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desist when it was shown him, probably by Finnian, though the legend says it was by an angel, that his conduct was contrary to the principles of Christian charity.

In 547 broke out the Yellow Plague, and a panic fell on clerics and laity alike in Demetia. All who could fled across the sea to Armorica. In the Life of S. Teilo this is admitted, but neither the Life of S. Cadoc nor that of S. David mentions that these saints were infected by the panic and fled. But it is quite possible that they did so, and that it is due to their presence in Armorica at this period that we have there so many foundations made by them.

The Breton Life says that Cadoc started for Armorica only two years after he had become Abbot of Llancarfan, an inadmissible statement, but it probably was two years after his return from his pilgrimage to Rome.

T

BED OF S. CADOC, ILE DE S. CADOU.

Cadoc now, maybe, recalled the land-locked sea of Belz, and crossing over with a body of his monks, went thither, and fixed on an islet at an inconsiderable distance from the mainland, and on that he planted himself with those of his community who had accompanied him.

Here now stands his chapel, with early rudely sculptured capitals to the pillars. In the south transept is the "Lit de S. Cadou,” structure of granite blocks, with a recess in it, into which the peasants thrust their heads, and profess to hear there mysterious whisperingsactually the reverberation of the surf over the bar. At the west end of the chapel is a dilapidated flamboyant screen. In the nave are four large paintings of the seventeenth century, representing the legend, so far as it pertains to the isle. They bear the following inscriptions :

1. Anglais de nation, prince de Clamorgant,
Puis abbé, vient, débarque, et reside céans.

2. Les jugements de Dieu sans cesse meditant
C'est ainsi, pèlerins, qu'il a vécu, céans.

3. Aux pirates pervers en ce lieu l'assaillant,
Il dit: Je suis sans bien, solitaire céans.
4. Oratoire, mon oeuvre, adieu! dit il pleurant,

Belz, t'oublierai-je ? Non. Il cingla de céans.

His statue in the chapel represents him as still young, with mitre and pastoral staff. The right hand is extended, and is kept continually supplied with bunches of flowers by the children of the little fishing hamlet on the mainland.

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The connexion with the island is a causeway of massive blocks of granite brought from the neighbouring moors. This is attributed to S. Cadoc. "He erected an elegant church with stones; and afterwards caused to be built by masons a stone bridge skilfully constructed with arched work and having its arches cemented with mortar." 1 Such is the description given by Lifris. Actually, there are no arches, and the blocks of stone were never laid in mortar. In fact, no lime was to be had, unless from the pounded shells on the shore.

The biographer admits that not long after, the whole collapsed, but was miraculously restored.2 Lifris says that the island was a third of a league from the mainland, and this, consequently, would be the length of the bridge, i.e. one mile long. Actually it is 306 feet long by twelve feet wide, and is built in a curve.

1 Cambro-British Saints, p. 68.

2 Ibid., p. 69.

De la Villemarqué gives a ballad in his Barzas-Breis relative to a dispute that took place between Gildas and Cadoc, and of which we may suppose the scene was on this bridge, if any reliance whatever can be placed on the tradition. But everything produced by this author is open to suspicion, as he was a wholesale fabricator of legends and ballads.1 It is to this effect :

Cadoc had been brought up on Donatus by his master Tathan or Meuthi, and Donatus had written a life of Virgil which doubtless the boy had read, and then had gone on to the poems of the Mantuan. Cadoc loved his Virgil, and could not endure the thought that the poet should be in hell. He took the occasion of a visit from Gildas to discuss the question. Gildas characteristically adopted the harsher view. Then Cadoc opened the volume to show to his grim companion the wondrous prophecy of the coming of Christ (iv Eclogue). Suddenly a rush of wind caught the volume and carried it into the sea. On returning to his cell he said :-" I will neither eat nor drink till I know whether Virgil has been saved or not." And he laid himself to rest on his stone bed. During the stillness of the night he heard a voice from afar saying:-" Pray for me Pray for me, that I may sing the loving-kindness of the Lord!" Then, convinced that this was the voice of his loved poet, he rose and spent the night in prayer for him. Next day, the lost volume was marvellously restored. A few strips of iron cover some scorings on the causeway, called the "Slip of S. Cadou." Here he is said to have slipped, either in attempting to recover his Virgil, or in pursuit of the Devil.

The Pardon is held at the Ile de S. Cadou on the Sunday before, and that after, September 21, when the women in their scarlet petticoats and the banners and crosses moving among the rocks and over the causeway, then grouping about the Calvary, form a most pleasing scene.

According to Albert le Grand, Cadoc remained here for three years, but le Grand is always very precise in his dates, drawn not from his authorities but from his own fancy. However, he is probably about right in this instance, for the Yellow Plague lasted three years. Cadoc desired only to found a daughter house in Armorica. That done, he placed over it a disciple named Cadwaladr, and then returned to Llancarfan.

1 De la Villemarqué obtained a collection of Breton ballads from the Abbé Martin of Quimperlé, and did not acknowledge his indebtedness. The rest, in Barzas-Breis, published in 1839, are mainly forgeries. This collection, when it appeared, took the French public by storm, and it was crowned by the Academie. What genuine ballads Villemarqué did obtain he or Martin tinkered up, and gave to them poetical touches not in the original. Villemarqué gives the story in prose in his absurd book La Legende Celtique, Paris, 1861, pp. 201-4. Si non vero e ben trovato.

Lifris puts the visit to Armorica and this foundation very late, at the close of his life, but it probably took place earlier.

It was on his way thither that he was in Cornwall, and miraculously called forth a spring. On his way back he revisited the spring and greatly increased the volume of water from it, and improved its quality by pouring into it some water of the Jordan that he had acquired— brought, so it is said, from the Holy Land.1 The spot is near S. Minver, and the ruins of S. Cadoc's chapel remain; the spring flows sluggishly.

Lifris gives us an account of altercations between Cadoc and King Arthur, Maelgwn, and Rhun, son of Maelgwn, and with Rhain, son of Brychan.

A man of the name of Ligessauc (Llyngesog) Lawhir, son of Eliman, had killed three soldiers of Arthur, and then fled for refuge to Cadoc, who kept him in sanctuary for seven years, and Arthur only accidentally found out where the man was, and reclaimed him. It was an unprecedented thing for sanctuary to have been granted for so long; properly, the saint or chief who gave sanctuary was bound at once to compound for the crime, and not keep the criminal in conceal

ment.

Arthur was exceedingly angry at what he regarded as a dishonourable act, and he marched to the banks of the Usk and demanded that the case should be gone into formally. Cadoc at once got SS. David, Teilo and Dochu or Oudoceus, to act for him, and to them he joined Cynidr and Maidoc or Aidan, and the discussion was conducted across the muddy river, in shouts. At last it was settled by the judges that Arthur should receive three good oxen for each of his men who had been slain. Arthur consented, with the proviso that they should be cattle partly red and partly white. When the nine cattle had been got together, the next difficulty was, how they were to be delivered over; this had to be argued, and the judges decided that Cadoc's men should drive them to the middle of the ford over the Usk, when Arthur's men would receive them. Thus peace was made, and Arthur then granted, or the compiler of the Cartulary pretended that he had granted, to Cadoc thenceforth the extraordinary privilege of sanctuary for seven years, seven months, and as many days.2 probably an invention to establish this claim.

The story is

Maelgwn had

In the quarrel with Maelgwn Cadoc was not to blame. sent his receivers of tribute into Gwynllywg, and, finding that Cadoc's steward had a pretty daughter, they carried her off.

1 Cambro-British Saints, pp. 64-7.
2 Ibid., pp. 48–50.

Thereupon the

men of the neighbourhood assembled, pursued the ravishers, killed some and wounded others, and recovered the girl. Maelgwn was furious, and marched to the frontiers of Gwynllywg to lay it waste with fire and sword. The inhabitants in alarm sent word to Cadoc, who at once went to Maelgwn and represented to him the matter in its true light, and succeeded in pacifying him.1

During the life of Maelgwn, that prince took care not to offend Cadoc, and he laid strict injunctions on his son Rhun, when he was pillaging in South Wales, not to meddle with the possessions of the Abbot of Llancarfan.

However, one day when Rhun was on a plundering foray, and was in his tent playing dice with some eunuchs, some of his men went to a dairy on the possessions of Cadoc, and being thirsty asked for milk. The dairyman refused, and the men, highly incensed, set fire to the barn. The wind carried the smoke to where Rhun was, and he inquired what was burning. When told, he sent for Cadoc and apologized for what had been done, assured him it was against his express orders, and to make compensation gave him his sword, shield and spear.2

Rhain, son of Brychan, king of Brycheiniog, “plundered and laid waste" the province of Gwynllywg to the sea. Thereupon the men of Gwynllywg rose in a body, pursued the marauder and defeated him in one battle after another and captured him, but dared not put him to death, because he was of the kin of Cadoc, whose mother was Gwladys, sister of this ruffian. Cadoc, hearing of the straits Rhain was in, went to him, and obtained his liberation.

Apparently at this time there was no king in Gwynllywg, and Cadoc set up Meurig, "son of Enhinti"-there is probably some mistake of a scribe in the name of the father. Meurig, son of Ithel, belonged to the end of the eighth century. Cadoc having set up this Meurig, "gave him his aunt in marriage," and Meurig confirmed to Cadoc the privileges granted by Arthur and Maelgwn. The witnesses were S. David, S. Cynidr, S. Teilo, S. Illtyd, S. Maidoc and one Cannou,

Cadoc, as already said, was wont to spend times of retreat on one of the Holmes in the Severn. He did this in Lent. Returning thence by boat one day with two disciples, Barruc and Gualehes, as they disembarked, Cadoc asked for a book, his Enchiridion, and the two monks confessed that they had forgotten it and left it in Echni. Cadoc sent them back for it. On their return to the mainland the boat was upset, and both were drowned. The author of the Vita says that Cadoc cursed them as he despatched them for the book :-" Go, and

1 Cambro-British Saints, pp. 50-2. 2 Ibid., pp. 52-5. 3 Ibid., pp. 55-6.

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