In one of the most brilliant of modern books its author [1] calls attention to the common fallacy which assumes that “if you can find a principle which gives an adequate explanation of three different facts it is more likely to correspond with the truth than three different principles which give adequate explanations of the same facts severally.” This fallacy underlies much that is being urged in favour of a common origin for religious doctrines and methods of worship. A single source of religio

The tyranny of observed coincidence and resemblance over the human mind is very remarkable, especially when coincidence and resemblance are associated with traditional sayings and superstitions. Thirteen persons sit round a dinner table. When dinner is over the discovery is made that they were thirteen in number and the diners reflect that, according to the ancient fiction, one of them at least will die within the year. During the year one of them dies, as an insurance agent would have told them

It is almost, if not quite, impossible to acquire a right perspective of the position which the Celts occupy in British history without examining the incidence of that position and some of its relationships by the light of the results of modern archæological research. In Cornwall, as elsewhere, the prehistoric races which inhabited the county before the Celts appeared have left abundant evidence of their presence. That evidence, however, will be hard to discover in the warp and bent of character

Although much good work has been done and useful results have been obtained in many fields of research both by individual Cornishmen and by societies like the Royal Institution of Cornwall, there is one department at least which has been somewhat neglected by those for whom it might have been expected to possess a special attractiveness. The interest which of late years has been awakened in the Cornish language and in Celtic Christianity has not been the result of any revival in Cornwall itself.

By comparing the development of Christian institutions in the various portions of the Celtic world and observing those elements which were, for three centuries at least, characteristic, common and permanent, it ought to be possible to arrive at some very definite and useful results. It ought to be possible to supplement the evidence, supplied by writers like Gildas and the venerable Bede, and, from the common store of Celtic learning, acquired in Wales, Ireland and Brittany, to remedy our defect

The chief interest of Celtic Christianity gathers around the monastery-bishopric and the abbot-bishop who ruled it. In the sixth century the religious life had become much more than a counsel of perfection. In Ireland the Church was almost exclusively monastic. In Wales St. German is said to have founded a monastery during his second visit. Iltut, whom he ordained priest, was the founder of Llantwit, the great school of monks whence came Sampson, Paul Aurelian and possibly Gildas and David. At t

The Roman and, consequently, the Saxon conception of episcopal government was territorial and diocesan; the Celtic conception was tribal and monastic. An ecclesiastical system based upon tribal and monastic principles, recognising no supreme central authority, can afford to dispense with clearly defined boundaries. At the same time a monastic, no less than a tribal organisation, requires a centre of its own, towards which its activities may converge, and from which its influences may radiate. Th

In the first chapter it has been attempted to show how the tyranny of resemblance and coincidence leads to false analogies and wrong inferences. Some further illustrations of this principle which have a direct bearing upon the main purpose of the present enquiry may be found instructive. In this chapter we are not so much concerned with the Lives of the Cornish Saints, as they have come down to us, as with the question whether they had any actual existence as human beings at all. Of Ia, Uny, Den

A brief survey of the monastic and quasi-monastic foundations is required in order to determine if possible which of them, if any, were originally Celtic in character. It will suffice to take the Monasticon , as edited by Dr. Oliver, and to examine the charters and notes respecting the several houses and to check them by means of such other records as are available. Neither Sir William Dugdale nor Dr. Oliver distinguished between institutions which were Celtic and institutions which were the com

The subject of English hermits and anchorites has been so exhaustively dealt with by Miss Rotha M. Clay [95] that a writer may well hesitate before he ventures to enter upon a small portion of the ground which she has covered. Miss Clay has performed her task with great judgment, learning and literary skill and with consummate diligence. So conscientiously and so impartially has she performed her task that the reader will seek in vain to discover whether she is in full sympathy with the hermit’s

Terra Sancti Michahelis de Cornugallia. Sanctus Michahel habet unam mansionem quae vocatur Treiwal quam tenuit Brismarus eâ die qua rex Edwardus fuit vivus et mortuus. In ea sunt ii hidae terrae quae nonquam reddiderunt gildam. Has possunt arare viii carrucae. Ibi habet Sanctus Michahel i carrucam.... De hac mansione abstulit comes de Moritonio i de praedictis ii hidis quae erat de dominicatu beati Michahelis....

Sanctus Michael habet i mansionem quae vocatur Treiwal de qua abstulit comes de Moritonio i hidam, quae erat in dominicatu Sancti die qua rex Edwardus fuit vivus et mortuus....

Comes habet i mansionem quae vocatur Treuthal quam tenuit Brismarus sacerdos eâ die qua rex Edwardus fuit vivus et mortuus. In ea est i hida terrae et reddit gildum (sic) Sancto Michaele (sic). Hanc abstulit comes Sancto. Bluhidus Brito tenet eam de comite....

Terra Sancti Michaelis. Ecclesia Sancti Michaelis tenet Treiwal. Brismar tenebat tempore Regis Edwardi. Ibi sunt ii hidae quae nunquam geldaverunt.... De his ii hidis abstulit comes Moritoniensis i hidam....

Idem (Blohiu) tenet Trevthal. Brismar tenebat tempore Regis Edwardi.... Hanc terram abstulit comes aecclesiae Sancti Michaelis. The very title which introduces extract A is suggestive. The land of St. Michael “of Cornwall” implies another St. Michael just as “St. Ives in Cornwall” implies a St. Ives elsewhere. And it is this St. Michael of Cornwall and no other who “has one manor which is called Treiwal which Brismar held at the time of Edward the Confessor’s death. There are two hides of land w

Quadam autem die, cum per quendam pagum quem Tricurium vocant deambularet, audivit, ut verum esset, in sinistra parte de eo, homines baccantum ritu quoddam phanum per imaginariam ludum adorantes; atque ille annuens fratribus ut starent et silerent dumque quiete, et ipse de curru ad terram descendens et ad pedes stans, intendensque in his qui idolum colebant, vidit ante eos in cujusdam vertice montis, simulacrum abominabile adsistere; in quo monte et ego fui, signumque crucis quod sanctus Samson

Carta Edwardi regis Anglorum pro abbatiâ sancti Michaelis (Ex autographo apud S. Michaelem in Normannia). In nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, ego Edwardus Dei gratia Anglorum rex, dare volens pretium redemptionis animae meae, vel parentum meorum, sub consensu et testimonio bonorum virorum, tradidi sancto Michaeli archangelo in usum fratrum Deo servientium in eodem loco sanctum Michaelem qui est juxta mare, cum omnibus appendenciis, villis scilicet, castellis, agris et caeteris attinentib

Carta Roberti, Comitis, pro monachis S. Michaelis. In nomine sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Ego Robertus Dei gratiâ Moritonii comes, igne divini amoris succensus, notifico omnibus sanctae ecclesiae matris nostrae filiis, habens in bello sancti Michaelis vexillum, quoniam pro animae meae salute atque meae conjugis, seu pro salute, prosperitate, incolumitate Gulielmi gloriosissimi regis, atque pro adipiscendo vitae aeternae premio, do et concedo Montem

Prioratûs St. Michaelis in Cornubiâ constructio (Ex custumali Prioratûs de Otterton, fol. 58). Omnibus Sancte Dei ecclesie filiis notificare dignum duximus quod ecclesia beati Michaelis de Cornubia a venerabili Bernardo, ecclesie prefati archangeli de Periculo Maris abbate, in anno quo hominem exuit rex Henricus constructa, et in anno regis Stephani a religioso viro Roberto Exoniensi presule prestito abbate, qui presens aderat, id impetrante, Domino est consecrata. Idem vero abbas sagaci mente p