COLUMBANUS
424
COLUMN
wmk iSX they had thanked God, the giver of bread. His early biographers say that he was a powerful preacher, speaking the Irish and Latin with equal ease, and both with great flnency. His voice was tender, tremulons, mnsical, and sufficiently strong to be heard at a great distance. His soul was in his preaching, and was constantly manifesting itself through his words, tones, and gestures. He was a man of great prayer ; the spirit of devotion seemed to have been the atmosphere in which he lived. If he entered a boat, mounted a horse, administered medicine, or parted with a friend, in all these he acknowledged God, and asked his protection. He was not a Romanist— Ro- manism proper had not reached Ireland in his day. He enjoined on all his disciples to receive nothing as relig- ious truth that was not sustained by proof drawn from the Holy Scriptures (ProlatiB $acra Scripturm testi- moRw).— Adamnan, Lifk ofColumba; Bede, Ecd. HigL iii, 4; Moore, Hut. of Ireland^ often; Pict. ffisL of England^ i, 277 ; Montalembert, Monh oftiie Wedy voL iii ; Todd, Andmt Iriih Church f Smith, Religion qfAi^ cien^iBr»tom,p. 256; McLmt^ Chrigtian Missiotu in the Middle Ages, Lond. 1863 ; Princeton Rev, Jan. 1867, p. 6.
Columbaniis, a missionary of the sixth century, was bom in Leinster, Ireland, about A.D. 560, and descended from a noble family of that province. In early life, from talents, position, and property, the world opened to him with unusnsil attractions, but he decided to enter the monastery of Banchor, in Ulster, then giving instruction to about one thousand students. Having formed a company of missionaries, Columbanus set out for France, and settl^at the foot of 'the Vosges Mountains, among the wildest, poorest, and most un- civilized of all the Franks. Here he built huts. The daily routine of the fraternity was, in their cabins, read- ing, praying, and transcribing the Scriptures and oth- er books ; in the field, cultivating the ground for their sustenance and to give to the poor ; and when abroad, visiting the people, and inviting them to hear the (jo»- pel. Their establishment, although generally called a monastery, was far more like one of our modem missionaiy stations. After a few years another was commenced at Fontaines — **The Springs" — which soon became a place of general resort, and which great- ly enlarged their sphere of usefulness. In these places they continued for about twenty years, exerting the most benign influence on all the surrounding country ; and throi^ the wives and daughters of the semi-bar- barous chieftains. Christianizing its political instita- tions. " The common people had followed these mis- sionaries gladly; but the keen rebukes of Columbanus had long chafed the most of the ruling classes. At a royal festival a glass of wine was presented to him, which he dashed on the floor because it had *been pol- luted by the tonch of an adulterer' " (Godwin's Ancient Gwd, p. 888). At another time four illegitimate chil- dren of Theuderik, or Thierry, the king, were placed before him to receive his blessing, which he rcSfused, and pronounced them to be the offspring of sin. Upon this the fiunous Branehilda vowed hii destraction. When the soldiers came to disperse his establishment, he met them with intrepidity. But the monastery was broken up. The brotherhood now rallied around him, and were willing to die with him ; bnt he advised them to go to Germany.
Columbanus went to Italy, where new troubles awaited him. Holding with the Irish Church in regard to the Three Chapters (q. v.) and the time of keeping Easter (q. v.), he learned that the Roman Church had condemned these views under severe penalties. He found, however, a protector in Theodolinda, the pious queen of the Lombards, who agreed with him about the Three Chapters. He had everywhere avowed his prin- ciples, and even addressed a letter to pope Boniface, in which he charged him and the General Council with
^arting from the fidUi of the apostles. He remind-
ed hhn that in Rome and Italy there had been maay disputes and dissensions, while in Ireland ^ there new had been a heretic or sdiismatic bnt that from the be- ginning they had held without wavering (moomcmmC the true catholic foith." Soon afterwards be retired to Bobbio, in the Apennines, where he founded his last monastery, and died prematurely at fifty-dx.
Columbanus was one of those men who cannoi pas easily through this world. The subjects of his re- bukes were generally shining marks— kings, <[neeM, dukes, popes, and others in high placea. Bj natsc he was a poet; and the fragments of Irish poetry Wt by him are said by competent judges to have been im- itated in Macpherson's Oman, He has been alsMSt overlooked in English literature, while the anthen ef the Literary History qf France are even extrmvagant in his praise. He left a treatise on Penitence, frea which it is evident that communion in both kinds was allowed in the Irish Church in his day. Of the woski written by Columbanus are still extant : De oetc vdOi priac^aUbuSy Pamienliale, Instrvctumes de ofieiis CiHs- Hanij and some letters and poems. They have bem published by Fleming (Louvahi, 1607), and in Galka- dius, BibL veterum Patr, torn. xii. Columbanos's mo- nastic rale has been published in Holsten-Brodde, G»- dex BeguL i, 166 sq. Biographies of Colmnbanas were written by his companion Jonas and by the Boak Walafrid Strabo, both of which are given by Mabi* Ion, Ada 88, Ord. 8, Ben. i, sec 2.— See Weizer a. Welte, Kirchen-Lex, li, 700; Herzog, HeaH-Encyikf. U, 789 ; Hefele, Gesch. der Bnfthr. dee Ckriet. ta Sni- deutsch. p. 262-280; Knottenbelt, Di^. de Colmikm (Leyd. 1869) ; Hist. Litt. de France, iii, 279-505 ; Tib- er, vi, 281 ; Lives ofllku. Men of Ireland, i, 125 (D^ Un, 1888) ; Moore*s Histxrry of Ireland, p. 186 (Phila- delphia) ; Neander, Light in Dark Places, p. 187.