monasteries, and still more by carefully noting the references made to the
domestic and religious discipline in the Lives of the founders themselves,
we can obtain a very distinct idea of the true character of monastic life
in Ireland.
The "Abbot" was the superior of the monastic family, and frequently had
several houses under his supreme control. He generally lived at the
mother-house, where he had a separate cell larger than that of the other
brethren, and usually very near to the church or oratory. The branch
houses were then governed by local superiors frequently called 'priors,'
but they were subject to removal by the Abbot, who had the right at any
time of visiting the establishments subordinate to the mother-house; and
this right was repeatedly exercised, as we know, from the Lives of Enda,
Brendan, and Columcille. Sometimes the Abbot was a bishop, but more
frequently during the sixth century he was not, as in the case of Enda and
Columcille, and very probably of St. Brendan also. Nearly always, however,
in that case a bishop was a member of the religious community, who
performed all the episcopal functions and received all the honour due to
his office; but, as a member of the community, he was inferior in
jurisdiction, and otherwise obedient to the Abbot. During this period
diocesan jurisdiction was not well defined, because there was a great
number of bishops in the country, and dioceses properly so called were
only in process of formation. At this early age the diocese, or
'parrochia,' of a bishop in many cases extended only to the church or
churches which he or his predecessor had founded, and to their adjacent
territory. It was a fixed maxim, however, that if one saint had
established himself in a district another was not to intrude on his
territory without his permission. St. Brendan is said to have at first
established himself near the Shannon, at a place called Tulach Brendain;
but when he found that he was within hearing of the bell of St. Ruadhan of
Lorrha, he removed further to the north and established himself at
Clonfert, whereupon St. Ruadhan prophesied that Brendan's 'parrochia'
would be blessed by God, and in after years become greater than his own.
And so it came to pass.
The monastic "Family" included priests, deacons, minor clerics, and lay
brethren, who all yielded implicit obedience to the Abbot as to the
representative of God in their regard. The life of the community was a
'warfare;' they were soldiers of Christ, and hence were to be trained and
armed for this spiritual combat. Therefore they stripped themselves of the
encumbrance of worldly goods, and entered the 'arena' quite 'naked.' They
were obedient to the voice of the general, and always ready to sacrifice
their lives for Christ. Their obedience was like that of Christ--an
obedience unto death. St. Brendan once told one of his monks to go to save
another who was sinking, and die in his stead. The monk did so without a
murmur--the brother was saved but the rescuer perished.[113]
The Rule of St. Columba prescribes absolute _nakedness_ from worldly goods
in imitation of Christ. No brother could possess anything of his
own--everything was in common. The community itself was poor; the inmates
were to be content with the bare necessaries of life--anything beyond that
was for the poor and the stranger. Of course chastity was deemed
essential, so much so that no woman was permitted to enter the monastic
enclosure; in certain cases they were even excluded from the island on
which the monastery was built. The members of the community were to be
"virgins in mind and in body;" it was not mere celibacy, but perfect
chastity--in thought, and word, and work--that was required from all true
monks. In all this, however, there is nothing peculiar to Irish
monasteries--these virtues have been always considered essential to the
monastic state, although not always professed by solemn vow.
"Silence, which is the practice of justice," says the Rule of St.
Columbanus,[114] "must, at every task and in every place, be carefully
observed." The tongue is the source of many sins, and hence the monks are
strictly forbidden to speak except when there is need, and even then with
caution. Of course when abroad it would be difficult to observe silence,
but still the spirit of the Rule was to be followed. Even the Abbot, in
his necessary communication with his subordinates, was to be brief and to
the point. The monks frequently communicated their more usual wants by
silent signals, especially in the refectory, lest speaking would interfere
with the reading, which always took place at meal time.
"Humility" in spirit and the external practice of that virtue were
specially inculcated, because spiritual pride is one of the sins most
dangerous to religious men, and most difficult to guard against. The Rule
of St. Carthach of Lismore requires the monk to live in humility and
self-abasement towards all persons, high and low, showing to every one
"devotion, humbleness, and enslavement." The brethren in Columcille's
monasteries spoke to the Abbot on their knees. If rebuked by his superiors
for any fault the monk remained prostrate on the ground until the words of
blessing admonished him to rise up--it mattered not whether the brother
was really culpable or not, he was to demean himself as a culprit.
One of the characteristic virtues of our Celtic monasteries was their
spirit of hospitality. Every monastery had its guest-house for the
reception of strangers. They were to be saluted both when coming and going
by bowing down the head, and in case of persons of greater consideration
by prostration. St. Comgall of Bangor, himself, washed the feet of Columba
and his companions, when they came to visit him at Bangor. Upon their
arrival the guests were generally received either by the Abbot in person,
who gave them the kiss of peace, or by the brother in charge of the
hospice, who attended to their immediate wants. One of the first things
done was to wash their feet; they were then led to the church to join in a
short prayer for their safe arrival. Afterwards they partook of
refreshment, and had an opportunity of conferring with the Abbot. When a
distinguished guest arrived, the best cheer the monastery afforded was
produced. It became a feast day for the entire community; even if it were
an ordinary fasting day, by St. Benedict's Rule the fast was to be relaxed
in honour of the guest. No sinner, who came in a spirit of penance was
excluded; but if not penitent, notorious sinners were very properly
excluded from the monastic enclosure.
The discipline of the Irish monasteries as to fasting was very rigid. This
rigour began in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, and was afterwards
imitated in the West. But in the cold and stormy climate of Ireland such
observances must have been exceedingly trying to human nature. Yet,
perhaps, nowhere in the Church were these penitential exercises carried
out with such unsparing rigour. The penances, even apart from fasting,
practised by some of our Irish Saints were simply appalling. In our days
we should consider them almost suicidal. To spend half the night up to the
neck in a stream of cold water, to sleep on the rock in a cell or cave
without coverlet or pillow, to wear the same coarse garment until it fell
to pieces in rags, to spend the whole of Lent in the woods or mountains
with only a few loaves of bread and a little water, were not unusual
exercises of mortification in those days of primitive fervour. This was,
however, mostly the case with hermits or recluses. The discipline of the
regular monastic life was severe, but not quite so rigorous as this.
The ordinary meal for the 'family' was barley or oaten bread, with milk
when it could be had, and a little fish, perhaps sometimes eggs. Flesh
meat was rarely allowed except on high festival days or when distinguished
strangers came to the monastery. The brethren were then allowed a share of
the good cheer provided for the strangers. There was, however, except for
those labouring in the fields, only one meal in the day--the Columban Rule
borrowed from Bangor expressly says that the fare was to be plain and
taken only in the evening, that is, after noon.[115] Vegetables, porridge,
and baked bread are the principal items mentioned as allowable, and barely
as much as would support life. Excessive abstinence from food, however,
was to be deemed a vice, not a virtue; but to some extent a monk was to
fast every day. The 'order of refection, and of the refectory,' is one of
the most interesting portions of the Rule of St. Carthach of Lismore.[116]
He allows an ample meal for the workman and special delicacies for the
sick. On Sundays and other festivals of the year, especially on the
greater festivals, meals were 'increased.' From Easter to Pentecost was
also a season of full meals--"without fasting, heavy labour, or great
vigils." The Summer and Winter Lent are more bitter to laics than to
monks, for to the latter all seasons should be as Lent. The meal was to be
at vesper time only, except from Easter to St. John's Day, when a
refection was also allowed at noon. The bell was to be the signal for the
meal, but first there was a Pater with three genuflections in the church;
then the meal was blessed. Alleluia was sung, and a benediction pronounced
by the Senior, who said, "God bless you." The meal was followed by
thanksgiving, after which all retired to their cell for private prayer
preparatory to vespers. Wednesday and Friday were generally fast days.
The ordinary dress consisted of a _cuculla_ or habit of coarse undyed wool
with a hood, and a tunic or short underneath garment. Sandals were
sometimes worn when travelling, but rarely at home. There is no mention
made of any covering for the head but the cowl or hood, which was
sometimes thrown over it. No doubt a leathern or hempen girdle was worn
round the loins. The monk slept in his clothes on a pallet of straw in his
cell. He had a straw pillow under his head, and probably some kind of a
rug for a coverlet in severe weather. St. Columba himself slept on the
bare stone, which was covered only with a skin, and this practice seems
not to have been unusual.
IV.--THE DAILY LABOUR OF THE MONASTERY.
St. Columbanus tersely describes the daily work of every monastery when he
says--"Ergo quotidie jejunandum est, sicut quotidie orandum est, quotidie
laborandum, quotidieque est legendum."[117] Fasting and prayer, labour and
study, are the daily task of the monks in every monastery. How patiently
and unselfishly that toil was performed the history of Europe tells. The
monks made roads, cleared the forests, and fertilized the desert. Their
monasteries in Ireland were the sites of our cities. To this day the land
about a monastery is well known to be the greenest and best in the
district; and it was made fertile by the labour of the monks. They
preserved for us the literary treasures of antiquity; they multiplied
copies of all the best and newest works; they illuminated them with the
most loving care. They taught the children of the rich and the poor alike;
they built the church and the palace; they were the greatest authors,
painters, architects, since the decline of the Roman Empire. They were the
physicians of the poor when there were no dispensary doctors; they served
the sick in their hospitals and at their homes. And when the day's work
was done in the fields or in the study, they praised God, and prayed for
men who were unable or unwilling to pray for themselves. Ignorant and
prejudiced men have spoken of them as an idle and useless race. They were
in reality the greatest toilers, and the greatest benefactors of humanity
that the world has ever seen.
Religious exercises were the first duty of the monk--'_Orare_.' This was
called the Work of God, and consisted of Mass, the Divine office, with
private prayer and meditation. The Holy Sacrifice was celebrated every
day, at which all the community was to attend; it was generally at an
early hour in the morning, before the labour of the day began. The
ordinary canonical hours were chanted in choir--Matins and Lauds generally
at midnight. Mistakes, even from inadvertence in chanting, were punished
by Columbanus with a small penance-genuflection. The brethren labouring in
the field were not required to attend in choir during the day. The entire
psaltery seems to have been recited during the daily office at least at
certain times of the year. If a brother had any leisure he might, at any
time, retire to the oratory to pray. At all their incomings and outgoings
they made the sign of the cross, sometimes turning themselves to the east.
It seems, too, that making the same holy sign was a frequent method of
salutation.
A novitiate of varying length was observed before a candidate was admitted
to the brotherhood. After suitable probation, he took the monastic
vow[118] before the Abbot and the brethren on his knees in the church. It
was a very solemn vow taken "in the Name of the High God." The tonsure (up
to A.D. 640) from ear to ear was generally received by the brethren, even
when they did not intend to proceed to higher orders. It was considered to
be a sign of the total renunciation of the world, and a dedication of
oneself to the service of God. Yet, the monk did not, properly speaking,
belong to the clergy.
_Study._--The study of the Sacred Scriptures was daily practised by the
learned members of the community--the younger got by rote a portion of the
Psalter until they could recite the whole from memory, for books were then
very scarce. They had also the study of the Greek and Latin languages, and
of the Fathers in the Irish Monasteries, as we shall more fully explain
hereafter. The Lives of the Saints were read for the community and
conferences--collationes--like those of Cassian on spiritual and
theological questions were frequently held under the presidency of the
abbot or prior.
_Writing_ formed a principal part of the literary work in every monastery.
There was a special building set apart for that purpose called the
_Scriptorium_ where all necessary appliances, waxen tablets, parchments,
inks, styles, pens, were to be had, and a library was also kept for the
use of the students and the custody of the books. Too often both buildings
were burned, and their precious treasures lost for ever. The work of
transcription was executed with great care and beauty. To be 'a choice
scribe' was an accomplishment highly prized by the individual and by the
community. That our Celtic monks were indeed the choicest of the choice is
abundantly proved by the marvellous beauty of many of our existing
manuscripts.
_Manual Labour._--It was a maxim in all our primitive Irish monasteries
that the monks were to support themselves by the labour of their hands.
The mendicant orders, who lived to a great extent on the alms of the
faithful, were a later institution, first introduced into Ireland about
the year A.D. 1225. Hence, in every monastery a number of the stronger
brethren devoted themselves mainly to manual labour, and indeed all, even
the scribes as well as the literary and artistic workmen, were required to
give some time to manual labour also. In their case it would serve as
healthy recreation, while, at the same time it would remind them that all
the members of the community were on terms of strict equality, and that no
privileged classes were recognised amongst them. Everything that the
community needed was produced or procured by themselves. They raised their
own corn; they themselves dried and ground and baked it into bread. They
had their own dairy; they milked their own cows; they made excellent
cheese and butter; for no female was allowed to live amongst them, or even
permitted to enter the monastery. They had their own sheep, and their
habits were produced from the wool, combed, spun, and woven by themselves.
They built their own churches and cells, whether of stone or of timber;
they made their own simple furniture and kitchen utensils: they cut and
dried their own fuel, both turf and wood; they washed their own habits,
about the cleanliness of which, however, they were not always over
particular. When a monk died there was no need of an undertaker--his
brethren made the grave, and he was simply buried in his habit, with the
cowl over his head. No man could say they were idlers, or that they were a
burden to the community. They owed nothing to the general community, but
the community owed much to them. Everything needed for food, clothing, and
shelter they produced themselves--even the very soil of their fields they
reclaimed from the woods and the wilderness.
Both church and monastery were furnished in the simplest style--they
devoted more attention to holiness of life and purity of heart than to the
magnificence of their buildings. As we have already seen, the church was
not large, only what was needed for the accommodation of the brethren, and
where the community was large we find several churches close together, to
which the various sub-divisions of the community repaired. The altar was
generally of stone, sometimes merely a rectangle of plain masonry--not
even cemented--and covered with a flag or slate. Such is the altar in the
oratory of St. Molaise on Innismurray Island, which is still to be seen in
that highly interesting spot, within the little stone-roofed duirteach of
St. Molaise. The chalices were of simple workmanship--of metal, wood, or
even sometimes of stone, if the vessel No. 34, second cross case, in the
Royal Irish Academy, be indeed an ancient chalice. The paten was generally
composed of the same material as the chalice itself. St. Patrick is said
to have discovered chalices of glass or crystal in a cavern in the
mountains of Breifney, after crossing the Shannon for the first time into
Connaught. We have no specimen of very ancient vestments; they were,
probably, of a simple character, but certainly not destitute of
embroidery.[119]
In some of the churches mention is made of an _urdumh_, or sacristy,
properly a 'side-house,' opening on the chancel of the church, and having
also an exterior door for the clergy as at present. In several of the
churches, however, we find no trace of any sacristy. Bells were used to
summon the community to the church and to the refectory; they were
generally square hand-bells, made of sheet iron or bronze, of which some
very ancient specimens are still extant.
In the refectory we find reference made to the table, also to the use of
knives, drinking-cups, probably made of wood, and ladles; in the kitchen
we hear of frying-pans, grid-irons, pots and water jars, doubtless similar
to those used in the houses of hospitality throughout the country
generally, specimens of which may still be seen in the museum of the Royal
Irish Academy. They were able to fuse metals in Hy, for on one occasion we
are told that St. Columba blessed inadvertently a butcher's knife, but his
attention being called to the nature of the article, he said it would
never hurt man or beast again. As the butcher tried in vain to kill a
heifer with the knife--it could not on account of the saint's blessing,
even pierce the skin--the knife was smelted down, and all the instruments
were dipped in the liquid metal, so that they never again cut or wounded
any flesh on account of the might of the saint's blessing. It would seem,
therefore, that, at least in the larger establishments, besides the
carpenter, there were also brothers of the community, who worked in
metals, such for instance as smiths and braziers. Existing remains prove
beyond doubt that in metallurgy the Irish monks were pre-eminently
skilful, both in originality of design and delicacy of execution. In this
special department they seemed to have distanced all rivalry during the
Middle Ages.
We see, then, that in the monastery there were not merely artisans, such
as are needed for the purposes of every-day life, but artists of the
greatest skill and ingenuity.
We shall take occasion hereafter to point out how instruction was
communicated in the schools, and to explain what educational appliances
were at their disposal, the subjects that were taught, and the proficiency
attained.
In connection, however, with this chapter, it is necessary to say
something of the Three Orders of Irish Saints, to which reference will
frequently be made in the following pages.
V.--THE THREE ORDERS OF IRISH SAINTS.
We shall find, at least, to some extent, a new departure in the great
monasteries and monastic schools, founded during the sixth century by the
saints of the Second Order. Every one who knows anything of the history
of this period will have heard of these Three Orders of Saints in the
Celtic Church, but by whom they were first thus arranged and characterised
is altogether unknown. Tighernach, the celebrated annalist of
Clonmacnoise, is the earliest who refers to them as thus classified, and
he died A.D. 1088.
The ancient document in which they are thus formally classified purports
to be a "Catalogue of the Saints in Ireland, according to the different
times in which they flourished."
The First Order was in the time of St. Patrick. They were all then great
and holy bishops filled with the Holy Ghost, 350 in number, the founders
of churches, worshipping one head, namely, Christ, following one leader,
Patrick, and having one tonsure, and one celebration of Mass, and one
Easter, which they celebrated after the vernal equinox; and what was
excommunicated by one Church all excommunicated. They did not reject the
service and society of females, because founded on Christ the Rock, they
feared not the wind of temptation. This Order flourished during four
reigns, that is, during the time of Laeghaire, son of Niall (A.D. 432),
who reigned thirty-seven years, and of Ailill Molt, who reigned thirty
years, and of Lugaid, who reigned seven years. And this Order continued to
the last years of Tuathal Maelgarbh (A.D. 543). They all continued holy
bishops, and they were chiefly Franks and Romans,[120] and Britons, and
Scots by birth.
The Second Order of Saints was as follows:--In the Second Order there were
few bishops, but many priests--in number 300. Whilst worshipping God as
their one head, they had different rites for celebrating, and different
rules of living: they celebrated one Easter on the 14th noon; they had a
uniform tonsure, videlicet, from ear to ear. They shunned the society and
services of women, and excluded them from their monasteries. This Order
also flourished during four reigns, _i.e._, during the last years of
Tuathal Maelgarbh, and during the thirty years of the reign of Diarmaid,
the son of Cearbhall, and during the time of the two grandsons of
Muiredach, who reigned seven years, and during the time of Aedh, son of
Ainmire, who reigned thirty years (A.D. 597). These received their rite
for celebrating Masses from the holy men of Britain, from St. David, and
St. Gildas, and St. Docus. And the names of these are--Finnian, Enda,
Colman, Comgall, Aidus, Ciaran, Columba, Brandan, Birchin, Cainnech,
Coemghan, Lasrian, Lugeus, Barrind, and many others who were of this
Second Order of Saints.
The Third Order was of this kind:--They were holy priests and a few
bishops, one hundred in number, who dwelt in desert places. They lived on
herbs and the alms of the faithful; they despised all things earthly, and
entirely avoided all whispering and detraction. They had different rules
(of life), and different rites for celebrating; they had also a different
tonsure, for some had the crown (shaven), but others kept their hair (on
the crown). They had also a different pashcal solemnity; for some
celebrated it on the fourteenth, but others on the thirteenth moon. This
Order flourished during four reigns, that is, from the time of Aedh
Slaine, who reigned only three years, and during the reign of Domhnall,
who reigned thirty years, and during the time of the sons of Maelcobha,
and during the time (of the sons of) Aedh Slaine. And this Order continued
down to the time of the great plague (in A.D. 664). Then follows a list of
their names.
Whereupon the writer says:--"Note that the First Order was most holy, the
Second holier, and the Third holy. The First glowed like the sun in the
fervour of their charity; the Second cast a pale radiance like the moon;
the Third shone like the aurora. These Three Orders the blessed Patrick
foreknew, enlightened by heavenly wisdom, when in prophetic vision he saw
at first all Ireland ablaze, and afterwards only the mountains on fire;
and at last saw lamps lit in the valleys. These things have been extracted
from an old _Life of Patrick_."[121]
Such is the account given in our ancient books of the Three Orders of the
Irish Saints.
We have here followed the copy of this ancient document, taken from the
_Salamanca MS._, lately published at the expense of the Marquis of Bute.
It is beyond doubt a very ancient and most interesting document; but for
the present we can only refer to those points that concern our immediate
purpose.
It clearly marks a transition as having taken place in the early part of
the sixth century from the missionary church of St. Patrick, who was
engaged in founding churches and preaching the Gospel, to the monastic
church of the sixth century. It emphasises the rejection of female
ministration by the monks, and the exclusion of females from the
monasteries, a thing that could not be done and never has been done in
the case of the secular clergy living in the world, and engaged in
missionary labour. The observation that "what was excommunicated by one
church was excommunicated by all," seems to point to a more perfect unity
in the Patrician Church than existed during the second half of the sixth
century. The central authority both in Church and State during the latter
period was notably weakened. It is clear, too, that different rules of
life were followed in different monasteries, and also that different rites
were used in the celebration of Mass, and this document asserts that the
rite used by the saints of the Second Order was derived from Wales--from
David, Gildas, and Docus. This is a most important statement, if it is
well founded; for it shows that these saints of the Second Order derived
both their liturgy and discipline, not from St. Patrick and his immediate
disciples, but rather from the great Welsh Schools that grew up during the
sixty years when St. Patrick was engaged in preaching the Gospel in
Ireland. Indeed, although Ware says that St. Patrick himself wrote a
monastic Rule, we can find no good authority for the statement. His hands
were full, and he was too busy to attend to the organization of monastic
life, beyond laying down these general principles that are common to all
monastic houses. It is a much stranger thing that the saints of the Second
Order should introduce into Ireland, so soon after St. Patrick's death,
those later modifications in the liturgy which they saw in use in the
Welsh monasteries. It is insinuated, too, that St. Patrick and his
disciples followed the correct Easter, but that the saints of the Second
Order introduced the British Easter, which was celebrated on the
fourteenth day of the moon, as well as the frontal tonsure from ear to
ear. As we shall hereafter see, this statement about the time of
celebrating Easter is quite inaccurate, but may have crept into the text
through the fault of copyists.
The important point to bear in mind is that these saints of the Second
Order are represented as deriving their liturgy and discipline from
British sources; and it is also expressly stated that this liturgy and
discipline differed in some respects from the liturgy and discipline
introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick, and practised by his immediate
disciples. This is a question of great interest, but by no means easily
solved. As a matter of fact, it seems highly probable that the saints of
the Second Order did, to a great extent, derive their monastic discipline
from two great British sources, as will again be more fully explained in
treating of St. Enda of Aran and St. Finnian of Clonard.
CHAPTER VI.
SCHOOLS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
Our Kings sat of old in Emania and Tara;
These new Kings whence are they? Their names are unknown!
Our saints lie entomb'd in Ardmagh and Kildara;
Their relics are healing, their graves are grass-grown.
I.--THE SCHOOL OF ARMAGH.
The School of Armagh seems to have been the oldest, and always continued
to be one of the most celebrated, of the ancient schools of Ireland. It
dates in all probability from the very foundation of the See of Armagh,
for it has always been regarded in the Church as one of the primary duties
of a bishop to make provision for the training and education of his
ecclesiastics, and as far as possible under his own immediate supervision.
We may be sure that our great Apostle did not neglect his duty; and,
indeed, the most ancient writers inform us that the School of Armagh dates
from the foundation of the See--the history of one is in fact told in the
history of the other.
St. Patrick had purposed to build his Church and found his primatial See
in the sweet and flowery fields of Louth, where the deep seclusion of a
sheltered meadow wooed his weary heart to build a house for God, and a
home for his own declining years. But God had willed otherwise. "Get thee
northward," said the angel visitor, "to the height of Macha (Ard-Macha);
it is there that Providence wills that you should build your church and
fix your chair for ever." Promptly, though regretfully, the Apostle
obeyed; and crossing the slopes of Slieve Gullion soon came in sight of
the swelling hills of Macha of which God's angel spoke--
"So long as Sea
Girdeth this isle, so long thy name shall hang
In splendour o'er it like the stars of God."
The place had long been famous in the legendary history of Ireland. It was
the classic ground of poetry and romance. Navan fort, just one mile to the
west of the present city of Armagh, was the site of the ancient and
famous palace of Emania, founded three hundred years before the Christian
era by Macha of the golden hair, who traced the site of the rath with the
brooch of gold from her neck, and hence it was called _Eamhuin_, in Latin
_Emania_, but pronounced in Irish _avan_, so that with the article
prefixed it becomes _Navan_, or "the fort of the neck-brooch," the name
which it retains to the present day. Macha of the golden hair was buried
on the height called from her Ard-Macha, although the spot cannot be
exactly identified. To the westward of Navan fort is a townland now called
Creeveroe, which takes its name from the famous Red Branch Knights
(Craebhruadh), who dwelt on that western slope of Emania where they had a
school of Chivalry, in which they were trained to all martial feats of
valour, and were always at hand to defend their sovereign and follow him
to the battle-field. When St. Patrick came to Ard-Macha, that home of
chivalry was silent and deserted, for Emania had been totally destroyed by
the Three Collas about the year A.D. 322, after it had flourished for more
than 600 years. The old order changed, yielding place to the new, and the
foundress of Emania gave her name to the royal seat of a more enduring
kingdom.
When Patrick, with his train of clerics, came to Armagh, he went straight
to the local dynast, whose name was Daire--a grandson, it seems, of
Eoghan, son of Niallan, who gave his name to the barony of Oneilland.
Daire was a rough and bold, but not a cruel prince; he had heard, too, of
Patrick and of the God of Christians; so when the Saint asked him for a
site of a church on the Ridge of the Willows (Druim-Saileach), although he
refused him that proud site on the hill, he granted him leave to build a
church in the neighbouring plain to the west, which was called _Na
Fearta_, or the Church of the Graves. But Daire, greedy even for what he
had given to God, sent down two of his fleet coursers to graze on the
green and fertile meadow which Patrick had enclosed for his church. It was
very necessary to teach the rude warriors of the time that God's acre may
not lawfully be profaned by man or beast, so it came to pass that when the
horses tasted of the grass, they both fell dead, and the king's servants
brought word to their master that the Christian priest had killed them.
Daire's brow grew dark, and mentally he swore that he would slay Patrick
and all his people, when suddenly he sickened with a sickness nigh to
death. Then in great haste the queen, "whose lustrous violet eyes were
lost in tears," sent a messenger to the Saint and besought him to heal
her husband, for she knew his malady was a chastisement from God. Patrick
yielded to the woman's gracious prayer, and blessing water from the font,
he gave it to the messengers, and bade them sprinkle therewith the horses
and the king. This was done, and lo! the horses came to life again, and
the king's sore sickness left him.
Then Daire sent to Patrick as a gift a huge bronze cauldron, in those days
a gift not unworthy of a king. The Saint, raising his eyes from his
breviary, said "Deo gratias," but no more. "How did the priest receive my
gift?" said the king. "'Gratzicam' was all he said," replied the
messengers. Then the king in wrath bade them go again, and bear away the
gift from the ungrateful priest; and again Patrick merely said, "Deo
gratias." "What said he now?" asked the king. "Only 'Gratzicam,'" answered
the messengers. "It is strange," said Daire. "'Gratzicam,' when it is
given; and 'Gratzicam' when it is taken away. The word must be good. I
will restore him the cauldron, and give him the Ridge of the Willows that
he may build a church unto his God."
So Patrick, and Daire with his queen, and the clerics and the warriors of
Daire ascended the slope, and on the crown of that sacred hill, Patrick,
book in hand, marked out the site of the church, and all the buildings
connected therewith, and consecrated it to God for ever. Now it came to
pass that as the concourse was advancing, a doe with her fawn was lying
under a tree. The startled doe flew swiftly away to the north, and the
king's attendants were going to kill the little fawn, but Patrick said,
"No"; and stretching forth his hand he took the fawn, and put it on his
own shoulders, and the doe taking courage followed him home, and remained
with the nuns of Na Fearta ever after, giving them milk, too, beside
feeding her fawns. This lesson of love and tenderness even to the brute
creation produced a great effect on the warriors of Daire. They saw how
Patrick pitied the poor doe, and would not hurt its offspring; they saw in
him the image of that Good Shepherd of whom he spoke to them so often; and
thus they were made to learn that the Gospel of Patrick was a message of
love--of love for God, their great Father in heaven, and for all their
fellow-men on earth.
According to the _Book of Armagh_, written about the year A.D. 807, the
doe with her fawn was lying on the very "spot where the altar of the
northern church in Ard-Macha now stands;" and Patrick carried the fawn on
his shoulders until he laid it "on another eminence at the north side of
Armagh where, according to the statement of those who know the place,
miraculous attestations are to be witnessed to this day." (Fol 6: b. 2.)
The northern church to which the reference is made--built on the very spot
where the doe was lying--is generally thought to have been the Sabhall, or
Barn, called also the "_Ecclesia Sinistralis_," because it was to the left
of the great church, for persons entering the latter from the west. The
great church itself known as the _Damhliac_ (Duleek), or the great Stone
Church, occupied the site of the present Protestant cathedral; and it is
an extraordinary coincidence that the new Catholic Cathedral, the crowning
glory of modern Armagh, stands on the opposite hill to the north dwarfing
by its majestic proportions the Protestant church--and stands, it is said,
on that very "eminence to the north" whither the great apostle carried the
fawn on his shoulders! The hunted doe there found rest; and there, too,
that other "milk white hind," during the stormy centuries of the past, so
often doomed to death, yet fated not to die, was destined to find a refuge
and a home. "Great shall be the glory of this last House, more than of the
first, and in _this place_ I will give thee peace, said the Lord of
Hosts." (Agg. 2, 10.)
There were many other ecclesiastical buildings at Armagh, of which we can
only mention the names. There was the _Damhliac Toga_, or the "Stone
Church of the Elections," on the south side of the Cathedral, but close at
hand; there was a _Cloictech_, or Round Tower, at its north-west angle;
there was a _Teach Screaptra_, or House of Writings, also within the
original rath; and besides the Abbot's House, we hear of the _Cuicin_ or
Kitchen, the prison for refractory monks or students, and the _Reilig_ or
Cemetery, which was more to the south, but afterwards extended all round
the church. It was there that Brian Boru and his gallant son, Murchadh,
were interred after the battle of Clontarf in 1014. Maelmuire, the
Primate, proceeded with his clergy and relics to Swords, and waked the
royal dead with all honour and reverence. Then they carried the bodies to
Armagh, and they were both interred in the same new tomb.
All these buildings, including the houses for the monks and students,
crowned the summit of the holy hill, and were surrounded with a large rath
or earthen mound, as well as by a _Fith-nemhedh_, or Sacred Grove, where
learning and religion sat side by side enthroned for many centuries in
spite of much turbulence and bloodshed.
The Churches and Schools of Armagh are said to have been founded between
the years A.D. 450 and 457--we can scarcely assign an earlier date. At
that time St. Patrick had done much for the conversion of Ireland, but
much still remained to be accomplished, so he chose and consecrated as his
coadjutor Benignus, his young and faithful disciple, to preside over the
Church of Armagh and over all its monasteries and schools. Thus in truth
we may regard Benignus as the first president, and one of the chief
professors of the young seminary which St. Patrick had just founded.
Benignus from his boyhood had been trained by St. Patrick himself; he had
accompanied him hitherto on all his missionary journeys; he was
"psalm-singer" to the Saint, by whom he was tenderly loved, and not
without good cause. The brief story of the life of Benignus is very
touching--beautiful with a beauty that is all divine.
As we have seen, when St. Patrick first came to preach the Gospel in
Ireland, he coasted northward, seeking a suitable spot to land, and
amongst other places he put in for a little at the stream now called the
Nanny Water in the County Meath, a little to the south of Drogheda. There
he visited the house of a certain man of noble birth, by name Sescnen,
whom, after due instruction, he baptized, together with his wife and
family. Amongst the children there was one, a fair and gentle boy, to whom
the saint, on account of the sweetness and meekness of his disposition,
gave in baptism the appropriate name of Benignus. Shortly after the
baptism Patrick, wearied out with his labours by sea and land, fell asleep
where he sat, as it would seem, on the green sward before the house of
Sescnen. Then the loving child, robed in his baptismal whiteness, gathered
together bunches of fragrant flowers and sweet smelling herbs and strewed
them gently over the head and face of the weary Saint; the child then sat
at his feet, and pressed Patrick's tired limbs close to his own pure heart
and kissed them tenderly. The Saint's companions were in the act of
chiding the boy, lest he might disturb Patrick, who thereupon awaking and
perceiving what took place, thanked the tender-hearted child for his
kindness, and said to those standing by: "Leave him so; he shall be the
heir of my kingdom," by which he meant, says the author of the _Tripartite
Life_, to signify that God had destined Benignus to succeed Patrick in the
primatial chair as ruler of the Irish Church. After this nothing could
separate the boy from his spiritual father; he hung on the words of wisdom
that fell from Patrick's lips; he accompanied him everywhere, and thus
from his boyhood was trained by the apostle himself in all divine and
human knowledge. We cannot stay to discuss the question whether Secundinus
preceded Benignus as coadjutor to St. Patrick in the See of Armagh. It
seems he did; it is certain at any rate that for ten years, about the time
we speak of, that is, from A.D. 455 to 465, Benignus ruled under the
guidance of Patrick the Church and School of Armagh.
His voice was sweet and pleasing, and his knowledge of the chants of the
church was very considerable, acquired doubtless from Patrick himself, who
had been trained in Gaul and Britain. Hence he was "psalmist" to Patrick,
he led the choir of priests and monks at all the solemn ceremonies, and he
trained the "wild eyed" Celtic youth to sing the praises of God like
another Orpheus, softening them into Christian meekness by the charms of
sweet melody--the melody of his voice and the still sweeter melody of his
gentle heart.
Yet though a child of grace he had need of caution. His own sweet winning
ways,[122] the music of his voice, his face so modest and so fair, deeply,
though to himself unconsciously, won the affections of Ercnat, the
beautiful and yet unbaptized daughter of King Daire. Most of all she was
smitten by his sweet voice in the choir of the church. But she told no
one; only going home she pined away in silence, and "through grief of love
the maiden lay as dead." Then at length Benignus hearing the cause, went
and told his father Patrick, and Patrick gave him holy water, and bade him
go and sprinkle it over the dying maiden. At once she awoke to a new life,
with her heart emancipated from every trace of earthly love.
"Thenceforth she loved the spouse of souls.
It was as though some child that dreaming wept,
Its childish playthings lost, by bells awaked--
Bride-bells, had found herself a Queen new wed
Unto her Country's Lord."
--_Aubrey de Vere._
St. Benignus died, it is generally stated, on the 9th of November, A.D.
468. A short time before his death he is said to have resigned his
primatial coadjutorship, for St. Patrick was still alive, at least
according to the much more general and more probable opinion, which
places his death in A.D. 493, at the great age of 120 years. The death of
Benignus is thus noticed in the _Martyrology of Donegal_:
"November 8th, Benignus, _i.e._ Benen, son of Sescnen, disciple of St.
Patrick, and his successor, that is Primate of Ard-Macha.... The holy
Benen was benign, was devout; he was a virgin without ever defiling
his virginity, for when he was psalm-singer at Ard-Macha along with
his master, St. Patrick, Ercnat, daughter of Daire, loved him and she
was seized with a disease so that she died (appeared to die) suddenly;
and Benen brought holy water to her from St. Patrick, and he shook it
upon her, and she arose alive and well; and she loved him spiritually
afterwards, and she subsequently went to Patrick and confessed all her
sins to him, and offered her virginity to God, so that she went to
heaven; and the name of God, of Patrick, and of Benen was magnified
through it."
The celebrated Irish work called the _Leabhar Na g-Ceart_, or _Book of
Rights_, has been generally attributed to St. Benignus, although there
seems to be good reason for doubting if he was really its author, at least
in its present form. The title or inscription of the book certainly
attributes it to Benignus. It is to this effect: "The beginning of the
_Book of Rights_, which relates to the revenues and subsidies of Ireland
as ordered by Benen, son of Sescnen, Psalmist of Patrick, as is related in
the _Book of Glendaloch_."
The _Book of Glendaloch_ is no longer extant; but it seems clear from this
very title that the work in its present form is derived from the ancient
compilation known as the _Book of Glendaloch_, and which the Four Masters
tell us was in their hands when composing their own immortal work. The
copy in the _Book of Glendaloch_ may have been itself made from the
original treatise on the subject by St. Benignus, who was in every way
well qualified for the task, both by his literary training as well as by
his knowledge of his native language, and his familiarity with the laws
and customs of the various provinces.
The title of the book very fairly describes its contents. It gives an
exceedingly minute and interesting account of the revenues and rights of
the supreme king; of the services and duties rendered to him by the
provincial kings and inferior chiefs, as well as of the gifts and
subsidies which he owed them in return. It gives also a full account of
the revenues and rights of each of the provincial monarchs, and the
services to be rendered to them by the sub-chiefs of the various
districts, and the hereditary offices and honours held by the heads of the
great families in the provincial assemblies. The work is partly in poetry
and partly in prose; and although in its present form it cannot have
dated from the time of St. Benignus, it is still an exceedingly valuable
work as illustrating the internal organization of the entire kingdom, and
its minor principalities, and may have been originally drawn up by that
learned and holy man, with a view of preventing internecine feuds, by
definitely and authoritatively fixing the rights and duties of the various
princes and chiefs of the kingdom. This work has been translated and
annotated for the Dublin Archæological Society by the late John O'Donovan.
St. Benignus is said by Jocelin to have written also a life of St.
Patrick, but no copy of it is now known to exist; and he has been always
regarded as one of the compilers of the great collection of Brehon Laws
known as the _Senchus Mor_.
The School of Armagh seems to have been primarily a great theological
seminary. This is only natural; for the seat of authority should be also
the fountain of sound doctrine. Of course in those far distant days
theological learning had not assumed the strictly scientific form which
was given to it by the great scholastic doctors, and which has been
retained and gradually perfected ever since. It was the Positive Theology
of the Fathers that was taught in our ancient Irish schools. But the
difference regards the form rather than the matter; in both cases the
matter is derived from divine revelation. The Fathers, however, explained
and enforced the great principles of Christian doctrine and morality with
rhetorical fulness and vigour, exhibiting much fecundity of thought and
richness of imagery, but not attending so closely as the great scholastics
to scientific arrangement, or to the accurate development of their
principles and the logical cogency of their proofs. Each of these systems
has its own merits and defects; the former is better suited for the
instruction and exhortation of the faithful, the latter for the refutation
of error; the Positive Theology was of spontaneous growth; the Scholastic
System has been elaborately constructed; the one is a stately tree, that
with the years of its life, has gradually grown in size and beauty to be
the pride of the forest; the other is the Gothic Cathedral that from its
broad and deep foundations has been laboriously built up, stone by stone,
unto the glory of its majestic proportions and the strength of its perfect
unity.
One of the most famous books in the schools of Ireland, and especially of
Armagh, was the _Morals of St. Gregory the Great_. It is a very large
treatise in thirty-five books, and though nominally a commentary on the
_Book of Job_, it is in reality one of the most beautiful works on moral
theology in its widest sense that have been ever penned. Every verse of
Job is made the text for a homily, not a homily of a formal character, but
a series of moral reflections conveyed in sweet and touching
language--language in which argument and exhortation are very happily
blended.
On Sacred Scripture St. Jerome seems to have been their great authority.
We know both from the fragments of Aileran the Wise, published by Migne,
and from the Irish manuscripts of St. Columban's great monastery at
Bobbio, that our Irish scholars were familiar with nearly all his works.
In Dogmatic Theology we do not think that during the first two centuries
of their history the Celtic scholars were familiar with the writings of
St. Augustine on Grace; they seem to have derived their dogma from St.
Hilary, and other writers of the French Church, rather than from the great
Father of the African Church.
One of the earliest and most distinguished teachers of the School of
Armagh, after the time of St. Patrick and Benignus, was Gildas the Wise.
Many writers think there were at least two great saints of this name--the
Albanian Gildas, and his namesake, Gildas of Badon (Badonicus), to whom
the appellation of the Wise more properly belongs. We are inclined to
think there was only one great saint of the name, and that the distinction
is due to that confusion and uncertainty in our early chronology, which
has been the fruitful parent of many errors. However, we are more
concerned with facts than with dates, and it is an undoubted fact, stated
by his biographer, Caradoc of Llancarvan, that Gildas was Regent or Rector
of the great School of Armagh for several years, after which he returned
to Wales from Ireland about A.D. 508, when he heard that his brother Huel
had been slain by King Arthur, who, by the way, in sober history is by no
means the "blameless King" he is represented to be in the romantic idyls
of Lord Tennyson. Here are the exact words of Caradoc, the biographer of
Gildas. After stating that Gildas, a most "holy preacher of the Gospel,"
passed over to Ireland from Wales, and there converted very many to the
Catholic faith, he adds:--"Gildas, the historian of the Britons, who was
at that time (when his brother was killed), living in Ireland, being
rector of the school, and a preacher in the city of Armagh, hearing of the
death of his brother," returned to Wales and was reconciled to Arthur.
Thus we learn that Gildas, the historian of the Britons, was the same
Gildas who had been head of the School of Armagh, the preacher renowned
throughout all the Britains, and the first historian of that nation. His
work called _The Destruction of Britain_,[123] is still extant, and shows
that he was a man of large culture and of great holiness, in every way
qualified to rule the Schools of Armagh. He gives a fearful picture of the
Britons of his time, reduced as they were, to the greatest extremities by
domestic tyrants and foreign foes. The first part of his work gives a
sketch of British history, both civil and ecclesiastical, during the Roman
domination in Britain, of the devastations by the Picts and Scots, and of
the advent of the Saxons and Angles. The second part, called the "Epistle
of Gildas," is addressed to the five petty princes, or tyrants, of
Britain--to Constantine, whom he charges with perjury, robbery, adultery,
and murder; to Aurelius, whom he calls a "lion's cub;" to the "panther,"
Vortiporius; to the "butcher," Cuneglass; and to Magnoclunus, the "insular
dragon." On the whole, it is a very spicy piece of writing, and clearly
proves that the Welshmen of the time more than merited by their crimes the
bitter chastisements which they received at the hands of the Saxons. The
third part of the work is addressed to the clergy, and he rebukes them
with no less severity of language. He is a new Jeremias, denouncing woe
against the faithless pastors who sold the priesthood, who are the blind
leaders of a blind flock, which they bring with themselves into perdition.
There is certainly no want of vigour, although there sometimes may be of
eloquence, in the style of this work. It shows a wonderful familiarity
with the text and the application of Sacred Scripture; and shows, too,
that Gildas the Wise, the regent of the School of Armagh, was in truth a
deep divine, and must have been, beyond all doubt, a powerful preacher.
We know little or nothing of the writings of the subsequent teachers in
the School of Armagh, but we have a record of the names of several, with
eulogies of their wisdom and scholarship. The number of English students
attracted to these schools by the fame of their professors was so great
that in later times we find that the city was divided into three wards, or
thirds, as they were called--the Trian Mor, the Trian-Masain, and the
Trian-Saxon--the last being the English quarter, in which the crowds of
students from Saxon-land took up their abode, and where, as we know on
the express testimony of a contemporary writer, the Venerable Bede, they
were received with true Irish hospitality, and were all, rich and poor,
supplied gratuitously with food, books, and education. No more honourable
testimony has been ever borne to any nation's hospitality and love of
learning than this. Alas, that England, in the centuries that followed,
could make no better return to the Irish people, who, says Bede, had been
always most friendly to the English, than to make it penal for an Irish
Catholic to teach a school in his native land.
In the opinion of the learned Bishop Reeves, the Trian-Saxon was the
district now occupied by Upper English Street and Abbey Street, and gave
its name to the former.
Any one glancing at the Annals of the Four Masters will find frequent
reference made from the sixth to the twelfth century to the deaths of the
"learned scribes," the "professors of divinity," the "wise doctors," and
the "moderators," or rectors of the School of Armagh. In A.D. 720, 727,
and 749, we find recorded the death of three of these learned scribes
within a very short period. Their duty was to devote themselves to the
transcription of manuscript-books in the _Teachscreaptra_, or House of
Writings, corresponding to the modern library. The _Book of Armagh_,
transcribed there in A.D. 807, shows how patiently and lovingly they
laboured at the wearying work; "as if," says Miss Stokes, "they had
concentrated all their brains in the point of the pen." In A.D. 829 died
Cernech, a priest and scribe who was known as the Wise by excellence; in
A.D. 925 died Maelbrighde, successor of Patrick, "a vessel full of all the
wisdom and knowledge of his time," and eulogies of this fashion are of
very frequent occurrence in recording the deaths of the great scholars of
Armagh.
And yet, during these very centuries the schools, the churches, and the
town itself suffered terribly from the lawless men of those days,
especially from the Danes. Armagh was burned no less than sixteen times
between the years A.D. 670 and 1179, and it was plundered nine times,
mostly by Danes, during the ninth and tenth centuries. How it survived
during these centuries of fire and blood is truly marvellous. In A.D.
1020, for instance, we are told by the Four Masters that "Ard-Macha was
burned with all the fort, without the saving of any house in it except the
House of Writings only, and many houses were burned in the Trians (or
streets), and the Great Church was burned, and the belfry with its bells;
and the other stone churches were also burned, and the old preaching
chair, and the chariot of the abbots and their books in the houses of the
students, with much gold, silver, and other precious things." It is
evident that on this occasion the efforts of the community were directed
to secure their invaluable manuscripts, the loss of which could never be
repaired. Yet the city and schools of St. Patrick rose again
Phœnix-like from their ashes. In A.D. 1100, Imar O'Hagan, the master of
the great St. Malachy, was made abbot just two years before the death of
St. Malachy's father, the blessed Mugron O'More, who had been "chief
lector of divinity of this school, and of all the west of Europe."
It was this same Imar O'Hagan, who, when made archbishop in A.D. 1126,
rebuilt the great church of St. Peter and St. Paul in more than its
ancient splendour, and introduced into the Abbey the Canons Regular of St.
Augustine. These Canons by their learning and zeal effected a complete
restoration of piety, discipline and learning, which had been much
neglected during the ravages of the Danes. Twelve years later we have a
record of the death of O'Drugan, chief professor of Ard-Macha, "paragon of
the wisdom of the Irish, and head of the council of the west of Europe in
piety and in devotion." Just at this time, in A.D. 1137, the great
Gelasius, who well deserved his name--the Giolla Iosa, or servant of
Jesus--succeeded St. Malachy in the See of Armagh, and in spite of the
disturbed state of the times raised the school to the zenith of its
splendour. In A.D. 1162 he presided over a synod of twenty-six bishops,
held at Clane in the County Kildare, in which it was enacted that no
person should be allowed to teach divinity in any school in Ireland who
had not, as we should now say, graduated in the School of Armagh. To make
Armagh worthy of this pre-eminence, we find that in A.D. 1169, _the very
year in which the Norman adventurers first landed in Ireland_, King Rory
O'Connor "granted ten cows every year from himself, and from every king
that should succeed him for ever, to the professor of Ard-Macha in honour
of St. Patrick, to instruct the youths of Ireland and Alba in learning."
And the professor at the time was in every way worthy of this special
endowment; for he was Florence O'Gorman, "head moderator of this school
and of all the schools in Ireland, a man well skilled in divinity and
deeply learned in all the sciences." He had travelled twenty-one years in
France and England, and at his death in A.D. 1174 had ruled the Schools of
Armagh for twenty years. It was well for the venerable sage that he died
in peace. Had he lived four years more, he would have seen the sun of
Armagh's ancient glory set in darkness and in blood, when DeCourcy and
DeBurgo and DeLacy year after year swooped down on the ancient city, and
plundered its shrines, and slaughtered or drove far away its students, its
priests, and its professors. Once again Emania was made desolate by
ruthless hands, and that desolation was more complete and more enduring
than the first. We may hope, however, that the proud cathedral just built
on Macha's Height gives promise of a glorious future yet in store for the
ancient city of St. Patrick.
In connection with the School of Armagh we may appropriately speak of the
_Book of Armagh_. It is one of the oldest, and, beyond any doubt, the most
valuable of the ancient books of Ireland.[124] Its contents are singularly
varied and interesting, and its history, too, has a melancholy interest
for Irish scholars. To Dr. Ch. Graves, Protestant Bishop of Limerick, is
due the merit of fixing the date of its transcription. In one place there
is an entry asking a prayer for Ferdomnach--pro Ferdomnacho ores--and in
another place there is an entry which Dr. Graves deciphered with the use
of acids, to this effect--"Ferdomnach wrote this book from the dictation
of Torbach, the heir of St. Patrick."[125] Torbach was primate only for a
single year (A.D. 807); and we find from the _Annals of the Four Masters_
that Ferdomnach "a sage and choice scribe of the Church of Armagh," died
in A.D. 844. We are justified, therefore, in concluding that Torbach, the
primate in A.D. 807 (he died on the 16th of July in that year) had this
great work transcribed under his own direction by the choice scribe,
Ferdomnach. Moreover, before his elevation to the primacy, Torbach had
been himself a scribe of the Church of Armagh, and thus very naturally
took an interest in the transcription and preservation of this great
treasure of his church.
The Danes, too, at this time, hungry for pillage and slaughter, were
hovering around the coasts of Ireland. They had as yet made no descent on
Armagh, but they had at several points round the coast, especially on the
islands, as at Rathlin in A.D. 794, and Innismurray, off the coast of
Sligo, in A.D. 804, and at Iona where sixty of the clergy and laity were
slain by the foreigners. It was of the highest importance, therefore,
just at this time, to secure a copy of this ancient book. We know, too,
from several marginal entries, that it had in some places become so
illegible from age and use that the "choice scribe" had great difficulty
in ascertaining the genuine text, so that we are justified in inferring
that even in A.D. 807 it was a very old book, highly prized in the Church
of Armagh. The sketch of the life of St. Patrick given in this book
purports to be taken down by Bishop Tirechan from St. Ultan, who so early
as A.D. 650 was Bishop of Ardbraccan, in Meath, and partly also from the
dictation of Muirchu Maccu Mactheni, at the request of his preceptor,
Aedh, Bishop of Sletty. It is not too much then to say that the Life of
St. Patrick in the _Book of Armagh_, is perhaps the oldest and certainly
the most authentic document of its kind in existence in Ireland. The
handwriting of the book, too, is uniform throughout, and very beautiful,
showing that Ferdomnach was, indeed, as he is called in the Annals, a
"choice scribe."
Some leaves are wanting in the beginning, but they do not seem to be of
great importance. We have, first of all, the short life of St. Patrick,
and annotations thereon in Latin and Irish--the Irish is now, perhaps, the
very oldest form of the language to be found anywhere. We have next a
treatise on the rights and privileges of the Church of Armagh; then the
Confession of St. Patrick, followed by the words--and they are very
important--"Hucusque volumen quod Patritius scripsit manu sua"--_this is
the part of the volume which Patrick wrote with his own hand_. The
reference seems to be principally to the _Confession_, and clearly implies
that the original copy was made from the autograph of the apostle himself.
After this come several other tracts, amongst them an entire copy of the
New Testament,[126] Gospels and Epistles, including the spurious epistle
to the Laodiceans. The Gospels, in Dr. Todd's opinion, are of the
recension of St. Jerome, but not so the Epistles. They bear no traces of
his correction, a thing, however, not without example in ancient
manuscripts. There is next a copy of the beautiful life of St. Martin of
Tours, written by the "Christian Sallust," Sulpicius Severus, which is the
last complete treatise in the book, although there are, here and there,
extracts from that work so famous in the early Irish Church, the
_Moralia_ of St. Gregory the Great.
One of the most remarkable features in the _Book of Armagh_ is that many
of the Gospel headings are written in Greek characters, and the last entry
of all is a colophon of four Latin lines, but written in Greek letters,
showing clearly that even at this early date a knowledge of Greek was
general in our Irish schools.
This book was, not unnaturally, looked upon, on account of its sacred
character and great antiquity, as the priceless treasure[127] of the
Church of St. Patrick. It was incased in a shrine so early as A.D. 937 by
Donogh, son of Flann, King of Ireland, and a special custodian was
appointed to guard it. He was called the _maor_, or steward, who had the
custody of the book, and as the office became hereditary in one family,
they were allowed lands for their support, and came to be called
MacMoyres--the descendants of the Keeper. Alas, for human nature! when
Oliver Plunket, the martyr Primate of Armagh, was tried in A.D. 1681 for
treason, in London, and sentenced to be executed on the testimony of those
whom the sainted prelate described as "merciless perjurers," two of the
MacMoyres, Florence and his brother John, were amongst the perjured
witnesses that swore away his life. And what is saddest of all, the
wretch, Florence MacMoyre, was at the time the custodian, or keeper, of
the _Book of Armagh_, and pawned it for £5 to a Protestant gentleman,
Arthur Brownlow of Lurgan, that he might, it seems, find means to go over
to London and earn his blood-money by betraying the noblest Heir of
Patrick that ever sat in his primatial chair.
The folios of the _Book of Armagh_ were arranged, numbered, and incased by
Mr. Brownlow, in whose family the work continued down to the year A.D.
1853, when it was purchased for £300 by the late venerable and learned Dr.
Reeves, who had been for many years preparing to print it, and there was
none more capable than he to execute that task. From Dr. Reeves the book
passed on the same terms to Primate Beresford, by whom it was presented to
the library of Trinity College, where it is open to the inspection of all
scholars through the great courtesy of the librarian, Dr. Ingram,
F.T.C.D.
CHAPTER VI--(_continued_).
SCHOOLS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
"Brigid is the Mary of the Gaedhil."
--_Book of Hymns._
II.--THE SCHOOL OF KILDARE.
From Armagh we not unnaturally turn to Kildare. If St. Patrick is the
father, St. Brigid is the mother of all the saints of Erin, both monks and
nuns. She may be regarded not only as the foundress of the monasteries and
School of Kildare, but also, in one sense at least, of the diocese of
Kildare itself. She has always been deemed one of the three great patron
saints of Ireland. Her festival was honoured next after that of St.
Patrick himself. The name has always been a favourite one with the
daughters of Ireland. She was a woman not only of great virtues but of
great talents; and exercised a powerful influence on the Church in her own
day. She was the hope of the poor, the counsellor of bishops, the guide of
kings; and to some extent that influence is felt even at the present hour.
Her history, too, is exceedingly interesting, and throws much light on the
manners and morals of those early days. We can, however, only give the
reader a brief sketch of the leading incidents in her very remarkable
career.
Although Brigid was the greatest, she certainly was not the first of the
daughters of Erin who dedicated their virginity and their lives to the
service of Jesus Christ, and received the veil from St. Patrick himself.
The sisters twain who died after their baptism at Clebach's Well, on the
slopes of Rath Cruachan--Fedelm the ruddy, and Ethne of the golden
hair--were probably the first daughters of Erin[128] who put on the veil
for Christ.
"Patrick put a white veil upon their heads," as we are told in the
_Tripartite_, and having received Communion--Christ's Body and His
Blood--they fell asleep in death, and Patrick laid them side by side under
one mantle in the same bed. And their friends bewailed them greatly; but
God's angels rejoiced, for they were the first fruits that the Spouse took
to himself from all the land of Erin.
About the same time Mathona, the sister of the young and gentle Benignus,
received the veil from Patrick in the first bloom of her youth and beauty.
It seems she accompanied her brother, who attended the Apostle all the way
from the banks of the Boyne; and that she, too, had the privilege of
ministering to Patrick and his companions. She had heard, if she had not
seen, how, when Patrick abode at her father's house near Inver Boinde, the
earth opened wide its jaws and swallowed up the wizard or Druid, who had
mocked at Mary's virginity;[129] and she resolved to become a virgin like
unto Mary. So when Patrick had crossed the Shannon, and was come to Elphin
in Roscommon, we are told that he went thence to Dumacha of the Hy
Ailella, and founded there at Senchell, near Elphin, a church in which he
placed Maichet, and Cetchen, and Rodan, the arch-priest, and Mathona,
Benen's sister, who took the veil from Patrick and from Rodan, and became
a religious. She afterwards crossed the mountain to the north-east and
founded a church and convent of her own at Tawnagh, near Lough Arrow, in
the county Sligo. This is the second express reference to the profession
of a nun in Ireland. Bishop Cairell was also placed by St. Patrick in
Tawnagh to watch over that infant establishment.
It is not unlikely that the 'sisters twain of Fochlut's wood,' whose
infant voices had summoned Patrick over the sea, calling him to come and
walk once more amongst them, were also clothed with the religious veil by
the Saint, when he went to Tyrawley. He certainly baptized them there, and
we are told that they are the patronesses of the church called "Cell
Forgland," which was situated a little to the north of Killala over the
present road to Palmerston.
"On a cliff
Where Fochlut's Wood blackened the northern sea,
Their convent rose. Therein these sisters twain,
Whose cry had summoned Patrick o'er the deep,
Abode, no longer weepers. Pallid still
In radiance now their faces shone; and sweet
Their psalms amid the clangour of rough brine."[130]
We are told in the same _Tripartite_ that once when Patrick was at Armagh,
nine daughters of the King of the Lombards came over the sea, and a
daughter of the King of Britain came also on a pilgrimage to Patrick, and
they tarried at the place near Armagh, called Coll-nan-Ingen--the Hazel of
the Daughters. Some of the virgins died and were buried there, but the
others went to Drum-Fendeda, and there abode. The virgin Cruimtheris,
however, went and set up at Cengoba, and Benen used to carry food to her
until Patrick planted an apple tree for the holy virgin; and then she
lived on the fruit of that tree and on the milk of a doe, that grazed in
her little orchard.
There is no doubt therefore that Patrick received the vows of many holy
virgins in Erin before St. Brigid was professed. As Benen himself was the
earliest and apparently the best beloved of Patrick's disciples, so his
sister was amongst the first of the daughters of Erin that he clothed with
the veil of virginity, and there is every reason to believe that her holy
relics sleep in the old church of Tawnagh, in Tirerrill, co. Sligo.
It is not improbable, too, that Patrick received the vows of St. Fanchea,
the sister of the celebrated St. Enda of Aran, whose convent was
established at Rossory, on the shore of Lough Erne. Hereafter we shall see
how Enda owed his own conversion to his sister, St. Fanchea, and as this
event must have taken place about the year A.D. 480, she herself may have
seen St. Patrick, if she did not receive the veil from his hands.
We shall see hereafter also, when treating of St. Brendan, that the
convent of St. Ita was founded about the same time.
She was the Brigid of Munster and the nursing mother of many other saints
besides St. Brendan. Her memory is fondly cherished to this day in the co.
Limerick, and immense crowds of people still assemble on her feast day at
Killeedy, where the ruins of her ancient church are still to be seen. So
the virgins of Christ were established everywhere in Ireland during the
life-time of St. Patrick himself, and many must have made their profession
before St. Brigid. But that holy virgin in other respects has eclipsed
them all, and has come to be regarded as the queen and the mother of all
the holy virgins, whose names are known in Erin, or as Ængus calls
her--'the head of the nuns of Erin.'
A great controversy rages round the parentage of St. Brigid. Cogitosus,
the author of the _Second Life_, as given by Colgan, was a monk of
Kildare, who flourished not later than the end of the eighth century, and
must therefore be recognised as a competent authority. He declares that
she was born of Christian parents of a noble race, and this statement is
confirmed by the author of the SIXTH LIFE, who was a monk of the island of
Iniscaltra, in Lough Derg. All the authorities, indeed, admit that she was
noble on the father's side, for Dubhtach, her father, was a chieftain, the
tenth in descent from the celebrated Feidhlimidh Rechtmar, the Lawgiver, a
King of Ireland, who flourished in the second century of the Christian
era. But the authors of the _Third_, _Fourth_, and _Fifth Lives_ of the
Saint declare that Brigid's mother was a female slave or captive in the
house of Dubhtach, that her own birth was illegitimate, and that shortly
before that event took place, the captive maiden, her mother, whose name
was Brocessa, was driven from her home through the bitter jealousy of her
master's wife, and sold to a certain Druid or magus, who carried her to
Faughart, where the future saint was born. It is difficult to assign any
reason why the admirers of St. Brigid should invent this story; on the
other hand it is easy to see why Cogitosus, jealous for glory of the
foundress of his own Kildare, might be induced to pass it over in silence.
It is certainly consistent with the manners of the time, for the Brehon
Code clearly shows that then and long after slavery and its attendant
evils existed in Ireland. The very fact that Brigid was not born in the
house of her father, who seems to have dwelt in Leinster, appears to be a
further confirmation of the story. St. Patrick was at one time a slave,
and so it appears, too, that Brigid, to whom Ireland owes so much, was
born of a slave-mother, and during the years of her youth had herself to
endure, even after she came to her father's house, the bitter taunts of
her father's wife, and the ceaseless drudgery of a captive maid. So it was
that Providence prepared her, as it prepared Patrick, for the
accomplishment of her lofty mission.
There are still many interesting memorials of St. Brigid at Faughart. The
village is not quite two miles to the north-east of Dundalk. It is
situated amid fertile fields, overlooking the sparkling waters of the Bay,
and nestling under the shelter of the Carlingford mountains. It was once
ruled over by Cuchullin, the Hound of the North, who kept the ford of
Ardee against the hosts and the heroes of Queen Meave; and in its old
church-yard was buried the headless trunk of the gallant Edward Bruce, who
was slain close at hand--the spot is still shown--in the year A.D. 1318.
St. Brigid's Well is there, roofed over with masonry, but its waters are
gone. The flag on which she was placed after her birth is also pointed
out, and there also are Brigid's Pillar, and Brigid's Stone, of a
horse-shoe shape, and the remains of an old church, but certainly not
dating from Brigid's time. The old church-yard surrounding it is crowded
with ancient graves, and enclosed by a tall hedge of fragrant hawthorns.
There are several 'forts' and ancient 'mounds' in the neighbourhood, which
show that it had been a populous and important place, probably from the
pre-historic ages of Cuchullin. One of them is sixty feet in height, and
its level summit is still crowned with the foundations of a strong
octagonal building, the purpose of which cannot now be ascertained.[131]
St. Brigid was born about the year A.D. 450, and was baptized shortly
after her birth, with the consent of the magus or Druid in whose service
her mother was engaged. She grew up, according to all her biographers, to
be a young girl of singular grace and beauty, greatly favoured by nature,
but still more richly endowed by grace. The daughter of the captive was
watched over by guardian angels; her food was the milk of a white cow,
that typefied the purity of her own young heart; and the butter from her
master's dairy, that she too generously gave to the poor, was miraculously
replaced that she and her mother might not be blamed on account of waste
or extravagance.
We cannot trace all the events of her marvellous history--how she was
carried to Connaught and to Munster; how many suitors vainly sought her
hand; how she returned to her father's house and provoked the jealousy of
her step-mother; how for peace sake her father offered to sell his
beautiful daughter to the king of North Leinster, as he had sold her
mother to the magus. But Providence watched over her in all her ways, and
at length brought about the consummation of her most ardent wishes. With
seven other young virgins she received the religious veil from the hands
of Bishop Macaille, whose church was on the eastern slope of Cruachan Bri
Eile in the modern King's County, not far from the historic field of
Tyrrells Pass. It is still called Croghan Hill, and an old church-yard yet
marks the site of St. Macaille's church. It is uncertain, however, whether
Brigid was veiled there or at Uisnech Hill in Westmeath, where, according
to other accounts, the holy bishop was at the time. The exact spot would
be worth knowing, for during the course of the ceremony when Brigid's hand
touched the wood of the altar, that dry wood felt the virtue of the
virgin's touch, and became in the sight of all as fresh and green as it
was on the day when it felt the wood-man's axe in the forest. It is not
unlikely that Brigid and her seven virgin companions lived for some time
at Croghan Hill under the care of St. Macaille; afterwards, however she
returned to her father's territory and founded, nigh to an old oak tree,
the church, which ever since bears the name of Kildare--the Church of the
Oak. It was founded in Magh Liffe, the Plain of the Liffey, and it is
remarkable that even when her most ancient lives were written, the holy
virgin is represented as driving in her chariot over the Curragh of
Kildare, which even then was used as a race-course.
Some authorities say that Brigid made her religious vows in the hands of
St. Mel of Ardagh, whose name is frequently mentioned in some of her
lives. It is strange that so little reference is made to St. Patrick, if
he were indeed alive, as is commonly supposed, for many years after
Brigid's profession, which took place about the year A.D. 467. There is no
mention made of Brigid in the _Lives of St. Patrick_ except once. The
Saint had founded the Church of Clogher for St. Mac Cairthinn, and
afterwards went to preach in the neighbourhood at a place called Lemain, a
plain watered by the river Laune, which takes its name from the plain. For
three days and three nights he was preaching, and Brigid fell asleep
during his preaching; but the saint would not allow Brigid to be
disturbed, for he knew that she was sleeping a mystic sleep. As she slept
she dreamt, and thought she saw at first white oxen in white cornfields;
then she saw darker oxen, and lastly oxen that were black. After these she
saw sheep, and swine, and dogs, and wolves quarrelling with each
other--all of which, Patrick explained, were symbols of the present and
future state of the Irish Church--a prediction that has been wonderfully
verified by the event. It was on the same occasion that King Echu allowed
his daughter to be united to Christ, and Patrick made her his own
disciple, and she was taught by a certain virgin at Druim Dubain, in which
place both virgins have their rest. It is stated in Tirechan's collections
in the _Book of Armagh_ that Bishop Mac Cairthinn was the uncle of the
holy Brigid--'Brigtae'--the abbreviated form of the name. This fact would
explain her presence at Clogher on this interesting occasion.
We are told that Kildare was first called Drumcree--Druim Criaidh--before
it took the name of Cell-Dara from the beautiful oak tree which Brigid
loved much, and under whose shade she built her first little oratory. That
tree remained down to the end of the tenth century, when Animosus wrote
her life; and it was held in such veneration that no profane hand dare
venture to touch it with a weapon. In a very short time after its
foundation Kildare grew to be a great religious establishment, having two
monasteries separate, yet side by side, one for women and one for men--and
both, to a certain extent, under her own supervision. "Seeing," says her
biographer, "that this state of things could not exist without a pontiff
to consecrate her churches, and ordain the sacred ministers, she chose an
illustrious anchorite, celebrated for his virtues and miracles, that as
Bishop he might aid her in the government of the Church, and that nothing
should be wanting for the proper discharge of all ecclesiastical
functions." It is obvious from these words that Brigid herself selected
St. Conlaeth, or Conlaedh, to rule her churches and monasteries, but in
accordance with her suggestions and advice. She, of course, conferred no
jurisdiction on St. Conlaeth, but she selected the person to whom the
church gave this jurisdiction. Her biographer does not say that Conlaeth
was subject to Brigid, but that Brigid chose him to govern the Church
along with herself--ut ecclesiam in episcopali dignitate _cum ea_
gubernaret. These few simple words dispose of a vast amount of foolish
talk about Brigid's jurisdiction over St. Conlaeth. She, herself, never
claimed nor possessed any such thing.
It is, however, abundantly evident that Brigid was a woman of strong mind
and of great talents, that she was admirably fitted to rule and to
organize, that her influence was widely felt, and her wisdom and prudence
held in the highest estimation by the greatest ecclesiastics of her time.
Moreover, her great virtues were confirmed by many miracles, so that
crowds of men and women came from all parts of the country either to make
a pilgrimage, or place themselves permanently under her guidance. But
Brigid did more than this. One of her greatest virtues was her hospitality
to all the ecclesiastics who came to visit her, and especially to the
bishops. She seems, too, to have accepted their invitations, and to have
made many journeys, especially through the South and West of Ireland,
where she made so deep an impression by her preaching, her miracles, and
her example, that her memory is still fondly cherished in all parts of the
country. She became the "Mary of Ireland"--what Patrick was for the men,
she was for the women--their national saint and patroness. They called
their daughters by her sweet name. The wells at which she drank and prayed
became for ever blessed wells. The parishes which she visited were in
many instances placed under her special protection, and called by her
name.[132] And so we have Tubber-bride and Kil-bride in all parts of the
country, exactly as we have Kil-patrick and Tubber-patrick.
It is very manifest that St. Brigid felt from the beginning that a
monastery of men at Kildare, presided over by a bishop, would be a great
means of protecting her own nunnery of tender virgins and widows. It was a
lawless age, as the history of St. Enda shows, and hence Brigid wished for
security, as well as for instruction and religious guidance, to have the
bishop and his clergy near her. She was anxious to have a complete and
self-sufficing religious city at Kildare, and such, in fact, it very soon
became. Besides St. Conlaeth to rule and to ordain, she had another
bishop, St. Nadfraoich, to instruct herself and her nuns, for Bishop Mel
had told her that she should never take food without having first heard
the Word of God preached to her. She had secured another holy prelate, St.
Ninnidhius, to administer the viaticum to her when dying, and that saint
hearing this covered his right hand with a case or shell of metal, so that
the hand which was to give the Communion to Brigid might never be defiled.
Hence he was called Ninnidh of the Clean Hand.
It is said--but the tradition is rather uncertain--that Brigid had the
consoling privilege of weaving with her own hands the winding sheet in
which the body of St. Patrick was laid. At the time of his death, if, as
is generally believed, he died in A.D. 493, Brigid must have been a nun
for several years, and have already founded her own great convent at
Kildare. She lived, however, until A.D. 523, or more probably until A.D.
525, and then dying in her own holy city, was buried at the right of the
High Altar--Bishop Conlaeth, having been already laid on the left hand of
the same altar, and both within the sanctuary.
Brigid is called by Ængus the chaste head of the nuns of Erin; and St.
Cuimin of Connor describes her "as Brigid of the blessings, fond beyond
all women of mortification, of vigils, of early rising to pray, and of
hospitality to saintly men." Her very name was prophetic, for it signifies
either a 'fiery dart' or the 'strength' of her virtue--_brigi_ being the
Celtic for strength or might.
Kildare, as might be expected, became, during the life and after the death
of Brigid, a great city and a great school--Cogitosus, with pardonable
exaggeration, describes it as the head city of all the bishops, and calls
Conlaeth and his successors Arch-bishops of the Bishops of Ireland, and
Brigid (and her successors) the Abbess, whom all the Abbesses of Ireland
hold in veneration. He says that no one could count the crowds of people
coming to Kildare from all the provinces of Erin; that some come for the
feasting or food--_ad epulas_--that the sick come to be healed; the rich
come with gifts for the shrine of St. Brigid, especially on the 1st of
February; and that sight-seers come to enjoy the wonderful spectacle.
He also gives a most interesting description of the great Church of
Kildare in his own time. It was very lofty and very large, richly adorned
with pictures, hangings, and ornamental door-ways. A partition ran across
the breadth of the church near the chancel, or sanctuary; at one of its
extremities there was a door which admitted the bishop and his clergy to
the sanctuary and to the altar; at the other extremity, on the opposite
side, there was a similar door by which Brigid and her virgins and widows
used to enter to enjoy the banquet of the Body and Blood of Christ. Then a
central partition ran down the nave, dividing the men from the women--the
men being on the right and the women on the left, each division having its
own lateral entrance. These partitions did not rise to the roof of the
church, but only so high as to serve their purpose. The partition at the
sanctuary, or chancel, was formed of boards of wood, decorated with
pictures and covered with linen hangings, which might, it seems, be drawn
aside at the consecration to give the people in the nave a better view of
the Holy Mysteries. Such was the great Church of Kildare in the seventh
and eighth centuries, before the advent of the Danes to Ireland.
In connection with St. Brigid and the School of Kildare, we may here make
brief reference to the celebrated scholars who have compiled her
biography.
The first of the six Lives printed by the learned Father John Colgan is
the metrical Hymn of the Saint commonly attributed to St. Brogan Cloen of
Rostuire in the Diocese of Ossory. The original Hymn is written in the
Irish language; Colgan also gives a Latin translation. But the Irish
original has been printed by Dr. Whitley Stokes, and also in the _Irish
Ecclesiastical Record_ for February, 1868. This Irish original has been
preserved in the _Liber Hymnorum_, and also in a MS. in Trinity College of
very recent date. The following Irish preface is prefixed to the Hymn in
the MS. of St. Isidore's, now in Merchants' Quay, Dublin.
The place where this hymn was composed was Sliabh Bladhma (Slieve
Bloom), or Cluain Mor Moedhog. The author was Brogan Cloen. The time
(to which it refers) was when Lughaidh, son of Laeghaire, was King of
Ireland, and Ailill, son of Dunlang, King of Leinster. The cause of
writing it, viz., "Ultan of Ardbraccan, the tutor of Brogan, requested
him to narrate the miracles of Brigid in suitable poetical language,
for Ultan had collected all the miracles of Brigid for him."
We gather from this interesting statement that St. Ultan of Ardbraccan,
who was an uncle on the mother's side of St. Brigid, collected the
materials for this poem. It is true St. Ultan did not die until the year
A.D. 656 or 657, but if he were then, as is stated in the _Martyrology of
Donegal_, 189 years of age, he might well have been the uncle and
contemporary of the Virgin Saint. He was a very celebrated man, and was
especially remarkable for his love of poor orphans, for he often had no
less than 200 of them together, whom he used to feed with his own hands.
He was also very mortified in his life, sleeping on the bare board in his
narrow stone cell, and bathing his body in cold water in the sharpest
blasts of the wintry wind. "It was he," says the same authority, "that
collected the miracles of Brigid in one book, and gave them to his
disciple Brogan Cloen to render them in verse."
St. Brogan Cloen himself lived, it seems, for some time in the monastery
near Slieve Bloom, founded by St. Molua, and afterwards in that of
Clonmore, in the barony of Bantry, county Wexford, which was founded by
St. Aidan about the year A.D. 620. The scholiast doubts whether he
composed this hymn while at Slieve Bloom or Clonmore; so we may fairly
suppose that it was composed sometime between A.D. 620 and 657, when St.
Ultan died. The statement of the scholiast as to the time of the hymn
seems to refer not to the time of its composition, but to the time of the
events which it narrates; and which, he says, took place during the reign
of Lughaidh, King of Tara, and Ailill, King of Leinster. The former
reigned 25 years and died in A.D. 503; the latter died in A.D. 523, so
that their joint reigns would exactly mark the period during which St.
Brigid flourished in Kildare. The hymn consists of 212 lines or 53 stanzas
of four lines each. It describes at great length the virtues and miracles
of St. Brigid, but is unhappily too meagre in historical facts. The writer
assumes that because her history was well known in his own time, it would
continue to be equally well known to future generations. It is, however, a
most interesting monument of our early Irish Church, and competent judges
pronounce it to be an admirable specimen of early Celtic versification.
There is also in the _Book of Hymns_ published by Dr. Todd, what seems to
be a fragment of an ancient Latin hymn in praise of St. Brigid. The
preface to this Hymn attributes it either to St. Ninnidh of the Clean
Hand, Brigid's chaplain, or to St. Fiacc of Sleibte, or to St. Ultan of
Ardbraccan. This last conjecture, however, seems to arise from the
statement that Ultan collected the miracles of St. Brigid into one book.
It was an abecedarian hymn originally, and is undoubtedly a very ancient
composition. At present it consists of four stanzas of four lines each,
having a rhyme or assonance in the middle and at the end of each line,
which properly should consist of sixteen syllables. The first line at
present is:--
"Christus in nostra insula quae vocatur Hibernia,"
and notwithstanding the statement of the scholiast that the hymn was
abecedarian, these words--Christus in nostra insula--appear to have been
always regarded as the beginning of the hymn. In the eighth line Brigid is
declared to be "Mariae sanctae similem," an expression which may have
given origin to the saying that Brigid was the "Mary of the Irish." The
following passage from the _Leabhar Breac_ gives a glowing eulogy of St.
Brigid, and formally calls her the "Mary of the Gaedhil."
"There was not in the world one of more bashfulness and modesty than
this holy virgin. She never washed (as was then not unfrequent,) her
hands, or her feet, or head before men. She never looked a man in the
face. She never spoke without blushing. She was abstinent,
unblemished, fond of prayer, patient, rejoicing in God's commands,
benevolent, humble, forgiving, charitable. She was a consecrated
shrine for the preservation of the Body of Christ. She was a temple of
God. Her heart and mind were the throne of the Holy Spirit; she was
meek before God. She was distressed with the miserable. She was bright
in miracles. And hence in things created her type is the Dove among
birds, the Vine amongst trees, and the Sun above the stars."
This beautiful eulogy concludes by declaring that Brigid is "The Queen of
the South. She is the Mary of the Gaedhil."
The _Second Life_, printed by Colgan, is the celebrated work of Cogitosus,
to which we have already referred. He tells us himself that he was a monk
of Kildare, and that he wrote in obedience to the wishes of the community,
not of his own presumptuous motion. In the last chapter he asks a prayer,
"Pro me Cogitoso culpabili," but it is evident when he calls himself a
'nepos,' that he does not mean that he was the 'nepos' of St. Brigid, as
some have fancied. In his humility he uses the word in its secondary
classical sense, and calls himself a sinful spendthrift of God's time and
of God's graces. The use of the word 'nepos,' therefore, furnishes no
argument that this Life was written shortly after the death of St. Brigid.
On the other hand, there is nothing in this Life that, as Basnage
insinuates, 'smells of a later age' than the eighth or the beginning of
the ninth century. As we have already observed, the description which
Cogitosus gives of the great Church of Kildare, of its wealth, of the tomb
of its founders, and the inviolable character of the city, clearly proves
that it must have been written earlier than the ravages of the Danes.
There are, however, some expressions that show it was written a
considerable time after the decease of St. Brigid and St. Conlaeth. The
writer speaks of 'the prosperous succession' of prelates and abbesses who
ruled in the sacred city, _ritu perpetuo_, a strong expression, which
points to a long series of successors in Kildare. The very use of the
Latin word 'archiepiscopus,' which Cogitosus uses when speaking of the
prelates of Kildare, shows that the work cannot have been written before
the eighth century. Petrie in his observations on this subject makes one
remark which we venture to think is founded on a false assumption.[133]
Cogitosus tells us that in his own time the bodies of St. Brigid and of
St. Conlaeth were placed in tombs richly adorned, one on the right and the
other on the left of the high altar. Now the _Annals of Ulster_ state that
A.D. 799, the relics of Conlaeth were placed in a shrine of gold and
silver, whence Petrie infers that Cogitosus must have written after this
enshrining, that is, after A.D. 799, but before A.D. 835, when Kildare was
pillaged by the Danes and half the church burned. But Cogitosus speaks of
the bodies of the saints as being placed in _tombs_, not of the enshrining
of the relics of one of them, which is a very different thing. The shrine
was a metal case, highly ornamented, for containing the relics of a saint,
not a tomb for the body. Rather the language of Cogitosus clearly shows
that he must have written before this enshrining of the relics of
Conlaeth, for in his time the body of that saint was in a tomb. The truth
seems to be that about this time, and through fear of the Danes, the
relics of St. Brigid were carried to Downpatrick as being then a safer
place, and at the same time the relics of Conlaeth were also taken from
the tomb-monument, and placed in the rich shrine, which was easily
portable, and might be carried off at the approach of danger, with its
precious contents.
The language and style of Cogitosus show considerable acquaintance with
the Latin tongue, and the work furnishes us with a very creditable
specimen of the scholarship possessed by the monks of Kildare in the
eighth century.
We need make no special reference to the other four anonymous Lives
printed by Colgan. The Third is attributed, but without any proof, to St.
Ultan; the Fourth is probably the work of a monk called Animosus, of whom
nothing else is known; the Fifth was written by an Englishman, Laurence of
Durham, in the twelfth century. The Sixth, like the First Life, is a
poetic work in Latin, which Colgan got from Monte Cassino, and which the
MS. itself attributes to Chilien, or, perhaps, more properly, Coelan, a
monk of Iniscaltra, or the Holy Island, in Lough Derg, who probably
flourished in the eighth century. We know that many monks from Holy Island
went abroad in the ninth and tenth centuries to preach the Gospel, and,
doubtless, one of them carried this MS. with him either to Bobbio, or some
other Benedictine Monastery, whence it might easily find its way to Monte
Cassino. The prologue of the poem is attributed to Donatus, an Irish
prelate in Tuscany, during the ninth century. This also helps to explain
how the Irish-born prelate would get this volume from some of his
countrymen abroad, and also write a prologue to this poetic life of the
Queen of Ireland's virgin saints.
Kildare is the only religious establishment in Ireland which preserved
down to a comparatively recent period the double line of succession, of
abbot-bishops and of abbesses, and what is more, the annalists take care
to record the names of the abbesses as well as of the abbots. This, no
doubt, arose from the fact that at least in public estimation the
lady-abbesses of Kildare enjoyed a kind of primacy over all the nuns in
Ireland, and, moreover, were in some sense independent of episcopal
jurisdiction, if, indeed, the Bishops of Kildare were not rather to some
extent dependent on them.
St. Conlaeth was not only a scholar and a bishop, but also a most cunning
artificer in metal work, and made all kinds of chalices, patens, bells,
and shrines for the use of his churches and monasteries. It appears to be
quite evident, too, that he founded a school of metal work and decorative
art at Kildare, which was conducted with much success under his successors
in that see. In our own times sacred art is left to take its chance;
little or no official patronage is extended to the workmen, and no special
care is given to their training. Not so in ancient Erin. The greatest
attention was paid to these subjects, and, as we know, the arts of
metallurgy, of the illumination of MSS., of sculpture, and of
architectural ornamentation were carried to the greatest perfection under
the patronage of distinguished ecclesiastics.
The ancient buildings of Kildare have, with the exception of the Round
Tower, completely disappeared. This is all the more to be regretted, when
we see the beautiful ornamental door-way of the Round Tower, a class of
buildings in which ornamentation of any kind is rarely met with. Even in
the time of Giraldus Cambrensis it was a venerable building, and he tells
a story of a falcon that used to nestle in its summit all alone, admitting
no mate, and was on quite familiar terms with the monks and citizens, for
it was called St. Brigid's bird. This beautiful tower, the tallest in
Ireland, is 136 feet 7 inches in height, and still pointing heavenward, as
of old, marks out for every stranger who travels by the Great Southern
Line, the sacred city of St. Brigid, in the great plain of the Liffey.
Notwithstanding the ravages of the Danes, we find the obits of many of the
Professors of the School of Kildare recorded in the Annals. We find also
reference made to the Chief Professor of Kildare, Cosgrach, who died A.D.
1041; and Cobthac, another professor of Kildare, who died in A.D. 1069,
was celebrated for "his universal knowledge of ecclesiastical discipline."
In A.D. 1110, died Ferdomhach, the Blind Professor of Kildare, who was
eminently skilled in the Holy Scriptures. In A.D. 1135 Diarmaid Mac
Murrogh, who had even then begun his career of violence and crime,
"forcibly carried away the Abbess of Kildare from her cloister, and
compelled her to marry one of his own people." Next year Diarmaid O'Brian
and his brothers plundered and burned the town. Yet the holy line of
Brigid's successors was still carried on--there was a Comorbana of Brigid
who died in A.D. 1171. But in A.D. 1220 Henry de Loundres put out the fire
of St. Brigid, called the inextinguishable, which had been preserved
burning by the nuns of St. Brigid, in all probability from the time of the
foundress herself. It was lit again by order of the Bishop of Kildare, and
continued to burn in spite of all the troubles of the times down to the
total suppression of the monasteries by Queen Elizabeth.
We find no satisfactory account of the origin and purpose of this
perpetual fire of Kildare. De Loundres thought, perhaps, there was
something savouring of paganism or superstition about it, or he would
hardly undertake the risk and odium of having it extinguished. His conduct
would be still more inexplicable if this fire were kept always burning in
the guest house, as some think, for the comfort of benighted travellers.
But English prelates have never been discerning judges of Irish usages,
and we are not bound to set much store on the soundness of the Norman
bishop's judgment in this instance. They came over to reform, as well as
to conquer; and if abuses did not exist, it was necessary for appearance
sake to assume their existence. Can it be that the Kildare nuns
anticipated the general and now obligatory rule of keeping a perpetual
lamp before the Blessed Sacrament? Or was it a sacred fire that was kept
always burning before the tomb of their holy foundress? "The early
Christians, as well as the Jews and pagans, were accustomed to place lamps
in the company of the dead,"[134] great numbers of which have been found
in the catacombs and elsewhere. Many of them, too, are beautifully wrought
in various material, and bear characteristic Christian symbols. In all
probability the perpetual fire of Kildare was for the purpose of keeping
the lamps lit before the shrines of its holy founders. Many accidents
might lead to the lamp itself being extinguished, but the sacred fire,
night and day, under the sedulous care of St. Brigid's daughters, might be
cherished 'through long ages of darkness and storm,' if not extinguished
by the Danes or reformers like Henry de Loundres.
Gerald Barry also tells us another fact which shows to what a degree of
perfection the art of illumination was carried in the monastic schools of
Kildare. Nothing, he says, that he saw at Kildare appeared to him more
admirable than the wondrous book, which as report goes, was written from
the dictation of an angel in the time of the holy virgin herself. It was a
manuscript of the Four Evangelists, according to St. Jerome's version, but
every page was illuminated with various figures, delineated with the
utmost distinctness in every variety of colouring. The symbolical figures
of the Evangelists themselves were wrought with extraordinary subtilty and
grace, and all the other drawings and figures likewise were so delicate,
and subtile, so close and so narrow, so knotted and intertwined together,
yet every most intricate line and point and knot so vivid, as if with
quite recent colours, that one would think it all was the work of
angelic, and not of mere human skill. The more carefully he looked at it,
the more he was astonished, and the more things he saw worthy of
admiration.
Gerald Barry's description of this famous Evangelistarium, which
unfortunately appears to have perished, will not appear exaggerated to any
person who has ever seen the _Book of Kells_. They were both written about
the same period, and illuminated by equally skilled hands; still it is
greatly to be regretted that this wondrous _Book of Kildare_,[135] which
won such a eulogy from the fastidious Welshman, is no longer amongst the
extant literary treasures of Ireland.
It is not unlikely that the great manuscript known as the _Book of
Leinster_, was originally compiled and preserved in Kildare; or perhaps,
more accurately speaking, it was copied from originals that were compiled
and preserved at Kildare. The work of copying in great part was certainly
executed by Finn Mac Gorman, who was Bishop of Kildare from A.D. 1148 to
1160, when his death is recorded. He was evidently a man of much learning,
and an entry in his own hand testifies that he wrote the work for Hugh Mac
Crimthann, tutor of Diarmaid Mac Murrogh, King of Leinster. The work was
no doubt written by O'Gorman before A.D. 1148, when he became Bishop of
Kildare. The manuscript at present consists of 177 loose leaves of vellum,
which are preserved in Trinity College, and seven additional leaves of the
same original, which belong to the Franciscans of the Irish Province. No
doubt the entire work belonged to them originally, but was taken from them
by force or fraud, and thus found its way to Trinity College. Its contents
are of an exceedingly various and interesting character--heroic tales and
poems, genealogies, calendars of saints, and various tracts used in the
Irish monastic schools, dealing with both sacred and profane learning.
CHAPTER VII.
MINOR MONASTIC SCHOOLS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
"The chapel where no organ's peal
Invests the stern and naked prayer!--
With penitential cries they kneel
And wrestle; rising then with bare
And white uplifted faces stand,
Passing the Host from hand to hand."
--_Arnold._
I.--THE SCHOOL OF NOENDRUM.
There were a few other early monastic schools founded during the lifetime
of St. Patrick to which reference must be made here, before we pass to the
more celebrated schools of the sixth century. Although St. Patrick could
not attend in person to the government and organization of these
seminaries, he gave every encouragement to his disciples in carrying on
that necessary and excellent work. It was specially for this purpose, as
we have already seen, that he placed St. Benignus over his own school at
Armagh. With the same purpose in view, he chose the youthful Mochae, or
Mochay, of Noendrum first to be his own disciple, and afterwards to be the
guide and teacher of others in their preparation for the sacred ministry.
Mochae was one of St. Patrick's earliest converts in Ireland. Like St.
Benignus, he seems to have been a mere boy, when he first believed and was
baptized, before St. Patrick had yet met King Laeghaire on the royal Hill
of Tara.
It is thus narrated in the _Tripartite_:--"Now whilst Patrick was going on
his journey from Saul (near Downpatrick) he saw a tender youth herding
swine. Mochae was his name. Patrick preached to him and baptized him and
tonsured him, and gave him a Gospel and Mass-chalice. And he gave him also
later on a crozier, that had been bestowed on them by God, to wit, it fell
from heaven with its head in Patrick's bosom, and its foot in Mochae's
bosom, and this is the _Etech_ of Mochae of Noendrum. And Mochae promised
a shaven pig every year to Patrick (that is, to his Church), and this is
still offered."[136]
This is a very interesting passage, and points to Patrick's mode of
procedure, when he found a youth suitable for the ecclesiastical state.
This boy was, we are told,[137] the son of Bronach, daughter of Milchu,
with whom Patrick himself had spent the years of his own captivity at the
same occupation--herding swine. Patrick had been probably acquainted with
the mother of this youth; he remembered his own boyhood, which he spent in
the midst of many sorrows and much labour on the barren slopes of Slemish;
so his heart was touched, and he preached the new Gospel of peace and love
to this grandson of the master who had held him so long in bondage. The
boy's heart, too, was touched by grace--he believed, was baptized, and
tonsured. The tonsuring, if it took place then, could only mean that
Patrick destined the youth for the sacred ministry. We are also told that
he gave him a copy of the Gospels, doubtless when he had learned to read a
little Latin, and a _menister_, which Stokes strangely translates
'credence-table,' but which is manifestly a loan-word from the Latin
_ministerium_,[138] and signifies the chalice and paten necessary for
offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Later on this youth became a
bishop, he was consecrated by Patrick himself, and Patrick gave him this
crozier--a heavenly gift--which came to be known from that circumstance as
the _Etech_, or flying crozier of Mochae of Noendrum.
This name is simply Oendrum with the article prefixed, and the island in
which Mochae founded his monastery and school was so called because it was
formed as it were of a single hill or rising ground--_oen-druim_--the
one-ridged island. It is now corrupted into Mahee Island from the name of
its holy founder, which still survives in the mouth of the 'stranger'
though its origin is quite forgotten. The island contains about 170 acres
of land, and is situated not more than a quarter of a mile from the
western shore of Strangford Lough, anciently known as Lough Cuan. The
saint built his monastery and church on the very summit of the ridge,
which rises to about the height of sixty feet, and commands a fine view of
the far-reaching inland sea, whose western marge especially is studded
with pleasant islets and bordered by many a grassy down and fertile field,
rich, when we saw them, with the promise of abundant harvests. The
original edifice was, as we gather from a story in the saint's life,
constructed of wood, which he helped to hew down himself and carry on his
own shoulders. The later buildings, however, were of stone, and the
church--for many centuries a cathedral church--was 58 feet long by 22
wide. Only its foundations can now be traced; but the castle on the summit
of the hill, and the outer concentric earthworks that were thrown up to
protect it, can still be seen. During the Danish incursions it suffered
much, and a small round tower was built as usual near the church's western
door to afford an asylum to the monks. A small portion of it still
remains.
Mochae was about the same age as Benignus, and it is not improbable that
he founded his island monastery quite as early as St. Patrick founded the
See of Armagh. Patronised as it doubtless was by St. Patrick, and presided
over by one of his earliest disciples, Noendrum soon became a celebrated
centre of sanctity and learning. Two very remarkable men received their
education there--St. Colman of Dromore and St. Finnian of Moville. Of the
latter we shall speak later on when we come to give an account of his own
celebrated school at the head of Lough Cuan. The life of Colman, however,
furnishes us with some interesting particulars concerning Noendrum and its
monastic school.
Colman, like Mochae, was a native of the territory of Dalaradia, and in
his youth was sent, we are told, by his parents to the blessed Caylan,
otherwise called Mochae, the Abbot of Noendrum, that he might be trained
in learning and virtue. The young man made great progress in his studies,
and still more in the practice of all virtue, so that once when he had got
his lesson by heart, and asked the holy abbot what he was to do next, the
abbot replied: "Break up that rock which is in the way of the brethren
when going to matins." Matins were recited before day dawned, and no doubt
the rock was an obstacle in the darkness to the brethren when going from
their cells to the church. Obedience is the first virtue of a monk, so
Colman made the sign of the cross over the rock, and forthwith it split up
in pieces. "Now, cast them into the sea," said the abbot, and Colman did
so with the help of God's angels; and lo! the fragments were again united
together into the great stone on the sea-shore before the monastery, which
is still called Colman's Rock.
From Noendrum Colman went to St. Ailbe of Emly, to study the Sacred
Scriptures. St. Ailbe, as we shall see presently, had even at this early
period founded a great school at Emly, and having himself been trained
abroad, when he came home, he gave his newly converted countrymen the
benefit of his learning. Colman, after his return from the South, again
paid a visit to his old preceptor, St. Caylan, or Mochae of Noendrum,
which shows that the latter must have been alive at the close of the fifth
century.
Very friendly relations existed between Noendrum and Candida Casa in
Galloway, which was founded by St. Ninian about the year A.D. 398. Ninian
himself is said to have visited St. Caylan at Noendrum; and as it is
highly probable that Ninian lived until the middle of the fifth
century,[139] this is by no means impossible. Other writers have sought to
identify St. Ninian of Candida Casa with Nennio, or Monennio, who is said
to have founded a church at Cluain-Conaire in Hy Faclain--now Cloncurry,
in the co. Kildare. There are, however, grave chronological difficulties
against this hypothesis, to which we shall refer hereafter.
St. Mochae was, like his successors down to the close of the tenth
century, both bishop and abbot. They appear to have exercised episcopal
jurisdiction in their own neighbourhood. The saint is said to have died
A.D. 496--that is only three years after the death of St. Patrick himself.
There was another saint who died A.D. 644, and was called Mocua, a
similarity which probably gave rise to the strange story told both by
Ængus and O'Clery, that Mochae of Noendrum was enchanted for 150 years by
the song of a black-bird, so that he felt not the flight of time nor the
withering influence of the passing years.
He went with seven score young men to cut wattles to build his church. He
himself was engaged cutting timber like the rest. He had got his load
ready before the others, and sat down beside it. Just then he heard a
beautiful bird singing on the boughs of a blackthorn bush close at hand.
It was the most beautiful bird he had ever seen, and speaking with a human
voice the Bird said:--"This is diligent work of thine, O cleric." "It is
required," replied Mochae, "for building a church in honour of God;" and
then he added, "Who, may I ask, is addressing me?" "A man of the people of
my Lord is here," replied the Bird, "that is, an Angel of God from
heaven." "All hail to thee," said Mochae, "and why hast thou come hither?"
"To speak to thee from thy Lord, and amuse thee for a while." "I like it,"
said Mochae. Then Mochae remained for three hundred years listening to
that Bird, having his load of wood by his side, and the wood was not
withered, and his flesh decayed not, and the time did not seem longer
than one single hour of the day. At length God's Angel bade him farewell,
and Mochae returned home with his load, and he found his church built, and
he saw only strange faces, for all his friends and acquaintances had long
been dead. But when he told them his strange story, they believed it, and
knelt before him to do him honour, and built a shrine on the spot where he
had seen God's Angel, and heard the heavenly song. Ængus says the Bird
sang three songs only, but each lasted fifty years, so that the three
hundred given in the _Martyrology of Donegal_ was probably by a mistake in
the figures put for one hundred and fifty. If one Angel's song can be so
sweet and so beguiling, what a joy to listen to the chorus of all the
heavenly choirs!
We have seen that St. Colman of Dromore went from the School of Noendrum
to be instructed by St. Ailbe of Emly in the Sacred Scriptures. It is
stated also in the _Life of St. Ibar_ of Beg Erin, that his first
instructor in the Sacred Sciences was Saint Motta, who if he be not St.
Mochta of Louth, must have been St. Mochae of Noendrum. This is all the
more likely, as we know that St. Ibar was himself a native of Dalaradia,
and doubtless received his early training from the oldest Christian
teachers of his native territory. This brings us to give a sketch of the
history and of the schools of these three distinguished saints--Mochta of
Louth, Ailbe of Emly, and Ibar of Beg Erin--all of whom certainly founded
their monastic schools during the second half of the fifth century. We
shall begin with Mochta, or Mochteus, whose history is in some respects
very interesting.
II.--THE SCHOOL OF LOUTH--ST. MOCHTA.
St. Mochta, or Mochteus, the founder of the School of Louth, was a
disciple of St. Patrick and a Briton by birth. Adamnan describes him as a
British immigrant, a disciple of St. Patrick, and a very holy man.[140] He
was accompanied to Ireland by twelve disciples, and preached the Gospel
chiefly in the county Louth. The _Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 534, give the
beginning of one of his letters in which he describes himself in his
humility as "Mochta the sinful priest, a disciple of St. Patrick." His
Life is given in the recently published Salamanca MS., from which Colgan
extracted it to publish under date of the 24th of March.
From this Life we learn that Mochta was born in Britain, and that whilst
still a child he was brought with his parents to Ireland by a certain
magus, or Druid, called Hoam. The Druid took up his abode in the territory
of Hy Conail, that is in the County Louth, and there the young Mochta was
brought up in the Druid's house as a member of his family. One day an
Angel brought waxen tablets to the boy, from which he learned his letters,
and then commanded him to go to Rome to study Sacred Scripture. The boy
obeyed, and went his way to Peter's City, where he made so much progress
in learning and holiness that he was consecrated a bishop by the Pope, and
many disciples placed themselves under his guidance.
By command of the Pope he then returned home accompanied by twelve
disciples, one of whom, Edanus, in Irish Aedhan, seems to have been his
favourite disciple, and succeeded the Saint in the first church which he
founded in Ireland. This church is called in the Latin life Cella magna,
or Kill-mor, and is said to have been built in nemoribus Metheorum--in the
woods of Hy Meith. This was the territory called in Irish Hy Meith, and Hy
Meith Macha, and the Church itself is identified by Colgan as
Cill-Mor-Aedhan in Hy Meith Macha. It is referred to in the _Martyrology
of Donegal_ as the Church of Aedhan, son of Aenghus, who was doubtless the
disciple of the Saint.
The graveyard of Kilmore is still made use of; it is about four miles
south of the town of Monaghan, in the barony of Monaghan, which
corresponds with the ancient territory of Hy Meith Macha.[141]
It seems the people of this district compelled the Saint to depart from
amongst them; and so leaving his monastery of Kilmore to his disciple, he
betook himself to Louth, which was still in the possession of the Druids,
or magi, according to this Latin life. Here he built his cell and his
oratory, which was surrounded by a cemetery, to be the last resting place
of the brethren and the place of their resurrection.
We are told in the Life of St. Patrick that when he contemplated founding
his own great Church in that "sweet and flowery sward" of Louth--a
beauteous meadow land, blooming with all the fairest promise of the
year--an angel told him to go northward to Ard-Macha; that Louth was
destined by God for a pilgrim from the Britons, who should one day build
therein a monastery which would afterwards pass under the dominion of
Patrick's successors; and so in truth it came to pass.
Here then in the flowery meads of Louth beside a limpid stream, which was
said to have followed the saint from Kilmore,[142] he built his cell. In a
very short time the odour of his virtues was diffused over all the land;
and monks gathered round in swarms like bees in summer to place themselves
under the direction of one so eminent for his learning and virtues, so
that he reckoned amongst his disciples before his death no less than 100
bishops and 300 priests. In this way from the parent hive at Louth new
swarms went forth yearly to people other schools and monasteries, and
preach the Gospel all over the land.
St. Patrick himself in his old age came and spent some time with his
beloved disciple Mochta; for it seems he greatly loved the place, and
loved the man who, like himself, was of British blood, and like him had
come to preach and dwell amongst the kindly Scottic race.
Mochta wished to leave the place entirely to Patrick, because he knew
Patrick loved it much--even more than Macha's Height; but Patrick told him
the word of God sent by the angel could not be changed. But both promised
that whoever pre-deceased the other, when dying should commit his
religious family to the charge of the survivor. Patrick died first, and we
are told that for a few days Mochta took charge of Armagh, but then
committed the burden to another, that is, to Benignus, second of that
name.
The Druid Hoam had a virgin daughter, who wished to preserve her virginity
for Christ. Her father, however, gave her in marriage; but on the same day
she was called away by her Heavenly Spouse, whilst the lily of her
chastity was still inviolate. Her parents then consented to resign all
claim over her to Mochta, if he could raise her again to life. Mochta full
of confidence in God besought the Lord, and the virgin was restored to
life at the prayer of the saint. For thirty years afterwards she lived,
serving God in perfect chastity as a professed nun, and her time was
wholly given to making vestments for the priests and altar-cloths for the
altars at which 'they offered the sacrifice.' It is said that the virgin,
like St. Brigid, was of wondrous beauty, but it was heavenly and
awe-inspiring:--
"From her eyes
A light went forth like morning o'er the sea,
Sweeter her voice than wind on harp; her smile
Could stay men's breath."
And so the maiden lived above the world clothed in the light of holiness,
the first of that bright choir from the fair Hy-Conail land, that gave
themselves to Christ led on by love divine.
Now this same Hoam, the Druid, was betrothed to another Christian maiden
named Brigid. But he fell sick, and the maiden ministered to him; and we
are told that by her prayers and the bright example of her virtues, the
Druid became a Christian, and a fervent penitent. He renounced all claim
to his bride, that he and she might serve God in holiness, and sickening
shortly afterwards, he died a holy death, as Mochta had foretold.
It is highly probable that the Brigid here referred to was the great St.
Brigid of Kildare. We know that she was sought in marriage by many
suitors, and that her own master was a Druid, who lived near Dundalk, and
in this way she might easily have been noticed by the Druid Hoam, who
lived in the neighbourhood. But his earthly passion was elevated and
purified by its object into a diviner flame, that brought him from
paganism to Christianity, and from sin to life eternal.
Many striking miracles are recorded of St. Mochta of Louth, which we
cannot now recount. The extraordinary length of life attributed to him is
probably due to an error of the copyists, who wrote _trecenti_ (three
hundred), for _triginta_ (thirty). The statement in the Life is that such
was the self-denial of the man of God, that for 'thirty' years he never
tasted flesh, nor spoke an idle word; but the copyist seems to have made
it 'three hundred' years. The _Annals of Ulster_ give his death in the
year A.D. 534, others at A.D. 536, when he was doubtless a very old man.
He is said to have been the last survivor of St. Patrick's disciples.
We may infer from the fragment referred to in the _Annals of Ulster_ that
the saint was an accomplished scholar and writer. He was the author of a
Rule for his monks, of which, however, no trace remains. He seems to have
been especially skilled in Sacred Scripture, the knowledge of which was
the foundation of all the theology known at that time.
Besides the Rule for his monks, and the Letters already referred to, it
seems that Mochta was also the original author of a work called the _Book
of the Monks_, or the _Book of Cuana_. It is cited by the author of the
_Annals of Ulster_ under date of the year A.D. 471. In the same _Annals of
Ulster_, A.D. 527, the same work seems to be referred to; it is there
called the _Book of Mochod_. It was probably a series of annals begun in
the monastery of Louth by St. Mochta, or Maucteus, and afterwards
continued under the direction of the abbots, his successors. O'Curry
thinks that the _Book of Cuana_, quoted in the _Annals of Ulster_, was
written at Treoit (now Trevit), in Meath, by a scribe of that place called
Cuana, whose death is recorded in the same Annals, A.D. 738, after which
the book is quoted no more. We are rather inclined to think that Cuana, or
Cuanu, from whom this book gets its name, was the person whose death is
noticed by the Four Masters in A.D. 823, and who is described in the
_Annals of Ulster_, A.D. 824, as Cuana of Lughmadh, or Louth, "a wise man
and a bishop," as the Four Masters also describe him. It seems highly
probable therefore, that this work was begun by Maucteus in Louth, that it
afterwards was called the _Book of the Monks_, and finally the _Book of
Cuana_, the wise man and bishop, who was probably its compiler in the
shape in which it is quoted in the _Annals of Ulster_, first under the
year A.D. 468, and for the last time under date A.D. 610.
The death of this distinguished bishop and scholar, "who was a man of
uncommon erudition, and as a doctor was universally esteemed," marks the
period at which the School of Louth reached the zenith of its fame. It
were bootless to tell how it was again and again burned and pillaged by
the Danes, who during the tenth century seem to have taken permanent
possession of the monastery, although a round tower had been built to
protect it, which was blown down in A.D. 981. The Celtic princes during
the eleventh century frequently imitated the bad example of the Danes, for
we are told that in A.D. 1043 one of the O'Rorkes organized a plundering
expedition, or a hosting, as they loved to call it, against the
monasteries of Louth and Dromiskin.
Yet the torch of learning still flickered on in Louth during the
disastrous eleventh century, for the death of Molassius, lector of Louth,
is recorded in A.D. 1047. It was totally destroyed in A.D. 1148, and
although subsequently rebuilt, its fame as a school was eclipsed by other
institutions during the twelfth century. But the monastery itself lived on
down to the general suppression, and was largely endowed by successive
generations of benefactors.
III.--THE SCHOOL OF EMLY--ST. AILBE.
When St. Colman left Noendrum, he went to study Scripture under St. Ailbe
of Emly, and after his return he paid a visit to St. Caylan, or Mochta,
who was therefore still alive. His death is given as occurring in the last
years of the fifth century; and hence the School of St. Ailbe must have
been founded some years previously.
This, however, raises another very interesting question as to the
existence of pre-Patrician bishops in Ireland, that is, prelates who,
although themselves contemporaries of St. Patrick, derived their orders
and jurisdiction from another source. We cannot enter into a lengthened
discussion of this question; but, on the other hand, we must not pass it
over when treating of the monastic schools of the fifth century.