CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 95 



He devoted himself wholly to prayer, study, and to the 

 training of his disciples. He, like many other abbots at that 

 time, was promoted to the episcopate. A wild legend makes 

 him to have started on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and to have 

 received consecration at the hands of the patriarch John III. 

 This tale was invented by some British monk to show that the 

 Welsh bishops traced their succession to the oldest, if not the 

 most powerful, of the patriarchates. Except when compelled 

 by unavoidable necessity, he kept aloof from all temporal 

 concerns. He was reluctant even to attend the Synod of Brefi. 

 This was convened by Dubricius about 519 at Llandewi Brefi, 

 in Cardiganshire, to suppress the Pelagian heresy, which was 

 once more raising its head. The synod was composed of 

 bishops, abbots, and religious of different orders, together with 

 princes and laymen. Giraldus says, " When many discourses 

 had been delivered in public, and were ineffectual to reclaim 

 the Pelagians from their error, at length Paulinus, a bishop 

 with whom David had studied in his youth, very earnestly 

 entreated that the holy, discreet, and eloquent man might be 

 sent for. Messengers were therefore despatched to desire his 

 attendance : but their importunity was unavailing with the holy 

 man, he being so fully and intently given up to contemplation, 

 that urgent necessity alone could induce him to pay any regard 

 to temporal or secular concerns. At last two holy men, Daniel 

 and Dubricius, persuaded him to come." 



On his arrival he found the synod gathered in a very 

 unsuitable spot, the old Roman station of Loventium, and by his 

 advice it was moved to Llandewi Brefi, where was a mound or 

 tump on which the speakers could stand and be heard by those 

 whom they desired to address. 



Giraldus says, that " Father David, by common consent of 

 all, whether clergy or laity (Dubricius having resigned in his 

 favour), was elected primate of the Cambrian Church." This is 

 reading history through the spectacles of Latin usage. Probably 

 David did become a bishop of and was atCaerleon ; but owing to 

 the incursions of the Saxons, he resolved on withdrawing to the 

 land given by his grandfather to the Church, and where he had 

 founded his monastery. There was much to commend the site. 



