Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/109

 strength, because it joined men together in a holy brotherhood, yet was in another way a source of weakness, since it left those who were outside bereft to some extent of that leaven of goodness which the presence of even a few earnest and good men would have given them. The battles which were waged continually between the different tribes would make us suspect that the Gospel of peace had made but small progress in melting the hearts of the barbarian warriors; and when we find the Christian communities also joining at times in the fray, we are almost ready to conclude that the Church itself was corrupt, and had altogether failed in its mission. It is a subject, however, on which mistakes may easily be made. Many of the old battles that are duly recorded by the Annalists, would now be regarded as mere faction fights, and are only magnified by their antiquity into acts of national warfare. It must always be remembered, too, that much of the disorder of the age is due to the system of government. When a small country is divided into a large number of independent or semi-independent kingdoms, it is almost certain to have wars and fightings without end. Even the personal loyalty of the subjects, though an estimable quality in itself, would only help the disorder, because it made them ready to follow their leader in blind obedience, making his quarrel their own, without pausing to enquire as to the rights and wrongs of the question.

On the other hand, the Church was in many cases the helper of the weak, the asylum of the fugitive, the arbiter of justice. As an illustration of how the Church interposed at times to secure justice between the different tribes, we may take the case of what was called the Boromean tribute. This was a tribute of cows which the King of Leinster was required to