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:

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]]