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direction of Cadvan, the Armorican; and afterwards of David and it contained the greatest number of saints, that is, monks, of any place of the kind. As we have no notice in any of the Welsh historians, of Severus, who came over with Garmon on his second visit; it is worth considering whether Cadvan and Severus were not the same person, under different names.

Beino, or Bayno, the son of Huwgi, was the founder of Clynòg college, in Carnarvonshire: and this was esteemed a place of great note as a school of learning.

Seiriol, the son of Owen Danwyn, the son of Einion Yrth, son of Prince Cynetha, was the founder of the college of Penmon, on the spot where the parish church of that name now stands; and which was greatly venerated in the time of the Welsh princes of the middle ages.

Cybi, or Cebius, son of Solomon, duke of Cornwall, retired to a place near the western point of Anglesea, where he lived in devout retirement. Hence that head was called Pen-Caer-Gybi, or rather Pen-Côr-Gybi, and Holy-head.

These were later than the age of Garmon and Lupus.

The famous monastery of BANGOR MAELOR, on the river Dee, was founded about the middle of the sixth century, by Dunod, or Dinoth, the son of prince Pabo, called the Pillar of Britain. This is said, in "The Genealogy of the Saints," to have been the most celebrated of all the Bangors, before it was broken up in consequence of the battle of Bangor, fought between Prince Brochwell and the Saxon King Ethelbert. Cyngen, or Conganus, the son of Cadel, prince of Powys, endowed this institution. Here are said to have been twenty-four hundred religious persons.

There was a religious house at Lan Genydd, in

Gower, founded by Genidius, or Cenith, son of the historian Gildas.

There was also one upon the river Elwy, in North Wales, which went after the name of Asaf, its founder. Bangor, in Carnarvonshire, was founded by Maelgwyn, or Maglocunus, prince of North Wales.

During the period that Garmon and Dubricius, with their disciples, were reforming the British church, Bry. chan, or Brachanus, prince of Garthmadrin, was an eminent character. He was son of Aulach, or Anllech, who was son of Cormac Mac Carbery, one of the su preme kings of Ireland. He became lord of Garthmadrin, which from him was called Brycheiniog, or Brecknock; to which he succeeded in right of his mother Marchell, daughter of Tudyr, who was married to Aulach about A. D. 382. Brychan was as famous as Priam, for his numerous progeny; for by his three wives he is said to have had forty-nine children and grand children,* the names of which are given us in old Welsh writers! Brychan's family are stiled, in the Triads, one of the three holy families, along with those of the celebrated Brân and Cunedda. Brychan, in particular, received the appellation, because he brought up his children and grandchildren in religious learning, so as to be able to instruct, in the Christian Faith, those of the Cymry, who were destitute thereof. Brychan died about 450.

The first disciples of Dubricius, in his congregation upon the Wye, were some of the children and grandchildren of Brychan.

Learning was evidently a rare acquirement in those days, when the children of princes esteemed it so great

* He is said to have had so many children; but it is not improbable that some of them, at least, were his grandchildren.

an ornament: and it shews the docility of many great men in that age, that they were induced to take so decided a part in supporting the interests of Christianity. As we are given to understand from what is here stated, that many of the native Britons were still in a state of Paganism, we may conclude that it was the same, in a great measure, in other parts of the island. The Christian religion not being introduced into Ireland, when Prince Brychan came over to Britain, he might have been a profligate character in his youth, and was perhaps converted in his old age by Dubricius.

Some of the children of Brychan are said to have died martyrs in the Christian cause; but whether they were so in the most strict sense, or only deemed such, because they fell a sacrifice to the rage of their Pagan enemies, the Saxons, may admit some doubt.

It is obvious that vows of celibacy were not very common among the British Saints of this age, as we read of so many who embraced a religious life, and afterwards entered into the matrimonial state. The institutions we have been speaking of were at first no more than con gregations for the celebration of sacred ordinances, and where the pious might assemble in quietness to join in religious exercises. Schools of learning were annexed, in which many were educated for the ministry, or to qualify them to act as itinerant missionaries, like the children of Brychan, to diffuse the knowledge of Christianity in the dark corners of the land.

Tudoyl, one of the daughters of Brychan, was married to Cyngen, the son of Cadell, a prince of North Wales, by whom Bangor Maelor was endowed. That lady was slain in Glamorgan, at a place which, from that circumstance, received the name of Merthyr Tudvyl. She came to visit her father when he was become an old man, attended by some of her brothers; whereupon

they were beset by a party of Pagan Saxons and Gwyddelian Fichti, and she, her father, and her brother, Dremrudd, were murdered. But Nevydd, the son of Rhun, then a youth, exerted himself in raising the country; and he put the enemy to flight. Such is the account given in "The Genealogy of the Saints;" the very title of which evinces it not to be the production of Popery.

In adverting to the learning of the British Christians, there is a subject, with respect to which it would yield a pleasing gratification to pious and literary characters to obtain some information: had our ancestors any translation of the Sacred Writings in their own vernacular tongue? The conclusion of our enquiries here turn out unfavourable to our wishes. While the Romans occupied Britain, the Latin tongue was used not only in public transactions, but was the language of conversation in the towns, and most frequently used in the churches. There were but few pastors, probably, in the remote and mountainous districts; and the gospel, it is to be feared, was not generally preached to the poor. Hence, the departure of the Romans proved a great and deplorable loss to the interests of piety and learning in the towns, while many parts of the country were in a state of barbarism. There were but few nations who had the Scriptures translated into their own vernacular language. The clergy either understood the language of Rome, if not also that of Greece, or acquired it in order to be able to interpret portions of Scripture in the churches, to the people. There were lessons from both the Old and New Testament read; but these were most probably in the Latin tongue, as it was in the Gallican churches. "The morning service of the Gallican churches," says Stillingfleet, "consisted chiefly in lessons, hymns, and psalms, of St. Jerom's translation, with

Gloria Patri at the end of every Psalm; the Latin tongue being yet the common language of the Roman provinces.*

The knowledge of letters was then a rare acquirement, except among a few designed for offices in the church or state. The priests' lips kept knowledge. It was reserved for happier times, when the art of printing and the Reformation threw the gates of knowledge open to mankind, to put the community in possession of copies of the Sacred Volume. When Britain entirely ceased to be a part of the Roman empire, and the natives were deprived of their territories, except the western parts of the kingdom, it would be requisite to translate the liturgy and the lessons, as we might be inclined to think, into the dialect of the country. We want that information on which to ground our belief, that the CambroBritains were so far favoured; and Bede seems to intimate, that the Latin was the sacred language for the four nations of Britain, the Britons, the Anglo-Saxons, the Picts, and the Scots. Of the Latin tongue, he says, Quæ meditatione Scripturarum cæteris omnibus est facta communis, which implies that that was the language used in the church, and in the public reading of the Scriptures. The neglect. of giving the barbarous nations the Sacred Volume in the vulgar dialect of each country, brought on a long and dark night of error.

* Origines Britannicæ, p. 223.