29
January 570 A.D. Gildas
Blamed Celtic Collapse on Sin
Graves, Dan. “Gildas Blamed Celtic Collapse on Sin.” Christianity.com. May 2007.
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/gildas-blamed-celtic-collapse-on-sin-11629715.html. Accessed 11 Jul 2014.
The only eyewitness to write the
story of the fall of the Britons-- the British Celts--was Gildas. He told how
the Romans abandoned England, how one Briton imported the first Saxons to fight
his battles, and how they seized Britain for themselves. The Britons recovered
for a short time, led by Ambrosius Aurelianus, temporarily stopping the Saxon
drive. But in the end, they were driven into Wales and Cornwall in western
England. The pagan Anglo-Saxons became rulers of the land, which took their
name, Angland (England).
Gildas was not a trained
historian. His book, The Destruction of Britain, leaves out
just about everything we'd really like to know. Although that was the era of
the legendary king Arthur, Gildas never mentions him. In fact, he ignored all
too many names and dates. Mostly he was concerned to show how the sins of the
clergy and nobles weakened the Celts and made them a pushover for the Saxons.
The conquest of his country left
Gildas gloomy. He was like Jeremiah, who wept over the fall of Judah.
Who was this British Jeremiah?
We have as little hard fact for Gildas's own life as we do for the history of
his time. He was born the same year that the Britons defeated the Saxon
invaders at Badon Hill under King Arthur. But since no one can say for sure
what year that was, scholars' best guess is 516. We aren't sure where Gildas
grew up, either. Some say it was in Strathclyde, Scotland. Gildas joined the
church--most likely as a monk. Even that is not certain.
Usually if we have no other date
for a well-known man of the dark ages, we at least know when he died. With
Gildas, we aren't even sure of that. It is thought he died on
this day, January 29, 570, because the 29th is his feast day and Welsh
chronicles suggest the year was 570. Apart from that we have no interesting
details such as what disease he died of or whether it was in sunny day or
gloomy night. Gildas isn't the only man with gaps in his story. We don't know
much more about the famous St. Patrick of Ireland. Multiply Gildas many times
over and you can see how hard the job of the early church historian is.
Gildas may have been a friend of
St. Brigid, who founded Kildare and became the patroness of Ireland and of
scholars. After spending time in Ireland, Gildas moved to France. It is almost
certain that he founded the monastery of St. Gildas at Ruys, in Breton, because
a monk there claimed it was so in a biography he wrote of Gildas. The people of
Brittany considered Gildas a saint and gave his name to a second monastery
built later.
Friends urged Gildas to write
the story of the ruin of his people. At first he refused because he had no
documents to work from. Ten years later he relented and began work on his
manuscript. Even then, he had to rely on vague reports written by foreigners.
Although we wish there was more
cheese and less holes in Gildas's book, we can be glad for what he wrote. The
information he gives is better than none at all. A much more famous monk, born
one hundred years after Gildas died, used his writings to prepare the first
great history of England. That was the Venerable Bede. To this day, histories
of England glean what they can from Gildas to fill out our spotty knowledge of
his era. Monks like Gildas preserved much of what we know about early church
history.
Bibliography:
Byerly, B. F. "Gildas, St." New Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York : Thomson, Gale, 2002-.
Cannon, John, ed. Blackwell. Dictionary of
Great Historians. New York: Blackwell, 1988.
"Gildas." The Dictionary of National
Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. London: Oxford
University Press, 1921 - 1996.
Edmonds, Columba. "Saint Gildas." Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
Singer, Charles. From Magic to Science. New York: Dover,
1958; p. 114ff
Last updated May,
2007.
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