Gildas the Sage: Part Two

I’ve rediscovered some additional interesting stuff since writing last time.  That little red binder held more than just the writings of Gildas.  It also held some references to other works, especially from “The Celtic Year,” by Shirley Toulson, (Element Books Limited, 1993), and the Oxford Book of Saints (Oxford University Press, 1978).

Gildas was born in the north of the Isle of Britain, near Hadrian’s Wall, sometime between 498 and 500 A.D.  and that he died, according the Welsh Annals, around 570 A.D.  Keep that in mind.  It will be important later on.

He wrote his work, “De Excidio Britanniae,” or “The Ruin of Britain,” in 546 A.D.  The Oxford Dictionary of Saints says this work shows rhetorical power (he was a really good writer) as well as considerable knowledge of the scriptures and other works (he was well educated).  He apparently had access to works and letters from his contemporaries and wrote letters himself, of which we have only fragments.  But the fragments are telling.  From one fragment we read, “Abstinence from bodily food is useless without charity.”  That sounds familiar.  We in the LDS faith are encouraged to fast one day a month, not to go hungry, but to specifically ask a blessing for our own lives or the life of another, and to donate the cost of the meals we miss to the poor – a fast offering.  As Gildas taught, so our Church leaders today teach, that fasting without a purpose is useless. 

Apparently people of Gildas day had begun to practice asceticism, and he recognized it for what it was, “…death has entered through the windows of their pride.”  A clean heart is ultimately what your salvation depends on, not how many meals you do or do not eat.  Pride, not only found in asceticism, but in wealth, was as much a problem then as it is now.  So far, the teachings of Gildas are ringing true to me. 

Next time we’ll dive into his greatest work, “The Ruin of Britain.”

Gildas the Sage, Part One

My home office is a total shambles this morning.  Carpet layers are coming to install new carpeting in the spare room.  Waking up I realized the binder with information on Gildas was probably buried behind the stacks of stuff I’ve stored here.  Still, I went looking for it and to my delight, there was the bright red binder within stretching reach.

 So here we are.

When I was doing my research about king Arthur, the name of Gildas kept cropping up.  There are few records from this time period we are talking about, 450 – 600 A.D.  Most records alluding to the legend of king Arthur, like the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, were written centuries later.  Even the ancient historian Nennias writes in the 700’s A.D.  But Gildas work is dated 546 A.D.  We couldn’t get an original source any closer. 

Trying to find Gildas work, however, was difficult.  The public libraries were woefully inadequate, so I took myself up to the library at the University of Utah and set about to see what I could find.  Gildas was listed there.  Writing down the reference number and location I set out to find, “Six Old English Chronicles,” a collection of works translated from the Latin and published by George Bell and Sons, London, 1900.

I found myself in a quiet part of the library, hardly another soul in sight.  Pulling the book off the shelf, I found a study desk, sat down, opened the book – and there it was, “The works of Gildas, surnamed ‘Sapiens,’ or the Wise.”  I began to read.

“1. Whatever in this my epistle I may write in my humble but well-meaning manner, rather by way of lamentation than for display, let no one suppose that it springs from contempt of others, or that I foolishly esteem myself as better than they:--for, alas! The subject of my complaint is the general destruction of everything that is good, and the general growth of evil throughout the land:…”

My pulse began to quicken.  This was language I understood.  The Bible is full of this kind of language.  Was my belief that a remnant of Israel was to be found in the British Isles about to be validated?  I kept reading.  That this man was a Christian, there is no doubt, for he started quoting both the Old and New Testament, as if appealing to these scriptures for support of the condemnation he would begin to heap upon the people.  A couple of pages later I read:

“If God’s peculiar people, chosen from all the people of the world, the royal seed, and holy nation, to whom he had said, ‘My first-begotten Israel,’ its priests, prophets, and kings, throughout so many ages, his servant and apostle, and the members of his primitive church, were not spared when they deviated from the right path, what will he do to the darkness of this our age, in which, besides all the huge and heinous sins which it has in common with all the wicked of the world committed, is found an innate, indelible, and irremediable load of folly and inconsistency.”

Simply put, Gildas laments, if God had so punished the Children of Israel for their crimes, what is He going to do to us for our crimes?

I was dancing in the aisles.  I kid you not.  I wanted to yelp with excitement, but I was in a library, so I got up and did a little jig.  This was a prophetic voice of warning in the best Old Testament tradition.

“Six Old English Chronicles” could not be checked out of the library, so I went to the Public Library and requested in inter-library loan.  Some weeks later, a tattered copy from the University of Dayton Roesch Library arrived.  Since the book was published in 1900, I figured it was now in the public domain.  I put a photocopy machine to good use.

I was on my way to the greatest discovery I had yet found, linking Ancient Israel with king Arthur, Merlin and the legends of the British Isles.

Next:  Gildas the Sage, Part Two.

St. Patrick and the Four Sons of Mosiah: Part Three

Where there is no true religion, all that is left is superstition. 

I’d like now to turn to the Book of Mormon and the fours sons of Mosiah.  One of the more popular stories in the Book of Mormon, is of Ammon.  Taking selected companions with them, the four boys arrive in the land, offer a prayer, receive comfort and promises from the Lord, then go their separate ways to different tribes and kings.

The Lamanites of that time are described as follows.

 … for they had undertaken to preach the word of God to a wild and a hardened and a ferocious people; a people who delighted in murdering the Nephites, and robbing and plundering them; and their hearts were set upon riches, or upon gold and silver, and precious stones; yet they sought to obtain these things by murdering and plundering, that they might not labor for them with their own hands.  Thus they were a very indolent people, many of whom did worship idols, … (Alma 17: 14-15)

Ammon and his companions eventually come to a tribe governed by one King Lamoni, a son of the high king over all the Lamanites.  There, he willingly enters into the king’s service and is sent to do a dangerous and terrifying task.  He is to keep the king’s flocks.

While Ammon is doing his job with other servants of the king, we come face to face with a typical raid.  Other Lamanites, hoping to add to their flocks, scatter the king’s flocks.  The king’s servants are terrified because they know they’ll be killed by the king for losing his flocks.  Ammon seizes the opportunity and steps forward with sling and sword to defend the flocks and the servants.

Being the son of a king, I’m sure Ammon was well trained on the use of weapons.  He puts that to good use, and defeats all the foes, cutting off the arm of any who came against him.  The kings servants are astounded and overjoyed, to the extent they gather up all the arms and take them to the king to tell the tale of a mighty hero.  And honestly, this is just like the hero stories of the Norsemen, except that, instead of showing up and boasting of his strength and demanding the hero portion at the feast that would follow, Ammon finishes with the flocks and moves on to his next task, feeding the king’s horses and getting them ready for a journey.

The kings is stunned, and rightly so!  Who behaves like this?  He’s terrified that Ammon is the Great Spirit, sent to punish him for being so petty as to put his own servants to death for losing some livestock to raiders.  He wants to talk to Ammon, but doesn’t dare.

When Ammon finishes his chores, he returns to the king for further instructions.  Again, is this how a hero of the old myths behaves?  Surely not!  Lamoni has no idea what to do with this man, but just stares at him for about an hour until the Spirit of the Lord impresses on Ammon what the issues are and the door is opened for Ammon to preach the gospel of Christ.

I find the similarities between these two cultures, the Ancient Irish and the Book of Mormon Lamanites, astounding.  Perhaps there are similarities with other cultures as well.

They both are raiders, taking slaves, boasting of their might and prowess.  They both are in terror of their deities.  The Irish have very frightening deities that have to be appeased somehow.  They both are in terror of death.

Through the preaching of Ammon, king Lamoni and all his people become converted to the Lord, insomuch that they lay down their weapons, even burying them in the earth.  They have a complete change of heart.

Through the preaching of St. Patrick, the land of Ireland is turned from chaos to peace.  These mighty warriors turn from their raiding, warrior ways and instead, turn their energies to studying the gospel of Christ and becoming great scholars.  They have a complete change of heart.

According to the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites and the Nephites, are remnants of scattered Israel, of the House of Joseph of Egypt, of the tribe of Mannessah.

According to the traditions of the British Isles, one of the daughters of king Zedekiah was brought by the prophet Jeremiah to Ireland, where she married a local chieftan.  The tribe of Ephraim/Judah was introduced into Ireland. 

According to Isaiah, the children of Israel, once scattered, shall hear the doctrine of the Messiah, and be restored, converted, healed, changed to bear up the kingdom of God and establish Zion.

This is what Patrick did.  He was a great man, whom I honor and revere.  He had a perfect understanding of the Salvation of Christ. “The difference between Patrick’s magic and the magic of the druids is that in Patrick’s world all beings and events come from the hand of a good God, who loves human beings and wishes them success.”  He was  “completely at peace over whatever may come” because he put his absolute trust in the “hands of God Almighty.” 

Next, Gildas the Sage.

(All quotations are taken either from the Book of Mormon, Alma 17-18, or from “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill, Anchor Books.  I highly recommend you read these books for further comparison and enlightenment about St. Patrick and Israel in the British Isles.)

St. Patrick and the Four Sons of Mosiah: Part Two

The great debate in my mind is whether St. Patrick really was a missionary of the Church in Rome or not. I’ve read too many books and articles that mention the Celtic Church of the British Isles, whose leaders absolutely denied having anything to do with the Roman Church, that I’m not entirely convinced Patrick belongs to Rome. By what records there are, the Roman Church doesn’t really take over the British Isles until the 7th century A.D. This is well after Patrick. There were some Roman Church missionary attempts earlier on, after Rome made Christianity the state religion, but upon arriving among the Bretons, they already found a people “conquered by Christ.”

It’s difficult to really know the truth, because in the end, the conquerors re-write history to prove their rights and validity to be in charge. The Romans were really good at propaganda. They’d been around a long time and knew how to put a spin on things so people would fall in line and be obedient to their way of doing things.

In these centuries, 1st to 5th A.D., the world was splitting and decaying, and so was the Church founded by Jesus and His Apostles. By the second and third centuries, splinter groups of Christians are cropping up all over the place, all claiming they have direct mandate from Peter or Thomas or some other original apostle. The church in Rome and the church in Constantinople were no different.

So what makes Patrick so special? What makes him stand out? What makes me think he’s actually preaching the true doctrine of Christ? It’s in what Patrick does, and how it compares to the missionary work of the Four Sons of Mosiah from the Book of Mormon.

When Patrick does go back to Ireland, he goes as a missionary for Christ. He’s in his late forties, and spends the next thirty years of his life preaching the gospel to a stubborn and prideful people.

We know he’s wildly successful, he becomes the patron saint of Ireland, after all, but why does he succeed? I believe it’s because he was teaching truth, not dogma. Only truth and the power of the testimony of the Holy Ghost can do what Patrick did and we have a parallel story from the Book of Mormon to show us how he did it.

From the Book of Alma we learn about Alma and Younger and the four sons of king Mosiah. I’m not going to go into all the history of these young men. You can read the Book of Mormon for yourself and learn all about it. Suffice it to say, these boys had started out as a rather rebellious lot, going among the people in secret and undermining the work of their fathers. Alma’s father, Alma the Elder, was the leader (president, should I say) of the Church. The four sons of Mosiah; Ammon, Aaron, Omner and Himni, were the sons of the king. Through the prayers and fasting of family and members of the Church, these five young men undergo a miraculous conversion to the gospel and doctrine of Christ. So much so, they completely turn their lives around.

When it’s time for king Mosiah to select the heir apparent, none of his sons want to take on the kingship. They want to go on a mission for Christ – to the Lamanites. Describe the Irish before Patrick, and you will have exactly described the Lamanites: a bloodthirsty, looting band of thugs, stubborn, prideful and bent on exacting revenge for centuries old slights.

When I look at these two groups, the Irish and the Lamanites, and the men who brought them the gospel, the similarities, to me, are remarkable. What happens is a fantastic transformation that I find utterly fascinating.

To be continued…

St. Patrick and the Four Sons of Mosiah: Part One

One should never let so much time pass from having read a book, to trying to find the needed passages to quote from to prove a point.

It’s Saturday morning and I’m up early, ambitious and eager to write.  It’s a good feeling.  Now if I can just find the word threads to weave the right pattern of understanding.

Much of what I learned about St. Patrick was from the book, “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill.  His obvious respect for the Patron Saint of Ireland is blatant.  After reading his book, I admire the man too.  What he did bordered on miraculous – was miraculous.  He took a people, savage and bloodthirsty, and turned them into followers of Christ, scholars and lovers of books.

Thomas Cahill describes the people of Ireland before Patrick (circa 300-400 A.D.) as an Island of tribes, each led by a “king,” or Chieftan.  By their stories from that time period, the values held by these people lay in what you could steal from other tribes, in the battles you fought, in the slaves you took, the kings you killed and the women ravished. 

By our terms today, they were savage and barbaric, a bloodthirsty people serving bloodthirsty gods, dominated by the mother goddess and her fertility rites.  This was a land never conquered by Rome.  They produced marauding pirates that terrorized the northern seas and put fear into the hearts of those populating present day Wales and Cornwall. 

It was a band of pirates that in some raid on the Island of Britain, took a young lad from his home and bundled him off to Ireland to become a slave.  The boy’s Roman name was Patricius.  He would someday become the great St. Patrick.  But in this instance, he was nothing, a slave ordered to tend the cattle in remote areas, going months without seeing another person, never having enough to eat, never having enough to wear to keep the cold out.  It must have been absolutely miserable.

I know by my own experience that when there is nothing and no one else to turn to, you turn to God.

Patricius, by his own account, was raised a Christian in the British Isles.  His father is called a Deacon.  “…He tells us that he didn’t really believe in God, and he found priests foolish.  But now, there was no one to turn to but the God of his parents.”  This was Patrick’s fiery furnace.  Day after day, he prayed, year after year.

“Tending flocks was my daily work, and I would pray constantly during the daylight hours.  The love of God and the fear of him surrounded me more and more – and faith grew and the Spirit was roused, so that in one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers and after dark, nearly as many again, even while I remained in the woods or on the mountain.  I would wake and pray before daybreak – through snow, frost, rain…”

 

Thus was Patrick’s faith kindled, fanned and fed.  His captivity became his salvation.   At the end of six years of enslavement, a voice comes to him in the night and tells him, “Your hungers are rewarded: you are going home.  Look, your ship is ready.”  Patrick, nowhere near the sea, gets up and starts walking.  When he makes port, he finds a ship headed for the continent.  At first they reject him, but he prays, and they take him on.  Patrick makes his escape.

It takes him a few years to get back home, but by the time he does, he is – how shall I say it? – the world would call him a holy man, and that would be a good description, but I think he is more than that.  He had just experienced his own slavery in the land of Egypt, his own miraculous crossing of the sea, and a wandering in the wilderness, finally to make it back to the land of promise, his parent’s home.  Now he’s ready.  He is a true man of Christ, wholly converted. 

One night he has a dream.  He sees a man he knew in Ireland.  The man holds out to him “countless letters,” one of which says, in Latin, The Voice of the Irish.  And then he hears a voice, “We beg you to come and walk among us once more.”  He wakes. 

By his own account, he cannot get the Irish out of his mind.  He has dreams and visions, “and Christ begins to speak within him:  ‘He who gave his life for you, he it is who speaks within you.’”

Patrick returns to the land of the barbarians, not as a slave, but as a man on a mission for Christ.  As the gospel of Christ changed Patrick, it would change the nation of Ireland.  Only truth and the witness of the Holy Ghost can do that.

To be continued.

I highly recommend this book, “How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe” by Thomas Cahill, from which much of the information of this blog was taken from.

Pelagius, the Heretic

It is difficult to write about someone who has been labeled a heretic because so little remains about them. Once labeled a heretic by the church fathers in Rome, works are burned, character is villified and destroyed. The person all but disappears.

Here’s what I know about Pelagius. His life spans from circa 354 A.D. to circa 440 A.D, give or take twenty years. He traveled around the Mediterranean, from Synod to Synod, teaching a doctrine of Free Will. Men are free to choose good or evil. And even wicked people can choose to do good things on their own.

Pelagius was apparently a gifted orator and writer and quite influential. He caught the attention of the church in Rome and of Augustine of Hippo – yes, that St. Augustine who wrote about “original sin” and “we are only saved by grace – works have nothing to do with it.”

It was quite a debate in the 5th century. At first, St. Augustine called Pelagius a ‘saintly man,’ but later used Pelagius to launch his own career – writing in opposition to his teachings . St. Augustine won the debate and for centuries, the church in Rome followed Augustinian philosophy as their dogma. The doctrine of free will fell into obscurity.

But some things are coming to light. I read this in Wikipedia:

"However, more recently some have defended Pelagius as a misunderstood orthodox:[1]

"Recent analysis of his thinking suggests that it was, in fact, highly orthodox, following in the tradition established by the early fathers and in keeping with the teaching of the church in both the East and the West. ... From what we are able to piece together from the few sources available... it seems that the Celtic monk held to an orthodox view of the prevenience of God's grace, and did not assert that individuals could achieve salvation purely by their own efforts..."

Yup. Celtic. Pelagius was from the British Isles. Here’s this guy, traveling around the Roman world, teaching about Christ and free will together, and utterly denying the concept of original sin.

This is basic Mormonism. It’s right there in our Articles of Faith, #2. “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adams transgression.”

And from Doctrine & Covenants 58:27. “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.”

The doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are nothing new. They were taught hundreds of years ago. I hold up the likes of Pelagius to confirm that idea. That he hails from the British Isles, the home of my ancestors, is something I find utterly fascinating.

Next time: St. Patrick and The Four Sons of Mosiah

Notes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagius
1. ^ Bradley, Ian (1993) The Celtic Way. London: Darton, Longman and Todd; p. 62

The Renaissance King of Korea

Just recently I purchased a Roku box, which allows me to stream content on my TV from the internet. I discovered the Cruncyroll.com application and started watching Korean drama programs. The first program I wastched was "Princess Hours," a fictional what if... What if the Korean Monarchy was still in place? What if a common girl was married to the crown prince? It was fun and interesting and ended after 24 episodes. It piqued my curiosity and I found I really liked this kind of stuff. So I then plunged into the 60 episode historical drama "Dong Yi." What fun that was! I was totally taken by the costumes and the portrayals of life in a completely different culture. I could tell this was highly fictionalized, but it was fun anyway. I followed up with "Jewel In The Palace." And then I took a deep breath and launched into the 77 episodes of "Yi San," based on the life of King Jeungjo, or Chungso - depending on which translator is spellling it.

Once again I was completely enthralled with the pageantry, the costumes, the high emotional drama and court complications and wondered how much of it was true. I wanted to know more about King Jeungjo. He ascended the throne in 1776 and died in 1800 at the age of 48 years.

I want to know more about this king, because he seemed to be quite a visionary. His early years were marred by the death of his father, Crown Prince Sado, at the hands of his father, King Yungjo. Yet, he became one of the few Korean kings given the honorific, "great." (http://www.transparent.com/korean/korean-princes-and-kings/)

King Jeungjo apparently worked very hard at reforming the royal court and Korean society. He seemed to take to heart his title, "Father of the Country," paying attention not only to the nobles and wealthy merchants, but to the lower classes as well. In what I have been able to find out, he cared more about a person being smart and capable than their birth status, and he worked hard to make life more bearable for the lower classes, the people who had no priveleges at all.

Innovative, reformative and hard-working, he is considered one of the most effective rulers of the Josean Dynasty. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeongjo_of_Joseon)

And here is what I find remarkable. On the other side of the world, in 1776, the same year King Jeungjo took the throne, there was a shot heard round the world that he knew nothing of. The world was changing and a new experiment in government was being undertaking during those same years, 1776 to 1800. Our founding fathers in the Americas were struggling to find a way to stop exploitation, to give people a chance to improve their lot in life, to allow them to achieve great things by their own will, courage and ability.

And there, in this tiny country, with no great influence, a tributary to China, stood a king who struggled to do the same thing, stop exploitation, give people a chance to improve their lot in life and allow them to achieve great things by their own will, courage and ability.

How remarkable is that?

I have no illusions. King Jeungjo was not perfect. He was no King Benjamin and his reign had it's own share of treachery and blood, but I believe he was a king who tried, and he came at a time when the world was changing. He was just one step ahead.

And I just find that interesting.