516 CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 



ness of which has been called in question. Nothing whatever 

 is known of him, and his exaltation to be a saint, and to giving 

 a title to a canon's stall in Truro Cathedral, is due solely to 

 Bishop Benson. 



S. Const ANTiNE, King, Confessor. 



This Constantino was King of Domnonia, which comprised 

 Cornwall, and was the son of Cado or Cador, Duke of Cornwall, 

 and first cousin of S. Cuby. He was attacked unmercifully by 

 G-ildas as ' ' the tyrannical whelp of the unclean lioness of 

 Damnonia," who, disguising himself as an abbot, penetrated to 

 where the sons of Modred, nephew of Arthur, had concealed 

 themselves in sanctuary, and had slain them. Q-eofeey of 

 Monmouth, tells the story thus :— "■ Upon Constantino's advance- 

 ment to the throne, the Saxons, with the two sons of Modred, 

 made insurrection against him, though without success, for, after 

 many battles, they fled, one to London, the other to Winchester. 

 Constantino pursued the Saxons, and reduced them under his 

 yoke. He also took the two sons of Modred ; and one of them, 

 who had fled for sanctuary to the church of S. Amphibalus in 

 Winchester, he murdered before the altar. The other had hidden 

 himself in a convent of friars at London, but at last was found 

 out by him, and brought before the altar, and there put to death.'' 



G-eoffrey is absolutely untrustworthy as to the broad lines of 

 history, but he worked dexterously into his romance various 

 historical and traditional facts, though not always in their proper 

 places. 



Gildas, who was a contemporary, confirms this incident. 

 The young ruffians apparently richly deserved their fate, and 

 the crime, such as it was, consisted, in his eyes, not in killing the 

 princes, but in violating the rights of Sanctuary His words 

 are : " after taking a dreadful oath — he, nevertheless, in the 

 habit of a holy abbot amid the sacred altars, did wound and 

 tear two royal youths with their attendants, with sword and 

 -javelin, when they were even in the bosoms of their temporal 

 mother, and of the church their spiritual mother ; — and, when he 

 had done it, the mantles red with clotted blood, did touch the 

 place of the holy sacrifice." 



