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On the Ruin of Britain
St Gildas, tr. Williams, 1899
4. Of Monks
OF MONKS, GILDAS SAYS:1 Those who come from a meaner monastery2 to a more perfect—from one whose abbot has so far degenerated from God’s work that he deserves not to be received to the table of saints, but to be accused of the crime of fornication, not as a matter of suspicion but of patent evil—such monks receive to you, without scruple, as men fleeing from the flame of hell, holding no consultation whatever with their abbot. Those, however, whose abbot we do not exclude from the table of the saints because of evil report, we ought not to receive against his will. How much more3 ought we not to receive those coming from abbots that are holy, and in no other way suspect except that they possess cattle and carriages, either because of the custom of their country or their own weakness, things which do less injury to their owners, if it be with humility and patience, than to those who hold ploughs and fix mattocks in earth with prejudice and pride.
ITEM.—When the ship is wrecked, who can swim, let him swim.4
But whatever superabundance there be of worldly things to a monk, must be referred to luxury and wealth; and what he is driven to possess by necessity, not by choice, so that he shall not fall into want, will not be counted to him for evil.5 For the principal ornaments of the body, belonging to the head, ought not to scorn the inferior ones, and it is not right for the constant utilities of the. hands to be haughty towards the higher things. Is it not the case, that neither these nor those (the head), can say to each other, We have no need of you, being things which appertain to the common benefit of the same body? I have said these things, so that bishops may know, that, just as the inferior clergy ought not to despise them, so also ought not they to despise the clergy, as the head ought not the other members.
Notes
- Hib., xxxix, 7, Qui veniunt . . . . . superbia.
- Loco viliore. The word locus by itself stands not rarely for “monastery,” as in Columbanus’ letter, primae conversionis loca reliquunt, where also conversio means the assumption of the monastic life. The Welsh compound, mynach-log, shows the same word (monachi locus).
We gather from this passage that the monastic communities in Britain had no regular order of intercommunion with one another, every monastery being independent of every other; whereby, in cases of degeneracy on the part of an abbot, the monks were encouraged to abandon him by the ready reception offered in another monastery. This might be a locus perfectior, and the desertion was carried out without any communication with the abbot, when the un-cleanness of his life was evident to all. The Hibernensis, xxix, 12, directs that a monk is bound to leave a wicked abbot (debet monachus. abbatem valde malum deserere). But if the abbot of an “inferior” monastery were in church communion, monks that left him were not to be received except with his assent, even though they were in search of a more perfect discipline. As between monasteries, there evidently existed no higher authority to command uniform rules of life: it was that early time of their history when the character of individual cloisters was determined and known by the character of the abbot himself, who was generally the founder. A new and extensive development of monasticism was taking place, the result of that revived religious life which, first in Wales and afterwards in Ireland, was inspired by Gildas and by the friends who urged him to write the De Excidio; in Ireland it began with Finnian, a disciple of Gildas, at Clonfert; nevertheless the time was naturally productive also of great diversity and gradation of reputed “perfection,” and the fervour which caused it stamped out the indolent bad abbot, by countenancing desertion on the part of his monks. - Quanta magis. One seems to find here a wise moderation on the part of Gildas, wherein he does not yield to the excessive growing strictness that may have prevailed in some quarters. There existed suspicion of some abbots, because they performed their journeys riding, or in carriages, instead of barefooted, with the simple staff. But Gildas is willing to make concessions upon the ground of habit or weakness, so that monks who deserted abbots upon such pleas as these were not to be received into the better (perfectior) monastery.
ITEM, ETC. Only found in Hibernensis; there it immediately follows superbia. - ITEM, ETC. Only found in Hibernensis: there it immediately follows superbia.
- Quicquid . . . . reputabitur. This sentence appears in Hib., xxxv, 5, where it bears the title: “That a monk should have no individual property” (De eo, quod non oportet monachum habere proprium).
The next sentence respecting bishops (summi-sacerdotes), proves that the man to whom Gildas wrote these words was bishop as well as monk. It has been pointed out that Finnian of Clonard is not called bishop; Finnian of Moville was abbot and bishop: a fact that has been regarded as confirming the view that he was Gildas’ correspondent.