316 CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. I. — S. CUBY. 



age ; but his connection with S. Hilary is an anachronism ; the 

 famous Bishop of Poictiers having flourished and passed away up- 

 wards of two centuries before the time of S. Cuby."" Probably 

 the writer of the Life was misled, as Professor Rees and others 

 have conjectured, by the identity of Hilary's name with that of 

 Elian, a Welsh saint who was contemporary with Cuby, and whose 

 name in the Welsh tongue is precisely the same as that given to 

 S. Hilary. Nevertheless, though Cuby could not have been con- 

 secrated by S. Hilary, and never, so far as we know, exercised 

 episcopal jurisdiction, we need not question the statement of his 

 elevation to the episcopate ; for among the Celtic Christians, 

 bishops were often consecrated as a mark of distinction for their 

 learning or zeal ; and were rarely, if ever, assigned to any parti- 

 cular see. Territorial jurisdiction was a thing unknown to them. 

 Sometimes they were connected with monasteries ; sometimes 

 with a Christian chief or clan ; and at others, they were simple 



* Capgi-ave, Leland, Uslier, Hughes, Wliitaker, and others, having been 

 misled by the chronological blunder of the old Latin Life, and having placed 

 the era of Cuby in the 4th Century, it nis.j be well to state briefly the data 

 which establish incontrovertibly his existence in the 6th Century : — 



1. His grandfather, G-eraint, or Gerennius, fell, or more probably re- 

 ceived his death wound, at the battle of Llongborth early in the 6th Century. 

 — Rees^s Essay on the Welsh Saints, 169. 



2. The names of four of his disciples are given in the Latin Life, and 

 three of them can be identified with historical personages of the 6th Centuiy. 

 (Concerning the fourth nothing is known). They are called Maelog, Libiau, 

 and Peulan. The first is the name of a saintly brother of Gildas, who 

 flourished in the early part cf the 6th Century. — Usher, De Primordiis, 676. 

 The second is mentioned in the Liber Lanclavensis, p. 446, as a hermit who 

 lived in the time of Bishop BeiihgTyj-n, i.e., in the 6th Century; and the 

 third was a son of Pawl Hen, who attended the synod at Llandewi Brevi 

 A.D. 519. Biographical Diet: of Eminent TFelshmen, p. 393. 



3. We learn from the verses of Aneurin upon the departure of the 

 saints for Bardsey, that Cuby was himself present at the sjoiod of Brevi. — 

 M'ljv. Arch., I, 181, HI, 3. 



4. On Cuby's return from L'eland to Anglesea, we are told that Maelgwn 

 reigned over the provinces of North Wales. This Maelgwn died in the latter 

 half of the 6th Century. — Wynne's History of Wales, p. 12. 



5. Tradition makes Cuby contemporary with Elian and Seiriol, both of 

 whom flourished in the 6th Centruy.' — Rees's Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 267. 



An eminent foreign hagiologist makes the following remark respecting 

 the alleged consecration of S. Cuby by S. Hilary of Poictiers : — " S. Kebius, 

 meprisant les honneurs de la terre, se consacra a Dieu dans I'etat ecclesias- 

 tique. Userius dit qu'il fut sacre eveque par S. Hilaire, sans doute I'Svgque 

 d' Aries, car celui de Poitiers etait mort depuis longtemps." — Lobineau^s 

 Vies des Saints de Bretagne, Vol. I, p. 23. 



