[Footnote 231: The description of Britain is given in very nearly the same terms, by Orosius, Bede, and others, but the numbers, denoting the length and breadth and other dimensions, are different in almost every MS. copy.] [Footnote 232: "Soporem" in some MSS., "saporem" in others; it is difficult from the turgidity and superabundance of the style to determine which is the best meaning.] [Footnote 233: Gildas here confuses the modern idea of a tyrant with that of an usurper. The latter is the sense in which Britain was said to be fertile in tyrants, viz. in usurpers of the imperial dignity.] [Footnote 234: The Britons who fought under Boadicea were anything but "crafty foxes." "Bold lions" is a much more appropriate appellation; they would also have been victorious if they had had half the military advantages of the Romans.] [Footnote 235: Or Caerleon. See Bede's Eccles. Hist. p. 15, note] [Footnote 236: The meaning of this expression is not known. O'Connor thinks it is the Irish Sea.] [Footnote 237: Or _Ayitius_, according to another reading.] [Footnote 238: Isa. i. 4, 5. In most of these quotations there is great verbal variation from the authorised version: the author probably quoted from memory, if not from the Latin version.] [Footnote 239: These are the words of the old translation; the original is obscure, and perhaps corrupt.] III. THE EPISTLE. § 27. Britain has kings, but they are tyrants; she has judges, but unrighteous ones; generally engaged in plunder and rapine, but always preying on the innocent; whenever they exert themselves to avenge or protect, it is sure to be in favour of robbers and criminals; they have an abundance of wives, yet are they addicted to fornication and adultery; they are ever ready to take oaths, and as often perjure themselves; they make a vow and almost immediately act falsely; they make war, but their wars are against their countrymen, and are unjust ones; they rigorously prosecute thieves throughout their country, but those who sit at table with them are robbers, and they not only cherish but reward them; they give alms plentifully, but in contrast to this is a whole pile of crimes which they have committed; they sit on the seat of justice, but rarely seek for the rule of right judgment; they despise the innocent and the humble, but seize every occasion of exalting to the utmost the bloody-minded; the proud, murderers, the combined and adulterers, enemies of God, who ought to be utterly destroyed and their names forgotten. They have many prisoners in their gaols, loaded with chains, but this is done in treachery rather than in just punishment for crimes; and when they have stood before the altar, swearing by the name of God, they go away and think no more of the holy altar than if it were a mere heap of dirty stones. § 28. Of this horrid abomination, Constantine,[240] the tyrannical whelp of the unclean lioness of Damnonia,[241] is not ignorant.