and actions of kings, it is often the private lives of these spiritual heroes alone that the true moving springs of the history of their age is to be sought. Previously to entering, however, on any personal details respecting either Columba or any other of those distinguished Irishmen whose zeal contributed so much at this period, not merely in their own country, but throughout all the British Isles, to the general diffusion of Christianity, it may not be irrelevant to inquire briefly into the peculiar nature of the doctrines which these spiritual successors of our great apostle taught. An attempt has been made, enforced by the learning of the admirable Usher, to prove that the church founded by St. Patrick in Ireland held itself independent of Rome, and, on most of the leading points of Christian doctrine, professed the opinions maintained at present by Protestants. But rarely, even in the warfare of religious controversy, has there been hazarded an assertion so little grounded upon fact. In addition to the original link formed with Rome, from her having appointed the first Irish missionaries, we find in a canon of one of the earliest Synods held in Ireland a clear acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Roman See. Nor was this recognition confined merely to words; as, on the very first serious occasion of controversy which presented itself, the dispute relative to the time of celebrating Easter, it was resolved, conformably to the words of this canon, that "the question should be referred to the Head of Cities," and, a deputation being accordingly despatched to Rome for the purpose, the Roman practice, on this point, was ascertained and adopted. Respecting the nature of the religious doctrines and observances taught by the earliest Christian preachers in Ireland, we have, both in the accounts of their devotional practices and in their writings, the most satisfactory as well as ample information. That they celebrated mass under the ancient traditional names of the Holy Mysteries of the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of Salvation,* the Immolation of the Host, is admitted by Usher himself. But he might have found language even still stronger employed by them to express the mystery their faith acknowledged in that rite. The ancient practice of offering up prayers for the dead, and the belief of a middle state of existence, after this life, upon which that practice is founded, formed also parts of their creed; though of the locality of the purgatorial fire their notions were, like those of the ancient Fathers, vague and undefined. In an old Life of St. Brendan, who lived in the sixth century, it is stated, "the prayer of the living doth much profit the dead;" and, among the canons of a very early Irish Synod, there is one entitled, "Of the Oblation of the Dead." Of the frequent practice, indeed, of prayer and alms-giving for the relief of departed souls, there are to be found throughout the records of those times abundant proofs. In a tract attributed to Cummian, who lived in the seventh century, and of whose talents and learning we shall hereafter have occasion to speak, propitiatory masses for the dead are mentioned. The habit of invoking and praying to saints was, it is evident, general among the ancient Irish Christians; and a Life of St. Brigid, written, according to Ware, in the seventh century, concludes with the following words:-"There are two holy virgins in heaven who may undertake my protection, Mary and St. Brigid, on whose patronage let each of us depend." The phrase used by St. Chrysostom, in speaking of the progress of the faith in the British Isles, implies in itself that the belief held in those regions respecting the Eucharist was the very same which he himself enforced in his writings, and which the Catholic church maintains to the present day. "They have erected churches (says the saint,) and Altars of Sacrifice." ↑ Following the belief of the ancient Christian church, as to a Real Presence in the sacrament, they adopted the language also by which this mystery was expressed; and the phrase of "making the body of Christ," which occurs so frequently in the Liturgies of the primitive Church, is found likewise in the writings of the first Irish Christians. Thus Adamnan, in his Life of St. Columba, tells of that Saint ordering the bishop, Cronan, "Christi corpus ex more conficere."-Lib. i. c. 44. In later Irish writers, numerous passages to the same purport may be found; but, confining myself to those only of the earlier period, I shall add but the following strong testimony from Sedulius: Corpus, sanguis, aqua, tria vitæ numera nostræ : ↑ Oblationes pro defunctis annua die facimus.-Tertull. Carmen Paschale, lib. iv. It is acknowledged by Usher that Requiem masses were among the religious practices of the Irish Christians in those days; but he denies that they were any thing more than "an honourable commemoration of the dead, and a sacritice of thanksgiving for their salvation." It has been shown clearly, however, that these masses were meant to be also, in the strongest sense of the word, propitiary. In an old Irish missal, found at Bobbio, of which an account has been given in the Rer. Hibern. Script. (Ep. Nunc. cxxxviii.,) there is contained a mass for the dead, entitled "Pro Defunctis," in which the following prayer, and others no less Catholic, are to be found:-"Concede propitius, ut hæc sacra oblatio mortuis prosit ad veniam, et vivis proficiat ad salutem." See Lanigan, Ecclesiast. Hist. vol. iii. chap. 20, note 107. The penitential discipline established in their monasteries was of the most severe description. The weekly fast-days observed by the whole Irish church were, according to the practice of the primitive times, Wednesdays and Fridays: and the abstinence of the monks, and of the more pious among the laity, was carried to an extreme unknown in later days. The benefit of pilgrimages was also inculcated; and we find mention occasionally, in the Annals, of princes dying in pilgrimage.* The practice of auricular confession, and their belief in the power of the priest to absolve from sin, is proved by the old penitential canons, and by innumerable passages in the Lives of their Saints.† The only point, indeed, either of doctrine or discipline,-and under this latter head alone the exception falls,-in which the least difference, of any moment, can be detected between the religion professed by the first Irish Christians and that of the Catholics of the present day, is with respect to the marriage of the clergy, which, as appears from the same sources of evidence that have furnished all the foregoing proofs, was, though certainly not approved of, yet permitted and practised. Besides a number of incidental proofs of this fact, the sixth Canon of the Synod attributed to St. Patrick enjoins that "the clerk's wife shall not walk out without having her head veiled."‡ The evidence which Usher has adduced to prove, that communion in both kinds was permitted to the laity among the Irish, is by no means conclusive or satisfactory ;though it would certainly appear, from one of the Canons of the Penitential of St. CoJumbanus, that, before the introduction of his rule, novices had been admitted to the cup. It is to be remembered, however, that any difference of practice, in this respect, has been always considered as a mere point of discipline, and accordingly subject to such alteration as the change of time and circumstances may require. CHAPTER XII. EMINENT RELIGIOUS PERSONS, COLUMBA, COLUMBANUS, BRIGID. AMONG the signs of the religious enthusiasm of that period, not the least striking is the number of persons of both sexes, who, in the midst of so many competitors for the palm of holiness, became sufficiently eminent to attain the title of Saints. These holy persons, are by our ecclesiastical writers, distinguished into two classes, the first of which, consisting partly of foreigners, and partly of natives, extended down from the coming of St. Patrick to the latter years of Tuathal's reign, about a. D. 542. To this class, which was accounted the holiest, as including in it the friends and disciples of St. Patrick, succeeded another series, reaching to the very close of the sixth century; and to this second class of Saints, Columba, or, as he is more commonly called, Columbkill, belonged. In a country where the pride of blood has been at all times so predominant, it formed no inconsiderable part of this Saint's personal advantages, that he was of royal extraction; being, by the paternal side, descended from that "father of many kings," Nial, while his mother, Ethena, was of an * See Tigernach, A. D. 610, and also 723. In the Annals of the Four Masters, A. D. 777, the pilgrimage of a son of the king of Connaught to the Isle of Hyona is recorded. On this point Usher acknowledges that "they did (no doubt) both publicly and privately make confession of their faults, (chap. 5,) and adds, in proof of this fact, what follows:-" One old penitential canon we find laid down in a synod held in this country, about the year of our Lord 450, by St. Patrick, Auxilius and Isserninus, which is as followeth :-A Christian who hath killed a man, or committed fornication, or gone unto a soothsayer, after the manner of the Gentiles, for every of those crimes shall do a year of penance; when his year of penance is accomplished, he shall come with witnesses, and afterward he shall be absolved by the priest." Usher contends, however, for their having in so far differed from the belief of the present Catholics, that they did not attribute to the priest any more than a ministerial power in the remission of sins. If the term clerk here be understood to comprise all the members of the clerical orders, the permission to marry extended also, of course, to priests; but it is thought by some that the words of the canon apply only to the inferior ranks of the clergy." With respect to our English church (says Dr. Milner,) at the end of the sixth century, we gather from St. Gregory's permission for the clerks in minor orders to take wives, that this was unlawful for the clergy in holy orders, namely, for bishops, priests, and deacons, agreeably to a wellknown rule of reasoning, Exceptio confirmat regulam; and we are justified in inferring the same with respect to the Irish clergy in St. Patrick's time."-Inquiry into certain vulgar opinions, &c. &c. Letter 14. § He founds his conclusion chiefly on their use of such phrases as "the communion of the Lord's body and blood:" whereas the Catholics of the present day, among whom the laity receive the sacrament under one kind only, use the very same language. Columban. in Pœnitent., as I find it thus cited by Ceillier:-" Novi quia indocti et quicunque tales fuerint, ad calicem non accedant." illustrious and princely house of Leinster. We are told of a dream which his mother had, before she was delivered of him, which prefigures so fancifully the future spread of his spiritual influence and fame, that, though but a dream, it, may perhaps, briefly be mentioned. An Angel, it is said, appeared to her, bringing a veil in his hand, of wonderful beauty, seemingly painted over with a variety of flowers, which, having presented it to her, he almost instantly again took away, and spreading it out, allowed it to fly through the air. On her asking sadly why he had deprived her of this treasure, the Angel answered that it was far too precious to be left with her; and she then observed it, far and wide, expanding itself over the distant mountains, forests, and plains.* This Saint was born about the year 521, in the barony of Kilmacrenan; and his name, originally Crimthan, was, by reason, it is said, of the dove-like simplicity of his character, changed afterwards into Columba. To this was added, in the course of time, the surname of Cille or Kille, making the title by which he was from thenceforth distinguished Columbkill, or Columba of the Churches. Of the different schools where he pursued his studies, the most celebrated was that of Finnian at Clonard. There had already, in the time of St. Patrick, or immediately after, sprung up a number of ecclesiastical seminaries throughout Ireland; and, besides those of Ailbe, of Ibar, of the poet Fiech, at Sletty, there appears to have been also a school at Armagh, established by the apostle himself, and entrusted, during his lifetime, to the care of his disciple Benignus. At the period we have now reached, such institutions had multiplied in every direction; but by far the most distinguished of them all, as well for the number as the superior character of its scholars, was the long-renowned seminary of St. Finnian, at Clonard.† Having completed his course of studies under this master, Columba early commenced those labours by which his fame was acquired; being but in his twenty-fifth year when he founded that monastery called Doire Calgach, near Lough Foyle, from whence the name of the town, or city, of Derry was derived. Not long after, proceeding to the southern parts of the ancient Meath, he erected another monastery, equally famous, on a site then called Dairmagh, or the Plain of the Oaks; and which had been given, as an offering "to God and St. Columba," by a pious chieftain named Brendan.t But the Saint perceived that it was not in Ireland he could hope to reap the full harvest of his toils. Thwarted, as he was, in his spiritual labours, by the eternal feuds of the Irish princes, among whom his own relatives, the Nials of the North and South, were, at all times, the most unmanageable, he resolved to seek elsewhere some more promising field of exertion; and the condition of the northern Picts in Britain, who were still sunk in all the darkness of Paganism, seemed to present the scene of action his holy ambition desired. He had in view also, it is plain, the better instruction and guidance of that great body of his countrymen who had now settled in North Britain; nor was his relationship to the princely house which had founded that new kingdom without some share, it may be presumed, in stimulating his anxiety for its welfare. There is, in some of the various accounts of his life, a story attributing his departure from Ireland to some fierce and revengeful conduct, on his part, towards the monarch Diarmid; of which he afterwards, it is added, so bitterly repented, as to impose upon himself perpetual exile in penance of the wrong. It has been shown satisfactorily, however, that there are no grounds for this story; and that though, for some venial and unimportant proceedings, an attempt had been made to excommunicate him before his departure from Ireland, the account of his quarrel with this monarch is but an ill-constructed fable, which, from the internal evidence of its inconsistencies, falls to pieces of itself. Having obtained from his relative, Conal, who was then King of the Albanian Scots, * Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, lib. iii. cap. i. Of this remarkable piece of biography, written by an Irishman in the seventh century, the reader may not dislike to see some specimens. The following is the passage describing this dream:-" Angelus Domini in somnis genetrici venerabilis viri, quâdam nocte inter conceptum et partum apparuit, eique quasi quoddam miræ pulchritudinis peplum assistens detulit: in quo veluti universorum decorosè florum depicti videbantur; quodque post aliquod breve intervallum, ejus de manibus reposcens, abstulit; elevansque et expandens, in aëre dimisit vacuo. Illa vero de illo tristificata sublato, sic ad illum venerandi habitus virum: Cur a me, ait, hoc lætificum tum cito abstrahis pallium? Ille consequenter; Idcirco, inquit, quia hoc sagum alicujus est tam magnifici honoris, quod apud te diutius retinere non poteris. His dictis, supra memoratum peplum mulier paulatim a se elongari volando videbat, camporumque latitudinem in majes crescendo excedere, montesque et saltus majore sui mensura superare." In this school of Finnian at Clonard, there are said to have been, at one time, three thousand scholars. "Finianus Abbas de Cluain-eraird, magister sanctorum Hiberniæ, habuit enim in sua schola de Cluain-eraird tria millia sanctorum."-Martyr. Dungal, ad 12 Decemb. See Camden, 1011, where he is guilty of the double error of confounding Dearmagh with Armagh, and St. Columbanus with St. Columba. § Venit de Hybernia Britanniam prædicaturus verbium Dei provinciis Septentrionalium Pictorum -Bede, lib. iii. c. 4. This long story may be found, in its most abridged shape, in Usher, De Britann. Eccles. Primord. 902. A. D. a grant of the small island of Hy, or Iona, which was an appendage to the new Scotish kingdom, Columba, in the year 563, together with twelve of his disci- 563. ples, set sail for that sequestered spot. In the same year, a sanguinary battle was fought in Ireland, between the Nials of the North and the Irish Picts, in which the latter were, with immense slaughter, defeated; and it is evident, from a passage in Adamnan's Life of Columba, which represents the Saint as conversing with Conal at the time of that battle, that he must have visited the court of the Scotish king soon after his arrival at Hy. One of his first tasks, on entering upon the management of his island, was to expel from thence some Druids who had there established their abode; this secluded island having been early one of the haunts of this priesthood, as the remains of circular temples, and other such monuments, still existing among its ruins, seem to prove. Having erected there a monastery and a church, and arranged such matters as were connected with his establishment, he now directed his attention to the main object of his great Christian enterprise-that of exploring the wild regions beyond the Grampian hills, where no missionary before himself had ever yet ventured, and endeavouring to subdue to the mild yoke of the Gospel the hardy race who were there entrenched. The territory of the northern Picts, at this period, included all that part of modern Scotland which lies to the north of the great range of the Grampian mountains;* and the residence of their king, Brude, at the time of Columba's mission, was somewhere on the borders of Loch Ness. Hither the courageous Saint first directed his steps; and the fame of his coming having, no doubt, preceded him, on arriving with his companions at the royal castle, he found the gates closed against him. His exclusion, however, was but of short duration. By one of those miracles to which, in the records of that all-believing age, every event in favour of the church is attributed, Columba, advancing, made the sign of the cross upon the gates, and instantly, at the touch of his hand they flew open. Apprized of this prodigy, the king came forward, with his whole council, to give him welcome; and from thenceforth treated his holy visiter with every mark of reverence. Notwithstanding the efforts made by the Magi-more especially by the king's tutor, Broichanto prevent the preaching of the missionaries, and uphold the Pagan creed, their opposition proved entirely fruitless; and the conversion of the king himself, which had been early effected, was gradually followed, in the course of this and other visits of the Saint, by the propagation of the Christian faith throughout the whole of North Pictland.|| His apostolical labours were next extended to the Western Isles, throughout the whole of which the enlightening effects of his presence and influence were felt. Wherever he directed his steps, churches were erected, religious teachers supplied, and holy communities formed. Among the islands which he most favoured with his visits are mentioned Hymba and Ethica; in the latter of which a monastery had been founded by a priest named Findchan, who incurred the displeasure of the Saint by an act strongly characteristic of those times. Aidus the Black, a prince of the royal blood of the Irish Cruthens or Picts, having murdered, besides other victims, Diermit, the monarch of Ireland, took refuge in the monastery of Ethica, and was there, notwithstanding these erimes, raised to the priesthood.* ** Hoc est, eis qui arduis atque horrentibus montium jugis ab Australibus eorum sunt regionibus sequestrati. Bede, lib. 3. cap. 4. † Ubi verò munitio ejus, vel urbs regia fuerit, nullibi satis certo reperio.—Adamnan. He mentions, however, that it was near Loch Ness.-" Nese fluminis lacum." Alio in tempore, hoc est in prima Sancti fatigatione itineris ad Regem Brudium, casu contigit, ut idem Rex fastu relatus regio, suæ munitionis, superbe agens, in primo beati adventu viri, non aperiret portas. Quod ut cognovit homo Dei, cum comitibus, ad valvas portarum accedens, primum Dominicæ Crucis imprimens sig. num, tum deinde manum pulsans contra ostia ponit: quæ continuo sponte, retro retrusis fortiter seris, cum omni celeritate aperta sunt; quibus statim apertis, Sanctus consequenter cum sociis intrat.-Adamnan, lib. ii. cap. 3. § Thus, it is said, in some verses quoted by Usher from an Irish Breviary, "Relinquens patriam caram Hiberniam, Rex gentis sumpsit Pictiniæ." In an article of the Ed. Review, No. 15, art. 7, it is erroneously said, "St. Columba, who was an Irish Celt, and the Apostle of the Highlands, is not stated to have used an interpreter, when he addressed the Pictish kings, or when he preached the gospel to vast multitudes of their people." It appears, on the contrary from Adammanus, that the saint did use an interpreter on some of these occasions,-" per interpretato. rem, sancto predicante viro:" and the conclusion that the Picts were not a Celtic people seems not a little confirmed by this circumstance. It is not known by what names these two islands are called at present. Pinkerton supposes that Ethica may have been the island now named Lewis; but Dr. Lanigan thinks it was no other than Eig, or Egg, an island about thirty-six miles to the north of Hy. ** Alio in tempore supra memoratus Presbyter Finchanus, Christi miles, Aidum cognomento Nigrum, regio genere ortum, Cruthinium gente, de Scotia ad Britanniam sub Clericatus habitu secum adduxit, ut in suo He superintended also the spiritual affairs of the Scotish kingdom; founding there, as elsewhere, religious establishments. From the mention, too, by his biographer Adamnan, of some Saxon converts at Hy, it seems not improbable that his fame had attracted thither some of those Anglo-Saxons who had now got footing in North Britain; and that even thus early had commenced the course of Christian kindliness towards that people, for which the Irish are so warmly commended by Bede;-forming a contrast, as it did, to the uncharitable conduct which the same writer complains of in the Britons, who were, he says, guilty of the sin of neglecting to announce the Gospel to the Anglo-Saxons.* As, at this time, Augustine and his brother missionaries had not yet arrived in Britain, there can hardly be a doubt that by St. Columba and his companions the work of converting the Anglo-Saxons was begun; and the Christians of that nation, mentioned by Adamınan as among the converts at Hy, were, it is most probable, some of the first-fruits of the Saint's apostolical labours. While engaged in his beneficent ministry among the inhabitants of the isles, Columba, more than once, found himself called upon to defend this peaceful people against the inroads of a band of plunderers from the Albanian shores, who, though themselves professing to be Christians, and, some of them, relatives of the Saint, took every opportunity of making incursions upon the Christians of the Isles. With the same spirit which St. Patrick evinced in denouncing the pirate Prince Coroticus, Columba pronounced the solemn sentence of excommunication against the chief of these marauders. On the death of Conal, King of the British Scots, in the year 572-3, Aidan, the son of Gauran, succeeded to the throne; and it is mentioned as a proof of the general A. D. veneration in which Columba was then held, as well by sovereigns as by the clergy 572-3. and the people, that he was the person selected to perform the ceremony of inauguration on the accession of the new king. Though occupied so zealously with the spiritual interests of North Britain, he did not neglect to inform himself constantly of the state of the religious houses founded by him in Ireland, and even, occasionally, we are told, repaired thither in person, when affairs of moment required his presence. An exigence of this nature, highly important in a political point of view, occurred soon after the accession of Aidan to the throne of the British Scots. A claim put forth by this sovereign, as descendant of the ancient princes of Dalriada, having been contested by the Irish monarch Aidus, it was agreed that the difference between them should be submitted to the states-general of Ireland, convoked at Drumceat; and the attendance of King Aidan at this asscinbly being indispensable, he was accompanied thither by his friend St. Columba. Setting out in a small vessel, attended by a few monks, the Saint and the king directed their course to the north; and, after encountering a violent storm in the open sea, landed at the mouth of the river which runs into Lough Foyle, and from thence proceeded to Drumceat. They found this national assembly, which consisted not only of the kings and nobles, but likewise of the heads of clerical bodies, engaged in a discussion, the subject of which, shows the singular tenacity with which old customs and institutions still held their ground among this people, even in the midst of the new light by which they were now surrounded. We have seen how powerful, in the times of Paganism, was the influence of the Bardic or Literary Order; insomuch that strong measures had been found necessary, by some of the early kings, to repress, or at least, regulate, the pretensions of that body. At the time of which we are speaking, the two classes composing this Order, namely, the Fileas, or poets, and the Seanachies, or antiquaries, had become so burdensome from their numbers, and so unpopular from their insolence, that some vigorous steps were meditated against them by this assembly; and their suppression, and even banishment from the country, were on the point of being decided, when St. apud se monasterio per aliquod peregrinaretur annos: qui scilicet Aidus niger valde sanguinarius homo et multorum fuerat trucidator; qui et Dermitium filium Cerbuill, totius Scotia regnatorem Deo auctore ordina tum interfecerat.-Adamnan, cap. 4. "To the end that by reason the same nation (the Scots, or Irish) had taken care willingly and without envy to communicate to the English people the knowledge they have of the true Deity... even as, on the contrary, the Britons would not acquaint the English with the knowledge they had of the Christian faith."— Ecclesiast. Hist. lib. v. cap. 23. † Adamnan, lib ii. cap. 22. "Ecclesiarum persecutores," the biographer calls them. Columba had been, at first, unwilling to perform this ceremony; but an angel, as his biographers say, appeared to him during the night, holding a book called "The Glass Book of the Ordination of Kings," which he put into the hands of the Saint, and ordered him to ordain Aidan king, according to the directions of that book. This Liber Vitreus is supposed to have been so called from having its cover encrusted with glass or crystal. It is rather remarkable, that a learned writer on church antiquities, Martene, refers to this inauguration of Aidan by St Columba, as the most ancient instance he had met with, in the course of his read. ing, of the benediction of kings in Christian times. "Quorum (regum) benedictio haud minoris antiquitatis est quam imperatorum Antiquissima omnium quas inter legendum mihi reperire licuit, ea est quæ à Columba Abbate Hiensi facta est, juseu Angeli, in Aidanum Scotorum regem."-De Antiq. Eccles. Rit. lib. ii. cap. 10. |