Pondering a Painful Past

Haec erecta cervice et mente, ex quo inhabitata est, nunc Deo, interdum civibus, nonnumquam etiam transmarinis regibus et subiectis ingrata consurgit. Quid enim deformius quidque iniquius potest humanis ausibus vel esse uel intromitti negotium quam Deo timorem, bonis civibus caritatem, in altiore dignitate positis absque fidei detrimento debitum denegare honorem et frangere divino sensui humanoque fidem, et abiecto caeli terraeque metu propriis adinventionibus aliquem et libidinibus regi? Igitur omittens priscos illos communesque cum omnibus gentibus errores, quibus ante adventum Christi in carne omne humanum genus obligabatur astrictum, nec enumaerans patriae portenta ipsa diabolica paene numero Aegyptiaca vincentia, quorum nonnulla liniamentis adhuc deformibus intra vel extra deserta moenia solito mores rigentia toruis vultibus intuemur, neque nominatum inclamitans montes ipsos aut colles vel fluvios olim exitiabiles, nunc uero humanis usibus utiles, quibus divinus honor a caeco tunc populo cumulabatur, et tacens vetustos immanium tyrannorum annos, qui in aliis longe postis regionibus vulgati sunt, it ut Porphyrius rabidus orientalis adversus ecclesiam canis dementiae suae ac uanitatis stilo hoc etiam adnecteret: ‘britannis’, inquiens, ‘fertilis provincia tyrannorum’, illa tantum proferre conabor in medium quae temporibus Imperatorum Romanorum et passa est et aliis intulit civibus et longe positis mala: quantum tamen potuero, non tam ex scriptis patriae scriptorumue monimentis, quippe quae, vel si qua fuerint, aut ignibus hostium exusta aut civium exilii classe longius deportata non compareant, quam transmarina relatione, quae crebris inrupta intercapedinibus non satis claret. Sanctus Gildas Sapiens, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae

This island of proud neck and mind, since it was first inhabited, now against God, at other times against fellow citizens, sometimes even against the rulers and subjects over the sea, ungratefully rebels. For what greater baseness or iniquity can be or be introduced into affairs by the recklessness of men than to deny reverence to God, love to good citizens, due honour, without detriment to the faith, to those placed in higher position, than to break faith with Divine and human sentiment, and having cast away fear of heaven and earth, to be ruled over by one's own inventions and desires?  Therefore, I omit those ancient errors common to all peoples by which before the coming of Christ in the flesh the whole human race was bound fast, and the enumeration of the truly diabolical monstrosities of my fatherland which almost surpassed Egypt in number, of which we behold some of ugly features even yet within or without deserted walls, stiff with savage visage as was the custom, and neither do I cry out against by name the mountains, hills or rivers, once employed for fatal purpose but now suitable for man's use, upon which divine honours were heaped by a blind people, and I am also silent about the long years of savage tyrants, those who have been spoken of in other far distant countries, so that even Porphyry, that rabid eastern dog against the Church, in his madness and vanity wrote: 'Britain is a province fertile in tyrants,' for those evils only I will try to make public which the island has both suffered and inflicted upon other and distant citizens, in the time of the Roman Emperors, doing what I can, however, not so much by support of native writings or records of authors, since these, if they ever existed, have been consumed by the fires of enemies, or taken away in the ships which exiled my fellow citizens, and so are not at hand, but rather by the accounts of those from across the sea, which, being interrupted by many gaps, are inadequately clear. Saint Gildas the Wise, On The Destruction and Ruin of Britain