Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/174

 Gelasius, however, was one who had greatness thrust upon him. In all these events he was a leading figure, yet his actions were for the most part controlled by others. The real work of subjecting the Church of Ireland to the see of Rome was done by Malachy.

With regard to this Malachy we have a very remarkable source of information. His Life has been written by no less a personage than Bernard of Clairvaux. From that life we learn that in his early years he came under the influence of the Danish Bishop of Waterford, that he learnt the Romish method of chanting and of saying the Mass, and became so much enamoured with foreign usages and ways, that in the end he became quite unlike an Irishman. 'He was born in Ireland,' says Bernard, 'of a barbarous race. There he was educated; there he received the knowledge of letters; but for the rest he drew no more from the barbarous country of his birth than the fishes of the sea draw from their native element.'

Bernard's life is a panegyric, and he intends these words for praise. They explain to us why his friends were among the Danish bishops rather than the Irish, why his sympathies were with Rome rather than with his own country, and why he preferred the gorgeous ritual of the continental churches to the simple modes of worship in his own.

Bernard, whose information must have been largely derived from Malachy himself, speaks of Irish Christianity as if it were no better than paganism. Thus he describes the diocese of Connor, telling us that when Malachy first went there, 'this man of God saw that he had to deal not with men, but with beasts. Nowhere had he met such people, no matter how barbarous the place; nowhere