ON ST. MELIAVUS OR ELIAVUS, MARTYR, IN ARMORICAN BRITTANY,
IN THE LATER VIII CENTURY.
A CRITICAL SYLLOGE.
Meliavus or Eliavus, martyr in Armorican Brittany. (S.)
BHL Number: 5903
BY V. D. B.
Sole §. The Acts of St. Meliavus are to be taken from the Acts of St. Melarius, his son. The arrival of his family in Armorican Cornouaille. The counts of Cornouaille to be distinguished from those of Domnonia. The cause of the slaying of St. Meliavus. His cult.
Since Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the saints and the English Martyrology have made the annual memory of St. Melarius or Melorus at the 3rd day of January, From the Acts of St. Melarius, who is venerated at the beginning of October, although in the Capgrave Acts Acta SS. vol. I of January, p. 137. he is said to have been slain on the 1st day of October, on which his festivity is marked in the Sarum Breviary [Cf. Challoner, British martyrology, p. 137; Harris Nicolas, Chronology of History, p. 113.], and in the Office of Quimper Cf. Officia Corisopitensia nova, p. 2. on the 2nd day of October, on which his feast is inscribed in the ancient Breviaries of Léon In Lobineau and Tresvaux, Vies des saints de Bretagne, vol. I, p. XXXI. and Quimper Ibid. p. XXXIV., and his Life was published by Albert Legrand among the Lives of the saints of Armorican Brittany at the 3rd day of October, on which even now, after some changes Cf. the liturgical Calendars of Quimper of the years 1834 and 1840. brought in on account of the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, it is kept at Quimper New proper Offices of Quimper, p. 83.; Bolland nevertheless gave at the 3rd day of January his deeds from Capgrave and the manuscript codex of Red Valley; which are nothing other than the ancient lessons of Quimper, enlarged with some fables and disfigured above all by the English in this, that the blessed martyr is transferred from Armorican Cornouaille to insular or English Cornwall; so that he ceases altogether to be Armorican. But better Acts were found by Augustin du Paz, a Dominican Preacher by profession, and he published them in the year 1620 in the Genealogical History of the kings, dukes and princes of Armorican Brittany; from which Morice published the same, with new care and with useless words here and there cut away, among the Monuments of the history of Brittany Mémoires pour l'histoire de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 223 and following.. And there are contained almost all things that have been ascertained of St. Meliavus, father of St. Melarius.
[2] the chief praises of St. Meliavus became known Receive therefore what is reported of him in the Acts of du Paz: "There was a certain nobleman among those across the sea, whose surname was Law or Rule; a man indeed of royal race, very rich in land, households and wealth. Who, since according to the divine precept he adapted laws suitably to both sexes, was named Law or Rule. He, after the desolation of the Frixones and of Duke Corsold, hearing that our Cornugallia was deserted, … crossed the sea with a fleet and with a very great company, received the kingdom, inhabited it, cultivated it. After his decease Daniel, his son, held the kingdom. He was succeeded by his son Budic: and to this Budic there were two sons, namely Meliavus and Rivodius. But Meliavus was most gentle in spirit, catholic in faith, sure in hope in the Lord, and outstanding in all uprightness of conduct. When, after his father, he had completed the course of seven years in the kingdom, … he was killed by his brother Rivodius in a certain parley, by reason of envy. And so the malice of those who remained deserved that he who could benefit the country should be speedily taken away; while he himself, if he had committed anything, should be purged through the agony of martyrdom: and the miracles and signal powers which the Lord works through him make plain of what merit this man was, although I have by no means thought they should be inserted in this work."
[3] and his unjust slaying or martyrdom. And in the old Breviary of Quimper, of which I have a copy at hand, printed about the year 1500, in the Office of St. Melarius or Melorus I have read these things of his father: "In the beginning of the Christian religion there was a certain most Christian king among the Britons, by name Budic; to whom there were two sons: namely Meliavus and Rivodius. But Meliavus was gentle in spirit, catholic in faith, and outstanding in all uprightness of conduct. He completed after his father the course of seven years. And within the span of those same seven years, no drop of rain fell in that kingdom; neither did snow stain the land, nor frost burn it; nor did the earth on that account cease to bring forth fruits most copiously. But a long-lasting dew tempered the land with a certain mildness; so that the summer * was not parched by heats, but was made fruitful more than usual than in the surrounding regions. Alas, such and so great a man was killed by his brother Rivodius in a certain parley, by reason of envy. Rivodius, to be execrated by all good men, invaded and held the kingdom." Which things are thus related in the Capgrave Acts of St. Melarius: "For Meliorus or Melarius was of a noble race of the Britons; whose father Melianus held the duchy of Cornwall: in whose time for seven years rain did not fall upon the earth. At length, at the instigation of the evil spirit, in the seventh year of his dukedom, when a council of the leading men had been assembled to provide for the advantage of the country, in that very council Rinold, coming, killed his brother Melianus and began to reign in his place." And these things must be explained for a little while.
[4] [Who those across the sea were, with whom his family came into Armorican Cornouaille; who John Reeth was.] It is plain first of all from the Acts of du Paz that those across the sea are the inhabitants of Wales or of insular Cornwall: for all the things that are afterwards narrated were done in Armorican Brittany: for example, what is stated of the minister of St. Corentin, or bishop of Quimper, who had care of St. Melarius, and of the castle of Comorus, king of the Franks, to which the same saint was conducted. As therefore, on the testimony of the Venerable Bede Cf. Ven. Bede, Hist. eccl. Anglorum, book I, chapter 12., the English by those across the sea meant the western Scots of present-day Scotland, and the Britons of Wales and of English Cornwall (as is plain from St. Gildas Liber querulus, part I, chapter 25, in Migne, vol. LXIX, col. 346.) the Armoricans, so the Armorican Britons themselves, as is manifest from the Life of St. Judoc Surius at the 13th of December, p. 253, edition of the year 1618. and from the Genealogy prefixed to the Life of St. Winoc Sæculum Benedictinum III, p. 302; D. Morice, Preuves, vol. I, col. 211., called the insular Britons those across the sea. The nobleman who is reported to have been among these and to have come with his people into Armorica is in those same Acts of du Paz called John Cf. D. Morice, Preuves, col. 224, note 1.. That his surname was law or rule is there asserted; rather in the British tongue Reet or Reith: by which word indeed the English, Saxons and other Germans signify right, law, rule, but the Britons a king [Cf. Gallet, in Legrand and Miorcec, p. 608, note 6; and de Courson, Histoire des peuples bretons, vol. I, p. 242.]; so that John (Johan, Jawn, Jona) the king is designated. Some would have him to be the same as the one who under the name Jonas in the Acts of St. Samson Mabillon, sæculum Benedictinum I, pp. 179 and 180. and under the name Rigualdus in the Acts of St. Leonorus In Le Cointe, Annal. ecclesiast. Francorum, at the year 529, num. 4. is said to have been slain by the tyrant Conmorrus, and whose son Judual, the oppressor having been vanquished, thereafter reigned in the whole of Domnonia Sæculum Benedictinum I, p. 180.. But for this to be able to stand it is necessary that Daniel, who in the Acts of St. Melarius is called son of Jonas, should be the same as Judual, celebrated in the Acts of St. Samson and other monuments; and then that Budic, son of Daniel, should have been the same as Juthael, son of Judual Genealogy of St. Winoc, in the places cited above.; in a word, it is necessary to turn everything upside down.
[5] [Domnonia does not seem to have included Cornouaille, but each province seems to have had different princes.] Now this violent interpretation relies on the persuasion that Domnonia, the whole of which Judual held with the title of king, and Cornugallia or Cornouaille, which Daniel occupied, were the same region and circumscribed by the same boundaries; and indeed Mabillon Sæculum Benedict. I, p. 180 in the margin. interpreted Domnonia as Armorican Cornouaille. Others add Léon, so that they include in it Léon and Cornouaille
Fréminville, Antiquités des Cotes du Nord, p. 135.. Others extend it much more widely, to whom indeed it seems to be the whole Breton peninsula, of which Cornouaille, enclosed in the diocese of Quimper, was a part; so that Domnonia included the dioceses of Vannes, Quimper, Léon, Tréguier, Saint-Brieuc and in part of Saint-Malo Cf. de Courson, Histoire des peuples bretons, vol. I, p. 200.; but that in the VI, VII and VIII centuries almost the whole of Armorican Brittany was one dominion, which was called Domnonia and which obeyed one prince, from what this can be drawn I do not see, nor has the Armorican writer de Freminville seen it Cf. Antiquités du Finisterre, vol. II, pp. 279 and 280.. To a plainly opposite opinion went Miorcec de Kerdanet In Legrand, Vies des saints de Bretagne, p. 819., determining that Domnonia was a small kingdom, consisting of the districts of Arcoüet and Trecoüet, that is, Silvania and Transilvania, whose capital was Gaël, in the neighbourhood of which St. Judicael, king of Domnonia, advanced and endowed the monastery of St. Meen [The Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc and the Life of St. Judicael, in D. Morice, Preuves, vol. I, col. 17 and 205; cf. Hauréau, Gallia Christiana, vol. XIV, col. 1018 and following.]: nor would I think it possible to deny that this part of the former diocese of Saint-Malo was enclosed within Domnonia; but at the same time I am persuaded that the dioceses of Saint-Brieuc, Tréguier and Léon must be assigned to it, since it seems to be established that Domnonia extended as far as the western shore; and elsewhere In Legrand, p. 608. Kerdanet himself affirms that Domnonia was composed of the dioceses of Quimper, Léon and Tréguier: where substitute Saint-Brieuc for Quimper, and add a part of Saint-Malo. And indeed these things have been excerpted from the Cartulary of Landévennec Ibid. col. 179.: "These letters preserve that, when St. Winwaloe was passing through the parts of Domnonia and had come across the river Coulut *, making for the western part," etc.; now Landévennec, where St. Guingaloeus was abbot, was situated at the summer west of Cornouaille; so that from there one could go to the west only through the western corner of Léon alone. And from the Life of St. Judicael these other things have been drawn Ibid. col. 204.: "Judael held by paternal right the principality of the lot of Domnonia. In whose time there was a certain man, Ausochus by name, at the head of the shore of the sea, on the western side… And it happened one day, when the royal prince Judael was hunting there… The blessed confessor of God Judicael therefore, sprung from royal stock in the western region." It seems to me therefore that the western part of Armorican Brittany was divided into two quarters; of which the one or northern was called Domnonia, the other or southern Cornouaille; each having its own princes. And hence too it is understood what was the ancestral dominion of St. Meliavus.
[6] Cornouaille has its own princes; part of an old catalogue. Hyacinthe Morice long ago published Preuves de l'Histoire de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 174 and 175. a catalogue of the counts or kings of Cornouaille from the cartularies of Quimper, of Landévennec and of Holy Cross of Quimperlé; and from the two latter books de Freminville did the same Antiquités du Finisterre, vol. II, p. 282 and following.: and in those three monuments no other variations are observed than those which may be ascribed to the negligence of copyists. Receive the Quimper apograph:
1° Ri-Welen Mur Mar-Chou.
2° Ri-Welen Mar-Chou.
3° Congar.
4° Gradlen Mur.
5° Daniel Drum-Rud. He was king of Alamannia.
6° Budic and Maxenti, two brothers…
7° Johan Reeth.
8° Daniel Unna.
9° Gradlen Flam.
10° Congar Ceroenuc.
11° Budic Mur.
12° Fragal Fradleoc.
13° Gradlon Pluenevor.
14° Auffret Alesrudon.
15° Diles Herguer Chebre.
16° Budic.
17° Binidic.
18° Alain Canhiarh.
19° Houel.
Where between Daniel Unna or Unva and Budic Mur there are read Gradlen or Gradlon Flam and Congar Ceroenuc or Keroennoc, who are absent from the genealogy of St. Meliavus recited above, either because they were omitted through forgetfulness, or because they belong to a lateral line of kinship; on the other hand, there are absent from the three catalogues the sons of Budic Mur, St. Meliavus and Rivodius, and in their place is read Fragal Fradleoc or Frangual Fradleuc: which thing however is of no weight, since those catalogues seem to have been collected from old charters.
[7] [The house of St. Meliavus, the Frisians and Goths having been removed, comes into Armorica.] How this house obtained the rule of French Cornouaille, the biographer of St. Melarius has explained in so few words that it can scarcely, or not even scarcely, be understood. From the Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc In D. Morice, Preuves, vol. I, col. 14., therefore, which in this place seems to rest on fairly good monuments, this matter is set out a little more widely. Further, not in this monument alone, but also in others [Cf. Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, book III, chapter 4, at the year 559, vol. I, pp. 188 and 189, Paris, 1840.], the memory survives that the Frisians came into insular Britain not long after the Saxons. A part of them about the year 509 crossed into Armorican Brittany, or (if others Deric, Histoire ecclésiastique de Bretagne, vol. I, p. 330. are to be believed) came there from Germany, by the counsel of Clovis I, who thought by their aid to occupy this region. But however that may be, the Frisians for some time held dominion in Armorica over the Britons who had remained after the coming of the Franks, the others having returned to their insular country for love of liberty. Corsold was at their head; who, when he had received a very grievous injury from Coarchio, a Frisian merchant dwelling in England, led his soldiers across into England to avenge the insult. When therefore Armorica was empty of defenders, the Goths entered it; by which name the inhabitants or pirates of southern Sweden are to be understood; but the Armoricans resisted and nodded to their countrymen of Wales and insular Cornwall, that they should come to their aid. They heard these requests, and Rivalus or Ri-Welen, whom Deric Ibid., p. 345. and others judge to have been the same as Hoel or Reeth Hoel, with a third part of his companions crossed over into Armorica and took possession of it, about the year 523.
[8] Why St. Meliavus by his brother Rivodius The cause of the killing of St. Meliavus seems to have been plainly political. For although among the Britons the sons with equal right (except that the youngest by birth had the seat of the family) divided the paternal inheritance among themselves Leges Wallicæ, book II, chapter 12, p. 139, Wotton edition., yet the sons of a king could by no means divide among themselves the paternal dominion or royal dignity; but it was necessary that there should be one supreme king [Leges Wallicæ, cod. Demet, vol. II, book V, chapter 2, §1, p. 49, Owen edition, in Courson, Histoire des peuples bretons, vol. II, p. 405.], lord of the whole kingdom, and that all the other lords should be equals among themselves Leges Wallicæ, book IV, forensic triads, num. 140, p. 341, Wotton edition.. But although this was already law and as it were custom when, the Romans departing, the Britons recovered their former liberty [Cf. Walter, Das alte Wales, p. 75 and following; de Courson, Hist. des peuples Bretons, vol. II, pp. 78 and 79.], yet in a short time many kings were introduced, over whom one presided with the title of supreme rather than in fact: which contributed not a little to establishing the dominion of the Saxons and English. In Gaul moreover the Britons had seen continual examples of a kingdom divided among royal sons; so that it is plainly no wonder that Budic divided Cornouaille between his sons St. Meliavus and Rivodius. As it seems possible to gather from the particle Ri, with which the name of Rivodius begins, he was properly the king; for Ri, Reet, or Reit means king. He allowed his brother, however, to administer his portion for seven years; but at length, since (as is manifest from what he afterwards perpetrated against St. Melarius) he was not content with his own part, in a certain parley he killed St. Meliavus by reason of envy. Which matter it seems can be somewhat illustrated from the Welsh laws, which had force among the Armorican Britons by custom and community of origin.
[9] seems to have been slain. By what title he is called a martyr. His cult For in these laws it is read [Leges Wall., vol. II, III, chapter 2, §63, p. 500, Owen edition, in Courson, vol. II, p. 78.]: "There are three things which must not be done without the concurrence of the country, of the federations of dominions and of the clan or supreme senate: to change the ordinances of the brenin or king, to despoil him of the throne, and to bring new methods and sciences into the assembly of the bards… But the brenin cannot be despoiled of the throne except by the sentence of the country and of the federated dominions. The sentence of this general assembly must rest on the sentence of three hundred men, of whom the court of each dominion consists, the supreme king presiding; and it is necessary that the greater number of the dominions should consent to the sentence pronounced." It seems therefore that the parley in which St. Meliavus was killed by his brother was a general assembly of that kind; and since perhaps it did not answer to the designs of Rivodius, he did not hesitate to perpetrate the horrible crime. And since St. Meliavus was pious and was unjustly killed, he was enrolled by his countrymen among the holy martyrs, the glory of miracles being added; for those who of old with piety had suffered an unjust death were readily presented with this title, whereas now it is necessary that they should have bravely laid down their life for piety or for some other Christian virtue. On account of this difference of discipline some, among whom St. Meliavus may be reckoned, are now called martyrs in a broad sense, others, as the apostles Peter and Paul, in a strict sense. But this matter must be explained almost at every day. Blessed Meliavus therefore is called a martyr in the Acts of St. Melarius, and on the 26th day of October he is honoured as a martyr at Plou-Miliau, to which he has communicated his name with the patronage of the parish church; which parish formerly lay in the diocese of Tréguier, and now in that of Saint-Brieuc. Similarly he is patron of Guic-Miliau and of Plonevez-Porzai in the diocese of Quimper and of Plou-Miliau in that of Vannes [Cf. Albert Legrand and Kerdanet, Vies des saints de la Bretagne Armorique, p. 609; Lobineau and Tresvaux, Vies etc., vol. II, p. 248; Deric, Hist. eccles. de Bretagne, vol. II, p. 260.]. Chastelain celebrated his memory in the Universal Martyrology at the 5th day of November in these words: "In the diocese of Tréguier, of St. Miliavus (commonly Millau), honoured as a martyr."
[10] [It is said by mere conjecture that he was buried near Lannion, where they would have it that there was once an episcopal see.] Albert Legrand and Lobineau affirm that he was buried in the cathedral church of Yaudet or Coz-Gueaudet at the mouth of the stream of Lannion, or rather at the mouth of the stream le Guer near the town of Lannion in the former diocese of Tréguier Ibid., in the places cited.; but (unless I am mistaken) this is mere conjecture, having no other foundation than that, since St. Meliavus was a prince, he seems likely to have been buried in a cathedral church; then that Yaudet in the XVII century was thought to have once been an episcopal see, and that this place is not far distant from Plou-Miliau, where, since the holy martyr is venerated most of all, he was held to have suffered martyrdom. But that episcopal see has now been rejected by almost all, and certainly no good monuments concerning it are brought forward. They would have it, namely, that at the mouth of the stream le Guer, to the west of the town of Lannion, there existed an illustrious city by the name of Lexobia, of which the remains are some foundations of walls at the entrance of a crypt near the village of Coz-Gueaudet Fréminville, Antiquités de la Bretagne, Côtes du Nord, pp. 17 and 18. or Coz-Yeaudet Hauréau, Gallia Christiana, vol. XIV, col. 1136., or simply Yeaudet or Yaudet; by which name Old City is signified. Hauréau agrees Ibid., loc. cit. and col. 1119 and 1120. that Old City was an ancient monastery, in the district of Castellum, commonly Plou-lech, by others Plou-castel, Plo-gastel, Plu-gastel, which St. Tugdual is reported to have united to the monastery of Tréguier; but he denies and utterly denies that a bishop sat there. But among the Britons there were so many bishops that, if there was a monastery there, there could scarcely not have been a bishop there: but the error lies in this, that they attribute to British bishops a definite diocese and circumscribed jurisdiction, as to our own bishops. However that may be, it is better to confess that the burial place of St. Meliavus is as yet unknown.
[11] [The age of St. Meliavus is uncertain, but he seems to have lived in the later VIII century.] As to the time at which the holy martyr suffered the bloody hands, historians seem to agree. The Maurists Art de vérifier les dates, vol. II, p. 893., who largely follow the chronology of Morice in the counts or kings of Armorican Brittany, affirm that St. Meliavus perished in the year 792; with whom Miorcec de Kerdanet Legrand, Vies, etc. p. 609, note 1. and Garaby Vies des bienheureux, etc. p. 275. agree; Lobineau and Tresvaux Vies des saints de Bretagne, vol. II, p. 247 and following. attach his death to the year 791; the editor of Deric's Ecclesiastical History of Brittany to about the year 790 Hist. ecclés. de Bretagne, vol. II, p. 260.; and finally Freminville Antiquités de la Bretagne, Côtes du Nord, p. 134., contending that St. Melarius was slain about the year 740 or 745, by that very fact refers the martyrdom of St. Meliavus to about the year 735, since it is established that the latter departed from among the living seven years before his son. In my judgment this whole subject is exceedingly obscure. For there are only three names on which the chronology of the holy martyrs may seem able to rest: namely Budic, father of St. Meliavus, designated at the beginning of the Acts of St. Melarius; and the nobleman, foster-father and slayer of the same saint, called by Albert Legrand Kyoltanus, in the old lessons of Quimper Kaerialcus, in the Capgrave Acts of St. Melarius Acta SS., vol. I of January, p. 136. Cerialtanus, and finally in the British Poem In Legrand and Miorcec, p. 611, note 2. Keryoltanus; who had a son named Justin, cut off shortly after the slaying of St. Melarius, as is established from the Acts of du Paz In D. Morice, Preuves, vol. I, col. 225.. But, as regards first of all Budic, the genealogy of SS. Meliavus and Melarius has so many gaps that it cannot be determined from it whether Budic was the father of St. Meliavus, or his grandfather or forefather. Then, as regards Kyoltanus, Kaerialcus, Cerialtanus or Keryoltanus, Gallet, a distinguished critic among the Bretons, thought In Legrand and Miorcec, p. 616, note. that he was the same as Custentin or Constantine, son of Judo and father of Argent, who occurs in the genealogy which is in the Cartulary of Redon In D. Morice, Preuves, vol. I, col. 304.; and that the son of this Constantine was Justin, father of Alfred Mactiern, or son of a prince; which Alfred is read in the acts of Redon at the year 834 Ibid. col. 269., 849 Ibid., col. 295. and 861 Ibid., col. 307.; where in express words he is called Alfret Mactiern, son of Jostin. But this troubles me, that I see it nowhere demonstrated that Justin was the son of Constantine, but only asserted. It may be therefore that St. Meliavus was killed about the year 792; but I would dare affirm nothing. I shall only remark that in the catalogues of the princes of Cornouaille Budic Mur, who is to be held the father of St. Meliavus, comes in the eleventh place; wherefore if twenty-five years, for which they reigned, are assigned to each of the princes before St. Meliavus, it is necessary that St. Meliavus lived in the later VIII century; seeing that Rivalus is said to have taken possession of Cornouaille in the year 525.
[12] [Narratives resting on general history alone and on confusion of names are omitted.] Since therefore the age of the holy martyr is so obscure to me, I forbear to discourse on those deeds which are contained in no ancient testimonies, but rest only on general history and the order of times: namely that the holy man in the year 786 entered into alliance with the rest of the Armorican princes to defend their liberty against Charlemagne; that "by the king his army was sent to the parts of Brittany, together with his envoy Andulf the seneschal, and that many Britons were subdued there together with many of their castles and strongholds in marshy places", and that the Franks prevailed Annales Nazar., in D. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens, vol. V, p. 21.; and that when thirteen years afterwards a new rebellion was attempted, Count Wido, entering Brittany together with his fellow counts, went through the whole of it, received it in surrender, and presented to the king on his return from Saxony the arms of the leaders who had surrendered, with the names of each inscribed; for by these they had given over both themselves and the land and people of each of them, and the whole province of the Britons, which had never before been the case, was subjugated by the Franks Annales Francorum Bertiniani, in D. Bouquet, vol. V, p. 52.; and that these things were done in the year 799. But no trace survives as though St. Meliavus had any part in these things. Others, for example Albert Legrand Vies des saints, etc. p. 608. and Freminville Antiquites des Côtes dn Nord, p. 135., suppose that his true name was Macliau or Macliauc; and the same Albert and Garaby Vies des bienheureux, etc. p. 274. add that he had for a brother not only Rivodius, but also Theodoric; that their paternal uncle, Maxentius by name, snatched the kingdom from his brother's sons; but that Theodoric, when he had become a man, having vanquished the enemy, claimed the paternal inheritance for himself and his brothers. But, unless I am mistaken, the names Macliauc and Theodoric have been brought in here from book V, number 16, of the Ecclesiastical History of the Franks of St. Gregory of Tours In D. Morice, Preuves, vol. I, col. 198.. But what the blessed man narrates there was done in the year 577; then that Macliavus is a despoiler, and for that reason he was justly slain with his son Jacob.
Annotations* æstate
* Coulent?