*

demand might be made for an increased number of public places of worship; unless their situations were such as to render the change useless or impracticable. It may be presumed that the earliest oratories, founded after the final settlement of parishes, were frequently converted into chapels of ease; and while it is the tendency of ecclesiastical establishments gradually to rise in importance,t it may be concluded that those, which as a class have remained in the lowest rank, were the latest. Chapels erected over wells owe their origin to the superstition of the middle ages, and those which are contiguous to a larger church, or cathedral, have their antiquity limited by the date of the fabric to which they are adjoined.

At this stage of proceeding, it will be proper to observe that the Welsh word "Llan" was at first applied to churches and chapels indiscriminately; in determining the antiquity of chapels, it may be considered that such as have their names compounded with this word are of the older kind. The word "Capel" appears to be of subsequent introduction, as it is seldom attached to the names of parochial chapels, but applied principally to chapels of ease and decayed oratories. Another designation applied to chapels in Wales is "Bettws;" and though several places so named have been formed into independent benefices, there are proofs remaining sufficient to show that they were originally subject to other churches in their neighbourhood. Sometimes the two latter appellations are used together, as Capel Bettws Lleicu,

The exception applies principally to cells said to have been founded by the primitive Christians of Wales in certain small islands, to which they retired for the sake of security.

This observation, though intended to apply to churches and chapels, is also true of monastic institutions; Priories, being of later foundation than Abbeys, remained unequal to them in revenues and importance: it may also be noticed that the relationship subsisting between a superior convent and its cells is in some degree analogous to that between a church and its chapels.

Cardiganshire, and Capel Bettws, subject to Trelech, Carmarthenshire.*

Great stress has been laid upon parochial divisions, for the reason that they determine the comparative antiquity of the churches to which they belong. The idea that parishes in Wales were established by a general Act of the Legislature can never be maintained. Without entering further into the question, it is sufficient to say that they existed in the times of of Welsh independency, when no Acts of the English Parliament could affect them; and the Welsh annals record no ordinance for their arrangement, which in the state of the country, divided between contending Princes, was almost impossible. Their establishment was gradual, and their limits were determined by the territory of the person who endowed each church with tithes. This is the only way to account for their unequal extent, and the inconvenience of their distribution. A chieftain might divide his lands between his his sons, and this arrangement might form some criterion for the division of an endowment of the first class into parochial chapelries; but he could make no partition of the tithes, for as they had been already given away, they were no longer in his power; and it rested with the ministert of the mother church to make his own arrangements with the curates of the chapelries.

Property in Wales descended by the law of Gavelkind,

* Llan appears to be indigenous in the Welsh language, meaning not only the church, but the sacred spot which surrounds it, and in this sense it corresponds with the Greek word "Teμevos." The idea of “en-closure" is also observable in its compounds, gwinllan, perllan, corlan, ydlan, &c. Capel is derived from "Capella," a Latin word of modern invention. The derivation of Bettws is uncertain. Qu. from the AngloSaxon-"Bead-house."

+ Giraldus Cambrensis does not inform us by what scale the tithes were divided between a plurality of Rectors, but he loudly declaims against the whole system as an abuse.

which ordained that sons should inherit their father's territory in equal proportions. Such was the theory of the institution, but in practice it was very defective. Feuds always arose about the distribution. Might would overcome right, and as a necessary consequence the divisions were very unequal, and sometimes intermixed with each other. Tracts of country may therefore be found, where the church appears to have been endowed when affairs were in the state described. In the Rural Deanery of Maelienydd in the county of Radnor, which contained the districts of Nantmel, Llanbister, and Llangynllo, the division was regular; but it was otherwise in the Deanery of Builth in the county of Brecon. In the latter, the district of Llanafan includes the continuous parishes of Llanafan Fawr, Llanfechan, Llanfihangel Bryn Pabûan, and Llanfihangel Abergwesin; and also the parish of Alltmawr, which is separated from the others by the intervening parishes of Llanddewi'r Cwm and Builth. The district of Llangammarch includes the parishes of Llangammarch, Llanwrtyd, and Llanddewi Abergwesin, and there is reason to suspect that Llanddulas ought to be added to the number. But what is more surprising, there is documentary evidence to prove that it formerly included the extensive parish of Llansanffraid Cwmmwd Deuddwr† though

The authority alluded to is the "Valor Ecclesiasticus" of Henry VIII. under the heads of "Llangammarch" and "Lenseyntffrede." The connexion is also proved by another authority more ancient; in a Deed of Agreement with the Abbey of Strata Florida, to which the Chapter of Abergwilly was a party, dated March 21, 1339, mention is made of the Prebendary of "Llangammarch Readr" alluding to the town of Rhayader, in a suburb of which the church of Llansanffraid is situated.

The name "Cwmmwd Deuddwr" is restored from a passage in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, where it is said to be a part of the possessions of Strata Florida. (See also the enumeration of parishes in the second Vol. of the Myvyrian Archaiology.) It is now generally written "Cwm y Toyddwr."

divided from it by the interposition of Llanafan Fawr. The parishes of Llanfihangel Bryn Pabûan and Llanafan Fawr intervene between Llanwrthwl and its subordinate parish of Llanlleonfel; and Llanganten is in a similar manner separated by Maesmynys and Llanddewi'r Cwm from its chapelry of Llangynog. When it is added that Llanddewi'r Cwm* is the mother church of Builth, and Maesmynyst the mother church of Llanynys, all the parishes in the Deanery are enumerated, and the last two districts alone are entirely continuous.

If it be objected that chapelries may have been originally separate benefices which were afterwards consolidated, it may be replied that the extinction of a benefice and its conversion into a chapelry is contrary to the progress of ecclesiastical polity. So far from the fact of churches uniting together to form one benefice, the tendency is the reverse; chapels are frequently detached from the older church and become independent benefices. Even when the whole tithes of a living were appropriated to a Monastery or Collegiate Chapter, the benefice did not lose its existence and become subject to some neighbouring parish, but it continued its independence under the name of prebend or curacy. Whenever, from the smallness of their value, two rectories or vicarages are consolidated, neither of them merges into the other, or becomes a chapel; but they preserve their original designation as separate benefices, and are only said to be annexed. These points do not depend upon accident, as they affect the interests. of every clergyman upon his institution to a living. Churches, which are described as benefices in the survey of Pope Nicholas in the reign of Edward the First, continued to be, for the most part, so described in the surveys of Henry the Eighth, and Queen Anne, and are found to be similar with

*Taxation of Pope Nicholas, and Jones's Brecknockshire, Vol. II. p. 293. + Taxation of Pope Nicholas.

a few exceptions at this present time. Sometimes, from being a larger edifice or more favourably situated, the chapel may take precedence of the parent church; but this accident does not compromise the integrity of the benefice. It has been the interest of every incumbent to observe that his rights were not infringed upon by his neighbour; and if he held a plurality of livings, they were generally separated upon his decease.

Should ever such a consolidation, or rather extinction of benefices have taken place; it may naturally be supposed that it was formed for the purpose of aggrandizing Monasteries, or the dignitaries of collegiate bodies. But the system of subordination is of older date; for the foundation Charters of Abbeys in Wales describe it as already existing. Chapels are enumerated under their respective churches as at present, with the exception, as may be expected, that some of them have since been converted into separate benefices, but this is a proceeding the reverse of consolidation. In Dugdale's Monasticon is a Chartert of Edw. III. confirming a prior Grant made by certain Princes of South Wales in the time of Henry III. to the Abbey of Talley in Carmarthenshire.

* In examining ecclesiastical documents, care must be taken to ascertain whether the word "ecclesia" be used generically or specifically, and irregularities must be rectified by a comparison with other authorities.

+ The information, to be derived from a perusal of documents of this nature, may be demonstrated by another example from the Monasticon, in the words of the original.-" A. D. 1141, Mauritius de London, filius Willielmi de London, dedit ecclesiæ Sancti Petri Glouc. ecclesiam S. Michaelis de Ewenny, ecclesiam S. Brigidæ, cum capella de Ugemor de Lanfey. Ecclesiam S. Michaelis de Colveston cum terris, &c.—ita ut conventus Monachorum fiat."-The Grant of these churches to the Monastery of St. Peter's Gloucester was made with a view to the establishment of a Priory, subject to that society, at Ewenny in the county of Glamorgan. The church of St. Bridget, mentioned therein, is St. Bride's Major in the same county. The capella de Ugemor was probably