Description Of A Monastery

Stat autem in valle de Ewyas profundissima, quantum sagittae est jactus arcu emissae, montibus ethereis orbiculariter undique conclusa, ecclesia Sancti Joannis Baptisae, plumbeis laminis operta, lapideo tabulatu pro loci natura non indecenter extructa; in loco videlicet ubi paupercula prius Sancti David Archiepiscopi capella steterat, musco silvesti solum et hedrae nexibus adornata. Vere religioni locus idoneus, et disciplinae canonicae prae cunctis insulae Britannicae coenobiis competentissimus, a duobus eremitis in honorem eremiticae vitae primo fundatus, ab omni populari strepitu in solitudine quadam longe remotus, super fluvium Hodeni per vallis ima labentis situs: unde ab Hodeni Lanhodeni dictus. Lan enim locus ecclesiasticus sonat, exquisitus tamen dici potest, quod propria loci illius nuncupatio Cambrice est Nanthodeni. Nant etenim rivus dicitur aquae decurrentis, unde usque hodie ab accolis locus iste lingua Cambrica Landewi Nanthodeni vocatur, id est, ecclesia Davidis super rivum Hodeni. Corrupte igitur Angli Lanthoni per N et, t, id est, rivus Hodeni, vel Lanhodeni, per L sine t, id est, ecclesia Hodeni, dici deberet. Pluviae quas montana creant hic creberrimae, venti pervalidi, nebulae sub bruma fere continuae; et tamen aeris quanto obtusioris tanto benignioris et clementioris salubri temperantia: morbi rarissimi, adeo quidem ut fratres apud filiam diutino labore consumpti et desperabiliter afflicti, tanquam ad salubre remedium et unicum sospitatis asylum ad matris ubera translati optatae sanitati restituantur. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriae, Liber I, Caput III, De Ewyas at Lanthoni Source: Here, p27

In the very deep valley of Ewyas, shut in on all sides by encircling lofty mountains, and no more wide than three arrow shots from a bow, stands the church of Saint John the Baptist. It is covered with a roof of lead and built of squared stones, well suited to the nature of the place. It is on the same spot where once stood a chapel of Saint David, the archbishop, which was adorned with woodland moss and wreathes of ivy. Truly the place is very fitting for piety and better for canonical discipline than any other monastery in the island of Britain. It was first founded by two hermits in honour of the eremitical life, in solitude, far distant from all common bustle, set on the bank of the Honddu river, deep in the valley where the river flows, whence it is called Llanhonddu from the river, with 'Llan' meaning the place of a church. This may seem strange because the name of the place is called Nanthonddu in Welsh, where 'Nant' means a stream of flowing water, and the place is still called Llanddewi Nanthonddu by the locals, that is the Church of David on the river Honddu, but the English tongue has corrupted it to Lanthony, though it should be called Nant Honddu with an N and t that is Honddu stream, or Llanhonddu with an L but no t, that is, the church on the Honddu. Because of the mountains there is a large amount of rain and the winds are strong, and in winter clouds continually cover the peaks, and yet as much as the air is heavy, it is soothing and clement, and the climate is healthy, with illness being very rare, so that when brothers afflicted and worn out by long labours in the daughter houses are brought back to their mother's breasts, they are quickly restored, for this is their wholesome cure and sole retreat and sanctuary Gerald of Wales, The Journey Through Wales, Book 1, Chapter 3, On Ewyas And Llanthony

A Notable Church

Notandum autem, quod haec ecclesia, sicut et aliae per Hiberniam et Walliam plures, abbatem laicum habet. Usus enim inolevit et prava consuetudo, ut viri in parochia potentes, primo tanquam oeconomi seu potius ecclesiarum patroni et defensores a clero constituti: postea processu temporis aucta cupidine totum sibi jus usurparent, et terras omnes cum exteriore possessione sibi impudenter appropriarent, solum altaria cum decimis et obventionibus clero relinquentes; et haec ipsa filiis suis clericis et cognatis assignantes. Tales itaque defensores seu potius ecclesiarum destructores abbates se vocari fecere, et tam nomen indebitum quam rem quoque sibi assignari praesumpsere. In hoc statu ecclesiam hanc invenimus capite destitutam, veteri quodam et inveterato dierum malorum, cui nomen Eden Oen filius Gwaithvoed, se abbatem gerente, et filiis ejusdem altari incumbentibus. Tempore tamen Regis Henrici Primi Anglorum potestate per Cambriam vigente, coenobium S. Petri Gloverniae, praedictam ecclesiam quiete possedit ; sed post obitum regis ejusdem, Anglis expulsis, monachi quoque sunt ejecti, et more praefato tam clerici interius quam laici exterius violenter intrusi. Contigit autem regnante Stephano, qui successit Henrico Primo, militem quendam de Armorica oriundum Britannia, peragratis regionibus multis, ut variarum gentium tam urbes quam mores discerneret, huc tandem forte fortuitu advectum esse; cum itaque die quodam festivo ad missae celebrationem adventum abbatis tam clerus quam populus expectaret, demum abbati venienti cum aliis occursans, vidit turbam juvenum venire circiter viginti more gentis expeditam, et armis munitam: cumque quaerenti, quisnam illorum abbas esset, virum quendam ostenderent cum lancea longa praecedentem: intuens in eum, et admirans ait: Nunquid alium habitum aliumve baculum abbas iste, quam illum, quem nunc praefert, habet? Responderunt, Nequaquam. At ille: Sat, inquit, hodie novitatis vidi, satque miraculi jam audivi. Et ab illa statim hora reversus finem labori posuit et explorationi. Jactat autem gens haec et generatio prava, episcopum quendam ecclesiae istius, quia cathedralis aliquando fuerat, a decessoribus suis interemptum; et hac praecipue allegatione in loco eodemjus sibi vendicant et proprietatem. Elegimus itaque has potius enormitates ad praesens sub dissimulatione transire, quam, nullo ibidem querimoniam deponente, gentem iniquam exasperare. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriae, Liber II Caput IV Source: Here, p45-46

It is notable that the church at Llanbardarn Fawr, like many others in Ireland and Wales, has a lay abbot, for a bad custom has prevailed among the clergy of appointing the most powerful men of a parish as stewards, or, rather, patrons and protectors of the churches, who later, with a growing desire for gain, have usurped all rights and insolently appropriated for themselves the possession of all the land, leaving only the altars, with their tenths and oblations, to the clergy, and even assigning these to their sons and other family members attached to the church. Such defenders, or rather destroyers, of the churches, have made themselves be called abbots and presumed to attach to themselves a title, as well as estates. In this condition, without a head, we found the church of Llanbadarn. A certain old man, grown old in wickedness, whose name was Edynwain son of Gwaithfoeth, was abbot and his sons officiated at the altar. But in the time of Henry the First, when the power of the English prevailed throughout Wales, the monastery of Saint Peter of Gloucester held peaceful possession of the church, until with the death of that king, the English were expelled and the monks driven off, and their places were taken by the violent intrusion of native clergy and laymen, as had formerly been the case. In the reign of Stephen, who succeeded Henry the First, a knight who had been born in Brittany and who had travelled in many lands out of a desire to see the cities and ways of living of various peoples, came by chance to this place, and on a certain feast day when the clergy and people were awaiting the arrival of the abbot with others for the celebration of Mass, looking on a crowd of about twenty youths nearing the church who were armed according to the manner of their people, he asked which one of them was the abbot and was shown that it was the man walking at the front bearing a long spear. Staring at him in amazement, he said: 'Does this abbot have no other garments or staff but the one he bears before him now?' They answered, 'Not at all.' And he said: 'I have certainly seen a novelty today and now I have heard of a wonder.' And at that hour he returned home and put an end to his labours and travelling. This wicked people and generation boasts that a certain bishop of this church, for it was once a cathedral, was murdered by his predecessors, and it is especially on this that they base their claims for right and possession. At the time, since no public complaint had been made, we chose to pass over their enormities, lest we exasperate a wicked people. Gerald of Wales, The Journey Through Wales, Book 2, Chapter 4

Seeing Demons

Notandum autem, quod in his urbis legionum partibus fuit diebus nostris vir quidam Cambrensis, cui nomen Melerius, futurorum simul et occultorum scientiam habens, cui talis hanc eventus scientiam dedit. Nocte quadam scilicet Ramis Palmarum, puellam diu ante adamatam obviam habens loco amoeno, et ut videbatur opportuno, desideratis amplexibus atque delitiis cum indulsisset, statim loco puellae formosae formam quandam villosam, hispidam et hirsutam, adeoque enormiter deformem invenit, quod in ipso ejusdem aspectu dementire coepit et insanire. Cumque pluribus id annis ei durasset, tandem in ecclesia Menensi meritis Sanctorum loci ejusdem, optatam sanitatem recuperavit. Semper tamen cum spiritibus immundis magnam et mirandam familiaritatem habens, eosdem videndo, cognoscendo, colloquendo, propriisque nominibus singulos nominando, ipsorum ministerio plerunque futura praedicebat. In longe vero futuris atque remotis, sicut et ipsi, frequentius fallebatur, in propinquioribus 'autem et quasi infra annum futuris minus falli consueverat. Videbat autem eos fere semper pedites et expeditos, et quasi sub forma venatorum, cornu a collo suspensum habentes, et vere venatores non ferarum tamen nec animalium, sed animarum. Circa monasteria quoque, et loca religiosa magis eos et in multitudine majori videri solebat; ibi nimirum exercitu: ibi numerosis opus est viribus, ubi rebellio. Quoties autem falsum coram ipso ab aliquo dicebatur, id statim agnoscebat, videbat enim super linguam mentientis daemonem quasi salientem et exultantem. Librum quoque mendosum, et vel falso scriptum, vel falsum etiam in se continentem inspiciens, statim, licet illiteratus omnino fuisset, ad locum mendacii digitum ponebat. Interrogatus autem, qualiter hoc nosset, dicebat daemonem ad locum eundem digitum suum primo porrigere: similiter et dormitorium monasterii cuilibet intrando, lectum monachi falsi, et religionem habitu, non animo praeferentis, eisdem indiciis ostendebat; dicebat autem spiritum gulositatis et crapulae supra et infra sordidum esse: spiritum vero libidinis et luxuriae pulchriorem aliis, sed foetidissimum. Contigit aliquando, spiritibus immundis nimis eidem insultantibus, ut Evangelium Johannis ejus in gremio poneretur, qui statim tanquam aves evolantes omnes penitus evanuerunt: quo sublato postmodum, et historia Britonum a Galfrido Arthuro tractata experiendi causa loco ejusdem subrogata, non solum corpori ipsius toti, sed etiam libro superposito longe solito crebrius et tediosius insederunt. Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriae, Liber I Caput V Source: Here, p45-46

One must note that in our days there lived in the neighbourhood of the City of the Legions, 1 a Welshman named Meilyr, who had knowledge of future events and hidden things, to whom this knowledge came during the following incident. On a certain night, that of Palm Sunday, in a pleasant and convenient place, he met a girl whom he had long loved, and while he was indulging in the desired and delightful embraces, suddenly, instead of a beautiful girl, he found himself with a hairy, rough, and hideous creature, the sight of which demented him and made him mad. After he had suffered from this for many years, he recovered his longed for health in the church of St. David, through the merits of the saints. But he always had a great and wondrous familiarity with unclean spirits, in seeing them, and knowing them, and talking to them, and calling each one by its proper name, and with their help he would predict the future. Just as they are, he was frequently wrong about things remote in time and space, but in things nearer and that were to happen in the span of a year, he was less mistaken. He saw them nearly always on foot and garbed in the manner of hunters ready for the chase, with horns hung around their necks, they who are truly hunters not of wild animals but of souls. He was accustomed to meet them most often around monasteries and cells, for certainly where there is rebellion there is need for an army, and numerous equipment and men. Any time that someone spoke falsely in his presence, he instantly knew it, for he saw a demon on the tongue of the liar, and, as it were, leaping about in exultation. Also looking on a book poorly or deceitfully written, or containing something false within it, though he was completely illiterate, he placed his finger on the false passage. When he was questioned as to how he knew such things, he said that a demon first stretched out a finger to the same place. Likewise, entering into the dormitory of a certain monastery, he pointed to the bed of a false monk, he who wore the habit but did not bear the soul of religion. He said that the spirit of gluttony and drunkenness was far beyond all others most ugly, and that the spirit of lust and luxury was fairer than others but the most foul smelling. Sometimes it happened that when the unclean spirits troubled him too much the Gospel of Saint John was placed in his lap, and then instantly they all flew off like birds, but later when it was removed and the History of the Britons by Geoffrey was put in its place, 2 just to see what would occur, they would return in greater numbers and sit all over his body, and the book also, for much longer than usual. Gerald of Wales, The Journey Through Wales, Book 1, Chapter 5 1 Caerleon 2 Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain