This Young Man Was Of A Fair Complexion, With Curled Hair,
Tall And Handsome; Clothed Only, According To The Custom
Of his
country, with a thin cloak and inner garment, his legs and feet,
regardless of thorns and thistles were
Left bare; a man, not adorned
by art, but nature; bearing in his presence an innate, not an
acquired, dignity of manners. A sermon having been preached to
these three young men, Gruffydd, Malgon, and Cyneuric, in the
presence of their father, prince Rhys, and the brothers disputing
about taking the cross, at length Malgon strictly promised that he
would accompany the archbishop to the king's court, and would obey
the king's and archbishop's counsel, unless prevented by them. From
thence we passed through Landewi Brevi, {142} that is, the church of
David of Brevi, situated on the summit of that hill which had
formerly risen up under his feet whilst preaching, during the period
of that celebrated synod, when all the bishops, abbots, and clergy
of Wales, and many other persons, were collected thither on account
of the Pelagian heresy, which, although formerly exploded from
Britain by Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, had lately been revived in
these parts. At this place David was reluctantly raised to the
archbishopric, by the unanimous consent and election of the whole
assembly, who by loud acclamations testified their admiration of so
great a miracle. Dubricius had a short time before resigned to him
this honour in due form at Caerleon, from which city the
metropolitan see was transferred to St. David's.
Having rested that night at Lhanpadarn Vawr, {143} or the church of
Paternus the Great, we attracted many persons to the service of
Christ on the following morning. It is remarkable that this church,
like many others in Wales and Ireland, has a lay abbot; for a bad
custom has prevailed amongst the clergy, of appointing the most
powerful people of a parish stewards, or, rather, patrons, of their
churches; who, in process of time, from a desire of gain, have
usurped the whole right, appropriating to their own use the
possession of all the lands, leaving only to the clergy the altars,
with their tenths and oblations, and assigning even these to their
sons and relations in the church. Such defenders, or rather
destroyers, of the church, have caused themselves to be called
abbots, and presumed to attribute to themselves a title, as well as
estates, to which they have no just claim. In this state we found
the church of Lhanpadarn, without a head. A certain old man, waxen
old in iniquity (whose name was Eden Oen, son of Gwaithwoed), being
abbot, and his sons officiating at the altar. But in the reign of
king Henry I., when the authority of the English prevailed in Wales,
the monastery of St. Peter at Gloucester held quiet possession of
this church; but after his death, the English being driven out, the
monks were expelled from their cloisters, and their places supplied
by the same violent intrusion of clergy and laity, which had
formerly been practised.
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