Arthur Miller

“ Cadvan, king of Gwynedd or North Wales, and probably also supreme king of all Wales, had been converted to Christianity by Beuno and had given him much land and promised more. Cadvan's son and successor, Cadwallon, carrying out his father's intentions, gave Beuno a piece of land called Gwaredog in Carnarvonshire, where he built a church, but the land being claimed by a widow for her infant son as having been his father's property, Beuno relinquished it and demanded compensation from Cadwallon, to whom he had given a golden sceptre in return for the land he had just lost. ”

“ He voluntarily devoted himself to a religious life from his earliest years, and miracles are ascribed to him while yet in his boyhood. He was educated by an Irish anchoret, Menthi; declined to succeed his father in his principality; went to Gwent or Caerwent, Monmouthshire, and studied under the Irish saint, Tathai. He made repeated visits to Rome and Jerusalem, and also to Ireland and Scotland, in search of the best instruction of his time. Of the numerous foundations ascribed to St. Cadoc the most famous was the abbey of Llancarvan in Glamorganshire, of which he was the first abbot. ”

“ Mr. Stephens supports his theory with characteristic thoroughness and minute care, but it may perhaps be doubted whether the data at our command are sufficient to enable us to form any such theories with any degree of confidence. Aneurin appears to have been educated at St. Cadoc's College at Llancarvan, and afterwards to have entered the bardic order. From his own statements in the ‘Gododin’ he seems to have been present at Cattraeth both as bard and as priest. He fled from the battle, but was taken prisoner, and in his poem he describes the hardships he underwent when in captivity ”

“ Cadvan arrived in Wales early in the sixth century, having fled before the Frankish invasion of Gaul. He was accompanied by a large number of persons, like himself of good birth, who proposed to devote themselves to a religious life on the loss of their possessions. ”

“ Caw is represented as the father of a large family, variously given from ten to twenty-one sons, among whose names appears that of Gildas; but in those manuscripts in which the name of Gildas appears, that of Aneurin does not, and conversely when Aneurin's name is given Gildas's is not, and this circumstance has given rise to the theory that Aneurin and Gildas, the British historian, were identical. ”

“ Mandubratius, the son of their former king Imanuentius, had fled for refuge to Cæsar, in order to escape the fate of his father, who had been killed by Cassivellaunus in the course of his conquests over his neighbours. The Trinovantes asked Cæsar to send Mandubratius to rule over them and to protect him from Cassivellaunus. Cæsar granted their request, and sent Mandubratius to them, at the same time demanding and obtaining hostages and corn. ”

“ His reputation for learning followed him to Rome, where he was appointed to lecture on divinity. On the death of the abbot of Bury St. Edmunds he sought and obtained the appointment from the pope in spite of his oath. The monks, however, with the sanction of King Richard II, chose John Timworth for abbot, and on Bromfield's arrival in England to claim his appointment he was seized and imprisoned on a charge of violating the statute of Provisors, a precursor of the statute of Præmunire. ”

“ The integral evidence of the 'Gododin' and of the writings of Gildas seems sufficiently to refute this supposition. To quote Mr. Stephens: 'Gildas was a preacher of the Gospel: Aneurin was an odd compound of Christianity and paganism. ... The one was a virulent and bigoted monk, who delighted in reviling his countrymen; the other, without palliating the drunkenness which led to their defeat at Cattraeth, extols the bravery which half redeems their character. ... The one makes no allusion to the battle of Cattraeth, though it was one of the turning-points in the life of the other.’ Mr. ”

“ Suetonius succeeded in gaining a position in a narrow valley where it was impossible for the Britons to employ their tactics of outflanking. Tacitus gives a picturesque account of the preparations for battle on both sides. ”

“ ALED, TUDUR (fl, 1480–1525) , was a Welsh poet of Llansannan in Denbighshire, his bardic name being derived from the river Aled, which flows through his native place. From his own poems it appears that he was the pupil of his uncle Dafydd ab Edmwnd, and that he was a Franciscan friar. He was the bardic teacher of Gruffydd Hiraethog, a more distinguished poet than himself, and was pencerdd of the first Eisteddfod of Caerwys, held in 1525. ”

“ Cadoc, goes on to tell how, having been previously warned in a vision, he is carried off in a cloud to Beneventum, where he is immediately chosen abbot and named Sophias, and on the bishop's death is chosen to succeed him. Being asked in a dream what form of death he preferred, he chose martyrdom, and accordingly was killed by a soldier while saying mass on the following day. ”

“ CAIN, RHYS (16th cent.) , a Welsh poet of the latter part of the sixteenth century, was born at Trawsfynydd in Merionethshire, a village on the river Cain, whence he took his surname. Several poems by him are preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. They consist chiefly of englynion and of complimentary poems addressed to various persons ”

“ Bromyarde is the author of a work entitled 'Summa Prædicantium,' printed at Nuremberg by A. Koberger in 1485, and reprinted several times, the last edition having appeared at Venice in 1586. It is also probable that he was the author of 'Opus trivium perutilium materiarum prædicabilium ordine alphabetico e divina canonica civilique legibus eleganter contextum per ven. F. Philippum de Bronnerde, ord. ”