382 THE peesident's address. 



like to have as patron a saint belonging to the subjected race, 

 who, moreover, they thought would not assist them in heaven, 

 but rather fight against them. 



In the second place they looked with suspicion upon them, 

 the Saxon-Roman clergy certainly did, regarding them as 

 tainted with schism if not with heresy. 



In the calendar of the Leofric Missal, although it comes 

 from Glastonbury, an old British monastic centre, very few Celtic 

 names are found. Those that filled it were eliminated after the 

 refounding of the abbey by Ina. 



In the next place, very little was known of the West Welsh 

 Saints. Their lives had been preserved in Cornish legends and 

 ballads, and the Saxon and Norman clerks did not understand 

 the tongue in which they were composed, and despised all 

 saints who had not a place in the Eoman calendar. 



In 1330, Bishop G-randisson wrote to the Archdeacon of 

 Cornwall complaining of the neglect and accident which had 

 caused the destruction or loss of the records of the local Cornish 

 Saints, and he directed that those which remained in each church 

 should be transcribed, two or three copies made, and be trans- 

 mitted to Exeter, to ensure their preservation ; and he further 

 enjoined that the parish priests who failed to do this should be 

 fined. Two points of interest connected with this letter deserve 

 attention ; first, that there were extant at the beginning of the 

 14th century a considerable number of these Legendary Lives, 

 and secondly, that copies were most probably stored at one time 

 in the diocesan registry. 



What has become of them ? To us they would be priceless, 

 as our only means of reconstructing much early Cornish history. 



Although Bishop Grandisson was sufficiently large minded 

 to desire the preservation of these records, he by no means 

 sympathised with the cult of the local Celtic saints. When he 

 compiled his Legendarium for the use of the church of Exeter 

 in 1366, he passed over these saints almost without notice, and I 

 believe that to S. Melor alone did he accord proper lections from 

 his legend. One looks in vain therein for the life of even S. 

 Sidwell, who had a church outside the walls, and relics in the 

 Cathedral. 



