Church in Wales

Christianity in Wales can be traced back to the Romano-British culture: two of the earliest British saints, Julius and Aaron, were reportedly martyred in the Roman legionary town of Caerleon, south-east Wales, in the 3rd century CE. An organised episcopal church has had continuous existence in Wales since that time. The Age of the Saints in the 6th and 7th centuries was marked by the establishment of monastic settlements throughout the country by religious leaders such as Saint David, Illtud, Padarn and Saint Teilo. This was the period when the Welsh people developed a shared national identity, arising from the Welsh language and religious beliefs.

The Welsh refused to cooperate with Augustine of Canterbury's mission to the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th century CE. However, a combination of other Celtic dioceses reconciling with the Holy See meant that from the early Middle Ages, even before the conquest of Wales by Edward I, the Welsh dioceses were part of the Province of Canterbury and also in communion with the See of Rome until the English Reformation. Afterward, they were part of the Church of England until disestablishment in 1920 as, during the reign of Henry VIII, Wales was incorporated into the legal realm of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542.

Disestablishment

During the 19th century, Nonconformist churches increased in Wales, and eventually, the majority of Welsh Christians were Nonconformists, although the Church of England remained the largest single denomination. By the mid-19th century, failing to appoint a Welsh-speaking bishop to any Welsh diocese for 150 years caused resentment; disestablishment was seen as a way to assert national and linguistic identity.

Under the influence of Nonconformist politicians such as David Lloyd George, the Welsh Church Act 1914 was passed by the Liberal Government to separate Anglicanism in Wales from the Church of England. The bill was fiercely resisted by members of the Conservative Party and blocked in the House of Lords, but it was eventually passed under the provisions of the Parliament Act 1911.

The opposition to disestablishment was led by the Conservative politician F. E. Smith, who characterised the disestablishment bill as "a Bill which has shocked the conscience of every Christian community in Europe." In response to this description, the writer G. K. Chesterton penned the satirical poem "Antichrist, or the Reunion of Christendom: An Ode" containing the memorable retort "Chuck It, Smith".

The act both disestablished and disendowed the "Church in Wales", the term used to define the part of the Church of England which was to be separated. Disestablishment meant the end of the church's special legal status, and Welsh bishops were no longer entitled to sit in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual. As the Church in Wales became independent of the state, tithes were no longer available to the church, leaving it without a major source of income.

Disendowment, which was even more controversial than disestablishment, meant that the endowments of the Church in Wales were partially confiscated and redistributed to the University of Wales and local authorities. This process was carried out by the Welsh Church Commissioners following the principles set out in the Welsh Church Act 1914. Endowments before 1662 were to be confiscated; those of later date would remain. This was justified by the theory that the pre-1662 endowments had been granted to the national church of the entire population, and hence belonged to the people as a whole rather than to the Church in Wales; this reasoning was hotly contested. The date 1662 was that of the Act of Uniformity following the Restoration; it was after this point that Nonconformist congregations began to develop and the Church of England ceased to be a comprehensive national church. Although secularisation of the cathedrals had previously been suggested,

the Church in Wales retained all the ancient church buildings and the privilege of conducting legal marriages without reference to the civil registrar.