THE CELTIC CHURCH

IN BRITAIN

AND IRELAND

BY

HEINRICH ZIMMER
PROFESSOR OF CELTIC PHILOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF BERLIN

TRANSLATED BY
A.

MEYER

LONDON
57-59 LONG ACRE

DAVID NUTT,

1902

Translated from Realencyklopadie fiir protestantische

Theologie ^tnd Kirche, vol.

Printed by

x.

BALLANTYNE, HANSON &* Co

At the Ballantyne Press

PREF A C E
THE

following translation, originally suggested by

Mr. Whitley Stokes, was undertaken with the
permission of the editors of the Realencyklopddie
Theologie und Kirche, in the
volume of which periodical the article first
appeared, and with the approval of the author,

fiir protestantische

tenth

who

was, however, unfortunately prevented by a

from seeing the proof-sheets as

serious illness

they passed through the press. But I was fortu

nate in obtaining the kind assistance of other
scholars.

The work

of

translation

was carried

out under the constant supervision of Mr. Stokes

himself, Professor Oliver Elton, Mr. Alfred Nutt,

and of my brother, Professor Kuno

Meyer. To
them I am indebted for
valuable
many
sugges
tions and criticisms of which I
availed

eagerly
myself; but for any shortcomings that may
be found I am alone
responsible.
A.

NEW

BRIGHTON,
loth August 1902.

still

MEYER.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER

I.

The Origin and Early History of the

Celtic

Church.

A. IN BRITAIN.
PAGE
(!)
.

3.

Earliest Traditions

The Church

of the Fourth Century

,^x

vX

6 *

Fifth Century

B. IN IRELAND.
4.
5.

^)

Earliest Records of the

Church

in Ireland

Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Patrick Legend

Monastic Character of the Irish Church.
.

(J Early Intercourse with the South-west of

its Consequences
8. Pelagius, and his Influence on Ireland

and

Facts,

Linguistic

their

Patrick

11.

The

12.

Prosper

13.

Identity

13

19

24 -/

Writings

The

Confession and the Epistle

of

Prosper

29

Palladius

with

the

Historical

35

.....
.......

History of the
based on Historical Facts
of the Early

i*5)

Life of Sucat-Patrick

16.

Early Records of North Britain

C.

IN

27

-32

Statement

Patrick

fy Account

Bearing on the Patrick

Historical Patrick
s

16
.

Legend
10.

and

Britain,

9.

NORTH BRITAIN

Irish

Church,
41

43

(ALBA).
.

-53

CONTENTS

viii

CHAPTER
Second Period
A.
17.
1

8.

19.

II.

A.D. 500-800.

THE BRITISH CHURCH.

....

PAGE

Church in Wales
Points of Difference between the British Church and
the Roman Church

58

Revival of the British Church in Wales

Characteristics of the British

B.

THE

IRISH

CHURCH

IN

56

60

IRELAND AND NORTH

BRITAIN.

20.

.........

Flourishing State of the Irish

Century

21. Superiority of the Irish

v
**

22.
23.

Church

Sixth

the

in

Church

63

66

Historical Aspect of the Irish Church

North Britain Christianised by Irish Monks
.

24.

Extension of the Church into Northumberland

25.

The Paschal Dispute between Rome and

26.

The Appearance

27.

Object
Defeat of the Irish Church

.69
.73
.

the

75

Irish

Church

,76
of

the

Patrick

and

its

79
in Britain

CHAPTER
Third Period

Legend
.

.83

III.

A.D. 800-1200.

A. IN WALES.
28.

The Church

in

Wales

....

87

B. IN IRELAND.

The
Irish

Irish

Church of the Ninth Century

Monks on

Decay of the

.89

.92

the Continent

Irish Monasteries

91
.

CONTENTS

ix
PAGE

32.

33.

34.

Confusion of the Viking Period with the Patrician Era

in the Sources

The Culdees
The Increasing

Influence of

Rome

over the Church of

Ireland

102

C.

35.

The

Celtic

95

98

IN

NORTH

BRITAIN.

Church of North Britain

.105

CONCLUSION.

Additional Remarks on the Institutions of the Celtic

Church during her Prime

37.

38.
(3^"

107

The Paschal Date

no

Consecration by a Single Bishop

Superiority of the

Rank

of

Abbot

1 1 1

to that of

.112

Bishop

Difference in the Spirit of Christianity as practised by

Celtic

and Roman

Cult of Relics, a
Celtic

Priests

Roman

Custom, not known

115
in the

Older

Church

Impersonation of the Celtic Spirit of Christianity

Aidan

119
in

129

AUTHORITIES CITED
A.

and

Councils

and

SOURCES.

Documents relating to Great Britain

Ed. by Haddan and Stubbs. Oxford, 1869-78.

Ecclesiastical

Ireland.

The Works of Gildas and Nennius Historia Brittonum. Ed. by

Mommsen. Chronica Minora saec. iv.-vii. Berlin, 1894.
Ed. by A.
Baedae, Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.
Plummer.
Ch.
Oxford,
Holder. Freiburg, 1882. Ed. by
1896.

The Tripartite Life of Patrick, with other documents relating

Edited by Whitley Stokes. London, 1887.
to that Saint.
Triadis Thaumaturgae sive Patricii, Columbae et Brigidae

Ed. by Colgan.

Adamnani

A eta.

Lovanii, 1647.

Vita Sancti Columbae.

Ed. by Reeves.

Lives of the Cambro- British Saints.

Ed. by

W.

J.

Dublin, 1857.
Rees.

Llan-

dovery, 1853.

Liber Landavensis.

Ed. by W. J. Rees. Llandovery, 1840. The

Ed. by J. Gwenogvryn Evans. Oxford,

Book of Llan Dav.

1893.

A eta

Sanctorum Hiberniae ex codice Salmanticensi.

Smedt et De Backer. Edinburgh, 1888.

Ed. by

De

Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore. Ed. by Whitley Stokes.

Oxford, 1890.

Annales Cambriae.

Cymmrodor,

Ed. by

ix. p.

W. ab

152 seq.

Ithel.
London,
London, 1888.

1860.

Cf.

LIST

xii

OF AUTHORITIES

Annals of Tigernach.
xvi.-xviii.

Annals of
nessy.

Revue

Ed. by Whitley Stokes.

Celtique,

Paris, 1895-97.

from A.D. 431

Ulster,

Ed. by

to A.D. 1540.

W. M. Hen-

Dublin, 1887.

Chronicon Scotorum^ from A.D. 353 to A.D. 1150.

Ed. by

W. M.

London, 1866.

Hennessy.
Three

Annals.

of Irish

Fragme7its
Dublin, 1860.

Ed. by

J.

O Donovan.

Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters.

Dublin, 1856.
J. O Donovan.
Annals of Clonmacnois.

Ed. by D. Murphy.

and

Chronicles of the Picts

Scots.

Ed. by

Ed. by

Dublin, 1896.

W.

Edin

F. Skene.

burgh, 1867.

Ancient

Laws and Institutes

Ancient

Laws of Ireland.

The Stoive Missal.

of Wales.

6 vols.

London, 1841.

Dublin, 1865-1902.

Ed. by F. E. Warren,

of the Celtic Church.

in

Liturgy and Ritual

Oxford, 1881.

The Bangor Antiphonarium.

Ed. by F. E. Warren.

vols.

London, 1893, 1895.

The Irish Liber Hymnorum.

Atkinson.

2 vols.

Wasserschleben,

Ed. by

London,

Bussordnicngen

J.

H. Bernard and R.

1898.

der Abendlandischen

Kirche.

Halle, 1851.

Wasserschleben, Die irische Kanonensammlung.

2 Aufl.

Leipzig,

1885.

The Felireof Oengus.

Ed. by Whitley Stokes.

The Martyrology of Tallagh.

Ed. by M. Kelly.

The Martyrology of Donegal.

Ed. by

J.

Dublin, 1881.

Dublin, 1857.

H. Todd and

W.

Reeves.

Dublin, 1864.

The Martyrology of Gorman.

1895-

Ed. by Whitley Stokes.

London,

OF AUTHORITIES

LIST

B.

xiii

LITERATURE.

Usher, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Primordiae, 1639

Antiqui-

tates, 1689.

Scholl,

De

Britonum

Ecclesiasticae

Fontibus.

Scotorumque

Historiae

Berlin and London, 1851.

Reeves, The Culdees of the British Islands.

in Transactions of R. I. A., vol. xiv.

Dublin, 1864; also

Ebrard, Die irisch-schottische Missionskirche.

Giitersloh, 1873.

Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the

Celtic Church.

Oxford, 1881.

Britonum Scotorumque Ecclesiae quales fuerunt

Leipzig and London, 1882.

Loofs, Antiquae

Mores.
E.

J.

H.

Newell, History of the Welsh Church.

London, 1895.

Williams, Some Aspects of the Christian Church

during the Fifth and Sixth Centuries. London,

Wales

in

1895, from

Trajisactions of the Society of Cymmrodorion.

J.

Willis Bund, Celtic

G. T. Stokes, Ireland

Church in Wales.

and the

London, 1897.

Celtic Church.

Th. Olden, Church of Ireland.

Dublin, 1888.

London, 1895.

Bellesheim, Geschichte der Katholischen Kirche in Irland, vol.

i.

Mainz, 1890.

W.

Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol.

edition.

J.

B.

i.

Church and

Ctdltire,

second

Geschichte der Katholischen Kirche in Schottland,

Bellesheim,
vol.

ii.

Edinburgh, 1887.

Mainz, 1883.

H. Todd,

St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.

Robert, Etude
Patrick.

Critique sur la

Vie et

Dublin, 1864.

fOeuvre de Saint

Paris, 1883.

Von Pflugk-Hartung, Ueber

berger Jahrbiicher,

iii.

Patricks Schriften, in

pp. 71-87.

1893.

Neue Heidel-

LIST OF AUTHORITIES

xiv

Von

Pflugk-Hartung, Die Kuldeer,

in

Zeitschrift

fur Kirchen-

geschichte, xiv. p. 169 seq.

F. Haverfield,

Review,

Early British Christianity,

427 seq. London, 1896.

in

English Historical

xi. p.

Fred. C. Conybeare, The Character of the Heresy of the Early

British Church, in Transactions of the Society of Cymmrodorion, 1897-98, p.

seq.

London, 1899.

INTRODUCTION
THE

term Celtic Church denotes that branch of the

Christian Church which existed in parts of Great
Britain and in Ireland before the arrival of Gregory s
missionary, S. Augustine, in A.D. 597, and which,

Extent
duration

Church.

some time after, maintained an independent exist

ence by the side of the newly created Anglo-Roman
Church.
for

In dealing with the subject,

it

well to distinguish

is

between the British branch i.e. the Celtic Church in

Roman Britain, which found a continuation in Wales

and the

Irish

branch

in

Ireland and in Alba (the

Scotland of to-day).

The History
A

AI

of the Celtic

1.

The

2.

Her

Church may be divided

into three periods

origin

and early history

of the

Church up

to the threshold of the sixth century.

further development and golden age until

her formal annexation by the Roman Church,
i.e.

from the beginning

of the sixth century

until into the eighth century.

3.

The gradual disappearance

from the ninth

of her individuality,

to the twelfth century.

Division
into
Different

Periods

CHAPTER

FIRST PERIOD
THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF
THE CELTIC CHURCH
BRITAIN

A. IN
1.

It

may

safely

Church of the first half

century possessed no knowledge or

of Gildas that the

of

the

sixth

be concluded from the silence

British

tradition respecting the introduction of Christianity

into Britain.

An

in

of

Saxons had arisen

Canterbury (A.D. 597), and the feud
Augustine
between the Celtic Church of Britain and the newly
founded Anglo-Roman Church had lasted for a cen
to the

apostle

we meet with
To quote his own words
tury before

the Lucius fable in Bede.

In the year of our Lord s

incarnation 156, Marcus Antoninus Verus, the four
teenth from Augustus, was made emperor together
"

Commodus.

In their time,
Eleutherus,
holy man, presided over the
Roman Church, Lucius, king of the Britons, sent a

with his brother Aurelius

whilst

letter

to him, entreating

that

might be made a Christian.

by

He

his

command

he

soon obtained his

pious request, and the Britons preserved the faith

which they had received, uncorrupted and

entire, in

Earliest
tio^s."

Lucius
fable

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

peace and tranquillity until the time of the Emperor

Diocletian."

Object

Lucfus
fable.

This legend

is

repeated in the later Historia Brit-

tonum, and grows

length and detail during the

That it cannot lay claim to any

in

following centuries.
It is highly
authenticity has been generally admitted.
it was invented towards the end of the
that
probable

seventh century by a representative of Rome, in order

to support him in his claims against the Britons. 2

Contemporary foreign writers, as well as native

sources, give us no answer to the questions whence,
how, and when Christianity was first brought to
Warren in his Liturgy and Ritual of the
Britain.
Celtic

Church attributes the

tianity

into

Britain

chiefly

Chris

introduction of
to

Greek

churches

at

consequence
Lyons and Vienne, and as
but his argu
under
Marcus
Aurelius,
persecutions
ments cannot be called convincing. 3 In view of the
a

of

the

absence of any tradition of definite missionary

activity, we must needs conclude that Christianity
was brought to Britain by natural intercourse with

total

The
thTthird
century,

other countries, Gaul and the Lower Rhine in the

^ rs ^ place, rather than by any special individual or

missionary
1

effort.

Tertullian

Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica,

i.

4.

and Origen
Anno ab

state that

Domini

incarnatione

C mo L mo N to Marcus Antoninus Verus XIIII. ab Augusto regnum cum

Aurelio Commodo fratre suscepit quorum temporibus cum Eleuther vir
:

sanctus pontificatui Romanae ecclesiae praeessei, misit ad eum Lucius

Britanniarum rex epistolam, obsecrans ut per eius mandatum Christianus

mox effectum piae postulationis consecutus est suscepBrittani usque in tempora Diocletiani principis inviolatam
integramque quieta in pace servabant.
2
See Mommsen in Chronica Minora, iii. 115.
efficeretur

et

tamque fidem

Warren, The Liturgy and Ritual of the

Celtic

Church, pp. 46-60.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

Christianity had already spread in Britain to some

extent during the earlier part of the third
century,
1
but the rhetorical tenor of these
forbids
our
passages

them
we may

treating

as safe testimonies.

ever,

safely assume, that

Thus much, how

Christianity made

great progress in Britain in the course of the third

century. We learn from Gildas that the persecution

under Diocletian produced martyrs in Britain, three
of whom he names. 2
But weighty reasons speak

aganst any noteworthy extension of that persecution

and Gildas statement, based on a sixthtradition
of the British Church, cannot be
century

into Britain,

regarded as historical evidence.

Certain proof of the

existence of Christianity in Britain in the

early fourth
is
afforded
the
of
three British
century
by
presence

bishops, one presbyter, and one deacon at the Council

of Aries (A.D. 3i6). 3 The names of the towns whence

came these representatives of

British Christianity (York,

Lincoln, London), as well as those of the martyrs
mentioned by Gildas (St. Albans, Caerleon-on-Usk)
show distinctly that Christianity first took a firm foot
ing in the towns and stations of the Roman high-roads.
1

Haddan and

cessa

Romanis

nomen

Stubbs,

i.

3.

Tertullian

(c.

A.D. 208) Britannorum inacomnibus locis Christi

loca, Christo vero subdita, ... in quibus

qui jam venit regnat.

Origenes Quando enim terra Britanniae
ante adventum Christi in Unius Dei consensit
religionem ? (A.D. 239).
:

Chronica Minora, iii. 31.

Sanctum Albanum Verolamiensem, Aaron
Julium Legionum Urbis cives ceterosque utriusque sexus diversis in locis
summa magnanimitate in acie Christi perstantes dico.
et

Haddan and

Nomina episcoporum cum clericis suis,

Stubbs, i. 7.
quibus provinciis ad Arelatensem Synodum convenerunt
Eborius Episcopus de civitate Eboracensi
Restitutus
provincia Britannia.
Episcopus de civitate Londinensi provincia suprascripta. Adelfius Epis
copus de civitate Colonia Londinensium (leg. Legionensium ?).
Exinde
Sacerdos presbyter Arminius diaconus.
quinam

et ex

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

4
-^

to show that throughwas a well-organised

there
fourth
the
out
the fourth
century
century. A Christian Church in
which
stood in constant
Britain,

The

Ariamsm.

2.

Sufficient records exist

Slouch with the Church on the Continent, especially

/with the Gallican Church, and regarded itself as an
Oactive member of that body. Among the 400 and
more Western bishops who assembled at Ariminum
(A.D. 359), a considerable portion must have been
British, for Sulpicius Severus

mentions expressly

to maintain their independence,

that,

the British bishops,

like those of Gaul, refused to accept the material sup
port offered them by Constantius, with the exception
of three only,

who

accepted

it

Church, was drawn

into

The very
Council of Ariminum

inopid proprii.

fact of their taking part in the

proves that the British, as a

all

member

of the

Roman

doctrinal disputes. Thus

that Ariamsm greatly injured
its

2
Gildas firmly maintains
the British Church, a statement invalidated, it is true,
in the eyes of most by the testimonies of Hilary of

and Athanasius (A.D. 363).

Mr. F. C. Conybeare has recently adduced some

Poitiers (about A.D. 358)

important arguments to show that the British-Welsh

Church, even as late as the seventh century, tolerated,
not actual Arianism, yet views far from orthodox
regarding the doctrine of the Trinity. We may add

if

following in the wake of

her mother, the British Church, does not lack traces
(besides those mentioned by Conybeare) of heterodox

that the Irish

Church

also,

views on the Trinity during the sixth and seventh

1

2
i. 7-12.
Chronica Minora, iii. 32.
Transactions of the Society of Cymmrodor ion, 1897-98, pp. 84-117.

See Haddan and Stubbs,

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

In the Life of Gildas, written at Rhuis in

Brittany, in which monastery Gildas died in 570, and
where they must have had traditions of his work in
centuries.

Ireland during the years 565 and 566, we are struck,

in the midst of a highly coloured description of his

by the special mention of his

having instructed the whole clergy in the Catholic

activity

in

Ireland,

It is also remarkable
to cherish the Holy Trinity^
Muirchu maccu Machtheni, author of a Life
of St. Patrick, in the second half of the seventh
century, lays great stress on the fact that Patrick
in the name of the Holy
embarked for Ireland
the name of the
Trinity," and that he christened
2
the
and
the
Ghost."
Son,
Father,
Holy
Most _remankabl_e_qf all, perhaps, is the tradition of a

Faith

that

"

"in

much

later

Columba

of

Gregory the Great suspected

time, that

Hi,

who

died in

of

not

having
thought quite correctly with regard to the Holy
3
Trinity, because of his hymn Altus Prosator Vetustus.
597,

must therefore be admitted that Arian vie

found their way into the British Church during the x
second half of the fourth century. And as in A.D. 384 \
It

Rome was on

the wane, and the

political situation during the two subsequent centuries
prevented a strict and complete organisation of the

theworldly power of

Church, it is conceivable that these views should

have lived on, and tradition may possibly still have
1
Chronica Minora, iii. 95
clerum universum
Sanctam Trinitatem colerent instruxit.
:

2
.

ii.

in

fide

catholica ut

See Whitley Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii. 273, 276.

See Bernard and Atkinson, The Irish Liber Hymnorum,

25.

i.

64

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

preserved them as late as the year 600, as Conybeare

assumes, in the baptismal formula.
Fifth

3.

British

Pelagian-

rar y

ir-

It

certain that Pelagianism appeared in the

is

Church during the

w ^ ness t

follows in his

pation by a s
Ger-

ContemriQcentury.
borne by Prosper, who writers
Chronicle under the year 420
The

ms

fact

fifth

is

"

Pelagian Agricola, son of the Pelagian bishop Severianus, corrupts the churches of Britain by the teaching

dogma. But at the instigation of the deacon

Palladius, Pope Celestine sends Germanus, bishop of

of his

Auxerre, in his stead, who overthrows the heretics,

makes the Britons return to the Catholic faith." l

arrid

Further details about Germanus

in Britain are

given

Germani, written towards the end of the

in the Vita

2
From this source 3
century, and used by Bede.
\we learn that, at the request of a British embassy,
Germanus was sent out with Lupus by a Gallican synod,

fifth

ind shortly afterwards

went on

second mission, which

have led to a complete extirpation of Pela

in
the British Church. At any rate Gildas,
gianism
/riting a century later, does not mention Pelagianism.

is

Decline of

Church

in

orahe
coming of
the bar
barians.

said to

For a whole century after the mission of Germanus

nothing is heard of the Celtic Church in Britain. As
earl Y as A D S^o Roman Britain had been attacked by
the Picts from the north and by the Scots from Ire-

land
1

and the

installation,

towards the end of the

Pelagianus Severiani episcopi

dogmatis sui insinuatione corrumpit.
Sed ad actionem Palladii diaconi papa Caelestinus Germanum Autisidorensem episcopum vice sua mittit et deturbatis hereticis Britannos ad

Chronica Minora,

Pelagian!

filius

catholicam fidem
2

i.

472.

Agricola

ecclesias Britanniae

dirigit.

Bede, Hist. Eccl.,

3
i.

17-21.

Haddan and

Stubbs,

i.

16 seq.

ORIGIN

AND EARLY HISTORY

fourth century, of a comes litoris Saxonici in the south

and south-east, shows that there were attacks from a

third quarter as well.

In A.D. 383 the bulk of the

accompanied the usurper

legions stationed in Britain

Maximus

to

Gaul and Northern

Italy.

During the

two decades of the fifth century Rome lost its

hold upon Britain more and more. Native Britons
who regarded themselves as Romans, such as a cer
first

tain Constantinus, tried to maintain

civilisation against the inroads

of

Christian-Roman
barbarism, but in

vain.
During the fifth century the complete trans
formation of the political conditions of the island

Anglo-Saxon conquerors went on incessantly.

Christianity disappeared from the East, where it had
had its oldest strongholds, such as York, Lincoln,
and London. Together with those Britons who kept
their independence, it found a refuge in the moun

"By

its

tainous districts of the West, where, in the course of

the sixth century, it gradually comes to the front again.

THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY

INTO IRELAND

B.

4.

We

coming

possess a native tradition concerning the

of Christianity into Ireland.

Its

two oldest

sources can hardly be dated earlier than the

quarter of the seventh century. They are

Earliest

records
of the

last

1.

The

by Muirchu maccu Muirchu

Bishop Aed of Slebte Mach^

Life of Patrick, written

Machtheni

at

the desire

of

theni
died in A.D. 698.
2. Notes by a certain Tirechan, a pupil of Ultan of Notes by
Ardbreccan, who died in A.D. 656. They were com-

(Sletty),

who

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

piled from what he had once heard about Patrick

from his master s own lips, and from the material
found in his papers.
Both records are to be
found in the Book of Armagh, the different parts of
which were written between A.D. 807 and 846, but
their original form has in both cases undergone

changes, details having been added in the intervening

period.

Stripped of all details, the native tradition on the

introduction of Christianity into Ireland may briefly be
stated as follows
Until A.D. 431 Ireland had been

The
legend.

In that year a certain Palladius was

entirely heathen.
ent by Pope Celestine to convert the Irish, but he

returned at once, and died in Britain on his way. He

was immediately replaced by the Briton Patricius,

who in his youth had been a prisoner in Ireland. In

the course of a highly successful missionary activity
Patricius converted the whole of Ireland to Chris
tianity.

He founded

churches

all

over the country,

bishops and presbyters, and died as the

universally revered head of this Church, in which

ordained

he held, so to speak, the rank of a metropolitan,

having his see

at

The two records

to Ireland in 432.

Armagh

in Ulster.

differ as to

whence Patrick came

to the Life of Patrick,

According
he came from Auxerre, where, intending to proceed
Ac
to Rome, he had been staying with Germanus.

cording to Ultan, however, he was really on his

return journey from Italy through Southern Gaul.

But these differences may be put altogether on one

side in considering whether this tradition of the intro-

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

duction of Christianity into Ireland can lay any claim

to authenticity, appearing, as it did, more than two

hundred years after Patrick s death.

Every one

of

the following arguments tells against it.

5 5. If Patrick actually accomplished, between the
,

on

all

inquiry
into the

or even 493, as was assumed later authenof

that tradition ascribes to him in the seventh *J^ ty

years 432 and 459

Patrick
century, then he was a personality comparable in
eminence with Martin of Tours, or, better still, with

Columba

Like great

of Hi, the apostle of the Picts.

generals, such great missionaries leave behind them

a circle of grateful admirers and younger associates,

among whose number

generally one to keep

alive for posterity a faithful image of the hero.
SulSeverus
this
Tours
did
of
for
Martin
Cumpicius
there

is

mene

for

Luxeuil

Columba

Jonas for Columban of

and Willibald for Boniface. And in the
of

Hi

following generation the fame of the masters grew

and spread, as, for instance, Columba s did, thanks
to

Adamnan and

worked

in

to

the disciples

Northumberland.

the teacher of

Columba

of

from

Finnian

of

Hi and Comgall

of

Hi who
Clonard,

Bangor,

who

died in 548, must have known many contempo

raries of Patrick in his youth, just as Adamnan, dying
in 704, knew some of the younger associates of

Columba
Columba

of

Hi.

of Hi,
Patrick as were

umba

of

Hi

Columban

of

Luxeuil, as well as

were almost as close

Colman and

at the time of the

in

time to

his associates to

Col

conference at Whitby

in A.D. 664.

How,

then, are

we

to explain the

circumstance that

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

beginning of the second third of the seventh
century even the name of Patrick appears nowhere,
and that when he is first mentioned, in the epistle of
until the

Cummian

to

Segene of Hi,

it

is

only in connection

introduction of the Dionysian

computation, which is ascribed to him ?

jvith

the

remarkable that

(!)

paschal
it not

Is

conference of Whitby, though

historical arguments were the chief weapons in the
at the

and though the Irish referred to the traditions

and to Columba, 1 yet Patrick s
name was never once mentioned ? Would not these
men, coming from the north of Ireland, have referred
to him if they had known him as the founder of the
Irish Church, and consequently as the author of their
dispute,

of their forefathers

_paschal computation

And now

for

He knows

Bede.

nothing about the

origin of Christianity in Ireland, excepting the report

of Prosper

which we

shall deal

with later on

ac

cording to which the Irish had already turned Christians

2
1.
This silence about Patrick as apostle of
mj>..D. 43
Ireland in Bede
is

all

the

more

Ecclesiastical History of the Angles

striking because in his Martyrology,

compiled from other sources before he wrote the

Historia

Ecclesiastica,

he has the following note

at

March In Scotia S. Patricii confessoris.

we are with Bede s character and his
intimate knowledge of the state of the Church in the
the iyth of
Familiar as

North

of Ireland, his

profound silence on Patrick^

cannot be explained by

activity as apostle of the Irish

1

See Bede, Hist. Eccl.,

Ibid.,

i.

13.

iii.

25.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

the conjecture l that he held the apostle Patrick to be

identical with the first bishop of the christianised Irish

Bede s evidently
in A.p. 431, mentioned by Prosper.
keen interest in the early beginnings of Christianity in
which makes him

the British Isles

relate the legend

and give an account

Nynia s activity in
Southern Pictland, and of Columba s work among the
this self-same interest would cer
Northern Picts
of

of Lucius,

tainly

have made him turn the meagre note from

Prosper into something more life-like drawn from

had such been known to him. Thus

Irish tradition,

he did not hesitate to give

in full the Irish tradition

of the origin of Pictish matriarchy, which is in the

2
opening chapter of his Ecclesiastical History.
"

The

Picts arriving in Ireland

by

sea,,

desired to

have a place granted them in which they might

The Scots answered that the island coulcl not
settle.
contain

them both
said

advice,

they,

but

what

to

We
do

can give you good

;

we know

there

is

another island, not far from ours, to the eastward,

which we often see

.clear.

ments

If
;

if

our assistance.
Britain,

began

who would
1

Picts accordingly, sailing over into

to inhabit the northern parts thereof,

were possessed of the southern.

no wives, and asked them of the

Now
Scots,

not consent to grant them upon any other

See Loofs, Antiquae Britonum Scotorumque Ecclesiae quales fnemnt

mores, p. 51.
2

the days are

The

for the Britons

the Picts had

when

go thither, you will obtain settle

they should oppose you, you shall have

you

or

at a distance

will

Bede, Hist. Eccl.,

i.

i.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

12

terms than that when any difficulty should arise they

should choose a king from t\iQ female royal race rather
than from the male
has been observed

which custom,

among

as

well

is

the Picts to this

known,

day."

Therefore, it is impossible that in the north of Ireland

there existed an early seventh-century tradition of a
founder of the Irish Church called Patrick. And yet it

Armagh, that Patrick is said to have had

and to have ended his days. But the first reports in
this matter reach us from the south of Ireland, since the
home of Muirchu maccu Machtheni, the author of the
oldest Life of Patrick, is near Wicklow, and his teacher,
Aed, lived in the monastery of Sletty (whose site was
in Queen s County, near Carlow). 1
There the paschal
computation of the Roman Church had been intro
duced about 634, and thence the first intimation of
is in the north, at

his see,

having introduced the Dionysian (!) Eastercycle reached the North.

How account for this topsy-turvydom, if we assume
Patrick

the seventh-century tradition of Patrick gives

a faithful picture of \vhat actually happened in the

that

fifth

century, even

though

in

outline

only

Con

Muirchu s complaint of the vagueness of infor

mation about Patrick, 2 and the lack of colour and

sider

facts in his description of Patrick s activity in Ireland,

which, modelled as it is on famous patterns, is a mere

conventional abstract scheme of the lifework of an
3

Irish apostle.

Consider again Tirechan

witness that

See O Donovan, Annals of Ireland, i. 300, note e.

See Whitley Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii. 269.
3
See Scholl, De Ecclesiasticae Brito)inni Scoloruinqiie Historiae Fontibus, p. 66, and G. T. Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic C/nirck, p. 75 seq., 94 seq.
1

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

Patrick

century.

grave

was

known

not

In a later addition,

it

is

in
true,

the

we

13

seventh
are in

formed that Columba, moved by the Holy Ghost,

pointed out the grave of Patrick and fixed its locality in
Sabul (Saul), 2 but Adamnan, writing about 688, knows
nothing of this, although he devotes a whole book to
the Prophetic Revelations, and another to the Angelic
Visions of his hero.

In contradiction to the statement of Tirechan, the

author of an Appendix to the Life of Muirchu states

grave was at Dun Lethg laiss. This

It
appendix must have been written before 730.
occupies the second place in the Book of Armagh.
that Patrick

Patrick had been such an important factor for

fifth-century Ireland, and especially for the North, as
If

Columba was
and

this is

conversion

for North Britain from 563 till 597

what the seventh-century tradition of the
of

Ireland alleges

then

all

these points

mentioned above are perfectly inexplicable.

6. As incomprehensible as the oblivion wHtcli
swept away all memory of the founder of the Irish
Church during the first century of her existence, is
the idea that within an inconceivably short lapse of
time that Church could have been fundamentally re
organised. For when in the sixth century the mist
clears,

we do indeed

find a flourishing Irish Church,

but one whose system differs wholly from any that

Patrick could have founded, and from that which his

legend presupposes.
1

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

3

ii.

Ibid.,

332.
ii.

298.

Ibid.

Monastic
O fthe

[JJurch

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

Were

that

legend correct,

dependent on Patrick s see of Armagh,

of North Britain, founded by

episcopal church,
just

as

we should expect an

Church

the

Columba, depended on Hi from the year 563 until

other influences from outside came into play. But as
a matter of fact, the Irish Church of Columba (born
in 520), and of Fin man of Clonard (died in 548), i.e.
century, is a monastic church
no traces of such a past
with
with no organised centre,
Remembering
asjthe Patrick legend presupposes.
how intensely the Irish cling to the customs of their
frpm_the._eiid

fathers

ofjhe

fifth

apparent in

characteristic trait

of Bobbio, in the Irish at the

Whitby conference, and

wherever Irishmen are found

complete

Columban

considering that the

transformation of this monastic

church of

an

episcopal

the sixth and seventh centuries

into

church was not effected for more than four centuries

even after the theoretic acceptance of an episcopal
constitution,

is it likely,

nay,

is it

possible that within

a generation Patrick s supposed work should have

It would be highly
suffered so radical a change ?

improbable, even if important political changes had

taken place, but of these there is no indication what
ever.
Irish

Should we not cease to postulate a fifth-century

Episcopal Church, and rather conclude that the

legend of the conversion of Ireland by Patrick during

the first half of the fifth century appearing as it did
only in the second half of the seventh century can
not be said to reflect historical facts ? The Catalogue
of Irish Saints

is

constantly quoted in support of the

See Haddan and Stubbs,

ii.

292.

j
I

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

In

legend.

it

we

are

told that

"

the

first

15

order of

and then they were

all bishops, famous and holy, full of the Holy Ghost,
350 in number, founders of churches. They had one
Head, Christ, and one chief, Patrick. They observed
one mass, one celebration, one tonsure from ear to
ear.
They celebrated one Easter on the fourteenth
moon after the vernal equinox, and whoever was ex
communicated by one church, all excommunicated.
They rejected not the services and society of women,
because founded on the Rock Christ they feared not
saints

was

in the time of Patrick

the blast of temptation. This order of saints lasted

during four reigns, i.e. during the time of Loegaire, of
Ailill Molt, of Lugaid, son of Loegaire, and of Tuathal.
All

these

bishops were sprung from the Romans,

Franks, Britons, and Irish." But this passage only

shows how an Irishman of the eighth century took
the Patrick legend for history, and regardless of
historical truth and possibilities, arranged matters so
as to bring

down

the Patrician period in the Irish

Church almost to the last days of Finnian of Clonard

and the foundation of the monastery of Derry by
Columba (i.e. down to the year A.D. 543).
Nor should the last words of the preface in
Muirchu maccu Machtheni s Life of Patrick (dictante
Aiduo

Slebtiensis

evidence

civitatis

episcopo)

be adduced

as

the existence of other than monastic

There was no town of Slebte in Ireland.
The Irish monasteries were large settlements of many
small buildings, the whole surrounded by wall and
bishops.

of

See Stokes, Tripartite Life,

ii.

p. 271.

See Loofs,

p. 61.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

i6

rampart. Civitas (Ir. cathair) is a current term in

l
Ireland for a monastery, both in the Annals and in
the Lives of Saints. 2

In the above passage,

Aed

is

merely denoted as the monastic bishop of Slebte, and

3
add "anchorite
all the annals which record his death
of

Slebte."

sixth - century

The very nature and development of the^.

Irish Church are an emphatic protest

against the legend which

grew up

concerning the introduction

inter

course
with the
south

west of
Britain,

and

its

conse
quences.

Is

7.

Early

in the following century

of Christianity into Ireland.

possible to substitute for this unhistoric

the
hypothesis which shall better satisfy

it

legend a
known conditions of the problem ? Let us remember
that in clear weather Ireland can be seen from
on the west coast of Britain, not
numerous
points

and
only in the north from the Rinns of Galloway
4
the
from
also
but
saw
it,
Cantire, whence Agricola
North Wales and St. David s in South Wales,
the view suggested a plan of invasion to
indeed
where
William Rufus. 5
In earlier times, intercourse between Britons in the

hills of

south-west and

Irish

been easier and

safer

their

as that

It

Ireland must have

South

than intercourse with such of

own fellow-countrymen

equal distance.

must,

as lived inland

at least,

have been as

We

s time.

find

it

"

of Ireland, A.D. 698.

4
5

lively

faithfully reflected

civitate commotatur" in
"

an

Paschain Eo
Tigernach s Annals, in 716,
Pasca commutatur in Eo civitate in the Annals of Ulster, A.D. 715.
See Reeves, Life of Columba, p. 357, note a.
Annals of Ulster, A.D. 699 Chronicon Scotorum, A.D. 696 ; Annals
"

Cf.

and

at

between the North Gallic and South British

coasts in Caesar
1

in

Tacitus, Agricola, 24.

Giraldus Cambrensis, Itinerarium Cambriae,

ii.

I.

ORIGIN

AND EARLY HISTORY

and Welsh Lives

in the Irish

of the sixth

17

and seventh

century saints, but we have also numerous Irish and

British testimonies that it had flourished as vigorously
for centuries before

ments, dating back

nay,

we know

to the third

that Irish settle

and fourth

centuries,

existed in the south-west of Britain, especially along

the Severn estuary. They survived until the fifth and

when

they were absorbed in the

British population, which was then reinforced from
the north area of the island. 1
sixth

centuries,

When we

consider the close relations between the Records

south-west of Britain and the south-east of Ireland,

tianityin

as well as the fact that during the whole of the fourth

century there existed an organised Christian Church Patrician
in Britain,

is

mained pagan

it

assume that Ireland

possible to

until A.D.

432

re

The very period which accepted

/

in

theory yields Irish

the Patrick legend

records of pre-Patrician Christi-

\anity in Ireland, especially in the south. There exist

a number of saints Lives, chiefly those of Declan, 2
3

Kieran, and Abban,

Patricius expressly bears the title

Ailbe,

bar,

in

of

all

of

which

Archiepiscopus

which fixes the date of their redaction.

But these same men are Patrick s contemporaries,
older than he, working independently of him, and the

Hiberniae,

1
See Zimmer, Nennitis Vindicatus^ pp. 85-93, and Kuno
Transactions of the Society of Cynimrodorion, 1895-96, p. 55 seq.

2
3
4

Acta Sanctomm, mens. Julii, torn.

Ibid., mens. Sept. 4, 26-31.
Ibid., mens. April 3, 173 seq.

Ibid.,
6

Mart.

I,

Ibid., Oct. 12,

389 seq.
270 seq.

cf.

5,

Meyer,

590-608.

also Usher, Antiquitates (1587), p. 408

seq<

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

i8

recognised apostles of their respective districts. Some

of them stand in friendly relationship with each other,

and the

definite

areas

of

their activity are

on the

south-east coast in the three counties of Waterford,

Wexford, and Wicklow, as well as in the inland

counties of Tipperary and Kilkenny, where numerous

testimonies to their cult still survive. These
counties comprise the district whence, thanks to the

local

intercourse with the south-west of Britain, the first

diffusion of Christianity in Ireland must naturally have

The numerous

taken place.

contradictions in the

Saints Lives, with regard to the spread of Christianity

in Ireland through Patrick, are the natural result of

attempting to varnish facts derived from genuine local

tradition with the views universally accepted at the

when

the Lives were compiled.

Noteworthy, too, are the following

time

Muirchu maccu Machtheni

In
points
Life, Patrick lands in
:

the neighbourhood of the present Wicklow, whence,

without accomplishing anything, 1 he at once departs

and remains

for the north

there, never again setting

Tirechan also

foot in the south (Munster, Leinster).

essays a

description of Patrick

full

activity in the

(Connaught, Ulster, Meath), while only one

3
sentence reports that he came to Munster as well.

north

We cannot account for this fact by supposing that these

men knew

less

about Patrick

on the contrary, both

1

2
3

activity in the south;

Muirchu maccu Machtheni

See Stokes, Tripartite Life,

Loc. cit., pp. 303-330Loc.

cit., p.

331.

ii.

275.

ORIGIN
and

his master

AND EARLY HISTORY

Aed were

southerners,

19

and one would

sooner assume that they knew less about the north.

Nor can we explain the almost absolute silence of
the two oldest records concerning Patrick s activity
in the south by the undoubted fact that the Patrick

legend was forced upon the north by the south from

the time of Cummian s letter to Segene, with the intent
of winning over the reluctant Northern Irish to con

Roman

formity with the

We

Church.

must needs

recognise that whilst the Romanising Southern Irish

were ready in theory to acknowledge a Patrician

from Armagh, had in

fluenced the less known north, hoping thereby to
win over the mainstay of the opposing party, the
Abbot and Bishop of Armagh, yet the well-known
apostolate,

which, starting

about their founders, preserved by the

southern monasteries in the seventh century, were

traditions

an

effectual bar to

describing Patrick as the apostle

to the Gentiles in the south.

further important testimony to the existence

of Christianity before Patrick s alleged mission (4328.

459) deserves to be quoted. One of the most striking

facts in the history of the Irish Church, is the great
regard in which the heresiarch Peiagius, and especially his

John

commentary, were held. We see from Pope

letter to the Northern Irish, partly preserved by

1
Bede, that besides the incorrect observance of Easter,
they were chiefly reproached with Pelagianism. This

was

Peiagius,

The following

in A.D. 640.

facts

Bede, Hist. Eccl.,

ii.

throw a remark

The

able light on the whole matter.

19.

collection of

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

20

which dates

Irish canons,

from the

in all probability

and is conversant
beginning of the eighth century,
from
Pelagius, as it
with the Patrick legend, quotes
or Augustine, with the self-same
does from
Jerome

formula
In the

the

Pelagius ait? Hieronymus

New

Book

of

Testament comprised

ait,

Augustinus

ait.

in that portion in

written in Soy, 2 the Epistles are

Here begins
106 v with the words,

Armagh

"

introduced in

fo.

the prologue of Pelagius to the Epistles"; further,

on fo. 107 r, Here begins the prologue of Pelagius
3
And, later on, short
to the Epistle to the Romans."
"

abstracts of the single Epistles are given, with special

mention of Pelagius. Now, the mutilated commentary
of Pelagius,

handed down

to

us in Jerome

works,

ignores these abstracts entirely.

Again, the famous Wurzburg

Paul

Epistles,

of

manuscript
or

dating from the eighth

St.

ninth

5
the student of Old Irish,
century, and so important to
interlinear
an
furnishes
commentary, partly in Irish,
source of which is the
partly in Latin, the chief
His
of Pelagius.
original unmutilated commentary
in
while
hundred
nine
than
more
is
times,
name

quoted

the mutilated

commentary

fully

one hundred

of these

some of them are

passages have been excised, though
known to us elsewhere through quotations in polemical
Moreover, we possess the Collectaneum in
6
an Irishman, Sedulius Scottus,
Epistolas Pauli of

writings.

See Wasserschleben, Irische Kanonensammhmg, 27, 13

Book of Armagh,

Loc.

4
6

42, 4.

fo.

25-190.
J28 r, 130

v, 132 r, 134 v, &c.

cit., fo. 108 v,
5
Codex Wiirziburgensis, M.
Migne, P. L., 30, 646 seq.
See Traube, O Roiftti Nobilis, pp. 42-50.

th.

f.

12.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

21

of activity was in Liege, Cologne, and

he hardly ever quotes
between
Metz,
848 and 858
1
his sources, but on examining his commentary
closely, we find that the original unmutilated com

whose sphere

mentary of Pelagius, whom he once mentions by

2
name, was his chief authority, as is proved by
with the readings of the Wiirzburg MS.
the 23rd of March and the iyth of
between
Lastly,
May 1079, an Irishman of the name of Marianus
Scottus made at Ratisbon a copy of St. Paul s
identity

commentary from an older manu

This copy is now at Vienna. 3 We find on
script.
Here begins an argument
folio 3 v, with the heading
all
the very same
on
the
written by Pelagius
Epistles,"
text as is headed in the Book of Armagh, folio 160 v,
Epistles, with a

"

For the text of

prologus Pilagii in omnes epistolas.
the Epistles, Pelagius is quoted about two hundred
times, and here again some of the passages missing

commentary may be found

the mutilated

in

Wiirzburg MS., or
It

is

the

in Sedulius.

evident that

seventh, eighth,

in

the

Irish

and ninth

Church, during the

centuries, possessed

the

original unmutilated

commentary of Pelagius (which

had disappeared everywhere else in. the West), and
It would be
knew that Pelagius was the author.
wrong to accuse the Irish Church of Pelagianism
on

account

the very commentary, for instance,

of the Wiirzburg MS. quotes the view of Pelagius on
this

Migne, 103, 9-270.

Aliter

Codex 1247, Biblioth.

cclxxxvii.

secundum Pil[agium]
Pal.

Migne, 103,
Vindob.,

19.

formerly

Cod.

MSS.

TheoL,

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

22

To cite a phrase
v. 15, only to dispute it.
used by Gennadius with regard to another work of
a book
Pelagius, his Pauline commentary was

Romans

"

"

and, in that spirit of

necessary to students
tolerance towards dissenting views characteristic of
the Celtic Church, she continued to use the com
;

mentary long

after

Pelagianism was a thing of the

past.

There may have been other factors

Nation
ality of
Pela ius

ls

usually spoken

as well.

of as a Britto or Britannus

Pelagius

by

birth,

but his chief adversary, Jerome, in two places ex

1
pressly describes him as Irish, and the above men
tioned facts lend support to this view. A sincere and
earnest thinker, Pelagius did not adopt heretical views
until

he came to Rome, about the year

A.D. 400.

But

he did come from a Christian monastery in the

south-east of Ireland, he would, as a matter of course,
take care that his works reached home, in the same
if

way

as towards the

end

same century the semi-

of the

who

Pelagian, Faustus Britto,

sent his writings to his native
2
countryman, Riocatus.

lived in

Southern Gaul,

land by his fellow-

Natural partiality for their learned fellow-country

unconsciously influence the Irish, even in

man would
later times.

It

could not but enhance the renown of

the Irish monasteries of the end of the fourth century

that they should have produced a champion capable
of defending himself in
1

at the

Synod

of Jeru-

Scottorum pultibus praegravatus (Migne, 24, 682), progenies Scotticac

gentis de
2

Greek

Britannorum

vicinid, ibid., 758.

See Momimenta Germanica,

torn. viii. 157.

AND EARLY HISTORY

ORIGIN

23

salem in A.D. 415, whereas his opponent, Orosius, ac

1
cording to his own testimony, had no mastery of the
language, and needed an interpreter. It would show
us

how

those
after

far

Irish

back we could date the study of Greek in

monasteries, which, four hundred years

death

the

of

Pelagius,

produced a Johannes

Scottus Eriugena, whose fate on the continent was

similar

to

that

of

Even

Pelagius.

the

if

great

esteem in which Pelagius was still held in Ireland

during the seventh and eighth centuries cannot be re

garded as decisive confirmation of Jerome s assertion

of his Irish nationality, yet the facts quoted above
are at

least

legend

(i.e.

and

incompatible with the

Ireland

that

was

still

that Patrick christianised

431,
the Church).

Patrick

official

heathen
it

in

A.D.

and organised

For we know that Honorius and Zosimus annihi

lated Pelagianism within the border of the Roman state
and see, in the year 418 ; that in 429 Germanus, com

missioned by Celestine, extirpated

If

it

in

South Britain.

the Patrick legend reflected actual history,

were

if

Ireland

we could only
enjoyed by Pelagius commen

really heathen prior to his advent,

explain the authority

tary in Ireland by assuming that Patrick, the friend
of Germanus of Auxerre, was himself Pelagian, an

assumption which is, of course, absurd. But if we

admit that the south of Ireland was already Christian
in the first quarter of the fifth century,

hensible that
existed in the

it

is

Pelagianism, which we know

compre
to

have

south-west of Britain in A.D. 429, should

1

Liber Apologeticus,

6, 7.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

24
also

Linguistic

have found

its

way

to

South Ireland, whether

Pelagius was Irish or not.

9. While the above discussion has

shown us

that

&

their

on tne
Patrick
legend.

the fundamental basis of the Patrick legend is wrong,

and that Ireland especially that part of Ireland which
>

stood in close contact with the south-west of Britain,

about 430,
linguistic facts prove that Christianity must have come
British and Irish are both
to Ireland from Britain.

must have been

to a large extent Christian

The following

dialects of Celtic.

may
1.

differences of

sound

be distinguished in the fourth century

Old Celtic long a is preserved in Irish, but has
:

developed a different pronunciation in British, chang

ing through a to

represented by

so that
<?,

Ion, lor,

mdr

Old
in

Irish Ian, lar,

Old

mar

are

British.

The labiovelar guttural (Latin

Irish become a single guttural (/),
2.

qu) has in Old

written c, but in

Old Irish cenn,

crann, mac equal penn, prenn, map in Old British.
combination sr, which is preserved in
3. For the
British without exception p, so that

Irish,

we

find

fr

in

British, so that

Old

Irish sruth,

sron correspond to frut,froen in Old British.

On examining the ecclesiastical loanwords,

those bearing on general

civilisation,

and
introduced from

Latin into Irish at the time of the Christianisation of

Ireland,

we

form is not such as

had
been borrowed straight
they

find that their Irish

we should expect

if

from Latin, but that they have undergone changes

which can only be explained by the above-quoted
differences between the British and Irish tongues.
Thus we have in Old Irish
:

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

1.

Trindoit (trinitatem)

cartoit (caritatem)

2.

Case (pascha)

caillechj

3.

caille,

crubthir (prebiter,

Srian

notlaic (natalicia)
"

altoir (altare)

nun

(frenum)

from

"

s veil

(pallium)
;

cuthe

"

presbyter
sraigell

srogell,

popa (papa).

clum (pluma); corcur (porpura)

"nun";

(puteus)

umaldoit (humilitatem)

castoit (castitatem)

caindloir (candelarius)

25

").

(flagellum)

jr0^/w(flagello); slechtan, "genuflexion" (flectionem);

slechtim (flecto)
sornn (furnus)
sinister (fenestra)
;

suist (fustis).

As

Irish possesses the

sounds a and /

in

numerous

as/and the combinations fr fi there is

no obvious reason why, in case of a direct borrowing
cases, as well

above words from Latin,

c
changed these sounds into

of the

s,

easily explained

if

<?,

phenomenon
these

is

Irish

words were

should have

But the
we assume that

sr,

si.

by British

interpreted to the Irish

mouths}-

These Britons would naturally pronounce Latin

like
But they did more than that
trying to
:

<?.

own language, and observ

ing the difference of c:p (cenn : penn) and sr fr
(sruth : frut) in numerous words common to both
speak to the Irish in their

Irish

and

also to the

British,

they transferred

this

difference

loanwords from Latin, and, so to speak,

form by saying case instead of

hibernicised their British

pascy just as Irish cenn stood in place of British /*;/.

In the words quoted, therefore, and in others of

same category, we have the oldest layer of loan

the

words, introduced into Irish together with Christianity

1

See Giiterbock, Lateinische Lehnworter im Irischen, 1882,

p.

91

seq.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

26

and Christian

civilisation

while later on, the Irish,

and becoming familiar with

further words direct
borrowed
the Latin language,
from Latin without the above changes.
after turning Christians

What

the bearing of these linguistic facts upon

Patrick himself was a Briton
the Patrick legend ?
is

but his associates were, according to the old Vita,

Gauls of Romance origin l while, according to Tirechan, they were partly of Prankish and partly of Ro
;

mance

origin.

The Catalogue

the bishops of his time were

British,

refers to

and

of Saints tells us that

Roman, Prankish,

"of

Irish

This

nationality."

probably

Romance and Prankish

brought with him. If we treat
we dare not throw these state

the associates of

origin whom Patrick

the legend as history,

ments overboard. But it is altogether incredible that

the Latin loanwords in Old Irish should have been
introduced by Patrick and his Romance-speaking com
panions from the continent after A.D. 432. On the
other hand, their linguistic form

is

easily explained

Christianity was gradually spread throughout Ireland

111 the fourth century by Irish-speaking Britons.
if

Another
that

the

linguistic

fact,

afore -mentioned

in

support

the view

of

words came

through British interpreters before Patrick

to
s

Ireland

supposed

missionary activity, must be noted. Old British had

changed its former long u into u or I respectively
before the emigration of the Britons to Armorica, i.e.
1

3
3

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

Loc.

cit.,

ii.

273.

p. 305.

See Haddan and Stubbs,

ii.

292.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

in the first half of the fifth century.

(pluma),
Britons

But

prove that at the

and not u or
pronounced

sust
still

Irish cliim

time

(fustis),

27

the

in these

z,

otherwise the Irish forms would be dim, slst.

Therefore it is highly probable that the oldest layer

words

loanwords was introduced into

Latin

of

Britons before the

10.

Two

land have

and the

Irish

by

half of the fifth century.

writings of the supposed apostle of Ire- Patrick s
first

come down

to us, the so-called Confession

2
Epistle to the British king Coroticus.

are preserved side

eleventh century.

by

side in four manuscripts of the

The more important

of

the two

documents, the Confession, appears also in the Book

of Armagh, written between A.D. 807 and 846.

The

four later manuscripts are independent of the

older document, for in the latter a number of pas
sages,

which from

and style must have

have
been
left out by the
original,
thought he copied from Patrick s own
their contents

been part of the

scribe,

who

manuscript, but found the writing

illegible in parts.

Both documents are evidently the work

man, who calls himself Patricius episcopus.

same

of the

He makes

certain statements concerning his descent, his

youth
and early experiences in life, until he thought himself

upon by visions to be the Bishop of Ireland,

same statements, undoubtedly, as underlie Muirchu
maccu Machtheni s description of the youth of the
called

the

The Confession must then have

existed
already
during the second half of the seventh
legendary Patrick.

See Loth, Les Mots Latins dans

Haddan and

Stubbs,

ii.

296-319

les
;

Langues Britoniques, 1892,

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

ii.

the"Con-

Both

p.

67.

357-80.

"Epistle.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

28

This being the case, alike on material and

century.

grounds the authenticity of the Confession

and the Epistle is unimpeachable. It is manifestly im
possible that in Ireland or anywhere else, where people
linguistic

missionary work as the legend

depicted it, writings of the above description could
have been foisted on the apostle of Ireland between
believed in Patrick

the end of the seventh and the beginning of the ninth

century. Now what do these documents prove ?

Every one who reads them without

to Scholl

bias

the Patrick,

must assent

whom

posterity
opinion
has extolled to such an extent, really wrote the Con
fession, he was unlearned and altogether most rustic."
:

"If

The concluding words

my

of

the

Confession:

show

"This

is

was written
life, and com
by
plaining bitterly of ingratitude, trying to defend him
self against the reproach of having presumptuously
embraced a calling far above his capabilities, and
threatening to turn his back upon Ireland, because he
recognises the failure of his life s work there. True,J
confession before

man

die,"

in the Epistle

he

of

but

Ireland,"

calls himself the

he

adds:

despised by some men

"

repeats
tract

that

it

looking back upon a long

am

"

despised of

which he wrote

"

appointed bishop

"although

late in life, for the

pose of defending himself

now

am

and in the Confession he

most men." Now, in this
as

well

as

double pur
accusing his

adversaries, not the slightest mention is made of his

having consecrated even a single bishop, or having

established a church in Ireland.

.

De

Eccl. Britoniiin Scotoruinque hist, font., p. 71.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

One

11.

fact

not have played

is

patent

the Patrick of history can- The

the fifth century that part

during

the seventh-century legend ascribes

Confession speaks against

His

29

His

him.

to

which

fession.

it.

writings furnish us with yet another reason

for denying that the historical Patrick was the founder

The

Church.

offspring of a well-to-do

family, he grew up, according to his own confession,

in an easy-going worldly Christianity, until in his

was kidnapped by plundering Irish

had to tend pigs and sheep as
a slave in the north of Ireland. This brought about an
inward conversion, it is true, but, on the other hand, his
sixteenth year he

men, and

for six years

surroundings during those

six years

(from sixteen

twenty-two), which are generally the most important

till

in

for the increase of knowledge, can hardly have

furthered his intellectual training. On his return he
life

was haunted by dreams and visions proclaiming him

to

He can

be the apostle of Ireland.

scarcely have
the defects of his youthful education by

made good

but must have entered the years

with a very inadequate amount of instruc
himself admits this in his Confession, for

later serious studies,

of

manhood

He

tion.

he not only
unlearned
"

culture

youth
time
I

"

again and again rustic and

(rusticus), but also says with regard to his
strive to attain in my old age what in
calls himself

have had

hesitated, for

sure of
1

men

"

Adpeto

"

And he owns:

did not

acquire."
it

in

my mind

feared lest

tongues

in senectute

Patrick!

own

own

of the Irish

his-

to write, but

should

because

mea quod

in

fall

"A

long

up till now
under cen

have not read as

juventute non

comparavi."

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

3o

Others have, who, excellently versed in civic law and

sacred letters in a like degree, have never since their

childhood changed their speech, but rather made

fhore perfect by use.

mine

Whereas

this

speech and

it

utter

here transformed into another tongue;

and by the savour of the style I use, it is easy to be
1
judged how I have been taught and trained in diction."

ance

of

is

/He was scoffed and scorned in Ireland because of his

2
Rhetoricians (rhetorici] he calls
neglected education.
his scornful opponents, comforting himself with the

belief that

God chose him, the stupid one, from the

who were esteemed wise and con

midst of those

versant with the laws and masters of speech

everything

else.

The opponents

to

whom

alludes cannot have been an}7 of Patrick

as of

he here
converts,

nor can they have been pagans, for Patrick makes

Even
to paganism in his complaints.
he
who
bore
him
no
ill-will
people,
admits,
opposed
his endeavours to be ordained bishop of Ireland, on
no allusion

the ground of his want of culture.

To this he bears witness himself in the following
words
Many opposed my mission, not because of
"

malice,
1

but

Haddan and

my

pari

did

not

commend

itself

to

ii.
298, 18 seq.\ Ollim cogitavi scribere, sed et
timui enim ne incederem in linguam hominum, quia

Stubbs.

usque nunc hesitavi

non

wish

didici sicut et ceteri qui optime itaque jure et sacras literas utroque
modo combiberunt, et sermones illorum ex infantia nunquam

motarunt, sed magis ad perfectum semper addiderunt.

Nam

sermo

et

loquela mea translata est in linguam alienam, sicut facile potest probari
ex saliva scripturae mea, qualiter sum ego in sermonibus instructus et
eruditus.
2
3

Ibid.,

ii.

309, 20

Ibid.,

ii.

299, 26 seq.

Rideat autem

et insultet qui voluerit.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

31

them by reason, I confess, of my defect in learning." 1

And this want of culture, to which Patrick himself
owns, is, moreover, plainly revealed in his two works.
The language and style of this book is so illiterate
and corrupt, that it seems to have been written or
"

turned into Latin by a person

little

versed in the Latin

And true it is,

language," says Scholl of the Confession?
the Latin language has hardly ever been treated worse
than by this whilom swineherd, who thought himself
the chosen bishop of Ireland, and who betrays his want
of literary culture
ject,

and by using

by constantly swerving from

his

sub

biblical quotations in order to cover

his incapacity to give clear expression to his thoughts.

Patrick that

Is this the

is

supposed

in the fifth century the Irish

sixtJi till the

to

have founded

Church, which from the

ninth century united in itself the learning and

culture of both Christianity

and

classic antiquity, to

extent not to be found at that period

anywhere

an

else in the

West?

The widespread hypothesis

that the Irish

Church

of

the sixth century was based on a revival proceeding

from outside sources, is, as we shall see later on when

we come

to

consider

her

second

without the slightest foundation.

the Irish

period, a fable
On the contrary,

Church

of the sixth century is the natural

uninfluenced
from without, of the Church
expansion,
of the fifth century.
A tree planted by the Patrick of

history could never

1

Haddan and

have borne such

fruit as

Finnian

310, I seq.\ Multi hanc legationem prohibebant

non sapiebat illis, sicut et ego ipse tester, iter
illud propter rusticitatem meam.
2
De Eccl. Britonum Scotorunique hist, font ., p. 68.

non causa

Stubbs,

malitiae, sed

ii.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

32
of

Columba

Clonard,

Columban

of

of

Comgell

Hi,

Bangor,

Bobbio, Adamnan, Dicuil, Sedulius,

Thus the seventhScottus
Eriugena, &c.
Joannes
century legend that Christianity was brought to
of

Ireland by Patrick during the fifth

consistent with his own writings.
12.

Prospers

In addition to

all

this,

century

we have

is

in

the definite

statement of Prosper Tiro, who writes in his Chronicle

under the year A.D. 431, Palladius, ordained by Pope
"

ment"

Celestine,
in

is

Christ."

sent as

first

bishop to the Irish believing

Prosper went to

Rome

shortly after St.

death (August 28, 430), and brought a

Augustine
letter from Pope Celestine, who died July 27, 432,2 to
s

So he was in all
the Galilean bishops of Massilia.
in
the
Rome
year 431, when the
during
probability
above

event

took

Prosper,

place.

who

lived

at

Massilia, issued the first edition of his Chronicle in

In it we find the above statement, which, ex
433.

cept a note on the condemnation of Nestorius at the

synod of Ephesus, is the only information given for
the year 431.
Thus we have a record of a certainty

and authenticity which cannot be surpassed, confirm

ing the results arrived at in the preceding paragraphs,
viz. that la -43 1 the Irish were already Christians, to
the same extent, perhaps, that Gaul could be called
Christian at the time of Martin of Tours.
If

we bear

Church

mind

the organisation of the Irish

in the sixth and seventh centuries, the meanin

1
Ad Scottos in
Prosper, Chron. in Migne, Pat. Lat. li., col. 595
Christum credentes ordinatus a papa Qelestino Palladius primus episcopus
:

mittitur.
2

See Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis^

i.

231, note 7.

AND EARLY HISTORY

ORIGIN

33

"

first bishop," is clear.

ing of Prosper s expression,
Palladius was the first bishop ordained in accordance

with canonical ritual, as distinguished from the mis

sionary and monastic bishops of the Irish Church

during the

The

fifth

century.
value of Prosper

statement in the Chronicle

cannot be shaken by an apparent contradiction in

a

somewhat

later

work

who

successor Xystus,

of

his.

died in

While Celestine s
440, was still alive,

probably
year 437, Prosper wrote against
Cassian s Collationes Patrum his Liber contra Collatorem,
the

in

containing a fulsome panegyric on Celestine, in which

With no less care did
the following passage occurs
he free the British Isles from that same disease (i.e.
"

and by ordaining a bishop for the

whilst he endeavoured to keep the Roman island

Pelagianism),
Irish,

Catholic, he

made

also the

(et ordinato Scottis episcopo

barbarous island Christian

dum Rotnanam

"

insulam studet

servare catholicam fecit etiam barbaram Chris tianam). 1

y

Can

this rhetoric of the year

437 suffice to convict the

sober chronicler of ignorance concerning what he

wrote in 433 about the year 431

We may

safely

assume that Prosper knew nothing of Palladius

immediate return and death. This is important, in
view of the use which the Patrick legend makes of
Palladius mission.
Palladius was ordained and
"

sent

to

convert this island

"

(ad hanc insulam

con-

Thus are Prosper s words garbled. We

draw
the inference that the statement of
may perhaps
vertendam)^

Migne, 51, 273, 18-274, J 6.

See Stokes, Tripartite Life,

ii.

272.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

34
437

based upon hopeful

is

who had gone

first

reports of Palladius,

to Ireland in 431 as the first bishop.

The word Christianam has

chiefly

been used

to bring

out the antithesis to barbaram, which again corre

sponds to the antithesis of Romanam and catholicam.

If such rhetorical flourishes are allowed any weight
against indisputable historical fact, what strange in
ferences might we not draw from Juvenal s exclama
tion, uttered

about the year 90

Arma

quidem ultra

Litora Jubernae promovimus?-

or

De

conducendo loquitur jam rhetore Thule?

Another reason for the authenticity of the bare

record in the Chronicle as against the phrase in the
panegyric, is the fact that it was not customary to
consecrate

"

"

bishops

no Christians.

An

where there were

example from the days

for countries

instructive

When Gregory
of Gregory will serve as illustration.
had decided upon winning the Angles over to Chris
he sent the servant of God, Augustine, and
tianity,
"

with him several other

monks who

feared the Lord,

preach the word of God to the English nation. In

case they were received by the English, Augustine

to

3
appointed to be consecrated bishop."
Augustine settles with forty men on the coast of
Kent they are not rejected, they preach, win over the

had

been

king, erect churches, and restore the ruins of others

The king
dating from the time of the Romans.

makes

4
offerings to them.

"

Then Augustine
2

Saturnalia,

Bede, Hist, EccL,

ii.

14.
4
i.

23.

Ibid., xv.
Ibid.,

i.

12.

25, 26.

repairs

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

35

pursuant to the orders received from the

holy Father Gregory, is ordained archbishop of the

to Aries and,

English nation. After which, returning into Britain,

he sends Laurentius the priest and Peter the monk
to

Rome

Pope Gregory that the nation

had received the faith of Christ, and
he himself was made their bishop." 1
to acquaint

of the English

that

The supposition

that

Pope Celestine ordained

simple Diaconus for such Palladius still was in 429

as bishop, to be sent out to a country considered
entirely pagan,

is

in itself quite

untenable

Prosper

statement for the year 431, supported by the abovementioned facts, remains unshaken, and the seventh -

century legend
13.

What

the ground.
accurate account can be given of

falls to

fairly

Identity

the introduction of Christianity into Ireland as the

How is the
outcome of the foregoing argument ?
historical Patrick related to

what part did he play

fifth
v

century

in

Prosper

the Irish

Palladius,

Church

and

of the

it must be evident that the his

and Prosper s Palladius are one and
the same person. Various reasons may be enumer-

In the

historical
Patrick.

first

place,

torical Patricius

ated,
(a)

per,
1

et

namely

According to the indisputable testimony of Pros

Palladius went from Rome to Christian Ireland

Interea vir Domini Augustinus venit Arelas,

Bede, Hist. Eccl., i. 27.
ab nrchiepiscopo eiusdem civitatis Aetherio, iuxta quod iussa sancti

patris Gregorii acceperant, archiepiscopus genti

Anglorum ordinatus

est

reversusque Britanniam misit continue Romam Laurentium presbyterum et

Petrum monachum, qui beato pontifici Gregorio gentem Anglorum fidem
Christi suscepisse ac se

episcopum factum esse

referrent.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

36
in 431

according to the universally established tradi

tion of the Irish, Patricius

came

to Ireland in 432.

It is

view of the scanty opportunities for travel

those times, that there should really have existed two

incredible, in
in

different persons

each charged with a definite mission

to Ireland within so short a space of time. 1

Moreover,

as already noted, Prosper, about the year 437, knows

2
nothing of Palladius failure. Todd s attempt to meet

by conjecturing that Patricius did not

till the year 440 is untenable, con

this difficulty

come

to Ireland

Is it probable
sidering the material at our disposal.
that the date 432 should have been substituted for

the ex hypothesi older and correct date, 440, so late

Muirchu maccu Machas the eleventh century ?
theni, in his Life, avoided the difficulties arising

from

the two years, 431 and 432, by the simple device of

Attempts such as these to
giving no dates at all.

support the legend of two distinct contemporary

missions effectually betray how baseless it is.
Palladius goes to Ireland in 431 as
bishop of the Irish who believed in

"the

(b)

himself

Patricius, appearing a year later, calls

"

phatically

the appointed bishop for

he complains,
(c)

We

first

it is

ordained

Christ,"

Ireland,"

and

em

although

want of recognition.
Palladius mentioned by Prosper

true, of

find

under the year 429,

in the previously

quoted note

Pelagian Agricola, son of the Pelagian bishop

Severianus, corrupts the churches of Britain by the
"The

teaching of his dogma.

1

But

at the instigation of the

See Stokes, Tripartite Life,

See his Patrick, pp. 392-99.

ii.

272.

ORIGIN

AND EARLY HISTORY

37

deacon Palladius, Pope Celestine sends Germanus,

bishop of Auxerre, in his stead, who overthrows the
and makes the Britons return to the Catholic

heretics

Bearing in mind the inferior position of a

diaconus in Rome, we can only understand the part
faith."

ascribed to Palladius by a man conversant with the

conditions of his time, on the supposition that Palla
dius himself was a Briton, who, on his way to Rome,
had entered into friendly relations with Germanus of.

Auxerre.

Now, according

historical Patricius

Gaul.

to his

own

testimony, the

was a Briton, and had been

in

we

are told that he stayed with

Tirechan states that Patrick himself

In the Life

Germanus, and
had said in his work, In Commemoratione Laborum, that
he spent seven years on land and at sea in Gaul and
2

Italy.

(d)

come

If

Palladius was British by descent,

Rome, then

to live in

and had

in all probability his

Patrick s

name

was merely a Romanised translation of the original

barbarian form. This was a general habit in those
times with the British and Irish who left their native
land, as we may conclude from such instances as

a mes.
1

Pelagius, Mansuetus, Faustus, Fastidius, Albeus, &c.

his British name is likely to have signified some

And

thing like

"

warlike, bearing

Now Muirchu

on

warfare."

begins the biography of the supposed

apostle thus
Patricius, who was also called Sochet,
of British nationality, was born in the British Isles
"

"

and Tirechan
1

states

on the authority

of

his

See Haddan and Stubbs, ii. 309, 1-4.

See Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii. 302, 19-23.

master

Sucat.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

38
]

manuscript, that Succetus was another name

of Patrick.
The Irish Fiacc s Hymn, of later origin,
knows that Patrick when a child was called Succat

Ultan

and

in the gloss

on

tional note that this

deus belli vel fortis

fortis,

and

This

is

cat

fairly

corresponds

and

catus

to

name was

Welsh,
Palladius.

the addi

is

and meant

"

British,"

because su in British was

belli,

bellum. 1

accurate

Greek

TroXe/io?,

its

meaning,

of su

composed

eu,

and, with the regular phonetic

common

"

ready

hygad,

2
Sucatus, from

eu-TroXe/^,

changes, appears as a
viz.

passage there

this

adjective in

for battle,

modern

warlike."

Thus Palladius is a Roman rendering of

name Sucatus, as O Brien 3 has already

the British
rightly

ob

from

his
without, however, drawing profit
observation, believing as he did in the authenticity
of the legend.
Sucat either changed his name him

served,

self

on

his

accord with his

select for

Sucat.

more in
scanty education, he made friends

journey to

him

When,

Italy,

Roman

or,

what

is

equivalent for the British

had

in 431, Sucat- Palladius

left

Rome

the ordained bishop of the Irish who believed in

Christ," it was only natural that on setting foot on the

as

"

he should drop the Roman trans

lation of his name and call himself Sucat
again, the
"

barbarian island

more

so as

it is

"

also the correct Irish

half of the fifth century.

So

it

happened

Palladius did not appear in Ireland

1

form

till

that the

name

work

Prosper

See Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii. 4 2.

Cf. Riocatus, the British fellow-countryman of Faustus, Mon, Germ.
1

in the first

Auct. Antiq., viii. 157.

3
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 1887, pp. 723-31.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

39

became known, and it is easy to see how the idea of

two different persons sprang up.
But whence did Sucat get the name of Patricius, by
which he calls himself in his Confession and Epistle ?
every attentive reader of these writings
that besides his deep inward piety Patrick had also a
It

will strike

good dose

Patricias,

of that arrogance peculiar to enthusiastic

religious persons of

little

He was

culture.

especially

proud of his alleged aristocratic descent, which, how

ever, was not so distinguished as he would make us
I
was born noble, my father being a
.believe.
"

Decurio; but I have exchanged that privilege of birth

(I blush not for it, and I grudge it not) for the benefit

he wrote in his Epistle to Coroticus ; and

that I should give myself
in the Confession he says
of

others,"

"

and my noble
In

Rome

birth

up

for the benefit of

others."

at that time the title of Patricius

conferred upon high

officials of the

empire

was often

in

token of

The somewhat narrow-minded

high personal rank.

Sucat (Palladius) applying

Roman

conditions to the

small British country town of Bannaventa, where his

father had been senator or mayor, considered himself
justified in

in

assuming the
Ireland as

title

Succat

figured
writings simply as Patricius.
If

we assume

that this

and thus
and in his

of Patricius,

Patricius

name had

into the Irish vernacular of the

fifth

really entered Cothrige.

century, then,

Haddan and Stubbs, ii. 316, 15 seq.

Ingenuus sum secundum
carnem, nam decurione patre nascor, vendidi autem nobilitatem meam,
non erubesco neque poenitet, pro utilitate aliorum.
2
Ut darem me et ingenuitatem meam pro utilitate
Ibid., ii. 306, 26.
1

aliorum.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

4o

according to what has been said before about the

transformation of Latin names into Irish through the

medium

of British,

could only appear as Cathrige or

it

Cothrige in the Irish of the seventh century.

is

the form

we

number

actually find in a

And

this

of sources. 1

Tirechan quotes the place-names Petra Coithrigi in

2
County Meath, and Petra Coithrigi in Cash el in
Munster 3 in connection with the legendary Patrick,
without, however, being aware of the fact that he had
come across the popular Irish name of the historic

which had been

Patricius,

two centuries.

in use for

The meaning

of the word Cothrige is altogether

obscure to the Irish of the seventh and eighth cen
turies, as

had

wonderful etymologies show. They

cognisance of the fact that Cothrige was

their

lost all

the regular fifth-century form for Patricius, and there

fore they looked upon Cothrige as an additional name
of the legendary Patricius.

After the appearance of the Patrick legend in the

seventh century, the literary form of Patricius under

went

a fresh

change
it

in

popular

and we

Patric,
eighth century
doublets Cothraige and Patraic in Fiacc

tenth century, just as

to be

cavalier,"

minster
1

also

teuflisch

found side by side

"

11

"

"

"

or

"

and

coutume

in
"

and

"

find

Hymn

"

are

German, chevalier and

and costume in French,

monastery

"

"

in

English.

They

are

Tirechan, Fiacc, and others, who knew Patrick s other name Sucat,
know that he bore the name of Cothrige (Cothirthiagus in its Latinised

form).
2

the

of the

diabolisch

"

"

"

During the

Irish.

became

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

ii.

310.

Ibid.,

ii.

331.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

41

both Irish forms of the same name, but Hibernicised

different periods.

Cothrige

for the historical Patricius

is

the fifth-century

Patric

first

at

name\

appears in the

eighth century as the popular name for Patricius, who

had been resuscitated in the seventh century and

turned into the legendary apostle of Ireland.

14. We may now sketch the following picture of Account
the origin and early history of the Celtic Church in
Ireland. From Britain, which possessed.an organised

Church by the beginning of the fourth cenwas brought to Ireland in the course
century. It was the natural outcome of the

Christian

Church,

tury, Christianity

historical

of that

facts>

close intercourse between the south-west of Britain

and the south-east of Ireland. The actual founding
of a Christian

Church, spreading over larger parts of

must have been a result of that first powerful

wave of monasticism which swept over Gaul and
Britain from the middle of the fourth century, and
Ireland,

brought
Christian
facts

in

its

course a number of half-Romanised

Britons as missionaries to Ireland.

confirm

this

theory

Two

The high repute which Martin of Tours en

joyed in Ireland, and which still showed itself in the
ninth century, when it was thought desirable to con
nect the new apostle Patrick closely with him, nay,
even to make him his nephew.
2. The difference between the
organisation of the
Irish Church and that of the very Church she
sprang
1.

from,
If,

viz.

the British Church.

as

seems

probable,

the

system was powerful enough

missionary -monastic
about changes

to bring

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

42

the regime of the strongly organised Episcopal

Church of Martin of Tours in the north-west of Gaul
in

changes tending to bring it nearer to that of the

Monastic Church l it may easily be understood

where no form

in Ireland,

of centralised

Irish

how

government

or municipal organisation existed, the heads of the

missionary - monastic establishments (belonging as

they generally did to the chief families of the clan),

were

able, despite their lack of Episcopal orders, to

maintain in their

own hands

the entire system of

church government.
Just as, during the ninth century, the Viking-plague
drove many of the Irish to the Continent, so in the fifth

century the Saxons must certainly have driven a number

of Christian Britons to Ireland as well as to the Armori-

can coast

in Gaul.

Ireland had

become

not be ascertained.

How

far the

west and north of

Christianised about A.D. 433 can

It is deserving of notice that the

two passages of his Confession,

where he speaks with unrestrained frankness about his
being led into slavery and of his six years service (from
historical Patrick in the

2
402 till 408) in the present county of Antrim, never hints
even with a single word at those Irish being heathens.

the more remarkable, since the pirates

pro
on
hands
he
fell
into
whose
heathen
Saxons
bably

This

is

from Ireland to Britain, are expressly called

gentes by him, and he dwells with horror on their
paganism which made them think of offering him
his flight

See Hartung, Diplomatisch-historische Forschttngen,

Antiquae Brit. Scotorumque Eccl., p. 67.
2
Haddan and Stubbs, ii. 296, 5 seq.\ 300, 16 seq.

p.

34

and Loofs,

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

1
(immolaticum) honey to eat. It will be
safe to say that the north-east coast of Ireland was

sacrificial

about the year 400. And the

heretical doctrines of Arianism and Pelagianism also
also already Christian

reached and affected these Christian parts of Ireland,

as has been stated above.
15.

tury.

named Sucat played an important

Briton

role in the Irish

Church during

According

own

to his

statement he was born in

the British borough of Bannaventa, which must have

been somewhere near the modern town of Daventry. 2

The year
since,

of his birth

was

in all probability A.D. 386,

according to the Confession?

30+15 = 45

years

lay between his birth and his consecration as a bishop

His family was possessed of some wealth,
(A.D. 431).

and had been Christian

for generations,

his great

4
Al
grandfather having already been a Presbyter.
though Christian, young Sucat gave himself up to

worldly pleasures, and himself owns to having sinned

against the sixth commandment
5
At the age of sixteen,
year.

when
i.e.

kidnapped by some plundering

in his fifteenth

he was
and taken as

A.D. 402,

Irish,

a slave to the north of Ireland.

from 402

For

six years,

i.e.

Reflection
408, he was a swineherd.
about
contrition
and
conversion
he
brought
practised
austerities, he had visions, and heard supernatural
till

He

voices counselling flight. 6

1

Haddan and

See Academy,

Haddan and

Stubbs,

May

succeeded in reaching

301, 16-303,

11, 1895. p.

Stubbs,

ii.

ii.

402

2.

seq.

304, 10-17.
5

Ibid.,

ii.

296,

Ibid.,

ii.

300, 17 seq.

3.

Life of

part of the fifth ceil- Patrick.

Ibid.,

ii.

304, 10 seq.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

44

the coast, where he

in with heathens,

fell

presumably

who took him across to Britain in three days,

and made him follow them about the country for sixty
days, until at last he freed himself from this new yoke,
There he
and arrived at his old home (A.D. 408-9).
entered the Church and became a diaconus. He had
Saxons,

visions

first

dream

the

manner

of

the

one

on another night Christ ap

third night the Holy Ghost, 2
he believed himself to be called upon to be the

related Acts xvi. 8-10

peared to him,
so that

in

and on a

Episcopus for Ireland.

In his native place, where they were well acquainted
with this eccentric and somewhat, narrow-minded man
all kinds of obstacles presented
His
themselves to his consecration as a bishop. 3
4
he
Then
own parents and friends were against it.

of defective education,

tried to gain his point abroad.

If

we may

believe

statements quoted by Tirechan, Sucat himself

says in his work, In Commemoratione Laborum, that he
had been wandering through Gaul and Italy for seven

Ultan

years.
of

He

left

thirty-eight,

home about

the year 424, at the age

followed the ancient route to

and

Rome, via Auxerre (where he made a stay with Germanus), along the valley of the Rhone, via Aries, and
by the coast of the Provence and the Lerinian Islands
through Northern Italy. In the meantime his bar
baric name of Sucat had been jiuly Romanised into
He was in Rome in the year 429, accordPalladius.
i

Haddan and
Ibid.,

ii.

Stubbs,

304, 5

seq.,

ii.

300, 26-303,

310,

2.

Stokes, fripartitc Life^

ii.

2
4

seq.

302, 19 seq.

Ibid.,

ii.

Ibid.,

ii.

303, 5-304, 4.
306, 18 seq.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

ing to Prosper

statement.

During

45

his stay there

he

activity, as is the case with

highly religious people possessed of a fixed idea. The
influence he gained in Rome, in spite of his want of

must have displayed great

must be ascribed to the circumstance that

for twenty years back Britain had actually been
severed from the empire, and consequently the con
nection between Rome and the British Church had
become difficult. To judge from the great importance
learning,

which he attaches

in

his

Confession

to

his father s

position of decurio in a small

British country-place,
have
possibly
may
exaggerated his family s influ
ential position in Britain to the leading ecclesiastical

he

Rome. Prosper tells us that

instigation Germanus of Auxerre was

circles of

at Palladius

sent to

the

south-west of Britain in the year 429, in order to

And from the same

suppress Pelagianism there.
source we learn that, in 431, Palladius obtained his
heart

desire

and was ordained

episcopus for Ireland.

j

The consecration

of the British diaconus Palladius,

who had

already spent six years in Ireland, was pro

bably assisted in Rome by the idea that through him
Pelagianism might be effectively dealt with in the
south-east of

and

thus the danger of

further contagion for the south-west of Britain, where
Pelagianism had been extirpated during the years 429
Ireland,

that

and 430, would be removed.

We may

even interpret

the above quoted passage in Prosper s Liber contra

Collatorem to the same effect, if we interpret Britannias
in

Prosper

first

clause

as

both Britain (insulam

Romanain} and Ireland (barbaram insulam).

On

his

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

46

return from

Rome, Palladius presumably visited Gerand

came to Ireland in 432. He now put
manus,
aside the Roman translation of his name, assuming in
its stead the title of Patricius, due to his over-estimating
the position of his family.

We have no detailed account of his activity in Ireland,

may possibly assume, from Prosper s words in the
Liber contra Collatorem, that Sucat-Patricius believed at
And his suc
first in a successful result of his mission.
but

may have

cesses

gianism.

work

against Pelathe
fully recognised as
In his letter to Coroticus

referred to his

But he was never

"

appointed bishop of Ireland."

he says
Although now I am despised of some," and
in the Confession he calls himself
despised by most."
"

"

His very limited literary education, which the ardour

conviction could not long conceal, became an

of

object of scorn

and derision among

his

more cultured
had Hiberni-

for thus the Irish

antagonists. Cothrige
cised the title of Patricius
Confession that he

does not mention in the

had consecrated any bishops.

How

extended to Connaught and

missionary
the north-west of Ireland, where there must still have
been some scope for such work, can hardly be ascer

far his

efforts

tained from the Confession, the only document of any

weight in this matter. In interpreting the language of

document, we must remember the author s way of

It is a monkish ascetic who writes of the
thinking.

this

I knew not the true

worldly tendency of his youth
*
or
I had not
God,"
yet believed the living God even
"

"

from

my
1

childhood, but remained in death and un-

Haddan and

Stubbs,

ii.

296,

5.

Deum verum

ignorabam.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

belief

till

was sore

chastised."

An

47

attitude

of

mind, a mode of expression such as are disclosed in

these phrases, make it impossible to infer with certainty

God it was in
paganism from the following words
me, who conquered through me and withstood them
"

that I might come to preach His gospel to the

Hibernian people, and should suffer the contempt

all,

of

unbelievers,"

in

which Patrick

especially

if

we remember

refers to real paganism.

the

way
Nor is

the

passage in the Epistle to Coroticus, concerning

Patrick s
white-robed neophytes," 3 a sure indication
"

of paganism.

Basil the Great,

Gregory of Nazianzus,
Jerome, Augustine, all received baptism as adults, and
it is not
necessary to assume that the neophyti in veste
were

Candida

Patrick
newly converted heathens.
expresses the same views, and uses the same phrases
as Salvian and others, to whom convertere ad Deum
4

(Dominum) is identical with to go into a monastery."

These points are deserving of notice, if we wish to
ascertain from the Confession how far the historical
"

Patrick

"

sent to the Irish believing in Christ as their

first bishop,"

really

performed any missionary work

strictly so-called.

We

have some indications of where the historical

Patrick abode.

In the Life of the legendary Patrick,

Deum unum non credebam ab

mansi donee valde castigatus sum.
2
Non mea gratia, sed Deus qui vincit in me et restitit illis omnibus
ut ego veneram ad Hibernas gentes evangelium praedicare et ab incredulis
1

Haddan and

Stubbs,

ii.

304, 14 seq.

infantia mea, sed in morte et incredulitate

injurias perferre.
3

Haddan and

See Nachrichlen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen^

1895, P-

Stubbs,

48, note.

ii.

314, 16.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

48
he

made

is

to land at a

harbour ad hostium Dee,

i.e.

in

Now
Irish, Inber Dea, near the Wicklow of to-day.
the tendency of the legend required Patrick to settle
in the North as soon as possible, and there would be
Muirchu to make him land near
Wicklow, unless an ancient trait of the historical
Patrick was thus preserved.
Muirchu maccu Machtheni himself came from the
Hui Garrchon, in the eastern part of
district of the
the county of Wicklow, near the town of the same
x
where his name is preserved in Kill-Murchon,
name,"
near Wicklow, and where they still celebrate his
memory on the 8th of June. He used as sources for
his Life of St. Patrick both the Confession and the
no

reason

for

"

Aed,
Epistle of the historical Sucat, called Patricius.
the bishop of the monastery of Sletty, at whose insti
gation Muirchu wrote, also came from the south-east of
Ireland (near the modern town of Carlow, on the left

bank

of the Barrow),

to the
first

to

and Cummian, who

in his letter

Abbot Segene of Hi, probably in 634, was the

mention the legendary Patrick, was likewise a

native

the

of

south.

The south

of

Ireland

thus

possessed material concerning the historical Patrick,

i.e.

the

Confession,

This makes
in

it

Epistle,

and biographical notes.

somewhere

probable that Patrick settled

County Wicklow, whence he raised

his claim to be

the appointed bishop of Ireland, and

regarded
after
where,
seeing the frustration of his hopes, he
came to die, on the iyth of March 459, if we may
as

1
See Reeves, Adatnnarfs Life of Columba, p. 51, note
Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, i. 445, notes 31, 32.

c ;

and Colgan,

ORIGIN

AND EARLY HISTORY

49

believe the statement in the Luxeuil Calendar,

which

confirmed by the most trustworthy entries in the

He would thus be seventy-three years old.
Annals.

is

However
decades

striking

was the part he had played

for

two

in the Christian Ireland of the fifth century,

He was
yet he failed to influence the Irish Church.
soon forgotten everywhere, save in the district of his
special activity, and here in the seventh century he
was resuscitated, under the influence of a specific
tendency, with the help of his own writings and of
documents about him. There it was that he was
the

created apostle to
the

Saxons had had

and the

Picts

Gentiles
St.

North

in

in

Ireland, just as
Augustine of Canterbury,
Britain St. Columba of

Hi.

hard, but not impossible, to say why Patricius

does not mention in his Confession his consecration
It is

by Pope Celestine. Tirechan quotes from

book
When in his seventeenth year, he was
captured, led away and sold in Ireland in his twentysecond year he was able to give up the hard labour.
Another seven years he wandered about on land
and at sea over hill and dale through Gaul and
Italy, and the islands of the Tyrrhene Sea, as he
as bishop

Ultan

"

himself has related in his work, In Commemoration^

This looks like an excerpt from the
Laborum."^
But
in the existing manuscripts of the
Confession.
latter,

we have only

Gaul. 2

And even
1

a vague reference to the stay in

reference is missing in the

this

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

ii.

See Haddan and Stubbs,

302.

ii.

309,

3.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

Book

of

Armagh

text.

But the scribe

manuscript himself bears witness

of his

copy by
and by

et cetera,

original.

of the latter

to the defectiveness

his repeated insertions of et reliqua,

references to the illegible hand of his

And

since

the passages about Patrick s

missing in the Book of

sojourn in Gaul, although

and are, besides,
Armagh, appear distinctly genuine,

no

in the Epistle? there

supported by a passage
It is not
of that sojourn.
fact
reason to doubt the
other
of the
manuscripts
impossible that the source
is

also

contained gaps, and

quently returns to
in the

form

that

Patricius,

the same topic

of biblical quotations,

after

who

fre

digressions
talked

may have

about his stay on the Continent in some

but
other passage which is lost in our manuscripts,
from
know
was known to Ultan. But even then we

more

Ultan

fully

that

not mention his being

on the contrary, he keeps

did

Patricius

ordained by Celestine
Ins entirely in the dark as to who has conferred this
on him, although he dwells again and again
^benefit
on the difficulties which had to be overcome before
;

his ordination.

If

Celestine really ordained him,

can understand his silence

to

some

extent.

It

we

would

much
432,
the same hatred
with
Roman
the
Empire
regarded
that filled the Britons against the Saxons in A.D. 600.
But it is certain that at that time bitter feelings must

perhaps be too

to

say, that

in

Ireland

have prevailed among the Irish against the Empire,

which for more than 300 years had been a standing
menace to their liberty, and had possibly made secret
i

Haddan and

Stubbs,

ii.

317, 16.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

51
1

open attempts to achieve its purpose

attempts not mentioned in the scanty records at our
as well as

disposal.

no agreement could be come

to between Augustine of Canterbury and the British
Church, partly because of Augustine s haughty and
If

we remember

offensive

that

but

bearing,

chiefly

because

the

British

bishops regarded him as the representative of the

hateful Saxons, we can also understand that the
Christian Irish about A.D. 432

from

Rome

would regard

with great suspicion.

a legate

At that time they

could hardly distinguish between spiritual and tem

poral Rome, and the interference
matters of a legate sent by spiritual

appeared

to

them

in

ecclesiastical

Rome must

as the beginning of

have
an interference

on the part of temporal Rome.

on his arrival in Christian
Patricius
therefore,
Ireland in 432 tried to impress the Irish with his
ordination by Celestine, he must soon have found out

in political matters
If,

his mistake.

who

died

It

in

scarcely likely too that Celestine,

432, ordained the eccentric Briton
is

Palladius (Sucat) of his own free will, but rather

yielded to his incessant appeals, and finally sent him
off as

"the

first

bishop to the Irish

who

believed in

Christ."

Patricius himself, in unison with his religious feel

ings, would look upon Celestine as the mere visible

who had appeared to him in person

and dreams, to elect him apostle of

instrument of God

in

his visions

Ireland.

And
1

it

is

only natural, that to the old

See Tacitus, Agricola, 24, conclusion.

man

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

5 2

on the brink

of the grave, Celestine s slight

and casual

should fade away before the

whose chosen one he was.
image of God Almighty,
like to point out that the foregoing
Finally, I should

intervention in his

new

theory throws

life

light

the DictaJP^r^ii^ in

upon

cannot be
the Book of Armagh. Their authenticity
in them
contained
doubted, merely because doctrines
the
do not fit in with Patrick s alleged creation,
seventh
in
the
century
Irish Church, as she appears

and

The

later.

truth

is,

the Dicta are not part

of

as was the
the fundamental ideas of the Irish Church,
after the appearance of the Patrick
general belief
but are the views of a man who was bitterly

legend,

and
censured and opposed in Ireland between 432

459-

The phrase
Christe lession

who had

attributed
2

fits

a smattering of

Muirchu

no Greek.

to

Patrick

Curie

Lession,

in well with the picture of a

tells

man

Latin, and certainly knew

us that Patrick was wont

a thing was given to him,

say gratzacham when
from him. 3 This, too,
taken
well as when it was

to

as

consonant with our view of the historical Patrick,,

who came from a bi-lingual district (Roman-British),,
and was sure to be familiar from early childhood with

is

See Stokes,

Tripartite Life,

ii.

Timorem Dei habui ducem

301.

etiam in
itineris mei per Gallias atque Italiam,
Terreno. De saeculo requissistis ad paradissum.

insolis

ita

Scotorum immo Romanorum, ut Christiani,

vox
cantetur vobiscum oportet omni hora orationis
lession, Christe
2

Ibid.

quae sunt

Ibid.,

Omnis
ii.

mari

ilia

laudabilis

"Curie

lession."

aeclessia

quae sequitur

me

cantet

"

Curie lession, Christe

lession."

in

Deo gratias. Aeclessia

ut Roman! sitis, ut de-

291.

"Gratzacham in dato,

gratzacham

in ablato.

,;

AND EARLY HISTORY

ORIGIN

Low

53

which gratzachain, instead of

But whether the Irish
gratias agimus,
at
Patrick
s want of culture,
who
scoffed
rhetoridy
popular

Latin, of
is

an example.

themselves perhaps possessing the culture of a Pelagius, preserved these memories of illiterate Patrick in
their admiration for the historical personage,

remains

at least doubtful.

C.

BEGINNING OF CHRISTIANITY IN NORTH

BRITAIN
Bede

about the year 400, a

Briton named Nynia (Ninian) founded a monastery on
the peninsula of Wigtown, which extends into the Irish
16.

tells

us

that

Early
Of

North

Sea between the Firths of Solway and Clyde. Because

of its stone church, it bore the name of Ad Candidam

Nynia had received his theological training

Rome, and he greatly revered Martin of Tours,

Casam.
in

perhaps through having come into personal contact

with him. From his newly-founded monastery Nynia
spread Christianity among the Picts living south of
the Grampians.
That is the extent of our reliable
information, since Nynia
till the twelfth
century.
In the confusion

wards the end

biography was not written

which arose

of the first

in

North Britain

decade of the

fifth

to- Patrick

century,

were destroyed. But we

have another confirmation from the first half of the fifth
the

germs

of the

young

faith

century, which has hitherto been left unnoticed. The

historical Patrick sent a letter to a British king, called
Coroticus, which has
1

Hist. Eccl.

iii.

come down
2

4.

to

Haddan and

us. 2
Stubbs,

Muirchu
ii.

314

seq.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

54
used

DC

it

for his Life of St. Patrick, in a chapter entitled

adversum Coirthech regem

apparent, this rex A loo must have

Conflictu Sancti Patricii

A loo.

As is quite
been identical with King of
1

Ail,

i.e.

the place called

= Rock on
(

Alcluith

the Clyde) by Bede,

times.

barton in modern

Dum

and

the Irish tradition of the seventh century

Thus
Patrick

king of the Strathclyde

Coroticus

between the walls

of

made

Britons,

Antonine and Hadrian.

Many

At the time of Columba of Hi

over
Roderc
a
filius Tothail? reigned
king,
(563-597),
=
the Strathclyde Britons in Petra Cloithe ( Ail-cluith)

facts

confirm

this.

and the North Briton, whose work, written

in A.D.

to us in the Historia Britonum,

679, has come down
also mentions a Riderch Hen as the contemporary of

the

Angle Hussa,

The pedigree

between 571 and 579.

reigning

of this king

"

Riderch the

Old,"

whose

is preserved in
reign fell between A.D. 570 and 600,
5
the reliable Old Welsh Genealogies, according to

which he was a son

of Tutagual,

son of Clinoch, son

Dumngual, son of Cinuit, son of Ceretic Guletic.

Thus five generations before Roderc (Riderch Hen)
of

c.

i.e.

515,

about

= Coroticus,
By

guletic

Maximus

A.D. 420-450,

find a king, Ceretic

reigning over the Strathclyde Britons.

the Welsh denote the usurper

ruler
("

we

(383),

")

and those

British

sidered themselves successors to the

1

2
3

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

Bede, Hist. EccL, i. 12.

ii.

who con

chiefs

Dux

Britanni-

271, 498.

See Adamnan s Life of Columba i. 15.

See Chronica Minora, iii. 206.
Edited by E. G. B. Phillimore, Y Cymmrodor,
,

4
5

9, 173.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

arum

the

after

of

collapse

the

Roman Empire

55
in

Britain. 1

Thus

is

it

clear that Patricius addressed his Epistle]

written between 432 and 459, to this Coroticus who

ruled over Dumbarton between the years 420 and 450,
and considered himself successor to the Dux Britan-

niarmn.

According

to

this

Coroticus are of British and

letter,

the

Roman

subjects of
descent, as is

but natural, 2 and his allies are Scotti and Picti, living
to the north-west and the north-east of the Clyde re

With undisguised ire Patricius twice names

apostatae? Thus the southern Picts, probably

spectively.

the Picts

under the influence of their northern kinsmen, who

had remained heathen, had relapsed into paganism in
the second third of the fifth century.
It is noteworthy
that the Irish (Scotti), dwelling to the north-west of the
Strathclyde Britons, are not reproached with paganism.

So we are

assuming that, like the subjects

and their kinsmen on the opposite coast
Antrim, they were at that time Christians*
justified in

of Coroticus
of

2
3

See Rhys, Celtic Britain, pp. 103, 109, 134

Haddan and Stubbs, ii. 314, n.
Ibid.,

ii.

314, 13

318,

5.

seq.

CHAPTER
SECOND PERIOD

II

(A.D.

500-800)

THE CELTIC CHURCH FROM THE SIXTH TO

THE NINTH CENTURY
A.
17.

Revival
British

Church

It

that a S ain

is

THE BRITISH CHURCH

in the

second third of the

we meet with

sixth century

the British Church.

By

that

time the Angles and Saxons had driven the inde

pendent Britons into the mountainous districts of
the

and henceforth we can

west,

distinguish

four

Britons

who

of British nationality

separate groups
had fled over sea

Bretons of

Armorica (the

into

to-day), Britons in the south-west of Britain to the

south of the Severn estuary, Britons in Wales, and

Britons in

Cumberland and Strathclyde.

Wales alone

in

of

that

we

But

it

is

obtain a tolerably distinct

There the Britons offered

the Church.

picture
the toughest resistance to their

new Teuton neigh

Much
bours encroaching on their independence.
has been said of late about outside influences prov
ing to be a source of new life for the Church in
Wales.
to
1

show

Professor

Hugh

Williams

has even tried

"

that

"

British

Christianity

of

the

Transactions of the Society of Cymmrodorion, 1893-94, pp. 58

56

sixth
seq.

SECOND PERIOD
century had

Church

little

(A.D.

57

500-800)

or nothing to do with the Christian

Accord

of Britain during the fourth century.

ing to him, the Christian

Church

of the fourth century

comprised chiefly Roman residents in British towns,

while the British population in the country remained
heathen and he asserts that soon after the withdrawal
;

of

the

Romans and

Church

the

collapse

of Britain there arose in

of
its

Christian

the

place, perhaps

under the influence of Southern Gaul, the Celtic

Church.
Such views can only be explained by an insufficient

knowledge
after the

of the state of things in Britain before

withdrawal

"

"

of the

Romans, and by

and

wrong

conception of the alleged desertion of Britain, as has

1
already been justly remarked by Mr. F. Haverfield.

Two

decisive facts

fugitive Britons

whom

may

still

be added

fear of the

first,

the

Saxons drove from

South Britain to the coast of Armorica were Christians,

and yet spoke British, since their descendants have
that

preserved

language to the present day

and

secondly, the missionaries who came from Britain to

Christianise Ireland in the fourth century also used
British as their native idiom. 2

Thus

it

is

of

majority

about A.D. 400 a great

British-speaking population were

certain that

the

In the vicinity of the towns, part of the

population was bi-lingual those of less culture, like
Christian.

Patrick, spoke a

Low

Latin dialect as well as their

native British, while Latin

1

was the language

See English Historical Review, 1896,

See above 9.24, 9.

p.

428

seq.

of the

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

educated.

In this connection

even in the
still

calls

literary
"

nosira

Charac

18.

teristics

as

half

it

noteworthy that

is

the sixth

century Gildas
Latin (by which he doubtless means the
first

of

from the popular form),

distinguished
:

lingua"

Although the British Church

of Gildas

time

of the
British

was a direct continuation of the Christian Church

Church

of Britain in the fourth century, its external organi

sation by no means represented an uninterrupted

in Wales.

External
organisa
tion.

development from that of the

the populous east, with

its

Church.

earlier

seats of bishoprics,

When

London,

Albans, Lincoln, and York, fell into the hands of

the Angles and Saxons, the Britons poured in numbers
St.

into Armorica, as

well as into the thinly populated

Wales in especial received
hilly districts of the west.

soon after A.D. 400 a great influx of emigrants from

the northern districts between the two Roman walls,
and consequently her political condition underwent a
great change. There were no towns which could
serve as centres of ecclesiastical organisation.
But

monasticism, which had flourished in Britain since

the end of the fourth century, created new centres
for the

Church

of the

Saxons

in
at

Wales.

Mons Badonicus

504), the Britons in

parative peace from

commenced in
The countless
amalgamated
1

Wales enjoyed
outside, a

after the defeat

(before the year

a time of

com

period of transition

the inner constitution of the country.

independent territories were

of a shifting charlarge wholes

small,

into

Mommsen, Chronica Minora,

pp. 291-336.

And when

iii.

and Zimnaer, Nennius Vindicatus,

SECOND PERIOD

(A.D.

59

500-800)

and the numerous dioceses, each based

acter at first
on the monastery of a clan, and comprising the
belonging

territory

to

it,

gradually

larger organisms.
At the second conference

of

St.

gave

way

to

Augustine with Four

the representatives of the British Church in A.D. 603,

seven British bishops were present. 1 In the course
of the seventh century the political situation
clear, the separate districts
territories,

was

and the

combined

became

into four chief

ecclesiastical organisation of

Wales

by the constitution of four

on
Menai Straits, in Gwynedd,
bishoprics
Bangor
St. Asaph in the north-east, in Powys, Menevia (St.
David s) in the south-west, in Dyfecl, and Llandaff
definitely

fixed

(near Cardiff) in

the

south-east,

bishoprics were independent of

reflecting

faithfully

the

in

Gwent.

each

ecclesiastical

These

other,

order

thus

before

the Saxon invasion.

monasteries of

They were based on the chief

the above territories
monasteries

under the immediate control of the bishop for in

most cases abbot and bishop were one and the same
person. The other monasteries of the diocese, pre
sided over by independent abbots, were gradually

subordinated to the bishop. Thus in the tenth-cen

tury code the seven monasteries of Dyfed are denoted
as

the

"seven

Menevia.

bishop

houses"

of

the Bishop of

According

to the

Annales Cambriae, the founders of

the four extant bishoprics died in the following years

1

Bede, Hist. EccL, ii. 2.

Septem Brittonum episcopi.
See Ancient Laws of Wales, Dull Dyved, ii. 24.

bishoprics.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

60

Daniel of Bangor in 584, David of Menevia in 601,

Dubricius of Llandaff and Kentigern of St. Asaph in
612.
1

**

The

of the

Church,

inner

of the British

life

Church during the

period of peace, from outward enemies, which ensued

after A.D. 500 and lasted for the greater part of the
fifth

century, as well as her influence on her disciples,

in a very sad light if we gave literal

would appear

credence to the assertions of Gildas, writing about

account

*^ e ^ ear 547*
^ u*
fact account of the

^s

rather the penitential

animated by

the

Church

sermon
the

to paint everything in

most

of his day, but

man who

delights
blackest colours, a man

rigid

for instance, convertere

whom,

of a

no matter-of-

is

description

British

monastic

ideas,

ad Deum means

"

with
to

go

into a monastery." 1

We

have only to go a step beyond the monastic

ideal expressed

by Gildas

representing,

life,

Christianity.

so

to

And we

to arrive at the anchorite s

grade

of

from Bede 2 that

in

speak,
learn

higher

Wales

also (during the sixth century) the life of the

anchorite arose out of that of the cloister, and kept
its

connection with

Points of

between
British

19.

for the release of

^

it.

circumstance which in

vears

promised well
the British Church from her isolation
itself

standing, served but to isolate her

all

Church
and the

the

Roman

was Gregory s mission to the Saxons. The points in

which the British Church in St. Augustine s time
differed from the Roman were these

ch

more

for another

i^o years and longer.

This

See Chronica Minora,

iii.

43,

u,

14.

Bede, Hist. EccL,

ii.

2.

SECOND PERIOD

(A.D.

Observance of the Easter

500-800)

61

according to
the old computation, which, before the severance of
the British from the Western Church, had also been
1.

festival

used in Rome.
Certain differences in the baptismal rite. 1
These differences were certainly not of such a nature
2.

Failure of
8

as to preclude the assent of the Britons to the demands which the Roman Church made with a view to

reunion.

It is

bearing of

St.

in

true the Britons resented the haughty

Augustine during the two conferences.

can only have been a pretext. The

reason lay deeper, and was to be found in

Yet

tine s

this

real

their

the hereditary foe whose chief

in St. Augustine.
saw
A sufficient
representative they
is
the
the
demeanour
of
British
Church
proof of this
towards the Christian Saxons and Angles during the
whole of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh
2
century, as it is described by Bede and the still more
national hatred

of

3
graphic Aldhelm,

During the fifth and sixth centuries the Welsh

Church kept up a lively intercourse with the Church
of South Ireland, whilst her connections with the east
were obstructed, or altogether interrupted, by the wall
But when about 630
of barbarians surrounding her.
the Church of South Ireland conformed to Rome, the
Welsh Church was also severed from the west. We
find Irish canons directed against Welsh clerics. 4 For
the spiritual culture of the British Church, this isola1

2
3
4

2.
Cf. above,
Bede, Hist. EccL,

ii.

20.

Monumenta Gernianica, EpistoL, torn.

See Haddan and Stubbs, ii. 330, 33.

iii.

233.

inter-

Between
the Welsl1

and Irish
Churches
thTsixth
centur y-

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

62
Isolation
of the

Welsh
Church
in the

seventh
century.

Nennius.

on all sides proved fatal. Even Gildas, the most

eminent of her representatives in the sixth century
he died in 570 cannot be compared with a somewhat
younger representative of the Irish Church, Columbanus of Bobbio, if we may judge of his classical
education from the quotations in his works. 1
We meet with no name of literary merit in the
Welsh Church until the end of the eighth century,
when Nennius compiled the History of the Britons."
But what a poor figure does he cut as a scholar if we
compare him with the Anglo-Saxons Aldhelm, Bede,
tion

"

Introduc
tion
of the

Roman
Paschal

computa
tion
in the

eighth
century.
Beneficial
effect

on the
Church.

and Alcuin, or with the Irish scholars of the seventh,

2
eighth, and ninth centuries.
The extrication of the British Church from an isola
tion leading to intellectual ossification was begun by
Bishop Elbodug of Bangor. According to the Annales
Cambriae he introduced the Easter calculation of the

Roman Church in 768 but the Chronicle of Welsh

Princes gives the date as 755, and states that South
Wales followed the example set by the north in 777.8
;

Yet opposition by no means ceased to exist, for the

same source informs us that in
at the death of

Elbodug,
because of

"a

great dispute arose

the bishops

Menevia refusing

to

it

and

Archbishop of
be

to

independent bishops) of older

Llandaff

of

submit to the

Gwynedd, themselves claiming

(i.e.

the clerics

among

Easter,

archbishops

standing."

Thus

seems that followers of the Anglo-Roman Church

1

2
3

See Mommsen, Chronica Minora^

See Zimmer, Nennins Vindicatus,
See Haddan and Stubbs, i. 204.

iii.

6.

p. 274.

SECOND PERIOD

500-800)

(A.D.

63

had won over Elbodug

of Bangor by intimating that

he should attain to the rank of a metropolitan in
Wales, although this rank was unknown to the

British

Church

his

of

day,

which

in

this

respect

faithfully reflected the ecclesiastical state of the

still

fourth century.
B.

THE IRISH CHURCH IN IRELAND AND

NORTH BRITAIN
20.

we can draw on native or foreign

we meet a flourishing
Church in Ireland. Her type is that of a

As soon
i.e.

sources,
Christian

as

missionary Church, yet she

tivity of

Flourish3

"

in the sixth century,

one single man

is

not based on the ac-

a theory of

which the

in the
sixth

sixth century.

century knows nothing

but she gradually develops

through the steady work of a missionary monkhood.

And

as the country

was

split

up

into

many

tribes,

there was no attempt at centralisation.

The seed
sown in the south-east of Ireland by British mis
sionaries ever since the middle of the fourth century

sprang up and increased, undisturbed by the outer

world.

So
is

quite different.

what

But the prevalent theory

the one hand it presupposes

far the actual facts.

is

On

Current

colla P s e
altogether incomprehensible, a complete colat
the
Church
end of the fifth cen- sequent

lapse of the Irish

on the other hand a revival is supposed to

have taken place in the sixth century, due to the influence of the Welsh Church, especially to such men

tury, while

as Gildas, Cadocus,

complete collapse

and David.
of

the Irish

The hypothesis

of a

Church towards the

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

64

is

year 500

Church

based on the imaginary picture of the

fifth century drawn at the time when

of the

the Patrick legend

And

century.
this

to

picture,

made

its

appearance

in the seventh

the curtain had to be dropped over

however suddenly and inappropriately,

make room

supposed new structure repre

for a

senting the actual state of things in the sixth century.

The hypothesis that Britons were active in restoring
the Irish Church in the sixth century has three foun

dations
1.

Statements

made

his activity in Ireland

in a Life of Gildas

this life

concerning

was written

at

Rhuys

in Brittany in the eleventh century.

2.

and

The views on

the Irish

Church during the

fifth

sixth centuries expressed in the Catalogue of Irish

which was written in the eighth century, long

the Patrick legend had made its appearance.
Notes of some Lives of Saints which can cer

Saints,
after
3.

be dated

tainly not

century.

earlier

than the tenth or eleventh

of critical insight shown in

the
hypothesis on such insecure founda
accepting
A simple examination of dates
tion is regrettable.

The apparent want

shows how untenable

it

Finnian of Clonard, the

is.

Twelve Apostles of Ireland,"

who, according to a statement by Columbanus of
Bobbio, corresponded with Gildas on rules of mon
2
astic discipline, died in 548. Columbanus founded the
monastery of Derry about 546 and that of Durrow
father of the so-called

"

Haddan and

See MoHumenta Gcrmanica, Epp.

Stubbs,

i.

115.
iii.

I$6seg.

SECOND PERIOD
before 560.

macnois

500-800)

65

who

died in 548, founded ClonComgell founded Bangor in Ulster

Ciaran,

in 541.

(A.D.

either in 554 or 558.

Brendan founded Clonfert in
in
In
Longford
552.
563 Columba went to Hi.

On

the other hand, it is certain that Gildas was in

Ireland on ecclesiastical business in 566 during the
1
And are we to believe the
reign of King Ainmire.
authority of a Rhuys monk of the eleventh century

time when Columba was already in Hi,

Ireland was suffering from a state of semi-paganism,
which had to be eradicated by Gildas ? 2 On his

that, at a

return to

Rhuys, Gildas

gerated description of
that

spirit

British

And

his

inspired

Church

may have

what he had

given an exag

seen, in the

sermon

penitential

same

to

the

in the first half of the sixth century.

would seem to have formed the

basis on which a monk of the same monastery, living
five hundred years later, founded the awful picture of
the state of the Irish Church about 565.
Is

this

it

tradition

not altogether irrational to

suggest that the

Church, which Gildas, speaking of the period

before 547, depicts in such gloomy tints, should at
that very time have been instrumental in
regenerating
the Irish Church ?
Apart from Gildas visit we have
no evidence of British influence. We know on the
British

surest

authority that
Cadoc, the date of

St. David died

whose death is

in

60 1, while

unknown,

is

considered his contemporary. These men could not

have been influencing the Irish Church before their
1

See Mommsen, Chronica Minora,

a;

Ibid.,

iii.

94, 95.

iii.

6.

Gildas.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

66

with which they are

very births, for the new life
a Finnian,
supposed to have inspired her produced

came to a close in 548

of Saints Lives,
authors
The statements of ignorant
who confuse different centuries with each other, can

whose years

of fruitful activity

offer

no

basis for a historical construction at variance

with

all

fixed dates.

Nor should the following point

The Welsh Church in which Gildas

be neglected.
and David (t 610) were active was, as
(t 570), Cadoc,
we have seen, an Episcopal Church, like the British
Church of the fourth century. The monastic ele

ment was strong, but it did not stamp its character

and forms on her. If, indeed, these men and their
like

had

instilled

copal Church,
all

of

it

orit

y?f

the Irish
Church,

life

hard

into the dying Irish Epis

understand why they, of

to

whom, David, was

men, one

of

Menevia,

should

entirely monastic

Superi-

new
is

have

founded

himself Bishop
in Ireland an

Church, without any traces of an

episcopal character.
21. Between the

Irish

Church and

south-west of Britain a lively intercourse

existed

all

through the

sixth,

no
But

two preceding centuries.

asked Which branch of the
:

less
if

that of the

must have

than during the

the

question

is

Church was the

the answer must surely

Celtic

the receiver ?
giver, and which
on the part of the Irish Church.
was
the
that
be
gift
The fifth century saw the complete collapse of the
which left her in
organisation of the British Church,
a state of great distress and trouble, whence, accord

she emerged but slowly

ing to Gildas own statement,
and with difficulty during the first half of the sixth

SECOND PERIOD
Meanwhile the

century.
herself
leisure.

the

Irish

Irish

The high standard

67

500-800)

Church could

own development

to her

up

(A.D.

give

undisturbed

in

of classical education in

monasteries from the sixth to the ninth

century, to which numerous Irish manuscripts of

classical authors bear witness, can only be explained
if

we assume

of Ireland,

that Ireland, or at least the south-east

had embraced Christianity, and with

it

ancient civilisation and learning, as early as the end

of the fourth century, and was able to develop the
alien culture without disturbance from outside.
In
Ireland alone could the cultivation of classical learn

ing

be propagated

everywhere

else,

in

and

fostered,

Britain, Gaul,

at

and

time

Italy,

when
hordes

of barbarians well-nigh succeeded in stamping it out.

The threadbare classical erudition of Gildas, and the
low standard of the Welsh Church during the seventh

and eighth

centuries, are convincing proofs

enough

that the foundations of classical learning in Ireland

cannot have been laid by British Churchmen of the
sixth century.

If

they had,

that the erudition of Irish

how account
monks

at

for the fact

that time sur

passed on the whole even that of Italy?

For Greek

was taught in Bangor and other monasteries, while

Gregory the Great, for instance, in all probability had
no knowledge of the language.
We also possess direct proof that from the very
of the sixth

Irish clerics

went

Irish
1

to

century
beginning
Britain"
the south-west of Britain, as well as to Brittany,
im- * nd
J
Armorica
parting and spreading knowledge, not receiving it.

They

were, so to speak, the pioneers of those later

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

68

from the end of

expeditions into Prankish territory,
Breton monk,
the
In
the sixth century onwards.
884
monastery of Lendevenec in Brit
of Leon, 1 who lived at
tany, wrote a Life of St. Paul
the beginning of the sixth century. This Life is based
on written sources, and the associates of St. Paul who

Wrmonoc,

in his

had come with him from the south-west of Britain are

of them, Quonquoted, with their full names. On one
"Whom some,
ocus, there is the additional remark
:

adding

to his

name

after the fashion of the

people over

and further on we read that the

sea, call Toquonocus
name Woednovius in the same way had a second form,.
"

We

meet with several other instances of

an additional familiar name being given to Breton
and Welsh personages of the sixth century. Thus the
founder of the monastery of Landevenec, where the
above-named Life was written, was originally called
Towoedocus?

Winwalve, but To-win-oc or Toguennoc is the familiar

form of the name, after which the monastery was
called Lan-devennec, being a later form of Lan Teguennog,

Lan Toguennog.

Britons in Brittany and in the south

west of Britain mean by the "people over the sea,"

What could

with whose clergy their

tion of

whom, contrary

own
to

associated,

all

and

in imita

British habit, familiar

names were occasionally formed ?

think of Ireland, and facts crowd

A priori one would

in

upon us

to cor

roborate this view.

1

See Revue Celtique,

Ibid., p. 437.

v.

pp. 417-58.

Quonocus, quern

marinae Toquonocmn vocant.

alii

additamento more gentis trans-

SECOND PERIOD

(A.D.

500-800)

69

and seventh centuries the custom Irish cusIreland, and especially in the monas- giving adprevailed
teries, of forming familiar names from the full name- familiar
form which always consisted of two components, names to
During the

sixth

in

such

as

Beo-gne,

Aed-gal.
of the full

Find-barr,

Lug-beo,

Aed-gen,

and

was done by taking one component

name and adding the diminutive ending

It

-an, -idn (e.g. Beodn,

one and
the same

Finddn, Finnidn, Aeddn), or by

and often adding dc as well, like

prefixing mo-,
Maedoc ( = Mo-Aed-oc), Molua, Tolua, Mernoc, Ternoc.
Thus a person of the name of Beogne was familiarly
to-,

called Beodn

little
("

Beo
Beo

"),

Mobeoc

("

my

little

Beo

"),

same way, Lugbeo,

you
Ludn, Molua Moludn, Tolua, Moludc all denote the
same person similarly, Becdn, Mobecoc, Tobecoc, Erndn,
or Dobeoc

little

("

")

in the

1
How strong must the influence
Mernoc, Ternoc, &C.
of the Irish element at the beginning of the sixth

century have been in the monasteries of Brittany

and of the south-west of Britain, if British monks
imitated

this

names

It

truly

Irish

way

of

forming familiar

is, then, not surprising that among the

Breton saints of the sixth and seventh centuries we
!

find a dozen or
2

Irish,

more who by
as we have

and who,

and name are

before, were the

tradition
said

precursors of later pioneers penetrating into Prankish

territory,

such as Furseus, Columbanus, Gallus, and

their successors.
22. Thus neither Gildas (t 570), nor David (t 60
1), Historical
nor Cadoc (t about 600), nor other Britons can have ^irish
Church.
1

See Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Sprackforschtmg, 32, pp. 175-190.

See Loth, L* Emigration bretonne, pp. 164 seq.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

;o

regenerated the Irish Church during the first decades

of the sixth century, nor was it then or before in a

On the contrary, the Irish Church,

been
having
spared the contact with barbarians in
state of collapse.

the

Finnian of

fifth

century,

was able

hand
Britain, and

to extend a helping

to the hard-suffering mother-church in

It is true
thus to pay back part of her indebtedness.
that Finnian of Clonard, who died in 548, founded

Clonard.
C/ l

onard about the year ^20, and that a num ber of

Ireland between 540
But
as his pupils.

new monasteries were erected in

and 560 1 by men looked upon
this

cannot be regarded as a restoration or reforma

tion of the Irish

drawn from

Church, for, leaving alone inferences

the above statements, there existed at that

time a great

number

only mention Emly

in

of older

monasteries.

Munster and Armagh

need

in Ulster,

the record of whose foundations is lost to the Annals.

These ancient monasteries played for centuries to

gether a far greater part in the wJiole life of the Irish

Church than Finnian s foundation, or any one of the

monasteries founded by his pupils between 540 and

Finnian lives in the memory of the Irish as the
560.

founder of a monastic

rule,

and we cannot be

far

assuming that his activity during the third

wrong
and fourth decades of the sixth century resembled
in

of Benedict of Nursia.
For his monastery of
Clonard was founded on stricter monastic rules, while
the ancient institutions bore the character of mission

that

ary stations rather than

of monasteries.
Through
the
new
and
Columba
was
system
adopted
Comgall
7

See above,

20.

SECOND PERIOD
in

(A.D.

500-800)

71

Bangor and Hi, and served thenceforth as a model

Irish monasteries in North Britain and on

for the

the Continent.

Thus we have every reason to regard the Irish

Church from the sixth till the eighth century as a
unity built up, without any interference from outside,
on the foundations laid in the two preceding centuries,
while the high

standard of

monasteries, kept

up

in

the

Irish

and

Irish

learning
the ninth century, stands in
direct connection with the classical culture of the
till

Church of the West at the end of the fourth

century. The high reputation of Irish learning among
Angles, Saxons, and Franks is perhaps best shown
by the letter written in the seventh century by Aldhelm
on the occasion of a young friend s return from the
Christian

In

Irish schools.

superiority

century,

Bede

it

Irish

of

he reluctantly acknowledges the

As

learning.

for

the

eighth

in several places speaks of Irish learn

2
ing in terms of praise.

Another characteristic

the

of

his consuetude peregrinandi,

Irish

as Walafried

monk was

Love of

Strabo ex-

i]Js

3
Single individuals
presses it in the ninth century.
or groups of three, seven, or twelve were seized with
the desire of separating themselves from the large

colonies of

w ere
r

monks

and went

for

to live in

At

isles in their

native lakes
1

2
3

still

they were

the world.

first

such the

and

Irish

monasteries

greater seclusion from

satisfied with the little

rivers,

not far from the

Migne, 89, 94, 36 seq.

Hist. EccL, iii. 7, 27.

Monumenta Germanica,

ii.

30.

lc

<>

nks

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

72

Then they began to

civitas.
numerous islands off the Irish coast in
mari eremum quaerere was the term and when these
monasteries forming a

retire to the

too were no longer places of solitude, a voyage in frail

boats was risked on the northern seas to search out
Various

some

desert

isle in

Thus
monks came to

the ocean.

lions.

course of time

Irish

it

was

that in

the Hebrides,
Shetland
even
to
Isles, nay,
Orkneys,
Iceland, so that
in 825 the Irishman Dicuil, writing in the land of the

Franks, could give minute details on Iceland which he

had received from Irish monks about 795. 1
Irish

About the same time other Irishmen went

to the

south-west of Britain, whither they were driven by the

tinent.

same impulses. Many Christian inscriptions of the

fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, with Irish names
and written in Ogham, bear witness to their presence
north and south of the Severn bay. Thence they
went to the British settlers in Brittany, as has already
been stated, and made further expeditions into
Prankish

territory,

Alps and

finally crossing

advancing to

the

them, so that

foot

of

Bobbio

the
(or

perhaps Tarentum) and Iceland form the limits

north and south to Irish love of travel.
Just as
they had gone to Iceland without any thought of

missionary

and

work, so

their

expeditions to

Brittany

kingdom of the Franks had no such

in
view.
But the state of things in the
purpose
Frankish realm induced Columbanus of Luxeuil and
his associates to expand their intentions and to
become missionaries and teachers to a people,
into the

S.B.A., 1891,

p.

282^.

SECOND PERIOD
among whom

73

500-800)

(A.D.

they had originally settled to

live

of contemplation.

lite

We

same light upon the

greatest achievement of the Irish Church and her
monks in the sixth and seventh centuries, the
Two Christian
Christianisation of North Britain.
states existed in the sixth century on the west coast
the kingdom of Strathclyde to the
of North Britain
south of the Clyde, to whose king, Coroticus, Patrick
had addressed his letter between the years 433 and
459, and the small Irish (Scottish) state to the north of
23.

must look

in the

North

by irisn
monks.

the Clyde.

Columba, born
entered Finnian
received his
steries.

of

first

of noble parents in

Donegal

in 520, columba.

famous school atClonard, after having

instruction in several northern

mona

Before 560 he himself founded the monastery

Derry

in the north,

of Ireland.

and

In 563 he

Durrow

that of

left

in the heart

Ireland \vith twelve asso

ciates, desiring to go into exile for the sake of Christ,

as his biographer, Adamnan, expressly puts it. 1
If
Bede 2 makes Columba go to Britain with the desire

of

preaching the Gospel to the provinces of the

Picts, he must have anticipated the inten

Northern
tion

from the

panions in the

Columba

result.
little

island of

settled with his

Eo

com

belonging
There, whence
he could no longer see his beloved native shore, he
to the Irish state of

North

founded a settlement,
1

(lo, Hi),

Britain.

which naturally resulted

Reeves, Adamnarfs Life of Colutnba,

p.

9.

in

Pro Christo peregrinari

volens.
2

Bede, Hist. EccL,

tentrionalium Pictorum.

iii.

4.

Praedicaturus verbum Dei provinciis Sep-

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

74

missionary activity
north,

whose

among

territory

was

the heathen Picts of the

in his

immediate neigh

became Christianised,
and even during the lifetime of Columba a monastic
Church arose, with the abbot of Hi for a head.
bourhood.

Church

Thus

the

Picts

\Ve cannot picture to ourselves

of

Columba and

his associates,

in detail the activity

nor can we follow

by step, because Adamnan, eighth

successor to Columba, does not give us a full de
their successes step

scription of his hero s

activity in

the

Life

written

about a century after Columba s death. Besides, there

is no trustworthy information on the early times of all
those monasteries founded by the Irish monks in the
land of the Picts, because the Irish monks were ex

why, we shall see later on

pelled in 717
and tenth centuries
ninth
the
during
devastated

all

the monasteries.

But

it

and because
the
is

Vikings

clear that

two events contributed to the success of Coiumba s

work he and his helpmates first went into the nearest
:

districts

of the Pictish

kingdom, made a temporary

stay there, and in daily intercourse with the people

Once having
tried to acquire influence over them.
a firm footing, they would use it to advance

gained

their missionary stations further. Then Columba very

the favour of
(in 565) succeeded in obtaining

soon

Brude, the king, and winning him over to Christianity.

On the death of King Brude, in 584, a Southern Pict
ascended the throne, and thus the activity of the
monks of Hi and of the many monasteries affiliated
to Hi was extended to the land of the Southern Picts
f

as well.

At the time of Columba

death in 597, part

SECOND PERIOD
of

North

(A.D.

Britain, including the

500-800)

mainland

75

to the north

from Glasgow to Edinburgh as well as the

western isles, was studded with a number of mona
steries, whose inmates concerned themselves with the
spiritual welfare of the neighbouring population, and
which were every one of them dependent on the
of a line

parent monastery in Hi.

24.

generation

domain

of

Columba

large districts
installation of

Already

in

kingdoms

afterwards, the

ecclesiastical Extension

successor extended also

over church

south of the Firth of Forth, through the

Columba s Church

627 Edwin,

of Bernicia

who

in

Northumberland.

land

ruled over the united

and Deira, had been baptized

York by Paulinus, the chaplain of

and thus a beginning was made
in extending the pale of the Anglo-Roman Church
among the Angles south of the Tweed. But Penda,
the heathen king of Mercia, who conquered and
in

his capital of

his Christian queen,

Edwin, put a stop to the spread of Christianity.

Oswald, the rightful heir to the throne of Bernicia,
killed

kingdom by Edwin, but when in

633, on returning from a long exile spent among the
Christian Picts and Irish of North Britain, he pos
was. expelled the

sessed himself of the reins of government over the

Angles in the north, he resolved to introduce Chris

For that purpose he applied
tianity in his kingdom.

Abbot Segene of
Columban Church

to

of

Hi,

who was

in

North

elders decided to

send Aidan, a

The council

man

of gentle Aidan.

who was made bishop, and in his new dig

went out to settle in the quiet of Lindisfarn,

nature,
nity

then the head of the

Britain.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

76

belonged to Oswald s heirdom of Bernicia.

There Aidan founded a monastery, and gained a
for he
powerful influence over the heathen Angles

which

embodied the teaching

He

life.

specially

of

Christianity

devoted

himself
the

to

in

his

the

own

young

the
training boys
His successors, Finian (652-661) and ColThus the
(661-664), walked in his footsteps.
for

generation,

service

of

Church.

man

Church in Northumberland, supported by the favour

of Oswald (t in 642) and his brother Oswy, made rapid
and splendid progress. Monasteries were founded,
such as Mailros by Aidan, the first nunnery by Heiu
Heruteu (Hartlepool), the dual convent for men
and women at Coldingham by Oswald s half-sister,
the monastery of Strenaeshalh by Hilda, &c.
Chris
tianity, in the form of the Irish Church, spread over
the territory of the Northumbrian Angles as far as to
in

the Angles living south of the

The

Church
and North Britain the mission of the
Roman Church among the Saxons became fatal.
25.

m
between
Rome and
the Irish

To

Humber.

this flourishing state of the Irish

Ireland

Like her parent, the British Church, that of Ire

differed in several points from the Roman

land

and consequently from

founded by Gregory s
Anglo-Roman
missionaries. Among these differences the most im
portant were the form of tonsure and the calculation
It was just these out
for fixing the date of Easter.
of
an
ward signs
independent Church, hallowed by
the tradition of generations, that were clung to with

Church
the

of

Gregory

time,

Church

almost incredible tenacity.

SECOND PERIOD

500-800)

(A.D.

77

In 604 Augustine s successor, Laurentius, in com- Koman

with his fellow - bishops, Mellitus and Justus, ganda
sent a letter to Ireland exhorting the Irish Church

mon

in>

conform in the above-named points to

usage, and thus to enter into the unity

to

Church.

But

success. 1

In

for the

time this

the course of the

effort

Roman
of

the

was without

quarter of the
seventh century friends were won in south Ireland
in favour of conformity to Roman usage with re

gard

to the

first

observance of Easter, partly through the

journeys which South Irish clerics made to Gaul and

Rome, and partly, perhaps, through the direct influ
ence of the heads of the Anglo-Roman Church. But
in 627 this Roman party was still in the minority in
the south-east of Ireland, for Honorius
to

conform

Roman

for

when

the year 628,

Easter would be

exhortation

the

Irish

and

widely apart, was again

Then, in 628, Honorius inflicted ex

communication upon Ireland, as Cummian relates in
unsuccessful.

his letter to

of Hi. 3

Segene

the south-east

of

Ireland in

Roman

Easter according to

In the following year

most parts celebrated

usage.

In the districts

between lines drawn from Dublin to Cork

and from Dublin to Galway opinions wavered, and
lying

the abbots of the chief monasteries within

in

them met

Mag Lena, near Tullamore, Synods

where they arrived at the decision to celebrate Easter anlf
in the coming year (i.e. 631) with the universal Church,
630

at

at

synod

Am>e>

for the Irish

1

and Roman dates would have

Bede, Hist. Eccl.,

ii.

4.

Migne, 87, 997,

5.

Ibid.,

differed a
ii.

19.

of

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

whole month (April

and March

2ist

Against

24th).

this decision there rose a pupil of

Comgall, Fintan,
of Taghmon,
called
mac
abbot
Tulchain,
(also
Munnu)
in South Ireland, and soon (non post multuni) a new

meeting was

summoned

to

Mag

Ailbe, at the foot of

There met in
and
foremost
of all those
opposition Fintan,
:
who defended the old Easter," and Lasrian (Molaisse),
Slieve

Margy,

to the north of Carlow.

"

chief

abbot of Leighlin, the representative of the

order which had lately come from Rome." 2
South
Ireland

conforms

"

new

As is evident from the furious invectives of Cummian against Fintan in his letter to Segene of Hi,

Rome.
Stubborn

the

resistance
of North

a decisive victory.

Ireland.

which, laden with books and relics, returned in 633.

Through the influence of these returning messen

to

Roman

party in South

Ireland failed to score

sent an

They

embassy

to

Rome,

and through the opportune event of Fintan s

death, in 636, the Roman party was finally victorious

gers,

in

the

south of

Ireland.

After

the return

of

the

embassy, and before the death of Fintan (636), Cummian wrote his letter to Abbot Segene of Hi, in
order to win over the most powerful church dignitary

North Ireland, next to the Bishop

But in vain. Thereupon, in 640, in a

of
Pope
John

letter.

of

Armagh.

letter

partly

3
preserved by Bede, Pope John IV. addressed the
heads of the North Irish Church, who are mentioned

by name.

They were

nowned monasteries

the

most

Ireland,

such

the abbots
of

North

of

Princeps et primus eorum qui vetus pascha defendebant,

Novus ordo

Bede, Hist, EccL,

qui noviter e
ii.

19,

Roma

venerat,

re

as

SECOND PERIOD

(A.D.

79

500-800)

Armagh, Bangor, Hi, Nendrum, Moville, &c. The

Pope called those who were abbots and bishops at the
same time, episcopi ; but the others who, like the Abbots
of Hi, had only the latter rank, he called presbyteri.
But this papal missive met with no better success
the North Irish Church obstinately refused for nearly
;

sixty

years to

enter the unitas catholica.

Many

at

tempts were made during this period to win over

North Ireland, where the Bishop of Armagh had
occupied a time-honoured position of great note ever
Later times
since the Christianising of the north.
veil over these attempts, but we may

have spread a
without

assume that the Patrick legend

the chief means used to work upon the
Church and the Bishop of Armagh.

hesitation

was one of
North Irish

26. In the first quarter of the seventh century, The apthe powerful personality of Columba was still fresh
the
at
in the memory of the Irish
how, supported by F "?

princely
Picts

favour,

he had

been

and how he had created

the
in

apostle

of

the and

North Britain a

monastic Church dependent on Hi, and extending

over a territory as large as Ireland. And similarly,

was almost within their own generation that Augus

tine had accomplished the same work among the
Saxons, founding an Anglo-Saxon Episcopal Church,
it

with the see of Canterbury for a centre.

Nothing definite, however, \vas known in Ireland

about the beginnings of the Irish Church, which was
divided into numerous independent monastic areas
without any centre of authority.
the Britons in Gildas time had

In the
lost all

same way
recollection

its

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

8o

as to the exact circumstances of the introduction of

But in the neighbourhood

of Wicklow the memory was still cherished of a
Christianity into Britain.

who, some time in the fifth

century, had claimed to have been singled out by
In the place
God to be the bishop of Ireland.
where he had lived and worked, oral tradition was

man

called

Patricius,

supported by writings of his

own hand, couched

in

language strangely discordant with Irish culture

and learning of the seventh century, but suggestive

many

in

Gentiles.

bishop of
It

tion

passages of an apostle s activity among

In these he called himself "the appointed
Ireland."

would not require a long

if
we assume that, about

stretch
625,

of

imagina

Ireland

pious

own was realised

Patricius, who had

wish of having an apostle of her

by reviving the memory of this

been forgotten everywhere except in the south
It was in this way, I think, that the Patrick
east.
first,
legend sprang up with its two chief premises
:

was entirely pagan in 432, as the lands

of the Picts and of the Saxons had been in 563
and secondly, that Patrick
and 597 respectively
converted Ireland within a short time, and intro

that Ireland

duced a Christian Church, overcoming all obstacles

and winning the favour of King Loegaire, incidents
analogous to Columba s conversion of King Brude, or
Augustine s of Ethelbert of Kent. And if this legend
was not expressly invented by an Irish member of
the

favour of conformity,

party in
1

it

Hiberione constitutus episcopus.

was, at any

SECOND PERIOD
rate,

utilised

once

at

mention made of

it

81

500-800)

(A.D.

by that party, as the

by Cummian

his

in

first

letter

to

Segene clearly shows. In enumerating the different Gumpaschal cycles he speaks of "that first cycle which letter to
Se ^ ene
our holy father Patrick brought and composed with
-

moon

Easter on

From

this

clear that

it is

and Equinox, March

15 to 21,

Cummian attributes to

"

21.

Patrick

the introduction of the Dionysian cycle in Ireland, a

cycle which was not introduced in Rome itself till the
sixth century

Rome

at the

in

a similar

way

a representative of

conference of Whitby attributed to Peter

the introduction of that cycle in Rome. 2

Thus the Patrick legend is characterised on

endeavours

appearance as serving the

Irish to enter into the unitas catholica

Rome on

its first

of the Southern

by yielding

to

the Easter question. This enables us to

why in the oldest Life of the legendary

understand
St.

Patrick almost the whole of the second of

sections

is

three

its

taken up with the description of the

first

by Patrick, and of
the incidents in connection therewith. This Life was
written by Muirchu maccu Machtheni from the
Easter observance on Irish

soil

Wicklow district at the instigation of

bishop Aed of Sletty from the Carlow
author further

utilises the

the

monastic

The

district.

>

Rome.

The

latter event, as is well

697,

and

it

Migne,

87,

prima regulariter
2

et

in

known, happened

iii.

papa noster

ilium, quern sanctus Patricias

quo luna a decima quarta

aequinoctium a

Bede, Hist. EccL,

conformity to

remarkable that Muirchu maccu

Primum

"

975

tulit et facit [fecit];

to

Armagh,

in
1

SJ*/

Northern
legend for winning
& over the Ireland.

north of Ireland, especially

is

con-

xii.

Kal. April,

(xv.)

usque

in

observatur."

25.

vigesima

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

82

Machtheni,*as well as Aed of Sletty, were present at

the Synod when Flann Feblae, the abbot and bishop
1
But even
Armagh, consented to the new order.
more remarkable is the trouble which Aed of Sletty

of

took with Flann Feblae

predecessor Segene

and with Flann Feblae himself

An Irish note
Aed of Sletty

in the

Book

of

to

Armagh

subordinated his clan

(t 688)

make them
and

us

tells

church

yield.
2

that

to

the

Abbot-Bishop of Armagh as the presumed successor of

This is the same bait by means of which
St. Patrick.

Elbodug

of

Bangor

in

Wales was caught,

we have

as

The prospect of rising to the rank of

a metropolitan in the Irish Church, which so far had

seen before.

existed without an organised centre, finally

won

over

the most important and influential personage in the

long-resisting Church of the north, the Abbot-Bishop

Armagh. From the moment that the Bishop of

Armagh had entered into the unitas catholica, at the
same time sanctioning the Patrick legend (in 697),
this legend is made to do service for the Church of
Armagh and its bishop.

of

not within the scope of this sketch to give this

subject a full and exhaustive treatment, but the inner
It is

development and transformation

of the Irish

Church

until in the twelfth

century complete conformity to

the Church of Rome was arrived at, can in certain
aspects only be understood if \ve take into considera
tion the numerous allusions in the Annals to the iron
1

2
3

See Reeves, Adamnarfs Life of Coluwba, pp. 50

See Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii. 346, 21 seq.
See above, pp. 62, 63.

seq. ;

178

seq.,

note h.

SECOND PERIOD

(A.D.

500-800)

83

perseverance with which the Church of Armagh, in

spite of all opposition from both north and south,

drew

the inferences from the Patrick legend for the

Bishop of Armagh, the presumed successor to the

bishop of

"appointed

Meanwhile

let

me

Ireland."

document

refer the reader to a

which, probably about 730, was written from

Book
to

conveys

Book

of

Book of the Angel," preserved

Here an angelic message
Armagh.
us the claims put forward by the Church

of view, the so-called

in the

this point

"

of

Armagh, supported by the Patrick legend in the

accepted form which Muirchu maccu Machtheni and
Aed of Sletty had given it. These claims, according
to the Annals, met with violent opposition during the
eighth and ninth centuries, both in Connaught and in
of

Minister.
27.

Before Northern

Ireland had conformed to Defeat

of

Roman usage with regard to the observance of Easter, church in.

the Irish Church in Britain had been struck a severe Britain,
blow.

At the court of

in

Oswy

Northumberland

and Anglo-Roman Churches were

brought into close contact by the circumstance that
Eanfled, the queen, was a daughter of the King of
Kent, and observed Easter according to Roman usage.
To put an end to all the troubles and disputes result
(642-670), the Irish

ing from
family,

this,

Oswy

monastery
sided.

It

among the members of the royal

664 summoned a conference to the

even
in

which he himself pre

combat, conducted
arguments on either side

of Strenaeshalh, at

was

a fierce, obstinate

chiefly with false historical

1

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

ii.

352-356.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

84

to settle the

An

Easter.

mode

of tonsure

and the observance

of

artful device of the representative of the

excited misgiving in Oswy s mind

lest St. Peter should keep the gates of heaven closed to

Anglo-Roman party

with
him, and induced him to forsake the Irish party
1
With
had
whom till then he
always sympathised.
Exodus of angry hearts, Colman (664), together with the Irish
and about thirty Angles, left Northumberland, going
an^hS
monks
v j n^ t o the west of Ireland. In Mayo (Mag-eo) he
Northum- founded a monastery for the Angles, which continued
beriand.

flourish long after

Bede

and he founded

time,

another in 667 for himself and his Irish in Boffin

Island off the west coast of Mayo, where he died on

August
Resist

ance of
Hi.

8,

Once

Roman

674.

the Angles had been won over to the AngloChurch, the endeavours became all the

stronger to

make

of Britain give

the

up her

Columban Church

in the rest

dissenting habits, at least

in her
striking differences as existed
Easter.
of
observance
the
and

mode

When

such

of tonsure

during 686 and

Hi
two following years Adamnan,
and head of the Columban monasteries (679-704),
was staying for some time on a political mission at
the court of Aldfrid, in Northumberland, he was
But on his
the above points.
persuaded to yield in]
his
own
neither
that
found
he
to
monastery
return
Hi,
nor those subordinate to Hi in the land of the Picts.
and in the north of Ireland would consent to the new
the abbot of

Adamnan. the

state of

things.
1

At variance with
See Bede, Hist. EccL, iii.
Bede, Hist. EccL, 5, 15.

his

25.

own

monks,.

SECOND PERIOD
Adamnan went

(A.D.

500-800)

85

and took a
make the North Irish

to the north of Ireland

leading part in the attempts to

yield. He as well as the Angle Ecgberct, who
had come to the north of Ireland as the representative

Church

Anglo-Roman party, were present at the beforementioned synod (697), when through the Abbot and
Bishop of Armagh joining the unitas catholica, the last

of the

fell to the ground.

In 703 Adamnan re
turned to Hi, where he died the next year without
having been able to introduce the desired alterations

resistance

in

the

Not

till

Columban monasteries, including his own.

the second decade of the eighth century wab

the change ultimately affected in Hi and the sub

ordinate monasteries on either side of the Grampians

(Dorsum Albaniae).

Nechtan, the king of the

Picts,

had since 710 been in favour of the clerics of his

country joining Anglo - Roman usage concerning
tonsure and the Easter cycle. Therefore he asked
Ceolfrid, the distinguished
to help

clergy.

him

Abbot

of

Yarrow (Durham),

overcoming the refractory Columban

This Ceolfrid did in 713 by a long letter on

the Easter question, which Nechtan sent out in copies

to all the clerics in the land of the Picts with an order
1
obey its contents. Whosoever did not obey orders
was expelled from the country in 7i7. 2
Thus, after losing Northumberland in 664, Hi in 717
lost its influence also on the land of the Picts, whither

to

its

Ceoifrid s

in

founder had

first

Bede, Hist. Eccl.,

brought Christianity, and the

re-

5, 21.

Expulsio familiae lae trans dorsum Britanniae a Nectano rege.

Tigernach and the Annals of Ulster.

See

JJ

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

86
Cont

and subsequent
decline

had left the

turning faithful Columban clerics, who
the sacred
not
sacrifice
would
Picts because they
cus t O ms of their fathers, had to undergo the sad
experience of finding

enemy.
and just

Hi

itself

gone over

In 716 the Angle Ecgberct had

as

to

come

the

to Hi,

he had succeeded twenty years before,

Adamnan, in winning over the clergy

North
of
Ireland, so by dint of mild persuasion he
induced the Abbot Dunchad and the majority of his

together with

monks
to

to celebrate Easter in the year

Roman

usage.

Ecgberct remained

716 according
in

Hi

until his

death, which took place at Easter in the year 729, and

it is due to his influence that conformity to Rome was
at last arrived at, as

Tigernach notes from his sources

Tonsura coronae super familiam lae

under the year 718

Thus Hi was no longer the centre of a great
datur.
monastic Church, as it had been in the middle of the
:

seventh century, but, through

its

obstinacy in cling

outward signs of independence and

from the neighbouring Anglo - Roman
was reduced to the position of a mere

ing to certain
difference

Church,

it

parent monastery with a few monasteries affiliated

to it, situate on the west coast of North Britain, but
state.
Armagh, on the con
had
trary,
through timely yielding and a persistent
utilisation of the Patrick legend paved the way to
wards becoming the head of an Episcopal Church com
prising the whole of Ireland.

belonging to the Irish

CHAPTER
THIRD PERIOD

III

(A.D.

800-1200)

THE COMPLETE ASSIMILATION OF THE CELTIC

TO THE ROMAN CHURCH
THE CHURCH IN WALES

A.

Now

28.

Roman

of tonsure,
slightly

that

she had

conformed

to

Anglo- The

usage with regard to Easter and the

the

little

from that

of

Church

Rome

of
;

Wales

for,

mode
but

differed

unlike

the

Irish

branch of the Celtic Church, her organisation had

from the very beginning been that of an Episcopal
Church, and the few remaining points of difference
were regarded as of small importance in the days of
Augustine of Canterbury and of Bede.

Under

the

stress of political circumstances, the process of assimi

Saxo-Roman Church continued, as a

matter of course, from the days of Egbert of Wessex
(836) onward, when Welsh chiefs began to seek the
lation

to

the

protection of
of

English kings against the oppression

fellow-chief.
The inroads of the

some mightier

heathen Norse, which since 853 were also felt in

Wales, helped until well into the first half of the tenth
century to establish friendlier political relations be
tween England and Wales.
87

"

wales.

88

The

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

Welsh clergy reached

a higher grade after Wales emerged from her spiritual
isolation by conforming to the Anglo-Roman Church
in the matter of Easter and the tonsure. The
appoint
ment of Asser, nephew to Bishop Novis of Menevia,
as teacher, counsellor, and friend of Alfred the Great,
state of culture of the

Records exist, although

not of absolute authenticity, that Bishop Cyfeiliawc of
Llandaff, who died in 927, was consecrated by the

is

a sufficient proof of this.

Archbishop of Canterbury. At the end of the tenth

and the beginning of the eleventh century the conse
cration of the bishops of Landaff by the Archbishop
of Canterbury seems to have been the rule.

During the time of the Anglo-Normans Lanfranc

and Anselm (1070-1109), the see of Canterbury re
peatedly interfered in Welsh ecclesiastical matters, as
if the Welsh
bishops were legally under the English
primate, and, under the protection of the temporal

power, Normans were preferred to Welsh bishoprics.

Disputes respecting the boundaries of the Welsh
dioceses of St. David s and Llandaff, and of the
English diocese of Hereford, were submitted to the

Roman see between 1119 and 1133.

At that time the Bishop of St. David s began to put
forth his claim to the rank of a metropolitan in
Wales,
and at the end of the twelfth century Gerald of Barri
arbitration of the

(Giraldus Cambrensis) made several journeys to Rome

with this object in view, but without success. After

when, as papal legate, Archbishop Baldwin of

Canterbury held a visitation in parts of Wales to
T
elsh Church may definitely
preach the Crusade, the
1187,

THIRD PERIOD
.

(A.D.

800-1200)

89

be regarded as part of the English Church, although

as late as 1284 the

Bishop of

St.

David

a formal protest against the visitation of

Pekham

raised

Archbishop

of Canterbury.

THE CHURCH IN IRELAND

B.
29.

s still

It

as yet impossible

is

sketch of the

to give a systematic The Irish

development" of the Irish

this period, in

Church during

view of the defective nature of

all exist-

the^inth
centur7-

ing special investigations. Before giving the fixed dates

for the remodelling of the Irish Church in Ireland and
after the pattern of the Roman Church,
dwell on certain points, either for their

North Britain

we must

significance in this period, or for the light they cast

on the Irish ecclesiastical development. First among

and deserving more attention than is usually

bestowed upon it, is the influence exercised by the
incursions and settlements of the Norsemen.
The Viking period, which began in 795, and for
more than 150 years made the British Isles a prey to
plundering hordes of Norwegian and Danish heathens,
plunged the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland into
the deepest misery. Though the Welsh Church was
to some extent affected by these invasions, it was as
nothing compared with what the Irish Church in
Ireland and North Britain had to suffer. The heathen
Norsemen marked down the churches and monas
teries which were the centres of civilisation and of

these,

the hated Christian religion.

Numerous

monasteries,

such as Hi, Bangor, Menevia, and others, lay a tempt

ing prey within easy reach of the seafaring pirates.

The

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

90

In Ireland the invaders followed the course of the

and west, and thus penetrated with their

the heart of the country. They established
stations on the lakes in the neighbourhood of large

rivers east
fleets into

The wooden

monasteries.

structures

of

the

Irish

and
with them perished monks and libraries.
Thus Hi
had to undergo five visitations between 795 and 832,
during which it was partly or entirely destroyed by
fire, and on one of these occasions, in 806, no less
monasteries

fell

an

to

easy prey

than sixty-eight monks suffered

lt

the flames,

red

martyrdom."

Such manuscripts as had escaped burning were

thrown into the water by the ^heathen barbarians,
as we learn from an Irish chronicler of the beginning
of the eleventh century, who has left an account of
the whole period. 1
It is astonishing to see with what
untiring patience the

monks

started rebuilding the

monasteries again and again.

In Armagh a heathen Viking state was formed under

Norwegian Turgeis (Thorgils), compelling the abbot

and bishop Forindan to flee to Minister.
It lasted
from 832 to 845. We are told that Otta, Turgeis
wife, seated on the high altar of Clonmacnois, gave
the

"answers"

(Ir.

frecrd]

in

the fashion

of

the

Teutonic prophetesses, such as that Veleda

Tacitus has described. 2
In the

first

half of the ninth century,

many

early

whom
of the

Norwegian heathens began to settle in the interior

of Ireland, but they were either expelled or partially
1

See Todd, Cogadh Gaedhel

Tacitus, Historiae,

iv.

re Gallaibh, p. 138.

61, 65

Ger mania,)

8.

THIRD PERIOD
Christianity,

Irish

intermarriage and

through

assimilated,
to

and thus added

This

nationality.

changed when

800-1200)

(A.D.

conversion

new element

of

state

91

to

however,

things,

852 the Vikings founded a king

dom in Dublin, whose sway extended far into North
Britain, and to which smaller Viking settlements in
in

Under

Waterford and Limerick were attached.

protection of this state, the

and rob the

to plunder

for

more than

districts

of

in length for different districts,

Celtic

30.

the

of

We

Irish

Sea
of

Dublin only began

kingdom
The whole Viking period, varying

943.

on the

on the

The introduction

century.

Christianity into this

in

the

heathen Norse continued

as

it

did

had a deep influence

Church.
have already seen

that,

sixth

Irish

century onward,
peregrinandi causa into the kingdom

from the end Irish

monks went O nthe
of

the Franks, Continent

where under the pressure of circumstance they be

missionaries and teachers of the people. 1 Since

came

the eighth century they enjoyed

special repute as teachers in the kingdom of Charle
the latter

magne.
Ireland
the

part

of

Remembering the political condition of

after 795 we need not wonder to find

exodus

of

Irish

teachers

to

the

Continent

steadily on the increase from the beginning of the

ninth century.
Quid Hiberniam memorem, contempto
"

pelagi discrimine, pene totam cum grege philosophorum

ad litora nostra migrantem?" said Heiric of Auxerre
in 876, in his preface to the Life

Throughout

the

kingdom
1

See

p. 71.

of St. Germanus.

of the

Franks, at

St.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

Denis, Pavia, and on the

we

find

Upper and Lower Rhine,

monks employed as teachers in the

Irish

monastic schools, and

they spread

the

repute of

Irish

learning so far that nowadays it is almost a

T
truism to say
hoever knew Greek on the Continent
:

in the

days of Charles the Bald was an Irishman, or

And what an abund

was taught by an Irishman. 1

ance of manuscripts the

monks brought

Irish

to the Continent, or

ing the

Irish

over

Without count
copied there
of
the
Vatican
and the
manuscripts
!

Bibliotheque Nationale, no less than 117 Irish written

MSS., older than the eleventh century, or fragments of
2
such, are still extant in continental libraries.
31.

Decay of
the Irish

monas
teries.

For

the

Irish

Church and

monastic

her

continued exodus of the cultured classes,

promoted by the unfavourable conditions at home,
could not fail to prove fatal, especially as many of
schools, this

manuscripts saved from the clutches of the

barbarians were taken away to the Continent. It
is therefore not
surprising to hear from the Irish

the

historian of the Viking period, already quoted, that

King Brian (1002-1013) had to send scholars across

order to buy books." 3

the sea
Gradual
dissolu-

monastic
Church.

"in

The standard
was bound to

of education in the Irish monasteries

sink

lower

and
the

succeeding generation during

centuries.
1

lower
ninth

with

The priesthood which succeeded

See Zimmer, Bedeutung des

irischeii

Jfulttir, Preussische Jahrbiicher, 59,

26-59

each

and tenth
the

Elements fur mittelalterliche

and Traube,
Roma nobilis,

332-3632
See W. Schultze in the Centralblatt fiir Bibliothekswesen,
3
See Todd, Codagh Gaedhel, p. 138.

6,

287-298.

THIRD PERIOD

(A.D.

800-1200)

93

highly cultured monks of the seventh and eighth

centuries was in every respect inferior, and naturally
had much less power to resist the forces which were
substituting for a native monastic Church an episcopal
one with a metropolitan head. Nor must we forget
that the ninth century
in
in

South Ireland, of
monkish libraries,

saw the destruction, especially

many a memorial preserved
and going back to a period

earlier than that of the alleged apostle to the Gentiles

(Patrick).

So
to

from burying

far

confront

Irish chiefs

their private disputes in order

common

the

Norsemen, the
and princes thought the time of universal
their

foe

trouble and unrest a splendid opportunity for settling

their native feuds, and for this purpose they fre

quently engaged

To

cenaries.

small

troops of Vikings as mer

reader this is proved

every attentive

by the Annals

of Ulster as well as

by the

fact

that

ninth century and up to about 950,

during
Irish monasteries had to suffer not only from the
destructive attacks of the heathen Norse, but also
the

from

the

aggressiveness of neighbouring native

to
mention the fierce and bloody
not
chiefs
feuds between different monasteries whose interests
;

happened to clash. Since the large old monasteries

were the centres and heads of monastic dioceses,
events such as these were, no doubt, determined by
territorial changes arising from political conditions,
which in turn affected the interests of the monastic
dioceses.

sation

of

And
the

thus the loose yet firmly knit organi

native

monastic Church,

as

it

had

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

94

existed in the fifth

and following

centuries,

was

dis

and broken up.

On the other hand, the
Patrick legend had become a sort of dogma during
the eighth century, and the original position of the
bishop in the Church government must have served

located

an

as

welded

Growing

loosening the

in

of the monastic

edifice

and seventh
I

element

additional

Church

centuries.

n the ninth-century text called the

prominence ol

Adamnan

the epis-

Emperor Constantine

rank.

views by calling Silvester simply

and

in

"

firmly

of the sixth

the

relation

of

is

Pope
r

Vision

Silvester

to

adapted to popular
"

Abbot

in the oldest

poem quoted

"

of

Irish

of

the
Irish

Rome,"

metrical

martyrology, in a note on the i2th of March, Gregory

again simply denoted as Abbot of Rome
1
If Patrick, as the
of all Latium."
expanded tale of
the ninth century has it, really resigned the work
the Great

"

is

connected with the position of abbot soon after the

foundation of the monastery at Armagh, confining
himself to the administrative functions of episcopus,
or rather metropolitan, this attitude could not for
ever remain without influence on the relation between
the rank of abbot
the

majority of

and bishop
Irish

community being excluded

the

monastic

diocese

in the Irish

monasteries

had

the abbot

been

also

Church.

In

those of the Hi

who

ruled

consecrated

bishop, although there were generally one or more

among the monks who had received the consecration
as well.

by

These conditions could

different impressions
1

easily be influenced

received from the Patrick

Stokes, FtHire, p.

Ixiii.

THIRD PERIOD
which are

800-1200)

(A.D.

95

the Catalogue
of Irish Saints. Gradually, without any special revolu
tion, a new condition might arise, such as the Welsh
legend,

Church

arrived

century,

when
felt

monastery

reflected

also

in

the end of the sixth

and bishop of the parent
he was the head of the diocese by

towards

at

the abbot

virtue of his position as bishop?

32. It

Life

of

is

about real

characteristic of the author of the oldest Confusion

he knows nothing at all

Irish paganism, and has to resort to the

St.

Patrick,

that

Old Testament and to the tale of the struggle

between Peter and Simon Magus, 2 in order to equip
the druids, whose names had survived in literature,
with heathen traits.
This gap was soon filled in
during the Viking period.
150 years the vigorous

Throughout a period of
paganism of the Norsemen

could be seen in

places.

not likely that

the Vikings, who during the second half of the ninth
century had settled in small numbers in the interior of

many

It

is

and intermixing with the

Irish, shook off all pagan ways at once, nor can this
be said of the Vikings in the independent kingdom
of Dublin and its dependencies of Waterford and
Limerick, who were only converted a century later,
after 943.
To judge from similar conditions in
Germany, a thinly veneered paganism must in many
cases have been practised by the
foreign Irish,"
Ireland, turning Christians

"

as the converted half-hibernicised Vikings were called.

The low
2

level to

which culture had been reduced

1
See above, p.
See G. T. Stokes, Ireland and the

59.
Celtic

Church,

p.

75 sty.

P eriod
with the
Patrician
sources.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

96
in

the Irish monasteries very soon permitted a con

fusion between periods so distant as the time of the

alleged Christianising of Ireland by Patrick and of

the Viking period in the ninth century. The newly

redacted Lives of many saints testify to this error.

one

Thus, according to

biography, Cainnech, the

Columba of Hi, and Abbot of Aghaboe, who

598, when the younger Columban was already

friend of

died in
in

France, had, in the midst of the sixth century, to

But

eradicate pagan practices in Leinster.

of Norse paganism such as

found in Leinster during the
ninth century when the saint s Life was compiled. 1
I n the tenth
and eleventh centuries we find state-

described

is

was no doubt

Struggle

see^
Armagh

ments

typical
to be

records written in the Irish tongue to the

forbade certain practices of gross

in

effect that Patrick

for pri

macy,

this as

These, which are minutely described and

paganism.

named, betray more or

2

origin.

At

first this

less

distinctly

may have been

their

Norse

mere peda

gogic device of Irish monks, for the benefit of the

who continued practising their
Irish,"
foreign
"

heathen customs

But

at the

tried to

nominal Christianity.
end of the tenth century the see of Armagh

utilise

in spite of their

this

confusion of facts for

its

own

As can be seen from the Annals of Ulster,

the Bishop of Armagh, making free and unscrupulous
use of his opportunities, succeeded to a certain extent,
between 730 and 850, in attaining that primacy in the
interests.

Irish
1

Episcopal Church, the claims to which were

See the author

See the author

in Got linger Gelehrle

Anzeigen, iSgr, p. 186 seq.
in Zeitschrift filr deutsches Alterttim,
35, 147.

THIRD PERIOD

(A.D.

based on the Patrick legend.

800-1200)

97

The year 805 was

decisive for Meath, 824 for Connaught, and 822, as

well as Forindan s stay in Minister from 841 till
845,
for the south of Ireland.
Henceforth the see of

Armagh had
scattered

all

tax-gatherers for St. Patrick s pence

over Ireland. The Annals of Ulster call
its

them equonimi ( = ceconomi)

St.

Pat-

they are mostly the abbots

of the respective districts. 1 The abbot and

bishop of
Armagh did not disdain to appear in person in the
more outlying districts, in order to receive cows in
lieu

Patrick

of St.

course, only held

pence.

good

This state of

affairs, of The con

for native Christian

Ireland, vikings

mac Sitricca. 3 the powerful ruler of

Viking state, who resided at Dublin, became

the

but in 943, Amlaib

the Irish

of Dublin

a Christian in

England whilst fighting for supremacy

Northumberland. Wulfhelm of Canterbury baptized
him, and Edmund of England was his godfather. 4 As
in

was

natural, the Christian Church, spreading among

Norse subjects of the independent Viking state in
the course of the tenth century, looked towards
Canterbury, and in all probability drew its supply of
his

Thus we find that the Viking

bishops for the newly established Norse bishoprics
of Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick were consecrated
clerics

from England.

Canterbury. This was certainly the case as regards

Dublin even after A.D. 1040.

at

2
3

Annals of Ulster, 813, 868, 887, 893, 921, 928.

Ibid., 972, 1050, 1106.

In Norse

Olafr Sigtriggvasonr.
See Earle, Saxon Chronicles, pp. 116, 117; Annales Wintcnienses,
s.a. 942, with Liebermann,
Ungedruckte anglo-normannische Geschichtsquellen, p. 68
Todd, Cogadh Gaedhil, p. 283 seq.
:

kingdom
ledge the

^7
Canter

of
-

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

98

must have sorely grieved the Bishop of Armagh

the revenues from the rich young Norse
to f re g
communities in Dublin at the end of the tenth century.
Otherwise it would be hard to understand why one
f his adherents, utilising the story already mentioned
It

The

used by

Armagh
to estab8

supra-

conversion by Patrick, should have

described with special detail how the saint converted
vikin

of the

(who up to 943 had

how consequently
and
remained perfectly pagan),

the heathen Norse of Dublin

the successor of

was

revenues"

each nose
in

which

Lebor na

"

"

Patrick of

entitled to

Armagh with

state of

in the

the great

an ounce of gold

"from

The poem

Dublin.

Viking
claim is put forth is inserted in the
Cert 1 or Book of Rights, a compilation

this

dating from the days of Brian Boroma (who died in

2
1014), and from internal evidence must have been

made between 994 and 998. In another Irish record

of that time we again find the statement that Patrick con
verted the Vikings, though

it is

not bluntly used to serve

a self-interested policy as in the case of

which arose

at

Armagh.

implied in the story

that time that Patrick shared in the

This statement

is

likewise

redaction of the Irish laws, to which a representative

3
of the Vikings was also summoned.
Cuidees.

men

in the inner develop-

Another phenomenon

33.

The

the Irish

Church during

this

period deserves

our attention, namely the appearance of the so-called

In one aspect the problem has been com
Culdees.
pletely solved
1

by Reeves.

See Zeitschrift filr

Ibid., p. 64 seq.

Hector Boece, the Scottish

detitsches

Altcrtnm, 35,
3

Ibid., p.

p.

57

54-57

seq.
;

72

seq.

THIRD PERIOD

(A.D.

800-1200)

99

historian of the sixteenth century, is responsible for

the theory that the spiritual association mentioned

and Scottish records from the ninth till the

twelfth century under the Irish name of cell De, or
colidei in Latin, was a direct continuation of Irish
monasticism from the sixth to the eighth century, nay,
Irish

in

in general.
But this view of the
Boece termed them, is without any histori
cal foundation.
Yet it is difficult clearly to define the
origin and position of the Colidei in the Scoto-Irish
Church of the third period. The Irish term cell De

of Celtic

monasticism

Culdeiy as

does not furnish us with a safe clue;

common noun
"

cele of

cele

is

God."

cele

and

of the genitive of dia

"

God

name

"

The primary meaning

"

companion,"

meanings are derived,

of the Old Irish

from which many secondary
"

e.g.

of the old heroic tales

husband."

In the texts

many words are

which
have been taken
popular application
over into the Irish of the Church. Thus cele, used
with the possessive case of a proper noun, has an
-explicit meaning.
Cuchulinn, the most celebrated
used

of Ireland

in a

hero of northern Ireland, who stands by Conchobar,

as Hagen or Volker in the German tale did
by the

Burgundian
"

kings,

cele of Conchobar,"

faithful
i.e.

calls

of Cuchulinn."

Therefore

cele

De

cele

and Cuchulinn

companion again

"cele

himself

Conchobair,

i.e.

charioteer and

calls himself cele Conculaind,

originally denoted a

man who

had entered the service of God and given himself up

to Him for life.
With this agrees the application of
1

See Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum,

Origin

consists of the

it

30, p. 36.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

ioo

the phrase which

found

is

in the oldest

record extant

know. It
in
manuscript, of which Reeves did not
occurs in the Irish Glosses on the Commentary on
the Psalms, attributed to Columbanus of Bobbio.

There the Latin phrase cuius del iste esl is commented

on by saying that in Latin iste illius est is synonymous
with iste ad ilium pertinet, and to this the Irish

commentator adds

Amal

asmberar

is

doe

cele

in

fer

saying goes, this man is cele De,"

indicates that the Irish phrase cele de
:

"As

hisin,

the

whereby he

Therefore cele
corresponds to the Latin iste illius est.
DC could originally, like vir Dei in Latin, be applied
Reeves has
to monks and anchorites in general.
ninth
proved that the term used from the
the twelfth century does not denote the regular

definitely
till

successors to the organised Irish

monkhood

but that
sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries,
applied

whose

to

the

existence

members
cannot

of

any

was

associations

spiritual

with

of the
it

certainty

be

traced back beyond the close of the eighth century.

a
the Colidei
of
Consequently, the associations

word which

probably

was coined

as

resembling

must
sound and meaning the Irish die De
have been formed in Ireland towards the end of
the eighth century, and an existing term of more
then limited to the mem
general signification was
As far as can be inferred
associations.
these
bers of
we can trust are so
which
when the older sources
rule (749), which
scanty, Chrodegang s monastic
secular
the
aimed at uniting
clergy of Metz, and

in

fo.
Ascoli, // Codice Irlandese del? Ambrosiana, 1878,

30

c, 3.

THIRD PERIOD
in

(A.D.

101

800-1200)

enlarged form was also applied to anchorites

its

was

(deicolae)^-

brought to Ireland in the eighth

monks, who in those times \vere to
the monasteries of Alsace and Lorraine.

Irish

century by
be found in
It

was

accordance with

in

were

rule

Ireland

this

rule that those Irish

who were

anchorites

first

not under the sway of monastic

In the monastic Church of
associated.

proper,

these

associations of

attained to any great importance.

During these centuries we find

Colidei

never

them mentioned

in

nine places in Ireland, frequently in connection with

monasteries of which the house of the Culdees seemed
to

appendage or annexe. The

and the care of the poor are
occupations, in addition to which they

constitute a sort of

the

of

nursing
their

chief

seem

to

sick

be entrusted with the choral part of the

service.

But

in

North

Britain, whither they

came from

land, the associations of the Culdees attained to

Ire- import-

much

Through the expulsion of the

monks
of
Hi
refractory
by Nechtan in 717, large gaps
had been left in the Church of the Pictish state, which

greater

importance.

filled by the Roman clerics

from Northumberland. But the new asso

could not be altogether

pouring

in

ciations of the Colidei apparently stop these gaps.

In
Scotland they appear as a mixture of secular clerics

and

of anchorites disciplined

on the monastic

pattern.
places at a later period they resemble the
regular canons of the Continent. There was a want of
connection between the single convents of the Colidei,

In

some

See Hefele, Konziliengeschichte,

4,

9 seq.

the^uldees

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

caused through the absence of a common head and
the lack of fixed forms. This defect characterises the
Celtic

Church

in general,

and can be explained by the

Hence every

political conditions of the Celts.

single

convent was exposed to all the dangers from within

and without which beset isolated communities in their
Thus it happens that almost con
local development.

temporary descriptions of the twelfth century, referring

to different associations of Culdees, differ greatly both
as to the condition of these associations

and

in the

judgments passed upon them.

But this last creation of the Celtic Church of Ire

land was only half independent, and bears all the
marks of a time of transition. It could not resist the
Roman orders which were introduced into Ireland

and Scotland during the twelfth century, together

with

the

complete

of

reorganisation

the

Celtic

The Colidei
Church after the model of Rome.
were absorbed in the orders, or among the regular
canons.
The

in

34.

creasing
influence
of Rome

The formal submission

of the Celtic

Ireland and Scotland to the

of

Church

Roman Church

(as

from that process of effective comwhich have been traced

stages of
preceding sections) began in the second

distinguished
over the
Churchof mun i O n, the
Ireland.

in

the

The development
century.
hundred years had made her
In
final step.
ripe both within and without for this
independent Norse communities of
Ireland, the
half
of

of

the

the

last

eleventh

three

Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford, with their relations

to Canterbury already mentioned, formed a con-

THIRD PERIOD

(A.D.

800-1200)

103

Thus, in 1074, when the opportunity

arose, Lanfranc of Canterbury interfered with ecclesi
astical matters in Ireland by the letter he sent to
necting link.

King Torlogh

O Brian

through the Norse bishop,

Gill-

At the instigation of both, Gregory

patrick of Dublin.
VII. sent a letter to Ireland, at the same time appoint
ing the Norse bishop Gilbert of Limerick to be papal
In the seventh century the abbot
Armagh had been the centre of the

legate for Ireland.

and bishop

of

opposition to the introduction of the

Roman

Easter-

North Ireland. The present Bishop of

cycle
who
had gradually won authority as the
Armagh,
supposed successor of Patrick, now resisted the pro
pagandist effort of Rome, so ardently carried on by
Canterbury and the Viking bishops of Dublin and
into

Limerick,

to

turn

Ireland

into

province of

the

Roman Church. At last Gilbert of Limerick found

a man ready to fall in with his views, when in 1106
Celsus

synod

succeeded
of

to

Rathbreasail

the
in

see

of

1120,

it

Armagh. At the
was resolved to

Final sub-

Church
in the

twelfth

divide Ireland into twenty-four dioceses, which, with

the exception of Dublin, were to be subordinate to

Armagh. But a complete submission to the Roman

Church was only accomplished under Celsus two
successors, namely Malachy, the friend of Bernard of
In
Clairveaux, and Archbishop Gelasius (1137-1172).
1152 the synod of Kells took place under the presidency of the papal legate Papiro, when Ireland was
divided into four provinces, and Armagh was selected
to

be the see of the primate.

of Dublin, Cashel,

and

Tuam

Division
provinces,

bishops,

In addition the bishops primacy of

Arma ^h

were also promoted

to

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

104
the

rank

of

archbishops, and received

the

pallia

brought from Rome.

The complete internal Romanising

Church was carried out in the interest

Normans
Joceiin s

of

Patrick.

II ^5,

of

at the

Henry

II.

the

the

Irish

synod held at Cashel by the command

A few years later, between 1180 and

Cistercian

primate

the

of

of the Anglo-

of

monk

Ireland,

Armagh, wrote a new Vita

at

Jocelin,

the

instance

Archbishop Thomas of
Patricii, utilising all

the

material at the disposal of the see of Armagh. This

work, which, so to speak, forms the conclusion to the

Patrick legend of the

also reiterates

first

Armagh

third of the seventh century,

sheer invention that Patrick

converted the Vikings of Dublin.

The passage occurs

the seventy-first chapter, 1 and is taken from the

Irish poem in the Lebor na Cert? with the additional

in

remark
1172)

that the invasion of the

made an end

state at Dublin.

of the

Jocelin,

Anglo-Normans (1169-

independence of the Viking

who wrote

at the instigation

of the primate of Ireland, explains the downfall of the

Viking state by the remark that the insolent people,

forgetful of the benediction of St. Patrick, neglected
to

pay the proper dues (superbiens populus

oblitus bene-

S. Patricii debitos reditus neglexit persolvere).

In spite of the facts that the Church of the independent

dictionis

Vikings had already in 1152 submitted to the primacy

of Armagh, and that in 1162 the Archbishop of Dublin

was consecrated by the new primate

avidity of

Armagh
1

of

Armagh, the

could not forget that for a whole

See Colgan, Triadis Thautn, Acta,

See above, p. 98.

p.

90

seq.

THIRD PERIOD

800-1200)

(A.D.

105

century the St. Patrick s pence due from the rich

Dublin merchants had been lost. 1
C.

THE CHURCH IN NORTH BRITAIN

In North Britain a united

kingdom of Alban,
name of Scotland, was

35.

which afterwards received the

when Kenneth MacAlpin, the ruler
of the Irish state on the west coast, ascended the

created in 844,

The

Celtic

North
Britain

throne of the united Northern and Southern Picts.

Kenneth had the bones of St. Columba removed from Hi, which monastery had decayed and
In 850

become

Thev were

transferred to Dunkeld, the

mainstay of his power in the land of the Southern

Picts.
By doing this and by establishing a bishopric

monastery of Dunkeld, Kenneth apparently

to form such a centre for the Church as Hi

the

tried

had been

in the seventh century, only

necessitated by ecclesiastical

basis

Mac

Tuathal

Artguso,

Dunkeld from 850

on

865,

Thus

changes.

who was abbot and

till

a different

was head

bishop of

of the

Church

government, not through his position as abbot, but

because he was the bishop.

During the century which followed the expulsion

Of

of

the documents on Patrick, the Bollandists l quote nothing but

the two writings of the historical Patrick
the Confession and the Epistle
and Jocelin s Life of the legendary Patrick. In the Confession they in
1

sert

a^lt

all

after

Filium

invisibilia, contrary to the

sibi consubstantialem gemtit,

five

manuscripts, the words

adding the explanatory remark

Qui

Haec

similia verba in ms. Atrebatensi dtsiderari ccntextus indicat?

3

In

the chapter on the conversion of the

Norse at Dublin by Patrick, referring the reader to Colgan.

Jocelin

st.

Coium-

quite unsafe through the constant invasions of

the Vikings.

at

Kenneth

Life they simply omit

Loc,

Acta Sanctorum
cit., p.

534, note d.

ni.

Jfart., torn.

ii.

pp. 577-592.
3

Loc.

cit., p. 555.

where he
estab-

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

io6
the

Columban monks,

the once monastic

Church

in the

land of the Picts had fallen under the influence of the

neighbouring Anglo-Roman Church, and grown into

a state resembling that of the Celtic church in Wales
about the year 6OO. 1 When, therefore, in 865 Kenneth s
Removal
of the

bishop

see from

Dunkeld
to Aber-

nethy,

thence to
St.

An

drews.

removed the see of the bishopric

Abernethy, where it remained till 908, Dunkeld
was left with an abbot only. In 908 the see of the
primate was transferred to St. Andrews, and a parlia
ment of the same year decreed that the Church should
be exempt from taxation. There seem to have been
inner reforms at the same time, such as the introduc
tion of the canonical rule, which tended towards a
closer union with the Roman Church of that period.
The reformation of the Scottish Church, according
son, Constantine,
to

and pattern of the Roman Church,

was energetically taken in hand by Margaret, the

to the institutions

Reforma
tion of the
Scottish

Church
under
Margaret
and her
sons.

grand-niece of Edward the Confessor, after her

marriage with Malcolm, King of Scots, in 1069.
Turgot, Abbot of Durham, who was her confessor,

rendered her every possible assistance, bearing in

mind the- interests of his Church. Her sons, Edgar
(1097-1107), Alexander (1107-1124), and David (11241153), were chiefly intent on bringing about an out

ward conformity
the

of the Scottish National

Roman

in

Church

to

accordance with the internal

Church,
changes and reforms which their mother had carried
From 1093, after Fothad s death, the Church
out.

remained without a head,

Primacy
of St.

Andrews.

spiritual

the

see

of

St.

till

in

1107 Turgot, the

Margaret, was appointed to

Andrews.
Simultaneously, or soon

director

of

See above,

p. 59.

CONCLUSION

107

new

Andrews

bishoprics subordinate
were established within the pale

Church.

In conformity with a decree of the Council

several

after,

of

in ioj2, 1

Windsor

to

St.

of

the

Turgot had been consecrated

Eadmer

York, while his successor,

at

(1115), a Canter

bury monk, was elected and consecrated by Ralph

Archbishop of Canterbury, at the desire of King
In 1188 the Scottish Church, through a The
III., was declared independent of

Alexander.
bull

of

Clement

Canterbury.

Like the Irish Church, she was hence- under

direct

under the direct sovereignty of Rome.

By
time the inward and outward transformation of

forth
this

Church into a province of the Roman

Church was complete. The land had been divided
into nine bishoprics with strictly denned dioceses, and
the Augustine, Benedictine, and Cistercian monks, who
were brought both into old and new monasteries, ab
sorbed the remnant of the national Celtic monasticism.

the
so-

vereignty

the Scottish

Division

bishop-

CONCLUSION
Not much remains

36.

to

be added to our pre-

Additional

ceding statement of the relations and institutions of on the

the Celtic Church during her prime (sixth to eighth church
century), that
siastical

divine

is

to say, of

Church government

her
(eccle- during

orders and degrees), monastic institutions,

service and its rites, doctrine, &c.
For

although we differ widely from the current views

with regard to the introduction and development of
Irish Christianity
this

does not
1

down

affect the

Haddan and

Stubbs,

ii.

to the days of

Columba, yet
fundamental view, shared by
2

159.

Ibid.,

ii.

273.

prime,

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

io8

most modern

investigators, as to the relation of the

institutions of

the Celtic

Church towards those

Roman Church at the beginning of

century. On the contrary, with regard

the

branch,

this

statements.

of

the seventh
to the

Irish

view receives fresh support from our

Neither from what

tradition

about the doctrines and institutions of

tells

the

us

Celtic

Church, nor from what we know or may fairly con

jecture about her history, do we receive any support

Church during
her golden age greatly resembled the Church of
the apostolic era in institutions and dogma.
Just
for

the

hypothesis that the Celtic

was part of the Roman Empire, so the

British Church formed (during the fourth century)
a branch of the Catholic Church of the West
and
during the whole of that century, from the council

as

Britain

Aries (316) onward, took part in all proceedings

concerning the Church. But the Irish branch of the
at

Church was an offshoot of that British Church,

and had sprung up as early as the fourth century.

Celtic

At the beginning of the seventh century the

tions of the Celtic

Church on

institu

either side of the Irish

Sea showed divergences from the Church of Rome

which are well attested. These, on a closer view,
admit of full explanation. Above all, we must not
forget the fact that in the Roman Catholic Church
the position of the Roman bishop during the fourth
century and up to the time of Leo the Great (440-461)
differed

from that

of

Pope Gregory

604) at the end of the sixth century.

the Great (590At the beginning

of the seventh century rigid uniformity of institutions

CONCLUSION
was regarded

109

an essential requirement of the

but
to the fourth century this idea
;
was wholly foreign. Besides, many innovations took
long to domesticate themselves with the distant
as

unitas catholica

branches of the Church.

At the end of the fourth century the British branch

of the Catholic Church, together with

the barbarian
political

To

were severed from Rome, because Church

from
Rome at
had lost its hold on Britain.

Rome

this

events of the

diate consequences.

and

point, let us

consider the his- ofthe

century and their immeThe Popes Innocent, Zosimus,

fifth

Boniface

three
(418-422) all
energetically
new doctrine of Pelagius
but its

opposed the

when

the

was

suppression

clue

purely

to

Rome,

temporal

Emperor Honorius, on

April 30, 418,

issued the rescript which threatened with exile every
Pelagian in that city.
When, in 429, the doctrine
of

Pelagius spread in distant Britain, the emperor s

authority did not reach so far, and Celestine, the

successor of

Boniface, found himself compelled to

of gentle persuasion by sending Ger-

adopt means
manus of Auxerre to the south-west of Britain. But
even this link was snapped in the second half of

fifth century when a twofold,

nay threefold, wall
of barbarians, consisting of Burgundians, Visigoths,

the

Franks, and Saxons, arose between

Britain.

The

letter of

Rome and

454, in

Celtic

which Leo the

August
a schism with Alexandria,
the Western Church that the Easter of

Great, in order to avoid

announced

Severance

offshoot in

isle,

illustrate

torical

its

to

455 was to be celebrated on April 24th

an un-

century

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

IO

date for the

late

precedentedly

West

seems, from

notices in the Annales Cambriae, the Annals of Ulster,

and the Annals of Clonmacnois, to have

even to Britain and Ireland.
After

Isolated
position
of the
British

Church for
a period
of nearly
150 years.

this,

for

made

its

way

period of nearly 150 years,

all

connection between the Celtic and the Church of

West

Consequently the development

of the Western Church left no impress whatever on
the Celtic Church.
Further, in the absence of any
the

severed.

is

central court of appeal, political and local conditions

must have exercised some influence on the institutions

and usage

of the Celtic

From

units.

Columban

all

of Luxeuil

Church and on each

of

its

we can understand how

dared to speak to the Pope

in

this

way which two hundred years earlier would not

have been remarkable in a bishop of Northern
Africa or Alexandria. We can also understand how

Church, which during the sixth century

was re-established in the mountains of Wales, only
knew of independent bishops, who lacked the connect
the

British

for the British Church at

ing link of a metropolitan
the time of her collapse, in the beginning of the fifth
;

century, was
The Pas
chal date
of the
Irish

Church,
the uni
versally

acknow

37.

Irish

And

and

ignorant of this novel institution.

again, the difference of dates in the

still

British

Churches

for

the

observance of

explained by the fact that the Celtic Church

followed the older supputatio Romana, which was
Easter

is

recognised

at the

time of the Council of Aries in 316,

Rome

ledged
till the
and was also followed by
year 343. The
date of
the fourth Irish remained faithful to the time-honoured custom
century
Thus the Celtic Church
of their fathers till after 600.
Church.

in

CONCLUSION

had been spared all the changes which Rome had gone
through meantime, i.e. the younger supputatio Romana,
343-344 the Paschal table of Zeitz, 447-500 the nine
teen years Cycle of Victorius, from 501 until the middle
and the Cycle of Dionysius, from
of the sixth century
;

the middle of the sixth century onward.

The Roman Catholic Church of the fourth century

had not yet developed that strict uniformity in her

institutions which she possessed two hundred years
the Celtic Church clung firmly to old
later, and
customs, as in the case of Easter. These facts will
account, without the need of further description, for
everything or nearly everything, that Augustine found
contrary to Roman usage (consuetude), nay, to the
1
usage of the whole Church, about A.D. 6O0.

Also,
the different ecclesiasticae vitae disdplinae, which the
followers of the Anglo-Roman Church found fault with
in the Irish,

Warren has
2

can be traced back

collected

to the

some material on

same sources.
this point.

In both the British and the Irish Churches,

their conformity to the Church of Rome,
after
long
the consecration of a bishop could be performed
38.

by a single bishop, although the representatives of

the British Church at the Council of Aries had
signed the canon that seven bishops if possible, or
failing that, at least three should officiate at a con
secration.

seems

But

to think.

this is

not so surprising as

For Augustine

Bede, Hist. Eccl.,

Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the

Warren, loc. cit., p. 69.

ii.

Warren 3

sixth question

2.

Celtic

Church,

p.

64

seq.

If

consecra7 a

^^

bishop,

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

H2

the bishops had a great distance to travel, so that it

would not be easy for them to come together, could

one bishop perform consecration in the absence of

In
the others ? was answered by Gregory thus
the Church of the Angles, in which so far you have
been the only bishop, you can ordain a bishop even
:

In the same way Pope

without other bishops. 1
Boniface still permitted to Justus, Augustine s third
successor, to consecrate bishops by himself if cir

cumstances demanded
Celtic Church, in the

it.

At the collapse of the

fifth

century, British

bishops

must frequently have availed themselves of this dis

and during the
pensation when necessity arose
;

gradual evangelisation of Ireland consecration in

most cases would have been impossible unless per

formed by a

The English of to-day

Teutons and Celts. If we remem

single bishop.

are a mixture of

ber the distinctive feature of their legal development,

custom and usage form a precedent for new law

without the formal repeal of the older written code,
we shall understand how in the Celtic Church con

that

secration by a single bishop became during the sixth

and seventh centuries custom and law as well.
Superiorf he

When we

39.

observe the

markedly monastic

that of

character of the Irish Church and the position of her

bish P s in contrast to those of the Western Church,

bishop.

we must bear

rank

of

>

in

mind

that the type represented

by

Si longinquitas itineris rnagna interjacet, ut

Bede, Hist. EccL, i. 27
sine aliorum episcoporum
episcopi non facile valeant convenire, an debeat
:

praesentia episcopus ordinari?

adhuc solus

Et quidem

tu episcopus inveniris,

sine episcopis poles.

2
Ibid., ii. 8
exigente opportunitate.
:

in

Angloruni ecclesia in qua

ordinare episcopum non aliter

nisi

CONCLUSION
Hi and other monasteries, founded
only,

not universal.

is

On

113
in the sixth

century

the contrary, in the old

whose origin is obscure, but which

formed
the centre of monastic dioceses as,
always
for instance, Armagh in the north and Emly in
monasteries,

we find that in the older period the

Tipperary
abbots were always bishops as well. Thus the heads
of the dioceses were abbots and bishops in one
person, but they wielded the

ment by

power

of

Church govern
This

virtue of their position as abbots.

is

explained by the political and social relations of the

Celts, and by the date and manner of their conver

None

sion.

to

of the authorities that for a time

be superior to the clan or tribe

we choose

seem

whichever name

including the shadowy over

lord of Ireland, are either strong or permanent.
The British missionaries of the fourth and fifth Importto give

it

centuries, full of the monastic ideal \vhich

then taken hold of the West, would

settle

had

just

amidst one

and on finding willing ears for the

Christianity, they would receive from

of these tribes,

teachings of

the chief of the tribe the necessary ground for a fairly

Naturally some
members of the chief s family would belong to the
new settlement from the very beginning nay, it may
have been usually founded by some such member,
large monastic missionary station.

who

presided over

a rank

it

in the position of a lay-abbot,

we

frequently meet with in Ireland even in

Thus the chief s family in all its branches
had a right to the succession as abbots, and in some
later times.

authenticated cases retained

it

for

centuries, so that

^e

c j an

n4

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

Church and tribe stood in the

But
closest relationship.
just as Augustine introduced
Christianity into Kent before being a bishop, and then

the interests of the

returned to Aries for his consecration, so in Ireland

missionary stations must have existed for a time in
the form of monastic settlements in the single clans,
and some member of the chief s family must have

looked after the ecclesiastical needs of the

fore the necessity

was

felt

for a

authorised to perform episcopal

then that the lay -abbot received

bishop

and

it

tribe,

be

member who was

functions.
Assume
consecration

as

should never have been questioned

that the Irish Church, just as well as

the Western

Church, knew the degrees of deacon, presbyter, and

bishop it \vas only natural that, living as he did far
the sight and influence of an Episcopal
Church, he should continue to perform the functions
relating to Church government in the Church of the

away from

abbot and
These views were
handed down from generation to generation, and thus
arose the monastic Church of Ireland, resting on the
basis of the tribe, and with nothing but a de facto
episcopacy that could not claim jurisdiction on the
ground of having been ordained.
tribe

on the strength

member

We

of

desist

of the Celtic

centuries

in

the chief

of his authority as
s

family.

from any attempt to give a full picture

Church during the sixth and seventh
respect of doctrines and institutions.

For although tradition has supplied us with ample

material from which we gather that the Celtic Church
is merely a slightly modified copy of the Western

COiNCLUSION

115

Church

in the fourth century, yet the sources from

that period are too full of gaps to allow of our design
And a picture composed
ing a complete picture.

of mosaics could hardly

member

the

peculiar

Church, and the want of

forms and institutions.
40.

as

One

reality,

is

we

if

the

of

re

Celtic

firm, universally recognised

point, however, deserves special

characterising the

Great stress

approach

characteristics

Celtic

laid chiefly

Church

in

mention

Difference

her prime,

by Catholic Church

his- Cn* isti

amty
torians on the admission made even by Protestant as shown
inquirers, that neither in dogma nor in institutions did and

the older Irish and ancient Celtic Churches essentially JJesta

differ from the Catholic Church. This opinion dissents

from the prevailing views held upon the Celtic Church

even in the later half of the nineteenth century, and
though we may agree with it generally, yet no one
who simply reads Bede s descriptions of the meeting

Rome

of

legates

with the representatives of

the

Celtic Church on British soil can help feeling that

the spirit which animated the Celtic clerics at the

end
of

of

the

the sixth century differed greatly from that

representatives of the Roman Church, and

of those sons of the Celtic

verted.

Here again the

firmed that

notes

Church

whom

they con

truth of the saying

is

con

make up music.

alone do not

Quite a large number of single points can be quoted

to characterise the new spirit which entered the Celtic

Church

of

joined the
First of all

Ireland,

when

Roman Church
we

are struck

the

older

of the

by the

Irish

seventh

Church
century.

spirit of intolerance

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

u6

and consequently by the

spirit of uncharitableness, as was shown by Augustine
towards the British bishops, 1 by Wilfrid towards Col3
man, 2 and by Aldhelm in his letter to Geruntius.
The Irish on the other hand, such as Columban on
towards

Spirit of

uncharitableness.

the

different

Continent,

views,

and the

only demanded

Irish

in

Northumberland,

to be allowed to practise Christianity

quietly after the

customs

of their forefathers,

and

in

Bede

says, conducive to apostolic life.

But no sooner had an Irishman gone over to the

a way,

as

Roman

party, than a

Ronan, an

Irishman,

new spirit took hold of him.

who had been in Gaul and

quarrelling with the gentle Finan

5
In spite of the papal excom
in Northumberland.
Italy,

commenced

Cummian had

munication,

still

kept Easter of 629

according to the old date. In the following year,

however, he made a special study of the question,
with the result that at the synod of Mag Lena in
630 he voted for giving in to Rome. The opposition
of Fintan mac Tulchain made it necessary to send

an embassy to Rome, and when on

Cummian and

Roman

Bede, Hist. EccL,

Monumenta Germanica,

2, 2.

Ibid., 3, 25.

Epist., torn.

iii.

231.

Ibid.,

i.

165.

His temporibus quaestio facta est frequens

Bede, Hist. EccL, 3, 25
magna de observatione paschae, confirmantibus eis, qui de Cantia vel

et

the

return in 633
party received a new imits

de Galliis advenerant, quod Scotti dominicum paschae diem contra unimorem celebrarent. Erat in his acerrimus veri paschae
defensor nomine Ronan, natione quidem Scottus, sed in Galliae vel

versalis ecclesiae

veritatis edoctus.
Qui cum Finano
quidem correxit, vel ad solertiorem veritatis inquisitionem accendit, nequaquam tamen Finanum emendare potuit
quin
potius, quod esset homo ferocis animi, acerbiorem castigando et apertum

Italiae partibus

regulam ecclesiasticae

confligens, multos

veritatis

adversarium reddidit.

CONCLUSION

117

Cummian at once began to make propaganda

Roman usage by his letter to Segene of Hi. In

petus,
for
this

he

speaks of the successful opposition

Fintan mac Tulchain in 630 carried on in

letter

which

favour of Irish usage against the Roman party. And

the pious wish escapes his lips, "that God might
strike Fintan whichever way He liked." l This is how

an

only just converted to Roman views,

his fellow-abbots to the head of

Irish abbot,

writes

one of

of

Columban monasteries

before the year 636

because Fintan as well as Segene had not
joined Cummian, who after 630 had completely con
formed to Roman usage in the question of the Easter
the

And

all

date.

The

Irish of the sixth

and seventh centuries show

themselves credulous and lacking in critical insight

in their arguments in favour of ancestral rites
but
;

they never consciously deviate from the path of

This trait, the spirit of deliberate falsification
truth.

Deliberate
*
"

j^"

^^
the

the interests of the Church, only appears in the

in

Church

Irish

The
this

assertion,

The two
that

after

her union with that of Rome.

Patrick legend furnishes a chain of proofs for

chief

extending over more than 500 years.

statements of the legend
namely,

Ireland was

entirely

pagan

in

432,

and

that a

certain Patricius, calling himself the appointed bishop

had Christianised it, may possibly be based

But Cummian s statement in his

for Ireland,

on
1

2
pious delusion.

M.S.L

87,

977

voluerit.
-

See above,

p. 80.

Quern Deus

(ut

spero)

percutiet

quoquo modo

Patrick
legend*

of

n8

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

Segene, that Patrick in 432 introduced the

Dionysian Easter-cycle in Ireland, clearly bears upon

letter to

it

mark

the

distinct

of deliberate invention for the sake of a

Still

purpose.

clearer

the object of the

is

other fabrication appearing in Muirchu

theni

Life,

known

that

whom

of

Patrick,

maccu Machnothing was

North Ireland, was the founder

monastery of Armagh, and thus predecessor
in

bishop who

later

the

of

to the

held out in violent opposition to

Rome.
is

In the eighth century the Book of the Angel 1

a piece of deliberate invention in the interest of

the

Church

of

the

Through

Armagh.

following

be found by
the side of harmless inventions by imaginative minds.
At the end of the tenth century, the pecuniary in
centuries, deliberate

are

forgeries

to

Armagh required the story that the Dublin

were
converted by Patrick, although they in
Vikings

terests of

reality

did not begin to turn Christians

the

before

year 943.
In pursuing the development of the Patrick legend

Cummian

from

its

down

to Jocelin s Life of St. Patrick, written

first

appearance

1180 and 1185

in

at the instance of the

s letter in

634
between

primate of Ire

we are constantly reminded of Herder s words

Once the evil principle had been adopted that in

land,
"

the interest of the

Church

faith

invented, and fiction resorted

might be broken,

to,

the historical

lies

faith

The tongue, the pen, the memory, and

the imagination of mankind lost all rule and compass,
so that instead of quoting Greek and Punic faith we
was

violated.

See above,

p. 83.

CONCLUSION
might, with far

more

119

reason, speak of Christian credi

l
bility."

Another symptom of the new

to pervade the Irish

Church

union with Rome,

after the first

which begins
seventh century,
the unprecedented

spirit

in the
is

extension which the cult of relics assumes.

The

still

denotes

"a

"

In old time the

churchyard."

was so

mean

attached to the word, that

a famous Old Irish treatise on the great cemeteries of
ing of

"

relic

little

Ireland in heathen times bears the

title

senchas na

relec,

Ancient History of Burial Places." 2 In the

county of Tyrone near an old parish church we still
i.e. "The

place-names Relig-na-man, "the Women

Cemetery
Relig-na-paisde, Children s Cemetery

find the

"

"

"

";

and Relig-na-fear-gonta,

"

Cemetery

of the Slain

Men."

Herder, Ideen zur Philosophic der Geschichte, xvii. I Nachdem einmal

das bose Prinzip angenommen war, dass man zum Nutzen der Kirche
Untreue begehen, Lugen erfinden, Dichtungen schreiben dtirfe, so war
:

de*"

Glaube verletzt Zunge, Feder, Gedachtnis und Einbildungskraft der Menschen batten ihre Regel und Richtschnur verloren, so dass
statt der griechischen und punischen Treue wohl mit mehrerem Rechte
die cbristliche Glaubwiirdigkeit genannt werden mochte.
2
Lebor na Hiiidre, p. 50 b, 15 seq.
3
See Reeves, Adamnaris Life of Columba, p. 283: "About half a mile
historische

from the old church

kill

is

the

Women

directed a

woman

man, or

"

sound of a

a nearly disused burying-ground, called Rellig-naand the local tradition is, that Colum-

s Cemetery,"

of bad character to be buried at a spot where the

rung in front of the funeral, would cease to be heard at

his church, and that he left an injunction that the cemetery should never be
entered by a living woman or a dead man. Devout women in old times used
to request burial here, under the idea that none interred here would be

damned

bell,

but this impression has nearly disappeared.

parish cemetery of
"

Children

Termon

s Cemetery,"

fol

worth mentioning
Relic
in
Old
Irish
means
(gen. sing, reilce, gen. plur. relec)
"churchyard, cemetery," and in modern Irish reileag
linguistic facts are

lowing

Cult of
rellcs

Outside the old

there are two others, called Relig-na-paisde,

and Relig-na-fear-gonta, "Cemetery of the Slain."

original

120

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

Thus in
same way,

Irish relicy the Latin

as, for

fourth century
examine), since

is

Ammian

instance,

used

uses

for a lifeless

namely,

word

it

body

in the

the

in

(cadaver

the place where dead bodies

But even the Latin word itself was used

are buried.

relic is

in Ireland in the

old sense before

adopted. Thus Adamnan

where he uses the word

For a certain event

it

Roman

views were

in the only passage

applies
in the Life of St.

Columba.

he quotes the
a
of
of
called
Ferreolus
authority
disciple
Columba,
in the saint s life

(Ernene), who told the story to him in his youth,

and he adds the remark "That the bones of Ferre
olus rest in the churchyard of Drumhome (Druim
Thuama), in Donegal, with those of other Columban

monks, waiting with the

surrection."

saints

the

for

day of

re

The Old

Irish

word

"

for

"

relics

is
martre, i.e.
so
Irish
that
Martorthech
martyrs,"
(gen. MartortJuge),
"the House of
Martyrs," and Latin Domus Martirmn,
"

as well as Kilnamartry,

"

been used as place-names

the sense of

"

House

of

Church
2

of

Martyrs,"

in the eighth

Relics,

Church

have

century in
of

Relics. 3

was firmly rooted in Ire

relics
the eighth century, when under
Roman influence the graves of pious men were
opened to enshrine their bones as relics, the Irish
This old term for

land.

Still late

Adamnan s

sancti

"

"

in

Life of Columba,

Columbae monachorum

lib. 3,

23

Ferreolus, qui inter aliorum

Dorso

reliquias in

Tomme

sepultus

cum

sanctis resurrectionem expectat.

2

Annals of

Life,
3

ii.

Ulster, 721,

754; Tirechan

Notes

in Stokes,

330, 31; 331,7.

See Reeves,

Adamnan s

Life of St. Columba, p. 452.

Tripartite

CONCLUSION
applied even the Latin

121

word martyres

sense

in the

side with the

side

of pious

men,"
by
newly imported term reliquiae. The last passage in
the Annals illustrating this use of the word dates
from the year 775 Comotatio martirum sancti Erce
Slane et comotatio martirum Uiniani Cluana Iraird:
"the transfer of the bones of St. Ere and St. Uinian."

of

"remains

Ere died

and Uinian

in 512,

is

who

identical with Finnian

and was both Comgall

s
died in 548,
and Columba s teacher. After 784 we invariably find
reliquiarum instead of the former martirum in the

of Clonard,

Annals, and consequently relic occurs in Middle Irish

Yet
relics."
by the side of martra in the sense of
"

this

meaning

universal,
relic

for

of

relic

= churchyard

German we

the

find the

stands

learned term

word

become

not

by the

side

"

Breve

of

modern

Irish, just as in
"

by the

"

Brief."

What do we know about

Irish

did

relic

relics

Middle

in

side of the popular

word

the cult of relics in the

Church before her submission

to

Rome,

i.e.

the north before 697,

664, and in the rest of

South Ireland before 630,

in

Northumberland up to
Ireland herself possessed
North Britain till 716 ?
no martyrs. Even in the twelfth century an Anglo-

in

Norman,

filled

with the

Roman

spirit,

thrust

this

reproach into the face of Archbishop Mauricius of

Cashel. 1 About the year 547 Gilclas knew only three
2
martyrs from the persecution of Diocletian in Britain.

See Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica, iii. 32.

Sanctum Albanum Verolamiensem,
See Chronica Mmora, 3, 31
"

Aaron

et

Julium

Legionum."

cult of

in

in the
ceiilc

Church

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

122

Roman Church

In the

the cult of martyrs relics was

carried on with great fervour, though in the face of
violent opposition, from the second half of the fourth

days of Ambrosius and Jerome.

only natural that the Irish Church, in her
seclusion, possessed no relics in the sense of "remains
of martyrs bodies up to the end of the sixth century.
century, that

Thus

it

in the

is,

is

"

Nor

show that in any part

were known and revered
before the union with Rome. Most likely relics were
are there any records to

of the

Church

Irish

relics

a literary notion only until in the

the Irish

Church came

seventh century

into contact with the

Roman.

Against this conjecture only one single argument

could be quoted.
A notice in Bede, who is de
departure of Colman and the Irish
monks from Northumberland after the Synod at
On leaving, Colman took with him
Whitby, says
scribing

the

"

part of the bones of the most reverend father Aidan ;

but the rest he left in the church over which he had
presided, and commanded that they should be kept
in a secret place." l
But we must also remember

Bede s time, in 731, the body of the great

Columba was still quietly lying in his grave at Hi. 2
Thus it was merely a pious act on the part of
Colman to take part of the bones of the Irish
that at

apostle

of

Northumberland,

who had

only

died

1
Abiens autem domum Colman adsumsit
Bede, Hist. EccL, 3, 26
secum partem ossium reverentissimi patris Aidani pattern vero in ecclesia
:

cui praeerat reliquit et in secretario eius condi praecepit.

2

cum

Bede, Ibid.,
esset

iii.

annorum

praedicaturus adiit.

Ubi

Ixxvii.,

(i.e.

lona) et ipse (Columba) sepultus

post annos xxx. et duos, ex

quo

est,

ipse Britanniam

CONCLUSION

123

thirteen years before (in 651), with him to Ireland,

so that they should rest in Irish soil.
This view
finds support

the

in

Columba s

St.

weighty circumstance that in

by Adamnan before he

Life, written

joined the Roman party in 688, nothing is said of relics,

of the cult of relics, or of miracles effected by relics.

Roman

After joining the

party,

Adamnan wrote

second preface
to his Life of St. Columba, in
of
which,
course, passing mention is made of Patricius,
who is never named in the Life. This silence of Adam"

"

in regard to relics is all the more important,

because the pervading spirit in the Life of St. Col
umba is faith in miracles. South Ireland had been

nan

to

open

Roman

mentioned, the
to

Rome

influence after 630, when, as already

Roman party had sent an embassy

to ask for help against the

South Ireland.

Irish party in

In

still

powerful
633 this embassy

in spirit, and Cummian reveals

method of persuasion in his letter
And we have proofs of
Segene, where he says

returned fortified
their principal
to

"

the virtue

of

God

being in the relics of the holy

martyrs, and in the writings which they have brought

With our own eyes we have seen a totally
hither.
blind girl open her eyes before these relics, we have
seen a lame man walk, and many evil spirits cast
1

Everything in
terms used (reliquiae),
out."

this passage,
is

down

Roman, not

Muirchu maccu Machtheni,

1

to the very

Irish.

in his Life of Patrick,

Et nos in reliquiis sanctorum martyrum et scripturis

M.S.L., 87, 978
quas attulerunt probavimus inesse virtutem Dei. Vidimus oculis nostris
puellam caecam omnino ad has reliquias oculos aperientem et paralyticum
:

ambulantem

et

multa daemonia

ejecta.

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

124

bears witness to the progress made in South Ireland

during the course of the seventh

in the cult of relics

Talking of his own time (before 697), he

mentions with emphasis that in three different parts
of the Roman-Irish territory relics are worshipped,
one of them being the bones of a man who had died
century.

in

peace
It

is

most

Adamnan

1
beginning of the sixth century.

at the

Machtheni

instructive in this regard to

compare
Columba with Muirchu maccu
St. Patrick.
The records are as

Life of St.

s
s

Life of

nearly as possible
wrote the Life of

contemporary, since Adamnan

Columba about 687 or 688

St.

before joining the Roman party and St. Patrick s

Life, which had the conversion of Armagh in view,
was written before 697. Adamnan was North Irish,

and

at

the time

still

independent of Rome, repre

Church of North Ireland, while Muirchu

maccu Machtheni was the mouthpiece of Roman views,
senting the

which prevailed

in

South Ireland

after 630.

In the

biography of the genuine great apostle of the Gentiles

the land of

the Picts (563-597) relics are utterly

unknown, while in the Life of the supposed apostle
of Ireland (432-459) not only does the worship of
in

relics prevail, but Patrick

such worship

one

to

is

actually

of the saints.

made

Such

to
is

prophesy
the con-

Hoc est Ercc filius Dego cuius

Stokes, Tripartite Life, ii. 281, I
nunc reliquiae adorantur in ilia civitate quae vocatur Slane. 283, 5
quidam adoliscens poeta nomine Feac, qui poslea mirabilis episcopus fuit,
cuius reliquiae adorantitr hi Sleibti.
497, 18 (De Morte Moneisen)
:

cuius transmarinae reliquiae ibi adoranttir usque hodie.

2
Tune Patricius prophetavit
Ibid., ii. 497, 18 (De Morte Moneisen)
quod post annos viginti corpus illius ad propinquam cellulam de illo loco
:

tolleretur

cum honore

quod postea

ita

factum

est.

CONCLUSION

125

between Celtic-Irish Christianity in the Life of

Columba and Roman-Irish Christianity in the Life

trast
St.

of St. Patrick.

In 697 the Bishop of Armagh, and with him the

rest of North Ireland, conformed to Rome in the

Easter question.

This was due to the united per

Southern Irish and of Adamnan,

suasive efforts of the

who

Roman

688 had been in favour of the

since

716 Hi and the monasteries de

pendent on Hi followed the example of Armagh.
Thus North Ireland became accessible to Roman
influence, as the south had been since 633, and the
same change of attitude concerning the question of
relics as was noticed seventy years before in the south
Easter date.

now

In

took place in the north.

The Annals

of Ulster are a valuable guide,

dates for the eighth century

727: The

A.D.

Ireland,

and

his

relics

law

of

tell

Adamnan

(the

whose

an unmistakable

Law

tale.

are transferred
is

of Innocents)

to

re

newed?
A.D.

730

Ireland in

Reeves
1

A.D.

726

The return of the

the month of October.
:

relics

Adamnan from

of

assumes that the bones of Adamnan were

Adomnani

reliquiae transferuntur

in

Hiberniam

et

lex

renovatur.
2

A.D.

729

Reversio reliquiarum

Adomnani de Hibernia

in

mense

Octimbris.
3

Reeves, Adamnatfs Life of Columba,

derives

its

name,

it

is said,

from

p. Ixiii.

Adamnan

The church

shrine,

(of Skreen)

which was preserved

This shrine might be supposed to enclose St. Adamnan s bones,

be the case containing the reliquiae Adamnani, which were brought
over to Ireland in 727 for the renewal of his law, and which were taken
back to Hy in 730. But according to a record in one of the Brussels

there.

and

to

MSS., which was copied by Michael

Clery in 1629,

"from

Full de-

nn old black

frelics

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

126

from the grave as relics, although

he died only in 704; because after his praiseworthy sub
mission to the efforts of Rome, he had done so much

already, in 727, taken

win over North Ireland between 688 and 704. But

ascertain whether this was done while at

to

we cannot

the same time the bones of the great

still

allowed to rest undisturbed

in

Columba were
their grave

or

whether, according to a less likely version, the relics

of Adamnan meant a shrine with relics collected

by

Adamnan between 688 and

to Roman views.
For our

704,

after

conforming

point of view

it

is

of

secondary importance.
The transfer of the relics of Peter, Paul,
A.D. 734
and Patrick to enforce the law or cess. 1
:

In the Book of the Angel (Liber Angeli), in which

inferences from the Patrick legend are drawn in its
ow n interest by the See of Armagh, we find the
r

following notice

"

Nevertheless due honour and re

verence must be shown to the

relics

of

the chief

martyrs Peter and Paul, Stephen, Laurentius, and the

In comparing the above note in the Annals
rest."and

difficult manuscript of parchment," the contents of the shrine were

the various relics which Adamnan himself had collected.

Then
Reeves

follows a description of the shrine, with the following comment

by
It is very likely that there were two shrines called Adamnan
s,
"

the older containing his own remains, which is the one referred to in the
Annals ; the other containing the miscellaneous objects mentioned in the
catalogue, which was in after-times coupled with his name, and preserved

church of Skreen."
Annals of Ulster, A.D. 733
Phatraic ad legem perficiendam.

in his
1

Stokes, Tripartite Life,

honore

et caeterorum.

Commotatio martirum

Petir et Phoil et

354, 19 seq\ Nihilominus venerari debet

reliquias Petri et Pauli, Stefani, Laurentii

ii.

summorum martyrum

CONCLUSION
of Ulster with this injunction,

clusion that

"to

enforce

law"

127

we come

to the

con

refers to the injunction

Book

If the law was enforced

of the Angel.
the
date
of
the
734,
publication of the Book of
the Angel is fairly fixed.
It must have been a kind of

in the

in

commemorative document issued by Armagh

on the occasion of the tercentenary of St. Patrick s
arrival in Ireland (in 432), and must thus have been
official

written about 732.

While in the seventh century Tirechan could still
compare Patrick with Moses on the ground that the
1
grave of neither was known, a later generation be

lieved in the legend already mentioned, that "Columba,

moved by the Holy Ghost, pointed out the grave of

and

Since
namely Sabul."
Adamnan (in Columba s Life) knows nothing of this
legend, it must have arisen between 688 and 734. From
the same time, between Muirchu maccu Machtheni s
Life and Tirechan s Notes, dates a note inserted in
Patrick

Book

the
part

of

of

the

its

locality,

Armagh concerning
relics

of

Peter,

the acquisition of

Paul,

Laurentius,

Stephen for Armagh, while Patrick was

Thus
1

in 734,

Book

Patricius
2

of
:

probably

Armagh,

iiii.

fo.

commemoration

in

15, b.

ubi sunt ossa eius

in

Rome. 3

of the first

In quatuor rebus similis

nemo

and

fuit

Moysi

novit.

Colombcille Spiritu Sancto inStokes, Tripartite Life, 332, 12

ostendit sepulturam Patricii et ubi est confirmat, id est in
:

stigante
Sabul.
3

Ibid.,

triginta

ii.

annis,

301
et

novum Sachellum

Et (Feradachus)
ordinavit ilium

in

exivit

cum

Patricio

urbe Roma,

et

ad legendum

dedit

illi

nomen

librum psalmorum quern vidi, et portavit

ab illo partem de reliquiis Petri et Pauli, Laurentii et Stefani quae sunt
in Machi.
et scripsit

illi

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

128

Easter celebrated by Patrick in pagan Ireland in 733

according to the Dionysian cycle (?), the solemn
transfer of Patrick

newly found bones took

place, to

gether with portions of the relics of Peter and Paul

which Patrick was believed to have obtained in

Rome.
A.D. 743

The transfer of

The transfer of the

the relics of Trian of Kil-

Dalkey>

A.D.

776

and the
A.D.

relics

of St. Ere of Slane

Erard?
son of Ere at

transfer of the relics of Uinian of Clon

784

The arrival of

the relics of the

the monastery of Teltoivn?

A.D. 785

The transfer of

790 The transfer of

Mochua maccu Lugedon. 5
A,D.

A.D. 793

A.D.

794
A.D. 800

the relics

of Ultan (died in

the relics

of Coimgen and

The transfer of the relics of Tole. 6

The transfer of the relics of Trian. 1

The enshrining of the

relics

of Conlaed in a

gold and silver shrine*

A.D. 80 1

of Berech, in

The

The enshrining of the relics of Ronan, son

a gold and silver shrine?

great importance of these eighth-century notes

Annals of Ulster, 742 Commotatio martirum Treno Cille Deillge.

Comctatio martirum sancti Erce Slane et comotatio
A.D. 775
martirum Uiniani Cluana Iraird.
3
A.D. 783
Adventus reliquianun filii Eire ad civitatem Tailten.
1

4
5
6
7
8
9

A.D. 784
A.D. 789
A.D. 792
A.D. 793

Commotatio reliquianun Ultani.

Comotatio reliquiarum Coimgin
Comotatio reliquiarum Toli.

et

Mochua maccu Lugedon.

Commotatio reliquiarum Treno.

A.D. 799: Positio reliquianun Conlaid hi serin oir et argait.

A.D. 800: Positio reliquiarum Ronaen filii Berich in area auri et

argenti.

CONCLUSION

129

be fully realised by com

paring them with the sixth and seventh century notes

Annals of Ulster

in the

will

same Annals, which, though furnishing a mass

of information on the history of the Church, do not contain a single entry respecting relics.
But no sooner was
of the

North Ireland won over

to

Roman

influence through

the yielding of Armagh (in 697) and Hi (in 716) con

cerning the Easter question, than the series quoted

above opens with the year 726, while

Armagh

exhibits at

of Patrick

relics

Dun

Lethglaisse

them

to

the

fairs

large

supposed

at the

to

of

same time

Ireland

have been found

in

(Downpatrick)
733,
2
and Munster. 3

and

the
at

takes

Connaught

an indisputable

dogma the CeltoChurch nay, the whole Celtic Church at the

end of the sixth century shows no difference from the
Western Catholic Church of the fourth century, and
differs but slightly from the Roman Catholic Church
of the seventh century.
But, at the same time, it is
It is

fact that in

Irish

also undeniable that the spirit of the representatives

of the Celtic Church at the close of the sixth century

was
1

essentially different

from

that displayed

by the

Annals of Ulster 788. Dishonouring of the Bachall-Istt (St. Patrick s

and the relics of Patrick by Donnchad, son of Domnall, at Rath:

crosier)

a fair. 830. Disturbance of the fair of Tailtiu (Teltown) at the

Forads about the shrine of MacCuilind and the reliquaries of Patrick, and

airthir, at

a great

many

persons died thereof.

817. Artri, superior of Ard-Macha

went to Connaught with the shrine of Patrick.
Ibid.,

(i.e.

Abbot of Armagh),

Ibid., 844. Forindan, Abbot of Ard-Macha, was taken prisoner by

Gentiles in Cluain-comarda, with his reliquaries and his
and
"family,"
carried off by the ships of Luimnech (i.e. the lower Shannon).
845.

Forindan, Abbot of Ard-Macha, came from the lands of Munster with

the reliquaries of Patrick.
I

chief
h a c ter

st

"

the Celtic
christiamty<

EARLY CELTIC CHURCH

130

Rome

of

representatives

the

sent to

British

Isles.

same dogma, but on the one

side we find a striving for individual freedom and
personal Christianity, on the other a bigoted zeal
for rigid uniformity and systematising.
The Celt
emphasises a Christianity pervading life and deeds,
Both adhere

the

to

Roman

while with the

Catholic the observance of

and foremost aim,

a formal Christianity is the chief

as Aldhelm so frankly proclaims. 1

In spite of all the weak points of the Celtic Church,

the life of her representatives at the beginning of the

seventh century comes nearer the picture that we draw

for ourselves of the apostolic era than the Christianity
displayed by their

the representatives of the

rivals,

And

Roman Church.

since

it

is

not possible to give

a full picture of Celtic Christianity before

contact with

Roman

ways,

the portrait of one of

its

we

it

came

into

will at least

reproduce
as it
such
representatives

was drawn by one familiar with the conditions

Aldan

Character.

the time.

the

Bede,

in

speaking of Aidan, the founder

Columban Church

sets forth the

man

of

in

Northumberland, vividly

characteristics

but in order evi

dently to meet the narrow-minded Roman views held

which could
in the Northumbrian Church at his time

not forgive the Irish for their adherence to the institu

tions of the Celtic Church, and their firmness towards

Roman

fanatics

he deems

it

advisable to explain in

would neither praise nor

a few prefatory words
censure Aidan, but merely wished to give the facts as
that he

Mon. Germ.) Ep.

Bede, Hist. Red.,

torn. 3, 231.
iii.

25.

CONCLUSION
a faithful historian should. 1

131

This he proceeds to do

as follows in his description of Aidan, than

no

fitter

which

conclusion could be found to a sketch of the

His love of peace and charity his

Church
continence and humility his mind superior to angej
and avarice, and despising pride and vainglory i/r^is
industry alike in keeping and teaching the heavenly
commandments his diligence in reading and vigils
Celtic

"

his authority so

a priest in reproving
becoming
the haughty and powerful, and at the same time his
tenderness in comforting the afflicted and in relieving
to

or defending the poor.

learned from those who

say briefly all that we

knew him, he took care to

To

omit none of those things which he found in the

apostolic or prophetical writings, but to the utmost
of his
1

power endeavoured

Bede, Hist. EccL,

Ibid.,

animum

iii.

17

irae

contemtorem

"

iii.

17

Studium pacis

Verax

perform them

2
all."

historicus."

et caritatis, continentiae et humilitatis

superbiae simul et vanae gloriae

industriam faciendi simul et docendi mandata caelestia,

et
;

to

avaritiae victorem,

solertiam lectionis et vigiliarutn, auctoritatem sacerdote dignam, redarguendi superbos ac potentes, pariter et infirmos consolandi ac pauperes

Qui, ut breviter multa comprehendam, quantum ab eis qui ilium novere didicimus, nil ex omnibus
quae in evangelicis vel apostolicis sive propheticis litteris facienda cogrecreandi vel defendendi clementiam.

noverat,
curabat.

praetermittere,

sed

Printed by

cuncta

pro suis viribus operibus explere

BALLANTYNE, HANSON
Edinburgh 6^ London

&

Co.