Page:Ashorthistoryofwales.djvu/71

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LLYWELYN THE GREAT
49

bard, the monk, and the friar. The bard was as welcome as ever at his court; the monk, welcomed by Owen Gwynedd before, was given another home at Aber Conway. Llywelyn extended his welcome to the friar, and he was given a home at Llan Vaes in Anglesey, on the shores of the Menai. The friar brought a higher ideal than that of the monk; his aim was salvation, not by prayer in the solitude of a mountain glen, but by service where men were thickest together—even in streets made foul by vice, and haunted by leprosy. Of the Mendicant Orders, the Franciscans were the best known in Wales; and,of all Orders of that day, it was they who sympathised most deeply with the sorrows of men. And it was this which, a little later on,brought them so much into politics.

Great and successful in war and policy, in touch with the noblest influences in the life of the time, Llywelyn applied himself to one last task. His companions and allies had nearly all died before him; but he wished that the peace and unity, which they had established,should live after them. He had two sons—Griffith, who was the champion of independence; and David, who wished for peace with England. Llywelyn laid