in 1649 (perhaps as a special measure of punishment) an “Act for the better Propagation and Preaching of the Gospel in Wales,” by the terms of which a packed body of seventy commissioners was presented with powers that were practically unlimited to deal with all matters ecclesiastical in Wales. To assist these commissioners in their task, of inquiry and ejectment, a body of twenty-five “Approvers” was likewise constituted, with the object of selecting itinerant preachers to replace the dismissed incumbents; and amongst the Approvers are conspicuous the names of Walter Cradock (d. 1659), a suspended curate of St Mary’s, Cardiff, and a follower of Wroth’s; and of Vavasor Powell (1617–1670), an honest but injudicious zealot. Some 330 out of a possible total of 520 incumbents were now ejected in South Wales and Monmouthshire, and there is every reason to suppose that the benefices clergy of North Wales suffered equally under the new system. The greed and tyranny of several of the commissioners, and the bigotry and mismanagement of well-meaning fanatics such as Cradock and Powell, soon wrought dire confusion throughout the whole Principality, so that a monster petition, signed alike by moderate Puritans and by High Churchmen, was prepared for presentation to parliament in 1652 by Colonel Edward Freeman, attorney-general for South Wales. Despite the fierce efforts of Vavasor Powell and his brother itinerant preachers to thwart the reception of this South Wales petition at Westminster, Colonel Freeman was able to urge the claims of the petitioners, or “Anti-Propagators” as they were termed, at the bar of the House of Commons, openly declaring that by the late policy of ejectment and destruction “the light of the Gospel was almost extinguished in Wales.” A new commission was now appointed to inquire into alleged abuses in Wales, and the existing evidence clearly shows how harsh and unfair was the treatment meted out to the clergy under the act of 1649, and also how utterly subversive of all ancient custom and established order were the reforms suggested by the commissioners and approvers. At the Restoration all the ejected clergy who survived were reinstated in their old benefices under the Act of Uniformity of 1662, whilst certain Puritan incumbents were in their turn dismissed for refusing to comply with various requirements of that act. Amongst these Stephen Hughes of Carmarthen (1623–1688), a devoted follower of Vicar Prichard and an editor of his works, was ejected from the living of Mydrim in Carmarthenshire, whereby the valuable services of this eminent divine were lost to the Church and gained by the Nonconformists, who had increased considerably in numbers since the Civil Wars. The old ecclesiastical policy of Elizabeth, which had hitherto borne such good fruit in Wales, was now gradually relaxed under the later Stuarts and definitely abandoned under Anne, during whose reign only Englishmen were appointed to the vacant Welsh sees. From 1702 to 1870, a period of nearly 170 years, no Welsh-speaking native bishop was nominated (with the solitary exception of John Wynne, consecrated to St Asaph in 1715), and it is needless to point out that this selfish and unjust policy was largely responsible for the neglect and misrule which distinguished the latter half of the 18th and the early part of the 19th centuries. The Church, which had so long played a prominent and valuable part in the moral and literary education of the Welsh people, was now gradually forced out of touch with the nation through the action of alien and unsympathetic Whig prelates in Wales itself, which still remained mainly High Church and Jacobite in feeling.
All writers agree in stating that the mass of the Welsh people at the close of the 17th century were illiterate, and many divines of Cymric nationality charge their countrymen also with immorality and religious apathy. English was little spoken or understood amongst the peasant population, and there was a great dearth of Welsh educational works. Some efforts to remedy this dark condition of things had already been made by Thomas Gouge, with the assistance of Stephen Hughes, and also by the newly founded “Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge”; but it was Griffith Jones (1683–1761), rector of Llanddowror in south Carmarthenshire, who was destined to become the true pioneer of Welsh education, religious and secular. Early in the reign of George I. this excellent man, whose name and memory will ever be treasured so long as the Welsh tongue survives, began a system of catechizing in the vernacular amongst the children and adults of his own parish. With the cordial help of Sir John Philipps (d. 1736) of Picton Castle, the head of an ancient family in Dyfed, and of Mrs Bridget Bevan of Laugharne (d. 1779), who is still affectionately remembered in Wales as the donor of “Madam Bevan’s Charity,” Griffith Jones was enabled to extend his scheme of educating the people throughout South Wales, where numerous “circulating charily schools,” as they were called, were set up in many parishes with the approval of their incumbents. The results obtained by the growth of these schools were speedy and successful beyond the wildest hopes of their founder. This educational system, invented by Griffith Jones and supported by the purse of Mrs Bevan, in 1760 numbered 215 schools, with a total number of 8687 contemporary scholars; and by the date of Jones’s death in 1761 it has been proved that over 150,000 Welsh persons of every age and of either sex, nearly a third of the whole population of Wales at that time, were taught to read the Scriptures in their own language by means of these schools. With this newly acquired ability to read the Bible in their own tongue, the many persons so taught were not slow to express a general demand for Cymric literature, which was met by a supply from local presses in the small country towns; the marvellous success of the Welsh circulating charily schools caused in fact the birth of the Welsh vernacular press. In spite, however, of the marked improvement in the conditions and behaviour of the Welsh people, owing to this strictly orthodox revival within the pale of the Church, Griffith Jones and his system of education were regarded with indifference by the English prelates in Wales, who offered no preferment and gave little encouragement to the founder of the circulating schools. Meanwhile the writings and personal example of the pious rector of Llanddowror were stirring other Welshmen in the work of revival, chief amongst them being Howell Harris of Trevecca (1713–1773), a layman of brilliant abilities but erratic temperament; and Daniel Rowland (1713–1790), curate of Llangeitho in Mid-Cardiganshire, who became in time the most eloquent and popular preacher throughout all Wales. Two other clergymen, who figure prominently in the Methodist movement, and whose influence has proved lasting, were Peter Williams of Carmarthen (1722–1796), the Welsh Bible commentator, and William Williams of Pantycelyn (1717–1791), the celebrated Welsh hymn-writer. Incidentally, it will be noticed that this important Methodist revival had its origin and found its chief supporters and exponents in a restricted corner of South Wales, of which Carmarthen was the centre, in curious contrast with the literary movement in Ehzabeth’s reign, which was largely confined to the district round St Asaph.
During the lifetime of Griffith Jones the course of Welsh Methodism had run in orthodox channels and had been generally supported by the Welsh clergy and gentry; but after his death the tendency to exceed the bounds of conventional Church discipline grew so marked as to excite the alarm of the English bishops in Wales. Nevertheless, the bulk of the Methodists continued to attend the services of the Church, and to receive the sacraments from regularly ordained parish priests, although a schism was becoming inevitable. Towards the close of the 18th century the Methodist revival spread to North Wales under the influence of the celebrated Thomas Charles, commonly called Charles of Bala (1755–1814), formerly curate of Llanymowddwy and the founder of Welsh Sunday schools. So strained had the relations between the English rulers of the Church and the Methodists themselves now grown, that in 1811 the long-expected schism took place, much to the regret of Charles of Bala himself, who had ever been a devoted disciple of Griffith Jones. The great bulk of the farming and labouring members of the Church now definitely abandoned their “Ancient Mother,” to whom, however, the Welsh gentry still adhered. The Great Schism of 1811 marks in fact the lowest point to which the
