The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall: Divers Sketches and StudiesTaylor, Thomas
History
The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall: Divers Sketches and Studies
Taylor, Thomas
Cornwall (England : County) -- Church history
Both Geraint and Gerennius must be distinguished from Gerontius, prince
of Dumnonia, to whom St. Aldhelm wrote at the request of an English
synod in 705 urging him to abandon the Celtic method of determining
Easter and the Celtic tonsure which the saint described as the tonsure
of Simon Magus. All three (who are here distinguished as Geraint,
Gerennius and Gerontius, though the names are identical) were historical
personages and worthy of the veneration of after ages. For our present
purpose it is not material to determine the identity of St. Gerrans: it
is sufficient for us to know that Dingerein may be derived from any one
of them. In the ninth century Dingerein or Dinurrin was the seat of the
Abbot-bishop Kenstec. In the absence of evidence to the contrary we may
suppose that his episcopate was concentrated at Gerrans and embraced the
lands or parishes bordering the estuary of the Fal—those parishes in
fact which subsequently became for ecclesiastical purposes the deanery
of Penryn, and for civil purposes formed a large portion of the hundred
of Trocayr or Tregeare. There is nothing to show that, either for
ecclesiastical or for civil purposes, there were close relations, much
less that there was a bond of union, between the Gerrans territory and
that of Pawton, Pydar, St. German or Lawhitton. Gerrans was
self-contained and independent. It may have retained, and probably did
retain, traces of its episcopal character until Edward the Confessor, by
charter, transferred the Cornish diocese with its lands and parishes to
the see of Exeter. Some justification was doubtless required for the
annexation of so much land in and around Gerrans to the bishop’s
demesne, and the only justification which is apparent is that it was
already regarded as such.[73]
In the case of St. Gerrans hardly any trace was left of its monastic and
episcopal associations. In the _Taxatio_ of 1291 the benefice of St.
Gerrans consisted of two portions, the rector’s and the prior of St.
Anthony’s, which may point to a corporate life at an earlier date.
A glance at the map of Cornwall, in the light of what has been said,
reveals, at the time of the Domesday Survey, present or past activities,
on a considerable scale and monastic in character in every part of the
county except in the north-east, and in the promontories of the Lizard
and of the Land’s End.
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