The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through
Wales
by Geraldus Cambrensis
Book I
Chapter XI
Of Haverford and Ros
A sermon having been delivered at Haverford106
by the archbishop, and the word of God preached to the
people by the archdeacon, whose name appears on the
title-page of this work, many soldiers and plebeians were
induced to take the cross. It appeared wonderful and
miraculous, that, although the archdeacon addressed them
both in the Latin and French tongues, those persons who
understood neither of those languages were equally affected,
and flocked in great numbers to the cross.
An old woman of those parts, who for three preceding
years had been blind, having heard of the archbishop's
arrival, sent her son to the place where the sermon was to
be preached, that he might bring back to her some particle,
if only of the fringe of his garment. The young man being
prevented by the crowd from approaching the archbishop,
waited till the assembly was dispersed, and then carried a
piece of the earth on which the preacher had stood. The
mother received the gift with great joy, and falling
immediately on her knees, applied the turf to her mouth and
eyes; and thus, through the merits of the holy man, and her
own faith and devotion, recovered the blessing of sight,
which she had entirely lost.
The inhabitants of this province derived their origin
from Flanders, and were sent by king Henry I. to inhabit
these districts; a people brave and robust, ever most
hostile to the Welsh; a people, I say, well versed in
commerce and woollen manufactories; a people anxious to seek
gain by sea or land, in defiance of fatigue and danger; a
hardy race, equally fitted for the plough or the sword; a
people brave and happy, if Wales (as it ought to have been)
had been dear to its sovereign, and had not so frequently
experienced the vindictive resentment and ill-treatment of
its governors.
A circumstance happened in the castle of Haverford during
our time, which ought not to be omitted. A famous robber was
fettered and confined in one of its towers, and was often
visited by three boys, the son of the earl of Clare, and two
others, one of whom was son of the lord of the castle, and
the other his grandson, sent thither for their education,
and who applied to him for arrows, with which he used to
supply them. One day, at the request of the children, the
robber, being brought from his dungeon, took advantage of
the absence of the gaoler, closed the door, and shut himself
up with the boys. A great clamour instantly arose, as well
from the boys within, as from the people without; nor did he
cease, with an uplifted axe, to threaten the lives of the
children, until indemnity and security were assured to him
in the most ample manner. A similar accident happened at
Chateau-roux in France. The lord of that place maintained in
the castle a man whose eyes he had formerly put out, but
who, by long habit, recollected the ways of the castle, and
the steps leading to the towers. Seizing an opportunity of
revenge, and meditating the destruction of the youth, he
fastened the inward doors of the castle, and took the only
son and heir of the governor of the castle to the summit of
a high tower, from whence he was seen with the utmost
concern by the people beneath. The father of the boy
hastened thither, and, struck with terror, attempted by
every possible means to procure the ransom of his son, but
received for answer, that this could not be effected, but by
the same mutilation of those lower parts, which he had
likewise inflicted on him. The father, having in vain
entreated mercy, at length assented, and caused a violent
blow to be struck on his body; and the people around him
cried out lamentably, as if he had suffered mutilation. The
blind man asked him where he felt the greatest pain? when he
replied in his reins, he declared it was false and prepared
to precipitate the boy. A second blow was given, and the
lord of the castle asserting that the greatest pains were at
his heart, the blind man expressing his disbelief, again
carried the boy to the summit of the tower. The third time,
however, the father, to save his son, really mutilated
himself; and when he exclaimed that the greatest pain was in
his teeth; "It is true," said he, "as a man who has had
experience should be believed, and thou hast in part
revenged my injuries. I shall meet death with more
satisfaction, and thou shalt neither beget any other son,
nor receive comfort from this." Then, precipitating himself
and the boy from the summit of the tower, their limbs were
broken, and both instantly expired. The knight ordered a
monastery to be built on the spot for the soul of the boy,
which is still extant, and called De Doloribus.
It appears remarkable to me that the
entire inheritance should devolve on Richard, son of
Tankard, governor of the aforesaid castle of Haverford,
being the youngest son, and having many brothers of
distinguished character who died before him. In like manner
the dominion of South Wales descended to Rhys son of
Gruffyd, owing to the death of several of his brothers.
During the childhood of Richard, a holy man, named Caradoc,
led a pious and recluse life at St. Ismael, in the province
of Ros,107
to whom the boy was often sent by his parents with
provisions, and he so ingratiated himself in the eyes of the
good man, that he very often promised him, together with his
blessing, the portion of all his brothers, and the paternal
inheritance. It happened that Richard, being overtaken by a
violent storm of rain, turned aside to the hermit's cell;
and being unable to get his hounds near him, either by
calling, coaxing, or by offering them food, the holy man
smiled; and making a gentle motion with his hand, brought
them all to him immediately. In process of time, when
Caradoc108
had happily completed the course of his existence, Tankard,
father of Richard, violently detained his body, which by his
last will he had bequeathed to the church of St. David; but
being suddenly seized with a severe illness, he revoked his
command. When this had happened to him a second and a third
time, and the corpse at last was suffered to be conveyed
away, and was proceeding over the sands of Niwegal towards
St. David's, a prodigious fall of rain inundated the whole
country; but the conductors of the sacred burthen, on coming
forth from their shelter, found the silken pall, with which
the bier was covered, dry and uninjured by the storm; and
thus the miraculous body of Caradoc was brought into the
church of St. Andrew and St. David, and with due solemnity
deposited in the left aisle, near the altar of the holy
proto-martyr Stephen.
It is worthy of remark, that these
people (the Flemings), from the inspection of the right
shoulders of rams, which have been stripped of their flesh,
and not roasted, but boiled, can discover future events, or
those which have passed and remained long unknown.109
They know, also, what is transpiring at a distant place, by
a wonderful art, and a prophetic kind of spirit. They
declare, also, by means of signs, the undoubted symptoms of
approaching peace and war, murders and fires, domestic
adulteries, the state of the king, his life and death. It
happened in our time, that a man of those parts, whose name
was William Mangunel, a person of high rank, and excelling
all others in the aforesaid art, had a wife big with child
by her own husband's grandson. Well aware of the fact, he
ordered a ram from his own flock to be sent to his wife, as
a present from her neighbour, which was carried to the cook,
and dressed. At dinner, the husband purposely gave the
shoulder-bone of the ram, properly cleaned, to his wife, who
was also well skilled in this art, for her examination;
when, having for a short time examined the secret marks, she
smiled, and threw the oracle down on the table. Her husband,
dissembling, earnestly demanded the cause of her smiling,
and the explanation of the matter. Overcome by his
entreaties, she answered: "The man to whose fold this ram
belongs, has an adulterous wife, at this time pregnant by
the commission of incest with his own grandson." The
husband, with a sorrowful and dejected countenance, replied:
"You deliver, indeed, an oracle supported by too much truth,
which I have so much more reason to lament, as the ignominy
you have published redounds to my own injury." The woman,
thus detected, and unable to dissemble her confusion,
betrayed the inward feelings of her mind by external signs;
shame and sorrow urging her by turns, and manifesting
themselves, now by blushes, now by paleness, and lastly
(according to the custom of women), by tears. The shoulder
of a goat was also once brought to a certain person, instead
of a ram's - both being alike, when cleaned; who, observing
for a short time the lines and marks, exclaimed, "Unhappy
cattle, that never was multiplied! unhappy, likewise, the
owner of the cattle, who never had more than three or four
in one flock!" Many persons, a year and a half before the
event, foresaw, by the means of shoulder-bones, the
destruction of their country, after the decease of king
Henry I., and, selling all their possessions, left their
homes, and escaped the impending ruin.
It happened also in Flanders, from whence this people
came, that a certain man sent a similar bone to a neighbour
for his inspection; and the person who carried it, on
passing over a ditch, broke wind, and wished it in the
nostrils of the man on whose account he was thus troubled.
The person to whom the bone was taken, on examination, said,
"May you have in your own nose, that which you wished to be
in mine." In our time, a soothsayer, on the inspection of a
bone, discovered not only a theft, and the manner of it, but
the thief himself, and all the attendant circumstances; he
heard also the striking of a bell, and the sound of a
trumpet, as if those things which were past were still
performing. It is wonderful, therefore, that these bones,
like all unlawful conjurations, should represent, by a
counterfeit similitude to the eyes and ears, things which
are passed, as well as those which are now going on.
The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through
Wales
by Geraldus Cambrensis
Chapter X
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