178 THE BISHOPRIC OF CORNWALL. 



Camden, Carew, Norden, Dr. Heylin, Cressy, Bishop Tanner, Dr. 

 Browne Willis, Dr. Borlase, Dr. Whitaker, Polwliele, Dr. Oliver, 

 and the more recent historians of Cornwall ; and in particular, the 

 subject has been ably handled by the late Mr. Pedler, of Liskeard, 

 in his " Anglo-Saxon Episcopate of Cornwall." — The authorities 

 are numerous ; but the amount of information which most of them 

 convey is very meagre, and the conclusions they arrive at are 

 various. On the Charters of Dugdale, Kemble, and Thorpe, the 

 chief reliance is to be placed, and from them the facts here pre- 

 sented are chiefly drawn. 



The subject naturally divides itself into two parts ; first, the 

 Names of the Bishops, and secondly, the Place of the See. 



1. In investigating the Names of the Cornish Bishops in 

 Saxon Times, we at once meet with the difficulty, that no early 

 historian gives any list of them. William of Malmesbury says 

 plainly, " Of the Cornish Pontiffs I do not know and cannot pro- 

 "duce a regular list :"* — which is rather singular, seeing that he 

 was born only 45 years after the extinction of the Cornish See.t 



Leland mentions that he saw in the Priory Church of S. Ger- 

 man's, " a tomb in the wall, beside it's high Altar, with an image 

 " of a Bishop, and over the tomb eleven Bishops painted with their 

 " names and verses, as token of so many Bishops buried there, or 

 " that there had been so many Bishops of Cornwall that had their 

 " seat there."! We do not attach much weight to these conjectures 

 of Leland, and agree with Dr. Oliver in thinking that the names 

 and verses probably referred to the eleven Bishops who sat at 

 Exeter previous to Bishop Walter Bronescombe, who consecrated 

 the existing Church of S. Germans on the 28th of August, 1261. 



In 1601 Bishop 'Godwin, then Subdean of Exeter, published a 

 complete list of the Cornish Prelates, givuig "Master John 

 Hooker " as his authority. The following are the names : — 

 1. Athelstan, A.D. 905; 2. Conanus; 3. Euydocus; 4. Aldredus; 

 5. Britwyn; 6. Athelstan 2, A.D. 966; 7. Wolfi; 8. Woronus; 



* Cornubiensium sane Pontificum sncciduum ordinem nee scio nee ap- 

 pono. — Gul. Malms, de Gest. Pontificum Angl., lib. II. 



f William of Malmesbury is supposed to have been born in 1095. 



X Leland's Itinerary. 



