THE SEVEN DEGREES
The river Cothi, that after a lengthy course finally discharges into the
Towy, so soon as it has quitted the solitudes of moor and mountain,
traverses a broad and fertile basin that is a gathering-place of many
feeders. From this basin it issues by a narrow glen, almost a ravine.
The sides of this great bowl are walled in by mountains, though not of
the height, desolation, and grandeur of those to the north, where the
Cothi takes its rise. The broad basin in the midst of the highlands,
once probably occupied by a lake, is traversed near its head by the Sarn
Helen, a paved Roman-British road, still in use, that connects the vales
of the Towy and the Teify, and passes the once famous gold-mines of
Ogofau.
At the head of this oval trough or basin stand the church and village of
Cynwyl Gaio, backed by mountains that rise rapidly, and are planted on
a fork between the river Annell and a tributary, whose mingled waters
eventually swell the Cothi.
The lower extremity of the trough is occupied by a rocky height,
Pen-y-ddinas, crowned with prehistoric fortifications, and a little tarn
of trifling extent is the sole relic of the great sheet of water which
at one time, we may conjecture, covered the entire expanse.
At the time of this story, the district between the Towy and Teify,
comprising the basin just described, constituted the sanctuary of David,
and was the seat of an ecclesiastical tribe--that is to say, it was the
residence of a people subject to a chief in sacred orders, the priest
Pabo, and the hereditary chieftainship was in his family.
And this pleasant bowl among the mountains was also regarded as a
sanctuary, to which might fly such as had fallen into peril of life by
manslaughter, or such strangers as were everywhere else looked on with
suspicion. A story was told, and transmitted from father to son, to
account for this. It was to this effect. When St. David--or Dewi, as the
Welsh called him--left the synod of Brefi, in the Teify Vale, he
ascended the heights of the Craig Twrch, by Queen Helen's road, and on
passing the brow, looked down for the first time on the fertile district
bedded beneath him, engirdled by heathery mountains at the time in the
flush of autumn flower. It was as though a crimson ribbon was drawn
round the emerald bowl.
Then--so ran the tale--the spirit of prophecy came on the patriarch. His
soul was lifted up within him, and raising his hands in benediction, he
stood for a while as one entranced.
"Peace!" said he--and again, "Peace!" and once more, "Peace!" and he
added, "May the deluge of blood never reach thee!"
Then he fell to sobbing, and bowed his head on his knees.
His disciples, Ismael and Aiden, said, "Father, tell us why thou
weepest."
But David answered, "I see what will be. Till then may the peace of
David rest on this fair spot."
Now, in memory of this, it was ordained that no blood should be spilled
throughout the region; and that such as feared for their lives could
flee to it and be safe from pursuit, so long as they remained within the
sanctuary bounds. And the bounds were indicated by crosses set up on
the roads and at the head of every pass.
Consequently, the inhabitants of the Happy Valley knew that no Welsh
prince would harry there, that no slaughters could take place there, no
hostile forces invade the vale. There might ensue quarrels between
residents in the Happy Land, personal disputes might wax keen; but so
great was the dread of incurring the wrath of Dewi, that such quarrels
and disputes were always adjusted before reaching extremities.
And this immunity from violence had brought upon the inhabitants great
prosperity. Such was a consequence of the benediction pronounced by old
Father David.
It was no wonder, therefore, that the inhabitants of the region looked
to him with peculiar reverence and almost fanatical love. Just as in
Tibet the Grand Lama never dies, for when one religious chief pays the
debt of nature, his spirit undergoes a new incarnation, so--or almost
so--was each successive Bishop of St. David's regarded as the
representative of the first great father, as invested with all his
rights, authority, and sanctity, as having a just and inalienable claim
on their hearts and on their allegiance.
But now a blow had fallen on the community that was staggering. On the
death of their Bishop Griffith, the church of St. David had chosen as
his successor Daniel, son of a former bishop, Sulien; but the Normans
had closed all avenues of egress from the peninsula, so that he might
not be consecrated, unless he would consent to swear allegiance to the
see of Canterbury and submission to the crown of England, and this was
doggedly resisted.
Menevia--another name for the St. David's headland--had undergone many
vicissitudes. The church had been burnt by Danes, and its bishop and
clergy massacred, but it had risen from its ruins, and a new successor
in spirit, in blood, in tongue, had filled the gap. Now--suddenly,
wholly unexpectedly, arrived Bernard, a Norman, who could not speak a
word of Welsh, and mumbled but broken English, a man who had been
hurried into Orders, the priesthood and episcopal office, all in one
day, and was thrust on the Welsh by the mere will of the English King,
in opposition to Canon law, common decency, and without the consent of
the diocese.
The ferment throughout South Wales was immense. Resentment flamed in
some hearts, others were quelled with despair. It was not the clergy
alone who were in consternation: all, of every class, felt that their
national rights had been invaded, and that in some way they could not
understand this appointment was a prelude to a great disaster.
Although there had been dissensions among the princes, and strife
between tribes, the Church, their religion, had been the one bond of
union. There was a cessation of all discord across the sacred threshold,
and clergy and people were intimately united in feeling, in interests,
in belief. In the Celtic Church bishops and priests had always been
allowed to marry--a prelate of St. David's had frankly erected a
monument to the memory of two of his sons, which is still to be seen
there. Everywhere the parochial clergy, if parochial they can be styled,
where territorial limits were not defined had their wives. They were
consequently woven into one with the people by the ties of blood.
Nowhere was the feeling of bitterness more poignant than in the Happy
Valley, where the intrusion of a stranger to the throne of David was
resented almost as a sacrilege. Deep in the hearts of the people lay the
resolve not to recognize the new bishop as a spiritual father, one of
the ecclesiastical lineage of Dewi.
Such was the condition of affairs, such the temper of the people, when
it was announced that Bernard was coming to visit the sanctuary and
there to initiate the correction of abuses.
Pabo, the Archpriest, showed less alarm than his flock. When he heard
that threats were whispered, that there was talk of resistance to the
intrusion, he went about among his people exhorting, persuading against
violence. Let Bernard be received with the courtesy due to a visitor,
and the respect which his office deserved.
A good many protested that they would not appear at Cynwyl lest their
presence should be construed as a recognition of his claim, and they
betook themselves to their mountain pastures, or remained at home.
Nevertheless, moved by curiosity, a considerable number of men did
gather on the ridge, about the church, watching the approach of the
bishop and his party. Women also were there in numbers, children as
well, only eager to see the sight. The men were gloomy, silent, and wore
their cloaks, beneath which they carried cudgels.
The day was bright, and the sun flashed on the weapons and on the armor
of the harnessed men who were in the retinue of Bishop Bernard, that
entered the valley by Queen Helen's road, and advanced leisurely towards
the ridge occupied by the church and the hovels that constituted the
village.
The Welsh were never--they are not to this day--builders. Every fair
structure of stone in the country is due to the constructive genius of
the Normans. The native Celt loved to build of wood and wattle. His
churches, his domestic dwellings, his monasteries, his kingly halls, all
were of timber.
The tribesmen of Pabo stood in silence, observing the advancing
procession.
First came a couple of clerks, and after them two men-at-arms, then rode
Bernard, attended on one side by his interpreter, on the other by his
brother Rogier in full harness. Again clerks, and then a body of
men-at-arms.
The bishop was a middle-sized man with sandy hair, very pale eyes with
rings about the iris deeper in color than the iris itself--eyes that
seemed without depth, impossible to sound, as those of a bird. He had
narrow, straw-colored brows, a sharp, straight peak of a nose, and thin
lips--lips that hardly showed at all--his mouth resembling a slit. The
chin and jowl were strongly marked.
He wore on his head a cloth cap with two peaks, ending in tassels, and
with flaps to cover his ears, possibly as an imitation of a miter; but
outside a church, and engaged in no sacred function, he was of course
not vested. He had a purple-edged mantle over one shoulder, and beneath
it a dark cassock, and he was booted and spurred. One of the clerks who
preceded him carried his pastoral cross--for the see of St. David's
claimed archiepiscopal pre-eminence. In the midst of the men-at-arms
were sumpter mules carrying the ecclesiastical purtenances of the
bishop.
Not a cheer greeted Bernard as he reached the summit of the hill and was
in the midst of the people. He looked about with his pale, inanimate
eyes, and saw sulky faces and folded arms.
"Hey!" said he to his interpreter. "Yon fellow--he is the Archpriest, I
doubt not. Bid him come to me."
"I am at your service," said Pabo in Norman-French, which he had
acquired.
"That is well; hold my stirrup whilst I alight."
Pabo hesitated a moment, then complied.
"The guest," said he, "must be honored."
But an angry murmur passed through the throng of bystanders.
"You have a churlish set of parishioners," said Bernard, alighting.
"They must be taught good manners. Go, fetch me a seat."
Pabo went to the presbytery, and returned with a stool, that he placed
where indicated by the bishop.
The people looked at each other with undisguised dissatisfaction. They
did not approve of their chief holding the stirrup, or carrying a stool
for this foreign intruder. Their isolation in the midst of the
mountains, their immunity from war and ravage, had made them tenacious
of their liberties and proud, resistful to innovation, and resolute in
the maintenance of their dignity and that of their chief. But a certain
amount of concession was due to hospitality, and so construed these acts
could alone be tolerated. Nevertheless their tempers were chafed, and
there was no graciousness in the demeanor of the bishop to allay
suspicion, while the contemptuous looks of his Norman attendants were
calculated to exasperate.
"It is well," said Bernard, signing imperiously to Pabo to draw near.
"It is well that you can speak French."
"I have been in Brittany. I have visited Nantes and Rennes. I can speak
your language after a fashion."
"'Tis well. I am among jabbering jackdaws, and cannot comprehend a word
of their jargon. I do not desire to distort my mouth in the attempt to
acquire it."
"Then would it not have been as well had you remained in Normandy or
England?"
"I have other work to do than to study your tongue," said Bernard with a
laugh. "I am sent here by my august master, the fine clerk, the great
scholar, the puissant prince, to bring order where is confusion."
"The aspect of this valley bespeaks confusion," interrupted Pabo, with a
curl of the lip.
"Do not break in on me with unmannered words," said the bishop. "I am an
apostle of morality where reigns mere license."
"License, my Sieur? I know my people; I have lived among them from
childhood. They are not perfect. They may not be saints, but I cannot
admit that a stranger who is newly come among us, who cannot understand
a word that we speak, is justified in thus condemning us."
"We shall see that presently," exclaimed Bernard, "when we come to
particulars. I have heard concerning you. My lord and master, the
Beauclerk Henry, has his eyes and ears open. Ye are a dissolute set, ye
do not observe the Seven Degrees." Then aside to his chaplain: "It is
seven, not four, I think?"
"I pray you explain," said Pabo.
"Seven degrees," pursued Bernard. "I must have all the relationships of
the married men throughout the country gone into. This district of Caio
to commence with, then go on through the South of Wales--through my
diocese. I must have all inquired into; and if any man shall have
contracted an union within the forbidden degrees, if he have taken to
him a wife related by blood--consanguine, that is the word, chaplain,
eh?--or connected by marriage, affine--am I right, chaplain?--or having
contracted a spiritual relationship through sponsorship at the font, or
legal relation through guardianship--then such marriages must be
annulled, made void, and the issue pronounced to be illegitimate."
"My good Lord!" gasped Pabo, turning deadly pale.
"Understand me," went on the bishop, turning his blear, ringed, birdlike
eyes about on the circle of those present, "if it shall chance that
persons have stood at the font to a child, then they have thereby
contracted a spiritual affinity--I am right, am I not chaplain?--which
acts as a barrier to marriage; and, if they have become united,
bastardizes their issue. Cousinship by blood, relationship through
marriage, all act in the same way to seven degrees--and render unions
void."
"Are you aware what you are about?" asked Pabo gravely. "In our land,
hemmed in by mountains, marriages are usually contracted within the same
tribe, and in the same district, so that the whole of our people are
more or less bound together into a family. A kinship of some sort
subsists between all. If you press this rule--and it is no rule with
us--you break up fully three-fourths of the families in this country."
"And what if I do?"
"What! Separate husband and wife!"
"If the union has been unlawful."
"It has not been unlawful. Cousins have always among us been allowed to
marry. No nearer blood relations; and the rule of affinity has never
extended beyond a wife's sister. As to spiritual relationship as a bar,
it is a device of man. Why! to inquire into such matters is to pry into
every family, to introduce trouble into consciences, to offer
opportunity for all kinds of license."
"I care not. It is our Canon law."
"But we are not, we never have been, subject to your Canon law."
"You are so now. I, your head, have taken oath of allegiance to
Canterbury. Thereby I have bound you all."
Pabo's cheek darkened.
"I rely on you," proceeded the bishop. "You, as you say, have lived here
always. You can furnish me with particulars as to all the marriages that
have been contracted for the last fifty years."
"What! does the rule act retrospectively?"
"Ay. What is unlawful now was unlawful always."
"I will not give up--betray my people."
"You will be obedient to your bishop!"
Pabo bit his lip and looked down.
"This will entail a good deal of shifting of lands from hand to hand,
when sons discover that their fathers' wedlock was unlawful, and that
they are not qualified to inherit aught."
"You will cause incalculable evil!"
The bishop shrugged his shoulders.
"Lead on to the church," said he. "My chaplain, who is interpreter as
well, shall read my decree to your people--in Latin first and then in
Welsh. By the beard of Wilgefrotis! if you are obstructive, Archpriest,
I know how to call down lightning to fall on you."
NOTE.--The seven prohibited degrees were reduced to four at the
Fourth Lateran Council (1215). By Civil law the degrees were thus
counted,--
0
|
+-----+-----+
| |
10 10
| |
20 20
\----\ /----/
4
But by Canon law--
0
|
+-----+-----+
| |
0.....1.....0
| |
0.....2.....0