GILDAS (surnamed Sapiens, or the wise '), if the period when he is said to have flourished—the first half of the 6th century—be correct, the most ancient British historian new extant, according to Leland, was born in Wales, but according to tho received account at Alcluyd (Dumbarton), where the Britons still held a limited sway, towards the close of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century : Leland says in 511, other accounts in 493. He was early noted for his piety and learning, and to improve himself in the latter went to France, where he remained seven years. On his return he established a school and church on the coast of Pembrokeshire, to which scholars flocked from all parts of the country, and on Sundays crowds of devout persona to hear him preach. Invited to Ireland by St. Brigit, who had beard the fame of his piety, he went to that country, was received with the greatest joy by the king, restored the church there which had become very corrupt to its pristine purity, performed many miracles, and founded many monasteries. lie then returned to England, and thence pro ceeded to Rome ; and on his return, through Brittany, founded the monastery, afterwards famous, of St. Glides de Ruye, where he resided some time, and there he ended his days, according to a tradition pre served by the monks of that eatabliehment; but, according to the acconnt given by English writers, he returned to this country, and spent the remainder of his life in religious retirement : his last days being passed in an oratory he had built for himself in the neigh bourhood of Glastonbury. Archbishop Usher (' Primord.; p. 477, from the 'Annals of has fixed his death iu the year 570; but this account, as will have been seen, is at least to a great extent legendary. In truth, as Mr. Stevenson observes in his intro duction to the Latin text of ' Gildas de F.xcidlo Britannize; "We are unable to speak with certainty as to the parentage of Gildas, his country, or even his name, the period when he lived, or the works of which ho was the Mr. T. Wright attempts to show that
Gild.aa is a fabulous person, and his history the forgery of " some Anglo-Saxon or foreign priest of the 7th (' Biog. Brit. Lit.,' Anglo-Saxon Period, pp. 115.134.) But Stevenson, Lappenborg, and others, while admitting the fabulous character of the common accounts, are Inclined to believe that Gildas really lived somewhere near the time usually stated. The epistle, or treatise, De Calamitate, Excidio, et Conquestu 13ritannize,' is all that is printed of his writings, and is }reliably all of his, that is extant, though Bale and Pita mnke him author of several other books. It was first published and dedicated I to Cuthbert Tonatal, bishop of London, by Polydoro Virgil, whose imperfect and corrupt text was reprinted at Paris in the 'Bibliotheca Patrum ' in 1610. The eecoud edition of this work was published in the 'Opus Histeriarum Destro &mule couvenientissimum, pp. 484.540, at Basel, Svo, 1541; again, in a separate form, 12mo, Lond., 1568; Basel, in the same year ; and Paris, 1576; and from a better manu script than was used in any previous edition by Gale, in his 'Rerun Anglicarum Scriptores 3 vols. fol., 1684-S7; but the beat edition is that published in 1838 by the Historical Society, and admirably edited by Mr. Joseph Stevenson. There are three English translations of it : one by Thomas Habington, 8vo, London, 1633; another entitled 'A Description of the State of Great Britain, written eleven hundred yeares since,' 12mo, London, 1652; and a third, b7 Dr. Giles, but based on that of Habingtou, and published in Bohn 'Antiquarian 1348.
There were two other persons of the name of Glides in the 6th century, one called Gildas Cambrius, the other Glides Qnartns, both of whom seem to have been one and the same with Gildas Sapiens.