The chief interest of Celtic Christianity gathers around the monastery-bishopric and the abbot-bishop who ruled it. In the sixth century the religious life had become much more than a counsel of perfection. In Ireland the Church was almost exclusively monastic. In Wales St. German is said to have founded a monastery during his second visit. Iltut, whom he ordained priest, was the founder of Llantwit, the great school of monks whence came Sampson, Paul Aurelian and possibly Gildas and David.

At the outset it is necessary to guard against the undercurrent of thought which connects Celtic monasticism with one or other of the great religious orders. The earliest of these orders—that of St. Benedict—was not established until about A.D. 529, and was not introduced into Britain until St. Augustine’s arrival in A.D. 597. At the interview between Augustine and the Welsh bishops in 603 Dinoot abbot of Bangor Iscoed was among the strongest opponents of compromise. Celtic monasticism owed nothing to St. Benedict or to St. Augustine. When therefore we read the statement of a shrewd and learned writer like Sir John Maclean that “St. Petrock founded his monastery at Bodmin adopting the rule of St. Benedict” and when we recall an admission by the same writer that Petrock was educated at the great monastery of Clonard towards the end of the fifth or at the beginning of the sixth century, i.e. presumably between 490 and A.D. 510 and therefore before the Benedictine order was founded, we realise how mischievous this undercurrent of thought may prove.

There is no evidence that any early monastic foundation in the Celtic world was established in accordance with the Benedictine discipline. Celtic monasticism was quite definitely sui generis. The mission of St. German in 429 and 447 probably laid the foundations of it in Britain.

It had achieved some of its greatest victories before St. Augustine of Canterbury was born. Paul Aurelian, the Welsh monk, established the monastery-bishopric of LÉon in A.D. 530: Sampson, a compatriot, the similar foundation at Dol in A.D. 565: Tutwal of British Dumnonia was abbot before he became abbot-bishop of TrÉguier in the same century. In Ireland the monastery of Clonard was founded before the Benedictine order came into existence. St. Patrick was a contemporary of St. German. Celtic Christianity, while it was practically independent of Rome,^[49] became intensely monastic. There is nothing therefore to lead us to regard the canons of St. Petrock, St. Piran, St. Stephen, St. Keverne and St. Probus, mentioned in Domesday Book, as subject to the discipline of St. Benedict. Such evidence as we possess tends to confirm the contrary opinion. What has been said of the order of St. Benedict applies with greater force to that of St. Augustine, the Black Canons, whose earliest foundation in England dates from A.D. 1108, that is, 22 years after Domesday Book was compiled. Cardinal Gasquet truly says the clergy of every large church, as being subject to rule, were called canons. The rule of St. Augustine was not introduced at Bodmin until the time of Bishop William Warelwast (1107-36).^[50]

Under the strong pressure exerted by monastic expansion the governmental character of episcopacy became attenuated. This was especially the case in Ireland and in those churches which owed their foundation to Irish missions. The multiplication of bishops tended to degrade the office. It is impossible to read the accounts of monastic rule as developed by St. Bridget at Kildare and by the Irish mission at Iona, and of the mechanical and subsidiary part which the bishops were called upon to play in the drama, without being aware of the subversion of one of the fundamental marks of episcopacy. The present writer has found but slight evidence of this disastrous policy in Wales and Brittany. There the abbot-bishop is seen as the ruler of a monastery or of a tribe. Innumerable monasteries had no bishop at all. The presence of a bishop gave to the monastery the elements of permanence and priority. The Breton and Welsh monastery-bishoprics have in many instances survived as bishoprics up to the present time solely, as it would seem, owing to their early episcopal character.

The distinction between the Irish and British conception of episcopacy must be borne in mind when we attempt to reconstruct the ecclesiastical institutions of Cornwall. It has been shown that the relation between Cornwall and Brittany was that of mother and daughter. Between Wales and Cornwall the relation, though probably less close, was far closer than that between Ireland and Cornwall. It is therefore more than probable that while the abbot-bishop was everywhere a distinguishing feature of Celtic Christianity there was here (in this county) no such perversion of the episcopal office as to give rise to a body of episcopi vagantes of whom we read in connection with Ireland and Irish missions.^[51]

That Cornwall possessed bishops is certain, and that they ruled monasteries is equally certain, diocesan bishops being, during the period under consideration, practically unknown to the Celtic world. History helps us little as regards Cornwall. We know that in A.D. 664 two British bishops (duobus de Brittonum gente episcopis), whom Mr. Haddan considers to have been Cornish, assisted Wini, the Saxon bishop of Wessex, in the consecration of St. Chad.^[52]

Gildas, the Jeremiah of Britain, whose De Excidio is stated to have been written in the sixth century, introduces us to an ecclesiastical system which, in respect of its main features, differs hardly if at all from that with which we are familiar, but which both surprises us by the evidence of its progress and alarms us by the extent of its perverseness. Gildas speaks of the clergy “intruding themselves into the preferments of the Church, yea, rather buying the same at a high rate” and “after the example of Simon Magus buying the office of a bishop or of a priest.” There was, therefore, already in the sixth century, if the traditional date of the De Excidio be accepted, a gradation not only of dignity but also of office and emolument, for which, without Gildas’ evidence, we should hardly have been prepared. The denunciations of Gildas have been held to apply to the civil rulers and the secular clergy only,^[53] but there seems to be no good reason for accepting this hypothesis unless we read into the sixth century conditions which are found at a later period. It is important and sufficient for us to know that the British Church was highly organised and comparatively wealthy at this time.

To suppose, however, that Celtic monasteries were large, solid structures of stone with cloisters, refectories, dortors and the like is to mistake the economic conditions of the period and of the countries under review. To associate the Celtic bishop with a durable and spacious cathedral church is almost as grotesque an anachronism as to represent St. Lucy (who died in the year 303), as they do in the sailors’ church at Naples, apparelled in a modern court dress with a tiara of gems and a necklace of beautiful pearls.

The Celtic monastery has been compared to a pioneer settlement. It consisted of a congeries of detached cells, each suitable for the habitation of one or more monks. The cells, like the churches of the period, were commonly of wood, sometimes of stone. It is therefore, after the lapse of so many centuries, usually futile to seek for traces of them. Of existing Christian remains of the Celtic period in Cornwall the most noteworthy and interesting are the granite crosses and those monuments especially which bear the Chi-rho monogram. The chapels at Perranzabuloe, at Gwithian and at Madron are also of this date, the two former probably owing their preservation to the sand which buried them and the latter to the healing virtues of the waters of the holy well which flow through it.^[54]

Having shown that the Celtic conception of episcopal jurisdiction was definitely monastic, as opposed to the Roman which, at an early period, had become diocesan, it is necessary to fix approximately the date at which, in Cornwall, the former gave place to the latter. Upon the solution of the problem depends the character to be assigned to the four Celtic bishops, Kenstec, Conan, Daniel and Comoere, whose names are disclosed in certain authentic documents and are given in the Truro Diocesan Kalendar.

In Brittany, a more progressive country and less isolated than Cornwall, the change was violently effected by the patriot NominoË in the year 849. In Ireland the diocesan system was not adopted until 1152.^[55] Wales submitted to the jurisdiction and discipline of Canterbury in 1207. It is certain, therefore, that Cornwall, more opposed to Saxon influence than any of the others, did not accept the diocesan system until the days of Egbert (836). There is good reason to believe that the change took place much later. Kenstec’s letter to Archbishop Ceolnoth (833-870) states explicitly that his bishopric was monastic (Ego Kenstec ... [ad] episcopalem sedem in gente Cornubia in monasterio quod lingua Brettonum appellatur Dinuurin electus, etc.).^[56]

The next bit of historical evidence is that of Asser, the adviser of King Alfred, to whom Alfred in 884 committed Exeter cum omni parochia quae ad se pertinebat in Saxonia et in Cornubia.^[57] The precise nature of the commission is uncertain. If the gift was made after Asser became bishop of Sherborne it probably involved the oversight of Devon and of that portion of Trigg, in Cornwall, where Alfred’s possessions were situated. There is nothing to lead us to conclude that the Celtic Christianity of Cornwall was to be affected by it.

A very distinct advance, in intention if not in achievement, was made when, in 909, Archbishop Plegmund constituted the see of Crediton. To Eadulf the bishop were given three vills in Cornwall,—“Pollton, Coelling and Landuuithan from which year by year he might visit the Cornish people in order to extirpate their errors. For in times past, as far as possible, they resisted the truth and were not obedient to the apostolical decrees.” Pollton and Landuuithan are unquestionably Pawton in St. Breock and Lawhitton. Coelling presents some difficulty because Domesday Book and all subsequent records represent Callington (with which it has been identified) as ancient demesne of the Crown. It is possible, however, that before the Norman Conquest Coelling may have been surrendered to the King or have been exchanged for another holding.^[58]

How far Eadulf was successful it is again impossible to say. A conquered race does not readily surrender its traditional religious customs. One of the most instructive records of the Jewish captivity is that which preserves the pedigrees of the priests who were themselves to preserve and perpetuate the priestly succession.^[59]

Athelstan’s policy (925-940) of excluding the Cornish from Exeter and confining them within the limits of their own province does not at first sight point to improved relations between the two races. His conquest of the whole of Cornwall may be accepted as fact and also his grant of lands to the church of St. Buryan. Perhaps the most important act of his life, so far as Cornwall was concerned, was, in the words of Leland, “to set up one Conan to be bishop in the church of St. German.” The statement, even if copied from what he regarded as a trustworthy document, would have carried little weight as coming from a writer who lived 600 years after the event, had not Bishop Conan been found signing charters, undoubtedly authentic, between the years 931 and 934. Moreover, the name Conan is Celtic and occurs frequently in Cornish place-names. I am inclined to think that the Bishop Donan whose name is appended to the St. Buryan charter is a transcriber’s mistake for Bishop Conan.^[60] The question naturally suggests itself, how was it possible for a people smarting under recent defeat to accept the religious ministrations provided by their conqueror? Close upon a century had elapsed since the decisive battle of Hengestisdun, and during the interval doubtless a considerable portion of the Cornish had come to accept the Saxon supremacy. Athelstan’s mission may have been, generally speaking, pacific though involving punishment to the disaffected and rebellious.

In choosing a Cornishman, and one probably already a bishop, for the see of St. Germans, he would be acting in a conciliatory spirit, especially if he, at the same time, recognised the traditional type of Cornish Christianity. There is no reason to interpret his action as involving a departure from it.

An interesting note is given by Haddan and Stubbs^[61] which calls attention to the signature of one Mancant, a bishop, to a charter of 932 to which also Bishop Conan’s name is appended. The learned editors rightly conjecture that Mancant was a Cornish bishop (Mancant, or more correctly Maucant). Coeval Cornish bishops are just what we should expect to find in the tenth century no less than in the sixth.

Quite the most valuable extant document of Cornish Christianity, however, is the List of Manumissions on the Bodmin Gospels which dates from the year 942 and carries us almost to the middle of the eleventh century. From this precious manuscript we gather that there were during that period the following bishops in, or connected with, Cornwall: (1) Athelgea[rd] possibly bishop of Crediton, (2) Comoere contemporary with Edgar (958-975), (3) Wulfsige of a slightly subsequent date, (4) Burthwold mentioned in Cnut’s charter and described by William of Malmesbury as uncle of Living or Lyfing the penultimate bishop of Crediton. Charters also disclose two additional bishops: Ealdred (993-997) and Aethelred (1001). Of these Comoere, Wulfsige and Ealdred are identified by Mr. Haddan with Bodmin and Burthwold with St. Germans. Comoere’s name is Celtic; the rest of the names are Saxon. But the important point is that they are all, except possibly the first, contemporary with, though not identical with, bishops of Crediton, in other words, some measure of independence continued to exist between the Saxon see and the see or sees of Cornwall. There is nothing to show that, before the days of Wulfsige (967), i.e. until within 80 years of Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, the greater part of Cornwall was not Celtic both in religion and language. The change of ecclesiastical organisation was made at a period much later than is commonly supposed.^[62]

The charter of King Aethelred to Bishop Ealdred (994) seems to point to a period of transition. He gives to Bishop Ealdred episcopal jurisdiction in the province of Cornwall that it (the province?) may be free and subject to him and his successors, “that he may govern and rule his diocese (parochiam) in the same way as other bishops who are in his realm, both the monastery (locus) and the domain (regimen) of St. Petrock being under the control of him and his successors.” If the English conception of diocesan jurisdiction had been generally known and allowed in Cornwall there would have been no need to require the stipulations contained in the concluding paragraph. Ealdred was to administer the see of St. Petrock on English lines. History does not tell us what was, in the meanwhile, happening at St. Germans; but twenty-four years later (in 1018) we meet with a grant of lands, in Landrake and Tiniel, by King Cnut to Burhwold bishop of St. Germans; the Landrake lands were to be held by the bishop during his life and after his death they were to be held for the good of the souls of him and the King. The Tiniel lands were to be used as the bishop thought fit. It is interesting to note that these lands were not annexed to the bishopric but continued to be held by the prior of St. Germans until the dissolution of the priory in the sixteenth century.

At the time of Cnut’s grant Cornwall had practically lost its independence both civil and ecclesiastical. All the witnesses of his charter, twenty-seven in number, bear Saxon names.

Burhwold died in or about A.D. 1043. Lyfing his nephew, who had become bishop of Crediton in 1027, was, in pursuance of an arrangement made long before between him and King Cnut, allowed to hold both sees. On Lyfing’s death, in the third year of the Confessor’s reign (1046), Leofric the King’s chaplain was appointed to the united bishopric (episcopatum Cridionensis ecclesiae atque Cornubiensis provinciae) and the see transferred to Exeter. Papal sanction was obtained for the transaction three years afterwards.

By his charter of ratification, dated 1050, Edward the Confessor transfers the Cornish diocese which had formerly been assigned to a bishop’s see (episcopali solio) in memory of Blessed German and in veneration of Petrock, this, with all parishes, lands, etc., he transfers to St. Peter in the city of Exeter. The absence of clear definition in the last paragraph is sufficiently obvious: no clearer definition was possible. There had been hitherto no Cornish diocese in the English and Roman acceptation of the word. There had been bishops both at Bodmin and at St. Germans within living memory holding lands and exercising jurisdiction, but the monastic tie was still probably stronger than the diocesan.

Yet it was obviously important, now that Exeter was to be the seat of ecclesiastical government for the two counties, that ample provision should be made for the great bishop who was to occupy it. Exeter lacked lands, books and almost every church ornament; so stated Pope Leo in his letter to King Edward. Accordingly the King not only gave to it lands of his own but he provided for the transfer of all that could under any reasonable pretext be claimed for its support. In effect, he made it possible for the Exeter bishopric to derive nearly one-half of its entire revenue from Cornish monastic lands. But the endowment of the see of Exeter requires a chapter to itself.