Welsh Journals

FIFTH SERIES.—VOL. VII, NO. XXV. JANUARY 1890. THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES IN SOUTH WALES AFTER 1066. BY J. W. WILLIS-BUND, F.S.A. The object of this paper is to show that the religious houses established in South Wales after the Norman conquest of England formed a part of the system of conquest and settlement the Normans introduced into Wales, and that such houses were established far more from political than religious considerations. This is not the theory usually accepted. Modern Welsh writers, in their eagerness to exhibit their patri¬ otism, and magnify their countrymen, have allowed their zeal to outrun their knowledge. They have not hesitated to include Welsh chieftains among the " pious founders" of South Wales monasteries ; shut¬ ting their eyes to the fact that to represent a Welsh prince as founder of a religious house in South Wales after 1066 is representing him as the worst of traitors. Bad as the Welsh chieftains were, even they would have hesitated to introduce into their country what were really Norman garrisons. There is, however, a national history of Welsh monasticism, and there were national Welsh religious houses ; but these existed before, not under, the Norman kings. It was not the rule of St. Benedict, but the school of Paulinus that was really Welsh. For South Wales, Whitland is a 5th ser., vol. vii. 1