Welsh Journals

The testimony' follows, consisting of the Welsh and English extracts followed by the Latin translation. The author then proceeds to demolish the case as to the antiquity of the testimony,' which Spelman sets down as the Abbot of Bangor's answer to St. Augustine, when he demanded that the Welsh church should make an acknowledgment of submission to the Pope in Rome as the Head of the Church. The Abbot, says Spelman, was probably Dinoth or Dionoth. He follows this by showing that the English rendering is purely modern [i.e. 16th century]; that the Welsh orthography is un-Cambrian that the inconsistencies in spelling reveal that the testimony' was written by an Englishman; that some of the words used in the testimony,' such as helpio and gleimio, were words of English derivation' now often used by the Welsh.' So he dismisses the 'testimony' as unreliable; the chronology wrong; and, unkindest criticism of all, the English and Latin translations false.