Gildas the Sage: Part Three

“The Ruin of Britain” was not written for the masses.  It had only two audiences, one of which was very dangerous, the kings of his day.  The other may have been equally dangerous in its own way, the clergy of his day.  In his work, he condemns them both.

Today, at least in my country, we don’t have kings and our leaders are not sacred, so we don’t have priests as the king’s ministers of government.  We don’t understand a theocracy.  Our perceptions of a theocracy are tainted by what has happened in places like Iran, an Islamic state headed by an Ayatolla.

Anciently, kings were sacred and their governments were run by priests who had the law of God (whichever god they believed in) and administered that law by interpreting sacred texts.  This was still true in 4^th century Britain.  According to Gildas, the God they worshiped was the God of the Old and New Testaments, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Gildas claims that Christianity came to “…these islands, stiff with cold and frost, and in a distant region of the world,…” during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, who reigned from 14-37 A.D.  So, that’s pretty early.  That means that the Christianity planted in Britain was directly from Jerusalem and the original apostles.

Gildas continues his history describing persecutions and martyrdoms at the hands of the Romans, then wars with the Picts and Scotts wherein they turned to the Roman Legions for help, but finally the Romans leave Britain, never to return.  In this vacuum, the Picts and Scotts attack with a vengeance and the Bretons are in a sore spot.  A famine, made by war, sets in.  (By the way, we’re covering hundreds of years here.  The Romans left Britain in about 410 A.D., after the sacking of Rome by the Germanic Tribes from the north countries.)  We get the history of king Vortigern and the Saxons and the whole mess the Bretons were in.  Their kingdom is on the brink of annihilation.  Picts and Scotts attack from the north and the Saxons attack from the east.   

It is during this vacuum that the history of a king Arthur takes place.  An actual “Arthur” is never mentioned, but remember, “Arthur” may be from an old Irish word, “aite” or “foster-father.”  Solddiers anciently referred to their battle commanders as “father.”   I covered this in my blog from March 12, 2010. But Gildas does mention an Ambrosius Aurelianus and calls him “a modest man.”  High praise indeed, in fact, the only person in all his work whom he does praise, except for God. 

There are many scholars who think this Ambrosius is the historical king Arthur.  But Ambrosius was not a king.  He was a battle commander.  Through his efforts, the Saxons were put to flight, the Picts and Scotts contained, and the kingdom of the Bretons experienced 40 years of peace and prosperity.  It is into this time, about 500 A.D., that Gildas is born, in fact, he says he was born in the same year as the decisive battle at Badon hill against the Saxons, the one that so terrified them they didn’t come to war against the Bretons until Ambrosius was dead, or so I surmise.

So Gildas grows up in this peace and prosperity.  Everything booms, the economy, because the roads are now safe, and the church.  But remember, this is not the Church from Rome, this is a church that still claims some authority from Jerusalem.

And then the pride cycle kicks in.  It doesn’t just happen in the Book of Mormon.  It happens wherever the truth is taught.   The people go from facing destruction and death, to repentance, to righteousness, to prosperity and blessings, to complacency, to indolence and wickedness to ripening toward destruction. 

The kingdoms of the Bretons were no different.

Gildas claims he had received his commission to send out his warning voice in 536 A.D., but he waits ten years to actually publish what he has written.  I can hardly blame him for his procrastination.  It’s a frightening thing to condemn a king, let alone four of them.

Next:  “Britain has kings, but they are tyrants;…”