184 THE BISHOPRIC OF CORNWALL. 



actually founded by King Athelstan, but was rather recognised 

 and refounded by him at the date given by Leland, and then first 

 incorporated into the province of Canterbury. It is to be regretted 

 that the Charter of King Athelstan, mentioned by Leland* in 

 connection with Bishop Conan^ is no longer extant, and therefore 

 his precise position is a matter of doubt, and the nature of King 

 Athelstan's recognition of him cannot be ascertained. 



It is worthy of notice,, that Bishop Conan several times signs 

 Charters in company with " Howel, Regulus," or, " Subregulus," 

 the last native King of Cornwall. This Prince submitted to King 

 Athelstan in 928, and died in 950. His name is found appended 

 to Charters from 928 to 949 inchisive. 



After Conan we should find a blank in our list of Bishops, but 

 for the recent discovery of a document , of very great interest, 

 which has brought a considerable accession of information. We 

 allude to a valuable manuscript copy of the Four Gospels, sup- 

 posed to have been written in the ninth century, and commonly 

 styled the Bodmin Gospels, from its having been once the property 

 of Bodmin Priory. The volume is a quarto, of oblong form, and 

 very neatly written. It was purchased by Mr. Eodd, the London 

 Bookseller, at the sale of the Wheatley Park Library, near Ux- 

 bridge, in 18 — , and was disposed of by him to the British 

 Museum for thirty guineas, t On the margins and vacant spaces 

 are entered forty-six copies of manumissions of slaves. The orna- 

 ments of the initial letters, and of a page immediately before the 

 Gospel of S. John, are rude and curious, and strongly resemble 

 those which are to be met with in very ancient manuscripts ex- 

 ecuted in Ireland. X This document will be referred to in more 

 detail, when we come to consider the Site of the Bishopric. 



The Manumissions supply us with the names of four other 

 Bishops, — Ethelgar, Wulfsie, Comoer6, and Burhwold, of whom 

 Burhwold is the only one certainly mentioned in any other docu- 

 ment. 



Ethelgar is the earliest Bishop whose name appears m the 



* See note in i>receding page. 



t Quatuor Evangclia. Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. 9381. 



J Olivefs Monasticon, 



