366 THE fbesedent's asdbesb. 



So early as 461 we hear of a "Bishop of the Britons" 

 attending the Council of Tours. In 469, the British settlers 

 were in sufficient force at the mouth of the Loire to become 

 valuable auxiliaries against the invading Visigoths. 



The author of the "Life of S. Wiriwaloe" says, "The sons 

 of the Britons, leaving the British sea, landed on these shores, 

 at the period when the barbarian Saxon conquered the Isle. 

 These children of a beloved race established themselves in this 

 country, glad to find repose after so many griefs. In the mean- 

 time the unfortunate Britons who had not quitted their country 

 were decimated by plague. Their corpses lay without sepulchre. 

 The major portion of the Isle was depopulated. Then a small 

 number of men who had escaped the sword of the invaders, 

 abandoned their native land, to seek refuge, some among the 

 Scots (Irish), the rest in Belgic Gaul." 



The plague to which reference is made is the Yellow Death 

 that carried off Maelgwn Gf-wynedd, King of Wales. 



The invasion was not a military occupation, the settlers 

 encountered no resistance ; every account we have represents 

 them as landing in a country that was denuded of its population, 

 except in the district of Vannes and on the Loire. 



Such occupants as were there were of the same race, the 

 Laeti, 'or colonists from Britain, given lands there after the 

 defeat of Maximus.* 



Gildas, in the 6th century, tells how that some of the Britons 

 fled to the mountains before the swords of the Saxons, how that 

 others submitted and were enslaved, but that others again 

 crossed the sea and found refuge elsewhere. That elsewhere 

 was Armorica, to which these refugees were destined to give the 

 name of Little Britain or Brittany. 



Eginhard, in the first years of the 9th century, certainly 

 exaggerates when he declares that it was a great part of the 

 population of Britain which was comprised in this migration. 

 Ernold NigeUus in 834, also speaks of it, and states that it was 

 conducted peaceably. 



* See an important article by Dom Plaine, O.S.B. " La colonisation de 

 rArmorique," Paris, Picard, 1899. 



