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 I" ma 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." 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.

on his mother's land, Ynys Efrddyl. He had a branch establishment at Welsh Bicknor (Llan Gystennin Garth Benni), another in Golden Valley, perhaps at Abbey Dore, a second in Golden Valley at Cum Barruc, the position of which is not now defined. Another, where is now S. Maughans, which, after it was abandoned in consequence of the Yellow Plague, was settled by S. Machu, who refounded it and gave it his name. Another at Cilhal or Pencoyd, and another at Eaton Bishop (Tir Conloc). All these in Erging. In addition he had one in Gower (Porth Tulon), and Penally in Pembrokeshire, and the island of Caldey in face of it. These were all. But his disciples, owing him a loose allegiance, had other settlements in Erging; his

cousin Junapeius at Ballingham and Lanloudy. They had also one in Brecknockshire, and several in Gower. That was all.

He had nothing whatever to do with Caerleon, nothing with Llandaff, which may not have been founded till after his death.

S. Dyfrig died in Bardsey on November 14, on which day his name occurs in the Calendars in Cotton MS. Vesp. A. xiv, and Peniarth MS. 219, in Whytford's Martyrology, and in that of Wilson, and in Nicolas Roscarrock. The Vita 1 gives May 7 as the day on Ima which his relics were removed from Bardsey, and May 23 as that on which they were received into Llandaff Cathedral. Allwydd Paradwys (1670), gives his Translation on May 19.

He is patron, along with S. Peter and SS. Teilo and Oudoceus, of