ABSTRACT
The author has vehemently opposed any attempt by Bishops Barlow and Ferrar to encroach upon their rights and privileges, but the canons were not reluctant to enrich themselves from their cathedral's property when the opportunity presented itself. The worshipping life of the cathedral had also been impoverished; the chantries, with their appointed altars, chapels and service of chaplains, had been dissolved in the last years of Henry VIII and at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI. Elsewhere in the diocese, the collegiate church of Abergwili survived in its new incarnation as Christ College, Brecon, and that at Llanddewi Brefi, the existence of which had probably never been more than nominal, was to stagger on into the reign of Elizabeth, in reality as no more than the parish church of a thinly populated rural community. Neither could be regarded as influential beyond their immediate areas, their prebendaries, not obliged to residence, merely treating them as useful sources of revenue.
