第4章 INTRODUCTION(4)

It is needless to recount the many activities in which Gerald engaged during the next twenty-two years.They have been recounted with humorous and affectionate appreciation by Dr.Henry Owen in his monograph on "Gerald the Welshman,"a little masterpiece of biography which deserves to be better known.{4}In 1183Gerald was employed by the astute king to settle terms between him and the rebellious Lord Rhys.Nominally as a reward for his successful diplomacy,but probably in order to keep so dangerous a character away from the turbulent land of Wales,Gerald was in the following year made a Court chaplain.In 1185he was commissioned by the king to accompany Prince John,then a lad of eighteen,who had lately been created "Lord of Ireland,"to the city of Dublin.There he abode for two years,collecting materials for his two first books,the "Topography"and the "Conquest of Ireland."In 1188he accompanied Archbishop Baldwin through Wales to preach the Third Crusade -not the first or the last inconsistency of which the champion of the independence of the Welsh Church was guilty.His "Itinerary through Wales"is the record of the expedition.King Richard offered him the Bishopric of Bangor,and John,in his brother's absence,offered him that of Llandaff.But his heart was set on St.David's.In 1198his great chance came to him.At last,after twenty-two years of misrule,Peter de Leia was dead,and Gerald seemed certain of attaining his heart's desire.Once again the chapter nominated Gerald;once more the royal authority was exerted,this time by Archbishop Hubert,the justiciar in the king's absence,to defeat the ambitious Welshman.The chapter decided to send a deputation to King Richard in Normandy.The deputation arrived at Chinon to find Coeur-de-Lion dead;but John was anxious to make friends everywhere,in order to secure himself on his uncertain throne.He received the deputation graciously,he spoke in praise of Gerald,and he agreed to accept the nomination.But after his return to England John changed his mind.He found that no danger threatened him in his island kingdom,and he saw the wisdom of the justiciar's policy.Gerald hurried to see him,but John point blank refused publicly to ratify his consent to the nomination which he had already given in private.Then commenced the historic fight for St.David's which,in view of the still active "Church question"in Wales,is even now invested with a living interest and significance.Gerald contended that the Welsh Church was independent of Canterbury,and that it was only recently,since the Norman Conquest,that she had been deprived of her freedom.His opponents relied on political,rather than historical,considerations to defeat this bold claim.King Henry,when a deputation from the chapter in 1175appeared before the great council in London and had urged the metropolitan claims of St.

David's upon the Cardinal Legate,exclaimed that he had no intention of giving this head to rebellion in Wales.Archbishop Hubert,more of a statesman than an ecclesiastic,based his opposition on similar grounds.He explained his reasons bluntly to the Pope."Unless the barbarity of this fierce and lawless people can be restrained by ecclesiastical censures through the see of Canterbury,to which province they are subject by law,they will be for ever rising in arms against the king,to the disquiet of the whole realm of England."Gerald's answer to this was complete,except from the point of view of political expediency."What can be more unjust than that this people of ancient faith,because they answer force by force in defence of their lives,their lands,and their liberties,should be forthwith separated from the body corporate of Christendom,and delivered over to Satan?"The story of the long fight between Gerald on the one hand and the whole forces of secular and ecclesiastical authority on the other cannot be told here.Three times did he visit Rome to prosecute his appeal -alone against the world.He had to journey through districts disturbed by wars,infested with the king's men or the king's enemies,all of whom regarded Gerald with hostility.He was taken and thrown into prison as King John's subject in one town,he was detained by importunate creditors in another,and at Rome he was betrayed by a countryman whom he had befriended.He himself has told us Of the most disastrous chances Of moving accidents by flood and field,which made a journey from St.David's to Rome a more perilous adventure in those unquiet days than an expedition "through darkest Africa"is in ours.At last the very Chapter of St.David's,for whose ancient rights he was contending,basely deserted him."The laity of Wales stood by me,"so he wrote in later days,"but of the clergy whose battle I was fighting scarce one."Pope Innocent III.

was far too wary a politician to favour the claims of a small and distracted nation,already half-subjugated,against the king of a rich and powerful country.He flattered our poor Gerald,he delighted in his company,he accepted,and perhaps even read,his books.But in the end,after five years'incessant fighting,the decision went against him,and the English king's nominee has ever since sat on the throne of St.David's."Many and great wars,"said Gwenwynwyn,the Prince of Powis,"have we Welshmen waged with England,but none so great and fierce as his who fought the king and the archbishop,and withstood the might of the whole clergy and people of England,for the honour of Wales."Short was the memory and scant the gratitude of his countrymen.

When in 1214another vacancy occurred at a time when King John was at variance with his barons and his prelates,the Chapter of St.

David's nominated,not Gerald,their old champion,but Iorwerth,the Abbot of Talley,from whose reforming zeal they had nothing to fear.