celebrated it on the Sunday next after the Jewish Passover; while the Cornish, in conformity with all the Asiatic churches, and the practice of the Apostles themselves, kept it on the same day as the Jewish Passover was held. Their resolute refusal to comply with the Romish practice, drew upon them and the British Church in general, the bitterest invectives of their enemies. One historian of the day, in consequence of their refusal, calls them in common with all the British, 66 a perfidious nation, a detestable army';" another denounces them as "a polluted people" (contaminata gens 2); and a third declares that the Britons are a wicked and cursed nation, for thus rejecting the practice of Rome 3. Another old writer, in rather milder terms, speaking of the firm adherence of the Cornish, and the people of West and North Wales (Demecia et Venedocia), to their ancient faith, says, "Yet are they thought only reprehensible on this account, that always even to this day, they mortally hate the English (Saxons), as if they were by them proscribed from their own territories, nor will they hold any communion with them more than if they were so many dogs *."

4

After the death of king Arthur, in the fatal battle that was fought in Cornwall, A.D. 542, the

1 Huntington, p. 187. 3 Bede, Eccl. Hist..

2 Malmsbury, p. 28.

4 Matt. Paris, p. 104. Edit. Francof.

Saxons prevailed in nearly every part of England, and strove as far as they could to extirpate Christianity from the land. The poor Britons, and Christianity together, retreated before their idolatrous invaders, and sought refuge at last in the extremities of the island; so that, in 597, Theonus, archbishop of London, and Thadiocus, archbishop of York, seeing all their churches destroyed, their clergy fled into Wales and Armorica, and the Christians everywhere expelled from the country, "retired with other bishops into Cornwall and Wales, where by their labours they so plentifully propagated the Gospel, that they made those parts, especially above all others, glorious by the multitude of their holy saints and learned teachers '.'

In the following century, the Saxons being at length converted to Christianity, though the country appears to have been much overrun with monks, the Cornish successfully maintained their ground, and even managed such religious societies as had been founded among them by rules of their own. This is evident from the reprimand that Geruntius, king of the Cornish Britons, received about this time from Aldhelm, bishop of Sherburn, in consequence of his permitting the monks of Cornwall to use a different tonsure from that of the Romish

1 Usher, Brit. Eccl. Antiq.

Church. What effect this ecclesiastical censure produced on the king and clergy, does not appear; but, without doubt, it was treated with the contempt it merited; for, "though the Saxon bishops pretended a right to direct and rule the Cornish in matters of religion, yet in reality the Cornish were as averse to receive orders from them as from the Saxon princes, with whom being almost constantly at war, they surrendered neither their civil nor religious rights-continuing Christians, but on the first plan, independent, though persecuted-and esteeming the religion of the English (Saxons) as nothing, the Cornish would no more communicate with them than with Pagans, accounting that of the Welsh and themselves the only true Christianity 1."

1

This noble independence the Cornish maintained with unshaken constancy, till the synod convened by Edward on the death of his father Alfred, A.d. 905, whereat sundry provisions were made expressly with the view of recovering them from what the Saxons called "their errors." By these errors, however, we are to understand, "their refusing to acknowledge the papal authority"."

Thus it is evident that the Britons in Cornwall resisted the usurpations of Rome much longer than the rest of their countrymen, and it was not till the

1 Usher, Hist. Brit. Antiq. p. 1152. \2 Rapin's Hist. vol. i. p. 112.

above-named year, 905, that they surrendered any portion of their independence. At that fatal period "Edward the Elder, with the Pope's consent, settled a Bishop's see among them, which, by the Pope's power, then greatly prevailing, in a short time reduced them, much against their will to submit their ancient faith to the conduct of papal discipline?"

"This bishopric was founded principally for the reduction of the rebellious Cornish to the Romish rites, who as they used the language, so they imitated the lives and doctrine of the ancient Britons, neither hitherto, nor long after, submitting themselves to the see apostolic 3."

The see was originally fixed at Bodmin, Adelstan being the first bishop. There it continued till the year 981, when that town being sacked and burnt by the Danes, the bishop removed the see to St. Germains, where it remained till 1049, in

'Gibson informs us, in his edition of Camden's Britannia, that only "three books are known to exist in the ancient Cornish tongue, one of which contains the history of our Saviour's passion. It always has Chrest' for Christ,' according to the ancient Roman way of writing' Chrestus' for 'Christus.' By the characters and pictures of this ancient book, it looks like the time of Richard III., or thereabouts, and positively determines against the Roman doctrine of Transubstantiation." This fact would induce us to believe that the Cornish rejected the main errors of Popery for a longer period than is generally thought.

2 Rowland.

3 Fuller's Ch. Hist. Cent. x. B. ii. p. 4.

which year Livingus, abbot of Tavistock, and bishop of Crediton, by his interest with King Canute, prevailed so far as to unite the two bishoprics; and Leofricus, his successor, alarmed at the ravages committed by the pirates on the open towns of Crediton and St. Germains, removed them both to Exeter, in the reign of Edward the Confessor.

During these dark and troubled times, little is known of the history of St. Piran's Church, beyond the fact that time did not diminish the reputation of the saint. On the contrary, his shrine became the resort of devout worshippers without number,— and princes and nobles did not disdain to kneel at the tomb of the Cornish apostle. Alfred the Great had ever viewed such spots as hallowed ground, and there is little doubt but that it was before the shrine of Piran this pious prince threw himself in fervent adoration, at the time when he visited Cornwall. 66 Long was he prostrate, offering urgently humble suit to heaven, that an unhappy constitution might not realize his most insupportable apprehensions. On his homeward journey he thought himself relieved." Certain it is, that in after ages, as the Romish superstitions increased, and the merit of pilgrimages and of sin-offerings became at once an article of faith and a source of

1 Asser. 40.