THE PEESIDENt's ADDRESS. 133 



A new altar, formed with the old stones, is being there 

 constructed. 



St. Petroc, t]ie first Prior of Bodmin, died June 4, A.D. 564, 

 and was enshrined before the Altar of the Blessed Virgin in his 

 Priory church. His ivory reliquary I have already brought to 

 public notice.* 



After St. Petroc 's decease, many Priors ruled, most of whose 

 names are either lost to history or are lying hidden we know not 

 where. The earliest of them yet identified is Guido, an Italian, 

 of the 12th century. 



A reference to the life of this Prior — who was characterized 

 by great humility — has been found by the members of the 

 present Convent, and they have obligingly given me an abstract 

 of the document. f Guy was killed by a fall from his horse in 

 going to Exeter. 



In succession to him there were numerous others, who 

 have been noticed by Sir John Maclean in his History of the 

 former Deanery of Trigg Minor (vol. I, pp. 125-135). J 



We will here refer only to the last three of them. 



Thomas Yivian (Titular Bishop of Megara and Suffragan 

 of Exeter), Prior of Bodmin, died on Pentecost Sunday, June 

 1st, 1533, and was entombed in his conventual church. 



John Symons was the next. 



Thomas Munday otherwise Wandsworth, followed in 1534, 

 and was the last of the old line : — for, this Prior, on the 

 suppression of Monasteries in 1538, surrendered his holding to 

 the King. We read that about our Lady's Day in Lent, " the 

 howse of Bodmyn went down." 



Several of the bells of the old Priory peal, recast, now ring 

 out their sweet but altered tones from Lanivet Tower, as I 

 discovered by an old record in that Parish. 



* Illustration in Maclean's Trigg Minor. (Vol. 1. p. 231.) 

 Lecture at Somerset House, Feb. 2, 1871, before Society of Antiquaries 

 (Proceedings, Vol. 5, p. 87.) 



Eoyal Institution of Cornwall Journal,Vol. 4, p. Ixx, &c. 



f See Catalogue British History, Vol. 2, Rolls Series. 



;( Bodmin is now the centre of a Deanery of its own name. 



