Dr. William Morgan, bishop of Llandaff Cathedral

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William Morgan, who was Vicar of Llanrhaiadr-yn-Mochnant in 1587, translated the Holy Scriptures into Welsh, was the noblest and greatest of the band of scholarly reformers who placed their country under an eternal obligation by devoting their scholarship and learning to the highest work which a man can give to his country.

In the year 1563 an Act of Parliament was passed, enacting (cap. 28) “that the Bible consisting of the New Testament and Old, together with the Book of Common Prayer, and the administration of the sacraments, should be translated into the British or Welsh tongue, should be viewed, perused and allowed by the Bishops of St. Asaph, Bangor, Llandaff, St. David's, and Hereford should be printed and used in the churches by the 1st of March 1566, under a penalty in case of failure of forty pounds to be levied on each of the above bishops.

The very fact that William Morgan did give to the Welsh people a full translation of the Bible in their native language, which he printed in 1588, gives to his name a dignity which but few can claim in our country and yet it is very little we know about him. notwithstanding that he was Bishop of St. Asaph, and the correspondent of that rare old gossip Sir John Wynne, of Gwydir, Mr Thomas W. Harries, some years ago announced his intention to publish his life in a costly volume, but I have never seen I, nor any notice of it; and I have ventured therefore to send you this note, not only by way of correcting Mr. Nicholson, but with the view also of calling attention, to the Bishop himself. There are few men who can have a greater claim to our regard and veneration of Welshmen, than the prelate mentioned above.

The history of his busy life in the service of his Master, covers a period of unexampled interest to Welsh protestants, for he lived in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, and thus had seen, the rise. fall, and resurrection of the reformed faith in this nation, and was himself privileged to treasure, and to publish in the mother tongue, that greatest gift of all, THE HOLY BIBLE, I have had compare the edition of 1588 with later ones in our Language, and in my humble judgment, Morgan’s, is truly sublime; far exceeding, in many parts the grandeur of some of the editions which followed it.

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