VIEWPOINTS
The Plague and the Church’s Response By Rev Dr Alun Tudur, UWI minister in Cardiff
A
t the beginning of the year (2021) the Rev Dr Alun Tudur was invited by the Welsh Congregational Historical Society to deliver a lecture on ‘The Plague and the Church’s Response’. In accepting the invitation, his initial reaction was to think that there might not be many sources available on this topic. But he soon realised that this was not the case as it appeared to be a prolific subject. Plague has always been a part of human history. Here is a synopsis of the lecture.
Plagues in general In his book, The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark notes with surprise that historians, and especially Christian historians, have ignored the far-reaching significance of plagues on religious, social and economic developments.i For example in the history of the Roman Empire the impact of serious infections on the populations has been largely ignored until recently. In the past it was thought that the sudden fall of the Roman Empire was the result of immorality and the power of the Barbarians, but it is now thought that it all stemmed from the impact of a serious plague that killed a large percentage of the population. John Davies, in his definitive history book Hanes Cymru, (The History of Wales), maintains that there were similar circumstances in the early history of the Welsh when he wrote: No doubt the English success after 550 a.d. can be attributed partly to the devastation that the Britons faced as a result of the plague. It originated in Egypt in 541 a.d., and reached western Britain by 549 a.d., when Maelgwn Fawr died of it. It seems that the English were not affected by the plague, as they they did not have, as the Britons had, a direct link to the Mediterranean.ii
Plagues in Wales There are a number of factors, as we now know, that contribute to the spread of infections which cause the socially deprived to suffer the most. Preventing the spread of infection requires knowledge, sanitation, clean water and nutritious food. Before the second half of the 19th century these were not widely available in Wales. A major contributor to ill health in Wales was poor diet and hunger. The Welsh diet for centuries was based on oatmeal, rye flour and barley bread, and foods such as porridge, ‘bwdran’ (gruel) and ‘llymru’ (flummery). These foods were rich in carbohydrate but deficient in protein and vitamins. More often than not subsistence was entirely dependent on local harvests and when these failed, hunger followed. Throughout the centuries Wales was a mostly poor country and there were periods of famine in the 18th and 19th centuries. The infections that mostly affected Wales over the centuries were the ‘Pla Du’ (Black Death), the ‘brech wen’ (smallpox), the ‘Fad Felen’ (Yellow Plague or yellow fever), ‘gwahanglwyf’ (leprosy), ‘haint y nodau’ (pestilence), the ‘clefyd chwysu’ (the sweats), ‘geri marwol’ (cholera), typhus and ‘darfodedigaeth’ (tuberculosis).
i
Stark, Rodney, The Rise of Christianity, (Harper One, 1996) p. 74
ii
Davies, John, Hanes Cymru, (Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1990), p. 67. Also Glyn Penrhyn, Newyn and Haint yng Nghymru, (Llyfrfa’r Methodistiaid Calfinaidd, Caernarfon, 1962.) p. 33
iii
Gruffydd, Eirlys, Ffynhonnau Cymru, cyfrol 1, (Carreg Gwalch 1997), p. 24
iv
The work of N. Culpeper translated into Welsh by D. T. Jones, published in Llanrwst, 1818
24 INSiGHT AUGUST 2021
