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.
-----
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.