is a difficulty in accepting this statement. How was an Irishman, who had never been brought in contact with Saxons, to acquire their tongue so as to be able to preach in it with fluency? Moreover, the route to and from the Continent was, for the Irish of the southern parts of their island, by Porth Mawr near S. David's, then to Milford Haven, to cross to Padstowe, thence over the backbone of Cornwall to one of the estuaries on the south, where they embarked for Aleth, or S. Malo.

The Life of S. Columba was not written till after his death. Finding, whilst in Britain, that one of his disciples was compiling his biography, he threw the MS. into the fire, and spoke on the matter so seriously to them, that none ventured to commit to writing anything concerning him, till after his decease. But the Life we have is a much later composition, and unhappily only a single copy remains, so that we have no means of saying what statements made in it are additions by a late redactor. It is quite possible that the editor, in the twelfth or thirteenth century, finding in the original that his hero had preached to and converted a Rig in Britain, added the information that this was a Saxon king.

It was not till 577 that the West Saxons set their faces to the setting sun, and defeated the Britons at Deorham, took and burnt Gloucester, Bath, and Cirencester. The Saxons then spread over Somerset to the marshes of the Axe below Weston-super-Mare. It was not till the second half of the eighth century that Devon was conquered.

Now, the period when Columba was returning to Ireland must have been before 550, and one does not see how he could have ventured among Saxons, so far out of his way, and whom, moreover, he could not address in their own tongue.

But if, as we suspect was the case, in crossing Cornwall, so as to take ship for Wales, he came into contact with a Domnonian Rig at Castel-an-Dinas, and converted him, a necessary consequence would be a grant of land, and the founding of a monastic settlement. Conversion has two meanings, it is applied to the rescuing of a pagan from heathenism, and also to the bringing of a secular into the monastic life.

The conversion of a Prince, at Castel-an-Dinas, or Rialton, may have been the occasion of the formation of the two parishes of Columb Major and Minor, near Newquay, with an acreage of 17,605.

The only other dedication to S. Columba in the West of England is that of the village of Culbone, on the western headland of Porlock Bay. The dedication of the church is to S. Culbone, which is a corruption, apparently, of Columbanus. But as this cannot be Colum

banus of Luxeuil, we may suspect that we have here the same Columba of Tir-da-glas as at Columb in Cornwall,

On leaving his settlement in Britain, Columba returned to Ireland, where his brother Coirpre gave him a site; there Columba established a monastery, and placed his disciple Cronan in charge of it. "Oh, Master!" exclaimed the latter, I had set my heart on my place of Resurrection being with thee." So it shall be, in a fashion," said Columba, and he cut off one of his own fingers. There," said he, "bury that and make your grave by it." He went thence to Clonenagh, in Queen's County, and formed a settlement, and remained there over a twelvemonth.

He made a great many other foundations, and is reported to have cured the deafness of a boy named Setna, whom he found herding swine on a mountain. He ended his days on Iniskeltra, but, according to his heart's desire, his body was finally transferred to Tir-daglas. It is said of him that such was his gentleness, that the wild birds came about him and played, flapping their wings in his face.

A disciple named Nadcuim said to him, "How is it that we frighten the birds away, but they go to you readily?" Why should birds avoid a bird?" he answered, playing on his name Columba, that signifies a "dove."

When S. Finnian of Clonard was dying, he sent for Columba, who gave him the last Communion. This was in 552. He himself died very soon after, in fact in the same year.

The day of S. Columba of Tir-da-glas is December 13, in the Irish Martyrologies. He is mentioned in the Festology of Oengus, as "the abstinent Columb." He is in the Donegal Martyrology as well. That of Tallagh is deficient in the November and early December entries.

S. Coulombe in Ille et Vilaine is dedicated to the male Columba. He is there represented in monastic habit reading a book, which he holds in both hands. There he is commemorated on September 26.

S. CONOC, Confessor

BOCONNOC, in Cornwall, by its name signifies the habitation of Conoc. The dedication of the church is not known.

There was a Conoc or Quonoc, "quem alii sub additamento more gentis transmarinæ Toquonocum vocant," who was one of the dis

ciples of S. Paul of Léon, "qui et ipse jubente Paulo propter vitæ merita et sapientiæ doctrinam in aliis magistrate gestabat officium.” 1

Dom Plaine suggests that he founded Plougaznou, but this is not possible; Gaznou would be the corruption of Gathnovus. We are disposed to equate Conoc of Boconnoc with Cynog. See under that

name.

S. CONSTANTINE, King, Confessor

CONSTANTINE (Cystennin) was king of Domnonia, comprising Devon and Cornwall, in the sixth century. He was the son of Cador or Cado, Duke of Cornwall.

He was unmercifully attacked by Gildas as "the tyrannical whelp of the unclean lioness of Domnonia," who, disguising himself as an abbot, penetrated to where the sons of Modred, nephew of Arthur, had concealed themselves in sanctuary, and had slain them. Geoffrey of Monmouth tells the story thus (xi, cc. 3, 4) :-"Upon Constantine's advancement to the throne, the Saxons, with the two sons of Modred, made insurrection against him, though without success, for, after many battles, they fled, one to London, the other to Winchester. Constantine pursued the Saxons, and reduced them under his yoke. He also took the two sons of Modred; and one of them, who had fled for sanctuary to the church of S. Amphibalus in Winchester, he murdered before the altar. The other had hidden himself in a convent of friars in London, but at last was found out by him, and brought before the altar, and there put to death."

Geoffrey is absolutely untrustworthy as to the broad lines of history, but he worked dexterously into his romance various historical facts and traditions, though not always in their proper places.

Gildas, who was a contemporary, was the original authority for this incident. The young ruffians apparently richly deserved their fate, and the crime, such as it was, consisted, in his eyes, not in killing the princes, but in violating the rights of sanctuary. His words are (§ 28):—“ After taking a dreadful oath, he, nevertheless, in the habit of a holy abbot amid the sacred altars, did, with sword and javelin, wound and tear two royal youths with their attendants, when they were even in the bosoms of their temporal mother, and of the church their spiritual mother; and when he had done it, the mantles, red with clotted blood, did touch the place of the holy sacrifice."

1 Vita S. Pauli Leon., ed. Plaine, p. 28; Revue Celtique, v, p. 437.

Geoffrey is certainly wrong in making the murders to have taken place in London and Winchester. For Winchester, the Caer Wynt of the Welsh Brut, we should probably read Caer Went, in Monmouthshire.

Geoffrey states that three years later, the vengeance of heaven fell on Constantine, who was killed by his nephew Conan. But this may have been evolved out of his imagination.

Gildas goes on: "Not one worthy act could he boast of, previous to this cruel deed; for, many years before, he had stained himself with the abomination of many adulteries, having put away his wife." Gildas wrote before 547, probably in 540. Consequently, Constantine was then king.

The Cambrian Annals give 589 as the date of the conversion of Constantine. The Annals of Tighernach give 588, those of Ulster 587, but as the Ulster Annals are a year behind the true computation, this yields 588.

After his conversion he is said to have gone to Menevia, to S. David, but this is difficult to reconcile with the dates of David's life, unless we accept the entry in the Cambrian Annals that makes David die in 601.

There were a good many of the name of Constantine, and they have been confounded together, or at least several have, in the Legend in the Breviary of Aberdeen.

I. Constantine, styled Corneu ("of Cornwall"), whose daughter was married to Peibio, King of Erging. This is supposed to have been Constantine the Tyrant, elevated to the purple by the soldiery in Britain in 408, and killed in 411. The fourth generation from this Cystennin produced S. Cybi and Gildas. Cybi died about 554 and Gildas in 570. As Constantine the Usurper may have been young when killed in 411, this will allow fairly enough for his identification with Cystennin Gorneu, the great-great-grandfather of Cybi and Gildas.

2. Constantine, King of Domnonia, assailed by Gildas in 540, and supposed to have been converted in 589. If he were a man of thirty when Gildas wrote, he would have been converted at the age of 79 and died a few years later.

3. Constantine, son of Rhydderch Hael, King of the Cumbrian

Britons. He was born after the return of Kentigern to Strathclyde in 573. Of him we know very little; only what we are told in the Life of S. Kentigern by Joscelyn, which is thisThe queen (of Rhydderch), Langueth by name, was sterile, but, by the benediction and intercession of S. Kentigern, she

conceived and bore a son, whom the Saint baptized, and to whom he gave the name of Constantine. The boy grew up in favour with God and man, and after his father's death succeeded to the sovereignty of the Northern Cymry, and was subject to the bishop, as was his father. And because God was with him, he succeeded in controlling all the barbarous neighbouring nations, without effusion of blood. And he excelled all the kings who had reigned before him in Cumbria in riches and glory and dignity, and, what was more considerable, in sanctity. Wherefore, illustrious in merits, finishing his course in prosperity, he was crowned with glory in heaven, "Sanctusque Constantius usque ad præsens solet a pluribus appellari." 1 Rhydderch is supposed to have died about 600, and we may put the date of the death of this Constantine as taking place about 630.

4. Constantine, son of Fergus, King of the Scots, 789-820. He attacked the Picts, defeated them, and became king.

5. Constantine, son of Kenneth, 863-877; he fought against the Danes, who had been driven out of Ireland, and who entered the Firth of Clyde and ravaged Alba, or at all events the province of Fife. A battle ensued at Dollar, and the Scots were defeated and were pursued by the Northmen as far as Inverdovet, in the parish of Forgan, near the Firth of Tay, in Fife, where they were again worsted, and there Constantine was slain.

6. Constantine, son of Aedh, 900-946, was engaged in the battle of Brunanburgh (937) against Athelstan and his brother Edmund the Etheling, when the Scots were in league with the Northmen against the Saxons. Five years after this great defeat, Constantine, worn out with age and disappointment, resigned the throne and retired into the monastery of S. Andrew's, where he was appointed abbot, and ruled for five years. S. Berchan says of him

Afterwards God did call him

To the Recles (monastery) on the brink of the waves,
In the house of the Apostle he came to death.
Undefiled was the Pilgrim.

He had lived ten years after his retirement, and his death is recorded in the Ulster Annals as taking place in 952.2

Constantine styled Corneu (No. 1) shall be dealt with later on.

1 Pinkerton, Lives of the Scottish SS., ed. Metcalfe, Paisley, 1889, ii, p. 70. 2 Skene, Celtic Scotland, 1880, i, pp. 302, 328, 360.