Wales
Wales is that western portion of Great Britain which lies between
the Irish Sea and the River Dee on the north, the counties (or
portions of counties) of Chester, Salop, Hereford, and Gloucester
on the east, the estuary of the Severn on the southeast, the
Bristol Channel on the south, and St. George's Channel on the
west.
NAME
The name Wales has been given to this country not by its
inhabitants but by the Teutonic occupiers of England, and means
"the territory of the alien race". "Welsh" (German Walsch) implies
a people of either Latin or Celtic origin living in a land near or
adjoining that of the Teutons; thus Walschland is an obsolescent,
poetical German term for Italy. After an invasion lasting 330
years, the Anglican, Saxon, and Jutish "comelings" having driven
the earlier "homelings" into the hill-country of the west by
steady encroachments and spasmodic conquests, the names Wales and
Welsh were applied to the ancient people and the land they
retained. Wales is in French, Pays de Galles, from Latin Gallus,
Low Latin Wallia. In the Middle Ages the Welsh coined in their own
tongue a name of similar origin for their country, when, in poetry
only, they termed it Gwalia. The Welsh language, however, has no
cognate word for the people themselves; they have, ever since the
days of the Saxon Heptarchy, styled themselves by no other title
than Cymry. The etymology of this word has been a much debated
question, but in the opinion of Sir John Rhys (a prime authority)
it is compounded of the British con bro and means "compatriots"--
the federated tribes of ancient Britain who together contested the
soil of their native land with the Germanic invader. In Welsh
Cymru means Wales, Cymro a Welshman, Cymracs a Welshwoman, and
Cymry Welshmen.
ETHNOLOGY
The early Welsh were an association of tribes united in a common
cause against a common foe; and whilst they were designated by
that foe "the aliens", they called themselves "the federated
patriots". In the main the Welsh were Britons. The reason why they
did not continue to style themselves Britons was that they were
not wholly British, nor even wholly Celtic. Some of their tribes
were Celts of the Brythonic, or British, stock, others belonged to
the earlier Goidelic, or Gaelic, division of the Celtic race, whom
the Britons, a later Celtic immigration, had subdued and partially
absorbed. The Goidels, moreover, were in great part made up of yet
older, non-Aryan, peoples whom they and their predecessors had
successively conquered. The Welsh, therefore, racially represent
an unknown series of the earliest settlers in Britain; they are
not merely Ancient Britons, but the heirs of all the aborigines of
the island, from the cave-men downwards. Though the Cymry knew
enough of their racial history to call themselves a federation,
they cared nothing about the origins of their Teutonic foes. The
invaders came from various countries of northern Europe, and it
was the Angles or English who eventually gave their name to the
new nation. It was, however, the West Saxons who formed the
advanced guard of the Germanic invasion, and Saeson (Singular
Sais) was the term applied by the Welsh to the unwelcome visitors.
DEFINITION
When we come to define the precise bounds and limits of Wales, we
at face a difficulty which has hardly yet been satisfactorilu met
by geographers. The most perplexing disagreement prevails among
writers as to what wxactly Wales is; and the question is variously
answered, according to the views of each individual on points of
nationality - views usually influenced by his racial and political
prejudices. One opinion is that Wales consists of twelve
particular counties, and that its eastern boundary is identical
with that of the eastern-most of those twelve counties. This is
the popular, English, school-manual view. According to another
view, Wales has thirteen counties, Monmouthshire being the
thirteenth, in addition to the above twelve. The English and
anglicized inhabitants of the thirteenth county vehemently deny
the correctness of its inclusion. They point to the fact that,
although Henry VIII had declared the thirteen counties to
constitute the Principality of Wales, a statute of Charles II so
far detached Monmouthshire from the others as to annex it to the
Oxford Assize Circuit. To this the nationalists reply that a
council sitting around a table in London could no more unmake
Wales than they could transform England into Scotland, or
Derbyshire into a part of Ireland.
Any declaration by a government as to what territory shall or
shall not be considered as Wales is obviously a political
arrangement and cannot affect the concrete facts of the case.
Although no Act of Parliament applying to Wales affects
Monmouthshire unless that county is expressly mentioned,
Monmouthshire is as Welsh as Merionethshire. It has, indeed,
historical associations which might entitle it to be considered
the premier county of Wales. On the grounds of history, ethnology,
and language, it is necessary to include likewise certain western
parishes in Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire as
forming part of the real Wales, that is to say, of Wales as we are
about to define the term. It would seem, in fact, that the only
true and comprehensive definition of Wales is as follows: Wales is
that territory north of the Bristol Channel which, since the
subjection of South Britain by the English, has continuously been
peopled by the descendants of its original pre-Germanic
inhabitants. This includes the thirteen whole counties, with
certain parishes in the shires of Salop, Hereford, and Gloucester;
and in some places the boundary passes east of Offa's Dyke, the
limit made by the victorious King of the Mercians in 779.
COUNTIES
The following are the names of the historic counties of Wales,
with their Welsh equivalents:
North Wales (Y Gogledd):
�Flintshire (Flint);
�Denbigshire (Dinbych);
�Carnarvonshire (Caernarfon);
�Anglesea (M�n);
�Merionethshire (Meirionydd);
�Montgomeryshire (Trefaldwyn).
South Wales (Y Deheudir):
�Cardiganshire (Aberteifi);
�Radnorshire (Maesyfed);
�Pembrokeshire (Penfro);
�Carmarthenshire (Caerfyrddin);
�Brecknockshire (Brycheiniog);
�Glamorgan (Morganwg);
�Monmouthshire (Mynwy).
The County of Glamorgan is not rightly styled a shire;
"Glamorganshire", though the term is often used, is a misnomer.
This rule has been authoritatively settled within the last few
years and is observed in State documents. In Shropshire the
hundreds of Oswestry and Clun, and in Herefordshire those of Ewyas
Lacy, Webtree and Wormelow, are the portions adjoining English
counties which must be included in a logical and complete survey
of Wales. Even in Gloucestershire, the westernmost parishes north
of the Severn and east of the Wye - notably Newland, Saint
Briavel's, and Llancaut - are at least as much Welsh as English by
their history. It will thus be seen that the eastern boundary of
the true Wales is widely different from that traced by the hand of
custom and convention.
PHYSICAL FEATURES
That the Celts and pre-Aryans of South Britain were able to
preserve themselves as a federation of non-Germanic peoples in the
western parts of the island was doubtless due to the physical
character of the country, which the Romans named "Britannis
Secunda", and the English called Wales. "Hen Gymru fynyddig,
paradwys y bardd" (Mountainous old Wales, paradise of the bard);
this is true only in a rough and rather poetical sense. Such
mountains as Snowden (Welsh Eryri) in North Wales, Plinlimmon
(Pumllyman) in central Wales, and Sugarloaf (Pen-y-fan) in South
Wales can justly claim the title of mountain; but for the most
part, the altitudes in Wales are rather to be regarded as big
hills than as little mountains, and are oftener round or hummock-
shaped than peaked and precipitous. There are, moreover, many wide
areas of plain and fen, especially long the Severn estuary and the
southern coast. On the whole, the surface of the country is
beautifully diversified, hills, valleys, rivers, and sea combining
to produce scenery of worldwide renown. In North Wales the views
are generally grander than in the south, where the coastline is
tamer and the country more pastoral than wild and awe-inspiring.
In both halves of the principality there is abundance of woods and
heath, while pasture predominates over arable land, especially
since the decline of agriculture which marked the close of the
nineteenth century.
AGRICULTURE
Farming is carried on in every county, though greatly restricted
by the mines and factories of the coal and iron districts. Grain
has never been largely produced in Wales, save in such purely
agricultural localities as West Herefordshire and the Vale of
Glamorgan. On the other hand, milk, butter, eggs, poultry, and
butcher's meat have always been a staple product. The close grass
of the hills produces the famous small "Welsh mutton" whose
flavour is so peculiarly sweet. The ancient Welsh breed of cattle
was small and black. It is now extinct or nearly so, but from it
are descended the large black cattle of Carmarthenshire, which are
themselves giving place to the fine brown-and-white
"Herefordshires". The immemorial use of oxen for ploughing died
out at the middle of the nineteenth century.
MINES
The mines and ironworks of Wales, though some are to be found in
the north, are principally in Glamorgan and West Monmouthshire.
The Romans worked seams of coal which lay near the surface, on the
sides of some hills in South Wales, and this primitive mode of
obtaining the mineral from levels or adits was continued down to
modern times by the farmers, for obtaining domestic supplies of
fuel. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, however, with
the use of steam and machinery for pumping and winding, the
practice of deep sinking, and other improved methods gradually
produced the highly complex type of coal mine of today. Mining and
the attendant industries, while augmenting the material prosperity
of Wales, have ruined much of her loveliest scenery. It is
commonly remarked that (owing to some natural laws as yet
undiscovered) it is always the most beautiful valleys which are
found to contain coal in commercially requisite conditions and
quantity. Limpid stream, bird-haunted grove, and flowery glade
then give place to a labyrinth of mechanism, a black desert of
coaldust and mine refuse, and leagues of mean and depressing
streets.
POPULATION
The populations of the counties of Wales vary according to the
industrialism of each. The inhabitants in the coal districts
outnumber those of all the rest of the principality. Glamorgan is
by far the most populous county. The original population has been
to some extent replaced by immigrants from England, but only to a
small degree in the country parts. Gloucestershire, Somersetshire,
and the south of Ireland are the districts which have most largely
recruited the population of South Wales, chiefly by settlement in
the big towns. Mid-Wales receives its foreign influx principally
from the Midlands of England. North Wales is indebted to
Manchester, Liverpool, and Chester for its fresh blood, but there
is also some immigration from Ireland to the most populous
centres.
The Welsh, though mainly a Celtic nation, are a composite folk
made up of Celts and of many pre-Aryan peoples--a melange of all
the aborigines of the Isle of Britain. Remains of paleolithic man
have been found in the limestone caves of the Wye Valley, along
with bones of the cave-bear, hyena, etc. How far this early human
race has influenced the Welshman of the present age, it is
impossible to say; but there is no doubt that the racial type
known as the "small dark Welsh", prevalent in certain districts
(and, curiously, indigenous in the coal valleys of the south), is
that of the latest pre-Aryan folk with whom the first Celtic
immigrants came in contact. That race has been identified with the
Basques of the Pyrenees and the Berbers of North Africa. Though
there are no linguistic evidences to support either
identification, there are reasons for believing that the "small
dark" Welshmen are of the same race as the original Iberians of
Spain and Portugal. It is, in any case, certain that they are the
Silurians of the period of the Roman invasion under Claudius
(A.D.43). We are on equally sure ground in saying that the Celts
of the first immigration, the Gael (akin to the Irish, Highland
Scots, and Manx), have preserved their racial identity more or
less completely in certain parts of both North and South Wales.
The largest section of the Welsh nation, however, are Celts of the
British stock, a pure tribe of which stretches in a wide band
across Central Wales. Many of the ogham and Latin inscriptions on
rude stone monuments of the Romano-British period in Wales were
evidently made not by British but by Gaelic Celts. It is, however,
as yet uncertain what proportion (if any) of these stones
commemorate invaders from Ireland.
HISTORY AND LANGUAGE
After an occupation lasting 360 years, the Romans left a Britain
which was thoroughly permeated by the civilization of the Empire.
In this Wales largely participated, though it is chiefly in South-
east Wales that the traces of Imperial Rome must be sought. Recent
excavation has exposed vast remains of the power and luxury of the
conquering race, at Caerwent in Monmouthshire (once a seaport);
and at Caerleon, in the same county, classical antiquity competes
with Arthurian romance for the visitor's attention. Many Welsh
pedigrees assign existing families a Roman ancestor in the person
of some official who lived in the period between the departure of
the legions and the Saxon conquest. It is, however, chiefly in the
domains of language and religion that Rome has left an abiding
imprint on Wales.
Welsh, as a branch of the Celtic family of languages, has close
affinities with Latin; but, besides, has borrowed much from her
Italic sister. An enormous proportion of Welsh words are direct
importations from Latin, modified by generations of Welsh-
speakers. Particularly is this the case with words expressive of
religious, theological, and ecclesiastical ideas. Very few of
these are of other than Roman origin. This fact is, of course,
owing to the circumstances which attended the introduction of
Christianity into Britain. The first Christians in this island
were persons who had come in with the Roman army, and in due
course these foreign Christians were sufficiently numerous to form
congregations in the principal coloniae of Britain. There was a
Roman bishop at Caerleon, where a large garrison was permanently
quartered. Lucius, the "King of Britain" whom the "Liber
Pontificalis" represents as sending a letter to Pope Saint
Eleutherius asking to be made a Christian "by his mandate", would
seem to have been a native regulus of Gwent, the region in which
Caerleon is situated. It was inevitable that the Britons, deriving
all their knowledge of Christianity from Rome and the Romans,
should adopt Latin words for their new Christian terminology. So
it comes that the Welsh for such words (to cite a few typical
instances) as holiness, faith, charity, grace, hell, purgatory,
sacrament, mass, vespers, pope, church, hospital, altar, chasuble,
cross, parish,saint, martyr, anchoret, cell, gospel, consecration,
baptism, Christmas, the Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and a thousand
others, is in each case the Latin word, modified by the laws of
Welsh phonology. "Sacramentum" has become sacrafen; "episcopus",
esgob; "ecclesia", eglwys; "altar", allor; "Caresima", Carawys;
and so on.
Welsh holds a position between Munster Irish on the side of
Gaelic,and Cornish on the side of the British division of Celtic -
but much nearer the latter. It is not as soft as Irish and
Cornish, yet very musical. Its gutturals and aspirate lls sound
rough to foreign ears, and an English writer has picturesquely
described Welsh as "a language half blown away by the wind"; but
there can be no question as to its richness in pure vowel-sounds
or its masculine force. During the past century English has
unceasingly encroached upon the ancient tongue, driving the
linguistic boundary ever further west. Industries, railways, and
public elementary schools have been the chief enemies of Welsh,
and the extinction of this venerable speech must be looked for in
the next generation or two. The language, nevertheless, shows
marvelous vitality in the face of odds, and a widespread literary
revival has brightened its declining years.
After the departure of the Romans from Britain, the native
inhabitants retained a semblance of Roman institutions.
Considerable vestiges of these remained among the Welsh in the
time of the Saxon Heptarchy. The clan system and other Celtic
customs, however, continued in force long after imperial forms
were forgotten. Only for a brief period were the Welsh united
under one sovereign, in the successive reigns of Rhydderch Mawr
(Roderick the Great) and his son Howel Dda, or the Good, both of
whom were strong rulers and wise legislators. The laws of Howel
Dda are yet extant. They commence with a declaration that the king
had obtained their sanction by the Pope of Rome, and their tenor
is one of reverence for the Christian Faith and Church. It was
only by slow degrees that the native laws and customs were ousted
by Anglo-Norman usages and the machinery of feudalism. The feudal
system, indeed, hardly penetrated beyond the borderland (called
the Marches) where, in their castles and walled towns, dwelled the
Palatine lords who held those lands by right of conquest. By Henry
VIII the laws of the principality, native and feudal, were
assimilated to those of England - though certain peculiar legal
institutions, such as the courts of great session, remained till
the reign of William IV. At the same time Wales was divided into
counties or shires, some of which were based on and named after
the ancient lordships. Though possessing many old boroughs, Wales
had no capital town until a few years ago. In 1905 King Edward VII
by royal charter conferred on the county of Cardiff the rank of a
city, and gave to its chief magistrate the title of lord mayor.
This action afforded great satisfaction to the Welsh people,
inasmuch as Cardiff is superior to any other town in Wales both in
commercial importance and in antiquity. Its history goes back to
the Roman occupation, and the place is linked with Llandaff, the
oldest episcopal see. These considerations have earned for Cardiff
universal recognition as the capital of Wales.
RELIGION
The religion of the pre-Aryan inhabitants of Britain was a nature-
worship which included certain animals among its divinities. The
Celtic religious system was likewise a nature-cult, but resembled
that of the Greeks, Latins, and other Aryans in deifying abstract
ideas rather than material objects. Hence the gods of the Britons
were equations of those of their Roman conquerors - Nudd or
Nodens, being the Celtic equivalent of Neptune; Pwyll (Pen Annwn,
"the head of Hades") the Welsh counterpart of Pluto, and so of the
rest. The primitive totemism of the earlier inhabitants, however,
made a deep impression on the religious ideas of the Celts, and
has even left permanent traces in Welsh nomenclature. Such names
as Mael-s�r (servant of the stars), Gwr-ci and Gwr-con (man of a
dog, or dogs), and Gwr-march (man of a horse) are examples.
By the end of the Roman occupation, the Britons of Wales had for
the most part become Christians, paganism lingering only in a few
remote districts, and chiefly among the Gaelic tribes. At first
the discipline of the Celtic Church followed closely that of Rome,
whence (if we may trust Welsh and Roman traditions alike) the
first missionaries had come to Britain. According to the "Annales
Cambriae", the Britons complied with Rome's reforms of the Easter
cycle in the year 453. There was frequent communication between
the British Christians and the pope, and British bishops took part
in the Council of Arles, at which the papal representatives
assisted. When St. Augustine came to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons,
his first step was to invite the cooperation of the Welsh clergy--
a fact which proves that these latter were in full communion with
Rome and the Catholic Church at large. By that time, however, the
British and Welsh Christians had already long been practically cut
off from personal communication with the rest of Christendom by
the Germanic invasion, and thus had to some extent lost touch with
the Roamn See. The result was becoming gradually apparent.
Peculiar usages in ritual and discipline, known as "Celtic
customs", had been evolved from principles orthodox enough, and in
some saces actually Roman in origin, but which had petrified into
abuses. Rome would gladly have abolished these, but the Welsh
cherished them in her despite, as symbols of nationality. They
condemned Saint Augustine as the apostle of their Saxon foe, and,
deeming the latter more worthy of eternal reprobation than of the
joys of heaven, refused to have a hand in their conversion. This
attitude of the native bishops, no doubt, brought the Welsh Church
into a situation perilously near schism; but the period of tension
was of relatively brief duration. In the ninth century Wales
renounced all such national customs as were held unorthodox by
Rome, and even accepted (with a bad grace, perhaps) the
metropolitan jurisdiction of Canterbury. Thereafter it was the
boast of Welshmen that their countrymen had never swerved from the
true profession of the Catholic and Roman Faith.
The Reformation came to Wales as a foreign importation, imposed
upon the nation by the sheer weight of English officialdom. Of
this there is abundant evidence from contemporary records.
Protestantism was against all the sentiment of Welsh nationality,
all the traditions and associations dearest to the people. Barlow,
the first Protestant Bishop of Saint David's, proposed the see
should be removed from Carmarthen, to avoid the Catholic memories
and atmosphere which hung around the shrine of Cambria's patron
saint. The bards denounced the Reformation with invective, satire,
and pathos. Sion Brwynog, of Anglesey, who flourished in the reign
of Edward VI, composed a poem entitled "Cywydd y Ddwy Ffydd" (Ode
to the Two Faiths), portions of which may be baldly translated as
follows:
..Some men are resolute in the new way, and some are firm in the
old faith. People are found quarrelling like dogs; there is a
different opinion in each head...The Apostles are called pillars;
poor were they while they lived (a thing not easy to the
generation of today). Away from wives and children, to Jesus they
turned. With us, on the contrary, a priest (of all persons) leaves
Jesus and His Father, and to his wife freely he goes. His malice
and his choler is to be angry about his tithes...At the table,
with all the power of his lungs, he preaches a rigmarole...not a
word about Mass on Sunday, nor confession, any more than a horse.
Cold, in our time, as the grey ice are our churches. Was it not
sad, in a day or two, to throw down the altars! In the church
choir there will be no wax at all, nor salutary candle, for a
moment. The church and her perfumes [sacraments] graciously healed
us. There was formerly a sign to be had, oil anointing the soul.
Woe to us laymen all, for that we are all without prayer. There is
no agreement in anything betwixt the son and his father. The
daughter is against the mother, unless she turn in mischance...Let
us confess, let us approach the sign [of the cross, in
absolution]; God will hear and the Trinity...Let us go to his
protection, praying; let us fast, let us do penance. ...The world,
for some time past, does not trust the shepherds. It behooves a
man to trust the God of Heaven. I believe the word of God the Son.
In the Cardiff Free Library is a Welsh prose manuscript of the age
of Elizabeth, by an unknown author. It is a defence of the old
religion against the doctrines of the Protestants, whom it terms
"the New Men". The book has leaves missing at both ends, but was
divided into twelve chapters, each dealing with a leading point of
controversy, as the Real Presence; communion in one kind;
purgatory, and prayer for the dead; prayer to, and the
intercession of, the saints, and the veneration of relics;
pilgrimages, images, and the sign of the cross. The composition is
excellent, and the matter for those fierce times, moderate in
tone. A good deal of national feeling is apparent. Referring to
the recent translation of the New Testament into Welsh by the
state Bishop of Saint David's, and especially to the preface, he
says that, it is only the misbelief of which the ancient heretics
boasted. In another chapter the author compares Naaman's Jewish
maiden to a Welsh girl recommending her master to try the virtues
of Saint Winifred's Well, in Flintshire; and he rebukes the "New
Men" for mocking the Catholics when these go to Holywell on
pilgrimage and bring home water, moss, or stones from it. The
heretics seek a natural reason for the virtues of that well, which
cures all manner of sick folk.Great, he says, are the miracles
wrought at Saint Winifred's Well, even in these evil days, since
the false new faith came from England. Ignorance has increased in
Wales, adds the writer, since the churches were cleared of
pictures and images, which were books of instruction to the
unlettered. The glory of Britain departed when the crucifix was
broken down. The legend of the cross of Oswestry is referred to,
as also the miraculous appearance of the figure of the cross in a
split tree-trunk (at Saint Donat's) in Glamorgan. This last event
had occurred a very few years previously, and made so remarkable
an impression on the people that the authorities prohibited any
reference to the marvel.
For a hundred years after the Reformation manuscript books
containing Welsh poetry and prose of the most distinctly "Popish"
character continued to be cherished in mansions and farmhouses,
and passed from hand to hand until they were worn out. Many still
survive, tattered and soiled, but eloquent witnesses of the
Catholicism which died so hard in Wales. The bards' favourite
subjects were the Blessed Virgin, the national saints, the rosary,
the roods (calvaries) in the churches, the Mass, the abbeys, and
the shrines of the city of Rome. From such a manuscript as is
described above, the following poem may be noticed, almost at
random. It is entitled "Cywydd y paderau prennau" (Ode to the
Wooden Beads) and commences thus:
There is one jewel for my poor soul, in a life which desires not
sin; it is the beads, in four rows. A son of learning [a cleric]
gave them to an old man. Holy Mary, for that he gave it from his
keeping, grant thy grace to Master Richard. The Canon sent ten
fine beads [decades], that may hang down to one's knee. I obtained
ten of God's apples [the large beads], and I carry them at my side
- ten were obtained from Yale with great difficulty. Those ten in
memory of you. Ten words of religious law, ten beads follow after
them...The man to the cleric of the glen gave beads on a string;
Mary's ornament, in tiny fragments, placed upon silk...Wood is the
good material - wood from Cyprus in Europe... Suitable are these
for a gift - bits of the tree of Him Who redeemed us...
The bard was Gitto'r Glyn, who flourished about 1450; the
transcript was made about the year 1600.
Writing soon after the Reformation, the bard Thomas ap Ivan ap
Rhys begs his lord not to stay in England. He is sure to encounter
treachery. The Mass is cut up as a furrier does his material;
Matins and Vespers are a thing detested. Nobody attends to the
seven petitions of the Pater Noster. People eat meat on Wednesdays
and Saturdays - even on Fridays, on which day it used to be
thought poison. It is no wonder that streams, orchards, and
ploughed fields no longer yield their increase. Every man of them
is no better than a beast, for they never bless themselves with
God's word - while others have their heads cut off as traitors and
are punished more and more (Creawdwr Nef arno y crier).
The "Carols" of Richard Gwyn alias White, who was cruelly martyred
in Elizabeth's reign, had (though never printed) a great
popularity, and must have borne a large share in the work of the
Counter-Reformation in Wales. White was a schoolmaster at Wrexham,
and a man of considerable attainments. His attachment to
Catholicism was that of the scholar and the martyr combined, and
the influence of his controversial rhymes was widespread and
profound. In form and style he is evidently the model of Vicar
Prichard's "Canwyll y Cymry" (Welshman's Candle), written in the
reign of Charles I. This Protestant work, though, unlike the
verses of Richard White, it was not only printed but also
circulated with the support of the state Church, is by no means
the equal of its prototype either in the purity of its Welsh or in
the force and picturesqueness of its diction. White describes the
Catholic Church as "a priceless institution conspicuous as the
sun, though smoke mounts from Satan's pit, between the blind man
and the sky". He gives nine reasons why men should refuse to
attend heretical worship: "Thou art of the Catholic Faith; from
their church keep thyself wisely away lest thou walk into a
pitfall. [This is his main argument.] The English Bible is topsy-
turvy, full of crooked conceits. In the parish church there is
now, for preacher, a slip of a tailor demolishing the saints; or
any pedlar, feeble of degree, who can attack the pope. Instead of
altar, a sorry trestle; instead of Christ, mere bread. Instead of
holy things, a miserable tinker making a boast of knavery. Instead
of images, empty niches. They who conform to the new religion will
lose the seven virtues of the Church of God, the communion of all
saints, and the privilege of authority given by Jesus Christ
Himself to pardon sin." White's scornful description of the
heretical ministers is founded on the fact that the difficulty of
finding educated men to fill the places of the ejected clergy had
necessitated the appointment of handicraftsmen of various kinds,
and even grooms, to act as teachers of the Reformed religion.
The sacking of a secret Jesuit college in the Mennow Valley, South
Wales, in 1680, led to the discovery of a store of "contraband
Catholic" printed books and manuscripts, some in English and some
in Welsh. Many of these are now in the library of the cathedral of
Hereford. At that date there was living in Monmouthshire a learned
Benedictine, Dom William Pugh. He had led a chequered life. Born
of an ancient Catholic family in Carnarvonshire, he became a
doctor of medicine. On the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the
Royalist army as a captain, and was one of the garrison besieged
by Fairfax in Raglan Castle. Afterwards he became a monk and a
priest, and wrote a large manuscript collection of prayers and
hymns in Welsh, many of which are his own composition, others
translations and transcripts. To him we are indebted for the
preservation of White's "Carols". In 1648 Captain Pugh composed a
Welsh poem in which loyalty to his temporal sovereign is combined
with devotion to the Catholic Church. He begins by saying that the
political evils afflicting Britain are God's punishment for the
country's abandonment of the true religion. People were far
happier, he proceeds, when the Old Faith prevailed. But a better
time is coming. The English Roundheads will be made square by a
crushing defeat, and the king will return "under a golden veil";
Mass shall be sung once more, and a bishop shall elevate the Host.
Here we have evidently a mystical allusion to the King of Kings on
His throne in the tabernacle, and this is the theme underlying the
whole poem.
It would be easy to quote similar examples from the Welsh
literature of any period previous to the Civil Wars--after which
time Catholicism rapidly lost its hold on Wales. As a consequence
of that political and social upheaval, an entrance into the
country was effected by the Puritanism which was destined, in the
course of little more than a century and a half, to transform the
Welsh people spiritually, morally, and mentally - and, as many
people judge, not for the better in either respect. This loss of
the Church's ground was, humanly considered, entirely owing to the
failure in the supply of a native clergy, brought about by racial
jealousies between the Welsh and the English seminarists in the
English College, Rome, at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. Within a hundred years, this circumstance led to a dearth
of Welsh priests able to minister in the native tongue. After the
Titus Oates persecution (1679-80) the Welsh-speaking clergy were
either executed or exiled, and the chill mists of Calvinism
settled on Cambria's hills and vales. Thenceforward, Welsh
Catholics were a genus represented by a few rare specimens. Mostyn
of Talacre, Jones of Llanarth, Vaughan of Courtfield are almost
the only ancient families of Catholic gentry left to Wales at the
present day; and the only Old Welsh missions still containing a
proportion of native hereditary Catholics are Holywell in the
north, and Brecon and Monmouth in the south.
The eighteenth century saw but a very small output of Welsh
Catholic literature, either printed or manuscript. Almost all
there is to show for that period is a version of the "Imitation of
Christ", and "Catechism Byrr o'r Athrawiaeth Ghristnogol" (London,
1764), a short catechism of Christian doctrine. It is in excellent
Welsh by Dewi Nantbr�n, a Franciscan. The number of Catholic books
for Welshmen increased rapidly in the course of the nineteenth
century. In 1825 appeared "Drych Crefyddol". Its full title
translated is "A religious mirror, shewing the beginning of the
Protestant religion, together with a history of the Reformation in
England and Wales". Of this small work, by William Owen, only two
copies are known to exist--one being in the possession of the
present writer. Is is embellished with a few rude woodcuts, and
comprises an account of the Welsh martyrs. A catechism in Welsh
called "Grounds of the Catholic doctrine contained in the
profession of faith published by Pope Pius IV" (Llanrwst, 1839) is
now very rare. Since then many such publications have appeared.
Wales possesses an extensive vernacular Press, whereof by far the
largest portion is controlled by the Nonconformist and Radical
party. All the Dissenting denominations have their literary
organs, and the Established Church is similarly represented. As a
general rule, the Welsh Press deals with Catholicism only in a
hostile manner; but in quite recent years a more moderate tone has
been adopted in a few of the less puritanical newspapers and
magazines. The largest denomination in Wales is that of the
Calvinistic Methodists (now often styled the Presbyterian Church
of Wales). The Baptists, Congregationalists, Wesleyan Methodists
and Unitarians are also strong in the principality - the latter
particularly in Cardiganshire. Mormonism has made large numbers of
recruits in the chief centres of population. Puritanism is slowly
but steadily ceding ground to Agnosticism and Anglicanism.
The Catholic Church is strong only in the large towns of Wales,
the Catholics of the rural districts having participated in the
exodus consequent on the decay of the old country life. The
hierarchy includes two bishops, deriving their titles from Menevia
(Saint David's) and Newport. The former see comprises the greater
part of Wales; the latter includes Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, and
Herefordshire. The present cathedral of the Menevian diocese is at
Wrexham in North Wales, that of Newport (a Benedictine see) is the
priory church of Belmont, near Hereford. The Church's progress
among the Welsh people is incredibly difficult, and very slow; but
it is perceptible. Advance would be easier and more rapid if
greater use could be made of the Welsh language in the material.
Out of a total population of 3 million (1995), the Catholics
number about 150,000 (5 percent). Of religious, there are
Benedictines at Hereford, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea, and
Cardigan; Jesuits at St. Asaph, Rhyl, and Holywell; Capuchin
Franciscans at Pantasaph and Penmaenmawr; Passionists at
Carmarthen; Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Llanrwst, Pwllheli,
Holyhead, and Colwyn Bay; Fathers of the Institute of Charity at
Cardiff and Newport; and many convents of nuns of various
congregations, including some communities of Daughters of the Holy
Ghost (Soeurs Blanches), exiled from Brittany.
JOHN HOLSON MATTHEWS
Transcribed by Marie Jutras
http://www.knight.org/advent
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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