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Chapter 23 "With their unnumbered vows
they burden heaven," that they might not be brought to utter
destruction, took arms under the conduct of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a modest
man, who of all the Roman nation was then alone in the confusion of this
troubled period by chance left alive. His parents, who for their merit
were adorned with the purple, had been slain in these same broils, and now
his progeny in these our days, although shamefully degenerated from the
worthiness of their ancestors, provoke to battle their cruel conquerors,
and by the goodness of our Lord obtain the victory.
St. Gildas
Extract from his
"Of the Ruin & Conquest of Britain" (c.AD 540)
Then all the councillors, together with that proud tyrant Gurthrigern, the
British king, were so blinded, that, as a protection to their country,
they sealed its doom by inviting in among them (like wolves into the
sheep-fold), the fierce and impious Saxons, a race hateful both to God and
men, to repel the invasions of the northern nations. Nothing was ever so
pernicious to our country, nothing was ever so unlucky. What palpable
darkness must have enveloped their minds--darkness desperate and cruel!
Those very people whom, when absent, they dreaded more than death itself,
were invited to reside, as one may say, under the selfsame roof. Foolish
are the princes, as it is said, of Thafneos, giving counsel to unwise
Pharaoh. A multitude of whelps came forth from the lair of this barbaric
lioness, in three cyuls, as they call them, that is, in three ships of
war, with their sails wafted by the wind and with omens and prophecies
favourable, for it was foretold by a certain soothsayer among them, that
they should occupy the country to which they were sailing three hundred
years, and half of that time, a hundred and fifty years, should plunder
and despoil the same. They first landed on the eastern side of the island,
by the invitation of the unlucky king, and there fixed their sharp talons,
apparently to fight in favour of the island, but alas! more truly against
it. Their mother-land, finding her first brood thus successful, sends
forth a larger company of her wolfish offspring, which sailing over, join
themselves to their bastard-born comrades. From that time the germ of
iniquity and the root of contention planted their poison amongst us, as we
deserved, and shot forth into leaves and branches. The barbarians being
thus introduced as soldiers into the island, to encounter, as they falsely
said, any dangers in defence of their hospitable entertainers, obtain an
allowance of provisions, which, for some time being plentifully bestowed,
stopped their doggish mouths. Yet they complain that their monthly
supplies are not furnished in sufficient abundance, and they industriously
aggravate each occasion of quarrel, saying that unless more liberality is
shown them, they will break the treaty and plunder the whole island. In a
short time, they follow up their threats with deeds.
Chapter 24
For the fire of vengeance, justly kindled by former crimes, spread from
sea to sea, fed by the hands of our foes in the east, and did not cease,
until, destroying the neighbouring towns and lands, it reached the other
side of the island, and dipped its red and savage tongue in the western
ocean. In these assaults, therefore, not unlike that of the Assyrian upon
Judea, was fulfilled in our case what the prophet describes in words of
lamentation: "They have burned with fire the sanctuary; they have
polluted on earth the tabernacle of thy name." And again, "O
God, the gentiles have come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have
they defiled," &c. So that all the columns were levelled with the
ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen
routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword
gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to
behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled
to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human
bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they
had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried,
save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts
and birds; with reverence be it spoken for their blessed souls, if,
indeed, there were many found who were carried, at that time, into the
high heaven by the holy angels. So entirely had the vintage, once so fine,
degenerated and become bitter, that, in the words of the prophet, there
was hardly a grape or ear of corn to be seen where the husbandman had
turned his back.
Chapter 25
Some, therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in the mountains,
were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained by famine, came and
yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to their foes, running the risk
of being instantly slain, which truly was the greatest favour that could
be offered them: some others passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations
instead of the voice of exhortation. "Thou hast given us as sheep to
be slaughtered, and among the Gentiles hast thou dispersed us."
Others, committing the safeguard of their lives, which were in continual
jeopardy, to the mountains, precipices, thickly wooded forests, and to the
rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling hearts), remained still in their
country. But in the meanwhile, an opportunity happening, when these most
cruel robbers were returned home, the poor remnants of our nation (to whom
flocked from divers places round about our miserable countrymen as fast as
bees to their hives, for fear of an ensuing storm), being strengthened by
God, calling upon him with all their hearts, as the poet says,--
Chapter 26
After this, sometimes our countrymen, sometimes the enemy, won the field,
to the end that our Lord might in this land try after his accustomed
manner these his Israelites, whether they loved him or not, until the year
of the siege of Mount Badon, when took place also the last almost, though
not the least slaughter of our cruel foes, which was (as I am sure)
forty-four years and one month after the landing of the Saxons, and also
the time of my own nativity. And yet neither to this day are the cities of
our country inhabited as before, but being forsaken and overthrown, still
lie desolate; our foreign wars having ceased, but our civil troubles still
remaining. For as well the remembrance of such a terrible desolation of
the island, as also of the unexpected recovery of the same, remained in
the minds of those who were eyewitnesses of the wonderful events of both,
and in regard thereof, kings, public magistrates, and private persons,
with priests and clergymen, did all and every one of them live orderly
according to their several vocations. But when these had departed out of
this world, and a new race succeeded, who were ignorant of this
troublesome time, and had only experience of the present prosperity, all
the laws of truth and justice were so shaken and subverted, that not so
much as a vestige or remembrance of these virtues remained among the
above-named orders of men, except among a very few who, compared with the
great multitude which were daily rushing headlong down to hell, are
accounted so small a number, that our reverend mother, the church,
scarcely beholds them, her only true children, reposing in her bosom;
whose worthy lives, being a pattern to all men, and beloved of God,
inasmuch as by their holy prayers, as by certain pillars and most
profitable supporters, our infirmity is sustained up, that it may not
utterly be broken down, I would have no one suppose I intended to reprove,
if forced by the increasing multitude of offences, I have freely, aye,
with anguish, not so much declared as bewailed the wickedness of those who
are become servants, not only to their bellies, but also to the devil
rather than to Christ, who is our blessed God, world without end.