each of these cotemporary saints and martyrs a church was dedicated. One accompanied by an order of nuns; another by a house of regular Cistertian canons; and a third was honoured with the metropolitan see of Wales. The remains of the monastery may still be traced in an old house inhabited by Miss Morgan, and the quadrangle round which the different buildings were arranged is still visible.

Here were buried the above mentioned holy men, who suffered martyrdom under the persecuting reign of the sanguinary Dioclesian. This was also the birth place of the great Amphibulus, tutor to the cotemporary martyr Stelban. It is an observation furnished us by the records of the church, that the blood of the martyrs appeared like the seed of saints; and its truth was confirmed by their increase after every persecution. After that time, notorious for its extent and cruelty, Caerleon increased in learning, consequence, and piety. When the Saxons invaded this country, the university was in so flourishing a condition, as to contain, among numerous other students, two hundred philosophers well skilled in geography and astronomy. (Vid. A. Elsebensis.) It has been observed that St. David, uncle to king Arthur, with the consent of his nephew, removed the metropolitan see to Menevia, since called after his name Ty Dewi or St. David's. But it is probable from history that St. David was bishop of Menevia prior to this event; for we are informed by Gyraldus, that Dubricius was archbishop of Caerleon, and re

signed the metropolitan jurisdiction in favour of St. David; which was consequently transferred to MeDevia. The virulent doctrines of Pelagius, a petulant Monk of Bangor, propagated by many of a similar disposition, began to spread their deleterious effects through the flock of Christ, both here and on the Continent; and their baleful effluvia, mingling with the waters of truth, were rapidly poisoning the streams of the gospel; and threatened to contaminate the fountain itself. To resist their pernicious influence, a synod of the clergy was held at Llan dewi brevi in Cardiganshire, where the British bishops, assisted by Germanus and Lupus, two Gaulish prelates, delegates to the synod, summoned the Heresiarch and his coadjutors to a public disputation, on the different points of heretical innovation; when St. David, it is reported, not only confuted the heretical doctrines by a strain of masterly reasoning and irresistible argument; but gave an additional sanction to the orthodox tenets by the performance of miracles. The Pelagian heresy was now likely to be extirpated; but as the strongest party had been worsted in argument, they would naturally endeavour to repair their disaster, and cover their disgrace by having recourse to the common defence of an untenable cause, revenge and persecution. Many of the orthodox and pious clergy, intimidated by the boldness and insolence of their adversaries, relinquished their stations and lived in retirement, where, unmolested, they might enjoy the comforts arising from the doctrines of Christianity. It was on this

occasion that Dubricius resigned the archiepiscopal chair to St. David, and advised him with the consent of his uncle to transfer the metropolitan scat from the corrupted and heretical city of Caerleon to the more peaceful and orthodox city of Menevia. Of this persecution and the retirement of Dubricius, notice is taken in a poem of Aneurin, a British bard of high antiquity.

I am apprehensive that I shall weary you with my delay at this place, but it would be impossible for a mind alive to recollection to pass Caerleon, without recurring to the days, when lived that celebrated subject of British prowess and valour King Arthur: who here kept his festive court, and whose memory is highly venerated, and eminently conspicuous in the traditions of the country. This was the theatre of his first atchievements against the Saxons, and here, on his return from various successes, they were celebrated in songs of victory. I am aware that it has been fashionable to doubt, if not deny, whether eyer such a hero existed: and where historic testimony is disregarded, a doubt will as easily obliterate a prince from the calendar, as a conjecture raise up another in his stead. The spirit of party was early discoverable in chronicles, as well as camps; and historians, like the schoolmen, appear to have delighted in traversing the pro and con with regard to the very plainest facts. While the Saxons endeavoured to disannul the records of the Welsh, the Welsh rejected the testimony of the Saxons so that between them unexceptionable record was drawn to

46 Doubts of the Authenticity of K. Arthur's Hist.

a very slender thread; and the pages of history reduced to a carte blanche, in which every sceptical writer might have sufficient room to state his objections, and transcribe his doubts. Lord Lyttelton, following the historic scepticism of Milton, appears to have done all in his power to erase the name of this noble Briton from the annals of fame. These two historians of opposite principles, though united on this occasion, seem to have been determined to establish a new series of history. For this purpose they proceed in a retrograde road to every species of probable evidence, as contained in British, Irish, Scottish, or even English history. It might flatter the vanity of the English, at the expense of the Welsh; and too much could not be bestowed on such a subject. For the Welsh had offended Milton by their unshaken loyalty to the unfortunate and injured Charles. And the historian of the reign of Henry the II. consulted only one side of the question, being ignorant of the language and history of the Welsh. His admiration of Saxon writers must consequently have given a considerable bias to the historic pen. * It is but just, however, to observe,

* It is no new thing for facts to be buried or strongly misstated in the prejudice of the historian, or distorted in their features by the eloquence of diction. Strabo relates a case in point among the Grecians. Lysimachus had been an attendant upon Alexander during the whole series of his conquests in Asia: there had been nothing of moment transacted in the success of which he had not partaken. Yet even in his days, when he was king of Thrace, the accounts of those great actions had been so misrepresented, that when a history of them had been read in his presence, they seemed quite new to him. It is all

that all that could be done was done on this occasion, and that they might adopt the language of Æneas over fallen Troy :

"Sat patriæ Priamoque datum si Pergama dextrâ

Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent."

But facts should not thus be tamely given up without stronger objections. Let us examine their validity.

After the relinquishment of this island by the Romans, the Britons, often disunited among themselves, and accustomed to depend upon the Koman military establishment for their protection, found themselves invaded in different quarters by numerous warlike hordes, that issued from the north of Europe, whose trade was war and their object plunder. However, the Britons in this distress had recourse to the usual plan in cases of danger, agreeably to their primitive constitution: that of electing some warlike prince as Pendragon or king of all Britain, under whom they might unite in their common defence. On the death of Vortigern, Ambrosius was called to the pendragonate by a general synod. About this .time Arthur was born at Tindagel in Cornwall: the son of Uther of the Cinethian line of British princes; and on the demise of his father and his elder brother

very fine, says the prince, but where was I when all this happened? There was a series of events exhibited in a way, in which the principal actor and the person most interested was the least acquainted.

Indeed the Welsh may apply to the English relators what Juvenal observed of Greece, so far as respects them:

"quicquid Anglia mendax

Audet in Historia."