Ceretic Guletic of Alt Clut was a

king of Alt Clut The list of the kings of Strathclyde concerns the kings of Alt Clut, later Strathclyde, a Brythonic kingdom in what is now western Scotland. The kingdom was ruled from Dumbarton Rock, ''Alt Clut'', the Brythonic name of the rock, until around 8 ...

, associated with

Dumbarton Castle Dumbarton Castle ( gd, Dùn Breatainn, ; ) has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Scotland. It sits on a volcanic plug of basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is high and overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton. History Du ...

in the 5th century. He has been identified with Coroticus, a Brittonic warrior addressed in a letter by Saint Patrick. Of Patrick's two surviving letters, one is addressed to the

warband Warband may refer to: * A local warrior society * The ancient and medieval Germanic comitatus * ''Mount & Blade: Warband'', an standalone expansion for the video game ''Mount & Blade'' {{disambig ...

of this Coroticus. Bemoaning the capture and enslavement of newly Christianised Irish and their sale to non-Christians, Patrick includes the imprecation:

Soldiers whom I no longer call my fellow citizens, or citizens of the Roman saints, but fellow citizens of the devils, in consequence of their evil deeds; who live in death, after the hostile rite of the barbarians; associates of the Scots and Apostate Picts; desirous of glutting themselves with the blood of innocent Christians, multitudes of whom I have begotten in God and confirmed in Christ.

In the letter Patrick announces that he has

excommunicate Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

d Coroticus's men. The identification of Coroticus with Ceretic Guletic is based largely on an 8th-century gloss to Patrick's letter. It has been suggested that it was the sending of this letter which provoked the trial which Patrick mentions in the ''Confession''. The "Apostate Picts" are the Southern Picts converted by

Saint Ninian Ninian is a Christian saint, first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland. For this reason he is known as the Apostle to the Southern Picts, and there are numerous dedication ...

and ministered to by Palladius, and who had subsequently left Christianity. The Northern Picts of

Fortriu Fortriu ( la, Verturiones; sga, *Foirtrinn; ang, Wærteras; xpi, *Uerteru) was a Pictish kingdom that existed between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but i ...

were later converted by

Saint Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is tod ...

in the 6th century, and as they were not yet Christian, they could not be called "

apostate Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that i ...

". Ceretic's dates therefore depend on the conclusions of the vast scholarship devoted to discovering the ''

floruit ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicat ...

'' dates of St Patrick, but sometime in the 5th century is probably safe. Ceretic appears also in the

Harleian genealogies __NOTOC__ The Harleian genealogies are a collection of Old Welsh genealogies preserved in British Library, Harley MS 3859. Part of the Harleian Library, the manuscript, which also contains the ''Annales Cambriae'' (Recension A) and a version of t ...

of the rulers of Alt Clut, which list the names of his father (Cynloyp), grandfather (Cinhil) and great-grandfather (Cluim). It is from the latter source that we get his nickname, ''Guletic'' ("Land-holder"). In the

Book of Armagh The ''Book of Armagh'' or Codex Ardmachanus (ar or 61) ( ga, Leabhar Ard Mhacha), also known as the ''Canon of Patrick'' and the ''Liber Ar(d)machanus'', is a 9th-century Irish art, Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin. It is hel ...

, he is called "''Coirthech rex Aloo''", "Ceretic, King of the Height f the Clyde.Alan MacQuarrie, "The Kings of Strathclyde", in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) ''Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow'', (Edinburgh, 1993), p. 3.

Notes

References

* Smyth, Alfred, ''Warlords and Holy Men'', (Edinburgh, 1984) * MacQuarrie, Alan, "The Kings of Strathclyde", in A. Grant & K.Stringer (eds.) ''Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community, Essays Presented to G.W.S. Barrow'', (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 1–19. * Williams, Anne, Smyth, Alfred P., and Kirby, D.P., (eds.), ''A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain'', (London, 1991), s.v. "Ceretic", pp. 78–8.

External links

Harleian genealogy 5
__NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ceretic Of Alt Clut Monarchs of Strathclyde 5th-century Scottish monarchs

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