Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/598

 WALES

536

WALES

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 martvred in Ehzabeth'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 " CanwyU 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 pictiu'esqueness of its diction. White describes the Cathohc Church as "a priceless institu- tion 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 the heretical worship : " Thou art of the Cath- olic Faith; from their church keepthyselfwiselyaway lest thou walk into a pitfall. [This is his main argu- ment.) The English Bible is topsy-turvy, full of crooked conceits. In the parish church there is now, for preacher, a shp 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 miser- able tinker making a boast of his knavery. Instead of the 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 foimded on the fact that the difficulty of finding educated men to fill the places of the ejected Catholic 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 IMon- mouthshire a learned Benedictine, Dom William Pugh. He had led a chciiuered 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 com- position, others translations and transcripts. To him we are indeliled for the preservation of Whito's "Carols". In 16 IS Cajitain Pugh compo.sed 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 Round- heads wiU be made square by a crushing defeat, and the king wiU 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 efJected by the Puritanism which was destined, in the course of Uttle 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 English seminarists in the EngUsh College, Rome, at the beginning of the seventeenth centui-y. Within a hundred years, this circumstance led to a dearth of Welsh priests able to minister in the native tongue. After the Titus Gates persecution (1679-80) the few Welsh-speaking clergy who had remained in the country were either executed or exiled, and the chill mists of Calvinism settled on Cambria's hiUs 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 Holj'well in the north, and Brecon and Monmouth in the south.

The eighteenth century saw but a very small out- put of Welsh Cathohc 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 doc- trine. 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 182.5 appeared "Drych Cre- fyddol". Its full title translated is "A rehgious mirror, shewing the beginning of the Protestant rehgion, 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. It is embellished with a few rude woodcuts, and com- prises an account of the Welsh mart.VTs. A catechism in Welsh called "Grounds of the Cathohc doctrine contained in the profession of faith published by Pope Pius IV" (Llanrwst, 1S;W) is now very rare. Since then many such publications have appeared. In 1SS9 Saint Teilo's Society was founded at Cardiff, with the sanction of the Right Rev. Dr. Hedley, O.S.B., Bishop of Newport and Menevia, for printing Welsh Catholic literature, and produced many pamphlets and books, including a praver-book, "Llyfr Gweddi y Catholig" (CardifT, 1899). The Breton Oblates at Llanrwst publish a bilingual monthly magazine called "Cennad Catholig Cymru" (The Catholic Messenger of ^^■ales), which is doing an excellent work among the people.

^^'ales possesses an extensive vernacular Press, whereof by far the largest portion is controlled by the Nonconfoiinist and Radical party. .Ml the Dis.'sent- ing denominations have their literary organs, and the