Although Henry VII was a Welshman he sought the uniformity of his kingdom and the eventual abolition of the Welsh language.  This policy was continued  by his son Henry VIII, who passed the Act of Union  in 1536.  His break with Rome in the same year did not change his attitude, and Wales continued to be dominated by a Latin speaking Church.

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But by now the Reformation was unstoppable and especially active in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.  Richard Davies (1501 - 1581) who graduated from New Inn Hall, Oxford, in 1530 was a reformer and translator who was made Bishop of Saint David's in 1561.  He may well have been instrumental in persuading Queen Elizabeth I  to pass the Act of 1563 which called for a Welsh translation of the Prayer Book and Bible to be placed in every church in Wales by 1st March 1566.

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For this task Richard Davies enlisted the help and services of William Salesbury (1520 - 1584), a brilliant Oxford scholar and linguist , who had already published a Welsh lectionary containing the Gospels and Epistles.  Together they published the first complete printed New Testament in Welsh in 1567.  Salesbury's New Testament was marred by his idiosyncratic alteration of Welsh words to make them resemble their Latin equivalents.  As a result it was suitable for scholars rather than for the common people.

 

Richard Davies and William Salesbury had planned to proceed with a translation of the Old Testament, but the partnership was dissolved, so tradition has it, because of a difference of opinion over one Hebrew work, and Wales had to wait another 21 years for a complete Bible in Welsh.

 

This task was undertaken by William Morgan.  He was born at Ty Mawr, Wybrnant, Penmachno in 1541 and entered St John's College Cambridge in 1563.  It was at Cambridge that Williams Tyndale and Miles Coverdale, pioneers of the English Bible, were educated and Morgan was caught up in the prevailing spirit of reform.

 

William Morgan studied Hebrew, Greek and Latin and the year after he started in Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth I visited his college and made speeches in Greek and Latin.  It is therefore quite likely that this visit could have inspired young William Morgan to be the one who, 24 years late, would present this same queen with the first complete Bible in Welsh.

 

William Morgan graduated in 1568 and became a minister at Llanbadarn Fawr near Aberystwyth.  Ten years later he moved to Llanrhaedr ym  Mochant, sis miles from the English border near Oswestry.  He stayed there until he was made Bishop of Llandaf in 1595 at the request of Queen Elizabeth.  It was during the first ten years at Llanrhaedr ym Mochant that Morgan devoted all of his energies to the work of translating the Bible into Welsh.  For this purpose he went back to the original languages as well as using the English Bibles of William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale and the Welsh New Testament of Salesbury and Davies.

 

It was a huge task for one man to undertake.  On its success depended not only the survival of Welsh Protestantism and non-conformity, but also the survival of the Welsh language.

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If William Morgan had not produced his translation, the Welsh language would almost certainly have died out as did Cornish and other Celtic tongues.  Thanks to him Welsh remains the oldest living language in Europe.

 

For William Morgan, however, the translation was solely for the purpose of giving his people knowledge of the inspired word of God.  In his dedication to the Queen he wrote:

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"Unless religion is taught in the common tongue, it will remain hidden and unknown"  

 

In 1587 William Morgan set out on horseback for a 200 mile journey, carrying his precious manuscript.  London was the only place where it could be printed, and the printer, Christopher Barker, was English.  This meant that he had to remain in London in order to supervise the printing and thus avoid errors.

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All went well, and the following year, 1588, William Morgan presented a copy of his Bible to Queen Elizabeth !.

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