Chapter III: Part 3

In the absence of clear historical evidence it would be rash to assert that every development in Wales, Brittany and Ireland was followed by a corresponding development in Cornwall, but where the same religious influences were at work in every other Celtic-speaking country it may be assumed that those influences were at work in Cornwall, and the receptivity of the Cornish in the matter of religion, when the influence was held to come from the right quarter, is witnessed by the readiness wherewith they admitted Welsh, Irish and Breton saints into their hagiologies.

At the time under discussion it will be borne in mind that the saints reverenced in Cornwall were almost if not wholly Celtic. Even at the present time, in spite of the Saxon conquest and the submission to Canterbury, in spite of the attempt to substitute saints from the Roman Kalendar for the Celtic patrons of Cornish churches in the fourteenth century, and in spite of the ignorant perversion of spelling and the abortive attempts at identification on the part of the English registrars who conducted the business of the bishop’s court at Exeter, it is a matter for wonder and gratitude that so many Cornish churches should still be known by their ancient saints’ names.

If we compare the dedications of Derbyshire with those of Cornwall we find that of the 168 ancient churches in the former county, 72 are under the invocation of Scriptural saints, 18 under St. Michael, 28 under All Saints, 34 under historical saints like Martin, Lawrence and Giles and about 16 under English and Saxonised saints, like Edmund, Oswald, Wilfrid, Werburgh and Cuthbert.

On the other hand, in Cornwall, of the 200 dedications 30 are Scriptural, less than 30 are strangers (either historical and non-English like Martin, German and Clement, or aggressively English, like Morwenna, Werburgh, Swithun and Neot, or Saxonised like Cuthbert, Olave, Odulph and Hugh) and the rest, more than two-thirds of the total number, are Celtic. Nor is it difficult to account for the presence of the Saxon element. The monastic ideal presented by Werburgh the abbess and by Cuthbert the abbot-bishop would appeal to the prevailing monastic temper, while the early settlement of Saxons in the north-eastern portion of the county, of which we have abundant proof in its toponomastic (e.g. in Morwenstow, Jacobstow, Aldestow and Neotstou) and in the will of King Alfred (871-901) whose possessions in Triconshire (the hundred of Trigg which at that time probably embraced the hundred of Stratton) are expressly mentioned, will account for saints like Neot, Swithun and Morwenna who probably displaced the Celtic saints of an earlier period.

Before passing to what is of greatest interest—the Celtic episcopate—a few words are required respecting the two great controversies, which, however trivial in themselves, served the purpose of furnishing records of a period concerning which records are very scarce.

The Easter no less than the Tonsure controversy was one of the results of the isolation of Celtic Christianity. In order to find Easter the Roman Church had, until the year 457, used the old Jewish cycle of 84 years. In that year a cycle of 532 years was adopted. The Welsh and Cornish, who had received their Christianity during the Roman occupation of Great Britain, and therefore long before 457, continued to use the Jewish cycle. They refused to conform to the Roman use and persisted in their refusal for a very considerable period. Ireland, which had also become Christian before 457, was the first to adopt the Roman Easter in 633. Cornwall followed in or about 705, as the result of St. Aldhelm’s famous letter to Geruntius, prince of Dumnonia. North Wales held out until 768 and South Wales until 777.[47] Mr. Haddan, who identifies the “errores” of bishop Leofric’s Missal (909) with the “egregium errorem Brittonum” of Bede’s history, is inclined to the opinion that St. Aldhelm’s letter was inoperative outside the Kingdom of Wessex;[48] but the opinion is open to dispute.

The shaving of the head does not appear to have been associated with the Christian ministry until the fourth century. The apostolic injunction respecting long hair was observed, but it was the monks who introduced the tonsure which, at first, was a tonsure of the entire head and known as that of St. Paul. St. Peter’s tonsure, which allowed to the shaven ecclesiastic an aureole or crown of hair around the denuded pate, was not introduced until the sixth century. Long before this time, however, the monks of the Celtic world had become distinguished by a tonsure which apparently made bare the fore part only of the head and left a semicircular fringe in front. The Celtic tonsure was taken by the British refugees to Brittany and Galicia. It was as characteristic of the Celtic clergy as the kilt is characteristic of Scottish soldiers to-day. Its origin was almost certainly Druidical, and, if so, it is one of the few shreds of evidence we possess of the presence of Druids in Cornwall. Their presence in Great Britain at an earlier period is generally allowed; their presence and power in Ireland is conclusively proved.

The Celtic tonsure appears to have been abandoned at the time when the Roman Easter was accepted.

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Footnote 43:

_Les Noms des Saints bretons_, p. 143.

Footnote 44:

Loth, _ibid._, p. 124, n. 1.

Footnote 45:

Quoted by Dom Gougaud, _Les Chrétientés celtiques_, p. 82.

Footnote 46:

Gougaud, _ibid._, p. 107.

Footnote 47:

Haddan and Stubbs, _Councils_, etc., i, 201.

Footnote 48:

_Ibid._, i, 674 and 676.

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V

THE MONASTERY-BISHOPRICS OF CORNWALL

The chief interest of Celtic Christianity gathers around the monastery-bishopric and the abbot-bishop who ruled it. In the sixth century the religious life had become much more than a counsel of perfection. In Ireland the Church was almost exclusively monastic. In Wales St. German is said to have founded a monastery during his second visit. Iltut, whom he ordained priest, was the founder of Llantwit, the great school of monks whence came Sampson, Paul Aurelian and possibly Gildas and David.

At the outset it is necessary to guard against the undercurrent of thought which connects Celtic monasticism with one or other of the great religious orders. The earliest of these orders—that of St. Benedict—was not established until about A.D. 529, and was not introduced into Britain until St. Augustine’s arrival in A.D. 597. At the interview between Augustine and the Welsh bishops in 603 Dinoot abbot of Bangor Iscoed was among the strongest opponents of compromise. Celtic monasticism owed nothing to St. Benedict or to St. Augustine. When therefore we read the statement of a shrewd and learned writer like Sir John Maclean that “St. Petrock founded his monastery at Bodmin adopting the rule of St. Benedict” and when we recall an admission by the same writer that Petrock was educated at the great monastery of Clonard towards the end of the fifth or at the beginning of the sixth century, i.e. presumably between 490 and A.D. 510 and therefore before the Benedictine order was founded, we realise how mischievous this undercurrent of thought may prove.

There is no evidence that any early monastic foundation in the Celtic world was established in accordance with the Benedictine discipline. Celtic monasticism was quite definitely _sui generis_. The mission of St. German in 429 and 447 probably laid the foundations of it in Britain.

It had achieved some of its greatest victories before St. Augustine of Canterbury was born. Paul Aurelian, the Welsh monk, established the monastery-bishopric of Léon in A.D. 530: Sampson, a compatriot, the similar foundation at Dol in A.D. 565: Tutwal of British Dumnonia was abbot before he became abbot-bishop of Tréguier in the same century. In Ireland the monastery of Clonard was founded before the Benedictine order came into existence. St. Patrick was a contemporary of St. German. Celtic Christianity, while it was practically independent of Rome,[49] became intensely monastic. There is nothing therefore to lead us to regard the canons of St. Petrock, St. Piran, St. Stephen, St. Keverne and St. Probus, mentioned in Domesday Book, as subject to the discipline of St. Benedict. Such evidence as we possess tends to confirm the contrary opinion. What has been said of the order of St. Benedict applies with greater force to that of St. Augustine, the Black Canons, whose earliest foundation in England dates from A.D. 1108, that is, 22 years after Domesday Book was compiled. Cardinal Gasquet truly says the clergy of every large church, as being subject to rule, were called canons. The rule of St. Augustine was not introduced at Bodmin until the time of Bishop William Warelwast (1107-36).[50]

Under the strong pressure exerted by monastic expansion the governmental character of episcopacy became attenuated. This was especially the case in Ireland and in those churches which owed their foundation to Irish missions. The multiplication of bishops tended to degrade the office. It is impossible to read the accounts of monastic rule as developed by St. Bridget at Kildare and by the Irish mission at Iona, and of the mechanical and subsidiary part which the bishops were called upon to play in the drama, without being aware of the subversion of one of the fundamental marks of episcopacy. The present writer has found but slight evidence of this disastrous policy in Wales and Brittany. There the abbot-bishop is seen as the ruler of a monastery or of a tribe. Innumerable monasteries had no bishop at all. The presence of a bishop gave to the monastery the elements of permanence and priority. The Breton and Welsh monastery-bishoprics have in many instances survived as bishoprics up to the present time solely, as it would seem, owing to their early episcopal character.

The distinction between the Irish and British conception of episcopacy must be borne in mind when we attempt to reconstruct the ecclesiastical institutions of Cornwall. It has been shown that the relation between Cornwall and Brittany was that of mother and daughter. Between Wales and Cornwall the relation, though probably less close, was far closer than that between Ireland and Cornwall. It is therefore more than probable that while the abbot-bishop was everywhere a distinguishing feature of Celtic Christianity there was here (in this county) no such perversion of the episcopal office as to give rise to a body of _episcopi vagantes_ of whom we read in connection with Ireland and Irish missions.[51]

That Cornwall possessed bishops is certain, and that they ruled monasteries is equally certain, diocesan bishops being, during the period under consideration, practically unknown to the Celtic world. History helps us little as regards Cornwall. We know that in A.D. 664 two British bishops (duobus de Brittonum gente episcopis), whom Mr. Haddan considers to have been Cornish, assisted Wini, the Saxon bishop of Wessex, in the consecration of St. Chad.[52]

Gildas, the Jeremiah of Britain, whose _De Excidio_ is stated to have been written in the sixth century, introduces us to an ecclesiastical system which, in respect of its main features, differs hardly if at all from that with which we are familiar, but which both surprises us by the evidence of its progress and alarms us by the extent of its perverseness. Gildas speaks of the clergy “intruding themselves into the preferments of the Church, yea, rather buying the same at a high rate” and “after the example of Simon Magus buying the office of a bishop or of a priest.” There was, therefore, already in the sixth century, if the traditional date of the _De Excidio_ be accepted, a gradation not only of dignity but also of office and emolument, for which, without Gildas’ evidence, we should hardly have been prepared. The denunciations of Gildas have been held to apply to the civil rulers and the secular clergy only,[53] but there seems to be no good reason for accepting this hypothesis unless we read into the sixth century conditions which are found at a later period. It is important and sufficient for us to know that the British Church was highly organised and comparatively wealthy at this time.

To suppose, however, that Celtic monasteries were large, solid structures of stone with cloisters, refectories, dortors and the like is to mistake the economic conditions of the period and of the countries under review. To associate the Celtic bishop with a durable and spacious cathedral church is almost as grotesque an anachronism as to represent St. Lucy (who died in the year 303), as they do in the sailors’ church at Naples, apparelled in a modern court dress with a tiara of gems and a necklace of beautiful pearls.

The Celtic monastery has been compared to a pioneer settlement. It consisted of a congeries of detached cells, each suitable for the habitation of one or more monks. The cells, like the churches of the period, were commonly of wood, sometimes of stone. It is therefore, after the lapse of so many centuries, usually futile to seek for traces of them. Of existing Christian remains of the Celtic period in Cornwall the most noteworthy and interesting are the granite crosses and those monuments especially which bear the Chi-rho monogram. The chapels at Perranzabuloe, at Gwithian and at Madron are also of this date, the two former probably owing their preservation to the sand which buried them and the latter to the healing virtues of the waters of the holy well which flow through it.[54]

Having shown that the Celtic conception of episcopal jurisdiction was definitely monastic, as opposed to the Roman which, at an early period, had become diocesan, it is necessary to fix approximately the date at which, in Cornwall, the former gave place to the latter. Upon the solution of the problem depends the character to be assigned to the four Celtic bishops, Kenstec, Conan, Daniel and Comoere, whose names are disclosed in certain authentic documents and are given in the Truro Diocesan Kalendar.

In Brittany, a more progressive country and less isolated than Cornwall, the change was violently effected by the patriot Nominoë in the year 849. In Ireland the diocesan system was not adopted until 1152.[55] Wales submitted to the jurisdiction and discipline of Canterbury in 1207. It is certain, therefore, that Cornwall, more opposed to Saxon influence than any of the others, did not accept the diocesan system until the days of Egbert (836). There is good reason to believe that the change took place much later. Kenstec’s letter to Archbishop Ceolnoth (833-870) states explicitly that his bishopric was monastic (_Ego Kenstec_ ... [ad] _episcopalem sedem in gente Cornubia in monasterio quod lingua Brettonum appellatur Dinuurin electus, etc._).[56]

The next bit of historical evidence is that of Asser, the adviser of King Alfred, to whom Alfred in 884 committed Exeter _cum omni parochia quae ad se pertinebat in Saxonia et in Cornubia_.[57] The precise nature of the commission is uncertain. If the gift was made after Asser became bishop of Sherborne it probably involved the oversight of Devon and of that portion of Trigg, in Cornwall, where Alfred’s possessions were situated. There is nothing to lead us to conclude that the Celtic Christianity of Cornwall was to be affected by it.

A very distinct advance, in intention if not in achievement, was made when, in 909, Archbishop Plegmund constituted the see of Crediton. To Eadulf the bishop were given three vills in Cornwall,—“Pollton, Coelling and Landuuithan from which year by year he might visit the Cornish people in order to extirpate their errors. For in times past, as far as possible, they resisted the truth and were not obedient to the apostolical decrees.” Pollton and Landuuithan are unquestionably Pawton in St. Breock and Lawhitton. Coelling presents some difficulty because Domesday Book and all subsequent records represent Callington (with which it has been identified) as ancient demesne of the Crown. It is possible, however, that before the Norman Conquest Coelling may have been surrendered to the King or have been exchanged for another holding.[58]

How far Eadulf was successful it is again impossible to say. A conquered race does not readily surrender its traditional religious customs. One of the most instructive records of the Jewish captivity is that which preserves the pedigrees of the priests who were themselves to preserve and perpetuate the priestly succession.[59]

Athelstan’s policy (925-940) of excluding the Cornish from Exeter and confining them within the limits of their own province does not at first sight point to improved relations between the two races. His conquest of the whole of Cornwall may be accepted as fact and also his grant of lands to the church of St. Buryan. Perhaps the most important act of his life, so far as Cornwall was concerned, was, in the words of Leland, “to set up one Conan to be bishop in the church of St. German.” The statement, even if copied from what he regarded as a trustworthy document, would have carried little weight as coming from a writer who lived 600 years after the event, had not Bishop Conan been found signing charters, undoubtedly authentic, between the years 931 and 934. Moreover, the name Conan is Celtic and occurs frequently in Cornish place-names. I am inclined to think that the Bishop Donan whose name is appended to the St. Buryan charter is a transcriber’s mistake for Bishop Conan.[60] The question naturally suggests itself, how was it possible for a people smarting under recent defeat to accept the religious ministrations provided by their conqueror? Close upon a century had elapsed since the decisive battle of Hengestisdun, and during the interval doubtless a considerable portion of the Cornish had come to accept the Saxon supremacy. Athelstan’s mission may have been, generally speaking, pacific though involving punishment to the disaffected and rebellious.

In choosing a Cornishman, and one probably already a bishop, for the see of St. Germans, he would be acting in a conciliatory spirit, especially if he, at the same time, recognised the traditional type of Cornish Christianity. There is no reason to interpret his action as involving a departure from it.

An interesting note is given by Haddan and Stubbs[61] which calls attention to the signature of one Mancant, a bishop, to a charter of 932 to which also Bishop Conan’s name is appended. The learned editors rightly conjecture that Mancant was a Cornish bishop (Mancant, or more correctly Maucant). Coeval Cornish bishops are just what we should expect to find in the tenth century no less than in the sixth.

Quite the most valuable extant document of Cornish Christianity, however, is the List of _Manumissions on the Bodmin Gospels_ which dates from the year 942 and carries us almost to the middle of the eleventh century. From this precious manuscript we gather that there were during that period the following bishops in, or connected with, Cornwall: (1) Athelgea[rd] possibly bishop of Crediton, (2) Comoere contemporary with Edgar (958-975), (3) Wulfsige of a slightly subsequent date, (4) Burthwold mentioned in Cnut’s charter and described by William of Malmesbury as uncle of Living or Lyfing the penultimate bishop of Crediton. Charters also disclose two additional bishops: Ealdred (993-997) and Aethelred (1001). Of these Comoere, Wulfsige and Ealdred are identified by Mr. Haddan with Bodmin and Burthwold with St. Germans. Comoere’s name is Celtic; the rest of the names are Saxon. But the important point is that they are all, except possibly the first, contemporary with, though not identical with, bishops of Crediton, in other words, some measure of independence continued to exist between the Saxon see and the see or sees of Cornwall. There is nothing to show that, before the days of Wulfsige (967), i.e. until within 80 years of Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, the greater part of Cornwall was not Celtic both in religion and language. The change of ecclesiastical organisation was made at a period much later than is commonly supposed.[62]

The charter of King Aethelred to Bishop Ealdred (994) seems to point to a period of transition. He gives to Bishop Ealdred episcopal jurisdiction in the province of Cornwall that it (the province?) may be free and subject to him and his successors, “that he may govern and rule his diocese (_parochiam_) in the same way as other bishops who are in his realm, both the monastery (_locus_) and the domain (_regimen_) of St. Petrock being under the control of him and his successors.” If the English conception of diocesan jurisdiction had been generally known and allowed in Cornwall there would have been no need to require the stipulations contained in the concluding paragraph. Ealdred was to administer the see of St. Petrock on English lines. History does not tell us what was, in the meanwhile, happening at St. Germans; but twenty-four years later (in 1018) we meet with a grant of lands, in Landrake and Tiniel, by King Cnut to Burhwold bishop of St. Germans; the Landrake lands were to be held by the bishop during his life and after his death they were to be held for the good of the souls of him and the King. The Tiniel lands were to be used as the bishop thought fit. It is interesting to note that these lands were not annexed to the bishopric but continued to be held by the prior of St. Germans until the dissolution of the priory in the sixteenth century.

At the time of Cnut’s grant Cornwall had practically lost its independence both civil and ecclesiastical. All the witnesses of his charter, twenty-seven in number, bear Saxon names.

Burhwold died in or about A.D. 1043. Lyfing his nephew, who had become bishop of Crediton in 1027, was, in pursuance of an arrangement made long before between him and King Cnut, allowed to hold both sees. On Lyfing’s death, in the third year of the Confessor’s reign (1046), Leofric the King’s chaplain was appointed to the united bishopric (_episcopatum Cridionensis ecclesiae atque Cornubiensis provinciae_) and the see transferred to Exeter. Papal sanction was obtained for the transaction three years afterwards.

By his charter of ratification, dated 1050, Edward the Confessor transfers the Cornish diocese which had formerly been assigned to a bishop’s see (_episcopali solio_) in memory of Blessed German and in veneration of Petrock, this, with all parishes, lands, etc., he transfers to St. Peter in the city of Exeter. The absence of clear definition in the last paragraph is sufficiently obvious: no clearer definition was possible. There had been hitherto no Cornish diocese in the English and Roman acceptation of the word. There had been bishops both at Bodmin and at St. Germans within living memory holding lands and exercising jurisdiction, but the monastic tie was still probably stronger than the diocesan.

Yet it was obviously important, now that Exeter was to be the seat of ecclesiastical government for the two counties, that ample provision should be made for the great bishop who was to occupy it. Exeter lacked lands, books and almost every church ornament; so stated Pope Leo in his letter to King Edward. Accordingly the King not only gave to it lands of his own but he provided for the transfer of all that could under any reasonable pretext be claimed for its support. In effect, he made it possible for the Exeter bishopric to derive nearly one-half of its entire revenue from Cornish monastic lands. But the endowment of the see of Exeter requires a chapter to itself.

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Footnote 49:

Cornwall’s independence of Rome implied neither repudiation of nor
secession from the Roman Church. It was merely the temporary
suspension of outward communion with Latin Christianity as the result
of political events which had placed Cornwall in a state of isolation.

Footnote 50:

The statement is based upon the assumption that the decrees of Pope
Leo III were as inoperative in Cornwall as they were in Wales and
Ireland. It should be needless to warn the reader against confounding
Augustine of Canterbury with the bishop of Hippo. The latter is said
to have sanctioned certain regulations for the religious life which
subsequently became known as the rule of St. Augustine. In the
beginning of the ninth century Pope Leo III made this rule obligatory
upon all the clergy who had not embraced some other rule. Had the
monks of St. Petrock been in outward communion with western
Christendom they would probably have become canons, regular or
secular, of St. Augustine and, in that case and in that sense only,
Sir John Maclean’s statement might have been excusable. But in that
sense the words had no meaning in the sixth century when St. Petrock
founded the Cornish community. Augustine of Canterbury was a
Benedictine monk and the canons regular introduced by Bishop
Warelwast, known as Black Canons, belonged to one of the three great
orders which sprang from the rule attributed to his great namesake the
bishop of Hippo.

Footnote 51:

Dom Gougaud speaks of them as _Évêques déclassés et errants_
(_Chrétientés_, p. 219).

Footnote 52:

Haddan and Stubbs, _Councils_, I, 124.

Footnote 53:

Gougaud, _Chrétientés_, p. 67.

Footnote 54:

To this period Mr. Jenner would also assign the dwellings at
Chysauster which may indeed, as he suggests, have been St. Gulval’s
nunnery.

Footnote 55:

Stokes, _Ireland and the Celtic Church_, p. 347.

Footnote 56:

Haddan and Stubbs, _Councils_, I, 675.

Footnote 57:

_Ibid._, I, 676.

Footnote 58:

It is even possible that Coelling may be Callestock in Perranzabuloe.
The canons of Exeter had lands in that parish in the twelfth century.

Footnote 59:

Ezra VII; Nehemiah XII.

Footnote 60:

Donan, however, is a Celtic name (see Loth, _Rev. Celt._, XXIX, 277).
For the purpose of the argument which is here put forward it would
have been more convenient to have distinguished between them.

Footnote 61:

_Councils_, I, 979.

Footnote 62:

In the West of Cornwall there are indications in Domesday Book (1086)
of the recent introduction of Saxon place-names, e.g. in Edward the
Confessor’s time it can hardly be a coincidence that Aluuarton
(_hodie_ Alverton) was the holding of Aluuar.

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VI

EVOLUTION OF THE DIOCESAN-BISHOPRIC FROM THE MONASTERY-BISHOPRICS OF
CORNWALL

The Roman and, consequently, the Saxon conception of episcopal government was territorial and diocesan; the Celtic conception was tribal and monastic. An ecclesiastical system based upon tribal and monastic principles, recognising no supreme central authority, can afford to dispense with clearly defined boundaries. At the same time a monastic, no less than a tribal organisation, requires a centre of its own, towards which its activities may converge, and from which its influences may radiate.

The present is an attempt to show where the more important of such centres existed in Cornwall before diocesan was substituted for monastic rule. Doubtless every _lan_ represented some such centre, however insignificant, just as every _caer_ represented a fortified seat of civil authority. The _lan_ justified its existence by the strength and fervour of its prayers and spiritual influence: the _caer_ by the strength of its natural position and its artificial defences. A monastic settlement with a definite amount of demesne land, corresponding to its size and importance, upon which the monks worked for the support of the community, will sufficiently indicate what is meant. Some monasteries had bishops; some—the greater number—were without them. The great monasteries of Landévennec in Brittany, Llantwit in Wales, and Bangor in Ireland, do not appear to have had bishops of their own, or, if they had, their episcopal character was submerged. On the other hand, the monastery-bishoprics of all three countries are too well known to require demonstration. The isolation of the Church in Cornwall until the middle of the tenth century encouraged and perpetuated the system in the mother country which in the fifth and sixth century it had helped to establish in Brittany.

Domesday Book, when studied by the light of earlier and later records, supplies invaluable information upon the subject of Cornish ecclesiastical organisation even before the Saxon conquest.

At the time of the Great Survey (1086), the bishop of Exeter held the following manors in Cornwall:

Treliuel (Treluswell in St. Gluvias).
Matela (Methleigh in St. Breage).
Tregel (Trewell in St. Feock).
Pauton (Pawton in St. Breock).
Berner (Burneir in Egloshayle).
St. German (St. Germans).
Lanherneu (Lanherne in Pydar).
Tinten (Tinten in St. Tudy).
Languititon (Lawhitton).
Landicla (Gulval).
St. Winnuc (St. Winnow).

Of these eleven manors all except five, viz. Burneir, Lanherne, Tinten, Lanisley, and St. Winnow, were demesne lands, the whole of their revenues going direct to the bishop. Richard Fitz Turold held Burneir and Tinten of the bishop, who received the profits of the former. Fulcard held Lanherne, and Godfrey St. Winnow. The services or profits rendered to the bishop in respect of four of the five manors would be comparatively trifling, except on the death of the tenant in demesne and during the minority of his heir. Consequently they are not considered worthy of mention in the _Taxatio_, made by Pope Nicholas IV of the bishop’s temporalities in the year 1291.

In order to estimate the extent and value of the bishop’s possessions in Cornwall it will suffice to compare them with those of the clergy, as given in the _Taxatio_ or assessment just mentioned. It must, however, be remembered that Methleigh had ceased to be an episcopal manor before that assessment was made, having been granted by Bishop Robert Warelwast, between 1155 and 1161, to the dean and chapter of Exeter.[63] On the other hand, the manor of Cargol, in Newlyn, had been acquired in the meanwhile.[64] Moreover, Treluswell and Tregella, for civil purposes, had become differentiated into Camwerris (Penwerris), Trevella, Tolverne, Fentongollen, Trevennal, and Trelonk,[65] and for the purpose of ecclesiastical assessment had become known as Tregaher and Penryn.[66] In 1306 Tregaher, or Trocair, was the name of the major portion of the hundred of Powder, and was itself regarded as a hundred. The Bishop’s holdings by military tenure in this hundred were rated at four knights’ fees. Tregaher, the seat of these possessions, which lay east and west of the river Fal, is now known as Tregear in Gerrans. Roughly speaking, the bishop’s manors in this district included the whole of the parishes of Gerrans, St. Gluvias with Falmouth, Budock, Mabe, Mylor, Philleigh, Merther, St. Just-in-Roseland, and Ruan Lanyhorne. His demesne lands were very extensive and valuable, as will be seen by comparing the papal assessment of Tregaher (£20 11s. 5d.) with that of the rectory of Gerrans (£2 6s. 7d.) and the assessment of Penryn (£21 8s. 1d.) with that of the benefice of St. Gluvias (£2).

Pawton and Burneir must be considered together, for they were doubtless both included in the grant made by King Edward the Elder to Eadulf when the see of Crediton was constituted in 909. The extent of the bishop’s holding in Pawton at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) is declared to be the entire hundred of Pawton, comprising 44 hides of land. It extended over the parishes of St. Breock, Egloshayle, St. Ervan, St. Eval, St. Issey, Little Petherick, St. Merryn, and Padstow. Pawton is only a contracted form of Petrockton, and there is sufficient reason to believe that these lands of the bishop had formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Petrock. In the Inquisitio Geldi (1085) the scribe appears to have found it difficult to describe the hundred of Pawton according to the prescribed formula. In his list of the hundreds he has interlined over “Rieltone Hundret” the words “Sci Petrochii,”[67] and has added Pauton at the end of the list. In his second attempt he has placed the hundred of Pauton first and omitted St. Petrock’s altogether. It is interesting to observe that so late as the year 1691 the hundred of Pydar is described in a grant from the Crown as “Petrockshire alias Pidershire alias the hundred of Pider.”[68] Whether the word Pydershire is a sublimated equivalent of Petrockshire is a question for etymologists. That the two were not quite territorially conterminous is evident from Domesday Book itself, in which Nancekuke in Penwith and Forsnewth in West are included among the manors of St. Petrock. The important point to grasp is that out of the very heart of St. Petrock’s province, Pawton, and with it what subsequently became known as the bishop’s peculiar jurisdiction, embracing five parishes (_decanatus de Poltone_), was transferred in 909 from the monastery of St. Petrock to the new see of Crediton, and in 1046 to the see of Exeter. The episcopal revenue from Pawton in 1291 may be estimated by comparing its assessment (£49 16s. 3d.) with that of the church (appropriated rectory and vicarage) of Egloshayle (£5).

Lawhitton, given to Crediton at the same time as Pawton, was also of considerable extent. It consisted of eleven hides of land in 1086, and was assessed in 1291 at £25 10s. 11d., while the church or rectory of Lawhitton was assessed at £2. From what source it was obtained for the endowment of Crediton is not clear. Along with Lezant and South Petherwyn it was subsequently within the bishop of Exeter’s peculiar jurisdiction. Possibly it had been taken (in 909) from the canons of St. Stephen near Launceston.

The manor of St. German, or, as it is called in the Exchequer Domesday, the manor of the church of St. German, consisted in 1086 of twenty-four hides of land, the whole of which had been held by Bishop Leofric in the time of the Confessor. At the time of the Survey (1086) the bishop had twelve hides and the canons of St. German had twelve hides. The bishop had one hide in demesne, and the canons had one hide in demesne: the rest of the land was held by villeins either of the bishop or of the canons. It is clear, therefore, that between 1066 and 1086 a redistribution had taken place, as the result of which the bishop and the canons had been assigned equal shares of the lands. A Sunday market which had fallen to the latter had been reduced to nothing owing to a market on the same day having been established at Trematon Castle by the Count of Mortain. There had also been taken away by the Count from the church of St. German a hide of land which rendered as custom a cask (_cupa_) of ale and 30 pence, an acre (Cornish) of demesne land sufficient for one plough, and a virgate of demesne land which called for no remark. Of the usurped lands Reginald de Valletort held the two former, and Hamelin the latter, of the Count. In 1291 the bishop’s manor of St. German was assessed at £17 16s. 5d., and the prior’s holding at £14 13s. 4d. for lands in St. Germans, £1 for dues from South Petherwyn and Landulph, and £9 16s. 2d. for lands, including those of Tiniel and Landrake given to Bishop Burhwold by King Cnut in the year 1018. In the _Valor ecclesiasticus_ (1535) to the revenues of the priory from the above sources there is added the impropriated tithe of Gulval, of which something more will be said when treating of Lanisley.

What actually happened shortly after the Norman Conquest in regard to St. Germans is not obscure, although some confusion has resulted owing to a misapprehension on the part of more than one writer. Cnut’s gift to Bishop Burhwold, as we have seen,[69] only served to augment the revenues of the religious community, of which Burhwold was doubtless the head. Under Lyfing, the nephew and successor of Burhwold, and before the death of Cnut, the see of St. Germans, such as it was, was united with that of Crediton, the community still consisting of secular canons. Leofric succeeded Lyfing, and in his days the see of Crediton and its possessions were transferred to Exeter. The revenue of St. German was consequently impoverished. Nothing appears to have been done to repair the loss until after Edward the Confessor’s death, but, somewhere between 1066 and 1073, Leofric consented to a partition of the revenue by which the bishop and the canons became possessed of equal shares, as stated in Domesday Book.[70]

Having briefly reviewed the more important of the Cornish contributions to the revenue of the Exeter bishopric, a few words are required respecting the manors which, though absent from the _Taxatio_ of 1291, were in 1086 amongst the possessions of the bishop, and were recorded in Domesday Book.

Matela or Methleigh, reckoned at a hide and a half in 1086, was granted by the bishop to the dean and chapter of Exeter, about the year 1160 and, by them, was conveyed soon afterwards to the family of Nansladron. It was to this manor that the church of St. Breage was appendant, and it may well have been the demesne land of a religious community before the Saxon invasion.

Landicla or Lanisley, also a hide and a half, was held by Rolland the archdeacon, of the bishop in 1086, having been Bishop Leofric’s in the time of the Confessor. It embraced the whole parish of Gulval. Before the enactment of the statute _Quia emptores_ in 1290, the whole of the demesne land appears to have been granted to the family of Fitz Ive. There is consequently no mention of it in the _Taxatio_ of the following year, although the seignorial rights were subsequently claimed and exercised by the bishop from time to time as occasion arose. In 1580 it is described in an inquisition as having been held by John Tripcony of the bishop as of his manor of Penryn Foren, but the description, far from indicating a common origin of the two manors, probably only indicates a late expedient enabling the bishop to claim the services and collect the dues, if any, at his chief manor in the west. The advowson, and with it the rectorial tithe of Lanisley or Gulval, was at an early date held by the prior and canons of St. Germans, and continued to be held by them until the dissolution of their religious house in the sixteenth century. In the _Valor ecclesiasticus_ their holding was assessed at £10 6s. 8d. It is not unlikely that when Bishop Leofric reconstituted the church of St. German he gave to it the advowson of Lanisley.[71]

Lanherne, the Lanherneu of Domesday, was a holding of Bishop Leofric before the Norman conquest, and was in 1086 held by Fulcard of the bishop. It was estimated at three hides. Of the incidents of tenure in subsequent times nothing remained to the bishop save homage, wardship, and the like, and the manor was not considered worthy of assessment in the _Taxatio_ of 1291. It would be interesting to know how this manor came into the bishop’s hands. It adjoined his manor or hundred of Pawton, and may have passed with it, but, curiously enough, the parish of St. Mawgan, with which it was almost conterminous, was not within the bishop’s peculiar jurisdiction. The manor was, doubtless, St. Petrock’s before it became the bishop’s.

The manor of St. Winnuc or St. Winnow had already passed to a sub-tenant at the time of the Domesday Survey, and the impropriated tithe and advowson of the church of St. Winnow to the dean and chapter of Exeter, before 1291. There is nothing to suggest the source whence the manor was obtained for the endowment of the bishopric, save that St. Winnow adjoins Lanhydrock, which belonged to St. Petrock, and may, therefore, have been taken from the saint.

The manor of Tinten in St. Tudy, held in 1086 by Richard, of the bishop, was not considered worthy of separate mention in the _Taxatio_ of 1291. It is the only episcopal manor the name or locality of which does not suggest an ecclesiastical origin. The advowson of St. Tudy was independent of it being appendant to the manor of Trethewell in St. Eval. Does the half hide of Tinten represent the lay contribution of Cornwall towards the endowment of the see of Exeter?[72]

We are now in a position to summarise the results of the foregoing survey. We have seen that the Cornish possessions of the see of Exeter, at the time of the Domesday Survey, consisted chiefly of manors which had St. Germans, Lawhitton, Pawton and Penryn (or Tregear) for their centres. St. Germans and Pawton, and probably Lawhitton, were derived from monastic sources, viz. from the monasteries of St. German, St. Petrock, and probably from St. Stephen. The possessions in and around Penryn require further examination.

That there was a monastery-bishopric at Dinurrin or Dingerein in the ninth century is clear from Kenstec’s profession of obedience to Archbishop Ceolnoth. To treat of Gerrans and its associations in an impartial spirit is wellnigh impossible. Legend, history and fact are so strangely and so suggestively interwoven that the temptation is equally great to say too much or too little. The name Gerrans is a modern form of Geraint or Geruntius. The presence of Gerrans, Just and Cuby, as the names of three churches and parishes near together, is indeed a remarkable coincidence if they are not identical with Geraint of Anglesey, his son Jestyn or Just, and his grandson Cuby, son of Selyf. No valid reason has been offered against the identification. Mr. Baring-Gould considers St. Gerrans the same person as Gerennius, King of Cornwall, who requested St. Teilo to visit and communicate him when dying (circa 556).

Both Geraint and Gerennius must be distinguished from Gerontius, prince of Dumnonia, to whom St. Aldhelm wrote at the request of an English synod in 705 urging him to abandon the Celtic method of determining Easter and the Celtic tonsure which the saint described as the tonsure of Simon Magus. All three (who are here distinguished as Geraint, Gerennius and Gerontius, though the names are identical) were historical personages and worthy of the veneration of after ages. For our present purpose it is not material to determine the identity of St. Gerrans: it is sufficient for us to know that Dingerein may be derived from any one of them. In the ninth century Dingerein or Dinurrin was the seat of the Abbot-bishop Kenstec. In the absence of evidence to the contrary we may suppose that his episcopate was concentrated at Gerrans and embraced the lands or parishes bordering the estuary of the Fal—those parishes in fact which subsequently became for ecclesiastical purposes the deanery of Penryn, and for civil purposes formed a large portion of the hundred of Trocayr or Tregeare. There is nothing to show that, either for ecclesiastical or for civil purposes, there were close relations, much less that there was a bond of union, between the Gerrans territory and that of Pawton, Pydar, St. German or Lawhitton. Gerrans was self-contained and independent. It may have retained, and probably did retain, traces of its episcopal character until Edward the Confessor, by charter, transferred the Cornish diocese with its lands and parishes to the see of Exeter. Some justification was doubtless required for the annexation of so much land in and around Gerrans to the bishop’s demesne, and the only justification which is apparent is that it was already regarded as such.[73]

In the case of St. Gerrans hardly any trace was left of its monastic and episcopal associations. In the _Taxatio_ of 1291 the benefice of St. Gerrans consisted of two portions, the rector’s and the prior of St. Anthony’s, which may point to a corporate life at an earlier date.

A glance at the map of Cornwall, in the light of what has been said, reveals, at the time of the Domesday Survey, present or past activities, on a considerable scale and monastic in character in every part of the county except in the north-east, and in the promontories of the Lizard and of the Land’s End.

The north-east became Saxonised at a very early period. This is clear from the place-names. There is no reason to doubt that St. Neot, the Saxon monk of Glastonbury, settled in that part of Cornwall which bears his name, in the ninth century, and after founding a college of priests died, and was buried there. There is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of Asser’s narrative—whether it be Asser’s or another’s—which states that Alfred the Great hunted in the neighbourhood of St. Neot, and was healed, or believed himself to have been healed, at the shrine of St. Guerir. Alfred’s possessions in Triconshire have been referred to. The community at St. Neot held two hides of land in the days of the Confessor, but the whole of it save one (Cornish) acre had been stolen by the Count of Mortain in 1086.

Again, the canons of St. Stephen-by-Launceston appear to have suffered a diminution of their power and also of their revenue owing to Saxon settlement. At the time of the Survey their affairs were in a state of utter confusion. They were attempting to hold on to lands which had been theirs, and are styled theirs in Domesday Book, which Harold held before the Norman Conquest, and which the Count of Mortain was striving to re-annex. In North-East Cornwall the Celtic type of Christianity had given place to the Saxon.

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The promontory of the Lizard never became Saxonised. Everything here points to the persistence of the Celtic type and to very close and fruitful relations with Brittany. The names of the churches, including Manaccan, the monks’ church,[74] are all to be found in Armorica except Grade (of very uncertain derivation) and St. Keverne. The word Meneage is itself possibly a derivative form of Manach. The lands given by the Count of Mortain to St. Michael’s Mount, and described in his charter as situated in Amaneth,[75] were certainly in Meneage. Landivick, Langweath, Lantenning and, above all, Landewednack speak of monastic settlement. It is curious that the Breton monastery of Landévennec and the church of Landewednack both claim Winwaloe for patron,[76] although St. Guenoc is possibly their true patron. However this may be, it is clear that a common influence has been at work in determining the nomenclature in both countries. In Domesday Book the hundred of Kerrier appears as Wineton or Winenton, the usual Saxon termination being added to a Celtic word as in Tedinton and Conarton. In later documents it is found as Winianton, and as such it remained until comparatively recent times, when it became Winnington. The point less than a mile west of Winianton is known as Pedngwinion. Mr. H. Jenner has suggested an interpretation which is almost certainly correct, viz. that Winianton means the home of the shining or blessed ones. Winianton, as the name of a hundred, implies some sort of local pre-eminence, past or present. Before the Norman Conquest the _manor_ of Winianton embraced 22 sub-manors which were in the hands of 17 thegns. The description of these thegns is interesting—they could not be separated from the manor and they rendered custom in the same manor. Before 1086 they were supplanted by the Count of Mortain’s men. A thegn, according to Professor Maitland, was, before the tenth century, “a household officer of some great man” and, from the tenth century until the Norman Conquest, a person socially above a churl with corresponding privileges and responsibilities.[77] Now it is remarkable that the thegns of Winenton differed in no respect from those of St. Petrock, except that whereas the former could not be separated from the manor, the latter could not be separated from the saint.

Have we here the note of tragedy, inseparable from a lost cause, of which the Lizard district, to its lasting credit, furnished two other conspicuous examples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? It looks[78] as if there had been the overthrow of monkish supremacy by the Cornish, followed by Saxon Conquest, and in the meantime the preservation of thegnship until the Norman Conquest. The small community of St. Keverne despoiled by the Count of Mortain represents Irish influence, if we suppose with Mr. W. C. Borlase that Keverne is identical with Kieran. This saint is not found among the Breton dedications, Peran and Kerrien being regarded by Professor Loth as different saints, and neither of them identical with Keverne or Kieran. We, therefore, conclude that the agency which compassed the destruction of Brittonic monachism in Meneage left the Irish house to the tender mercies of the Norman invader. It is possible that in the church of St. Breage we have an attempt at reparation. From time immemorial it embraced Germoe, Cury, and Gunwalloe as chapelries. Methleigh, the only manor which escaped Norman rapacity as the result of its having been added to the Exeter bishopric, may have been originally a portion of the demesne of the monastic body which dominated the Lizard peninsula.

Respecting the hundred of Penwith, we have little historical evidence prior to the Norman Conquest. Athelstan’s grant to the church of St. Buryan and Edward the Confessor’s grant to St. Michael’s Mount, whatever fault may be found with the charters, as they have come down to us, are sufficiently authentic. The story of St. Ia’s arrival with her Irish companions must be received with caution; but there is no reason to doubt that a substratum of truth lies beneath a legend which is by no means modern. Seven churches in Penwith bear the names of these missionaries. On the other hand, no less than fourteen dedications, including two which subsequently became obsolete and two which are among those of the Irish mission, are common to Penwith and Brittany. The remaining dedications are of doubtful origin. It seems, therefore, certain that Irish and Breton influences had a great deal to do with the moulding of the church life of the hundred. The preponderating influence was Breton. The presence of St. Pol Aurelian (Paul) and of Winwaloe (Towednack) is sufficient evidence of this. It is remarkable that four, if not more, of the Penwith churches afford traces of presumably earlier dedications. St. Erth (possibly also Perranuthnoe) was known as Lanudno, Gulval as Lanisley, Madron probably as Landithy,[79] and Illogan probably as Lancichuc. St. Just may have borne the name of Lafrowda, as being situated near the holy springs. Udno (Goueznou) the companion of Pol Aurelian (circa 530) is commemorated in three Breton parishes. Pol was originally of Wales, and a contemporary of Just of Anglesey, who is probably the patron of the church which bears the name in Penwith. If this be so, St. Levan will be Seleven, Salomon, Selyf, or Selus, whose memorial stone is preserved in St. Just Church. It is quite possible that the changed dedications indicate a change from monastic to some sort of parochial organisation. In Penwith there does not appear to have been any monastic community of commanding importance whose revenues could be seized without leaving the people spiritually destitute. Lanisley may have been one which had outstayed its welcome and on that account may have become attached to what was eventually to become the see of Exeter.

To sum up. Three large holdings, or, to use a modern though inadequate word, estates, stand out clear and distinct, viz. those of Gerrans, Pawton and St. Germans, each of them at one time or another associated with the see of a Cornish bishop, monastic in character. Such records as we have, carefully distinguish these lands from one another. Neither St. Petrock (Pawton) nor St. German possesses any rights in Gerrans, nor Gerrans in Pawton or in St. Germans. Neither does St. Germans claim rights in Pawton, nor Pawton in St. Germans. It is not only opposed to the evidence of Domesday, it is inconceivable that any Cornish bishop exercised lordship over all three at the same time. The Pawton lands were almost certainly claimed by Crediton by virtue of the provision made in 909 for missionary visits to them yearly by the bishop of Crediton. The St. Germans holding was certainly annexed to Exeter when that see was founded. The Gerrans holding presents several difficulties. We have no record of any bishop at Gerrans save Kenstec (865). But because no records have been preserved, we cannot say that no bishops existed. Such a principle if applied to Cornish parishes would be fatal to their claim to have had a rector before the days of Bishop Bronescombe (1257). Nevertheless, the absence of recorded evidence is distinctly embarrassing. What were the events or circumstances which justified the annexation of the Gerrans property to the see of Exeter? Some justification there doubtless was. Was it found in the letter of submission written by Bishop Kenstec to Archbishop Plegmund (833-870) about fifty years before the see of Crediton was founded? Was it found in the forfeiture of royal possessions consequent upon the conquest of Cornwall by Athelstan (925-940)? It is possible that both these events may have contributed to the result, for there is good reason to believe that Gerrans was a residence of the kings of Cornwall in the seventh century, and it is certain that it was the residence of Kenstec in the ninth century. If the lands were claimed by King Athelstan there ought to be some charter to show when and by whom they were transferred to the see of Crediton or of Exeter. If they passed to the Saxon bishopric by virtue of the grant of Edward the Confessor in 1050, then we must conclude that they had preserved their episcopal associations until within a few years of that time, and that, therefore, Bishop Kenstec probably had successors at Gerrans. It is inconceivable that there were not valid grounds for the transfer of the lands. The fact that they were monastic lands would not have sufficed, for the canons of St. Petrock and St. German survived the annexation of a portion of theirs, whereas no vestige of a monastery remained at Gerrans in the days of the Confessor. It was its former connection with episcopal rule which led to the inclusion of Gerrans in the endowments of the bishopric of Exeter.