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may you never return!" But he wanted the book, and therefore could not have desired that the young men should be lost in bringing it to him.1

66

The islands became unsafe, owing to the pirates who infested the estuary of the Severn making of them landing-places, and Cadoc was obliged to look out for some other place of retreat. He found one on the banks of the river Neath, where, on a certain day, he saw a white boar lying under a tree, which his companions killed; secondly, bees entering a hollow tree; and thirdly, a hawk's nest on top of the tree." He sent these gifts to King Arthmail, who thereupon made a grant of the spot to Cadoc.2 Who this Arthmail was is as doubtful as is the Meurig already mentioned. There was an Arthmail, uncle of Morcant Hên, who died in 935, and, suspiciously enough, he had a brother, Mouric, and both he, Arthmail, and Yuein, father of Morcant, were sons of Hiuel, king of Glywysing, who was son of Ris, brother of Fernvail, who died in 775. There can be little doubt that Lifris has fallen into anachronisms. These princes may have made grants to the monastery of S. Cadoc, and he has thrust them back to be contemporaries of the saint, and has invented stories to account for their making the grants.

Probably in his old age Cadoc went to Ireland. King Ainmire summoned Gildas to assist in the reviving of religion in Ireland, and it is very probable that he extended his invitation to Cadoc, as that saint is considered, along with Gildas and David, as having given to Ireland forms of the Mass.3 This must have been at the same time that Ainmire summoned Gildas, in or near 564. He probably did not remain there very long. He was granted lands on the banks of the Liffey, which were enlarged later in compensation for violence done to the steward of Cadoc.4 The monks of Clonard always remained on good terms with those who were under the rule of Cadoc

The saint was now advanced in years, and on his return to Llancarfan found the management of so large an establishment beyond

1 Cambro-British Saints, pp. 63-4.

2 Ibid., p. 67. We are justified in rejecting this settlement of Cadoc on the Neath. If the land at Cadoxton-juxta-Neath were granted by Arthmail, it was so to Llancarfan long after Cadoc was dead. No incident in his life is attached to any residence on the Neath. For the legend compare the similar one under S. Baglan ab Ithel Hael.

3 De Tribus Ordinibus Sanctorum Hiberniae. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., ii, pt. 2, p. 293.

4 "Sanctus partem agri cujusdam apud Hiberniam super ripam fluminis Liphi possidet." Cambro-British Saints, p. 78, where the reading Limphi is incorrect. Ibid., p. 79, where the reading should be "qui apud Clunerert (Clonard)," and not qui clunererunt."

his powers. He therefore resolved on quitting it. He had a favourite disciple called Elli, and he purposed surrendering the rule into his younger hands. On Palm Sunday it was his wont to stand on a mound and preach to the people until the hour of tierce, when he entered the church to sing Mass. On this day, when the sermon was concluded, he publicly announced his intention, and nominated Elli to be his successor. He left with the brethren of Llancarfan a Book of the Gospels that had been transcribed by Gildas, and appointed that all trials and settlements of disputes should take place under a hazel tree that he had planted. After that he departed, disappearing in a cloud that conveyed him to Beneventum; where, according to his instructions, Elli was to visit him annually and report on the condition of affairs at Llancarfan.1

When he arrived at his destination, he was elected abbot over the large community of monks there, which had just lost its superior. He found that the walls were ruinous. They had been constructed not of stone, but of clay, and were full of gaps. By Cadoc's advice the inhabitants repaired the defences with stone.2.

Not long after he was raised to the episcopate, but did not rule for long. A hostile force attacked the place, broke in, plundering and slaughtering; and a soldier, entering the church, transfixed Cadoc with a spear, as he was celebrating the Holy Mysteries.

For a while the body of the murdered bishop remained at Beneventum, and a church was erected over it; but a taboo was placed on all Britons, who were not suffered to enter the town.3 Eventually, however, this was relaxed, and the monks of Llancarfan were allowed to carry off the body. But even at Llancarfan it was not safe. A certain Eilaf, heading a marauding band, drove the monks from their monastery, and as they fled with the founder's body, an irreverent pagan struck the shrine with his staff; whereupon, from within, Cadoc "roared like a bull." 4

The whole account of the migration of Cadoc to Beneventum, and his death there, is difficult to understand and explain. His being caught away in a cloud and transferred to his final destination probably means no more than that he departed by boat, in a dense white mist, such as clings to the lowlands of the Bristol Channel at certain periods of the year.

1 "

Qualiter Sanctus Ellinus beatum Cadocum annuatim visere consuevit," is the heading of chap. 35. Cambro-British Saints, p. 73.

2 "Magnam partem ejusdem urbis muro vallavit, quam antea limo terrae erecta materia minutatim ruinis crebrescentibus in ruderis defecerat." Ibid., p. 73. 3 "Edificaverunt basilicam super ipsius venerabile sepulchrum, in quo nullus. Brittannus intrare permittitur." Ibid., p. 76. Ibid., p. 77.

Lifris, who wrote this history, doubtless had before him a Welsh legend. In that he read how that the saint on his departure was lost to the sight of his disciples in a fog. Out of this he built up his fabulous account, so as to make his hero disappear like the Divine Master in a white cloud, and be transported miraculously to the place whither he was bound, as the Spirit carried off S. Philip to Azotus.

But, where was Beneventum, where he took up his residence? That it was Beneventum in Southern Italy is improbable. It would not have been unlikely that a Welsh or Irish monk should have gone to Italy, but we should hardly suppose that Cadoc, overcome with age, would have gone so far south of Rome. Besides, the church of Beneventum has preserved no record of Cadoc as having been a Bishop or Martyr there in the sixth century. Moreover, Cadoc could not expect there to receive an annual report brought him by Elli. And further, at the Beneventum of the legend the town was defended by earthworks, and not as a Roman city with stone walls. Further, also, the language spoken at his place of retreat was the same as that employed by Cadoc at Llancarfan.1

2

Dom Plaine laboured in an article on S. Cadoc to show that he had been bishop and martyr at Beneventum, but probably his arguments would convince nobody. The above reasons against the identification seem conclusive.

Another suggestion is that the place was Benevenna, or Weedon in Northamptonshire. We know, unfortunately, little or nothing of the encroachments of the Angles on Mid-England. "Not a single record has been left us," says Mr. Green, "of the progress of the peoples when we find them settled at the close of the (sixth) century in the districts of our Nottingham, our Leicester, and our Northampton, or on the head waters of the Trent. . . . There was little, indeed, at this time to draw invaders to Central Britain. At the close of the Roman occupation, the basin of the Trent remained the wildest and least frequented part of the island." 3

...

In favour of this identification is only the fact that the name of the place is similar. Several reasons concur against it. Among others, the fact is that no Welsh saints, as far as we know, were drawn towards Mid-England, which was, as Mr. Green says, almost a wilderness at the time.

1 'Linguam illorum . .

continuo integerrime novit, ipsique similiter

suam." Cambro-British Saints, p. 72.

2 Bulletin de la Soc. Arch. de Finistère, xxvii (1900), pp. 106–32. The known Bishops of Beneventum in the sixth century towards its close were: 543, Zeno, or Zosimus; 585, Felix; 591, Linianus.

3 The Making of England, 1897, i, p. 84.

VOL. II.

D

In the Breviary of Vannes for 1660 the lection for S. Cadoc's day stands thus :—“ In Armorica vero diu commoratus, in quadam Venetensis insula ecclesiam extruxit. . . . Dein locum illum e celo monitus deseruit, et in Italiam (Britanniam) porrexit. Paulo post morum integritate, et vitae sanctitate omnibus notus Beneventi (Benaven) episcopus effectus est." Here, at the revision of the earlier Breviary, the reviser hesitatingly suggests Benaven, or more correctly Bannauenta, the birthplace of S. Patrick, which Professor Bury thinks should be sought near the Severn or the Bristol Channel." 1 Again, there was in the sixth century a British colony in Spanish Galicia. This comes first into notice in 569, when it is found to have had a bishop. In that year, at the Council of Lugo, it is referred to, "Ad sedem Britoniorum (pertinent) ecclesiae quae sunt intra Britones, una cum monasterio Maximi, et quae in Asturiis sunt."

At the Council of Braga, in 572, the last of the signatures of the Suffragans of Braga, "Item ex Synodo Lucensi," is Mailoc" Britonensis Ecclesiae episcopus."

This British church continued to exist till 830, when a royal decree merged the see of Bretoña in that of Oviedo.2

Now there is a Benavente at the confluence of the Esla, Ceia and Tuerto, in Léon, but not far from Galicia. We know little of the history of this portion of Spain in the sixth century. No tradition of a S. Cadoc, Bishop and Martyr, there has survived. Moreover, there are other difficulties in the way of accepting this Benavente as the place to which Cadoc retired. This also is too remote from Morganwg for Elli to have visited it annually. "Elli," we are informed, was accustomed to go very often with his disciples to the city of Beneventum," and as many as eight of the Llancarfan monks were buried there.4

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Again, another suggestion was offered by De Kerdanet in his edition. of Albert le Grand's Vies des Saints de Bretagne. He says:-" On a confondu Bénévent en Italie avec Kaer-Gwent ; ancienne ville épiscopal de Monmouth." 5

1 Life of S. Patrick, 1905, pref. p. x, text p. 17. There are several places in Breconshire and Glamorganshire called Banwen, which might represent the name. None of them, however, appear to have had any early ecclesiastical associations. 2 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., ii, pt. i, pp. 97-101.

3 "Consuevit autem Ellinus alioquotiens usque ad Beneventum civitatem, gratia visitandi beatum Cadocum. . . proficisci cum quibusdam discipulis ipsius." Cambro-British Saints, p. 73.

4 In monasterio Sancti Sophie honorifice sepulti sunt; quorum nempe sepulchra in una serie ordinatim ante altare a pariete in parietem componuntur. Octo quidem. . . illorum marmorea busta inibi habentur." Ibid., ad loc. 5 Ed. 1837, p. 667, note 3.

In favour of this may be remarked that this portion of Gwent between the Severn and the Wye might very well have borne the name of Pen-Gwent; but there is no evidence that it was so called; nor is it likely that the city of Caerwent would have borne the name of the district. And the reasons against such an identification are weighty. Caerwent was only some thirty miles from Llancarfan, and Lifris, who wrote the Life of S. Cadoc, would hardly have failed to state the fact, had Cadoc suffered martyrdom there. No tradition connecting Cadoc with Caerwent remains. The Vannes Breviary of 1660 says: “in una barbarorum Saxonum irruptione trucidatus." This might apply to any place invaded by the Saxons after they poured across the Cotswold in 577.

The name Beneventum is a latinization of a British name. "Ban" is a hill or mountain, and it enters into many names, as Benaven Tabernae, Benevenna, Beneharnum, Benni, Benacus, Bannauc. Welsh Bicknor, on the Wye, was formerly known as Lann Custenhin Garth Benni.

The " ventum" of Beneventum we have in Gwent; such a term by no means applied only to Monmouthshire. It signified any open champagne land lying above the forests that spread through the river valleys; and it was applied as well to the chalk downs of the South of England. We meet with it in Venta Icenorum (Caister) and in Venta Belgarum (Winchester). Beneventum is, accordingly, the Gwentian "Ban" or hill.

Now, if we put ourselves in the place of Cadoc in his old age, it seems likely that he may have craved to be away from the large establishment at Llancarfan, and to revisit and end his days at that place where he had been happy with his master Bachan, and where he had a monastery at Llanspyddid. He may have heard that the head of that establishment was dying, perhaps dead, and have deemed it well for him to retire thither and there end his days as head over the small community. Here we know that hard by the monastery was a Romano-British town, Caer Fenni or Y Gaer, which has been supposed to be the ancient Bannium of the Ravenna geographer.

That Y Gaer is this Bannium has been disputed. Both Holder 1 and Mr. Haverfield 2 contend that the Bannium (al. Bannio) of the geographer of Ravenna is Gobannium, Abergavenny. If so, then the Latin name of the walled town above Brecon on the Usk is unknown to us. But the hill on which it is situated is called Y Fenni, the wood on the slope is Coed Fenni, and the farm below it Fenni Fach. So we may

1 Holder, Altceltisches Sprachschatze, i, s. voc. Gobannion.
2 Haverfield, in Arch. Camb., 1903, p. 12.

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