that another characteristic of the Celts is the ardent desire, amounting almost to a passion, that their institutions, whether civil or ecclesiastical, shall have a local character.

The inference which I would have you draw from the foregoing sketch of the history of the ancient Church in Wales is, that no church is likely to thrive in Wales unless it is local in its character and associations. This applies, it seems to me, equally to the Episcopalian and the Nonconformist Churches. At the present moment the Episcopalian Church has a great advantage in the continuity of its traditions. This, with a Celtic nature, I believe to be a great advantage. On the other hand, the Nonconformist Churches have what is also a great advantage in Wales; they are more democratic, more local, more in touch with the people than the Church of England in Wales can claim to be.

I do not know if it is at all likely that any steps will be taken for giving the State Church in Wales a more local character. The time seems favourable for localisation. The spirit of decentralisation has, at the end of the nineteenth century, sprung up throughout the civilised world. It is a factor which can no more be disregarded in matters ecclesiastical than it can in matters political. The national movement is not confined to Wales. It is to be seen in almost every country in Europe. Everywhere submerged and conquered nationalities are beginning to manifest increased national unity. Bohemia, Croatia, Flanders, Norway, all illustrate the spread of this feeling.

In the history of the world heretofore the concrete shape, which the manifestation of this feeling of nationality took, was generally a war of independence, having for its purpose the separation of the nation as a political unit amongst nations. National feeling in the nineteenth century seems to manifest itself in another form. It is now-a-days merely

an assertion of local patriotism, a claim by a province to a local right to administer its own local affairs. This claim, although it may be a convenient vehicle for the expression of national feeling, is not different in kind, though it may be in the wider definition of the local subjects, from the claim that is successfully insisted on by all our great provincial corporations.

It is in response to this feeling of local patriotism that County Councils have been created with the approval of the whole nation, and that Village Councils seem at the point of being established.

The tendency to decentralisation is the almost necessary sequel of democratic government. A despot may be in touch with all parts of his dominions. It is hardly possible that a great central representative assembly should be so. Such an assembly, as a body, has little sympathy for local wants and demands. It concerns itself rather with matters of general interest to the Empire.

This local patriotism is nowhere stronger than in Wales. It has borne fruits already. We have had a recognition of the local rights of Wales in Intermediate Education and in the Sunday Closing Act. We look for a Welsh National University in the immediate future.

Can the Church in Wales make no concession to this local feeling? Is it impossible to fall in with the spirit of decentralization by the separation of the Welsh Sees from the province of Canterbury? This would not of necessity involve the creation of a new Archbishopric. Notwithstanding what is said of the bishopric of Caerleon having been the Metropolitan of the Roman Welsh province, it seems to me that the better opinion is, that there was no primacy amongst the old Welsh Sees. Is it impossible to concede to the Welsh local and national feeling that the election of the bishop on a vacancy shall be vested in the

members of the Church? The Church of Ireland affords a practical example of how these things may be settled. The choice of bishops, church government, church ritual and liturgy, are all determined by dioceses and general synods at which clergy and laity are represented. There seems nothing in this inconsistent with the supremacy of the Crown. It is a mere delegation of its power. In theory, a congé d'élire left the election of a bishop to fill a vacant See to the Chapter. There is nothing in this inconsistent with the supremacy of the Crown if the confirmation of the election is really left with the Crown.

It may be a mere dream, but I cannot but think that a Church thus in touch with the Welsh people, with a Welsh liturgy, a Welsh ritual, and a Welsh Episcopate, would revive and appeal to the best traditions of the Celtic Church in Wales, and would not find the gulf between itself and Nonconformity impassable, and would soon rise to the rank of a National Church including within its fold all Welsh Christianity.

WELSH SAINTS.

By J. W. WILLIS-BUND, F.S.A.1

A MODERN French writer in his lectures on The History of Civilisation in France" points out the danger to historical accuracy from using words which for centuries remain unchanged in connection with facts that are constantly changing. "Nothing", says M. Guizot-"nothing perhaps has caused more confusion, more fallacy, in history, than the immobility of names amidst variety of facts. It is impossible to utter too strong a warning never to lose sight of this quicksand." As an instance he cites the use of the term "Republic" as describing the governments of Rome and the United States-the same name being applied to describe systems which in everything but name differ so completely so entirely-so utterly.

Had M. Guizot desired to draw an example from ecclesiastical as well as from civil history, nothing better could have been found than the past and present use of the word "Saint" in the Latin and Celtic Churches; here the difference is as great, if not greater, than the use of the term "Republic" in describing the governments of Rome and the United States. We are so accustomed to the meaning the Latin Church ascribes to certain terms, that it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to regard them as capable of being used with any other signification. With us the term "Saint" has become so connected with personal holiness that we

1 Paper read before the Cymmrodorion Society at No. 20, Hanover Square, on May 2, 1894. Chairman, Mr. Stephen Evans, J.P. 2 Bohn's edition, iii, 326.

other sense.

cannot believe it was ever used in any Yet it is clear that this was not the original meaning of the word. Both among Latins and Celts the word has lost its primitive signification; the sense it now bears in both Churches is different from its original meaning. It may be said for the Celts, however far they have wandered from the primitive signification of the word, yet their interpretation comes far nearer its ancient significance than its modern rendering by the Latin Church.

Originally the term "Saint" did not imply anything more than that the person was a Christian. This is the apostolic use of the word. St. Paul writes "To the Saints that are at Ephesus"; "the Saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse", using the term "Saint" as synonymous with the word "Church" as describing all Christian converts. This was the sense in which the Celts used the term. Patrick, in his letter to Caroticus, says of the Irish Christians, “Which of the Saints would not shrink from partaking of the sports and banquets of such men",1 clearly meaning by "Saints" all the Christian converts as opposed to the heathen. use of the word "Saint" as equivalent to Christian, long continued in Ireland, and explains to some extent the enormous number of Saints in that country.

This

Gradually the term began to have a narrower meaning, and meant the members of a Class, and this meaning in a more or less restricted sense continued. A Celtic Saint was always the member of a class, and the use of the term "Saint" by the Celts meant no more than expressing the fact of such membership. It did not necessarily imply, and was not understood as implying, any special individual merit or personal holiness, although these qualities might be possessed by a Saint. It meant neither more nor less than the term "Reverend" does at the present day. Who 1 Haddan and Stubbs, ii, 317.