The Roman and, consequently, the Saxon conception of episcopal government was territorial and diocesan; the Celtic conception was tribal and monastic. An ecclesiastical system based upon tribal and monastic principles, recognising no supreme central authority, can afford to dispense with clearly defined boundaries. At the same time a monastic, no less than a tribal organisation, requires a centre of its own, towards which its activities may converge, and from which its influences may radiate.

The present is an attempt to show where the more important of such centres existed in Cornwall before diocesan was substituted for monastic rule. Doubtless every lan represented some such centre, however insignificant, just as every caer represented a fortified seat of civil authority. The lan justified its existence by the strength and fervour of its prayers and spiritual influence: the caer by the strength of its natural position and its artificial defences. A monastic settlement with a definite amount of demesne land, corresponding to its size and importance, upon which the monks worked for the support of the community, will sufficiently indicate what is meant. Some monasteries had bishops; some—the greater number—were without them. The great monasteries of LandÉvennec in Brittany, Llantwit in Wales, and Bangor in Ireland, do not appear to have had bishops of their own, or, if they had, their episcopal character was submerged. On the other hand, the monastery-bishoprics of all three countries are too well known to require demonstration. The isolation of the Church in Cornwall until the middle of the tenth century encouraged and perpetuated the system in the mother country which in the fifth and sixth century it had helped to establish in Brittany.

Domesday Book, when studied by the light of earlier and later records, supplies invaluable information upon the subject of Cornish ecclesiastical organisation even before the Saxon conquest.

At the time of the Great Survey (1086), the bishop of Exeter held the following manors in Cornwall:

• Treliuel (Treluswell in St. Gluvias).
• Matela (Methleigh in St. Breage).
• Tregel (Trewell in St. Feock).
• Pauton (Pawton in St. Breock).
• Berner (Burneir in Egloshayle).
• St. German (St. Germans).
• Lanherneu (Lanherne in Pydar).
• Tinten (Tinten in St. Tudy).
• Languititon (Lawhitton).
• Landicla (Gulval).
• St. Winnuc (St. Winnow).

Of these eleven manors all except five, viz. Burneir, Lanherne, Tinten, Lanisley, and St. Winnow, were demesne lands, the whole of their revenues going direct to the bishop. Richard Fitz Turold held Burneir and Tinten of the bishop, who received the profits of the former. Fulcard held Lanherne, and Godfrey St. Winnow. The services or profits rendered to the bishop in respect of four of the five manors would be comparatively trifling, except on the death of the tenant in demesne and during the minority of his heir. Consequently they are not considered worthy of mention in the Taxatio, made by Pope Nicholas IV of the bishop’s temporalities in the year 1291.

In order to estimate the extent and value of the bishop’s possessions in Cornwall it will suffice to compare them with those of the clergy, as given in the Taxatio or assessment just mentioned. It must, however, be remembered that Methleigh had ceased to be an episcopal manor before that assessment was made, having been granted by Bishop Robert Warelwast, between 1155 and 1161, to the dean and chapter of Exeter.^[63] On the other hand, the manor of Cargol, in Newlyn, had been acquired in the meanwhile.^[64] Moreover, Treluswell and Tregella, for civil purposes, had become differentiated into Camwerris (Penwerris), Trevella, Tolverne, Fentongollen, Trevennal, and Trelonk,^[65] and for the purpose of ecclesiastical assessment had become known as Tregaher and Penryn.^[66] In 1306 Tregaher, or Trocair, was the name of the major portion of the hundred of Powder, and was itself regarded as a hundred. The Bishop’s holdings by military tenure in this hundred were rated at four knights’ fees. Tregaher, the seat of these possessions, which lay east and west of the river Fal, is now known as Tregear in Gerrans. Roughly speaking, the bishop’s manors in this district included the whole of the parishes of Gerrans, St. Gluvias with Falmouth, Budock, Mabe, Mylor, Philleigh, Merther, St. Just-in-Roseland, and Ruan Lanyhorne. His demesne lands were very extensive and valuable, as will be seen by comparing the papal assessment of Tregaher (£20 11s. 5d.) with that of the rectory of Gerrans (£2 6s. 7d.) and the assessment of Penryn (£21 8s. 1d.) with that of the benefice of St. Gluvias (£2).

Pawton and Burneir must be considered together, for they were doubtless both included in the grant made by King Edward the Elder to Eadulf when the see of Crediton was constituted in 909. The extent of the bishop’s holding in Pawton at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) is declared to be the entire hundred of Pawton, comprising 44 hides of land. It extended over the parishes of St. Breock, Egloshayle, St. Ervan, St. Eval, St. Issey, Little Petherick, St. Merryn, and Padstow. Pawton is only a contracted form of Petrockton, and there is sufficient reason to believe that these lands of the bishop had formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Petrock. In the Inquisitio Geldi (1085) the scribe appears to have found it difficult to describe the hundred of Pawton according to the prescribed formula. In his list of the hundreds he has interlined over “Rieltone Hundret” the words “Sci Petrochii,”^[67] and has added Pauton at the end of the list. In his second attempt he has placed the hundred of Pauton first and omitted St. Petrock’s altogether. It is interesting to observe that so late as the year 1691 the hundred of Pydar is described in a grant from the Crown as “Petrockshire alias Pidershire alias the hundred of Pider.”^[68] Whether the word Pydershire is a sublimated equivalent of Petrockshire is a question for etymologists. That the two were not quite territorially conterminous is evident from Domesday Book itself, in which Nancekuke in Penwith and Forsnewth in West are included among the manors of St. Petrock. The important point to grasp is that out of the very heart of St. Petrock’s province, Pawton, and with it what subsequently became known as the bishop’s peculiar jurisdiction, embracing five parishes (decanatus de Poltone), was transferred in 909 from the monastery of St. Petrock to the new see of Crediton, and in 1046 to the see of Exeter. The episcopal revenue from Pawton in 1291 may be estimated by comparing its assessment (£49 16s. 3d.) with that of the church (appropriated rectory and vicarage) of Egloshayle (£5).

Lawhitton, given to Crediton at the same time as Pawton, was also of considerable extent. It consisted of eleven hides of land in 1086, and was assessed in 1291 at £25 10s. 11d., while the church or rectory of Lawhitton was assessed at £2. From what source it was obtained for the endowment of Crediton is not clear. Along with Lezant and South Petherwyn it was subsequently within the bishop of Exeter’s peculiar jurisdiction. Possibly it had been taken (in 909) from the canons of St. Stephen near Launceston.

The manor of St. German, or, as it is called in the Exchequer Domesday, the manor of the church of St. German, consisted in 1086 of twenty-four hides of land, the whole of which had been held by Bishop Leofric in the time of the Confessor. At the time of the Survey (1086) the bishop had twelve hides and the canons of St. German had twelve hides. The bishop had one hide in demesne, and the canons had one hide in demesne: the rest of the land was held by villeins either of the bishop or of the canons. It is clear, therefore, that between 1066 and 1086 a redistribution had taken place, as the result of which the bishop and the canons had been assigned equal shares of the lands. A Sunday market which had fallen to the latter had been reduced to nothing owing to a market on the same day having been established at Trematon Castle by the Count of Mortain. There had also been taken away by the Count from the church of St. German a hide of land which rendered as custom a cask (cupa) of ale and 30 pence, an acre (Cornish) of demesne land sufficient for one plough, and a virgate of demesne land which called for no remark. Of the usurped lands Reginald de Valletort held the two former, and Hamelin the latter, of the Count. In 1291 the bishop’s manor of St. German was assessed at £17 16s. 5d., and the prior’s holding at £14 13s. 4d. for lands in St. Germans, £1 for dues from South Petherwyn and Landulph, and £9 16s. 2d. for lands, including those of Tiniel and Landrake given to Bishop Burhwold by King Cnut in the year 1018. In the Valor ecclesiasticus (1535) to the revenues of the priory from the above sources there is added the impropriated tithe of Gulval, of which something more will be said when treating of Lanisley.

What actually happened shortly after the Norman Conquest in regard to St. Germans is not obscure, although some confusion has resulted owing to a misapprehension on the part of more than one writer. Cnut’s gift to Bishop Burhwold, as we have seen,^[69] only served to augment the revenues of the religious community, of which Burhwold was doubtless the head. Under Lyfing, the nephew and successor of Burhwold, and before the death of Cnut, the see of St. Germans, such as it was, was united with that of Crediton, the community still consisting of secular canons. Leofric succeeded Lyfing, and in his days the see of Crediton and its possessions were transferred to Exeter. The revenue of St. German was consequently impoverished. Nothing appears to have been done to repair the loss until after Edward the Confessor’s death, but, somewhere between 1066 and 1073, Leofric consented to a partition of the revenue by which the bishop and the canons became possessed of equal shares, as stated in Domesday Book.^[70]

Having briefly reviewed the more important of the Cornish contributions to the revenue of the Exeter bishopric, a few words are required respecting the manors which, though absent from the Taxatio of 1291, were in 1086 amongst the possessions of the bishop, and were recorded in Domesday Book.

Matela or Methleigh, reckoned at a hide and a half in 1086, was granted by the bishop to the dean and chapter of Exeter, about the year 1160 and, by them, was conveyed soon afterwards to the family of Nansladron. It was to this manor that the church of St. Breage was appendant, and it may well have been the demesne land of a religious community before the Saxon invasion.

Landicla or Lanisley, also a hide and a half, was held by Rolland the archdeacon, of the bishop in 1086, having been Bishop Leofric’s in the time of the Confessor. It embraced the whole parish of Gulval. Before the enactment of the statute Quia emptores in 1290, the whole of the demesne land appears to have been granted to the family of Fitz Ive. There is consequently no mention of it in the Taxatio of the following year, although the seignorial rights were subsequently claimed and exercised by the bishop from time to time as occasion arose. In 1580 it is described in an inquisition as having been held by John Tripcony of the bishop as of his manor of Penryn Foren, but the description, far from indicating a common origin of the two manors, probably only indicates a late expedient enabling the bishop to claim the services and collect the dues, if any, at his chief manor in the west. The advowson, and with it the rectorial tithe of Lanisley or Gulval, was at an early date held by the prior and canons of St. Germans, and continued to be held by them until the dissolution of their religious house in the sixteenth century. In the Valor ecclesiasticus their holding was assessed at £10 6s. 8d. It is not unlikely that when Bishop Leofric reconstituted the church of St. German he gave to it the advowson of Lanisley.^[71]

Lanherne, the Lanherneu of Domesday, was a holding of Bishop Leofric before the Norman conquest, and was in 1086 held by Fulcard of the bishop. It was estimated at three hides. Of the incidents of tenure in subsequent times nothing remained to the bishop save homage, wardship, and the like, and the manor was not considered worthy of assessment in the Taxatio of 1291. It would be interesting to know how this manor came into the bishop’s hands. It adjoined his manor or hundred of Pawton, and may have passed with it, but, curiously enough, the parish of St. Mawgan, with which it was almost conterminous, was not within the bishop’s peculiar jurisdiction. The manor was, doubtless, St. Petrock’s before it became the bishop’s.

The manor of St. Winnuc or St. Winnow had already passed to a sub-tenant at the time of the Domesday Survey, and the impropriated tithe and advowson of the church of St. Winnow to the dean and chapter of Exeter, before 1291. There is nothing to suggest the source whence the manor was obtained for the endowment of the bishopric, save that St. Winnow adjoins Lanhydrock, which belonged to St. Petrock, and may, therefore, have been taken from the saint.

The manor of Tinten in St. Tudy, held in 1086 by Richard, of the bishop, was not considered worthy of separate mention in the Taxatio of 1291. It is the only episcopal manor the name or locality of which does not suggest an ecclesiastical origin. The advowson of St. Tudy was independent of it being appendant to the manor of Trethewell in St. Eval. Does the half hide of Tinten represent the lay contribution of Cornwall towards the endowment of the see of Exeter?^[72]

We are now in a position to summarise the results of the foregoing survey. We have seen that the Cornish possessions of the see of Exeter, at the time of the Domesday Survey, consisted chiefly of manors which had St. Germans, Lawhitton, Pawton and Penryn (or Tregear) for their centres. St. Germans and Pawton, and probably Lawhitton, were derived from monastic sources, viz. from the monasteries of St. German, St. Petrock, and probably from St. Stephen. The possessions in and around Penryn require further examination.

That there was a monastery-bishopric at Dinurrin or Dingerein in the ninth century is clear from Kenstec’s profession of obedience to Archbishop Ceolnoth. To treat of Gerrans and its associations in an impartial spirit is wellnigh impossible. Legend, history and fact are so strangely and so suggestively interwoven that the temptation is equally great to say too much or too little. The name Gerrans is a modern form of Geraint or Geruntius. The presence of Gerrans, Just and Cuby, as the names of three churches and parishes near together, is indeed a remarkable coincidence if they are not identical with Geraint of Anglesey, his son Jestyn or Just, and his grandson Cuby, son of Selyf. No valid reason has been offered against the identification. Mr. Baring-Gould considers St. Gerrans the same person as Gerennius, King of Cornwall, who requested St. Teilo to visit and communicate him when dying (circa 556).

Both Geraint and Gerennius must be distinguished from Gerontius, prince of Dumnonia, to whom St. Aldhelm wrote at the request of an English synod in 705 urging him to abandon the Celtic method of determining Easter and the Celtic tonsure which the saint described as the tonsure of Simon Magus. All three (who are here distinguished as Geraint, Gerennius and Gerontius, though the names are identical) were historical personages and worthy of the veneration of after ages. For our present purpose it is not material to determine the identity of St. Gerrans: it is sufficient for us to know that Dingerein may be derived from any one of them. In the ninth century Dingerein or Dinurrin was the seat of the Abbot-bishop Kenstec. In the absence of evidence to the contrary we may suppose that his episcopate was concentrated at Gerrans and embraced the lands or parishes bordering the estuary of the Fal—those parishes in fact which subsequently became for ecclesiastical purposes the deanery of Penryn, and for civil purposes formed a large portion of the hundred of Trocayr or Tregeare. There is nothing to show that, either for ecclesiastical or for civil purposes, there were close relations, much less that there was a bond of union, between the Gerrans territory and that of Pawton, Pydar, St. German or Lawhitton. Gerrans was self-contained and independent. It may have retained, and probably did retain, traces of its episcopal character until Edward the Confessor, by charter, transferred the Cornish diocese with its lands and parishes to the see of Exeter. Some justification was doubtless required for the annexation of so much land in and around Gerrans to the bishop’s demesne, and the only justification which is apparent is that it was already regarded as such.^[73]

In the case of St. Gerrans hardly any trace was left of its monastic and episcopal associations. In the Taxatio of 1291 the benefice of St. Gerrans consisted of two portions, the rector’s and the prior of St. Anthony’s, which may point to a corporate life at an earlier date.

A glance at the map of Cornwall, in the light of what has been said, reveals, at the time of the Domesday Survey, present or past activities, on a considerable scale and monastic in character in every part of the county except in the north-east, and in the promontories of the Lizard and of the Land’s End.

The north-east became Saxonised at a very early period. This is clear from the place-names. There is no reason to doubt that St. Neot, the Saxon monk of Glastonbury, settled in that part of Cornwall which bears his name, in the ninth century, and after founding a college of priests died, and was buried there. There is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of Asser’s narrative—whether it be Asser’s or another’s—which states that Alfred the Great hunted in the neighbourhood of St. Neot, and was healed, or believed himself to have been healed, at the shrine of St. Guerir. Alfred’s possessions in Triconshire have been referred to. The community at St. Neot held two hides of land in the days of the Confessor, but the whole of it save one (Cornish) acre had been stolen by the Count of Mortain in 1086.

Again, the canons of St. Stephen-by-Launceston appear to have suffered a diminution of their power and also of their revenue owing to Saxon settlement. At the time of the Survey their affairs were in a state of utter confusion. They were attempting to hold on to lands which had been theirs, and are styled theirs in Domesday Book, which Harold held before the Norman Conquest, and which the Count of Mortain was striving to re-annex. In North-East Cornwall the Celtic type of Christianity had given place to the Saxon.

The promontory of the Lizard never became Saxonised. Everything here points to the persistence of the Celtic type and to very close and fruitful relations with Brittany. The names of the churches, including Manaccan, the monks’ church,^[74] are all to be found in Armorica except Grade (of very uncertain derivation) and St. Keverne. The word Meneage is itself possibly a derivative form of Manach. The lands given by the Count of Mortain to St. Michael’s Mount, and described in his charter as situated in Amaneth,^[75] were certainly in Meneage. Landivick, Langweath, Lantenning and, above all, Landewednack speak of monastic settlement. It is curious that the Breton monastery of LandÉvennec and the church of Landewednack both claim Winwaloe for patron,^[76] although St. Guenoc is possibly their true patron. However this may be, it is clear that a common influence has been at work in determining the nomenclature in both countries. In Domesday Book the hundred of Kerrier appears as Wineton or Winenton, the usual Saxon termination being added to a Celtic word as in Tedinton and Conarton. In later documents it is found as Winianton, and as such it remained until comparatively recent times, when it became Winnington. The point less than a mile west of Winianton is known as Pedngwinion. Mr. H. Jenner has suggested an interpretation which is almost certainly correct, viz. that Winianton means the home of the shining or blessed ones. Winianton, as the name of a hundred, implies some sort of local pre-eminence, past or present. Before the Norman Conquest the manor of Winianton embraced 22 sub-manors which were in the hands of 17 thegns. The description of these thegns is interesting—they could not be separated from the manor and they rendered custom in the same manor. Before 1086 they were supplanted by the Count of Mortain’s men. A thegn, according to Professor Maitland, was, before the tenth century, “a household officer of some great man” and, from the tenth century until the Norman Conquest, a person socially above a churl with corresponding privileges and responsibilities.^[77] Now it is remarkable that the thegns of Winenton differed in no respect from those of St. Petrock, except that whereas the former could not be separated from the manor, the latter could not be separated from the saint.

Have we here the note of tragedy, inseparable from a lost cause, of which the Lizard district, to its lasting credit, furnished two other conspicuous examples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? It looks^[78] as if there had been the overthrow of monkish supremacy by the Cornish, followed by Saxon Conquest, and in the meantime the preservation of thegnship until the Norman Conquest. The small community of St. Keverne despoiled by the Count of Mortain represents Irish influence, if we suppose with Mr. W. C. Borlase that Keverne is identical with Kieran. This saint is not found among the Breton dedications, Peran and Kerrien being regarded by Professor Loth as different saints, and neither of them identical with Keverne or Kieran. We, therefore, conclude that the agency which compassed the destruction of Brittonic monachism in Meneage left the Irish house to the tender mercies of the Norman invader. It is possible that in the church of St. Breage we have an attempt at reparation. From time immemorial it embraced Germoe, Cury, and Gunwalloe as chapelries. Methleigh, the only manor which escaped Norman rapacity as the result of its having been added to the Exeter bishopric, may have been originally a portion of the demesne of the monastic body which dominated the Lizard peninsula.

Respecting the hundred of Penwith, we have little historical evidence prior to the Norman Conquest. Athelstan’s grant to the church of St. Buryan and Edward the Confessor’s grant to St. Michael’s Mount, whatever fault may be found with the charters, as they have come down to us, are sufficiently authentic. The story of St. Ia’s arrival with her Irish companions must be received with caution; but there is no reason to doubt that a substratum of truth lies beneath a legend which is by no means modern. Seven churches in Penwith bear the names of these missionaries. On the other hand, no less than fourteen dedications, including two which subsequently became obsolete and two which are among those of the Irish mission, are common to Penwith and Brittany. The remaining dedications are of doubtful origin. It seems, therefore, certain that Irish and Breton influences had a great deal to do with the moulding of the church life of the hundred. The preponderating influence was Breton. The presence of St. Pol Aurelian (Paul) and of Winwaloe (Towednack) is sufficient evidence of this. It is remarkable that four, if not more, of the Penwith churches afford traces of presumably earlier dedications. St. Erth (possibly also Perranuthnoe) was known as Lanudno, Gulval as Lanisley, Madron probably as Landithy,^[79] and Illogan probably as Lancichuc. St. Just may have borne the name of Lafrowda, as being situated near the holy springs. Udno (Goueznou) the companion of Pol Aurelian (circa 530) is commemorated in three Breton parishes. Pol was originally of Wales, and a contemporary of Just of Anglesey, who is probably the patron of the church which bears the name in Penwith. If this be so, St. Levan will be Seleven, Salomon, Selyf, or Selus, whose memorial stone is preserved in St. Just Church. It is quite possible that the changed dedications indicate a change from monastic to some sort of parochial organisation. In Penwith there does not appear to have been any monastic community of commanding importance whose revenues could be seized without leaving the people spiritually destitute. Lanisley may have been one which had outstayed its welcome and on that account may have become attached to what was eventually to become the see of Exeter.

To sum up. Three large holdings, or, to use a modern though inadequate word, estates, stand out clear and distinct, viz. those of Gerrans, Pawton and St. Germans, each of them at one time or another associated with the see of a Cornish bishop, monastic in character. Such records as we have, carefully distinguish these lands from one another. Neither St. Petrock (Pawton) nor St. German possesses any rights in Gerrans, nor Gerrans in Pawton or in St. Germans. Neither does St. Germans claim rights in Pawton, nor Pawton in St. Germans. It is not only opposed to the evidence of Domesday, it is inconceivable that any Cornish bishop exercised lordship over all three at the same time. The Pawton lands were almost certainly claimed by Crediton by virtue of the provision made in 909 for missionary visits to them yearly by the bishop of Crediton. The St. Germans holding was certainly annexed to Exeter when that see was founded. The Gerrans holding presents several difficulties. We have no record of any bishop at Gerrans save Kenstec (865). But because no records have been preserved, we cannot say that no bishops existed. Such a principle if applied to Cornish parishes would be fatal to their claim to have had a rector before the days of Bishop Bronescombe (1257). Nevertheless, the absence of recorded evidence is distinctly embarrassing. What were the events or circumstances which justified the annexation of the Gerrans property to the see of Exeter? Some justification there doubtless was. Was it found in the letter of submission written by Bishop Kenstec to Archbishop Plegmund (833-870) about fifty years before the see of Crediton was founded? Was it found in the forfeiture of royal possessions consequent upon the conquest of Cornwall by Athelstan (925-940)? It is possible that both these events may have contributed to the result, for there is good reason to believe that Gerrans was a residence of the kings of Cornwall in the seventh century, and it is certain that it was the residence of Kenstec in the ninth century. If the lands were claimed by King Athelstan there ought to be some charter to show when and by whom they were transferred to the see of Crediton or of Exeter. If they passed to the Saxon bishopric by virtue of the grant of Edward the Confessor in 1050, then we must conclude that they had preserved their episcopal associations until within a few years of that time, and that, therefore, Bishop Kenstec probably had successors at Gerrans. It is inconceivable that there were not valid grounds for the transfer of the lands. The fact that they were monastic lands would not have sufficed, for the canons of St. Petrock and St. German survived the annexation of a portion of theirs, whereas no vestige of a monastery remained at Gerrans in the days of the Confessor. It was its former connection with episcopal rule which led to the inclusion of Gerrans in the endowments of the bishopric of Exeter.

The foregoing fragmentary sketch is not to be regarded as a conclusive proof of the existence of concurrent Cornish bishoprics so late as the eleventh century, but it is intended to call attention to some of the sources from which others may seek the necessary means of forming a judgment for themselves. That the monastery-bishoprics were hard to suppress will be evident to everyone who examines the evidence. That they survived in Cornwall for a much longer period than is generally supposed seems more than probable.