It is printed in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, ii, pp. 654-61, and consists of eleven chapters. I and 2 are from Vita Ima 3 relates the arrival of SS. Germanus and Lupus in Britain, from Geoffrey of Monmouth. 4 records the elevation of Dubricius to be Archbishop of Caerleon by Aurelius Ambrosius. 5 narrates the poisoning of Aurelius and the raising of Arthur to the throne through the influence of Dubricius, all from Geoffrey. 6. Dubricius visits S. Illtyd and consecrates S. Samson. This is taken from Vita rma and the Life of S. Samson. 7. Cure of the daughter of Guidgentivai, from Vita Ima 8. The deeds of King Arthur, from Geoffrey. 9. Dubricius retires to the eremitical life and is succeeded in the archbishopric by S. David, taken from Geoffrey. 10. The embassy of Lucius Cæsar to Britain, from Geoffrey; and 11. The death of Dubricius in Enlli, in the year 612, from the Vita Ima. Thus this Life is a mere patchwork of no value. 4. A condensation of the Life by Benedict of Gloucester was made by John of Tynemouth. The original MS. is in Cotton MS. Tiberius, E. i. It was printed in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Angliæ, ed. Horstmann, pp. 267–71. 5. As we have seen, 2, 3, and 4 are worthless. It is other with the charters or grants made to Dubricius and his disciples found in the Book of Llan Dâv. These grants do not come to us in their original form; they were manipulated by the redactor of the Book of Llan Dâv in the twelfth century. Originally, the gifts made to Dubricius and his disciples were recorded on the margins of a Book of the Gospels, in the same manner as the entries in the Book of S. Chad, so-called, but a Book of the Four Gospels that belonged originally to the Church of Llandaff. These recorded the names of the grantor and grantee, and those of the clerical and lay witnesses to the transfer-little more. When the compiler of the Book of Llan Dâv took these in hand, he filled them out, and gave them an academic form. In some instances he added the traditional circumstances which caused the grantor to make the gift; and in almost all cases he added the boundaries from his own knowledge. He did more, he coloured the account to accommodate it to certain claims advanced by the Church of Llandaff to possession of all the lands that had been given to Dubricius and to his disciples. An example may be taken from the earliest grant in the book, that by Erb, king of Gwent and Erging, to Dubricius, of the land of Cilhal, supposed to be Pencoyd, in Herefordshire. It records how that Erb made over land, named Cilhal, from his own heritage, “Dubritio [archiepiscopo archimonasterii Landaviæ et suis successoribus]." Here all within brackets is an addition by the compiler. Dubricius was not archbishop, and Llandaff had not been founded when Erb was king. Rex prædictus misit manum super quatuor Evangelia, tenente beato Dubricio, cum prædicta tellure. [Finis illius a Palude Magno usque ad Arganhell. Benedicens posteris suis qui servaverint istam donationem; qui autem violaverint, et ab ecclesia Landaviæ separaverint, maledicentur, et in ignem æternum mittentur.] De clericis testes sunt [archiepiscopus Dubricius, Elhearn, Iudner, Guordocui, Guernabui. De laicis vero rex Erb, Pepiau, Gurtauan, Mabon, Condiuill." So, again, with another grant: "Sciendum est nobis quod Peipiau rex filius Erb largitus est Mainaur Garth Benni usque ad paludem nigrum inter silvam et campum et aquam et jaculum Constantini regis socri sui trans Guy amnem Deo et Dubricio [archie]piscopo [sedis Landaviæ] et Iunapeio consobrino suo . . . sine ullo sensu terreno et principatu parvo et modico nisi Deo et Sancto Dubricio [servientibus ecclesiæ Landaviæ] in perpetuo . . . ut domus orationis et penitentiæ .. et in testimonio relictis ibi tribus discipulis suis ecclesiam illam consecravit." 2 The title of archbishop may have stood in the original grant, but this is most improbable, and, if it did, it had a totally different significance from that attributed to it later. All reference to Llandaff is a deliberate insertion of a late period. Another instance of the handiwork of the compiler may be adduced. In the grant made by Britcon of Lann Bocha to S. Dubricius it is stated that Britcon and Iliuc made over Lannmocha pro animabus suis . . Deo et Sancto Petro Apostolo et archiepiscopo Dubricio archimonasterii Landaviæ . . . verbo et consensu Mourici regis." 3 Now Lann-mocha or Lann-bocha is the Church of S. Machu or Malo, ow S. Maughan's.4 Machu was son of Madrun, daughter of Vortimer or Gwrthefyr, who died in 457, and Machu cannot have founded this church till the middle of the sixth century. He was born about 527. Consequently it is hardly credible that in the time of Meurig and Dubricius there can have been a church bearing Machu's name. Moreover, no churches among the British were dedicated to S. Peter or any Apostle. It was in 1120, when Bishop Urban rebuilt the Cathedral of Llandaff, that he dedicated it to S. Peter in conjunction with SS. Dubricius, Teilo, and Oudoceus. The association of S. Dubricius with Llandaff in the charters was due to a misapprehension, which it will be well here to consider. Dubricius received several concessions of land, mainly in Erging, 1 Book of Llan Dâv, p. 75. 3 Ibid., p. 74. 2 Ibid., p. 72. as did also his disciples; some, however, settled in Gower, and some in Gwent. In 577 occurred the disastrous battle of Deorham, and the burning of Gloucester, Bath, and probably also Caerwent. This led to the settlement of the Hwiccas along the lower Severn, and to raids over the Wye into Erging, as we may conjecture. The monasteries of Dyfrig and his disciples in Ewyas and Ērging were utterly wasted, and the monks escaped, carrying their relics and books with them. "Be it known," says a charter of the time of Bishop Berthguin, " that great tribulations and devastations took place in the time of Telpald and Ithail, kings of Britain, and this was due to the heathen Saxon race, and it was mainly on the confines of Britain and Anglia [towards Hereford], and it was so extensive that the whole borderland of Britain was almost destroyed, and much beyond the confines on both sides of Anglia and Britain, and mainly about the river Wye, on account of wars and frequent daily and nightly incursions, on one side and on the other. After a while, peace having been established, the land was restored by force and vigour (to its rightful owners); but it was swept bare and unoccupied, with men few and far between." 1 That some of the disciples of Dyfrig took refuge with S. Teilo at Llandaff we know, for their names occur as clerics at that place.” In the time of Berthguin, who succeeded S. Oudoceus, the disciple and successor of Teilo, as the monasteries in Erging lay desolate, the flourishing Church of Llandaff, that enjoyed the favour of Ithail, son of Morcant, king of Morganwg and Glywysing, took possession of these abandoned sites, and re-occupied them. Thenceforth the Church of Llandaff assumed to be the legitimate inheritor of all the possessions of Dubricius and his disciples. It had harboured the refugees; it preserved their Books of the Gospels with the marginal records of grants; and now it reoccupied their deserted seats. When, in the twelfth century, the compiler of the Book of Llan Dâv took these simple records in hand, partly in ignorance, partly with purpose, he adapted them, made Dubricius actually founder of Llandaff, and head over all the Churches of South Wales. After this long preamble we come to the Life of Dubricius. ma We will take the Vita 1m as our basis, supplementing it from the charters. But one observation we must make on this Life. Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans conjectures that the Book of Llan Dâv was drawn up by Geoffrey of Monmouth himself. But this is scarcely 1 Book of Llan Ddv, p. 192. "Hereford" is a late addition. credible. We can hardly believe that if he took in hand to re-write the Life of S. Dubricius, he could have resisted the temptation of making it agree with the story of Dubricius as excogitated by himself in his History of the Kings of Britain. Instead of harmonizing with this latter, it contradicts it at every point. Pepiau, or Peipiau, king of Erging or Archenfield, in Herefordshire, son of Erb, King of Gwent and Erging, had a daughter named Efrddyl.2 On his return from a warfaring expedition he asked her to wash his head; and whilst she was thus engaged, he perceived that she was in the family-way. He was angry, and ordered her to be put in a skin bag and thrown into the river. She was, however, washed ashore, and then he sentenced her to be burnt alive. Next morning he sent to inquire about her ashes, and the messengers found her sitting on the pyre, nursing her new-born son. Pepiau ordered mother and child to be brought to him, and he took the infant in his arms. Now Pepiau was afflicted with a drivelling mouth, and two servants attended continually to wipe away the saliva with napkins.3 It fell out that when the child on his lap stroked his cheeks, he was completely healed of his infirmity. Pepiau then granted to the child the place where it had been born, which was called Matle. Eventually, a stone was set up on the spot in commemoration of the marvellous birth there of the child Dyfrig.1 1 The name would to-day be Peibio, as in Garth Beibio, a parish in Montgomeryshire, and Ynys Beibio, near Holyhead. According to the tale of Culhwch and Olwen (Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, p. 121) there were two kings, named Nynnio and Peibio, who were metamorphosed into horned oxen (ychen bannog) on account of their sins. They appear as insane kings, that were brothers, in the tale of Rhita Gawr (Iolo MSS., p. 193). In the genealogies in Jesus College MS. 20 (15th century) Pepiau is called Peibiawn Glawrawc, and made to be the son of Arbeth and father of Tewdwr. Pepiau's Welsh epithet, Claforog or Clafrog, correctly means scabby or leprous. Glyfoer or glafoer, drivel," would more accurately express his affliction. He was succeeded by his son Cinuin (Cynfyn). 2 Ebrdil, Evrdil, Eurdil or Eurdila. 3 66 Spumam enim ab ore incessanter emittebat, quam duo clientes sine aliquius horæ intervallo vix extergere poterant manutergiis." Ibid., p. 79. Lewis, in his History of Great Britain, describes his monument. In Herefordshire in a parish (probably he means Madley) is the picture of a king, with a man on each side of him, with napkins wiping the rheum and drivel from his mouth; that humour so abounding in him that he could get no cure for it, which king the country people call King Driveller, the Britons Pebiau Glavorawc." (Quoted in Supplementary Notes to the Liber Landavensis, p. 8, appended to Cambro-British Saints.) “Tenentem filium in gremio quem pepererat ad saxum quod ibidem positum est in testimonium miræ nativitatis pueri." Ibid., p. 79. The story, however, looks much like a bit of folklore, of a piece with that associated with S. Cenydd and S. Cyndeyrn, and may have become attached to Dyfrig from his name being a derivative of dwfr (water). According to the late Welsh genealogies Dyfrig was the son of Brychan1; but the Cognatio does not recognize him. The Iolo MSS. say that Dyfrig's mother was Eurbrawst, daughter of Meurig ab Tewdrig, king of Glamorgan, and that Brychan was his father.2 But Eurbrawst, by whom is intended Onbrawst, was daughter of Gurcant Maur, and wife of Meurig ab Tewdrig, king of Morganwg, and consequently mother of Anna, who bore S. Samson." "The sons of Brychan were saints at Llancarfan and Llantwit ; afterwards they formed a college (cor) with Bishop Dyfrig at the Wig on the Wye" (Hentland), which is designated "the religious foundation of Brychan." + 7 "The religious foundation of the family of Ceredig ab Cunedda Wledig was the Côr of Dyfrig, Saint and Archbishop, at the Wig on the banks of the Wye, which was destroyed by the pagan Saxons.” ♪ Côr Dyfrig, over which Dyfrig presided as principal (penrhaith), was composed of several minor côrs, embracing in all two thousand saints." Dyfrig ab Brychan is a Saint in Ceredigion," confusing him very probably with the patron Saint of Llandyfriog. According to Peniarth MS. 75 (sixteenth century), he was a saint "in Brycheiniog." It must be remembered that all these notices are several centuries later than the twelfth century Vita, and should therefore be taken simply for what they are worth. A more serious difficulty is presented by the charter already quoted of the grant of Cilhal to Dyfrig. This represents the grantor as Erb the father of Pepiau, and the clerical witnesses to the grant are all disciples of Dyfrig. That saint can hardly have been under thirty years old when given Cilhal, if he had clerical pupils. But it is inconceivable that he should have received a grant from his greatgrandfather at that time. Yet one cannot reject the donation as a fiction, for if it had been a fabrication, the compiler of the Book of 1 Iolo MSS., pp. 111, 119, 140; Myv. Arch., p. 419. The mistake seems to be due to a confusion of names. Brychan had a son Papai (in the later lists Pabiali), and he has very probably been assumed to be Pepiau. 2 P. 119. Another entry on p. 147 substitutes Rhybrawst for Eurbrawst, and states that she was his cousin and first wife. * Book of Llan Dâv, pp. 132, 140. + Iolo MSS., pp. 120, 121. 5 Ibid., p. 125. 6 Ibid., p. 151. 7 Peniarth MS. 178 (sixteenth century); Myo. Arch., P. 424. |
