Cultural Memory and the British Christian Past: <i>Drych Y Prif Oesoedd</i> (1740) and Anglican Loyalism

Two key characteristics of eighteenth-century Welsh print culture were an interest in the Welsh past and Christianity; Drych y Prif Oesoedd, which is regarded as a classic of Welsh literature, written by a patriotic and zealous Anglican clergyman, Theophilus Evans (1693–1767), combined them both. First published in 1716, in the Drych, Evans passionately defended both Galfridian views on “British History” and the validity of the Anglican Church to the Welsh people. The Drych was expanded and rewritten in a more literary style in 1740. Once again, Evans advanced his religious beliefs and confidence in “British History” and a commitment to the Anglican Church as the true spiritual home of the Welsh people. This second edition, the focus of this article, became one of the most popular Welsh books from the period and had twenty-two editions by 1902. Both editions have two parts, with the first a more secular history of the Britons, a term synonymous with the Welsh, until 1282—which has received the most scholarly attention. The second part, more neglected, focuses on the history of religion in Britain and places the Church of England in the early history of the British Isles, and showing that it is the heir of apostolic Christianity. This article will argue that Evans, by remembering the past, expressed a confessional identity for the Welsh people and emphasized that their ancestors practiced apostolic Christianity faithfully observed by the Church of England, which is shown to be a Welsh institution. To show his Welsh readers that the Church embodied the pristine faith, he wrote in Welsh, which was spoken exclusively by the majority. In doing so, he further enmeshed the links between language, national identity, and the Church, emphasizing the Church of England’s Welshness.