Archbishop Hubert, More
Of A Statesman Than An Ecclesiastic, Based His Opposition On Similar
Grounds.
He explained his reasons bluntly to the Pope.
"Unless the
barbarity of this fierce and lawless people can be restrained by
ecclesiastical censures through the see of Canterbury, to which
province they are subject by law, they will be for ever rising in
arms against the king, to the disquiet of the whole realm of
England." Gerald's answer to this was complete, except from the
point of view of political expediency. "What can be more unjust
than that this people of ancient faith, because they answer force by
force in defence of their lives, their lands, and their liberties,
should be forthwith separated from the body corporate of
Christendom, and delivered over to Satan?"
The story of the long fight between Gerald on the one hand and the
whole forces of secular and ecclesiastical authority on the other
cannot be told here. Three times did he visit Rome to prosecute his
appeal - alone against the world. He had to journey through
districts disturbed by wars, infested with the king's men or the
king's enemies, all of whom regarded Gerald with hostility. He was
taken and thrown into prison as King John's subject in one town, he
was detained by importunate creditors in another, and at Rome he was
betrayed by a countryman whom he had befriended. He himself has
told us
Of the most disastrous chances
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
which made a journey from St. David's to Rome a more perilous
adventure in those unquiet days than an expedition "through darkest
Africa" is in ours. At last the very Chapter of St. David's, for
whose ancient rights he was contending, basely deserted him. "The
laity of Wales stood by me," so he wrote in later days, "but of the
clergy whose battle I was fighting scarce one." Pope Innocent III.
was far too wary a politician to favour the claims of a small and
distracted nation, already half-subjugated, against the king of a
rich and powerful country. He flattered our poor Gerald, he
delighted in his company, he accepted, and perhaps even read, his
books. But in the end, after five years' incessant fighting, the
decision went against him, and the English king's nominee has ever
since sat on the throne of St. David's. "Many and great wars," said
Gwenwynwyn, the Prince of Powis, "have we Welshmen waged with
England, but none so great and fierce as his who fought the king and
the archbishop, and withstood the might of the whole clergy and
people of England, for the honour of Wales."
Short was the memory and scant the gratitude of his countrymen.
When in 1214 another vacancy occurred at a time when King John was
at variance with his barons and his prelates, the Chapter of St.
David's nominated, not Gerald, their old champion, but Iorwerth, the
Abbot of Talley, from whose reforming zeal they had nothing to fear.
This last prick of Fortune's sword pierced Gerald to the quick. He
had for years been gradually withdrawing from an active life. He
had resigned his archdeaconry and his prebend stall, he had made a
fourth pilgrimage, this time for his soul's sake, to Rome, he had
retired to a quiet pursuit of letters probably at Lincoln, and
henceforward, till his death about the year 1223, he devoted himself
to revising and embellishing his old works, and completing his
literary labours. By his fight for St. David's he had endeared
himself to the laity of his country for all time. The saying of
Llewelyn the Great was prophetic. "So long as Wales shall stand by
the writings of the chroniclers and by the songs of the bards shall
his noble deed be praised throughout all time." The prophecy has
not yet been verified. Welsh chroniclers have made but scanty
references to Gerald; no bard has ever yet sung an Awdl or a
Pryddest in honour of him who fought for the "honour of Wales." His
countrymen have forgotten Gerald the Welshman. It has been left to
Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Foster, Professor Brewer, Dimmock, and
Professor Freeman to edit his works. Only two of his countrymen
have attempted to rescue one of the greatest of Welshmen from an
undeserved oblivion. In 1585, when the Renaissance of Letters had
begun to rouse the dormant powers of the Cymry, Dr. David Powel
edited in Latin a garbled version of the "Itinerary" and
"Description of Wales," and gave a short and inaccurate account of
Gerald's life. In 1889 Dr. Henry Owen published, "at his own proper
charges," the first adequate account by a Welshman of the life and
labours of Giraldus Cambrensis. When his monument is erected in the
cathedral which was built by his hated rival, the epitaph which he
composed for himself may well be inscribed upon it -
Cambria Giraldus genuit, sic Cambria mentem
Erudiit, cineres cui lapis iste tegit.
And by that time perhaps some competent scholar will have translated
some at least of Gerald's works into the language best understood by
the people of Wales.
It would be impossible to exaggerate the enormous services which
three great Welshmen of the twelfth century rendered to England and
to the world - such services as we may securely hope will be
emulated by Welshmen of the next generation, now that we have lived
to witness what Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton has called "the great
recrudescence of Cymric energy." {5} The romantic literature of
England owes its origin to Geoffrey of Monmouth; {6} Sir Galahad,
the stainless knight, the mirror of Christian chivalry, as well as
the nobler portions of the Arthurian romance, were the creation of
Walter Map, the friend and "gossip" of Gerald; {7} and John Richard
Green has truly called Gerald himself "the father of popular
literature." {8} He began to write when he was only twenty; he
continued to write till he was past the allotted span of life.
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