Gildas The Wise
Gildas The Wise [1]
the first British historian, was born in the year 511 (according to Bede, 493), became scholar to Iltutus, abbot of Morgan, and was made afterwards abbot of Bangor. The time of his death is uncertain. The legendary accounts of him differ so much that Bale and Usher suppose there were two of the same name, while others doubt the existence of any such person. "In truth, as Mr. Stevenson observes, in his introduction to the Latin text of Gildas de Excidia Britanniae: "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 he was the author. Mr. T. Wright attempts to show that Gildas is a fabulous person, and his hisb tory the forgery of some Anglo-Saxon or foreign priest of the 7th century (Biog. Brit. Lit. Anglo-Saxon period, pages 115-134). But Stevenson, Lappenberg, 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" (English Cyclop. s.v.). The writings which pass under his name are valuable for their antiquity and as containing the only information we have of the times in which he wrote; although Gibbon describes him as "a monk who, in the profound ignorance of human life, was presumed to exercise the office of historian, and strangely disfigures the state of Britain at the time of its separation from the Roman empire." They are, (1) Liber Querulus de excidio Britanniae, etc., a picture of the evils of the times and of the previous ages of British history: — (2) Castigatio Ordin. Eccles. (Reproach on the Clergy), a sad account of abominations and vices imputed to the clergy. They are given in Gale's Hist. Brit., etc., Scriptores xv (Oxon. 1691, fol.), and in the Works of Gildas and Nonnius, translated by J.A. Giles (Lond. 1841, 8vo); also in Gale, Rerum Angl. Script. Veteres (1684-87, 3 volumes, fol.); but the best edition is that published in 1838 by the Historical Society, and edited by Mr. Joseph Stevenson. There are three English translations of it: one by Habington (Lond. 1638, 8vo); another, entitled A Description of the State of Great Britain, written eleven hundred years since (London, 1652, 12mo); and a third by Dr. Giles, but based on that of Habington, and published in Bohn's Antiquarian Library (1848). See Wright, l.c.; Poste, British Researches; English Cyclopaedia; Clarke, Succ. of Sacred Literature, volume 1.
Gilder William H.,
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Philadelphia, September 17, 1812, and was educated at the Wesleyan University. He entered the Philadelphia Conference in 1833, and after three years' preaching was compelled by ill health to retire from active service. About 1840 he established at Philadelphia the Pearl and Repository, an independent Methodist paper. For some years he was principal of the Female Institute at Boardentown, New Jersey. He afterwards became president of Flushing Female College, at St. Thomas's Hall, Flushing, Long Island. While at Bordentown he established the Literary Register, which he edited for several years. In 1862 he became chaplain of the 40th New York Regiment, and shared in all its campaigns, following his charge into every battle. In 1863 he was taken with typhoid fever, which greatly impaired his strength. He returned to his post before he was in fit physical condition to do so, and, while attending to his duties in the regimental hospital, he contracted small-pox, of which he died at Culpepper, Virginia, April 13, 1864. No chaplain in the army had a stronger hold upon the affection and confidence of the men than Mr. Gilder. Shortly before his death he said to his son, "I am in the hands of one whom I can trust; I feel that I am perfectly safe;" and when he could no longer speak, he intimated by signs that all was well. — Minutes of Conferences, 1865, page 81.
