Welsh Journals

^rchiteatogia Caroirinm FIFTH SFRIES.— VOL. X, NO. XXXIX. JULY 1893. THE TEILO CHURCHES. BY J. W. WILLIS-BUND, F.S.A. No class of reading is usually so " flat, stale, and un¬ profitable", as the record of ancient ecclesiastical con¬ troversies. Modern writers thus regard the dispute, that lasted for some three centuries, as to the jurisdiction of the South Wales Bishops. They consider the question as to the limits of Celtic episcopal authority neither of past interest nor of present importance ; yet in the history of the subjugation of South Wales by Latin ecclesiastics the story of the Teilo churches is both important and interesting: important, for, if the documents are genuine, it brings into strong relief the mode of Saxon interference in Celtic Church matters, and illustrates how Saxon interference led to Romish aggression, and how Romish aggression was followed by Papal rule. Interesting, for it shows the connection ex¬ isting during the first half of the 12th century between Rome and Wales, and gives a clue to the reasons for Papal interference in Welsh ecclesiastical disputes. The Bishops of LlandafF carried on, from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, a struggle with different per¬ sons as to the exact limits of their alleged jurisdiction. This so-called jurisdiction was twofold. The confusion that has grown up round the matter has not been less¬ ened by these two portions being usually treated as one. The first part (probably the most modern of the two) 5th ser. vol. x. 13