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



well worth contemplating and investigating, even though they are 

 too meagre to be woven into a connected biography of the Saint. 

 Leland gives us in his Itinerary the following outline from a 

 Life which he had seen : 



" Petrock was by birth a Camber. 



" He studied twenty years in Ireland. 



" He returned from Eome to his own monastery in Cornwall." * 



In this brief sketch we have a summary of the few historical 

 facts which have been handed down to us of Petrock's life, stripped 

 of the traditional fancies in which they were clothed. Let us en- 

 deavour to illustrate and fill up the scanty outline with such 

 probable and consistent materials as older writers than Leland 

 furnish. 



I. As to Petrock's nationality. Leland says he was by birth 

 a Camber, a word which may designate a native of either Wales 

 or Cornwall ; and, accordingly, he is claimed by both countries. 

 Some of the Welsh writers insist that he was born, of princely 

 parentage, in Wales ; whilst all other authorities regard him, to 

 use the words of the Church historian Fuller, as "the Captain of 

 the Cornish Saints." That he had some connection with Wales 

 must be admitted, from the fact that he is the titular saint of two 

 Churches t in that principality ; but that he was not a native of 

 Wales is evident from an authority which no Welshman will 

 question. Their own Bonedd y Saint tells us that he was the son 

 of Clement, a Cornish prince. Suasius calls him a Cimber, whilst 

 John of Tinmouth, Capgrave, and Ussher, assert that he was a 

 Cumbrian, and all agree that he was born towards the end of the 

 6th Century ; but, inasmuch as he is commonly styled by the cog- 

 nomen Corinius, which is equivalent to Cornubiensis, these writers 

 themselves think that the word "Cumber" is a misprint for 

 " Camber," as Leland has given it. We may assert then that 



* "Ex Vita Petroci. 



" Petrocus genere Camber. 



"Petrocus 20 annos studuit in Hibernia. 



' ' Petrocus reversus est ad suum monasterium in Cornubia. 



"Petrocus oLiit prid. non. Junii." 



Vol. Vin, p. 52. 

 •f- Llanbedrog in Carnarvonshire, and Llanbedrog in Pembrokeshire. 



