Norman Conquest. Bishop Leofric (1046-1073) removed them and introduced
canons regular. In 1270 Bishop Bronescombe ordered the excommunication
of certain persons concerning whom he vouchsafes no particulars save
that they were _Sathane satellites, proprie salutis immemores_ and that
they had expelled those whom he had sent to take charge of the priory
during the vacancy caused by the death of Richard the late prior. His
letter is valuable because it affords evidence that the bishop of Exeter
claimed absolute power over the priory and its possessions so long as
there was no prior appointed, and apparently the right of confirming the
prior’s appointment.
Of St. Michael’s Mount some particulars will be found in Chapter X.
The church of St. Stephen by Launceston was like that of St. German
served by secular canons at the time of the Domesday Survey. By Bishop
William Warelwast (1107-1138) to whom Ralph the dean of St. Stephens had
surrendered the deanery it was made an Augustinian priory and so
remained until the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII.
Harassed and despoiled by Robert Count of Mortain in the years which
followed the Norman Conquest, under the fostering care of Reginald Earl
of Cornwall (1140-1175) and Richard King of the Romans (1225-1272), it
soon became the wealthiest of the religious houses in Cornwall. The
relations between the parochial church of St. Stephen and the priory are
somewhat obscure. The church was taxed independently of the priory in
1291, but in the _Inquisitio nonarum_ of 1346 the church was assessed at
£10, of which 40s. was chargeable to the prior.
The collegiate church of St. Buryan is undoubtedly an early instance of
the conversion of a Celtic monastery to a recognised English type. King
Athelstan by charter gave a small piece of his land in a place which is
called the church of St. Berrian ... to be free of all taxation unless
the clerks who had promised him their prayers, viz. 100 masses, 100
psalters and daily supplications failed, to perform their task. The
place which is called the church of St. Berrian was evidently
Eglosberria or Eglosveryan, of which we have already spoken. In later
times it was advantageous to the dean and his fellows to cite Athelstan
as their founder and their church as a royal chapel. All that the Saxon
King did for them was probably to guarantee to them security of tenure
for the lands which they already held and freedom from payment of geld.
The Canons of St. Crantock who held the manor of Langorock at the time
of the Survey (1086) also survived the various changes made in the
constitution of their community until their dissolution in 1536. Robert,
Count of Mortain, had already seized their lands when the Survey was
made. His son, Count William, founded the Cluniac house at Montacute in
Somerset, and to it he is said to have given the church of St. Crantock.
It is certain that in 1236 the prior of Montacute transferred the church
and its possessions to William Briwer, bishop of Exeter. The bishop
thenceforth became patron of the deanery and prebends. In 1291 there
were on the foundation a dean and nine prebendaries. St. Crantock had
become a typical collegiate church. The several stages through which it
passed leave no doubt that as Langorock it had established its claim to
considerate treatment by Saxon and Norman alike.
Of St. Keverne we learn from Domesday Book that the canons of St.
Achebran had one manor which was called Lannachebran, which the same
saint had held in the Confessor’s time. There is, however, evidence of
its quasi-prebendal character more than a century before the Survey was
made.[87] By Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, the
church was given to the abbot and convent of Beaulieu for the good of
his own soul and that of King John his father.[88] The vicarage was
taxed by Bishop Bronescombe, in 1260, very unfavourably to the vicar,
there being assigned to the abbot and convent of Beaulieu more than
five-sixths of the income. Leland, writing about the year 1530, states
that near “The Paroch church of S. Keveryn otherwise Piranus,” there is
a sanctuary with ten or twelve dwelling houses and hard by “there was a
sel of monkes but now gonn home to ther Hed Hows.” These monks were
doubtless Cistercians from Beaulieu who, for some reason or another, had
been temporarily resident in the parish. The appropriation of the church
by Earl Richard, and its taxation by Bishop Bronescombe, had left it a
rather poorly endowed vicarage, of which the patronage and greater
tithes belonged to Beaulieu. That Lannachebran was originally Celtic and
monastic does not admit of doubt.
The account supplied by Domesday Book respecting St. Pieran
(Perranzabuloe) is very illuminating. “The Canons of St. Pieran,” so the
statement runs, “have a manor called Lanpiran, which in the time of King
Edward they held freely.... From this manor have been taken away two
manors which in the time of King Edward rendered to the Canons of St.
Pieran four weeks’ farm (_firmam iii septimanarum_). Of these manors
Berner holds one of the Count. And from the other hide which Odo holds
of St. Pieran the Count has taken away all the stock (_pecuniam_). These
two manors rendered to the Dean by way of custom 20s. in addition to the
said farm (_firmam_).” The first of these two manors was that of
Tregebri, which elsewhere in Domesday Book is described as being “of the
honour[89] of St. Perann.” The Count of Mortain took from both all that
had formerly belonged to the saint. Dean and canons were swept away at
an early date and the church given by Henry I to the dean and chapter of
Exeter. When the vicarage was taxed in 1269, to the vicar was assigned
the altarage of the mother church of St. Piran and of the chapel,
together with all the offerings derived from the exposition of the
relics, the vicar rendering a yearly tribute of six marks to the dean
and chapter. The relics referred to were those of St. Piran the founder
of the church, concerning which some interesting particulars are
supplied in an inventory of the year 1281. Among other treasures mention
is made of a reliquary in which is kept the head of St. Pyeran, with the
rest of the relics secured with iron and a lock, a hearse in which the
body of Pyeran is placed for processions, a tooth of St. Brendan and a
tooth of St. Martin within a silver box, also a pastoral staff of St.
Pyeran adorned with silver and gold and precious stones. Two centuries
later when making St. Agnes parochial, the bishop ordained that if the
parishioners of St. Pyran should bring the saint’s relics to St. Agnes
in procession as formerly, on Rogation Tuesday, they should receive
honourable welcome and the oblations presented in the chapel of St.
Agnes according to custom.
There has been much doubt concerning the identity of St. Piran. From the
inventory of 1281 it would seem that at that time he was identified with
St. Kieran of Saighir in Ireland, otherwise it would be difficult to
account for the presence at Perranzabuloe of relics of St. Brendan, the
friend to whom the saint sent a supply of milk in the form of a milch
cow, and of those of St. Martin the founder of churches in Ossory, St.
Kieran’s native county, a person so highly esteemed by the saint that he
extracted a promise from him that when they died they should be buried
in the same grave. It is certain that in the thirteenth century, and a
fortiori in the eleventh century, the foundation of St. Piran was
regarded as Celtic and that the church claimed to have in its custody
the crozier of its episcopal founder.
“The canons of St. Probus have one manor which is called Lanbrabois
(Lamprobus. _Exch. D._) which King Edward held at the time of his
death.” Such is the testimony of Domesday Book. The name of the manor
suggests a monastic origin, but nothing whatever appears to be known of
the saint or of the founder of the prebendal church. Had St. Edward been
the founder it is probable that some use would have been made of the
circumstance by succeeding generations. King John confirmed the grants
of the church made by his ancestor (_avi_) Henry I and by his father
Henry II to the bishop and cathedral church of Exeter.[90] By Bishop
Briwer it was appropriated to the office of treasurer of the cathedral,
together with the patronage of the five prebends, but the patronage was
subsequently transferred to Bishop Bronescombe and exercised by him and
his successors until the suppression of the prebends by Edward VI.
Having briefly considered the religious houses—using that term in its
widest sense—concerning which mention is made in Domesday Book, it is
worth while to pass on to those whose endowments either excited not the
rapacity of the Norman, or were too slender to find a place in the Great
Survey, and to those which were evidently founded after the Norman
Conquest. Taking them in the order already indicated, we have the five
establishments dignified by the name of priories.
The priory of St. Cyricus or St. Cyriacus in the parish of St. Veep is
stated by Lysons to have been founded by William Count of Mortain, but
no authority is quoted for the statement. In 1236 Bishop Briwer wishing
to relieve the church of St. Nonn (probably the neighbouring church of
Pelynt) from a yearly charge of six marks, four shillings and three
pence heretofore payable to the little cell (_cellula_) of St. Cyricus,
granted to the latter out of the revenues of his see a yearly payment of
five marks. The cell was affiliated to the Cluniac priory of Montacute
in the county of Somerset and was for a long time in the patronage of
the family of that name. It is futile to speculate respecting its
origin, and it is not safe to say that it was of Saxon or Norman origin,
for St. Carreuc is found in three Breton parishes.[91]
The priory of Minster or Talkarn described as the church of St. Merthian
of Laminster was, somewhere about the year 1130, given by William, son
of Nicholas (Botreaux), to the monks of the Benedictine abbey of St.
Sergius at Angers. Here again we have monastic associations suggested by
the locality of the priory. Laminster was apparently already a
place-name when the gift was made little more than half a century after
the Norman Conquest. The priory, by reason of its connection with the
French abbey, was suppressed during the fourteenth century.
The priory or cell of St. Nicholas, situated on the island of Tresco,
Scilly, was probably Celtic in origin. The Charter of Henry I granting
to the abbot and church of Tavistock and to its monk Turold, the
churches and land in Scilly uses the following words to limit and
describe the tenure of the land—it is to be held “just as the monks or
rather hermits (_monachi aut heremite melius_) held it in the time of
King Edward of Burgald bishop of Cornwall.”
Tavistock was a Benedictine abbey founded in the latter half of the
tenth century. The rule of St. Benedict was broad and elastic, and
monasteries could and did embrace it without parting entirely with their
traditions.[92] It was, in fact, the only rule recognised in England
during the whole of the Saxon period. Admitting all this the phrase
“monks or rather hermits,” is so studiously vague as to imply a doubt as
to whether the brothers had in the Confessor’s day submitted to any
recognised rule whatever. It is certain that while bringing them into a
closer relationship with Tavistock the King intended to enforce a
stricter discipline, otherwise his further provision that they should,
like “the King’s own prebendaries” have his peace and protection, would
have been unnecessary. The King does not confirm any supposed charter of
Athelstan or of Edward, but gives the religious community at Scilly to
the abbey at Tavistock, and, apart from the reference to the latter
King, there is nothing to lead us to regard the monks as Benedictine or
as affiliated to the abbey until Henry’s charter was granted. As a cell
of Tavistock, the Scilly monastery appears to have existed until the
suppression of the mother house, but little is known of it subsequent to
the middle of the fifteenth century.
Tregony Priory. At an early date the churches of St. James, Tregony, and
of St. Cuby, appear to have accepted the rule of St. Augustine and to
have been constituted a cell of the abbey of de Valle in Normandy. When
and by whom this appropriation was made is unknown, but it is certain
that it was made after the Norman Conquest. In the year 1278 Bishop
Bronescombe gave his sanction to the transfer of the priory of Tregony
to the priory of Merton in the county of Surrey. This was in furtherance
of an arrangement between the prior of Merton and the abbot of de Valle,
whereby the possessions of the former in the diocese of Bayeux were
exchanged for those of the latter in England. Bishop Quivel confirmed
the sanction of his predecessor in 1282, and until the dissolution of
the religious houses the cell, which had become a vicarage, belonged to
the monastery of Merton.
Of Tywardreath Priory little need be said here. At the time of the
Domesday Survey, Tywardreath was one of the thirty manors in Cornwall
which had been given by the Conqueror to Richard Fitz Turold. By Richard
the priory was founded and affiliated to the great Benedictine abbey of
SS. Sergius and Bacchus at Angers. The list of charters recording
successive endowments is exceptionally complete, and for genealogical
purposes the charters are of very great value, but they afford no
suggestion of a pre-Norman foundation.
The cell of St. Anthony in Roseland represented a survival of an order
of things of which we have little recorded evidence. In the thirteenth
century it derived its main support from the church of St. Gerrans. In
the _Taxatio_ of Pope Nicholas IV the prior of St. Anthony is assessed
at the same amount for his portion in the church of St. Gerrans as the
rector himself. A little more than a century later, in the _Inquisitio
nonarum_, St. Anthony is described as a chapel (_capella_) of St.
Gerrans. Such information as we have points to a quasi-monastic
establishment of St. Gerrans, followed by a parish church at Gerrans and
a small monastery at St. Anthony. The latter was made, at an early date,
dependent on the Augustinian priory of Plympton, and in the earlier half
of the sixteenth century consisted of two canons.
The Cell of St. Michael of Lammana, situated in the parish of Talland
opposite Looe Island, which formed a portion of its possessions, was
given by John de Solenny in the twelfth century to the Benedictine abbey
of Glastonbury. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, granted to the abbot a
licence to farm out its revenues, and this probably accounts for the
scant information supplied by the public records respecting the cell.
The name Lammana points to Celtic monasticism.
The Convent of the Preaching Friars at Truro throws no light upon the
subject before us. The friars first came to England in the year 1221. It
is a striking proof of the rapidity with which the order spread that
Bishop Bronescombe should have dedicated their church at Truro in 1259.
The origin of the Collegiate Church of Endellion is obscure. In 1273 the
rectory belonged to the prior and convent of Bodmin; in 1342 Bodmin or
King’s prebend belonged to the same; in 1265 Marny’s prebend belonged to
the family of Bodrugan, and in 1266 Trehaverock prebend belonged to the
family of Modret. The parish of Endellion was not in St. Petrock’s
hundred of Pawton, nor do any of its three Domesday manors appear to
have belonged to the saint. It would therefore seem as if the advowson
or a moiety of it had been given to the priory after its reconstitution
on English lines. In any case it would be rash to claim a pre-Norman
origin for Endellion Collegiate Church.
The similar establishment at Glasney, near Penryn, owed its foundation
to Bishop Bronescombe, who in 1267 consecrated the church of St. Thomas
the Martyr and its churchyard. Glasney was an entirely new college, not
the rehabilitation of an earlier institution, and on that account it
does not enter into the present enquiry.[93]
The church of St. Michael Penkevil was made collegiate in 1319, as the
result of the benefaction of Sir John de Trejagu. It was to be
administered by an archpriest and three fellows who were to live under
the same roof and to dine at the same table. It had no early monastic
associations.
The date of the erection of St. Teath into a Collegiate Church is more
obscure. Between the years 1258 and 1264 Bishop Bronescombe founded two
prebends in St. Teath church, and, inasmuch as the number of prebends
does not appear ever to have exceeded two, it is probable that the
church owed its prebendal character solely to the bishop.
The Hospital of St. John the Baptist at Helston and the Lazar house at
Liskeard, being comparatively modern foundations, need not be examined.
Reference has been made to three churches or religious houses—it is not
clear which is the appropriate term—which are mentioned in Domesday
Book, but which are omitted in the _Monasticon_.
In the former document it is stated that St. Constantine has half a hide
of land which in the time of King Edward was free of all service, but
since the Count of Mortain received the land it has always rendered geld
unjustly like villeins’ land. This land, known as the manor of Tucoyes,
was bestowed upon Wihumar and henceforth lost to the Church. The
exemption from geld implies a monastic foundation, but no other trace of
monastic origin has been found in connection with the church of St.
Constantine.
Of St. Neot it is stated that the saint held a manor called Neotstou,
consisting of two hides of land in the time of the Confessor, Godric
being the priest in charge, and that the Count of Mortain has despoiled
the priests of all their land save one (Cornish) acre. It is also stated
that the two hides of land have never rendered geld. Monastic the church
of St. Neot undoubtedly was, but in this case we have trustworthy
historical evidence to prove that it was not Celtic but Saxon. St. Neot
had himself founded the house in Saxonised territory. No trace of its
original character is to be found in later documents. It would therefore
seem that it had already become (in 1086) purely parochial.
The honour of St. Cheus or Che, of which the manor of Tremaruustel was a
member at the time of the Domesday Survey, has hitherto resisted all
attempts at identification. It probably represents a moribund and
extinct monastic holding of considerable extent.
The Domesday manor of St. Mawnan (wrongly written Maiuian or Mawan in
both copies) had fallen into the King’s hand before the Conquest. But
the church of St. Mawnan is referred to in many subsequent translations
under the name of Minster, which suggests a monastic origin.
Manaccan, the monks’ church, calls for no comment.
A very interesting and convincing example of the conversion of a purely
Celtic monastic house to English uses is supplied by St. Kew. On
linguistic grounds alone Professor Loth arrived at the conclusion that
Docco, the monastery where St. Sampson made the acquaintance of St.
Winniau, was St. Kew. An examination of the various forms under which
the church is described in the Episcopal Registers revealed the forms
Landoho, Lanho and Lanow. A Patent Roll of 1307 furnished the following
statements, viz. that King Edgar (958-975) gave to the canons of
Plympton two carucates of land, 100s. of rent in Landoho and the church
there for the support of two canons celebrating divine service there and
dispensing alms and hospitality to the poor, to pilgrims and other
guests, that in a case tried before John de Berewyk and other justices
(circa 1300) it was shown that the prior and convent of Plympton had
failed to fulfil the above conditions and that, taking into account all
the circumstances, the King now (1307) grants to the prior and convent
the right to substitute a secular vicar and chaplain for the two canons
at Landoho.
An examination of the Plympton charters showed that Henry I gave the
church of Tohou to William Warelwast, bishop of Exeter, and that he gave
the church to the priory of canons regular which he founded at Plympton
in the year 1121. No one can doubt that Tohou and Docco are variants of
the same word, which is found in Brittany as Tohou and Ohou. It is not
difficult to follow the various acts of spoliation. King Edgar evidently
reduced the patrimony of the Celtic monastery to the amount specified
above while retaining the manor of Landoho, which until the Norman
Conquest embraced the manors of Poundstock and St. Gennys. The three
manors passed as an undivided whole to Earl Harold as demesne lands. By
the Conqueror they were given to the Count of Mortain. Henry I claimed
the remaining revenue of the monks and gave it to the bishop who
transferred it to Plympton priory. Edgar’s gift to Plympton was a legal
fiction which enabled the priory to evade responsibilities which were
implied in the charter of Henry I and explicitly stated in that of Henry
II when canons regular were substituted for secular canons.[94]
In brief, St. Kew was the site of an important Celtic monastery which,
visited by St. Sampson in the days of St. Winniau, despoiled by King
Edgar and stripped bare by Henry I, nevertheless retained some semblance
of its ancient glory until the latter half of the thirteenth century.
As the result of the above examination it will be observed that of the
twenty-six religious houses about one-half afford evidence of Celtic
origin. In some cases the evidence is convincing; in some it is of
itself insufficient to convince. Taken as a whole, it adds considerably
to the weight of the argument which is here advanced, namely, that in
Cornwall the Celtic form of Christianity had not wholly disappeared at
the time of the Norman Conquest. Of its secure and comprehensive hold
upon the religious life of the whole county at an earlier period there
is abundant proof in the names of the parishes. Excluding those which
have been considered, fifteen bear the prefix _Lan_, the mark of
monastic settlement. Others, like St. Erth (Lanudno), St. Madron
(Landithy), St. Just-in-Penwith (Lafrowda), Kea (Landegy), Gulval
(Lanisley), Lelant (Lananta), Lezant (Lansant), retained the prefix for
a time, in an _alias_, which in some cases suggests an earlier
dedication; or, as in the case of Lanherne, Langunnet, Lanyhorne and
Lanhadron still retain it in the name of the manor to which the advowson
of the church was appendant; while a very large number bear, without
prefix or affix, the names of Celtic saints, many of them unknown to the
outside world. From one end of the county to the other the impress of
Celtic Christianity can be clearly traced. It is monastic in character.
But it is not a monasticism which has intruded within the confines of
parishes already formed, but a monasticism which has occupied the whole
territory from the very first. This it is which, in the tenth and
eleventh centuries, either finds itself gradually superseded by the
newer parochialism, or which ensures, in some sort, its survival in
collegiate bodies or in recognised monastic orders by submitting to new
conditions and new ideas.
-----
Footnote 86:
Inspeximi is a convenient plural of the word _inspeximus_ (we have
inspected). Royal grants of liberties and privileges are frequently
based upon earlier grants which the Royal grantor declares he has
_inspected_. The charters of these earlier grants in many instances no
longer exist.
Footnote 87:
_Jour. Arch. Assocn._, XXXIX, 282.
Footnote 88:
Pat. Roll, 18 Edw. III, 1345.
Footnote 89:
Another honour is mentioned in the same record, viz. that of St.
Cheus, which awaits identification. The Exeter book reads correctly
that Tremar uustel is _de honore S. Chei_, whereas the Exchequer
version has belongs _ad honore S. Chei_. This led General James to
translate the words “belongs to the honours of Chei”: _honore_ is
probably an abbreviation for _honorem_ and the full stop after the _S_
a contraction of _Sancti_.
Footnote 90:
_Monasticon_, p. 72.
Footnote 91:
Loth, _Les Noms des Saints bretons_, p. 19.
Footnote 92:
Gasquet, _English Monastic Life_, p. 214.
Footnote 93: