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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: CORNWALL DOMESDAY BOOK.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
The foregoing fragmentary sketch is not to be regarded as a conclusive
proof of the existence of concurrent Cornish bishoprics so late as the
eleventh century, but it is intended to call attention to some of the
sources from which others may seek the necessary means of forming a
judgment for themselves. That the monastery-bishoprics were hard to
suppress will be evident to everyone who examines the evidence. That
they survived in Cornwall for a much longer period than is generally
supposed seems more than probable.
-----
Footnote 63:
Inventory of Bp. Grandisson.
Footnote 64:
_Exeter Episc. Registers, Stapeldon_, p. 97.
Footnote 65:
Feudal Aids 1303, 1306, 1346.
Footnote 66:
_Episc. Reg. Bronescombe_, App. p. 473.
Footnote 67:
St. Petrock’s hundred had, of course, no connection with Rielton or
Rillaton, subsequently known as the hundred of East. The confusion may
have arisen from the fact that the bailiwick of Pydar was at Rialton,
and that of East at Rillaton, formerly Rielton.
Footnote 68:
Patent Roll, 3 William and Mary.
Footnote 69:
See Monastery-Bishoprics, _supra_.
Footnote 70:
The Patent Roll of 7 Richard II (cf. also _Monasticon_, edited by
Oliver, p. 4) should be compared with the Patent Roll of 9 Richard II.
The former states that Cnut was the founder of the priory of St.
German, while the latter states that Leofric was the founder. Inasmuch
as the charter of Cnut required the land of Landrake to be given after
Burhwold’s death to St. German for the good of the souls of Cnut and
Burhwold (_Terram ... commendat ... Sancto Germano_) it follows that
both statements were (and were probably understood to be) legal
fictions. The earlier document, however, confirms, if confirmation
were needed, the evidence as to the reconstruction of the monastery by
Leofric as given in Domesday Book, though it is not necessarily
conclusive as to the substitution of regular for secular canons. Preb.
Hingeston Randolph (_Architec. Hist. of St. Germans_, p. 31) states
that “there is no reason to suppose that Leofric took any steps to
found a priory at St. Germans.” The statement is far too sweeping. On
the other hand, Mr. Haddan (_Councils_, etc., I, 704) relies upon the
_ipsissima verba_ of the Patent Roll for one of his main arguments for
a single Cornish see in the days of Cnut. By itself the evidence
supplied by an early patent roll relating to a transaction which took
place nearly four centuries previously is not conclusive, especially
when, as in this case, a legal title was needed in order to settle a
dispute, and to place a bishop in undisputed possession of an
advowson.
Footnote 71:
There is a temptation to identify Lanisley with the Lannaledensis of
the _Missa S. Germani_ (Haddan and Stubbs, _Councils_, etc., I, 696).
Alet, or Aleth, and Idles, in the parish of Kenwyn, are regarded as
synonymous, if not identical, in several ancient charters. On the same
principle Lanaleth would become Lanidles, a form sufficiently near
that of Lanisle to convey the idea of identity. But Mr. Haddan is
satisfied that Lanadleth is the British name of St. Germans, and the
confusion introduced by the above supposition would be practically
insurmountable.
Footnote 72:
Eglostudic (St. Tudy) and Polrode belonged to St. Petrock in the time
of the Confessor, and Tinten may have been claimed for Exeter by
virtue of the grant of 909.
Footnote 73:
At a much earlier date (670) St. Wilfrid claimed ecclesiastical
endowments of the British for the Saxon Church in the neighbourhood of
Ripon.
Footnote 74:
Loth, _Les Noms des Saints bretons_, p. 87.
Footnote 75:
Amaneth may be an English equivalent for Anmanach. Treveneage appears
at Trevanek in 1284, and as Trevanaek in 1361.
Footnote 76:
Loth, _Les Noms des Saints bretons_, pp. 52, 53.
Footnote 77:
_Hist. of English Law_, i, 33.
Footnote 78:
The references are to Kilter’s rising in 1549, and to the prolonged
defence of Little Dennis by Sir Richard Vyvyan in 1646.
Footnote 79:
The evidence is indirect. Trengwainton, to which the advowson was
appendant, was itself a sub-manor of Roseworthy in Gwinear. Landithy
is only a short distance from the church.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VII
CORNISH SAINTS
In the first chapter it has been attempted to show how the tyranny of
resemblance and coincidence leads to false analogies and wrong
inferences. Some further illustrations of this principle which have a
direct bearing upon the main purpose of the present enquiry may be found
instructive.
In this chapter we are not so much concerned with the Lives of the
Cornish Saints, as they have come down to us, as with the question
whether they had any actual existence as human beings at all. Of Ia,
Uny, Dennis, Allen, Paul and Berrian it has been stated that “it is more
than probable that there was no man in either case. Ia is the Island
saint, Uny the Downs saint, Dennis the Hill saint, Paul or Pol the Pool
saint,” Buryan or Berrian the saint of Berrie.
But why stop there? Domesday Book supplies us with Eglostudic,
Sainguilant and Sainguinas. It is just as easy to imagine places bearing
the names of Tudic, Guilant and Guinas as to imagine one bearing the
name of Berrie, and quite as good etymology to derive them from Tutton a
chair, Guilan a kingfisher and Guenan a blister.
Most will admit that a chair saint is suggestive of saintly
pursuits—study and contemplation; many saints have been fishermen; some
have suffered from pimples and perhaps have known how to cure them.
Again we have two more ancient parishes one of which occurs in Domesday
Book, viz. Eglosros (Philleigh) and Egloshayle, the church on the heath
and the church on the estuary, yet no one has ever ventured to describe
or to speak of them as the churches of St. Rose and St. Hayle, and for
the obvious reason that Cornish saints have not been manufactured in the
way that has been suggested.
In choosing Ia, Uny, Dennis, Allen, Paul and Berrian to demonstrate his
theory, the critic could hardly have made a more unfortunate selection.
With one exception they are all to be found in Brittany.