[Illustration]
The prefixed woodcut of an impression of an ancient monastic seal
hitherto unpublished, will, we think, interest some of our readers both
in Scotland and Ireland, as, though it is certainly not Irish, it is
intimately connected with that bright period of our history when Ireland
sent forth her crowds of learned ecclesiastics to preach the gospel
and instruct the people, not only to Scotland and England, but also to
Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Mecklenburg, and even distant
Iceland, in all which their memories are still venerated as patron
saints--that period to which Spenser alludes in the lines:
“Whylome, when Ireland flourished in fame
Of wealth and goodness, far above the rest
Of all that bear the British island’s name.”
The matrix, which is of bronze or brass, was discovered among old brass
at a foundry in London some three or four years ago, and is now in the
possession of Mr Thomas, a merchant of that city, who has the largest
collection of remains of this kind ever formed in the British empire.
The legend, which is in the semi-Saxon character of the twelfth century,
reads--
SI . COMMUNE . DE . INSULA . SANCTI . COLMOCI:
or,
THE COMMON SEAL OF THE ISLAND OF SAINT COLMOC.
The locality of this seal has been hitherto referred to the celebrated
Irish monastery of Iona, or Hy-Columbkille, and such we ourselves deemed
it when the impression was first sent to us. But on maturer reflection
we are now disposed to consider this conclusion erroneous, and that the
seal should with greater probability be referred to the monastery of
Inch-Colm, a small island in the Frith of Forth, lying between Edinburgh
and Inverkeithing, and which was anciently called Emonia, or Y-mona, _i.
e._ the Island of Mona. On this island the Scottish King Alexander I., in
gratitude for his escape from a violent storm, by which he was driven on
the island in 1123, founded a monastery dedicated to its patron saint,
and of which there are still considerable remains. It was plundered by
the English in the reign of Edward III., who, as it is said, suffered
shipwreck for their sacrilege; and if we might hazard a conjecture, it
would be, that the seal may have been carried into England at that time.
But be this as it may, the seal perfectly agrees in style with similar
remains of the twelfth century, and we have little doubt, that this is
its true locality, as the name in the legend will not with correctness or
propriety apply to any other known to exist. For, in the first place,
the monastery of Iona, the only other religious house to which it could
be referred, is invariably called Insula Columbæ, or I-Columbkille, in
all ancient documents, and it would be against all probability that it
should bear a different appellation on its seal. In the second place,
the name of the patron saint of Iona is never written COLMOC, which is
an Irish diminutive form of the name COLUM, and which, as in the Latin,
means a dove. But this name COLMOC was applied by the ancient Irish and
Scotch indifferently to persons bearing the name of COLMAN, both being
but synonymous and convertible diminutives of the name _Colum_--and hence
it would follow that this seal must have belonged to some monastery
which was dedicated not to St Columb, but to St Colman or Colmoc. It may
however be objected that the island called Inch-Colm was dedicated to
the celebrated apostle of Scotland, St Columbkille; and it is true that
Colgan, on the authority of Fordun, does place it among the list of his
foundations. But Fordun is a weak authority to rely on in such matters;
and from the greater contiguity of this island to Lindesfarn, of which
the Irish St Colman was the third bishop, it would seem more rational
to attribute the origin of its name to him than to the saint of Iona.
In either case, however, the seal is one of great interest to Scottish
topography and Irish history.