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 attempt ing 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 Céltique, 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 acquiredbrought, 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 concealment. 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. 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," 3 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. 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 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. 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. 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 A 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 4 '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. |
