Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/563

Rh written; for they contain an element of thought which clearly belongs to an ancient order of things. It is more to the point to note that many of them imply an antagonistic school of poets, which Taliessin is represented relentlessly attacking. This may be supposed to have been a more Christian school than that to which he is made to belong; and that was probably of the essence of the feud. The legendary life of Taliessin opposes his patron Elphin and the bard himself to the powerful sixth century prince Maelgwn of Gwyneᵭ, and the poets of his court respectively. Maelgwn, according to Gildas, his contemporary and critic, had for a time been a monk; and he is believed to have received his education from no less a teacher than St. Cadoc, with whose name Welsh tradition connects a number of sayings of a philosophic and Christian nature. Be that as it may, Maelgwn belonged to the dynasty of Cuneᵭa, which was so famous for the number of distinguished saints it gave the Church, that it is termed one of the Three Holy Clans of Britain. Further, it was under Maelgwn's rule that Bangor in Arvon is supposed to have first become the home of a bishop; and everything suggests that the poets favoured by Maelgwn and his court were likely to be less pagan in the tone of their teaching than those can possibly have been who appropriated the name of Taliessin, that is if we may judge from the poems ascribed to him. The quarrel was even then probably of old standing; it may be supposed to date from the time when the Brythons began to accept Christianity, and to have combined itself possibly with the Pelagian