secration as archbishop by the patriarch, is obviously an unmixed romance. Rhygyfarch says that an altar presented to David by the patriarch was still in existence, but since the saint's death had been kept wrapped up in a leather case, and had not been allowed to be seen by any one. The popular belief, he adds, was that this sacred object had come down from heaven. William of Malmesbury identifies this altar with the jewelled silver ‘superaltare’ known as ‘the sapphire of Glastonbury;’ but this seems to be a guess of Malmesbury's own. The ‘sapphire’ eventually fell into the hands of Henry VIII's commissioners, but they say nothing about its origin, nor do the Glastonbury records mention any tradition connecting it with St. David.
Equally unhistorical with the story of the Jerusalem pilgrimage is the grotesque account given by Rhygyfarch of the synod of Brefi, which, he says, was held soon after David's return from the Holy Land. When the assembled bishops had decreed the condemnation of the Pelagian heresy, first one and then another of them (‘standing upon a heap of clothes!’) attempted to proclaim the result of their deliberations to the vast throng of laity who stood around. But no one was found whose voice was powerful enough for so great a congregation; and it was resolved that whoever was able to make himself heard by all should be appointed metropolitan archbishop of Wales. David was not present, but (at the recommendation of his old teacher Paulinus, who was aware of his consecration) he was sent for, and was successful in this singular competitive examination for ecclesiastical honours. The effect of his eloquence on the occasion was so powerful that from that moment the Pelagian heresy was never more heard of in Wales. It is extremely improbable that in the sixth century there existed any archbishopric in Wales; the object of Rhygyfarch's childish inventions seems to have been to provide an historic basis for the claims which his own see was then beginning to assert to primacy over the other bishoprics in the country.
The fictions of Rhygyfarch are improved upon by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who represents David as the uncle of King Arthur, and alleges that the metropolitan see had formerly been at Caerleon, but that David, with Arthur's sanction, removed it to Menevia. Modern writers have frequently discussed the motives for which this change was made, but as in all probability no archbishopric of Caerleon ever existed this question falls to the ground. The importance which the see of St. David's actually did obtain is to be accounted for partly by the celebrity of its founder, and partly by the situation of the place, which, on the one hand, rendered it safe from English influences, and on the other, afforded facilities for communication with the sister church of Ireland.
The great reverence which was early felt for St. David is shown by the large number of churches dedicated to him in Wales, and also in some parts of Ireland. His festival is observed on 1 March; he was formally canonised by Pope Calixtus in 1120. William of Malmesbury alleges that the saint's remains were in 966 translated to Glastonbury by an English lady named Ealhswith. The body was, he says, deposited in ‘the old church,’ which had been destroyed by fire. There is little doubt that the story of the translation is one of the many fictions that were devised to enhance the glory of Glastonbury. It may be observed that the Welsh name Dewi (a corruption of David, dating from the time when the Latin v was pronounced in Britain as w) is applied only to the saint; the biblical David being always rendered by the later form Dafydd.
The life of David by Giraldus has no independent authority, though the manuscript of Rhygyfarch which he followed seems in some places to have been more correct than that now extant. The same remarks apply to the life published in the ‘Acta Sanctorum’ and to that printed by Colgan from an Irish manuscript of unknown date.
[Rhygyfarch's Life of David in Rees's Cambro-British Saints, 102–44; Rice Rees's Essay on Welsh Saints, 193 ff.; Acta Sanctorum, March 1; Dictionary of Christian Biography, art. ‘David;’ Wharton's Anglia Sacra, ii.; William of Malmesbury's De Antiq. Glaston. Eccl.]
DAVID (d. 1139?), bishop of Bangor, is generally called ‘David the Scot,’ but the example of Marianus Scotus in the previous century shows that on the continent ‘Scot’ still often meant Irishman, and Ordericus Vitalis translates ‘Scotigena’ into the more modern usage by calling him ‘Irensis quidam scholasticus’ (Pertz, Mon. Germ. Script. vi. 243, xx. 67). If the identification of the continental scholar and the Welsh bishop can be satisfactorily established, there can be no doubt that David was a Welshman; but it would be very easy on the continent to confound him with the mass of wandering Irish ecclesiastics who still had churches of their own in many parts of Europe. David first appears in the early years of the twelfth century as a famous teacher at Würzburg, a place well known for its schools since the days of the Ottos, and, as the shrine of the Scot St. Kilian,
