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The Rise and Fall of a Saint's Community:
Llandeilo Fawr, 600-1200 - Part 1
William A. Strange
Introduction
It is well known that early medieval Wales was home to communities which perpetuated the names of the great local saints. Less well known is the process of development of these communities, their emergence to power, wealth and prestige, and their eventual eclipse and decline.
Their emergence, it is presumed, is linked to the growing veneration for the figures associated with the 'Age of the Saints' in Wales, and especially for a cluster whose cult was established over wide areas: Dewi, Illtud, Padarn and Teilo prominent among them. Their eclipse is often associated with the intrusion of Norman power into Wales, and with the imposition of an alien diocesan structure and monastic rule upon the 'Celtic' church which had flourished in Wales previously.
The Teilo community at Llandeilo Fawr, Carmarthenshire, gives us an opportunity to examine at least something of the processes of growth and decline as experienced by one such religious centre. We have sources which give us some insight into the history of this place in the early medieval period. Particularly significant are the marginal entries in the Lichfield Gospels, which once belonged to the church of Llandeilo Fawr, and which record transactions of the ninth century. These eight brief texts are unique among Welsh ecclesiastical records in giving us contemporary evidence of developments in a religious community of the early medieval period. Taken with the material contained in the twelfth-century Book of Llandaff, which is more extensive, but less reliable, we have an opportunity to compare the experience of this community with the generally-accepted picture of the early medieval religious communities of Wales.
Teilo
Of Teilo himself we can say little more than of any other Welsh saint. His 'Life' which appears in the Book of Landaff is a twelfth-century composition with an ecclesio-political aim, which was to divert the centre of the Teilo cult from Llandeilo Fawr to Llandaff. We are safe, though, to assume that Teilo existed: the marginal annotations of the Lichfield Gospels begin around 800 and attest a strong tradition about him already existing by that stage.
We would probably also be right to place him in the late sixth century, perhaps surviving to the early seventh. Only one of our sources specifies a particular date in his life, and that is the fragmentary Life compiled by Thomas Saint in the early sixteenth century, which states that in the year 602, St Teilo built a monastery dedicated to St John the Evangelist near Merlin's City (Carmarthen). But this date is difficult to reconcile with the story in the Llandaff Lives that Teilo led his people to safety during the visitation of the Yellow Plague, which is usually dated 547-550. Quite possibly, the source of Saint's Life has mistaken Teilo for St Toulidauc, who was the original patron saint of St John's Priory at Carmarthen, so that if we have to choose between the earlier and the later dates for St Teilo, the earlier period suggested by the Llandaff Life is probably preferable.
The Rise of the Household of Teilo, c. 600-900
The stories about Teilo assume as a matter of course that his life was one of suitable austerity and that he endured a solitary existence. But later tradition about Teilo imagined that he already had a community about him during his lifetime, and Llandeilo Fawr, even in the sixth or seventh centuries, is a more likely spot for community life than for solitary withdrawal from the world. The existence of the Lichfield Gospel book enables us to say that a community certainly grew up to perpetuate his cult within two centuries of his death.
The community called itself 'the household of Teilo' (familia Teilo). Its spiritual stature no doubt rested on the basis of Teilo's relics, preserved in the church. The altar of Llandeilo Fawr was 'Teilo's altar" and the Gospel book was Teilo's Gospel book," Nobis was Teilo's bishop and Sadyrnwydd was Teilo's 'priest'. The saint's continuing presence was guaranteed by his relics, and expressed by his appearance as a witness in one of the marginal memoranda (No.2).
Lands
The material prosperity of the community was assured by its acquisition of land. The marginal notes in the Lichfield Gospels are one source of information here, while Geoffrey and Urban of Llandaff in the early twelfth century seem to have had access to a collection of charters originally brought together at Llandeilo Fawr, and from which they added suitably amended versions to the Book of Llandaff. Although we cannot chronicle the acquisition of Llandeilo Fawr's lands in detail, the Lichfield Gospel memoranda give us a starting point from which to survey the process.
Memoranda 3 and 4 of the Lichfield Gospels record the gift of some lands and services to the Llandeilo Fawr community c. 850. Memorandum 3 states that Rhys and the 'kindred of Grethi' had given 'to God and St Eliud (Teilo) a place named Trefwyddog (treb guidauc) with food renders from the place, and Memorandum 4 that Rhys and others had given a piece of land, whose boundaries are then described, and with it also were given food renders. It is likely that these are either neighbouring parcels of land, or that Memorandum 4 serves to clarify and extend the grant made in Memorandum 3. The lands in question have been convincingly shown to lie north of Pumsaint in the headwaters of the Cothi valley.
The Lichfield Gospel memoranda therefore give us evidence that Llandeilo Fawr was acquiring lands in the upper Cothi valley in the mid-ninth century. This evidence should make us look more favourably than we might otherwise do at the claims of Llandaff in the early twelfth century that the patrimony of St Teilo included a place in the upper Cothi valley called Llandeilo Pumsaint Caercaeo (lanteliau pimpseint kaircaiau).
The name 'Llandeilo Pumsaint Caercaeo' suggests a threefold development, with an original name ('Caercaeo' - 'the Fort of Caeo'), to which two qualifiers have been added ('Pumsaint' - 'of the Five saints', and ''Llandeilo' - ''of the church of St Teilo'). ''The Fort of Caeo' is in all probability a reference to the Roman fortification which lay on the site of the modern village of Pumsaint. Evidence of Roman settlement there is clear, and exploitation of the nearby gold mine would have made this a place of some importance in the Roman period. Gold extraction may have continued on a small scale in the post-Roman era.
If the ''Fort of Caeo' points us to the Roman period, the ''Pumsaint' element evidences the early Christian period. The ''five saints' of Pumsaint were taken over by the Teilo community and woven into the stories of their own saint. In a late medieval story recorded at St Davids, the five saints were the sons of a poor man of Ystrad Tywi, who was about to drown them when Teilo intervened and took them to ''a lonely and wooded place' called Geneu''r Coed, where 'the dead become renowned through miracles' This story could be interpreted as an attempt by Llandeilo Fawr to subordinate a local cult at Pumsaint Caercaeo to the cult of Teilo himself. The element 'Llandeilo' would then have been added to the name after the incorporation of the place into the Llandeilo Fawr estates.
The presence of a significant and powerful community in the Cynwyl Caeo area in the fifth to seventh centuries is suggested by the presence of three early Christian monuments in the vicinity: one at Cynwyl Caeo church and two at Maesllanwrthwl, two miles to the south. Of particular interest is the stone from Maesllanwrthwl which commemorates Paulinus 'preserver of the faith, constant lover of his country ... the devoted champion of righteousness'. It is written horizontally, in Roman fashion, rather than vertically in the Celtic manner, and shows a certain classical pretension in its phrasing as well as its layout. If this is the memorial of a secular ruler, as is now generally thought, then he (or his kinsfolk) could well have been the benefactor who demonstrated his willingness to 'preserve the faith' by donating valuable estates at Caercaeo in his territory to the Llandeilo Fawr community.
Rhys in the ninth century could, then, have been continuing a tradition, begun two or three centuries before, of the ruling families of the upper Cothi valley making generous donations to the Household of Teilo. Rhys's donation of Trefwyddog made a marginal upland addition to the core territory of Llandeilo Pumsaint Caercaeo.
The Lichfield Gospel memoranda unfortunately give us no clear information about the landholding of the community in Llandeilo Fawr itself. According to the Book of Liandaff, King Noë son of Arthur gave Llandeilo Fawr 'with its two territories' not to Teilo initially but to his teacher Dyfrig. From Dyfrig, it is supposed to have passed to Teilo.
The most that we can say is that if in the mid-ninth century the household of Teilo was carefully recording the gift of a relatively small landholding in the upper Cothi valley (see above), then it is likely already to have had extensive possessions around its own llan . This central estate will have been granted sometime between the time of Teilo (600?) and the time at which acquisitions began to be recorded in Teilo's Gospel book (800).
The charter of donation by King Noë in the Book of Llandaff contains a document detailing the boundaries of the land of Llandeilo Fawr. The boundary list is hard to date. It cannot be later than the early twelfth century, when the Book of Llandaff was compiled. The Llandeilo Fawr boundary list must therefore be dated to some time between the start of Llandeilo's era of prosperity (c. 800?) and c. l100. It is similar to the ninth-century boundary lists in the Lichfield Gospel memoranda, and could well be from a similarly early period.
The boundaries are not easy to identify, but they describe a large estate, some of whose limits can be recognised. The boundary description starts with the Tywi, to the north of the town, and proceeds in an anti-clockwise direction. The boundaries are these (with unidentified places in italics): ' Ffynnon Ida , the head of the Glasbwll on the Tywi, the head of the Glasbwll at Y Tir Melyn , Nant Erddil, the Dulais, Cymmer (Confluence), Nant Llwyd, Cegin March, Crug Petill, Bechan , Hebog Faen , the Dulas Busweilog, Nant yr Eilin , Crug Cust, Crug Corn Cam , Blaen Iscaio, the Myddyfi, Yr Hen Allt , Cil yr Adar, Llygad Tafarn, Pistyll Dewi , Gwaith Dinefwr, Lethr Cell on the Tywi.' The boundaries of this estate coincide in a general way with the lands claimed by the bishop of St Davids in the early thirteenth century (see below).
One of the charters in the Book of Llandaff records that King Maredudd gave to St Teilo three places, called Mainaur Brwnws, Telichcouman and Tref Canus. 'St Teilo' in this instance is not to be taken literally. Gifts to the saint's community were understood to be given to the saint himself. 'King Maredudd' seems to be Maredudd ap Tewdws ap Rhain of Dyfed (d. 796). This gift, then, would have been made c.790, a date which would roughly confirm the evidence of the Lichfield Gospel memoranda that the eighth and ninth centuries witnessed the growth of the community's landed possessions.
Mainaur Brwnws is Maenor Brwnws, alias Llandeilo Brwnws in Llanegwad parish. It appears as 'Llandeilo Maenor with its appurtenancies' on two occasions in the lists of the Book of Llandaff third in position at Llandeilo Fawr and Llandeilo Pumsaint Caercaeo. It was a valuable possession of the community.
Tref Ganus is otherwise unknown, though a possible guess at its identity might be 'Pentre Kennir', one of the townships of Llandeilo parish. Telichclouman appears to be Tachleuan, also a township in the parish of Llandeilo Fawr. It may be significant that Tachleuan township included two farmsteads with 'Teilo' names: Ffynnon Deilo and Maesteilo.
Memorandum 7 in the Lichfield Gospels records the gift of an unidentified place called Alt Guhebric by a man called Morfach Tudnred. Guhebric could be the modern Gyrre (Gurrey), the name of a stream and of a small estate known from the sixteenth century onwards. Gurrey lies in what was, in the medieval period, the bishop's estate of Tiresgob. This very brief note is undatable, but may well belong with the other memoranda to the ninth century. If Alit Gwefrig was indeed Gurrey, then it, together with Telichciounan and Tref canus, would have been increments to the core estate around Llandeilo Fawr.
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