Some fifteen hundred years ago the Church in Cornwall had fallen into
grievous heresies, and the Roman Emperor Valentinian decided that a
stern, strong man was needed to pull these erring people back into the
right way. So he instructed St. Germanus of Auxere to go to barbarous
Britain and tell the Cornish all about it. And accordingly St.
Germanus, or St. German, as we call him, came.
But the erring people were not at all pleased with their visitor.
They preferred their own priests and their old teachings, and good St.
German had a very hard time of it. But he stuck to his task, preached
the true faith, performed remarkable miracles and erected a beautiful
church. Yet the stubborn Cornish would not make friends with him. On
the contrary they persecuted him in many ways, doing their utmost
to drive him away, so that they might be left in peace with their
old-fashioned doctrines, which they much preferred to the right and
proper teachings of this foreigner.
And at last the patience of the saint gave out. The unruly people
started a brawl in church during a Sunday morning service. St. German
tried to reason with them, but they would not hear him. He prayed for
them but they jeered at him, and their conduct became so threatening
that the good saint’s companions, fearing for his life, persuaded him
to escape from the church.
Poor St. German was heartbroken. He felt that his mission had failed
utterly. And in the depths of despair he wandered away out to lonely
Rame Head, where he sat by the cliffs’ edge and lamented his lack of
success. Here he was compelled to hide from his persecutors for some
days, and they say that the very rocks wept with him in his grief, and
still weep at St. German’s well.
But at last the furious mob discovered the saint’s hiding place, and a
vast crowd, led by the local priests, came swarming up the hill side of
Rame determined to destroy the holy man.
St. German faced the maddened rabble fearlessly, praying only for
deliverance from their anger. Then, as the first stone was thrown,
there came a crash of thunder, and in a blaze of light a fiery chariot
was seen descending the hill.
The mob started back in terror, but the chariot rolled on to where the
saint stood. Two glittering angels were in the chariot. They tenderly
lifted St. German from the ground and placed him between them. There
followed a great rushing wind, and the amazed and terrified crowd
looked upward to see the fiery chariot ascending into the heavens.
Then, in mighty dread at the result of their wickedness, the people
scattered and fled.
St. German was carried safely overseas, where he lived for many years
to continue his pious works. It is even said that after a time he
returned to Cornwall again and completed his appointed task. At any
rate St. German’s Well still flows, and for many centuries--perhaps if
you looked hard you could find them still--the marks of the chariot
wheels were to be seen burnt into the rock of Rame Head.
Rame is a magnificent headland, the easternmost of Cornwall, surmounted
by an ancient ruined chapel dedicated to St. Michael. It is the nearest
point of land to the Eddystone, and from it on a clear day you can see
to the Lizard--the whole length of the county.
St. Germans, a quiet little place named after the saint, was the seat
of an early bishopric, the splendid old Norman church marking the site
of the ancient cathedral. Both St. Germans and Rame Head are easily
reached from Plymouth, St. Germans being under ten miles by rail from
that place, and in summer boat excursions may be made to Cawsand, a
little over a mile from Rame Head, and up the beautiful Lynher River to
St. Germans.
This part of East Cornwall has a distinctive charm of its own. The
Tamar, which forms the county boundary, is most attractive to explore.
There are many early churches and castles round about, and the variety
of river and sea scenery offered here is obtainable nowhere else in the
Duchy. That great arm of the sea, that runs up from Plymouth Sound and
comprises the Lynher, the Tamar, and the Tavy estuaries, will in itself
provide interest for many excursions, while the barren heights of both
the Bodmin Moors and Dartmoor are more easily accessible from Plymouth
than from any other centre.
[Illustration: _Rame Head._]
[Illustration: A man in dark cloak traveling at night, accosted by a
specter of an old man.]