THE president's ADDRESS. 33 



much chance of Mattins being said." " My friend," said Cronan, 

 " in showing hospitality to strangers we minister to Christ. Do 

 not trouble about the Mattins, the angels will sing them for 

 us."* 



At the same time that the saints were vastly hospitable, they 

 refused to regale kings and their retinue when this was demanded 

 as a right. It was one of the conditions of subjection to a secu- 

 lar prince to have to find him in food when he called, and to 

 furnish his beasts with provender. Compliance with the demand 

 established a dangerous precedent, for vassallage brought with 

 it liability to military service. It was accordingly stubbornly 

 resisted. 



"When Maelgwyn Gwynedd was hunting in the neighbour- 

 hood of St. Brynach, he sent to the saint a command to prepare 

 supper for him and his attendants. " But the holy man being 

 desirous that he and his brethren and also his territory should be 

 free from all tribute, asserted that he did not owe the king a 

 supper, and would give him none." 



Naturally this produced an explosion of anger, but it ended 

 in the saint furnishing the meal, which the king formally 

 acknowledged as being accorded him out of charity, and not as 

 a due.f 



St. Senan absolutely declined to pay tax to Lugaidh, the petty 

 local king. Then the king sent his race-horse to be turned out on 

 Senan's pasture, saying he would take his dues in this manner. 

 Accidentally the horse was drowned, and this lead to violent 

 threats on the king's part and demand for compensation. 



As already intimated, one of the obligations laid on the 

 saint was to educate the young of the tribe ; so that his estab- 

 lishment was, in point of fact, a great mixed school, in which 

 were girls as well as boys. The education was carried on till 

 both were grown up to an adult age. The institution of schools 

 for the young was certainly much older than Christianity in 

 Britain and Ireland. "We know from classic authorities, as well 

 as from the Irish writers of the heroic legends, that the Druids 

 formed communities, that these were presided over by an Arch- 



*" Codex Salamanc," p. 548. 



t" Cambro-British Saints," p. 296. 



