The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales | Page 7

only
recently, since the Norman Conquest, that she had been deprived of her
freedom. His opponents relied on political, rather than historical,
considerations to defeat this bold claim. King Henry, when a deputation
from the chapter in 1175 appeared before the great council in London
and had urged the metropolitan claims of St. David's upon the Cardinal
Legate, exclaimed that he had no intention of giving this head to
rebellion in Wales. Archbishop Hubert, more of a statesman than an
ecclesiastic, based his opposition on similar grounds. He explained his

reasons bluntly to the Pope. "Unless the barbarity of this fierce and
lawless people can be restrained by ecclesiastical censures through the
see of Canterbury, to which province they are subject by law, they will
be for ever rising in arms against the king, to the disquiet of the whole
realm of England." Gerald's answer to this was complete, except from
the point of view of political expediency. "What can be more unjust
than that this people of ancient faith, because they answer force by
force in defence of their lives, their lands, and their liberties, should be
forthwith separated from the body corporate of Christendom, and
delivered over to Satan?"
The story of the long fight between Gerald on the one hand and the
whole forces of secular and ecclesiastical authority on the other cannot
be told here. Three times did he visit Rome to prosecute his appeal -
alone against the world. He had to journey through districts disturbed
by wars, infested with the king's men or the king's enemies, all of
whom regarded Gerald with hostility. He was taken and thrown into
prison as King John's subject in one town, he was detained by
importunate creditors in another, and at Rome he was betrayed by a
countryman whom he had befriended. He himself has told us
Of the most disastrous chances Of moving accidents by flood and field,
which made a journey from St. David's to Rome a more perilous
adventure in those unquiet days than an expedition "through darkest
Africa" is in ours. At last the very
Chapter of
St. David's, for whose ancient rights he was contending, basely
deserted him. "The laity of Wales stood by me," so he wrote in later
days, "but of the clergy whose battle I was fighting scarce one." Pope
Innocent III. was far too wary a politician to favour the claims of a
small and distracted nation, already half-subjugated, against the king of
a rich and powerful country. He flattered our poor Gerald, he delighted
in his company, he accepted, and perhaps even read, his books. But in
the end, after five years' incessant fighting, the decision went against
him, and the English king's nominee has ever since sat on the throne of
St. David's. "Many and great wars," said Gwenwynwyn, the Prince of
Powis, "have we Welshmen waged with England, but none so great and
fierce as his who fought the king and the archbishop, and withstood the

might of the whole clergy and people of England, for the honour of
Wales."
Short was the memory and scant the gratitude of his countrymen. When
in 1214 another vacancy occurred at a time when King John was at
variance with his barons and his prelates, the
Chapter of
St. David's nominated, not Gerald, their old champion, but Iorwerth,
the Abbot of Talley, from whose reforming zeal they had nothing to
fear. This last prick of Fortune's sword pierced Gerald to the quick. He
had for years been gradually withdrawing from an active life. He had
resigned his archdeaconry and his prebend stall, he had made a fourth
pilgrimage, this time for his soul's sake, to Rome, he had retired to a
quiet pursuit of letters probably at Lincoln, and henceforward, till his
death about the year 1223, he devoted himself to revising and
embellishing his old works, and completing his literary labours. By his
fight for St. David's he had endeared himself to the laity of his country
for all time. The saying of Llewelyn the Great was prophetic. "So long
as Wales shall stand by the writings of the chroniclers and by the songs
of the bards shall his noble deed be praised throughout all time." The
prophecy has not yet been verified. Welsh chroniclers have made but
scanty references to Gerald; no bard has ever yet sung an Awdl or a
Pryddest in honour of him who fought for the "honour of Wales." His
countrymen have forgotten Gerald the Welshman. It has been left to Sir
Richard Colt Hoare, Foster, Professor Brewer, Dimmock, and Professor
Freeman to edit his works. Only two of his countrymen have attempted
to rescue one of the greatest of Welshmen from an undeserved oblivion.
In 1585, when the Renaissance of Letters had begun to