8 CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. II. — S. PETROCK. 



Clonard, must have been examples to him of their wonderful 

 power and success. Whatever the subsequent faults of Monasteries 

 may have been, they were in earliest times the chief agencies in 

 civilizing and evangelizing the people. They were instructors of 

 the ignorant, refuges for the oppressed, and almoners to the needy, 

 as well as centres of Christian life and light in the midst of 

 heathen darkness. The place above all others dear to Petrock's 

 memory must have been the hermitage of his early days at Bod- 

 min ; and thither he proceeded to plant the first and most re- 

 nowned monastery that has ever existed on Cornish soil. What 

 changes must have swept over his native land since, in years long 

 past, he had sojourned there ! Everywhere, except in Wales 

 and Cornwall, Saxon paganism had trampled do-wai the British 

 Church, and idol temples had sprung up, with their unhallowed 

 rites and sacrifices. Even in the strongholds of British power, 

 the tide of invasion could not, without severe struggles, be stem- 

 med back, or the ministrations of religion be kept alive."' 



Many disciples, illustrious for learning and sanctity, were as- 

 sociated with Petrock in his arduous work, but the names of only 

 three have been handed down. They were Credanus, Medanus, 

 and Dachanus.t Of the first two nothing certain is known ; but 

 Colgan, in a brief memoir of " Dechanus " or " Deganus," states 

 that he was born at the end of the 6th Century in the borders of 

 Lagenia (in the west of Ireland), that he was a man of high re- 

 pute, first as an Abbot, and afterwards as a Bishop, in Ireland, 

 and that he was a nephew of Coemgen, Petrock's pupil. J The 



*Rudburn asserts that the Cornish submitted to the humiliation of 

 paying tribute to the Saxons in the time of Cerdic, in order that they might 

 be allowed to observe their religious rites without molestation. 



" Cerdicum saspius cum Arthuro conflixisse, pertassum Arthurum cum 

 Cerdico deinceps proelia inire foedus cum illo pepigisse, et concessisse 

 Cerdicum Cornubiensibus ut sub annuo tributo ritum Christiana religionis 

 observarent." Chronic : lib. 2, cap. 1. — U^sher de Primordiis, cap. xiii. 



f Leland tells us that they were all buried at Bodmin. " Extat Petroburgi 

 libellus de sepultura sanctorum Anglorum, ex quo liquet Credanum, Me- 

 danum, et Dachanum, Tiros sanctitate vitfe illustres, et Petroci imitatores, 

 in Bosmanach fuisse sepultos." De Scrii). Brit : 61. 



+ Colgan, Vol. I, 584. 



I am inclined to think that Coemgen also accompanied Petrock, and that 

 he is the Saint from whom the Church of S. Keverne takes its name. Lan- 

 igan tells us that Coemgen signifies " pulcher genitus," and is pronounced, 



