¹ Stungongar must mean either ‘Bend’ (stum) or ‘Extent’ (or ‘Grant’ -ystyn) ‘of Congar’. Langdon (Old Cornish Crosses, 1896, p. 52) gives three modern spellings of the name—‘St. Ingonger, Gunger, or Gonger as it is locally called’, but says the cross is called ‘St. Gonger Cross’. The Lysons refer to it on pp. 174-5 of the volume on Cornwall in their Magna Britannia, printed in 1814, and say, ‘At St. Congar, in this parish, said to have been in ancient times the residence of a hermit, was a chapel and well, dedicated to that saint’. The late Mr Charles Henderson, in some unpublished notes, says, ‘the chapel has wholly disappeared. The cross is built into the hedge at the turning to Fenton-Pits above the farm, while the so-called Holy Well is reduced to a mere drain or gutter. It was perfectly dry on the occasion of my visit. It lies in a cul-de-sac lane below the farmyard, and is covered by a low superstructure of unhewn stone. In spite of the absence of documentary evidence and of any remains, persistent tradition and the name of the estate prove conclusively that a chapel existed here in Celtic times’. Fenton must get its name from this holy well.

² Tregonger in 1666.

³ ‘Saint Gongard’ in the diocesan Ordo. See the Bulletin de la Soc. Arch, de Finistère, 1904, p.311.

⁴ Congar has remained a personal name in Brittany ; a well-known theologian is called Père Congar.

⁵ Bull. dioc. d’histoire de Quimper, 1935, p. 208.

⁶ ib. 1933, p. 187.

⁷ Concar in the first, Congar in the last two.

⁸ Arch. Camb. ser. 1, t. IV, pp. 262-4. The tenants of the villa hold of the saint—‘Sti Cyngari a quo tenentes tenent’.

⁹ Grosjean, Cyngar Sant (Anal. Boll, tom XLII), p. 106, note 7.

¹⁰ Arch. Camb. loc. cit., Hist, of the Island of Anglesey 1775, p. 57

¹¹ Edw. Lhwyd says ‘Their wake is on Gwyl Gynzar vizt ye Sunday after ye eleventh of November’, but this seems a slip.

¹² Vita S. Kebii, Brit. Mus. Vesp. A, XIV, printed in W. J. Rees, Lives of the Cambro British Saints (I shall referto this edition as C.B.S.), pp. 183-4.

¹³ Cod. Brit. Mus. Reg. 2 A, XIII, written about 1220-2, ‘most probably near Gloucester, or somewhere in the sw.’ (Warner and Gilson) ; the Altemps Martyrology, written at Norwich in the 14th century, and the Norwich Martyrology, ‘closely akin to the last-named’, (B.M. Cotton MSS. Julius B, VII).

¹⁴ The Book of Lian Dav (ed. J. Gwenogvryn Evans and John Rees, 1893. I shall referto this as ‘B.L.D.’), pp. 80, 144-5.

¹⁵ ‘Cumque ab eo frequenter licentiam revertendi [to St. Davids] quaererem, et nullo modo impetrare possem ; tandem . . . diluculo vigiliae Natalis Domini advocatus ad eum ; tradidit mihi duas epistolas, in quibus erat multiplex supputatio omnium rerum quae erant in duobus monasteriis, quae Saxonice cognominantur Cungresbury et Banuville, et mihi eodem die tradidit illa duo monasteria cum omnibus quae in eis erant’. (p. 68 of W. H. Stevenson’s edition of Asser, Oxford, 1904. He says, ‘Nothing is known of the monasteries there beyond the present passage’). No doubt both Congresbury and Banwell had long been important Celtic monasteries (the word Saxonice suggests that they had originally borne Celtic names). The West Saxon kings constantly handed over to diocesan bishops of their own appointment suppressed, or derelict, religious houses founded in Celtic times. If only Alfred’s ‘two epistles’ had been preserved, we should know much that we greatly want to know about Congresbury and Banwell.

¹⁶ Printed by F. Liebermann in Die Heiligen Englands (Hannover 1889), and by W. de Gray Birch in the Register of Hyde Abbey, 1892. Congresbury and Glastonbury are the only pilgrim shrines in Somerset mentioned in this very important document.

¹⁷ Printed by Mr F. Wormald in English Kalendars before A.D. 1100 (Henry Bradshaw Society, 1934). pp. 99-111.

¹⁸ ib. p. 71.

¹⁹ Journal of Theological Studies, 1928, pp. 1,4.

²⁰ Brit. Mus., Add. MSS. 43405, 43406, see J. Armitage Robinson, Muchelney Memoranda (Somerset Record Society, vol. XLII), p. 58.

²¹ B.M. Add. MSS. 10628, printed in English Benedictine Kalendars after 1100 (edited by F. Wormald for the H.B.S., 1938), pp. 145-60.

²² B.M. Arundel MSS. 60, f. 131b, (see Wormald, op. cit., p. 148).

²³ The whole question is discussed by Fr. Grosjean, op. cit. pp. 111-16.

²⁴ The most easily accessible edition is that by Dr Carl Horstman, Oxford, 1901. The De Sancto Cungaro, heremita et confessore is printed in vol. 1, pp. 248-54.

²⁵ Those of S. Decuman, patron of Watchet, of King Edgar and of S. Joseph of Arimathea.

²⁶ Vol. XX, no. 78, pp. 97-108.

²⁶⁴ Vol. XXIII, no. 89, pp. 15-22.

²⁷ The name is uniformly spelt Cungarus both in W. and H.

²⁸ There are no headings in H., but each chapter begins with an extra-large capital letter.

²⁹ Omnium donorum donator donaret.

³⁰ Feliciter concepit et post conceptionem felicius generavit, cf. Vita S. Iltuti, c. i. (C.B.S., p. 159), ‘concepit, et post conceptionem feliciter genuit filium’, and Vita S. Gundlei, c. 2 (C.B.S., p. 146), ‘concepit ; post conceptionem filium feliciter Cadocum generavit’.

³¹ The following passage (down to the end of the chapter) is very unsuitable in its present position. It should of course have preceded the story of his flight from the court.

³² Oraculum is used in the Vita S. Dubricii (B.L.D., p. 81) to mean a chapel.

³³ The writer forgets that he has already brought his hero to the shore (in c. 3).

³⁴ Elegerant . . . electionem . . . Electus . . . elegit.

^34a Matt. 10 : 37, combined with Luke 14 : 26.

³⁵ cf. Vita S. Nectani, Gotha MS. I, 81, f. 51a, ‘ut terram heremitice vite aptam . . . ingrederetur . . . didicerunt tam in Devonia quam in Cornubia . . . multa esse loca nemorosa et vite heremetice aptissima’.

³⁶ ‘Quam sic incolae nominabant et nominant’, cf. Vitae Gildae (Mommsen’s ed. 110, 20) nominata fuit et adhuc nominatur a Britannis indigents’ ; Vita S. Gundleii (c. 9), ‘qui nunc manet et manebit . . . Unde nominatus, et nominatur Fons Gundliu’ ; and Vita S. Tathei (C.B.S., p. 264), ‘patrem vocabant et adhuc vocant indigene’.

³⁷ H. alters to Somersete.

³⁸ H. has altered the words and meaning of this sentence, and inserted a statement that Cungar is known among the Welsh as Doccuinus. The question of this insertion, which is of vital importance to the hagiographical student, will be dealt with in part 2.

³⁹ ‘Doctrina sue fluenta seminabat per patriam’. This phrase is made up of a clumsy combination of two plagiarisms,—one from the Vita Cadaci, c. 7 (C.B.S., p. 36), ‘fluenta doctrina flagrantius sitiens . . . patriae’, the other from the Vita Gildae (109, 33), ‘docuit . . . seminans semen . . . celestis doctrinae’.

⁴⁰ ‘Omnia que dabantur illi, a regibus et divitibus, data continuo erogabat pauperibus’. cf. Vita lltuti, c. 11 (C.B.S., 167), ‘largiter dabat quicquid dabant in manibus’; and Vita S. Tathei (C.B.S., p. 264), ‘quicquid dabatur illi, largiter dabat’; and Vita Gildae (107, 13), ‘quicquid debatur ei, continuo impendebat pauperibus’.

⁴¹ This story is imitated from an exactly similar one in the Vita Cadaci, c. 5 (C.B.S., pp. 33, 4), ‘arundinetum . . . angelus Domini apparuit in sompnis, dicens ei, Oratio tua exaudita est . . . locum edificandi oratorii invenies . . . aprum perspicies . . . fundamentum templi tui in nomine Sancte Trinitatis jacias’.

⁴² ‘Construxit habitaculum . . . cimiterium. Hoc emenso, fundavit in honore sanctae Trinitatis oratorium’. Cf. Vita S. Dubricii (B.L.D., pp. 80, 81), ‘angelus per somnium dicens . . . ubicunque inveneris suem . . . funda in nomine sancte Trinitatis habitaculum simul et craculum’ ; Vita S. Iltuti, c. 7 (C.B.S., p. 163), ‘construens habitaculum, presule Dubricio designante cimiterii modum, et in medio, in honore summe at individue Trinitatis, oratorii fundamentum’. The Breton monk Wrmonoc, in his Vita Pauli Aureliani, twice describes the foundation of a monastery by S. Paul of Léon as consisting of the building of ‘habitacula et parvum oratorium’.

⁴³ ‘Omni hora matutina intrabat in frigidam aquam, ibi permanens quandiu diceretur ab eo tribus vicibus dominica oratio, revertebatur ad ecclesiam vigilans et exorans summi creatoris omnipotentiam’. This sentence is found, in almost identical terms, in three contemporary Lives, those of S. Gildas, S. Iltut and S. Gundleus (Gwynllyw). In the Vita Gildae (M. 107, 17) it runs ‘Fluvialem aquam intrare solebat media nocte, ubi manebat stabilitus donee diceretur ab ipso ter oratio dominica : . . . repetebatsuumoratorium; ibiexorabat genuflectendo divinammaiestatem usque diem clarum’: in the Vita lltuti, ‘Nocte media ante matutinas abluebat se aqua frigida, sic sustinens, quamdiu posset ter dici oratio dominica ; deinde visitat ecclesiam, genuflectens atque orans summi conditoris omnipotentiam’ (c. 7): in the Vita S. Gundlei (c. 6), ‘Nocte enim media surgebant de lectulis, et redibant post lavacrum lateribus frigidissimis, inde induti visitabant ecclesias, exorando et inclinando usque diem ante aras’.

⁴⁴ This detail is in the Vita Iltuti, c. 19, ‘hora nona . . . panis unus ordeiceus’.

^44a ‘Macies tenuaverat corpus macrum : talem videntes dicebant ilium esse languidum aut febricitatum’. cf. Vita Gildae (M. 107, 17), ‘Macies apparebat in facie ; quasi quidam febricitans videbatur ; Vita S. Gundlei, ‘facies amborum pallebant, ut languentes febribus’ ; the author of the Vita lltuti describes his wife as ‘veluti febricitans pallida’ (c. 16).

^44b cf. Vita Gildae (M. 107, 13), ‘Jejunabat ut heremita Antonius ; orabat vir religiosissimus cilicio indutus’; (our author has borrowed the last two words and inserted them in the first sentence of this chapter) ; and Vita S. Iltuti (c. 19, C.B.S., p. 174), ‘sic Paulus et Antonius, primi heremite, fungebantur haustibus’. In the Life of S. Nectan, too, we read that ‘it came into his mind to imitate Antony, the greatest of the hermits, and the other Egyptian fathers of godly living, by embracing the observance of the eremitical life’.

⁴⁵ Ina in H.

⁴⁶ Cungresbiria H.

⁴⁷ or, ‘monastery’ (locus).

⁴⁸ The heading of this chapter in W., De obcecatione Edgari regis, does not correctly describe its contents, and is probably the error of a scribe whose eye caught the heading of c. 16, which begins ‘De obcecatione’.

⁴⁹ Ps. 31: 6.

⁵⁰ C. constituit duodecim canonicos, qui regulariter viverent et . . . deservirent (he repeats the statement in c. 15). cf. Vita Cadoci, c. 45, ‘Sanctus Cadocus constituit XXXVI canonicos, qui . . . regulariter servirent’. In the same way S. Tatheus ‘in honore sancte et individue Trinitatis fundavit templum, in quo constituit duodecim canonicos’ (Vita Tathei, C.B.S., p. 258).

⁵¹ cf. the passage in c. 7, imitated, as we have seen, from a similar one in the Vita Cadoci, c. 5. Our author repeats the statement in chapters 14 and 15, and there are other instances of devotion to the Trinity in chapters 7 and 13. There are two references to churches built in honour of the Trinity in the Vita Gildae, three in the Liber Landavensis (pp. 80, 161, 162), one in the Vita Tathei and one in the Vita Iltuti (which also contains three other references to the devotion to the Trinity). To represent Celtic saints dedicating churches to the Trinity is, of course, an anachronism, the fancy of Norman clerks. The practice spread on the Continent in the 9th century owing to the influence of S. Benedict of Aniane. He was at St. Denis from 827-829, and on 1 November, 832 the abbot, Hilduin, dedicated an altar there to the Trinity (apparently in the nave) and the Emperor Charles the Bald was buried behind it. In a charter he refers to the seven lights which burnt before it—‘septem luminaria ante altare sancte Trinitatis, post quod nos, humanis solutum legibus, sepeliri optamus’. In 835 there was an altar of the Trinity in the abbey of Notre Dame at Le Mans.

⁵² Ex virgis et tabulis contectum, cf. Vita Gundlei, c. 5 (C.B.S., p. 148) ‘tabulis et virgis fundavit templum’.

⁵³ Rom. 12, 12.

⁵⁴ cf. Vita Iltuti, c. 25, ‘pervenit ad Gulatmorcantiam ... ad ripam Tamii fluminis’ (In H. Tamensi is by mistake printed Camensi).

⁵⁵ The heading of this chapter (see p. 37) is imitated from the headings of c. 20 and c. 65 in the Vita Cadoci.

⁵⁶ The heading in W. has, more correctly, Pebiau.

⁵⁷ Ps. 68, 2, see Vita Cadoci, c. 39.

⁵⁸ Ps. 34, 10 (not Vulg.), 2 Chron. 6, 23, Vulg.

⁵⁹ In H. c. 16 and c. 17 are united to make a single chapter.

⁶⁰ Ps. 132, 7 (Vulg.)

⁶¹ cf. Vita Talhei (C.B.S. p. 258) ‘licentia Landavensis episcopi’.