[SUPREMACY OF TOURS DISPUTED.]

A.D. 567. Council of Tours (II.) asserts the Metropolitanship of Tours over Brittany.

CONC. TURON. II. can. 9.—Adjicimus etiam, ne quis Britannum aut Romanum in Armorico sine metropolitani aut comprovincialium voluntate vel literis Episcopum ordinare præsumat. Quod si quis contraire tentaverit, sententiam in anterioribus canonibus prolatam observet, et a nostra caritate usque ad majorem synodum se cognoscat remotum et excommunicatum; quia merito a caritate nostra vel nostris ecclesiis segregantur, qui patrum statuta contemnunta. [Labb., V. 854.]

a Signed by the metropolitan of Tours, and among others by the Bishops of Rennes and of Nantes; but by no Bréton Bishop. About A.D. 580, Venantius Fortunatus congratulates Felix Bishop of Nantes, because "Insidiatores removes vigil arte Britannos, nullius arma

valent quod tua lingua facit," etc. (Carm. III. vi. 40, 41): which doubtless means, that Bishop Felix had protected Nantes, not (as has been imagined) from the Pelagianism, but from the incursions, of the neighbouring Britons.

A.D. 577, 590. Differences of Easter Cycle a.

GREG. TUR., V. 17 [A.D. 577].--Eo anno dubietas Paschæ fuit. In Galliis vero nos cum multis civitatibus quarto decimo kalendas Maias [April 18] sanctum Pascha celebravimus. Alii vero cum Hispanis duodecimo kalendas Aprilis [March 21] solennitatem hanc tenuerunt. Tamen, ut ferunt, fontes illi qui in Hispaniis nutu Dei complentur, in nostro Pascha repleti sunt.—ID., X. 23 [A.D. 590].Dubietas Paschæ fuit ob hoc, quod in cyclo Victor lunæ decima quinta Pascha scripsit fieri; sed ne Christiani, ut Judæi, sub hac luna hæc solemnia celebrarent, addidit. Latini autem lunæ vigesima secunda. Ob hoc multi in Galliis decima quinta luna celebraverunt. Nos autem vigesima secunda. Inquisivimus tamen studiose. Sed fontes Hispaniæ, qui Divinitus implentur, in nostrum Pascha repleti sunt.

a These seem to be the last (probable) allusions to the Easter dispute in connection with Brittany. The council of Orleans in A.D. 541 had adopted the cycle of Victorinus.

As re

spects A.D. 577, the Spaniards in that year, as is plain by the day named, still kept to the old uncorrected cycle, to which the Britons also adhered. And the "alii," in the neighbourhood probably of Tours, who agreed with the

Spaniards, were most probably Brétons. According to our present mode of reckoning, and setting aside new style, April 25 would have been Easter Day in A.D. 577. All three days were Sundays in that year. Columbanus had not yet come into Gaul. As regards A.D. 590, Sunday March 13 was new moon in that year; so that the British rule would have determined Easter Day to March 26,

[LATEST BRITISH MONASTERY IN BRITTANY.]

whereas Gregory kept it on April 2. The history of both differences shews that all these Easter disputes arose merely out of a con

fusion respecting cycles, springing from nothing more than the difficulty in those times of obtaining information.

A.D. 578-586. Intended Pilgrimage of S. Winoch to Jerusalem. A.D. 582. SIGEBERT, in an.-Winochus in Britannia claruit sanctitate.-A.D. 578. GREG. Tur., V. 24.—Tunc [sc. A.D. 578] Uuinnochus Britto in summa abstinentia a Britanniis venit Turonis, Hierosolymam adire cupiens, nullum aliud vestimentum nisi de pellibus ovium lana privatis habens: quem nos [Greg. Tur.], quo facilius teneremus, quia nobis religiosus valde videbatur, presbyterii gratia honoravimus a

ก

Greg. Tur., VIII. 34, relates the horrible end of "Vennocus Britto," about A.D. 586.

The Acta S. Winochi belong to a totally dif ferent Winoch (see below in Appendix B.).

A.D. 578-590. Saxons on the border of Brittany adopt British

customs.

GREG. TUR., Hist. Franc., X. 9.-Fredegundis

Saxones juxta ritum Britannorum tonsos atque cultu vestimenti compositos in solutium Warochi abire

a The Saxons of Bayeux, who attacked the Britons on the Vilaine A.D. 578 (Greg. Tur., V. 27), as they befriended them in A.D. 590, must have extended into the interior far south of Bayeux itself (see above, p. 72, note a). The "tonsure," however, here spoken of, was apparently the lay, not the clerical, fashion among the Britons. So Sidon. Apollin. a

præcepit.

century earlier, A.D. 472-484, Epist. VIII. 9, describes the Saxons as adopting the British custom in the arrangement of the hair. Count Waroch planted Saxon landholders round Vannes as early as A.D. 560 (so Courson, 253, 254, from signatures to Redon charters).

A.D. 600. Another British Monastery founded in Brittany.

CHRON. BRITANN., in an. His diebus construxit S. Mevanius a suum cœnobium. [Morice, I. 3.]

a See for S. Méen, a Welshman from Gwent, below in Append. B. And Louis le Débonnaire's letters patent for restoring the then destroyed monastery, A.D. 816, in Morice, I. 225. Judicael gave up the throne of Brittany in A.D. 638, and retired to S. Méen. A story

in Hoveden, II. 136, shews a kind of connection still between this monastery and that of Bodmin so late as A.D. 1177. The next monastery founded in, or in connection with, Brittany, that of Aindre, had a German for its founder, about A.D. 695.

(A.D. 656, Council of Nantes, had no connection with Brittany [Flodoard, Hist., II. 8; Labb., VI. 486, IX. 468].)

[PROHIBITION OF THE SCOTTISH MONASTIC RULE AND TONSURE IN BRITTANY.]

A.D. 786. Brétons submit to Charlemagne at the Council of Worms. REGINO OF PRÜM.—Britonum principes Carolo Regi supplices oblati unt. [Labb., VI. 1861.]

A.D. 817. Letters Patent of Louis le Débonnaire for the Abbey of

dopt the Rule

Landevenech.

CARTUL. LANDEVENECH.-In nomine Domini Dei salf S. Benedict vatoris nostri Jesu Christi, LUDOVICUS DIVINA ORDINANTE In place of that f S. Columba- PROVIDENTIA IMPERATOR AUGUSTUS omnibus Episcopis et us) and the Ro- universo ordini Ecclesiastico Britanniæ consistenti. Notum man tonsure in lace of the sit, quod, dum Matmonocus abbas ex monasterio Lancottish. devennoch nostram adiisset præsentiam et illum sive de conversatione monachorum illarum partium consistentium sive de onsione interrogassemus, et ad liquidum nobis qualiter hæc forent matefecisset, cognoscentes quomodo ab Scotis şive de conversatione ive de tonsione capitum accepissent, dum ordo totius sanctæ Apostolicæ atque Romanæ Ecclesiæ aliter se habere dignoscitur, placuit nobis ut sive de vita seu etiam de tonsura cum universali Ecclesia Deo dispensante nobis commissa concordarent. Et ideo jussimus it et juxta Regulam Sancti Benedicti patris viverent, quæ possibilis et laude digna est; et de tonsura capitis juxta taxatum modum cum sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ, quæ per orbem terrarum dilatata est, concordent unitate; et eundem vivendi morem, juxta quod in sancti atque eximii patris Benedicti Regula scriptum est, in hoc monasterio prædicto teneant, et in subjectis ejus cæteris, quæ nostrum plenissimum jussum exequi valuerint. Hæc piissimi Ludovici Imperatoris præcepta de manu ejus roborata a.

Sigillum Ps Ludovici serenissimi Imperatoris.

S

Hæc eodem anno prædicto cœpta est in eodem monasterio suprascripto Regula Patris Benedicti. [Morice, Mém. etc. à l'Hist. de Bré#agne, I. 228 b.]

a In the Vita S. Guingaloëi (extr. in Morice, I. 227, 228), this document is prefaced by an account of the rule observed at Landevenech, describing the exceeding austerity of its regulations about food and dress. The exception in the former point is—" nisi tantum modice de caseo per aquam decocto utebatur

Sabbato et Dominico die," a little fish ("paucos pisciculos") being also allowed on the Sunday: thus proving that Saturday was not a fast with them. Further, "Talis ars unicuique eorum dabatur, ut ex opere manuum quotidiano, sicut Ægyptii monachi, se posset in victu necessario continere: nam non solum

[COUNCIL OF VANNES.]

monachorum sed etiam heremitarum currebant per semitam." Lastly, "hæc lex sive Regula per tempora longa refulsit in isto monasterio, id est, ab illo tempore quo Gradlonus, quem appellant magnum, Britanniæ tenebat sceptrum, usque ad annum Ludovici Augusti imperii V., Dominicæ autem Incarnationis 818." And it was abrogated by Louis as being too ascetic, in dress especially, for the "infirmiores." The Cartul. Redon. (founded at the very beginning of the 9th century) speaks always of "monachi regulam Sancti

Benedicti tenentes," from A.D. 834 (D
ments in Append. to Courson, I. 394
And a council of Tours, A.D. 813, enfo
the Benedictine rule in monasteries where
rule "olim conservabatur "
(Can. XX
Labb., VII. 1265).

b Louis had just conquered Brittany ( rice, Mém. &c., IV. 27), and was encampe the time on the river Elé, which runs into Bay of Biscay between Quimper and Bla The date is from the Chron. Britann. in rice, I. 3.

A.D. 818. Council of Vannes under Louis le Débonnaire. LABB., Conc. VII. 1867.—[Ludovicus dicitur] cum insuperabili matorum agmine Britanniam properasse, et fugatis Britannis atq perempto eorum pseudorege patriam suis legibus subdidisse. Perac igitur triumpho, in Venetia urbe generale principum atque pontificu celebrat concilium, ubi ordinatis regni negotiis, et causis discuss ecclesiasticis, cum in Gallias redire disponeret, beatum Covoiu adiit: eique Imperator obtulit, pro sua suorumque salute et æter remuneratione, locum Rothonensem ab omni onere liberum et imm nem, proprio confirmans donationem annulo: anno imperii sui Incarnati vero Verbi DCCCXVIII. a.

a From the charter of foundation of abbey of Rédon. Nomenoë claimed to be, and doubt was, the real founder.

APPENDIX A.

LITANY OF (PROBABLY) THE TENTH CENTURY, BELONGING TO