Welsh Journals

No doubt a revised edition of this work, which it is hoped will be forthcoming (and at a lesser price), will provide the author with an oppor- tunity to reconsider some of these and other points. As it is, anyone at any level with a particular interest in Henry VII will be well advised to peruse Dr. Storey's book. S. B. CHRIMES Cardiff WELSH REFORMATION ESSAYS. By Glanmor Williams. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1967. Pp. 232. 25s. Glanmor Williams joins the ranks of those who have published their articles and occasional pieces. But because what he has gathered is the product of one consistent main scholarly enterprise-his study of the Reformation in Wales, for which, one prays, this book is an harbinger and not a substitute-he has been right to do so. These essays hang together (without repeating one another at all-a splendid achievement) and are properly articulated around a central question: what impact did the Reformation-Crown-inspired, humanist in outlook, English in language-have on ill-governed, remote and Celtic Wales? Professor Williams uses two main lines of approach. On the one hand, he takes well-defined areas-a county or a diocese-and with great precision analyses the evidence for such things as clerical appointments, preaching, or the dissolution of the monasteries. On the other, he takes individuals of varying types and from their life-stories extracts very significant contributions to the understanding of the region's general history. These individuals include men who lived their lives in England and English conditions, like the conservative theologian Richard Whitworth or the careerist Richard Gwent, as well as men of the stamp of Richard Davies or William Salusbury who devoted their efforts to their native country; but all of them are efficiently used to illuminate the problems of the Church in Wales. The general conclusion is that the Reformation was slow in making an impact, but that positive effects-in particular a higher standard among the clergy-were becoming evident by the time that Elizabeth reigned. Some legends fall by the wayside. What gives weight to the book is Professor Williams's invariable scholarship, the better for being uncontroversial. Its distinction, however, derives from his manner, an elegant and lively urbanity which invests the driest subject with interest and stems from the true scholar's involve- ment in his material. It comes out best in the two delightful pieces which bracket the rest and which, in a charmingly ironical fashion, take apart