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The first published Welsh texts

In 1539 the king permitted the publication of the Bible in English, and Thomas Cranmer's English Litany appeared in 1544. Two years later, the first book in the Welsh language was published. The work of John Price of Brecon, it consisted of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. Thus Welsh began its faltering career as a published language.

Between 1546 and 1660, 108 books were published in the Welsh language. Though a tiny number compared with those published in English or French, it was considerable compared with publications in other Celtic languages. In that period, only four books were published in Scottish Gaelic and only eleven in Irish.

The reign of Edward VI

The boy King Edward VI - a zealous Protestant - occupied the throne from 1547 to 1553. His advisors replaced the mass with the communion service, a definite rejection of Catholicism. The marriage of clerics was permitted. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer was published and a more Protestant version was adopted in 1553. In 1551 the Denbighshire scholar William Salesbury published a Welsh translation of the main texts of the Prayer Book.

The reign of Mary I

Catherine of Aragon's daughter Mary occupied the throne from 1553 to 1558. Ardently Catholic, she returned her kingdom to papal obedience, and sought to rescind the changes of her two predecessors. She sent to the stake 300 heretics, including White at Cardiff, Nichol at Haverfordwest and Ferrar, Bishop of St. David's, at Carmarthen.

The Welsh, a conservative people, probably supported Mary's efforts. Had Mary lived longer, Wales might well have become a stronghold of renewed Roman Catholicism.