THE president's ADDRESS. 869 



his city. The Gallo-Roman prelate disliked these British 

 invaders and their independent ways. S. Melanius of Eennes, 

 and S. Felix of Nantes shared his dislike. The prelates 

 exercised much of the magisterial authority of the imperial 

 governors, and to this the newly arrived Britons refused to 

 submit. The Britons brought with them their own laws, customs, 

 and organisation, both civil and ecclesiastical, as well as their 

 own language. 



They were at first few in numbers, and did not desire to 

 emancipate themselves wholly from Britain. Consequently, 

 although establishing themselves in clans, they held themselves 

 to be under the sovereignty of their native princes at home. 



This appears from the coincidence of the names of the 

 kings in Armorica and in insular Damnonia. 



However fabulous and untrustworthy GeofPrey of Monmouth 

 may be, yet his history as it draws towards times of which 

 records remained, must have contained some elements of truth, 

 and cannot have diverged too greatly from facts that were 

 preserved in tradition if not in writing. He represents Arthur 

 as reigning over Brittany as well as over Britain, and committing 

 the government to his cousin, Hoel, and although what we are 

 told of the wars and victories of Hoel are exaggerations, even 

 gross fictions, yet Hoel himself was a historical character of 

 whom we learn from other and more reliable sources.* 



It is not very easy to determine the dates within half-a- 

 century of the succession of the Armorican princes. The Welsh 

 give us pedigrees but no dates. The Britons give us legends 

 also without dates. By comparison we are able, but only 

 approximately to determine the chronology. 



But it is not the princes alone who bear the same names in 

 Devon and Cornwall as in Armorica, for the saints are the same ; 

 and the establishment of a saint in a district implied a good 

 deal more than missionary venture. For where we find a 

 saint we very generally find also a secular chief as well. This 



*In the Life of S. Leon ore we are told — "Fuit vir unus in Britanicia ultra 

 mare, Nomine Rigaldus (Hoel the king) qili in nostra primus venit citra mare 

 habitare provincia, qui dux fuit Britonum ultra et citra mare usque ad mortem." 

 De Smet, Catalogus codicum hagiograph. in Bihl. Nat. Parisiens. II, 153). 



