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Right to inherit one as the other had to be established by proof of descent. The pedigree was the title-deed appealed to in both cases. Before the fifth century, indeed, the genealogies are mostly fictitious. But it was precisely these fictitious pedigrees which possessed no legal value from the fifth century upwards; however, when the great rush was made into Wales by those who had been dispossessed of their lands by the Picts in the first place, and secondly by the Saxons, these records became of supreme importance. The new comers settled down on newly acquired territories, and from thenceforth the pedigrees had to be determined and carried on from generation to generation with the strictest regard to accuracy, for tribal rights, both secular and ecclesiastical, depended on them.

"Inheritance in land and all tribal rights could only be asserted by proof produced of legal descent. And it is clear that such proof contained in the production of a genealogy could not be left to irresponsible persons. Consequently, in every Celtic race each branch of a family maintained a professional genealogist, who kept a record of the family descent from the original tree. But further, for the checking and controlling of these records, the chief or king had his special recorder, who also made entries in the book kept for the use of the chief. In Ireland, the High King always had such an officer, to register, not only the descent of the royal family, but also of all the provincial kings and principal territorial chiefs in every province; in order that, in case of dispute, a final appeal could be made to this impartial public record. This officer was an olambh, and it was his function periodically to visit the principal courts and residences of the chieftains throughout the land, and to inspect the books of family history and genealogies; and on his return to Tara, or wherever the High King might reside, to enter into the monarch's book the accessions to these families and their expansion.

"So also, every provincial chief and king had his olambh, and in obedience to an ancient law, established before the introduction of Christianity into the land, all the provincial records were returnable every third year to the Convocation at Tara, where they were compared with each other, and with the monarch's book, the Saltair of Tara."

2

Our Heralds' Visitations, undertaken every few years through the land to record pedigrees, were analogous, though the heralds concerned themselves, not with rights to land, but to the bearing of

arins.

2 O'Curry, Lect. on the MS. Materials of Anc. Irish Hist., Dublin, 1861, pp. 203-4.

What Rice Rees did in his Essay was to show the value of the pedigrees, and the care with which they had been kept, and how trustworthy they were in determining the stocks and the generations to which the saints belonged. Here and there, owing to identity or similarity of names, errors arose, but this was exceptional. Rees laid great stress on the undoubted fact that in Wales as in Ireland a foundation took its title from its founder. A saint fasted for forty days on a site, and thenceforth it was consecrated to God, and became his own in perpetuity. Dedication during the Age of the Saints meant ownership, and implied therefore much more than is now ordinarily understood by the term. It was " proprietary" dedication. In a poem by the Welsh bard, Gwynfardd Brycheiniog (flor. c. 11601220), written in honour of S. David, in which a number of churches "dedicated" to him are named, it is repeatedly stated that "Dewi owneth" (Dewi bieu) such and such church, some of which churches, among them, Llangyfelach and Llangadog, had evidently been "rededicated" to him.

Thus, all the

founded by

But although this is certainly true, yet it does not apply to all the churches named after a saint. For a piece of land granted to a saint's church when he was dead also acquired his name. A saint was a proprietor for all ages, whether on earth or in heaven. Teilo, Dewi and Cadoc churches were not personally these three saints, but were, in most cases, acquisitions made by the churches of Llandaff, Menevia and Llancarfan in later times. Nevertheless, in general, the presumption is that a church called after a Celtic saint was of his own individual dedication. It is hardly possible for us to realise the activity and acquisitiveness of the early Celtic saints. They never remained long stationary, but hurried from place to place, dotting their churches or their cells wherever they could obtain foothold. No sooner did an abbot obtain a grant of land, than, dropping a few monks there to hold it for him, he hurried away to solicit another concession, and to found a new church.

The Lives of SS. Cadoc, David, Senan, and Cieran show them to have been incessantly on the move. S. Columba is reported to have established a hundred churches. S. Abban Mac Cormaic erected three monasteries in Connaught, then went into Munster, where he founded another; then migrated to Muskerry, where he built a fifth. Next he made a settlement at Oill Caoine; then went to Fermoy and reared a seventh. Again he passed into Muskerry and established an eighth. Soon after he planted a ninth at Clon Finglass; thereupon, away he went and constructed a tenth, Clon Conbruin. No sooner was this

done than he went to Emly again to found monasteries, how many we are not told. Thereafter he departed for Leinster, and laid the foundations of another, Cill Abbain. Then to Wexford, where he planted "multa monasteria et cellæ." Not yet satisfied, he found his way into Meath, and established there two monasteries. After that the King of the Hy Cinnselach gave up to him his cathair, or dun, to be converted into a home for religion. This abbot must have been the founder of some twenty monasteries and cells. And he is not unique. All the saints did the same as far as they were able. They did not content themselves with this in their own lands; they crossed the seas to Cornwall and to Brittany, and made foundations there as well.

When we come to the extant Lives of the Celtic Saints, we have to regret that so few of those which are Welsh have come down to us. The majority of these are contained in the MS. volume in the Cottonian Collection in the British Museum, Vespasian A. xiv, of the early thirteenth century.

This was laid under contribution by John of Tynemouth, who, in the first half of the fourteenth century, made a tour through England and Wales in quest of material for the composition of a Martyrologium and a Sanctilogium. Of his collection only one MS. is known to exist, now in the British Museum, Cotton MS., Tiberius E. i, and this was partly destroyed, and where not destroyed injured by fire in 1731; but of this more hereafter.

The MS. Vespas. A. xiv contains the following Latin Lives :S. Gundleus, S. Cadoc, S. Iltut, S. Teilo, S. Dubricius (two lives), S. David, S. Bernach, S. Paternus, S. Clitauc, S. Kebi (two lives), S. Tatheus, S. Carantocus, and S. Aidus.

The twelfth century Book of Llan Dâv adds the following:S. Oudoceus, S. Samson, and S. Elgar the Hermit.

Capgrave gives a few more Lives: S. Caradoc, S. Cungar, S. Decuman, S. Gildas, S. Jutwara, S. Justinian, S. Keyne, S. Kentigern, S. Kened, S. Machutus, S. Maglorius, and S. Petroc, but of these only Caradoc belongs exclusively to Wales. There are besides Latin Lives. of S. Winefred (two), S. Monacella, and S. Deiniol.

Of prose Lives written in Welsh there are only a few, namely, those of S. David, S. Beuno, S. Winefred, S. Llawddog or Lleuddad, S. Collen, S. Curig, and S. Ieuan Gwas Padrig; but there is a fair number of poems written in honour of saints, which are of the nature of metrical Lives or panegyrics. They are mostly by authors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but the information they supply of the saints themselves is of a varying quality. The Cywy

ddau extant are to the following:-S. Cawrdaf, S. Cynog, S. Doged, S. Dwynwen, S. Dyfnog, S. Einion Frenhin, S. Llonio, S. Llwchaiarn, S. Mechell, S. Mordeyrn, S. Mwrog, S. Peblig, and S. Tydecho, not to mention others to whom there are Latin and Welsh prose Lives.

John of Tynemouth, in his peregrination, cannot have visited North Wales, as he does not take into his collection S. Asaph and S. Deiniol, and he certainly omitted Devon and Cornwall.

In 1330 Bishop Grandisson, of Exeter, wrote to the Archdeacon of Cornwall, complaining of the neglect and accident which had caused. the destruction or loss of the records of the local Cornish Saints, and he directed that those which remained should be transcribed, two or three copies made, and should be transmitted to Exeter, to ensure their preservation; and he further enjoined that the parish priests who failed to do this should be fined.3 Yet when Grandisson in 1366 drew up his Legendarium for the use of the Church of Exeter, he passed over all these local saints without notice with the exception of S. Melor and S. Samson. Had John of Tynemouth visited Exeter, he would have used the material collected by Grandisson, now unhappily lost.

From Brittany we obtain some important Lives of Saints who crossed from Wales and settled there, as Gildas, Paul of Léon, Samson, Malo, Maglorius, Tudwal, Leonore, Brioc, and Meven. Ireland furnishes a good many Lives, and these of value, as the revival of Christianity, after a relapse on the death of S. Patrick, was due to an influx of missionaries sent into the island from Llancarfan and Menevia; as also because of the close intercommunication between Ireland and Wales. Very few Welsh Saints found their way to Scotland, at least permanently, and the only saint who may be said to belong to Wales as well as to Scotland, whose life has been preserved, is Cyndeyrn (Kentigern).

When we come to estimate the historical value of these Lives, we must remember that none of them are contemporary. The nearest to approach is that of S. Samson, composed by a writer who took his information from a monk aged eighty, who had heard stories of Samson from his uncle, a cousin of Samson, and who had conversed with the mother of the saint. All the rest are much posterior, composed, mostly in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and later by writers who piled up miracles, and altered or eliminated such particulars as they considered did not comport with the perfection.

3 Register of Bp. Grandisson, ed. H. Randolph, Pt. I, p. 585.

of the hero, or did not accord with their notions of ecclesiastical Joscelyn, in his Life of S. Kentigern, admits having done

order. this.

One flagrant instance of bad faith is found in the Life of S. Gundleus. The facts relative to the history of the father of S. Cadoc are given in the Vita S. Cadoci, but as they displeased the panegyrist of Gundleus, he entirely altered them, and represented the early life of the saint in a totally different light from that in which it is revealed to us in the other document. Other writers, again, deliberately forged Lives to support certain pretentions of the see or monastery to which they belonged.

In the ninth century the diocese of Dol had been made metropolitan, with jurisdiction over all the sees of Brittany, removing them from being under the archiepiscopal authority of Tours. But several endeavoured to slip away and revert to Tours. Among these was that of Curiosopitum, or Quimper. To justify this, a Life of S. Corentinus, the founder, was fabricated, which represented him as receiving consecration and jurisdiction from S. Martin of Tours, who had died half a century before his time.

Some Lives were composed out of scanty materials, mere oral tradition. Rhygyfarch wrote his Life of S. David apparently between 1078 and 1088. The cathedral and monastery had been repeatedly ravaged and burnt by the Northmen, and the records destroyed ; nevertheless, some records did remain “written in the old style of the ancients." To what extent he amplified by grafting in legendary matter picked up orally we are unable to say.

With regard to the miraculous element in the Lives, that occupies so large a part, we are not disposed to reject it altogether. The miracles are embellishments added, in many instances, by the redactor, as a flourish to give piquancy to his narrative. He often could not appreciate a plain incident recorded in the early text that he had under his eyes, and he finished it off with a marvel to accommodate it to the taste of the times in which he wrote. He dealt with a commonplace event much as a professional story-teller treats an incident that has happened to himself or an acquaintance. He furbishes it up and adds point and converts it into a respectable anecdote. To the mediæval hagiographer an incident in a saintly life was not worth recording unless it led up to a miraculous display of power. Very often the miracle is invented, either to account for the possession of a certain estate by a monastery, or as a deterrent to the sacrilegious against violation of sanctuary, and these stand on the same ground as the terrible "judgments" in Puritan story-books on profaners of

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