CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. IV. — S. SAMSON. 91 



we have a biography of Samson which lays strong claims to 

 authenticity, a biography written at the beginning of the seventh 

 century, and within a few years of his death, embodying too an 

 older document, drawn up by a kinsman and fellow-labourer of 

 the Saint. Unfortunately, however, there is much in the work 

 which cannot be reconciled with those claims. There are, for 

 example, many strange stories of miracles wrought by Samson? 

 which are manifestly as fabulous as the adventures of Jack the 

 Giant Killer, But those fictions do not invalidate the genuine 

 basis of the narrative. They are probably additions of a later 

 age ; for, if one may judge from the smooth and flowing style in 

 which they are written, they could not have proceeded from the 

 same hand which penned the rugged Latin of the Preface and 

 some historical parts of the biography. As the Galilean monk 

 adopted and expanded the document which he found in his 

 monastery, so, in a subsequent generation, we may suppose 

 some hagiologist clothed the rude work of the old monk with 

 such traditional or fictitious matter as would give it a place 

 amongst the current literature of the middle ages. In the 

 Life before us then we may regard the supernatural stories as 

 a mere excrescence, or as resembling the fanciful pictures which 

 illustrate many a modern book without detracting from the 

 veracity of its narrative ; and, where no au.thority is specified for 

 any statement in the subjoined sketch, it may be assumed that we 

 are following the historical outline contained in this ancient Life, 

 Samson was born in the province of Demetia or Dyveck which 

 comprised the western division of South Wales, near the close of 

 the fifth century. His parents, Ammon and Anna by name, 

 remained childless for many years after their marriage, and 

 believed that he was given to them by GoD, in answer to their 



octogenarios fere annos catholieam, religiosamque vitam ducens, propissi- 

 misque temporibiis ejusdem supradicti sancti Samsonis mater ejus tradidisse 

 avunculo suo sanctissimo diacono (qui et ipse diaconiis consobrinus esset 



sancto Samsoni) mihi veraciter affirmabat Et ue qnibusdam ad 



dubia veniant ea quie buic stilo tradidi, Christum omnium nostrorum 

 Salvatorem ac testem habeo, quod non pro aliqua humana, vel fallaci conjec- 

 tura, sed pro Ms qnve apud sauctispimos ac compertos admodum viros, 

 necnon et pro sedulissimis ac pulcherrimis litteris, quas catholice ac iudubi- 

 tanter a supradicto diacono, in eodem monasterio conscriptas reperi, lisec 

 paucissima admodiim verba memoriatis litteris tradere conatus sum." 



PrcBfatio. — Ad Tigerinomalum E]}isco;pum. 



d3 



