Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/25

 Chuinn-Ched-Chathaigh,' 'The Ecstasy (or Prophecy) of Conn of the Hundred Battles,' and another entitled 'Bailé an Scáil,' or 'The Champion's Ecstasy,' said to have been delivered to him ; but the ascription of these compositions to his age only proves his celebrity at the period in which they were written. He was termed 'Cead Cathach,' generally translated 'of the hundred battles,' because, according to the 'Annals of Clonmacnois,' he fought exactly that number, but cathach is an adjective which Colgan elsewhere translates præliator. The true meaning, therefore, is 'the hundred battler,' or fighter of hundreds of battles ; and this is borne out by a poem quoted by Keating, in which 260 battles are attributed to him.

The dates followed for the accession and death of Conn are those of the 'Four Masters.' According to Dr. O'Donovan the 'Annals' are much antedated at this period, but the authorities vary so much that it seems hopeless to arrive at an exact chronology of events, which, nevertheless, as there is reason to believe, belong to the domain of history in their general outline.  CONN-NA-MBOCHT (d. 1059), 'Conn of the Paupers,' was head of the Culdees and bishop of Clonmacnois. The term Culdee is the English form of the vernacular Céle dey, companion of God,' which, though not a translation, was suggested by the Latin 'servus Dei,' as applied in a technical sense to a monk. One of the earliest instances of the use of the term Céle de is in the 'Life of St. Findan,' compiled shortly after A.D. 800. The latest mention of the term is in the 'Annals of the Four Masters' at a.d. 1595. During this period of nearly eight hundred years it was used with a large variety of application. If we may credit certain Irish records, it is found at the close of the eighth century in a definite sense and in local connection with a religious class or institution. St. Maelruain of Tamlacht (now Tallaght, near Dublin) (d. 792), abbot and bishop, gathered round him a fraternity, for whom he composed a religious rule, called the Rule of the Culdees, the term being employed in the sense of ' ascetics ' or 'clergy of stricter observance.' They appear also to have had the care of the sick, as may be gathered from the vision of St. Moling of Ferns (d. 697). In that legend, when Satan, assuming the form of an angel of light, ;appears to the saint and assures him he is Christ, St. Moling refuses to believe it, for 'when Christ came to converse with the Culdees it was not in roval apparel he appeared, but in the forms of the unhappy, viz. the sick and the lepers.' They had alao the conduct of divine service, and in later times the charge of the fabric of the chureh. On the rise of the great monastic orders the term Culdee came to mean an old-fashioned Scotic monk living under a less strictly defined discipline.

It had not yet lost its original meaning at the time when Conn-na-mbocht was proud of the name of Conn of the Paupers. The origin of this title is thus given in the 'Annals of the Four Masters:' 'He was the first who invited a party of the poor of Clonmacnois at Iseal Chiarain and presented them with twenty cows of his own.' In other words he endowed the institution at Iseal Chiarain in the only way possible in that age, that is by stocking the land with cattle and making them over to it. The land so termed, 'the low ground of St. Ciaran,' as the meaning is, haa been under tillage in the founder's time when the excellence of the crops is referred to. It afterwards became the name of the hospital established there under the auspices of Conn, the first instance of such a foundation and endowment in Ireland for the maintenance and care of the poor, and perhaps also of the sick and lepers. There was a church attached to the hospital, in which it may be presumed the Culdees ministered to those under their charge. The moral effect of this charitable act seemed so great in that age that a poet quoted by the 'Four Masters' says : 'O Conn ! O Head of dignity, it will not be easy to plunder thy church.' In 1072, however, the 'Annals' record that 'a forcible refection was taken by Murchadh, son of Conchobar O Maeleachlainn, king of Meath, at Iseal Chiarain, and from the Culdees, so that the superintendent of the poor was killed there, for which Magh Nura was given to the poor.' At that period a refection or entertainment of the king and his followers corresponded to the rent payable in later times. Looking at it in this view it is possible that there may nave been a question of title here, as we find that in 1089, seventeen years after, Cormac, son of Connnarmbocht, purchased Iseal Chiarain for ever from the king of Meath, that is the successor of the king who had plundered it.

The descendants of Conn considered his title so honourable that it became a family designation, and they were known as the Meic-Conn-na-mbocht. He himself was descended from a long line of ancestors, all of whom held some office at Clonmacnois, from Torbach, 