Welsh Church History

Of a relatively small corpus of twenty-two surviving liturgical service books from medieval Ireland, some seventeen belong to the Use of Sarum. Their provenance lies mainly in the cathedral cities and religious houses of the east of the country, where the Anglo-Normans, or more accurately by the fifteenth century, the English of Ireland, were securely established: the dioceses of Dublin, Ossory, Meath, Ferns, and Waterford, with one sole survivor from Armagh. This material represents a crucially important chapter in Irish ecclesiastical, musical, and cultural history. It reveals also a somewhat neglected aspect of Insular medieval book culture and specific nuances in liturgical practice in the form of masses and offices for Irish saints, material that (with few exceptions) is not found in British Sarum sources. It also reveals patterns in the veneration of Insular, particularly English, saints which shed light on the dynamics of clerical, political, and commercial networks between Britain and Ireland over a period of some 300 years. The purpose of this essay is to provide a systematic survey of all Insular saints in the kalendars of Sarum breviaries and antiphonals made or used in Ireland. It does not address non-Sarum manuscripts of the religious orders in detail, though these are referred to occasionally where they assist with providing a framework of reference. 1 With the conversion to Christianity of the Hiberno-Norse urban population, it was common from the 1070s until 1140 for individuals destined for the bishoprics of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford and Limerick to study at English Benedictine houses before being consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 2 The situation changed when a separate Irish province was 1 The following library abbreviations are used below: Emmanuel (Cambridge,

Informational poster discussing archaeological research work undertaken at St Mary Church, Llanerchymedd, for community engagement activity in Spring 2020.
The poster discusses the medieval history of the church of St Mary, Llanerchymedd, which was rebuilt in the mid-19th century. The original structure consisted of elements of 12th, 15th and 17th century architecture – only the base of the 12th century tower remains.
Other photos include artefactual evidence which may have been parts of the earlier church on site – these include a fragment of a sandstone ‘pillar’ from Yorkshire, a smaller rectilinear dressed stone, window glass and lead. A possible late medieval to Tudor book fitting was also recorded.

This project began with a fascination over various Christmas traditions in the British Isles and ballooned from there into a full outline, or floor plan if you will, of the Church in the Isles from the scarce facts available regarding the Roman times until the Reformation.  It covers four basic areas:  the early Irish Church, Structure and Hierarchy, Worship, and the Kalendar, and is fairly dense with facts and little "discussion".

(revised 6 July 2025)

Author(s): Sargent, Amelia | Advisor(s): Bezner, Frank | Abstract: Gerald of Wales revised his Topographia Hibernica and Itinerarium Kambriae multiple times over the course of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Each revision reshapes the text, adding nuance and contours that affect the understanding of the work's meaning, its function, and its depiction of the underlying geographic space. This dissertation is a case study at the intersection of three foundational questions: what motivates textual revision, how can revision of depictions of landscapes in geographic texts affect the physical concept of space, and what was the conception of history and the text, such that they could affect the outcome of future events. By carefully parsing the versions of the Topographia and Itinerarium, and identifying and analyzing the differences between them, we can begin to understand how textual revision was deployed both to respond to changed circumstances and to affect future ...

In this paper, the author explores themes of legitimacy surrounding the production and consumption of medieval biographies. Generally speaking, these instances of life histories sought to promote and sustain relationships of power within medieval society. The many-layered themes of legitimacy which appear in such texts are discussed in the context of the biography of a 12th-century king of the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd, the Historia Gruffud vab Kenan. This is a text that illustrates many of the far-reaching political and institutional changes that were occurring during the period. The version of history contained within the Historia, however, should not be seen as one which was wholly biased in favor of its subject, Gruffudd. Accordingly, the author argues that such texts should not be viewed as the ones that were purely invented in nature since the consumers of these life histories often possessed the ability to contest any obvious fabrications of past events contained within them. As such, the author suggests that we need to explore the relationship between the circumstances surrounding the production and the consumption of life histories if we are to gain a fuller appreciation of the historical geographies contained within them.

The state-making process represented a major institutional change, as societies moved from being organized according to notions of kinship to being ordered around the power exercised by kings over defined territories. The paper focuses on the medieval state-making ...

This article evaluates ordination lists preserved in bishops’ registers from late medieval England as evidence for the monastic orders, with special reference to religious houses in the diocese of Worcester, from 1300 to 1540. By comparing almost 7,000 ordination records collected from registers from Worcester and neighbouring dioceses with 178 ‘conventual’ lists, it is concluded that over 25 per cent of monks and canons are not named in the extant ordination lists. Over half of these omissions are arguably due to structural gaps in the surviving ordination lists, but other, non-structural factors may also have contributed.

The Catholic Reformation in France has been the subject of many studies during t!lepast twenty years. 1 II is becoming increasingly apparent that agreement is lacking on when this Reformation began and what the state of the French church actually was during that time.~Because almost everyone in early modern France Jived in rural areas, these questions cannot be answered without a thorough understanding of the rural clergy and their p.:,rishioncrs. Recently the publication of a repertoire of pastoral visits has opened up the possibility of studying the parish clergy of France. 4 To dale, sevcm] 1 Originally published in Frt'lCh Hi$llJfUQI St"dlL$, Volunw 18.1, pp. 145-1n. Copyright, 1993, the Society of Fn'llch HisloricalStudies. All rights reser,.t'd. U~by pemllssion 0(lhe publisher, Duke Uni\'ersity Press. , The works of JC3n Delul1'll/'ilu ha\'e~Il Influential-espedally 11 CIltholU:lSrM~,,'rL uth<7'rl Voltilirr (Paris, 1971, 2nd ed., 1978). Among other important books, in addition to those listed ill footnotes 2 and 4, an: A.N. Galpern, 1"/J(R£/igiolls uf the Propk ill SlXh'l'lllh-Ctrl1IH'y (lulmpas"c (Cambridge, M'ISS., 1976); Petcr Burke, PO/IU/M Cul/ure in cmly Modern Europl'

This article is devoted to the problem of "attracting" saints to solve political problems on the example of the cult of St. Beuno, originating from the early medieval Welsh kingdom of Powys. A number of churches consecrated in honor of St. Beuno appeared on the territory of the neighboring kingdom of Gwynedd in IX -early X centuries. After analyzing that statistics, we assume that at this time there was a directional support for the cult from the ruling house. This was probably due to the need to integrate the Powys lands into the kingdom. Subsequently, when the unification process was completed, this support also stopped. However, three centuries later, several more churches dedicated to this saint are recorded in Gwynedd. All of them were located outside the royal domain, which may indicate that the ruling dynasts were not the initiators of their appearance. Probably, while the community of St. Beuno was under the tutelage of royal power, her influence increased so much that the loss of the highest patronage did not become critical. Thus, the "alliance" of the king with the saint, which, it seems to us, was of an exclusively utilitarian nature, proved to be beneficial for both sides, allowing Beuno to occupy a leading position among the saints of North Wales.

This article explores the links between a significantly understudied early fourteenth-century manuscript miscellany housed in Trinity College Library in Cambridge (Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.2.5 [1109]), the family of Gerald of Wales (d. 1223) and the medieval castle of Manorbier in Pembrokeshire. It argues both that this manuscript was produced by and for members of the de Barri family, and that the compilation, described as a 'mathematical miscellany' in James' catalogue, in fact contains a rich selection of medical and other texts that provides new insights into the troubled history of the castle and its owners during this period.

This article explores the links between a significantly understudied early fourteenth-century manuscript miscellany housed in Trinity College Library in Cambridge (Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.2.5 [1109]), the family of Gerald of Wales (d. 1223) and the medieval castle of Manorbier in

While working on Harlech castle and then the Aberconwy Register I suddenly realised that although Llywelyn ab Iorwerth is commonly called the Great these days I have never seen the term used by a contemporary.  The result was some protracted research and this is the result.

The annals compiled about the year  by Thady Dowling, probably a native of Laois, contain a famous rhyming couplet commemorating the victory of the Anglo-Normans over the Irish at Baginbun in : 'At the creek of Baginbun / Ireland was lost and won'. The rhyme is regularly repeated in modern accounts of the twelfth-century invasion but rarely with Dowling's addendum, wherein he adds: 'Lost by the Irish and won by the Welsh'.  Dowling's annals were used, and the couplet reproduced, by the Shropshire-born historian Meredith Hanmer when he set about compiling a chronicle after his move to Ireland in the early s, and elsewhere in his chronicle Hanmer explains that 'the first conquerors in Henry the seconds times, that brake the ice into this land, were Welch men, whose names and seates to this day are fresh in memory'.  Generally, Hanmer refers to the early invaders as 'Britaines' and even has one of their leaders, Robert fitz Stephen (whose mother was the native Welsh noblewoman Nesta) addressing his troops 'in the Brittish tongue'.  Writing slightly earlier, the Dubliner Richard Stanihurst states of Ireland that 'the renowne of the Welsh name hath filled all the wayes and the woods of the land',  and it is no surprise that Edmund Campion, who wrote his History of Ireland while residing in the Stanihurst household in Dublin in , should likewise refer to the invaders as 'the Welch army'.  Seemingly, therefore, at some point the perception had emerged that the invasion we normally ascribe to the English or the Normans or the Anglo-Normans -our much-esteemed honorand prefers Anglo-French  -was partly, if not primarily, a native Welsh affair.

This undergraduate dissertation looked at the development of Bangor, Gwynedd from its foundation by St Deiniol in the sixth century through to the 'Age of Conquest'. The paper looks at both documentary and archaeological evidence for the development of Bangor, and its impact in the region.

Following the devastating attacks by two Norman armies into south-western Cymru in 1093, the native British commotes of Cedweli, Gŵyr and Ystrad Tywi and likely much of northern Dyfed had withstood the Norman onslaught that had overwhelmed the south-western part of the kingdom of Deheubarth. From early 1106, in a new devastating phase of the conquest, the Normans came after the rest of Deheubarth. Native British resistance would all but be extinguished, and then by 1140, astonishingly, to have recovered to force Norman power to bow a knee to native power.
The four branches of the Mabinogi are thought by many historians to have been written down no earlier than the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. Yet there is no direct reference to any Norman presence in these tales of the rulers of Cymru told to a post-Norman native British audience. On the face of it, either the author is dealing with a pre-Norman past or has consciously written the Normans out of history. 
This paper argues that in fact the Normans are there in the Mabinogi, hiding in the third branch in plain sight, that the historical narrative, between 1106 and 1140, is represented in a mythologised form in the tales. That the struggle with the Normans is in fact the matter of the third branch of the Mabinogi, the tale of Manawydan fab Llŷr.

During the medieval and early modern periods the Welsh diocese of St Davids was one of the largest in the country and the most remote. As this collection makes clear, this combination of factors resulted in a religious life which was less regulated and controlled by the institutional forces of both Church and State. Addressing key ideas in the development of popular religious culture and the stubborn continuity of long-lasting religious practices into the modern era, the volume shows how the diocese was also a locus for continuing major religious controversies, especially in the nineteenth century.

Presenting a fresh view of the Diocese of St Davids since the Reformation, this is the first new account of religion and society in over a century. It is, moreover, not one which is written primarily from an institutional perspective but from that of wider society. As well as a chronological treatment, giving an overview of the history of religion in the diocese, chapters address key themes, including a study of religious revivals which originated within the borders of the diocese; consideration of popular and elite education, including the contribution of Bishop Burgess's pioneering institution at Lampeter (the first degree awarding institution in England and Wales after Oxford and Cambridge); the relationship of the Church to the revival of Welsh cultural identity; and new reflections on the agitation and realisation of disestablishment of the Church as it affected Wales. As such, this pioneering study has much to offer all those with an interest, not only in Welsh history, but ecclesiastical history more broadly.
Contents: Foreword; Introduction: approaches to the history of religion in St Davids Diocese 1485-2011, William Gibson; The Diocese of St Davids in the Reformation era I: from rebellion to reaction, 1485-1553, John Morgan-Guy; The Diocese of St Davids in the Reformation era II: from reaction to Restoration: 1553-1660, John Morgan-Guy; Defending the faith: theology in the Diocese of St Davids, c. 1534-2000, Robert Pope; ‘The most glorious enterprises have been achiev’d’: the Restoration Diocese of St Davids 1660-1730, William Gibson; Religious revivals in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, Eryn Mant White; Celebrating a saint on his home ground: St David’s Day in St Davids Diocese during the 19th century, Mike Benbough-Jackson; St Davids and disestablishment: reassessing the role of Bishop John Owen, Harri Williams; The modern Diocese of St Davids, William Price; Index.

1103] In this year Robert of Belismo, the eldest son of Roger Montgomery the Earl of Shrewsbury, rebelled against King Henry. He fortified his castles in Shrewsbury, Brugge, Arundel, Tikhull 3 and incited many Welshmen against the King. But in under 40 days the King took all of these fortifications, bought off the Welsh with gifts and promises and compelled Robert to renounce England. The latter then sailed to Normandy. Shortly thereafter William, who was the Count of Morton 4 in Normandy and Earl of Cornwall in England, because the King had denied him the earldom of Kent, sailed across and joined him. These two, with their allies, did much damage in Normandy. When Henry heard of this, he seized all the property of the Count of Morton in England and shipped it to Normandy, which he had brought under his control, not without bloodshed. He committed the aforesaid two earls to life imprisonment, both men full of deceit and guile. Thereafter Henry, leaving total peace in Normandy, returned to England, where he promulgated harsh laws against thieves and counterfeiters, with penalties such as the loss of eyes, testicles and a fist. He then subjugated the Scots, Welsh and Bretons as well as Louis the King of France. While Henry was in Normandy, Calixtus travelled to the Normandy area in order to, among other things, meet with Henry about the imprisonment of his brother Robert the Pilgrim of Jerusalem, but, having received realistic responses, decided not to do anything further. For common places can be swayed to either side according to the eloquence of the speakers, which are particularly enriched by gifts. 5 So that no ceremony was lacking the King made certain young sons of the Count of Mollent ensnare the cardinals present with their tortuous sophisms. The cardinals were not ashamed to confess that the western shore flourished with more literary skill than they had heard. Hugo, Earl 1 1102. The proscriptions against homosexuality may have been directed against William Rufus.

A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.

describes investiture as more than a grant of land, but as a grant of power, with the invested gaining his power from whom was investing him (Miller, 3). While this was a temporal rite, as it often happened between a lord and his vassal, it was also a sacred rite, when the invested was a bishop (Miller, 3). The conflict named after this process arose because of the eleventh century reformers, who understood the dynamic of power, that the investor was the source (Miller, 3), and felt that the sacred symbols that were given to a bishop (Miller, 3), the crosier and the ring, should be given by a priest rather than a lay lord. These reformers would change religious thought, and their reforms, and their compromises with lay rulers, would lay the ground work for

Paul Remfry has taken as his field Medieval Military History of Wales and the Marches between 1066 and 1282 and is producing a series of booklets covering the families of this era and their castles. He is concentrating on the period from the Norman Conquest of England until the demise of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the first and last recognised native Prince of Wales, the period containing the Norman incursions into Wales. He has carried out much painstaking research both in this country and in France. This has meant many hours spent in University Libraries in such disparate places as Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Manchester and Paris as well as the British Library and the National Library of Wales. It has also involved many visits for close examination of castle sites on both sides of the English Channel.