Cato was a very popular author in the Middle Ages with the Welsh, as with other western European nations. The Book of Cado or Cato" is mentioned in the Red Book of Hergest1 and the Iolo MSS. Sayings of the Wise," 2 and in one of the Triads in the former he is said to have been one of the three men who "received the wisdom of Adam." 3 In Welsh MSS. of the early fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries in the Peniarth and other collections he is called Cadw Hên or Ddoeth, and the name also occurs in an oblique case as Cattwn Ddoeth, with which Catwg was easily confounded. A considerable portion of the Myvyrian Archaiology is taken up with what is called "the Wisdom of the Welsh," and a large section of it 1 is comprised of "The Book called Y Gwyddfardd Cyfarwydd, which Catwg Ddoeth composed." It is printed from a transcript of copies made about 1670-80. The collection embraces aphorisms, proverbs, philosophy, and triads of an ethical nature, numbering in all 190 pieces of varying length, in prose and verse, each subscribed "Catwg Ddoeth composed it." 5 A good portion of them is thrown into syllogistic form, and the ideas are often pantheistic and gnostic. The phraseology and the general sentiments and terms employed are late mediæval. Copies of these apothegms are to be found in a number of MSS.6 of especially the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but they are always attributed to Cato, Cadw, or Cattwn Hên or Ddoeth. It will be found on comparing the Myvyrian "Wisdom" (which has been supposed to comprise a system of philosophy) with these MSS., that the whole is merely a patchwork of Welsh renderings or developments of the well-known Disticha or Dicta Catonis, so popular in Western Europe from as early as the eighth century. The aphorisms are nowhere referred to Cadoc in the Vita, nor even mentioned; nor does he therein appear to have been in the habit of uttering anything so remarkable as to justify his being at any time assigned the rôle of a Welsh doctor." The following is ascribed to him in the "Sayings of the Wise" printed in the Iolo MSS. :-8 1 Skene, Four Ancient Books of Wales, ii, p. 226. 2 P. 252. 3 Y Cymmrodor, iii, p. 53. 4 Pp. 756-811. 5 For a translation of a considerable number of them see the Cambrian Register, vol. iii; also into French in the Revue Celtique, 1878, iii, 419-442. The earliest is Peniarth MS. 3, written c. 1300 (" The Counsels of Cadw Hên, or the Elder, to Cadw the Younger "), and copies, of the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, occur in Peniarth MSS. 27, 88, 94; Cardiff MSS. 6, 18, etc. De la Villemarqué has devoted a chapter to the wisdom of Cadoc, based on these aphorisms. 8 P. 252. Hast thou heard the saying of Catwg The Wise, the son of Gwynllyw, of Essyllwg (Siluria) ? (Bid galon lle bo golwg.) In the same volume1 are a number of fables, each with a moral, which are attributed to him. This late reputation for wisdom grew to such an extent that every saying or proverb was at last ascribed to him. Cadoc is invoked in the tenth century Litany published by Warren as Catoce.2 S. CADROD, of Calchfynydd, Prince, Confessor CADRAWD, or Cadrod, of Calchfynydd, was a son of Cynwyd Cynwydion, of the line of Coel Godebog, and the brother of Clydno Eiddyn, Cynan Genhir, and Cynfelyn Drwsgl. The Iolo MSS.3 make them all disciples of S. Cadoc at Llancarfan. According to the Cognatio de Brychan, Cadrod was the husband of Gwrygon Goddheu, daughter of Brychan, who is called in the later genealogies Gwrgon. He was lord of Calchfynydd, which is identified in the Iolo MSS.5 with Dunstable. In the sixteenth century Peniarth MS. 135 he is designated "Earl of Dunstable and Lord of Hampshire (Swydd Hantwn). Skene, however, thought it was Kelso, in Roxburghshire, which is more probable. The name means the Lime or Chalk Mountain. Among the " 1 P. 154. 6 Sayings of the Wise "7 occurs the following Hast thou heard the saying of Cadrod, Of Calchfynydd, of great meditation? "The best woman is the woman without a tongue." 3 Pp. 105, 128. 2 Revue Celtique, 1888, p. 88. 4 Sometimes, e.g., Peniarth MS. 131 (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), Cadrod's wife is said to have been a daughter of Brychan named Gwenfrewi. 5 P. 120. 6 Four Ancient Books of Wales, i, p. 172; ii, p. 406. 7 Iolo MSS., p. 257. S. CADWALADR FENDIGAID, King, Confessor CADWALADR, Son of Cadwallon ab Cadfan, was the last of the Welsh princes who assumed the title of Gwledig or chief sovereign of Britain.1 Cadwallon had been defeated by Edwin, when young, and he had fled to Ireland. Returning to Britain, he assumed the title of king, and defended the title in a series of battles. The Welsh of Gwynedd and Powys rallied to his flag in large numbers, and going to the assistance of Penda, he completely defeated Edwin at Heathfield in 633. For a while Cadwallon overpowered the Northumbrians, and proceeded to devastate the whole region. "Cadwalla," says Bede, "though he bore the name and professed himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition and behaviour, that he neither spared the female sex nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty put them to torturing deaths, ravaging all their country for a long time, and resolving to cut off all the race of the English within the borders of Britain. Nor did he pay any respect to the Christian religion which had newly taken root among them; it being to this day the custom of the Britons not to pay any regard to the faith and religion of the English, nor to correspond with them any more than with pagans.' 12 The sons of Ethelfrid attempted to retrieve the fortunes of Deira, but Cadwallon encountered them, defeated and slew them both, in 635. But Oswald placed himself at the head of a small and resolute band and continued the struggle, and finally met Cadwallon in a pitched battle at Heaven's Field, and gained a complete victory. Cadwallon, the last hero of the British race-victor, according to the Welsh tradition, in fourteen battles and in sixty skirmishes-perished in the defeat. The Britons evacuated Northumbria, never to return, and withdrew behind the Severn. Cadwaladr, the son of Cadwallon, now headed the Britons. He is said to have led the Welsh against Oswiu, but his lack of courage brought on him a nickname-Cadomedd (battle-shunner)-instead of Cadafael (battle-seizer), with which he was first greeted.3 In 658 Cenwalh, King of the West Saxons, brought against him a powerful army, and a battle was fought at Peonne in Somersetshire, when the Britons were routed with terrible slaughter, and were pursued as far as Pedrida, on the river Parret. Cadwaladr was ill-suited to 1 With him Geoffrey's Brut appropriately terminates. His son was Idwal Iwrch. The name Cadwaladr means 2 Hist. Eccl., ii, 20. battle-ruler." 3 Nennius, c. 65; Rhys, Celtic Britain, 3rd ed., pp. 134-5. lead the warlike and unfortunate Britons. He was of an amiable and peaceable disposition, more disposed to frequent churches than camps. In 664 a plague broke out which spread desolation over Britain and Ireland, and great numbers perished in it; and one of the victims. was the British king.1 His son was Idwal, and it has been supposed that Cadwaladr's daughter married Cenbert and was mother of Ceadwalla. Ceadwalla went to Rome on pilgrimage and died there, and the similarity of names has led to confusion. It has been related that Cadwaladr ran away from Britain to escape the plague, and took refuge with Alan, King of Armorica. There was no such a king in Brittany at the time. The story goes on to say that as he was preparing to return home an angel appeared to him and commanded him to relinquish his purpose and undertake a pilgrimage to Rome. Resigning his kingdom, therefore, in favour of his son, Ifor, he died on May 12, 688. The confusion is obvious. He and Ceadwalla have been confounded together. Ceadwalla was an atrocious ruffian. He subdued the Isle of Wight with the deliberate intention of putting all the inhabitants to the sword, and he carried out his purpose with unpitying ferocity, killing men, women and children, that he might replace the Jute colonists with his own West Saxons. Having accomplished his bloody purpose, he handed over the spoil to S. Wilfrid, who does not seem to have lifted a finger to avert the massacre, but looked on with cold eye, unsympathetic, because the wretched Jutes were pagans. Ceadwalla went to Rome in 688, and was well received by Pope Sergius I, who baptized him, and he died a few days after. The Pope ordered a laudatory epitaph to be inscribed on the tomb of this murderous monster, and his relics to be honoured. Cadwaladr was a far more respectable personage. He was mild and generous, but a poor creature nevertheless. We may set his death as taking place in 664, twenty-four years before that of Ceadwalla. 1 Nennius says: 'Oswald, son of Ethelfrid, reigned nine years he slew Catgublaun (Cadwallon), King of Guenedotia, in the battle of Catscaul, with much loss to his own army. Oswiu, son of Ethelfrid, reigned twentyeight years and six months. During his reign, there was a dreadful mortality among his subjects, when Catgualart (Cadwaladr) was king among the Britons, succeeding his father; and he himself died amongst the rest." The Annales Cambria, under the year 682, make him die then of the plague in Britain. See, generally, on the date and place of his death, Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., i, p. 202. The Welsh Triads state that Golyddan the Bard some time or other gave him a box on the ears, for which he paid the penalty by an axeblow on the head; that he was one of the three sovereigns of the Isle of Britain who wore golden bands (insignia of supreme power); and that he was one of its three Blessed Sovereigns, on account of the protection that he afforded to "the faithful who fled from the faithless Saxons and the foreigners." 1 He seems to derive his epithet Bendigaid from this, as well as from his having been confounded with Ceadwalla. There are several churches dedicated to him or supposed to have been founded by him-Llangadwaladr, otherwise called Tref Esgob, Bishopston or Bishton (under Llanwern), and Magwyr or Magor (now dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary), in Monmouthshire; Llanfihangel Fedwy,2 or Michaelston-y-Vedw (now to the Archangel), partly in Glamorganshire and partly in Monmouthshire; Llangadwaladr, in Denbighshire, formerly called Bettws Cadwaladr (i.e., his bead-house); and Llangadwaladr, previously called, it is said, Eglwys Ael, in Anglesey, near Aberffraw, where the kings of Gwynedd resided. His grandfather, Cadfan, was buried at Eglwys Ael, and a rude inscription on a rough stone, of apparently the seventh century, runs- "Catamanus rex sapientisimus opinatisimus omnium regum." In the parish of Llanddeiniolfab, in Anglesey, are the remains of an ancient small building called Capel Llangadwaladr. All the Welsh Calendars of the give November 12 as his Festival. of Sir H. Nicolas, gives October 9. The following occurs among the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Hast thou heard the saying of Cadwaladr, King of All Wales; "The best crooked thing is the crooked handle of a plough.” (Goreu cloff yw cloff aradr.) Heraldry speaks of the standard of the Red Dragon of King Cadwaladr, which was borne before him to battle. It was probably the ensign of the Insularis Draco, with which title Gildas styles Maelgwn Gwynedd, the Gwledig.5 Cadwaladr was long expected to return some day to lead the Brythons to victory, to assert the ancient rights of his family, the 1 Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, pp. 301, 305; Myv. Arch., pp. 393, 403–5. 2 Iolo MSS., p. 221. 3 Welsh Saints, p. 301. 4 Iolo MSS., p. 257; cf. Myv. Arch., p. 846. 5 On the standard, and the title Pendragon, see Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, Berlin, 1893, p. 286, note. |