Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

the annoyance caused by proximity to Sawyl, Cadoc quitted this part of the country and returned to his original settlement at Llancarfan, which he found wholly ruinous, and without inhabitants. "He beheld his principal monastery destroyed, and the rafters of the roofs and the rubbish of the building scattered over the cemetery; and grieving at the ruin, he earnestly desired to rebuild it" (c. 9). He ordered all his monks, clerics and workmen to go to the woods and cut timber for the structure, excepting only the two youths, Finnian and Macmoil, who were to go on with their lessons. As already pointed out, Finnian was considerably older than Cadoc.

The steward, cook and sexton, seeing that these Irish students were not helping in the necessary work, rated them as idlers, and ordered them to fetch timber. Somewhat abashed, they obeyed and yoked two stags to a beam to draw it to the monastery. When Cadoc saw that they were working and not reading, he asked the reason. They told him the circumstances, and he cursed the cook, sexton and steward that they should die the worst of deaths by sword or famine.

Cadoc erected an oratory to Finnian over a spot where he had left his book exposed to a shower, which had not, however, materially injured it. One cannot but suspect that the biographer has wholly mistaken the age of Finnian, and has inserted this hackneyed miracle to account for the existence in his time of a Finnian chapel, erected by Cadoc in honour of his friend, who was so much older than himself, and who became so illustrious as a master of saints in Ireland.

About this time Gwynllyw, the father of Cadoc, fell sick and died. The old king had given a good deal of trouble in his time, but had been converted and brought to lead an eremitical life by the instrumentality of his son. When he felt himself dying, he sent for Cadoc and the bishop Dyfrig. "And they came to the sick person, and gave him penance, exhorting and comforting him with salutary doctrine. After this, the bishop pronounced absolution and apostolical benediction." 1

About this time Gildas passed through Penychen, and visited Cadoc. He had with him a bell, to which Cadoc took a fancy, and which he offered to buy; but Gildas refused to part with it, as he purposed presenting it to the altar of S. Peter at Rome.

Some years after, however, Gildas gave the bell to Cadoc, alleging that the Bishop of Rome had declined to receive it when he heard that such an illustrious man had expressed a desire to possess it; and Cadoc believed the flattering story.2

Vita S. Gundleii, Cambro-British Saints, p. 150.

2 Ibid., pp. 59-60; Vita II Gildae, ed. Williams, p. 404. In the Vita S. Cadoci the Pope is called Alexander. There was no such Pope at the time.

From a comparison of the Lives of Gildas and Cadoc it would. appear that the former visited Llancarfan in 528. Cadoc seized on the occasion to ask Gildas to take charge of his monastery for him whilst he himself went into Alba. To this Gildas consented.1

There is a discrepancy between the accounts in the Life of Gildas and that of Cadoc. In the former it is said that Gildas undertook the charge of Llancarfan for one year only. In the Vita S. Cadoci, Cadoc is represented as being absent in Alba for seven years. But as Gildas spent only seven years in all at this period in Britain, and during that time he was much associated with Cadoc in retirement in the Holmes, in the Severn Sea, we must take the shorter time as that during which Cadoc was in Alba.

Before Cadoc left for the north Gildas and David had fallen out. Each wanted to be head of the ecclesiastics in Dyfed. In fact, Gildas was making a strenuous effort to turn David out, and occupy his place. As much heat and angry feeling was provoked, Cadoc was called in to decide between them. This was a delicate matter, and as the Abbot of Llancarfan little relished the prospect of displeasing either of the rivals, he passed on the thankless office to S. Finnian, afterwards of Clonard, his friend and companion, and Finnian gave his judgment in favour of David.2 Cadoc now departed for Alba and built a monastery of stone near the mountain Bannauc."

Bishop Forbes says:-" Cambuslang is dedicated to S. Cadoc, and through the adjoining parish of Carmunnock runs a range of hills, called the Cathkin Hills, which separates Strathclyde from Ayrshire, and terminates in Renfrewshire (Strathgryf). This must be the mountain Bannauc'; and the name is preserved in Carmunnock." 3

This Caer Bannauc is probably the Caer Banhed of the Life of S. Paul of Léon. A certain Marc Conomanus was king there, and he and Paulus Aurelianus had fallen out over a trifle, and the huffed saint had departed, and crossed into Brittany, as nearly as can be calculated, in 526. Now Paul was a native of Penychen, and almost certainly was acquainted with Cadoc. On quitting the territory of King Marc, he would go home to Penychen, where Cadoc would learn from him that the king of Strathclyde actually desired to have a religious foundation in his realm, and had urged Paul to take on him the ecclesiastical oversight of his people.4 Paul in a fit of spleen had

1 Vita II Gildae, pp. 404-5.

2 Life of S. Finnian, Book of Lismore, pp. 222-3.

3 Skene, Four Ancient Books of Wales, i, pp. 173-4; Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, Edinburgh, 1872, p. 293.

4 Vita S. Pauli Aureliani, c. 8.

left. Cadoc thought he saw his occasion, and having provided for his monastery at Llancarfan being ruled during his absence, went to the realm of Marc Conomanus, and took up the threads dropped by Paul and established there a monastic house.

A curious story attaches to the founding of this monastery in Scotland. Whilst digging the foundations, Cadoc came on some huge bones, and prayed that it might be revealed to him whose they were. In the night, a gigantic man appeared and told him that they belonged to his earthly remains, and that he was Caw, surnamed Prydyn, or Cawr (a giant); that he had been a king beyond the mountain range, i.e. in Strathclyde, but had fallen there in battle.1

What seems to be the explanation of this story is that at the request of Gildas, Cadoc sought out the burial mound of his father, Caw of Cwm Cawlwyd, who had been engaged in conflict with the Gwyddyl Ffichti, or Irish Goidels, and had lost his territory to them. Then as a token of friendly feeling to Gildas, Cadoc erected his monastery over the tomb of the father of that saint. The similarity of the name Caw with Cawr furnished the legend-maker with the idea that he was a giant.

According to the Vita S. Cadoci, Cadoć made a pilgrimage to S. Andrew's. As it happens, S. Andrew's was not founded till 741, about two hundred years later.

On the return of Cadoc to Llancarfan, he resumed the rule over his abbey, and Gildas retired to Glastonbury; but the friends were wont during Lent to retreat to the Steep and Flat Holmes in the estuary of the Severn, for prayer and meditation, broken only by visits to one another.

About the year 534, according to our computation, Gildas went back to his monastic settlement at Ruys in Armorica. It is possible that it was now, at his persuasion, that Cadoc also went thither "with a few of his monks." 2 Lifris says that he went there after the death of his father Gwynllyw. But on the whole we are disposed to think that Cadoc's visit to Armorica took place at the time of the great flight of clerics from South Wales on the breaking out of the Yellow Plague (547). But what Cadoc did, perhaps, undertake about this time was a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to Rome.

His monastery at Llancarfan had now grown to one of great importance and wealth. The legend represents his power there as princely. "He daily fed a hundred clergy, and a hundred soldiers, and a hundred

1 Cambro-British Saints, PP. 56-8.

2 ""

Ayant choisi un petit nombre de ses religieux." Albert le Grand, from the old lectionaries of Quimperlé and Vannes.

workmen, and a hundred poor men, with the same number of widows. This was the number of his household, besides servants in attendance, and esquires, and guests, whose number was uncertain, and a multitude of whom used to visit him frequently. Nor is it strange that he was a rich man and supported many, for he was abbot and prince (abbas enim et princeps) over the territory (Gwynllywg) of his father from Ffynnon Hên, that is, the Old Well, as far as the mouth of the river Rumney, and he possessed the whole territory from the river Golych as far as the river Dawon, from Pentyrch right on to the valley of Nantcarfan, and from that valley to the river Gurimi, that is, the Lesser Rumney, towards the sea." 1

At this point it may be well to pause for a moment over the conversion of Illtyd by Cadoc. The story is told in both the Vita S. Cadoci, and also in the Vita S. Iltuti.

Illtyd, a soldier in the service of Paul, king of Penychen, and uncle of Cadoc, went out with fifty men under him to hawk and hunt, and they imperiously demanded food of Cadoc. As Cadoc had received all his land round Llancarfan from Paul Penychen, one would have supposed that he would cheerfully have supplied these hungry hunters with a lunch. However, he only grudgingly complied with their demands, and the wrath of God fell on them, the earth opened and swallowed them all alive, with the exception of Illtyd, who was thereupon converted, and placed himself under instruction by Cadoc.2

It may be observed that here we have a worn and washed out copy of the incident already recorded, which we suppose occurred at Llangadog Fawr. In one the prince is Sawyl, in the other, Paul. The soldiers of both rudely demand meat, and in both are punished by being swallowed up in the ground.

As we have already pointed out, the conversion of Illtyd by Cadoc of Llancarfan is chronologically impossible. The authors of the two legends no doubt did know that Illtyd had been converted while hunting in the morass in which somewhat later rose the famous monastery of S. Cadoc. The legend writers, to make the change in the life of Illtyd sensational and miraculous, adapted to it the tale of Cadoc's affair with Sawyl Benuchel.

Whether, whilst Cadoc was abroad, on his way to, or return from, Rome, he visited Gildas at Ruys can be only matter of conjecture. He may have done so, and have taken a fancy to the peculiar situation of that monastery, and have learned from Gildas that there was a site somewhat similar to the north of the Morbihan, a

1 Cambro-British Saints, p. 45.

2 Vita S. Iltuti, Cambro-British Saints, c. 3; Vita S. Cadoci, ibid., c. 16.

lagoon of inferior dimensions, called the Sea of Belz. The entrance to it is by the Passage of Etel, and this is obstructed by a sandbank. The inland sea of Belz receives only insignificant streams, and is studded with islands. The country round at the time was heath and gorse moor, strewn with countless monuments of a prehistoric and forgotten people. The two friends may have looked at the place together; and Gildas may have exhorted Cadoc to settle there; but the latter returned to Britain from his pilgrimage without effecting anything at this time, if our supposition be right.

The Breton Life says that whilst on his pilgrimage, Cadoc met in Aquitania with S. Gonard and S. Lilian. Who these may have been is hard to determine. Gonard cannot be identified, for he is certainly not Gohard, Bishop of Nantes, 835-843. No saint of the name of Lilian is known, but we may suspect that he met Llibio, the disciple of S. Cybi and S. Enda.

On the return of Cadoc to Britain, he learned that during his absence the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi had been held.1 This had assembled, not as Rhygyfarch pretends to condemn the last remains of the Pelagian heresy, but to pass penitential canons. The date of the synod cannot be fixed with any certainty. The Synod of Victory met, according to the Annales Cambriae in 569, and it has been supposed that the Council of Llanddewi Brefi took place shortly before. But the words of Rhygyfarch are:-" Deinde succedente temporum serie alia colligitur synodus, cui nomen Victoriae." 2 This implies a lapse of some time between the two gatherings.

We are disposed to hold that the Council of Llanddewi was held before the outbreak of the Yellow Plague, perhaps in 545 or 546. Finnian of Clonard died in 552, and, as we shall see, he was with Cadoc on his return after the holding of the synod.

When Cadoc arrived at Llancarfan, the monks were afraid to tell him of the assembly, and deputed Finnian to do so. Cadoc was furious at such a meeting having been held without his being consulted and invited to be present. And his resentment was specially directed against David, for the leading part he had taken in it. In his wrath. he proceeded to "fast against " David; he was only induced to

3

1 "Cadocus quidem peregrinatus est, David vero post ejus discessionem magnam Sinodum in civitatem Brevi congregavit.' Vita S. Cadoci, c. IO. According to the Life of S. David, it was not David who convoked the Synod. He would not even attend it, till compelled to do so. Cambro-British Saints, Pp. 137-8.

2 Cambro-British Saints, p. 139.

3 4 Quae res non minimum ei displicuit, nimioque furore contra Sanctum David pro tali dedecore succensus, diem cum nocte jejunio continuavit." Ibid., p. 44.

« ForrigeFortsett »