Considering The Correction Of Others

Cum qualicumque cordis compunctione attonita mente saepius volvens, si, inquam, peculiari ex omnibus nationibus populo, semini regali gentique sanctae, ad quam dixerat: primogenitus meus Israel, eiusque sacerdotibus, prophetis, regibus, per tot saecula, Apostolo ministro membrisque illius primitivae ecclesiae dominus non pepercit, cum a recto tramite deviarint, quid tali huius atramento aetatis facturus est? Cui praeter illa nefanda immaniaque peccata quae communiter cum omnibus mundi sceleratis agit, accedit etiam illud veluti ingentium quid et indelebile insipientiae pondus et levitatis ineluctabile. Quid? Mihimet aio, tibine, miser, veluti conspicuo ac summo doctori talis cura committitur ut obstes ictibus tam violenti torrentis, et contra hunc inolitorum scelerum funem per tot annorum spatia interrupte latetque protractum serves depositum tibi creditum et taceas? Alioquin hoc est dixisse pedi: speculare et manui: fare. Habet britanni rectores, habet speculatores. Quid tu nugando mutire disponis? habet, inquam, habet, si non ultra, non citra numerum. Sed quia inclinati tanto pondere sunt pressi, idcirco spatium respirandi non habent. Praeoccupabant igitur se multo talibus obiectionibus vel multo his mordacioribus veluti condebitores sensus mei. Hi non parvo, ut dixi, tempore, cum legerim, Tempus esse loquendi et tacendi, et in quadam ac si angusta timoris porticu luctabantur. Obtinuit vicitque tandem aliquando creditor, si non es, inquiens, talis audaciae ut inter veridicas rationalis secundae a nuntiis derivationis creaturas non pertimescas libertatis aureae decenti nota inuri, affectum saltem intellegibilis asinae eatenus elinguis non refugito spiritu Dei afflatae, nolentis se vehiculum fore tiarati magi devoturi populum Dei, quae in anguesto maceriae vinearum resolutum eius attriuit pedem, ob id licet verbera hostiliter senserit, cuique angelum caelestem ensem vacuum vagina habentem atque contrarium, quem ille cruda stoliditate caecatus non viderat, digito quodammodo, quamquam ingrato ac furibundo et innoxia eius latera contra ius fasque caedenti, demonstravit. In zelo igitur domus Domini sacrae legis seu cogitatuum rationibus vel fratrum religiosis precibus coactus sum persolvo debitum multo tempore antea exactum, vile quidem, sed fidele, ut puto, et amicale quibusque egregiis Christi tironibus, grave uero et importabile apostatis insipientibus. Quorum priores, ni fallor, cum lacrimis forte quae ex Dei caritate profluunt, alii autem cum trisitia, sed quae de indignatione et pusillanimitate deprehensae conscientiae extorquetur, illud excipient. Sanctus Gildas Sapiens, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae Migne PL 69 332

When with compunction of heart turning over the mind I said, if the Lord did not spare a people, peculiar out of all the nations, the royal seed and holy nation, to whom He had said: Israel is my first born, 1 nor its priests, prophets, kings for so many centuries, nor the Apostle his servant and the members of that early Church, when they swerved from the right path, what will he do on account of such blackness as this age has? An age to which, besides those impious and monstrous sins which it practices in common with all the criminals of the world, has been added that which is as if inborn with it, an irremovable unwisdom and an inextricable fickleness. What then? Do I say to myself, O wretch, as if you were a distinguished and great teacher, is such a care comitted to you, that you would stand against the blows of so violent a torrent, and against this array of growing crimes extending over so many years and so widely, keep the deposit committed to you, and be silent? Otherwise this means, to say to the foot, watch, and to the hand, speak. Britain has teachers, it has watchers. Are you disposed to mumble some paltry things? Yes, it has, it has, if not too many, not too few. But, because they are pressed down by so great a weight, so they have no time to breathe. Thus my thoughts as fellow debtors were preoccupied with many such objections, and by many that were more biting than these. Such was my state, for no short time, as I said, when I read: 'There is a time to speak and a time to keep silent,' 2 and wrestled, as it were, in the narrow gate of fear. At length the creditor prevailed and conquered, saying, 'If you have not such courage as to feel no fear of being branded with the mark that befits golden liberty among truth telling creatures of a rational origin second to the angels, at least imitate that intelligent donkey, inspired, though mute, by the Spirit of God; unwilling it was to be the carrier of the crowned magician about to curse the people of God, it bruised his feeble foot in the narrow path near the wall of the vineyards, though it was thus was obliged to suffer hostile blows, and it pointed out to him the angel from heaven, as if with the finger, who with sword drawn from scabbard opposed them, whom he in the blindness of cruel stupidity had not seen, he who, ungrateful and furious, was unrighteously beating its innocent sides. 3 In my zeal, therefore, for the holy law of the Lord's house, or by the reasons of my own meditations, or driven by the pious entreaties of brethren, I am now paying the debt exacted long ago. The work certainly is poor, but faithful, I think, and friendly to all noble young soldiers of Christ, but harsh and insupportable to foolish apostates. The former of these, if I am not deceived, will perhaps receive it with the tears that flow from the love of God; the others however with receive it with sorrow, but a sorrow that is given by the indignation and weakness of an awakened conscience.  Saint Gildas the Wise, from On The Destruction and Ruin of Britain 1 Exodus 4.2 2 Eccl 3.7  3 Numb 22.28-31