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On the Ruin of Britain

St Gildas, tr. Williams, 1899

But let these few testimonies from the many of the prophets be sufficient By them is the …

But let these few testimonies from the many of the prophets be sufficient By them is the pride or sloth of stubborn priests restrained, that they may not think I make such denunciations against them by my own imaginings rather than by the authority of the law and the saints. Let us therefore see what the gospel trumpet, while sounding forth to the world, says to irregular priests¹ (unordained priests). For as I have already said, my speech is not of those who obtain the apostolic throne in a lawful way², and who are well able to dispense spiritual food to their fellow servants in due season (if, in fact, there are many at the present day), but of the unskilled pastors who abandon the sheep, and give vain things as food, and have not the words of the skilled pastor. The evidence, therefore, is clear, that he is not a legitimate pastor; nay, not even an ordinary Christian man, who rejects and disowns these words, not so much words of mine, who am very insignificant, as decrees of the Old and New Testament. One of our own people says well³: We desire much that the enemies of the church be ours also and enemies without treaty, and that her friends and defenders be regarded ours, not only as allies but as fathers and lords. For let each one meet his own conscience in true examination, and in this they shall discern whether they sit in the priestly chair according to right reason. Let us see, I say, what the Saviour and Creator of the world says: Ye are, he avers, the salt of the earth; because if the salt have vanished, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden by men.

Notes

Inordinatis sacerdotibus. These bishops have obtained their office in an irregular way, as described above, through simony, or, without due election, by the tyrannous influence of some prince or other. According to the view held by Gildas, though they be consecrated, their orders, to use a more modern phrase, are invalid, because validity, no less than efficacy, depends on character: not one of them is a legitimus pastor. Contrasted with them are those who have obtained the “apostolic chair,” in the regular way (legitime), and are able to provide spiritual food in the “words of an experienced pastor.” The admission made in this passage, that this latter class was numerous, is significant, and in keeping with a similar admission previously made in c. 69.
Apostolicam sedem. Just as “pope” (in Latin papa, Greek πάππας, both meaning “father”), pontifex maximus or summus pontifex, were in early times used of any bishop, so also was apostolica sedes used for the episcopal office generally. Hinschius quotes the letter written by Chlodwig to a Gallic council before 511: “Orate pro me, domini sancti et apostolica sede dignissimi papae.” Venantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poictiers, who died about 609, writes to Felix of Nantes: “Domino sancto, et apostolica sede dignissimo patri, Felici papae.” Several instances may be given from the Historia Francorum of Gregory of Tours, e.g., ii, 27. Isidore, bishop of Seville in Spain, after giving explanations of such terms as patriarch and archiepiscopus, adds that “bishops are the successors of the Apostles, and have been appointed throughout the world in Apostolic sees (in sedibus apostolorum).” Both these writers lived after Gildas, so that this application of apostolica sedes by him to the see of any bishop, is in no way singular. See Thomassinus, Vetus et Nova Eccl. Discipl., Pt. I, Lib. 1, 4, where many more instances may be found. We do not forget, that by the beginning of the sixth century, the two terms papa and apostolica sedes were very generally used exclusively of the Roman bishop and church; and long before that by individual writers, such as the great Popes themselves, the author or compiler of the Liber Pontificalis, etc.
Quidam nostrorum ait. See cc. 38, 62.