96 CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 



It was there that all passengers for the South of Ireland 

 embarked, and it was to this port that the Irish came when they 

 desired to start on their Missionary rambles. It was then by no 

 means the forgotten spot that it is now, but, rather, a busy place 

 through which flowed throughout the summer a steady stream 

 of traffic. Moreover, should the Saxons continue their incur- 

 sions, thence David could fly to Ireland. 



Before leaving Caerleon, David is said to have convened a 

 synod, supposed to have been held in 529, to complete the 

 confutation of the Pelagian heresy. It is called the " Synod 

 of Yictory." It ratified the canons and decrees of Brefi, as well 

 as a code of rules which David had drawn up for the regulation 

 of the British Church, a copy of which remained in the 

 Cathedral of S. David's until it was lost in an incursion of 

 pirates. Gliraldus says, " In his times, in Cambria, the Church 

 of God flourished exceedingly, and ripened with much fruit 

 every day. Monasteries were built everywhere ; many congre- 

 gations of the faithful of various orders were collected to 

 celebrate with fervent devotion the Sacrifice of Christ. But to 

 all of them Father David, as if placed on a lofty eminence, was 

 a mirror and pattern of life. He informed them by words, and 

 he instructed them by example ; as a preacher he was most 

 powerful through his eloquence, but more so in his works. He 

 was a doctrine to his hearers, a guide to the religious, a light to 

 the poor, a support to the orphans, a protection to widows, a 

 father to the fatherless, a rule to monks, and a path to seculars, 

 being made all things to all men that he might bring all to 

 God." 



There is no account in the Life of S. David of any visit to 

 Cornwall and Devon, though he is said generally to have 

 travelled about a good deal in Britain, and to have been at 

 Glastonbury. But there are reasons that make it probable that 

 he was there, and he apparently also visited Brittany. In a 

 poem of Gwyn fardd it is said that in Dumnonia — 



" He endured buffetings, very hard blows, 

 From the hands of a discourteous woman, void of modesty ; 

 He took vengeance, he endangered the sceptre of Devon, 

 And such as were not slain were burned." 



