Everybody saw that Brute was generous and disinterested. Friends flocked around him, for the people had long since become disgusted with the corruptions of the church, and heartily sick of ecclesiastical despotism. Men of all classes gathered to his standard. His labors of love soon elicited, of course, the hostility of the clergy. But so numerous and respectable were his friends, that all the attempts of ecclesiastical judicatures, and officers of the civil law, were ineffectual. A petition was at length sent to Richard II., King of England, entreating his interference. The king issued an order to the nobility of Wales, requiring them to assist the Bishop of Hereford in apprehending and punishing the heretic and his adherents. This was in the year 1391. Still Walter Brute went on, preaching the gospel, denouncing the papacy, and exposing the corruptions of the church, without material molestation, till 1393. He was then cited to appear before the Bishop of Hereford, to answer to a charge of heresy. He appeared, defended himself against the allegation, and contended boldly that the pope was Antichrist, and the papal church Babylon. In this argument, Brute triumphed over his accusers, and made many converts to his cause. Several of the clergy now embraced his views, and became zealous defenders of the faith. One of these, Davydd Ddu of Hiraddug, on the border of Cardiganshire, undertook a translation of the Scriptures into Welsh. Portions of this translation were extensively circulated. Another, John Kent, D.D., of Grismond, in Monmouthshire, was a learned man and a fine poet. He labored incessantly with his pen, to expose the vices of the clergy, and promote a more spiritual religion. These divines were variously opposed and persecuted by ecclesiastical power. They were stigmatized as magicians, and accused of intercourse with evil spirits. But all was unavailing. The zeal of Ddu and Kent was unabated, and the progress of truth was unretarded. The hand of God was with them wherever they went. Revivals occurred in the cloisters, and monks came forth from their seclusion to reinforce the reformers. In the monastery of Margam, Glamorganshire, a large number of the monks were converted. One of them, Thomas Evan ab Rhys, travelled the mountains of the principality, at the constant peril of his life, to remonstrate against popery, and recommend a purer form of Christianity. In 1580, John Penry, an Episcopal minister, dissented from the established church, and became a Baptist. He was a man of liberal education and fine pulpit talents. After having prosecuted his ministry more than seven years, with remarkable zeal and success, he died a martyr. Penry was the first Baptist preacher in Wales after the Reformation.