CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 287 



The next point in tlie story is that of the interview between 

 Padarn and Samson. Tliis was prohahl}' in the original Welsh 

 legend, bnt the redactor gave it a colouring of liis own to serve 

 a special purpose. 



S. Samson, when on his way from South Wales to Armorica, 

 crossed to Cornwall and landed at Padstow, where he was met bj-- 

 Gwethenoc, who was sent to meet him, as we ascertain from his 

 Life. Tins Gwetlienoc is the Winius of the Life of Padarn. 

 The Jr in early Breton became Gir after the 10th century, and 

 the th became ;: or was wholly dropped. Gwethenoc was founder 

 of Lewanick and patron of 8r. Knodoc. That Samson visited 

 the Gwent of Padarn is probable enough. He would take it 

 on his way from Padstow to Southill where he made an im- 

 portant foundation. And that the incident of Padarn running 

 to welcome his cousin half shod was in the original Life, is 

 probable enough, and is just one of these little touches of nature 

 likelj' to be true, and very unlike the laboured inventions of 

 professional hagiographers. But when this story came into the 

 hands of the Breton redactor he saw his opportunity for making 

 polemical use of it. 



It was not till 848 that Nominoe erected Dol into a metro- 

 politan see, and constituted six dioceses in Brittany subject to it, 

 i.e., S. Malo, S. Brieuc, Treguier, S. Pol de Leon, Quimper and 

 Vannes. It is more than doubtful whether some of these had 

 been previously episcopal sees, and other than great abbeys. 

 Vannes and Quimper writhed under this new arrangement, and 

 sought release and subjugation to the more distant Tours which 

 claimed jurisdiction over them, enforced by papal order, and 

 decrees of Frank councils. To obtain an excuse for release, a 

 Quimper hagiographer fabricated a Life of S. Corentin, which, 

 regardless of chronology, made that saint seek ordination from 

 S Martin of Tours, and so this redactor of the Life of S. Padarn 

 used his opportunity of adapting the story of the saint who bore 

 the same name as the hrst bishop of Vannes, to suit his purpose, 

 and made S. Samson release the see of Vannes from its obliga- 

 tions to the ai-chepiscopal stool of Dol. 



He further worked into the story the incident of the 

 gathering of seven saints on Menez Bre to curse Conmore the 

 usurper of Domnonia, which took place between 550 and 555 



