St. Asaph's Cathedral

One surprise, upon reaching St. Asaph, is to find the cathedral situated on a hill, instead of being hidden down in a hollow as we found at St.David's, Llandaff, and Bangor. Perhaps St. Asaph's needed to be placed in a prominent spot, for it is the smallest medieval cathedral in the British Isles. It is sacred, nevertheless, and holds a special place in the hearts of the Welsh people. The see may have been founded as Llanelwy in the 6th Century as a monastic settlement by St.Kentigern (San Cyndyrn in Welsh but also known as St.Mungo). Kentigern's successor as Bishop in 570 was Asaph, who gave his name to the city and the Diocese. In ll5l Geoffrey of Monmouth was appointed Bishop though he never visited his diocese, preferring to spend most of his time at Oxford.

In ll88, Gildas described the church as "very poor indeed," and less than one hundred years later, it was completely destroyed by the army of Edward I on his conquest of North Wales. In a major and unprecedented victory for the Welsh Church, the cathedral was then rebuilt on its original site through the efforts of Bishop Anian II despite Edward's preference for Rhuddlan (where he established a huge fortress and where the Statute of l284 created a dependent Wales to be governed by royal edict). Further damage took place in l402 during the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr, when a fire destroyed the woodwork, and again in l7l5 when the tower was completely demolished in a fierce storm. Our old friend Sir Gilbert Scott was responsible for major restoration during the latter half of the nineteenth and the early part of this century. As at Bangor, it is mainly his church that you see today.

In addition to Geoffrey of Monmouth, prominent churchmen to have held the Bishopric at St. Asaph over the centuries include Bishop William Morgan, the main translator of the Bible into Welsh in the latter half of the l6th Century, which perhaps "saved" the language from degenerating into a mere peasant patois, and who is buried in the cathedral he served so well. Others include Bishop William Lloyd, who resisted Anglicization in his diocese by ensuring the appointment of Welshmen, but remembered mostly as one of those in the reign of James II, who refused to have the Declaration of Indulgence read; and Bishop Samuel Horsley, who opposed Priestly in the Trinitarian controversy. In l920 a momentous event occurred when then current Bishop A.G. Edwards was enthroned as the first archbishop of the newly constituted Church of Wales.

Inside the Cathedral, tiny by English standards, (which, as most Welshmen and women know simply do not apply in North Wales in matters of architecture or language), there is much of interest. The refurbished roof painting celebrates the investiture of Charles in l969, though that event is fading into distant memory and becoming less glamorous and memorable each passing year. The l3th Century nave of Anian II has l4th century arcades; the saint himself is remembered by an effigy in the South Aisle which also contains the curious Greyhound Stone with its unexplained heraldic decorations. Here is also found a tablet to the memory of explorer H. M. Stanley (of Dr. Livingstone fame) whose youth as an orphan was spent at the St. Asaph workhouse nearby and now part of the Glan Glwyd Hospital (Ysbyty Glan Clwyd). An exquisitely carved ivory Madonna may have come from a galleon of the ill-fated Spanish Armada.

In the Chapter Treasury is a fine collection of early bibles and prayer books including the first Welsh New Testament ((l587), Bishop Morgan's magnificent Welsh Bible of l558, and many other Welsh religious books. Another item of interest is the Triglot Dictionary of the eccentric Richard Robert Jones (Dic Aberdaron), who traveled about Wales in the early nineteenth century with his faithful cat and who, though unschooled, is reputed to have mastered dozens of foreign languages, ancient and modern. It is the association with Dr.Morgan, however, that makes St. Asaph's Cathedral especially sacred to all who hold the Welsh language and religious traditions dear. In the cathedral grounds is a memorial to the translators of the Bible with Bishop Morgan's name in the center. It is worth our while to have a closer look at just what he accomplished for his nation.

The Acts of Union in l436 and l543 ensured the political annexation of Wales to England, and gave notice that part of their intent had been "[henceforth] to utterly extirpate all and singular the sinister usage and customs differing from the same [English laws]." While the Acts did not expressly prohibit the Welsh language, they certainly made its survival more difficult. It was the printing of books in Welsh that saved the day. Though Sir John Price (John Prys of Brecon) published the first book in the Welsh language, a collection of basic religious texts Yn Llyvyr Hwnn (In This Book) in l546, it was William Salesbury, of Llansannon, Denbighshire, who was the true pioneer of publishing in Welsh.

Salesbury worked tirelessly to make the scriptures known to the Welsh people in their own language. His mission to the Welsh nation was set out most clearly. In his Oll Synnwyr Pen Kembero Ygyd (l547):

"If you do not wish to be worse than animals... obtain learning in your own language; if you do not wish to be more unnatural than any other nation under the sun, love your language and those who love it. If you do not wish utterly to depart from the faith of Christ . . .obtain the Holy Scripture in your own tongue as your happy ancestors, the ancient British, had it."

In l563, Parliament passed a bill ordering that the Bible be translated into Welsh, an act that was not undertaken with any love or respect to the language, but one that, according to Professor Johnston, formed "an essential part of the programme of the Protestant Reformation in Britain." Elizabeth and her parliament were appalled at the slow progress in of the Welsh people in learning the English language. They thought that by having Welsh translations placed next to the English texts in Church, the congregations would learn English. The reverse took place, of course, and the Welsh language was given an unintended status and a place of honor by being used as a medium for the Holy Scriptures. Why bother with English, when there was a perfectly acceptable Welsh in which to worship God? (and a book from which one could learn to read and write?)

The Welsh bishops entrusted the momentous task mainly to Salesbury, who had prepared the way with his earlier translation of the Prayer Book. Aided by Bishop Richard Davies of Abergwili, Salesbury produced a book in an elegant, dignified style that could be read by scholars but was practically worthless for the common people. A new version was called for that would be acceptable to scholar and lay person alike, and it was William Morgan, parish priest of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, and later Bishop of Llandaf and St. Asaph who gave the Welsh people what they so urgently needed.

Morgan had studied Hebrew, Greek and Latin at Cambridge; his education and his temperament made him an ideal person to complete the work begun by Salesbury In l588 he finished his work with a group of fellow-scholars, including the brilliant Richard Davies. The results were far beyond his expectations, which, like Salesbury's before him, were mainly to present God's word to his people in their own language and thus save them from damnation. Its influence upon the subsequent religious direction of the Welsh people was totally unexpected; it had incalculable effects upon their language and literature. Many historians believe that it was this book alone that prevented Welsh from becoming nothing more than a bundle of provincial dialects or of even disappearing altogether.

It is of note, too, that Welsh was the only non-state language of Protestant Europe to become the medium of a published Bible within a century of the Reformation. Perhaps it is mainly to this that much of the strength of present-day Welsh is owed, compared to Irish (which did not get its own Bible until l690 and where Catholic congregations did not have access to it), and Scots Gaelic (which had to wait until l80l). In addition, the Book became the foundation and inspiration for all the literature written in the Welsh language after the end of the sixteenth century.

The Morgan Bible was so successful that all one thousand copies quickly became worn out (or stolen) and a new edition was called for. In l620, Dr John Davies of Mallwyd was responsible for minor corrections and standardization in his revision version that is a classic of Welsh literature, similar to the King James Bible in English. Generation after generation of Welsh children would learn to read and write from this book, or more correctly from the cheaper, smaller version published in l630, Y Beibl Bach, the only book many families could afford; and for those who couldn't, a copy would be available in church, or in the Sunday schools that later became such a prominent part of the Welsh social and religious life. Its influence is therefore incalculable. (William Morgan's birthplace, the remote Ty Mawr, an almost inaccessible Welsh stone cottage, is located near Penmachno, near Llanrwst. To get there, a national Welsh shrine, one should take the road from Bangor to Betws y Coed, and then to Penmachno on the way to Llangollen).

It is but a short journey by road from the city of St. Asaph through the gap in the Clwydian Hills just before they reach the Irish Sea, to a town that has no cathedral and yet is one of the most important and well-known stopping places on our pilgrimage. For over one thousand years, the well at Holywell was renowned throughout Britain and beyond for its healing powers, a reputation that survived the Reformation. During the author's boyhood, a large collection of crutches and canes left behind as a testament to the water's curative powers was a prominent feature of the site (they have since been removed).