The Welsh often chose nonconformity in religion from the very start of their encounter with other groups. Since the time of the Romans, the Welsh had found themselves on the wrong side of the power structure, and used religion as a way to oppose the ruling force–whether that be Roman, Saxon, or Norman.  This trend began with their continued adherence to druidism, even after the Romans attempted to wipe it out, through Pelagianism and other ‘heresies’ opposed by the Roman Church, to the Cistercian religious order, which defied the Pope in order to support the aspirations and independence of the Welsh princes.  In a sense, it culminated in the 1600s with the puritan movement that brought so many  Welsh across the Atlantic to Massachusetts, while their co-religionists attempted to reform the Church in Wales.“I returned to  Bristol. I have seen Read more…