tues and labors he imitated the apostles, so God was pleased to
authorize his preaching, by conferring on him an apostolic grace of the
miraculous powers. Out of his monks and disciples, he sent many
missionaries to preach the faith in the north of Scotland, in the isles
of Orkney, in Norway, and Iceland.

The form of government among the Straith-Cluid Britons and the
Cumbrians, the latter inhabiting the country from the Picts' wall, to
the Ribble in Lancashire, was in part aristocratical; for many petty
lords or princes enjoyed so great authority in their respective
territories, as often to wage war among themselves: yet they all obeyed
one monarch, who usually resided at Alcluyd, or Dunbritton. Besides the
feuds and quarrels of particular chieftains and their clans, there
happened about that time several revolutions in the monarchy. We learn
from the book entitled the Triades, that when St. Kentigern was made
bishop of Glasco, Gurthmel Wledig was king of the North Britons, and
contemporary with Arthur. He was succeeded by Rydderch, surnamed Hael,
i.e. _The Liberal_, who vanquished his enemies and rivals in war,
especially by the great victory of Arderyth, in 577.[1] He was a
religious and deserving prince, and his magnificence, generosity, and
other virtues, are extolled by the ancient author of the Triades, by
Merlin, Taliessin, the old laws of the Britons, and the authors of the
lives of St. Kentigern and St. Asaph. This prince, however, was
afterwards obliged by rebellious subjects, under Morcant Mawr, and
Aeddon, surnamed Uraydog, or _The Treacherous_, to fly into Ireland. The
impious Morcant (as he is styled in the fragment of St. Asaph's life,
extant in Coch-Asaph) usurped the throne of the Straith-Cluid Britons;
but the Cumbrians, who dwelt on the south side of the wall, were
protected by Urien, lord of Rheged, a nobleman who had lived at the
court of king Arthur, and whose great qualities are celebrated by the
pens of Lhowarch-Hen, (his cousin-german,) Taliessin, and the author of
the Triades. In the beginning of the usurpation of Morcant Mawr, St.
Kentigern was obliged to fly into Wales, where he stayed some time with
St. David, at Menevia, {139} till Cathwallain, (uncle to king Maelgun
Gwynedh,[2]) a religious prince of part of Denbighshire, bestowed on him
the land at the meeting of the rivers Elwy and Cluid, on which he built
a famous monastery and school, called from the river Elwy, Llan-Elwy, or
absolute