We have explored the evolving images of the authority of Gildas from the fifth to the eighth centuries. At times, the space given to the complex issues that shaped this early medieval period both in the British Isles and on the continent has resulted in contexts that may appear overly brief or ‘quaint’ in their description. There has not been enough space to flesh out the extraordinarily convoluted debates behind the controversial theologian, Pelagius, the Three Chapters controversy, or the Easter controversy, for example. The conceptual framework, as laid out at the very start, has been to follow the direct citation of Gildas up to the second quarter of the eighth century.

This framing has resulted in some new approaches to the limited material. Chapter 1 identified Bede's construction of a ‘dark age’ in the British Isles ca 450–600 as buttressed solely by Gildas's immediate descriptions of sin and civil war, an observation that nuances a dependence on Bede's vision of the past. Chapter 2 clarified the way in which multiple images of Gildas were developed by competing ‘national’ conceptions of authority in Britain and Ireland in the early medieval period, positioning Gildas (as the author of the De excidio) as a figure active in debates over authority in the second half of the fifth century. Chapter 3 explored the monastic model of authority put forward in the De excidio, emphasising the De excidio not as a failed intervention, but as an innovative speculum principum defining the roles of Christian kings and bishops, the emerging polity of the medieval West. Chapter 4 established Columbanus and Gregory the Great, often regarded as antagonists, within similar monastic traditions, and offered evidence that Gregory actively drew on the authority of Gildas (via Columbanus) in the development of his pastoral mission. Chapter 5 examined the way the moderating influence of Gildas (via his letter to Finnian) was adapted to support ecclesiastical and political unity in Ireland via the Hibernensis, a highly influential collection of canon law that emphasised episcopal and synodal authority over that of the ‘holy man’. Chapter 6 revealed Bede's abiding respect for Gildas and the significant influence of Gildas on his providential construction of an inclusive Britain in his Historia ecclesiastica, a national construct that is still relevant to this day.