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Anian of Nanneu, O.F.P. Prior of Rhuddlan, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1268-1293: BY RUTH C. EASTERLING, M.A. M ORE details, probably, have survived of the career of Anian, or Einion, of Nanneu, the prominent Dominican friar who held the see of St. Asaph during the long and critical period that witnessed the fall of the independent principality of North Wales, than of most of the medieval Welsh prelates, and certainly more than of any other Welsh friar. There are. indeed, quite a number of contemporary references to testify to his energy and activity.1 But there is not, I think, a critical account of him that aims at being purely biographical. Archdeacon Thomas, in his most valuable History of the Diocese of St. Asaph,8 gives an account of Anian's episcopate which is both the most recent and the best. Here, that side of the bishop's career which bears upon the advancement of his see is fully dealt with, and the reader is referred thither for many 1 The chief early sources of his history are to be found in the Index to Llyfr Cock Asaph (the Bed book of St. Asaph "), printed in Arch. Comb. 1868, pp 151, seqq. and 329 seqq. (Peniarth MS. 26) referred to in this account as Llyfr Cooh; and in the collection of original documents relating to the Welsh Church by Haddan and Stubbs, Councils & Eccles. Doe. Vol. 1., referred to below as Counc. and in the calendars of the Patent and Close Rolls, Papal; Letters, etc., for the period. Then there are the numerous notices to be found in subsequent compilations both old and new, the most important of which are given below. 2 Hitstory of St. Asaph (1906), pp. 41-8,216.