The Description of Wales
by Geraldus Cambrensis
Book II
Chapter VI
Concerning the crime of incest, and the abuse of
churches by succession and participation
The crime of incest hath so much prevailed, not only
among the higher, but among the lower orders of this people,
that, not having the fear of God before their eyes, they are
not ashamed of intermarrying with their relations, even in
the third degree of consanguinity. They generally abuse
these dispensations with a view of appeasing those enmities
which so often subsist between them, because "their feet are
swift to shed blood;" and from their love of high descent,
which they so ardently affect and covet, they unite
themselves to their own people, refusing to intermarry with
strangers, and arrogantly presuming on their own superiority
of blood and family. They do not engage in marriage, until
they have tried, by previous cohabitation, the disposition,
and particularly the fecundity, of the person with whom they
are engaged. An ancient custom also prevails of hiring girls
from their parents at a certain price, and a stipulated
penalty, in case of relinquishing their connection.
Their churches have almost as many parsons and sharers as
there are principal men in the parish. The sons, after the
decease of their fathers, succeed to the ecclesiastical
benefices, not by election, but by hereditary right
possessing and polluting the sanctuary of God. And if a
prelate should by chance presume to appoint or institute any
other person, the people would certainly revenge the injury
upon the institutor and the instituted. With respect to
these two excesses of incest and succession, which took root
formerly in Armorica, and are not yet eradicated, Ildebert,
bishop of Le Mans, in one of his epistles, says, "that he
was present with a British priest at a council summoned with
a view of putting an end to the enormities of this nation:"
hence it appears that these vices have for a long time
prevailed both in Britany and Britain. The words of the
Psalmist may not inaptly be applied to them; "They are
corrupt and become abominable in their doings, there is none
that doeth good, no, not one: they are all gone out of the
way, they are altogether become abominable," etc.
The Description of Wales
Book II
by Geraldus Cambrensis
Chapter V
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