User:Masamemery/The Cwm, Llanrothal

The Cwm, Llanrothal sometimes known as Coombe means wooded valley, shelter or hollow. The present Georgian house the Cwm at Llanrothal was built in 1830, ontop of one of the marches most intriguing foundations. The society of Jesus, or the Jesuits were associated with the Cwm for more than one hundred years. The Jesuits were a company of ordained priests who, in 1540, took vows of obedience calling themselves the Company of Jesus. The Jesuit organisation was military and trained as an elite corps to carry out the wishes of the Pope. One of their core aims was education, to preach and hear confession. Wherever there was educational work to be done the Jesuit Colleges were important instruments for Catholic persuasion and propaganda.

For Elizabeth I the disseminating influence of the Papal state throughout her kingdom created a growing friction towards Catholicism in England and Wales. On numerous occasions Elizabeth I authority was tested not only from the Revolt of the Earls in 1569 but also the Papal Bull in 1570 which severely criticised Elizabeths divine authority, calling her "wicked” and a “heretic”. In 1585, with the aid of John Whitgift the then Archbishop of Canterbury, an Act of Parliament ordered all Jesuits and Catholics priests to be driven from the kingdom.

With some academic conjecture it is believed that the Cwm was used as a covert Jesuit Training College from around 1595. During 1605 Father Jones, known throughout the Principality as “the Fyerbrande of all was a frequent visitor to the Cwm. The property at that time was owned by the Earl of Worcester, who was aware of the Catholic activity there. When Father Jones became superior of the Jesuits in 1609 he made his headquarters at the Cwm by leasing the land. He remained here until his death in 1615. He was succeeded by Father Salisbury who was Chaplin to Lady Frances Somerset at Raglan Castle. He soon took the lease at the Cwm, converting it to a Jesuit headquarters. It is believed that the Cwm became his base of operations for conducting his mission in North and South Wales in 1615.

In 1622 the lease of the upper Cwm Farm was bought by Father Browne, who also acquired lower Cwm and other farms in the marches. Yet in 1628 after the Earl of Worcester’s death the Cwm was let by his son to Father William Morton on a 99 year lease. Management and profits from both Cwms was entrusted to a local Catholic named Peter Pullen.

One of the Cwm farms was described by Bishop Crofts in 1679 as a “fair and genteel house with six lodging rooms… the other a country house with chambers and studies connected by numerous secret passages”

The Cwm itself naturally straddles the English and Welsh border allowing any Jesuit priest of the time an opportune chance to have escaped any local Justices of the Peace. Furthermore, with local Catholic empathy at Raglan Castle, the home of the Somersets offered any apprehended Jesuit Priest a perfect bastion in which to avoid arrest.