D. Exchequer Domesday, page ii, column 2.
Terra Sancti Michaelis. Ecclesia Sancti Michaelis tenet Treiwal. Brismar tenebat tempore Regis Edwardi. Ibi sunt ii hidae quae nunquam geldaverunt.... De his ii hidis abstulit comes Moritoniensis i hidam.
E. Ibid., columns 1 and 2, 125 a and b.
Idem (Blohiu) tenet Trevthal. Brismar tenebat tempore Regis Edwardi.... Hanc terram abstulit comes aecclesiae Sancti Michaelis.
The very title which introduces extract A is suggestive. The land of St. Michael “of Cornwall” implies another St. Michael just as “St. Ives in Cornwall” implies a St. Ives elsewhere. And it is this St. Michael of Cornwall and no other who “has one manor which is called Treiwal which Brismar held at the time of Edward the Confessor’s death. There are two hides of land which have never paid geld. From this manor the Earl of Mortain has taken away one of the aforesaid two hides which was of Blessed Michael’s demesne.” If St. Michael of Cornwall did not exist before the Conquest it is difficult to understand how he could have had lands in demesne in the time of the Confessor. But it may be objected there is here no mention of the saint holding lands in the time of the Confessor. Accepting the correction for what it is worth, which is probably infinitesimal, because the whole tenor of the Domesday assessment—both as regards its ruling principle and its literary flavour—is found in the reiteration of the contrast or comparison of the land values as determined in the days of King Edward and at the time of the Survey, admitting the correction, let the reader refer to extract B. This reads, “St. Michael has one manor, which is called Treiwal, from which the Count of Mortain has taken away one hide which was in the demesne of the saint on the day upon which King Edward was alive and dead.” St. Michael (of Cornwall) was, therefore, quite as truly alive at the decease of the Confessor as Edward was dead. In the light of what has been said consider extract C. This is important, because it tells us that Brismar was a priest and a very different person from the magnate described by Mr. Freeman who held lands in three shires.
Extract C also introduces us to Treuthal, which Brismar the priest held at the Confessor’s death. “Therein is one hide and it renders geld to St. Michael.” (The Domesday scribe, not the printer, is responsible for “gildum” and “Michaele.”) “This the Count has taken away from the saint. Bluhid Brito (Blohiu of Brittany) holds it of the Count.” No one who is acquainted with the history of Treuthal, with its almost endless variety of spellings, can doubt either where it was or what it was. It was the patrimony and the place of residence in the parish of Ludgvan of the Bloyou family, the descendants of Bluhid Brito (Ralph Bloyou was born there[[123]] on the Feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M. 21 Edward I) until 1354, when Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Alan Bloyou, sold it to Sir Nigel Loring.[[124]] It is still the name of a village and the name of a manor. While Treiwal, by which name the Domesday compiler seeks to distinguish St. Michael’s land from Blohiu’s, is almost, if not quite, forgotten, the variant Truthwall survives. But to revert to Brismar. Comparing A, B, and C, it is clear that one hide was taken away from Treiwal, that it was of Blessed Michael’s demesne in the time of King Edward, that Brismar the priest held it in the time of King Edward, that the Count of Mortain took it away from St. Michael, that it, nevertheless, paid geld to St. Michael at the time of the Survey, that Blohiu held it of the Count at the time of the Survey, and that it was called Treuthal to distinguish it from Treiwal, the name of the parent manor. With these facts before us it is impossible to doubt that for fiscal purposes Brismar the priest and St. Michael the archangel were regarded as identical in the time of King Edward—in other words, Brismar was the visible representative of the invisible archangel. This explains why in extract D Brismar held Treuthal in the time of Edward, and why in extract E Brismar held, in Edward’s time, that which “the Earl has taken away from the church of St. Michael.”
There are two further considerations which may be adduced in support of the contention that St. Michael of Cornwall was the name of a religious community which was not, at the time of the Survey, identical with St. Michael of Normandy. It will strike every careful reader of that part of Domesday which relates to Cornwall that wherever a church or a saint is mentioned the reference is to what we now call either a conventual or a collegiate church.
St. Aliquis holds a manor which is called Quidvis, the church of St. Aliquis holds a manor which is called Quidvis—these are only different ways of saying that the manor of Quidvis belongs to the community of St. Aliquis. When, therefore, we read that one hide of Treiwal was of the demesne of St. Michael in the days of the Confessor, we know that the land belonged to a body of religious.
The second consideration is this: It has been pointed out to me that the phrase “nunquam geldaverunt” (have never paid geld) is also peculiar, in Cornwall, to quasi-monastic lands. But St. Michael not only did not pay geld, he received geld, and received it from that hide of land of which he had been despoiled by the Count.
Excluding St. German, who fared badly, the Count usurping all his demesne lands, and whose only dues had consisted of a cask of beer and 30d. paid to the church, there were ten such communities in Cornwall at the time of the Survey. Of these only three, St. Michael, St. Petrock and St. Stephen, ever became affiliated to the larger monastic bodies. The rest remained what they then were, collegiate churches, served by a body of secular canons, who in course of time disappeared, giving place to a rector. St. Buryan was apparently the last of these communities to be dissolved. To sum up the results. It will, I think, be admitted that extract A is not the only mention of the house of St. Michael to be found in Domesday, that it was not founded between 1066 and 1085, that Brismar—the Brismar of St. Michael—was not a man of large property but a priest representing St. Michael, that if he founded the house it was before and not after the Conquest, and, finally, that for reasons already stated, Earl Brian was not the founder. Moreover, it is hardly likely that a body of ecclesiastics, either at Mont Michel or at St. Michael’s Mount, would have cited Edward as the patron of the Cornish house if there had been some earlier patron to cite. It would rather seem that what Mr. Round says of Count Robert’s charter is not far from the truth, viz. “the fact that the form of the charter as we have it is probably not genuine does not of necessity invalidate its substance.”
In justice to Mr. Round it must be added that after reading the arguments here put forward, he would, in support of his contention, read the concluding words of extract B elliptically: “one hide which was in (what became) the saint’s demesne on the day on which King Edward was alive or dead (i.e. after the Confessor’s death).” It is clear that such a method of interpreting Domesday Book can only be allowable when there is overwhelming evidence in its favour. In this case the evidence does not seem to warrant its application.
As we have seen, Count Robert by his charter gives to the Norman house, St. Michael’s Mount with half a hide of land and a market on Thursdays and lands in Amaneth. Comparing this statement with that of Domesday Book, it will be observed that in the latter there is no mention of lands in Amaneth and no mention of the market, although in Domesday markets are frequently mentioned, while on the other hand there is mention made of two hides of land, one of which, Treuthal, the Count has taken from St. Michael to be held of him by Bloyou, the other being held by St. Michael in demesne. The question which arises is: Did the Count restore one half of the usurped lands or, assuming the charter to have been made before Domesday Book (1086) was compiled, did he by a later instrument add half a hide, thereby endowing St. Michael with a moiety of the hide held in demesne? We know from the subsequent history of the lands under discussion that the Bloyous remained in possession of Truthall, which never had a market, and we know that a market was held at Marazion or thereabouts within the Domesday manor of Treiwal. We therefore conclude that the Count’s gift to the Norman abbey was a further act of spoliation, which by connivance of the Conqueror he was allowed to practise against the Cornish monks, and also that his charter was executed subsequent to 1086. The presence of Queen Matilda’s name among the witnesses is the only invalidating element in what we have every reason to regard as an authentic document. Its confirmation by Bishop Leofric, and also the bishop’s postscript, are probably both of them forgeries. To give them the appearance of genuineness the Queen’s name may have been added to the authentic document. Be that as it may, the alleged date, 1085, supposed to have been supplied by the bishop, is impossible, inasmuch as the fourteenth year of indiction with which it is made to synchronise would be either 1070 or 1094.
In 1094 the Conqueror was dead, and in 1070 “Henricus puer” was in the second year of his age. It must also be added that the date does not occur in the charter, but is supplied from the cartulary.
The composite character of the postscript to which also Leofric’s signature is appended is seen in the wild statement to which it bears witness. In it we are informed that by command and counsel of Pope Gregory and of the King, Queen and Nobles of England, the bishop grants immunity from all episcopal control to the church of Blessed Michael the Archangel of Cornwall, and a remission of one-third of their penance to all who shall enrich, endow or visit it. Pope Gregory (Hildebrand) was not elected till 1073, the year after Leofric’s death, and the indulgence which the postscript contains and which constitutes its raison d’être was manifestly only an expedient to foster pilgrimages to St. Michael’s Mount which, supposing the monastery to have been founded after the Conquest, would have been too obvious to achieve its object. Something more will be said under this head when dealing with the testimony of William of Worcester.
When allowance has been made for clerical errors and for the interpolations and additions to which attention has been drawn, there is no sufficient reason to reject either the literal interpretation of Domesday or the authenticity of Edward’s charter, or the substantial accuracy of Count Robert’s. The date of the latter would probably be 1086, or a little later, probably in the last year of the Conqueror’s reign. A third charter of the reign of William Rufus records the grant to the Norman St. Michael, by Count Robert of Mortain and Almodis his Countess of the manor of Ludgvan held by Richard Fitz Turold, also that which Bloyou formerly held in Truthwall (Treiuhalo), and both the fairs (ferias) of the Mount, the monks paying to the grantors the sum of sixty pounds.
Now it is worthy of remark that neither of these manors ever became permanently attached to either religious house. Though it is impossible to speak with certainty, it looks as if the Count had wrested Ludgvan from Richard, had claimed Truthwall on the death of Bloyou and had sold them both to the Norman abbot, who afterwards found it impossible to resist the claims of the rightful heirs.
The Cornish St. Michael had assuredly no cause to hold the Count in grateful remembrance. From first to last he acted the part of a robber. On this occasion one is inclined to suspect that the possessions of the brethren serving God at the Mount were much more extensive before than after the Norman Conquest. Assuming the Confessor’s charter to be genuine it would almost appear that the Meneage district had, at a remote period, become attached to a Celtic monastery at the Mount, and that he was merely ratifying the title while perhaps limiting the extent of its possessions.
There is yet another document of great importance. It is described in the Otterton custumal[[125]] as the Erection (Constructio) of the Priory of St. Michael in Cornwall. It is, in reality, a notification by Bernard, abbot of the Norman house, that the church of Blessed Michael of Cornwall, built by him in 1135, was consecrated in his presence by Robert (Chichester), bishop of Exeter, that, with the advice of the said Pontiff and of Count Raner, and with the approbation of the barons of the province, he has got together thirteen brethren and has made provision for them out of old endowments and current contributions, that he has enacted that he who shall be selected by the parent house to be prior of St. Michael’s Mount shall not fail to make a return to it of 16 marks yearly, that if he shall prove refractory he shall be degraded and another prior appointed by the abbot with the abbey’s consent, and so on. Moreover, the Cornish brethren are to receive the benediction of the monastic order from the abbot in Monte Tumba unless perchance it please him to come to Cornwall and bless them there. At the end of the instrument there is a list of the possessions of the Blessed Michael of Cornwall, given to the archangel by Count Robert of Mortain, viz. Tremaine, where there is sufficient land for two ploughs, Trahorabohc for three, Listyahavehet for three, Treganeis for two, Carmahelech for two.
The entire document is needlessly defiant and menacing. The Cornish house is reduced to a mere appanage of the abbey and the prior to a mere collector of 16 marks for its benefit. Every vestige of independence is swept away, and that, too, in subversion of the primary principle of the saintly founder of the order. One hardly expected to find evidence in Cornwall in confirmation of Dante’s description given more than a century later.
The walls, for abbey reared, turned into dens (of thieves),
The cowls to sacks, choked up with musty meal.
It is therefore satisfactory to note that the priory could only reckon among its possessions the lands given by the Count of Mortain, the rest of St. Michael’s lands having either been confiscated or alienated between the date of the Domesday Survey (1086) and that of the document (1135).
To identify the several grants of land a more or less careful examination of the places mentioned in the charters becomes necessary. Taking them in order of date, the Confessor by his charter gives to St. Michael for the use of the brothers serving God the place known as St. Michael, which is by the sea, with all that belongs to it, and he adds the whole land of Vennefire, with its towns, vills and lands; also the port of Ruminella, with its mills and fisheries. One of the witnesses is Vinfred, or, as the name is commonly written, Winfred. We are therefore justified in substituting “W” for “V” in Vennefire, and “s” for “f” according to the Avranches cartulary. Vennefire becomes Wenneshire. A glance at the Feudal Aids reminds us that the hundreds of Cornwall were entered as Poudreschir (Powder), Pydrisire,[[126]] Pydar, Trigrishire, etc. It is therefore safe to regard Vennefire as the equivalent of Wenneshire. But the name of the hundred in Domesday Book is Wineton, a correlative, in this case the equivalent of Wenneshire. Vennefire is therefore the hundred of Kerrier. Ruminella is the diminutive or feminine, not only in Latin but in Welsh,[[127]] of Rumin or Rumon. The port of Ruminella thus becomes the port of Ruan Minor, i.e. Cadgwith. One or more mills still exist in the valley and at no great distance from the port. If, as we have already suggested, the Meneage district was, like the hundred of Pydar, settled by Celtic monks, the Confessor’s grant would mean little more than the confirmation to them of their ancient patrimony, focussed at St. Michael’s Mount.
Edward can hardly be supposed to have had an intimate knowledge of the locality or of its conditions. Under the influence of men like Robert of Jumièges he may well have given more than he had at his disposal. The futility of the attempt is the best proof of its having been made. It is certain that at the time of his death the monks of St. Michael had no considerable holding in Kerrier. Earl Harold had become overlord of the manor of Wineton, seventeen thegns holding eleven hides of him, the rest being held by him in demesne. After the Conquest Wineton fell to the King, who gave the whole to Robert Count of Mortain, to be held of the Count by sub-tenants. It may have been in some measure as an act of reparation, but it was chiefly in order to augment the influence and revenue of St. Michael of Normandy that he granted to that abbey St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, with half a hide of land and three (Cornish) acres of land in Amaneth, to wit Trevelaboth, Lismanoch, Trequaners and Carmailoc. No conditions of tenure are specified except freedom from the King’s jurisdiction in all matters but homicide. It is not stated, for example, whether the lands shall be held of the Cornish or of the Norman St. Michael. In some sense no doubt the community at the Mount became henceforth an alien priory of Mont St. Michel, but there does not seem to have been any definition of the relations between the two houses until 1135.
The identification of the names Amaneth, Trevelaboth, Lismanoch, Trequaners and Carmailoc is not free from difficulty. The word Amaneth is probably for An-maneth, i.e. An-manech, the monastic (territory) and equivalent to Meneage.[[128]] Manaccan the monk’s (church) (cf. Plou-manach in Brittany, the monk’s parish) is situated in the northern portion of what is still known as the Meneage district, which Leland (1533-1552) calls the land of Meneke or Menegland.
The next name—Trevelaboth—presents no difficulty. There is a continuous chain of evidence to show that it is identical with Traboe, a small manor in the parish of St. Keverne. In order to equate the three holdings which remain, viz. Lismanoch, Trequaners and Carmailoc, it will be necessary to refer to a document in the Otterton custumal[[129]] in which they appear as Tremain, Listyavehet, Treganeis and Carmaheleck. Carmailoc is obviously Carmaheleck or Carvallack, a holding in St. Martin’s parish which derives its name from the prehistoric earthwork in that parish. If we suppose the “n” in Trequaners and Treganeis to be a false reading for “u”—a pardonable blunder of constant occurrence—we have the modern tenement of Tregevas or Tregevis also in St. Martin’s. We are thus left with Lismanoch as the equivalent of Tremain (the modern Tremayne) and Listyavehet. Tremain calls for no remark in this connection: everyone knows where it is. Lismanoch, of which it appears to have formed a portion, presents some difficulty, because in that form the name is now unknown. As Lesmanaoc it occurs in a grant of King Edgar in 967 to Wulfnod Rumancant. In that grant its boundaries are minutely described, but unfortunately to little purpose owing to the fact that many of the place-names in it are either purely descriptive or have become so altered during the ten centuries which have elapsed since the grant was made as to be incapable of recognition. One or two points are clear. Lesmanaoc was of considerable extent. For some distance it lay along the river which empties itself at Porthallow. It must have reached well towards the south of St. Keverne parish if “Castell Merit” and “Crouswrah” (two places mentioned in the charter) are, as seems probable, the modern tenement of Kestlemerris and Crousa Downs. At the time of Count Robert’s charter its area had evidently been contracted, otherwise it could hardly have escaped mention in Domesday Book. The portion which had been lost was probably the southern portion, for no mention is made of any possessions south of Traboe in the grants of the priory lands after its dissolution.
These considerations lend support to what is something more than a conjecture of Mr. Henry Jenner, viz. that in the two tenements now known as Lesneage we have the site of Lesmanaoc. Lesneage, as he points out, may well be a contracted form of Lesmeneage, which in turn may be only another form of Lesmanaoc, on the same principle as Treveneage in St. Hilary can be shown by an unbroken series of documents to have been derived from Trevanaek.
It is worthy of remark that within a short distance of Lesneage is Mill Mehal or St. Michael’s Mill. If this be the true etymology then the name Listyavehet becomes less formidable than it looks.
The final “t” is the only difficulty. If we may regard it as a false reading for “l,” Listyavehet becomes Lis-ty-amehel, the “court of the house of St. Michael,” Lesmanaoc being the “Monk’s Court,” and the change of name easily accounted for by the transfer of the monks’ possessions in Menegland (monastic land) to the house at St. Michael’s Mount.
The Itinerary of William of Worcester deserves attention. It is a curious assortment of undigested and ill-arranged odds and ends of information compiled in the year 1478, that is to say about half a century after the expulsion of the Benedictines from the Mount and the introduction of the Bridgettines, only five years after the Mount was seized by John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and surrendered by him to the King’s troops after a siege of twenty-three weeks. The Itinerary is properly speaking a note-book. For the most part William confines himself to matters of topography, genealogy and hagiology.
Once and again he condescends to men of low estate, as, for example, when he tells us that about the year 1476 one Thomas Clerk, of Ware, left Ware on the Octave of St. John the Baptist and rode to the Mount within ten days and then returned to Ware at the end of another ten days, thereby covering, according to the route bill which is given, something over thirty-two miles a day for twenty consecutive days. William himself rode more leisurely. Leaving Norwich on the 16th of August, 1478, travelling by way of Truro, he reached Marazion on the 16th of September. The next day he heard Mass at the Mount and in the afternoon of the same day he began the return journey to Penryn. The time spent by him in Cornwall was just over a week.
That he should have gathered as much material as he did is therefore a matter for surprise. Towards this harvest St. Michael’s Mount contributed its full share, which is scattered without any regard for convenience or context throughout the work. After describing the tributaries of the river Fal, and à propos of nothing whatever, he inserts a (supposed) indulgence of Pope Gregory, said to have been granted by him in 1070, although Hildebrand did not become Pope until three years later. The indulgence is addressed to the church of Mount St. Michael in Tumba in the County of Cornwall, and of it, all but the opening words are a verbatim copy of the spurious postscript to the Count of Mortain’s charter, of which mention has been already made. It is followed by a notice added by the Community at the Mount stating that the document, having been recently discovered in the old registers, is placed on the church door and, being unknown to most men, they, the ministers and servants of God, require and beg all who have the guidance of souls to do all in their power to publish it in their churches so that their subjects may be moved to greater devotion and may, by pilgrimage, frequent that place and obtain the said gifts and indulgences. William next mentions the apparition of St. Michael in Mount Tumba, formerly called the “Hore-rok in the Wodd,” which happened at a time when woodland and meadow and plough land lay between the said Mount and the islands of Scilly, and there were 240 parish churches now submerged.
He observes that the first apparition of St. Michael in Mount Gorgon in the Kingdom of Apulia took place in A.D. 391; the second, in Tumba in Cornwall, near the sea, about A.D. 710; the third, in the days of Pope Gregory at a time of a great pestilence; the fourth being in ierarchiis nostrorum angelorum. The next paragraph appears to be the fragment of a description of Mont St. Michel and its foundation by St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches.
Then follow various measurements. The length of the church of Mount St. Michael is stated to be 30 “steppys,” its breadth 12 steppys; the length of the chapel newly built is 40 feet, i.e. 20 steppys; its breadth about 10 steppys; from the church to the foot of the Mount, to the sea-water, 14 times 60 steppys; the distance by sea between Marazion and the foot of the Mount is estimated at 1200 (feet), i.e. 700 steppys, in English 10 times 70 steppys. It is difficult to reconcile the last of these measurements with the former and to connect the “step” with a modern equivalent. The “step” was not a “pace,” for speaking of the dimensions of Bodmin Church, William says in length it is 57 paces (passus) and in breadth 30 steppys. It was apparently two feet (pedes), but whether two modern feet of 12 inches we are unable to say. A little further on William tells us that the island of St. Michael’s Mount is about a mile in diameter and is distant from the mainland the length of a bow-shot. It lies north of the island of Ushant in Brittany.
After dealing with the Bodmin martyrology, information given by Robert Bracey at Fowey and the kalendar of Tavistock, he mentions the capture and surrender of the Mount by the Earl of Oxford five years before the time of his writing. A fuller notice occurs towards the end of his work where, after some further details respecting the Mount’s geographical position, he gives us the kalendar of the church. The saints commemorated are, as has been already remarked, with three exceptions all Celtic. Of one of them, Brokan (Brychan) and his twenty-four children, he supplies an account taken, as it would seem, from the Legenda. For in the enumeration the saint is described as Brokannus in partibus Walliarum regulus fide et morum, and in the account of the saint which follows the opening sentence is Fuit in ultinus (ultimis) Walliarum partibus vir dignitate regulus fide et morum honestate praeclarus, nomine Brokannus. A similar explanation may account for the fourth apparition of St. Michael being described by William as apparicio in ierarchiis nostrorum angelorum, a phrase which is meaningless as it stands, but assuming it to be a quotation from the Legenda may have been familiar and intelligible to William’s readers.
From the foregoing abstracts from the Itinerary two conclusions appear to be inevitable. In the first place, whether of design or by inadvertence, the name Mons Tumba which had been exclusively used of the Norman Mount came to be also applied to the Cornish Mount and, in the second place, the associations of the former came to be adopted by the latter. The postscript to the Count of Mortain’s charter and the newly discovered indulgence mentioned by William, the one an almost verbatim copy of the other, probably bear witness to a fact, namely, that an indulgence was actually granted by Pope Gregory, but that it was granted not to St. Michael’s Mount but to Mont St. Michel. When once the indulgence had been appropriated by the Cornish house it became necessary to account for the allusions contained in it. The ecclesia quae ministerio angelico creditur et comprobatur consecrari et sanctificari demanded some point d’appui, and this could only be obtained by increasing the number of apparitions vouchsafed by St. Michael.
The three apparitions generally accepted by Western Christendom, viz. the appearance in the fifth century to Garganus, that in the sixth century to St. Gregory at Rome, and that in the eighth century (A.D. 706) to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches (probably identical with the apparicio in ierarchiis nostrorum angelorum), were supplemented by an appearance (A.D. 710) in Tumba in Cornwall. It is impossible to say when this claim was formulated, whether before or after the expulsion of the Benedictines in the fifteenth century. The object was evidently to stimulate pilgrimages, concerning which, however, very little is recorded. Norden, writing in 1584, states that the Mount “hath bene muche resorted unto by Pylgrims in devotion to St. Michaell whose chayre is fabled to be in the Mount, on the south syde, of verie Daungerous access.”
When William of Worcester visited the Mount the priory was in possession of Augustinian nuns known as Bridgettines. Of them William says nothing.
So long as it was Benedictine and under the control of the abbot of Mont St. Michel, successive Kings of England felt constrained, on the declaration of war with France, to take it into their own hands and to administer its preferment. From 1337 onwards the rolls contain numerous entries dealing with the patronage of alien priories. During his war with France Henry IV required the prior of St. Michael’s Mount to hold the priory at farm for a yearly rent of £10. Henry V, having founded the abbey of Syon in Middlesex, transferred the priory to it, the provost and scholars of the college of St. Mary and St. Nicholas at Cambridge, to whom an earlier grant of it seems to have been made, surrendering all their rights in 1462.
Thenceforth until 1536 it remained a Bridgettine nunnery. After the suppression of the monasteries several grants were made of it for terms of years. Eventually Queen Elizabeth sold it to Robert, Earl of Salisbury, by whose son, the second earl, it was conveyed to Sir Francis Basset. By his son, John Basset, it was sold in 1659 to Colonel St. Aubyn. Since that time it has remained in the St. Aubyn family, its present owner and occupier being General John Townshend St. Aubyn, second Lord St. Levan.
With its religious history alone are we here concerned. That the Mount was the home of a Celtic religious community in pre-Norman times hardly admits of doubt. As we have shown, there was some strong bond of attachment between it and the Meneage, a bond which, though weakened and attenuated, was not completely sundered until the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century. The main proposition here advanced is that the Mount was at a remote period, probably as early as the days of St. Cadoc, the focus of Celtic religious activity for the greater part, if not for the whole, of the Lizard peninsula.
APPENDIX A
Extract from the “Life of St. Samson”
(Ed. by Fawtier, pp. 143-5)
Quadam autem die, cum per quendam pagum quem Tricurium vocant deambularet, audivit, ut verum esset, in sinistra parte de eo, homines baccantum ritu quoddam phanum per imaginariam ludum adorantes; atque ille annuens fratribus ut starent et silerent dumque quiete, et ipse de curru ad terram descendens et ad pedes stans, intendensque in his qui idolum colebant, vidit ante eos in cujusdam vertice montis, simulacrum abominabile adsistere; in quo monte et ego fui, signumque crucis quod sanctus Samson sua manu cum quodam ferro in lapide stante sculpsit adoravi et mea manu palpavi; quod sanctus Samson, ut vidit, festine ad eos, duos apud se tantum fratres eligens, properavit atque ne idolum, unum Deum qui creavit omnia, relinquentes, colere deberent, suaviter commonuit, adstante ante eos eorum comite Guediano; atque excusantibus illis malum non esse mathematicum eorum parentum in ludo servare, aliis furentibus, aliis deridentibus, non nullis autem quibus mens erat sanior ut abiret hortantibus, continuo adest virtus Dei publice ostensa. Nam puer quidam equos in cursu dirigens a quodam veloci equo ad terram cecidit collumque ejus subtus se praecipitem plicans, exanimum paene corpus in jecturam tantum remansit.
Flentibus autem circa illum vicinis suis, sanctus Samson dixit “Videtis quod simulacrum vestrum non potest huic mortuo adjutorium dare? Si autem promittitis vos hoc idolum penitus destruere et non amplius adorare ego illum, Deo in me operante, redivivum resuscitabo.” Adquiescentibus autem illis, jussit eos paulo longius secedere, atque illo orante super exanimem per binas ferme horas, illum qui expiratus fuerat redivivum palam omnibus atque incolumem redidit. Videntibus autem illis, unanimes omnes una cum supradicto comite, procidentes ad sancti Samsonis pedes, idolum penitus destruxerunt.
The Reverend F. W. Paul, M.A., whose friendship it has been my privilege to share for half a century, has revised the translation on page 33. He has done so under protest. Incompetence, ignorance of monkish Latin and the corruptness of the text have been his pleas. The first no one will allow who knows him; the second is by no means uncommon; the third everyone will admit. L’Abbé Duine truly says of the Vita Samsonis that plusieurs constructions grammatical sont absolument barbares. Mr. Paul has suggested the following emendations of the passage before us. Although drastic they appear worthy of consideration, unless they can be shown to run clean contrary to the habits of thought, the terminology and the rules of composition observed by writers of the seventh century. For quoddam phanum he would read quendam phallum; for mathematicum, matrimonium; for injecturam, jecturâ. We should then have in the latter part of the first sentence “he saw men worshipping a certain phallus after the custom of the Bacchantes by means of a lewd play,” and for atque excusantibus illis malum non esse mathematicum eorum parentum in ludo servare, “and when they said that there was no harm in their commemorating their parents’ wedlock in a play.” I have accepted jecturâ for in jecturam and his translation of it. It is unfortunate that a critical edition of the Vita Samsonis has not yet been prepared. L’Abbé Duine has indeed furnished some useful notes—only too few—on the syntax and the peculiar use of certain pronouns, prepositions and adjectives.[[130]] But, as Professor Loth truly observes, to produce such an edition a minute study of the syntax is required and also a glossary of all the words which in form or in meaning are peculiar—a glossary in which all the idioms should be exhibited. The task requires special qualifications and will not perhaps appeal strongly to those who have them. Sooner or later someone will doubtless be found to undertake it, someone, it is hoped, who is not only a scholar but who is familiar with the religious literature of the seventh and eighth centuries.
APPENDIX B
Edward the Confessor’s Charter
(Oliver’s Monasticon, p. 31)
Carta Edwardi regis Anglorum pro abbatiâ sancti Michaelis (Ex autographo apud S. Michaelem in Normannia).
In nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, ego Edwardus Dei gratia Anglorum rex, dare volens pretium redemptionis animae meae, vel parentum meorum, sub consensu et testimonio bonorum virorum, tradidi sancto Michaeli archangelo in usum fratrum Deo servientium in eodem loco sanctum Michaelem qui est juxta mare, cum omnibus appendenciis, villis scilicet, castellis, agris et caeteris attinentibus. Addidi etiam totam terram de Vennefire,[[131]] cum oppidis, villis, agris, pratis, terris cultis et incultis, et cum horum redditibus. Adjunxi quoque datis portum addere qui vocatur Ruminella cum omnibus quae ad eum pertinent, hoc est molendinis et piscatoriis et cum omni territorio illius culto et inculto, et eorum redditibus.
Si quis autem his donis conatus fuerit ponere calumpniam anathema factus, iram Dei incurrat perpetuam. Utque nostrae donationis auctoritas verius firmiusque teneatur in posterum, manu meâ firmando subterscripsi, quod et plures fecere testium.
Signum regis Edwardi ✠ Signum Roberti archiepiscopi Rothomagensis ✠ Hereberti episcopi Lexoviensis. Roberti episcopi Constantiensis. Signum Radulphi ✠ Signum Vinfredi ✠ Nigelli vicecomitis. Anschitilli. Choschet. Turstini.
APPENDIX C
Charter of Count Robert of Mortain
(Monasticon, p. 31)
Carta Roberti, Comitis, pro monachis S. Michaelis.
In nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Ego Robertus Dei gratiâ Moritonii comes, igne divini amoris succensus, notifico omnibus sanctae ecclesiae matris nostrae filiis, habens in bello sancti Michaelis vexillum, quoniam pro animae meae salute atque meae conjugis, seu pro salute, prosperitate, incolumitate Gulielmi gloriosissimi regis, atque pro adipiscendo vitae aeternae premio, do et concedo Montem Sancti Michaelis de Cornubia Deo et monachis ecclesiae Sancti Michaelis de Periculo Maris servientibus, cum dimidiâ terrae hidâ, ita solutam et quietam ac liberam, ut ego tenebam, ab omnibus consuetudinibus querelis et placitis; et constituo etiam ut ipsi monachi, concedente domino meo rege, ibidem mercatum die quintae feriae habeant. Postea autem, ut certissimè comperi beati Michaelis meritis monachorumque suffragiis michi a Deo ex propriâ conjuge meâ filio concesso, auxi donum ipsi beato militiae celestis Principi, dedi et dono in Amaneth tres acras terrae, Trevelaboth videlicet, Lismanoch, Trequaners, Carmailoc, annuente piissimo domino meo Gulielmo rege cum Mathilde reginâ atque nobilibus illorum filiis Roberto comite, Gulielmo Rufo, Henrico adhuc puero, ita quietam ac liberam de omnibus placitis querelis atque forisfactis, ut de nullâ re regiae justitiae monachi respondebunt nisi de solo homicidio. Hanc autem donationem feci ego Robertus comes Moritonii, quam concesserunt gloriosus rex Anglorum Willielmus atque regina et filii eorum, sub testimonio istorum.
Signum Willielmi regis ✠. Signum reginae Mathildis ✠. Roberti comitis ✠. Willielmi Rufi filii regis ✠. Henrici pueri ✠. Roberti comitis Moritonii ✠. Matildis Comitissae ✠. Willielmi filii eorum ✠. Signum Willielmi filii Osberni ✠. Signum Rogeri de Monte-gomeri ✠. Tossetini vicecomitis ✠. Guarini ✠. Turulfi ✠.
Firmata atque roborata est hec carta, anno millessimo octuagesimo quinto ab incarnatione Domini indictione decimâ quartâ, concurrente tertiâ, lunâ octavâ, apud Pevenesel.
Signum Liurici Essecestriae Episcopi ✠.
Ego quidem Liuricus Dei dono Essecestriae episcopus, jussione et exhortatione domini mei reverentissimi Gregorii (VI) papae regisque nostri et reginae omniumque optimatum totius regni Angliae exhortatus ut ecclesiam beati Michaelis archangeli de Cornubia, utpote quae officio et ministerio angelico creditur atque comprobatur consecrari ac sanctificari, quatenus eam ab omni episcopali jure, potestate, seu subjectione liberarem atque exuerem, quod et facere totius cleri nostri consensu et hortatu non distuli, libero igitur eam et exuo ab omni episcopali dominatione, subjectione, inquietudine, et omnibus illis qui illam ecclesiam suis cum beneficiis et elemosinis expetierint, et visitaverint, tertiam partem penitentiarum condonamus. Et ut hoc inconcussum et immobile et etiam inviolabile fine tenus permaneat, ex authoritate Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti omnibus nostris successoribus interdicimus ne aliquid contra hoc decretum usurpare praesumant.
Signum ejusdem Liurici Essecestriae episcopi ✠.
APPENDIX D
Erection of the Priory of St. Michael in Cornwall
(Monasticon, p. 414)
Prioratûs St. Michaelis in Cornubiâ constructio (Ex custumali Prioratûs de Otterton, fol. 58).
Omnibus Sancte Dei ecclesie filiis notificare dignum duximus quod ecclesia beati Michaelis de Cornubia a venerabili Bernardo, ecclesie prefati archangeli de Periculo Maris abbate, in anno quo hominem exuit rex Henricus constructa, et in anno regis Stephani a religioso viro Roberto Exoniensi presule prestito abbate, qui presens aderat, id impetrante, Domino est consecrata. Idem vero abbas sagaci mente pertractans celestis militie principem locum eundem Deo ad serviendum et sibi ad inhabitandum delegisse, predicti pontificis consilio et comitis Raneri et baronum provincie suffragio, ut divinitati honor perpetuus impenderetur, officinas religioni idoneas construere et fratres xiii in honorem Christi Jhesu et apostolorum ejus, ut, videlicet, pro modulo suo in fide que per dilectionem operatur et spe in cultura vinee Domini Sabbaoth desudantis denarium mereretur retributionis, aggregare curavit; de redditibus ecclesie tam antiquitus datis quam a viris provincie in presentia sua ad hoc attributis victui eorum necessario sufficienter providens.
Constituit autem ut vel per se vel per alium e fratribus ecclesiam de Monte in Normannia qui ex abbatis loci ejusdem precepto prioris in Cornubia fungetur officio annis singulis invisere non negligat, et argenti marchas xvi finetenus reddat. Quod si constitutioni huic obviare, vel contra abbatem suum vel conventum in aliquo presumpserit contraire, de prioratu suo degradetur, et alius pro abbatis arbitrio et conventus abbatie consilio subrogetur. Si vero superbus fuerit et contumax et prelatis ecclesie de Monte in Normannia inobediens extiterit, omni participatione totius beneficii ecclesie totius dicte, omniumque ecclesiarum ipsi societate aliqua connexarum, excommunicationi se deleat. Frates quidem, qui in Cornubia sancte conversationis habitum susceperint, monochatus jura in Monte Tumba profitentes, benedictionem monastici ordinis ab abbate suo ibidem suscepturos se noverint, nisi forte ei in Cornubiam venienti eos illuc benedicere placuerit. Hoc itaque tam justa Dei dispensatione tamque virorum sapientum discretione patratum, quicunque sive princeps sive potestas aliquam infringere presumpserit, videlicet, monachorum numerum qui pro facultatum ampliatione, et ipse ampliandus est, imminuat, et jam dicti loci possessiones in usus alteros convertat, ipsum, in quantum nobis a Domino collata est potestas, anathematis innodamus vinculo et hujus retributionem sceleris a justo judice suscipiat in futuro. Quicunque autem possessiones easdem conservare et pro suarum modulo facultatum, quia valuit Zachee rerum suarum multa distributio, valuerunt etiam vidue minuta duo, et regnum Dei tantum valet quantum homines, augmentare curaverunt, omnium se orationum totiusque beneficii ecclesie beate Michaelis de Monte in Normannia participes esse sciant.
He sunt possessiones quas ex dono comitis Roberti de Mortenio ecclesia beati Michaelis de Cornubia tenet: Tremaine, ubi ad duas carucas terra sufficiens habetur: Trahorabohc, ubi ad tres; Listyavehet, ubi ad tres; Treganeis, ubi ad duas; Carmahelech, ubi ad duas. Adjacet terra preter pascua ad omnia animalia necessaria; que simul caruce xii faciunt.