In 1630, the Welsh Bible, in a smaller version (Y Beibl Bach), was introduced into homes in Wales and as the only book affordable to many families, became the one book from which the majority of the people could learn to read and write. Other, poorer families, unable to afford the Bible, were able to share its contents in meetings held at the homes of neighbors or in their churches or chapels. Later on, countless generations of children were taught its contents in Sunday School. It is in this way, therefore, that we can say the Welsh Bible "saved" the language from possible extinction.

It has been touch and go all the way since, however, with determined efforts coming from both sides of Offa's Dyke to stamp out the language for ever. Yet every time the funeral bells have tolled, the language has miraculously revived itself. As early as the 12th century, Giraldus Cambrensis gave us the famous Welsh folk tale of the declaration of the old man of Pencader to Henry ll:

This nation, O King, may now, as in former times, be harassed, and in a great measure weakened and destroyed by your and other powers, and it will also prevail by its laudable exertions, but it can never be totally subdued through the wrath of man, unless the wrath of God shall concur. Nor do I think that any other nation than this of Wales, nor any other language, whatever may hereafter come to pass, shall on the day of severe examination before the Supreme Judge, answer for this corner of the earth. (John of Salisbury: recorded in Descriptio Kambriae (1193) by Giraldus Cambrensis)

In 1753 Thomas Richards in his Thesaurus wrote:

Yet our name hath not been quite blotted out from under Heaven. We hitherto not only enjoy the true name of our Ancestors but have preserved entire and uncorrupted . . that primitive language, spoken as well by the ancient Gauls and Britons some thousands of years ago

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