If I were to tell you the reasons for this change, I would be
writing, in a slightly different form, what I have already written in
this book about early Welsh history. The fall of Llywelyn, the Black
Death, Owen Glendower's ideals and the Tudor legislation, all
prepared the way.
The long-bow and gunpowder, we have seen, made the peasant as
important as the noble in war. The long-bow made the coat of mail
useless, gunpowder made the castle useless--the defence of the
privileges of the Middle Ages departed.
Ideas of equality were advanced. They were looked upon at first as
truths applicable only to a perfect and impossible condition, and
their discoverers were ignored, if not hanged or burnt. But they
always became a reality, and were victorious in the end. Take the
truths discovered or championed by Welshmen. Walter Brute
rediscovered the theory of justification by faith--that all men are
equal in the sight of God, and that no lord could be responsible for
them. Bishop Pecock advocated the doctrine of toleration--that
reason, not persecution, should rule. John Penry claimed that the
people had a right to discuss publicly the questions that vitally
affected them. The history of the past shows that the apostles were
condemned, the life of the present shows that their ideas lived.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109