Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/87

 took place, by a careful study of the phenomena presented, and an elimination of those peculiarities that are due to merely local causes.

The difference between the rule of Columba and that of Columbanus, which latter may have been founded on that of Comgal, has already been noted. We may hence conclude that in some places a stricter rule was followed than in others, and the conjecture may be hazarded that there was a regular gradation, from simple Christian villages which were called monasteries, but were monastic only in name, to those in which the strictest discipline was observed and the extreme asceticism of the East was more than emulated.

Some countenance to this idea is given by one of an ancient body of canons, attributed to Gildas, who is said to have come to Ireland in the latter part of the sixth century, at the invitation of the chief monarch, for the purpose of restoring ecclesiastical order, 'because all the inhabitants of the island had abandoned the Catholic faith.' This story of the mission of Gildas is discredited by the fact that the period when Ireland is said to have apostatized was in fact one of great spiritual activity, as shown by the works of evangelization undertaken by the different missionaries. But there can be no doubt that the canons are connected with the Irish Church, though probably they belong to a later period. The canon says that 'an abbot who is lax ought not to prohibit his monk from seeking a stricter rule.' Then by way of explanation, it is said, 'monks flying from a lax to a more perfect discipline, and whose abbot is irreligious or immoral and unfit to be admitted to the table of the saints, may be received even without the knowledge of their abbot. But those whose abbot is not excluded from the table of the saints,