The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through
Wales
by Geraldus Cambrensis
Book I
Chapter II
Journey through Hay and Brecheinia
Having crossed the river Wye, we proceeded towards
Brecheinoc, and on preaching a sermon at Hay,27
we observed some amongst the multitude, who were to be
signed with the cross (leaving their garments in the hands
of their friends or wives, who endeavoured to keep them
back), fly for refuge to the archbishop in the castle. Early
in the morning we began our journey to Aberhodni, and the
word of the Lord being preached at Landeu,28
we there spent the night. The castle and chief town of the
province, situated where the river Hodni joins the river
Usk, is called Aberhodni;29
and every place where one river falls into another is called
Aber in the British tongue. Landeu signifies the church of
God. The archdeacon of that place (Giraldus) presented to
the archbishop his work on the Topography of Ireland, which
he graciously received, and either read or heard a part of
it read attentively every day during his journey; and on his
return to England completed the perusal of it.
I have determined not to omit
mentioning those occurrences worthy of note which happened
in these parts in our days. It came to pass before that
great war, in which nearly all this province was destroyed
by the sons of Jestin,30
that the large lake, and the river Leveni,31
which flows from it into the Wye, opposite
Glasbyry,32
were tinged with a deep green colour. The old people of the
country were consulted, and answered, that a short time
before the great desolation33
caused by Howel, son of Meredyth, the water had been
coloured in a similar manner. About the same time, a
chaplain, whose name was Hugo, being engaged to officiate at
the chapel of Saint Nicholas, in the castle of Aberhodni,
saw in a dream a venerable man standing near him, and
saying, "Tell thy lord William de Braose,34
who has the audacity to retain the property granted to the
chapel of Saint Nicholas for charitable uses, these words:
'The public treasury takes away that which Christ does not
receive; and thou wilt then give to an impious soldier, what
thou wilt not give to a priest.'" This vision having been
repeated three times, he went to the archdeacon of the
place, at Landeu, and related to him what had happened. The
archdeacon immediately knew them to be the words of
Augustine; and shewing him that part of his writings where
they were found, explained to him the case to which they
applied. He reproaches persons who held back tithes and
other ecclesiastical dues; and what he there threatens,
certainly in a short time befell this withholder of them:
for in our time we have duly and undoubtedly seen, that
princes who have usurped ecclesiastical benefices (and
particularly king Henry the Second, who laboured under this
vice more than others), have profusely squandered the
treasures of the church, and given away to hired soldiers
what in justice should have been given only to priests.
Yet something is to be said in favour of the aforesaid
William de Braose, although he greatly offended in this
particular (since nothing human is perfect, and to have
knowledge of all things, and in no point to err, is an
attribute of God, not of man); for he always placed the name
of the Lord before his sentences, saying, "Let this be done
in the name of the Lord; let that be done by God's will; if
it shall please God, or if God grant leave; it shall be so
by the grace of God." We learn from Saint Paul, that
everything ought thus to be committed and referred to the
will of God. On taking leave of his brethren, he says, "I
will return to you again, if God permit;" and Saint James
uses this expression, "If the Lord will, and we live," in
order to show that all things ought to be submitted to the
divine disposal. The letters also which William de Braose,
as a rich and powerful man, was accustomed to send to
different parts, were loaded, or rather honoured, with words
expressive of the divine indulgence to a degree not only
tiresome to his scribe, but even to his auditors; for as a
reward to each of his scribes for concluding his letters
with the words, "by divine assistance," he gave annually a
piece of gold, in addition to their stipend. When on a
journey he saw a church or a cross, although in the midst of
conversation either with his inferiors or superiors, from an
excess of devotion, he immediately began to pray, and when
he had finished his prayers, resumed his conversation. On
meeting boys in the way, he invited them by a previous
salutation to salute him, that the blessings of these
innocents, thus extorted, might be returned to him. His
wife, Matilda de Saint Valery, observed all these things: a
prudent and chaste woman; a woman placed with propriety at
the head of her house, equally attentive to the economical
disposal of her property within doors, as to the
augmentation of it without; both of whom, I hope, by their
devotion obtained temporal happiness and grace, as well as
the glory of eternity.
It happened also that the hand of a
boy, who was endeavouring to take some young pigeons from a
nest, in the church of Saint David of Llanvaes,35
adhered to the stone on which he leaned, through the
miraculous vengeance, perhaps, of that saint, in favour of
the birds who had taken refuge in his church; and when the
boy, attended by his friends and parents, had for three
successive days and nights offered up his prayers and
supplications before the holy altar of the church, his hand
was, on the third day, liberated by the same divine power
which had so miraculously fastened it. We saw this same boy
at Newbury, in England, now advanced in years, presenting
himself before David the Second,36
bishop of Saint David's, and certifying to him the truth of
this relation, because it had happened in his diocese. The
stone is preserved in the church to this day among the
relics, and the marks of the five fingers appear impressed
on the flint as though it were in wax.
A small miracle happened at St. Edmundsbury to a poor
woman, who often visited the shrine of the saint, under the
mask of devotion; not with the design of giving, but of
taking something away, namely, the silver and gold
offerings, which, by a curious kind of theft, she licked up
by kissing, and carried away in her mouth. But in one of
these attempts her tongue and lips adhered to the altar,
when by divine interposition she was detected, and openly
disgorged the secret theft. Many persons, both Jews and
Christians, expressing their astonishment, flocked to the
place, where for the greater part of the day she remained
motionless, that no possible doubt might be entertained of
the miracle.
In the north of England beyond the
Humber, in the church of Hovedene,37
the concubine of the rector incautiously sat down on the
tomb of St. Osana, sister of king Osred,38
which projected like a wooden seat; on wishing to retire,
she could not be removed, until the people came to her
assistance; her clothes were rent, her body was laid bare,
and severely afflicted with many strokes of discipline, even
till the blood flowed; nor did she regain her liberty, until
by many tears and sincere repentance she had showed evident
signs of compunction.
What miraculous power hath not in our
days been displayed by the psalter of Quindreda, sister of
St. Kenelm,39
by whose instigation he was killed? On the vigil of the
saint, when, according to custom, great multitudes of women
resorted to the feast at Winchelcumbe,40
the under butler of that convent committed fornication with
one of them within the precincts of the monastery. This same
man on the following day had the audacity to carry the
psalter in the procession of the relics of the saints; and
on his return to the choir, after the solemnity, the psalter
stuck to his hands. Astonished and greatly confounded, and
at length calling to his mind his crime on the preceding
day, he made confession, and underwent penance; and being
assisted by the prayers of the brotherhood, and having shown
signs of sincere contrition, he was at length liberated from
the miraculous bond. That book was held in great veneration;
because, when the body of St. Kenelm was carried forth, and
the multitude cried out, "He is the martyr of God! truly he
is the martyr of God!" Quindreda, conscious and guilty of
the murder of her brother, answered, "He is as truly the
martyr of God as it is true that my eyes be on that
psalter;" for, as she was reading the psalter, both her eyes
were miraculously torn from her head, and fell on the book,
where the marks of the blood yet remain.
Moreover I must not be silent
concerning the collar (torques) which they call St.
Canauc's;41
for it is most like to gold in weight, nature, and colour;
it is in four pieces wrought round, joined together
artificially, and clefted as it were in the middle, with a
dog's head, the teeth standing outward; it is esteemed by
the inhabitants so powerful a relic, that no man dares swear
falsely when it is laid before him: it bears the marks of
some severe blows, as if made with an iron hammer; for a
certain man, as it is said, endeavouring to break the collar
for the sake of the gold, experienced the divine vengeance,
was deprived of his eyesight, and lingered the remainder of
his days in darkness.
A similar circumstance concerning the horn of St. Patrick
(not golden indeed, but of brass [probably bronze],
which lately was brought into these parts from Ireland)
excites our admiration. The miraculous power of this relic
first appeared with a terrible example in that country,
through the foolish and absurd blowing of Bernard, a priest,
as is set forth in our Topography of Ireland. Both the laity
and clergy in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales held in such
great veneration portable bells, and staves crooked at the
top, and covered with gold, silver, or brass, and similar
relics of the saints, that they were much more afraid of
swearing falsely by them than by the gospels; because, from
some hidden and miraculous power with which they are gifted,
and the vengeance of the saint to whom they are particularly
pleasing, their despisers and transgressors are severely
punished. The most remarkable circumstance attending this
horn is, that whoever places the wider end of it to his ear
will hear a sweet sound and melody united, such as ariseth
from a harp gently touched.
In our days a strange occurrence
happened in the same district. A wild sow, which by chance
had been suckled by a bitch famous for her nose, became, on
growing up, so wonderfully active in the pursuit of wild
animals, that in the faculty of scent she was greatly
superior to dogs, who are assisted by natural instinct, as
well as by human art; an argument that man (as well as every
other animal) contracts the nature of the female who nurses
him. Another prodigious event came to pass nearly at the
same time. A soldier, whose name was Gilbert Hagernel, after
an illness of nearly three years, and the severe pains as of
a woman in labour, in the presence of many people, voided a
calf. A portent of some new and unusual event, or rather the
punishment attendant on some atrocious crime. It appears
also from the ancient and authentic records of those parts,
that during the time St. Elwitus42
led the life of a hermit at Llanhamelach,43
the mare that used to carry his provisions to him was
covered by a stag, and produced an animal of wonderful
speed, resembling a horse before and a stag behind.
Bernard de Newmarch44
was the first of the Normans who acquired by conquest from
the Welsh this province, which was divided into three
cantreds.45
He married the daughter of Nest, daughter of Gruffydd, son
of Llewelyn, who, by his tyranny, for a long time had
oppressed Wales; his wife took her mother's name of Nest,
which the English transmuted into Anne; by whom he had
children, one of whom, named Mahel, a distinguished soldier,
was thus unjustly deprived of his paternal inheritance. His
mother, in violation of the marriage contract, held an
adulterous intercourse with a certain knight; on the
discovery of which, the son met the knight returning in the
night from his mother, and having inflicted on him a severe
corporal punishment, and mutilated him, sent him away with
great disgrace. The mother, alarmed at the confusion which
this event caused, and agitated with grief, breathed nothing
but revenge. She therefore went to king Henry I., and
declared with assertions more vindictive than true, and
corroborated by an oath, that her son Mahel was not the son
of Bernard, but of another person with whom she had been
secretly connected. Henry, on account of this oath, or
rather perjury, and swayed more by his inclination than by
reason, gave away her eldest daughter, whom she owned as the
legitimate child of Bernard, in marriage to Milo
Fitz-Walter,46
constable of Gloucester, with the honour of Brecheinoc as a
portion; and he was afterwards created earl of Hereford by
the empress Matilda, daughter of the said king. By this wife
he had five celebrated warriors; Roger, Walter, Henry,
William, and Mahel; all of whom, by divine vengeance, or by
fatal misfortunes, came to untimely ends; and yet each of
them, except William, succeeded to the paternal inheritance,
but left no issue. Thus this woman (not deviating from the
nature of her sex), in order to satiate her anger and
revenge, with the heavy loss of modesty, and with the
disgrace of infamy, by the same act deprived her son of his
patrimony, and herself of honour. Nor is it wonderful if a
woman follows her innate bad disposition: for it is written
in Ecclesiastes, "I have found one good man out of a
thousand, but not one good woman;" and in Ecclesiasticus,
"There is no head above the head of a serpent; and there is
no wrath above the wrath of a woman;" and again, "Small is
the wickedness of man compared to the wickedness of woman."
And in the same manner, as we may gather grapes off thorns,
or figs off thistles, Tully, describing the nature of women,
says, "Men, perhaps, for the sake of some advantage will
commit one crime; but woman, to gratify one inclination,
will not scruple to perpetrate all sorts of wickedness."
Thus Juvenal, speaking of women, say,
" - Nihil est audacior illis
Deprensis, iram atque animos a crimine sumunt.
- Mulier saevissima tunc est
Cum stimulos animo pudor admovet.
- colllige, quod vindicta
Nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.
But of the five above-mentioned
brothers and sons of earl Milo, the youngest but one, and
the last in the inheritance, was the most remarkable for his
inhumanity; he persecuted David II., bishop of St. David's,
to such a degree, by attacking his possessions, lands, and
vassals, that he was compelled to retire as an exile from
the district of Brecheinoc into England, or to some other
parts of his diocese. Meanwhile, Mahel, being hospitably
entertained by Walter de Clifford,47
in the castle of Brendlais,48
the house was by accident burned down, and he received a
mortal blow by a stone falling from the principal tower on
his head: upon which he instantly dispatched messengers to
recal the bishop, and exclaimed with a lamentable voice, "O,
my father and high priest, your saint has taken most cruel
vengeance of me, not waiting the conversion of a sinner, but
hastening his death and overthrow." Having often repeated
similar expressions, and bitterly lamented his situation, he
thus ended his tyranny and life together; the first year of
his government not having elapsed.
A powerful and noble personage, by
name Brachanus, was in ancient times the ruler of the
province of Brecheinoc, and from him it derived this name.
The British histories testify that he had four- and-twenty
daughters, all of whom, dedicated from their youth to
religious observances, happily ended their lives in
sanctity. There are many churches in Wales distinguished by
their names, one of which, situated on the summit of a hill,
near Brecheinoc, and not far from the castle of Aberhodni,
is called the church of St. Almedda,49
after the name of the holy virgin, who, refusing there the
hand of an earthly spouse, married the Eternal King, and
triumphed in a happy martyrdom; to whose honour a solemn
feast is annually held in the beginning of August, and
attended by a large concourse of people from a considerable
distance, when those persons who labour under various
diseases, through the merits of the Blessed Virgin, received
their wished-for health. The circumstances which occur at
every anniversary appear to me remarkable. You may see men
or girls, now in the church, now in the churchyard, now in
the dance, which is led round the churchyard with a song, on
a sudden falling on the ground as in a trance, then jumping
up as in a frenzy, and representing with their hands and
feet, before the people, whatever work they have unlawfully
done on feast days; you may see one man put his hand to the
plough, and another, as it were, goad on the oxen,
mitigating their sense of labour, by the usual rude
song:50
one man imitating the profession of a shoemaker; another,
that of a tanner. Now you may see a girl with a distaff,
drawing out the thread, and winding it again on the spindle;
another walking, and arranging the threads for the web;
another, as it were, throwing the shuttle, and seeming to
weave. On being brought into the church, and led up to the
altar with their oblations, you will be astonished to see
them suddenly awakened, and coming to themselves. Thus, by
the divine mercy, which rejoices in the conversion, not in
the death, of sinners, many persons from the conviction of
their senses, are on these feast days corrected and
mended.
This country sufficiently abounds with
grain, and if there is any deficiency, it is amply supplied
from the neighbouring parts of England; it is well stored
with pastures, woods, and wild and domestic animals.
River-fish are plentiful, supplied by the Usk on one side,
and by the Wye on the other; each of them produces salmon
and trout; but the Wye abounds most with the former, the Usk
with the latter. The salmon of the Wye are in season during
the winter, those of the Usk in summer; but the Wye alone
produces the fish called umber,51
the praise of which is celebrated in the works of Ambrosius,
as being found in great numbers in the rivers near Milan;
"What," says he, "is more beautiful to behold, more
agreeable to smell, or more pleasant to taste?" The famous
lake of Brecheinoc supplies the country with pike, perch,
excellent trout, tench, and eels. A circumstance concerning
this lake, which happened a short time before our days, must
not be passed over in silence. "In the reign of king Henry
I., Gruffydd,52
son of Rhys ap Tewdwr, held under the king one comot,
namely, the fourth part of the cantred of Caoc,53
in the cantref Mawr, which, in title and dignity, was
esteemed by the Welsh equal to the southern part of Wales,
called Deheubarth, that is, the right-hand side of Wales.
When Gruffydd, on his return from the king's court, passed
near this lake, which at that cold season of the year was
covered with water-fowl of various sorts, being accompanied
by Milo, earl of Hereford, and lord of Brecheinoc, and Payn
Fitz-John, lord of Ewyas, who were at that time secretaries
and privy counsellors to the king; earl Milo, wishing to
draw forth from Gruffydd some discourse concerning his
innate nobility, rather jocularly than seriously thus
addressed him: "It is an ancient saying in Wales, that if
the natural prince of the country, coming to this lake,
shall order the birds to sing, they will immediately obey
him." To which Gruffydd, richer in mind than in gold, (for
though his inheritance was diminished, his ambition and
dignity still remained), answered, "Do you therefore, who
now hold the dominion of this land, first give the command;"
but he and Payn having in vain commanded, and Gruffydd,
perceiving that it was necessary for him to do so in his
turn, dismounted from his horse, and falling on his knees
towards the east, as if he had been about to engage in
battle, prostrate on the ground, with his eyes and hands
uplifted to heaven, poured forth devout prayers to the Lord:
at length, rising up, and signing his face and forehead with
the figure of the cross, he thus openly spake: "Almighty
God, and Lord Jesus Christ, who knowest all things, declare
here this day thy power. If thou hast caused me to descend
lineally from the natural princes of Wales, I command these
birds in thy name to declare it;" and immediately the birds,
beating the water with their wings, began to cry aloud, and
proclaim him. The spectators were astonished and confounded;
and earl Milo hastily returning with Payn Fitz-John to
court, related this singular occurrence to the king, who is
said to have replied, "By the death of Christ (an oath he
was accustomed to use), it is not a matter of so much
wonder; for although by our great authority we commit acts
of violence and wrong against these people, yet they are
known to be the rightful inheritors of this land."
The lake also54
(according to the testimony of the inhabitants) is
celebrated for its miracles; for, as we have before
observed, it sometimes assumed a greenish hue, so in our
days it has appeared to be tinged with red, not universally,
but as if blood flowed partially through certain veins and
small channels. Moreover it is sometimes seen by the
inhabitants covered and adorned with buildings, pastures,
gardens, and orchards. In the winter, when it is frozen
over, and the surface of the water is converted into a shell
of ice, it emits a horrible sound resembling the moans of
many animals collected together; but this, perhaps, may be
occasioned by the sudden bursting of the shell, and the
gradual ebullition of the air through imperceptible
channels. This country is well sheltered on every side
(except the northern) by high mountains; on the western by
those of cantref Bychan;55
on the southern, by that range, of which the principal is
Cadair Arthur,56
or the chair of Arthur, so called from two peaks rising up
in the form of a chair, and which, from its lofty situation,
is vulgarly ascribed to Arthur, the most distinguished king
of the Britons. A spring of water rises on the summit of
this mountain, deep, but of a square shape, like a well, and
although no stream runs from it, trout are said to be
sometimes found in it.
Being thus sheltered on the south by
high mountains, the cooler breezes protect this district
from the heat of the sun, and, by their natural salubrity,
render the climate most temperate. Towards the east are the
mountains of Talgarth and Ewyas.57
The natives of these parts, actuated by continual enmities
and implacable hatred, are perpetually engaged in bloody
contests. But we leave to others to describe the great and
enormous excesses, which in our time have been here
committed, with regard to marriages, divorces, and many
other circumstances of cruelty and oppression.
The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through
Wales
by Geraldus Cambrensis
Chapter I
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