From "Notes on the Parish of Mylor", published by Hugh Pengelly Olivey 1907

Beware, Ongoing work - This is First Draft Only and like to contain typographic errors

NOTES ON MYLOR.

Section 4

The Martyrdom of St. Miloris, Cornish Saints, Churchyard Cross, Parish Feasts, the "Mayor of Mylor."

THE legend relating to St. Miloris appears to be one among many memorable events which occurred in the fourth century, and numerous are the saints reported about that period to have migrated into Cornwall, amongst others St. Piran, St. Patrick, St. Austel, St. Iia, the two latter giving their names to St. Austell and St. Ives. It is stated by Leland that most of our saints came from Ireland between the years 423 and 432. We are assured on the best authority that many of the heathen temples were then converted into churches. The church of this parish may have been such a temple until about the time of the martyrdom of St. Miloris. There is little doubt they were first of all built of wood. " There was a time (says Venerable Bede) when there was not a stone church in the land, but the custom was to build them of wood." It is beyond question that the first church in England, that of Glastonbury, was built of wattle. Under the regulation of the Saxons they were built of stone. There appears to be no trace of Saxon work here, the earliest appears to be Norman. The Normans, after the Conquest, appear to have introduced not only their architecture with its semi-circular arches, massive pillars, and zigzag ornament, but their own Caen stone, which was both beautiful and durable. Vast quantities of this stone were imported into Cornwall, as well as other parts of England, from Caen in Normandy.

Polwhele writes: "The site of our parish churches was probably that of pagan temples. Here too were encampments, since the ancients used to form their entrenchments near their temples, if no inconvenience in the situation prevented it." What can be more probable than that the ancient temple and church at the Cregoes, the old church town, was so, in the vicinity of Trefusis, the walled or entrenched town ? of which more hereafter.

The consecration of ground adjoining churches as places of burial is not so ancient as this. It took place on the application of Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury (A.D. 750), to the Pope on the subject : " till which time the dead were never buried in cities or towns, much less in churches, but in common fields or orchards." " Barrows continued to be used even until the twelfth century," and "spots on hills or plains entirely unconnected with houses of worship." There are also barrows on Carclew and Mylor Downs.

CORNISH SAINTS.

Polwhele, who appears to be very credulous on the subject of Cornish Saints, and would endeavour to shake our belief in their reality, says : "Be it how it will, well assured I am that divers of our celebrated Cornish Saints are either imaginary only or fictitious ; there being but one saint, viz. San-Wen or San-Wena, mentioned in Domesday in the whole province of Cornwall. But at the time of the inquisition of the Bishops Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, they were multiplied or increased to the number of seventy in our churches." It may be that interest in their pious founders had revived with the revival of church work.

The legend relating to St. Miloris has been already given in Tonkin's description (p.19). Fuller in his Worthies of Cornwall gives a similar description : " He (his uncle, he says) first cut off his right hand and then his left legg (no reason for this transposed method of cruelty, save cruelty) and at last his head about the year 411, whose body being buried in some old church in this county by the miracles reported to be done thereat procured the reputation of a saint to his memory."

The following, which refers to another dedication to St. Meloris, is found in a paper read before the Somersetshire Archaeological Society in 1898, by Mr. W. H. Hamilton Rogers, and is published in volume XLIV of their transactions. He also gives an illustration of the old chapel with a description, and repeats a similar legend relative to the saint. He goes on to say : " No description appears of it in any local history . . . . and but for a passing memorandum in the Register of Edmund Stafford, Bishop of Exeter, relative to a breach of ecclesiastical discipline connected with the parish, no information as to its history would have been available. This reference, with commentary, Dr. Oliver⁽¹⁾ supplies.

" In this Parish (Thorncombe) I have met with two chapels dependent on the parochial church. One, I think, at Holditch, viz. the chapel of St. Meloris. ' Capella Sancti meliori infra fines et limites parochae de Thorncombe' as Bishop Stafford describes it in a deed dated Crediton 29th Jan. 1411-12 (Reg. Vol. i, p. 143). The parish church and chapel of St. Melorus having been placed under an interdict, the Bishop granted relaxation of the same.

" If we may credit the Legenda Sanctorum compiled by Bishop Grandison, St. Meliorus was the son of Melianus, King of Cornwall, by his wife Aurella, a lady of Devon ; that at seven years of age he lost his royal father ; that his uncle Rivoldus by his father's side returning from abroad cruelly treated the youth and at length contrived his decapitation.

" [A Parish in Cornwall is called after this saint - St. Mellion in East Cornwall midway between Saltash and Callington]"

The parish of Thorncombe here spoken of is in the extreme part of Devon near Axminster. Here is an instance of how writers on Hagiography differ. Tonkin says of St. Mellion : " I take this parish as well as Mullion in Kerrier to take its name from its tutelar saint, Melania." Mr. Davies Gilbert says : " It is much more probable that this church is dedicated to Melletus the first Bishop of London and third Archbishop of Canterbury, than to an obscure African lady. Bede has given various particulars of this eminent person: ' He led a second body of missionaries in aid of the great St. Austin and the conversion of a Pagan temple into a christian church since expanded into St. Paul's Cathedral, and also the foundation of Westminster Abbey is imputed to him. He died in the year 624.' "

The writer of the article though similarly describing the saint did not appear to know there was such a place as Mylor, and mistook St. Mellion for it.

The church of Linkinhorne in Cornwall is also dedicated to St. Miloris.

CHURCHYARD CROSS.

In a description of the restoration, probably written by the Rev. J. W. Murray, the cross is thus mentioned: " At the commencement of the church restoration a granite post which had long done duty as a flying buttress against the south wall of the church had to be removed; on cleaning away the earth in which it was deeply embedded it was discovered to be a ponderous monolith, granite cross of the 'round headed ' type, 17 feet 6 in. in length. On each face of the head is a Greek cross with a central boss, enclosed within a circular rim ; the incisions between the arms on both sides are so deep as to cause it to be a near approach to a 'four holed' cross. The shaft is ornamented with concentric rings and marginal lines." It now stands 10ft. 9in. above the surface.

PARISH FEASTS.

The Parish Feasts still celebrated in Cornwall are probably as ancient as the dedication of the churches. These feasts were originally kept on the saints' day to whose memory the church was dedicated. Among the list of feasts to be observed, and no others, according to the order of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his suffragans about the year I380, after enumerating the ordinary feast days adds, " the dedication of parochial churches and the days of the saints to whose honour they are dedicated." Nothing seems more appropriate than our keeping such days as remind us of the annual recurrence of particular events. As we keep our festivals of Christmas and Easter, or as birthdays have for ages past been celebrated in honour of living persons, so, after, the decease of those to whom we are indebted. for our spiritual light and hopes, become epochs of observance with joy and gladness. Churches were dedicated to their memories, and festivals instituted which have survived to the present day. These festival days or feast days were anciently kept as a general holiday, and in most parishes a house was provided, held by the parish, called the "Church House," to this often belonged brewing and cooking utensils. They were sometimes called wakes, revels, or ales, as Church Ales, Whitsuntide Ales, etc., and were sometimes made the means of raising parish funds for repairing of churches, building of bridges, etc.

These "ales " existed from very early times. People in financial straits would hold a bid-ale (biddan means to beg), where ale was sold at a profit and money collected. Bride-ales were means of starting newly married couples in their housekeeping. Bridal presents have now taken their place. According to the calendar of the ancient British church, the saint's day of St. Miloris is fixed for the 28th August, that being the date of his martyrdom, and that was anciently the date for keeping the Mylor feast, which has been changed to the nearest Sunday to October 25th. At the Reformation, one reason for the change of date of these holidays was their interference with the harvest. Convocation, in 1536, did away with all holidays which fell in harvest time (with a few exceptions), and appointed the first Sunday in October to be kept as the feast of dedication for all churches (Perry Church History, II, 146 ; Wilkins' Concilia, III, 823-4 ; see Appendix C). This revolutionary edict was confirmed by Cardinal Pole in his Reformatio Angliae, " By old custom of this realm we appoint the first Sunday in October for the feast of foundation of all churches." The wakes and revels were disapproved of about the beginning of the seventeenth century, as being superstitious and tending to revelry.

The parish feast day is still kept in most parishes, although the sports of hurling, wrestling, and other pastimes peculiar to the Cornish are in most places discontinued.

"MAYOR OF MAYOR."

Amongst curious old customs, the following, in which Mylor is mentioned, is recorded by G. L. Gomme in his book The Village Community. He gives it as an example amongst others which occur in England, and some in Cornwall, of the election of a village officer upon some special day, and independently of the recognised officials. This officer was generally known as the mock-mayor. Such elections took place at St. Germans, Lostwithiel, on Halgaver Moor near Bodmin, and at Polperro, and he describes them as being the survival of some ancient and now forgotten ceremony, which once had a significance, the force of which is now lost. They were remarkable only for their rude and rough nature, and a wild and riotous freedom of the villagers. Mr. Gomme says "The ceremony of choosing a mock-mayor was also observed at Penryn (near Falmouth), but it took place in the autumn, on a day in September or October when hazel nuts were ripe, and 'nutting day' was kept by the children and poor people. The journeymen tailors went from Penryn and Falmouth to Mylor parish, on the opposite side of the river Fal. There they made choice of the wittiest among them to fill that office.⁽²⁾ His title was the ' Mayor of Mylor.' When chosen he was borne in a chair upon the shoulders of four strong men from his ' goode towne of Mylor' to his ' anciente borough of Penryn.' He was preceded by torch-bearers and two town sergeants, in gowns and cocked hats, with cabbages instead of maces, and surrounded by a guard armed with staves. Just outside Penryn he was met by a band of music which played him into the town. Bonfires were lighted and fireworks set off soon after dark. It was popularly supposed that this choosing of a mock-mayor was permitted by a clause in the town charter." This is not the case.

(1) This refers to Oliver's Monasticon.

(2) Another account says the oldest tailor's apprentice. This custom has been carried out within the recollection of persons now living.

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