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did not cease at that time, for the same source says that when Elbodug died in 809 " a great controversy arose because of Easter."
2. In Ireland and North Britain : The earliest native and foreign sources show a flourishing church in Ireland in the sixth century. Its type is that of a mission-church, resting not on the labors of a single man, but growing, without central organization, in a land divided among many clans, through the constant activity of a missionary monkhood. It is the natural development of the seed sown in southeastern Ireland by British missionaries from the middle of the fourth century, springing up and increasing undisturbed by outside influences. This view is quite different from the prevalent one, which assumes, on the one hand, a complete collapse of the Irish Church at the end of the fifth 1. The Irish century, and, on the other hand, a
Church revival in the sixth century due to the
vivedftom influence of the Welsh Church, and Wales in particularly of such men as Gildas, the Sixth Cadoc, and David. A collapse about Century. 500 is inexplicable, and is assumed only because necessitated by the Patrick legend and the hypothesis of a revival from Britain in the sixth century. This hypothesis rests upon: (1) statements concerning the activity of Gildas in Ireland, made in his life written at Ruys in Brittany in the eleventh century; (2) the view of the Irish Church of the fifth and sixth centuries found in the eighth century Catalogus sanctorum Hiberniw 1; and (3) notes of certain saints' lives [such as that of St. Disibod, q.v.], certainly not older than the eleventh or twelfth century (cf. Haddan and Stubbs, i. 115, n.a.). On the other hand, a mere enumeration of dates shows that the Irish Church was in no need of revival. Finnian of Clonard, the father of the " twelve apostles of Ireland," died in 548. Co-
1 This document is the source of the familiar division of Irish saints into three " orders." It states that the first order belonged to the time of Patrick. They were all bishops, 350 in number, founders of churches. They had one head, Christ, and one lord, Patrick; they observed one mass, one celebration, and one tonsure from ear to ear; they kept one Easter, on the fourteenth day of the moon after the vernal equinox; and what was excommunicated by one church all excommunicated. They did not reject the services and society of women, because, founded on the rock of Christ, they feared not the blast of temptation. This order lasted through four reigns, and its members were all bishops, from the Romans, the Franks, the Britons, and the Irish (Scotti).
In the second order bishops were few and presbyters many, 300 in number. They had one head, our Lord; they celebrated different masses and had different rules, but their Easter and tonsure were as in the first order. They rejected the services of women, separating them from the monasteries. They lasted through four reigns, and received a mass from Bishop David, and Gildas, and Docus, the Britons.
The members of the third order were holy presbyters and a few bishops, 100 in all. They dwelt in solitary places, and lived on herbs and water and alms, shunning private property. Their rules, masses, tonsure, and Easter were all different, and they lived through four reigns.
The first order was sanctis&imus; the second, sanctus sanctorum; the third, sanctus. They were like the sun, the moon, the dawn. These three orders were foreseen by Patrick in a vision from on high. Consult Haddan and Stubbs, ii. 292-294.
lumba founded the monastery of Derry about 546 and Durrow before 560. Ciaran founded Clonmacnoise 541 and died 548. Comgall founded Bangor in Ulster 554 or 558. Brendan founded Clonfert in Longford 552. In 563 Columba went to Iona. The authority of an eleventh-century monk of Ruys is not to be put above such evidence as this. Nor can the statements of ignorant authors of saints' lives, who confuse different centuries, furnish the basis for a historical construction at variance with all fixed dates. There is no evidence of British influence in Ireland apart from the visit of Gildas there in 566 (cf. Mommsen, Chronica minora, iii. 6, 11. 3-23). [This visit is considered doubtful by some; see Gildas.] The Church of Gildas, Cadoc, and David, it may be noted, was episcopal ; if then these men, and men like them, revived the dying Irish episcopal Church, why did they substitute anotner entirely monastic with no trace of an episcopal character? Furthermore, the Church in Britain at this time was in no condition to infuse fresh life into the Irish Church. In the trouble and turmoil of the fifth century it had lost all organization, and Gildas himself draws a gloomy picture of the state of things in Britain before 547. Ireland, however, did not suffer from barbarian attacks, and her Church was able to develop undisturbed. Hence the natural supposition is that at this time the Irish Church was the giver and the British Church the recipient. And we know that from the very beginning of the sixth century Irish clerics went to southwest Britain and to Brittany, giving and spreading knowledge, not receiving it. The foundation of new monasteries in Ireland by Finnian of Clonard and men regarded as his disciples between 520 and 560 can not be considered a restoration or reformation of the Irish Church. There was already a large number of older monasteries, such as Emly in Munstcr and Armagh in Ulster, which for centuries played a greater role in the entire life of the Irish Church than any of these new foundations. Finnian was a sort of Irish Benedict of Nursia; he established his new house at Clonard by the side of the older institutions — rather mission-stations than monasteries— with stricter rules, and through the influence on Comgall and Columba it became the model of the Irish monasteries in North Britain and on the Continent.2
s Irish monasticism of the sixth century was very different from that of a later period. It has been characterized as the transition from the hermit life to the religious orders of the Middle Ages — a transition that was soon made in the East, but in Ireland proceeded more slowly and lasted till the subjection to Rome. The primitive Irish monasteries were of the same type as those of Egypt and Syria. The nucleus was a church or oratory, always oblong (from ten to forty feet in length, rarely sixty), and without chancel, aisles, or apse. No remains have been found showing any approach to the basilica form or anything of Roman type. Round the church were grouped " beehive " huts or cells, each for a single occupant, and the whole was surrounded by a wall or rampart, with a ditch, and a hedge or palisade on top. There is mention of kitchens and the " great house " (refectory); and there were al?o guest houses, storehouses and barns, workshops, and the like. The so-called " Round Towers " are always connected with ecclesiastical foundations, and belong for the most part to the ninth and tenth centuries. They probably served a=- bell-towers, for refuge or defense in case of attack, and as beacons and lighthouses.
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