'3 Among the Irish saints,
extracted
by the Cistercian Monk from the Rev.
O'Hanlon - Lives of the Irish Saints - v1
1 8 1 to 203, xxxi.
Januarii.
De S.
Gildasio Confessore, pp.
226 to 228.
'3 See ibid. , xxix. Januarii. Appendix ad
January 29. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 473
been eminent for his sanctity and learning. ^* From certain chronological notices in two different lives of Gildas, Ussher thinks the Monk of Ruys has confounded Gildas Albanius's with Gildas Badonicus, It must be allowed, perhaps, that unchronological and misleading statements have been made by both ^vriters ; and such admission may serve to clear away many of the difh- rulties that now beset the biographer of an unquestionable and a historical St. Gildas.
Formerly various manuscript lives of St. Gildas were extant : some have
beenpreservedtothepresenttime. ^^ Theearliestliferemaining^7isthought to have been written by some unknown monk of Ruys, near Rennes, about
the year 919. '^ A different opinion of Bollandus assigns its composition to a time shortly after 1024. But Caradoc of Lanncarvan, who is thought to have lived in the twelfth century, wrote a different biography of our saint, in
which we find divergent, if not discordant, statements regarding' him put forward. '9 Nor need this seem so very strange, when both accounts had been drawn up several centuries after the lifetime of Gildas, and when they had been written in different centuries and in separate countries. The di- versities of chronological events and of persons hardly contemporaneous will only enable us to infer, that the sources of information were occasionally doubtful, while various coincidences of narrative_ seem to warrant a conclusion that both tracts were intended to chronicle the life of one and the same
Vitas SS. Gildarum, cap. ii. , pp. 195 to 197.
In the succeeding chapter, Colgan treats of several other holy men in Ireland who bore the name of Gildas or Gilda, besides those who were externs. See cap. iii. , pp. 198 to 201.
'^ Colgan's chiefest objections are resolv-
able into the apparently irreconcilable and
ui. chronological incidents occurring in both lives. This point he argues with much
learning, especially in the first chapter of his appendix, where he inquires about the
lish Historical Society. Vita S. Gildas, MS.
Sloane, 4785, ff. 9. 15. This is a transcript of the former, made in the last century. Vita S. Gildae. MS. Reg. 13, B. vii. , ff. 20- 25, b. paper folio, xvi. cent. This is appa- rently a transcript of the Bumey MS. In some instances, it corrects the errors of that copy. Vita Sanctissimi atque doctissimi Gildae. MS. Eccl. Dunelm, Bii. , 35, 7 folio. This fine copy was written about A. D. 1166. It seems to agree with the MS. c. c. c. Cant. Ici commence la vie Monseigneur S.
age when Gildas Badonicus, or the Wise, Gildas. MS. Egerton, No. 745, ff. 78b-90,
flourished.
'5 Ussher thinks that the Monk of Rhuys
has confounded the separate acts of Gildas
Albanius with those of Gildas Badonicus.
He throws out a conjecture, that the former
was bom in 425, while the latter was bom
veil. 4to, xiv. cent. In this it is said, St. Gildas was a native of Bretagne, and that he had been educated by St. Phylebert, who was then Abbot of Toumay. De Sancto Gilda Abbate et Confessore. MS. Cott. Tiber. E. i. , ff. 3lb-32, veil, folio. This is
in See "Britannicamm Ecclesiarum
in
John Capgrave's
"Nova
Legenda
'* The following manuscript lives of Gil- veil, folio, XV. cent. It is the same text as das are—noticed by Sir Thomas Duffus the former one. Vita Gildse. MS. Trin.
Vita S. Gildas ab anno Hardy : Sapientis
520 usque an. 570, auctore Caradoco Lan- carbanensi. MS. c. C. C. Cant. 139,^24, veil, folio, xii. cent. This is apparently the MS. used by Ussher, and cited by him in his "Primordia," pp. 442, 468. A couplet found in it seems to attribute its authorship to Caradoc of Lancarvan. There is also a transcript of this MS. of the seventeenth century in MS. C. C. C. Cant. loi, p. 43. Vita Sanctissimi atque doctissimi viri Gildre,MS. Bumey,310,ff. 330,veil,folio, xiv. cent. This volume was written at Fin- chale, near Durham, A. D. 1381. This ge- nerally accurate text was used by Mr. Ste- venson in his edition, published for the Eng-
520.
Antiquitates, cap. xiii. , pp. 237, 238, and Anglise," f. 156. Vita S. Gildas Abbatis et " Index Chronologicus," pp. 515, 527. Confessoris. MS. Bodl. Tanner. 15, f. 283,
"
printed
Dublin, 284.
Coll. ,
'7 There is Sancti Gildse Sapientis Vita,
anetorimonachoRuyensiAnonyrao. Ex MS. , Ruyensi.
'® At this period, the religious of that place fled into Berri, to escape the fury of the Northmen. The biographical piece is supposed to have been written on this occa- sion, when translating the relics of St. Gil- das.
'9 See Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy's "De-
scriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Irejand,"
vol. i. , part i. , pp. 151 to 156, where the several manuscript copies of his lives are described.
474 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [January 29. person. It deserves remark, however, that both are said to have been bom
in Scotland. One was the son of Nau
eldest son of one was Huel, and of the other Cuil. Both lives have stories of a bell ; both go to Ireland ; both go to Rome ; both build churches. The Monk of Ruys quotes several passages from the tract " De Excidio," and he
attributes it to Gildas. Caradoc calls him " saysthathewrote"HistoriaedeRegibusBritonum. "^° Atthepresentdate John Capgrave^' has inserted a life of Gildas, abbot and confessor. The Rev. AlbanButler^^haspublishedthelife ofSt. GildastheWise,orBado- nicus, the abbot,^3 whom he distinguishes from St. Gildas the Albanian, or the Scot, a confessor; while he places both at the 29th of January.
The time when Gildas the Wise was born has been disputed, although he furnishes apparently the data for forming an opinion. We learn from this saint's own writings, that his birth occurred in the year when a famous victory was gained over the Saxons by Ambrose—as some WTiters state—or as others say by Arthur. '* This battle took place at Mount Badon. 's Some authors suppose it was fought a. d. 484=^ or 490 f^ others name 492,"^ 493? '^' 516 ;3° while Ussher thinks a. d. 5203* to be the tnie chronology for such a remarkable event. 3» This latter writer asserts, that Bede mistook the mean- ing of Gildas, in whose tract the forty-fourth year was relatively and previous to the time when his treatise had been composed,33 and not after the period when the Anglo-Saxons first invaded Britain. 34 Admitting, however, that
*<"'
If it he allowable to analyse the two lives," says Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, "and appropriate to each what will not accord with the supposed time of the other, two persons of that name will of course be brought into action ; the latter of whom is considered as the author of the "Excidium. " See ibid. , p. 156.
3° This is the date given by Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy. Also by the writer of the article "Gildas" in Chambers' "Encyclo- pedia," vol. iv. , p. 752.
3' Dr. Lanigan remarks, that " no year about 490 would suit Ussher's hypothesis as to the two Gildases ; for by placing the birth of said historian in that period, whatever worthy of baJief is said of Gildas can be easily reconciled and explained with- out recurring to two distinct persons of that name. " See "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, ix. , § x. , n. 155, p. 479-
3^ See " Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Anti-
quitates,"cap. xiii. , p. 254. Thaliessin, the chief of the British bards, has celebrated the greatest and last of the twelve great battles fought by King Arthur against the
1
"' See the " Nova Legenda Angliae," quarto Ka! . Februarii, fol. clvi. , clvii.
" See " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and dther Principal Saints," vol. i. , xxix. Janu- ary.
'3 Among the Irish saints, extracted by the Cistercian Monk from the Rev. Alban Butler's work, is St. Gildas the Wise, or Badonicus, for this day. See pp. 169 to 171.
=^^ This accords with the statement of the
writer of the Harleian Manuscript, No. Saxons. See likewise " Index Chronologi-
3859.
's Said to have been at Banesdown, near
Bath, in Somersetshire.
"^See Mabillon's "Annales Ordinis S.
Benedicti," tomus i. ,lib. vi. , §xix. , p. 151. '7 The " Chronicon Britannicum," found in the church of Nantz, has at this date 490, "Natus est S. Gildas. " See Lobineau's
"Histoire de Bretagne," tome ii.
^'^Thus Smith marks it in his edition of
Venerable Bede, at lib. i. , cap. xvi.
^ The Venerable Bede assigns its date to
cus,"adA. D. Dxx. ,p. 527. MatthewFlori- legus is an authority for this date.
33 If he could have determined the time when Gildas wrote, the reasoning of Ussher might be more conclusive. But he had no authority for it. On his unproved hypothesis, that 520 was the year for the battle of Badon, and consequently of Gildas' birth, Ussher undertook to assign his writing to A. D. 564.
34 To make this question more intelligible, Dr. Lanigan quotes the words of Gildas :
" Et ex —
eo tempore nunc cives nunc hostes
vincebant — ad annum obsessionis Ba- usque
donici montis quique quadragessimus quar- tus (ut novi) oritur (al. ordih*r) annus
about the
ear after the arrival
forty-fourth y
of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. This latter
"
event he places at A. D. 449. See Historia
Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," lib. i. , cap.
XV. , xvi. , pp. 57, 60. This calculation mense —
jam primo (al. utw) emenso, qui jam
would bring the period to about A. D. 493. ct meie nativitatis est. "
Gale's edition of Ranulph of Chester places it at this year. the work of Gildas. Dr. Lanigan then re-
;
the other was the son of Cau. The
Historiographus Britonum,"
and
January 29. ]
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
475
Ussher rightly understood Gildas, he cannot prove that Bede founded his date of the battle, at Mount Badon, solely on the text of Gildas. 35 Owing totheforegoingcircumstance,oursaintwasusuallycalledBadonicus. The birth of this holy man is assigned by Mabillon, to the time of that battle. 36
In the reign of the renowned King Arthur, it is stated,37 that St. Gildas or Gildus, surnamed the Wise, was born in Britain. There in the northern country was a district then called Arecluta. s^ This is allowed to have been near the River Clut39 or Cluyd, from which the city of Alcuith,-*"^ Areclutha,*' or Alcluyd,42 now Dunbritton or Dunbarton,43 took its name,'i4 His father belonged to a noble British family. Variously is he called : by some, Can,4S Caw,46orCaunus,47orperhapsmoreproperlyCannusorConnj*^ byothers
marks : —" The latter part of this passage
is certainly of a doubtful signification, and may, perhaps, be understood in the manner
proposed by Ussher ; although it must be allowed that, if Gildas alluded to the num- ber of years, by -which the battle was prior to that in which he wrote, he would pro- bably have applied the number 44th rather to this year than to that of the battle. Bede copied the whole passage almost word for word, except that marking the time of the battle he has, quadragessimo circiter et quarto annoadventuseoruminBntanniam(L. i. c. 16. J Ussher thought that Bede mentioned the year as the 44th, because he found this number in Gildas, and consequently that Bede's chronology ought to be corrected by what he supposed to be the true meaning of Gildas. " See "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. i. , chap, ix. , § x. , n. 155, p. 479- —"
3^ Dr. Lanigan here observes :
he could not want documents to direct him in assigning the times of the more remark- able transactions of his countrymen. Might not Bede's adout the 44/^ year be relative to one period, and Gildas' positive i^th to ano- ther ? so that it would be true that the battle was fought about the 44th year after the ar- rival, and likewise precisely in the 44th be- fore the year in which Gildas wrote, making altogether, until this last date, about 87 years. Besides, Ussher's argument is merely negative, and, at most, proves nothing more than that we cannot conclude from Gildas' words that the battle took place about A. D. 492. It does not, however, show that it was not fought about that time, nor help us to fix the precise year of it. " Ibid. , p. 480.
3* See "Annates Ordinis S. Benedict! ,"
Lives of the 37 According to Francis Rosiers, in Cambro- British Saints. Appendix vii. , p. 598
tomus i. , lib. vi. , § xix. , p. 150.
beth. See Rev. W. J. Rees' "
" Stemmatibus Lotharingiae," King Arthur began his reign in Britain A. D. 491 ; accord-
ing to Polydore Virgil, lib. iii. , Gordon, and others, A. D. 493 ; while Ussher, in his " In- dex Chronologicus," has this event at A. u.
508.
35 According to the life of Gildas, by the
Monk of Ruys, he was born in Arecluta.
''^ The Monk of Ruys states that Gildas'
father, Caunus, had five sons. The eldest
was named Cuillus, according to this ac- count, and he succeeded in the kingdom to which he was heir.
•''These forms of names were common among the ancient Scots. Conn is a name peculiarly Irish.
Surely
This is said to be " Scotioe validum propug- ""
naculum. See Mabillon's Annales Or- dinis S. Benedicti," tomus i. , lib. i. , § xix. ,
p. 150-
39 The name is said to have been derived
from this district.
'*° Thus do I fin—d it named in an edition
of Venerable Bede while Alcluith or Al- duich is found in other MSS. See " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," lib. i. , cap. i. , p. 24. There we ar—e told— or rather it is intimated distinctly that the Scoti or Irish colonists were in those parts north of the Clyde, which river separated the Picts and Britons. Bede tells us, however, that Alcuith was a strong British city, even to his own times.
"•' Ussher has changed this name into Ar- gathelia, near the Glotta or Clyde river. See
"
Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates," cap. XV. , p. 354, and "Index Chronologi- cus," ad A. D. ccccxxv. , p. 515.
*^ Colgan derives this name from "Ar,"
alias " Or," a "limit," or "boundary," and " Ail," a " rock," which is connected with theCluitorCluide,onitsrightbank. See Bede's " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis An- glorum," lib. i. , cap. xii. , p. 52.
*3Thiswasitslatername. SeeCamden's
" Britannia," p. 666,
"^^ Buchanan calls this district "vallem
Glottianam. " See "Rerum Scoticarum
Historia," lib. i. , p. 13.
sIn the "Legenda" of John of Tin-
mouth, he is named "Can rex Albanioe. " "•^ "GildaswasthesonofCawofBritain. " —The pedigrees of Welsh saints, taken out
of an old manuscript, once in possession of John Lewis, Esq. , Llanwenny, in the county of Radnor, about the time of Queen Eliza-
"
.
,
476 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [January 29.
heisnamedNau+9orNauus. 5° HeissaidtohavebeenaKingofScotland or Albania,5^ while other accounts make him King of the Picts. s^ He was blessed with a numerous offspring,s3 several of whom were distinguished for pietyandvalour. S4 Hiseldestson,bysomecalledCuillus,55byotherwriters is named Howelus,56 Hoel,57 Huel, or Huelinus. Mailoc, another son, was brought up with a knowledge of sacred letters, in which, after he had been excellently instructed, he left his father and all his worldly pretensions. He afterwards built a monastery in a district called Luihes,^^ where, in the village of Elmail, he lived and died in great sanctity. Two other brothers, Egreass? and Allsecus,^ with their sister Peteona,^' in like manner abandoned the world, and choose a retired place in the furthest extremity of that country. ^^ There, living near each other, yet in separate cells,^3 by watching, fasting, and fervent prayer, they continually tended towards their heavenly home, till they were called at last to the joys of their Lord. ^-*
From his earliest years, our saint, ^vith all the warm affections of his soul, endeavouredtobecomeatrueservantofChrist. Aboyofgooddisposition, he was addicted to a love for learning. When a child, Gildas was com- mitted by his parents to the care of St. Iltutus,^5 who brought him up in his monastery of Llan-Iltut, in Glamorganshire. ^^ There he was instructed in the sacred Scriptures, and in the liberal sciences. He had an excellent me- mory for all his master taught. He principally applied to an acquisition of the seven chief courses of knowledge, with studious zeal. Sacred letters, where his great proficiency appears to this day, in what has been preserved ofhiswritings,^7wereespeciallytheobjectofhisschoolexercises. Atthese he continued until he arrived at puberty. St. Iltut^^ dwelt in a certain small
4' Caradoc thus names him. Ussher thinks
that Gildas Albanius may have had for his
father this Navus or Navis, who was the ma-
ternal grandfather of St. Columkille. See
"
Index Chronologicus," ad A. D. DXXII. , p. 527.
Connaught, where a St. Mailan or Mailoc was venerated on the 1 7th of May.
59 Colgan thinks he may possibly be a St. Aireid or Egread, veneratoi at the 26th of
August.
^ Colgan thinks he may be identified with
5°He "
is called Nanus rex St, Oilleoc or of Cluain
Pictorum,"by Alleoc,
John Bale. Nau or Nana is shown by Col- venerated on the 24th of July.
Etdien,
to have been a common name
gan among
the Scots.
S' Capgrave calls him King of Albania, or North Britain, and so it is said Gildas got the name of Albanius. Alluding to his own times, Caradoc calls that prince a King of the Scots. But, according to Dr. Lanigan, the Scots did not get possession of Areclutha until long after the birth of Gildas.
'3 See ibid. , xxix. Januarii. Appendix ad
January 29. ] LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. 473
been eminent for his sanctity and learning. ^* From certain chronological notices in two different lives of Gildas, Ussher thinks the Monk of Ruys has confounded Gildas Albanius's with Gildas Badonicus, It must be allowed, perhaps, that unchronological and misleading statements have been made by both ^vriters ; and such admission may serve to clear away many of the difh- rulties that now beset the biographer of an unquestionable and a historical St. Gildas.
Formerly various manuscript lives of St. Gildas were extant : some have
beenpreservedtothepresenttime. ^^ Theearliestliferemaining^7isthought to have been written by some unknown monk of Ruys, near Rennes, about
the year 919. '^ A different opinion of Bollandus assigns its composition to a time shortly after 1024. But Caradoc of Lanncarvan, who is thought to have lived in the twelfth century, wrote a different biography of our saint, in
which we find divergent, if not discordant, statements regarding' him put forward. '9 Nor need this seem so very strange, when both accounts had been drawn up several centuries after the lifetime of Gildas, and when they had been written in different centuries and in separate countries. The di- versities of chronological events and of persons hardly contemporaneous will only enable us to infer, that the sources of information were occasionally doubtful, while various coincidences of narrative_ seem to warrant a conclusion that both tracts were intended to chronicle the life of one and the same
Vitas SS. Gildarum, cap. ii. , pp. 195 to 197.
In the succeeding chapter, Colgan treats of several other holy men in Ireland who bore the name of Gildas or Gilda, besides those who were externs. See cap. iii. , pp. 198 to 201.
'^ Colgan's chiefest objections are resolv-
able into the apparently irreconcilable and
ui. chronological incidents occurring in both lives. This point he argues with much
learning, especially in the first chapter of his appendix, where he inquires about the
lish Historical Society. Vita S. Gildas, MS.
Sloane, 4785, ff. 9. 15. This is a transcript of the former, made in the last century. Vita S. Gildae. MS. Reg. 13, B. vii. , ff. 20- 25, b. paper folio, xvi. cent. This is appa- rently a transcript of the Bumey MS. In some instances, it corrects the errors of that copy. Vita Sanctissimi atque doctissimi Gildae. MS. Eccl. Dunelm, Bii. , 35, 7 folio. This fine copy was written about A. D. 1166. It seems to agree with the MS. c. c. c. Cant. Ici commence la vie Monseigneur S.
age when Gildas Badonicus, or the Wise, Gildas. MS. Egerton, No. 745, ff. 78b-90,
flourished.
'5 Ussher thinks that the Monk of Rhuys
has confounded the separate acts of Gildas
Albanius with those of Gildas Badonicus.
He throws out a conjecture, that the former
was bom in 425, while the latter was bom
veil. 4to, xiv. cent. In this it is said, St. Gildas was a native of Bretagne, and that he had been educated by St. Phylebert, who was then Abbot of Toumay. De Sancto Gilda Abbate et Confessore. MS. Cott. Tiber. E. i. , ff. 3lb-32, veil, folio. This is
in See "Britannicamm Ecclesiarum
in
John Capgrave's
"Nova
Legenda
'* The following manuscript lives of Gil- veil, folio, XV. cent. It is the same text as das are—noticed by Sir Thomas Duffus the former one. Vita Gildse. MS. Trin.
Vita S. Gildas ab anno Hardy : Sapientis
520 usque an. 570, auctore Caradoco Lan- carbanensi. MS. c. C. C. Cant. 139,^24, veil, folio, xii. cent. This is apparently the MS. used by Ussher, and cited by him in his "Primordia," pp. 442, 468. A couplet found in it seems to attribute its authorship to Caradoc of Lancarvan. There is also a transcript of this MS. of the seventeenth century in MS. C. C. C. Cant. loi, p. 43. Vita Sanctissimi atque doctissimi viri Gildre,MS. Bumey,310,ff. 330,veil,folio, xiv. cent. This volume was written at Fin- chale, near Durham, A. D. 1381. This ge- nerally accurate text was used by Mr. Ste- venson in his edition, published for the Eng-
520.
Antiquitates, cap. xiii. , pp. 237, 238, and Anglise," f. 156. Vita S. Gildas Abbatis et " Index Chronologicus," pp. 515, 527. Confessoris. MS. Bodl. Tanner. 15, f. 283,
"
printed
Dublin, 284.
Coll. ,
'7 There is Sancti Gildse Sapientis Vita,
anetorimonachoRuyensiAnonyrao. Ex MS. , Ruyensi.
'® At this period, the religious of that place fled into Berri, to escape the fury of the Northmen. The biographical piece is supposed to have been written on this occa- sion, when translating the relics of St. Gil- das.
'9 See Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy's "De-
scriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and Irejand,"
vol. i. , part i. , pp. 151 to 156, where the several manuscript copies of his lives are described.
474 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [January 29. person. It deserves remark, however, that both are said to have been bom
in Scotland. One was the son of Nau
eldest son of one was Huel, and of the other Cuil. Both lives have stories of a bell ; both go to Ireland ; both go to Rome ; both build churches. The Monk of Ruys quotes several passages from the tract " De Excidio," and he
attributes it to Gildas. Caradoc calls him " saysthathewrote"HistoriaedeRegibusBritonum. "^° Atthepresentdate John Capgrave^' has inserted a life of Gildas, abbot and confessor. The Rev. AlbanButler^^haspublishedthelife ofSt. GildastheWise,orBado- nicus, the abbot,^3 whom he distinguishes from St. Gildas the Albanian, or the Scot, a confessor; while he places both at the 29th of January.
The time when Gildas the Wise was born has been disputed, although he furnishes apparently the data for forming an opinion. We learn from this saint's own writings, that his birth occurred in the year when a famous victory was gained over the Saxons by Ambrose—as some WTiters state—or as others say by Arthur. '* This battle took place at Mount Badon. 's Some authors suppose it was fought a. d. 484=^ or 490 f^ others name 492,"^ 493? '^' 516 ;3° while Ussher thinks a. d. 5203* to be the tnie chronology for such a remarkable event. 3» This latter writer asserts, that Bede mistook the mean- ing of Gildas, in whose tract the forty-fourth year was relatively and previous to the time when his treatise had been composed,33 and not after the period when the Anglo-Saxons first invaded Britain. 34 Admitting, however, that
*<"'
If it he allowable to analyse the two lives," says Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, "and appropriate to each what will not accord with the supposed time of the other, two persons of that name will of course be brought into action ; the latter of whom is considered as the author of the "Excidium. " See ibid. , p. 156.
3° This is the date given by Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy. Also by the writer of the article "Gildas" in Chambers' "Encyclo- pedia," vol. iv. , p. 752.
3' Dr. Lanigan remarks, that " no year about 490 would suit Ussher's hypothesis as to the two Gildases ; for by placing the birth of said historian in that period, whatever worthy of baJief is said of Gildas can be easily reconciled and explained with- out recurring to two distinct persons of that name. " See "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," vol. i. , chap, ix. , § x. , n. 155, p. 479-
3^ See " Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Anti-
quitates,"cap. xiii. , p. 254. Thaliessin, the chief of the British bards, has celebrated the greatest and last of the twelve great battles fought by King Arthur against the
1
"' See the " Nova Legenda Angliae," quarto Ka! . Februarii, fol. clvi. , clvii.
" See " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and dther Principal Saints," vol. i. , xxix. Janu- ary.
'3 Among the Irish saints, extracted by the Cistercian Monk from the Rev. Alban Butler's work, is St. Gildas the Wise, or Badonicus, for this day. See pp. 169 to 171.
=^^ This accords with the statement of the
writer of the Harleian Manuscript, No. Saxons. See likewise " Index Chronologi-
3859.
's Said to have been at Banesdown, near
Bath, in Somersetshire.
"^See Mabillon's "Annales Ordinis S.
Benedicti," tomus i. ,lib. vi. , §xix. , p. 151. '7 The " Chronicon Britannicum," found in the church of Nantz, has at this date 490, "Natus est S. Gildas. " See Lobineau's
"Histoire de Bretagne," tome ii.
^'^Thus Smith marks it in his edition of
Venerable Bede, at lib. i. , cap. xvi.
^ The Venerable Bede assigns its date to
cus,"adA. D. Dxx. ,p. 527. MatthewFlori- legus is an authority for this date.
33 If he could have determined the time when Gildas wrote, the reasoning of Ussher might be more conclusive. But he had no authority for it. On his unproved hypothesis, that 520 was the year for the battle of Badon, and consequently of Gildas' birth, Ussher undertook to assign his writing to A. D. 564.
34 To make this question more intelligible, Dr. Lanigan quotes the words of Gildas :
" Et ex —
eo tempore nunc cives nunc hostes
vincebant — ad annum obsessionis Ba- usque
donici montis quique quadragessimus quar- tus (ut novi) oritur (al. ordih*r) annus
about the
ear after the arrival
forty-fourth y
of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. This latter
"
event he places at A. D. 449. See Historia
Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," lib. i. , cap.
XV. , xvi. , pp. 57, 60. This calculation mense —
jam primo (al. utw) emenso, qui jam
would bring the period to about A. D. 493. ct meie nativitatis est. "
Gale's edition of Ranulph of Chester places it at this year. the work of Gildas. Dr. Lanigan then re-
;
the other was the son of Cau. The
Historiographus Britonum,"
and
January 29. ]
LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS.
475
Ussher rightly understood Gildas, he cannot prove that Bede founded his date of the battle, at Mount Badon, solely on the text of Gildas. 35 Owing totheforegoingcircumstance,oursaintwasusuallycalledBadonicus. The birth of this holy man is assigned by Mabillon, to the time of that battle. 36
In the reign of the renowned King Arthur, it is stated,37 that St. Gildas or Gildus, surnamed the Wise, was born in Britain. There in the northern country was a district then called Arecluta. s^ This is allowed to have been near the River Clut39 or Cluyd, from which the city of Alcuith,-*"^ Areclutha,*' or Alcluyd,42 now Dunbritton or Dunbarton,43 took its name,'i4 His father belonged to a noble British family. Variously is he called : by some, Can,4S Caw,46orCaunus,47orperhapsmoreproperlyCannusorConnj*^ byothers
marks : —" The latter part of this passage
is certainly of a doubtful signification, and may, perhaps, be understood in the manner
proposed by Ussher ; although it must be allowed that, if Gildas alluded to the num- ber of years, by -which the battle was prior to that in which he wrote, he would pro- bably have applied the number 44th rather to this year than to that of the battle. Bede copied the whole passage almost word for word, except that marking the time of the battle he has, quadragessimo circiter et quarto annoadventuseoruminBntanniam(L. i. c. 16. J Ussher thought that Bede mentioned the year as the 44th, because he found this number in Gildas, and consequently that Bede's chronology ought to be corrected by what he supposed to be the true meaning of Gildas. " See "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. i. , chap, ix. , § x. , n. 155, p. 479- —"
3^ Dr. Lanigan here observes :
he could not want documents to direct him in assigning the times of the more remark- able transactions of his countrymen. Might not Bede's adout the 44/^ year be relative to one period, and Gildas' positive i^th to ano- ther ? so that it would be true that the battle was fought about the 44th year after the ar- rival, and likewise precisely in the 44th be- fore the year in which Gildas wrote, making altogether, until this last date, about 87 years. Besides, Ussher's argument is merely negative, and, at most, proves nothing more than that we cannot conclude from Gildas' words that the battle took place about A. D. 492. It does not, however, show that it was not fought about that time, nor help us to fix the precise year of it. " Ibid. , p. 480.
3* See "Annates Ordinis S. Benedict! ,"
Lives of the 37 According to Francis Rosiers, in Cambro- British Saints. Appendix vii. , p. 598
tomus i. , lib. vi. , § xix. , p. 150.
beth. See Rev. W. J. Rees' "
" Stemmatibus Lotharingiae," King Arthur began his reign in Britain A. D. 491 ; accord-
ing to Polydore Virgil, lib. iii. , Gordon, and others, A. D. 493 ; while Ussher, in his " In- dex Chronologicus," has this event at A. u.
508.
35 According to the life of Gildas, by the
Monk of Ruys, he was born in Arecluta.
''^ The Monk of Ruys states that Gildas'
father, Caunus, had five sons. The eldest
was named Cuillus, according to this ac- count, and he succeeded in the kingdom to which he was heir.
•''These forms of names were common among the ancient Scots. Conn is a name peculiarly Irish.
Surely
This is said to be " Scotioe validum propug- ""
naculum. See Mabillon's Annales Or- dinis S. Benedicti," tomus i. , lib. i. , § xix. ,
p. 150-
39 The name is said to have been derived
from this district.
'*° Thus do I fin—d it named in an edition
of Venerable Bede while Alcluith or Al- duich is found in other MSS. See " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," lib. i. , cap. i. , p. 24. There we ar—e told— or rather it is intimated distinctly that the Scoti or Irish colonists were in those parts north of the Clyde, which river separated the Picts and Britons. Bede tells us, however, that Alcuith was a strong British city, even to his own times.
"•' Ussher has changed this name into Ar- gathelia, near the Glotta or Clyde river. See
"
Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates," cap. XV. , p. 354, and "Index Chronologi- cus," ad A. D. ccccxxv. , p. 515.
*^ Colgan derives this name from "Ar,"
alias " Or," a "limit," or "boundary," and " Ail," a " rock," which is connected with theCluitorCluide,onitsrightbank. See Bede's " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis An- glorum," lib. i. , cap. xii. , p. 52.
*3Thiswasitslatername. SeeCamden's
" Britannia," p. 666,
"^^ Buchanan calls this district "vallem
Glottianam. " See "Rerum Scoticarum
Historia," lib. i. , p. 13.
sIn the "Legenda" of John of Tin-
mouth, he is named "Can rex Albanioe. " "•^ "GildaswasthesonofCawofBritain. " —The pedigrees of Welsh saints, taken out
of an old manuscript, once in possession of John Lewis, Esq. , Llanwenny, in the county of Radnor, about the time of Queen Eliza-
"
.
,
476 LIVES OF THE IRISH SAINTS. [January 29.
heisnamedNau+9orNauus. 5° HeissaidtohavebeenaKingofScotland or Albania,5^ while other accounts make him King of the Picts. s^ He was blessed with a numerous offspring,s3 several of whom were distinguished for pietyandvalour. S4 Hiseldestson,bysomecalledCuillus,55byotherwriters is named Howelus,56 Hoel,57 Huel, or Huelinus. Mailoc, another son, was brought up with a knowledge of sacred letters, in which, after he had been excellently instructed, he left his father and all his worldly pretensions. He afterwards built a monastery in a district called Luihes,^^ where, in the village of Elmail, he lived and died in great sanctity. Two other brothers, Egreass? and Allsecus,^ with their sister Peteona,^' in like manner abandoned the world, and choose a retired place in the furthest extremity of that country. ^^ There, living near each other, yet in separate cells,^3 by watching, fasting, and fervent prayer, they continually tended towards their heavenly home, till they were called at last to the joys of their Lord. ^-*
From his earliest years, our saint, ^vith all the warm affections of his soul, endeavouredtobecomeatrueservantofChrist. Aboyofgooddisposition, he was addicted to a love for learning. When a child, Gildas was com- mitted by his parents to the care of St. Iltutus,^5 who brought him up in his monastery of Llan-Iltut, in Glamorganshire. ^^ There he was instructed in the sacred Scriptures, and in the liberal sciences. He had an excellent me- mory for all his master taught. He principally applied to an acquisition of the seven chief courses of knowledge, with studious zeal. Sacred letters, where his great proficiency appears to this day, in what has been preserved ofhiswritings,^7wereespeciallytheobjectofhisschoolexercises. Atthese he continued until he arrived at puberty. St. Iltut^^ dwelt in a certain small
4' Caradoc thus names him. Ussher thinks
that Gildas Albanius may have had for his
father this Navus or Navis, who was the ma-
ternal grandfather of St. Columkille. See
"
Index Chronologicus," ad A. D. DXXII. , p. 527.
Connaught, where a St. Mailan or Mailoc was venerated on the 1 7th of May.
59 Colgan thinks he may possibly be a St. Aireid or Egread, veneratoi at the 26th of
August.
^ Colgan thinks he may be identified with
5°He "
is called Nanus rex St, Oilleoc or of Cluain
Pictorum,"by Alleoc,
John Bale. Nau or Nana is shown by Col- venerated on the 24th of July.
Etdien,
to have been a common name
gan among
the Scots.
S' Capgrave calls him King of Albania, or North Britain, and so it is said Gildas got the name of Albanius. Alluding to his own times, Caradoc calls that prince a King of the Scots. But, according to Dr. Lanigan, the Scots did not get possession of Areclutha until long after the birth of Gildas.
