Gildas the Sage: Part Six

Last year, when I was hosting an educational program on the Mormon Channel called, “Insights,” I interviewed Dr. C. Wilfred Griggs on Christianity in the fourth and fifth century A.D. Egypt.  During this interview I learned the distinction between the “Apostles,” “The Apostolic Fathers,” and “The Church Fathers.”  Of course, the “Apostles” are the original 12 Apostles whom the Lord called to lead His church and take the gospel to all the world.  The “Apostolic Fathers” come later, during the 4^th and 5^th centuries.  In my interview with Dr. Griggs, it became clear these Apostolic Fathers still understood many correct and original truths, but they KNEW the church was in serious decline and a state of apostasy from the original teachings of the Savior and His Apostles.  When we get to the Church Fathers, the apostasy appears to be complete.

In my view, Gildas of Great Britain, writing in the mid-sixth century, can be classified with the Apostolic Fathers.   And perhaps he was something more.

When I finally understood what he was telling the clergy of his day, that if they did not change and repent, doing what they were supposed to be doing as Shepherds of the Lord, they would lose revelation, and loose the Church, I flipped towards the end of his book to see how he would wrap this up.

And here is what he wrote that just amazed me.

“I am clear and clean from the blood of all: for I have not forborne to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” 

I’ve tried to look this phrase up in the Old and New Testament, but I’m only finding it in LDS cannon.  Gildas claims he is quoting an apostle.  Where ever it may come from, it is definitely here in the works of Gildas, and I find that extremely significant.  It is such a Book of Mormon thing to say!  Look it up in Mosiah, chapter 2.  King Benjamin, a righteous, God fearing man, proclaims the gospel to his people, teaches the right way to live and behave, then says in verse 28:

“I say unto you that I have caused that ye should assemble yourselves together that I might rid my garments of your blood, at this period of time when I am about to go down to my grave, that I might go down in peace, and my immortal spirit may join the choirs above in singing the praises of a just God.”

Gildas does everything a prophet does. 

1.       He warns the people of their sins.

2.       He tells them what they are doing wrong.

3.       He admonishes them to turn to Christ, to repent.

4.       He warns them of the consequences of their actions.

5.       He rids his garments of their blood. 

Shortly after Gildas publishes his warning book, according to the Book of Saints, he becomes an aesthetic and lives on a rocky island somewhere in the English Channel until some fishermen find him and take him to France.  He lives in a cave near a river, then, towards the end of his life, about 565 A.D., he is rumored to go to Ireland.  By all accounts, he dies in the year 570 A.D. 

Personally, I think, like John the Apostle, Gildas was exiled to his rocky island and the fishermen rescued him.  And he is not the only prophet during desperate times to spend part of his life living in a cave.  Ether is the first that comes to mind, and probably Mormon and Moroni as well. 

I shall end my essay on Gildas with this.  A few years ago, I came across this passage in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.  It’s in Revelation, chapter 12, the one about the woman being forced to flee into the wilderness where God had a place prepared for her for a period of time.  In verse 5, Joseph Smith changed “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” to “years.”  Well, my little brain started thinking about that and I took out a calculator.  I knew the gospel had been restored in the year 1830.  The Church of Christ was starting to come out of obscurity.  So I took that number, subtracted 1260 and got… 

570 A.D.   

The year the Church went INTO obscurity.  The same year Gildas is reported to have died.   

And I just find that extremely interesting!

To listen to my interview with Dr. C. Wilfred Griggs, “Christianity in Egypt,” visit mormonchannel.org/insights/9.

Gildas the Sage: Part Five

“Britain hath priests, but they are unwise; very many that minister, but many of them impudent; clerks she hath, but certain of them are deceitful raveners; pastors (as they are called) but rather wolves prepared for the slaughter of souls (for they provide not for the good of the common people, but covet rather the gluttony of their own bellies), possessing the houses of the church, but obtaining them for filthy lucre’s sake; instructing the laity, but showing withal most depraved examples, vices and evil manners; seldom sacrificing, and seldom with clean hearts;…”

Gildas goes on and on an on with pages and pages of examples of wrongdoings by the clergy of his day.  Following is the Reader’s Digest Condensed list of sins he claimes they have committed.

1.       “Reverencing the sinful rich man,”

2.       “Concealing the horrible sins of the people, and amplifying injuries offered unto  themselves,”

3.       “Seeking rather ambitiously for ecclesiastical dignities than for the kingdom of heaven,”

4.       “Diligent and attentive to the plays and foolish fables of secular men, as if they were the very ways to life,…”

5.       “Slothful and dumb in the Apostolic decrees,”

6.       “…so sinful as after the example of Simon Magus…with earthly price to purchase the office of a bishop or priest,”

7.       “…of sinners, they make them not penitents…”

8.       They go overseas and travel in many countries, get some education then come home and set themselves up to show off their accomplishments (paraphrased). 

Where Gildas was pretty blunt with the kings, he is brutal to the bishops and priests. 

Part of the problem, I believe, comes from the caste system the Celts had lived under for centuries.   Old traditions are hard to get rid of.  Just as the Greeks slipped Greek philosophy into Christian teachings, the Bretons had a hard time giving up their old ways as well. 

This caste system is very similar to the caste system found in India, though perhaps not as strict. 

A.      The priestly caste.  The highest caste, where the order of the Druids is found.

B.      The warrior caste.  These were the kings and generals and other military men.

C.      The merchant cast.  Those who sold and traded goods.

D.      The farmer caste.  Those who worked the land.

The Celtic caste system was not necessarily hereditary.  As I understand it, people could move around in the caste system depending on their talents.  But I’m sure the Druidic order had its influences on the Celtic Christian Church.  The Druids were pretty much gone by the late 400s A.D.  Were they all slaughtered?  Did they scatter and wither away?  Or were they converted to this Christianity?  We don’t know, but the similarities between the Druidic order and the Levitical order bear some further study.

Regardless of the influences and problems, it is evident by Gildas words that the church in Britain is in a severe state of apostasy, of walking down the wrong path.  The bishops and priests had turned from humbly serving to pompously self-serving.

Once again, Gildas uses the scriptures to condemn the priests.   They do not follow the examples the  Abraham, he accuses them, or Joseph of Egypt or Moses, or any of the prophets.  He quotes scripture after scripture, waiving a warning flag.  In fact there were so many scriptures I got impatient.  “I get it!  I get it!” I exclaimed.  And what did I get?

“Woe be to the pastors who destroy and rend in pieces the flock of my pasture, saith our Lord.  Thus, therefore saith our Lord God of Israel, unto the pastors who guide my people, Ye have dispersed my flock, and cast them forth, and not visited them.  Behold I will visit upon you the malice of your endeavors.”

“Behold, the days shall come, saith our Lord, and I will send out a famine upon the earth; not the famine of bread, nor the thirst of water, but a famine in the hearing the word of God, and the waters shall be moved from sea to sea and they shall run over from the north even unto the east seaking the word of our Lord, and shall not find it.”

These were the kinds of scriptures Gildas was quoting.  In essence, he was telling them that if they did not repent and do what they were supposed to be doing, they were going to lose the church and lose the gift of revelation and truth. 

Gildas foresaw the great apostasy to come.

By 600 A.D., the church in Rome, after several attempts over the last two hundred years, finally succeeded in taking over the church in the British Isles.  The Celtic Christian church ceased to exist, being absorbed into the Church of Rome, becoming the Roman Catholic Church.

Next:  “I am clear and clean from the blood of all:”

Gildas the Sage: Part Four

“Britain has kings, but they are tyrants;  she has judges, but unrighteous ones;  generally engaged in plunder and rapine, but always preying on the innocent;  whenever they exert themselves to avenge or protect, it is sure to be in favour of robbers and criminals;  they have an abundance of wives, yet are they addicted to fornication and adultery;  they are ever ready to take oaths, and as often perjure themselves;  they make a vow and almost immediately act falsely;  they make war, but their wars are against their countrymen, and are unjust ones;  they rigorously prosecute thieves throughout their country, but those who sit at table with them are robbers, and they not only cherish but reward them;  they give alms plentifully, but in contrast to this is a whole pile of crimes which they have committed;  they sit on the seat of justice, but rarely seek for the rule of right judgment;  they despise the innocent and the humble, but seize every occasion of exalting to the utmost the bloody-minded;  the proud, murderers, the combined and adulterers, enemies of God, who ought to be utterly destroyed and their names forgotten.

“They have many prisoners in their goals, loaded with chains, but this is done in treachery rather than in just punishment for crimes;  and when they have stood before the alter, swearing by the name of God, they go away and think no more of the holy alter than if it were a mere heap of dirty stones.” 

Well, that was blunt. 

Words like this could get one assassinated, or at the very least imprisoned, or banished.  Wait, I think that’s what happened to Gildas.  They didn’t dare kill a holy man, but banishment was all right.  We’ll talk more about that later, in the meantime, let’s take a closer look at what Gildas is doing here. 

Apparently, the kingdom, under this modest man, Ambrosius Aurelianus, which I mentioned last time, had become safe and prosperous.  The Pride Cycle was on the upswing toward wickedness.  Gildas is called upon to declare a warning to the people.  His warnings, however, are not to the people at large, they are directed towards the kings, who’s names are not forgotten, because he mentions them:  Constantine, Aurelius Conanus, Vortipore, Cuneglasse and Maglocune.  But in this work, their names are not mentioned in glory or valor or might, but for all their dirty tricks.

That he directs his words toward the kings is telling.

Remember the book of Judges in the Old Testament when the people were under individual covenant?  What each man did affected the whole of Israel.  When Joshua went in to Canaan to conquer the land, the people were given strict warning not to keep any of the loot.  It was all to go into one big pile that would be used for the good of all.  Well, one man decided to keep some of it to himself.  What was the consequence?   Israel did not prosper in their wars.  The man was found out and not only was he stoned to death, but his wife and children as well.  Sounds harsh on the outside, but we don’t know all the story.  Was his wife in cahoots with him?  Were his children learning bad habits?  Was it better to take them out of this world to act not only as a warning to the rest of Israel, but to stop the family from future perversions of the right way?  We don’t know.  But with that judgment rendered, Israel once again prospered.  The covenant was between God and individuals.  Israel was a land of self governing tribes, a Confederation if you please. 

Dash forward a few hundred years and Israel doesn’t want to be a Confederation anymore.  They want a king.  Samuel warns them about kingships, but the people insist, so God gives them a king.  The covenant now changes.  It isn’t with the individual population.  God’s covenant is with the king.  The king then makes a covenant to teach the people the right way.  The people make their covenant with the king to be obedient to his laws.  I’ve heard this referred to often as the David Covenant.  Apparently king David was the first to take this covenant seriously.  

That Gildas understands this kind of covenant is evident in one of his quotes from the scriptures, “When the king heareth the unjust word, all under his dominion become wicked.”   If our leader is doing it, it must be OK, because he’s anointed by God to lead us!

Sticky, sticky, sticky.

So Gildas is following the ancient way.  He warns the leaders, the kings of his day, in the hopes that if they change, the people at large will change too and disaster can be avoided.  Following are the wrong doings Gildas is accusing the kings of committing.

Constantine:  Killed two royal youths, put away his wife, contrary to the command of Christ, committed adultery, practiced Sodomy, committed horrible murder and sacrilege.  (Apparently this is just the tip of the iceburg of sins committed by this king.)

Aurelius Conanus:  Murder, fornication and adultery.  Brought about civil war.

Vortipure:  Deceit, murder and adultery.  Put away his wife.

Cuneglasse:  Warmonger, civil war, butcher, adulterer, bound up in riches.

Maglocune:  Last in writing, first in mischief, king killer, kingdom taker, licentious, blood-thirsty, deceitful, broke this oaths, apostate, divorce, adultery, murderer

Now, Gildas rarely uses the word repent except to quote it from another source.  I think that’s interesting.  Gildas uses words like, “Look back, and come to Christ.  Come to him who wisheth not the death of a sinner, but that he should rather converted and live.”  “…be speedily converted unto our Lord…”  “…salvation shines on the faces of the penitent,…for Christ doth never despise a heart that is contrite and humbled with fear of him.”

Gildas is doing exactly what a prophet is supposed to do.  He raises a warning voice, tells you what your sins are and exhorts you to repent – or “look back and come to Christ.”

Gildas then goes on, page after page after page, quoting scriptures.  He’s not standing alone in his attacks.  He’s supporting himself by what previous prophets and apostles have said and done.  There was so much of it, page after page, I finally had to take a step back and ask myself what all these quotes were about, and I discovered they were all about loss.  He was warning the kings that if they did not change and become converted to Christ and lead the people in the right way, they would lose their kingdoms.

This is exactly what happened 26 years later, in the year 572 A.D. at the battle of Arthuret.  The Saxons completely routed the Bretons who were forced to flee.  The kingdoms were scattered.  Though there were several attempts to reclaim their lost lands by later kings, they were never successful.  The land of the Bretons, Britannia, became the land of the Saxons, Angles and Jutes.  It became England.

Next:  “evil deeds done against God by bishops or other priests”