THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The Irish Church of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, then, was the natural development of the Church of the fourth and 2. Learn- fiftll centuries, without interference ingr of the frQm outside This freedom accounts Monks. for the hiSn standard of learning maintained by the Irish monasteries till the ninth century. They kept the knowledge and culture received with Christianity, and cherished it at a time when everywhere else, in Britain, Gaul, and Italy, barbarian hordes came near to stamping it out. The erudition of the Irish monks in the sixth century— surely not derived from a Church whose greatest scholar was Gildas — surpassed on the whole that of Italy. Greek was studied at Bangor when Gregory the Great probably had no knowledge of the language. In the seventh century Aldhelm, writing to a young friend returning home
The whole establishment was called a " city " (civitas), and the designation is not inapt for the larger communities, with two or three thousand members, each having his own house, and its complex of public or common buildings. The first step in the foundation was to obtain a site, which was frequently given by the chieftain when he was converted, and sometimes was his fortress. It was often necessarily in the forest, as the extent of cleared land was very limited. The building material was most commonly wood or wattles and clay, but stone sometimes was used; the earliest stone structures are without mortar. As the first building operation was commonly the driving of stakes, " to drive " came to be the usual expression to designate the founding of a monastery. Each monastery had its own rules, followed also by the affiliated houses, which were governed by a local head under the abbot. The abbot was not chosen by the monks, but was appointed by the chieftain, generally from his own family or that of the founder, and hence was known as the coarb or heir of the founder. He was seldom a bishop, but there were always one or more bishops in each community, always subject, however, to the abbot. Poverty, chastity, and obedience were considered essential. The rule of St. Columban (q.v. ) no doubt represents the life and practise of the Irish monasteries, particularly that at Bangor, of which Columban had been a member. Adamnan also gives many interesting details of the life at Iona in Columba's time, and this monastery, doubtless, did not differ materially from the others. Divine service and private devotion, study, and manual labor occupied the time of the brethren. .Sundays and saints' days were marked by celebration of the Eucharist, rest from toil, and an allowance of better food. Easter was the chief festival and during the Paschales Dies (from Easter to Whitsunday) there was some relaxation in the severity of discipline. Christmas was the other great festival. Wednesdays and Fridays were fast-days except during the Paschales Dies. Lent was strictly kept, and the forty days before Christmas were observed by some in a like manner. Holy Scripture was the chief object of study and the Psalms were learned by heart. Much effort was spent in the copying of books and there are two Irish manuscripts of the Vulgate, known respectively as the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow and dating from the seventh century, which are among the finest extant specimens of illuminated work. It is a question where such work was done, as it must have been impossible in the poorly lighted cells; perhaps it was executed in the open air, and we read of the monks writing " on their knees." Besides writing, the production and preparation of food was the chief labor. Strangers were hospitably received and fasts were relaxed in their honor. Consult: Reeves's Adamnan, pp. 339-369, Dublin, 1857; J. T. Fowler's Adamnan, pp. xxxvii.-l, Oxford, 1894; J. Lanigan, Ecclesiastical History, iv. 348 sqq. Dublin, 1829; F. E. Warren, Liturgy and Ritual, chap, ii., Oxford, 1881; G. T. Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church. lectures ix. and xi.; G. Petrie, Ecclesiastical Architecture «,' Ireland, Dublin, 1S45; Margaret Stokes, Early Christian Art in Ireland, London, 1887; J. Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian Times, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1881; J. Healy, Insula sanctorum, pp. 144-159, Dublin, 1890.
from the Irish schools (MPL, lxxxix. 94c-d), reluctantly admits the superiority of Irish scholarship. And in the eighth century Bede speaks with admiration of Irish learning (iii. 7, 27; [cf. Plummer's note to iii. 27, p. 192]). Besides their zeal for learning, a noteworthy love of wandering characterized the Irish monks. Singly or in groups they went forth from the great monk-colonies — for such the monasteries really were — 3. Travels to see]j a form 0f the anchorite's life, and Mis- Tney were COntent at first with the sionary .gleg Q^ ^^ oWQ l^gg an(j rivers;
then they betook themselves to the many islands of the Irish coast; then to the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the Shetland Islands, and before 800 they had reached Iceland. At the same time others went to Britain — where many Christian inscriptions of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries with Irish names and written in Ogham bear witness to their presence north and south of the Severn estuary — and to Brittany, and then through the land of the Franks to the Alps and across the Alps, so that Bobbio (perhaps Tarentum; see Cataldus; Columban) became the southern, as Iceland was the northern, limit of their wanderings. Their primary purpose was not missionary work; but circumstances made them missionaries and teachers of the people among whom they settled to lead the contemplative life.
The greatest achievement of the Irish Church and its monks in the sixth and seventh centuries, the Christianization of North Britain, 4. North must be regarded from the same point of view. With twelve companions Columba (q.v.) left Ireland in 563, " wishing to go into exile for Christ " (Adamnan's Life of Columba, p. 9). They settled on the little island of Iona (Eo, Io, Hi), belonging to the Irish (Christian) state north of the Clyde, took up missionary work among the heathen Picts of the neighborhood and rapidly extended it, so that when Columba died (597), the mainland north of Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as the western islands, was studded with monasteries, whose inmates looked after the spiritual welfare of the neighboring population, all of them dependent on the mother monastery at Iona (q.v.). A generation later Oswald, king of Northumbria, who had been converted to Christianity during a seventeen years' exile in Ireland, applied to Columba's successor for missionaries to introduce Christianity in his realm. Aidan (q.v.) was sent (635) and under his lead and that of his successors, Finan (652-661) and Colman (661-664), with the earnest support of Oswald and his brother Oswy, the Gospel made rapid and splendid progress. Monasteries were founded, such as Mailros (Old Melrose) by Aidan, the first nunnery by Heiu at Hartlepool, the double monastery for both men and women at Coldingham by Oswald's half-sister, Ebba, the monastery at Whitby by Hilda, and others. Christianity and the Irish Church reached to the Angles living south of the Humber.
This flourishing state of the Irish Church was disturbed by the Roman mission to the Saxons in 597 Like the British Church, that of Ireland
Britain Christianized.