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 CANONS

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CANONS

general suppression of monasteries, that the number of houses they are said to have had seems incredible. They alone possessed, or had been masters of, as many houses as all the other orders together, and almost all the chapters of the cathedral and collegiate churches in Ireland consisted of canons regular". To these authorities we might add that of the Rev. R. Butler, who, in his notes to the "Registrum Omnium Sanc- torum", expressly affirms that the "old foundations in Ireland wire exclusively for Canons". We might also quote the words of Bishop Thomas de Burgo, who. in his " Bibernia Dominicana", does not hesitate that St. Patrick was a canon regular, and that, having preached the Christian Faith in Ireland, he established there many monasteries of the canonical institute. Alter this no one will think that the same writer exaggerates when he appends to his work a cat- alogue of 231 monasteries which at some time or other belonged to canons and canonesses regular. The Irish clerics became the most learned scholars in Europe. Ireland's seats of learning, monasteries, nunneries, and charitable institutions were unsurpassed 1 either in number or excellence by those of any nation in the world. The Abbots or Priors of Christ Church and All Hallows in Dublin, of Connell, Kells, Athessel, Kil- lagh, Newton, and Raphoe had seats in Parliament. There seems very little dqubt that the canonical institute was introduced into Scotland by St. Col- umba. This saint, called "monasteriorum pater et fundator", in reference to the numerous churches and monasteries built either by him or by his disciples in Ireland and Scotland, was formed to the religious life in the monastery of St. Finnian. The Anglo-Saxon Chronii 65, relates that Columba, Mass-

preosl (Mass priest), "came to the Picts to convert <'i, as another manuscript says: "This year. 565, Columba the Messa-preost. came from the parts of the Scots (Ireland) to the Britons to teach the Picts, and built a monastery in the island of Ily". To what order this monastery, founded by Columba, belonged, we may judge from other monas-

buill bytnesainl in Ireland and Scotland. As we have already stated. St. Columba was the disciple of St. Finnian. who was a follower of St. Patrick; both then had learned and embraced the regular life which the great Apostle had established in Ireland. Moreover, such writers as Ware, de Burgo, Axchdall, Cardinal Moran, Bower, expressly tell us that Col- umba built monasteries for canons regular in Ireland and Scotland. So. for instance. Ware, in his "Anl- iquitates Hiberniaj", writing of Deny, says: "St.

iba built [this monastery] for Canons Regular in the year 545. This monastery was a filiation of the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul at Armagh" — which, according to the same writer, had been founded by "St. Patrick for Canons Regular". Again, tradi- tion plaices the first landing of the saint on leaving Ireland at Oronsay, and Fordun (Bower) notices the island as "Hornsey, ubi est monasterium oigrorum Canonicorum, quod fundavif S. Columba" (wi the monastery of Black Canons which Si. Columba founded). Speaking of the very monastery built by the saint at By, another historian. Gervase of Canter- bury, in his " Mappa mundi", informs us that the

' l the Black I 'anons. It may be hen tin place to mention the opinion of some writers who think that the monasteries estab- lished by Si. Columba in Scotland were for Culdees. It will be remembered that numerous opinions have

been expressed concerning the origin and the institute of the Culdees. some calling them monks, some secular canons and hospitallers, and others going so far as to say that they were Independents, or Dissenters, nay even the forefathers of the modern Freemasons. The [1 writer, on the other hand, is of opinion that the Culdees originally, and some even to the very end, were nothing else but clerics living in common just as

those St. Patrick had established in Ireland and St. Columba had introduced into Scotland.

At the time of the Reformation there were in Scot- land at least thirty-four houses of canons regular and one of canonesses. These included six Premonstra- tensian houses, one Gilbertine, and one of the Order of St. Anthony. The others seem to have been chiefly of the Aroasian Congregation, first introduced into Scotland from Xostall Priory, in England. The chief houses were: St. Andrews, the Metropolitan of Scot- land, founded by Angus, King of the Picts. — The church was at first served by Culdees, but in 1144 Bishop Robert, wdio had been a canon regular at Scone, established here members of his own commu- nity. The prior was mitred and could pontificate. In Parliament he had precedence of all abbots and priors. — Scone, founded by King Alexander I. — Here the Scottish kings were crowned. The stone on which the coronation took place was said to be that on which Jacob rested his head; it is now at West- minster, having been removed by Edward I. Tradi- tion says that the Culdees were at Scone before Alex- ander brought canons regular from Xostall Priory in 1115. Holy Rood, of which King David was the founder, in 1128. for canons regular, in the "vail that lyis to the Eist frae the Castell, quhare now lyis the Cannongait", and which at that time was part of "ane gret forest full of hartis, hyndis, toddis and sick- like manner of beistis", as Bellenden, the translator of Bower, expresses it. This famous abbey was burnt down, at the instigation of John Knox, in 1544, but some efforts were made to restore Divine service in the chapel as late as 1688, for in that year Father G. Hay, a Scotch canon regular, of the French congrega- tion, performed there a funeral, as he says, "in his habit with surplice and aulmess after tile rites of Rome". Next the abbey was the Royal Palace, and we no told that the Scottish kings often went —

Unto the saintly convent, with good monks to dine And quaff to organ music the pleasant cloister wine.

Many of the houses founded by St. Columba re- mained in possession of the canons till the time of the Reformation. Oronsay and Crusay were of the number.

Much valuable information concerning many of the canonical houses may be found in Fordun's Scoti- Chronicon, written before 1384 (ed. Skene, Edinburgh, 1871 72). As Walter Bower, its nml inuator and annotator, was a canon regular, and abbot of Inch- cohn, he no doubt derived all his materials at first hand from t he archives of the order, and thus many important particulars are related by him concerning the foundations of the houses, their inmates, and par- ticular events.

There are not wanting writers who, on the au- thority of Jocelin, William of Malmsbury, "fiesta Pontificum", and others, are of opinion that the canonical order was established in Britain by St. Patrick, on his return from Home to Ireland. Be this as it may, the Saxon conquerors of the country extir- pated not only the religious establishments, but al- most the very Faith of Christ from the land. The faithful either were obliged to dwell in the fastnesses of Wales or were made slaves. It was in these cir- cumstances that Po the Great sent to England St. Augustine with forty clerics, who accord- ing to the Bull of Pope Eugenius IV (quoted by Lin- gard in bis Anglo-Saxon Church, I. iv), by which, in I 1 111. he restored the bateran Basilica to the canons regular, formed a Canonical Institute. Speaking of

tl rder founded by the Apostles and n formed by

the holy Bishop of Hippo, the pope says: " 1 '■ Gregory commanded St. Augustine, the Bishop of England, to establish it as a new plantation among the nation entrusted to his care, and spread it to thi utmost distant parts of the West." And William of