The shaving of the head does not appear to have been associated with the Christian ministry until the fourth century. The apostolic injunction respecting long hair was observed, but it was the monks who introduced the tonsure which, at first, was a tonsure of the entire head and known as that of St. Paul. St. Peter’s tonsure, which allowed to the shaven ecclesiastic an aureole or crown of hair around the denuded pate, was not introduced until the sixth century. Long before this time, however, the monks of the Celtic world had become distinguished by a tonsure which apparently made bare the fore part only of the head and left a semicircular fringe in front. The Celtic tonsure was taken by the British refugees to Brittany and Galicia. It was as characteristic of the Celtic clergy as the kilt is characteristic of Scottish soldiers to-day. Its origin was almost certainly Druidical, and, if so, it is one of the few shreds of evidence we possess of the presence of Druids in Cornwall. Their presence in Great Britain at an earlier period is generally allowed; their presence and power in Ireland is conclusively proved. The Celtic tonsure appears to have been abandoned at the time when the Roman Easter was accepted. ----- Footnote 43: _Les Noms des Saints bretons_, p. 143. Footnote 44: Loth, _ibid._, p. 124, n. 1. Footnote 45: Quoted by Dom Gougaud, _Les Chrétientés celtiques_, p. 82. Footnote 46: Gougaud, _ibid._, p. 107. Footnote 47: Haddan and Stubbs, _Councils_, etc., i, 201. Footnote 48: _Ibid._, i, 674 and 676. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ V THE MONASTERY-BISHOPRICS OF CORNWALL The chief interest of Celtic Christianity gathers around the monastery-bishopric and the abbot-bishop who ruled it. In the sixth century the religious life had become much more than a counsel of perfection. In Ireland the Church was almost exclusively monastic. In Wales St. German is said to have founded a monastery during his second visit. Iltut, whom he ordained priest, was the founder of Llantwit, the great school of monks whence came Sampson, Paul Aurelian and possibly Gildas and David.