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”