THE president's ADDRESS. 37 



If we look at the map of "West Cornwall we can see indi- 

 cations of such a system there. I strongly suspect that 

 Gwendron was the head of a girls' college under the supervision 

 of St. Mawgan ; that St. Piran planted St. Burian in Penwith 

 and his foster-mother Cocca at Ladoc for the same purpose ; that 

 St. Senan, possibly, had his women's college at Zenor under St. 

 Sennara.* 



(II.) The second cause of the break-up of the system of 

 Tribal schools was the fact that certain teachers acquired great 

 fame, and immense numbers came to them from every quarter, to 

 profit by their instructions. Moreover, pupils became impatient, 

 they would no longer remain with their tribal masters, but went 

 off to seek other heads. The least ruffle between a tutor and 

 his pupil was enough to occasion the latter to desert. Some- 

 times the master became jealous of his pupil, and told him 

 plainly that there was not room for both in the same school. 

 Sometimes a faction was formed in the college, and the students 

 turned out the master. There is a curious instance of this in 

 the life St. Monynna, whom I am disposed to equate with our 

 St. Morwenna. She was a disciple of St. Ibar of Begerry. St. 

 Ibar urged her to receive into her college a female pupil of whom 

 he thought highly. She consented against her judgment. After 

 a while this girl contrived to organize so strong an opposition, 

 that the malcontents expelled their superior, with fifty of the 

 sisters who adhered to her, and these were forced to go into 

 another part of the country, and form a new establishment. 



(III.) I have mentioned as a third element of disturbance of 

 the educational system in the tribes, the clerical and literary 

 character that the colleges assumed. That this was early felt 

 appears from the matter having been brought before the 

 Gathering of Drumceatt in 590. At that great assembly the 

 national system of education was revised and placed on a more 

 solid basis ; and at the same time provision was made that the 

 young people not destined to the clerical life should be given an 

 education less classical and ecclesiastical. A special ollamh, or 



* I hesitate greatly about identifying Sennara with Cainera, Senan's daltha 

 or pupil. The hard Gaelic C is not likely to become S in Cornwall, though it 

 does in France, where Kiera becomes St. Cere, the C pronounced almost like an S. 



