where he lived for some years; this son Thomas was admitted a monk in Margam Abbey, (it appears, from the most authentic accounts, that a monk could not, as a novice, be admitted before he attained the full age of twenty-five years.) The term of the novitiate, if I well remember was one year, at the end of which the person thus under probation was either to leave the monastry or submit to the requisites of the order, the vow of celibacy, &c. It may be fairly supposed that Tom Ifan Prys remained no longer than this term of one year in the monastery, for we find that he was expelled, and, as he says in one of his poems, for telling the truth; he was accused of Lollardism, this was the term applied to the doctrines of Wickliff's followers, who were called Lollards. It appears that he was confined for his heresy in Kenfigg Castle, from whence he addresses a petition in verse to Sir Matthew Cradock, of Swansea, requesting that he would procure his liberation. This poem is extant, amongst a great number besides, of poetical pieces by him on various subjects, chiefly religious and moral, with a few on lighter subjects; he appears to have been a man of great piety and of rigid morals. After his liberation from Kenfigg, he went to his father who had then removed to Merthyr Cynon, in the county of Brecknock: how long he remained there is not known; but some years after it appears that he lived on a small farm, in the parish of Llangynwyd, and married, himself an old man, to a young wife. This we find from a poem of his which he wrote to solicit a cymmorth (relief) of wheat to sow his grounds, from the farmers of the vale, having been urged to do so by his young wife; he gives an account of the several parishes he rambled through on this occasion, and says, that English was the general language of the inhabitants of Wick, but does not observe the same thing of Lantwit, which he visited, or of any place in the vale; no bad argument in favor of what is traditionally said in Lantwit, that it was in the time of Queen Elizabeth that a number of Flemings settled there, and with them introduced the English language. About the year 1600, or thence to 1610, he appears to have earned his livelihood by threshing, and dwelling at Tythegston, where most probably he died about the year 1617, at the very great age of one hundred and forty-three, for amonst his poems we find the following account of his age: Un Mil, chwech cant yn gywrain Wyf Gant a deg ar hugain. One hundred and thirty years old in 1604, and he appears to have lived thirteen years afterwards. He pretended to be a prophet, and wrote and uttered many things in the mystical language and style of prophecy. Most of those things are obviously applicable to the events of that age wherein he lived, and especially to the reformation from popery, the final events of which could easily have been foreseen by any one possessed of strong natural sagacity, without any other gift of prophecy: there are a few, however, of a more unaccountable cast, and the following taken from a Ms. written in the time of Elizabeth, is rather singular, and may possibly induce some to take it into consideration how far human sagacity may be able to penetrate into remote futurity; it is as follows: Thus in English. 1 When the fourth comes, scatterer 4 Of the friends of Britain, 7 Commotions will arise (appear) 13 The country of France in al- 14 With many other countries, 17 And but little faith, 11 And the tumults of countries 19 And the shame little 21 A phob angrefydd 32 A gwywedig gwydd 34 Twfrhyfedd newydd 35 Yn ambor meyfydd 36 A syrthiaw coedydd 37 A Deri gelltydd 38 A Gestwng mynydd 39 Hyd le gwastodydd 40 Uchelhâu dolydd 41 Cynghlawr a glannydd 42 Cadarn yn Nebydd 43 A gwan yn droedrydd 44 A gwaith gwybodydd 45 Yn haul ysplennydd 46 Dwy flynedd y sydd 47 Iaros llwydd 48 A throi Dinesydd 49 Yn fån Pentrefydd 50 Llyfnhâu llawr Elfydd 51 A'r gwaith a dderfydd 52 Duw ai nerth dyfydd 53 Ag of a orfydd 21 And every irreligion 22 Exhibiting an audacious front 31 And the trees withering 33 Strange and new growth 36 The oaks of the high acclivities 41 The mighty become nobody, 44 Like the splendour of the sun; 45 Two years there are 46 To wait for the assemblies of armies, 47 And to convert cities 48 Into small villages, 49 To level the face of the earth, 50 And the work will be done, 51 God will come in all his power, 52 And he will overcome. Thomas ab Ifan ab Rhys ai cant. Note [by Mr. E. WILLIAMS.] The lines are erroneously numbered in the Welsh, from 25 (which should have been 24) to the end, one too much each line; this being remembered, the Welsh and English lines may be easily compared. [Thus far Mr. E. WILLIAMS.] The testimony of so celebrated an antiquary as Mr. Edward Williams, to the authenticity of this very extra H ordinary prediction, and that there were others of "an unaccountable cast," is a very valuable document, more especially as the desire he evinces as a philosopher, to attribute them to mere human powers, renders his failure to account for them on those grounds the more remarkable; that a man by mere human powers should be able to predict events to take place, not only in his own days but at different intervals from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, appears to be absolutely impossible. That such fulfilment of local and family predictions took place even in the last generation, we have had indubitable testimony of most respectable persons, some of whom were nearly related to the author of these remarks. It would occupy too much space here to particularise these minor predictions, nor is it necessary to do so, their object having been already attained. They have maintained the credit of the prophet during succeeding generations, and have caused the preservation of this most important prediction. We have seen upon the authority of Mr. E. Williams, that the early predictions were directed towards the support of Protestant principles, the object of the last is a confirmation of the Christian religion itself. Having made these few general remarks, let us proceed to point to the application of the prophecy. To this end the translation of Mr. Edward Williams is here repeated: 1 When the fourth comes, 1, 2, 3, 4 The friends of Britain, 2 of the same baptismal in the time of Twm Ifan Prys, were the Protestants of France name, the scatterer 4 Of the friends of Britain. 3 Succeeding in the room of (the Huguenots) supported by Queen Elizabeth. The " room, or place of their scatterer was the throne of France. The four that sat upon that throne of the same name, after the time of the prophet were four Louis's, the last of whom was Louis XVIth. 5 When he shall be, and not 5, 6 A nominal King, but a real be, 6 A crippled King, 7 Commotions will arise (ap pear) 8 And a perturbed world. prisoner, the power being usurped by the national assembly. 7, 8 Notoriously true. 9 Multitudes will be seen 10 From one sea to the other. 11 And the cries of multitudes 12 Daily resounding in the ears of the country. 13 The country of France in 14 With many other countries, 18 And the tumult of coun- 19 And the shame little 22 Exhibiting an audacious 23 And but little faith. 9, 10 Possibly navigation and commerce are here meant, which were wonderfully increased towards the close of the eighteenth century, from what they were in the fifteenth. 11, 12 But the word "multitudes," which in the 11th line is again used, is not inapplicable to the people of France themselves as having been previously applied to them, as the writer conceives, in Scripture Prophecies, a dissertation upon which it is not intended to enter upon here. See it also applied to them by one of their own nation in the note upon the last line. 13, 14, 15, 16 The slightest attention to the history of revolutionary France sufficiently proves this. 17 Faith decreasing and infidelity 23 The same thing repeated to call the attention to the great national defection. 24 And the fermenting of 24 Too obvious to need illustra wars 25 And ignorant regulations. tion. 25 "Ignorant," that is, contrary to true wisdom which is described by Solomon as founded on "the fear of the Lord." In this sense, all their regulations were "ignorant," but especially those which were levelled at the destruction of all religion, of which the abolition of the sabbath was a striking instance. |