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The significance of indigenous clergy in the Welsh church at the restoration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
‘Until 1563 the progress of the reformation in Wales was linked with the use of English as a prescribed language . . . Few decisions had more far-reaching consequences than the decision to abandon this principle so far as religion was concerned in Wales’. Walker believes that this change of policy in the early years of Elizabeth’s reign was brought about by what he calls ‘the deep-seated conservatism of the Welsh Church’, and quotes the letter of bishop Nicolas Robinson of Bangor (1566–86) to Cecil, in which Robinson claims that the slow progress of the reformation in the principality was at least partly due to ‘the dregs of superstition which did grew chefly upon the blindness of the clergie’ and ‘the closing up of God’s worde from them [that is, the Welsh people in an unknown tongue’. Richard Davies, bishop successively of St Asaph (1560–1) and of St Davids (1561–79) believed that if the Welsh church was to be directed along the path required by Elizabeth’s government then the language of the overwhelming majority of the people would have to be employed in both liturgy and pulpit. Only worship in Welsh would make the Anglican church an acceptable institution in Wales, and that necessitated ministers fluent in the vernacular whose teaching was buttressed by the reading of the scriptures and the performance of divine service in the same tongue.
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References
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