BLISLAND— BODMIN century. The church (Perp.) is very interest- ing. BODMIN (bod-minachau, "the abode of monks ") is the county-town of Cornwall, though Truro is more really the capital. The recent census showed a slight increase of Bod- min's population, but the rural district has decreased. Petrock, a Welsh saint of Irish education, came to Cornwall in the sixth century, and founded Petrockstow (Padstow). Later he came on to Bodmin, and enlarged a hermit's cell into a small religious settlement ; where, after further missionary travels, he died and left his bones. He also left his name, and there has been endless confusion between the two Petrockstows. It was clearly Padstow, not Bodmin, that was burnt by the Danes in 981 ; and Padstow also was referred to by William of Malmesbury in connection with the Cornish diocese. Bishops in the Celtic Church were monastic, not territorial ; the first territorial bishop that we hear of in Cornwall is Kenstec of Dinurrin (probably Dingerrein). That Bodmin became episcopal or partly so is abso- lutely certain ; its priory possessed a valuable ninth century copy of the Gospels (now in the British Museum), in which were entered the manumissions of slaves from 941 to 1043, and this, in the opinion of Bishop Stubbs, proves the existence of an episcopal residence at Bodmin. Perhaps Bodmin was a kind of suffragan-see to St. Germans, or perhaps for a time it was the sole see-town ; the only thing 63
