While he remained in Wales he founded another bishoprick at Llanelwy in Flintshire about A. D. 550; and though in its establishment he experienced some opposition from Maelgwn Gwynedd, that chieftain was eventually reconciled and became one of his patrons. After a few years he was recalled to his native country by "Rederech" or Rhydderch Hael, chief of the Strath Clyde Britons; and resigning the see of Llanelwy to Asaf, one of his disciples, he resumed the bishoprick of Glasgow, at which place he died at an advanced age.† He has been a great favourite with the legendary writers, who, in order to enlist his name in behalf of the prerogatives of Rome, have asserted that, being dissatisfied with the mode of his consecration, he applied to the Pope intreating his Holiness to rectify its irregularities. The following is Cressy's elucidation of the subject:

"When he was come to an age wherein he might dispose his own actions, the man of God, Kentigern, went from his Master (Servanus) to a place called Glashu,† where he lived alone in great abstinence, untill the King and Clergy of that Region, calld then Cumbria (now Galloway) together with other Christians, who were but few, chose him for their Pastour and Bishop, notwithstanding the utmost resistance he could make. And sending for one single Bishop out of Ireland they caused him to be consecrated after the then usuall custome among the Brittains and Scotts. For at that time a practise had gott footing to use no other Ceremonies in the Consecration of a Bishop, but onely the infusion of Sacred Chrism on their heads with invocation of the Holy Spirit, benediction, and imposition of hands. For those Islanders,

*St. Asaph.

+ There are several churches dedicated to St. Kentigern in Cumberland, which remain as monuments of the occupation of that country by the Britons.

Qu. Glasgow ?

removed as it were from the World, by meanes of their continuall infestations by Pagans, were become ignorant in the Ecclesiasticall Canons. For which reason the Law of the Church condescended to them, and admitted an excuse in this regard, so that Ecclesiasticall censures did not touch them. *** But a more authentic proof of the respect and dependance which the British Churches had of the Roman cannot be imagined, then the behaviour of S. Kentigern himself. For being afterwards afflicted in his mind for the foresaid defects in his Ordination, he did not seek for Counsel or remedy from any Metropolitans in Brittany, Ireland, or France, but onely from Rome and the Supreme Bishop thereof, to whom the Custody of Ecclesiasticall Canons was by the Church committed, and who had authority to enjoyn the observation of them, to punish the transgression, and to supply or dispence with the defects either by negligence or necessity occurring in the execution of them. This is expressly declared by John of Tinmouth in his prosecution of the Life of S. Kentigern: where he tells us, 'That the Man of God went seaven severall times to Rome, where he simply and particularly layd open his whole life, his Election, Consecration, and all the accidents which had befalln him to S. Gregory the speciall Apostle of the English. Upon which the Holy Pope perceiving that he was a sincere man of God and full of the Grace of God's holy Spirit, confirm'd his Consecration, knowing that it came from God. Moreover at his often and earnest request, yet with great unwillingnes, he condescended to supply those small defects which were wanting in his Consecration, and having done this he dismissed him to the work of the Ministry which was enjoyned him by the Holy Ghost.'-Hence appears that in the Ordination of S. Kentigern nothing was omitted that was of any necessity, since it was only upon his importunity and for satisfaction of his Scrupulosity that S. Gregory supplied the omission of certain Rites required by the Canons. The greatest fault that the Holy Bishop could impute to him

self, was his being consecrated by one onely Irish Bishop, against the Expresse Canon of a General Council.* But considering the unquietnes and danger of the times, and the want of Bishops, though there was a transgression of the words of the Canon, yet there was none of the mind of it, which certainly does not oblige to impossibilities."

The only authority for the narrative part of this dissertation is that of John of Teignmouth, who lived in the twelfth century; but granting that his assertions, so far as they related to St. Kentigern, were correct, it would still remain, that the mode of consecrating bishops in the British and Scottish churches was different from that practised in the Church of Rome, and that the opinions of St. Kentigern as an individual were at variance with those of his brethren. No change could have been effected by his example, for in the next century the Britons are found resolutely adhering to their peculiar customs, and refusing to hold intercourse with the Romish clergy. But it is not necessary to make so large a concession, The silence of St. Gregory and the writers of the following age, upon so important a subject, affords a strong presumption that no communication passed between him and St. Kentigern; and evidence of this kind, though negative, is of greater value than the assertions of a legend written six hundred years after the events which it pretends to describe. As for the statement upon which Cressy, presuming upon the truth of his author, lays so much stress, that the saint was consecrated by one bishop instead of three; the number would not have been so much the ground of objection as the fact that the Britons and Scots were out of the pale of the Church of Rome, that the consecrations of their bishops, and consequently the

"The first Canon of the Apostles, confirmed by many Councils, enjoyn'd that every Bishop should be ordained by at least two or three Bishops: Whereas S. Kentigern was consecrated by one single Bishop, and him a stranger of a forrain Nation."-Cressy.

titles of their inferior clergy, were not considered valid by the Catholics. Between the years 664 and 669, St. Chad, a bishop of the Anglo-Saxons, was consecrated by a Romish, or as it was then termed, a canonical bishop, assisted by two British bishops; and the reason for this expedient was the circumstance that there was at that time but one Catholic bishop in all Britain.* It was afterwards determined, that in consequence of the British bishops assisting, the ceremony was invalid; and St. Chad was prepared to resign his office, when in consideration of his humility and submission, Theodore, who had then been appointed archbishop of Canterbury, consented to grant him a fresh consecration. In the same interval, Wilfrid, archbishop of York, undertook a journey to Gaul, "rather than be consecrated by prelates not in communion with Rome as the Britons and Scots, or by those who agreed with schismatics."+

Asaf was the son of Sawyl Benuchel and Gwenaseth daughter of Rhufon Rhufoniog. He was the disciple of Cyndeyrn,

*"Diverterunt ad provinciam Occidentalium Saxonum, ubi erat Vini Episcopus; et ab illo est vir præfatus (Ceadda) consecratus Antistes, adsumptis in societatem ordinationis duobus de Brittonum gente Episcopis, qui Dominicum Paschæ diem, ut sæpius dictum est, secus morem canonicum a quartâ decimâ usque ad vicesimam Lunam celebrant. Non enim erat tunc ullus, excepto illo Vine, in totâ Britanniâ canonicè ordinatus Episcopus."-Bede, Lib. III. Cap. 28.

+"Itaque Theodorus perlustrans universa, ordinabat locis opportunis Episcopos, et ea quæ minus perfecta reperit, his quoque juvantibus corrigebat. In quibus et Ceadda Episcopum cum argueret non fuisse ritè consecratum, respondens ipse voce humillimâ: 'Si me, inquit, nôsti Episcopatum non ritè suscepisse, libenter ab officio discedo: quippe qui neque me unquam hoc esse dignum arbitrabar; sed obedientiæ causâ jussus subire hoc, quamvis indignus consensi.' At ille audiens humilitatem responsionis ejus, dixit, non eum Episcopatum dimittere debere; sed ipse ordinationem ejus denuo Catholicâ ratione consummavit."-Bede, Lib. IV. Cap. 2.

Eddius, Vita Wilfridi, apud Gale.

whom he succeeded about A. D. 560 in the bishoprick of Llanelwy, which from this circumstance has ever since been known in English by the name of St. Asaph, though in Welsh it retains its original appellation. Asaf is also known as the founder of the church of Llanasa in Flintshire.

Pedrog, according to Bonedd y Saint, was the son of Clement prince of Cornwall; but Cressy insists that he was born of princely parentage in Wales. Usher makes it appear that he was contemporary with St. Kentigern. He was the founder of the churches of Llanbedrog, Carnarvonshire, St. Petrox, Pembrokeshire, and of several others in Cornwall and Devon, of which counties he may be considered the tutelar saint. He was buried at Bodmin, where, according to some authorities, he had established a bishoprick.

Cybi was the son of Selyf ab Geraint ab Erbin, and as his mother was Gwen, daughter of Gynyr of Caer-gawch, he must have been a cousin and contemporary of St. David, though apparently some years younger. If the verses, said to have been written by Aneurin or Cattwg Ddoeth, upon the departure of the saints for Bardsey, can be trusted, Cybi was present at the Synod of Brefi ;* and it may be said that the memory of his presence is preserved in the name of the church of Llangybi in the immediate neighbourhood of Llanddewi Brefi. He was also the founder of Llangybi near Caerleon, which confirms the probability that he was acquainted with St. David. But he is more especially distinguished as the founder of a religious society at Caergybi or Holyhead in Anglesey, near to the spot where Caswallon Lawhir had slain Serigi, over whose grave a chapel was afterwards erected. As Cybi was the president of his society, he was, according to the usual practice of the times, styled a bishop, though he never held jurisdiction over a diocese. The anachronism which places him in the fourth

*See Myv. Archaiology, Vol I. p. 181, and Vol. III. p. 3. but the verses are too modern for the authors assigned.