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.Constantine of Dumnonia, first on the list, could be the nearest to Gildas.Gildas specifically claims to have recent knowledge of him ‘This very year’ he has killed the two royal youths, and Gildas knows for sure he is alive.Medieval views that Gildas was from Strathclyde, a son of Caw of Pictland, have no support in DEB.No demonstrably northern location is referred to by name.Although Gildas does deal with Roman activities in the wall zone, his knowledge of the area is sketchy.Hadrian’s Wall, he imagines, runs between towns which just happen to be there (DEB 13.2).He thinks that the northern border defences were built within the last hundred years or so, during which time the area north of them had seen the first settlements of the Picts, ‘an exceedingly savage overseas nation’ (DEB 13.2).Surely no local could make these claims, easily falsifiable by consulting any aged Pict.If Gildas’s father were from Pictland, his descriptions of Picts as ‘dark throngs of worms who wriggle out of narrow fissures in the rocks’; ‘foul hordes.more ready to cover their villainous faces with hair than their private parts with clothes’, would be very peculiar.A voyage to Ireland by Gildas is recorded in Annales Cambriae, but his knowledge of that island, its Scottish inhabitants or the burgeoning work of Christian missionaries among them, is almost zero.South-western Britain therefore seems the most plausible location for Gildas.FIVEGildas’s historical analysis climaxes with his denunciation of the rulers of his own time:Britain has kings, but they are tyrants; judges, but they are unjustThey often plunder and terrorise, but do so to the innocent;they defend and protect people, but only the guilty and thieving;they have many wives, but these are whores and adulteresses;they swear constantly, but their oaths are false;they make vows, but almost at once tell lies;they wage wars, but only civil and unjust ones;they chase thieves energetically all over the country, but love and even reward the thieves who sit with them at table.They distribute alms profusely, but pile up an immense mountain of crime for all to see;They take their seats as judges, but rarely seek out the rules of right judgement.they despise the harmless and humble, but exalt to the stars.their military companions bloody, proud and murderous men, adulterers and enemies of God!Through Gildas’s condemnations, we can see a pattern of heroic ‘Celtic’ kingship, as celebrated in Y Gododdin and the poems of Dark Age Wales.Five rulers are singled out for special condemnation.Gildas then castigates the wicked priests, men who degrade even the harlots they lie with.They rejoice if they find even a single penny (indicating that some form of monetary economy is still in operation).Bishops, priests and monks are all mentioned.Most have bought their positions from the tyrants and even the best have not risked martyrdom by standing up to the wicked rulers.It is worth noting that Gildas says nothing about a resurgence of paganism.The time when Britons misguidedly worshipped mountains, hills, rivers and idols is far in the past.Indeed the kings are specifically said not to be pagans: ‘Just because they do not offer sacrifices to heathen gods, there is no reason for them to be proud, they are still idolaters because by their actions they trample on the commands of Christ.’ There is also no mention of heresy, although Gildas left no stone unturned in searching out iniquity.The five named tyrants are generally assumed to be kings, though this is not specifically stated.They are ‘infausti duces’, unlucky leaders (DEB 50.1).They are not the only rulers of Britain.Gildas specifically tells us that some leaders have found the narrow path to salvation.In many ways, the wicked rulers are the focal point of de Excidio Britanniae.None of the exemplary rulers are mentioned by name, nor are any bishops or priests, good or bad, singled out from the general mass.The first is Constantine, ‘tyrant whelp of the filthy lioness of Dumnonia’.Whelps (catuli) and lionesses figure prominently in Gildas’s vocabulary of condemnation.For example, he describes the Saxons as a pack of whelps issuing from the lair of the ‘barbarian lioness’, meaning their Germanic homeland.On the other hand, when Gildas earlier mentions a ‘treacherous lioness’ who rebels against Rome, it is not clear whether he is speaking figuratively of Britain or specifically of the leader of the rebellion – Boudicca.Equally in Constantine’s case, it is not possible to state categorically that it is his kingdom and not some notorious Dumnonian woman which is meant.The manuscripts of Gildas use the form ‘Damnonia’ or variations on it.Most commentators believe that Gildas is referring to Dumnonia, the civitas (Roman administrative area based on a British tribal area) which covered modern Cornwall and Devon.The latter county derives its name from the Welsh version of Dumnonia, Dyfneint.The error is most likely to be scribal, occurring as it does in other places too (Rivet and Smith 1979).The copyist is influenced by the word damnatio (‘damnation’) when faced with an unfamiliar name.Roman geographers recorded another Dumnonia, just south of the Clyde.It did not survive under that name into the Dark Ages, whereas Dumnonia/Dyfneint become one of the last surviving British kingdoms outside Wales.We note, however, that the early medieval Life of Gildas did connect Gildas to the Strathclyde area, perhaps influenced by this place-name.Gildas shows that he has recent knowledge of Constantine.He says he knows for sure that he is alive, as if there is some doubt about this.His worst crime took place ‘this very year’ after he had sworn a terrible oath not to work his wiles on his fellow Britons [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Constantine of Dumnonia, first on the list, could be the nearest to Gildas.Gildas specifically claims to have recent knowledge of him ‘This very year’ he has killed the two royal youths, and Gildas knows for sure he is alive.Medieval views that Gildas was from Strathclyde, a son of Caw of Pictland, have no support in DEB.No demonstrably northern location is referred to by name.Although Gildas does deal with Roman activities in the wall zone, his knowledge of the area is sketchy.Hadrian’s Wall, he imagines, runs between towns which just happen to be there (DEB 13.2).He thinks that the northern border defences were built within the last hundred years or so, during which time the area north of them had seen the first settlements of the Picts, ‘an exceedingly savage overseas nation’ (DEB 13.2).Surely no local could make these claims, easily falsifiable by consulting any aged Pict.If Gildas’s father were from Pictland, his descriptions of Picts as ‘dark throngs of worms who wriggle out of narrow fissures in the rocks’; ‘foul hordes.more ready to cover their villainous faces with hair than their private parts with clothes’, would be very peculiar.A voyage to Ireland by Gildas is recorded in Annales Cambriae, but his knowledge of that island, its Scottish inhabitants or the burgeoning work of Christian missionaries among them, is almost zero.South-western Britain therefore seems the most plausible location for Gildas.FIVEGildas’s historical analysis climaxes with his denunciation of the rulers of his own time:Britain has kings, but they are tyrants; judges, but they are unjustThey often plunder and terrorise, but do so to the innocent;they defend and protect people, but only the guilty and thieving;they have many wives, but these are whores and adulteresses;they swear constantly, but their oaths are false;they make vows, but almost at once tell lies;they wage wars, but only civil and unjust ones;they chase thieves energetically all over the country, but love and even reward the thieves who sit with them at table.They distribute alms profusely, but pile up an immense mountain of crime for all to see;They take their seats as judges, but rarely seek out the rules of right judgement.they despise the harmless and humble, but exalt to the stars.their military companions bloody, proud and murderous men, adulterers and enemies of God!Through Gildas’s condemnations, we can see a pattern of heroic ‘Celtic’ kingship, as celebrated in Y Gododdin and the poems of Dark Age Wales.Five rulers are singled out for special condemnation.Gildas then castigates the wicked priests, men who degrade even the harlots they lie with.They rejoice if they find even a single penny (indicating that some form of monetary economy is still in operation).Bishops, priests and monks are all mentioned.Most have bought their positions from the tyrants and even the best have not risked martyrdom by standing up to the wicked rulers.It is worth noting that Gildas says nothing about a resurgence of paganism.The time when Britons misguidedly worshipped mountains, hills, rivers and idols is far in the past.Indeed the kings are specifically said not to be pagans: ‘Just because they do not offer sacrifices to heathen gods, there is no reason for them to be proud, they are still idolaters because by their actions they trample on the commands of Christ.’ There is also no mention of heresy, although Gildas left no stone unturned in searching out iniquity.The five named tyrants are generally assumed to be kings, though this is not specifically stated.They are ‘infausti duces’, unlucky leaders (DEB 50.1).They are not the only rulers of Britain.Gildas specifically tells us that some leaders have found the narrow path to salvation.In many ways, the wicked rulers are the focal point of de Excidio Britanniae.None of the exemplary rulers are mentioned by name, nor are any bishops or priests, good or bad, singled out from the general mass.The first is Constantine, ‘tyrant whelp of the filthy lioness of Dumnonia’.Whelps (catuli) and lionesses figure prominently in Gildas’s vocabulary of condemnation.For example, he describes the Saxons as a pack of whelps issuing from the lair of the ‘barbarian lioness’, meaning their Germanic homeland.On the other hand, when Gildas earlier mentions a ‘treacherous lioness’ who rebels against Rome, it is not clear whether he is speaking figuratively of Britain or specifically of the leader of the rebellion – Boudicca.Equally in Constantine’s case, it is not possible to state categorically that it is his kingdom and not some notorious Dumnonian woman which is meant.The manuscripts of Gildas use the form ‘Damnonia’ or variations on it.Most commentators believe that Gildas is referring to Dumnonia, the civitas (Roman administrative area based on a British tribal area) which covered modern Cornwall and Devon.The latter county derives its name from the Welsh version of Dumnonia, Dyfneint.The error is most likely to be scribal, occurring as it does in other places too (Rivet and Smith 1979).The copyist is influenced by the word damnatio (‘damnation’) when faced with an unfamiliar name.Roman geographers recorded another Dumnonia, just south of the Clyde.It did not survive under that name into the Dark Ages, whereas Dumnonia/Dyfneint become one of the last surviving British kingdoms outside Wales.We note, however, that the early medieval Life of Gildas did connect Gildas to the Strathclyde area, perhaps influenced by this place-name.Gildas shows that he has recent knowledge of Constantine.He says he knows for sure that he is alive, as if there is some doubt about this.His worst crime took place ‘this very year’ after he had sworn a terrible oath not to work his wiles on his fellow Britons [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]