one-half of the cost of the books and the vicar or parson the remaining half. If the bishops or their successors neglected to carry out these provisions each one was to be fined £40, to be levied on their goods and chattels.
By the 2nd section of this Act (which section was repealed in 1863) it was also provided that the services were to be said in the Welsh tongue until the Bible was translated; and once every week at least the Articles of the Christian faith, the Ten Commandments, and the Litany, with such other part of the Common Prayer as was appointed, were to be read in the Welsh tongue.
The Bible and the Prayer Book in the English language were also to be bought and placed in every church throughout Wales, to remain in convenient places within the said churches, "that such as understand them may resort at all convenient times to read and peruse the same, and also such as do not understand the said language may, by comparing both tongues together the sooner attain to the knowledge of the English tongue."
The Reformation in England had not deeply affected Wales. The majority of the Welsh-speaking people had accepted the Tudor policy affecting the Church with equanimity. They continued in their old beliefs just as if no Parliamentary measures relating to ecclesiastical affairs had been passed. They returned under Mary without difficulty to their old faith, and under Elizabeth Protestantism again secured their qualified approval. It was during the reign of "Good Queen Bess," owing to the efforts of able, zealous Welshmen, and the Act with which we are now dealing, that the real Reformation in Wales began. In 1567, the first Welsh New Testament and the Welsh version of the Prayer Book were published by William Salesbury and Richard Davies. But the translation into Welsh, as ordered by this Act, of the whole Bible did not occur until 1588, when Dr. William Morgan did the work. This translation vitally influenced the religious and literary
