CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. V. — S. DAVID. 159 



most perfect obedience to their superior was enjoined. So great 

 was the fame of the institution that kings and princes, we are 

 told, left their posts to submit to its discij)line, and amongst them 

 we find the name of Constantine, the Cornish king, who abandoned 

 the sceptre in remorse for his evil deeds, and became, in his old 

 age, a zealous preacher of the Gospel. In the establishment of 

 this monastery David was gi-eatly hindered by a potent magician 

 called Boya — probably a Druidical Chief- — who occupied a strong 

 fortress in the neighbourhood ; and there is a precipitous rock near 

 the site of the old monastery which still bears the name of this 

 Chief. There is also a contiguous creek which preserves the name 

 of a contemporary Chief called Lisci, whose son, according to 

 some of the old lives of David, beheaded the magician. 



One other well authenticated fact may be found in the mass 

 of hazy legends which envelope the memory of the saint. He 

 was present at the famous Synod of Brevi, A.D. 519, and so 

 distinguished himself by his eloquence that he was chosen primate 

 of the Cambrian Church by universal acclamation, Dubricius 

 having resigned that office in consequence of the infirmities of old 

 age. The following description is given us of his appearance at 

 the time : " He was about six feet in height, having an amiable 

 " and pleasant countenance, and a distinguished presence." Ten 

 years afterwards he assembled another Council, at Caerleon, which 

 is designated the Synod of Victory. This, as well as the former 

 one, is commonly said to have been held for the suppression of 

 Pelagianism, which had again revived in the British Church ; and 

 great stress is laid by Romish writers on a statement by Giraldus 

 Cambrensis, that the decrees of those Councils were confirmed by 

 the authority of the Roman Church, and thenceforward became 

 the rule and directory of all the British churches. But the 

 statement of Giraldus is manifestly a fiction, invented in the 

 middle ages for the purpose of showing that there was some 

 foundation for the utterly groundless assumption that the British 

 Church, before the time of S. Augustine, rendered allegiance to 

 Rome ; and, in proof of this, it may be mentioned that there is 

 no allusion whatever^to the authority, or even the existence, of 

 the Church of Rome, in the most ancient life of the Saint. The 

 decrees of those Synods, though hitherto lost sight of, and unknowM 



