Slike strani
PDF
ePub

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. + Taxation of Pope Nicholas.

p. 293.

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

These Welsh Princes were the founders of the Abbey, and in their Grant the churches of Llansadwrn, Llanwrda, Llansawel, and Pumsant are mentioned as chapels under Cynwyl Gaio. Of these, Llansadwrn now forms a separate vicarage, having Llanwrda annexed to it as a chapelry; Llansawel is still subject to Cynwyl Gaio, and Pumsant is the name of a place in the parish of Caio, where tradition states there was formerly a chapel, of which no vestiges now remain.

The subordination of churches, described as prevailing to so great an extent in Wales, may at first appear surprising; it is however no theory, for it actually exists at this very day, and all that has been done is to endeavour to account for the causes which produced it. The arrangement made will be found intimately connected with the Saints to whom the Welsh churches are dedicated; for if any of them were founded by the persons whose names they bear, they must be those which retain the greatest evidences of antiquity.

in the castle of Ogmore, on the bank of a river of the same name, as the curacy of Wick, now subject to St. Bride's, is too far from the river to merit the appellation, and most large castles had formerly a chapel within their precincts. The chapel of Llamphey must have been situate in the hamlet so called in the parish of St. Bride's, and the omission of Wick affords a presumption that it was founded after the date of the Grant. In those documents, however, where chapels are altogether omitted, it must follow, that if they existed in the time of the record, the name of the mother church was considered sufficient to include its dependencies.

D

SECTION II.

The Subordination of Churches and Chapels considered in reference to the Saints to whom they are dedicated.

IN an enquiry into the question, by whom and at what time the several churches of Wales were founded, great assistance may be derived from the names of the Saints to whom they are dedicated. In forming a classification, two grand divisions immediately present themselves ;-the Saints which have been admitted into the Romish Calendar, and those who are natives of the country, or otherwise connected with its history. The characteristics of both kinds are so different, that they can hardly be conceived to belong to the same people, or indeed to the same religion. In the time of St. Augustin the Monk,* there was already in Wales a Christian Church, furnished with Bishops, Monasteries, stated places of worship, and other appendages of a religious establishment. It refused to submit to the authority of the Pope, and proofs are not wanting to show that it continued its independence for some time afterwards, until, from the intercourse of foreigners, and the gradual subjugation of the Welsh people, it merged into Catholicism. It might naturally be concluded that the native Saints belonged to the primitive Church of the country, and that the places of worship called after their names were of older foundation than those dedicated to Saints of the Catholic Calendar. It will not be amiss, therefore, to give the result of an examination of all

* A. D. 600.

+ Bede's Ecclesiastical History, Book II. Chap. 2,

the dedications in Wales, according to Ecton's Thesaurus, edited by Browne Willis ;* and greater pleasure is felt in appealing to that book, as it is of generally received authority, and its Editor was utterly unconscious of the conclusions that are here sought to be maintained.

The Saints, to whom the greatest number of churches are dedicated, are St. Mary the Virgin, St. Michael, and St. David. Those dedicated to St. Mary are as follow, and it should be observed that care is taken to distinguish chapelries from benefices.t

[blocks in formation]

* Bacon, in his "Liber Regis," appears to follow the authority of Browne Willis, with a few corrections.

The letters R. V. P. and C. affixed to benefices, denote Rectory, Vicarage, Prebend, and Curacy; and it must be noticed that those Curacies only are so designated which do not acknowledge a dependence upon any other church. The chapels, subject to churches of St. Mary, are printed in Italics; and their Saints, as well as those of parent churches, connected with the names in the list, are added, except where omitted by Browne Willis.

« PrejšnjaNaprej »