6. BUILDING ON THE FOUNDATIONS
Throughout the seventeenth century, the Welsh speakers of the new Church of England busied themselves writing books, and, according to Sir Thomas Parry in his Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg hyd 1900 (‘History of Welsh Literature to 1900’), ‘it is among the clergy of that church that the great masters of Welsh prose are to be found well into the eighteenth century’. He lists around two dozen of their works.
Among them was Edward Wynn (1618-69), from Bodewryd in Anglesey, Chancellor of Bangor Cathedral, who had been curate to Dr John Davies, Mallwyd, and who had married his widow. He published an original treatise, Trefn Ymarweddiad y Gwir Gristion (‘The True Christian’s Order of Behaviour’) in 1662. Another was Thomas Powell (1608-60), from Cantref in Breconshire, who fled the country in Cromwell’s time and wrote, while he was away, Cerbyd Iachawdwriaeth, neu Prif Bynciau Crefydd Gristionogawl (‘The Chariot of Salvation, or the Main Issues of Christian Religion’) (1657).
John Edwards (c.1606-1660), vicar of Tredynog in Monmouthshire, complains in the Introduction to his Welsh translation, published in 1651, of Edward Fisher’s Marrow of Modern Divinity that ‘there is no nation … so hostile to its own language as the Welsh’. The most important of these Anglican writers was perhaps Rowland Vaughan (c1587-1667), the squire of Caer-Gai, near Llanuwchllyn in Merionethshire, whose Welsh translation of The Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayly, Bishop of Bangor, was popular for decades.
Llansilin Church
Rowland Vaughan was an able Welsh poet as well as prose writer. He translated into Welsh the famous Latin hymn ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’, and in 1729 a collection of his poems was published in the anthology Carolau a Dyrïau Duwiol (‘Godly Carols and Songs’). He was not the only Welsh Anglican poet of the time. One of the most influential books of the period was Canwyll y Cymry (‘The Welsh People’s Candle’), a collection of simple Christian stanzas written by Rhys Prichard (1579-1644), vicar of Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, which was published in 1681. The most important Welsh poet of the seventeenth century was probably Huw Morus (1622-1709) of Pont-y-meibion in the Ceiriog Valley, a staunch churchman, warden of Llansilin church, who heavily criticised Cromwell and the Puritans.
The two most important Welsh prose writers of the eighteenth century were both Anglican priests. Both Drych y Prif Oesoedd (‘Mirror of the Ages’), 1716, an account of the early history of Wales by Theophilus Evans (1693-1767), vicar of Llangamarch and Llanwrtyd in Breconshire, and Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc (‘Visions of the Sleeping Bard’), 1703, by Ellis Wynne (1671-1734), rector of Llanbedr and Llandanwg in Merionethshire, which satirically describes the journey of sinners to hell, are recognised Welsh classics. The most important Welsh poet of the eighteenth century was undoubtedly Goronwy Owen (1723-69), an Anglesey-born priest who spent the latter part of his brief life in America.
William Williams
Wales’ best-known hymn-writer, William Williams (1717-91), from Pantycelyn in Carmarthenshire, was for a time curate to Theophilus Evans in Llanwrtyd. It was he, together with Daniel Rowland (1713-90), curate of the parish of Llangeitho in Cardiganshire, and Howell Harris (1714-73), from Trefeca in Breconshire, who founded and nurtured the Methodist movement within the Church in the 1740s. Rowland had been converted in 1735 when he heard Griffith Jones (1683-1761), rector of Llanddowror, preaching. Griffith Jones is best remembered as the founder of the Circulating Schools, where thousands of children and adults throughout Wales were taught to read the Welsh Bible and to recite the Church Catechism in Welsh. Although Williams, Rowland and Harris are often thought of as Methodists, it is well to remember that all three remained Anglicans to the end of their lives, and they would probably have been disappointed to know that the Methodist movement seceded from the Church to form a separate denomination in 1811.
Further research and discussion
- How did the Church react to the Puritans in the seventeenth century and the Methodists in the eighteenth?