Welsh Journals

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misunderstanding. For example, the section on the Acts of Union starts as follows: 'Between 1282 and 1543 Wales lost her independence. In 1282 Edward I killed Uywelyn At Rhuddlan in 1284 he passed a statute (law) which divided the country into two different areas' (p. 8). Moreover, a passage which deals with 'Language, Scholars and Books' has one section which runs as follows: 'However, by the end of the eighteenth century the Welsh language was in decline. This led to fewer books in Welsh being printed' (pp. 62-3). Some historians might dispute the comments made in both these passages. Such points of criticism, however, should not detract from the intrinsic value of this guide to the study of early modern Welsh and English history. The author and publishers are to be heartily congratulated on the appear- ance of what is a colourful and attractively written and produced bilingual venture. Doubtless it will serve (in both languages) as an essential guide to teachers and pupils and, like the other two volumes in this series, will stimulate further interest in historical study at lower secondary school level. J. GWYNFOR JONES Cardiff ROBERT PERSONS: THE BIOGRAPHY OF AN Elizabethan JESUIT, 1546-1610. By Francis Edwards, SJ. St Louis, Missouri: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, n.d. Pp. xx, 412.$32.95 paperback. Robert Persons SJ was the head of the English Jesuits from 1580 until his death in 1610. A native of Somerset and a product of Oxford, he played a leading part in settling the affairs of the English College, Rome, before he himself joined the English mission for fourteen perilous months in 1580-1. Thereafter, he lived on the Continent, mostly in Italy and Spain, plotting for the armed overthrow of Elizabeth (but not, Fr Edwards insists, for her assassination), setting up new seminaries for missionary priests in Spain and a new secondary school for boys in Flanders, and engaging in controversy not only with Protestants but also with Catholics with whom he disagreed; he was also an important writer of devotional prose. He was an extraordinarily able, determined and courageous man and, until his declining years at least, was highly influential. Fr Francis Edwards has been archivist and historian of the English province of the Society of Jesus and was also director of the Roman Archives of the Society between 1986 and 1989. He is therefore uniquely