4. THE CULTURE OF THE MONASTERIES
Despite the fact that Wales, following the fall of Llywelyn in 1282, came under the authority of the king of England, the centuries that followed saw a notable flowering of the Welsh literary tradition. From the time of the best known of all Welsh poets, Dafydd ap Gwilym (c.1320-70), to the poets of ‘the Great Century’, as the years 1425-1535 are generally known in Wales, all the Welsh poets were Christians in the Roman Catholic tradition.
Although Dafydd ap Gwilym was always ready to criticise the Church, his Stanzas of the Mass show that he too, when he was in a more serious mood, accepted its teachings, and the same is true also of the poets of ‘the Great Century’, many of whom wrote on religious or moral issues. On the eve of the Protestant Reformation we find Rhisiart ap Rhys (ob.c.1510) celebrating the statue of ‘the Blessed Lady Mary the Virgin in Pen-rhys’, Y Rhondda, thus demonstrating how Wales shared in the European devotion to Mary. At this time the Welsh language was at one with the intellectual life of continental Europe - a unity that would undoubtedly have been developed were it not for the interference of Canterbury on behalf of the English crown.
Above and below: the statue of "the Blessed Lady Mary the Virgin in Penrhys"
After the fall of the princes, it was the nobility who became the patrons of the Welsh bards, and among them there were several ecclesiastical noblemen – the abbots of the monasteries – who were praised for their hospitality and generosity. But the monasteries were not only patrons of poetry. Between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, they produced a large body of ecclesiastical prose – anonymous translations from Latin – for the use of clerics and laity.
The two most important are probably the Welsh translation of Honorius Augustodunensis’ Elucidarium, which summarises the theology of the age, and the section entitled ‘Ymborth yr Enaid’ (‘The Sustenance of the Soul’) from Y Gysegrlan Fuchedd (‘The Holy Life’), which is an original Welsh text written by a Dominican monk, part of which – ‘Pryd y Mab’ (‘The Son’s Countenance’) – is an expression of erotic, godly love. During this time, too, portions of the Scriptures were translated into Welsh, and also a metrical version of a liturgy in honour of the Virgin Mary, entitled Gwassanaeth Meir (‘The Service of Mary’).
The Welsh people, however, still longed for political independence, and looked for a ‘Mab Darogan’ (‘Son of Prophecy’) who could deliver it. For a while their hopes were centred on Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri (‘Owain Lawgoch’ – Owain of the Red Hand), a nephew of Llywelyn the Last, who was serving the king of France. When Owain Lawgoch was killed in France in 1378 by one of the English king’s spies, attention turned to Owain Glyndŵr (c.1354-c.1415), a direct descendant of the ancient princes of Powys, who, in 1404, at a Parliament in Machynlleth, was crowned Prince of Wales.
Parliament House in Machynlleth
Glyndŵr’s war against the English crown lasted for more than a decade, and among the leaders of the cause were the main figures in the diocese of St.Asaph – John Trefor (the bishop), Hywel Cyffin (the dean), and Gruffudd Young (the chancellor). They were joined later by the Bishop of Bangor, Lewis Byford. In 1406, at Pennal, near Machynlleth, a policy was formulated which called for the establishment of two universities in Wales, one in the north and one in the south, and for an archiepiscopal see in St. David’s, which would be independent of Canterbury and England. Following the failure of Glyndŵr’s war, however, six centuries were to pass before any of these dreams would be fulfilled.
Further research and discussion
- In what ways do you think the history of Wales would have been different if its church had gained its independence from Canterbury in 1406?