Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/265

 HISTORY.] IRELAND 249 United States of America. A severer and more exclusive system of monasticism succeeded this primitive one, but its general character never entirely changed. As all notions of diocesan jurisdiction as understood in countries under Koman law were unknown, there was not that limitation of the number of bishops which territorial jurisdiction renders necessary, and consequently bishops were very numerous. If we were to believe some of the legends of the early church, the bishops were nearly as numerous as the priests. St Mochta, abbot of Lugmad, or Louth, and said to have been a disciple of St Patrick, had one hundred bishops in his monastic family. All the bishops in a coenobium were, as we have said above, sub ject to the abbot. Besides the bishops in the monastic families, every tuath or tribe had its own bishop. The church in Ireland having been evolved out of the monastic nuclei above described, the tribe-bishop was an episcopal development of a somewhat later period. He was an important personage, having a right to the same retinue as the ri or chief, and though we cannot define exactly the character of his jurisdiction, which extended over the tuath, his power was considerable, as we can judge by the con flicts which took place between them and the kings on that fertile source of dissension, the right of sanctuary. The tuath bishop corresponded to the diocesan bishop as closely as it was possible in two systems so different as tribal and municipal government. When diocesan juris diction grew up in Ireland in the 12th and subsequent centuries, the tuath became a diocese. Many of the old dioceses represent ancient tuatha, and even enlarged modern dioceses coincide with the territories of ancient clans. Thus the diocese of Kilmacduagh (Cell-Macc-n Duach) was the territory of the Hui Fiachrach Aidhne; that of Kilfenora (Cell Find abrach) was the tribe-land of Corco Modruaidh or Corcomroe. Many deaneries also represent tribe territories ; thus the deanery of Musgrylin in the county Cork was the ancient Muscraige Mitaine, and no doubt had its tribe-bishop in ancient times. It should be added that bishops without dioceses and monastic bishops were not unknown elsewhere in the church in early times, but had disappeared with very rare exceptions in the 6th century, when the Irish reintroduced the monastic bishops and the monastic church into Britain and the Continent. In the 8th and 9th centuries, when the great emigration of Irish scholars and ecclesiastics took place, the number of wandering bishops without dioceses became a reproach to the Irish Church ; and there can be no doubt that it led to much inconvenience and abuse, and was subversive of the stricter discipline that the popes had succeeded in establishing in the Western Church. They were also accused of ordaining serfs without the consent of their lord, consecrating bishops per saltum, that is, making persons bishops who had not previously received the orders of priests, and of permitting bishops to be consecrated by a single bishop. The latter could hardly be a reproach to the Irish Church, as the practice was never held to be invalid ; and, besides, the Nicene canons of discipline were perhaps not known in Ireland until comparatively late times. The isolated position of Ireland, and the existence of tribal organization in full vigour, explain fully the anomalies of Irish discipline, many of which were also survivals of the early Christian practices before the com plete organization of the church. From the nature of the organization of the Irish Church as established by Saint Patrick, it was to be expected that on his death the bond between the numerous church families which his great authority supplied would be greatly relaxed. The Druidic orders too, which there is reason to believe remained still to a large extent pagan, and undoubtedly practised many of their arts even in the 7th century, must have regained much of their old power. A tradition exists that at the instance of St Patrick the laws were purified by a commission of which he himself was a member, and collected into a body called the Senchas M6r. Nevertheless the pagan marriage customs were practised long after St Patrick s time. Sir Henry S. Maine has well observed that the Christian church did not succeed in substituting its ideas of morality and the canon law for the old natural customs of the Celts, Germans, and Slavs so easily or at so early a period as is usually assumed. It is known, for instance, that traces of sister-marriage still lingered among the south Germans of Bavaria in the 7th century. The transition period which follows the loosening of the faith of a people in its old religion, and before the authority of the new is universally accepted, is always a time of confusion and relaxation of morals. Such a period appears to have followed in the first half of the 6th century the fervour of St Patrick s time. Another cause, too, powerfully helped to produce and foster disorder. We have seen that from the 2d century, if not earlier, to the middle of the 5th century, the Irish youth betook them selves to piracy, and, like the later Scandinavian vikings, ravaged the coasts of Britain, and perhaps North Gaul, and made permanent settlements in the former. Christianity weakened the warlike arid adventurous spirit of the Scots, and led to their expulsion from Wales about the end of the 5th century. The energy which the fierce Scotic youth expended in plundering expeditions when not engaged in intertribal feuds, having no outlet, helped, with the causes just stated, to produce internal disorders and relaxation of morals. This period of reaction after warlike and religious excitement has been magnified into an entire corruption of faith and morals, for which, however, there is no real evidence, and which is incompatible with subsequent events. That the survival of the Druids under the name of the grades or orders of Ecna and Filidecht, which we may describe conventionally as bards, had much to do with the state of disorder we are discussing, is proved by the pro posal of the king Aed, son of Ainmire, to get rid of .them on account of their numbers and unreasonable and exorbitant demands. St Columcille, however, advocated a reform of the body, a diminution of their number, and the curtailment of their privileges ; these proposals were adopted at the convention of Druimceta in the north of Ireland, called together for this among other purposes. The encroachments of the Saxons which forced the Cymri of the north into Wales, and the consequent driv ing out of the Irish from their possessions in Wales and south-west Britain, and the desolation and anarchy of the whole country, appear to have caused many British ecclesiastics to seek a refuge in Ireland, among whom was Gildas, who is said to have been invited over by King Ainmire. But, whether as an invited guest or as a refugee, Gildas certainly helped to reform the Irish Church, at least of Leth Cuind, or Cond s Half. The chief reform due to the influence of Gildas and the British Church seems to have been that effected in the monastic life, or rather we should say the introduction of monastic life in the strict sense of the word, that is, of communities entirely separated from the laity, with complete separation of the sexes. To this reformed church of the second half of the 6th century and early part of the 7th belong Columcille, Comgall, and many other saints of renown, who established the schools from which went forth the missionaries and scholars who made the name of Scot and of Ireland so well known throughout Europe. During this period the energy of the youth of Ireland seems to have concentrated itself on religious asceticism and missionary work. St Columcille converted the Picts, and from his monastery of Hi went forth the illustrious Aed.-in to plant another lona at XIII. 32