er in the beginning of his
_Fasti Herefordenses_.

"The Welsh claim a high antiquity for Hereford as the recognised centre of
Christianity in this district. Archbishop Usher asserts that it was the
seat of an Episcopal See in the sixth century, when one of its bishops
attended a synod convened by the Archbishop of Caerleon (A.D. 544). In the
_Lives of the British Saints_ (Rev. W. J. Reeves, 1853), we learn that
Geraint ab Erbin, cousin of King Arthur, who died A.D. 542, is said to
have founded a church at Caerffawydd, the ancient British name for
Hereford. In Wilkin's _Concilia_, I. 24, it is recorded that beyond all
doubt a Bishop of Hereford was present at the conference with St.
Augustine, A.D. 601. Full particulars are given of the supposed time and
place of this conference. It is also stated--'_In secunda affuisse
perhibentur septem hi Britannici episcopi Herefordensis, Tavensis alias
Llantavensis, Paternensis, Banchoriensis, Chirensis alias Elinensis,
Uniacensis alias Wiccensis, Morganensis._' It is styled '_Synodus
Wigornensis_,' or according to Spelman, '_Pambritannicam_.' Nothing
whatever is known of the names or of the number of British bishops who
presided over the earliest church at Hereford."

The boundaries of this diocese in the tenth century are defined in
Anglo-Saxon in an ancient volume known as the _Mundy Gospels_, now in the
library of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

"The condition of the Church of Hereford (_circa_ 1290 A.D.) gave clear
testimony to the liberal piety of its founders by the extensiveness of its
lands. The diocese itself was richly endowed by nature, and enviably
situated. Those of St. Asaph, Lichfield, Worcester, Llandaff, and St.
David's, were its neighbours. On the north it stretched from where the
Severn enters Shropshire to where that river is joined on the south by the
influx of the Wye. From the west to the east perhaps its greatest width
might have been found from a point where the latter river, near Hay,
leaves the counties of Radnor and Brecon, by a line drawn to the bridge at
Gloucester. It embraced portions of the counties of Radnor, Montgomery,
Salop, Worcester, and Gloucester, and touched upon that of Brecon. It
included the town of Monmouth, with four parishes, in its neighbourhood.
The Severn environed its upper part. Almost midway it was traversed by the
Teme, and the Wye pursued its endless windings through the lower
district,--a region altogether remarkable for its