The Legacy of Gildas: Constructions of Authority in the Early Medieval West Joyce Stephen J.
Gildas is an essential witness to the Christian culture of the British Isles in the opaque period after the decline and fall of the western Roman empire. His criticisms in De excidio Britanniae of the…
Specifikacia The Legacy of Gildas: Constructions of Authority in the Early Medieval West Joyce Stephen J.
Gildas is an essential witness to the Christian culture of the British Isles in the opaque period after the decline and fall of the western Roman empire. His criticisms in De excidio Britanniae of the Britons in the context of spiritual and secular corruption and partition with pagan powers are a crucial source for understanding the transition to the medieval nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. But the ways in which this enigmatic ecclesiastical figure has been received over the centuries have shaped an ambivalent reputation. On the one hand, he is seen as a significant contributor to ecclesiastical reform; on the other, as a dour and unreliable chronicler lamenting an inevitable spiritual and political decline.This book seeks to refine and recuperate the image of Gildas. It does so by examining his self-image as presented in select surviving works, and