ST. GERMAN S    [Augustinian

was the seat of a bishop in early times. The bishops of the Celtic churches were not like those of the English; their sphere of influence was not defined in the same way. In Ireland a In Ireland a bishop often lived in a monastic settlement and was inferior in rank to the Abbot. In Cornwall the Bishop of St. Germans was probably the head of a monastery. Whether his jurisdiction extended over the whole of modern Cornwall, or whether there were not other bishops—at Bodmin, for instance—in the quite early days, is not clear. The first bishop who is named is one Conan, in AthelStan’s time (in 936), but he will not have been actually the firSt. The laSt was Burhwold.

In 1050 the old See of St. Germans was united with Exeter by Edward the Confessor, and Bishop Leofric, who had formerly had Crediton for his See, moved thither. He is said to have placed canons in St. Germans. But it was Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter in Henry II’s time, who made it a Priory of AuguStinian Canons. So it continued till the Suppression, when its annual value was somewhat under £250.

The church has a certain cathedral flavour about it, in that it has two western towers; one is Norman, with an oCtagonal top of the thirteenth century. The other, the southern, has Norman base and Perpendicular upper Storey. Between them is a fine late Norman door. The nave has two Norman piers on the south side, and a Norman font is in the south tower.

The original north aisle was pulled down in 1803 and replaced by the pew of the Eliots—the house of Port Eliot is immediately beside the church.

The description in the beauties of England and Wales (Britton and Bray-ley; this volume was issued in 1801) is rather unwontedly minute and careful. I will quote a good part of it, and the visitor may be interested in comparing it with what he sees now.

After describing the western arch it says : “ Over the arch is a pediment with a cross at the top resembling an heraldic cross patee within a circle ; on each side is a small pointed window, and above these are three small narrow round-headed windows. [Above these is the main western gable.]

“ The north aisle is divided from the nave by five short thick round columns, each connected with a half-pillar opposite to it in the north wall, by a low surbased arch. All the capitals of the columns are square, and curiously ornamented with Saxon {i.e. Norman) sculpture. The third from the weSt end is embellished with grotesque figures having bodies resembling dogs, opposed to each other, with their fore parts meeting at the angle of the capital in one head ; the upper part human, but the lower like a scollop-shell. Above these range six plain arches, some of them apparently of the same age and Style with those in the nave of St. Alban’s Abbey Church, Hertfordshire.

“ In several windows of the aisle are a few coats of arms on painted glass.

“ The architecture of the south aisle is very dissimilar from that on the