3. In the East monasteries are supposed to have ex- isted about the time of Christ's stay on earth. See Mo- xASTicisM. In the West the first monasteries were founded by St. Martin of Tours, about 300, at Liguge, near I'oictiers, and at Marmoutier. The chiefs only of these monasteries were in orders, and women who entered the monasteries were permitted to relintiuish the monastic state and marry down to the Gth century. See Celi- HAcv. The regular life of the community was intro- duced by Eusebius of Vercelli about 350. Theodoret mentions a large number of monasteries, both in the East and West, some foimded by St. Basil about 358, others by St. Augustine in Africa about 390, and some by St. Ambrose at Milan in 377. On British soil St. I'atrick is supposed to have started the first monasteries near the opening of the Gth centurj', when he Nourished as bishop of Ireland. During thirty-three years he worked at the conversion of the people to the Christian faith, and filled the island with schools and monasteries, the sites of which are still to be distinguished by the round towers that served as belfries for the conventual churches. The prefix "kill" is the Latin "cella," and marks the " religio loci" of innumerable localities in Ire- land ; and well has Macaulay said that " without these Christianizing institutions the population would have been made up of beasts of burden and beasts of prey." A missionary spirit has always distinguished the Irish Church. Its monks, as harily navigators, established themselves in the Hebrides, with lona for their capital, and passed over to the western districts of Britain; whence they settled upon the coasts of Brittany, to- gether with the British population expelled by Saxon invasion in the 4th and Stli centuries. It was a province of Gaul that had remained comparatively free from Ro- man rule, and preserved old Celtic habits, while the rest of Gaul was Komanized. The missionary sjiirit of his race impelled Columban to settle in (iaul, and to found the monastery of Luxeuil, in Burgundy, the mother of numerous conventual establishments, and the capital of Monastic (Jaul (Milman, Laliit C/nisliduiti/, iv. 5). He has been termed the Irish Benedict, and various legends are connected with his name, which are only re|)roduc- tions of Benedictine fable. Though he treated the Ko- man see with respect, he never sacriticed his own inde- pendence of opinion to its authority ; and he gave to the see of Jerusalem precedence in point of honor {Kp, v, sec. 18). He also gave his monks a rule, but its exces- sive severity prevented its extended use; and it was superseded by the Benedictine rule, which finally be- came the universal law of monasiicism. Tlie County Down monastery, on the north-west coast of Ireland, and Clonfcrt were towns of monks rather than monas- teries. The former contained more than three thousand tmder religious vow in the time of Patricius. The founder having been accompanied by learned monks from Gaul and Lcrin, these monasteries soon became renowne<l for their sound learning, as well as for a pure faith. In ICngland all the most ancient sees have been established upon pre-existing monastic foundations. At
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the close of the oth century Dubricius, bishop of Caer- leon, founded Llaudaff monastery. St. David, liis suc- cessor at Caerleon, built the monastery at St. David's, a site indicated to him by St. Patrick, the wild promon- tory on which the cathedral now stands. He also re- built the convent at Glastonbury; and it was in honor of St. David that the privilege of asylum was indulged to sites in any way connected with his name— a privi- lege that may occasionally have secured innocence against oppression and wrong, but which became intol- erable from abuse in later years. St. Asaph, in its or- igin, was a convent of nine hundred and sixty-five monks, founded at the end of the 6th century by Ken- tigern, himself a monk and missionary bishop among the southern Scots and Picts. Bangor, on the Dee, was founded by Ittud, a fellow-disciple with St. David at St. Germain of Auxerre, It contained within its " wide precincts" a whole army of monks. Yet it was only a little more than half the size of the Irish estab- lishment of the same name. The diocese of Bangor owes its origin to the foundation of Daniel, a disciple of Dubricius, at the commencement of the 6th century. Winchester, first established as a monastery by Cen- walch, king of Wessex, under a promise to his dying father, was made an episcopal see by the same king about the middle of the 7th century. Eipon was a monastery founded by Alfrid, king of Northumberland, having Wilfrid for its first abbot. He repaired and beautified the cathedral at York, of which see he be- came bishop, and built the priory of Hexham in the most elaborate style ; the church was said to have been the most beautiful on this side of the Alps. Wilfrid was the first of a series of clerical and monastic archi- tects who for several centuries made Anglican ecclesi- astical buildings the glory of Europe. It is curious to find that the churchwarden's sovereign cure for all de- fects was also introduced by him : " Parietes lavans . . . alba calce miritice dealbavit" (Montalembert, iv, 235). Ely was at first a double monastery for monks and nuns of the foundation of Ethelreda, queen of Northumber- land: "virgo bis nupta." Columba, like Pelagius, is the classical equivalent for a Celtic name. He is not to be confounded with Columban, the Celtic founder of Luxeuil. Columba (born A.D. 521, died A.D. 597), after founding thirty-seven monasteries in Ireland, passed over to the Hebrides, selected lona, the most desolate of those desolate islands, flat-lying and sandy, as the site of a monastery, and made it the "glory of the West," and the cradle of the civilization of North Brit- ain. See loNA. From lona, Aidan went forth as the apostle and bishop of the Northumbrians; and, having found a site as desolate and unattractive as lona on Lin- disfarne (since called Holy Island), there founded a mon- astery, which became the mother-church of all the prov- inces north of the Humber. The character of sanctity impressed upon it by St. Aidan long distinguished it : and its abbots, like himself, mostly became bishops of the northern provinces. His great and benevolent char- acter has been nobly drawn by Bede (//. E. iii, 3, 5, 17). Hilda, foundress (A.D. 658) and abbess of Whitby, re- ceived the veil from him. The feminine love of what- ever is beautiful in nature led to the selection of a most noble site for her abbey, and contrasts strongly with the masculine austerity and contempt for {esthetics that led the Celtic monks to choose lona and Lindisfarne. The influence of Hilda was everywhere felt: kings and princes sought her counsel; she was a " mother" by en- dearment to the very poorest who received alms at the abbey gate. Bede (//. E. iv, 23) speaks in enthusiastic terms of her tender care and administrative tact. A convent for monks as well as nuns was under her rule, and Bede notes that six prelates, eminent for their piety and learning, received their training at Whitby under her eye. To Hilda also we are indebted for having drawn the earliest Saxon poet, Caidmon, from his ob- scurity. He was a common herdsman, but at her per- suasion became a monk. He anticipated Milton in