Thanks for the help, Graham and Sally (Sally, my Latin, taken by order of my mother, is about as old as yours...) >you are correct with PCULUM meaning 'cup'. >The rest 'ECLESIE DE SANT ESELS' is also Latin and means literally 'Church >of St ISSELLs'. Agreed--it's closer to Latin than anything, but it's sure not classical Latin. The case endings are wrong. (Remember that great scene in 'Life of Brian?' 'Ere, what's this then? 'Romani ite domum?') And why Latin at a time when the Church of Rome was thought either subversive or a threat to life and limb given Mary Tudor's delight in burning protestants? I remember reading somewhere that she sent 3 people to the stake in Havorford West. Here's an interesting take on it <http://www.celticmist.freeserve.co.uk/onreformation.htm> "The short reign of Edward VI saw attempts to impose a Protestant regime in Wales. This included replacing the Latin services with the Book of Common Prayer, which was in English. Again, this had little effect on many of the population, who spoke no English. The suggestion that the Welsh accepted the changes because of loyalty to the Tudors (Henry VII was seen as being Welsh) is probably of little importance. The reality was that it would be like our attending a church each week to listen to a service in Swahili and then suddenly being told it was to be in Japanese instead." "The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (1559) had little effect, but that of 1563 which allowed provision of a bible and a prayer book to be written in Welsh was the greatest change since the downfall of the Celtic Christian church. It would be nice to think that we might attribute this move to some belief that was religious, but the truth is that it was largely a move to establish the Church of England in Wales and so reduce opposition. Elizabeth had succeeded to the throne after an attempt by Mary to restore the Catholic faith, but elements of the faith were still seen as a threat. However, at last, services were to be held in a language that most people actually understood ! Salesbury's prayer book and New Testament appeared in 1567 and Morgan's Bible in 1588." But you'd think the Latin would have been better. Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant from chrisw@skypoint.com | this distance" (last words of Gen. ___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864) http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw