\
THE
HISTORIANS OF SCOTLAND.
VOL. VI.
Edinburgh : Printed by Thomas and Archibald Constable,
FOR
EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS.
LONDON HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN AND CO.
GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSK.
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EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS. EDINBURGH.
THE
IISTOBIANS OF SCOTLAND
VOL. VI.
jLife of ^>aittt Columba,
EDINBURGH
\ Xrt EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS V/ \<\
1874.
V
of
aint Columba,
FOUNDER OF HY.
WRITTEN BY ADAMNAN,
NINTH ABBOT OF THAT MONASTERY.
EDITED BY
WILLIAM BEEVES, D. D., M. B. I. A.,
RECTOR OF TYXAX, AND CANON OF ARMAGH.
EDINBURGH
EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS
1874.
4-"] oo
PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
THE Life of St. Columba by Adamnan has always excited much interest, from the undoubted authenticity of the Biography, the early period in which it was compiled, and its connexion with the foundation of the ecclesiastical establishment at lona, and the intro duction of Christianity into the north of Scotland ; but until the appearance, in 1856, of Dr. Reeves's edition of the Life, its real character, and that of the establishment at lona, was little understood, and its history perverted to suit the purposes of a polemical controversy. The accuracy of learning and the thorough research displayed in Dr. Reeves's edition has now placed the subject beyond the reach of con troversy, and his truly admirable edition is accom panied by a wealth of illustration almost unrivalled. His work, however, was printed for the Irish Archaeo logical Society and for the Bannatyne Club, and is accessible only to the members of these bodies. It is
viii PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
therefore with much pleasure that the Publishers of the Series of Scottish Historians are enabled, by Dr. Reeves's permission, to present this work to the sub scribers of that Series.
Dr. Reeves has permitted them, in order to adapt the work more to the general reader, to add an English translation, and to re-arrange the matter contained in his learned and exhaustive Notes.
The principal alteration in the latter is to throw the elaborate Additional Notes added to the Life in an Appendix into the form of an Introduction, and to transfer the numerous footnotes from the bottom of the page to the end of the Latin text.
The Eight Reverend the BISHOP OF BRECHIN has, at the Publishers' request, kindly superintended the preparation of the translation, and Mr. W. F. SKENE is responsible for the re-arrangement of the matter contained in the Notes.
EDINBURGH, December 1874.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
I'AGK
PREFACE, . . xix
INTRODUCTION, .... . xxxiii
1. Chronological Summary of St. Columba's Life, . xxxiii
2. Battles with which St. Columba was connected, . xli
3. St. Columba's Churches, xlix
4. St. Columba's Twelve Disciples, .... Ixxi
5. The year of St. Columba's Death, . . . Ixxvi
6. The Relics of St. Columba, . . . Ixxix
7. The Monastery of Hy, c
8. The Topography of Hy, .... cxxvii
9. Chronicle of Hy, . . . . . . cxlvi
TRANSLATION OF THE LIFE OF ST. COLUMBA :— PREFACE, ... ..... 1
SECOND PREFACE, 2
BOOK I. OF HIS PROPHETIC REVELATIONS.
CHAPTER I. — A brief narrative of his wonderful Miracles, . 4 CHAPTER II.— Of St. Fintan the Abbot, son of Tailchan,
and how St. Columba prophesied of him, ... 7 CHAPTER III. — His Prophecy regarding Ernene, son of
Crasen, 9
CHAPTER IV. — How he announced beforehand the arrival
of Cainnech, . . . . . . . .10
CHAPTER V. — Of the danger of St. Colman, of the tribe
Mocusailni, made known to St. Columba, . . .11
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.— His Prophecies regarding Cormac, grandson
ofLethan,
CHAPTER VII.— Of the Battles,
CHAPTER VIII.— Of the Kings,
CHAPTER IX. — Of the two boys who died at the end of a
week, according to his word, .... CHAPTER X. — Of Colca, son of Aid Draigniche, and of a
certain hidden sin of his Mother, CHAPTER XI. — Prophecy of St. Columba regarding the
sign of the same man's death, ..... CHAPTER XII. — Of Laisran the gardener, CHAPTER XIII. — How he prophesied of a large Whale, CHAPTER XIV. — Of a certain Baitan, who sailed with others
to a desert in the ocean, ......
CHAPTER XV. — Of a certain Neman, an unreal penitent,
who afterwards, according to the Saint's word, ate the
flesh of a stolen mare, ......
CHAPTER XVI. — Of that unhappy man who sinned with
his Mother,
CHAPTER XVII. — Of the vowel letter I, which alone was
wanting in the Psalter,
CHAPTER XVIII.— Of the Book which fell into the water- vessel, .........
CHAPTER XIX. — Of the Inkhorn overturned, .
CHAPTER XX. — Of the arrival of one Aidan, which broke
the fast,
CHAPTER XXI. — Of a poor man who shouted at the Sound
when about to die, .......
CHAPTER XXIL— Of the city of the Roman jurisdiction, on
which fire fell from heaven, .....
CHAPTER XXIII.— Of Laisran, son of Feradach, and how
he tried the monks in their labour, .... CHAPTER XXIV.— Of Fechna Bine, . CHAPTER XXV.— Of Cailtan the monk,
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi
PAGE
CHAPTER XXVI. — Of two Strangers, . . . .24 CHAPTER XXVII. — Of Artbranan, the old man whom he
baptized in the Scian island, . . . . .25 CHAPTER XXVIII.— Of the removal of the Boat across the
loch of Loch-dise, . . . . . . .25
CHAPTER XXIX. — Of Gallan, son of Fachtna, whom the
demons carried off, 26
CHAPTER XXX.— Of Lugud Clodus, ;. . . .28 CHAPTER XXXI.— Of Enan, the son of Gruth, . 29
CHAPTER XXXII. — Of the Priest who was in Treoit, . 29 CHAPTER XXXIII.— Of Ere the robber, . . 30
CHAPTER XXXIV.— Of Cronan the poet, - . . .30 CHAPTER XXXV.— Prophecy of the Saint regarding Eonan,
son of Aid, son of Colca, and Colman the Hound, son of
Ailen, 31
BOOK II. ON HIS MIRACULOUS POWERS.
CHAPTER I. — Of the Wine which was made from water, . 38
CHAPTER II. — Of the very bitter fruits of a tree changed into sweet by the blessing of the Saint, . . .39
CHAPTER III. — Of the land which was ploughed and sown after midsummer, and yielded a ripe harvest in the begin ning of the month of August, . . . . .39
CHAPTER IV. — On a Pestilential Cloud, and the cure of those sick from it, . . . . . .40
CHAPTER V. — Of Maugina, a holy virgin, and the healing of her broken thigh, 41
CHAPTER VI. — Of the healing the diseases of many people at the Ridge of Cete, by the touch of the hem of his garment, 42
CHAPTER VII.— Of a lump of salt blessed by the Saint which could not be consumed by the fire, . . .42
i TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII. — Of the volumes of books in the Saint's handwriting, which could in no way be destroyed by water, . . . . • • •
CHAPTER IX. — Of water drawn from the hard rock by the Saint's prayers, .
CHAPTER X. — Of the fountain of water which the Saint blessed and healed beyond the Dorsal Eidge of Britain, .
CHAPTER XI. — Of the Saint's danger at sea, and the mighty tempest changed at once into a calm ',by his prayers, .
CHAPTER XII. — Of another similar peril at sea, and how Saint Cainnech prayed for him and his companions,
CHAPTER XIII. — Of the Staff of St. Cainnech forgotten in the harbour, .....
CHAPTER XIV. — Of Baithene and Columban, the son of Beogna, who asked of the Saint that he would grant them on the same day a favourable wind, though they were to sail in different directions, ....
CHAPTER XV. — Of the driving out of a demon that lurked in a milk-pail, . . .
CHAPTER XVI. — Concerning a vessel which a certain sorcerer by diabolical art filled with milk taken from a bull, and how, at the Saint's prayer, that which seemed to be milk was changed into its own proper nature of blood,
CHAPTER XVII. — Of Lugne Mocumin, whom the Saint, by touch of his fingers and prayer, cured of a flow of blood which frequently poured from his nostrils, .
CHAPTER XVIII. — Of a large salmon found in a river according to the Saint's word,
CHAPTER XIX. — Of two fishes found, by his prophecy, in the river which is called Boo,
CHAPTER XX. — Regarding a certain peasant who was called Nesan the Crooked, . . ...
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xill
PA(JK
CHAPTER XXI. — Of a certain rich and very greedy man, named Uigen, .... .50
CHAPTERTXXII. — Of Columban, a man of equally humble condition, whose cattle, when they were few, the holy man blessed : and after his blessing they increased to the number of a hundred, . . . . . .51
CHAPTER XXIII.— Of the death of Johan, son of Conall, on the very day he threw dishonour upon and contemned the Saint, . . ... . ... . . . . 51
CHAPTER XXIV. — Of the death of one Feradach, a dis honest man, foretold by the Saint, * .52
CHAPTER XXV. — Concerning another persecutor, whose name in Latin is Manus Dextera, . . . . 53
CHAPTER XXVI. — Another oppressor of the innocent, who, in the province of the Lagenians, fell down dead, like Ananias before Peter, the same moment that he was terribly reproved by the Saint, . . . . .54
CHAPTER XXVII. — Of the death of a wild boar, which was caused to fall prostrate at some distance from the Saint by the sign of the Lord's Cross, . . . .55
CHAPTER XXVIII. — Of an Aquatic Monster which, by his prayer and the raising of his hand against it, was driven back and prevented from hurting Lugne, who was swim ming near it, . . . . . . .55
CHAPTER XXIX. — Of the Reptiles and Serpents of the louan island, which, from the day the Saint blessed it, were able to hurt neither man nor beast, . . .56
CHAPTER XXX. — Of the Spear signed by him, which, though driven with all one's force, could never after hurt any living creature, . . . . . .57
CHAPTER XXXI. — Of the cure of Diormit when sick, . 57
CHAPTER XXXII. — Of the cure of Finten, the son of Aid, when at the point of death, . . . . .58
CHAPTER XXXIII. — Of the boy whom the holy man
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
raised from the dead, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the country of the Picts, . . . *• . 58
CHAPTER XXXIV.— Of his contest with the Druid Broichan for his detention of a female slave : and of the stone which the Saint blessed, and which floated in water like an apple, . .. ... . .* . . .59
CHAPTER XXXV. — Of the manner in which the blessed man overcame Broichan the Druid, and of the contrary wind, . . . . . . . ;> . 61
CHAPTER XXXVI. — Of the sudden opening of the door of the royal fortress of its own accord, . . . .62
CHAPTER XXXVII. — Of a similar unclosing of the Church of the Field of the Two Streams, . . . . 62
CHAPTER XXXVIII. — Concerning a certain peasant in poverty, and begging, for whom St. Columba made and blessed a stake for killing wild beasts, . . . .63
CHAPTER XXXIX. — Concerning a leathern vessel for hold ing milk which was carried from its place, and brought back again to land by the tide, . ; . .64
CHAPTER XL. — The Saint's prophecy regarding Libran, of the Rush-ground, '. . . . < . . .65
CHAPTER XLI. — Of a certain woman who was relieved in great and extremely difficult pains of childbirth, . 69
CHAPTER XLII. — Of the wife of Lugne the pilot, who hated him, : . • • - , . . „ ' • . . , . 70
CHAPTER XLIII. — The prophecy of St. Columba regarding Cormac, the grandson of Lethan, and his voyages, . .71
CHAPTER XLIV. — Of the venerable man's drive in a chariot without the protection of the proper linch-pins, . .73
CHAPTER XLV. — Of the rain which, after several months of drought, was poured by God's gift upon the thirsty ground in honour of the blessed man, . '. .- . 74
CHAPTER XL VI. — A miracle which we are now by God's favour going to relate, as it happened in our own day, and
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV
PAGE
before our own eyes. Of the unfavourable winds which, through the prayers of the venerable man, were changed into propitious breezes, . .74
CHAPTER XLVIL— Of the Plague, . . . 76
BOOK III. THE APPARITIONS OF ANGELS.
CHAPTER I. — Of the apparition of angels which were shown either to others regarding the blessed man, or to him regarding others, v. . ' :. ... . 78
CHAPTER II. — Of the angel of the Lord who appeared in dreams to his mother after his conception in the womb, '. . . . i . ' . . 78
CHAPTER III. — Of the ray of light seen upon the boy's face as he lay asleep, . . • . . . . . 79
CHAPTER IV. — Of the apparition of holy angels whom St. Brenden saw accompanying the blessed man through the plain, . . . ' .•'. . • .79
CHAPTER V. — Of the angel of the Lord whom St. Finnic saw accompanying the blessed man in his journey, . 80
CHAPTER VI. — Of the angel of the Lord who appeared in a vision to St. Columba while he remained in Hinba Island, and was sent to him in order that he might ordain Aidan king, . . ... . .81
CHAPTER VII. — Of the apparition of angels carrying to heaven the soul of one Brito, . . . . .82
CHAPTER VIII. — Of the vision of angels vouchsafed to the same holy man as they were bearing to heaven the soul of one Diormit, 82
CHAPTER IX. — Of the brave fight of the angels against the demons, and how they opportunely assisted the Saint in the same conflict, . . . . . . .83
CHAPTER X. — Of the apparition of angels whom the man
XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PACK
of God saw carrying to heaven the soul of a certain person, a blacksmith by trade, named Columb, and sur- named Coilrigin, . . . . . .84
CHAPTER XL — Of a similar vision of angels whom the blessed man beheld carrying to heaven the soul of a certain virtuous woman, . . . . . .84
CHAPTER XII. — Of the apparition of holy angels whom St. Columba beheld meeting in its passage the soul of the blessed Brenden, the founder of that monastery which in the Scotic language is called Birra, . . * . .85
CHAPTER XIII. — Of the vision of holy angels who carried off to heaven the soul of the Bishop St. Columban Moculoigse, . . . , «. « • .85
CHAPTER XIV. — Of the apparition of angels who came down to meet the souls of the monks of St. Comgell, . 86
CHAPTER XV. — Of the apparition of angels who came to meet Emchath's soul, . . . • .. . . .87
CHAPTER XVI.— Of the angel of the Lord that came so quickly and opportunely to the relief of the brother who fell from the top of the round monastery in the Oak- wood Plain, . . . . . » . .87
CHAPTER XVII.— Of the multitude of holy angels that were seen to come down from heaven to meet the blessed man, 88
CHAPTER XVIII.— Of the pillar of fire seen to burn upon the Saint's head, . ... . . . 89
CHAPTER XIX. — Of the descent or visit of the Holy Spirit, which continued upon the venerable man for three whole days and as many nights, in the same island, . .90
CHAPTER XX. — Of the bright angelic light which Virgnous, — a youth of good dispositions, and afterwards, under God, superior of this Church, in which I, though un worthy, now serve, — saw coming down on St. Columba in the church, on a winter's night, when the brothers were at rest in their beds, . . 90
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV11
PAGE
CHAPTER XXI. — Of another vision of almost equal bril liancy, . . .91
CHAPTER XXII. — Of another like apparition of divine light, . .92
CHAPTER XXIII. — Of another apparition of angels given to the holy man, who saw them coming forth to meet his holy soul as if about to depart from the body, . . 93 '
CHAPTER XXIV. — Of the departure of our patron, St. Columba, to the Lord, . .94
TEXT OF THE ( LIFE OF ST. COLUMBA, WITH THE
VARIANT READINGS OF THE DIFFERENT MSS., . .103
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS :—
Notes to Preface, . . . . . .223
Notes to Introduction, V . 224
Notes to the Life, . . . . . . .248
APPENDIX :-
I.— Identification of Localities, . , » . .303
II. — Explanation of Names on the Map of lona, . .329
III. — Chronicon Hyense, . . . . .334
IV. — Notes on the History of the Ruins at lona, . . 342
V. — Records relating to lona from the Vatican, . .353
INDEX, ... . . . 359
MAP OF ION A, to face Title.
PREFACE.
BEFORE St. Columba was long in the grave, it is likely that some member of the brotherhood set himself to collect his patron's acts, and to record such events of his life as were suited to the taste of the day, or were calculated to promote the veneration of his memory. In furtherance of this design, he probably turned his attention rather to the marvels than the sober realities of the Saint's life, and consulted more for the excitement of admiration in a simple and credulous age, than for the supply of historical materials to meet the stern demands of remote posterity. When Adamnan, a century after St. Columba's death, in compliance with his brethren's urgent re quest, drew up the memoir which has immortalized both the subject and the writer, his information was derived, as he him self states, in part from written, in part from oral, authorities. In the latter respect, he was quite near enough to the fountain- head, both in time and place, to draw from authentic sources, for in his boyhood he had frequent opportunities of conversing with those who had seen St. Columba, and he was now writing almost on the very spot where his great predecessor had indited his last words, and surrounded by objects every one of which was fresh with the impress of some interesting association. As regarded his documentary materials, he had before him the account of Cummene the Fair, whom he cites by name, and whose entire narrative he has transferred, almost verbatim, into his own compilation, where it is for the most part incorporated with the Third Book. He had also another memoir, on the authority of which he relates an occurrence not recorded in
XX PREFACE.
Cummene's pages. Besides these compositions, which were written in Latin, there existed in our author's day certain poems on the praises of Columba, in the Scotic tongue, among which was probably the celebrated Amhra, or panegyric, which was written by a contemporary of the Saint. Baithene Mor, who enjoyed St. Columba's friendship, is said to have commemorated some particulars of his life, and poems ascribed to Baithene are more than once referred to by O'Donnell. Metrical composi tions bearing the name of St. Mura are also cited by the same compiler, who adduces them as his authority, in part, for the history of St. Columba's infancy. Thus furnished with record and tradition, and quickened, moreover, with zeal for the honour of a kinsman after the flesh, the ninth abbot of Hy became the biographer of the first, and produced a work, which, though not ostensibly historical, and professing to treat of an individual, is " the most authentic voucher now remaining of several other important particulars of the sacred and civil history of the Scots and Picts," l and is pronounced by a writer not over-given to eulogy to be " the most complete piece of such biography that all Europe can boast of, not only at so early a period, but even through the whole middle ages."2 Our author is indeed as free from the defects of hagiology as any ancient writer in this de partment of literature, but it must ever be subject of regret that he chose an individual instead of a society as his subject, and reckoned the history of his Church a secondary consideration to the reputation of his Patron. If Bede had contented himself with being the biographer of St. Cuthbert, instead of the histo rian of England, would he be now par excellence the Venerable ? If Adamnan had extended to history the style and power of description which appear in his tract on the Holy Places, with the experience, the feeling, and the piety, which characterize his Life of St. Columba, the voice of Christendom would have borrowed the word from his countryman, and irreversibly have
1 Tnnes, Civil and Eccl. Hist., p. 145.
- Pinkerton, Enquiry, Pref., vol. i. p. xlviii.
PREFACE. XXI
coupled his name with the title of Admirable. Even in the limited sphere which he chose, he soon acquired, to use a modern expression, a European celebrity, and the numerous copies of his writings which are found scattered over the Con tinent show in what esteem he was held abroad. It was there fore more rhetorical than just in a late historian of the English Church, to create a silent sister beside the vocal Lindisfarne, and state that " splendid as is the fame of lona, the names of almost all its literary men have perished." x Surely Adamnan and Cummene are more than names, and if names be wanting, the Chronicle of Hy is not so barren as to suggest the old lament —
" Omnes illacrymabiles
Urgentur, ignotique longa
Nocte."
Adamnan's life of St. Columba has obtained due publicity in print, yet has always appeared in such a form as to render it more a subject of research than of ordinary study. It was first printed by Henry Canisius, in the fifth volume of his Antiqiice Lectiones, on the authority of a manuscript preserved in the monastery of Windberg in Bavaria. Twenty years afterwards, Thomas Messingham, an Irish priest, reprinted the tract from Canisius, in his Florilegium, adding titles to the chapters, and appending a few marginal glosses, together with testimonies of Adamnan, at the beginning, and of St. Columba, at the end, of the Life.
About the same time, Stephen White, a learned Jesuit, a native of Clonmel, discovered, while in search of Irish manu scripts on the Continent, a venerable copy of Adamnan in the Benedictine monastery of Eeichenau, and the transcript which he made supplied the text of the fourth Life of St. Columba in Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga, published in 1647. The editor of the work prefixes numbers to the chapters, which are not in the original, and errs wherever White has made an omission or
1 Carwithen, Hist, of the Church, v. i. p. 6.
xxn PREFACE.
alteration in the text, but in other respects is remarkably faith ful. The notes display considerable learning and vast acquaint ance with the ecclesiastical records of his country, but his conjectural emendations are often peculiarly unhappy, and his constant endeavour to find a place in the Irish Calendar for Adamnan's worthies sometimes tempts him into misspent labour. Stephen White furnished a copy to the Bollandists also, from which the text was again printed, in 1698, under the editorial care of Francis Baert, but in a less faithful form than the previous one. The editor took many liberties with the copy, changing the division of the chapters, introducing new titles, displacing the original ones, and occasionally altering the text. The notes which he has added are principally from Colgan, and are neither as rich nor erudite as his materials might have led one to expect.
The next publication of the Life was the reprint of Canisius's Lectiones in Basnage's Thesaurus, in the first volume of which it is reproduced in its earlier defective form.
Lastly, it appeared, in 1789, in Pinkerton's Collection, a work of much smaller dimensions, and which might have had a wide circulation but for a whim of the editor, who limited the im pression to a hundred copies. The text of Adamnan in this work professes to follow a manuscript preserved in the British Museum ; but the editor, who made the text of Canisius the basis of his collation, has very often neglected his professed exemplar, and fallen in with the old readings of the Windberg, instead of the British, manuscript. On the whole, the text is certainly an improvement on that in the Canisian family, but is greatly inferior to Colgan's, with which the editor seems to have been unacquainted, for he supplies the deficiency at the com mencement of the British manuscript from Canisius's meagre authority, and, when he might have drawn from Colgan's rich store, he adds a few foot-notes, which do more to prove the editorial incompetency of the commentator than to illustrate the text of his author.
PREFACE. xxiii
All who have compared the text of Adamnan as given by Canisius or his copyists, with that in Colgan, the Bollandists, or Pinkerton, have observed a great difference in their length. Ussher noticed the brevity of Canisius's compared with the Cotton and Keichenau MSS. ; so did Colgan and Pinkerton ; and Dr. Lanigan has gone so far as to state it to be his opinion that the shorter text was the genuine production of Adamnan, and that the longer one owed its difference to a later hand. In deciding, therefore, between the recensions, the question is one of abridgment or interpolation. A strong presumption in favour of the longer text arises from the fact that it is found in the oldest and most respectable manuscript, as well as in two others of totally independent authority, one of which professes to follow a Scotch transcript. To which may be added, that Fordun and O'Donnell used and received the longer text, as is proved by their citing passages which do not exist in the shorter. The style of Adamnan is apparent in these extra portions, and the arrangement of the chapters in the longer text agrees better with the character of his other work. This view is confirmed by the consideration that the shorter text owes its peculiar character, at least as far as regards the absence of titles and the fewness of proper names, to an assignable cause, namely, the convenience of congregational reading, as expressed in St. Bene dict's Eule : " Ideo omni tempore, sive jejunii sive prandii, mox ut surrexerint a ccena, sedeant omnes in unum, et legat unus Collationes, vel Vitas Patrum, aut certe aliquid quod sedificet audientes " (cap. 42). It is reasonable to suppose that the in terruption of the narrative by titles, or the encumbering of it with proper names, would be avoided as opposed to the pur pose of edification ; hence, considering the longer memoir to be the genuine one, it is easy to imagine the creation of an abbreviated text, and this revision becoming the favourite one for conventual reading.
But the shorter text possesses internal evidence that such a reduction has taken place. The second Preface declares the
PREFACE.
author's intention to give at the outset of his memoir a summary of the wonders contained in it, which was to serve as a foretaste for those whose eagerness to learn something of the Saint would not wait for the patient perusal of the whole. Now, this promise is fulfilled in the first chapter of the longer text, but is left un accomplished in the shorter. Again, the thirty-second chapter of the First Book (p. 139) places St. Columba "in Scotiensium paulo superius memorata regione," and then goes on to speak of Trioit, a place now known as Trevet, in the county of Meath. In the longer text the chapter but one preceding relates St. Columba's doings in the Campus Breg, the old name of East Meath, and thus the reference above mentioned is easy and intelligible. But in the shorter text, where the said passage also occurs, six of the antecedent chapters, as given in the longer, are omitted, and the place which is last mentioned is Skye, and further back, for several chapters, the scene is laid in Hy. It is evident, therefore, that the true correlative to supra memorata does not exist in the shorter text, and, as a necessary consequence, that it is mutilated. Moreover, as regards the tituli, they form an integral part of each chapter, for the names which occur in them are often not repeated, though referred to, in the substance of the chapter, so that their removal, as in the Bollandist edition, from their proper places to the beginning of the books, that they may not break the thread of the story, illustrates the principle upon which they were entirely omitted in the manu scripts ; and occasionally renders the insertion of some words in the text necessary, in order to complete the construction. Thus, at p. 145, all the copies have supra memorata muni- tione, but there is no antecedent mention of a munitio except in the titulus, which speaks De hello in munitione Cethirni, the absence of which evidently bears witness against the integrity of the shorter text, and, in the Bollandists, demanded a note of explanation. The very title of Canisius's manuscript, Incipit prima Prcefatio Apologiaque Adamnani Abbatis sancti scriptoris, indicates a later hand ; as the Bollandist editor observes, " quis
PREFACE. XXV
enim seipsuni sanctum vocet ? " Accordingly, in giving the preference to the Keichenau manuscript, he comes to the con clusion that the " Windbergense MS. videatur ex hoc desump- tum, pluribus rebus, tsedio forsitan vocum barbaricarum, vel librarii incuria, prsetermissis." l
Of the seven manuscripts which furnish the various readings in the present work, three contain the longer, and four the shorter text.
These are under the several signatures which are employed to represent them.
I. Codex A. A MS. of the beginning of the eighth century, formerly belonging to Eeichenau, but now preserved in the Public Library of Schaffhausen.
II. Codex B. A vellum MS. of the middle of the fifteenth century, preserved in the British Museum, Bill. Reg., 8 D. ix.
III. Codex C. The Canisian text, which was published in 1604 " ex Membranis MS., Monasterii Windbergensis in Bauaria." It belongs to the shorter recension.
IV. Codex D. The second tract (fol. 39 aa to 51 la), in a large vellum MS. of the thirteenth century, preserved in Primate Marsh's library, Dublin, vulgarly, though erroneously, called the Book of Kilkenny, and marked v. 3, 4. Its text is of the shorter recension.
V. Codex F. A vellum MS. in 4to, Ssec. x., consisting of fifty leaves. It formerly belonged to the Church of Freisingen, situate at the junction of the Moosach and Isar, in Bavaria ; under the number 141, and is now in the Eoyal Library of Munich, 6341. It is the most respectable MS. of the shorter recension.
VI. Codex S. A small quarto MS. on vellum, of the early part of the ninth century, preserved in the library of St. Gall, No. 555. It consists of eighty-three folios, and contains the text of the shorter recension.
1 Act. SS. Jim., torn. ii. pp. 190 6, 198 a. I
XXVI PREFACE.
VII. Codex Cottonianus. This copy of the Life is contained in a large folio volume, which formerly belonged to Sir Kobert Cotton, and is now to be found in the British Museum, under the mark Bill. Cotton. Tiberius, D. Hi. It is a vellum MS. in double columns, written in a fine large hand of the latter part of the twelfth century.1
Besides these seven manuscripts, which furnish the various readings of this edition, there are reported to be in existence the following : —
1. At Admont, a cathedral town of Styria, in the circle of Judenburg, and valley of the Enns river, a manuscript Vita 8. Columbce presbyteri et confessoris, beginning " Sanctus igitur Columba nobilibus fuerat oriundus natalibus, patrem habens Fedilmitum filium Fergusa."
2. Heiligenkreutz (Holy Cross), in Austria, is reported as having a Vita S. Columbce. There are eight places of the name in the Austrian empire ; but of the two which are in the archduchy of Austria, this is probably the Cistercian monastery, in the district of the Vienna forest.
3. Salmansweiler, a Cistercian monastery, one mile from Ueberliugen, on the north side of the Lake of Constance, is reported to have Adamannus Abbas de Vita S. Columle con-
4. Tegernsee, a monastery of Bavaria, between the rivers Isar and Inn, and the lakes of Schlier and Tegern, is said to have j Vita, Columbi Confessoris ; Saec. xiii. This, however, as well ! as No. 2, may be by Cummene.
5. In the Codex Salmanticensis, belonging to the library of the Dukes of Burgundy at Brussels, is a fragment of a Life of St. Columba, differing very little from Adamnan's. Owing to the loss of several folios, the greater part of this tract is wanting, and what remains, beginning at iii. 18 of Adam-
1 For an elaborate account of these manuscripts the reader is referred to Dr. Eeeves's Preface in the original work, pp. xiii-xxxi., from which part of the Preface this account of the seven MSS. is abridged. — W. F. S.
PREFACE. XXV11
nan, is printed by Colgan as the second part of his Vita Secunda.
The other Lives of St. Columba are the following : —
I. That by Cummene, already mentioned.
II. The first part of Colgan's Vita Secunda, which he found in the Salamanca MS., and erroneously supposed to be by Cumineus. It is a succinct and chronological digest of the principal recorded events of the Saint's life, and supplies from
, the old Irish Life some particulars not recorded by Adamnan.
III. A Life by John of Tinrnouth, pirated by Capgrave, and reprinted by Colgan with notes, in the Trias, where it appears as the Vita Tertia. It is principally compiled from Adamnan, and ends with the monition : " Est autem sciendum quod Hibernia proprie Scotorum est patria : antiquitus igitur Scotia pro Hibernia saepius scribi solet sicut hie in vita sancti Columbe diligenter intuentibus apparet. Et etiam venerabilis Beda de gestis Anglorum multis in locis Hiberniam exprimere volens, Scotiam scripsit."
IV. The office in the Breviary of Aberdeen, containing nine short lessons, borrowed, in an abridged form, from Adamnan.
V. An abridgment of Adamnan, printed by Benedict Gonon under the title Vita S. Columbce, sive Columbani, Presbyteri et Confessoris (qui alius est cb S. Columbano Luxoviensi ablate) ex ilia prolixa quam scripsit Adamannus abbas Insulce Huensis in Scotia. It occupies three folio pages, double columns, and is accompanied by three trifling notulse.
VI. An ancient Irish memoir, frequently referred to in the following pages as the old Irish Life. It is a composition pro bably as old as the tenth century, and was originally compiled, to be read as a discourse on St. Columba's festival, on the text Exi de terra tua et de cognatione tua, et de domo patris tui, et vade in terram quam tibi monstravero. This curious relic of Irish preaching is preserved in four manuscripts : — 1. The Leabhar Breac, or Speckled Book of Mac Egan, in the library of the Eoyal Irish Academy (fol. 15 a I). 2. The Book of Lismore
XXV111 PREFACE.
(fol. 49 6 a)} of which the original is in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, and a beautiful copy in the Koyal Irish Academy. 3. A quarto vellum MS., formerly belonging to the Highland Society of Scotland, and now deposited in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. It is a thin fasciculus without covers, probably of the twelfth century, and written in double columns. The Life begins in fol. 7, and is continued to the end, namely, 1 4 &. It modernizes all the old words and constructions of the earlier copies, and subjoins the account of St. Columba's proceedings at the convention of Drumceatt, taken from one of the prefaces to the Amhra Cho- luim-cille. This MS. may be the one of those mentioned by Martin, circ. 1700 : " The Life of Columbus, written in the Irish Character, is in the Custody of John Mack Neil, in the Isle of Barray ; another Copy of it is kept by Mack-Donald of Ben- lecula." A facsimile of some lines has been engraved in one of the Highland Society's publications. 4. MS. Eoyal Library, Paris, Ancien Fond., No. 8175. It forms fol. 53 aa to fol. 56 llt of a small folio parchment volume found by the Eevolutionary Commissioners, during the Eepublic, in a private house in Paris, and by them presented to the library.
This ancient Life, evidently held in great esteem, furnished O'Donnell with a considerable portion of his narrative, and he has transferred the whole into his collection. Ussher was ac quainted with it, as is shown by his reference : " Ut habet anonymus, qui acta ipsius Hibernico idiomate descripsit ;" but Colgan does not seem to have been aware of its existence, and the Irish Life which he cites is always that of O'Donnell.
VII. The latest and much the most copious collection of the Saint's acts is that by Manus O'Donnell, chief of Tir-Connell, which professes to be, and is, a chronological digest of all the existing records concerning the patron of his family. His frame work consists of Adamnan and the old Irish Life ; into this he has worked: — 1. The historical allusions found in the volume of poems ascribed to St. Columba ; 2. The substance of the
PREFACE. XXIX
preface to the Amhra Choluim-cille ; 3. Extracts from the prefaces to the Latin hymns ascribed to St. Columba, and from the hymns themselves, as preserved in the Liber Hymnorum ;
4. Some notes from the comments on the Feilire of Aengus ;
5. The matter in the poems on Cormac Ua Liathain ; 6. Passages from the lives of contemporary saints, especially St. Mochonna, or Machar, of Aberdeen ; 7. The alleged prophecies of Berchan of Clonsast ; 8. Some legendary poems on the wanderings of certain Columbian monks, which far outdo St, Brendan's Navi gation in wildness of incident. O'Donnell's statement is : " Be it known to the readers of the Life, that it was buried in oblivion for a long time, and that there was not to be found but a frag ment of the book which holy Adamnan compiled of it in Latin, and another small portion in Irish, compiled by the Irish poets in a very difficult dialect ; and the remainder in legends scat tered throughout the old books of Erin." These materials, with one or two trifling exceptions, all exist at the present day, and have more or less been consulted for the present work. It would be quite possible for a good scholar and patient investi gator, endowed with an inventive wit and a copious style, to compile from materials existing in the year of grace 1856,1 a narrative to the full as circumstantial, as diffuse, and as marvel lous, as that contained in the great volume of O'Donnell, and much more correct. It would, however, labour under one great defect, — the Irish would not be as good. When and where this work was compiled, and at what cost, the following declaration of the noble author will set forth : " Be it known to the readers of this Life, that it was Manus, the son of Hugh, son of Hugh Eoe, son of Mall Garve, son of Torlogh of the Wine, O'Donnell, that ordered the part of this Life which was in Latin to be put into Gaelic; and who ordered the part that was in difficult Gaelic to be modified, so that it might be clear and compre hensible to every one ; and who gathered and put together the
1 When this Preface was written.— W. F. S.
XXX PREFACE.
parts of it that were scattered through the old books of Erin ; and who dictated it out of his own mouth, with great labour, and a great expenditure of time in studying how he should arrange all its parts in their proper places, as they are left here in writing by us ; and in love and friendship for his illustrious Saint, Relative, and Patron, to whom he was devoutly attached. It was in the castle of Port-na-tri-namad that this Life was indited, when were fulfilled 12 years, and 20, and 500, and 1000 of the age of the Lord."
This work exists in all its original dimensions, beauty, and material excellence, in a large folio of vellum, written in double columns, in a fine bold Irish hand, and is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where it was deposited, together with the other Irish manuscripts of Mr. Eawlinson, having previously cost that gentleman, at the sale of the Chandos collection in 176|-, the formidable sum of twenty-three shil lings ! Colgan published a copious abstract of this compilation in Latin, preserving the principal particulars of the narrative, but omitting the outrageously fabulous portions, as well as those which were not in accordance with his ecclesiastical feel ings, and divided the whole into three books, agreeing with the three chief eras of the Saint's life : — 1 . From his birth to the battle of Cooldrevny. 2. From that event, as the cause of his departure from Ireland, to his temporary return to attend the convention of Drumceatt. 3. From the convention of Drum- ceatt to his death. This compilation is important as a depository of all the existing traditions concerning St. Columba, but it throws no real light on Adamnan, either in solving a difficulty or identifying a place; and its great prolixity only serves to show how much superior Adamnan's memoir is to any other record professing to be an account of the Saint's life ; and, after all, how little historical matter has been added to that work by the utmost endeavours of those best qualified to succeed in the attempt ! To Adamnan is, indeed, owing the historic precision, and the intelligible operation, which characterize the second
PREFACE. XXxi
stage of the ancient Irish Church. In the absence of his memoir, the Life of St. Columba would degenerate into the foggy, unreal species of narrative which belongs to the Lives of his contemporaries, and we should be entirely in the dark on many points of discipline and belief, concerning which we have now a considerable amount of satisfactory information.
Adamnan's memoir is, therefore, to be prized as an inestimable literary relic of the Irish Church : perhaps, with all its defects, the most valuable monument of that institution which has escaped the ravages of time. The editor, at least, felt it to be so : and has therefore taken great pains, in the midst of many difficulties and discouragements, to call into his service all the means of illustration which books, places, and men could afford.1
BALLYMENA, November 25th, 1856.
1 The few concluding sentences of this Preface are omitted, as more appro priate to the origiual edition. — W. F. S.
INTRODUCTION,
i.
ST. COLUMBA was born at Gartan, a wild district in the CHRONO- county of Donegal, on the very day that St. Buite, the founder g°^^Y of Monasterboice, departed this life. Thus the 7th of December OF SAINT is determined for an event, the date of which might otherwise T.?^™BAS have been unrecorded; and the Irish Calendars, in noticing it, present at that day the anomaly of a secular commemora tion. Authorities vary as to the year, ranging from 518 to 523; but calculation from Adamnan's data gives 521 as that most likely to be the true period.
Fedhlimidh, the father of Columba, belonged to the clan which occupied, and gave name to, the territory surrounding Gartan, and was, moreover, a member of the reigning families of Ireland and British Dalriada. Eithne, the mother of Columba, was of Leinster extraction, and descended from an illustrious provincial king. Thus the nobility of two races was combined in their son, and, no doubt, contributed to the extended influence which he acquired, when education, piety, and zeal were superadded to his honourable antecedents.
He was baptized by the presbyter Cruithnechan, under the name Colum, to which the addition of cille, signifying "of the church," was subsequently made, in reference to his dili gent attendance at the church of his youthful sojourn. The tradition of the country is, that he was baptized at Tulach- Dubhglaise, now called Temple-Douglas, a place about half-
XXxiv INTRODUCTION.
way between Gartan and Letterkenny, where there is a cemetery { of considerable extent, containing the roofless walls of a large I chapel, and, at a short distance on the north-east, within the j enclosure, a square, elevated space, which appears to have been ; artificially formed, and to be the spot which in O'Donnell's j time was coupled with the memory of the Saint.
The place where St. Columba is said to have spent the ; principal portion of his boyhood was Doire-Eithne, a hamlet in | the same territory, which afterwards exchanged this name, j signifying, Eoboretum Eithnece, for Cill-mac-Nenain, in com memoration, it is supposed, of the " Sons of Enan," whose mother was one of St. Columba's sisters. The absence of any mention of this place in the ancient Irish Life, coupled with the fact that this .parish was the original seat of the O'Donnells, might suggest the conjecture, that it was introduced into the biography of the Saint as an expedient of a later age to add lustre to the chiefs of Tirconnell, by associating the history of their patron with the origin of their race, were it not that there is evidence of a very early relation between St. Columba's family and the place, in the circumstance that the O'Freels, who were the ancient herenachs of the church lands there, were descended, not from Dalach, the forefather of the O'Don nells, but from Eoghan, the brother of St. Columba. The name Cill-mac-Nenain, also, as explained above, indicates a like connexion.
The youth Columba, when arrived at sufficient age, left the scene of his fosterage, and, travelling southwards, came to Moville, at the head of Strangford Lough, where he became a pupil of the famous bishop, St. Finnian. Here he was ordained deacon ; and to the period of his sojourn in this monastery is referable the anecdote which is told by Adarnnan in the open ing chapter of the second book.
From Moville, St. Columba proceeded further southwards, and, arriving in Leinster, placed himself under the instruction of an aged bard called Gemman. At this stage of the Saint's
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
.
life, he being still a deacon, occurred an incident which Adamnan records in the course of his narrative (B. n. c. 26).
Leaving Gemman, he entered the monastic seminary of Clonard, over which St. Finnian, the founder, then presided. Here St. Columba is said to have been numbered with a class of students who afterwards attained great celebrity as fathers of the Irish Church. St. Finnian does not appear to have been a bishop, and when Columba was subsequently judged worthy of admission to superior orders, he was sent to Etchen, the bishop of Clonfad, by whom he was ordained a priest.
According to the Irish memoirs, St. Columba left St. Finnian, and entered the monastery of Mobhi Clarainech, whose estab lishment at Glas Naoidhen, now Glasnevin, near Dublin, consisted of a group of huts or cells, and an oratory, situate on either bank of the Finglass. Here also are said to have been, at the same time, SS. Comgall, Ciaran, and Cainnech, who had been his companions at Clonard. A violent distemper, how ever, which appeared in the neighbourhood about 544, broke up the community, and Columba returned to the north. On his way he crossed the Bior, now called the Moyola water, a small river which runs into Lough Neagh on the north-west, and, in doing so, prayed, it is said, that this might be the northern limit to the spread of the disease. Mobhi died in 545, and in the following year, according to the Annals of Ulster, the church of Derry was founded by St. Columba, he being then twenty-five years of age. In 549 his former teacher, St. Finnian of Clonard, was removed from this life.
About the year 553, he founded the monastery of Durrow, of which, as his chief institution in Ireland, Bede makes special mention. We have no means of ascertaining the dates of his other churches ; and all we can do with any probability is to allow generally the fifteen years' interval between 546 and 562 for their foundation.
In 561 was fought the battle of Cooldrevny, which is believed to have been, in a great measure, brought about at St. Columba's
XXXVI INTRODUCTION.
instigation. A synod, which Adamnan states (B. ill. c. 4) was assembled to excommunicate St. Columba, met at Teltown, in Meath, probably at the instance of the sovereign who was worsted in the battle; for Teltown was in the heart of his patrimonial territory, and was one of his royal seats. The assembly, however, was not unanimous, and St. Brendan of Birr protested against the sentence. St. Finnian of Moville, also, soon after testified his sense of veneration for the accused, who had been once his pupil (B. m. c. 5).
Whether the censure which was expressed against St. Columba by the majority of the clergy had, or could have had, any influence on his after course, is difficult to determine. Irish accounts say that St. Molaisi of Devenish, or of Inish- murry, was the arbiter of his future lot, who imposed upon him the penance of perpetual exile from his native country. But this seems to be a legendary creation of a later age, when missionary enterprise was less characteristic of Irish ecclesi astics than in St. Columba's day. In removing to Hy, he did no more than Donnan, Maelrubha, and Moluoc voluntarily performed, and Cainnech wished to do. Scotland was then a wide field for clerical exertion, and St. Columba's permanent establishment in one of its outposts, within a day's sail of his native province, entailed very little more self-denial than was required for the repeated and, perhaps, protracted visits of St. Finbar, St. Comgall, St. Brendan, the two Fillans, St. Eonan, St. Flannan, and many others. It was a more decided, and therefore a more successful course than theirs; but it was equally voluntary : at least, there is high authority for sup posing it to have been such. " Pro Christo peregrinari volens, enavigavit," the common formula of missionary enterprise, is Adamnan's statement of his motive (Pref. 2) : with which Bede's expression, " ex quo ipse prsedicaturus abiit " (Hist. EC. iii. 4), is in perfect keeping. That he returned more than once, and took an active part in civil and religious transactions, is demon strable from Adamnan. How much oftener he revisited Ireland
INTRODUCTION. XXXV11
is not recorded ; but these two instances are quite sufficient to disprove the perpetuity of his retirement. That he was not banished by secular influence is clear even from the legend which represents his dismissal as an ecclesiastical penalty. Early in the next century, St. Carthach, or Mochuda, was driven by the secular arm from his flourishing monastery of Kahen ; but then he only changed his province, and established himself at Lismore. In doing so, however, he took his fraternity with him, and gave up all connexion with Eahen. But St. Columba, when he departed, severed no ties, surrendered no jurisdiction ; his con gregations remained in their various settlements, still subject to his authority, and he took with him no more than the pre scriptive attendance of a missionary leader.
Durrow, his principal Irish monastery, lay close to the terri tory of the prince whose displeasure he is supposed to have in curred, yet it remained undisturbed ; and when, at a later time, he revisited Ireland to adjust the affairs of this house, it seemed a fitting occasion for him to traverse Meath, and visit Clonmac- nois, the chief foundation of his alleged persecutor, and the religious centre of his family. Surely, if the Northern Hy Neill had defeated King Diarmait, they could easily have sheltered their kinsman.
In 563, St. Columba, now in his forty- second year, passed over with twelve attendants to the west of Scotland, possibly on the invitation of the provincial king, to whom he was allied by blood. Adamnan relates some particulars of an interview which they had this same year (B. i. c. 7) ; and the Irish Annals record the donation of Hy, as the result of King Conall's approval. At this time the island of Hy seems to have been on the con fines of the Pictish and Scotic jurisdiction, so that while its tenure was in a measure subject to the consent of either people, it formed a most convenient centre for religious intercourse with both. The Scots were already Christians in name ; the Picts were not. Hence the conversion of the latter formed a grand project for the exercise of missionary exertion, and St. Columba
xxxvm INTRODUCTION.
at once applied himself to the task. He visited the king at his fortress ; and having surmounted the difficulties which at first lay in his way, he won his esteem, overcame the opposition of his ministers, and eventually succeeded in planting Christianity on a permanent footing in their province. The possession of Hy was formally granted, or substantially confirmed, by this sovereign also ; and the combined consent to the occupation of it by St. Columba seems to have materially contributed to its stability as a monastic institution. St. Columba afterwards paid several visits to the king, whose friendship and co-opera tion continued unchanged till his death.
In 573, St. Brendan, of Birr, the friend and admirer of St. Columba, died, and a festival was instituted at Hy by St. Columba in commemoration of his day.
Of the places where St. Columba founded churches in Scotland, Adamnan has preserved some names, as Etliica insula, Elena, Himla, Scia, but he has given no dates, so that their origin must be collectively referred to the period of thirty-four years, ending in 597, during which the Saint was an insulanus miles.
Conall, the lord of Dalriada, died in 574, whereupon his cousin, Aidan, assumed the sovereignty, and was formally inaugurated by St. Columba in the monastery of Hy. Next year they both attended the convention of Druinceatt, where the claims of the Irish king to the homage of British Dalriada were abandoned, and the independence of that province declared.
St. Brendan, of Clonfert, who had been a frequent visitor of the western isles, and on one occasion had been a guest of St. Columba in Himba, died in 577; and St. Finnian of Moville, also one of our Saint's preceptors, was removed by death in 579. About the same time a question arose between St. Columba and St. Comgall, concerning a church in the neighbourhood of Cole- raine, which was taken up by their respective races, and engaged them in sanguinary strife. In 587 another battle was fought, namely, at Cuilfedha, near Clonard, in which engagement also St. Columba is said to have been an interested party.
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
In judging of the martial propensities of St. Columba, it will always be necessary to bear in mind the complexion of the times in which he was born, and the peculiar condition of society in his day, which required even women to enter battle, and justified ecclesiastics in the occasional exercise of warfare. Moreover, if we may judge from the biographical records which have descended to us, primitive Irish ecclesiastics, and especially the superior class, commonly known as saints, were very impatient of contradiction, and very resentful of injury. Excommunication, fasting against, and cursing, were
1 in frequent employment, and inanimate, as well as animate objects, are represented as the subjects of their maledictions. St. Columba, who seems to have inherited the high bearing of his race, was not disposed to receive injuries, or even affronts, in silence. Adamnan relates how he pursued a plunderer with curses, following the retiring boat into the sea, until the water
! reached to his knees. We have an account also of his cursing a miser who neglected to extend hospitality to him. [ On another occasion, in Himba, he excommunicated some plunderers of the church ; and one of them afterwards perished in combat, being transfixed by a spear which was discharged in St. Columba's name. Possibly some current stories of the Saint's imperious and vindictive temper may have suggested to Venerable Bede the qualified approbation " qualiscumque fuerit ipse, nos hoc de illo certum tenemus, quia reliquit successores magna continentia ac divino amore regularique institutione insignes." 1 With the profound respect in which his memory was held, there seems to have been always associated a considerable degree of awe. Hence, perhaps, the repulsive form in which he was supposed to have presented himself to Alexander n. in 1249. Fordun (Bower) tells a story of some English pirates, who stripped the church of uEmonia or Inchcolum, and on their return, being upset, went down like lead to the bottom ; upon which he observes : " Qua
1 Beda, Hist. Eccl., iii. 4.
xl INTRODUCTION.
de re versum est in Anglia proverbium ; Sanctum viz. Colum- bam in suos malefactores vindicem fore satis et ultorem. Et ideo, ut non reticeam quid de eo dicatur, apud eos vulgariter Sanct Quhalme nuncupatur." x
St. Columba visited Ireland subsequently to June 585, and from Durrow proceeded westwards to Clonmacnois, where he was received with the warmest tokens of affection and respect.
In 593 he seems to have been visited with sickness, and to have been brought near death. Such, at least, may be supposed to be the moral of his alleged declaration concerning the angels who were sent to conduct his soul to paradise, and whose ser vices were postponed for four years. At length, however, the day came, and just after midnight, between Saturday the 8th, and Sunday the 9th of June, in the year 597, while on his knees at the altar, without ache or struggle, his spirit gently took its flight.
Of his various qualities, both mental and bodily, Adamnan gives a brief but expressive summary. Writing was an employ ment to which he was much devoted. Adamnan makes special mention of books written by his hand; but from the way in which they are introduced, one would be disposed to conclude that the exercise consisted in transcription rather than composi tion. Three Latin hymns of considerable beauty are attributed to him, and in the ancient Liber Hymnorum, where they are preserved, each is accompanied by a preface describing the occasion on which it was written. His alleged Irish composi tions are also poems : some specimens of which will be found in the original edition, pp. 264-277, 285-289. There are also in print his " Farewel to Aran," a poem of twenty-two stanzas;2 and another poem of seventeen stanzas, which he is supposed to have written on the occasion of his flight from King Diarmait.3 Besides these, there is a collection of some fifteen poems, bearing his name, in one of the O'Clery MSS. preserved in the Burgundian
1 Scotichron., xiii. 37.
2 Transactions of the Gaelic Society, pp. 180-189.
3 Misc. Ir. Ar. Soc., pp. 3-15.
INTRODUCTION. xli
Library at Brussels. But much the largest collection is contained in an oblong manuscript of the Bodleian library at Oxford, Laud 615, which embraces everything in the shape of poem or fragment that could be called Columba's, which industry was able to scrape together at the middle of the sixteenth century. Many of the poems are ancient, but in the whole collection there is probably not one of Columcille's composition. Among them are his alleged prophecies, the genuineness of which even Colgan called in question. Copies of some of these compositions have been preserved in Ireland, and from a modernized, interpolated, and often garbled version of them, a collection of " the Prophecies of St. Columbkille" has been lately published in Dublin (in 1856). But it is to be regretted that the editor, not content with medieval forgeries, has lent his name, and, what is worse, has degraded that of St. Columba, to the propagation of a silly imposture, which does not possess even an antiquity of ten years to take off the gloss of its barefaced pretensions.
II.
The belief was current among the Irish at a very early BATTLES period, that the withdrawal of St. Columba to Britain was a SAINT sort of penance, which was, with his own consent, imposed COLUMBA upon him in consequence of his having fomented domestic CONNECTED feuds that resulted in sanguinary engagements. And the opinion derives considerable support, at least as regards the battle of Cul-dreimhne, from the mention of it by Adamnan, who in two instances makes it a kind of Hegira in the Saint's life. The following narrative from Keating's History affords the simplest statement of the prevalent belief : —
" Now this is the cause why Molaise sentenced Columcille to go into Alba, because it came of him to occasion three battles in Erin, viz., the battle of Cul Dreimhne, the battle of Eathan, and the battle of Cuil Feadha. The cause of the battle of Cul Feadha, according to the old book called the Leabar Uidhre of Ciaran, Diarmuid, son of Fergus Cerrbhoil, king of Ireland, made the Feast of Tara, and a noble man was killed at that feast by Curnan, son of
xlii INTRODUCTION.
Aodh, son of Eochuidh Tiorm-carna ; wherefore Diarmuid killed him in revenge for that, because he committed murder at the feast of Tara, against law and the sanctuary of the feast ; and before Cur- nan was put to death he fled to the protection of Columcille, and notwithstanding the protection of Columcille he was killed by Diarmuid. And from that it arose that Columcille mustered the Clanna Neill of the North, because his own protection and the protection of the sons of Earc was violated : whereupon the battle of Cuile Dreimhne was gained over Diarmuid and over the Con- naghtmen, so that they were defeated through the prayer of Columcille.
" The Black Book of Molaga assigns another cause why the battle of Cul Dreimhne was fought, viz., in consequence of the false judgment which Diarmuid gave against Columcille when he wrote the gospel out of the book of Finnian without his knowledge. Finnian said that it was to himself belonged the son-book [copy] which was written from his book, and they both selected Diar muid as judge between them. This is the decision that Diarmuid made : that to every book belongs its son-book [copy], as to every cow belongs her calf. So that this is one of the two causes why the battle of Cuile Dreimhne was fought.
" This was the cause which brought Columcille to be induced to fight the battle of Cuil Rathan against the Dal n-Araidhe, and against the Ultonians, viz., in consequence of the controversy that took place between Colum and Comgall, because they took part against Colum in that controversy.
" This was the cause that occasioned the fighting of the battle of Cuil Feadha against Colman Mac Diarmada, viz., in revenge for his having been outraged in the case of Baodan, son of Ninneadh (king of Erin), who was killed by Cuimin, son of Colman, at Leim- an-eich, in violation of the sanctuary of Colum." l
The book which St. Columba is supposed to have transcribed from St. Finnian's original is not a manuscript of the Gospels, as stated in the above extract, but the copy of the Psalms, which forms, with its silver case, the ancient reliquary called the Cathach, of which O'Donnell gives us this curious account :
" Now The CatJiach is the name of the book on account of which the battle was fought, and it is the chief relic of Colum-cille in the territory of Cinel Conaill Gulban ; and it is covered with silver under gold ; and it is not lawful to open it ; and if it be sent
1 For the original Irish of this and other passages given in the translation only, see Dr. Reeves's Additional Notes to the original Edition. — W. F. S.
INTRODUCTION. xliii
thrice, right-wise, around the army of the Cinell Conaill, when they are going to battle, they will return safe with victory : and it is on the breast of a cowarb or a cleric, who is to the best of his power free from mortal sin, that the Cathach should be, when brought round the army."
The record of the battle in the Annals of the Four Masters, at the year 555, is as follows : —
" The seventeenth year of Diarmaid. The battle of Cul-Dreimhne was gained against Diarmaid, son of Cearbhall, by Fearghus and Domhnall, the two sons of Muircheartach, son of Earca ; by Ain- mire, son of Sedna ; and by Nainnidh, son of Duach ; and by Aedh, son of Eochaidh Tirmcharna, king of Connaught. It was in re venge of the killing of Curnan, son of Aedh, son of Eochaidh Tirm charna, while under the protection of Colum-cille, that the Clanna Neill of the North and the Connaughtmen gave this battle of Cul- Dreimhne to King Diarmaid ; and also on account of the false sentence which Diarmaid passed against Colum-cille about a book of Finnen, which Colum had transcribed without the knowledge of Finnen, when they left it to the award of Diarmaid, who pro nounced the celebrated decision, To every cow belongs its calf" etc.
It is to be observed that the Annals both of Tighernach and Ulster attribute the success of the Northerns to St. Columba's intercession : per orationem Cohdm-cille dicentis, etc., while the Four Masters, with their usual caution, merely state that Colam cille do raidh, " Colum-cille said," adding, from Tigher nach, the verses which were supposed to have produced so marvellous a result.
Diarmait, who was now on the throne, was the head of the Southern branch of the Hy-Neill race ; and the chiefs of the two main sections of the Northern branch, namely, the Cinel Eoghain and Cinel Conaill, had already distinguished them selves by military enterprise, for in 543 the very same indi viduals won the battle of Sligo, and slew Eoghan Beul, king of Connaught; and again, in 549, the Cinel-Eoghain brothers slew Ailill Inbanna, the succeeding king of Connaught, at the battle of Cuil-Conaire in Carra, in the county of Mayo. They now espoused the cause of the Connacian chief, and it may be that some affront offered to their kinsman Columba, seconded by his instigation, produced the battle of Cul-Dreimhne, which,
xliv INTRODUCTION.
like that of Sligo, was fought on Connacian ground, but near the boundary between it and Ulster. The relation of the parties who engaged in this strife will be most readily under stood from the following genealogical view : —
EOCHAIDH MUIGHMEADHOIN
|
NIALL NAOIGHIALLACH 1 |
BR DUACH EOGHAI* .IMIDH MUIRI |
AN lALLACB SRIABH :DHACH GUS RMCHARN 554. |
|||
|
CONALL CRIMTHANN FERGUS CERRBHAL |
EOG ob. *• MUIRE: mar. tc HAN MUIRC Mac assa? :AN DOMHJ 587. ob. 5( INK 622. |
HAN 165. 5HACH Erca. 3RTACH SEl , Erca s. 534. |
CONALL GULBAN slain 464. FERGUS or DUACH |
||
|
DlARMAIT iLLAl assass. 565. COLMAN BEG LIBI slain 587. slain CUMINE CUM slain |
)NA NlNl flor |
riDH FEDHI 563. |
|||
|
ALL FERGUS AINMIRE BAEDAN COLUMBA FER 56. slain 569. slain 586. 'AEDH EOCHAIDH Ti slain 598. ob. |
AEDH slain 577.
CURNA.N slain a boy, 560.
The promoter of this sanguinary contest became now, according to O'Donnell's authorities, the subject of ecclesiastical censure :
" Post hsec in Synodo sanctorum Hiberniae gravis querela contra Sanctum Columbam, tanquam authorem tarn multi sanguinis effusi, instituta est. Unde communi decreto censuerunt ipsum debere tot animas, a gentilitate conversas, Christo lucrari, quot in isto praelio interierunt."1
This sentence was the result, it is stated, of a decision, " ut factum suum temeritatis speciem praferens, solemni pcenitentia ad S. Molassii arbitrium expiaret." This arbitrator was St. Molash of Daimh-inis (now Devenish), whose sentence is thus given in his Life :
" Sanctus vero Columba visitavit S. Lasrianum confessorem suum post bellum de Culdremne, petens ab eo salubre consilium ; quo scilicet modo post necem multorum occisorum, benevolentiam Dei ac remissionem peccatorum obtinere mereretur. Beatus igitur Lasrianus divinarum scripturarum scrutator, imperavit ut tot animas a poenis liberaret, quot ammarum causa perditionis exti- terat ; et cum hoc ei praecepit, ut perpetuo moraretur extra Hiber- niam in exilio." — c. 28.2
1 Colgan, Acta SS., p. fi45. 2 Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 410 a.
INTRODUCTION. xlv
The remorse of St. Columba for the expenditure of human life in the battle is thus expressed in the Life of St. Abban : —
"Alio quoque tempore S. Columba cum pluribus discipulis venit ad sanctum Patrem : qui, cum devotione magna ab eo susciperetur, dixit ei ; Ideo nunc ad te venimus, ut ores pro ani- mabus illorum, qui occisi fuerunt in bello commisso, nuper nobis suadentibus causa Ecclesise. Scimus enim quod per tuam inter- cessionem Dei misericordiam consequentur. Rogamus etiam, quod ab Angelo, qui tecum quotidie loquitur, quseras super hoc Dei voluntatem. Cumque sanctus senior instantius ab eis pulsaretur, respondit ; propitius sit eis Deus, et ego libenter pro eis orabo. Accessit igitur vir sanctus ad secretum locum, in quo consueverat Deum orare, et Angelum Dei videre, et audire. Ubi cum se toto conamine in oratione dedisset, S. Columba volens sanctum Patrem orantem videre, et audire quid Angelus ei loqueretur, post eum abiit, callide observando. Cum igitur S. Abbanus sic orasset, ecce Angelus Domini dicit ei ; Sufficit Abbane quod fecisti, quia Deus tibi petitionem tuam donavit. Qui respondit ; tantum nunc petivi a Domino requiem animabus illis, quarum curam habet S. Columba. Et Angelus ait ; Requiem habebunt."1
But Columba himself, according to O'Donnell, declared his determination to become a voluntary exile, accusing himself for the disastrous consequences not only of Culdremhne, but also of two other battles which had been caused by his means. He is represented as saying to his kinsmen, —
" Mihi, juxta quod ab Angelo prsemonitus sum, ex Hibernia migrandum est, et dum vixero exulandum, quod mei causa plurimi per vos extincti sint, turn in hoc ultimo prselio ; turn etiam in prseliis de Cuilfedha et Cuilrathain olim initis : in quorum altero Colmanum Magnum filium Diermitii, cujus films Cumineus Boeta- num filium Ninnedii, Hibernise Regem, mea protectione innixum in loco qui Leim-aneich dicitur, interemerat ; fudistis : in altero Fiacnium filium Boadani, suosque confcederatos nepotes Roderici." 2
Of the other battles here spoken of, mention has been already made in the extract from Keating ; but the fullest notice is that contained in the argument of the hymn beginning Altus Prosator, which is attributed to St. Columba, and which is said to have been composed as a religious exercise after his trans-
1 Colgan, Acta S3., p. 624. » Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 409 b.
xlvi INTliODUCTIOX.
" * Causa quare voluit Deum laudare/ i.e. to beseech forgiveness for the three battles which he had caused in Erin, viz., the battle of Cul-Eathain, between him and Comgall, contending for a church, viz., Eoss-Torathair ; and the battle of Bealachfheda of the weir of Clonard ; and the battle of Cul-Dremhne in Connacht : and it was against Diarmait mac Cerball he fought them both."
As the battle of Cul-Dremhne arose in part from a religious dispute with St. Finnian, so that of Cul-Eathain or Coleraine is described as the result of a quarrel with St. Comgall of Bangor. The modem name of Eos-Torathair is not known, but the place was somewhere near Coleraine ; and it is very possible that some collision did take place between the saints about jurisdic tion, as St. Comgall's abbey church of Camus was situate close to Coleraine, and St. Columba is recorded to have been occa sionally in that neighbourhood. Besides, the territory west of Coleraine was the debateable ground between the Dal-Araidhe, St. Comgall's kinsmen, and the Hy-Neill of St. Columba's tribe. Fiachna, son of Baedan, with his men of the Clanna- Eudhraighe, are described as the belligerents on the Dalaradian side. Now this Fiachna was lord of Dalaradia, and is spoken of in the Life of Comgall as residing at Eath-mor in Moylinny, and a devoted friend of the Saint. He was an enterprising chief, and in 573 won the battle of Tola in the King's County. In 589 he became king of Uladh ; and in 594 won the battle of Edan-mor from the Ciannachta of Meath. In 597 he won the battle of Sliabh Cua in Waterford ; and in 602 that of Cuil-caol in Down. In 623 he took Eath-Guala in Uladh; and fell at the battle of Leth-Midhin in 626. Now, supposing that he had taken part in the battle of Cul-rathain before St. Columba's de parture, that is, the year 563, a period of 63 [years] would have intervened between that and his last achievement, a suspicious interval in a warrior's life. That the battle of Cul-rathain, though not recorded in the Annals, was fought, — that he was a leader therein, — and that it took place in consequence of the jealousies of the Dalaradians and the Hy Neill, quickened into action by the influence of their respective arch-ecclesiastics, is
INTRODUCTION. xlvii
extremely probable : only it was a military event which fol lowed, not preceded, St. Columba's settlement in Hy.
The third battle, that of Cul-fedha or Bealach-fedha, was fought in 587, and is thus recorded by Tighernach : —
" Battle of Bealach Dathi, in quo cecidit Colman Beg, son of Diarmaid, ut alii dicunt, csesis v. millibus per prophetiam of Colam cille. Aedh, son of Ainmire, was victor. Unde dictum est :
Broken was, as has been told, For Colum's sake in the famous battle, The bestower of jewels by liberal distribution, By the Conallians and Eugenians."
This battle, as well as that of Cul-Dremhne, was between the Northern and Southern branches of the Hy Neill. It was fought by Aedh, son of Ainmire, to avenge the death of Baedan,
; son of Mnnidh, monarch of Ireland, who had been slain by Cumine, son of Colman Beg, and his second cousin Cumine, son of Libran, at Leim-in-eich, under the instigation of Colman Beg. How far St. Columba participated in this transaction is not recorded, but that he was deeply interested in it appears evident
| from the words of Tighernach, a sentiment which the Four Masters studiously suppress. The relation which existed
| between the leaders in this battle, and between them and St.
; Columba, will be seen at a glance in the genealogical table above.
Thus we find St. Columba directly or indirectly concerned in three battles, the earliest of which occurred the year but one before his retirement to Britain, and the others at later periods, one of them after he had been twenty-four years in the abbacy of Hy. The first his biographers and panegyrists acknowledge to have been the grand error of his life, for which he paid the penalty of pilgrimage ; but to save his character after he became the apostle of the Northern Picts, and the religious exemplar of the Albanian Scots, the device is resorted to of antedating the other occurrences in which the failing of his nature betrayed itself ; and whereas his participation in these evils could not be
xlviii INTRODUCTION.
denied, it was thrust back into the irresponsible part of his life, rather than allow it to be numbered among the acts of his maturity. That Columba, closely allied to the principals in these deeds of strife, and within one step himself of the object they were contending for, should look on with indifference, is not to be expected, — especially in an age of revolution, and among a people whose constitution and national construction rendered civil faction almost inseparable from their existence. It was not until 804, that the monastic communities of Ireland were formally exempted from military service; and the en deavours of Fothadh the Canonist, in procuring this enactment from Aedh Oirdnidhe, the monarch of Ireland, form the subject of panegyric and special mention in the Annals. That, even among themselves, the members of powerful communities were not insensible to the spirit of faction, appears from numerous entries in the ancient Annals. Of these, two — of which one relates to a Columbian house — may here be adduced as exam ples : A.D. 673, " A battle was fought at Argamoyn between the fraternities of Clonmacnois and Durrow, where Dermod Duff, son of Donnell, was killed, and Diglac, son of Dubliss, with 200 men of the fraternity of Durrow. Bresal, son of Murchadh, with the fraternity of Clonmacnois, was victor." A.D. 816, "A battle was fought by Cathal, son of Dunlang, and the fraternity of Tigh-Munna [Taghmon] against the fraternity of Ferns, in which 400 were slain. Maelduin, son of Cennfaeladh, abbot of Kaphoe, of the fraternity of Colum-cille, was slain. The fra ternity of Colum-cille went to Tara to curse [king] Aedh." The same principle which caused St. Columba's panegyrists to repre sent his battles as delinquencies of his youth, operated with the Four Masters, when compiling their comprehensive Annals from earlier authorities, in dealing with these oft-recurring monastic encounters, and as there was no opening for a transfer of the blame, they suppressed the mention of them.
INTRODUCTION. xllX
III
In the second Preface St. Columba is styled " monasteriorum SAINT pater et fundator," in reference to the numerous churches which CHURCHES' were founded, either by his disciples or by himself directly. Again, in ii. 47 (p. 191), mention is made of his "monasteriaintra utrorumque populorum [sc. Pictorum et Scotorum Britannise] terminos fundata." In the old Irish Life the number of his churches is stated as very great, Tri ced do roraind cen mannair, "three hundred he marked out, without defect;" an amount which, even after the most liberal allowances for poetry, round numbers, and panegyric, will leave a very considerable residuum. <* The following is a catalogue of Irish churches, either which were founded; by him, or in which his memory was specially venerated ; but it by no means pretends to be a complete enumeration : —
1 . DURROW. — Anciently Eos grencha. It is called in Adamnan by its Irish name Dair-mag, but more frequently by a Latin equivalent, Roboreti Campus, Rdboris Campus, Roboreus Campus. For the history of its foundation, see Orig. Ed., p. 23, Note b. It was among the earliest and most important, but not the most en during, of St. Columba's foundations in Ireland. The old Irish Life calls it redes, " abbey church," and mentions the name of Colman Mor, the second son of King Diarmait, in connexion with it. A sculptured cross, called St. Columkille's Cross, stands in the churchyard ; and near it is St. Columkille's Well. The most interesting relique of the abbey is the beautiful Evangeliarium, known as the Book of Durrow, a manuscript approaching, if not reaching, to the Columbian age, and now preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. See p. xciii. infra. An ancient Irish poem remains, professing to have been composed by St. Columba on the occasion of his departure from Dear- magh for the last time. In reference to the early administra tion of which, we find in it the following verses : —
INTRODUCTION.
" Beloved the excellent seven,
Whom Christ has chosen to his kingdom To whom I leave, for their purity, The constant care of this my church.
Three of whom are here at this side, Cormac son of Dim a, and ^Engus, And Collan of pure heart, Who has joined himself to them.
Libren, Senan, comely Conrach,
The son of Ua Chein, and his brother, Are the four, besides the others, Who shall arrive at this place.
They are the seven pillars,
And they are the seven chiefs, Whom God has surely commanded To dwell in the same abode."
2. DERRY. — Formerly Daire-Calgaich, as in Adamnan, who also gives the Latin interpretation, Roboretum Calgachi. For an account of the foundation, see Orig. Ed., p. 160, Note r. The original church was called the Dubh-regles, " Black-church," to which there is reference in the ancient lines cited by Tigher- nach : —
" Three years, without light, was Colum in his Black Church : He passed to angels from his body, After seven years [and] seventy."
This church, like the Sabhall at Saul and Armagh, is recorded to have stood north and south ; and the remains of it, which existed in 1520, were referred to by O'Donnell in proof of the fact. In the fourteenth century it was called the Cella Nigra, de Deria. Its Eound Tower was standing in the seventeenth century, but the only local record of its existence now remain ing is the name of the lane which leads to its site, the Long Steeple. It is deserving of notice that Fiachadh, son of Ciaran, son of Ainmire, son of Sedna, whose death is recorded by Tighernach at 620, is described by the annalist as alius funda- torum Daire Calgaidi. He was nephew of Aedh, son of Ainmire,
INTRODUCTION. li
the reputed founder. This entry, and the authorities cited (in the Orig.Ed.) p. 1 60, are sufficient to vindicate O'Donnell's statements concerning the donation of Deny from the objections urged in the Ordnance Memoir of Templemore. This admirable work, however, will always, and deservedly, be cited as the highest authority on the history of Derry, and will couple with the name of that ancient city, and the Ordnance Survey, as the quickening cause, the revival in Ireland of genuine antiquarian research.
3. KELLS. — The Irish name is Cenannus, which signifies "Head-abode," and gives the title of Headfort in the Irish, and Kenlis in the British Peerage, to the family of Taylor, whose seat is beside the town of Kells. Kenlis is the transition form of the name. The site of the monastery was anciently known as Dun-chuile-sibrinne, and the surrounding territory was called Magh-Seirigh. It is situate in the north-west of the county of Meath, and gives name to a parish. The old Irish. Life, followed by O'Donnell, states that in St. Columba's time it was the royal dun or seat of Diarmait Mac Cerbhaill, and adds, " Colum-cille then marked out the city in extent as it now is, and blessed it all, and said that it would become the most illus trious possession he should have in the land, although it would not be there his resurrection should be." O'Donnell observes that Diarmait granted it to the saint in amends for injuries which he had done to him, and that his son Aedh Slane was a consenting party. If a church was founded here by St. Columba it must have been an inconsiderable one, for there is no mention of the place in the Annals as a religious seat until 804, when, on account of the dangers and sufferings to which the com munity of Hy were exposed, measures were taken for the pro vision of an asylum in Ireland ; and, as the Annals of Ulster state, Tabhairt Ceanannsa cen chath do CJwluim cliille ceolacli hoc anno, " Kells was given, without battle, to Columkille the harmonious, in this year." In furtherance of which there was commenced, in 807, the Construct™ nove civitatis Columbe cille
1NTKODUCTION.
hi [in] Ceninnus; and in 814, Ceallach alias lae, finita con\ structione templi Cenindsa, reliquit principatum, et Diarmiciw alumpnus Daigri pro eo ordinatus est. From this time forward it became the chief seat of the Columbian monks. There art; several indications of the ancient importance of the place stil remaining, such as the fine Eound Tower, about ninety feel high, which stands in the churchyard; the curious oratory! called "St. Columkille's House;" the ancient cross in the! churchyard, having on the plinth the inscription, Crux Patricia et Columle ; a second cross, now standing near the market-! place ; and a third, once the finest, now lying in a mutilated; condition in the churchyard. The shafts of all these crosses! were covered with historical representations from Scripture.! Trinity College, Dublin, possesses its great literary monument,; commonly known as the "Book of Kells." It is an Evan-, geliarium somewhat resembling the Book of Burrow, but far| surpassing it in the brilliancy and elaborateness of its execu tion. (See p. xciv.) In the tenth and following centuries the I families of Ua h Uchtain and Ua Clucain furnished, succes- sively, a large proportion of the chief officers of this church, , the occupation of its lands having probably become hereditary in their clans.
4. TOEY.— Formerly Torach, that is, " Towery," from the torrs or pinnacles of rock by which the island is characterized. Sometimes it is called Tor-mis, the name by which, strange to say, the Irish designate St. Martin's Church of Tours. It is situate off the north coast of Donegal, in the barony of Kil- macrenan and diocese of Kaphoe, oppo ite the maritime tract known as the Tuatha, or " territories," of Mac Swyne. There are many traces of antiquity here, but the most remarkable is the Eound Tower, fifty-one feet high, which was the nucleus of an old monastic establishment. In 617, according to Tighernach, " Torach was laid waste [occisio Tvrchae, An. Ult.], when its primitive church was probably destroyed; for in 621 the same annalist records, Hoc tempore constructa est ecclesia Toraidhe,
INTRODUCTION. liii
which the Four Masters (An. 616) interpret, "The church of Torach was covered in, having been destroyed some time before." St. Ernan, son of Colman, fifth in descent from Eoghan, son of Niall, was its first abbot. His day is Aug. 17. A St. Damongoch, of the same race, is also mentioned in the Naemhseanchus as a pilgrim of Torach. The herenachs of this church were, in after times, of the family of O'Eobhartaich, or O'Koarty.
5. DRUMCLIFF. — Formerly Druim cliabh, situated a little to the north of Sligo, in the barony of Carbury, and diocese of Elphin. A portion of its Eound Tower remains in proof of its ancient consequence. The old Irish Life, followed by O'Donnell, mentions St. Mothoria as its first abbot under the founder. This name occurs in the Calendar at the 9th of June. The herenachy of the church became limited in the eleventh century to the family of O'Beollain, commonly called O'Boland.
6. SWORDS. — Known by the natives as Sord, or, with the founder's name, Sord-Choluim-chtik. It is situated in the diocese and county of Dublin, about seven miles north of the metro polis, in the territory of which mention has been made by Adamnan as Ard-Ceannachte. St. Finan Lobhar, of the race of Tadhg, son of Cian, who gave name to the territory, is said to have been placed over the church by St. Columba. He is commemorated at Mar. 1 6. The foundation of this church is ascribed by the old Irish Life, and O'Donnell its copyist, to our saint, whose memory is vividly preserved in the parish. The Eound Tower, surmounted by a cross, marks the site of the ancient church. A square tower, which belonged to the old parish church, stands close to the Eound Tower, between it and the modern church, with which it is unconnected.
7. EAPHOE. — In Irish Bath-loth. St. Adamnan or Eunan is the reputed patron, but the foundation of the church is ascribed to St. Columba by an ancient poem, and the old Irish Life, with O'Donnell, and others. It is situate in the county of Donegal, and gives name to the barony and diocese. It had, in the
liv INTRODUCTION.
early part of the seventeenth century, a Eound Tower, which Sir James Ware represents as " built on a hill, in which the bishops of Eaphoe formerly kept their studies," but it had been demolished before his time. It is deserving of mention that, in jj 1635, King Charles i. wrote to John Lesley, Bishop of Eaphoe, , in reference to his predecessor, Andrew Knox, stating that : " Andro late bischop of Eapho did without just caus or any ! warrant from our late royall father or ws, carle with him two of the principal bells that wer in Icolmkill and place them in i some of the churches of Eapho ; " and requiring him to deliver I unto the present "bischop of the Yles" these two bells for the i use of said Cathedral Church.
8. KILMORE. — The Cella Magna Deatlirib of Adamnan, and the Cill-mor dithrib of the Irish. See Orig. Ed., p. 9 9, Note g. The Calendars commemorate Fedhliinidh, in connexion with this church, at Aug. 9 ; and at the same day the " Four sons of Dioman of Cill-mor-dithrubh." Fedhlimidh, according to jEngus, was son of Deidiu, daughter of Trena, son of Dub- thaigh Ui Lugair, and brother of Dega Mac Cairill of Iniskeen.
9. LAMB AY. — Anciently Rechra, and called Redirect, insula by Adamnan. See Orig. Ed., p. 164, Note b. It has belonged to Christ Church, Dublin, from a very remote period. In the earliest grant, circ. 1038, it is called Reclien; and Portrane, the parish to which it is attached, is called Portrahern, a corruption of Port-Eechrainn. In 1204 the same places appear under the names Lambay and Portrachelyn. There is a poem on Eechra ascribed to St. Columba, in the Laud MS. ; and in another composition of the same collection the Saint is described as visiting his churches from Sliabh Fuaid to Leinster, and from Ath-Feine [in Westmeath] to Eachra.
10. MOONE. — Formerly Maein, and Maein Choluim-chille. It is situate in the county and diocese of Kildare, in the barony of Kilkea and Moone. The foundation of the church is ascribed in the old Irish Life to St. Columba, and his memory has always been held in great veneration in the parish. An ancient sculp-
INTRODUCTION. lv
tured cross stands in the churchyard, called St. ColumJcilles Cross. The name occurs in the Four Masters at 1014 and 1040 only.
11. CLONMORE. — Cluain-mor Fer Arda, " Cluain-mor of Fer-arda" is the old name. The old Irish Life, followed by O'Donnell, states that St. Columba, having founded the church, committed it to Oissein, son of Ceallach, whose day in the Calendar is Jan. 1. Clonmore is a parish in the diocese of Armagh, situate in the county of Louth, and barony of Ferrard. The church is styled "Ecclesia S. Columbse de Clonmore" in the diocesan registries of the fifteenth century. There are the remains of an old church ; and a patron in honour of St. Columkille was held on the 9th of June.
12. KILMACRENAN. — Cill-mac-Nenain of records. See Orig. Ed., p. 191, Note c. In the Laud MS. of Columkille's poems is one in which the Saint is represented as expressing his love for Kilmicnenain and Gartan. In three other poems of the same collection it is called by its original name Doire-Eithne ; and one of them (p. 62) mentions a tribute which was payable by the abbot of Hy to Doire Eithne in Ireland. The O'Firghils, or O'Freels, who were the herenachs of this church, were descended from Firghil, great-grandson of Aedh, who was son of Eoghan, St. Columkill's brother.
13. GARTAN. — The parish in which St. Columba was born. The family of O'lSTahan were the hereditary herenachs and corbes who had also the privilege of carrying " Collumkillies read stoane." This was the Clock Ruadh mentioned by O'Don nell. Gartan is a wild parish in the county of Donegal, and diocese of Kaphoe, having the ruins of a small church, inside which is the old tomb of an O'Donnell, and in the adjoining churchyard the traces of an earlier structure.
14. GLENCOLUMKILL. — Formerly Seangleann, or Gleann Gairge, and called by these names in the poems attributed to St. Co lumba. It is a wild, desolate parish in the barony of Banagh, at the south-west of the county of Donegal. See Orig. Ed., p. 206, Note e. The herenachy was in the family of Mac Eneilis.
Ivi INTRODUCTION.
15. TEMPLEDOUGLAS. — Formerly Tulachdulh-glaisse, "Hill of j the Dark Stream." See Orig. Ed., p. 1 92, Note c. There are the \ remains of an old church ; and the cemetery is in two portions j in one of which was an ancient enclosure of stones like a roofless chapel, which was commonly called Ced-mitheachd ColumJcille, j that is, " Primum Columbse deambulacrum," from the tradition i that it was the first ground which St. Columba paced after he ! had learned to walk.
16. ASSYLYN. — Eos Ua Floinn, a spot on the river Boyle, i about a mile west of the town. It was anciently called Eas mic nEirc, from Dachonna, or Mochonna, son of Earc, who is said to have been placed over it by St. Columba. His day is March 8. The old Irish Life, as well as the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, ascribes the foundation to St. Columba. Adamnan twice alludes to St. Columba's stay in this neighbourhood. See Orig. Ed., pp. 79, 129.
17. SKREEN. — Serin Cholaim-chille, so called from its being the repository of a shrine with some of St. Columba's relics. The old church stands on a hill, in the county of Meath, which was formerly called, according to the Dinnseanchus, Achaill, and gives name to a rural deanery in the diocese of Meath. It is mentioned by Tighernach at 976, and by the Four Masters at 1027, 1037, 1058, 1127, 1152. The Ordnance Survey marks St. Columkille's Well on the N.w. of the church.
18. BALLYNASCREEN. — Called Serin Colaim cille by the Four Masters at 1203. The old church, situate in a picturesque valley on the Moyola Water, occupies the site of an earlier building. The parish is called Baile na Scrine, " Town of the Shrine," and forms the western portion of the barony of Lough- insholin, in the modern county of Londonderry ; but until the seventeenth century it was considered as situate in Gleann- Concadhan in Tirone. See the Eev. Kobert King's Old Church of Ballynascreen, p. 103; Eeeves' Cotton's Visitation, p. 82.
1 9. SCREEN. — Serin i nArda, Scrinium de Ardo. An ancient chapel in the townland of Craig, parish of Tamlaghtard or
INTRODUCTION. Ivii
Magilligan, in the diocese and county of Derry. — Eeeves' Col- ton's Visitation, p. 78. For an account of the ancient shrine preserved here, see O'Donnell.
20. DRUMCOLUMB. — Druim Choluim cille, Dor sum Columbce- cille, anciently Druim-namac. O'Donnell preserves the tradi tion that a church was founded here by St. Columba, who left his disciple Finbarr in charge of it, having given him a bell called Glassan, and a cross. It is now a parish church of the diocese of Elphin, in the barony of Tirerrill, county of Sligo.
21. COLUMBKILLE. — This is the name of a parish in the barony of Granard, on the N.E. of the county of Longford. Here, in Lough Gowna, is an island of fourteen and a half acres, called Inchmore, formerly known as Inir-mor Locha Gamlina. On this island is an ecclesiastical ruin called Teampull Choluim-cille, which was formerly the parish church. Eman mac Findbairr was prior of it in 1415.
22. EMLAGHFAD. — Imleach fada, " the long marsh." Here, according to O'Donnell, St. Columba founded a church on the west side of a hill called Tulach-segra [now Tully in Toomour] in the district of Corann, appointing Enna, son of Nuadhan, its first minister. It is now a parish church in the diocese of Achonry, and county of Sligo.
23. GLENCOLUMBKILLE. — Gleann Choluim cille, Vallis Columbce cille. The two townlands of this name, North and South, are situate on the east side of the parish of Carran, in the diocese of Kilfenora, and in the barony of Burren, on the N.E. side of the county of Clare. The Ordnance Map marks the Graveyard, and St. ColumbkiWs Church in ruins.
24. KILCOLUMB. — A parish in the S.E. of the county of Kilkenny, barony of Ida, on the river Barrow. The Ordnance Map marks Kilcolumb Church in ruins, and a well, Tobernago- lumb.
25. KNOCK. — Formerly called Knockcollumkill, and marked Collumkill on Speed's map of Ulster. Father Mac Cana, in the early part of the seventeenth century, thus described it : " Inter
d
Iviii INTRODUCTION.
Commor [Cumber] et sestuarium Loch-Laodh [see p. 291, infra] quod Karrick-fergusium et Belfastium oppida alluit, est ecclesia D. Columbae sacra, quam egre^iis agris ac multis privilegiia auxit Niallus O'Niellus [cir. 1512] Tren-Congallise [Dalaradise] Princeps." — Ulster Journ. of Archceol, vol. ii. p. 56. The parish is now united to Breda, and forms the union of Knock-Breda in the diocese of Down. The ruins of the church, situate near a fine earthen fort, occupy a commanding position on the Castlereagh Hills, about three miles S.E. of Belfast. See Reeves' Eccles. Antiq., p. 12.
26. TERMON-MAGUIRK. — Formerly Tearmonn Cuiminigh, and known in the thirteenth and following centuries as Termon- conyn, or Termon-conny. It may derive its name from Cuimne, sister of St. Columba. About half a mile from the old church is a nearly disused burying-ground called Eellig-na-man \Eeileg na mbeann], or " the Women's Cemetery ;" and the local tradi tion is, that St. Columkill directed a woman of bad character to be buried at a spot where the sound of a bell, rung in front of the funeral, would cease to be heard at his church ; and that he left an injunction that the cemetery should never be entered by a living woman or a dead man. Devout women in old times used to request burial here, under the idea that none interred here would be damned ; but this impression has nearly disap peared. Outside the old parish cemetery of Termon there are two others, called Bdig-na-paisde, " Children's Cemetery," and Relig-na-fir-gunta, " Cemetery of the Slain." Colgan's version of O'Donnell incorrectly calls the church Tearmonn Cetmainich. The parish derives its present name from the family of Mac Guirk, who were formerly herenachs, under the Primate, of the ecclesiastical lands in the parish. See Beeves' Colton, p. 3. It is situate in the barony of Omagh East, county of Tyrone, and diocese of Armagh.
27. CLOGHMORE. — A townland in the parish of Killannin, diocese of Tuam, situate in the county of Galway, and barony of Moycullen. In Roderick O'Flaherty's time there was an
INTRODUCTION. Hx
altar of St. Columbkill near a brook in this townland, and there is still an old churchyard bearing his name.
28. COLUMBKILLE. — Called Capella de Colmekyll in the ancient Taxation of Ossory. The Ordnance Survey marks St. Columb- kttle's Church in ruins, and St. Columbkille's Well. It is a parish of the diocese of Ossory, situated in the barony of Gowran, near the centre of the county of Kilkenny.
29. ARDCOLUM. — A parish of the diocese of Ferns, situate in the barony of Shelmalier, on the east side of the county of Wexford. The Ordnance Survey marks St. Columb's Church in ruins, Graveyard, and St. Columb's Well.
30. ARMAGH. — Recks Cholaim cille, " Church of Columcille," in Armagh, is mentioned by the Annals of Ulster, An. 1010, and the Four Mast., An. 1152. Concerning the site of this church, see Stuart's Armagh, p. 96.
31. MORNINGTON. — Formerly Villa Maris, or Mariner -stown, and a distinct parish. It now forms a portion of the union of Colpe, in the county and diocese of Meath. — " Ecclesia S. Columbse."
32. DESERTEGNY. — A parish of Deny, situate in Inishowen, county of Donegal. Colgan states that St. Columba was patron. See Eeeves' Colton, p. 67.
33. CLONMANY. — A parish of the diocese of Derry, in the barony of Inishowen, county of Donegal. St. Columba was patron, according to Colgan. See Eeeves' Colton, p. 67.
34. DESERTOGHILL. — A parish in the diocese of Derry, and barony of Coleraine, in the county of Londonderry. St. Columba was patron. See Eeeves' Colton, p. 80.
35. BALLYMAGROARTY. — This, which is a townland in the parish of Drumhome, of the diocese of Eaphoe, situate in the county of Donegal, barony of Tirhugh, is divided into two por tions, called Irish and Scotch. In the former are the- remains of an old chapel which formerly bore the name of St. Columba. The name of the townland is derived from the family of Mac Eobhartaigh, pronounced Mac Eoarty, and written baile-mecc-
Ix INTRODUCTION.
Rabhartaich, by Colgan, who adds, "ubi illud celebre reliquiarium S. Columbae quod Cathach appellatur." This chapel is situate near Bath-Cunga (Orig. Ed., p. 38), the right of which was in con troversy between the Columbian monks and those of Ardstraw, so early as the eighth century, as appears from the following passage of Tirechan concerning St. Assicus : — " Et sunt ossa ejus in campo Sered hi Eaith-Chungi, monachus Patricii, sed contenderunt eum familia Columbae-cille et familia Airddsratha."
36. BALLYMAGRORTY. — A townland in the parish of Temple- more, or Derry. Colgan says of it : " Olim monasterium (cujus ruinse vix nunc extant) dicecesis Dorensis in praedicta regione de Inis-Eoguin."
37. ESKAHEEN. — In the parish of Muff, to the N.N.E. of the city of Derry. See Orig. Ed., p. 247, Note p. The ruins of the, old church stand near the Eoman Catholic chapel.
The expression cujus monasteria, intra utrorumque populo- rum terminos (p. 191), as applied to St. Columba, is not limited to the churches which were founded by him in person, but includes all those which, down to the writer's time, were established by Columbian monks, or professed subjection to the mother church of Hy. Hence it is likely that many monasteries, which in the seventh and eighth centuries might be classed under the above title, ceased in after times to bear any trace of their original relation, and became distinguished only by the names of the immediate founders, under whose patronage they were built. St. Dochonna's church, for instance, was probably at first subject to Hy, though afterwards indepen dent, when known as St. Machar's of Aberdeen. The following catalogue of Columbian foundations in Scotland admits of con siderable enlargement, but it is sufficient to show how widely the veneration of St. Columba was extended in his adopted country : —
AMONG THE SCOTS.
1. SOROBY. — In the island of Tiree. The modern name is of Scandinavian origin, but there can be little doubt that it repre-
ISTKODUCTION. Ixi
sents the Campus Lunge so frequently mentioned by Adamnan. See Notes on B. i. c. 24. It will be seen from the App. I. that the names of several Irish saints are associated with places in the island, although the chief founder has no longer any local commemoration therein.
2. ELACHNAVE. — One of the Garveloch group of islands. A modern writer says : " The Garvelloch, or Holy Islands, are remarkable for having been once the residence of the monks of lona." And a visitor of more recent date observes : " A water- spring at the head of a narrow creek in the adjacent shore is called St. Columba's Well," adding, what seems an imported tradition, that a little pile on the summit of a neighbouring height was said to be " the tomb of ^Ethnea, mother of the illus trious saint." The adjacent island is called Culbrandon, i.e., Secessus Brendani.
3. LOCH COLUMKILLE. — On the N.-w. of the parish of Kilmuir, in Skye. See notes on B. I. c. 27, and B. II. c. 27, for the de scription of its monastic remains. The particulars of its drain ing are to be found in the New Statistical Account, vol. xiv. pt. 1, pp. 246, 267, 279. It may be a question whether the island of Skye belonged to the Picts or to the Scots in Columba's time : the anecdote told in i. 33 seems in favour of the former. Tighernach, at 668 (An. Ult. 667), records the Navigatio filiorum Gartnaith ad Hiberniam cum plebe Scith; and at 670 (An. Ult. 669), Fenit Gens Gartnait de Hibernia ; where Scith probably denotes Skye. In this case the filii Gartnait may have been the family of Gartnait, the youngest son of King ^Edan, who had occupied the island : but this is not likely, as the Cinel Gabhrain, to which they belonged, were the most southern settlers of the Scotic colony. The filii Gartnait were rather the sons of Gartnait mac Uuid, the Pictish king in 636, or of his successor, Gartnait mac Domhnall, who died in 663. In this case the change of settlement, in 668, may have been caused by Scotic occupation. However, when Adamnan wrote, the mountain of the Dorsum Britannia being
Ixii INTRODUCTION.
considered the boundary line, the islands on the west would necessarily fall to the Scots. Hence the legend of St. Comgan in the Aberdeen Breviary states that the adjacent parish on the mainland of Lochelch [now Lochalsh] was in Erchadia loriali, or North Argyle.
4. FLADDA-CHUAIN. — Of this island, which lies N.w. of the extreme north point of Skye, Martin writes : —
" Fladda-Chuan (i.e.) Fladda of the Ocean, lies about two Leagues distant from the West-side of Hunish-point, it is two Miles in Com pass, the Ground is boggy, and but indifferent for Corn or Grass. There is a Chappel in the Isle dedicated to St. Columbus ; it has an Altar in the East-end, and there is a blue Stone of a round Form on it, which is always moist ; It is an ordinary Custom, when any of the Fishermen are detained in the Isle, by contrary Winds, to wash the blue Stone with water all round, expecting thereby to procure a favourable Wind, which the Credulous Tenant living in the Isle says never fails, especially if a Stranger wash the Stone ; The Stone is likewise applied to the sides of People troubled with Stitches, and they say it is effectual for that purpose. And so great is the regard they have for this Stone, that they swear de cisive Oaths on it. The Monk 0 Gorgon is buried near to this Chappell, and there is a Stone five foot high at each end of his Grave."
This story of the Uue stone is not worse than that of the white stone at ii. 34. Modern description represents this small island as having three burial-places, one of which is called Cladk Mhanaich, " Monks' tomb."
5. TRODDA. — Off Aird Point, south-east of the preceding. Martin says : " The Isle Troda lies within half a League of the Northermost point of Skie, called Hunish, it is two Miles in Circumference, fruitful in Corn, and Grass, and had a Chappel dedicated to St. Columbm."
6. SNIZORT.— In SKYE. Formerly Kilcolmkill, or St. Colme's Kirk in Snesford. See Notes on Book I. c. 27, and B. II. c. 27. The New Statistical Account describes the remains of the old church as " the ruins of a large cathedral."
7. EILEAN COLUIMCTLLE.— An island in the southern recess of
IM'KODUCTION. Ixiii
Portree Bay, on the east of Skye. See Notes on B. i. c. 27, and B. II. c. 27. Portree Bay was anciently Loch Coluimcille ; and the old name of the parish was Cill-tarraglan.
8. GAKIEN. — In the parish of Stornoway, formerly Ness, on the north shore of Broad Bay, at the N.E. side of Lewis, there was a chapel called St. Colm's Church.
9. EY. — The peninsula of Ui, on the N.E. side of Lewis, gave name to a parish. The church, called St. Collums in Ui, stood on the isthmus, a little east of Stornoway. The cemetery, con taining the ruins which are described as " strong walls now standing," is still to be seen. It was the original burial- place of the clan Mac Leod.
10. ST. COLM'S ISLE. — Situate in Loch Erisort, in the parish of Lochs, on the east side of Lewis. Here stood St. Columba's Church, the cemetery of which is still the parish burying-grouiid. North of this was the bay called Loch Colmkille.
11. BEENERA. — An island belonging to the parish of Harris, but lying close to the North Uist. It had two ancient chapels, one of which was named after St. Columba.
12. KILCHOLMKILL. — In the old parish of Sand, on the north side of North Uist, at a place called Clachan, stood this ancient church. The New Statistical Account mentions that there are several burial-grounds in the parish,but it does not specify this.
13. KILCHOLAMBKILLE. — In Benbecula, formerly known as the Church of St. Columba in Beandmoyll. It stood on the north coast of the island. At Ballvannich, or Ballinamanniche, near the N.w. coast, is a small island in a lake, containing ecclesi astical remains. The lands here are supposed to have belonged to the abbot of Hy. Indeed the whole island, which abounds with vestiges of old ecclesiastical establishments, appears to have had of old a very intimate connexion with Hy.
14. HOWMORE.— In South Uist. Martin states that there was a church here bearing our Saint's name, and adds : " A Stone set up near a Mile to the S. of Columbus's Church, about eight foot high, and two foot broad, it is called by the Natives
Ixiv INTRODUCTION.
the Bowing-Stone ; for when the Inhabitants had the first sight of the Church, they set up this Stone, and there bowed and said the Lord's Prayer." He observes that " the Natives speak the Irish Tongue more perfectly here, than in most of the other Islands ;" also that " Fergus Beaton hath the following ancient Irish Manuscripts in the Irish Character ; to wit, A. Vicenna, A. Verroes, Joannes de Vigo, Bernardus Gordonus, and several Volumes of Hypocrates"
1 5. ST. KILDA. — Formerly, and still among the natives, Hirt. One of its three ancient chapels was St. Golumba's; another St. Brendan's.
16. CANNA. — The church, as Martin states, was "dedicated to St. Columbus." It stood near the middle of the island, in ruins in 1772, having beside it a small cross.
1 7. ISLAND COLUMBKILL. — Situate at the head of Loch Arkeg, in the parish of Kilrnalie, in Inverness. It derived its name from a chapel of St. Columba.
1 8. KILLCHALLUMKILL. — A chapel at Duror in Appin, oppo site Lismore.
19. KILCOLMKILL. — Now Kiel in Ardchattan. " This chappell town called in Inglish St. Colme's Chappell."
20. KILCOLMKILL.— This church, sometimes called St. Colum- ba's in Kinelvadon, or St. Columba' s in Morwarne, gave name to an old parish, which was afterwards united with Killintag to form the modern parish of Morvern in Argyle. This territory, called from the descendants of Baedan, of the house of Loarn Mor, Kinelbathyn, or Kinelbadon, afterwards contracted to Cenalbin, formed the chief portion of the ancient seignory of Garmoran. The cemetery, with a small portion of the ruins of Kilcolmkill, is situate at Kiel, on Loch-aline, on the s.w. of the present parish. It was of old esteemed a sanctuary.
21. KILCOLLUMKILL. — An old parish of Mull, now united to Kilninian. The church stood at the head of a loch in the dis trict of Quinish, on the north coast of Mull.
22. COLUMKILLE. — In the parish of Torosay, on the east coast
INTRODUCTION. IxV
of Mull. " Near the small village of Salen are the ruins of a cell which belonged to the monastery of lona. The village is called Salen-dubh- Challum-chille"
23. ORANSAY. — Separated from Colonsay at flood- tide only. Here tradition places the first landing of St. Columba on his leaving Ireland. It is the vulgar opinion that the two names denote respectively Oran's and Colum's isle. But this is incor rect : Colonsay is called Coloso by Adamnan, and there are four islands of the name in Argyleshire ; while there is an Oronsay off North Uist, and another off South Uist, none of which possess any traces of early ecclesiastical distinction. Fordun (Bowar) notices the present island as " Hornesay ubi est monas- terium nigrorum canonicorum, quod fundavit Sanctus Columba." Martin says : " It is adorn'd with a Church, Chappel, and Monastry ; they were Built by the famous St. Columbus, to whom the Church is dedicated." There may have been an earlier church on the island, but the ruins to which Martin alludes are the remains of a priory which was founded by a Lord of the Isles, and affiliated to Holyrood. After the disso lution of religious houses, the priory of Oransay was annexed to the bishopric of the Isles ; hence we find Andrew Knox, bishop of Eaphoe, in 1630, who still held the Isles with his Irish pre ferment, as prior of Oransay, granting to Colin Campbell, rector of Craigness, the isles of Elachniue and Kilbrandan, with the parsonage and vicarage teinds of the same, both which apper tained to the priory. In 1635 this grant was confirmed by his successor in the bishopric of the Isles. There is a hill in Colonsay called Cam cul-ri-Erin, " Carn-of-the-back-to-Ire- land;" and in the north of the island a small chapel called Tempull-na-gluine, where St. Columba is said to have embarked for Hy. The old church of Colonsay (not of Oransay) was called Killoran.
24. KILCHOLMKILL.— A chapel in the parish of Kildalton, on the east coast of Islay.
25. KILCHOLMKILL. — A chapel of St. Columba in Kilarrow, a
Ixvi INTRODUCTION.
parish of Islay, situate between Loch Finlagan and the sea. " There is a Cross standing near St. Columbas's or Portescock side, which is ten foot high."
26. COVE. — In the parish of North Knapdale, formerly Kill- mochormac, on the west side of Loch Killisport, near its head, was a chapel of St. Columba ; and, in a neighbouring cave, an altar, piscina, and cross cut in the rock.
27. KILCOLUMKILL. — This old church, which was situate at the southern extremity of Cantyre, between Carskay and Dun- averty, gave name to a parish which is now united to Kilblane to form the modern parish of Southend. Kilcolmkill forms the south-west portion, and contains the Mull of Cantyre. The grant of St. Collomkill's church in Kyntire, which had been made by Patrick Makschillingis, and Finlach his wife, to the canons of Whithern, was confirmed by King Eobert Bruce in 1326. The ruins of the chapel are in the unusual proportion of 72 to 15 feet.
28 ST. COLOMB'S. — An ancient chapel of the parish of Kothe- say, in Bute.
29. KILMACOLM. — Now incorrectly written Kilmalcolm. A large parish in Kenfrew, formerly including Port-Glasgow, and now situate next it on the south and east.
30. LARGS. — In Ayrshire. " The church, surrounded by its ancient village, stood on the level ground on the right bank of the Gogo, where it falls into the Firth. It was dedicated to St. Columba, whose festival was on the 9th day of June, and a yearly fair, vulgarly called Colm's day, once famous in the West Highlands, is still held there on the second Tuesday of June, old style."
31. KIRKCOLM. — A parish in Wigton, on the west side of Loch Eyan, opposite Glenarm, in the county of Antrim.
32. ST. COLUMBO. — In the parish of Caerlaverock in Dumfries, on the east side of the Mouth of the Mth, " a little below Glen- caple Key, close by the shore, was a cell or chapel dedicated to St. Columba ; near this is a well, of which no person was per-
INTRODUCTION. Ixvii
initted to drink without leaving a portion of victuals, or a piece of money, as an alms to the inhabitant of the cell."
The four parishes last mentioned were originally occupied by Australes Picti, but in Ven. Bede's time the Angli had come in on them, and they were then considered in the provincia Ber- niciorum.
AMONG THE PICTS.
1. BURNESS. — A parish in the north-west of Sanday, one of the Orkney islands, formerly known as St. Colm's.
2. HOY. — One of the Orkneys, on the s.w. It had a chapel of St. Columkill.
3. ST. COMBS.— In the parish of Olrick in Caithness. " On the boundary of the parish in the east, towards Dunnet, the spot is still called St. Coomb's Kirk, supposed to have been overwhelmed in the sand at night."
4. DIRLET. — In the parish of Halkirk in Caithness. There was a chapel of St. Columba at this place.
5. ISLAND COMB. — In the parish of Tongue, off the north coast of Sutherland. It is sometimes called JZilean-na-naoimh, " Island of Saints." It had formerly a chapel and cemetery, the traces of which are still to be seen.
6. KILLCOLMKILL.— In Strabruraich, or " Srath of Brora," on the east side of Loch Brora, in the parish of Clyne, and county of Sutherland, stood this chapel. " In digging some ground at that place, a cemetery was found that contained large human bones, upon which a stop was put to the digging there. At some little distance from it, a year or two ago (1794), a gentle man making out part of the high road, found a stone cross, which was immediately erected in the place where it was found."
7. AULDEARN. — A parish in Nairn. St. Columba was patron of the church, and his fair, called St. Colm's Market, is held here annually on the first Wednesday after the 19th [query N. s., or 9th ?] of June.
Ixviii
INTRODUCTION.
8. PETTIE. — With Bracholy, a parish in Inverness-shire. For merly Petyn. In 'the Register of Moray we find mention of " Walterus vicarius S. Columbse de Petyn."
9. KINGUSSIE. — A parish in Badenoch, on the east of Inver ness-shire. St. Columba was patron, and the chief fair is held in June, probably on his day.
10. ST. COLM'S. — A chapel at Aird, in the parish of Fordyce, Banff.
11. ALVAH. — A parish on the north-east of Banff. St. Columba seems to have been the patron saint, for at the foot of the Hill of Alvah is St. Colm's Well ; and, not far from it on the south, the church.
12. LONMAY. — A parish at the north-east angle of Aberdeen- shire, near Cairnbulg. " Previous to 1 608, the parish church was by the sea-side, hard by where the village of St. Combs now stands. " An earlier writer says, " This parish at different times has been named St. Colm, from the name of the saint to whom the old church was dedicated, and Lonmay, from the name of the estate on which the church now stands."
13. DAVIOT. — A parish nearly in the middle of Aberdeen- shire. St. Columba was the patron, and his effigy in stone was formerly placed in a niche within the church." St. Colm's Fair was formerly held at Kirktown in this parish, on every 9th of June.
14. BELHELVIE. — This parish, adjoining Aberdeen on the north, " hath for its tutelar Saint Colm." St. Colm's Fair used to be held here, at Drumhead, June 9th.
15. MONYCABO. — Or, New Machar, a parish formerly a chapelry of Old Machar of Aberdeen. It bore the name of St. Colm's.
16. CORTACHY. — A parish in the N.w. of Forfarshire. St. Colm's Fair used to be held here annually, at Muirs-keith, near the kirk.
17. TANNADICE. — In the middle of Forfarshire, S.E. of the last. " A chapel is said to have been here [at Shielhill], in old
INTRODUCTION. Ixix
time ; and a fountain, at a little distance, is known by the name of St. Colm, to whom the chapel may have been inscribed."
18. DUNKELD. — In Perthshire. It has been stated on re spectable authority, that Columba, circ. 640, was first bishop of this church. But, on maturer consideration, the writer has come to the conclusion that the founder of Hy was the only Columba whose name was ever prominently associated with Dunkeld, and that the misapprehension has arisen from erroneous statements in the Irish Life of St. Cuthbert. The version of it printed in the Nova Legenda of Capgrave relates the departure of St. Cuthbert's mother from Ireland to Britain, and tells how " venit Mater cum puero ad Episcopum Colum- bam qui primus sedem Dunkelde rexit in Scotia." To the same effect the Durham narrative, borrowed from a similar source : " Cum ad fines Scotiae pervenisset, Sanctus Columba primus episcopus in Dunkel puerum suscepit, unaque cum puellula quadam, nomine Brigida ex Hybernia oriunda, retinuit et aliquandiu educavit." And in the following chapter : " Post- modum vero cum matre puer ad insulam quse Hy dicitur, pro- fectus est, ubi aliquandiu cum religiosis viris loci illius conver- satus est." Now the word Scotia in these authorities savours very much of circ. 1 100, or later. A writer of that period would find Dunkeld a bishop's see, and the name Columba intimately associated with it. Hence, by a process similar to that which made St. Eunan bishop of Eaphoe in Ireland, he would argue that the founder of St. Columba's diocesan church of Dunkeld was a Columba and a bishop. But the fact was otherwise. The Danish descents on Hy in the early part of the ninth century, and the rise of Kells in Ireland, had caused a diversion in the administration of the Columbian brotherhood ; and when, soon after, the Pictish nation yielded to Scotic rule, and Kenneth Mac Alpin transferred the seat of government to the eastern side of the kingdom, a collateral movement took place in the ecclesiastical economy of his dominions : and accordingly, circ. 849, he ftnmded a church at the seat of government, which was
xx INTRODUCTION.
to be an inland Hy, and the representative of the Columbian institution for the united kingdom. In furtherance of this project, St. Columkille was named the patron saint, and a por tion of his relics, real or alleged, were deposited in the site, as a material guarantee of the dedication. Hence the 9th of June became the proper festival of Dunkeld, and St. Columba's memory associated with its future history. As the new founda tion was essentially Columbian, the intercourse which previ ously existed between the mother church and Ireland was extended to the east of Scotland : and for this reason the few names of the early abbots of Dunkeld which are preserved are strictly Irish, and found in Irish Annals only. Hy continued to decline, and Dunkeld to rise in importance ; tradition stamped the former with sanctity, but royalty invested the latter with power : and, as a consequence, when the jurisdiction of bishops began to be defined by diocesan limits, Argyle, including Hy, was comprised within the diocese of Dunkeld, subject, no doubt, to occasional interference from the Irish coarbs of St. Columba, who regarded themselves as the conventual superintendents of the society ; and to a temporary usurpation of authority by the Norwegians : but the relation was presently renewed ; and long after 1200, when Argyle became a distinct see, withLismore as the centre of jurisdiction, the island of Hy, which was farther west, continued to own episcopal subjection to its kindred church of Dunkeld. We find the following notices of Dunkeld in the Annals of Ulster : — A.C. 864, Tuathal mac Artgusso pi*im epscop Fortrenn acas abbas Duin caillenn dormivit, " Tuathal, son of Artgus, chief Bishop of Pictland, and Abbot of Duncaillenn, fell asleep." A.c. 872, FlaitJibertacli mac Murcertaigh princeps Duinchaillden obiit, "Flaithbertach, son of Muircertach, Superior of Duncailldenn, died." A.c. 964, Oath etir firu Allan in Moneitir ubi multi occisi sunt im Donnchadh .i. abbaidh Duine- caillenn, " Battle between the men of Alba at Moneitir [again 1004] where many were slain, together with Donnchadh, i.e. the Abbot of Dun-caillenn." A.c. 1027, Diincaillenn, i nAlbain
INTRODUCTION. Ixxi
do uile loscadh, "DuncailJenn in Alba was entirely burned." A.c. 1045, Catli eder Albancu etarru fein i torcair Cronan abb Duine caillend, " Battle among the Albanach between themselves, in which was slain Cronan, Abbot of Duncaillenn."
1 9. INCHCOLM. — An island in the Forth, belonging to Aber- dour in the county of Fife. In 1123, King Alexander, being overtaken in a violent storm in the Forth, vowed to erect on an island therein, should he reach it, a religious house to serve as an asylum and comfort to the shipwrecked. He succeeded in landing on this island, which was called ^Emonia, " ubi tune degebat quidam eremita insulanus, qui servitio Sancti Columbse deditus, ad quandam inibi capellulam tenui victu, utpote lacte unius vaccae et conchis ac pisciculis marinis collectis, contenta- tus, sedule se dedit."
20. KINCARDINE. — In the detached portion of Perthshire, on the Forth. Here was a " croft of land of St. Colme."
21. DRYMEN. — A parish in Lennox, in the west of Stirling shire. The church was under the title of St. Columba, and his yearly market, called St. Oolm's Fair, was formerly held here on the 9th of June.
IV.
The desire which prevailed, in the early ages of Christianity, SAINT
to imitate even the accidental features of the apostolic system, CoLUMBA's
TWELVE
naturally suggested the adoption of the number Twelve in the DISCIPLES. adjustment of religious societies ; and its use was afterwards extended to other relations, both social and moral. We find in Adamnan the mention of King Oswald and his twelve com panions (p. 6) ; of twelve years as a term of monastic service (pp. 19, 99); of a flotilla of twelve curachs (p. 75); and of St. Columba and his twelve disciples. The names of these twelve followers have been thus given in Codex B : —
" Hsec sunt duodecim virorum nomina qui cum sancto Columba cle Scotia, primo ejus transitu ad Brittanniam, transnavigaverunt : Duo filii Brenden, Baithene, qui et Conin, sancti successor Columbae ;
Ixxii INTRODUCTION.
et Cobthach, frater ejus ; Ernaan, sancti avunculus Columbse ; Dior- mitius, ejus ministrator ; Rus, et Techno, duo filii Rodain ; Scandal, films Bresail filii Endei filii Neil ; Luguid Mocuthemne ; Echoid ; Tochannu Mocufir-cetea ; Cairnaan, filius Branduib filii Meilgi ; Grillaan.
" Sancti Columbse parentes : Aedelmith, pater ejus, filius Fer- guso ; Eithne, mater ipsius, filia filii JSTavis.
" logen germanus frater Columbse junior. Item, tres germanse sorores ejus : Cuimne, mater filiorum Meic Decuil, qui nominantur Mernooc, et Cascene, et Meldal, et Bran qui sepultus est in Dairu Calchaich, consobrini sancti Columbse ; Mincholeth, mater filiorum Enain, quorum unus Calmaan dicebatur; Sinech mater virorum Mocucei in Cuile-aque, quorum nomina sunt Aidanus monachus, qui sepultus est hi Cuil-uisci, et Chonrii Moccucein, qui sepultus est in Daurmaig ; avia Tocummi Mocucein, qui valde senio fessus, presbiter sanctus, in lona insula prsesentem finivit vitam."
The following recital will serve as a commentary on that list, in showing the prevalence of the duodecimal economy among the Irish as well as the other inhabitants of the British Isles : —
I. — MISSIONARY.
1. S. Palladius, with twelve companions, sent to the Scots.
2. S. Mochta, a Briton, circ, 500, came to Ireland with
twelve disciples.
3. S. Columla, An. 562, with twelve followers, retired to Hy.
4. S. Mochonna, called also Macarius and Mauritius, was
sent by St. Columba with twelve companions to the Picts.
5. S. Columbanus, circ. 612, with twelve brethren, whose
names are on record, departed from Ireland to the Continent.
6. S. Kilian, circ. 680, was chief of a company of twelve
who went from Ireland to Franconia, and founded the church of Wiirtzburg. . ^txNj*5^
7. S. Moquius, disciple of S. Fursa, circ. 680, with twelve
companions, whose names are preserved, propagated the Gospel in Belgium.
8. S. Rudbert, or Rupert, circ. 700, chose twelve companions,
whose names are on record, to assist him in preach ing the Gospel in Bavaria.
9. $. Willibrord, who had studied for twelve years in
Ireland, was chief of a society of twelve who, in , 692, were sent by Ecgbert to evangelize Friesland. Their names are <?iven in Surius.
INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii
10. S. Forannan, an Irishman, bishop and abbot of Vassor,
circ. 970, with twelve companions, propagated the Gospel on the Belgic frontier.
11. S. Paulus, uncle of S. Jovimis, with twelve presbyters,
passed over from Britain to Armorica.
12. S. Joseph, and his twelve companions, appear in the
Glastonbury Legends; and the number recurs in other instances adduced by Ussher.
II. — MONASTIC.
1. S.' Carthach, or Mochuda, formed at Eahen a com
munity of twelve, whose names are recorded.
2. S. David, of Menevia, founded twelve monasteries.
3. S. Petroc, who retired to the wilderness with twelve
companions.
4. S. Benedict founded twelve monasteries, placing in each
twelve monks under a superior.
5. S. Cungar, or Doccuin, placed twelve canons in each
of his monasteries.
6. S. Gall built an oratory, " mansiuneculis per gyrum
dispositis, ad commanendum fratribus, quorum jam xn. ad seternorum desiderium concitavit."
7. S. Corpreus, collected twelve presbyters into his church
at Clonmacnois.
8. S. Disibod, an Irishman, in whose church of Mons
Disibodi, or Dysenberg, twelve canons were placed " ad numerum xn. apostolorum."
9. S. EJiabanus Maurus, at Fulda, had 270 monks, "inter
quos juxta numerum Apostolorum XII. viri erant prse ceteris doctissimi."
JO. Mons S. Victor, a cell of St. Gall, founded for twelve Irish pilgrims.
11. S. Colman Finn, cum suis sociis XII. in Morthreabh
Corcnea. — (Litan.' Aengus, Colgan, Act. SS., p. 539.)
12. SS. Conchennacii xn., qui cum utroque Sinchello
jacent in Kill-achuidh (ibid.)
13. S. Finniani xn. discipuli in Ard-brendomnuigh
(ibid.)
14. Episcopi xn. habitatores Killachiee Dromfhodse apud
Falgheides (ibid.)
15. Meuthi, an Irish hermit in Wales, with twelve
ministers.
16. Monymusk, where was a college, of twelve Culdees and
a prior.
e
Ixxiv INTRODUCTION.
III. — DIOCESAN.
1. Pope Gregory wrote to St. Augustine of Canterbury,
directing : " Per loca singula xii. episcopos ordines qui tuse subjaceant ditioni. Ad Eburacam vero civitatem te volumus episcopum mittere ; ita dun- taxat, ut si eadem civitas cum finitimis locis verbum Dei ' receperit, ipse quoque xn. episcopos ordinet, et metropolitan! honore perfruatur " (Bede i. 29).
2. S. Cataldus ducatum in xii. episcopatus distribuens,
de suo episcopio archiepiscopatum fecit.
IV.— CAPITULAR.
1. Canterbury. — Dean and twelve canons.
2. Durham. — Dean, twelve canons, and twelve minor
canons (orig. constit.)
3. Winchester. — Dean and twelve canons.
4. Westminster. — Dean and twelve canons.
5. Windsor. — Dean and twelve canons.
6. Gloucester. — Dean, six canons, and six minor canons.
7. Bristol. — Dean, six canons, and six minor canons.
8. Norwich. — Dean, six canons, and six minor canons.
9. Aberdeen. — Bishop, and twelve canons.
V. — EDUCATIONAL.
1. S. Finnian, of Clonard, had twelve principal students,
afterwards styled the Twelve Apostles of Erin.
2. Aidan. — Eata " unus de xn. pueris Aidani, quos
primo episcopatus sui tempore de natione Anglorum erudiendos in Christo accepit" — (Bede iii. 26)/
3. Daire-rabhne. — Duodecim >innocentes pueri in Daire-
rabhne (Litan. Aengus).
VI. — CEREMONIAL.
1. At Wilfrid's consecration, Agilberct, bishop of Paris,
" et alii undecim episcopi ad dedicationem antistitis [Wilfridi] convenientes, multum honorifice minis- terium impleverunt " (Bede v. 19).
2. Eanfleda, " baptizata est die sancto Pentecostes, prima
de gente Nordanhymbrorum, cum undecim aliis de familia ejus " (Bede ii. 9).
VII. — PEREGRINAL.
1. S. Ailbhe went to Home, attended by several companies of twelve.
INTRODUCTION. Ixxv
2. S. Barr, of Cork, was attended to Eome by twelve
companions.
3. S. Maidocus. Duodecim qui cum Maidoco Fernensi
ultra mare sunt peregrinati (litan. Aengus).
4. Laisreanus. Duodecim qui sine morbo ad aeterna
tabernacula transierunt cum S. Molassio (ibid)
5. Duodecim peregrini, quorum unum superstitem in
Insula Felis reperit Brendanus (ibid.)
6. S. Eioch. Duodecim socii S. Eiochi ultra mare (ibid)
7. Duodecim peregrini in Lethglas Mor (ibid.)
8. Duodecim qui cum Albeo mori elegerunt (ibid.)
9. S. Munna, attended by twelve of his fraternity, went
to meet the King of Leinster at Kathmor.
VIIL— MORAL.
1. Duodecim gradus humilitatis.
2. Duodecim pericula animse.
3. Duodecim abusiones sseculi.
IX.— MISCELLANEOUS.
1. Twelve citizens placed by St. Patrick in Armagh.
Kepresented by twelve burgesses in modern times.
2. Twelve pillars and twelve lamps in the Anastasis at
Jerusalem.
3. Twelve psalms to be recited.
4. Twelve hostages delivered up.
5. Si xn. ordinati viri sapientes defuerunt, xii. clericorum
inordinatorum consilium : si vero xii. clerici non affuerunt, xii. parvulis pueris, virginibus cum muli- eribus haut coinquinatis, judicium atque consilium permittatur (Eees, Cambro-Brit. SS., p. 43.)
6. Twelve masons employed in Wales under an Irish
architect called Liuguri (ibid. p. 47).
X. — MULTIPLES.
1 . S. Patrick came to Ireland attended by twenty-four
companions.
2. S. Brendan visits a community consisting of an abbot
and twenty-four monks.
3. S. Ailbhe, with twenty-four men of Munster, crossed
the sea (Litan. Aengus).
4. S. Cadoc and his twenty-four disciples (Eees, Cam.-
Brit. SS., p. 61).
5. JRatisbon. — An Irish monastery, founded for twenty-
four Scots. & Exeter cathedral, dean, and twenty-four canons.
Ixxvi INTRODUCTION.
7. York cathedral, dean, and thirty-six canons.
8. S. Cadoc appointed thirty-six canons at Nantcarban
(Kees, p. 82).
9. S. Brendan, with sixty pilgrim monks (Litan. Aengus).
1 0. 8. Leonorius went from Britain to Gaul with seventy-
two disciples.
11. S. Benedict. — "Instrumenta bonorum operum LXXII."
12. Servi Dei MCC. circa Lasreanum, ac episcopos Leth-
glinenses (ibid.)
V.
In calculating the year of St. Columba's death, it will be granted that he died on the ninth of June : for though Adamnan does not name the day of the month, he states the coincidence of St. Columba's and St. Baithene's festivals, and speaks of the Saint's decease as occurring soon after the month of May (B. ill. c. 24). In the Feilire of ^Engus and the Koman Martyrology, as well as those of Bede and Notker, we have domestic and foreign testimonies agreeing with the date which has been observed for the solemnity within the memory of man. We learn, however, from Adamnan the following particulars, which, taken in conjunction with the date of the festival, determine the year with great precision : —
1. Saturday was the last day of the Saint's life.
2. He had attended the nocturnal vigils.
3. Shortly after midnight he rose for matins.
4. Which was the second service of Sunday.
5. And just as the brethren had assembled.
6. While it was still dark in the oratory, for his attendant was obliged to feel after him, and was unable to discern his condition till lanterns were brought.
7. That this portion of the twenty-four hours was called the night of Sunday.
8. That, therefore, he died on Sunday.
9. That the ninth of June fell on Sunday.
Now the Eegular letter of the ninth of June is f ; therefore F was the Sunday letter of the year. But 597 is the only year
INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii
at this period to which F belongs, that is, whose first of January fell on Tuesday. Thus, as far as Adamnan's statements go, the inference is very explicit, and we are freed from the uncer tainty which Ussher expresses: "Cum media nocte Eomani civiles suos dies et incipere soleant et terminare : num. nox ilia media, qua Columbam decessisse diximus, diem Junii nonum vel inchoaverit vel finierit, quaestionis quid habet." With regard to Adamnan's language, there cannot be any uncertainty ; for he represents the Saint as saying, while it was yet Saturday, " hac sequenti media venerabili Dominica nocte patrum gradiar viarn," and states of the penultimate service which he attended, " Sanctus ad vespertinalem Dominicse noctis missam ingreditur ecclesiam." Adamnan reckons his day from sunset to sunset, and thus we find him, on more than one occasion, employing a wxQij/jiepov, and making the night of a festival precede the day. See ii. 46, iii. 12, 13, 24. With this date agree the biographer's chronological notes, who states that St. Columba passed over to Britain in the second year after the battle of Culdreibhne, that is, in 563, being then 42 years old, and that he died, having completed 34 years in his pilgrimage, thus giving 597 for his obit, and 76 years for his age. So also Bede, who places his removal to Scotland at 565, the length of his pilgrimage 32 years, and his death, when he was about 77 years of age.
But against this evidence may be alleged the authority of Tighernach, who records Quies Coluimcille in nocte Dominica Pen- tecostes v. Id. Junii, anno peregrinacionis sue xxxv. etatis vero Ixxvii. With this statement, that he died on Wednesday, agree the ancient Irish Life, cited in the note on B. in. c. 24, and the Naemhsenchas, which, under the Saint's name, has Tri cengcaidhis Colamcilli : a gen, a baihis, a bas, " Three Pentecosts [quinquagesimas] of Colam-cille : his birth, his baptism, and his death." Now, in 597, Whitsunday fell on the 2d of June, but in 596 on the 10th. If, therefore, the Whitsun element enter into the calculation, the year of the death must be
IXXVIII INTRODUCTION.
assigned to 596, and Adamnan's mode of computation be In verted ; for, in this case, the midnight between Saturday and Sunday must be attracted to the former in order to fit the obit into the 9th, while, at the same time, an opposite process must be adopted in order to identify the occurrence with the ensuing Pentecost. This date, which seems to follow from Tighernach, is adopted by Hermannus Contractus, who places St. Columba's death at 596. But it is opposed to Tighernach's own calcula tion, who assigns the Saint's birth to 520, and allows him an age of 77 years. Dr. Lanigan accounts for this discrepancy by supposing that " Tighernach was, probably, prepossessed with the idea that 596 was the real year of his death, as he might have found it marked in some elder annals, which, however, considering their mode of computation, was, in fact, the same as 5 9 7. Then, finding that Pentecost fell in 5 9 6 about the 9th of June, he supposed it to be the Sunday in which Columba died." Or, it may be urged that, as Columba's removal to Britain is said by some to have been at Whitsuntide, Prima nox ejus in Attain in Pentecosten, an even period was assigned to the term of his pilgrimage, the chronicler being desirous to square the matter, by placing the obit at the same festival. It is further to be observed that, supposing Whitsunday to have been on the 2d, which it most probably was, the Saint's decease was inside the week, and was thus within the octave of Whitsuntide ; for the festival of Trinity Sunday was not yet instituted, and Easter and Pentecost were the two great ecclesiastical seasons of the year. Dr. Lanigan very justly observes, that " Adamnan, who mentions more than once this obituary Sunday, never calls it Pentecost, which, had it been so, he would assuredly have noticed as a very remarkable circumstance, combining the Saint's removal to heaven with the celebration of that great festivity."
With respect to the notation of Tighernach at this year, it must be confessed that it contradicts the entry. For it is K. ini., that is, that the first of January fell on Wednesday, which
INTRODUCTION.
makes E the Dominical letter, and thus refers the occurrences under that signature to 598, two years later than is deducible from the entries. We might suppose .iiii. by a very common mistake put for .uii., which would mend the matter a little, and the antecedent signatures might be treated in the same manner ; but then the .ii. which would become M. would have .iiii. as its antecedent, whereas a .i. is found in situ. The Annals of Ulster record the occurrence thus, Quies Coluim cille v. Id. Jun* anno etatis sue Ixxvi. But their signature is vii., which gives B as the Sunday-letter, and indicates 595, the very year in their margin, for where they say 594, they mean 595. Now it is evident that their record of the event has been advisedly framed ; and, therefore, it is hard to conceive on what principle they could refer the event to so early a year. In it, Easter fell on the 3d of April, and Whitsunday on the 22d of May, and the 9th of June was Thursday.
The choice, then, lies between 596 and 597. To the former Colgan and Dr. O'Conor incline ; to the latter the graver judg ments of Ussher, OTlaherty, and Lanigan ; but the question would not have arisen if Tighernach had not mentioned Pente cost ; and it has been shown that, even on his high authority, the introduction of this element into the calculation is irrecon cilable with the explicit statements of both himself and Adamnan.
VI.
It appears that during a century, at least, after the death of THE RELIC St. Columba, his remains were permitted to lie undisturbed in °F SAINT
OOLUMBA.
the earth.1 Ven. Bede extends the period a little, and speaks of the monastery of Hy "in quo ipse requiescit corpore" (iii. 4). But ere Notker Balbulus, in the tenth century, borrowed the expression ubi requiescit, a change had taken place in the condition of the Saint's remains. In the course of the eighth century it is probable that his bones were disinterred, and deposited in a shrine or shrines. And once enshrined, they
1 Locum in quo sancta pausant ossa (in. 24, p. 217).
Ixxx INTRODUCTION.
were not likely to be restored to the earth, because every passing year would increase the veneration which led to the first exposure. Yet we find mediaeval tradition confidently setting forth Downpatrick as his resting-place, while an original record of very early date claims for the neighbouring church of Saul the honour of his interment. We might easily reconcile these two accounts by supposing a translation from Saul, as soon as it became a subordinate church, on the erection of Downpatrick into a bishop's see. The fragmentary memoirs of St. Patrick contained in the Book of Armagh were put on record in the eighth century, and the manuscript itself was written about the year 807, by a scribe whose death took place in 846. Speaking of the burial of St. Patrick, they add, " Colomb cille Spiritu Sancto instigante ostendit sepulturam Patricii ubi est confirmat id est in Sabul Patricii id est in aeclesia juxta mare pro undecima ubi est conductio martirum id est ossuum Columb- cille de Britannia et conductio omnium Sanctorum Hibernise in die judicii." This enigmatical passage seems to owe its involved construction to the circumstance of its having been copied from an earlier authority, in which a portion of the matter consisted of detached explanations, in the form of in terlinear glosses, which the copyist, on account of the peculiar nature of his page, or for some other reason, incorporated with the text. The following conjectural restoration is proposed, as exhibiting the passage in a more intelligible, and possibly more genuine form : —
Colombcille Spiritu Sancto instigante ostendit sepulturam Patricii
.i. in Sabul Patricii .i. in aeclesia juxta mare .i. ossuum
ubi est confirmat pro undecima ubi est conductio martirum Coluimb-
cillae de Brittannia et conductio omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae in die judicii.
The words pro undecima are difficult of explanation, but they were so at the time the manuscript was written, for the scribe has placed in the margin opposite pro the mark of obscurity. But whatever ambiguity may attend some words, it is plain
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi
that conductio is employed to denote " bringing together," or " transfer ; " as elsewhere, in the same manuscript, " meeting," "interview;" and that the passage expresses the belief as existing, at the close of the eighth century, that the bones of Columkille had, before that period, been brought to Ireland from Britain, and deposited in Saul.
The same impression is conveyed in another but more legen dary record, and seemingly of a later date, which also supposes St. Columba's remains to have been conveyed into the inner most part of Strangford Lough, in the county of Down, and merely differs in making Downpatrick the destination instead of the neighbouring church of Saul. O'Donnell's account of the matter is thus translated by Colgan : —
" Pro operis hujus coronide (quod minime debuit silentio per- transiri) hie subjicio quomodo corpus hujus S. Patriarchae in Monas- terio Hiensi prius sepultum, fuerit in Hiberniam postea translatum, et in eodem sepulchre cum sacris exuviis Sanctorum Patricii et Brigidae recondition. . . . Sufficiat memorare modum et occasionem factae Translationis, quam hoc modo S. Berchanus contigisse refert. Manderus films Kegis Daniae, et Nortmannorum pyraticse classis Dux, ferro et flamraa septemtrionales Britannise partes devastans, venit ad lonam insulam, ubi sacra prophanis Sathanae Satellites miscentes : direptis omnibus, quae occurrerant, terram hinc inde fodiunt, latentes, ut putabant, thesauros inquirentes ; ac inter alia effodiunt Sarcophagum seu arcam, in qua verus erat, licet non cui illi inhiabant, thesaurus, nempe S. Columbae corpus. Arcam ad navem portant, quam postea versus Hiberniam tendentes aperiunt : et turn nihil inclusum, praeter hominis ossa, ac cineres, reperiunt, clausam in mare projiciunt ; quae Dei nutu, Oceani fluctibus agitata, et per undas injecta, reperitur in sinu maris Dunensi urbi vicino, undis supernatans. Quam sic repertam, et divina revelatione agni- tam, aperiens Abbas Monasterii Dunensis, sanctum thesaurum area extractum, in eisdem lipsanis cum Divorum Patricii, et Columbse [recte Brigidae] sacris exuviis recondidit." — (Colgan, Tr. Th. p. 446 a.)
. The earliest recorded descent of the Northmen on Hy is 802, which is only five years anterior to the writing of the Book of Armagh.
Notwithstanding this reputed interment, whether in Saul or Down, we find that on the occasion of St. Blaithmac's martyr-
Ixxxii INTRODUCTION.
dom, in 825, St. Columba's shrine, which was adorned with precious metals, was the chief object of the murderous North men's search ; so Walafridus Strabus states :
" Ad sanctum venere patrem, pretiosa metalla Eeddere cogentes, queis sancti sancta Columbae Ossa jacent, quam quippe suis de sedibus arcam Tollentes tumulo terra posuere cavato, Cespite sub denso gnari jam pestis iniquse : Hanc praedam cupiere Dani.' — (Vita S. Blaithmaic.)
How soon, or by whom, the shrine was brought to light from its place of concealment, is not recorded ; but we know that it was soon after removed to Ireland, for in 878 it was transferred, together with all St. Columba's minna, to Ireland, for security from the Danes, where it probably remained. Now, it is re markable, that whereas we hear of Adamnan's relics at 727, 730, within twenty-four years after his death, we find no men tion of St. Columba's till eighty years afterwards. Possibly, indeed, in the promulgation of the Lex Coluimcille in 753, 757, 778, his shrine may have been borne about as the warrant for the exaction of this religious tribute, and thus an indirect evidence of the enshrining may be afforded. After 878 we hear no more of this shrine till 1127, when we find the Danes of Dublin carrying it off, and restoring it, possibly stripped of its gold and silver, at the end of a month. Tighernach, at 976, records the plundering of Serin Coluimcille, but this violence appears to have been offered to the church of Columba's shrine, namely, Skreen in Meath, where the precious reliquary may have been deposited. In 1152, the mionna or r cliques of St. Columba were employed in conjunction with the great reli quary of Armagh, the Bachall Jesu, in the solemnization of a compact ; but the reference in that case seems to be to the Soscela Martain, or " St. Martin's Gospel," which will be noticed further on as being the great heirloom of the monastery of Deny.
Meanwhile, a fresh competitor for the honour of possessing
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiii
St. Columba's remains arose in Pictland, for according to the Pictish Chronicle, Kenneth Mac Alpin, " septimo anno regni reli- quias S. Columbae transportavit ad ecclesiam quam construxit " (Pict. Chron.) To which an English record adds : " Sanctus Columcylle requiescit in loco dicto Duncahan juxta fluvium Tau."1 Hence Pinkerton draws the conclusion, " It is evident that Duncahan is Duncaldan, or Dunkeld, upon the river Tay; so that the Irish vainly contend that his bones were carried to Ireland, though, perhaps, his crosier, or some other relics, may have been conveyed thither." Father Innes declares, "It is the constant tradition and belief of the inhabitants of Ycolmkill and of the neighbourhood at this day, that St. Columba's body lies still in this island, being hidden by pious people, at the time of the new Eeformation, in some secure and private place in or about the church, as it used frequently to be in former ages during the ravages of the infidel Danes ; and not only the inhabitants of Ycolmkill, and those of all our Western Islands, and of all the Highlands in general, but all the Scots look upon the pretended translation of St. Columba's body to Ireland as fabulous." But this is declamation : for in the next page the writer adduces evidence for a translation to Dunkeld. The rational statement is this : — The grave of St. Columba is in Hy, where his remains were suffered to lie till a century had passed. Meanwhile his dust had mingled with the earth, and dust with dust continues there to this day : but where that grave is, there is no satisfactory evidence to show ; and tradition, which claims for the island the custody of the body, fails, as might be expected, to point out the spot where it lies. It was the custom in the eighth century, particularly in the Irish Church, to disinter and en shrine the tangible remains of the founders of religious houses. There are explicit records of the very years when such pro cesses took place; and that St. Columba's remains were dealt with in like manner, is a priori to be expected, and in
1 See Hickes, Thes. ii. 117. for the original of this passage.
INTKODUCTION.
fact proved. The shrine in which these bones were deposited subsequently became the title-deed of the Columbian com munity, and was from time to time taken over to Ireland as the warrant for levying religious contributions. But it soon became exposed to fresh danger : for the costliness of the shrine which veneration for the founder's memory had suggested, excited the cupidity of the roving Northmen ; and Ireland became the permanent asylum of these reliques, until it in turn suffered from the same scourge, and even its midland remoteness proved no security against the restless Danes. It is possible that, during these constant removals of the shrine, portions of the reliques may have been taken out, and under the compulsion of power, or the inducements of patronage, have been shared with other churches; thus probably Kenneth Mac Alpin came by his share ; and thus, too, the Irish Screens by their name. But the gold and silver, which affection had lavished on the original shrine, contributed to defeat its own object in the end, and subjected the shrine to the fate from which its fellow, the Great Gospel of Kells, had so nar row an escape — the shell abstracted, and the substance cast away.
It is further to be observed, that the veneration for St. Columba's remains was not confined to Ireland and Scotland : the cathedral of Durham also claimed to be the depository of at least a portion of his relics. This appears from a catalogue of the relics at Durham, written in the fourteenth century, in which we find the entry : " De ossibus et reliquiis Sancti Colum- kelli abbatis."1 A representation of the Saint was painted also on the screen- work of the altar of St. Jerome and St. Benedict, in the same church, with the inscription, " Sanctus Columba monachus et abbas."2
In connexion with the history of Columkill's remains, the antiquary may desire to have a catalogue of those articles which tradition invested with the repute of having been es-
1 Hist. Dun. Script. Tres., p. ccccxxix., Surt. Soc.
2 Des. An. Mon. Ch. of Durham, p. 115, Surt. Soc.
INTRODUCTION. IxXXV
teemed or used by the Saint. Adamnan makes mention of a Hymnal, which was preserved in Ireland (n. 8, p. 43); and of a White Pebble, which was used as a charm among the Picts (n. 34, p. 59) ; also of Books written by him, and the White Tunic he wore at the time of his death, which were preserved in Hy (n. 45, p. 74). Some of these were afterwards lost, but later writings have furnished us with the names of others which do more than supply their place. Thus, among the alleged com positions of St. Columba contained in the Laud MS., is a poem in the form of a dialogue between him and Baithene Mor, son of Guana, on the subject of his chief reliques, to wit, the Great Cross, the Cathach, and his Cowl. Besides these, there were others of lesser note, which will presently be noticed.
1. THE GREAT CROSS. — The following is the account of it in the Preface to St. Columba's hymn, Altus Prosator: —
" At a time that Columcille was in Hy, without any attendant, but Baithene only, it was revealed to him that guests had arrived, namely, seven of Gregory's people, who had come to him from Eome with gifts, to wit, the Great Gem of Columcille (which is a cross at the present day), and the Hymns of the Week, that is [a book with] Hymns for each night of the week, and other gifts."— (Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 473).
The date of Gregory the Great's accession is Sept. 3, 590, within seven years of which this alleged occurrence may be supposed to have taken place. In O'Donnell the circumstances of the gift are told more in detail, and he ends the account by saying that the reliquary was preserved, at the time when he wrote (1532), in the island of Tory : " Estque illud celebre monumen- tum quod in Torachia occidua Hiberniae insula in memoriam Columbse asservatum Crux magna vulgo appellatur" (ib. p. 412). This altar cross is not now known to exist, but from the descrip tion it would seem that it was cased in metal, and adorned with crystal bosses, like the cross of Cong preserved in the Museum of the Eoyal Irish Academy.
2. THE CATHACH.— This name, which is interpreted Prceliator, is derived from cath, " battle," for the reason given by O'Don nell in the passage cited at p. xlii, supra. It is questionable
IxXXVi INTRODUCTION.
whether the writing of the manuscript be as old as St. Columba's age, though its claim to be considered in the handwriting of St. Columba derives some weight from the great veneration in which it was formerly held, notwithstanding the total absence of decoration. It is a curious particular in its contents, that the reading of Psal. xxxiii. 11, differs from that which is cited by Adamnan as the subject of St. Columba's last act of pen manship. Of the silver case, which is now its most attractive feature, it is unnecessary to offer any description here, as a de tailed account, with drawings sufficiently accurate to give a fair idea of its structure, can easily be consulted.1 The inscrip tion, however, which runs along three sides of the margin of the under surface, is worthy of being correctly recorded : —
Oroit do CatJibarr ua Domnaill las i ndernad in cumtach \sa\
7 do Sittriuc mac meic Aeda do rigne 7 do Dom [nail] mac Eola
rtaig do comarla Cenansa las i ndernad.
Which may be interpreted : —
ORATIO PRO CATHBARRO UA DOMNAILL PER QUEM FACTUM EST TO
COOPERIMENTUM HOC, ET PRO SITRICO FILIO FILII AIDI QUI FECIT,
ET PRO DOMNALLO MAC ROBARTAIGH PRO COMARBANO KENLISLE
PER QUEM FACTUM EST.
Cathbarr O'Donnell, son of Gillachrist [ob. 1038], son of Gathbarr, son of Domhnall Mor, the progenitor of the O'Donnells, was chief of the Cinel Luighdech, and died in 1 106. Domhnall Mac Eobhartaigh, successor of Columba at Kells, died, accord ing to the Four Masters, in 1098. His name occurs also in the charters which are entered in the blank pages of the Book of Kells.2 Sitric was son of Mac JEdha, who was surnamed Cerd, that is, " Artificer," in the Charters of Kells, where men tion is made of Fland mac Mic Aedha also. The family of Mac Aedha seem to have been the hereditary mechanics of Kells. It is interesting to observe the relation here recorded as subsisting, through the Columbian system, between remote parts of Ireland: O'Donnell being lord of a territory in the
1 Betham's Ant. Res., i. p. 109. 2 Misc. Ir. Ar. Soc., pp. 130, 140.
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxvii
extreme north of the island, yet associated with the abbot of a midland monastery; and that abbot the member of a family which also was seated in the remote north, supplying herenachs to two churches in St. Columba's region of Tirconnell, and occasionally appearing in the administration of St. Columba's church of Derry. In 1497 the Cathach was employed for mili tary purposes, but failed of procuring victory for its possessors. Con O'Donnell led an army into Moylurg in Connaught, to attack Mac Dermott, but was defeated at the battle of Bealach- buidhe. Mac Kobhartaigh, the keeper [maor] of the Cathach of Columcille, was slain, and the Cathach taken from the Tirconallians. Two years after, it was restored. — (Four Mas ters.) In the early part of the sixteenth century it was still the great reliquary of Tirconnell ; and in the following century it continued to be in the custody of the family of Mac Eobhar- taigh, the official keepers under the Lord of Tirconnell. When it reappears in the next century, it is found in the posses sion of the head of the O'Donnell family, who recorded his guardianship in an inscription on the silver frame which he made for its preservation: IACOBO 3. M. B. REGE EXULANTE,
DANIEL 0 DONEL IN XTIANISSO0 IMP0 PRCEFECTUS REI BELLICCE HUSUSCE HCERADITARII SANCTI COLUMBANI PIGNORIS VULGO CAAH DICTI TEGMEN AEGENTEUM VETUSTATE CONSUMPTUM RESTAURAUIT
ANNO SALUTIS 1723. This most remarkable reliquary, com bining so many exciting associations, is the property of Sir Eichard Annesley O'Donnell, Bart., a descendant of the Cath- barr Ua Domhnaill, whose name is engraved upon the case, between whom and the present possessor four-and-twenty generations of this illustrious house have passed by. The Caah is at present in the Museum of the Eoyal Irish Academy, through the liberal indulgence of its distinguished owner.
3. THE CocEALL.—Cochall is the Irish form of cuculla, a word which occurs in the text at p. 168, where there is evi dence to show that, even so early as Adamnan's time, the garment expressed by it was supposed to have been endowed
Ixxxviii INTRODUCTION.
with supernatural virtue. The old Irish Life, treating of St. Columba's reception at Kells, by Aedh Slaine, proceeds to say :
" He consecrated, therefore, a cowl for him ; and he said that he could not he wounded while he had it on him. Aedh Slane, however, committed fratricide, contrary to Columcille's admonition, on Suibhne, son of Colman. At the end of four years he went on an expedition. He forgot his cowl. He was slain that day."
The legend in the Book of Lecan, cited at p. 39 (Orig. Ed.), represents Aedh, son of Ainmire, as the recipient of the favour. O'Donnell copies both statements, and exhibits the two Aedhs as provided respectively with charmed vestments.
4. THE CUILEBADH. — The Annals of Ulster, at 1034, record that—
" Macnia Ua hllchtain, lecturer of Kells, was lost on his voyage from Scotland ; and Columcille's Culebadh, and three of Patrick's reliques, and thirty men with him."
The old English version, suppressing the first syllable of the word in question, and reading lebar for the rest, translates it " booke ;" while the Eour Masters omit the preceding conjunc tion, and, dismembering the word, read cu lebhadh, cum lecto, thus referring us to the "nuda petra" of p. 213. This liberty they took with the original, not knowing, it would seem, what culebadh meant. They found the word again in the following passage of the Annals of Ulster, which relates an outrage committed by Tighernan O'Euairc in 1128, but they have omitted the whole passage :
" The successor of Patrick was openly outraged in his presence ; for his retinue were plundered, and some of them were killed ; and a clerical student of his own people, who bore a culebadh, was slain there."
Thus it appears that the word was a general term. We are brought a step further towards the meaning of it by a passage in the Preface to the Amhra Coluim-cille :
" And the way that Columcille came was, with a cere-cloth over his eyes, and his culpait over that, and the hood of his cowl over that ; so that he should neither behold the men nor women of Erin."
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxix
O'Donnell gives the legend, with the addition that means were taken to prevent Columba from setting foot on Ireland, but he omits the desired word :
" There was a sod of the earth of Alba under his feet : There was a cere- cloth over his eyes : There was his woollen- cap drawn over that : There was his hood, and his cowl, over these outside."
The Annals of Tighernach, at 1090, have the following curious entry :
" The reliquaries of Columcille, viz., the Bell of the Kings, and the Cuillebaigh, came from Tirconnel, with 120 ounces of silver, and Aongus O'Domnallain was the one who brought them from the north [to Kells]."
There remains another notice of this monastic habit, in an extravagant tale called, " The Sea-wanderings of Snedgus and Mac Eigail, two of Columcille's priests :"
" And the bird gave a leaf of the leaves of that tree to the clerics, and it was as large as the hide of a great ox ; and told the clerics to take it with them, and place it on the altar of Columcille. And that is the Cuilefaidh of Columcille at this day. And it is at Kells that it is."
In the foregoing extracts the word is variously written cule- ladh, cuilebadh, culpait, and culefaidh ; and in a curious diagram which occurs in a tract on Ogham-writing in the Book of Ballymote, we find the word cuilibad in conjunction with the names Colum cilli and Ceallach. Cormac's Glossary, cited by O'Eeilly, explains culpait quasi cail fuit or fuaclit, " a defence from cold." Still there is good reason for supposing that, as cochall is the Irish form of cuculla, so culebadh is of cololium, and that it represents the tunica of p. 188.
5. DELG AIDECHTA. — The legend of St. Columba's visit to Eome, mentioned in the Notes on B. in. c. 9, has the following passage :
" Columcille tarried with Gregory, and brought Gregory's brooch away with him, and it is the Testamentary Brooch of the Coarb of Columcille to this day. And he left his style with Gregory."
XC INTRODUCTION.
This delg probably belonged to that class of ornament of which so many and such beautiful specimens have been found in Ireland.
6. MOR BACHALL. — The pastoral staff, which St. Columba confided to Scanlann, prince of Ossory, on the occasion of his liberation after the convention of Drumceatt.
" Pedum suum ei tradit, tanquam in lubrico verum baculum, et in omni adversitate prsesidium; in Domino fideliter promittens ipsum illius munimine, earn virtutem Christo conferente, per ob- jecta pericula salvum et incolumem evasurum, et monens ut ipsum demum baculum S. Laisreno discipulo suo, Monasterii Darmagensis tune rectori, retradat."— (Vit. iii. 13, Colg. Tr. Th., p. 433 b.)
From the last line we learn that this reliquary was preserved in Durrow.
7. CAMBO KENTIGERNI. — Jocelin gives an account of a visit which St. Columba paid to his celebrated contemporary, St. Kentigern of Glasgow, and, having related a miracle performed by the latter, proceeds to say :
" In illo loco ubi istud miraculum per Sanctum Kentegernum factum, in conspectu Sancti Columbse, et aliorum multorum, inno- tuit; alter alterius baculum, in pignus quoddam et testimonium mutuse dilectionis, in Christo suscepit. Baculus vero quern Sanctus Columba dederat Sancto pontifici Kentegerno, in ecclesia Sancti Wilfridi episcopi et confessoris apud Bipum, multo tempore conser- vabatur ; et propter utriusque sanctitatem, dantis videlicet et reci- pientis, magnae reverentise habebatur." — (Vit. Kent., c. 40.)
We further learn from Fordun (Bowar) that, at the com mencement of the fifteenth century, this reliquary was still to be seen at Eipon :
" Ac nunc cambo, quern beatus Kentigernus a beato Columba receperat, in ecclesia Sancti Wilfridi de Bipoun, aureis crustulis inclusus, ac margaritarum diversitate circumstellatus, cum magna reverentia adhuc servatur." — (Scotichron., iii. 30.)
8. GOSPEL OF MARTIN, — Concerning this reliquary the old Irish Life briefly says :
" He went at another time from Deny to Tours of Martin, and brought away the Gospel that lay on Martin's breast in the ground for a hundred years, and he left it in Derry."
INTRODUCTION. XC1
In the twelfth century it was the chief reliquary of the church of Derry, and we find recorded in the Annals of Ulster, at 1166, the violation of a contract which had been solemnized in presence of the Coarb of Patrick with the Bachall Jesu, and of the Coarb of Columcille with the Gospel of Martin. But it was lost soon after; for, in 1182, "Donnell, son of Hugh O'Loughlin, marched with an army to Dunbo, in Dal-Eiada, and there gave battle to the English. The Kinel-Owen were defeated ; and Eandal O'Breslen, Gilchreest O'Kane, and many others, were killed. On this occasion the English carried off with them the Gospel of St. Martin." The legend concerning the invention of this manuscript is borrowed by 0 'Donnell from the Acts of St. Eugenius of Ardstraw and St. Mochonna, or Machar, the patron saint of Aberdeen. It relates that the people of Tours had lost the clue to the exact spot where St. Martin's remains were buried, and that on the occasion of St. Columba's visiting their city they applied to him to point out the place where the body of their patron saint lay, which he con sented to do on condition that he should receive for his portion everything found in the grave, except the bones of Martin.
" Conditione facile admissa, vir Sanctus locum, in quo sacrum corpus jacebat, indigitat, in eoque mox defosso simul cum deside- ratis exuviis cum Missarum reperiretur liber; factse sponsionis Turonenses prope pcenituit, detrectantes inventum Missale Columbae poscenti consignare, nisi ille priori beneficio alteram adhuc adderet gratiam, et Turonensi Ecclesiae administrandae aliquem e suis sociis virum sanctum et idoneum prseficiendo relinqueret. Quod ipsum posteaquam vir Sanctus annuerat, et Sanctum illis Mochonnam velut jam antea a summo Pontifice pro Turonensi sede destinatum, prsesentarat, assecutus est desideratum B. Martini librum." 1
Now, though it is very unlikely that St. Columba ever travelled beyond the British islands, the above legend is inter esting as an indication of the early connexion which existed between Ireland and the church of Tours. St. Martin is repre sented as St. Patrick's grand-uncle, and as a principal agent in his mission to Ireland. In the next age his body is reported
1 Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 436 a.
XC11 INTRODUCTION.
to have been discovered by the great monastic patron of Ire land, and his ritual transferred from Tours to Derry. And in later times the holy wells of Derry, called Tobar Martain, Tobar Adhamhnain, and Tobar Coluim, preserved the local association of his name with those of the fathers of the Columbian order.
Another account of the origin of this ancient manuscript (for that such a book, whether Martin's or Patrick's, was preserved in the diocese of Derry, is unquestionable) is, that it had be longed to St. Patrick, who, as the Tripartite Life says, when " morti vicinus, librum Evangeliorum, quo ipse dum viveret, utebatur, illi velut Euangelii observantissimo cultori, testa- mento legaverit, ex suo etiam in Ardmachia successori manda- verit certain quotannis pensionem pro eodem seponere. Prse- fatus vero Euangeliorum codex ad Columbse manus devenit, sive illi fuerat per S. Brigidam Virginem, penes quam depositus scribitur, consignatus ; sive, quod aliqua habent exemplaria, Angelico illi ministerio allatus ex D. Patricii tumulo, in quo jubente Patricio, ne in aliquas iniquas manus incideret, conditus existimatur."1 To the discovery of the manuscript in St. Patrick's grave, the following entry in the Annals of Ulster, copied from a chronicle called the Book of Guana, refers :
"The relics of Patrick were enshrined sixty years after his death by Columcille. Three precious reliquaries were found in the tomb, sc. the Cup, the Angel's Gospel, and the Bell of the Will. The angel directed Columcille to divide the three reliquaries thus: the Cup to Down, the Bell of the Will to Armagh, the Gospel of the Angel to Columcille himself. And it is called the Gospel of the Angel, because Columcille received it at the Angel's hand."
O'Donnell has transferred this anecdote into his narrative, which Colgan has imperfectly translated. That the Gospel of St. Martin and the Gospel of the Angel were supposed to be identical, appears from a poem in the Laud MS. (p. 81) begin ning Taiscfidter mo shoiscela, " My gospel shall be preserved," in which St. Patrick is represented as describing the future great ness and holiness of St. Columba; where the gloss remarks that the Gospel of St. Martin is alluded to.
1 Colgan, Tr. Th. , p. 390 b.
INTRODUCTION. xciii
9. BOOK OF DURROW. — Thus noticed by Archbishop Ussher :
" In Regio comitatu ea est, Durrogh vulgo appellata : quae monasterium habuit S. Columbse nomine insigne ; inter cujus KeifjLij\ui evangeliorum codex vetustissimus asservabatur, quern ipsius Columbse fuisse monachi dictitabant : ex quo, et non minoris antiquitatis altero, eidem Columbse assignato, quern in urbe Kelles sive Kenlis dicta Midenses sacrum habent, diligenti cum editione vulgata Latina collatione facta, in nostros usus variantium lectionum binos libellos concinnavimus."1
Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath, subsequently became possessed of it, and presented it to Trinity College, Dublin, of which institution he was Vice-Chancellor. The silver-mounted case in which this book was preserved has been lost ; but its absence is the less to be deplored, as a record of the inscription which it bore is entered, in the handwriting of the famous Koderic OTlaherty, on the fly-leaf of the manuscript :
" Inscriptio Hibernicis literis incisa cruci argentese in operimento hujus Libri in transversa crucis parte, nomen artificis indicat ; et in longitudine tribus lineis a sinistra et totidem dextra, ut se- quitur :
>|< OROIT ACUS BENDACHT CHOLUIMB CHILLE DO FHLAND MACC MAILSECHNAILL DO RIGH ERENN LAS A NDERNAD A CUM- DACH SO.
" Hoc est Latine :
^ ORATIO ET BENEDICTIO S. COLUMB^ CILLE SIT FLANNIO FILIO MALACHLE REGI HIBERNLE QUI HANG (OPERIMENTl) STRUC- TURAM FIERI FECIT.
" Flannius hie Rex Hibernise decessit 8 Kal. Maii et die Sabbati ut in MS. Cod. Hib. quod Chronicon Scotorum dicitur anno serse Christianas vulgaris 916. Hanc inscriptionem interpretatus est Ro. Flaherty 19 Jun. 1677."
Thus it appears that the book was venerable in age, and a reliquary in 916.
The remarkable colophon, which is cited at p. 242 (Orig. Ed.), appears on the last page of the capitula of St. John's Gospel, which originally closed the volume, but which has improperly been made the twelfth folio by the hands of a
1 Brit. EC. Ant., c. 15.
XC1V LNTEODUCT10N.
modern binder. Dr. Charles O'Conor has given an excellent facsimile of a page of this remarkable manuscript : but he has fallen into the strange error of confounding the Book of Kells with it, and of mixing up Lhuyd's notices of the two.1
10. BOOK OF KELLS. — This wonderful manuscript was pre served at Kells, in the county of Meath, at the time that Arch bishop Ussher wrote his Antiquities of the British Churches, as appears from his words cited in the preceding article. It had existed there for many centuries, and was traditionally called the Book of Columcille. The costly shrine with which it was enclosed nearly proved its destruction in the beginning of the eleventh century, as we learn from the Annals of Ulster, as also the Four Masters at 1006, where it is related that "the Great Gospel of Columcille was stolen at night from the western sacristy of the great church of Cenannus. This was the prin cipal relic of the western world, on account of its remarkable cover. And it was found after two months and twenty days, its gold having been stolen off, and a sod over it." Fortunately the manuscript itself sustained little injury (it received more from the plough of a modern bookbinder), and in the course of the following century its blank pages were considered a fit depository for copies of certain charters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, connected with the endowments of Kells. Archbishop Ussher became possessed of this manuscript, and after his death it was in great danger of being lost : but it escaped, and on the Eestoration it came, with what remained of the Archbishop's library, "ex dono Caroli n." into the custody of Trinity College, Dublin, where it remains, the admiration and astonishment of every one who examines it.
11. THE MISACH. — A manuscript, but of what is unknown; for, conversely to the fate of the Books of Kells and Durrow, the case remains, but its contents are gone. The custody of this reliquary was hereditary in the family of O'Morison, who
1 Her. Hib. SS., vol. i., Ep. N. p. 180, and Prol. p. 185.
INTRODUCTION. XCV
were the herenachs of Clonmany, a parish in Inishowen, and it continued in their possession till the abolition of the old church tenures reduced them to a state of penury, and they were induced to part with it. The case is of wood, overlaid with wrought silver, and is ornamented with ecclesiastical figures resembling those on the case of the Cathach, as may be seen in the published drawing.1 An inscription in two lines appears on the upper side in these words :
Brian mac Briain i Muirgiussa d o cumdaig me A. D°. M°CCCCC°XXXIIII. " Brian, son of Brian O'Muirguissan, covered me, Anno Domini 1534."
The keeper of the reliquary in 1609 was Donogh O'Morison, who was a juror at an inquisition sped that year at Lifford, where it was found that a quarter named Donally was " free to Donnogh O'Morreesen, the abbots' corbe and the busshop Derrie's herenagh of those three quarters : that the other three quarters of the said six quarters church land were given by the ODogherties and ODonnells to Collumkill, as a dedication towards his vestiments when he went to warre, which said three quarters, beinge free, were given to the auncestors of the said Donogh O'Morreeson, whoe in those daies were servaunts to Collumkills : and in the said parishe are sixe gortes of glebe, whereof three gortes belonge to the viccar, and thother fower gortes to the keeper of the missagh or ornaments left by Columkill." By this it appears that the word misach, being interpreted "ornaments," was supposed to be the plural of maise, "an ornament," and not derived, as the form of the word would indicate, from mis, " a month." This interesting reliquary having often changed hands, and having been carried away to England, finally became the property of the present Earl of Dunraven, who generously presented it to the College of St. Columba near Dublin, where it is now preserved. The following extract from an ancient tale, called The Death of
1 Betham, Ant. Res., i. 213.
XCV1 INTRODUCTION.
Muircertach mac Erca, contains the earliest allusion to this reliquary : —
" Cairnech blessed them, and left them gifts, i.e. to the Clanns Conaill and Eoghain. That when they should not be chiefs, or kings of Erin, their influence should extend over every province around them ; and that the coarbship of Ailech, and Tara, and Ulster, should be with them ; and that they should not accept hire from any one, because the sovereignty of Erin was their own in herent right ; and that their hostages should not be locked up, and that decay should come upon the hostages who should abscond ; and that they should have victory in battle, if fought in a just cause, and that they should have three standards, viz., the Cathach, and the Bell of Patrick, i.e. the Bell of the testament, and Cairnech1 s Miosach ; and that the virtue of all these should be on any one reliquary of them in time of battle, as Cairnech bequeathed them ; ut dixit" etc.
12. DUBH DUAIBSEACH. — A bell, which St. Columba is fabled to have employed in his conflict with the demons of Sengleann.1 It was probably preserved in the parish of Glencolumkille, in Donegal.
13. GLASSAN. — A bell, which formerly belonged to Drum- columbkille in Sligo, and was reputed to hava been given by the Saint to his disciple Finbarr, the first minister of that church.2
14. DUBH DIGLACH.— A bell of St. Columba's, mentioned in an old poem of the Laud manuscript (p. 28).
1 5. CLOCK KUADH.— The "Bed Stone," about which O'Donnell records the strange legend : " Simul etiam cum partu enixa est mater [Columbse] quasi lapillum quendam rubrum, vulgo Clock Euadh dictum, teretemque mali aurei magnitudine, qui in eodem prsedio religiose asservatur."3 The Donegal Inquisition of 1609 finds that two gorts in Gartan were held by " O'Nahan, who carrieth Collumkillie's read stoane." In the Laud MS. (p. 95) there is a poem ascribed to St. Columba on the virtues of the Eed Stone, wherewith he banished the demons from Sengleann. O'Donnell calls the latter a "blue stone, and speaks of it as pre served in Glencolumkille.4
1 6. MOELBLATHA. — The legend in the Preface to the hymn
1 Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 403 b. 2 Ib. p. 406 b. 3 Ib. p. 393 a. 4 Ib. p. 403 b.
INTRODUCTION. XCV11
Altus Prosator (Leabhar Breac, fol. 109 a), speaking of the mill at Hy, says : —
" Then Columkille himself lifted up the sack from the stone which is in the refectory at Hy, and the name of that stone is Moelblatha ; and he left prosperity on all food which should be placed upon it."
This may, in after times, have been one of the Black Stones of Hy which Martin makes mention of as objects of religious awe.
17. BRECBANNOCH. — Between the years 1204 and 1211, King William the Lion granted to the monks of Arbroath " custodiam de Brachbennoche," and " cum predicta Brechbennoche terram de Forglint datam Deo et sancto Columbe et le Brachbennache," on the tenure " faciendo inde servicium quod michi in exercitu debetur de terra ilia cum predicta Brachbennache." This grant is recited in the charter of Arbroath, passed by the same king in 1211-1214; and substantially repeated in a confirma tion by King Alexander II. in 1214-1218. In 1314 the con vent grants to Malcolm of Monimusk " totam terram nostram de Forglen que pertinet ad Bracbennach cum omnibus pertin- enciis suis una cum jure patronatus ecclesie ejusdem terre. . . . Dictus vero Malcolmus et heredes sui facient in exer citu domini Eegis nomine nostro servicium pro dicta terra quod pertinet ad Bracbennach quociens opus fuerit."1 From the Monimusks the lands of Forglen, with the custody of the Bracbennach, passed by inheritance to the Urrys and the Frasers, in the latter of which families they were found in 1388. In 1411 they were surrendered to the convent, and about 1420 they were conferred on Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum. In ~1$47 they had passed to his grandson, who held them of the abbot and convent by service of ward and relief, and " ferendi vexillum de Brekbennach in exercitu Eegis," and the payment of the annual rent of 40 shillings. In 1481 Alexander Irvine did homage for these lands and purtenances to the abbot, who " dixit et constituit ut tenentes regalitatis dicti monasterii de
1 Reg. Vet. Aberbrothoc, pp. 10, 5, 73, 296 ; Collections of Aberdeen, pp. 511-514, 515-516, 517.
XCVlll INTRODUCTION.
Aberbrothoc ubicumque existentes cum dicto Alexandra ad exercitum domini nostri Eegis sub le Brecbennoch videlicet sub vexillo dictorum abbatis et conventus meabunt et equitabunt cum requisiti fuerint per dictum dominum abbatem et conven- tum dicti monasterii et suos successores pro defensione Eegis et regni." In 1483 Alexander Irvine had a charter of the lands of Forglen, with the advowson of the church " faciendo in ex- ercitu domini nostri Eegis servicium de le Brekbannach debitum et consuetum." And lastly, in 1494 it was found that Alex ander Irvine was the lawful heir of Alexander Irvine of Drum, his father, in the lands of Forglen, with the advowson of the church, held as above. From these notices we learn that this reliquary was a banner, and held so sacred in the beginning of the thirteenth century that it was named in the dedication clause of the earliest charter. Also, that it was coupled with St. Columba's name, not because the abbey of Arbroath was under his invocation, for it was under that of St. Thomas of Canterbury ; nor because he was patron saint of the parish, for St. Adamnan was reputed to be so ; but, as we may conceive, because this banner was in some way connected with St. Columba's history, either by use or blessing. Possibly it was like the Vexillum Sancti CuMerti, so fatal to the Scots at Neville's Cross.
" Ther did appeare to Johne Fossour, the Prior of the Abbey at Durham, a vision commanding him to take the holie Corporax Cloth, which was within the corporax, wherewith Saint Cuthbert did cover the chalice, when he used to say masse, and to put the same holie relique, like unto a Banner, upon a speare point." l
The name Brecbannach seems to be formed from breac beannaighthe, " maculosum benedictum," and denoted some thing like the bratacha breac-mergeada, pallia maculatorum vexillorum, which were carried in the battle of Magh Eath. The Brecbannach probably served a double purpose, being, like the Banner of Cuthbert, " shewed and carried in the abbey on festivall and principall daies," and also "pre-
1 Des. Anc. Mon. of Durham (Surt. Sue.), p. 20.
INTKODUCT10N. XC1X
sented and carried to any battle, as occasion should serve." Whence King William obtained the reliquary is not stated. Probably it had been kept in the parish of Forglen by the hereditary tenants of the .church lands. Between 1172 and 1180 the king granted to the Canons of Holyrood the rights, tithes, and obventions of four churches in Cantyre, which had previously been enjoyed by the abbey of Hy ; and his grant of this reliquary, with its appurtenances, to Arbroath, may have been a transfer of a like nature.
18. CATH-BHUAIDH. — That is, Battle-victory. This was the name of a crosier, the existence and veneration of which we learn from the following passage, belonging to the year 918, which is extracted from an anonymous collection of Irish Annals preserved in the Burgundian Library at Brussels (7. c. n. 17, p. 66):—
" About the same time the Fortrenns and Lochlanns fought a battle. Bravely indeed the men of Alba fought this battle, for Columkille was aiding them ; for they had prayed to him most fervently, because he was their apostle, and it was through him that they received the faith, One time, when Imhar Coming was a young man, he came to Alba, with three great battalions, to plunder it. The men of Alba, both lay and clerics, fasted, and prayed till morning to God and Columcille ; they made earnest entreaty to the Lord ; they gave great alms of food and raiment to the churches and the poor, received the body of the Lord at the hands of their priests, and promised to do all kinds of good works, as their clergy would order them, and that their standard in going forth to any battle should be the crosier of Columkille. Where fore it is called the Cath-bhuaidh from that day to this. And this is a befitting name for it ; for they have often gained victory in battle by it, as they did at that time, when they placed their hope in Columbkille. They did the same on this occasion. The battle was bravely fought at once. The Albanians gained victory and triumph, killed many of the Lochlanns after their defeat ; and their king was slain on the occasion, namely, Ottir, son of larngna. It was long after until either the Danes or Lochlanns attacked them ; but they were at peace and harmony with them."
INTRODUCTION.
VII.
THE St. Columba's history belongs to the period of the Irish Church OF HT when the Secundus Ordo of saints prevailed, and his name, with those of the Brendans, Comgall, and Cainnech, whom Adanman records with honour as his special friends, appears in the cata logues of its worthies. This order may be regarded as the development of a native ministry, whose system possessed more nationality than that of their predecessors, and took a deeper impress from the customs and condition of the country. Its characteristics were : " Pauci episcopi, et multi presbyteri ; diversas missas celebrabant, et diversas regulas ; unum Pascha xiv. Luna; unam tonsuram ab aure ad aurem; abnegabant mulierum administrationem, separantes eas a monasteriis." The diversity of liturgical practice probably arose from the mixed character of the Primus Ordo, which was composed of Eomans, Francs, Britons, and Egyptians ; and their conventual discipline varied in intensity with the tempers or ascetic habits of the framers. They agreed, however, in their preference of the pres- byterate ; their observance of the old-fashioned Easter ; the anterior Eastern tonsure ; and seclusion from female society. It is a remarkable fact that many of the monastic churches, which grew in after times to be bishops' sees, were founded by presbyters : Clonard, by Finnian ; Clonmacnois, by Ciaran ; Clonfert, by Brendan ; Aghabo, by Cainnech ; Glendaloch, by Kevin ; Lismore, by Carthach ; and Derry, Kaphoe, and Hy, by Columba. The great promoters of the conventual system sought no higher order than such as would enable them, con sistently with the vows of humility, to administer the sacra ments, and conduct the ordinary devotions of their fraternities. The abbatial office gave them all the jurisdiction of the episco pate, without its responsibilities ; and little more was left to the bishop than the essence of his office, the transmission of holy orders, with the personal reverence which was due to the holder of so important a commission. Another element in the Irish monastic system was its social connexions. Every great
INTRODUCTION. Cl
monastery was a centre of family relation, and served as a school or asylum for all who were of patron's or founder's kin. This particular was most strikingly exemplified in the case of Hy, as may be seen in the genealogical table of the early abbots annexed to this Introduction, which shows that the abbacy was, with one or two exceptions, strictly limited to a branch of the Tir-Conallian family. It shows, also, that there was no lineal succession in Hy, as there was in many other Irish monasteries, where secular interests so far prevailed as to make the abbacy hereditary, and ultimately to frustrate the founder's intention by the extinction of conventual observance, and the virtual transference of the endowments to lay possession, as in Bangor, or by the repetition of irregularities such as St. Bernard com plains of in the case of Armagh.1
These sixth-century monasteries were as rapid in their growth as they were numerous in their creation. St. Finnian's of Clonard is said to have numbered 3000 members, St. Corn- gall's of Bangor the same amount, and St. Brendan's parochia 3000 more. The ramifications of these houses spread exactly in the same manner as St. Columba's, and, for a time, were fully equal in extent to his; but they wanted the severalty of position which the Columbian centre enjoyed ; they had no Pictish race to convert ; and, above all, they had no Adamnan to perpetuate the honours of their founders.
Whether St. Columba or any of his contemporaries composed and promulgated a systematic rule like St. Benedict's is very doubtful. Eeyner expressed his opinion in the negative ; and though Fleming and O'Conor have condemned him for the assertion, they have failed in proving the affirmative of the question. Wilfrid, indeed, spoke at the synod of Whitby of regula acprcecepta of Columba,2 and in the Lives of some of the Irish saints the term regula occurs, but generally in the sense of " discipline " or " observance ; " while the mention of written rules is rare and legendary. There certainly existed, in the middle ages, not only a great diversity in monastic practice,
1 Vit. S. Malachiae, caps. 5 and 7. 2 Berle, Hist. EC., iii. 25.
Cll INTRODUCTION.
but also an understanding that the fathers of the Irish Church had established and denned a variety of orders. An ancient Life of Ciaran of Clonmacnois limits them to eight, and enume rates them under the names of " S. Patricii, Brandani, Kierani Cluanensis, Columbae Hiensis, cujus ordo dicebatur Pulchrce Societatis, Comgalli, Adamnani, Brigidse, Molassi seu Lisriani;"1 but the recital is evidently arbitrary, for St. Adamnan, instead of being the author of a new rule, was unable to induce the society of which he was ninth abbot to accept the reformed Paschal canon. Possibly, the biographer supposed, as did Ussher in a later age, and others after him, that the Lex of Adamnan, Patrick, Ciaran, Brendan, etc., mentioned in the Irish Annals, denoted formulas of monastic government. Ussher further states that the rules of Columbakilli, Comgall, Mochutta, and Albe were extant in the manuscript from which he pub lished his catalogue of the saints, but " Hibernico sermone antiquissimo exaratse et nostris temporibus pene ignorabili." 2 It was probably from this or a similar collection that the Irish Rules, preserved in the Brussels MS., were transcribed. Through the exertions of the Eev. Dr. Todd, copies of them have been obtained in this country, and by his kind permission the present writer was enabled, in 1850, to print the Eule of St. Columba in the Appendix to Colton's Visitation of Deny (p. 109). It differs from the others in being written in prose. They are all very ancient compositions, but totally insufficient to convey any definite idea of the peculiarities of the orders to which they profess respectively to belong. Colgan, who lived before the dispersion of Irish records, and had the best opportunity of discovering such literary monuments, was not aware of the existence of any other Eule of St. Columba but the one just mentioned, and it is evident that he attached but little import ance to it, as he has omitted to print it among St. Columba's supposed compositions, and contents himself with stating that he had sent a Latin translation of it to a contemporary writer. The Eule of St. Columbanus and the Pcenitentials of him and
1 Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 471 b. a Usslier, Brit. EC. Ant, c. 17.
INTRODUCTION. ciii
Cummian, are the only remains of Irish monastic discipline which have descended to us, and these have probably been modified by the peculiar institutions of the countries where they were observed ; and when they are compared with the Bene dictine Rule, in all its beauty of piety, eloquence, and method, it is to be wondered how a lesser light could shine beside it, and even the one meagre Irish Rule have been transmitted to us. When saying that Columbanus's is the only Irish Rule which has descended to us, it may be well to mention that Lucas Holstenius has printed two Rules — one intituled Cu- jusdam Patris Regula ad Monachos, consisting of thirty-two chapters ; and the other, Cujusdam Patris Eegula ad Virgines, of twenty-four chapters — which Calmet has attributed to St. Comgall, but Holstenius's editor to St. Columba. This, how ever, is mere conjecture, which is not supported even by the style or matter of the compositions. In the same collection there is an Ordo Monasticus, purporting to be an ancient rule of discipline, " ab antiquis monachis Scotis sub exordio susceptse Christianas religionis observatus," and which Holstenius's editor considers the most ancient monument of all the monks of the West, and worthy of ranking next to the institutions of Cassian, and the rule of Pachomius. But a document which opens, as it does, with an account of the Culdees of Culros, and derives the term Keledeus from cella, however venerable it may appear to a German, must savour to a Scot of mediaeval antiquity, especially when it is found, almost totidem vcrbis, in Ricemarch's Life of David, as the discipline of the Menevian saint. > It is not necessary to reprint in this Introduction the only existing ftegula Choluim-chille, because it is a formula intended more for a hermit than a member of a social community, and the book in which it is printed can readily be consulted. The following scheme, which is entirely new in its construction, is derived principally from Adamnan, to whose narrative re ference is made by the number of the page in the present edition. Bede and other authorities afford some particulars of information which are acknowledged in their place.
CIV INTRODUCTION.
1. CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNITY.
Conventual life was considered a special militia Christi (133, 159), and they who adopted it were looked upon as Christi milites (116, 215 passim), in reference to their Leader, and com- militaries (139, 171, 173, 196) as regarded one another. Each one professed his readiness Deo exhibere hostiam (133), by with drawing from the cares of the world, and a willingness to enter it only as an athleta Christi (Vit. Munnae) in the propagation of the Gospel (Bede, iii. 3). The society, termed ccenobialis coetus (111), or collegium monachorum (Bede, iii. 5), consisted essentially of an Abbot and Family.
The Abbot, called abbas (113), or pater (106, 213), or sanctus pater (1 1 5), or sanctus senior (1 1 5, 137), and, in the founder's case, patronus (1 07, 1 1 5, 1 9 1, 2 1 1, 2 14, 2 1 6), had his seat at the matrix ecclesia (1 1 9), which was situate in Hy, the insula primaria (1 1 1) of his society ; but his jurisdiction equally extended over the affiliated churches, which either he in person (116, 143, 147, 182), or his disciples (132, 135, 173) founded in Ireland (xlix-lx) or in Scotland (Ix-lxxi), which he occasionally visited (116, 147), and regulated (127, 187), and ministered in (205), and whose respective Superiors, prcepositi (131, 132, 140, 163), received their charge from him (131, 143), and were subject to his orders, even when ministering in churches of their own foundation (132, 136). In ecclesiastical rank he was a presbyter, and officiated at the altar (142, 201, 205, 211), and pronounced absolution (131), but was not a bishop ; hence he was emphatically styled abbas et presbyter. But this observ ance, which had its origin in choice, and its continuance in precedent, by no means implied a usurpation or disregard of the episcopal office; for there were at all times bishops con nected with the society, resident at Hy or some dependent church, who were subject to the abbot's jurisdiction — that is, who rendered him conventual obedience, agreeably to their monastic vow ; whose acts were performed on the responsi bility of the abbot, or in the name of the community ; and who
INTRODUCTION. CV
were assigned their stations, or called in to ordain, very much as the bishops of the Unitas Fratrum in the present day, being regarded as essential to the propagation of the Church rather than its maintenance; and who, therefore, had as little authority in the internal economy of the society as the bishop had in the Irish monastery of Bobio, or the diocesan in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin. Still the essential function of the episcopal office was scrupulously maintained : when a presbyter^was to be ordained, the bishop was called in ; when a distant province was to be brought within the Christian pale, a bishop was consecrated for the creation of a local ministry, and successors to him ordained and sent forth from time to time ; and when an accredited candidate came even from Ireland to Hy, he in like manner was invested with the highest ecclesiastical orders. Nor was this an observance of mere form, while the office was held in low esteem ; on the other hand, the great founder set the example of veneration for the episcopate (152), and, as the ninth presbyter-abbot relates (142), in the service of his own mother-church and from the altar, disclaimed all pretensions to equality with one of episcopal rank. This was no more than was to be expected from a presbyter who had served as a deacon (152, 169) in a monastery where presbyters, called from their chief function ministri altaris (152), lived under the presidency of a bishop (152, 196) ; one who received the hospitality of another bishop (147); one who instituted a feast in memory of a bishop who was carus amicus (202) ; and whose own institution was frequented by bishops from Ireland (119, 142) for communion and edification. The abbot was wont on extraordinary occasions to summon the brethren to the oratory (120, 187), even in the dead of night (127), and there address them from the altar (120, 127, 187, 202), and solicit their prayers. Occasionally he instituted a festival, published a holi day, and enjoined the celebration of the Eucharist (201, 202) ; as occasion offered, he dispensed with a fast (129, 130), or relaxed penitential discipline (127), or regulated its intensity (180). He
ff
CV1 INTRODUCTION.
gave licence of departure (119), which he signified by his bene diction (116, 125, 126, 133, 143,155). He was saluted by pro stration (115). He forbade, at pleasure, admission to the island (128). When he thought fit, he despatched a chosen brother on a distant mission (125, 132, 154, 156, 179), or for monastic purposes (139, 153). He had the control of the temporalities (140, 153, 180). When at home he was attended (129, 131, 135, 203, 208, 209), except when he signified his wish to be alone (204, 206, 208). When abroad, he was accompanied by a party (131, 134, 164, 170, 173, 174, 177, 191, 203) who were styled mri sociales (164) ; and he preached (173) or baptized (134, 159, 173, 203) as occasion offered. The founder inaugurated the first independent king of Scotch Dalriada in Hy (197), and the ceremony was probably continued as an honorary function of the abbot (213). The founder also named his own successor (1 1 5, 2 1 3), who had been his alumnus (1 1 5, 206), and a prcepositus (126), whose qualifications were that he was sanctus, sapiens, affabilis, peregrinis appetibilis (115), and experienced non solum docendo sed etiam scribendo (213). The third abbot had been &prcepositus (131). In the election, preference was given to founder's kin ; and hence it happened that of the eleven immediate successors of the founder there is but one (Suibhne, sixth abbot) whose pedigree is uncertain, and but one (Conna- mail, tenth abbot) whose descent was confessedly from another house. The surrender of the old Easter and Tonsure, in 7 1 6, broke down family prescription, and henceforward the abbacy became an open appointment. The Table annexed to this Introduction, which has been constructed from the genealogies in the Book of Lecan and in Colgan, will show to the reader at a glance the connexion which existed between the early abbots, and their relation to the royal family ; and while it proves that abbacy was not transmitted in lineal succession, it will demon strate the existence of clanship even in a religious community. The Family, vernacularly called muintir, and in Latin familia (An. Ult. 640, 690, 716, 748), consisted offratres (112, 155, 208) or commemibrcs (187), whom the founder styled mei familiare-s
INTRODUCTION. evil
-monaehi (211, 212, 216), or mei electi monacki (183), and endearingly addressed as filioli (171, 207, 213, 216). They were at first twelve in number (Ixxi, 196), and natives of Ireland ; but their society soon increased, and included Britons (198) and Saxons (201, 209). The brethren, of tried devoted- ness, were called senior es (188, 200) ; those who were strong for labour, operarii fratres (210) ; and those who were under instruction, junior es (116), alumni (208), or pueri familiares (117). Besides the congregation, or collectio (200), of professed members, there were generally present peregrini (133, 143, 198), who were sometimes called proselyti (129, 132, 133, 142); or pcenitentes(\W, 131, 180); or hospites (118, 123, 124), whose sojourn was of varied length (133, 180, 198).
2. DISCIPLINE.
The principle of Obedience is embodied in the precept of Columbanus, "Ad primum verbum senioris omnes ad obedi- endum audientes surgere oportet, quia obedientia Deo exhibetur, dicente Domino nostro Jesu Christo : Qui vos audit me audit ;" and the measure of obedience is defined to be usque ad mortem^ It is reasonable to suppose that this essential of monastic order was strictly observed in the Columbian system. Hence the readiness of the brethren to prepare on the shortest notice for a long and wearisome journey (132), or a distant and hazardous voyage (125, 154, 156, 179), or to do the service of the monastery (153), or to submit to exposure in out-door work, at the local Superior's desire, during the most inclement weather (131), or to undertake an office of responsibility, though by a nephew's order (143). Hence the acquiescence in an injunction to intermit a custom (204), and the severe rebuke which attended a viola tion of his command (204, 205, 210). The obedientia sine mora of the Benedictine Eule was evidenced in Hy by the alacrity with which the abbot's orders were executed (145, 156, 162), and the speed with which a distant brother forsook the church of his sojourn, and hastened, at the abbot's call, to Hy, there to
1 Regula, cap. i.
CV111 INTRODUCTION.
abide in vera obedientia (132). Obedience, however, had its limit to things lawful ; for Adamnan, when abbot, was unable to effect a change in the observance of Easter.
The members had all things common. Personal property was disclaimed, according to the injunction in Columba's here- mitical Eule : Imnochta do gres do sechem ar Christ ocus ar na soscela, " Be always naked in imitation of Christ, and [in obe dience to] the precepts of the Gospel."1 Similar to this was the maxim of Columbanus, " Nuditas et facultatum contemptus prima perfectio est monachorum," after the precept, "si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum."2
Though St. Columba was desirous to promote conjugal happi ness (184, 185), and he was held in veneration by the other sex (156, 181, 184), there can be no doubt that celibacy was strictly enjoined on his community, and the condition, " virgo corpore et virgo mente,"3 held up for imitation. Hence we find a monk discharging an office usually assigned to women (162), and hence the total absence of anything like hereditary succes sion in the abbacy of Hy. A learned and ingenious writer in a modern journal has proved to a demonstration, from the native Annalists, that a lineal succession of abbots existed in many of the Irish monasteries during the ninth and following centuries, but he has failed to include the coarbs of Columba in the class; and a comparison of his premises with the Genealogical Table annexed to this Introduction will show that he has mistaken names for persons. Marriage, no doubt, existed among the secular clergy, but the practice seems to have been disapproved of by the regulars ; and thus we may qualify the story told of St. Comgall's preceptor, " Quadani nocte cum Clericus ille cum muliere dormisset ; " and Adamnan's narrative of the clericus of Magh Breg, "dives et honoratus in plebe," who died "cum meretrice in eodem lectulo Cubans" (138).
In their intercourse with one another, the monks of this order appear to have been virtually regulated by the precept of Colum-
1 Eeeves's Colt. Visit., p. 109. 2 Reg., c. 4. 3 77>. c. 6.
INTRODUCTION. cix
banus, "Cura cautela et ratione loquendum est." Of such reserve the anecdote told of the monks and Baithene (136, 137) affords an example. Between the abbot and the brethren there seems to have been no restraint (186, 200) ; and as regards the society at large, the objects of their system were too practical, and their engagements too much characterized by common sense, to im pose any restraint in conversation but such as conduced to the purity or decorum of the members.
Another monastic principle was Humility, which was exem plified both in demeanour towards superiors and in dejection after sin. A visitor on bended knees bowed down before the founder (198) and his successor (115); and even before a sub ordinate senior the brethren made known their wishes upon their knees (137). The penitent fell on his knees weeping (132). St. Benedict's injunction was " Omnibus venientibus sive dis- cedentibus hospitibus, inclinato capite vel prostrate omni corpore in terra, Christus in eis adoretur qui et suscipitur."1 To the same principle may be attributed the custom which was common to St. Benedict and St. Comgall, and which probably extended to St. Columba, as a received observance of the time, " Si quis frater pro quavis minima causa, ab abbate vel a quocunque priore suo corripiatur, sine rnora tandiu prostratus in terra ante pedes ejus jaceat satisfaciens usque dum benedictione sanetur ilia commotio."2 St. ComgalTs Life says, "Mos erat in monas- terio sancti patris Comgalli, ut si quis alium increparet, quamvis Hie esset culpabilis aut inculpabilis, statim qui increpabatur genua humiliter flecteret." 3 The strict observance of this regula tion is exemplified by legends showing the extraordinary lengths to which compliance with the letter of the precept was carried.
Hospitality, so leading a feature in ancient monasticism, was developed in Hy in the fulness of national generosity : hence, a large portion of Adamnan's anecdotes have reference to the entertainment of strangers; and the story of the heron (145) serves as a lively illustration of the kind reception which was
1 Reg., cap. 53. » Reg., cap. 71. 3 Cap. 23 (Flem. Coll., p. 307 6).
CX INTRODUCTION.
always in store for the visitor. "When a stranger arrived, he was sometimes introduced at once to the abbot, by whom he was kissed (129, 133); sometimes the interview was deferred (115, 180). When an expected guest arrived, the abbot and brethren went to meet and welcome him (118,132,143). He was conducted to the oratory (117, 177, 186), and thanks returned for his safety. From this he was led to a lodging, hospitium (133), and water prepared to wash his feet (118). If the visitor happened to arrive on an ordinary fast- day of the week, the fast was re laxed in his favour (130), consolatio cibi (127) was allowed, and he was said jejunationem solver e (130). Almsgiving was held in high esteem (166), and the founder, on several occasions, befriended the poor (164, 178). An instance is recorded where valuable presents, under the name of xenia, were sent to a man in need (140). Itinerant beggars, who went about with wallets (165), were not held in such esteem. The monastery was resorted to for medical relief also (130). Grievous transgressors were excluded (128).
As regarded Divine Worship, the days of the year were either ordinary or solennes (152, 202). On the former it is likely that the customary cursus or synaxis was performed at the canonical hours; for, although Adamnan is silent on the subject, the Life of St. Cainnech mentions a case in which None was observed in Hy, and it is not likely that the Columbian usage would have differed from the general monastic practice of the age. The brethren who were employed on the farm were not required to attend during the day (136), and fatigue after their labour would probably demand unbroken sleep at night. The congregation was summoned to the oratory signno personate (187, 202), that is, by the sound of the bell (120, 214), both on stated and extraordinary occasions. Being assembled, they proceeded to the oratory, sometimes in attendance on the abbot (202), sometimes with less regularity (120, 214). At night they carried lanterns with them (214).
The dies solennes were the dies Dominicce and Sanctorum natales (190, 201), which were solemnized in the same
INTRODUCTION. Cxi
manner, by rest from labour, the celebration of the Eucharist, and the use of better food (155). The festival commenced after the sunset of the preceding day (190, 201, 211), and its stated services were the Vespertinalis missa (15G, 195, 213), Matutini (214), Prime (201), Tierce, Sext (190), and probably None (145, 160, 179). The chief service, missarum solemnia (139, 201, 206), was sometimes at Prime (201), or at Sext (190) : on such an occasion the cantores (202) chanted the wonted office, in the course of which there was a commemoration by name of certain saints (202). In the sacra Eucharistice minis- teria (201), also called sacra mysteria (202, 206),s#mg ollationis mysteria (139), or obsequia (201, 202), wine (152), and water, which was drawn by the deacon and set down in an nrceus (152), and bread (142), were provided : the priest (139) standing before the altar (206) proceeded to consecrate, sacra Eucharistice consecrare mysteria (205), sacram oblationem consecrare (206), sacra Eucharistice mysteria conficere (139), Christi corpus conftcere (142). When several priests were present, one was selected for the office (139, 205), who might invite a presbyter ut simul Dominicum panemf ranger ent in token of equality (142). When a bishop officiated at the altar, he brake the bread alone, in token of his superior office (142). The brethren then approached the altar, and partook of the Eucharist (180, 181).
On extraordinary occasions the abbot summoned the brethren by the sound of the bell to the oratory (120, 187, 202), even in the dead of night (127), on which occasions he addressed them as they stood in their places (187), and having asked, their prayers ($.), he kneeled down himself at the altar ($.), and sometimes prayed with tears (ib.) Sometimes the abbot (161, 184, 207), or a brother (207, 208), rose from his bed even in a winter night (205, 207), and proceeded alone to the oratory for private devotion (ib.\ and if the door was closed, prayed outside (208). Occasionally the founder retired in the day time to a thicket to pray (170), and even in Hy,it was his prac tice to retire in winter nights to lonely places for prayer (199, 205). In all these cases the secular abode was avoided ;
CXil INTRODUCTION.
but in cases of sickness the abbot was wont to pray beside the patient's bed, in a standing (172, 173, 198) or kneeling (173) posture.
The chief Festival was the Paschalis solemnitas (180, 210), on which occasion the