Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/42

 CHAPTER IV.

We have now to ask, What were the distinguishing characteristics of the Church thus founded by Saint Patrick and his companions? Concerning the doctrinal teaching nothing need be added to what has been already said. We have seen that the great central truths of Christianity were clearly taught, and that as far as we can now judge, they were not obscured by those additions and corruptions which in after ages caused them to be almost forgotten. In some matters of organization and of rites and ceremonies the Church of Ireland stands by itself and is unique in the history of Christendom. Let us dwell for a short time on these peculiarities.

The first thing that strikes us in the state of the ancient Irish Church is its intensely monastic character. In other countries monasticism has formed one of the institutions of the Church. In Ireland the whole Church was monastic. Some writers have urged, as an explanation of this phenomenon, that there must have been an early connection between Ireland and the East—in fact, that Ireland owed its first knowledge of Christianity to an Eastern source.

Monasticism is undoubtedly of Eastern origin. It arose in times of persecution, when Christians, 38