St. David, whom Walcott[39] gives as Bishop from 519-542 (when he presumably died), was canonised by Pope Calixtus II. (Guido of Vienne)[40] 1119-1124, and judging by the numerous Edwardian coins found in the neighbourhood the shrine attained the height of its celebrity during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Bishop Gower was thus able to build his magnificent palace as a hostelry for the many distinguished pilgrims. Amongst the kings who paid homage to St. David were William I. in 1081,[41] when he subdued Wales, and this shrine doubtless formed in some sense a common bond between conquerors and conquered; Henry II., on his way to and from Ireland (1171-1172) when he gave _inter alia_ two velvet copes “for the singers in serving God and St. David,”[42] and it was while waiting here for a fair wind that Henry is reported to have learnt from a bard that King Arthur was buried in the Isle of Avalon; whilst the last royal visit recorded is that of Edward I. and Queen Eleanor in 1284.[43]
It appears that the remains of St. David’s confessor, St. Justinian, were translated from Porthotinan, near St. David’s, to a new tomb in the cathedral in which he himself was also subsequently interred.[44] But it is not clear at what date the relics were translated to a movable feretory. However, it is certain that it was portable, as in 1086 it was stolen and despoiled.[45] In spite of William of Malmesbury definitely stating that the relics were transferred to Glastonbury in 946,[46] they were still in their place when Henry II. made his pilgrimage, and a century later (1275) we find Bishop Richard de Carew building a new shrine which agrees with the general architectural character of the existing structure.[47] But we find that the relics, or some of them, were inclosed in a portable shrine long after this. An Extent of the Bishop’s lands made in the year 1326 informs us that the burgesses of St. David’s were bound to follow the Bishop in time of war with the shrine of St. David for one day’s journey in either direction,[48] and under a statute of Bishop Nicholas the chantry priests were enjoined to carry the shrine in procession on the instructions of the precentor or president of the Chapter.[49] Yet the evidence[50] of those who certainly saw the shrine before the Reformation, convinces us that this structure is the same that anciently bore the name, and, as Freeman[51] says, “the term feretrum, in spite of its etymology, was continually applied to standing shrines, as, for instance, to the celebrated shrine of St. Cuthbert at Durham.” By a statute[52] of Bishop Beck, 1287, recited and confirmed by Bishop Gower in 1342, three officers are directed to take charge of all things given or left “tam ad fabricam, quam ad Feretrum, sive caput.”