Teilo, who is represented doubtfully as a pupil of Dyfrig, but who was certainly contemporary with the disciples of that Saint, fled from Wales at the outbreak of the Yellow Plague in 547, and returned about 556. When he abandoned his charge in Wales he went to Brittany "adducens secum quosdam suffraganos episcopos suos." 1 The bishops who accompanied him were not his suffragans, but, as we judge, some of those who had been under Dyfrig; for we find the names of some half a dozen of the disciples of the latter among the witnesses to grants made to Teilo. Probably the Yellow Plague had committed such ravages that on the return of the refugee monks and bishops to Gwent they were not able to re-occupy all their churches; and this may have been the first stage in the incorporation of the Dubricius churches in the see of Llandaff. The disciples of Dyfrig who attached themselves to Teilo, and who we may conjecture had accompanied him to Brittany, and found their churches desolate on their return, were Arguistil, Elguoret, Conguarui, Conbran, Judnou, Guordocui, Merchguin and Gunuin. But of all these only Arguistil or Arwystl was a bishop; some of the others were abbots.2 When we come to consider Dubricius in connexion with the princes of Erging, Gwent and Morganwg we do not obtain much help for fixing his date. The perplexing charter of Cilhal 3 makes him contemporary with Erb, father of Pepiau, and his reputed great-grandfather. From Pepiau he received several grants, and some from the sons of Pepiau. He was certainly the contemporary of Meurig ab Tewdrig, king of Morganwg, who made him a grant, and who was the grandfather of Samson, whom Dyfrig ordained deacon and priest and consecrated bishop. Meurig is represented in the Life of S. Oudoceus as having lived on till Oudoceus was elected bishop in the room of Teilo, and this is confirmed by grants made by him and his sons to Oudoceus.6 Now Oudoceus was born in or about 546, and can hardly have become abbot-bishop of Llandaff before 580. This gives to Meurig a very lengthy reign. His grandson Morgan Mwynfawr died in 665.7 It is difficult to suppose that Meurig can have outlived his grandson Samson, and been lusty enough in his old age to have committed a murder, for which he was excommunicated by Oudoceus, and al 1 Vita S. Teliaui in Book of Llan Dâv, p. 108. 2 See Index to Book of Llan Dáv for each name. 3 Book of Llan Dáv, p. 75. 5 Vita S. Oudocei, ibid., pp. 131-2. 4 Ibid., p. 74. Ibid., pp. 143-5, 147-9. Annales Cambrie, ed. Phillimore in Y Cymmrodor, ix, p. 159. 7 8 Book of Llan Dâv, pp. 147-8. though the record is precise, one is inclined to suspect that there were two of the name, princes in Morganwg and Gwent, and that the compiler of the Book of Llan Dâv has confounded them.1 From what we have seen it is difficult to hold that Dubricius can have lived after 540 or 546 at the latest. That he had anything to do with Llandaff cannot be allowed. We venture to suggest the following sequence of events connected with Dubricius and his churches. The outbreak of the Yellow Plague and flight of Teilo and 547 Return of Teilo 556 Some of the disciples of Dubricius remain with Teilo, who secures Devastation of Erging by the Hwiccas after the battle of Deorham 577 580 Oudoceus sets to work to reoccupy the desolate sites in Gower 3 and Oudoceus dies and Berthguin succeeds 620 Berthguin obtains a concession of the rest of the Dubricius sites in The estates of Llandaff are further increased by grants made by 665 1 That this is so appears from a grant made to Oudoceus by Meurig the king, and Judic, son of Nud, which is witnessed by Morgan the king. This Meurig can hardly be the grandfather of Morgan Mwynfawr. Book of Llan Dâv, p. 150. Sancta ecclesia quæ multo tempore fuerat dispersa, interveniente Teliavo . . . fuit exaltata." Ibid., p. 115. 2 46 3 4 Agrum quidam Sancti Dubricii in patria Guhyr, quem Sanctus Oudoceus a tempore mortalitatis, id est y dylyt melen, perdiderat usque ad tempus Athruis filii Mourici. Post vero contentionem magnam inter Oudoceum episcopum et abattem Ilduti Biuon qui dicebat suum esse agrum; in fine vero judicio judicatus est ager predictus Oudoceo episcopo et altari Landaviæ in perpetua hereditate." Ibid., p. 144. "Locus Mocrosi super Guy quem priori tempore beatus vir Dubricius prius inhabitaverat, dono et concessione Mourici regis et principum datus est ecclesiæ Landaviæ." Ibid., p. 71. 5 Sciendum est quod evenerunt magnæ tribulationes et vastationes in tempore Telpaldi et Ithaili regum Britanniæ et a Saxonica gente infidelissima, et maxime in confinibus Britanniæ et Angliæ versus Herfordiam; in tantum quod Britanniæ totum confinium fere deletum est . . . et circa flumen Guy maxime, propter bella et sæpe facta diurna et nocturna inter utrasque. Post tempus, sedata pace, restituta est vi sua et fortitudine terra sua quamvis deleta et inhabitata, raro homine et rara peste cuique Britanno in illis partibus perpetrato federe Et rex Judhail omnibus superstitibus reddidit patrimonia . et Berthguino episcopo sua loca reddidit per omnia, et Sanctis." Ibid., p. 192. The list follows of Dubricius' churches given over to Llandaff. Ithail, son of Morcant, continues to enrich Llandaff. So does Fernvail, son of Ithail. The pedigree of the princes of Gwent and of Erging, as far as can be deduced from the Book of Llan Dâv, is as follows. The names in brackets are not taken from the Book of Llan Dâv. There was a Judhail, king of Gwent, who, according to the Annales Cambria, was killed by the men of Brycheiniog in 848, but this was long subsequent to the Judhail or Ithail, son of Morcant; and it is to Judhail ap Morcant that is due a grant of Dubricius sites to Berthguin 1-Cenubia, the Golden Vale of the Dore, and the district between the Dore and the Escley, Mavurn, Garway on the Monnow, Llandinabo, Dewchurch, Mochros, Madley, Bolgros, Lanloudy, Llangaran, all in Ewyas and Erging, and which had belonged to Dubricius. But the Church of Llandaff obtained only these sites, not jurisdiction over the whole land, and only these because they had been laid waste and abandoned. When the abbacy was swallowed up in episcopacy, and the diocese 1 Book of Llan Dâv, p. 192. was formed, then, on the plea of holding all these lands in Erging, the bishops of Llandaff asserted their authority as bishops over all this division of Herefordshire; and Bishop Urban spent his time of rule over the diocese in fighting to secure this right. He was ably assisted by the compiler of the Llandaff Cartulary. Then it was that the fable that Dubricius had been archbishop of Llandaff took its final shape. We must now give a glance at the fictitious Dubricius, as Archbishop of Caerleon, as excogitated by Geoffrey of Monmouth.1 And for this we will have recourse to Benedict of Gloucester, who laboured to fit the false with the true Dubricius into a consistent whole. Benedict tells the story of the birth of Dubricius from the Vita Ima, and carries on the tale to the founding of Mochros from the same. But then he branches forth. When Germanus and Lupus came to Britain to oppose the Pelagian heresy (429) they raised Aurelius Ambrosius to be king of all Britain in the place of Vortigern (circa 500), and they consecrated Samson to the See of York and Dubricius to that of Caerleon, each with the title of Archbishop. Aurelius having been poisoned, his brother Uthyr succeeded for a few years, and on his death his son Arthur was chosen king at the instigation of Dubricius. Then we are given an account of Arthur's wars against the Saxons, and of the battle of Mount Badon, during which Dubricius was engaged in prayer and exhortation to the Britons, as a second Moses on a mountain-top above the contending hosts (520). Then, very clumsily, we have the ordination of S. Samson by Dubricius, Benedict having forgotten that he had already made him Archbishop of York. To this follows the story of Samson as cellarer at Inis Pyr, taken originally from the Life of S. Samson into the Vita Ima of S. Dubricius. After that our author returns to the original text and tells a worthless story of the cure of a possessed girl by the saint. And according to this author Dubricius died in 612-and he had been consecrated Archbishop by Germanus and Lupus in 429, a hundred and eighty-three years before! The first mention of Dubricius as bishop of Llandaff is by the scribe 1 The only connexion of Dubricius with Caerleon would seem to have been the possession by him of the Church of SS. Aaron and Julius there, if true. Gulfert, Hegoi and Arguistil, sons of Beli, composed a quarrel with Bishop Nud of Llandaff, circa 900, by surrendering to him "totum territorium sanctorum Martyrum Julii et Aaron quod prius fuerat Sancti Dubricii in priori tempore." Book of Llan Dâv, p. 225. It is suspicious not hearing of this connexion with Caerleon till something like four hundred years after his time. who records the translation of his body to Llandaff, and he styles him "Landavensis ecclesiæ episcopus." 1 In the Life of S. Teilo he is spoken of as Teilo's predecessor in the Church of Llandaff; but it speaks well for the honesty of the compiler that he did not fabricate a charter containing a grant of the land of Llandaff to Dyfrig. The Cathedral site seems to be the Lann Menechi granted to S. Oudoceus by Brochmail, son of Guidgentivai.2 In another document Dubricius is mentioned as "Dextralis partis Britanniæ archiepiscopus." 3 The designation of Deheubarth as applied to South Wales was much posterior to his date. Next, we have the fiction of Dubricius ceding his Metropolitan jurisdiction to S. David. What with Geoffrey's invention of him as Archbishop of Caerleon, and the claim of Llandaff that he was Archbishop there, some puzzlement arose; and finally the fabricators shifted the burden on to the shoulders of David, and the Church of Menevia was but too happy to accept it. But that Church was also in uncertainty whether to base its claim to Metropolitan jurisdiction on the cession of Dubricius or on the plea that Samson had transferred his pall thither from York. For long Menevia contested the supremacy with Llandaff. For at least half a century before the death of Geoffrey of Monmouth (1154) the see of Menevia had been aspiring to be Metropolitan, as is shown by Rhygyfarch's Life of S. David. Geoffrey had said, Menevia pallio Urbis Legionum induetur." 4 Giraldus Cambrensis accepted this fiction and made use of it. "The Archbishop Dubricius," he says, "ceded his honours to David of Menevia, the metropolitan see being translated from Caerleon to Menevia, according to the prophecy of Merlin Ambrosius, Menevia shall be invested with the pall of the City of Legions.' " 5 In the early (A.) MS. of the Annales Cambria (circa 980) there is an entry under the year 601, "Sinodus Urbis Legion. David episcopus Moni Iudeorum (obiit)." In a later copy (C.) this is swelled (circa 1288) to "Sinodus Urbis Legionum ordinata a S. Davide Menevensi archiepiscopo. David Menevensis archiepiscopus in Domino quievit.” We may sum up the position as follows: Dyfrig had a monastery at Hentland, which for some reason unmentioned he quitted, and made his headquarters at Moccas (Mochros) 1 Book of Llan Dâv, p. 84. He is not which was placed on the altar of Teilo. 3 Ibid., pp. 69-71. 5 Itin. Camb., i, c. 5. mentioned in the Book of S. Chad, 2 Ibid., p. 159. 4 Hist. Reg. Brit., vii, c. 3. |