Saint-Petersburg Historical Journal N 4 (2015) УДК 94(4)«375/1492» A. Friedlander St. Gildas and the anointing of kings An axiom, lexicographers inform us, is a statement universally accepted as true. <...> Thus one such statement reads: the anointing of King Pepin in 751 was a cardinal event; it had one precedent in European (non-biblical) history, namely, the anointing of certain Visigothic kings a century earlier. <...> A few examples, consistent for more than half a century: Joseph Strayer, Western Europe in the Middle Ages: A Short History (New York, 1955), at p. 47; Петербургский исторический журнал № 4 (2015) 168 St. Gildas and the anointing of kings The opening clause cannot be disputed. <...> After the dissolution of Roman authority, Britons early in the 5th century chose new leaders. <...> They consecrated them by anointing: Ungebantur reges non per deum sed qui ceteris crudeliores exstarent, et paulo post ab unctoribus non pro veri examinatione trucidabantur, aliis electis trucioribus 4 elevated fifth-century kings with anointment. <...> Text and translation in Michael Winterbottom, Gildas: The Ruin of Britain and Other Works (Chichester, 1978), whose edition we use throughout. 5 Among the detractors: Marc Bloch, Les rois thaumaturges: 467–469; Michel Zimmermann, «Les sacres des rois wisigoths», in Michel Rouche, ed., Clovis: histoire et mйmoire, 2, le baptкme de Clovis, son йcho а travers l’histoire (Paris, 1997): 10; Gerald Ellard, Ordination Anointings Saint-Petersburg Historical Journal N 4 (2015) A. Friedlander admirers, however, as well as detractors, with some exceptions 6 . <...> Thus the conclusion of Christopher Snyder: «Did the British church formally anoint native kings in the absence of legitimate Roman rulers?» 10 He does not answer. <...> It was picked up by Visigoths in the 7th have occurred to Britons of the 5th century. <...> Among admirers: William Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae: The Occasional Offices of the Church of England according to the Old Use of Salisbury the Prymer in English and other Prayers and Forms, with Dissertations and Notes <...>