Welsh Journals

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WILLIAM SALESBURY, RICHARD DAVIES, AND ARCHBISHOP PARKER. In the early months of 1566 William Salesbury was staying with his friend Richard Davies, Bishop of St. Davids, at the palace at Abergwili. They were engaged upon the works of scriptural trans- lation which have been ever since associated with their names; Salesbury taking in hand the Welsh version of the New Testament (published in 1567), while Davies was engaged upon the Welsh trans- lation of the Prayer Book (published in the same year) and on his part of the English rendering of the scriptures known as the Bishops' Bible (published in 1568). Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canter- bury, was intimately associated with these enterprises and it is not surprising to find him in correspondence with the two scholars. Parker was at the same time engaged in building up his great library of manu- scripts and in gathering material in illustration of the history of the church in Great Britain. The letters which passed between the three men deal with all these matters. They occupy pages 489-497 of the MS. numbered 114 in the collection of Parker's MSS. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,, and have been summarised by Strype in his life of Parker, book III, chap. 7, though Strype's account is not always accurate in its details.2 The part of the correspondence with which we are concerned opens with a letter from Davies to Parker which touches upon all these points. The second portion of this letter deals with the question of the advowson of Llanddewi Brefi which has been discussed at length by Archdeacon D. R. Thomas in his Davies and Salesbury. This part of the letter is printed in that book at p. 23 and need not be repro- duced here. The remainder reads as follows Pleaseth it yor grace to be aduertised that I receaved that pece of the Bible whych yor grace hath commytted to me to be recognised the iiii day of marche laste, and yor graces lettres dated the vi of decembre I receaved viii daes before I receaved the porcoii of the Bible. I am in hande to performe yor requeste and wyll vse as moche diligens and spede as I can havyng smale helpe for that or for the welshe bible. Mr Salusbury onely taketh paen wthme, for all suche olde monumentes as we had Mr Secretary hathe them ii yeares I am indebted to the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for permission, received through the Librarian, Mr. J. P. T. Bury, to print the letters in question.-R.F.. a See also an article by W. W. Greg, The Library, 4th Ser., Vol. xvi (1935-36) Books and Bookmen in the Correspondence of Archbishop Parker," p. 271.