Throughout the middle ages there existed a close and lively connection between Rome and St Davids. In the written and oral traditions of the saint himself, much was always made of that unforgettable pilgrimage to the Eternal City reputedly undertaken by David, Teilo and Padarn, in the course of which the bells of Rome were claimed to have rung of their own accord to greet Dewi Sant. Centuries later, some time between the years 1119 and 1124, Pope Calixtus II was formally to recognize the cult of Dewi, the only Welsh saint ever to achieve such distinction at the hands of the pope; a dignity which was vastly to enhance his status and prestige. So much so that it became widely accepted that two journeys by a pilgrim to St Davids was the equivalent of one to Rome. The outcome was that his church at St Davids became one of the most popular and best-known pilgrim resorts to exist anywhere in Wales.

In the light of the towering reputation which St Davids enjoyed in the medieval church and, in particular, its unique association with Rome and the papacy, it was to be expected that such a major change of direction in religion as that unloosed by the Protestant Reformation should have a profound effect on the tradition of both Saint David and his church. It first made itself abruptly apparent in the reign of Henry VIII; emanating not from anyone within the church of St Davids but from an Englishman who was installed as prior of the house of Augustinian Canons at Haverfordwest.