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contemplation that urgent necessity alone could induce him to pay any regard to temporal or secular concerns. At last, two holy men, namely Daniel* and Dubricius, went over to him. By them he was persuaded to come to the synod; and after his arrival, such was the grace and eloquence with which he spoke, that he silenced the opponents, and they were utterly vanquished. But Father David, by the common consent of all, whether clergy or laity, (Dubricius having resigned in his favour,) was elected primate of the Cambrian Church."

This is the account generally received, and it is said that St. Dubricius, worn down with years and longing for retirement, withdrew to a monastery in the island of Enlli or Bardsey, where he died A. D. 522. He was buried in the island, where his remains lay undisturbed till A. D. 1120, when Urban, bishop of Llandaff, through the favour of Radulphus, archbishop of Canterbury, obtained the permission of David, bishop of Bangor, and Griffith, prince of North Wales, to remove them.† They were accordingly translated to Llandaff, where they were interred with great pomp and solemnity in the cathedral, which had been rebuilt a short time before from its foundation. But the most remarkable feature in the history of the pro

* Intended for Daniel, the first bishop of Bangor, whose life, to avoid an anachronism, should be placed a full generation later.

+ Tradition points to the site of the church of Llanddewi Brefi as the spot where this memorable sermon was preached, and Cressy relates, with a devout faith, that the following miracles took place upon the occasion."When all the fathers assembled enjoined David to preach, he commanded a child which attended, and had lately been restored to life by him, to spread a napkin under his feet, and standing upon it, he began to expound the Gospel and the Law to the auditory: all the while that this oration continued, a snow-white dove descending from heaven sat upon his shoulders; and moreover the earth on which he stood raised itself under him till it became a hill, from whence his voice like a trumpet was clearly heard, and understood by all, both near and far off; on the top of which hill a church was afterwards built, and remains to this day."

Life of St. Dubricius in Wharton.

ceeding is the fact that the bones of the saint were discovered X with great difficulty. Inquiry was made into the monuments of the past, and the oldest writings were searched in order to ascertain where his body had been deposited; by whom, how, and at what time it was buried. The passage of the Book of Llandaff, which records these particulars, though written when the Romish religion was at its highest ascendency, has therefore, in making this admission, betrayed the inference, that in whatever esteem the Britons of the primitive Church might have held the memory of their holy men, they could not have worshipped their relics. The body of the great archbishop of Caerleon, whose reputation for sanctity was almost equal to that of St. David, lay unenshrined for six centuries. His example, however, in retiring to close his life in Bardsey, was so extensively followed, that according to the exaggerations of after ages, no less than twenty thousand saints were interred in the island, the entire surface of which was covered with their ashes; but his remains were so little regarded that other bodies were buried over him, and how his relics were afterwards distinguished from the general heap is a problem which the author of the record has left unexplained.* His death was commemorated on the fourth of November, and his translation on the twenty ninth of May.

The most eminent saint of Wales must now be introduced to the reader; David, or, as his countrymen call him, Dewi, was the son of Sandde ab Ceredig ab Cunedda, by Non, the daughter of Gynyr of Caergawch. To repeat all the fabulous legends invented respecting him, would be to heap together a mass of absurdity and profaneness; for the monks, in the

"Quod vero postmodum investigatum est, et adquisitum monumentis seniorum, et antiquissimis scriptis literarum, quo loco sepultus est infra sepulturam sanctorum virorum Enlli; quoque situ firmiter humatus est; et a quo, et qualiter, quorumque principum tempore."-Lib. Landav, MS. as quoted in Roberts's Chronicle of the Kings of Britain, p. 338.

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excess of their veneration, have not scrupled to say that his birth was foretold thirty years before the event, and that he was honoured with miracles while yet in the womb. But to pass by these wretched imaginations of a perverted mind, it will be sufficient to notice only those statements of his history which have an appearance of truth. It is said by Giraldus that he was born at the place since called St. David's, and that he was baptized at Porth Clais in that neighbourhood by Elveus, or rather Albeus, bishop of Munster, "who by divine providence had arrived at that time from Ireland." The same author adds, that he was brought up at a place, the name of which, meaning "the old bush," is in Welsh "Hen-meneu,"* and in Latin "Vetus Menevia.”—The locality of Hen-meneu is uncertain, and a claim has been set up on behalf of Henfynyw in Cardiganshire,† which answers to the name, and its church is dedicated to the saint; but it is clear that Giraldus and Ricemarchus, from whom the information is derived, intended to designate some spot near the western promontory of Pembrokeshire, possibly the Roman station of Menapia, for the latter writer intimates that the "Old Bush," as he calls it, was the place where Gistlianus resided before he removed to the valley of Rosina.‡

St. David is reported to have received his religious education in the school of Iltutus; and afterwards in that of Paulinus at Ty-gwyn ar Dâf, where he is said to have spent ten years in the study of the Scriptures, and where Teilo, the second bishop of Llandaff, was one of his fellow-students. It would appear from Giraldus that he was ordained a presbyter before he entered the school of Paulinus, and the same author states that

* His etymology of the word is borrowed from two languages, hên being the Welsh for old, and muni, as he says, is the Irish term for a bush.

+ Carlisle's Topographical Dictionary of Wales, voce Henfynyw.

Various readings to Giraldus, in Wharton Vol. II.-See also page 162 of this Essay.

David, Padarn, and Teilo, visited Jerusalem together, where they were consecrated to the order of Bishops by the Patriarch. Whether this event should be considered to have happened before, or after, the time that David became principal of the monastery in the valley of Rosina is of little consequence, as the story is so improbable that it may be rejected entirely. From its construction it appears to have been borrowed by Giraldus from one of the lost Triads, and it was probably invented by some bard who wished to show that the Welsh bishops traced their consecration to higher authority than that of the Pope. It is, however, admitted that St. David founded or restored a monastery in the valley of Rosina,* which was afterwards called Menevia; and as the abbots of similar religious societies were in those days considered to be bishops in the neighbourhood of their respective communities, St. David enjoyed the dignity of a Chorepiscopus before his elevation to the archbishoprick of Cambria. In the retirement of Menevia, he appears to have lived with his disciples, practising those religious austerities which were sanctioned by the superstition of the times. He denied himself the enjoyment of animal food, and his only drink was water. Except when compelled by urgent necessity, he rigidly abstained from every interference in temporal affairs, all his time being devoted to prayer and spiritual contemplation. It is not stated how long he continued to practise these exercises; but he is said to have experienced considerable molestation from a chieftain of the Gwyddyl Ffichti, named Boia,† who with a band of followers had occupied the surrounding district. Such, however, was the patience with which David and his associates endured this persecution, that the chieftain relin

* Its Welsh name is Rhôs, and Giraldus, who occasionally indulges in a pun, says there were no roses in the valley,—rosina non rosea.

+ Ricemarchus calls him a Scot; Galfridus, a Pict; and Gwynfardd intimates that he was an Irishman (Gwyddyl;) the name Gwyddyl Ffichti is adopted above, as being applicable to the three in common.

quished his hostility, and was at last converted and baptized.* St. David was first roused from his seclusion to attend the synod of Brefi in the manner already related. It is recorded that he accepted the archbishoprick with reluctance; but after his entrance into public life he was distinguished for his activity. As the Pelagian heresy was not entirely suppressed, he convened another synod, which it would appear from the Annales Menevenses was held at Caerleon. His exertions upon this occasion were so successful that the heresy was exterminated, and the meeting has been named, in consequence, "the Synod of Victory."

After these councils he is said to have drawn up with his own hand a code of rules for the regulation of the British Church, a copy of which remained in the cathedral of St. David's until it was lost in an incursion of pirates. Under his presidency the cause of religion attained to great prosperity, and, to use the words of Giraldus:-" In those times in the territory of Cambria the Church of God flourished exceedingly, and ripened with much fruit every day. Monasteries were built every where; many congregations of the faithful of various orders were collected to celebrate with fervent devotion the sacrifice of Christ. But to all of them, Father David, as if placed on a lofty eminence, was a mirror and a pattern of life. He informed them by words, and he instructed them by example; as a preacher, most powerful through his eloquence, but more so in his works. He was a doctrine to his hearers, a guide to the religious, a life to the poor, a support to orphans, a protection to widows, a father to the fatherless, a rule to

* Life of Teilo by Galfridus. Giraldus's version of the story is, that Boia, attempting to molest the saints, suffered the vengeance of heaven, being himself afflicted with a fever, and his cattle perishing by disease; upon which he solicited the peace of the holy men, and through their intercession obtained a removal of the judgment, his cattle being restored to life; but his wife, making a second attempt at molestation, was deprived of her reason, and Boia was soon afterwards slain by an enemy.

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