that, 'a considerable time having elapsed, a certain tyrant, by name Morken, had ascended the throne of the Cumbrian kingdom,' who 'scorned and despised the life and doctrine of the man of God in much slandering, in public resisting him from time to time, putting down his miraculous power to magical illusion, and esteeming as nothing all that he did.' But after a time Morken dies and is buried in the royal town, which from him was called Thorp Morken. After this,' says Jocelyn, 'for many days he enjoyed great peace and quiet, living in his own city of Glasgow, and going through his diocese;' but, when some time had passed, certain sons of Belial, a generation of vipers of the kin of the aforenamed King Morken, excited by the sting of intense hatred and infected with the poison of the devil, took counsel together how they might lay hold of Kentigern by craft and put him to death.' In consequence of this Kentigern resolved to leave the north and proceed to Menevia in South Wales, now Saint David's, where St. David then ruled as bishop. The Morken here mentioned is probably one of the kings termed Morcant by Nennius; and it is quite in accordance with the history of the period that the increasing power of the pagan party in the northern districts of Cumbria should have driven Kentigern from Glasgow and forced him to take refuge in Wales. Jocelyn describes him as proceeding by Carlisle, and says that, 'having heard that many among the mountains were given to idolatry or ignorant of the divine law, he turned aside, and, God helping him and confirming the word by signs following, converted to the Christian religion many from a strange belief, and others who were erroneous in the faith.' 'He remained some time in a certain thickly-planted place, to confirm and comfort in the faith the men that dwelt there, where he erected a cross as the sign of the faith, whence it took the name of, in English, Crossfeld, that is, Crucis Novale, in which very locality a basilica, recently erected, is dedi Wales. cated to the name of the blessed Kentigern.' Jocelyn then tells us that, 'turning aside from thence, the saint directed his steps by the sea-shore, and through all his journey scattering the seed of the Divine Word, gathered in a plentiful and fertile harvest unto the Lord. At length safe and sound he reached Saint Dewi.' Kentigern St. David was, as we have already seen, one of the great founds the founders of the monastic church; and Kentigern had not monastery of Llanel- been long with him when he applied to the king for land wy in to build a monastery, where he might unite together a people acceptable to God and devoted to good works; and the king, whom Jocelyn calls Cathwallain, allowed him to choose his own place. Kentigern, ' with a great crowd of his disciples along with him, went round the land and walked throughout it exploring the situations of the localities, the quality of the air, the richness of the soil, the sufficiency of the meadows, pastures and woods, and the other things that look to the convenience of a monastery to be erected;' and is finally conducted by a white boar to the bank of a river called Elgu, from which to this day, as it is said, the town takes its name.' Here he commenced to construct his monastery; some cleared and levelled the situation, others began to lay the foundation of the ground thus levelled; some cutting down trees, others carrying them and others fitting them together, commenced, as the father had measured and marked out for them to build a church and its offices of polished wood, after the fashion of the Britons, seeing that they could not yet build of stone, nor were so wont to do.' Here we are treading on somewhat firmer ground. The monastery described is that of Llanelwy, afterwards called St. Asaph's. It is in the vale of Clwyd, at the junction of the river Elwy with the Clwyd, a name possibly given to it by Kentigern from some fancied resemblance to the river and valley in the north where he had his original seat; and 12 Jocelyn, Vit. S. Kent., cc. xxii. xxiii. xxiv. '12 the Red Book of St. Asaph's records several grants made to Kentigern by Maelgwyn Gwyned, the king of North Wales at this time.13 The description given by Jocelyn of the construction of the monastery is probably not an inapt account of how these early Irish monasteries were erected; and indeed it may be considered a type of the larger monasteries, for Jocelyn tells us, 'There flocked to the monastery old and young, rich and poor, to take upon themselves the easy yoke and light burden of the Lord. Nobles and men of the middle class brought to the saint their children to be trained unto the Lord. The tale of those who renounced the world increased day by day both in number and importance, so that the total number of those enlisted in God's army amounted to 965, professing in act and habit the life of monastic rule, according to the institution of the holy man. He divided this troop, that had been collected together and devoted to the divine service, into a threefold division of religious observance. For he appointed three hundred, who were unlettered, to the duty of agriculture, the care of the cattle, and the other necessary duties outside the monastery. He assigned another three hundred to duties within the enclosure of the monastery, such as doing the ordinary work and preparing food and building workshops. The remaining three hundred and sixty-five, who were lettered, he appointed to the celebration of divine service in church by day and by night; and he seldom allowed any of these to go forth out of the sanctuary, but they were ever to abide within, as if in the holy place of the Lord. But those who were more advanced in wisdom and holiness and who were fitted to teach others, he was accustomed to take along with him 13 Thomas's History of the Diocese of Saint Asaph, p. 5. See also Index of the Llyfr Coch Asaph, printed in Archæologia Cambrensis, 3d series, vol. xiv. p. 151, where we have, Nomina villarum quas Malgunus rex dedit Kentigerno episcopo et successoribus suis episcopis de Llanelwy.' A.D. 573. Rydderch Hael becomes king of Cumbria Kentigern. when, at the urgent demand either of necessity or reason, he thought fit to go forth to perform his episcopal office.'14 Allowing for some exaggeration in the numbers of those in the second and third divisions, this is probably a very correct picture of the monasteries in the early monastic church of Ireland and Scotland when the head of the monastery was also a bishop. After some account of Kentigern's life at his monastery in North Wales, Jocelyn returns to the north in order to 'show what his adversaries suffered, how he returned to the Cumbrian region, and what he did there.' He tells us, and recalls after an imaginative account of the fate of those who had driven out Kentigern, that, when the time of having mercy had arrived, that the Lord might remove the rod of his fierce anger and that they should turn unto Him and He should heal them, He raised up over the Cumbrian kingdom a king, Rederech by name, who, having been baptized in Ireland in the most Christian manner by the disciples of Saint Patrick, sought the Lord with all his heart and strove to restore Christianity.' 'Wherefore,' continues Jocelyn, 'King Rederech, seeing that the Christian religion was almost entirely destroyed in his kingdom, set himself zealously to restore it; and, after long considering the matter in his own mind and taking advice with other Christians who were in his confidence, he discovered no more healthful plan by which he could bring it to a successful result than to send messengers to Saint Kentigern, to recall him to his first see.' It was by the great battle of Ardderyd, fought at Arthuret on the river Esk a few miles north of Carlisle, in which the pagan and Christian parties met in conflict, and a decisive struggle for the supremacy took place between them, that the victory of the Christian chiefs placed Rydderch Hael, or the Liberal, on the throne; and as this battle took place in the year 573, it gives us a fixed 14 Jocelyn, Vit. S. Kent., c. xxv. date for the recall of Kentigern. He responded to the call, and, having appointed Asaph, one of the monks, his successor, he enthroned him in the cathedral see; and, 'blessing and taking leave of them all he went forth by the north door of the church, because he was going forth to combat the northern enemy. After he had gone out, that door was closed, and all who witnessed and heard of his egress and departure bewailed his absence with great lamentations. Hence a custom grew up in that church that that door should never be opened save once a year, on the day of St. Asaph, that is, on the kalends of May, for two reasonsfirst in deference to the sanctity of him who had gone forth, and next that thereby was indicated the great grief of those who had bewailed his departure.' Jocelyn tells us that six hundred and sixty-five of the monks accompanied him, and that three hundred only remained with St. Asaph.15 fixes his King Rydderch and his people went forth to meet him, Kentigern and they encountered each other at a place called Holdelm, see first at now Hoddam, in Dumfriesshire, where Kentigern addressed Hoddam. the multitude who had assembled to meet him; and in the supposed address which Jocelyn puts in his mouth we have probably a correct enough representation of the paganism which still clung to the people and influenced their beliefa sort of cross between their old Celtic heathenism and that derived from their pagan neighbours the Angles, who now occupied the eastern districts of their country. According to Jocelyn, he showed them that idols were dumb, the vain inventions of men, fitter for the fire than for worship. He showed that the elements, in which they believed as deities, were creatures and formations adapted by the disposition of their Maker to the use, help and assistance of men. But Woden, whom they, and especially the Angles, believed to be the chief deity, from whom they derived their 15 Jocelyn, Vit. S. Kent., cc. xxx, xxxi. |