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of Wales could only rank as saints of an inferior class. To regard the founders in the character of tutelar Saints of their respective churches was an obvious mode of proceeding; but in the establishment of new foundations preference would be given to Saints of more extensive reputation; and the only edifices, erected in honour of Welshmen, would be chapels in places where they had lived, or subject to churches connected with their history. In other countries where the Romish Church has prevailed, many persons who never were canonized have been allowed the honours of sanctity in their immediate neighbourhood, and in this local character the saints of Wales must be considered. Accordingly many of the chapels called after Welshmen are found to be dedicated to the Saint of the mother church, to his relatives, or to persons whom tradition has connected with the place; and the prevalence of known cases of the last kind is sufficiently great to justify a similar inference being drawn where the tradition has been entirely forgotten. Chapels of this description must generally have been erected while the memory of their Saints was comparatively recent, and may therefore be deemed coeval with churches of the second foundation. The perishable nature of tradition, and the occupation of several parts of Wales by foreigners will sufficiently explain why no material increase was afterwards made to their number.

That the Roman Catholics, or, at least, the various conquerors of Wales, all of whom professed that religion, hardly considered the primitive founders in the light of Saints, will further appear from the circumstance that in many instances they gave their churches a new dedication. To show how far the practice prevailed the following list is adduced.

St. David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, St. David and St. Andrew.
Stainton, Pembrokeshire, (St. Kewill in the Monasticon,) St. Peter.
Stackpool Elider, Pembrokeshire, St. Elider, St. James.
Llantoni, Monmouthshire, St. David, St. John the Baptist.
Llanveuno, Herefordshire, St. Beuno, St. Peter.

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Llansilloe, Herefordshire, St. Tyssilio, St. Peter.

Llangathen, Carmarthenshire, St. Cathen, St. Michael and All Saints.

St. Thomas, alias St. Dogmael's, Pembrokeshire.

Northop, (Llaneurgain,) Flintshire, St. Eugain, St. Peter.
Llangynyw, Montgomeryshire, St. Cynyw, All Saints.
Llanegryn, Merionethshire, St. Egryn, St. Mary.

Llandaff Cathedral, Glamorganshire, St. Teilo and St. Peter.
Llanbleddian, Glamorganshire, St. Bleiddian, St. John the Baptist.
Llanfabon, Glamorganshire, St. Mabon, St. Constantine.
Dynstow, or Dyngestow, Monmouthshire, St. Dingad, St, Mary.
Llangyniow, Monmouthshire, St. Cynyw, St. David.
Kilpeck, Herefordshire, St. David and St. Mary.

For

It is not necessary to extend the list further, but the hypothesis must depend upon the supposition that Ecton is correct in assigning those dedications which differ from the Welsh names of the churches, or from the known history of their founders. It can, however, be verified in certain cases. instance, the church of Llantoni, which was originally founded by St. David and called after his name, is now stated to be dedicated to St. John the Baptist. But in A. D. 1108, a Priory of Black Canons was built on the spot, by Hugh Lacy, to the honour of St. John the Baptist, which accounts for its present dedication. The second dedication of the two Cathedrals is well attested. And of all the religious houses founded in Wales since the tenth century, not one, except perhaps the Collegiate church of Llanddewi Brefi, was dedicated to a Welshman.

The Romish Church was however determined to have its martyrology of Britain; and out of "Cressy," the Catholic historian of this kingdom, may be enlisted about a hundred British Saints and Martyrs, from the first dawn of Christianity to the close of the sixth centry. A few only of their names are to be found in the Welsh accounts, and as for the rest, persons acquainted merely with the history of Wales might well wonder from whence they came, Their legends, however,

were at one time regularly read, and their martyrdoms duly commemorated in the Catholic Church. They are not so much distinguished for the churches they founded, as for their miracles and the sufferings they underwent for the spread of the Gospel. They claim for their names a most remote antiquity, prior to the age of the Welsh founders; but it will be no part of this Essay to substantiate their pretensions, or indeed to maintain their existence. It will therefore be deemed sufficient to append to these pages a list of them, chronologically disposed, according to Cressy.

The catalogue of founders is less pretending, and has reference generally to a later period; and though the persons contained in it have been dignified from an early time with the title of Saints by their grateful countrymen, there are but few notices in the Welsh language of miracles performed by them.* Such marvellous relations as exist were nearly all of them written in Latin, and from the silence of the Welsh Bards upon the subject it may be presumed they were better known abroad than at home. It will be allowed that these legends were the productions of the monks, if they were not of foreign manufacture. The accounts of renowned Britons, current in Cornwall and Armorica, and in England and France generally, have been more extravagant than in Wales. In the latter country, Lucius, Merlin, Arthur, and St. David

*The poem ascribed to Golyddan is the oldest composition in which it is intimated that a Welsh Saint wrought miracles; and, if it were genuine, it would prove, that in about a century after the death of St. David, a belief was current that he was possessed of miraculous powers. There is, however, sufficient evidence to prove that the poem, though ancient, was written after the time of Golyddan, (A. D. 660,) but it is not necessary to enter into the question, as, at the period alluded to, the era of the Welsh Saints was passing by, and had nearly terminated. Mr. Sharon Turner, in his "Vindication of the Ancient British Poems," p. 269, supposes the composition of Golyddan to have been written in the eighth century.

are reduced to reasonable dimensions. The grand parent of these absurdities, the Chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth, with its long line of British Trojan kings, is acknowledged to have been borrowed from Armorica. There are, it is true, a few stories current in the mouths of the peasantry, but the fact that they never have been written, is a proof that the Bards of the middle ages did not think them worthy of credit. It is, however, not an unlikely supposition that these stories were derived from such accounts as the monks would take care to publish.

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In a subject so likely to be mixed up with fable as the history of Saints, it is of the greatest importance to ascertain what accounts relative to the Saints of Wales may be depended upon as true. The Welsh authorities, upon which the greatest reliance has been placed, are the catalogues or genealogies, usually called “ Bonedd," or " Achau y Saint." The fondness of the Welsh for pedigrees has always been acknowledged, and genealogies are a species of record in which, owing to the complicated nature of the details, forgery is most easily detected. Owing to intermarriages and descents from a common ancestor, family connexions are so interwoven, that a variety of pedigrees, derived from different sources, would be contradictory unless their statements were true. To record these affinities, while they were well known, was the office of an order of Bards called "Arwyddfeirdd" or Heralds; a great part of whose multifarious productions have survived the ravages of time, and a fair specimen of them may be seen in Jones's History of Brecknockshire. It is not likely that such persons would neglect the genealogy of the founders of churches, related as so many of them were to the chieftains of the country. Accordingly a variety of catalogues of Saints, with their more immediate ancestors, have been collected from different sources and apparently in different parts of the Principality. Two only of these catalogues have been published. The first, called "Bonedd Saint Ynys.

K

Prydain," is inserted in the Welsh Archaiology, where it is professed to have been taken from the book of Hafod Yehdryd. Its orthography is ancient, and from the names it contains it would appear to have been formed in Cardiganshire. The second is also published in the same Archaiology, under the name of " 'Bonedd, neu Achau Saint Ynys Prydain," being a collection by Lewis Morris from various old MSS. in North Wales, some of which are still in existence. There is also a third catalogue which has not been printed in an entire form, but a great part of its contents have been made known to the world in detached notices. It is styled "Achau Saint Ynys Prydain," and gives a more full account of such Saints as lived in Siluria, where it seems to have been collected. Each of these catalogues contains a variety of detail not to be found in the others; but they also contain a great many names in common, and, in treating of them, their statements are seldom so conflicting but that they may be reconciled. With the exception of some interesting historical notices in the Silurian record, the information they supply is but meagre; but it is so far

*"The Gentility of the Saints of the Isle of Britain.”

+ A short list of Saints, without reference to their genealogy, has been published in the Cambrian Register, Vol. III. p. 219. It appears to have originated in Cardiganshire, but it is perfectly distinct from the above, and contains a few curious notices not to be found elsewhere.

"Gentility, or Pedigrees of the Saints of the Isle of Britain."

§ The MSS. consulted by Lewis Morris, amounting to nine in number, are specified in the Welsh Archaiology, Vol. II. p. 26.

The attention of the public was first directed to this catalogue by the late Mr. Edw. Williams, the distinguished antiquary of Glamorganshire, by whom it was transcribed from a MS. written, about A, D. 1670, by Thomas ab Ievan of Tre-bryn in the same county. As this appears to be one of the most interesting of the Welsh records, its publication, accom. panied with various readings and additions from other MSS. known to exist in the same part of the Principality, is a desideratum which it is hoped will not long be left unsupplied.

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