A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County)
Happily Leland, who visited Cornwall in the reign of Henry VIII., made
extracts from their legends then in existence, very scanty extracts,
but nevertheless precious. Moreover, we have one complete legend, that
of S. Fingar or Gwinear, written by a Saxon monk of the name of Anselm.
And we have the lives of many of those who made a temporary stay in the
Land’s End and Lizard districts, preserved in Irish MSS.
IV. A fourth group is that of saints, half Welsh and half Breton, who
made a short stay in Cornwall on their way to and fro.
According to Celtic law, all sons equally divided the inheritance and
principalities of their father. The consequence was that on the death
of a king the most masterful of his sons cut the throats of such of
his brothers as he could lay hold of. And as these little games were
enacted periodically in Brittany, the breath was no sooner out of the
body of a prince than such sons as felt that they had no chance of
maintaining their rights made a bolt of it, crossed into Cornwall, and
either halted there or passed through it on their way to Wales, where
they very generally got married.
Then either they or their sons returned to Cornwall and lingered there,
watching events in Brittany for the safe moment to go back and reassert
their rights, and as they rarely could recover princely rights, they
became ecclesiastics; a compromise was effected, and they were allowed
to return and set up as founders of saintly tribes.
Whilst they tarried in Cornwall they occupied their leisure in founding
churches.
Such was S. Samson, with his disciples S. Mewan, S. Austell, and S.
Erme.
Such again was S. Padarn, who established a large settlement where are
the Petherwins.
When Samson crossed from Wales to Cornwall on his way to Brittany, he
sent word to Padarn that he was going to visit him. They were first
cousins. Padarn heard the news just as he had left his bed, and had
pulled on one shoe and stocking. So delighted was he to hear that
Samson was approaching that he ran to meet him with one leg and foot
shod and the other bare.
Samson founded churches at Southill and Golant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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