ABSTRACT
The Welsh language was spoken in many geographical regions, and in most social strata. Welsh-language Anglican services were commonplace throughout the country; and Jesus College probably did more to spread Welsh influence in Oxford than to transmit English culture back to the principality. The Welsh language was the vehicle for an ancient culture, which survived and even flourished in the century following the Reformation and the Acts of Union. Welsh literature was successful in part because it was fundamental to the values of the social and political elites that triumphed under the Tudors, especially the gentry. The Rev. John Walters of Llandough, Glamorgan published his Dissertation of the Welsh language, pointing out its antiquity, copiousness, grammatical perfection, and over the next quarter of the century, he would follow this work with yet another Dictionary. The leading defenders of the culture constituted a new clerisy, a generation of patriotic scholars whose nationalistic rhetoric sought a fundamental redefinition of the Welsh community.
