Note 98 — Chapter II · THE MONASTIC CHURCH IN IRELAND.
Reading edition
Gildas the historian is said in his Life to have gone to Ireland in the reign of King Anmericus or Ainmire, ‘qui et ipse misit ad beatum Gildam, rogans ut ad se veniret; promittens se ipsius doctrinis in omnibus obediturum, si veniens ecclesiasticum ordinem in suo regno restauraret; quia pœne Catholicam fidem in ipsa insula omnes reliquerant.’—Colg. A.SS. p. 183.
Columbanus, who was alive and in Ireland at the time, refers to him in his epistle to Pope Gregory, in these terms,—‘Cæterum de episcopis illis quid judicas, interrogo, qui contra canones ordinantur, id est, quæstu: simoniacos et Giltas auctor pestes scripsistis.’—Ep. ad S. Greg. Pap. Migne, Patrologia, vol. 37, col. 262.