158 CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. V. — S. DAVID. 



that David was there raised to the episcopal order by the Patriarch. 

 In another Triad David is spoken of as Primate in the Welsh 

 Church at the same time that Bedwini "" held a similar office m 

 Cornwall, and Kentigern in North Britain. There is also a 

 tradition that he made a pilgrimage to Glastonbury Abbey, 

 accompanied by several of his bishops, with a design, which he 

 was not permitted to accomplish, of rebuilding and re-dedicating 

 it. After making known to the monks the object of his visit (so 

 runs the legend), Christ himself appeared to him in a dream, and 

 commanded him to abandon his jxirpose, at the same time 

 puncturing his hand as a sign of the reality of this supernatural 

 prohibition. The holy man, after this, remained some time in the 

 monastery, and his fame attracted great numbers to the place. 

 He therefore added a chapel, at his own cost, to the east side of 

 the church, consecrating it in honour of the virgin, and the altar 

 thereof was adorned with an inestimable sapphire in honour of 

 the deed. 



But the memory of S. David is not perpetuated merely by such 

 doubtful legends as these, for there are no less than 53 churches 

 and chapels in South Wales, Devon, and Cornwall which are 

 ascribed to his zeal ; and in them we have indisputable witnesses 

 of his unwearied activity. The work which all his biographers 

 unite in extolling most highly was the establishment of the famous 

 College or Monastery of Menevia ; and some of the rules which 

 he laid down for the regulation of the coenobitical life show how 

 genuine that institution must have been, and how vastly superior 

 to the monasteries of the middle ages, and even to many in our 

 own day. The fundamental principle of his discipline seems to 

 have been that of S. Paul : " if any work not, neither should he 

 eat." The brethren were required to rise at cock-crowing, and, after 

 spending three hours in religious exercises, to earn their bread by 

 labour in the fields. On their return to the monastery they engaged 

 in silent study, or in works of charity ; after which, at the sound of 

 a bell, they all repaired to the church, where they remained till 

 dark ; and then they closed the day with a frugal meal of bread, 

 herbs, and roots. Their garments were skins of beasts ; and th« 



* Hughes conjectures that Bodmin derives its name from this Bedwini, 

 and that he may perhaps be no other than S. Petrock. — Ho7-ce Britannicoe, ii,357. 



