Welsh Journals

were made to obtain an independent archiepiscopal province which would be largely or completely outside the influence of Canterbury. Since the Normans in Wales took special care to bind the Church closely to them which was one of the reasons for their ultimate success it is difficult to overestimate what the consequences of creating an independent Welsh Church might have been. Wales was brought from the beginning of the new Church organisation into close contact with Rome, with the result that the papal curia, according to a provinciale dating from the middle of the twelfth century, regarded the Welsh dioceses not as suffragans of Canterbury! The struggle between Normans and Welsh had many faces; rarely if ever was it to become as fructiferous in the literary field as in the case of Giraldus Cambrensis. As a son of a Norman father and Welsh mother, Giraldus was subject to the tension between these two peoples all through his life. He attempted to find his place first with the Normans, then with the Welsh, and failed on both occasions. He was insulted by the Normans for being a 'Welshman', mistrusted by the Welsh as a Norman; so, whenever he took sides, his descent was clearly to his disadvantage. Such implications are easily overestimated, but it is equally dangerous to brush them aside as meaningless. Two of the most important works by Giraldus deal with Wales and her people. They have been rightly praised in the past, though without taking into account sufficiently the career of their author. Thus the fact that he wrote them while still trying his luck with the Normans has not been fully appreciated.5 In the introduction, Giraldus stated that the Welsh are a people different from all others, and the content of the description of Wales fully justifies what otherwise could sound like a topos. He mentions peculiarities in language, law, customs, and especially descent (natio proper), common to the Welsh. Here he expresses categories which would be understood, accepted, and shared by his audience. He perceived the Welsh as a natio by seeing and describing them better than any of his contemporaries. He was fairly closely acquanted with the country, but failed to identify himself with its people. At this point, the traditional image of Giraldus, be he called 'the Welshman' or just 'of Wales', has to be subjected to a rigorous examination. Attempts to find consistency in his character which would be expressed by such a label become easily artificial and do great injustice to his complicated personality and sensitive awareness. Giraldus took a leading part in the attempt to raise St. David's to an archbishopric. He was not the first one to do so. A careful appreciation has to be made of the achievements of his spiritual predecessor, Bishop Bernard. With regard to himself, more interesting than a complete reconstruction of his suit in Rome, for which an essential