Welsh Journals

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and it would be easy to belittle the authors as sunk in superstitious worship of painted wood, all the more easy since a poet using the cywydd and trick of similies is bound to make play with the crimson colour and glint of gold when de- scribing, say, Our Lady at Pwllheli or the Rood at Chester. These things were, however, but symbols; the essential fact is that these little churches, like the little Bethels of fifty years ago, performed an important social service; they were almost the only barrier between the rural population and barbarism. A common kind of ecclesiastical poem is in the form of a eulogy of a saint. The model was per- haps the eulogy of a chieftain, and naturally, for the saint had once been a chieftain of the Llan. Not only so, he remained a chieftain, powerful in the councils of heaven as Welsh officials were powerful at the courts of the Tudors. As Henry VII. might be approached through Sir Rhvs, it was reasonable to suppose that the Almighty might be approached through Dewi or some other who had fought his battles on earth. Presents were made to chieftains and favours begged of them presents were made to the altar of the saint and favours asked of him also. He was a man of honour, and honour meant being true to one's friends and neighbours. There is a good example of confidence in the power and mercy of the saint in Dafydd ap Llywclyn ap Madog's poem to Mordeyrn Sant :— of the holy race of Edevrn, a great deliverer art thou of men that come in sorrow within thy walls of stone. Every sick and ailing wretch thou turncst from misery to health. Thou art one to give free succour, one to break the everlasting agonv of the deaf, that cannot hear speech nor fine eulogies made to be listened to. Thou givest to the blind unfailing sight, and rcstorcst to sanity him that was not sane. There may be superstition here, but it is as nothing to the unreasonable belief of our day in quack medicines. It is, after all, a question whether faith in the saints did not in fact cure Mae ynys yn huno mynwes y mor, A chartref yr haf ydyw hi. A' chain yw ei henw ar wefus per gor Gwanegau brigwynion y Hi. Nid oes ond v llanw a'r awel a ŵyr Y, llwybyr sy'n arwain i hon, Canys cudd megis breuddwyd o fore i hwyr Yw'r ynys sy draw tros y don. Mae anadl yr hinon yn suo'n yr hesg, Ac enaint y tes ar bob twyn A chalon yr hafddydd yn euro yn llesg Ym mynwes y llwyni a'r brwyn. more ills than all the leechcraft of that day. When the change came, it came not so much because the Latin church was full of superstition as because it was empty of faith. Its great ideas, the unity of Christendom and the just claim of the poor and weak on the rich and strong, were in no way improved by the Reformation. What happened was that its leaders had lost the faith they should have taught. Sion Brwynog, in his cywydd of the 1 wo Faiths, shows the process :— The world is filled with strife concerning the Christ, some proudly walking in the new way some holding hard by the ancient faith. Every man has a different opinion dispute breaks forth like a quarrel among dogs In silk the clergy go to-day, but of hair were the shirts of priests of old. Consider the apostles and their way of life in poverty they lived — a hard thing for the priests of to-day. From wives and children they turned to Christ, but the priest above all turns the other way now In malice he hoards his wealth; he rages on account of his tithe. He piles the wheat in stacks and gives none of it to the poor The preacher, on the other hand, with weak- ened faith, and clad in a gown of fur, cries at the top of his voice some nonsense by way of a sermon he understands not what he says, and yet the fool will not cease. Dead cold is our age there is blue ice in our churches. Sad was the breaking of altars choirs there arc no more, nor wax nor votive candles; no more the fragrant incense nor oil that was balm to the soul. Sion Brwynog clearly saw- that the Reformation in its actual working out was a struggle between old rogues and new. He himself was loyal, not to the old priests, but to the old faith. In this he was like the majority of his countrymen, pro- bably, who kept for many generations under the new order habits of thought and speech belong- ing: to the old, who took long to lose utterly the last sorry remnants of the age of faith. YNYS YR HAF. Mae mil perarogledd y gerddi'n y gwynt Hvd fevsydd yr ynys yn rhydd. A murmur v gwenyn dihedd ar eu hynt, A chaniadl y gog yn y gwydd. Ni chilia gwvrddlcsni y meysydd a'r mor, Na glesni y nefoedd ychwaith. A bvwyd dihenaint sydd yno'n ystor Yng nghartref Ieuenctid digraith. O tvred Ceridwcn tan leuad yr hwyr I vnys' yr haf tros y don Nid oes ond y llanw a'r awel a wyr Y llwbyr sy'n arwain i hon. Y arwain i hon. S. B. Jones.