In this same province of Warthrenion,and in the church of Saint Germanus,{20}there is a staff of Saint Cyric,{21}covered on all sides with gold and silver,and resembling in its upper part the form of a cross;its efficacy has been proved in many cases,but particularly in the removal of glandular and strumous swellings;insomuch that all persons afflicted with these complaints,on a devout application to the staff,with the oblation of one penny,are restored to health.But it happened in these our days,that a strumous patient on presenting one halfpenny to the staff,the humour subsided only in the middle;but when the oblation was completed by the other halfpenny,an entire cure was accomplished.
Another person also coming to the staff with the promise of a penny,was cured;but not fulfilling his engagement on the day appointed,he relapsed into his former disorder;in order,however,to obtain pardon for his offence,he tripled the offering by presenting three-pence,and thus obtained a complete cure.
At Elevein,in the church of Glascum,{22}is a portable bell,endowed with great virtues,called Bangu,{23}and said to have belonged to Saint David.A certain woman secretly conveyed this bell to her husband,who was confined in the castle of Raidergwy,{24}near Warthrenion,(which Rhys,son of Gruffydd,had lately built)for the purpose of his deliverance.The keepers of the castle not only refused to liberate him for this consideration,but seized and detained the bell;and in the same night,by divine vengeance,the whole town,except the wall on which the bell hung,was consumed by fire.
The church of Luel,{25}in the neighbourhood of Brecheinoc (Brechinia),was burned,also in our time,by the enemy,and everything destroyed,except one small box,in which the consecrated host was deposited.
It came to pass also in the province of Elvenia,which is separated from Hay by the river Wye,in the night in which king Henry I.
expired,that two pools {26}of no small extent,the one natural,the other artificial,suddenly burst their bounds;the latter,by its precipitate course down the declivities,emptied itself;but the former,with its fish and contents,obtained a permanent situation in a valley about two miles distant.In Normandy,a few days before the death of Henry II.the fish of a certain pool near Seez,five miles from the castle of Exme,fought during the night so furiously with each other,both in the water and out of it,that the neighbouring people were attracted by the noise to the spot;and so desperate was the conflict,that scarcely a fish was found alive in the morning;thus,by a wonderful and unheard-of prognostic,foretelling the death of one by that of many.
But the borders of Wales sufficiently remember and abhor the great and enormous excesses which,from ambitious usurpation of territory,have arisen amongst brothers and relations in the districts of Melenyth,Elvein,and Warthrenion,situated between the Wye and the Severn.
CHAPTER II
Journey through Hay and Brecheinia Having crossed the river Wye,we proceeded towards Brecheinoc,and on preaching a sermon at Hay,{27}we observed some amongst the multitude,who were to be signed with the cross (leaving their garments in the hands of their friends or wives,who endeavoured to keep them back),fly for refuge to the archbishop in the castle.
Early in the morning we began our journey to Aberhodni,and the word of the Lord being preached at Landeu,{28}we there spent the night.
The castle and chief town of the province,situated where the river Hodni joins the river Usk,is called Aberhodni;{29}and every place where one river falls into another is called Aber in the British tongue.Landeu signifies the church of God.The archdeacon of that place (Giraldus)presented to the archbishop his work on the Topography of Ireland,which he graciously received,and either read or heard a part of it read attentively every day during his journey;and on his return to England completed the perusal of it.
I have determined not to omit mentioning those occurrences worthy of note which happened in these parts in our days.It came to pass before that great war,in which nearly all this province was destroyed by the sons of Jestin,{30}that the large lake,and the river Leveni,{31}which flows from it into the Wye,opposite Glasbyry,{32}were tinged with a deep green colour.The old people of the country were consulted,and answered,that a short time before the great desolation {33}caused by Howel,son of Meredyth,the water had been coloured in a similar manner.About the same time,a chaplain,whose name was Hugo,being engaged to officiate at the chapel of Saint Nicholas,in the castle of Aberhodni,saw in a dream a venerable man standing near him,and saying,"Tell thy lord William de Braose,{34}who has the audacity to retain the property granted to the chapel of Saint Nicholas for charitable uses,these words:'The public treasury takes away that which Christ does not receive;and thou wilt then give to an impious soldier,what thou wilt not give to a priest.'"This vision having been repeated three times,he went to the archdeacon of the place,at Landeu,and related to him what had happened.The archdeacon immediately knew them to be the words of Augustine;and shewing him that part of his writings where they were found,explained to him the case to which they applied.He reproaches persons who held back tithes and other ecclesiastical dues;and what he there threatens,certainly in a short time befell this withholder of them:for in our time we have duly and undoubtedly seen,that princes who have usurped ecclesiastical benefices (and particularly king Henry the Second,who laboured under this vice more than others),have profusely squandered the treasures of the church,and given away to hired soldiers what in justice should have been given only to priests.