/2/ c, ----- <* -^2* e oi $ / ^^ .ANDMARKS N HE HISTORY OF HE WELSH CHURCH BY THE RIGHT REVEREND ALFRED GEORGE EDWARDS BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1912 PREFACE THESE pages represent an effort, extending over some years, to ascertain the true facts about some of the leading events in the history of the Church in Wales, and a sincere desire to look at those facts with an eye un jaundiced by present controversies. The most element- ary facts in the history of the Church in Wales have in recent years been strangely misrepresented ; essential facts have been sup- pressed, and the perverse inaccuracy with which her past history has been treated has been abundantly applied to her present work and condition. In the compilation of the diocesan records, given in detail in the Ap- pendices, time and labour have been spent in order that those records may be set forth fully and accurately. These facts, many of which are published for the first time, are recorded not for controversial purposes, but in the hope that they have a positive historical interest and value ; and in the endeavour to give a history of some of the main events in the history of the Church in Wales, it has been my constant desire to state the facts truthfully and without bias. A. G. ASAPH. THE PALACE, ST. ASAPH, 2nd November 1.912. 2066908 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN ....... 1 II. THE ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH . 15 III. THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE BRITISH CHURCH . 33 IV. POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH ... 45 V. TITHES 66 VI. THE FUSION OF THE BRITISH AND ANGLICAN CHURCH ... . . . . .80 VII. THE REFORMATION PERIOD. . . -91 VIII. THE PflE-CoMMONWEALTH PERIOD . . .108 IX. THE COMMONWEALTH . . . . . .123 X. THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE . .142 XI. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ... . . l6l XII. THE AGE OF REVIVALS 182 XIII. THE METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS . 202 XIV. WELSH NATIONALITY . . , .... 225 XV. CONTRASTS ....... 238 XVI. DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT . .251 XVII. WORK . 265 CONTENTS v PAGE APPENDIX A. TITHE-PAYERS IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. ASAPH . . . . . . 275 B. MEMORANDUM REFERRING TO BISHOP MORGAN . . . . . 276 C. A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY NOTITIA . . 278 D. DIOCESE OF ST. ASAPH. (a) PAROCHIAL RECORD FOR 21 YEARS . . . 282 (6) SUMMARY OF STATISTICS OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND EASTER COMMUNICANTS 288 (o) SUMMARY OF VOLUNTARY OFFERINGS . 289 (d) COMPARISON OF POPULATION AND EASTER COMMUNICANTS IN COUNTRY PARISHES . ; . . . 290 E. WELSH DISENDOWMENT BILL . . .291 ., F. AN ACT FOR THE BETTER PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL ' , . . . 294 G. SEQUESTERED CLERGY AND INTRUDED MINISTERS IN ST. ASAPH DIOCESE DURING THE COMMONWEALTH . . 302 INDEX . 307 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. DAVID'S . . Frontispiece LLANDAFF CATHEDRAL IN 1787. Old print . Facing p. 10 LLANDAFF CATHEDRAL. Modern . . . 14 SILCHESTER. Ground plan of Romano-British Church Page 32 SILCHESTER. Pavement Facing p. 32 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. DEINOIL, BANGOR 42 CADOC GRANT IN COTTON MS. . . . . Page 79 THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. ASAPH . . Facing p. 90 GABRIEL GOODMAN, D.D. . ... . . 122 GEORGE GRIFFITH, S.T.P. . . . . . ,,138 MEMORIAL TO BISHOP MORGAN AND THE TRANS- LATORS OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH . . ,,152 BISHOP WILLIAM LLOYD 164 BISHOP BEVERIDGE . . . . . . ,,180 WILLIAM BASIL JONES, D.D. . . . 234 CONNOP THIRLWALL, D.D 242 ALFRED OLLIVANT, D.D. . . . . . 258 THOMAS VOWLER SHORT, D.D. . 268 LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORY - OF THE WELSH CHURCH CHAPTER I THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN AN inquiry into the origin of early Christianity in Britain naturally resolves itself into the investigation of three principal problems, namely, by what agency Christianity was first 1 introduced, from what country it was imme- diately derived, and to what date we are to assign its first beginnings in this island, Answers to these questions must be sought in mist-land, where the inquirer, groping among myths, guesses, and inferences, may haply find some reliable landmarks. The presence of British bishops at the Council of Aries in 314 A.D., gives reasonable ground for the assumption that Christianity had become both organised and widespread in Britain some time before the end of the third century ; and it is proposed in this opening chapter to si HMNNINGS.OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN examine the evidence upon which hypotheses as to the source of our national faith may be based. Our first task, then, is to attempt to form a reasonable conjecture as to the personality of the first evangelists of Britain. The Triads, storehouses of many fables and curiosities, and possibly of some mutilated facts, tell a charming story. According to this legend, ' Bran, the Blessed, taken as a prisoner to Rome with his son Caractacus, 1 was converted to Christianity and baptized by St. Paul some- where about the year 58 A.D. Returning to Britain in 59, he brought with him Arwystli Hen, a man from Italy, to teach the Christian faith. Arwystli has been identified with Aristobulus, who is said to have been conse- crated a bishop by St. Paul, and sent by him to Britain. But there are difficulties. Tacitus mentions only the capture of the wife, daughter, and brothers of Caractacus. Stephens, in his Literature of the Cymry, finds no evidence for the story before the eleventh century. Aristobulus was probably a Jew and a member of Herod's family, and possibly the man to whom, according to Tacitus, the charge of Lesser Armenia was entrusted ; but there is no evidence that he was a Christian. Interest, however, attaches to this fable, because it gathers around St. Paul. The tradition that St. Paul himself preached in Britain was accepted by Usher and Stilling- 1 Caratacos is perhaps the more correct form of this name. GAUL AND GAL ATI A 3 fleet. Although there is absolutely no positive evidence, some considerations, plausible rather than probable, may help to explain the fact that this tradition lingered obstinately in North and South Wales. St. Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthians, written in 95 A.D., describes St. Paul as penetrating "up to the very limit of the west." This phrase, from a comparison with the language of the Greek geographer Strabo, has been interpreted as referring to Spain, which St. Paul proposed to visit in his Epistle to the Romans. Bishop Lightfoot thought that St. Paul's journey to the West | probably included a visit to Gaul. The mention of Galatia in 2 Tim. iv. 10, has been traditionally interpreted as referring to Gaul. Indeed some MSS. read Gailia for Galatia in this verse, while Crescens, who is mentioned in the same verse, was claimed by the Churches of Vienne and Mayence as their founder. If St. Paul visited this district he would be near the great trade- route to Britain. Professor Ramsay points out that St. Paul's career from 62 to 65 is concealed 4 from us, and that the only hints concerning his late travels, which must have taken place during those three or four years, are furnished by the Pastoral Epistles. St. Paul's visit to Spain in all probability took place at this period, and if we accept Professor Ramsay's chronology there was ample time available for the Apostle to have included Britain in his'; travels. The allusions to St. Paul's travels made by St. Jerome and St. Chrysostom seem 4 BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN to imply more than a visit to Spain. Jerome says that St. Paul penetrated even to Spain and " from ocean to ocean " ; while Chrysostom says that the Apostle went " from Illyricum to the very ends of the earth." Theodoret is still more definite. " Our fishermen and publicans and the worker in leather (i.e. St. Paul) carried the laws of the Gospel to all men, and persuaded the Scythian and Sarmatian races and the Britons to receive the laws of the Crucified " ; and he adds that St. Paul " reached to Spain and brought salvation to the islands lying in the sea." Another connecting link between St. Paul and Britain is the story of Claudia and Pudens. These names occur together in St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, and they appear together almost contemporaneously in the writings of a Roman poet ; but whether the persons referred to are the same in both instances cannot be decided. Martial, who was born at Bilbilis in Spain, came to Rome in the year 65. About three years later he wrote an ode on the mar- riage of Pudens and Claudia, in which he i describes Claudia as a " stranger " (peregrina) and " sprung from the blue-eyed Britons." An inscription has been found among the sepulchral chambers of the imperial household in which a Pudens appears as a servant of Claudius. Pudens has also been identified with the Pudens mentioned on the Chichester marble as the donor of a heathen temple in the reign of Claudius. If the latter identification is correct, POMPONIA GILECINA 5 it may be that Pudens served under Claudius in the invasion of Britain, an inference supported by the name given to his British wife. Professor Ramsay, as we have already seen, placed St. Paul's visit to Spain at some time between the years 62 and 65, and there is nothing absolutely impossible in the conjecture that the Apostle and the Roman poet may have met in their travels between Spain and Rome, and that Pudens and Claudia were among the acquaint- ances they had in common. These coincidences and conjectures derive a certain attractiveness from their elusiveness. One more of these twilight figures attracts attention. Tacitus says that Pomponia Graecina, a distinguished lady, the wife of Aulus Plautius Silvanus, who invaded Britain in 43 A.D., was accused about the year 57 A.D. of having embraced " a foreign superstition." Nero, in accordance with the usual practice among the Romans, handed her over to the judgment of her husband. Plautius, following ancient precedent, heard his wife's case in the presence of his kinsfolk, with the result that she was pronounced innocent. Tacitus adds that Pomponia lived a long life of unbroken melancholy. This historical incident is im- portant for its indirect significance. The ex- cavations carried on by De Rossi at Rome have established the fact that the " foreign super- stition " referred to in this story was Chris- tianity. There can be therefore no doubt that Pomponia Grsecina was a Christian, while 6 BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN Haddan and Stubbs say that she was assumed to be a Briton. It remains to mention Bede's story that the British King Lucius sent to Eleutherus, Bishop of Rome, a letter asking him that he might be made a Christian, and that after this the Britons retained the faith thus received until the times of the Emperor Diocletian. This story, which first appeared in the catalogue of Roman Pontiffs, is undoubtedly not older than 530 A.D. In all probability it cannot be dated earlier than 700 A.D., and Mommsen has made it tolerably clear that the story originated not in Britain but in Rome. Harnack l claims to have found the origin and the explanation of this story when examining a recently discovered fragment of the Hypo- typosis of Clement. He says that " King Lucius " in the legend really refers to Lucius the King of Edessa, and that the name Britain has arisen from a place called Britium in Edessa. There never was a Lucius, King of Britain, whereas the only king in the second century who was a Christian was Lucius of Edessa, who was a contemporary of Eleutherus. Bede's legend was eagerly accepted by the controversialists of a later century who sought to prove that Britain owed its Christianity to Rome. From such evidence as we have, however, the most we can infer is that there were Britons who came under the influence of 1 Sitzungsbericltic der Koniglich Preeussischen Akademie der Wis- senchaften. 1904. xxvii. GAUL AND BRITAIN 7 Christianity abroad before the glad tidings had reached Britain itself. A final word as to the agency by which Christianity was introduced into Britain. Any item of the evidence we have quoted, taken singly, would amount to very little ; but all the items taken together give some grounds for the presumption that Britain received the seeds of Christianity during the first century. We may conjecture with greater certainty that these beginnings were strengthened and de- veloped by an influx of Christian refugees from Gaul during the Aurelian persecution of 177 A.D. The mention of Gaul naturally brings us to the second problem, namely, from what country Britain immediately derived its Chris- tianity. All available evidence points to Gaul as the country from which Christianity first reached Britain. There was a long-established ] and constant trade between Britain and Gaul by way of Marseilles, the Rhone valley, and Lyons ; and along this route there passed in the early centuries of the Christian era a stream, not only of Roman soldiers and officials, but of independent traders and travellers, bringing their wares and their ideas into Britain. No evidence from documents or inscriptions has yet been discovered to prove that Christianity was Gallican in origin ; but there is abundance of circumstantial evidence hardly less con- clusive to justify Haddan's statement that British Christianity almost certainly came from 8 BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN Gaul. Between the British and Gallican 1 Churches there was a community of influence and of practice. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, writes in 358 A.D. to the bishops of the Pro- vinces of Britain to express his thankfulness for their orthodoxy. Mellon, a Briton, is said to have been bishop of Rouen in 256 A.D., and in the Petits Bollandistes of Guerin the life of Mellon begins with the statement that he was born at Cardiff. The existence of the Church of St. Mellon near Cardiff may perhaps be regarded as corroborative of the latter statement. Another bishop of Rouen, Victricius, relates that at the request of his fellow-bishops in Britain he came over to compose controversies that were disturbing the Church in Britain. Still more remarkable was the mission of the two bishops, Germanus 1 of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes, who were sent over by the synod of the Gallican Church in 429 A.D. to fortify the faithful against Pelagianism and to bring backsliders to a recognition of their error. The Gallican Church sent over the two bishops in answer to a direct appeal from their brethren in Britain. The closeness of the connection be- tween the two Churches is also shown by liturgical similarities. The question of St. Augustine to Gregory, why one custom of masses was observed in the Roman Church and another in the Gallican, indicates that the rite which St. Augir.tine found in use in Britain was the Gallican. The identity of the British THE SOURCE OF THE GALLICAN CHURCH 9 liturgy with the Gallican seems to be placed j beyond doubt. A few words are necessary as to the source of Gallican Christianity. Authorities differ upon this point. Haddan and Stubbs seek to disprove the common allegation that the early British Church was Oriental ; it was Oriental, they say, in no other sense than that its Christianity originated, like all Christianity, in Asia, and found its way to Britain through (most probably) Lyons, and not through the then equally Greek Church of Rome, but without imprinting one single trace upon the British Church itself of any one thing in a peculiar sense Greek or Oriental. Professor Stokes, on the other hand, says: " It is important to remember that Gallic was intimately con- nected with Oriental Christianity." Although these two statements are not irreconcilable, there is a distinct difference of emphasis and proportion between them. It is true that far on into the second century the literature of the Church at Rome was Greek, and it may well be that the Roman and Gallican Churches were equally Greek at this time. But the \ important question is whether the Gallican Church looked to Rome or to the East as its source and guide. Gaul certainly seems to have derived its Christianity from Asia Minor. The first bishop of Lyons was Pothinus, who came direct from Asia Minor; with him came Irengeus, his successor in the See of Lyons, who says in his letter to Florinus that he had 10 BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN listened as a child whilst still in Asia Minor to the discourse of Polycarp, who had held familiar converse with John and with the rest who had seen the Lord. In the terrible per- secution which took place in 177 in the Rhone Valley the Churches of Lyons and Vienne sent a full account concerning their martyrs to their brethren throughout Asia and Phrygia. Unfortunately, Eusebius omits the words with which they prefaced this letter. Mr. Warren finds traces of Oriental influence in the remains of Celtic liturgy and ritual ; in the veiling of the women at the reception of the Eucharist ; in the episcopal benediction preceding the Communion of the people ; and in the Eastern custom of blessing a loaf of " bread at the conclusion of the liturgy. More significant evidence of Oriental influence may possibly be found in the allusions to the East, and especially to Jerusalem, in the legendary lives of Celtic Saints. St. David, in order that he might receive his consecration from the purest source, was directed to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; there he was conse- crated by the patriarch, at whose request he abode for some time at Jerusalem. At the conference of Whitby, Colman claimed in the Paschal controversy that the British usage was traced up to St. John. When St. Augus- tine came, he found a use in the Gallican Church which was different from that in the Roman Church ; and he pointed out to the British bishops that, in addition to what he considered INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN LEGIONARIES 11 the three fundamental differences, the British Church followed other customs " contrary to our custom." These ancient customs, which the British bishops could not give up without the consent of their people, were obviously not Roman customs. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that the Gallican Church owed its Christianity to the East and not to Rome, and that this Eastern influence filtered through the Gallican to the British Church. It is possible that early British Christianity may have been influenced to some extent by direct communication or even contact with the East. Owing to the Roman military system, under which Roman regiments were not re- cruited from the districts or countries which they garrisoned, Eastern soldiers were brought in large numbers to Britain, and British soldiers frequently served in the outlying parts of the Roman Empire. For example, the auxiliary cohorts or regiments which guarded Hadrian's Wall in the North of England were Moors, Thracians, and Syrians ; an inscription given by Le Bas and Waddington mentions " the commander of the British troop or cohort " which formed part of the Roman legion stationed in Pamphylia. There were British soldiers also serving in North Africa and Hungary and at Ariminum. An illustration of the trade intercourse be- tween Britain and the East is supplied by an inscription found in 1878 at South Shields, 2 12 BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN and published in the transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. It runs thus : " To the memory of a woman named Regina, of the British tribe of the Catuvellauni, who died at the age of thirty, the freed-woman and wife of Barates of Palmyra." Underneath the in- scription is a line of Aramaic writing, which has been variously translated as " Regina, the freed woman of Barates, alas " ; and " Regina the freed woman of Barates, may her portion be in the everlasting life." Barates was probably a Syrian merchant who traded with the Roman soldiers in North Britain. Professor Hiibner ascribes this monument to the end of the second or the beginning of the third century, and this is supported by the Aramaic writing, which is in the cursive Palmyrene character in vogue at Palmyra in the third century of the Christian era. The stone was found at the site of the Roman cemetery at South Shields near the course of the Roman road stretching to St. David's in Wales, and locally known as the Recken. Professor Haverfield * has now discovered at Corbridge (Corstopitum) the tombstone of Barates himself, who died at the age of 65. Reiteration may emphasise the fact that the first Christian missionaries to Britain would, like St. Paul, have found the great Roman highways ready for their work, and the first missionary may have been a traveller, trader, or soldier. The final problem, that of the date of 1 Professor Haverfield's letter in The Times, 6th September 1911. TERTULLIAN'S EVIDENCE 13 the introduction of Christianity into Britain, remains to be discussed. Assuming that Christianity was established at Lyons about 150 A.D., the arrival of the first Christian missionaries in Britain may be dated about 177, when Christian refugees from the Aurelian persecution at Lyons and Vienne may have fled to Britain. Tertullian, writing in 210 A.D., or according to Haddan in 208, says "that there were places of the Britons unapproached by the Romans but subdued to Christ." Britain was then in revolt against Severus, who himself penetrated far into Britain. Tertullian's words, unless they are dismissed altogether as idle rhetoric, are singularly precise and emphatic. They take it for granted that it was a matter of common knowledge that Christianity had reached Britain, and state that it had penetrated farther even than the Roman Empire. The conclusion then may safely be drawn that there was a Christian Church in Britain at the beginning of the third century. One hundred years later the British Church was strong, well- organised, and passing out of the stage of in- fancy ; all this could not have been done in a day. The inference from these facts, that Christianity must have reached Britain before ( or early in the third century, seems irresistible. ' Any attempt to summarise what is known of the Church in Britain during the first two centuries of the Christian era must be prefaced by the reiterated caution that the evidence admits for the most part of conclusions of 14 BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN varying degrees of probability. Claudia and Pomponia may have been the first British Christians, or the traditions that have gathered round their names may be typical of the circumstances under which the first Britons became Christians. The conclusion that British Christianity was derived from and profoundly influenced by Gallican Christianity rests upon facts and inferences which fall little, if at all, short of historical certainty. The Roman Legions opened Britain to civilisation and circulation synonymous terms and the Roman Empire supplied in Britain the ground-plan for missionary effort. The British soldier serving in Pamphylia, and the merchant of Palmyra trading at South Shields, are waifs and strays that illustrate the vastness of the stream of new ideas and influences that flowed into Britain after the Roman conquest. The coinage of Britain was in the first instance modelled upon that of Gaul, w r hich in its turn can be traced through Marseilles to Asia Minor. The evidence tends to show that it is more than a fanciful parallel that would trace British Christianity through the same channel to the same source. LLANDAFF CATHEDRAL. Tofacep. 14. CHAPTER I THE ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH AT the opening of the fourth century the British Church is found taking her part in the Councils of the whole Church. Britain was represented at the Council or Synod of Aries (314 A.D.) by three bishops, one presbyter, and one deacon. Of the thirty- three bishops present there, ten came from Africa (a strong- hold of early Christianity, and the home of the old Latin version of the Scriptures), seven from Italy, and eleven from the whole of Gaul ; so that Britain was proportionately well re- presented. The British bishops present at Aries were Eborius Bishop of York, Restitutus Bishop of London, and Adelfius Bishop of Caerleon. 1 Eborius is the Celtic name Ebur or Efwr, which appears in Dinefwr (Dynevor), the castle of Efwr, whose principality was Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire. Ebur (or Ywor) appears in the Annales Cambriae as the 1 Lincoln, according to Professor Haverfield. Caerleon, according to Haddan and Stubbs. 2* 16 ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH name of a bishop who died in 501. The native British bishops who attended these early Councils probably spoke a Brythonic speech, represented by Welsh to-day. It is probable that British bishops were present at the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), of which the attendance-rolls are defective. This Council was summoned " from all parts " by Constantine, himself connected with Britain ; and we know on the authority of St. Athanasius that the British Church accepted the decisions of the Nicene Council. British bishops were possibly present at the Council of Sardica (347 A.D.), and certainly joined that Council in acquitting St. Athanasius. Restitutus, mentioned by St. Athanasius in connection with this Council, may have been the Bishop of London who attended the Council of Aries. Finally, it is certain that several British bishops were present at the Council of Ariminum (359 A.D.). We have seen that leaders of the British Church joined in the condemnation of Arius, and signified their adhesion to the Nicene faith. In 358 A.D. a letter of Hilary of Poitiers, a bishop in Gaul who defended St. Athanasius against the Arians, testified that the British Church was " totally free from all taint of heresy." Thirty years later we have abundant testimony to the growth and development of the British Church. Chrysostom, writirg in 387 A.D., says that the British Isles had " ex- perienced the power of the Word," and that 17 " churches and altars had been set up there " ; he also declares in a sermon upon the profit of the reading of Scripture, that if you visit far-off Britain you will hear the Scriptures interpreted there in the vulgar tongue. A passage of Jerome written in 388 A.D. bears witness that the remote Britons " even make pilgrimages to a place they have heard of only by report, and by the narration of Scrip- ture " (i.e. Jerusalem) : and that " they worship the one Christ and observe the one rule of Faith." The participation by British Christians of this period in pilgrimages to the Holy Land is further attested by definite statements of Palladius and Theodoret referring to the early part of the fifth century. It has, then, been demonstrated that in the fourth century British bishops took part in the Councils of the whole Church ; that the Church in Britain was one in faith with the whole Catholic Church ; and that British Christians were among the pilgrims who journeyed from all Christendom to the Holy Land. We have, moreover, the authority of St. Chrysostom for the fact that churches and altars were set up in Britain during the fourth century ; and it is a reasonable presumption that during the Christian period of the Roman occupation churches were built in the chief cities and towns of Britain to meet the growing needs of the constantly increasing number of Chris- tians. Of these Romano-British churches, almost all traces were swept away by the 18 ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH successive waves of Saxon invasion ; but the remnants of one such building, at Silchester in Hampshire, have been preserved, and have lately been disclosed by the labours of archaeologists. There is now little, if any, doubt that the excavations at Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) in 1892 brought to light a small Christian church of the Basilican type, similar to those in other parts of the Roman Empire. This church at Silchester stood east and west. It consisted of a central nave 29 feet long and 10 feet wide, with a semi-circular apse at the west end ; on either side of the nave were two narrow aisles, ending westward in two some- what wider chambers or transepts. At the east end was a narthex or porch, 7 feet deep and extending the whole width of the building. The nave and apse were probably reserved for the clergy, and the two side aisles for men and women respectively, lay folk not in full communion being admitted into the narthex. The nave was floored with coarse red tiles 1 inch square, and in front of the apse there was a floor-panel 5 feet square of finest mosaic. Upon this panel stood the altar, and some marks left on the mosaic suggest the idea that at a later date a wooden altar was replaced by one of stone or marble. The presence of this tessellated floor places the building indisput- ably in the Roman period ; the similarity of the design of the mosaic to one found in a civil basilica at Uriconium (Wroxeter), and, we may perhaps add, the absence of a Chi-Rho SILCHESTER 19 monogram, show that it is to be assigned to an early date. The total length of the building was 42 feet, and the walls, made of flint rubble, averaged 2 feet in thickness. About 11 feet eastward of the church was found a tile founda- tion, where was placed the laver in which the faithful used to wash their hands and faces before entering the church. The church was probably lighted by a clerestory with possibly a west window, and it is concluded from the finding of some re- mains of coloured plastering, including frag- ments speckled in imitation of marble, that the walls were painted internally. It will be observed that the altar stood in the apse at the west end ; the celebrant stood behind the altar and facing the congregation. The build- ing of this church may be assigned to the be- ginning of the fourth century, when the word basilica was first used for a Christian church, and the type of church known as basilica was just fixed. Opinions and theories as to the origin of the Christian basilica differ. One of the commonest theories is that the basilica was a development of the central hall (atrium) of the ordinary Roman dwelling-house. Another view would attribute the origin of the basilica, not to Italy, but to the Christian East. It is at any rate certain that the basilican type of church was common in Britain at this time. Gildas states that British churchmen, after the Diocletianic persecution in 304 A.D., built basilicse in honour of the Holy Martyrs. The 20 ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH name still survives at Bassaleg in Monmouth- shire (the Bassalec of the Liber Landavensis). Less demonstrably certain are records of churches during the Roman period at St. Martin's, Canterbury, and at Verulam over St. Alban's grave. Bede's reference to the tradition of two churches at Caerleon dedicated to Julius and Aaron respectively, and of a third which was " the Metropolitan Church of all Wales," is supported by a statement in the Book of Llan Dav that there was at Caerleon in the ninth century the " consecrated ground of Julius and Aaron." Similarly, the tradition of a wattled church at Glastonbury perhaps receives indirect corroboration from the wattle- work dwellings discovered at the Glastonbury lake-village. Several minor relics of British Christianity have been assigned to this epoch by the highest authorities. The Christian symbol, the Chi-Rho monogram, occurs on pavements of three villas in various parts of the country ; on a silver cup found at Corbridge near the Roman Wall ; on two silver rings from the Roman villa at Fifehead Neville in Dorset- shire ; and on various other small objects. Several blocks of pewter have been found in the Thames near Battersea, stamped with the name Syagrius, the Chi-Rho, and either the words, Spes in Deo, or the letters A, fl. To proceed to the evidence of inscriptions, the base of a column has been found at Ciren- cester, with an inscription to the effect that THE TEXT OF THE SCRIPTURES 21 " Lucius Septimius, governor of Britannia Prima, restored a column and figure of Jupiter, which had been erected according to the older faith and had fallen into ruin." It can be stated on high authority that the original column was set up between 150 A.D. and 250 A.D., and that the restoration undoubtedly took place in the fourth century. The neglect and falling into ruin of the original column can only have been due to the rise and growth in Britain of the Christian religion ; while the restoration is evidently due to some pagan revival, such as occurred during the reign of Julian the Apostate, who governed Gaul and Britain shortly before he became emperor. Similar negative testimony is supplied by an inscription of the same sort at Bath, and by the discovery of numerous small altars erected Deo veteri or Dibus veteribus (i.e. to the ancient god or gods) on the site of Roman military stations in the North of England. For positive evidence we have the almost certainly Christian tombstone of Flavius Antigonus Papias dis- covered at Carlisle. The text of the Scriptures used by the British Church was what is known as the old Latin Version, African in origin and dating from the second century. As it travelled northwards this version underwent revision ; and so in Britain there was a special British version of the old Latin version, an evidence of the presence in the British Church of good scholars. At the close of the fifth century the Vulgate 2 ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH of Jerome began to replace these older ver- sions, a change quickened, if not caused, by the spread of monasticism. The words of Chrysostom (390 A.D.) quoted previously in this chapter; seem to justify the conclusion that in Britain the Scriptures were expounded if not read in the native tongue. The antiquity of the British Church is clearly shown by its use of the oldest version of the Scriptures, and its progressive and catholic spirit by its adoption of the Vulgate. The British liturgy, neighbour and kin to that of Gaul, had peculiarities of its own. The lessons in the ordination service of the British Church, taken from the special British version of the Scriptures, were peculiar to the British Ordinal ; so too was the anointing of the hands of deacons at ordination, and the anointing of the hands and heads of priests and bishops. Gildas's references to liturgical questions, though written some time later, evidently refer to a state of things which had long been in existence. The large quotations in his writings from the British Ordinal or ordination service for the three orders of the ministry, bishops, priests, and deacons, reveal a strict adhesion to Catholic essentials in order and discipline, while they show national variations in non-essentials. His statement that candi- dates deemed unfit for ordination in Britain often traversed sea and land to obtain ordina- tion abroad; testifies to the high standard required for the ministry in the British Church. PELAG1US THE BRITON 23 The character of the sacramental doctrine taught in the early British Church is made clear by writers like Gildas, and is also legibly em- bedded in the Welsh and Cornish languages. The Holy Communion in Welsh is offeren, in j Cornish oferen ; to celebrate the Holy Com- munion is offerena (W.), and offryna (C.); the offertory is offrwm (W.), offryn (C.) ; the celebrant is offeiriad (W.), oferiat (C.). All these words, derivatives from the Latin offerre, recall the Eucharistic teaching implied in the \ early phrase, offerre sacrificium. The reference in Gildas to " the praises of God being sung by the sweet voices of the young disciples of j Christ in tuneful rhythm," shows that what he calls the breath of ecclesiastical music formed a part of the services of the Church ; and very probably in the British, as in the ancient Irish, Church a hymn was sung at the Com- munion after the prayer of consecration. An event which strikingly illustrates the culture and keen intellectual life of the British Church at the end of the fourth century was the outbreak of the Pelagian heresy. The magnitude of the influence exercised by Pelagius may be estimated by the violence of the opposition which it excited. Bede, who calls him " Pelagius the Briton," says that he " dispersed far and wide the poison of his faithlessness," and quotes from Prosper what he regards as a beautiful reference to Pelagius in heroic verse, beginning, " A crawling scribbler, long inflamed by consuming spite." 24 ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH Similarly Jerome, if the reference is correct, in a characteristic phrase calls him "the big coarse hound of Albion, fed on Scotch por- ridge." It has been conjectured that the name Pelagius is a translation of the Welsh Morgan (Sea-born) ; he was probably born in Britain and sprang from the Gaelic settlers in Western Britain. For our purpose the chief interest , in Pelagianism lies in the fact that the author : of this New Theology was a Briton, and that the ability and subtilty (characteristically Celtic) with which he propounded his views are a clear indication that there was keen, active, and cultured thought in the British Church of that period. Pelagius was a monk, 1 and all available testimony shows that he was a man of exemplary character ; his visit to Rome about 400 A.D. gave him an oppor- tunity of circulating his views more widely, and after a sojourn there of ten years we find him travelling and teaching in Sicily, Africa, Syria, and Asia Minor. The central point of his doctrine was the assertion of the freedom of ' the human will. His opponents contended that this doctrine was promulgated by Pelagius in terms that precluded the need for and the operation of redemptive grace. Pelagius held that the moral responsibility of man was bound up with that of the freedom of the will. It was the old and still living antagonism between free will and determinism ; and if Pelagius had lived at the beginning of the nineteenth century he would have been found MODIFIED VALUE OF BEDE'S EVIDENCE 25 contending with equal force and ability against the doctrines of Calvinism as enunciated by some of his Welsh countrymen at that time. The value of Bede's account of the reception of the heresy in Britain is qualified by the fact that his sympathies were strongly pro- Roman. The Britons, according to Bede, utterly refused to adopt the doctrines of Pelagius, and, doubting their own capacity to refute " the subtilty of his nefarious and per- suasive teaching, sought succour from the Bishops of Gaul in their spiritual battle." Germanus, the bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus of Troyes, who came to their aid, preached in churches, and even in streets and fields and in the open country, and utterly discomfited the Pelagians in argument. The people exulted in the defeat of the Pelagians, and with diffi- culty restrained themselves from laying violent hands upon them. Nor was this all that Germanus and Lupus did. The year after their arrival in Britain (430 A.D.), the Picts and Scots attacked the Britons during the season of Lent. The two bishops joined the British Army, which was commanded by the Duke of Armorica, near Mold in Flintshire, and bade the Britons repeat after them the thrice-intoned word Alleluia. They obeyed ; and the sound, as it rang from cliff to cliff, struck such terror into the invaders that the Britons " gained a bloodless victory, obtained by faith and not by force." A field, supposed to have been the site of this battle, 26 ORGANISATION OP THE BRITISH CHURCH retains to this day the name of Maes Garmon, and not far away is the village of Llanarmon (i.e. the sacred enclosure dedicated to St. Germanus). Whether we accept Bede's account or not, the history of this controversy shows that the British Church occupied no isolated or ignored position. Still more significant is the fact, brought out by this narrative, that the : whole people of Britain at this time were Christians, and that heathenism does not appear at all in the story. Amongst the most ardent advocates of the doctrines of Pelagius was an Irishman, Celestius, to whose influence it may have been due that Pelagianism struck deep root in Ireland. This supposition involves the assumption (for which, as Zimmer has shown, there is considerable pre- sumptive evidence) that Christianity had reached Ireland before the end of the fourth century. This brings us to the second Briton whose history was interwoven with that of Pelagius. St. Patrick if we may follow the high authority of Professor Bury in accepting what may be called the traditional record of St. Patrick's life was born in Britain ; Bannaventa, his birthplace, may have been in Western Britain near the coast, possibly, as Sir John Rhys suggests, in Glamorganshire. His father was Calpurnius, a deacon and a decurio (i.e. town- councillor), while his grandfather, Potitus, was a priest. He probably spoke the Brythonic speech of his countrymen. Carried away to Ireland as a boy of sixteen by Irish marauders, ST. PATRICK 27 he escaped after six years of bondage, and travelled through Gaul to Italy in 411 A.D., just at the time when Pelagius's visit to Rome was drawing to its close. After spending three years in the monastery at Lerins, where doubtless one of the many topics of discussion was the new heresy, he returned, probably about 415 A.D., to Britain, where he was welcomed by his kinsfolk and his countrymen. Mention of Lerins reminds us that a Papal edict is said to have banished snakes from the island, a fact which possibly was the source of Patrick's Irish miracle. It is, too, a striking coincidence that Lerins abounds in trefoil, the national emblem of Ireland. After a brief stay in Britain, St. Patrick crossed to Gaul, having resolved to devote his life to missionary work and to combating the evils of the new heresy. He spent the next few years in study at Auxerre under the sym- pathetic guidance of Germanus. In 432 A.D. his mission to Ireland was resolved upon, and he was consecrated bishop either by Germanus, whose connection with Celtic Christianity was very close, or by British bishops ; all the evidence implies that it was the British Church which was sending him forth, and for the distinct purpose of building up the faith in Ireland. We may well believe that dread of the Pelagian heresy fired St. Patrick with a burning zeal to save from its taint the race to which his former captors belonged. For our 3 28 ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH purpose it is important to note that Zimmer, one of the greatest authorities on St. Patrick, definitely credits the British Church with the evangelisation of Ireland. 1 Professor Stokes has described the early 5 Celtic Church as "intensely missionary and intensely monastic." The story of St. Patrick shows that " intensely missionary " was a true description of the early British Church. Nor is this the only proof of her mis- sionary zeal. Early in the fifth century a See was established and a monastery founded among the Picts of Galloway at Candida Casa (Whithern). This was the work of Ninian, i who taught in that district between 412 and 432 A.D., and whose name is still familiar in the south-west corner of Scotland. It remains to show that the early British Church was also " intensely monastic." M. Bertrand has suggested that British Chris- tianity was profoundly affected by the beliefs which it supplanted ; prominent among these was that of the Druids. The theory that the Druidical communities, with their various faculties of theology, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and music, were quickly converted to Christianity, to which their own doctrine of the immortality of the soul naturally led them, is a fascinating hypothesis ; and imagination without effort supplies the picture ; of the Christian abbot or bishop taking the place of the Druidical priest in ministering to 1 See also Bury's Life of St. Patrick, pp. 14, 15, 351. ST. PATRICK AND THE DRUIDS 29 the physical and spiritual necessities of princes and chieftains ; nor would it be difficult to associate the action of the Druid who cursed the enemies of the chieftain with that of the priest who excommunicated them. When St. Patrick landed in Ireland, his first meeting with the Druids developed, not into a controversy as to authority or truth, but into a competition in the use of similar powers. The Druid Lucetmael said to St. Patrick, " Let us work miracles," and forthwith by his magical powers brought down a heavy fall of snow, but failed when challenged by St. Patrick to remove it. This St. Patrick did himself, amid the applause and wonder of the spectators. A similar contest took place on St. David's Head between St. David and Boia, who was described as a Magus or Druid. It is significant, too, that in the Celtic monasteries in Ireland the Celtic tonsure long survived ; and that as late as 705 A.D. Aldhelm rebuked the Christians of Wales for retaining the British tonsure, which he described as the tonsure of Simon Magus. In reality it was identical with the Druidical tonsure. It is unnecessary further to elaborate the suggestion of M. Bertrand ; but there are two characteristics of the early Welsh monasteries which must not be overlooked. The monas- teries contained not only the strictly clerical members, but also what were called the ordines minores, that is, unordained monks, among whom were those engaged in manual labour, SO ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH known as operarii or workmen. The point which must never be forgotten is that the inhabitants of these religious houses were not for the most part ordained monks, but lay- men bound by vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. Each monastery was a self-sup- porting community, the heads of which were large landowners ; and within the hedges that marked its bounds were gathered not only all the art, science, and literature then known, but also the skilled crafts of the day ; not only the chronicler, the physician and the illuminator of missals, but also the workers in wood, stone, and metal, the millers, the gardeners, the tillers of the soil. The second important point is that each monastery was a centre of hospitality and a home for travellers, and that there was a continual stream of communication between the religious houses of Britain and those of Ireland and the Continent. One of the most notable features in the lives of the early Welsh saints and their successors is that they were " continually on the move." St. Cadoc, the founder of Llancarfan (518), spent three years in Ireland during his youth. Later on he left his abbey of Llancarfan and went to Scotland. We next hear of him as a pilgrim travelling to Rome and Jerusalem. In 547, the year of the Yellow Plague, he left for Armorica, and thence again visited Ireland. St. David, too, was a great traveller. In company with St. Teilo he traversed South Wales, founding churches on MISSIONARY JOURNEYS OF ST. PATRICK 31 the way, and thus unwittingly laying the foundation of future disputes about the limits of the two dioceses. He visited Ireland, and apparently went as a pilgrim to the Holy Land. Again, Gildas the author seems to have divided his time between Britain, Ireland, Brittany, and Rome. These are not exceptional instances ; of all the leading Welsh saints it may be said [ that they were Pauline in their travels. They found easy routes by land along the old Roman roads and hospitality in the monasteries. By sea, there was a never-ceasing traffic between Dover and Sandwich and the Con- tinent, and between Ireland and Gaul, as we saw in the travels of St. Patrick. The importance of these travels in relation to culture and to missionary work must not be lost sight of. They maintained a constant stream of intellectual and spiritual com- munication between all the Christian Churches of the world. Moreover, the activity and the mental alertness of the leading ecclesiastics in the early British Church afford indisputable evidence of the national independence of their Church, and at the same time of its close contact with and equal participation in the life of the whole Christian Church. As then the fifth century opens, we find that the British are no longer pagans, but a people professing Christianity ; that the British Church is organised on an episcopal basis ; that its clergy are not devoid of culture and scholar- 32 ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH CHURCH ship, and that it is in close and constant touch with the whole Catholic Church ; that its members take part in the pilgrimages that marked that era ; that both its Scripture and its liturgy reveal national and independent characteristics ; that neither Arianism nor Pelagianism was able to shake the orthodoxy of its clergy or its people ; that it displayed missionary zeal ; and that its work was or- ganised and spread from monastic centres. St.lt of fu.t. GROUND PLAN OF ROMANO-BRITISH CHURCH AT SILCHESTER. Bv permission of the Society of Antiquaries , SILCHESTER. Mosaic Panel from floor of Early Christian Church. (By permission of the Society of Antiquaries.) CHAPTER III THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE BRITISH CHURCH WE now come to the fifth century. At this point investigation is hampered, though not checked, by a period of obscurity. The avail- able records carry us only to the year 450 ; for the period between 450 and 540 we must guide our steps by the dim light thrown back by Gildas and other writers of a later date. In the year 410 the Romans abandoned Britain, and the whole scene changed. The strong arm that had governed and developed Britain for three hundred years and more was withdrawn, and the Britons were left to their own resources. It would seem probable that for a time the in- fluence of Roman institutions and government survived ; but troubles soon begin. Oversea marauders reappear, more numerous and for- midable than ever. On the south-east the Saxon harries the land of the Britons. From the north the Picts burst in upon them, while Irish free-booters or cut-throats, as Gildas calls them, land on their western shores. The available evidence, although scanty, 33 34 INDEPENDENCE OF THE BRITISH CHURCH enables us to supply a substantial and coherent statement of the social and ecclesiastical history of Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries. We have seen how the Christian faith struck root and spread in Britain under the ordered and tolerant rule of the Romans, and how the Church gradually built up her organisation. After the departure of the Romans, Celtic customs and institutions, never wholly ex- tinguished during the Roman occupation, re- asserted themselves, and during this period there was a reversion to those primitive types. The Britons were now a nation of professing Christians, and it is certainly true that the leaders of the Church during this period were the makers of Britain, and that the Christian Church was the one power left fitted to unite and inspire the nation. When the clouds begin to lift in the sixth century two contemporary and mutually con- tributory developments are clearly discernible. The chieftains of the family groups, who " regarded themselves as forming a kind of hierarchy of kings," suffer their areas of influence to be merged in larger combinations or principalities. Corresponding almost ex- actly with these principalities, and working from a monastic centre, a diocesan episcopate is gradually evolved, representing a process of amalgamation similar to that which had taken place in the political arrangements of the country. Both these developments were no doubt accelerated by the increased population THE BRYTHONIC LANGUAGE 35 driven by the invader for shelter into Wales. As the Saxon advanced from the east and from the south-east, the inland British forsook their towns and homesteads, and were crowded into the west. These fugitives poured into Strath- clyde, Wales, and Cornwall, and overflowed in aggression or immigration into Armorica, where they dispossessed or absorbed the Romano- Gaulish inhabitants. It is a proof of the vigour of the Celt and of the vitality of his language that these immigrants ousted from Armorica the Roman institutions and language, and established there instead their Celtic customs and their own Brythonic speech, which still survives in Brittany and is closely allied to the Welsh of to-day. In passing, the fact may be noted that the Roman occupation of Britain did not destroy , the Brythonic language. During the Roman rule, Latin was the language used in the Law- Courts and in official life, and among the upper classes in the large garrison towns. Some of the natives no doubt spoke the low Latin dialect, but the great mass of the people still used their native Brythonic speech, and before the end of the sixth century the clergy were probably the only people who used the Latin language. The British victory at Badon Hill about 510 stayed the Saxon invasion for a space ; and there was a truce of nearly half a century, during which the hunted remains of the British people and the British Church found their main shelter in the fastnesses of Wales. In the 36 INDEPENDENCE OF THE BRITISH CHURCH middle of the s'xth century Wales reveals proofs of the political and ecclesiastical organisa- tion and development which had been slowly proceeding. Of the diocesan episcopates then established there remain in Wales, Bangor, founded by Deiniol for the principality of Gwynedd; St. Asaph, founded by Kentigern for the principality of Powis ; St. David's, founded by David for the principality of Dyfed ; and Llandaff, founded by Dubricius and Teilo for the principality of Gwent. All \ these foundations date from the middle of the sixth century. It may be interesting to pause here in an effort to understand what force was at work thus to remodel and to consolidate Wales. In the political developments of the sixth century the figure of Maelgwn, the Maglocunus of Gildas, stands out conspicuously. He was a mixed character. Pre-eminent in arms and state-craft, of ample generosity, yet more abounding in evil, he excelled his contemporaries in power as in physical stature. Swaying between a brutal paganism and the Christianity taught him by St. Cadoc, " the graceful teacher of nearly the whole of Britain," he : appears at one time as the murderer of his kinsfolk, at another as a penitent monk. Fable narrates that the Cymry of all Wales, driven from England, assembled on the shores of the Dovey to decide who was to be their chief king or over-lord. Maelgwn, more fortunate than Cnut, seated in a white chair THE CHURCH AND THE NATION 37 of birds' wings cunningly devised by Maeldav, rose on the tide which drove the other princes away, and so was proclaimed over-lord. From this fable it may be concluded that the contest which made Maelgwn king was peaceful, and was decided by the votes of the other princes. Skene suggests that the advantages held out by the ecclesiastics were the main cause of uniting these Celtic leaders against the paganism of the country. The narrative of Gildas, written before 547 (the year of Maelgwn's death), shows that Maelgwn had overthrown many princes ; and the conjecture seems probable that Maelgwn, Vortiporios, and Cune- glasos, three of the five princes denounced by Gildas, held sway over a great part of Wales. In reviewing these events, we naturally ask what was the influence that helped or enabled the Britons to unify and to consolidate the political and ecclesiastical organisations of their country. In the fifth and sixth centuries, the Age of the Saints, the leaders of the Church seem to have been the makers of the nation. What evidence is there to support this state- ment ? Gildas, our chief authority for this period, was a monk for whom the only truly religious (crefyddzvr) were monks, and for whom conversion meant entering a monastery. He wrote from the narrow monastic point of view, a fact which must not be forgotten in estimat- ing his judgments upon all classes outside a monastery. He denounced with freedom the ruling princes, as well as the bishops and 38 INDEPENDENCE OF THE BRITISH CHURCH priests of the Church. His " turgid rhetoric " yields at any rate one clear fact, namely, that the Church was all - powerful ; and Gildas, though, as he described himself, " a man of the humblest rank," feared not to denounce the ruling prince, and to remind him that it was the Divine Power that made him lord over all the princes of Britain. In like manner, the condemnations that Gildas hurls at the bishops and priests of his time, indicate that their power was great if not supreme in the land. This is corroborated by a record in the life of St. Cadoc. A British chieftain, Evan Buurr, had murdered two of his kinsmen. St. Cadoc and St. Illtyd faced and denounced the murderer ; he confessed his guilt, and, in obedience to Church law, redeemed his crime by an offering and did penance for fourteen years. Among the witnesses to this record were Cadoc, Illtyd, and Finian the Irish monk, who died in 548, his name thus enabling us to date the record. By the middle of the sixth century the British people had been driven into Cornwall, Wales, and Strathclyde. The battle of Deorham in 577 drove a Saxon wedge between the Britons of Wales and those of Cornwall, as later the battle of Chester (613) broke off regular communication between Wales and Strathclyde. The Celts were thus losing political cohesion, and with it the power of effective combination against the Saxons ; but contemporaneously there was taking place AUGUSTINE'S MISSION 39 the first of those steps which led ultimately to the ecclesiastical fusion between the British and Saxon Churches. In April 597, Augustine landed in Kent, sent thither by Pope Gregory, whose pity had been stirred at the sight of comely Saxon boys put up for sale in the Roman forum by a Jew slave-trader. The mission of Augustine, be it noted, was not to the Christian Briton, but to the pagan Saxon. The letters which passed at strangely long intervals between Pope Gregory and Augustine and his co-missioners, give what light we have upon this mission. Gregory's letter to Augustine in 601 gives directions for organising " the new Church of the Saxons." " Destroy," says Gregory in another letter, " the idols of the pagan Saxon, but consecrate their temples if they are well built." Augustine sought advice touching the varieties of usage which he found in different churches. " Choose," answered Gregory, " from every church whatever is good and religious." To Augustine's further question how he was to treat the bishops of Gaul and Britain, Gregory replied : " The Bishop of Aries has charge of the Gallican or French bishops, and I commend to your brotherly feeling all the bishops of Britain." Gregory raised no question as to the Orders or authority of the bishops in Britain and Gaul, and his directions to Augustine related only to what was to be the Church of the Saxons. There is nothing in the mission of Augustine, the record of which we have from the pro-Papal Bede, to show that Augustine or the Pope entertained the least shadow of doubt as to the validity of the Orders in the British Church, or of the right of that Church to be regarded as a part of the whole Catholic Church. To proceed with the narrative, Augustine, encouraged by a letter from Gregory, and aided by King Ethelbert, sought an interview with the British bishops and learned men in the province of Britain nearest to him. This interview or conference took place in 602 or 603 at Down Ampney, near Crickdale, whither Augustine travelled from Canterbury via London and Silchester. The British bishops who met him there were the south-west British ; that is, they came from Cornwall and possibly parts of South Wales. Augustine at this first conference raised two questions, namely, the British dating of Easter, and some detail not specified in the British mode of baptism. In spite of prolonged discussion, mingled with entreaties and rebukes from Augustine and his companions, these British bishops did not yield to him. Then Augustine sought to establish his authority by miraculously healing a blind man. Tradition records that close to this spot was a spring of water efficacious in healing diseases of the eye ; but whether this healing was fraud or fact, the bishops, doubtless feeling that they represented only a section of the British Church, agreed to a second and more representative conference. THE SEVEN BRITISH BISHOPS 41 At the latter gathering there were present seven British bishops and many very learned men, especially from the far-famed monastery of Bangor-is-Coed in Flintshire, over which at that time Dinooth presided as abbot. A traditional list states that the seven bishops present were Hereford, Llandaff, Llanbadarn, Bangor, St. Asaph, Margam, and Weeg. The absence of the Bishop of St. David's is explained by the See being vacant at that time. Augus- tine this time pressed three points, and, ac- cording to Bede, only three, namely, the time of keeping Easter, the mode of administering baptism, and the evangelising of the Saxons. Bede gives the answer of the British in these words : " We will do none of these things, nor receive you as our Archbishop." The answer attributed by a later tradition to Dinooth re- presents him as saying that they owed brotherly : kindness and charity to the Church of God, \ and to the Pope as to all Christians ; but that they did not recognise the claim or demand for any obedience " to him whom you call Pope." " Moreover," he added, " we are under the government of the Bishop of Caerleon-on-Usk, j who is our overseer under God to keep us in the true spiritual path." It is noteworthy that Bede does not represent Augustine as , demanding to be received as their Archbishop. But in all probability this last demand, in which was included acceptance of the Roman obedience, was actually made, and was the real cause of the collapse of the conference. 42 INDEPENDENCE OF THE BRITISH CHURCH It must be granted, however, that the details that have come down to us make it clear that Augustine's method of dealing with the British bishops was not a happy one. A tradition tells us that the British bishops first repaired to a certain holy and discreet man, to consult him as to the advisability of accepting Augustine's overtures. His advice was that if Augustine was meek and lowly of heart, they were to believe that he had taken upon him the yoke of Christ ; and the test of his humility was to be the manner in which he received them. "If at your approach he shall rise up to receive you, hear him with deference." The bishops were prepared to follow this advice, but Augustine broke down under the test. He received them sitting in his chair. The whole impression left by the interview is that Augustine's attitude to the British bishops was one of hauteur and aloof- ness ; and that when he saw that his mission was not going to succeed, his angry threats incensed the Celtic temperament, already alienated by his tone of superiority and con- descension. Even Bede, strongly anti-British as he is, is unable quite to conceal in his narrative the tactlessness of Augustine. It must also be pointed out that the com- pliance of the British bishops was made the more difficult by their deep and natural antipathy to their Saxon conquerors ; nor is it possible to read the whole record of these interviews without being profoundly impressed John IVickens, Bangor. THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. DEINIOL, BANGOR. To face p. 42. 43 with the fact that the attitude of the British bishops throughout was characteristically Welsh. They were ready to meet the stranger with the welcome and courtesy characteristic of the Celt, but also with his independence of spirit. Throughout these interviews it is made clear that the British bishops regarded them- selves as the champions of their own Church and nation, and were prepared to welcome the hand of co-operation on equal terms, but not to bow down to any alien authority. So ended for a time the hope of union and co-operation. This chapter may fittingly close with two descriptions of the British Church. Heinrich Zimmer, in The Celtic Church, says : "In spite of all the weak points of the Celtic Church, the life of her representatives at the beginning of the seventh century comes nearer the picture that we draw for ourselves of the Apostolic era than the Christianity displayed by their rivals, the representatives of the Roman Church." Professor Haverfield in his Early British Christianity testifies as follows : " We have no reason to doubt the essential continuity of the Church in Britain from its foundation somewhere in the dim days of the second or third century till its entry into the full light of mediaeval history." In the three opening chapters an attempt has been made to give in outline the history of the British Church for four hundred years from its birth. During the first two hundred 4 44 years we have seen how the Christian faith " reached Britain by natural expansion rather than by missionary effort " ; how under the tolerant rule of the Romans it was spread and organised ; and how, before that rule ended, the British people had for the most part become Christians. We have seen how, amid the chaos that followed the Roman withdrawal, the British people, harried by invaders, and crowded into the west, retained their faith and language, and slowly built up powerful principalities ; and how the Church, which asserted and maintained against the Roman Mission its catholicity and independence, gave the British people the conception of national unity and consolidation. CHAPTER IV POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH THERE is ample evidence, both implicit and documentary, that the early British Church was well endowed ; in a large number of cases the actual terms of the endowment, and the detailed description of the boundaries of the land granted, are extant. A fact yet more striking confirms the title of the Church to her ancient possessions : early documents, whose authenticity is accepted by the highest authorities, record the original bestowal upon the Church of many of the lands which she holds to-day, and has held without interruption since the sixth or seventh century. These grants may be classed roughly under the two heads of land and tithe. In this chapter early grants of land will be recorded ; in the next, an attempt will be made to elucidate the more difficult subject of tithe. For the fourth century we must rely upon indirect evidence. The presence of British I bishops at Councils such as those of Aries and Ariminum, indicates that many of them were possessed of some means, seeing that in those 46 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH days of slow communication the expense of travelling to and sojourning in Italy must have been considerable. In connection with the Council of Ariminum; Sulpicius Severus, the " Christian Sallust," tells a significant story. He says that only three of the large number of British bishops present there were compelled through poverty to accept the emperor's hos- pitality ; the rest of the British bishops, indeed, offered to defray their expenses, but they preferred not to be a burden upon them. When we come to the fifth and sixth centuries we are dealing with a British society from which the tincture of Roman civilisation was disappearing. The elements of this society can be roughly, but in the main accurately, conjectured from legal and ecclesiastical docu- ments of a later date. The unit of civilisation was the family, and the land was parcelled out among family groups in large and loosely- defined areas ; every three generations these groups were sub-divided, and the areas appor- tioned to the new groups so formed. It is significant that land was abundant, while money was so scarce that the standard of value was fixed in cows, horses, and valuable articles of dress or martial equipment. There was little tillage, and the means of subsistence were small, a fact which partly explains the im- migration into Brittany ; the resources of the country were not large enough to maintain I the population pressed westward by the Saxon I invasion. It was an age .of violence : our GILDAS 47 scanty records show that the chieftains fre- quently exhibited the childish petulance and brutal rage of the savage. It is obvious, however, from the circumstances of some of the pious donations to be referred to below, that the Church was, even in this dim period, a j great civilising and mollifying agent. Many donations were given by powerful chieftains in atonement for crime, and one of the Church's most potent weapons seems to have been a . primitive species of excommunication, to avert * or end which guilty chieftains would offer substantial atonement for outrages. For the sixth century Gildas is our chief contemporary witness. At that period the name parochia was applied to the sphere | supervised by bishop or presbyter. Probably in these early centuries almost every church had its own bishop, and the large number of I bishops in the early British Church to which Gibbon refers, would be in accordance with the general practice at that time. Thus parochia., which means vicinity or neighbour- hood, was used for the diocese or district around the church over which the bishop presided. Gildas clearly states that in his time parochice were well endowed, and his de- nunciation, however exaggerated and inflated, of the worldliness, sensuality and simony of the bishops and clergy in his day, indicates that the Church in that century was not poor. But there is still more specific evidence 4* 48 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH available. The Book of St. Chad, the Book of Llan Dav, and the Life of St. Cadoc supply irrefragable links in the chain of evidence. The Book of St. Chad is- an illuminated volume containing the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Mark, and a part of St. Luke, and follows largely the old Latin version. It was written in Ireland probably before 700 ; it was, as we shall see, bought and given to the church at Llan Dav, and was removed thence how or why is not known to St. Chad's Church, Lichfield, some time before the year 964. Entries written, according to the custom of the time, on the margin of the manuscript of the Gospel for sanctity and security, supply valuable evidence. The first of these runs thus : " It is hereby declared that Gelhi, the son of Arihtiud, bought this Gospel from Cingal, and gave him for it his best horse ; and that for the sake of his own soul he gave this Gospel to God and on the altar of Saint Teilo. -j- Gelhi, son of Arihtiud, and "J" Cincenn, son of Gripiud (i.e. Gruffudd)." The identification of the witness Gripiud makes it possible to assert that the entry was made before 814. The next entry records a dispute between Gelhi's son Elcu and another about an estate called the land of Telich : a list is appended of witnesses both clerical and lay, and among the former are " tota familia teliaui," i.e. the whole monastic establishment of St. Teilo (Llandaff). An interesting sidelight is thrown THE BOOK OF ST. CHAD 49 on the latter entry by two records in the Book of Llandaff (which will be referred to later). One of these describes the recovery by Bishop Oudoceus of " the cell of Cynwalan with all its land." The other records that during the episcopate of Libiau (about 929), Gruffydd, son of Owain, to atone for certain crimes, granted \ to the See four modii x of land at Penibei in ' Rosulgen (Rosilli in Gower). This land is described as " touching the land of Cynwal which is on the West " ; and one of the modii " is near Telic, the boundary of which is from the sea to the harbour Capre." Gelhi's estate of Telic (Telich), then, seems to have been close to the cell of St. Cynwal, who was in all proba- bility the Cingal referred to in the first marginal entry in the Book of St. Chad. Gelhi bought the volume from the monastery of St. Cynwal and gave it to Llandaff, just as afterwards it was transferred from Llandaff to Lichfield. Two other marginal entries in the Book of St. Chad record ninth century donations. The following may be given as a sample : " This \ writing shows that Ris and Luith Grethi gave Trefguidauc. As the story-tellers say, this is its census, two score loaves and a wether in the summer, and two score loaves and a sow and two score sucking-pigs in the winter, to God and St. Eliud. God witness, Saturnguid witness, Nobis witness, Guurci witness, Cutulf witness. Of the laity, Cinguernn witness, Collbiu witness, Cohorget witness, Ermin 1 A modius of land was about 9 acres. 50 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH witness, Hourod witness. Whoever shall keep this shall be blessed, and whoever shall break it shall be cursed of God." The evidence of the Book of St. Chad is confirmed by that of the Book of Llan Dav. The one MS. of the Book of Llan Dav, of which all others are transcripts has had a migratory career. About 1620 Bishop Field of Llandaff lent the MS. to John Selden, the famous antiquary, who never returned it. At Selden's death his MSS. were bequeathed to his executors, one of whom, Sir John Vaughan, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, lent this MS. in 1659 to Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, Merionethshire, stating that the MS. now be- longed to the "publique library at Oxford, where Mr. Selden's whole library is disposed." Robert Vaughan died before he was able to return the MS., which was next found in the possession of Robert Davies of Llanerch, and is now in the library of his representative, Mr. Philip Davies-Cooke of Gwysaney. The MS. is of the twelfth century, and its earliest entry dates from about 1140. It contains an account of the diocese from earliest times, with lives of the bishops, very full in the case of the first three (Dubricius, Teilo, and Oudoceus). Included in the life of each Bishop is a detailed account of each grant to the See during his Episcopate, giving the name of the donor, the terms of donation, the boundaries of the estate in minute and interesting detail, and, in many cases, occasion of the gift. In these donations THE PREFIX LLAN 51 the gift is made sometimes to St. Dubricius and his successors in the Church of Llan Dav, some- times to God and Dubricius in the Church at Llan Dav. In very many of these donations " for his soul " is the motive assigned for the gift ; in others the gift is an atonement for sin ; while in many of them no motive is assigned for the gift. The names of a large proportion of the estates granted have the prefix Lann (i.e. sacred enclosure : in meaning identical with Gk. re'/ie^o? and Lat. templum), which is of course the Llan so familiar in the names of countless villages in all parts of Wales. One very important entry in the Book of Llan Dav records Teilo's Privilegium, which is a statement of the rights and privileges granted by Welsh chieftains to the Church of Teilo 1 and his successors. The document runs thus : " These are the rights and privileges of the church of Teilo of Llan Dav, which these kings and princes of W T ales granted for ever to the church of Teilo and to all the bishops after him, confirmed by the authority of the Popes of Rome : To it all its rights and its lands and its territories, free from every service to any secular king, exempt from steward and chan- cellor, and public court within or without its lordship, from hosting and from seizure, and from watch and ward. Its rights to it fully in respect to thief, of theft, of rapine, and of homicide, of conspiracy and of arson, of brawling with or without bloodshed. To it 1 The date of Teilo's episcopate is given as 547, 52 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH wholly the fines and penalties therein, in respect of violation of sanctuary within or without the enclosure, of waylaying within or without a forest, of assault in any place whatsoever in the land of Teilo, both its right and judgment in respect of the community of the Church in the Gwndy of Teilo at Llan Dav and in his court ; with water and herbage, wood and field in common to the community of Teilo ; with market and mint at Llan Dav, and har- bourage on the land of Teilo for ships which may touch on his land wheresoever it may be, free in respect of king or any other except Teilo, and the church of Llan Dav, and its bishops : And in respect of any disgrace, insult, wrong, or injury which the King of Morgannwg, his man, or his vassal, may do unto Teilo, his man, or his vassal, at Llan Dav, to do justice and right, and to undergo judgment for the wrong done unto Bishop Teilo, his man, or his vassal : To it its lands and its territories exempt from hosting, from burdens, from seizure. And the rights which belong to the King of Morgannwg in his Court shall belong fully to the Bishop Teilo in his Court likewise, and whosoever shall violate or diminish this privilege shall be accursed and excommunicated, both he and his children after him. He shall be blessed, both he and his children, who shall respect this privilege and kept it. Amen." Besides the Privilegium, and the grants which form the bulk of the subject-matter, there are mis- cellaneous additions to the Book of Llan Dav in ANCIENT ENDOWMENTS 53 a later hand, the most important of which are Bulls of certain Popes confirming grants and privileges to the Bishops of Llandaff during the episcopate of Urban. Bishop Urban of Llandaff in 1119, when his See had become desolate, despoiled, and robbed of its tithe, appealed to Calixtus n. for the restitution of its endowments to the See of Llandaff. The bishop based his claim upon " the manuscript (chirograph l ) of our Patron St. Teilo." This appeal is interesting for two reasons. It makes clear the fact that there were preserved at Llandaff ancient documents upon which the bishop relied to establish the title of the See to its endowments. Secondly, it is clear that this \ title went back to early British times, and ' the success of Urban's appeal proves that this ancient title was admitted. The same bishop made a similarly successful appeal to Honorius n. in 1128. In a great number of instances these Bulls mention by name estates identical with the grants described in the older portion of the Book of Llan Dav. To take a few instances, . the grants of the following territories are described in detail : Lann Nissien, Lann Mihacel cruc cornou, Lann Guonhoill, Lann Catgualatyr, Lann teliau Cressinych, and Lann'Oudocui. The same names occur with very slight variations of spelling in the Bulls of Calixtus and Honorius. It is further important to note that some of the places named above are also enumerated 1 i.e. handwriting. 54 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH in the Taxatio or Valuation of Lands carried out in the reign of Edward i. on the occasion of Pope Nicholas iv. granting Edward the whole of the Papal tenths to defray the cost of an expedition to the Holy Land (circa 1291). The Valor Ecclesiasticus, an inventory of ecclesiastical property compiled by Henry vin. 's orders in 1535, shows many of these lands still in the possession of the Church ; and if we find the same territories still reckoned as Church property in 1835, the date of the last Royal Commission on the Ecclesiastical Revenues of England and Wales, we may reason- ably conclude that many of the grants recorded in the Book of Llan Dav have remained in the uninterrupted possession of the Church from the sixth or seventh centuries down to the present time. It is worth while to give some striking instances of this continuity. The following extract from the Book of Llan Dav illustrates not only the point in question but also the civilising influence and quasi-paternal authority of the Church at the beginning of the seventh century. LANN CATGUALATYR l " Be it known to you, dearly beloved brethren, that in the time of Bishop Oudoceus, Guid- nerth by diabolical instignation killed his 1 Now Bishopston or Bishton, four miles east of Caerleon. The modern name indicates that it was part of the patrimony of the See. FROM THE BOOK OF LLAN DAV 55 brother Merchion through contention for the kingdom : and having committed murder, the fratricide was excommunicated by St. Oudoceus at a synod assembled together at Llan Dav from the mouth of the Wye to the mouth of the Towy : and he remained with crosses laid on the ground and with inverted bells for three years under the same excom- munication and without the communion of Christians. The three years being expired, he sought pardon from St. Oudoceus, which being granted to him, he was sent on a pilgrimage as far as the Archbishop of Dol in Armorica x . . . because the said Guidnerth, and the Bretons, and the Archbishop of that country had the same language, and were of the same nation, although separated by a large portion of the earth, and he could consequently the better renounce his crime, and request in- dulgence, as his language was understood. After these things, remission with sealed letters being granted to him, he returned before the end of the year to his country and to St. Oudoceus : but because he had not completed in exile the year which he had promised, he could not absolve him, but rather directed that he should remain under the same excom- munication, as the first yoke of penance had not been observed by him. While he remained in the same transgression and excommunica- tion, before the end of the year St. Oudoceus, that bishop of most exemplary life, migrated 1 Brittany. 56 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH to the Lord. He was succeeded by Berth- wyn l as Bishop of Llan Dav, and King Morgan and also Guidnerth, with a great many chieftains of Morganwg, seeing the crosses and relics with the bells lying on the ground, requested him at Llan Dav to grant pardon to the fratricide Guidnerth. After these things Guidnerth, promising with shedding of tears and great devotion, amendment of life, with the addition of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, was absolved by the bishop, and full penance enjoined on him suitable to his crime. Afterwards Guidnerth, being mindful of the divine saying, ' As water extinguishes fire, so does almsgiving sin ' granted to God, and to St. Dubricius, St. Teilo,and St. Oudoceus, and in the hand of Bishop Berthwyn, and all his successors of the Church of Llandaff, Llan Gadwaladr with all its land, wood and sea coast and with all its liberty, without any payment to mortal man besides, to the Church of Llandaff and its pastors, and with its refuge for ever. Of the clergy the witnesses are : Berthwyn, Bishop ; Gunviu, reader ; Con- fur, Conguariu, Torchan. Of the laity, King Morgan, Iddig son of Nudd, Jacob son of Mabsu, Guengarth, Elioc, Gabran, Elfnn, Samuel. Whoever will keep it up may be blessed ; whoever will violate it may be cursed. Amen." LANN CATGUALATYR. Its boundary is : 1 Circa 590 A.D. LANN CATGUALATYR 51 "From Aber Nant Alim into the marsh as the brook leads upward to its source. From its ? source over the Cecin straight on at once to the top of Sychnant (Dry brook), on another part of the Cecin. Along the Sychnant downwards as far as the pant in the wood. Along the Sych- nant towards the right as it leads downwards as far as the ridge of the Allt near Cestill Dinan (Bishton Castle). Along the Cecin of the ridge of the Allt to Rhiw Merchiau. Along the Rhiw slope downwards as far as the spring of the Glyble. Along the Glyble downwards as far as the marsh. Through the marsh straight making for Hendre Merchitir. From the Hendre to the Dead Pools westward along the Cecin of Cethin through the marsh as far as the Lontre. From the Lontre Tunbwlch straight through the marsh as far as the Aber Nant, where the boundary began." The subsequent history of Llangadwaladr is as follows : In the Bull of Calixtus n., Lann Catgualatyr is among the possessions confirmed to Urban ; similarly Lann Catgualatyr figures in the Bull of Honorius n. In Pope Nicholas's Taxatio the manor of Lancederwlder, with its appurtenances, figures as an important part of the temporalia of the Llandaff episcopate, bringing in 17, 7s. 2d. yearly. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus the church is reckoned as part of the Archdeacon's property, and as worth 53s. 4d. Its modern name of Bishopston or Bishton 58 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH Netherwent is additional evidence of its history. In 1763, 1770, 1787, 1789, and 1792 this curacy received 1000 in grants from Queen Anne's Bounty. It was a perpetual curacy, worth 51 gross in 1835, and the Archdeacon was Patron and Impropriator. Here, then, we have a particular piece of territory, the possession of which by the Church can be traced from the sixth century to the present day. This is by no means an isolated instance. Here is an account in the Book of Llan Dav of a grant made to St. Dubricius, who died in 546 : " Be it known that Pepiau, king, son of Erb, gave the maenor 1 of Garth benni up to the black marsh, with wood, field, and water and the casting-net of king Constantine his father-in-law, across the River Wye, to God and Dubricius, Archbishop of Llan Dav, and to Junapeius his cousin, for his soul, and for the writing of his name in the Book of Life, with all its liberty, without any earthly census and sovereignty smaller or greater ex- cept to God and St. Dubricius and the servants of the Church at Llan Dav for ever. And Pepiau held the writ ng upon i he hand of St. Dubricius, in order that it mi ht be forever a house of prayer and penitence, and an episcopal habitation for the bishops of Llan Dav." Then follow the names of the witnesses. In this document Constantine may possibly 1 Maenor (Mainaur), not the same word as Manor, probably means an area marked off by boundary stones. EARLY ENDOWMENTS 59 be the Constantine denounced by Gildas, whose conversion is recorded in the Annales Cambriae in 589. Pepiau held the writing up- on the hand of St. Dubricius, as the gift was probably made in the open air, i.e. before the consecration. If the ceremony had taken place in a church after the consecration, it would have been at the altar, the donor placing his hands upon the four Gospels. This maenor, afterwards called Lann Garth (now Llanarth) was the place of residence of some of the bishops. In Pope Nicholas's Taxatio of 1291 it was valued at 10 marks, and its vicarage (already established) at 40s. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 the vicarage is estimated at 10, 3s. 4d., and part of its tithes went to the Cathedral. In 1835 its vicarage was accounted 300 gross per annum. The Patrons were the Chapter. The grant of Lann Teliau Cressinych (now Llantilio Crossenny, Mon.) is an instance of a donation by way of thanksgiving to God. A certain King Iddon, while pursuing a plunder- ing party of Saxons, came in his way to St. Teilo at his abode of Llangarth, 1 and begged him and his clergy to pray to God for victory. St. Teilo prayed with him on " a mountain in the middle of Cressinic," and soon afterwards a great victory was won. " The King returned and granted three modii of land about that mount to St. Teilo and the Church of 1 i.e. the Garth benni given by Pepiau to Dubricius. 5 60 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH Llandaff, with all its commonage to the in- habitants, in field and in woods, in water and in pastures." This grant is referred to in the Bulls of Calixtus ii. and Honorius n. as St. Teilo de Cresseny, and in Pope Nicholas's Taxatio appears as Lantheyloncressing. In 1535 the vicarage of Llantilio Crossenny, with the chapel of Penrose, was worth 10, 10s. 4d. In 1835 the vicarage was valued at 270 gross, and the Patrons and Impropriators were the Chapter. To take one more instance of continuity, we learn from the Book of Llan Dav that the church and territory of Llantilio Pertholey was granted to the See in the sixth century by Prince Iddon. In 1291 the church was valued at 10, and declared to belong to Llandaff, and there was a separate benefice, worth 46s. 8d., already established for the vicar. In 1535 the living is styled a vicarage, worth 8, 3s. 8d. The vicarage was worth 270 gross in 1835, and the Chapter was the Patron and Impropriator. The following extract from another grant recorded in the Book of Llan Dav is chiefly interesting from the striking metaphor by which the freedom of the grant from secular control and claims is emphasised : " LANN Ouoocui. 1 - - Morgan, King of Glewyssig, for the exchange of a Heavenly Kingdom, granted with great devotion, and a humble and contrite heart, to Bishop Oudoceus, 1 The spelling of the Welsh names in the Taxatio was according to the ear of the Norman scribe. DONATIONS OF CADOC 6l and to St. Dubricius, and to St. Teilo, and to the Church of Llandaff, founded in honour of St. Peter, Lann Oudocui, with all its dignity, and liberty, and commonage in wood and in fields, in water and in pastures, with its four inlets, and weirs for fisheries, and woods, > without any payment to any mortal man, besides to God and the Church of Llandaff for ! ever, and with its refuge, and free on all sides, , like an island in the sea" The names of clerical and lay witnesses, and the exact boundaries of the grant, follow. In the Bulls of Calixtus ii. and Honorius n. this grant appears as "the village (villa) of St. Oudoceus with its church " ; possibly Lango (Lantitogo is another reading) in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas may be identified with it. These records in the Book of Llan Dav of early endowments given to the Church are abundantly illustrated and confirmed by the donations recorded in the Life of St. Cadoc in an early thirteenth century manuscript. One of these Cadoc donations records the building of a church and houses in the name of the Lord, and the endowing of these buildings with land and food rents. Another, which illustrates both the brutality of the times and the courage of the leaders of the Church, may be given as a sample : " After an interval of time Evan Buurr killed two men, sons of his sister, to wit, Atgan and Aidnerth. Where- upon came Cadoc and Illtud and cursed Evan. Whereby constrained came Evan and the kings 62 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH with him to the presence of Cadoc and Illtud, and confessed to them his crimes. And they said to him, ' Redeem the crime of homicide.' Cation replied, saying, c I will give land called Lan Hoitlan to Cadoc ; the pensio ( = food- rent) thereof is two vessels each of six modii of beer, with bread and flesh and honey, according to the due and accustomed measure.' Moreover, Merchiaun gave a villa, i.e. Conhil, to Illtud, and three vessels which contain six modii of beer, consecrating each vessel with the land. They conferred them upon the aforesaid saints in everlasting alms. More- over, they receiving satisfaction from Evan, enjoined upon him fourteen years of penitence. Of which fact the witnesses were Cation, Merchiaun, Evan, Cethii, St. Catman, Hoitlon, Virgo Cadoc, Finiau Scottus, Eutegyrn the reader. Also the family (i.e. monastic estab- lishment) of Cadoc, and of Cadoc and Illtud, are witnesses. Whosoever shall keep this shall be blessed of God, and whosoever shall break it shall be cursed." The list of witnesses is interesting. One of them, Merchiaun, was afterwards murdered by his kinsman Guidnerth, who in atone- ment bestowed Lann Catgualatyr upon the Church (see p. 54). Finiau Scottus is identified with Finian the Irish Monk, whom the Annals of Ulster record as having died of the yellow plague in 548. This Life of St. Cadoc contains a large number of further donations, mostly made during the THE GOSPEL OF ST. CHAD 63 episcopate of St. Oudoceus, endowing the Church with land or food-rents. The existence of pre- Saxon endowments of the British Church is further testified to by a passage in an eighth century Life of St. Wilfrid, which describes how, at the consecration of Ripon Church (670), Wilfrid, in the presence of princes and people, enumerated former grants of territories to the Church, and also enumerated the " holy places " (i.e. ecclesiastical terri- tories) " in various parts, which the British j clergy, flying from the edge of the hostile : sword in the hand of our race, has deserted." That is to say, the Saxon Church, in the j person of energetic leaders like Wilfrid, claimed J British Church endowments in those regions I which had been denuded of or deserted by their Celtic population. The question of the authenticity of these records remains to be discussed. With regard to the records written on the margin of the i Gospel of St. Chad, the opinion of experts is I that there can be no reason to doubt for one moment their authenticity. They have, it is true, been regarded with suspicion by interested parties, but, as Seebohm says, these records ought to be approached " not as charters, but J as simple notes or records of transactions. . . . When the record was written on the margin of a richly-illuminated copy of the Gospels, it becomes all the more obvious that we are not dealing with charters in the ordinary 64 POSSESSIONS OF THE EARLY CHURCH sense, but with acts done under solemn re- ligious sanctions and placed under the protec- tion of the altar at which the transaction took place." In reference to the Book of Llan Dav, Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans, perhaps the greatest living authority on the subject, says that " the charters pure and simple are on the face of them genuine," and that nobody with an adequate knowledge of old Welsh can doubt that the language of Teilo's Privilegium, or of the descriptions of the boundaries, is much older than the date of the manuscript itself. Seebohm says that " we may fairly regard these records, whether themselves strictly contemporary or not, as in the main describ- ing with substantial correctness sixth-century transactions." The authenticity of the Papal Bulls or of Pope Nicholas's Taxatio can hardly be called in question. Evidence enough has been adduced to show that in the sixth and following centuries the British Church acquired endowments. The lands of the Church were immune from the civil authority, and were treated the Extents of Anglesey and Denbigh confirm this as though they were " islands in the midst of the sea." Seebohm points out that in the Denbigh Extent (1335), among the numerous villatce belonging to the honour or lordship, hardly any occur with the prefix Llan as the places with that prefix were in the hands of the Church and free from secular lordship. Similarly, if one were to construct a map showing in colour RIGHTS OF THE CHURCH IN WALES 65 the manors enumerated in the Extent of Anglesey and in the Extents comprised in the Record of Caernarvon, such a map would be dotted with numerous blank spaces corre- sponding to the "islands" of ecclesiastical territory. The instances adduced cannot fail to con- vince impartial inquirers that the Church in Wales has as strong a prescriptive right to her endowments, if not stronger, than the Church in England. Two other facts need special emphasis. One is that a careful study of the records show that the Church in Wales received her endowments either before the papalisation or after the de-papalisation of the Church. This disposes of the argument that her ec- clesiastical lands and revenues were originally granted to the Church of Rome. The other is that, according to the evidence adduced in this chapter, grants were invariably made either by individuals or by chieftains acting on behalf of family groups, and were bestowed in most cases on particular churches. This is an effectual answer to the statement that the Church received her endowments from the State. Indeed, if we are to accept the definitions of political philosophy, no semblance of a State existed in the Britain of the period that we have been treating of. CHAPTER V TITHES IT has been shown upon unquestionable evid- ence that gifts of land by individuals were made to the British Church in the sixth and seventh centuries, and that the possession by the Church of these lands from that era till the present time rests upon a title which no court of law could reject. The antiquity and continuity of these possessions can no longer be disputed. The Church was endowed in the earliest ages not only with gifts of land, but also with gifts of the produce of the land, which gradually developed into the modern tithes. It will be interesting to trace the history of the latter from their most primitive beginnings. In early British society land held by a family group was subject to an obligation to supply the brenhin or patriarchal chieftain with food and drink for three days during his progresses or hunting expeditions. This obligation or food-rent, of which the Celtic name was j gwestva, was in time commuted for a money payment called the tune pound (equivalent to the Gallic Ib. of 240 pence of silver). The 66 THE GWESTVA 67 following illustration from the Venedotian Code (which, though drawn up as late as the tenth century, probably embodies many laws and customs prevailing in Gwynedd from very early times) will show the nature of the gwestva : " The king's winter gwestva from a free maenol A horseload of the best flour that shall grow on the land. The carcase of a cow or an ox. A full vat of mead 9 hand-breadths in its depth diagonally and as much in breadth. Seven thraves of oats of one band for provender. A three-year-old swine. A salted flitch of 3 finger-breadths in thickness. A vessel of butter 3 hand-breadths in depth, not heaped, and 3 in breadth. And if these cannot be obtained, a pound is to be paid in lieu of them, and that is the tune pound, and 24d. to the king's servants. If mead be not obtained, two vats of bragot ; and if bragot be not obtained, four of ale." The summer gwestva was to consist of " A f at cow, a fat wether 3 years old, and a sow of 3 winters 3 fingers thick, and the trev is to bring all these to the king, and to light a fire 3 nights and 3 days for him." 68 TITHES Many of these food-rents or tributes (census) early formed a large part of the endowments conferred upon the churches, and were generally I given by individuals or patriarchal heads of collections of family groups. This can be proved by documentary evidence from the earliest records. An instance of a grant of land accompanied by a food-rent has already been quoted in full I (on p. 49) from the ninth century manuscript called the Book of St. Chad. It will be con- venient here to repeat that part of the extract pertinent to the present question : " This writing shows that Ris and Luith Grethi gave Trefguidauc. . . . This is its census : two score loaves and a wether in the summer, and two score loaves in the winter, and a sow and two score sucking-pigs, to God and St. Eliud." The very next entry of the MS. is exactly similar in character. In this place it is important to point out that sometimes property given to a church was occupied by tenants already paying census or gwestva to a patriarchal chieftain. In this case the Church became the owner of the property, and received the census or gwestva from the tenants already in occupation. In other cases, when the donor was occupant, he was often allowed by the Church to retain the usufruct for himself or his sons on condition of paying census to the Church. In either case it must be noted that the payment was of the nature of a charge upon the land, not of a IN TOKEN OF CONTRITION 69 state tax in fact, the State in the modern sense did not exist. The Book of Llan Dav and the Life of St. Cadoc supply the following instances of both kinds, occurring in the first half of the seventh century. The Book of Llan Dav tells us that a certain Agwod, son of leuaf, quarrelled with Bishop Cerenhir, and so far forgot himself as to throw stones at the church door in order to emphasise his resentment. He soon, however, repented, and in token of his contrition presented the See of Llandaff with " the village of Penn Onn with its Church of Lann Tylull, and three modii of land and three bushels of wheat." Another record from the Book of Llan Dav runs as follows : " King Athrwys, son of Ffernfael, sacrificed Caer Riou with an uncia of land (108 acres) to God, and to St. Dubricius, St. Teilo, and St. Oudoceus, and in the hands of Bishop Cadwared, and to all the bishops of Llan Dav, with all its liberty, for ever. And his heir Lleufryd received the land from Bishop Cadwared, and from the clergy of Llan Dav ; and to give them yearly six measures of ale, with all that was due from him in bread and flesh, and a pint and a half of honey ; and according to the will of the bishop, as long as it should please him and his chapter, he gave it up free from him and from his offspring for ever." Then follow the names of witnesses and the boundaries of the grant. Here we have a clear instance of the donor 70 TITHES being allowed to retain the usufruct of the land, subject to this payment or tithing of produce. The Life of St. Cadoc, to which reference has been made in the preceding chapter, contains numerous instances of both kinds. One record describes Elli, Cadoc's pupil and companion, as saying, " Lo, I have built a Church and houses in the name of the Lord, and I myself and all my successors shall be obedient, subject, and well-disposed to the monastic establishment of Cadoc." The record continues : " Moreover, Elli gave to the afore- said monastery in perpetual payment provisions for three nights in summer and as many in winter, with giving of thanks and joy, prayers and spiritual hymns." Here the food-rent was adapted to the needs of the monastery ; there is a reversion to the primitive kind of gwestva. Another significant passage has already been quoted in full on page 61 ; for convenience sake an extract from the passage is repeated here. In atonement for the murder by Evan Buurr, " Cation replied, saying, c I will give land called Lan Hoitlan to Cadoc ; the pensio thereof is two vessels each of six measures of beer, with bread and flesh and honey, according to the due and accustomed measure.' Here the donor was not the occupier, but the assumption is that the Church retained the existing tenants and received from them THE PRIEST'S SHARE 71 food-rents as above. Another record from the Life of St. Cadoc runs as follows : "Be it well known that Gualluiur gave to God and St. Cadoc the land Pencarnov, for his soul for ever till the day of judgment : Guallu- iur moreover commended (i.e. conveyed) this villa to Judnou his son, to the end that he himself and his heirs should serve the monastery of Cadoc out of the produce of this land beyond their own needs. The census of this land is nine ' measures of beer, bread and flesh and honey. But nevertheless that whenever the clergy of Cadoc wish to eat or drink, namely, in Bassaleg or in Pencarnov, the said Judnou shall supply them with food and drink as aforesaid." The names of witnesses follow. Here the donor gives the land on the terms that his son and subsequent heirs are to have the usufruct, but to pay the census as a perpetual charge upon the land. The evidence of these early records is amply supported by later evidence. It is ordained in the Laws of Howel the Good that " the priest of the household is to have a third of the king's tithe, and the priest of the queen is to have a third of the queen's tithe." Bishop Urban of Llandaff, in his appeal to Pope Calixtus in 1119, complained that Llandaff had been not only despoiled of its lands but also dispossessed of its tithes ; and in Calixtus's authoritative reply to Bishop Urban, the See of Llandaff is secured in possession of its tithes; while in a charge by the same Pope to the clergy and 72 TITHES nobles of Llandaff diocese, they are warned that they must pay their tithes and oblations to the Church of Llandaff, and to the other churches in the diocese from which they have been wrongfully taken away. An agreement of the date 1126 between the Earl of Gloucester and Urban Bishop of Llandaff, secures to the church of Whit church, near Llandaff, the tithe and the glebe which formed the maintenance of the priest. In a charter dating from before 1135, re- cording the endowment of the parish of Hay in South Wales by one William Revel, the following significant passage occurs : " Also, he gave to the said Church all the tithes of his land of Hay in all things, and all his tenants of the fee of Hay ; and to prevent question he expressly gave and granted the tithes, to wit, of corn and hay, of colts and calves, of lambs and pigs, of wool and cheese, of coppice wood, and of Welsh revenue, and of passage and pleas." For the end of the twelfth century we have the important evidence of Qiraldus Cambrensis. Giraldus in his autobiography (De Rebus Gestis) tells us that on his return from studying at Paris, being devoted to the interests of the Church, he set himself to remedy its abuses. Finding that " throughout the diocese of St. David's, especially in Pembrokeshire and Cardi- ganshire, the tithes of wool and of cheese, ; owing to the slackness of the bishops, were not being paid," he went to Canterbury, to which RES1STERS OF PAYMENT 73 not only the See of St. David's but the whole of Wales was then subject, and laid the facts before the Archbishop Richard, who gave him authority to remedy that abuse and any others he should discover. In letters which the Arch- bishop sent with him the recalcitrant were threatened with ecclesiastical terrors, and the obedient promised a partial remission of penance. " But," continues the narrative, " immediately all the Welsh, obeying these salutary injunctions, agreed to pay those tithes, and one and all throughout the country did so except the Flemings of Ros and their connections." This was the colony planted by an English king ; it was the king's men, and not the men of Wales, that objected to pay tithe. Giraldus gives a moral ending to '' the story. The Welsh, " who had readily given up the tithes of wool," made an expedi- tion against Ros, and among other booty , carried off all the Flemings' " wool-bearing sheep," thus punishing them for their non- j payment of tithe. Later on we find him as Archdeacon of Brecon insisting on the pay- ment of tithes by these Flemings of Ros, and arousing their resentment by his vigilance and persistence. Still more conclusive evidence is supplied by Giraldus in his Itinerary, where, after saying that the duty of paying tithes had come down ] to the Welsh from the teaching of Germanus ! and Lupus in the fifth century, he makes the following statement : " Moreover, of all 74 TITHES chattels which they possess, animals and great and small cattle, they give tithes from time to time ; as, for instance, when they get married, or start on a journey, or undertake at the bidding of the Church any amendment of their lives. Now this allotment out of their pro- perty they call the Great Tithe (decima magna) : of it they usually give two parts to their baptismal church and the third part to their diocesan bishop." Besides this special tithe levied on certain occasions on all movable property, there were the ordinary parochial tithes (decimce minutce) levied annually on " the fruits of the earth and the increase of flocks and herds given by God." The tithes of wool and cheese referred to by Giraldus in the passage we have quoted from his autobiography are an instance of the latter kind. In his Gemma Ecclesiastica he also notes a practice of allowing clerical persons in minor orders to marry on condition that they kept " honest and discreet vicars, to be paid by a moderate salary out of the altar dues and small tithes, w r hile they them- selves are to receive the decimce exteriores." Here the small tithes are assigned to the vicar, while the " external " tithes go to the rector, who does not officiate. This is a significant anticipation of the present system. Enough has been said to show that the custom of devoting a portion of the produce of the land to the maintenance of the various churches is a form of endowment which comes ESTABLISHED BY CUSTOM AND LAW 75 down from the very earliest records of the British Church ; in other words, that tithe existed long before there was any State to create it. An attempt has been made to trace out from the very beginnings of the British Church the growth and history of tithe, and to illustrate and emphasise the underlying principle which inspired and created this form of contribu- tion to the permanent necessities of religious worship. We cannot close this chapter with- out some notice of the present-day contentions in reference to tithe. The statement that the tithe is the creation of the law calls for some comment. That the law recognised tithe in England from a time much earlier than . the date of the first statute in which it is j mentioned, we may take as certain : that lawyers regularised the tithe system and ; contributed to its universality is extremely { probable ; nothing is more likely than that in their love of uniformity the men of law assumed the tithability of all cultivable land because they found that the greater part of i it was in fact tithed, and that so a system which had by other means become general grew to be well-nigh universal ; but it is pretty safe to assume that in the early history of any community, custom was in advance of the law ; that (for instance) private property existed as ^ a fact before the first lawgiver made theft a crime ; and so, if we want to inquire into 6 76 TITHES the origin of tithe in England, we must look for something behind the imagined decrees of supposititious judges. We have seen that tithe was in the first instance enjoined as a duty by a struggling Church, and given sporadically by the pious. Later, in places where the Church had grown powerful, it was yielded I under the compelling power of public opinion, . or even under more forcible constraint ; and thus there grew up a custom which, in course of time, found its way into the breasts of the judges where the Common Law of England is : said to reside. So that to the question how far the Church's right to tithe is the creation of the law, the answer is, just so far as this is true of any other right of property ; that is to say, only in the narrow technical sense of the I jurisprudent who says that until there is a ' remedy there is no right, which is not in the least the sense in which the advocates of Dis- endowment assert that the tithe was imposed by the law. As to the special case of Wales, we can only say that there seems to be no reason for assuming that the history of the tithe there differs in any essential point from that which we conjecture (for we are admittedly in the region of conjecture) to have been the case in England. We may even say that there is some ground for assuming the contrary ; for it is a fact, and a very striking and important fact, in the early history of the relations between England and Wales, that there were TITHE NOT STATE-CREATED 77 inter-communication and some degree of unity between the two nations in matters ecclesi- astical long before there was any question of the extension of the civil power cf England over the Principality. So that, if it be pre- tended that the English law of tithe was im- posed upon Wales as part of the laws of England to which Wales was made subject, it may be replied with a probability almost conclusive that, though the legal machinery and legal incidents which had grown up about the tithe system in England may have been so imported into Wales, the tithe itself was there already ; and it would be no more reasonable to look for the origin of Welsh tithe in the application of English laws to Wales, than it would be to date the tithe system in England from the earliest mention of the tithe which appears in the English statute book. The tithe, then, having (as may be said with certainty) been established otherwise than by the laws of the realm, has been recognised by the law, its incidence modified and its collection regulated, not otherwise than has happened with other forms of property such as rents, rent-charges, and manorial dues. For tithe there has indeed been substituted tithe rent-charge (as the tune was substituted for the gwestva), which is therefore in a sense the creature of statute ; but it is hardly necessary to say that the Church's title to the tithe rent-charge is the same as was her title to the tithe for which it was substituted. ?8 TITHES To take a parallel case : there is incident to certain copyhold lands the custom of heriot, which is a payment in kind, as was the old tithe. The statute law allows the copyholder to enfranchise the land and to pay the lord of the manor a sum of money in commutation of his right of heriot. It would be a strange doctrine to hold that the money which the lord of the manor so gets is a gift bestowed on him by statute. Furthermore, as a mere matter of business, it is obvious that the purchasable value of land subject to heriot 1 or tithe is less by the exact purchasable value of such heriot or tithe. That this was quite clear to Sir William Harcourt is evident from a speech delivered by him in the House of Commons in April 1894, during the course of I which he said : "In regard to tithe, it is a I fallacy to say that tithe is a tax upon land. It is nothing of the kind. Everybody who purchases land chargeable with tithe pays so much less for it than he would pay if it were tithe-free." It ought to be unnecessary to pursue this argument or even state it, but the advocates of Disendowment leave no line of reasoning untried which may serve to differ- entiate the tithe from any other subject of property. What the law has given, they say, the law may without injustice take away. I The answer is first that, so far as historical research can prove, the law did not give the tithe to the Church ; and secondly, that how- \ ever the tithe was first imposed, if centuries THE QUESTION OF SECURITY 79 of use and centuries of recognition by the State do not confer upon the Church an indefeasible title, there is by parity of reasoning no security of title to any acre of land or any pennyworth of property in the British Isles. S & *j.Sc Ca^oco ^vu pnt kvit. GwatttmtrAu ^ ciinw . Ccnl }>? o.e; nouf truta ttd^-.icu ^ ^ pUluwtn A^a-o-^tlbf . h cCth, Wednesday. The feast of St. Bartholomew. I came safely (thanks be to God) to my own house at Aberguilly, although my coach had twice that day been overturned between Abermarkes (Abermarlais) and my house. The first time I was in it, but the second time it was empty." On 28th August he consecrated the chapel or oratory dedicated in remembrance of his I own College at Oxford, to St. John the Baptist. On 4th September he preached at Carmarthen, the judges being present. Under 24th Sep- tember the diary records : " One only person desired to receive Holy Orders from me, and he found to be unfit upon examination, I sent him away with an exhortation, not ordained." But the wider influence of Laud upon the Church in Wales is seen in the character of the Welsh bishops whom he was instrumental in appointing. Bishop John Owen of St. Asaph, who owed his appointment to Laud's THE INFLUENCE OF LAUD 111 influence, was a Welsh- speaking Welshman, who preached in Welsh in his Cathedral, and was the first bishop to establish preaching in Welsh in St. Asaph Parish Church and (probably) in other parishes in the diocese. Between 1631 and 1638 he carried out a great deal of repairing and building at the Cathedral. The Cathedral was furnished with a wainscot pulpit and fixed seats ; the episcopal throne was beautified and enlarged ; a great new organ, made in London, was set up ; pavement was laid between the Cathedral and the Parish Church ; and " in the months of October and November 1638, the steeple and bellphrey of the Cathedrall Church of St. Asaph and the loft there were repayred and boorded, and the frame of the iii bells there re-edified by Ffoulke Lloyd the carpenter." William Roberts, whose appointment to Bangor in 1637 was made by Laud, was a native of Denbighshire, and a thorough Welsh- man. He was previously Rector of Llandyrnog, and it is said by Wood that Laud's notice had been attracted by his integrity in recovering Church property. As bishop he was a generous benefactor to the Cathedral of Bangor ; to his bounty are due the beautification of the choir and the erection of an organ. Morgan Owen, a native of Carmarthenshire, was a graduate of Jesus College, and after- wards Chaplain of New College, Oxford. Re- turning to Wales, he was appointed Chaplain 8* 112 THE PRE-COMMONWEALTH PERIOD to Laud (then Bishop of St. David's), and after- { wards by Laud's influence became Bishop of ' Llandaff. Owen, who was a rich man, built the beautiful porch of St. Mary's Church, Oxford, in the carvings of which was set up the image of the Blessed Virgin and Child, afterwards defaced by the Puritans. He also endowed the Grammar School of Carmarthen with 30 per annum. He suffered imprison- ment and afterwards much persecution for his loyalty ; like his patron Laud, he seems to have been a man of high if somewhat rigid ideals. One debt the Church in Wales undoubtedly owes to the influence of Laud. The appoint- ments to which reference has already been i made, clearly indicate that Laud recognised ' the importance of the Welsh language, and the wisdom and the justice of the claim that the Welsh Church should be served by Welsh- men. Still more striking is Laud's indirect connection with some oi the most notable products of Welsh devotional literature. The best and most abiding influence of the Laudian teaching found expression in the poems of IVaughan the Silurist, and of Rhys Prichard, whom Laud made first Canon and then Chan- cellor of St. David's. Vaughan, a Welshman by birth, expressed in his devotional poems the noblest and most enduring elements of I both Puritan and Catholic thought in forms of ' exquisite beauty and culture. Cast in a ruder and more homely mould, the poems of Vicar I Prichard of Llandovery filled in the religious VICAR PRICHARD'S POEMS 113 life of Wales a place only second in reach and I sway to that of the Bible itself. Prichard chose the title of The Welshman's Candle for his book, because his supreme desire was " to give light to the unlearned and the I blind, and to arouse his countrymen to the ' faithful service of God." " Simple sermons," he said, " you forget, but songs find a firm j lodgment in your mind." Like Fletcher of Saltoun, who said, " Give me the writing of the ballads, and you may make the laws," so Vicar Prichard turned to verse as offering the best avenue to the hearts of his country- men. He selected a quick, bright, short metre, and chose to write in the language of the people, which was at that time a patois interlarded with English words. Before dealing with the subject-matter of the poems in any detail, it may be as well to indicate the theological position from which the Vicar wrote, because by a strange mistake Prichard has been described by an English writer, who evidently could not read his poems, as " the Puritan bard of Wales." It is enough ' to point out that Vicar Prichard' s zeal for the Church attracted, as we have seen, the attention and favour of Laud. It may be said of Prichard as of George Herbert, that he started back ? from the "bare, intense spiritualism of the 2 Puritan." But the poems themselves are the best proof that he was something more than a j Puritan. Among the most beautiful of Vicar Prichard's poems are those on preparation for, J 114 THE PRE-COMMON WEALTH PERIOD | and the reception of, the Holy Communion. ' The sacramental teaching is that of Hooker, and throughout his poems there is abundant evidence that the author was a loyal son of the Church of England, and at the same time a I strenuous opponent of the claims of the Roman 1 Church. The poems begin with an exhortation to read the Word of God, which is followed by a poem in which the doctrine of the Incarnation and Redemption is stated in clear and simple language. Ruilding upon this foundation, the author constructs the practical exhortations to a godly and Christian life, which form the theme of nearly all the remaining poems. He I condemns the sins of his time in rough and un- studied language. The exceptional bluntness of his speech has been somewhat ignorantly interpreted as evidence of the exceptional j heinousness and universality of the sins he condemns. The poems tell us that some of I the clergy were idle, some of the people were I immoral, some of the judges were corrupt, I some indulged in sports on Sunday and even played dice. To argue from this that every- I body was guilty of these sins is obviously fallacious. A preacher of our own time might denounce motoring on Sunday, and the habits and customs of certain sections of Society as illustrated by the reports of the law-courts ; he might even comment strongly upon Sunday golf or bridge. Such animadversions would be just and not uncalled-for, but it would be VICAR PRICHARD'S POEMS 115 obviously unjust and ridiculous to say that these things represent the rule, and not rather the exception. The indirect evidence of the j poems suggests that the faults condemned by I Prichard were exceptional. The exhortations to devotion, and the practical rules of conduct and religious observance inculcated by Vicar Prichard, must have been intelligible to those I to whom they were addressed ; and if they proved unpalatable to some, the popularity of the poems proves that their wisdom and 1 truth were recognised by the great majority of the people. Before judgment and condemnation are passed upon Prichard's contemporaries, it may be well to ask whether our own generation would not have rejected his standard of Christian practice as too exacting for Welsh human nature in the twentieth century. Ages, like individuals, are apt to condone their own vices by condemning those of different times and circumstances. One fact stands out clearly. In the first half of the seventeenth century a Welsh poet accomplished for the religious life of Wales a work which may bear comparison with that of | John Keble in the nineteenth century ; and the poems of " Canwyll y Cymry," if cast in less cultured forms and speech, yet gained a wider and more permanent popularity than I even the Christian Year. They have been the source from which Welsh hymnologists have i derived their inspiration, and the quarry from | which many of them have hewn the material ' 116 THE PRE-COMMON WEALTH PERIOD for their best compositions. The man to whom it was given to render this service to the people of Wales was a scholar, a gentleman, and a Welsh-speaking clergyman who lived and laboured among his countrymen. During the whole period of the Common- | wealth no edition of Vicar Prichard's poems was published, nor do we hear of their being used, or of any value being attached to them, by 1 the Puritan Divines who took the place of the s sequestered clergy. This fact w r ould be quite I inexplicable if Vicar Prichard was " a notorious ' Puritan," as some modern writers have called him. The question is further illuminated by the fact that in his edition of 1671, Stephen Hughes, himself a Puritan, suppressed Prichard's rhymed version of the Catechism of the Church of England, because he foresaw " w r ranglings ' and controversies concerning these things." The real reason, of course, w r as that the Vicar's verses stated with absolute fidelity and loyalty I the whole sacramental teaching of the Church, and contained much that was at variance with Puritan doctrine. It is to be noted that Hughes' suppression evoked such indignation that in I the next edition he was compelled to publish the poem in full. As a mere matter of his- torical accuracy it is well to be rid of this fable about the Puritanism of Prichard. This long digression has perhaps made it clear that Laud's influence upon the spiritual side of the religious life of Wales, though exercised indirectly, was none the less real and VAVASOR POWELL 117 effective. On the practical side that influence seems to have been less active ; it is true indeed, that veneration for the symbols of their ancient religion was conspicuous among the Welsh people at this period ; but it is obvious that the stringing up and tightening of rules and regulations, and the rigid enforcement of ecclesiastical law, would not appeal to the Welsh temperament ; and it may be that we see a reaction against this side of Laud's influence in the appearance in Wales of such types as Vavasor Powell, whose career seems to supply the only evidence of hostility to the Laudian movement in Wales. Powell is reputed to have been a member of Jesus College, Oxford, but for this his own word is the only authority. He worked as curate to his uncle, Erasmus Powell, but had the mis- fortune to be indicted at Radnor for forging * letters of orders, " and he was with much adoe j reprieved from the gallows." After this he took to itinerant preaching in England. In 1646 he came back to Wales with a certificate from the Assembly of Divines which testified to his ministeral gifts " upon credible and } sufficient information." He was one of the Commissioners under the Act of 1650 for the $ Propagation of the Gospel in Wales, and one | of the twenty-five Approvers under the same Act. His language was violent and fanatical in the extreme, and when power came to him, his hand fell heavily and cruelly upon the clergy, many of whom he was instrumental in 118 THE PRE-COMMONWEALTH PERIOD driving out from their benefices. Of his energy there can be no doubt ; he visited most parts of the country. But it is impossible to regard him as a man of high character. He received a stipend himself from the sequestered bene- fices, and very large sums of money, never accounted for, passed into his hands, or the hands of those who worked with him. It is not easy to do justice to such a mixed char- acter, part fanatic and part rogue. For present purposes it is enough to note that, although crowds flocked to hear him in Wales, the feeling of the people was against him, and many attempts were made upon his life. Some of the utterances attributed to him in Montgomeryshire are so wild and blasphemous that it is at any rate just to say that he was a man of singularly unbalanced mind ; and that he cannot be regarded as representing any large section of opinion in Wales. Indeed, his opinions changed so often, even in his attitude to Cromwell, that ordinary people would have found it difficult to follow him. Certainly the career of Vavasor Powell cannot be taken as a proof that Dissent had struck root in Wales during the Laudian period. As we shall see later, Wales remained throughout the Commonwealth loyal to its old ideals of King and Church, which is an additional proof that on its spiritual side Laud's influence had not been unfruitful. Men like Wroth, Cradock, and Erbery brought from England into Wales a form of Puritanism which fell upon stony RESULTS OF LAUD'S INFLUENCE 119 ground ; they cannot, as will appear, be re- garded as the founders of Welsh Noncon- formity in the eighteenth century. What little bias there was in Wales in the seventeenth , century was a leaning towards the older and j more familiar forms of worship. Bishop John Owen of St. Asaph in 1633, while not reporting any cases of Inconformity, mentioned that " the number and boldness of Romish recusants increased much in many places," and that many [ of the people frequented holy shrines and wells. Several instances reveal the popular feeling. At Carmarthen, when Bishop Ferrar, in obedience to orders, proposed to remove the altar-table to the middle of the church, so strong was the resentment excited, that fear- ing a tumult the bishop ordered it to be put i back into its old place at the east end ; and the 1 trial of Bishop Ferrar shows that " kneelings, superstitious bowings, smiting the heart at the jj Celebration of the Lord's Supper, counting ( beads, and burning lights at funerals," were * common practices in the time of Edward the Sixth. In the next century, when a Puritan Parliament ordered the demolition, deface- ment, and removal of all images, altars, monuments, relics of idolatry, and super- stitious pictures, it is certain that this icono- clastic work was carried out, not by the j people, but by the Parliamentarian soldiers. The diocese of St. Asaph supplies an illus- tration of this conservative sentiment. During the troublous times of the rebellion, the parish 120 THE PRE-COMMONWEALTH PERIOD crosses in the Vale of Clwyd were defaced in all the churches that lay along the route of the I Puritan soldiers, whereas in some remote and inaccessible churches they remain intact to this day. For example, the very beautiful Jesse window in Llanrhaiadr church was taken down and hidden, in order to be saved from the superstitious fury of the Puritans. The hiding-places of these precious possessions were I well known to the parishioners, but never betrayed to the enemy. The question of Laud's influence upon the Church in Wales may then be summed up briefly as follows. On its practical side Laud's influence manifested itself in the care of church fabrics, and in a conservative reverence for what may be termed the embellishments of worship ; on its spiritual side that influence can perhaps be traced in the activity of the Welsh bishops of that period, in the loyalty of the people, and in the wide and lasting popularity of the works of Vaughan and Vicar Prichard. At the same time candour makes it neces- sary to refer to one more writer, whose fame travelled even further than that of Vicar Prichard, and who is claimed, not with- | out some show of reason, as representative ' of the opposition to Laud. Lewis Bayly, I probably a native of Carmarthen, was Bishop ' of Bangor from 1616 to 1631. Educated in England, he returned to Wales some years before Laud was appointed Bishop of St. David's. He was in many ways the most BEFORE THE COMMONWEALTH 121 distinguished figure during those years in the Welsh Episcopate. His sermons, which ' achieved great fame, were strongly anti-Papal, t and, like his contemporary Vicar Prichard, he did not conceal his dislike for the Spanish marriage. He was certainly in 1621 brought into sharp collision with the King, and it is said that Laud's influence was responsible for this. Bishop Bayly will always be remem- j bered for his book on the Practice of Piety. I This book had reached its twenty-ninth edition in the year 1630, and its fifty-ninth edition in I the year 1735. It was translated into German, French, and Polish. The Pilgrims of New j England translated it into the language of the I Indians of that district. It is remarkable that this famous work was translated into Welsh by Rowland Vaughan of Caer Gai, j Bala. Vaughan was a most devoted and dis- j tinguished Royalist, who suffered great per- secution at the hands of the Puritans ; and this fact in itself goes some way to qualify i the statement that Bayly was a pronounced * Puritan. The popularity of Bayly's Practice of Piety indicates that there was a very large section in the Anglican Church to whom this emphasis on the spiritual side of religion pro- foundly appealed ; and it may be concluded that Bayly's antagonism to Laud was political rather than doctrinal. At this point it will be well to indicate the general condition of the Church in Wales, and of the Welsh nation at the period immediately 122 THE PRE-COMMONWEALTH PERIOD preceding the Commonwealth. The history of the Welsh Church during the first half of the seventeenth century is no ignoble record. The old order yielded to the new slowly and without any outburst of passion or force. The whole evidence tends to show that the Church in Wales passed through the troublous times of the Reformation with zeal and prestige unimpaired. Schools were established ; and Jesus College, Oxford, founded by a Tudor Queen anxious for the welfare of her country- men, brought the people of Wales into close contact with the best culture of England. In this period the clergy and gentry of Wales were educated at the Grammar Schools and at the great Public Schools of England, and, in ; most cases, were graduates of Oxford or Cam- bridge ; it has also been calculated that a third j of the undergraduates at Jesus College, Oxford, * between 1630 and 1650 were of plebeian origin. It is a remarkable fact that for more than a | hundred years from 1568 Wales supplied a I comparatively greater number of bishops to I the Episcopal Bench of England and Wales than any other portion of the kingdom. In the fifty years before the Commonwealth, | Wales was more prosperous and better educated * than at any previous time in her history. The Church was active, and commanded the sym- pathy of the people ; and the fanatical dissent [which took root readily in some parts of {England quickly withered when transplanted into Wales. GABRIEL GOODMAN, D.D. Dean of Westminster, 1561. Patron of Bishop Morgan, Translator of the Bible into tt'elsh. Founder of Christ's Hospital and the Grammar School at Rutfiin. To face p. 122. CHAPTER IX THE COMMONWEALTH THE Puritan Rebellion dealt a blow to the Church in Wales from the effects of which it did not recover for more than a century and a half. The loyalty of the Welsh aroused in the Puritans that heavy resentment of which we shall soon see manifestations. When Crom- well visited South Wales in 1648, he gave the following description of the country : " The gentry are all for the king ; the common people understand nothing, and follow the gentry. The country is all up or rising : the smiths have all fled, cutting their bellows before they went ; impossible to get a horse shod never saw such a country." This attitude on the part of all classes in Wales kindled the anger of the Puritan party and intensified the rancour with which they fell upon the gentry, whom they regarded as their political opponents, and the fanaticism with which they persecuted the Church, which they regarded as the work of Antichrist. A few instances of this temper of mind will suffice. 9 124 THE COMMONWEALTH They stabled their horses in the Cathedral of St. Asaph, and the church of Merthyr Tydvil ; they used the fonts of St. Asaph Cathedral, . and of Bedwas Church, as pig-troughs. At Llandaff the Puritan troopers burst into the Cathedral while the Holy Communion was being administered, drank the consecrated wine, and then put up a weaver to denounce the Church in a three-hours' oration. The books of the Cathedral library, together with a pile of prayer- books, were burnt at Cardiff on a cold winter's day, the Cavaliers of the county and the wives of several ejected clergymen being invited to warm themselves by the bonfire so made. The Puritans were also responsible for a similar fire of books and priceless documents at the Registry of St. Asaph. These recorded in- stances, to which parallels can be found throughout the length and breadth of the Principality, will give some idea of the wide- spread devastation and destruction of all that was most beautiful in the cathedrals and churches of Wales. Even at this distance of time, the recital of this ruthless vandalism arouses the anger of all men, without distinc- tion of class or party, whose culture enables them to set a true value upon the heritage derived from their forefathers. The oft-cited " Act for the Better Propagation of the Gospel in Wales," l proves how stalwart was the loyalty of Wales and how vindictive the anger of the proselytising Puritan. By 1 See Appendix F. APPROVERS 125 this Act, 71 Commissioners were appointed for Wales and Monmouthshire with full power and authority, after due examination and proof of charges of delinquency, scandal, malignancy, or non-residence, " actually to amove, discharge and eject all such ministers and other persons from their respective cures, benefices, places, and charges, as they, the said Commissioners, or any five or more of them, shall adjudge to be guilty of any of the crimes aforesaid." The Act also appointed 25 ministers described as " Approvers " or " Triers," who were to give certificates to persons whom they approved of for the preaching of the Gospel either in settled congregations or in an itinerary course. All the endowments of the Church were to be vested in the Commissioners, and the Com- missioners were to pay these ministers and schoolmasters a yearly maintenance. Stipends of ministers were not to exceed 100 per annum ; those of schoolmasters not to exceed 40. Lastly, the sequestered clergy (or their widows and orphans) were to have pensions amounting to a fifth of their former benefices. The constitution of these bodies will be sufficiently indicated by mentioning that among the Commissioners (or sequestrators, as they are generally called) were the fanatic Harrison, familiar to readers of Scott's Woodstock ; Col. Philip Jones, Col. John Jones, and Sir John Trevor ; while Vavasor Powell figured con- spicuously among the Approvers. The proceedings of the Committee appointed 126 THE COMMONWEALTH by the Commissioners for North Wales are partially given in the official Minute-book of the Committee, now in the Bodleian Library. According to this Minute-book, which stops at 19th November 1651, the Commissioners ex- pelled 51 clergymen in North Wales, and did not provide substitutes for more than 20 of the parishes thus deprived of their clergy. This offi- cial list, while it confirms our other authorities as far as it goes, does not complete the evidence for this diocese. Further evidence is supplied by the records at Lambeth, at the Bodleian and the Record Office, of the ministers intruded into Wales between the years 1644 and 1660. These documents show that Puritan ministers -. were intruded into nearly every parish in 1 the diocese of St. Asaph. 1 At Denbigh, for instance, both the sinecure rector and the vicar were deprived of their benefices, and the emoluments of the rectory and vicarage given to one William Jones, a Nonconformist minister and an Approver under the Act, and chaplain to Governor Twistleton, who was himself one of the Committee of Sequestrators, and had purchased for a nominal sum the episcopal manors of Llandegla, Witherwin, Meliden, and other lordships, manors, and lands. A further illustration from this diocese is a petition addressed by the inhabitants of the Parish of Guilsfield to the Committee of Parliament " for settling of the ministers of the Gospell in W T ales " in 1652. The Petitioners stated that 1 See Appendix G. PETITION OF THE SIX COUNTIES 127 Edward Ellis, their clergyman, an able divine, was " sequestered, silenced, and outed from his benefice for supposed delinquency " ; and that after his departure they continued without any minister at all : " without Communion, with- out Baptism, visitinge of the sick, or forme of a Church amongst us, the doores of the Church being commonly shutt on the Lord's day. That these sacred rights are not only withheld, but invectives published, against such as shall minister them to us, by ambulatory preachers, who tell us their sermons are sufficient for salvation, and recompense enough for the tyth which wee pay, which is exacted of us with all rigor. That the service of God is by this means much decayed, religion scandalised, and men's minds thrust upon sad and dangerous t , apprehensions and perplexities." This peti- tion gives a picture which illustrates the state of many parishes in the diocese under the Commonwealth. Turning to South Wales, there is the famous petition of the six counties of South Wales and the county of Monmouth, presented in 1651, the particular charges being enumerated in a second petition dated 1653. These petitions show that in a short space of time " the ancient clergy were for the most part indiscriminally ejected, the tithes sequestered, the parishes left unsupplied, the blessed ordinance of Christ taken away, and they wholly debarred from any spiritual comfort for their pretious soules 9* 128 THE COMMONWEALTH by any power or dispensation of Gospell ministery but what they must receive from some few itinerants in their uncertaine meet- 1 ings." The detailed petition states that in the seven counties, containing 682 parishes, 237 clergy had been expelled, and that there were only 101 " approved orthodox godly ministers " stipended ; that there were no more than 21 " godly able schoole-masters " ; and that the Commissioners, instead of ac- counting for 40,000, to which the funds for the two years 1650 and 1651 really amounted, accounted only for 19,936, that is, less than half the money which they had received. An equally serious charge was that the Commis- sioners " let and set out the revenues of the outed clergy to friends, creatures and alliance 1 of their owne at extraordinary undervalues." A few instances of the jobbery carried on by these Puritan zealots will not be out of place. The Vicarage of Glasbury, which was valued at 100 per annum, and for which 80 was offered by an outsider, was handed over by William Watkins, Clerk of the Peace for Harrison, to his carpenter, at a rental of 50. The Vicarage of Monkton and the tithes of Warren, together valued at 110 per annum, were handed over by Commissioner Lort to his brother for 45 a year. Similarly Commissioner Hughes let his brother have the tithes of Llangunnor, at half the ordinary price ; and the brother of another Commissioner obtained the tithes of Grosmont, valued at "DIFFERENCES AND DISTURBANCES" 129 100 per annum, for a rental of 10. Still more striking instances are five impropriate churches in Breconshire, formerly belonging to the malignant Earl of Worcester, and worth 350 a year, now let for 150 ; and five rectories in Carmarthenshire, formerly part of the malignant Lord Percy's estate, worth 800 a year, and now let out for 60. Immediately after the presentation of the first petition, Vavasor Powell and some of his strongest allies had visited South Wales, and had gone all over the country uttering threats against the petitioners and trying to rouse the feelings of the inhabitants against them. This is probably alluded to in the complaint that at certain religious meetings there had been " differences and disturbances, and severall swords drawn, and some hurt." The appoint- ment by the Approvers of itinerant preachers for out-of-the-way districts may have been a genuine attempt to solve a long-felt difficulty ; but its failure is evident from the petitioners' assertion that " a man on the Lord's Day may ride 20 miles together and not finde one Church doore open supplyed with a constant, able, and godly minister " ; that in many parishes " the Word of God hath not been taught these two years " ; and that the people " spend the Lord's Day in Alehouses and other leud places, to the great dishonouring of God." There are complaints, too, of the unfitness of some of the clergy left unexpelled in their benefices (for interested motives, it is hinted) ; 130 THE COMMONWEALTH some have fought on the Royalist side, or are still malignants ; some are drunken, debauched persons, scandalous in their lives and con- versations ; there is one " that hath kept an Alehouse, and a great frequenter of Alehouses." It must be carefully noted that the peti- tioners of South Wales were strong supporters of the Commonwealth, and earnest in their demand for regular religious ministrations. Yet all the machinery of jobbery was put into operation against them by Harrison and his satellites. We have already alluded to Vavasor Powell's preaching tour. Attempts were also made to bribe some of the petitioners not to proceed ; these failing, Colonel Freeman, the Attorney- General for the Commonwealth in South Wales, who had presented the peti- tion to Parliament, was imprisoned on a trumped-up charge, and, though released after a time, was not able to recover damages for his false imprisonment ; the same injustice overtook Gunter, another of the petitioners : and finally, Col. Freeman was deprived of his office. The satisfaction of the petitioners' demands was eluded by scandalous delays and ignoble subterfuges, until the matter was finally shelved ; and when the Act for the Propagation of the Gospel in Wales expired in 1653, Cromwell gave Authority to the Commissioners to "go on cheerfully in the work as formerly, to promote these good things, and to protect men in the said work," a command which they carried out with much THE SEQUESTRATORS 131 assiduity during the rest of the Protectorate. Many of the parishes were left unfilled for years, while at Vaenor a miller, at Llanavon a mason, at Llangorse a shoemaker, and at Llandevaelog a ploughman, took charge of the parish ; similarly those appointed as school- masters were in many cases illiterate or other- wise unfit. Enough has been said to illustrate the disorder into which the Commonwealth threw the Church in Wales. Nor were the wounds inflicted upon her by the violence of the sequestrators or by the rage of an iconoclastic soldiery, more serious or more lasting than the treacherous stabs with which envenomed writers and speakers then and afterwards assailed her reputation. The frequent accusation of drunkenness and malignancy given by the Commissioners under the Act of 1650 as grounds for sequestration form a suspicious combination. Reflection upon the temper of the times suggests that the charge of drunken- ness was added on to conceal the fact that loyalty to the King was the real motive of the sequestration. In fairness, however, it must be said that there may have been cases where the charge of drunkenness was fully justified in the eyes of a Puritan, who, like the modern Nonconformist, may have regarded teetotalism as the only Christian form of sobriety. We must remember, too, that a large section of Society in that generation regarded conviviality as a venial offence. 132 THE COMMONWEALTH Another charge against the Church dating from this period is the allegation that her treatment of the " Two Thousand " was vindictive. It is frequently stated that what- ever may have been the sufferings of the orthodox clergy during the Puritan ascendancy, they were far surpassed by those of the ministers ejected in 1662, because of their refusal to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity. The question naturally arises how far this statement is true. In treating this difficult subject it must be pointed out that Wales j stands on somewhat different grounds from I England. The Puritans had treated the Church in Wales with exceptional harshness ; the clergy had been silenced, deprived of their incomes, and turned out of hearth and home, and the promise to allow one-fifth of the income to the expelled clergy or their widows and orphans was rarely kept. The past con- duct, therefore, of the Puritans supplied no moral claim for leniency. Legal claim they had none, unless it be contended that Presby- terianism was still the established religion of the country. The reinstated clergy, like the I despoiled landowners, only resumed possession of what was legally and justly their own. The nation had repudiated Presbyterianism, but the Presbyterian ministers secretly hoped that by remaining within the Church they would be able to retain their places and adapt the doctrines and ceremonies of the Church to their own views. PHILIP HENRY 133 In the diocese of St. Asaph, where there were apparently only eight ministers ejected at the Restoration, there is no evidence of harshness. Even of these eight, two or three seem to j have been itinerants who were not ejected from j a settled ministry. Of one notable instance in the diocese of St. Asaph there is a very com- . plete account. Philip Henry, who represented I the best and most saintly type of Puritan, j was Presbyterian minister of Worthenbury. After the Restoration he was still allowed to remain as curate at Worthenbury, which now became, as it had been before 1658, a chapelry of Bangor-is-Coed. For two years he re- mained there acquiescing in the conditions that Mr. Bridgman, the restored Rector, laid down. The Act of Uniformity in 1662 laid down rules as to doctrine and practice which Philip Henry "set himself with all diligence to study," with* the result that he found he could not conform, * and resigned his curacy. To his successor j in the curacy, Mr. Hilton, he showed every ! kindness and attended his ministry. Moreover, there is one most important fact to be borne in mind in reference to the question of ejected ministers in Wales. As we have seen already, the Act for the Propagation of the Gospel in Wales provided that the Com- missioners were to receive and dispose of all and singular the rents, profits, tithes, etc., belonging to the Church, and having " pooled " these funds were to pay the various ministers according to their own decision. Now it is 134 THE COMMONWEALTH clear that with the Restoration this Com- mittee disappeared ; that the funds vested in them went back to their legal owners ; and that the payment of the intruded ministers Iipso facto ceased with the disappearance of the Committee. There was not, therefore, a specific expulsion of individual ministers, but only the disappearance of the Committee that had paid them. Assuredly there is not much material here for an " Anniversary of Black Bartholomew." In a time of such fierce strife, the evidence offered on either side must be received with caution. In short, a large allowance must be made, partly on the score of exaggeration, and partly on that of imperfect or unreliable I information, for the statements both of Walker 1 and of Calamy. Walker, who wrote in 1714, seems to have stated with fair accuracy the number of clergy whose benefices were seques- trated ; but the sufferings which he depicts I were probably true in a smaller number of cases than he implies. Calamy's statements must be received with similar reserve. Both writers pass lightly over the fact that there were a certain number of clergy and of intruded ministers who regarded the transition from one state of things to another with a complacency which enabled them conscientiously to remain where they were. The justice and necessity of these reservations has recently been illus- trated by the very remarkable work of Mr. B. Nightingale on The Ejected of 1662 in Cumber- "FAMINE OF THE WORD OF GOD" 135 land and Westmorland ; their Predecessors and Successors. But after making the most generous allow- ance for these deductions, there remain the most indisputable proofs of the magnitude of the disaster which the Commonwealth brought upon the Church in Wales. The effect upon the order and discipline of the Church produced by such a time of chaos must have been both great and lasting. All the known rules of clerical discipline and order were suddenly changed or abolished ; the cessation of the public services of the Church left a wide gap in the lives of the people ; Baptism and Con- firmation ceased, the Holy Communion was rarely and in some places never celebrated ; the children were untaught, and the sick and the dying were not ministered to. There was not a single Ordination in the Church in Wales between the years 1644 and 1660. The peti- tions from Guilsfield and from South Wales, from which we have already quoted, coming as they did from supporters of the Government, establish by evidence that cannot be disputed the existence, to quote their own graphic language, of a " famine of the Word of God." The Guilsfield petitioners, with simple direct- ness, point out the fact that " but for the Civill Magistrate (who keepes the vulgar by punish- inge publick offences somewhat in awe) it is to be feared infidelity and profanenes (having such a doore open) will by degrees breake in upon us." 136 THE COMMONWEALTH The weakening of faith had its natural corollary in the general deterioration of morality. Nor was this strange ; for the state of things pictured by the South Welsh Petition would, if it could be reproduced on such a large scale to-day, leave an almost indelible mark upon the character of the people. The daily spectacle of spoliation under the cloak of religion weakened the very foundations of honesty ; and the subsequent fierce reaction against Puritanism shows the deep impression produced upon the minds of men by the com- bination of unscrupulous avarice with pro- fessions of extreme piety. From another point of view, it may be said that the wild licence of the Restoration was not so much a reaction as the inevitable sequence of the relaxation or the supersession during the Commonwealth of all the accepted sanctions that had hitherto regulated men's lives. The whole course of thought and action during the Commonwealth had conspired to produce this result. The reign of authority had been sup- planted by the anarchy of individualism. Men looked up no longer with reverence to the paternal guidance of Church or State ; but in the wilderness of private interpre- tations found the material for the wildest vagaries in faith and practice. The careers of men like Vavasor Powell are typical of what happened in countless cases. Some beginning with devotion, passed through all the extravagant stages of Puritanism, and INJURY TO SOCIAL LIFE 137 ended in an ostentatious atheism. Vavasor Powell, beginning no doubt with true religious fervour, reached the wildest fanaticism, and ended by suffering in prison for the dishonesty by which he had accumulated wealth. The Puritans in word and action so confused the distinction between the evil and the good, that the men of the Restoration, even if they did not consciously say, " Evil, be thou my good," yet had clearly lost the distinction between right and wrong. Hence, for the first and only time in the history of English drama, vice was represented as triumphant on the stage, as in the works of Wycherley and Con- greve, which obviously reflect the current tone and standards of the Society of their own day. We have now traced the calamitous effect of the Great Rebellion upon the religious and moral life of Wales. The social life of the Welsh people was no less profoundly affected. The greater gentry were reduced to poverty and impotence. Their castles, the rallying- points of culture and centres of protection for all within their sphere of influence, were dis- mantled or laid in the dust. In the county of Flintshire alone, out of the twenty castles of older days, not one survives to-day except in ruins. Not less sweeping, but more far-reaching in its consequences, was the effect of the Great Rebellion upon the smaller gentry. Berry, in a letter to Cromwell in 1648, said that it was easier to find in Wales fifty landlords of 50 138 THE COMMONWEALTH per annum than five of fSOO. 1 Upon this large and most valuable element in Society the sufferings and the financial disasters of the Great Rebellion fell with a devastating cruelty, and many of the smaller estates passed into other hands. No less serious in its consequences was the curtailment of culture and opportunity for the youth of Wales. In the previous fifty years Welshmen had flocked to the older Universities, and had filled, almost out of proportion to their numbers, high places in the Church, the Law, and the State. Camden, the famous author of Britannice Descriptio, who was headmaster of Westminster in 1592, bears this testimony to the Welsh, of whom many had been his pupils at that famous school : " Since the Welsh were admitted to the Imperial Crown of England, they have to their first praise performed all the parts of dutiful loyalty and allegiance most faithfully there- unto ; plentifully yielding martial captains, judicious civilians, skilful common lawyers, learned divines, complete courtiers, and ad- venturous soldiers." The Commonwealth extinguished for a time this rising brilliance, and checked the fruitful intercourse between the better classes of Eng- land and Wales. There is, it is true, the high authority of Professor Firth for the statement that " as a party, the Puritans showed a great zeal for education." In England this zeal may have taken practical shape, as we know it 1 See Appendix C. GEORGE GRIFFITH, S.T. P. Lord Bisliop of St. Asapk, 1660-1667. To face p. 138. CROMWELLIAN FREE SCHOOLS 139 did in Ireland, where John Owen, the Welsh Independent divine, was the leading member of the Committee appointed in 1650 " to settle and maintain Trinity College, and to erect, settle, and maintain one other Colledge and a Free School in Dublin." Readers familiar with Professor Mahaffy's most instructive and delightful book, An Epoch in Irish History, will find there abundant proofs that in Ireland the zeal to which Professor Firth alludes bore practical fruits. But in Wales this was not so. The Rev. T. Shankland, a Nonconformist minister and librarian of the Bangor University College, who has with great industry and ability collected and published much valuable informa- tion about Wales in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, has unearthed from the Lambeth Library a list of the Cromwellian Schools and of their schoolmasters in Wales during the Commonwealth. This list gives forty (Cromwellian) Free Schools for Wales and Monmouthshire. The salaries varied from 40 to 5. There were thirteen other schools, all except two being pre-Commonwealth found- ations. How far these schools were maintained does not appear, nor is there any evidence to show what were the qualifications of the teachers, or whether the schools were con- tinuously maintained throughout the Common- wealth. 1 1 See Appendix G. 10 140 THE COMMONWEALTH Not the least valuable part of the list is the light it throws upon the petition of the six counties of South Wales and the county of Monmouth. In that petition it was alleged that in all those seven counties there were not more than twenty-one able schoolmasters stipended and approved according to the Act. The list which Mr. Shankland has published confirms the accuracy of this statement, made in the petition to the Commonwealth Parliament, a petition, as we must remember, drawn up by friends of the Commonwealth. There is there- fore good reason to believe that the petition is equally accurate in its description of the characters and qualifications of the school- masters employed in these Cromwellian schools. Phillip Williams, who appears in Mr. Shank- land's list as the Master of the Brecon School, is described by the petitioners as " a young man of no competent learning for a schoolmaster." David Evans, who appears in Mr. Shankland's list as Headmaster of the New Radnor School, is called in the petition " a drunken and debauched man." The petitioners add that " divers others " (i.e. schoolmasters) " might be instanced whereby the inhabitants are kept back from sending their children to be trained by such ill-qualified tutors." This description, from supporters of Cromwell, of the Crom- wellian Schools in Wales, compels us to conclude that education in Wales suffered grievously under the Commonwealth, and that while the older schools were closed, the new schools DEPRESSION AND PARALYSIS 141 were supplied with incompetent teachers, and the educational endowments of the older found- ations appropriated by the despoilers which the period brought forth. Wales enters upon the Restoration period in a maimed condition. The moral and intellectual life of the country had stagnated ; the Church was, in order and discipline, thrown entirely out of gear, and had to face the spiritually barren and perplexing times of the Restoration with a ministry of uncertain con- victions, of little culture, of impoverished resources, lacking in high ideals, and depressed in spirit. Such depression was natural. Many returned to find their homes desolated, their benefices despoiled, their churches encrusted with the squalor of ten years' neglect, their schools closed, their most staunch neighbours and friends impoverished or in exile, and the whole scheme of worship and Church order destroyed or in abeyance. Few have realised the magnitude of the paralysis which fell upon the Church in Wales at this period. CHAPTER X THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE THE statement made in an earlier chapter that the British bishops present at the Council of Aries in 314 probably spoke a language identical with the Welsh of to-day, may be received with smiling incredulity ; but a consideration of the facts tends to show that such a supposition is not wholly absurd. Two of the oldest books in Welsh literature are the Black Book of Carmarthen, and the Gododin, a poem of Aneurin. The manuscripts which contain these poems are of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries respectively. Expert opinion now seems clearly to pronounce that part, at any rate, of these poems has come down from the fifth and sixth centuries, and that in them we have a mediaeval version of really old poems. If, then, these poems represent, be it only in part, the Welsh literature of the fifth and sixth centuries, it is no violent assumption that in the fourth century Welsh was a literary lan- guage, and that the British people then spoke Latin and Welsh in much the same proportions 142 INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE 143 and classes of society respectively as the people of Carnarvonshire to-day speak Welsh and English. The early influence of the Church upon Welsh literature is evident from various re- ferences to Church ceremonies and doctrine in these early poems. For instance, in the Gododin, which Stephens apparently accepts as genuine, mention is made of gifts to the altar, of doing penance, of Baptism, and of " the Trinity in perfect Unity." Still more signi- ficant in this connection is the history of the manuscripts which contain these poems. At the dissolution of the religious houses in Wales during the reign of Henry vm. their libraries, containing many MSS., were dispersed. There is no doubt at all that these scattered MSS. had been copied and preserved by the clergy. The history of the MSS. containing these poems is similar to that of the Book of Llan Dav. For example, the Black Book of Carmarthen, which belonged to the Priory there, was given by the Treasurer of the Church of St. David's to Sir John Prys, a native of Breconshire, and one of the Commissioners appointed by King Henry vm. It is not too much to say, therefore, that what we have of the earliest literature in the Welsh language we owe to the Church. Passing to the ninth and tenth centuries, we come to the Laws of Howel the Good, which were approved and promulgated by an assembly of archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priests. 10* 144 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE .|i The original text of these laws was in Latin, " in order that the common people might hold them in greater respect from their inability to understand them"; but a Welsh version was afterwards made, probably by the clergy, as the Latin version certainly was. The clergy of St. Asaph in 1277 A.D. possessed \vhat is described as the Book or Text of the Gospels of the Church of St. Asaph, and generally called Euengiltheu, and this book they carried about with them when soliciting alms for the restoration of the Cathedral. The temptation to suggest that this was a Welsh copy of the Gospels is great, but is questioned in a letter received by the writer from Bishop Stubbs in 1894. It is sometimes asserted that the Welsh language had no place at all in the worship and teaching of the mediaeval Church in Wales ; but the existing Welsh MSS., for the classification and description of which Wales is profoundly indebted to Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans, abound in evidence to the contrary. In a manuscript of 1350 there is a translation in Welsh of the Story of the Crucifixion from St. Matthew's Gospel. Another from St. Matthew's Gospel follows, similar to the last ; there is also the Athanasian Creed translated into Welsh for Eva, the daughter of Meredydd. In another MS. are given the Order for the Visitation of the Sick and part of the Litany. In short, these Welsh MSS. from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries are full of Welsh versions of THE BIBLE IN WELSH 145 portions of the Scripture, of Creeds in Welsh, of the Lives of Saints in Welsh, and of Welsh Elucidaria or catechisms teaching Christian doctrine in the form of question and answer. It seems clear that these extracts of Scripture, Creeds, catechisms, and prayers in Welsh are proof that the people used the Welsh language in their private devotions, and that materials for these devotions, as well as for instruction, were provided in the mother-tongue by the Church. We now come to the Reformation period, and to the translation of the Bible into Welsh. Bishop Richard Davies in his preface " at y Cembru " (i.e. to the Welsh) prefixed to the New Testament of William Salesbury, says that as a boy (eithr pan oeddwn bachgen), when he was staying with an uncle who w r as a good scholar, he had seen the five books of Moses in Welsh ; he adds that no one understood or valued the book. The earliest printed Welsh book extant to which a religious character may be assigned bears the date of 1546, and contains a Calendar, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the seven Sacraments, the Virtues to be followed, the Vices to be shunned, and nine Command- ments. This book was edited by Sir John Prys, Knight, of Brecon ; and his relegation of the eighth Commandment to an Errata column at the end of the book seems not in- appropriate in view of the history of the editor, who had been one of the largest despoilers of Church property during the Reformation. 146 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE The book has been described as a Welsh Cate- chism, or as a Calendar; it is really modelled upon the Elucidaria which we meet with so often in Welsh manuscripts. It might be more accurately denoted a Catholic Primer, and its date suggests comparison with Henry vin.'s Primer, published the year before. Indeed, the doctrinal teaching of the book is in harmony with the then views of Henry vin., who, though insisting upon his own supremacy, retained a mediaeval orthodoxy in faith, and, while he put Roman Catholics to death as traitors, was equally ready to burn Protestants for heresy. The authorship of this Primer has been attri- buted to Sir John Prys and William Salesbury, and there is a statement in Bishop Richard Davies's preface to Salesbury's New Testament that seems to suggest the idea of collaboration between Prys and Salesbury. William Salesbury of Llansannan, a layman and a sound Churchman, was the first to trans- late any considerable portion of the Scriptures into Welsh. Salesbury belonged to the ancient house of Lleweni ; a genuine scholar, he devoted his life to the cause he had at heart. In a book of Welsh proverbs, published prob- ably in the year 1546, he appealed to his countrymen to secure the translation of the Bible into Welsh. " Go," he said, " as pilgrims with bare feet to the King, and beseech him to have the Holy Scripture in your own language." The resolute determination of Salesbury to pro- mote the work of translating the Bible into WILLIAM SALESBURY 147 Welsh is illustrated by his compiling a Welsh- English dictionary, dedicated to Henry vin., as a preparation for that work. 1 This was published in 1547, and four years later he completed the first part of his self-imposed task by publishing in Welsh the Gospels and Epistles appointed by the Prayer Book to be read on Sundays and Holy Days throughout the year. In a dedicatory preface he asked the Bishops of Bangor, Hereford, Llandaff, St. Asaph, and St. David's to examine his translation, and if they found it a faithful rendering to give their official sanction to its public use for their Welsh- speaking people. He translated St. Matthew from the Hebrew text, not because he despised the Greek, but because " the Hebrew idiom seems more akin to our own." The difference between the languages of North and South Wales was evidently as great then as now ; Salesbury asks that he be not made subject to the judgment of the men of South Wales, for, as a native of North Wales, unskilled in the language of South Wales, he may have used terms which, to the ears of a South Welshman, might sound ridiculous, inept, or irreverent. Salesbury's selection of the Epistles and Gospels for translation into Welsh is signifi- cant. The Injunctions of Edward vi., pub- lished in 1547, had ordered that the Epistle and Gospel should be read every Sunday 1 He described the dictionary as "necessary to Welshmen who will spedly learne the Englyshe tongue." 148 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE and Holy Day in English ; it is evident that Salesbury determined to secure for his countrymen the privilege of hearing the same in the mother-tongue, and therefore selected for translation into Welsh those portions of the Scripture which the clergy had already been ordered to read in English. It was this English precedent that led him to make his appeal to the Welsh bishops for the public use of his book. Is there any evidence to show that the Welsh bishops acceded to this appeal ? An ordinance of Bishop Thomas Davies, passed at a Diocesan Council at St. Asaph on the 12th of November 1561, con- tains the following among other provisions : " That every of them have the catechisme yn the mother tonge yn Welshe red and declared yn ther severall churches every Sonday with the answer made therunto accordingly. That after the pistill and gospell ys red yn Englyshe yn the churche the same also to be forthwyth there red yn Welshe, aptly and distinctly." Salesbury 's book was published in 1551, Edward vi. died in 1553, and Elizabeth suc- ceeded at the end of 1558. The ordinance passed at St. Asaph seems to reiterate old, rather than to impose new, injunctions ; and it may well be that Salesbury's book was used in the services of the Church during the brief period that elapsed between its publication and the death of Edward vi. At any rate, it is certain that little time was lost after the accession of Queen Elizabeth in authorising TRANSLATION INTO WELSH 149 its public use in the diocese of St. Asaph. The whole evidence goes to show that the- Welsh people were ministered to in the public services in their own tongue almost as soon as the English people obtained the substitu- . tion of English for Latin. No record is forthcoming of any religious book printed in Welsh during the reign of Mary. Among the Shirburn Castle manu- scripts there is a Roman Catholic Primer in Welsh, or rather in a patois of Welsh and English, set forth by Dr. Bristow. This may have been put together between 1550 and 1560. The accession of Queen Elizabeth once more gave the Welsh translators scope and freedom ; and in 1563 an Act was passed for " translating the Bible and the Divine Service into the Welsh language." This Act ordered the Welsh bishops, together with the Bishop of Hereford, to make and publish a translation of the Bible within three years, under a penalty of 40 each. The time allowed for the trans- lation was obviously inadequate. The last revision of the English Bible, in spite of all the resources for information and dispatch at the command of the translators, took fourteen years to accomplish. In the case of the Welsh translation there was the further difficulty that the translators had to develop or con- struct a theological terminology. This diffi- culty was felt by John Penry, the Puritan, who said that the preacher could not utter his mind in W T elsh, and had therefore better 150 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE borrow words from the Latin. Lastly, the Act of Queen Elizabeth made no provision at all for meeting the great expense involved in publishing such a work ; and the im- poverished condition of the Welsh Sees rendered it impossible for the bishops from their own resources to find the necessary funds. It seems more than probable that the Gwysaney Bond, dated 2nd April 1565, for 100 (equal to 1000 now) was given in order to secure funds for the publication of the Welsh Bible and Prayer Book, for the printing of which William Salesbury and John Waley had re- ceived a royal licence. When a calm estimate is made of these difficulties, it is clear that the work done by the translators is in the highest degree creditable to the Church in Wales. The first step taken by the W T elsh bishops was to appoint William Salesbury their editor of the New Testament. Salesbury was assisted by Bishop Richard Davies and by Thomas Huet, precentor of St. David's. During the work of translation he stayed with Bishop Davies at Abergwili. The Welsh version of the Prayer Book appeared in 1567, four years after Queen Elizabeth's order, as the joint work of Davies and Salesbury ; and in the same year the New Testament was imprinted in Welsh at London by Henry Denham. The greater part of the translation of the New Testament was the work of Sales- bury ; Davies translated a few of the shorter Epistles, while Huet was responsible for the DELAYS AND DIFFICULTIES 151 Book of Revelation. In spite of the early appearance of this substantial instalment, the complete Welsh translation was not forth- coming until the publication of William Morgan's version in 1588. It is said that Bishop Da vies and Salesbury ceased to collaborate soon after the publication of the New Testament owing to a difference of opinion about the correct rendering of a crucial word in their translation. The authority for j this story is not quite unimpeachable, and the consequences attributed to this difference are absurdly out of proportion to its importance. It seems much more probable that Bishop Davies and Salesbury were deferred from completing their task by financial and other difficulties, and that they were content with correcting the work already done. Bishop Davies, as we know, was involved in vexatious and expensive lawsuits against Carey. Ac- cording to Archdeacon Thomas, it was at this time that Bishop Davies elaborated and pro- duced his new and more polished version of the Pastoral Epistles which has been pre- served at Gwysaney, and that William Sales- bury issued the four leaves of corrections which deal with printers' errors, and also explain some of the words used by himself and Bishop Davies in their New Testament. It has also been said that Bishop Davies in his preface to the New Testament expressed an expectation that the Old Testament would bej translated and printed with the same expedi-f 152 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE tion as the Prayer Book and the New Testa- ment ; but the present writer ventures with great respect to take exception to this state- ment. Bishop Davies's words are as follows : " This is the book of Eternal Life, which is translated for you in Welsh, faithfully, fully, with care and diligence. God grant you a good will, for here you have food for the soul and a candle to show you the road that leads to Heaven." These words imply the suffi- ciency of what was now offered to the Welsh people. Further on he says, " Here one part is ready, that which is called the New Testa- ment, while you wait (through God this will not be long) for the other part which is called the Old Testament ; still, of the Old Testa- ment you have already the Psalms in Welsh in the Prayer Book." It cannot be said that these words justify the conclusion that the bishop expected the Old Testament to be published with the same expedition with which the New Testament and Prayer Book had been published. There is no evidence to show when, or how, or why Bishop Morgan took up the work of translating the Bible into Welsh. Apparently the starting-point and authorisation of his work dates from the time when a parochial dispute brought him into contact with his old college friend Archbishop Whitgift, whom Bishop Morgan places first among those who assisted him in his great work. The noble memorial designed by Mr. Prothero of Chelten- MEMORIAL TO BISHOP MORGAN AND THE TRANSLATORS OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH. In Cathedral Precincts, St. Asaph. Erected 1892. To face p. 152. DEAN GOODMAN 153 ham, and erected by contributions from all sections of society in Wales, records the names of those who assisted Bishop Morgan by grant- ing him free access to their libraries, and by helping him to revise and correct his work. Of these we may select for mention Dean Goodman, who, although not bearing a native name, entertained Morgan at the Deanery at Westminster and " paid such attention while I read it (the Welsh Bible) over to him, that he greatly assisted me by his labour and advice." Bishop Morgan was no doubt much helped by the New Testament of Davies and Sales- bury. He recognised his indebtedness to Bishop Davies, but his tribute to Salesbury | was totally inadequate. Indeed, it is im- possible to study the various records relating to the Welsh Bible without feeling that William Salesbury was the man who, from the very first, stands out as inspiring, and bearing a chief part in, the noble work of giving the Bible to the people of Wales in their own language. His scholarship, his unquenchable zeal, and his generosity were the chief factors that promoted and made possible the work begun by him and by Davies, and completed by Bishop Morgan. One problem in connection with this work remains to be discussed. Twenty-five years elapsed between the issuing of Queen Eliza- beth's order and the first publication of the whole Bible in Welsh. What explanation is there of this delay ? The New Testament 154 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE and the Prayer Book, as we have seen, were translated and published within four years of the order ; and it will be admitted that this was a very substantial part of the work which the bishops had been commanded to do. To any one who will impartially weigh all the facts of the case, it is clear that the production of the New Testament and Prayer Book in Welsh within four years was an achievement which was rendered possible only by the fact that a considerable part of the work had already been done before Elizabeth issued the order. The promptitude with which this part of the work was undertaken and accomplished is proof positive that the delay in completing the work was not due to any want of zeal or self- sacrifice on the part of the Welsh bishops. Their apparent dilatoriness has been the subject of much thoughtless censure. In an address most unhappily prefacing Mr. Ballinger's admirable book on the Bible in Wales, there is formulated in the following words a charge frequently directed against the bishops. " The bishops with one excep- tion proved themselves to be passive resisters, whether by reason of conscientious objection, incompetence, or other cause, I leave to the historian of the period to discover. The Act was not obeyed. The consequence of this disobedience was that the W T elsh were without a Bible for twenty-five years after the enact- ment of Elizabeth, and twenty -two years after every church and chapel-of-ease in the Princi- A CALUMNY 155 pality should by law have been in possession of the Sacred Book." Rarely has so much injustice and calumny been packed into so few lines. First, this ac- cusation implies that the bishops ought to have accomplished the vast work of translating the whole Bible within the limits of three short years. Secondly, it ignores the fact that the New Testament and the Psalms were given in the vulgar tongue to the Welsh in 1567, and that this was a large and prompt instalment of the work which Queen Elizabeth had ordered, but for which she had omitted to provide funds. Thirdly, two of the three Welsh bishops so slightingly alluded to died within three years of the commencement of the work ; and to describe them as passive resisters savours more of cheap wit than of serious controversy. A little reflection, coupled with a moderate desire to be fair, supplies a reasonable explana- tion of the delay. Open-handed generosity in money matters was not a characteristic of Queen Elizabeth. The order to translate and publish the Bible and Prayer Book in Welsh was not, as in the case of the English Bible, accompanied by any provision from public funds for the great cost involved in an undertaking which was clearly beyond the means of the lamentably impoverished Welsh bishops. How great their impoverishment was is illustrated by Appendix B, in which is ii 156 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE published for the first time a record of the furniture of Bishop Morgan's Palace at St. Asaph in 1601. The Gwysaney Bond shows that private generosity alone had enabled Salesbury and Bishop Davies to borrow the money necessary for publishing their first great instalment of the work ; and it is reason- able to suppose that this generosity had been so severely taxed as to be unable to undertake so soon again a similar and a greater liability. Moreover, those who had helped in the first venture were people with more or less fixed incomes, and the great disturbance in the currency between 1570 and 1580 may have rendered them less able to incur the necessary responsibility. Considering the vastness of the work, and the almost insurmountable difficulties of under- taking such a task in face of the complete lack of books of reference and other aids to scholar- ship, it may safely be said that the verdict of history will recognise the industry, devotion, and self-sacrifice of Bishop Morgan and his predecessors as deserving of the highest and most unstinted praise. The Revised Version of the English Bible, carried out by a group of modern scholars aided by every equipment for the economy of labour, took fourteen years to complete. By comparison the Welsh pioneers were giants in celerity. The first great stride having been accom- plished, many fresh versions of the Bible in whole or part appeared during the next century; WELSH LITERATURE 157 and in 1674 the Archbishop of Canterbury and several bishops, with Mr. Gouge, formed a voluntary society for circulating Welsh books in Wales, and for establishing and maintain- ing schools in Whales to teach Welsh children to read, write, and cast accounts. This as- sociation was short-lived ; but the records of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge from 1698 to 1804 testify to the work done by the Church for the Welsh people during those years. In February 1700, thirty-seven publica- tions in Welsh were submitted to the Society for circulation in Wales, and almost every year during the eighteenth century saw some provision made for Welsh literature. The leading spirit in this work was Sir John Philipps; and it is unnecessary here to describe in detail how by his efforts, and those of his brother-in- law, Griffith Jones of Llanddowror, circulating schools and lending and circulating libraries were established. The title of this chapter suggests that we should conclude it by pointing out the influence which the work of Churchmen had upon the character and life of the Welsh language itself. Bishop Richard Davies, in his preface to the New Testament of 1567, dwells upon the neglect, almost amounting to disrepute, into which the Welsh language had fallen in the sixteenth century. Archdeacon Prys, Canon of St. Asaph, and a collaborator in Bishop Morgan's trans- lation of the Bible, wrote still more strongly : " By this time (1600) the upper classes in Wales had formed so close an intercourse with England that all their national usages had become to a large extent obsolete. A great prejudice was nurtured against the Welsh language, and means, although ineffective, were taken entirely to blot out the language as a too barbarous instrument for conveying cultured thought." There is no gainsaying the fact that * towards the close of the sixteenth century the Welsh language seemed doomed to the fate ; . which actually overtook the kindred speech of Cornwall. Salesbury's Dictionary, which was published in the middle of the sixteenth century, supplies overwhelming proof that the Welsh language had by that time become satur- ated with imported words. " Who does not know," said Morus Kyffin (1593 A.D.) "that half the words in Welsh are from the Latin ? " and adds, " If I liked to do it, I could made a book of Welsh woro's borrowed not only from Latin and French, but from Italian, Spanish, and Greek." The preface to Salesbury's New Testament is written in patois Welsh, and a hundred years later Vicar Prichard elected to write his famous poems in the speech of the common people. These poems are thickly interlarded with borrowed English words ; for example, in a single stanza there occur such \ barbarisms as loitram (to loiter), bribian (to bribe), and tipplan (to tipple). Still more remarkable is the fact that in the controversies be r ore and during the Common- wealth, the pamphlets or discourses addressed PRESERVATION OF WELSH 159 to Welshmen by Welshmen such as Vavasor Powell, Griffith, Erbery, and John Owen, j were not written in Welsh, but in English. What was it, then, that saved the Welsh language ? The answer is that Bishop Morgan's labours not only gave the Welsh people their Bible, but also resuscitated and reformed the ancient language of the Cymry. Under his magic hand what had been a dying patois became a living and a literary speech. After the isolating and devastating period of the Commonwealth, the Welsh lan- guage, recreated and standardised by Bishop Morgan, was once more fostered by the help which came, in the first instance, from the voluntary Society formed in 1674 by Mr. Gouge, and managed and directed by Dr. Tillotson, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury ; and which, before the close of the century, was taken up and continued by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Welsh language, as a written speech, makes its first appearance in the appropriate and primitive garb of martial poetry trans- cribed, preserved, and transmitted by the clergy of the Church. For fourteen centuries it has pursued a not inglorious though some- times unobserved course. It has lived side by side with an all-powerful neighbour ; the abbeys which were its first cradles, and the castles that echoed to its martial cries, lie dismantled and in ruins ; the principalities where it n* 160 THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE reigned have ceased to be ; yet it still survives on the hearths of countless cottage homes ; it still survives at the altars of our venerable churches and justly, since it owes all that it is to-day to the man who took up the language, rough-hewn and crude as it was, and out of it fashioned the majestic and sonorous speech which now conveys the Word of God to the hearts of the Welsh people. CHAPTER XI THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NOTWITHSTANDING the loss of many of her possessions during the Reformation, and the ruin which defaced many of her churches owing to the rapacity of lay impropriators, the Church in Wales can point to a not unworthy record during the fifty years that preceded the Commonwealth. The work of recuperation was rudely interrupted by the Commonwealth, which left her for ten years derelict, her churches closed, her clergy in great part banished, her children robbed of the means of grace, and her possessions alienated and squandered. By this second blow the Church at first seemed to be prostrated beyond recovery. All available records emphasise the chaos and poverty which the Church had to face immediately after the Restoration. Still, signs of vitality and recuperative power were not lacking. At Llandaff the services of the Cathedral were soon re-established, and Welsh services began again to be held in the Lady Chapel ; but the See had been grievously impoverished, and the Cathedral was in a 161 162 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ruinous state, as indeed were most of the churches in the diocese. At St. Asaph, George Griffiths, who was appointed bishop in 1661, has left some notable records of his activity, and of the state of the diocese during this period. Among the episcopal documents there is extant, though never yet published, his Return to the inquiries of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the year 1665. During that year Bishop Griffiths held three ordinations, at which twenty- three candidates w r ere ordained. The Return shows that there were at that time only five schools in the diocese with licensed masters ; and that there were no licensed physicians, though three persons " taken to be Papists " acted as physicians. His answer to the inquiry concerning ministers ejected for non-subscription or inconformity ; ' I do not know of any such in this diocese of St. Asaph " supports the conclusion arrived at in the previous chapter. Griffiths was one of the Committee appointed by Convocation to make certain alterations in the Prayer Book. We learn from Wood's Athene? Oxonienses that he was mainly responsible for the compilation of the Order of the Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years. He did something tow r ards the repair of the Cathedral, and confirmed and carried out the resolution of his predecessor, Bishop John Owen, that Welsh sermons should be preached in the Parish Church of St. Asaph, an order which was prob- ably extended throughout the diocese. Isaac ERASMUS SAUNDERS 163 Barrow, made Bishop of St. Asaph in 1669, finding that many parsonages and vicarage- houses had become ruinous, and that many irregular practices had crept in among clergy and people, appointed a Commission " to endeavour to make the fullest discovery you can of all indecencyes and disorders in or relayting to the sayd churches, or the respective ministers thereof, or the people under their charge." His distinguished successor, William Lloyd, one of the Seven Bishops sent to the Tower, carried on the work with vigour ; and there is extant now in his own handwriting the Commission which he first issued to his clergy. At St. David's was Bishop Thomas, who is said by Archdeacon Bevan to have been instrumental in bringing out the Welsh edition of the Psalms and the New Testament published in 1672, and who also took part in the publi- cation of Rhys Prichard's Canwyll y Cymry. In spite of these efforts, accounts of the Church in Wales at the beginning of the eighteenth century seem to speak of little else than destruction and desolation. Cathedrals, churches, and parsonage-houses were in ruins. In the whole of North Wales there were not twelve parsonage-houses (to quote a record preserved at St. Asaph) " fit for the meanest incumbent to dwell in." Erasmus Saunders gives a depressing account of the state of religion in the diocese of St. David's at the beginning of this century. Graphic and deplorable indeed the record is. There were 164 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY many parishes without churches, many churches without pastors, and many pastors without a maintenance. Such, he says, were the profane and impious changes which the iniquity of the times had brought upon the Church. In North and South Wales, so mean were the incumbents' houses that they often fell to the sexton's lot, " who to get a solid maintenance was allowed the privilege of selling ale by the churchyard side." It will suffice to quote from North and from South Wales typical instances of a condition of things which was universal throughout the Principality. The authority for these instances is taken, for South Wales, mainly from Erasmus Saunders, whose book on The State of the Diocese of St. David's was printed in 1721 ; and, for North Wales, from episcopal records still preserved at the Palace at St. Asaph. It may here be stated that for the whole of the eighteenth century the Visitation Returns, the Reports of Rural Deans, and the official correspondence of the Bishops of St. Asaph, are consecutive, complete, and exhaustive. This almost unique record enables a full and authoritative account to be given of the diocese of St. Asaph during the whole of the eighteenth century. To take the churches first, the record is varied ; some were ruinous, many dilapidated, a few in good repair. One of the worst cases described in 1729 by John Wynne, a rural dean, and evidently a man of culture and judgment, is -,. f J .*/... ///.-/,'/ /'./,'// r -' t f V //<( SLnt" I , /////. f .>/.v t/SM//m ' 1680-1692. To face p. 164.. THE CHURCH OF LLANGOWER 165 that of Llangower. " The face of things here," he wrote, " both intra muros et extra, will seem perfectly frightful. A man of spirit, whose faith is not fixed and unmoveable as one of our rocks, would with far greater satisfaction to himself bend the knee in an elegant mosque than call upon the name of Jesus in the Church of Llangower ; in the mean, contemptible hole that I am to describe." Of the church itself he says : " The wall is not 3 yards in height, which visibly bulges out in one or two places. There stands at the very door of the church, within half a foot of it, a vile, pitiful pulpit, that has no door, and is raised from the ground by one stone step. What they use as a reading-desk is a weak low frame, infinitely decayed, and at both ends ; this stands just under the east window, into which there runs an old longish slip of a board, quite eaten up with worms, in length just a yard and a quarter, and in breadth considerably short of half a yard. The one end of this board, as I said, runs into the frame which serves for a reading- desk ; and the other is supported by two sticks of a thickness with a common oaken stick, both knotty, rough, and un wrought. Now what use does your Lordship imagine they make of the board above described ? They modestly call it, and constantly use it as, their Communion Table. . . . There is in the church but one pew, and that wants a door. All the benches are loose and in a condition not to be equalled. The whole slating is bad beyond anything I 166 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY have yet seen ; and the porch of the church seems ready to fall." With regard to the furniture of Llangower Church we read : " The wenscoting of the chancel is rotten and dismal. . . . The pulpit cloath and cushion very well suit the pulpit of this church, but would suit no other in the Christian world. Both are, beyond my stock of words, vile and contemptible. . . . They have a coarse green flannen to cover their infamous Communion Table on week-days ; and their linnen is no more than one tatter 'd mean cloath, and a napkin of the same sort. Both are incredibly ragged, coarse, and indecent. They have in plate one small, thin, worn-out chalice without a cover. There's a dark pewter plate for the bread, and instead of a flagon they use at the Sacrament a tankard (piget dicere) of about three pints, which is of the worst and meanest pewter, and equally filthy with the plate. They have but one surplice, which is all over thin, and miserably torn about the neck. They seldom wash it, and for this I commend their policy and good management." He sums up by saying : " There are both within the church and about it all imaginable marks of poverty and want." Of Llansantffraid (Glyndyfrdwy) Church the rural dean reports : " The slating is so wretchedly, so shamefully bad, that owles and jackdaws may make the church their habitation. The parishioners on any sudden bad weather are forced to quit the church. When rain, hail, NEGLECTED CHURCHES 167 or snow happens to fall, off the people go, their zeal waxing cold." At Bettws Gwerfyl Goch the rural dean discovered that on market and fair days the benches of the church were let out by the Clerk to alehouse-keepers, pedlars, and hatters ; some seemed to have been in the hands of butchers. In the same place the churchyard was neglected and misused ; *' in some corners are great heaps of stones, in others broken pieces of timber, and is almost filled up with high- raised gravestones. . . . The fences are ex- ceeding low, and in pitiful condition. . . . All our churchyards in Wales are much damaged by the markets and fairs ; for they buy and sell in the very porches. I am likewise to com- plain of the communications which houses, and some alehouses, have with the churchyard. Here at Bettws there is a house which, I firmly believe, by means of the communication which it has, uses the churchyard as a common yard. They throw out their washings, and all their filth, into the midst of it." No church was then considered to be com- pletely furnished which had not inscribed upon the walls the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Table of Prohibited Degrees. At Llanuwchllyn the rural dean in 1730 could find no inscription at all " until after the narrowest search, I at last found within the Chancel 2 or 3 verses (neither of 'em pertinent) scroll'd on the North wall, and, I'm fairly persuaded, with a burnt stick of 168 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY wood." In the same church " they have no pulpit cloth, and the cushion is such as no lady's lapdog would sit upon. It's so full of vermin. As to the utensils, there is but one surplice, which is indeed holy, id est, has many and many holes, is wretchedly thin, and by no means decent." The Communion- linen at Llandrillo " is only a thin patched cloath and a coarse stained napkin. These are both vile and filthy, and such as no beggar of spirit would use at his ordinary meals." Another Visitation Return reports that at Machynlleth " the church was out of order and repair, steeple fallen, three bells all crakt, seates very irregular " ; and that at Llany- mawddwy there was " a poor little church and Chencell, narrow and dark. Chancell in good repair, but the south side of the wall of the church much out of repair. No rails about the Communion Table, benches in disorder." A Ruri-decanal Report on the Deanery of Rhos in 1729 draws a very gloomy picture of Llanddulas. " The whole church is so ruinous, walls, roof, and windows, that the inhabitants have petitioned to rebuild it ; which if they do not, it will be dangerous for the congregation to meet upon any hard weather ; nor is the parish able to repair it, much less rebuild it. ... They want a carpet, a pulpit-cloth and cushion. They have no poor's box nor Table of Charity. The church floor is not flagged. The bier is old and rotten, and they want a bier-cloth. . . . The Clerk is illiterate and not licensed. They DECLENSION AND DECAY 169 have not one pew in the church, and but scandalous benches. The inside is as void of decent utensils and ornaments as the outside is ruinous and dangerous." From the same Report we learn that in the considerable town of Denbigh " the church or chapel is narrow, dark, and not befitting the congrega- tion that meets in it. The roof is ruinous ; the windows small and want mending. . . . Their gallery is weak and out of repair, and is heard to crack often when full. . . . Their pews are thick but very uneven. They have no Book of Homilyes. They want a pulpit-cushion. The door of the steeple is ruinous, the steeple cracked, and the frames of the bells shattered and decayed. There are the walls and pillars of an intended spatious church standing by this chappel. I hear that the stones of this unfinished building are often made use of by some of the inhabitants of the town to build or repair their own houses." In the same report is noted the existence of an old chapel supposed to have belonged formerly to an abbey. Some of the monuments and grave- stones had been conveyed away and used for secular purposes ; it was then made use of as an outhouse by a neighbouring farmer. It may be added here that this consecrated building, now a mere ruin, is still used in the same way. Many of the churches in the diocese were without proper accommodation for the parishioners. John Wynne notes this defect 170 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY at Llanycil. " We look not on this," he says, " as a small church, yet as I already intimated, it's so crowded that the very area was filled up with ropes, cushions, rushes, and other conveniences for the meaner sort to sit and kneel upon. No part of it is pav'd, at which I could not but be surprised, and especially at the reason given both by the minister and wardens. They all three strongly urg'd that, if the body of the church were pav'd, the poorer people must absent from it, for as they fill up the body and area, so notwithstanding their cushions, ropes, etc., prepared for the purpose, it would be impossible for 'em to sit or kneel during Divine Service without uneasiness and pain." Erasmus Saunders, whom we have previously quoted, sums up the condition of too many of the Welsh churches in these words : " Not only the bells are taken away, but the towers are demolished, and in many others there are scarce any seats excepting here and there a few ill-contrived and broken stools and benches; their little windows are without glass, and darken' d with boards, matts, or lettices ; their roofs decaying, tottering, and leaky ; their walls green, mouldy, and nauseous, and very often without wash or plaister, and their floors ridg'd up with noisome graves, without any pavement, and only covered with a few rushes." No less shameful was the manner in which churches were served and services performed. TRAFFIC IN TITHES 171 Some churches were completely abandoned : one (at Llanybri) was actually let to Dissenters, in whose hands it still remains at the present day. One frequent cause of neglect is illus- trated by a Petition presented in 1703 to the Bishop of St. Asaph in reference to the parishes of Llantysilio, Bryneglwys, and Llansantffraid, which had been supplied with curates from Valle Crucis Abbey. At the dissolution of the monasteries the tithes were granted to Lord Wootton, who afterwards disposed of them to several persons, one of whom was Sir John Wynne ; with the result that " neither of the said churches was supplied with any curate in Orders, or any to doe ecclesiasticall dutyes, in which miserable condition these three parishes have long con- tinued, and are like still to pay tythes for nothing, especially Llantysilio, which has been vacant since September 1688, whilste that divers sick persons being desirous to have the Sacrament, and the parents of infants Baptism, and the dying, are destitute of any to administer to them." The Petition, which was signed by twelve witnesses, among whom were Mr. Thelwall and Mr. H. Yale, concluded in an earnest prayer that the bishop would " take the shortest way to gett a fitting endowment for sufficient men to officiate amongst us." Such cases were common throughout the country. Erasmus Saunders tells us that in South Wales many of the lay impropriators, 12 172 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY and even of the clerical pluralists, provided in a most niggardly way for the spiritual needs of the people. One curate, for the miserable stipend of 10 a year, would have to serve three or four churches, often miles apart. Such ministers, " forced to a kind of perpetual motion," could give very little time to each church, and " huddled over as many prayers as might be in half an hour's time." The Ruri-decanal Reports of St. Asaph give a picture only slightly less depressing. In many parishes the Sacrament was administered only four times a year ; in the majority only monthly. Of the parsonages, many had disappeared, more were mean or dilapidated, and in some cases, where there was a house in good repair, the incumbent owing to poverty had to let it out and lodge in a farmhouse. At Oswestry and at Llangollen, as evidently in many other parishes, the vicarages had been destroyed by the Puritans, and never rebuilt. At Llanu- wchllyn the rural dean was shown a plot of ground on which he was informed a glebe house had once stood, but where not a single stone was left to witness where its place had been. The vicarage-house at Llandrillo was " a perfect hut, by no means fit for any clergy- man to inhabit." It had originally been a barn, and had been added to by converting an old stable into a room. It did not contain kitchen, hall, pantry, or parlour : the floors were of earth without floor or flagging. EFFECTS ON THE CLERGY 173 With regard to the clergy themselves, Saunders speaks generally of " their abject figure, despicable appearance and, what so naturally ensues (i.e. follows), the equal treat- ment they meet with " ; he says that their circumstances were " worse than beggary," and that " many were naturally borne down by poverty to a kind of oscitant (gaping) despond- ence." Some of them were undoubtedly of inferior moral character ; one in especial, who was a descendant of the villainous Ellis Price, was a monster of depravity, guilty of crime and vice too gross to be particularised. In- temperance was not unknown amongst them, and the richer incumbents neglected their parishes ; indeed, on the. analogy of lucus a non lucendo John Wynne slyly suggests that some rectors are so named a non regendo. Passing on to the general conduct of the parishes, it may be noted that the registers of some churches were either not kept, or very irregularly kept. The rural dean found it necessary at Llandderfel to remind the in- habitants of the disastrous consequences likely to affect their children if they did not see that the registers were kept properly. The older registers of Llanuwchllyn had been stolen or destroyed by emissaries of the un- scrupulous Ellis Price during his lawsuits with Bishop Lloyd. In most of the churches were one or two Welsh Bibles and Prayer Books, though in some cases the former had pages missing. There were scarcely any 174 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY English Bibles or Prayer Books; at Llanycil, when the Judge came on Assize to Bala, it was necessary for the incumbent to borrow English books from the then Mrs. Price of Rhiwlas. At Llanycil also certain curious irregularities were noted. One was " the almost constant abuse and notorious profanation of the Sabbath with musick, singing, dancing, and drinking." These practices the rector had in vain tried to put down. Another abuse was the presence in the town of Bala of an outlaw who married couples clandestinely. A third, for which the incumbent was more responsible, was the practice of baptizing even strong and healthy children in private houses. This abuse was prevalent throughout Wales, and is to be attributed to the necessity under which the clergy were of adding to their incomes by accepting funeral oblations and other offer- ings from parishioners. As a result, adds the narrator " we dare resist in nothing, especially if our benefices are small ; for should we but attempt to follow our own wills and inclina- tions in respect of christenings or the like, up starts the supream rough-coat, the dux gregis, and with a stern supercilious air crys, ' We'l tame the sparks ; we'l sink the offerings.' No sooner is the word given but the poor herd blindly follow their chief ; after his example they keep their pence, and we clergy starve." The Commonwealth cut off for a century the fertilising stream of intellectual and social EXTREME POVERTY 175 intercourse which had flowed between England and Wales with such benefit to both countries. This isolation led to an intellectual stagnation greatly to be deplored ; but the most painful feature in the Wales of the early eighteenth century is the evident deterioration in the j character of the people, which may be regarded partly as the consequence of the political upheavals of the previous century. The ignorance and immorality of the lower classes was due to the prevailing disorder and neglect ; while the rapacity which lay impropriators had shown at an earlier date now began to bear fruit in the grasping selfishness which marked the conduct of the richer classes towards the Church during the eighteenth century. And here we may pause to show the extent of that poverty, which may fairly be regarded as the most potent cause of the declension and dilapidation of which illustrations have been given above. A document drawn up in 1712 by the hand of Bishop Fleetwood, one of the most distinguished prelates of the eighteenth century, shows that in the diocese of St. Asaph out of 140 benefices, 91 were under 80 a year, and of this number 4 were under 10 a year, 3 under 20, and 10 under 30. In Bangor, out of 130 benefices, there were 10 under 10 a year, 18 under 20, 14 under 30, and altogether 91 under 80 a year. In St. David's, out of 411 benefices, no less than 324 12* 176 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY were under 80 a year ; of these there were 62 under 10, 75 under 20, and 70 under 30. Lastly, out of 202 benefices in the diocese of Llandaff, there were 7 under 10, 26 under 20, and 25 under 30 a year. Thus in the four Welsh dioceses taken together there were no less than 324 livings of under 30 a year, while the salaries of the curates varied from 5 to 20. This poverty was aggravated by the fact that in most of the parishes there was no house of residence for the clergyman. It will be pleasant now to turn to the brighter side of the picture. Even at the beginning of the century faint gleams on the horizon foretold the dawn of better things. Already the work of reparation had begun. Between 1700 and 1720 instances are recorded of the clergy by their own efforts setting to work upon the repair of their churches ; and before the century closed much had already been done. We shall see how later on this work of building, re- paration, and extension was carried on with splendid generosity and success in every parish in Wales. Depressed as the clergy were in spirit and in circumstances, there were many who " sur- mounted these difficulties, and adorned their station, eminent for pastoral care and dili- gence." This, the South Wales record, is confirmed by that of North Wales. One of the rural deans concludes his Report in 1731 with these words (he is speaking of Montgomeryshire) : "I thank God that I can SIGNS OF RECOVERY 177 with much satisfaction acquaint and assure your Lordship that we have a set of good regular clergy, men of sober and of exemplary lives and conversation, well approved of in their respective parishes for a due discharge of their duties." The Visitation Returns for the diocese of St. Asaph from 1749 to 1800 supply, both directly and indirectly, abundant testimony to the fact that the Church was slowly recovering. The earlier Returns are filled in by a crude and often illiterate hand, and the parochial record given is meagre or stunted ; but this gradually changes for the better. Every parish shows some improve- ment in the character of the services given, in the repair of the fabrics, and in the increasing anxiety to make the cure and government of the souls of the parishioners a reality. Constant amidst all these vicissitudes, dis- orders, and impoverishments stands out the eager desire of the Welsh people for the offices of religion. It was this unsatisfied desire that rendered them so sensitive to the influence of those revivals that marked the course of this century. With regard to South Wales, Eras- mus Saunders endorses Giraldus's opinion by saying : " An extraordinary disposition to religion prevails among the people of this country. There is, I believe, no part of the nation more inclined to be religious and to be delighted with it than the poor inhabitants of these mountains. They don't think it too much, when neither ways nor weather are 178 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY inviting, over cold and bleak hills to travel three or four miles or more to attend the publick prayers." He adds the curious fact that " very frequently in their churches in the winter season between All Saints and Candlemas, before and after Divine Service upon Sundays and Holy Days, eight or ten will divide them- selves into four or five aside, and, imitating a Cathedral Choir, alternately respond, and con- clude w r ith a chorus." North Wales presents a similar picture. The Reverend Thomas Williams, Rector of Denbigh, and an author of considerable note, concludes his report as rural dean in 1710 with these words : " It is, My Lord Bishop, to our great trouble, that you had presented to your Lordship but a very indifferent prospect of the outward state of the Church ; but, God be praised, what I have now to say of the people's zeal and conformity will make great recompense for those wants, and helps to alleviate our affliction." Frequent references have already been made to the Visitation Returns of St. Asaph diocese. These returns, ordered and made with un- broken regularity throughout the century, manifest on the part of the bishops, activity and interest in the pastoral work of the diocese ; and it is notable that, with scarcely a single exception, they were careful to see that due provision was made for the Welsh-speaking people. Much has been said in disparagement of those who occupied the Welsh Sees during THE BISHOPS 179 this century. The records of St. Asaph do not support this depreciation. Bishops Beveridge, Fleetwood, and Tanner were ornaments, not only to Wales, but to the whole Church of England ; and men like Bishop Hare and Bishop Drummond (afterwards Archbishop of York) were good, if not great. John Wynne, who succeeded Fleetwood in 1714, was a native of the diocese ; and Bishop Vowler Short has put the following statement on record in his own handwriting : " George i., being aware that the Welsh were inimical to his family, tried to reconcile them by giving them a Welshman for a bishop, and, consulting some of the higher dignitaries of the Church upon the subject, they recommended Dr. Wynne, Head of Jesus College." During the same period one of the bishops of St. David's was George Bull, " one of the great lights of the English Church," and Adam Ottley, Bishop of St. David's in 1713, appears to have gone far in a lax age to " revive the character of a primitive prelate." It has been the fashion to describe Wales as a country rescued from heathenism and bar- barism during the eighteenth century by the Nonconformists. Wise words were spoken by Mr. Gladstone on this point : " Most people believe that the Welsh people have .been a very religious people for about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and fifty years, but there are a good many who are in the habit of saying that before that time the Welsh were a very godless people. Therefore, let me say, I 180 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY don't believe a word of it." One statement may be made without any hesitation ; there is at St. Asaph proof positive, such as would satisfy any jury of honest men, that during this century the standard of duty and work among the bishops and clergy of that diocese was as high as that in any other part of the Church of England ; and many of the calumnies levelled at the Church during this century would lose their point if a correct historical perspective were retained, and the unfairness avoided of judging the eighteenth century by the standard of the twentieth. Within the compass of a chapter it is possible only to indicate in broad outline the history of the Church in Wales throughout the eighteenth century ; but in that history certain facts stand out prominently and undeniably. The Church, which during the Reformation had been maimed and impoverished, the Common- wealth ruthlessly denuded and sought to destroy ; and, when the Restoration came, the Church had to resume her work with endow- ments in a large measure permanently alienated to lay impropriators. Owing to this grinding poverty, the Church was too poor to restore or refurnish her churches, to recruit the ranks of her clergy, or even to pay and house in common decency the few devoted men who served her so bravely during these years. At the same time nothing could more powerfully demonstrate the vitality of the Church than the fact that within fifty years of the Restoration 1704-1708. To face p. 180. REVIVALS OF THE CHURCH 181 she began to manifest renewed activity ; and it must not be forgotten that the great revivals of the eighteenth century began within the Church, and remained within it until the opening of the next century. CHAPTER XII THE AGE OF REVIVALS AT the beginning of the eighteenth century the people of Wales were practically all Church- men ; at the close of the century, the great bulk of the people of Wales still remained Church people. This somewhat startling statement rests upon positive evidence. Records which will be quoted later show that in North Wales there were only a few scattered Presbyterians and Independents ; so few, indeed, that in the middle of the century they had only one meeting- house in the whole of North Wales. In South Wales the Presbyterian and Independent con- gregations were slightly larger and more numer- ous ; but even in that " Cradle of Noncon- formity," Erbery, Cradock, and Wroth, who had taken their inspiration and their methods from the Bristol Separatists, never commanded a strong following, and left no successors. In the words of Sir John Rhys, " the bulk of the popu- lation was untouched by their ministrations.'* The eighteenth century was not less momentous in the history of the Church in Wales than in that of the Church in England. There were A GENERAL REVIVAL 183 two dominant characteristics of the century, both perhaps more pronounced in England than in Wales. In the religious world there ap- peared on the one side an impatience of all dogma, and a deliberate purpose to rationalise Christianity and to treat it as untrue but useful ; on the other side, a reaction against this " cold, selfish, and unspiritual " religion appeared in the fervent religious revivals which were such conspicuous features of this period. In passing it is interesting to observe how, in the temperate zone which lay between the tropical fervour of the Revivalists and the arctic cold of the Rationalists, there grew up slowly but surely that finest product of the eighteenth century, the rare and refreshing fruit of Toleration. The two extreme schools of thought were conspicuous in Wales. On the one side were the influence of Hoadly and the slow mutation of the old Presbyterians in Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire into Socinians ; on the other side were the Revivalists Whitefield and Wesley, who, coming from England into Wales, found a ready response to their fervid appeals in the emotions of a poetic and excitable people. Between these extremes in Wales it can be seen from sermons and pamphlets like those of Bishop Newcome, and Archbishop Drummond, then Bishop of St. Asaph, that there was in the Church an influential body who laid more stress upon virtue than upon dogma, and whose ideal was to cultivate a " peaceable and friendly disposition " in the citizens. Men of this 184 THE AGE OF REVIVALS moderate temperament, while secure from the vulgarity of either extreme, gave the im- pression of a contented satisfaction with the prosperity of their own surroundings, and a condescending approval of inferior people who never disturbed the peace. It is recorded of Bishop Fleetwood of St. Asaph that he was a man of uncommon " abilities and unblemished life," and that " his obliging and easy deport- ment, free from the least pride or show of superiority, did not only place him above all indecent treatment, which was a great point gained in those unequal times, but procured him much reverence and affection." This eulogy of the bishop's modest and approachable character suggests that these qualities were far from common in the members of his Order. This tendency to exalt virtue above dogma and works over faith both found a development and excited a reaction in Wales. Among the Presbyterians and Independents, Christianity degenerated into a mere moral system, to which fact it was largely due that these denominations remained impotent in Wales until their nominal descendants of a later generation were brought back by the influence of the revivals into the old paths. Opposed to, and indeed called into existence by, this creedless morality, came the great Christian revivals of the eighteenth century. The true pioneer of the Welsh revivals was Griffith Jones of Llanddowror, whom Lecky justly calls the greatest of the eighteenth GRIFFITH JONES 185 century evangelists in Wales. Griffith Jones was born in 1684, and was ordained priest in 1709. In 1730 he opened the first Circulating School at Llanddowror, of which he was Vicar. Within nine years 71 schools had been es- tablished by him in North and South Wales, and the number instructed in these schools had reached the considerable figure of 3989. When Griffith Jones died in 1761, the number of persons in his Circulating Schools was no less than 10,000 in a single year ; and in the twenty-four years which had elapsed since the foundation of his first school, 150,212 persons had been taught in his schools to read the Welsh Bible. In this splendid work he was supported by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, of which he had become a member in 1713. One important difference separates Griffith Jones from Whitefield and Wesley. He was a Welshman, and taught the people in their own language. His magnificent persist- ence and devotion quickened in the Welsh people a desire for religious knowledge ; indeed, it may be said his was the Baptist cry which made ready the way for the great religious awakening which followed, and that he, who throughout his life remained a devoted priest of the Church, was the true father of the religious revival which aroused the Wales of the eighteenth century. Before we pass to the details of the revivals, it will illuminate our path if we indicate by figures taken from unimpeachable records the 186 THE AGE OF REVIVALS numbers and the strength of the Presbyterians and Independents (as representing what may be called the older and Cromwellian Non- conformists) at various dates during the eighteenth century. A careful analysis has been made of the Visitation Returns of the diocese during that century, and summaries of the Returns for the following years have been selected : 1738, 1753, 1791, and 1799. These years have been chosen because, synchronising as they do with the revivals, they enable us to obtain the most accurate view of the position of the older dis- senting bodies in Wales during the century. The returns for the year 1738 show that in the whole diocese there were only 223 persons who described themselves as Presbyterians or Independents, and only 4 Baptists. From many parishes only one or two dissenters were reported ; for example, in Llanrhaiadr parish there was " but one dissenter, who is an old woman of the Presbyterian persuasion. She is very obstinate in her way." It will be observed that there was not a single Calvinist in the diocese ; and it is a very striking fact that only in 35 parishes out of 115 were there any remnants left of the Cromwellian invasion. From the returns for 1753 we learn that there were in the whole diocese 263 Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, 11 meeting-houses, and 5 resident teachers. The return from Llanycil (Bala) states : " In the town there is one room in a private house licensed. They METHODISM AND THE CHURCH 187 lately assembled there once in three weeks, I cannot tell in what number, for the greatest number came from Llanfawr and other parishes. But of late they do not meet in the said room, having differed with the owner about the rent." In this parish there were only about 6 families that called themselves Presbyterians. Their minister was Evans, a South Welshman who resided in Llanuwchllyn. The next returns are for the year 1791, in the episcopate of Bishop Bagot. There were not yet more than 35 parishes, out of the 125 for which we have Returns, which contained any actual dissenters ; in the whole diocese there were now 25 conventicles and 12 resident teachers or preachers. There is frequent re- ference to the Methodist Societies which were growing up within the Church. It is im- portant to note here that Methodist was originally the name given to a guild of High Church students at Oxford between the years 1729 and 1735, and that during the eighteenth century the Methodist considered himself, and was considered by others, to be as completely a member of the Church of England as the Ritualist is to-day. The records show no progress made by the Presbyterians, Inde- pendents, or Baptists up to this date. The Returns of 1799 show that eight years later the Methodist Societies within the Church had made great progress ; that the members of these Societies regularly attended church at 13 188 THE AGE OF REVIVALS such centres, for instance, as Bala and Llan- brynmair ; that they received the Holy Com- munion in church, and brought their children to be baptized in church. It is once more to be noted that the older Dissenters (the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists) were making no progress; what strength they had was confined to Wrexham, Denbigh, Llanbrynmair, Aberhafesp, Mallwyd, and St. Martin's. The total number of chapels had increased to 39, that of the resident teachers or preachers to 23. These records will be most aptly illustrated by a recital of the progress of the Revival Movement in Wales. The first organised re- vival was that of 1739. The leading figure in that revival was Whitefield, who was born at Gloucester in 1714. In February 1739, he preached for the first time in the open air to the Kingswood colliers, near Bristol, where in the following May he was joined by John Wesley. In the interval he visited Cardiff in March 1739. Later in the same year he paid a second visit to Wales, and from that time onwards he was the presiding genius of the Revival Movement in Wales. In 1741 he wrote a pastoral letter from Bristol laying down principles and rules for the work in Wales, and pointing out the importance of establish- ing monthly meetings. The first Methodist Association was held in January 1743, at Watford, near Caerphilly, when Whitefield was appointed President ; a second Association of WHITEFIELD'S TOUR 180 a more formal character was held at the same place in April 1743, when Whitefield was elected permanent President, or, to use his own exact words, " chosen to be always Moderator," and the organisation was put under his control, or, as he phrased it, " the brethren have put the societies in Wales upon my heart." This office of Moderator was not ornamental or merely formal. The various heads of Societies sent in their reports regularly to Whitefield, and in one of these reports Whitefield is asked to be lenient with the shortcomings of some of the rural Societies, and to forgive them because they were unable to follow out strictly the rules and system which he laid down for them and for his followers in London. The organisation having been firmly established by and under Whitefield, the practical work began by Whitefield himself conducting his principal revivalist tour in March 1743 through a great part of South Wales. Carmarthen, Cardiff, Neath, Abergwili, and Brecon were among the many places visited on this occasion by Whitefield, and greater enthusiasm seems to have been aroused by this tour than by his two subsequent revival tours through Wales in 1749 and 1766. It must be noted that the Welsh revivalists of the seventeenth century borrowed their ideas, their methods, and their system from their English brethren across the border. Again in the eighteenth century, the golden age of Welsh revivals, Whitefield, not only 190 THE AGE OF REVIVALS the chief figure but the first President and ruler of the revivalist movement, was an Englishman. The whole revivalist organisa- tion under Whitefield was shaped upon, and closely bound up with, the revivalist move- ment in England. Whitefield took his Welsh subordinates into England, where he trained them by making them partners in his English work. It w r as Whitefield, too, who established the Association and the monthly meeting still the essential part of the Methodist organ- isation. The origin of the private societies is not so easily traced. Howel Harris, of whom we shall speak later, states in his biography that he imitated these societies from Dr. Woodward's book on religious societies, pub- lished in 1700. It may, however, be that the Methodist Societies were introduced by Wesley in imitation of the Moravians. Moravianism was one of the roots of Methodism, and Wesley's " class meetings," and his plan of establish- ing " little churches " within the established Church, were ideas w r hich he brought back from his Moravian visit. It has been shown that the rulers and rules of Welsh revivals came from England. It is hardly necessary to add that the teaching and theology of these move- ments entered Wales from outside. Having established this fact, which is well known to all students of this period, it is necessary to point out the subordinate but important part taken by Welshmen in these revivals. How r el Harris, born in 1713, has HOWEL HARRIS 191 been described as " the apostle of Wales and the founder of Welsh Methodism." His claims and character therefore require full notice. In his biography he is represented as having spent a term at Oxford, " where he was entered of St. Mary's Hall, and growing weary of the irregularities and immoralities of the University he returned in 1735 to Wales." This is not the case : he was at Oxford only for three days. In 1739 he applied more than once to the Bishop of Llandaff to be ordained. The bishop is said to have refused to ordain him because he had preached as a layman, but not a tittle of evidence has been produced to support this statement. On the other hand, Harris's own diary implicitly supplies the reason which the bishop probably gave for his refusal. There he states that he was thinking of giving up his work as a lay evangelist, and of going back to school in order to prepare himself for ordination in the Church. When in this state of doubt as to whether he had " a commission from above," he had an interview with a " person of distinction," at which the words from Revelation iii. 7 and 8, came to his mind, and he was reassured. From 1735, when he left Oxford, to the year 1738, when he got into communication with Whitefield, he spent his time " in visiting the people of his native parish," where he con- ducted prayer-meetings, and joined a man who went about instructing young people to 13* 192 THE AGE OF REVIVALS sing Psalms, and, whenever the music lesson was over, took the opportunity of delivering a sermon. In January 1738, he received a letter from Whitefield, who henceforth took up, ruled, and regulated the whole work. It is remarkable that as soon as Whitefield's presence and guiding hand were withdrawn, the work in Wales fell into disorder. In the Dictionary of National Biography it is stated that " the misunderstanding which arose as early as 1747 between Howel Harris and Daniel Rowland has never been satisfactorily explained." The biographer can never have studied Howel Harris's own account of himself. It is painful, but absolutely necessary in the interests of truth, to state the real facts. The differences that separated Harris from Rowland and Williams of Pantycelyn were not doctrinal but moral. In 1744, Harris married a woman named Anne Williams in spite of the strenuous opposition of her family. She proved a de- voted if infatuated wife. Within four years of his marriage he began to be alienated from her," and to say that she was " possessed by a devil." The fact is that in his tour through North Wales Harris became acquainted with a married woman of position and wealth, with whom his relations were of such a character that his own followers and fellow-workers were compelled to disown him. He sees a vision that his wife is to die, and that this woman's husband is to die, and the way cleared A LOST LEADER 193 for his marriage with this woman, with whom his relations were, upon his own testimony, of a kind that need not be further indicated. It is a pitiful story, but to those who study Harris's character from first to last, this intrigue appears neither as a sudden aberration nor as the tragic collapse of a saint, but rather as the transgression of a man who, by his own confession, was wayward, undisciplined, and violent in passion, and yet was fitfully inspired by paroxysms of spiritual exaltation and almost prophetic utterance. This mixta persona was indeed a strange character. His treatment of his wife was to the last degree cruel. The use he made of the wealth of the woman with whom he became entangled is another illus- tration of the moral confusions and contra- dictions in his character. After her death he joined the militia, and travelled through many parts of England in command of a company. Ultimately, after years of separation, he sought and obtained reconciliation with those whom his conduct had estranged. The whole story is not without its parallel, and serves to emphasise the dangers that have attended and followed religious revivals. The title of Howel Harris to be mentioned first in connection with the Methodist revival rests entirely upon the fact that the Calvinistic Methodists for some unaccountable reason elected him to occupy the first place in the recitals in their Constitutional Deed dated August 1826. Methodism had, however, nobler 194 THE AGE OF REVIVALS exponents in Wales. William Williams of Pantycelyn, ordained deacon in 1740 by the Bishop of St. David's, came under Whitefield's influence and, leaving his curacy, elected by Whitefield's advice to enter upon an itinerant ministry. In later years he regretted that he had taken this step, and thought that his influence for good would not have been lessened if he had been more observant of recognised rules and authorities. The Church in Wales has indeed reason to be proud of this her son. His character truly deserved the epithet of saintly, and he was one of the noblest fruits of that evangelical revival of which he was the most gifted Welsh exponent. He was the poet of the movement, and his hymns are sung to- day in every Welsh home and place of worship. It is a loss to the hymnology of the world that poems instinct with the spirit of deepest devotion, adorned with lofty imagery, and cast in forms of surpassing beauty, should be expressed in a language familiar to so small a section of the Christian world. He died in 1791, twenty years before the Methodist Secession. Writing a year before his death to Charles of Bala, he said : " Exhort the young preachers to study, next to the Scriptures, the doctrines of our own celebrated Reformers, as set forth in the Articles of the Church of England, and the three Creeds, namely, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene, and the Athan- asian." In this same letter he denounces in the strongest terms the tendency among the DANIEL ROWLAND 195 older dissenters to treat lightly the doctrines of the Trinity and of the Divinity of our Lord ; and his whole soul revolted against the " per- nicious and poisonous " heresies which revived the errors of Pelagius and Arius. His friend and co-worker, Daniel Rowland, four years his senior, was ordained deacon and priest by the Bishop of St. David's, and for many years was curate of Llangeitho and Nantcwnlle. He came under the influence of the Evangelical movement, and apparently when about forty-five years of age entered, like Williams, upon an itinerant ministry. The statement that he was ejected from the Church is unsupported by any evidence. At Llan- geitho Rowland was curate to his brother, and when the latter died in 1760 the living was given to Daniel Rowland's son ; meanwhile Daniel had already, while still curate of Llangeitho, erected there a chapel for his own use. His son, as soon as he had obtained the incumbency, went off to Shrewsbury in 1764, and held the curacy of the Abbey Church there until 1781 ; his father occupied the vicarage of Llangeitho, where he died in 1790. On his death-bed he addressed his son in these words : " I have been persecuted until I got quite tired, and you shall be persecuted still more ; but stand by the Church by all means. You will not, perhaps, be repaid for doing so, yet still stand by it yea, even unto death. There will be a great revival in the Church of England; this is an encouragement to you to stand by it." 196 THE AGE OF REVIVALS Many attempts have been made to describe the Welsh revivalists as starved and per- secuted for their religion ; but the facts are entirely against this theory of martyrdom. Howel Harris, as we have seen, had the command of large sums of money ; Rowland of Llangeitho was able to build there a large edifice for himself. Williams of Pantycelyn had a considerable private income, and was rigidly exact and punctual in securing payment for his publications before they were handed to the printer. The will of Charles of Bala showed that he was able to leave his family considerable property ; and it is a fact that in this disposition of his wealth Charles did not enrich or even mention the Methodist denomination. It was said on trustworthy authority of one of the latest revivalist preachers that " he never put his foot on the step of a pulpit until he had been paid 5." The term itinerant applied to these preachers must not be taken as implying that they were homeless and poverty-stricken wanderers. Most of them received regular contributions from their various flocks ; and all were treated with lavish hospitality and generosity by the more affluent of their sup- porters. It is a matter of common knowledge that none of the leaders of later revivals have been persecuted or allowed to starve. By those who endeavour to form an impartial estimate of the eighteenth century it must be allowed that, while the rationalists lacked the CONVULSIONISTS 197 fervour of piety, the revivalists sometimes showed a want of balance and proportion in both judgment and conduct. There was also that irreducible minimum of human baseness which finds its way into the camp of every great movement. If these considerations are borne well in mind, we shall not exaggerate drawbacks and excesses which no honest re- corder of the Welsh revivals can pass over in silence. A feature of these revivals which, though it has its ludicrous side, should be regarded as a pathological manifestation, has given some grounds for the charge that the effects of the revivals were often but transient. It was in May 1739, after Whitefield had begun, and Wesley had acquiesced in, the experiment of open-air preaching, that certain strange nervous phenomena appeared in the revival meetings. Men and women were seized with convulsions. The preacher was continually interrupted by unutterable groanings and wild exultations. Possibly these strange manifestations may be traced to the example and influence of those French Protestant refugees who about this time poured into Bristol, and who were known as " Convulsionists." This alarming hysteria appeared frequently at that time in Wales, and it has been a characteristic of nearly all subsequent revivals. A detailed account of these nervous pheno- mena is given by an English clergyman, W. Bingley, who may be described as the 198 THE AGE OF REVIVALS worthy successor of Giraldus and Pennant. He made a tour of Wales during the years 1798 and 1801, and in his North Wales he describes what he witnessed at Carnarvon. " Whilst I was at Caernarvon, I was induced more than once to attend the chapel of a singular branch of Calvinistical Methodists, who, from certain enthusiastical extravagances which they exhibit in their meetings, are denominated Jumpers. Their service is in the Welsh language and, as among other Methodists, commences and concludes with a prayer. It is not until the last hymn is sung that any uncommon symptoms are exhibited. The tune consists only of a single strain, and, the hymn having but one verse, this verse is in conse- quence repeated over and over, sometimes for half an hour, and sometimes, if their spirit of enthusiasm is much excited, for upwards of an hour. With this begin their motions. It is sung once or twice over without any apparent effect. The first motion to be observed is that of the upper parts of their body from right to left. They then raise their hands, and often strike one hand violently against the other. Such is the effect produced, even on strangers, that I confess, whenever I have been among them at these times, my intellects became greatly confused : the noise of their groaning and singing, or oftentimes rather bellowing, the clapping of their hands, the beating of their feet against the ground, the excessive heat of the place, and the various motions on all sides REVIVALISTIC EXTRAVAGANCE 199 of me, almost stupefied my senses. The less enthusiastic move off soon after the hymn is begun ; among these, every time I attended them, I observed the preacher to make one ; he always threw a silk handkerchief over his head, and, descending from the pulpit, left his congregation to jump by themselves. At intervals the word ' gogoniant ' (praise or glory) is presently to be heard. The conclusion of this extravagance has been described by one of their own countrymen with more justice than I am able to give to it. ' The phrenzy (he says) so far spreads, that to any observation made to them they seem altogether insensible. Men and women indiscriminately cry and laugh, jump and sing, with the wildest extravagance imaginable. That their dress becomes deranged, or the hair dishevelled, is no longer an object of attention. And their raptures continue till, spent with fatigue of mind and body, the women are frequently carried out in a state of apparent insensibility. In these scenes, indeed, the youthful part of the congregation are prin- cipally concerned, the more elderly generally contenting themselves in admiring, with devout gratitude, what they deem the operations of the spirit.' " This graphic description receives confirma- tion from the biographer of Thomas Charles, who adds that the practice was condemned by many of the older revivalists, though Daniel Rowland of Llangeitho did not discourage it. Indeed, the latter is once said to have retorted 200 THE AGE OF REVIVALS thus to some English critics of the performance : " You English people blame us, the Welsh, and cry against us 4 jumpers ' ; but we, the Welsh, have also a charge against you, the English, and we justly say of you, 4 Sleepers, sleepers.' ' Though men like Rowland, and many of the revivalists of our own generation, accepted such manifestations in good faith to strengthen the influence of the movements with which they were associated, it may reasonably be doubted whether this hysterical self-abandonment is a genuine token of moral regeneration. Danger- ous everywhere, this lack of self-control becomes to a people temperamentally emotional a source of confusion which issues in grave moral aber- rations. The Welsh revivals throughout were attended by moral and mental derangements, too numerous to be ignored or concealed, and thoughtful people doubted the wisdom and the value of movements which, if not the cause, were certainly the occasion, of these sad occur- rences. Yet these unhappy events must not cause us to lose sight of the real merit of the work of the revivalists among such a people as the Welsh. The Celt is a child of nature, and quick to respond to her every mood. He is imaginative, impressionable, keenly sensitive to the joy as well as to the sadness of life. His music passes quickly into the minor key, and there is a melancholy in his nature to which the sense and the spectacle of sin and the picture of its terrors profoundly appeal. Whitefield and his ZEAL WITHOUT DISCIPLINE 201 followers did much in Wales, as in England, to revive personal religion. It may be that this personal and individual side of religion was sometimes insisted upon at the cost of over- looking the duty of social service. The fact, however, remains that these revivalists, in- spired only by the love of Christ, crossed seas and mountains, and traversed the remotest valleys, in order to carry the glad tidings to the poor and the ignorant. The intensity of their zeal made them regardless of rules, discipline, and boundaries, and the fervour of their own conviction sometimes induced an assurance which looked like conceit. The parish priest who was asked by one of these revivalists to give his pulpit in order that his parishioners might for the first time hear the true Gospel of Christ, might naturally feel astonished at the form in which this request was made. But such defects are small when compared with the devoted service which these men, according to their lights, rendered to the religious life of Wales. CHAPTER XIII THE METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS THE fact that the Methodists at the be- ginning of the nineteenth century were still members of the Church needs to be reiterated and confirmed beyond all possible question. Many and convincing are the proofs. The Rules and Design of the Religious Societies among the Welsh Methodists, formulated un- animously at their Association held at Bala in June 1801, contains the following significant passage : " The Church of Christ is a spiritual society, and transcendently surpasses all others that ever were, or ever may be, formed. All others will sooner or later be broken to pieces and consumed, but the Church shall never be destroyed ; She will stand for ever as firm and lasting as the eternal foundation on which She is built. Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! These considerations gave origin to the private societies among the Methodists. They meet together as joint members of the household of faith, conforming themselves with the Apostles' METHODISM AND THE CLERGY 203 injunction to warn the unruly, to comfort the feeble-minded, and to support the weak. We do not designedly dissent or look upon ourselves as dissenters from the Established Church. In doctrine we exactly agree with the Articles of the Church of England, and preach no other doctrines but what are contained or expressed in them. Our meetings are seldom or ever held in Church hours, but in union with the Church we desire the full enjoyment of those privileges, which the laws and constitution of our favoured country amply afford us, of having liberty without restraint to use every Scriptural means to spread the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ among poor, ignorant, and perishing sinners. Making a sect or forming a party is not the object we are aiming at, God forbid." For the first ten years of the nineteenth century a large number of clergymen were members of the Methodist Societies ; but several causes were working silently but powerfully towards a division between the Church and these her offshoots. On the one hand, many of the Established clergy chafed under the intrusion into their parishes of zealous but often indiscreet itinerants. In addition to this disregard of parochial or diocesan authority, the rigid Puritanism of some of the leaders was distaste- ful to the more conventional type of Church- man. On the other hand, the Methodists were naturally aggrieved by the enforcement against them of a law originally directed 14 204 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS against the most fanatical and dangerous of the Cromwellian Nonconformists. The Conventicle Act of 1664 was distorted by the Government of the day in order to compel the Methodist Societies on pain of fine to register their meeting-houses as places of Nonconformist worship. This nurtured the idea and supplied the germ of an outside organisation which might easily, and did actually, develop into a distinct and separate denomination. No doubt, too, there was reality in the repeated complaint of the Methodists that their work and efforts had so increased the number of people who sought the ministry of the Sacraments for themselves or their infants, that the existing staff of clergy was inadequate for the work. Hence arose, about the year 1809, much discussion among the Methodists in their private Societies upon the need and wisdom of ordaining lay evangelists to administer the Sacraments. The matter came formally before a gathering of the Methodists in 1810. Over this meeting the Rev. David Jones, Vicar of Llangan, presided. Mr. Jones, who was a man of mark, and not less distinguished than Thomas Charles of Bala, strenuously opposed even the entertainment of such a proposal. Within a few weeks of this meeting he died, and his death left Mr. Charles head of the movement. Born in Carmarthenshire in 1755, Charles of Bala (to give him the title by which he is best known) was the son of a respectable farmer. At an early age he was sent to the school at CHARLES OF BALA 205 Llanddowror established by Griffith Jones. Proceeding thence to a higher school at Car- marthen, where he remained some time, he entered Jesus College, Oxford, in 1775. He was ordained deacon at Oxford in June 1778, and was admitted to the priesthood on 21st May 1780, under which date there is this entry in his diary : "I was this morning ordained priest, when I most solemnly and with my whole heart devoted myself and all I have to the ser- vice of God." His choice of a vocation was partly due to the influence of Daniel Rowland, by one of whose sermons he was, as a youth of eighteen, profoundly affected. After serving as a curate in England, he returned to Wales in 1783, and was married at Bala in August of that year. His wife owned and managed a very lucrative drapery business at Bala ; Charles therefore wished if possible to secure a curacy in the neighbourhood of that town, and in spite of the distance, and the great inconvenience which frequent journeys across the perilous Bwlch y Groes (the pass of the Cross) involved, he accepted the curacy of Llanymawddwy . In this remote and mountain- locked village he laboured with a reforming zeal that by attempting too suddenly to sweep away old customs and prejudices aroused the hostility of his parishioners. Here was re- produced in miniature the inevitable conflict which, on a wider stage, Puritanism was arous- ing by the demand which its inflexible ideals and gloomy atmosphere made upon human 206 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS nature. The causes which had led to Charles's retirement from Llanymawddwy impeded his chances of obtaining another appointment in the immediate neighbourhood of Bala ; he found, however, a congenial sphere of work in that itinerancy which seems to run in the blood of Welsh revivalists, and laboured energetically in forwarding the work of the Methodist Societies with which he thenceforward identified himself. It was during Charles's leadership of the movement that the grievances of the Methodists came to a head. After conferences and dis- cussions it was decided by the Methodist Societies to cross the Rubicon. The ordination of eight lay preachers took place at Bala in June 1811, and eleven more were ordained at Llandilo in August of the same year. The first and natural result of this action was that several of the clergy at once retired from membership in the Methodist Association. Charles realised that this tremendous step meant breaking away from the Church to which he had always been loyal. There is at St. Asaph a record in the handwriting of Bishop Vowler Short stating that Charles " was much grieved at the step taken, and strenuously opposed the measure for some time." Many attempts, more ingenious than ingenuous, have been made to conceal the undoubted fact that Charles, the leader of the Welsh Methodist Societies, threw the whole weight of his ex- perience and influence against the proposal which eventually separated the Methodist METHODISTS AND THE CHURCH 207 Societies from the Church. He was a sincere and a devout man, but his character, cast in .a smooth and easy mould, was not strong enough to resist and overcome the Separatist move- ment among his followers. Rougher and more reckless men like Thomas Jones of Caerwys pushed him vainly protesting over the precipice. Charles came away from the Association which decided upon the fatal step wringing his hands, and exclaiming, " They have conquered me, they have conquered me." Shortly before his death he declared : " The Methodists trouble me. If God spares my life, I will go to England again, and take a curacy in the Established Church." It is a pathetic fact that the two great leaders of Welsh Methodism at this time, Jones of Llangan and Charles of Bala, were so overwhelmed with grief at the idea of secession from the Church, that their last days were clouded and their end probably hastened by the mere suggestion of this idea in the one case, and its realisation in the other. The Separatist party triumphed ; to this triumph many causes contributed. It was a period of fear, distress, and unrest. The blunders that lost England her American colonies, and the wild theories that culminated in the French Revolution, had filled the minds of men with impatience of all authority and with contempt for the inheritance of the past. The French wars had drained almost to the last drop the resources of the country, and every 14* 208 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS class felt the pinch of the resulting distress. The pitiful condition of the poor is testified to by the Parliamentary Committees 1 appointed in 1800 and 1802 to report on the scarcity of food ; and the recommendations made by them to substitute rice or potatoes 2 for bread with the view of alleviating the poverty, indicate how grievous the condition of the country was. The Committee solemnly re- commended that "the consumption of flour should be discouraged," and that "the people should as far as possible abstain from its use." Such a state of affairs naturally tended to accentuate and embitter class differences. The rich lived in dread of out- breaks that might result from the misery of the poor, while the sufferings of the poor were intensified by contrast, and the harshness or tyranny which their alarmed masters displayed towards them, widened the gulf of separation. In the religious world these antipathies took shape in an almost passionate desire for change, in the breaking away from old modes of thought and forms of worship, and in a marked loss of respect and deference towards those whom the people had hitherto regarded as their spiritual leaders and guides. The Secession of the Methodists was followed by the growth and spread of the older dissenting bodies, represented by the Independents and 1 See Annual Register, 1800, pp. 98, 99. 2 Churchwardens' accounts of that period in St. Asaph diocese contain gifts of " potatoe plants " to the poor. THE LIBERATION SOCIETY 209 the Baptists. It is one of the curiosities of the nineteenth century that the older Noncon- formists in Wales were a negligible quantity in the year 1801, and that after the Methodist Secession in 1811 they began to flourish and abound. Among the Methodists the old feel- ing of attachment to the Church lingered on for twenty or thirty years after the final and fatal step of separation in 1811. In their Constitutional Deed dated August 1826, the character of their denomination was thus defined : " That the object of the said Con- nexion hath been and shall be to promulgate the Gospel of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as set forth in the Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England." In the same Deed they put on formal record once more the fact that they had agreed to ordain lay-preachers to administer the Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper because, owing to the increase of their numbers, there was a great deficiency of clergy to meet the requirements of their adherents. As a sequence if not consequence of the pass- ing of the Reform Act of 1832, the agitation for Disestablishment began to quicken, and twelve years later culminated in the formation of the Liberation Society. Yet during this very time, in the year 1834, the following recommendation was passed at an Annual Association of the Methodists held at Bala : " That we deeply lament the nature of that agitation now so prevalent in this kingdom, and which avowedly 210 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS has for its object the severing of the National Church from the State, and other changes in ecclesiastical affairs. We therefore are of opinion that it pertains not unto us to interfere in such matters; and we strenuously enjoin upon every member of our Connexion to meddle not with them that are given to change, but on the contrary to pray for the King and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." This resolution expressed the spirit which prevailed then among the leading Methodists. Undoubtedly the most impressive and remark- able preacher in the early Methodist move- ment was John Elias, a native of Carnarvon- shire. His sermons, by simplicity of diction, by apt illustration, and by their lively sym- pathy, reached the hearts of the people in a way that no other preacher had been able to command. His feeling towards the Church may be judged by the following quotation from his diary : " Never was there an accusation so groundless (i.e. that the Methodists were hostile to the Established Church), for no true Methodist can be opposed to the Established Church or to tribute and tithes to support it. Its ministers were the most celebrated instru- ments in the commencement and advancement of Methodism in Wales ; and from the hands of those ministers the Methodists received the Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper for upwards of sixty years." How came it to pass that such men as these RESULTS OF REFORM 211 drifted away from the Mother Church, and eventually set up standards of disaffection ? This is the supreme question that any history of Welsh Nonconformity must face and attempt to answer. Let the problem be stated in a clear and concrete form. In the year 1801 the population of Wales and Monmouthshire was 587,245. In that year all the Noncon- formists (taken together) numbered upon the most liberal computation only 25,000, that is to say, less than 5 per cent, of the population. In 1911 they amounted to nearly 42 per cent, of the population. W T hy is it that the Non- conformists, who numbered only one in twenty of the population of Wales a hundred years ago, are now nearly one in two ? Let an attempt be made to travel back in imagination to the standpoint occupied by the ordinary Welshman in the ten years following 1832. The influence of the Reform Act passed in that year was slowly making itself felt, and the Welsh tradesman or farmer began to realise that he counted for something in the political world. Although at first he exercised his newly acquired political power with timidity and caution, he soon understood and appreciated the fact that this power was real, although for the present circumscribed in action. It is difficult to-day to gauge accurately the part which these political changes filled in moulding the future of Wales ; for at the time of which we are speaking the Methodist movement travelled on lines that 212 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS were more religious than political. There are few, if any, traces of political allusions or politi- cal bias in the sermons of the early Methodist leaders. Their position was that of obedience, if not of subservience, to constituted autho- rities in Church and State. But the inde- pendence and freedom which the Welshman began to feel in his political, soon extended to his religious relations. Moreover, there were abuses in the Church which tended to increase the force of the attraction exerted by the Methodist Societies upon the more spiritually minded. The good work begun within the Church in the eighteenth century had been grievously hampered and thrown back by the pernicious practice of non-residence which had crept into the whole Church of England. The existence and toleration of such a system may be attributed to the materialism and worldliness which permeated the whole country from the throne downwards in the sixty years preceding the Methodist Secession. The result in Wales was seen in the poverty, ignorance, and frequent incapacity of the clergy whom these non-residents paid to do their work for them. The description given of the dilapidated condition of the churches in Breconshire in the history of that county by Theophilus Jones, printed in 1805, is truly lamentable ; and it is to be feared that this description was of wide application in Wales. A graphic, authentic, and significant record is the following passage from the Life of Bishop INCREASE OF POPULATION 213 Burgess (of St. David's, 1803-1825), the founder of Lam peter College, and the pioneer of the revival which the nineteenth century has seen in the Church in Wales. " The condition of the diocese, as respected the education of the clergy, and the due enforcement of dis- cipline, was lamentable. The ancient collegiate seminaries had long been stripped of their revenues, and fallen into utter decay. There were no suitable establishments for clerical training, while the general poverty of the benefices was such as wholly to preclude the great majority of candidates for orders from the possibility of aspiring to a University education. As a necessary consequence, there was scarcely one among those who presented themselves at the bishop's first ordination (1804), who had enjoyed this privilege. He afterwards ascertained that a youth who proved peculiarly ignorant and incompetent had occupied, only a short time before, the situation of a livery servant. The general custom was for young men to continue at the plough till the year before they attained the age of twenty-three, when, after spending a single twelvemonth at the Seminary of Ystrad Meurig, they were deemed competent for ordination." In addition to all these dis- abilities, the Church received in the Secession of the Methodists a blow from which it staggered for half a century. This combination of politi- cal and religious circumstances in a measure explains the rapid progress made by Noncon- formity after the year 1811. 214 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS But the most important factor of all in this connection remains to be stated. The popu- lation of Wales and Monmouthshire in 1801 was 587,245 ; in 1911 it was 2,445,340. Cer- tain details of this increase of population must be carefully remembered. In one county (Radnorshire) there has been a decrease of population. In six counties the population has increased but not doubled during the century ; in Denbighshire and Merionethshire the population has more than doubled ; in Carmarthenshire and Carnarvonshire it has trebled. But in Monmouthshire the popu- lation to-day is nine times what it was in 1801 ; while in Glamorganshire it is no less than sixteen times as great. The parishes in Glamorganshire where the greater part of this enormous increase has taken place were among the poorest and in every way the worst- equipped parishes in South Wales. It is true that the Church met the demands for in- creased accommodation more slowly than the Nonconformist bodies did ; but in this matter the importance of finance must not be for- gotten. Churches cannot be consecrated until they have been paid for ; and the writer can speak with some knowledge of the difficulties which clergymen had in raising funds for new churches in the great mining centres of South Wales. Truth requires it to be said that the men who drew their millions from the Glamor- ganshire valleys in the middle of the last century showed little anxiety to provide for the moral CAPEL Y SPLIT 215 and spiritual welfare of the vast populations who created their wealth ; and it must in can- dour be said that many of the great iron- masters and coal owners of that county who were nominally Churchmen, did little to help forward the work of the Church either by generosity or by the example of their lives. The path of the Nonconformist minister was not beset by these difficulties. A small congregation was quickly gathered together ; the two or three leading tradesmen and the minister interviewed a builder, and a structure was quickly erected by the help of a loan, the repayment of which was spread over a number of years, and gradually completed by the working people attracted to its services. In these populous centres the minister was often better paid than the clergyman ; and it is true, but sad, that the multiplication of chapels (a number of which were called Capel y Split, that is, the Chapel of the Schism) though ostensibly caused by some division of opinion among the members, was more often due in reality to the greed of a group of speculators, who saw the possibility of securing six or seven per cent, on their money by financing the building of new chapels. We pause now to consider what proved to be a great turning-point in the moral, educational, and religious history of Wales. In 1846, in pursuance of a motion moved by Mr. Williams in the House of Commons, Commissioners were * appointed to inquire into the state of education i 216 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS in Wales. Wales was mapped out between three Commissioners, and their Reports, together with the evidence which they had procured from all parts of Wales, were presented to Parliament in 1847. In the schools, indifferent as they were, it was found that 40 per cent, of the scholars were being educated in private ad- venture schools, 50 per cent, in Church of England schools, and the rest in Nonconformist schools ; but the sum total of scholars was so small that it shows the deplorably backward condition of education in Wales. Still more deplorable was the moral degradation disclosed by the inquiry. The evidence revealed the fact that Wales, so far from having been regenerated by the religious revivals of the preceding fifty years, had sunk into gross and widespread immorality. The facts collected in the volume dealing with North Wales show that there prevailed among the people an astonishing depth of ignorance, and an almost total absence of purity and even of elementary decency. The flagrant immorality of the people of Llanidloes in respect of drunkenness, illegitimacy, and profanity, was testified to by ministers of three denominations. Speaking of Carnarvon, the Rev. William Williams, an Independent minister, gave the following evidence : " If you go beyond the different religious circles you will find scarcely a single young man who does not devote himself to smoking and drinking, and things that are worse. IMMORALITY 217 They are beastly in their habits in this town." (Carnarvon.) The Report for the three counties of Breck- nock, Cardigan, and Radnor was equally condemnatory. The Rev. David Charles, Principal of the Methodist College at Trevecca, said : " The morals of this part of the country are certainly very defective." Another Non- conformist minister gave his evidence as follows : "I am afraid that social and domestic moralities are very low among us. The number of illegitimate children, when compared with England, is astounding." One witness called attention to the fact that, according to the Parliamentary Returns, the proportion of illegitimate children in Radnorshire exceeded that of any other county. Mr. Brigstocke, a magistrate, made the following statement : 11 Truth and the sacredness of an oath are little thought of. It is most difficult to get satis- factory evidence in a Court of Justice." In the general summary it is stated that the morals of the people are of a very low standard, and that the whole people are kept back by their immoralities and low tone. The Report for the counties of Carmarthen, Glamorgan, and Pembroke gives terrible proofs of the immorality prevailing in the manufacturing districts. One witness only need be quoted : " Nothing can be lower, I would say more degrading, than the character in which the women stand relative to the men." It is impossible to study these volumes 218 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS without feeling that the Commissioners are telling the plain and undeniable truth. The Commissioners were perfectly honest and straightforward. They published the name and condition of each witness, and summarised the evidence impartially. The witnesses came from all classes and from all denominations ; and the evidence was so frank and detailed that there can be little doubt as to its accuracy and veracity. The details in many cases are too revolting for any pages but those of a Blue- book. For this immorality, so gross and so general, the excuse has been urged that the Welsh people lived under conditions which rendered sexual purity difficult ; but in Ire- land, where the conditions have probably been worse than they ever were in Wales, the influence of religion has maintained among the peasantry a high standard of purity and chastity. This comparison seems to imply that the religious influences then predominant in Wales had little power to affect conduct, and that religion among the Welsh was more of a passion than a rule of life, resulting rather in emotional excitement than in moral restraint. The evidence of John Elias, the great Methodist revivalist who lived and worked in Anglesey, synchronises with and confirms the Report of the Commissioners for Anglesey. Writing in 1841, shortly before his death, he said : " One of the most unpleasant things to me is seeing a declension in the Cause of God amongst us. We deserve 219 what we deplore on the account of our great iniquities. O that the Lord would be so merciful as to favour Anglesey with one great and powerful religious revival before I sleep in death." It may be mentioned here that, of all the counties reported upon by the Commission of 1846, Anglesey shows the worst and blackest record. These words of the great revivalist must be read side by side with the following words in the Commissioners' Report : " The means employed have been inadequate to meet the evils to be remedied. The main instruments of civilisation have been exclusively religious, and the forms of religion which alone have succeeded in reaching the great mass of the inhabitants have been the spontaneous produc- tion of the poorer classes. The chief promoters of religion and civilisation, being themselves drawn from the poorer classes, are naturally unconscious of social defects to which they are habituated ; and, if their standard of civi- lisation were higher, would be too poor them- selves to assist their poorer neighbours." The Report of the Commission of 1846 fell like a thunderbolt upon Wales. Naturally, the pride of Welshmen was stung by these revelations. There was an outburst of un- dignified and ill-directed anger. The reports were called " Brad y Llyfrau Gleision " (the treachery of the Blue-books). Mr. Henry Richard, the acknowledged leader of the Welsh 15 5MO METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS Nonconformists, denounced the Reports in the strongest possible language, and upon his own " responsibility and testimony " pronounced them to be false. But the denial was only in general terms. The evidence was specific ; and it was open to Mr. Richard and his friends to have taken any of the details in the Reports and to have shown that they were untrue. They abstained from using this conclusive method, which tends to show that their utter- ances proceeded from anger rather than from conviction. This, however, was only a tran- sitory and passionate episode. The best and wisest men in the country realised at once the gravity and the significance of the Reports ; they saw that the religious revivals, while for a time they stirred profoundly the emotions of the people, were accompanied by a lack of self-control which tended to lower the moral temperature below the normal, and afforded a painful illustration of the scientific fact that these ecstatic conditions often arouse and minister to sensuality. The experience of the latest revivals in Wales confirms the truth of this reflection ; and it seems very unlikely that the present generation of Welshmen will see any attempt to organise another revival. The most permanent and important conse- quence of the publication of these Reports was that immediate reawakening and reform of the Church in Wales with which the name of Bishop Short will ever be gratefully associated. The last half of the nineteenth century saw the BISHOP VOWLER SHORT 221 work of the Church in Wales guided and directed by some of the greatest men that ever appeared in her history. Bishop Vowler Short, a truly apostolic man, began his work at St. Asaph in 1846. He was an Oxford double first, and was Mr. Gladstone's tutor at Christ Church. He devoted the whole of his episcopal revenue, and a great part of his considerable private income, to building schools and building and restoring churches and parsonage-houses. His industry was as boundless as his generosity. He visited every nook and cranny of his dio- cese, and when he resigned in 1870 there was not a parish with a non-resident incumbent, or without its school and church in perfect order. He was a man who, heedless of praise or dispraise, was content silently and unob- served to lay the foundations of his work deep and strong, and to hand over his diocese prob- ably better equipped than any diocese in England at the time. He laboured, and others have entered into his labours. In South Wales, Bishop Thirlwall, probably the most widely-known name in the Welsh Episcopate, was carrying on and developing the work begun by Bishop Burgess. His task was larger and more difficult than that of Bishop Short, but he did much by his generosity and his wisdom to build up the waste places ; and his successor, Bishop Basil Jones, a Welsh- speaking Welshman, and one of the few great scholars that Wales has ever produced, took up the work of Bishop Thirlwall in 1874, and 222 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS for twenty-three years ruled the diocese with a courtesy that never failed, and with a wisdom and a generosity that promoted the work of the diocese and lightened the task of his successors. Nor must the labours of Bishop Ollivant at Llandaff be forgotten ; for his difficulties were in many ways not only greater, but more perplexing, than those of any other Welsh diocesan. Unfriendly critics may point to the vast amount of work still left to be done in the diocese of Llandaff ; but when the condition of that diocese at the beginning of Bishop Ollivant's thirty-four years' episcopate is com- pared with its state at the end of that period, justice must accord to his work a high meed of praise. In a later chapter it will be shown that this revival of Church life and work has been maintained in every Welsh diocese. In another direction, too, the prospect is illuminated by brightening hopes. The open- ing years of a new century show tokens of a kindlier feeling between Churchmen and Non- conformists, and a greater readiness to recog- nise the errors of the past and the possibilities of the future. We have shown how painful were the steps by which secession was at last reached. With wistful eyes and lingering feet the W T elsh Methodists left the home of the Old Mother (Yr Hen Fam). There stood the ancient parish church ; at her font they had been baptized, and at her altar they had " drained the chalice of the grapes of God." Even yet they sought her blessing on their A LEGAL TITLE DISCARDED 223 marriages. Beneath the shadow of her im- memorial yews their forefathers slept, and, when death approached, their dying wish was to be buried in the hallowed ground of their own churchyard. All that was most sacred in their lives was bound up with the Church. The faith she taught was the only faith they knew. Through all the changes and chances of a strenuous and vivid century, the influence of this devotion to the Church can be traced in both the faith and the practice of the Methodists. Their Confession of Faith is framed upon the lines of the Church Catechism. Their hymns and commentaries they have largely borrowed from the Church. The architecture of their chapels and the dress of their ministers show no reluctance to imitate Church models. Their old and only legal title of "The Welch Calvinistic Methodist Connexion " has given way to that of " The Presbyterian Church of Wales " ; and what were at first a number of separate and loosely- associated Methodist congregations, have be- come closely bound together. Of this central- isation a concrete proof is afforded by the fact that the custody of the title-deeds of their chapels is entrusted to the central body pre- sided over by their Moderator. All these symptoms indicate a gradual reversion to what may be called church or catholic types. Ill-omened as the political signs may at times appear, the calm eye of impartial judgment 15* 224 METHODIST SECESSION AND ITS RESULTS discerns an underlying current strongly if slowly setting in towards unity, if not uni- formity. It is the earnest hope and prayer of every true Christian, that in God's good Pro- vidence those who to-day are fellow-labourers in the Lord's vineyard, may soon become fellow T -members of one Church, united in one holy bond of Faith and Charity. CHAPTER XIV WELSH NATIONALITY CLAIMS based upon nationality involve a diffi- cult and elusive problem. What are the tests which enable us with propriety to predicate nationality of any particular people ? Con- sanguinity, country, customs, political homo- geneity have each in turn been regarded as determining factors, either singly or in com- bination. The claim of consanguinity (i.e. race or blood) to be regarded as an efficient test, may be dealt with in a few words. We commonly speak of the Jewish nation, and of the American nation. If any people may claim purity of race, the Jewish nation can do so, and they have main- tained this purity free of blemish by a strict practice of endogamy. On the other hand, the American nation is composed of the most heterogeneous elements. Yet we predicate nationality of both the Jews and the Americans. It is obvious from this instance that con- sanguinity alone does not constitute a test of nationality ; indeed, the case of America makes it clear that it is not always a necessary factor. 225 226 WELSH NATIONALITY On the other hand, nationality can hardly be said to exist where there is not a recognisable nucleus of population derived from a com- mon ancestral stock. Though there are com- paratively few individuals to say nothing of peoples that are demonstrably of pure and unmixed descent, yet a sentimental belief in community of race acts as powerfully as the reality of common descent in consolidating into one nation individuals whom ethnological - in- vestigations prove, to be of various stocks. Territory constitutes a more certain test. It is clear that joint occupation of a definite area, either now or for some definite period in the past, must form one of the indispensable ele- ments in nationality. Geographical propin- quity is essential if the habits of a people are to crystallise into national characteristics ; nor is this the only contribution of a common en- vironment towards the formation of a definite nationality. The measure of the influence of < environment is not easily taken. Who can tell how far the soil upon which we live and from which we draw our food affects the blood ' which pulses through our veins ? Shakespeare is thinking of this when he makes Henry v. say : " And you, good yeomen, Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture." Who can estimate the precise effect of climate upon character, the dry bracing air of moun- tains, the humid enervating atmosphere of TERRITORY AND NATIONALITY 227 marsh and lowland ; or who shall tell how the beauty of mountain and valley, or the monotony of plain and desert, have helped to people the minds of men with images that reflect the visions of their outward eyes ? A common environment tends to make those who share it approximate to a common type in respect of emotions, predilections, and modes of thought. A modern epigrammatist has somewhere ex- pressed this truth by saying that if you planted a colony of the most stolid Anglo-Saxons on the West coast of Ireland, their descendants a hundred years hence would be typical Irishmen. This explains why it is possible to apply the term nation to the differentiated groups of hybrids that constitute the English people, or to the still more diversified fragments of peoples that inhabit Italy. Here, too, may be found the solution of the puzzle propounded in the preceding remarks on consanguinity. The Americans occupy a definite territory ; that the Jews have done so in the past is an estab- lished fact of history. It may be concluded, then, that the occupation of a common territory is an essential test of nationality ; and that, generally speaking, if a man regards a par- ticular land as his own home-land, he may claim to belong to the nation occupying that land, even though his language be the language of the minority of its inhabitants, or though his blood be diluted beyond recognition. Among customs and usages which merit the epithet of national, language holds the foremost 228 WELSH NATIONALITY place. So distinctive is the speech which men have fashioned for themselves, that where a language is the only language used within a definite area, it gives to those who speak it an individuality and a separateness which is one of the factors of nationality. On the other hand, language is so concrete and definite, that there is a great temptation to exaggerate its importance in weighing the claims of any people to nationality. Language supplies confir- matory but not conclusive or indispensable evidence of nationality. The disappearance of the Cornish language removed one of the most obvious claims the Cornish people might have advanced to be considered a distinct nation, without affecting their claim to be considered a distinct race : on the other hand, the retention of their ancient language by the Bretons has neither inspired the desire nor secured the right to be treated as a separate nation. In Ireland to-day, where the claim of nationality is being most vigorously pressed, language scarcely appears as a clause in the statement of the Irish claim ; and the same is true of Scotland, although there a large number of people still " have the Gaelic." The Irishmen in Ireland who cannot speak Erse and the Scotchmen in Scotland who "have not the Gaelic " would indignantly resent any attempt to exclude them on that account from being regarded as genuine Irishmen or Scotch- men. Similarly, in Wales half the population cannot speak a word of Welsh, and only a LANGUAGE 229 negligible percentage return themselves as monoglot Welsh ; and it would be ridiculous under such conditions to make language the test of nationality, or to refuse the title of Welshmen to half the inhabitants of Wales. The last test, that of political homogeneity, claims attention. If by political homogene- ity is understood a distinct and separate political organisation, it is clear from the case of the Irish, the Poles, and the Hungarians, that this is not an indispensable factor of nationality ; but if the term be extended to comprise the potentiality of a distinct and sep- arate political organisation, it would seem that political homogeneity in this sense is at least a determining factor. Such political homo- geneity clearly cannot be realised unless there is an area denned by natural or historical boundaries which would enable nationality to be expressed in a definite and concrete way. If we estimate the respective value of the four tests one or more of which a claim to nationality must satisfy, it is evident that for practical purposes the one which comes first is the occupation of a clearly-defined country through centuries. Closely connected with this is the possibility of an autonomy not necessarily desired or desirable. Community of language and real or fancied consanguinity, though not indispensable tests, strengthen a claim to nationality based upon the primary qualifi- cation of a common territory. If our analysis is correct, it will be useful to 230 WELSH NATIONALITY apply these tests to the Welsh people. The claim of Wales to be regarded as a distinct race seems by comparison to be strong. It is true that it has been difficult to maintain the race pure and unmixed in a small country which on one side is all sea-board, and on the other side presents indeed a barrier, but a barrier pierced by many easy approaches. So it has come to pass that a continual stream of immigrants both by sea and by land has intermingled with the native races. Of this intermixture craniologists can now find the clearest traces, and have classified the results with interesting precision. To take only a few types, some of us are found to have Norse skulls, some Mediterranean, and some Pictish ; and the shores of Cardigan Bay seem to have been the landing-place of many nationalities, which have supplied caskets of various shapes for the brains of that district. But among race-stocks the Celtic is one of the < most persistent and stubborn ; and in the fastnesses of the Welsh mountains it was long preserved intact and uncontaminated. This stock forms the nucleus of the population, and is mainly responsible for that Celtic tempera- ment which shows itself in the fervour, the song, and the poetry of the Welsh people. So far, then, as to the race claim, not un- qualified, but more demonstrably substantial than that of our English or Scotch neighbours. On the second test little need be said. A people who after a tenure of at least three thousand years still sing "Hen wlad fy Nhadau" THE CELTIC TEMPERAMENT 231 as their National Anthem, can establish every claim to nationality that the occupation of a country bestows. It may be said without any distortion of language, not only that Wales is the " Land of our Fathers," but that the mountains and valleys of this delectable country this Hiraethog or desirable land are still ours by the best title to possession, that of familiarity and affection. With regard to the test of political homo- geneity, it must be recognised that there has been no time in history when Wales was so \ politically united in itself as to be able to claim that it was a separate, organised, and united nation. The history of Wales before 1282 is not that of a people united and fighting under one king, but that of a number of clans engaged under petty princelings in tribal quarrels and in border feuds that never rose to the dignity of national wars. These petty chieftains not only warred against each other, but fought sometimes on the side of their own country- men and sometimes on that of the Saxon. If then it is true that there was no time in the distant past when Wales could be regarded as a distinct, united, and organised nation, it is ' obvious that the Union of England with Wales, and the amalgamation cemented by six centuries of intercourse between the two countries, renders the claim of Wales to political in- dependence somewhat belated if not retro- gressive. These reflections are not made with any intention of disparaging those chieftains 232 WELSH NATIONALITY of Welsh blood who governed Wales in the past and who more than once played a leading part in the great events of British history ; but proud as he may be of their achievements, the truly patriotic Welshman must feel his national pride more amply satisfied by the thought that, long after the Statute of Rhuddlan, Wales gave to England the sturdiest and most self-willed dynasty that ever sat upon the English throne. Queen Elizabeth was very Welsh in character. She was distrustful of those around her, economic of truth, thrifty even to stinginess, obstinate if not at times intractable ; and all these charac- teristics (not unfamiliar in Wales to-day) may be read in a face typically Welsh. Lastly, the high place held to-day by Welsh statesmen in the counsels of the nation, renders ridiculous all lamentations over the loss of Welsh in- dependence. The mention of Queen Elizabeth naturally carries us on to our last test, that of custom mainly represented by language. She desired her countrymen to have the Bible in their own language, and it is partly to her initiative that they owe this priceless treasure. It is super- fluous to point out that the test of language (whatever it may be worth) is adequately satisfied in Wales. The statement of claim made above cannot, it is hoped, be regarded as exaggerated, and is so formulated as not to admit of denial in reference to its main contention. It may be taken as proved that the people of Wales satisfy QUEEN ELIZABETH 233 not only one but the three main tests, and have in fact, as in temperament and sentiment, the essential marks of nationality. There remains the further problem of the precise rights to which the establishment of a claim to nationality thus limited entitles Wales. The discussion of this problem will be post- poned to a later chapter ; meanwhile it is necessary to examine the relation of the Church in Wales to Welsh nationality under the three aspects of race, country, and custom. At the great turning-points in the history of the British, when their dispersion or extinction seemed within the sphere of practical politics, it was the guidance and the influence of the Church which kept the fragments together, : and laid the foundation for national unifi- cation. Wales bears deeper and clearer marks of ecclesiastical influence than any other part of these islands. Her principalities were coterminous with the Welsh dioceses, and all the oldest towns and villages in Wales bear ecclesiastical names ; in truth, the further research goes back in examining the organisation of Wales, the more ecclesiastical does it appear. The chief figures in the early history of Wales were ecclesiastics. Whatever is left of ancient Welsh literature has been preserved and handed down by Churchmen ; and the earliest specimens of that literature are saturated with, if not monopolised by, religious or ecclesiastical topics. The first centres of culture and enlightenment in Wales were the 234 WELSH NATIONALITY religious houses of the early British Church, through the agency of which Wales and the Welsh Church were kept in close contact with the scholars and theologians of Europe. The private devotions of the Welsh people retained far on into the last century unmistakable sur- vivals of their ecclesiastical origin, and to-day supply abundant proofs that the foundations of belief in Wales were laid by the Church. The folk-lore of Wales, perhaps more than that of any other country, is redolent of the teaching and influence of the Church ; and the many quaint and mystic customs peculiar to Wales x which scholars have disinterred are found to have some ritual or religious significance. The supreme debt which Welsh nationality owes to the Church in Wales is that of the elevation of its language from a dying patois into a classical and literary speech. There is ample evidence to prove that between 1550 and 1650 the Welsh language was not only neglected but actively discouraged, and that, too, by the Welsh themselves. Morus Kyffin says that the translation of the Bible was violently opposed, and this statement is con- firmed by the persecution of William Morgan * by his parishioners. Rowland Vaughan, who translated Bayly's Practice of Piety into Welsh, declares in 1635 that there are many Welsh- men " who are of opinion that it is best to i destroy our tongue in order that English may * be spoken throughout the island." This is confirmed by the testimony given fifteen years Elliot &> Fry. WILLIAM BASIL JONES, D.D. Lord Bisliop of St. David's, 1874-1896. To/acep. 234. THE WELSH SPEECH 235 later by John Edwards, the translator into Welsh of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, who says : "Of all the nations of the world, so far as I know, there are not any who entertain so much enmity to their own tongue as do the Welsh." Salesbury's Dictionary, to which reference has been made in a previous chapter, indirectly supports this evidence of the neglect of the Welsh tongue. Of the five thousand odd words which his dictionary contains, more than one-fifth bear obvious marks of having been borrowed from English, at a period then recent. One class of words is almost totally unrepre- sented there, namely, the technical terms of theology. Vicar Prichard's poems show that Welsh was saturated not only with English words, but also with English idioms. The evidence may be concluded by a quotation from John Penry's Supplication to the Queen and Parliament in 1587: "There is never a; market town in Wales where English is not as ' rife as Welsh. From Chepstow to Chester, the whole compass of the land by the sea-side, they all understand English. Where Mon- mouth and Radnor border upon the Marches, they all speak English. In Pembrokeshire there is no great store of Welsh." How was the ancient language of the Cymry restored to its pristine purity ? How was it that the adopted foreign tongue was ousted and the mother-tongue welcomed back by her disloyal children ? The work of Salesbury, 16 236 WELSH NATIONALITY Richard Davies, and Morgan has been de- scribed fully in another place. They were the pioneers ; but their labours did not at once take effect. It is to be noted, however, that the , institution of Welsh services in most of the 1 parishes during Elizabeth's reign, which was largely due to the translations carried out by these writers between 1551 and 1588, contri- buted much to the revival of the vernacular. This is confirmed by Mr. Gladstone, who said that the introduction of their mother-tongue into the services of the Church had con- ferred one very great and signal blessing upon Welshmen in reviving their ancient language at a moment when it was " weak, drooping, and losing ground." But Morgan's Bible and Bishop Parry's edition of 1620 were cumbrous, expensive, and chained to Church lecterns. They could not be studied by the cottage fireside. The first popular edition of the Bible was the Bibl Bach, published in 1630 and purchasable for a crown. This work was issued at the cost of Sir Thomas Middleton and Rowland Heylin, two London Welshmen, and was edited by Robert Llwyd, the Vicar of Chirk. Two years later appeared a Welsh Dictionary, containing nearly ten thousand words either purely Welsh or nationalised by the use of centuries. This was the work of Dr. John Davies, rector of Mallwyd, and col- laborator with Parry in the Bible of 1620. Henceforward the Bibl Bach and Dr. Davies' Dictionary became popular aids to linguistic THE BIBL BACH 237 purity ; and the publication of a book which few were too poor to buy, occurring just before intercourse between England and Wales became restricted, was a powerful factor in restoring the prevalence of the ancient British tongue. But the point is this : both the pioneers and the men who turned those early labours into practical channels were Welshmen and Church- men, and, in almost all cases, ministers of the Church in Wales. It cannot, then, reasonably be denied that the Welsh of to-day owe the purity and the very survival of their vernacular tongue to the Church which some ignorant people stigmatise as alien. Yet another national institution has been rescued from oblivion by the Church. During the sixteenth century the gentry of Wales began to discontinue the practice of employing bards and minstrels ; and, as a natural con- sequence, no Eisteddfod was held in North \Vales between 1568 and 1820, or in South Wales between 1681 and 1819. It was the Cambrian Society in Dyved, established at Carmarthen in 1818, and founded under the immediate auspices of Bishop Burgess, that was chiefly instrumental in reviving the Eisteddfod ; and the leading figure in these revived Eisteddfodau was the Rev. Walter Davies (known as Gwallter Mechain), rector of Manafon, whose works were published and edited by Canon Silvan Evans, himself the author of the latest and best dictionary of the Welsh language. CHAPTER XV CONTRASTS IN this chapter an attempt will be made to estimate without acrimony or bias the religious provision made for the people of Wales by the Church and by the various Nonconformist bodies respectively. Such a comparison necessitates in the first place the introduction of statistics ; but the evidence of figures in such a connection must be accepted with a certain reserve. Statistical testimony has its limitations. Such evidence may often be a proof of activity or the reverse, but it must at the very best be an incomplete test of the real spiritual work of the Church. A parish or diocese where churches, parsonage-houses, schools, and the whole administration and organisation of the work reveal an overgrowth of gross neglect, affords evidence that things are not as they ought to be. On the other hand, the most flourishing records of parochial and diocesan statistics cannot be accepted as a complete test of the true life and influence of the Church. To use George Eliot's phrase, you cannot measure the deep spiritual things 338 OFFICIAL FIGURES 239 in religion by the square. Moreover, even the limited value which attaches to the statistical argument must depend entirely upon the accuracy of the figures upon which the argu- ment is founded. If, for example, there is to be a numbering of the people, that numbering is of small value unless it is carried out rather by the tried, reliable, frank and open method of an official census than by speculative methods in which concealment and surprise are the only safeguards against falsification. Failing a Parliamentary census, the fairest course of procedure is to form an approximate calculation based upon the most reliable statistics available for this purpose. There are two sources of statistical in- formation which may guide the inquirer to a sound conclusion. These are the official figures of the Nonconformist bodies, and the official Parliamentary language-census taken for Wales in 1901. For some unexplained reason the language-census figures for 1911 have not yet been published. The four representative Nonconformist bodies in Wales are the Baptists, the Calvinistic Methodists, the Independents, and the Wesley ans. The figures which will presently be quoted are based upon the official Year-books of these four bodies. In these Nonconformist records " member " means a communicant ; while " adherents " include members, children of all ages, and casual attendants. The latter term therefore com- 16* 240 CONTRASTS prises everybody who can by any stretch of imagination be termed a Nonconformist. The Calvinistic Methodists the most highly organ- ised Nonconformist body in Wales publish every year the number of their members and the number of their adherents ; the number of these adherents is never quite double the " number of members. Although the other three bodies do not give the total numbers of their respective adherents, these may be safely calculated upon the same ratio as that which adherents bear to members of the Calvinistic Methodists. According to the last published Year-books, the total number of the members of these four Nonconformist bodies is 504,656 : of these the Baptists claim 129,843; the Cal- vinistic Methodists, 166,993 ; the Independents, 163.802; and the Wesleyans, 44,018. If we double these figures (and this is a very generous computation) the total number of men, women, and children belonging in any way to these four Nonconformist bodies is 1 1,009,312. The population of Wales and ; Monmouthshire was at the last census 2,442,340. By the evidence of the official Year-books of the Nonconformists themselves it is then certain that upon the most generous calculation there are left 1,433,028 people in Wales unclaimed by the four leading Welsh Nonconformist bodies. The figures of the language-census, our second source of information, cast a significant side-light upon the figures above quoted. In 1901, out of a population of FACTS AND STATISTICS 241 1,864,696 enumerated for language, those who returned themselves as monoglot Welsh were 280,905 ; as monoglot English, 928,222 ; as speaking both languages, 648,919. The most significant fact in these figures is that half the population of Wales cannot speak Welsh. In the next place it is noteworthy that out of an enumerated population of 1,864,696, the number of those who could speak English was 1,577,141. A third important fact is the increase of the monoglot English from 759,416 in the year 1891 to 928,222 in the year 1901, and the decline in the same period of the monoglot Welsh from 508,036 to 280,905. It will be seen that while half the population know no Welsh, those who speak English are rapidly increasing, while those who speak Welsh only are as rapidly decreasing. The significance of these figures for our present purpose is trans- parent. The total number of adherents in all the English Nonconformist chapels in Wales is 215,562 ; the Nonconformists therefore claim less than a fourth of the monoglot English | population in W T ales. But this does not re- present the whole position. It may be safely concluded that of the 648,919 people who speak Welsh and English, half, that is to say, 324,459, prefer an English to a Welsh service ; adding therefore 324,459 to the 928,222 mono- glot English, we get a total of 1,252,681 people in Wales who prefer English to Welsh ; and of this number the Nonconformists only claim 215,562, that is to say, little more than one in six. 242 CONTRASTS A careful analysis of these figures proves to demonstration that our previous computation, which gave the Nonconformists of Wales half the population (1,009,312), errs on the side of generosity. Is it fair, then, to claim as Church- men the remaining 1,433,028 to whom the Nonconformists make no claim ? Far from it ; there are a large number of people in Wales who frequent no place of worship. It is true that many, if not most of them, would in times of need, sickness, or adversity turn to the vicar of the parish for help or guidance ; if religion entered at all into their lives, it would probably be the ministrations of the Church that they would seek ; and as a matter of fact these people are not claimed for Non- conformity. Although there is no desire to claim these people as Churchmen, it is obvious that there is no section of society that stands in greater need of religious ministrations, and that such ministrations can be more readily afforded by the Church than by other bodies. If the slum districts of our big towns may be taken as an illustration, there can be no possibility of denying the fact that the only religious body that does and can permanently labour among them are the clergy of a Church that is not wholly dependent upon their voluntary offerings. It has been said w r ith more bitterness than truth, that churches are built by the cheques of the rich and chapels by the pence of the poor ; certainly, where the poor have no pence there are no chapels built. CONNOP THIRLWALL, D.D. Bishop of St. David's, 1840-1874. To face p. 242. LACK OF RESIDENT MINISTERS 243 Some few years ago a return was received from 1006 parishes out of a total of 1081 in Wales and Monmouthshire, showing that there were 485 parishes without any resident Non- conformist minister. In 678 of these parishes there was no resident Calvinistic minister ; in 697, no resident Congregational minister ; in 761, no resident Baptist minister ; and in 944 no resident Wesleyan minister. This year a return x from the Clergy of the Diocese of St. Asaph shows that, out of 208 parishes, there are 79 in which there is no resident Non- conformist minister. It is, of course, con- tended that, although there may be no minister, there is still a chapel in almost every parish in Wales. That no doubt is true. In one parish in the diocese of St. Asaph, with a population of under 900 there are no less then 13 chapels. =. But it will hardly be maintained that bricks and mortar alone can represent a "pastor in parochia." The system by which Calvinistic Methodist chapels are served is called a system of " supplies " ; a minister is described as a " shepherd " or resident when he lives near the chapel and takes the services in that chapel on one Sunday in the month : for the other Sundays he is free to act as a " supply " to chapels in other districts. The owner of a ministerial diary, therefore, is anxious at the beginning of the year to fill in as many engage- ments as possible for his free Sundays. The practical working of the system is that the 1 See Appendix D, the last column. 244 CONTRASTS supply-minister takes two or three chapels in one Sunday, and the members of the chapels where there is no resident are left for the rest of the week without any ministerial guidance. Whatever may be said of such a conception of the ministerial office, it certainly makes no provision for pastoral care ; and the cure and government of souls is thus left to a purely preaching ministry. One result of this system is patent and known to all. The first door at which the indigent, the perplexed, or the distressed knock is that of the parish clergy- man. The Nonconformist minister is either non-resident or, if resident, is too poor to be able to relieve the temporal necessities of those who apply to him ; and so it comes to pass that, while the clergy of the Church do not over-emphasise the g f t of preaching, they are left with the high privilege of doing most of the real pastoral work of the ministry in Wales. It is a pleasant feature in Welsh life that there are few parishes in which a visit from the parish clergyman is not welcomed by the great bulk of the parishioners, whether Church- people or Nonconformists. The farmer in the remote country parish wants help and advice in writing a letter of business ; he has a daughter I who is going out to work in England, or a son j who is seeking a situation ; he is at feud with a neighbour, or has offended his landlord ; in nine cases out of ten the parish clergyman is his friend and adviser. It is easy to belittle DIVISIONS IN NONCONFORMITY 245 these amenities of rural life, but their loss in remote village communities would be very real. Here we must emphasise one consideration which is continually lost sight of when it is said that there is a chapel-building in every parish. It must be remembered that there is not a chapel belonging to each denomination in every parish : all we can say is that there is a Nonconformist chapel of some sort in most parishes. Nonconformist is in Wales a generic term for four distinct species. Truth and justice insist upon the importance of the following fact. Baptist, Calvinist, Indepen- dent, and Wesleyan are as much separated each from the others as they are each of them separated from the Church. It is a matter of common knowledge that in Wales the Calvin- istic Methodists are regarded by the other denominations with a bitterness and a distrust which is not felt towards the Church. Non- conformity in Wales not only consists of four different and sharply- divided denomina- tions, but these four denominations are local, not general, in prevalence. This all-important fact must be illustrated. The sixth volume of the Royal Commission Blue-books, which contain the official returns made by the Non- conformists themselves, supply the following figures. In North Wales, out of a population l of 506,194, the Baptists claim as members only 17,350, and in the county of Flint, with a population of 69,737, the Baptist members 1 Populations taken from Whitaker's Almanack, 1912. 246 CONTRASTS number only 759. In South Wales we find that out of a population of 1,936,146, the members of the Calvinistic Methodist body number only 81,677. In the county of Monmouthshire (414,730) the Calvinistic Methodists (or Pres- byterians, as they call themselves in that county) number only 6158 members. In the borough of Cardiff (199,189) the Calvinistic Methodist members number only 3484. The Independents in Denbighshire (136,819) number only 6316 members, and in Flintshire (69,737) only 2707. Wesleyans in Carmarthenshire (151,077) number only 1006 members, and in Breconshire (56,380) only 715 ; while in Cardiff (199,189) they number 2538, and in Swansea (98,817) only 724. Turning to the other side of the shield, the Baptists number 18,160 members in Carmarthenshire (151,077) ; the Calvinistic Methodists, 13,300 in Merionethshire (60,292) ; the Independents, 73,287 in Glamor- ganshire (1,130,818); and the Wesleyans, 3175 in Montgomeryshire (62,202). The significance of these figures must not be overlooked. There j is not a single Nonconformist body in Wales which can pretend to claim that its work covers the whole Principality. The incontrovertible fact is this. The Church in Wales is everywhere ; the Non- conformist bodies are only somewhere. I leave this point with a quotation from Dr. Chalmers's lecture on the Establishment of National Churches. " There is nothing in the doctrine of the Spirit to reduce, but everything THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM 247 to enhance, the importance of the Gospel being preached and so, therefore, the importance of the question, ' What is best to be done that we might secure its being preached to every creature ? ' If there is one economy, under which there is every likelihood that, with all our strenuousness and care, we shall fall short of more than half the population ; and another economy, by which it may be made sure that the calls and lessons of Christianity ; shall be brought to every door this, all other circumstances being equal, forms in itself a strong ground for our preference of the latter over the former. It is our purpose to demonstrate that this invaluable property of a full and universal diffusion belongs only to a National Establishment ; and to make it palpable, by all the lights of history and human nature, that it never is, and never can be, realised either by the Voluntary System or by what has been termed the System of Free Trade in Christianity." The voluntary system has other serious limitations. For years every Nonconformist body in Wales has been loudly and never so loudly as within the last two years deploring the inadequacy of the salaries paid to its ministers. This difficulty is now accentuated by the fact that candidates for the Noncon- formist ministry in W T ales who have been enabled to graduate at the Welsh University come to their work with an education and equipment which soon makes them dissatisfied 248 CONTRASTS with the pittance paid them, as well as im- patient of the petty tyranny of ignorant elders. As a result, the best of the younger men leave the Nonconformist ministry in Wales for larger spheres of work elsewhere. Closely bound up with the poverty of the minister is the vital question of his inde- pendence. Badly paid as the average Welsh incumbent is, he is still entrenched in a position where as an honest man he can tell a powerful but dissolute par shioner the truth, and can uphold in a parish principles that may be unpopular for the time but need to be im- pressed upon the people. He can do this without the enfeebling anxiety that his out- spoken truthfulness will bring disaster upon his family. The position of the Nonconformist minister lacks this salutary independence. The writer, who has spent his whole life in Wales, could illustrate this statement with abundant instances. The freedom of the Free Churches is hardly a reality when there is no free passage allowed for truth. One of the most distinguished Nonconformist ministers in Wales, on being appointed to a permanent and prominent public position, recently exclaimed to a friend, " I am free now : and I am going to let my people hear the truth." It is unpleasant, but in the interests of truth indispensable, to remark upon the fact that the old spirit of reverence is dying down among the Nonconformists. Their over-emphasis of preaching tends to make them forgetful of the RIVAL SYSTEMS 249 fact that the most truly spiritual people are those who talk least, while the use of their chapels for secular and often unedifying gatherings may in a measure explain the loss or the absence of a true conception of the meaning and the practice of Divine Worship. The material tendencies of the day manifest them- selves in another direction. There is to-day little doctrinal difference between the various Nonconformist bodies in Wales, and discussions upon these differences, which fifty years ago would have been eager and often angry, are regarded now in their assemblies as a mental attitude that is already obsolete. In con- sequence of this, the Nonconformist bodies in Wales are divided from each other chiefly by their competition as rival organisations, a competition which shows itself capable of keeping alive a spirit of unwholesome bitter- ness. It seems inevitable that organisations which depend absolutely upon the voluntary system must in the ultimate resort be con- strained by purely financial considerations to adopt methods that are not easily reconciled with the conception of pure and undefiled religion. These criticisms have not been put forward from any desire to ignore the noble work that has been done by Nonconformists in the past ; but no account of the religious condition of Wales at the present day can claim to be of any value unless it examines and fearlessly analyses the various systems at work in Wales. 250 CONTRASTS Nonconformity has been a power in Wales for the last hundred years ; but the strength and the value of any religious organisation depend upon its ability to keep the lamp of truth alight amid a progressive society in which the con- ditions are constantly changing. CHAPTER XVI DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT BEFORE the history and the character of the latest proposals for Disestablishing and Dis- endowing the four Welsh dioceses are dealt with, one consideration of capital importance must be stated. It has been shown, upon evidence that no scholar can dispute, that the fusion of the British and Anglican Churches was brought about more than eleven centuries ago by the working of forces that were in their essence religious and not in any sense political ; and that this fusion was not suddenly or violently achieved, but was the result of a growing consciousness of a common mission. This voluntary amalgamation, while it united the two Churches, has never obliterated the title of the Church in Wales to-day to be re- garded as being in legitimate historical suc- cession (to use Professor Bryce's phrase) to the Church of Teilo, Kentigern, David, and Deiniol ; and, in the words of Mr. Gladstone, we might really speak with as much justice of 17 252 DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT the Church of Wales in England as of the Church of England in Wales. Historically, we are dealing with a Church centuries older than any State in these islands ; and the language of the preamble of the Irish Disestablishment Act, which states " that the Union created by Act of Parliament between the Churches of England and Ireland as by law established should be dissolved," cannot be used in reference to the four Welsh dioceses. This is not a mere antiquarian point. How far has Parliament the right to rend or mutilate this Church which has come down the centuries woven without seam throughout its whole structure ? The Bill before Parliament in 1912, and the arguments urged in its favour, will be help- fully elucidated by a brief history of the Welsh Disestablishment campaign as carried on in the House of Commons. The first resolution in favour of Welsh Disestablish- ment was moved in the House of Commons on 24th May 1870, by Mr. Watkin Williams, afterwards Mr. Justice Watkin Williams. His resolution ran thus : 1. " That in the opinion of this House it is right that the Establishment of the Church and its Union with the State should cease to exist in the said dominion and Principality." 2. " That it is just and expedient that the public endowments enjoyed by the Church Establishment should, after CONTRASTS WITH IRELAND 253 making provision for all vested interests, be applied to the support of a national and undenominational system of edu- cation for the said dominion and Principality of Wales." r In passing, it may be observed that a national and undenominational system of education has now been established in Wales, and that last year nearly 2,000,000 of public money (nearly ten times the annual revenue of the Church in Wales) were devoted to this purpose. Mr. Watkin Williams estimated the population at 1,220,000, and the number of Nonconformists at 1,016,666 ; and he gave Mr. Henry Richard's estimate for the latter as 1,084,444. If either of these estimates was correct, it is clear that Nonconformity is Wales has declined since 1870 from 89 per cent, to 42 per cent, of the population. Mr. Watkin Williams stated that "the Church Establish- ment in the Principality of Wales is an ancient and venerable institution. It is not like the Church in Ireland, an alien Church forced upon the people by a conqueror and oppressor." In the same debate Sir George O. Morgan said, " but there was, however, this difference be- tween the two (Ireland and Wales) countries, that whilst Dissent in Wales was a plant of foreign growth such a thing as a Dissenter having hardly existed there 150 years ago in Ireland it had existed from time immemorial." Mr. Henry Richard, on the other hand, asserted 254 DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT some years later : " The truth is, that the Church of England in Wales has been through- out its whole history an alien Church, the Church of the conqueror and invader, and that mark is branded upon it indelibly." These contradictions are interesting. On 9th March 1886, Mr. Dillwyn moved : " That as the Church of England in Wales had failed to fulfil its professed object as a means of promoting the religious interests of the Welsh people, and ministers only to a small minority of the population, its continuance as an Established Church in the Principality is an anomaly and an injustice which ought no longer to exist." Mr. Dillwyn said that " he now proposed to bring this question before the House solely on the ground of the nationality of Wales and of the Welsh Church." It will be observed that Welsh Disestablishment is here advocated because the Church is national and not alien. Mr. Dillwyn now gave his estimate of the Nonconformists as 1,135,825, out of a population of 1,343,227. In this debate Sir William Harcourt made the following statement : " The Church of England in Wales is so much an integral part of the Established Church of England that it is not merely difficult, but I w 11 say impossible, to raise the question as a separate one I do not mean by resolution, but practically, in legislation without in- volving the other. I think that this is a proposition which will commend itself to every man's mind. If you raise the question of THE BILL OF 1895 255 the Church in Wales you raise the whole question." The next resolution was moved by Mr. Dillwyn on 14th May 1889, and was identical in terms with that moved in March 1886. The same resolution was again moved on 20th February 1891, by Mr. Pritchard Morgan, whose inaccuracies, as numerous as his speech was long, were pointed out by Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minister. The greater part of Mr. Gladstone's speech was devoted to a powerful and conclusive defence of the Church in Wales. In 1892 the same resolution was proposed by Mr. Samuel Smith, who went to the be- ginning of the eighteenth century for proofs of the Church's shortcomings, and to Liverpool and America for proofs of her numerical weakness. The debate on the introduction of the Suspensory Bill in 1893 needs only a passing mention. On 21st March 1895, the Home Secretary, Mr. f Asquith, moved the Second Reading of the Established Church (Wales) Bill. Among other things, he said that the Welsh Church was, in his opinion, justly described as an alien Church ; and he referred to the fact that the Bill placed the Welsh cathedrals in the hands of Commissioners to be appointed under the Bill. This last provision, which might have ended in the sale of the cathedrals, cost the Government Mr. Gladstone's vote, and materi- ally contributed to their downfall. On the 17* 256 DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT 21st April 1909, the Prime Minister, Mr. 1 Asquith, introduced a Bill to terminate the Establishment of the Church of England in Wales and Monmouthshire. Not a word was said by him on this occasion about an alien Church. The tone of his speech was in marked contrast to that of his words in 1895. "As everybody knows," said Mr. Asquith, " during the last seventy years at any rate the Church of England in Wales has opened a new, beneficent and fruitful chapter in her history " : he added, " we have witnessed in our lifetime a mar- vellous transformation in the methods and the attitude of the Church in Wales." In this Bill the four cathedrals were to be trans- ferred to the Church. Modern endowments were to date not from 1703, as in the Bill of 1895, but from 1662 ; but these modern endowments, amounting to a little over 19,000, were all that was left to the Church. We now come to the last Bill, which was introduced into the House of Commons on 23rd April 1912. Its introducer was less con- versant with history than his predecessors, as the following quotation from his speech will show : " The Church in Wales had a separate existence from the Church in England. It was a long time, long centuries after it was in existence as a separate Church, that it was united to the Church of England. It was united by a political act." During the Second Reading of this Bill, three speeches alone call for comment. The Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, MINISTERIAL METHODS 257 in a speech of some length, did not venture to advance one single argument against the Church in Wales to-day. He referred to the Bangorian controversy, to the unsatisfactory episcopates of Bishops Hoadly and Watson there were also Hoadlys and W T atsons in the English Church to the Irish precedent, and to his own utter- ances on the continuity of the Church, and concluded with a declaration of the purity of his own motives in supporting this measure. The speech is interesting when compared with those delivered in 1895 and 1909 by the same speaker. The Prime Minister is a scholar and a gentleman, and the disappearance from his utterances of one after another of the arguments supplied to him by Welsh instructors is a pretty clear proof that he had discovered the flaws in the brief supplied to him. The speech with which the minister in charge of the Bill wound up the Debate on the Second Reading in May 1912 was from any point of view an unworthy performance. The figures quoted were untrue, and the knowledge dis- played of the whole problem was elementary. The speech of Sir John Simon, the Solicitor- General, was a real effort to state the case for the Bill with courtesy and thoroughness. A careful perusal of the debates on this subject, if studied in their sequence, reveals the abandonment of the majority of the argu- ments at first urged against the Church. In the opening years of this controversy the delinquencies of the clergy and the short- 258 DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT comings generally of the Church (which were recited without dates) constituted a large and formidable part of the indictment. When it was discovered that this particular type of accusation rested upon the misdoings of a clergyman, or the apathy of a bishop, who lived two hundred years ago, the accusation lost its point. A similar fate has befallen the charge of alienism, which the present Prime Minister introduced into his first speech on this subject. Public men do not like to be found using an argument which convicts them of historical ignorance ; and so it has come to pass that no self-respecting politician ventures now to call the Church in Wales an alien Church. The varieties and the discrepancies in the statements of the numerical argument have helped to surround it with a general air of untrustworthiness. Indeed, the people who desire to settle this controversy by an appeal to numbers, and yet resolutely decline to adopt the only method which would make it possible to have an accurate and unimpeachable record of those numbers, prefer to rest their case upon their own assertion rather than upon inde- pendent proof. The collapse of these three arguments leaves the Disestablishment advo- cate in a position somewhat resembling that in which a prosecuting counsel finds himself upon the break-down of all but one of his witnesses. Strictly and actually, the case for Disestab- lishment has been reduced now to one argu- ALFRED OLLIVANT, D.D. Lord Bishop of Llandaff, 1849-1882. Toftuep. 258. THE ONE ARGUMENT 259 ment ; and that is called the political argu- ment, or the argument deduced from the character of the political representation of Wales. It is clear that the political argument is only the national argument under another name. It would not be contended that political representation without nationality at its back could bear the burden laid upon it ; for example, the Province of York might return to Parliament members who were unanimously in favour of Disestablishment and Disendow- ment ; but the most extreme Liberationist would not venture to maintain that this was an argument for Disestablishing and Dis- endowing the Church in the Province of York. East Anglia, and in some ways more forcibly Cornwall, would supply similar illustrations. The result is that we are left with one argument, and one argument only to deal with, namely, that of nationality. This was the argument which formed the real gravamen of Sir John Simon's speech. Let this argument be examined fairly. The Welsh nation is not yet autonomous ; it is not a separate and self- governing community ; and therefore the Welsh representatives have no more right on the ground of nationality to rend the Church in Wales from the Church in England than they have to sever the Principality of Wales from the Crown of England. But against this it will be urged that Disestablishment was given to Ireland before it obtained autonomy ; but the arguments for Irish Disestablishment were 260 DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT not solely or even mainly based upon nation- ality. Ireland is separated from England by an estranging ocean ; the Church in Ireland represented only a fraction of the people ; it was confronted by one homogeneous Church, which had some right to call the Irish Church alien. Moreover, the Church in Ireland was a very rich Church, and its endowments, by the admission of its own friends, were far too large for the work which had to be done. With this compare the position of the Church in Wales. The four Welsh dioceses are not separated by any scientific frontier from England, but in- clude large sections of England in their area ; the Church in Wales has been officially proved to be the largest religious body in Wales ; it is faced, not by one ancient and undivided Church, but by several modern and mutually opposed denominations. The Church in Wales is a poor Church ; its total endowments are less by three millions than the endowments left to the Irish Church after Disendowment. Moreover, it must never be forgotten that the progress of the Irish Church has been checked by Disestablishment and Disendowment, and the statement that that Church benefited by that measure is contradicted to-day by the Primate and Bishops of Ireland, and rests only upon the authority of those who are inventing an argument for Welsh Disestablishment. The Irish Church Act is the only precedent which the advocates of the Welsh Bill quote in support of this measure. In Appendix F PROPOSALS OF THE BILL 261 is quoted the Act for the Propagation of the Gospel in Wales, which affords both a precedent and a caution. It is true that the Act of 1650 did not avowedly divert the whole of the Church funds to secular purposes ; on the other hand, the spirit that breathes through the Act finds a close counterpart in the temper and disposition displayed by those Nonconformist ministers and politicians who are at present the leading advocates of Welsh Disestablish- ment. The futile waste of the confiscated Church funds by the Cromwellian Commissioners and Triers, and the debasing effect which that waste had upon the character of the people, strike a note of warning to which thoughtful men will give ear. It is only necessary briefly to refer to the main proposals of the Welsh Disestablish- ment and Disendowment Bill. That Bill would lop off the four Welsh dioceses from the organic life of the Church of England. It would leave the whole organisation, the discipline, and the standards of the Church in Wales in a state of chaos ; and would commit the reconstruction of the Church to a representative body created by Parlia- ment. The State is called upon to disestablish what it never established, and then in the name of Disestablishment to undertake to set up or establish a representative Church body in Wales. Turning to Disendowment, the amount which would be taken away from the Church in 262 DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT Wales (178,193 a year) is shown in detail in Appendix E. The one outstanding fact which all honest citizens must bear in mind is this : the net endowments of the Church in Wales at the present time represent, according to the introducer of this Bill, 268,550 a year ; and the Government propose to take away from that small sum 178,193 a year. At present that small endowment maintains 1565 clergy at work in Wales, and in a later chapter it will be shown what the character of that work has been during the last twenty years. When it is considered that the Government can afford to spend 252,000 a year upon payment of members, 2,000,000 a year upon Education in Wales alone, and can raise in a single year the colossal revenue of 181,621,000, the proposal to take a paltry 178,193 a year from the Church seems to represent a meanness of spirit which words cannot express. A Parliament which is now so generously endowing its own members and other worthy objects, seems to have selected a strange moment for disendowing the oldest branch of the Christian Church in these islands. No one has been found, within or without the Government, to assert that the endowments of the Church are not being used for the purposes for which they were given, or that they are being misused, or that they are too large or even large enough for the work which has to be done. The national and political arguments urged in favour of these proposals are based upon "WE, THE PEOPLE OF WALES" 263 fallacies. We are all familiar with the logical Fallacy of Composition, which consists in attributing to the whole what is true of a part. The fallacy might be illustrated by an instance like this : some Welshmen speak Welsh, therefore all Welshmen speak Welsh. It must be remembered that Welsh Disestablish- ment and Disendowment are asked for as representing the demand, not of a majority of the Welsh people, but of the whole Welsh nation. It is doubtful whether upon a referendum even a majority of the Welsh people would accept the present Bill ; but it is absolutely certain that the most responsible and educated section of the W r elsh nation is conscientiously opposed to it. This fallacy could not have been stated in a more ludicrous and concrete form than when Sir Moritz Mond, in the House of Commons, described himself as " We, the people of Wales." The selection of such a champion of Welsh nationality re- presents the last possibility of incongruous absurdity. With the solitary exception of this untenable claim based upon nationality, all the main arguments which were urged at the outset by the leading advocates of these proposals, now, as we have seen, lie derelict and abandoned ; and it is therefore no matter of surprise that the last twenty years have witnessed a steadily growing enfeeblement of the interest and support given to these proposals in Wales. The petty pilfering of the Disendowment 264 DISESTABLISHMENT AND DISENDOWMENT clauses is contemptible enough ; but this meanness is no measure of the real mischief inherent in the Bill. The most disastrous consequences of the Puritan oppression and spoliation of the Church during the Common- wealth were moral and not economic. In spite of all their religious professions, the policy of the Puritans infected with a deadly taint the character and the motives of the people, and by shaking the foundations of the virtues of honesty and sincerity paved the way for that torrent of licence and profligacy that disgraced the Restoration. The forces of materialism are silently but ominously gather- ing strength in Wales ; and he is no true patriot who by weakening the oldest and most powerful religious body in Wales will help to prepare a way for the advance of principles which set at nought the purity of the home and the sanctity of the altar. CHAPTER XVII WORK THE Evangelical Revival of the first quarter of the nineteenth century aroused the Church of England from the heavy torpor which the closing years of the eighteenth century had seen deepened by the influence of a dominant philosophy which made utility the test and measure of virtue. Unhappily in Wales that Evangelical Revival in its fervour overflowed into new and separate channels, with the result that the Church was weakened, and that the Revival itself lost much of its permanent force. Even so the record of work done by the Church in Wales during the first half of the nineteenth century shows signs of progress. The year 1847 was, as has been seen, a great landmark in the moral, educational, and re- ligious history of Wales. The bishops in Wales quickly and fully realised the gravity of the Reports published by the Commissioners in 1847, and already referred to in a previous chapter. Although these Reports grievously wounded the pride of Welshmen, and stung them to a 266 WORK natural but unavailing resentment, these inde- pendent Commi sioners, men of high character and marked ability, had given a picture of the condition of Wales which could not be disregarded or obliterated. The Church, with commendable wisdom and zeal, set to work at once upon the task of that moral and religious reform so sorely needed by her people. It will be best to illustrate this work by the record of a diocese with which the writer has been personally connected for more than half a century. In 1847 Bishop Vowler Short formed a Diocesan Board of Education, and appointed twenty-six secre- taries to assist in carrying out a plan of educa- tion for the whole diocese. In the following year he arranged that the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses should attend, during the harvest holidays, lectures given by an organising master from London upon the best methods of instructing their pupils ; the next year an organising master was appointed for the whole of the diocese, who began by organising the schools in all the chief towns. The bishop himself contributed with a generous hand to the building of schools throughout the diocese ; and when he resigned the bishopric in 1870, Mr. Forster, the author of the Education Act of 1870, is reported to have said that if the whole country had been as well supplied with schools as the diocese of St. Asaph, his task would have been almost unnecessary. In the whole history of Wales THE OLD IDEAL 267 there has never been any educational reformer who laboured so wisely, who made such sacrifices, or who achieved so much for popular education as Bishop Vowler Short during the twenty-four years of his episcopate. In a circular letter which Bishop Short issued in July 1848, this phrase occurs : " It should be clearly understood that the whole (i.e. the work of the Diocesan Board of Educa- tion) is voluntary." It may by this time have been forgotten that there was strong opposi- tion in Wales to the idea of public money being granted for elementary schools. In 1847 the Baptists passed a resolution that no grant of public money should be solicited or accepted by the conductor of any of the Baptist schools ; and the Congregational Union of England and Wales resolved " to refuse all aid from the Government for popular education," and de- clared such aid to be " alike inconsistent with the principles of Independency, and dangerous to the civil and religious liberties of the people." What a strange contrast this presents to the attitude of the Calvinistic Methodists to-day, whose missionary schools in the Khasia Hills are absolutely and entirely maintained by Government money, while the instruction given in the schools is rigidly denominational, and the teachers who are appointed by the Calvinistic Methodists must be Methodists, though not necessarily qualified for their work. It does not seem unfair to point out the differ- 18 268 WORK ence in attitude between the Nonconformists of 1847 and the Nonconformists of to-day, in reference to the question of popular education ; nor is it at first sight intelligible how it is right in India, but wrong at home, that public money should be devoted to denominational education. Happily for the diocese of St. Asaph, Bishop Short was more anxious to promote education than to waste time in barren con- troversy about methods. Much lately has been heard about teaching English through the medium of Welsh ; this is looked upon as an entirely new idea. Sixty years ago Bishop Short instituted in all the schools in his diocese what he called the simultaneous method in teaching the English language ; and he pro- vided for the scholars elementary books in which the lessons were printed on opposite pages in the Welsh and English languages. Enough has been said to show that Bishop Short was not only a very generous and enthusiastic, but also a very practical and far- sighted worker in the cause of education. In the year 1859, when the population of the diocese was 231,720, the number of pupils in the Church schools was 15,634. In 1866 the population had increased to 250,080 ; the number of schools had risen from 206 (in 1859) to 228 ; and the number of pupils from 15,634 to 19,899. These figures show how substantial and far-reaching the work of Bishop Short had been in elementary education ; THOMAS VOWLKR SHORT, D.D. Lord Bishop of St. Asapli, 1846-1870. To face p. 268. CHURCH EXPENSES AND REPAIRS 26'9 and when he resigned in 1870, the whole diocese was admirably equipped with schools. In Appendix D (c) the sums spent upon school- buildings is given ; and to the cost of fabrics must be added the cost of maintenance for all those years. As far as can be made out, the cost of maintaining the schools in the diocese of St. Asaph between the years 1850 and 1910 amounts to 785,220 ; this is certainly a moderate estimate. Turning next to church fabrics, the restora- tion of the choir and chancel of the cathedral was completed in 1868 at a cost of 7883 ; and four years later, 2576 was spent upon the restoration of the aisles and roof. In this connection it may be mentioned that within the last fifty years the three other Welsh cathedrals have been restored at a very large outlay by voluntary subscriptions. In the diocese of St. Asaph every church has been restored, and at the present moment there is not a single church out of repair in the whole diocese. It may be best perhaps to put this as briefly as possible in a statistical form, and to summarise the work done during the last eighty years. The population in 1831 was 215,615 ; at present it is 313,233. The number of parishes in 1832 was 148 ; to-day it is 209. During this period of eighty years, 61 new parishes have been formed in the diocese ; 112 new churches have been erected, 36 rebuilt, 143 enlarged or restored ; that is to say, 291 churches have been built or rebuilt in 270 WORK whole or part. The total number of churches and mission rooms has increased from 151 to 329, and the cost of this work, 857,655, has been wholly defrayed by voluntary subscrip- tions. During the same period of eighty years, the number of resident incumbents has risen from 120 to 209, and of assistant curates from 40 to 89, while the Sunday services have increased from 292 to 686. There are now 193 parsonage-houses, whereas in 1832 there were only 107. The bulk of this work has been done during the last sixty-two years, as will be seen in Appendix D, in which the sums of money spent upon these different branches of work are given. It may be said that the figures so far given represent in a large degree mere bricks and mortar ; it is therefore necessary to give the record for twenty years of what may be called the other side of Church work in the diocese of St. Asaph. In the year 1891 the population of the diocese was 282,990, and in the year 1911 the population was 313,233, an increase of 10'69 per cent. The Sunday schools numbered 28,824 scholars in 1891, and 34,207 in 1910, an increase of 18-67 per cent. The Confirmations for the ten years ending 1879 were 15,437 ; for the ten years ending 1909, 22,434. During the ast twenty years 43,749 candidates have been confirmed in the diocese. The Communicants actually present on Easter Day 1890, were 14,214 ; and on Easter Day 1912, the Communicants present EXTENSION 271 were 31,069. This represents an increase of 118-50 per cent. It may be permissible to compare these figures with those for England. In 1911 the ratio of Easter Communicants for the whole of England (exclusive of Wales) to the population was 6*43 per cent., for the diocese of St. Asaph it was 9'89 per cent. These figures need no comment. In Appendix D (d) the figures are given for several of the smaller parishes where there has been no in- crease of population ; and in Appendix D (a), in which the figures are given for each parish, it will be seen that the increase is general throughout the whole diocese. In the same period of twenty years there has been spent in the parish of Colwyn Bay alone 44,448 upon Church building and Church ex- tension, and in the parish of Wrexham the sum spent upon schools and churches and Church work during the last twenty years has been 97,385. Within the last four years three new churches and a church house have been built in the latter parish at a total cost of 23,864 ; while in the purely working-class parish of Brymbo, 11,610 has been spent upon new mission churches and Church schools. In the parish of Colwyn Bay the Easter Communicants num- bered 375 in 1890 ; in 1912 they numbered 1193. In the parish of Wrexham the Easter Com- municants numbered 481 in 1890 ; in 1912 they numbered 1509. In Brymbo, the Easter Communicants numbered 220 in 1890 ; in 18* 272 WORK 1912, 617. In Appendix D (d), already re- ferred to, details can be studied for each parish ; and to those who are unacquainted with the diocese it may be well to point out that, as the list shows, in the great majority of the parishes of this diocese there are Welsh as well as English services. The severest critic must recognise that in a diocese which is by comparison thinly popu- lated, and certainly not the richest diocese in the Principality, this record cannot be lightly passed over. These contributions come from all classes, rich and poor alike. In the parish of Brymbo the miners, colliers, and steel- workers provide curates' salaries by contri- butions which are collected weekly in pence ; and the working-men of Wrexham have for four years been contributing a shilling a week each to enable the vicar to go on with his Church Extension Scheme, with the result that in September 1912 the third church was consecrated and the whole of the 23,864 that the vicar asked for four years before had been subscribed. It must not be supposed that these figures are taken because they are peculiar to one diocese. The writer has preferred merely to state facts which are within his own personal cognisance ; but he is well aware that work equally devoted is being carried on in the three other Welsh dioceses. The sole object of putting these statistics and facts on record is this : honourable men THE REAL ENEMY 273 might well be reluctant to support a Church which was rich and apathetic, and which failed to put forth tokens of life and activity ; conscientious men will recoil from injuring or hampering the work of a Church which, judged by every test that can be applied, is using slender endowments to the most fruitful purpose ; which can show a record that bears comparison with the Church in England ; and which is evoking from its members outward signs that can only have their source in real spiritual conviction. Yet the present is no moment for any Christian worker in Wales to be boastful. Every minister in Wales, Churchmen or Nonconformist, knows too well that the Christian forces at work in Wales need all the strength they have to combat the growing materialism and frivolity which find expression in a thoughtless greed for money and pleasure. In Wales, schools and colleges have opened the door to new modes of thought, new standards of conduct, and to a changed and changing attitude towards religion. In Wales, too, this period of transition is rendered more com- plicated and difficult by the rise of a national spirit which, rightly guided, may promote the highest interests of the country. An eminent writer has said that the combination of religion with modern progress is the vital question of the day. We may well apply these weighty words to Wales, where at times what is called a national movement threatens to take a course 274 WORK at variance with the best spiritual interests of the people, and to annihilate the harvest of the past through cupidity for the prey of the future. It is for all Christian Welshmen to infuse religion into this national movement, and thus " to unite it to a power which will give an im- pulse to its efforts, and make them blessings to our countrymen." By doing this they will lay deep and firm foundations for a unity of sentiment and an unsuspicious co-operation of which the social and public life of Wales stands in need. Churchmen in Wales cannot frame for themselves any nobler hope and prayer than that to which Bishop Short gave utterance in his first Charge to the Diocese : " May God render the Diocese a blessing to Wales, and Wales a blessing to England, and England a blessing to the world. This gift must be His. The instrumentality is ours ; we are called to high things." APPENDIX A TITHE-PAYERS IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. ASAPH THE great bulk of the total incomes of the parochial clergy of this Diocese is derived from tithe. It is often cited as a hardship that tithe-payers in Wales are compelled to con- tribute to the maintenance of a Church to which they do not belong. The hardship is precisely similar in character to that of the Welsh farmer in South Wales, who, although a Church- man, is compelled as part of his rent to pay a charge on his farm bequeathed by an owner of the farm towards the maintenance of the neighbouring Nonconformist Chapel. Below is given a full return of the tithe paid to the parochial clergy of the Diocese 8f St. Asaph. Paid by Churchmen . . . * .40,297 ,, Nonconformists . . . 6,276 Roman Catholics . . . 762 Corporations . * . . 2,054 It will be seen by the above that out of a total of 49,389 all the tithe paid by Nonconformists amounts only to 6276. 375 APPENDIX B MEMORANDUM FOUND AMONG PALACE PAPERS REFERRING TO BISHOP MORGAN (Translator of the Bible into Welsh) 1601. Implementes and Householde stuffe remayninge in the Lorde Bishoppe of Saincte Asaphes house in Llanelwey at the cominge of the Reverende father in God, William Morgan Doctor in Divinitie nowe Lorde Bishop of the sayde see, to dwell in the sayde house, upon the sixe and twentyeth daye of februarie in the yeare of our Lorde God one thousand sixe hundred and one accordinge to the computacion of the Churche of England ; and lefte as standers in the sayde house, by the sayde Lorde Bishoppes predecessores there. Imprimis. In the halle, one table in the easte side with two longe formes belonginge to the same, and an other table at the upper end thereof. Item, in the parloure. One longe table, one benche at the walle beyonde the same, and one square table upon a frame. Item, in the Butterye. One stellinge to houlde hoggesheades. One oulde square table upon a frame. One bynne. One little cupborde in the walle above the bynne, and three little shelfes. Item, in the Kichen. One oulde plancke or table in the easte syde thereof. Item, in the greate Chamber. One drawinge table upon a frame. One other table in the lower end upon trestles, with two benches belonging to the same. And one liverey cupboarde upon a frame, and three staves of a grate in the Chymney. Item, in the Chamber nexte the greate Chamber. One standinge beddesteede corded and three staves of a grate in the Chymney. 276 APPENDIX B 277 Item, in the Chamber nexte the garden. One standinge beddesteede corded. One square table upon a frame, and foure staves of a grate in the Chymney. Item, in the Chambers over the Kichen and Butterye, fower oulde beddecases of roughe boardes without bottomes, two of them beinge broken. Item, in the cockelofte over the Chamber nexte the garden. One oulde lowe beddesteede corded. Item, in the Cellare. One oulde stellinge to houlde hogges- heades. Item, One greate Cheste. Item, Three Chayres. Item, Twelve joynde stooles. Item, in the stable, a racke and manger on the weaste side half the length of the stable. And a manger on the easte side halfe the lengthe of the stable. APPENDIX C A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY NOTITIA WALES AFTER THE COMMONWEALTH AMONG the papers at the Palace, St. Asaph, has been discovered a Notitia of the Diocese for the years 1681 to 1686. This Notitia for Bishop William Lloyd (one of the Seven Bishops) gives the number of the families and souls in each Parish, the names of all the householders, and the numbers of each family, and of all under 1 8 years of age, and in many cases the condition or occupation of the householders. These documents are of exceptional value as throwing light upon the social condition of the Diocese at the time. Families 1681 Population i 68 1-86 1911 Aberhafesp . 52 257 338 Berriew 290 1233 1560 Bettws Cedewain 109 4 6 3 461 Bettws Gwerfyl Gc ch 54 252 239 Bettws yn Rhos 112 457 Bodfari 136 609 663 Bryneglwys . 80 354 300 Caerwys 132 547 834 Castle Cacreinion "3 483 527 Cerrigydrudion no 595 IIOI Chirk . 175 815 2623 Cilcain . 107 432 392 Conven . 221 1007 Cwm . . . 93 399 362 Denbigh . 347 1489 5769 Dyserth . 70 288 902 Erbistock . 60 253 301 Flint . 125 595 5420 Garthbeibio . 51 235 388 Gresford 388 1619 t , Guilsfield 419 1766 Gwaenysgor . 29 no 211 378 APPENDIX C 279 Families 1681 Population i 68 i -86 1911 Gwyddelwern . 200 796 748 Gwytherin . :-'. 66 290 295 Halkyn i . - . --.-'. . 77 323 Henllan 294 1180 Hirnant ... . . 27 119 208 Holywell * 286 1156 Hope . . . . . . 34 2 1380 Kinnerley ...-. 264 1065 IO22 Knockin . , - . . . 39 163 242 Llanarmon M. 34 164 9 8 Llanarmon yn lal . 194 799 Llanasa . . . . . 231 998 Llanblodwel . . . . . 150 677 Llandegla . . ... 45 208 419 Llandderfel . . . 191 854 555 Llanddoged . . . . 33 148 234 Llanddulas . . . 2 4 IOO 732 Llandrillo yn Edernion .' . 154 723 591 Llandrillo yn Rhos in 459 Llandrinio ..... 124 471 . . Llandyssil ..... 87 398 53i Llandyssilio (Pool) 117 524 569 Llanelian . . . . . 84 34 427 Llanerfyl ..... 97 436 Llanfair Caereinion . . 288 1270 1706 Llanfair Talhaiarn , . ; - 148 694 882 Llanfechain .... 127 547 Llanferres . . . . . 70 295 499 Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr . 70 302 375 Llanfihangcl yng Ngwynfa 133 595 Llanfor . . . . . 241 1010 Llanfyllin . . 273 905 Llangadfan . . 147 685 Llangadwaladr . . . ' . 40 195 336 Llangar ..... 35 184 Llangedwyn .... 37 199 381 Llangernyw ..... 156 643 Llangollen ..... 45 1903 Llangower ..... 53 264 213 Llangwm . . 167 779 760 Llangynog . . . . . . 45 203 . . Llangyny vv . . . . : . . 73 326 Llangystenin . . . . ' T 70 336 1726 Llanllugan ..... 48 239 249 Llanllwchaiarn .... 73 319 2489 Llanmerewig . . . 24 116 308 Llanrhaiadr ym Mochnant . . 323 1409 1798 Llansannan . . . . . 141 614 Llansantffraid G. Conwy . . 143 573 1084 Llansantffraid G. Ceiriog . .' 82 376 1034 Llansantffraid G. Dyfrdwy 26 138 280 APPENDIX C Families Population 1681 1681-86 1911 Llansantffraid yn Mechain 136 625 Llansilin 312 1398 . . Llanuwchllyn 122 675 1007 Llanwddyn . 7 6 382 Llanwyddelan 61 259 314 Llanymynech 104 420 1049 Llysfaen 56 235 1686 Manafon 63 308 505 Meifod 303 1347 Meliden 76 3 2 4 Melverlcy 57 272 177 Nantglyn 36 158 479 Nerquis 63 284 782 Newmarket 5o 206 438 Newtown 1 06 528 3579 Northop 319 1347 Oswestry 933 3934 Rhuddlan 161 669 Ruabon 256 1082 S. George 43 194 204 Selattyn 152 653 Tregynon 94 436 566 Treiddyn 53 251 1351 Tremeirchion 94 399 604 Whitford 358 1476 Whittington 232 IOI2 Yspytty Ifan 75 384 Yyceifiog 149 618 DEANERY OF CYFEILIOG AND MAWDDWY Cemraes 98 5oi 722 Darowen 96 526 Llanwrin 123 676 476 Llanymawddwy 121 595 408 Machynlleth 239 1072 2564 Mallwyd 123 638 1008 N.B. In the above list where no population is given in 1911, it means that the Parish has been subdivided, and therefore cannot be compared with the present parish. In all cases where the population is given for both 1681 and 1911 the parochial limits, it is believed, are the same. The above Notitia throws light upon many interesting things. It supplies the only material for a comparison of populations in the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. It throws light upon the social condition of the diocese. APPENDIX C 281 The great houses in 1681 to 1686 were those of Sir John Salusbury, in the parish of Henllan, whose household num- bered 40 ; Sir Roger Mostyn, in Whitford, 37 ; Mr. Edward Vaughan, in Llanfihangel yng Ngwynfa, 36 ; Sir Thomas Myddleton, in Chirk, 33 ; Sir John Wynne, in Llanfair Talhaiarn, 31 ; and Sir John Trevor, in Chirk, 25. The Notitia confirms in a remarkable way the statement by Berry, in 1648, that it was easier to find in Wales 50 landlords of 50 per annum than 5 of ^500. The Notitia contains a large number of generosi (gentlemen) whose small households imply small means ; for instance, there were many scions of the house of Lloyd of Hafodunos who came under this heading. The social condition of the people is illustrated by several returns. In Whitford, for example, there were 358 families (population 1476), and among these were Sir R. Mostyn (Knight and Baronet), one esquire, 25 gentlemen, three widow ladies, 119 yeomen, 41 labourers, and 140 paupers. In the Northop return there are 49 householders given as paupers, and the amount of rent paid by each is stated, the rent varying from i, 2S. od. to one shilling a year, and some paid no rent. In Garthbeibio there were 14 families out of 48 returned as paupers, in Llandderfel 54 out of 191, in Llangadfan 56 out of 148, and in Llangystenin 27 out of 73. It would seem probable that those families who received any contribution from the Church-mize were classified as paupers. APPENDIX D() DIOCESE OF ST. ASAPH A PAROCHIAL RECORD FOR 21 YEARS ARCHDEACONRY OF ST. ASAPH DEANERY OF ST. ASAPH Communi- 3-3 < cants || O ij Easter. V cj ^- & ** Sunday Services. Popula- tion Parish. c o g-u si g-a 5 O a) Language. 191 1 . 8 ^ 8 g C tf. 8 9 1890. 1912. rs M 5 "is K i W. &E. 2O66 St. Asaph . 274 528 616 W. &E. 459 Bodelwyddan 36 59 695 6 3 I W. &E. 477 Cefn . 47 81 252 o W. &E. 362 Cwm . 8 58 246 o W. &E. 902 Dyserth 36 123 310 W. 211 Gwaenysgor 21 24 144 o VV. & E. 560 Meliden 45 91 287 30 o W. & E. 438 Newmarket 15 167 W. &E. 2040 Prestatyn. . 40 399 266 13 W. & E. 1344 Rhuddlan . 122 212 324 Rhyl W. &E. 6953 Holy Trinity . 390 1059 286 3 E. 2195 St. Anne's 132 60 30 W. & E. 604 Tremeircbion 47 105 235 DEANERY OF DENBIGH W. & E. 663 Bodfari 48 70 276 W. 467 Bylchau 6 5 260 W. &E. 834 Caerwys 58 147 297 W. & E. 5769 Denbigh 345 525 326 7 W. & E. 838 Henllan 60 IOO 280 W. &E. 484 Llandyrnog 69 71 508 o W. &E. 140 Llangwyfan 6 23 2IO o \V. & E. 720 Llanrhaiadr yn Cinmerch 46 77 406 W. 766 Llannefydd . 7 30 266 W. & E. 887 Llansannan 40 16 294 W. &E. 479 Nantglyn . 14 63 2O6 3 W. 515 Prion 26 26 278 W. &E. 706 Trefnant 67 143 271 12 * From the incomes in these lists must be deducted 15 per cent, at least, cost of collection, Rates, Repairs, and Insurance. 383 APPENDtX D 283 DEANERY OF DYFFRYN CLWYD Communi- ) " ||d cants o X ij O u *Jj Easter. Wi 5i ** c ^ v2 -^ Sunday Popula- ^ | rt g > o g Services. tion Parish. u o o "*" C H ^anguage. 1917. c. O c O u c 2 5*1 1890. 1912. -Q "5 if S>- W. & E. 372 Clocaenog . 32 41 240 o W. & E. 437 Derwen . . 21 25 264 o W. & E. 228 Efenechtyd. . 15 21 156 W. & E. 512 Gyffylliog . IO 48 279 I VV. & E. 465 Llanarmon yn lal 22 65 324 . . W. &E. 334 Llanbedr D.C. 40 58 306 o W. 419 Llandegla . . 67 70 238 40 W. & E. 663 Llanelidan . . 30 35 206 VV. & E. 915 Llanfair D.C. Jesus Chapel . } 5 o 93 { 295 I 81 'e o VV. & E. 1227 Llanfwrog . 144 101 341 W. &E. 361 Llangynhafal 25 13 293 VV. & E. 92 Llanychan . 7 30 156 VV. & E. 616 Llanynys . 36 58 260 W. & E. 1867 Ruthin, with Llanrhvdd 100 264 400 DEANERY OF HOLYWELL VV. & E. 3100 Bagillt 25 136 145 69 W. & E. 642 Brynford . . 85 97 238 138 E. 4620 Connah's Quay . 54 170 254 3 W. &E. 5420 Flint 186 559 249 W. &E. 1418 Ffynnon Groyw . 12 92 256 2 W. & E. 734 Gorsedd 13 72 303 23 o W. &E. 865 Halkyn 36 "3 265 W. &E. 5041 Holywell . . 149 575 321 115 W. &E. 1604 Llanasa 45 148 266 W. & E. 1762 Mostyn . . 109 "3 297 65 W. &E. 520 Rhesycae . 15 53 190 19 W. &E. 816 Whitford . 24 64 266 . . W. &E. 948 Yyceifiog . 36 102 509 o DEANERY OF LLANRWST W. &E. 675 Capel Garmon 22 47 277 . B W. & E. 1291 Eglwysfach . 43 36 170 W. & E. 5490 Eglwys Rhos 37 809 298 34 W. 295 Gwytherin . 6 7 147 o W. &E. 234 Llanddoged 20 42 172 o W. 403 Llanddewi . 9 13 167 9 o W. & E. 1726 Llangystenyn 10 1 20 240 W. &E. 366 Llangernyw 48 90 268 VV. & E. 3436 Llanrwst 91 2OI 554 3 W. &E. 1084 Llansantffraid Glar t Conwy . . 76 1 06 282 W. &E. 440 Pentrevoelas 40 60 270 no W. 6^0 Yspytty Ifan 52 70 195 28 APPENDIX D DEANERY OF RHOS Communi- -J |-2 6 cants Sg gli Easter. *; P **" *u Sunday Services. Popula- tion Parish. ti c o j! Language 1911. 11 5 *n 8 c M* * o 1890. 1912. ~Q A .fjjf W. &E. 2715 Abergele 123 302 343 W. &E. 482 Bettws yn Rhos . 21 61 283 W. &E. 320 Brynymaen 52 200 200 o W. &E. 3241 Colwyn 142 303 272 W. &E. 7773 Colwyn Bay 375 "93 1 2O E. 2190 Llandrillo yn Rhos 40 429 294 W. &E. 732 Llanddulas . 85 157 287 W. &E. 427 Llanelian 12 37 272 o W. &E. 882 Llanfairtalhaiarn . 46 57 279 W. & E. 1686 Llysfaen . . 50 85 3" o W. &E. 204 S. George . . 35 73 202 . . W. &E. 389 Towyn 35 43 2IO I W. &E. 276 Trofarth . 12 17 2IO ARCHDEACONERY OF MONTGOMERY DEANERY OF CAEDEWAIN E. 338 Aberhafesp . 18 52 I 225 E. 461 Bettws Cedewain 47 90 165 3 E. 266 Dolfor 48 54 230 o E. 919 Kerry . . . 99 86 398 E. 531 Llandyssil . . 64 72 359 o E. 2489 Llanllwchaiarn . 45 296 340 .. E. 308 Llanmerewig 29 70 137 E. 403 Mochdre 32 76 197 6 o E. 3579 Newtown . 145 303 362 .. E. 598 Sanr . 32 33 264 . . E. 566 Tregynon . 22 56 224 108 o DEANERY OF CAEREINION W. 388 Garthbeibio 42 47 169 W. &E. 542 Llanerfyl . 42 54 292 V. &E. 1706 Llanfak Caereinion 80 1 20 313 49 W. 354 Llangadfan 35 37 222 W. &E. 266 Llangynyw 24 38 337 W. &E. 249 Llanllugan . 13 21 "3 30 W. & E. 314 Llanwyddelan 18 30 200 E. 505 Manafon 24 35 329 W. & E. 829 Meifod 38 135 354 W. &E. 334 Pont Robert 75 36 199 52 W. 261 Pont Dolanog 13 10 "3 o APPENDIX D 285 DEANERY OF LLANFYLLIN 4> ** . Communi- V " ^'i cants ^ C o S " g o *2 Easter. **- s *2 * Sunday Services. Popula- tion Parish. v o a c v * C t3 g Language. 1911. 11 Bi cS i* o 3 8*1 1890. 1912. ~3 Q ja g.c a "^ i W. &E. 315 Bwlchycibau 40 73 205 52 o W. 208 Hirnant 29 26 186 I W. 98 Llanarmon M.M. . 12 9 90 o W. & E. 509 Llanfechain 48 7o 443 'W. & E. 410 Llanfihangel 16 46 276 I o W. &E. 1631 Llanfyllin . 86 217 446 W. & E. 381 Llangedwyn 44 "3 150 56 o W. & E. 501 Llangynog . 30 34 179 W. &E. 1798 Llanrhaiadr-Moch- nant 66 1 06 394 B . E. 803 Llansantffraid yn Mechain . 60 IOO 323 W. &E. 382 Llanwyddyn 47 57 297 78 W. 291 Llwydiarth . ii 21 148 89 o W. 499 Pennant 29 36 264 DEANERY OF OSWESTRY E. 1472 Hengoed . . 22 81 * .. E. IO22 Kinnerly . . 60 170 * E. 242 Knockin . . 26 66 * o W. 336 Llangadwaladr . 8 18 174 . . W. &E. 960 Llansilin 78 137 277t . . W. &E. 754 Llanyblodwel 29 105 E. 1049 Llanymynech 74 141 325t E. 177 Melverley . . 14 19 * . . E. 920 Moreton . . 39 95 * Oswestry W. &E. 7357 S. Oswald's 841 1040 * . . E. 4696 Holy Trinity . 426 540 * . . W. &E. 339 Ryhdycroesau 18 50 2I7t 6 E. 584 Selattyn 22 93 * E. 1098 Trefonen 99 219 * E. 552 Welsh Frankton . 82 * . . E. 1047 Whittington . 208 248 * o DEANERY OF POOL E. 1560 Berriew 39 176 307 E. 577 Buttington 69 107 194 38 E. 527 Castle Caereinion . 36 66 445 o E. 1261 Guilsfield . . 72 93 262 E. 569 Llandrinio . . 42 73 431 . . o E. 569 Llandysilio 42 99 348 E. 294 Pool Quay . 67 70 274 187 E. 765 Penrhos . . 37 48 213 46 E. 4395 Welshpool . . 325 624 449 1 80 * Wholly situate in England. f Partly situate in Salop. 286 APPENDIX D ARCHDEACONERY OF WREXHAM DEANERY OF BANGOR Communi- 1-2 o cants >- c % c Q M fl Easter. ^ c v = c^o^ Sunday Services. Popula- tion Parish. V * 1 c t-0 ni Language. 1911. 11 8 S C 'ft 1*1 1890. 1912. -Q "5 E. 1196 Bangor Monacho- rum 51 232 481 E. 336 Bettisfield . 26 57 236 1 68 o E. 617 Bronington . . 29 79 162 no o E. 301 Erbistock . . 40 38 177 o E. 1276 Hanmer, with Tallarn . 97 162 247 o E. 426 Isycoed 28 30 250 . . E. 665 Marchwiel . . 52 I2O 480 o E. 1196 Overton 116 198 378 E. 275 Threapwood . 15 24 84 21* o E. Worthenbury . t 47 274 DEANERY OF EDEYRNION W. 239 Bettws Gwerfil Goch 19 n 117 W. IIOI Cerrigydrudion . 36 78 381 \V. & E. 1791 Corwen, wth Rug 140 150 354 . . VV. & E. 748 Gwyddelwern 20 21 "3 W. & E. 774 Glyndyfrdwy 55 58 155 o W. 375 Llanfihangel, G. M. 7 22 153 3 . . W. &E. 535 Llangar, with Cyn- wyd 53 33 168 W. & E. 760 Llangwn.with Din- mael 29 53 268 7i W. &E. 375 Llansant ffraid, G . D 9 80 185 o W. 305 Llawer y Bettws . 25 34 82 o DEANERY OF LLANGOLLEN W. &E. 300 Bryneglwys 36 57 158 33 E. 2623 Chirk 70 299 406 o W. &E. 262 Llanarmon, D. C. . 12 12 189 W. &E. 5784 Llangollen 28o 663 360 40 W. & E. 1034 Llansantffraid, G.C. 50 109 184 147 W. &E. 769 Llantysilio . 51 45 343 171 W. &E. 904 Pontfadog . 97 151 ! 47 E. 1406 S. Martin's 33 63 4- o E. 1863 The Lodge or Wes ton Rhyn 85 62 J W. &E. Trevor . 50 t 102 29 * Partly in the county of Chester. J Wholly situate in England. f No Return, APPENDIX D 287 DEANERY OF MOLD Communi- j.ad cants 81 S c O i- 4) Easter. "^ H (JJ rj *** *ts Sunday Services. Popula- tion Parish. i! v o ll 11! Language. 1911. 11 8 & % c.S II s w'l 1890. 1912. ~P Q sjjg 0! E. 4563 Bistre 64 245 2IO 44 E. 3139 Buckley . . 66 247 4O2 W. & E. 664 Caerfallwch. 31 125 177 '& W. &E. 392 Cilcain . . 14 83 247 . . W. 455 Erryrys . . 9 35 278 o W. & E. 911 Gwernaffield 74 172 138 59 E. 11,071 Hawarden . . 494 1038 1926 E. 3618 Hope . . . 69 172 491 IO2 W. & E. 499 Llanferres . . 32 45 237 o W. &E. 5864 Mold . 297 564 286 E. 300 Nannerch . . 30 75 234 o W. &E. 782 Nerquis 28 69 III 14 E. 1772 Northop . .' 56 268 358 9 W. & E. 1739 Pontblyddyn 116 202 89 6 W. & E. 544 Rhydymwyn 24 71 250 W. &E. 1351 Tryddyn . 24 73 138 15 o DEANERY OF PENLLYN W. &E. 490 Frongoch 12 4i 96 12 W. &E. 2375 Llanycil, with Bala 142 2OI 277 48 W. &E. 555 Llandderfel. . 30 55 238 W. &E. 59i Llandrillo yn Edeyrnion 35 36 251 7 W. &E. 484 Llanfor . . 16 46 228 o W. 213 Llangower . 19 14 131 W. & E. 1007 Llanuwchllyn 57 43 1 86 34 W. 266 Rhosygwalia 19 21 208 o DEANERY OF WREXHAM E. 1689 Berse Derelincourt 117 231 83 16 E. 5036 Broughton . 300 W. &E. 553i Brymbo 220 317 280 56 W. &E. 952 Bwlchgwyn 36 44 192 9 E. 2138 Esclusham . 54 93 300 E. 2352 Gresford 184 337 619 14 E. 4159 Gwersyllt . 204 334 252 14 E. 1144 Holt . 40 93 281 30 E. 985 Llanfynydd 28 67 252 E. 5675 Minera . . 52 266 337 57 W. &E. 3231 Penycae . . 59 144 200 E. 4890 Rhosddu 80 431 300 W. &E. 10,700 Rhosllanerchrugog 114 393 290 '6 W. &E. 5936 Rhosymedre 165 348 98 69 E. 1523 Rossett 44 159 245 56 E. 376o Ruabon 98 2OI 474 W. &E. 18,792 Wrexham (S. Giles W. S. Mark) . 481 1509 594 94 19' APPENDIX D (b) SUMMARY OF STATISTICS OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND EASTER COMMUNICANTS DIOCESE OF ST. ASAPH RECORD FOR 21 YEARS 1891 TO 1912 Population 1891 1911 Increase per cent 282,990 313.233 Increase . . . 30,243 10-69 Sunday Schools 1891 1910 28,824 34,207 This shows an increase of 5,383 over < 1891. 18-67 Communicants Actually present on Easter Day 1890 ; 1912 14,214 31,069 This shows an increase of 16,855 over 1890. 118-50 In 1911 the ratio of Easter Communicants for the whole of England (exclusive of Wales), based on the census of that year, was 6-43 per cent.; for the Diocese of St. Asaph, 9-89 per cent. 388 DIOCESE OF ST. ASAPH THE population of the diocese in 1831 was 215,618, in 1911 313*233. There are now 209 parishes in the diocese. Since 1832, 61 new parishes have been formed; 112 new churches erected, 36 rebuilt, and 143 enlarged or restored. Churches and mission rooms have increased in number from 151 to 329. The resident incumbents have increased from 1 20 to 209. Assistant curates from 40 to 89. The Sunday services have increased from 292 to 686. Parsonages have increased from 107 to 193. Between the years 1840 and 1910 the voluntary offerings of the diocese include the following items, viz. : s. d. Church building, restoration and furnishing ...... 857,655 n 7 Parsonage houses . . . . . 110,492 19 9 Burial grounds . . . . . 19,371 3 9 Parish rooms ...... 31,828 16 4 Day Schools buildings .... 287,826 12 3 Maintenance and equipment of Day Schools . 785,220 o o 2,092,395 o o In addition to the above figures there are annual voluntary contributions for Church expenses and other purposes, 16,489 ; for Missions, 6454 ; for poor and hospitals, 2084. 289 APPENDIX D (d) COMPARISON OF POPULATION AND EASTER COMMUNICANTS IN COUNTRY PARISHES FOR TWENTY YEARS Population. Parish. Decrease in Popula- tion. Increase in Easter Communi- cants. 1891. 1911. 530 482 Bettws yn Rhos 48 40 492 459 Bodelwyddan . 33 23 704 642 ; Brynford. . 62 12 394 315 | Bwlchycibau . f 79 33 486 477 Cefn . . 9 34 508 388 Garthbeibio . ' 120 5 1372 1261 Guilsfield . in 21 927 865 Halkyn . 62 77 948 838 Henllan . 1 no 40 754 732 Llanddulas . 1 22 70 609 569 Llandrinio . 40 31 586 569 Llandysilio . 17 57 637 542 Llanerfyl. . 95 12 1906 1706 Llanfair Caereinion 1 200 40 1044 882 i Llanfairtalhaiarn 162 II 564 509 Llanfechain 55 22 446 410 Llanfihangel (Mont.) 36 30 1745 1631 Llanfyllin . 114 131 465 354 Llangadfan in 2 490 336 Llangadwaladr 154 IO 5" 5oi Llangedwyn 10 4 347 266 Llangynog 81 H 2572 2489 Llanllwchaiarn . 83 251 811 766 Llanefydd 45 23 1987 1798 Llanrhaiadr yn Mochnant 1 189 40 897 803 Llansantffraid yn Mechain 94 40 526 382 Llanwddyn . 144 10 788 754 Llanyblodwel . 34 76 945 829 Meifod . 116 97 830 780 Nerquis . | 50 4i 4038 3579 Newtown 459 158 531 499 Pennant . 3 7 365 294 Pool Quay 7i 3 541 520 Rhesycae . 21 38 401 339 Rhydycroesau . 62 32 289 204 S. George . 85 38 407 389 Towyn . . 18 8 1179 1098 Trefonen . 1 81 I2O 880 816 Whitford . 64 40 Total Decrease in Population 3?n Increase in Easter Com municants . . i 1741 290 APPENDIX E WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT BILL, 1912 WALES FOR THIS PURPOSE INCLUDES WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE 268,550 171,000 per annum. Total net income from endowments of the Church in Wales (1909) The following are the endowments (based on 1912 figures) to be secularised under the above Bill. The endowments which would be secularised were stated by Mr. McKenna to amount to about 173,000. Mr. McKenna was using the published figures which were for the year 1906, and, moreover, as no separate particulars had been published, he treated the value of land and tithe rent charge derived by benefices from the Ec- clesiastical Commissioners as having all come from a Welsh Church source. If he had had the means of separating the value of land and tithe rent charge derived by benefices from the Ecclesiastical Com- missioners, but coming from an English Church source, his figure would have been approximately (net) . . The corresponding figure on the basis of the Welsh Church income for the year 1912 is (net) and is made up in accordance with the provisions of the Bill of 1. The property (other than residences and other than charges on the Common Fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners) of Welsh Chapters and other non-parochial Corporations. 1 (The amount of this has not appeared in any published return, and has apparently been treated as negligible it is probably about 1629 per annum, and the greater part of it is in the nature of fabric funds which would not be secularised). 1 2. The Welsh Church property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners that is to say the property consisting of lands, tithe rent charges, &c., and funds arising from former sales and other trans- actions with lands, tithe rent charges, &c., be- longing to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and This would go to the University of Wales. * Neglected in Mr- McKenna's computation, and therefore neglected here. 292 APPENDIX E derived by them from Welsh Bishopricks, Chapters, and Cathedral dignities and preferment, after making the following adjustments, viz., including (a) the considerable amount of lands, tithe rent charge, and real property of the Com- missioners in Wales but derived from English Church preferments (e.g. the Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral), and excluding (b) the much smaller amount of real property in England derived from Welsh Church preferments (e.g. Llandaff Bishoprick), and excluding a capital sum representing the equality of exchange between (a) and (b). The value of this property (after the making of these adjustments) remains to be ascertained, and cannot be accurately ascertained without a detailed and careful investigation, which it will be the duty of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to make if the Bill passes : the amount has been stated to be approximately J . . ... 27,000 per annum. Net Annual Values. (Figures for the year 1912.) Glebes. T.R.C. Funds. The residue would go to Welsh County {. Councils, viz. 3. Certain properties of Welsh bene- fices, viz. (a) The whole of ancient glebes and tithes I5.97I 97,318 . . i (b) The whole of glebes and tithes annexed to benefices by the Ecclesiastical Com- missioners out of lands and tithes formerly belonging to Welsh Bishopricks, Chap- ters, &c. .... 470 13,080 - , . (c) The whole of glebes and tithes acquired by purchase with grants out of the Parlia- mentary Grants Fund of Queen Anne's Bounty . 1-577 262 Carry forward . 18,018 no,66o 1 This would go to the University of Wales, subject to expenses of the Act and some compensation payments (to patrons, lay officers, &c.). 2 These figures exclude the values of glebes and tithes (a) annexed by Ecclesiastical Commissioners out of property derived from English Church preferments, and (b) acquired by purchase out of capital grants by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. APPENDIX E 293 Net Annual Values. (Figures for the year 1912.) Glebes. T.R.C. Funds. Brought forward (d) One-third of glebes and tithes acquired by purchase with grants out of the Royal Bounty Fund of Queen Anne's Bounty. (e) The whole of glebes and tithes acquired by purchase with the proceeds of dealings with glebes and tithes of the classes (a), (b), (c) and (rf). 1 (/) Capital funds in the hands of Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commis- sioners, the Court or Trustees, and arising from dealings with glebes and tithes of the classes (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e), or being grants out of the Parliamentary Grants Fund of Queen Anne's Bounty, or one-third of grants out of the Royal Bounty Fund of Queen Anne's Bounty Derived from ancient glebe, &c. . Derived from glebe, &c., annexed by Ecclesiastical Commis- sioners out of Welsh Church property 2 Derived from Parliamentary Grants Fund . Derived from Royal Bounty Fund . . . . 18,018 4.538 SUMMARY 110,660 319 4,082 4,775 22,556 110,979 17.658 Capitular Properties .... Ecclesiastical Commissioners' property (as over) Properties of Benefices Glebes . . 22,556 Tithes . . 110,979 Funds . . 17,658 per annum. Neglected."! Welsh 27,000 /University. County Councils. I5LI93 i Included under (a), (b), (c) and (d). * Unknown, but quite small. APPENDIX F AN ACT for The betterJPropagation and Preaching of the GOSPEL in WALES And^redress of some Grievances. Die Veneris, 22 Februarii, 1649. Ordered by the Parliament, That this Act be forthwith printed and published. HEN. SCOBEL, Cleric. Parliaments London Printed for Francis Tyton, for the use of the Commissioners of Wales. 1650. AN ACT for The better Propagation and Preaching of the GOSPEL In Wales, and redress of some Grievances. The Parliament of England taking into their serious consideration the great Duty and Trust that lies on them to use all lawful ways and means for the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this Commonweath l : in order thereunto, Do Enact and Ordain, and be it Enacted and Ordained by this present Parliament, and by the Authority thereof, That Col. Thomas Harrison, Col. Philip Jones, Col. John lones, Sir lohn Trevor Knight, Henry Herbert, Esq. ; William Herbert, William Packer, William Blethin, Christopher Catchmay, Reece Williams, lohn Nicholas, Edward Herbert, Robert lones, Bussey Mansel, Edward Pritchard, lohn Price, l Commonwealth. 894 APPENDIX F 295 Rowland Dawkins, William Boteler, Edward Stradling, lohn Herbert, Richard lones, lenkin Frainlin, lohn lames, Wroth Rogers, lohn Herring, Stephen Winthrop, Esquires ; Sir Erasmus Philips, Sampson Lort, Henry Williams, Silvanus Taylor, Richard King, lohn Williams, lohn Dancy, Thomas Watkins, lames Philips, lohn Lewis, William Barber, Esquires ; lohn Daniel, lohn Bowen, Gent., lohn Puleston, one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas, Humphrey Mackworth, William Littleton, Robert Duckenfield, Thomas Baker, Hugh Price, Evan Lloyd, Richard Price, Robert Griffith, Edward Owens, George Twisleton, lohn Carter, Thomas Mason, Lighton Owens, Rice Vaughan, Thomas Ball, Hugh Courtney, Edward Taylor, Roger Southley, Esq. ; Daniel Lloyd, David Moris, William Wynne, Gentlemen ; Thomas Swift, Esq. ; Hugh Pritchard, Gent., lohn Sadler, lohn Peck, Luke Lloyd, Andrew Ellis, Ralph Crechley, Esquires ; Lewis Price of Llannoonog, Henry Williams, lohn Brown, Gent, are hereby constituted and appointed to be Commissioners in the Counties of Montgomery, Denbigh, Flint, Carnarvon, Merioneth, Anglesey, Monmouth, Glamorgan, Pembroke, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Brecknock, and Radnor, and every of them, to put in execution the several powers and authorities hereinafter mentioned and directed (that is to say) That they the said Commissioners or any five or more of them shall have full power and authority, and are hereby enabled and authorized to receive all Articles or Charges which shall be exhibited against any Parson, Vicar, Curate, School- master, or any other now having or that shall have any Ecclesiastical benefit or promotion within the said counties, or any of them, for any Delinquency, Scandal, Malignancy, or non-Residency ; and upon such Articles so exhibited, to grant out Warrants in writing under the Hands and Seals of the said Commissioners, or any five or more of them, to be directed to the party against whom such Articles shall be exhibited, re- quiring his appearance before such Commissioners, at a certain day and place in the said Warrant mentioned, to answer the said Charge or Articles respectively ; and after notice of the said Warrant personally made or given to the said party Articled against or left at his dwelling House or ordinary place of abode, and that notice proved by Oath to be made by the space of ten days before the day of appearance in the said Warrant mentioned (no just Cause being made and proved to excuse the not appearing) and likewise after answer made by such as shall appear according to summons, 296 APPENDIX F Then the said Commissioners, or any five or more of them, are hereby enabled and authorized to proceed to examination of witnesses upon Oath the said examinations and De- positions of such Witnesses to be put in writing, as well on the behalf of the Commonwealth to prove such Charges and Articles, as on the behalf of the parties articled against to make good their Answers ; which Oaths the said Com- missioners or any two or more of them, have hereby power to administer. And after due examination and proof made by confession of the party complained of, or by the Oath of two credible Witnesses, actually to amove, discharge and eject all such Ministers and other persons from their respective Cures, Benefices, Places and Charges, as they the said Commissioners or any five or more of them, upon such hearing shall adjudge to be guilty of any of the Crimes aforesaid, in the said Articles contained and comprised ; and after such Judgement given, in case any person shall finde himself aggrieved with such Judgement so given, Then it shall and may be lawful, to and for any twelve or more of the said Commissioners, upon Petition preferred to them by the party grieved, to review, examine and reverse the same, if they or the greater part of them see just cause so to do : And if notwithstanding the said ejected person shall not finde relief within six Weeks after his Petition so preferred, Then the said Commissioners, or any five or more of them, shall at the request of the parties agrieved respectively, certifie the respective Proceedings and Proofs in such cases respectively to the Committee of Parliament for Plundred Ministers ; who are hereby authorized upon the return of such Certificates, and view of such Proceedings and Proofs, without further examination of Witnesses in such cases, to examine the Grounds of the said respective Judgement appealed from, and to affirm or revoke the same, as they shall finde it most agreeable to Justice, and the tenor of this Act. And be it further Enacted and Declared, That the said Commissioners or any five or more of them, have hereby power and authority to allow the Wife and Children of such Minister or Ministers so ejected and amoved, for their maintenance, a proportion not exceeding a fifth part of the Living, Parsonage, Benefice, Vicarage, Charge or other place, out of which the said Ministers shall be respectively removed (all Parish Charges, Publike Taxes, and other Duties being first deducted out of the whole). APPENDIX F 297 And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That if any Parson or Vicar holdeth or enjoyeth, or which shall hold or enjoy plurality of Benefices or Ecclesiastical Promotions (one or more of which being within the Counties aforesaid) and upon a Warrant directed to him under the Hands of the said Commissioners or any five of them, requiring him at a certain day and place in the said warrant mentioned, to make choice and elect which of the said Benefices and Ecclesiastical Promotions he desires to hold : and upon notice of the said Warrant, shall not within forty days after the said notice, make his Election, testified under his hand before five or more of the said Commissioners, which of the said Benefices or Pro- motions he desires to hold, then from and after such default (no just cause being proved to excuse the same) all his right, title or interest in and to all such Benefices and Promotions to cease, determine, and be utterly void. And to the end that godly and painful men, of able gifts and knowledge for the work of the Ministery, and of approved conversation for Piety, may be imployed to preach the Gospel in the counties aforesaid (which heretofore abounded in Ignorance and Prophaneness) And that fit persons of approved Piety and Learning, may have encouragement to employ them- selves in the education of Children in piety and good literature, Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the said Com- missioners, or any five or more of them, be and are authorized and enabled to grant Certificates by way of approbation to such persons as shall be recommended and approved of by Henry Walter, Walter Cradock, Richard Simonds, Roger Charnock, Jenkin Lloid, Morris Bidwel, David Walter, William Seaborn, Edmond Ellis, Jenkin Jones, George Robinson, Richard Powel, Robert Powel, Thomas Ewen, John Miles, Oliver Thomas, Doctor John Ellis, Ambrose Moston, Stephen Lewis, Morgan Lloid, William Jones, Richard Edwards, Vavosor Powel, Richard Swain, Rowland Nevet, Ministers of the Gospel, or any five or more of them, for the preaching of the Gospel in the said Counties, as well in settled Congregations and Parochial Charges, as in an Itinerary course, as the said Commissioners (by the advice of such the said Ministers as shall recommend and approve of the said persons respectively) shall adjudge to be most for the advancement of the Gospel, or for the keeping of Schools, and education of Children : And to the end that a fitting maintenance may be provided for such persons as shall be so recommended and approved of, as also for such others approvedly godly and painful Ministers 298 APPENDIX F now residing within the said Counties, for whose support and maintenance there is little or no settlement made or provided ; Be it therefore Enacted and Ordained by the authority afore- said, That in order to the said maintenance, and in the regulating, ordering and disposal thereof, they the said Commissioners, or any twelve or more of them, are hereby authorized and enabled by themselves, or others deriving authority from them, to receive and dispose of all and singular the Rents, Issues, and Profits of all and every the Rectories, Vicarages, Donatives sine Cura's, Portion of Tenths, and other Ecclesiastical Livings, which now are, or hereafter shall be in the disposing of the Parliament, or any other deriving Authority from them ; as also to receive and dispose of the Rents, Issues and Profits of all Impropriations and Gleab- lands within the said Counties, which now are, or hereafter shall be under Sequestration, or in the disposal of the Parlia- ment, by vertue of any former Statute, or any Act or Ordinance of this present Parliament. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the said Commissioners, or any twelve or more of them, shall and may out of the said Rents, Issues and Profits of the said Rectories, Vicarages, Donatives, sine Cura's, Portion of Tenths, and other Ecclesiastical Promotions ; as also out of the Rents, Issues and Profits of the said Impropriations and Gleab- lands, order and appoint a constant yeerly maintenance for such persons as shall be recommended and approved of as aforesaid, for the work of the Ministery, or the Education of Children ; as also for such other Ministers as aforesaid, now residing within the said Counties ; provided that the yeerly maintenance of a Minister do not exceed one hundred pounds, and the yeerly maintenance of a School-master exceed not Forty pounds : And that godly Ministers (who have or shall have Wife or Children) may not too much be taken off from their duties in the Ministery, with the care and consideration of maintenance for their Wives and Children after their decease, but that some care thereof may be had by others, whereby a greater en- couragement may be given to them to set themselves the closer to the work of the said Ministery ; Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the said Commissioners, or any twelve or more of them, are hereby enabled and authorized to make such yeerly allowance to the Wife and Children of such godly Minister after his decease, as to the said Commissioners or any twelve of them shall seem reasonable, for the necessary support and APPENDIX F 299 maintenance of the said Wife or Children, or any of them, Pro- vided always, That such allowance so to be made to such Wife and Children, do not exceed the yearly sum of thirty pounds : And if any person or persons being Tenant or Occupier of any Lands, tenements or Hereditaments, lyable and subject to the payments of any Tenths or other Duties in right payable or belonging to any Parsonage, Vicarage, or any the abovesaid Ecclesiastical Promotions, shall refuse payment thereof, Then the said Commissioners or any two or more of them, are hereby authorized and enabled to put in execution against every person and persons so refusing, the powers and authorities vested and setled by this present Parliament in the Justices of the Peace, for the relief of Ministers from whom such Tenths and Duties are detained and substracted. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the said Commissioners or any twelve or more of them, out of the said Tenths, Rents, and Profits by them receiveable by force of this Act, shall and may allow such moderate Salary or Wages to such person or persons who shall be imployed in the receiving, keeping, and disposal thereof, or any part thereof, as they shall conceive to be necessary and reasonable. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every person and persons qualified and approved of as abovesaid, for the preaching of the Gospel as aforesaid, who shall be vested and setled by the said Commissioners, or any twelve or more of them, in any Rectory, Vicarage, or Parochial Charge, which the said Commissioners, or any twelve or more of them have hereby power to do, shall be deemed and adjudged to be seized of the same, as fully and amply, to all intents and purposes, as if such person and persons were presented, in- stituted and inducted to and in the same, according to former Laws in such cases used and provided. And whereas the remoteness of the said Counties from the Courts of Justice at Westminst. occasioneth many acts of high Misdemeanors, Oppression and injury to be committeed there, which often times escape unpunished, and the parties agrieved thereby, for want of means to seek relief by due course of Law, left remediless ; To the end therefore that such Misdemeanors, Oppressions and Injuries may f "the better be enquired after, and the parties grieved thereby, without much expence of monies or loss of time, may be in some way of relief, Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the said Commissioners or any five or more of them, shall have, and hereby have full Power 20 300 APPENDIX F and Authority to receive all Complaints which shall be brought before them, of any such Misdemeanors, Oppression or Injury, committed by any person or persons within the said Counties, or any of them ; and by Warrant directed to the party com- plained of, under the Hands and Seals of the said Com- missioners or any five or more of them, to appear before them at a certain day and place in the said Warrant mentioned, requiring an Answer to the said Complaints ; and after answer made, then with the consent of both parties, testifie under their Hands and Seals, to proceed to hear and determine the same. And whereas sufferings of that nature generally fall upon persons well-affected to the Parliament, and such as have acted in and for their service ; which said persons are not of ability to travel to London, to be relieved by the Committee of Parliament, commonly called the Committee of Indempnity, Be it therefore Enacted and Ordained by the Authority afore- said, That the said Commissioners, or any five, or more of them, shall be, and are hereby made and constituted a Committee of Indempnity, to all intents and purposes, within the Counties aforesaid, for the hearing and determining of all matters and things properly relievable and de terminable by the said Committee of Indempnity. Provided alwayes, That if any person or persons shall find him or themselves agrieved at the proceedings of the said Commissioners, acting as a Committee of Indempnity, then the said person or persons so agrieved, shall and may prosecute his or their Petition or Appeale for relief, in such manner and form as in and by this Act is pre- scribed in the cases of ejected Ministers, and bring the same to a final determination, before the said Committee of Indempnity sitting at Westminster ; which said Committee are hereby authorized to hear and determine the same, as they shall see just cause. And be it further Enacted, That all Power and Authority formerly vested in any Committee within the said Counties, or of any the, for the placing of Ministers in Ecclesiasticall Livings or Promotions, be from henceforth determined ; and that no person or persons shall be from henceforth vested and setled in any Rectory, Vicarage or Ecclesiasticall Promotion within any of the said Counties, unless such person or persons so to be vested or setled, be recommended and approved of for the work of the Ministery, according to the tenor and true meaning of this Act : And that this Act shall continue and be in force for the space of Three years, from the Five and twentieth day of March, One thousand six hundred and fifty and no longer. APPENDIX G SEQUESTERED CLERGY AND INTRUDED MINISTERS IN ST. ASAPH DIOCESE DURING THE COMMONWEALTH THE following list for the diocese of St. Asaph has been com- piled from the Lambeth MSS. (for corrections from which I am greatly indebted to the Rev. Claude Jenkins, Lambeth Palace Librarian), from the Composition Books (First Fruits from Clergy), from the Record Office, from the Minute-Book of the North Wales Committee, and other MSS. at the Bodleian, from the Records of the Puritan Inductions and Institutions in the House of Lords, and from Diocesan Papers at St Asaph. This list has been made as complete as time and circum- stances would allow, and seems to supply adequate grounds for certain conclusions. It is clear that very few parishes in the diocese of St. Asaph escaped the disintegration and confusion which followed in the train of the Great Rebellion. From the dates in the list it appears that the majority of the parishes were left for many years unprovided for, and there is little to show that the itinerant ministers were at all ap- preciated, or, for the matter of that, displayed any great activity. The North Wales Committee, which were sent down by the House of Commons in June 1644, early showed an anxiety for their own maintenance, and on 7th June 1648 the tithes of six parishes were given to Vavasor Powell and Ambrose Mostyn " to hold and enjoy in the fullest and amplest manner," and a sum of \ 20 a year from the income of the Bishop of St. Asaph was paid to Morgan Lloyd. The Minute-Book in the Bodleian records that in November 1650 a further sum of ^150 was to be paid to these same persons. The Commonwealth Exchequer Papers contain a balance sheet presented to Sir Thomas Widdrington, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, by Griffith Bowen and John Cox, receivers in 301 302 APPENDIX G Wales, for the year ending 1657. From this document it would appear that the receipts from the Episcopal and Capitular revenues which were supposed to be diverted to education, amounted to ^1658, and the payments to ^360. There is no evidence from these documents that the Puritans showed any zeal or generosity towards education in North Wales, nor does it appear what happened to the balance, ^1298. The Intruded Ministers, when they were not clergy who had accepted the League and Covenant, appear to have been chiefly itinerants, and when the Committee which held the common purse was dissolved at the Restoration, the whole system of itinerancy disappeared, and this seems to explain the answer in the handwriting of Bishop Griffiths made to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1666, " Concerning Non- conformist Ministers ejected for non-subscription or incon- formity, I do not know of any such within this diocese of St. Asaph." In the following list "int." means intruded, and includes all those who were placed by other than Episcopal authority in the churches or parishes ; " seq." is an abbreviation for sequestered, and includes all the Clergy who were "silenced, outed, or deprived." ABERGELE. Gabriel Parry, seq. 1647. Grant of 50 p.a. to Henry Pue, " a godlie and orthodox divine," 1647. Thos. Carter, int. May 1650. John Conant, int. 1656. ABERHAFESP. Maurice Lloyd, int. 1654. BANGOR MONACHORUM. Robert Ffogg, int. May 1650. One- fifth of income to Catherine Bridgman, wife of seq. Rector, July 1650. BERRIEW. Thos. Lloyd, seq. 1645; ^40 seq. for int. minister at Hissington. BETTWS CEDEWAIN. Rees Jones, int. 1654, on presentation of Oliver Cromwell. Gabriel Jones, int. 1657 by Letters Patent. BETTWS GWERFYL GOCH. Thomas Atkins, seq. 1649. BETTWS YN RHOS. David Jones, int. 1650. In 1648 tithes for one year given to John Holland of St. George. BODFARI. David Eyton, int. 1654. BRYNEGLWYS. John Roberts, seq. 1650. BUTTINGTON. William Lanckford, seq. 1650. Oliver Rogers, seq. 1650. CAERWYS. John Pearce, seq. 1648. George Roberts, int. 1648. CASTLE CAEREINION. Rice Winnie, int. 1648. Thomas Jones, int. 1655. CERRIGYDRUDION. Robert Wynne, int. 1657. CHIRK. Robert Lloyd, seq., but allowed 20 p.a., November 1650. APPENDIX G SOS CILCEN. No entries. CORWEN. Edward Roberts, clerk, int. 1648 (" instituted by Dr. Heath"), and seq. 1650. Rectorial tithes, 1650, assigned to John Lloyd, Esquire, and Randall Owen, gent., and in 1651 to Michael Ellice and Jerom Kynaston. CWM. W. Rogers, seq. May 1650. H. Maurice, int. 1654. DENBIGH. W. Jones, int. 1651. DYSERTH. Rice Williams, int. 1647. EFENECHTYD. W. Lloyd, int. 1658. EGLWYSFACH. No entries. ERBISTOCK. No entries. FLINT. No entries. GARTHBEIBIO. J. Davies, seq. 1648. GRESFORD. S. Lloyd, seq. 1646. Allowance to his wife, Sep- tember 1646. From Gresford tithes, 50 seq. for int. minister at Holt, and ^30 for int. minister at Isycoed and Allington. GUILSFIELD. Edward Ellice, seq. May 1650. GWAENYSGOR. Robert Edwards, int. 1649. GWYDDELWERN. Stephen Lewis, clerk, int. September 1647 (" instituted by Dr. Aylett "). GWYTHERIN. R. Hughes, int. 1657 (by Letters Patent). HALKYN. No entries. HANMER. R. Steele, int. 1650. HAWARDEN. Laurence Ffogg, int. 1657. HENLLAN. Ffowke Lloyd, seq. 1649. W. Salisbury, int. 1657. HIRNANT. John Hughes, seq. 1650. HOLT. Randle Proudlove, int. July 1651. ^100 p. a. assigned him. Hugh Bithel, int. 1654. Ambrose Mostyn, int. 1656. HOLYWELL. Robert Edwards, int. 1657. HOPE. Henry Jones, seq. May 1650. Allowance made to his wife, Lucy Jones, July 1650. John Parry, int. 1659. KERRY. Tithes assigned to Mr. Brayne, May 1650. : KINNERLEY. No entry. KNOCKIN. No entry. LLANARMON YN IAL. Ellis Owen, seq. 1650. John Jones, int. 1655 (" by sign-manual, Oliver, P."). LLANASA. R. Evans, seq. 1646. LLANBEDR. Oliver Maurice, seq. May 1650. Allowance to his wife, Jane Maurice, July 1650. Hugh Pugh, int. 1654. LLANDDERFEL. Andrew Thellwall, seq. 1651. W. Hughes, int. 1657. LLANDDOGET. No entry. LLANDEGLA. W. Powell, seq. 1650. B. Pritchard, int. 1658, " on the presentation of John, Lord Jones." LLANDRILLO. In 1650 tithes assigned to Capt. Viner and Howell Lloyd. H. Jones, int. 1655. J. Taylor, hit. 1656. 2O* 304 APPENDIX G LLANDRILLO (Rnos). Profits assigned]to T. Gorge, 1650. LLANDRINIO. Thomas Tonge, int. 1654. LLANDULAS. No entry. LLANDYSILIO (POOL). David Bray, seq. May 1650. LLANDYSSIL. T. Thompson, seq. October 1650, and to " leave house before June or to loose the allowance of one-fifth." Martimas Grundman, int. October 1658, by Richard, P. LLANELIAN. John Wynne, int. 1655. LLANELIDAN. Ellis Rowlands, int. 1653. D. Wynne, int. 1657. LLANERFYL. Roger Jones, int. June 1647 (" instituted by Dr. Heath "), "he taking the National League and Covenant." LLANFAIR CAEREINION. R. Jones, seq. June 1650, allowance to wife and children, July 1650. LLANFAIR D. C. R. Lloyd, seq. 1646. R. Edwards, int. 1646. LLANFAIR T. H. No entry. LLANFECHAIN. T. Foulkes, int. 1647 (" instituted by Dr. Aylett "), " he taking the Covenant." LLANFERRES. No entry. LLANFIHANGEL G. M. No entry. LLANFIHANGEL, MONT. J. Edwards, seq. 1650. John Vaughan, int. 1654. LLANFOR. W. Lankford, assigned rectorial tithes, June 1650. Mr. Roberts, seq. June 1651. LLANFYLLIN. C. Lloyd, int. 1654. LLANGADFAN. J. Foulks, int. 1659 (by Letters Patent from Richard, P.). LLANGADWALADR. No entry. LLANGAR. No entry. LLANGEDWYN. No entry. LLANGERNIEW. H. Pritchard, clerk, int. 1654. D. Morris, int. 1658 (by Letters Patent). LLANGOLLEN. H. Jones, seq. May 1650. Allowance to his wife, July 1650. E. Roberts, int. 1656 (by Letters Patent from Oliver, P.). LLANGOWER. No entry. LLANGWM. John Wynne, clerk, int. 1648 (" instituted by Dr. Bennett "). Profits of Rectory to go to Daniel Lloyd, one of the Commissioners, November 1650. LLANGYSTENIN. Morris Parrye, seq. 1650. Allowance to Ellen Parry his wife, July 1651. LLANGYNHAFAL. Rice Williams, int. 1654. LLANGYNOG. John Ellis, int. 1658. LLANGYNYW. Maurice Lloyd, int. 1657. LLANLLUGAN. No entry. LLANLLWCHAIARN. Rice Price, int. 1647 (" instituted by Dr. Heath"), "he taking the National League and Covenant." Hugh Price, int. 1654 (by Oliver, P.) APPENDIX G 305 LLANMEREWIG. No entry. LLANNEFYDD. Committee in 1646 and 1649, seq. Prebendary Arskin to augment J. Brigdale's income. LLANRHAIADR M. John Williams, seq. 1650. Oliver Thomas, int. 1650. Allowance to Mrs. Williams, May 1651. J. Roberts, int. (by Oliver, P.) 1654. C. Edwards, int. 1657. Francis Howell, int. 1658 (by Oliver, P.). LLANRHAIDR D. C. Dr. Hill, seq. 1650. LLANRHOS. Godfrey Davies, seq. 1650. LLANRWST. W. Grigdale, clerk, int. 1648 (" instituted by Dr. Aylett "). LLANSANNAN. Tithes assigned to E. Price (of Ffynnogion, Ruthin), 1650. Hugh Maurice paid 5 and " discharged from further officiating in Wales," November 1651. J. Roberts, int. 1656 (by Letters Patent from Oliver, P.). LLANSANTFFRAID G. CONWY. D. Jones, int. 1646. LLANSANTFFRAID G. CEIRIOG. No entry. LLANSANTFFRAID G. DYFRDWY. No entry. LLANSANTFFRAID Y M. John Hughes, seq. 1650. E. Hall, int. 1654 (by Cromwell). LLANSILIN. R. Gervase, seq. 1650. LLANT YSSILIO (LLANGOLLEN) . No entry. LLANUWCHLLYN. No entry. LLANWDDYN. No entry. LLANWYDDELAN. G. Meyricke, seq. 1651. P. Rogers, int. 1 659 (by Richard, P.). LLANYBLODWEL. No entry. LLANYCIL (BALA). T. Edwards, clerk, int. 1649. E. Piers, int. l &57- J onn Jones, int. May 1658. LLANYMYNECH. No entry. LLANYNYS. R. Sparks, int. 1646. 50 given him from Rectory of Abergele. " Parish consisted of 1500 communicants." E. Vaughan, clerk, int. 1647 (by Dr. Aylett). LLYSFAEN. No entry. MANAFON. J. Kyffin, seq. 1650. Theodore Roberts, int. 1657. MARCHWIEL. No entry. MEJFOD. Randall Davies, clerk, int. 1647 (instituted by Dr. Aylett), " he taking the Covenant." MELIDEN. Morgan ap Morgan, int. 1649. MELVERLEY. No entry. MOLD. No entry. NANNERCH. Resolved by Parliamentary Committee at Llan- fyllin, August 1650, " that the inhabitants of Nannerch doe severally injoy their tithes ! " NANTGLYN. No entry. NERQUIS. No entry. NEWMARKET. R. Edwards, int. 1648. R. Edwardson, int. 1654. 306 APPENDIX G NEWTOWN. Eubule Lewis, seq. 1651, and allowance made to his wife, Dorothy Lewis. R. Wynne, int. 1654. NORTHOP. A. Sparke, int. 1646. A. Stephens, int. 1655 (by Oliver, P.). OSWESTRY. R. Nevett, int. 1655. OVERTON. Eyton, int. 1650. Orlando Ffogg, int. 1654. RHUDDLAN. 1648, 20 p.a., seq. for Gressford. RUABON. H. Lloyd, int. 1647 (instituted by Dr. Aylett), " he having taken the National League and Covenant." H. Lloyd (same man), seq. 1650. R. Hill, int. 1654. RUTHIN. Dr. D. Lloyd, seq. 1650. ST. ASAPH. Bishop, Dean, and Canons, seq. 1648. Episcopal estates sold 1648 and 1649 for nominal sum to G. Twistleton (a Commissioner), and others. ST. GEORGE. No entry. SELATTYN. No entry. TREGYNON. No entry. TREIDDYN. No entry. TREMEIRCHION. No entry. WELSHPOOL. W. Lanckford, seq. May 1650. " Allowed to retain house and glebe, but never able to injoy it." Nathaniel Ravens, hit. 1658. WHITFORD. No entry. WHITTINGTON. No entry. WORTHENBURY. Philip Henry, int. 1653. WREXHAM. W. Smith, int. 1646. Dr. Harding, hit. 1649, and allowed 100 a year from Gressford " for his labours and paines" in the said town and district. Ambrose Mostyn, Morgan Lloyd, Vavasor Powell, Mr. Lewis, and Richard Edwards^had a grant of money and worked from this centre. YSCEIFIOG. E. Lloyd, clerk, int. November 1647 (by Dr. Heath). YSPYTTY IFAN. No entry. N.B. Drs. Heath and Aylett (the latter Commissary of Faculties at York) were ordered by the House of Lords to institute and induct ministers. This survival of Episcopacy was later superseded by presentation by Com- missioners of the Great Seal, finally by that of the Protector. In the above list Richard Cromwell as Protector presented to two benefices INDEX ABERGWILI, Palace of, 109 ; re- vivalist meeting at, 189. Aberhafesp, 1 88. Agwod, form of his contrition, 69. Aidan, his mission to England, 82. Americans, the nationality of, 225. Anglesey, Report on the condition of, 218. Annales Cambriae, 15, 59. Annual Register, extract from, 208 note. Ariminum, Council of, 16, 46. Aristobulus, fable of, 2. Arius, condemnation of, 16. Aries, Council of, i, 15, 142. Armorica, British fugitives in, 35 ; Duke of, 25. Arwystli lien, 2. Asaph, St., diocese of, founded by Kentigern, 36, 251 ; number of clergy, 98, 270 ; vandalism of the Puritans, 124 ; number of min- isters ejected at the Restoration, I 33> 301-306 ; condition of the diocese, 162, 278-281 ; state of religion, 164 ; value of benefices, 175; Visitation Returns, 178, 186, 187 ; condition of the poor, 208 ; the work of reform, 221, 266-269 ; lack of Nonconformist ministers, 243 ; population, 268, 269, 290 ; number of schools, 268 ; cost of maintaining, 269 ; restoration of the cathedral and churches, 269 ; number of parishes, 269; commun- icants, 270, 288, 290 ; tithe-payers, 275 ; parochial record, 282-287. Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., his speeches on the Established Church (Wales) Bill, 255-257. Athrwys, King, 69. Augustine, St., his mission to the Saxons, 39, 83 ; lands in Kent, 39 ; instructions from Pope Gregory, 39 ; conferences with the British bishops, 40-43 ; his healing of a blind man, 40 ; treatment of the bishops, 42. Aurelian persecution at Lyons, 7, 13. Auxerre, 27. Badon Hill, victory at, 35. Bagot, Bishop, episcopate of, 187. Bala, 1 74 ; Methodist Association meetings at, 202, 209. Baldwin, Archbishop, his pilgrim- age to Wales, 89. Ballinger, Mr., his book on the Bible in Wales, charge against the bishops, 154. Bangor, founded by Deiniol, 36, 251 ; value of benefices, 175. Bangor-is-Coed monastery, 41. Bannaventa, 26. Baptists, number of, in Wales, 186, 240, 245, 246 ; their views on education, 267. Barates, discovery of his tombstone, 12. Bardsey, island of, the monks of, 8l. Barlow, Bishop, 103. Barrow, Isaac, Bishop of St. Asaph, his work in the diocese, 163. Bassaleg, 20. Bayly, Lewis, Bishop of Bangor, 120; character of his sermons, 121 ; popularity of his .book, the Practice of Piety, 121, 234. Bede, his legend of King Lucius, 6 ; opinion of Pelagius, 23 ; on the reception of the heresy in Britain, 25 ; on the conference between St. Augustine and the bishops, 41. Bedwas Church, vandalism of the Puritans, 124. 307 SOS INDEX Bernard, Bishop of St. David's, 86. Berthwyn, Bishop of Llan Dav, 56. Bertrand, M., 28. Bettws Gwerfyl Goch church, con- dition, 167. Bevan, Archdeacon, on the system of leasing the incomes of pre- bendal churches, 102. Beveridge, Bishop, 179. Bibl Bach, publication of the, 236. Bible, translation of, into Welsh, 145, 149, 236 ; difficulties, 149, 156; cost, 150; delay in the publication, 153-156; charges against the bishops, 1 54 ; fresh versions, 156 ; first popular edi- tion, 236. Bible, English Revised Version, length of time to complete, 156. Bingley, Rev. W., his description of a revivalist meeting, 197-199. Bishopston, or Bishton, 54 note, 57. Bran, the Blessed, conversion of, 2. Brecknock, immorality of the people, 217. Brecon, revivalist meeting at, 189. Breconshire, condition of the churches, 212 ; number of Wes- leyans, 246. Bridgman, Mr., 133. Brigstocke, Mr., on the character of the Welsh, 217. Bristow, Dr., his Welsh Roman Catholic Primer, 149. Britain, origin of early Christianity, I ; the first evangelists, 2 ; trade with Gaul, 7 ; influence of the Gallican Churches, 8, 14 ; con- tact with the East, 1 1 ; date of the introduction, 13 ; coinage, 14 ; reception of the Pelagian heresy, 25 ; victory over the Picts and Scots, 25 ; withdrawal of the Romans, 33 ; result of the Saxon invasion, 35 ; use of the Brythonic language, 3 ; victory at Badon Hill, 35- British Church, see Church. Britons and Saxons, fusion between, 83- Brittany, survival of the Brythonic language, 35, 228. Brymbo, cost of mission churches and schools, 271 ; number of Easter Communicants, 271 ; con- tributions, 272. Bryneglwys, parish of, 171. Brythonic language, use of, in Britain, 35. Bull, George, Bishop of St. David's, 179. Burgess, Life of Bishop, founder of St. David's College, on the con- dition of the diocese, 213. Bury, Prof., 26, 28. Buurr, Evan, his crime and penance, 38, 61, 70. Bwlch y Groes, the pass of the Cross, 205. Cadoc St., the founder of Llan- carfan, 30, 82 ; denounces the murderer, Evan Buurr, 38, 61 ; donations of land recorded in his Life, 6 1 ; payment of tithes, 70. Cadwared, Bishop, 69. Caer Riou, 69. Caerleon, churches at, 20 ; Adelfius, Bishop of, at the Council of Aries, IS- Calamy, on the number of sequestra- tions in 1662, 134. Calixtus II., Bull of, 53, 57, 60. Calpurnius, 26. Calvinistic Methodists, number of, in Wales, 240, 246 ; see Method- ists. Cambrian Society, revival of the Eisteddfod, 237. Camden, author of Britannia De- scriptio, his testimony to the Welsh, 138. Candida Casa Monastery, 28. Canterbury, St. Martin's Church at, 20. Capel y Split, or the Chapel of the Schism, 215. Caractacus, or Caratacos, conversion of, 2. Cardiff, 188 ; Church of St. Mellon, 8 ; revivalist meeting at, 189 ; number of Calvinistic Methodists, 246 ; Wesleyans, 246. Cardigan, immorality of the people, 217. Carey, Edward, dishonest mode of obtaining patronage of livings, 103. Carmarthen, Black Book of, 142, 143 ; revivalist meeting at, 189. Carmarthenshire, population, 214 ; immorality of the people, 217 ; INDEX 309 number of Wesleyans, 246 ; Bap- tists, 246. Carnarvon, Methodist meeting, 198; population, 214; immoral char- acter of the people, 216. Celedei, Colidei, or Culdees, their characteristics, 8 1 ; persecution, 81. Celestius, an advocate of the doc- trines of Pelagius, 26. Celts, their temperament, 230. Census, or gwesta, 68. Cerenhir, Bishop, 69. Chad, St., The Book of, 48 ; entries in, 48-50, 68. Chalmers, Dr., his lecture on the Establishment of National Churches, extract from, 246. Charles, Rev. David, Principal of the MethodistCollege atTrevecca, on the immorality of the people, 217. Charles, Thomas, of Bala, exhorta- tion from Williams, 194 ; his income, 196; birth, 204; at Oxford, 205; Curate of Llan- ymawddwy, 205 ; leader of the Methodists, 206 ; opposition to the secession, 206 ; his character, 207. Chester, battle of, 38. Chi-Rho monogram, or the Chris- tian symbol, 20. Christianity, its origin in Britain, I ; derived from Gaul, 7, 14; Oriental influence, 9 ; contact with the East, 1 1 ; date of the introduction into Britain, 13. Chrysostom, St., on St. Paul's travels, 4 ; the growth of the British Church, 16. Church, the British, bishops present at the Councils, 15, 16 ; growth and development, 16 ; pilgrim- ages, 17 ; churches, 17-20 ; theory on the origin of the basilica, 19 ; minor relics, 20 ; the Chi-Rho monogram or Christian symbol, 20 ; inscriptions, 20 ; text of the Scriptures, 21 ; adoption of the Vulgate, 22 ; peculiarities of the Liturgy, 22 ; the Holy Com- munion, 23 ; outbreak of the Pelagian heresy, 23 ; mission to Ireland, 27, 8 1 ; monastic and missionary character, 28, 80 ; power of the bishops and priests, 38 ; conferences between the bishops and St. Augustine, 40-43 ; grants of land, 45, 54-63 ; mode of punishing crimes, 47 ; number of bishops, 47 ; their character, 47 ; gifts and donations, 47 ; de- velopment of tithes, 66 ; estab- lished by custom and law, 75~77 ; amalgamation with the Welsh Church, 85, 89. Church, Celtic, missionary and monastic character, 28. Church of England, result of the system of non-residence, 212. Church in Wales, see Wales. Cirencester, inscription on the base of a column, 20. Claudia and Pudens, story of, 4. Clement, St., his Epistle to the Corinthians, 3. Clwyd, Vale of, defacement of crosses, 120. Columba, founds the monastery of lona, 82. Colwyn Bay, cost of church build- ing and extension, 271 ; number of Easter Communicants, 271. Commons, House of, debates on Welsh Disestablishment, 252-257. Communicants on Easter Day, number of, in the diocese of St. Asaph, 270 ; in England, 271. Congregrational Union of England and Wales, view on education, 267. Consanguinity, the claim of nation- ality, 225. Constantine, King, 58. Corbridge (Corstopitum), 12, 20. Cornwall, Oferen, or Holy Com- munion, 23 ; British fugitives, 35, 38 ; the disappearance of the language, 158, 228. Cromwell, Oliver, on the loyalty of the Welsh, 123. Cuneglasos, 37. Cymmer, Abbey of, 105. David's, St., diocese of, founded by St. David, 36, 251 ; claim to Metropolitan authority, 86 ; re- port on the condition of the diocese, 100-102, 163, 213 ; value of benefices, 175. 310 INDEX Davies, Dr. John, his Dictionary, 236. Davies, Bishop Richard, on the number of clergy in St. Asaph, 98 ; his report on the condition of religion, 100-102 ; on disorders in the diocese, 101 ; disposal of patronage, 103 ; his preface to the New Testament, 145, 151, 157 ; assistance in the translation, 150, 236 ; lawsuits against Carey, 151 ; version of the Pastoral Epistles, 151 ; on the translation of the Old Testament, 152. Davies, Robert, 50. Davies, Thomas, Bishop of St. Asaph, his injunction or ordin- ance, 96 ; on the use of Welsh in churches, 148. Davies, Rev. Walter, his influence on the revival of the Eisteddfod, 237- Davies-Cooke, Philip, 50. Denbigh, 188 ; rector and vicar deprived of benefices, 126 ; con- dition of the Church, 168 ; popu- lation, 214 ; number of Inde- pendents, 246. Denham, Henry, 150. Deorham, battle of, 38. Dictionary, a Welsh, 236. Dictionary of National Biography, extract from, 192. Dillwyn, Mr., on Welsh Disestab- lishment, 254, 255. Dinooth, Abbot of Bangor-is-Coed monastery, 41. Diocletian, Emperor, 6. Disendowment Bill, Welsh, 261. Disestablishment and Disendow- ment, Welsh, Bill, 291-293 ; debates on, in the House of Commons, 252-257. Down Ampney, 40. Druids, the, 28 ; magical powers, 29 ; the tonsure, 29. Drummond, Archbishop of York, 179, 183. Dubricius, St., grant made to, 58. Easter, the Roman, adoption of, 85 ; number of Communicants in the diocese of St. Asaph, 270, 288, 290; in England, 271. Education in Wales, report on, 215 ; system of, 253, 266. Edward I., King, 54. Edward in., King, the statutes of Praemunire and Provisors, 91. Edwards, John, his translation of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, 235- Eisteddfod, revival of the, 237. Eleutherus, Bishop of Rome, 6. Elias, John, character of his sermons, 210; on the decline of religion. 218. Elizabeth, Queen, accession, 148 ; Act for the translation of the Bible into Welsh, 149, 153 ; her characteristics, 232. Elli, his payment of tithes, 70. Ellis, Edward, deprived of his benefices, 127. Ethelbert, King, 40. Euengiltheu, or Text of the Gospels, 144. Evans, David, his character as a schoolmaster, 140. Evans, Dr. Gwenogvryn, on the authenticity of the endowments of the British Church, 64, 144. Evans, Canon Silvan, his dictionary of the Welsh language, 235. Ferrar, Bishop, his trial, 95, 119. Field, Bishop of Llandaff, 50. Finian, the monk, 38, 62. Firth, Prof., on the zeal of the Puritans for education, 138. Fisher, Rev. John, Lives of the British Saints, 80 ; on the Private Devotions of the Welsh People, 98. Flavius Antigonus Papias, the tombstone of, 21. Fleetwood, Bishop, on the poverty of the clergy, 175 ; his character, 179, 184. Flint, population, 245 ; number of Baptists, 245 ; Independents, 246. Forster, Mr., on the condition of education in St. Asaph "s, 266. Freeman, Colonel, his imprison- ment, 130. Galatia, 3. Gallican Church, influence on the British Church, 8, 14 ; source, 9 ; Oriental influence, 9-11. Gaul, 3 ; trade with Britain, 7. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, 8 ; preaches against the doctrines of Pelagius, 25. INDEX 811 Gildas, 33 ; on the basilian type of church, 19 ; the British liturgy, 22; his travels, 31; narrow monastic view, 37 ; at the monas- tery of St. Illtyd, 82. Giraldus, his Autobiography De Rebus Gestis, 72 ; on the payment of tithes, 73 ; Gemma Ecclesi- astica, 74 ; his description of the Culdees, 81 ; mixed descent, 86 ; characteristics, 86 ; opinion of Welshmen, 87 ; appointment to bishoprics, 88 ; his pilgrimage with Archbishop Baldwin, 89. Gladstone, W. E., on the religious character of the Welsh, 179 ; on the introduction of Welsh in the church services, 236;; his defence of the Church in Wales, 255. Glamorganshire, population, 214 ; immorality of the people, 217 ; number of Independents, 246. Glasbury Vicarage, value of, 128. Glastonbury, wattled church at, 20. Glewyssig, Morgan, King of, 60. Gododin, a poem of Aneurin, 142, 143- Goldwell, Thomas, Bishop of St. Asaph, his injunctions to the priesthood, 95. Goodman, Dean, 153. Gouge, Mr. , forms a society for cir- culating Welsh books, 157, 159. Gregory, Pope, his instructions to St. Augustine for organising the new Church of the Saxons, 39 ; declaration, 84. Griffiths, George, Bishop of St. Asaph, his work in the diocese, 162. Gualluiur, his grant of land, 71. Guidnerth, his crime, 54, 62 ; punishment, 55, 62 ; pardoned, 5.6. Guilsfield, parish of, petition from, 126, 135. Gwesta, meaning of the word, 66 ; the winter and summer, 67. Harcourt, Sir William, his view on the payment of tithes, 78 ; on Welsh Disestablishment, 254. Hare, Bishop, 179. Harnack, Prof., on the legend of King Lucius, 6. Harris, Howel, the founder of the Welsh Methodism, 190 ; at Oxford, 191 ; conducts prayer- meetings, 191 ; his marriage, 192 ; relations with a married woman, 192 ; character, 193 ; income, 196. Harrison, the fanatic, appointe a sequestrator, 125, 130. Haverfield, Prof., his discovery of the tombstone of Barates, 12 ; Early British Christianity, extract from, 43. Hay, endowment of, 72. Henry II., King, 89; resists the Papal supremacy, 91. Henry in., King, 91. Henry iv., King, 92, 93. Henry vi., King, 91. Henry vin., King, the Valor Ecclesiastics, 54, 57, 59 ; his Act of Parliament against the Papal supremacy, 91 ; dissolution of monasteries, 92, 94, 143 ; religi- ous views, 146. Henry, Philip, Presbyterian minister of Worthenbury, 133 ; resigns his curacy, 133. Heriot, custom of, 78. Heylin, Bowland, 236. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, 8 ; his defence of St. Athanasius, 16. Hilton, Mr., 133. Honorius II., Bull of, 53, 57, 60. Howel the Good, Laws of, 71, 143. Hubner, Prof., 12. Huet, Thomas, his translation into Welsh of the Book of Revelation, 150. Hughes, Stephen, his suppression of Prichard's poems, 1 16. Iddon, King, 59. Illtud, 6l. Illtyd, St., 38 ; monastery of, 82. Immorality of the Welsh, report on, 216-220. Independents, number of, in Wales, 182, 1 86, 240, 246; their moral system, 184. lona, monastery of, 82. Ireland, Christianity in, 26 ; British mission to, 27, 81 ; Celtic monasteries, survival of the tonsure, 29 ; the claim of nation- ality, 228 ; Disestablishment Act, 312 INDEX preamble, 252 ; arguments for, 259- Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, 9. Jerome, St., on St. Paul's travels, 4 ; on the growth of the British Church, 17; his opinion of Pelagius, 24. Jews, the nationality of, 225. John, King, 91, 94. Jones, Bishop Basil, his work of reform in South Wales, 221. Jones, Rev. David, Vicar of Llangan, his opposition to the ordination of lay evangelists, 204, 207. Jones, Griffith, 157; pioneer of the Welsh revival, 184 ; his first circulating school at Lland- dowror, 185, 205. Jones, Colonels John and Philip, appointed sequestrators, 125. Jones, Theophilus, his history of Breconshire, 212. Jones, Thomas, 207. Jones, William, 126. Jones and Freeman, History of St. David's, 100, 106. }udnou, 71. ulian, the Apostate, 21. Jumpers, or Methodists, 198. Keble, Rev. John, " The Christian Year," 115. Khasia Hills, missionary schools, 267. Kingswood colliers, open-air meet- ing, 1 88. Kitchin, Bishop, sale of episcopal farms, 103. Kyffin, Morus, on the derivation of Welsh words, 1 58 ; on the opposi- tion to the translation of the Bible, 234. Lancederwlder, manor of, 57. Language, the evidence of nation- ality, 227. Lann Catgualatyr, now Bishopston or Bishton, 54, 57, 62 ; boundary, 56. Lann Garth (Llanarth), 59. Lann Oudocui, grant of, 60. Lann Teliau Cressinych (Llantilio Crossenny), grant of, 59. Lann Tylull, Church of, 69. Lantheyloncressing, 60. Laud, Archbishop, his influence on the Church in Wales, 109, 120 ; administration of his diocese, no ; his appointment of bishops, IIO-II2. Lerins, 27. Liberation Society, formation of, 209. Lightfoot, Bishop, 3 ; on the evan- gelising work of Aidan, 82. Lindisfarne, 82. Llan Dav, Book of, its migratory career, 50 ; date of the earliest entry, 50 ; document of Teilo's Privilegium, 51 ; Bulls of Popes, 53 ; grants of territories, 53-61 ; extract from, 54-56 ; grant made to St. Dubricius, 58 ; grants of land, 69. Llanarmon, village of, 26. Llanbrynmair, 1 88. Llancarfan, monastery of, 30, 82. Llandaff Cathedral, vandalism of the Puritans, 124 ; services re- established, 161 ; diocese founded by Dubricius and Teilo, 36 ; condition of, 99 ; value of bene- fices, 176 ; the work of reform, 222. Llandaff, Book of, records in the, 49- Llandderfel Church, neglect of the registers, 173. Llanddewi Brefi, living of, 103. Llanddowror, school at, 185, 205. Llanddulas Church, condition of, 168. Llandrillo, rectory of, 105, 172. Llangadwaladr, history of, 57. Llangeitho, vicarage of, 195. Llangollen, vicarage of, 172. Llangower, Church of, condition, 165 ; the furniture, 166. Llangwm, rectory of, 105. Llanidlocs, immoral character of the people, 216. Llanrhaiadr Church, preservation of, the Jesse window, 120 ; num- ber of dissenters in the parish, 1 86. Llansantffraid (Glyndyfrdwy) Church, condition, 166 ; parish of, 171. Llantilio Pertholey, grant of, 60. Llantysilio, parish of, 171. INDEX 313 Llanuwchllyn Church, condition, 167 ; destruction of the registers, 173; vicarage of, 105, 172. Llanybri Church, let to Dissenters, 171. Llanycil, Church of, condition, 1 70 ; abuse of the Sabbath, 1 74 ; number of Presbyterians, 186. Llanymawddwy Church, condition, 1 68 ; curacy of, 205. Lloyd, William, Bishop of St. Asaph, 163; his Notitia, 278-281. Llwyd, Robert, Vicar of Chirk, 236. London, RestituLus Bishop of, at the Council of Aries, 15. Lucius, King, legend of, 6. Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, 8 ; preaches against the doctrines of Pelagius, 25. Lyons, Aurelian persecution at, 7, Machynlleth Church, condition, 1 68. Maelgwn, his character, 36 ; pro- claimed over-lord, 37. Maenor (Mainaur), meaning of the word, 58 note. Maes Garmon, site of the battle, 26. Mahaffy, Prof., An Epoch in Irish History, 139. Mallwyd, 188. Martial, his ode on the marriage of Pudens and Claudia, 4. Mary, Queen, 95. Mellon, Bishop of Rouen, 8. Merionethshire, population, 214 ; number of Calvinistic Methodists, 246. Merthyr Tydvil, Church of, vandal- ism of the Puritans, 124. Methodists, origin, 187 ; meetings, 1 88 ; extract from Rules, 202 ; members of the Church, 202 ; re- lations with the clergy, 203 ; secession, 204, 206, 209 ; ordina- tion of lay preachers, 206 ; Con- stitutional Deed, 209 ; influence of the Church on their faith, 223 ; number of, 240, 246 ; Chapels, system of "supplies," 243; missionary schools in the Khasia Hills, 267. Middleton, Sir Thomas, 236. Ministers, Nonconformists, in adequacy of their salaries, 247 ; dependent position, 248. Monasteries, Norman, dissolution of, 92. Monasteries, Welsh, 80, 82 ; char- acteristics, 29 ; the monks, 81. Mond, Sir Moritz, 263. Monkton, vicarage, value of, 128. Monmouthshire, population, 211, 214, 240, 246 ; lack of ministers, 243 ; number of Calvinistic Methodists, 246. Montgomeryshire, number of Wesleyans, 246. Moravianism, 190. Morgan, Sir George O., on Dissent in Wales, 253. Morgan, Pritchard, on Welsh Dis- establishment, 255. Morgan, Bishop William, 151 ; his work of translating the Bible, 152, 156, 236; records of assistance, 153 ; his revival of the Welsh language, 159 ; opposition of his parishioners, 234 ; memorandum, 276. Nationality, the claim of, 225 ; test of consanguinity, 225 ; territory, 226 ; language, 227 ; political homogeneity, 229. Neath, revivalist meeting at, 189. Newcome, Bishop, 183. Nicoea, Council of, 16. Nicholas iv., Pope, Taxatio or Valuation of Lands, 54, 57, 59, 60. Nightingale, B., The Ejected of 1662 in Cumberland and West- morland, 134. Ninian, his work among the Picts at Galloway, 28, 82. Nonconformists, number of, in Wales, 211, 239-242, 253; num- ber of Chapels, 215 ; system of "supplies," 243 ; denominations, 245 ; limitations of the Voluntary System, 247 ; inadequacy of the ministers' salaries, 247 ; loss of the spirit of reverence, 248 ; com- petition of rival organisations, 249. Norman monasteries, dissolution of, 92. Offeren, or Holy Communion, 23. 314 INDEX Ollivant, Bishop, his work of reform at Llandaff, 222. Ottley, Adam, Bishop of St. David's, 179. Oudoceus, Bishop, his excommuni- cation of Guidnerth, 54-56. Owen, John, Bishop of St. Asaph, no, 119; preaches in Welsh, III ; his work of repairing the Cathedral, in. Owen, John, member of an Educa- tion Committee, 139. Owen, Morgan, Chaplain to Arch- bishop Laud, in ; Bishop of Llandaff, 112; his loyalty and high ideals, 1 1 2. Owestry, Vicarage of, 172. Parker, Archbishop, 98 ; life of, 99. Parochia, meaning of the term, 47. Parry, Bishop, his edition of the Bible, 236. Patrick, St. , his birthplace, 26 ; carried away to Ireland, 26 ; escapes, 27 ; in the Monastery at Lerins, 27 ; returns to Britain, 27 ; at Auxerre, 27 ; consecrated Bishop, 27 ; mission to Ireland, 27, 29 ; meeting with the Druids, 29 ; travels, 31. Paul, St., tradition of his supposed visit to Britain, 2 ; his travels, 3 ; visit to Spain, 3-5. Pelagius, his heretical views, 23 ; character, 24 ; doctrine of the freedom of the will, 24. Pembroke, immorality of the people, 217. Pencarnov, grant of, 71. Penn Onn, 69. Pennant, his description of Dr. Ellis Price, 106. Penry, John, his career, 108 ; cam- paign for reforming the Church in Wales, 108 ; share in the Pilgrim Press, 109 ; on the diffi- culty of a Welsh translation of the Bible, 149 ; Supplication to the Queen and Parliament, ex- tract from, 235. Pepiau, King, 58. Philipps, Sir John, establishes cir- culating libraries in Wales, 157. Pilgrim Press, character of the, 109. Political homogeneity, the test of nationality, 229. Pomponia Gnecina, 5. Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons, 9. Potitus, 26. Powell, Erasmus, 117. Powell, Vavasor, his career, 117; fanaticism, 117, 137 ; unbalanced mind, 1 18 ; an " Approver " under the Act, 125 ; his preaching tour in Wales, 129. Prayer Book, translation of the, into Welsh, 150. Presbyterians, number of, in Wales, 182, 1 86, 246; their moral system, 184. Price, Edward, 106. Price, Dr. Ellis, his unscrupulous- ness, 104 ; nickname, 104 ; un- scrupulous descendants, 105 ; ap- pearance and character, 106. Price, Peter, 105. Price, Thomas, 105. Prichard, Rhys, 112; "The Welshman's Candle," 113; char- acter of his poems, 113-116, 158, 235- Propagation of the Gospel in Wales, Act for the, 124, 130, 133, 261, 294-300. Prothero, Mr., memorial designed by, 152. Prys, Archdeacon, on the neglect of the Welsh language, 157. Prys, Sir John, 143 ; edits the Welsh Calendar, 145. Pudens and Claudia, story of, 4. Puritans, superstitious fury against the Welsh, 120, 123, 132 ; van- dalism, 124 ; instances of jobbery, 128 ; zeal for education, 138. Radnorshire, population, 214 ; im- morality of the people, 217. Ramsay, Prof., on St. Paul's travels, 3, 5. Reeves, Dr., 81. Reform Act of 1832, result of, 209, 211. Reformation movement in England, 91 ; in Wales, 94. Regina, inscription on her tomb- stone, 12. Revel, William, 72. Revival Movement, progress of, in Wales, 1 88 ; nervous phenomena at meetings, 197. Rhone valley, persecution in the, 10. INDEX 315 Rhos, Deanery of, report on, 168. Rhys, Sir John, 26, 182. Richard, Archbishop, 73, 89. Richard, Henry, leader of the Welsh Nonconformists, on the Commission of 1846, 219; on the number of Nonconformists, 253- Ripon Church, consecration of, 63. Roberts, William, Bishop of Bangor, III. Robinson, Nicholas, Bishop of Bangor, his report on the condi- tion of the diocese, 99. Romans, their military system, II ; withdraw from Britain, 33 Rome, Church of, union with, 84 ; claim of supremacy, 91. Ross, the Flemings of, their re- sistance to payment of tithes, 73. Rossi, De, his excavations at Rome, 5. Rowland, Daniel, his relations with Howel Harris, 192 ; Curate of Llangeitho, 195 ; his itinerant ministry, 195 ; income, 196 ; on the practice of manifestations, 199. Salesbury, William, his translation of the New Testament into Welsh, 145, 147-150, 153 ; his book of Proverbs, 146; compiles a Welsh- English Dictionary, 147, 158, 235 ; appointed editor of the New Testament, 1 50 ; his scholar- ship, zeal and generosity, 153. Sardica, Council of, 16. Saunders, Erasmus, The State of Religion in the Diocese of St. David's, 163, 164, 170-173, 177. Saxons, their invasion of Britain, 33, 35 ; defeat at Badon Hill, 35 ; battles of Deorham and Chester, 38 ; organisation of the Church, 39 ; fusion with Britons. 83. Scotland, the claim of nationality, 228. Seebohm, on the authenticity of the endowments of the British Church, 63- Selden, John, 50. Severus, Sulpicius, the "Christian Sallust," 46. Shakespeare, William, Henry V., extracts from, 93, 226. 21 Shankland, Rev. T., librarian of the Bangor University College, 139 ; his list of Cromwellian Free Schools, 139, 140. Shirburn Castle, manuscripts at, 149. Short, Bishop Vowler, 179 ; on the secession of the Methodists, 206 ; his work of reform at St. Asaph's, 221, 266-269; prayer for the diocese, 274. Silchester, church at, 18; date of the building, 19. Silvanus, Aulus Plautius, 5. Simon, Sir John, on the Welsh Disestablishment Bill, 257, 259. Smith, Samuel, on Welsh Dis- establishment, 255. South Shields, inscription in the Roman Cemetery at, II, 12. Stephens, his Literature of the Cymry, 2. Stokes, Prof., on the Gallic Church, 9 ; on the missionary character of the Celtic Church, 28. Strathclyde, British fugitives, 35, 38. Strype, his Annals, extracts from, 94, 97 ; his Life of Archbishop Parker, 99. Suspensory, Bill of, 1893, 255. Swansea, number of Wesleyans, 246. Tacitus, 2, 5. Tanner, Bishop, 179. Teilo, St., 30; Church of, rights and privileges, 51. Teilo, St., de Cresseny, grant of, 60. Territory, the test of nationality, 226. Tertullian, 13. Tewdwr, Rhysap, 85. Thelwall, Mr., 171. Theodoret, on St. Paul's travels, 4. Thirlwall, Bishop, his work of reform in South Wales, 221. Thomas, Bishop of St. David's, 163. Tillotson, Dr., Archbishop of Canterbury, forms a society for circulating Welsh books, 157, 159. Tithes, development of, 66 ; the Great, or decima magna, 74 ; parochial, or decima mtnutte, 74 ; established by custom and law, 75 ; custom of heriot, 78 ; amount paid in the diocese of St. Asaph, 275-' 316 INDEX Tonsure, survival of the, 29. Towy, the, 55. Trevecca, Methodist College at, 217. Trevor, Sir John, appointed a sequestrator, 125. Triads, the legend of, 2. Twistleton, Governor, 126. Urban, Bishop of Llandaff, his appeal to Pope Calixtus, 53, 71. Vaughan, Sir John, 50. Vaughan, Robert, 50. Vaughan, Rowland, his translation of the Practice of Piety, 1 21 ; on the Welsh language, 234. Vaughan, the Silurist, his devotional poems, 112. Verulam, 20, Victricius, Bishop of Rouen, 8. Vortiporios, 37. Vulgate, use of the, 22. Wales, monasteries, 29, So, 82 ; monks, 8l ; British fugitives driven into, 35, 38 ; diocesan episcopates, 36 ; petition of the six counties, 127, 130, 135, 140; effect of the Commonwealth on religion, 135 ; immoral character of the people, 136, 175,216-218 ; social life, 1 37 ; education, 138-141,215,253, 266 ; number of Cromwellian Free Schools, 139; characters of school- masters, 140; establishment of cir- culating libraries, 157 ; neglect of the language, 157-159, 230, 234 ; revival, 159, 236 ; religious feeling of the people, 177 ; number of Presbyterians and Independents, 182 ; character of religion in the eighteenth century, 183; Christian revivals, 184, 188 ; influence of the Reform Act of 1832, 211; population, 211, 214, 245, 253; number of Nonconformists, 211, 239, 242, 253 ; the claim of nationality, 228, 230-233 ; test of political homogeneity, 231 ; eccle- siastical influences, 233 ; revival of the Eisteddfod, 237 ; the language-census, 239, 241 ; lack of ministers, 243 ; Act for the Propagation of the Gospel, 261, 294-300 ; restoration of cathedrals, 269. Wales, Church in, right of endow- ments, 65 ; payment of tithes, 73> 2 75 J origin of the tithe, 76 ; absence of clerical celibacy, 85 ; amalgamation with the English Church, 85, 89 ; progress of the Reformation, 94-98 ; result, 98 ; lack of preachers, 98; disorderly character of the Vicars' Choral, 100 ; report on the condition of religion, 100-102 ; disposal of patronage, 103 ; examples of lay dishonesty, 103-106 ; influence of Laud, 109, 120 ; devotional litera- ture, 112, 144; loyalty throughout the Commonwealth, 118, 123; condition of the Church preceding and under the Commonwealth, 121-131 ; number of Bishops, 122 ; vandalism of the Puritans, 124 ; ' ' Act for the Better Propagation of the Gospel in Wales," 124, 1 30, 133, 261, 294-300 ; work of the Com- missioners, 125-127, 130; appoint- ment of itinerant preachers, 129 ; charge of drunkenness, 131 ; treat- ment of ejected ministers, 132-134; calamitous effect of the Common- wealth, 135-138 ; influence on the literature, 143 ; condition of Churches, 163-172 ; parsonages, 172; the Clergy, 173, 213; neglect of registers, 173 > poverty, 175, 212 ; value of benefices, 175 ; the work of reparation, 176-179; tendency to exalt virtue over dogma, 183 ; revivalists, 188-195 ' their incomes, 196 ; character, 196 ; nervous phenomena at meetings, 197-200 ; result of the system of non-residence, 212; effect of the Methodist Secession, 213 ; the work of reform, 220-222, 266 ; influence on Nonconformists, 223 ; on nationality, 233-237 ; re- lations of the clergy with the people, 244 ; their independent position, 248 ; Disestablishment and Disendowment Bill, 252-257, 291-293 ; the political or national argument, 259; total endowments, 260, 262 ; proposals of the Bill, 261 ; system of education, 266. Waley, John, 150. Walker, on the number of seques- trations in 1662, 134. INDEX 317 Warren, Mr., on Oriental influence in the Gallican Church, 10. Watford Caerphilly, first Methodist Association held at, 188. Watkins, William, 128. Welsh, their characteristics, 87, 200 ; a literary language in the fourth century, 142 ; influence of the Church, 143 ; use in devotions, 144 ; translation of the Bible, 145. Wesley, John, 188 ; result of his visit to Moravia, 190. Wesleyans, number of, in Wales, 240, 246 . Whitby, Conference at, 10. Whitchurch, tithe and glebe, 72. Whitefield, his influence on the Revival Movement in Wales, 188, 190 ; President or Moderator of the Methodist Association, 1 88 ; his tours, 189. Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, 109, 152. Wilfrid, St., Life of, 63. Williams, Anne, 192. Williams, Philip, his character as a schoolmaster, 140. Williams, Rev. Thomas, his report on the state of the Church, 178. Williams, Mr. Justice Watkin, his resolution on Welsh Disestablish- ment, 252. Williams, Rev. William, his itinerant ministry, 194 ; character, 194 ; hymns, 194 ; exhortation to young preachers, 194; income, 196; on the condition of Carnarvon, 216. Woodward, Dr., his book on religious societies, 190. Wootton, Lord, 171. Worthenbury, 133. Wrexham, 188; cost of churches and schools, 271 ; number of Easter Communicants, 271; con- tributions, 272. Wye river, 55, 58. Wynn, Sir John, his attempt to despoil the Church, 104, 171. Wynne, John, on the condition of the Church of Llangower, 165 ; of Llanycil, 169; appointed Bishop of St. Asaph, 179. Yale, H., 171. York, Eborius, Bishop of, at the Council of Aries, 15. Yspytty, Ifan, 105. Zimmer, Heinrich, 26 ; The Celtic Church, extract from, 43. 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