Christianity in Cornwall began in the 4th or 5th century AD when Western Christianity was introduced as in the rest of Roman Britain. Over time it became the official religion, superseding previous Celtic and Roman practices. Early Christianity in Cornwall was spread largely by the saints, including Saint Piran, the patron of the county. Cornwall, like other parts of Britain, is sometimes associated with the distinct collection of practices known as Celtic ChristianityBowen, E. G. (1977) Saints, Seaways and Settlements in the Celtic Lands. Cardiff: University of Wales Press; but was always in communion with the wider Catholic Church. The Cornish saints are commemorated in legends, churches and placenames.
Unlike Wales, which produced Bible translations into Welsh, the churches of Cornwall never produced a translation of the Bible in the Cornish language. During the English Reformation, churches in Cornwall officially became affiliated with the Church of England. In 1549, the Prayer Book Rebellion caused the deaths of thousands of people from Devon and Cornwall. The Methodism of John Wesley proved to be very popular with the working classes in Cornwall in the 19th century. Methodist chapels became important social centres, with male voice choirs and other church-affiliated groups playing a central role in the social lives of working class Cornishmen. Methodism still plays a large part in the religious life of Cornwall today, although Cornwall has shared in the post-World War II decline in British religious feeling. In 1876, a separate Cornish diocese of the Church of England was established with the bishop's see at Truro.
Early history and legend
Nothing is known about the beginnings of Christianity in Cornwall. Scilly has been identified as the place of exile of two heretical 4th-century bishops from Gaul, Instantius and Tiberianus, who were followers of Priscillian and were banished after the Council of Bordeaux in 384.
Toleration was granted to the Christians of the Roman Empire in 313 and there was some growth in the church in Roman Britain in the following hundred years, mainly in urban centres. There were no known cities (L castrum, OE caester, W caer, Br Ker) west of Exeter so Cornwall may have remained pagan at least until the 5th century, the presumed period of the mythical Christian King of the Britons, Arthur Pendragon. During the 5th century the earliest inscribed stones have inscriptions in Latin or Ogham script and some have Christian symbols. Precise dating is impossible for these stones but they are thought to come from the 5th to 11th centuries. Both the inscriptions and the Ruin of Britain by Gildas suggest that the leading families of Dumnonia were Christian in the 6th century.Orme, Nicholas (2007) Cornwall and the Cross. Chichester: Phillimore; pp. 4–5 Many early medieval settlements in the region were occupied by hermitage chapels which are often dedicated to St Michael as the conventional slayer of pagan demons, as at St Michael's Mount.
Many place names in Cornwall are associated with Christian missionaries described as coming from Ireland and Wales in the 5th century AD and usually called saints (See List of Cornish saints). The historicity of some of these missionaries is problematicOrme, Nicholas (2000) The Saints of Cornwall, see also Article on "Saint Uny" at http://www.lelant.info/uny.htm. The patron saint of Wendron Parish Church, "Saint Wendrona", is an example. and it has been pointed out by Canon Doble that it was customary in the Middle Ages to ascribe such geographic origins to saints.Doble, G. H. (1960) The Saints of Cornwall. 5 vols. Truro: Dean and Chapter, 1960–70 Some of these saints are not included in the early lists of saints.see for example absences from Olsen and Padel's "A tenth century list of Cornish parochial saints" in Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies; 12 (1986); and from Nova Legenda Angliae by John Capgrave (mid-15th century).
The Saints' Way, a long-distance footpath, follows the probable route of early Christian travellers making their way from Ireland to the Continent. Rather than risk the difficult passage around Land's End they would disembark their ships on the North Cornish coast (in the Camel estuary) and progress to ports such as Fowey on foot.
Like some other parts of Britain, Cornwall derived much of its Christianity from post-Patrician Irish missions. Saint Ia of Cornwall and her companions, and Saint Piran, Saint Sennen, Saint Petroc, and the rest of the saints who came to Cornwall in the late 5th century and early 6th century found there a population which had perhaps relapsed into paganism under the pagan King Teudar.King Teudar appears as a tyrant in the early 16th-century plays Beunans Ke and Beunans Meriasek, in which he comes into conflict with Saint Kea and Saint Meriasek, respectively. When these saints introduced, or reintroduced, Christianity, they probably brought with them whatever rites they were accustomed to, and Cornwall certainly had its own separate ecclesiastical quarrel with Wessex in the days of Saint Aldhelm, which, as appears by a statement in the Leofric Missal, was still going on in the early 10th century, though the details of it are not specified.
It is notable that in Cornwall that most of the parish churches in existence in Norman times were generally not in the larger settlements and that the medieval towns which developed thereafter usually had only a chapel of ease with the right of burial remaining at the ancient parish church.Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford Over a hundred holy wells exist in Cornwall, each associated with a particular saint, though not always the same one as the dedication of the church.Jenner, Henry (1925) "The Holy Wells of Cornwall", in: Cornish Church Guide. Truro: Blackford; pp. 249–257Quiller-Couch, Mabel and Lilian (1894) Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall. London : Chas. J. Clark In the Domesday Survey the church had considerable holdings of land but the Earl of Cornwall had appropriated a number of manors formerly held by monasteries. The monasteries of St Michael's Mount, Bodmin, and Tavistock, and the canons of St Piran, St Keverne, Probus, Crantock, St Buryan and St Stephen's all had land at this time.Thorn, Caroline & Frank (eds.) (1979) Domesday Book. 10: Cornwall. Chichester: Phillimore
Various kinds of religious houses existed in medieval Cornwall though none of them were nunneries; the benefices of the parishes were in many cases appropriated to religious houses within Cornwall or elsewhere in England or France.Oliver, George(1846) Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis: being a collection of records and instruments illustrating the ancient conventual, collegiate, and eleemosynary foundations, in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon, with historical notices, and a supplement, comprising a list of the dedications of churches in the Diocese, an amended edition of the taxation of Pope Nicholas, and an abstract of the Chantry Rolls [with supplement and index]. Exeter: P. A. Hannaford, 1846, 1854, 1889.
There were a number of peculiars, areas outside the diocesan administration. Four of these were directly under the Bishop of Exeter, i.e. Lawhitton, St Germans, Pawton, and Penryn; Perranzabuloe was a peculiar of Exeter Cathedral and St Buryan of the Kings of England.Orme, N. (2007) Cornwall and the Cross. Chichester: Phillimore; pp. 28–29 From the time of Bishop William Warelwast the administration of the remainder of Cornwall was in the hands of the Archdeacon of Cornwall and visits by the Bishop became more infrequent; only bishops could consecrate churches or conduct confirmations.
Patron saint St Piran, after whom Perranzabuloe and Perranuthnoe are named, is generally regarded as the patron saint of Tinners and for some also of Cornwall. However, in earlier times it is likely that St Michael the Archangel was recognised as the patron saint;Henderson, C. G. (1933) "Cornwall and her patron saint", In: his Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 197–201 he is still recognised by the Church of England as the Protector of Cornwall. (The cult of St Michael is found in Norman times and is seen in the naming of St Michael's Mount after the similarly named monastery in Normandy.) The title has also been claimed for Saint Petroc who was patron of the Cornish diocese prior to the Normans.The cult of St Petroc was the most important in the Diocese of Cornwall since he was the founder of the monastery of Bodmin the most important in the diocese and, with St Germans, the seat of the bishops. He was the patron of the diocese and of Bodmin: Caroline Brett, "Petroc (fl. 6th cent.)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 16 December 2008
Dioceses of Cornwall and Exeter
The church in Cornwall until the time of Athelstan of Wessex observed more or less orthodox practices, being completely separate from the Anglo-Saxon church until then (and perhaps later). The See of Cornwall continued until much later: Bishop Conan apparently in place previously, but (re-?)consecrated in 931 AD by Athelstan. However, it is unclear whether he was the sole Bishop for Cornwall or the leading Bishop in the area. The situation in Cornwall may have been somewhat similar to Wales where each major religious house equated to a (cf. Welsh ), each under the control of a bishop.Charles-Edwards, T. (1970–1972), "The Seven Bishop Houses of Dyfed", In: Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, vol. 24 (1970–1972), pp. 247–252.
According to Nicholas Orme "... a period of obscurity ... ends only after Egbert's conquest in the early 800s. Later records claim that he used his power to grant estates in Cornwall to the bishop of Sherborne, especially Pawton in St Breock and Lawhitton near Launceston. Egbert may have intended that the bishop would visit Cornwall or send deputies there to supervise or develop the local church."Orme, Nicholas (2007) Cornwall and the Cross: Christianity, 500–1560. Chichester: Phillimore in association with the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London ; p. 8 By the 880s, the Church in Cornwall was having more Saxon priests appointed to it and they controlled some church estates like Polltun, Caellwic and Landwithan. Eventually, they passed these over to Wessex kings. However, according to Alfred the Great's will the amount of land he owned in Cornwall was very small.Keynes, Simon & Lapidge, Michael (tr.) (1983) Alfred the Great: Asser's "Life of King Alfred" and other contemporary sources. London: Penguin; p. 175; cf. ibid, p. 89.
William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that King Athelstan of England (924–939) fixed Cornwall's eastern boundary at the east bank of the Tamar and the remaining Cornish were evicted from Exeter and perhaps the rest of Devon: "Exeter was cleansed of its defilement by wiping out that filthy race".Payton Cornwall These British speakers were deported across the Tamar, which was fixed as the border of the Cornish; they were left under their own dynasty to regulate themselves with west Welsh tribal law and customs, rather like the Indian princes under the Raj in the 19th and early 20th centuries.Wood, Michael (1986) Domesday: a Search for the Roots of England London: Guild Publishing; p. 188 By 944 Athelstan's successor, Edmund I of England, styled himself 'King of the English and ruler of this province of the Britons',Todd, Malcolm (1987) The South West to AD 1000; p. 289 an indication of how that accommodation was understood at the time.