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THE CELTIC CHURCH

OF

WALES.

EY
J. W. WILLIS BUND.

" I offered to show the Bishop that the legend of Lucius was a
fable in all the parts of it." Bishop Bubnbt's Letters.

LONDON :
D. NUTT, 270, 271, STEAND.
189T,

CONTENTS.

Chapter I. — Characteristics of the Celtic Church
Chapter II. — The Tribal System .
Chapter III. — The Christian Settlement
Chapter IV. — Monasteries
Chapter V. — Bishops
Chapter VI. — The Clergy
Chapter VII. — Churches
Chapter VIII. — Endowments
Chapter IX. — Saints
Chapter X. — The Conflict

PAGE, 1
4996
145
207
265 320363 411 465

'  No foreign foo could quell
Thy soul, till from itself it fell ;
Yes, self-abasement paved the way
To villain bonds and despot sway."
Byron.

PREFACE.

Histories of the Church in the British Isle are so
numerous that some good reason is required for adding
to the number. That reason is furnished in the fact that
nearly all the histories regard the question from the
Latin, none from the Celtic, point of view. The publi
cation of the ancient laws of Ireland and Wales, and
other documents relating to the early church history of
these islands, renders such a survey now possible.
Welsh ecclesiastical history is full of difficulties ; it
may be that such difficulties are capable of explanation
if looked at from the Celtic side. Tt is generally ad
mitted that the ecclesiastical organization of Ireland
and Scotland differed from that of England. It is
possible that that of Wales inclined more to Ireland than
to England, more to the Celt than to the Latin^ and
that such a state of things is the key to the explanation
of the difficulties connected with Wales.
The following pages are an attempt to regard some of
the points of Welsh Church organization from the Celtic
side. They do not pretend to be an exhaustive state
ment of the question, but merely an indication of the

VI PBEPACE.
fact that there is another side to the matter as well as
the one usually accepted ; that there is some evidence to
support a view other than the popular one. Whether the
evidence proves this view correct is a matter of opimon.
Although the whole question is bordering on the sub
ject of politics more than of history, as far as possible the
matter has been dealt with from the historical as opposed
to the political side, and no opinion has been given on
the present position of ecclesiastical matters in Wales.
I have, although a Tory and a Churchman, tried to avoid
any expression of my own political views, and to state
the case as fairly as possible.
In most places, the actual words in Latin or Welsh of
the authorities cited are given, as in a question where
so much controversy exists it is dangerous to trans
late ; one or other, or most likely both, of the two
parties would object to the inaccuracy or unfairness of
the translation. On two points I have specially to ask
for indulgence.
(1.) In my ignorance of Welsh, particularly of medieval
Welsh, I can hardly hope to have escaped the pitfalls
that every one who tries to deal with Welsh matters,
and is not a born Welshman, is exposed to. I have,
however, been greatly helped here, and desire to record
my obligations to Mr. Vincent Evans, the Secretary of
the Cymmrodorion Society.
(2.) In my assurance, I had almost used a stronger
term, in venturing to differ from the common opinion

PEEEACE. Vll
of almost all historians of the church in Wales. ^ All I
can say in excuse is that I do not think that the majority
of those writers had the evidence of the Welsh and Irish
laws before them, and that without the aid of the light
those laws furnish, no one would think of departing from
the usually received view of the subject. With the light
the ancient laws give, all the conclusions on the question
require revision.

^ This book was written and in the printer's hands before I had the
advantage of reading either Canon Bright's essays on the Church in these
islands, or Mr. Haverfield's paper in the English Historical Review for July,
1896.

J. W. W. B.

Wicl- Episcopo, Worcester,
December, 1896.

THE CELTIC CHURCH IN WALES.

CHAPTEE I.
CHARACTERISTICS OE THB CELTIC CHURCH.

The distinctive features of the Celtic Church, that is of
the Christianity professed by the inhabitants of Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland, before the arrival of Augustine in
Kent in 597, have not, in their relation to Wales, received
the attention they deserve. The Irish branch of the
Celtic Church possesses an extensive literature, especially
as to the life and labours of its popularly reputed founder,
Patrick. For over two centuries, from the time of Arch
bishop Ussher to the present day, Irish, British, and
Continental writers have written, and still write, elaborate
treatises on what they term " the early Irish Church ".
Scotland has not been so favoured; although various
writers have described the Celtic Church of lona, and the
great Saint of its monastery; yet the history of that
Church and of that Saint have not been told with the
detail bestowed on the story of the Church of Armagh
and its Saint.
Of recent years Welshmen have not been slow in the
assertion of their past glories, their present importance,
their hostility to the Anglican, or, as they prefer to
call it, and perhaps rightly, " the alien ecclesiastical
establishment" in their country, yet no Welsh writer
has taken the trouble to compile a detailed account of
the Christianity existing in Wales before the subjuga
tion of the country by the Latin Church. Welsh writers

2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.
are content, and it is a disgrace to Welsh historical
scholarship that they are content, to allow the Latin
version of the history of the early Church in Wales to
remain unchallenged and uncontradicted, to admit that
the Celtic Chm-ch in Wales was for all practical purposes
identical with the Latin, that is, with the Christianity
and Church government introduced into England by
Ausfustine and Theodore of Tarsus. Such an admission
is at once inaccurate and misleading. Inaccurate, as the
Christianity of the Celts and that of the Latins was based
on ideas diametrically opposed as to the object, the nature,
and the mission of a Church. Misleading, as tending to
obscure, if not to minimize, the true importance of
the struggle between the two churches which was
carried on in Wales for centuries, and to represent
this struggle as only a contest on some perfectly im
material ritualistic details, such as the ceremonial at
baptism, or the form of tonsure, instead of what it really
was, a contest — a vital contest — between tribal Christianity
as represented by the Celt, and Imperial Christianity as
represented by the Latin. The chief account of this
contest is derived from that Saxon monk who hated, with
true Saxon hate, the Celt and all his works. In Bede's view
it was essential to prove that in this great controversy
the Celt was in the wrong. It was also important to
depreciate the differences between the Latin and the
Celtic Churches, so as if not actually to assert, at least to
prepare the way for asserting, the complete supremacy of
the Latin over the Celtic Church. This policy, originated
by Bede, has been consistently carried out from his time
to the present day. The result has been to give us only
the story of one side, the victorious side, in the great
controversy. H we possessed the story of the other party,
the Celts, we should have a very different account of the

CHARACTERISTICS OE THB CELTIC CHURCH. 6
early British Church. We should find that the real
contest was not on such minor matters as are said by
Bede to have formed the subjects ofthe alleged conference
between Augustine and Dinoth, but that the contest
was upon much greater issues, on subjects still unsettled — ¦
whether the Church is supreme over the State, whether
the Clergy are supreme over the Church. The precise
form the contest took in this particular instance was
the struggle between tribal independence and foreign
supremacy, but the principle at issue was whether the
Chm-ch was supreme over the State.
Whatever was the precise date when Christianity was
introduced among the Celts in Wales, Scotland, or Ireland,
this Christianity had one characteristic and distinguishing
feature. Its development was local, without any external
aid, and without the exercise of, or the pressure from, any
external authority. Instead of having to live under the
paternal care of the Pope, and having its religious rites
regulated in accordance with the ideas which prevailed
from time to time at Rome, certainly each Celtic com
munity, probably each Celtic tribe, did in matters ecclesi
astical what in their own eyes seemed to be right. No
central power or authority was in existence able to dictate
to them belief in a particular dogma, or to compel their
observance of any particular rite or ceremony. In nearly
all other parts of Europe the rule — the iron rule — of Rome
prevailed. It is therefore impossible to say in what way
Christianity would have developed there if left to itself,
as any real local development was impossible. It was
only among the Celts in the British Isles, and to a slight
extent in Brittany, that, from the force of local circum
stances, the Latin Church was unable to prevent the
development of Christianity in accordance with tribal, as
opposed to Imperial ideas. B 2

4 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.
Viewed from this point, the Celtic Churches of Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland, provide most interesting subjects
for study, as fui'iiishing almost unique examples of the
growth of Churches freed from all foreign interference.
The study, however, is not without its difficulties. During
the centuries of her rule, the Latin Church has striven,
and not in vain, to stamp out and to efface every vestige
of an earlier Christianity, and a more ancient Church
than that set up in Britain by Augustine. On the whole,
she has been successful ; yet, in spite of her efforts,
glimpses are still here and there to be gained of the
older order of things, and of the older Christianity. So
far as Ireland is concerned, those traces have been worked
out with great assiduity, and been made the subject of
much learned controversy. They have formed, they still
form, the battle-field for the rival faiths that yet contend
in Ireland for the mastery. Catholics and Protestants
have alike, by their writings, been so anxious to prove
their rivals wrong, that historical accuracy has had in
some degree to bow to controversial expediency. It is,
however, greatly to the credit of Irish writers, both
Catholics and Protestants, that the history of the early
Celtic Church has, in many cases, it may almost be said
in most, been described as it was in fact, not as in the
opinion of controversialists it ought to be. Whatever
may be their respective views and teaching, we are greatly
indebted to the labours of both parties. Catholic as well
as Protestant, for their efforts have brought out into
clear light the actual state of the Irish Celtic Church.
Doubtless, the result is disappointing to ardent patriots
and to enthusiastic controversialists, yet the results clearly
show what were the Celtic rehgious institutions, the
destruction of which was long the aim, and ultimately
the achievement, of the Latin Church.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 5
Although for Scotland less has been done than for Ire
land, yet there has been enough to show that the Celtic
Church spread from Ireland to Scotland, from Scotland
into the North of England ; so that slowly but surely the
Celtic Church had advanced and was advancing among the
heathen Saxons, when the arrival of Augustine in Kent
changed the whole position. The issue was at once shifted
from a fight between Christianity and Paganism to a fight,
a deadly fight, between the Latin and the Celtic Churches.
In the North of England the Latin Church was victorious.
She forced the Celtic missionaries to retire to Scotland or
Ireland, and nominaUy brought England under the rule of
Rome. But in Wales the result was different. Here the
Latin Church was repulsed, if not defeated; here Celtic
Christianity long maintained its position with its peculiar
ideas and exceptional beliefs.
The early history of the Welsh branch of the Celtic
Church has been greatly neglected, it might be said,
ignored. Most modern writers, when speaking of the
early days of Christianity in Wales, are content to say
that the subject is involved in hopeless confusion. This
is true ; but the confusion is worse confounded by the
usual endeavour to bring matters into order by trying to
explain the rules, the customs, and the acts of the Celtic
Church by the light of Latin ideas, and in accordance
with Latin modes of thought. At first it seems almost
hopeless to get any definite or accurate information on
the Welsh branch of the Celtic Church. There is so
little that is really reliable ; there is so much that has to
be rejected or used with extreme caution to avoid falling
into the pitfalls which beset the inquirer on every side.
So much of what purports to be old is really modern, or
comparatively so, that it is often a task of no slight difficulty
to say whether any reliable evidence exists in support of

1 "^

6 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
any statement. The difficulties are further increased by
two causes, (1) the absurd ideas put forth by fervid Celtic
writers, which have been well described in the words of a
learned author, "Les pretentions des Celtisants etaient
poussees jusqu' au ridicule, de f a9on qu'antiquites celtiques
et fables absurdes etaient a peu pres synonymes," ' and
(2) that manj' of the sources of information that have
come down to us have been edited or revised to a greater
or less degree by Latin writers. To such an extent has
this been done as to raise doubts whether we possess any
really reliable information on the early Welsh Church.
In some degree these doubts have been removed by the
publication in recent years of various manuscripts and
documents, which have enabled some of the sources of the
history of the Celtic Church to be studied in a way
that was formerly impossible. The comparative method
of study that was applied with such success by Sir Henry
Maine and others to Jurisprudence can, thanks to these
publications, be applied to some extent to Church History.
By a comparison of the local customs that existed in Wales
with those that existed in Ireland and Scotland, a fiood
of light is thrown on the early Church. Much that was
formerly little better than mere conjecture can now be
shown with some certainty to be fact. An attempt is
made in these pages to apply this method to certain points
of Church history connected with the Welsh Celtic
Church. It win be admitted that to some extent there
was identity in the views of the Irish and Welsh Churches.
There were, it is true^ local variations, but, in the main,
the beliefs and observances were the same. The Irish
records give, with some minuteness, the details of the
practice of the Irish Celtic Church on various matters,
such as, for instance, the mutual relations existing between
' Edwards' Reckerches sur les langues Celtiques, p. iv.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 7
the Church and the tribe. By the aid of these details, it
is possible to fill in a pictm-e of the Celtic Church, and to
note many of its peculiar customs and observances.
Taking such a picture as a starting-point, and using it to
examine Welsh customs and Welsh documents, some out
lines of the ideas prevailing in Wales on Church matters
may be gaiaed. These ideas will be found to correspond
in various details with those prevailing in Ireland; the
result will therefore be to show that though not in name,
yet in fact, similar customs and observances existed among
both Irish and Welsh. It is a fair inference that both
had a common origin ; that both are the development of
the same ideas, modified or affected by their different
local surroundings.
Whether Christianity, as has been aUeged, came from
Ireland to Wales, or, as is much more probable, went from
Wales to Ireland, no one can doubt the close religious
coimection existing between the two countries as early as
the fifth centm-y, and very possibly earlier. It was a
Welsh Saint Cairnech or Crannach who is said to have been
with Patrick at the time of the alleged compilation of the
Senchus Mor. It was upon a Welshman, Ceredig,^ that
Patrick emptied the vials of his wrath in that epistle
which yet survives. It was the fact that an Irish chief
tain had a Welsh wife that led to the foundation of the
great Monastery of Trim. It was a Welshman who,
after Ireland relapsed into Paganisn on the death of
Patrick, came to the rescue of Christianity, and gave to
the Irish Church its form of celebrating Mass. It is
therefore only reasonable to conclude that some connection
will be found between the distinctive characteristics of
the Celtic Churches of Ireland and Wales.
' The idea is here adopted that Coroticus was Ceredig, although the
weight of modern opinion seems to be against it.

O CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
Poi-tunately for us, Ireland possesses a most remarkable
collection of the ancient customs and observances which
prevailed there, it is said, as early as the time of Patrick
and his followers. What is, if possible, still more fortunate,
this collection has come down to us, to ;t very great ex
tent, far more perfect and far less edited or revised than
could have been expected. This collection of customs and
observances forms a body of old Irish law, said to have
been compiled, or, if not actually compiled, the compilation
was begun, before the year 565. This compilation makes
up what is known as the Senchus Mor. It purports to be a
collection of the old heathen laws prevailing in Ireland be
fore "the coming of the faith in the time of Laeghaire,
the son of Niall," with such modifications as the conversion
of Ireland to Christianity rendered necessary, or, rather,
with such modifications as, in the joint opinion of Dubhthach
the Druid and Patrick the Saint, were considered to be
necessary. "There are many things", it says, "that
come into the law of nature that do not come into the
written law. Dubhthach showed these to Patrick. What
did not disagree with the word of God in the written law
and with the consciences of the believers was retained in the
Brehon code by the Church and the Poets." ^ This pas
sage recognises as one of the early results of the conversion
of Ireland the existence there of a Christian Church under
the control of Christian ecclesiastics. In fact, one of the
strongest arguments against the aUeged date of the
Senchus Mor is the mention it contains of the great in
fluence and the great endowments of the Church ; a state
of things to which it is difficult to imagine the Church
could have attained at the aUeged date of its compilation.
To most of us it seems very doubtful if such a state
of things could, in the ordinary course of events, have
' Ancient Lo.ks of Ireland, Rolls Ed., iii, p. 31.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 9
followed so speedily after the conversion of Ireland
from Heathendom. The date of Patrick's death given
by the Annals of Ulster is 493. Assuming this to be
anything like accurate, it is difficult to realise that within
the next half century such an ecclesiastical organization
as that detailed in the Senchus Mor, and more especiaUy
that part of it known as the " Corus Bescna ", or customary
Law, relating to the succession to the headship of the
various religious houses, could have been elaborated in
such detail as there described. This consideration leads
forcibly to the conclusion arrived at by Dr. Todd,' that
while "it is not impossible that such a work (as the
Senchus Mor) may have been begun in the time of St.
Patrick, the Senchus Mor in its present form cannot be of
so remote an age." But stiU, Dr. Todd ascribes to the
latest portion of it a date not later than the ninth or
tenth centuries. The most ancient manuscripts of the
Irish laws we now have, are not considered by competent
authorities to be of a date earlier than the thirteenth
century, but doubtless the rules and principles recorded
in those manuscripts are of a far earlier date.
Prom an historical point of view the importance of the
Irish laws consists in the fact that in all probability they
record the actual state of things that existed at the time
the laws were compiled^ and that they are to a great
extent free from the chief blemishes of mediseval manu
scripts, especially ecclesiastical manuscripts, whether
historical or biographical — editing and revising. In early
times the manuscripts of a religious house were continually
undergoing the process of being re-written or revised by
some monkish scribe, desirous of providing his brethren
with something at once interesting and profitable for
reading at meals. To supply this demand the lives of
1 St. Patricli, 484.

10 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
the Saints were constantly subjected to the process of
being re-written and edited, additions were made, and
omissions supplied to bring the story up to date and
make it what, in the opinion of the transcriber, it ought
to be. These monkish manuscripts have not therefore
the great historical value that might at first sight be
ascribed to them. They reflect far more the ideas of
the time they were written, of what was then the ideal
of what the Saint ought to have been, rather than what
he really was. Their real importance consists in their
giving us the varying ideals of sanctity at different dates,
far more than in the accuracy of the incidents they
record. For instance, at the time some of the exist
ing lives of the Welsh Saints were written, the crusading
spirit was in full force ; so the monkish scribes, like Earl
Beaconsfield in his novels, took their heroes to Jerusalem,
as it was the right thing for the Saint or hero to do, in
the current opinion of the time when the life or the
novel was written, quite irrespective of the fact whether
the Saint ever left his own country.
Legal manuscripts have this great advantage over
others, they did not receive the same treatment from
the hand of the monkish scribe. They did not lend
themselves to adaptation. They did not therefore receive
the care and attention that was given to the lives of the
Saints. No monk in the possession of his senses would
have ever considered a tract on the native law of distress
capable of being idealized into an edifying subject for
reading at meals. Distress is one of the great heads of
law treated of inthe Senchus Mor. Thus, legal tracts would
be passed over and neglected by monkish writers as serving
no useful purpose; still more useless would they be to a
media3val copyist or to a canonist lawyer. There is almost
only one thing in which the successive invaders of Ireland

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 11
were agreed, to despise the Celts, their laws and customs.
Every conqueror has uniformly regarded the Brehon laws
in the way they were described by one of Elizabeth's Irish
law officers,' " as bad in their commencement, bad in their
continuance, and the cause of much bloodshed and other
evils." ^ The lawyers, both English and Canonist, despised
the Brehon laws, and regarded them as a collection of the
customs of savages of no real importance, as quite beneath
their notice. The clergy, both Roman and English, would
alike disregard them, as opposed to the law of Grod, and
containing matters with which it would be as well the
people knew nothing. It is true that both the Irish and
Welsh laws contain traces that some of the existing
manuscripts were transcribed by Latin inonks ; but it seems,
and it is most fortunate for us that it is so, that the
transcribers contented themselves with making but a few
alterations here and there in matters they considered
as of importance to the Church, otherwise they copied
without addition or interpolation. Thus the Brehon laws
have come down to us in a fairly perfect state, far more
perfect than we could have hoped for, considering the
perils through which they have passed. It is impossible
to overrate the importance of these laws in any account
of the Celtic Church. They are, in effect, the chief autho
rities we possess on the Celtic side of the question. They
give us the opinions and ideas of those in authority at the
time the laws were compiled, and the system the laws
describe in full operation. In studying them, Irish
customs and observances are no longer regarded through
the eyes of Latin monks. We see what the Irish saw
' Sir John Davys.
' Davys, Reports. Case of Tanistry, at p. 34 b. " Ceo fuit (the custom of
Tanistry) malueyes en le commencement et malueyes en le continuance oar
fuit le cause de grand effusion de sang et mults auters mischiefes."

12 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHUKCH.
before the importation of Latin ecclesiastics into Ire
land. The Brehon laws therefore give us a means of check-
insr in some deorree the assertions of Latin writers as to
what were the rites and observances of the Celtic Chm-ch,
and the manners and customs of the Irish. They are
not an account of the Celtic Church, written by an
individual friendly to that Church and seeking to make
the best of it. They are the rules as stated by the Celts
themselves, as to the methods by which the Celtic Church
carried on her work among the wild Irish. The most
cursory perusal of the Irish laws at once shows that
various peculiarities existed in Ireland, peculiarities that
a lawyer, trained in the rules of English law, finds it
difficult, if not impossible, to explain. In the same way,
anyone who has the smallest knowledge of ecclesiastical
customs cannot fail to be struck with the peculiarities of
many of the customs mentioned or referred to in the Irish
laws, and if any attempt is made to explain them, by one
who has been trained in the rules of the Latin Church, in
accordance with those rules, he will be met with the
same difficulties, if not impossibilities, as the English
lawyer. The divergence between the two sets of ideas
in ecclesiastical matters is most remarkable. , It is true,
that there are in the Irish laws many things " hard to be
understood ", and some that are quite unintelligible ; yet
there are enough remaining that can clearly be made out,
and which show plainly that the divergence between the
Celtic and Latin Churches was not merely in detail, but in
principle. The difference on such points as the indepen
dence of the Celtic Church from all foreign control, the
position and authority of the abbots and their mode of
appointment, the tribal character of the Church as opposed
to the Imperial character of the Latin, the effect produced

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 13
on it by the law of kinship, the rules which regulate the
relation of the tribe of the land and the tribe of the
Saint, are all fundamental differences ; and it is from the
Irish laws, and from them alone, that the information is
to be obtained that brings out these matters in their true
light, and affords a key to their explanation. Without
the Irish laws it would have been impossible to have had
any real knowledge on these points, or to have formed any
true idea of their operation on the Celtic Church. Unless
the state of things these laws disclose is fully realized, no
accurate idea can be obtained of the peculiarities and
prejudices of the early Celtic Christians — peculiarities
and prejudices that helped to mould the character of the
Celts and their history.
Like Ireland, Wales possesses a collection of ancient
laws, but her laws are very different from the Irish. They
do not pretend to possess the high antiquity of the Irish
laws, although the text of the earliest existing manuscript
of the Welsh ' laws is about the same date as the earliest
extant manuscript of the Irish. But, like the Irish, the
existing Welsh manuscripts probably contain the earliest
reliable records in existence as to the customs and obser
vances of the Welsh Celtic Church. While enthusiastic
Irishmen have claimed that their laws go back to the sixth
century at least as the time they were compiled, the most
fervid Welshman has never yet claimed for the Welsh laws
in their present form a date earlier than the tenth century.
It is true Mr. Seebohm' thinks that some of the Leges
Wallice and the Cyvreithiau Gymru are, if not of an
earlier date, that they may at least record earUer states of
opinion than those mentioned in the Codes. Whatever
may be the real explanation of this, it must be re
membered that the laws of Hywel Dda purport to be a
> The Tribal System in Wales, p. 66.

14 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.
compilation of earlier laws. It is exeeedinglj' difficult to say,
even by the comparative proces.s, what part C)f the Welsh
laws are of an earlier date than the famous Whitland
revision. But the importance of the Welsh laws does not
altogether depend on their antiquity, except on the point
of distinguishing between Pagan and Christian obser
vances. Their importance lies in this, that they show
what, after some centuries of Christianity, were the
manners and customs of a nominaUy Christian people,
and what was the position of the Church among that
people. If the Irish laws show the effect the conversion
of Ireland to Christianity had upon the laws and customs
of the converts, the Welsh laws show us how far and in
what direction four centuries of Christianity had modified
the old heathen ideas of the country. So that to some
extent the one supplements the information obtainable
from the other.
Between the two sets of laws there is, however, one
fundamental difference, and one of extreme importance in
judging on the matters disclosed by each in the direction
already indicated. In the proper sense of the word, the
Irish laws as we have them are not a code of laws at all ;
they are merely a ci:)llection of the opinions of different
lawyers on various points that from time to time arose
for their consideration. They do not profess to say with
authority that this or that should be done or left undone.
They point out, by a series of opinions and illustrations,
that this or that matter is legal or iUegal. A Roman lawyer
would have called them " responsa prudentum ", a digest
of opinions for reference or citation, not a code of laws to
be obeyed. The Welsh laws, however, purport to be a
code in the modem sense of the word, — a body of positive
laws, authoritatively pronounced by the supreme power in
the state, ordering certain things to be done and prohibit-

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 15
ing others from being done. They are thus essentially
different from a statement of opinions by the light of
which, and by analogy with which, it could be determined
what was legal and what illegal. Regarded from this
point of view, it is clear that the Irish laws possess a
higher antiquity than the Welsh. Por historical purposes,
and not only from their greater age, but also from their
nature, the Irish laws are of more importance than the
Welsh. They give a much larger number of examples,
and thus throw far more light on the state of society than a
simple order to do or to abstain from doing certain acts.
But the Welsh laws are more instructive than would be
imagined from their form ; they are not merely a code of
laws, they are also a statement of certain facts ; for in
stance, after stating what the law is, they proceed to state
certain matters that may or may not come within the law.
They thus give us far more information on the habits and
customs of the Welsh than a scientifically drawn code
would have done. Like the Irish laws, the Welsh have
been transcribed by Norman ecclesiastics or Norman
lawyers, or both ; and in their copies some attempts have
been made to revise the Welsh laws in accordance with
their ideas. The result of the revisions has been that in
some cases it is quite impossible to say with anything like
certainty what was the Welsh law on any particular point,
and what have been the subsequent alterations or additions.
Yet, in spite of all this, the Welsh laws, on the whole,
give the most accurate account of early Wales and early
Welsh ideas we now have, and no existing source of in
formation is so valuable or so reliable for the history of
the early Christian institutions of that country. A careful
examination of the Welsh laws, and a comparison with
the Irish, clearly establishes that most of the peculiarities
as to the primitive customs of the Irish Celts recorded in

16 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
the Irish laws are to be traced in the Welsh. It is true
that in the Welsh code we are not expressly told that the
old Pagan customs of Wales were subjected to any such
revision as took place in Ireland under Dubhthach and
Patrick, yet there is a trace of something of the kind.
The Dimetian code ' records that the revision of the
Welsh laws by Hwyel Dda was made in the presence of
the priests, who were consulted before the code was con
firmed. The centuries which separate the dates of the
two sets of laws would account for much of the difference
in the mode of making the revision. The same idea is,
however, carried out in both cases, that the conversion of
the country to Christianity rendered necessary not the
introduction of new laws, but merely the revision of those
in existence. In countries under the rule of the Latin
Church, conversion to Christianity has almost invariably
meant the establishment of new laws, the introduction of
an entirely new system of legal ideas. But the Celtic
conversion only meant the revision of the existing systems ;
the absorption of the old laws, not the substitution of
new ones. The importance of this fact from an historical
stand-point cannot be overrated ; it shows clearly what is
really meant by the conversion of Ireland and Wales to
Christianity. It was "the engrafting Christianity into
the Pagan superstitions, so that the people were won over
to the Christian religion before they understood the exact
difference between the two systems of belief." ^ It is said
by a modern writer' that Eastern Christianity is the
mixture of the Jewish religion with the ideas of the
Persians, and that Western or Latin Christianity is the
mixture of the Jewish religion with the Latin ideas as
^ Ancient Laws of Wales, vol. i, p. 341.
^ Four Masters, i, 131.
^ Froude's Short Studies on Cheat Subjects, 1st series, p. 194.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 17
brought about by Augustine. If this is so, it may be said
with equal truth that Celtic Christianity was the dilution
of Christianity with Paganism, a mixture in which Pagan
ism largely predominated. It is not, as has been said,
that the religion of Wales was Christianity with a veneer
of Paganism, it was reaUy Paganism with a veneer of
Christianity. The results of this method of introducing
Christianity was to accommodate the old tribal system
to the new Christianity, a process which led to the
existence and continuance of various peculiarities in the
Celtic religious system, such as those which arose from
the adaptation of the rules which regulated the relations
between a chief and his tribesmen. It also brought about
the absorption into Christianity of a large amount of
Pagan customs, which long survived the nominal abolition
of Paganism, and some of which seem to have lingered
even to our own times. These causes led to the special
peculiarities of the Celtic Church, and it is necessary, if it
is desired to find out the explanation of the Celtic ecclesi
astical customs and pecuUarities, to bear these causes in
mind; they will be found far safer guides than those
drawn from the Latin Church or Latin customs, as a
solution of these peculiarities.
From the Irish laws can be obtained a series of pictures
of various matters coimected with the Celtic Church;
one object of this book is to show how far these pictures
can be used to explain the peculiarities and difficulties
that exist in the Welsh Celtic Church. The points that
have been selected are not in any way exhaustive, and
are only instances of these peculiarities. They have been
chosen as being characteristic features of the Celtic
Church, and showing its great and essential differences
from the Latin. Considerable variation wiU be found
between the customs of the Irish and Welsh Churches,

18 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
but the variations are what would be expected, having
regard to the difference in date of the records, the
change of locality, and the altered circumstances. It will
be seen that the custom, or peculiarity, has a common
origin in both Ireland and Wales. Speaking broadly,
except in a recourse to Celtic law, it is impossible to find
any really satisfactury explanation of these pecuUarities,
and of the reasons why the Celts diverged from the Latin
ritual and observances. It wiU be found that Celtic
custom is often opposed to modern ideas, both of morality
and propriety ; but this opposition rather tends to support
the view here stated. As nearly all modern religious ideas
have been derived from Latin sources, Latin Christianity
is naturally looked to in order to furnish an explanation
on any matters coimected with religion or ritual. In
many cases the Latin Church is unable to give any satis
factory explanation ; and thus it often happens that the
existence of the custom is denied, as forming the best
and the easiest solution of the difficulty its existence
causes, instead of taking the trouble of ascertaining
whether, when Latin Christianity fails to give a reason,
Celtic Christianity may not furnish the answer. So
persistently is the fact of the existence of the early Celtic
Church ignored, that to suggest to many persons who call
themselves educated that such a Church existed, would
probably bring down the assertion that if it did, nothing
was known of it, or that the period of its existence was
not one of the periods studied at the schools at which
they were brought up, or selected for the examinations
they had been called upon to pass.
In any account of the Celtic Church the first great fact
to be bome in mind is the mode of conversion of the
country to the faith, and the effect that mode had upon
the development of the religion. To understand thisj

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 19
some knowledge of the organization of the Celtic tribes
is necessary, and also some knowledge of the general
history, both of Ireland and Wales. As a matter of
general history the contests between the different branches
of the Irish tribe of Hy Niall are, or appear to be, of
Uttle importance ; as a part of the ecclesiastical history of
Ireland they have a very important bearing in showing
the spread of the Christian religion, and the local reasons
for its extension, or the reverse. So in Wales, the con
quests of Cunedda are of little general interest ; it does not
matter to us what band of robbers from time to time had
the upper hand in South Wales. From a religious point
of view the invasion of Cunedda is of primary importance,
as it probably directly influenced the whole future of the
Welsh Church. Without some knowledge of the tribal
organization, it is impossible to understand much of the
Welsh law and the positions that were occupied by the
Chief and the Clergy. It is not too much to say that the
organization of the Welsh tribe is the key to the true
explanation of the endowments of the Welsh Church, and
it is only by its study, the rules that regulated those
endowments can be understood. Had the Church modified
the tribal organization to any great extent, then any
enquiry into the tribal customs would have been of com
paratively Uttle importance ; but, as the tribe modified the
Church, such enquiry becomes all important in any attempt
to find out the reasons and causes of such modification.
In most European countries, in fact everywhere but in
these islands, the rule of the Latin Church has prevailed,
and the conversion of a country to Christianity has been
followed by the introduction of Latin customs and the
establishment of Latin law. Christianity has been the
stepping-stone for the civil and canon laws, and the
system of government founded on it. Such was the case
c 2

20 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.
among the Celts of Scotland, and, but for local reasons,
such would have been the case among the English. In
Ireland, Christianity never had that effect, nor was it pro
duced in Wales. On the contrary, in those countries the
existing local customs and local laws were not abrogated,
but were revised and modified. This modification was
greater or less in different parts of the country ; it varied
according to local cireuiiistanees, but throughout the
country the result of Christianity was modification not
extirpation. The old Pagan rules, which the Irish called
the law of nature (an expression not to be confounded
with that used either by Roman or by modern jurists),
still remained the law of the land, or rather of the tribe.
It was onlj' on certain points not considered to be of any
great importance by the converted, whatever they might
be by the converters, that the Christian law, the law of
the letter, was introduced and aUowed to supersede the old
Pagan law, the law of nature. "Adhesion to Christianity,"
says Dr. Todd,' " was, in a great measure, only the attach
ment of a clan to its chieftain, and in which usages under
a Christian name were of necessity tolerated." The
direct result of the changes produced by the conversion to
Christianity in tribal life and tribal development, de
pended mainly upon the personal character of the chief.
Had he adopted Christianity from a belief in it, or from a
desire to secure against his foe the most powerful super
natural aid there was to be had ? It is therefore a matter
of great difficulty to say what really was the result of the
preaching of Patrick, as instances of both classes are to be
found. One other important feature the tribal system pro
duced; the converts were formed, or formed themselves
into a spiritual tribe or clan, the organization of which
1 St. Patrick, p. 503.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 21
was based upon the rules which governed the lay tribe or
clan ; and these tribal rules became the foundation of the
institutions of the Church. The strength and importance
of the spiritual tribe probably varied with the superstition
or piety of the lay chief, and with the strength and im
portance of the lay tribe, but whatever was the extent of
the change, whether great or small, it was brought about
by the Church accepting a subordinate position, and
taking as part of her institutions, not her own peculiar
organization, but the organization of the local tribe. In
other coimtries, the Church had insisted on her supremacy
over the State ; here she submitted to become the hand
maid, if not the vassal, of the State, or rather, the tribe.
The result was that the Celtic clergy were tribesmen first,
and churchmen afterwards ; they were not always seeking
to introduce new laws and new ideas of government, as
was the case with the Latin. Many districts and tribes
in Ireland refused to admit Christianity on any terms
whatever; others only did so to obtain the benefit of
the support of what they considered the most powerful
Druid against their foes, and thus to gain an advantage
for their tribe. When a country is converted, not by
individuals but by tribes, each of whom accept the faith on
their own understanding of it and for their own purposes,
it is obviously impossible to look for any uniformity either
in results or in observances. Courses of action, so widely
differing in different places and in such varying circum
stances, must almost of necessity give rise to local peculiari
ties, which can only be explained by reference to the
organization of the tribe where they arose, and the cir
cumstances under which it became Christian.
These circumstances would be sufficient to account for,
and if properly worked out to explain, most of the
peculiarities of the Celtic Church; but there is also another

22 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
cause that probably led to them. As has been said, the
rapid spread of the Christian religion in Ireland when
preached by Patrick was mainly due to two causes, — its
absorption of heathen ideas, and the personal infiuence of
Patrick himself. Palladius, who had preceded Patrick in
preaching Christianity in Ireland, had failed to produce
any real results, so far as it is possible now to see ; the
reason for this failure was that he preached the destruc
tion, not the absorption, of Paganism. Patrick's success
was due to his appreciating the virtue of compromise, and
to aUow, if a belief in God was admitted, the Pagan
usages to be carried on under a Christian name. The
result of this was called Christianity, and no one can
help seeing that its existence depended upon Patrick
himself; once his infiuence was withdrawn, Christianity
would probably cease and Paganism revive. If the
passages already cited from the Senchus Mor as to the
mode in which Christianity was introduced into Ireland
have any meaning whatever, they show clearly that
Patrick went to the outside Umits of concession in adopt
ing Pagan customs. Probably Dubhthach was right, at
least from his own point of view, when he said that the
adoption of Christian customs by a tribe was " the
strengthening of Paganism." '
If the wild Irish, as we find was the case in some in
stances, refused even to accept this very slightly modified
form of Paganism, it was clear that the conversion of Ire
land was more of a name than of a reality. Dr. Todd is
probably right when he says," that " had it been the object
of Patrick's biographer to chronicle the failures instead of
the triumphs of his hero," we should no doubt have had
recorded many instances of the refusal of the Irish tribes
' .indent Lams of Ireland, Rolls ed., i, p. 9.
^ ,5^. Patricli, p. 502.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. .^O
to accept either Patrick or his doctrine. The reason for
the refusal of the Irish tribes to accept Christianity at
once, brings out the strength and the weakness of the
Celtic system. Tirechan, speaking of the chieftains of
Ireland in the middle of the seventh centm-y, says,' that
the chiefs feared that the whole island would be reduced
into a parochia for Patrick. The result of the failure of
Patrick to enforce even nominal conformity during his
life throughout Ireland was, that on his death, Ireland
relapsed into Paganism, and when Christianity again pre
vailed, it approached nearer to Paganism than ever, having
absorbed still more of the customs and usages of the
Pagan tribes.
Another fact to be borne in mind is, that it was from
Wales the missionaries came who re-converted the country ;
and this had its effect on both the Churches, the Irish and
Welsh, in bringing them, both in ideas and habits, more
into conformity with each other. This intercourse with
Ireland caused many a Welsh custom to be introduced
into Ireland, and more to retain their position of im
portance in Wales, with the result that some of the
ancient usages of the Welsh Church are not Christian
but heathen. It is important to bear this in mind, especially
at a time when it is often sought to justify a novelty or a
new departure in ritual or worship, on the ground that
it is in accordance with the usages or customs of the
ancient British Church before she was "corrupted" by
Rome. Those who use this argument do not sufficiently
remember that many of the old customs and usages of
the British Chm-ch were not Christian at all, but Pagan ;
that the usual idea that because a ceremony or observance
is beUeved to have existed in the early Chm-ch, it is
therefore probably of Apostolic origin, is based upon
^ Book of Armagh, foi. 11, a, h.

24 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
ignoring the existence of the alUance with Paganism
through which the Church passed. In all probability,
when the usages of the Irish or Welsh Church differ
materially from those of other Christian Churches, this
arises from the absorption of heathen customs and heathen
observances that seemed to be harmless to Dubhthach and
to Patrick. Apostolic usage was about the last thing
that was considered in either Church.
Most writers either ignore, or pass over as briefly as
possible, this relapse into Paganism that took place in
Ireland after the death of Patrick. Unfortunately we
do not possess any details of the movement, but it
was far more extensive than is usually supposed. In
what mamier the Welsh missionaries were able to win
back Ireland to the Christian faith we are ignorant.
Some writers ' are incUned to say that the missionary
labours of the Irish Church, which were so remarkable
in the fifth and sixth centuries, are due to the fact that on
Ireland becoming re-converted, nothing remained for her
priest to do there, so they sought for work abroad. Plau
sible as is this theory, it cannot be accepted, for the
reason that there was hardly ever a time in her Church
history when Ireland stood in greater need of missionary
work than in those centuries. The open apostacy of the
Irish, and the feeUng that the triumph of the powers
of evil was about to be witnessed in that country, may
have driven some monks abroad from the idea that
there was no longer any work or place for them in
Ireland, and so that they had better labour elsewhere.
Whatever may have been the real cause, the Irish mis
sionaries to France, Italy, and Germany, showed to the
world that, whatever might be its origin, to what a height
under favom-able circumstances Celtic Christianity could
^ Olden Irish Church, p. 73.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 25
rise, and how much it differed in detail from the Latin
Church. It would be beyond the scope of this book to make, as
should be made, an elaborate and exhaustive enquiry as
to which of the Celtic customs were of Pagan and which
of Christian origin. In all probabiUty, there was a great
predominance of Pagan customs. No one seems to have
had the feeUng that any such preponderance was hurtful.
How far the Pagan ideas remained, is illustrated by a
legend of Columba,' which points to the unreality of
the Christian position. In the battle of Cuil-dreimhne,
a battle at which Columba was present, and which he is
said to have caused by stirring up one branch of the
Hy Niall against the other, each side was intent on
securing victory, and resorted to every means — prayers,
charms, incantations, to obtain it. On each side Druids
were engaged, each Druid did his utmost to ensure the
defeat of his rival. By the assistance of Columba his
Druids began to gain the ascendant, and in a short
time their rivals had to confess defeat. To obviate disaster
a compromise was agreed upon ; and Finnian and his Druids
ceased their efforts, admitting the victory of Columba.
This legend brings out the worst side of Celtic Christi
anity. A saint, out of revenge for an insult, an adverse
judgment as to the right of copying a manuscript, not
only stirs up civil war, but takes the Pagan's part in the
strife, supports the Pagans by his prayers, and sanctions
the Pagans in their magical rites. Yet this very un-
saintly conduct, "this spiritual fornication," is said by
the biographer of Columba to have had such an infiuence
on the. god of battles that he granted the victory to the
apostate saint. Nothing could show more forcibly the
nature of Irish Christianity ; it was merely the desire to
^ O'Donnell, Vita S. Columhce, iii, 3.

26 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.
obtain the most powerful supernatural aid ; if the saint
was superior to the Druid they were Christians, if not,
they were Pagans.
It must not be imagined that this mixture of Christi
anity and Paganism which passed as the Celtic Chm-ch
was confined to Ireland. There are traces of a similar
state of things in Wales. The Welsh laws contain much
of what is assuredly not of Christian origin ; there is not,
it is true, the same clear reference to heathen customs
as there is in the Irish ; but much of what appears to be
the ancient law of Wales is not based on ideas that, in the
widest possible interpretation, could be called Christian.
For instance, the whole of the Welsh law of marriage
and divorce could not have been framed by Christians
for Christians. It may be said that it is something, that
among the wild Welsh tribes there was any law of
marriage art aU ; but that in the tenth century, a body
of heathen customs with an occasional allusion to Christi
anity could be actually passed off as the law of a Christian
people, could really have been approved by the Pope as
containing nothing contrary to the law of God, is a
wonderful instance, if it took place, of what the Court of
Rome would aUow to be done in her name as long as her
power was admitted and her authority unquestioned. It is
not usuaUy recognized that these so called Christian Welsh
laws, approved by the Pope, contain passages of such a
nature, that the Record Commissioners, when publishing
them with an EngUsh translation, felt obliged for the
sake of decency to translate these j)assages not into English,
but into Latin. So hard was it to get rid of Celtic
customs that much later, in the time of Anselm, the Arch
bishop, in writing to Muredachus, King of Ireland, says
that in Ireland men exchange their wives for the wives of
others, as they might exchange a horse or any other thing.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 27
Next in importance, even if it is of inferior importance,
to the consideration of the effects the introduction of
Christianity produced, is the consideration of the methods
used in introducing it. Among the few things that are
undisputed in the history of the Celtic Church, is the
mode by which she effected her conquests. That mode
was by means of monasteries and monastic institutions.
Strictly speaking, the term monastery in its modem sense
does not apply to the communities and societies of the
early Celtic Church ; but such societies are always spoken
of as monasteries, and the misuse of the term serves to
recall the fact that it was by associated, not by isolated
efforts, that the Christian religion was spread in Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales. To this system of association the Celt
was wedded. Association was always the primary idea of
the early Celtic teachers. To found a monastery was the
chief object of Celtic missionaries, whether at home or
abroad. To this the lives of Patrick, the Senchus Mor,
the lives of the Welsh Saints, all bear witness. Without
his religious settlement the Celt was lost. For without
some such settlement it was impossible to apply those laws
of kinship that lie at the root of all Celtic organizations,
both civil and ecclesiastical. The great importance that
was attached to monasteries is shewn from the fact of how
large a portion of the Irish tract on Customary Law, the
Corus Bescna, is taken up with provisions and rules on the
succession to the Abbacy. No question or dispute could
arise as in England as to who was the person entitled to
elect — no rival claim of King, or Bishop, or Monks. Every
conceivable contingency was provided for by law. At
first sight it appears to be strange that sucli an elaborate
series of rules should be made to regulate the election of
the obscm-e head of an obscurer house. But it must be
bome in mind that the monastery, however humble,

28 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
represented the religious side of the tribe or elan, the
tribe of the Saint ; that the headship of that monastery
involved the headship of that tribe ; that the extreme
care bestowed on the election of the head was, in fact,
providing for the continuance of the tribal chui-ch.
Viewed in this light, this great care and the elaborate
provisions are fully explained. Nor was such care either
remarkable or misplaceil. The state of Society in early
Celtic times made the maintenance of Christianity im
possible without some such shelter as was supplied by the
monastic settlements. Most of the early churches were
situated either in the fort of the tribe, or were fortified.
What with Pagan hostility to missionaries, with Druidical
anger against those seeking to supplant and deprive them
of their rights and privileges, the life of a, solitary priest
would have been, if possible, in greater danger than was
then the life of a stranger, or, than is now, the life of a
land-agent in Tipperary or Clare. Their only chance in
the struggle for existence was association in some form.
Thus, in the early Celtic Church monastic settlements
were an absolute necessity for its existence, and their
importance when once established became, in the Celtic
Church, an article of faith. Wherever the Celtic Church
went, whether to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany,
Bm-gundy, the first idea of the missionaries who carried
it was the foundation of a monastic settlement. The
idea lingered ; even when the state of things that rendered
monastic settlements and monastic teaching necessities
had passed away, the Celt still remained loyal to the
traditions of the past, and faithful to his monastic
estabUshment. Attempts have been made to explain this
loyalty from the Latin side rather than from the Celtic.
It is often aUeged that the Celtic affection for monasteries
is due to St. Martin of Tours and the zeal of the early

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 29
Benedictines. This is a good instance of how much may
be lost by employing Latin ideas in the solution of Celtic
questions. Neither St. Martin of Tours, nor St. Benedict,
had anything to do with the matter. It was the recurrence
of the same ideas, and the recourse to the same methods
under which the Celt had embraced Christianity, and
under which alone his Christianity could be practised,
that lay at the root of his love for monasteries and kindred
institutions. They had been, at first, a necessity for the
effectual existence of his religion ; therefore, he thought
they were always necessary.
Monastic institutions forming so distinctive a feature
in the Celtic Church both in Wales and Ireland, it
is impossible to give too much attention to them in
studying the organization of that Church. In addition
to these being the mode in which the principle of kinship
was applied to Church organizations, they were, in the
state of society that then existed among Celtic peoples,
an absolute necessity. Without them it would have been
quite impossible for Christianity to have succeeded, or
even to have held its own. Christians were obliged to
Uve together for mutual protection. " The state of
society," says Dr. Todd,' "rendered it practically im
possible to maintain the Christian Ufe except under some
monastic rule. The will of the Chieftain was law. The
clansmen were Uable at any time to be called upon to
serve upon some wild foray in a quarrel or a feud with
which they had personally no concern. The domestic
ties were unknown or little respected ; no man could call
his Ufe, or property, or children, his own. And yet, such
is the inconsistency of human nature, the people clung to
their chieftain and to their clan with a fidelity and
affection which continue to the present day. Hence,
1 St. Patrick, 505.

30 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
the spirit of clanship readily transferred itself to the
monastery. The Abbot was sometimes also chieftain, or
a near relation of the chieftain, and the welfare or pro
gress of the monastic society was identified with the
prosperity of the clan." It was these two ideas, protection
from danger and kinship, that lay at the base of the
Celtic monastic system. At first, it is probable that the
monastery was only a name for the Christian settlement,
where the converts dwelt with their wives and families.
Then came a change ; from living with their famiUes the
Celts passed to the other extreme, and excluded not only
their families but all women. Again there was a change,
and a reaction came against this custom ; discipUne became
lax and laxer, until at last the Celtic monasteries had to
make way for the Norman Abbeys. Before this came to
pass, the Celtic houses had taken a form quite at variance
with the ordinary notion of a monastery. At first the house
sent out bands of monks who acted as missionaries, and
founded monasteries wherever they could induce the local
chieftain to allow them to settle for the purpose. These
new settlements were aU supposed to be coimected with
the original monastery, the mother-house. Such settle
ments became, not merely religious, but also formed the
nucleus of a lay viUage. In this way the country was
gradually settled and developed by the offshoots from the
monasteries. At each settlement, or monastery, there
were a certain number of ecclesiastics and their families.
A danger subsequently arose that the ecclesiastics should
regard these settlements and their belongings as their
private property — ^their hereditary estate. That something
of this kind arose is clear from the history of the See of
St. David's, which at one time seemed likely to become
the private property of the family of Bishop SuUen. To
prevent this assertion of hereditary right it would seem

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 31
that the very strict rules as to the succession of the heads
of the monasteries owe their origin. The original mon
asteries gradually became the centres of the religious
life in their districts, and in time establishments to sup
port and maintain the dignity of their Mother Church.
This system was kept together by only one tie, the
tie of kinship ; this tie united the mother house and
its offshoots. In one sense, the tie of kinship was very
strong. Based on the clannish Celtic feeling which
has always proved so powerful, it yet lacked cohesion
in the want of some strong hand to control the whole
system. There was no central authority, and the tribal
tie did not supply this want. When the heads of the
original monasteries became Bishops, and asserted a
claim to exercise an authority over a defined district, not
as chiefs, nor as relations of the chiefs of the tribe, but
as the representative of an Imperial power, the system
was doomed. The change in the position of the mother
church completely altered the connexion between it and its
offshoots. The idea of kinship was supplanted by ideas
of aUegiance, and it seems probable that the vanity of
the Celtic Abbots in trying to place themselves on an
equaUty with the Anglo-Saxon Bishops, led them to
claim territorial jurisdiction over the local churches in
stead of tribal relationship. This led to such a disruption
of the old order of things as to render any effective opposi
tion against the Latin Church, when the time came to
make it, impossible. The failure of the Celtic system
does not, however, lessen the interest in the study of it
and its monastic institutions. It was almost, if not
quite, the only early church that based its organization
upon kinship, and upon that alone. It would be in
accurate to say that this was an attempt to carry out the
Christian doctrine of brotherly love ; then, as now, kin-

32 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
ship by no means necessarily implied affection, and the
Celtic doctrine of kinship contained much that would be
opposed to natural affection. Still, an attempt to rear
up a Chm-ch on a heathen basis is a subject that presents
very interesting features, and its monastic institutions are
by no means the least interesting. It was most unlikely
that any such basis would prove permanent, but that does
not lessen the interest in it, or the importance of the
questions growing out of it.
In addition to the points arising from kinship, there
were other pecuUarities in the Celtic monastic system
which seem to have originated in the laws relating to the
tenure of land. The grant of land by the lay tribe, or
rather by the chief, as the head of the lay tribe, to the
monastery, carried with it certain temporal rights which,
prior to the grant, had been vested in and exercised by
the chief as the representative of the lay tribe. By
analogy these rights were vested, not in the chief
ecclesiastic, not in the Bishop when the Abbot developed
into this position, but in the head of the tribe who was the
successor in descent of the founder, the original grantee.
Such a system, of necessity, tended to disruption. It
made descent in accordance with certain rules, and there
is some evidence that these rules varied in different dis
tricts, the sole quaUfication for the headship of the
reUgious house, the chieftainship of the tribe of the
Saint. Such might, and did, often belong to a layman,
and even in some rare cases to a woman. If offshoots
from the mother house were settled in a district, and
grants were made to these offshoots, it seems that these
grants would not necessarily enure for the benefit of
the mother house, but might remain the property of the
house to which they had been made, so that the person
who became, by right of succession, the head of the

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 33
daughter house would be the person on whom the duties
connected Avith the grant to the daughter house devolved.
So it foUowed that there was of necessity a growing ten
dency for the daughter houses to become independent, and
hence, to sever the tie of kinship which united all the
houses together.
It is not a matter for wonder, when the working of
these causes is considered, that Celtic monasteries gave
way before the weU organized forces of the Latin monks.
It is, however, a remarkable proof of the strength of
tribal feeling in the Celts that, although the system has
been dead for centuries, yet customs and habits that are
derived from it, and can only be explained by reference
to it, are stUl to be traced in Wales. Thup it is only
by reference to the Celtic monastic system that the real
nature of the dispute between Llandaff and St. David's
over the Teilo churches, or the history of the early
succession of Bishops to the Welsh Sees, can be under
stood and rendered intelligible.
A monastic church in the sense above stated, that is,
a series of monastic institutions dotted over the country,
founded in analogy with the lay tribe and considered as
forming the patrimony of the tribe of the Saint, laboured
under the difficulty that it formed a series of separate and
independent jurisdictions, over which there was no
common superior. The authority of each monastery and
its officials was Umited to the possessions of the house, or
at rhost, to the territory of the tribe. Over these the
officers of the monastery would have jurisdiction, but over
nothing else. The organization of such a church, it is
obvious, must be essentiaUy different from that of a
Church organized on the basis that the whole of the
country was under its control, and that it was parcelled
out into different divisions, over each of which an official D

34 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
had supreme authority, an authority derived from a foreign
Prince, who claimed to possess the right of nominating
these officials as having the supreme right of jurisdic
tion over the country. It is not necessary to consider on
what grounds the claim was based, or whether it was
vaUil or invaUd ; those are matters quite beside the
question ; the two systems rested on two different ideas,
one, that as the monastery alone had jurisdiction over
its territories, so its officials had such jurisdiction as the
monastery gave them ; there they, and no one else, could
interfere. The other, that the only person who had
jurisdiction was the nominee of a foreign Sovereign, who
claimed supreme power over all the country, and delegated
his power in certain defined districts to certain specified
persons. Two systems, so opposed, must of necessity, sooner or
later, come into confiict ; they are illustrated by the great
divergence between the Latin and the Celtic ideas as to
Bishops. Both Latin and Celt recognized the three ecclesi
astical orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Both
Churches had Bishops, but here the similarity ceased. The
Celtic and the Latin Bishops were two very distinct person
ages, both as regards the positions they occupied and the
duties they discharged. The position of a Celtic Bishop is
clearly brought out by the Irish law. He was not like
the Latin Bishop, the spiritual ruler over a defined area.
He was not a personage like a mediseval prelate, who
claimed and asserted his superiority over the proudest
lay Prince. He was not Uke the Bishop of our own day,
the political nominee of the Government for the time
being, whom a subservient chapter pretend the Holy
Spirit has inspired them to select out of all the Anglican
clergy as the fittest for the place. A Celtic Bishop was
merely a monastic official, and, very often, not an official

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH. 35
of the highest rank. As now, it is the fashion to give
suffragan Bishops other prefei-ments to make up their
salaries, so the Celtic Bishops held with their Episcopal
Office some subordinate post in the monastery. When
this fact is grasped, that the number of Bishops depended
on the number of monasteries, not upon Dioceses — and it
is very hard to grasp it, so opposed is it to all our pre
conceived ideas — it no long appears strange that such
early history as we possess of the four modem Welsh
sees is of so fragmentary a character. In the annals of
the great English monasteries of Westminster, of Reading,
of St. Albans, no long accounts are given of the lives
and acts of the persons who filled the office of Sub-Prior,
nor of the piety and hoUness of those who were elected
Sacristans. We may get their names, but we get nothing
more. When it is remembered that the Celtic Bishop
was in the same position as these officers, neither better
nor worse, it is not to be wondered at that the records of
the early Welsh monasteries are not more communicative
as to the Uves of the officers of their houses than are the
English annals. When it is remembered that the Celtic
Bishop was merely a monastic official, often a monastic
pluraUst, the absence of anything besides a record of the
names of the holders of the office is not surprising, in
fact, the surprising part of the matter is that the record
of names exists. It causes a suspicion as to the genuine
ness of the Usts. It is not easy to say why alone of all
the monastic officials, both of those superior and inferior
to himself, the names of the Bishops are the only ones we
have. A list of names is so easily made out and looks so
plausible, that if it was of any importance to have a list,
it may be taken for granted that the Ust would exist.
The historians of the Diocese of St. David's, speaking of
the Bishops of that see, are obliged to confess "we are
D 2

36 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
presented with a Ust of Bishops, but we have nothing
beyond their names, neither is theu- existence proved by
any competent authority." '
To modern ideas the position of a Bishop as merely a
monastic official is so startling, that strong evidence is
required to prove that such was really the case. For
tunately here the evidence is clear. It may be said
with certainty that of all high ecclesiastical officials in
early Celtic times, the Bishops were the most numerous.
They UteraUy swarmed. Patrick himself is said to have
consecrated not less than 300. The monastic establish
ment of St. Mochta, at Louth, had 100 Bishops belongmg
to it. Bishops lived together in groups of seven. The
Donegal martyrology refers to six of such groups. '
Years later, when Ireland had settled down to Christi
anity, St. Bernard made it the subject of one of his
reproaches against the Irish Church, that almost every
Church had its Bishop, " Singulse pene ecclesite singulos
haberent episcopos." '
In Wales, the same state of things prevailed; at the
great synod of Llanddewibrefi, no less than 118 Bishops '
were present, a number which, if they were diocesan
Bishops, would be impossible. At the meeting at Whit
land to revise the Welsh laws, the number of croziers
Bishops and Abbots was seven score,^ a number out of
all proportion with any theory of a diocesan episcopate,
and which has led most writers to say it cannot possibly
be genuine. But if monastic episcopacy is admitted, then
these statements as to Bishops are by no means so incredible.
' Jones and Free-man, p. 257.
- Todd's St. Patrick, p. 32.
' Se V'ita 3Ialachia3, cap. x.
' Ricemarch, " Life of David,'' Cambro-British Saints, 136.
° " Seith ugeiu bagladc yr rog esgyb ac archesgyb ac abadeu." — Ancient
Lams of Wales, i, 621.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 37
On any theory of the Latin Church such a congregation
of Bishops as recorded at either of these gatherings is
absurd; but from a Celtic point of view it was nothing
remarkable or exceptional.
In early Celtic times each church was a monastic estab
Ushment and had among its officials a Bishop, just as it
had a porter or any other officer. From the state of its
organization it was of importance that each settlement,
each institution, should be a complete Church, and for this
to be so, a Bishop was one of its necessary officers.
Such a Bishop had no diocese, no lands, no endowments
for his support. The celebrated criticism on Power's
statue of the Greek Slave, " a naked woman and nothing
more", might weU be applied to him ; he was a naked Bishop
and nothing more. All he had to do was to exercise
episcopal functions in his monastery. His position was
clearly defined, he was subject to the rule of the Abbot,
even if the Abbot was a layman or a woman, as in the case
of the Blessed Bridget. But he was subject to no other
authority than that of his own Abbot. No Archbishop,
even assuming there was such a personage, no Pope, or
other potentate had any jurisdiction over him. He was
independent of any authority outside his own monastery.
If the Bishop occupied what to modern ideas was an
anomalous position, the Celtic clergy were in the same
state. As to their condition the Irish and Welsh laws
are most instructive, and that, not only as to what they
say, but also as to what they leave unsaid. The idea of
the Latin Church that the clergy were superior to the
laity, that they formed a class by themselves vrith exclusive
rights and exceptional privUeges, seems never to have
entered the Celtic mind. The Irish laws expressly state
that the clergy have not any exclusive claim or privilege by
virtue of their position as clergy, but that the relationship

do CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
which subsisted between them and the people was a mutual
relationship. " The people," says the Corus Bescna,
" have a right in the Church, and the Church in the
people " ; ' and when stating that the right of the Church
was to firstlings, first fruits, and tithes, it adds that the
right of the laity was to demand in return for their pay
ments various spiritual functions. " They demand",^ says
the Senchus Mor, " their right from the Chiirch, that is,
baptism and communion, and requiem of the soul, and
offerings are due from every Church to every person after
his proper belief, with the recital of the Word of God to
all who listen to it and keep it." This passage clearly
shews one of the characteristic differences between the
Latin and the Celtic Churches. In the Latin, the priest
had a discretion in the administration of the Sacraments to
anyone ; he was the judge whether or not the applicant
was a fit and proper person to be a recipient. In the Celtic
Church there was no such discretion vested in the priest.
Each member of the tribe was entitled, because he was a
member of the tribe, not on account of holiness, not on
account of conduct, but on account of his being a tribes
man, to the services of the priest of the tribe, and to any
advantages arising from such services, one of which was
to have the Sacraments of the Church administered to
him. Until he lost his privileges as a tribesman he could
demand as a matter of right his privileges from the priest.
At first it may seem to us that such rights are opposed to
aU religious notions. But we have even now in the
AngUcan Church what may be a trace of the same kind
of idea. It has been solemnly decided by the highest
ecclesiastical court of the realm that any person who is
a parishioner of a parish has, because he is a parishioner,
an absolute right to receive the sacrament in his parish
' Ancient Lams of Ireland, iii, 33. - Ibid.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH. 39
church, and can only be refused this right on the two
grounds mentioned in an Act of Parliament.' Exactly
the same state of things prevailed in the Celtic Church,
only, so far as is known, there the right was absolute, and
there were no exceptions. The two also differ in this, —
the Celtic right is a personal one, being member of a
tribe ; the AngUcan is a local one, being the parishioner
of a parish. Among the Celts, the rights of the Church
and the rights of the tribe were strictly mutual rights.
" The people had a right in the Church, and the Church
in the people." So completely were these two rights
dependent, that it was considered to be necessary for a
tribe to have a church attached to it. No real Irish
tribe, it was said, could exist, that is, legally exist, without
the two branches, the tribe of the Saint, and the tribe
of the Land. " It is no tribe mthout three free dignitaries,
the Church, the Land, the Poet." ^ The same idea existed
in Wales; by the Welsh law it is laid down, " There are
three universalities for a country, an Army, a Court, and a
Church." '
Next to the clergy came the Church. As might be
expected among the Celtic churches, many curious and
interesting peculiarities are to be found ; and here again
the monastic settlements are the only safe ground to work
upon. It is a matter of uncertainty when Wales and
Ireland were really divided into parishes, and how it
was done. It may weU be that while the division was
only graduaUy established, it was much later in date than
is usuaUy supposed. Whenever the division took place,
it is probable that it had but little real effect on the
ecclesiastical organization of the country, as the original
^ 1 Edward VI, chap, i, s. 8. See Jenkins v. Cook, Law Eeports,
1 P. D. 80.
= MS. Brit. Mus., Nero, A vii.
^ Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 781.

40 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
division of the country was based on very different con
siderations — on monasteries, not upon parishes. The
country was parcelled out among the different reUgious
estabUshments. The churches were divided into groups,
and, to a particular monastery a particular group of
churches would belong, irrespective of situation. Thus the
TeUo churches belonged to Llandaff, and probably the
Dewi churches to St. David's.
As the Latin Church grew stronger, and the Celtic
weaker, the Latin divisions began to gain ground ; but
the parishes were made after the churches were built,
and this will account in some measure for the extraordinary
difference in size in Welsh parishes. The lands of the
tribe were divided among the different groups of churches.
It foUowed that, in the immediate neighbourhood of the
churches, the parishes would be small, while the out
lying places would have to take care of themselves, and
the churches were probably allowed to help themselves, as
they Uked, to whatever was undivided at the time. In
the Celtic organization everything was done in groups —
groups of settlements, groups of churches, and groups of
Bishops. It is difficult to say how the tribe land was
divided among the groups of tribal churches that belonged
to it, but it is tolerably certain that by some process, prob
ably by a gradual one, certain lands became associated with
particidar churches. The lands so associated, when the
Latin Church came in, and the church was made territorial
rather than personal, were held to belong to that church,
and became her property for the support of her clergy,
and at last these districts came to represent the territory
of each church, and were utilized in forming a parish
which consisted of the territory of each church, either
with or without additions.
In Ireland there is not any mention of parishes before

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 41
the introduction of Latin Christianity. In Wales, certain
passages in the Welsh laws are relied upon for showing
that parishes existed in the tenth century. This matter
wUl be dealt with more fully hereafter ; all that need be
said now is, that the evidence is not strong enough to
bear out so important a conclusion. As it is alleged that
the parish did not exist generally in Wales as an ecclesi
astical division till about the fourteenth century, what,
it may be asked, was the system that prevailed up to that
time ? The answer is obvious ; the remains of the old
religious system before the establishment of Latin monas
teries. This is clear from passages from Pope Nicholas'
Valor. Three several priests are mentioned as serving
in one church, a state of things wholly opposed to the
Latin ecclesiastical system, and which can only be ac
counted for as a survival of the past.' Latin Bishops
holding Welsh sees were too much engaged in securing
their hold upon their dioceses by estabUshing Latin
inonks as garrisons for the Church, to trouble them
selves greatly about "the inferior clergy, the priests
and deacons." As long as there were revenues that could
be appropriated when necessary, or churches that could
be given as provisions for their favourites, the Latin
Bishops of Welsh sees were not particular whether the
work of the Church was carried on by a tribal or by a
parochial clergy. The importance of the change sub
dividing Wales into parishes was, that when it was
accompUshed, all the EngUsh laws and rules as to parishes,
the rights of the incumbent, the powers given by law
to parish officers, applied to Wales. These were rights
and powers that probably the Welsh had never heard of,
and which only indirectly, by the extension of the
parochial system, were appUed to their country. The
1 Pope Nicholas' Valor, Eecord Ed., p. 286.

42 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
effect of the legislation of Heni-y VIII, extending to
Wales the then existing laws that prevailed in England,
and providing that all laws passed for England should
apply to Wales, had, from the division of the country
into parishes, so far as related to Church matters, a
wider and more far-reaching effect than any direct legisla
tion upon the matter.
As has been said, Welsh churches were in groups, and
these groups often consisted of churches of different
ranks. A good deal of information as to the Celtic
Church has been obscui-ed, if not lost sight of, by the
fact that the one term Chm-ch has been used for translat
ing all the different Welsh names, each of which implied
some distinction in the position and character of the
church. The precise distinction between the different
terms for church has long been, to Welsh antiquaries,
one of the great puzzles connected with the Celtic Church,
and the puzzle has been made all the greater by trying,
as has been invariably the case, to find the meaning of
the Celtic terms from Latin customs or usages. It is
hardly necessary to say that the result has been confusion
worse confounded. Better success may be hoped for in
trying, by the aid of the different terms for churches
in the Irish laws, to ascertain the meaning of the
Welsh names. The Irish division was obviously based
on the organization of the tribe of the Saint which followed
the organization of the tribe of the land, and it is most
probable that kinship and tribal ideas also formed the
basis from which the Welsh churches derived their
classification and their names.
Next to the question of church, the thorny question of
their endowment has to be considered. No point in the
history of the Celtic Chm-ch is of greater interest than
that of the way the early Celtic churches were supported.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH. 43
In the AngUcan Church the endowments are the remains
of what the Latin Church secured as her property from
the so-caUed piety of Princes, in making grants and en
forcing the ideas of the Pope and of the Latin Clergy.
But the Celtic Church, being free from Papal rule, and
aU its ideas and principles being based on tribal organi
zation and kinship, the rules and the reason for en
dowment differed widely from those of the Latin Church.
It is true that in a passage in the Senchus Mm- the rights
of the clergy are stated to be " first-fruits, iirstUngs, and
tithes "; but tithes are probably an interpolation ; for if
the Senchus Mor is of anything like the date usually
ascribed to it, tithes as a fixed legal payment to the clergy
were then unknown in Ireland. The Senchus Mor is said
to be a compilation of the sixth century. The first general
introduction of tithes into Ireland appears to have been
made at the Council of Cashel, in 1172. One of the
charges St. Bernard made against the Irish Church was
the irregular way in which tithes were paid, and the Pope
made the same complaint in his celebrated bull. It
seems fairly certain that the compulsory payment of
tithes in Ireland was one of the marks of the subju
gation of the country to the Latin Church, and was
not a Celtic mode of sustaining the clergy. The same
was also the case in Wales ; as far as tithes are concerned,
they are mentioned in Hwyel Dda's laws, not as a payment
to the clergy but to the King, and it was not until a much
later date that the Welsh clergy received any tithes as
a compulsory form of legal payment for their support.
The other heads of ecclesiastical endowment — firstlings
and first-fruits — stand on a very different footing. As
practised in Ireland, they form a class of endowment
pecrdiar to the Celtic Church, as no other Church ever
claimed under these heads such rights as were not only

44 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
put forward, but enforced, by the Irish Celtic clergy. It
was not only a claim to first-fruits and firstlings, as those
terms are now understood, it was also a claim to " every
tenth birth with a lot between every two sevens, with
his lawful share of his family inheritance." ' This claim
was made and enforced against all famiUes of the tribe ;
none escaped, whether members of the family of the chief
or of the serf. It is said by some writers," that one of the
effects of enforcing this right was to fill the Irish monas
teries to overflowing, and so to cause the great outburst
of missionary zeal of the seventh and eighth centuries.
It is most doubtful if the Welsh clergy were ever in the
general receipt of tithes as a source of maintenance as
was the case in England. The Celtic Church in Wales
was originally supported by the produce of the lands
which formed the possessions of the tribe of the Saint.
When the old tribal system was broken up and each
Church became independent, a greater or lesser part of
the tribe lands fell to its share. Even at the present day,
in many parts of Wales, the revenue of the diff'erent
benefices is largely derived, not from tithes, but from
glebe. The Welsh church jjossessed large endowments,
but these endowments consisted far more of rent than of
tithe. This 'wiU be seen from the Liber Landavensis, a
record compiled about 1130, purporting to contain an ac
count of all the gifts to the great monastery of Llandaff.
It recites charter after charter from the earliest time ; there
are plenty of gifts of lands, viUages, rents, all kinds of
rights and privileges, but no tithes. Had the Welsh
Church of that day had any property in tithe, it is impossi
ble to think that in some way or another there would not be
some allusion to them in the record. Its silence is the
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, Rolls Ed., iii, 41.
- Olden Irish Church, 73.

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 45
strongest possible evidence that the Welsh Church of that
day was not a tithe-owner. The Welsh Church became
entitled to rents and other annual payments, but their
origin was totally distinct from the origin of tithes, and
possesses a curious history of its own, a history that is
very characteristic of the pecuUarities of the Celtic
Church. No account, however fragmentary, of the Celtic Church
should fail to notice one of the most characteristic fea
tures, the extraordinary number of its Saints. Ireland
has been caUed the Isle of Saints, and there was probably
a time when it must have been a distinction not to be a
Saint. To use an Irish description, " as many as the
leaves on the trees are the Saints that are therein".
According to the Latin use of the term, the mere fact of
the existence of such a number is an abuse of the word,
and this was the way the BoUandists treated the Irish
Saints when they came to deal with them in the Acta
Sanctorum. Dm-ing the early years of the Welsh Church,
the Welsh were fairly Uberal in the way of calling persons
Saints. The total number of Welsh Saints is between
400 and 500, but after the beginning of the eighth century
the number of Welsh Saints suddenly collapsed, and
from that date the addition to the Ust only numbered
some four. The Irish originally appUed the term Saint
to every Christian, just as we apply the term Reverend to
every clergyman. In Wales, it seems that the term
Saint was restricted to those persons who were members
of the religious tribe, without any regard to holiness
of Ufe. There were also three great famiUes, many of the
members of which were designated as Saints — that of Caw
for North Wales, Brychan for Mid- Wales, and Cunedda for
South Wales. If the tables given by Rees in his Welsh
Saints have any approach to accuracy, most of the Welsh

46 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
Saints traced their descent from one or other of these three
chiefs. The result well illustrates the different views
held by the Celt and Latin on the subject. In Ireland
all Christians were Saints ; in Wales the descendants of
certain families were Saints ; in Rome the nominees of
the Pope, and no other persons, were Saints ; in the Latin
Church the term Saint is a title of honour — in the opinion
of devout Catholics, the highest honour to which a mortal
man could attain, and to show this fact the term was
almost always prefixed to the name of the person. Among
the Celts it was no special distinction to be a Saint; a
man was not thought more of because he was of one family
or stock of descent than if he was of another. So the
term ceased to have any particular honour attached to it,
and, in consequence, was not used. The different views
as to the quaUfication for Saintship in the two churches,
bring out in marked contrast the different ways in which
the two Churches regarded religious matters.
The points above mentioned as illustrating the charac
teristics of the Celtic Church, and shovring clearly her
fundamental divergencies from the Latin, are not in any
way put forward as exhaustive, or even as those of the
highest importance. They have rather been selected as
bringing out most clearly the divergence of the two
Churches, the Latin and the Celt, and the identity between
the two Churches of Wales and Ireland. It is true that
in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, great differences wiU be
found to exist, or to have existed, in the way the religious
idea was worked out. But in spite of these differences
the main principle was, in each case, the same, that the
tribe, tribal life, and tribal custom, formed the basis of
the local Church. As tribal customs varied, and that
they varied greatly in Wales the three codes of Hwyel
Dda's laws clearly show, so the reUgious customs also

CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH. 47
varied. Yet, in spite of the variation, the leading idea
was the same. Variations are what would, under the
circumstances, be naturally expected to be met with. A
central authority that could have prescribed what obser
vances were to prevail might have obviated them, but
the want of this central authority is one of the chief
characteristics of the Celtic Church. The country was
spUt into independent tribes that owned no common
superior ; the Church was split into independent mon
asteries, which owned no common head. The civil chaos
that prevaUed in Ireland and Wales till the Norman
Conquest was exactly reproduced by the ecclesiastical chaos
that prevailed until the triumph of the Latin Church.
-That triumph was mainly brought about by these very
causes : the united Latin Chm-ch found the disunited
Welsh an easy conquest in appearance, although from
the day of the Conquest until now, the disgust of the
Welsh at the loss of their greatest national institution has
never been forgotten or forgiven. Yet the Welsh have
only themselves to thank for the catastrophe. The
Welsh Abbots graduaUy imitated the Saxon Bishops,
and endeavoiu-ed to become what the Saxon Bishops pur
ported to be, great feudal lords, not content with being
tribal prelates. Their attempts at becoming the equals of
the Saxon Bishops led the Welsh Abbots to forget the
different nature of the positions, the opposite ideas that
prevailed as to their rights and duties. In their desire
to be great men they made up to the Latin Bishops, and
prepared the way for their own ruin. For the Welsh
Church really passed into Latin hands, not so much by
conquest, as by the voluntary sm-render of her sons. There
was treachery — there always is in Welsh matters — but the
treachery was not designed. It was ambition, not betrayal,
that caused the ruin of the Welsh Church.

48 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CELTIC CHURCH.
It was probably the best thing that could have happened,
both for the sake of the country and for the sake of the
Church, that the Latin triumphed over the Celtic Church.
StiU it is impossible to avoid regret at seeing a Church
that did so much for these Islands succumb to an aUen
body. But the time had come for a change. The Celtic
Church could no longer continue to do her work, for
the simple reason, her work was done. What was re
quired, both in Ireland and Wales, was not a coUection of
independent tribes, each with an independent Church, but
the strong hand of an Imperial ruler, a central authority
in Chm-ch and State, that knew what was right, and had
the courage to enforce it. In Church matters, Ireland
found this strong hand in the rule of the Pope, and in
consequence became, and has continued to be, the most
loyal and faithful daughter of the Latin communion.
Unfortunately, in matters of State she did not find the
same strong hand, and the result has been, and continues
to be, what it always must when the executive Govern
ment is weak and afraid to do its duty. Anarchy. In
Wales, the results were exactly transposed. She found a
strong central power in the State, a strong hand to enforce
law and order in temporal matters, and she became, and
for years continued to be, the most orderly and peace
ful country ruled over by the British Crown. In ecclesi
astical matters the strong hand of the Pope was replaced
by the feeble hand of the Anglican establishment, a rule
at once corrupt, weak, and possessing no real authority.
So that instead of Wales becoming happy and contented,
instead of her having a strong church — because a national
church ; for want of a competent central authority she
has been aUowed to drift out of the hands of the AngUcan
Bishops untU she has passed under the sway of number
less sects, and into the power of countless schisms.

CHAPTER II.
THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.

As the Tribal System of the Celts not only formed the
basis of aU their organizations, both in Church and State,
but was one of the great causes of the differences between
their Church and the Latin, it is necessary, in order to
understand the story of the conversion of the country to
the Celtic Church, to have a clear idea as to what such
system reaUy was. It must not be thought that the
Celtic tribal system was anjrthing pecuUar to the Celts.
So far as research has yet gone, the main features of that
tribal system were the same among all Aryan peoples.
There was infinite variety in the details of tribal society
arising from local circumstances, but the structure of
the tribe remained the same, whether it dwelt in these
islands, on the continent of Europe, or in the wilds of
Asia. The real peculiarity among the Celts was, that they
dealt with Christianity as if it had been any other tribal
custom. Each tribe had its own reUgious rites, though
some were of a most debased kind ; yet none of these rites
were, or claimed to be, of universal application. On the
contrary, they were the peculiar, the hereditary, property
of each particular tribe. A contest between rival tribes
usuaUy involved the question whether the gods of the
one tribe or the other were most powerful, and the
conquered tribe had to admit the supremacy of, if not to
adopt, the gods of the conquerors.
The Latin missionaries taught not merely the superiority
of the Christian reUgion over the reUgion of the particular

50 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
tribe to which the missionary was preaching, but its
superiority over all other religions whatever. They
claimed, in fact, universal spiritual dominion for their
creed, — a claim which was quite opposed to the then
existing ideas of the Celtic tribes, and probabty went
further than the views of any other reUgious system.
For some cause this doctrine of universal dominion, if it
was preached to, was not accepted by the Celts in these
islands. It may be that from their isolated position their
horizon was Umited, and they failed to grasp the theory
of a \\'oi-ld-wide reUgion. It may be tluit the early
preachers of Christianity to this country, not coming
direct from Rome, not fUled with the idea of the universal
dominion of Rome, the " imperinm sine fine'', considered
that the acce})tance of the fact of Christianity was all
that they required, and rested satisfied with that. In
any event this was, in most cases, all they obtained.
Among the Celts, therefore, Christianity took the place
of the local religion of the converted tribe, whatever that
particidar form of paganism may have been, and did not,
at first, aspire to anything more. The position, therefore,
was on one hand the local reUgion of certain tribes, on
the other what professed to be a new religion, but
which was opposed by another form of the same religion,
which claimed not to be the possession or privilege of
any tribe or people but of all mankind. The position is
exactly stated by Cicero when he urges the claim of one
universal law ; there were not to be different laws in each
country or district, one at one place and one at another,
but his ideal was one law for all nations and countries
wherever they were, and under whatever rule they lived.'
1 " Non erit alia lex Eomfe alia Athenis alia nunc, alia po.sthac sed et
omnes gentes et omui tempore una les et sempiterna et immortalis con-
tiuebit." — Cicero, Fragmen de Repub.

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 51
The two ideas could not fail to come into conflict. In
order to understand the struggle, it is necessary to know
something of the organization of the tribe, so as to realize
how its reUgion was interwoven into its system.
Although the structure of the Celtic tribe in its main
features is the same wherever it is met with, yet there are
infinite varieties of detail, not merely between the Irish
and Welsh, and the Welsh and Scotch tribes, but also
among the different tribes that peopled Ireland and those
which occupied Wales. These diversities in Wales seem
to have been increased, by the fact that from time to
time incursions were made either by Irish, or Scotch, or
other invaders into Wales. In their final form the details
of Welsh tribal life were a mixture from various sources,
and it would be hard to say what parts were really im
ported, and what derived from the old inhabitants of the
country. The Celtic tribes were groups of famiUes united by
blood relationship. To a great extent they were free from
Roman influences, but the Umits of this freedom is a
matter that is open to question. This was more the
case in Ireland than in Wales, for the Welsh laws contain
greater traces of Roman institutions and ideas than the
Irish. Nor is this surprising. The wonder is not that
traces of Rome are to be found in the Welsh laws, but
that the traces are not much more general, having regard
to the Roman occupation of Wales. This is, however,
probably accounted for by the fact that on or about the
date of the close of the Roman occupation of the country
Wales was over-run by a horde of Picts or Northmen,
who swept away what then existed or remained of Roman
institutions, and introduced their own customs and habits.
The conquest of Wales, by Cunedda and his sons, has
probably had more effect in shaping Welsh customs and
E 2

¦)Z THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
ideas than is usuaUy recognized. Between the beginning
of the fifth century and the middle of the sixth, from 400
to 560, a movement took place which has had the most
far-reaching results in Wales. It is usually said that to
Wales the ancient British fled for refuge from the Romans
and the Saxons, and that it is to Wales recom-se must be
had for the knowledge of the native British and their
customs. But while this procedm-e would be in accordance
with the natural order of things it would prove fruitless.
For, in fact, it was not the case that Wales was peopled
with the native British tribes ; Wales became the battle
ground of two rival Celtic races, both of whom were
strangers to the land. Most of the west of Wales was
occupied by the Gwyddel or Irish immigrants, the Cymry
being confined to the east, and forming a line separating
the Gwyddel from the Saxons. "A line drawn from
Conway on the north to Swansea in the south would
separate the two races of the Gwyddyl and the Cymry on
the west and on the east. In North Wales the Cymry
possessed Powys, with the Gwyddyl in Gwynned, and Mona,
or Anglesea. In South Wales the Cymry possessed Gwent
and Morganwg, with the Gwyddyl in Dyf ed — Brecon being
occupied by the mysterious Brychan and his family." '
These three groups, the original inhabitants, the North
men, and the Irish immigrants, had various differences
in their systems and organizations, and probably in their
reUgions. It took a long time to fuse into one whole these
three discordant elements, even if the fusion was ever
brought about. The modem idea of an old Welsh nation
comprising aU the tribes of Wales, each of these three
races would have eagerly repudiated. It is necessary to
bear in mind this divergence in the ideas and habits of
the different races in Wales, as it led to important results.
' Skene, Ancient Books of Wales, vol. i, p. 43,

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 53
If Nennius is to be relied upon, there were settlements of
Scotti or Picts in different parts of Dimetia or South
Wales before the invasion of Cunedda,' and it is one of
the difficulties in Welsh history to determine whether
these settlements were vestiges of the original inhabitants
or deposits from the various hostile invasions of the
country. About 400, or a Uttle later, an invasion of
Wales from the north took place, the Scotti were driven
out of Dyfed, Gower, and Kedgueli, by Cunedda " et a
filiis ejus." In the Welsh genealogies it is usually said
that Cunedda had eight sons. In the Genealogia in Nennius
is added that they came " de parte sinistrali id est de
regione quce vacatur Manau Ghiotodin." " It may well be
that the so-called sons were not actual children, but the
chieftains of the tribes Cunedda, or even the tribesmen,
brought with him and over which he claimed sovereignity.
The result of the invasion was that Cunedda and his sons
estabUshed themselves in South and West Wales, sweeping
aU before them. There never appears to have been any
rally of the then inhabitants from this invasion. So that
it is probable that the traces of tribal customs and ideas
now to be met with in Wales, at least such as are found in
the Dimetian code, are those introduced into the country
by Cunedda and his sons, rather than those that were then
already in existence, that is, that they are more Pictish
than Cjmaric. What the latter were it is hard to say, as
it is very doubtful if anything of an earlier date than
Cunedda's invasion has survived to us. The importance
of this consideration will be felt when considering the
descriptions of the Latin writers as to the habits and
^ " Eilii autem Lietham obtinuerunt in regione Dimetorum et in aliis
regionibus id est Guir et Cetgueli donee expulsi sunt a Cuneda et a filiis
ejus ab omnibus Brittanicis regionibus." — Nennius, Ilist. Brit., § 14.
" Nennius' Historia Britonum, § 62.

54 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
customs of the early inhabitants of Wales. It is obvious
that they cannot be taken as an accurate description of
the habits and customs of the inhabitants of Wales after
Cunedda's invasion. It is doubtful if the Romans ever
came into such close contact with the Picts, except in the
way of fighting, as to be able to give any reliable account
of their customs or habits, and it is to the Picts, not to
the Cymry, we have to look for such habits and customs
as existed among the peoples of South and West Wales.
So that the descriptions of Cajsar and Tacitus should not
be pressed too far, and accepted as accounts of what
the customs of the peoples we have to deal with were.
There is the further question as to the extent of Ninian's
labours among the Picts, how far he converted them, and
how far they relapsed into Paganism; and also there
may be a question whether Cunedda was a Pagan or
Christian; and even if it is assumed that he was a
Christian, and that Christianity had an existence in Wales
before his invasion, whether the result of his conquests
was not either to efface all traces of Christianity, or, at
least, of the original Christianity of the Welsh, and bring
in that of the Picts ? It must also be remembered that,
to a great extent, Brychan and Cunedda represented
different races, different tribes, different ideas, different
religious rites, and different sets of Saints.
The key to a good deal of early Welsh history lies in
these divisions of the country, and their great importance is
to be seen in the fact that when the Welsh laws began to
pass from the point of oral tradition to that of writing,
the country was so divided into groups of tribes that three
separate codes were necessary. The variations in these
codes are often regarded as not of any great importance ;
but this is not so, for they represent and perpetuate the
fact that, although in their main features their codes

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 65
were very similar, yet in details the customs of the Welsh
tribes differed widely, and these differences were most
probably the result of the diverse origin of the peoples
who were subject to the Venedotian, Dimetian, and
Gwentian codes, and it is from these sources we have to
find out who and what the different peoples were. Unless
the effects due to the invasion of Cunedda, the infiuence
of Brychan, and the influence of Irish settlers, are clearly
recognized and kept in mind, it is impossible to properly
understand either the tribal history or the early ecclesi
astical history of Wales. To each of these causes,
variations both in the tribal and ecclesiastical organiza
tion are to be attributed. The ecclesiastical question will
be subsequently dealt with ; the effect on the tribal
system of these different elements has now to be con
sidered. Its great importance can hardly be overestimated.
The basis of the Welsh, and of most, if not all, Celtic
tribal systems was blood relationship. In Wales the tie
of blood relationship seems to have been more relied on
than elsewhere. The communities were composed of
actual or reputed relations, all related, in a very near
degree, by a real descent from a common ancestor, that is,
the heads of the different households which made up the
community, whether tribe, village, or family, were all
closely related to each other. If a man did not come
within the prescribed limit of relationship he did not
belong to the community, but was a stranger ; and, as a
stranger, he was prima facie an enemy, and therefore a
person to be knocked on the head at the earliest possible
opportunity. " The stranger", says SirH. Maine, "was an
enemy to be slain, or spoiled, or hated, as much as the
wild beasts upon which the tribe made war, as belonging
indeed to the craftiest and cruellest order of wild animals.

56 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
It would scarcely be too strong an assertion that the dogs
which foUowed the camp had more in common with it
than the tribesman of an alien and unrelated tribe." '
Bearing this in mind, some faint idea can be formed of
the condition of Wales divided up into the territories
of fierce and hostile tribes and communities. Each re
tained its own ideas, customs, and pecuUarities ; each
regarded its neighbour's belongings with contempt, or
rather, with hatred ; each was ready to fight its neighbour
at any moment and on the smallest provocation. Relation
ship was, in these early societies, everything. One of
the marks or tests of relationship was community of
reUgion, the right to participate in the same religious
ceremonies, to commemorate the same ancestor. So one
effect that the tribal system had on Christianity was that
each tribe that adopted it endeavoured to retain it for its
own exclusive use. To admit its neighbour to participate
in its reUgious rites was to admit the existence of some
relationship or tie between them. Such an admission
was a mark of subjection to which the pride of race, the
honour of the ancestor, or the rivalry of adjoining com
munities, would never submit. If a rival tribesman became
a Christian, he did not, in Celtic opinion, become a brother,
or possessed of the same religion. To prevent his doing
so, the Christianity of the one tribe was purposely made
to differ from that of another. It would have been an
outrage to the ancestors of a tribe to admit that persons
other than their descendants could share in their worship ;
and if the same form of Christianity had been adopted
by each tribe, they wordd be doing precisely what in their
belief was most objectionable. Therefore, if for no other
reason, diversities in reUgious rites and customs arose, their
object being to enable the tribes to have the advantages of
1 Early Institutions, p. G5.

THB TRIBAL SYSTEM. 57
the wondrous miraculous power possessed, or supposed to be
possessed, by the Saint or missionary, without having or
practising the same religion which was held and practised
by their hated neighbours. What extent of difference
was necessary to enable it to be said that one Christian
tribe did not practise the same religious rites as another,
is very hard to say ; but it may be taken that the variations
were more in ritual than in creed, in ceremony than in
faith. We know so Uttle of the early Celtic Christians,
that it is difficult to say anything certain as to their reUgious
observances, but there are indications that between the
tribes when converted there was considerable rivalry.
How far this acted on their reUgion is not clear, but it
must have had some bearing on the matter; and it may
weU be that the differences and rivalries were reaUy the
results, not of variations in the Christianity they received,
but in the amount of the old Paganism they retained.
This would tend to create very great distinctions, and form
a ground for saying that different tribes did not possess
the same reUgion, nor practise the same rites.
In all of the Celtic tribes the tie of kinship, or blood
relationship, was the one which held them together. In
the Welsh, as far as we know, this tie was closer than in
the Irish ; that is, in the Welsh the kinship was more
a matter of fact, in the Irish more a matter of faith. In
the Welsh, all the heads of the households were, at first,
actual blood relations ; in the Irish, they were relations in
theory, but the precise degree had become more difficult
to state. This is but saying, in other words, that the
period at which our records of the Welsh tribes begin,
disclose an earlier phase in point of development, not
necessarily in point of time, than the Irish. For,
gradually, in the Welsh, as well as in the Irish, the re
lationship became a matter of tribal faith embodied in

58 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
the legends that were preserved as the records of the tribe.
But, whether in fact or in theory, whether real or tradi
tional, this idea of blood relationship, — of all tribesmen
being descended from a common ancestor, and so actually
related, — formed the basis upon which Celtic society
rested, and the only system on which it was organized.
The connection of the tribe with the land came at a later
date ; at first the tribe was nomadic, " a band of brothers "
in a literal sense, wandering about the country where they
pleased, and as they pleased. It is most probable that
many of the so-called incursions that are recorded in early
Welsh history are merely the movements of the tribes in
their wanderings, before they definitely settled do-wn within
fixed limits and on a defined tract of country that
ultimately became regarded as their own territory.
Both in Wales and in Ireland the earUest records take us
back to a time when, at least, some of the tribes, probably
the most important, had certainly become fixed dwellers
on the territory on which they were settled, and to
which there was some vague idea of boundaries, and
which was regarded as the property of the tribe. Soon
after this stage was reached, an entirely new set of
ideas arose. Up tiU this time the tie that had held the
tribe together was merely blood relationship, and, as a
consequence of it, community of reUgious rites ; a relation
had a right to the aid and help of relations to protect
himself against outside enemies, and aU the tribesmen
would protect the memory of their ancestor, as a matter
of duty and conscience. These rights were, however,
merely personal, simply protective rights. But when the
tribe became the owners of territory a great change took
place ; a definite area of land became the property of the
tribe, how was it to be dealt with ? The answer was,
that as it belonged to the tribe and to the tribe alone, only

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 59
the tribesmen would be allowed to use it, to turn out their
cattle on it ; and later each household obtained a right to
take from it a crop for its ovsm use, when this crop had
been taken, the land cropped reverted to the common
stock. It by no means followed that the same part of the
territory was cultivated each year. For the present the
great point was, that only tribesmen, that is, relations,
could have anything to do with the land. At first, the tie
that bound the tribe together was the duty of blood
relations to defend each other, and the memory of the
common ancestor. Next, the tie became more of a defensive
nature, — the duty of those who were entrusted with a tract
of land to unite for common defence. So it came to pass
that upon blood relationship other links were forged
— mutual protection and mutual rights. This new idea
of mutual protection very soon entered most forcibly into
tribal development, and almost eclipsed the original
idea of the tie of blood relationship being the basis of
tribal society. The tribe was to a great extent re-organised
upon these new ideas, which played the most important
part in the later tribal development. But still the old idea
of blood relationship was never entirely effaced ; it always,
in name, continued to form the chief feature, but no
longer the exclusive feature, of the tribal organization.
To be entitled to tribal rights, that is, the rights arising
from and coimected with the tribal land, a man must
be a tribesman : he could be a tribesman if he was, in
fact or in theory, descended from the common ancestor,
in other words, a blood relation by birth, or one who
had become a blood relation by some recognized means,
and so a member of the tribe. These means were
usually, if not a reUgious ceremony, at least based on
religious ideas.
It is at this point that the great difficulties of the

60

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.

subject begin. Are the artificial modes of becoming a
tribesman, of recognition as a descendant from the com
mon ancestor, part of the original Celtic ideas, or do
they arise from one or other of the two great influences
that have so modified and transformed all the early
ideas of tribal society ? Is the artificial extension of
the tribe only a trace of the Roman idea of the family
as developed by adoption, or is it the Christian idea
developed by the religious notion of the spiritual relation
ship of all Christians ? Is the tribal idea of development
merely an adaptation of the Roman theory of adoption, or
the Christian idea of baptism ? It is very difficult to give
any satisfactory answer to these questions; probably the
Christian notion is moulded on the Roman idea of family,
for no one who has ever read any old Roman lawyer, such
as Gaius and his account of the ceremony of adoption,
but may be trusted to name the sources from which a
large part of the Christian, or rather the Pauline, doctrine
of baptism, and its effects is taken. But whether the
notion of incorporating a stranger into a tribe or family is
an original notion among the Celts, or is due to the in
fluence of Rome, or of Christianity, or both, is a much
wider and more difficult question. For the present pur
pose, and one on which here no definite conclusions need
be expressed, the great importance of the matter is the
recognition of the fact that a process, a religious process,
existed before the conversion of the Celts to Christianity,
whereby persons not blood relations could be placed in the
position of blood relations, and be admitted to be members
of the tribe. It was this idea which the Christian mission
aries utiUzed so much in building up the Church under
the name of the "Tribe of the Saint". The more the
subject is considered the closer the resemblance wiU be
found between the different ways in which strangers were

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 61
aUowed to become members of the tribe of the land, and
of the tribe of the saint.
It is a matter of no Uttle difficulty to trace the steps in
the development of this idea of artificial expansion of the
tribe. As Sir Henry Maine points out, the Celtic tribe
originaUy was not a tribe in our sense of the term in its
extended meaning, nor the modern family, or group or
groups of descendants from a living ancestor, but the
" Sept ". It is a body of kinsmen whose progenitor is no
longer Uving, but whose descent from him is a reality,
and neither a myth nor a fiction.' This, he states, is
nearly identical with the Indian " joint undivided family "
of the present day, who are joint in food, joint in worship,
and joint in estate, who formed that assemblage of
persons who would have joined in the sacrifice at the
funeral of some common ancestor, if he had died in their
Ufetime. If this is, as it seems to be, a correct definition
of the Celtic tribe, the story of its development becomes
a history of the way by which persons who were not
descendants of the common ancestor could qualify them
selves to become such. Probably the process was a
gradual one. It is clear that in comparatively early times
there was some form of ceremony by which the child of
a woman of the tribe by a man, not a tribesman, could be
admitted into the tribe; that is, that the tie of agnatic
relationship cotdd be relaxed for the benefit of the tribe.
When once this relaxation was allowed, it was only a
matter of time to organize the admission of other strangers.
Then came Christianity, teaching the doctrine that aU men
were capable of admission into the tribe of the saint, as aU,
being the chUdren of God, were agnatic relations. So, as
a religious ceremony (baptism) being all that was required
for the one, a religious ceremony would suffice for the other.
' Ba/rly Institutions, p. 105.

62 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
The effect of Christianity was, therefore, to enlarge the
ideas of the Celt as to the lay tribe, by the mode it applied
to the admission of members to the tribe of the saint.
It is therefore necessary to consider what were the
means and what the conditions under which persons
who were not tribesmen could become such. The first
instance in which it appears that the rules were relaxed
was in the interest of the tribe itself, in the case of the
children of the women of the tribe. A woman does not
seem to have been generally capable of being admitted to
tribal rights herself, yet she could transmit to her children
the capability of becoming tribesmen. As the rule of
agnatic relationship prevailed, the children of a woman
by a man who was not a tribesman were strangers, and
no relations to the tribe. It seems, at first sight, that this
is obviously a fragment of Roman law incorporated into
the Welsh codes, but on further consideration it is by no
means so clear that it is so. The position of women
among the Celts was rather that of chattels than of per
sons possessing rights. It would be a loss to the tribe —
to its fighting power — if the sons of the women of the tribe
were not made in some way capable of being admitted to
it, while it would be a gain to the hostile tribe to which
the father belonged if that tribe could claim them. So,
probably, to protect themselves, and to weaken their
enemies, the rule was adopted that the children of a
woman of the tribe could be admitted to it ; and although
it resembles the old Roman rule, it is far from clear it is
derived from it. More likely it was based on the principle
of self-preservation. The rule is thus stated in the
Venedotian code.' " According to the men of Gwynedd, a
woman is not to have tribal rights [ny dyly Givreic trev
tat), for two rights are not to centre in the same person,
^ Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 175.

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 63
those are the tribal rights of the husband and her own ;
and since she is not to have tribal rights she is not to be
given in marriage except where her sons can obtain tribal
rights, and if she be given, her sons are to have tribal
rights through the mother." Here the rule and the reason
for the rule is stated. The same person is not to have two
sets of religious obligations, those to the ancestor of the
father and of the mother. If the woman transmitted tribal
rights this would be the case. She has, therefore, no
right of transmission as long as she keeps in the tribe,
but once she goes outside the tribe, then, that the tribe
may not be a sufferer and lose so many able-bodied men,
she can with certain exceptions give her sons the right
to become members of the family to which she belongs.
The exceptions are curious and bear out the view here
stated. The first is when she is allowed to marry a
stranger (alltud), here the sons would not belong to the
tribe, but their rights are reserved ; as it was probably
regarded as a breach of tribal duty, the tribesmen allowing
the women to marry a stranger. But this dereliction
from duty was not to prejudice the tribe, or, it may be
that the woman was not a free agent, and that the tribe
disposed of her as they would of any other chattel for
their own advantage ; they could not to gain a private
advantage, do away with or affect the rights of the tribe.
The second case was where the woman was violated by a
stranger, and had a son in consequence ; the son was not
to lose his right to be admitted to his mother's tribe.
Here the same rule would prevail as in the first case, or
perhaps the further rule, that as she was not, or rather
the tribe were not, consenting parties, there was no change
in the woman's position or rights, or in those of the tribe.
The third case was where a woman was given as a hostage,
and while she was a hostage she had a son by a stranger.

64 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
At the first glance this again looks like a fragment of the
Roman law of postUminiuin, but here again it was probably
not so ; the woman was only given for a specific purpose
by the tribe, and probably for their advantage; they
could not, by this, prejudice or affect the rights of the
tribe, so here her childi-en were aUowed to come into the
mother's tribe if they pleased. If the woman voluntarily
gave herself up to a stranger, she could transmit no rights
to her children.' In the former case it was by an involun
tary act of the woman, her children were not born into tribal
rights, so the law protected those rights ; but when the
woman of her own free wiU abandoned her tribe and went
to a stranger she became as if she was dead, and had
severed for ever aU her rights with the tribe in which she
was born. It must be always borne in mind, in considering
this matter, what the rights the mother transmitted were ;
they were not the right of inheritance, not the right to
become the owner of any specific property, but merely the
right to be admitted into the tribe, to become a member
of a certain community. It is true that the fact of
membership conferred certain consequential rights ; it is
equally true that membership involved certain duties, and
might or might not be an advantage. It will be also
noticed that the right to be admitted to the tribe did not
turn at aU on the question of legitimacy — it belonged
equaUy to a legitimate or an iUegitimate son; and this
goes to show that the custom is probably earlier than the
contact either with Roman law or with the Latin Church.
The question of legitimacy or iUegitimacy of birth, in or
out of wedlock, so far as the right to be admitted a
tribesman went, seems never to have troubled the early
Celts. All they looked at was the fact of paternity, not
the circumstances of it. Such a state of things goes to
^ Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 177.

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 65
prove that it existed certainly before Christian teaching,
probably before the influence of Roman Law.
This seems to have been the first step in the relaxation
of the tribal rule aUowing certain of the children of a
woman of the tribe to have the same right of admission
to the tribe as if their father had been a tribesman.
The next extension was made in analogy to this, and is
one of the instances of that remarkable system which
gained such a hold on the minds of the Celts, and especially
of the Irish Celts — fosterage.
In the Senchus Mor it is stated that therein were
promulgated the four laws, the first of which is said to be
the law of fosterage,' and which law forms the subject of
one of the tracts of Irish law.^ In Wales, fosterage was
used as a means by which persons who were strangers to a
tribe could be qualified to be admitted to it. " If," says
the Dimetian Code,' " a serf {taeog) takes the son of a
freeman (breyr) to foster with the King's permission, such
a foster-son is to participate in the inheritance of the serf,
Uke one of his own sons." Thus it appears that fosterage,
so far as succession to property went, placed the fostered
chUd in the same position as the natural child, in fact,
the family of the serf included all children, whether natural
or fostered. This is further shown from a passage in the
Cyvreithiau Gymru,* which, although of much later date,
yet goes to prove how deeply the tie of fosterage had
become engrained in the Welsh mind. " Is there," it
is asked, "any person who is entitled to come into
possession of land without rights transmitted by the
father {daduys), or by the mother {mamuys), and without
investiture by a lord ? There is. If a serf takes the son
of a freeman {breyr) to foster with the consent of his lord,
''¦ Ancient Lams of Irela/nd, i, 41. ^ Ibid., ii, 147.
' Ibid., i, 543, * Andent Lams of Wales, ii, 303.
P

66 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
that son shall be a co-participator in the inheritance of
the serf like one of his o\'vn sons " ; thus recognizing
that the tie of fosterage placed the fostered child in the
same jjosition as birth, no distinction being drawn lietween
the fostered child and the natural child. On a serf
becoming emancipated, he and his children would
become eligible for admission into the tribe, and there
appears to have been no distinction drawn between
children born and children fostered ; so that by means
of f(jsterage, in rather a. roundabout way, the child of a
stranger b(>eaine eligible to become a member of a tribe.
Although fosterage does not seem to have taken so
great a hold on the Welsh as it did on the Irish, yet in
one respect the tie created by fosterage seems ti i have been
in Wales more lasting than it was in Ireland. Among
the Irish the relation usuaUy terminated when the foster
child was of an age to be admitted as a tribesman ; with
the Welsh the relationship seems to have endured for life.
The Welsh law gave the foster son a right of succession
to his foster father, but the foster father could not
succeed to the son as he was a stranger, and the foster-son
a tribesman's child, so the property went to the tribesman
or to the tribe. The importance of fosterage as a means
of enlarging the tribe lies chiefly in the fact that it gave
prominence to a series of artificial relationships, which
rose up with Christianity, and which had a remarkable
effect in the development of the Church. In aU proba-
bUity, fosterage formed the origin of sponsorship, which
was an ecclesiastical adoption of the system, and the tie
that was created between the godfather and godchild
closely resembled, in many respects, the tie between the
foster parent and his foster child. Sir Henry Maine
points out that when persons "are placed in a relation
which they are taught to consider especially sacred, not

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 67
only their words and ideas, but their feelings, emotions,
and prejudices, mould themselves on the pattern of those
which naturaUy result from consanguinity." ' Thus, as
fosterage developed on the lines of natural parentage,
so sponsorhood developed on the lines of fosterage or
adoption. Probably the tie that bound the godparents
to their godchildren in the fierce struggle between Christi
anity and Paganism, did much to keep together the tribe
of the Saint, and was used for extending the Saint's tribe,
just as fosterage was used for extending the lay tribe.
A stiU further development of the system of fosterage
was found in that remarkable relation between teacher
and pupil known as Uterary fosterage. As the ordinary
fosterage created the relationship of father and son, so
did literary fosterage, among both the Welsh and Irish,
create the relation of teacher and pupil. The teacher did
not found a school, in our sense of the term, but he
became the father of a family, and the relations that
bound the pupils to the teacher very closely resembled
the ties of the natural relationship of parent and child.
This fact had a most important bearing on the Welsh
monastic movement ; the idea of literary fosterage was the
idea which bound the members of the monastery together,
and was probably one of the causes that rendered the
organization of the Celtic monasteries in Wales so different
from that of the Latins. Probably nothing tended more
than this to animate and keep alive that tribal feeling
which has left so deep a mark on the Celtic Church.
Another way of extending the tribe that should be
noticed appears to be later in date than either of those
already mentioned ; for want of a better name it may be
called " prescription", as it was based on the lapse of time
giving the title to acquire tribal rights. The first mode
1 Early Institutions, 289. F 2

68 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
was by residence in Wales for a fixed period. A stranger
who dwelt in Wales attained to the privileges and rights
of a born Welshman at the end of the ninth generation.'
That is, after nine generations of his people had resided in
Wales a stranger was qualified to be admitted to the tribe.
But if for four generations the stranger had married a pure
bred Welsh woman, and his descendants had lived in Wales,
then the time was shortened to four generations.' " The
descent and privileges of a born Welshman is to be
obtained by the fourth descendant of a stranger's issue
by legitimate marriages with born Welsh women." Both
these provisions are only in the later Welsh laws, and are
certainly the result of the relaxation of the original tribal
theory and mark the extent of the change. It had become
an accepted fact that strangers could be admitted, and
a new restriction became necessary on which this idea
is based, the principle of guarding against traitors being
admitted to the tribe. A man was not to be considered
worthy of trust imtil for nine generations he and his
father had proved their fideUty to the Welsh tribe. But
if a man was descended from the tribe on the mother's
side for four consecutive generations, he had become so
nearly a tribesman that he might then be trusted to be
admitted into it at an earlier date.
These were the main modes in which a person not a
descendant of the common ancestor might become
entitled to be treated as a theoretical descendant. It wUl
be noticed that with the one exception of the length of
residence, that either in fact, by aUowing succession
through females, or in theory, by coimting artificial re
lationship as real relationship, the old tribal idea, that
there must be blood relationship to be a member of the
tribe, is retained. Everything was based on that, and
I Ancient Lams of Wales, ii, 505, ^ Ibid., ii, 505,

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 69
followed from it. If a man was a descendant, he was
competent to apply for admission into the tribe, but
uidess he was, the gate was fastened against him, and
could not possibly be opened. In her deaUngs with the
Celts, the Church took up the same position. The mis
sionary and his companions formed a family descended from
a common ancestor, the Deity, to whom only members
of the family could sacrifice, only those who believed
in Him were qualified to apply for admission into the
tribe, and the belief was cultivated by sponsorship. As
in the lay tribe, the rigid test of early days was probably
relaxed and admission made easier, but always the
qualification for admission, blood relationship as proved
by descent, was retained.
When a person was duly qualified to be admitted
to the tribe, the next thing, before he become entitled
to the fuU rights of a tribesman — to be the head of a
household, to receive a share in the tribal land, to be kept
by the chief, if necessary — was to gain admission into the
tribe, and this ceremony seems to have been performed
by an officer known as the " chief of the kindred." The
first step on the boy attaining fourteen was for his mother
to prove whose son he was. This was done when the
tribe became Christian in church ; the mother swearing on
the tribal reUcs in the tribal church that a particular tribes
man was the father of her son.' Before the conversion of
the tribe to Christianity this ceremony seems to have been
done before the priest, and to have been more or less a
kind of incantation. This may be inferred from the words
of the oath. A woman, when pregnant, who desired to
swear her child to a particular man, had to take an oath
before the priest retaining some traces of the old heathen
ceremony. " May I be deUvered of a snake by this preg-
' Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 207.

70 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
nancy, if any father has begotten it on a mother than that
man " (naming him) .' Having established the paternity,
the parties went before the chief of the kindred, and the
other heads of households, and the chief of the kindred
" takes the hands of the chUd between his own hands and
gives him a kiss, for a kiss is a sign of relationship, and
then places the right hand of the child in the hand of the
oldest of the other men, who is also to give him a kiss, and
so from hand to hand until the last man." ' Upon this
ceremony being performed the person to be admitted be
came a fuU tribesman, entitled to all the rights, and Uable
to all the obligations of the position. The principal obliga
tions were, liability to miUtary service when caUed upon by
the chief, and liability to contribute to the support of the
chief. On the tribesman's death, his property, having
become tribal property, passed to the chief, not to his
relations. The liability to miUtary service did not mean
any definite service, but was a liability to serve whenever
the chief required it, whether for purpose of offence or
defence. The liability as to the support of the chief will
be discussed later. The right to succession by the chief
shows how complete was the severance of all outside
relationship. In return for these obligations, the new
tribesman had certain rights ; the most important of which
were, the right to have a house in the tribal settlement
(the privUege of raith), the right to an allotment of tribal
land (five free erws), the right to be supplied with cattle
by the chief from the common herd of the tribe, the right
to be kept in food by the chief, and the right of bearing
arms. The Cyvreithiau Cymru ' thus states the rights :
" Three original privileges of every native of Wales, the
grant and fruit of five free erws, under the privilege of
his origin as a born Welshman . . . the privilege of
1 Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 785. ^ Ibid., i, 214. ^ Ibid., ii, 503.

THE TRIBAL SYSTESI.

71

bearing defensive arms vrith their emblems, the privilege
of raith under the protection of his chief of kindred." The
question as to the right of food from the chief will be
dealt with later.
It is important to note one very significant difference
between the rights and duties of the tribesman and the
rights and duties of lord and vassal in feudal times. All
feudal rights sprang from the idea of holding land or
something in the nature of land. The tribal idea was that
the tribesman did not hold from anyone ; he became, as
one of the tribe, entitled to a share in the tribal property.
It was quite possible that as time went on, the rights
based on relationship and the rights based on tenure
should become confused ; but it is important to keep the
distinction in mind, because it had an infiuence on church
development. Among the Latins the right to an advowson
belonged to the owner of the land, and it was held of him
by tenure precisely in the same way as any other heredita
ment. But in the Celtic Church it was not so. The
occupant of a benefice possessed it in whole or in part as
a portion of his share in the tribal property ; he owned no
superior, no master, no patron. It was his share in the
tribal property as being one of the tribe of the Saint.
And it followed that if the tribal property was not divided,
all tribesmen would be entitled to share in it, so that in
the cases which are met with in Welsh history, where the
number of vicars or rectors of a church are numerous, it
is merely a case of the persons having been admitted, as
they were entitled to be, members of the tribe of the Saint,
with the result of such admission being a right in the
common property of the tribe to which all were entitled
until a separate allotment was made to each. In default
of it being made, each of the tribesmen became entitled to
retain his share in the whole of the tribal property, what-

72 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
ever might have been the number of the tribesmen
and the amount or nature of the property. It was no
case of portionist rector, or other Latin idea, it was
merely the result of the admission of a tribesman into the
tribe. The liability of the tribesman to contribute to the
support of the lord, and the right of the tribesman to be
maintained by his lord, open up one of the distinctive
features of the Welsh church, and one which deserves
great consideration. The chief was entitled to receive
from his tribesmen a supply of food for the support of
himself and his household; to this supply each of the
households of the tribe had to contribute. At first, they
contributed in kind, and the payment made in kind was
actually used for the support of the chief and his foUowers ;
whether this payment was at all tiines throughout the
year, or only on certain occasions, is not quite clear. It
is not necessary now to deal with the details of the con
tribution, but it seems that each tribesman in his turn
was bound to make his contribution in kind. In return
for this, the chief had to keep open house, as it would
now be called ; he was bound to feed the tribesmen. They
had a right to be supported at his hands, in so far as
feeding at his table went. It also seems that they were
entitled to specific gifts of food for their support. This
idea of the obligation of the chieftain to support the
tribesmen was one of the last survivals of the tribal
sj'stem ; the idea has hardly yet died out, and it was
carried on in Scotland by the chiefs of the clans up to the
changes that were brought about by the suppression of
the rebellion in 1745, or even later. In the course of time
the supply, by the tribesmen to the chief, of food, Uke
all the other obligations of the same kind, became com
muted into a money pajonent ; but it does not appear that

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 73
the supply of food by the chief to the tribesmen became
so commuted, at all events, if it was, it was only partially
so, and it also continued to be made in kind. These pay
ments to the chief, instead of supplying food, became a
regular part of the chieftain's revenue. This rule of the
lay tribe was appUed also to the tribe of the Saint, and
the members of that tribe first gave food, and then gave
money, to the chief of their tribe for his support. The
effect of this on the endowments of the Welsh Church vrill
be treated in its place ; here, it is only necessary to
mention that the head of the tribe of the Saint became
entitled, not to a supply of food, but to a fixed sum in
money for his support, and was bound in his turn to
support the tribesmen, an obligation traces of which have
lingered on untU the present day. When in time the
Bishop became head of the tribe of the Saint, he took
over the compositions of food in kind, and also took over
the obUgation to provide for the members of the tribe
of the Saint. The bearing this part of the reciprocal
duties of chief and tribesman had on the Welsh church
will be considered when discussing the endowments of the
church. Here it is enough to point out that this feature
in the tribal organization has had very far reaching effects,
and has formed an important distinction between the
Celtic and Latin Churches. The Celtic idea, based on the
tribal relation, being, that the duty of the tribesmen is to
keep the chief, and of the chief to keep the tribesmen ;
the Latin idea is based on the supposed scriptural obUga
tion of all Christians to support the clergy, but the Latins
had no idea of the corresponding duty of the Bishop to
keep the clergy, and the members of the tribe.
The development of the tribe must be looked at from
another point of view. When once the Celtic tribe became
territorial owners, the development proceeded on two great

74 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
lines : — (1) The gradual recognition that portions of the
common property of the tribe can become the property of
the individual tribesman. The rules and customs as to
this, the conditions on which it became separate property,
varied in each tribe, but the history of all the tribes is the
same, the gradual recognition of private property. In some
tribes this does not occur until a very late date, in others
it took place earlier ; but whether early or late, the history
of all tribal societies proceeds in the same direction, and
is the history of the change from collective to private
ownership. (2) The relaxation of the rules as to the
composition of the tribe, the introduction of greater
facilities for strangers to become members of the tribe,
was aided by the fact that persons were needed to assist in
cultivating the tribal land.
Tribal history is the record of the relaxation of the rules
of common descent and common property. The differences
that are found are mainly the local differences that the
development of these ideas had to contend with, the
devices by which the substance of the old form was
retained, and yet the spirit was evaded. In some cases
the obstinacy or the conservative instinct of some group
of men may have delayed the change, and caused the
introduction of special means of escaping the difficulties
that arose from time to time ; but the whole system,
although in manj' cases retaining its original forms and
theories in name, had passed in fact, after the tribe became
landowners, into a new set of ideas.
The history of the development of the tribe is reflected
in the history of the word used for the tribe. In Irish,
the word translated " tribe ", which was its original mean
ing, was '\fin-e " ; this word in course of time came
to express, besides the tribe, a coUection of families
related by blood, — then any groups of famiUes, however

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 75
sub-divided, and, ultimately, even the family itself.' The
Irish idea being that the term "fine " expressed blood-
relationship, and that this was the same whether the
relationship existed between the members of a family, or
between one or more famiUes forming a group, or between
one or more groups forming a tribe. In each and every
case the principle was the same — blood relationship, and
that principle was expressed by the word "fine", the
meaning of which varied as the notions of the Irish as
to the tribe were extended. But it stiU retained its old
idea of blood-relationship, and when the Christian mis
sionaries were forming their colonies, the word that was
appUed to this, the Christian colony, was the same, the
tribe of the Saint, the " fine mynach " thus marking the
principle that the organization of the Christian com
munity, the tribe of the Saint, was based upon the same
ideas as the tribe of the land. To a great extent a
Uke state of things is found in Wales. The word used
to express relationship is " cenedyl " — kindred, and the
term has come to signify not merely the relationship
between individuals and between the members of a
particular family, but also the connection between the
group of families that form a tribe, and the group of
tribes. It does not, however, in Wales appear to have
been applied to the reUgious tribe, but is confined to the
lay tribes.
The laws as to the "fine " and the " cenedyl " fell into
the two great groups already mentioned : first, laws as to
the personal rights and disabilities of the members of
the tribe — what modern lawyers would call questions of
status ; and, secondly, laws as to the rights and liabilities
of tribesmen and the property of the tribe. The laws and
rules as to the first class of questions are as a rule prior in
^ Early Institutions, 90.

76 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
date to those of the second. To this, however, the rule as
to a common name borne by all the families of the tribe,
forms an exception, except in so far as the tribe per
petuated the name of the reputed common ancestor of aU
the families composing the tribe.
Thus the title, " the sons of Cunedda", most probably
represented either one tribal name that originally included
aU the famiUes and tribes that claimed Cunedda as their
common ancestor, or else was a name including all the
different tribes that composed the forces Cunedda led to
the conquest of Wales. Gradually, as the tribes developed,
and among the Welsh tribes by the operation of that
singular system of the four generations, new names,
probably taken from the head of some successful family,
would occur; such as "the sons of Ceredig", which term
would become the tribal name of certain families who
were originally part of the old tribe, but broke off and
formed new settlements and tribes. It is not the least
of the peculiarities of the Welsh tribes, that they, so
to speak, shed their ancestors at certain tiines, and
formed new combinations. Many early societies carried
on from generation to generation the idea or the tradi
tion of descent from a common ancestor. The Welsh
did not do this to anything Uke the same extent as
other peoples. At the end of every fourth generation
the Welsh re-considered the question of family relation
ships. Whether this re-consideration went to the extent
of re-considering all tribal relationships is not clear ;
probably the new groups of famiUes would stiU main
tain they had a common ancestor with aU the other
tribal families, and might bear in a modified form the old
tribal name.
Any alteration of, or modification in, the tribal name,
is of more importance than at first sight appears, and

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 77
for these reasons. It is fairly certain that the name
derived from the chief, the personal name, is of much
higher antiquity, and points to a much earUer settlement,
than the name derived from the land, this last being
only acquired when the tribe became stationary, and
possessed of land. The former would prevail while the
tribe was still a wandering body without a local habita
tion, the latter would only be acquired when the tribe had
settled down. " The sons of Cunedda " is probably a far
older designation than " The men of Arvon."
The second reason for its importance is on account of
the inscriptions on the early sepulchral monuments.
UsuaUy the inscription is, "To  , the son of  " :
this has been regarded as merely the name of the parent.
It is far more probably the name of the tribe ; and, if so,
then these inscriptions furnish some evidence on which to
act in localizing the territories of the early Welsh tribes.
It is also of interest, having regard to the usually received
rule that when a place and a family have the same name,
the place gave its name to the family. This rule did not
apply to Wales, for there more often the f amUy gave its
name to the place. For instance, Ceredigion is the settle
ment of the sons of Ceredig, not Ceredigion a place after
which the tribe was named.
So far the tribe has been regarded as bound together
either by the tie of kinship or by that of joint ownership
of the land, but there were other subsidiary links which
united the tribesmen. One of these was the right of the
tribe to receive payment if any offence was committed
against a member of the tribe, and the liability of the
tribe to make payment in respect of torts done by any of
its members. Whenever a crime was committed, and by
crime is meant an act of violence or theft, then, as now,
the fijst question waS; who committed it ? But this was

78 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
not to ascertain who was to be punished for the crime, but
on whom rested the liability to make good the injury.
The original idea was that the family or tribe of the in
jured individual could take summary vengeance on the
wrong doer for a crime. One of the lines of tribal
development is the history of the steps that converted the
vengeance on the individual, from a foray by the injured
tribesman and his relations upon the criminal's family,
into a payment to the tribe to which the injured man
belonged. This was a most gradual process, and the tribe had
become comparatively civilized when it was fixed in what
cases of tort the tribe was liable to pay, and in what cases
and on whose account the tribe was entitled to be paid. The
settlement of these points led to the making an elaborate
system of rules, defining to what tribe or family, whether
that of the father or of the mother, a child should belong,
as upon the decision of this question the liability to pay,
or the right to receive, usually turned. A large part of
the Welsh laws is devoted to the rules for the decisions of
these questions, which were questions which could only be
decided by the tribe, and the necessity for the solution of
these questions required it to be clearly known who were
and who were not the members of a tribe. This probably
made it the duty of certain of the officers of the tribe to
have the information always at hand by which such a point
could be at once decided — that is, to preserve the oral
tradition that showed who were and who were not tribes
men. The officer to whom the obligation was intrusted
was usuaUy "the chief of the kindred", one of whose duties
it was to know the tribal legends and histories. This duty
made his existence a necessity for each tribe, who, from
the information he could give, could say at once who
were and who were not its tribesmen, and when the tribe

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 79
should pay or should receive compensation for torts ; so it
is stated in the Welsh laws that one of the three indis-
pensables of a tribe is the chief of kindred.' Having
settled when the tribe was liable to pay or to make com
pensation, it became necessary for the tribe to possess an
officer by whom the demand might be made or resisted, in
other words to have a mouthpiece.
This necessity was fully recognized by the Welsh tribes,
for it is stated in the Cijvreithiau Cymru that there were three
indispensables for a tribe {cenedl), a chief, an avenger,
a representative [ei phencenedl, ei dialwr, ai theisbantyle) .
Their respective duties are thus defined : — " A chief of
kindi-ed is to be the oldest efficient man in the kindred to
the ninth descent, and his privilege and office are to move
the country and court on behalf of his man, and he is
the speaker of his kindred in the conventional raith, of
country and federate country, and it is the duty of every
man of the kindred to listen to him and for him to listen
to his man " ; ^ he is, therefore, the spokesman of the tribe
— ^the person who states its opinions and decisions, in fact,
its mouthpiece. The avenger's duties are executive, "He
leads the tribe to battle and to war, as there may be
occasion. He pursues evildoers, brings them before the
court, and punishes them according to the sentence of the
court and judgment of the country." The remaining
officer, the representative of the tribe, "is the mediating
man in court, and in congregation, and in combat, and in
every foreign affair he is to be one of the wise men of
the tribe by raith of chiefs of households in the tribe,
and to be the coadjutor vrith the chief of the kindred in
every raith and convention of the country, and he is to be
elected by the raith of his tribe to the ninth descent by
ballot, that is by tacit vote." '
* Andent Lams of Wales, ii, 517. ^ Ibid., 517. ' Ibid., 519.

80 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
These three officers made up the tribal officials. It has
been seen already how the chief of the kindred had to act
in cases of the admission of tribesmen ; together they
made up the body by which the tribe claimed, enforced,
and administered its rights.
It is important to remember the difference between the
chief of the kindred and the chief of the tribe. The chief
of the kindred was the head of a particular number of
families, or of a village or villages, but he was not the
head of the tribe. The chief of the kindred was a sur
vival of the time when the structure of the tribe was
based on religious and personal ties alone, before any
question of the ownership of land came in. After that
was the case, the structure of the tribe was altered by
new rules and new ideas arising from land ; as land grew
in importance and mere questions of status decUned,
questions arising as to the land had to be decided. These
came before the same persons as the old questions of
status — the different heads of the viUage households, one
of whom, the chief of the kindred, presided over an
assembly of the others. In the Cyvreithiau Cymru it is
said that Hywel permitted every chief to whom there
might belong a cymwd or cantrev or more, that is,
every chief that was over more than one tribe or set of
families, " to hold a daily royal court of privileged officers,
in number as he shoidd deem proper in a similar manner
to himself, and pririlege to hold a court of pleas in his
country among his uchelwrs, and he permitted every
uchelwr to hold his own land according to its privilege,
and to rule his bondmen according to conditional bondage
in South Wales and perpetual bondage in Gwynedd,
. and Ukewise he allowed to anyone without land
or office the natural privilege he was bom with." ' It
1 Ancient Lams of Wales, ii, 365,

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 81
will be seen that this is ascribed to Hywel, but in
all probability it existed long before, although he may
have recognized and regulated the right. The question
then arises. What was the position of the chief, or, as he
is more usually called, king? The Welsh codes give a
list of the officers that made up the court of the king.
These were sixteen in number,' and among them were the
chief of the household (penteulu), the priest of the house
hold {effeiryat teylu), and the bard of the household {hart
teulu) . These are the only officers who are spoken of in
connection with the term household {teulu) in any of the
three codes, and it is not an unfair inference that they
are in another form the three indispensables — ^the chief of
the kindred, the avenger of the kindred, and the repre
sentative of the kindred — transferred from their places as
officers of the group of families, or the village, to the
chieftain's court as representing there the officers of the
groups of families or viUages.
The next thing to be noticed is how very soon these
offices about the chieftain's court became hereditary. At
first it seems, from the passage already cited, that the chief
of the kindred was elected from out of the persons who
stood nearest to the common ancestor; then the office,
probably from some family claiming that they were the
nearest in blood to the ancestor, was held successively by
members of that family until it began to be regarded as
the hereditary property of such family. So much was
this the case that in order to prevent it there is the
foUowing provision in the Gwentian Code : ^ " A son is not
the chief of kindred after the father, in succession, for
chief of kindredship is during Ufe {ny byd pentJcenedyl
ymab guedy y tat yn nessaf ida6 hxnys oes nodave y6 pen
hynedlaeth) .
1 Andent Lams of Wales, i, 5, 345, 623. ^ jj^^^ j^ 79 G

82 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
Thus the chieftain of the tribe became surrounded by at
least three famiUes, the members of which held the
hereditary tribal offices, and were the guardians of the
traditions of the tribe. A passage in the Cyvreithinu
Cymru shows this.' "There are three records of a
kindred, the record of a court of law, the record of a
chief of kindi-ed conjointly with his seven elders, and the
record of Bardism. The record of a court of law depends
upon the judges ; the record of a chief of kindred depends
upon his seven elders, to wit the pririleges and events
of their kindred, and the seven elders are to transfer it
to the chief of kindred who succeeds the one who may
die ; and the record of Bardism depends on the Bards
authorised as teachers, and by the privilege of session.
These three records are called the three authenticated
records of country and kindred, and upon them depend
the authenticating of every degree of descent and every
privilege of arms." This passage gives a fair idea of the
Welsh tribe. The chief of the kindred decided who were
the tribesmen ; the Bards kept the records of the decisions.
To the priests was assigned another duty — they were the
hereditary guardians of the tribe against the supernatural
arts that might be used against them, and it was their
duty to invoke yet stronger supernatural aid against the
enemies of the tribe. The chief of kindred said who were
tribesmen, that is, who were entitled to the supernatural
aid of the wizards or priests of the tribe, the bards re
corded the decisions, and the new tribesman could call
on the priest to use his magic arts on his behalf and
to defeat the devices of the wizards or priests of a rival
tribe against him ; for one of the rights of the new tribes
man was to partake in the tribal reUgious ceremonies as the
tribal people had become his people, — their God, his God.
^ Andent La/ms of Wales, ii, 559,

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 83
Surrounded by these families of advisers the chief had
to carry out their decisions. When the chief of the
kindred decided that a person should be admitted a mem
ber of the tribe, the chief, in cases where it was necessary
for him to do so, had to perform the ceremony, and that,
whether the candidates for admission were children of the
tribesman or only connected in theory. The ceremony of
admission would seem to have had a kind of religious
character. After it was over, the chief affixed to the new
tribesman a mark to show to all the world that the
novice belonged to the tribe; that mark, the mark of
ownership, was, usuaUy, cutting off a lock or some portion
of the hair of the new member. Among the heathen
customs the Celtic Church took over was this cutting the
hair, and probably the true secret of the great contest
between the Celtic and Latin Churches on the subject
of tonsure, was due to the fact that the Celtic, which was
called by the Latins the heathen, tonsure, was, in some
way, connected -with a ceremony in which the magic
rites of the tribe into which the new tribesman had, by
the tonsure, proclaimed to the world he was entitled to
belong and rely on its Gods for his protection, were em
ployed. In addition to the supernatural, the new tribesman on
admission became entitled to material rights. Up to the
time he was admitted a tribesman, his parents had to
support him, if he was the son of a tribesman. The
Welsh laws contain some very elaborate rules as to this
support, and the respective shares and obligations of the
father and mother in regard to it. They have a very
strong resemblance to the modem law as to the main
tenance and support of iUegitimate children ; and, accord
ing to our notions, most of the Welsh children of that
time would have been Ulegitimate. If the child died
G 2

84 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
before he was admitted to be a tribesman, the father
succeeded to his property, as he was liable to keep him.
When once the child was admitted to be a member of the
tribe, all the rights of the parents ceased, and also their
obligations ; they had no longer to maintain the child,
for as a tribesman he could demand a share in the property
of the tribe, and, until he got it, the chief was bound to
maintain him ; and, if his share in the tribal property did
not suffice for his support, the chief was bound to make
it up. Following from this change of liabUity, on the
death of a tribesman, it was not the tribesman's family,
but the chief, who succeeded to his property as part of
the possessions of the tribe.
As the power of the tribe developed and its limits
extended, so the limits of the chief's responsibility were
widened. He was responsible to the tribe for any slave
or stranger who was permitted to live on tribal territory
or to possess tribal property. On the death of any of
such personages the chief took all the property, not
presumably for himself, but as the duly qualified repre
sentative of the tribe. The chief would dictate to the
dwellers on tribal territory who were not tribesmen what
they might or might not do — what employment they
might or might not follow. Within the Umits of his
authority the chief was autocratic, but the Umits were
not wide. Although in the Welsh codes the Welsh word
for chief is translated king, yet the Welsh chief had
little in common with the feudal king. The Welsh chief
was essentially a tribesman, a member of a particular
family it is true, but still a tribesman ; the only difference
between him and the other tribesmen being that on his
being injured the tribe received larger compensation than
it did if any other tribesman was hurt. But in no way
was the Welsh chieftaia the feudal king, the supreme

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 85
landowner, the fountain of honour. He was only the
selected member of a particular family, and as such the
first in position among the heads of the famiUes that made
up the tribe. It is necessary to bear this in mind, for the
position of the chief is often misunderstood. When it is
said that the chief gave a grant of land to the Christian
missionaries, it is only true to say that he aUowed them,
as he would other strangers, to settle on some part of the
tribal land, but he could not give or alienate a yard of it to
them or any one else without the consent of the tribe, and
at the date of the coming of the early missionaries it is
very questionable if he could do this, even with their
consent. One of the points that makes it so doubtful
whether the Book of Llandaff is genuine or not, is the
fact that it records charters given by Welsh chiefs at a
time when it is most questionable if, with the best will in
the world, they could have given anything. Another im
portant point is seen from the position of the chief. It
by no means foUowed, as is often supposed, that because
the chief adopted Christianity, that of necessity caused
the tribe to do so. It was in no way like the conversion
of the king and his com-t. The power the chief had over
the heads of the different famiUes was comparatively small,
and they would probably regard his so-called conversion
merely as the addition of some new wizard to the existing
stock, whose aid it might or might not be advisable to invoke.
Probably a good deal of the power and infiuence of the
chief depended on the chief himself, but the most powerful
Welsh chieftain must always have felt that his authority
for all practical purposes did not extend much beyond
the territory of the tribe, even if it went so far.
The position and power of the remaining great official of
the tribe, the priest, is one that is very difficult to define.
Probably his power and infiuence, to a great extent, rested

86

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.

on the success of his predictions or interpretations of the
Divine wUl. Bach tribe of any consequence had its
priest or priests, and one of the famiUes that went to
make up the tribe was the family in whom the priestly
office was hereditary. Whether at any time the chief
was also priest may be doubted, as the separation between
the two positions of chief and priest, so far as either
Celtic history or tradition go, tends to show that this
was not the case, and that the chief was never so im
portant as to take charge of the religious duties of the
tribe ; in fact, although the chief might be descended
from the Gods, yet he was not the medium through which
the Gods worked according to Celtic notions. The priest,
or rather the family of priests, were the magicians on
whom the king or chief relied for obtaining supernatural
aid when required. Both in the time of Patrick and in Celtic
fiction, the Irish chieftain had always ready near him
a number of miracle workers, and the great reason of the
Irish chiefs accepting Christianity as far as they did was
to be able to avail themselves of the miraculous powers
of Patrick. The compromise with Paganism, which is
usually spoken of as the conversion of Ireland, was, in the
eyes of the Irish chieftains, merely the substitution, or
rather the addition, of new magicians to the old ones ;
and, subject to this slight change, matters, in the opinion
of the chiefs, would go on as before. The chief of the
kindred would still decide tribal questions. The bard would
still recite the glories of the tribe. The priest, recruited by
the new comers, would, when required, still deal in the
supernatural for the advantage of the tribe.
In order more clearly to see what was the position of a
tribesman, it wiU be weU to consider how the man fared
who was not a tribesman. Such a state of things might
arise in two ways : (1) A man might never liave been a

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 87
tribesman, never have been a member of any tribe, such
as the child who could not ascertain who were his parents ;
and (2), a man who having been a tribesman had lost
his tribal rights, and ceased to be a member of the tribe.
A person who was in either of these positions, and especi
ally one who had been turned out of a tribe, found himself
in a most unenviable condition ; he was in a worse state
than a wild beast. Every one of every sex and age, on the
sound of a horn and within hearing of it, was bound to
follow such a man, to keep up with him with barking
dogs, untU he either was driven to put to sea, or had
passed for sixty hours out of their sight.'
In the Irish laws the case was the same ; a person who
declined to act in conformity with tribal usage became
an outlaw and was expelled, not by any judicial sentence,
but by the common assent of the tribe. It was this
tribeless man from whose condition the early ideas of an
outlaw were derived. Any one might kill him with im
punity, as there was no one to avenge his death, no one to
insist on payment of bis money value, for he had no such
value. By ceasing to be a member of the tribe, he had lost
his right to the protection of the tribe. Not only was he a
stranger, but a dangerous stranger ; no one was responsible
for his acts, so the sooner he was put out of the world the
better. His life was not worth an hour's purchase, as it was
both the interest and the duty of every tribesman to kill
him as a person who was wholly irresponsible. A man, if
he had been a tribesman, could be reduced to this position
for crime, but only for very serious crime ; still, although
he lost his rights, his descendants did not necessarily lose
theirs. "A person," says the Venedotian Code, " does not
lapse from his rights until he becomes a stranger {alltud) ;
for if a person remain in another country, whether on
^ Andent Lams of Wales, ii, 478.

bo THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
account of being banished, or for murder, or other injury,
so that he cannot revisit his country freely, the law says
his title is not extinguished until the ninth degree, at
what time soever he may come to claim it." '
This condition of the tribeless man will illustrate the
position taken up by the Church in her organization.
Every Celt was presumed to belong to some church, and
the test of belonging to it was, not that it was the parish
church where he dwelt, but that it was the church of his
tribe ; on ceasing to be a tribesman his right in that church
also ceased, and this placed him in a very awkward
position. If he had to prove his word or his right to any
thing, he had to do it on the sacred relics of his tribe,
which were kept in the tribal church. By ceasing to be
a tribesman, he ceased to have the right of using those
relics ; he ceased, in fact, to have any legal rights, for he
could not enforce them. He also lost the right to the
aid and help of the priests of the tribe and their ministra
tions, as these were exclusively confined to the members of
the tribe, and he had ceased to fill that character. It
would seem that at first the loss of the civil, the tribal
right, included the loss of the religious right as being
part of the tribal, but so far as the evidences of the laws
go, it does not appear that the converse was the case,
and that if the church deprived a man of reUgious rights,
in fact, excommunicated him, he therefore lost his tribal
rights as well.
There is little doubt that a man could be turned out of
the tribe of the saint by the Church, but there is nothing
to show that this affected his civil position, or that he
could be turned out of the tribe of the land by anybody
other than the tribe, as, for instance, the priests, and there
is a good deal to indicate he could not. In the Venedo-
' Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 173.

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 89
tian Code' it is said, "Whoever breaks a legal bequest
shall be excommunicated as a publican or pagan." A
passage in the Dimetian Code^ says that, "A witness
may be objected to for being excommunicated by name,
and if it can be proved by the country, the objection is to
stand." Similar provisions in the case of persons excom
municated by name are found elsewhere in the Dimetian
Code,'' but there is nothing to show that an excommunicated
person lost his rights in the lay tribe. The matter is of
some importance as indicating what was the power of
the Church. Was it strong enough to prevail over the
tribal organization, and make its sentence equivalent to
expulsion ? It would seem not, and it would also seem that
such was not the claim or the idea of the Celtic Church to
dictate who should or who should not be admitted to her
ministrations. As long as a person was a member of the
tribe he had the rights of a tribesman, and the tribe did
not admit any foreign power, " no foreign prince, state, or
potentate," to say who were or who were not its members.
On two points in the history of the Church this has an im
portant bearing. {a) Could a man be a member of the
tribe of the land and of the Saint at the same time ? and, if
not, if a man ceased to be a member of the tribe of the land
when he became a member of the tribe of the Saint, did
his old rights as member of the tribe of the land revive
if he was tumed out of the tribe of the Saint? A
tribesman took orders, and so became a member of the
tribe of the Saint; he was afterwards turned out of the
tribe of the Saint ; was he a member of the tribe of the
land, or what was his position? The question is more
easily asked than answered, but the answer would throw
a flood of light on the precise position of the early Celtic
Church. At present it is not possible to give an answer
' Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 85. " Ibid., i, 423. = Ibid., i, 590, 597.

90 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
that is in any way satisfactory, (b) The second point, as
to the power of the clergy, arises in coimection with the
proceedings of the Llandaff monks. From the Book of
Llandaff it appears they were in the habit of excommuni
cating the Welsh chieftains. Unless, however, the Celtic
clergy had reached a very different stage from what is
elsewhere recorded of them, it would seem that these so-
called excommunications could hardly be matters of fact.
We get (1) that the tribe could, on certain causes, sever
the tribal tie and tm-n out a tribesman ; (2), that this
practicaUy caused the tribesman to be deprived of religious
as well as civil rights, as the church was that of the
tribe and only for tribesmen, and as he had ceased to be
one he could not use it ; (3), there is, however, no evidence
that the church of its own power could deprive a tribes
man of his rights, that is, that the Church was superior to
and was not the servant of the tribe ; (4), there is still less
evidence to show that the priests of one tribe could inter
fere vrith the tribal rights of another, and it would be a
very unlikely thing to happen ; yet this is what the
Llandaff monks purported to do, according to the Book of
Llandaff. Latin priests having authority over all the
persons in a given area, irrespective of tribe or any other
distinction might do this, but Celtic priests, the officers of
a tribe, could not, and the assertion that it was done
leads to a doubt of the truth of the statement.
Not the least interesting part of the tribal organization
is to determine the position in which the priests stood at
the adoption by the tribe of Christianity, and the sub
sequent history of their position. As has been already
said, the priests seem in Pagan times to have been a body
of men, probably an hereditary class, who professed to be
able to perform magic acts for the benefit of the tribe or
the tribesman. When the tribe became Christian, the

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 91
priests were in the same position as before, but they had
given up Pagan and taken to Christian practices. The
organization of the tribe remained as it was, and the
rights of the tribe were unaffected by the change. It is
clear that the priests gradually began to improve their
position by the introduction of the idea of the tribe of the
Saint ; but the history of the change in the condition of
the priests from being merely a body of men who dealt in
the supernatural when required, to becoming a body of
men who purported to exercise complete rule over the
reUgious concerns of the tribe, is one of the most im
portant parts of Church history, and one which has
yet to be written. It is only by working at the tribal
organization, and carefully considering the varied relations
of the different officers and members of the tribe, that any
idea can be formed of it. Probably it was the gradual
growth of years, and so gradual, that the change was
hardly noticed; but, nevertheless, the change was going
on, and was one that had the most wide-reaching effects,
and probably completely changed the history of the
Celtic Church.
Another point in regard to the position of the priests
in connection with the chief of the tribe deserves notice.
The Welsh codes, and also the Irish laws, seem to indicate
that there were famUies of chiefs ; and the danger to an
EngUsh lawyer in deaUng with these questions is, lest he
should aUow his ideas as to lord and vassal to enter into
the explanation of a state of things that was ignorant of
these names, and of the meaning of any such terms as those
used by English lawyers. In some respects, at first sight,
the chief of the kindred would represent the chief of the
tribe ; but he was really only the chief counsellor of the
tribe, and, except that he had the power of deciding
questions of status, he does not seem to have had any

92 THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.
other ruling power. The chief of the kindred was the
nearest living relation to the common ancestor, and, it
would seem, might be taken from the heads of any of
the famiUes who fulfilled this qualification.
But the chief of the tribe was in a different position ;
he was selected, as appears, not from the tribe at large,
but from out of one or more families, and from those
alone. As the priests, the bards, and the other officers,
seem tcj have become hereditary offices in certain families,
so with the chieftainship. He was selected on a vacancy
from out of the members of those famiUes, not out of the
tribe at large. The qualifications for it are thus given : —
He must be an efficient man, the eldest of the efficient
men of his kindred, unto the end of the ninth descent ;
the chief of a household is a man with a wife and children
by legitimate marriage. He must be complete and per
fect as to bodily senses, that is, as to hearing, sight,
and locomotion, and is, on a ballot, to have the secret vote
of fifty men, all born Welshmen and of his own blood. '
Above the chiefs of the tribes was the king, and the king
ship seems to have been of two kinds ; the king who was
the ruler over several tribes, and the king who was ruler
over several small kingdoms. This again seems to have
been a family matter, the king being selected out of the
members of certain families. Whether the district king, or
king of the country, the term "Cunedda and his sons"
describes what the ruling family was, and that out of some
of the members of that family, or families, the future kings
of the district and king of the country were chosen. The
king of AberftVaw was said to be king over aU Wales
{Cymru), ~ but it appears from the codes that there were
also kings of Gwent and Dimetia. The king of Aberffraw
would be the king of the country, the kings of Gwent and
' Ancient Laws of Wales, ii, 537, 539. ' Ibid., ii, 585.

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 93
Dimetia, kings of districts, and the chiefs of tribes living
in the districts would complete the organization. The king
of the country would be selected from one set of famiUes,
" Cunedda and his sons " ; the kings of the district from
another set of famiUes, and the chiefs from a third ; and
while it would appear that the succession was hereditary
in those famiUes, it had nothing to do with primogeni
ture; any fit son, whether the eldest or not, that was
chosen, was entitled to succeed to the throne. The Welsh
here following the Irish doctrine of the eldest and
worthiest. It wiU not be necessary to f oUow out the tribal organiza
tion further than to point out that it furnished an example
of the development of the Celtic Church on the tribal Unes,
to the exclusion of what might be expected. The chief
had his family of priests to assist him, so had the district
king, so had the king of the country ; and it would have
been a not unnatural development in Church matters to
have found the priest of the district kings claiming
authority over the priests of the chieftains, and those of
the king of the country over the priests of the district
kings. Such, however, was not the Une taken, and it was
most probably not taken owing to the strong family and
tribal ideas that prevaUed. There seems to have been no
idea of dependence between the district kings and the
king of the country, or between the chieftains and the
district kings. Such an idea would have been opposed
to the theory of blood relationship ; all the families in the
tribe were of equal rank, there was no idea of superior
or inferior ; and it does not appear that the priests of the
king of the country were any higher in rank or position
than those of the tribal chieftains. The theory of re
lationship was destructive of the theory of superiority, and
the result was that the development of the Church went

94

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM.

upon totaUy different lines to the Latin, but on lines far
more Celtic. As the family and relationship was the
basis of the lay system, so it became that of the church
system. The clergy, like the laity, formed themselves
into families and groups of famiUes ; and the development
in this way proceeded on tribal lines, rather than as would
have been expected on the idea of the king's priests ruling
the others. Itis amost instructive piece of Church history,
and shows, perhaps better than anything else, the tenacity
with which the Welsh clung to the tribal organization,
both in civil and reUgious matters, and how powerful that
organization was.
The whole of the evidence of the Welsh codes goes to
show that the system that had prevailed in Wales was
based on kinship, family, and tribe ; and that, although
in the later Welsh laws, both in the Cyvreithiau Cymru and
Leges Wallice — ^there are large importations both of the
Roman civil and English law, especiaUy the last in con
nection with land, yet that the old system remains quite
clear to those who will take the trouble to look for it.
There is, naturally, much that is obscure and more that is
difficult to understand, but the broad features are plainly
discernible. It is also clear that whUe the system was in
full operation the Church came on the scene, and the
Church has been the means of preserring much of the old
ideas. Had the tribal idea been more broken in upon
by contact vrith the outside world, it is most likely that
the Celtic Church would have become far more in harmony
with the Latin. The fact of the introduction of the
Church while the tribal orgaiuzation was in fuU vigour,
goes some way to fix an early origin for the Church, as it
is fairly certain that the Celts embraced Christianity
before any great change had been brought about in the
original idea of the tribe. Although the date is uncertain,

THE TRIBAL SYSTEM. 95
it seems clear from this that the date must have been an
early one. There is, however, this point to be borne in
mind, that the state of things here dealt vrith was most
likely the work of Cunedda and his sons, they ha-ring
swept away all that preceded them. But whether this is so
or not, the fact that both the Welsh tribe and the Welsh
church have preserved for us a large mass of archaic laws
and customs is a matter for which we should be grateful.
The history of the organization of the Celtic tribes,
and the development of Christianity working on that
organization, form a page of Church history quite as
interesting and equally important for Englishmen as
that describing the labours of St. Martin of Tours, or
the mission of St. Augustine.

CHAPTER III.
THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.

No reliable details exist of the time when, the persons by
whom, or the modes by which the conversion of Britain
and Ireland to Christianity was accomplished. It is fairly
certain that towards the close of the Roman miUtary
occupation of the country, before the garrisons were
withdrawn, Christianity was established here ; but for how
long this had been the case, or how, or in what manner
it came about, there is not only no satisfactory eridence,
but really no eridence at all. It is important to remember
this, for the want of definite reliable information has
led to the growth of a series of legends, some of great
beauty, aU of great interest, as to the establishment of
Christianity in Britain and Ireland. As is usually the
case, whenever there is a demand for knowledge on a
particular subject, the mediseval writers furnished a supply
to meet it. The result here is, that in the south part of
Wales alone, there are a series of legends, which ascribe
at the very least to no less than eleven persons the honour
of being the founder, or early teachers of Christianity in
Britain. Here are to be met with Apostles, companions
of our Lord, members of the early Church, whose names
are written in the Pauline Epistles, aU of whom are
alleged to have come "ad ultimas Brittannos" . Probably
no one would be more astonished than these worthies
themselves, on being told aU the adventures they are
stated to have met with in their journeys to these Islands.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 97
Not content with this series of improbabilities, the
Welsh have set up a theory of their own, and sent a Welsh
Prince to Rome, in the legend of which Bran forms one
of the leading characters. Of his existence the evidence
is most meagre ; of his journey to Rome there is still less ;
of his conversion there, and his return to convert his own
countrymen, there is none at all. It is, however, some
thing Uke heresy among pious Welshmen to doubt either
the existence or the travels of "the blessed Bran". It
may be said at once that there is nothing like historical
eridence to support any of the legends as to the introduc
tion of Christianity, that such eridence as there is goes
to prove the legends to be untrue, that it is useless to
waste time in discussing what are at best but " fond things
of vain imagining".
In the midst of such a slough of conjecture it is very
difficult to reach any firm foothold. Learing out the
wilder legends, it is fairly safe to beUeve that it is probable
that Christianity reached England in one of three ways : —
(1) By Christian traders from Gaul, Spain, or Germany.
There had been for a long time some commercial intercourse
between these countries, and it is by no means improbable
that Christianity followed commerce, and so was intro
duced into this country. Or it may have been (2), by the
soldiers or recruits to the legions who formed the garri
sons of the country ; for some of the inscriptions that are
still extant indicate that there were Christian soldiers in
the legions, and the custom of recruiting the legions from
a distance would fuUy account for the presence of
Christians amongst them. Or it may have been (3) by mis
sionaries from Gaul or Germany. It is clear from various
accounts, especiaUy from the celebrated letter from the
Christians at Lyons and Vienne to the churches of Asia and
Phrygia, -written about 177, during one of the persecutions H

98 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
of the Christians,' that Christianity had been estabUshed
there as early as the second century. It would be very
Ukely, having regard to the intercourse between the two
countries while they remained under Roman i-ule, that in
some mode or other Gaulish Christians f omid their way to
these Islands. From each, or, perhaps, from aU of these
ways, it is probable that Christianity reached us, but it is
quite impossible to say when, how, or by whose means ; any
attempt to do so is only conjecture. It is doubtful if it
was before the end of the second, or the beginning of the
third centm-y. Irenseus, who wrote at the end of the
second century,^ mentions one by one all the Churches of
the West, but his Ust contains no mention of a British
Church. We know that in the Gallic Churches there was,
about 250, a great missionary effort, and the extension of
Christianity to these Islands may have been one of its
results. The Diocletian persecution, which began in 303,
is always traditionally said to have reached as far as Britain,
and the first British martyr, St. Alban, is said to have
been among the slain. There is no real evidence of this ;
but stiU it may be taken prorisionally that the introduc
tion of Christianity into Britain was somewhere between
250 and 300, although it is quite possible it may have
been much earUer, or even a good deal later. It may
safely, however, be assumed that Christianity was firmly
estabUshed in Britain before the middle of the fourth
century ; that this had been done by means of travellers
from Gaid, either merchants, or missionaries, or soldiers.
The aU-important questions then have to be faced: (I)
Who were the people with whom Christianity had to
contend with in its efforts to get estabUshed in Britain ?
(2) Were the conditions of its estabUshment the same, or
^ Routh, Reliquits SacrcB, i, 287.
^ Haddan ajnd Stubbs, i, 24.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 99
substantially the same, in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland ?
A close examination of the different conditions of things
Christianity had to meet with in different parts of the
country furnishes a clue to much of the subsequent
ecclesiastical history of these Islands. To understand this,
it is necessary to state something, in addition to what was
said in the last chapter, of the people and of the religions
that Christianity encountered in Britain.
First, as to the people. At the time of the Roman
conquest of this Island, and the state of things in
England does not appear to have altered to any great
extent in the next three centuries, Britain was inhabited
by at least three distinct races of people. The first, the
earUest dweUers we know of, or can trace, were the in
habitants of these Islands before the first Celtic invasion
or movement — ^the people the Celts found here when they
came. It may well be that they were not the earUest
settlers, but so far as we yet know they represent the
earliest iiUiabitants. Most of our knowledge as to these
people is inferential — mainly derived from certain Un-
guistic analogies and comparisons, and from the study of
the skuUs and remains found in such of their barrows
and cairns as have been explored. Modern writers call
these early settlers " Ivemians". What their name reaUy
was, we don't know ; but " Ivemii was the name of the
earUest inhabitants of Ireland. The most important
point vrith regard to these people is, that much of what
Uttle we know as to the Pagan rites practised by them
goes to show that such rites were not in their origin
Celtic, but came from some other source. That source
modem scholars beUeve to be stUl earUer natives of the
coimtry than the Ivemii.
As for the Celts themselves, they were dirided into two
great groups, Goidelic and Brythonic, Goidelic being the
H 2

100 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
earlier of the two races that came over to this country, who
gradually drove out the Ivernians, or di-ove them into the
remote recesses of the West and of Wales. In their turn
the Goidels were supplanted by the Brythons, who, at the
time of the Roman invasion, held the greater part of
England. The dirision between the races is in the first
place linguistic. The Goidels include in language the dia
lects of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man ; the Brythons
include the dialects of Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany ; but
this linguistic division does not accurately represent the
actual dirision of the country at the time of the Roman in
vasion. Then the Brythons were possessed of all England
and Wales, except the following places : in the west, a part
cut off by the Mendip Hills and the River Stour, the
territory of the Danmonii and Durotriges, the modern
counties of CornwaU, Devon, Dorset, and the Southern
part of Somerset. FoUowing the Severn to its junction
with the Teme, and the Teme to its source in the Kerry
Hills, thence westerly to the sea, that is, the Goidels held
the greater part of South Wales, with parts of Gloucester
shire, Herefordshire, Brecon, and Radnor, and the greater
part of Cardigan, Pembroke, Carmarthen, Glamorgan, and
Monmouth, the countries of the Silures and Dimetaj; in
North Wales, the country from the Mawddach to the Dee,
Anglesea, Carnarvonshire, Flint, Denbigh, a small part of
Merioneth, the Isle of Man, and Cumberland, and the
south-west corner of Scotland. These districts formed
the GoideUc countries, with traces in them, here and there,
as in Pembrokeshire, Glamorganshire, Carnarvonshire,
Anglesea, Cornwall, of Ivemians. If, then, a map is drawn
out with the above boundaries marked on it, it wUl be
found that Wales was GoideUc, with the exception of a
wedge which formed the country of the Ordorices, that is
the modern counties of Montgomery, with parts of

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 101
Merioneth and Cardigan, north of the Rheidol; this
formed the Brythonic portion of Wales.
So, speaking broadly, the Brythons held all England,
except Cmnberland in the north, Cornwall, Devon, Wilts,
and part of Somerset in the south, but in Wales only the
wedge which consisted of Montgomery, Merioneth, and
North Cardigan. The Brythonic tribes were the Brigantes,
Coritari, Comarii, Ordovices, Dobunnii, Belgse, Atrebates,
Catuvelauni, Iceni, and Cantii. The Goidelic tribes were
the Durotriges, Danmonii, Silures, and Dimetse. Roughly
speaking, such was the division of the country. This
dirision does not deal with Gwyddel, Cymry, Scotti, or
Picts, but only with the races Goidel and Brython, under one
or the other of which all the above tribes must be grouped.
It is most difficult to place any reliance upon the hear
say, on hearsay which is all we have as to the religions and
customs of the tribes who inhabited Britain. It must be
bome in mind that Csesar never speaks of the Goidels,
only of the Brythons, and that all he tells us must be
read as applying to the east, south, and centre of England.
Strabo may have described some of the Goidels, but it is
certain Caesar did not. Tacitus certainly does. It is
necessary to remember this, for those writers, who purport
to give a description of Britain by piecing together the
accounts of the manners and customs described by different
authors, as for instance, in the way employed by the late
Emperor of the French in his Ufe of Caesar,' are really
applying to one thing the accounts given by writers of
different people at different times, and thus do not get an
accurate result of the subject of their enquiries.
That the dirision between the two peoples was recog
nized at the time of the Roman conquest there is clear
proof in a well-known passage of Csesar : ^ " Britannise pars
1 Life of Cmsar, ii, 180. ' Be Bello Qallico, v, 12.

102 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
interior ab us incoUtur quos natos in insula ipsa memoria
proditum dicunt. Maritima pars ab iis qui prsedse ac belli
inferendi causa ex Belgis transierant." Here, those bom
on the island are the Goidels ; the race that emigrated
from Belgic Gaul and crossed the channel are the
Brythons. Bearing this distinction between the two races in mind,
the first question that is met with is. Had these races
the same or a different religion, and, if different religions,
in what did their reUgions differ, and of what did the
differences consist ? To a slight extent the question can
be answered. The religion of the two races differed.
The Brythonic reUgion was, in the main, that of the
Gaulish Celts. As they took with them to Britain the
distinctive names of their tribes, such as Belgse, Atrebates,
etc., so they carried with them the rites, the duties, the
beliefs of their tribes. Csesar gives us a glimpse as to
what was the religion of the Gaulish Celts of the Brythonic
type. He says that they beUeved themselves sprung from
the gods of the earth,' which gods Csesar identifies with
some of the Roman deities, with Mercury, whom, he says,^
they esteemed above all other gods as the inventor of art,
the guide of travellers, the protector of commerce. The
other deities, Csesar says, resembled the Roman gods Apollo,
Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva, but he does not give their
names. The names of three of them are, however, found
in the Unes of Lucan : " —
" Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates hoiTensque feris altaribus Hesus,
Et Taranis ScythiCEC non mitior ara Dianje."
Csesar says, and probably truly, that the ideas of the
Gauls as to gods were mostly the same as those of other
nations. From other writers we learn that the Gauls
' Le Bello Gallico, vi, 16. " Ibid., 15.
^ Pharsalia, i, 444.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 103
made gods of most things, and worshipped rivers, fountains,
streams, and woods. The Rhine was adored as a god, and
the Ardennes as a goddess.
Such being the worship of the Gaulish Celts at home,
it may be safely inferred that a similar polytheistic system
was the prevalent worship of the Celts who formed the
Brythonic population of these Islands. " Every locality",
says Rhys,' " had its divinity, and the rivers were specially
identified with certain divine beings, as witness the
streams that still bear the name of Dee, and kindred ones."
As to one river, probably the Ribble, the Belisama — this
name occurs on inscriptions in Gaul as that of a goddess.
On some of the Roman inscriptions that have been found,
there is a mixture of Roman idolatry and British super
stition. Thus Camden gives the inscription on a Roman
altar to the goddess Verbeia, the nymph of a Yorkshire
river.'' Another altar, dug up in Cumberland, is inscribed
to the god Belatucadrus.' This debased polytheism,
which was wUUng to worship anything, or to believe
anything, was the reUgion of the greater part of the
country. Wherever Christianity met with it, one result
alone was possible, the Galilean must conquer or perish ;
the Pagan polytheism must be stamped out as the accursed
thing. The Latin clergy had therefore a simple task —
" Believe or Die " was the message of the Christian
priests to the Brython. His religion must be done away
with, and destroyed root and branch.
The early Goidelic inhabitants of the country had
practised a form of religion that differed considerably
from the easy-going polytheism of the Brythonic Celts.
From what Uttle the Roman writers tell us of Druidism,
it must have been a stern, cruel form of belief. One of
its leading features was human sacrifice. So much non-
1 Celtic Britain, 67. ^ Britannia, 2nd ed., 867. ' Ibid., 1011.

104 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEBIENT.
sense has been written by modern Welsh writers about
the Druids that it is difficult to speak seriously of them.
It, however, seems clear that they were the hereditary
priests and poets of the people, that they professed to be
able to propitiate the Gods. They presided over the
sacrifices, and preserved the routine of religious duties.
The disposers of rewards and punishments, they were the
arbitrators in almost aU disputes, public or private. With
the rilest superstitions \vhich, if they are not slandered,
they practised, or aUowed to be practised, they yet believed
in the immortality of the soul, and its transmigration
into other bodies. They professed to understand the
movements of the planets, the laws of nature, the omnipo
tence of the gods. They alleged they could exercise magic
arts, and if these failed, were able to resort to super
natural powers. Their influence with an ignorant and
excitable people was immense. " We may conceive," says
a writer,' describing Druidism in Gaul, " what despotism
must have been exercised over a superstitious nation by
this caste of men, depositaries of all knowledge, authors
and interpreters of all laws, divine or human, accusers,
judges, executioners." The great influence of the Druid
rested on his supposed magical powers, and the history of
the conversion of the Celtic countries is the history of the
strife for supremacy between the Pagan magician and the
Christian missionary. For Ireland we have this in the
contest at Tara, between Patrick and the Druids of
Loeghair ; for Scotland, in the contest between Columba
and the Druids of Bruidh ; for Wales, in the contest
between David and the magician Boia, with his followers.
In each case it is said that the Druid resorted to the
supernatural, by interfering with the ordinary course of
the elements, usually by bringing on darkness ; in each
^ Thierry, Histoire des Gaulois, vol. ii, 1.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 105
the Christian triumphed by his abiUty to work greater
supernatural results than the Pagan. Csesar says that in
his time the great sanctuary of Druidism was Britain.
Probably the Gaulish Druids, especially those in the south
east, had learnt something of the civilization that was
developing there, and had begun to modify the stern
rites and savage practices by which, in an earlier and
more ignorant age, their influence had been maintained.
Something of this kind is alluded to by Ammianus Mar-
ceUinus, in thus speaking of Druidism : ' " The men of
Gaul," he says, " having become gradually polished, caused
the useful studies to flourish, which the bards, the cu
bages (prophets), and the Druids had begun to cultivate.
The bards sang in heroic verse to the sound of their lyres
the lofty deeds of men, the cubages tried by meditation
to explain the order and marvels of nature. In the midst
of these were distinguished the Druids, who, united in a
society occupied themselves with profound and sublime
questions, raised themselves above human affairs, and
sustained the immortality of the soul."
The Goidelic Celts seem to have adopted Druidism,
which was certainly not originally a Celtic form of religion,
but it retained its chief home among them. In the
Goidelic districts of North Wales, in Mona, the modern
Anglesea, the chief seat of Druidism was situate. To
Mona went the student from Britain or from Gaul, who
desired to perfect himself in the higher forms of Druidic
rites. From Mona, went forth the Druid, skilled with
' XV. " Per hsec loci hominibus paulatim excultis viguere studia
laudabilium doctrinarum inchoata per Bardos et Eubages et Druidas. Et
Bardi quidem fortia virorum illustrium facta heroicis composita versibus
cum dulcibus lyrse modulis cantatarunt: Eubages vero scrutantes summa
et sublimia naturse pandere conabantur ; Inter hos Druidas ingeniis celsiores
ut autoritas Pythagorse decrevit sodalitiis astricti consortiis qusestionibus
occultarum rerum altarumque erecti sunt et despeotantes humaua pro-
nuntiarunt animas immortales."

106 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
all the wisdom of Druidism, to guide and direct the faith
and fortunes of the tribe to which he was attached.
It is not easy to say what was the original reUgion of
the Goidelic Celts. Whatever it was, they had enormous
powers of reUgious assimilation, and, when first met with,
they appear to have combined the Ivemian Druidism with
a modified form of the Brythonic polytheism. They had
gods everywhere, and were prepared to admit new gods
without raising any difficulty. It was in a Goidelic
country, at Lydney, the sea god Nodens, a god who ia
said to have corresponded to jSlsculapius,' had a temple.
It was in a Goidelic country, Cheshire, the river Deva
was worshipped. When Christianity came, this mis-
ceUaneous pol3d:heism was abolished, but that was all.
The old worship and philosophy remained; the Druid
became the poet, the hereditary poet of the tribe, but he
no longer relied, for the supernatural power he still
claimed to possess, on magic arts, but on the Dirine aid.
He ceased to be a magician, and became a miracle worker.
His philosophy the missionaries swallowed wholesale, but
as the Irish laws were rerised at Tara by the Christian
missionary, so was the Druidic philosophy rerised by the
Christian missionary in Wales, and, so rerised, it became
the basis of the faith of the Celtic Church. Thus when the
Christian missionary came to Britain he had to deal with
two different sets of ideas. The Brythonic religion, which
was idolatry, pure and simple; here the Christian could
make no terms, accept no compromise. The Goidelic
reUgion, which was phUosophy plus idolatry ; here the
Christian could agree, if the idolatry was got rid of, to
allow the philosophy to remain. So in Britain, Christi
anity having to deal with two very different states of things,
^ Thackeray, Ancient Britain, i, 179. On altar is inscribed 0 | D M
NODONTI I H BLANDINUS | AEMATURA | V S L M.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 107
treated them in different ways — with the one, extermination,
with the other, toleration.
So far as it is now possible to learn what the Druidic
philosophy was, there appear to have been two main
ideas: — (1) That the soul, after a certain existence here,
would be re-absorbed and removed in some way to the
being and the place from whence it sprung. As it
was a part of the Deity when it came here first, it re
mained and must always remain a part of the Deity,
although it might be obliged to pass through various
stages until it became fit for re-absorption. The soul,
being dirine, can be kept so, or again brought to a state
of perfection, by a sufficient source of meditation, con
templation, and suffering. That a man of his own power
could attain to and keep in a state of perfection if he
went through a sufficient course of philosophy. (2) That
God was to be seen everywhere in nature, that every
thing was good, but it depended on man if it was allowed
to remain good.
These ideas were the outcome of the Druidic philosophy,
as accepted by the early Christian teachers ; probably, but
for the teaching of the Latin Church to which they were
diametrically opposed, they would have become the
accepted creed of Western Christianity. But the Latin
Church, adopting the idea of the Latin lawyers that a
man succeeded not only to all the property, but also to
aU the Uabilities of his ancestor, taught that the descend
ants of Adam had inherited, not only Adam's rights,
but also his liabilities, one of which was the responsibiUty
for his sin. It is a curious instance of the effect on religious
belief of the system of Roman law. The Eastern Church
and the GoideUc Celts, neither of whom fell under the
rule of the Roman lawyer, were never troubled with the
importance of the doctrine of original sin. But the

108 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
Brythonic Celt, who had been subjected to the rule of
Rome, and had been accustomed to Roman ideas, on his
conversion to Christianity, accepted the doctrine of
original sin without a doubt and without a difficulty.
The faith of the Goidelic Celts, as above stated, is usually
called, from its great exponent, Pelagianism. Pelagius,
the Greek form of Morgan, was a Goidelic Celt educated
at the great monastery of Bangor Iscoed, who with his
friend Celstius, an Irishman, preached at Rome about
the year 410. Neither the history of the great Pelagian
controversy, nor that of Pelagius, faU within the present
subject. But from the accounts that have come down
to us, Pelagianism is a strong piece of eridence in favour
of the riews here put forward, that the Christian teachers
in this Island had to contend with two forms of Paganism.
While GoideUc Britain became moved by Pelagianism to
its centre, Brythonic Britain seems hardly to have felt it.
To such an extent is this the case, that if a map was
prepared showing the parts of England and Wales which
were affected or otherwise by Pelagianism, it would be
found that the map showed roughly the dirision of the
country between the Goidel and the Brython.
Most writers on the ecclesiastical history of Britain
recognise that an epoch in that history is marked by the
HaUelujah Victory. Its practical effect was that the
vanquished agreed to accept the Christianity of the
rictors. Not only did Germanus return triumphant to Gaul,
but he sent Palladius to Ireland about 431, to extend there
the area of Latin Christianity. Dr. Todd ' is of opinion
that it is probable that at this time there were scattered
groups of Christians in Ireland, and cites in support of
this riew ^ a passage from the Tripartite Life of Patrick, re-
1 St. Patrich, 221.
' Jocelyn, Life of Patrick, ed. 1809, p. 149 ; Tripartite Life, Rolls ed.,
i, 95.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 109
lating the finding the four glass chalices buried at
Dumhagraidh and the ordination of Ailbe. Be that as it
may, these isolated groups of Christians would very
fairly represent the state of things both in Wales and
Ireland. SmaU settlements of Christians were surrounded
by Pagans ; the bulk of the people professing themselves
Christians when it suited their purpose, as when there
was anything to be gained by doing so, but when there
was nothing, falling back into Paganism, worshipping the
old gods, assisting at the old rites. This glimpse of Irish
Christianity probably also describes Welsh Christianity,
and easily accounts for the second mission of St. Germanus
in 447, to repress the new outbreak of Pelagianism. In
aU probabiUty, the real state of things was that the so-
caUed British Christians, who had become Christians whole
sale after the triumph of the Hallelujah Victory, gradually
retumed to their old faith, and so necessitated the return
of St. Germanus to put down what, not liking to admit
their f aUure, the ecclesiastical authorities caUed Pelagian
ism, in preference to what it really was. Paganism.
The paraUel between St. Germanus and Patrick is closer
than is usually recognised, — both their first missions were
faUures, both their second missions were successful. St.
Germanus retumed and completed his work in Wales,
Patrick went to Ireland to carry out the work of Palladius.
In both countries the state of things was almost identical,
and was met and dealt with in the same way. Fortunately
we have a fairly reliable account of the work of Patrick,
but all we know of the doings of St. Germanus rests on
legends which have been rerised and adapted to promote
the claims of the Church of Rome, and to show that Celtic
Christianity was really Latin Christianity, and that Celtic
priest and people submitted to Papal authority. St.
Germanus, Latin wi-iters say,' was sent by Pope Celestine

110 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
to Britain ; St. Germanus, Latin writers say, sent Patrick
to Ireland, and thus Germanus is the link that unites
Britain and Ireland to Rome.' As might be expected, later
legends have expanded and elaborated this. Nennius
connects St. Germanus vrith Vortigern and Wales, and
prolongs his stay in Britain.' The hymn of St. Fiace
connects Patrick with Germanus, and states that Patrick
remained with Germanus in the south of Albion, in the
southern part of Letha, and read the Canon with him.'
St. Place's hymn, from internal evidence, cannot be as old
as the seventh centm-y, and the notes on that hymn in
the Franciscan Liber Hymnorivm, probably not earlier than
the eleventh century." The Book of Lismare brings Patrick
over to Britain with Germanus, and interpreting Letha as
Latium makes out he went to Rome. But the Welsh writers
were not prepared to give up their part in the glories of St.
Germanus. A passage in the Achau y Saint ° states that
Garmon, the Welsh form of Germanus, "founded two choirs
of Saints, and placed Bishops and dirines in them that
they might teach the Christian faith to the natives of the
Cymry where they were become degenerate in the faith.
One choir he founded in Llancarvan, where Dubricius the
saint was principal, and he himself was Bishop there.
The other, near Caerworgan, where he appointed Htutus
to be principal, and Lupus (caUed Bleidan) was the chief
Bishop there. After which he placed Bishops in Llandaff;
he established Dubricius Archbishop there, and Cadoc
the saint, the son of GwynUien, took his place in the choir
of Llancarvan, and the Archbishop of Llandaff was Bishop
' Prosper Aquitan., H. and S., i, 16. = Todd, 316.
' Nennius, Hist. Brit., 32, et seq.
¦* See "St. Fiace's Hymn," H. and S., vol. ii, part ii, p. 356, and Roll's
ed. of Tripartite Life of Patrick, ii, 406.
° Tripartite Life, introduction, p. cxiii.
° Rees, Welsh Saints, at -p. Vll, citing Harm Britannicce, ii, 161,

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. Ill
there also." As Rees points out, although this passage
accounts for everything beautifully, yet it is full of con
tradictions. The Achau y Saint elsewhere says that
Cystenynn Fendigaid, not Garmon, was the founder of
Caerworgan,' that it was soon after burnt by the Irish,
and that then the principal was not Hltyd but Patrick.
At this time lUtyd could not have been old enough to
have been the head of a reUgious house, as in early life he
was a soldier,^ and eight years after he was Uving with
Ailbe. The Liber Landavensis says,^ "that Dubricius
appointed Hltyd to be head of Caerworgan. Lupus did
not accompany Germanus on his second visit. Germanus
returned to Fi-ance, and died about 448. Dubricius is said
to have died in 612 ; if it is true that he was appointed to
any ecclesiastical office by Germanus it must either have
been some years before he was born, or Dubricius must
have been related to old Parr. Yet the Liber Landavensis
says expressly,' and obriously with the object of prov
ing the Latin origin of the Celtic Church and that the
Welsh derived their orders from Rome, that Dubricius
was consecrated by Germanus : " Postquam predict!
seniores Pelagianum hseresim extirpaverant episcopos in
pluribus locis Britannise conseorarent Super omnes autem
Britanniam dextrales partes Britannise beatum Dubricium
summum doctorem a rege et ab omni parochia electum
Archisepiscopum consecrarent Hac dignitate ei a Germano
et Lupo data constiterent ei episcopalem sedem." As
Lupus only came with Germanus on his first mission
about 430, this would carry back the date of the birth
of Dubricius to the beginning of the sixth century, or at
least to 410, as even then persons were not usually made
Bishops under twenty years of age. Probably the scribe
1 Eees, Ibid. ' S. Iltyd, Cambro-British Saints, p. 159.
' P. 63, old ed. " P. 66, old ed.

112 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
considered, if he considered at all, that when he was
romancing, it was better to do it well. This shows how
Uttle reUance can be placed on much of what is usuaUy
accepted as the history of the Church in Wales.
Beyond the fact that Germanus came to Britain, that
he probably came twice, that he found isolated groups of
Christians and persons ready to become Christians or any
thing else, when their fears as to magic or the supernatural
were worked upon — nothing reliable is known as to the
mission of Germanus. His founding Bishoprics, his
founding monasteries, his introducing a liturgy, are as true
as his connection with Oxford, and no more so. They are
all the inventions of a later age, wholly without the
smallest scrap of anything like historical eridence. One
matter connected vrith Germanus deserves notice^the
places caUed after him, Llanhaiam, St. Harmons, Bettws
Garmon, Capel Garmon, and Llanarmon, are all in the
GoideUc parts of Wales. It is true that there is a
church in the Brythonic part, Llanfechan in Montgomery
shire, said to be dedicated to Germanus ; but this means
little, for all the churches that bear his name, or to take
Rees' riew, all the churches of which the foundation may
be ascribed to him, are in the GoideUc portion of Wales.
If, therefore, the usuaUy received idea is correct, that
Germanus came to Britain to put down Pelagianism, and
the result of his work, so far as can be traced from the
names of his churches, was all in the Goidelic part of
Wales, an iirference may be made that it was in these
parts where Pelagianism was strongest, where he laboured
most, where his influence was most felt. This is but
another way of stating the proposition already put for
ward, that Brythonic Britain did not suffer from Pela
gianism to the same extent as Goidelic ; and for this
reason, that, in the former, Christianity was substituted

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 113
for Paganism ; in the latter. Paganism was adapted to
Christianity. It may be said that with Germanus the first chapter of
the history of Christianity in Britain terminates. Bry
thonic England had become completely Christian, and
had passed under the rule of the Latin Church ; Goidelic
Britain maintained her independence of Rome, and, to
establish Christianity in those parts of the Island a new
method was required, and a new condition of things neces
sitated. That method was tried in Ireland by Patrick with
some success, and in Wales by Darid and others, with the
same result. It may be described as the extension of the
isolated bodies of Christians by means of monasticism.
But although Pelagianism and the risits of Germanus
confirm the riew here put forward as to the way in which
the country became Christian, yet there is other and
stronger evidence in support of it. One of these classes
of evidence is the different nature of the sepulchral monu
ments in the Goidelic and Brythonic districts. If the
inscribed and sculptured stones of Wales are of the date,
or anything Uke the date, usually ascribed to them, they
furnish very strong eridence in support of the riew as to
the difference between the Christianity of the Goidel and
the Brython. No one who has even glanced at the sub
ject, but knows the large number of inscribed stones in
Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Scotland,
compared -with the other parts of the country. That is,
that there is a marked difference between the sepulchral
monuments of the Goidelic and Brythonic Christians, or
between those used where the Latin Church was supreme
and those used where the Celtic Church prevailed.
It is quite impossible that this state of things could be
the result of accident, and it has always been a difficulty
to give any reasonable account of it. The reason wiU
I

114

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.

probably be found in the different natures of the Christi
anity professed by the two peoples. Had their beliefs
been the same, it is not unfair to assume that their mode
of treating their dead would have been similar. But their
methods differed widely. Speaking in general terms, east
of the Severn there are no inscribed or sculptured stones,
while in Cornwall, and on the west of the Severn, they are
found in considerable numbers. It may be said that east
of the Severn they have been destroyed, but before this
explanation can be accepted, it must be proved, which has
not yet been done, that they ever existed.'
It is clear from the Tripartite Life af Patrick, as well
as from other sources, that great importance was attached
to certain stone monuments by the Pagan Goidels. °
What those particular monuments were is doubtful. It is
difficult to say whether they were sepulchral, or were idols,
or perhaps represented both. Whatever they were, it is
quite clear that they were the subject of great veneration
from the Pagan Irish. At Tara, Patrick felt strong
enough to secure their removal, but this he could not do
in other places, and had to content himself with causing
them to be inscribed with Christian symbols. In the
Tripartite Life it is stated ' that Patrick found three stones
which the natives had erected in the memory of some
remarkable act or Pagan observances. Patrick did not
feel strong enough to order the removal of these stones,
but inscribed on them the name of Christ in three different
languages ; on the one " Jesus", on another " Soter", and
on the third " Salvator". This is probably one instance
of what was then a usual custom, turning heathen monu
ments into Christian by placing on them Christian names
^ The finding of the Ogham stone at Silchester is hardly an exception,
from the special circumstances connected with it.
^ I, p. 91 as to Cenn Cruaich, the chief idol of Ireland. ^ I, p. 107.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 115
or signs. Another is given in the remarkable story in
the Tripartite Life, of the cross placed over a heathen
grave and Patrick praying at it, when the man Lucius
told him it had been placed there by mistake.'
This mode was practised both in Wales and Ireland,
and weU iUustrates the way the country was converted.
The Pagan Irish, or Welsh, would not object to anything
being done that made their sacred rgonuments stiU more
the objects of veneration ; while the Christians would
consider that the sign of the cross had obliterated all the
rice of Paganism. Many of the stones that have come
down to us are inscribed with rude crosses ; some not vrith
one alone, but several. And it is a matter deserring of
inquiry whether any, and, if so, which of them, were
originaUy Pagan monuments, but were Christianized by
the inscription of the sign of the cross. Considerable
doubt still exists as to the date of some of these stones.
If it can be proved that the inscription is of a different
date from the cross or other Christian symbol, it woidd
give rise to an inference that the stone had either been
Christianized in the mode above mentioned, or that if it
already bore a Christian symbol, some powerful chief
or personage had chosen the stone, that Christian mis
sionaries had made sacred, for his monument. Although
of late years much study and attention have been given
to the inscribed stones of Wales and Ireland, yet the fact
of the Christianizing the stones has not, so far, had much
attention paid to it, and no attempt has been made to
consider if the dates of the symbols of Christianity
synchronize -with those of the inscription ; nor whether
the stones with bilingual inscriptions have both in
scriptions of the same date. In some cases it may be
impossible to raise any question; in others, this may
1 Tripartite Life, p. 127. I 2

116 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
possibly be the solution of what has been a great diffi
culty. For instance, the celebrated stone of Cadvan, now at
Towyn (in a Brythonic part of Wales, it is true) , is one of
the few stones that possesses a Welsh inscription. One of
the difficulties of the inscription is that on two sides of
the stone, at the beginning of the inscription, crosses are
found. Westwood is of opinion' that the crosses are
placed to show that each Une before which a cross appears
is the beginning of a distinct inscription to the memory of
a different individual, and in this view he is confirmed by
Williams {Ab Ithel). There has been a good deal of very
ingenious speculation whether the Unes which begin without
a cross are a continuation of the opposite inscription carried
over the top of the stone, or a continuation of the inscrip
tion on the side of the stone. It may well be that neither
view is right, but that the stone is one of those that was
treated in the same way as the Irish stones mentioned in
the Tripartite Life, and Christianized, so that the crosses
have nothing to do with the inscription, but were added
afterwards. So far, no one seems to have thoroughly
studied the Welsh stones, with a riew to ascertain and
classify the dates of the Christian symbols used on them,
notably the various forms of cross. That these are very
varied is plain, and it is probable that they are of
different dates ; but whether the date of the inscription
and the date of the symbol are the same or different, is a
question which requires further study, and is one of some
difficulty, but of great importance.
Whatever may be the ultimate conclusion on this point,
the inscribed and sculptured stones go far to prove that,
while in the GoideUc districts there exists on the sepulchral
^ " Notes on St. Cadvan's Stone'', Archcsologia Cambrensis, 1850, pp. 90-
100; Lapidariuin Wallice, p. 158,

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 117
monuments a general identity of reUgious ideas, yet there
is also great local variation in those ideas. Westwood
has pointed out' that the Welsh stones exhibit pecuUarities
of their own, when compared with the other stones of the
United Kingdom. In Ireland, except on the great crosses,
ornament is but sparingly used, and the rule is that the
inscriptions are in Irish. In Wales the stones are often
ornamented, but the ornament hardly ever contains any
attempt to represent either human or animal figures, while
the inscriptions are written in debased Roman letters,
usually in Latin, and in a peculiar form. In Scotland
the stones are profusely ornamented, human figures and
figures of animals are often introduced, but inscriptions
are rare. In the Isle of Man the stones are elaborately
ornamented, whUe the inscriptions are in Runic or Norse.
This difference in the monuments of the dead furnishes
important eridence that each different locality, where the
Celtic Church existed, had and retained its own pecuUari
ties. There was no hard and fast rule securing a general
conformity ; local customs and local ideas prevailed.
What was the case with the stone monuments was probably
the case in other matters ; each locality, each tribe, did as
they thought right, with the result that, while the
principle remained the same, the mode of its appUcation
varied. The eridence of the inscribed stones goes still further.
The post-Roman inscriptions hardly occur in what was
the country of the Ordovices (that is, in Brythonic Wales,
Merionethshire) but crowd together in the Goidelic tract
between the Clwyd, the Dee, and the Mawddach, in North
Wales, and in the Goidelic parts of South Wales." The
South Wales stones form two groups — an eastern, around a
^ Preface to Lapidariu-m Wallice, p. iv.
' Celtic Britain, 244.

118 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
line di-awii from Brecon to Neath ; a western, in the dis
trict west of the Towy. These groups are capable of sub
divisions, such as from the nature of the inscription and
the quantity of ornament. Each of these sub-divisions
run into districts, thus further bearing evidence to the
fact that the different tribes carried out the general
religious principle according to their own local ideas. It
would be beyond the purpose of this book to go in any
detail into the question of the inscribed stones, but one
peculiarity should be noticed in the character of the
inscriptions. The Goidels appear to have written their
inscriptions in a pecuUar character ;, these characters are
known as Oghams, and, so far as has yet been ascertained,
the use of this character is with very few exceptions' con
fined to GoideUc districts — Cornwall, Devonshire, South
Wales, the Goidelic part of North Wales, and the south
and west of Ireland. In a number of instances the stones
have a bilingual inscription of Ogham and Latin ; and it
is very often the case that the inscription takes the
pecuUar Welsh form of first mentioning the name of the
individual, then making some addition to it. Westwood "
cites as a typical case a stone at Cilgerran, in Pembroke
shire, inscribed vrith Ogham and Latin inscriptions,
" Trenegnssi filii Macutreni hie jacet." The Ogham in
scription has merely the name, the " hie jacet " occurs in
the Latin only. The early inscriptions would mostly
consist of merely what was wanted to identify and connect
the stone with some particular indiridual, and this is
what is met with in the Goidelic characters, the Oghams,
so the stone may be either Christian or Pagan. Later, a
second inscription was added in Latin. This was not
merely a Latin reproduction of the Ogham, but something
' The most remarkable instance to the contrary is the Ogham stone found
at Silchester ; see Archceologia, vol. liv, p. 233.
' Lapidariuin Wallice, preface, p. iv.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 119
more. Mr. Romilly AUen thinks ' that an inscription on
a monument shows it to be Christian, but it seems that
this statement should be qualified by saying that the
mere inscription of the name of a person does not
necessarily imply that the monument is Christian,
but that this may be implied if there is, as is so often
the case in bilingual monuments, any addition to the
name. It is also a fact to be noticed that the bilingual stones,
that is, all with Ogham and Latin inscriptions, are, with
but very few exceptions, confined to that part of South
Wales that was under the rule of Cunedda. and his sons —
Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke. The total number
for Wales is twenty ; ' no less than fifteen of them are in
the three counties mentioned, and three of the remaining
five in the adjoining county of Brecon. Pembrokeshire
possesses nine of the bilingual monuments; when it is
remembered that Pembrokeshire was the great scene of
Darid's labours, the figures bear out the view that David
carried out in Wales the same policy that Patrick carried
out in Ireland, and Christianized the Pagan stones by
causing some additions to be made to them. In Ireland,
out of one hundred and eighty-seven stones with Ogham
characters, only two have bilingual inscriptions, but
twenty-three have crosses cut upon them. Mr. Brash is
of opinion that the crosses were cut on the stones long
after the inscriptions were placed upon them. Mr. Romilly
AUen differs from this riew,' and alleges that there is no
sufficient eridence to prove it. This last view is correct
in a sense' — there is really no evidence either way, it is all
conjecture ; but the conjecture is a reasonable one, having
^ Monumental History, p. 65.
^ This number has been increased by recent discoveries, but the new
stones rather strengthen the argument.
^ Monumental History, p. 79.

120 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
regard to what we know of Celtic customs, and the facts
stated in Patrick's life.
It is also possible to go a step further : the absence of
biUngual inscriptions on the Irish stones is a remarkable
fact, the absence of ornament on the Welsh stones is one
equally remarkable. There must be some explanation of
these striking features. It is not an unfair explanation
to say that the difference is due to the local variation
of the same idea. In Ireland, the mark that the stone
had become Christianized, was the addition of the sacred
symbol, while in Wales it was the addition of a Latin in
scription and the cessation of ornament. Both had the
same meaning ; both were used to signify the same result,
but the local customs of the two localities differed, and
made the inhabitants use different modes of expressing
the same thing.
The next matter for consideration is, in what way was
Christianity established in the GoideUc countries. There
is no definite account of this for England and Wales, and
reUance has to be placed on inference from what is stated
to have been the case in Ireland. Here the ancient laws
of Ireland give us most valuable help. From the time,
whenever it was, that the Senchus Mar was compiled down
to the eleventh century, the Irish law tracts give glimpses
of early Irish ecclesiastical organization. The Irish
lawyers held that the law of the Church should foUow,
as far as possible, the law of the land. The two bodies,
the tribe of the land and the tribe of the Saint, stood side
by side, neither admitting the superiority of the other, but
each to a certain extent being dependent upon the other.
Ultimately the ecclesiastical element gained the pre-
ponderence ; the story of the mode in which Christianity
was established in Ireland is the story of how that pre-
ponderence was brought about. It is a matter of dispute

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 121
when the most important of the Irish law books, the
Senchus Mor, was compiled. Some perfervid Celts say by
Patrick himself, or, if not, under his own supervision, and
they give the date of the compilation as early as from 438
to 441. Dr. Todd, however, asserts,' that in its present
form the Senchus Mor cannot be of so remote a date.
Whatever date is accepted, there can be no doubt that
in the Senchus Mor the opinions, traditions, and beliefs of
the early Irish as to the introduction of Christianity into
Ireland are recorded. It is by far the oldest record we
possess that gives any account of how Christianity was
introduced into Ireland. The introduction, which pur
ports to give an account of this, makes the following
statement. The right of saying what the law was, and
of deciding in cases of dispute, had become exclusively
vested in a class known as poets or Druids ; they kept the
knowledge of the law so entirely to themselves that, in
time, their decisions became unintelligible to the ordinary
tribesman. "Obscure, indeed, was the language," says
the Senchus Mor, " that the poets spake at the disputations
at Emhain Macha between the two sages Ferceirtne, the
poets, and Neidhe, son of Adhna, son of Uither, for
the sage's gown which Adhna, son of Uither, had
possessed. Obscure, indeed, was the language that the
poets spake, and it was not plain to the chieftains what
judgment they had passed. ' These men,' said the chief
tains, 'have their judgments and their knowledge to
themselves. We do not, in the first place, understand
what they say.' ' It is evidently the case,' said Concho-
bhar, ' all shaU partake of it from this day forth, but the
part of it that is fit for these poets shall not be taken from
them, each shall have his share of it.' The poets were
then deprived of the judicature, except their proper share
1 St. Patrick, p. 484.

122 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
of it, and each of the men of Erin took his own part of
the judicatui-e. ... It was at this time the chiefs of
the men of Erin agreed on the measm-e of pleading times,
breathings, and speech, and to be allowed to each according
to his dignity." '
This account, whatever else we may think of it, refers
to a remarkable change in early Irish society. In the
earUest times the king or chieftain was at once the leader
of the host, and the judge. Gradually the royal authority
decayed, and the power of the king was usurped by the
council of chiefs ; the name of king did not disappear, but
his authority became a mere shadow. He subsided into
an hereditary general, a functionary. The dominant order,
a number of families uiuted by assumed relationship in
blood, laid claim to a quasi sacred character. The king
ceased to act a.s judge, and the judicial powers became
exercised by a class who claimed to be exclusively entitled
to do this as part of their privileges. A further change
took place, like that described in the text. A further
division of power was made ; the priests were deprived of
the judicial jJOAver, and this passed into the hands of another
group of famiUes, the lawyers. The two classes continued
distinct. The priestly class, the Druids, confined them
selves to sacred or magical rites ; the legal class, the
Brehons, took upon themselves to say, in all disputed cases,
what the law really was.
The exact position of the Brehons was a somewhat pecuUar
one. In all disputes they were the universal referees ; but
they were something more. They alone were supposed to
have the power to say what the law was — a power they
pretended they derived from supernatural sources. Patrick,
when present, did not venture to say what the law was,
but left that to be declared by the Brehons. They were
1 Ancient Laws of Ireland, i, 19.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 123
not judges in our sense of the term, nominees of the
cro-wn, exercising a power delegated to them by the crown ;
they were a family or famiUes of hereditary law advisers
attached to each tribe, and who had the hereditary right
of deciding causes, because they had the hereditary privi
lege of supernatural aid in doing it. The Senchus Mor
informs us how the Irish knew if the Brehons decided
rightly. " When the Brehons deviated from the truth of
nature there appeared blotches on their cheeks, as, first of
aU, on the right cheek of Sen Mac Aige, whenever he pro
nounced a false judgment, but they disappeared again
when he had passed a true judgment. . . . When
Fachtna had passed a false judgment, if in the time of
fruit, aU the fruit in the territory in which it happened
fell off in one night; if in the time of milk, the cows
refused their calves. But if he passed a true judgment,
the fruit was perfect on the trees. Sencha Mac Aililla
never pronounced a false judgment without getting three
permanent blotches on his face for each judgment. Morann
never pronounced judgment without having a chain round
his neck ; when he pronounced a false judgment, the chain
tightened round his neck, if he passed a true one, it
expanded down upon him." '
The system was, therefore, a group of men who were
supposed to be the sole depositaries of learning, who
probably alone could recite the verses that embodied the
legal rules, who professed to decide all questions in dispute
by virtue of their knowledge and supernatural powers. The
people could see the result for themselves of the Brehon
judgments. These were " the outward visible signs of the
inward spiritual grace." The poets also claimed super
natural powers. The Senchus Mor gives an instance. A
poet is supposed to explain things by the extent of his
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, i, 25.

124

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.

knowledge. " He placed his staff on the person's head or
body, and found out his name, and the name of his father
and mother, and discovered any unknown thing that was
proposed to him in a minute, or two, or three. And this
is Teinm Laegha, or Imbas Forosna, for the same thing
used to be revealed by means of these, but they were
performed after a different manner, i.e., a different kind
of offering was made at each." ' It is also stated that if
the poets gave a false judgment, they lost their honor
price, and were deprived of their profession and were
unable to perform Teinm Laegha or Imbas Forosna."
Such seems to have been the state of Ireland at the time
of Patrick's mission. The chieftain, surrounded by three
classes or groups of families, his Druids, his poets, and
his Brehons, each claimed supernatural powers, each
relied on supernatural help to aid them to discharge their
duties. According to the Senchus Mor there were only three
classes of people who " could speak in public, in Erin — a
chronicler to relate events ; a poet, to eulogize and satirize ;
a Brehon, to pass sentence from the precedents and com
mentaries." '
The gloss on the Senchus Mor contains some very curious
passages in its account of the old authors whose opinions
made up the Brehon laws. The first Cai is said to have
gone to Egypt, witnessed the plagues, and saw that it was
by superior knowledge the Israelites overcame the Egyptian
Druids, so Cai went with Moses. Obviously, this gives us
a clue to the scene at Tara. The compiler of the account
had Moses and the Egyptians in his mind, and framed his
story of it on the Mosaic narrative of the plagues of Egypt.
From the account of Connla Cainbhrethach, it would seem
that there were admittedly Christians in Ireland before the
time of Patrick. He was chief doctor in Connaught, and
1 Ancient Lams of Ireland, i, p. 45. ' Ibid., 25. ^ Ibid., 19.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 125
was filled with the grace of the Holy Ghost, so that he ex
celled the men of Erin in wisdom. He used to contend with
the Druids as to who made heaven and earth, the sea, the
sun and the moon, and challenged them to alter the regular
order of things. When they admitted they had no power
over the elements he said, " It is better for us to put our
faith in Him who established aU these things, the God of
heaven and earth. Different, — different is the strength
and manifold power of the Son of God, which claim not
ye for yourselves. Do not boast of your power, for you
have not even the power to change the order of one day
or one night." ' It is questioned whether Connla
was a Christian or not ; the passage may safely be read
that he was, for if not, it is difficult to see the reason
for his lecturing the Druids. Such was the state of
heathen Ireland. The Senchus Mor gives the story as to
how Patrick converted it to the faith : " Patrick came to
Erin to baptize, and to disseminate religion among the
Gaeidhill, in the ninth year of the reign of Theodosius, and
in the fourth year of the reign of Laeghaire, the son of
NiaU, king of Erin.' . . . The number of companions
with whom Patrick is said to have come into Erin was
seven score and ten persons, or one score and ten per
sons." '
It also appears from the Senchus there were two bishops
among Patrick's followers, Benen and Cairnech, usually
supposed to be the Saint Benignius and Saint Cairnech.
These names, coupled with Patrick's, are a little remark
able, and give a slight clue as to where the missionaries
came from who went to Ireland vrith Patrick. Benignius
was an Irishman Uring near Duleek, and one of Patrick's
favourite disciples, and is said to have been his successor in
1 Ancient Lams of Ireland, i, p. 23. ^ Ibid., p. 5. ' Ibid., p. 19.

126

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.

the See of Armagh, in 455 ; but there is very little evidence
of this. Cairnech was a Cornish man, who subsequently
became a Welsh ecclesiastic, and is said, in a passage in
the Annals af the Four Masters,^ which gives the Ust of
persons most closely coimected MT-th Patrick, to have been
the priest who baptized him. According to the Welsh
account he was grandson of Ceredig, and a place on the
Cardiganshire coast, Llangranog, still bears his name.
He is said to have foUowed Patrick to Ireland and changed
his name to Cernach, and to have converted whole districts
of Irishmen, after the failure to do so of troops of mis
sionaries. The presence of Cairnech with Patrick lends
some probability to the view that Patrick's mission to
Ireland started from Wales. Patrick had been labouring
for some time in Ireland before the event that led to its
conversion took place at Nithnemunnach, near Tara, so
called from a poisonous drink which was given there
to Patrick by one of the Druids, " and this was revealed
to Patrick, and thereupon Patrick pronounced these words
over the liquor : —
" ' Imber fis fri ibu fis ibu anfis,
Fris bru natha ibu lethu Christi Jesu.'
And whoever pronounced these words over poison or
liquor shall receive no injury from it. Or it was the
prayer beginning In nomine Dei Patris, etc., he then
composed and pronounced over the liquor."" This in
cident of the poison seems to have directed attention to
Patrick, and Laeghaire was desirous of killing Patrick or
one of his people, possibly in order to test stiU further his
supernatural powers. The king's brother, Nuada Derg,
who was in confinement, offered, if released, to kill
Patrick. He was made to give pledges to keep his promise ;
^ First division, vol. i, pp. 138, 139. ^ Andent Laws of Ireland, i, 3

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 127
a troop of horsemen was given him, and he set out to slay
the Saint. Riding down to meet the cleric, he hurled his
lance at him ; it missed Patrick, but killed his charioteer
Odhran. The Senchus Mar goes on, "and the cleric
(Patrick) was angered, and raised up his hand towards the
Lord and remained in the attitude of prayer, with his hands
crossed ; and there came a great shaking, and an earth
quake at the place, and darkness came upon the sun, and
there was an ecUpse, and they say that the gate of hell
was then opened, and that Temhair was being overturned,
and thus it was that Temhair became inclined. And the
Lord ordered him to lower his hands to obtain judgment
for his servant who had been killed, and told him he would
get his choice of the Brehons in Erin, and he consented
to this as God had ordered him. And the choice he made
was to go according to the judgment of the royal poet of
the island of Erin, Dubhthach mac na Lugair, who was a
vessel full of the grace of the Holy Ghost. From this is
derived the custom that whenever a person comes over
the sea to prosecute his cause, he shall have his choice of
the Brehons in Erin ; and when he shall come across the
boundaries of a province, he shall have the choice of the
Brehons in the province. And the thing was given to
Dubhthach, and he said : ' It is severe in thee, 0 cleric,
to say this to me ; it is irksome to me to be in this cause
between God and man ; for if I say that the deed is not to
be atoned for by eric fine, it shall be evil for thy honor,
and thou wilt not deem it good, and if I say that eric
fine is to be paid, and that it is to be avenged, it will not
be good in the sight of God ; for what thou hast brought
with thee into Erin is the judgment of the Gospel, and
what it contains is perfect forgiveness of every eril by each
neighbour to the other.' What was in Erin before this
was the judgment of the law, i.e., retaliation, a foot for a

128 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
foot, an eye for an eye, and life for life. ' Well, then, '
said Patrick, ' what God will give for utterance say it.
It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you.' Patrick then blessed his mouth
and the grace of the Holy Ghost alighted on his utterance,
and he pronounced the judgment." '
The judgment is given in the verses beginning "It is the
strengthening of Paganism " ; according to the gloss,
" it enumerates four things — obedience from all who are
sued, their choice to all who are sued, for here Patrick
was given his choice, Brehon, and his demand from the
men of Erin." The verses contain a reference to the idea
that a wrong judgment brought out blotches on the
cheek : — " It shall be proved by my cheeks
That I will not stain their wliite honor,
I shall pass a sound judgment." -
And the verses conclude with Dubhthach's decision : —
" I pronounce the judgment of death —
Of death for his crime to any one who kills,
Nuada is adjudged to Heaven,
And it is not to death he is adjudged." '
The gloss says, "Thus the two laws were fulfilled, the
culprit was put to death for his crime, and his soul was
pardoned and sent to heaven. . . . There is forgive
ness in that sentence, and there is also retaliation." It
then goes on to point out the way that the Brehons evaded
inflicting the punishment of death in cases of homicide.
" At this day we keep between forgiveness and retaliation,
for at the present day no one has the power of bestovring
heaven as Patrick had that day, so no one is put to death
for his intentional crime as long as eric fine is obtained,
and whenever eric fine is not obtained, he is put to death
for his intentional crime." " The result of the contest was
1 Ancient Laws of Ireland, \, 9:. '' Ibid.,10. ' Ibid., 13. ' Ibid. 15.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 129
that an assembly of the men of Erin was held, who, when
they heard of Patrick's mighty works and saw the king
and his Druids overcome by great signs and miracles
vwought in their presence, bowed down in obedience to
the will of God and of Patrick.
Such was the so-caUed conversion of Ireland by Patrick.
It shows at once the extent of his success and of his
failure. His power of working miracles impressed the
Celtic mind; they recognized him as the most powerful
of the dealers in the supernatural, therefore to be appeased
and conciUated to the extent of a human sacrifice being
offered if he should require it. But beyond this, they
would not go. According to Celtic ideas homicide was
not, — it might almost be said under certain conditions, is
not — a crime. It was an injury to property, and had to
be paid for as such, but that was all. This idea, although
opposed to aU Christian teaching, was too firmly fixed in
the Celtic mind to be affected by their Christianity. In
spite of all the efforts of Patrick, in spite of all the
attempts of the early Christian missionaries, the Irish
Celts continued to regard homicide not as " a crime but as
a blunder". The Umits of their Christianity were marked
out by the fact if the murderer could pay or could not.
If he was rich and powerful enough to pay the price, a man
might commit what murders he pleased ; but if he was
poor and unable to pay, or make good the damage caused
by his act, then he might be punished, or rather the
injured relations might take their vengeance in the only
way left to them, by the murderer's life. This failure of
the Christian shows clearly how very slight was the in
fluence that Christianity had on the Celtic mind, and
the difficulties that beset the early missionaries. The
native Irish did not object to Christianity as long as it
was confined to giring them the most powerful super-

130 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
natural aid then possible, but if it began to interfere ¦with
their customs and ideas, they would have none of it. The
Christian missionaries on finding out this accepted the
inevitable, with the result that the teaching of the Church
was subserrient to the maintenance of the old Celtic tribal
ideas. This account of the conversion of Ireland differs
widely from the popular idea. There is no acceptance
of the truth of the Christian faith, no teaching the
doctrine of the Trinity by aid of the shamrock, no real
change in the habits and customs of the Irish. It may
be said that Christianity was established, and, in the
sense that the Irish chieftain adopted the Christian priest
as chief wizard, it was so, but it went no further. All
that the converts did or intended to do was to appease
Patrick, and utilize the powers that enabled him to do his
mighty works. There was no change in either sentiments,
or habits, or ideas. Had there been, it was quite im
possible for some of the ideas and observances that con
tinued among the Irish to have been tolerated. Perhaps
the best instance of this is that of Loeghair. Christian
as he caUed himself, he was at heart a Pagan, and on his
departure on the foray against Leinster, which ended in
his death, the old heathen recalled with affection the tribal
custom of burial, and directed that in spite of Patrick and
his teaching he should be buried like his ancestors on the
ramparts of the fort, girt in his armour, with his weapons
by his side ready for the combat, his face tumed to
Leinster, the home of his hereditary foes, where thetr
chief , similarly buried, would be both ready and -willing on
the morning of the day of judgment to renew the com
bat, " because of the endurance of their hatred".'
' Book of Armagh, foi. 10, "pro duribate odiui"; W. Stokes says the
meaning is, " on account of the hardness with -which I have hated". See
also Petrie's Tara, p. 113 ; Appendix to Bolls ed. of Tripartite Life, p. 567.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 131
Paganism was practised long after the so-called con
version of the Irish. The Corus Bescna, which is a much
later tract than other parts of the Brehon laws, as it
describes the Church in an advanced state of organization,
speaks of " demon feasts " as things even then by no
means unkno-wn. It defines them as banquets given " to
sons of death and bad men, to heathens and harlots, to
bad people in general ".'
Probably the best account of the change the conversion
of Ireland brought about is the one given in the Senchus
Mor itself, in describing the way the poets worked before
and after the intervention of Patrick.^ "When the poet
sees the person or thing before him, he makes a verse at
once with the ends of his fingers, or in his mind, -without
studying, and he composes and repeats at the same time ;
and this is after the reception of the New Testament.
But this is not the way it was done before Patrick's time,
then the poet placed his staff upon the person's body, or
upon his head, and found out his name and the name of
his father and mother, and discovered every unknown
thing that was proposed to him in a minute, or two, or
three, and this in Teinn Laegha and Innis Forosna, for
the same thing used to be revealed by means of them, but
they were performed after a different manner, i.e., a
different kind of offering was made at each. But Patrick
abolished these three things among the poets when they
beUeved, as they were profane, for the Teinn Laegha and
Innis Forosna could not be performed by them without
offering to idol gods. He did not leave them after this
any rite in which offerings should be made to the deril,
for their profession was pure." ' So it appears that
Patrick forbade sacrifice to idols, and positive magical
' Ancient Lams of Ireland, iii, 25. ^ Ibid., i, 45. ' Ibid., i, 45.
K 2

132 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
incantations, but what he allowed to be practised must
have given the Druids or poets great scope for an appeal
to the supernatural. "He left them extemporaneous
recital, as it was acquired through knowledge and appli
cation ; he left them the registering the genealogies of the
men of Erm, and the artistic rules of poetry, and the
Duibi solimste and Duibi fedha, and story teUing, with
lays. . . . The chief stories which they repeated
treated of demolitions, cattle spoils, courtships, battles,
killings, combats, elopements, grants, encampments,
adventures, tragedies, and plunderings. . . . He left
them also judgment in right of their profession. . . All
these things were left to the poets, and Patrick told them
to resign whatever honour they received in Erin when they
performed these three rites, for that which they received
in lieu of them was better than what they abandoned." '
These passages show with some certainty what the
conversion of Ireland really was. The king and some of
the chiefs became nominally Christians, not because they
believed or professed to believe in the truths of Christi
anity, but because they considered it expedient to con
ciliate so powerful a dealer in the supernatural as Patrick
had proved himself to be. The Christian teachers tried
to get the rules as to homicide altered, but failed; yet
the existing law underwent a so-called rerision to carry
out such minor changes as the adoption of Christianity
made necessary, such as the abolition of open idolatry
and recourse to magical rites. But this was the utmost
limit of the change. The Druids still remained, but
they now ceased to exercise their powers as magicians,
becoming rather a Uterary than a religious body. The
Brehons still remained and arbitrated as before on any
disputed point that arose, and declared what the law, the
^ Ancient Lams of Ireland, i, 47.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 133
revised law, was on the subject. But a new class or
body was added to the existing classes, who took both
from Druid and Brehon a portion of their old powers.
The priests took from the Druids the priestly part of
their duties, the part which consisted of dealings with
the supernatural ; they took from the Brehon the part
that consisted in the supreme power of declaring what
was the -wiU of God, the law of the letter, the Gospel.
They became a body of men whose work was to combine
duties formerly exercised by Brehon and Druid, to look
after the worship and reUgion of the tribe. The chief
allowed them to settle on the tribal lands, to build
shelters, to cultivate the lands for their support. They
had to organize their society; and this they did on
the same basis, and in accordance with the same ideas
they found in force around them relating to the lay
tribe, and thus they formed an organization or com
munity of their own, which became known as the " tribe
of the Saint". To each tribe that became Christian
in name some such organization was attached. This
process of having a colony of Christians attached to the
tribe constituted the conversion of Ireland. In time, the
Christians Uring apart under their own rules were con
sidered a separate community, and their settlement became
to be regarded as a monastery, or the monastic settlement
of the tribe of the Saint. Conversion was an addition to,
rather than an alteration in, the existing tribal customs ;
these remained much as before, except that idolatry and
magic were no longer openly practised. The dislike of
the people to any radical change is sho-wn by their refusal
to alter the law as to homicide at the suggestion of the
Christian missionaries, and also from the fact that the
Christian settlers introduced little that was novel in
their organization, but followed the existing customs and

134 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
conformed to the ideas, the habits, and the customs then
in force. When once the Christian missionaries were
established or aUowed to settle on the tribe land, there
must have existed in the mind of the chief and the tribes
men a desire to propitiate such a powerful God as the
God of the Christians had proved to be, and this propitia
tion was carried out through the Christian missionaries.
To get what they wanted they had but to ask and threaten
the vengeance of their God if refused. So it is not to be
wondered at if the colonies of Christians soon became
important and powerful. Monasteries arose, that is, a
collection of huts in which the Christians and their
adherents dwelt with their -wives and families, not so
much from any idea of the duty or hoUness of Uring
together, or any such ecclesiastical notion, but from the
necessity for purposes of safety, and to ensure immunity
in case of war or invasion. Wild and savage as the Irish
were, they might well pause when raiding the settlements
of the tribe before they attacked the tribe of the Saint.
Security and protection far more than anything else led
to the first formation of the system of dwelUng together,
which developed into monasteries. The settlements or
colonies had some recognized head, probably the priest,
who remained in the colony, while the missionaries went
from tribe to tribe to found new colonies, that is, to
convert the country. As time went on, the resident priest
when the settlement developed into a monastery, developed
into an abbot, or the head of the monastery. This state
of things is recognized in the catalogue of the Saints of
Ireland, where it is stated that the first order of Saints,
from the conversion of the country till about 543, did not
reject the society and help of the women. The Christians
seemed to have aU lived together with their -wives and
families. It was not until a much later stage in the

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 135
development of the church, that the members of the tribe
of the Saint altered their mode of living.
When the conversion of Ireland is spoken of, it should
be remembered that all that is meant by the expression is,
that in a number of the Irish tribes the chiefs had
recognized the expediency of calUng in the aid of Christian
priests, and to secure them had allowed the establishment
of settlements of Christians on the land of the tribe.
Each of these settlements was independent of the other ;
each grew up in accordance with its own ideas of what
was right ; such ideas, generally, being based upon and
foUo-wing the Unes of the organization of the tribe to
which the settlement belonged. Such, if it can be called
a church, was the church that Patrick founded ; probably
these different coUections of Christians, while Patrick
lived, gave him some nominal adherence as their supreme
head. Even if they did, the system contained all the
elements of decay, and was bound to relapse into a semi,
if not wholly. Pagan state. If anything kept them
together, it would be the personal influence of Patrick ;
but this influence was on the wane even in Patrick's life.
In his letter, -written towards the close of his Ufe, to the
chief Coroticus, Patrick seems to recognize the failure
of his work, and the gradual relapse into Paganism.
He complains of companies of Scots and apostate Picts ;
men who were parricides and fratricides, ravening wolves,
eating up the Lord's people as they eat bread ; ravening
wolves who have devoured the Lord's flock, which was
increasing rapidly in Ireland.' Indeed, the whole letter
is the wail, the mournful wail, of a man who, looking back
on his Ufe's work, sees it to all appearance to be a failure,
and the Christianity he had laboured to estabUsh, falling
under the assaults of the Pagans. No longer do the
^ See Appendix to EoUs ed. Tripartite Life of Patrick, ii, p. 375.

136 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
Christian priests retain their supremacy, for no longer are
they able to deter offenders by their appeals to the super
natural. It would not be right to place too much stress
on the inflated language of an angry disappointed man ;
but after making every allowance for these feelings, and
for ecclesiastical exaggeration, no one carefully reading
the epistle but will see that the Irish at heart were as
Pagan as ever they had been.
Although, unfortunately, there is no account of the
conversion of Wales to the faith, Uke that of Ireland, yet
there can be little doubt that the process in the two
countries was very similar. There were contests between
Christian priests and Pagan -wizards ; the Christian priests
triumphed, and the people desiring to be on the side of
the strongest supernatural workers, came over to the
Christians, as they had in Ireland. The incident in the
life of Darid, of his contest with Boia, is clearly an account
of a contest of the same nature as that of Patrick with
the Druids at Tara. Unfortunately, David's Ufe has
been so often rerised and re-written, that the Boia incident
has been edited out of all meaning, but it was originally
a relation of the triumph of David over the Pagan
magicians. Probably Darid's rictory was followed by the
estabUshment of Christian colonies in Wales, in precisely
the same way as Patrick's was by the establishment of
Christian colonies in L-eland. In the next glimpses we
get of Welsh ecclesiastical history these colonies are found
to be in existence. Probably in the conversion of Wales
there was the same process of recognizing and assimilating
Paganism as in L-eland, and in this way the customs and
habits of the heatlien inhabitants found their way into
the Welsh Church, and became the origin of many of her
peculiarities. The story of the conversion of Ireland, as
already given from the Senchus Mar, probably furnishes

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 137
the key to much of the early Welsh history. It should,
however, be bome in mind that, as far as we know, there
would be a greater scope for local peculiarities in Wales
than in Ireland, for no one person ever had over the
whole of Wales even the nominal control attributed to
Patrick in Ireland. All the Welsh Saints were local,
and had no general influence over Wales, or even over the
larger part. So the religious colonies would be more
independent, and would, from the want of any control or
superrision, foUow more and more the local customs and
organization, that is, would be more and more permeated
-with Paganism. One instance of the difference between
the two countries will be seen in the position of the Druids
and the Bards in Wales, as compared -with the Druids and
Brehons in Ireland, after the establishment of Christianity.
In both Ireland and Wales the Druid and Brehon, or
Dndd and Bard, lost part of the power which the Christian
priest acquired. But the Welsh Druid never took the
place that the Irish Druid did after the establishment of
Christianity. In Ireland, both Druid and Brehon con
tinued for some time to exercise their restricted rights ;
the Brehon lingered on to a comparatively modern date.
But in Wales, while the Bards continued, the Druid
dropped at once into the position of a second rate magi
cian, and graduaUy lost aU power and influence. Even
his greatest admirers at the present day only say that
the Druid continued as guardian of local traditions, but
without any real power or authority.
The Christian colonies being established on the terri
tories of the different Welsh tribes, the results foUowing
such establishment have to be considered. Here the
distinction between the races inhabiting Wales must
be kept in mind. The Brython received Christianity and
really became Christian, that is, all his customs, habits.

138 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
and institutions were affected and modified by it ; but
there does not seem to be any real enthusiasm in the
matter. Bede makes it one of the grounds of his com
plaint against the Celts that they took no steps to convert
the heathen Saxons : — " Nunquam genti Saxonum sive
Anglorum secum Britanniam incolenti verbum fidei prsedi-
candum committerent." ' So far as the Brjrfhon is con
cerned this is true ; but -with the Goidel a different result
foUowed. It took longer for Christianity to make any
impression with them, or in any way to modify their ideas,
but when once Christianity got hold of the Goidel it
seems to have changed his nature. He became the most
zealous and enthusiastic of Christians. It was the GoideUc
Celts who sent forth Columba to Scotland, Columbanus
to Burgundy, and who came to regard missionary effort
as almost the greatest duty of a Christian Church. This
fact is also brought out by the modes that were used
to confirm Christianity in Ireland. All the efforts for this
pm-pose seem to have been made from Wales, and all
such efforts were made from GoideUc Wales. From the
Rheidol to the Mawddach, that is, the strip of the coast
of Brythonic Wales, neither history nor legend assert
that any expedition went, or was attempted to be sent,
to check the spread of Paganism in Ireland. But cross
over to Goidelic Cardiganshire, the whole coast there teems
-with legends and traces of Irish expeditions. Llangrannog
commemorates the Welsh Saint of the Senchus Mar,
Llansantfraidd, the great Irish Saint, Bridget. If there
is in all this much that is doubtful, one thing is certain,
the close connection that existed between Ireland and
Pembrokeshire. Going to the Goidelic part of Wales
north of the Mawddach, the connection vrith Ireland is
stiU kept up. Bardsey was a sacred spot both to Wales
1 Hist. Bed, i, 22.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 139
and Ireland ; Gildas is said to have given a form of mass
to Ireland in conjunction with Darid and Cadoc. Why
the strip of Merionethshire and North Cardiganshire
coast should alone have no Irish legend or tradition con
nected vrith it is a curious fact, and the explanation that
it was the only piece of Brythonic coast does not seem
unreasonable, when it is borne in mind that the Brythons
were not formed of the stuff out of which the early
Celtic missionaries were made. The same explanation
holds good to the north. Lancashire was Brythonic ; from
it no help went to Ireland or to Man ; but on reaching
the Goidelic coast of Cumbria and Strathclyde, we are
again in the midst of legends and tradition of missionary
efforts. When the history of the labom-s of Ninian and
his foUowers is investigated and -written, it -will be found
that no GoideUc coast has sent forth more missionaries
than Cumbria and Strathclyde.
Whatever Christianity might in time have done for
the Brython we shall never know; the Pagan Saxons
stamped out the Brythonic Christianity, and when Christi
anity again gained the ascendant it was by the labours
and efforts of Latin monks. The history of Christianity
among the Brythonic Celts is not therefore so important
as it otherwise would be. The case of the GoideUc Celts
is different. From the first establishment of Christianity
in Wales, whenever the date may have been, Goidelic
Wales has always been nominaUy Christian. Ireland
relapsed certainly once, and probably more than once, into
Paganism. Scotland, except in certain places, was only
nominally Christian. But Wales, certainly from the end
of the fom-th century, has never . nominally relapsed into
heathendom. Probably this was because the establishment
of Christianity, being on the Irish lines of ' tribal settle
ments, and those settlements being left to themselves, the

140 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
Welsh Christians absorbed practically the whole of the ex
isting customs of the Goidelic Celts, and caUed this mixture
Christianity. They did not relapse, as there was nothing
for them to relapse into, as their Christianity was only a
modified form of Paganism. Hence it is that the local
customs of Wales have surrived so long — because they
became a part of what then passed for Christianity, and
so their existence was assured. This adherence to local
customs and beUefs gave the great vitality she possessed
to the Welsh Church, and enabled her to resist, and resist
with success for so long a period, the assaults of Rome.
This state of things could only have arisen by some
such system as that aU-eady described of Christian colonies
gro-wing up -with, and being identical in organization and
habits -with, the tribe. It may not have been a system
calculated to produce a high standard of Christian life,
but it produced a very enduring form of Christianity,
and one that was probably the only form that could have
endured under the conditions it had to meet -with. It is
true that this is not the idea that is popularly stated as
to the state of Christianity in Wales during the con
tinuance of Saxon Paganism. Wales is said to have
received Christianity in the same way as the rest of the
island, whatever that may have been, Welsh Bishops
are said to have attended the Council of Aries, a matter
as to which there is no real eridence.' Wales is said to
have developed a heresy, or at least to have produced a
heretic who shook the Church to her foundations, and
only by means of Germanus and Lupus was she won
back to the faith. Except the heresy, the rest of the
popular idea has very Uttle, if any, eridence to support it,
but it is not easy to see why, if the popular riew is taken,
^ See Mr. Haverfield's article in the English Historical Itei-iem, July
1896.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 141
in Wales alone the Christian faith, as we understand it,
should have been preserved.
That Christianity did exist during that period is clear,
but it was neither Latin Christianity nor the faith of St.
Germanus, it was the native customs glossed over with a
thin coating of what was called Christianity that survived,
and formed the faith of the Christian settlements in
Wales. The revival of Christianity by Augustine, in
597, and his work among the Pagan Saxons, mark a
new departure in the evangelization of the country.
So far as can now be gathered, it appears doubtful if
Augustine expected to find any form of Christianity in
Britain. That on reaching the Severn to find that the
-wild country to the west of that river called itself Christian,
caused him some surprise, is sho-wn by his -writing to
Rome for instructions how to deal with these Christians, —
nothing of the kind forming part of his original orders.
He seems inclined to have treated them much in the same
way a modern AngUcan priest would treat a Coptic
Christian; and if Welsh Christianity had in it more of
Paganism than of Christianity, Augustine's treat
ment of the Welsh Abbots is not to be wondered at. But
it must be remembered that our authority for this treat
ment is only Bede and mediseval legend, and its accuracy
is not above suspicion. Probably Augustine felt able
to cope with Paganism, pure and simple, but his difficulty,
and the point on which he wanted the Papal orders, was
how to deal -with the Paganized Christianity he met -with
in Wales.
As has been said, the Christian colonies on the tribal
land adopted the ideas and habits of the tribe to which
they were attached, and, as they were free from external
control, they would of necessity graduaUy advance more and
more in the direction of Paganism. This tendency, from

142 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
the isolation produced by the Saxon conquest of England,
would tend to increase ; from the English border nothing
came to Wales to help to maintain a Christian standard
or a Christian ideal. The Christianity of the Welsh
became more national, that is, more Pagan, as time went
on. But there was one source from which Welsh Christi
anity was recruited, if legend is to be trusted — Brittany.
The relation between Wales and Brittany is one of the
most difficult parts of the history of the Celtic Church. The
risits of Breton Sauits to Wales doubtless had some effect
in keeping up Christiaiiity, but it is by no means clear that
the Christianity of the Bretons was of a very high order.
Whatever it was, this system of tribal Christian colonies
had become too firmly rooted among the Welsh to be
really affected by it, except in some lesser details ; for
the union of tribal customs and Christianity had become
a part of the Welsh nature, and has left its trace even to
our o-wn day. Speaking of Ireland, and the observation
equally applies to Wales, an Irish writer could say, with
truth : " Much of the half Pagan, half Christian religion
-will be found not only in the Irish stories of the middle
ages, but in the superstitions of the peasantry to the
present day." ' Not the least of the claims of Rees to the
gratitude of Welsh scholars was his shewing the im
portance in the ecclesiastical history of the country, of
preser-ring and studying the ancient dates on which the
local fairs were held, as furnishing some trace of the
early belief s of the Welsh as to the worship of the early
Welsh Saints, and the superstitions attaching to them
of lucky and unlucky days, and taking us back to a stiU
more ancient time, and yet earUer customs.
It seems most likely that the resistance that Augustine
encountered was not that he preached Christianity, but
^ O'Donovan, Four Masters, A.D. 432.

THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 143
that he preached a Christianity part of which was the
total overthrow of the religion that then existed in Wales.
It was not so much a matter of doctrine, or of Church
government, as of the substitution of the Latin ideas of
the Christian faith for the strange amalgamation of
Christianity and Paganism which was the then existing
religion. The Welsh were really fighting, not a battle
for any particular form or ceremony, but the battle of a
national against an alien church, and they have never
jet received the credit they deserve in this struggle for
reUgious freedom. Had Augustine succeeded, a dead
level of uniformity would have spread over the country,
stamped out the Ufe of the Church, and altered the
whole course of English history. Yet the men who stood
up for their reUgion, and by their courage and perseverance
resisted -with success the bonds of Rome, are never
noticed by modern Welsh nationalists, and EngUsh
chUdren are taught to look upon them as heretics and
schismatics. In whatever Ught we may regard them, the
fact remains, they successfully resisted Augustine and
his missionaries. The Christian settlement of Wales
was too firmly established to be overthro-wn ; that settle
ment consisted in a Christian colony being established in
each tribe, and which became identified with the tribe and
part and parcel of it. The nature and organization of
these colonies is the next point for consideration, but it
cannot be too strongly insisted that each colony was
independent, and owed no duty or obedience to any
one outside the tribe. Both the tribe of the land and
the tribe of the Saint were independent, there were no
ecclesiastical authorities over the colonies as a whole, to
enforce obedience or dictate discipUne. Probably the
Welsh Celt would have resented with equal bitterness
and stubbornness any attempt to bring him into strict

144 THE CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT.
conformity -with the reUgion of the Scotch and Irish Celts,
as he did the attempt to bring him into conformity with
Rome. What he fought for was what is now expressed
inthe saying, " a free church in a free state " — for his o-wn
local reUgion, which, although peculiar, and to our ideas
unorthodox, yet derived its strength from its peculiarity
and unorthodoxy ; and which, in spite of the pressure of
all the hostile influences brought to bear upon it, has yet
preserved traces of its existence even to our o-wn day.

CHAPTER IV.
MONASTERIES

The one point, almost the only point, on which all writers
on the Celtic Church, whatever their opinions, whether
Celts or CathoUcs, are agreed is, that the great feature of
that Church, wherever it was met with, was its intense
affection for monasteries. Whether the Celtic Church
is studied in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, or on the continent,
monasticism is its distinguishing feature. Probably this
unanimity of writers is more apparent than real, and is
due to each using the word monastery in his o-wn sense,
-without regarding the meaning placed upon it by the
others. It is impossible to imagine anything more unlike
a Celtic monastery than a Latin house ; they differed in
their origin, in their objects, and in their life. Each was
the outcome of different systems and ideas, and all they
had in common was, that the early Christians, whether
Celts or Latins, had, for the purposes of safety and mutual
protection, to Uve together.
With the fact of community of residence, any similarity
between the two systems ends. The Latin considered
that a life of hoUness could be best led by a Ufe of
isolation, the Celt by a Ufe of association, and in the
monastic systems of the two Churches, each tried to carry
out his ideas to their legitimate conclusion. To a certain
extent each succeeded, at least, so far as to show that
both systems, when really carried out in their entirety,
could produce men who would be the glory of any Church, L

146 MONASTERIES.
and whom the rival system was incapable of producing.
It is not Ukely that the Celts would ever have produced
a Benedict, or the Latins a Columba. It is some-what
remarkable that each system was to a great degree the
converse of the other. The Latin began by solitaries or
hermits Uring alone, but afterwards being joined by
others, and thus forming a reUgious community. These
communities, in time, adopted a fixed rule of life, and
became important and powerful corporations. The Celt
began -with a group of families forming a settlement on
tribal land ; they were associated for a definite purpose —
defence; and their settlements included both sexes and
aU ages. Then came a change ; women and children
were got rid of, and the monastery became a collection of
men living together, excluding from their settlements aU
women. Subsequently there came a third change ; a
solitary Ufe was regarded as the highest form of piety,
and the Celts rushed into solitude -with all the fervour of
the old anchorites of the desert. It is true that at one
period of the Celtic Church a fixed rule was established,
which rivaUed for a time the rule of St. Benedict; but
this rule, the rule of Columbanus, belongs more to the
history of Celtic monks and monasteries abroad than in
Ireland or Wales. Any universal rule, as this purported
to be, was quite foreign to the early Celtic idea of monastic
life, and never became accepted by the Celtic Church as a
whole. Each Celtic house in this respect followed the
example of the different local branches of the Celtic
Church, and was a rule to itself, or, as an early account
of the Celtic monks states, they had and practised
" diversce regulce".^ These differences arose from the
fact that each settlement was originaUy independent,
made its o-wn rules and regulated its o-wn proceedings.
' Ussher, Catalogue of the Irish Saints, vi, 477.

MONASTERIES. 147
There was no supreme power over either the tribe of the
land or the tribe of the Saint, to say what should be the
organization or discipline of the settlement. Hence the
divergencies and peculiarities.
This explanation, it is needless to say, is not the one
generally given; but the usual one, though based on a
different principle, does, in fact, come very near it, and
ascribes aU the divergencies, which cannot be deiued, to
the fact that the houses in Wales and Ireland were so far
from the centres of reUgious life, so difficult of access, that
it was impossible to ensure that the Benedictine rule was
reaUy carried out in them; thus the peculiarities arose
from the rareness and difficulty of proper risitation, and
the consequent laxity that grew up in the habits of the
inonks. But this assumes, what was not the fact, that
aU the monasteries in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, had
a Latin origin, and were subject to the rule of St.
Benedict. That the pecuUarities were the result of the
absence of proper control may be admitted ; the point at
issue is, whether the Celtic monasteries in their origin
were settlements of the original preachers of Christianity
and their converts on the tribal land, or were they
monasteries founded by Latin monks in accordance -with
the rule of St. Benedict ? The existence of local pecuUari
ties is not, and cannot be denied ; the enormous effect the
Celtic monasteries had on the establishment and spread
of the Christian reUgion is admitted ; the only point at
issue is, whether Celtic monasticism is a native Celtic
production or a debased form of the foreign, the Benedic
tine, system — Is it a Latin or a Celtic gro-wth?
The Latin riew is thus put forward by the great cham
pion of that church, Montalembert ;' after fully admitting
the importance of the part played by monasteries in the
1 Moines d' Occident, vol. iii, p. 9. L 2

148

MONASTERIES.

early history of Christianity in these islands, he says, " Nul
peuple au monde n'a recu la foi Chretienne plus direetement
de I'Eglise Romaine et plus exclusiveinent par le ministere
de nioines. Si couime I'a dit un grand ennemi de Jesus
Christ la France a ete faite par les eveques, il est bien
plus -vi-ai encore que I'Angleterre Chretienne a ete faite
par les moines. De tons les pays de I'Europe c'est celui
qui a ete le plus prcifondement laboure par le soc monastique.
Ce sent les nioines et les moines seuls, qui ont porte seme
et cultive dans cette ile fanieuse la civilization Chretienne ;
D'oii venaient ces moines ? De deux courants tres distinct
de Rome, et de I'lrlande." At first sight it would appear
that Montalembert recognizes the Celtic origin of the
Welsh Church, but his riew is that the Irish monks had
their origin at Rome, and were by no means a native
product, independent of Rome. He ascribes everything to
Patrick, and relies on the legend that Pope Celestine sent
Patrick to Ireland, and that Patrick as a Papal emissary
converted Ireland to the faith. But this riew of the case
has not met -with universal acceptance. One argument,
that if not conclusive, goes a long way to negative it, is,
that no trace of any such mission is to be found in
the admitted writings of Patrick that have come do-wn
to us. In the Epistle to Coroticus, when most desirous
of justifying himself for undertaking the conversion of
Ireland, Patrick does not refer to a Papal authority,
which would have been conclusive if he had had it, but
relies on the Dirine inspu-ation he had received for the
work.' It is quite possible that the Latin monks of
the ninth and tenth centuries who ascribed Patrick's
mission to Celestine were jealous of the English claiming
a direct connexion -with Rome through Augustine, and
' See Todd, St. Patrick, 310; Ireland and the Celtic Church, .h-y G.
Stokes, p. 47.

MONASTERIES. 149
also did not Uke to admit that the mission of Palladius,
which ended in failure, was directed by the Pope, while
that of Patrick, which succeeded, was not, and determined
that therefore, so far as legend went, they should all
start fair. As has been said, Montalembert admits the
Irish, that is the Celtic, origin of some of the Welsh
monasteries, so unless the fact of Pope Celestine sending
Patrick to Ireland can be proved, Montalembert himself
becomes a -witness in favour of the riew of the native
origin of Celtic monasteries.
But the usual explanation of the origin of monasteries
is not based upon Patrick, but upon Germanus, and is
one that is certainly more plausible than the Celestine
legend. On the monastic system spreading to the Western
Church, it is to St. Martin of Tours the honour is usually
ascribed of introducing it into France. In 361, he founded
the House of Liguge, near Poictiers, and in 372, that of
Marmoutier, near Tours. So far the matter rests on
historical ground, but then legend comes in. One view
is that Patrick studied under St. Martin ; another, that
of Jocelyn, which Montalembert adopts — that Patrick's
mother was St. Martin's neice. In various ways an
attempt is made to connect Patrick with St. Martin.
When Germanus came to England, in 429, to root
out Pelagianism, Patrick, according to some accounts,
came with him, according to others joined him in
England, and was sent on to Ireland.
There is another version ;' that on Germanus' arrival in
Britain, while he was at St. Albans, Patrick came to consult
him, and it was in consequence of this meeting that Patrick
went to Rome, was consecrated by Pope Celestine, and sent
to Ireland. Germanus went on from St. Albans towards
Wales, and, when near the estuary of the Dee, a band of
' Ne-wman's Life of St. Germanus in Lives of English Saints, p. 150.

150 MONASTERIES.
Pictish pirates made one of their usual raids. The Welsh
were desirous of obtaining the aid, the supernatural aid, of
Germanus in the coming fight. As in Ireland the powers
of Patrick produced the conversion of the Irish king, so
now, the powers of St. Germanus were to produce the
submission of the Welsh chiefs. The HaUelujah Victory
secured the triumph of St. Germanus — the result of that
triumph is said to have been the founding of the monas
teries of Llancarvan and Llanilltyd, if not by St. Germanus
himself, at least by his orders, and therefore under the
direct power and authority of Rome. From these monas
teries most of the other Welsh houses sprang; so the
origin of Welsh monasticism is thus directly derived from
Rome, and so proved not to be a native institution in
dependent of Rome or external authority; while Patrick
being sent on to Ireland proves the same thing for the
Irish. If the legend had stopped here, it would have
been more worthy of belief. The probable result of
the rictory of St. Germanus would be the founding of
Christian settlements in Wales, as the result of Patrick's
victory over the Tara Druids had been in Ireland. But
the originator of the legend, or one of the transcribers,
considered it his duty to make it complete, and by his
additions casts a doubt on its genuineness ; for it goes on
to say that Germanus had as a pupil Paulinus, the great
Ught of Llancarvan; that Germanus also consecrated
Dubricius " Archbishop when elected by the king and
the whole Diocese, and Germanus conferred the dignity
upon him ; they appointed him his Episcopal See with the
consent of Meuricus, the king, the princes, the clergy,
and the people at Llandaff, and dedicated the place to
St. Peter the Apostle." '
If this last statement is true, St. Germanus was a
' Liber Landavensis, p. 66, old ed.

MONASTERIES. 151
greater worker of miracles than even his most enthusiastic
biographers venture to assert, for Dubricius must either
have been consecrated a bishop before he was bom, or
have lived to an age that was supernatural. The date
of the HaUelujah Victory is 430 ; of St. Germanus' death,
448 ; Dubricius died in 610. If he was born at the date
of St. Germanus' death he was 162 when he died; if,
however, he was consecrated bishop in 430, he must have
been nearly 200 at his death. The fact of his being an
archbishop is at least singular, stiU more so in the fact
of the king and the diocese electing him. It is almost
certain there were no such things as archbishops in
Wales; it is quite certain there were at that date, 430,
no fixed dioceses. The dedication of the Church of
Llandaff to St. Peter did not take place until the twelfth
century. Another difficulty with reference to Patrick is
that it is said he was a pupil of St. Martin ; that Saint died
in 397. The earliest date given for Patrick's birth is 387 ;
so at most Patrick was ten when St. Martin died. It is
not impossible that a boy of ten was a pupil in a Gaulish
monastery, particularly if there was a relationship between
him and the head of it. But it is remarkable that the only
point on which the different biographers of Patrick are
agreed is, that he did not leave his home in Strathclyde
before he was sixteen, that is, not until Martin had been
six years in his grave. In dealing with miracle-working
saints it may be wrong to criticise the legends by ordinary
rules, but on no principle of historical eridence can the
origin of Welsh monasteries, as deduced from the labours
of Germanus, inthe way it is told, be accepted as accurate.
If monasticism did reach Ireland and Wales from Rome, as
is alleged, some better proof than such legends as are usually
brought forward in support of this view is required, before it
is accepted as a fact, or regarded as more than a pious belief.

152 MONASTERIES.
There is, however, another, and an exceedingly in
genious theory put forward by Mr. Skene.' It is more
plausible, it is not improbable, and the dates do not
render its authenticity questionable. It is really a com
bination of the Latin and Celtic views. AU writers
agree that about the close of the fourth century a British
missionary to the Picts, Ninian, founded a settlement on
the west side of Wigton Bay, where he built a stone
church. So far it would be quite consistent with the
Celtic view ; haring won over the local chief, he obtained
leave to settle on the land of the tribe. The date of the
settlement is about 396 or 397, as it is said that Ninian
heard of St. Martin's death in 397, while building his
church. Latin legends say that Ninian was a pupil of
St. Martin at Marmoutier, and on his leaving there, Martin
gave him some masons to show him how to build a church
in Scotland in the Roman way, and that in return for
this Ninian dedicated his church to St. Martin. Another
version says that he studied at Rome, and was there
ordained by the Pope, and sent to convert the Picts. This
story has the support of Bede, who, speaking of Ninian
says :'" " Qui erat Romse regulariter fidem et mysteria
veritatis edoctus cujus sedem episcopatus sancti Martini
episcopi nomine et ecclesia insignem (ubi ipse etiam corpore
una cum pluribus Sanctis requiescit) jam nunc Anglorum
gens obtenit. Qui locus ad provinciam Berniciorum
pertinens vulgo vocatur ad Candidam Casam eo quod ibi
ecclesiam de lapide insolito Britonibus more fecerit."
This monastery, Candida Casa, or Witherne, is also said
to have been known as Magnum Monasterium, and " the
house of Martin". It became one of the great religious
houses of the district, and was celebrated far and wide
as a place of religious and secular instruction. . Cairnech
1 Celtic Scotland, ii, 2. ^ Eccl. Hist., iii, 4.

MONASTERIES. 158
is said to have gone from there to Ireland, and to have
become " the first bishop of the Clan Niall and of Tara,
the first martyr, the first monk, the first Brehon of
Erin.'" Whatever may be thought of the legend, it is
not impossible that Candida Casa was the source of both
Welsh and Irish monasteries. If the Picts who followed
Cunedda to Wales were Christians, it is probable they
were so from the labours of Ninian, and it is most likely
that from those Picts who settled in South Wales the
missionaries went who really converted Ireland to the
faith. The whole subject of Ninian and his work is one that
requires most careful investigation, far more than it has
yet received. It would, if worked out, throw a fiood of
light on the early Christianity of these Islands. Even if
it is proved that it was by means of Ninian and Ninian's
monastery that Christianity came to Wales and Ireland,
it will stUl leave the fact of the early settlements on tribal
territory of the Christians in Wales and Ireland, and their
development, untouched, and it will not prove the Latin
origin of the Celtic Church, although it -will give a
reasonable explanation as to it.
It would seem, from the mention by Bede of monastic
bishops,^ or bishops subject to the rule of an abbot, as
being one of the features of the Pictish Church, that
whatever may have been the origin of Ninian and his
mission, the church he founded soon passed from the
Latin to the Celtic system.
There is nothing like real eridence to show that the
monasticism of the Celtic Chm-ch was the same as that of
the Latin ; in fact, such eridence as there is points in the
other direction. It therefore becomes necessary to in
quire into what was the Celtic monastic system. Its origin
1 Chronicle of the Picts and Scots, p. 55. ^ Eccl. Hist., iii, 4.

154 MONASTERIES.
has already been pointed out. Its beginning was the
Christian settlement on the land of the tribe. That
settlement consisted of the missionaries, their -wives and
childi-en, and also of any other famiUes that adopted
Christianity. The missionary became the priest of the
tribe or village, and he and his belongings had to be
protected, other-wise the advantages that the tribe hoped
to secure by becoming Christians would be lost. The
missionaries could not be expected to use their supernatural
powers for a tribe who were inhospitable, and did not at
least do their best to protect them. The Christians
accordingly made their rillage and fortified it, so as to be
secure against the forays of any neighbouring tribe. In
some cases they seem to have been received into the actual
village of the tribe, which then became a Christian settle
ment. Montalembert' expresses very aptly the change
which Christianity produced on these Celtic tribes.
" Les premiers grands monasteres de I'lrlande ne furent
done autre chose, a vrai dire que des clans reorganises
sous une forme reUgieuse." The original reason for
association was protection against the heathen; the
Christians Uved together for safety against their enemies.
The settlement was not a monastery in our sense of the
word, but a Christian village community, something like
the groups of Christians in the earliest days of the Church
as described in the Acts of the Apostles. The conversion
of the country meant the establishment of these com
munities all over the land. They were self-governing
and self-contained, and from this it followed that each of
them must have had all that was necessary to carry on
the settlement and continue the Church. So it became
essential that not only should each community have its
priests, but also its bishop. They had to form their
1 Moines d' Occident, iii, 88.

MONASTERIES. 155
organization on some rule or model, and they took that of
the tribe to which they were attached, and on whose
lands they were settled. The head of the settlement was
the chief of the tribe, the head of the tribe of the Saint —
probably he was originally the successful missionary — and
the heads of the different households formed the other
members of the tribe. All were related ; by being admitted
to the tribe they were sons of God, and, as such, relations.
Baptism was the ceremony of admission, and tonsure one
of the outward and visible signs of being admitted. At
first there was probably no fixed rule of Ufe — they did
what the head of the tribe prescribed, and this became
the custom of the community.
These early Christian settlements must have had some
resemblance to a state of things that is said still to exist
in some of the rillages of central and southern India.
To the rillage a class of persons are hereditarily attached
in such a way as to show that they form no part of the
natural and organic aggregate to which the bulk of the
rillagers belong. Though not included in the village they
are an appendage, soUdly connected with it; they have
definite viUage duties, one of which is the settlement of
boundaries, on which their authority is allowed to be
conclusive.' If for settlement of boundaries religious
ceremoiues is substituted, this will accurately describe the
position of the early Christian settlement.
The development of these early settlements into monas
teries seems to be the subject of a remarkable document
first printed by Ussher,^ and said to be not later in date
than the middle of the eighth century. A copy is in a
MS. volume of Lives of Irish Saints called the Codex
' Maine's Village Communitici, p. 127.
- Works, vol. vi, p. 477 ; Anfiq. Eccl. Britt., 913; Haddan and Stubbs,
ii, 292.

m

156 MONASTERIES.
Salmanticensis, in the Burgundian Library at Brussels
It is called Catalogus Sanctorum Hiherniw secundu
diversa tempora.^ It divides the history of the Irish
Church into three periods ; the first, a space of about 100
years, from the reign of Loeghair, son of Niall, 435-471,
to the reign of Tuathal Maolgarbh, 533-514, represents
the time of the early settlements when the Christians
dwelt together in one community, the reason being they
were all of one tribe and so of one faith. " The first
order of Catholic Saints," it says, " was in the time of
Patrick, then they were all bishops, famous and holy, fuU
of the Holy Ghost ; three hundred and fifty in number,
founders of churches. They had one head, Christ, one
leader, Patrick ; they observed one mass, one celebration,
one tonsure, from ear to ear. They celebrated one Easter,
on the fourteenth moon after the vernal equinox. What
was excommunicated by one church, all excommunicated,
they excluded from the church neither laymen nor women,
because founded on the rock of Christ they feared not the
blast of temptation. They continued for four reigns. All
the bishops are sprung from Romans and Franks, Britons
and Scots."
This appears to be a picture of the early Christian set
tlements. The founder of the settlement adopted certain
distinctive rites that would serve to identify him and his
tribe when required. The only things that they agreed, or
professed to agree upon, were, that they were Christians,
that they recognised some authority in Patrick, probably as
the greatest mu-acle worker. They had a distinctive form
of mass, of celebration, and of tonsure. They had a fixed
date for celebrating Easter, which was not the one the
Latin Church adopted in 463, at the instance of Pope
Hilary, but the old cycle of eighty-fom- years ; thus show-
^ See Appendix.

MONASTERIES. 157
ing that the settlement, if in any way derived from Rome,
was earlier than 463. They considered a person who had
been turned out of the tribe of the Saint, that is, out of
any of the settlements, to be incapable of entering any
of the other settlements ; he was in the position of the tribe
less man, an outlaw against whom every man's hand was
raised, one whose Ufe had no value, and so any one could
kill him. Priests and laymen, men, women, and children,
all Uved together in the Christian settlement. It -will be
seen what a very -wide field this left open for local
divergence or difference. All that these settlements had
in common was the profession of the merest rudiments of
the faith, just enough, even if it was enough, for them
to call themselves by the common name of Christians.
The first century of the Ufe of the Celtic Church coloured
its whole future, and the time from 435 to 544 was a
period of total absence of any general control. During
this time, no Pagan, if he thought there was anything to
be gained by it, could have objected to caU himself a
Celtic Christian.
What the circumstances were that led to the next stage
of development in the Celtic monasteries may be fairly
inferred from some statements in the Lives of the Irish and
Welsh Saints. The necessity for separate communities of
Christians had passed away after the revival of Christi
anity in Ireland which followed the apostacy on Patrick's
death. Ireland had become substantially Christian,
though Pagan rites were stiU practised and Pagan ideas
prevailed, but nominally and outwardly the people, or the
majority, professed to be Christians, and therefore the
necessity for separate Christian settlements had ceased ;
consequently the Christian villages passed into another
stage — they became places of instruction and schools of
learning. This stage began in the reign of Diarmait,

158 MONASTERIES.
544-565, and lasted till that of Aed Mac Ainmire,
572-598. It nearly corresponds with the Ufe of Colum
banus (513-615), with the great missionary efforts of the
Ii-ish Church, and the attempt to lay down a rule of life
for the Celtic monks. It was perhaps the most glorious
time of the Celtic Church, as in it Uved its three great
Saints — Columba, Darid, and Columbanus.
This second stage of development is thus described in
the Catalogue -. — "The second order was of Catholic priests,
for in this order there were few bishops and many priests,
in number, 300. They had one head, our Lord ; they
celebrated different masses, and had different rules ; one
Easter, on the fourteenth moon after the equinox ; one
tonsure, from ear to ear; they refused the serrices of
women, separating them from the monasteries. This
order has hitherto lasted for four reigns. They received
a mass from Bishop David, Gillas, and Docus, the
Britons." This second stage, therefore, really represents the
reformed monastic system after the death of Patrick and
the defeat of the apostacy that followed on it, when
Christianity was re-established by the work of Welsh
monks. It describes the Irish monasteries at their best
epoch. It will be noticed that no mention is here made
of a rule of life common to all the monasteries. It is
expressly stated that in ritual, at least, there was no
uniformity, they had different masses and different rules,
that is, rules of life in the monasteries. This, therefore,
supports the statement previously made, that each
monastery had its own set of rules. From this account
it would appear that the early Celtic monasteries, the
rillage communities, were not, of necessity, the home of
every rirtue. Something wiU be said on this point later ;
here, the only thing necessary to observe is, the direct

MONASTERIES. 159
statement that the different monastic institutions had
each rules of their o-wn, probably either the rules the
founder had ordained for his house to follow, or the
local custom that had gro-wn up -with the settlement.
The next development consisted in the application of a
still more rigorous discipline to these establishments.
The country had become wholly Christian ; to be a
Christian was no longer an)rthing remarkable, and the
Celt, whose great object always was to attract attention,
had to resort to other means to do so. This led to a
development of the ascetic element. The Celtic monk
now began to practise austerities as the mark of holiness.
The Celt never did anything by halves, and his devotions
and austerities, both in the monasteries and the hermitages,
would have astonished even the inonks of the Eastern
Church. 11 eridence is wanted to support this statement
then all that is needed is a visit to the Outer Skelig,
where it wiU at once be seen to what extent Celtic monks
could go along the paths of sanctity and suffering.
The third development is thus described : — " The third
order was of this sort : there were holy priests and a few
bishops, one hundred in number, who dwelt in desert places,
lived on herbs and water, and alms ; they despised private
property (or in another MS., they despised aU earthly
possessions, and avoided all whispering and slanders), they
had different rules and masses, different tonsures, some
had the crown and some the hair, different Paschal festi
vals, some celebrated the resurrection on the fourteenth
moon, others on the sixteenth, cum duris intentianibus.
These Uved during four reigns."
These three accounts have all the appearance of genuine
ness, and, if so, they furnish ample materials to show
how the monastic idea developed among the Celts, (1) a
residence for mutual protection, (2) then a school of

160 MONASTERIES.
learning, and (3) the starting-place of a number of
anchorites or hermits. The settlement, the school, the
solitary, mark the process of the development of
early Celtic monasticism. In Ireland each of the three
stages are seen at work. In Wales our view is limited
mostly to the second and third. As has been already
pointed out, Latin monasticism developed by the solitary,
the school, the reUgious house ; while the Celtic process
was just the reverse, being the settlement, the school,
the solitary. No one who even glanced at this state of
things but might be safely left to say that the life of the
Celtic monk in the monastery in any of the stages of
development disclosed a mode of living essentially different
from the system of the Latin Church. It is a curious
fact that the compiler of this Celtic Ust regarded the first
of the stages of development as that of the highest form
of sanctity, and entitled to the greatest reverence ; and
it is a fact that goes far to prove the antiquity and
genuineness of the document, as no Latin monk, no Latin
scribe, would ever have said that a state of things that
permitted the sexes to live together in familiar intercourse
was a time of the highest holiness. The writer of the
Catalogue says the first class was most holy, sanctissimus ;
the second class, sanctiar ; and the third, sanctus. A
Latin writer would have reversed this classification, and
would not have described the first order as "shining as
the sun ", the second, " shining as the moon ", the third,
" shining as the stars ". But the order is eminently
characteristic of the Celtic Church, as it did not attach
great importance to chastity, or, rather, gloried in un-
chastity. The objection to women and men living together
in the same commuiuty would not be apparent. This is
shown by the legends the Celtic Church has recorded of
her Saints, as for instance, that of Patrick's sister, Lupait,

MONASTERIES. 161
who lived with her nephew Mel, and when the Saint
arose at night to pray, Lupait got into his bed. Among
his Latin biographers this caused scandal, and so to avoid it
Patrick is said to have caused the men to be separated from
the women, and provided separate dwellings for the sexes.'
But this is nothing to the story of a Welsh Saint, Scuthin,
who was brought up by David at Menevia, and if the
legend is true, it throws a curious light on that part of
David's history which relates to his conduct to the
maidens of Boia. Scuthin, who was too holy to think of
scandal, was in the habit of sharing his bed with two
virgins of surpassing loveliness. This was too much even
for the general run of Celtic morality, and Brendan
hearing of it, went to Scuthin to remonstrate with him.
Scuthin, to show that to " the pure all things were pure ",
offered that Brendan should sleep that night in his bed,
while he spent the time in prayer. Brendan agreed, and
went to bed. As was the custom, the two virgins came
and got into the bed. They soon began to revile Brendan
for not sleeping quietly. This satisfied him. He admitted
the perfect propriety of Scuthin's sleeping arrangements,
and declared that the height of purity to which, by this
pecuUar method, he had attained was worthy of the
greatest praise." Such a legend is certainly a genuine
Celtic story. No Latin -writer who desired to depict the
highest standard of purity, and the best means of attain
ing it, would dare to hold up Scuthin and his method as a
pattern for the Church to follow. To a Celt, especially
to a Welsh Celt, whose ideas on marriage and the relation
of the sexes were of the lowest, such a story would not
arouse feeUngs of astonishment or shame. Something of
^ Jooelyn's Life of Patrick, 145, 146.
^ See Scholia to the Dublin copy of the Martyrology of CEngus, cited by
Todd, St. Patrick, 91, n. M

162 MONASTERIES.
the kind seems to have been considered as Scuthin's great
glory ; for in Cuimmin's poem on the Saints of Ireland Scuth
in is thus spoken of : " Scuthin of the sweet stories loved —
a blessing on every one who hath done it — damsels beautiful,
white-bosomed, and among them he kept his rirginity." '
One importance of these legends is their bearing on the
storie,? that are related of the Celtic monks, and especiaUy
the Irish Celtic monks of the third order. The Latin
conscience was probably so shocked when such stories
appeared in the Lives af the- Saints, that those who tran
scribed these lives amended them by giving to the Celtic
monk virtues that the Latin considered he ought to have
possessed, whatever was the actual fact. Hence, probably,
arose the stories of the austere behaviour of the Irish
hermits to women, such as that of Senan, who would
not allow a woman to land on his island of Enden, who,
when his sister came to risit him, refused to see her,
making her stay in a tent, and converse with him through
the tent with her face covered by a veil. Morality, in the
modern sense of the term, was never a characteristic of
the Celts, especially of the Welsh Celts. According to
our ideas, not only were most of the Welsh saints illegiti
mate, but they seemed to glory in it. The pious attempts
of the Latin monks to bolster up the character of their
Celtic brethren only serve to mark the point where the
Celtic legend ceases and the Latin version begins. It
must not be supposed that the Celtic monasteries were
hot-beds of rice, but on the other hand they were not
places of strict asceticism. Whatever else they were,
neither the Celtic monks nor the Celtic clergy in Ireland
or Wales ever professed to be a body of celibates, and this
fact goes far to prove that the monasticism of Wales was
not due to Germanus or any Latin source.
' Zeitschrift fiir Celtische Philologie, i, 65.

MONASTERIES. 163
There have come do-wn to us several sets of documents
which have an important bearing on this part of the
question, as showing what was the monastic Ufe of the
Celts, and the habits to which their monks were supposed
to conform. It may be taken for granted that the first
form of Celtic monastery produced a good deal of what
we should call immorality. When itis borne in mind that
marriage was not the mode by which rights were necessarily
transmitted from father to son — -that it was the fact of
paternity, rather than paternity following wedlock, that
was alone regarded — it will at once be seen that a state
of things may have existed that in our opinion would be
a scandal. Doubtless the heads of the Celtic Church
were wise in their generation, when the monasteries passed
from being tribal dweUings to schools of learning, in
taking advantage of the change to reject the ministrations
of women.
The so-called canons, said to have been made at a
synod of bishops of the Celtic Church, consisting of
Patrick, Auxilius, and Isseriunus, are ascribed by Haddan
and Stubbs to a date between 716 and 777.' They bring
out one or two points connected with Celtic monasteries.
(a) The separation of the sexes (No. 9), " Monachus et
virgo unus ab hinc et alia ab aliunde in uno hospitio non
commaneant nee in uno curru a rilla in villam discurreant
nee absidue invicem confabulationem exerceant." {b) The
marriage of nuns (No. 17), '^ Virgo quse voverit Deo
permanet kasta et postea nubserit carnalem sponsum ex-
commonis sit donee convertatur, si conversa f uerit et dimi-
serit adulterium poenitentiam agat et postea non in una
domo nee in una riUa habitent " ; and (c) they show that
a check was attempted to be put on wandering inmates
(No. 34), " Diaconus nobiscum similiter qui inconsultu
1 ii, 331. M 2

164 MONASTERIES.
SUO abbate sine litteris in aliam parruchiam absentat nee
cibum ministrare debet et a suo presbitero queiii con-
tempsit per poenitentium vindicetur. Et Monachus in
consultu abbate vagulus debet vindicari."
These canons show that the Irish Celtic Church had
become settled, that monasticism had become a recognised
institution, and certain rules were applied to inonks as a
class, that the early state of things of the sexes living
together had not only passed away but was r(>garded as a
clerical offence, and that the heads of the monasteries
exercised a legal and recognized control over the inmates
of the monastery. They also point to the introduction of
the Latin tonsure (" more Roinani capilli ejus tonsi sint," c.
6), to the continuance of heathen customs ( "more gentilium
ad aruspicem juraverit," c. 14), andto the early customs of
the Irish Church, which (c. 25) are referred to as " mos
antiquus." A further batch of canons of a second synod,
ascribed to Patrick, which Haddan and Stubbs ' say are
Irish, but of a later date, contain a provision (xvii) as
to hermits : " Monachii sunt qui solitarii sine terrenis
opibtis habitant sub potestate episcopi vel abbatis non sunt
autem monachi sed vactroperiti hoc est contemptores
solUciti {q. ssecuU). Ad ritam perfectam in setate perfecta
(hoc est a viginti annis) debit unusquisque constringi
non adtestando sed voto perficiendo."
This canon, while admitting that hermits Uving under
the authority of some abbot or bishop were monks, quotes
St. Jerome's expression, " Bactro-peratoe," unauthorized
monks, whom he styles " contemptores sceculi". These must
have been unorthodox hermits, who were not recognized
as belonging to any regular monastery. Another canon,
the xviii, founded on the Parable of the Sower, states
the fruit the Church expects her children to bring forth ;
' ii, 333,

MONASTERIES. 165
bishops and doctors were to bring forth an hundred fold,
clergy and chaste -widows sixty, laymen thirty, monks
and virgins an hundred fold. These canons, although in
teresting as showing what the state of things was in the
Celtic Church, do not give much direct information as
to the monasteries, except that for the monks a higher
standard was required than for the laymen ; it cannot be
said that they laid down any fixed rules for universal
appUcation. The earUest glimpses we get of the discipline of the
Welsh monasteries is from the Penitential of Gildas, which
is ascribed to a date before 570.' This document, by
the penalties it prescribes for un-natural offences, at once
brings up the question as to the moral state of the Welsh
monasteries. With regard to this, it may safely be said
that the fact of finding a penalty provided for an offence
should not be taken as evidence that the offence was of
common occurrence. No one would be justified in saying,
from the elaborate prorisions in our Statute Book as to
certain classes of offences, that such offences were of con
stant occurrence. It was the habit to make laws to deter
persons from committing offences, and it may well be that
something of the kind was the reason for the provisions as
to offences against morality among the early Celtic monks.
The same observations apply to other offences, such as
theft, gluttony, drunkenness ; it was the exception, not the
rule, that caused the prorisions to be made. The Welsh
canons all point to the fact that a higher degree of piety is
required from a monk than a layman, and so that a higher
penalty is provided in case of an offence by a monk ; but
the Welsh canons do not give any trace of there being
special rules applying to monks that did not apply equally
to the clergy and laity, the only difference being in the
1 Haddan and Stubhs, i, 113.

166 MONASTERIES.
penalty. The so-called rule of Columba is more in the
nature of good advice to a Christian, than a definite rule
of Ufe to be followed in a monastery. There is really no
evidence that Columba ever composed a written rule for
his monks, nor, if he did, that it has come down to us,
and so far as to any general monastic rules for the Celtic
monasteries in these islands it may be said that none are
kno-wn to us ; and that there does not seem to have been
any regular rule, but that each monastery prescribed its
own regulations for its monks. This would be what
might be expected from the pecuUar position of the Celtic
monasteries not haring, at least during the first period of
their existence, any authority supreme over aU, and
which was recognized by all of them.
The Celtic monks on the continent fell under a different
system ; there, the close contact -with the Latin Church
and the Latin monks who Uved under a fixed rule, that of
St. Benedict, drove the Celts almost in spite of themselves
to adopt a rule of life for their monasteries ; that rule,
the rule of Columbanus, is a distinct and definite rule of
conduct for monastic bodies. It does not, however, appear
ever to have been adopted in Ireland or Wales, and may
therefore be passed by, merely remarking that it was
stricter than the rule of St. Benedict, and would, if
carried out in its entirety, have made the Celtic monks
almost, if not quite, the most austere of men, and have
obviated the necessity for the various reforms that were
adopted to bring the rule of St. Benedict to a proper
pitch of austerity. The three great points Columbanus
taught his monks were, absolute and passive obedience to
the abbot without any exception ; perpetual silence except
for most necessary causes ; a reduction of food to the
lowest possible limit. It is assumed by Montalembert
that this rule was the outcome of the discipline in the

MONASTERIES. 167
Irish monasteries.' As has been already stated, it was
unknown in Ireland, and never came in force either there
or in Wales. There is one point on it that has led to a
good deal of controversy, from not sufficiently regarding
the nature of the Celtic monasteries. One of the rules
of Columbanus was : " Si quis monachus dormierit in uno
domo cum muliere tres dies in pane et aqua. Si nescivit
quod non debet uno die." In his history of France
Michelet ^ translated this, " For the monk who has
transgressed with a woman, three days of bread and water."
This rather free translation was violently attacked by
Catholic writers, and Montalembert and others translated
the passage, " He who on a journey should have slept
under the same roof with a woman had to fast three days
on bread and water." " Celui qui etant en voyage aurait
couche sous le meme toit qu'une femme devait je-iiner
trois jours au pain et a I'eau." ^ But this last translation
is open to quite as much objection as Michelet's ; the
meaning of the rule being that when the sexes were
separated, and the monasteries kept for the monks alone,
the monk who was found sleeping out, either in a house
in which there was a woman, or in the part of the
reUgious establishment set apart for women, was Uable
to the penalty. It had nothing to do with a monk on a
journey, but referred to the peculiar arrangement of the
Celtic monasteries, first, to the time when women were
tumed out of the monasteries, and next, to the case of
double monasteries, like the celebrated one at Kildare,
where there were both monks and nuns. If a monk was
found sleeping in the nun's quarters, he was naturally
made liable to a penalty. This would seem to be all that
1 Moines d' Occident, ii, 548.
" Histoire de France, i, 286. " Pour le moine qui a failli avec une femme
deux jours au pain et a I'eau.''
^ 3Ioincs d' Occident, ii, 549.

168 MONASTERIES.
was meant by this much disputed provision of the rule of
Columbanus. The double monasteries just referred to, form a curious
feature in Celtic monasticism, and although adopted at a
later date on the continent, they seem in their origin to
have been purely Celtic. Kildare is the earliest, and
here Bridget struck out a Une of her own. Itwas probably
at the time when the transition between the settlement
and the school was coining over the Celtic monasteries
that the idea was formed to separate the sexes while
retaining both in the monastery. Bridget's has been the
most celebrated example of the experiment. The oratories
in the Church were separated by planks, and through one
door the bishop, inonks, and clergy, entered, and through
the door on the other side, the abbess, with the virgins
and widows. This plan carried out the separation of the
sexes, while retaining the advantages of all living together.
It was probably a failure, but it is of interest as marking
a point in the transition between the first and second
orders of monasteries. Unfortunately we know but
little of the inner life of the Kildare house, but it
is a cui-ious feature in the development of Celtic monas
teries. Before proceeding to consider the positiem of the
different Celtic monasteries, a word should be said as to
the buildings connected with the monasteries of the
monks of the third order, the solitaries. They have been
cited as one of the proofs that show the Eastern
origin of the Celtic Church, and this theory has been
most ingeniously set forth by Professor George Stokes, in
his Ireland and the Celtic Church. Be that as it may, there
is no doubt that in the third order of monks the anchorites
had an important infiuence on Church history. It would
be a mistake to consider them hermits, in our sense of

MONASTERIES. 169
the word, as persons dwelling alone, far from " cities and
the busy hum of men " ; there were doubtless many such,
but these were probably the Bactro-peratce, the unorthodox
anchorites mentioned in the canons. The real anchorite
was the one who did not leave the territory of the tribe of
the Saint, but built himself a cell or enclosure on it, in
which he dwelt, and out of which he rarely came. To the
territory of the tribe of the Saint there was a district
or tract of land attached for the purpose of these anchorites
building their cells ; and this was the case not merely in
Ireland, but in Scotland at lona, in England at Holy
Island, and on the continent at Bobbio. So far, no hermits'
cells have been identified in any Welsh monastery, but it is
most likely because they have not been carefully looked
for. The change brought about was that the monks
ceased to live in buildings in common ; each lived apart,
although in the monastery, in a cell of his own con
struction. With reference to the form of buildings that composed
the monastery, the first form was either the village into
which the missionaries were received as famiUes of the
tribe, when they built whatever house or buildings they
wanted, for purposes of shelter and for purposes of
worship, or it was a regular village built upon the tribe
land on the spot where the tribal chief permitted the
missionaries to settle. If the latter, it was at once
fortified with a wall and ditch, haring the necessary
buildings inside the fort. This would be the common
form in Wales, if we are to judge by the prevalence of
the term "Llan", which would be the proper term to
describe such a settlement. When the second order of
things arose, and the monastery passed from a settlement
to a school, this was done either by turning out the old
dwellers inside the fort, or else in making an inner en-

170 MONASTERIES.
closure. In Ricemarch's Life of David it is said that he
endeavoured to enlarge the companies of souls, so he
left PauUnus at Whitland (?), and confined some of the
disciples -within the bounds of a monastic cloister ; " inter
cenobialis claustri septa coartans." ' He reached Kid
welly, where two Saints, Boducat and Martuin, appear to
have been Uring in the older form of monastery, the
Christian settlement. The Welsh Life says they agreed
to become disciples of Darid, a ymrodassant yn disgyblon
y Dewi.'' Ricemarch says, " Dederunt sibi manus "," and
that the monastery haring been founded according to
custom, vessels of canonical order were placed there, and
a rule for canonical life ordained, "his itaque ex more
fundatis dispositisque canonici ordinis utensilibus ac
ordinata ccenobialis habitus regula."
This seems to show that Darid reformed the old monas
teries, and turned them from Christian settlements
into schools, or places for worship, assemblies of men
living together under some kind of fixed rule. The
account of Darid founding his own monastery of Meneria
bears this out ; he went there with three of his most
faithful pupils, Aidan, Eilud, and Ishmael, and a number
of disciples. They began to build their houses, acting
in accordance with the rule of life under which their
monasteries were governed ; they refused to aUow any
females inside the monastery, and the story of Boia's
maidens is probably only a form of the strict enforcement
of the rule of the monks of the second order. These
monasteries were mainly schools of learning, and this
very one, Meneria, soon became the most attractive place
of education for the Irish. From Meneria went out that
body of monks who estabUshed the second form of
monasticism in Ireland. It -will be remembered that
1 Carnb.-Brit. Saints, 123. = Ibid., 105. = Ibid., 123.

MONASTERIES. 171
Meneria was founded in or near the territory of a chief,
Boia, who was a Pict, one of the Gwyddel Fichti. It may
be only an accidental coincidence that one of that race,
one who did so much to introduce the monasteries of the
second order into Ireland, was an early pupil at this
monastery, Finnian of Clonnard. His story is curious.
He was an Irish Pict, one of the Cruitheni. In his youth, he
was a pupil of Foirtchernn of Trim. In the account of the
foundation of the monastery of Trim, it is expressly men
tioned that the -wife of the chief, the mother of Foirtchernn
Scothnoe, was a Welsh woman,' and it was probably the con
nection between her and Wales, possibly also the settlement
of his o-wn people near Menevia, that led Finnian to become
a pupil there. He found, or is said to have found there, the
three saints who gave Ireland a form of mass, David, Cadoc,
and Gildas. If the Life af Gildas is to be relied on, it would
be more likely that Finnian found Gildas at Llancarvan,
over which he is said to have presided for about a year."
After spending thirty years of his life in Welsh monas
teries, Finnian determined to go to Rome, but an angel
appeared to him, and pointed out for him the real path
of duty lay in Ireland, where his work was to restore the
faith which had lapsed after Patrick's death. Finnian
went to Ireland, and took with him the reformed Welsh
monasticism, the substitution of schools or places
of devotion for settlements, and a number of Welsh
disciples. The result soon appeared. He founded the
monastery of Clonnard, in Meath, from which the new
Irish monasteries proceeded. Finnian of Clonnard is
mentioned in the Catalogue af Saints with another Finnian,
or Finnbar, of Moiville, as the two Finnians who were at
the head of the Saints of the second order. If any
reliance can be placed on a hymn printed in the office of
1 Tripartite Life, Rolls ed., ii, 334. ^ V'bta Sancti Gildce, viii.

172 MONASTERIES.
St. Finnian, he well deserved the place, as he tumed out
not less than three thousand disciples : —
" Trium virorum milium
Sorte fit doctor humills
Verbi his fudit fluvium
Ut fons emanans rivulis."
In the Donegal Martyrology he is spoken of as the
foster father {oidhe) of the Irish Saints; and the twelve
apostles of Ireland, the men who filled the land with
monasteries, of the new form of monasticism that was to
make Irish monks a name to be reverenced, were all
pupils of Finnian, and so all connected with Wales. These
twelve apostles were, Ciaran of Saighir, and Cairan of
Clonmacnois, son of the artificer, Columcille of Hy, better
known as Columba of lona, Brendan of Birr, and Bren
dan of Clonfert, or Brendan the voyager, Columba son of
Crimthan, who founded Tirrdaglas, Molaisse, abbot of
Devenish, an island monastery in Lough Erne, Cainnech
of Agahbo, Ruadan of Lorrha, Mobhi the flat-faced of
Glasnevin, Senell of Cluaininnis, and Nannidh of Inis
mac Saint, both islands in Lough Erne. Like Finnian
himself, two of these, Brendan of Birr and Cainnech
of Agahbo were Picts.' It -will be observed that all
these monks were connected -with monasticism in the
centre and south of Ireland, the parts in which the
Welsh influence was always the strongest. With the
exception of the best known of these monks, Columba of
lona, aU the others had one peculiarity, they confined
their work to Ireland. Dr. Todd ^ points out that these
Clonnard monks formed a sort of society or feUowship,
and claimed for themselves a kind of supremacy over
other ecclesiastics, particularly in matters relating fo the
' Todd's jSZ. Patrick, p. 99 ; Skene, Celtic Scotland, ii, p. 52.
^ St. Patrick, p. 148.

MONASTERIES. 173
defence of the rights of the monasteries, and especially
the right of sanctuary. It was for the violation of the
the right of sanctuary that the war -with King Diarmaid
broke out, which turned Columba from being the quarrel
some abbot of some obscure Irish house into the great
missionary saint of the Celtic Church. The importance
of the idea of the Clonnard house, that the abbots of the
chief houses had special rights, led to two very important
results in connection -with the monasteries — the eirforce-
ment of the rights of the tribe of the Saint, rights which
had been either not so much insisted upon previously, or
which, on the relapse into Paganism had become the
rights of the Druids or heathen priests ; and secondly, the
strict enforcement of the rules as to the succession to the
abbacy of the different monasteries, which involved the
headship of the tribe of the Saint. How far the fact
that the action that led to this came from Clonnard, and
that Clonnard was greatly under Welsh influence, justifies
an inference that this development of monastic rights
came from Wales to Ireland, is a question of considerable
difficulty; but it is reasonably clear that -with local
variations that did not affect the principle that underlaid
them, these rights existed in both countries, and in one
form or another they are met -with in every page of the
history of the Celtic Church, and form one of its most
striking characteristics.
Before considering the question as to the tribe of the
Saint, something must be said as to the monasteries in
the North of Ireland. South Wales, as has been sho-wn,
led the movement which brought back the south and
centre of Ireland from Paganism to Christianity, a move
ment which had its origin in Darid's monastery of
Menevia, and through Clonnard re-converted Ireland.
But the movement did not reach the north of Ireland;

17'f MONASTERIES.
they had their o-wn saints, and acted independently. The
most celebrated was Gildas ; by his efforts another great
centre of Irish Christianity, Bangor, the great northern
rival of Clonnard, arose. Among the Irish students who
frequented the North Wales monastery of Bangor was Fin
nian, or Finnbar, who, having completed his studies there,
returned to Ireland, bringing with him what was probably
the Welsh order of mass. The passage relating to him in
the metrical calendar of OEngus the Culdee, is said to mean
that Finnbar brought over the gospel to Ireland. This
statement has given rise to great controversy among the
writers on early Irish Church history. It is not improba
ble that the gloss in the Brussels copy may give the right
interpretation, which alleges that Finnbar brought over the
gospels as rerised l\y St. Jerome, that is, the Vulgate.
All legends agree that Finnbar brought with him some
wonderful MS. It was by copying this MS. the quarrel
arose which was the direct cause of Columba going into
exile. Dr. Todd,' referring to the fact that the saints of
the second order brought -with them a mass from Wales,
suggests -with great plausibility that such book was a
missal. It may be pointed out that as it is clear from
the quotations of Scripture in the writings of Gildas that
the version of Scripture he used, and which was probably
the same as that used in the North Wales Church, was
a version of the Bible of the pre-Vulgate series, but not
corresponding with any that have come do-wn to us ; it
was probably this version that Finnbar studied in a North
Wales monastery, and took over -with him to Ireland. It
is also noteworthy that, in his Life, Gildas is said to have
written a remarkable copy of the Evangelists in gold and
silver, which was considered by the Welsh to be a most
precious book,^ and it may well be that it was one of the
^ St. Patrick, 107 n. ^ Vita Sancti Gildce, sec. viii.

MONASTERIES. 175
elaborately illuminated Welsh gospels that Finnbar took
with him to Ireland. The matter is of importance, as it
was not only the gospels that Finnbar was said to have
taken with him, but also a code of canons which are
alleged to have come from Rome. Finnbar having gone
there saw Pope Pelagius, who gave him certain relics
and also a body of rules or canons for the government of
the Church. So far as Pope Pelagius is concerned, the
dates show that the story is an invention of a later age.
No western saint would have accepted canons from a sus
pected murderer like Pope Pelagius I, and Pelagius II is
of too late a date (578-590) to fit in with Finnbar. If
Finnbar did bring any canons over to Ireland, the proba
biUty is that he brought those which were in force
amongst the N6rth Wales Christians. So that in trying
to discover the rule of the Welsh Church, the so-called
Canones Wallicce should not be slighted because they are
said to have an Irish origin, neither should the Irish
canons be neglected. Probably the real rule will be
found by a careful comparison between the two sets of
canons. The efforts of the North Wales Church to secure the
restoration of Christianity in the north of Ireland did
not rest with sending Finnbar to Ulster. It is said
that the Irish king, "Ainmire", sent to Gildas begging
him to visit Ireland, promising to obey him and all his
doctrines if he would come and restore ecclesiastical
order in the country, because almost all the inhabitants
of that island had abandoned the CathoUc faith. Gildas,
it is said, agreed to the request, went over fo Ireland,
was presented to the king, who begged him to remain
and restore religion. Gildas made a tour through Ireland,
restored churches, and taught the clergy to worship

176 MONASTERIES.
the Holy Trinity in the Catholic faith. This mission of
Gildas is mentioned in the Annales Cambria', under the
year 578, " Migratio Gildse in Hibernia", and the death
of Gildas is mentioned in the annals of Ulster, the annals
of Innisfallen, and by Tigernach, thus giving great colour
to the truth of the legend that the three great Welsh
Saints rerived Christianity in Ireland, and that the revival
was by means of monasticism. Against this should be
set the view oi Dr. Todd,' that the name Gildas is not the
name of a person but only another form of the Irish term
" Giolla De ", servant of God, a title, or sort of eeelesi-
astical degree given hj the schools of Ireland. That,
therefore, there were several persons who had a right to
the title, and were distinguished from each other by
being called "Sapiens", "Badonicus"j "Albanicus",
" Gildas " ; the Welsh Saint is usually supposed to be
" Gildas Badonicus ", although on this there is great
difference of opinion. Ingenious as this theory is, yet it
hardly accounts for the existence of a distinct person
bearing the name both in the Welsh and the Irish
annals. It may well be that the legendary Gildas is not
historical in all the details ascribed to him, but it seems
reasonably clear that there was such a Welsh Saint who
did take an actual part in the restoration of Christianity
in Ireland, especiaUy in Ulster, and it is most probable
that such monasticism as he introduced was of the Welsh
type. The chief of the new houses, the celebrated Bangor,
was named after the great Welsh house ; it became the
rival, and the successful rival, of Clonnard, and was to Ulster
what the other was to the centre and south of L-eland.
The second order of saints helped to evangelize Ireland
from Wales ; the third order seems to have led a move
ment of evangelizing Wales from Ireland.
1 St. Patrick, p. Ill n.

MONASTERIES. 177
The development of the third order of saints appears to
have produced different results in Ireland and Wales.
In the latter it took the form of solitary saints, in Ireland
of missionary efforts. It is a curious instance of this, that
in treating of the third holy family of Wales, that of
Brychan, the Triad states, that he " educated his children
and grandchildren to qualify them to show forth the
faith of the Church to the natives of the Cymry that were
without the faith." It is added that their spiritual in
structor was an Irishman, Brynach Gwyddel, who married
one of Brychan's daughters, by whom he had four children.
It therefore seems, that while the second order of saints
represented an effort from Wales to Ireland, the third
order represented a movement from Ireland to Wales.
Rees, who is jealous for the honour of his country, tries
to make out that the Irish mission was not to the Welsh,
but to the Irish settled in Wales.' Be this as it may, it
seems the Irish missionaries became estabUshed in Wales.
One of the accounts of the progeny of Brychan mentions
twenty-four names, aU of whom became holy martyrs and
confessors in Devon and Cornwall, where they led an
eremitical life. Many instances, both of Irish and Welsh
soUtaries might be given. In Ireland, Kerin, and
Senan celebrated by Moore. In Wales, Gildas and
Cadoc, who left the monastery of Llancarvan to live as
soUtaries on two islands in the Bristol Channel, now known
as the Steep and Flat Holmes.
What is kno-wn of Celtic monasticism in its early state
may thus be summed up. There were three distinct
developments of monasteries, which extended from the
introduction of Christianity until about the middle of the
seventh century. The first was defensive ; all Christians
Uved together for mutual protection ; the viUage either
1 Welsh Saints, pp. 157, 158.

178 MONASTERIES.
became a Christian settlement, or all the Christian cim-
verts lived together and formed a Christian settlement — a
fortified village — of theu- own. Then came the relapse into
Paganism, followed by the second conversion of L-eland,
when Welsh monks came over and established schools of
learning and devotion. South Wales provided for the
centre and south of Ireland by the school, or monastery, of
Clonnard ; North Wales providing for the north and Ulster
by the school of the Irish Bangor. When these schools
filled to overfio-wing, a third development arose. Monks
went forth from the monasteries as hermits or missionaries,
or both, and Ireland began to pay back her loan to Wales,
by sending over missionaries to complete the conversion of
that country. The schools continued, and great efforts
were made at teaching and converting by the missionaries
from those schools. The last two developments seem
almost to have worked concurrently. Probably their
greatest sphere of action was in the north, among the
missionaries that came from lona and other monasteries
on the west coast of Scotland, and who tried to convert
Scotland and the north of England. Their best example
is Cuthbert, the great northern saint, who now rests in
Durham Cathedral. The effort of this last develop
ment of Celtic monasticism was checked by two causes,
the destruction of the great Welsh monastery of Bangor,
about 632, and the advance of the Latin clergy.
Allusion has already been made to the founders of the
second dirision of monasteries, the twelve apostles of
Ireland, and that some of them, especially those who
belonged to Clonnard, had gradually begun to form them
selves into a sort of spiritual tribe or clan. This idea of
a tribe pervaded each monastery, the whole of the mem
bers of which, not only in the monastery itself but also
in all its subordinate houses, were considered to form one

MONASTERIES. 179
family or tribe {muntir). This expression {Mwnwther
Benchuir is used to describe the Bangor house in
the Bangor Ant-iphonary ' as synonjrmous to the familiw
Benchuir. To this tribe some rules and regulations were
essential, and the rules and regulations then in force in
the lay tribe were the basis of those adopted. The mon
astic family, the ecclesiastical tribe, began to be spoken of
as the tribe of the Saint, the members of which tribe were
all assumed to be related by descent, either actually, or in
theory, from the saint who had received from the Pagan
chief permission to settle on the lands of the lay tribe.
This settlement gave the saint, not merely the land, but also
conferred on him aU the rights of the head of the tribe or
clan, which rights foUowed the rule of devolution that
obtained as to the chieftainship of the lay tribe in a
defined and fixed way, according to certain definite and
recognized rules. The persons who were eligible to
succeed to the chieftainship were designated " coarbs ",
or " canarbs ", and on these, whatever might be their
social position, the headship of the tribe devolved. All
the dweUers on the settlement were counted together
under the name of " the tribe of the Saint", a name which
had at least two very important meanings. The first
meant the actual descendants of the saint, his childi-en
and grandchUdren, aU of whom formed, or were supposed
to form, one family actually related by blood. It also
meant aU the members of the Christian settlement, because
they had been, by a sort of spiritual fosterage, made
members of the tribe of the Saint. This clan, or tribe,
was the fact that gave the system its ritality in Wales ;
the clannish theory forms one of, if not the most
characteristic feature of the Celtic Church, and in order
to properly realize it and appreciate it, the best way -will
^ Foi. 30 r; Henry Bradsha-w Society's Pub., vol. iv.
N 2

180 MONASTERIES.
be to consider the account of the foundation of a church
on Celtic lines ; probably the narrative of the foundation
of that at Trim is the best we have, and most accurately
describes the foundation of the various Celtic houses both
in Wales, England, and Gaul.
The story is related in the Book of Armagh.^ Patrick,
on arriring in Ireland, left Lomman at the mouth of the
Boyne for forty days, to guard the ships. Lomman
remained that time, and also another forty days, and as
Patrick did not return, sailed up the river to Trim and
anchored near the door of the house of Feidilmidh, son of
Loigaire. In the morning Foirtchernn, son of Feidilmidh,
on coming out of the house, found Lomman reciting the
gospel ; after he had listened some time, he believed and
was baptized. His mother was a Welsh woman, and
hearing the monk speak Welsh, she also believed and
was baptized. After some more conversation with the
strangers, Feidilmidh himself also believed and was
baptized, and he thereupon dedicated {immalavit) to God
and the holy Patrick his territory and his possessions,
-with all his substance and all his clan — aU these he
devoted to Patrick, Lomman, and his son Foirtchernn,
until the day of judgment. In this case the Pagan chief
did not merely give leave to settle, but placed all his
property and belongings in the custody of Patrick.
UntU Patrick's return Lomman remained at Trim, and
a church was built there. The Book of Armagh then
relates how the Trim settlement was continued. The
chief had given over to the saint aU his territory,
possessions, and substance, and tribe {progenies), that is,
aU the tribe became Christians, and were therefore
absorbed into the tribe of the Saint. The saint was from
1 Foi. 16, a 2, printed in Todd's St. Patrick, 257 ; and in Rolls ed. of
Tripartite Life, ii, 334.

MONASTERIES. 181
thenceforth the head of the tribe ; his family became the
coarbs, the family in which the chieftainship resided. So,
to place the matter on record and enable the chieftainship
to be ascertained at once and without question, the
pedigree of the Welshman, Lomman, is inserted in the
Book of Armagh. He is said to have been the son of
GoUit, by Patrick's sister. GolUt was one of Patrick's
brethren, whose names are all inserted; they were all
ecclesiastics, and the places in which each of these brothers
worked, the tribes among which they all laboured, are
given at length, so that if any vacancy occurred in the
headship of the tribe of the Saint, the Trim tribe would
at once, -without the least difficulty, know where to go
for their new chief. Haring given the names of those
who might, in certain events, have to succeed, the story
proceeds to state what actually took place. Assuming
they are named in the order of birth, Lomman feeling
he was dying, went to his second brother, Broccaid
(passing over the elder, Bishop Manis). He took his
disciple, Foirtchernn, -with him, " and then," says the
account, " he, Lomman, committed his holy church to
holy Patrick and to Foirtchernn ; but Foirtchernn refused
to hold the heritage of his father which he had offered to
God and to Patrick. Foirtchernn — it -will be remembered
— was the son of the converted chief, Feidilmidh, and as
such, assuming hereditary right prevailed, would have
been the chief of the lay tribe. Lomman decUned to give
him his blessing unless he agreed to take the chieftainship
of the ecclesiastical tribe. On this, Foirtchernn agreed to
take it, but he only retained it for three days until he
retumed to Trim, when he resigned it to a pilgrim,
Cathlaid. Sir Henry Maine says,' that the blessing of
Isaac, as mentioned in Genesis, was the mode of naming an
' Ancient Lams, p. 243.

1 82 MONASTERIES.
eldest son of the person who was to succeed ; it was the
right of succession aud representation, andthe same mean
ing probably applies here. Lomman, the chief of the tribe
of the Saint, would claim, as to this day some of the Indian
Mahometan sovereigns claim, the right to nominate the
son who is to succeed them. His blessing Foirtchernn
would be the ceremony whereby he nominated him to
succeed as his successor and representative, not only to the
chieftainship of the lay tribe, but also to the headship of
the Trim monastery, the chieftainship of the tribe of
the Saint; and it seems that Foirtchernn only took the
headship of the tribe of the Saint so as to secure
the nomination to the headship of the tribe of the
land. According to the rules laid do-wn in the Corus Bescna,'
the succession to the tribe of the Saint was regulated as
follows : " Any person who was fit in the tribe of the
patron saint, even if such person was only a psalm singer."
If no such person, then it went to the tribe on whose
land the monastery was founded, and if none of such
persons were fit for the place, then to the occupants of
the monastery ; if none of these were fit, it might be given
to a pilgrim, that is, to a duly qualified stranger. As
Lomman was a foreign saint, that is, as the monastery
was given to him by the lay chief, the first choice of head
of the monastery, of chief of the spiritual tribe, went to
the members of the lay tribe, and of these Lomman
selected Foirtchernn as, in his opinion, the fittest for the
place. On his refusal, and none of the monks of Trim
being considered fit, the next person to be nominated
was a stranger, or pilgrim, which was what was done
here. So this proceeding, which, at first sight, looks
Uke an act of dictation on the part of Lomman, then
^ Anjyient Laws of Ireland, Rolls ed., iii, 73.

MONASTERIES. 183
of Foirtchei-nn, to thrust in his o-wn nominee, was really
only an instance of the strict application of the Celtic
rules of succession to the chieftainship of the tribe of the
Saint. There are several points that are obscure, such as.
Why were all the Trim monks passed over as unfit?
Could the nominee of the chieftain resign his authority,
and, if so, did the nomination go to him or the original
head? But the interest of the case is, that it gives an
instance of the foundation of a Celtic house, and of the
mode in which the rules were appUed for determining who
was to be the head of that house. From reading any of
the Irish records, one thing is clear — it is never safe to
assume that the head of an Irish house was an un
authorized intruder, even if he would be so according
to Latin rides. Such would clearly be the case here in
the succession of the pilgrim Cathlaid, yet his succession,
though quite inexplicable, according to Latin ideas, was
in strict accordance -with the rules of the Celtic house
and the Celtic Church.
This incident of Cathlaid suggests another point in
coimection -with the Celtic Church, which is well worth
consideration — the effect of the rules on the monasteries
of the third order of saints. Monks left their monasteries
in large numbers ; did these monks become to any extent
the heads of other houses ? We have no evidence as to
this, but if it was so, then one effect of the third order
of saints was, to bring about an important disruption in
the famiUes of monasteries that were becoming one of the
features of the Church in Wales and Ireland, and would
do more than anything- else to make the monasteries
independent of each other. Viewed in this light, the
operations of the third order of saints must have been
most destructive to some of the peculiar ideas of the
Celtic Church, and probably did more to check the

184 MONASTERIES.
development of the Celtic movement than anything else,
and thus prepare for Rome.
To better understand the position of the Celtic monas
teries, it -wiU be well to consider briefly the rules as given
in the Carus Bescna, or customary law, as to the headship
of the monasteries, that is, to the headship of the tribe of
the Saint. It must be borne in mind, as the case of Trim
shows, that the grant of the territory was not to the
Chm-ch, but to the Saint. It is most important to remember
this difference, as it forms one of the distinguishing fea
tures between gifts to Celtic and Latin houses. In the
former, the gift was almost always personal, to the
Saint, in the latter, it was impersonal, to the house. It
follows from this that the right of succession in the
Celtic case did not belong to the house or any particular
member of it, but merely to such of the members of the
house as were the representatives of the saint, and faiUng
these it went, not to the house, but to the saint's repre
sentatives in the lay tribe. So the first rule which is
given in the Irish Law as a gloss on the words "The Church
of the tribe of the patron saint " is, " The tribe of the
patron saint shall get the church as long as there shall be
a person fit to be an abbot of the tribe of the patron saint,
even though there should be but a psalm singer of them, it
is he that wUl obtain the abbacy." ' It seems most Ukely
that the tribe mentioned in this passage does not mean
the whole tribe {muntir), of which he was head, but only
the tribe of which the saint was a member. The second
rule was, if there was no one of the tribe of the Saint fit
for the place, " the abbacy would go to the tribe to whom
the land belonged, until a person fit to be an abbot of the
patron saint should be quaUfied ; when he was, the abbacy
was to be given to him, if he was better than the abbot
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, iii, 73.

MONASTERIES. 185
from the tribe to whom the land belonged and who had
taken it, if he is not better, it is only in his turn he shall
succeed ".' It is difficult to conceive any rule that was more
Ukely to give rise to disputes ; the member of the lay tribe
who was acting as abbot, was to give up his place when
any individual of the Saint's tribe was better quaUfied
than himself. There is nothing said as to what person
was to be the judge of the qualification, or how it was to
be decided. Bearing this rule in mind, the quarrels we
read of as to the headship of some of the Welsh houses,
even at a much later date, become quite intelligible, and
make it almost impossible to say, as is often said, that
any one was guilty of intrusion into the place. As Sir
Heiu-y Maine points out," these two rules are a curious
instance of the way in " which throughout these artificial
structures, the original natural principle on which they are
moulded, struggles to assert itself at the expense of the
imitative system. In aU the more modem guilds, member
ship always tended to become hereditary, and here we
have the Brehon law striving to secure a preference
in election to the abbacy to the actual blood relations of
the sainted founder. The ecclesiastical rule required
election by the monks, the Corus Bescna declared that on a
vacancy the family of the saint, which here means the
founder's sept, ought to be preferred."
The third rule is, that in the absence of a fit person to
be abbot from the tribe of the patron saint and from the
tribe of the land, " the abbacy is to be given to one of the
fine mynach class ", that is, one of the members of the
monastery. The term " tribe of the Saint " is used here in
its -widest sense, including not merely founder's kin, but all
the members of the monastic house. Such person would
hold the abbacy until a person fit to be abbot, of the tribe
1 Ancient Lams of Ireland, iii, 73. ^ Early Institut'wns, 238.

186 MONASTERIES.
of the patron saint, or of the tribe of the land, should be
quaUfied : when there is such a person, the abbacy is to
be given to him in case he is fitter.' Here, again, the
same difficulty arises — Who is to judge of the fit person ?
Who is to say when the time has come for him to be
instituted, and the abbot chosen from the inmates of the
house turned out?
If no fit person could be found in any of the three
classes, the founder's family, the lay tribe, the members
of the house, then another set of rules applied. Up
to this, the basis of the rule had been personal tribal
rights, such rights as were the consequence of the
tribal system and the rule that every one must belong
to some tribe. The next set of rules was an instance
of the extension of the tribal system from persons
to things. The different churches, that is, the original
monastery and its daughter houses, were supposed to
be connected together as members of a tribe ; they
bore pecuUar relations to each other, based upon the
fact as to the precise position they stood in to each
other, and the rules as to the succession to the abbacy
were now based on this relationship of the different
churches to each other. The first of the churches to
appoint was the mother church, the annoit church, that
is, the church where the saint was educated and brought
up. In such a case, either of the great monasteries, such
as Clonnard or the Bangor in Ireland, or Menevia or
Llandaff in Wales, would appoint the abbot on a vacancy
in any of the daughter houses. In strictness, in a case
Uke Clonnard, the appointment should go back fm-ther,
and Menevia should have appointed to Clonnard and her
daughter houses, and Bangor Iscoed to the Irish Bangor
and her daughters, but it seems that the rule was not
^ Ancient Lams of Ireland, iii, 73.

MONASTERIES. 187
carried out so as to give the mother house in another
country the position of an annoit house. FaiUng a person
in an annoit house, that is, the mother church, recourse
was had to the daughter house of the first class, a dalta
church, that is, a church which had been founded by one
of the members of the annoit or mother house, a foster
daughter to it; thus Clonnard was a dalta church to
Meneria, if the rule had been strictly applied. The dalta
churches were the first rank of colonies from the great
abbey or mother house. It is not clear in what way, if, as
was usuaUy the case, there was more than one dalta church,
the selection was made among them, and which of them,
and for what reason, was entitled to have the first choice ;
nor does it appear in what way the election was made,
whether out of the members of the dalta church, or only
out of a particular class of them. If the dalta church had
no fitting person for the abbacy, the next class of churches
from which the abbot was to be selected was the campairche
church, that is, a monastery under the name of the same
saint as the mother church. Here, again, the facts are not
clear ; there is nothing to show how the name was acquired,
and what was the relation between this class of church and
the dalta and annoit churches. It could not be because of
any dedication in our sense of the term, and there must
have been some step, of which we are ignorant, that made
aU churches bearing the name of the same saint related
to each other and to the annoit church. Most likely the
tie was that some member of the dalta church founded
the campairche, and in this way it was connected to the
group of churches of which the annait church, the mother
monastery, was the head. Here, also, we are without any
clue to the way in which, if there were more than one
campairche church, one was selected, or who was the
person who had to choose the individual and decide on his

188 MONASTERIES.
fitness to be abbot, or on what ground he was selected out
of such groups of chm-ches. If no fit person could be
found in the campairche churches in the seventh place,
the rights of election went to the neighbouring cill
church, that is, to a small church or monastery not
in succession to the others, not related to them. It is
difficult to see, and we unfortunately get no information
as to what the cill church was, or why it had a voice in
the matter. It is clear there must be some relationship,
and that it was not a mere stranger, as the case of the
stranger is provided for later, it is in some way connected
-with the mother house ; possibly it may have been the
abode of a saint of the third class — the hermitage of
some hermit of the great monastery, which, though not
dependent on any of the others, is yet in some sense con
nected with them. Failing the churches producing a
fitting man, resort was then had to an outsider, a pilgrim
or a stranger, who, according to the rule, might assume
the abbacy on there being a faUure of the churches finding
a fit man ; possibly the pilgrim or stranger was a saint of
the third order, one of the wandering monks who had
left the monastery, and was leading the life of a hermit,
and who, in this way, had some connection -with the house,
for it is hard to beUeve that any stranger, -with no con
nection whatever, would be selected. We have not,
unfortunately, any account of the mode in which, or the
person by whom, the stranger was selected, or in what
way the choice was made. We know that there were
numbers of wandering monks, bactra-peratw, from the
canons made against them, but it is scarcely possible that
some special means were not taken to select the abbot
out of such a body. If no stranger could be found to take
the abbacy, then it would seem that the property of the
monastery belonged absolutely to the tribe, that is, the

MONASTERIES. 189
family of the saint — the founder. "It, the property,
must be given to the tribe of the patron saint, for one of
them fit to be an abbot goes then for nothing, the abbacy
shaU be taken from them.'" An English lawyer would
express it that the ultimate remainder was to the right
heirs of the patron saint discharged from the trusts for
charitable uses.
Although, as has been noticed, there is much about
these rules that is very obscure, yet the main points as to
the order of succession are plain, and are worthy of very
careful study. The succession is dirided into three great
divisions, personal, or family ; tribal from the churches ;
and strangers. The personal includes, first, the actual
descendants of the members of the lay and the saint's
tribe ; sho-wing that these rules are of a later date than
usuaUy supposed, as the artificial extension of the tribe
had become recognized, and the succession was not
confined to blood relations. The personal dirision con
sisting of (1) the founder's family, and in default (2) the
lay tribe, or the Saint's tribe. The interposition of the
lay tribe between the founder's family and the tribe of
the Saint is a very remarkable feature, and one that
causes some difficulty as to the exact relations of the two
tribes. One great lesson it teaches is, that the tie of
blood relationship prevailed over all artificial distinctions,
and that, although the Saint's tribe was a distinct body,
yet they had no claim to superiority over the lay tribe,
but that, even if on an equaUty, the lay tribe was regarded
as the more important of the two. If the tribes failed to
supply an abbot, then came the churches, aU of whom
were bound together by the tribal tie ; the choice was still
tribal, but continued to groups of another kind, namely,
the members of the tribal churches. But still the idea
1 Andent Lams of Irela/nd, iii, 75.

190 MONASTERIES.
was that the choice was confined within the limits of
tribal relationship, each of the churches being related to
the other. On the failure of both branches of the tribal
stock, the personal and the church, then the monastery
could go stiU further afield ; but it is difficult to beUeve
that even here there was not some idea of tribal relation
ship limiting the choice. It would be so opposed to all
Celtic ideas to go outside the tribe in its -widest form, and
elect to the headship of the tribe of the Saint an alien
and an enemy. If the choice was unrestricted there
must always have been a fitting person to be found ; the
abbey and its pr(.)2jerty could never have been allowed to
revert to the right heirs of the saint, the founder, and at
no period with which we are acquainted was the tribal
idea so extinguished among the Celts as to hand over
tribal property to aliens to the prejudice of tribesmen.
The last case, however, seems to have happened in the
instance of Trim, we know nothing that shows that
Cathlaid the pilgrim was in any way connected with
the tribe of the land, of the Saint, or with the Church.
This peculiar system of succession to the abbacy of the
Celtic monasteries furnishes a key to a good deal of
the history of the Celtic Church, as it is clear from it
(1) that there did not exist in that Church any authority
that was supreme over it, or who had the right of appoint
ing to any vacancy. The Church was quite independent,
and the ciril power had nothing to do with it. There
were no risitors of the monasteries, no outside authority
who had power to depose the head of a house. This fact has
oidy to be stated and remembered to show conclusively that
the system of the Celt was totaUy distinct from the system
of the Latin. (2) The independence of the groups of
monasteries and the dirision of the country into monastic
groups. Each group being united by the tie of tribal or

MONASTERIES. 191
clannish relationship, is another very important fact; it
shows that the country was parcelled out by the monas
teries as part of their possessions, and that the tie that
bound them together was tribal, and that alone. There
was no idea of local or territorial control, hence, no
diocese and no episcopal authority, no notion of a common
reUgious order. (3) That the daughter church recognized
the authority of the annoit church, but that one annoit
church did not recognize the authority of another; thus
Clonnard was independent of Bangor, and both of
Armagh, Meneria of Llandaff, and both of Bangor Iscoed.
Each group was an independent group, and as there was
no general rule observed in the monasteries, so there was
no general control over the groups. Each annoit church
was independent, and could act as it pleased. The form
that the Celtic Church took was of a collection of in
dependent groups of monasteries, just as from a civil
point of view, the country was broken up into a collection
of independent tribes ; but while there seem to have been
one or more chiefs who exercised some authority over
several tribes, there was no ecclesiastical authority to
exercise jurisdiction over more than one group of monas
teries. This monastic system of the Celtic Church,
the series of independent monasteries, with their colonies,
Uring without any regard to a common rule or to external
authority, was the system of the Celtic Church, which
really formed the ecclesiastical system of the country, both
in Wales and Ireland, until after the Norman Conquest
it had to give way to the Latin system of diocesan
episcopacy. On succeeding to the abbacy the abbot is said to have
come under an obligation to leave to the Church his
property. The rule thus stated is of a much later date,
and treats the right of succession by -will as an estabUshed

192 MONASTERIES.
fact. This was probably not the case until long after the
rule came into existence. The rule was, that if the
family of the Saint — the tribe of the land and the tribe of
the Saint — failed to provide an abbot, and recourse was
had to the churches or to an outsider, on the death of the
abbot his property belonged to the monastery. " Every
one of those who assume the abbacy, except the tribe of
the patron Saint, and the tribe to which the land belongs,
and the mynach class, must leave all his legacy -within, to
the Church." ' The person who became abbot became,
if he was not already so, a member of the tribe of the
Saint, and, as was the rule in the lay tribe, on becoming
a member, his property belonged to the tribe ; he lost his
rights to individual o-wnership, when he acquired the
rights of a tribesman his property formed part of the
common fund. But this was not all ; distrust of the
stranger seems to have been a leading idea in Celtic
communities. It has been already stated how long it
took a stranger to become a tribesman. So, if a member
of another tribe became abbot, he had to give security to
keep and leave the property of the monastery intact.
The rule also seems to have extended to the case of the ap
pearance of a person fitter than himself, or in a nearer
degree to the saint, the founder, that he would resign the
abbacy in favour of such person. "On the part of the
patron saint, security is given that whenever there shaU
be a person fit to be an abbot of the tribe to which the
land belongs they will restore such abbacy to him.""
Therefore, unless the abbot was of the tribe, either lay
or ecclesiastical, he was looked upon as a mere locum
tenens, always liable to be displaced on the appearance
of a fitter person than himself among the founder's kin,
and bound to give security to surrender the abbacy to
1 Ancient Lams of Ireland, iii, 77. ^ Ibid., iii, 79.

MONASTERIES. 193
such a person when he appeared. Great importance
appears to have been attached to this security. If the
person from the tribe of the Saint either could not, or
would not give it, he lost his tum, and his right did not
rerive until the power to appoint had passed through all
the different classes of persons entitled in succession to
appoint : — " In the case of the tribe of the patron Saint
not giring security, the abbacy does not return back until
it comes finaUy to the pilgrim." ' It was considered
better for the abbacy to go to a more remote relation
-with security than to a nearer one without. " It shall ",
says the gloss, " sooner pass to the other tribes on their
giring security than to the tribe of the patron Saint
without security." If, however, the tribe of the patron
Saint and the more remote tribe, were both ready to give
security, the tribe of the patron Saint was entitled to the
abbacy. " It shall sooner pass to the tribe of the patron
saint on their giring security, than to the other tribes
on their giring security." "
These rules, as to security, point to an explanation of
what would otherwise be a great difficulty. We find the
abbacy going from the head of the family to another mem
ber of the family -without any apparent reason. The next
heir, as we should say, on not being able to give security
was postponed to a more distant relation who could do so.
If the rule of Irish Tanistry is remembered, that the suc
cessor was to be the " eldest and fittest", then this devolution
will be readily understood ; it was not the eldest person,
but the eldest fitting person who became abbot. One of
the tests of fitness was the ability to give security. If the
person could not do this he was not fit, and was therefore
passed over in favour of a person who could do so, and so
was fit, and by doing it, proved he was the fittest. There
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, iii, 79. ^ Ibid.

194 MONASTERIES.
does not seem to be any clear description how the security
was given, nor how the tribe became security to the
Church, nor how, if occasion arose, the security could be
enforced; probably, from a passage in the Corus Bescna,'
"that the tribe of the patron Saint are to be bound by a
guarantee to the tribe to whom the land belongs, upon
the annait church," the sanction of the guarantee was like
many of the sanctions of that time — supernatural. The
wrath of God would be invoked on the tribe that was
faithless or forsworn. Such a course would tend to
maintain the influence of the mother church, especially
if the guarantee was given to her, and she invoked the
thunders of heaven on the breach of it. There is also
some eridence that if the branches of the tribe stood in
an equal degree, and each had its own candidate, the choice
was left to providence, that is, it was decided by lot, which
was assumed to be a distinct interposition of providence.
The Corus Bescna says," " The succession shall not devolve
upon the branches of the tribe, unless God has given it
to one of them in particular." This the gloss explains
as meaning, " There are two reasons why the lot is cast,
equaUty of claim, and equaUty of persons fit for the
office." In such a case recourse was had to an appeal
to heaven to determine which of the persons was to be
chosen. This system of selection by lot seems to have
been a common way -with the Celts of determining such
questions. It was by lot the son that was to be given
to the Church was selected ; but both here, and in the
election of abbot, care was taken that the rights of the
Church were not unduly prejudiced. In the choice of the
son for the Church, it was part of the rule that the
Church could not get the worst son. In the choice of
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, iii, 79. ^ Ibid.

MONASTERIES. 195
the abbot it was prorided that the man must be the
fittest, and the Church would never consider that it was
possible for the worst to be fittest.
This system of election seems peculiar to the Celtic
Church; it consists of hereditary right qualified by (1)
the fact that the persons who were even by hereditary
succession entitled, were Uable to be set aside, if the
Church did not consider them fit, fitness being the great
requisite. It is expressly stated in the Irish Laws (1),
that "qualification is older than age",' and (2), the fit
person must be able to give the required security, other-
-wise he was not considered fit. It was only when it had
been ascertained that there were two candidates, each
equally fit, that an appeal to the selection of heaven was
aUowed, and, when it was, doubtless proper precautions were
taken that the candidates submitted to the choice of hea
ven were in aU respects eligible. Probably, although in
theory and in fact the succession was regulated according
to these rules, yet the rules were so manipulated as to give
the monastery a very great weight in the selection of its
head. In order to show how much a matter of tribal in
fluence the succession to the abbacy became, reference
may be made to a paper of Dr. Reeves," in which he
shows that in the three great churches of Trim, Armagh,
and lona, the office of abbot was confined in each case to
a single family. In the case of Trim, after the names of
the first eight abbots, as given in the Book af Armagh,
aU of them being anterior in date to the commencement
of the Annals af Ulster, which, as to Trim, is 745,
comes a lineal pedigree of the family which descended
from the original grantee of the lands, and out of which
1 Andent Lams of Ireland, iii, 74 n.
^ Proceedings Royal Irish Academy, vi, 467.
o 2

196 MONASTERIES.
family the ministers of the Church were elected; the
former is styled the "ecclesiastica progenies" , the latter
the "plebilis progenies" of the founder.' The grant of
the church of Trim to Patrick, Lomman, and Foirtchernn,
until the day of judgment probably was a means of
securing in the fifth and sixth centuries a fixity of tenure
that would have been otherwise impossible. A grant to
the great Irish Saint as virtual protector, with a limitation
to the priest locally employed, -with remainder to the
grantor's son and his heirs, to use modern legal language,
was a form of gift more likely to last than any other.
We get here the "plebilis progenies ", in whom the tenancy
of the land was vested, possessing a regular succession,
and furnishing from its numbers the successors, the
ecclesiastica progenies, who carried on the abbacy and the
traditions of the tribe of the Saint. Gradually the
ecclesiastica progenies became merged in the plebilis
progenies, probably because the family were unwilling to
allow the right to nominate the abbot to pass away
from them. Hence the origin of the lay abbots which
form so marked a feature in the Celtic houses. Dr.
Reeves contends that the Uneal transmission of the office
of abbot in various Celtic monasteries, as found in the
Irish Annals from the close of the eighth century, is due
to the plebilis progenies usurping the position of the
ecclesiastica progenies, which he attributes to the hereditary
occupants omitting to keep up the purely spiritual succes
sion. This combination of the two functions, spiritual
and temporal, produced those Abbates laid, of whom
Giraldus Cambrensis speaks as existing in his time in
Ireland and Wales, and to whom St. Bernard aUudes,"
as among the anomalies that existed in the case of
Armagh, " Mos pessimus inoleverat quorundam diabolica
' Trijiartite Life, Rolls ed., ii, 326. ^ De Vita St. Malachite, cap. x.

MONASTERIES. 197
ambitione potentum sedem sanctam obtentum in hseredi-
taria successione nee enim patiebantur episcopati nisi qui
essent de tribu et familia sua." This passage shows,
perhaps, more clearly than anything else, how in the great
monasteries the headship had become the hereditary
property of the tribe, and how firm was the grasp of
tribal Christianity on the country. Natm-ally St. Bernard
would regard such a state of things as making the
country, though nominally Christian, yet really Pagan.
The monastery of Ai-magh was in the territory of the
Hy Niall, one of whom, Daire, granted the site to Patrick.'
The early abbots of the church, from the fifth to the
eighth centuries, were all of the same tribe ; subsequently
the headship became the property of another branch of
the tribe, who kept it for two centuries, and the last of
whom, Celsus, was Malachi's predecessor in the See. Of
these people St. Bernard says, "Denique jam octo
extiterant ante Celsum riri uxorati et absque ordinibus
literati tamen."" Celsus was abbot from 1106 to 1127.
From the Usts in Colgan, in the Yellow Book of Lecan,
in the Lebar Breac, and in the Book of Leinster, illus
trated by the details and chronology of the Irish
Annals, a genealogical table of the abbots of Armagh
can be constructed, confirming the truth of St. Bernard's
statements as to the hereditary nature of the headship of
the houses — statements probably made on information
given him by Malaehi himself.
Columba, the founder of lona, was another member of
the great tribe of Hy Niall. In this case it is particularly
interesting to see how the succession to the abbacy devolved
in a Celtic monastery out of Ireland. Here it seems the
same hereditary rule prevailed. Columba died in 597 ; the
1 Book of Armagh, fo. 6 b 2 ; printed in Rolls ed. Tripartite Life, ii, 290.
¦^ Be Vita St. Malachice, cap. x.

198 MONASTERIES.
next abbot, Baithen, who died in 600, was his first cousin ;
Laisren, the third abbot, was the son of another cousin, he
died in G05. The fourth abbot, Fergna, was a descendant
of Columba's great uncle ; he died in 623. The next, the
fifth abbot, Seghin, was the nephew of Laisren, the third
abbot ; he died in 650. Nothing is known of the sixth
abbot, but from him to the ninth abbot, Adamnan, all
the abbots were not only members of the tribe of Hy
Niall, but most of them of one family. So that for over
a hundred years in the first great foreign Celtic monastery,
there is only one abbot who cannot be proved to be
of the family of the Saint, the founder. These facts are
so overwhelming that Dr. Reeves is led to the conclusion,
"that even in spiritual administration the element of
clanship regulated the bestowal of authority, and the
election of a religious superior was subject among the
Irish to the qualifications of blood similar to those that
constituted eligibility to secular clanship." '
After this it is hardly necessary to cite any further
instances as to Ireland, but Dr. Petrie's '' conclusions as
to Clonmacnois may be mentioned. By analysing the
monumental inscriptions there, he found that the ecclesi
astical succession to the abbacy of that house had
continued among persons of the same family (Malone)
for several hundred years.
Such was the system in force in Ireland and Scotland.
Independent groups of monasteries, the succession to the
headship of which was prorided for by strict rules, which,
as administered, had the effect of keeping the headship in
one family or tribe. The next question to answer is. Did
this system apply to Wales ? Unfortunately no Welsh
abbot had his Ufe written by Adamnan or St. Bernard,
but still there is a good deal of eridence to show that the
1 Proceedings lioyal Irish Academy, vi, 451. ^ Ibid., vi, 451.

MONASTERIES. 199
Celtic system in Wales was the same as in Ireland and
Scotland. The monastery of Meneria was founded by David, in
the country that was then under the rule of Sandde,
a descendant of Ceredig, who was one of the family of
" Cunedda and his sons " ; David himself was grandson of
Ceredig. David died in 601, and his reputed successor
at Meneria was Cynog, the head of Llanbadarn Vaur.
Llanbadarn had been founded by Padarn, one of David's
companions at Llancarvan, and also probably a member of
the Menerian house, and, if so, the reason for Cynog
succeeding to Menevia would be in strict accordance -with
Celtic rule. Darid's tribe being exhausted, recourse was
had to a daughter house, and from this the new head was
taken. According to the Liber Landavensis the successor
of Darid was his cousin Ishmael, and the third bishop,
Teilo, was another cousin of David, being either uncle
or brother to Ishmael. It therefore seems clear that so far
as the early abbots of Meneria went, the succession was
confined to the family of the Saint, that is, that the rule
that prevailed in the Irish monasteries prevailed also in
the Welsh, and was in fact the ordinary rule of the
Celtic Church. If from Meneria we go to Llandaff, the
same system is found to prevail. Dubricius is said to
have founded Llandaff. He was said to have been the
son of Eurddyl, daughter of Pebiau, king of Ergyng.
Some doubt has been expressed as to this, and it is said
her grandfather was Pepiau a son of Brychan. Dubricius
was succeeded at Llandaff by Teilo, who was a cousin.
Teilo was succeeded at Llandaff by his nephew Oudoceus.
It -wiU thus be seen that at Llandaff, as at Meneria, the
first three heads of the monastery were related, that is,
that the abbacy went in one family or tribe. It. is fairly
clear that the fact of the relationship of the early abbots

200 MONASTERIES.
of the two great South Wales monasteries was not
accidental, but was the result of the Celtic system that
has been already shown to have existed in Ireland, and
so must have also existed in Wales, modified doubtless
by local considerations.
If this riew is correct, and the evidence seems fairly
conclusive, a considerable part of the usually accepted
history of the early Church in South Wales becomes
untenable. All the legends as to the archbishoprick of
Carleon, its transfer to St. David's, and its re-transfer,
are clearly out of place. The riew of the hereditary
system prevailing is confirmed by the later history of the
see of St. David's in the eleventh century, with reference
to Bishop Sullen and his sons succeeding to the see, and
yet later, Giraldus speaks bitterly of "the infamous custom"
that even then existed at St. David's, as to the ecclesiastical
offices passing from father to son, and being part of the
hereditary property of a particular family ; but Giraldus
does not seem to object so much to the hereditary
right, if it is confined to uncles and nephews. It is
therefore clear that the hereditary idea, which is only the
tribal idea, existed in Wales to a comparatively late date,
and the only reasonable account of the origin of the
" infamous custom " would seem to be that it was part of
the great Celtic ecclesiastical system.
When the third development of monasteries, the third
order of saints, came into effect in Wales, it seems that
the monks of the great monasteries went forth, founding,
either for themselves, or for the good of their house, new
monasteries, dalta churches, as they would be called in
Ireland. This view explains a feature in Wales that it is
otherwise very difficult to give any satisfactory reason
for. Groups of churches still exist bearing the names
of the heads of the great monasteries of Meneria and

MONASTERIES. 201
Teilo, groups which may for shortness be termed the
Dewi churches and the Teilo churches — how did these
churches come into existence ? They seem to have been
monastic settlements, founded by these emissaries from
the great monasteries, and, as such, bore the names
of their source of origin. This matter will be dealt -with
at length when speaking of the different kinds of churches.
Here it is only necessary to refer to it as m.arking another
link in the chain of evidence as to the tribal nature of
the Welsh monasteries, and the great similarity in their
origin and ideas to the Irish. Probably it was by these
settlements of daughter houses that the conversion of
Wales was completed. Each of the large monasteries
sent out bands of monks, who founded settlements, which
gradually covered the whole country, or rather, the
whole of the territories of the different chieftains. This
shows the supreme importance of the Celtic monastic
system. The country was split up into the territories of
the various chiefs ; the monks from the great monasteries
formed settlements on the lands of each of the chiefs, and
in this way the whole country was covered with a net
work of Christian institutions, all related to some one
head, and those that emanated from that head being
related to each other. The system in force, was, therefore,
monastic, not diocesan Christianity — groups of monastic
houses, rather than groups of churches. Such a system
was totally opposed to Latin ideas, if for nothing else,
that each group was able to lay down for itself what
were its rules and regulations ; there was no central
authority keeping the groups of independent houses under
control. In speaking of the connection between the Welsh and
Irish monasteries, it is not right to pass over a piece of
evidence that may be said to disprove the view here put

202 MONASTERIES.
forward. In a list' e'atitlei De monasteriis Hiherniis inter
extras gentes, which appears to be a list, if not of Irish
monasteries out of Ireland, at least of monasteries founded
by Irish monks, twelve houses in Scotland, eight in
England, thirteen in Brittany, and a number in France,
Belgium, Lorraine, Burgundy, S\ritzei-land, Germany, up
to the Danube, and in Alsace and other places — altogether
some eighty-eight houses — are mentioned, which are
alleged to be due to the activity of the Celtic monks. But
there is no mention whatever of Wales, or of anytfiing to
do with Wales ; although the Irish claim to have founded
Glastonbury and Malmesbury, they do not claim a single
Welsh house. The only possible explanation is, that
while the Welsh houses were, it is well known, full of
Irish students, yet that either from the Welsh monasteries
being founded before Ireland embraced the faith, or
because the Welsh would not receive aid from Ireland,
they are excluded from the list. It certainly is a curious
incident, and goes some way to prove the length of time
the Celtic monasteries had been in existence. It, however,
in no way goes to negative the very constant intercourse
that was then going on between Ireland and Wales.
It is often spoken of as a matter of wonder that
monasticism was so successful among the Celts, and was
such a prominent feature of the Celtic Church. There
seem to be two main reasons for this, (1) that the
monasteries were not merely monasteries, but were
colonies of Christians, which, if a man became a Christian,
and so a member of the tribe of the Saint, he must join.
The fact of joining gave the person certain privileges, the
chief of which was the right of sanctuary. To the desolate
and oppressed, the monastery afforded a refuge that was
unknown elsewhere — a place where the shedder of blood
^ Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy, vi.

MONASTERIES. 203
could be safe from the avenger of blood. When the
lawless state of the society of these times is remembered,
how each petty tribe had a blood-feud with its neighbour,
the fact that there was a place where the oppressed was
safe from the oppressor, gave such a place an enormous
and peculiar importance. This is best shown from the
weight the monks attached to the privilege of sanctuary,
and the strictness with which they punished any violation
of it. In the old Irish laws,' the violation of sanctuary at
once made the offender Uable to punishment. By the
Welsh laws," the penalty for a breach of sanctuary
depended on the position and rank of the place riolated.
If it was a mother church, the penalty was higher than if
it was one of a lower rank. The Welsh laws also gave
protection, not merely to the person, but also to the pro
perty of the fugitive. His cattle, while in the churchyard,
were exempt from seizure and were allowed to go with the
abbot's cattle. So the monasteries gave to the people
what they could get nowhere else — protection to person
and property. With the power to bestow such rights, it
is no wonder the monasteries prospered and throve. And
it was not only to the great monasteries that the right of
sanctuary belonged. Each little monastic settlement,
that is, each church or chapel, offered shelter to the
fugitive and forsaken. It is true that a fugitive was
safer in a large than in a smaU monastery, because there
were more persons to resist any attempt to riolate the
sanctuary, and the penalty for violation was larger, and
therefore a greater deterrent ; but yet every, church and
churchyard, however smaU, in theory at least gave the
right of protection, and this was better than nothing.
(2) The second great cause of the popularity of the monas-
^ Ancient Lams of Ireland, iv, 235, 237.
'' Ancient Laws if Wales, i, 433.

204 MONASTERIES.
teries, and this applies equally to all, small as well as
great, was, that they were the only- places of instruction
then in existence. Mr. Skene ' points out how in this
respect the Celtic system differed from the Latin, and
how the latter would probably have proved a failure, under
the conditions the former had to deal with. The Celts
did not commence their work, as the Latins would have
done, hj arguing against idolatry, superstition, and im
morality, and by preaching a purer faith. They settled
do-wn as a Christian colony, and offered to a people, who
had no security against riolence and cruelty, protection
and peace ; to a people who desired to be instructed, in
struction in all that was to be taught ; and so, working on
these Unes, they succeeded.
It is difficult to say how long the system of Celtic
monasticism lasted in Wales in its vigour and at its best.
It was probably in full force at the time of Augustine's
arrival, for although the record of the conference between
the two Churches, as we have it, is a later invention, yet
it is to be noted that all the Celtic representatives who
are alleged to have taken part in it are described as
" Episcopi sive doctores maximse et proximse Britonum
prorineia%" " which would equaUy apply to abbots,
and shows that the important persons in the Welsh
Church of that time were the heads of monastic houses.
Gradually, in the next four hundred years, between the
coming of Augustine and the Norman conquest, the small
Welsh monasteries, the daughter houses, languished, and
only the large ones remained as monasteries. The history
of the Celtic Church in Wales from the arrival of Christi
anity to the coming of St. Augustine is the history of the
estabUshment and growth of monasticism. The history
of that Church from the arrival of Augustine to the
1 Celtic Scotland, ii, 73. ^ Bede, Eccl. Hist., ii, 2.

MONASTERIES. 205
Norman conquest is the story of the decay of that mon
asticism, the transformation of the monastic houses into
local churches, and the rise of episcopal jurisdiction in
Wales. Probably intercourse -with England brought this
change about, or helped to do so. The vanity of the
Welsh abbots, who wanted to be on the same footing, to
possess the same powers and privileges, as their Anglo-
Saxon rivals, led to it. The Abbot of Llandaff aped the
airs of the Bishop of Hereford, and the Abbot of Menevia
copied the customs of the Bishop of Lichfield. It is easy
enough to understand how this conduct brought about
the change ; the difficult question is to account for the
disappearance of such houses as Llancarvan and Llaniltyd,
a disappearance as complete as if there had been an early
Welsh measure of disestablishment and disendowment.
The state of the Celtic Church in Wales would appear
to have been that some seven or eight large monasteries
existed, and that they and their offshoots formed the
local churches that represented Christianized Wales. Of
the precise number of these offshoots it is difficult to get
any exact idea. Evidence points to the fact that they
were more numerous than the modern parish churches.
The relation between the large and small monasteries
gradually altered until the large monasteries which sur
vived, after a series of changes, developed into bishops' sees,
the smaller monasteries into local churches. The change
as to the large monasteries seems to have been nearly
complete at the time of Hywel Da's code, as then the
bishop and the abbot appear in many respects on an
equal footing ; but differences still remained. The abbot
represented the tribe of the Saint ; the bishop did not,
unless he was also abbot. An abbot's goods on his death
went to the tribe of the Saint, a bishop's to the king, as
the bishop had no tribe. The two officials were the

206

MONASTERIES.

representatives of the two different systems of government
that were then struggling in Wales for the mastery. The
bishop the personal rule, the abbot the tribal.
This system of tribal monasticism, which has been
attempted to be described in this chapter, gave its whole
tone to the Celtic Church, and furnishes the real ex
planation of all her anomalies and peculiarities. When
once its principle is thoroughly grasped, it effectually
disposes of two very common ideas in early Welsh
ecclesiastical history. (1) Of the pilgrimages to Rome
of the early Welsh saints and abbots. As they admitted
no power in Rome over themselves or their work, they
had no reason to go there to propitiate the Pope ; as they
considered themselves independent, they were not Ukely
to take a tedious journey to make themselves dependent.
And (2) as to the existence of archbishopricks in Wales.
As the head of a Celtic monastery admitted no superior,
as he considered himself, like Henry VIII, " supreme head
next after Christ," he was not likely to have submitted to
an archbishop, whom, if he did not regard as the emissary
of the eril one, he would at least regard as the emissary
of the enemy. To any one who considers what was the
position of a bishop in that series of independent monas
teries and their offshoots that made up the Celtic Church,
the very notion of an archbishop is so absurd, that it is
impossible to entertain it.

CHAPTER V.
BISHOPS.

The different positions they occupied, and the light in
which bishops were respectively regarded in the Latin
and in the Celtic Churches, point to another most im
portant divergence between the ideas of the two bodies.
It is true that each Church possessed the three orders —
bishops, priests, and deacons — but the position occupied
by bishops in the two Churches differed very widely. The
great resemblance between the Latin and the Celtic bishop
was in name. According to the ideas of the Latin Church,
a bishop is an ecclesiastical official, possessing, or claiming
to possess, an exclusive jurisdiction over all ecclesiastical
matters within a defined area, his diocese ; a jurisdiction
based on a twofold authority, (1) as being, or claiming to
be, a successor of the Apostles, and (2) as being the
delegate of the Vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter.
According to the ideas of the Celtic Church, a bishop was
a monastic official, but without any claim to jurisdiction
over any area, defined or undefined, without any right
from any "foreign prince, state, or potentate", a mere
monastic officer under the control and orders of the Abbot.
The tendency has been to forget the Celtic idea, and to
substitute for it the Latin. Hence have arisen the
metropolitan claims of St. David's, and the stUl prevalent
fiction that the early history of the four Welsh dioceses
has been destroyed or lost. It is as clear as anything can
be, that there were no such personages as Celtic archbishops,

208 BISHOPS.
no such areas as early Celtic territorial dioceses. It is
impossible to understand the historj' of the Welsh Celtic
Church, unless this distinction between diocesan jurisdic
tion and episcopal functions is clearly borne in mind. In
the Celtic Church the former was non-existent, the latter
fiourished in full vigour.
The main differences between the Latin and Celtic bishops
will best be grouped under three heads : (1) Qualifica
tions, (2) in(-ide of consecration, (3) position and duties ;
in each of these the difference is marked, and the con
trasts striking.
(1.) As to the first, the qualifications. The Latin Church
held it necessary that a person qualified to be consecrated
bishop must have passed through at least the two ecclesi
astical orders of deacon and priest, if not the minor orders
as well. The Celt thought otherwise ; a man might
become a bishop at once, per saltum, without passing
through any orders at all. The best known instance of this
is the story of Columba, given in the Scholia to the Martyr
ology af CEngus the Culdee.' Columba desired to be
consecrated a bishop, and therefore went to bishop
Etchen to have the order of bishop conferred upon him.
Columba sat under the tree on the west side of the
church, and asked, " Where was the cleric ? " A man
replied, " There he is in the field, where they are plough
ing below." Columba repUed, " It is not meet for us
that a ploughman should confer orders on us, but let us
test him." They went to the bishop, asked him first for
his ploughshare, which he at once gave them, yet the oxen
went on ploughing. Columba said he is a good man, let
us test him further. They then asked for the outer
ox ; he gave it to them, and ordered a wild ox to take its
^ See Introduction to the Book of Obits and Martyrology of Christ Church,
Dublin, published by Irish Archfeological Society, Dublin, 1844, p. liv.

BISHOPS. 209
place, which the wild ox did. Columba was now satisfied,
and told the bishop why he had come. The bishop repUed
" It shall be done ", and conferred on him the order of a
priest, although what Columba wanted was the order of
a bishop. Etchen prayed until the next day. Columba
said, "I regret thou hast conferred this order upon me,
but I -will never change it while I live, but no person shall
ever again have orders conferred upon them in this
church." Such is the legend ; it discloses one or two
points of interest. It has been always held to be the
reason why Columba remained a priest to the day of his
death, and why his successors, the abbots of lona, were
forbidden to hold any higher ecclesiastical rank than
priest's orders. It also shows that one of the Celtic
bishop's sources of revenue was the fee for besto-wuig
orders ; that there was some fee payable for them, and
that Columba's curse which prohibited orders being
conferred in that church in the future, was a punishment
to bishop Etchen, by depriring him of the fees belonging
to his office. For the present purpose, the noteworthy
fact is, that although Columba was not, for some reason —
ignorance or stupidity — consecrated a bishop, yet there
seems to have been no objection raised to the fact that
being at most in deacon's orders, even if he was that,' he
was not eligible for consecration as bishop. It is obrious,
from the legend, that there was nothing in any way
regarded as remarkable in the fact of the consecration of
a person, if not a layman, at least only in deacon's orders,
to be a bishop at once. It seems to have been nothing
unusual, Columba expected it, and went for the express
purpose of being made a bishop. It foUows, that in the
opinion of the author of the legend, there was nothing
exceptional or remarkable in the consecration of bishops
^ See Adamnan, ii, c. 1.

210 BISHOPS.
per saltum, that is, without passing through the inter
mediate orders.'
Turning to the Celtic Church in Wales, we find the
same thing. There is not, indeed, an express statement,
as in the case of Columba, of this consecration per
saltum, yet we read of persons being made bishops without
any mention that they were previously in orders. David,
who is said to have been consecrated archbishop by the
patriarch of Jerusalem, does not appear, from any of his
lives, to have been previously in orders. Samson is
described as a noble young man of excellent life, who
preferred to dwell with his master to being made a bishop.
It is said that Samson, on being appointed bishop of Dol,"
was taken to Dubricius, bishop of Llandaff, that he might
receive from him the first ecclesiastical orders and deacon-
ship. It thus appears that when appointed to the
bishopric of Dol he was a layman. The only orders Cybi
is ever said to have had, are those of a bishop from Hilary.'
Padarn was said to be a bishop, but there is no account
of how he became so. Teilo, who, like David, was
consecrated at Jerusalem, is not said, and does not appear
from his life, to have passed through the inferior orders.
It is dangerous to argue from mere non-statements in
the Lives of Saints, and if these facts stood alone they would
be of Uttle weight ; but, as it appears, that after the Uves
were edited by Latin -writers as were the lives in the
Book af Llandaff, mention is carefully made of Dubricius
and Samson passing through minor orders before being
made bishops, the inference becomes very strong that the
Latin scribe, finding that the Celt had recorded a conse
cration per saltum, considered it his duty to omit such a
heresy to make the account suitable for reading in public,
' See the case of "Victor, Tripartite Life, Rolls ed., i, 182.
== Cambro-British Saints, 171. ' Ibib., 183.

BISHOPS. 211
and edited it so as to appear that all the orders had been
obtained, and that the consecration was regular, accord
ing to the rules of the Latin Church. It is only in the
old Welsh Uves, where the matter is mentioned more by
inference than by direct statement, that it appears at
least doubtful if a person was not ordained bishop without
any prerious orders. If the Celts did not attach any
great importance, as it would appear they did not, to the
position of bishop, the omission of the other orders would
not be unnatural. The bishop was not a person of such
importance that the Celts found it necessary to make a
great fuss about him. They had no belief in apostolic
succession, or the mystical powers of the bishop ; what
they wanted was a man to fill a certain position in the
monastery, and a fit man was appointed, whether he had
been preriously ordained or not. Abbots, who were then
the great ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Celtic Church,
could be either laymen or elected from laymen ; why
should not bishops, who were but subordinate officials, be
selected in the same way ?
These being the different riews of the two Churches,
there was nothing to the Celtic mind either singular or
irregular in the election of bishops per saltum, and such
was the practice in that Church.
(2.) The next distinction between the Celtic and Latin
Bishops was in the mode of consecration.
The Latin rule was expressed so far back as the Fourth
Council of Carthage, the second canon of which prorides :
— "Episcopuscumordinatur duo episcopi ponant etteneant
evangeliorum codicem super caput et cerricem ejus et uno
super cum fundente benedictionem reliqui omnes episcopi
qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant," ' and this
¦ Proctor, On the Book of Common Prayer, 448, citing canons of Fourth
Council of Carthage, A.D. 398, Canon II. P 2

212 BISHOPS.
rule has been followed in the Anglican ordinal. It never
prevailed in the Celtic Chm-ch ; there, consecration by a
single bishop was the practice. The case of Columba
already mentioned, shows this clearly, but there is other
eridence of it. In the Life of St. Kentigern, his biogra
pher, Jocelin, says, that when he was made bishop, as
usual, a bishop was sent for from Ireland to do it.'
" Accitoque uno episcopo de Hybemia more Britonum et
Scotorum tunc temporis in pontificem consecrari fecerunt.
Mos inolerit in Britannia in consecratione pontificum
tantummodo capita eorum sacri crismatis infusione
perungere cum invocatione Sancti Spiritus et benedictione
et manus impositione quem ritum dicebant insipientes se
suscepisse dirinse legis institutionem et Apostolorum
traditionem. Sacri vero canones sanctificant ut nuUus
episcopus consecretur absque tribus ad minus episcopis;
uno ridelicet consecratore qui sacramentales benedictiones
et orationes ad singula insignia pontificalia super sacran-
dam dicat et duo alii cum eo manus imponant ; testes
existant; textum evangeliorum cerrici illius impositam
teneant." This passage shows clearly the difference between the
Celtic and the Latin modes of consecration ; the Latin
required at least three bishops — one, who acted as the
consecrating bishop, gave the oath, deUvered the insignia
of office, and pronounced the blessing ; the other two
acted as assistants. The Celtic ceremony was simple ;
oil was poured on the new bishop's head, the Holy Spirit
invoked, the consecrating bishop laid his hands on the
candidate and pronounced the blessing ; no deUvery of the
Bible, no oath of obedience, none of the other forms of
authority and subjection found in the Latin service were
required. This difference, it is clear, arose from the
' JoQ,e\m,\Vita Kentig., cap. xi.

BISHOPS. 213
different positions the bishops occupied in the two
Churches. The Celtic bishop did not take the oath of
obedience to an archbishop ; he owed him no allegiance,
— there was no archbishop, the abbot was his superior.
When the Latin Church, on Augustine's arrival, came
into contact with the Celtic, the question as to the validity
of orders conferred by one bishop arose, and formed one
of the points Augustine submitted to Gregory the Great.
" Si longinquitas itineris magna inter jaceat ut episcopi
non facile valeant covenire an debeat sine aliorum episco-
porum prsesentia episcopus ordinari? ResponditGregorius.
Et quidem in Anglorum ecclesia in qua adhuc solus
tu Episcopus inveniris ordinare episcopum non aliter nisi
sine Episcopis potes." ' Gregory goes on to say that
unless Augustine can get bishops over from Gaul, he must
consecrate by himself. He advises Augustine to have as
many priests as possible present, and as soon as there
were in Britain a sufficient number of bishops, no bishop
should be consecrated without the presence of three or
four others. Gregory therefore gives no instructions to
deriate from the Latin ordinal, except in the case of
necessity, when only one bishop was available ; obviously
the rest of the Latin form was carried out, and there was
no concession in any way to Celtic ideas. Consecration
by a single bishop in cases of necessity, if the Latin
ordinal was used, does not seem to have been regarded
as invaUd. It was the consecration by a single bishop
•with a different ordinal that roused the Latins against
the Celtic Church. But the custom was very firmly
rooted, and continued in Ireland until after the time of
William I. One of the complaints that Anselm, when
Archbishop of Canterbury, when writing to Muirchertach,
an Irish prince, makes against the Irish Church was,
1 Bede, Hist. Eccl., i, c. 27.

214 BISHOPS.
" Ab uno episcopo episcopum sicut quemlibet presbyterum
ordinari." '
There are traces of this custom prevailing in the Welsh
Church. In the life of Teilo, given in the Liber
Landavensis, it is stated that he consecrated Ismael;
no one else is mentioned as assisting." The same may
be said of Samson.' David, Teilo, and Padarn were con
secrated by the Patriarch at Jerusalem. But the most
interesting case is that of Chad. He was a Celtic bishop,
and for some reason retired into the monastery of Lasting-
ham ; from thence he went to be the Mercian bishop,
and was re-consecrated by the Latins on resuming his
work as a bishop, probably because the Latins considered
the Celtic orders invaUd.
The question as to consecration has a greater importance
than appears at first sight. One of the difficult points
of Welsh ecclesiastical history is the alleged consecration
of Welsh bishops by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At
times, from about 870, bishops of Llandaff, Cevilliauc
and Libiau, and a bishop of St. David's, Lumbert, are
said to have been consecrated by Athelred, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and there are other instances down to the
beginning of the twelfth century, when the time of the
Norman bishops is reached. If the Welsh Church was
an independent body, how came the Archbishop of
Canterbury to exercise control over it during the time of
Welsh freedom? The easiest way out of the difficulty
is to say that the entries are the forgeries of the Llandaff
monks ; but that is not a satisfactory way of dealing with
the matter, and the example of Chad seems to point to
the true solution. The Welsh bishops were monastic ;
their consecration by the Celtic bishops was ample for the
1 Anselm, Op., ed. 1721, Epistolce, iii, 147.
^ Liber Landavensis, 109, old ed. ' Ibid., 103.

BISHOPS. 215
monastic official, he required nothing more for acting as
bishop in the monastery ; but if he had to act outside the
monastery, over a district that was ruled by different
petty kings, who o-wned no common power, who did not
admit the jurisdiction of the monastery over them, some
thing more was required ; and, as when Chad ceased to be
a monastic bishop, and became the bishop of the Mercians,
that is, of the tribes that formed the West Midlands, he
sought from the Archbishop of Canterbury reconsecration,
or rather, a gift of further and more extended powers.
So the Welsh bishops, when they came to act outside the
limits of their monasteries, and began to seek the exercise
of territorial jurisdiction, desired to base their claim to do
so on something more powerful than the consecration of
some monastic official who might be quite good enough
for a monastic bishop, but was not of sufficient importance
for one who claimed, not merely episcopal functions, but
also diocesan jurisdiction. If this is so, the consecration
of Welsh bishops by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
foUo-wing Chad's example, is the first step on the road
from monastic to diocesan episcopacy, and explains how
it was that the Welsh bishops came to admit foreign
authority, and to accept foreign orders. This view is
bome out by the fact, that it was mainly after the
Llandaff bishops began to seek consecration from
Canterbury that they commenced that system of plunder
ing the Welsh princes by means of ecclesiastical censure
and excommunication, of which the Liber Landavensis is
the record. A monastic bishop might have gone on
excommunicating as long as he liked, without producing
much effect, but a bishop who possessed, or claimed to
possess the unkno-wn powers of a successor to the apostles,
who might be able to deal in the supernatural, was in a
very different position, and it may well be that to get the

216 BISHOPS.
additional power to overawe the Welsh princes, the bishops
thought it worth theu- while to submit to reconseeration,
as the means of obtaining those supernatural powers that
the Celtic form of consecration did not pretend to confer.
The probable reason for the Celts adopting the foi-m
of consecration by one bishop was due to the idea of
monastic bishops. In his monastery the bishop could
exercise, without any interference from any one, all
episcopal functions that the monastery required. One of
these was C(jnferring orders, and if the bishop could confer
orders on priests and deacons, why could he not on
bishops ? If a new bishop was wanted for any of the
monastic colonies, he would come to the bishop of the
mother house to obtain consecration, and no Celtic bishop
would ever think of calling in any one to help him, for
two reasons : the Celtic monasteries were jealous of each
other, for a monastery to admit that their bishop could
not perform his duties, would be an admission of in
feriority, the last thing a Celt would think of making ;
and in the next place, either the bishop, or the monastery,
or both, received fees for conferring orders. If other
bishops were admitted, they would be entitled to part of
the fees, and this would not be pleasing either to the
monastery or to the bishop. Consequently there was the
strongest motive for the Celt, as long as the bishops
remained monastic, to try and maintain the complete
independence and power of each bishop, that is, of each
monastic house. Probably the love of independence and
the love of money kept the Celtic form of consecration
in force for the lengtli of time it continued ; and the
feeling that gradually arose, that the Latin bishop was
the more powerful, and so could do more and thus earn
more than the other, led the Celtic bishop to try to imitate
him, to do as he did, and so to get their powers

BISHOPS. 217
augmented even at the price of their independence. It
has been the custom to minimize the diverofences between
the two forms of consecration, and to say it was, after all,
only in very trifling matters of detail. It doubtless was
so, and was of Uttle real importance whether one or more
bishops took part in the ceremony ; but underneath it all
lay a very important point, namely, the question of
monastic or territorial episcopacy. The struggle between
the two systems really involved the question of English
suzerainty, or Welsh independence. It must also be
remembered that Augustine and Gregory counted the
Celtic bishops ordained by the Celtic ordinal as haring been
irregularly consecrated, and not bishops, but schismatics ;
yet at the present day the bishops of the Welsh Sees, who
are either the successors of the Latin prelates or nothing,
-with strange disregard to history claim to be the
successors of those old Celts whom the Latins repudiated
with scorn. The bishop of St. Darid's calls himself the
one hundred and seventeenth bishop of the See, the direct
successor of St. David ; yet he has certainly no claim to
this — he is the successor of Bernard, the Norman bishop,
but certainly not of David. It is extremely doubtful if
Darid was ever bishop at all, if so, he was a Celtic,
not a Latin prelate, and if the present bishops reaUy are
true to their profession — a schismatic.
(3.) The third and most important point of difference
between the bishops of the two Churches was in their
position and duties. This difference between the two has
been an old cause of complaint. Anselm, in his letter
to Muirchertach, already mentioned, says,' " Item dicitur
episcopos in terra vestra passim eligi et sine certo episco
patus loco constitui." Thus clearly referring to bishops
without any definite diocese. St. Bernard, in his life of
1 Epist., iii, 147.

218 BISHOPS.
St. Malaehi, says that throughout Ireland an unheard of
custom prevailed, "Nam (quod inauditum est ab ipso
Christianitatis initio) sine ordine, sine ratione, mutabantur
et multiplicabantur episcopi pro libitu metropolitani ;
ita ut unus episcopatus uno non esset contentus sed
singulse pene ecclesise singulos haberent episcopos." ' It
is therefore clear from these passages that in the twelfth
century the system of bishops without sees, that is, of
non-diocesan episcopacy, still existed. The probable
explanation is that each Celtic church was originally a
monastic estabUshment, complete in itself, with all the
proper officials who were required to carry on the govern
ment of the church. An official was necessary to carry
on that part of the duties which consisted of ordaining
priests and consecrating bishops ; such official would be
part of the monastic establishment, and such official was
the bishop. In the exercise of his episcopal functions he
was supreme ; no one else in the monastery was entitled
to interfere -with him or usurp those functions, not even
the abbot himself. But, as an official of the house, he
was subject to the abbot, and had to obey his orders in
the same way that any other member of the monastery
was bound to do. He possessed no right of jurisdiction,
no power even over the monks of the monastery ; he was
subject to the jurisdiction of the abbot in everything but
the actual conferring of orders. With the exercise of his
episcopal functions the abbot had no right to interfere.
This was the monastic episcopacy of the Celtic Church,
as different from the diocesan episcopacy of the Latin as
it is possible to imagine. Monastic episcopacy was not
confined to Ireland ; it went with the Celtic Church as
one of her leading features. In Scotland, in Columba's
abbey of lona, there is the express testimony of Bede
' De Vita Malaehi, c. x.

BISHOPS. 219
to show it was in full operation. He says,' " Habere
autem solet ipsa insula rectorem semper abbatem presby
terum cujus juri et omnis provincia et ipsi etiam episcopi
ordine inusitato debeant esse subjecti, juxta exemplum
prinii doctoris illius qui non episcopus sed presbyter
extitit et monachus." It will be remembered that
Columba was not a bishop for the reason already given,"
and that he and the abbots of lona were only priests.
It follows, therefore, from this passage, that, at lona,
the presbyter abbot was supreme over the monastery,
that some of the members of the monastery were bishops,
and that over these the priest abbot had power and
authority. This, therefore, shows that in the Scotch
branch of the Celtic Church, monastic, as opposed to
diocesan episcopacy, was the custom that prevailed.
From Scotland, missionary colonies of the Celtic Church
went out to the North of England. One of these colonies
founded the great monastery of Holy Island. Here we
have also Bede's testimony that the same state of things
existed. He says," " Omnes presbyteri, diaconi, cantores,
lectores, ceterique gradus ecclesiastici monachicam per
omnia cum ipso episcopo regulam servent." It is therefore
plain that the bishop or bishops in a Celtic monastery,
whether in Ireland, Scotland, or England, were under the
abbot's orders — formed part of the establishment of the
monastic family, were in no sense the heads of the house,
and had no jurisdiction or authority outside the territory
of the monastery. The case does not rest here. The
swarms of Celts who went to the continent " conquering
and to conquer", founded monasteries there, and there
the same rule prevailed ; the Celtic missionaries took
with them the princiiole of the supremacy of the abbot,
1 Hist. Eccl., iii, c. 4. ^ See ante, p. 209.
^ Vita S. Cuthberti, cxvi.

220 BISHOPS.
the subordination of the bishop to him. Among the
charters of the Irish monastery of Honau, a place on the
Rhine, near Strasbourg, there is one of the abbot Beatus.
This charter is signed by the abbot first, as abbot, then
by seven bishops and priests, of eight churches which
were tributary to the monastery. Dr. Reeves discusses
this charter in a paper in the Proceedings ef the Royal
Irish Academy,' and points out that the abbot signs first,
and signs himself simply "Abbas." " A state of ecclesi
astical procedure like that of Hy and other Irish monas
teries where bishops were often subjected to presbyters,
and abbatial rank was the grand criterion of jurisdiction."
It -will, therefore, be seen that wherever the Celtic Church
went she took -with her the idea of monastic episcopacy
as one of her pecuUar and distinctive features. There is
no trace of territorial or diocesan jurisdiction — no idea
of a bishop having authority over all or any ecclesiastics ;
he was a monastic official, and nothing more.
Most -wi-iters admit — indeed, in the face of the evidence
it would be impossible to do otherwise — the existence
of monastic episcopacy in the Celtic Church, but say
that this part of the institutions of that Church did not
extend to Wales. It would require some very strong
evidence to prove this, as the inference would be against
it, seeing that wherever the Celtic Church went, there
monastic episcopacy is to be found. Yet most modei-n
writers boldly assert that monastic episcopacy did not
exist in Wales. Most of them are content to quote as
conclusive, a passage in Haddan and Stubbs,' as settling
the matter. "There is no trace at any time in that
country (Wales) of any system resembling the Irish and
Scotch (namely of government by abbots with bishops as
subordinate officers, discharging episcopal functions, but
^ See Transactions, vi, 461. ^ i, p. 143.

BISHOPS. 221
vrithout jurisdiction), or, indeed, of any other system
whatever than that of a diocesan episcopate." If, how
ever, assertion is not taken for eridence, it is impossible
to say there is no trace of monastic episcopacy in the
Welsh Celtic Church. Bede is again the authority to be
cited, in the list of canons passed at the council of
Hertford, in 673. One he gives goes a long way to
prove the existence of monastic episcopacy in the Welsh
Celtic Church. That Council, it will be remembered, was
held by Archbishop Theodore for, amongst other purposes,
defining the boundaries of the English dioceses as
they then existed, in other words, "locating" the
bishops. On doing this for the authorized bishops, it
was necessary to make some prorisions as to the un
authorized ones. This was carried out by the fourth
canon, which, according to the reading in the early
printed editions of Bede, and that adopted by Spelman,
is as follows : " Ut episcopi monachi non migrent de loco
ad locum hoc est de monasterio ad monasterium nisi per
dimissionem proprii abbatis sed in ea permaneant obedien-
tia quam tempore suse conversionis promiserunt." ' Clearly
recognising monastic bishops, and providing that
they shall remain in their own monasteries under the
control of their o-wn abbots, and not wander about. In
the face of this, it is impossible to say that there is no
trace of monastic bishops. Those who object to the
Celtic idea, however, try to get rid of this evidence by
saying that the text is corrupted, and that it should read
not " episcopi monachi ", hut " ipsi monachi". Dr. Smith,
in his Cambridge edition of Bede (1722), is one' of the
first of the editors who insist on reading "ipsi". Smith
speaks of the ignorance and absurdity of those who read
" episcopi", as if the same rule prevailed in England as in
1 Mist. Eccl, iv, 5. ^. l. ' -

222 BISHOPS.
the monastery at lona. " Mira fuit hie editorum ignor-
antia dicam vel oscitantia? Qui legerunt episcopi unde
absurdissimam dederint eruditis controversiam ac si in hac
etiam ecclesia sicut in Hiirense traditur episcopi abbatibus
obedientiam debeant." As the rule admittedly prevailed in
the monastery of Holy Isle, it is difficult to see the absurdity
of supposing what is admitted existed there — what is
admitted existed wherever the Celtic Church was found
— should not exist in Wales and on the Welsh border.
It seems more absurd,' as Dr. Todd points out, to suppose
that a formal canon was made to prohibit monks them
selves from migrating to other monasteries without the
leave of their abbots, and enacting they must continue
in the obedience which they had promised when they
became monks. But read "episcopi monachi", and this
is explained. Nothing could be more natural than that
a monk, who had been raised to the episcopal order,
should believe himself thereby relieved from monastic
obedience, and at liberty in his episcopal character to
risit other monasteries without the leave of his abbot ;
that is, either to try and increase his income by doing
odd ordinations, or to try and assume the rights and powers
of a Latin bishop, -with jurisdiction over a certain area,
not merely being content -with his having power confined to
the monastery. Haddan and Stubbs " give the reasons
for the reading "episcopi" as Spelman's reading," the im
probability that any one would have changed " ipsi " and
" episcopi", and the Scotch practice ; they might have added
" episcopi" is also the reading of Hardouin,' and of several
of the early editions of Bede, such as that of Grarius
(Antwerp, 1550). The reasons they give against it are
Moore's MS., Alfred's translation of Bede, the apparent fact
that Theodore took all his canons from old church CouncUs,
1 St. Patrick, 49. ^ jij^ ^21. ^ Condi, i, 153. ' Ibid., iii, 1016.

BISHOPS. 223
and these in particular from the Council of Calchedon (iv,
25), the fact that no "episcopi monachi" ever existed in
an English monastery except as diocesan bishops presiding
over the monastery as well as the see, and the connection
in sense, of the canon reading- "ipsi" with those before
and after it. The last two reasons are hardly reasons at
all; the penultimate one begs the question and ignores
the case of Holy Island and the other instances. The
last reason is very weak, as the third canon merely prorides
for the abbot's jurisdiction in his monastery, free from
any episcopal control, and does not touch the point,
whether that control is of the monastic or diocesan bishop ;
while the fifth canon, providing that no clergyman leave
his own bishop and wander where he pleases, rather
strengthens the reading " episcopi", which would make the
fourth canon prohibit wandering bishops, the fifth pro
hibit wandering priests. This is borne out by reference
to the sixth canon, which provides for the case of wander
ing bishops and priests, episcopi atque clerici peregrini. If
" episcopi " is read in the fourth canon, the whole four are
consistent : monasteries not subject to episcopal jurisdic
tion, but the abbot's power remains ; bishops not to
wander about, but stay in their own monasteries ; clergy
not to wander and leave their own bishops ; wandering
bishops and clergy not to do duty without the consent of
the local bishop — but if " ipsi monachi " is read, the con
nection between the four canons is lost, and they are
rendered meaningless. With regard to the argument
that the canons are taken from old church councils, it
does not seem entitled to great weight. It may well be
that "the Greek monk", Theodore, who was trying to
force the rule of the Latin Church upon the country,
applied canons, made for a very different state of things,
to the conditions of the English Church ; but even assum-

224 BISHOPS.
ing that he did so, this is no argument against the
reading " episcopi ", and the question thus becomes one of
what is the true reading from the MSS.? It may be pointed
out that while the contraction " epi " might be very well
mistaken for " i])si ", it is not Ukely that the converse
would be the case, and " ijisi " changed into " episcopi ".
It must also be remembered that Theodore was sent by
the Pope to England to stamp out Celtic Christianity,
that an African abbot, Adrian, was sent. with him tn see
that nothing of the Eastern Church was introduced. If
the story of Theodore waiting at Rome for his hair to
grow, (his head, after the eastern custom, being entirely
shaved'), that he might wear the Latin tonsure, is true,
it -will be seen with what infinite care he was made to
conform to each detail of the Latin ritual, and it will
not be wondered at that he should try to stamp out such
a Celtic heresy as monastic bishops, and still more, try
to justify his conduct by an appeal to the Councils of the
Church. Whether they were applicable or not, did not
matter, if they could be adapted for the occasion it was
aU that was required. Another version of the canon is
given by Montalembert, who, of course, adopts the
reading " ipsi ".' He says the canons were marked by the
Benedictine spirit, since the greater part of the bishops
in the Council were the sons of St. Benedict ; and the one
forbidding monks to pass from one monastery to another
-without the permission of the abbot, was an affirmation
of the vow of stability, which, though often neglected,
was not the less an essential distinction of the order of
St. Benedict from the great monastic communities of the
East or of Celtic countries. It must also be remembered
that Theodore was the most bitter opponent of everything
to do with the Celt; that it was he who brought about
^ Montalembert, Moines d' Ocddent, iv, 210. ° Ibid., iv, 227.

BISHOPS. 225
the re-consecration of Chad, and seems to have been the
author of the law,' " Qui ordinati sunt Scottorum aut
Brittonum episcopi qui in pascha vel tonsura catholicse
non sunt adunati ecclesise, iterum a catholico episcopo
manus impositione confirmentur." With such an op
ponent all the probabilities are in favour of Theodore
trying to stamp out the Celtic monastic bishops. On his
risit to Holy Island he must have met with this, to him,
abomination, and when trying to frame rules for his
Church, the probabilities are, he would attempt to deal
with this, which was not merely a peculiarity, but a vital
part of the organization of the Celtic Church.
Even if the matter rested on the passage of Bede, it
would not be accurate to say that no trace of the Celtic
system was found in the Celtic Church of Wales, that
it is only one piece, a very important piece it is true, of
the eridence in support of the existence of monastic
bishops in that Church. Other matters have also to
be considered : — (1) The first is the remarkable absence
of the early history of any of the four Welsh dioceses.
From the time of their alleged foundation, until the time
of the Norman conquest, the history of these sees is
practically a blank. There is, in the case of St.
Darid's, a string of names of alleged bishops, but as
the historians of that see truly say," "We are presented
with a list of bishops, but we have nothing beyond their
names, neither is their existence proved by any con
temporary authority." Except the names we hear nothing,
and, admitting that the names represent bishops, it must
be conceded that they prove nothing as to what the
bishops were, whether monastic or diocesan ; they might
just as well be the one as the other. This difficulty is
usually met by saying that, as to Llandaff, there is a
' Ancient Lams and Institutes of England, ii, 64.
^ Jones and Freeman, 257.

226 BISHOPS.
history which -will be found in the Book of Llandaff; that
the other three sees were so repeatedly plundered
and ravaged by the Danes and by the Irish, that the
absence of records is thus accounted for — they perished
in the sack of the monasteries. The difficulty in accepting
this explanation is, that it assumes something to liavi^
been destroyed of which there is not the smallest proof
that it ever existed. To assume that all the records are
destroyed, and on this to assert the existence of an institu
tion and say that there is no trace to be found of anything
else, is hardly a fit way of dealing -with an important ques
tion. The fair way to state the matter is to say that there
are no early records of the three Welsh Sees to give direct
evidence either way, for or against monastic or diocesan
episcopacy, and that theref(jre the evidence must be sought
elsewhere. The case of Llandaff is different. There has
come down to us what purports to be an abstract of a
collection of documents relating to the early history of this
see, which, it is said, extends from the time of its foundation
to about 1130. This collection is known as the Liber
Landavensis, or the Book af Teilo. In considering its im
portance as an historical document, the circumstances under
which it was made must be borne in mind. In 1133, it
became necessary, in consequence of litigation between the
Norman Bishop of Llandaff, Urban, and the Norman Bishop
of St. Darid's, Bernard, as to the boundaries of the two
dioceses, for the Bishop of Llandaff to prove his title to
those parts of St. David's, which he claimed as belonging
to his diocese, the churches that bore the name of Teilo,
and which are usuaUy spoken of as the Teilo churches.
To do this the Liber Landavensis was drawn up, and it
purports to set out the various grants from the different
Welsh princes, giring to the Llandaff house the various
lands and places that it then claimed. It is therefore

BISHOPS. 227
nothing more or less than the Llandaff statement of their
title to the lands and places they claimed to be theirs.
It has probably been added to at different times, for in
addition to the title to the lands, a good deal of extraneous
matter, such as the Uves of the founder of the see and of
the first bishops is added. The book, therefore, contains
the title of the Llandaff church to its lands, and certain
biographical notices. The former may be genuine and of
historical value, the latter can only be the embodiment
of the then current traditions at the time of compilation.
As to the legal part, it is quite possible that some of the
documents may be genuine, but it is almost certain that
a large number of them are not. The monks had to prove
their case, and they would have been a disgrace to their
order if they lost their case by allowing any breaks in
their chain of documents to appear. Haddan and Stubbs
say of it,' " That real materials existed for the compilation
of the book is rendered probable by the existence of the
memorandum, of probably the lunth century, on the
margin of the Book af St. Chad, now at Lichfield, but
once the property of Llandaff. . . . The internal
eridence of the book is sufficient to prove that all the
earUer charters contained in it were not contemporary
-with their professed dates, but were drawn up at a much
later period, probably not long before the compilation of
the volume itself, and are simply statements, founded upon
varying amounts of information and cast into the form
of charters, of the circumstances under which this or
that church or land was possessed or claimed by the see
of Llandaff in the twelfth century, at the time of an
angry and protracted contest between that see and those
of St. Darid's and Hereford for a large portion of their
churches and lands." It is therefore an account dra-wn
1 i, 147 n.
Q 2

228 BISHOPS.
up by Latin monks for a special purpose, and while much
that it contains may be genuine, much that it contains
is certainly not. It is, therefore, no exception to the
rule already stated, that there is no real history of the
Welsh dioceses from their aUeged foundation to the date
of the Norman conquest. In the Liber Landavensis there
are, as would be expected, frequent allusions to the bishop,
l)ut sueh allusions are, certainly in the earlier jiart, quite
as applicable to the monastic as to diocesan bishops, and
ina.ny of them, while quite consistent with monastic
episeoiiaey, are wholly inconsistent with diocesan. All
that is now alleged is, that the history of the Welsh
sees before the conquest affords no evidence in support
of diocesan episcopacy, beyond the natural inference a
Latin chronicler would draw, that there being bishops
there must be dioceses for them. Such inferences as
there are apply rather to monastic than to diocesan episco
pacy. (2.) The legendary lives of the Welsh Saints, in the
form in which we have them, are mainly the productions
of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. They do not
contain very much information on the matter. Here and
there allusions to bishops are met with, and some of
such allusions might be relied on in support of monastic
bishops, others in support of diocesan bishops ; but it
must always be borne in mind when deaUng -with these
Uves that they are, at best, the rerisions of Latin monks,
-wi-itten for Latin monks, to advance the ideas and beliefs
of the Latin Church, and that, therefore, they are the
last place where we should look for evidence in support
of a Celtic system as opposed, to a Latin.
(3.) Another great source of information on Welsh
ecclesiastical history is the Welsh laws. Here wiU be
found various passages relating to bishops, passages

BISHOPS. 229
which may be cited in support of either of the two
systems — or what may -with more accuracy be said, that
the later laws point clearly to diocesan episcopacy, but
in the earUer laws the provisions would apply in most
cases to either; but in some few instances, such as the
number of bishops present at the assembly at Whitland,
when the laws were compiled, obriously referring to
something other than diocesan episcopacy. It is only
necessary to say here that the Welsh laws contain
nothing against monastic bishops, and some things in
favour of them. That if the Welsh laws stood alone,
the inference to be dra-wn from them would be that the
original state of things in Wales was monastic bishops ;
but, as time went on, the powers of the abbot declined,
the powers of the bishop increased, until at last these
two were on an equal footing, and ultimately the bishop
superseded the abbot, first, as head of the monastery,
then, as ruling over the possessions of the monastery,
then, as ruling over a district, and lastly, as presiding
over a diocese. It may be impossible to say how long-
monastic episcopacy lasted, but if the evidence is care
fuUy examined, it leads to the belief that Wales was no
exception to the other places where the Celtic Church
prevailed, and that this very marked feature of her
organization was equally found in Wales, as well as in
Ireland, Scotland, and on the continent.
The real point in dispute between Latin and Celtic
episcopacy is narrowed down to what was the position the
early Welsh bishops occupied, for even Haddan and
Stubbs ' admit that in the early times of Christianity
in Wales the bishops were not diocesan, but presided
over monastic or educational institutions, as, for instance,
PauUnus at Whitland, whom Ricemarch calls a bishop.
1 i, 142.

230 BISHOPS.
So that really the existence of non-diocesan bishops being
admitted, the sole point is, what position did the Welsh
bishops hold in the monastery — were they under the rule
of the abbot, or were they supreme, combining the
functions of abbot and bishop ? Here, again, there is an
utter absence of direct evidence. A passage in the life
of David would seem to show that the abbot was supreme.
It will be remembered that David, assuming that he was
abbot of the Menevian monastery, removed it from its old
site to the new one he selected. It is clearly stated in
the Life that there was a bishop connected with
the old monastery.' When that was absorbed into the
new monastery, of which David was the head, it would
seem to follow that the bishop was under David's authority ;
so that here we find the abbot of the monastery,
not a bishop himself, but having a bishop a member of
the monastery, which is precisely the Irish and Scotch
custom. It is not enough to do more than give rise to
an inference, but as it is admitted that such was the
Irish case, it is natural it should be so in a monastery as
closely et)nnected with Ireland as that of Menevia, and
from which, to a great extent, Irish monasticism came.
If we turn to Ireland we find monastic bishops in full
force. There, the bishops were reg-ular monastic officials,
under the orders of the head of the monastery, and that,
whether the head was an ecclesiastic or a layman, a man
or a woman. The strongest instance is that of Kildare,
the monastery of which the " Blessed Bridget " was the
head. After founding the monastery, on reflection, she
considered she should not be -without a bishop ; so she
fixed on a holy man, Condlaed, who lived near, and agreed
with him to act as bishop, or, as it is said, " to govern the
' Cambro-Brit. ,<aiiits, 121.

BISHOPS. 231
church -with her".' The bishop was quite under Bridget's
control. He wanted to go to Rome, and asked her
permission; she refused, but still he would go, and she
then prayed that, as a punishment for his disobedience,
he might meet -with a sudden death by the road. When
he got as far as County Wicklow, he was devoured by
wild dogs." It is difficult to find a stronger case than
that of a bishop under the orders of an abbess. The
bishop's position in the monastery does not appear to
have been one of the highest rank. Bishops are found
holding -with the office of bishop " that of scribe, and in
the Irish canons it is said that when a bishop is super
seded for misconduct, his place is to be taken by the
lector of the house. As the lector was not one of the
great officials, it would seem to follow that neither was
the bishop.
The most curious account of the position of the
bishop is given in the Irish laws, in stating the
penalties that a bishop who misconducts himself, " a
stumbling bishop," incurs. " There are ",' says the
tract, "four dignitaries of a territory that may be
degraded, a false judging king, a stumbling bishop, a
fraudulent poet, an unworthy chieftain who does not
fulfil his duties ; dire fine is not due to these." Two
of the MSS. add, " For a king is bound to observe truth,
a bishop is bound to observe purity, every poet is bound
to reject lies from his composition, a chief is bound to
observe uprightness." The gloss goes on to define in very
plain language an adulterous bishop, his "wickedness lowers
' In the Martyrology of Gorman, Condlaed is spoken of as bishop of
Kildare and Bridget's craftsman {hesidhe cerd Brigde). Henry Bradshaw
Society's Publications, vol. ix, p. 89.
^ Martyrology of CEngus, 3rd May.
3 Skene, Celt'ic Scotland, ii, 44.
* Ancient Lams of Ireland, Rolls ed., i, 55.

232

BISHOPS.

the man, he faUs into eril." Therefore, as he faUs to
fulfil his duty, he is not entitled to honor fine, he has not
full honor fine in consequence of a duty he does not
perform. So far, all is clear; it is noticeable that the
only offence mentioned against a bishop is unchastity.
The gloss goes on to define the diminution of the honor
fine that is dependent on whether the person possesses
both worthiness (rank) and property -with which he
does good ; if he has both, he has full honor fine ; if
worthiness without property, and does good, half
honor fine of his grade ; if worthiness without property,
and does no good, only one screpall ; if property without
worthiness, and good is done, half honor fine; if worthiness
without property one screpall, as "property does not increase
honor fine unless good is done with it." This valuation of
a man according to his rank and property, with the
addition whether he does or does not do good with it, is
peculiar; we are not told with whom the determination
rested, if the man did or did not do good. The gloss
goes on to state a series of acts, chiefiy crimes of violence
and theft, that in every instance deprived a man of haU
his honor fine, until the act was done a third time, when
full honor fine was taken away. "Except among the
grades of the church, if they commit it, it takes away
their full honor fine from them at once, until they pay
eric fine, do penance, and move from their grade, and
they must be similarly punished if they have committed
adultery.'" It follows that the stumbling bishop, as above
defined, at once lost his honor fine and his grade, that is,
he at once became a man of no account, of no value, of no
rank. A layman could commit these offences up to three
times -with only a partial loss of rank ; a person in orders
suffered a total loss of rank in the first instance. But the
gloss, after repeating that on the first offence ecclesi-
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, Rolls ed., i, p. 57.

BISHOPS. 233
astics lost all, goes on, " Adultery deprives ecclesiastical
orders of full horior fine at once until they pay eric fine,
and do penance, and they all return to their prior dignities,
except the bishop who does not return, but becomes a
hermit." ' There seems to be, therefore, no doubt that
the ecclesiastic who committed these offences, and lost his
position, could for his first offence regain his position
by fine and penance, unless he was a bishop. The bishop's
position was peculiar ; it is doubtful if, under any circum
stances, he could come back to the grade of bishop, but
he could attain a higher rank in the church ; he might
become a miracle worker {thaumaturgist) , either as a
hermit or as a pilgrim. It is difficult at first to see why
a man could attain to a higher rank than his old one,
and yet be debarred from regaining his old rank. A
distinction is drawn between the married and unmarried
bishop. The gloss says, " It is the virgin (unmarried)
bishop only who does not recover his grade or his per
fection again. The bishop of one wife does return when
he performs penance within three days. ... If
wounding or theft, lying or adultery, be committed by
a bishop or by a priest to whom marriage (adultery) is
not allowed, they shall not resume the same dignities, even
if they do penance and pay eric fine, or, as some say, it is
the virgin bishop only that does not resume it, the bishop
of one wife resumes it if he does penance in three days,
and if they move from their dignity, they should
attain to a higher one ; and this is the change, the lector
shall be installed in the bishopric, and the bishop shall
become a hermit or pilgrim, and if the bishop, while in
either of these conditions, commit trespasses they shall
never have honor price, even although they should do
penance, and pay eric fine." ' Therefore the reason why
the bishop does not regain his former place in the monas-
1 Ancient Lams of I'rela)id, Rolls eii.,i, -p. 7.

234 BISHOPS.
tery seems to be, that, if he falls, he has no longer any
honor fine payable to the monastery. The house did not
care to have an official who was valueless to it, in case he
was injured or killed. He might be restored to his rank
as bishop by penance and by penalties, but he did not
regain his money value ; he was therefore useless to the
monastery. He could exercise his duties elsewhere as a
hermit or as a pilgrim, but as a monastic bishop he was
worthless. His place was given to the next monastic
official, the lector, who had a money value. The bishop,
haring lost his money value, also lost his place in the
monastery, otherwise he was much as before. These
passages, with the canons, fix clearly the place of the
monastic bishop in a Celtic monastery. He was the
official next in rank above the lector.
The Catalogue of the Irish Saints, according to the
different times, which has been already referred to,' gives a
picture of what early Celtic Christianity was, and of its
form, in which the distinguishing feature was bishops, a
form which lasted about one hundred and fifty years, from
the coming of Patrick to a.d. 543. Not the least striking
part is the fact that there were said to be three hundi-ed
and fifty bishops — a number so enormous, if looked at from
the Latin point of view, as to be absolutely incredible.
While its exact accuracy is questionable, it may yet be
taken to show the enormous number of bishops in the
early Celtic Church, a fact which is confirmed by two
other authorities. In the Tripartite Life of Patrick,'^ the
number of bishops he is said to have made is put at three
hundred and seventy, priests three thousand, and folk of
every grade in the Church besides. In the Litany aj
CEngus the Culdee, it is said that Patrick ordained seven
times fifty holy cleric bishops and three hundred priests.
1 Ante, p. 155. '' EoUs ed., i,p. 261.

BISHOPS. 235
It is curious that all these accounts of the early Irish
Church make the number of bishops so large, and so
nearly the same. That the figures are unreliable is
certain, if from nothing else, that in the Litany af
OEngus the number of bishops exceeds the number of
priests. But, while not accepting the exact number, it
is clear that the number of bishops in early times in the
Celtic Church was out of all proportion to the require
ments of the country from a diocesan point of view.
Probably the numbers are greatly exaggerated. But
assuming that the majority of the churches were monas
teries, it will then not be so startling to find this large
number of bishops, and the truth of St. Bernard's taunt,
that every church had its bishop, -will appear. It is also
noticeable that in the glimpse we get of the Celtic Church
in Wales, the same disparity of numbers of bishops is
found. In the account of the synod of Llanddewibrefi,
given in the Life of St. David, the number of bishops
is said to have been one hundred and eighteen,' a
number as disproportionate for Wales as the three hundred
and seventy was for Ireland, if diocesan episcopacy is
looked at ; but which, if monastic episcopacy is admitted,
is, although exaggerated, not outrageously impossible.
When the Celtic bishops are said to have taken part in
the conference with Augustine, the numbers are brought
down to seven, and given dioceses. As all but two of
the bishops are confined to South Wales, it shows this
account is not reliable ; for even five bishops for South
Wales is out of all proportion. In the laws of Hywel Da,
the number of croziers — bishops, abbots, and priests — at
Whitland is said to have been 180 ; the number of bishops
is not separately given. It is clear that in all accounts
of either the Celtic Church in Ireland, or Wales, the
number of bishops is far too large to be consistent with any
^ Cambro-Brit. Saints, p. 106.

236 BISHOPS.
idea of diocesan episcopacy, or to be capable of any other
explanation than that of monastic episcopacy. The most
reasonable explanation is, that most of the early churches,
both in Ireland and Wales, were monastic, if not actually
monasteries ; that each monastery had a bishop as part
of its establishment. This would appear to have been the
normal state of things according to Celtic ideas, and from
a passage in the 2Iartyrology of (Engus,' it seems that
some of the Irish monasteries were not content with a
single bishop. An aecount is there given of the establish
ment of Mochta, a disciple of Patrick, who settled himself
at Louth ; in his monastery, ov family, there were a number
of bishops. "No poverty," it says, "had Mochta inthe
burgh of Louth. Three hundred priests, one hundred
bishops there were with him." Here, again, it is probable,
figures are exaggerated to enhance Mochta's reputation,
but after making every deduction, the passage shows the
enormous number of bishops that existed. It also brings
out another point, that there was some proportion between
the number of bishops and the number of priests, or,
rather, the number of inmates of the monastery, and,
possibly, the number of dependent churches. That
each monastery, that is, each monastery of sufficient
position and importance, possessed a bishop, or, possibly,
more than one, among its inmates, S(.»eins fairly clear.
It is confirmed by a passage in the Life ef Columba, who,
it is said, went in 590 from his monastery of lona, fo a
synod at Drumcheatt, in the County Derry, attended by
twenty bishops, forty priests, fifty deacons, and thirty
students." Even assuming the numbers grossly ex
aggerated, it shows that Columba had, as officials of the
^ See the pas.sage cited by Todd, St. Patrick, p. 30, where the lines left
out in the Donegal Martyrology and the Four Masters are given.
- Reeves' Antiquities of Down and Connor, p. 132.

BISHOPS. 237
monastery of lona and its subordinate houses, a number
of bishops out of all proportion to any idea of dioceses.
The only Welsh case where a number of bishops is
mentioned, is the one of Llanddewibrefi, but that does
not come anywhere near the Irish numbers ; yet still these
instances show that in all the Celtic countries the mon
astic family included among its members a certain number
of bishops.
The fact of the number of bishops in the Irish monas
teries brings out another very pecuUar feature of the
Celtic Church, namely, the groups of bishops, usually
seven, that are found residing together in certain places.
The Martyrology of Donegal mentions six groups of seven
bishops. The Litany of CEngus the Culdee, however,
mentions no less than one hundred and forty-one of such
groups. It is by no means clear what these groups were ;
it appears that the members of the groups were usually
related, brothers or cousins ; no satisfactory account of
them has as yet been given. Allusion to the mystical
number seven, or to the Apocalypse, does not give any real
help ; all that can be said is, that it was one of the peculiar
institutions of the Celtic Church. Dr. Todd supposes they
were intended to be the centres of devotion to the sur
rounding tribes, and also located at places where the offices
of the Church were celebrated with pecuUar pomp and
solemnity, kept up day and night -without intermission.
This explanation is far from satisfactory. It would seem
more probable that, as there were groups of churches, and
that each church had its officials, including bishops, so the
group of seven churches would have seven bishops. This,
however, does not really help, it only suggests the question
in another form : Why were there seven churches ? All
that can be said is, that at present we do not know enough
of Celtic Church organization to give a satisfactory answer.

238 BISHOPS.
The matter is not without its importance as an
explanation of one of the controverted passages in the
history of the Welsh Celtic Church, one that has attracted
more notice, and has had more unsatisfaetory explana
tions given to it than any other — the list of bishop's
houses, first given in the Dimetian Code.^ It states that
there are seven bishop's houses in Dyfed, and then follow
the names of seven places that are obviously monastic
houses of some kind. If, as is usually said to be the case,
they are a group of seven houses in the west corner of
Pembrokeshire, it is no unreasonable explanation that
they are an instance of one of the groups of seven bishops
that occur in Ireland ; if, on the other hand, they are
admitted to be further apart, it is probable that they are a
list of the monasteries to which bishops were attached.
The usual explanations of these houses are curious. Jones
and Freeman state," " The episcopal houses, whatever may
have been their exact nature, were conventual establish
ments of some kind or other, standing in a direct relation
of subordination to the bishops." Bevan says," "The
earliest area of the diocese as a diocesan see was the
principality of Dyfed, the present Pembrokeshire, with
the adjacent parts of Carmarthenshire. In corroboration
of the view as to the extent, we may cite the notice of the
seven bishop's houses, as given in the Laws of Hywel
Da, which all fall within the area above given." It is
obvious that the above explanations are really no explana
tions at all ; that they do not in any way account for the
seven bishop's houses. That they were the same as the
Irish groups of bishops seems far more Ukely, and gives
some explanation of the number of houses. Newell says,^
" Whatever may be the exact signification of this section,
^ Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 556. ' History of St. David's, p. 265.
' Diocesan History, p. 30. * History of tlie Welsh Church, p. 60.

BISHOPS. 239
which is not quite clear, this much is certain, that the
heads of the bishop's houses were abbots, and it is not
improbable that, originally, at least, they were abbot
bishops." Two other instances in Wales can be
mentioned. The authority of the lolo MSS. is not of a
high order, but it states that at Llantwit Vawr "Hltyd
founded seven churches, appointed seven companies for
each church, and seven halls or colleges in each company,
and seven saints in each hall or college." ' If any reliance
whatever can be placed on this legend, which is very
doubtful, it points to the group of seven Uke that met -with
in the Irish Celtic Church. Another instance is found
in Bede's account of Bangor Iscoed, speaking of divisions
into seven," "In septem portiones esset cum prsepositis
sibi rectoribus monasterium dirisum nulla harum portio
minus quam trecentos homines haberet." Who the
governor over each portion was is not clear, but it would
seem that here again the same idea prevailed as in the
Irish Celtic Church of the number seven and the groups
of seven estabUshments.
Some -writers, whUe unable to explain all the difficulties
as to Welsh bishops from a Latin source, and who are not
prepared to admit that monastic bishops in the Celtic
sense prevailed in Wales, try to account for the admitted
difficulties in two ways — (1) by saying the number of bishops
is to be accounted for by each bishop having a number of
suffragans {char episcopi) . This view, which is ingenious,
is open to the objection that suffragans imply, if not a
diocese, a territorial jurisdiction; that suffragan bishops
are almost always bishops of some city. ;But the
difficulty is, that dioceses did not exist, and that there
were no cities in Wales to have bishops. This is
another instance of the hopelessness of trying to explain
1 lolo MSS., p. 555. 2 j^igf Eccl, ii, 2.

240 BISHOPS.
Celtic pecuUarities by reference to the Latin Church
customs and usages. The other idea, is, that the bishops
were non-diocesan bishops, neither monastic nor diocesan,
but simply bishops. That is, in effect, giving to Wales
a peculiar class of bishops of her own. The Latin Church
recognized diocesan bishops, the Celtic monastic, but
neither of them recognized an order of bishops "in
gross", as a. lawyer would say, who were neither diocesan
nor monastic.
The question as to what were the precise duties of the
Celtic bishop in the monastery, is also one on which there
is not much Ught. In religious matters they were entitled
to a certain deference, as appears from a. story told by
Adamnan, of a stranger {proselytus), Cronan, coming to
lona,' who endeavoured to conceal the fact that he was a
bishop. Columba invited him to assist on Sunday in the
celebration of the Eucharist, as if he had been a priest.
It seems to have been usual at lona for two priests to act
as celebrants. On going- up to the altar, Columba suddenly
ascertained that the stranger was a bishop, and, addressing
him as brother — -not father — -t(jld him that he should
celebrate alone -with the episcopal rite, now it was known
he was a bishop. It seems to have been the Celtic custom
for the bishop to celebrate alone, unless another bishop
was present, while in the Latin Church the rule is,
that when a bishop celebrates, the priests who are present
unite with the bishop in the consecration and manual
acts. This shows that Columba, supreme as he was in
his o-wn monastery, in any ecclesiastical function gave
place to the bishop. Here he is made to ask the bishop
why he concealed his rank, so that he did not receive the
respect {veneratia) due to him. From another passage
in the Life af Columba, it appears that the bishop cele-
1 Vit. Columbce, i, c. 44.

BISHOPS. 241
brated alone. When Columba was a young man vrith
Finnian, of Mo-riUe, there was not sufficient wine for
the eucharist, the bishop was alone celebrating, and
Columba tumed water into wine to supply the want.'
Another story, told by Adamnan," shows that the bishops
had but a Umited discretion in exercising their spiritual
functions. An Irish presbyter, Findchan, founded a
monastery; he brought with him a man, Aldus Niger,
who was certainly a fit subject for conversion, as he is
described as an habitual murderer. After doing his
penance, Findchan sent for a bishop to have Aldus
ordained priest. The bishop objected, but said if he did
it Findchan must assist, and place his hand on Aldus'
head. This was done, and Aldus became transformed
into a priest. Columba was furious when he heard this,
and declared that Findchan's right hand, which, contrary
to right and the law ecclesiastical, he had placed on
Aldus' head, should rot off, and that Aldus should
return like a dog to his vomit, and murder himself. Here,
obriously, the monastic bishop was desirous of refusing
ordination, but he did not dare to disobey his monastic
superior ; aU he required was that it should be made clear
that he acted under orders. Columba, although punishing
the abbot and the priest, did nothing to the bishop, who,
it would seem, was only acting in accordance -with his
duty in obeying his abbot. It would, therefore, appear to
follow that the monastic bishops, in the actual performance
of their episcopal duties were supreme, but if ordered
by the abbots to perform them, they had to obey.
As has been already said, the episcopal functions of the
Celtic bishop were limited to those that may be called
personal, such as ordination and the like. He possessed
no right of jurisdiction over the clergy ; that right, as the
1 Vit. Columbce, ii, o. 1. " Ibid., i, c. 36.

242 BISHOPS.
clergy were members of the monastery, belonged to the
abbot, whose duty it was to keep up discipUne. He was
the head of the monastic family, not only of the mother
house, but also of the daughter houses, and he exercised
the jurisdiction over these houses and their possessions.
Such a jurisdiction was abbatical, not episcopal. Little
therefore remained for the bishop to do but to confer orders.
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the bishop
is found uniting other offices with his episcopal duties.
It must also be remembered that many of the bishops
were married. This is clear from many statements, one
especially, that when Patrick wanted a bishop for the
men of Leinster, one of the qualifications sought for was,
that he should be a man of one wife.' The Irish laws
draw the distinction between the married bishop, the
virgin bishop, and the bishop of one wife. The honor fine
of the rirgin bishop was greater than that of the bishop
of one wife." The practice of bishops marrying was
recos'iiized in Wales until a much later date. It -will be
remembered that Bishop Sulien was married, and his sons
almost claimed a right of succession to the see of St. David's.
But the most striking example is to be found in an entry
in the Black Book af St. David's, an Extent of the property
of the see in the time of Edward II, 1326. Speaking of
certain lands in Letterstone, the following entry occurs ;
" Item dicunt quod quidam episcopus Menevensis nomine
Darid quondam dedit rii carucas terrse in piano et in
bosco cum quadam filia sua prout a senioribus et fide dignis
audierunt et vocatur terra iUa Drym. Et fuerat quondam
ilia terra de dominico domini episcopi.""
The history of episcopacy in the Celtic Church starts
' Trip>artite Life, Rolls ed., i, 189.
^ Aticient Laws of Ireland, i, 57 : iv, 365.
3 British Museum, Add. MSS., 34,135, p. 24.

BISHOPS. 243
from the time when the bishop was merely the monastic
official, as in the case of Findchan's monastery, bound
to obey his abbot, and traces the development of the
bishop into a prelate -with a territorial jurisdiction — a
peer of the realm, -with the same power in ecclesiastical
matters as the civil ruler had in temporal. Unfortunately
the details of this transformation are not so full or
complete as could be -wished. The first step, from the
subordinate official to the abbacy, had probably been
brought about in the period between the time of Patrick
and the date of the earliest Welsh records. It is admitted,
even by Haddan and Stubbs, that in the earliest records
we get of the Welsh Church, we find bishops, not diocesan,
presiding over monastic or educational institutions,' who
are perhaps faintly traceable about the sixth century ; and
that the idea of an honorary episcopate was not unfamiliar
to Welshmen of the eleventh century." This would mark
the second stage, the abbatical jurisdiction exercised by
the abbot, who was also bishop, first over the monastery,
its daughter houses, and its possessions, and then gradually
extending until it coincided with the ciril limits of
jurisdiction in which the monastery and its possessions
were situate, thus graduaUy approximating the idea of a
diocese ; the last step being the extinction of the Welsh
bishops and the formal appointment of Normans, who settled
the Umits of the Welsh sees and turned the remains of the
Celtic monastic episcopacy into the Latin diocesan, which
has continued since. In Ireland, Scotland, and Wales,
the dates of the changes differ, but the main features of
the process seem the same in each.
From the Senchus Mar the position of the abbot as the
head of the monastic property is clear. One of the five
contracts which were dissolved, even if they were perfected,
1 i, 142. ' Ibid., i, 143. R 2

244

BISHOPS.

was the contract of a monk without his abbot,' that is,
the gloss explains, the contract of a monk as a lay
tenant of ecclesiastical lands without his abbot being
present, prorided the abbot impugns the contract.
Speaking of serrices each person was bound to render, it
is said that each man owes service to his own tribe chief,
to his prince, and his abbot." These entries show that
at the time of this part of the Senchus Mor the abbot, not
the bishop, was the head of the monastery, the chief of the
ecclesiastical tribe. That the bishop was rising in im
portance is seen from the fact that his value was going up.
The dire fine for a king and a bishop became equal."
This is explained by the gloss that the honor fine of the
king of the territories and the bishop of the church
of a king of territories is equal ; ' thus making it, not so
much a question of the bishop personally, but because
he was the bishop of the king's church. In the common
caldron, which was kept always ready in the Irish chief
tain's house, the joints in it were apportioned according
to rank. His own proper kind of food was taken out of
it for each person, the haunch for the king, bishop, and
literary doctor.^ The king's property could not be directly
distrained upon, neither could a chief priest's," a term
that would apply equaUy to bishop or abbot, and which
was at last appUed to the bishop.
In the " Critli Gabhlach",' one of the later tracts in
the Senchus Mor, the change in the position of the
bishop is clearly brought out, and he was, at the time
that tract was compiled, of an equal, if not superior rank
to the king. It speaks of the retinue of a bishop when
he travels for the good of Church and territory, and asks
^ Ancient Lams of Ireland, Rolls ed., i, 51, 53. ^ Ibid., iii, 23.
' Ibid., i, 41. ' Ibid., i, 43. "^ Ibid., i, 49. « lUd., ii, 121.
¦' Ibid., iv, 339.

BISHOPS.

245

" Which is higher, a king or a bishop ? The bishop is
higher, because the king stands up to salute him by reason
of religion. A bishop, however, raises his knee to a king." '
" What is the highest dignity on earth ? " The dignity of
the Church. What is the highest dignity which is in the
Church? The dignity of a bishop. . . . And in
Erin what is the highest dire fine there ? The dire fine
of a virgin bishop, with his full attributes, such as he is
entitled to." It -will be thus seen that the tracts in the
Senchus Mor cover the period of time from when the bishop
was under the rule of the abbot, untU he became the great
ecclesiastical personage. It was not until Ireland had
passed from the Celtic to the Latin Church that the last
passage was written. For there occurs in the sequel to
the "Crith Gabhlach " this statement:" "The highest
bishop of these is the bishop of Peter's church, because it
is under his subjection the chiefs of Rome are, and they
are not under the subjection of any one who has not
virginity, or repentance, or lawful espousal, and it is to
him that seven cumhals are payable for every degree of the
seven orders that are upon him, if there be eric fine for
him at all ; if not eric fine there is to be the death of the
person for the crime. Where is this to be found? It is
in the tract which Augustine wrote upon the degrees of
the chm-ch, and of the dire fine, and of their non-feedings
and the particular law of the church of Peter, and the
emperor of the whole world." It will be seen from this
how complete was the triumph of Christianity ; the Senchus
Mor begins -with the account of Patrick's trying to make
death the punishment for murder, and failing miserably.
It ends by laying do-wn as law that death is the penalty,
not for murder, but for assaulting a bishop.
From the Welsh laws very similar deductions can be
1 Ancient Lams of Ireland, Rolls ed., iv, 339. ^ Ibid., 363.

246 BISHOPS.
made. They begin at a later date than the Irish, and the
abbot, instead of being supreme, is found to be at least
in an equal, if not superior position to the bishop ; but, as
time goes on, the bishop, as in Ireland, supplants the
abbot. That the church in Wales was monastic, not episcopal,
is shown from the account of the two conferences that are
said to have taken place between the heads of the Welsh
Church and Augustine. The traditional list of those
present at the first conference, about 601, is contained in
the lolo MSS.,'- but it is quite apocryphal. Bede " merely
says Augustine summoned to a conference " episcopos
sive doctores maximse et proximse Britonum provincise " ;
the words are remarkable, as they seem to imply it
was not merely bishops, or even bishops at all, who
were summoned, but the heads of the British Church.
The list gives seven bishops : 1, Hereford ; 2, Llandaff ;
3, Padarn ; 4, Bangor ; 5, St. Asaph ; 6, Wig ; 7,
Morganwg ; but it is obviously the guess of some Welsh
antiquary of a much later date. That a Bishop's see
existed at Hereford in 601 is opposed to all historical
evidence — the Saxon see of Hereford having been carved
out of Mercia, and not out of Wales. At this time the
so-caUed bishop of Llandaff was Dubricius, who died 612";
but although we have tolerably copious Uves of Dubricius
and of his successor, Teilo, there is no mention of the
so-caUed conference. At this time it is doubtful if there
was a bishop of Padarn, as Cynog the bishop had become
bishop of St. David's. Bangor is said to have been
founded by Deniol, who died in 584,' but no record of
any bishop at this time exists, and it is probable the
bishop of Bangor is confounded -with the abbot of Bangor
1 143, .548. ^ Eccl. Hist., ii, 2.
' Annales Cainhricc and Liber Landavensis, p. 81, old ed.
^ Annales Camhricc.

BISHOPS. 247
Iscoed. The existence of St. Asaph as a bishopric at
this date is most doubtful. It is true the alleged founder,
St. Kentegern, was alive ; he died 612 ; ' but his connection
-with it, and placing Asa there on his return to Scotland,
are monastic legends of the twelfth century. It is also
most doubtful if any such see as Wig ever existed, and
the same remark applies to Morganwg. The omission of
St. Darid's is a very noteworthy point, and goes against
the genuineness of the document, although Haddan and
Stubbs ascribe it to the fact of David's death in 601.
But there is another objection to it. Bede says distinctly
that the assembly was of the bishops of the nectrest
provinces, " proximse provincise", and that they requested it
to be adjourned in order to secure the attendance of more
of their number, " Unde postulabant ut secundo synodus
pluribus advenientibus fieret" ; " and then he goes on to
say that seven bishops attended, and many learned men,
and especially the abbot of Bangor {Bancornaburg) , Dinoth.
From this it may fairly be said that the first assembly
consisted of the persons from the immediate neighbourhood
ofthe conference ("proximse provincise"), that is. South
Wales ; that the assembly was adjourned to procure the
attendance of others, and then onty the North Wales
people came ; that, therefore, the names of North Wales
dignitaries at the first conference is an invention of a
later date, and that if at the second, the greater assembly,
there were only seven bishops ; therefore, it is not Ukely
there were so many at the first, and so the list of the
seven at the first is really what its compiler supposed
ought to have been there, not what were there, assuming
the meeting was held. It is also noteworthy that the
only name that Bede gives, and which can be identified, is
that, not of a bishop, but of an abbot, and he represents
^ Annales Cambricc. " Hist. Eccl, ii, 2.

248 BISHOPS.
that abbot as taking the lead at the conference, and as
being regarded as the head of the Celtic Church. If the
riew put forward, that the Celtic Church in Wales was
monastic, and ruled by abbots not by bishops, is right,
this is what would be expected to have happened. It is
certainly difficult to account on any other ground for the
supremacy that is here given to Dinoth, and that, in
the alleged presence of his o-wn diocesan (the bishop of
St. Asaph), if he had one. Bede, read in the Ught of the
customs of the Celtic Church, gives an intelligible account
of the conferences, and states exactly what would have
been expected to have happened. Bede and the Welsh
mediseval antiquaries, who invented the Ust of bishops
present, and the answer of Dinoth, only make the whole
matter quite unintelligible. If, however, we reject the
mediaeval gloss, the account Bede gives is very strong
evidence to show that the Celtic Church in Wales, as
Augustine found it, was ruled by abbots, not by bishops.
There is, perhaps, no part of the subject of Celtic
bishops as to which there is greater difference of opinion
than as to what were the sees of the early bishops.
Those writers, and they are nearly all the -writers on the
history of the early British Church, that hold that there
could not have been a bishop -without a see, are placed in
great difficulty by the impossibility of finding localities
for the dioceses of the different bishoprics. The next
great difficulty is the bishopric, or, as some writers term
it, the archbishopric of Caerleon on Usk. This is based
on an adaptation of a passage in the Codex Carbiensis as
to the names of the bishops present at the council of
Aries in 314. Included in the names of the bishops there,
among the bishops of Gaul, are the names of three British
bishops, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and
Adelfius, who is said to have been " episcopus de civitate

BISHOPS. 249
colonia Londinensium ". Writers who have thought a
Welsh bishop necessary for the sake of completeness have
said, and it has become an accepted fact, that Londinen
sium means Legionensium, which they translate Caerleon
on Usk. This statement depends on three assumptions,
(1) that Londinensium is wrong, (2) that it means
Legionensium, (3) that Legionensium means Caerleon.
For none of these allegations is there even a tittle of
eridence. It is quite possible that Londinensium is right ;
there is no authority for saying that Londinensium
means Legionensium, nor that Legionensium means
Caerleon. The passage of Bede ' — speaking of Chester,
calls it, " Ciritas Legionum quem a gente Anglorum
Legacestir a Britonibus autem rectius Carlegion appella-
tur," — may be cited to show that Legionensium might
just as well mean Chester as Caerleon, and some modern
writers make out that Legionensium means Colchester, or
Lincoln." The other authority for the existence of the see
is the alleged answer of Dinoth, that asserts that the
Welsh were under the rule of the bishop of Caerleon. It
is usually admitted the so-called answer is a mediseval
forgery. Haddan and Stubbs treat the signatures of the
bishops at the council of Aries as conclusively proving
diocesan episcopacy in the British Church." But, as one
of the alleged dioceses is admitted by them to be con
jectural, it can hardly be denied that the evidence is of a
very unsatisfactory nature, and very slight to prove so
much. The alleged Welsh sees were eight in number, and are
said to have corresponded to the different Welsh princi-
1 Hist. Eccl, ii, 2.
= See the article of Mr. Haverfield in the EngUsh Historical Rerietv for
July, 1.S96, -where he shows that tl)e description cannot be applied to
Caerleon, and probably applies to Lincoln.
3 Haddan and Stubbs, i, 142.

250 BISHOPS.
palities. (1.) Bangor for Venedotia, the principality of
Gwynedd, said to have been founded by Deiniol, who
died in 584. But the eridence of this see is most un
trustworthy; the Annnles Camhriee siiiipl}' say, "cxl,
Annus dispositio, Danielis Bancorum," which might just
as well refer to Bangor Iscoed and its abb(_it, as it does not
mention even that Daniel was a bishop. Ricemarch's Ijife
ofDavid, an eleventh century production, it is said, confirms
the view that Daniel was a bishop, but the only mention of
Daniel in it is a passage where, at the synod of Llanddewi
brefi, it was agreed to send for Da^id, and on his refusing
to come, after three sets of messengers had proved un
successful, " Tandem sanctissimi viri ac fidelissimi
mittunt. fratres Deniol et Dubriticus".' This is aU.
There is nothing to show who Deniol was — nothing to
show he was a bishop ; even admitting that the legendary
account of the Llandde-wibrefi synod is the true one,
which is doubtful, it is necessary to have something more
than the name Daniel to prove that St. Deiniol founded
the see of Bangor, and died in 584. The only other
authority is the Liber Llanda.vensis. This C(jnipilation of
the twelfth century, in proving the right of the bishop of
Llandaff' to Carmarthenshire, east of the Towy, did all
its compilers could do to glorify the Llandaff bishops. In
two passages it alludes to Daniel. The first is in the
account of Elgar," a holy hermit who was shipwrecked on
the Isle of Bardsey, where he Uved seven years. One day
Caradog came to see him, and asked Elgar to relate t(j
him the particulars of his life. Elgar agreed, and stated
that holy spirits, day and night, ministered to him, and
that, although separated from him, yet when he met them
he knew them from his frequent interviews ; they were,
" Dubricius Archiprsesulem Britannise, Danielem Ban-
^ Camb.-Brit. Saints, 137. ^ p 4^ qJ^j ^^

BISHOPS. 251
gorensis ecclesise episcopum dextralis sanctumque Paternun
et multos alios quorum corpora hac insula sepulta sunt".'
As it is admitted that Dubricius was never archbishop of
Western Britain, it is difficult to attach much weight to
the allegation that Daniel was bishop of Bangor, and it
is hardly worth while to discuss if any weight can be
placed, for historical purposes, on the alleged description
of the visions of a hermit, and the discourses of the spirits
that appeared to him. If any weight is to be given to it,
the fact that Daniel is caUed bishop, not of the diocese,
but of " Bangorensis ecclesise" is worthy of notice. It would
be a perfectly good translation to give of the religious
house of Bangor. Rees says," that Daniel assisted his
father in founding Bangor Iscoed and afterwards founded
a monastery of his own, Bangor Vawr, of which he was
abbot ; subsequently, Maelgwyn Gwynedd raised it to the
rank of a bishop's see, of which Deiniol was the first
bishop. We are not, however, told how a Welsh chief
obtained power to make bishoprics, or on what authority
this assertion is made. The other passage in the Liber
Llandavensis occurs in the life of Dubricius ; " observing
the great number of persons who came to him, he divided
the churches among his disciples ; some he sent to churches
which had been given him, for others he founded churches,
and having constituted dioceses {parochiee) he consecrated
bishops, "per dextralem Britanniam . . . Danielem in
episcopum in Bancorensi civitate et plures alios abbates et
presbyteros cum inferioribus ordinibus Hdutum abbatem
apud podum vocatum ab eodem Llanildut." How Dubricius,
even if his archiepiscopal rights are admitted, had power
to constitute dioceses in North Wales ; why Daniel is the
only bishop whose name is given; why the others were
all abbots, it is hard to see. All that can be said is, that
^ Liber Landavensis, -ji. 5. ^ Welsh Saints, 258. ^ Liber Landavensis, 68.

252 BISHOPS.
the passage is not sufficient eridence to show the existence
of a territorial see of Bangor, still less that it was occupied
by Daniel as its fir'st bishop. It may well be that such
a legend existed, but legends are not proofs. The
existence of a diocese of Bangor before the arrival of
Augustine, and the fact that Daniel was first bishop, are
not proved by anything approaching to evidence, and the
presumption is all the other way.
(2.) The next Welsh bishopric is Llanelwy, or St.
Asaph, the bishopric for the province of Powys. Here
the evidence of a territorial bishopric is, if possible,
weaker than in the case of Bangor. The only authority
for it being a twelfth century Life of St. Kentegern, who,
it is said, on his return to Scotland left St. Asa there.
The Annales Cambriee say Kentegern died 612, but beyond
this statement five hundred years after that year, there is
no eridence of the existence of the see till the mention
of a bishop in the laws of Hwyel Da. It may, therefore, be
said that there is no evidence of any North Wales diocese
before the conquest, and what little evidence of episcopacy
there is, refers to monastic, not to diocesan bishops.
South Wales is said to have been divided into five
sees, or, with the apocryphal Caerleon, into six.
(3.) St. Darid's (Menevia), although not the first in
time, is the most important. This is said to have been
for the principality of Dyfed {Demetia). It is aUeged
that St. David was the founder and first bishop of
Meneria. But it would appear from Ricemarch's Life
that this was not so. Speaking of Darid's baptism, he
says,' " Delude cum baptizaretur ad Belue Meneriensium
episcopo in ipso loco," thus showing that a bishop existed
at Meneria before St. David. It would also seem that
there was a monastery there before Darid's, for we are
' Ca-mb.-Brit. Saints, 121.

BISHOPS. 253
told in the same life' that David, on his return from his
educational tour, found his relation, Bishop Guislianus,
residing at a monastic establishment at Henfynw. One
day, David said an angel had revealed to him that from
that monastery barely one in a hundred would go to
heaven, but there was a place near from which few would
go to hell, for every one buried in the cemetery in faith
would obtain mercy. They accordingly moved to the
place where David built his monastery, Glyn Rosant. If
it is correct that there was a monastic estabUshment with
a bishop existing at Menevia before the time of Darid,
and what he did was to found a larger monastery of which
he was abbot, the difficulty that some -writers have felt —
why did Darid go to Meneria to found a bishopric?
vanishes. He went to found a monastery, and the site
selected was just such an one as a Celtic founder would
take. Those who speak of David as a bishop must
remember that the only account of his consecration is that
given in the same Life, of his risit to Jerusalem and his
consecration there as archbishop by the patriarch, are
probably fiction. There is no eridence that Darid was
ever consecrated a bishop. He was the head of the
monastery of Meneria, and as such, a far greater man.
Having already a bishop, GuisUanus, at his monas
tery, it is very unlikely he would be made a bishop as
well. The monastic character of Menevia continued
until the ninth century. Asser, the great Menerian
monk, in his Life of Alfred, says of the Pagans : " " Qui
ssepe deprsedabatur illud monasterium et parochiam sancti
Degui aliquando expulsione illorum antistitum qui in eo
prseessent sicut et Noris archiepiscopum, propinquum meum
et me expulit aliquando sub ipsis." It wiU be said that
' Camb.-Brit. Saints, p. 124.
^ De Alfredi rebus gestis, ed. Camden, p. 15.

254 BISHOPS.
parochia here means diocese, but it is not clear if it means
more than the district of the monastery. It seems clear
that the Menevian establishment was, until a later date,
one of Celtic type, with a bishop as one of its officials.
There are no documents relating to the see before Rhydd-
march's Life of St. David, and it may well be that the
reason is not that they were aU destroyed by Danes and
pirates, but that they never existed. That the monastery
of St. David's was plundered again and again is clear;
but that the see was plundered is very doubtful, there
being no see to plunder.
(4.) The existence of the next see, Llanbadarn, near
Aberystwth, is very hazy. Rees makes out a case for it,
based on the dedication of churches ; but the evidence
is most unsatisfactory, even if it can be called evidence,
the aUeged fact that Cynog was, on David's death,
translated to Meneria, and a passage in the Brut y
Tywysogion being all the evidence for its existence. That
there was a monastic establishment there is pretty clear,
and it is quite probable one of its members was a bishop ;
but that he was a bishop ruling over a definite or an
indefinite area has no eridence to support it. It is also
curious to notice that after the conquest, the head of
Llanbadarn is called, not bishop, but archpriest. The
entry in the Brut y Tywysogion, under the year 1136, is:
"In that year (1136) Jevan, archpriest {archoffeirat)
of Llanbadarn, died." ' An abbot might be caUed arch
priest, but it is doubtful if such a term was ever applied
to a bishop.
(5.) For the next see, Llanafan Vaur, there is even, if
possible, less eridence than for Llanbadarn. On a
stone at the chm-ch there is an inscription, " Hic Jacet
Sanctus Avanvs Episcopus." This does not go for
much; especially when it is remembered that it is an
1 Rolls ed., p. 160.

BISHOPS. 255
inscription of about the fourteenth century,' it goes for less.
There is nothing to show (1) when he was bishop, or (2)
where he was bishop. Rees tries to make out the existence
of the diocese from the dedication of churches, and
signally fails to do so.
(6.) For the next see, Llandaff, said to have been the
see for the province of Gwent, there is no lack in quantity
of records. These records were avowedly collected in the
twelfth century, during Urban's episcopate, as a means of
justifying the course Urban took to defend his rights, or
rather to enlarge the boundaries of his see. As to their
trustworthiness, there may be very considerable doubts.
The charters define far too well and too clearly the
possessions of the see, and it is very doubtful if the
greater part of them are not forgeries, made to prove the
Llandaff claim to the Teilo churches. That there was a
monastic establishment at Llandaff is clear — that the
bishop was connected with it, either as abbot or otherwise,
is also clear. The doubt is, if it had any jurisdiction
over the places which were afterwards said to be in the
diocese, whether its rights were not those of owner, not of
a bishop of a diocese, exercising episcopal jurisdiction.
Nothing further need be said here, except that the
records of its possessions do not themselves show epis
copal jurisdiction over the country where the possessions
were situated. The records," " are nothing better or
worse than an uncritical compilation by interested and
unhistorical compilers, who had no scruple, if a title deed
was wanting, in composing one according to their own
riew of the facts."
In the list of bishops said to have been present at the
conference with Augustine, two bishops are mentioned,
those of Morganwg, as distinct from Llandaff, and that
^ Westwood, Lapidarium WallicE, 72. " Haddan and Stubbs, i, 147,

256 BISHOPS.
of Wig. Of neither of them is there any real eridence
that they ever existed ; but if Morganwg is, as some
writers say, Margam, it is quite possible that a monastic
establishment there, might have had a bishop of its
own as part of that establishment. Wig is said to be the
same as Weeg on the Wye, in Herefordshire — the same
place as Henllan, where Dubricius' great monastery was
placed. If this is so, there is nothing more likely than
that there were bishops both at Margam and HenUan,
but that they were part of the monastic family, not as it is
tried to be made out, territorial lords exercising a territorial
jurisdiction. It may, therefore, be safely concluded that
there is nothing in the history of the Welsh sees that
in any way conflicts against the idea of the early bishops
being monastic officials ; on the contrary, such a fact
serves to explain a good deal of Welsh history that is
otherwise obscure. When the various entries relating
to the Welsh sees in different authors are looked at and
compared, it -will be seen that in the whole history of the
early Celtic monasteries there is nothing inconsistent
-with the idea that the system in the Irish monasteries
also prevailed in the Welsh ; that in Wales, as in Ireland,
territorial bishops were unkno-wn ; that in Wales, as in
Ireland, there were no fixed dioceses, and consequently no
jurisdiction by the bishop over the clergy and laity.
This is clearly the case up to the conference with
Augustine in 601. After that date, in some cases, notably
Llandaff, there does seem to have been a desire to change
the character of the Celtic bishops, to make them
more resemble territorial bishops, and less monastic
officials than had been the case. Probably intercourse
-with England and with the Saxons may have led the
Welsh bishops to try to place themselves in the superior
position the Anglo-Saxon bishops held. In the Liber

BISHOPS. 257
Landavensis, from the earlier part of the seventh century,
the bishops of Llandaff are represented as acting in a way
that would only be consistent with bishops haring
territorial authority. They are represented as excom
municating the Welsh princes. Oudoceus is said to have
held a synod, called his three abbots, Cyngen, abbot of
Vale Carvan, Catgeii, abbot of Hltyd, and SuUen, abbot
of Docunni (it -will be seen he called no bishops), and
excommunicated Meuric on account of murder, and
debarred the country from baptism and Christian com
munion. The king and country remained for two years
and more under the ban of excommunication. The curse
was only taken off on Meurig giring four rillages to the
church of Llandaff.' This document assumes two things :
(1) Oudoceus's episcopal authority over Meurig's kingdom
(Glamorgan), a very doubtful point ; and (2), his authority
over the great abbey, Llaniltyd, a still more doubtful point,
as Celtic bishops had no authority over Celtic monasteries.
It is also suspicious that the only record of these pro
ceedings should occur in a compilation where the church
of Llandaff was seeking to prove its title to certain lands.
The compiler wanted to assert some reason for the grant,
and the kings having already done enough for their own
souls and those of their progenitors, he had to find out
something else — hence the excommunication of Meurig.
But Meurig was not the only one of the Glamorgan chiefs
over whom the bishop of Llandaff exercised jurisdiction ;
Morgan," another of them, also committed murder.
Another synod was called, and he was put to penance,
and had to release the monasteries of Llancarvan, Llaniltyd,
and Docunni, from all royal serrices. Soon after, similar
proceedings were taken against G-widnerth." A synod
was held, and a three years' excommunication pronounced,
1 Liber Landavensis, 139. ^ Ibid., 143. ^ Ibid., 172.

258

BISHOPS.

and, as part of his penance, he was sent to Dol in
Brittany. On his return, after further penance, he made
a grant to the church of Llandaff, and obtained abso
lution from Berthgwyn. It should be noted that one
object of the compiler of the Liber Landavensis was
obviously to prove the exercise of jurisdiction by the
see of Llandaff over the territory disputed with St.
Darid's, and he is careful in each case to state that the
persons who attended the synods came from the country
between the mouth of Taratyr on Wye and the mouth of
Towy, that is, the whole country claimed by Bishop
Urban. This fact alone causes the genuineness of the
alleged proceedings to be doubtful. Bishop Gwrwan
went through a like process with Tewdur, king of Dyfed,
for murder,' only here no synod was called, whether
because it was -without the diocese or not, it is impossible
to say. The excommunication was done by the bishop
and his clergy alone, and the pardon was granted on the
gift of lands to the church of Llandaff. Bishop Berthgwyn
also excommunicated Clydri " for murder ; the usual
synod was held, and the pardon granted on the usual
terms. Gurwan, king of Archenfield, was accused of incest
-with his stepmother ; " in this case there was also synod,
pardon, and grant of lands.
If these transactions really took place, they would go a
long way to establish territorial episcopacy, except that
the excommunication of a prince in what is admitted to
have been the diocese of St. Darid's (Dyfed) by the
bishop of Llandaff is pecuUar. But, as already pointed
out, the Liber Landavensis is a twelfth century compila
tion,* and the documents are not contemporary records.
Yer J little weight is, therefore, to be given to them.
1 Liber Landavensis, 158. = Ibid., 168. ' Ibid, 180.
¦' Haddan and Stubbs, i, 147.

BISHOPS. 259
Not content with these alleged excommunications, the
Liber Landavensis claims for the bishop a gradually
increasing jurisdiction.' A synod was held to receive
a grant of Llan Helicon. This synod consisted of the
clergy totius parochiee ; here using for the first time a term
that, at the date of the compilation of the Liber, meant
diocese in the modern sense, and defining its limits from
the mouths of Taratyr on Wye to Towy. Bishop Cerenhir "
held similar synods totius parochioe, to excommunicate
Howel for murder and IU for murder. Another synod
was held by Bishop Cyfeiliawg," as to the boundaries of
the lands of the church of Llandaff and those of
Brochwael, which ended in Brochwael granting the
disputed lands to the church and the bishops of Llandaff
for ever. Another synod by the same bishop,' of all his
clergy, even of the minor orders, ad inferiores gradus, was
held to judge of wrongs done by Brochwael and his family
to the bishop and his family {famMiam Civelliauc
episcopi), the expression is noteworthy, when Brochwael
was sentenced to give to the bishop a plate {prcetium) of
pure gold of the length and width of the bishop's face, and
make amends to the bishop's family." Brochwael would
not consent to this, but compounded by granting to the
church various lands. Bishop Libiau (927-929) carried
the excommunications farther than any of the others had
done. Tewdur, king of Brecon," drove him out of the
monastery of Llancors, and took away his dinner. Libiau
thereupon went to Llandaff with aU his family, held a
synod, and excommunicated Tewdur. A very heavy fine
was placed on him by Libiau before he would pardon him.
As Tewdur could not pay, he got Lumbert, bishop of
St. Darid's, to arrange matters, and, as usual, things
1 Liber Landavensis, 196. ^ j-jj^^^ 202. ' Ibid., 221. ' Ibid., 223.
" See Dimetian Code, i, 346. ° Liber Landavensis, 227. s 2

260 BISHOPS.
were settled on a grant being made to the bishop of
Llandaff. It is to be observed that Lumbert seems to
have been called in as a common friend, not as having
any authority to intervene in the dispute, although it is
quite possible that Lancors was in his diocese, not in
Llandaff. In the charter that Tewdur gave, granting the
lands, as it appears in the Liber Landavoisis, the witnesses
are said to be (1) Libiau, and (2) Lumbert.
Other synods are recorded in the Liber Landavensis,
down to about 1090. Bishop Gulfrid excommunicated
Llywerth, son of Cadwgan, king of Glamorgan, for wasting
church land.' Bishop Pater twice excommunicated Nowi,
king of Gwent, first for murder in a house belonging
to the church ; " secondly, for murdering a deacon
before the altar of the monastic church of St. Harmon
and St. Febric." Bishop Gulfrid excommunicated Lly-
warch for taking Eicolf a prisoner on the abbey lands.'
Bledri excommunicated Edwyn, king of Gwent, because
one of his men wounded the bishop.' All were pardoned
on making the usual gifts of land. Bishop Joseph twice
excommunicated Meurig, son of Hywel, king of Glamorgan,
first for murdering Edwyn, son of Guriad, king of Gwent,"
and, secondly, for riolating sanctuary at Llandaff, and
carrying off the -wife of one Seissill.' Here, also, the
excommunication was taken off on a grant of land being
made to the church. Herwald, the last Celtic bishop of
Llandaff (1056-1104), excommunicated Cadwgan, son of
Meurig, king of Glamorgan, for getting drunk on
Christmas day, when on a risit to Llandaff, and killing
the bishop's grandson, Berthutis." The matter was
arranged by Meurig making a grant of lands to Herwald,
and aU the bishops of Llandaff. The synod here was
^ Liber Landavensis, 212. "Ibid., 208. ^ Hid., 209.
* Ibid., 212. = Ibid., 239. = jud,^ 245. ' Ibid., 248. » Ibid., 255.

BISHOPS. 261
called "per omnes ecclesias totius suse dioceseos",^ the
first time in which the word is found in the charters.
These excommunications, although most of them are
of very doubtful genuineness, are of considerable interest,
as showing the steps in the change from the Celtic to
the Norman bishop. Beginning with Oudoceus, who is
said to have been bishop in the sixth century, they
terminate -with Herwald the last Celtic bishop. The first
thing to be noticed is, how the territorial claim became
formulated. In the first, the synod consisted of "Omnes
clericos suos ab ostio Taratyr yn Gwy usque ad Tywi cum
tribis abbatibus suis Concen abbate Carbani vallis, Catgen
abbatis Ilduti, Sulgen abbate Docguinni "." In the
second, " Mandarit episcopus Oudoceus propter abbates
trium congregationum suarum Concen abbatem Catoci,
Sulgen abbatem Docunni, Congen abbatem Ilduti, cum
suis clericis congregatis in unum in sancta sinodo
omnibus ab ostio Taratyr yg Gwy usque ad ostium Tywi "."
Of the third synod it is only said to be, ' " Congregata
ab ostio Gwy usque ad ostium Tywi". These three synods
are all those of Oudoceus. Bishop Gurwan's sjmod, the
fourth, was " Episcopus Gutuan cum clericis suis".' So far
there has been no mention of any district except in the most
general terms, but the fifth synod is said to have been, "Ad
sacram sinodum Landavise omnes clericos totius parochiee ab
ostio Taratyr super Gwy usque ad ripam Tywi"." Bishop
Berthgwyn, who called the sixth,' held a full synod at
Llandaff, " Congregata in unum ab ostio Taratyr usque
ad ostiam Tywi ". Bishop Trichan, who held the seventh,
is said," " Congregatp tribus abbatibus et attestant-
ibus in unum et omnibus clericis totius parochise ab osteo
Taratyr super ripam Gwy usque ad ostium Tywi ".
^ Liber Landarensis, 25rj. ^ Ibid., I'Ad. '^ Ibid.. Hi.
' Ibid., 172. ¦ Ibid., 158. " Ibid., 168. " Ibid., ISO. " Ibid., 196.

262 BISHOPS.
Bishop Cerenhir, who held the eighth, called ' a synod at
Llandaff, " Congregatis in unum clericis totius parochise ab
osteo Taratyr in g-wi usque ad ostium Tywi ". The ninth
was," Totum elerum totius parochise infra Taratyr super
ripam Gwy et ostiam Ty-wi ". Bishop Cyveiliauc, who
called the tenth," called it, " Congregates omnibus clericis
et omnibus sapientibus qui erant a Tywi usque Guy",
and the eleventh,' "Omnes clericos usque ad inferiores
gradus per totam parochiam intra ostium Taratyr in Gwy
usque ad ostium Tywi ". Bishop Libiaw called the twelfth,"
"Congregatis omnibus clericis totius parochise intra ostium
Taratyr in Gwy et ostium Tywi positse". The thirteenth
synod was called by Bishop Gulfrid to excommunicate
Llywarch, son of Cadwgan, king of Glamorgan, for wasting
church lands. He summoned, "Clericos ecclesiastici ordinis
de omni parochia infra ostium Taratyr supra ripam Gwy et
ripam Tywi apud Lannoudochui"." Bishop Pater sum
moned thenext,^ the fourteenth, " Clericos totius parochise
inter Taratyr et Tywi," to excommunicate No vis, king of
Gwent for riolating sanctuary, and the fifteenth, also to
deal -with Novis," for murdering a deacon before the altar.
Pater sent " ad monasteria omnium provinciarum totius
parochise infra ostium Taratyr ig Gwy usque ad ripam
Tuigwi quarum obedientise subjeotse sunt ecclesise
Landavise et Sanctis, ejusdem Dubricii, TeUaui, Oudocei
et Patri episcopo et omnibus episcopis succedentibus
in perpetuo ut congregarentur sacerdotes diaconi et
omnes gradus ecclesiastici et in unum convenierunt ".
The sixteenth," Bishop Gwgan excommunicated Arthmail,
king of Gwent, for kiUing his brother Elised, and sent
"per totam parochiam sibi subditam et obtemperantem
1 Liber Landavensis, 203. ^ Ibid., 205. ' Ibid., 221.
¦1 Ibid., 223. ¦' Ibid., 228. " Ibid-., 212. '' Ibid., 208.
» Ibid., 209. 8 Ibid., 216. " Ibid., 233.

BISHOPS. 263
ecclesise suse Llanda vise propter clericos omnes de majoribus
gradus usque ad inferiores gradus ". Bishop Bledri held
the seventeenth, to excommunicate Ed-win, king of Gwent,
for wounding one of the bishop's servants, and summoned '
" per omnes ecclesias totius parochise infra ostium Taratyr
super ripam Gwy et ostium Tywi positse et adunatis
omnibus clericis sacri ordinis ". The last, the eighteenth,
was held by Herewald, to excommunicate Catgun, son of
Meurig, for killing the bishop's grandson. The synod
was summoned " " per omnes ecclesias totius suse dioceseos
obtemperantes sibi intra ostium Taratyr super ripam Gwy
et ripam Ty-wi ". From these entries as to the different
synods from about the beginning of the seventh to the
middle of the eleventh century, some four hundred
years, it wUl be seen how the territorial idea rose up ;
first, it was to summon the clergy between two fixed
points, then all the clergy of the parochiee, lastly, all the
clergy of the diocese.
The history of the present Welsh sees furnishes no
evidence against the existence of monastic bishops who
graduaUy became diocesan. Latin writers, who are ready
enough to admit that the abbot and the bishop were at
one time the same personage, that the abbot could become
a bishop, are unable to go a step further and admit that
the bishop was ever a subordinate member of the monas
tery. Even the fact that this was so in Ireland, Scotland,
and on the continent, does not enable them to get over
the idea that a bishop must be head of the ecclesiastics
in a defined area. As has been shown, that was not the
Celtic idea, and when dealing with the Celtic Church it
is as well to try and explain matters on Celtic principles.
The whole history of the Welsh Church, after the
coming of Augustine, is the account of how the bishop
¦^ Liber Landavensis, 239. ' Ibid., 256.

264 BISHOPS.
grew in importance, from a subordinate position in the
monastery, until he became the head of the clergy in the
diocese, and exercised jurisdiction over them and it. The
Llandaff records bring this out very clearly, and, whether
genuine or not, they are the best account we have of the
depreciation of the abbot and the appreciation of the bishop.
In this part of the case, what evidence there is, goes to
show that the episcopal system in Wales was like that in
Ireland — bishops belonging to monasteries, and under
the orders of the abbot. Then came the evolutionary
process whereby the bishop gradually became the equal,
and afterwards the superior of the abbot. It is a most
interesting piece of ecclesiastical history, showing how
local ideas and surroundings modify even the beUefs and
opinions of men in ecclesiastical affairs, how the
bishop became first, abbot, then, having the control
of the monastery and the possessions of the monastery,
added to it that of the surrounding districts ; and when he
obtained this became a " lord bishop ", exercising civil
and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over a defined area.

CHAPTER VI.
THE CLERGY,

It is not an uninteresting fact, that among the details
that have come down to us of the Celtic Church, the most
scanty are those relating to the clergy. There is a certain
amount of information as to saints, monasteries, and
bishops, but as to " the inferior clergy, the priests and
the deacons " — the men who had to carry on the daily
work of the church, who were not born to the position
of saints, whose Uves were spent in " the tririal round,
the daily task " of the ordinary clergyman, our informa
tion is most meagre. This may probably be accounted
for on two grounds, first, the monastic character of the
Celtic clergy ; they were mostly monks, or, if not actually
monks, at least connected with monasteries. It is
probable that the rules of the monasteries as to monks
were the rules which regulated the clergy. So the
history of their Uves and doings was, to a great extent,
merged in the history of the particular monastery to which
they belonged. This forms one of the great points of
divergence between the Latin and Celtic organizations.
The Celtic monks were mostly in orders ; the Latin monks
were to a considerable, if not a great extent, bodies, not
of ecclesiastics, but of laymen. Thus the history of
Celtic and Latin monks is, of necessity, very different.
The second reason for the existing lack of detaUs probably
arises from the fact that during the time the Celtic
Church retained her independence, her clergy were not

'2,66 THE L'LEUUY.
a parochial clergy in our sense of the word. The idea of
the whole country being divided into ecclesiastical divisions,
each under the charge of some ecclesiastical official
appointed by an officer who had supreme ecclesiastical
control over the district, responsible to that officer,
and to him alone, formed no part of the system of the
Celtic Church. "It required," says Mr. Skene,' "a
different organization to estabUsh the Christian Chureh
on a firm and permanent basis among the Celts, and to
leaven the whole people with its doctrine and rules of
Ufe ; the introduction of the monastic element and its
appUcation to the entire organization of the Church
effected what a Church -with its secular clergy had failed
to do." Bearing these reasons in mind, it is possible, by
considering various points connected with the Latin
Church, and comparing them with such information as we
possess about the Celtic monks and clergy, to obtain some
idea of those men who, in spite of many faults and
numerous failings, were yet able to send out that crowd
of Christian missionaries who poured forth as an inunda
tion " to convert Burgundy and Gaul to the faith, and
for a time ee>ntended with Rome for the control of the
Western Churches.
The ideas that prevailed in the two Churches, the Latin
and the Celtic, as to the best way to evangelize a country,
were essentiaUy different. The Latin Church beUeved
in the preaching and personal teaching of the indiridual.
The Latin missionary preached the Gospel, he explained
the benefits he alleged were to be derived from a life
of hoUness. The Celtic Church proceeded by other
means. It established a group of clergy; they did not
1 Celtic Scotland, ii, 40.
" "Quasi inundatione facta, ilia se sanctorum examina efEuderunt." —
Vita S. Malaehi, St. Barnard, c. vi.

THE CLERGY. 267
preach against the rice, the superstition, the idolatry
which prevailed around them, but they obtained from the
tribe the right to settle on the tribal land, and there
formed a colony, and proceeded to show, or to try to
show, by their Uves and conduct, what Christianity could
accomplish. Abandoning all that made existence pleasant,
they gave an illustration of the height of holiness to
which a Ufe of piety, devotion, and seK-denial would
enable men to attain. They gave an object lesson of the
results which could reaUy be produced ; they did not
merely make promises of what it was possible to produce.
This spectacle took hold of the Celtic mind far more than
any assertion of possibilities of holiness. The Celt saw
and beUeved. The sight of the Christian colonies,
the Uves of the monks, acted on the feelings of the people
in a manner that nothing else could do ; more than
any spoken eloquence, more than any dogmatic teaching,
they brought home to them the perfect beauty of hoUness,
the supreme majesty of self-denial and suffering. As
soon as he was ordained, a Celt became a member of some
monastery. Thus, on Brendan being ordained priest, his
first act was to receive -with the priesthood the monastic
habit, " accepitque sanctus Brendanus cum esset sacerdos
habitum monasticum sanctum ".' This connection between
the clergy and monasteries had a very important bearing
on the organization of the Celtic Church, and the class
from which its clergy was dra-wn. It appears to have
been a rule in the Latin Church, as it is still in the
Anglican," that no one was to be ordained unless he had a
title, sufficient to proride the necessaries of Ufe. If a
bishop dispensed with this prorision, and ordained a man
who had no means of livelihood, the bishop was bound to
support him. This was provided by a decree of the
' Acta Brendani, p. 16. ^ 33rd Canon of 1603.

268 THE CLERUY.
Lateran CouncU, in 1179, which prescribed: "Episcopus
si aliquem sine certo titulo de quo necessaria vittu percipiat
in Diaconum vel Presbyterum ordinaverit taiiidiu neces
saria ei subministret donee in aliqua ei ecclesia eon-
venientia — stipeiidia militiaB elericaUs assignet nisi forte
talis — qui ordinatur extiterit qui de sua vel paterna
hsereditate subsidium vitaj possit habere." The result of
this was that a Latin bishop would be very careful before
he ordained a man who had no means of support, lest he
should be saddled with his maintenanee. In the registers
of the mediseval bishojis, when an ordination is recorded,
not merely are the names of those ordained given at
length, but also the title upon which they were ordained,
so as to give proof, should it ever be required, that at the
time of ordination the person receiring orders had visible
means of liveUhood. A very common entry, on such
ordinations, is " on a title by patrimony", meaning that
the person had inherited, or had acquired, a sufficiency to
maintain himself. In some cases the amount of the title
is given, such as, "A title of four marks". This was
almost the lowest title in amount ; after many of the
names is inserted a statement that the candidate con
sidered the amount named sufficient ("de quo reputat se
contentum"). It will thus be seen that gradually the Latin clergy
became a body of men of independent means. If a person
was ordained to any church benefice, that seems to have
been considered sufficient provision. This rule has been
observed in the AngUcan Church ; the thirty-third canon
of those of 160| gives the seven titles on which ordination
is permissible in that church. In Ayliffe's Paragon
juris cetnonici Anglicani an additional case is given.
" A person may be promoted to orders -without any certain
title if he has a sufficient patrimony to live on and to

THE CLERGY. 269
maintain himself, and such a person is said to be
ordained in titulum sui patrimonii, nay, if he has a
sufficient estate to subsist on he may be ordained, though
his estate be not expressly assigned and given in inodum
tituli." There was another exception : it was always held
a sufficient title for orders, to be a member of a monastic
body, as that body was bound to support its members.
In the old ordination lists there frequently appears the
entry of a person belonging to a particular religious house
or order, without anything more ; usually the monastic
candidates appear in a group by themselves, but they are
very few in number compared with the other persons or
dained. This marks one great distinction between the Celtic
and the Latin clergy. Except the Latin candidate was a
monk, or held a benefice, he must have been possessed of
sufficient means to maintain himself. Not so the Celt.
He was a member of the tribe of the Saint, entitled to be
maintained by the tribe, and so entitled to orders. Thus,
the Latin clergy were to some extent selected men, and
no one in that Church could claim a right to be ordained,
as of course. But the Celt, when once he was admitted
to the tribe of the Saint, was entitled, as part of his
tribal rights, to orders if he liked to claim them. All the
tribe of the Saint — all members of the Celtic monastery —
were entitled to orders. This right, resulting from the
tribal idea, must have greatly limited the bishop's power.
In the Latin Church each order was a pririlege only
conferred on a selected few ; in the Celtic Church orders
were a right, any person who belonged to a particular
family or tribe could claim, if he liked. It may well be
that this right to orders, as a part of the tribal privileges,
may have led to the number of Celtic bishops ; each tribe
haring the right to give its tribesmen orders, each tribe
would have had, among its officers, a person who could

270

THE CLERGY.

confer such rights. This distinction marks the first great
difference between the Celtic and Latin clergy, the
divergent ideas as to the power to obtain orders — personal
selection of the fittest ; or tribal rights. It may be said
that the tribe of the Saint would see that only proper
persons were admitted to the tribe. It is, however, not
clear that they had any right to refuse admittance,
except in certain cases. Usually, persons who came
¦within the rules were entitled to be admitted, and so to
have orders. Probably this is a surrival of Pagan times,
when the office of priest, or Druid, was hereditary in
certain famiUes ; all the members of the family had the
right to exercise sacerdotal functions until the Divine
displeasure was shown by some outward and visible sign,
such as the blotches on the face in the case of the Irish
Druids.' This right to receive orders, independent of
any special fitness for the post, may, in some way, account
for what appears to have been the very loose way in which
orders were conferred in the Celtic Church. As the
members of the tribe of the Saint had a right to ordina
tion because they were members, it almost follows that
ordination would become a mere ceremony and nothing
more. It is thus easy to understand why it was that the
Latins so looked down on the Celtic clergy and assumed such
an air of superiority over them. The Latin priest considered
that his orders were the reward of meri-fc — personal merit
sho-wn from his selection by the bishop — not a mere right
which implied nothing meritorious, but was merely the
consequence of the accident of birth or position. The fact
that all the members of the tribe were entitled to orders,
furnishes the explanation of another difference between
the Latin and Celtic clergy. The Latin Church refused
to ordain persons of illegitimate birth, unless a proper dis-
^ Andent Lams of Ireland, i, 25.

THE CLERGY. 271
pensation was given. Such a dispensation for the higher
orders of bishop, priest, or deacon, could only be granted
by the Pope, or the Pope's legate, as his representative.
For minor orders a bishop was authorised to give it. What
ever may have been the case in early times, in mediseval
times dispensations were numerous, and frequent examples
may be found in the registers of the EngUsh bishops ;
for instance, in the Durham register,' in 1340, there is one
in respect of WilUam Ferour, who, after inquiry, was
certified not to be " an imitator of the paternal inconti
nence", and in spite of his defect of birth was allowed to
receive all orders, and hold an ecclesiastical benefice with
the cure of souls. In the Celtic Church this question
could not arise, as legitimacy was not a necessity to
entitle a person to tribal rights ; and as the tribe of the
Saint in its organization foUowed the tribe of the land, it
was but required for a person to become a member of the
tribe of the Saint, and, when he was once a member,
orders followed as of course. To the Celt, the question of
the birth before or after marriage, or even -without
marriage, was of but slight importance ; it was the fact,
not the date of paternity, that they regarded; indeed,
among the Welsh Saints illegitimacy is almost a character
istic. There was also among the Celts no person who
could grant a dispensation, as no supreme ecclesiastical
authority was recognised ; and the Celtic bishop had not of
himself any such power, nor was he the officer of any
authority who claimed any such power. In considering this
point, it must be bome in mind that the Latin Church
counted as illegitimate, not only persons actuaUy born out
of wedlock, but also persons whose parents had gone
through the ceremony of marriage, but whose union the
Latin Church did not consider as a marriage, such as the
' Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense, Rolls ed., vol. iii, pp. 304, 502.

272 THE CLERGY.
children of the marriage of cousins, or of persons in
orders. Nothing is more misleading at first sight than
the way Latin ecclesiastical writers speak of the result of
such unions. There is a ease in the Worcester register of
a parish priest who was tried and deprived, it is said, for
incest ; the real fact was that he had misconducted himself
with one of his parishioners, who was ecclesiastically
regarded as his daughter, and so this charge was made.'
The way in which the Celtic Church regarded the issue
of the marriage of a priest is sho-wn in the case of Sulien,
bishop of St. David's ; not only was he bishop, but he
also had sons. According to Latin ideas, these sons were
born in adultery, and could not have received orders
at all ; but being Celts, members of the tribe of the
Saint, they were ordained as of course ; and, so far
from their birth being considered to be any impediment,
one of Sulien's sons, Rhyddmarch, succeeded him as
bishop, and another son, Daniel, would have been bishop,
if Henry I had not set aside the Welsh election, and
given the see to his wife's chaplain. Far from his
marriage being considered a disgrace, Sulien is spoken of
as "y doethaf or Brytanyeit"." Another son, Jevan, wrote
a poem in his father's praise, in which he makes the fact
of the bishop having four sons a matter for special praise.
Indeed, it seems to have been merely the high-handed
action of Henry I that prevented the see of St. Darid's
becoming hereditary in the Sulien family.
It is, at first sight, a matter of surprise that the mark
given at ordination, the outward and visible sign of a
person haring received orders, should have proved so
violent a matter of controversy between the Latin and
Celtic Churches : probably there was no single point that
^ Sede Vacante Eegister, p. 169.
^ Brut y Tywysogion, Rolls ed., p. 54.

THE CLERGY. 273
caused more riolent or more bitter feuds than the Roman
and Celtic forms of tonsure. The probable explanation is,
that the Celtic tonsure was some surrival of Pagan worship
which the Celtic Christian took over with other surrivals
from the heathen, and that still after it was used by the
Christians was supposed to possess some peculiar Pagan
-virtue. In its original form it was nothing more than
the outward mark the bearer wore, to show the tribe or
person to whom he belonged ; as now, on buying a cow or
a sheep at a fair, the purchaser marks it with his own
mark to identify it, so, in early times, when a man
belonged to any tribe or chief, a mark was placed on him
to identify him as the property of the chief or tribe. In
the version given in the Book of Armagh, of the legend of
the daughters of Loeghaire,' after relating their death,
the -wizard, Caplet, who had brought them up, is said to
to have come to Patrick, who preached to him, and he
believed " et capilli capitis ejus ahlati sunt ", and the same
is said of his brother Mael. In the Tripartite Life, where
the same incident is related as to Caplet, it is said Patrick
"put the shears round his hair"." This may mean
anything, either the Celtic or Latin tonsure, but it shows
that becoming a Christian implied some mark was made.
The account in the Book af Armagh -with regard to the
Druid Mael, differs ; it states, " et ablati sunt capilli
capitis illius id est norma magica [quse prius] in capite
ridebatur airbacc ut dicitur giunnse"." The " narm,a
magica", the magical rule, or heathen tonsure, is here
called " airbacc giunnce", and was considered by the Latin
as a brand of hell. What this " airbacc giunnce " was
precisely, does not appear clear, but it seems what Patrick
did was, to cut out the old mark of o-wnership, that is, to
1 Trijmrtite Life, Rolls ed., p. 317. ^ Ibid., p. 103.
' Book of Armagh, foi. 12, printed in Tripartite Life, ii, 317.

274 THE CLERGY.
remove the old form of tonsure. The next passage helps
to explain what was done : " De hoc verbum quod clarius
est omnibus verbis Scoticis similis est Calvus contra
Caplit ".' Probably both the Druids were treated alike,
Mael the same as Caplet; both were made bald by
having part of the head shaved from ear to ear, and thus
all marks of former ownership removed. It may wtdl be
that this form was adopted because it effaced the old
mark. It was clearly a sign of reproach for some time, as
the Druids spoke of the Christians who bore the mark of
tonsure as " Adzeheads"."
It is probable that the Irish Druids accepted Christi
anity as a matter of fact, more than as a matter of faith,
and probably they used the new form of tonsure to show
to the Irish that they possessed the same power of working
miracles as the Christian priests, and this may have been
to some extent the reason for the intense hatred of the
Latins to the Celtic tonsure. Of the Celtic tonsure there
appear to have been several forms ; the tonsure of a slave
differed from that of a monk. In a MS. Life of Patrick,^
it is stated that " he proceeded to Martin in Tours, and
he tonsured a monk's tonsure upon him, for it was a
slave's tonsure he had always up to that time ". The
Celtic tonsure, according to the Catalogue of Saints,
continued during the first two orders of Saints, but
it is said that during the third order the Roman
method had come in, and some used one form, some the
other. It is, however, hardly likely that the Latin tonsure
had prevailed to any great extent in Ireland at the
alleged date of the list. It -will be remembered that the
Latin tonsure was a circular cro-wn, said to be derived
' Book of Armagh, Tripartite Life, Rolls ed., ii, 317.
' Tripartite Life, i. 35.
' Tripartite Life, Rolls ed. xlix, MS. H. 3, 18, in Trin. Coll., DubUn.

THE CLERGY. 275
from the crown of thorns, as opposed to the Celtic, the
shaving of all the head in front of a line drawn from ear
to ear. In a passage in Reeves' Adamnan, relating a
conversation between Adamnan and Abbot Coelfrid,
Adamnan is said to have addressed Coelfrid, "0, holy
brother, who believest thou art advancing to the crown
of a Ufe that knows no end, why dost thou wear on
thy head, by a custom contrary to thy faith, the figure of
a crown which is bounded ? " '
The name for the Celtic tonsure, " Tonsure of Simon
Magus", is a phrase whose origin has given rise to some
discussion. It occurs in the Epistle of Gildas, " Britones
toti mundo contrarii mor ibus Romanii inimici non solum
in missa sed in tonsura etiam cum Judseis umbrse magis
futurorum serrientes quam veritati. Romani dicunt Brito
num tonsura a Symone Mago sumpsisse exordium traditur
cujus tonsura omnem capitis anteriorem partem ab aure
ad aurem tantum contingebat pro excellentia ipsa Magorum
tonsura qua sola frons anterior tegi solebat priorum.
Auctorem vero hujus tonsurse in Hibernia subulcum regis
Loigairi filii Neil extitisse Patricli sermo testatur ; ex
quo Hibernenses pene omnes banc tonsuram sumserunt." "
This passage is quoted in the Irish canons." Rhys ' says
that it arises from the use made of the term Magi, for
Druid, and hence the Druid tonsure was that of a Magus,
and a Druid is turned into Simon Magus, hence the
" tonsure of Simon Magus". There is another version.
In O'Mulconry's Glossary, which is cited by Whitley
Stokes in the Tripartite Life/ under the head Irla, a
slave's tonsure, the following story is told: "A bishop
of the Coriush Britons once went to Rome. As he was

1 Reeves. Adamnan, xlvii, 350. " Gildas; H. and S., i, 112.
' Trij>artite Life, ii, 509. ** Celtic Britain, 69.
= Rolls ed., ii, 509 ; note 2.
T 2

276

THE CLERGY.

returning, Simon the wizard's school met him. They
shave his crown from his back, so that he was one of
Simon's community, for this is the tonsm-e that was on
Simon. And he (the bishop) had profit thereof, for he
endured that disgrace for God's sake, until he went to
heaven. It is hence that the Briton and the Gaul received
the practice." Whether Simon the -wizard ever had any
independent existence outside this legend is doubtful, but
the legend is of importance as showing the signification
of tonsure. It meant ownership ; the bishop having it,
became one of the wizard's gang. It is probable that the
inference of ownership was the ground why the Latins so
objected to the Celtic tonsure. Another explanation
of the term " Simon Magus' tonsure" may be suggested. It
seems fairly certain that a Celtic bishop was entitled to
charge some fees in some way for conferring orders —
Bishop Etchen's case has already been noticed.' Taking
money for spiritual gifts was the sin of Simon Magus.
If the Irish Druids accepted Christianity only as a mode
of increasing their supernatural powers, and if they gave
anything for haring orders conferred, and the Celtic
tonsure was the mark of such orders, then there can be
Uttle doubt that no worse taunt against such of the Celts
as were in orders could be found, than charging them with
bearing on their brow the mark that showed they had
committed the same sin as that of Simon Magus.
It was probably, however, to the fact that in Wales,
tonsure and ownership were synonymous terms that led to
the fierce fight on the subject. To show how closely the
ideas of tonsure and ownership were mixed up, no better
instance can be given than the story of Twrch Trwyth."
Kilhwch is sent by his parents to Arthur to make his
submission and become his man, and to ask a favour.
1 See ante, p. 209. ^ Mabinogion, 2nd ed., 217.

THE CLERGY. 277
" Arthur is thy cousin " (so Kilhwch was entitled to become
one of his men, and be admitted as a tribesman) : " Go
unto Arthur to cut thy hair," that is, to be admitted as
one of the tribe. On arriring at Arthur's court, Kilhwch
asked Arthur "to bless his hair". Arthur took a comb
and scissors, combed his hair, and asked who he was, "for
I know thou art come of my blood ". Thus the admis
sion to the tribe, the becoming Arthur's man, is shown by
Arthur cutting his hair. In the subsequent adventures
of Kilhwch the idea of tonsure again occurs. He asks the
king, Yspaddaden Penkawr, for his daughter Olwen, and is
told a Ust of things he must do before he could win the
daughter, or, in other words, before the father would
admit himself conquered. The king required his head to
be washed and his beard shaved, and his hair arranged
-with the comb and scissors that were between the ears
of Twrch Trwyth, before he would give his daughter;
that was, he was to be conquered and admit himself
conquered before he would surrender his daughter. At
last the labours were accompUshed, and they shaved the
king clean off to the very bone, from ear to ear — the
Celtic tonsure. The king admitted his defeat, and gave
up his daughter. This story is a curious instance sho-wing
what tonsure meant among the Celts ; it was surrender
of independence — admission of ownership. If this is
borne in mind, it is perhaps not so difficult to understand
the great importance the Welsh attached to it, and why
they refused to adopt the Latin tonsure. If they had,
it would in their view have been an admission of the
supremacy of the Latin Church, and of their subjection to
it. This they would not do, and so would not adopt it ;
and it was because the Latins saw the importance of
getting such an admission that they made such a point of
the adoption of their form of tonsure. It was not that it

278 THE CLERGY.
was idolatrous — that it was the mark of the beast ; it was
because the W(?lsh regarded it as an admission of
subjection that the Latins pressed it so strongly, and the
Welsh resisted it so stoutly. And it was probably viewed
in this light, the importance of all her dependents bearing
the outward and visible sign of the subjection to Rome,
that Theodore of Tarsus, who had previously had only the
Pauline or Greek tonsure, which consisted in shaving the
whole head, was kept at Rome before he was despatched
to England until his hair grew, and he could be properly
tonsured with St. Peter's, or the Latin tonsure, so that no
possible mistake eoidd arise, and it could not be said that he
bore the accursed Celtic, or St. John's tonsure. Although
at first sight the fight over the tonsure seems one of the
most utterly absurd of ecclesiastical disputes, yet, when
viewed in the light in which the Welsh regarded it, and the
light in which the Latins understood it, the difficulty
passes away, and it appears to be as it was — one incident
of the great battle for supremacy between the two
churches. Rhys points out,' as showing how deeply the
question of tonsure had taken root among the Celts, that
the Welsh name for a hermit, mewdwy, literally means
"God's slave ", while the Irish for a hermit is maelpha-
dra ic, meaning the bald or tonsured slave of Patrick. There
is a striking passage in the Scotch Laws " describing the
different -svays in which a person could become a villein, or
bondsman. It first states this could be done by descent,
then the next is by tonsure. When some freeman, for a
particular reason, either for protection or mainten
ance, or some other motive, gives himself up as a
bondsman to the Lord in his court, this is done by cutting
the front hair of the person's head in the frdl court, in
the presence of all the tribesmen. This lay ceremony of
' Celtic Britain, 72. ' Acts of Parliament of Scotland, i, 655.

THE CLERGY. 279
cutting off the front hair has a very close resemblance to
the ecclesiastical ceremony of tonsure. It is also to be
observed that both in the service for the consecration of
an abbot, and in the coronation service of the EngUsh
kings, a case of tonsui-e is to be found. In the Evesham
serrice for consecrating an abbot the use of a comb is
spoken of as part of the ritual.' In the coronation serrice
of Charles I, King Edward's comb is directed to be used."
One great result of orders being conferred upon a person
was to make him, if he was a bondsman, free ; he became,
not merely his o-wner's servant, but also the servant of
God, and, as such, free. The idea on which this was
based has survived in EngUsh law, in the principle
that the crown cannot be co-o-wner of a chattel with a
subject;" if any share in a chattel becomes the property
of the cro-wn, the whole passes to it, as it is beneath the
dignity of the cro-wn to hold in common with a subject.
So the recipient of orders, on becoming the servant of
God, haring the mark of heathen slavery effaced (the
serrile tonsure), and the mark of Divine o-wnership sub
stituted (the Celtic tonsure), became the servant of God,
and therefore free from all human servitude. The Senchus
Mor states this as one of the results of Christianity : " The
slaves shall be free,* and plebeians shall be exalted by
receiving church grades, and by performing penitential
services to God, for the Lord is accessible, he will not
refuse any kind of person after belief, either among the
noble or plebeian tribes, so likewise is the Church open
for every person who goes under her rule." In the gloss
^ OJfidum ecclesiasticum abbatum secundum usum- Eveshamensi.s monasterii,
Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. vi, p. 1, col. 1, line 31.
^ The Manner of the Coronation of Charles I, Henry Bradshaw Society,
vol. ii, p. 35. ' A. G., v.
* Andent Lams of Ireland, iii, 31.

280

THE CLERGY'.

on this passage, it is stated that the meaning of the
expression, " the enslaved shall be freed " is, that it refers
to men who are admitted to learning. So it seems that,
whenever a person, slave or otherwise, was admitted to a
religious house, that being the meaning of learning, and
received any ecclesiastical grade, he at once became free.
A similar idea is found in the Welsh laws : ' " When a
church is consecrated in a rillein township {taeog tref),
with the permission of the king, a man of that trev who
might be a villein {faeog) in the morning, became at night
a free man." This seems to imply that the fact of the
erection of a church makes the to-wnship, from being in a
servile condition, into a free township ; — the persons
residing in it would cease to be the slaves of the chief of
the lay tribe, and would become members of the tribe of
the Saint, and one of the results of such membership was
freedom ; as, in the Irish laws, the slave was freed by
becoming a member of the tribe of the Saint. This view is
strongly borne out by another passage in the same chapter
of the Dimetian Code : A clerk, who, on the day before he
received the tonsure, was the son of a villein taeog, became,
on the night he received it, a free man." " The Welsh is
worth notice : " ysceAheic ydijd kynn caffel corun yn vab
teiyaSe ar nos honno yn, 6r ryd." It was a scholar, one of
the pupils at the monastery, on his admission to the tribe
of the Saint, the admission being shown by his being
tonsured, his head being ero-wned, who became a free man.
It was not the tonsure that made him free ; it was the
fact that he was a tribesman, the proof of which was
sho-wn by the tonsm-e — the tribal mark. These passages
go to prove that the effect of the spread of the colonies of
the mother house was to do away with slavery, and raise
the condition of the people. . This could be done in two
^ Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 445. ' Ibid.

THE CLERGY. 281
ways, either by the erection of a church in a to-wnship,
where, if the place belonged to the church, it became the
property of the tribe of the Saint, and the district became
free ; or, when a student at the monastery was admitted
to the tribe of the Saint, as a consequence of such
admission, he became free. So the effect of the develop
ment of the monastic colonies was to do away to some
extent -with slavery.
Another effect a monastic clergy must have had, was to
keep the benefices in the hands of the monastery.
Although, probably, the Celtic clergy were not, in strict
law, technically a corporation, they were practically not far
removed from being one. They formed groups of societies,
to some one of which groups in their opinion each of the
ecclesiastical benefices of the country belonged, and
belonged in the sense of private ownership. It was not
merely the right of presenting a priest to the living when
a vacancy occurred, but it was the personal ownership of
the district in which the church was situated. To the
monasteries, in their opinion, and probably in that of most
people of that time, the different churches belonged, like
any other property. The church, that is, the monastery,
had created them, and she claimed them as her children.
The priests, who resided at the churches, belonged either
to the monastery or to some of her daughter houses. In
later times, when the connection with the mother house
became slighter, the priests at their different churches
married, and had children, whom they trained up, either
at the churches, or at the mother house, and their sons
became priests, they expected that their sons would
take their places at the church. To a great extent this
was done, -with the result that the clergy belonging to
each church as members of the tribe of the Saint looked
upon this particular chm-ch as their portion of the tribal

282

THE CLERGY.

property, that is, as their o-wn pecuUar inheritance. As
has already been shown, in some Celtic monasteries, not
only did the abbacy become hereditary, but the bishopric
and other offices had a similar tendeiic}^ and it is therefore
only a natural result that the same state of things should
produce the same result in the local churches, and that
they should, in fact, become hereditary in the colonies of
ecclesiastics who served them. The fact that they did
become so, is now generally admitted ; it could not be
otherwise on the evidence that remains. Giraldus speaks
of it as an ordinary state of things, and one that he
contends calls loudly for reform. The reason usually
given for it is that celibacy was never really a custom of
the Welsh clergy. Doubtless this had a good deal to do
with it, but if the Welsh clergy had practised the most
rigid celibacy, a somewhat similar condition of things
would have prevailed ; the churches would have been
regarded as the property of the priests who resided at
them. The real reason for this state of things, and the
reason that gave it its great strength was, that it formed
a part surrival of the old tribal idea. How firmly the
system was rooted will be seen from the invective of
Giraldus against it. Kerry, a Montgomeryshire parish,
had two rectors ; another parish, Bettws Kadwaladyr,
six or seven. Jones and Freeman, who admit the existence
of this state of things, argue ' that it does not imply a
collegiate foundation — a statement which is very true j
but they contend it is " simply an instance of portionist
rectories, such as are stiU to be found in England," which
is a much more doubtful assertion. In the EngUsh
portionist rectory each portionist merely receives a pay
ment, and was simply in the position of an annuitant.
In the Welsh cases the actual benefice was held by more
1 History of St. David's, 27 i.

THE CLERGY. 283
than one incumbent — each was an actual rector. Speak
ing technically, in the English portionist rectory, the
living was charged with certain annuities, but held by
one tenant subject to the annuities. In the Welsh case
the benefice was held by several rectors as tenants in
common. Jones and Freeman allege that "the true
origin of this state of things, and the feature that made
them so obnoxious to Giraldus, was the succession system,
in accordance with which the benefices, Uke the land, was
dirided by gavel-kind".' This is a partial, but only a
partial explanation. There was no division; had there
been, the number of rectors would have soon become
enormous, and there is no eridence of any great variation
in the number of rectors. The benefice formed part of
the tribal property in which all the members of the
tribe were entitled to share, the numbers varied, the
occupiers varied, but, if they were tribesmen, they had
their share. It was not the benefice that was altered, or
the shares in it dirided, it was that the persons who
formed the group, who were entitled to the benefice, varied
from time to time, and, occasionally, were not all in orders.
The fact of orders had nothing to do -with holding a
benefice, the only question was, were they members of
the tribe? When this riew is grasped, the case of the
rectory of Hay, which Jones and Freeman cite as some
thing so dreadful, is only an iUustration of the rule. It
was held by two brothers, one a priest and one a layman.
They speak of it as " a grave abuse", and say, " as there
is no trace of such arrangement in later times, they are
justified in ascribing it to the ante-Norman period "." It
was simply the case of one of the tribesmen being in
orders, and the other not ; each had a share as tribesman
in the benefice, and would have had if neither had been
1 History of St. David's, 274. " Ibid.

284 THE CLERGY.
in orders. It happened at that date that one only was in
orders, probably, soon after, all the tribesmen entitled to
share were in orders. It is true it belongs to an ante-
Norman period, for it is a feature, and a most character
istic feature, of the Welsh tribal system as applied to
churches. No better instance could be given of the
futility of trying to find from Latin sources an explana
tion for a Celtic custom. Tribesmen held the tribal
property — the fact that they were not all of the same
calling, was a mere detail ni:>t worth consideration.
The best eridence of the system is to be found in Pope
Nicholas' Valor, which gives a list of all the benefices in
the country, about the year 1291. fn the diocese of St.
Asaph, it is the exception for the churches to be held by
one man. Out of one hundred and eleven benefices, no
less than sixty-five are held in common by two or more
persons. Usually rectors and vicars are spoken of, but
other persons are often joined with them. Frequent
references are also made to one of the co-o-wners being
beneficed elsewhere, that is, that the tribe to which the
man belonged had, among the tribal property, more than
one church. It is true the term " portio " is used in the
record; that, however, proves nothing. It merely arises
from the fact that the Latin scribe considered that the
Welsh benefices, when more than one name appeared,
were in the same position as the EngUsh under the same
circumstances — a natural conjecture, but not one entitled
to any weight.
In the EngUsh cases, " portion " means a fixed annual
payment to a named indiridual, that is, an annuity out of
the proceeds of the benefice — a pension, just as a retired in
cumbent at the present day gets a pension out of the living.
In Wales it meant that there was more than one incumbent,
each of whom was entitled to a share in the profits of the

THE CLERGY. 285
living. Thus, in the case of Bettws Kadwaladyr, six persons
are named, but no rector or vicar, and the value of the
benefice is dirided among them. After the names of
three of the six is the word "Presbyter". It would
therefore seem that the benefice was held as part of the
tribal property by the heads of the six families who made
up the tribe, three were, and three were not, in orders —
a precisely similar case to Hay, and one that should
excite far greater indignation. Once the tribal principle
is admitted, there is no difficulty nor any anomaly about all
these matters. The heads of the families composing the
tribe each received their share of the undivided tribal
property. This is, at least, a reasonable explanation,
and one which can be justified on historical grounds ; but
pass from Celtic to Latin reasons, and it is almost im
possible to find any satisfactory solution of the different
matters that are continuaUy to be met with. Lay rectors
are not unknown to the EngUsh law or the Latin Church,
but for a benefice to be held in common between clergymen
and laymen is a state of things neither the Latin Church
nor the English law seem to have ever contemplated. It
is a curious fact that, as appears from Pope Nicholas'
Valor, these benefices held in common occur more
frequently in North Wales than in South Wales, and of
the two North Wales dioceses, more frequently in St.
Asaph than in Bangor. This is a point on which a satis
factory explanation is very difficult to give. As to the
different state of things in the dioceses of Bangor and
St. Asaph, Archdeacon Thomas ' gives as the reason that
in the first taxation of the diocese of St. Asaph in 1254,
the number of persons who shared in the benefices was so
large that the share of each indiridual feU below the
limit of taxation. Archbishop Peckham, in his visitation
^ Diocesan History of St. Asaph, 48.

286 THE CLERGY.
in 1284 (a risitation that did more to efface the Celtic
Church than anjdhing else), provided that as these small
portions were so ruinous to the clergy, as they gave a
sum on which it was quite impossible for the recipient to
exist, yet the amount that they took from the benefice
left the person who did the duty so little, that he could
not Uve on it, all the small portions were to be united.
This was accordingly done some time between the
taxation of 1284 and 1291, the date of Pope Nicholas'
Vcdor. So when the second taxation was made, by reason
of the union of the smaUer shares, the then shares of the
owners who were left came up to the taxation limit, and
that therefore in the taxation recorded in Pope Nicholas'
Vedor, the co-owner had to submit to be taxed. If this
is so, and it is assumed that the reform had at the time of
the Valor been more thoroughly carried out in St. Asaph
than elsewhere, as that was the diocese where Peckham
began his risitation, and where his reforms were first
commenced, an explanation is given. The number
of united rectories made it appear that the rectorial
system was more numerous there than elsewhere, the real
fact being- that the diocese of St. Asaph was reformed,
while the other three were not. Thus, while the number
of co-owners appears to be larger in St. Asaph, in fact they
were not actually so, and that no proper inference can be
dra-wn from the record having regard to these facts. The
truth being that while the number of co-owned benefices in
St. Asaph appear more numerous, they are really fewer in
number, while, in the three other dioceses they appear to
be fewer, they are really more ; their absence from the
Valor being due to their large number, and consequently
to the small sum each co-o-wner would receive. This most
ingenious riew offers a reasonable explanation of a fact
that it is other-wise hard to explain at all.

THE CLERGY. 287
The system of co-o-wnership of benefices was not in any
way confined to Wales ; it seems to have extended to
wherever the Celtic tribal idea went. In Ireland, all the
families that made up the tribe were entitled to receive
something out. of the produce of the tribe lands. The
amount received varied with the different circumstances of
the tribe, and, in some cases, the amount the individual
tribesman received was very small. But whether the shares
were small or great, the principle was the same — the
produce of the tribal lands was divided among the members
of the tribe. The principle extended to all tribal property,
land, ecclesiastical benefices, or any other kind. The
idea was that the tribesmen were entitled to live out of
the tribal property. To the Celt it would have been
passing strange if this had not been the case ; among the
Celts there was nothing that lasted longer and were more
deeply cherished than these relics of tribal life. And it
may well be that Archbishop Peckham found that what
he had caused to be done in St. Asaph was the limit of
what he was able to do. In the more Welsh dioceses of
Bangor and St. David's, any attempt at such a reform
might well have been hopeless, for speaking of St. Darid's,
Giraldus says, when referring to the custom, " the Church
has almost as many parsons or parties as there are
principal men in the parish, and that the sons, after the
decease of their fathers, succeed to the ecclesiastical
benefices, not by election, but by hereditary right, possess
ing and polluting the sanctuary of God ; and if a bishop
perchanced to presume to appoint or institute any other
person, the people would certainly revenge the injury on
the institution and the instituted." Strong as is this
language, it does not appear, as far as can be judged, to
be too strong to describe the practice that had grown up
in the Celtic Church, and which the people were prepared

288 THE CLERGY^
to defend against the Latins. The clergy were daily
becoming more and more local and independent, such
resistance as there was to the English conquerors rested
-with the Church, and -with it alone, for the lay power had
collapsed. If the clergy once allowed it to be established
that a foreign official (the Pope) could present to benefices,
and thus get rid of the hereditary tribal rights, all that
remained to the Welsh of the old tribal system would be
abolished. It was for this that the Welsh fought and
resisted. The Latin bishops who held the Welsh sees
were not the men to get rid of the tribal notions ; any
attempt, or suspected attempt of theirs to do so, would
cause an uproar, and that was the last thing their master
desired. So matters were allowed to rest. It would
not be accurate to say the benefices became hereditary;
yet they acquired a way of keeping in local hands, or in
the hands of a particular family. Probably what caused
most of the friction in Wales at the time of the Reforma
tion, was the destruction that fell upon these relics of
tribal customs. When the Reformation bishops interfered,
which, it is true, was not very often, they only interfered
to thrust into a living a stranger or relation, thereby
making the discontent greater than before. Even at the
present day, any one but a local man who is appointed to
a Welsh benefice has a hard task to surmount the local
prejudice there is against him when entering on his new
cure. Probably much of the hatred of the clergy of
the estabUshment is due to the fact that they are stiU felt
to be the representatives of the system that turned the
tribe out of its possessions, and so are therefore to be
regarded as the hereditary enemies of the locality and
its inhabitants. The history of the presentation to Welsh
benefices is a very remarkable chapter in Welsh Church
history ; for while on the one hand, it tells the triumph

THE CLERGY.

289

of the Latin over the Celt, yet, on the other hand, it
shows how long tribal and local ideas will live in a
district, as it shows the hostility that the inhabitants of
the district, where once the tribe dwelt, still regard the
successors of their arrogant conquerors.
Very nearly allied to the question of the hereditary
nature of the Welsh benefices is the question, which is
one of the great features of the Celtic Church, the non-
celibacy of the clergy. Probably the Welsh clergy are
the only body of ecclesiastics who can boast that at all
times in their history they have refused to have forced
upon them the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy. The
history of their resistance to it is one of the most striking
parts of the story of the Celtic Church. It appears from the
Epistle of Gildas, that the British clergy of his days did
not profess ceUbacy, at least this is the charitable infer
ence from his somewhat turgid way of speaking of their
moraUty,' and it would seem that until 961, the marriage
of the clergy was not only not forbidden, but was
regularly recognized. This is sho-wn by several things :
by a passage under that year in the Gwentian Brut —
" The priests were enjoined not to marry ¦without the
leave of the Pope, on which account a great disturbance
took place in the diocese of Teilo, so that it was considered
best to aUow matrimony to the priests." From this it is
clear that the marriage of priests was at that time a
regular custom. Whether the usual reading of " heb fyned
yng nghennad y Pab ", ¦without the leave of the Pope, is
the correct one or not, is very doubtful. The Pope's
authority was certainly not at that date recognized or
admitted in Wales, but this is of small importance, for
the passage shows clearly the resistance to celibacy. At
that time Dunstan was carrying out his reforms in the
^ See Epistle of Gildas, caps. 66, 67.

290 THE CLERGY.
English Church, and it was but to be expected that an
attempt would be made to extend those reforms, and ¦with
them his jurisdiction, and to enforce celibacy on the
Welsh clergy. The attempt was a failure. A passage
in Hywel Da's laws is often cited to prove that marriage
among the clergy was not then recognized, and that the
offspring was iUegitimate. The passage is in the
Dimetian Code,' and is one specifying the three cases
where sons are not to share in land with their brothers
by the same father and mother. The second case is the
one relied on : " When a clerk takes a wife by gift of
kindi-ed, and has a son by her, and afterwards the clerk
takes priest's orders, and subsequently when a priest has
a son by the same woman, the son previously begotten
is not to share land with such son, as he was begotten
contrary to decree." " The j)assage is made obscure by
the last words ; but for this, which may be an interpola
tion, and only inserted as giving the meaning of the
passage, or what the transcriber thought was its meaning,
the article is clear enough, if tribal rules are applied to it.
A son born before a man became a tribesman could not
share ¦with a son born after a man became a tribesman,
because the second would be entitled to become a
tribesman, to have a share in the tribal property, of
which all his father's property became part when he
became a tribesman. The first son would not become a
tribesman as of right, so could not share in the tribal
property. His father, by becoming a member of the
tribe, had ceased to possess private property, so his sons
could not share, as only one was entitled to tribal rights.
Such is the obvious explanation but for the last words,
and these certainly cause a difficulty. It wiU be seen
they do not say the second born son is illegitimate, but
1 Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 445. ^ See Ibid., 760.

THE CLERGY. 291
that the first born, the one born before the man took
priest's orders, is not to share. If the words are regarded
as haring any reference to legitimacy, they really go to
this, that the son born before the clerk took priest's orders
is iUegitimate, the son born after, legitimate. This
cannot be the meaning, and it seems the tribal explana
tion mentioned above is the most satisfactory. This is
not the usual interpretation. Jones and Freeman regard
the passage as declaring the children born after ordination
Ulegitimate. " Yet it " (marriage of priests), they say,
" appears to have been discouraged by the laws of the
country, as the son of the priest born after his ordination
was regarded as illegitimate, and had no share in his
father's property." ' This seems to be a far-fetched inter
pretation, if the passage can be said to bear such a
meaning, which is doubtful. Most modern writers,
since Jones and Freeman, have followed their view
¦without question. It ¦will be enough to quote the last,
Mr. Newell : " " Some hint of a feeling against the
custom (marriage of the clergy) may be discovered in
the laws of Hywel Da, which draw a distinction between
a son born before his father had taken priest's orders,
and one bom after." The passage is then cited. It is
quite true a distinction is drawn, but, as has been already
pointed out, it is the son born after the priest had married
who takes the property. If the whole passage is examined,
it -will be seen that it has no reference to legitimacy or
illegitimacy, nor to the ceUbacy of the clergy or anything
of the kind, it is merely a statement of cases where, by
the Welsh tribal rules, a father's property was not divided
among aU his sons. If eridence is required that the
Celtic Church recognized the marriage of the clergy, many
authorities might be cited to prove it ; one Irish and one
' Jones and Freeman, St. David's, 273. " Newell, Welsh Church, 170.
U 2

i.'92 THE CLERGY.
Welsh will be sufficient. In the canons, said to have been
made at a synod of Patrick, Auxilius, and Issemius, the
sixth provides for the dress of the ¦wives of the clergy,
" Quicunque clericus ab hostiario usque ad sacerdotem
et uxor ejus si non velato capite ambulaverit
pariter a laicis contempnentur et ab ecclesia separentur." '
In the poem by Jevan, setting out the virtues of Sulien,
the bishop of St. David's, a poem of a date about 1100,
one of his claims to admiration is stated to be that he
was the father of four sons : —
"Quatuor ac proprio nutrivit sanguine natos
Quos simul edocuit dulci libaminis amne
Iimenin claros ; jam sunt ba3C nomina r|Uorum,
Tivcymarch sapiens, Arthgen, Danielque, Johannes." -
Showing that at that date the Celtic Church not only
did not try to conceal the fact that the bishops were
married but rather considered that it was a mark of
distinction for bishops to have a family.
There can be no doubt but that the Latin Church was
constantly in the habit of reproaching the Celtic Church
for allowing the marriage of her clergy. There can also be
no doubt that such marriages were regarded as perfectly
la^wful by the Welsh Church until after the Norman
conquest, and the changes that accompanied the advent
of the Norman bishops — Bernard and Urban. With
the Normans a change doubtless set in, and a determined
effort was made to force celibacy on thc Welsh clergy.
In none of the three codes which make up the laws of
Hywel Da, except the passage already cited from the
Dimetian Code, is there anything that can be twisted by
the utmost ingenuity as prescribing the celibacy of the
clergy. But when Latin monks began to influence
Welsh law, a different set of things is found. In the
1 Haddan and Stubbs, ii, part 2, p. 328. ^ Ibid., i, 666.

THE CLERGY. 293
Cyvreithiau Cymru, and the Leges Wallice, will be seen the
way the Latin Church enforced her ideas on the subject.
She had tried to do it directly, and failed miserably,
but, indirectly, much was done. Whoever it was who
made the rule that a married priest could not give
eridence,' was a man who was not unacquainted with
Welsh nature. The passage in which this occurs shows
from internal evidence it was the work of a stranger j
it is a deliberate attempt to set tribe against tribe, and
exalt the power of the conqueror. The priest on marrying
did not infringe any rule or law of his o^wn church ; but
the Latins placed an indirect penalty on him for it, by
making him inadmissible as a witness in a court of justice.
Another passage in the Cyvreithiau Cymru is to the same
effect, and shows, if possible, more clearly the finger of
the foreign ecclesiastic : — " Whatever person," it says,
" shaU break his vow of religion, whether a monk, a
prior, an anchorite, or an hermit, or any kind of religious
person bound in the service of God, or a priest who shall
take a wife after the bond of priesthood, their testimony
is not to be credited in any place, and they are excluded
from the law, unless they seek a pardon from the Pope,
or the bishop, through a public penance." "
This is obviously an attempt to place the Welsh clergy
in the same position as the Latin, by the assumption, the
untrue assumption, that they had taken vows of celibacy.
The passage relates to those who had broken vows of
religion, and, as the Latin priest had vowed ceUbacy, it
was thought if the Welsh had not, he ought to have done
so, and was placed in the same position as if he had.
No better instance could be given of the way the
conquerors tried to force their views on the conquered by
editing their laws than this. There is also the oft cited
^ Ancient Laws of Wales, ii, 204. ' Ibid., ii, 409.

294 THE CLERGY.
passage where the author, or editor, in stating a series of
legal principles, mentions the nine maxims of the law and
the thirteen things " which corrupt the world which ¦will
ever remain in it, and it can never be deUvered of".
The four first are, " An unjust king, a weak lord, a
transgressing judge, a married priest".'
Such are the positive enactments of the Welsh laws
on the subject of the celibacy of the clergy ; from
them it seems clear that, prior to the advent of the
Norman bishops, marriage of the clergy was the rule
in Wales, but from that date the Latins tried by
various ways, and among others by " editing " the laws,
to introduce and enforce ceUbaoy. They did not succeed.
In vain did that " Quidam Normanus", as the compiler of
the Annales Cambrice calls Bernard, endeavour to introduce
Latin customs and Roman reforms ; doubtless he did
much, but the celibacy of the clergy was not one of his
reforms. His successor in the see of St. David's, Fitz
gerald, had a large family ; whether, in deference to the
riews of the Latin Church, he called their mother his
-wife, or by a less reputable name, may be doubtful.
The custom of the marriage of the Welsh clergy was so
universal that in 1175 certain canons were made at a
council at Westminster by Richard, Archbishop of
Canterbury," prohibiting it, " WaUenses non vendant
ecclesias vel dent in dotem vel oonsanguineis adhsereant vel
commutent uxores". But the best evidence of the prevalence
of the custom is to be found in the writings of Giraldus
Cambrensis. Desirous to show his fitness for episcopacy,
he denounced in no measured language the families of the
Welsh clergy ; for instance, in the prologue to the De jure
et statu Menevensis ecclesice," he says : " Prsecipueque
' .-Indent Laws of Wales, ii, 346.
•" Haddan and Stubbs, i, 382. ' Roll's ed., iii, p. 114.

THE CLERGY. 295
cathedrales sedium episcopalium ecclesias a ritiis radicatis
olim et tamquam innatis publicis scilicet fomicationibus
et successionibus purget ; per universes quoque Wallise
fines incestuosos cognatarum amplexus et sanguine
propinquarum a laicis ; cujusmodi labe tota fere ilia
gens laborat. . . . Committentur autem a clericis
prsecipue vitia tria concubinarum scilicet cohabitationes
et ecclesiarum participationes enormes quoque filiorum
post patres in ecclesise bonis successiones." He goes on
in the book to charge the canons of St. Darid's, especially
the Welsh ones, with what he calls " gross immorality" ;
he says : ' " Canonicos Menevenses fere cunctos maxime
vero Walensicos publicos fornicarios et concubinarios esse
sub alis ecclesise cathedraUs et tamquam in ipso ejusdem
gremio focarias suas cum obstetricibus et nutricibus
atque cunabuUs in laribus et penetralibus exhibentes."
This passage rather leads to the belief that Giraldus is
bent on sho-wing the fervour of his faith in the Latin
Church, so as to receive favours from the Pope to aid his
election, rather than giving an accurate statement of
fact. If the canons were not married they would hardly
have dared, even at St. David's, to have "gloried in their
shame " to the extent of having midwives, nurses, and
cradles, under the shadow of the cathedral. But it must
always be remembered that an ecclesiastic, when speaking
of the sexual relations of ecclesiastics, is unable to use
ordinary language. A German bishop styled a married
bishop an adulterer; a Worcester scribe, as has been
already pointed out, styled a liaison between a priest and
his dairymaid, incest; so it would not be surprising if
Giraldus called a married canon a fornicator. It was by
following up his abuse of the married clergy that
Giraldus gained promotion. The Archdeacon of Brecon,
' Rolls ed., iii, p. 128.

296 THE CLERGY.
Jordan, had married, and the fact of the marriage is
strong eridence that the custom of clerical marriage was
still common. The archdeacon saw nothing wrong in it,
but Giraldus did. Full of zeal, either for the Latin
Church or his own promotion, he attacked the archdeacon
for keeping a concubine, and admonished him to put her
away. To us it might seem that the course advocated by
Giraldus would cause the greater scandal. The archdeacon
naturaUy took no notice of Giraldus, or his admonition.
Whatever the virtues of Giraldus were, mildness of
language was not one ; he sent the archdeacon a second
admonition, which was couched in terms which could
not be accurately described as strong. It had its effect,
as the archdeacon lost his temper, and in his reply, if he
used the language which Giraldus tells us he did, all that
can be said is, he was a greater master of abuse than his
rival. Acting on the advice of Giraldus, the Archbishop
of Canterbury removed the archdeacon from his arch
deaconry, and gave it to Giraldus. Jordan retired to a
prebend, where he and his wife could live in peace. This
incident shows that in spite of all the efforts of the Latin
Church, the Welsh clergy still persisted in the custom
of marrying. The practice continued in spite of the
invectives of Giraldus. Archbishop Peckham, in his
injunctions to the diocese of St. Asaph, speaks of the rice
of incontinence among the clergy being "ultra madum",
he probably alludes to marriage, for he speaks of the
incontinence of the beneficed clergy and their concubines,
never their wives.' He makes the same complaint as to
St. David's, and orders that deUnquents are not to be
punished by fines, but by deprivation." This, however,
failed to get rid of the practice. A centm-y and a half
later, in the time of Bishop de la Bere, of St. Darid's,
' Haddan aiul Stubbs. i, 563. ' Hiid., 572.

THE CLERGY. 297
1447-1460, a petition was presented to the bishop by his
clergy, asking to be allowed to retain their wives. The
reason they gave was, that if they put them away on the
one suggestion of illegality, they, the clergy, would have
to meet the vengeance of their wives' relations. The
bishop acceded to their riew, and allowed his clergy to
retain their wives. However irregular to strict church
disciplinarians this may seem, it is strong eridence of the
fact that the marriage of the clergy was practised to a
very great extent during the fifteenth century in Wales.
Even up to the Reformation it seems that licenses to
marry were granted by the bishops to the Welsh clergy. It
is true, some writers state, that these licenses were for
concubines, not for wives ; this, however, does not seem to
have been the case, and neither the Welsh clergy nor
bishops had sunk qmte so low. It thus seems to be
clearly estabUshed that from the earUest times to the
Reformation, the Welsh clergy not only married but
succeeded in maintaining their right to marry, in spite
of all the attempts of the Latins for over four hundred
years, from 1115 to 1530, to force celibacy upon them.
That among the English clergy, while under the rule of
the Roman Church, concubinage was common, seems not
to be denied ; but it was not so with the Welsh, except
in so far as their conquerors called their marriages
concubinage. The Welsh clergy are the only clerical
body who have, from first to last, in spite of all opposition,
asserted and maintained their right to marry. When the
clergy of the rest of Europe were pledged, as a matter of
principle, to celibacy, but tempered it in practice by
fornication, the Welsh clergy remained alone the defenders
of the right, the absolute right, of the clergy to marry.
That they did this, and were able to do it, was probably
due to the reason given to the Bishop de la Bere, of their

298 THE CLERGY.
fear of the relations of the women, that is, of the per
sistence of the tribal rule. It was this that proved too
strong for even the power of the Latin Church, and which
saved and preserved this marked feature of the Celtic
clergy. The existence of several priests at one place, an obvious
surrival of the monastic system, and those priests often
married men with families, led to the formation of
very remarkable and interesting ecclesiastical societies,
such as did not exist elsewhere. These societies may
explain a term that has long been a puzzle to Welsh
church historians, " Glaswir", or " Eglwyswir" , church'me'n,
who, it is admitted, formed an ecclesiastical body attached
to a church ; but who and what such bodies were, is a
matter of dispute, and one on which writers are not agreed.
It has been conjectured ' that they were the Celtic monks,
and, to some extent, the conjecture seems accurate. They
were the monks attached to the different churches or
settlements who carried on the business of the Church
in the different localities, and who, from being associated
by Uring together, soon became formed into distinct
ecclesiastical groups. The fact of the existence of these
groups seems to explain the reason for the foundation
of the so-called coUeges by Bishop Bee (1280-1296).
"What," asks Archdeacon Bevan "were the objects these
coUegiate churches were designed to serve ? " " He,
however, fails to give any satisfactory answer, beyond
the reason stated in the foundation charter of Aberg-willi
that the parts of " Tstrad Tywy, hitherto places of misery,
should be changed into places of spiritual joy". He
confesses it is not easy to explain in what way the
withdrawal of the clergy from the parochial churches could
conduce to the spiritual benefit of the parishioners. This
' Jones and Freeman, pp. 255, 310. '¦' Diocesan Hist. St. David's, p. 127.

THE CLERGY. 299
statement, however, assumes the whole case, that there
were then parochial clergy in Wales — a statement which
has yet to be proved. The explanation submitted here
is that Bee found at different churches, notably at
Llangadoc and Llandde-wibrefi, bodies of clergy whose
object in Ufe he did not understand, and, Norman-like,
desirous of bringing the diocese into order, resolved to
organize these groups. Knowing Uttle and caring less
about their origin, he determined to bring them under
the Latin rule. To bring about this purpose, he organized,
or founded, two so-called collegiate bodies, that is, bodies
regulated by the rules of the Latin Church. Bee was
merely applying a process that had often been applied
before ; he was merely maintaining existing institutions
under new rules. In England the Latin Church had
brought the old monasteries under the rule of St. Benedict
in this way. Here Bee found irregular groups of clergy
that could not be accounted for or managed satisfactorily,
so he did what would be done at the present day, he
reorganized these bodies on what he considered a rational
basis. Probably Bee's reform was at the time a beneficial
one, as he utilized, or tried to utilize, groups of men that
were apparently, if not useless, of very little use. Although
there is no eridence that such was the case, it is most
probable that he was but carrying out the policy Arch
bishop Peckham had ordered' to be carried out in the
diocese of St. Asaph, in getting rid of the groups of
persons, portionists as they are called, tribesmen, as is
more correct, who lived on the benefices. Peckham was
determined to break up this system, and it is not unlikely
it is due to his instructions to this effect, that Bee acted.
It is true that the date of the foundation of AbergwiUi
was 1283, and Peckham's visita.tion of St. Darid's was
• Haddan and Stubbs, i, 564.

300 THE CLERGY.
not tiU 1284, but Llanddewibrefi was not founded until
1287. The political necessity for preventing groups of
clergy, who were probably strong patriots, combining, or
aiding others to combine, in a national movement against
Edward, had doubtless its effect in inducing the bishop to
obtain control over these groups of men by reorganizing
them into colleges. It is said by Archdeacon Bevan,'
that the result of these collegiate churches was disaster
to the Welsh Church ; if this is so, it is only another
instance of the many that we meet with in Welsh ecclesi
astical history, of the failure of the Latin attempts to
substitute their syste'm for the native Celtic. The history
of these colleges is very interesting and instructive, as it
marks almost the final step of the Latin Church to
uproot the Celtic. At first, Bernard and his successors
were too much occupied with establishing themselves at
St. David's, and perfecting their organization, to take
much concern -with the Celtic clergy. Other causes helped
to delay any great interference with them, such as rebeUions,
and disputes as to jurisdiction ; but Edward's conquest of
Wales, and Peckham's active interference, must have led
the archbishop to see the time had come for perfecting
the Latin organization and developing their ecclesiastical
system, that is, effacing the remaining distinctive marks
of the Celtic Church. Peckham's risitation was most
likely undertaken for this purpose, and the new ciril
settlement of the country was probably to be followed by
a new ecclesiastical settlement. In North Wales, Edward
had endeavoured to arrive at an ending of disputes -with
the monastery of Aberconway, the bishop of Bangor,
and the Offeyriat Teulu, the priests of the household,
probably the tribe of the Saint, for the monastery of
Bangor. Edward granted " certain riUs to the bishop
' History of St. David's, p. 128. ' Haddan and Stubbs, i, 550.

THE CLERGY. 301
and priests jointly, in lieu of certain tithes they gave up.
The great importance of the grant is, that it treats the
priests of the household, the tribe of the Saint, as a body
capable of holding property, and of holding- on an equal
footing with the bishop. It foUows from this that the
Welsh ecclesiastical tribes must have survived, with some
organization and with some authority, until the conquest
of Wales by Edward I. It is therefore plain that there
existed a group of persons who were entitled to hold
property, who possessed certain rights, and who were
either the remains of the tribe of the Saint, or that body
in another form, the remains of the old Welsh monastic
clergy. Here, we find certain ecclesiastical groups
that had to be reckoned with, and it is not unlikely the
way that this was done was that which Bee followed, of
creating coUegiate churches.
The suppression, or the conversion, into colleges of the
remains of the Celtic monastic clergy, of necessity paved
the way for the Latin system of parochial clergy.
The fact that the Welsh clergy only gradually became
a parochial clergy according to Latin ideas, goes far to
explain some of the anomaUes and peculiarities connected
-with the Welsh Church. As far as possible, a Welsh
incumbent, after the changes that foUowed on Peckham's
visitation, would try to keep the power he had been
accustomed to exercise, and would use but sparingly the
new ideas and notions he was told he possessed. As he
had been independent, he would naturally object to
becoming dependent. But if he was to become a parochial
priest, submission to his superior, and obedience to those
in authority, were essential ; hence it may be taken that
the parochial system met with considerable difficulty in
making its way in Wales, and it probably was not until
after the legislation of Henry VIII that it really became.

¦')(t2 THE CLERGY.
for all purposes, an integral part of the organization of
the country.
It is a question of some importance and interest, What
were the orders in the Celtic Church, did fhey possess
all the orders of the Latin? As to the three higher
orders — bishops, priests, and deacons — it seems clear that
they did, but with regard to minor orders, it is not so
clear. As the Church increased, the Latin Church
created a number of officers connected with the Church, such
as aeolytes, lectors, exorcists, doorkeepers — all of whom
received orders from the bishop, and upon all of whom
the same rules as to the nx'cipt of (irders were as binding
as in the case of the superior orders. It is not clear to
what extent these officers existed in the Celtic Church, or
how far minor orders prevailed. It would seem, from
the Liber Landavensis, that they existed to some extent.
In the SeneJius Mor there is a passage speaking of the
right of succession to the abl)acy, where it is said, with
something like seorn, that if he was the next in succession
a psalm singer should have the abbacy,' and a psalm singer
would thus seem to have been, at the time the passage
was -written, if not the lowest, at least one of the lowest
officers in the monastery.
This, therefore, implies that there were certain minor
clerical offices, or minor orders, recognized in the Celtic
Church, besides the superior orders of bishops, priests, and
deacons. This is further borne out by the Book of
Llandaff, assuming the charters in it are genuine. It
mentions a synod of " omnes clericos usque ad inferiores
gradus";'' another of "clericos omnes de majoribus
gradibus usque ad inferiores gradus " ; " and at another,
"omnibus clericis de majori gradu usque ad irderiorem".*
^ Roils ed,, iii, 7.'>. ^ Liber Landavensis, 223.
^ Liber Landavensis, 234. ' Ibid., 248.

THE CLERGY. 303
But even if this is so, it leaves an important question
unanswered : Had the term orders, as applied to minor
orders, the same meaning in the Celtic and Latin Churches,
or were the officers spoken of merely monastic officers,
and not in orders at all? It might well be that some
of the officials were officers of the monastery, but never
had or desired to have orders, and it is by no means
certain that this was not the case. As has been already
pointed out, the fact of holding a monastic office gave
a title to orders, but it does not necessarUy follow that
because a monastic official could be ordained that he
therefore was, and that such official was in orders. So
far as the Welsh laws go, there is little evidence of minor
orders, and there does not seem to have been any extra
penalty for killing a person who held these offices, than
for killing any one else, and this is the great test. While
with existing eridence it is not possible to say with
certainty whether or not minor orders existed, yet if they
did not, the reason why they did not can easily be given ;
it was because the persons doing the duties were officials
of the monastery, and this again would be one of the
results that would follow from a monastic as opposed to a
parochial clergy.
As has already been stated, it would be unfair to the
Celtic clergy to take the Welsh canons, or any other set
of penal laws, as a basis from which to draw a sketch of
the habits and customs of the clergy of the time. It by
no means follows that because the criminal law prohibits
an offence, that offence is often committed. Laws are
made, especially laws in early societies, to meet cases that
may arise, but uot, by any means, to meet cases that
have arisen. The early Welsh canons have, however, a
value apart from this purely criminal aspect. They
bring out clearly that the Celtic clergy consisted of

304 THE CLERGY.
bishops, priests, and deacons, as the penalties for the
same offence vary according- as to whether they have
been committed by bishop, priest, or deacon. In speaking
of monk, reader, and sub-deacon, they also show the
monastic character of the Church, these persons usually
being- members of the monastery. If any inference was
to be dra-wn from the Welsh canons, it would not be
favourable to the character of the Celtic clergy, but it is
to be borne in mind that the penalties directed by the
Welsh laws are not, as a rule, so much against any
particular act, as against the act being done either against
certain individuals or in certain places. This furnishes a
very strong argument in favour of the genuineness of these
canons, they in fact agree with the Welsh laws of the date
which these canons purport to be. Neither in the laws
nor the canons are acts prohibited because they are illegal
and wrong, but because property requires protection, and it
is the duty of the law and those who administer the law to
protect it. For instance, by them, murder, wounding, and
assaults are not crimes ; they are all injuries to property,
for which so much has to be paid. In some cases, the
punishment is greater on the wrong-doer in accordance
with his position in life, but this appears to be rather a
matter of discipline than of legal punishment. The
monastic rules were severe, but the penalties in many
cases were more in the nature of fines than of personal
penance. The inference to be drawn, as to the Welsh clergy,
from the canons, is to some extent borne out by the
informa.tion we get as to the Celtic clergy from other
sources. Gildas gives what is, probably, the earliest, and
is certainly, in some respects, the worst picture of the
state of things. He hated the Welsh, and did not care to
depict them in too bright colours. But Gildas wrote in so

THE CLERGY". 305
rhetorical a style, and so obviously tried to represent
matters with a riew to effect, more than to accuracy, that
too much reliance must not be placed on him. " Sacer
dotes habet Britannia sed insipientes ; quam plurimos
ministros, sed impudentes ; clericos, sed raptores subdolos."'
This style shows that Gildas is trying to work up the
contrast for the sake of effect, and this is done throughout
the chapter. Gluttonous, immoral, dishonest, — such are
some of the features which Gildas assigns to the clergy.
He accuses them of simony, a vice that would not have been
expected, alleging that they purchased the office of bishop
or priest ; it may well be that they only paid the ordinary
fees on receiring the office : all this makes the value of
Gildas' testimony doubtful. But, after making every
allowance, still this fact remains, that Gildas, the canons
of the Welsh synods, and the Welsh laws, all draw a dark
picture of the Welsh clergy. Their chief offences are
crimes of riolence and immorality. In that age it must
be remembered that crimes of violence were not considered
of very great importance. The attempt, the vain attempt
of Patrick, to make the Irish regard homicide as a crime,
and its utter failure, is a strong proof of this. It must
also be borne in mind that the crimes which Gildas ascribes
to the Welsh clergy are exactly the crimes and offences
that it is reasonable to suppose would be found in bodies
of men scattered about the country, forming separate
independent communities, without superiors and without
control. The members of such bodies would almost of
necessity quarrel with the members of other similar bodies,
or -with laymen they might meet. A priest, living alone
in a district, whether married or single, would, for the
sake of his own safety, abstain from many of the acts
imputed to the clergy. The acts alleged are far more like
' Gildas, Epistolce, c. 66 ; Haddan and Stubbs, i, 71.

30()

THE CLERGY.

the acts of a band of lawbreakers than the acts of any
individual. It is by no means improbable that one of the
reUgious community, at the head of the servants and
retainers of the settlement, might either avenge an act or
make reprisals, which would have been quite out of the
power of any single parish priest. As, for instance, the first
canon, the one which Haddan and Stubbs eite as a. proof
of their Welsh origin, states " If any one commit wilful
murder let him pay three female and three male slaves ".'
It is hardly likely that in an ordinary easi.' a Welsh clergy
man would ])ossesssuch a household as would supply three
male and three female slaves. But, if he was a member
of a reUgious settlement, that body would probably lie
quite a large enough sla^'(¦ owner to make the payment of
such a penalty a matter of but Uttle difficulty. It is not
contended that the Welsh elergy were in any way an
immaculate body of men ; but what is contended is, that the
offences alleged against them in the Welsh canons point
far more to the offences that men who are members of an
armed community would commit than to offences that
would be done by individuals. Morally, the guilt may be
the same, but in judging of the criminality of a class such
circumstances require to be considered before arriving at a
determination. It is probably, as has already been stated, to Arch
bishop Peckham's infiuence that a great change in
the customs and habits of the Welsh clergy was brought
about. Up to his time no real attempt had been made to
alter the condition of things that prevailed among the
country clergy. On the breaking out of the Welsh war of
1282 Edward I wrote to Peckham ordering him to
excommunicate the Welsh rebels {malefactor es WaUenses).
The Archbishop then wrote to his suffragans, ordering
' Haddan and Stubbs, i, 127.

THE CLERGY. 807
them, by virtue of the obedience they owed to the see of
Canterbury, to excommunicate the Welsh rebels, and this
order was sent to all the Canterbury suffragans, except
Hereford. Annian, Bishop of St. Asaph, refused to obey ;
he was summoned to Canterbury to answer to the Arch
bishop, and his diocese handed over to Robert Bumell,
Bishop of Bath and Wells. Complaints were made by
LleweUyn of the way the English burnt churches and
killed ecclesiastics. On LleweUyn's death, Peckham took
steps to reorganize the churches in Wales. In the diocese
of St. David's no less than 38 churches were forfeited to
the Crown. These were granted by the King to Bishop
Bee, and he appropriated some of them to the prebends
of St. Darid's and to his colleges. Such a state of things
must have altered the condition of matters ecclesiastical in
Wales. Another means was found. The ordination of
Welshmen, except to the lowest orders, was forbidden,
"Item nuUus Wallensis aliquem fiUum suum ad aliquos
ordines promovebit nisi unum ; et hos ad primam tonsuram
tantum",' and this prohibition was renewed later, in 1322,
by Archbishop Reynolds, who rejected Celts (Irish, Welsh,
and Scotch clergy) unless upon great necessity, and after
special enquiry into the indiridual case. This must have
led to the increase of the Latin clergy. To enforce Latin
rules. Bee ordered that synods should be held in his
diocese three times a year, Michaelmas, Christmas, and
Easter, the statute stating that up till then synods had not
been held." A diocesan synod was also held in Bangor."
The Crown claimed, and enforced its right, to the
temporalities of the Welsh sees sede vacante.'^ AU this
shows the rigorous attempts that were made on the death
of LleweUyn to stamp out the Celtic Church in Wales.
1 Haddan and Stubbs, i, 583. = Ibid., p. 588.
^ Ibid., p. 597. ' Ibid., p. 598.
X 2

308

THE CLERGY.

The wonder is not that the Latin Church succeeded, but
that so much has surrived of the Welsh. If ever a Church
felt the iron hand of a conqueror it was the Welsh Church
during the rule of Edward I and his Ai-chbishop Peckham,
and from this period the ascendency of the Latin church
is to be ascribed.
Another irregularity as to the Celtic clergy, from a
Latin point of view, was the means by which discipline
over them was maintained. This is a question that it is
most difficult to understand if seen from the Latin side. As
has been already stated, bishops in Wales existed from a
very early period, but they were monastic bishops. The
existence of Episeopaey does not necessarily imply the
existence of a diocese, still less of territorial jurisdiction.
If the view here put forward, that the clergy were a
monastic body, is the right one, the difficulty disappears,
for the clergy would be under the jurisdiction of the abbot
and the other monastic officials. Doubtless in some of the
distant colonies the discipline would be lax, as was the
case in the distant cells of the Latin monasteries, but
whatever was the result in practice, in theory the discipline
existed. It is well kno-wn that the Latin system was
based on a territorial division of the country, the unit
being the parish under the charge of a single priest. So
many parishes made up a rural deanery ; so many rural
deaneries an archdeaconry ; so many archdeaconries a
diocese. It is important to consider if any such system is
to be found in Wales before the Norman conquest, for, if
it existed, although this would not prove the monastic
theory to be wrong, yet it would go far to prove it was
only the exception, and that the Latin Church discipline
existed in Wales from a much earlier date than has been
assumed in these pages to be the case.
In the Dimetian Code, an archdeacon of Llandaff,

THE CLERGY. 309
Blegy-wryd, is mentioned.' He is said to have gone with
Hywel Da and the Welsh bishops to Rome, to Pope
Anastasius, to read over the laws, and that Blegywryd
composed some verses in Latin in honour of the event.
It must be admitted that the composition of verses on
such an occasion is what a Welsh bard would have done,
but it is probable they would have been in Welsh, not
Latin. Beyond the statement in the Dimetian Code, there
is nothing to show who Blegy-wi-yd was, or what was his
office. Nowhere else in the Welsh codes does the
mention of an archdeacon occur, nor are his duties in
any way defined. The passage looks suspicious ; being in
the Dimetian Code, it appears as if it was inserted there
to magnify Llandaff. No similar entry occurs in the
Liber Landavensis, nor is there in it any mention of an
archdeacon of Llandaff. No similar entry occurs in the
Gwentian Code. The dates as given, differ from the dates
given m the Brut y Tywysogion,' which makes the death of
Hywel Da 926, not 940, as here. Lumbert, bishop of
Meneria, who is said to have been present, is the mysterious
prelate whose episcopate is stated to have lasted seventy
years, and it is remarkable that bishops of Bangor
and St. Asaph are both said to be present, but no
bishop of Llandaff, and in place of the bishop the arch
deacon appears. According to the Liber Letndavensis,
there was a bishop of Llandaff, Cyfeiliawg, at the time.
But the difficulties do not rest here. Blegywryd is
described as being a doctor in the law of the emperor
and of the church {doctor ynghyfreith yr amhera6dyr
ac ynghyfreith yr egl6ys aed ef) ; it is most unlikely that a
Welsh scribe would be a doctor, whatever this may be,
in civil law. Again, the designation of archdeacon is
not given to Blegy-wryd in all the MSS. of the Dimetian
1 Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 342, 343. - Rolls ed., p. 21.

310 THE CLERGY.
Code. Ill a MS. in the Bodleian, he is merely called
"clericus doetorum". Whatever may be the true ex
planation, whether it is an interpolation, or whether it
was inserted to keep up the dignity of Llandaff, the
passage is of too doubtful a nature to enable an inference
to be safely drawn that an officer, called an arehdeae(.)n,
exercising territorial jurisdiction, existed in Wales in
the tenth century. It must also b(> remembered that
the eoile uses ecclesiastical titles very loosely; it speaks
of an archbishop of Menevia, when there was no such
person ; as, afterwards, it speaks of the bishop, thus
describing the same person, Lumbert, by the two titles,
bishop luid archbishop. It is the most probable explana
tion, that the copyist of the Dimetian Code was very
desirous of magnifying the glories of Menevia and under
rating Llandaff, so he spoke of the archbishop of the one,
and the arelideaeon of the other. What makes it still
more probable that no archdeacon in the Latin sense was
to be found, is the fact that the archdeacon was the
exeeutive officer of the bishop; in the tenth and eleventh
centuries the bishops of Llandaff' were most fond of
exercising criminal jurisdiction over Welsh princes, if
the records in the Book af Lhuidaff are to be trusted;
but yet there is no trace there of any such an official as an
archdeacon. One of the few dated charters in the Liber
Landavensis, one of 955,' relates a quarrel between a
deacon and a countryman named Merchiter, which ended
in the deaeon kiUing the countryman, and taking refuge
in a church. The friends of the countryman tried to
break open the church, and arrest the deacon. The
bishop forbade them doing it, as it was a crime ; they
persisted, and slew the deacon before the altar. On this
being reported to the bishoj), he sent, not to his official,
1 Book of Llandaff, 210.

THE CLERGY'. 311
the archdeacon, as he would have done if he had been
a Latin bishop, and had an archdeacon, not to his own
court, but to all the monasteries {monasteria) — the ex
pression is significant — of all the provinces in his diocese
subject to the church of Llandaff, to assemble the priests,
deacons, and clergy of aU degrees. A synod was held ;
the Welsh prince gave up the murderers, who were
imprisoned, and had to pay a fine and give lands to the
defiled church, and the offenders and their possessions
were handed over to the Llandaff monastery. The
-witnesses were the bishop, a priest, and a reader, and
eight others, probably monks. Although a Blegy-wi-yd is
mentioned in it, and eight others, probably monks, as they
are among the laity, no mention is made of any archdeacon ,
and it is hard to beUeve if such a functionary^ existed
why he did not appeal- on such an occasion. There is
also another point. In the charter, Bledcuirit, son of
Anion, is mentioned as " the celebrated Blegywryd ", and
he is said,' -with what truth is doubtful, to be the same
person as the writer of the laws. In the next charter,
among the laymen who are witnesses to it, occurs the
name of Blegywryd, the son of Anion. In the Myvyrian
Archaiology, he is called the chief assessor {peucyfeistedd)
at Llandaff. But whatever he may have been, he is
only called archdeacon in this one passage in the Dimetian.
Code ; wherever else he appears it is as a layman. And
even the Dimetian Code leads to the inference that, except
that an archdeacon must be in orders, Blegywryd was
a layman, as it is said that out of the assembly Hywel
selected twelve of the wisest laics to form the laws,
and the most learned scholar in all Cymru to write the
laws . . . and Blegywryd was the clerk. That no
archdeacon, in the Latin sense, existed in Wales before
1 Book of Llandaff, 209, and in 476, note 1.

312 THE CLERGY.
the Norman conquest, is, to a great extent admitted by
Archdeacon Bevan, who says that the office was due to
Bernard, the first Norman bishop of St. David's, or
rather, that there is eridence that it then existed.'
This may be so, but the point urged here is, that there
is no evidence of their existence before the time of
Bernard. Bevan also admits " that unless the term
archaffeiriad applies to rural deans, there is no evidence of
the existence of such officials. Even if it does mean
rural dean, which is most doubtful, it does not take the
office back before the time of Bernard, as the first arch
affeiriad met with is Jevan of Llanbadarn, who died 1136."
It therefore appears that two of the great items of the
Latin system of Church discipline, archdeacon and rural
dean, are wanting, and it is hard to see how the system
could be worked without them, as it was on them it
mainly rested.
The evidence as to the existence of the next stage in
the Latin system, the parish, is also most inconclusive ;
the question will be considered more fully in the next
chapter — here, it will suffice to state the conclusion of
Rees on the point ' : " The idea that parishes in Wales
were established by any general Act of ParUament can
never be maintained ; they existed in the times of Welsh
independency, when no Act of the EngUsh ParUament
could affect them. The Welsh annals record no ordinance
for these arrangements which, in the state of the country,
divided between contending princes, was absolutely
impossible." Without assenting to all the statements in
this passage, it may be admitted that the Celtic state of
Wales before the Norman conquest was such as to have
made any system of ecclesiastical organization or church
1 Diocesan History of St. Darid's, 64. ' Ihid.
^ Brut y Tymysocjion, Rolls ed., 160. ' Welsh Saints, 21.

'I'HE CLERGY. 313
government, such as prevailed in the Latin Church, an
impossibility-. The ecclesiastical dignitaries were unknown
to the Celts, and were brought into Wales in the trains of
the Norman conquerors. The church system of the Celts
was a series of monastic colonies, under the government
and control of the mother house, and the inmates of the
colonies were under the same authority and subject to the
same discipUne as the inmates of the mother house itself.
There was always difficulty in the application of this rule
in practice. Giraldus tells a story of a Benedictine monk
in a Welsh ceU of the Abbey of Gloucester, who, on being
recalled to the monastery and taken to serrice there in the
great abbey of St. Peter's, was so lost in wonder at what
the monks were doing that he could not beUeve he
belonged to the same body. It is probable that the story
would apply with equal truth and equal force to the
colonies of the early Celtic monasteries. It is by no
means clear who the archaffeiriad was, and what were his
duties ; the term is usually met with, not as describing an
officer having territorial powers or exercising territorial
jurisdiction, but in connection with some of the monastic
colonies, and it may well be that it designated the head of
the clergy who made up the colony, the local chief of the
tribe or sub-tribe of the saint. The term " arch", when
used by the Celts, has by no means the same meaning as
the term has in modern parlance. With us the term
"arch " implies pre-eminence, and so the rule of a superior
over subordinates, as archbishop and archdeacon. This
was also the Latin use of the word. But the Celt used the
term not to imply pre-eminence, but distinction, arch-priest
being a celebrated priest, the celebrity being personal, not
derived from any office or place, not a priest with any
jurisdiction or rule over others. Thus the term might be
applied to one man and would not be to his successors.

314 THE CLERGY.
David and Teilo in this sense were archbishops, but their
successors were not. An instance of this use of the word
is found in the well-known description of the Seven
Bishops' Houses {escobity). Menevia is described as
Eistedua arbenuic,' not, as is often said, tlie chief seat in
Wales, but a chief, in the sense of a noted or famous resi
dence in Wales. In the Leges Wallice the passage runs
" sedes principalis in Cambria".'
Among the Celtic clergy the highest positions were
those of the abbots of the -more important houses, such as
Menevia or Llandaff, but next to them the highest in rank
were not found among the clergy, but in the twenty-four
great officers (.>f the Court who were attendant on the king.
Of these, the first was the chief of the household {Penn-
teulu) ; the second was the priest of the household {offeiriat
teulu)." These seem to have represented the old tribal
chief and the tribal priest. The priest sat next the server
to bless the food and chaunt the pater,' probably a surrival
of the time when he had to perform magic rites. The
priest was the third ; this indispensable person was entitled
to food and clothing from the king, his lodgings were in
the house of the chaplain, and the scholars lodged with
him.' This passage seems to point to two things, (1) that
there was attached to the Court a kind of reUgious, it might
almost be said monastic, establishment, and that at the
head of this was the chief ecclesiastic about the Court.
The house of the chaplain, a tribesman, was the residence
of this personage. Probably this was a surrival of the time
when the Celtic chief was surroimded by the magicians and
sorcerers ; these the Christians had supplanted, and in
their place the king was, on becoming a Christian,
surrounded -with monks. As Pagans, their duty had been
^ A-ncient Laws, i, 557. ' Ibid., ii, 790. ' Ibid., i, 845.
* Ibid., i, 11. ' Ibid., i, 17.

THE CLERGY. 315
by their magic arts t(_) ward off danger from the king ; as
Christians, it was the same, but the means used were
different. When Pagans, the kings were protected by
magic ; when Christians, by prayer. The former was done
by the Druid, the latter by the king's chaplain. The
monks took the place of the Druids, and probably with the
place many of the customs and observances. The position
the priest of the household held was peculiar. For nearly
all other persons the payment they would receive on being
injured was fixed by law, but in this case it was fixed on
each occasion by the synod.' In most cases a man knew,
or could easily ascertain, what he would have to pay for
an act of violence, but in the case of the priest of the
household it had to be fixed by ecclesiastics for an
ecclesiastic. As head of the royal monastic colony he was
practicaUy the royal chaplain, and independent of all con
trol. He was entitled to a third of the king's tithes, and
the third was not confined to tithes, but extended to every
thing pertaining to the Com-t, and could be taken from all
persons. The king's chaplain was entitled to claim a third
of everjrthing the people about the Court received. Probably
this was, in its origin, the payment for the magic charms
and arts of the Druid ; when the Court became Christian,
the Druid's successor claimed the same payment for doing
the same work, although he used other means to do it.
Another relic of the tribal idea is to be found in the
rights of the priest of the household. All the chapels of
the king were, or had been, served by monks, that is, the
inonks about the king's court. They were under the
control, not of the king, but of the head of their o-wn
tribe, the priest of the household, and it was prorided that
"the bishop was not to present any one to the king's
chapels without the permission of the priest of the house-
' ^indent Laws of Wales, i, 19.

316 THE CLEE(iY.
hold, except by the advice of the king ".' That is, that
according to the Celtic idea, the bishop had no right to
interfere in the monastery attached to the Court, and if he
tried to do so it was only possible with the direct sanction
of the king. As successor of the heathen priests, as chief
of the tribe of the saint, as head of the roy-dl monastery,
the priest of the household was in a position of great
influence and importance. But it seems that his juris
diction was only over his own monks, and did not extend
further — he had no authority outside his own religious
establishinent ; there, hewas supreme. His power was all
monastic ; there was nothing personal connected -with it.
He was not the only great ecclesiastic at Court, for next to
the head of the king's monks eaiiie the queen's priest of
the household, but he was probably only an official of the
Court monast(_jry, for it is said in the code that his lodgings
were to be with the king's priest, in the house of the
chaplain." Here, again, is another instance of the survival
of the old idea. All the priests inthe Royal monastery are
only the Druids under another name, performing the old
duties but practising new nioiles of doing them.
This survival of the old idea is a good illustration of
what Celtic Christianity really was, and how it operated ;
only the name and mode of working were altered, not the
position occupied by the priests.
It may be imagined, from what has been stated, that the
Celtic clergy were by no means a class of which the Celtic
Church had reason to be proud, but this would hardly be
doing them justice. It is probable that the}- were no
better nor no worse than other clergy of those times.
Doubtless their discipUne was lax. In the absence of a
strong central authority it was impossible for it to be
other-wise ; but passing over the question of discipline it
' J ncicnt Laws if Wales, i, 19. ^ Ibid., 53.

THE CLERGY. 317
does not seem that the Celtic clergy were any worse than
their neighbours. Gildas, it is true, paints them in very
black colours, but it is obrious that Gildas wrote for effect,
and did not hesitate to use strong language, if he thought
that such use in any way enhanced the beauty of his book.
If the text of the canons was taken as a description of the
Welsh clergy it would seem that they were ignorant of no
form of rice, but to do this would be as unfair as to say,
after reading our criminal law, what a wicked people the
EngUsh must be, as they practised such a terrible series of
offences as are thereby made punishable.
What we find as to the Celtic clergy is, that there were
groups of ecclesiastics, varying in number according to
special circumstances, who transacted the business of
religion as if it belonged to them, and to them alone.
They were not subject to very severe discipline ; their
system did not admit of it ; they did not work very energeti
cally, as there was no need for them to do so. What
they did do was to carry on the religious rites of the tribe
which had been previously done by the Pagan priests,
altered and modified, so far as was necessary to carry out
the change from Paganism to Christianity, and no further.
All bodies of men, when the system under which they live
has become crystallized, are not usually capable of very
great sacrifice, and this was the condition of the Celtic
clergy. Theu- place in the state or tribe being fixed by
their birth, they had no reason for exertion ; members of
the tribe of the Saint, they were entitled, as of right, to
share in the property of the tribe, which, Uke the property
of the lay tribe, was held in common. If they were
destined for greatness it would come to them, if not, they
would not by their o-wn efforts attain to it. To us, the
worst part of their organization was the position of the
women : to our ideas, the relations of the Celtic clergy

31«

THE CLERGY.

-with women were very immoral and very bad. They did
not think so. With them marriage was not, and had never
been, regarded as a necessary ceremony. Among no Celtic
nation has personal purity ever been considered an
essential virtue. The difference in the right to succession
of the legitimate and illegitimate children of a tribesman
was but slight, when the parents were members of the
same tribe ; it was only when to illegitimacy was added
the fact that the child was the offspring of a non-tribes
man that difficulties arose. It is not fair to apply to a
primitive people our modern ideas on morality, even if,
when all is told, our morality is in fact superior to
theirs. Whether the eft'ect of the Celtic customs was, or
was not, for the good of the country, is a point on which it
is unsafe to dogmatize, and upon which opinions may well
diff'er. But their customs must be taken into account
when an attempt is made to consider what the Welsh
clergy were in fact. The strength of a church is its clergy,
and, at the first blush, it seems hard to see how the Celtic
clergy, if the description given of them is accurate,
could be a source of strength to any people. Yet it is as
clear as any^ historical fact can be that this very clergy
formed one of the chief obstacles in the struggle against
Rome, and were the chief impediment to Roman conquests.
The strength of the clergy lay, not in their piety, not in
their religious work, not in their holy Uves, but in the fact
that they represented, and faithfully represented, the
tribal system which was irrevocably bound up in the
Welsh idea of Christianity — a monastic church with
monastic settlements all over the country, representing
the tribe of the Saint, continuing the traditions, practising
the rites, believing- the beliefs, and performing the
ceremonies of their ancestral faith and paternal habits.
It was not that the clergy changed or reformed the

THE CLERGY. 319
religious system, they only modified it just as much and
no more than was necessary to meet the changed state
of things, and suit the popular wants. Never has there
been so intensely national a church, and never has a
church been more ready than the Celtic to make itself
national. If a high opinion of the clergy is not formed,
it must be borne in mind that they had but little
opportunitj- of showing what they could do, beyond the
fact of their unswerring loyalty to a system which they
maintained for some centuries, and which required the
use of all the power of the Latin Church to conquer, even
if it can be truly said that she ever really conquered the
Celtic Church.

CHAPTER YII.
CHURCHES,

The difference between the Latin and the Celtic systems
of religious organization is brought into strong relief
when the rules that apply to the different classes of
churches are considered. To the Latin, the country was
parcelled out into a series of divisions of irregular size,
to each of which a church was attached, and to which
church all the inhabitants of the district belonged.
This division, the parish, was the unit of the ecclesiastical
organization of the country, and by far the greater
number of the churches in countries where the Latin
rule held, or holds, sway, are parish churches. It is
true, other chiu-ches existed, such as cathedrals, coUegiate
churches, the chapels to great institutions, and also
chapels subordinate to the churches, but all these were
the exception ; the rule was, that a church was the church
of some territorial area, the parish to which all the
parishioners belonged, and to which, as of right, they
had the power to go, and from which they could
only be excluded by the sentence of some competent
court. The Latin theory was that every place, except
the few extra-parochial places, was in some parish,
that every man was a parishioner of some parish, and
had, as such, a right to attend the parish church, to
have the benefit of its serrices and the ministrations of
its priests. The Celtic idea was quite different; they
knew nothing of territorial dirisions, nothing of the

CHURCHES. 321
necessity for each individual to belong to some church.
Their notion was not that the country was parcelled out
into ecclesiastical or other divisions, but that it was part
of the territory of the different tribes ; each tribe had its
two divisions, the tribe of the land, and the tribe of the
Saint. On its share of the tribal land, the tribe of the
Saint erectedthe necessary buildings ; one of which was a
church to which all the members of the tribe of the
Saint could attend, not because they dwelt within a
limited area, but because they were members of the tribe,
and so had all the rights of the tribe. The distinction
so often pointed out in these pages, that the basis of
Latin Christianity was territorial, the basis of the Celtic
Christianity was tribal, fully accounts for this divergence
of view. The difference of ideas naturally led to conflicts,
and the absence of parishes may well have been one of
the causes that enabled the confiict between the two
churches to be so stubbornly fought out.
One of the great principles of the parochial system was
that whatever was the size of the parish, whether large or
small, whatever was its position or importance, inter se,
all parishes were equal. It might be that one parish was,
for some special reason, of more importance than its
neighbour, but this did not in law affect it. The legal
idea was that all parishes were equal. The ideas that
prevailed in the Celtic Church were very different ; there
was no notion of equality ; all the churches were colonies
of some one of the great monasteries, and their importance
and rank varied — first in respect of the importance of the
monastery of which they were colonies, next, in respect of
the position the church occupied in the tribe of the Saint.
The dirision into parishes came later, certainly not before
the Norman conquest ; indeed, it is very doubtful if it was
completely estabUshed in Wales until the legislation of
Y

CHFRCHES.

Henry VIII. The churches were all the offshoots of,
or dependants upon, some monastery, which was the
mother ehurch of its offshoots or colonies, the head of
which, the abliot, was the chief of the tribe of the Saint.
All chui-ches were settlements, or colonies, from some one
of the monasteries, and belonged to the monastery in the
sense that they were offshoots from it, a^id were originally
served by a group of inonks belonging to it. It is in
this sense that they are said to be churches of the Saint
who had been the founder of, or the head of the monastery.
It was not that the churches were dedicated to any
particular saint, dedication, in the modern sense of the
term, was not then known to the Celtic Church. It was
not that the builder of the church selected the saint under
whose tutelage he desired it should be placed, it was
that the land on which the churches were built, had been
acquired by bands of missionary inonks, belonging to the
original monastery, on behalf of the monastery ; it
belonged to it, and so, when on that land a church was
built, the church was called after the monastery to which
the land had been granted, or after some of the saints
of the monastery. Thus the Teilo churches were aU
built on land which had been granted, or which was
alleged to have been granted, to the monastery of
Llandaff ; the Dewi churches on lands that belonged to,
or were claimed by, the monastery of St. Darid's. H a
church was called by the name of a saint, it did not imply,
as has been assumed, that the saint had founded it, or
that it was dedicated to him by the founder. It merely
implied that the church was built on land that had
become by grant or other-wise the property of the
monastery to which the saint belonged. If eridence is
required of this, the Book of Llandaff gives abundant
proof. The charters that are contained in it, and which

CHURCHES. 323
are there inserted to prove the title of the monastery of
Teilo to its colonies, almost invariably record, not the
buUding of a church and its dedication to St. Teilo,
but the grant of land to the monastery of Llandaff. The
church came afterwards, and was called after the name of
the saint of the monastery. Whether the charters in the
Book of Llandaff are genuine or not is of little moment
for this purpose ; their importance is that they show the
form the gifts of lands to monasteries took. Haring
acquired the land, the monastery proceeded to colonize it,
and it was then that churches were built, and were called
by the name of the saint of the monastery to prove that
the land was part of the possessions of the monastery.
This is proved by a fact that caused some difficulty to the
older school of Welsh antiquaries. David is now said to
be the national saint of Wales : yet in the whole of North
Wales there is not a single church or chapel built before
the beginning of this century that is called after him. In
the modern diocese of Llandaff there are only eight of his
churches, and three in the diocese of Hereford, while in
the diocese of St. David's there are no less than forty-two.
To any one considering these figures it would seem that so
far from Darid being the national saint of Wales he was
reaUy the saint of the diocese of St. Darid's. AUo-wing
for the changes of boundaries that have been made from
time to time in the St. David's diocese, it seems likely
that originally nearly all the churches that bore the name
of David were in the diocese of St. Darid's. How, then, is
it that the churches that bear the name of the national
saint are only to be found in this one part of Wales ?
The answer to this question is obrious, if the monastic
Yiew is adopted. Grants of land to the St. Darid's
monastery were only given to the monks from that
monastery who made the colony, in places where the tribe
Y 2

324 CHURCHES.
of the land were either the descendants of Ceredig or
connected with them, or under their influence. Thus, the
Dimetise would, speaking roughly, be found in the area
now included in the diocese of St. David's ; so in this area
David churches would be expected, and here it is, and
here alone, that David churches are found. As the
Menevian missionaries did not work outside these limits,
confining themselves to tribes either of their own blood,
or who were on friendly terms with them, Dewi churches
would not be found beyond these limits. The range of
Dewi churches is, therefore, coterminous -with the mis
sionary labours of the St. David's monks. This is what
we find to be the case, and the monastic theory furnishes
the only reasonable solution of the difficulty.
Other solutions have been offered. Rees ' says of the
Dewi churches that their foundation " is popularly
ascribed to David himself", but this is a view which he
does not consider can be accepted in its entirety ; only
that the more important of the churches were so,
while the chapels dependent on them were not actually
founded by the saint whose name they bear," but
were dedicated to the memory of the saint. Arch
deacon Bevan states the fact that there are no churches
dedicated to David in North Wales, and says, " It is
difficult to account for this on any other ground than that
the intercourse between the two divisions was very
restricted, but whether this restriction was due to tribal
or to geographical conditions we are unable to say ". "
This does not do much to meet the difficulty, and it is hard
to suggest any view, besides that of the monastic colonies,
that really deals satisfactorily with the point. It is quite
true that objections can be raised to this view, but the
' Welsh Saints, p. 45. ¦ Ibid., p. 56.
' Diocesan Hisiory of St. David's, p. 24.

CHURCHES. -VSi)
objections are fewer than to any other solution. That
David or Teilo personally founded the churches that bear
their names seems very unlikely. It is hard to prove a
negative, but if churches founded by TeUo had existed on
any of the lands that were subsequently granted to the
monastery of Llandaff by the native chiefs, it is very
difficult to believe that no mention would have been made
of them in some of the charters in the Liber Landavensis.
If one thing is more clear than another, it is that no
church existed on those lands when granted, as, although
aU kinds and descriptions of property are mentioned,
churches are not ; and, if a church had existed, it is difficult
to see how, in a grant, especially a grant to a monastery,
what was the chief building on the land should be per
sistently ignored. It is therefore but fair to assume that
no church existed on the land at the time the grant was
made, and the majority of the grants are subsequent in
date to the times of David or Teilo. It therefore follows
that if, on any of the lands so granted, either Dewi or
Teilo churches are found, as is the case, such churches
could not have been founded by either of those saints, and
it haring thus been established that churches called after
the saints were not founded by them, the argument of the
personal founding of the churches is shown to be
fallacious, and some other explanation must be sought for
as the reason for the churches being called after the saint.
As has been pointed out, that explanation is one of the
difficulties in Welsh Church history, and it is suggested
that it is most correctly and satisfactorily explained by
the view here put forward, that the churches were colonies
from the great monasteries, and were called by the name
of the great saint of the monastery, or some saint of his
family, to show that they belonged to the monastery. In
support of this view may be cited a poem of the twelfth

326

CHURCHES.

century by Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, composed in honour of
Darid.' It sets out the possessions of the saint, repre
senting him as the o-wner of some twenty churches. It
does not point to any other connection but that of actual
ownership by the saint.
" Dewi the Great of iMenevia, the wise sage.
And Dewi of Brefi near the plains,
.\nd Dewi is the owner ot the superb church of Cyfflaoh,
Where there is joy and great piety,
.\n(l Dewi owns the choir that is at Meidrym.''
Or in Welsh, ' Dewi mawr Mynyw syw Sywedydd
A Dewi Brefi gu ei broydil,
A Dewi bieu balch Ian Gyfelach,
Tli mae morach a mawr grefydd,
A Dewi bieu Bangeibyr y sydd
Meiili-ym, le a'i mynwent i luossydd.'"
Thus it will be seen, in the twelfth century the idea put
forward was not dedication, but actual ownership, some
thing far more than dedication. If the name of the saint
is read as meaning the monastery, it would be difficult to
find stronger evidence to show that the Dewi churches
were regarded as the property, the actual possessions, of
the St. David's monastery.
It is pointed out -with great ingenuity by Rees that the
De-wi churches do not lie scattered about the country, but
are found in groups, a point that also goes to strengthen
the theory of there being monastic colonies. On a grant
of land being obtained, a band of monks were sent out,
and a church founded, and if, either from the number of
peoj)le, or from any other reason, more than one church
was necessary, it would, almost as of coui-se, be built.
The groups seem to represent what were then considered
the needs of the district which had become monastic
' Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 48, quoting from Welsh .Ircha'wlogy, i, 270

CHURCHES. 327
property. If the churches had been erected in honour
of David, they would naturally have been found scattered
aU over the district, but the remarkable fact is, that the
churches are not so scattered, but are grouped in different
localities. There is another peculiarity that goes to
support the argument. Not only are there a number of
churches dedicated to David, but also a number of chapels
dependent on the different churches, and if the church is
known by the name of a saint, the same saint's name is
usually given to the chapels. Rees points out that only
one of the chapels bearing the name of David is subject
to a church that does not also bear his name, and that
exception, Little Dewchurch, is in the diocese of Hereford,
not in the limit of Wales of the present day. It there
fore follows that it is fairly clear that the chapels were
called after the name of the saint of the church on which
they were dependent, that is, that they were colonies from
the settlements made by the monks on the property of the
monastery of which the church formed part. If, there
fore, the rule holds with regard to the offshoots from the
colony, it is difficult to see why it should not also hold
with regard to the colony itself. Exactly the same
process was gone through in establishing the chapelries
as has been gone through in establishing the churches ;
and if the result of the one was, that the chapels were
caUed after the churches, the result of the other most
probably was, that the churches were called after the
monasteries from which they were colonies, and to which
they owed their existence.
This view explains fully why it was that the Dewi
churches did not practically extend beyond south-west
Wales ; and, when regarded from this standpoint, it was
not to be expected that they should, for no monastic
colonies from Menevia would be sent outside the

328 CHURCHES.
district to which the influence of that monastery
extended. As the national saint of Wales, David had
then no existence ; but in south-west Wales, as the head of
the great monastery of the sons of Cunedda, he was most
powerful, and, vrithin the sphere of that influence,
colonies rose and flourished, and -with colonies, David
churches, and with churches, David chapels. Against
this view Ai-chdeacon Bevan and others urge that dedica
tions, in our sense of the term, were, even at that early date,
known in Wales, and in proof of this are cited the case of
churches such as Merthyr Tydvil and Merthyr Cynog,
both called after martyrs, and both implying dedication
to such martyrs. The answer is obvious ; there is no
evidence as to when the churches were first called after
the martyrs ; it well may be not until a time when the
dedication to saints had become common. One fact
seems clear, that the dedication, in the modern sense of
the term, to saints, is of much later date than the churches
being called after native saints ; that is, that the churches
called Dewi or Teilo churches are earUer in date than
the churches called after the Virgin, or St. Michael,
and that they show the existence of two very different
sets of ideas. The Darid and Teilo churches mark the
first stage in the evangelization of the country by mis
sionary colonies from the monastery. Here, there was no
idea of placing the church under the protection of any
saint, only of showing to which of the Welsh monasteries
the church and its surroundings belonged, and from which
they were derived. Later came the idea, the very im
portant idea, that the Church should be under the
protection of some special saint, and when that idea
became prevalent, then, and not till then, dedications
began. Probably after the Norman conquest the dedica
tion of the churches became usual. Both the South

CHURCHES. 329
Wales cathedrals underwent the process of dedication
to Latin saints. The cathedral of St. David's was
dedicated to St. Andi-ew, and after David was canonized
in 1121, it was, or had been previously, dedicated to him
and to St. Andrew,' and in J 120, the cathedral at
Llandaff was dedicated to St. Peter." The process that
was applied to the cathedrals was also applied to the
other churches. In 1155, it is recorded in the Brut y
Tywysagia)i,'' that a church at Meifod, in the diocese of
St. Asaph, was dedicated to St. Mary. " It was not long
after that, before the church of St. Mary was dedicated
{gyssegricyt, this is sometimes translated " consecrated") at
Meifod."^ Had the fact of the dedication to Latin
saints been usual at that time, it is not likely that the
chronicler would have thought it necessary to record it.
In the Annales Cambrice, a much earlier instance, in 718, is
recorded of the dedication of a church to St. Michael."
This date may therefore be taken as the time when dedica
tions began, and the history of the Welsh churches would
run in the following order : Groups of churches called
after the different monasteries from which directly they
sprang ; e.g., the Dewi and Teilo churches, and all the
churches called after Welsh monasteries, and belonging
to them. These will comprise a considerable number of
the churches that bear the names of native saints.
With regard to the Dewi churches, they seem to divide
into two classes : what may be called grouped or associated
churches, called Dewi, as being colonies of the monastery ;
and isolated Dewi churches, so dedicated to David after he
had become, by his canonization, the only recognized
1 Annales Cambricc, Rolls ed., p. 39, sub an. 1131.
-^ Liber Landavensis, p. 83, See also Browne Willis, p. 163, who
mentions St. Peter and St. Paul.
3 Rolls ed., p. 185. ' Rolls ed., p. 185. ' Rolls ed., p. 9.

330

OHURCHES.

Welsh saint, and hence the national saint of Wales. The
churches that bear the names of native monastic saints
would represent the earUest churches in the country,
and give some idea of the extent to which Christianity
permeated the country. Then came a second group,
dedicated churches, and these may be divided into three
great classes — the Michael churches, the Mary churches,
and other saints. It may well be that the two entries,
the one from the Annnles Camhriee, the other from
the PiTut y Tywysogion, as to the Michael and Mary
churches, should not be pushed too far, but still it is not
unfair to use them as marking the fact that the Michael
churches represent the earliest form of dedicated churches.
This seems to be generally admitted, and the question is
asked. Why should it be so ? Why should so many
churches dedicated to St. Michael appear in Wales?
Archdeacon Bevan makes two guesses as to the reason of
Michael's popularity. (1) An association of St. Michael
with hills ; (2) that something appealed to Welsh senti
ment in the significance of the dedication as a symbol of
the victorious progress of the church.' It may well be
that there was another reason. All Celtic people believed
greatly in the spirits and powers of darkness. Michael
was the saint who, according to Scripture, conquered the
spirits of evil, and, as such saint, he would be especiaUy
venerated at those places where the evil spirits were
subdued. Certain spots which had been sacred to the eril
spirits had, by the Christian monks, relying, amongst
other things, on the power of Michael, been won over
from the evil spirits, and on such spots, where the powers
of light triumphed over the powers of darkness, a church
was built, and to celebrate the rictory the monks had
obtained by aid of the victorious saint, the church was
' Diocesan History of St . David's, p. 36.

CHURCHES. 331
called after him ; hence, the Michael churches, which
would represent old Pagan places of worship which the
Christian monks converted into Christian sites for
religious worship. Probably, while the churches called
after the saint of the monastery were the oldest, the
Michael churches came next, and this explains how it was
that churches were called after Michael so early as the
beginning of the eighth centm-y. This would complete
the Ust of Celtic churches before the Norman conquest :
(1) Churches called after the name of the saint who was
the chief saint of the monastery, from which the
daughter churches owed their origin ; (2) churches
called after the name of some saint who belonged
to the family of the chief saint of the monastery ; and
(3) churches called after St. Michael to celebrate the
rictory of the Celtic monks over the powers of darkness.
Into one or other of these categories all the churches that
were caUed by the name of any saint must have fallen.
So things went on until the Norman conquest, when the
Norman bishops and the Norman clergy introduced a new
state of things. The old names were changed, and the
churches dedicated to Latin saints, and thus originated
the great group of churches dedicated to the Virgin. These
Llanfair churches, which form the largest group of this
class, probably mark the introduction of a new movement
— a further attempt to do away -with Celtic ideas and to
introduce the Latin system. It is most likely the case
that most of the Welsh churches had never been dedicated
at all, that is, in the sense of being placed under the
protection of some special saint, who was supposed to be
the tutelary saint of the place. Invocation of saints was
not a matter to which the Celtic Church attached much
importance, and they do not seem to have dedicated their
churches in the Latin way. When the Latin endeavoured

•j-j.: CHUuc'HEs.
to establish his ascendancy, one of the means of stamping-
out the Celtic faith was the abolition of Celtic, and the
introduction of Latin saints. A similar state of things
had taken place in England ; the Saxons complained
bitterly, after the conquest, that the Normans refused
to recognize the Saxon saints, aud denied that they were
saints at all, substituting the Latin saints for them, and
this process was repeated in Wales. It formed a part of
the system by w-hich it was sought to eradicate the Celtic
faith and establish the Latin.
It is important to bear these three sets of names for
churches in mind, as they point to three distinct ecelesi-
astical movements in Wales. First, the churches that
were the monastic colonies, which dated from the earliest
times t(j the eighth century ; then the churches where
the victory of the Christians, by aid of St. Michael, over
the Pagan forces of evil, were celebrated, the Llanfihangel
churches, a group that extended from the eighth to the
el(wenth century ; then, in the twelfth century, the in
troduction of Latin saints, and the dedication of chm-ches
to the Virgin — the Llanfair churches.
One peeuliarity as to the Mary churches, and one which
bears out the view already stated, is, that a number of the
Mary churches are chapels to churches called by the
names of Welsh saints, that is, to older churches.
Apparently the process was to dedicate a chapel, leaving
the mother church untouched, this still bore the name of
the monastery from which the colony sprang ; while the
chapels, it may be for distinction, it may be because there
would be less opposition in their case, were called by the
names of Latin saints. As the mother church would
precede the chapel in date, it foUows the monastic colony
retained its name in spite of the change, but that the
offshoots of the colony, the newer churches, were appro-

CHURCHES. 333
priated by the Latins, and called by the names of Latin
saints. It is pointed out by Rees ' that the Mary churches
are more numerous in that part of Wales which was
occupied by foreigners, and other churches more numerous
in that part where the Welsh held their own. For
instance, in Pembrokeshire, which was a Flemish colony,
the Mary churches are unusually numerous, some twenty-
nine out of one hundred and twenty-three. While in the
two Welsh districts of Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire
there are only five and six respectively, the five in
Carmarthenshire being all chapels to churches bearing
the names of Welsh saints, except Talley, which was a
Michael church; while in Cardiganshire, out of the six,
two are chapels to churches called after Welsh saints.
Many of the Mary churches are also in to-wns which,
as a rule, owe their origin to the Latin conquerors ;
others are near Norman castles, and others, churches
to Cistercian monasteries. It therefore seems to follow
that the introduction of the Mary churches was, as has
been stated, an attempt of the Latins to get rid of the
local saints by whose names the churches were called.
There is another feature to be noticed. The churches
that formed the monastic colonies seem, from an early
date, although kno-wn as churches of the monastery, to
have also been, for the purpose of distinction or otherwise,
caUed by the names of some other saints. This is clear
from a passage in the " Griefs " of Rhys Vychan, who
-wrote in the reign of Edward T ; speaking of the church
of Llangadoc, he says : " "In the church of David which
is caUed Llangadoc ", thereby showing that the ehurch was
a settlement from the Menerian monastery, but for some
local reason it was called after Cadoc ; but this did not
alter the proprietary right, it was still a church of the
' Welsh Saints, p. 33. " Cited by Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 50.

334

CHURCHES.

monastery of St. David's, though it was called the church
of Cadoc. Probably a similar reason led to others of the
colonies of the St. David's monastery^ being called by the
names of other saints.
The fact that it is probable that the date of the
different churches may, to some extent, be seen by
reason of the names they bear— the order being, Welsh
saints, dedication to St. Michael, dedication to the
Virgin, dedication to other Latin saints — gives rise to
the next point, the different meanings of the different
Welsh words that are usually translated " church " ; do
these words in any way bear out the conclusion above
stated as to the dates of the churches ? To some extent
it will be found they do. The word "church", has, in
Welsh, three, if not four, equivalents, that is, three or
four words are translated church ; the first, and most
common, is " llan ". Out of the churches and chapels
mentioned by Rees as existing in Wales, no less than five
hundred and twenty are called llan. Newell, speaking of
them, says:' " Many of these have other and more
generally used EngUsh names, and some are now extinct ;
all these mark the site of an old church, and in many of
the places named, the second part of the word indicates
the saint or saints who are the reputed founders." The
last statement as to the founders has already been dealt
with ; it was not the founder, but the house from which
the church sprang, and to which the church belonged, that
gave it its name. The llan probably denotes the earliest
form of ecclesiastical settlement, the monastic colony,
sent out by the monastery to take possession of and
civilize the district which they had obtained from some
local chief as the price of their forgiveness for his sins.
In its original meaning the llan denotes the enclosure
' History of Welsh Church, p. 146.

CHURCHES. 335
surrounded by a wall or banks, the same as the Irish
rath. Its primary meaning is the enclosure, the fortified
enclosure, which contained the settlement. The churches
that are called llan, therefore, represent the early settle
ments from the monasteries. Archdeacon Bevan, it is
true, tries to make out a connection between llan,' which
he calls the sacred enclosure, and planum, ground prepared
for a cemetery ; but this is rather to narrow the use of
the word llan ; it was, primarily, any fortified enclosure ;
then, as the church and churchyard often represented
an inner enclosure in the settlement, it was appUed to them
as the most important form of enclosure, and so, at last,
meant the church. If the view that the llan is the oldest
form of church is correct, it should follow that the majority
of the Hans represented the property of the Celtic religious
houses, that is, are called after the saints who were the
great saints of the religious houses. Archdeacon Bevan
says ' that there are one hundred and sixty primary
churches in the diocese of St. David's, and nearly half
are associated with Welsh saints, — twenty-three to David,
four to Padarn, five to Cynllo, four to Fraed, ten to
Teilo, six to Brynach, five to Cynog, six to Ishmael, and
four to Hltyd. All these saints are connected with some
one or other of the South Wales monasteries, and almost
all the churches that are associated with their names are
caUed " llan". Taking the diocese of St. David's, it would
therefore appear that the monastic colonies called by the
names of the monastic saints, have all traces of their
origin — the fortified rillage — in their names ; and all go
to prove that the term llan, coupled with the name of a
native saint, represent the monastic colonies, the early
Christian settlements.
The group of Michael churches, of which there are some
1 Diocesan History of St. David's, p. 14. " Ibid., p. 36.

336

CHURCHES.

forty-five in the diocese of St. David's, form the next in
point of time, and mark the spread of Christianity. The
village, the Ila n, would probably be a village belonging to
the lay tribe, and after much preaching and praying
the missionaries got a footing in it. The village was
not granted to the monastery, and so did not become
part of the possessions of the monasterj^, and was not
entitled to be called by the name of the saint of the mon
astery as one of the monastic villages. It had been, by aid
of St. Michael, won over from heathendom to Christianity ;
so, to celebrate the saint's victory, it was called by his name.
The group of Michael churches would therefore repre
sent the villages of the lay tribe that had become Christian,
but which still belonged to the lay tribe, and so could
not be called -by the name of the Saint, or the tribe of
the Saint, or of his family. They thus form a group
which marks the spread of Christianity. It was no
longer confined to the lands owned by the monastery, it
extended to lands owned also by the lay tribe. This view
is borne out by an observation of Archdeacon Sevan's,'
that all the Michael churches in the diocese of St. David's,
with one exception, are in the country districts, that is,
away from the influence of monasteries. Had they been
nearer the monastery, probably the pressure brought to
bear would have made the lay tribe grant the church to
the tribe of the Saint, but, being away in the country, the
monastery did not require the land ; the vUlage had
become Christian, what was it to be called ? Some term,
other than that of ownership had to be found, and the
term selected was one that would celebrate the victory of
the cross over the Pagan.
The Mary churches mark a new phase in the same
process ; they denote the rise of the Latin infiuence, and
^ Diocesan History of St. David's, p. 36.

CHURCHES. 337
show the places that submitted to the Latin rule. The
villages and to-wns, where the Latin Church was victorious
in ousting the Welsh, were, on account of the victory,
dedicated by the Latins to St. Mary, dedicated in the
modern sense of the term ; the Mary dedications super
seded the old nomenclature, and proclaimed the path of
the victorious rival church. The history of the llan as
a place name, is, therefore, most instructive in Welsh
history; first, the rillage, the enclosure, the fortress,
which the monastic colony formed against the wild tribes ;
then, the great enclosure, the church called by the name
of the saint, or saints, of the monastery to which the
missionaries belonged — this identifies the locality of the
monastic colonies ; then the villages that did not belong
to the monastery, but professed Christianity, and which,
to celebrate the victory of the faith, were called after the
saint by whose aid the victory was won ; and, lastly, the
rillages where, for different causes, the Latin, the hated
Latin, was able to estabUsh himself, and get rid of the
monastic colony, the native saint, and all connection with
the Celtic Church. The term, llan, therefore remains a
-witness of the struggle, first, with the fears of the Welsh
princes, then -with the Welsh Pagans, and, lastly, with the
Latin Church. Such would seem to be the story of the
llan groups of churches.
The next term usually translated church is eglwys, a
term which Archdeacon Bevan says ' is the Welsh form
of ecclesia, the generic term for the primary churches.
To a person who holds to the riew that all Welsh Christi
anity is Latin, this would of course be so, but to those
who believe in the Celtic origin of the Welsh churches,
eglwys has a very different meaning ; it points to a class
of church that was set up as the rival of the Celtic llan.
' Diocesan History of St. David's, p. 37.

338

CHURCHES.

The group of places called llan mark the primary Celtic
church, the eglwys marks the group of churches that
the Latins brought in. When the Latin was able to get
hold of an existing church, he dedicated it to the Virgin,
and it became one of the Llanfair groups ; when he had
to introduce a new church in the district, he called it by
his o-wn name, ecclesia, which became corrupted into
eejlivys. So the churches called eglwys represent a later
class than the llan group ; the llan representing a
settlement both ecclesiastical and civil, the eglwys, the
estabUshment of a church and nothing more. This view
is borne out if the dedication of the churches styled
eglwys is examined. In most instances, such churches
are dedicated, not to Celtic, but to Latin saints. It is
true that in some cases they may mark, not the buUding
of a new church, but the re-building of an old one ; still,
in one form or another, the group of churches styled
eglwys show the efforts of the Latin to get a hold on
Wales, and are a further development of that policy, of
which the Llanfair churches were the beginning. Com
pared with the llan, the eglwys are but a very Umited
group. If Rees' list of churches is taken, it will be found
that the total number of places called eejlwys is but
seven, and that these occur only in four out of the twelve
counties, and that, in the great Welsh district of Cardigan-
sfiire there are none, while in Glamorganshire there are
but two, and in Carmarthenshire one.
It can, therefore, be said of the eglwys groups that,
although doubtless eglwys is the Welsh form of ecclesia,
and the churches called eglwys axe primary churches, yet
the eglwys churches do not represent in any way the
original churches of Wales, and that the use of the term
was probably to designate the churches either originaUy
built by the Latins, oi rebuilt by them, as opposed to the
older churches, the llan.

CHURCHES. 339
The chapels in Celtic settlements, or secondary churches,
are a much more difficult matter than the primary
churches. No theory has yet been put forward that
satisfactorily clears up all the difficulties of the matter.
Several words are used to distinguish these churches, and
the difficulty is, to say, with any degree of accuracy, what
are the distinctions between the different kinds of secondary
churches — chapelries, as we should call them. There are
three Welsh terms translated chapel — the familiar form
capel, the less known bettws, and the term capel bettws,
which combines the two. What was the precise distinction
between capel and bettws, is one of the points on which no
two writers agree. Bevan says,' "the term capel, in Latin
capella, which originated in France to describe the
building in which the little cope of St. Martin was kept in
the palace of the Merovingian kings, and was thence
extended to any small church. The capella occasionally
attained some of the privileges of the mother church,
particularly that of baptism, in which case it was termed
capella baptismalis, a class of building which occupied an
intermediate position between the capella proper, and the
ecclesia, or mother church." He then goes on to suggest
that bettws, or capel bettws, means a chapel having the
right of baptism; and so defines the terms, the mother
church, ecclesia, the chapel, capel, the baptismal chapel,
bettws, or capel bettws. Ingenious as this theory is, it has
really no evidence on which to rest. It may be granted
that some of the bettws churches were places in which
baptism was celebrated, and some were not ; it may also
be granted that far more of the bettws buildings have
survived than the capel buildings, that some of the bettws
buildings are now independent churches ; but when all
this has been conceded, the solution as to what was the
1 Diocesan History of St. Dav'id's, p. 38.

340

CHURCHES.

precise distinction between the llan, the hettirs. and the
capel, seems as far off as ever. Archdeacon Bevan's view
may be accepted as the last Latin explanation of the sub
ject, but the explanation dra-wn from Latin authorities fails
to clear up the difficulties — it is only another conjecture,
and has not much more to support it than any other
conjecture from Latin sources ; the Celtic explanation is
altogether left out of sight.
In the Irish laws, four different kinds of churches are
described, the annoit, the dalta. the compairche. the ciU,
and to each of these a definite meaning is attached. The
annait, the dalta, and the compairche, were all distinct
members of the group of monastic ehurches, each having its
own separate rank and position, while the cill church was
not, Uke the Latin cell, a mere dependent establishment
of the monastery, but was in a more independent position.
The three churches of the monastic group, the annait, the
dalta, and the compairche, stood as follows : the annoit was
the church directly connected with the great saint of the
tribe of the Saint by some personal connection ; he had
either been there or some of his relics were kept there. It
would be the most important of the monastic colonies, the
tribal church. A dalta church was one founded by a
member of the monastery, but which had not any personal
connection mth the saint of the tribe ; if the term is
permissible, it would be a colony of the second rank, the
annoit church being a colony of the first. A compairche
church was one that was under the same tutelage as the
annoit or dcdta church.' The Irish terms therefore show
the system of relationship which the different monastic
colonies bore to each other — the subordination of the kinds
of churches. That something of the sort is to be found in
Wales is clear from the Welsh laws. Certain churches
^ Ancient Lams of Ireland, iii, 66 n.

CHURCHES. 341
were in a more exalted position than others. A mother
church, for instance ; a higher fine was payable for an
offence in a mother church {Mam eglwys) ' than in an
ordinary church, and it is plain that the mother church
was in the nature of a monastic estabUshment, as half the
fine went to the abbot, the other half to the priests and
the community." The mother church would be the great
colony, the first class colony from the monastery, and
would be the superior class of llan; that is, a llan
which had other churches subordinate to it. The annoit
church and the mother church would therefore be the
same, but the second class of llan ; the llan without
chapels would be also a church founded by monks from
the monastery, but not personally connected with the saint
of the tribe ; it would not be a mother church, as it had
no offshoots, but still it would be a colony from the
monastery ; this would be similar to the dalta church, and
these two classes would comprise the two great kinds of
monastic colonies.
The secondary churches, that is, the colonies from
the primary, have now to be considered ; they are of
two kinds. Churches that are complete settlements
from the original colony — such places as these would be
the Irish compairche churches ; they would belong to the
same tribe of the Saint, and be under the tutelage of the
great saint of that tribe, but they would be fully-consti
tuted colonies ; if not independent, yet very nearly so.
These would be the Welsh bettws, and it is not to be lost
sight of that the term, bettws, means a settlement, or
resting-place ; while the churches that were served from
the dalta church, or from the bettivs, but were not
permanent settlements, not colonies, but only places
where, for some reason or the other, it was desirable to
^ Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 78. ' Ibid.

342

CHUKCHES.

hold Divine service, would be the cill, or capel. It is the
case that there are dift'erencs^s in the Irish and Welsh
rules as to these churches — much that relates to the
Irish is not to be found in the Welsh ; but the space of
time separating the Welsh and Irish laws may aecount
for this. It is, however, far more likely that the elassitiea-
tion of the two groups of churches, both being Celtic, is
due to the tribal and monastic ideas of the Celt, rather
than to Latin notions, which the Celt abhorred with a
steady abhorrence. It is a reasonable explanation that
the llan represented the two classes of monastic colonies,
the annoit, and dalta ; the bettws, the settlement from the
colonj' ; the eompuirehe, and the capel, the cill, the place
where Dirine service was performed and nothing more.
Change of circumstances, wars, confiscations, and tu
mults, would render places where, at one time, a serrice
was necessary, no longer so, and thus account for the
disappearance of a number of chapels. While the bettws,
being not merely a place where Dirine worship was per
formed, but also a settlement, would account for the fact
that the bettivs has, in so many cases, survived, while the
capel perished. The combination of capel-bettws would
denote a settlement that had not originally any place of
worship; but where, subsequently, a chapel was established,
for instance, a Pagan village not granted to the tribe of
the Saint, one of the places where, if a church had been
established instead of a chapel, it would have been one of
the Michael ehurches, as it was not of sufficient im
portance for a church, it became a capel-bettws.
The scheme of the evangelization of Wales, following
that of all Celtic countries, would therefore be : (1) The
establishment of some large monastery which, after a
time, became a school of learning, and sent out bands of
missionaries who settled or. land which had either been

CHURCHES. 343
granted to their house, or of which they obtained grants ;
(2) the gradual estabUshment of these colonies over the
country, the erection of so many Hans, or fortified enclo
sures, each having some form of monastic institution ; (3)
offshoots from these colonies, which took either the form
of independent settlements, nominally connected {bettws),
or of places only for religious worship {capel), which
were established or abandoned, as the necessities of the
case required. Such a system was obviously opposed to
anything Uke local dirision of the country. What the
necessities of the tribe required, that the tribal church
suppUed; but the organization was dependent on the tribal
necessities for the time being, not on independent
territorial divisions, wholly irrespective of tribes or other
considerations. If this is borne in mind in considering
questions of ecclesiastical organization in Wales, many of
the existing- difficulties, if they do not quite disappear, are
by no means so formidable as is generally supposed. All the
conjectural difficulties Rees raises about curacies and titles
are in fact non-existent, unless the Latin organization for
the Welsh Church is assumed, and the Celtic ignored.
An argument in favour of the riew here put forward
may be drawn from the fact that in those parts of Wales
where the Norman and subsequent conquerors were
most powerful the ecclesiastical system, as we now find it,
closely resembles the Latin as established in England;
while in those parts of Wales where the Welsh element
prevailed longest a different system existed, and one more
like what has been here described as the Celtic. That
part of Pembrokeshire which was a Flemish colony, and
that part of Glamorganshire that was in the hands of the
Norman is marked by a series of small rectories, as if the
English parochial system had been introduced. While in
Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire the old Celtic system

344 CHURCHES.
prevails, the parochial system exists in name, but the size
of the parishes is enormous, and the ecclesiastical system
consists of one church and a series of subordinate ehapels.
Whenever it was that Wales was divided into parishes, it
may be taken as clear it was not a Welsh, but a foreign
dirision. It would appear that it was a gradual process,
and extending over a long period. This would in some
degree account for the extraordinary difference in size of
the Welsh parishes. Where the foreigner was strong,
churches wen.' built and districts assigned to them, as in
England ; where the Welsh were strong, this could not be
done, only a place here and there, often the most valuable
locality, either f(jr pasture or defence, was selected out of
the district by the Normans, and the rest left. At last all
that was not in a parish was formed into one, and hence
the enormous and irregular size of the parishes in the
Welsh parts of Wales. Indeed, if a map of Wales is
examined, it is fairly safe to say that the districts where
the parishes are smaU denote districts where foreigners
settled and the Welsh were excluded, while the districts
where parishes are large denote the parts of Wales where
the Welsh held their o-wn longest.
But some of these Welsh districts are those where traces
of early Celtic Christianity are to be found in the shape of
inscribed stones, so that it may be safely assumed that the
division into parishes had nothing to do with the conver
sion of the country, or with its early Christianity, or
reUgious organization. It, however, formed such a necessary
part of the Latin system of government that the Norman
bishops must have tried to carry it out. Probably some
thing of the sort had been done in the time of Giraldus,
as, there being then archdeaconries, there must have been
some Umits to the archdeaconries, and these limits would
probably be certain rural deaneries. In Pope Nicholas'

CHURCHES. 345
Valor (1291) itseemsthat rural deaneries existed throughout
Wales, as the taxation proceeds on the basis of deaneries.
It is therefore reasonable to suppose that, for ecclesiastical
purposes, Wales was dirided into parishes some time
between the Norman conquest and the beginning of the
fourteenth century. Whether the division was more than
an ecclesiastical division seems doubtful, but it was
sufficient to do away with the legal existence of a monastic
tribal church, and substitute a territorial one in its place.
One great effect of this would be to efface all the ties that
had united the churches together, and to make each
church independent of the other. Probably at the time of
the change the system of dependence and the whole tribal
system had become more a matter of sentiment than of
real importance, but the Welsh clung to the tribal idea,
and it is their affection for it that has made any other
form of religious organization so very unpopular in Wales.
The opposition of the Welsh clergy to Edward I, and
their support of the Welsh princes, were probably due to
their detestation of a system that was being forced upon
them, and was opposed to all their preconceived ideas of
reUgion. No one can read the Descriptio Cambrice of
Giraldus, or the report of Archbishop Peckham's risitation
of the Welsh dioceses, without seeing clearly the discontent
that existed against the process then going on in Church
and State. The division of the country into parishes would
not be the least of the grievances of either the Welsh
clergy or laity.
For purposes of reUgious worship all the various kinds
of churches were regarded as equal, but for other purposes
the mother church was presumed to have a special sanctity
attached to it. A mother church was the chief church of
the tribe, and any tribal reUgious ceremony could only
take place there. No one, says the Welsh law, is to resort

346 CHURCHES.
to a mother church more than to another, except for
denying or receiving a son ; those two things are only to take
place in a mother church.' These ceremonies of denying
or recognizing a son were probably the most important of
all the Welsh tribal rites, as upon them depended the
question who were, and who were not, members of the
tribe. As at the present day the rule is that marriages can
only take place in the parish church unless there is a chapel
or other place specially licensed for the purpose, and as
the records as to marriages and burials, and other personal
matters relating to the parishioners, are kept in the parish
church, so, in Celtic tiines, it was only at the church of
the tribe, the mother church, that the question who were
tribesmen eould be settled. Whether there was anything
in the nature of a record of such ceremonies beyond the
recitals of their bards may be doubtful, but the church of
the tribe was the most public place of the tribe where the
elders and chiefs would be assembled, and so here the
most solemn tribal ceremonies took place. There may also
have been another reason. At the ceremony of owning or
diso-wning a child, the person who took the oath, whether
mother or father, had to place his hand upon the sacred
relics of the tribe on the altar. These relics were always
kept in the annoit church, and it does not appear clear if
the other churches were allowed to have the custody of
relics ; if they had, they were certainly relics of less
importance and sanctity than those kept in the mother
church of the tribe. It is more than probable that the
ceremony of swearing or diso-wning a child was the
Christian form of some old Pagan custom, the adaptation
of some heathen rite ; that the sacred relics represented
the old Pagan idol of the tribe. So that, as formerly in
heathen times, the chief temple of the god of the tribe
' Aiu-icnt Lairs of Wales, ii, 113.

CHURCHES. 347
was the place for the decision of all matters relating to the
tribe and its rights, so, on the tribe becoming Christian,
the chief church of the tribe became the place where, in a
modified form, the rites and ceremonies connected with
the tribe were still carried on and performed. This view
is brought out in a passage in the Cyvreithiau Cymru : If
a judgment or verdict is given against a ma.n, he could
purge himself from it by taking certain oaths in a
church : but it is expressly stated that while he can do
this in all ordinary cases in any church, whether a mother
church or not, yet for some cases resort must be had to a
mother church, as in the cases already mentioned of
denying or receiving a son, " these two things can only
take place in a mother church ".' In another passage
the matter is further elaborated, in the case of a man who
either did not belong to a tribe, or was unable to reach the
mother church of the tribe : " If a man is travelling, and
a judgment is given against him, he was to resort to the
first church or to the first available church. If a man on
progress without residence or an innate boneddig deny
surety, and a raith be adjudged on him, and he wishes to
know where he shall give the raith, by law it is most right
in the church of the place where the law overtook him,
for he is not to have his holy water or mass bread
in one church more than another." " The distinction
drawn in the law is plain. Any mere matter of private
concern could be decided in any church ; it was no concern
of the tribe, and they were not affected by it. But a
question as to who was a member of the tribe, a question
as to tribal rights, concerned the whole tribe, and could
only be determined in the presence of the tribe, that is, in
the church of the tribe, the mother church. It is, in
effect, the same idea that was at a later date developed
' Ancient Laws of Wales, ii, 112. ^ Ibid.

348 CHURCHES.
into the distinction between personal and real actions ;
personal actions could be tried anywhere, real only where
the land lay ; if, for land, tribal rights are substituted, it
will express the Celtic idea as to the difference between
tribal and non-tribal cases. The analogy is further borne
out by the fact that questions as to tribal land could only
be decided m the proper tribal place, the mother church.
A very frequent subject of the Welsh laws is the question
as to who was the proper person to decide a. case of
disputed boundaries, a question in which, it is obvious, the
tribe were largely interested. These questions, which in
the Welsh code are spoken of as the right to meer, form a
very instructive portion of Welsh law. One trace of the
old system is found in the Cyvreithiau Cymru ' : " There is
one precedence to a church in opposition to a privileged
court, prioritj' of nieenng, if it have a crozier and gospel
{bagyl ac euengil) for land and soil this precedence is for
the church." The only church that had the right of
mecring was the church -with the crozier, that is, the
monastic church ; the ordinary church had not this right.
When once the Latin rule became predominant, all idea
of the tribal connection of the diff'erent churches gradually
disappeared. That it took a very long time to die out
there is no doubt — Probably a good deal of it was adopted
by the Latins in their ecclesiastical system as it would in
crease their power. Nowhere else, perhaps, until the
church rerival of our owndays, has the holder of a benefice
had so much patronage as was the case in a Welsh parish.
The number of chapels, or churches, dependent on some of
the churches, and in the gift of the incumbent, was consi
derable. This, as has been already pointed out, is due to
the monastic colonies, the churches the monks found it
necessary to estabUsh. The number of the bettws, and
' Ancient Lo.ks of Wales, ii, 367.

CHURCHES. 349
cills, is much larger than is usually imagined. In two
parishes in Cardiganshire, the number of chapels in
the gift of the vicar is nine. In the one case, Llanba
darn, the vicar can present to five ; while in the other
instance, Llanddewibrefi, the vicar presents to four.
There is a passage in the Liber Landavensis ' which has
a considerable bearing on the question of annoit churches.
On the death of Teilo, a contest arose among the members
of three of the Teilo churches, or colonies, as to which of
them was entitled to have possession of his body, that is,
which of them should be the annoit church. The three
churches were, a Pembrokeshire church, Pennalun, said
to be Penaly, near Tenby, a Carmarthenshire church,
Llandeilo Vawr, the modern Llandeilo, and a Glamorgan
shire church, Llandaff itself. Two of the three are
-within the Umits of what became the diocese of St.
Darid's. The localities are important, as they show the
claim was made, not as confined to any locality or district,
but wholly upon personal grounds. Penaly claimed on the
ground that it was the burial-place of Teilo's family, and
so had the right to possess his body. Llandeilo, as being
the place of the saint's residence on his retirement from
the world, and the actual place of his death. Llandaff,
as having been his episcopal see, and on account of its
pririleges and dignities, its consecration and in obedience to
the unanimous voice of the diocese, and especially because
of its former state and the appointment of Dubricius, and
others. It is to be noticed that even the great monastery
of Llandaff itself, although claiming as the mother
church to possess the precious relics, yet had no right
to them on that ground, and could not deprive her
colonies of them merely because she was the mother
church of aU the Teilo chm-ches. The contest seems to
' P. no.

350

CHURCHES.

point to the fact that the connection with the saint gave
a right to claim his relics, but did not absolutely entitle
the church to them, so as to deprive a church that had a
better right. If the possession of the relics of the saint
was one of the essentials oiheing a,n. annoit church, the
mere fact of being superior in rank coidd not deprive the
inferior chm-ch of the chance of attaining to that dignity.
It also seems to point to the fact that, without the relics,
the church could not become an annoit church, as it
would not possess the necessary qualifications that an
annoit ehurch should have, so as to enable the eereiuonies
that were to be performed in annoit ehurches to be done
there. It is also not a little singular that no claim was
put forward by the monastery of St. David's to the relies,
for if the Teilo, bishop of St. David's, was the same as the
Teilo of Llandaff, it would seem that they also had a claim
to their possession. If no claim was put forward, it would
go to prove that the Teilo, bishop of St. David's, and the
Teilo, bishop of Llandaff, were not the same person, or it
may be the Llandaff monks deUberately left out their
rival's claim.
The alleged solution of the difficulty should not be passed
over as merely a transparent fiction, and a monkish in
vention. It is said that Teilo's body was miraculously
multiplied, so that each claimant had one example.
Probably this was the way the Llandaff monks accounted
for the fact that they were not successful in carrying off
the body ; or it may be that a process similar to the
judgment of Solomon was adopted, and each church took
a part, as it may well have been necessary that each of
the churches, for local reasons, should become an annoit
church, and have the precious reUcs. It is fairly certain,
if the Llandaff church had really been triumphant over
the others, the fact would have been recorded, as the

CHURCHES. 351
monks would never have omitted to mention so great
and glorious a rictory. Probably multiplication was
the way they explained their defeat. Llandaff was
successful in establishing her claim to sanctity by the
possession of one of the examples, for the sanctity of the
shrine of Teilo in the Llandaff church lasted almost until
our own days. In modern times, it is said to have been
the custom that if a more than usuaUy solemn sanction
was required for a bargain, such sanction was obtained
by making the contract at the shrine of Teilo. When
David became a Latin saint, his shrine was probably the
more orthodox place for the pilgrimage of faithful sons of
the Latin church, but the tomb of Teilo long held its o-wn
in the opinion of the Welsh. It is unfortunate that we
know but little of the subsequent history of the other two
churches. Penaly sank into obscurity, but Llandeilo
has always been a place of importance ; probably the
possession of the relics of Teilo may have made it so, but
the fact of its being in the territory of other tribes, and,
ultimately, in another diocese, may have prevented its
claims to the consideration of the faithful being advocated
as they would have been, if it had been within the limits
of what became the diocese of Llandaff. It is a curious
piece of ecclesiastical history if Pennalun was Penaly.
Looking at its situation, so near St. Darid's, and the fact
that it was one of the Pembrokeshire group of Teilo
churches, there might have been a necessity for its being
an annait church, so as to keep up the Teilo infiuence in
that quarter, the colony requiring a local mother church.
In the same way the Carmarthenshire Teilo colonies
required an annait church, and Llandeilo was fixed upon
to satisfy this want, and strengthen the position there of
the Llandaff colony. In the days before dioceses, the
Llandaff house would do what it could to maintain the

352 CHURCHES.
importance of both colonies ; but after the fight between
Urban and Bernard, as to the limits of the diocese, and
the practical triumph of St. David's, it then became the
policy of Llandaff to depreciate the two groups of colonies
as much as possible, and to maintain that the shrine at
Llandaff was the only genuine one, so as to prevent the
St. David's monks claiming the possession of the shrines of
the two great South Wales saints within their borders.
Whether this is the real explanation, or not, it is impossi
ble now to say; we unfortunately know so little of the
early history of the Welsh Church that such points as
these must be matters of inference and conjecture. Nor
do we know how the question as to annoit churches was
settled in other cases. But this incident is instructive
as sho-wing the importance attaching to the position of
the annoit church, and the necessity there appears to have
been for both the requisites for its existence being
satisfied — (1) personal connection with the saint, and
(2) possession of his relics.
Having regard to the purpose for which the Liber
Landavensis was written, the support of the Llandaff'
claims, it follows, almost of course, that the writers, being
Llandaff monks, should insist on their replica of the saint's
body being the only genuine one, and this they do ; for
the story goes on, eridently told, not by a Celt, but by
a Latin : " It was known to all the people by the
great number of miracles, and the accounts of ancient
writers, that Teilo was certainly taken to Llandaff, for at
the tomb of the eminent prelate, the sick were most easily
healed of their diseases, sight given to the blind, and
hearing to the deaf." ' The Llandaff monks would have
been false to every tradition of their monastery if they did
not contend that theirs was the only genuine shrine. It
^ Liber Landavensis, p. 110.

CHURCHES. 353
must be bome in mind that the Llandaff monks were
not merely fighting for their pecuniary interest arising
from the offerings at the tomb of TeUo. The Celtic
rule of succession to the head of the house had not yet
been finally abrogated. Urban was but the first Latin
bishop, and on his death claims might be made to the
headship of the Llandaff house by the person entitled
under the old Celtic rules. If Penaly and Llandeilo did
not reaUy possess the relics of Teilo, they were not annait
churches, and so their heads would not have any claim
until after the Llandaff house had been exhausted. It was
at least worth a struggle to prevent them being qualified
to be possible competitors for the headship of the tribe
of the Saint, the abbacy of Llandaff, and it is impossible
not to admire the way in which it was done. The multi-
pUcation of saints' bodies was no novelty in the Latin
church ; if ever there was a case where the end was
justified by the means, it was here. Each of the rival
claimants started fairly, but Llandaff appealed to results
to show that she alone was the annoit church, and so alone
entitled to select the head of the tribe of the Saint.
No account of the tribal churches can omit some allusion
to one of the most remarkable features of the system —
that which the Irish Laws speak of as " desertion " from a
church. If a person belonged to a church he could not
leave it, could not get rid of the tie, the tribal tie that
bound him to it, except for certain recognized reasons
which were known to the law. If a man deserted his
original church, and died belonging to another, two thirds
of his property went to the original church, and one third
to the new church.' That is, that no member of the tribe
of the Saint, by learing the monastery, could take with him
the tribal property. As in the lay tribe, the common
' Andent Laws of Ireland, Rolls ed., iii, 65. A A

;!54

CHUKCHES.

stock could not be diminished by any aet of th(» tribesman,
so, in the tribe of the Saint, the tribesman, by deserting
the chureh could not affect the rights of the tribe — eould
n(3t, by any aet of his, deprive his ehurch of its property.
It was not until the deserter's family had been members of
the new church for three generations that the rights of
the old church to his property ceased ; ' he had then become
a member of the family of the new church, and his
property, part of the property of its family.
This view of the position of the church goes far to
exiilain some of the difficulties in the Welsh laws as tothe
position of a tribesman. A man could not, at his own
will and pleasure, get rid either of his tribe or of his
church ; the allianee between the church and tribe being
most close. After four generations, he could become a
member, or, rather, was quaUfied to become a member, of
a tribe other than the one in which he belonged." After
three generations, if he had belonged continuously to one
church, the right of his original church, the tribal church,
over him ceased, and the new church would obtain tribal
rights. It thus appears that one of the great duties of
the church was to keep the tribe together. The Latin
system was based on the notion that everything must
be sacrificed to keep the church intact ; the Celtic, that no
sacrifice was too great to preserve the integrity of the tribe,
and the church, by becoming a part of the tribal organiza
tion, made their interests identical. It therefore becomes
impossible to explain the difficulties of the Welsh Church
system on any other than a tribal basis. Treating the matter
from a parochial standpoint only aggravates and increases
the anomalies. It was for the mother church to say if a
man was, or was not, a tribesman ; it was only there the
1 Ancient Laws of Ireland, Rolls ed., iii, 67.
^ Ancient Laws if Wales, ii, 505.

CHURCHES. 355
question could be decided, whether or not he had ceased
to be a tribesman ; whether the church and the tribe had,
or had not, lost their rights over him and over his property.
The dirision, or rather, the classification of churches,
thus became a point of the greatest importance, as it,
alone, settled where the question as to the man's position
could be decided. The mother church, as the chief
church of the tribe, had rights which gave her an im
portance that none of her colonies could claim : " She
knoweth her own and calleth them by name." It was
this that was the cause of all questions of paternity, of
family, or of the like class being decided in the mother
church. While the mother church kept up her hold over her
tribesmen they also had their claims upon her. The
tribesman was, by the Irish laws,' entitled as of right to
be buried where his father had been previously — a right
obviously based on the desire to preserve the proofs of his
tribal rights. If the grandfather had been buried in an
annoit church, and the father in another, the son could
claim, as of right, to be buried with his father, although,
had he -wished it, he could have gone elsewhere. If the
object was to cast off the old tribe and belong to another,
the right to be buried with his father was most important,
and furnished proof of a man's descent in case the son
desired to change his tribe. If the son died without
making any choice, then both the original church, and the
church to which the deceased belonged at the time of his
death, were equally entitled. In such a case the claims
of the two were to be settled by lot."
If these things are borne in mind, it will be seen how
impossible it was to get rid of a system that had so
eaten its way into the life of the Celt, and to establish a
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, Rolls ed., iii, 33. ^ Ibid., iii. 67.
A A 2

356 CHURCHES.
new basis for all the social and religious ideas of the
tribe, such as the parochial system. Cut up, as the country
was, into the possessions of various small tribes, the
ecclesiastical organization was based on the fact that the
tribal customs, as modified by Christianity, were still the
law of the land, and that they applied, not to any local
district or place, but throughout all the territory of
the tribe. To try to make it possible to adapt such a
system to land belonging to different tribes, or to a
district other than that of their o-wn tribe, would have
been hopeless. A tribal church with a number of de
pendent or subordinate chapels belonging to it, is precisely
the system that it would be expected to find as the result
of such a state of things as existed in Wales — monasteries
and monastic colonies, tribal churches, and offshoots.
Although a system by no means so perfect in the way of
organization as that of Archbishop Theodore, yet it
adapted itself to, and was adopted by, the Celt in a way
that nothing else could have done. In considering it,
this must be remembered, that it is based upon the tribe,
the llan, the tribal church, not upon any local divisions,
such as the parishes ; of these it knew nothing, still less of
rural deans, archdeacons, and dioceses. All these were,
in so far as Wales is concerned, the product of another
system and of a later age.
Looking at the tribal church in this Ught, it is worth
while to see how far the prorisions of the Welsh codes
and the Welsh laws apply to it. Taking the codes first.
They show us the state of things during the tenth century,
at a time when Celtic customs had so far become estab
Ushed and recognized, as to be collected into a body of
laws. The first prorisions are for fines for misconduct in
the churches ; the fine is the same for the offence if done
in the palace, as in the church, and a double fine is

OHURCHES. 357
imposed if the offence is in a mother church. The fine,
when paid, is divided among the ecclesiastics, that is,
the tribesmen.' A husband, or wife, can only give their
property by wiU to the church, or to the chief — that is,
to the lay or ecclesiastical tribe — or to pay debts." A
criminal who has children can leave nothing by will, only
enough to pay his debts, and the dared to the church."
The rights of the church were not to be done away with
or affected by any act of the tribesman. He could forfeit
his own rights, but not those of his tribe, either of the
la}' or of the ecclesiastical. No act of the tribesman
could affect the position of the church.
In the event of a person becoming surety for another,
there were three means by which he could be released
from his suretyship : (1) by payment, (2) by giving a
pledge, (3) by denying the surety.^ In the last case
various ceremonies as to swearing had to be gone through,
and in addition to his own oath, the debtor had to get
the oaths of four of his relations on his father's side, and
two of his mother's, to support him in his testimony^ ;
these relations were to be so closely connected with him
that they would have to pay or receive a share of any
compensation for murder {galanas), payable in respect of
the debtor." The swearing took place in the church,
whatever class of church it might be in which the debtor
heard mass, between the Benedicanius and the distribution
of the sacramental bread." Whichever way the judgment
went, it was conclusive ; but, if it \vent against the surety,
he could be prosecuted for perjury. This mixture of
judicial and religious ceremonies gives a good illustration
of the position of the church amongst the Welsh tribes.
The tribesman who denied his liability, was sworn on the
> Ancient Lams of YVales, i, 433. -= Ibid., i, 85. ' jj^^^ j^ 935.
¦" Ibid., i, 113. ' Ibid.,i, 115.
" Ibid. In the text of the Code here the protection of the Pope is invoked.

35S CHURCHHS.
sacred relics of the tribe — relics that had probably taken
the place of some old idol, or some other Pagan object of
pecuUar sanctity in the presence of the tribesmen who were
interested, as sureties in retaining the debtor's property
for the tribe, for if he was Uable to make good the
claim, he would leave so much less property to be divided
among the tribesmen at his death, or to make good the
price for any crime he might commit, and the tribe would
have to find the balance. The solemn judgment at the
most solemn time of the service in the assembly of the
tribesmen, a survival of the time when the judicial and
priestly offices were united, all went to point to a ceremony
which combined the functions of the lay and the ecclesi
astical tribes, when the priest, the chosen officer of the
tribe, decided, if not by the aid of supernatural powers, at
least, by the help he received from the gods of the tribe.
It is also to be noted that the church where the ceremony
was to take place, had nothing to do with any local
division, such as a parish. It was to be the place where
the debtor heard mass, the place where the tribal offering
was made. In a subsequent passage the church is declared
to be the authority that is to proceed againt the surety, if
the decision went against him for breaking his most
solemn oath. " The church and the king are to enforce
the evidence, for God has been taken instead of a surety.
The church is to forbid the evidence being broken, and
the king is to enforce it, because f(jr every person who
has been baptized, the evidence is to be taken, as well
man as woman. Therefore, both men and women are to
give evidence for a child of the age of seven, which shall
go under the hand of the confessor." ' Although this is very
obscurely expressed, the meaning is clear. A tribesman
who perjured himself was to be punished, not so much for
' Ancient Laws of Wales, 1, 135.

Churches. 359
false swearing, as for his offence against the tribe and
its gods. He had, as a tribesman, dared to insult the
tribe and its gods by a false appeal to them ; brought, or
endeavoured to bring them into contempt, and for this
the tribe should proceed against the offender. It was
not the mere fact of perjury ; if he had taken a false oath
in any church but a tribal church it would have only been
his own affair, but bringing the tribe and its authority
into contempt was a different matter. This distinction
between the character of the crime in accordance with the
sanctity of the place where it was committed, is a peculiarly
Celtic idea. With the Latins, perjury in any church
would be punished ; -with the Celt, it was not the perjury
that was wrong, it was the false swearing in the tribal
church, before the authorities of the tribe. It is some
thing Uke the modern EngUsh idea of perjury : it is no
crime to take a false oath as such, only if it is material to
the question tried. The Celt did not think, some would
say, does not think, a false oath a crime, unless it was
taken in a particular place, and under particular circum
stances. This difference in the character and nature of
the church altering the crime, seems to distinguish the
Latin from the Celtic ideas of church government.
Another point on which the two systems differed com
pletely was the supremacy of the church. The Latins
held the church was, in all cases, supreme over the state.
The Celts held that the rights of the church did not
extend to protect the tribesman in all cases from the
rights of the tribe. "Three things against which there
is no protection if they be admitted — suretyship, against
crime, suretyship for, and taking possession of, land." '
The reason given is that the church could only get such
rights by the gift of a chief." That the possession of such
' Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 139. ' Ibid.

360 CHITRCSES.
an exemption by the church would be a direct contraven
tion of the tribal rights of the chief, and that, therefore,
the church, if, in any case, she alleged they existed, was
required specially to prove them. If the chief had really,
and it could be proved he had, granted away these rights
to his own loss, there was no more to be said ; but such a
condition of things was not to be presumed, it required
special proof. On the accession of every new chief, the
o-wners of church lands, that is, the members of the tribe
of the Saint, had to come before the chief, and state what
rights they claimed to possess.' It was then for the chief
to say whether they were, or were not, to retain these
rights ; probably in time this became a mere form, and no
chief would have dared to have withheld any of the rights
of the tribe of the Saint, which either did not exist, or
which the tribe claimed to exist ; but this does not in the
least affect the very remarkable fact that in the Celtic
church the tribal chief claimed the supremacy over the
lands, the possessions, and the persons, not only of the
lay tribe, but also of the tribe of the Saint. If the church
claimed any exceptional pririlege, she was in exactly the
same position, neither better nor worse than any other
person or body claiming such privileges. The Church had
to prove her case, and to prove it like any other claimant.
" If ", says the code," " any church should declare that it
can keep a person in its sanctuary for seven years without
his doing right, or for a longer period, and the lord of
the country oppose the declaration, and say no such
pririleges originated from him to it, it is necessary for
the church to have that privilege secured by respectable
customary witnesses ; and if it can do so let its privileges
be preserved undisturbed ; if it fail, let the church conduct
him as best it may, or let him do right for the illegal act
' Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 139. ' Ibid., i, 141.

CHURCHES. 361
he has committed." This very important passage clearly
defines the respective positions under the Celtic system of
church and state, of the tribe of the Saint and the tribe
of the land. The privileges of the church were derived
from the chief, and were the gifts of the chief ; they only
existed by his favour — he had given them and he could
revoke them. They were not like the pririleges claimed
by the Latin Church, the inalienable heritage of the
Church testifying to the greatness of her position, her
authority over all temporal rulers, to be decided only
in her own courts, by her own judges, — not by lay
tribunals, who had no jurisdiction over matters connected
with, or relating to the ehurch. The Celt held that the
question in each case was for the lay tribunal, the tribe,
to decide what had been taken from the tribe and given
to the church, and that this was a matter for the tribe to
decide in the same way, and in no other, as it would decide
any question as to the rights of the tribe or its tribesmen,
over all of which the tribe, and no other authority, was
supreme. When this idea is realized, it is easy to see why it was
that such deadly hatred existed between Latins and Celts,
and their respective Churches. It was not a matter of
ritual or ceremony, not tonsure, or the date of Easter,
that lay at the root of the controversy between the two
churches. It was the great fundamental point of
divergence, the supremacy of church or of state. Each
petty Welsh chieftain, the head of each obscure Welsh
tribe, claimed the right to lay down with authority what
were the rights and privileges the church within his
territories should possess. This was far removed from the
Latin idea of a church, of the imperium in imperia. For
a Welsh chief to claim a power that the emperors of the
west did not dare to pretend to possess, was too much for

362 CHURCHES.
the Latin authorities. Such a claim must have approached
very nearly to the Latin idea of the accursed thing. No
wonder the Latins hated the Celtic Church, and waged a
war of extermination against it, calUng its members heretics
and schismatics, as they fomid them asserting and niaiii-
tainino- a doctrine most distasteful to the Latin Church,
the subordination of the church to the state, the authority
of the lay over the ecclesiastical tribunals, the right of
each tribe to fix the powers and limits of the church
within its territories.

CHAPTER VIII.
ENDOWMENTS,

It is a noteworthy fact in the history of the Celtic Church,
that the strongest evidence in favour of her separate
existence is to be found, not in her liturgy, not in her
religious rites, ceremonies, or observances, not in the
relations of her bishops and clergy, but in the rules which
regulated her property and endowments. It is true, that
there are many of these rules that are most difficult to
understand ; it is also true that there is much to be learnt
with regard to her property, but it is equally true that all
the information we have is quite unintelligible if it is
considered in any other light than that of the tribe, or
from any other point than that of tribal ownership. The
tribal rules were, no doubt, modified to some extent by the
reUgious ideas of the Celtic monks, but it may be asserted
with confidence that the best information that has come
down to us of the Welsh tribal system, is to be found in
the rules regulating the ecclesiastical property of the
Celtic Church. It has been truly said by a modern writer,'
"that the Church strikes from outside like a wedge into
the Welsh tribal system". The church has had the effect
of preserving the main features of this system, in a way
that would otherwise have been impossible. However
much they desired and strove to alter the state of things
that existed in Wales, foreign ecclesiastics had to describe
them, not as they wanted to make them, but as they
actuaUy were ; and their descriptions, which have come
' Seebohm, The Tri.bal System in Wales, p. 172,

364

I'lNDOW.-llEXTS.

down to us in the Welsh codes and laws, have preserved
for us, not merely the outlines, but also, in some cases,
the details of the tribal system of Wales.
It is always assumed, as a matter of course, that the
great mainstay of all chureh endowments has been tithes.
It is by some persons considered now, as it was by James I,
to be almost an aet of irreligion to question this. The
biographer of Melchisedee has much to answer for. The
divine origin of tithes is often asserted; and to allege that
it was possible for any church not to have depended on
tith(\s for its subsistence, is regarded almost as an act
of apostacy. In sj)ite of this, it is not the least remark
able fact in the history of the Celtic Church, both in
Ireland and Wales, that it appears that, originally,
tithes were not the great source of provision for its
clergy. Most of the documents we have that relate to
the Celtic Church in Wales, and which are of a date
anterior to the Norman ciinquest, contain very few
allusions to tithes. No one can read the Liber Ijandavensis
or the Welsh laws without being struck with the fact that
the references as to tithes are most meagre, and that it
does not appear from these documents that such riches as
the Welsh elergy possessed were composed of tithes. The
Lihev Licndavensis professes to be a record of the grants
made by the Welsh princes to the monastery of Llandaff',
from the time of Teilo to the Norman conquest, a space of
some four or five hundred years. It shows, or purports to
show, the additions which, from time to time, the monas
tery made to its territories and possessions under the rule
of each successive head of its house, first, in the time of
the abbots, then of the bishops ; it specifies over and over
again the lands, waters, villages, and rights, which were
granted to the Church, but it does not mention or allude
to tithes. So much is this the case that those who argue

ENDOWMENTS. 365
that tithes existed in the Welsh Celtic Church in the same
way and to the same extent as they existed in the Latin,
must be prepared to doubt the genuineness of the docu
ments in the Liber Landavensis, containing, as they do,
no mention of tithes. It is true that there are some places
in the codes where tithes are mentioned, but it does not
seem from these passages that tithe was a fixed legal
payment to the church, but so far as it was paid, it went
to the king- or chief of the tribe.
It has already been shown that there is no trace in early
times in the Celtic Church of such a class as a body of
parochial clergy, still less is there a body of clergy sup
ported by tithe. In the Black Book of St. David, an
extent of the possessions of the see of St. David's, at
the close of the first quarter of the fourteenth century,
the manors and lands belonging to the see are described
-with the greatest minuteness, but there is only slight
mention of tithe as belonging to the possessions of the
see of St. Darid's. The evidence of these two records,
the Liber Landavensis and the Black Book, one for each
of the two South Wales dioceses, are against the existence
of a parochial clergy supported by tithes, and the Welsh
codes confirm this riew. It is, therefore, probable that
the Celtic Church of Wales did not derive its maintenance
from tithes, but from other sources. Except from the
stronsr inference derived from the fact that the endow-
ments of the Celtic Chureh in Wales were on a different
basis from those of the Latin and Anglican churches, the
point would have been of small importance. It would have
been at most an anomaly requiring some explanation. But
this fact has been used by modern defenders of the faith,
or rather, of the Anglican establishment in Wales, as a
ground for putting forward a wholly untenable proposition.
Modern writers on Welsh Church history say, and repeat

366 ENDOWMENTS.
the a-ssertion, that the Reformation was to the last degree
financially disastr(.-)us to the Welsh Church, as the tithes
belonging t<i the church, which the monasteries had
appropriated, were taken from the monasteries, and instead
of being restored to the Church were handed over to the
royal grantees. The inonks are said to have plundered
the parochial clergy, and the crown to have plundered
the monks.' Before this kind of statement is accepted as
fact, it has to be proved that the parochia] clergy ever
possessed the tithe of which the monks are accused of
plundering them. It is true that the way in which the
Reformation was carried out was most prejudicial, not
only to the Church in Wales, but also to the Church in
England ; but this is a long way from proving that the
parochial clergy in Wales ever had the tithes that were
confiscated from the monasteries by the crown at the
Reformation. The distinction which has already been pointed out
between Goidel and Brython, with reference to the
conversion of Wales to Christianity, doubtless, to some
extent, also influenced the acquisition of property by the
Church. The ideas of the tribes of the two races differed.
The Brython tried to treat Christianity as a system
opposed to any existing system ; the Goidel regarded it as
something to be assimilated into the existing system.
The Liber Landavensis contains ample eridence that one
use the Teilo monks made of Christianity was as a means
of spoiling the Welsh chiefs. The early Pwnitentials state
the punishment for certain crimes which the Teilo
monks enforced — as, for instance, in the case of homicide,
where the Welsh canons prescribe a fine of three male and
three female slaves." When a Welsh prince committed
* See Bevan, Diocesan History of St. David's, 161; Newell's History
ofthe Welsh Church, iOd. ' Haddan and Stubbs, i, 1.27 .

ENDOWMENTS. 367
murder, as in the case of Arthmail, king of Gwent, who
mm-dered his brother, the bishop is said to have held a
synod, and placed the king under synodical censure, and
only granted him absolution, and removed the censure, on
receiving eridence of repentance in the shape of a grant of
land.' The wail of Gildas as to the growing iniquity of
the country to some extent supports the view that the
Brython did not regard the Welsh as " God's creatures ",
nor did the Brythonic monks. But the Goidel and
Goidelic monks utilized Welsh crime for the purpose of
enriching their monasteries. These grants also explain a
fact in the dealings of the Goidel with Christianity. It
-will be remembered how Patrick tried to make death the
punishment for homicide, and how he failed. So in Wales,
Christianity had to adopt local views and prejudices.
Whether there was ever a contest between Christian and
Pagan, as in the death of Conchobar, we do not know, but
the practical result was the same. The Church accepted
the tribal penalty, the old heathen penalty, for murder,
and the proceeds of the penalty went to form part of the
endowments of the Church.
In considering the evidence of Church endowments that
the Book of Llandaff furnishes, it must be remembered
that such evidence is quite independent of the fact whether
the documents in that record, are, or are not, genuine.
It may, for this purpose, be admitted they are not, that
is, they are not documents made by the Welsh princes at
the date they purport to bear ; but even if forgeries, they
are yet documents of a certain age, at least of the twelfth
century, and are doubtless based upon the traditions that
were at that time current in the monastery, and in the
district, as to the rights of the house of TeUo, so as to
account for how the monastery became possessed of the
' Liber Landavensis, p. 233.

368 ENDOWMENTS.
lands named in them. Their importance for this purpose,
consists in the fact that in accordance with the then
current traditions, even when narrated by Latin monks,
the Llandaff house obtained its possessions by grants from
the Welsh chieftains — grants made for two reasons,
piety or penance. The chiefs parted freely with what
they had to give ; the monks appear to have had but small
scruples in aeeepting what was given. The gifts include
all kinds of property — lands, villages, waters, fisheries ; but
in all the gifts, one form of property, which it would
have been expected to be constantly included, is con
spicuous by its absence — tithes. If the Welsh chiefs
could have given tithes, that is, if they had known what
tithes were, it is almost incredible but that the Welsh
monks would have prevailed upon them to give them tithes
in some of the cases mentioned. The more these gifts are
studied, the more remarkable does their form appear, not
only in what they give, but in the way it is given. The
chief could not by his own act alienate tribal property,
he could only do it with the assent of the tribe, and if the
tribe could have retained their property, and only made a
smaU money payment out of it, it is difficult to believe
that they would not in some cases have done so. But of
this there is no trace. The dead hand of the monastery
closed on the property of the tribe, of whatever nature
or kind it might be. The Church acquired all sorts and
conditions of possessions, with the single exception of
tithe. If may be said, in answer to this view, that the
chiefs did not give the tithe because it was not theirs to
give — that it already belonged to the Church and the
clerg}', and, not being tribal property, when a gift of that
property was made to the monastery, it could not be
included. But the answer to this is two-fold : (1) There
is not the slightest eridence that tithe was ever paid in

ENDOWMENTS. 369
Wales by laymen to the Church at this date, and if it
was not, it is not easy to see how the Church ever acquired
it, as a payment by the tribe out of tribal property could
only be made with the assent of the tribe, and some
evidence, some allusion to such payment being made,
would almost necessarily be forthcoming ; and (2) in the
list of Church property belonging to the St. David's
monastery in the Black Book, there is no mention of
tithes. It is not conceivable that if at that time tithe
was the property of the Church, the two largest and most
important of the South Wales houses should be without
any. That the Llandaff house, whose history we have,
and the account of how it went on acquiring property and
heaping up riches for four to five hundred years, should yet
show no traces of ever acquiring tithe, is most singular.
The only conclusion that can be arrived at is, that the
reason why, among the property of the Church, there
is no mention of tithe in grants to the Church or in the
list of the possessions of the Church, is, that tithes were a
form of property the Church of that day did not possess.
No one who reads either the Liber Landavensis or the
Black Book, but mil see that neither church lacked en-
do-wments or property ; what each did lack was tithe.
This riew is strengthened by reference to another docu
ment, the genuineness of which is above suspicion — the
Valor of Pope Nicholas IV, of 1291. In the dioceses of
Llandaff, St. David's, and Bangor, the full value of the
different benefices is given, and of the tenth granted to the
cro-wn, but there is no entry or memorandum to show that
there is any tithe. In the diocese of St. Asaph the case
is different. Here, the value of each benefice is divided
between the rector and the vicar, and a charge is made
upon both. At first sight it is difficult to account for
this ; but the probable explanation is, that the Latin
B B

370 ENDOWMENTS.
system of tithe, and the dirision between the reetor and
vicar, was gradually spreading over Wales ; and in the
diocese of St. Asaph, being more directly under English
infiuence, it had spread there more rapidly than else
where ; that in the other Welsh dioceses it had not, at the
date of the Vedor, become an established fact, whatever it
became afterwards. This would point to the conclusion,
which aU the Welsh evidence tends to force upon us,
that the early endowments of the Welsh churches
were not tithes. That they were amply endowed before
the date Avhen tithe, as a legal payment, was payable in
Wales is clear, as is the fact that the payment of tithe is
a matter of comparatively modern date, and was not one
of the early forms of property of which the Welsh Church
were the owners. Tithes, as a compulsory legal payment
to the Church, were not known in Wales before the time
of the Latin inonks, they introduced them, and they
reaped the benefit of their introduction. If this is
so, it acquits them of the crime usually laid to their
charge — of appropriating the revenues of the parochial
clergy. The Latin monks were not an over scrupulous
body, but even they could hardly take away from the
parochial clergy what it is doubtful if the clergy ever
possessed. The question as to the endowments of the Celtic Church
is one of such importance that it is necessary to examine
it in some detail. Tithes, in the modem sense of the
word, as a legal payment in support of the Church from
the lay occupiers and owners of land, was not probably
recognized as a legal obligation by the Western Church
earlier than the eighth century. It is true that the right
of the Church to tithes is mentioned in the decrees of
Councils in the sixth century. One of the early instances
being the decrees of the Council of Tours, in 567, when

ENDOWMENTS. 371
the faithful were admonished to pay tithes.' But it does
not appear that at that time the payment of the tithe of
increase formed more than a moral obUgation. Charle
magne, in 779, made the payment of tithe compulsory in
the Frank kingdom," and the establishment of the right
in England is usually said to have followed from this.
Ai-chbishop Theodore assumed it was the duty of every
Christian, as such, to pay tithe.' The Legatine report
of 787, whose articles were taken as binding by the kings
and witan of Mercia and Northumbria, laid it down in
the seventeenth canon, " Ut omnes studeant de omnibus
quse possident decimas dare quia speciale Domini Dei est
et de novem partibus sibi vivat".' This canon is said, by
Haddan and Stubbs,' to have been the enactment that
imposed the legal obligation for the payment of tithe in
England. It is, however, usually said," that the legal
obligation to pay tithe arose under the grant of Ethelwulf,
in 855. But this is denied by Kemble and others, as, at
the time of the supposed grant, the tithes were not
Ethel-wulf 's to give, and that, whatever was the effect of
his grant, it only applied to Wessex. For the present
purpose it may be taken that even in England, under the
Latin Church, the legal payment of tithes, as opposed to
what, by the force of moral persuasion and supernatural
terror, the clergy could get, was not general till about the
ninth century, if so early. It may, therefore, be assumed
that if the legal payment of tithes did not exist in
England before the ninth century, it did not exist in
Wales until later, for no one has yet put forward the idea
that the payment of tithes was of Celtic origin. If, then,
the legal payment of tithes in the Latin Church in
1 Labbe, Cone, v, 868. ^ Capitt (ed. Baluze), i, 141.
' Pcenit., 0. 11, ii, sec. 8. ¦* Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii, p. 456.
•' H. and S., iii, p. 637. " Selden, History of Tithes.
B B 2

372 ENDOWMENTS.
England did not begin until the ninth century, and
probably not in Wales until a later date, it would be
unreasonable to expect to find much aliout them in the
Welsh e(.ides, for the date of the Whitland assembly, at
which Hywel Da's laws were compiled, is put down as the
beginning of the tenth century. As, therefore, it is
sho-wn that the legal payment of tithes, if it existed at all,
which is most doubtful, only came into existence shortly
before the Whitland meeting, it is no matter for surprise
that the mention of tithes in the Welsh codes is so slight.
Had it been otherwise, it would have shown that the codes
were either forgeries, or else greatly interpolated. The
same remark applies to the Liber Landavensis ; the mention
of tithes in the earUer charters would have been the one
thing required to show that those charters were forgeries ;
as it is, their silence as to tithes is the stremgest internal
evidence as to their genuineness. It is true that both in
the Irish and Welsh laws allusion is made to the payment
of tithe, but such payment, so far as relates to the Church,
is certainly an interpolation of a later date. One of the
results of the invasion of Wales by the Normans and the
Latin clergy was the payment of tithes being enforced as
a fixed payment to the clergy, and it may be taken as clear
that the general levy of tithes for ecclesiastical purposes
is one of the things that the Welsh owe to the Normans.
At some time, between the time of Hywel Da and the
conquest of Wales by Edward, tithes had become payable
as part of the new ecclesiastical system of the country.
The greater part of them was paid, not to the clergy, but
to the Latin monasteries ; and they acquired, or claimed
to have acquired, from the Welsh, grants of the tithe
payable out of certain districts, but these tithes were a
mere payment imposed on the Welsh by the conqueror,
and were not one of the incidents of the native Church of

ENDOWMENTS. 3/3
Wales. The conqueror imposed them on the conquered
as a mark of his victory and of their subjection. What
ever else Wales owes to the Normans and the Plantagenets,
she certainly owes the general legal imposition of tithes.
The payment of tithes may be of scriptural authority, but
the payment of tithes in Wales is the mark that remains
to this day of the conquest of the Celtic Church by the
Latin. If the present condition of the tithes in Wales
is looked at, it will be found how fully this statement is
bome out. It is rather remarkable that out of the amount
of the tithes payable in Wales and Monmouth, the clergy
only get £160,000 ; the balance is in lay hands, that is, it
was in the hands of Latin monks at the Reformation. If
tithes had been, in their origin, a payment to which the
Welsh were accustomed, such a state of things as this
would have been quite impossible. The Latin monks were
strong enough to enforce payment, and they did enforce
it, but their successors had neither the courage nor the
skill of the Latin monks, and have weakened their position
by asserting a fictitious origin for the liability to pay tithe
in Wales, and have relied on force rather than on fact.
If, then, tithes did not form the source on which the
Celtic Church relied for its support, it will be asked. What
had that church to depend upon for its sustenance ? The
answer is not far to seek — land. The territorial possessions
of the Welsh Church, were — it may be said — very large, and
it has been throughout her history, more on the ownership
of land than upon anything else that she has had to rely.
After all the changes through which she has passed, the
amount of glebe held by the Welsh Church is no less than
45,000 acres. And as a broad rule the more Welsh the
district in which a church is situated, the larger the
amount of glebe. Thus, in Glamorganshire, where there
were extensive Norman settlements, the amount of glel^e

374 ENDOWMENTS.
is only 3,792 acres. But in Cardiganshire, the most Welsh
of all the Welsh counties, it is over 6,000, and in
Carmarthenshire 6,8lH) acres. The same holds good in
North Wales. In Anglesea, in the diocese of Bangor,
there are 1,382 acres of glebe, while in Flint, in the diocese
of St. Asaph, on the English border, only 748 acres.
Fortunately sufficient documents relating tii the history of
the Welsh Church have come do-wn to us to enable it to be
stated with precision how it was that the Welsh Chureh
obtained so large an amount of glebe. The earliest extant
document relating to the Welsh Church is the Hook of St.
Chad, a MS. of the Gospels that formerly belonged to
Llandaff, but which before the year 973 was taken to
Lichfield. On the margin of the MS. are written, in a
hand which experts say is of the early part of the ninth
century, various memoi'anda of grants made to the Church.
These entries eimtain, amongst others,' the grant of a
certain Trevuyddog Avhieli Rhys and the family of Grethi
gave to God and St. Teilo, which produced two score
loaves and a wether in summer, and forty loaves, a sow,
and two score dishes of butter in winter. That is, when
this place was handed over from the tribe of the land to
the tribe of the Saint, the dwellers uj)on it paid to the
chief of the land so much food ; they had then to pay it to
the tribe of St. Teilo. The Baejk of Llmidxiff abounds
with entries of the transfer by the chief of the tribe of the
land and the tribesmen to the tribe of the Saint ; and the
records of St. Cadoc prove the same thing, that the early
endowments of the Welsh Church were grants, by the
Welsh princes, either to the monastery or to the head of
the monastery, of certain interests in the land, such as so
much food, usually provisions for so many nights, the
chieftain retaining the possession of the land subject to
' Liber Landavensis, p. 272 ; Llyvyr Teilo, xiv.

ENDOWMENTS. 375
the payment to the chm-ch, or an absolute grant of the
land and all belonging to it to the church. The first class
comes nearest to a grant of tithes, but it was, in fact, very
different. It was merely giving to the church the rights
the chiefs had had in Wales from the earliest times of
being supported by their tribesmen. Certain districts were
liable, when the chief visited them, either for pleasure
when hunting, or for business when fighting, to find the
king provisions for so many days ; this duty fell on the
tribesmen ; the serfs had to find, that is, to erect, suitable
lodgings. This obligation of the lay tribe, in the course of
time, became commuted into a right, first to receive a
fixed quantity of victuals every year, whether the king '
went there or not, and then, later, to the right to
receive, instead of food, a money payment. It will be thus
seen that there were three successive stages in the
chieftain's rights. First, it was the right, on visiting the
district, to be maintained by the district. The Dimetian
Code, after stating what the village {trev) was to give the
king, adds, " that the trev is to bring all these to the king
and to light a fire three nights and three days for him,"'
thus showing that it was the duty of each trev to keep the
chieftain for a definite time. In the next stage, the right
of sustenance is commuted into the obligation to find
certain defined provisions for the chief. These differed in
summer and in winter, but at each season certain fixed
kinds of food were to be provided." Then came the third
change ; if the trev did not find the provisions, it found
money wherewith the chief could get them himself.
" The worth of a king's gwestva is a pound, six score pence
for his bread, three score for his enllyn, and three score
for his Uquor, that is, if his gwestva be not at once
suppUed." " It will be seen that each article was now
1 Ancient Laws cf Wales, i, 532. ^ Ibid. ' Ibid.

37G ENDOWMENTS.
valued at a fixed sum, and the payment could be made in
either kind or money ; and the final stage was reached
when the whole obligation was turned into a fixed money
payment. These rights of maintenance that the chief
possessed, and could enforce against the tribe, seem to be
as old as anything in the Welsh laws. The process of
commutation into a fixed money payment appears to have
been gradual, but at last it was complete. When this took
place the revenue of the Welsh chieftains was derived
from their o-wn lands, and from what they got for their
rights of maintenance. The liability to eontribute to the
chieftain's maintenance seems to have been a fixed and
defined right. The trev which paid gu-estva consisted of a
defined area. "Four randirs are to be in the trev from
which the king's gwestva is to be paid." ' Whether all the
country was divided up in this way may be doubtful ; the
importanee of the point is that/the chief drew a stated
sum from a certain area. As has been said, the earliest
extant record of the Welsh Church, the Book of St. Chad,
contains memoranda of the grants, by lay chiefs and the
lay tribes, of these fixed supplies of food before they had
been commuted into money payments to the church of
Llandaff, and doubtless these instances are only examples
of what went on all over Wales ; the churches, or, rather,
the monasteries, gradually acquired a certain share of the
l^rovision that had been made for the support of the lay
chieftain, a provision that ultimately took the form of a
definite money payment of a fixed sum from a defined area.
Probably these food rights — whether commuted or not,
does not seem to be of great importance — formed the
origin of the subsequent payment of tithes to the Welsh
Celtic monasteries. The payment would be made ; the
Latin would not care to investigate why or wherefore the
' Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 532.

ENDOWMENTS. 3//
payment was made as long as the fact of making it was
clear. He would attribute its origin to a different source,
and call the payment by a different name, or would very
probably utilize it as the basis of enforcing his own ideas
of payment in the shape of tithe. To the Welsh peasant
or serf, who had to make the payment, it did not much
matter if the pig, or calf, or sheep that he had to give the
monastery was called by a Welsh or a Latin name, gwestva
or degwm ; and it was most probably in this way, by the aid
of the old local national payment, that the idea of paying
a definite sum out of a defined area to the church arose,
and was carried out.
So far the gwestva has been spoken of as a payment
to the chief, and this was probably the result of it
being derived from the liability of the tribe to support
the chief, but it was not only the chief who had the
right to gwestva when in the early times it represented
the supply of provisions. All those with the chief had a
right to share in the supply, so when it was commuted
into a defined payment in kind the officers of the Court
had a right to share in the food ; and when, still later, it
became a fixed money payment, the gwestva silver did not
become the absolute property of the chief, but had to be
shared with his officers, his tribesmen. The officer whose
duty it was to diride the gwestva silver was the steward,'
and he divided it up among certain of the officers of the
Court in fixed shares." It will be therefore seen that the
chieftain could not alienate this payment without the
assent of those who were interested in it ; but this is only
another form of stating the proposition so often stated
before, that the tribal property could only be granted with
the assent of the tribe, and probably the names of the
-witnesses which are found to the charters in the Liber
^ Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 669. ' Ibid., 670.

¦J/o ENDOWMENTS.
Landavensis are the names of the tribesmen who were
interested in, and so had to concur in, the grant to the
church. On the monastery obtaining this grant, the tribe
of the Saint held it, just as it had been held by the tribe
of the land. It was not the exclusive property of the
abbot, or of any ineinber, but fell into the common fund,
and formed part of the common ^.n-operty of the tribe of
the Saint. Each menil-ier of the tribe was entitled to share
in it, for the reason that he was a tribesman, and so had a
right to it. These f.Kid rents, of which the Church became
possessed by grant, probably form the origin of the claim
of the Welsh elergy to tithes. When the monastery was
entitled to receive from every villa g(> a certain number of
cows, pigs, or sheep in a year for their support, the right
has a very strong resemblance to tithes. That it was not
tithes is shown from the fact of the existence of the right
to food rents in Wales before tithes were ever heard of.
But the two rights were very similar, and when the Latin
got the upper hand, the ecclesiastic, whether regular or
secular, when urging and enforcing the payment of tithes,
could say, and probably did say, that he was only enforcing
the rights of his monastery or of his predecessors, rights
which had always existed, and which it was his duty to
maintain. The fact that he called them by another name
from what they were locally known by could make no
possible difference, no more than at the present day the
Welsh speak of degwm, the English of tithes.
Viewed from this point, the right of the o-wner of tithe
in Wales, if tithe is only an adoption of the old gwestva, is
far stronger than in the way the case is usually stated. It
may be sacrilegious to deny the divine origin of tithe in
Wales, but it greatly strengthens the right of the owner
to be able to say, the liability to make this payment is one
of the oldest incidents known to the holding of land in the

ENDOWMENTS. 379
country ; it is a survival of the old Welsh custom and the
old Welsh law. It was originally a payment to the local
chief ; it is now a payment to the local resident, whether
he is lay or clerical ; and, allowing for the changes the
lapse of time has produced, it fairly represents the old
Celtic liability of the tribesmen to their rulers. It is true
that the system of paying tithe was probably largely
extended and amplified by Latin monks, and the whole
basis on which the old right to receive food rents rested
was changed ; yet still the origin of the idea is the same,
and the present payment of tithe represents the old gwestva
or food rents, one of the most ancient, if not the most
ancient, of existing Welsh survivals.
Against this view is to be set the fact that in the codes
mention is made both of the gwestva and of tithes, and they
appear to have existed at the same time, and to have been
very different payments. This must be admitted. Tithes
are mentioned in the Welsh codes as well as food rents,
but the tithes of the Welsh codes and the modern tithes
appear to be two totally different things. The tithes
spoken of in the codes are, as a rule, a payment, not to the
Church, or to any ecclesiastical body, but to the king or
chief. The king's priest of the household had, among
other emoluments, one third of the king's tithes,' and the
queen's priest of the household one third of her tithes."
The codes are, however, silent upon the point as to from
what source the king's and queen's tithes were di-awn, —
who paid it, out of what it was paid. The later laws give
a Uttle, but a very Uttle, more light on this. Three
persons, says the Cyvreithiau Cymru," are to have tithes :
" a priest, a judge, and an informant. A judge is to have
the tenth penny of what he shall adjudge, excepting for
land, and theft and homicide, and for each of these he is
1 Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 19, 638. ' Ibid., i, 52. = Ibid., ii, 328.

380 ENDOWMENTS.
to have twenty-four pence ; an informant is to have the
tenth penny of what he shall discover ; a priest is to have
Christ's tithe." Although this does not give very much
information, it does show this, that the word tithe, as used
in the Welsh laws, had a very different meaning from
what it has in EngUsh and Latin ; that whatever may be
its precise significance, it did not express exclusively a
payment by the laity for the support of ecclesiastics. In
another passage it is stated : ' " Three persons to whom a
tenth is assigned, to the ministers of Christ their tithe,"
and a judge and an informer the tenth penny, except in
certain cases. Here, again, it is not at all certain what
was the tithe the minister of the church possessed. It
may bear some relation to tithe as understood in the Latin
Church, but it does not say so. The last entry as to tithe
is one that states the seven suits of the church that take
precedence of those of the Court, and the first of these is
suits for tithe." In the Leges Wallice it is said, "Tribus
debetur decimus denarius silicet sacerdoti, judici, et
animalium liberatori." " This does not carry the matter
much farther, but it will be seen from these extracts from
the Welsh laws as to tithes, that if the matter rested there,
the owners of tithe would have but a very slender basis on
which to rest their case. It may be said that it is quite
clear that the Welsh idea of tithe included most, if not
all, cases in which officials received percentages, and that
the term " tithe " is usedto designate these percentages.
From whom or upon what the clergy received their per
centages is not clear, but the passages, assuming that they
are genuine, and have not been interpolated, which seems
by no means unlikely, do not in any way estabUsh the
right of the Church to the tithe of increase as claimed by
the Latin clergy. It may well be, as the payment of tithe
1 Ancient Laws of Wales, ii, 580. ' Ibid., ii, 367. ' Ibid., ii, 873.

ENDOWMENTS. 381
to clergy is only met with in the later laws, after the
Norman influence was felt, that tithes had already been
enforced by the clergy, and this was only put in as a
statement of the legal right. It is hard to believe if
tithes, in the Latin sense, were payable in Wales when the
laws were made, that measures that go into such minute
details as the Welsh codes and laws, should on so
important a subject have been content with the vaguest
generalities. The obrious conclusion forced upon us is
that tithe, in its usually accepted sense, was not actually
at the time the codes were compiled — probably not when
the laws were dra-wn up — established throughout Wales as
a legal system of universal obligation. If the view here put
forward, that the tithe system we afterwards find in force
was but the adaptation of the old gwestva, the silence of the
laws is fully explained. The provisions in the laws as to
the gwestva are most elaborate and minute, and no fresh
prorisions would be needed in respect of it under whatever
name it was known and enforced.
This view as to tithes is rather borne out by the Irish
laws. The most modern date given to the Senchus Mor is
by Dr. Todd, who puts it as not later than the ninth or
tenth century,' that is, long before tithes, as understood
in the Latin Church, had been heard of in Ireland, their
introduction being usually assigned to the synod of Cashel,
in 1172. Yet the Senchus Mor mentions tithes very much
in the same general terms as the Welsh laws. " Three
things which prevent the worthlessness of the world —
tithes, first-fruits, and alms."" The gloss is curious;
it says, "Tithes, i.e., in a fixed amount"; and in
another place, where tithes are spoken of as due to the
Church, the gloss says, " with definiteness "," thereby
I St. Patrick, 484.
^ Andent Laws of Ireland, Rolls ed., iii, 13. ' Ibid., iii, 35.

382 ENDOWMENTS.
showing that when the words were inserted there was a
resistance going on by the laity to the efforts of the clergy
to extend the payment of tithes. It should, however, be
noticed that the Irish codes, under the head of firstlines.
contain a statement that may fairly be read as showing
that, at the date at which it was written, the tithe of
increase was paid in the Irish church.'
Such, then, is the position as to tithe in the Irish and
Welsh Churches. It may be fairly assumed that, originally,
tithe, in the sense known to the Latin Church, as a
compulsory legal payment to the Church, was unkno-wn to
the Celtic Church ; that probably it was, in its Latin form,
introduced at about the same period in the twelfth
century into both the Welsh and Irish Churches. In
Wales, an ancient native custom was taken hold of and
adopted as the basis for the extension of the tithe system,
and that, in its modern form in the Celtic system,
represents the old tribal payments to the chief. This view
-will also account for the fact that the local churches
obtained so small a share of tithe. As has been pointed
out, the local churches were colonies from the monasteries,
and their possessions were really the possessions of the
mother house. A local chief who granted food rents to
the church would, as a rule, be more likely to grant them
to a powerful monastery that could help him, not only by
the spiritual arm, but also, if necessary, by the temporal
arm as well, than to a poor offshoot of the monastery,
whose chief help would be their prayers, and not temporal
support. In some cases the colony might have conferred
some signal favour on the chief, and, in return, he would
show his gratitude, or his fear, by making a grant of food
rents to them, and not to the mother house. These cases
would account for the tithes that the local churches
^ Ancient Laws of Ireland, Rolls ed., iii, 41.

ENDOWMENTS. 383
possessed, and the reason why they got so Uttle. They
were not robbed, as is usually said, because they never
had anything to be robbed of.
If the Celtic Church in Wales was not rich in tithes
through the fears or the liberality of the Welsh princes,
she was fairly rich in glebe and lands, and from these her
income was weU maintained. The Valor of Pope
Nicholas gives the following figures as the income of her
benefices : — £
St. David's  2,280
Llandaff  1,154
St. Asaph  1,332
Bangor  698

£5.464

This is the income of the local churches, not of the
religious houses, and, although it is less than in some of
the English dioceses where the Latin system of tithes had
been long in operation, yet, when it is remembered that
a greater part is derived from glebe, it will be seen what
a large extent of land the Church had acquired. Assum
ing money to have been worth twenty times what is
its present value, the aggregate of the income of the
Welsh beneficed clergy then was no less than £89,360,
or say £90,000, and this is leaving out of account the
income of the bishops, ecclesiastical officials, and of
the monastic houses. Those who know what area in
Wales it takes at the present day to secure an income of
£90,000 a year, will be best able to realise how well the
Church was endowed, and how extensive a landowner
she was.
The next point to consider is how she was able to
acquire so large an acreage. In Wales, when the tribal
system had become relaxed, there were no restrictions

384 ENDOWMENTS.
in force to prevent the chief endowing the Church with
as much land as she pleased. She was not slow to
avail herself of her privileges. From the Liber
Letndavensis it will be seen how lands were granted by
the Welsh princes to the Church, and how the Llandaff
monks never lost an opportunity of obtaining fresh
grants and of enlarging their borders. Whether it was
for the health of the donor's soul, or to obtain pardon for
sins, or as a penance for some great crime, or for some
other cause, no occasion was omitted that would enable
a new grant to be obtained. Naturally, in this way the
lands the Church held had a tendency to increase. The
Normans, in this respect, and, perhajjs, only in this respect,
followed in the footsteps of the Celts, and with such
success that at the Reformation the Church was, most
probably, far the largest landowner in Wales. The grants
were of two kinds : (1) Gifts to an individual, such as the
head of the house of Teilo, and (2) gifts to a particular
church. The gifts were treated in different ways. A gift
to an individual, such as a gift to the head of the Teilo
house, in whatever way that head might be described, was
treated as a direct gift to the Llandaff monastery, and
became part of its possessions ; but a gift of a place on
which to build a church was otherwise dealt with.
The monastery took possession of the gift, and put some
of its members there to build the church, and to discharge
the necessary duties, one of which would be the per
formance of Divine worship. The monks sent, probably
both performed Divine worship and acted as bailiffs for
the monastery, retaining sufficient, or what was then
deemed sufficient, of the profits, to keep body and soul
together, and remitting the rest to the monastery as part
of its revenue. That this system prevailed largely in
Wales is proved from the fact of the number of

ENDOWMENTS.

38£

vicarages to be found there, as opposed to rectories. Out
of the 1,035 parishes in Wales and Monmouthshire, there
are 734 vicarages to 301 rectories ; that is, the system of
monastic settlements prevailed in no less than 734 cases.
To see to what extent this was the case, it will be well to
look at the number in each county : —

County.

Vicarages.

Eectories.

Parish 6.=?

Anglesea ...

30

17

47

Brecon

51

21

72

Cardigan . . .

54

13

67

Carmarthen

74

11

85

Carnarvon ...

41

22

63

Denbigh

63

27

90

Flint

48

9

57

Glamorgan...

95

43

.. 138

lion mouth .. .

96

35

.. 131

Jlontgomery

54

25

79

Merioneth ...

2.")

18

43

Pembroke ...

73

46

.. 119

Radnor

30

14

44

734

401

1,035

It will be thus seen that in the Welsh parts of Wales the
system was more prevalent than in the English ; and that,
so far as the Celts were concerned, this was the way the
Church was established and endowed. The monks on the
spot took what they could make out of the lands they
held and cultivated, and paid over to the monastery the
moneys or rents they received from the dwellers on the
other lands they did not cultivate themselves. When the
parochial system was fully established, the produce of the
land cultivated by the monks, and which had maintained
the monks, became the source from which the local priest
derived his income, that is, it was the endowment of the
Uving. It was not tithe on which the Welsh clergy relied
for support, as they never had it; what they did have
was the produce of the land the monastic colony cultivated, c c

:)S6 ENDOWMENTS.
and this land became regarded as the endowment of the
local church, the source from whence the local priest
derived his means of support. Up to our own time the
Welsh parochial clergy are largely dependent on glebe,
and the moneys arising from glebe, and glebe is only
the modern term for the lands that the monkish
settlers originally occupied, and out of -which they
sustained themselves as the priests of the local churches.
Tho Welsh Church, including Monmouthshire, at the
present day, possesses no less than 4:!, 137 acres, of
land, and has a rental from lands and hous(>s of £39,306.'
Having regard to how she has been plundered and
robbed by bishops, deans, and chapters, and all who
had the opportunity, these figures show in the most
striking way what splendid endowments she must have
at one time possessed. But these figures only show
the estates of the local clergy, that is, the portion of
the lands given to the old monasteries that the monkish
colonists cultivated for their own support ; it leaves out of
sight all notice of the lands that the monasteries retained
for their own use or received the revenues of, from or
through their monkish colonies. These have a history of
their own that will be told presently.
The parochial part of the question requires a further
examination. If the details of the property belonging to
the local clergy are examined, it will be found that where
the English settlements were most powerfid and numerous,
there the land endow'ments of the Church were the least ;
for instance, in the counties of Flint, Denbigh, and Radnor,
which were counties peculiarly under English jurisdiction,
the amount of glebe is very small, while in Brecon, Cardi
gan, and Carmarthen counties, fairly free from English
influence, the amount is large. It also appears that
' Retin-n, House of Commons Paper 240, 1894.

ENDOWMENTS.

387

where the glebe is large the tithe is small, which is only
another way of stating the previous proposition, that
where the Welsh were left undisturbed, the old Welsh
system of the clergy supported by glebe prevailed ; but
where the foreign or English system gained the ascendant,
there their mode of supporting the clergy by tithe, rather
than by glebe, prevailed. That is, where the Celtic
monastic system did not exist, or was got rid of, another
mode of supporting the local clergy than by the produce
of the land they cultivated had to be found, and this was
found in the Latin system of tithes, a system which
supplanted the glebe system in the English districts, but
did not supplant, but only supplemented it, where the
Welsh held their own. A reference to the following table
proves this very clearly : —

County.
Anglesea

Parishes 47 ..

Glebe.
A. B. P.
1,382 3 7 .

Rent of Lands
and Houses. £
. 1,415 ..

Tithes. 11,699

Brecon

72 ..

4,424

0 22 .

. 2,785 ..

12,742

Cardigan

67 ..

6,018

0 9 .

. 3.773

6,812

Carmarthen..

. 85 ..

6,822

0 37 .

. 4,746 ..

8,423

Carnarvon ..

63 ..

2,377

2 3i .

. 1,759 ..

12,195

Denbigh

90 ..

2,213

1 14 .

. 2,011

22,278

Flint

57 ..

748

2 15 .

. 1 ,079 . .

14,562

Glamorgan ..

138 ..

3,792

3 14 .

. 5,102 ..

19,199

Merioneth ..

43 ..

983

0 20 .

614 ..

7,819

Montgomery

79 ..

1,690

1 20 .

. 1,587 ..

17,327

Monmouth ..

131

5,236

1 8 .

. 6,982 ..

19,167

Pembroke ..

119 ..

6,191

1 5 .

. 6,106 ..

17,264

Radnor

44 ..
1,035 ..

1,556

3 7 .

. 1,347 ..
. £.39,.S06 ..

8,027

43,437

2 9 .

£179,914

This shows that the counties where there are the most,
and the smallest, parishes, the Latin system of a tithe-
supported clergy obtained, while where the parishes are
fewer and larger, where the Celt held his own, the old
Celtic monastic system still continued. Monmouth and
Pembroke are the strongest cases in support of the riew
c c 2

388

ENDOAVMENTS.

that small parishes mean Latin predominance ; Cardigan
and Carmarthen, the strongest in support of the view that
large parishes mean Celtic resistance.
This view was to some extent put forward by Rees. He
argues that the richer churches in Wales were the older
foundations, as they di-ew their tithes from larger areas ;
and he goes on to say, that there are districts in the
Principality where the system is " broken up and the
country studded -with numerous churches, all of them
small rectories, as if the chapelries which before existed
have been converted into separate benefices. A slight
acquaintance with the history of these localities will show
that the new arrangement was the result of foreign
conquest. These churches are principally found in the
southern part of Pembrokeshire, occupied by a colony of
Flemings about 1100, in the vale of Glamorgan conquered
by Norman adventurers about 1090, and on the borders
of England ; while the system of subordinate chapelries
is most perfect in those parts of the country where the
independence of the native was of longest continuance." '
Rees thus arrives at the same conclusion by a different
process of reasoning, that the Celtic system is shown to
have held its ground longest where the English, that is,
the Latin, influence was weakest. He does not, it is true,
advance the idea that the provision for the clergy in the
Latin and Celtic Churches was different, nor does he
notice the fact of the endowment by glebe being so much
greater in the Welsh districts, and the endowment by
tithes so much more in the English districts. But there
must have been some reason for this distinction, it is too
marked to be accidental ; and the point he notes, the
preponderance of rectories over vicarages in the Latin
districts, and of vicarages over rectories in the Welsh,
' Welsh Saints, p. 15.

ENDOWMENTS. 389
must be due to some cause ; Rees attributes it, and rightly,
to foreign influence. But this influence made itself felt in
a different way from what Rees imagined. The influence
led to the introduction of tithe as a payment for the
support of the clergy in so far as it was so applied, not as
he seems to think, in the establishment of rectories as
opposed to vicarages. It did lead to the establishment of
rectories, because the incumbent of a parish had, up till
then, received no tithes ; and also to the establishment of
vicarages, because in many cases the new payment went,
if not wholly, at least nearly so, to the support of some
Latin religious house, and not to the local priest. In a
sense it is therefore true, that the foreign influence meant
the creation of rectories, and also the appropriation of
tithes, but not in the sense in which the words are usually
used. It was not that the tithes that had previously
belonged to the Church were taken from it, or, that
what had previously belonged to the monastery was
given to the Church. What was done by the foreign
influence was, that the country was made liable to a
new payment for clerical purposes where the Latin clergy
prevailed, and the persons who were the orginators of such
payments managed to keep them for themselves. Whether
as rector of some rectory in the part of Wales under
Norman influence, or whether as the inmate of some
Norman monastery which bore -witness to the piety or
pride of the Norman Conqueror, the new payment was
one that went, not to the clergy of Wales, as a body, but
to the clergy and monasteries the Latin selected.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to say when the payment
of tithes became general in Wales. It certainly was not
so at the time of the first Norman bishops, nor does it
appear to have been so, except in the diocese of St. Asaph,
at the beginning of the fourteenth century. In the two

3'.)0 ENDOWMENTS.
hundred and thirty years that followed, to the Reformation,
it became so to a certain extent. But, as is uni\'ersaUy
admitted, at the Reformation the great bulk of the Welsh
tithe belonged, not to the paroehial elergy, but to the mon
asteries. As has beenjJointed out, inodern writers, reason
ing from the assumption that, as in England, the Latin
monasleries appropriated the tithes, leaving the paroehial
clergy with only a small portion, infer that the same was done
in Wales. But as has been shown, the introduction of tithe,
as an ecelesiastical payment in Wales, was long after the
Welsh churches were endowed, and the Latins who intro
duced it kept it for themselves, and did not hand it over to
the Celtic clergy. How little tithe was the property of the
clergy at the Reformation is shown from the amount of
tithe that passed to the Crown, and is now in lay hands,
or, rather, in non-ecclesiastical hands. Nothing could
show more plainly than these figures that it was not
on tithes that the Welsh clergy relied for support.
Glebe has always been their great source of income, and
the reason for it is that glebe formed the ancient endow
ment. Tithes are a more recent imposition:
The distribution of the quantity of tithes in non-
ecclesiastieal hands is important as throwing light on the
view put forward, that tithes were the result of Norman or
Latin influence ; that where that influence was the
strongest, there the tithe was most rigidly enforced ; that
where the Welsh remained free from foreign interference,
there tithe -was not so common.
The endowment of the Celtic monasteries is a subject of
some difficulty. Originally it would seem that when the
lands were granted to the monastery such parts as were
not occupied by the monastic colonies contributed to the
support of the monastery, at first probably by the system
that seems to have been the national system of food rents

ENDOWMENTS. 391
{gwestva) . The Welsh laws provide for the payment to the
chief of provisions for a certain number of nights by the
members of the tribe. A similar system was adopted by
the tribe of the Saint ; and probably one of the results of
the grant of lands by the Welsh chieftain to the monastery
was to transfer the right to these food rents from the chief
of the lay tribe to the chief of the ecclesiastical tribe.
That such was the case appears from the Cadoc records,
where a chief, a prisoner for murder, grants to the
monastery certain land and the right to receive the food
rents, beer, bread, flesh, and honey from it.' Here
the lands paid yearly to the monastery or supplied
to the monks, when on their journeys, so much provision.
This supply would in the course of time, and gradu
ally did, become commuted into a money payment, and
formed part of the general property of the monastery,
of the tribe of the Saint. A second class of cases was
where the land was given and no rights were reserved.
Here it became the property of the monastery ; the inhabi
tants were the serfs or slaves of the monaster}', and all the
produce belonged to them. In this way, either by rent
or by ownership, the monasteries acquired considerable
wealth. So far as any opinion can now be formed, the
tribal rules applied to this property, — all the members of
the tribe of the Saint were entitled to share in it: as
tribesmen they were entitled to be supported by the tribe,
and could claim from the abbot the right to be so.
Community of goods would not be the right term to
describe this state of things ; it would be rather the duty
of the abbot to support, and the right of the ecclesiastical
tribesman to claim support, as a tribesman, out of the
property of the tribe. Such seems to have been the Celtic
system : the revenue and the lands were for the benefit of
' See Seebohm, Welsh Tr'ibal System, 208.

392 ENDOWMENTS.
the tribesmen of the Saint. The colonies maintained
themselves ; all that was not required for this purpose
went into the common fund of the monastery for the
common benefit of the tribesmen, the ecclesiastica progenies.
As long as the Celtic Chureh kept her independenee this
rule appUed, but, on the Normans coming into power, a
change was made. The Norman bishop, who took the
place of the Celtic abbot, did not admit the right of the
tribesman to be kept by the monastery ; in his theory each
member of the monastery had a duty to do, and for this
duty he was to be paid. So a system began under
Bernard that did away with the old Celtic ideas. Giraldus
says Bernard found no organized internal government.
" Clerici namque loci illius qui glaswir id est viri
ecclesiastici vocabantur barbaris ritibus absque ordine et
reg-ula ecclesise bonis enormiter incumbebant." ' Into the
system of tribal religious life Bernard determined to
introduce the Latin ideas of a cathedral chapter, ideas
that were derived from the Latin system in force on the
Continent. He therefore made the monastic body consist,
not of the tribe of the Saint, but of a definite number of
canons or prebends, to each of whom duties were assigned,
and each of whom was entitled to receive a fixed payment
out of the revenue or common fund of the monastery. It
might be said that he fixed the number of members of the
tribe of the Saint, making them a definite, instead of an
indefinite, body, and to each he assigned his duties and
pay. What remained, the bishop either took for himself,
or granted out to retainers for the purpose of forming
a military or quasi-military force on which the bishop, the
lord bishop, could rely if attacked by Welsh or other
enemies. The tribe of the Saint disappears, and its
place is taken by a Norman feudal lord at the head of his
' Dcjurc et statu Menevensis Ecclesia-, Rolls ed., iii, 153.

ENDOWMENTS. 393
military vassals, outside his episcopal establishment, and,
at the head of his priests, his ecclesiastical establishment
within its walls. Whether the whole of the system was
carried out by Bernard it is impossible to say, but this was
the system that grew up and formed the constitution of the
St. David's chapter. Probably its completion marks the
point when the transition from the Celtic monastery into
the Norman cathedral chapter was complete, and its
completion involved the entire alteration of the St.
David's establishment, by the suppression of the Celtic
monastery and the foundation of a Latin chapter. As
soon as this change was carried out, although when the
precise date was cannot be stated, the natural con
sequences followed. The holder of each of the prebends,
or canons, was desirous of increasing his income, and it is
now that we find mention of tithe. The right to the
tithe seems to have arisen in two ways — (1) by the gift of
tithes to a particular prebend, or, perhaps, to speak more
accurately, by the holder of the prebend compelling the
dweller on the lands allotted to his prebend to pay
tithes, that is, by the imposition of a fresh tax by the
Latin clergy; and (2), by a gift of tithe to the chapter as
a whole, which came to be divided among the different
members of the body. As instances of the first class, it
seems that those prebends in the chapter that have any
endowment, for, from successive enlargements of the chap
ter, or from some other causes, all the prebends are not
endowed, derive their revenues from two sources : (a) Lands,
that is now, the rent, formerly it would have been the
payment in kind ; {b) lands and tithe, that is, when one
holder of the prebend continued to impose on the piety or
the superstition of the Welsh chiefs, so as to obtain a grant
of the tithe of a particular district, or found himself
stroiio- enough to have compelled the inhabitant of a par-

394 ENDOWMENTS.
ticular place to pay tithe for his soul's health. And when
once the payment could be proved, the Church never al
lowed it to lapse. In some cases the land has wholly drop
ped out, and only the tithe remains as the endowment.
The third class of cases is the most interesting : there
the prebends divide the tithes of a district between them.
Such a district is the parish of St. Darid's, the parish in
which the ecclesiastical establishment was situate, and
where, doubtless, the chapter felt strong enough to compel,
either by force or fraud, by the temporal or spiritual
power, the payment of any tax they imposed, and so the
payment of tithes. The fact of the way in -which it is
divided among all the prebends seems to point to the
conclusion that the right to these tithes was acquired
after the then existing property of the house had been
divided up by Bernard. The parish of St. David's is
divided into four townships, clychs, circles, or courses — an
old Celtic way of dividing property. They are called,
Clych y Dref , the town circle, which is the centre ; Clych
Bychan, or the little circle on the east ; Clych Mawr, the
great circle on the noi-th ; and Clych Gwaelod o Wlad, also
called Dewiston, on the sea shore.' At a later date,
another parish, that of Whitchurch, was added, and made
a fifth circle. The whole tithe of the two parishes was
divided into fixed portions, or prebends. Six of these the
bishop took, and each of the other canons, one ; but, at
first, each canon, except the archdeacon of Cardigan, who
always took his prebend from the Clych Gwaelod Wlad,
took his share out of a different clych each year, a sort of
system of rotation being established — no prebend being
payable out of the same clych for two successive years.
About the middle of the fourteenth century, 1358, the
then bishop, Fastolf , divided each clych into fixed portions,
^ Jones and Freeman, 9.

ENDOWMENTS. 395
and made each canon draw lots for the portion he should
get. Clych Mawr and Whitchurch consisted of five
portions each, and the two others of six each, but the
archdeacon of Cardigan's and the bishop's shares always
remained the same. Later, the number of the prebends
was further increased, that is, the tithes were divided into
more shares.' The varying number of members of the
chapter, and the addition of new members after the
endowments had been appropriated, seem to have led to
the fact that certain of the canonries are without
endowments. Whether all were ever endowed is doubt
ful ; some probably were, as they have territorial names,
and most likely derived in some form revenues from
the places by which they are called. The unendowed
stalls at St. Darid's, and elsewhere, are called cursal
canons, and at the head of this body at St. David's
is the sovereign ; why this is so, is one of the points of
Welsh Church history on which no two -writers agree.
The cursal canons at St. Asaph, who have no special
endowment, receive payment out of certain tithes
(Rhuddlan and Llansilin), in common with other members
of the chapter. This fact, that tithes are the mode by
which any lack of revenue is suppUed, tends to support
the argument that the endowment by land was anterior
to the endowment by tithes. After the Celtic period, the
extensive land grants ceased, and, having been appropriated,
there were no more to apply to any new endowment ; but,
as tithes could be imposed and appropriated when the
chapter wanted a source of income for an office, tithe was
the source to which they resorted. This is sho-wn further
by the fact that when a new officer was created by the
chapter, his salary was paid by tithe, not by land. In
1224, Bishop Jowerth appointed a precentor to teach the
' Jones and Freeman, 313.

396 ENDOWMENTS.
choir the Sarum use. He had to be paid, and his salary
of ten marks was ordered to be paid out of tithes. " De
decimis Prebendarum et commune canonicoruni qui non
fecerint continuam residentiam in dicta ecclesia donee
eidem provisum fuerit." ' Afterwards two prebends were
annexed to the office; then the manor of Trefgarn was
given him, and afterwards the great tithes of Lampeter.
In 1253, the treasurership was founded," and one of the
prebends subsequently appro]3riated to it. Subsequently
this was lost, and the treasurer was paid wholly out of
the tithes of two Cardiganshire parishes, Llangranog and
Llandisiliogogo. The chancellorship was founded in
1287." The salary was the prebend of Llawhaden, andthe
profits of a manor which the bishop assigned to it.
It will not be necessary to go further into the St. David's
chapter ; from what has been said, the following facts
appear to be fairly clear : (1) That originally the revenue
of the monastery was from food rents, afterwards com
muted into money, and the profits of lands that belonged
to it ; (2) that, after a time, the food rents were commuted
into a money payment, and that, at the time when the
Celtic monastery passed into the Norman chapter, these
payments had been extended into a fixed payment
of so much a year from certain defined areas to the
St. David's church; (3) that all the members of the
church, all the tribe of the Saint, were entitled to
share in these payments ; (4) that the Normans did
away with this common right, and assigned definite
shares to certain individuals in return for the per
formance of definite duties, that is, they appropriated
or endowed certain offices with these revenues ; (5) that
the unappropriated revenues, either arising from fixed
' Jones ami Freeman, 321 ; quoting Staivtcs of St. David's.
'' Jones and Freeman, 322. ' Ib'ul

ENDOWMENTS. 397
payments, or from profits of lands, went to the head of
the chapter — the bishop ; (6) that as new offices were
created, the bishop was the person who had to find the
money payable for such office, that is, out of the un
appropriated revenues which he received, he had to
appropriate a part to the new office ; (7) that these
money payments became known as tithes ; (8) that the
system of military tenure was introduced as to the
lands of the Church, the bishop leasing, or granting,
the lands in return for certain fixed services, usually
military, by the tenant.
In this way, or in something of the kind, the great
change was made from the bishop being the head of the
tribe of the Saint into his being a feudal lord — from his
haring to support the tribesmen, to the tribesmen being
entitled to be supported by defined sources of income for
doing certain fixed work. They no longer were entitled
to support as members of the tribe, but were paid as
officers of the chapter, for performing certain duties
in it.
What was spoken of as the system at St. David's, seems
also to have been the system at the cathedrals of Bangor
and St. Asaph. Pope Nicholas' Valor,' speaking of St.
Asaph says, "Ecclesia cathedraUs de sancto Asapho cum
capellis suis predictis et Canonici in eadem et porciones
alise omnes taxantur modo subscripto." Then follows a
list of fifteen canons, each of whom receives a fixed sum,
varying in amount from ten shillings up to thirty-four
pounds. Tothe archdeaconry, a canonry and the living of
Abergelev is annexed ; and in the church of St. Asaph, and
in that of Gwydelwern, some five persons, not members of
the chapter, probably five members of the tribe of the
Saint, were entitled to share. ' Record ed., p. 288.

398 ENDOWMENTS.
At Bangor the Ust is headed,' " Taxatio omnium
proventuum redditum et obventionum omnium canoni-
eorum Bangorensis," and the property is divided between
the deans of Bangor and Arvon, three archdeacons, and
six other persons.
The ehurch of St. David's is represented as consisting of
twenty-two prebends, each with a. fixed income of varying
amount. Llandaff had a different system, and one more
in accord with the Liber Landavensis. It does not apjji^u-
that the Llandaff revenues were appropriated among the
different officers of the chajjler, as in the case of the
other Welsh cathedrals, nor does it appear that Llandaff
possessed any such endowments to approjDriate. There
seem to have been a certain number of churches belonging
to the monastery which formed the endowment of the house?
and which the I'a^er says were appropriated to the church
of Llandaff. The di£tineti(jn, therefore, between Llandaff
and the other Welsh chapters was this, at Llandaff' the
meniljers of the chapter were paid, not as members of the
chapter, but as priests of certain churches, which they
held as members of the chapter, and which formed the
endowment of the chapter. In the other chapters the
rents and payments to the house are divided up and
assigned to certain offices in the chapter. There is
another distinction between Llandaff and the other Welsh
chapters. The chapter of St. David's appears to have had
no temporalities to be taxed. St. Asaph and Bangor
possessed a small amount of rent and perquisites that
went into the common fund ; that is, the system of
appropriation was not carried out in either of these
churches with the same degree of thoroughness as at St.
David's. There all the unappropriated property is said to be
"Communia Canonicorum Menevensis,"" and of the value
' Record ed., p. 290. ' Ibid., p. 277.

ENDOWMENTS. 399
of £1 2s. 4i(7., probably the clychs or circles already
mentioned. At Llandaff it was different ; the system of
endowing the members of the chapter, not with money,
but with benefices, was further carried out, and they
were paid by specific appropriations of land, not of the
rents and profits. A long list is headed " Manors of the
Canons and Chapter of Llandaff".' The archdeacon had
fourteen acres of land, the chancellor twenty, the treasurer
thirty-two, the precentor twenty-seven ; and then follow
certain named individuals who each received the rents
from a varying number of acres. The difference in the
system at the various cathedrals is most probably to be
accounted for by the fact of the different dates at which
the appropriations were made. Llandaff was probably the
first to make any change from the old monastic system,
and probably carried it out before the system of food rents
had been elaborated into fixed annual payments, and when
her wealth consisted mainly of land, and only of land.
The two North Wales cathedrals probably came later,
while the change was going on, and their revenues
consisted partly of fixed payments, j)artly of land ; while
St. David's came last of all, and at the time its revenues
were appropriated among the chapter the change had
taken place, and a large part of the income was derived
from fixed annual payments.
When, in 1835, the Commissioners who were appointed
to enquire into the revenues of the Church of England
reported, they found that the income of the bishop of St.
Asaph was over £7,000 gross, the greater part of which
was derived from tithes. Bangor was £6,500, St. David's
£2,500, a great portion of which was from fines on the
renewals of leases, and Llandaff £1,000 from the same
source. To some extent this bears out the Valor. St.
1 Record ed., p. 280.

400

ENDOWMENTS.

David's and Llandaff had been feudal lords, and let out
the lands of the see at first on military tenure, and, after
wards, this degenerated into ordinary ecclesiastical lease
holds. Bangor seems to have derived her riches from an
accidental fact, mines — probably from an appUcation of
the law of copyholds, the bishop being the lord of the
different manors that belonged to the see. St. Asaph
acquired her wealth later. When the Valor was made at
the end of the thirteenth century, she does not seem to
have possessed the tithes that later made her the richest
of the Welsh sees; that is, that if the tithes are not really
the old Welsh food rents in another form, the greater
part of the endowment of St. Asaph has been acquired
within the last six hundred years. Such a statement will
probably be at once denied by those who are in the habit
of ascribing a very high antiquity to Welsh endowments,
but if the evidence is carefully examined it leads to this
conclusion : (1) Tithes were not known in Wales as a
defined legal payment before they existed in England ;
(2) They were not known in Wales as such a payment
until after the time of the codes ; (8) The Valor of Pope
Nicholas, although it states what were the goods of the
Bishop of St. Asaph in 1291, and taxes those goods, is
silent as to the large amount of tithes belonging to the
see. It therefore follows that in all probabiUty such tithes
became part of the property of the see at a subsequent
date, and if regard is had to the history of the time, this
is very likely. No part of Wales was more affected by the
Welsh wars of Edward I than the diocese of St. Asaph,
and the bishop, Anian, at its close received by way of
compensation some of the spoils of the vanquished. In
1289 Edward confirmed to Anian all the rights of St.
Asaph,' and it is Ukely the confirmation was accompanied
1 Haddan and Stubbs, i, p. 579.

ENDOWMENTS. 401
-with other marks of favour. One thing is clear, that at
the end of the Welsh war the diocese of St. Asaph was
thoroughly reorganized, and, as part of the reorganization,
it is probable the see of St. Asaph, by one means or
another, became possessed of the tithes that afterwards
made her so rich. The Statutes of St. Asaph, as quoted by
Archdeacon Thomas,' show that Bishop Llewellyn ap
propriated tithes to the general funds of the cathedral,
and that this process continued.
The return of 1835 also shows what the incomes of the
Welsh chapters were, and how the system of appro
priation had worked at St. Asaph. The dean, prebendaries,
and cursal canons had all separate revenues ; the four
vicars-choral were the incumbents of the benefice of St.
Asaph ; the common fund, some £1,400 a year, was divided
among the dean and fourteen prebendaries. This is, in
effect, the system the Normans introduced : certain
revenues appropriated to certain offices, the rest shared in
common. At Bangor, the appropriation system was
complete ; the dean, archdeacons, prebendaries, treasurer,
and precentors had each separate revenues ; there was no
common fund to diride. At St. Darid's the precentor,
chancellor, and treasurer had fixed revenues ; the rest of
the chapter, six canons, took equal shares in the net reve
nues, which were mainly derived from fines on the renewal
of leases. There was also a fund, probably the survival of
the old clych (circle) , which was dirided in certain fixed
portions according to seniority. At Llandaff aU the
chapter had separate revenues. The chapter consisted of
fourteen persons, including the bishop, who acted as
treasurer; the common fund was dirided into fourteen
shares, of which the bishop took two. It will thus be seen
that in the Welsh chapters the old system of the Celtic
' Diocesan History of St. Asaph, 53.
D D

402

ENDOWMENTS.

endowment could clearly be traced : (1) The tribe of the
Saint sharing in the tribal property ; (2) certain portions
of the tribal property, the common fund being appro
priated to certain offices, the residue only divided ;
(3) and lastly, the right to share in the division being
confined, not to members of the tribe of the Saint, but to
members of the ch-apter, which at last became composed
only of the officials, and excluded the ordinary members
of the body.
To a slight extent the system still remains. St.
Darid's have transferred their estates to the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, who pay them an annuity of £2,800.
Bangor retains some £1,600 a year of tithes, which, after
making- a payment to the vicars of the parishes from
whence it is derived, goes to the maintenance of the fabric
and services of the eathedi-al, the Ecclesiastical Commis
sioners paying the incomes of the dean and canons. St.
Asaph, like Bangor, has an income of about £1,300 a
year from tithes, which is applied to the repairs of the
fabric of the cathedral, and maintenance of the serrices ;
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners paying the incomes of the
dean and canons. Llandaff has no tithes ; all that is left
of its once large estates, is the rent of some fifteen acres
of land and nine houses, amounting to under £150 a year,
Ecclesiastical Commissioners paying the chapter an
annuity of £3,500.'
Such seems to be the story of the endowment of the
Celtic monasteries, and their history as cathedral
establishments. They differ to an important extent
from the Latin monasteries. In Wales, none of the
Latin monasteries developed into a cathedral, the
cathedrals were all the sm-vivors of Celtic monasteries ;
those that did not become cathedrals, such as Llancarvan,
1 Beturn, Church in Wales and Monmouthshire, H.C., 240, 1894.

ENDOWMENTS. 403
Whitland, and others, disappeared on the arrival of the
Latin monks. It must also be remembered that the
Latin monasteries aud their endowments have nothing to
do -with the endo-wments of the Celtic Church. At the
time the Latin monasteries were founded in Wales, the
Celtic Church had already obtained the bulk of her endow
ments, and the history of these endowments after the
Norman conquest is rather a history of loss than of gain.
The Latin monasteries obtained, in different ways, lands,
moneys, and tithes, that had never belonged to any
reUgious body, and when the Reformation came and
swept away the Latin monasteries their revenues went
to the Cro-wn ; however unjust the conduct of the Crown
may have been, it did not rob or affect the Celtic Church
of Wales, for the property it confiscated had never be
longed to, and had not formed part of the possessions
of the Welsh Church, but of her deadly foe, the Latin.
It is therefore idle to try to make out a case, either for
compensation or commiseration from the conduct of the
Crown at the Reformation. The Church in Wales has
undergone much, and has suffered much. She has plenty
of woes over which to mourn without having recourse to
those that never, so far as she was concerned, had any
existence. At the risk of repetition, it will be as well again to
state the result of the evidence on the subject, for it is
important to make the point quite clear. The evidence
estabUshes these propositions •.- —
(1.) That there is no proof that there was, and the
inference is very strong that there was not, any legal
liability to pay tithes in Wales before the Nomian
conquest. (2.) That under the Celtic Church (assuming for the
moment that tithes were paid, which is very doubtful),
D D 2

404 ENDOWMENTS.
there was never any universal or organized system of
payment. (3.) That the universal legal liability to pay tithes in
Wales, was the result of the conquest of Edward I, and of
the Latin Church estabUshing her supremacy there.
(4.) That the tithes the Latin Church demanded and
enforced, had never formed part of the endowments of the
Welsh elergy.
(5.) That it was the tithes the Latin Church demanded
and enforced that were given to the Latin monasteries in
Wales. These propositions are quite independent of the view
previously put forward, that the food rents which the
Celtic monasteries obtained from the Celtic chiefs were
afterwards commuted into fixed payments that subsequently
were developed into tithes. That is quite another proposi
tion, and rests on entirely distinct evidence to that already
stated as to the effect of the eonfiscation of the Latin
monasteries. As has been pointed out, food rents and lands formed
the two great classes of property both of the lay tribe and
the ecclesiastical tribe, and, until the coming of the
Latins, the two systems of lay and ecclesiastical owner
ship were probably identical. When the Latin came and
brought with him ideas that tended to get rid of tribal
notions, to assert the supremacy of foreign ecclesiastics,
and the obUgation to pay and support the church, the
two systems became intermixed ; and this confusion was
increased by the Latin applying- to the money payments
the rules as to tithes, and as to the land, rules highly
artificial and utterly opposed to the ideas, feeUngs, and
habits of the Welsh. The Celtic and Latin ideas never
became fused; and most, if not all, the persons who
consider Welsh questions, regard them from the Latin,

ENDOWMENTS. 405
not the Celtic side. Hence, much of the confusion and
difficulty that has arisen in dealing with questions
relating- to land and church matters in Wales.
Although food rents and glebe formed the chief
items of Church endowment, they by no means
formed the only ones. The Irish laws make a great deal
of first-fruits and firstlings, but these seem never to have
disturbed the Celts of Wales ; and if they existed there,
they were not of the importance they were in Ireland.
The Welsh theory and practice of the hereditary, or
rather the tribal, nature of property in the endowment of
the Church, rather operated against this idea of first-
fruits and firstlings. One result of this idea was to
place the church, in regard to the members of the ecclesi
astical tribe, very much in the position of the chieftain as
regards the lay tribe. Part of the rules of the lay tribe
were that no one could quit the tribe without its leave
expressed through the chief. The reason being, that if a
tribesman left, he would take his property with him ;
that property had, by his being a member of the tribe,
become part of the common fund of the tribe, and could
only be taken away by the consent of the tribe. As in the
EngUsh law, before 1870, "Nemo potest exuere patriam,"
so, according to Celtic ideas, no one could put off his tribe,
for if he could do so, he would deprive the tribe of the
right to his property. The attempt to leave a tribe —
desertion as it was called — was dealt with severely ; it was
only allowed in certain specified cases, some seven in
number, and then only on condition of the renunciation by
the deserter of his share in the tribal property. So that
the tribe was really the gainer by the transaction, the I'ule
being that no act of the tribesman could prejudice the
rights of the tribe, or deprive it of its property. If a man
had been allowed to desert, or leave the tribe, he would

406

ENDOWMENTS.

have deprived the tribe of the right she possessed in him
personally. If a tribesman was injured, the tribe was
entitled to receive a share, which varied in different cases,
of the damages the wrong doer paid for infiicting the
injury. Desertion, therefore, had a two-fold effect on the
tribe. It would, or might be, an actual injury by with
drawing a part of the common property ; it would be a
prospective injury in depriring the Church of its con
tingent right to receive a share of the damages one of its
members would recover if he received an injury. It also
went further ; in some cases, if a tribesman did a wrong,
the pecuniary penalty for it would go, not to the injured
person, but to the Church, and if the tribesman was
allowed to leave the tribe, this also would be lost. The
rights of the Church would, therefore, be affected in
various ways if a person was allowed to sever his con
nection with his Church, his ecclesiastical tribe, at his
pleasure, and so to deprive the tribe actually and
prospectively of its property rights. It was, probably, not
so much out of regard to the individual, as in consideration
for itself, that the rule was so insisted upon ; for if the
tribesman ceased to have any rights, and became by crime,
or other-wise, incapable of receiving damages for injuries,
then there does not seem to have been any difficulty
on his leaving the tribe. As long as he was of money
value, he could not go ; directly he was worthless, he
was able to do so. It is probable that the revenue
the Church would receive under this head would not
be a large one, and against it must be set the liability
that the tribe incurred for any wrong- or injury done by
the tribesman. Yet it was regarded as a valuable right,
and it was one of the sources of revenue that the Welsh
Church claimed and enforced.
Another source of I'evenue the Church possessed was

ENDOWMENTS. 407
the amount the members of the tribe received for doing
the work of the tribe, the fees the members of the Church
would get for performing the services of the Church. It
is not very clear what fees were payable for the different
acts the clergy had to do, but it is, from the codes and
laws, quite clear that fees were payable for various ecclesi
astical acts, and these fees would form part of the common
property of the tribe. Whether the tribesmen could
demand the serrices of the members of the tribe without
fee is not very clear — it would rather seem, especially
from the Irish laws, that they could ; that in return for
the offerings and payments, members were entitled to the
ministrations of the members of the tribe. But, if it was
so, it was strictly confined to tribesmen, and for any
ecclesiastical serrice rendered to any one else there
was some fee, or offering, to be paid, which would
form part of the revenue of the Church, the common
property of the tribe of the Saint. The actual person who
performed the rite was only one of the body whose duty,
or rather, whose business, it was to do it, and to
receive the emoluments for doing it, and he, a tribesman,
could not make a profit for himself out of what belonged
to the tribe as a whole.
Speaking broadly, the endowments of the Welsh Celtic
Church and her sources of revenue would seem to have
consisted in the main of the following items : —
(1.) The profits derived from the lands that were her
property, and which had from time to time been granted,
either to the mother house or to the colony. These might
take the form of produce for the support of the house, or
services rendered, or rent paid by the tenants of the
church. This would be the main source of revenue.
(2.) The payments, originally the gwestva, or food rents,
which the chiefs of the tribe of the land had been entitled

4t)8 ENDOWMENTS.
to receive from the tribesmen who occupied tribal lands,
and which the chief of the tribe of the land had granted
to the tribe of the Saint. These food rents were, first, the
right to be maintained at the cost of the tribesmen for s(.i
many nights. Then a fixed amount of food, varying in
winter and summer, payable whether the person entitled
was entertained or not. Then a fixed money payment in
lieu of supplying the articles of food, and this payment,
which was originally confined to certain lands was
extended by the Latins to apply to all lands, and changed
completely in its nature and incidence from a commutation
for the liabUity to supply food, into a liability to pay a
certain fixed share of produce, that is, tithes.
(3.) The share of the Church in the tribal property, and
in the property of persons who were the members of the
tribe of the Saint. Each tribesman, on being admitted
into the tribe, received thereby certain tribal privileges,
such as a right to a share in the tribal property, and in
return for these, the tribe acquired a right to his
preiperty. These rights could not be alienated ; the tribe
could not deprive the tribesman of his rights ; the tribes
man could not so act as to withdraw himself or his
property from the rights of the tribe.
(4.) The share of the Church in any moneys paid for
injuries to her tribesmen, or, in some cases, to fines and
forfeitures for acts done to her members. If the tribes
man was injui-ed, or murdered, if his slaves, his wife, or
daughter, were injured or defiled, if his cattle were stolen
or killed — m any of these cases, the Church had her
share in the sum paid for the injury received by a member
of the tribe of the Saint, as the man and all that belonged
to him formed part of the common property of the
tribe. (5.) Fees and offerings paid to, or received by, the

ENDOWMENTS. 409
Church for acts done or services rendered by any member
of the tribe of the Saint, for any ecclesiastical duty or
serrice he was called upon to do, or in which the person
paying was allowed to partake.
It will be seen from the above that the chief sources of
the revenues of the Welsh Celtic Church were the profits
of lands which have come down to us as glebe and rents,
and a fixed money payment, which has been, in the
course of time, altered from its original idea, and made to
represent a totally different class of rights, to which a
Divine origin is now ascribed. Whatever may have been
the origin of tithe elsewhere, in Wales, the payment had
nothing in its inception to do with the Church, or with
any right of the Church. It was the tribal liability of
the tribesmen to support the chief, a liability which in
time was commuted into a fixed payment, and which the
Celtic clergy persuaded the Welsh chiefs to grant to them
in certain cases. These payments, from certain localities,
the Latin clergy extended and made universal, and claimed
to be paid as of right, and ascribed to them a Divine
origin. But the Welsh tribesmen who originally made
them, and, probably, the Welsh chieftains who granted
them to the Church, had never heard of tithes or
Melchisedec, and, if they had, would have scouted the idea
that the payments they made for the gwestva had any
thing to do with either. Until the misplaced ingenuity
of the Latin clergy distorted these ancient payments into
tithes, no idea ever existed in the minds of the payer or
receiver that these payments were made for the support
of a priest, or of a church — still less of a parochial clergy.
With the exception that both the food rents and the
tithes were fixed payments, all analogy between them
ceased. But the fact was taken advantage of by the
Latin clergy to apply this idea and this system to a state

410 ENDOWBIENTS.
of things to which it was wholly inapplicable. Wales has
suffered much from having the ideas of the Celtic Church
manipulated by Latins and through Latin channels, but
the case in which she has suffered most, is, probably, in
the change of her old tribal payments into a system for
the support of the class who destroyed her tribal system.

CHAPTER IX.
SAINTS.

A MODERN writer who devoted considerable attention to
the study of the language of the Celtic peoples, states,'
"Nous Savons avec la derniere certitude que les Romains
ont enseigne la reUgion Chretienne aux peuples que nous
avons appeles Celtiques, mais s'ensuit il que tons les mots
employes par les Romains dans I'exposition de leur culte
et de leurs dogmes et qui si trouvent dans les deux
langues soient des emprunts qui les Celtes aient fails
aux Romains?" So far as most ecclesiastical terms go,
this question must be answered in the negative, and in no
case is the negative more emphatic than in the use of the
word " saint." Not only are the Celtic and Latin
meanings of the word essentially different, it might almost
be said diametrically opposed, but the word has also a
distinct meaning in the various Celtic countries. A saint
in Wales was not necessarily a saint in Ireland, and the
Latin Chm-ch would decline to recognize the claims to
sanctity of either Welshman or Irishman. There were
various causes for these diversities : (1) The fact that the
term " saint " had a different meaning at different times
and places. In one, the original signification was retained;
in another, a more developed meaning was given ; in a
third, a peculiar or local signification was attached to the
term; and (2), when it came to be felt that one of the
' Edwardes, Sur les Langues Celtiques, p. vii.

412 S.VINTS.
glories of a Church consisted in the number of saints it
had produced, or could elaim to possess, contending
Churches were inelined, not only to multiply their own
saints, but also to depreciate those of their rivals. In the
distinetions drawn between the Latin and Celtic use of
the term "saint", the great fundamental difference
between the two Churches is again met with, whether the
saints were of local or universal importance. Each Church
desired to settle its own list of saints. The Latins
claimed that the creation of saints was a pririlege
possessed by its head, and by him alone ; that the Pope,
and only the Pope, was the person who could say who
should or should not be aecounted a saint. The Celts,
on the other hand, contended that saintship was a
matter wholly independent of the Pope or of any other
person whatever ; that a saint was born, not made, that he
was an indiridual who held a certain position, or was a
member of some rec(.)gnized family. No two ideas as to
the basis of saintship could differ more -widely.
At first the term " saint " was used to signify a
Christian ; the term " saint " and the term " Christian "
were synonymous. This is certainly the apostolic use of
the word, as in the Pauline epistles which are addressed
to the saints at some particidar place, as " the saints at
Ephesus " ; here the word obviously means all the
Christians there. As Christianity spread, the meaning
of the term became more and more restricted ; it was
confined to some of the leading- members of the Church,
and gradually narrowed down, until, at last, it was only
applied to those exceptionaUy distinguished Christians
whose claims to the name were generally admitted, not
only by the Church to which they belonged, but also by
other Christian Churches. At last, the head of the
Church claimed to possess the power of deciding upon the

SAINTS. 413
right of any indiridual to sanctity, and recognition by
the universal Church. So, gradually, the practice became
settled, that it rested with the Pope, and with the Pope
alone, to say, as head of the Church on earth, whether an
individual was or was not to be accounted a saint. If he
so decided, it followed, almost as a matter of course, that
there should be some formal recognition of the fact, some
ceremony to celebrate the bestowal of the highest title a
mortal could obtain. Hence arose canonization, and the
whole process which is now employed by the Church of
Rome in the declaration that an individual has obtained
admission to the roll of saints. Sueh is the theory of the
Latin Church. In it, saintship is a personal dignity
conferred on those worthy of it by the ecclesiastical
sovereign. This riew of the matter is not of the highest antiquity ;
it does not date back earlier than the tenth century.
Probably St. Ulric, of Augsburg, was one of the first, if
not the first person, to undergo the process of canoniza
tion.' He was enrolled a saint in 993. Mackenzie
Walcott, without citing any authority, takes the process
back nearly two hundred years earlier, to 804, when he
says St. Swibert, of Verda, was formally inserted on the
Ust of saints by Pope Leo III," at the request of Charle
magne. The rules as to canonization that are now in
force in the Latin Church did not become part of the law
of that Church until the Pontificate of Benedict XIV. It
is not necessary here to go into those rules, beyond saying
that their effect is, that the title " saint " is an ecclesiastical
title of honour conferred on the recipient by the highest
ecclesiastical personage upon earth, the sovereign Pontiff,
on account of meritorious acts done by the recipient. It
1 Proceedings Society A7it. Lond., Second Series, xiii, 233.
^ Dictionary of Sacred Archceology, sub nom.

414 SAINTS.
is precisely the same thing as the bestowal of some title,
or honour, on some distinguished statesman or soldier ;
only the title, or honour, is given to the layman during
his life, the saintship is never bestowed until after the
death of the recipient. In addition to those who are
canonized, and those who are universally recognized by
common consent as enrolled on the Ust of saints, there
are a number of persons who are jxjpularly styled saints,
and who are either now, or were, locally reputed to be
such. To this class belong the majority of Celtic saints,
especially the Irish saints. When the BoUandists were
compiling the Acta Sanctorum, they were met by the
question whether or not these persons, who were locally
reverenced, were to be included in the list of saints, and
how the three thousand three hundred saints, who were
with Bishop Gerald in Mayo, were to be dealt with. They
decided not to include these in their Ust ; they give the
reasons for their decision. They say, " the Irish would
not have been so liberal in canonizing dead men in troops
whenever they seemed to be somewhat better than usual,
if they had adhered to the custom of the universal Church
throughout the whole world, and given that honour to
martyrs alone.'" If this rule was to be applied, at least
ninety per cent, of the Celtic saints would be denied the
title. The BoUandists further state the rules entitling
a person to be a saint : "They are to be separately enrolled
in the number of saints who are entitled to be enrolled,
either in obedience to a Pontifical decree, or by public
consent of a Christian people, conrinced of the sanctity of
any one by open and repeated miracles."" They go on to
point out that this rule has been so far departed from by
the Irish, that whole parties of saints were directed to be
enrolled together. So they declined to accept the Irish
1 Acta SS. (Bolland.), March 13, " Vita Geraldi," vol. ii, 293. = IHd.

SAINTS. 415
saints, as such, " without other and weightier proofs of
the public and ecclesiastical cultus, wont to be given to
saints only by the universal Church". In default of this
being forthcoming, they refused to receive the Irish saints
as saints, except in the sense that they died pious
Christians. This view of the BoUandists brings out most clearly the
great distinction between a Latin and a Celtic saint. The
BoUandists base the claim to saintship on two grounds, and
upon only two: (1) a Pontifical decree, and (2), public con
sent of a Christian people, convinced by open and repeated
miracles. As a rule the genuine Celtic saint possessed
neither of these qualifications. His title was not based on
any such grounds. It rested on the fact that he was either
the member of a certain family, or of a certain monastery.
It was not in any way necessary that he should either
have done anything particular, or Uved a particular life of
holiness, to be entitled to the veneration of his country
men. It is essential to bear this distinction in mind ; it
gives an explanation as to several points in connection
with Celtic saints that would otherwise have been wholly
unintelhgible. A Celtic saint was never the person whom
a Celt invoked in prayer ; on the contrary, prayer was
often offered up, not to the saint, but on his behalf. It
followed that a Celtic saint was not in a position to take
any person, or place, under his protection in the same
way as would have been done by a Latin saint. No
churches were dedicated to him, as it was useless to
dedicate churches to a person who could not, or rather
would not, help the faithful, and who was but a man of
like passions with themselves. No prayers were offered
up to him ; they would only be wasted, as he needed them
as much as his votaries. No shrine containing his relics
was set apart on the great festivals of the Church for the

416 SAINTS.
adoration of the faithful, for he was powerless to help
himself, to say nothing of helping others. It is only
when the Celtic saint fell into the hands of Latin scribes
and editors that he was moulded into the shape that
Latin sanctity required, and his biographers found that
the ways of Celtic and the ways of Latin saints were by
no means identical, and that to put the Celtic saint into
a Latin form, the requisites for sanctity had to be invented
or supplied.
It is also to be noticed that the Celt seldom speaks of a
Celtic saint as a saint. Neither in the Tripartite Life of
Patrick, nor in the Senchus Mor, is Patrick, or any other
ecclesiastical person therein mentioned, styled saint.
Patrick, Benen, and Cairnech, is the way these personages
are spoken of, not St. Patrick, St. Benen, and St. Cairnech.
These three great saints are never so designated. It is
one of the tests to apply to the age of an ecclesiastical
document that is said to be Celtic, whether the persons
mentioned in it are or are not called saints. If they are
not, it may be a genuine early Celtic document ; if they
are, the probability is enormous either that it is not, or if
it is, that it has been edited by Latin scribes.' The Latin
saints have always their title " saint " prefixed to their
names, it being a mark of rank, a title of honour ; their
biographers considered they were only describing the saint
jDroperly in using it, and that its use showed the rank of
the indiridual. But as the Celtic writers did not consider
the term to be in any way a mark of distinction or honour
they did not consider it necessary to prefix it. In the eyes
of the Celts it would be far more important to show the
person from whom the saint was descended, than to affix
^ This is not always so, for in the Bangor Antiphojiary, a, service book of
the seventh century, in the text, Patrick, Comgall, and Camlan are not
always spoken of as saints ; but in the heading and in the margin they are.
See H. Bradshaw Society's Publications, x, 14.

SAINTS. 417
to his name a prefix which was common to him and many
others. In the old Irish Ufe of Columba, in the Leabar
Breac, occasionally the prefix saint is used, but usually the
saint is spoken of as Columcille, not Saint Columcille.
The same thing is to be noticed in the case of the old
Welsh saints. In the Achau y Saint, except in a very few
cases, when all the great Welsh saints, such as David,
Teilo, and Deniol are mentioned, the word saint does not
appear. The same remark applies to the Achau y Saint
Cymraig, and where the term is used it is usually in
connection with the name of a person who is not a member
of a recognized family of saints. In the Dimetian Code, at
the end of a sentence an appeal is often made to David ;
it is always in this form, " Dewi of Brevi," or, Dewi of the
Blessed Hill, not to St. David. WhUe, as has been shown,
the rule is not universal, as the prefix, saint, is sometimes
used, yet the genuine Celtic documents are far more Ukely
to be without it than with it. In the Venedotian Cade the
Bishop of Llanelwy is called the Bishop of Asaph, not St.
Asaph.' But in the Dimetian it is Saint Asaph." As the
term occurs in the passage where Hwyel is said to have
gone to Rome to see the Pope, this use of the word saint is
some evidence to show that the passage as to the visit to
the Pope is a later interpolation. In the Venedotian Code,
Beuno, in the Gwentian, Curig, are mentioned -without the
prefix. In the Cyvreithiau Cymru, which are of a later date
than the codes, the distinction is still retained, the saints
Michael, John, and Teilo are spoken of in this way, not as
St. Michael, St. John, and St. Teilo. In the Black Book
of Carmarthen, a twelfth century MS. written in the Priory
of Carmarthen, the Blessed Bridget is spoken of, as would
be expected, not as Ffraid but as St. Fraid {Sanffreid) . -*
^ Andent Lams of Wales, i, 217. ^ Ibid., i, 342.
' Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, ii, 44. E E

¦148

SAINTS.

In the lives of the saints in the Liber Jjandavensis,
a twelfth century work written by Latin monks, the
prefix, saint, is usually given to Teilo, Dubricius,
Oudoceus, and the other saints mentionetl in it. So
it will be seen that in the Welsh documents written
before the eleventh century, that is, in the time of the
freedom of the Celtic Church, the prefix, saint, is usually
omitted, while in Latin documents, after the eleventh
century, the prefix is usually inserted. This is also the
case in Welsh documents written after the eleventh
century by Latin inonks, such as the Black Book of Car
marthen. Thus, while the fact is not to be implicitly relied upon
as a test, it is most useful in showing the estimation that
saints were respectively held in by the Latin and Celtic
Churches, and as indicating the origin of the particular
MS. It is also useful for another purpose. In later MSS.,
those after the eleventh century, the use or absence of the
word gives a clue to the way in which the Latins dealt
with certain local saints. They were desirous of getting
rid of and suppressing a number of the persons who were
locally called saints, and in this way treated both the Celt
and the Saxon alike. This was a favoui-ite practice of
Archbishop Lanfranc. There is in the Evesham Chronicle
a remarkable legend of Abbot Walter, the first Norman
abbot of that house, who, on becoming abbot, found in the
abbey a number of bones of reputed Saxon saints. Being
desirous to get rid of them, and acting on the archbishop's
advice, he tried if they would burn or not ; if they did,
they were disposed of, and their owners were not saints ;
if they did not, then there was a case for further considera
tion.' In Eadmer's Life of Anselm a conversation is
recorded between Anselm and Lanfranc as to the saintship
^ Evesham Chronicle, Rolls series, p. 323.

SAINTS. 419
of Archbishop Elphege, in which Anselm proved to Lan
franc that Elphege was really a saint.' To get rid of
unauthorized saints, Anselm, when archbishop, wrote two
letters forbidding their worship, and that of those so-
called saints who had not received proper episcopal sanc
tion. In the Council of London, in 1102, a canon was
passed against these and other superstitious usages."
Naturally, under these circumstances, the claims of a num
ber of persons to be called saints were disposed of, and only
the most remarkable and celebrated of the local saints,
those recognised by the Latin Church, remained on the Ust.
These provisions, however much they may have affected
the Latins, did not directly affect the Celts. It was one
of the peculiarities of the Welsh saints that there was
never any special cultus of them. They were esteemed as
saints by the Celts, and that was all. It was impossible
for the Latin, strive as he might, to prevent this. The
result was that certain of the Celtic saints in time came to
be accepted by the Latins. In the Martiloge, printed by
Wynkyn de Worde in 1526, which may be taken as the
final list of saints in this country according to the Sarum
use before the Reformation, there are a far larger number
of Celtic saints than would be imagined. To take the first
three months : " In January, Kentigern, Fursey, Fechin,
and Gildas ; February, Bridget, Werberg, Mele, Ryoke,
Finian, Teilo, Bolke, and Ayd ; in March, David, Chad,
Cedde, Cieran, Senan, Fynan, and Finchell. Of course they
are all styled saints in the calendar. It is therefore clear
that, in spite of all the attempts to get rid of them, a num
ber of the Celtic saints held their own until the Reforma
tion, and were, to some extent, recognized by the Latins.
^ Eadmer, in Vita Anselmi, vol. i, p. 10, Paris, 1675.
^ Forbes, Kalendar of Scotch Saints, 1872, pp. xlix and 1.
' Henry Bradshaw Society's Publications, vol. iii, p. xv. E E 2

420 S.UNTS.
The Irish saints, or rather the term " saint", in Ireland,
in early times, seems to have included all the inhabitants
of the monastery ; numbers, troops, as the BoUandists call
them, of saints are represented as being at certain of the
monasteries. The three thousand three hundred with
Gerald in Mayo have already been mentioned. It was
said that with Finnbarr at Lough Irche " as many as the
leaves on the trees are the saints that an^ therein." The
list was not confined to Irish. OEngus the Culdee, in his
Litany, mentions as saints everyone possessing any of the
orders, greater or lesser ; priests, deacons, exorcists,
readers, doorkeepers, inonks, pilgrims, and -whether Irish
or Welsh, Gaul or Roman, all went down as saints in that
most miscellaneous catalogue. It is impossible, when
reading it, to avoid thinking that when he compiled it the
author must have had in his mind the passage in the
Apocalypse referring- to the " great multitude which no
man could number of all peoples, and kindreds, and
nations, and tongues ". The use of the term, saint, in
the Irish Celtic Church may be said to have had its
meaning fixed at the time when monasteries were first
formed, and the fact of belonging to a reUgious house was
sufficient to give a title to sanctity. To this idea the Irish
Celt adhered with all the tenacity of his character, and
this accounts for the extraordinary number of the saints
of the Irish Celtic Church. This Irish use of the word
represents the one extreme, the Latin use, the other, where
the term was limited and kept restricted in the narrowest
way, to a few distinguished persons. It is not a Uttle
remarkable that in Wales neither view, not that of the
Celt nor that of the Latin, was adopted. Here the term
received another meaning, a sort of intermediate point
between the two extremes. In Ireland, the members of
the different monasteries became saints. In Wales, the

SAINTS. 421
members, or some of the members, of certain famiUes did
so. It often happened that they were members of
monasteries as well, and usually in Wales the heads of the
monasteries were saints; but in Wales there does not
appear to have been any general custom, as there was in
Ireland, that all the members were saints, or were so
caUed. There were, therefore, peculiarities belonging to
the Welsh saints that are not to be found either in the
Irish or in the Latin Church. While the Welsh saints
belong to the Celtic group and have nothing in common
with the Latin, yet there are very important differences
between the saints of Ireland and of Wales. It is another
example of the effect of local development of the same
idea which is so often met with in the Celtic Church. The
meaning of the term saint in Wales did not become stereo
typed until a much later date than at which it was in
Ireland, and this produced remarkable results. The Welsh
saints are all comprised in a period of about four hundred
years, from the date of the estabUshment of Christianity to
about A.D. 700. It is not one of the least of the
peculiarities of the Welsh Church that while up to about
A.D. 700 there are some four or five hundred so-called
Welsh saints, after that date only five persons were found
who even claimed to be saints. As to this, various
explanations have been given. The true one is most
probably that the infiuence of the Latin Church was
insensibly making itself felt among the Welsh ; one result
was that they did not care to do, as had hitherto been
done, call a man a saint as of course, either because he
was a monk or because he was the member of a particular
family. The contemptuous sneer of a Latin ecclesiastic
can be imagined on being told of the death of a great
Welsh saint. It was probably sarcasm and ridicule, more
than anything else, that closed the Ust of Welsh saints ;

122 SAINTS.
all those then in existence were retained, but no new ones
were added to the roll. Rees comes to somewhat of the
same conclusion. He says,' " The primitive Chureh of
Wales continued to maintain its existence. But some
four saints about a.d. 700 are its last saints of whom any
aeeount has been preserved. In the latter part of the
next century the Welsh were forced to adopt the Catholic
computation of Easter, and thereby join in eommunion
with the Church ot Rome. Since that time only five
Welshmen have obtained the honour of sanctity, including
Elf'od or Ebbodius, the prelate through whose exertions
the change alluded to was effected."
While it is ineorrect to say that the Welsh Church
joined the Romish communion, or even in the ninth
century ad(_>pted the Latin form of Easter, yet, doubtless,
the result of the Latin teaehing had its effect in, amongst
other things, causing the falling oft' in the number of Welsh
saints ; and the fact that there were only five pers(jiis
worthy of being considered as candidates for eanoiiization,
marks out clearly the clicinge that arose, and that for the
future some special feature would be looked for in any
proposed saint. It was no longer possible that the head
of a particular monastery, or the member of a particular
family, could, as such, become saints ; more was required.
Of the four persons mentioned as candidates for saints,
after 700, two were bishops, one a hermit, and the other a
friar. The extraordinary collapse of the Welsh saints at
the beginning of the eighth century is n(.)t only a matter of
some interest, but also is difficult to account for. Up to
about 700, the Welsh saints were an important body in
the country. Within the next few years, the saints
utterly disappear, and are never revived. This may
possibly be due, as to South Wales, to the fact that the
' Eit.-iaijs on Welsh .^aints. p. 305.

SAINTS. 423
monastic colonies from which the saints came were falling
into the hands of the bishops, who were becoming, or
trying to become, diocesan bishops, and who would do
their best to discourage saints who might possibly become
their rivals. The eft'ect of the more frequent intercourse
between the Welsh and Saxon bishops had caused the
Welsh to copy and to imitate the Saxon, and as saints
were few and far between in England, so the bishops
discouraged them in Wales. This is not a satisfactory
explanation of the matter, and the question why the
Welsh saints so suddenly and completely disappeared, is
one of those in Welsh Church history that still remain to
be satisfactorily answered. The usual explanation is that
the Latins were making such inroads into Wales that the
Welsh were unable to maintain themselves before them,
either in church or state ; but this theory will not meet
the difficulty, simply because it is not true. The Welsh
were holding their own, and holding it well, in spite of
the vanity of their bishops, and the various attempts they
made to copy the Saxons.
At this very time Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury, was
writing against the Celtic Church, and speaking- strongly
against the priests of the Dimetse, or South West Wales,
" dwelling beyond the bay of the Severn, puffed up
with conceit of their own purity do exceedingly abhor
communion -with us".' This shows that the advance of
the Latin Church was not received with favour, that there
was still a considerable resistance to her, and she had not
been too successful. Rees says," that Aldhelm is
alluding to the Welsh saints, when he says, "What
profit can any one receive from good works done out of
the CathoUc Church, although a man would be never so
strict or regular, or retire himself into a desert to practise
' Haddan and Stubbs, ii, 271. ' Welsh Saints, 312.

12 !• SAINTS.
an anchoretical life of contemplation". AVhatever was
the cause, a great change came over the Celtic Church of
Wales at the beginning of the eighth century, and the
result of that change was the cessation of saints. It is
also to be noted that aeeording to the catalogue of Irish
saints, the third order of saints came to an end within
fifty years of the time that the Welsh saints ceased.
"They (the Irish saints) continued ", says the Catalogue,
" to that great mortality, this is usually said to have
been in 666. If this is the date of the termination of the
Irish saints, and about 700 the date for the termination
of the Welsh, it is fair to assume that there was some
eomuion cause that led to the extinction of both bodies.
Something is probably due to the fact that the position of
the inhabitants of the different monasteries was to some
extent changing. The very fact of the saints becoming
hermits, and not founders of monasteries, led to the greater
importance of the existing monasteries and all connected
with thein, and especially of the bishops. Each new
e<.ilony that arose probably was less important than those
that had gone before it ; there was less to get from the
chiefs, and the early zeal of the monks was dying out.
The monastic moveuient had passed its first stage ; the
influence of the abbot was declining, and with it also
declined that of the saint, who was often also the abbot.
The bishop did not necessarily become a saint, as the
abbot did. He did not become the head of the tribe of
the Saint ; his influence was all opposed to the saint as to
a possible rival, and he would do all that he well could to
prevent the increase of saints. There was also another
reason. The influence of the Latin saints began about
this time to make itself felt, as appears from the passage
in the Brut y Tywysogion, that between 710 and 720 a
church at Llanfihangel was consecrated, and in the Brut

S.4.INTS. 4'.:o
y Saesan, where it is said, under 771, "there was conse
crated a church of Michael."' This gives a clue to the
decline in native saints. A belief in charms and incanta
tions, probably borrowed from Pagan times, always formed
a large portion of Celtic belief, especially of that of saints.
The hymn of Columba was said to possess the virtue of
protecting from evil the person who repeated it on a
journey, the Lorica of Patrick shielded those who recited
it from all dangers, ghostly or temporal. Tradition does
not ascribe to any Welsh hymn the same virtues, although
there must have been one possessing them. The belief in
magic, eril spirits, and the power of the saint to protect
Christians from these evils, formed a very strong feature
in the faith of the Celtic Church. Michael was the saint
of the Latin Church who had overcome the Devil, and so
would be regarded by the Celts as the best protector
against the Devil and all his works. Doubtless it is to
this idea that Michael owes his great popularity in Wales.
If any Latin saint was really the saint of Wales, it was
Michael ; no less than ninety-four churches and chapels,
spread over the whole of Wales, are dedicated to him.
Rees points out" that the proportion the Welsh churches
dedicated to St. Michael bear to other churches in Wales
is f-wice as great as those dedicated to St. Michael in
England. In the diocese of Lincoln there are one thousand
five hundred and twenty churches, sixty of which are dedi
cated to St. Michael. In St. David's and Bangor, with
only seven hundred and twenty churches, sixty-four are
dedicated to St. Michael. It is not, therefore, an unfair
inference that the Welsh absorbed into their Ust of saints
any saint who, they began to imagine, possessed any real
value in the way of j)ossible protection from the powers of
vritchcraft and sorcery. It was probable this was done,
1 Rees, Welsh .'ia'ints, 67. ' Ib'id., p. 40.

126 SAIXTS.
not out of any love for Latin Christianity, but to ensure
the possession of a new eliarin against the devil and evil
spirits. When once introduced, the idea that it \\'as
desirable to get the aid of so mighty a protector as St.
Michael rapidly spread. And so, in the same way that the
Celts accepted Christianity as a powerful aid against their
enemies, the Welsh Celts adopted Michael as a powerful
preifeettir against evil spirits. This adoption marks a new
departure in Celtic Church history ; the holding the idea
by Welsh Christians that a saint was a protecttir and
guardian — something more than the mere head of an
ecelesiastical tribe. Once this idea took root and spread,
the days of the native Welsh saints were ruinbered, as
they e(.>uld not and did not oft'er the same advantages to
their patrons.
The peculiarities of the Welsh saints are to some extent
shown l>y the title of one of the Welsh catalogues of them.
It is called Bonedd Saint ynys Prydain, "The gentility of
the Saints of the Isle of Britain." At first it seems
strange te) our ideas that it should be necessary to show
that saints were either of good family ( ir of good birth, as
in our Latin minds there is not any connection between
gentility and sanctity. But birth is one of the special
distinguishing marks of the Welsh saints. The most
important points in connection with them were their birth,
their belongings, and their bringing-up, the fact of their
belonging to a particular family — in a word, their
gentiUty ; if it was not for that the person would not have
been a saint. The same idea is found in connection with
Patrick. There is an Irish song which states " St. Patrick
was a gentleman and came of decent people." The same
idea is found in the Life of Cadoc. When he went to
Scotland, a sort of mythical personage is said to have met
him, who was reported to have been a saint. To test him.

SAINTS. 427
Cadoc asked, " What saint art thou '? and of what family
art thou descended ? "
Out of the Ust of saints, Rees has tried to construct a
most ingenious and most interesting account of the Welsh
saints, collecting all the dift'erent facts relating to them,
and arranging the saints in strict genealogical order. It
is impossible with such materials as we possess, to do this
more than approximately, but the greatest credit is due to
Rees for what he did, for, by reducing unmeaning Usts of
names into something like order, he first made any
systematic study of the Welsh saints practicable.
Although many of the details relating to the saints are
clearly inaccurate, and it is extremely probable that
numbers of the persons mentioned, such as Lucius and
the Blessed Bran, never existed, yet the tables bring out
clearly the principles on which Welsh sanctity was based,
and cast very important side lights, both on the ecclesi
astical and political history of the country. It is true
there are various matters, some of which are quite un-
historic, others of which are quite unintelligible ; yet, in
spite of this, enough remains to show what were the
rules as to Welsh saints. One special peculiarity, which
seems the key to the whole question, deserves careful
attention ; the saints, as a rule, are not natives, but
foreigners, and come from one or other of two great
sources — either Picts or Bretons. H any saints are
really of pure Welsh blood, their number is very small in
deed. In the Achau Saint Cymreig, three great families are
mentioned, as those from whom the Welsh saints are sup
posed to have sprung; these families are spoken of as " the
three great stocks of the saints of the Island of Britain,
the children of Brychan, the children of Cunedda, and the
children of Caw of Britain ".' Assuming that these are
' Cambro-British Saints, p. 601.

428 SAINTS.
the stocks from which Welsh saints sjDrang, it will be
noted that none of these are Welshmen, all are foreigners.
Cunedda was a Pict, he came from the north ; it is
stated in the Historia Britonum,' that the Seots who
occupied Dyfed Gower and Cetgueli, were driven out by
Cunedda and his sons. Some time about the period when
the legions were withdrawn from Britain (409), Cunedda
left the north, or that part of it called Manau Guotodin,
and began his march towards Wales. Cardiganshire,
Pembrokeshire, and Carmarthenshire formed the territory
where Cunedda estabUshed himself, and his family ruled
those districts. Cunedda was probably a Piet, and it is
very doubtful -whether the Picts of that date were
Christians. Be that as it may, this family of Pictish
immigrants and their descendants formed one of the
stocks from which Welsh saints sprang. The persons
who were conquered or expelled by the family of Cunedda,
were probably Irish (Scotti), and this may be the cause
of the very intimate connection that existed between
Ireland and South Wales. One thing is clear amongst
much that is obscure — that a family of northern Celts
were the conquerors of South West Wales, and that this
family became one of the great, if not the greatest, stock
of Welsh saints. The infiuence of this family was
very considerable, both in the civil and ecclesiastical
history of Wales. In all early Welsh ecclesiastical
history, the Cunedda family played an important part.
No less than about fifty saints were, or were said to be,
meinbers of this family. It must be remembered that,
though Celtic and GoideUc, and probably of the same
race as the Welsh Goidels, yet the Cunedda family were
both strangers and conquerors in Wales. They naturally
introduced their own reUgious ideas. The fact that they
' ycitnius, c. xiv.

SAINTS. 429
produced such a crop of saints affords very good grounds
to answer the question. Who and what Welsh saints
were ? They were all members of the tribe of the
conquerors, and not strictly Welshmen at all. Patriotic
Welshmen, feeling this difficulty as to the nationality of
Cunedda's family, try to establish that through his
mother, Gwael, Cunedda was related to the Welsh, and
entitled to the chieftainship of the tribe of Coel Godebog.'
This is, however, pure conjecture, and, even if true, it is
open to the serious objection that the right of succession
to tribal rights did not, according to the Welsh rules,
generally pass through females. The sons of Cunedda
extended his conquests, and a large slice of the country
fell under their rule. It is assumed by Rhys that
Cunedda was a Christian," and a poem in the Book of
Taliessin may be cited in support of this view." But
beyond the fact that he was the great conqueror of South
Wales, little is really kno-wn of him ; there is plenty of
legend ; he is said to have been the son of Edern.' But
nothing is really known beyond the fact that he was the
great founder of a line of saints. According to Rees,' of
Cunedda's eleven children none were saints, but of his
grandchildren there were four, and of his great-grand
children more became saints, or, to put it otherwise,
although none of Cunedda's sons were saints, yet there
were four out of thirteen of his grandchildren, and nine
teen out of twenty-two of his great-grandchildren. So
that one of the qualifications required in South Wales for
saintship was, being a descendant of Cunedda Weledig,
an alien Pict.
The second of the great stock of Welsh saints was
1 Rees, Welsh .faints, 109. ' Celtic Britain, 24.j.
' Skene, Four Ancient Books of Wales, i, 257.
* Ibid., 1,258. * Welsh Saints, IU.

430 SAINTS.
Brychan, " the mysterious Brychan and his family", as
they are called by Mr. Skene.' Brychan is said to have
been" the son of Anllech Goronog, a Gwyddel, by
Marchell, a daughter of Tewdrig, King of Garthniadryn, a
district forming part of what is now called Bi-eet)nshire.
Rees conjectures that his father was one of the captains
of a 1x1 nd of Irish pirates who, at that date, were in the
habit of making forays into Wales. Both Cunedda and
Brychan were foreign(M-s, and legend has tried to get over
this difficulty by eonneeting them with Wales through
their mothers. One version as to Brychan is that his
mother, Machell, went or was taken to Ireland, where she
married Aulach, son of Cormae, King of Ireland. Their
son, Bryehan, came over to Wales and established himself
in Breconshire. Here he was in the midst of a far more
Welsh population than dwelt in the Cunedda districts.
The date of his descent into Wales was about 410,
nearly the same time as that of Cunedda.. Brychan was
thus, like Cunedda, a foreigner and a conqueror who
established himself in South Wales, and became one of
the great stocks of Welsh saints, the great difference
between him and Cunedda being the different races they
respectively represented. Brychan had three wives, and
writers differ as to the number of his children. The
lowest number mentioned is twenty-four, the highest
forty-nine, of which twenty-four were sons and twenty-
five daughters. According to our ideas, at least four of
his sons were iUegitimate ; that, however, made no differ
ence with the Celts -with regard to their claims to being
saints. In the Bonedd y Saint no less than twenty-seven
of Brychan's children are said to be saints. In the
Cognacio, Brychan is stated to have been converted by an
Irishman, Brynach, and it is remarkable that all through
^ Skene, i, 43. ' Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 112.

SAINTS. 431
the Brychan legend there is a constant reference to Ireland
and Irish Christianity. It, therefore, seems to foUow that
this great saint-producing family were foreigners who
established themselves in Central Wales, and who spread
a Christianity among the Welsh, which, if not pure Irish,
was yet something very closely related to it, as opposed to
the Pictish Christianity introduced by the Cunedda tribe.
The head of the third stock of saints was Caw. He was
also a foreigner. He is said to have come to Wales from
the district represented by the modern county of Renfrew.
The legend says he was driven out of his home by the
Gwyddel fichti, migrated to Wales, and settled in Anglesea,
where Maelg-svn Gwynedd gave him lands. He had, it is
said, twenty-eight sons, nine of whom gave themselves up
entirely to war, and the other nineteen are said to have
become saints, as did also his four daughters.
These three stocks of Welsh saints were, therefore, all
foreigners, two from the North and one from Ireland ; and
doubtless they and their foUowers had a considerable
infiuence on the country in which they dwelt by the habits
and customs they brought with them. No wonder that
differences in religious belief existed among the Welsh
tribes, when at the head of each tribe were men who had
derived their Christianity from different sources. It is
not necessary to go any further to look for variations in
the religious rites of the Celts, than to state the fact that
the founders of the three stocks of saints all represented a
different tribe, and so different religious rites. Practically,
these three men and their famiUes held Wales, and from
these three men by far the larger number of Welsh saints
claimed descent. It is not a little remarkable that during
the great saint period of Wales no native saint appears.
All of the saints seem to trace, and to be proud of tracing,
their descent from one or other of these three foreign

432 SAINTS.
stocks, according to the part of Wales to which they
belonged. The total number of Welsh saints is over six
hundred, and out of these no less than about one hundred
and fifty trace, or claim to trace, their descent from one or
other of these three families. So it is said with truth
that these three families were the real stocks of descent of
Welsh saints ; but this is only another way of saying the
same thing, that to become a saint in Wales it was neces
sary to prove your descent from one or other of the three
saintly famiUes, none of whom are really Welsh ; that is,
you must establish yourself to be a foreigner before you
could become a real Welsh saint. From this it follows
that it was not personal hoUness, nor any idea of a pious Ufe,
that made a man a Welsh saint. It was birth, and birth
alone, without which he could not be a saint ; with it, he
could be, irrespective of everything else. This fact places
the Welsh saints in a very different position from that of
the saints of any other country, even from other Celtic
saints, and, united -with the local and tribal ideas of the
particular family, it fully explains the difference and
divergencies that existed among the Welsh saints. The
foreign element in the Welsh saints does not solely rest
on these three stocks. Saints from Ireland continually
passed and re-passed into Wales, and, doubtless, they
helped to keep alive the pugnacious spirit of the Celt.
Another external element was brought to bear upon
Christianity in Wales, which had a considerable effect,
both on the Church and on the saints. Certainly twice,
and it is probable oftener, a body of missionaries, or
saints, came from Brittany to Wales. The great im
migration came with Cadvan, from about 500 to 520.
Rees conjectures that as many of the saints were men of
princely families, they came over here because, having
lost their property in the wars of those times, they took to

SAINTS. 433
religion as a profession.' All that can safely be said is,
that Rees' conjecture is very plausible. The leaders of
the first group of Breton immigrants were Cadvan, Cynon,
Padarn, Tydecho, and his sister Tegfedd ; these are the
names best known ; Rees gives the names of some thirty-
two others. They are said to have been selected from
two tribes, the children of Emyr Llydaw, and the child
ren of Ithel Hael, both Ai-morican princes.
Assuming the figures as to the numbers of the Welsh
saints to be anything approaching accuracy, a very large
proportion of them were either foreigners, or the descend
ants of foreigners, or else came from Ireland or Brittany ;
that is to say, that the Welsh saints were not Welsh
at all, but foreigners, and their descendants could not,
in accordance -with the strict Welsh tribal rules, become
members of any Welsh tribe. They formed, therefore,
a group apart from the Welsh, and did not belong
to Wales. The idea of a saint was introduced into
Wales by her conquerors, and was not in any sense a
native idea. The fact that the saint was a foreigner, and
so could not be a member of a lay tribe, may therefore
form the explanation of one very peculiar feature in
Welsh saintship. It almost seems to have been considered
a qualification for a Welsh saint that he should be of
questionable, if not illegitimate, origin. In any account
of a Welsh saint, his biographer, instead of glossing over
the blot in his birth, brings it forward and glories in it.
This is stated by Jones and Freeman in the History af
St. David's ; they say, speaking of Rhyddmarch's Life of
David, " we are struck at once by several features which
it has in common -with many of the specimens of British
hao-iography with which we are acquainted, the saint is the
son of a local prince or chieftain, his origin is rather
1 Welsh Saints, 218. E F

134 SAINTS.
scandalous".' They do not attempt to offer any explana
tion of the point, nor why it is that Welsh chroniclers do
their best to make out, as if it was a mark of distinction,
that a saint was the result of some intrigue. Several ex
planations can be offered. A simple one may be, that it
was done out of a spirit of opposition to the Latin Church.
She, to her great glory, has always insisted so strongly on
the necessity for, and the sanctity of, marriage, that the
Celts, in their opposition to the Latin ecclesiastics, might
be led to boast of and to glorify their custom that the status
of legitimate and illegitimati^ children was practically the
same. The objection to this is that the idea of saintly
illegitimacy seems to have existed before the date of
Augustine's mission to these islands.
Another, and possibly a more correct explanation is
drawn from that most curious right of the Irish Celtic
Church, the right of firstlings. The Church included in
her claim the first-born of a woman, if a son. In later
times the right was confined to the first-born of a marriage,
but probably in its earUer form the right included all
chUdren, whether born from a marriage or not ; the con
stant reference to the birth of a saint being the first-born
child (although illegitimate, according to our idea) of a Cel
tic maiden may probably have some reference to this right.
Another explanation may be that of conquest. A
Welsh chieftain carried off a girl, and either in the shape
of a thankoffering, as sacrificing the results of his ex
pedition, or as an expiation and atonement for his deeds,
he might offer " the fruit of his body for the sin of his
soul ". Or it is possible that in some way — although now
it is difficult to trace it — the questionable birth of the
Welsh saints may have had some connection with some
religious — probably Pagan — idea.
^ Jones and Freeman, 250.

SAINTS. 4."!5
Another view is, the foreign origin of the saint. He
had to be either the child of one of the three great stocks,
a member of the families of Cunedda, Brychan, or Caw, or
a foreigner, that is, he had to be a person who was not one
of the local tribes. The illegitimate offspring of one of
the women of the tribe would answer admirably to this
description. He would be related to the tribe, but he
would not be one of the tribe, yet he could, if necessary,
become a tribesman. The tribe would remember that the
early saints were not tribesmen, and so would consider
that the fact of not being a tribesman was a necessary
qualification for saintship. The illegitimate child of one
of the women of the tribe would have a right to become a
tribesman, but would be a stranger until he was admitted ;
he woidd therefore have the great qualification that he
was not a member of the tribe. It will be borne in mind
that all the children of the saintly famiUes were not saints,
it was only that saints were all children of these famiUes.
It is not asserted that all the children that were saints
were illegitimate ; the eridence does not quite go that
length. But it is asserted that, originally, saints were
strangers, and not tribesmen ; that this idea lingered on
in the tribes until the fact alone remained after the
reason for the fact had vanished. As illegitimate children
are not members of the tribe, but only in a position to
become members, so a saint, who was iUegitimate, was in
a position to become a member, if circumstances required
it, and was also in the position to become a saint, as being
outside the tribe. As it is plain that iUegitimacy was
almost a mark of saintship, in default of a better reason,
this may be the explanation.
A further distinction has to be noticed between a saint
of one of the three great stocks, and a saint who was an
immigrant into the country. A saint descended from one

436 SAINTS.
of the stocks or families, usually became the founder of a
family of saints, who, in their turn, also lieeaine saints,
and appear to have been entitled to do so, as, in accordance
with Welsh ideas, saintship, within certain restrietions, was
hereditary. It is a common thing to find a person called
a saint who is the son of some person who had been a
saint. The rights and privileges attached to the position,
like all such positions in early society, becoming, or
tending to beeome, hereditary. Thus, descent from an
acknowledged saint seems to have been regarded as
giving a man a good title to become a saint. This is,
however, only a, recognition of the fact that the original
saint was the founder of a family or tribe of the Saint,
and that his children carried on the rights and duties he
possessed as members of his family or tribe. The fact of
membership of the tribe of the Saint gave them the right
to call themselves by the distinctive name of the tribe,
which was that of saint. With the Armorican saints this
was not the case ; they represented no tribe or family —
they only represented themselves. They were not members
of, or connected with any, recognized Welsh tribe, and
had no tribal rights, no claim to be admitted to such
rights. If they became, which was rarely the case,
founders of a family or tribe, then they would have the
saint's privileges to leave to their children, but it was the
exception if they settled down ; so if they did not,
they had nothing to leave, and all their rights died
with them. Saintship was not individual property,
nor a private title, and could not be left or bestowed as
the holder liked, even if, which is doubtful, he could, in
those days, bestow or leave any property. Saintship did
not descend to a son because he was the son of his father,
but because, being the son of his father, he was also a
member of his father's tribe. It did not concern the

SAINTS. 437
Welsh to what tribe the Armorican saints belonged; it
was quite enough that it was not a recognized Welsh tribe,
the saint did not trace his descent from one of the three
holy stocks of Wales. This distinction between the
position of the foreigners who came and conquered, and
the foreigners who came and preached, is of more im
portance than at first appears, for it indicates plainly the
nature and basis of Welsh saintship ; the foreign origin
of the three great stocks of descent, and the position of
the Armorican missionaries, tend to explain some of the
peculiar customs and ideas that prevailed in connection
with Welsh saints.
As has already been said, two out of the three holy
families, those of Cunedda and Brychan, belong to South
Wales, and the other, Caw, to North Wales. The im
portance of the Brychan family lies in its connection with
Llandaff, the alleged founder of that house, Dubricius, hav
ing been a son or a grandson of Brychan ; and the family
of Brychan became the tribe of the land which was brought
into relation with the tribe of the Saint, through Dubricius.
Probably on the Brychan territories all the earliest of the
great Welsh monasteries were founded : Llancarvan, Llan
iltyd, Caerworgan, Llandaff. It was, therefore, to be
expected that the Brychan family would be exalted in
Welsh ecclesiastical records, for the family of Brychan
under the Celtic rules of the succession to the abbacy
might at any time find itself called upon to supply from
its members an abbot for any or all of these great Welsh
monasteries. Such being its position, it was obviously
entitled to call itself one of the holy families of Wales.
This fact explains the passage already cited from the
Triads, which has caused some difficulty to Welsh anti
quaries, as to the education of Brychan's children and
grandchildren. Bryehan is said to have educated them to

438

SAINTS.

qualify them to show the faith of Christ to the nation of
the Cymry wherever they were without the faith.' That is,
he educated them so as to be fit to take charge of the then
centres of devotion and learning', the Glamorganshire
monasteries and their offshoots. He recognized that at
any time he might be called upon to supply this want, and
educated his chUdren so as to be able to do it. As Brychan
was the chief of the tribe of the land, any of his sons or
grandsons, if fit, might be selected to take charge of any
of the religious houses ; if they were not fit, the right to
take such charge passed away from the Brychan family to
strangers. To avoid this, Brychan took steps to have his
children fitted for their task. It would, perhaps, be going
further than the evidence warrants to say that the
members of the tribe who were fitted to assume the abbacy
as opposed to those who took up other pursuits were desig
nated saints, but it does seem that the term " saint " was
used as a distinctive name to show the class out of which
the selection might be made. This view, that certain of
the children of Brychan formed a class out of which selec
tions might be made, explains two other points ; first, how
it was that all the children were not saints. They deter
mined to devote themselves to other duties, and so put
themselves outside the class from which the selection was
made, and as the term " saint " was confined to this class,
it did not apply to those who were not included in it ; and
the second point is only a further extension of the same
idea, that females were not usually quaUfied to form part
of the class, and so did not belong to it, and hence, not
being members of the class, were not called saints.
Female saints in Wales are the exception, not the rule,
and the same is so in other Celtic countries. But of
the Welsh female saints by far the largest portion are
1 Rees, 137.

SAINTS. 439
daughters or grand-daughters of Brychan. It will be
remembered that the Triad di-aws no difference between
the sexes in the account it gives of the bringing up of
Brychan's children. This is, it is true, but very weak
ground to rely upon, but it does furnish some explanation
of what is a very extraordinary fact, that, while as a rule,
there are very few female Welsh saints, in the Brychan
family they are very numerous, because he had his children,
both sons and daughters, so brought up as to fit them to
become members of the class whose members were called,
and reputed to be, saints. The fact of the small number
of the Welsh female saints is very striking ; so far no
reason has been assigned for it, but it is obvious to anyone
who studies the subject that some reason must have
existed, and it seems not improbable that the rule which
limited the number of men, or rather, confined the class to
a particular set of men, also operated to exclude women.
This, at least, seems to be the simplest explanation of the
fact of the scarcity of female saints. The small number
of females that, in accordance with Celtic ideas, were
sauits, seems to have shocked the feelings of the Latin
writers who revised and edited the Uves of the Welsh
saints, and led them to keep up the credit of the Welsh by
endeavouring to pass off as Welsh saints a number of
persons who either had no real existence, or, if they
existed, had nothing whatever to do with Wales.
Thus at Llwyngyrion, in Cardiganshire, St. Ursula and
her virgins are said to have landed, and so to have become
Welsh saints. St. Winifred, whose existence is almost as
great an exercise of faith as her miracles, and whose
connection with Wales is still more so, has also been
brought in to supplement the list of females. One female
Celtic saint, however, deserves notice ; the Blessed Bridget,
or Bride, as she was called in Wales. She is by far the

440 SAINTS.
most celebrated of the female Celtic saints, whether judged
by the early accounts of her management of the Kildare
monastery or by the later accounts of Celtic writers.
These last seem to have been invented for a deliberate
purpose. When Celtic Christianity encountered the Latin
Church, the Celt soon found himself at a terrible dis
advantage in having no person that could in any way
be j)ut forward to occupy the position the Blessed Virgin
held in the Latin Church. The Celt felt, and felt truly,
that if the battle was to be carried on under anything like
equal terms this defect must be remedied. Therefore the
Celt elaborated Bridget. Her story, it is true, by no means
represents the loftiest idea of female holiness, and it is quite
possible that in the narrative some traces <.)f Paganism
may be found ; yet, for want of a better, she has been the
favourite female saint of the Celts, the representation of
the highest Celtic ideal of female sanctity, an ideal that
may seem to us to be by no means one of the loftiest.
Several points in her legend deserve notice, as they bring
out the same ideas as to the nature of saintship that have
been pointed out in reference to the male saints. Her
mother was a slave to Dubhthach, who was descended from
a common ancestor with Niall of the nine hostages, a chief
of the Hy Niall, the same tribe as that to which Columba
belonged. Like other Celtic saints, Bridget was iUegiti
mate. Her mother was, before her birth, sold to a Druid,
and here it is that probably most of the Pagan ideas to be
met with in her Ufe arise. She was subsequently freed by
her master, and is then said to have been consecrated a
nun by having the form of ordaining a bishop read over
her. The great exploit of her life was the founding the
celebrated monastery of Kildare. This i>ai-t of her
biography is noteworthy, as showing, what is seen more
clearly in the Welsh saints, that she exercised tribal rights

SAINTS. 441
quite irrespective of the fact of her illegitimacy ; that no
position in Ufe, however low, not even that of a slave, will
deprive a person who is entitled to them of tribal rights.
In the Senchus Mor, in the tract on the law of social con
nexion, there is a curious passage,' probably an interpola
tion, relating to Bridget. It states the cases where the
full eric fine is to be paid in cases of the connexion between
a man and a woman by force or secrecy ; it gives as an
instance the case of a young nun who has not renounced
her veil, and the gloss adds, " For a young nun who has
not renounced (her veil or) her nunship, one half of the
honor price to the tanist successor of Bridget." This
clearly means to the elected successor of Bridget, the tan
ist, that is, the eldest and fittest of the class, being elected
out of the class. The eric fine and the honor price went to
the head of the tribe, and, if the passage is not an inter
polation, it would show that the tanist successor of
Bridget, that is, the head of the Kildare house, had some
claim to be regarded as the chief of a kind of female
ecclesiastical tribe, and so entitled to these fines. The
matter is very obscure, but the passage points to a further
extension of the tribal idea that as the male monasteries
were supposed to belong to the ecclesiastical tribe of the
founders of the original house, so, by analogy, there was a
female ecclesiastical tribe, to which all monasteries that
were either houses of females, or had a female side,
belonged ; that the head of the Kildare house (the tanist
successor of Bridget) was the head of the ecclesiastical
tribe, that for any injury a nun sustained, the compensa
tion went to the Kildare house as such head. It is not the
least curious part of the matter that Kildare was a double
monastery, having both male and female inmates ; but
what were Bridget's rights as to the males is not stated.
1 Ancient Laws of Ireland, ii, 407.

442 SAINTS.
There is hardly any matter which has been the subject
of wilder speculation than the fire which was said to be
kept perpetually burning in Bridget's monastery at Kil
dare ; but, if the fact mentioned above, that Bridget was
the head of an ecclesiastical tribe, and was so regarded by
the Irish, is correct, the explanation of the fire may be very
simple, and one that has but Uttle to do with religion. In
that remarkable tract, the Crith Gabhiaeh,' which treats of
the organization of the old Irish tribes, it is stated that
social grades are derived from the similitude of ecclesi
astical orders ; every order in the Church is to have a
corresponding one in the people. In specifying the duties
of one class of chiefs, the Mbruighfher, one of the privi
leges he possessed was to have " ever-living fire " mthout
borrowing. This implies that the right to have fire always
burning was a right, indicating a chief of a certain social
rank. In the same way, in the ecclesiastical tribe, the
right to have an ever-burning fire might be a mark of
social rank and distinction, even if connected with
religious worship. This is the case not only in the Irish,
but also in the Welsh laws. No one could take fire
without leave. No one might give fire without first
knowing what was to be done -with it." The right to
have fire was the right of the chief, and he suppUed it to
his tribesmen. It might be in this way that Bridget, as
the chief of a tribe, possessed the right to have fire at
Kildare, even although there was another reason, such as
analogy from the vestal worship.
In the second great family of saints, that of Cunedda,
whose territory comprised Cardiganshire, Pembrokeshire,
and West Carmarthenshire, the stock of saints is stated
in the Achau y Saint as consisting of some fifteen persons.
One peculiarity about them is that, unlike those of Bry-
' Ancient Lams of Ireland, iv, 311. ' Ancient Lams of Wales, i, 261.

SAINTS. 443
chan's family, it is the exception to find the sons saints,
but all or most of the grandsons and their childi-en were.
The most important and most numerous branch was that
of Ceredig, which numbered amongst its members David,
Dogmael, Tyssul, Teilo, and Gwynlly w. Among them they
gave the names to the majority of the churches in their
territory, and furnish a good instance of how the family of
the chief made itself locally felt both in civil and ecclesi
astical matters. Ceredig conquered Cardiganshire ; the
Cardiganshire churches bear the names of the sons of
Ceredig. There are great differences between them and
the Brychan family of saints, and the difference is too
marked to be due to accident, or anything but design. In
the Brychan family it is the children who are saints, the
grandchildren hardly appearing in the list. In the Cunedda
family the bulk of the children are warriors, not saints,
but the grandchildren and their descendants are mainly
saints, and not warriors. Whatever may be the true in
ference to be drawn from these facts — whether that the
territory of Brychan was converted before the territory of
Cunedda, is not clear. But the fact is at least established
that in the early homes of Celtic Christianity in Glamor
ganshire, from the Brychan influence, Christianity was
stronger than elsewhere. Cardiganshire was converted
later. Cunedda being a Northern Pict, such Christi
anity as he possessed was derived from another source than
that of Brychan ; so the Christianity of the Cunedda dis
trict would vary considerably from that of Brychan. If
Ceredig was a Christian, which Patrick's letter to him makes
a matter of some doubt, there may be grounds for the con
jecture that the efforts that he and other Celts made to
conquer the country were to some extent due to the in
ducements the ecclesiastics held out to him to put down
Paganism, and the clerical aid given hiin in his work may

414 SAINTS.
account for the fact of so many of his grandsons becoming
saints. There is hardly a female saint in the Ceredig
family, or in an}' of the branches of it. A more striking
contrast between the two families of Brychan and Cunedda
could nt)t well be imagined. Both were foreigners who
came and settled, or more probably conquered, parts of
South Wales. It was by e(mquest that they established
both themselves ami their Christianity, and it is an instance
of llo^v much more tribal ideas prevailed than Christian, to
find that the South Wales saints did not try to trace
their descent from the saint or person who converted
the country to Christianity, but gloried in their Pagan
ancestors, and traced back their descent to them. Being-
Christians and saints was the accident of their position,
and was not considered as anything to boast of ; their real
glory was that they were the descendants of such mighty
conquerors as Cunedda and Brychan.
In considering these two famiUes there is another point
to be noticed. It has been said that it is most likely,
having regard t(.) the seairees from whence they derived
their Christianity, that the ideas of the two families would
be different. This divergence, and the rivalry between
the two, was probably the beginning of the long contest
between the two sees of Llandaff and St. David's.
Roughly, the modern diocese of Llandaff represents the
territor}' of Brychan, although a good deal of it extended
into what is now St. David's. The territory of Cunedda
would also very roughly represent the diocese of St.
David's. Brychan and his followers represented the Irish
branch of the Celtic Church ; Cunedda and his people,
the Scottish. What were the differences then existing
between the two, it is now most difficult to say, but it
will probably not be wrong to state that dift'erences did
exist between these two branches, and these differences, with

SAINTS. 445
the rivalry between the two families, would lead the way
for the jealousy and quarrels that so long existed between
the two bodies, and a.fterwards between the two dioceses.
The third of the stock of Welsh saints, that of Caw,
opens out other matters connected with the Welsh Celtic
Church. Caw, like Cunedda, was a Northerner driven out
of his home by the Irish, the Gwyddel. He retired into
Wales and settled in Anglesea. In one of the accounts he
is himself called a saint. One of his sons, Aneurin, was
present at the battle of Cattraeth, whence he escaped and
was afterwards taken prisoner, rescued by Ceneu, went to
South Wales and joined the monastery of Llancarvan,
from whence Welsh writers make him emerge as the
historian Gildas. From Llancarvan he went with Cadoc
to the Steep and Flat Holmes islands, in the Severn Sea,
and ultimately to Glastonbury, where he wrote his history.
Caw is said to have had five daughters and eighteen sons
who were saints, and nine others who devoted themselves
to war, and were not included in the Ust of saints. Rees
seems to be of opinion ' that under the list of the children
of Caw his grandchildren, and perhaps other relations, are
included, who were his followers and disciples and who
composed his clan, the number of his reputed children
being too large to be credible.
The consideration of these three saint-producing stocks
brings out some very interesting facts with regard to the
origin of Welsh saints. As has been already said, each of
the three, Cunedda, Brychan, and Caw, were not Welsh
men; each is said to have been driven out of his own
country, and sought Wales as a refuge from his enemies ;
each, either by conquest or by cession, acquired consider
able territory in Wales, where they established some
kind of authority; each was the father of a number of
1 Welsh Saints, 232.

446

SAINTS.

descendants, some of whom were saints, others warriors,
some the heads of the tribe of the land, some the heads of
the tribe of the Saint. The children and descendants of
the conquerors acted on the j)rinciple, the spoils for the
victors, and some took the temporal, others the eei'l(>si-
astical spoils ; one thing is quite clear, that in one
way or the other, nothing was allowed to escape from
their grasp ; everything was to be for the advantage
of the family or tribe. Nothing could show more clearly
the tribal nature of the Welsh saints than the fact here
brought out so strongly, to keep the spoils of war in the
hands of the tribe a number of warriors and a number of
saints were required ; the tribe was equal to the emergeney,
and evolved the warriors and saints, who kept their grasp
on the conquered eountry, and did not permit anything to
pass from their hands into those of the conquered Welsh.
Probably the reUgious ideas and observances of each of
these tribes differed, but they had one thing in common —
under no circumstances would they permit their hold on
the conquered country, or their power over the conquered
people, to be relaxed. With the aid of the saint and the
warrior they retained their position. The history of these
three families deserves most careful study, it -will yield
important results in early Welsh history, and bring out
a good deal that has been neglected or overlooked —
how three foreigners, by the aid of the sword and of
religion became the source for the Venedotian, Gwentian,
and Dimetian saints. If, at first sight, it appears to be
peculiar that the family of a powerful chief should divide
into two branches — the lay and the ecclesiastical, the
warrior and the saint — it must be borne in mind that their
religion was not the idea of universal brotherhood, or of
peace and goodwill, but how the fortunes of the tribe
could best be advanced ; the warriors assumed the

SAINTS. 447
temporal arm, the saints the spiritual, and their whole
object was to promote the prosperity of the tribe and
tribal interests. This seems to have been the regularly
recognized and accepted state of things. Those who took
to religion founded a monastic establishment for the tribe,
where they, their wives and children, resided. This ap
pears to have been the state of things in Northumberland,
among the Celts there. And there is no reason to suppose
that it was not also the case among the Celts elsewhere.
It would be what we should expect to find, and is doubtless,
with some local differences, a true description of what
was found in Wales and Ireland. In his Epistle to Egbert,
the Archbishop of York, Bede, referring to the Celtic
religious communities, begs him to put them do-wn, for he
says they amounted to a scandal. It is, however, obvious
that it was far easier to talk about putting down such a
state of things than to do it. As long as the right of
succession to the headship of the monastery was of an
hereditary nature, the right to become a saint was something
to which, after a Ufe of crime, the Celtic robber would look
forward as a means of quieting all his fears, and silencing
all his scruples ; he was not likely to give it up to please
either bishop or priest. The chief could end his days
in a combination of luxury and piety, and the system
probably gave him what he valued most, the right to die in
the odour of sanctity. To this must be ascribed the great
desire of every Celtic saint, and also every Celtic chief, on
learing the monastery where he was brought up, to found
one of his o-wn. There were, in those days, but few ways
of making oneself famous, the two main ones being by
victories -with the sword, or by victories as a saint, but the
best and the most certain mode was the combination of
the two — a life of plunder, a death as a saint.
The view put forward that the saint was of necessity

448 SAINTS.
a member of the chieftain's family, and that only members
of that family could be saints, explains to some extent
how it is that so great importance was attached in the
early Welsh histories to the genealogies and descents of
these families. The amount of genealogical matter in
them is out of all proportion to what we should consider
as necessary or important. When it is borne in mind that
their genealogies were the title deeds of the chief, or of
the saint, to fill the one or other of those two offices ;
that they disclosed who were the persons out of whom
the successors to king or saint were to be chosen, if it
was necessary to make a choice, the importance that was
paid to these genealogies is at once apparent. To us they
may appear but a tangled record of names, but that is
because we do not recognize that upon them turned the
vital question of those days — the possible chance a man
had to be a saint or a sovereign ; but for this the class
from which the saint was to be selected would have had
almost indefinite expansion ; but for this the saintship could
not be kept select or the power retained in the hands of
the original saint's descendants. Probably a good deal of
these genealogies are fictitious, and it is as well to
receive any particular genealogy with great distrust, as
the historians of St. Darid's say they do that of Darid
himself.' But yet, in all probability, these genealogies
represent the tribal tradition, and are mediseval attempts
to put that tradition into form and shape. " They are an
attempt on the part of the chroniclers to systematize
and bring into harmony a mass of pre-existing legends,
the subjects of which are thus brought into mutual
relation. Hence, probably, arose the triad of the holy
famiUes, and particularly the extremely symmetrical
progeny of Brychan Brycheinog, many of the indiriduals
^ Jone.'s and Freeman, 252.

SAINTS.

449

composing which may have had very possibly a real
though an independent existence." ' The importance of
knowing whether a particular genealogy is actually right
or wrong is but small. Their real importance is as
sho-wing the principles and the ideas on which the Celts
acted, how they appUed the tribal principles and ideas to
reUgion, how close was the intermixture between the mon
asteries of Wales and the saints of Wales, and between the
saints of Wales and the chiefs of Wales, and the fact that
saintship and chieftainship were almost convertible terms.
It must be admitted that this view deprives the Welsh
saints of much of the legendary charm that invariably
attaches to a saint and his surroundings. It is difficult
to get up any sentiment about a man half a robber and
half a monk, who, because he was the member of a class,
and could give the required security, was admitted to
rule over some obscure religious house, and therefore be
came a saint. For such a person, whoever his ancestors
may have been, it woidd be impossible to feel much
enthusiasm, still more so when in all probability —
" His ancient but ignoble blood.
Had crept through scoundrels ever since the flood."
No wonder that when these men were contrasted vrith
the glorious ideals of the Latin Church, the Celtic saint
was despised. Not for the Celt could it in any sense
be said, " Wherever church was founded, or soil conse
crated for the long resting-place of those who had died
in the faith, wherever the sweet bells of convent or of
monastery were heard in the evening air, charming the
unquiet world to rest, and to remembrance of God,
there dwelt the memory of some apostle who had laid the
first stone, there was the sepulchre of some martyr, whose
^ Jones and Freeman, 252 n. G G

¦150 SAINTS.
relics reposed beneath the altar, of some confessor who had
suffered there for his Master's sake, of some holy ascetic,
who, in silent, self -chosen austerity, had woven a ladder
there of prayer and penance, on which the angels of God
were beUeved to have ascended and descended." ' There
was nothing of this about the Celtic saint. He Uved and
died not as an example to humanity of the height to which
sinful nature could be made to attain ; his loftiest idea of
excellence was to do his best for his tribe in the office of
saint ; to add to its riches, to extend its territories. But
when the Latin biographers of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries came to -write the Uves of the Celtic saints, they
did not grasp the distinction between the two ideas of
sanctity, the respective positions the two sets of saints
occupied. In their opinion there were certain things a
saint, whether Latin or Celtic, ought to do as a inatt(»r of
course, and if these were wanting they suppUed them.
All the details they had of the Welsh saints were state
ments, not as to who was the saint's father, for that was
usually a matter of doubt, but statements as to his
genealogy which had nothing saintly about them. The
biographer felt that he had to make these dry bones
live, and it is a great proof of his devotion to his subject
that he was able to work up out of his materials such
detailed accounts as have come down to us as the lives
of the Welsh saints.
As long as we regard them as what they really are, the
ideas of Latin monks of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries as to what a Celtic saint ought to have been,
these lives are of great value, and are most instructive ;
but, regarding them, as is too often done, as truthful narra
tives of the actual events that took place in the Uves of
the Celtic saints, they are worse than -svorthless. The
' Froude's Short Studies, First Series, i, 548.

SAINTS. 451
attempt to use them as the basis of detailed Welsh
ecclesiastical history is only to add to the difficulties
which already exist in connection with that most difficult
subject. Perhaps they are best described in the words of
a recent -writer on the Welsh Church as " possessing many
of the characteristics of the religious novel".'
One point in connection with them should be noticed.
The Latin Church only regarded as saints those who had
received recognition at Rome, or those whose sanctity was
assured by open and notorious miracles. Of the Welsh
saints only one, St. David, was ever regularly canonized, and
his canonization was due to political rather than religious
reasons. To prove the saintship of the other saints,
miracles were a necessity, and so the demand created the
supply. We should not blame the writers, who only did
their best to ascribe to their heroes the characteristics
their heroes were required to possess. The biographers
forgot it was no part of the duty of a Welsh saint to
work miracles. He was not required to do so, at all events
in historic times. To ascribe to him miracle-working powers
was to forget the position he held, and it is a fairly safe rule
in dealing -with the Uves of Welsh saints to reject, as a
later addition, all accounts of the miracles they are said
to have wrought. These have been inserted and ascribed
to them in forgetfulness of their real position, duties,
and objects in Ufe, and must therefore be rejected as being
the ideas of another age. It is not vrithout regret that
this has to be done ; it leaves us so little information about
the lives of the Welsh saints ; it makes them, to adapt
the term on one of their own rude monuments, " Congeries
nominum," a mass of names and very little more, out of
which all the sentiment and most of the romance has
departed. 1 Newell, 42. G G 2

452 SAINTS.
It is, however, noteworthy that in the legendary Uves of
the Welsh saints certain of the ideas already mentioned
as to what is kno-wn of the real Uves, always occur. The
legendary lives of some twenty-three saints have come
to us, none of which can even claim to be historic ; they
were all written at least from four to five centuries after
the saint's death, and are " simply non-historical legends
of persons who for the most part really existed, although
there is but faint evidence even of the existence of some
ofthem".' In addition, we have the legendary lives of five
more so-called Welsh saints, who, almost certainly, never
existed at all, except in the minds of their biographers.
These are such saints as St. Winifred, St. Gudwald, St.
Lewinna, St. Indractus, St. Iwyi, and St. Elgar. But all
these saints, whether real personages or not, had this one
point in common with the genuine saints — they were
foreigners, not Welshmen, for the most part Irish or
Bretons, but still foreigners. It is not a little remarkable
that both fact and fiction unite in the point that Wales
did not produce native saints. This forms the strongest
eridence of the genuineness of the accounts we get of the
Celtic saints, as it is just one of those points that would
not be invented. If the Latins had held rule in Wales,
and her saints had been moulded on the Latin type, it is
incredible but that we should have had the touching
narrative of some native Welshman who endured all and
braved all for the faith of his country, who attained to
the cro-wn of martyrdom, to the glory of canonization.
But there is absolutely nothing of the kind.
It is to this that the prevalence of saints in South Wales
over North Wales must be ascribed. At first sight it
seems difficult to account for it, as there is nothing to
show that South Wales was in any respect more pious
^ Haddan and Stubbs, 1, 161 n.

SAINTS. 453
than North Wales; but if it is borne in mind that
piety had nothing to do with saints, the reason begins
to appear. It was South Wales that was conquered by
foreign invaders. It was in South Wales the foreigner
settled and made his permanent home; so the sons of
the foreigner were more likely to be found there, the
foreign influence was greater there, the active work of the
foreign tribe more extensive there than in North Wales.
The conquerors were more in eridence in South Wales ;
more was done, both in war and in religion; more
leaders were required, so there were more warriors and
more saints.
The lists of Welsh saints bring out the fact that the
Welsh saint was not necessarily an ecclesiastic. Here
and there in the lists a note follows a name, such as bishop,
abbot, and sometimes saint, but it seems to be inserted
more to distinguish the person from some other of the
same name than for any other purpose. Had all the
saints been in orders there would have been no necessity
for these distinctions, and the distinction goes to show that
the original Usts of the saints took no notice of orders.
A man was a saint or not, quite independent of whether
he was in orders. This was either a mere immaterial
detail, or else the mention of it shows that it was the
exception for a person in orders to be a saint, and
therefore it was necessary to make a note of it when it
occurred. Mediseval writers thought it right that there
should be some sort of connection between the bishop and
the saint ; so, if a person became, or was reputed to have
become, distinguished as either, he was also at once reputed
to be the other. A distinguished bishop in mediseval
Latin ideas was, of course, a saint ; a distinguished saint
was at least a bishop.
It is a fact that deserves notice in connection with

454 SAINTS.
what has been said, that Welsh saints are not Welsh
men, but foreigners, that in spite of the large number
of Welsh saints, there is no real national saint of
Wales. It will be said that David is the national saint
of Wales, but to urge this is only to display igne>r-
aiice of the elements of Welsh hagiology. David is
a South Wales saint, and has nothing to do with North
Wales. Not a single church or chapel built before the
beginning of this nineteenth century is dedicated to him
in the Avhole of North Wales, and in no way is he con
nected with that part of the Principality. The reason is
that Welsh saints were all local, that is, tribal, that David
was the saint of the Cunedda tribe, and that the territories
of the Cunedda tribe did not extend to North Wales. He
is not even the saint for the whole of South Wales. Teilo
is far more the saint of South-east Wales than David.
It is true thstt having been the only Welsh saint canonized,
the Latins regard David as the patron saint of Wales, as
he is the only one they recognize ; yet, in spite of these
advantages, the Welsh never, until after the time of
Latin ascendancy, adopted or regarded David as the
saint of Wales. It is a survival of the fact that there
were three stocks of Welsh saints, and that each tribe
adhered to its own. Had any one of the Welsh tribes
had supreme power in Wales, their saint would have
become the National saint. This was never the case, and
so none of the saints was admitted as superior to the
other. It is only a nation that has a patron saint ;
Wales was never more than a collection of tribes, each
with its own saint.
No document has ever come down to us that contains
any eridence that before David's canonization he was
regarded as anything but the Dimetian saint, but docu
ments have come down to us showing he was so regarded.

SAINTS. 455
Tn the Dimetian Cade, and in that alone, there occur
occasionally appeals to David as the recognized saint of
Dimetia. " Dewi of Brefi," " May Dewi of Brefi help us,"
" May De-wi of Brefi assist," " Dewi of Brefi of the Blessed
Hill," " May Dewi of Brefi assist us." ' No other saint is
appealed to in the Dimetian Code. No appeal to David is
made in either the Gwentian or Venedotian Codes. The
matter goes a step farther. These appeals to David are
mainly to be found in a fifteenth century MS., which the
editors of the Welsh Laws say," from the references to
De-wi, and also from references to Gwenog, was written in
Cardiganshire. Had De-wi been the national saint of
Wales, it would be expected that appeals to him would be
found throughout the Principality, but that is not the case.
He was the national saint of Dimetia ; so appeals to him
are numerous in the Dimetian Code. There are none inthe
other codes, so it follows he was not the person to whom
the tribesmen subject to those codes would appeal ; that
is, he was not their national saint.
The cult of David as something more than a local saint
was due to his canonization, and it seems to have arisen
between the thirteenth century and the Reformation — the
period of the rule of the Latin Chm-ch. There is a poem
in the Red Book of Hergest that shows that Darid was a,t
its date regarded as more than a local saint. "Actively
will the sons of Cymry call upon De-wi who loveth peace
and mercy." " " Escut gymry plant galwant agdevvi
Agar tagneued trugared tr6ydi."
The poem in which this passage occurs is a very late
one, and is said to be of the time of Edward II. In
the Black Book of Carmarthen, a MS. ascribed to the
' Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 426, 584, 594. " Ibid., p. xxxi.
' Skene's Ancient Books of Wales, 1, 495; ii, 298.

450

SAINTS.

middle of the twelfth century, is a passage which may
or may not be read as gi-ving more than local honour to
Darid: " Listen, 0 little pig — it was necessary to pray
For fear of the five sovereigns from Normandie
And the fifth going over the salt sea
To conquer Iwerdon with its pleasant towns.
* * * *
And they certainly will come fi'om it
.\nd do honor on the grave of Dewi." '
(Ac awnant enrydet ar bet Dewi.)
Various passages might be cited from South Wales poets
to show their praise of David, but that until the Latin
Church took him up and forced him into the position of
the patron saint of Wales he was not so regarded, or
indeed looked upon as anything more than a merely local
personage. Contrast this with Patrick. Modern history
has tried to locate him at Armagh, but Celtic history
connects him with Ireland. He was not the saint of a
tribe, or a district, but of the Irish people. His reputation
extends to every part of Ireland, so that it may be said
" Ubi Hibernia ibi Patricius."
Nothing of the kind can be said of David, nor of any
other of the Welsh saints, such as TeUo, Dubricius,
Padarn. All of these were tribal saints ; and in some
instances the fact is even more obvious than in the case
of Darid. The exceptions to the rule are saints who were
partly Welsh and partly Breton. Some of these, such as
Cadoc, have a great reputation both in Brittany and in
Wales, but even these are merely the saints of two special
districts in Brittany and Wales ; they are not in any sense
the national saints either of Wales or Brittany. Cadoc
comes nearest the idea of a national saint, but it is rather
difficult to say what his nationality was, and, so far as
' Skene's Andent Books of Wales, i, 483 ; ii, 22.

SAINTS. 457
saintship goes, it was more Breton than Welsh. This is
what would be expected as the result, if the saint was the
head of the ecclesiastical tribe ; whether he was celebrated
or not depended on the man, not on his being a saint.
Saintship came by birth ; celebrity depended on how the
man acted as a saint.
One result of being a saint by succession, or otherwise
than from personal merit, was to render it unnecessary for
the Celtic saint to do anything from time to time to main
tain his saintly reputation. As head of the religious tribe
he might lead its tribesmen to battle, and some of the
tribes could muster a very respectable array of fighting-
men. Such would probably be the case both in the
monasteries of Menevia and Llandaff, both of which could,
when required, appeal to the secular arm with effect. In
Ireland, conflicts between ecclesiastical tribes were not
unkno-wn, and although the record of a fight between two
Welsh ecclesiastical tribes does not seem to have come
do-wn to us, yet it by no means follows it is because such
conflicts did not occur. The saint's position as head of the
ecclesiastical tribe enabled him to dispense with performing
mighty works ; he could rest and be thankful. Hence it is
that genuine Celtic documents record so few miracles ;
there was no necessity for them. The saint based his claim
to sanctity not on what he could do, but on the fact of
what he was, the head of the tribe of the Saint. But -with
the Latin it was different. His whole claim to sanctity
rested, not on who he was, but on what he could do, and
it was therefore necessary that miracles should always be
going on at his tomb so as to keep him well in evidence.
He had nothing to fall back upon if his reputation as a
saint declined, and it was a daily struggle with those who
had the charge of his relics to get acts done, if not to
enhance, at least to keep up the saint's reputation. The

45?

SAINTS.

Celtic saint required no exertion on his part ; the Latin
saint Avas lost if exertions were not made on his part. As
now, when the biography of the holder of some office is
written, it is customary to represent him as possessing all
sorts of virtues to show the reason why the office was given
him, although, probably, his virtues were the last reason
why he got it. So the biographers of the Celtic saints,
when they found they had to write an account of the saint,
felt compelled to pile up virtues and to allege the possession
of power to work miracles. Miracles and saints were
almost synonyinous terms, so the historian of the Celtic
saint treated him as he did the Latin, and multiplied
miracles. It was not wilful lying or deliberate deception ;
it was a- desire to be just and to give the saint what, in the
biographer's opinion, was his due.
The same idea that the Welsh saint was an official, the
head of the ecclesiastical tribe, is probably the explanation
of the reason why so few of the Welsh saints attained the
cro-wn <_)f martyrdom. A man who attains a position by
birih, rather than by belief, usually regards controversial
matters from a broader standpoint than the man who has
made the assertion of eei-tain fixed ideas the object of his
life. A Welsh saint would probably not require from his
tribesmen more than an outward conformity, and probably
much Paganism was practised under the eyes of the saint
without any interference from him. There was no necessity
for it; outwardly all his tribe and its dependents were
good Christians — why should he look further ? If a more
powei-f ul chieftain, or some Danish pirate, or Saxon Pagan,
conquered the Welsh saint, all he had to do was to enlarge
the borders of his Christianity by the admission of a Uttle
more Paganism. As Gibbon said of the Old World philo
sophers, to them all reUgions were equally true. So to the
Celtic saint, a Uttle further dilution of his Christianity by

SAINTS. 459
Paganism did not matter; at best, his Christianity was
but a mixture of those two elements, and he would hardly
care to suffer martyrdom when it was merely a question of
an alteration in the proportions of the mixture ; as long as
he lived he would remain chief of the tribe of the Saint,
and so, a saint, why should he be martyred over so small a
matter '? The deaths of the few Welsh saints who were
murdered bears out this view. They were usuaUy persons
captured by Danes or Saxons and put to death at once,
without the option of changing their views and saving
their lives. Cadoc, for instance, was chased into a church
and killed there. Strictly, he was not a martyr, as he did
not by his death bear witness to the truth of his opinions.
His death was not caused by his opinions ; he would prob
ably have been killed if his faith hg^d been identical -with
that of his murderers. Those who died a violent death
were not, strictly speaking, martyrs. The number who
thus died was very small, while in the true sense it
is doubtful if any portion of those who were killed were
really martyrs. It is not a subject of reproach to the
Celtic Church that she has produced no martyrs ; she had
not the opportunity of doing so if she had wished. Neither
the Celtic missionary nor the Celtic saint spent his time in
arguing against idolatry, superstition, and Paganism;
their mode of conversion was not by preaching- but by
practice. Their lives in the monasteries did not usually
evoke hostility. Had they begun to preach and denounce
all who differed from them as accursed, in the manner of
the Latins, doubtless the Celtic Church would not have
wanted her proportion of martyrs. As it was, she followed
a more excellent way, and the taunt of Giraldus Cambrensis
against the Irish Church was not deserved. Speaking of
the Irish bishops, he says : ' " Sed non fuit in ipsis qui
' Topographia Hilerniic, iii, 28.

460

SAINTS.

tamquam tubani exaltaret vocem : non fuit, qui ex adverse
ascenderet et murum pro domo Israel se opponeret ; non
fuit qui usque ad exilium nedum usque ad sanguinem pro
ecclesia Christi dimicaret quam ipse sibi suo precioso
sanguine aquisirit. Unde et omnes Sancti terrse istius
confessores sunt et nuUus Martyr, quod in alio regno
Christiano difficile erit invenire. Mirum itaque quod ubi
gens crudelissima et sanguinis sitibunda, fides ab antique
fundata et semper tepidissinia pro Christi eeelesia corona
martyrii nulla. Non igitur inventus est in partibus istis
qui ecclesise surgentis fundamenta sanguinis effusione
cementaret, non fuit qui f aceret hoc bonum, non fuit usque
ad unum." Giraldus must have wilfully shut his eyes,
thus verifying the proverb, " None so blind as those that
wont see." What he says of Ireland applies equally to
Wales. Exactly a similar state of things existed in both
countries. In neither did the saints cement the founda
tions of the rising Church with their blood, for it was not
necessary for them to do so. It was no reproach either to
them or their system that the Celtic Church did not
encourage its members to works of needless and useless
sacrifice. The Celtic saints had no opportunity of showing
how they would have faced martyrdom.
One of the most eloquent of the modern historians of the
Latin Church of the West tries to account for the lack of
Celtic martyrs by contending that their place was taken
by the monks, who, by their austerities and penances,
underwent a daily martyrdom.' But this excuse will hardly
entitle the Celtic monks to a place in the ranks of the
noble army of martyrs, for the marvels and triumphs of
asceticism were not confined to the Celts, but were more
than equally shared by the Latin Church. All that can
be said is, that the Celtic Church produced no martyrs
' Montalembert, Moines d' Ocddent, \ol. iii, 422.

SAINTS. 461
because the circumstances in which she found herself
placed did not warrant their production.
Another peculiarity of the Welsh saints was that they
never seemed to have been moved by that missionary spirit
which made the Irish saints instrumental in the conversion
of Western Europe. " It is remarkable," say Haddan and
Stubbs,' " that while the Scots were the missionaries par
excellence of nearly all Europe north of the Alps, and in
particular of all Saxon England north of the Thames, not
one Cambrian Welsh or Cornish missionary to any non-
Celtic nation is mentioned anywhere." This may possibly
be accounted for from the fact that the missionary spirit
spent itself in bringing the foreign teachers to Wales, and
did not extend to sending them from that country abroad.
It was the distinction between a native and a conquering
race of saints which caused the different riews as to
missionary efforts, natives haring the desire to go and do
something, conquerors having the desire to stay and con
solidate their conquests. The influx into Wales of saints
from Ireland and Brittany also shows that, unlike Ireland,
Wales had no more saints than were necessary to supply
her own needs. If she had been ovei-flo-wing with saints,
as Ireland was, there would have been no need to import
strangers. Home requirements, and a desire to retain what
they had acquired, are most likely the causes why the
Welsh saints did not undertake foreign missions. But it
must not be supposed that Wales suffered from any lack of
saints. A singular poem, known as the "Elegy of a
Thousand Sons" {Marvnat y Vii Veib), in the Book of
Taliessin, deals -with the number of Welsh saints. The
poem is said by Mr. Skene " not to be of earlier date than
914. It discusses the number of saints in different
^ Haddan and Stubbs, 1, p. 154 n.
= Skene's Four Andent Books, 1, 546 ; ii, 109.

462 SAINTS.
countries. Armorica, the fens of Toronia, who had broken
the advanced Caer of Rome, and Poll and Alexandria and
Garanwys and Indra — " Tres partes divicia Asicia, Affrica,
Europa." The passage in the poem points to the conflict
between the Latin and the Celtic Churches. What its
precise meaning may be is difficult to say, but it appears
to imply that Brittany resisted with success an attempt at
conversion by Romish uiissionaries ; that is a triumph for
the Celtic Church. The poem goes on to speak of the
number of saints in the Isle of Prydein and Iwerdon, " a
gentle portion." After mentioning the number of the
saints in the East it goes on to say, " Seven scores, seven
scores, seven hundred of saints and seven thousand and
seven ten scores." It is not quite clear if this reference is
to the total number of saints, or merely to the number of
Celtic saints ; it rather seems to be to the total number.
Be that as it may, the poem gives us the divisions so often
met with in Ireland, the mystical number, seven, a dirision
which was much favoured by the Celtic Church. We find
not only a group of saints consisting of seven members,
but also groups of sevens — seven bishops, seven churches.
Nor does it rest here ; each of the groups of seven is itself
dirided into so many groups of seven. The poem is prob
ably largely written for rhetorical effect, but it obviously
contains some reference to the reason why the Celts are so
attached to the mystical number, seven.
The subject of the Celtic saints and their pecuUarities is
one involving so much connected with the organization and
nature of the Celtic tribes and the Celtic Church, that it is
impossible here to follow it into detail. A book, a most
interesting book, might be -written, showing from the
pecuUar practices of their saints what Celtic Christianity
really was, and the vast gulf that lay between it and the
Latin Church. Here, only a few of the leading points have

SAINTS. 463
been incidentally mentioned, and the great point of the
Welsh saints being foreigners, of their being tribal leaders,
or chiefs. To follow out all the consequences of this
fact would involve a close inquiry into Celtic tribal organi
zation. It will be seen that any such state of things is
quite inconsistent with the Latin views of saintship. It
is not to be wondered at that out of all the Welsh saints,
only one was canonized, and he owes this far more to the
fact that at the time of his canonization, Calixtus II was
most desirous of conciliating the two South Wales bishops,
and retaining them on his side in the great struggle then
going on, than to his own merits. From the time of
David's canonization he really ceased to be a Welsh and
became a Latin saint, and must thence be regarded in that
light. All the other saints of the Celtic Church retain
their peculiarities, although they are often difficult to be
traced under the numerous disguises in which their Latin
biographers have dressed them up. Yet, in spite of all,
the original Celt is to be found in the Latin lives of the
saints. He appears to be a man only slightly different
from the other chiefs, who laid no claim to
working miracles or to great personal hoUness, but who
professed to be what he was — the head of the ecclesiastical
tribe. He was not the subject of invocation or adoration,
and would have felt much astonished to be told that he
was. He was not a great missionary ; there was no
necessity or need for him to be so ; he was merely the
head of the settlement of the ecclesiastical tribe, that, and
nothing more ; but that made him a saint. Just as
Charles II and George IV were Defenders of the Faith
because they were kings of England, so the chief of the
Celtic ecclesiastical tribe was a saint because he was such
chief. This is often obscured by modern -writers, and
oftener forgotten. We all so firmly believe that a saint

464 SAINTS.
must have something saintly about him, that we cannot
realize the contrary. This belief has led to much in
accuracy in dealing- with Celtic saints. Perhaps the best
instance is in the case of Columba, one of whose modern
Latin biographers ' has tried every art of that pen, which
he says he used " as a weapon in the cause of the Church",
to depict an Irish monk, whose real claim to sanctity
rested on the fact that he was a chief of the northern
branch of the great Irish tribe of Hy Niall, as a Latin
saint. After reading the glowing- romance so eloquently
told, it is impossible not to venerate the Irish exile, who,
" from his island rock, swooped down to preach, convert,
enlighten, reconcile, reprimand princes and peoples, men
and women, laics and clerics"." Here we seem to have
found our ideal of a saint, and our enthusiasm leads us to
think that if Columba was the type of the Celtic saint,
what a splendid corps they form in the saintly army. But
when we pass from the ideal to the real, and see the
Celtic saint as he was in fact, and not surrounded by
the halo of enthusiasm, the reaction is so great that
there is considerable danger lest we are led, in spite of
fact, and in spite of history, to try if it is not possible
for us to make out that the Celtic saint does, in fact,
to some extent, reach the level of his idealized portrait.
' Montalembert, Moines d' Occident, iii, 282.
^ " Jusque sur le roc insulaire d'ou il s'elancait pour precher, convertir,
eclairer, reconcilier, reprimander les princes, les peuples, les hommes et
les femmes, les laiques et les clerge."

CHAPTER X.
THE CONFLICT.

So much has been said in the preceding pages as to the
confiict between the Celtic and Latin Churches, and as
the story of this confiict is usually, in modern histories,
either kept out of sight or minimized as much as possible,
in order to fully realize the struggle the Celtic Church
underwent, and the contest she so long maintained, it is
necessary to try to tell the story of that struggle and
confiict. Both churches fought hard for the mastery,
and it is not the least of the claims of the Celtic Church
to our attention that she maintained the fight as long as
she did against the foreigners, supported as they were by
all the power and resources of the great Church of Rome.
It is something for the Celtic Church to be able to say
that, in spite of every attempt that was made to subdue
her, in spite of the power of England, of the'^fforts of
the reUgious orders, of the attacks, both open and secret,
of the Latin Church, she was yet able to hold her own.
She often appeared to be overwhelmed by her rival ; still
she kept up the contest; the Celtic Church of Scotland
succumbed to the Latin attack; the Celtic Church of
Ireland submitted to Rome ; but the Celtic Church of
Wales, though often defeated, never surrendered, and
when at last the Church of Rome was swept away by the
Reformation, the unconquerable Welsh Church still
remained to carry on her struggle against a fresh adver-
II H

466 THE CONFLICT.
sary and a new religious system. No other Church has
fought so obstinately against ecclesiastical tyranny ; no
other Church has had so little credit for its struggle for
religious freedom.
It may well be that the Celtic Church of Wales, as
a religious system, was not in our opinion worth fighting
for ; that, however, should only increase the credit of the
Welsh for the courage and determination with which they
fought. The story of the struggle _ divides itself into
several distinct periods. The first comprises the time
between the establishment of Christianity in Wales, and
the arrival of Augustine, or rather, the conference between
Augustine and the Welsh ecclesiastics, a period of from
three hundred or four hundred years, according to the
date at which the conversion of Wales to Christianity is
fixed. This period terminated about 602. During this
time the Celtic Church perfected the system attempted
to be described in these pages. It was the time of her
independence and complete freedom from any external
control. Wales was then completely cut off from the
rest of Europe by the Pagan Saxons ; only with Ireland,
Scotland, and Brittany, did she keep up any intercourse.
It was the period of the origin and development of her
peculiar religious system, which owed its pecuUarities to
local circumstances. The second period dates from the
conference with Augustine, the refusal of the Celts to
submit to him and the rule of Rome. It includes the time
when intercourse with England had brought about certain
changes in the Celtic Church, such as the adoption of
the Roman Easter, and the fact that the Celtic bishops
sought consecration from Latin prelates. This covers a
period of five hundred years, from 602 to about 1100, the
time when the Norman conquerors asserted their right,
not only to consecrate, but also to nominate the bishops

THE CONFLICT. 467
in Wales. This period is usually spoken of as the period
of the schism between the Celtic and Latin Churches.
The term, however, is wholly misapplied. There was no
schism. The Celtic Church, even if it had its origin
from Roman missionaries, a fact which has yet to be
proved, was an independent Church, free from all foreign
control. It never admitted the authority of the Pope ; it
never claimed to be any part of the Latin Church. Schism
implies unity ; as there never was unity, there was no
schism. To speak of the schism and its termination, as is
often done, is simply to mis-represent the state of the
case. Unless the fact of differing- from the church of
Rome is the same thing as schism, there was no schism
between the Celtic and Latin Churches. There was
plenty of "false doctrine and heresy", but no schism.
The third period extends from the time the EngUsh kings
began to nominate Welsh bishops until the date of the
Edwardian settlement of Wales, when Edward claimed to
be possessed of Wales by right of conquest, and to set up
there the system of government that for temporal matters
is contained in the Statute of Wales, 12 Edward I, and
for ecclesiastical matters, in the orders for the Church
issued by Archbishop Peckham — a period lasting about
one hundred and eighty years, from 1100 to 1284. The
fourth period is the time during which the Latin Church
had the rule in Wales, from the time of Edward's conquest
until the incorporation of Wales and England by the
legislation of Henry VIII (26 Henry VIII, c. 1), and the
do-wnfall of the Latin Church, a period of some two
hundred and fifty years, from 1284 to 1534. The fifth,
and last, period is the rule of the Anglican Church, some
three hundred and sixty years, from 1534 to the present
day. During each of these periods, the Celtic Church
has maintained the struggle -with her opponents; often
H H 2

468 THE CONFLICT.
defeated, often crushed, she has again and again rallied
from her defeat and carried on the fight. He would be a
bold man who would venture to say that the ecclesiastical
struggle in Wales is yet over, or what its termination will
be. The first period, that of the absolute independence of
the Celtic Church from all foreign authority, has been
already dealt with. It may be summarized by describing
it as a system of local tribal Christianity, each tribe
having its own ecclesiastical system, and neither admitting
nor acknowledging any external authority. The tribe
was self-contained, both in temporal and religious matters,
and in neither did it recognize or require any interference
from outside. There was no supreme ecclesiastical
authority over the country, no territorial division of
the country for ecclesiastical purposes. With such a
state of things, the Welsh, on meeting the Latin Church,
were at a disadvantage. There was no one who could
" consent in their name and on their behalf " to any
proposed change. Any ecclesiastic might possibly bind
his own ecclesiastical tribe, but he could not do more.
The second period marks the first confiict between the
Latin and the Celtic Churches. It is unfortunate that
we do not possess any Celtic account of either of the two
conferences between Augustine and the Welsh. The
story as told by Bede,' is evidently -written from the Latin
point of view, yet it is easy to see in it the difficulties of
the situation ; there was no one who was in a position to
speak with authority on behalf of the Welsh. Each tribe
had to decide for itself; the decision of any one tribe
would not bind the others. It was this feeUng that
probably led to the adjournment of the first conference,
there being no one present able to speak for the North
^ Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ii, 2,

THE CONFLICT. 469
Wales tribes. This want of some recognized head of the
Celtic Church evidently led the mediaeval writers who
composed the alleged answer of the Welsh to Augustine
to assert that there was a recognized head of the Welsh
Church — the Bishop of Caerleon-upon-Usk. If this was
so, it is very singular that he was not present at either of
the conferences and able to speak on behalf of the Church
over which he ruled. The names of the seven so-caUed
bishops who were said to be present are certainly the
invention of a later date ' (Hereford, Llandaff, Llan
badarn Vawr, Bangor, St. Asaph, Weeg, and Morganwg).
Out of the seven, the existence of three of the sees is
very doubtful (Llandabarn, Weeg, and Morganwg). Of
the rest, Hereford was not then in existence, it not
being created until after Mercia was converted to Christi
anity. The absence of St. David's is most singular.
There is no satisfactory evidence to carry the matter
beyond Bede's account. The Welsh would not submit.
It is hard to see how they could submit, for they were
asked, according to Bede, to surrender their independence,
and admit an authority which alleged it was superior to
them. They would hardly so far dishonour their tribes
and their superstitions as to agree to this. It is true
Bede puts forward the three points that Augustine
demanded from the Welsh — the time of holding Easter,
the adoption of the Roman form of Baptism, and joint
missionary work to the Saxon Pagans, as the grounds of
severance, but to have accepted these points implied
complete surrender, with an admission of Augustine's
authority. We should have thought worse of the Welsh
than the most fervid Englishman does, if they had accepted
a system opposed to all their ideas, and agreed to join in
forcing it on the Saxons by a method wholly at variance
' lolo MSS., 547 : Haddan and Stubbs, iii, 41.

470 THE CONFLICT.
with their ne>ti(.>ns of right. They could make but one
answer to the Latin demands — the answer they did. The
vindictive spirit of the Latin comes out strongly in Bede
when he relates ' the story of the slaughter of the Celtic
monks of Bangor Iscoed, by that most savage of the
Pagan Saxons, Ethelfrith the Wild, as an instance of the
fulfilment of Augustine's curse, and of the wrath of God
on the Celts for refusing to submit to the Latins.
Whatever else may be uncertain or doubtful, there can be
no doubt of the intense hatred between the two Churches,
if Bede may be taken as a fair specimen of the way in
which the Latin monks regarded the Celts.
The failure of the Conference was the declaration of war
between the two Chtu-ehes. At first the Latins could do
but little, as the heathen Saxons occupied their entire
attention. The Welsh could wait, and it was not until
Theodore of Tarsus became Archbishop of Canterbury that
any really effective steps were taken. Theodore's divisions
of the country into dioceses — and if he also, as is said,
divided it into parishes as well — materially strengthened
the position of the Latin Church. Wales had now on her
borders bishops of a very different type to her own ; not
the officials of a monastery, but powerful local lords, who
could not only give orders, but were strong enough to
make them obeyed by force, if required. The existence of
the bishops, territorial lords, with power over a defined
area, power over all people within it, must have appealed
strongly to the Welsh, who, like all half-savage peoples,
were inclined to worship force. The Welsh monasteries
and their officials must have felt that they were confronted
with powerful neighbours against whom neither Celtic
abbot nor bishop could successfully compete. Theodore
also took a step that had a very great effect on the Welsh ;
^ Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ii, 2.

THE CONFLICT. 47l
he refused to admit not merely the validity of the Celtic
orders, but also the validity of the powers of their bishops,
contending that they were not properly consecrated, and
that all acts done by them as bishops, whether in conferr
ing orders, consecrating bishops, or consecrating churches,
were invalid and void. This step of Theodore's must have
produced a great effect on the Welsh Church. Chad, a
Welsh bishop, was advanced to the see of Lichfield, but
before he took possession of it he submitted to be reconse
crated. It would have been difficult to find anything that
would have had a greater effect on a superstitious people,
Uke the Welsh. They valued their bishops far more on
account of the supernatural powers they purported to
possess than for any other reason. If their bishops had not
the right or authority to use this power, then, so far as the
Welsh were concerned, they were persons of no importance.
They may not have paid much attention to the thunders
of Theodore, but when one of their own bishops, a man like
Chad, deliberately admitted that, as a Welsh bishop, he
had no valid claim to supernatural powers, that he was, in
fact, an impostor as regarded his power to invoke the aid
of Heaven, the Welsh bishops found the ground giving way
under them. Added to this, some of them, especiaUy the
bishops of Llandaff, began a process by which their monas
tery largely profited, and which, if the Welsh bishops did
not possess Dirine authority and supernatural power, would
be no longer availing. The Liber Landavensis records a
series of acts by the Llandaff bishops, which, on a Welsh
prince committing any heinous offence, such as murder, an
event by no means uncommon, the Llandaff monks devised
a mode of punishment which combined the advantage of
putting the offender to penance and of enriching the
Llandaff house. On hearing of the crime being committed,
the bishop assembled a synod, in which the case of the

472 THE CONFLICT.
offending prince or chief was considered. If guilty, a
certain penance was imposed on him, but if he made a
grant of lands or territory to the Llandaff monastery he
obtained absolution, and his penance was remitted. As
the prince was only induced to submit to the jurisdiction
of the synod by reason of the spiritual terrors with which
he was threatened, on his finding that these terrors were a
delusion — that the Celtic bishops had no power, and eould
not deal with the supernatural, could not invoke the
Divine wrath upon him — the prince naturaUy paid but
little attention to the synods or their judgments.
Theodore's policy therefore affected the pecuniary
interest of Llandaff, and the monastery had to find some
means to meet the difficulty. This they did by seeking
consecration from the English Archbishop, who was
naturally willing to give it, as consecration, in his view,
meant submission to his authority. When once a Welsh
bishop received it from him, the Latin was able to say that
he possessed authority over certain Welsh bishops, as they
had submitted to him in order to be consecrated by him ;
thereby at once admitting their inferiority and the Arch
bishop of Canterbury's superiority. The Llandaff bishops
seem to have preferred the power of plundering Welsh
princes to the independence of their Church. In the
period before the Norman Conquest several of them are
alleged to have been consecrated by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and then their favourite employment, holding
synods, punishing Welsh princes, and obtaining grants of
land, went on without any interruption. A bishop of St.
David's, Lumbert, is also said to have been consecrated at
Canterbury, and made his profession of obedience. ' In
itself, the fact of being consecrated by the Archbishop of
Canterbury may not have been a matter of great import-
' Haddan and Stubbs, 1, 208.

THE CONFLICT. 473
ance, but its effect on the Celtic Church was most
disastrous, for it enabled the Latin archbishop to assert his
right and his authority over the South Wales dioceses, and
gave him just the hold he required to interfere in Welsh
affairs. In order to be qualified, and able to frighten the
Welsh princes into making a grant, the South Wales bishops
gave up to Rome the independence of the Celtic Church.
Theodore's policy was amply justified by the event, as he
secured for his successors a means of conquering the Celtic
Church. The Latins having failed to produce any result from
an attack on the Welsh Church as a whole, took advan
tage of its pecuUar tribal constitution and the inde
pendence of each tribe to try an attack in detail. In this
they had better success, and the result well brings out
the peculiar composition of the Celtic Church. It will be
remembered that one of the points on which Augustine
insisted the Welsh should conform to the Latin, was the
date for the celebration of Easter, the Celtic Church
adhering to the old method, the Latin having adopted the
reform of Pope Hilary. In some way, how, does not clearly
appear, the Latins were successful about 755 in persuading
Elbod, the Bishop of Bangor, to accept their mode of fixing
Easter. The entry in the Gwentian Brut states " Easter
was changed in Gwynedd by the advice of Elbod, Bishop
of Bangor, but the other bishops did not concur therein, on
which account the Saxons invaded the Cymry in South
Wales." ' This device of the Latins to secure the adoption
of their date of Easter by one of the Welsh tribes, thus
breaking up and disorganizing the opposition, is a good
example of the way in which the Latins acted to the
Welsh. As an attempt to destroy the Welsh opposition to
the Latins, it was in a way successful, probably more
1 See Archceologia Cambrensis, Srd Series vol. x, p. 6.

474 THE CONFLICT.
indirectly than directly, for it gave the Latins a most
powerful weapon against the Welsh, by enabling them to
say " Your brothers in such a monastery have admitted
Roman doctrines and ritual ; why do not you do the
same?" Although the adoption of the Latin Easter by
Elbod did not end the Easter controversy, traces of which
lasted for some time longer, yet the question lost all its
importance, and never again became one of the great
grounds of difference between the two Churches. It may
be said that during- this period all the chief outward signs
of difference between the two Churches disappeared, and
that the Celtic Church adopted most, if not all, of the
distinctive Latin ceremonies. The differences between the
two Churches were now far more matters of principle than
matters of detail. But we have no evidence whether
on points such as the mode of administering baptism, the
mode of consecrating bishops, the mode of consecrating
churches, the use of a peeuliar ritual at mass and at ordina
tions, and, above all, on the great question of tonsure, the
Latin forms were adopted or the Celtic forms still survived.
After the end of the second period none of these questions
in themselves were regarded as of first-rate impoi-tance.
It may be said that at the time of the Norman conquest
the Latin Church had practically secured conformity in
external matters by the Celts.
The third period marks a different phase of the dispute.
So far the Latins had not tried to interfere -with the
government of the Celtic Church, they had remained
satisfied with obtaining from the Welsh bishops promises
of obedience in return for the gift of full episcopal power.
They do not seem to have ever done more, or to have inter
fered in any way with the bishops after consecration. In
the last half of the eleventh century two steps were taken
that had a very important bearing on Welsh Church

THB CONFLICT. 475
history. William I asserted that, about 1079, on his
invasion of Wales, and his visit to the shrine of St. David,
the Welsh submitted to him and agreed to pay him
homage, and own him as their superior lord. This right
of conquest, he alleged, gave him the right of interference
in Welsh Church matters. The other was that along the
English border of Wales William established, or rather
continued, a series of great lordships, the holders of which
had almost independent jurisdiction in their lordships and
over such lands as they could add to them by conquest from
the Welsh. In addition to these lords marchers, several
Norman adventurers were allowed to make private expedi
tions into Wales, conquer what they could from the Welsh,
and hold what they conquered from the English king, as
his vassals. This process, although it cannot be said to
have destroyed Welsh independence, interfered very
seriously with it. The tem-poral power the Normans thus
gained in various parts of Wales was utilized as a means
for introducing spiritual power.
Another step was taken in establishing the rule of the
Latin Church in Wales which had been long in prepara
tion. For some years, along the line of the Severn, a series
of rich and powerful reUgious houses had been gradually
springing up. At the time of the conquest these houses
formed a line of forts from which an attack could be made,
and made with- success, on the hated Celt. In each of
these monasteries Norman abbots were placed, and care
was taken that their temporal forces should be at the
disposal of the crown. Each of these houses was Benedic
tine. Each of these houses was ready, with all the zeal
and energy it possessed, to push forward the cause of the
Latin Church. The Benedictine order was utilized in
another way. The Norman adventurers who were allowed
to conquer for themselves estates in Wales with their

476 THE CONFLICT.
swords, were possessed vrith the then prevalent idea that
the foundation of a religious house was the highest form
of human rirtue. Several of them had either founded,
or helped to endow, some large Benedictine abbeys in
Normandy, and they did not fail to enrich their Norman
houses either by grants of land they took from the Welsh,
or by founding on the conquered land a cell to the Norman
abbey. The Benedictine foundations in Wales were, as
a rule, not independent foundations, but cells to some
other houses, either in Normandy or England. Between
the date of the Norman conquest and the year 1100, six'
Benedictine houses were founded in South Wales by
Norman adventurers; all were cells to other houses — four
to abbeys in Normandy, one to the Conqueror's new abbey
of Battle, and the other to the great house of Gloucester.
These six houses were each a centre of Latin missionary
effort, zealous to promote the objects of the Latin Church,
and to estabUsh the supremacy of the Latin ecclesiastical
system. It must also be remembered that these religious
houses were not placed by themselves, or in positions
where they would be exposed to the attacks of the Welsh.
They were either, Uke the houses at Pembroke and Mon
mouth, inside the castle walls, or, if without them, under
the shadow of the castle, and so safe from the Welsh.
Wherever a castle was built, there also rose a religious
house, so that the Norman conquerors and the Latin
ecclesiastics went hand in hand. Nor were these houses
scattered at random about the country ; they were
designedly placed in particular districts, so as to form
real positions in the defence of the country. Out of the
six houses already mentioned, four — Chepstow, Monmouth,
Ewias Harold, and Abergavenny — were in the diocese of
1 Chepstow, Jlonmouth, Brecon, Pembroke, Ewias Harold, and Aberga-
vennv.

THE CONFLICT. 477
Llandaff, and it was over the diocese of Llandaff that the
jurisdiction of the Latin Church was first asserted.
No Benedictine house sprang up in the Welsh parts
of Wales. This order followed the Norman adventurer
like his shadow, and wherever there was a Norman castle
there was also a Benedictine abbey. A modern French
¦writer, in describing the recent attempts of France to
found colonies, said, with some truth, that a French
colony always consists of three things, " a barrack, a cafe,
and a theatre". It may be said that a Norman settlement
in Wales consisted of three things — a castle, a monastery,
and a church. By the aid of William's conquest of
Wales, and by the support rendered by the Norman
settlers and the Benedictine monks, the Latin Church
found herself strong enough to make a move against the
Celts. Anselm was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury
in 1093. Saint as he was reputed to be, he had very strong
ideas of the supremacy of the Latin Church. He was not
content merely with exacting from the Welsh bishops,
on their consecration, an oath of obedience ; he thought
that as he had the power, it was well to use it, and compel
obedience. Herewald, Bishop of Llandaff (1056-1104),
was the person on whom he first tried his hand. For
some cause that does not appear, Anselm placed the
bishop of Llandaff under an interdict. Writing to the
Abbot of Seez, in Normandy, Anselm says, if a priest
purports to be ordained by Herewald, he is not to be
so regarded, as he had interdicted Herewald, so the orders
given by him ought not to be deemed valid. It is only
in Anselm's own letter' that the matter is mentioned,
but it shows that the Latin primate was not content
to allow the Celtic bishop to take an oath of obedience
and submission and do nothing more, but was bent on
1 Haddan and Stubbs, i, 299.

478 THE CONFLICT.
asserting the authority of the see of Canterbury, that
is, the authority of the Latin Church over the Celtic
Bishop of Llandaff.
Anselm was not satisfied with placing the Bishop of
Llandaff under an interdict ; he also dealt with the
Bishop of St. David's, Wilfred, taking- advantage of the
quarrels of the Welsh about the succession to the see
on the death of Bishop SuUen, in 1083. At first, Wilfred
succeeded and was consecrated by the Celtic form, and
not at Canterbury. The St. David's inonks, however,
acting on strict Celtic rules, turned him out in favour of a
fitter member of the ecclesiastical tribe, Rhyddmarch.
Anselm appears not to have recognized Wilfred as bishop
while he had only a Celtic consecration, thus carrying out
the policy introduced by Theodore ; but when, on
Rhyddmarch's death, Wilfred again tried to enforce his
right, and required Anselm's help to regain the see, he
had probably been made to submit to Anselm, as the
archbishop wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Arnulf
Montgomery, Ralph Mortimer, PhUip de Braose, and
Bernard Newmarch, all Norman adventurers, who had
conquered estates for themselves in Wales, directing them
to restore or replace Wilfred in the see of St. Darid's.'
This they did, and Wilfred, by their aid, held the see
until his death, in 1115, when the Norman conquerors
went still further and appointed a Norman to it. The
importance of this affair of Wilfred is, that it shows
how the Latin Church established her supremacy in
Wales. Up to this time any interference had been con
fined to Llandaff ; now, taking advantage of the increased
temporal power gained by the conquests of William's
barons, and of the disputes among the Welsh monks, the
archbishop was strong enough to advance a further step
^ Haddan and Stubbs, 1, 300.

THE CONFLICT. 479
by supporting one of the disputants, and appealing to the
Normans to carry out his orders against the Welsh.
It was the greed of the Llandaff monks to be able to
spoil the Welsh princes that enabled the Latins to gain
a hold on Llandaff. It was the quarrels and disputes of
the St. David's monks that enabled the Latins to gain a
hold on St. David's. It was not wilful treachery, but it
was, in both cases, owing to the fault of the Welsh, that
the Latin was able to obtain a footing for interference in
the Celtic Church. Jones and Freeman cite the case of
Wilfred as an instance of the exercise of metropolitan
jurisdiction by the Archbishop of Canterbury over the
see of St. David's, before the time of Bernard.' This, it,
however, was not. On Sulien's death there was a dispute
as to who was to succeed, probably a dispute as to which
of the two candidates was the fitter, according to Celtic
ideas. Wilfred at first was successful, but afterwards
was displaced by his rival, Rhyddmarch. Wilfred then
sought the aid of the Ai-chbishop of Canterbury to replace
him. The archbishop gave him a letter to the Norman
adventurers to help him against the Welsh. But so Uttle
attention did they pay to it that Arnulf de Montgomery
arrested Wilfred, and kept him a prisoner for forty days.
Had Anselm really had anything like metropolitan power
over St. Darid's, he would have ordered the restoration of
Wilfred by virtue of that power, and either excom
municated or interdicted Rhyddmarch. The fact that
Anselm does not use, or pretend to use, any authority in
the matter, but only requests these Norman adventurers
to do their best for Wilfred, is very strong proof that he
felt that he possessed no real power over St. David's, and
that this was only an attempt, to be used as a precedent,
if successful, when occasion required.
1 Jones and Freeman, 270.

480

THE CONFLICT.

In the suspension of the Bishop of Llandaff, and in the
restoration of the Bishop of St. David's, the Latin had
made two bold strokes for asserting his authority over
South Wales. So far as we know, neither of them called
forth any opposition or protest from the Welsh. The
way was therefore open for a further exercise of spiritual
power. On Herewald's death the see of Llandaff remained
vacant for four years and a half. Then it was filled up
by a Norman nominee. Urban, who is said to have been a
Welshman and Archdeacon of Llandaff,' but there is
nothing to show that his appointment to Llandaff was
otherwise than an act of the king's, or of Anselm's. It
was probably thought as well not to proceed too rapidly
at first, and that the appointment of a Welshman to a
Welsh see, even if made by the crown, would raise no
difficulty. It was a bold step, but its wisdom was
justified by its success. For the first time in the history
of the Celtic Church, an alien authority appointed a Celtic
bishop. Care was taken, on the consecration of Urban,
that there should be no question as to his authority being
derived exclusively from Latin sources. Previous bishops
had been consecrated by Celts, and re-consecrated by
Latins ; so the Celt could at least say that any such bishops
derived their power from Celtic sources. This could not
be said in Urban's case ; the consecrating bishops are
expressly named in the Book of Llandaff, and they are all
English bishops — York, London, Rochester, Chichester,
Lincoln, Chester, Norwich, Durham, and Bath. In the
Profession rolls of Canterbury," Urban, who is styled, not
Bishop of Llandaff, but of Glamorgan, promises canonical
obedience to Anselm and his successors. So far it would
seem that the Latin had won a great rictory in appointing
the bishop to a Welsh see, haring such bishop consecrated
^ Liber Landavensis, 268. ' Haddan and Stubbs, i, 303.

THE CONFLICT. 481
exclusively by Latin prelates, in accordance with the
Latin ordinal, and the new bishop submitting himself to,
and professing canonical obedience to Canterbury ; but
there is another side to the picture. It seems that Urban
was married and had a son. Possibly the Latin Church
considered that to ordain such a man bishop was a small
sacrifice to make to Celtic prejudice in order to secure
so great an advantage to the Latin Church as the right
to appoint Welsh bishops. Meanwhile the Latin Church
was working in another direction. A Breton, Herveus,
had been appointed Bishop of Bangor; how he was
appointed to that see does not appear, whether by the
Welsh or the Normans, nor whether or not he was
consecrated by the Celtic or Latin form, but it appears
that he was consecrated by the Archbishop of York
during the vacancy of the see of Canterbury on Lan-
franc's death. No profession of obedience, however,
appears on the Canterbury rolls. He therefore seems to
have been in much the same position as several of the
previous Welsh Bishops, his consecration was valid accord
ing to Latin ideas, but that was all. An alien never gets
on well in Wales in an ecclesiastical office, and Herveus
was no exception to the rule. He is said to have governed
too strictly, at all events he was driven out of, or deserted,
the see, some say he was starved, others that he wanted
a richer Bishopric. Whatever was the cause, Herveus
induced the Pope to write to Anselm urging his translation
elsewhere ; a proposal was made to send him to Lisieux,
but to this Anselm refused his consent.' The Pope,
1 Among Anselm's letters there is one from him to Henry I, in reply to
a proposal of Henry's that Herveus should be made a bishop in the
diocese of Lisieux, saying this cannot be done, not on account of any
scruple that Herveus was a, Celtic bishop, but for other reasons. Anselm
says, " I do not see how this could easily be done. For as no bishop
ought to be consecrated for any church without the assent and agree
ment of the archbishop and other bishops throughout the province, so he
I I

482 THE CONFLICT.
Paschal II, then wrote to Anselm and the King, ordering
the-iii to translate Herveus on the first opportunity, with
the result that he was soon after translated to Ely.
This marks a further step in the progress of the Latin
Church in Wales, as it is the distinct recognition by
the Pope of a Welsh bishop, as a bishop, and as one fit
to hold any bishopric, an admission that the Pope would
hardly have made as to any previous Welsh bishop. Here
also, for the first time, for Chad's case is hardly analogous,
it is recognized that a Welsh bishop was on an equality
with the Latin bishops, and capable of being translated to
any see. This dispute, though trivial in itself, marks
two points in the history of the advance of the Latin
Church over Wales, the recognition of Welsh bishops by
the Pope, the recognition that Welsh bishops were in
the same position in all respects as English bishops, and
capable of holding English sees. In this instance again
the advance of the Latin is due to Welsh feuds ; it was
the quarrel between the Welsh and the bishop that gave
the opportunity for Latin interference and the assertion
of Latin rights.
It now only remained for the Latins to claim that they
had the right, independently of Welsh ideas and Welsh
wishes, to place their o-wn nominees, irrespective of race
and any other consideration, in Welsh sees, and the
subjugation of the Welsh episcopate to the Latin Church
would be complete. The Celt had not long to wait for
this further exercise of power. Wilfrid, Bishop of St.
who is consecrated bishop cannot be made a bishop of any other province
without the agreement and consent of the archbishop and bishops of that
same province, and the authority of the apostolic see, nor without leave
from the archbishop and bishops of the province where he was consecrated,
which permission cannot be given without long and private inquiry and
deliberation by those without whom he could not be consecrated, even
although his bishopric should seem to be so completely annihilated that
he cannot stay there." — Haddan and Stubbs, i, 304.

THE CONFLICT. 483
David's, died in 1112 — the Welsh proceeded at once to
elect a successor. They chose Daniel, a son of Bishop
SuUen, a brother of the late Bishop Rhyddmarch.
Henry I now felt strong enough, with the aid of his
Norman settlers, and having regard to what had been
done at Llandaff and Bangor, to make a further stroke for
the control of the Welsh Church. He set aside the
nominee of the monks of St. David's, and appointed the
queen's confessor, Bernard, a Norman, with no connection
-with Wales, and whose only right or title was Henry's
pleasure, Bishop of St. David's. Bernard was consecrated
Bishop in Westminster Abbey by the Bishops of Win
chester, Lincoln, Salisbury, Bath, Llandaff, and the Irish
Bishop of Limerick, and made his profession of canonical
obedience to the archbishop. This act of Henry was the
completion of the assertion of the rights of the EngUsh
kings over the Welsh Church ; she could no longer be said
to be independent. Her bishops had lost aU their
distinctive character, and had become in precisely the
same position as any of the English bishops. They had
the same power and authority, the same rights, and were
subject to the same jurisdiction as any other bishops of
the Latin Church. The Welsh had no longer the right
to say who their bishops should be, they had to submit to
the rule and jurisdiction of such persons as the English
kings chose to send them. The independence of the
Welsh Church had gone, and gone without any struggle
or resistance on the part of the Welsh, or any attempt to
retain it.
At first, the quarrel between the bishops of St. Darid's
and Llandaff as to the extent of their dioceses occupied
the energies of the Norman bishops. Bernard made some
few changes, notably in the constitution of the St. Darid's
monastery, by altering it from its Celtic basis into a body
I I 2

181 THE CONFLICT.
of canons on the Latin model, but the two South Wales
bishops were mainly occupied in mutual disputes. A
Scotchman, or a Welshman from the Seotcli Abbey of St.
Wurzburg, David, was elected by the Welsh chiefs to the
see of Bangor, consecrated at Canterbury, and made the
usual profession of obedience, so that the Welsh still
seemed to have asserted their rights in North Wales. The
position that the Welsh sees were suffragans of Canterbury
was distinctly n^eognized in 1125 by the proposed transfer
of Bangoi-, St. Asaph, and Chester from the province of
Canterbury to that of York, and also by the fact that in
the same y(^ar, at a synod held by the Pope's Legate in
London, the Bisln^p of Llandaff' -was summoned to attend
the synod with the other Canterbury suffragans. Urban
tried, but without success, to get the synod to take up his
quarrel with the Bishops of Hereford and St. David's; the
matter was again brought on by him at a Council in
London in 1132, and at another in 113:!, thus showing that
the English bishops were disposed to treat Welsh matters
and Welsh disputes in precisely the same way they treated
any quarrel that might have arisen between two EngUsh
bishops. This all goes to show that the Latin Church was
slowly establishing and consolidating her authority over
Wales, and, as it seems, without any remonstrance or
opposition by the Welsh.
Bernard also endeavoured to obtain the aid of another
powerful agency to assist in extending Latin rule. Up till
then the religious houses in Wales had been mainly
Benedictine, but in France and in England a new order of
monks — a reformed order of Benedictines — had arisen, who
were destined to alter the whole future of monasticism and
to play no inconsiderable part in Welsh ecclesiastical
history. The Cistercian order came to England in 1128.
In 1130 Richard de Granville established a colony at

'IHE CONFLICT. 485
Neath, and others rapidly followed. Margam, Whitland,
Strata Florida, Cwnihir, were all Cistercian colonies in the
diocese of St. David's, spreading Latin ideas and promoting
the rule of the Latin Church, while Tintern, Caerleon,
Grace Dieu, Llantarnan, and Dore did similar work in the
Llandaff diocese. They soon made their influence felt ;
while most zealous for the Latin Church, they were equally
zealous for themselves, and the great feature of their work
was detaching the Welsh chiefs from the Celtic Church
and bringing them over to the Latin side. In civil matters
in opposition to the English kings, in cultivating a Welsh
spirit, the Cistercians were more Welsh than the Welsh
themselves, and they taught the Welsh princes the lesson
that was fatal to Welsh independence, that the nationality
of Wales could exist without the Church of Wales ; that
it was not necessary to maintain the Celtic Church to
maintain Welsh independence. The Welsh chiefs listened
to the charmer ; they surrendered the rights of the Church,
they lost the rights of the people.
The importance of the part played by the Cistercian
order in the history of Wales has never yet been properly
recognized. As allies of the Latin Church they were most
valuable ; probably they alone made it possible for her to
succeed by inducing the Welsh chiefs to beUeve that the
two causes, that of the Chm-ch and that of the people,
could be separated. This they did most eff'ectually, and
won over the Welsh to the Latin Church. But having
done this they stopped, and made themselves the allies of
the Welsh chiefs in their resistance to the English kings.
They became the advisers and the confidants of the Welsh
in their struggle against England. It was a Cistercian
monk who was the Welsh candidate for the see of Bangor
in the great controversy with Canterbury. It was a
Cistercian monk who was the companion of LleweUyn

18C THE CONFLICT.
when he died at Cilineri. It was in a Cistercian house.
Strata Florida, that the plan of Owen Glendower's rebellion
was perfected. To the Cistercians, more than to any one
else, the triumph of the Latin Church is due. Whether
that triumph was not too dearly purchased by the re
bellious spirit the Cistercian fostered, and was almost the
sole means of fostering and preserving, is another matter.
The part they played in each case was most important, and
one that has profoundly affected Welsh history. It may be
said that none of the other reUgious orders have left any
real trace on Welsh history, and if they had never come to
Wales the history of the country would have been much
the same. This cannot be said of the Cistercians. Had
they never come Xo Wales it is probable that the Wales of
to-day would have resembled the adjoining counties of
Salop and Hereford.
Strangely enough, the first note of resistance to the
claims of the Litin Church over Wales came from the
Latin bishops. As soon as his rival Urban died, or
perhaps as soon as Henry I died, Bernard tried to
assert his independence of the see of Canterbury, and
applied to Pope Innocent II for a pall, thereby asserting
the supremacy of the Welsh Church and her independence
of Canterbury. This was the first sign of resistance that
was raised against the claims of the Latin Church over
Wales. It was followed in 1140, when the new Bishop of
Bangor, Meurig, although elected by the Welsh, and con
secrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to take
the oath of allegiance to the EngUsh king. But Meurig
does not appear to have objected to sign the profession
roll at Canterbury declaring his obedience to the Arch
bishop. He ultimately took the oath. The Welsh chiefs
meanwhile appealed to Bernard to oppose Meurig, as a
thief who did not enter the fold by the door but climbed

THE CONFLICT. 487
over the wall. Urban's successor in the see of Llandaff
was Uchtryd, who, like his predecessor, was a married man
with a family ; he was consecrated by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and signed the profession roU. One of his
early acts was to quarrel -with the monastery of Godcliff.
The dispute was to be heard by Archbishop Theobald;
another instance of submission to the authority of Canter
bury. In 1143, GUbert, the Bishop of St. Asaph, was
consecrated by Ai-chbishop Theobald, and signed the
profession roll. By this act all the four Welsh bishops
had admitted the authority of the Archbishop of Canter
bury and submitted to him, and may be considered as
marking the actual admission by the Welsh of the
authority of Canterbury over the four sees in Wales.
Having started the idea of the metropolitan jurisdiction
of St. David's, it was pressed forward. Pope Lucius
wrote in 1144 promising that his Legate should enquire
into it next year; the chapter of St. David's wrote to Pope
Eugenius III alleging that the bishops of St. David's had
consecrated Welsh bishops before they submitted to
Canterbury. It is probable that this was true, and that
Welsh bishops had habitually consecrated bishops, but it
is also true that the ceremonial differed, and the Celtic
bishop was as far removed from the Latin as possible.
Bernard pressed on the claims of St. Darid's. The Pope,
Eugenius III, decided against Bernard, but appointed a
time for specially considering what were the rights of St.
Darid's. Bernard died before anything more could be
done in the matter.
His successor was David, Archdeacon of Cardigan,
another Norman nominee, who was forced on St. David's
against the wishes of the chapter, and in opposition to
their own elected candidate. Care was taken by Arch
bishop Theobald, having regard to the claim put forward

188 THE CONFLICT.
by St. David's to the Metropolitanship of Wales, to exact
a very special form of profession of obedience.' It begins
by stating the perils of disobedience and the virtues of
obedience. "Quia per inobedientie culpani a Paradisi
gaudiis exulamus per obedientie meritum et virtutem ad
eadem necesse est gaudia revertamur. Itaque ego David
ad regimen Menevensis ecclesie electus et a te reverende
pater Theobalde sancte Cantuariensis Ecclesie Archie-
piscope et totius Britannie prinias consecrandus ex iiKire
Episcopus quemadmoduin obedientie debitum niihi a meis
subditis exhiberi volo ita tilii tuisque successoribus
canonice substituendis et matri nostre Cantuarensi
ecclesie in omnibus et jier omnia canonice subjectionis et
obedientie reverentiam profiteor et proprie manus signo
confirnio." The claim to the Metropolitanship of Wales, although
as baseless as possible, yet marks a movement in the
history of the conflict between the two Churches. It
was an attempt on the part of the Welsh to regain the
independence of their Church, and to shake themselves
free from the control of Canterbury. Viewed in this light,
it is of importance as a step in the fight, but in any other
view it is one of the most idle of ecclesiastical disputes.
The Welsh found that their Church was no longer free ;
that they were fast becoming subject to England ; and the
point on which matters turned was the primacy. Had
they been able to shake themselves free from Canterbury
by any means, and establish an independent Welsh control,
there would have been some hope for the Celtic Church
recovering lost ground, but Archbishop Theobald was too
clever a man to allow anything of the sort, and the altera
tion of the form of oath is a sign of how deterniined the
English were to retain their hold on the Welsh Church.
' Haddan and Stubbs, 1, 3.j5.

THE CONFLICT. 489
The Bishop of Llandaff, Nicholas, did not keep strict
enough discipline over his clergy, according to Theobald's
view; he was disgraced, but was afterwards, at the inter
cession of Foliot, Bishop of Hereford, reconciled to the
Archbishop, and entrusted with the administration of the
diocese of Bath, another instance that now the Welsh
bishops were considered in precisely the same position as
any other bishop of the province of Canterbury. This is
also shown by the Pope summoning David, Bishop of St.
David's, as one of the suffragans of Canterbury, to the
Court of Rome in 1163.
Another English custom was introduced, that of
absentee bishops. The celebrated Geoffrey of Monmouth
was consecrated Bishop of St. Asaph in 1152. His pro
fession is in the same form as that of Bernard. Geoffrey
died at Llandaff, at mass, in 1154, and appears never to
have gone near his see. The next bishop, Godfrey, tried
to do the same thing ; he was Abbot of Abingdon, as well
as bishop, and found in the quiet of his monastery a more
pleasant abode than among the turbulent Welsh. But
Theobald's successor, Becket, had other ideas of Church
government ; he wrote to Godfrey that he was either to
return to his see, or to resign it. Owen, Prince of Gwynedd,
had rebelled successfully, and Owen did not care to have
Latin bishops forced on him. Becket ordered Owen to
allow a bishop to be consecrated to Bangor subject to the
see of Canterbury, but Owen refused. Becket, however, put
in his nominee, the Archdeacon of Bangor, as custodian
of the temporalities of the see, sede vacante. Becket
wrote to the Pope, and the Pope ordered the clergy of
Bans'or to elect within two months. He also wrote to
Becket telling him, if the clergy did not do so, to elect a
bishop himself. Becket absolved the Bangor clergy
from any obUgation to elect Owen's nominee, and pressed

490 THE CONFLICT.
on them the necessity of at once electing a bishop. He also
urged Owen to agree to the election of the Pope's candi
date. For eight years, from 1161 to 1169, this controversy
proceeded, and Bangor remained without a Latin bishop
subject to Canterbury. There is some evidence that an
Irish bishop filled the see, or rather did what episet>pal
work was wanted, in the interval. The struggle, how
ever, is noteworthy, as showing that whate-\'er the clergy
may have done, and however they surrendered the rights
of the Church and of the country, the Welsh chief's, when
they had the power, refused to recognize the rights of the
see of Canterbury. They clearly clung to the old
tribal idea, that each independent body or tribe should
choose its own bishop, and that such bishop could not
be appointed for them by a foreign authority. Owen's
death, in 1189, put an end to the dispute.
There is another incident about this time which shows
the pecuUar position the Welsh bishops occupied, namely,
that they were partly bishops under English kings, and
partly under Welsh princes, but wholly under Canterbury.
In 1169, Becket, being- then in exile, wrote to all the
suffragans of the see of Canterbury, ordering them to
issue a sentence of excommunication against Henry II ;
each English bishop was to enforce it throughout his
diocese, " per totam episcopatum vestram in omnibus
ecclesiis." The three Welsh bishops, St. David's, Llandaff,
and St. Asaph (Bangor was left out), were to enforce it
in all the king's land in their dioceses, "per totam
terrani ejus qute in episcopatu vestro est in omnibus
ecclesiis". Drawing forcibly the distinction that while
the rights of the English king in Wales were only over
his land, the rights of the archbishop in Wales were quite
independent of any temporal prince, and extended over
the whole country.

THE CONFLICT. 491
Among those who took part in the coronation of Prince
Henry, in 1170, were the Bishops of Llandaff and St.
Asaph ; this, Becket regarded as a revolt against the see
of Canterbury, and so induced Pope Alexander III to
suspend them with the other bishops, who did so, "ab
omni episcopali officio", for acting "contra jura Cantua-
rensia". Another incident shows the complete subjection
of the Welsh bishops to Canterbury. Godfrey, of St.
Asaph, continued to consider the repose of Abingdon
pleasanter than the glory of St. Asaph. In 1176,
at a council at Westminster, he resigned to Richard,
Archbishop of Canterbury, the see of St. Asaph. " Episco
patum suum nuUo cogente resignavit in manuni Cant.
archiepiscopi et tradidit ei annulum suum et baculum
pastoralem et ipse Cantuar. privavit cum concessi ordinis
dignitate et loco et statuit loco ipsius et consecravit
magistrum Adam in episcopum sancti Asaph." '
The control of the see of Canterbury over the Welsh
bishoprics was now, therefore, complete ; she not only
appointed and consecrated the Welsh bishops, she sus
pended them, restored them, and they resigned their sees
into her hands. Yet, at the time of her triumph, the
great contest for the independence of the Welsh Church
was on the point of beginning. Giraldus de Barri had
become Archdeacon of Brecon, and the long struggle for
the metropolitan rights of St. David's was about to break
out afresh. The same year, 1175, was marked by another
step in the subjection of the Welsh Church. The Abbey
of Gloucester, a Benedictine house, claimed a series of
lands in Wales, among others, the church, or monastery,
of Llanbadarn Vawr, in Cardiganshire. It therefore
became a question whether it was to remain in Welsh
hands, or be given to the Normans. The Norman bishop
' Haddan and Stubbs, i, 378.

492 THE CONFLICT.
of St. David's, David, decided in favour of the Norman
abbey. It was, however, one thing to decide, and another
to carry out the decision, for thirteen years later, in 1188,
when Archbishop Baldwin went on his tour through
Wales to preach the Crusade, he found the Welsh still in
possession, with a Welsh abbot, and his sons as clerks.
This is a good instance how the Normans were trying to
oust the Welsh from all ecelesiastical offices, and to retain
and strengthen their hold on the country by means of the
zeal and energy of the Latin monks.
Another vacancy occurring in the see of St. David's,
a Cluniac monk, Peter de Leia, Prior of Wenlock, was
feirced by the Archbishop into the see — the Welsh nominee
being set aside. A new bishop, Guy, was also consecrated
to Bangor. The Bishop of Llandaff was suspended for
interfering in the matters of the abbey of Malmesbury ;
and to complete the rule of the Latin Church over Wales,
in 1187, Archbishop Baldwin, who was appointed legate
in 1186, made a visitation of Wales. Practically he met
with no resistance, a fact which shows the triumph of the
Latin Church more forcibly than anything else. But, at
Radnor, certain of the St. David's chapter {Canones
Menevenses) ' str(.)ve to persuade the Welsh prince, Rhys,
to protest that Baldwin ought not t< i be allowed to proceed,
as, if he did, it would ruin the right of St. David's. That
is, the canons were desirous of preserving the rights and
liberties of the Celtic Church, but, Uke all the Welsh
princes. Rhys either -was too selfish or too reUgious to
move ; he submitted and alhjAved the Ai-chbishop to follow
out his plans, and to prove that Celtic Wales had, in fact,
sm-rendered to the Latin Church, while her princes stood
by, and offered not even a protest.
This apathy of the Welsh chiefs, combined with the
' Giraldus, Itin. Ca-mb., ii, 1.

THE CONFLICT. 493
zeal of the Normans and the Latin monks, fixed the
Canterbury fetters on Wales. The attempt to regain her
lost liberties, as shown by the disputes as to the sees of
Bangor and St. David's, can only be regarded as the
protest, the unavailing protest, of the holders of Welsh
bishoprics for more power, and for freedom from the
Latin rule. The St. David's contest was far more a
personal than a national matter, and was kept up more by
the vanity of Giraldus, than by any idea of patriotism.
Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury, tried
to force Robert of Shrewsbury on the see of Bangor ; this
was resisted by the Welsh, and this was, so far as the
facts are kno-wn, far more the case of a struggle for
independence than the petty squabbles that surround the
St. Darid's controversy. It is worthy of note that in the
Bangor fight, the Welsh put forward a Cistercian monk,
the sub-prior of Aberconway, to fight their battle against
the Archbishop's nominee; thus showing how completely
the Cistercians, although Latin and not Celtic Churchmen,
had identified themselves with the cause of the Welsh.
The one point that the St. David's controversy proves is
that the Archbishop and the English thought it unsafe to
allow a Welshman, especially so violent a Welshman as
Giraldus, to hold the see of St. Darid's, and it was this,
more than anything else, that told against him. There is
nothing like eridence in support of his statement of the
metropolitan claim of St. David's, and what evidence there
is is all the other way ; but in spite of all this, the whole
quarrel forms a very instructive piece of Welsh Church
history. The failure of Giraldus, and also the failure of the
Welsh at Bangor, must have strengthened the position of
the Latin Church. Yet there seems to have been some
idea, even in Latin minds, that whatever were the rights

494 THE CONFLICT.
of the Latin Church over England, they did not necessarily
extend over Wales. For instance, in the first BuU of
Innocent III, which excommunicated John, no special
mention was made of Wales. So another Bull was issued
reciting the fact that Wales had not been mentioned, and
ordering the same procedure to be foUowed " cum et ipssc
Cant, metropoli sunt subjectse." ' Wales was released from
this interdict in 1212, two years before England, and in
1216 Wales was again placed under an interdict, because
it was held by the barons against Henry III." "
The history of the Church in Wales now enters on
another phase; the supremacy of the Latin was established,
and the Celtic Church only made its existence felt by some
peculiar custom or rite. The Welsh, although admitting
a foreign ecclesiastical authority, were opj)Osed to a foreign
temporal power, and used the Latin Church as a means of
carrying on an intrigue against England. Thus David, the
prince of North Wales, in 1214 tried to enter into an
agreement with Pope Innocent IV to substitute him
instead of the king as his feudal lord. To get some control
over the clergy, in 1246 the king claimed all the ad vow-
sons in Wales that had been the property of the Welsh
princes, as belonging to the crown of England by right
of conquest, so as to fill them with his own friends.
When Edward I came to the throne in 1272 he found
Wales a hotbed of rebellion, and he must have felt that
it was necessary to assert his power in some effective way.
The Statute of Wales, 12 Edward I, is in the form of a
proclamation by Edward to aU his subjects of his land of
Snowdon, and of others his lands in Wales. It recites
that " Dirine providence, among other gifts of its dispen
sation, had of its favour wholly and entirely transferred
under our proper dominion the land of Wales, theretofore
* Haddan and Stubbs, 1, 452. '' Ibid., 1, 457.

THE CONFLICT. 495
subject to us in feudal right, and hath annexed and united
the same unto the Crown of England as a member of the
same body." It then goes on to state that having heard
the Welsh laws, certain of them are abolished, some
allowed, some corrected ; others have been ordained and
added to. The result of the statute was something like
the old example of Patrick and Dubhthach ; some of
the old laws were kept intact, some were retained with
alterations, some new laws were added. But the Statute
did not set up EngUsh law in Wales. In the counties of
Anglesea, Carnarvon, Merioneth, and Flint, sheriff's and
other officers were appointed, and their duties defined. In
the same places, coroners were appointed and their duties
defined. Certain writs were directed to apply to Wales.
Trials as to inheritance were to be by the law of Wales ;
trials as to land to be by jury, as to personalty by the
law of Wales. In cases of crime, English law was to pre
vail. It will thus be seen that, so far from the legislation
of Edward doing away with Welsh law, it expressly recog
nized it as legal. The great change was in the appoint
ment of Royal officers, with defined duties, to see the king's
law in Wales carried out. As to this, Edward was only
partially successful : while great powers were given such
officers, greater were retained by the Crown. As has been
said already, Welsh law was not abrogated, but a good
deal of early Welsh law was assimilated, and the mixture
of native law with an infusion of English became, until the
time of Henry VIII, the law governing Wales. It is true
the Statute speaks in the preamble of the whole of Wales,
but the enacting part only applies to certain parts of
North Wales, the modern counties of Anglesea, Carnarvon,
Merioneth, and Flint. In the rest of Wales the law
remained unaltered ; in the parts under the jurisdiction of
the Lords Marchers they held supreme authority ; in the

496 THE eON-pLlCT.
other parts the Welsh law still prevailed, so that in Wales
there were three distinct systems in force : (1) the old
Welsh law; (2) the Welsh law modified by the Statute of
Wales ; and (3) the custenns that prevailed in the parts
conquered by the Lords Marchers. The old state of things
still continued ; there was not one law that was universal
and binding throughout the whole countr}', but different
laws in the different parts. This, to some extent, gave
the Latin Church her opportunity. She was the only body
that professed to have power and jurisdiction throughout
all Wales. Whoever the temporal ruler might be, what
ever was the temporal law in force in any part, the Latin
Church claimed to be supreme in every place and to know
nothing of the diversity of temporal rulers. The Welsh
idea had been that the rule ot the Church corresponded
with the rule of each petty temporal authority ; against
this the Latins fought and estabUshed their own supreme
eeelesiastieal rule. Doubtless the diversity of temporal
rulers made this difficult, and the fact that Peckham in
his visitaticm had to provide different regulations for each
diocese, shows this difficulty. The idea of a Church over
stepping the limits of the temporal power, or combining
more than one temporal authority in its jurisdiction, was
a novel notion to the Celt.
The Statute of Wales was followed up by an attempt to
settle ecclesiastical matters. The then Archbishop of
Canterbury was John Peckham, a Franciscan friar, whom
the Pope had appointed Archbishop in preference to
Edward's nominee, Burnell. On his appointment, Peckham
at once showed that he did not intend to suffer any divided
authority in Church matters. At the Council of Reading,
in 1279, he endeavoured to make the clergy independent of
the King's Courts. He failed, but the incident indicates
the man whose lot it was to organize the Latin Church in

THE CONFLICT. 497
Wales. Peckham at once began negotiations with the
Welsh. He inquired into the state of things in Wales.
The Bishop of Llandaff acted as his assessor in the case of
a bishop who had five sons. Peckham wrote to Roger de
Mortimer and his daughter, Isabella, requiring them to
desist from allowing a suit, as to the right of patronage^
to be heard in the King's Court. In 1282, Edward ordered
Peckham to excommunicate the Welsh rebels. Peckham
went down to Wales to try to persuade Llewellyn to
submit, but in vain ; and in the autumn he again entered
into negotiations with the Welsh, and attempted, again
-without success, to bring about an agreement between the
Welsh and Edward. On Llewellyn's death, in December
1282, Peckham entertained some scruples about giving him
absolution. In 1284, Peckham began that visitation of
the Welsh dioceses which finally set up the Latin rule. In
the matters prescribed after his visitation it will be seen how
this was done. The dress of the clergy was to be brought
into accordance with the dress elsewhere. The Legatine
constitutions of Otho and Ottobone as to chastity were
to be kept; the canonical hours observed, and the
prorisions of the Council of Lambeth on the reservation
of the Host. The custom of more than one priest holding
the same benefice was abolished. If the rector were
non-resident, ricars were to be appointed. Tithes were to
be paid by tenants in dower and mortmain, and payment
enforced. Tellers of dreams, auguries, and idlers were to
be discouraged, and the visits of friars encouraged. In
writing to Edward, Peckham urged that everything that
was contrary to the custom of the EngUsh Church was to
be done away -with (" quicquid vero ad relevationem
Ecclesie discrepat ab usibus AngUcanis illud destruunt et
evertunt").' In his injunctions for St. Darid's, Peckham
' Haddan and Stubbs, 1, 569.
K E

498 THE CONFLICT.
provided that canons were to reside, clerical delinquents
punished, not by fine but by deposition. The Bishop of
St. David's (Bee) made his protest against the Arch
bishop's visitation, but it was overruled, and the right
estabUshed ; but Peckham records the fact that for the
future the forms of the profession the Bishops of St.
David's had to make at their consecration were to be
altered, so as to expressly do away with any such claim.
This visitation marks the extent of the triumph of
the Latin Church over the Celtic. Wales was conquered,
and was to feel the power of the conqueror both in
Church and State ; the Welsh sees were treated as
English sees. Shortly after, Edward claimed the profits
of the Welsh sees during a vacancy, in the same way as
in the case of the English bishoprics. In theory the
rictory was complete, the alien rule was far more
rigidly established in Church than in State. Edward's
laws did not purport to extend over the whole of Wales ;
whole districts were outside the king's writ ; but all Wales,
whoever was the temporal sovereign, passed under the
rule of Canterbury. The final stage was reached when the
Pope appointed a bishop (John of Monmouth) , to Llandaff
by provision, in 1295.
Although in theory the Latin Church had triumphed,
yet in fact a number of Welsh customs surrived. It was
impossible to root out the tribal system, or the ideas based
on it, in any summary fashion. Many Celtic customs — ¦
numerous holders of one benefice, married clergy, and,
perhaps, even some heathen customs — still lingered ;
although an outward respect was paid to the Latin rule,
the Celtic practice was not by any means dead. As has
already been pointed out, the idea of establishing colleges,
and so making the clergy more Latin and less Celtic, may
have been due to this. It is only by a close study of the

THE CONFLICT. 499
social history of the country during the next two hundred
and fifty years that it can be said with any accuracy how
far the Latin Church really got hold of Wales. There is
not wanting evidence to prove that the process was very
much the same as the original conversion of the country.
There was a certain amount of outward conformity to
Latin rules, but behind all this the Celtic ideas prevailed.
As it had formerly been Paganism with an outward
veneer of Christianity, so now it was Celtic with the
outward and risible sign of Latin Christianity. The
Latins, however, received powerful help from two
causes. The Cistercian monks led the Welsh chiefs to
espouse the Latin religion, partly by aiding them in
plotting against the EngUsh. Every Cistercian house was
a hotbed of treason ; witness Strata Florida in the move
ment of Owen Glendower. So the native Welsh found
themselves -without any leader, and without the power
of combined resistance. The policy of the EngUsh
Government was to degrade the Welsh and not to
encourage the ordination of any Welshman, as none
of them were considered worthy of a place of trust.'
So arose an alien Church supported by alien clergy,
and not the least of the feeUngs of the Welsh against
the Church was that a body of men who were sup
ported by Wales, and who ought to be, before aU
things, Welsh, were all foreigners, and no Welshman
could be legally admitted a member of the body. Orders
were to the Welsh a closed door. It also happened that,
from the fact that the English and foreigners were mostly
found near the towns, and the towns being the places
where most religious houses were to be found, that except
in some Cistercian houses all the life, both civil and
religious, of the country was found in or round the towns.
1 See Stat. 4 Henry IV, c. 32 ; and Haddan and Stubbs, 1, 583.
K K 2

500 THE CONFLICT.
The Celts and the Latins did not assimilate, and in the
country places the Welsh still retained their old religious
ideas and observances. The clergy, although not Welsh,
became more and more tolerant of the Welsh, and, while
in name Latin, -with them local ideas largely prevailed.
The Celtic customs still lived in spite of the fact that
nominally they were superseded by the Latin. It is
obrious that this state of things was, if not the result of,
in a great measure due to, the mode of government. The
threefold government, as it might be called, that prevaUed
in Wales, was one that lent itself to rebellion. From
1284 to 1534 Wales was a hotbed of sedition, and it was
doubtless felt by Henry VIII that it was really necessary
to take some steps to stamp out treason. It would be
foreign to the purpose of this book to go through all the
statutes that were passed to keep the Welsh quiet. It
may be fairly said that it was to Wales the English kings
had to look whenever rebellion or invasion was feared.
There are, however, one or two points connected with this
period that deserve notice. The first is, that the jurisdic
tion of the king's courts in Welsh matters was limited to
cases where the Lords Marchers were parties to any litiga
tion ; in other matters the courts of the Lords Marchers
decided all questions. The result would be that the
secular arm was probably far weaker, and far less able to
support the Church, than would have been the case in any
country where the royal authority was supreme. The
next point is that all matters in which the bishop was
interested were tried, not in Wales, but in the next
EngUsh county. The reason usually given for this is that
the bishop was so powerful it was impossible to get a fair
trial in Wales. Hence it would follow that the power of
the bishop and the bishop's courts would be much less
than might have been expected, as any matter in which

THE CONFLICT. 50 1
the bishop was interested had to be tried elsewhere. The
bishop could not get the aid of the sheriff or any other
executive officer to carry out his orders. This would tend
greatly to limit the power of the Welsh bishops to compel
the Welsh to obey their orders. All these matters tended
to prevent the Latin Church getting the authority she
would have done elsewhere. This conflict of authorities,
disputes as to jurisdiction, and the difficulty in enforcing
the law, if it, on the one hand, kept alive treason and
rebellion, on the other, it served to lessen the authority
of the Latin clergy.
The want of a central authority, both for civil and
ecclesiastical matters, was greatly felt, and it led to rather
a startling exercise of the royal prerogative, namely, the
establishment by the crown, of its own authority and
without statute, of a court that should have jurisdiction
over all the parts of Wales where the king's writ did not
run. This court, "the Court of the Lord President of the
Marches of Wales," is said to have been created by Edward
IV. It is not unworthy of notice that all the lords
presidents before the Reformation were ecclesiastics :
Alcock, Bishop of Worcester ; Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln ;
Blyth, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield ; Voysey, Bishop
of Exeter; Lee and Sampson, Bishops of Coventry and
Lichfield. Although the court had not any express
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, yet there can be no doubt that
a court whose duty it was to enforce the law, keep order
and put down abuses, presided over by an ecclesiastic,
would of necessity form a most powerful engine in aid of
the power of the bishop. Nothing probably gave the
Latin Church greater power in Wales than this Court, and
if ever its records are pubUshed it will show that Latin
Churchmen did not wear the sword in vain. It would
ha,ve been a powerful engine if presided over by a layman.

502 THE CONFLICT.
but a court, of which an ecclesiastic was the permanent
head, must of necessity have been a terrible force in
advancing ecclesiastical, that is Latin, ideas ; added to
this, some of the Welsh bishops were always members of
the court. The name of the Bishop of St. David's usually
appears, and those of the other Welsh bishops from time
to time.
The legislation of Henry VIII was of two kinds : first,
statutes relating exclusively to Wales ; and, secondly, laws
for England that were made to apply to Wales. The
effect of the two classes was Uttle short of a revolution.
The two great Acts as to Wales are the 27 Henry VIII,
c. 26, and the 34 Henry VIII, c. 26. The first is entitled
" An Act for law and justice to be ministered in Wales in
like form as it is in this Realm." It recites that Wales
has already been under the Imperial crown of the realm
as a very member and joynt of the same. It enacts that
the different lordships marcher be annexed to the different
shires, and that there shall be sheriffs, escheators, and
other officers executing and returning processes as in
England. Commissioners were to be appointed to divide
some of the shires into hundreds, and the shires as con
stituted were to send members to Parliament. Com
missioners were to be appointed to ascertain what the
Welsh Laws were, and to say which of them should be in
force in the futui-e. Power was given to the king within
the next three years to suspend or revoke any part of the
Act. One result of this Act was to do away with the divided
authority Edward I had left, and make royal officers,
as in England, have jurisdiction among the Welsh.
It broke up AVales into counties, and placed those counties
under the same laws as the EngUsh, thus making,
as fai- as possible, the law the same for England and

THE CONFLICT. 503
Wales. It was foUowed by the second Act, 34 and 35
Henry VIII, c. 26, " An Act for certain ordinances in the
King's Majesty's Dominions and Principality of Wales."
It recites that the king had made certain ordinances for
Wales which he was pleased to allow to be thereby
enacted. It divides Wales into twelve counties, confirms
the boundaries of the hundreds as ascertained by the
Commissioners, continues the President and Council of
the Marches, provides for the appointment of justices
and holding sessions in each county, and for the law to be
administered according to the law of England. The
Chancellor was to appoint the justices. No fines were to
be taken for murder or felony : all lands in Wales were to
be regulated by English laws.
The effect of this Act was to estabUsh EngUsh law
in Wales, and to apply to Wales the existing EngUsh
law ; and all laws that were in future passed as to
England applied equally to Wales, thus extending
at one stroke all the ecclesiastical laws of Henry VIII
to Wales. For instance, as has been shown, one of
the points the Welsh fought for most stubbornly was
the right of the clergy to marry; the result of this
Act was to extend to Wales the Six Articles (31 Henry
VIII, c. 14), one of the provisions of which made it felony,
that is, a capital offence, both in the man and the woman,
for a priest to live with a woman, even if they had con
tracted marriage. It is difficult to state the tremendous
effect that this statute, incorporating Wales with England,
must have had on the Church in Wales. Previously the
authority of both King and Pope was recognized, but it
was a matter of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and was difficult
to enforce ; now the king's officers would enforce the law
as in any other part of England. The Pope had dis
appeared, but the Welsh were compelled to set up Henry in

504 THE CONFLICT.
his place, as the supreme head of the Church, next after
Christ. These might, however, be more matters of theory
than of practice ; but other parts of Henry's legislation
came closer home. The Acts as to the payment of tithes
and ecclesiastical fees, and the powers given to the civil
authorities to enforce them, must have had a great effect
on the minds of the Welsh. We read with astonishment
the arbitrary laws of Henry VIII. Whether the time
required them or not, is quite another question ; that they
were arbitrary even their admirers will admit. Imagine
the feelings of the Welsh to find suddenly that, not
directly but by a side wind, the whole of this arbitrary
code had become part of the law under which they Uved.
As an instance of what was the real effect of Henry's
legislation, it is only necessary to go to the reign of his
elder daughter. The Bishop of St. David's was burnt in
the streets of Carmarthen. The person who burnt him was
the sheriff', and the sheriff only got his authority to do so
from this Act 34 and 35 Henry VIII, c. 26. If this innocent
looking Statute, which seems merely to be a reform of
procedure, had not been passed, the Bishop of St. David's
CO aid not have been burnt in Wales. This is only one
instance of the changes that were made ; it is hard to
realize how great the alteration was, and what tremendous
power the Church gained, power which she had never
before possessed so far as Wales was concerned. The
whole state of things was changed ; a new authority,
armed -with new and arbitrary rights, was set up. In
England this power had always existed ; in Wales the
legislation of Henry VIII first gave it sway.
In addition to this, the practical result of the legislation
of Henry VIII was to do away with Welsh laws and
Welsh customs, and to establish English law as the sole
system in the country. The legislation of Edward I had

THE CONFLICT. 505
left, not only districts exempt from EngUsh law, but even
where EngUsh law prevailed, the Welsh laws and customs
were not wholly abrogated. To a certain extent, up to
the time of Henry VIII, the Welsh law was still the law
of the country, and the Cyvreithiau Gymry and the Leges
Wallice show to what extent the Welsh law prevaUed.
But under Henry Vlllth's legislation, all Welsh laws
became obsolete, its object was to enforce English law,
English procedure, and EngUsh rule, and only these, to
the exclusion of all others. Had this stood alone, it would
of necessity have created discontent ; a country never
submits without a remonstrance to wholesale changes in
its Jaws and ideas, more especially where, as here, a system
which had become so much a part of Welsh nature as
the tribal system was swept away almost by the stroke
of a pen. Before the change was fully felt, or the
alteration reaUzed, another followed, which had, if
possible, as wide-reaching an effect, the setting up of a
new religious system. Whatever the Anglican system
may have been elsewhere, it was in Wales an entirely
novel arrangement, and introduced totaUy new notions
and conceptions on reUgious matters. In Wales, the
Act of Uniformity, whatever it did in England, estab
Ushed a new system of Church government wholly op
posed to Welsh ideas. Up till this, a system that may
profanely be termed a mutual one, had prevailed ; this
was done away -with, and in its place was substituted a
system that was based upon the personal opinion of the
crown. Every tribesman, as a member of the tribe, had
kept up the Church as part of the tribal organization ;
henceforth, every man was to attend church, because the
Government ordered him, to hear at church what it pleased
the Government to permit ; to pay to support a church
because it was the will of the Government that that

506 THE CONFLICT.
church should be supported. We talk of freedom ; — a
greater tyranny never existed than the Act of Uniformity,
as it worked in Wales. Religion was no longer a question
of private judgment, no longer a question of doctrine, of
principle, or of beUef . It was all reduced to the arbi
trary order of an arbitrary power. " You, each of you,
whatever may be your opinions, shall go to Church, and
shall maintain the Church because I choose you should ;
any opposition to this, any refusal, is highly penal."
In any country such a state of things would have
caused difficulties. We talk of the tyranny of Philip II
in the Netherlands; except in the way he enforced his
rule, it was not one bit more tyrannical than the English
system in Wales, and he had at least this excuse, he was
carrying out the orders of a Church he beUeved infallible.
In Wales, the system was not based on an authority which
claimed infallibility, it had the cool cruelty to assert
that it was based upon private judgment, the private
judgment of a fallible mortal, varied from time to time
by his ideas of temporal expediency.
In no country can the whole foundation of a religious
system be changed, even by a Tudor sovereign, in an
instant. Under no possible circumstances could a change
from a mutual to a State-religious system have been
carried out without friction. But, in Wales, the difficulty
was increased by the change being not merely a reUgious,
but also a social change. The effect of the Tudor legis
lation was to turn the clergy into an army of landlords,
entitled to exact their rents like any other landlords, to
apply, to collect those rents, the EngUsh modes of
enforcing English laws — modes as arbitrary to Welsh
ideas as they were novel. This double change from
Welsh to English law, from Welsh to English religion,
would, under any circumstances, have caused difficulties

THE CONFLICT. 507
however it was carried out; unfortunately it was carried
out by men who considered that the first duty of a
people was obedience to their will, however arbitrary, and
however repulsive that will was to the people. It was
not unnatural that the Welsh should dislike the change,
and, as in England, the change was opposed by the
Puritans ; the only hope Wales saw was to throw herself
into the arms of the Puritans, and to oppose in every way
the new system. The parochial clergy in Wales became
more and more like English landlords, and less and less like
Celtic priests. This change intensified the Welsh resist
ance, and the history of the Marprelate movement shows
the pitch of frenzy to which the Welsh were driven. The
opposition was deepened by the High Church views the
Anglican clergy began to develope under the Stuarts.
The theory of Divine right was most utterly opposed to
every Celtic idea. To be told that the religious rites to
which the Welshman had always considered himself
legaUy entitled to receive from the priests of the tribe,
were only given as a matter of grace, and might at any
time be withheld at the option of the priest ; to be told
that the clergy were a superior order of beings to the
tribesmen, and had a Divine commission to give or to
withhold all ecclesiastical functions ; that they could
refuse at their own pleasure to christen a child, or to bury
a corpse, when the Welsh had been always taught that
the tribesman had a right to demand these services of
the Church because he was a tribesman, naturally drove
the Welsh into incipient rebellion. Added to these, when
the priest claimed new rights and enforced them by novel
methods, at once alien and arbitrary to Welsh ideas, there
is little wonder that the gulf which separated the Church
as by law established, and the old Celtic religious system,
was continually widening. When the bishops' registers

508 THE CONFLICT.
of the Welsh sees for the last half of the sixteenth and
the first half of the seventeenth centui-ies are published,
we shall learn, what we do not yet fully know, how the
AngUcan establishment was rivetted on Wales, and made
hateful to the Welsh. It must not be forgotten that the
Act of Uniformity made attendance at church compulsory,
a provision that must have been hateful to a body of
men who loved priestly, as Uttle as royal supremac}',
who hated the control of a foreign authority, whether
that authority resided in London or in Rome. We
do not always remember, in considering Welsh Church
history, that before Laud went to Canterbury, he
was Bishop of St. David's, nor how hateful a man so
strong in his own sacerdotalism, so convinced that in his
arbitrary rule he was doing God service, must have been
to the Welsh. No greater contrast can be imagined than
such a man at the head of the diocese of St. David's, and
the old Celtic chief of the tribe of the Saint. Laud
brought do-wn the AngUcan Church and the English
crown; but the Puritanism that succeeded him was not
much more in accordance with Welsh ideas than his sacer
dotalism . It was equally opposed to the Celtic tribal ideas,
equally alien to Welsh religious notions. Had it lasted,
it is probable that the feeling in Wales against it would
have been as strong as was the feeling against the
tyranny that preceded it.
It is the fashion of modern church writers to de
plore the lethargy which fell upon the Church in
Wales from the Restoration to the rise of Methodism.
From an ecclesiastical point of view it was a most
deplorable period, but it is the result of this lethargic
interval that the AngUcan establishment has been
able to gain such hold as she has in Wales, a
hold she could have obtained in no other way. As

THE CONFLICT. 509
discipline relaxed, the AngUcan priest tended more and
more in the direction of a layman — a man on the
same level with the farmer and horsedealer, who
was not afraid to sit and drink with them ; who
would sink the Church and ecclesiastical theories, and
become as much one of the villagers as the old Celtic
tribal priest had been. The parson no longer occupied,
or claimed to occupy, a superior position to the other
villagers : their tastes became his tastes, their wants and
desires were also his. It is not a pleasant, but it is a true
picture ; it is by these means that the Anglican
Church has obtained her hold in Wales, and become more
popular, because more identified -with the people than she
had ever preriously been. Methodism, or rather Non
conformity, brought about a change, the effects of which
we have yet to see. From its greater fiexibility it ap
proached more nearly to the old Welsh tribal idea of the
mutual rights of the people and the reUgious body, and in
so far as she satisfied the Welsh ideas, she became
accepted by the Welsh.
At last, some fifty years ago, the Church found that
Wales was slipping from her hands, and the great
Welsh Church rerival began, which we are now asked
to regard with such thankfulness and admiration. But
this revival has really shaken, and, as it proceeds,
will further shake, the hold of the estabUshment in
Wales. The more the Church asserts herself, the
further she drifts from the Welsh idea of a Church.
She becomes again the foreign system, alien alike to
Welsh ideas and Welsh aspirations. As long as she
remained quiet, and did not assert her paramount claims,
her superior authority, so long was she tolerated; once
she rouses herself into life and asserts her right to rule,
she arouses all the opposition that has always existed in

510

THE CONFLICT.

Wales to a ruling Church. A Church revival means
a greater assertion of the rights of the establishment,
therefore hostility to the establishment, ami the more the
clergy try to enforce the new Anglicanism of to-da}', the
more do they drive Wales towards Nonconformity. It is
not by its own strength that Noneonformity succeeds ; it is
simply because it is the one means that enables the Welsh
to resist the revived sacerdotalism that eager ecclesiastics
are trying to force upon her. Nonconformity comes far
nearer the old tribal idea of Celtic Christianity than
anything else. A Welshman who studies his country's
history sees that there is nothing so near the old Welsh
religious system as Nonconformity — nothing so opposed
to it as the establishment ; he therefore adopts Noncon
formity, not because he loves it, but because he hates
the estabUshment, regarding it as trying to coerce him
and his opinions. The Welsh idea was, has been, and is,
" the harmony of the Church and the people, the right of
either party from the other and in the other." The
Anglican idea is, that the Church lays down the rule of
what is to be done ; the people have to obey without
question or dispute, the Church bestows her privileges on
an obedient people, not that the people can claim them
as of right. For instance, the Celtic Church speaks of
" the things the Church is bound to give the people, burial
to be made in it, baptism, and communion." The line the
Anglican clergy took on the burial question was perfectly
legal, perfectly in accordance with the ideas of the
Anglican Church, but it was utterly opposed to all Celtic
notions. The tribesman was entitled to be buried because
he was a tribesman, whatever else he might be. The Angli
can idea was that only a select number of the tribesmen,
those who have conformed to her religious ideas, can be
buried in the sacred ground of the viUage and with sacred

THE CONFLICT. 511
rites. This was in direct opposition to Celtic ideas, and it
was the survival of those ideas that led to the bitter
struggle over the dead Dissenter. The Nonconformist
represented the tribal, the AngUcan, the alien Church.
So it is with other disputed points. The old struggle
between the tribal and State religions is always arising.
It is the consequence of the action of EUzabeth and her
advisers in taking upon themselves to set up a system of
religious rule which was neither one thing nor the other ;
which was as alien, or even more so, than the Latin
system to the Celtic, and equally opposed to tribal ideas.
The Tudor notion was that their will was law, that all
opposition to that will had to be put down by force, but
here, as in other cases, force has proved to be no remedy.
The Welsh idea, though often crushed, has not yet been
uprooted. The more the Church system is enforced, the
greater activity she displays, the more points of divergence
appear. It would be beyond the scope of this book to
discuss the different matters on which the estabUshed
Church and the Welsh are at variance. They all come
back to the fundamental difference between the two sets
of ideas, the difference between a local and an Imperial
Church ; whether a locality is to manage its own religious
affairs, or whether a foreign individual is the supreme
head next after Christ, and therefore able to enforce
certain rules on the country. It is impossible to reconcile
the two theories ; for over a thousand years they have
been at war, and -will be so while the world lasts. They
represent the conflict that the Celtic Church has been
waging from a.d. 600 until the present day, first against
the Latin, and then against the AngUcan Church. The
AngUcan says that local control of reUgious matters is an
accursed abomination ; the Celt repUes that Imperial
regulation of reUgious rites is the unclean thing. As

512

THE CONFLICT.

each can only appeal to the right of private judgment,
both might argue for ever, but the party of Imperial
control possess the advantage of having the power of the
sword as the final argument. In law the Imperial party
are in the right, and the Church says that Churchmen are
bound to obey the law. The national party reply, the law
should be altered ; so far, both stand on fair ground, yet
neither are content to remain on it, but enter upon
questions wholly beside the point with all the heat,
all the bigotry, and all the falsehood that ecclesiastical
controversies invariably invoke. Both parties, in their
zeal for their religion, or rather for poUtical success,
neglect the historical side of the question. Nothing dies
so hard as the memories of what we learnt as children.
Most of us beUeve, and will beUeve until our dying day,
that in the contest with the Welsh St. Augustine was
right, and the Welsh were wrong; that the controversy
between them was over matters of ecclesiastical detail,
never of any real importance, and long since passed away
and forgotten. If Welshmen are in earnest in making
the most of Welsh history, this idea should no longer be
allowed to prevail. The men who withstood the great
Latin monk in his pride and in his success should receive
from their countrymen the credit they deserve. Wales
possesses too few men who stood up for her and her rights
for love of Wales alone, and not for self-interest, that she
can afford to neglect these early defenders of her rights
and her religion. Their names are forgotten, the repUes
they gave are probably fictitious, but the fact remains clear
that Welshmen opposed, and opposed -with success, the
advance of the Latin Church. It is not mere patriotic
pride, mere love of glorifying the past, and those who
acted in the great days of old, that should cause this to
be done. It brings out into prominence two facta too

THE CONFLICT. 513
often forgotten, but both of which have a wide and
important bearing on even the modern side of the Welsh
Church. It brings into its true light the stand the Celtic
Church made against the Latin advance. It also brings
out, if the Reformation was really what a large party of
Anglicans now say it was, a mere stripping off the abuses
and gro-wths that had in the course of time encrusted the
Church of Augustine, that we have to go back, not as is
usually said, to one ancient Church, but to two distinct
Churches, founded upon two distinct bases, and having
Uttle in common. Which was the true Church is a matter
for theologians ; which was the most ancient is a matter
for the historian, and no historian will hesitate to say that
so far as these islands are concerned the most ancient is
the Celtic. But a return to the Celtic Church would be
more impossible than a return to the Heptarchy.
It is difficult to try to depict the feelings or the
language of some of the High Anglicans of to-day at the
state of things in reUgious matters the organization of the
Celtic Church discloses. Sooner than return to that, they
would say, the errors and abuses that prevailed at the
Reformation would be preferable. But if the Reformation
was not a return to the original Church of Wales, it was
the introduction of a new system of Church government,
and thus the result is that, whatever may be the case in
England, the system now existing in Wales only dates
from the accession of Elizabeth, some three and a half
centuries. AU that we have been in the habit of hearing
as to the antiquity of the existing Church in Wales, all the
stock-in-trade of certain popular speakers and writers, rests
upon a most doubtful basis, even if it rests upon any at
all. It is impossible, if history is regarded, to escape
from the position that either the Reformation v/as a
return to the old ecclesiastical system that prevailed in
L L

514 THE CONFLICT.
this country, or that it was the introduction of a new one.
It will be conceded by everyone that it was not a return
to the old Celtic Church ; it can therefore only be, as it
is admitted it was, a change from what existed at the
time, the setting up of a new system. To that system
was transferred all the property and all the privileges of
the displaced Church which were taken from it and given
to the new body. In England it was different ; there the
Reformation was a return to the Christianity introduced
by Augustine and Theodore, but that Christianity had
never obtained in Wales. There a different system existed,
that was partly displaced by the Latin Christianity
enforced by the Normans and Plantagenets ; but this was
overthrown at the Reformation, and there was no return
to the old system, the Celtic, but a new one, the Anglican,
was introduced and estabUshed by law.
The consequences of this are important. It is a very
different thing- to argue as to the sacredness of endow
ments that have existed before the time of legal memory,
and the sacredness of endowments that have their origin
at a recent date. Three centuries in the history of a
Church are but as yesterday. The Celtic Church of Wales
saw the Roman legions in Britain ; the Welsh Church of
to-day would not, in point of antiquity, come -within the
Ust a modern antiquary made of the present noble and
gentle famiUes of England and Wales.
It will be thus seen that the true position of the Celtic
Church, the long struggle she has maintained, are matters
that possess more than a mere antiquarian interest, and
have a most important bearing on the question of the
present position of the Welsh Church. Whether that
Church should remain or should be disestablished is not a
question for the historian, but the politician ; but if the
present Welsh Church falls, it will not be the Church of

THE CONFLICT. 515
David and Teilo, but of Elizabeth and Laud. This is not
generally recognized, but no one who will take the trouble
to examine the ecclesiastical history of Wales can dispute
it. For some reason, probably because it is far easier to
use general language in historical matters than to con
descend to particulars, the defenders of the Establishment
are allowed to apply or misapply history as they think fit,
and the Celtic Church of Wales is forgotten or ignored.
It is a pity this should be so ; the Church does not need
to be defended by any such weapons, and no misstate
ment of history will really help her case. Whatever
may be her fate as an establishment is, from an historical
standpoint, of secondary importance. It is of real
importance from every standpoint that the most should
be made of all existing evidence as to the Celtic Church,
and that she should be placed in her true position. That
evidence will be found in most unexpected places, because
the Celtic Church became so identified with the tribe, its
habits and customs, that it was both impressed by, and
impressed itself on, the tribe and tribal life. It is to
be traced in traditions, customs, folk-lore. All these are
rapidly vanishing. In the last twenty-five years, more of
old Wales has disappeared than had been the case for
generations. This process of disappearance is rapidly
going on. An effort, a most laudable effort, has been
made to publish Welsh manuscripts and the sources of
early Welsh history, but these, when published, will be, to
a great extent, unintelligible, if the local customs that
alone can explain them are allowed to perish unrecorded.
It was laid down in a Welsh case,' where the construction
of some obscure charter, involving questions of local
rights, had to be decided, that the safest guide and the
best interpreters of such charters were the local usages
1 Duke of Beaufort v. The Mayor of Swansea, 3 Exch., 413.
L L 2

516 THE CONFLICT.
and customs of the locality. If this rule is observed in
Church matters, there may be some hope of explaining
many of the riddles which are now unexplained in Welsh
archseology, especially ecclesiastical archaeology, and of
learning more than we now know of the men who stood
up for their Church against the strong hand of the Nor
man barons and the subtler craft of the Latin ecclesiastics.
Even if the outcome is to require some parts of the histe)i-y
of the Church in Wales to be re-wi-itten, yet that need not
be a matter for regret if the result is to bring out into
clearer relief the history of the only independent Church,
independent of all foreign control, Papal or Royal, that
survived in Western Christendom.

INDEX.

Abbates laici, 196
Abbacy, succession to, 27, 32 ; rules
as to the, 184
Abbot, became one of the tribe, 192;
deprived if unable to give security,
193 ; equality on election of, 194 ;
obligations of on appointment,
191 ; position of, 243 ; property of
belonged to monastery, 192; quali
fication of, 189 ; rules as to in
Celtic Church, 184; rules as to
election of, 185 ; security given
by, 192 ; supremacy over bishop,
230 : tests of fitness for, 193
Aberconway, 300
Abergelev, 397
AbergwiUi, 299
Absentee bishops, 489
Achau y Saint, 417
Acta Sanctorum, 414
Actions real and personal, 348
Adamnan, Life of Columba, 209,
240, 241
Admission of strangers into tribe,
61 ; how efEected, 69 ; rules as to,
62
Adoption, how far a Celtic custom, 60
Adrian, Abbot, 224
Advowson, 71 ; Welsh, claimed by
English King, 307, 494
Adzeheads, 274
Adelfius, 248
Aidan, 170
Aldus Niger, 241
Ainmire, 175
Airbacc giunnje, 273
Alban, St., 98
Alexander III, Pope, 491
Alfred, 253
Aldhelm, Abbot, 423
Amian, Bishop, 307, 400
Anastasius, Pope, 309
Ancestor, common, 57, 58, 76
Anchorites, 159, 168
Anglesea, 105
Anglican order for consecrating
bishops, 212

Anion, 311
Annoit Church, ceremonies in, 346 ;
definition of, 186, 340 ; importance
ot, 349 ; requisites for, 352
Anselm, Archbishop, 26, 213, 217
Apostles, the twelve, of Ireland, 172
Appropriation of tithes, 401
Arch, use of term by Celts, 313
Archbishoprics in -Wales, 206
Arclibishop of Caerleon, 248
 of Canterbury, 214, 487
 Anselm, 26, 213, 217
 Baldwin, 492
 Becket, 489
 Laud, 508
 Peckham, 285, 296, 496, 497
 Reynolds, 307
 Theobald, 487
.  . Theodore, 221, 224, 278, 371
Archdeaconries, when established,
308, 344
Archdeaconry of Brecon, 295 ; Car
digan, endowment of, 394 ; Llan
daff, 308 ; endowment of, 399
Archenfield, 258
ArchofEeriad, 254, 312
Ardennes, worship of, 103
Aries, council of, 140, 248
Armagh, 195
Armorican saints, 462
Arthmail, 367
Arthur, 277
Arvon, men of, 77
Asa, 247
Asaph, St., 246; bishops of, 252;
diocese of, 401; English practices
in, 284
Asser, 253
Assessor, chief, 311
Athelred, Archbishop, 214
Augustine, Archbishop, 2, 5, 141,
143, 204, 213, 246 ; conference
with Celts, 246 ; questions to Pope
Gregory, 141; treatment of Celts
by, 141
Authority, no supreme in Celtic
Church, 190

il8

INDEX.

Auxilius, 163
Avan, St , 254
Avenger of kindred, 79
Bactroperatse, 164
Baithen, 198
Baldwin, Archbishop, 492
Bangor, bishops of, 230 ; disputes
as to, 481, 489 ; Becket's inter
ference, 4.S9. 490
 Diocese of, 250, 251 ; benefices
in, 2S7 ; income of, 399
 Irish, 174
 Antiphonary of, 179, 416
 Synod at, Welsh, 307
 Iscoed, 108, 174, 239, 246, 250 ;
slaughter of monks of, 470
Baptism, efEect of on a tribe, 60 ;
controversy as to, 2
Bard of household, 81 ; position of
bard in Wales, S2
Bardism, record of, 82
Bardsey Island, 138, 250
Bee, Bishop, 29s, 498
Becket, Archbishop, 491
Belatwcadrus, 103
Belisama, 103
Benen, 125
Benedict, St., rule of, 166, 224
Benedictine monks, 475 ; aid to
Latins, 477 ; cells, 476 ; founda
tions, 476; houses, reason for, 475;
position of, 476; on line of Severn,
475 ; date of, 476
Benefices, hereditaiy nature of, 200,
287 ; number of clergy at oije,282;
retained by monasteries, 288 ;
chapelries turned into, 388
Benignius, 125
Bernard, St., on Celtic bishops, 36,
218
 Bishop, appointment of, 483 ;
contest with Llandafe, 226, 483;
reforms St. David's chapter,
392
Berthgwyn, Bishop, 258
Berthutis, 260
Bettws, 339 ; nature of, 342 ; dis
tinction from Capel, 339, 342
 Garnon, 112
 Kadwaladyr, 282
Bilingual inscriptions, 116, 118, 119
Bishoprics, 250 ; hereditary nature
of, 282 ; monastic, 220 ; position
of, 231 ; territorial, 256
Bishops, absentee, 489 ; per saltum,
208 ; appointment by English
king, 483 ; by Pope by provision.

498; consecration, mode of, 211;
by Archbishop of Canterbury,
214 ; difference between Latin and
Celtic, 34 ; houses, 23S, 314 ; in
dependence of, 216 ; jurisdiction
of, 207 ; Kildare monastery, 230 ;
list of, 35 ; married, 242 ; mon
astic officials, 34,231; necessity for,
37 ; number of, 36, 234 ; position
of, 34, 245 ; subjection to abbot,
230; succession of, 217 ; stumbUng,
231 ; taking fees, 209 ; value of,
232 ; virgin, 233 ; without sees,
218 ; groups of, 237 ; translation
of, 481; objections to, 482 ; Saxon,
256 ; provision for daughters of,
212 ; no control over King's
chapel, 316 ; appointment of
Welsh bv Latins, 472, 481 ; by
Kings of England, 480, 483 ; Welsh
restrained by Archbishop of Can
terbury, 477 ; Lords Marchers,
501 ; law suits in which interested,
where tried, 500
Black Book of Carmarthen, 417
Black Book of St. David's, 242, 365,
369 ; no mention of tithe in, 369
Bledri, 260
Blegewryd, Archdeacon, 309
Bleidan, 110
Blood relationship, 68
Blotches on face mark of Divine
anger, 270
Boducat, 170
Boia, 104, 136, 170, 171
BoUandists, 45, 414
Book of St. Chad, 374
Book of Llandaff, 85, 364 ; genuine
ness of charters in, 85, 322; value
of, 368 ; date of, 226, 258
Bondsman freed on taking orders,
279
Bran, journey to Rome, 97
Braose, Philip de, 478
Brecon, archdeacon of, 295
Brehon, 122 ; duties of, 122 ; false
judgment by, 123 ; law, 11 ; posi
tion of, 14
Brendan, 161, 267
Breton saint^, 432
Bridget, St., 37, 168, 440
Britain. Christianity in, 97 ; divi
sion of between Brython and
Goidel, 100 ; inhabitants of, 99
Brittany, 3, 142, 433
Broccaid, 181
Brochwael, 259
Bruidh, 104

INDEX.

519

Brychan, 45, 52, 427; district of,
430, 487 ; foreigner, 435 ; one of
stocks of saints, 430 ; children of,
438
Brython, 99, 100
Brythonic Britain, 100, 101 ; Wales,
no missionaries from, 138 ; monu
ments in, 116
Buildings, Celtic monastic, 168, 335
Burial, right of, 355 ; Church estab
lishment, effect of, 38, 510 ; con
troversy as to, 510 ; reason for, 511
BurneU, 496
Cadoc, 171, 177, 456
Cadvan, leader of missionaries from
Brittany, 432 ; stone of, 116
Cadwgan, 260 ; son of Meurig, 260
Caerleon, 200, 248; alleged archi
episcopal see, 248
Caerworgan, 110
Cassar, description of Britain, 101
Cai, 124
Cairnech, 7, 125, 152
Calixtus II, Pope, 463
Candida Casa, 152
Canons of St. David's, 393; described
by Giraldus, 295 ; protest of, 492
Canons of Council ot Carthage, 211;
of Cashel, 43 ; of Chalcedon, 223 ;
of Hertford, 221
 Hibernenses, 163
Canons, of Celtic Church, 163, 164;
brought by Finnbar to Ireland,
175 ; of Patrick, Auxilius. and
Issemius, 163, 292 ; Welsh, 164 ;
position of Welsh clergy from,
303 ; of 160|, 268
Canonization, 413 ; earliest date of,
413 ; modern form of, 413 ; rules
as to, 413 ; only one Welsh saint,
455
Canonical hours, use of ordered in
-Wales, 497
Canterbury, profession rolls of, 483 ;
Welsh sees suffragans of, 484 ;
Welsh bishops consecrated at, 215
Capella, 339
Capel, 339
 Bettws, 339
 Garmon, 112
Caplet, 273
Cardigan, archdeaconry of, endow
ment of, 394
Cardiganshire, churches, 343 ; glebe
in, 387
Carmarthenshire, churches, 343;
glebe in, 387

Carthage, Council of, 211
Carvan, 257
Cashel, Council of, 43
Catalogue of Irish Saints, 155
Catgen, 257
Cathlaid, 181, 183
Cathedrals, dedication of. South
Wales, 329
Caw, 45 ; one of the three stocks of
saints, 427 ; a foreigner, 431 ; his
descendants, 431
Celebration of Eucharist, 240
Celestine, Pope, 109, 148
CeUbaoy of clergy, 289 ; how far
recognized by Welsh law, 290 ;
not observed in Wales, 289 ; Gir
aldus on, 295 ; petition as to, 297
Celsus, 197
Celtic Church, 6, 39 ; Irish, 17 ;
Scotch, 152; Welsh, 12; Chief,
position of in, 81 ; characteristic
features of, 3
Celtic clery, monastic not parochial,
266 ; minor orders of, 302 ; char
acter of from canons, 303 ; descrip
tion of, 165, 805
Celtic monasteries, no regular rule
in, 146 ; difference from Latin
147; double, 230, 441 /4 £-
Celtic saints, Aot so called, 416
number of, 414, 433, 461 ; lives of,
450 ; in Latin Martyrology, 419 ;
difference from Latin, 415 ; quali
fications of, 432
Celtic tradition, 6
Celtic tribes, 51 ; structure of, 51 ;
rules as to, 62 ; admission into, 69
Ceredig, 7, 126, 199
Ceredigion, 77
Ceremonies in tribal churches, 346
Cerenhir, 259, 262
Cevilliauc, Bishop, 214, 259,262, 309
Chad, St., 214 ; Book of, 227, 374
Chalcedon, Council of, 223
Chancellorship of St. David's, 396 ;
endowment of, 396
Chapelries, number of, 349 ; descrip
tion of, 339 ; origin of, 341; turned
into benefices, 388
Chapels, 339, 349 ; king's, 314
Chapter of St. David's, constitution
of, 391; changes in by Bernard,
392 ; endowment of, 394 ; revenue
of, 398, 399, 402
Chief, position of Welsh, 84 ; in
fluence of on Christianity, 85 ;
owner of tithe, 365 ; no grant of
tithe by, 368

520

INDEX.

Chief of kindred, 78, 79 ; record of,
82
Chief of Cantrev, privileges of, 80 ;
distinction between and chief of
tribe, 80
Chiefs, position of, 80, 92 ; of tribe,
80 ; liability of tribe to, 376 ; of
household, 81, 314 ; rights of, 84 ;
obligations of, 85
Child owning, or disowning, 346 ;
where to be done, 347 ; ceremony
at, 346
 natural, rights of, 64 ; illegiti
mate, rights of, 62 ; fostered,
rights of, 66
Chorepiscopi, 239
Christianity, Celtic, 17, 99 ; date of
introduction, 96, 97 ; mode of in
troduction, 97 ; effects of on
¦Wales, 136 ; imperial, 3 ; Latin,
360, 361 . tribal, 8 ; position of,
50 ; results of on society, 279
Christian village communities, 154
Churches, 200 ; annoit, 340, 349 ; ciU,
188, 342; compairche, 187, 340;
classification of, 837, 355 ; chapels
dependent on, 327; collegiate, 299 ;
dedication of, 322 ; different kinds
of, 186 ; Dewi, 322 ; forfeited on
Ijlewellyn's death, 807 ; groups ot,
326 ; hereditary nature of, 282 ;
perjury in, 857 ; Mary churches,
336 ; Michael churches, 330 ;
Mother Church, 341 ; man should
resort to, 3')6; number of, 335;
origin of Celtic, 321 ; ownership
of, 326 ; primacy of, 335 ; parish,
320 ; rights of, 38 ; situation of,
28 ; subordination of, 341 ; Teilo,
322 ; with croziers, 348
Church, effect of consecration ot,
280 ; foundation of Trim, 180 ; of
Patrick, 135; selection of sons
for, 194 ; tie that united tribe to,
281
Cistercian order, ictroduction into
Wales, 484 ; monasteries in South
Wales, 485 ; took part of Welsh
princes, 485 ; Cistercian monk,
Welsh candidate for see of
Bangor, 493
Clan, structure of Welsh, 55 ;
spiritual, 178 ; reorganization of,
154
Classification of churches, reason
for, 354
Clergy, Celtic, monastic not paro
chial, 266 ; celibacy of. 289 ; how

far recognized by Welsh Laws,
290; concubinage among, 297;
character of from canons, 308 ;
difference between Latin and
Celtic, 265 ; discipUne of, 808 ;
dress of, 497 ; Gildas on the
Welsh, 305 ; parochial, 301 ; posi
tion of, 37, 304 ; position of
modern in Wales, 509 ; St. David's
clergy as described by Giraldus,
295 ; slave owners, 806 ; how far
entitled to tithes, 372
Clerk receiving tonsure, efilect of,
280
Clonmacnois, 198
Clonnard, monks of, 172, 178
Clvchs, 394
Clydri, 258
Cnedvl, 75
Coarbs, 179, 181
Code, Irish laws not a, 14
Codes, notices in Welsh as to tithes,
372
Colgan, 197
Colleges, founded by Bishop Bee,
299 ; AbergwiUi, 298 ; Llanddewi
brefi, 300; reason for foundation,
300
Colonies, monastic, 322, 891, 392 ;
Christian, 202
Columba, 25, 104, 197, 240 ; mle of,
166 ; only in priest's orders, 209 ;
ordination of, 208, 209
Columbanus, 146 ; rule of, 166
Comb, use of, 279
Community of residence, 155
Commerce, Christianity introduced
by, 97
Commission to inquire into revenues
of Church, 399
Compairche church, 340, 342
Concubinage among clergy, 297
Conference with Augustine, 246
Conflict between Latin and Celtic
Churches, 465 ; nature of, 2 ;
divisions of, 466
Conlaed, Bishop, 230, 231
Connla Cainbhrethach, 124
Consecration of abbot, use of comb
at, 279
Consecration of bishops, Celtic order
of, 211, 212 ; how far recognized,
471 ; by Archbishop of Canter
bury, 214; reason for, 215; fees
for, 216; per saltum, 210
Contract of monks without abbot's
leave, 244
Conversion of country, mode of, 18 ;

INDEX.

521

differed in different districts, lOli ;
of Ireland, what it was, 134
Co-ownership of benefices, 286
Coronation service, 279
Coroticus, 7 ; letter to, 135
Corus Bescna, 9, 131, 182, 185, 194
Court of law, record of, 82 ; Marches
of Wales, 501
Crannach, 7
Crimes, liability for, 78 ; payments
for, 128
Criminal jurisdiction of Llandafl:
monks, 310; when criminal could
ma;ke a will, 357
Crith Gabhlach, 244, 442
Cronan, 240
Crosses on stones, 115 ; date of, 119 ;
reasons for, 114
Crown cannot be co-owner of chattel,
279 ; entitled to Welsh sees sede
vacante, 807 ; a canon at St.
David's, 395
Crozier, church with, 348 ; rights of,
348 ; reasons for, 348
Cuil-dreimhne, battle of, 25
Cuimmin, 162
Cunedda, 19, 45, 199, 328, 428;
effects ot his invasion, 51 ; a
foreigner, 428 ; founder of a stock
of saints, 428, 448
Cursal canons, 395 ; Crown the first
at St. David's, 395 ; at St. Asaph,
895 ; how endowed, 395
Customs, heathen, continuance of,
183, 270
Custody of relics, 346 ; churches
entitled to, 849
Cuthbert, St., 178
Cybi, 210
Cyngen, 257
Cymry, 52
Cynog, 199, 246, 254
Cystenyn -Vendigaid, 111
Cyvreithiau Cymru, 13, 65, 70, 79,
82, 347, 348, 417
Daire, 197
Dalta church, 187, 200, 840
Danes, 254
Daniel, Bishop, 251, 252
Danmonia ,100
Date of introduction of Christianity,
98
Daughter churches, 191
David, or Dewi, St., 158, 171, 214,
417 ; how far founder of churches,
324 ; canonized, 451 ; only recog
nized Welsh saint, 463 ; how far

national saint, 454 ; saint of
Dimetia, 455
David, Bishop, 484, 487
David's, St., list of bishops of, 225 ;
burnt by pirates, 254; Black
Book of 242, 365, 869; constitution
ot chapter of, 396 ; diocese of,
252 ; possessions of, 398, 399
402
Dedication of churches, 822, 328
when introduced, 329 ; to the
Virgin, 331 ; to St. Michael, 380
to native saints, 329 ; of primary
churches, 335
Dee, 103
De la Bere, Bishop, 296
Denial of suretyship, how effected,
357; where made, 857, 358; punish
ment of a false denial, 358
Deniol, 246, 250
Descent, importance of, 58 ; how
preserved, 82
Desertion from a church, when
allowed, 354 ; in what cases, 405 ;
effect of on property, 854, 406
Desertion from ecclesiastical tribes,
405
Development of the tribe, 61 ; rules
as to, 62 ; methods of, 65
Development of monasteries, 170
Dewi of Brefi, 455
Dewi churches, 40, 201, 322; con
fined to South Wales, 828 ; reason
for, 324
Dewchurch, Little, 327
Difference between Latin and Celtic
bishops, 208 ; clergy, 265 ; reason
for, 269 ; effect of, 267
Dimetse, 100
Dimetian Code, 16, 290, 309, 417
Dinoth, 3, 247
Diocletian, persecution of, 98
Dioceses, no Celtic, 2i8 ; early
history of Welsh, 225 ; formation
of, 248 ; history of Llandaff, 258
Dire fine, 244
Discipline of Celtic clergy, 808 ;
difficulties of, 307 ; how main
tained, 304
Dispensation, Papal, required before
illegitimate person ordained, 271
Distress, law of, 10
Diversities in Celtic Christianity,
reason for, 56, 57 ; different
origins of, 431;
Divine displeasure with Druids, how
shown, 270
Divorce, law of in Wales 26

.)l:

"^

INDEX.

Docus, 158
Docunni, 257
Dogmael, St., 443
Dol, 258
Double monasteries, 167
Dre.^s of clergy, 497 ; prescribed by
Archbishop Peckham, 497
Druids, 25 ; position of in Ireland,
132 ; in Wales, 187
Druidism, 103, 104
Druidic philosophy, 107 ; produces
Pelagianism, 108
Drumcheatt, synod of, 236
Dubhthach the Druid, 8, 127
Dubricius, UO, 150, 199, 210, 246,
250, 251
Dumhagraidh, chalice at, 109
Dunstan, 289
Duibi Solimste, 132
Duibi fedha, 132
Durotriges, 100
Dyfed, 258
Easter, controversy as to, 156 ; ter
mination of, 473
Eborius of York, 248
Ecclesia, 337. 338
Ecclesiahlica progenies, 196
Ecclesiastical tribe, head of, 184;
rights of, 98 ; moulded ou lay
tribe, 69
Edw aid I, action toward Welsh, 495;
Statute of Wales, 494
Edwyn, 261 >. 263 ; son of Guriad, 260
Egbert, Bede's letter to, 447
Eglwvs, 337, 338
Eglwyswir, 298
Eicoli, 260
Eilud, 170
Elbod, Bishop, 473
Election to abbacy, rules as to in
Celtic bouses, 195
Elegy of a thousand sons, 461
Elgar, 250
Elphege, 419
Emyr Llydaw, 433
Enden, Isle of, 162
Endowment of Welsh churches, 43 ;
antiquity of, 367 ; origin of, 73 ;
for churches, 376 ; for monas
teries, 390 ; nature of, 394 ; in
Celtic Church, 370; in Welsh
Church, 408, 409
Episcopi Monachi, 221, 222
Equality of persons in election, 194
Eric fine, 127, 282
Etchen, Bishop, 208, 209
Ethelwulf, grant of, 371

Eurddyl, 199
Evangelization of Wales, scheme of,
842 ; ideas as to, 266 ; different
modes of, 267
Excommunication, 88, 257, 261 ;
results of, 88 ; effects of, 89 ; of
King Henrv II enforced in Wales,
490
Face blotches a mark of Divine
anger, 270
Families, hereditary, 82
Family, Roman ideas of, 60 ; Celtic,
72 ; (muntir), 179; continuance
of abbacy in, 198
Febric, St., 260
Fees, for conferring orders, 209 ; for
ecclesiastical services, 408
Feidilmidh, 181
Female saints, scarcity of, 438 ;
number of Brychan's descendants,
437 ; few of Cunedda's descend
ants, 444 ; reason for small num
ber, 439
Fergna, 198
Ferour, William, ordination of, 271
Findchan, 241
Fine, 74 ; mynach, 185 ; for mis
conduct in church, how divided,
357
Finnbar ot Moiville, 171, 241
Finnbar, 171
li'innian of Clonnard, 171, 172
Fire at Kildare, 442
First-fruits, 43, 405
Firstlings, 43, 405
First order of saints, 156
Fitness for abbacy, tests ot, 193 ;
who are judges of, 186
Fitzgerald, Bishop, 294
Flat Holmes, 177
Foirtchernn, 171, 180
FoUot, Bishop, 489
Food supply of tribesmen, 72 ; rents,
73, 374, 407
Foreigners in Wales, effect of on
Church, 314 : Welsh saints usually
are, 435 ; reason for, 436
Fosterage, 65 ; difference between
Welsh and Irish, 66 ; literary,
67 ; spiritual, 66
Foundation of church at Trim,
180
Gaul, source of British Christianity,
97, 98
Gaulish Celts, reUgion of, 102 ;
Deities, names of, 102

INDEX.

523

Generations, number required to
qualify as tribesman, 68, 354 ; to
change church, 354
Gentility of saints, 426
Geoffery of Monmonth,Bishop, never
resided, 489
Genealogies of saints, 448; reasons
for, 448 ; importance of, 449
Gerald, Bishop, 414
Gildas, 158, 171, 174, 175, 176, 177,
419 ; epistle of, 289 ; genealogy of,
445 ; history of, 275 ; mission to
Ireland, 174; opinion as to Celtic
clergy, 305; Penitential of, 165;
second order of saints, 158 ;
question as to existence of, 176
Giolla De, 176
Giraldus de Barri (Cambrensis), 200,
294
Glamorgan, 260 ; bishop of, 480 ;
churches in, 348 ; conquest of,
478
Glaswir, 298, 392
Glastonbury, 445
Glebe, 44 ; large quantity in Wales,
378, 383 . acreage in each county,
374, 387 ; how acquired, 384 ;
return as to, 386
Gloucester, abbey of, 491
Glyn Rosant, 253
Godfery, Bishop of St. Asaph, resigns
see, 491 ; non-resident, 489
Goidels, 100
Goidelic Britain, 100, 101 ; absorp
tion of Christianity in, 106
Wales, 108; monuments in, US
missionary efforts from, 138
affected by Pelagianism, 108
GoUit, 181
Gospels brought to Ireland by Finn-
bar, 174
Grants of land, result of, 85 ; to
Church, nature of, 384
Grethi, 874
Gregory the Great, 213
Groups, of churches, 42, 201, 326;
of bishops, 237 ; of monasteries,
186 ; independence of Court, 190
Guarantee by tribe as lo fitness of
abbots, 194
Guilds, hereditary nature of, 185
Guisliamus, 253
Gulfrid, 260
Gwenog, 455
Gwent, 255, 260
Gwestva, 374; how distributed, 377
Gwidnerth, 257
Gwrwan, 258

Gwyddel Fichti, 171
Gwyddel, 52, 101
Gwydelwern, 897
Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, 326
Gwynllw, 443
Hallelujah victory, 108, 150
Harmon, St., 112
Hay, 283
Headship of tribe, 182 ; of monas
tery, rules as to, 184
Heathen customs, continuance of,
130; absorption of, 132, 186
Henry II, excommunication of, how
dealt with by Welsh bishops, 490
Henry, Prince, Welsh bishops at
coronation of, 491
Henry -yill, legislation of, 502;
effect of, 503 ; results of, 504
Henfynw, 253
Henllan, 256
Hereditary, tendency of offices, 30,
81, 282 ; succession when set
aside, 195 ; benefices become, 282;
reasons for, 284
Hereford, 246
Herewald, 260, 268
Hermits, 159, 168, 233
Hertford, Council of, 221
Herveus, Bishop of Bangor, 481
Hesus, 102
High Church party, action of in
Wales, 510
Hilary, Pope, 156, 210
Holmes, Steep and Flat, 445
Holy Island, 219, 225
Homicide, refusal to regard as a,
crime, 127, 128, 305 ; Celtic ideas
of, 129
Honau, abbey of, 220
Honor fine, 232
Hostage, child of woman who is a,
63
Houses, bishops', 238, 314 ; list of,
238 ; locaUties of, 288
Household, priests of, 81, 814; chief
of, 314 ; bard of, 81
Husband and wife, will of, 357
Hwyel Da, laws of, 13, 205, 252
Hy, 172
Hy Niall, 19, 197
Hymns, protective, 423
Idols, Irish, Christianized by Patrick,
114
Illegitimacy of Welsh saints, 162,
433 ; reasons for, 434, 43

524

INDEX.

Illegitimate birth, persons of in
orders, 270 ; what is so accounted
by Latins. 271 ; position of child
of in Wales, 62
lUtvd, Ul, 239. 251, 257
Imbis Forosna, 124, 131
Immigrants. 99, 100
Incest, what is said to be, 272
Independence among monasteries,
190; of monastic bishops, 240;
reason for, 216
Indispensables of a tribe, 79
Injunction, Archbishop Peckham's,
296, 497
Innocent III, Pope, 494 ; I-V, 494
Inscribed stones, 113, 114, 115
Inscriptions on stone monuments,
114; nature ot, 118; bilingual,
118, 119
Institution, monastic, object of. 204
Interdict, Bishop of Llandaff placed
under, 477
lona, 195, 197, 219 ; abbot of only a
priest, 209
Ireland, apostles of, 172; bishops
sent from to ordain, 212 ; Church
in, 4 ; conversion of, 129 ; introduc
tion of Christianity, 108 ; method
of, 120; who may speak there in
public, 124
Irish Church, 6 : Celtic Church, 6 ;
Christianity spread by Brvchan,
430
Irish law, 6, 9
Irish saints, how treated by BoUan
dists, 414 ; number of, 420 ;
missionary efforts of, 461 ; end of
period, 424 ; about same date as
Welsh, 424
Ishmael, 170, 199
Isserinus, 163
Ithel Hael, 433
Ivernians, 99
Jerusalem, 10, 258
Jevan, Archpriest, 254, 272, 292
John, King, action of Welsh bishops
on his excommunication, 494
Joint undivided family, 61
Jordan, Archdeacon, 296
Joseph, Bishop, 260
Judgment, false, punishment for, 128
Jurisdiction, rival, 34
Kentigern, 212, 252
Kerry, 282
Kevin, 177
Kidwelly, 170

Kildare, 167, 168, 230, 441, 442
Kilhwch, 276
Kindred, chief of, 78 ; indispen
sables ot, 79
King, difference between king and
chief, 84 ; chapels of, 31.5 ; of
local tribes, 92 ; position of, 92,
93 ; religious establishment of, 814
Kinship, importance of, 81, 57

Laeghaire, 8, 126, 273 ; instructions
as to his burial, 130
Laisren, 198
Lampeter, tithes of, 396
Land, grant of, 32, 85 ; division of,
40
Lateran Council, 268
Latin Church, reason for its success,
47 ; difference with Celtic as to
bishoj)s, 208 ; difference between
clergy and laity, 507 ; difference
between Latin and Celtic clergy,
265
Laws, ancient Irish, 8 ; ancient
Welsh, 18, 228 ; state ot after
Statute of Wales, 496
Legacestir, 249
Legatine Council, 371
Leges Wallice, 18
Legionensium civitas, 249
Legislation of Edward I, effect of,
495 ; result of, 496
Legislation of Henry -VIII, design
of, 500 ; result of, 504 ; effect of,
502
Legitimacy of tribesmen, rules as
to, 64 ; of saints, 433
Leia, Peter de. Bishop, 492
Liber Landavensis, 44 ; lives of
saints in, 418
Libiau, 214, 259
Licence to marry, 297
List of bishops, 35 ; of foreign
monasteries, 202
Litany of Oilngus, 234
Literary fosterage, 67
Lives of saints, 9, 228
Llan, 169; meaning of, 334 ; number
of, 334 ; progress of, 837
Llanavan, 254
Llanbadarn -Vawr, 199, 254
Llancarvan, UO, 150, 171, 177, 257
Llancors, 259
Llandaff, contest for Teilo's body,
353 ; monastery, action of, 257;
revenues of, 401 ; present, 402 ;
Book of, 44, 85, 226, 302 ; no

INDEX.

525

mention of tithe in, 364 ; bishops
of, consecrated at Canterbury, 215;
action of, 257 ; archdeacon of,
309 ; church of, 150 ; diocese of,
246, 255, 349 ; dedication of
cathedral of, 150, 329 ; excom
munication by monks of, 90 ; by
bishops of, 257 ; reason for no
early history of, 226 ; records as
to position of bishop, 255
Llandeilo Vawr, 349
Llanddewibrefi, 86, 287, 250, 299
Llandisilio, 396
Llandisiliogogo, 396
Llanelwy, 252
Llanfair churches, 332
Llanfechan, 112
Llanfihangel churches, 332
Llangadoc, 299, 333
Llangranog, 126, 396
Llanhaiam, 112
Llanhelicon, 259
LlanUltyd, 150, 257
Llansilin, tithe of, 395
Llewellyn, Prince, complaints by,
307 ; Bishop, 401
Llwyngyrion, 439
Llywerth, 260
Lomman, 180
Londinensium, 249
Lords Marchers, 501
Lorica of Patrick, 425
Loss of rights, 88, 89
Lot as to abbey, 194
Louth, monastery at, 36, 236
Lucius, Pope, 487
Lumbert, Bishop, 259, 260
Lupait, 160, 161
Lupus (Bleiddan), UO
Lydney, 106
Lyons, martyrs at, 97
Mael, 273
Maelgwyn Gwynedd, 251
Maelphadraic, 278
Magi, tonsure of, 275
Magicians, 86
Malaehi, St., 197, 218
Mam Eglwys, 341
Manis, Bishop, 181
Marches of -Wales, court of, 501
Margam, 256, 485
Marriage, law of in Wales, 26 ; with
a Welsh woman, effect of, 68 ; of
nuns, 163 ; of priests, 289 ; recog
nised by Celtic Church, 292
Ma/rtiloge of 1526, Celtic saints in,
419

Married bishops, 272 ; priests, Welsh
law as to, 292
Martin of Tours, St., 149, 151 ;
Patrick's mother his niece, 149
Martyrs, reason so few in Wales,
458
Mary churches, 330 ; mostly chapels,
332 ; distribution of, 333 ; situa
tion of, 336
JIary, the Virgin, dedication to,
330, 331 ; date of, 337
Meering, 348 ; only done in a
mother church, 348
Meifod, dedication of a church at,
329
Mel, 161
Menevia, foundation of, 170 ; chapter
of, 394 ; reform of, 894 ; endow
ment of, 895, 396 ; diocese of, 252
Merchiter, 310
Merthyr Cynog, 328 ; Tydvil, 328
Methodism, 509
Meurig, 257 ; son of Hywel, 260 ;
Bishop, 486 ; opposition to, 486,
487
Mewdwy, 278
Metropolitan claim ot St. David's,
488
Michael, St., dedication to, 329 ;
date of, 331 ; reason for, 330 ;
situation of churches, 336 ; causes
for popularity of, 425
Minor orders in Celtic Church, 802
Miracles not required from Celtic
saints, 451 ; workers, 288
Misconduct in churches, fines for,
841, 359
Missal taken by Finnbar to Ireland,
174
Missionary labours of Welsh, 23, 24 ;
of Irish, 24 ; of Goidels, 138 ; of
Brythons, 137; from Brittany, 432 ;
Welsh saints not, 461
Mochta, St., 86, 236
Mona, 105
Monasteries, 27, 145 ; afforded
sanctuary, 203 ; double, 167, 168 ;
difference between Latin and
Celtic, 145, 146 ; Latin, 475, 477 ;
no Latin, a Welsh cathedral, 402 ;
endowment of Celtic, 390 ;
foreign, Celtic list of, 202 ; no
regular rule in Celtic, 146 ; ne
cessity for, 29 ; places of instruc
tion, 204 ; rules as to headship of,
184 ; state of in Ireland, 30 ;
separation of sexes in, 168 ; third
development of, 200 ; tribal, 205

526

INDEX.

Monastic colonies, 322 ; bishops, 33,
216 ; independence of, 216; build
ings, 168, 169 ; officers, 234
Monasticism, Celtic, 147 ; develop
ment of, 159
Monks, effect of on Celtic Church,
205; of Clonnard, 172; morality
of, 165; sleeping in house where
women were, 167; wandering, 163;
Celts became on taking orders,
267 ; ordination of, 269
Montgomery, Arnulf de, 478
Monmouth, John of, appointed
bishop by Pope, 498
Morganwg, 246, 255
Mother church, 31, 355
Muirdachus, 26, 213, 217
Mynach fine, 75
Names of churches, 42, 334
National saint, none for Wales, 454 ;
reason why, 456
Nature, law of, 8, 20
Nennius, 53
Newmarch, Bernard de, 478
Niall of the Nine Hostages, 8
Ninian, 54, 139, 152
Nithnemunnach, 126
Nodens, 106
Nomadic habits of tribe, 58
Norma magica, 273
Northmen, invasion of, 52, 58
Nowi, King of Gwent, 260
Nuada Derg, 126
Number of bishops, 234
Nun, marriage of, 163 ; fine on viola
tion of to IBridget's successor, 441
Oath not taken on consecration of
Celtic bishop, 213 ; on consecra
tion at Canterbury, 480, 486, 488,
498
Obligation of abbot on succession,
191 ; of chief, 72 ; of tribesman,
72, 391
Odhran, 127
Oilngus, number of saints in the
Utany of, 420
Offeryriat Teulu, 300
Offences, payment for, 77
Offices, tendency of to become
hereditary, 81
Ogham inscriptions, 118 ; localities
of, 119 ; number in Wales, 119
Olwen, 277
Orders, Celts become monks on
taking, 267 ; not required by
Welsh saints, 458 ; per saltum.

208 ; part of Celtic tribal rights,
270 ; title for, 269
Ordination of Welsh forbidden, 307
Original sin, doctrine of, 107
Oudoceus, 257, 261
Ownership of churches, 326
Padarn, St., 199, 210, 246, 433
Pagan customs adopted, 17, 106
Paganism absorbed into Christianity,
17 ; Christianity, the strength of,
128 ; survival of in Ireland, 131
Palladius, 22, 108 ; reasons for the
failure of his mission, 22
Parochia, 23, 254, 261
Parishes, divisions into, 39 ; effect
of, 40 ; when introduced into
Wales, 312, 345 ; churches, 820
Paschal II, Pope, 482
Pater, Bishop, 260
Paternity, how established, 69, 70 ;
importance of, 163
Patrick, 8, 119 ; attempt to poison,
126 ; consults with Germanus,
149 ; church of, 135 ; date of
death, 9 , apostacy after his death,
23, 158; mission to Ireland, 148 ;
mother, niece of St. Martin, 149 ;
reasons for his success, 22
Patron saint, church of the, 184
Patronage of Welsh Church claimed
by English King, 494
Paulinus, 150, 170, 229
Payments for offences, 77
Pebiau, 199
Peckham, Archbishop, 285, 467, 496;
negotiates with Welsh, 497; visita
tions of, 285, 497 ; orders of, 497 ;
on celibacy, 296 ; changes made
by, 307 ; injunctions by, 497 ;
orders canonical hours to be kept,
497 ; forbids pluralities, 497; dress
of clergy, 497 ; influence on clergy,
.306
Pelagius I, Pope, 175
Pelagianism, 108
Pembrokeshire, 138 ; churches in,
348 ; benefices in, 385
Penaly, 349
Penitentials, 366 ; of Gildas, 165
People, rights of the, in a church, 38
Perjury, when punishable, 359
Picts, 53, 101 ; invasion of Wales
by, 53
Pilgrimages, 206
Pilgrims, 183 ; when made abbot,
188, 193
Plebilis progenies, 196

INDEX.

527

Pluralities forbidden, 497
Poets, power of in Ireland, 121 ;
mode of working before Patrick,
181 ; stories told by, 132
Portionist rectories, 41, 73, 282
Powys, 252
Prebends, 393 ; endowment of, 393
Prescription, one of modes of ex
tending tribe, 67
Presentation to benefices, 288, 494
Presidents of Courts of Marches of
Wales, 501
Priest, children of, right to succeed,
290 ; discretion of, 38 ; growth of
power of, 91 ; of household, 81,
314 ; marriage of, 289 ; married
cannot be a witness, 293 ; number
of, at one church, 41 ; position of,
38 ; change made in, by conver
sion of country, 183 ; of tribe,
position and power of, 85
Profession to Canterbury, form of, 488
Property of abbot goes to monastery,
192 ; of bishop goes to Crown, 244;
development of, 73 ; joint, 73, 74 ;
several, 74
Protection given by monasteries, 202
Provision for persons taking orders,
267
Psalm-singer, 182
Puritans, alliance of Welsh with, 507
Qualifications for abbacy, rules as
to, 195
Reading, Council of, 496
Record of court of law, 82 ; of chief
of kindred, 82 ; of bardism, 82
Rectories, number of, 385
Rectors, lay, 285 ; portionist, 285
Red Book of Hergest, 455
Reformation, how far Church robbed
at, 366
Relationship^ importance of, 55
Release of suretyship, 357
Relics, tribal, 88, 846
Religious ceremony on giving tribal
rights, 60 ; obligations in tribal
laws, 70 ; houses, aid rendered to
by the Latins, 475
Rents of land, 387
Representatives of kindred, 79
Resistance to Latin Church, by
Welsh, 479, 486, 487, 488, 491 ; by
Norman bishops, 483
Responsa prudentum, 14
Restitutus, 248
Retaliation, judgment of, 12

Revenues of Welsh Church, 401
Reynolds, Archbishop, 807
Rhine, worship of, 103
Rhuddlan, tithes of, 395
Rhyddmarch, 272
Ribble, worship of, 108
Rights of tribesmen, 58, 71, 72;
transmitted through mother, 64 ;
claimed by Church, proof of, 359
Roman influence on Wales, 51
Rule in Celtic monasteries, no
regular, 146 ; of St. Benedict, 166 ;
of Columbanus, 166 ; of Columba,
166
Rules as to abbacy, 184 ; as to
tribesmen, 61 ; relaxation of, 62
Rural deans, 812 ; deaneries, date of,
844

Saints, catalogue of three orders of
Irish, 155; first order, 156 ; second
order, 158, 176 ; third order, 159,
177; difference between Latin and
Celtic, 411 ; canonization of, 413 ;
Celtic, how treated by BoUandists,
414 ; definition of, 414; BoUandist
definition of, 414 ; characteristics
of, 415 ; not so called, 416 ; no
cult of, 419 ; female, 438 ; Irish
number of, 420 ; Uves of, 9, 10 ;
legends of how formed, 228 ;
miracle working, 457; number of,
45 ; no native Welsh, 482 ; no
national Welsh, 454 ; original
meaning of term, 412; period of
Welsh, 421 ; solitary saints, 177 ;
suppression of Celts by Latins,
418 ; substitution of Latin for
Celtic, 328 ; use of term by Celts,
417 ; Welsh differ from Irish,
420
Saint, tribe of the, 21, 179
Saint Asaph diocese, 869 ; benefices
in, 385 ; payment of tithes in,
886 ; revenue of, 402 ; wealth of,
400
Sanctuary, right of, 208 ; claim of,
to be proved, 360 ; need for, 202 ;
violation of, 203
Saltum, per, orders given, 208
Scotch Law, villein by tonsure,
278 ; Christianity introduced by
Cunedda, 53, 428
Scothnoe, 171
Scotti, 58
Security given by abbot, 192 ; rules
as to, 193

528

INDEX.

Sede vacante, crown entitled on,
307
Seebohm on Welsh Laws, 13
Sees, Welsh, 250
Senchus Mor, 8, 127 ; date of, 9
Sept, 61
Sepulchral monuments, 115 ; differ
ence between Goidelic and Bry
thonic, 113
Seven, use of number, 237 ; religious
houses, 239
Sexes, separation of, in monasteries,
163, 167
Silver gwestva, 877
Simon Magus, tonsure of, 275
Simon the wizard, 276
Slavery, effect of Christianity on,
279
Slaves forfeited as a penalty, 306
Solitaries, 168
Son, selection of, for Church, 194
Sons of Cunedda, 76
Sovereign, right ot to name
successor, 182
Sower, parable of, applied to church,
164
Speakers in public in Ireland, 124
Spiritual fosterage, 179 ; authority
foUowed conquest, 476, 477
Sponsorship, 66, 67
Statute ot Wales, 494
St. Chad, Book of, 227, 374; St.
Chad, reconsecration of, 214
St. David's, diocese of, 252 ; list of
bishops of, 35 ; dedication of
cathedral, 329 ; chapter of, 392 ;
revenue of, 894 ; precentor of,
395 ; treasurer of, 396 ; Norman
interference as to bishops, 478,
480, 483 ; metropolitan claims of,
486
Steward, duties of, as to gwestva
silver, 377
St. Harmon, 112; Scuthin, 161, 162;
Samson, 210 ; Senanus, 162, 177 ;
Swibert, 413 ; Ulric, 413
Stocks of Welsh saints, 427
Stones Christianized by Patrick,
114
Stories, nature of, told by Irish
poets, 132
Strabo, description of Britain by,
101
Strangers, admission of, to tribe,
61 ; children of, 60 ; violation of
women by, 68 ; when made abbot,
188
Stumbling bishop, 281

Subordination of churches, 821
Succession of parents, 84 ; to rights
of chief, 92 ; to abbacy, obliga
tions on, 191 ; devolution of, 189 ;
of foster children, 66 ; to property
by children of parents, 290 ; in
tribe of saint, 182
Suffragan bishops, 289
Sulien, Bishop, 30, 242, 272, 292;
Abbot, 257
Support, right of tribesmen to, 88 ;
right of chief to, 875
Supreme authority, none in Celtic
Church, 190
Supremacy of Church, 359 ; proof of,
360 ; on accession of new chief,
360
Superstition, Pagan origin of, 142 ;
Welsh, 142
Suretyship, how released, 357
Synods, 163, 260; of Llanddewi
brefi, 235 ; of Llandaff monks, 257,
260

Tacitus, 54 ; describes Goidels,
101
Taliessin, Book of, 461
Tanistry, Irish, 193
Tanist successor, 441
Tara, 126, 127
Taratyr on Wye, 258
Teilo, 199, 210, 214 ; Book if, 226 ;
churches, 40, 322, 325 ; no
churches on lands granted to, 325;
disputes as to body of, 849 ; places
that claimed body of, 349
Teinm Laegha, 124, 181
Territorial names, 77
Tests of fitness for abbey, 193 ; for
bishop, 208
Tewdur, 258
Theobald, Archbishop, 487
Theodore, Archbishop, 221, 223 224
278, 871
Third order of saints, 159, 183
Three orders of saints, 156
Tithes, 43 ; date of, 371; entries in
Welsh law as to, 379 ; not basis
of Welsh endowments, 364 ; appro
priation of, 404 ; how far by
monasteries, 366 ; not granted by
-Vvelsh chiefs, 868 ; not mentioned
in Book of Llandaff, 364 ; in Book
of St. David's, 369 ; origin of, 370-
nature of Welsh tithes, 380 ; pay
ments connected with, 389 • 'when
Title for orders, 268

INDEX.

529

payment became general, 389 ;
effect of Henry VIII's legislation
on, 390, 506 ; in Ireland, 381
Tonsure, nature of, 88, 156, 164, 272;
what it is, 272 ; Celtic, 274 ;
Greek, 278 ; Latin, 275 ; monks,
274 ; Pauline, 278 ; Simon Magus,
275 ; slaves, 274 ; St. Peter, 278 ;
St. .John, 278 ; effect of, on a clerk,
280 ; on becoming a villein, 278
Tours, CouncU of, 370
Township, effect on, of consecration
of church, 280
Towy, 258
Translation of bishop, rules as to,
481 ; objection raised in case of
Herveus, 482
Tref, gwestva payable by, 376
Tribal system, 49 ; effect of on
Church, 56 ; churches, 848, 346 ;
property, 72 ; relics, 346 : rights,
73 ; orders part of, 269 ; title to,
269
Tribe, chief of, 92 ; desertion from,
405 ; held together by Church,
855; of land, 120; of saint, 21,
120, 179, 185 ; indispensable of,
79 ; qualifications of chief of, 92 ;
modes of extension of, 61 ; fos
terage, 65 ; prescription, 67 ;
names of, 76
Tribesman, position of, 86
Tribesmen, modes of becoming, 60 ;
modes of admission of, 69 ; obliga
tion of, 72 ; position of, 86 ; rights
of, 70 ; what rights were, 70 ; right
to share property, 71, 72
Trichan, Bishop, 261
Trim, monastery of, 7, 171, 180, 195;
foundation of, 180
Tuathal Maolgarbh, 156
Tudor legislation in Wales, effect of,
504
Twrch Trwyth, 276
Tydecho, 433
Tyssul, 448
Uchtryd, Bishop, 487
Uniformity, Act of, effect of in
Wales, 505
Urban, Bishop, 255, 258 ; consecra
tion of, 480 ; profession of, 480
Ursula, St., comes to Cardiganshire,
439
Valor of Pope Nicholas, 41, 284, 869
Venedotian Code, 455

Vengeance, judgment of, 127
Vicarages, number of, 385
Vienne, martyrs at, 97
Village communities, 154 ; Christian,
154 ; Indian, 155
Village to pay gwestva, 374
Villein becoming so by tonsure, 278
Violation of sanctuary, 208
Virgin, Bishop, 283
Virgin Mary, dedication of churches
to, 332
Visitation of Archbishop Peckham,
286, 497; Archbishop Baldwin,
492
Vortigern, UO

Wales, posiiion of Church in, 4 ;
endurance of Christianity in, 1 39 ;
isolation of, 141, 142 ; Marches of,
Court of the, 501 ; monastic epis
copacy in, 220; length of residence
in, to acquire tribal rights, 68 ;
when parishes introduced into,
312 ; Statute of, 494
Walter, Abbot, Lanfranc's instruc
tions to, 418
Walter Hubert, Archbishop, 493
Wandering monks, 163, 188
Welsh Laws, 13, 228; how trans
lated, 26 ; abolition of by Henry
VIII, 502 ; effect of abolition, 504
Welsh Celtic Chuich, canons of,
165
Welsh MSS., their importance, 6, 10
Welsh missionaries to Ireland, effect
of, 23 ; princes, excommunication
of, 90 ; local customs, survival of,
140 ; clergy resist celibacy, 289 ;
revenues of, 401 ; laws, how far is
celibacy recognised by, 290 ;
married priests not competent
witnesses, 293 ; sees, 249 ; Crown
entitled to sede vacante, 307, 498
Welsh saints, legendary lives of, 228 ;
differ from Irish and Latin saints,
420 ; period of, 420 ; termination
of, 421 ; only five after this, 421 ;
usually foreigners, 437 ; apocry
phal character of, 450 ; official
nature of, 458 ; not necessarily
ecclesiastics, 453
Welsh martyrs, reason why none,
459
Welshmen, ordination of forbidden,
807, 499
Westminster, CouncU at, 1175, 294
M M

530

INDEX.

Whitland, 14, 36 170, 229, 235
Wig, 256
WUfred, Bishop, 482
William I, claim of sovereignty over
Wales, 475
Winnifred, St., 489
Witherne, 152

Witness, married priest cannot be,
293
Woman, position of, 62 ; children of
when tribesmen, 62 ; monk sleep
ing in same house as, 167
Yspaddaden Penkawr, 277

LIST OP THE CHIEF AUTHORS CITED OR
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Acts of the Parliament of Scotland (Record series).
Allen, J. Romilly.— Monumental History of the Early British Church,
1889.
Andent Laws of Ireland. The Senchus Mor and other selected Brehon
law tracts, 4 vols., 1865-1879 (Rolls series).
Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, 2 vols., 1841 (Record series).
Ansblm. — Epistolce. Opera, 1721.
Archceologia. Miscellaneous Tracts relating to antiquity, published for the
Society of Antiquaries of London.
Archceologia Cambrensis. The Journal of the Cambrian Archaeological
Association.
Asser Jlenevensis, see Camden.
Bede. — Ecclesiastical History, Antwerp, 1550.
Beenaed, St. — Vita S. Malachice Episcoqji, Paris, 1662.
Bevan. — See " Diocesan Histories."
Black Book of St. Da-md's, an Extent of Lands of the see of St. David's
1326, British Museum Additional MSS., 34,135.
Book of Armagh. A 9th century MS., partly printed in the Tripartite
Life of Patrick (Rolls edition).
Bbadsha-w, Henet, Socibtt Publications: — The Bangor Antipho-
narium, by F. E. Warren, 1893 and 1895 ; The Martyrology of Gorman,
by Whitley Stokes, 1895 ; The Martiloge of 1526, 1898 ; The Manner of
the Coronation of Charles I, 1892; OjUcium Ecclesiasticum Abbatum
secimdum usum Eveshamensis monasterii, 1873.
Brb-wee, j. S. — Girald-us Cambremis, 7 vols., 1861-1877 (Rolls series).
Camdbn, W. — Anglica, Normannica, Hibernica, Cambrica, a veteribus
seripta, Franotfort, 1603.
Colgan. — Acta Sanctorum Hibernice, Louvain, 1645.
The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, agreed upon with the king's
license in the Synod begun at London, 1608. Church of England
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Davys, Sir John. — Reports of Cases in tlie King's Courts in Ireland, 1628.
Diocesan Histoeibs.— <S^. David's, W. Bevan, 1888 : St. Asaph, D. R.
Thomas, 1888.
Bdwaeds, W. F. — Recherches sur les langues Celtiques, Paris, 1844.
Evans, J. G., and Rhys, J.— The text of the Book of Llan Dav, Oxford,
1898 (Old Welsh Text Series), including The Book of St. Chad.

532 LIST OP AUTHORS.
Fo-WLBE, j. T. — Adam.nani, Vita S. Columba!, 1894.
Febbman, E. A.— Remarks on Llandaff Cathedral, 1850.
Guest, Lady C. — The Mabinogion from the Llyfr Coch o Hergest, and
other ancient Welsh MSS., 1849.
Haddas, A. W., and Stubbs. — Councils and Ecclesia.'ifical Documents
relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 4 vols., 1869^1878 (cited as
Haddan and Stubhs').
HAEor, Sie Thomas D. — Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense, 3 vols.,
London, 1873.
Havebfield, E.— "Early British Church", English Historical Review,
July, 1896.
Jocelyn. — Vita Sancti Pa.tricii, see Swift.
Jones, W. B. and Febbman, E. A. — The History and Antiquities of St.
David's, 1856 (cited as Jones and Freeman').
Liber Ecclesiasticus. Statement of the Revenues of the Established Church,
compiled from thc Report of the Commissioners to inquire into the
Revenue and Patronage of the Established Church, London, 1835.
Mackay, W. D. — Chronicle ofthe Abbey of Evesham (Rolls series), 1863.
Maine, Sie Yis^-RY.— Ancient Law, London, 1863; Village Communities
in the East and West, 1871 ; Early Institutions, 1875.
Marcellinus Amianus rerum Gestarum, lib. xviii, Lyons, 1552.
Mostalembeet, Comte db. — Les Moines d' Occident, 7 vols., Paris, 1882.
Newell, E. G. — A History ofthe Welsh Church, 1895.
Newman, J. H. — Lives of the English Saints.
O'Donovan. — Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters,
5 vols., 1848-1851.
Olden, T.—The Church of Ireland, 1892.
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Second Series,
vol. xiii, published by the Society.
Pboctoe, F. — .4 History of the Boole of Common Prayer, London, 1864.
Rees, Rice. — An Essay on the Welsh Saints, 1836.
Rees, W. J. — Lives of the Cambro-British Saints. Llandovery, 1843 (Welsh
MS. Society) ; Liber Landavensis, Llandovery, 1840 (Welsh MS. Society).
Reeves, Bishop. — The Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the Dioceses of Do-wn,
Connor, and Dromore, 1847; Adamnani, Vita S. Columbce, 1887; On
Succession to the Abbacy in Irish Monasteries, Proceedings of Royal
Irish Academy, vi, 447.
Return of the Property of the Church in Wales and Monmouthshire, House
of Commons' paper, 1894 (240).
Rhyddmaech. — Lite of St. David, see Cambro-British Saints.
Rhys, J. — Eliind Lectures in Archseology, 1889 ; Celtic Britain, 1882.
Seebohm, F.—Tlie Welsh Tribal System, 1895.
Skene, W. F. — Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, and other memorials of
Scottish History, 1867 (RoUs series) ; Celtic Scotland, a history of
Ancient Alban, 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1877 ; The Four Ancient Books of
Wales, Edinburgh, 1868.

LIST OE AUTHORS. 533
Soambs, Hbney.— T7ie Anglo-Saxon Clmrch, 1835.
Stevenson, 3.— Gildas de excidio Britannice, 1888 (EngUsh Historical
Society) ; Nennii Historia Britonum, 1838 (English Historical Society).
Stokbs, G. T.— Ireland and the Celtic Church, 1886.
Stokbs, Whitley.— Tfte Calendar of (Engus, 1880; The Tripartite Life of
Patrick, with other documents relating to that Saint, 2 vols., 1887
(Rolls series).
Swift, E. L. — Life cf St. Patrick, translated from the Latin of Jocelin,
DubUn, 1809.
Taxatio Ecclesiastica Anglice et Wallice Auctoritate Nicholai IV, London,
1802 (Record series).
Thackbeay, F. — Researches into the Ecclesiastical and Political State of
Ancient Britain, 2 vols., 1843.
Thoepb, B. — Andent Laws and Institutes of England, 2 vols., 1840 (Record
series).
Todd, J. H.-SJ. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, DubUn, 1864 ; The Martyr
ology of Donegal, 1863; Book of Obits and Martyrology ofthe Cathedral
Church ofthe Holy Trinity, DubUn, 1844.
Usshbe, Abchbishop. — Britannicarurn Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, Dublin,
1639.
Westwood, J. 0.- -Lapidarium Wallice. The Early Inscribed and Sculp
tured Stones of Wales, Oxford, 1876-1879.
Williams, E. — A Selection of Ancient Welsh MSS., in prose and verse,
from the collection of Edward WilUams, 1848.
Williams, J. (_Ab Ithel).~Brut y Tywysogion, the Chronicle ofthe Princes,
1860 (Rolls series) ; Annales Cambrice, 1860 (Rolls series).
Worcester Diocese ; Registrum Sede Vacante, Worcestershire Historical
Society, 1898-1895.
Zeitschrift fiir Celtische Philologie, Kuno Meyer and L.Ch. Stern, 1897.

G. SIMPSON, PRINTBE, DEVIZES.

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