Welsh Recusants and Their Struggle to Return Wales to the Old Faith

The mid to late 16^th century had forced many changes to religion in Wales. The dissolution of the monasteries and the break from Rome, together with the creation of the Church of England, which had been a cornerstone of the reign of Henry VIII (1509-53), had brought chaos and calamity to religious life in Wales. The Catholic Church and her teachings had literally been ripped from the fabric of life in Henry's era. The reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603) was to create perhaps the most prolific impact on religion in the history of Wales to that date. After the slight revival of a return to the Catholic practices and papacy during the reign of Mary (1553-8), Elizabeth once again brought Catholicism to its knees, but in doing so saw rise to more dissention and disruption than possibly all the monarchs who ruled before her. Elizabeth's devotion to the faith of her father Henry the 8^th was a testament to the memory of the man, but was to give rise to the greatest religious changes perhaps seen. The seeming disregard of the Catholic faith and its followers was to cause much pain and suffering amongst the people and clergy. But it was in this darkest of times that the true convictions of the faithful came to light and brought such great changes to the ecclesiastical mesh of the Welsh People.

From the start of the reformation, Wales and her people did not seem overly concerned by Henry 8^th decision to break with Rome. They greeted the religious upheaval with neither hatred nor a love, but rather a practiced indifference. However, through the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth, the seeds of opposition had begun to take root in the Welsh psyche. Henry, whom seemed to dislike any language other than his native tongue, in signing the Act of 1535, decreed the Welsh language "nothing like ne consonants to the natural mother-tongue used in this realm". The King duly noted that for a Welshman to ascend to heaven, he needed to come around to the idea that his worship, even his prayer, needed to be expressed in English, or he would be never reach the to the auspices of being one with the Maker.