Welsh Journals

Sanctuaries and Saints. An Essay on the Churches and Saints of Brecon and Radnor. By R. W. D. Fenn. Illustrated by Brian Bessant. The Rev. R. W. D. Fenn, Vicar of Glascwm, Builth, has produced a most useful, informative and readable account of the ancient churches of these two counties and has potted a good deal of Welsh Church History in the process. A digest of this value deserves a more sumptuous presentation and greater care in the proof-reading; but the illustrative sketches are most acceptable, and the text is fully worthy of them. No doubt there are points that we should all like to discuss. Perhaps the author in describing Dyfrig as 'the first known Bishop in Wales' and mentioning church 'dedications' in the age of the Saints should have explained what these terms in this early period really meant; while the statement that 'the three main character- istics of the Celtic Church in Wales were its liturgy, its method of calculating the date of Easter and its tonsure' is perhaps misleading in view of what the author himself says about the peculiarities of its organisation and of what others might like to say about its theological interests. The author is not alone in censuring Owain Glyndwr for damaging churches- an attitude which always amuses me as suggesting that the greatest man of his age should have catered better for the tastes of twentieth-century ecclesiastical antiquaries. We all have our limitations; and the statement that 'from 1660 the churches of the land again became places of solemnity and glory' betrays a sentiment which other Christians, while respecting it, would not necessarily share. But slight differences of emphasis and interpretation should not prevent us from pronouncing the Rev. R. W. D. Fenn's booklet a fair and generous one and a most valuable summary of essential information about the history of church buildings in the delectable region which clearly means so much to him. PENNAR DAVIES.