Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/252

226 struction of these buildings may appear very rude, and their dimensions insignificantly small; but still it is impossible to look upon them without interest on account of their antiquity, and the simple piety of those who reared these humble walls, and they are further worthy of study as supplying evidences of the customary arrangement of churches in very early times.

It should be remembered that Cornwall, according to its early history, was not exposed to the same vicissitudes as other counties of England. After the departure of the Romans, the Cornish Christians were deprived of that temporal support and protection, which had fostered the early church in the west and other parts of Britain; but, although the Cornish were free from Saxon oppression, they were not without their trial, for Druidism began to regain influence, and to overpower the true faith. At this time a deliverance was provided for them through the Irish missionaries, who came over in great numbers, and were the means of planting the Church firmly in Cornwall. For the space of three centuries, beginning from the fifth, their pious exertions on behalf of Cornwall were continued zealously; but after that time, daring the eighth century, the Danes ravaged the coast of Ireland, and in a manner conquered that country. By this reverse the means and opportunities of dispersing the blessing of Gospel truth, previously employed by the Irish Christians, were curtailed, and by degrees their efforts were eventually crushed.

So effectually, however, had they laboured in Cornwall during three centuries, as above stated, that there is scarcely a parish in Cornwall which does not contain some memorial of the Irish missionaries who visited the country during that period, and almost all the Cornish churches are dedicated in honour of Irish saints. The oratories of Cornwall are precisely similar to the little "stone churches," as they are called, of Ireland, the foundation of which is attributed to the same period, and often to the same persons who erected oratories in Cornwall. These oratories, it will be found, fully confirm the early history of that county, both in their dissimilarity to any Saxon or Norman remains, and also in the similarity which, as might be expected, is found to exist between them and the earlier Christian structures in Ireland.

I will begin the description of these interesting buildings with a brief account of the oratory of St. Piran, which is the