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Pî!Îinswf«Rn!Ö pî!îinswf«rn!ö"ii':r^:' "-": I \ -4-a^ y Çpiíiítiroaor. THE MAGAZINE OP THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF CYMMRODORION VOL. XLII. LONDON : I88UED BY THE SOCIETT, NEW STONE BUILDINGS, 64, CHANCERY LANE. 1931. Devizes : Fbintf.d by George Simpson & Co., Devizes, Ltd. CONTENTS. PAGE The Catholic Church in the Welsh Laws. By T. P. Ellis, M.A., J.P. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 Three Old Foundations (Clynnog, Llanrhychwyn and Llan- geinwen). By the Venerable the Rev. Albert Owen Etans, Archdeacon of Bangor . 69 Llan- ILLUSTRATIONS.—Clynnog Church, and Interior (69) ; rhychwyn Church, and Interior (78); Llangeinwen Church, and Interior (80k Lych-Gates, Clynnog and Llanrhychwyn (82); Fonts, Clynnog, Llangeinwen and Llanrhychwyn (88). The Celtic Renaissance and How to Forward It, By The Rev. G. Hartwell Jones, D.D., D.Litt. 111 Mabon vab Modron, By Professor W. J. Grüffydd, M.A. 129 A Caernaryonshire Inventor (John Williams, loan Madog). 148 By loRWERTH C. Peate, M.A. PhyUpiaid Ardudwy—A Survey and a Summary. By William . LL. Davies, M.A. (with Facsimiles) . , . 165 " Beirdd a Bardd-Rin." Adolygiad Gan yr Athro Ifor WlLLIAMS, M.A. .. .. .. .. ..269 Atodiad: "TraethawdLUienfeld" .. ..295 The Editor welcomes the free expression in these pages of genuine opinions on any matters of interest relating to Wales— its modern developments as well as its ancient history— but disclaims responsibility alike for the opinions themselves, and for the manner in which they are expressed. Cnmntr0b0r. VoL. XLn. '•' Cared doeth yr encilion." 1930. Batx>0* By T. P. ELLIS, M.A., Author of-'' Wehh Tribal Law and Custom in the Midäle Ages'\ [In the preparation of this article, I am indebted for help or suggestions on certain points to many, including the Rev. Father Thurston, S.J., the leading authority to-day in Britain on Catholic Liturgy; the R«v. Father McGrath, M.A., Principal of St. Mary's College, ; the R6v. Father . AberystAryth Lofthouse, Dolgelley ; Prof T. H. Parry-Williams, M.A., U.C.W., Aberystwyth; Prof. T. Gwynn Jones, M.A., U.C.W,, Aberystwyth ; and Mr. J. Lloyd, M.A., Dolgelley Grammar School. The espression and such errors as there may be are mine exclusively.] 1-—In Wales to-day there are many who are dimly ' ' ' ' conscious of the fact that the golden age of Wales was a " Catholic age, an age which, if not exactly golden," at least gave to Wales its greatest men and witnessed its highest achievements. There are, however, some who assert that Wales has no Catholic tradition or who are inclined to belittle, if not actually misrepresent, the attitude of the Welsh people towards the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. It is no part of the present purpose to appeal to all the facts of Welsh is history ; the present purpose to consider the actual evidence of the Welsh laws, fairly enough re- garded as among the greatest monuments of the race, in so far as that evidence bears upon the religion and practice of the people of Wales who lived under those Inws. B 2 The Catholic Church in the Welsh Laws. The very considerable fragments of tbe laws, known as tbe laws of Hywel Dda, whicb bave survived furnish an important body of evidence for tbe elucidation of Welsh medÌ8eval history, and tbey tbrow a distinct ligbt upon for several tbe religious outlook of tbe people of Wales hundreds of years. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say tbat witbout an understanding of Catbolic doctrine and of tbe Catbolic atmospbere of tbe laws it is impossible, very often, to comprebend the meaning of many portions of them. 2. —Hywel Dda began life as tbe joint ruler of tbe small principality of Dyfed. By means of inberitance and annexation be became the ruler of the whole of Wales. His active life covered the fìrst half of the tentb century. He is credited with having codified tbe tribal customs and other laws of his country, and be is to this day honoured in Wales as tbe traditional law-giver of tbe land. Some deny tbe claim made for him in the teetb of all chronology, evidence and tradition, why, it is difficult to understand. It is sufícient, tbougb, here, to say tbat the principal modern historian of medÌ8Dval Wales bas no hesitation in accepting the fact that Hywel Dda did codify the customs of his people,^ and, without entering into the evidence, which is hardly pertinent to tbe present pur- pose, that conclusion is indisputable. Now, tbere is no doubt tbat Hywel Dda made a in a.d. and it seems pilgrimage to Rome the year 928 ; probable that it was tbat visit, coupled with his knowIedge of the work of Alfred the Great in England, inspired as that was to some extent by a Welsb cleric from Hywel Dda's own countryside, wbicb induced him to undertake the task he did undertake. 3. —The actual Codes, which are said to have been ' Prof. J. E. Lloyd. History of Wales, vol. i, pp. 337-343. The CatJiolic Church in the Welsh Laiüs. 3 originally tripartite in character, corresponding to the yarying customs of the three main divisions of his terri- a number of tories, have not survived ; but manuscripts dealing with Welsh law, redacted at varying dates from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, have come down to us. These manuscripts differ in importance. They are, generally speaking, note-books of practising lawyers or teachers of law, employed in the administration of or in- struction in a system of law, which they invariably ascribe to Hywel Dda. They contain what are apparent excerpts from an early Code, together with additions, attempting, in a most conservative spirit, to adapt that early law to the changed conditions brought about in the course of three centuries or so. It is not always easy to distinguish what is of comparatively late expansion, or development, or even in cases it is to change ; though many possible discriminate between ancient and more modern elements. When, however, we examine the religious standpoint of view and practice we find it to be in full and absolute accord with the whole of Catholic tradition, preserving several elements from the earliest days of the Church in Wales. This fact is of some importance : for, it may be said that in such matters as organization, practice, and observ- ances in religious matters, the Laws are far closer to the tenth century than to the thirteenth, the period to which those who combat Hywel's claims would date the rise of a written Welsh law. main of the survivals is in but there The body Welsh ; are at least four manuscripts in Latin, more abbreviated in character than the Welsh manuscripts, which, in their present form, date back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. But, however late the present manuscripts may B 2 4 The Cathúlic Church in the Welsh Laws. is in be, it is beyond question that they were compiled (as from fact frequently stated in the manuscripts themselves) something very much earlier, and contain much that goes Dda back to a period even anterior to the days of Hywel himself. The survivals are primarily secular documents, com- outlook piled for purely secular reasons. The religious it does only comes in incidentally, and, therefore, when occur it is all the more indicative of what that outlook was. 4.—In several of the manuscripts, both Welsh and Latin, there is included a preface, describing, or purport- ing to describe, the circumstances in which Hywel Dda undertook the codification of Welsh law. These prefaces to clerics ascribe a considerable part, as we shall see, ; but a recent writer has described them as a progressive fabrication, and, in trying to find a reason for his assump- tion, asserts that because the Church, in the person of Archbishop Peckham (circa 1282 a.d.), a notorious hater of all things Welsh, characterized certain particular pro- visions of those laws as contrary to papal statutes and the decalogue, the very same Church, in the persons of Welsh ecclesiastical writers and lawyers, concocted the prefaces to establish that the Laws were compiled under the sanc- tion of the Church and with the aid of clerics. With all due respect to this writer, one cannot help but feel that, in his argument, which is erroneous in facts, there is a certain bias against the Church displayed. Let us examine these prefaces, and we shall find that the ascriptioiì of clerical aid in them is antecedent to the days of Archbishop Peckham. In the earliest of the Welsh MSS., those of the Yenedotian Code, a series of documents covering the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, it is asserted that, in order to examine and codify the customs of Wales, Hywel ' ' ' ' Dda summoned to him six men f rom every cantref The Catholic Church in the Welsh Laws. 5 ' ' laics two clerics. and or cymwd . four of them Tlie reason for summoning clerics was lest anything should be ordained by the laics which might be opposed there to the Holy Scripture. The time they assembled was Lent, and the reason they assembled ni Lent was because everyone should be pure at that holy time, and should do no evil in that time of purity."^ in This preface, in substance, occurs, twice repeated, all the manuscripts of the twelfth to the fourteenth cen- turies of what is commonly spol^en of as the Yenedotian Code. The earliest Latin text,^ of the end of the twelfth or is later than early part of the thirteenth century, which the earliest Welsh MS., states that Hywel " . et accipit de quolibet pago .
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