and it renders geld to St.
Michael." (The Domesday scribe, not the printer,
is responsible for " gildum " and " Michaele.") " This
the Count has taken away from the saint. Bluhid
Brito (Blohiu of Brittany) holds it of the Count."
No one who is acquainted with the history of Treuthal,

152 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

with its almost endless variety of spellings, can doubt
either where it was or what it was. It was the
patrimony and the place of residence in the parish
of Ludgvan of the Bloyou family, the descendants
of Bluhid Brito (Ralph Bloyou was born there ^ on
the Feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M. 21 Edward I)
until 1354, when Elizabeth, daughter and heir of
Alan Bloyou, sold it to Sir Nigel Loring.^ It is still
the name of a village and the name of a manor. While
Treiwal, by which name the Domesday compiler seeks
to distinguish St. Michael's land from Blohiu's, is
almost, if not quite, forgotten, the variant Truthwall
survives. But to revert to Brismar. Comparing A,
B, and C, it is clear that one hide was taken away
from Treiwal, that it was of Blessed Michael's demesne
in the time of King Edward, that Brismar the priest
held it in the time of King Edward, that the Count
of Mortain took it away from St. Michael, that it,
nevertheless, paid geld to St. Michael at the time of
the Survey, that Blohiu held it of the Count at
the time of the Survey, and that it was called
Trent hal to distinguish it from Treiwal, the name of
the parent manor. With these facts before us it is
impossible to doubt that for fiscal purposes Brismar
the priest and St. Michael the archangel were re-
garded as identical in the time of King Edward — in
other words, Brismar was the visible representative
of the invisible archangel. This explains why in
extract D Brismar held Treuthal in the time of
Edward, and why in extract E Brismar held, in
Edward's time, that which "" the Earl has taken away
from the church of St. Michael."

* Chan. inq. p.m., 12 Edw. II, No 16.

» De Banco, 12 Henry VI, Hilary, m. 443.

SL Michael's Mount 153

There are two further considerations which may be
adduced in support of the contention that St. Michael
of Cornwall was the name of a religious community
which was not, at the time of the Sm-vey, identical
with St. Michael of Normandy. It will strike every
careful reader of that part of Domesday which relates
to Cornwall that wherever a church or a saint is
mentioned the reference is to what we now call either
a conventual or a collegiate church.

St. Aliquis holds a manor which is called Quidvis,
the church of St. Aliquis holds a manor which is
called Quidvis — these are only different ways of
saying that the manor of Quidvis belongs to the
community of St. Aliquis. When, therefore, we read
that one liide of Treiwal was of the demesne of St.
Michael in the days of the Confessor, we know that
the land belonged to a body of religious.

The second consideration is this : It has been
pointed out to me that the phrase " nunquam
geldaverunt " (have never paid geld) is also pecuHar,
in Cornwall, to quasi - monastic lands. But St.
Michael not only did not pay geld, he received geld,
and received it from that hide of land of which he
had been despoiled by the Count.

Excluding St. German, who fared badly, the Count
usurping all his demesne lands, and whose only dues
had consisted of a cask of beer and 30d. paid to the
church, there were ten such communities in Cornwall
at the time of the Survey. Of these only three, St.
Michael, St. Petrock and St. Stephen, ever became
affiliated to the larger monastic bodies. The rest
remained what they then were, collegiate churches,
served by a body of secular canons, who in course
of time disappeared, giving place to a rector. St.

154 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Buryan was apparently the last of these communities
to be dissolved. To sum up the results. It will, I
think, be admitted that extract A is not the only
mention of the house of St. Michael to be found in
Domesday, that it was not founded between 1066
and 1085, that Brismar — ^the Brismar of St. Michael —
was not a man of large property but a priest represent-
ing St. Michael, that if he founded the house it was
before and not after the Conquest, and, finally, that
for reasons already stated, Earl Brian was not the
founder. Moreover, it is hardly likely that a body of
ecclesiastics, either at Mont IMichel or at St. Michael's
Mount, would have cited Edward as the patron of
the Cornish house if there had been some earlier patron
to cite. It would rather seem that what Mr. Round
says of Count Robert's charter is not far from the
truth, viz. " the fact that the form of the charter
as we have it is probably not genuine does not of
necessity invalidate its substance."

In justice to Mr. Round it must be added that after
reading the arguments here put forward, he would,
in support of his contention, read the concluding
words of extract B elliptically : " one hide which was
in (what became) the saint's demesne on the day on
which King Edward was alive or dead (i.e. after the
Confessor's death)." It is clear that such a method
of interpreting Domesday Book can only be allow-
able when there is overwhelming evidence in its
favour. In this case the evidence does not seem to
warrant its application.

As we have seen, Count Robert by his charter gives
to the Norman house, St. Michael's Mount with half
a hide of land and a market on Thursdays and lands
in Amaneth. Comparing this statement with that of

St. MichaeVs Mount 155

Domesday Book, it will be observed that in the
latter there is no mention of lands in Amaneth and
no mention of the market, although in Domesday
markets are frequently mentioned, while on the other
hand there is mention made of two hides of land,
one of which, Treuthal, the Count has taken from
St. Michael to be held of him by Bloyou, the other
being held by St. Michael in demesne. The question
which arises is : Did the Count restore one half of
the usurped lands or, assuming the charter to have
been made before Domesday Book (1086) was com-
piled, did he by a later instrument add half a hide,
thereby endowing St. Michael with a moiety of the
hide held in demesne ? We know from the subsequent
history of the lands under discussion that the Bloyous
remained in possession of Truthall, which never had
a market, and we know that a market was held at
Marazion or thereabouts within the Domesday manor
of Treiwal. We therefore conclude that the Count's
gift to the Norman abbey was a further act of spolia-
tion, which by connivance of the Conqueror he was
allowed to practise against the Cornish monks, and
also that his charter was executed subsequent to
1086. The presence of Queen Matilda's name among
the 'v^itnesses is the only invalidating element in
what we have every reason to regard as an authentic
document. Its confirmation by Bishop Leofric, and
also the bishop's postscript, are probably both of
them forgeries. To give them the appearance of
genuineness the Queen's name may have been added
to the authentic document. Be that as it may,
the alleged date, 1085, supposed to have been
supplied by the bishop, is impossible, inasmuch
as the fourteenth year of indiction with which it

156 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

is made to synchronise would be either 1070 or
1094.

In 1094 the Conqueror was dead, and in 1070
" Henricus puer " was in the second year of his age.
It must also be added that the date does not occur
in the charter, but is supplied from the cartulary.

The composite character of the postscript to which
also Leofric's signature is appended is seen in the
wild statement to which it bears witness. In it we
are informed that by command and counsel of Pope
Gregory and of the King, Queen and Nobles of Eng-
land, the bishop grants immunity from all episcopal
control to the church of Blessed Michael the Archangel
of Cornwall, and a remission of one-third of their
penance to all who shall enrich, endow or visit it.
Pope Gregory (Hildebrand) was not elected till 1073,
the year after Leofric's death, and the indulgence
which the postscript contains and which constitutes
its raison d'etre was manifestly only an expedient to
foster pilgrimages to St. Michael's Mount which,
supposing the monastery to have been founded after
the Conquest, would have been too obvious to achieve
its object. Something more will be said under this
head when dealing with the testimony of William of
Worcester.

When allowance has been made for clerical errors
and for the interpolations and additions to which
attention has been drawn, there is no sufficient reason
to reject either the literal interpretation of Domes-
day or the authenticity of Edward's charter, or the
substantial accuracy of Count Robert's. The date
of the latter would probably be 1086, or a little later,
probably in the last year of the Conqueror's reign. A
third charter of the reign of William Rufus records

I

St MichaeVs Mount 157

the grant to the Norman St. Michael, by Count
Robert of IMortain and Almodis his Countess of the
manor of Ludgvan held by Richard Fitz Turold, also
that which Bloyou formerly held in Truthwall
(Treiuhalo), and both the fairs (ferias) of the Mount,
the monks paying to the grantors the sum of sixty
pounds.

Now it is worthy of remark that neither of these
manors ev^r became permanently attached to either
reHgious house. Though it is impossible to speak
with certainty, it looks as if the Count had wrested
Ludgvan from Richard, had claimed Truthwall on
the death of Bloyou and had sold them both to the
Norman abbot, who afterwards found it impossible
to resist the claims of the rightful heirs.

The Cornish St. Michael had assuredly no cause
to hold the Count in grateful remembrance. From
first to last he acted the part of a robber. On this
occasion one is inclined to suspect that the posses-
sions of the brethren serving God at the Mount were
much more extensive before than after the Norman
Conquest. Assuming the Confessor's charter to be
genuine it would almost appear that the Meneage
district had, at a remote period, become attached to
a Celtic monastery at the Mount, and that he was
merely ratifying the title while perhaps limiting the
extent of its possessions.

There is yet another document of great import-
ance. It is described in the Otterton custumaP as
the Erection (Constructio) of the Priory of St. Michael
in Cornwall. It is, in reality, a notification by Ber-
nard, abbot of the Norman house, that the church of
Blessed Michael of Cornwall, built by him in 1135,

* Oliver, Moruuiicon, p. 414.

158 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

was consecrated in his presence by Robert (Chiches-
ter), bishop of Exeter, that, with the advice of the
said Pontiff and of Count Raner, and with the appro-
bation of the barons of the province, he has got
together thirteen brethren and has made provision
for them out of old endowments and current contribu-
tions, that he has enacted that he who shall be selected
by the parent house to be prior of St. Michael's Mount
shall not fail to make a return to it of 16 marks yearly,
that if he shall prove refractory he shall be degraded
and another prior appointed by the abbot with the
abbey's consent, and so on. Moreover, the Cornish
brethren are to receive the benediction of the mon-
astic order from the abbot in Monte Tumba unless
perchance it please him to come to Cornwall and
bless them there. At the end of the instrument
there is a list of the possessions of the Blessed Michael
of Cornwall, given to the archangel by Count Robert
of Mortain, viz. Tremaine, where there is sufficient
land for two ploughs, Trahorabohc for three, Listya-
havehet for three, Treganeis for two, Carmahelech
for two.

The entire document is needlessly defiant and men-
acing. The Cornish house is reduced to a mere
appanage of the abbey and the prior to a mere col-
lector of 16 marks for its benefit. Every vestige of
independence is swept away, and that, too, in sub-
version of the primary principle of the saintly founder
of the order. One hardly expected to find evidence
in Cornwall in confirmation of Dante's description
given more than a century later.

'ITie walls, for abbey reared, turned into dens (of tbieves).
The cowls to sacks, choked up with musty meal.

It is therefore satisfactory to note that the priory

St. MichaeVs Mount 159

could only reckon among its possessions the lands
given by the Count of Mortain, the rest of St. Michael's
lands having either been confiscated or alienated be-
tween the date of the Domesday Survey (1086) and
that of the document (1135).

To identify the several grants of land a more or
less careful examination of the places mentioned in
the charters becomes necessary. Taking them in
order of date, the Confessor by his charter gives to
St. Michael for the use of the brothers serving God
the place known as St. Michael, which is by the sea,
with all that belongs to it, and he adds the whole
land of Vennefire, with its towns, vills and lands ;
also the port of Ruminella, with its mills and fisheries.
One of the witnesses is Vinfred, or, as the name is
commonly written, Winfred. We are therefore justi-
fied in substituting " W " for " V '* in Vennefire,
and " s " for " f " according to the Avranches cartu-
lary. Vennefire becomes Wenneshire. A glance at
the Feudal Aids reminds us that the hundreds of
Cornwall were entered as Poudreschir (Powder),
Pydrisire,^ Pydar, Trigrishire, etc. It is therefore
safe to regard Vennefire as the equivalent of Wenne-
shire. But the name of the hundred in Domesday
Book is Wineton, a correlative, in this case the
equivalent of Wenneshire. Vennefire is therefore the
hundred of Kerrier. Ruminella is the diminutive or
feminine, not only in Latin but in Welsh, ^ of Rumin
or Rumon. The port of Ruminella thus becomes the
port of Ruan Minor, i.e. Cadgwith. One or more
mills still exist in the valley and at no great distance
from the port. If, as we have already suggested, the

1 Feudal Aids, 1303, 130G, etc.

* Loth, Vie de Saint Samson, p. 15.

160 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Meneage district was, like the hundred of Pydar,
settled by Celtic monks, the Confessor's grant would
mean little more than the confirmation to them of
their ancient patrimony, focussed at St. Michael's
Mount.

Edward can hardly be supposed to have had an
intimate knowledge of the locality or of its conditions.
Under the influence of men like Robert of Jumieges
he may well have given more than he had at his
disposal. The futility of the attempt is the best
proof of its having been made. It is certain that at
the time of his death the monks of St. Michael had
no considerable holding in Kerrier. Earl Harold had
become overlord of the manor of Wineton, seventeen
thegns holding eleven hides of him, the rest being
held by him in demesne. After the Conquest Wineton
fell to the King, who gave the whole to Robert Count
of Mortain, to be held of the Count by sub-tenants.
It may have been in some measure as an act of
reparation, but it was chiefly in order to augment
the influence and revenue of St. Michael of Normandy
that he granted to that abbey St. Michael's Mount in
Cornwall, with half a hide of land and three (Cornish)
acres of land in Amaneth, to wit Trevelaboth, Lis-
manoch, Trequaners and Carmailoc. No conditions
of tenure are specified except freedom from the
King's jurisdiction in all matters but homicide. It
is not stated, for example, whether the lands shall
be held of the Cornish or of the Norman St. Michael.
In some sense no doubt the community at the Mount
became henceforth an alien priory of Mont St. Michel,
but there does not seem to have been any definition
of the relations between the two houses until 1135.

The identification of the names Amaneth, Trevela-

St, MichaeVs Mount 161

both, Lismanoch, Trequaners and Carmailoc is not
free from difficulty. The word Amaneth is probably
for An-maneth, i.e. An-manech, the monastic (terri-
tory) and equivalent to Meneage.^ Manaccan the
monk's (church) (cf. Plou-manach in Brittany, the
monk's parish) is situated in the northern portion of
what is still known as the Meneage district, which
Leland (1533-1552) calls the land of Meneke or
Menegla;id.

The next name — ^Trevelaboth — presents no diffi-
culty. There is a continuous chain of evidence to
show that it is identical with Traboe, a small manor
in the parish of St. Keverne. In order to equate the
three holdings which remain, viz. Lismanoch, Tre-
quaners and Carmailoc, it will be necessary to refer
to a document in the Otterton custumaP in which
they appear as Tremain, Listyavehet, Treganeis and
Carmaheleck. Carmailoc is obviously Carmaheleck
or Carvallack, a holding in St. Martin's parish which
derives its name from the prehistoric earthwork in
that parish. If we suppose the " n " in Trequaners
and Treganeis to be a false reading for " u " — a pardon-
able blunder of constant occurrence — we have the
modern tenement of Tregevas or Tregevis also in
St. Martin's. We are thus left with Lismanoch as the
equivalent of Tremain (the modern Tremayne) and
Listyavehet. Tremain calls for no remark in this
connection : everyone knows where it is. Lismanoch,

^ Anmaneth may be an Anglicised form of An-manegh (cf.
Carnyorth and Respeth for Camyorgh and Reepegh), but it is more
likely that Amaneth is an adjectival form, viz. Man6ghek or
Menaghek, which became successively Menehek, Meneck, Menek,
Meneage (cf. infra Trevanaek). I am indebted to Mr. Henry
Jeimer for this suggestion and for some other notes on the derivation
of Cornish place-names.

' See appendix, p. 175.

162 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

of which it appears to have formed a portion, presents
some difficulty, because in that form the name is
now unknown. As Lesmanaoc it occurs in a grant of
King Edgar in 967 to Wulfnod Rumancant. In that
grant its boundaries are minutely described, but
unfortunately to little purpose owing to the fact that
many of the place-names in it are either purely
descriptive or have become so altered during the ten
centuries which have elapsed since the grant was
made as to be incapable of recognition. One or two
points are clear. Lesmanaoc was of considerable
extent. For some distance it lay along the river
which empties itself at Porthallow. It must have
reached well towards the south of St. Keverne parish
if " Castell Merit " and " Crouswrah " (two places
mentioned in the charter) are, as seems probable,
the modern tenement of Kestlemerris and Crousa
Downs. At the time of Count Robert's charter its
area had evidently been contracted, otherwise it
could hardly have escaped mention in Domesday
Book. The portion which had been lost was probably
the southern portion, for no mention is made of any
possessions south of Traboe in the grants of the
priory lands after its dissolution.

These considerations lend support to what is some-
thing more than a conjecture of Mr. Henry Jenner,
viz. that in the two tenements now known as Les-
neage we have the site of Lesmanaoc. Lesncage, as
he points out, may well be a contracted form of
Lesmeneage, which in turn may be only another form
of Lesmanaoc, on the same principle as Treveneage
in St. Hilary can be shown by an unbroken series of
documents to have been derived from Trevanaek.
It is worthy of remark that within a short distance

St, MichaeVs Mount 163

of Lesneage is Mill Mehal or St. Michael's Mill. If
this be the true etymology then the name Listyavehet
becomes less formidable than it looks.

The final " t " is the only difficulty. If we may
regard it as a false reading for "1," Listyavehet be-
comes Lis-ty-amehel, the " court of the house of St.
Michael," Lesmanaoc being the " Monk's Court,"
and the change of name easily accounted for by the
transfer of the monks' possessions in Menegland (mon-
astic land) to the house at St. Michael's Mount.

The Itinerary of William of Worcester deserves
attention. It is a curious assortment of undigested
and ill-arranged odds and ends of information com-
piled in the year 1478, that is to say about half a
century after the expulsion of the Benedictines from the
Mount and the introduction of the Bridgettines, only
five years after the Mount was seized by John de
Vere, Earl of Oxford, and surrendered by him to the
King's troops after a siege of twenty-three weeks.
The Itinerary is properly speaking a note-book. For
the most part William confines himself to matters
of topography, genealogy and hagiology.

Once and again he condescends to men of low estate,
as, for example, when he tells us that about the year
1476 one Thomas Clerk, of Ware, left Ware on the
Octave of St. John the Baptist and rode to the Mount
within ten days and then returned to Ware at the
end of another ten days, thereby covering, according
to the route bill which is given, something over thirty-
two miles a day for twenty consecutive days. William
himself rode more leism-ely. Leaving Norwich on
the 16th of August, 1478, travelling by way of Truro,
he reached Marazion on the 16th of September. The
next day he heard Mass at the Mount and in the

164 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

afternoon of the same day he began the return
journey to Penryn. The time spent by him in Corn-
wall was just over a week.

That he should have gathered as much material
as he did is therefore a matter for surprise. Towards
this harvest St. Micliael's Mount contributed its full
share, which is scattered without any regard for
convenience or context throughout the work. After
describing the tributaries of the river Fal, and a
propos of nothing whatever, he inserts a (supposed)
indulgence of Pope Gregory, said to have been
granted by him in 1070, although Hildebrand did
not become Pope until three years later. The in-
dulgence is addressed to the church of Mount St.
Michael in Tumba in the County of Cornwall, and of
it, all but the opening words are a verbatim copy of
the spurious postscript to the Count of Mortain's
charter, of which mention has been already made.
It is followed by a notice added by the Community
at the Mount stating that the document, having been
recently discovered in the old registers, is placed on
the church door and, being unknown to most men,
they, the ministers and servants of God, require and
beg all who have the guidance of souls to do all in
their power to publish it in their churches so that
their subjects may be moved to greater devotion
and may, by pilgrimage, frequent that place and
obtain the said gifts and indulgences. William next
mentions the apparition of St. Michael in Mount
Tumba, formerly called the '' Hore-rok in the Wodd,'*
which happened at a time when woodland and meadow
and plough land lay between the said Mount and the
islands of Scilly, and there were 240 parish churches
now submerged.

St. MichaeVs Mount 165

He observes that the first apparition of St. Michael
in Mount Gorgon in the Kingdom of ApuHa took
place in a.d. 391 ; the second, in Tumba in Cornwall,
near the sea, about a.d. 710 ; the third, in the days
of Pope Gregory at a time of a great pestilence ; the
fourth being in ierarchiis nostrorum angelorum. The
next paragraph appears to be the fragment of a
description of Mont St. Michel and its foundation by
St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches.

Then follow various measurements. The length of
the church of Mount St. Michael is stated to be
30 " steppys," its breadth 12 steppys ; the length of
the chapel newly built is 40 feet, i.e. 20 steppys ;
its breadth about 10 steppys ; from the church to
the foot of the Mount, to the sea-water, 14 times
60 steppys ; the distance by sea between Marazion
and the foot of the Mount is estimated at 1200 (feet),
i.e. 700 steppys, in English 10 times 70 steppys. It
is difficult to reconcile the last of these measurements
with the former and to connect the " step " with a
modern equivalent. The " step " was not a " pace,"
for speaking of the dimensions of Bodmin Church,
William says in length it is 57 paces (passus) and in
breadth 30 steppys. It was apparently two feet
(pedes), but whether two modern feet of 12 inches we
are unable to say. A little further on William tells
us that the island of St. Michael's Mount is about a
mile in diameter and is distant from the mainland
the length of a bow-shot. It lies north of the island
of Ushant in Brittany.

After dealing ^vith the Bodmin martyrology, in-
formation given by Robert Bracey at Fowey and the
kalendar of Tavistock, he mentions the capture and
surrender of the Mount by the Earl of Oxford five

166 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

years before the time of his writing. A fuller notice
occurs towards the end of his work where, after some
further details respecting the Mount's geographical
position, he gives us the kalendar of the church. The
saints commemorated are, as has been already re-
marked, with three exceptions all Celtic. Of one of
them, Brokan (Brychan) and his twenty-four children,
he supplies an account taken, as it would seem, from
the Legenda. For in the enumeration the saint is
described as Brokannus in partibus Walliarum
regulus fide et morum, and in the account of the saint
which follows the opening sentence is Fuit in ultinus
(ultimis) Walliarum partibus vir dignitate regulus
fide et morum honestate praeclarus, nomine Brokannus.
A similar explanation may account for the fourth
apparition of St. Michael being described by William
as apparicio in ierarchiis nostrorum angelorum, a
phrase which is meaningless as it stands, but assuming
it to be a quotation from the Legenda may have been
familiar and intelligible to William's readers.

From the foregoing abstracts from the Itinerary
two conclusions appear to be inevitable. In the first
place, whether of design or by inadvertence, the
name Mons Tumba which had been exclusively used
of the Norman Mount came to be also applied to
the Cornish Mount and, in the second place, the
associations of the former came to be adopted by
the latter. The postscript to the Count of Mortain's
charter and the newly discovered indulgence men-
tioned by William, the one an almost verbatim copy
of the other, probably bear witness to a fact, namely,
that an indulgence was actually granted by Pope
Gregory, but that it was granted not to St. Michael's
Mount but to Mont St. Michel. When once the in-

St. MichaeVs Mount 167

dulgence had been appropriated by the Cornish house
it became necessary to account for the allusions con-
tained in it. The ecclesia quae ministerio angelico
creditur et comprobatur consecrari et sanctificari
demanded some point d'appui, and this could only
be obtained by increasing the number of apparitions
vouchsafed by St. Michael.

The three apparitions generally accepted by
Western Christendom, viz. the appearance in the
fifth century to Garganus, that in the sixth century
to St. Gregory at Rome, and that in the eighth cen-
tury (a.d. 706) to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches
(probably identical with the apparicio in ierarchiis
nostrorum angelorum), were supplemented by an
appearance (a.d. 710) in Tumba in Cornwall. It is
impossible to say when this claim was formulated,
whether before or after the expulsion of the Bene-
dictines in the fifteenth century. The object was
evidently to stimulate pilgrimages, concerning which,
however, very little is recorded. Norden, writing in
1584, states that the Mount " hath bene muche re-
sorted unto by Pylgrims in devotion to St. Michaell
whose chayre is fabled to be in the Mount, on the
south syde, of verie Daungerous access."

When William of Worcester visited the Mount the
priory was in possession of Augustinian nuns known
as Bridgettines. Of them WilHam says nothing.

So long as it was Benedictine and under the control
of the abbot of Mont St. Michel, successive Kings of
England felt constrained, on the declaration of war
with France, to take it into their own hands and to
administer its preferment. From 1337 onwards the
rolls contain numerous entries dealing with the
patronage of alien priories. During his war with

168 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

France Henry IV required the prior of St. Michael's
Mount to hold the priory at farm for a yearly rent of
£10. Henry V, having founded the abbey of Syon
in Middlesex, transferred the priory to it, the provost
and scholars of the college of St. Mary and St. Nicholas
at Cambridge, to whom an earlier grant of it seems to
have been made, surrendering all their rights in 1462.

Thenceforth until 1536 it remained a Bridge ttine
nunnery. After the suppression of the monasteries
several grants were made of it for terms of years.
Eventually Queen Elizabeth sold it to Robert, Earl
of Salisbury, by whose son, the second earl, it was
conveyed to Sir Francis Basset. By his son, John
Basset, it was sold in 1659 to Colonel St. Aubyn.
Since that time it has remained in the St. Aubyn
family, its present owner and occupier being General
John Townshend St. Aubyn, second Lord St. Levan.

With its religious history alone are we here con-
cerned. That the Mount was the home of a Celtic
religious community in pre -Norman times hardly
admits of doubt. As we have shown, there was some
strong bond of attachment between it and the Mene-
age, a bond which, though weakened and attenuated,
was not completely sundered until the dissolution of
the monasteries in the sixteenth century. The main
proposition here advanced is that the Mount was at
a remote period, probably as early as the days of
St. Cadoc, the focus of Celtic religious activity for
the greater part, if not for the whole, of the Lizard
peninsula.

APPENDIX A

Extract from the '* Life of St. Samson *'
(Ed. by Fawtier, pp. 143-5)

QUAD AM autem die, cum per quendam pagum quern
Tricurium vocant deambularet, audivit, ut verum
esset, in sinistra parte de eo, homines baccantum ritu
quoddam phanum per imaginariam ludum adorantes ;
atque ille annuens fratribus ut starent et silerent dumque
quiete, et ipse de curru ad terram descendens et ad pedes
stans, intendensque in his qui idolum colebant, vidit ante
eos in cujusdam vcrtice montis, simulacrum abominabile
adsistere ; in quo monte et ego fui, signumque crucis
quod sanctus Samson sua manu cum quodam ferro in
lapide stante sculpsit adoravi et mea manu palpavi ;
quod sanctus Samson, ut vidit, festine ad eos, duos apud
se tantum fratres eligens, properavit atque ne idolum,
unum Deum qui crea^dt omnia, relinquentes, colere
deberent, suaviter commonuit, adstante ante eos eorum
comite Guediano ; atque excusantibus illis malun non
esse mathematicum eorum parentum in ludo servare,
aliis furentibus, aliis deridentibus, non nullis autem
quibus mens erat sanior ut abiret hortantibus, continuo
adest virtus Dei publice ostensa. Nam puer quidam
equos in cursu dirigens a quodam veloci equo ad terram
cecidit coUumque ejus subtus se praecipitem plicans,
exanimum paene corpus in jecturam tantum remansit.

Flentibus autem circa ilium vicinis suis, sanctus
Samson dixit " Videtis quod simulacrum vestrum non
potest huic mortuo adjutorium dare ? Si autem pro-
mittitis vos hoc idolum penitus destruere et non amplius

169

170 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

adorare ego ilium, Deo in me operante, redivivum
resuscitabo." Adquiescentibus autem illis, jussit eos
paulo longius seeedere, atque illo orante super exanimem
per binas ferme horas, ilium qui expiratus fuerat redi-
vivum palam omnibus atque ineolumem redidit. Videnti-
bus autem illis, unanimes omnes una cum supradicto
comite, procidentes ad sancti Samsonis pedes, idolum
penitus destruxerunt.

The Reverend F. W. Paul, m.a., whose friendship it
has been my privilege to share for half a century, has
revised the translation on page 33, He has done so
under protest. Incompetence, ignorance of monkish
Latin and the corruptness of the text have been his pleas.
The first no one will allow who knows him ; the second
is by no means uncommon ; the third everyone will
admit. L'Abbe Duine truly says of the Vita Samsonis
that plusieurs constructions grammaticales sont absolu-
ment barbares. Mr. Paul has suggested the following
emendations of the passage before us. Although drastic
they appear worthy of consideration, unless they can
be shown to run clean contrary to the habits of thought,
the terminology and the rules of composition observed
by writers of the seventh century. For quoddam
phanum he would read quendam phallum ; for mathe-
maticum, matrimonium ; for injecturam, jecturd. We
should then have in the latter part of the first sentence
" he saw men worshipping a certain phallus after the
custom of the Bacchantes by means of a lewd play,"
and for atque excusantibus illis malum non esse mathe-
maticum eorum parentum in ludo servare^ " and when
they said that there was no harm in their commemor-
ating their parents' wedlock in a play." I have accepted
jecturd for in jecturam and his translation of it. It is
unfortunate that a critical edition of the Vita Samsonis
has not yet been prepared. L'Abb^ Duine has indeed
furnished some useful notes — only too few — on the

Extract from ''Life of St. Samson'* 171

syntax and the peculiar use of certain pronouns, pre-
positions and adjectives.^ But, as Professor Loth truly
observes, to produce such an edition a minute study
of the syntax is required and also a glossary of all the
words which in form or in meaning are peculiar — a
glossary in which all the idioms should be exhibited.
The task requires special qualifications and will not
perhaps appeal strongly to those who have them. Sooner
or later someone will doubtless be found to undertake it,
someone, it is hoped, who is not only a scholar but who
is familiar with the religious literature of the seventh and
eighth centuries.

^ Duine, Saints de Domnonie, pp. 5-12.

APPENDIX B

Edward the Confessor's Charter
(Oliver's Monasticon^ p. 31)

Carta Edwardi regis Anglorum pro abhatid sancti
Michaelis (Ex autographo apud S. Michaclem in Nor-
mannia).

IN nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, ego
Edwardus Dei gratia Anglorum rex, dare volens
pretium redemptionis animae meae, vel parentum
meorum, sub consensu et testimonio bonorum virorum,
tradidi saneto Michacli archangelo in usum fratrum Deo
servientium in eodem loeo sanctum Michaclem qui est
juxta mare, cum omnibus appendenciis, villis scilicet,
castellis, agris et caeteris attinentibus. Addidi etiam
totam terram de Vennefire,^ cum oppidis, villis, agris,
pratis, terris cultis et incultis, et cum horum redditibus.
Adjunxi quoque datis portum addere qui vocatur Rumi-
nella cum omnibus quae ad cum pertinent, hoc est
molendinis et piscatoriis et cum omni territorio illius
culto et inculto, et eorum redditibus.

Si quis autem his donis conatus fuerit ponere calump-
niam anathema f actus, iram Dei incurrat perpetuam.
Utque nostrae donationis auctoritas verius firmiusque
teneatur in posterum, manu mea firmando subterscripsi,
quod et plures fecere testium.

Signum regis Edwardi ij( Signum Roberti archiepiscopi
Rothomagensis ^ Hereberti episcopi Lexoviensis.
Roberti episcopi Constantiensis. Signum Radulphi ^
Signum Vinfrcdi ^ Nigelli vicecomitis. Anschitilli.
Chosehet. Turstini.

* ** Vennesire " in the cartulary at Avretnohes.
172

APPENDIX C

Charter of Count Robert of Mortain
{Monasticon, p. 31)

Catta Rohertij Comitis, pro monachis S. MicJtaelis,

IN nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, Patris et
Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Ego Robertus Dei
gratia Moritonii comes, igne divini amoris succensus,
notifico omnibus sanctae ecclesiae matris nostrae filiis,
habens in bcllo sancti Michaelis vexillum, quoniam pro
animae meae salute atque meae conjugis, seu pro salute,
prosperitate, incolumitate Gulielmi gloriosissimi regis,
atque pro adipiscendo vitae aeternae premio, do et
concedo Montem Sancti Michaelis de Cornubia Deo et
monachis ecclesiae Sancti Michaelis de Periculo Maris
servientibus, cum dimidia terrae hida, ita solutam et
quietam ac liberam, ut ego tenebam, ab omnibus
consuetudinibus querelis et placitis ; et constituo etiam
ut ipsi monachi, concedente domino meo rege, ibidem
mercatum die quintae feriae habeant. Postea autem, ut
certissime comperi beati Michaelis meritis monacho-
rumque suffragiis michi a Deo ex propria conjuge mea
filio concesso, auxi donum ipsi beato militiae celestis
Principi, dedi et dono in Amaneth tres acras terrae,
Trevelaboth videlicet, Lismanoch, Trcquaners, Carmailoc,
annuente piissimo domino meo Gulielmo rege cum
Mathilde regina atque nobilibus illorum filiis Roberto
comite, Gulielmo Rufo, Henrico adhuc puero, ita quietam
ae liberam de omnibus placitis querelis atque forisfactis,
ut de nulla re regiae justitiae monachi respondebunt nisi
de solo homicidio. Hanc autem donationem feci ego

173

174 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Robertus comes Moritonii, quam concesserunt gloriosus
rex Anglorum Willielmus atque regina et filii eorum, sub
testimonio istorum.

Signum Willielmi regis ^. Signum reginae Mathildis ^.
Robert! comitis ^. Willielmi Rufi filii regis ^. Henrici
pueri »J(. Roberti comitis Moritonii ^. Matildis Comi-
tissae ^. Willielmi filii eorum >J(. Signum Willielmi filii
Osberni )J(. Signum Rogeri de Monte - gomeri ^,
Tossetini vicecomitis ^. Guarini >Jl. Turulfi >J(.

Firmata abque roborata est hec carta, anno millessimo
octuagesimo quinto ab incarnatione Domini indictione
decima quarta, concurrente tertia, luna octava, apud
Pevenesel.

Signum Liurici Essecestriae Episcopi ^.

Ego quidem Liuricus Dei dono Essecestriae episcopus,

jussione et exhortatione domini mci reverentissimi

Gregorii (VI) papae regisque nostri et reginae omniumque

optimatum totius regni Angliae exhortatus ut ecclesiam

bcati Michaelis archangeli de Cornubia, utpote quae

officio ct ministerio angelico creditur atque comprobatur

consecrari ac sanctificari, quatcnus cam ab omni episcopali

jure, potestatc, seu subjectionc libcrarcm atque exuerem,

quod ct facere totius cleri nostri consensu et hortatu non

distuli, libero igitur cam et exuo ab omni episcopali

dominatione, subjectionc, inquietudine, et omnibus illis

qui illam ecclesiam suis cum beneficiis et elemosinis

expetierint, et visitaverint, tertiam partem penitentiarum

condonamus. Et ut hoc inconcussum ct immobile et

etiam inviolabile fine tenus permaneat, ex authoritatc

Patris et Filii ct Spiritus Sancti omnibus nostris suc-

cessoribus interdicimus ne aliquid contra hoc decretum

usurpare praesumant.

Signum cjusdem Liurici Essecestriae episcopi lit.

APPENDIX D

Erection of the Priory of St. Michael in Cornwall
(Monasticon, p. 414)

Prioratus St. Michaelis in Cornubid constructio (Ex
custumali Prioratus de Otterton, fol. 58).

OMNIBUS Sancte Dei ecclesie filiis notificare dignum
duximus quod ecclesia beati Michaelis de Cornubia
a venerabili Bernardo, ecclesie prefati archangeli de
Periculo Maris abbate, in anno quo hominem exuit rex
Henricus constructa, et in anno regis Stephani a religioso
viro Roberto Exoniensi presulc prestito abbate, qui
presens aderat, id impetrante, Domino est consecrata.
Idem vero abbas sagaci mente pertractans celestis
militie principem locum eundem Deo ad serviendum et
sibi ad inhabitandum delegissc, predicti pontificis con-
silio et comitis Raneri et baronum provincie suffragio,
ut divinitati honor perpetuus impenderetur, officinas
religioni idoneas construere et fratres xiii in honorem
Christi Jhesu et apostolorum ejus, ut, videlicet, pro
modulo suo in fide que per dilectionem operatur et spe
in cultura vinee Domini Sabbaoth desudantis denarium
mereretur retributionis, aggregare curavit ; de redditibus
ecclesie tam antiquitus datis quam a viris provincie in
presentia sua ad hoc attributis victui eorum necessario
sufficienter providens.

Constituit autem ut vel per se vel per alium e fratribus
ecclesiam de Monte in Normannia qui ex abbatis loci
ejusdcm precepto prioris in Cornubia fungetur officio
annis singulis inviserc non negligat, et argcnti marchas
xvi finetenus reddat. Quod si constitutioni huic obviare,
vel contra abbatem suum vel conventum in aliquo

176

176 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

presumpserit contraire, de prioratu suo degradetur, et
alius pro abbatis arbitrio et conventus abbatie consilio
subrogetur. Si vero superbus fuerit et contumax et
prelatis ecclesie de Monte in Normannia inobediens
extiterit, omni participatione totius beneficii ecclesie
totius dicte, omniumque ecclesiarum ipsi societate aliqua
connexarum, excommimicationi se deleat. Frates quidem,
qui in Cornubia sancte conversationis habitum sus-
ceperint, monochatus jura in Monte Tumba profitentes,
benedictionem monastici ordinis ab abbate suo ibidem
suscepturos se noverint, nisi forte ei in Cornubiam
venienti eos illuc benedicere placuerit. Hoc itaque tarn
just a Dei dispensatione tamque virorum sapientum
discretione patratum, quicunque sive princeps sive
potestas aliquam infringere presumpserit, videlicet,
monachorum numerum qui pro facultatum ampliatione,
et ipse ampliandus est, imminuat, et jam dicti loci
possessiones in usus alteros convertat, ipsum, in quantum
nobis a Domino collata est potestas, anathematis inno-
damus vinculo et hujus retributionem sceleris a justo
judice suscipiat in futuro. Quicunque autem posses-
siones easdem conservare et pro suarum modulo facul-
tatum, quia valuit Zachee rerum suarum multa dis-
tributio, valuerunt etiam vidue minuta duo, et regnum
Dei tantum valet quantum homines, augmentare
curaverunt, omnium se orationum totiusque beneficii
ecclesie beatc Michaelis de Monte in Normannia participes
esse sciant.

He sunt possessiones quas ex dono comitis Roberti de
Mortenio ecclcsia beati Michaelis de Cornubia tenet :
Tremaine, ubi ad duas carucas terra sufficiens habetur :
Trahorabohc, ubi ad tres ; Listyavehet, ubi ad tres ;
Trcganeis, ubi ad duas ; Carmahclcch, ubi ad duas.
Adjacet terra preter pascua ad omnia animalia neces-
saria ; que simul caruce xii faciunt.

I

GENERAL INDEX

Aethelred, Bp., 67

Aethelred, King, 68

Age of the Saints^ 38

Agnes, St., Ill, 115

Aldesto\jr (Padstow), 56

Aldhelra, St., 56, 57, 80

Alet, 78 n.

Alfred, King, 56, 64, 82, 128

Allen, St. (Alun), 90, 91, 92

Almodis, Countess, 157

Aluuarton (Alverton), 67 n.

Amaneth, 82, 145, 154, 160, 173

Amber traffic, 23, 26

Ancestors, direct and collateral, 16

Angers, 113

Anglesey, 32, 80

Anne, St., d'Auray, 48

Annunciation, Feast of, 13 n.

Anschitill, 145, 172

Anthony, St., in R., 81, 105, 115

Anwyl, Prof., 31 n.

Apollo, 29

Apparitions of St. Michael, 105,

167
Aqua, De, Roger, 136
Armorica, 44, 50, 51, 52, 82, 95
Armorican parishes, 54
Arscott, John, 143 n.
Arthurian romances, 42.
Ascension, Feast of, 13 u.
Asser, 64, 81, 129 n.
Athelgeard, Bp., 67
Athelstan, King, 65, 66, 85, 88, 94,

108
Athens, 95
Attis, 6

Aubert, St., 167
Aubyn, St., Col., 168
Augustine, St., of Canterbury, 58
Augustinian Order, 58, 60, 60 n. ,

107, 108, 115, 116
Australia, 9
Avebury, Lord, 26 u.

Arranches, 146, 167
Axe, sacred, 23, 24
Aztec communion, 5

Bacchantes, 33

Bacchus, St., 115

Baltic, 26

Bangor in Ireland, 71

Bangor Iscoed, 53, 58

Baring-Gould, S., 80

Basset, Sir Francis, 168

Bayeux, 115

Bayon, Le, Abb^, 49

Beaulieu, Convent of, 109

Bede, 50, 53, 57

Beltane, 6

Benedictine Order, 58, 59, 114,

116, 163, 167
Berewyk, De, John, 119
Bernard, Abbot, 157, 175
Berner, 110
Berrien, 95

Bertrand, Alexandre, 29
Bethel, 21

Beunans Mcriasek, 46, 47
Birch, Dr., 28
Black Canons, 60
Bleu Bridge, 39

Blohiu (Bloyou), 41, 150, 152, 155
Bodinnick, 126

Bodmin, 42, 60, 125, 137, 165
Bodmin Gospels, 67
Bodmin prebend, 116
Bodrugan family, 116
Bo6h-er-goed, 48
Bonevylle, Sir W., 137
Borlase, Dr. W., 37, 131, 132
Borlase, W. C, 22 n., 38, 85, 132
Boson, John, 134, 142 n.
Botreaux, Wm., 113
Bracey, Robt., 126, 165
Breage, St., 77, 85

177

178 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Breock, St., 73

Breton immigrants, 43-45

Breton nobles, 41

Brian, Earl, 154

Bridget, St., 60

Bridget, St., Convent of, 137

Bridgettines, 163, 168

Brient, 41

Brismar, 148, 150, 151, 154

British saints, 52

Brittany, 37-49, 82, 86

Britton, surname, 45

Briwer, Bp., 109, 112, 113

Bronescombe, Bp., 88, 107, 109,

112, 115, 116, 117
Bronze Age, 20, 24
Bronze bull, 24, 28
Bronze celts, 22
Bronze disc, 23
Brychan, St. (Brokan), 166
Budock, 39, 73
Bulgaroo, 10
Bull, sacred, 23, 24
Burgald, Bp., 114
Burhwold (BurthwoM), 67, 68, 75,

76, 76n.
Burneir, 71, 73
Buryan, St., 21, 22 n., 47, 65, 66,

85, 90, 91, 93, 94, 105, 108, 154
Buttel-Reepen, Dr., 11

Cadgwith, 159

Cadoc, St., 30n., 142, 148

Caer, 70

Caerhayes, 144

Calamansack (Coleraanshegg), 130

Callestock, 65 n.

Callington, 65

Camborne, 44

Cambridge, 168

Canterbury, 64, 147

Cardinan, 41, 92

Cardynham, 126

Careg Cowse, 142

Carew, Richard, 7, 47

Cargol, 72

Carnarvon, 92

Carnyorth, 125 u., 161 n.

C-irthage, 28

Carvallack (Carmailoc), 145, 158,

160, 161, 173, 176
Carzou (Carthew), 44
Casaiterides, 28

Ceen Cruaich, 33

Celtic invasion, 25

Celtic monastery, 63

Celts, the, 18-36

Ceolnoth, Abp., 64, 79

Ceres, 94

Chad, St., 62

Chapel Cam Brea, 131, 132, 133,

144
Chapel Uny, 124
Cheus, St., 105, 110 n., 118
Chichester, Bp. Robert, 158
Chittlehampton, 91
Choschet, 145, 172
Christianisation of stones, 35
Christmas, 12
Chiin Quoit, 20
Churcli and foreign rites, 16
Chysauster, 63 n.
Clay, R. M., 122, 132
Clement, St., of Alexandria, 13
Clerk, Thomas, 163
Clether. St., 125
Clonard, 53, 59
Cnut, King, 67, 68, 69, 75, 76,

76 n.
Coelling, 64, 65
Coincidence, 1-17
Coliimba, St., 52
Comoere, Bp., 63, 67
Conan, Bp., 63, 65, 06
Conarton, 84

Constantino, St., 105, 118
Corentin, St. (Cury), 53, 85
Corlay (Cotes du Nord), 92
Cornish dedications, 55
Cornish drama, 39
Cornish Orammar, 39
Cornish language, 61
Coruonaille, 52, 93
Cornwall, Royal Institution of, 38,

48 n.
Cetesdu Nord, 51, 91
Coulthard, Rev. H. R., 142
Coutances, Robert, Bp. of, 145,

172
Cranraer, Abp., 143 n.
Crantock, St., 105, 108. 109
Crediton, 64, 67, 68, 73, 74, 76,

87, 88
Cromwell, T., 44
Cross, 85
Crosses, Cornish, 36

I

General Index

179

Crousa Downs, 162

Crows-au-'NVra, 134

Cuby, St., 80, 115

Cypris, 94

Cyprus, 95

Cyriacus Priory, St., 105, 113

Daniel, Bp., 63

Dante, 158

David, St., 58

Daviea Gilbert, 138

Dechelette, M. Joseph, xii, xiii,

24, 26 n., 29, 35 n.
Deduction, 4
Z>« Excidio, 62
Denmark, 23
Dennis, Little, 85 n.
Dennis (Denys), St., 90, 91, 92
Derbyshire Dedications, 55
De Zil, 30
Dinan, 92

Diuan, De, Roland, 42
Dinas, 91
Dinoot, 58
Diusul, 30 n., 142
Dinuurrin (Dingerein), 64, 79, 80
Diodorus Siculus, 23, 141
Dionysius, 92
Dis Pater, 29
Dissolution of religious houses,

108
Docco, 33, 119
Dol, 59

Dollebeare, Walter, 138
Domesday Book, 59, 76, 77, 79,

81, 83, 90, 105, 112, 147
Donan, Bp., 66
Druidical worsliip, 32
Dmids, 31, 57
Drycarn, 21
Duchesne, Mgr., 97
Dugdale, Sir W., 104,146
Duine, L'Abbe, 97 n., 170
Dumnonia, 51, 52, 56, 80
Dumnonian exodus, 41, 51

Eadulf, Bp., 64, 65, 73

Ealdred, Bp., 67, 68

Easter, 8

Easter controversy, 56, 80

Ebenezer, 21

Edgar, King. 119, 162

Edmund, Farl, 134

Edward the Confessor, 69, 75, 76,
77, 81, 82,85, 88,109,112,145,
172

Edward the Elder, 73

Edward, King, 114

Egbert, King, 54, 64

Eglos, 39

Eglosberria (Eglosveryan), 93, 94

Egloshayle, 78, 74, 91

Egloskerry, 39

Eglo8r63, 91
! Eglostudic, 79 n., 90

Egyptians, 80

Eudellion, 105, 116, 117

Epiphany, 13

Eponyms, 94

Erth, St., 86, 91, 121

Ervan, St., 73

Escop, 39

Eucharist, 5

Eval, St., 73, 79

Evans, Sir A., 21

Evolution, 3

Evolution of Dio. B'pric. , 70-89

Exeter, 64, 65, 69, 112

Exeter, D. and C. of, 72, 77, 78,
111

Eynesbury, 128

Ezekiel, 27 n.

Falmouth, 73

Fauna, pre-glacial, 11

Fawtier, M., 33 n., 96 n., 97 n,,

169
Fentongollcn, 72
Fetich, 35

Finistere, 51, 91, 99
Finnian, St., 53
Fisherman's proverb, 2
Fitz Ive family, 77
FitzTurold, R., 41, 71, 115
Forsnewth, 74
Fowey, 165

Freeman, Prof., 145, 148
Fulcard, 72, 78

Gades, 27
Galatia, 25
Galicia, 57
Garganus, 167
Gasquet, Card., 60
Gennys, St., 120, 126
Gerecrist (Kergrist), 41, 45

180 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

German, St., 58, 59, 69, 139
Germans, St., 65, 66, 68, 71, 74, 75,

79, 81, 87, 88, 105, 107, 153
Gerrans, 72, 73, 79, 80, 81, 87,

105, 115, 116
Geruutius (Geraiut, Gerennius),

56, 79, 80
Gildas, 50, 58, 62
Glasney, 105, 117
Glastonbury, 116, 127
Gluvias, St., 73
Godfrey, 72
Godman, Roger, 135
Godric the priest, 118
Goran, St. (Guron), 105
Gorgon, Mount, 165
Gougaud, Dora, 26 n., 33 n., 39
Grade, 82

Grandisson, Bp., 107
Gregory, Pope, 146, 148, 156, 164,

165, 166
Gregory, St., 167
Guenoc, St., 84
Guerir, St., 82, 128
Gulval,63n., 75, 77, 86, 121
Gunwalloe {see Winwaloe), 85
Guron (Goran), 125
Gwavas, Lake, 93
Gwethnoc (Guethnoc), 98, 99
Gwinear, 22
Gwithian, 63

Haddan, Mr., 38, 62, 76 n.

Haddan and Stuhbs, 66, 67, 78 n.

Hadton, Doni, 46

Hals, 131

Haraelin, 75

Hamstoke, 75

Hardicanute, 146

Harold, Earl, 82, 160

Hartland, Abbot Philip of, 136

Hecataeus, 25, 26

Helstou, 105, 117

Hengestisdun, 66

Henoc, 33

Henry I, 112, 113, 119, 145, 156,

173, 174
Henry II, 112, 120
Henry IV, 168
Henry V, 168
Heresy, 17

Hermit of Chapel Carn Brc.i, 133
Hermits. 122-140

Hilary, St., 22, 30 n., 40, 139
Hingeston-Randolph, F. C. , 38, 76n.
Houl, 30
Hyperboreans, 25

la, St., 86, 90, 91

Iberians, 23

Ictis, 141

Illogan, 86

Iltut, 58, 92

Induction, 4

Ingunger, St., 124

Inquisitio Oeldi, 93, 147

Inquisitio Nonaruvi, 92, 108, 116

Inspeximij 104 n.

lona, 60

Ireland, 61, 64

Irish influence, 85

Irish missionaries, 86

Iron Age, 24

Issey, St., 73

Ives, St., 91, 95

Jacobstow, 56

Jenner, 11., 30 n., 37, 39, 63 n., 84,

133, 162
Jetwells, 124
John, King, 112
John the Baptist, St., 13
Jordan, 21
Jovin, 41
Judhel, 41
Julius Casar, 29
Jumieges, Robert of, 160
Just, St., in Peuwith, 22, 30 n., 17,

48, 86, 121, 124, 131
Just, St., in Roseland, 73, 80

Kea, St., 121

Kenstec, Bp., 63, 64, 79, 80, 87, 88

Kerrier, 84, 159, 160

Kestlemerris, 162

Keverne, St., (Achebran), 82, 85,

109, 110. 162
Kew, St., 33, 98, 105, 119, 120
Keyne, St., 125, 142
Kieran, St., 85, 111
Kildare, 60
Kilter's insurrection, 85 n.

Lafrowda, 86, 121
Lagge, Richard, 136
Lamiuster, 113

General Index

181

Lammana, 116

Laniprobus (Liubrabois), 112

Laii, 40, 53, 70, 121

Lanadleth, 78 n.

Landegy, 53, 121

Laudevemiec, 71, 84

Landewediiack, 82, 84

Landithy, 53. 86, 121

Laudivick, 82

Landrake, 68, 75

Land's End, 81, 132

Landulph, 75

Laugorock, 109

Languih^noc, 98, 99, 105

Langunnet, 121

Langweath, 82

Lanhadron, 121

Lanherne (Lanherneu), 53, 71, 72,

78, 121
Lanhydrock, 53, 79
Lanisley (Landicla), 53, 71, 75, 77,

78, 86, 87, 121
Lauliveiy, 135

Lanow (Landoho, Tohou), 119, 120
Lanpiran, 110
Lanreath, 126
Lanteglos-by-Fowey, 26, 39
Lantenning, 82
Lanudno, 86, 121
Lanvcrrien, 95
Lanyhorne, 121
Lanyon Quoit, 20
Lawhitton (Landunithan), 64, 65,

71, 74, 79, 81
Leland, 65, 109, 125, 161
Lclaut (Lananta), 22, 91, 95, 121
Leo III, Pope, 60 n.
Leofric, Bp., 57, 69, 75, 76, 76 n.,

78, 107, 146, 148, 156, 174
Leoghaire, 14
Leon, 59, 95
Lerins, 139

Lesneage {set Lismanoch), 162
Levan, St., 86, 125
Levan, St., Lord, 168
Lezant (Lansant), 74, 121
Ligurians, 23

Lisieux, Herbert, Bp. of, 145, 172
Liskeard, 105, 117, 135 ;

Lismanoch, 145, 160, 161, 162, 173 ■
Listyavehet, 161, 163, 176
Lives of the Saints, 95-99
Lizard, 81, 82, 85

Llantwit, 58, 70

Looe Island, 116

Loring, Sir Nigel, 152

Lostwithiel, 7

Loth, J., 37, 39, 42, 51, 54, 82 n.,

91, 94, 96 n., 97 n., 119, 143,

171
Lucy, St. , 68
Ludgvan, 152, 157
Lunaire, 52
Lupus, St., 139
Lyfing, Bp., 67, 68,76
Lysons, Messrs., 113

]\Iabe, 73

Maclean, Sir J., 58, 60 n., 107

Madron, 44, 45, 63, 86, 121, 125

Magloire, 52

Magpie, 1

Mainen Escop, 39

Maitland, F. W., 84

Malmesbury, William of, 67

Malo, St., 52, 97

Manaccan, 82, 105, 110, 161

Mancant (Maucant), 66

Mancus, St., 126

Manumissions, 67

Map of Bishop's manors, 83

Marazion, 132, 155, 165

Marhamchurch, 136, 137

Marnarch, St., 127

Marny's prebend, 116

Mars, 29

Marseilles, 28, 140

Martin of Ossory, St., Ill

Martin in Meneage, St., 161

Matilda, Queen, 145, 148, 155, 173,

174
Matthews, J. H., 43 n.
Mawgan, St., in M., 22
Mawgan, St., in P., 78
Mawnan (Minster), 10?, 116, 119
May-day, 6

Megalithic remains, 20
Melyn, 126

Meneage, 82, 85, 147, 161
Men-er-Hroeck, 21
Mercury, 29
Meriasek, St., 46, 53
Merther, 73
Merthian, St., 113
Merton Priory, 115
Methleigh (Matela), 71, 72, 77, 8.^

182 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Methodism, 102

Mewau, St., 42, 52

Michael of Lamraana, St., 105, 116

Michael Penkevil, St., 105, 117,

U4
Michael in Periculo Maris, St.,

143, 145
Michael's Mount, St., 30 n., 82, 85,

105, 107, 130, 141-168, 172-176
Midsummer fires, 13
Mill Mehal, 163
Minerva, 29
Minoan symbolism, 35
Minster (Talkarn), 105, 113
Modret family, 116
Monastery-bishoprics, 58-69
Monasticon, 76 n,, 104, 172-176
Mons Tumba, 143
Montacutc Priory, 109, 113
Montgomery, De, Roger, 146, 174
Mont St. Michel, 143, 146, 158
Moreske, 129
Mortain, Count Robert of, 75, 82,

84, 108, 109, 118, 145, 149, 157,

160, 173, 174
Mortain, Count William of, 109,

113, 145, 148, 149, 174
Mortain, Countess Matilda of, 145,

174
Morwinstow, 66
Moys, Cecilia, 136 ; Lucy, 137
Mybbard, St., 126
Mylor, 73
Mystery and miracle plays, 46, 47

Nan, 53

Nancekuke (Lancichuc), 53, 74,

86
Nancherrow, 125 n.
Nansladron {see Lanhadron), 53,

77
Nature worship, 22, 22 n.
Neolithic period, 20
Neot, St., 81, 82, 105, 118, 127,

128
Neotstou, 66, 118
Newlyn, 72

Nigell the sheriff, 145, 172
Nodens, 29
Nominoe, 64
Nonn, St., 113
Norden, John, 138, 167
Norria, E., 39

Norwich, 163

Norwich, Walter Bp. of, 126

Noyal-Pontivy, 47

Odo, 110

Ogrin, 129

Oliver, Dr., 104, 146

Olympus, 29

Oman, Prof., 32 n., 35 n.

Ordinalia, 46

Osborn, Fitz, Wm., 146, 174

Otterton, 143, 161, 175

Pace eggs, 8

Padstow, 73

Palaeolithic age, 19

Pallas Athene, 94

Pares, 40

Parish Registers, 38

Pascha, 7

Paschal fire, 14

Pask-bian, 6

Passover, the Christian, 5-9

Passover, the Jewish, 7

Patrick, St., 33, 53,58, 59

Patrick's fire, St., 14

Paugan, Andrew, 131

Paul (Pol Aurelian), St., 52, 58,

86, 90, 91, 93, 97
Paul, Rev. F. W., 170
Pawton (Pollton), 64, 65, 71, 73,

74, 79, 81, 87, 117
Pedngwinion, 84
Pelagian heresy, 139
Pelyn (Pcnlyn), 135
Pelynt (Plunent), 39, 113
Penmargh, Thomas, 131
Pennight (Peukneth), 135
Penryn, 72, 77, 79, 80, 164
Pentecost, 13 n.
Penwerris (Camwcrris), 72
Penwith, 43-45, 85, 86
Penzance, 92

Peran (Piran), St., 59, 85, 105, 110
Perranuthnoe, 86
Perranzabuloe, 47, 63, 65 n.
Peter, Thurstan C, 47, 48 n.,

117n.
Petherick, Little, 78
Petherwyn, South, 74, 75
Petrock, St., 42, 59, 60 n., 68, 69,

73, 78, 79, 84, 88, 98, 105-107,

125. 153

General Index

183

Philip, St., of Restorrael, 134, 135

Philleigh, 91

Phoenicians, 27, 30

Pilgrims, 167

Pi ran, St. {see St. Peran)

Plegmund, Abp., 64, 88

Pleu, 39

Plevin, 91, 95

Pliny, 142

Ploubezre, 143

Plougasnou, 47

Plouy^, 95

Plumergat, 47

Pluneret, 47

Pluvathack, 39

Pluvigner, 47

Plympton, 116, 119, 120

Polycarp, 8

Porthallow, 162

Poundstock, 126

Powder, 72, 126

Prah Sands, 19

Pridden, 22 n.

Probus, St., 59, 105, 112

Pro pithecanthropi, 11

Proteus animalcule, 2

Pydar (Pider), 74, 81

Pytheas, 26

Queensland, 10
Quia emptores, 77
Quivel, Bp., 115

Ralph, 145, 172

Rame Head, 144

Raner, Count, 158

Redon cartulary, 92

Redruth, 47, 91

Reginald, Earl of C, 108

Reid, Clement, 19, 141, 142

Relics of St. Piran, HI

Resemblance, 1-17

Respeth (Respegh), 161 n.

Restormel, 135

Revue Celtiqice, 38

Rhys, Sir John, 31

Rialton, 73 n.

Richard, hermit, 130

Richard, King of the Romans, 108,

109, 116
Richard II, 76 n.
Rillaton (Rieltone), 73
Robert of Pelyn, St., 134, 135

Roche Rock, 137, 138

Rolland, Archdn., 77

Roman milestone, 30 n.

Rome, 95

Romulus, 94

Roseworthy, 86 u. [172

Rouen, Robert, Abp. of, 145, 146,

Round, J. H., 146, 149, 154

Rowtor, 144

Ruau Lanyhorne, 73

Ruan Minor, 159

Ruminella, 145, 159, 172

Sainguilant, 90

Sainguinas, 90

Saints, Cornish, 90-103

Saints, Lives of, 96-99

Salisbury, Earl of, 168

Salvation Army, 3

Sampson, St., 33, 52, 58, 59, 93,

97, 98, 119, 169
Sancreed, 22 n.
Saxon invasion, 50, 51
Scandinavia, 23

Scilly, 28, 39, 105, 113, 114, 133
Selyf, 80, 86
Sergius, St., 113, 115
Shepherd's proverb, 2
Sherborne, 64
Sicily, 95

Solenny, De, John, 116
Southill, 136
Stafford, Bp., 136
Stephen's in B., St., 92
Stephen's by L., St., 59, 74, 79,

82, 105, 107, 108, 153
Stephens, W. J. , 43 n.
Stival, 47

Stokes, Whitley, 37
Stubbs, W., 38
Subsidy Roll, 43
Suetonius Paulinus, 32
Sunday, 30

Sun worship, 23, 26, 30, 95
Swan, 23
Swastika, 35

Tacitus, 32

Talkarn or Minster, 105

Talland, 116

Tammuz, 6, 9

Tara, 14

Tarshish, 27

184 Celtic Christianity of Cornwall

Tavistock abbey, 114, 165
Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV., 72,

75, 77, 78,79, 81, 115
Teath, St., 105, 117,137
Tedinton, 84
Teilo, St., 80
Thegns, 84, 160
Theodore, Abp. , 54
Thirteen, the number, 1
Timgeus, 142
Tiniel, 68, 75
Tinten, 71, 79
Tol Pedn Penwith, 133
Tolverne, 72
Tombelaine, 143 n.
Tonsure controversy, 56, 80
Traboe (Trevelaboth), 145, 158,

160, 161, 173, 176
Treganeis {see Trequaners), 158,

161, 176 [80
Tregeare (Tregaher, Trocair), 72, 79,
Tregebri, 110

Tregeseal, 30 n.
Tregevas {see Trequaners), 161
Tregony, 105, 114, 115
Tr^guier, 52, 59
Trehaverock prebend, 116
Treiwal, 149, 150, 151, 152
Trejagu, De, Sir John, 117
Trelew, 22 n.
Trelonk, 72

Treluswell (Treliuel), 71, 72
Treniaruustel, 118
Trematon Castle, 75
Tremayne (Tremaine), 158, 161,176
Trengwainton, 86 n.
Trenuggo, 22 n.
Trequaners, 145, 160, 161, 173
Trescobeas, 39
Trethewell, 79

Trevenea^e (Trevanaek), 82 n., 162
Trevennal, 72
Trewell (Tregel), 71, 72
Trigg, 33. 56, 64, 98
Tripcony, John, 77
Tristan and IseuU, 42, 129
Truro, 105, 106
Truro Diocesan Kalendar, 63
Truthall(Treuthal,Truthwall),151,
155, 167

Tucoyes, 118

Tudy, St., 79

Turold of Tavistock, 114

Turstin, 145, 146, 172, 174

Turulf, 146, 174

Tutwal, St., 52, 59, 93, 97

Tyre, 27

Tyttesburry, Richard, 137

Tywardreath, 105, 115

Udno (Goueznou), 86
Uny, St., 90, 91, 124
Ushant, 165

Valle, De, abbey of, 115
Valletort, Reginald, 75
Valor Ecdesiasticus, 75, 78
Vannes, 47
Veep, St., 113
Vennefire, 145, 159, 172
Venton — east, 125
Vere, De, John, 163
Veryan, St., 94
Vinfred, 145, 159, 172
Vyyyan, Sir Richard, 85 n.

Wales, 64

Ware, 163

Warelwast, Bp. Robert, 72

Warelwast, Bp. Wni., 60, 107,

108, 119
Warin, 146, 174
Wessex, kingdom of, 52, 57, 62
Wiliumar, 41, 118
Wilfrid, St., 81
William the Conqueror, 145, 173,

174
William Rufus, 145, 156, 17.3, 174
William of Worcester, 126, 142,

143, 145, 163-167
Willow, St. (Vylloc), 126
Wini, Bp., 62
Winniau, St., 119, 120
Winningtou (Wineton, Winian-

ton), 84, 159, 160
Winnow, St. (Winnuc), 71, 78
Winwaloe, St., 84, 86, 97
Woodward, Dr. A. S, 12, 19n.
Wulfnod Rumancant, 162
Wulfsige, Bp., 67

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