Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/264

 248 I K E L A N D [HISTORY. to Murchu s account, Palladius failed in his mission, and on his way back died in the country of the Britons. Tirechan says that Palladius, who was also known by the name Patricias, suffered martyrdom among the Scots. The second life in Colgan s collection and the fifth of the same series, which is by Probus, agree with Murchu s, except that they make him die in the country of the Picts. The other lives give more details, as is usual in all the later acts of saints. The general statement that he died in Pictland is changed into the special one that he went to Mearnes and died, or, as some say, was martyred in Mag Gerginn at a place called Fordun in the east of Scotland. This of course is a late invention, and may have arisen from a confusion of the names of places in Ireland with similar ones in Britain. There was a Pictland in Ireland, namely, Dal-Araide, and, as we learn from the story of a prince Cano, a place named from a certain Gergind (genitive form) somewhere in it. This may be the place referred to. There was also the Pictland of Galloway, which would be on his way from the north of Ireland to the Roman Britons. The death of Palladius is assumed to have taken place in 431 and the mission of St Patrick to have begun in the following year. Our knowledge of tho Irish apostle is, however, so contradictory and unsatisfactory that no reliance can be placed on any dates connected with him. In any case, when we remember the time and the state of Europe, it is not at all likely that the place of Palladius could be so rapidly supplied as the above dates make out. While there are many lives of the saint, these are rather legendary than historical biographies (see PATRICK). But although there is much obscurity and confusion in the Acts of St Patrick, there cannot be the slightest doubt of his real existence. Ha was thoroughly acquainted with the people of Ireland, and consequently knew that he should secure the chief in order to succeed with the clan, and this is what he did. At first the conversion was only apparent, but, although the mass of the people still continued practically pagans, the apostle was enabled to found churches and schools, and educate a priesthood, and thus provide the most effective and certain means of converting the whole people. He was undoubtedly a great missionary, full of zeal but withal prudent, and guided by much good sense. Ths learned Tillemont, judging Patrick by the writings attributed to him, truly says that he had much of the character of St Paul, and was well read in Scripture. It would be a mistake to suppose that his success was as rapid or as complete as is generally assumed. On the contrary, it is fully apparent that he had much hard work, and ran much danger, that many chiefs refused to hear him, and that much paganism still existed at his death. That this should be so was no doubt an inherent defect of his system ; but on the other hand by no other system could so much real work have been done in so short a time, and that too, so far as we can make out, almost by his own unaided efforts. The Early Irish Church. The church founded by St Patrick was identical in doctrine with the churches of Britain and Gaul, and other branches of the Western Church. There is no evidence that the Pelagian heresy found an entrance there, and least of all is there the slightest foundation for the supposition that it had any connexion with tho Eastern Church. Its organization was, however, peculiar ; and, as countries in the tribal state of society are very tenacious of their customs, the Irish Church preserved theso peculiarities for a long time, and carried them into other countries, by which the Irish were brought into direct collision with a different and more advanced church organization. Wherever the Roman law and municipal institutions had been in force, the church society was modelled on the civil one. The bishops governed ecclesiastical districts coordinate with the civil divisions. In Ireland there were no cities and no municipal institutions ; the nation consisted of groups of tribes con nected by kinship and loosely held together under a graduated system of tribal government. The church which grew up under such a system was organized exactly like the lay society. When a chief became a Christian and bestowed his dun and his lands upon the church, he at the same time transferred all his rights as a chief. But though by his gift the chief divested himself of his rights, these still remained with his sept or clan, though subordinate to the uses of the church ; at first all church offices were exclusively confined to members of the sept or of the clan according as the gift emanated from the head of the one or the other. In this new sept or clan there was conse quently a twofold succession. The religious sept or family consisted, in the first instance, not only of the ecclesiastical persons to whom the gift was made, but of all the C6li, or vassals, tenants, and slaves, connected with the land bestowed. The head was the comarba, that is, tlie co-heir, or inheritor both of the spiritual and temporal rights and privileges of the founder ; he in his temporal capacity exacted rent and tribute like other chiefs, and made war not on temporal chiefs only, the spectacle of two comarpi making war on each other being not unusual. The ecclesiastical colonies that went forth from a parent family generally remained in subordination to it in the same way that the spreading branches of a secular clan remained in general subordinate to it. The heads of the secondary families were also called the comarpi of the original founder of the religious clan. Thus there were comarpi of Columcille at Hi, Kells, Durrow, Deny, and other places. The comarba of the chief family of a great spiritual clan was called the ard-comarba or high comarba. The comarba might be a bishop or only an abbot, but in either case all the ecclesiastics of the family were subject to him; in this way it frequently happened that bishops, though their superior functions were recognized, were in subjection to abbots, who were only priests, nay, even to a woman, as in the instance of St Brigit. This singular association of lay and spiritual powers was liable to the abuse of having the whole succession fall into lay hands, as happened to a large extent in later times. This has led to many misconceptions of the true character and dis cipline of the Irish mediaeval church. The temporal chief had his steward who superintended the collection of his rents and tributes; in like manner the comarba of a religious sept had his airchinnech (usually written in Anglo-Irish documents Erenach and Herenach), an office which has given rise to many erroneous views. The name was supposed to be a corruption of Archidiaconus, but this is not so. The office of airchinnech or steward of church lands was generally but not necessarily hereditary; it embodied in a certain sense the lay succession in the family. From the beginning the church of St Patrick was monastic, as is proved by a passage in his Coiifessio, where, speaking of the success of his mission, he says : &quot; The sons of Scots and daugltters of chiefs appear now as monks and virgins of Christ, especially one blessed Scottish lady of noble birth and of great beauty who was adult, and whom I baptized.&quot; But the early Irish monasticism was unlike that known at a later period. An Irish ccenobium of the earliest type was simply an ordinary sept or family whose chief had become Christian, and making a gift of his land either retired leaving it in the hands of a comarba, or remained as the religious head himself. The family went on with their usual avocations, but some of the men and women, and in some cases all, practised celibacy, and all joined in fasting and prayer. These communities offer many striking analogies with the Shaker communities of the