A.D. 450. CHAP. III. lows." The spot pleased St Patrick, and he determined to erect here a church, and a cloister for the clergy and the many ardent candidates for the monastic life who flocked to him from all sides, and of both sexes2. The foundations of the church were accordingly laid, and round it rose by degrees, the city of Armagh, the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland, and here its founder spent the remainder of his life, only leaving it now and then to visit his favourite retreat at Saul, round which clustered the memories of his earliest labours, and of his first convert Dichu. Farly Irish A.D. 456. Here, too, when the see was established, having called to his aid the bishops Auxilius and Isserninus, who next to himself were best qualified for the work by age and long experience, he proceeded to hold several synods, and to make regulations for the general government of the Irish churches. The canons of two of these have been preserved; one of which is called simply the Synod of St Patrick, and the other the Synod of Bishops, that is, Patrick, Auxilius, and Isserninus. "Under the head of the former," says Dr Lanigan, "are some canons, which seem to have been enacted at a later period, or perhaps in some other country; but among the canons of the latter, with one or two exceptions, we meet with nothing to make us doubt that it was really held in Ireland, and by those bishops." They give us the idea of a church which had attained considerable maturity, they mention not only bishops, priests, and deacons, abbots, monks, and nuns, but inferior orders, such as the ostiarii and lectores. In reference to the discipline of the clergy they are very 1 "The Annals of Ulster refer the foundation of Armagh to 444." O'Donovan in Annals of Four Masters, p. 143. The Annals of the Four Masters to 457. 2 66 Accepit ergo ab eo (Daire) placitum sibi, et ædificavit in eo monasteria et habitationes religiosorum virorum; in quo loco jam civitas est Ardmach nominata sedes et episc. patus et regiminis Hiberniæ." Probus, III. 7. Lanigan, I. 314. 3 Ibid. 1. 331. A.D. 456-460. strict'. A clerk must not wander about from place to CHAP. III. place; in a strange diocese he must not baptize, nor offer the Eucharist, nor discharge any spiritual function. A bishop, in like manner, must not presume to ordain in a diocese not his own, without the permission of its diocesan, but on the Lord's day he may assist in the offering of the Eucharist; a priest who has been excommunicated, may be again admitted to the communion, but can never recover his degree; if he come from Britain, he cannot be allowed to officiate without a letter of recommendation; if he receive another who has been excommunicated, both must suffer the same punishment. The sixth Canon directs the wife of a priest, when abroad, to appear veiled; in the eighth we trace signs of the ancient combat of the "trial of truth;" "if a clerk," it enacts, "become surety for a heathen, and be deceived, he shall pay the debt; if he enter into the lists with him, he shall be put out of the pale of the Church." The sixteenth lays a penance on those, who fall into any heathen practice, or from a desire to search into future events, have recourse to soothsaying, or the inspection of the entrails of beasts. Another expressly forbids any alms offered by pagans being received into the Church. These canons indicate a certain amount of progress in the Church for which they are designed, and shew that the work of the missionary had begun to take root. This work he still continued; even in his retirement at Armagh, and Saul, he was still content to spend and be spent in behalf of the Church he had founded and loved so well, and which, though solicited again and again, nothing, not even the 1 Spelman's Concilia Orbis Bri tannici, pp. 52, 53, Reeves' Ecclesiastical Antiquities, p. 137, and n. "Quicunque Clericus... si non more Romano capilli ejus tonsi sint, et uxor ejus si non velato capite ambulaverit, pariter a laicis contemnen tur, et ab ecclesia separentur." Spel- 3 "Clericus si pro gentili homine CHAP. III. A.D. 460-465. His death. wish to see his relatives, could induce him to leave. In his Confession, written when now advanced in years, and expecting "the time of his departure," he touchingly describes how he had often been requested to revisit his kinsmen according to the flesh, but how a sense of the spiritual bond to the flock he had begotten in Christ, ever retained him in Ireland. He wrote this treatise, he declares, for the sake of these his kinsfolk, that they, especially those who had opposed his advancement to the episcopate, might know how the Lord had prospered his work in the land of his captivity; he reviews his labours, and calls God to witness how he had sought the spiritual advancement of his people. And, indeed, making all due allowance for the circumstances of the times, his work had been no trivial one. He and his associates had made for themselves by the labour of their own hands, civilized dwellings amid the tangled forests, and the dreary morass. At a time when clan-feuds and bloodshed were rife and common, and kings rose and fell suddenly from their thrones, and all else was stormy and changeful, they had covered the island with monasteries, where very soon the Scriptures began to be studied, ancient books collected and read, and missionaries were trained for their own country, and, as we shall see, for the rest of Europe. Every monastic establishment was an outpost of civilization amidst the surrounding heathenism; and to reclaim the tribes from their superstitions, to revise their old laws and usages, was a work in which the Irish monks engaged, as the one object of their lives. The Apostle of Ireland lived to a good old age, and the sunset of his life was calm and peaceful. It was while he was in retirement at Saul that he was seized with his last illness. Perceiving that his end drew nigh, and desiring that Armagh should be the resting-place of his remains, he set out thither, but was unable to continue the journey. Increasing weakness, and, as it seemed to him, the voice of an angel, bade him return to the Church of his CHAP. III. first convert, and there, after a short interval', the patron- AD. 460-465. saint of Ireland departed this life, leaving behind him the visible memorials of a noble work nobly done in a Church, which was for a long time the light of the West, being protected by native chiefs, and superintended by a numerous native clergy. 1 On the vexed question of the date of St Patrick's death, see the arguments in Lanigan, I. pp. 355-363. He decides for A.D. 465, the gene rally received date is March 17, 493. CHAPTER IV. ST COLUMBA AND THE CONVERSION OF THE PICTS. A.D. 480-597. "Insula Pictorum quædam monstratur in oris Qua sanctus Domini requiescit carne Columba." CHAP. IV. BUT "though dead," the Apostle of Ireland still continued A.D. 465–490. to speak in the unremitting energy of his successors. Be Rise of Irish nignus, the next metropolitan of Armagh, who had been in early youth attracted by the winning influence of St Patrick, and had been his most constant companion during the entire period of his mission, preached the Gospel in those parts of the country which his predecessor had not visited'. With a view to the further consolidation of the Church he set the example, which his successors Jarlath, Cormac, and Dubtach studiously followed, of increasing the number of schools and monastic foundations throughout the country. Amongst these may be mentioned the schools of Armagh, of Fiech at Sletty, of Mel at Ardagh, of Moctha in Louth, of Olcan at Derkan, of Finnian at Clonard, of Comgall at Bangor, in the county of Down, all which were founded at various periods during the fifth and sixth centuries. Nor was provision wanting for such women as wished to give themselves up to a monastic life. Societies were formed, of which that of St Brigid at Kildare was the 1 Lanigan, I. 374. Lanigan, I. 402, 403, and 464. |